Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/367

 NEW LONDON CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.

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��been completed and he started with his family for New London, where he arrived July i, and as he says in his diary, " went into a very poor house of Mr. James Brocklebank."

He commenced his labors at once, working on his farm through the week and preaching on Sunday ; he studied his sermons while engaged in manual labor.

A church of eleven members was formed October 23d. 1788, over which he acted as pastor, and on the 25th day of November of the same year, at a town-meeting called for the first time at the meeting-house, the town voted to unite with the church, in the call they had given Mr. Seamans, and arrangements were made for his reinstallment as pastor of the church and minister of the town. At this town-meeting, the town also elected singers to sing at their public religious meetings, as follows :

Voted, For singers, Ebenezer Hunt- ing, Lieut. Samuel Messer, Nathaniel Fales, Asa Burpee, Moses Hill, Jona- than Adams and Capt. Samuel Brockle- bank. The time for the reinstallment was fixed for the 21st of January. 1 7S9.

On the 1 3th of December, 1788, Elder Seamans gave his final answer to the town, approving of their arrangements and consenting to the reinstallment as proposed, and the same came off, with all proper ceremonies, on the day ap- pointed. Mr. Ebenezer Hunting had been elected by the church as deacon, January 8, 1789.

At the reinstallment of Mr. Seamans. on January 21st, the exercises were held in the meeting-house, on which occa- sion Rev. Amos Wood, of Weare, preached the sermon ; Rev. Thomas Baldwin, of Canaan, gave the charge to the candidate ; and Rev. Samuel Ambrose, of Sutton, announced the fellowship of the churches. On the next Sunday, Jan. 25th, the church and their new pastor had their first com- munion season together.

The meeting-house in which these exercises were held was only partly- finished, being without pews or seats (except such as were extemporized for

��the occasion) and mostly without floors, but there was a large gathering of the people, and everything passed off in a satisfactory manner.

In t 790, the census taken in the state shows that New London had 3 1 1 inhabitants, a gain of ninety-two in four years. I find the first mention made of Joseph Colby, as a citizen of New London, in March, 1788, when he was elected as a surveyor of highways. In 1792 the town voted against adopting the amendments to the constitution, proposed by the convention of that year, seventeen votes being recorded in the negative and none in the affirmative.

The church, which commenced with eleven members, Oct. 23, 178S, had gained but seven members up to 1792, consisting then of eighteen members, and there were then about fifty families in town. An extensive revival broke out that year under the preaching of Elder Seamans, and in that year there were about fifty conversions, and the work continued through the years 1793 and 1 794, so that in the last year the members of the church had increased to 115, the additions having been made from all classes and of all ages, from sev- enty down to eight or ten, and what was quite remarkable, there were thirty- seven men who, with their wives, were members of the church, — the united heads of thirty-seven out of the fifty families in town.

In 1795 they had got their meeting- house so far completed, that the town voted to hold their meetings in it for the future. T* ev had but recently* built the pulpit, and got the floors laid in the porches above and below, but it was only partially glazed, and not painted at all, and the singing pew, as thty called it, was not completed, nor was the house finished without or within. During this year, also, the town appointed a committee to confer with Elder Seamans. and see upon what terms he would give up the bond he held from the town, to ensure his annual salary. The town had already got in arrears, and were largely indebt- ed to him, and they evidently desired to close up their contract with him as a

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