Address at the Centenary of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, Conn.

REV. REUBEN SHERWOOD, 1816 REV. HENRY S, ATWATER, ----- 1830 REV. JACKSON KEMPER, D. D. - 1831 REV. JAMES C. RICHMOND, 1835 REV. WILLIAM COOPER MEAD, D. D., LL. D., - 1836 REV. CHARLES M. SELLECK, ----- 1881 REV. HOWARD S. CLAPP, ------ 1883 <S>fficjex*s of tlxje parish, 1886. — t-^— i— ♦— SENIOR WARDEN. ALLEN BETTS; Vestryman, April 13th, 1857; Warden, April 10th, 1871, JUNIOR WARDEN. EDWARD K. LOCKWOOD; Vestryman, April 13th, 1868; Warden, April 14th, 1884. VESTRYMEN JAMES FINNEY, first elected to vestry, - April 17th, 1843. JOSIAH KELLOGG, ----- April 5th, 1863. GEORGE WARD SELLECK, - - - April 22d, 1878. ASA SMITH April 11th, 1881. CHARLES T. LEONARD, - - - - April 10th, 1882. LEGRAND JACKSON, - April 10th, 1882. HOMER MERRILL ------ April 14th, 1884. WILLIAM H. SMITH, - - - - April 5th, 1885. DANIEL C NASH, ----- April 16th, 1886. TREASURER. EDWARD K. LOCKWOOD, - - - April 26th, 1886. CLERK, ST. JOHN MERRILL, was elected April 11th, 1881. 80 OFFICERS AND TEACHERS OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL REV. HOWARD S. CLAPP. - - - Superintendent. ST. JOHN MERRILL, - - Assistant Superintendent. ALLEN BETTS, Parish Librarian. GEORGE DARROW, - - - Sunday School Librarian. MISS ALICE FITCH, MISS SARAH L. STEVENS, MISS LAVINA BROTHERTON, MISS NELLIE ST. JOHN, MISS LILIA SELLECK, MISS CARRIE SMITH, MISS LAURA P. MERRILL, MRS. GEORGE HUNTER, MRS. SAMUEL H. BARNES, MRS. ST. JOHN MERRILL, MRS. LEGRAND JACKSON, MISS ADA BETTS, MRS. EDWARD M. JACKSON, MISS KATIE KROGER, MRS. AMELIA WILLIAMS, MRS. RUFUS FILLOW, MRS. THEODORE E. SMITH, MISS ANNIE B. MERRILL, MISS CARRIE L. SMITH, MISS CATHERINE CAMP, MISS LOTTIE WHEELER, MISS MILLIE G. SMITH, MISS GERTRUDE CAMP, JULIUS F. PARTRICK, MRS. JULIUS F. PARTRICK, MISS AMELIA C. WILLIAMS, MISS ELLA BYXBEE, MISS JESSE PARSELLS, HENRY WILLIAMS, MISS SARAH E. FITCH, MISS ELLEN MERRILL, AUGUSTUS C. GOLDING, MISS MINNIE KELLOGG, MRS. HANNAH L. SMITH, MRS. WALLACE DANN, LEGRAND JACKSON, MISS MILLICENT M. WEAVER. 81 The Rev. Heney Caner, of Fairfield, had evidently officiated in Norwalk before the organization of the parish, in 1737. A petition, with several hundred signatures, was, in 1738, addressed to the General Assembly, by the churchmen of Connecticut. To this paper there were forty -two Norwalk signers; which number prob- ably embraced all the male members, over sixteen years of age, of the church of England, in this town. The names are these: Joseph Hitchcock, Joseph Lockwood. Isaac Brown, Ralph Isaacs, Jonathan Camp, Nathaniel Fitch, Lindle Fitch, James Betts, John Williams, Nathan Smith, Hugh Stone, William Pearson, Nathan Olmstead, Anthony Beers, Edward Nash, Nathaniel Hayes, James Hayes, John Jeffeck, (?) Joseph Ketchum, Haynes Hanford, Joseph Hitchcock, Jr., Joseph Ketchum, Jr., Nathan Nash, Sr., Leroy Sanders, Samuel Jarvis, Samuel Jarvis, Jr., Jonathan Atherton, John Sherwood, John Beers, John Beers, Jr., Andrew Mills, Nathan Burrell, William Mills, John Banks, Micajah Nash, Thomas Jelliff, Richard Partrick, John Partrick, Benjamin Keeler, Ephriam Lockwood, David Whelply, David Kellogg, At a parish meeting, held October 7th, 1784, Thomas Belden, moderator, the following action was taken : “Voted, that a petition be prepared to the Honorable General Assembly, at their session of instant October praying some relief for the loss of the Church. Also, Voted, that Mr. John Saunders be the society’s agent for the above purpose. ” The meeting’s appointee was thus accredited: “This certifies that the within named, John Saunders, was appointed agent, by the Episcopal Society, in Norwalk, at a legal meeting, convened on 7th of October, 1784, for the above and foregoing purpose.” Certified by HEZEKIAH BELDEN, Society’s Clerk. 82 The text of the petition is as follows : “That said professors, some years since, at a very great expense, and with much difficulty, (as their numbers were few), built them- selves, in said Norwalk, an elegant and decent church, and well furnished the same at their own cost and expense; where said professors for many years back had a minister regularly settled, and performed divine service at their cost, and still have the gospel preached among them, and are now formed into a society agreeable to the privilege, by statute law, lately given to the Episcopal church in this state. That in the month of July in the year of our Lord one thousand and seven hundred and seventy-nine, the enemy then at open war with the United States of America, burnt up and destroyed said church to the great impoverishment and distress of said professors; and that said professors have ever since been put to a great inconvenience for want of said church to meet in and carry on public worship; and whereas said professors are subjects of said state, and being such, have met with said loss in the course of the late war which was estimated by your honorable committee at about twelve hundred pounds lawful money; said professors are induced to look up to your Honors for relief or some assistance towards obtaining or furnishing themselves with a church again in order to have a place convenient for divine service. That said professors are very desirous to have a church again to meet in for public worship, but are unable to build one without the assistance of your Honors; and as the loss of said church is a misfortune in the course of a war said professors have reason to hope for relief from your Honors in the premises. Wherefore your honorable memoralists in behalf of said pro- fessors, humbly pray your Honors to take their unhappy case, situation, and circumstances into your wise consideration, and grant said professors the sum of five hundred pounds, lawful money, for the purpose aforesaid, or such other sum as your Honors in your great wisdom shall judge suitable; or in such other way grant relief in the premises as shall be thought proper, and your members as in duty bound shall ever pray.” “ The prayer of these petitioners is negatived 83 The subjoined roll is made up from the calendar of the Con- necticut colonists, prior to 1655, who have had representatives in Norwalk, and from the Norwalk calender of 1664-5. The de- scendants of these are the descendants of our very oldest families. Abbitt, Bartlett, Barnum, Beachman, Beebe, Beckwith, Belden, Benedict, Betts, Bissell, Boitton, Bryant, Buckingham, Camp, Campbell, Church, Ely, Fitch, Gregory, Hales, Hanford, Haynes, Homes, Hoyt, Jennings, Keeler, Kellogg, Lockwood, Lupton, Marvin, Marsh, More, Morgan, Nash, Olmstead, Perry Baymond, Bichards, Bogers, Buscoe, Sension, [St. John,] Seamore, [Seymour,] Smith. Web, Whitinge, CLERGYMEN OF THE CHURCH WHO WERE NATIVES OF ST. PAUL’S PARISH. BT. BEV. ABBAHAM JABVIS, THE BEY. DAVID BELDEN,* THE BEY. MELANCTHAN HOYT, THE BEY. JAMES KEELEB,f THE BEY. WILLIAM JABVIS, THE BEY. LEGBAND FINNEY, BEV. CHABLES M. SELLECK. ♦Grandfather of Nathan Marvin Belden, of Wilton, and great-grandfather of the Rev. Charles M. Belden, (son of Nathan M.), of Wilton. fUncle to Edward Keeler Lockwood, junior warden and treasurer (1886) of St. Paul’s parish. # 84 ADDITIONAL PARISH NOTES. The Rev. Henry Caner visited Norwalk, as missionary, as early, evidently, as 1729, and divine service was performed probably at private houses or, possibly, where a parish meeting was held in later times, at “ye old school house.” Let it be borne in mind that what are now “the green” and the parsonage and church yards and grounds, was, in 1737, a tract of “common or undivided lands,” called Mill-Plain, the upper portion of which, the precise site of the present church and its rear yard, was used for a public sheep-fold. The Connecticut Turnpike had not been opened, although a street ran from north to south across the plain, on the eastern side of which, and about where is located the recent Flavius Clark purchase, were, it is believed, the house, garden, and grounds of Lieutenant William Lees. The orig- inal grant of land, 1733-4, to the Professors of the Church of England, from the proprietors of the Norwalk Common Lands, was one-quarter acre on ‘ye plain before Lieutenant Lees’ door,” and Joseph Platt and John Marvin were constituted a committee to lay out the same. In the extreme north-western angle of Officer Lees’ dooryard stood a rock, and a point sixty-six feet west, bearing south, from that rock, was the established north-east corner of the future St. Paul’s territory. From this point, marked by a “heap of stones,” the line ran along the street, “south and westerly,” two hundred and one feet, which at that day formed the church frontage. From the south-east point the line took a somewhat north-westerly direction for about fifty-seven feet; thence an easterly course “nine rods and eleven feet, ’’thence north- westerly “two rods and a half, where is erected a heap of stones for ye north-west corner ” Within these limits was the proprie- tors’ grant, as marked out by their committee, but a mere paper grant until the day before Christmas, 1736, when at the instigation of Ralph Isaacs, the lot was surveyed, and preparations for its occupancy began. During the next few months, (we have now reached the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of these events), the parish was organized, and a small church building, which was afterward converted into a parsonage, was erected upon the extreme northern or north-eastern part of this grant. Here the Rev. Henry Caner came, weekly, from Fairfield, and officiated. His brother Richard, who succeeded him, was the first settled rector of the parish, and, while he was at St. Paul’s, action looking to an addition to the church grounds was taken. It was but a short time 85 before a second church was built, more toward the south, and in an enlarged lot. This was the church which was burned, in 1779.