Center Church annual manuals: 1870 and 1871 · scan page 109

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HISTORICAL
NOTICE.
- -
The
First Church of Christ
in New Haven
is coeval with the
town.
On the 15th of April (Old Style)
1(3:^8,
the
first
settlers
of
the town, having just landed
at
the
place which they hnd chosen
tor their home, assembled for public worshi}) under the guidance of
their chosen minister; ami from
that
time
onward, they continued
to worship God as a Christian assembly.
For about fourteen months, the ecclesiastical and
civil
attuirs of
the community were
conducted
under
a
provisional
arrangement
or "plantation covenant."
On
the
4th of June (O.
S.}.
\i\:]\K after
•iiuch
deliberation and
prayer concernino-
the forms
in
wjiich
<'v
permanent organization should
be
instituted,
all
the tVee
plant-
*>rs" agreed
in the choice of twelve men who
v. ere
to
select from
iimong themselves seven
; and
to those seven was committed
the
'rust of instituting,
in conformity with the word
of God,
first the
' oclesiastical
order,
and
afterwards
the
civil
or^ranization
an(i
-overnment of their commonwealth.
Tlieophilus Haton,John Da-
onport, Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Thomas Fu;ji|l. John
f'underson, and
Jereminh
Dixon,
having
been
sele<ned
for
that
'rust, were the original members of the Church.
It has been received by tradition, though no authentic record of
•'^•e date
remains,
that the organization of the Church
was com-
•oted on the 21st of August
((). S.
)
in the same year.
Dr. Cotton
Mather, in his Magnalia (published
1700), says of this Church and
.''»e First Church
in Milford, that they were both gathered at New
^J^ven, and
were "gathered in two days, one
following upon the
dier, and with this one singular circumstance, that a mijxhty barn
^as the place wherein the duties of that solemnity were performed."
Hie records of the Milford Church say, "The Church of Christ at
Uilford was
first gathered at New Haven upon August '^2, UW."
2

Cite this page

Silent Grounds Collective, Church Burial & Death Records, CH-P008-0109. Center Church annual manuals: 1870 and 1871, printed page not verified, PDF page 109. New Haven (Conn.). First Church of Christ; digitized copy contributed by Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center https://archive.org/details/manualoffirstchu00newh_0/page/n109/mode/1up Accessed September 8, 2026.

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