for him to support a daughter with her large family of children. His wife was an invalid, and suffered great pain, which for many years she could only endure under the constant influence of opiates. None of these things bowed him down, for he had a constitution, and a grace to be buoyant to the last. "He was fitted not only to endure, but to be a submissive and exemplary Christian; an active and faithful pastor; a preacher orthodox, instructive, animated, able and popular." His death, August 2, 1812, at the age of seventy-six, terminated a ministry of more than forty-five years. Rev. Dr. Backus, of Bethlehem, preached his funeral sermon, in which occurs an account of what Mr. Wildman said to one of his ministerial brethren a short time before the close of his life. It was on an occasion of a public meeting of ministers. "I feel," said he, " that this is the last time I shall ever meet you. I shall soon go the way of all the earth. I wish for no parade at my funeral. If, as usual, many good things are said of my character, they will not be truth. I was a gay, and alas a thoughtless youth-a Wildman by name, and a wild-man by nature! If the Lord has ever made me to differ from others, it has been wholly an effort of divine power, and by a series of merciful and fatherly chastisements. I bless God for them, for I needed more chastisements than any two men I ever saw. Of all saved sinners,. it will be most proper for me to cast my crown at my Saviour's feet."

In 1813, the year succeeding the death of Mr. Wildman, Rev. Elijah Wood was ordained pastor over the church and people of Southbury. During the year of his ordination a revival took place which added twenty members to the church. He was a good man and devoted Christian, but his ministry was short. He died in June, 1815.

In January, 1816, Rev. Daniel A. Clark was called and ordained over the church, and dismissed September, 1819, after a ministry of a little less than four years. As a vigorous writer and an eloquent preacher, Mr. Clark was considered by good judges as having few equals in the county. Yet he was regarded by some as unfortunately deficient in some important qualifications for usefulness in the sacred office. After leaving Southbury, he was successively settled in Amherst, Mass., Bennington, Vt., and in a town in the state of New York. He was the author of a premium tract, "The Rich Believer

I For the principal part of this sketch of Mr. Wildman, the author is indebted to Dr. McEwen's Discourse at Litchfield in 1852, and to the minutes of Rev. Williams H. Whittemore.

Bountiful;" also a highly popular sermon, "The Church Safe," besides three volumes of sermons, and some posthumous works. He departed this life about 1842, and his remains were carried to New Haven for interment.

After Mr. Clark's dismissal, there was no settled pastor over the church till June, 1826. Among the ministers who preached there for a longer or shorter time, during these years, the names of three occur to the writer, Rev. Levi Smith, the eloquent Carlos Wilcox, and a brother of the Rev. Dr. Payson.

In June, 1826, Rev. Thomas L. Shipman became pastor, and continued in that relation till June, 1836. He graduated at Yale College in 1818. While here he proved an intelligent, faithful and successful minister. In 1821, during the great revival of that year throughout the country, twenty-five were added to this church, and in 1827, was another in which eight were received as members. On occasions like these, he was ardent and successful in his labors.

On the 16th of November, 1836, Rev. Williams H. Whittemore was installed into the pastoral office over the church, and remained till his dismissal in 1850. He graduated at Yale College in 1825, and preached three years each at Rye, N. Y. and Charlestown, Mass., before his settlement in Southbury. Ladies Seminary at New Haven. no settled preacher over this church. plied by the Rev. George P. Prudden, a graduate of Yale, who gives good satisfaction to the people. The state of his health does not allow him to make a permanent engagement anywhere.

He is now Principal of a Young Since his removal, there has been The pulpit is at present sup

Among those who have held the office of deacon in this church since the days of Rev. Mr. Wildman, are Timothy Osborn, Adam Wheeler, Marcus D. Mallory, and Noah Kelsey. There have been others, but their names are unknown to the writer for reasons heretofore given.

Thirty years after the incorporation of Southbury society, and a few years after the purchase of lands made of the Indians, called the South Purchase, had been settled, there was a desire to have religious meetings during the winter months, in a place beyond the "mountains," now called South Britain. The high hills between the eastern and western parts of the present town of Southbury had very soon after the settlement beyond them, made differences among the members of that society. Accordingly, we find twenty-nine persons, who lived in "Southbury new purchase," petitioning the Assembly in October, 1761, for four months' "winter preaching" each year, on

the ground of their "living far from the place of worship," and the bad state of the roads. The prayer of their petition was granted at the same session, and they were allowed to "choose the necessary officers." Three years later, thirty-eight petitioners said the society was nine miles in extent east and west, and seven miles north and south, and had a list of £12,000. On account of the mountains, no spot for a meeting-house could accommodate all the society, and they therefore prayed for another ecclesiastical society, the line to be run by the course of the mountains. Sixty-nine persons signed a remonstrance, alleging that this would leave the society in a bad shape, that it was a time of heavy public taxes, that Mr. Graham was old, and they must proceed to settle another minister, that the memorialists are not able to pay the expenses of a new society, that those within the proposed limits were not united, and that those limits did not follow the natural boundary. Fourteen other persons, living within the proposed new society, remonstrated, asserting that the lines were not such as would accommodate a society, that the "winter parish" is now divided, and that the application was got up by a few, who wished to live in the center of a society. The application, in consequence of these objections, and somewhat numerous reasons, failed. At the May session of the Assembly, 1765, the petition for a new society was renewed by forty-five individuals. They urged that it would save them more than one-half of their travel to a place of public worship. "No one place can accommodate the whole society." A tax of "12d in the pound" had been laid to build a meeting-house. They therefore prayed for a new society, or a release from taxes. The petition was signed by the following persons: Wait Hinman, Ebenezer Down, James Edmonds, Samuel Wheeler, Ebenezer Hinman, John Pearce, Samuel Hinman, Eleazer Mitchell, Ebenezer Squire, Benjamin Allen, John Garrit, Aaron Down, Zebulon Norton, David Pearce, Robert Edmonds, John Mallory, Moses Johnson, Abraham Pearce, Gideon Curtiss, Michael Han, Samuel Curtiss, Joseph Darling, Ichabod Tuttle, John Park, Timothy Allen, Gideon Booth, Matthew Hubbell, Amos Brownson, Comfort Hubbell, Samuel Hicock, Thomas Tousey, Moses Down, John Hobart, John Johnson, Solomon Johnson, James Edmonds, Jr., Silas Hubbell, Russell Franklin, James Stanclift, Joseph Baldwin, Joseph Baldwin, Jr., Elijah Hinman, Ebenezer Downs, Bethel Hinman, Samuel Pearce.

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The petition was continued to the October session of the Assembly, when a committee was appointed to inquire into the matter and report. The committee reported at the May session, 1766, that the

"mountain renders the meeting in one society impracticable," and recommended the incorporation of a new society. The report was accepted, the society incorporated, called South Britain, and released from the 124 tax, notwithstanding twenty-one persons remonstrated, preferring to remain with the old society, as they had joined with them in a contract for a new meeting-house. In October, 1770, they report to the General Assembly that they have settled a minister, have begun to build a meeting-house, that the list of the society was only £4,379, 4s. 6d., that a large land interest was owned by persons living in other parishes, which was increased in value by the incorporation of the new society, and that they therefore asked a land tax. The request was granted, and a tax of 2a per acre allowed for three years. The society had previously voted a tax of 4a in the pound of the grand list for each of the two preceding years, toward building the house. In December, 1770, the building committee report it enclosed, and the society in debt £80 or £90 in consequence.

From the foregoing, it will be perceived, that the people of South Britain had "winter privileges" for five years before their incorporation into a distinct society. The particulars of the organization of the church can not now be ascertained, on account of the almost entire want of church records. A few entries, on loose sheets of paper, are all that remain to cast a glimpse of information on the benighted world. No minister was settled over the church till three years after the incorporation of the society. Rev. Jehu Minor, the first pastor, was settled early in 1769. The society gave him a settlement of £200, and a salary of £70 per annum. The settlement granted the ministers on their being installed over a church, in those early days, was a very convenient thing for a young man, who perhaps had spent his last penny in fitting himself to assume the responsible duties of his high calling. It enabled him to sustain himself with dignity and independence among his parishioners, and to dispense charities among the needy of his congregation, instead of being as now-in some sense a beggar-dependent upon niggardly salaries for a livelihood. Under the old regime, the ministers held a respectable position among the wealthy families of their parishes, and their descendants could remain in the town of their birth, and become prominent in the various relations of life. For instance, we have today, in the ancient town, the descendants of a Bellamy, a Brinsmade, a Stoddard, and a Graham. One or two hundred years have not been able to scatter their descendants from the territories their ancestors did so much to improve and bless. Heaven knows where the

children of later ministers are, or where those of the present will be after the lapse of a few years. Under the present system, the descendants of the ministers are doomed to be poor, and to be scattered from the place of their birth to seek a better fortune elsewhere. Change is the order of the day-nothing is stable. However much men may regard the "higher calls of duty" to enter this holy employment, yet many will feel themselves imperatively called to other fields of usefulness, when they behold in this, only a moderate sustenance for themselves, and pauperism for their children. Much of the best order of intellect is and will be engaged in other professions and employments, which would be found in this, but for this ever-present spectacle of sadness. "The laborer is worthy of his hire," saith the "Book of Books." There is no reason why he who labors in "things spiritual," should be reduced to starvation in person, or in posterity, any more than he who labors in " things temporal." This is a matter which needs reformation..

At the organization of the church in 1769, John Pearce and Ebenezer Down were chosen deacons, and the church consisted of fortytwo members. Their names were John Minor, Ebenezer Down, James Edmonds, John Pearce, Ebenezer Hinman, Ebenezer Squire, Silas Hubbell, John Parks, Timothy Allen, Justice Hicock, John Garret, Samuel Pearce, Nathan Pearce, David Pearce, Aaron Down, Matthew Hubbell, Eleazer Mitchell, Joseph Pearce, Stephen Brownson, John Skeel, William Youngs, Gideon Booth, Abraham Pearce, Prudence Johnson, Dinah Down, Mary Edmonds, Hannah Pearce, Elizabeth Hinman, Ann Squire, Ann Hinman, Rebecca Wheeler, Sarah Allen, Lois Hicock, Mary Edmonds, Jr., Eunice Pearce, Prudence Johnson, Jr., Olive Mitchell, Mary Pearce, Mary Brownson, Mary Youngs, Sarah Booth, Elizabeth Pearce. The church, during Mr. Minor's ministrations, was prosperous. Twenty-two were added to his church in 1785, and 109 during the twenty-one years he resided with his people; and five were added during the five years' ministry of his successor. One hundred and thirty-eight persons were baptized by him. He was dismissed by the mutual consent of himself and his church, June, 1790. He was a native of Woodbury, graduated at Yale College, and was settled in the ministry over the church in South Britain, two years later. He was a good man, and served his people acceptably for many years. Toward the close of his ministry he became much engrossed in farming, to the neglect of his parochial duties, which was the ultimate cause of his asking a dismission from ministerial labor. His successor in the pastoral office was Mat