The object of this paper is to show so far as I have been able to learn, when, how and where the First Churches of New London, Norwich and Stonington were organized, or know to exist as such.
The first settlement of New London, then known as Nameaug or Pequot, was commenced by Mr. John Winthrop, acting first under an allowance, and afterwards by a commission from the General Court of Massachusetts prior to and during the year 1646.
The Massachusetts Colony claimed jurisdiction of the place as their part of the conquered Pequot territory.
The Rev. Mr. Thomas Peters desiring to join the settlement, was ordered by said Court to assist Mr. Winthrop for the better carrying on of the work of the plantation.
About the same time William Chesebrough, then living in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony, acting under the advice and encouragement of Mr. Winthrop, visited Pequot with a view of making it his permanent place of abode, but finding it unsuitable to his expectation, decided to locate himself farther east at Wequetequoc (now Stonington.)
Mr. Peters did not long remain in the new settlement, for during the summer of 1646 he received a summons from his old flock at Cornwall, England, to return home and renew his pastoral relations with them. In the early autumn of that year he bid adieu to Pequot, and sailed for England in November following.
As
soon as the General Court of Connecticut became aware of Mr. Winthrop's
settlement at Pequot, they laid claim to the jurisdiction of the place
by virtue of their Patent from the King. In
view thereof Massachusetts reasserted her claim and the matter was
referred to the Commissioners of the United Colonies in 1646, who decided
in favor of Connecticut.
When William Chesebrough brought his family to Wequetequoc in the fall of 1649 the Connecticut General Court gave him to understand in a summary way that they disapproved of his settlement there, claiming jurisdiction, which he acknowledged, and after stating to them that he had been influenced by Mr. Winthrop in settling down at Wequetequoc, the General Court in 1651, consented for Mr. Chesebrough to remain at Wequetequoe on condition that he would gather around him a considerable number of acceptable persons, that would "engage for the planting of the place," to all of which he assented.
In September of that year he made application to the General Court for the confirmation of the title to the lands he then claimed at Wequetequoc, and after consulting his old friend, Mr. Winthrop, and the Deputies of Pequot then in attendance at Court, he made an arrangement and agreement with them by which it was mutually understood and agreed that if Mr. Chesebrough would place himself on a footing with the inhabitants of Pequot, that town would confirm to him the title to said lands by virtue of a grant thereof.
The town of Pequot carried out this agreement with Mr. Chesebrough, and he exerted himself to his utmost to induce men of character and influence to settle around him, and thereby redeem his pledge to the General Court, and so well did he succeed that before the spring season of 1654 he was joined by some of the more respectable and influential men of his time, such as Thomas Stanton, the Interpreter General of New England, Captain George Denison (with the exception of Major John Mason), the most distinguished soldier of the Colony, Walter Palmer, an old neighbor of Mr. Chesebrough in Rehoboth, Capt. John Gallup, a famous Indian warrior who fell at the great swamp fight in Rhode Island in 1675, and Thomas Miner, a man prominent in all the relations of life.
Others soon followed with their families and became permanent residents. There was no place of worship for them at that time nearer than at Pequot, and there being no roads and two rivers to cross made it well nigh impossible for them to attend there.
So in 1654 they applied to the General Court, asking to be incorporated as a town by the name of Mystic and Pawcatuck. No sooner made than their application was resisted by a majority of the Pequot planters, and a stormy contest followed that involved not only the town of Pequot and the General Court, but the church and minister of the Pequot plantation.
After the departure of Mr. Peters from Pequot in 1646, no particular efforts were made to obtain another minister until 1649 and 1650 when a committee was appointed by the town to procure a minister.
This committee extended an invitation to the Rev. Richard Blinman, of Gloucester, Mass, who after prayerful consideration accepted the call, and came to Pequot during the year 1650.
In October of the same year the town granted Mr. Blinman a lot of land and voted him a salary of sixty pounds per annum, which was afterwards liberally enlarged.
In December following they granted him a house lot of six acres, and subsequently built him a dwelling house thereon.
Previous to this time no meeting-house had been erected at Pequot for public religious worship.
All meetings of that character had been held in the rude cabins of the planters.
In August of 1650 and after Mr. Blinman had consented to become their settled minister, the town purchased a barn of Mr. Robert Park[e] and fitted it up for a meeting-house, and subsequently during the years of 1652-3-4-5 a new meeting house was erected at Pequot.
Mr. Blinman was a native of England, and a minister
of Chepstow, Monmouthshire. He came to New England with several Welsh
gentlemen of good note, by the invitation of Mr. Edward Winslow, of Plymouth,
and came to that place before 1640.
Mr. Blinman and several of his friends were propounded for freemanship by the General Court of Plymouth March 2nd, 1641, and soon after, acting under the advice and influence of Mr. Winslow, settled near him at Green Harbor, (nor Marshfield), Mass. Dissensions soon arose, the nature and extent of which is not certainly known, but sufficiently serious to cause Mr. Blinman and his old friends to leave the place, and cross the bay and fix their residence at Gloucester, formerly known as Cape Ann. There Mr. Blinman and his Welsh friends, joined by a few others, united in forming a church in 1642, and there he continued to labor in the work of the ministry until 1649.
Towards the latter part of his ministry in Gloucester, Mass, Mr. Blinman met with serious opposition from parties inside and outside of the Church, which served to endear him to his long time friends, so that when he received the call from Pequot and had decided to accept it, they made up their minds to go with him and share his fortunes. They were most welcome in their new home. The town granted each of them a home lot, besides other accommodations in various ways.
For the first two or three years of Mr. Blinman's labors in Pequot everything promised a long and successful ministry.
Unfortunately he became involved in the controversy relative to the new township of Mystic and Pawcatuck. At first he favored the project; afterwards he opposed it, which alienated his friends at Mystic and Pawcatuck. Before the contest had reached its height a town meeting was warned and held at Pequot for the purpose of conciliation and an amicable settlement of their troubles. this meeting was held August 28, 1654, and resulted in the appointment of four from Pequot and three from Mystic and Pawcatuck "to debate, reason and conclude whether Mystic and Pawcatuck should be a town, and upon what terms, and to determine the case in no other way, but in a way of love and reason, and not by vote." Mr. Winthrop, Goodman Caulkins, Cary Latham and Good man Elderkin represented Pequot. Mr. Robert Park, Goodman Chesebrough and Capt. George Denison represented Mystic and Pawcatuck. There is no record of the labors of this committee, but from subsequent events, it appears that they failed to agree.
Mr. Blinman's course relative to the matter was severely censured by Capt. Denison and Thomas Miner, and high words passed between them. The General Court did not take decisive measures at first, and in 1656 ordered that the majority of the town of Pequot should decide whether the charge of the ministry at Pequot and Pawcatuck should be a joint charge, or each party pay for their own preaching.
This action of the Court did not suit the planters at Mystic and Pawcatuck. they were in a minority, and of course were subject to the will of the majority, who decided that the planters at Mystic and Pawcatuck should pay their rates to Mr. Blinman and appealed to the Court to enforce the payment thereof.
The Court by an order passed in May, 1657, directed them to pay Mr. Blinman what they owed him, and appointed a committee consisting of Mr. Winthrop, Major Mason, Capt. Callick and Mr. Allyn, to issue matters between the inhabitants of Pequot, Mystic and Pawcatuck, if they could, or else make a return how they leave things.
This committee met at Pequot July 8th, 1657, for the purpose of considering the matters in dispute.
That they said or did does not appear of record, nor is it known what their findings were, but whatever they were, instead of reconciling the parties in interest, served to intensify the controversy.
Mr. Blinman's rates were not paid, and he gave up his occasional services at Mystic and Pawcatuck.
Pending this controversy the Massachusetts General Court claimed the proposed new township of Mystic and Pawcatuck as belonging to that Colony, on account of their participation in the Pequot war.
The matter of jurisdiction as between the Colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts was referred to the Commissioners of the United Colonies for adjudication and award, who after due consideration decided in June, 1658, that Mystic and Pawcatuck belonged to Massachusetts, and was by the General Court of that Colony incorporated under the name of Southertown.
Before the consummation of that event Mr. Blinman's pastorate had ceased to be by his own act, for on the 20th day of January, 1658, he gave notice that "he would be gone," and went to New Haven the same week; and during January and February three meetings were held at Pequot to reconcile matters between the inhabitants of that town and those of Mystic and Pawcatuck, but all were of no avail as subsequent events plainly show.
So far no mention is made of a Church in the town
meeting records of Pequot or those of the Connecticut General Court.
It will be remembered that the town of Pequot held a meeting on the 28th day of August, 1654, wherein conciliatory measures were adopted. In the evening of that day a meeting of the Church was held at the dwelling house of Goodman Caulkins in Pequot. The record of that meeting was made by Thomas Miner in his diary, and is as follows, viz: "I was sent for at Pequot for to be reconciled to the Church, and at evening the major part met at Goodman Caulkin's house, namely: Mr. Blinman, Mr. Bruen, Goodman Morgan, Goodman Caulkins, Ralph Parker, Goodman Lester, Goodman Coit, Hugh Roberts, Capt. Denison and Goodman Chesebrough and Thomas Miner being there. All these took satisfaction in my acknowledging the height of my spirit; secondly, in that I saw my evil in my sudden and rash speaking to Mr. Blinman, and with all this was acknowledgment on the Church's part that I was wronged; so all was passed by on my side and the Church's, with promise on both parts- as that, all former offenses should be buried, and never more to be agitated; so desiring the prayers, each for the other, we parted from that meeting August 28th, 1654."
I have briefly sketched the early history of New London, for the purpose of showing the nature of the controversy between Mr. Blinman and Mr. Miner, which led to the Church meeting at Mr. Caulkins' house.
Capt. Denison, who was present, subsequently assailed Mr. Blinman for preaching for Pawcatuck and Mystic, being a town before he sold his land there, which offensive remark he afterwards retracted before the General Court.
There was a wide difference between a minister of a town, and the pastor of a church, and no one understood this difference better than Thomas Miner. He had been connected with the Charlestown and Hingham churches and was familiar with their proceedings.
Ministers of towns never administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. But Mr. Miner records the fact of the sacraments being administered July 8th, 1655, and afterwards, before the new town controversy had alienated him and other from the members at Pequot.
After the Charter of 1662 had brought Southertown
alias Mystic and Pawcatuck under the jurisdiction of Connecticut,
Mr. Miner became reconciled to the Church at New London again, but attended
meetings there only occasionally, as he was then interested in the meetings
at Stonington.
Previous to this Mr. Miner says under date of July 27th, 1670, "that I and my wife were at New London, and Goodman Royce and Goodman Haugh were received into the Church there."
Who will say, in view of these diary records of Mr. Miner, that no church existed in New London before October 1st, 1670; and further, Mr. Blinman after he left New London and in contemplation of his return back to England in 1659, sold his house and lot at New London to William Addis, and his farm at Harbor's Mouth to John Tinker. In these deeds the form used is "I, Richard Blinman, late pastor of the Church of Christ at New London." As early as 1654 Mr. Obadiah Bruen, one of the most prominent men of Pequot, and Town Clerk at the time, in a written memorandum speaks of Mr. Blinman as "Pastor of the Church of Christ at Pequot,"&e.
Mr. Blinman was an educated man, and an ordained minister of the Protestant Church of England, a Puritan of the straightest sect, and knew beyond the possibility of a doubt the difference between the minister of a town and the pastor of a Church.
Thus we have testimony of Mr. Blinman, Mr. Bruen, Mr. Miner, Mr. Douglass and Capt. James Avery, that a Church existed in New London before 1670, and we may add Mr. Bradstreet's first record in proof, for he uses the simple caption "Members of the Church," not the persons who began the Church, or were embodied in the organization of the Church.
Considering the character of the men whose records and statements in writing I have introduced, and their opportunities for knowing whereof they testify, must convince every candid mind that a Church existed in Pequot in 1654 and doubtless before, because Thomas Miner in his diary record of the Church meeting of 1654 speaks of former offenses being considered and settled, referring to some difficulty in the Church before that time.
The first Church of Norwich consisted of a majority of the first Church of Saybrook organized in _______ 1646, who with their minister, the Rev. James Fitch, came to Norwich as the first planters thereof in 1660. They continued their Sabbath services in the new settlement precisely as when at home in Saybrook. This emigration weakened the Saybrook Church, but did not discourage and leave it desolate. for as early as 1661 they engaged the Rev. Jeremiah Peck, of Guilford, Conn., to supply their pulpit. His services were not acceptable, and a controversy arose between him and the Church, which resulted in his leaving them, June 30th, 1665.
In February following the town hired Mr. Thomas Buckingham to supply the pulpit, who came and preached for them as a supply until the spring of 1670, when he was ordained over the Church.
From that time forward the Old Saybrook Church has had an uninterrupted and successful career. Unfortunately all her records before 1732 are lost.
The records of the Norwich Church for a number of years cannot be found. But all the authorities concur in saying that the Church should take its date from the year of the settlement of that town, viz., 1660. For no sooner were Mr. Fitch and his brethren located there, than they commenced and continued worship as a Church.
The general association of the Congregational Churches of Connecticut regards this Church as being organized in 1660, and it will be so found and stated in the statistics thereof.
Now let us apply the rule recognized and established by the Association and other authorities relative to the Church of Norwich to all the facts and circumstances that stand connected with the organization of the first Church of New London.
First, all the authorities concur in saying that Mr. Blinman came to this country from Steptow, Monmouthshire, England, before 1640. That there came with him a number of gentlemen of good note with their families, and nearly all of them accompanied him to Plymouth that year. But after a short stay they removed him to Green Harbor, now Marshfield. But they were not contented there, nor could they agree with the planters who had preceded them. So they crossed the Bay to Cape Ann, Now Gloucester, and pitched their tents in that place in 1641. During the year of 1642, joined by a few of the previous planters of Cape Ann they organized themselves into a Church with Mr. Blinman for their minister. At first all was harmonious, but in a few years dissensions arose in the Church, and out of it, caused mainly by their new friends, and Mr. Blinman was most unkindly treated by them, and when the call from Pequot came to Mr. Blinman he was not long in accepting it.
His old friends who had been with him at Plymouth and Green Harbor decided to go with him and share his fortunes. So the, a majority of the then Church of Gloucester, after disposing of their homesteads, followed Mr. Blinman to Pequot in the early spring of 1651.
Mr. Blinman and Ralph Parker preceded them and came in the fall of 1650. So during the summer of 1651 Mr. Blinman, with his Gloucester Church friends and friends at New London, assembled for public worship in Mr. Robert Park's barn meeting house.
"And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang with their hymns of lofty cheer."
So beyond all controversy when the majority of the members of the Gloucester Church of 1642 under their regular installed pastor, in unison with other Church members, assembled for public worship in New London in 1651, taken in connection with all the facts, precedent and subsequent thereto relating, is the time when the first Church of New London was established there.
Facts and circumstances of almost the same character and conditions stand connected with the first Church of Norwich, Conn., as those incidental to the first Church of New London, and serve to establish its existence there in 1660. The first church at Saybrook survived the migration to Norwich, and the first Church of Gloucester survived the migration to New London. But the Church at Gloucester was more reduced thereby than the Saybrook Church. The remnant of the Gloucester Church employed Mr. William Perkins to succeed Mr. Blinman as a laborer in spiritual things, though it is not known that he was ever set apart for the work of the ministry by ordination, or that he was recognized by the ministers of his time as a fellow laborer in their calling. He was in Gloucester from 1650 to 1655, when he removed to Topsfield, Mass.
Mr. Babson, the historian of Gloucester, in a recent letter says "that the removal of Mr. Blinman and his friends to New London left the Church very weak, and no minister was regularly ordained over it till the settlement of the Rev. John Emerson in 1661. A regular succession of pastors taught the ancient faith till 1834, when a Unitarian clergyman was settled, which occasioned the secession of the orthodox members of the Church and Society."
It should be stated that Mr. Blinman's church at Gloucester did not bear so large a proportion to the previous settlers there as they did at Pequot, nor did Mr. Fitch's church embrace all of the first planters at Norwich.
The first Church at Windsor, Conn., was formed at Plymouth, England, in 1630, when they were preparing to embark for New England; and came over the Atlantic and settled together at Dorchester, Mass.
In 1635 the majority of this Church removed to Windosr, Conn., and transplanted their Church in that place.
The remnant that remained at Dorchester convened a council April 11, 1636, to reconstruct the Church, but the council deferred the matter till August 22d of that year, when a new Church was organized, and a convenant subscribed to by seven individuals was adopted.
So the Windsor Church dates its organization at 1630, though twice transplanted, hence our beautiful State motto:-
"He who transplanted still sustains."
The first Church of Milford, Conn., was formed in New Haven August 22d, 1639, where the members lived at that time, but soon after its organization they removed to Milford, where they continued their worship without regard to their change of residence.
In March, 1658, the General Court of Connecticut passed an "Act that henceforth no persons in this jurisdiction shall in any way embody themselves into Church estate without the consent of the General Court, and approbation of the neighboring churches," and the colonial records of Connecticut have been searched in vain to find the consent of the General Court, either asked for or given to any one for the organization of a Church at New London or Norwich, either prior to, or subsequent to the date of said Act of 1658. So it appears beyond all doubt that no Church was ford by Mr. Fitch and his friends when they settled Norwich in 1660, nor at New London when Mr. Bradstreet was ordained in 1670. Had Mr. Fitch or Mr. Bradstreet attempted to have organized a Church either at Norwich or New London, after the passage of said Act, the General Court would have thundered their anathemas against them, and the colonial records would have contained their proceedings chapter and verse.
On the 15th day of May, 1658, a Church meeting was held at Pequot, for what particular purpose does not appear. But having been convened, at a time when the Mystic and Pawcatuck planters were doing their utmost to break away, not only from the Church, but from the town and colony, it doubtless had some reference to, or was in some way connected with it.
The leaders of the new town enterprise were resolute and determined men. Not satisfied with the answer given to their petition of October, 1657, by the General Court of Massachusetts, they preferred another petition to that Court in May, 1658, in which they urged every possible consideration for a new town. They asserted that their plantation was settled by Gov. Winthrop under a commission from the Massachusetts Court in 1649.
Though the Connecticut Colony asserted jurisdiction in 1650, which they for the time acknowledged, yet they considered that Massachusetts had the better title, and implored the Court to grant them the liberty of a township, and the privileges thereof, with confirmation of their lands then in possession, and previously granted them by the General Court of Connecticut and by the town of Pequot.
To that petition the Massachusetts Court replied under date of June 3d, 1658, (which after noting the fact that the Court had made no answer to their previous petition,) they concluded by saying that they would forbear further action in the premises until the next meeting of the Commissioners of the United Colonies.
Meantime they admonished the petitioners to carry themselves and order their affairs peaceable, and by common agreement till the commissioners should meet, which would be in September following. Acting upon this suggestion the planters at Mystic and Pawcatuck entered into a combination, and formed what they styled "The association of Pawcatuck people," which in short was nothing more nor less than a squatter sovereignty township, to which they promised due allegiance and pledged themselves to defend it with their persons and estates, according to the rules of righteousness; and when adopted, by virtue thereof, they appointed commissioners to decide all causes and punish all crimes.
During September following the commissioners met at Boston and this matter of jurisdiction came before them by the consent of both colonies; which after a number of pleas pro and con, they decided in favor of Massachusetts, and held that all of the conquered Pequot territory east of Mystic River rightfully belonged to the Massachusetts Colony.
In October, 1658, the Massachusetts Court "judged meet to grant that the English plantation between Mystic and Pawcatuck be named Southertown, and to belong to the County of Suffolk;" and then ordered that the prudential affairs thereof should be managed by a number of townsmen, "until the Court takes further" order, and then appointed three Commissioners to end small causes, and to deal in criminal matters; also appointed a Constable and Clerk of the writs. So the planters of Mystic and Pawcatuck after more than four years of unwearied labor, fruitful of controversies and alienations in Church and State, finally succeeded in obtaining a grant of township.
They immediately abandoned their articles of association, and placed themselves under the government of Massachusetts. A majority of the planters favored the Massachusetts alliance. The minority favored the Connecticut authorities. This difference of opinion led to serious difficulties among themselves. Massachusetts did not confirm the Connecticut and Pequot grants. They had axes of their own to grind, and granted lands to their own friends and institutions.
Southertown as bounded out under an order of the Massachusetts Court, extended east from Mystic River to Wecagaug brook some four miles east of Pawcatuck river, and northward as far as Lantern Hill on the west, and Ashaway river on the east.
The first grant of Massachusetts in 1658 was a gift of a large tract of land at Watch Hill to Harvard College, and subsequently they granted to their Boston friends almost the entire west half of the present town of Westerly. They also granted nearly one half of the present town of Stonington to parties in and about Boston, covering the lands granted by the Connecticut authorities to Thomas Stanton, Thomas Shaw, William Chesebrough and the Taugwonk grants to Thomas Miner. They also granted eight thousand five hundred acres to Harmon Garret's tribe of the Pequot Indians.
Meantime the inhabitants of Southertown were making vigorous efforts to build them a meeting-house. Rev. William Thompson came there as a missionary to the Pequot Indians the year before Mr. Blinman left Pequot. His meetings were attended by the English as well as by the Indians. He sided with the planters against Mr. Blinman and the rule of Connecticut, and signed the first petition to the Massachusetts General Court. He left in 1659.
There were several town meetings held during the years of 1659-60-61 for the purpose of building a meeting-house, which resulted in the erection of a small one, raised May 13th, 1661. The town called Rev. Zachariah Brigden, who came in September, 1661, and remained till his death, which took place April 24th, 1662. After him came Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Savage and Mr. Chauncey, who supplied the pulpit until 1664. During May of that year the town invited Mr. James Noyes, of Newbury, Mass., who came and preached as a licentiate for ten years, and until the church was organized in 1674.
In 1662 Gov. Winthrop procured the new charter from King Charles II. Under an apprehension that the Connecticut Colony might again in some way assume control, the townsmen of Southertown petitioned the Massachusetts authorities in January, 1662, to continue their protection, assuring them of their continued loyalty, and setting forth that the Connecticut men were causing factions and divisions among them. Massachusetts made no reply. In the autumn of that year the charter came which fixed the lower eastern line of Connecticut at Pawcatuck river, which of course included Southertown in Connecticut. the inhabitants did not relish this change, nor did they at first acquiesce, but after some two years in October, 1664, in response to a summons from the General Court of Connecticut, they sent William Chesebrough, the original founder of the town, to Hartford, to make their peace with the Connecticut authorities.
He succeeded, and the General Court granted them a general amnesty.
The General Court of Connecticut had no particular regard for the name of Southertown, so in 1665 they changed it to that of Mystic, "in memory of that victory God has pleased to give this people of Connecticut over the Pequot Indians," and the Court might have added what they no doubt rejoiced over, that Winthrop had been too sharp for Massachusetts with the King and that they had recovered nearly all of the conquered Pequot territory.
Rhode Island did not join the confederation of the United Colonies, nor did she cherish much respect for the decisions of their Commissioners.
In 1660 what is known as the Misquamicut purchasers bought that portion of the conquered Pequot territory that was situated east of Pawcatuck river of Sosoa, a Narragansett Captain, who claimed to have ousted the Pequots therefrom before the Pequot war. They commenced a settlement there in 1661, ousting all the Massachusetts and Connecticut grantees and the Pequot Indians, driving them over the river into Stonington.
In 1666 the General Court of Connecticut for reasons not now understood changed the name of the town from Mystic to Stonington. In 1668 a census of its inhabitants was ordered , and the same year a portion of them asked the General Court for liberty to settle themselves in Church order which was granted, and the town set apart five hundred acres of land for the ministry. The census showed a list of forty-two inhabitants, residing on the territory now embraced in the limits of Stonington and North Stonington.
The meeting-house erected in 1661 was a frail affair, and during the year 1670 the town voted to build a bigger and a better meeting-house upon the most convenient place of the ministry land. A site was selected and a new meeting-house was built thereon during the years 1672-3, and on the 3d day of June, 1674, the first Church of Stonington was formed.
So after twenty years of more or less distractions among themselves as they termed it, and bitter controversies with he Connecticut and Massachusetts Colonies and the town of Pequot and New London about the organization of their township; and the unhappy differences with Mr. Blinman in 1654; nine of their inhabitants, viz: Mr. James Noyes, Mr. Thomas Stanton, Mr. Nathaniel Chesebrough, Mr. Thomas Miner, Mr. Nehemiah Palmer, Mr. Ephraim Miner, Mr. Thomas Stanton, Jr., Mr. Moses Palmer and Mr. Thomas Wheeler, united in a covenant commencing as follows: "In order to begin and gather a Church of Christ in Stonington this 3d day of June, 1674, do covenant, etc."
The Rev. James Noyes, who came to Southertown in 1664 as a teacher and licentiate, was not ordained until Sept. 10th, 1674, after which he continued his labors with the Stonington Church and people until his death, which took place Dec. 30th, 1719.
I have thus sketched the early history of Stonington and the organization of its first Church, because they are both intimately connected with the early history of New London and its first Church.
The foregoing historical sketches of the first Churches of New London, Norwich and Stonington establishes the fact that the Church organized in Gloucester, Mass., in 1642, with Mr. Richard Blinman as its pastor, removed to and was transplanted in New London in 1651. The Church formed in Saybrook Conn., in 1646, with Mr. James Fitch as its pastor, removed to and was transplanted in Norwich in 1660. The first Church of Stonington was organized in that town June 3d, 1674.
Richard A. Wheeler
Last Updated: February 24, 2023