answer those questions of yours, certainly the courts advising us to so doe doth much more ingage them to make their responsive part of the catechize unto y worships; therefore we shall wholly refuse it. Some time after our receipt of yours, we received another paper, inviting us to a counsell or meeting of Elders at New Haven. But how much reason, ingenuity, or verity yr paper contayns, is worth yr inquiry. First, they tell us they thought good to acquaint us with such a meeting, as a good providence in order to the attaynment of the end aimed at in ye courts advice, and yet themselves have before, once and again, peremtorily refused to submitt any ecclesiastical differences amongst us to the judgment of a counsell. Again they desire, if we will make use of that opportunity, that we should acquaint them.

This is a true copy according to the originall, examined by me.

Mr. WM. HILL, Clarke."

The result of this application to the October Session, 1669, was a resolution advising the First church to comply with the desire of Mr. Walker's party, to have union services, allowing Mr. Walker to preach one part of each Sabbath. The church did not heed this advice, but excluded them from the church entirely. No more appears of record till Sept. 29, 1670, following the organization of the new church, by consent of the neighboring churches, May 5, 1670, when a communication was addressed to the First Church, (p. 130,) sadly complaining of the treatment they had received, by which they had been made such "causeless sufferers,' and the "house of God and religion suffered as well as we" asking "that you would so far bethinke yourselves what injury you have done us in excluding us from the place of publick worship, wherein you know our right to be as good as yours, and how unwilling yourselves would have beene to be so dealt with,-as to suffer us, without any molestation or disturbance, to return to the enjoyment of that our right in the meeting-house, therein to have. the improvement of our minister one part of each Sabbath." If they wished "to oppose and resist so rationall and just a proposition as this," then they proposed to divide the town, and separate, "that so, by the removall of one party, there may at length be a cessation of those so long lasting troubles that have been amongst us." They also gave notice that they should, in case no arrangement was made, apply to the General Court. They did so apply, at the Oct. Session, 1670, and a committee was appointed to "view the lands desired, and consider the proposition, but nothing was effected by the committee, nor was any report made. There

1 1 State Archieves, Ecclesiastical, 1 Vol.

is no record of any other action in the matter, on the part of the authorities of the Colony, till May, 1672, when, as we have seen, on the advice of Gov. Winthrop, Mr. Walker and his church were granted lands, and allowed to found a new town at Pomperaug.

The Second church of Stratford was organized under Rev. Zechariah Walker, as pastor, May 5, 1670. A clear light is thrown upon the nature of the dissensions for the last three preceding years, when in Oct. 1667, the dissentients had been granted authority to have a minister for themselves. He says, in the opening of his history of the Second church :

"After great indeavours for an union wth ye former chh,, and much patience therein, wn long experience had too plainly evidenced yr irremovable resolution to oppose an union wth us, though nothing had appeared of any such great distance in our apprehensions, as might be inconsistent y'with: All hopes of success in our indeavours being at length taken away, we thought ourselves bound to seek after ye injoyment of ye ordinances of God in a distinct society, finding ye door shut agst. or attaining it in any other way: we did yrfore, first more privately (by reason of ye great opposition wrwth we were attended) set apart a day of solemn humiliation, &c."

Mr. Walker says, (p. 131,) that nothing of any "such great distance" between their several opinions existed, as might prevent an union." We should also think not, for since the Oct. Session of the General Court in 1667, there had been no matter of discussion between them, except to determine whether they could agree on joint services in "preaching and prayer," in their joint property, the meeting-house, and failing in that, to see if they could agree on separate hours of the day in which each party might attend the services of its own minister. The First church was unbending throughout. They would not have union meetings. They would not consent that Mr. Walker should occupy the meeting-house either part of the Sabbath. By the order of the Court they must not disturb the First church. They must obtain their rights peaceably. The First church insisted they would be disturbed, if the Second church occupied the house either part of the day, and so they kept them out. There was no matter of" great distance" at issue, but having the advantage, they would not accord them even their just rights. It is to be noted, that the new Stratford church was organized by "ye approbation of ye chhs. of Fairfield, Killingworth and ye new church at Windsor." What was this new church at Windsor? Was it formed on the Hooker and Stone plan, or was it formed as a result of the differences there in regard to church membership and baptism ?"

66

Thus have we carefully examined, and discussed each recorded trace of the facts connected with the church dissentions at Stratford, with calmness, and with the earnest desire to arrive at the truth. As the accuracy of the former conclusions of the writer had been called in question, after they had passed into several historical works, and become embedded, so to speak, in the history of the State, the duty to re-examine the subject became imperative. The reader now has before him, in the two volumes of this work, every thing now extant that has been recorded concerning this controversy, so far as we know or believe, as well as the differing theories of the "Stratford" and "Woodbury Views," and each one can form his conclusions for himself. While the writer, from his renewed examination, has only become more confirmed in the theory, that the subject matter of the disputes at Stratford related principally to the Half-way Covenant system and cognate theories, and not to simple differences about adopting the modes of Congregationalism or Presbyterianism, he will in no wise be disturbed if others should come to a different conclusion. The truth of history required him to present the evidence, and that being done, his responsibility in this regard is ended.

CHAPTER IV.

CIVIL HISTORY.

ACCURACY OF AMERICAN HISTORY; CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FATHERS; FREE HOME-LOTS; COMMENTS ON THE "FUNDAMENTAL ARTICLES;" LOWER NOnnewaug FALLS; OLD MILL-STONES; BETHEL ROCK; THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE; SEOOND MEETING-HOUSE; SABBATH-DAY HOUSES; CHURCH CUSTOMS; BEAR-HILL AND RAGLAND SHEEP PASTURE; DRUMMING FOR CHURCH MEETINGS; FIRST ARTIZANS; WOODEN SHOES; RIDE AND TIE; GOING TO CHURCH; IRON KETTLE; QUASSAPAUG SCENE; REFLECTIONS.

and

HERE is one peculiarity in the history of our nation which applies to no other. We go back to the earliest days, and record all the minute events of our own origin. There is no nation except, perhaps, the Jewish, that undertakes to do this. We record the annals of our time, step by step, noting every

event as it occurs, with great particularity and accuracy. "No one of the present nations of Europe can tell a word of their earliest ancestors; or even specify the century in which their territory was first taken possession of by them; but all is as involved in obscurity as are the years before the flood." Scarcely more is known of them than of the location of the Garden of Eden. All their early history is a mithical period, and one scarcely knows where their authentic annals begin. But it is far different with our early history as a nation. We know the men who said they would be free, and who laid the foundation of this mighty republic. We know whence they came, the spot to which they came, the object for which they came, and the year, the month, and the day they took possession." They began at once to make, and require of their officers the keeping of records of all events of interest in their independent, civil communities. Neglect was punished with severe penalties. "Our nation owes a lasting debt of gratitude to our ancestors, for their fidelity in recording the incipient steps taken by them in

settling this new world." We have seen, in the preceding pages, with what care our fathers preserved the history of the events, painful in themselves, which resulted in the settlement of our town. We respect them for it. If they had faults, they dared confess them, and meet such retribution as properly attached to them. It is the great, apparent trait in our ancestors, one on which they seemed to pride themselves, that they studied deeply the questions that interested them, formed their opinions deliberately, and, having become assured that any particular course or theory was right, they dared avow and defend it, whatever might be the consequences of such avowal or action. It is to be remembered, always, that they were cut off from nearly all the privileges which we possess. They had fled to a wilderness inhabited by savages and wild beasts. They were poor. They had but the bare necessaries of life, forced from an unwilling soil. They had neither the daily nor weekly newspaper, bringing them intelligence and useful information from the whole civilized world. Books were rare, and of schools there were none, till they were able to "set them up" amid the forests. Laborious days and nights were continually required to eke out the naked requirements of humanity, and to reclaim and cause the desert lands to bud and blossom as the rose, and make possible the introduction of a more refined civilization. Yet they had, thanks to the old Puritan care, the rudiments of an education. Most of them could read and write, and search the holy Scriptures. Many were from the more intelligent classes and higher walks in life in the old world, who had fled to this new land for opinion's sake. And, above all, they "had a scholar to their minister"—a learned man—a learned man-"in every town and village." Their religion was intellectual and doctrinal, rather than emotional, and the consequence was, that while they felled the forests and tilled the stubborn soil, they thought deeply, were imbued with the importance of the conclusions to which they arrived, and the inspirations that glowed in their hearts, while an overwhelming sense of the "justice and majesty" of God, whose servants they were, to shew forth his glory on earth, made them fully persuaded, that each important act of theirs should be recorded, and have its controlling influence on the generations. Hence the care they took of their records. Hence the fact, that we are so perfectly informed of all the past of our country. In looking over the early acts of our fathers, another thing attracts out attention, and that is the care with which they selected