Acadiensis/Volume 2/Number 2/The Wetmore Family
HE WETMORE family of America is descended from Thomas Whitmore, who came from the west of England to Boston, Mass., in 1635, being the eleventh year of the reign of Charles the First; and was among the early settlers in the Connecticut colony. He was born in England in 1615, and the first mention that is found of him in colonial archives is in the Wethersfield Town records, in 1639–40, as the owner of certain lands upon which he appears to have settled on arriving at the Connecticut river, and from which he subsequently removed to Hartford. He was thrice married, first to Sarah, daughter of John and Ann (Willocke) Hall, as has been previously stated ; second, to Mary, daughter of Richard Platt, of Milford, and widow of Luke Atconson (Atkinson?), January 3rd, 1667; third, Katharine Leet, widow of Mr. Robards, October 8th, 1673.
He had in all seventeen children, of whom three were by the first wife, one by the second, and thirteen by the third.
He died on the 11th of December, 1681, aged 66 years, and a copy of his will may be found in the Probate Court's office in the city of Hartford, Conn.
Izrahiah Whitmore was the tenth child of Thomas Whitmore, and was born in Middletown, March 8th, 1656–7 (March 9, 1656?) On the 13th of May, 1692, Rachel, daughter of Rev. Samuel and Hope (Fletcher) Stow, of Middletown, by whom he had seven children, all sons. He was a magistrate of the town, and a deputy to the General Court from 1721 to 1728 inclusive. Tradition states that he was a man of tine abilities, and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the people of his time. His father-in-law, who was himself rather a remarkable man, speaks of him in the highest terms, and made him the executor of his will. He died at the age of 86 years.
The Rev. James Wetmore, A. M., was the third son of Izrahiah Whitmore, and was born in Middletown, December 31st, 1695 (O. S.) The reader will here observe the change in the spelling of the name from Whitmore to Wetmore, which had been previously alluded to. He was a man of much talent, and very marked religious principles. From him has sprung the most numerous branch of the Wetmore family, including all the Wetmores of New Brunswick. About 140 pages of the Wetmore book are devoted to this man and his descendants. He was a graduate of Yale College, where he took the degree of A. B. in September, 1714, and that of Master of Arts in September, 1717. At an early age James Wetmore studied for the ministry, and, as there were no theological seminaries in those days, students of divinity were obliged to pursue their studies with the various clergymen of the country.
In 1718 he was called to North Haven, Conn., and in the fall of that year he was ordained the first Congregational minister of that place. About four years after his ordination he became involved, in common with several others, in a rather extraordinary religious controversy, arising out of his uncertainty of mind regarding the validity of their ordination. The controversy caused a great sensation throughout all New England, and eventually became very bitter. Rev. Increase Mather, D. D., and Rev. Cotton Mather, D. D., were appealed to for advice, and in a MS. in the hand-writing of the last named, supposed to have been sent to the brethren in Connecticut, he speaks of "the scandalous conjunction of these unhappy men with the Papists." He also, in the same communication, asks: "How they can lawfully and honestly go on with pastoral ministrations and keep on good terms with the last words in the fourteenth chapter of Romans."
In 1781 a work was published in London, England, entitled, "A General History of Connecticut, by a Gentleman of the Province." This was supposed to have been written by Rev. Samuel Peters, and deals exclusively with the controversy in which Rev. James Wetmore was involved. The compiler of the Wetmore memorial states that "from this same volume we glean the subjoined, which throws some further light upon the circumstances attending Mr. Wetmore's becoming a member of the Established Church, which we think will not only be interesting to the Wetmore family, but the casual reader." It will be remembered that Rev. James Wetmore was originally ordained in the Congregationalist Church. This book contains some extraordinary statements and descriptions, among them an account of the Indian pow-wow, which somewhat resembles the custom, until very recently, if not actually now in vogue, among the Indians of the North Shore of the Province of New Brunswick.
An extract from the work attributed to Mr. Peters reads as follows:
"Stratford lies on the west bank of Osootonoc River, having the sea or sound to the south. There are three streets running north and south, and ten east and west. The best is one mile long. On the centre square stands a meeting house with a steeple and a bell, and a church with a steeple, bell, clock and organ. It is a beautiful place, and from the water has an appearance not inferior to that of Canterbury. Of six parishes contained in it three are Episcopal. The people are said to be the most polite of any in the colony, owing to the singular moderation of the town in admitting, latterly, Europeans to settle among them. Many persons came also from the islands and southern provinces for the benefit of their health.
"Here was erected the first Episcopal church in Connecticut. A very extraordinary story is told concerning the occasion of it, which I shall give to the reader the particulars of, the people being as sanguine in their belief of it as they are of the ships sailing over New Haven.
"An ancient religious rite called the pow-wow was commonly celebrated by the Indians, and commonly lasted several hours every night for two or three weeks. About 1690 they convened to perform it on Stratford Point, near the town. During the nocturnal ceremony, the English saw, or imagined they saw, devils rise out of the sea, wrapped up in sheets of flame, and flying round the Indian camp, while the Indians were screaming, cutting and prostrating themselves before their fiery gods. In the midst of the tumult, the devils darted in among them, seized several, and mounted into the air. The cries and groans issuing from them quieted the rest. In the morning, the limbs of Indians, all shrivelled, and covered with sulphur, were found in different parts of the town. Astonished and terrified at these spectacles, the people of Stratford began to think the devils would take up their abode among them, and called together all the ministers in the neighbourhood to exorcise and slay them.
"The ministers began, and carried on their warfare with prayers, hymns and objuration; but the pow-wows continued, and the devils would not obey. The inhabitants were about to quit the town when Mr. Nell spoke and said, "I would to God that Mr. Visey,[2] the Episcopal minister at New York, was here, for he would expel these evil spirits." They laughed at his advice; but on his reminding them of the little maid who directed Naaman to a cure for his leprosy, they voted him their permission to bring Mr. Visey at the next pow-wow. Mr. Visey attended accordingly, and as the pow-wow commenced with bowlings and whoops, Mr. Visey read portions of the Holy Scriptures, Litany, etc. The sea was put into great motion. The pow-wows stopped. The Indians dispersed, and never more held pow-wows in Stratford. The inhabitants were struck with wonder at this event, and held a conference to discover the reason why the devils and pow-wowers had obeyed the prayers of one minister, and had paid no regard to those of fifty. Some thought that the reading of the Holy Scripture, others that the Litany and the Lord's Prayer, some again that the Episcopal power of the minister, and others that all united were the means of obtaining the heavenly blessing they received.
"Those who believed that the Holy Scriptures and Litany were effectual against the devil and his legions, declared for the Church of England; while a majority ascribed their deliverance to a complot between the devil and the Episcopal minister, with a view to overthrow Christ's vine, planted in New England. Each party acted with more zeal than prudence. The church, however, increased, though oppressed by more persecutions and calamities than ever experienced by Puritans from bishops and pow-wowers. Even the use of the Bible, the Lord's Prayer, the Litany, or any part of the Prayer Book, was forbidden. Nay, ministers taught from their pulpits, according to the Blue Laws, that the lovers of Zion had better put their ears to the mouth of hell and learn from the whispers of the devil than read the bishop's books, while the churchmen, like Michael the archangel, contending with the devil about the body of Moses, dared not bring against them a railing accusation. But this was not all. When the Episcopalians had collected timber for a church, they found the devils had not left the town, but only changed their habitations had left the savages and entered into fanatics and wood. In the night, before the church was to be begun, the timber set up a country dance, skipping about and flying in the air, with as much agility and sulphurous stench as ever the devils had exhibited around the camp of the Indians pow-wowers. This alarming circumstance would have ruined the credit of the church, had not the Episcopalians ventured to look into the phenomenon, and found the timber to have been bored with augurs, charged with gunpower, and fired off by matches a discovery of bad consequence in one respect, it has prevented annalists of New England from publishing this among the rest of their miracles.
About 1720 the patience and sufferings of the Episcopalians, who were then but a handful, procured some friends, even among their persecutors, and these friends condemned the cruelty exercised over the Churchmen, Quakers, and Anabaptists, in consequence of which they first felt the efforts of those gentle weapons in New England, whisperings and backbitings, and were at length openly stigmatised as Arminians and enemies of the American vine. This conduct of the Sober Dissenters increased the grievious sin of moderation; and near twenty ministers, at the head of which was Dr. Cutler, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Whitmore and Mr. Brown, who repaired to England for orders. Dr. Cutler had the misfortune to spend his life and great abilities in the fanaticial, ungrateful, and factious town of Boston, where he went through fiery trials, shining brighter and brighter, till he was delivered from New England persecution, and landed where the wicked cease from troubling. Dr. Johnson, from his natural disposition, and not for the sake of gain, took pity on the neglected church of Stratford, where he fought the beast of Ephesus with great success. The doctor was under the bountiful protection of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, incorporated by William the Third, to save from the rage of republicanism, heathenism and fanaticism, all such members of the Church of England as were settled in our American colonies, factories and plantations beyond the sea. To the foresight of that monarch, to the generous care and protection of that society under God, are owing all the loyalty, decency, Christianity, undefiled with blood, which glimmer in New England. Dr Johnson having settled at Stratford, among a nest of zealots, and not being assassinated, other dissenting ministers were induced to join themselves to the Church of England, among whom were Mr. Beach and Mr. Punderson. These gentlemen could not be wheedled off by the Assembly and Consociation; they persevered and obtained names among the literati that will never be forgotten.
The compiler of the Wetmore Memorial remarks that: "The sentiments of this enthusiastic churchman and loyalist, which we have so extensively quoted, should be read by the younger members of the family, with several degrees of allowance.
Mr. Wetmore received his ordination as a priest in the Protestant Episcopal Church from the hands of the Right Reverend Edmund Gibson, D.D., Lord Bishop of London, England, whither he had repaired for that purpose.
While in London, he received from the Society for Propagating the Gospel, the appointment of catechist to Trinity Church, New York, in the place of Rev. Mr. Neau. He embarked for America soon after receiving his ordination, and arrived in New York, September 24, 1723.
It appears from the proceedings of the last mentioned Society, that he attended to the catechizing of the blacks every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday evenings, at his own house, besides in the church every Sunday before evening, service; and that he had sometimes nearly 200 children and servants to instruct.
In 1726 Mr. Wetmore was called to the parish of Rye, and was installed in his parish duties, June 19th, agreeable to the letters of induction of His Excellency Governor Burnett.
In a very long letter, dated Rye, February 20, 1727–8, Mr. Wetmore gives a most interesting account of the Church at Rye, built "in the year 1706, the materials of which are rough stone from the foundation to the roof," and also of the many and serious disadvantages with which he is compelled to labor. This letter has been preserved in the archives at Fulham, I. 683–694.—Dr. Hawks.
In a letter to the Secretary of the Society, dated April 2, 1752, Mr. Wetmore states that " the party disputes which have run high among us for several years, to my great grief, obstruct the success which I might otherwise hope for, in my endeavors to promote a becoming zeal for piety and reformation of manners among the looser sort of my parishioners, which are too numerous."
"I am glad to hear of more visible success among my brethren, especially in Stamford Parish, which I am told flourishes happily, and increases by the dilligent endeavors of good brother Dibblee, who, nevertheless, finds himself hard put to it, to support a family with so small a salary as he has, and I am afraid the zeal of some young men in New England, to undertake the ministry with such slender supports, and in expectation of more assistance from the poor people, than they will find, may in the end, prove of bad consequence in bringing contempt upon our order."
The date of Mr. Wetmore's marriage, and whom he married, the writer has not been able to ascertain, further than that he was a man of family during his residence in the city of New York, and that his wife's Christian name was Anne, she surviving him until February 29, 1771. He had issue by her, two sons and four daughters.
He died Thursday, 15th May, 1760, and was buried in the old parish burial ground on the northwest side of Blind brook. A plain monumental stone indicates the place, and bears the following inscription, which we are told, was written by his tried friend and fellow-laborer in his Master's vineyard, the Rev. Samuel Johnson, D.D.
Sacred
to the Memory of
The Rev. Mr. James Wetmore,
Worthy, Learned and Faithful Minister of the
Parish of Rye, for Above 30 years.
Who Having Strenuously Defended the Church with his Pen
and Adorned it by His Life and Doctrine,
at Length Being Seized of the Small-Pox,
departed this life May 15, 1760
Ætatis 65.
Cujus Memoriae sit in
Benedictione sempiterna.
If any of the readers of this article can supply the surname of Anne, wife of Rev. James Wetmore, they are requested to communicate with the writer. Some interesting facts regarding Mrs. Wetmore will appear in the next article.
- ↑ [Since the publication of the first article of this series, the writer is in receipt of some additional information, and our readers would do well to note the following errata and correct their own copies of that article with pen and ink. Page 247, lines 11 and 12, read, "He beareth argent, on a chief azure; three martlets or. Crest—A Falcon, ppr." Page 248, line 30, read, "Of the last three generations mentioned above, two were Loyalists, namely, James and Josiah." Page 248, last line, read, "the former of whom died unmarried." Page 249, first line, read, "Josiah Wetmore was the ancestor of all the Wetmores of Charlotte County, N. B."—D. R. J.]
- ↑ Rev. Mr. Visey was rector of Trinity Church, New York.