Extracts from Newspapers.

Hartford, Feb. 27th, 1767. One night last week, a panther having killed nine sheep in a yard at Windsor, the owner of the sheep, one Mr. Phelps, the next morning, followed the panther by his track into a thicket about half a mile from his house, and shot him. He was brought to this town, and the bounty of five pounds allowed by law was paid for his head.-New London Gazette, No. 172.

From the Connecticut Courant, dated Hartford, August 10, 1767.

"Last Tuesday two transient persons were taken up at Windsor, for committing, each of them, two thefts, and received sixteen lashes on each of their backs; eight for each offence. The next day they were committed to Gaol in this Town, to take their trial at the Superior Court next month, for breaking open and robbing a house at Windsor."

From the Connecticut Courant, dated Hartford, September, 1767.

"Last week, David Campbell and Alexander Pettigrew, were indicted before the Superior Court, sitting in this Town, for breaking open and robbing the house of Mr. Abiel Abbot, of Windsor, of two watches, to which Indictment they both plead guilty, and were sentenced each of them to receive 15 stripes, to have their right ears cut off, and to be branded with a capital letter B on their foreheads; which punishment was inflicted on them last Friday. Pettigrew bled so much from the amputation of his ear, that his life was in danger."

From the Connecticut Courant, No. 191, dated August 22, 1768. "On Saturday, the 13th inst., the following melancholy accident happened in Windsor, viz.: Four young women whose names were Thrall, who had been at work abroad in the afternoon, after they had completed their labor, agreed to divert themselves in the water, in a small river at that place. Accordingly they pulled off their stockings and shoes, and joining hands, immediately went into the river; but not being acquainted with the depth of the water, and the bottom being very uneven, the young woman that was foremost fell into a deep place, which she did not discover till it was too late to save herself, and pulled two of her unhappy companions after her, by which means they were all unfortunately drowned; and the other very narrowly escaped sharing the same fate. Two of the above young women were sisters, one of which was about 21, the other about 19 years of age. The other was a near relation. Their bodies were soon after taken up, and the next day decently interred. The Rev'd Mr. Russell preached a sermon suitable to the occasion.

A few days after, one Henry Chapman of the same place, accidentally fell from a beam in a barn, upon a cart that stood

upon the floor, and split his head, and died instantly. He was about 40 years of age."

Tradition relates that Mr. Chapman, at the time of this accident was at work for a neighbor on the north side of the Rivulet; his own residence being on the south side. That afternoon, his wife sent a little daughter up to Hoyt's Meadow, to look after or drive home the cows. The child went, but shortly returned, crying violently and appearing greatly frightened and agitated. On being questioned as to the cause, she affirmed that on reaching the pasture where the cows were, she had seen her father standing on the stump of a tree, and covered with blood.

In a few minutes after, word was brought to the family, of the sudden accident by which the husband and father had lost his life. It was undoubtedly one of those cases of premonition which sometimes precede coming events, but which all our philosophy fails to explain.

"We hear from Poquonock, a parish in the western part of Windsor, that about half an acre of the surface of the ground there has lately sunk or fallen to a considerable depth below the common surface or level; not unlike to what is frequently occasioned by earthquakes, though attended with no eruptions, either of water or fire; for which event no natural cause has as yet been assigned. And it is more unaccountable, as the ground that is sunk was not contiguous to or bordering upon any precipice or declivity, nor adjacent to any collection of water that should occasion it to sink."-Conn. Journal, June 22, 1770.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF WINDSOR, FIRST OR OLD SOCIETY.

1712-1776.

After 1712, the ecclesiastical history of the town is found in the records of the School Society, and will therefore be hereafter treated of, distinctly from its civil history.

February 3, 1712-13. Voted. "To give the Rev. Samuel Mather, this year, and also during his life for the future, the sum of £45 in pay, or two-thirds in money, yearly, and so proportionately for a lesser term of time."

January 30, 1716-17. "Voted, That the south and north sides of the Meeting House, and the east end be made into pews. Voted, It shall now be determined in what manner the said pews shall be built.

Voted, That the Society shall be at the charge of making the pews around the Meeting House as above."

Dr. Mather and Samuel Allyn were appointed a special committee, to act with the Society Committee, in the matter. major part of the said five to act.

Voted, That Dr. Samuel Mather shall have room to erect a pew from the Gallery stairs, going into the women's gallery, to extend to the South Guard, including one casement."

February 14, 1717-1718. Thos. Griswold, Sgt. Israel Stoughton and John Palmer, were appointed a committee to "seat the meeting house."

'Voted, That Corporal Allen and Dr. Mather and Lt. Barber should dignify the seats."

The seaters were specially instructed, in the performance of their duty, to have due regard to age and estate, "none to be degraded."

Also "voted, Those that have seats of their own granted are not to be seated nowhere else, except they resign up their seats to the Society."

"Voted, To permit Isaac Skinner, Stephen Palmer and Enoch Drake to have liberty to make a pew over the women's stairs, provided they fill the said pew, and don't hinder the light."1

December 30th, 1718. "As to the middle pew in the gallery, the Society voted that notwithstanding any former right, any person had, by building or being settled, in the aforesaid pew, the Society takes it into their own custody, to dispose of it as they shall think fit, allowing those persons what they shall think reasonable that built it."

"Voted, That the Society will give to the persons that built the pew in the gallery, 31s. for it."

The committee were ordered to seat it.

December 31, 1719. Voted "that the pew next to the pulpit shall be for the use of Mr. Marsh's family and no other."

In the year 1724, the inhabitants of the Poquonnoc district. were set off as a distinct parish, and the style of the "Society West of the River," is after this date changed, on the records, to the Old, or First, or Middle Society.

January 29, 1729. It was voted, that Deacon Thomas Marshall shall set the psalm on sabbath day.

April 5, 1731. "Voted, that this Meeting-House shall be repaired, with new window frames, sash frame, and well glazed forthwith, and clab-boarded anew where it is needful; also that the under-pinning be well repaired and the dormant windows, so called, taken down and the space filled up with boards and shingles."

At a subsequent meeting this vote was reconsidered, and it was ordered that "the meeting-house windows shall be made in the same form as they now are, and that the dormer windows be unchanged."

1 In the Town Records is a " Pewman's Bond," dated Dec. 19, 1718, which corresponds with the above. It was executed by Enoch Drake, John Stiles, Isaac Skinner, Nath. Allyn and Thos. Allyn, Jonathan Barber and Daniel Griswold, for the sum of £5 each. It bound "all and every one of them, their heirs and administrators, to well and truly pay, or cause to be paid, his or their ratable part of building a Pew, which we are now about to build in the gallery of the Meeting-House." None were to sell out their right without the consent of all the rest; and none to sell it for more or less than its original cost. Matthew Allyn afterwards sold his right to his brother Thomas, and he to Simon Chapman.

February 4th, 1734-5. The society committee were instructed to "purchase a good suitable black broadcloath, which may be creditable to cover corpses withall when buried, and that the same be left with Mr. Thomas Filer, so that any person may know where to take it when any person is buried; and it is to be purchased on the society's cost, and the cloth to remain for the use aforesaid.”

Also, "Voted, that the Society drum be fitted in good rig, and some person hired on the Society's cost to beat it on the Sabbath days."

About this time the meeting-house was seated anew, and it was ordered, "that each person is to be seated according to his age and rates, and not to have any regard to anything else, but only no man to be seated lower than he is now seated." In society expenses, the next year, are the following items: "John Wilson, for pall, £8:15s.

to turning a pair of drumsticks, 6d.

Josiah Allen for beating drum.

In 1736, or thereabouts, there seems to have been quite a commotion in various churches of the colony, occasioned by a new fangled method of singing, introduced by a certain Mr. Beal, and called Singing by Rule. In the Church of Windsor, its attempted introduction gave rise to much excitement, during which an amusing incident occurred, which is thus naively described on the Society Records:

July 2d, 1736. At a society meeting at which Capt. Pelatiah Allyn was moderator,

The business of the meeting proceeded in the following manner, viz., the Moderator proposed to the consideration of the meeting in the 1st place what should be done respecting that part of Public worship called singing, viz; whether in their Public meetings, as on Sabbath days, Lectures, &c: they would sing the way that Deacon Marshall usually sang in his lifetime, commonly called the "Old Way," or whether they would sing the way taught by Mr. Beal, commonly called "singing by Rule," and when the Society had discoursed the matter, the Moderator proposed to vote for said two ways as followeth, viz: that those that were for singing in public in the way practiced by Deacon Marshall, should hold up their hands and be counted, and then that those that were desirous to sing in Mr. Beal's way, called "by Rule," would after show their minds by the same sign,