Deacons. LAMSON WELLS, DAVID SKINNER, A. D. 1754. JOSEPH EGGLESTON, died May 9, A. D. 1797, aged 82. NOAH ALLEN, ordained A. D. 1809; died May 7, A. D. 1824, aged 67. DANIEL RICHARDSON, ordained A. D. 1818; removed A. D. 1829; died A. D. 1847. IRA WELLS, ordained A. D. 1823. ANSON BISSELL, ordained A. D. 1825; removed to Wapping A. D. 1832. ERASTUS BUCKLAND, ordained A. D. 1830; died Jan. 23, A. D. 1848. AZEL STEVENS ROE, ordained A. D. 1833. When the second pastor of this church first removed to this place, A. D. 1803, a few weeks previous to his ordination, the clerk of the church furnished a list of the male members of the church, and said that there were no records of the church to be found, from its first formation, May 1, A. D. 1754, to the death of the first pastor, November 15, A. D. 1802. Of the members of this church, as far as they could be found, February 15, A. D. Figures denote the age at death. 1804. Benoni Stiles, 64. Seth Stowell. Elijah Sadd, 77. This society, when it was organized, in 1754, was the Sixth Society in Windsor. It remained so until 1768, when, by the division of the ancient town, it became the Third Society in East Windsor, the church in Ellington being the second. In 1786, Ellington was set off as an incorporated town; after which period this society was known as the Second Society of East Windsor; and in 1846, by the incorporation of South Windsor, as a distinct town, it became the First Society in East Windsor. Society Fund. The first mention of any fund for the support of the gospel ministry in this parish, appears to be a sum left by Capt. Samuel Stiles. At a meeting of the society on the 4th day of October, 1813, the following resolution was passed: "Voted, That the society committee be directed to receive the sum of one thousand dollars given to this society by the last will of Capt. Samuel Stiles, deceased, and dispose of the same according to the tenor of said instrument." And, year by year, after this, we find the interest of this fund used in part for the payment of the minister's salary-at first as an addition to the regular salary on account of the high price to which the necessaries of life had risen, and thus it was continued until 1820. The next addition to the fund appears to have been received from the state, and is called the State Fund - the record con cerning it was made at a society's meeting held the 6th day of October, 1818, as follows: "Voted, That the State Fund received at Hartford in December last, by the society committee, and interest amounting to one hundred and seventy-seven dollars, be put at interest and remain as a fund for the support of the Gospel ministry in this society during the pleasure of this society." At an adjourned meeting held on the 2d day of January, 1827, we find the first notice of the Bartlett Fund : "Voted, To accept of the donation given by Mr. Samuel Bartlett, of one thousand dollars, to the second society in East Windsor, under its restrictions." The following extract from the will of Mr. Bartlett, will show the nature of the donation and the restrictions above referred to: "And wishing to perpetuate a regular Gospel ministry, I will that my executor pay as a donation which I now make to the second ecclesiastical society in East Windsor to which I belong, the sum of one thousand dollars, under the following restrictions, viz: That this donation shall be kept at annual interest until principal and interest shall amount to four thousand dollars, and when the whole sun shall amount to the aforesaid sum of four thousand dollars, the interest arising thereon shall be applied annually towards paying the minister's salary in the society, leaving the principal of four thousand dollars entire with the following conditions being complied with: 1st. That said society keep and maintain a decent meetinghouse in which to perform public worship. 2nd The said meeting-house to be the sole and entire property of said society. 3rd. That said society shall not at any time be destitute of an ordained minister more than two years, which minister shall be a learned man of true orthodox principles according to the sense in which our forefathers maintained the same. 4th. They shall not pay any of the interest arising on this donation to hire a minister of different principles,-but if at any future period of time shall neglect or refuse to comply with the above conditions and restrictions, then and in that case said donation shall be forfeited by said society to my executor or his heirs, to sue for and recover the said donation to his or their use." This fund reached the amount specified in the will of Mr. Bartlett (four thousand dollars), in 1849, and the income from it has been since that period appropriated for the purpose to which it was consecrated by the devisor. At an adjourned meeting of the society held 13th of October, 1845, a committee previously appointed for the purpose of making a permanent lease of the parsonage lot, reported as follows: That they had leased to Mr. Daniel Chapin the "ministry lot of land" for the term of nine hundred and ninety-nine years from April, 1845, for the sum of fourteen hundred and seventy dollars ninety-three cents. And the society's committee was instructed to pay the interest on said amount of fourteen hundred and seventy dollars and ninety-three cents to Rev. Shubael Bartlett, annually, on the first day of December in each year, subject to the regula tions of settlement of Mr. Bartlett. At a meeting of the society held in October, 1854, this fund was appropriated as follows: "Voted, That the fund belonging to the first ecclesiastical society in East Windsor, arising from the sale of the ministry lot (so called) and amounting to fourteen hundred and seventy dollars and ninety-three cents, be applied to liquidate the indebtedness of this society in building their parsonage-house and purchasing land of the same, and that said fund shall not be appropriated for any other purpose whatever. Graveyards. The inhabitants of Ireland district, for many years buried their dead in Ellington. The deed for the present burying ground, near Mr. Gowdy's, was given in 1794, and the first person buried there was John Prior. A deed was given for the graveyard at Scantic, near the meethouse, in 1751, and for another in the street by Caleb Potwine's, in 1780. The Warehouse Point graveyard was deeded in 1801. Since then another graveyard has been opened near Ketch Mills. CHAPTER XVI. WINDSOR, EAST OF THE CONNECTICUT RIVER-CONTINUED. Wapping Parish.1 That section of Windsor, known as Wapping,2 was probably first settled by one Thomas Bissell, as early as 1700-5.3 This house stood a little south of the road from the Hill, and west of Podunk River, until about 1840, when it was taken down.1 Tradition records that, shortly after coming here, Bissell had a very severe fight with a large and powerful Indian, who in a mood of drunken bravado, boasted of having killed ninety-nine white men, and insisted on making up the hundred, by killing him. Bissell's courage and strength, however, completely overcame him, and defeated his sanguinary intentions. The Bissells, Rockwells, Skinners, Sadds, Stoughtons, Smiths and Grants, were among the first to locate in Wapping, where their descendants remain to this day. 1 We are mainly indebted, for our information concerning this parish, to a MS. account written by the Rev. Marvin Root in 1840, and deposited in the archives of the Conn. Hist. Soc'y. 2 Wapping is the name of a street in London, on the Thames. 3 In an old account book of Samuel Rockwell, "a mighty hunter," in those days, we find that he sold venison to Thos. Bissell, who then lived in the N. W. corner of Wapping, as early as 1705. 4 MS. of Dr. Ebenezer F. Reed. We find in the society records frequent allusions to a place below Podunk River, called Bissell's Farms, it may perhaps refer to Wapping. |