Bowen Clarence Winthrop
Woodstock: An historical sketch
V
An effort was now made to get a confirmation of the grant occupied by the new settlers, but as long as Sir Edmund Andros was the Royal Governor of the Province, it was impossible. A delay ensued until William and Mary became sovereigns of Great Britain. The new settlers had not yet an organized town government. The settlement, like the first settlements in Windsor and Hartford, received its name from the mother town.40 But the New Roxbury people wished to have a name of their own and a town of their own. At the beginning of the year 1690 they chose a committee of three to petition the General Court to substitute a new name for that of New Roxbury. The committee at once conferred with the mother town, for on Jan. 13, 1690, Roxbury held a town meeting at which it was voted to request the General Court to allow the settlement in the Nipmuck country to become a town, to confirm the grant and to give a suitable name. The New Roxbury committee pressed their claims, and on March 18, 1690, the General Court confirmed the grant and voted that the name of the plantation be Woodstock. We owe the name of Woodstock to Capt. Samuel Sewell41 who was Chief-Justice of Massachusetts from 1718 to 1728. He has been called “a typical Puritan” and “the Pepys of New England,” – the man who judged the witches of Salem and afterwards repented of it.42 In 1690, when Count Frontenac’s43 forces were coming down from Canada upon the settlements of the United Colonies, and Massachusetts determined to ask the help of Connecticut in protecting the upper towns on the Connecticut River, Captain Sewell rode past Woodstock on his way to Connecticut. He was no doubt on business of state, being one of the Governor’s Counsellors, and one of a Committee of Seven of the Council with the same power as the Council to arrange “for setting forth the forces.”44 The proximity of New Roxbury to Oxford in Massachusetts suggested to him, he tells us, the name of a famous place near old Oxford in England.
In his Diary of March 18, 1689/90, Capt. Sewell, says:
“I gave New Roxbury the name of Woodstock, because of its nearness to Oxford, for the sake of Queen Elizabeth, and the notable meetings that have been held at the place bearing that name in England, some of which Dr. Gilbert45 informed me of when in England. It stands on a Hill. I saw it as I [went] to Coventry, but left it on the left hand. Some told Capt. Ruggles46 that I gave the name and put words in his mouth to desire of me a Bell for the Town.”47
Though Judge Sewell, years after his first visit had social relations48 with some of the inhabitants of Woodstock, there is no evidence to show that he ever gave a bell to the town or to the church.49 But he gave us something better, a good name, – the name of Woodstock, associated with the memories of Saxon and Norman Kings, the spot where King Alfred translated “The Consolations of Philosophy,” by Boethius, the birthplace of the poet Chaucer, the prison of Queen Elizabeth.50 History and romance51 have made illustrious the names of Woodstock and Woodstock Park, and “the notable meetings” spoken of by Judge Sewell as having taken place in Old England have been transferred to the settlement in New England. Surely the name of Woodstock, as applied to the little village of New Roxbury, has proved to be no misnomer.
It should be said that the western part of the town, when it became a settlement years after, revived the old name of New Roxbury. The church in West Woodstock belonged to what was called the Parish of New Roxbury, or the Second Precinct of Woodstock.52
VI
The most pressing duty for our ancestors to perform, after securing a name and legalized status for the town, was the settlement of “an able, orthodox, godly minister.” The Rev. Josiah Dwight, a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1687, received the appointment, and was installed October 17, 1690, receiving £40 the first year, £50 the second, and £60 the third year and thereafter. It was with difficulty, however, that these sums were paid, and when, some years after, the account was settled by the payment of what was due, he gave a receipt in full “from the beginning of the world to May 6, 1696.” A home lot was allowed Mr. Dwight according to the original drawing of lots, and arrangements were made to build a home for him immediately after his settlement. The following year,53 it was determined to construct a house of worship, which was completed early54 in 1694. This was the first meeting-house in Windham County, and here gathered, on Sabbath days, the settlers from miles around. The people of Pomfret attended church in this rude structure until 1715, when their own society was organized.
The officers of the new town elected in 169055 were John Chandler, Sr., William Bartholomew, Benjamin Sabin, John Leavens, and Joseph Bugbee, as selectmen, and John Chandler, Jr., as town clerk. All of those men to-day have descendants in Woodstock or its immediate vicinity. At that time, the men of Woodstock imposed a fine of one and six pence upon every one who failed to attend the town meeting, and six pence an hour for tardiness. Disputes regarding titles to land, and the boundary line dividing the north half of the town, and disputes with the mother-town regarding this northern half, which belonged to Roxbury according to the terms of the grant, were vexatious, and not in every respect creditable to Woodstock. But Roxbury’s interest in the northern half of Woodstock continued till 1797, when the lands had all been sold or become individual property. Large tracts, however, were held by Roxbury and Woodstock speculators for many years afterward.
Troubles with the Indians, who returned to their old hunting and fishing haunts after the settlement of the town, broke out in 1696,56 and again in 1700 and 1704, and even as late as 1724. When a war broke out abroad, there was trouble with the Indians at home. When an Indian outbreak was threatened, the town received some military assistance from the colony government. Such threatened outbreaks retarded the progress of the settlement.
After discussing the question for several years, the town determined, in 1719,57 to erect a new meeting-house near the burying-ground, instead of at the south end of the village, where the old building stood, yet so straitened were the people in their circumstances that they applied to the General Court in Boston, requesting that the unoccupied lands of the residents and non-residents of the town be taxed to the extent of £250, to be applied to the building of a church. As the non-residents’ lands were almost entirely in the north half of the grant, and belonged to Roxbury people, Roxbury stoutly opposed the tax in a memorial to the General Court. When the General Court refused the petition, Woodstock asked to be excused from sending her representative to Boston. The town’s representative at this time, in fact the first and only representative for many years, was Captain John Chandler, who, like his father Deacon John Chandler, was one of the first settlers. He surveyed lands in Woodstock and neighboring towns, and owned large tracts of territory in Connecticut and Massachusetts. To avoid the necessity of sending to Boston to have deeds recorded and wills proven, Captain Chandler tried to get the consent of the General Court in 1720 for the formation of a new county, to be called Worcester County, of which Woodstock should be a part, but a delay ensued until 1731, when Captain, now Colonel, Chandler was successful. Woodstock became one of the most prominent towns of Worcester County, and John Chandler was made Chief-Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions.58
VII
Ecclesiastical affairs have been so interwoven with town affairs, that it is impossible to give a sketch of Woodstock without giving a history of the churches. It may, however, be done briefly, as others have been appointed to speak specially for the different church organizations of the town. Though the first minister, the Rev. Josiah Dwight, was of the “Standing Order,” so-called, and believed in the Cambridge platform, yet he was suspected of theological looseness and, besides many idiosyncrasies, was accused of “speculating in the wild lands of Killingly.” The first settlers had no end of trouble with him, especially regarding money matters, and he was finally removed September 3, 1726. The next regular minister was Rev. Amos Throop, who was installed May 24, 1727. Like Mr. Dwight, he was a graduate of Harvard College, and came to Woodstock at the age of twenty-five. Naturally he found fault when the town attempted to pay him his salary in the depreciated currency of the time. But the eight years of his ministry endeared him to the settlement, and his sudden death in 173559 was keenly felt by his parishioners. The town assumed the expense of his gravestone, upon which may be read these words:
“O cruel death, to snatch from us below,
One fit to live within the spheres on high;
But since the great Creator orders so,
Here at his feet he doth submissive lie.”
During the pastorate of Mr. Throop the western part of the town60 had received some settlers, mostly the sons of Woodstock’s first settlers. In 1727 Joshua Chandler took possession of some land that had been given him by his father, Col. John Chandler, and representatives of the families of Child, Corbin, Lyon, Aspinwall, Bugbee, Morris, Marcy, Morse, Payson, Perrin, Johnson, Frizzel, Griggs, and Paine soon followed. In 173361 the town arranged to have a school-house built in this part of the town, and, the settlers increasing, West Parish desired62 to have religious services of its own for four months of the year at the expense of the whole town. This request, it was argued, was only fair, inasmuch as the western half was obliged to contribute to the support of the Church on the Hill. But the town refused63 to assume any of the charges. After trying the experiment for two winters, the West Parish people found the expense of supporting both ministers to be too great a burden, and they therefore again asked64 the help of the town, and were refused. They still persisted, and petitioned65 that the western half might be formed into a distinct township. Town meetings were held, and at last permission was given66 them to address the General Court in Boston on the subject. But their petition to the General Court was dismissed. The West Woodstock people, however, insisted on the formation of a parish where they could worship God in their own fashion, and not be obliged to aid any church outside of their parish. They were willing to give up all idea of a town of their own. This modified request was now made to the town67 and to the General Court.68 The General Court complied by passing an act in 1743,69 incorporating the district as “The West Parish of Woodstock.” A meeting was at once held,70 at which it was determined to survey the line dividing the two portions of the town. West Parish was now called by the old name of New Roxbury. These acts were afterwards approved by the General Assembly of Connecticut when Woodstock withdrew from under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.71 In 1747 Rev. Stephen Williams was ordained pastor.
The church72 on the Hill was under the pastorate of Rev. Abel S. Stiles, who had been ordained in 1737.73 But the fact that Mr. Stiles was a graduate of Yale College74 instead of Harvard, as his two predecessors had been, and his family connections75 were all with Connecticut, his parishioners were led to believe that he would favor the “Saybrook Platform” of faith, rather than the “Cambridge Platform,” and if there was one thing our ancestors abhorred quite as much as Episcopacy or popery it was the “Saybrook Platform.” To be tainted with that form of faith, as was the case with Mr. Stiles after his settlement in Woodstock, was heresy indeed, and Woodstock was determined, according to her grant of 1683, to have none other but an “able, orthodox, godly minister.” Instead of attending the Association of Ministers in Massachusetts, Mr. Stiles preferred the meetings of the Windham County Association in Connecticut, and when Woodstock became a part of Connecticut the troubles with Mr. Stiles increased. Councils were held. Pastor and parishioners tried to discipline each other. The General Assembly of Connecticut was appealed to. Threats – even violence was resorted to. But without going into the details of this long-protracted struggle, let it be said that there were two parties in the controversy, one side sympathizing with Mr. Stiles in his more liberal theological views, and the other side at first insisting on a minister who should conform in all respects to the “Standing Order,” and afterwards opposed to Mr. Stiles personally as well as theologically. The Stiles party had favored, while the anti-Stiles party had opposed, the annexation of Woodstock to Connecticut. The result of the quarrel was a break in the church in 1760. The North Society was constituted by act76 of the General Assembly, and Mr. Stiles and his followers went to Muddy Brook. Thus was formed the Third Congregational Church of Woodstock, and here Mr. Stiles continued to preach until his death in 1783.77 When it was determined in 1831, by the church in East Woodstock, to build a new meeting-house on the spot of the old one erected in 1767, the people in Village Corners objected to the location and formed a society of their own – the Fourth Congregational Church of Woodstock.