time the people growing remiss concerning the wood with which they had stipulated to supply Mr. Heminway, they voted to give him £50 in lieu of wood, provided it was not delivered in a specified time, for which they would be allowed 3s. per load.

20th Feb. 1722. "Voted, that Mr. Heminway shall have a piece of land for pasturing, adjoining to the west end of his home lot, as it is set out by Deacon Austin, Thomas Alcock and William Bradley. He to have the use of said land, so long as he shall continue in the worke of the Ministry amongst us in this place, he paying to the Village one shilling per year, yearly, so long as he improves said land for pasturing. The bounds of the land set out by the aforesaid three men, is about 13 rods on the Southend, on the westerly side 17 rods, and northerly 10 rods.”

In Jan. 1737, they voted to sell the Parsonage, and constitute a permanent fund with the avails. This measure, however, was opposed, and John Heminway, Joseph Grannis, Samuel Russell, Matthew Rowe, John Dawson, Moses Thompson, James Denison, Isaac Penfield, Samuel Smith, and Isaac Howe, entered their protest against selling the Parsonage land.

In 1752. " Voted that Mr. Heminway shall name the Psalm in public, Nathaniel Barnes shall tune the Psalm, and in his absence Jacob or Isaac Goodsell.”

Mr. Heminway continued in the Ministry 50 years, and died 7th Oct. 1754, in the 71st year of his age.

In March, 1755, Mr. Nicholas Street was invited to preach for the Society on probation, with the consent of the Rev. Association.

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At a Society meeting, 5th July, 1755, voted unanimously to give Mr. Street a call to settle in the worke of the Gospel ministry with us, and appointed a Committee to treat with him on the subject." And in Aug. "Voted, that we will give Mr. Street for his settlement amongst us, £1500 money, Old Tenor; to pay £500 in one year; £500 in two years, and £500 in three years. And if he changes his principles from what he was settled upon, then he shall return the 1500 in money, to the Society." This was equal to about £126 proclamation money.

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Voted to give Mr. Street for his yearly salary £60, in New-York money, dollars at 8s. or any other money equivalent thereunto, for the first year; sixty-five in the same money for the second year, and seventy in the same money

for the third year, and so to continue yearly so long as the said Mr. Street shall preach with us."

Voted, also, that Mr. Street shall have the use of that piece of parsonage land by the two springs, three years after he is ordained." "Voted, also, that Mr. Street shall have the use of the two bigest pieces of land, so long as he shall continue in the work of the Ministry amongst us." At the same meeting Mr. Street personally appeared, and accepted of the aforesaid proposal. And was ordained by the Consociation of New-Haven County, 8th Oct. 1755.

In 1768, the Society again voted to sell all the Parsonage lands and give Mr. Street £80 salary. The next year, 30th Jan. 1769, "Voted to sell all the parsonage lands. The monies arising and accruing to the said Society from the sale of said lands shall be kept as a fund for the support of a regular Calvinistic Ministry, upon Saybrook Platform, especially as to the doctrines thoreof, in East Haven; and that the interest of said fund shall annually be paid to such a ministry and no other, according to the original intention in the sequestration of said lands." The sales amounted to £390 9s. 9d. In 1779, it became convenient for some of the purchasers to make payment in the depreciated Continental Bills, when they were already reduced four to one, i. e. one dollar was worth only 25 cents in silver. A vote of the Society was obtained to call in the money; and thus all that fund sunk in their hands to about $300!! For the sake of this fund, Mr. Street had previously relinquished the parsonage and his wood, and accepted of £80 salary.

The same year the Society voted to build a new meetinghouse. And in voting where it should stand, 37 votes appeared for the Green, and 27 for the end of Mullen Hill. A large Committee was then appointed to fix upon the place; but they could not agree. The next year, they chose Capt. Eliakim Hall, Col. Chauncey, and James Wadsworth, a Committee for that purpose, who met, and their doings were reported to the Court. But the people were not yet satisfied. The same result attended another Committee in March 1771. In Dec. of the same year, they tried another vote: when 20 votes appeared for the Green, 2 for Thompson's corner, and 29 for the end of the hill. Being convinced that they should not agree, in Feb. 1772, they voted to apply to the County Court, and request that two of the Judges and another man be of the Committee. They met and fixed the stake on Thompson's corner. In this decision the Society acquiesced, and began to make preparations to build.

The end of the hill was the centre of the Society, and nearly in the centre of the population, north and south. The Green would be more convenient for the south and east part of the society. The Southend people had to go round by the Cove and come out on the Green. The road was crooked, long, and some part of the way very uncomfortable. The present road from the meeting-house to Southend was laid out after that period.

John Woodward, Amos Morris and Stephen Morris, and afterwards Stephen Thompson, Joel Tuttle, and Stephen Smith, were of the building Committee. Isaac Chedsey and Dan Bradley were chosen in 1774. "27th April, 1772, Voted to build a stone house 60 feet long, and to lay a sixpenny rate for it." The Committee were authorized to purchase the land of John Thompson, and pay for it out of that rate. The house was begun without a steeple, but a few enterprizing men were determined to have one, and finally obtained a Society vote for it, and also to add eight feet to the length. The outside of the walls now measure 70 feet by 50, exclusive of the steeple. In 1773 and 4, the walls were raised and covered. The seats were then removed from the old house into the new, and public worship commenced in it in Sept. 1774. The finishing of the house was suspended for several years.

It was a great and honorable work, and there stands as a lasting monument of the enterprize, public spirit, wisdom and perseverance of the undertakers, and especially of the leaders. It was a cheaper building than one of wood:They had stone and lime, and teams and laborers enough to do the work. A stone house saved them money.—The papers containing the accounts of the building are lost, and the expense of it cannot now be ascertained. But it is supposed that when they began to meet in it, it had cost ten or eleven thousand dollars. The steeple and inside of the house were finished several years afterwards. For the war coming on, nothing could be done. Indeed, the society has never seen a more favorable period for this great work. They were then united as one people. And the society, probably, never contained a company of men of more enterprize or greater resolution and public spirit, than that generation contained. The Revolutionary war commenced the next year. And when that war was terminated, divisions began to appear, and have considerably diminished the active ability of the society to perform such a work a

gain-and in a few years a number of those influential and enterprizing men were removed by death. And though there is yet a considerable portion of wealth in the society, it is not accompanied with the same resolution and enterprize which the Fathers possessed.-But it ought to be considered, that the hand of the Lord was in the work. The time had come when the "Lord's house should be built," and then men and means were prepared to execute the work of the Lord, and fulfil the divine 66 purpose. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.” And when the work was done, the people had occasion to say, "the Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad."

A serious calamity, however, befel the builders. The workmen were raising the last window cap, on the back side, when the scaffold gave way, and three men with the stone in their arms fell to the ground. Toney was considerably injured, but in two weeks was so much recovered that he ran away. Mr. Stephen Thompson had his skull fractured, was trepanned, and after much suffering, recovered. Mr. Joseph Hotchkiss had one leg crushed by the stone, passed through ten months of suffering, but was finally raised to comfortable health, and is yet alive.

The society resumed the work of finishing the house in 1791, for which they laid a tax of one penny half penny. The work was accomplished, and the house was put into good order; but was greatly damaged by a dreadful tornado, Oct. 8th, 1797, between 6 and 7 o'clock on the evening of the Lord's day. The repairs of the house cost the society about one thousand dollars.

Mr. Street having a large family, and a small salary, and having gone through the distresses of the war on a depreciated currency; in 1787, petitioned the society for relief. After some debate about it, twenty pounds, by vote, were added to his salary. With this grant a few men were extremely displeased, and some having been displeased on some other account, they united with a few Episcopalians then in the town, and formed an Episcopal society. The following document will exhibit the date and form of that transaction :

"East-Haven, 31st March, 1788. At a meeting of the Episcopal Society of the Church of England, so called, legally warned, at the house of Mr. Samuel Tuttle, in said East-Haven, at 2 o'clock P. M. on Monday, 31st March,

1788; the subscribers, members of said Church or Society, under the kind patronage of the Rev. Bela Hubbard, Rector of Trinity Church, of New-Haven, being present, who willingly and cheerfully accepted us under his care and patronage, proceeded to the usual and necessary business of choosing the needful and customary parish officers in said Society of East-Haven. Accordingly, voted John Bird to be Clerk of said Society; and being duly sworn, upon the oath of fidelity and oath of office, according to law-also voted, Capt. Samuel Barnes, Moderator, John Bird, Clerk, Samuel Tuttle, James Pardee, Church Wardens;-Jehiel Forbes, Capt. Samuel Barnes, Samuel Thompson, Capt. Stephen Thompson, Jun. Ichabod Bishop, Vestrymen. At the same time voted for five Vestrymen, but that only three shall be a quorum, with full power and authority, as the five by vote elected."

"Let this certify all whom it may concern, that I was present at the above-mentioned meeting, and that the abovementioned persons were approved of in their several respective offices to which they were appointed.

Witness my hand, 31st day of March, 1788.
BELA HUBBARD,

Rector of Trinity Church, New-Haven." The next year they erected their Church house; at the raising of which, through some injudicious management, the frame fell, and killed Jeremiah Bradley, and several others were much injured.

The Rev. Mr. Street died 8th Oct. 1806, in the 77th year of his age, having just completed the 51st year of his Ministry. He and Mr. Heminway served the Congregation 101 years.

CHAP. VI.

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION.

THERE is no account of Schools on record, until the beginning of the last century. Their deficiency, in regard to even a common education, was very great. Some of their public men, men who sustained various offices and appointments of trust, were unable to write their names.— Their mark is made at the bottom of several instruments on