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

*Son of Noah and Rebecca Judd, of Watertown, Connecticut, and born in May, 1776. He came of long-lived stock ; Ms father reached the age of eighty- six, and his mother ninety-nine, and himself, although dyspeptic, arrived close on to his eighty-third year of age. He was a Yale graduate, class of 1797 and officiated in the dioceses of Connecticut, New York and Delaware, in the latter of which dioceses (at Wilmington,) he died “in great peace’’ April 8th, 1858. In 1836-7 he resided in Norwalk and preached in Wilton. fell at the battle of Gaines Mill; Henrietta, who married a cotton mer- chant of New Orleans, and Lucy Ann, who died several years since in Ja- maica, L. I. He left one son of the firm, in 1836, of Knox, Whitlock & Rock- well, River street, Troy, N. Y. The firm was engaged in the dry goods trade, and was composed of Jno. LeGrand Knox, formerly of Norwalk, and Jno. Henry Whitlock and Gould Hockwell. Mr. John H. Whitlock died many years ago in Troy, and his wife (Miss Sarah Huntington), died this present year at New London, Conn. Mr. Gould Rockwell, the last surviving member of the Troy firm, was a zealous Trojan churchman, but is now a resident of Ridgefield, and valuably efficient in St. Stephen’s parish in that town. Extract from a manuscript letter penned, while a sufferer, by Mr. Whitlock to his parents a short time before he left upon his trip south in quest of health, and which contained his last words to them : New Haven, August 5th, 1814. “Honored and Dear Parents : I have not written you according to my wishes, having been, as I still am, very infirm. Having a fear that if I deferred much longer I should not be able to write at all, and so you would have never received another line from me, I have exerted myself the more to write. This is perhaps the last you will receive from mine own hand. Accept, my dearly beloved parents, my sincere acknowledgments for your parental kindness manifested toward me in countless instances from my infancy to the present time. * * * The Lord bless you. * * * With regard to my departure I rejoice in the belief that God will order the time of it in infinite wisdom and goodness; and he who opened a way through the river Jordan into the promised inheritance will not now be unmindful of his servants in that solemn hour when they are passing from the trials of the present life to the Heavenly inheritance. ‘Jor- dan shall be driven back.’ ‘An entrance shall be administed abundantly in- to the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ I desire greatly to see you all once more while I am in the body, but how much greater would be our joy to meet each other in a state of blessedness never more to be separated. There is an innumerable company of angels: there the spirits of just men made perfect; there is God the Father; there is Jesus Christ, the Meditator; there is the water of the well of life; there is re- freshment and rest. * * * I am very desirous of writing to my brothers and sisters but I shall not be able. Please to make my most affectionate love to them. * * * Please to exhort them all from me that a watchful, devout life, and a habitual perseverance in prayer, a daily study of God’s word, and a faithful attention to the duties of family worship, and also an attendance upon all the divine ordinances are necessary to our present and future peace. On what phantoms do they trust who set their affections on ‘the things on the earth.’ They toil for trifles and loose crowns of glory and riches unspeakable. * * * My health is feeble. * * * I may linger some weeks, I may ex- pire soon ; God’s will be done.” The letter is addressed on the outside: “Mr. John Whitlock, Castleton, Vermont.” Mr. Whitlock performed the trip south in a gig. His traveling companion was a young physician, Dr. Samuel Perry, of Norwalk. Dr. Perry was a nephew of the first Nehemiah Perry, of Ridgefield. There have been in Ridgefield three generations of physicians in the same family and of the same name: (Nehemiah, M. D., of 1886, being son of Nehemiah, 2d., and grandson of Nehemiah, 1st.,) all men of high character, and undeniable abilities, and who belonged to the class represented by Drs. Knight, Miller, Noyes, Haight, Nash, Betts, Butler, Bissell, McLean, Gregory and Lynes, of this town and county solid, important men, both as physicians and citizens, and whose memories have claim upon the gratitude of a large constituency. 14 to have been a man of prudent, patient wisdom, and one, who, in the administration of office, was faithful and conscientious. He The Perry house, in Norwalk, stood on one of the four corners, (northeast one), at the foot of the hill, west of St. Paul’s, or, as the records a century ago call it, “The hill between Dr. Learning’s and Ebenezer Lockwood’s,” the storing place in former times of ammunition and of the accouterments of battle. (In 1776 “two four pounders, and four three-pounders, and one hun- dred round shot to suit them; and grape shot in proportion,” were procured from Salisbury and kept there.) Dr. Samuel Perry’s mother was sister of Capt. Stephen Betts’ wife, and of Miss Betsey Church and her brothers. His sister married Richard H. Camp, Jr., and was the mother of Miss Eliza Camp and her sister Margaret, of France street. Dr. Perry returned to Norwalk and the next year he died and is buried here. Mr. Whitlock was so much beloved in Fayetteville, where he is interred, that a monument has there been raised to his memory. The parishes which he served have indeed cause, in the language of the Rev. Dr. E. E. Beardsley in his recent admirable article concerning him, to “be thankful that their history is adorned with the rectorship of such a cultivated and goodly man.” His monument reads : Here lies interred the mortal remains of the Rev. Henry Whitlock, A. M., late rector of Trinity Church, in the County of New Haven, and State of Connecticut, who, in the pursuit of fugitive health, when every other source of hope had failed, left all that his soul held most dear on earth, and here (in a land of strangers, alas), though cheered by every comfort, which the hand of hospitality could offer, fell a victim to the ravages of consumption, on the 25th of December, 1814, in the 38th year of his age. O, Thou, whose feet have wandered to the silent abodes of the dead, and who, perchance, may read this tribute of respect and love, if purity of life, if guiltless simplicity of manners, if ardent piety, if zeal which burnt without consuming, if all the qualities which endear the husband, father, friend and pastor, have power to excite Thy sympathy and charm Thy soul, then drop a tear over his grave and emulate his virtues. Which inscription is the composition, it is supposed, of John Winslow, for- merly of Boston or its vicinity, who, removing to North Carolina about the be- ginning of the present century, established himself in business at Fayette- ville, and was one of the founders, in 1817, of the parish in that place. Mr. Winslow, who himself died, in 1820, received Mr. Whitlock into his family; and caused that after the stranger clergyman’s death his remains should be interred in his own well kept lot. The Rev. J. C. Huske, rector for the past thirty-five years at Fayetteville, mentions, in a letter enclosing a copy of the inscription, that it is entirely legible to-day. 15 was a man of staying qualities, and at one time was thought of as a successor to Bishop Jarvis. He was rector at Norwalk, and af- terwards at New London, and was one of a committee of seven appointed in 1819 to solicit from the Rev. Thomas Church Brown- ell, of Trinity Church, New York, the acceptance of the Bishopric of Connecticut. He was principal of the Cheshire Academy, and removed from the diocese in about 1835. His resignation was accepted September 27, 1813, and the Rev. Mr. Johnson* was called, wrho was succeeded in 1814 by Dr. Judd again. The Rev. Reuben Sherwood, a deacon, followed Dr. Judd in 1816. He was admitted in St. Paul’s church to the priesthood and in December, 1819, was instituted rector by Bishop Brown- ell. He knew what was needed in the parish and how to direct its forces; and of firm church principles and endowed with the spirit of power, his leading and his preaching were definite. The school which he conducted became celebrated. The Rev. Messrs. Allen C. Morganf and Norman Pinney]: assisted him, and among his pupils were the Rev. Dr. E. E. Beardsley, his- toriographer to the church, and Benjamin Ackerly, D. D., of Oakland, Cal., and Edward and Charles, § the sons of Commodore McDonough, of Lake Champlaine renown, and Isaac Bell, jr., son of one of Washington Irving’s characters, and Henry R. , and John S., sons of John; and Edward and Charles, sons of Francis B. Winthrop. Mrs. Sherwood was of the Rogers family* of Ship- pan Point, and the Revs. Abel and David Ogden were nephews of Dr. Sherwood.|| At the solicitation of Bishop Brownell he, in 1 830, resigned St. Paul’s to take charge of the Hartford High School, a sort of preparatory institution for Washington, now Trinity, College. If A longing for parish duty led him, in 1831, to Ulster county, N. Y. , in which county he was the first clergyman of the church known to have officiated. He resided four years at Saugerties and was in 1835 called to St. James’ Church, Hyde Park, where he remained until his death on Whit Sunday, 1856. It may be stated in connection with this notice of Dr. Sher- *The Rev. Evan M. Johnson, afterward rector of St. John’s Church, Brook- lyn, L. I. tCandidate in 1829 for Holy orders. t Afterward tutor in Trinity College, ordained deacon January 21st, 1827. §The MacDonough lads who are unforgotten in Norwalk, were quite young when they met with an irreperable loss— that of their parents, both parents died in the same year, the heroic and excellent father in his ship and upon the ocean, in the autumn of 1825, and the gifted mother just three months, lacking one day, previously. The Commodore died at the age of 42 and his wife at the age of 35. II See note, p. 16. IfSee note, p. 17. 16