General Notes

Book Title:
HISTORY OF THE TOWNS OF NEW MILFORD AND BRIDGEWATER, CONNECTICUT, 1703-1882

CHAPTER XII.
CHURCH OF THE SEPARATES.
1753-18l2.

KINDNESS, used as an element of power, instead of law, would have saved the Church and the world millions of men, treasure, and great honor, and would have
elevated the human race far beyond anything as yet attained. While law is not to be discarded, yet it is proper to recognize the fact that it has been used, in a vast majority of cases, in the Church and out of it, as a matter of will, to gratify the anger and dictatorial feelings of men.

The beginning of the influences which were largely the cause of the formation and existence of the Separatists' Church, in New Milford, were started and propagated by the idea of compelling people to obey the regulations of a legal church, while still pretending that the gospel taught the spirit of freedom and kindness. This occurred in a town vote in 1745, upon the question of settling a minister, the Rev. Noah de  wells. The proceedings were such on that occasion as to lead thirty-five influential men to pledge themselves against that action, and to induce two of the leaders to pledge themselves to prosecute the matter in the county court if the decision of the meeting should be carried out in the settlement of Mr. Wells. These leaders, Joseph Ruggles and William Drinkwater, afterwards became strong men in starting, sustaining, and upholding the Separate Church. They were men of decided ability, means, and public influence, although they did not long remain in the town. The First Church paid most dearly for the exercise of the power placed in its hands by the Civil authority or State law, for by it they gave opportunity for all the objections which were urged by the
"New Lights " against the "Standing Order" (i. r., the legally established church) as not strict enough, and as uniting the power of the state with the Church, as the Catholic and English churches had done through hundreds of years.

The Separatists' Church of New Milford was organized on the 1st day of May,1753,
...  there was "a meeting held at the house of Nathan Gayiord, when John Palmer, pastor of the Church of Christ at Scotland, and Jonathan Story, pastor of the Church of Christ at Norog, Long Society, being present, witnesseth the Church's coming together and making their confession of faith, which is as follows, and signing the .Covenant, as may appear hereafter by their names being subscribed."

The Confession and Covenant, covering four sides of a foolscap sheet, are preserved, but, most unfortunately, the sheet with the names on it is lost, and hence no catalogue of the members is to be found. Some of the names, however, have been obtained through the records of the First Church and Mr. Griswold's historical sermon. The Confession of Faith as here adopted is very much the same as has been generally used in the Congregational churches in Connecticut for fifty years previous to 1840; possibly a little more definite in extreme Calvinistic phraseology.

After the organization of this church, they were visited by lay-preachers as well as by pastors of churches, and meetings were held by lay-preachers, at which times they attended, and this fact was one of the charges brought against them, as recorded by Mr. Taylor, in the church book. "He had absented himself from the communion of the Church and neglected, the public worship of God on the Lord's day, attending upon lay-preaching, countenancing an unlawful and unchristian separation."

This church continued to increase in numbers and influence, so that in 1759 they made application, and obtained liberty of the town, to erect a meeting-house, the town voting, December 10, 1759, "that the Separates (so called) shall have liberty to erect a convenient house for their public worship in some proper place in the highway as shall be thought proper in said New Milford, for that and no other use, and Capt. Botsford, and Mr. Thatcher and Mr.Job Gould are chosen a committee to view the ircumstances of the place, and to establish and stake it out."
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Some further account of the persons connected with this church will be of interest.

Capt. Joseph, Ruggles, then of New Haven, bought a Right of land in New Milford for £200, in November, 1733, which he sold the next spring for £300, and bought another right for £325 (January 19, 1734). Upon this Right he had land laid out to him on the 18th of the next March: "Twenty acres, in several pieces, in Still River Neck." "May 27, 1735. Laid to Joseph Ruggles forty acres, in the Still River Neck, near to Newtown line, across Hop Brook; also three acres in Still River Swamp, near the mouth of Four Mile Brook."

Mr. Ruggles settled in New Milford at the Half-way Falls on Still River, in 1733 or 4, and was a partner in the enterprise at that place called the Iron Works, where he resided until about 1750, when he returned, with some of his family, to New Haven to reside, but leaving several of his sons and daughters and their families here. The Ruggles family was an influential one in the town for more than one hundred years, and are said to have been peculiar in this respect, that, if any one family was unfortunate, the other families and individuals of the name would join in supplying the loss, and enable the family to go on in the ways of prosperity, as if no calamity had happened. That is, instead of struggling to be independent of each other, they always clung together, each to help the others. It is impossible for a pen to pass on without
commending this spirit, which is so great a contrast to what is often exhibited in the world. Capt. Joseph Ruggles was a stirring, intelligent business man,-above the average, as indicated in several ways, especially in the matter of establishing schools at the South Farms, as the region where he resided was then called, and the matter of sustaining the Separate Church in its beginning at New Milford against the disciplining effort "of the legal First Church; for, in about 1810, the old First Church became established on the foundations, almost precisely, in real fact, that Mr. Ruggles sustained in 1750.

Capt. Lazarus Ruggles, son of Capt. Joseph, Sen., remained in New Milford when his father returned to New Haven, and soon after married Hannah Bostwick, and
became an influential and estimable citizen, and departed this life in 1797. Philo Ruggles, his son, became a lawyer of note in New Milford, removed to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where the family became very influential, and was much esteemed.

Benjamin Ruggles, eldest son of Captain Joseph, was a good citizen, remained in Brookfield, and died early.

Capt. Joseph Ruggles, Jr., son of Captain Joseph, died in 1802, aged 71 years. He was appointed by the Assembly, in 1761, captain, of the first military company organized in the society of Newbury, now Brookfield, and was for many years an influential business man.

Samuel Ruggles, another son of Captain Joseph, Sen., resided on his father's homestead, and his son Samuel and his daughter Lucia constituted an important part of the first company of missionaries that went to the Sandwich Islands.
(See Biog.)

A question may arise as to why these persons who desired to join the Separate
Church did not take a certificate from the First Church in the beginning, and thereby have no further trouble. The answer is that one lawful church, in those times, would not recognize another church within its parish by giving such a certificate or permit. None of these persons, however upright their character, could obtain, or ever did obtain, such a certificate. The only effort to obtain one, was made by CAPTAIN JOSEPH RUGGLES Sr. after he removed from the parish, and he did not succeed. The only way persons could be free from membership in a lawful church, and remain in the parish of said church, was by being expelled, with all the dishonor that such expulsion could bring to bear upon them. No relief could be found then as now by civil law to protect character, for the civil law was the church in real fact. It is historically true that a fair proportion of the men and women who went from the First to the Separate Church, were among the very best, most faithful, true Christians, in the own, and that they made the change in the only Christian way possible for them; and hence the whole question of the doings of the old church in Connecticut in this matter is one of nothing but mortification and chagrin to a true Congregationalist.