1701

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) is founded in London; it remains active today under the name United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG). The Society funded and remotely administered the growing Anglican church from its early beginnings as missionary-led "house church" services held in homes, all the way to the Revolutionary War. The Bishop of London became the head not only of the largest British diocese in population, but the largest in territory, covering all the American Colonies as well. To the right is a bookplate issued by the society, which funded parish libraries and provided salaries for its missionary ministers.

This year also a "Collegiate School at Saybrok" was founded on Saybrook Point, Connecticut. After 1718 it would be known as Yale College.

For more on the early years, see ► The First Years: From Mission to Revolution.

1705

Col. Caleb Heathcote of New York, and a member of the SPG, accompanies the Rev. George Murison, a Church of England missionary priest of the SPG, based in Rye, NY, on trips around New York and Connecticut. Murison is a graduate of King’s College Aberdeen, who initially went to New York as a schoolmaster in 1703, was ordained in 1705, and began working as a missionary for the SPG that year: the first minister to the people of what now is the parish of Trinity New Haven was a Scottish Episcopalian. Morison and Heathcote make “ecclesiastical incursions” into Connecticut, but travel "fully armed" as they expect to encounter vigorous resistance from the Puritans, who threaten them with prison for trying to establish Anglican churches in the colonies. (Picture from Booth's History of New York, NYPL).

1707

Christ Episcopal Church, the first Anglican parish in Connecticut, is established at Stratford.

1708

The Rev. Murison dies in 1708 and the Rev. Christopher Bridges of Rye, NY takes over the region from 1709 to his death in 1719, save for a brief period in 1712-1713 when for seven months the Rev. Francis Philips resided in Stratford and handles the parish. No one seems to have officially served the parish region from 1720-1721. The parish was also occasionally visited by a number of missionary priests, including Rev. John Talbot of New Jersey “The Apostle of the New Jersey Church”, and a Rev. Sharpe.

1722  

The Rev. George Pigot is sent by the SPG to Stratford, Ct. where he takes up residence. Shortly after his arrival, Rev. Samuel Johnson, a native of Guilford, a former Tutor at Yale, and now pastor of the Congregational Church in West Haven, travels down to Stratford and informs Pigot that seven Connecticut Congregational ministers, the Rector of Yale Timothy Cutler, and Yale Tutor Daniel Brown doubt the validity of their ordination, and wish to convert to the Church of England. The "New Haven Nine" announce their conversion at Yale’s Commencement that year in an event that becomes known as what religious historian Sydney Ahlstrom calls “The Great Apostasy”. Five of the men recant, but Johnson and three other men journey first to Boston, then to England, for ordination.

1723

The founding of the Parish in New Haven. The American Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson (1696 -- 1772) returns from a yearlong trip to England as a SPG missionary priest, and replaces Rev. Pigot in Stratford. He is in charge of a region stretching from Norwalk to New London along the coast, and north to Waterbury -- perhaps as much as a third of Connecticut's 5,544 square miles: he is very alone, and required to travel to administer services to each local church once per month.  He faces bitter opposition, but grows the church by converting Yale students and local ministers, visiting New Haven often to explain "the episcopacy" to Yale students, and founding churches in Norwalk, Fairfield, Chestnut Ridge (Redding), Ridgefield, Danbury, Newton, Milford, West Haven, Derby, Ripton (now Shelton), West Haven, New Haven, Woodbury, North Haven, Guilford, and New London -- he forms a church in any place where fifetten, or ten or even seven families professing the Anglican Church were gathered.  He also traveled to give sermons to Long Island (Brookhaven), Rhode Island, and New York City. Since there are records of Parishes founded in West Haven and North Haven this year, it is very likely that one was also founded in the much larger New Haven as well:  Johnson, had lived there as a Yale tutor from 1716 to 1720, and intended to use it as a base for converting Yale students. For more on the early days of Trinity Church, see ► The First Years: from mission to revolution.

1727

The first pledge. The first record of an Episcopal "house church" meeting in New Haven takes place at probably at Christmas time this year or shortly after. Johnson delivers a sermon that so impresses a congregation of  "near a hundred hearers and among them several of the College" that 10 members pledge 100 pounds to fund an Anglican church in New Haven.

1734

The Rev. Jonathan Arnold (1700 – 1753) converts to the Church of England.  Arnold was born in Hamden, Connecticut, graduated from Yale in 1723, was licensed to preach by a committee of the Hartford North Association in 1724, and early in 1725 was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in West Haven, Connecticut — the people stipulating that if he should like his predecessor, Samuel Johnson embrace Episcopacy, the money paid to him as a settlement should be refunded. He married in 1728 Abigail Beard of Milford, a large heiress: thus the clause turned out to be no protection, and he converts to the Episcopacy in 1834.  In 1735 he travels to England for ordination, and receives an honorary MA degree from Oxford. On returning in 1736 he becomes a SPG missionary priest and takes up residence in West Haven. He conducts services in New Haven, Derby, Waterbury, Milford and other towns in the region of New Haven County, covering an area of over 850 square miles.  During this period Rev. Samuel Johnson continues to minister to his missionary region, including Stratford and New Haven county.

1736

The second minister, and the first deed. Rev. Jonathan Arnold takes over as minister of Johnson's New Haven county parishes. He obtains a record of a conveyance for land donated by William Grigson in New Haven "for the purpose of building and erecting a church thereupon, for the worship and service of Almighty God, according to the practice of the Church of England, and a parsonage or dwelling house for the incumbent of the said intended church for the time being, and also for a church yard to be taken thereout for the poor, and the residue thereof to be esteemed and used as Glebe Land by the minister of the said intended church for the time being forever."  

For more on the convoluted history of Trinity's attempt to own land in  New Haven, and the Puritan's resistance to their attempt to set up a church in the town, see Frederick Croswell's History of Trinity Church, New Haven, by Frederick Croswell.

1738

The attack of a Puritan Mob. The Rev. Arnold attempts to clear the tract of land in New Haven donated by "Mr. Gregson of London" to form a church; his servant and an ox-cart is  "mobbed off” by 150 angry Puritans. 

1739

The famous “Great Awakening” preacher Rev. George Whitefield visits the American colonies in 1738–1740, and draws immense crowds. Whitefield, though an Anglican minister, is a Calvinist and closer to the Puritans on doctrine. Rev. Samuel Johnson views one of Wakefield's famous dramatic outdoor revival meetings and is not impressed: he privately accuses Whitefield of "enthusiasm", which is strong language for the congenial Johnson.

Whitefield also meets with Rev. Arnold by accident in Philadelphia in 1739, and the two take an instant dislike to each other: Arnold prints a warning against Whitefield in the Boston News-Letter, while Whitefield writes a letter to the Secretary of the SPG, warning him that Arnold "is “unworthy of the name of a minister of Jesus Christ.” and that “I have been in his company several times and was obliged to reprove him openly for his misconduct. . . Wherever he has been, a very ill report is spread abroad concerning him." Whitfield and other “New Light” revivalist preachers all too often attack their Anglican and Old Light rivals as “unconverted”, so the source of the mutual dislike may be denominational more than an accurate reflection of character. The Old Light Rector of Yale, Rev. Thomas Clap, also meets, falls out, then exchanges bitter pamphlets with New Lights George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards.

All over the Colonies, particularly in Connecticut, the movement splits the Puritans into two factions, the Old Lights emphasizing reason, and the New Lights demanding an emotional conversion experience for salvation; the Anglicans generally retain their traditional polities and broad "middle way" doctrine. This is why today there are three churches on the New Haven Green.

Perhaps discouraged by the opposition in New Haven, Arnold quits Connecticut in the spring of the next year for a parish in Staten Island, New York, and the American Rev. Samuel Johnson briefly takes over the parish again. 

1740

The Rev. Theophilus Morris, an English SPF missionary priest, takes up residence in West Haven.

1743

The Rev. James Lyons, an Irish SPF missionary priest, takes up residence at Immanuel St. James Church in Derby, Connecticut.  He new ministers to Trinity Praish.

1748

The Rev. Richard Mansfield replaces Lyons in Derby. He will become the first Episcopalian to receive a Doctorate from Yale in 1792.

1750 

There is a record mentioning two wardens active this year for Trinity Parish, though no record has been discovered for the "official" founding date of the parish, which presumably took place sometime between 1723 and this date -- if there ever was an "official" founding date.

Due to the successful opposition of the Puritans, more than 20 churches under the energetic leadership of Dr. Samuel Johnson have been built in different parts of Connecticut “before a spade was taken to dig for the foundations of an Episcopal house of worship in New Haven.” Dr. Johnson himself preached in New Haven on Sunday May 6 1750: his parochial register notes that he baptized six male children, all the sons of Daniel and Mehetabel Trowbridge: Joseph, Newman Thomas, Rutherford, Stephen and John.  Thus begins the close association of that wealthy, self-evidently large, and soon to be distinguished family with Trinity Church.

1752  

A second deed. On July 28, Samuel Mix executes a deed conveying for the consideration of £200 old tenor, to Enos "Bishop" Ailing and Isaac Doolittle, 20 square rods of land "for the building of a house of public worship, agreeable and according to the establishment of the Church of England," The building of the wooden First Trinity Church begins this year. 

Traditionally, this date is often taken as the beginning of the parish, though the first parish was likely formed in 1723, meeting in home churches when various SPG missionary priests travel regularly to New Haven: 1752 is actually  only the date the building of the wooden first church began and Punderson's elevation to Rector. There were 24 families, and 87 "souls" in the church, which was a small building of 58 feet by 39 feet, whitewashed inside. At this time it had no galleries, and could accommodate 150 people. Today, all that remains are two large Gothic arch-shaped tables containing the 10 commandments that currently hand in the vestibule in the current church. Unlike the rival congregational meeting houses it had a tall steeple: at the top of the steeple they placed a gilt crown to remind the viewer that the Episcopal Church was under the protection of the King.

1753

The Rev. Ebenezer Punderson, an SPF missionary priest born in New Haven, becomes the first Rector of Trinity parish.

The wooden first church is completed. With the establishment of an Anglican Church in the largest town in Connecticut, home to Yale, the “School of the Prophets”, Dr. Johnson’s missionary goals working for the SPG have been met. Starting with just one parish with no church and perhaps 40 families in 1723, he has expanded to over 20 churches in 30 years. The successful opening of Trinity Church allows him to close his Stratford school and begin to work on both his seminal philosophy textbook and creating a new college in New York City. In June, Dr. Johnson meets with Dr. Benjamin Franklin and William Smith (the future Provost Dr. Smith) in Stratford: the three together design a “new-model” American college curriculum for a school with classes in English instead of Latin, that is inclusive of all classes of people, profession-oriented with courses not just for gentlemen and clergy but physicians, lawyers, surveyors, merchants, and mechanics, and most importantly of all, without a denominational religious test. The three together not only found King’s College and the College of Philadelphia, but set up a new style American college system and a charter that will be copied in the coming decades by dozens of new colleges.

1756

The Puritans who have vigorously opposed an Episcopal Church in New Haven finally give up on government opposition after three years of staring at the church with the crown on the steeple. Frederick Croswell in his history sardonically observes: "Thus far a remarkable fatality seems to have attended the conveyances of land for the benefit of the Episcopal Church. This [1752] deed, like that of William Grigson, was not acknowledged by the grantor, who died shortly after its execution. But upon the petition of the grantees to the General Assembly, at the October session of 1756, that body confirmed their title to the land by a Resolve. " However, the local heirs of Thomas Grigson, the original proprietor, continue to contest the deed in the courts.

1753

The First Trinity Church is finished and opened for worship; it is not consecrated as that would require a Bishop, and these is no Episcopal Bishop in America until 1784.

1763

The Rev. Solomon Palmer, an SPF missionary priest, becomes Rector.

1767

The Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard becomes Rector of the first Anglican Church resident in New Haven. Ebenezer Punderson Sr. [1708-1771], a Yale graduate (class of 1726) was ordained at the age of 21 in 1729, and later served as the minister of the Congregational Church in North Groton (now Ledyard). Another disciple of Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, he converted to the Episcopacy, and in 1734 he sailed to England for ordination into the Church of England. He returned to the Connecticut as a missionary priest for the Society for the SPG; that same year he established St. James’ Parish, North Groton. In 1752 Punderson left Groton and went New Haven to become Rector of Trinity Church on the Green, remaining there until 1767.

1768

A quit-claim deed, properly executed and acknowledged, was obtained from William Grigson, of Exeter, England, (the great-grandson of Richard Grigson, the origional owner), dated Oct. 26, 1768; this ends the decades long battle over the ownership of the church plot, and some 150 years of overt Puritan opposition to an Anglican church in New Haven.

1777

At the time common schools for children were conducted by parish churches.  In the middle of the war, on Sept. 11, 1777, Trinity Parish parochial school was created to teach Anglican children, and a woman was hired to teach them.

1784

The beginning of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. On March 25, 1783, ten of the fourteen Episcopal clergy in Connecticut who survived the war – including Trinity's Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard – hold a meeting Woodbury, Connecticut, and elect Rev. Samuel Seabury their candidate for bishop as their second choice after Rev. Leaming of Norwalk declined election for health reasons. The Reverend goes first to England, and after meeting with rejection, is told by the son of Bishop George Berkeley to go to Scotland, where is ordained as the Bishop of Connecticut. The Church in Connecticut is thus technically a branch of The Scottish Episcopal Church. For a record of this event the Appendix in The Colonies of Heaven reprints the document “CONCORDAT BETWEEN THE CHURCHES OF SCOTLAND AND CONNECTICUT” of November 15th,1784, which lays out seven articles linking the two national churches.  As part of the deal, they agreed that Bishop Seabury should, "by gentle methods of argument and persuasion, endeavor to introduce by degrees into practice" the communion office of the Scottish Church -- if upon examination he should find it "agreeable to the genuine standards of antiquity."

The first organ is also purchased and installed at Trinity this year. The next year they vote 10 pounds for the support of Bishop Seabury. And in 1787, they appoint Moses Bates organist, and allow him to occupy the house in which he then lived without being required to pay rent as a compensation for his services. Clearly the church has recovered from the war and the loss of the SPG stipend form the missionary society. To the right is part of a window celebrating the event at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, State College, Pennsylvania.

1789

President George Washington worships at Trinity. General Washington has passed through New Haven in 1775; he returns as the nation's President on Saturday, October, 17 1789, and stays overnight. The next day he attends services at Trinity Church, and after, with Roger Sherman, he also attends the White Haven "New Light" Congregational Church service as well.

To the right is a famous engraving of Washington surrounded by the seals of the thirteen states is by Trinity member Amos Doolittle, and is titled A Display of the United States of America from the collect of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS). According to the ASS notes on the image, “The clarity with which Doolittle displayed so much important information in such an attractive format must have appealed greatly to the citizens of our new nation. At least five times during Washington's term as President, Doolittle issued new versions of his portrait, periodically bringing the names of states and their statistics up to date."

1796

A Discourse Delivered [on] the Death of the Right Reverend Samuel Seabury, D.D., Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, by Abraham Jarvis.

1797

The Rev. Abraham Jarvis is consecrated the second Bishop of Connecticut. Read Bishop Jarvis's Charge to the Clergy of his Diocese Delivered Immediately after His Consecration, in Trinity Church, New-Haven.  Image from NYPL Digital Collection.  See also A Discourse Delivered ... to Witness the Consecrating of the Right Rev. Abraham Jarvis, D.D. to the Episcopal Chair of [Connecticut], by William Smith Newfield.

Due to membership growth, galleries are added to the church.

1812

The Rev. Henry Whitlock, ordained by Bishop Jarvis in 1802, becomes the first domestically ordained Rector of Trinity Church. See also A Sermon Delivered Dec. 9th, 1812, at the Funeral of the Rev. Bela Hubbard, D.D. Rector of Trinity Church, in the City of New-Haven, by Henry Whitlock. To the right the Hubbard memorial plaque on the north wall reads: In Memory of Rev Bela Hubbard D.D. / First Rector of this Church/ Born in Guild Conn. Aug. 27 1739 – Graduated at Yale / College 1758 -- Ordained in London Eng. 1764 / He served this Parish Forty Four Years Holding His Position During the Revolutionary War and Until his death Dec. 6 1712 / "I can say with all sincerity I have faithfully endeavored to discharge my duty as a Minister of Jesus Christ and I trust that my labors in the Vineyard have not been altogether in vain.”
 

1813

The Rev. Philander Chase, Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, preaches The Christian Family: A Sermon, which is later published.  Bishop Chase was an extraordinary man.  He founded  Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana; in 1803, became the first Episcopal bishop of Ohio in 1818 while simultaneously acting as Presiding Bishop of the national church; he was President of Cincinnati College in 1822, founder of Kenyon College in 1824, and first Bishop of Illinois in 1835. For more on this great man, click here. To the right is a Daguerreotype of Bishop Chase taken by Matthew Brady, ca. 1844-52 from The Library of Congress. 

1814

Trinity prepares to move one block west to the New Haven Green. The corner stone of a new Gothic Revival Style Second Church is laid on May 17, 1814, by the Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis of New York.  Jarvis delivers An Address, Delivered in the City of New-Haven, at the Laying of the Corner-stone of Trinity Church, May 17, 1814, together with the Form of Prayer Composed for that Occasion.  Jarvis calls the design style "a mode of architecture, of which, as yet, there is not a perfect and pure specimen through the whole of the American republick...That style of building which is commonly termed Gothick." It is indeed the first Gothic Revival Style Church in America; some several thousands have since been built. For more on the Architecture of Trinity Episcopal Church in New Haven, click here.

Money for the building is raised by the purchase of the enclosed pews. The plan in 1815 had reserves 16 pews for “black people” – presumably for free black families who might not have money to pay for their own pews – but did not restrict anyone from purchasing one of the 168 pews at auction.

1816  

The church is finished, and the formal installation takes place on February 21, 1816. Bishop John Henry Hobart of New York, who ordained Harry Croswell officiates, and delivers the sermon consecrating the church titled: The Moral Efficacy and the Positive Benefits of the Ordinances of the Gospel: A Sermon, Preached at the Consecration of Trinity Church, by John Henry Hobart  Harry Croswell is installed as Rector the next day and Philander Chase preached again at Trinity; see Bear ye one another's burdens: A Sermon, Preached at the Institution of the Rev. Harry Croswell, in Trinity Church, New Haven, on Thursday, 22d February, 1816, by Philander Chase. The image is from a 1824 map of New Haven by Trinity member Amos Doolittle.

1815 

The Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell becomes Rector. Croswell is a former crusading newspaper editor, defendant in the famous People v. Croswell freedom of the press case argued by Alexander Hamilton (which he lost), and was once placed under house arrest for publishing a cartoon when he was unable to pay the outrageous fees.  Our most famous Rector is a twice convicted felon. He will go on to found six churches in New Haven, an orphanage, a night school for black adults, and help found Trinity College in Hartford.

1816

Trinity Church is consecrated on February 21, 1816, by John Henry Hobart, Assistant Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of New York.  Hobart ordained Harry Croswell in Hudson, New York. Hobart was the third Episcopalbishop of New York, from 1816–1830. He vigorously promoted the extension of the Episcopal Church in Central and Western New York, founded the General Theological Seminary in New York and was its first Dean.  He also founded Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, in the Finger Lakes area of upstate New York.   He promoted the High Church movement which placed heavy emphasis on Apostolic Succession, Anglican Covenantal Theology, though Hobart's High Churchmanship did not have a have a strong liturgical character. Trinity Church may have been Gothic-Revival in the architecture, but the services remained fully Protestan.

1817

President James Monroe arrives by steamboat in New Haven. He is the first President to travel by steamboat.  A local newspaper reports “The demon of party for a time departed and gave place to a general outburst of NATIONAL FEELING.” He visits Trinity Church on the Green, but though an Episcopalian, he attends a service at Center Church on Sunday. Perhaps he fears the wrath of Harry Croswell. Trinity members have observed that his presidency begins to go down hill from this point on.

1819

Trinity hosts many Connecticut Episcopal conventions, and memorable addresses and sermons are printed.  This year Bishop John Henry Hobart delivers the sermon The Churchman.. to the Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Connecticut, Rev. Brownell is consecrated Bishop of Connecticut at Trinity and the famous Bishop William White of Philadelphia delivers the sermon Of the Gospel as the Power of God unto Salvation.

1825

On March 23, The Last Two Slaves Sold in New Haven were Lois Tritten, age 46, and her daughter Lucy Tritten, age 28. They are displayed, auctioned, and sold to their new owner, Anthony B. Sanford, a shareholder of Trinity who sits in the second pew form the front, and whose father was a founder of the wooden First Church: he pays $10 for the two, and immediately sets them free.

Rev. Nathaniel Sheldon Wheaton (1792 – 1862) preaches The Providence of God Displayed in the Rise and Fall of Nations. A Sermon, Delivered at the Annual Election, in Trinity Church, New-Haven, on Wednesday the 7th of May, 1828. Born in Washington, Connecticut, in1820 Wheaton was elected rector of Christ Church in Hartford Connecticut. He went to England in September 1823 to solicit aid in money and books for what was then Washington College, New Haven. As a member of the board of trustees he lobbied successfully for a move to Hartford, and the renaming of the institution to Trinity College. He may have received a rather cool reception from Rev. Harry Croswell, another Washington College trustee, who had raised funds for the college from the New Haven community.  In his diary on  May 7, 1824, he wrote, “The Trustees of Washington College met in New Haven this day – and after some discussion, fixed the location of that Institution in Hartford – a location which will probably become fatal to the interests of that institution.” During his stay in England he wrote a journal which was published in 1829 as under the “Notes of Travel”. While in England he also viewed and admired the Gothic style of architecture of the churches in England. In 1825 his parish decided to build a new church, and hired Ithiel Town, the architect of Trinity Church to build Christ Church, Hartford in 1828-9. Having taken the college from New Haven, he copied the church as well. In 1831 he was elected president of Trinity College, a position he held until 1837,  whereupon he became Rector of Christ Church New Orleans.

1832

Bishop Thomas Church Brownell delivers A Charge to the Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Connecticut. Brownell and Harry Croswell worked jointly to found Washington College in New Haven in the early 1720s raising money from Croswell’s wealthy parishioners. But after Croswell had collected the funds, the wily Rector of Christ Church Hartford organized a "bait and switch" move to Hartford, whereupon the name was changed to Trinity College. In his diary on May 7, 1824, Thursday, Croswell noted that, “The Trustees of Washington College met in New Haven this day – and after some discussion, fixed the location of that Institution in Hartford – a location which will probably become fatal to the interests of that institution.”   To the right is an engraving of a bronze statue to the memory of Bishop Brownell, Trinity College, Hartford, courtesy of the Connecticut Historical Society.

1833

On June 15, President Andrew Jackson visits New Haven; accompanying him were Vice President Martin Van Buren and other dignitaries.The next day General Jackson attended services in Trinity Church and heard Rev. Harry Croswell preach. According to one account, "Thurlow Weed, of the Albany Journal afterward gave currency to a story that the behavior in church, of Mr. Martin Van Buren was so indecorous that he ought to have been disciplined by the "tythingman", but this was indignantly denied by many who had attended the services."  Croswell knew both Weed and Van Buren well -- Weed was a former errand boy in the Croswell's print shop in Catskill Landing, while Croswell's nephew Edwin Croswell was an editor of the Albany Argus, a newspaper that strongly supported Van Buren, and Croswell knew Van Buren from his days in Hudson, New York, when Van Buren was the Democratic party surrogate of Columbia County, New York from 1808 until 1813, the time when the party was trying to put Harry in jail with some eventuall success. Unable to derail Van Buren's less than brilliant career with this bit of gossip -- Van Buren was a rathe uninspiring President of the US from 1837 to 1841 -- Weed went on to create the Republican party and put President Lincoln in the White House.

Jackson this year also was the first president to take ride on a train , perhaps in something that looked very much like this 1833 carriage-style car.

1841

After President William Henry Harrison dies after only 32 days in office. The Rev. Harry Croswell preaches A Discourse, on the Death of the President of the United States.

1842

Despite Rector Dr. Harry Croswell’s strong opposition, the vestry in 1842 changed long practice and demanded that all black parishioners sit in the organ loft at the back of the church; they reserved just four pew “slips” for over 40 people. Harry Croswell, the man who had ministered alone in New Haven to the black community since his arrival in 1814, supported the disenfranchised black members of Trinity to found St. Luke’s all black Episcopal Church in New Haven in 1844. A group of 46 black Trinity Episcopalians met in Trinity’s Glebe Lecture Room until they could build their own church. The Rev. Eli Worthington Stokes led the new congregation. Its members included the clerk Peter Vogelsang who in April of 1765, became one the first black commissioned officers in the army during the civil war, and treasurer Alexander DuBois, grandfather of the great civil rights leader W. E. B. Du Bois.  The St. Luke's Episcopal Church, built in 1905 is a lost Gothic Revival building, and perhaps hints at the design of the mother church.

1848

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Samuel Farmar Jarvis, Historiographer of the Church, preaches at the Diocesan Convention the sermon The Colonies of Heaven. In the Appendix he prints The CONCORDAT BETWEEN THE CHURCHES OF SCOTLAND AND CONNECTICUT -- which lays out seven articles. "Whereas it has been represented to us the Bishops of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, by the Reverend Dr. Samuel Seabury, your fellow Presbyter in Connecticut, that you are desirous to have the blessings of a free, valid, and purely Ecclesiastical Episcopacy communicated to you, and that you do consider the Scottish Episcopacy to be such in every sense of the word".

1856

The Rev. Harry Croswell preaches on December 31, 1854 his sermon Forty Years in Trinity Parish: A Pastoral Letter to the Parishioners of Trinity Church, New Haven. His sermon is taken from I CORINTHIANS II: 3, And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.”  He knows his end is approaching.

In his sermon he sums up his record as a clergyman: BAPTISMS, administered by the Rector, 2525, By all others, including Assistants, Associates, and visiting Clergymen, 193, Aggregate, 2718; MARRIAGES, by the Rector, 804, By all others, 106, Aggregate, 910; BURIALS, by the Rector, 1814, By all others, 76, Aggregate, 2090.
 

1858

The Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell dies, and is buried with great honor. Rev. Samuel Benedict, the Assistant minister, takes over as the interim Rector for one year. While Trinity survived the Revolution and the War of 1812 without too much patriotic disgrace, the Rev. Samuel Benedict became Rector of St. James Church, Marietta, Georgia. During the civil war he proved more loyal to the Confederate cause than to his native Connecticut roots and to Harry Croswell; while Marietta was occupied by northern troops, he refused to say prayers for Abraham Lincoln. He was arrested, then banished to Canada for disloyalty. One can only admire the wisdom of the vestry who passed him over for the next rector of Trinity Church, the great and learned Rev. Harwood. After the war, Rev. Benedict returned to Marietta, and he is remembered in the Marietta Museum of History there.  The New Haven Museum has no portrait, image, or exhibit of Harry Croswell.

1858

The Rev. Daniel Raynes Goodwin preaches Christianity Neither Ascetic nor Fanatic.at Triniity.

1863

In the Civil War, at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863, former Trinity member Peter Vogelsang, the oldest member of the all-black 54th led by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, is wounded in a heroic but doomed charge on the Fort, but survives; on April of 1765 he becomes one of the first black commissioned officers in the American army. Vogelsang was also a founding member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, New Haven; he was one of 46 black founding members who left Trinity when the vestry voted to restrict black members to a handful of pews in the back of the church. As clerk of the newly formed St. Luke’s he worked with Rector Croswell to found the new all black church in New Haven.

1866

The Rev. Edwin Harwood preaches The Protestant Episcopal Church in New Haven and for New England: A Sermon Preached at the Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Consecration of Trinity Church, New Haven, Wednesday, February 16th, 1866. It contains quite a bit on the early History of Trinity Church on the Green

1859

In February the parish votes to call the Rev. Dr. Edwin Harwood (1822 – 1902). In contrast to his predecessor Dr. Harry Croswell, who had virtually no formal education and whose doctorate was well-deserved but honorary, the brilliant and learned Dr. Harwood – then just 37 – had a great deal of education. Harwood graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 18, where he studied under Henry Reed, a disciple of Wordsworth. From there he entered Andover Theological Seminary, intending intention to become a minister in the Presbyterian Church, but influenced by the Oxford Movement, after two years at Andover he transferred his affection to the Episcopacy and his seminary to the General Theological Seminary in New York; he graduated in 1844 and was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church. Harwood subsequently was Rector at Oyster Bay, N.Y, at St. Paul's, East Chester, N. Y., and St . James', Hamilton Square, N. Y., and in 1852 he organized the Church of the Incarnation, New York City. From 1854-59 he was Professor of Interpretation of the New Testament, Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Connecticut. From 1859 to 1895 Harwood was Rector of the Trinity Church, New Haven. In 1862 Trinity College, of Hartford, conferred upon him the degree of D.D. Rector Harwood was a member of many prominent historical and Biblical societies, the New England Colony Historical, the Society of Biblical Exegesis, etc. He was the author of many sermons, pamphlets and historical reprints, and he was one of the translators and editors of Lange's Commentaries on the Bible. He died at New Haven, Conn., January 12, 1902. He would be Trinity's rector for 36 years, and die in New Haven, though he is not buried there.

1862

The Trinity Church Home is established.  A distinguished board of trustees, led by Dr. Harwood, is appointed to govern it. A charter for Trinity Home for the elderly is obtained in May, and the home is opened on the 23d of October. Its first location was a rented house in Leffingwell Alley (now part of Center Street) near Temple.  It "is created for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in the city of New Haven, refuge for the poor and friendless members of Trinity Parish, and such others as the board of managers may think are entitled to its benefits" For more. see Trinity Home 1948. An end note on the 1948 printed copy of the by-laws notes that Dr. Hardwood is "most Learned perhaps & Colorful rector Trinity ever had. " CKE [Mrs. Benjamin English?], though most of us would probably give that title to Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell.

1869

Mr. Joseph E. Sheffield, "a generous benefactor of this parish" builds three buildings on one campus plot in downtown New Haven on George Street: a "Parish School of Trinity Church" building with apartments for the teachers and a chaplain, a "Trinity Church Home" for the elderly, and between these two buildings, "Trinity Chapel".  They were designed by the noted New Haven Architect, Henry Austin.  The existing Trinity Home with eight inhabitants is moved to the new building on April 15, 1869. Today, the chapel has become the New Haven Branch of the Salvation Army.

This is both a great year and a tragic one for Rev. Dr. Harwood. In addition to the consecration of the new chapel and window, Hardwood’s eldest daughter Honora, after having been disappointed by the rejection of her first love, was to be married to a second suitor on October 7 in a very publically announced ceremony at Trinity Church – after which Harwood would preside over the opening of the Protestant Episcopal Church Congress in his hometown of Philadelphia. But on September 28, Honora secretly meets her original beau in New York City, and elopes with him to Europe. His second daughter Alida had recently secretly converted to Roman Catholicism; she was sick with malaria, and the news of her sister’s elopement sends her into a rapid decline. On her deathbed she asks for a Catholic priest. After much heartsickness and agony, Rev. Harwood and Father McGivney of St. Mary’s Church, New Haven, agree she can be buried according to both rites.

John Williams preached Men for the Times: The Sermon Preached before the Convention of the Diocese of Connecticut in Trinity Church, New Haven, June 12, 1883, in Commemoration of the Election of Samuel Seabury as First Bishop of Connecticut, March 25, 1783 

1893

Rev. Dr. Edwin Harwood delivers an address in memory of Phillips Brooks, Late Bishop of Massachusetts.

1894

Rev. Dr. Edwin Harwood delivers a discourse The Beginnings of the Episcopal Church in New Haven.

1899

The Rev. Frank Woods Baker becomes Rector.

The Rev. Dr. J. J. McCOOK,Rector of St. John’s, East Hartford, and Professor in Trinity College. delivers the sermon Dreams and Visions: A Sermon Preached at the Opening of the Convention of the Diocese of Connecticut in Trinity Church, New Haven, St. Barnabas' Day, June 11, A.D. 1901.

1902

Dr. Edwin Hardwood dies.  The Rev. Stewart Means of St. John's Church, New Haven, preaches In Memoriam, EDWIN HARWOOD, Doctor in Divinity.

1905

The land and three buildings of the Trinity Parish School, Chapel, and Home are sold to the Italian Baptist Mission with the kind agreement of Joesph E. Sheffield's heirs. The greater part of the money received was invested in the purchase of the house and lot at the corner of Oak Place and Howard. .  The new location is described in the Annual reports of the State Board of Charities of Connecticut in 1921 as "..about three-quarters of a mile southwest from the center. The house occupied for the purpose 'is a commodious, three-storied structure, situated in a large yard, and provides comfortable accommodations for eleven old ladies, besides the necessary employees. The Home is owned and maintained by Trinity Church, Protestant Episcopal, and is designed to care for the aged, needy women of that parish. Arrangements are also made by which other persons in the diocese may be received, provided there is no home for the aged in the person's place of residence."  Its location is a matter of some dispute: records places it at the corner of Oak Place and Howard, at 186 Oak Street, and at 406 Oak Street -- which would place it on what is today 1 Legion Ave, at the north-east boundy of the Hill district of New Haven.  It is now a parking lot, but this 1911 Atlas map gives an indication of what it might have looked like at the time.

1908

The Rev. Dr. Charles Otis Scoville becomes Rector.

1908

Trinity Parish House moves from 160 Temple Street to 310-312 Temple Street, a building bought by the heirs of E. Hayes Trowbridge for $65,000.

1912

The stone reredos was dedicated on March 24, 1912. Designed by Charles Coolidge Haight of New York, the work was executed by sculptor Lee Lawrie, who also sculpted the figure of Atlas in front of Rockefeller Center, the reredos in St. Thomas', New York City, and the state capitol in Nebraska – the elegant angels above the neo-Gothic statues seem to predict Lawrie’s future art deco style in the streamlined, repetition, symmetry, and simplicity of the tall narrow angels.

1925

The Rev. Dr.  Scoville organizes detailed plans for a new Parish House to be built at the corner of Wall and Church streets; the old Temple Street building is swapped for the land with Yale University. Since it contains a rectory, the 70 Trumbull Street house is also sold for $25,000. Funds donated by Mrs. Lucy Boardman along with $95,000 in pledges by 450 parishioners allow the cornerstone to be laid in 1923. The building is designed by Charles Scranton Palmer in “Ivy League Gothic” to blend in with its Yale neighbors -- a prudent decision as it will be sold back to Yale in 1980. Opening ceremonies are held in August of 1925.  To the right is the entrance to the building.

1926

Trinity Home moves from 186 Oak Street to 84 Norton Street. Today the Norton Street building it houses the New Haven Reentry House, a residential program providing adult male probationers with coordinated services to find stable housing and employment.

1935

The Rev. Theodore H. Evans becomes Rector.

1939

The Rev. Scoville comes back and fills in for a year as interim Rector.

1940

The Rev. C. Lawson Willard becomes Rector.

1970

The Rev. Craig Biddle III becomes Rector.

1971

Trinity Home on 84 Norton Street is sold for $56,000, and the eight ladies living there were placed at St. Paul's home at 600 Chapel Street. The Trinity Home Board continues on with the work of the original mission, managing the donated endowment of Sheffield and others over the years.  Today the building is the

1977

The Rev. Andrew Fiddler becomes Rector.

1980

Trinity Church sells the Parish House to Yale University as a gift from John Hay Whitney, (Yale class of 1926).  After extensive remodeling, it is re-opened in 1981 as the Whitney Humanities Center. Its three floors accommodate an art gallery, conference rooms, seminar spaces, offices, and support facilities, as well as a state-of-the-art lecture hall and auditorium, and the former gym has become a theater. The carving of the ship to the right was possibly a reference to the ships that carried the missionary priests of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel from England to America to found and minster to Trinity Parish New Haven; it has become the logo of the Whitney Center.

2011

The Rev. Dr. Luk de Volder becomes Rector.

1701

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) is founded in London; it remains active today under the name United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG). The Society funded and remotely administered the growing Anglican church from its early beginnings as missionary-led "house church" services held in homes, all the way to the Revolutionary War. The Bishop of London became the head not only of the largest British diocese in population, but the largest in territory, covering all the American Colonies as well. To the right is a bookplate issued by the society, which funded parish libraries and provided salaries for its missionary ministers.

This year also a "Collegiate School at Saybrok" was founded on Saybrook Point, Connecticut. After 1718 it would be known as Yale College.

For more on the early years, see ► The First Years: From Mission to Revolution.

1705

Col. Caleb Heathcote of New York, and a member of the SPG, accompanies the Rev. George Murison, a Church of England missionary priest of the SPG, based in Rye, NY, on trips around New York and Connecticut. Murison is a graduate of King’s College Aberdeen, who initially went to New York as a schoolmaster in 1703, was ordained in 1705, and began working as a missionary for the SPG that year: the first minister to the people of what now is the parish of Trinity New Haven was a Scottish Episcopalian. Morison and Heathcote make “ecclesiastical incursions” into Connecticut, but travel "fully armed" as they expect to encounter vigorous resistance from the Puritans, who threaten them with prison for trying to establish Anglican churches in the colonies. (Picture from Booth's History of New York, NYPL).

1707

Christ Episcopal Church, the first Anglican parish in Connecticut, is established at Stratford.

1708

The Rev. Murison dies in 1708 and the Rev. Christopher Bridges of Rye, NY takes over the region from 1709 to his death in 1719, save for a brief period in 1712-1713 when for seven months the Rev. Francis Philips resided in Stratford and handles the parish. No one seems to have officially served the parish region from 1720-1721. The parish was also occasionally visited by a number of missionary priests, including Rev. John Talbot of New Jersey “The Apostle of the New Jersey Church”, and a Rev. Sharpe.

1722  

The Rev. George Pigot is sent by the SPG to Stratford, Ct. where he takes up residence. Shortly after his arrival, Rev. Samuel Johnson, a native of Guilford, a former Tutor at Yale, and now pastor of the Congregational Church in West Haven, travels down to Stratford and informs Pigot that seven Connecticut Congregational ministers, the Rector of Yale Timothy Cutler, and Yale Tutor Daniel Brown doubt the validity of their ordination, and wish to convert to the Church of England. The "New Haven Nine" announce their conversion at Yale’s Commencement that year in an event that becomes known as what religious historian Sydney Ahlstrom calls “The Great Apostasy”. Five of the men recant, but Johnson and three other men journey first to Boston, then to England, for ordination.

1723

The founding of the Parish in New Haven. The American Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson (1696 -- 1772) returns from a yearlong trip to England as a SPG missionary priest, and replaces Rev. Pigot in Stratford. He is in charge of a region stretching from Norwalk to New London along the coast, and north to Waterbury -- perhaps as much as a third of Connecticut's 5,544 square miles: he is very alone, and required to travel to administer services to each local church once per month.  He faces bitter opposition, but grows the church by converting Yale students and local ministers, visiting New Haven often to explain "the episcopacy" to Yale students, and founding churches in Norwalk, Fairfield, Chestnut Ridge (Redding), Ridgefield, Danbury, Newton, Milford, West Haven, Derby, Ripton (now Shelton), West Haven, New Haven, Woodbury, North Haven, Guilford, and New London -- he forms a church in any place where fifetten, or ten or even seven families professing the Anglican Church were gathered.  He also traveled to give sermons to Long Island (Brookhaven), Rhode Island, and New York City. Since there are records of Parishes founded in West Haven and North Haven this year, it is very likely that one was also founded in the much larger New Haven as well:  Johnson, had lived there as a Yale tutor from 1716 to 1720, and intended to use it as a base for converting Yale students. For more on the early days of Trinity Church, see ► The First Years: from mission to revolution.

1727

The first pledge. The first record of an Episcopal "house church" meeting in New Haven takes place at probably at Christmas time this year or shortly after. Johnson delivers a sermon that so impresses a congregation of  "near a hundred hearers and among them several of the College" that 10 members pledge 100 pounds to fund an Anglican church in New Haven.

1734

The Rev. Jonathan Arnold (1700 – 1753) converts to the Church of England.  Arnold was born in Hamden, Connecticut, graduated from Yale in 1723, was licensed to preach by a committee of the Hartford North Association in 1724, and early in 1725 was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in West Haven, Connecticut — the people stipulating that if he should like his predecessor, Samuel Johnson embrace Episcopacy, the money paid to him as a settlement should be refunded. He married in 1728 Abigail Beard of Milford, a large heiress: thus the clause turned out to be no protection, and he converts to the Episcopacy in 1834.  In 1735 he travels to England for ordination, and receives an honorary MA degree from Oxford. On returning in 1736 he becomes a SPG missionary priest and takes up residence in West Haven. He conducts services in New Haven, Derby, Waterbury, Milford and other towns in the region of New Haven County, covering an area of over 850 square miles.  During this period Rev. Samuel Johnson continues to minister to his missionary region, including Stratford and New Haven county.

1736

The second minister, and the first deed. Rev. Jonathan Arnold takes over as minister of Johnson's New Haven county parishes. He obtains a record of a conveyance for land donated by William Grigson in New Haven "for the purpose of building and erecting a church thereupon, for the worship and service of Almighty God, according to the practice of the Church of England, and a parsonage or dwelling house for the incumbent of the said intended church for the time being, and also for a church yard to be taken thereout for the poor, and the residue thereof to be esteemed and used as Glebe Land by the minister of the said intended church for the time being forever."  

For more on the convoluted history of Trinity's attempt to own land in  New Haven, and the Puritan's resistance to their attempt to set up a church in the town, see Frederick Croswell's History of Trinity Church, New Haven, by Frederick Croswell.

1738

The attack of a Puritan Mob. The Rev. Arnold attempts to clear the tract of land in New Haven donated by "Mr. Gregson of London" to form a church; his servant and an ox-cart is  "mobbed off” by 150 angry Puritans. 

1739

The famous “Great Awakening” preacher Rev. George Whitefield visits the American colonies in 1738–1740, and draws immense crowds. Whitefield, though an Anglican minister, is a Calvinist and closer to the Puritans on doctrine. Rev. Samuel Johnson views one of Wakefield's famous dramatic outdoor revival meetings and is not impressed: he privately accuses Whitefield of "enthusiasm", which is strong language for the congenial Johnson.

Whitefield also meets with Rev. Arnold by accident in Philadelphia in 1739, and the two take an instant dislike to each other: Arnold prints a warning against Whitefield in the Boston News-Letter, while Whitefield writes a letter to the Secretary of the SPG, warning him that Arnold "is “unworthy of the name of a minister of Jesus Christ.” and that “I have been in his company several times and was obliged to reprove him openly for his misconduct. . . Wherever he has been, a very ill report is spread abroad concerning him." Whitfield and other “New Light” revivalist preachers all too often attack their Anglican and Old Light rivals as “unconverted”, so the source of the mutual dislike may be denominational more than an accurate reflection of character. The Old Light Rector of Yale, Rev. Thomas Clap, also meets, falls out, then exchanges bitter pamphlets with New Lights George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards.

All over the Colonies, particularly in Connecticut, the movement splits the Puritans into two factions, the Old Lights emphasizing reason, and the New Lights demanding an emotional conversion experience for salvation; the Anglicans generally retain their traditional polities and broad "middle way" doctrine. This is why today there are three churches on the New Haven Green.

Perhaps discouraged by the opposition in New Haven, Arnold quits Connecticut in the spring of the next year for a parish in Staten Island, New York, and the American Rev. Samuel Johnson briefly takes over the parish again. 

1740

The Rev. Theophilus Morris, an English SPF missionary priest, takes up residence in West Haven.

1743

The Rev. James Lyons, an Irish SPF missionary priest, takes up residence at Immanuel St. James Church in Derby, Connecticut.  He new ministers to Trinity Praish.

1748

The Rev. Richard Mansfield replaces Lyons in Derby. He will become the first Episcopalian to receive a Doctorate from Yale in 1792.

1750 

There is a record mentioning two wardens active this year for Trinity Parish, though no record has been discovered for the "official" founding date of the parish, which presumably took place sometime between 1723 and this date -- if there ever was an "official" founding date.

Due to the successful opposition of the Puritans, more than 20 churches under the energetic leadership of Dr. Samuel Johnson have been built in different parts of Connecticut “before a spade was taken to dig for the foundations of an Episcopal house of worship in New Haven.” Dr. Johnson himself preached in New Haven on Sunday May 6 1750: his parochial register notes that he baptized six male children, all the sons of Daniel and Mehetabel Trowbridge: Joseph, Newman Thomas, Rutherford, Stephen and John.  Thus begins the close association of that wealthy, self-evidently large, and soon to be distinguished family with Trinity Church.

1752  

A second deed. On July 28, Samuel Mix executes a deed conveying for the consideration of £200 old tenor, to Enos "Bishop" Ailing and Isaac Doolittle, 20 square rods of land "for the building of a house of public worship, agreeable and according to the establishment of the Church of England," The building of the wooden First Trinity Church begins this year. 

Traditionally, this date is often taken as the beginning of the parish, though the first parish was likely formed in 1723, meeting in home churches when various SPG missionary priests travel regularly to New Haven: 1752 is actually  only the date the building of the wooden first church began and Punderson's elevation to Rector. There were 24 families, and 87 "souls" in the church, which was a small building of 58 feet by 39 feet, whitewashed inside. At this time it had no galleries, and could accommodate 150 people. Today, all that remains are two large Gothic arch-shaped tables containing the 10 commandments that currently hand in the vestibule in the current church. Unlike the rival congregational meeting houses it had a tall steeple: at the top of the steeple they placed a gilt crown to remind the viewer that the Episcopal Church was under the protection of the King.

1753

The Rev. Ebenezer Punderson, an SPF missionary priest born in New Haven, becomes the first Rector of Trinity parish.

The wooden first church is completed. With the establishment of an Anglican Church in the largest town in Connecticut, home to Yale, the “School of the Prophets”, Dr. Johnson’s missionary goals working for the SPG have been met. Starting with just one parish with no church and perhaps 40 families in 1723, he has expanded to over 20 churches in 30 years. The successful opening of Trinity Church allows him to close his Stratford school and begin to work on both his seminal philosophy textbook and creating a new college in New York City. In June, Dr. Johnson meets with Dr. Benjamin Franklin and William Smith (the future Provost Dr. Smith) in Stratford: the three together design a “new-model” American college curriculum for a school with classes in English instead of Latin, that is inclusive of all classes of people, profession-oriented with courses not just for gentlemen and clergy but physicians, lawyers, surveyors, merchants, and mechanics, and most importantly of all, without a denominational religious test. The three together not only found King’s College and the College of Philadelphia, but set up a new style American college system and a charter that will be copied in the coming decades by dozens of new colleges.

1756

The Puritans who have vigorously opposed an Episcopal Church in New Haven finally give up on government opposition after three years of staring at the church with the crown on the steeple. Frederick Croswell in his history sardonically observes: "Thus far a remarkable fatality seems to have attended the conveyances of land for the benefit of the Episcopal Church. This [1752] deed, like that of William Grigson, was not acknowledged by the grantor, who died shortly after its execution. But upon the petition of the grantees to the General Assembly, at the October session of 1756, that body confirmed their title to the land by a Resolve. " However, the local heirs of Thomas Grigson, the original proprietor, continue to contest the deed in the courts.

1753

The First Trinity Church is finished and opened for worship; it is not consecrated as that would require a Bishop, and these is no Episcopal Bishop in America until 1784.

1763

The Rev. Solomon Palmer, an SPF missionary priest, becomes Rector.

1767

The Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard becomes Rector of the first Anglican Church resident in New Haven. Ebenezer Punderson Sr. [1708-1771], a Yale graduate (class of 1726) was ordained at the age of 21 in 1729, and later served as the minister of the Congregational Church in North Groton (now Ledyard). Another disciple of Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, he converted to the Episcopacy, and in 1734 he sailed to England for ordination into the Church of England. He returned to the Connecticut as a missionary priest for the Society for the SPG; that same year he established St. James’ Parish, North Groton. In 1752 Punderson left Groton and went New Haven to become Rector of Trinity Church on the Green, remaining there until 1767.

1768

A quit-claim deed, properly executed and acknowledged, was obtained from William Grigson, of Exeter, England, (the great-grandson of Richard Grigson, the origional owner), dated Oct. 26, 1768; this ends the decades long battle over the ownership of the church plot, and some 150 years of overt Puritan opposition to an Anglican church in New Haven.

1777

At the time common schools for children were conducted by parish churches.  In the middle of the war, on Sept. 11, 1777, Trinity Parish parochial school was created to teach Anglican children, and a woman was hired to teach them.

1784

The beginning of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. On March 25, 1783, ten of the fourteen Episcopal clergy in Connecticut who survived the war – including Trinity's Rev. Dr. Bela Hubbard – hold a meeting Woodbury, Connecticut, and elect Rev. Samuel Seabury their candidate for bishop as their second choice after Rev. Leaming of Norwalk declined election for health reasons. The Reverend goes first to England, and after meeting with rejection, is told by the son of Bishop George Berkeley to go to Scotland, where is ordained as the Bishop of Connecticut. The Church in Connecticut is thus technically a branch of The Scottish Episcopal Church. For a record of this event the Appendix in The Colonies of Heaven reprints the document “CONCORDAT BETWEEN THE CHURCHES OF SCOTLAND AND CONNECTICUT” of November 15th,1784, which lays out seven articles linking the two national churches.  As part of the deal, they agreed that Bishop Seabury should, "by gentle methods of argument and persuasion, endeavor to introduce by degrees into practice" the communion office of the Scottish Church -- if upon examination he should find it "agreeable to the genuine standards of antiquity."

The first organ is also purchased and installed at Trinity this year. The next year they vote 10 pounds for the support of Bishop Seabury. And in 1787, they appoint Moses Bates organist, and allow him to occupy the house in which he then lived without being required to pay rent as a compensation for his services. Clearly the church has recovered from the war and the loss of the SPG stipend form the missionary society. To the right is part of a window celebrating the event at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, State College, Pennsylvania.

1789

President George Washington worships at Trinity. General Washington has passed through New Haven in 1775; he returns as the nation's President on Saturday, October, 17 1789, and stays overnight. The next day he attends services at Trinity Church, and after, with Roger Sherman, he also attends the White Haven "New Light" Congregational Church service as well.

To the right is a famous engraving of Washington surrounded by the seals of the thirteen states is by Trinity member Amos Doolittle, and is titled A Display of the United States of America from the collect of the American Antiquarian Society (AAS). According to the ASS notes on the image, “The clarity with which Doolittle displayed so much important information in such an attractive format must have appealed greatly to the citizens of our new nation. At least five times during Washington's term as President, Doolittle issued new versions of his portrait, periodically bringing the names of states and their statistics up to date."

1796

A Discourse Delivered [on] the Death of the Right Reverend Samuel Seabury, D.D., Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, by Abraham Jarvis.

1797

The Rev. Abraham Jarvis is consecrated the second Bishop of Connecticut. Read Bishop Jarvis's Charge to the Clergy of his Diocese Delivered Immediately after His Consecration, in Trinity Church, New-Haven.  Image from NYPL Digital Collection.  See also A Discourse Delivered ... to Witness the Consecrating of the Right Rev. Abraham Jarvis, D.D. to the Episcopal Chair of [Connecticut], by William Smith Newfield.

Due to membership growth, galleries are added to the church.

1812

The Rev. Henry Whitlock, ordained by Bishop Jarvis in 1802, becomes the first domestically ordained Rector of Trinity Church. See also A Sermon Delivered Dec. 9th, 1812, at the Funeral of the Rev. Bela Hubbard, D.D. Rector of Trinity Church, in the City of New-Haven, by Henry Whitlock. To the right the Hubbard memorial plaque on the north wall reads: In Memory of Rev Bela Hubbard D.D. / First Rector of this Church/ Born in Guild Conn. Aug. 27 1739 – Graduated at Yale / College 1758 -- Ordained in London Eng. 1764 / He served this Parish Forty Four Years Holding His Position During the Revolutionary War and Until his death Dec. 6 1712 / "I can say with all sincerity I have faithfully endeavored to discharge my duty as a Minister of Jesus Christ and I trust that my labors in the Vineyard have not been altogether in vain.”
 

1813

The Rev. Philander Chase, Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, preaches The Christian Family: A Sermon, which is later published.  Bishop Chase was an extraordinary man.  He founded  Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans, Louisiana; in 1803, became the first Episcopal bishop of Ohio in 1818 while simultaneously acting as Presiding Bishop of the national church; he was President of Cincinnati College in 1822, founder of Kenyon College in 1824, and first Bishop of Illinois in 1835. For more on this great man, click here. To the right is a Daguerreotype of Bishop Chase taken by Matthew Brady, ca. 1844-52 from The Library of Congress. 

1814

Trinity prepares to move one block west to the New Haven Green. The corner stone of a new Gothic Revival Style Second Church is laid on May 17, 1814, by the Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis of New York.  Jarvis delivers An Address, Delivered in the City of New-Haven, at the Laying of the Corner-stone of Trinity Church, May 17, 1814, together with the Form of Prayer Composed for that Occasion.  Jarvis calls the design style "a mode of architecture, of which, as yet, there is not a perfect and pure specimen through the whole of the American republick...That style of building which is commonly termed Gothick." It is indeed the first Gothic Revival Style Church in America; some several thousands have since been built. For more on the Architecture of Trinity Episcopal Church in New Haven, click here.

Money for the building is raised by the purchase of the enclosed pews. The plan in 1815 had reserves 16 pews for “black people” – presumably for free black families who might not have money to pay for their own pews – but did not restrict anyone from purchasing one of the 168 pews at auction.

1816  

The church is finished, and the formal installation takes place on February 21, 1816. Bishop John Henry Hobart of New York, who ordained Harry Croswell officiates, and delivers the sermon consecrating the church titled: The Moral Efficacy and the Positive Benefits of the Ordinances of the Gospel: A Sermon, Preached at the Consecration of Trinity Church, by John Henry Hobart  Harry Croswell is installed as Rector the next day and Philander Chase preached again at Trinity; see Bear ye one another's burdens: A Sermon, Preached at the Institution of the Rev. Harry Croswell, in Trinity Church, New Haven, on Thursday, 22d February, 1816, by Philander Chase. The image is from a 1824 map of New Haven by Trinity member Amos Doolittle.

1815 

The Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell becomes Rector. Croswell is a former crusading newspaper editor, defendant in the famous People v. Croswell freedom of the press case argued by Alexander Hamilton (which he lost), and was once placed under house arrest for publishing a cartoon when he was unable to pay the outrageous fees.  Our most famous Rector is a twice convicted felon. He will go on to found six churches in New Haven, an orphanage, a night school for black adults, and help found Trinity College in Hartford.

1816

Trinity Church is consecrated on February 21, 1816, by John Henry Hobart, Assistant Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of New York.  Hobart ordained Harry Croswell in Hudson, New York. Hobart was the third Episcopalbishop of New York, from 1816–1830. He vigorously promoted the extension of the Episcopal Church in Central and Western New York, founded the General Theological Seminary in New York and was its first Dean.  He also founded Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, in the Finger Lakes area of upstate New York.   He promoted the High Church movement which placed heavy emphasis on Apostolic Succession, Anglican Covenantal Theology, though Hobart's High Churchmanship did not have a have a strong liturgical character. Trinity Church may have been Gothic-Revival in the architecture, but the services remained fully Protestan.

1817

President James Monroe arrives by steamboat in New Haven. He is the first President to travel by steamboat.  A local newspaper reports “The demon of party for a time departed and gave place to a general outburst of NATIONAL FEELING.” He visits Trinity Church on the Green, but though an Episcopalian, he attends a service at Center Church on Sunday. Perhaps he fears the wrath of Harry Croswell. Trinity members have observed that his presidency begins to go down hill from this point on.

1819

Trinity hosts many Connecticut Episcopal conventions, and memorable addresses and sermons are printed.  This year Bishop John Henry Hobart delivers the sermon The Churchman.. to the Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Connecticut, Rev. Brownell is consecrated Bishop of Connecticut at Trinity and the famous Bishop William White of Philadelphia delivers the sermon Of the Gospel as the Power of God unto Salvation.

1825

On March 23, The Last Two Slaves Sold in New Haven were Lois Tritten, age 46, and her daughter Lucy Tritten, age 28. They are displayed, auctioned, and sold to their new owner, Anthony B. Sanford, a shareholder of Trinity who sits in the second pew form the front, and whose father was a founder of the wooden First Church: he pays $10 for the two, and immediately sets them free.

Rev. Nathaniel Sheldon Wheaton (1792 – 1862) preaches The Providence of God Displayed in the Rise and Fall of Nations. A Sermon, Delivered at the Annual Election, in Trinity Church, New-Haven, on Wednesday the 7th of May, 1828. Born in Washington, Connecticut, in1820 Wheaton was elected rector of Christ Church in Hartford Connecticut. He went to England in September 1823 to solicit aid in money and books for what was then Washington College, New Haven. As a member of the board of trustees he lobbied successfully for a move to Hartford, and the renaming of the institution to Trinity College. He may have received a rather cool reception from Rev. Harry Croswell, another Washington College trustee, who had raised funds for the college from the New Haven community.  In his diary on  May 7, 1824, he wrote, “The Trustees of Washington College met in New Haven this day – and after some discussion, fixed the location of that Institution in Hartford – a location which will probably become fatal to the interests of that institution.” During his stay in England he wrote a journal which was published in 1829 as under the “Notes of Travel”. While in England he also viewed and admired the Gothic style of architecture of the churches in England. In 1825 his parish decided to build a new church, and hired Ithiel Town, the architect of Trinity Church to build Christ Church, Hartford in 1828-9. Having taken the college from New Haven, he copied the church as well. In 1831 he was elected president of Trinity College, a position he held until 1837,  whereupon he became Rector of Christ Church New Orleans.

1832

Bishop Thomas Church Brownell delivers A Charge to the Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Connecticut. Brownell and Harry Croswell worked jointly to found Washington College in New Haven in the early 1720s raising money from Croswell’s wealthy parishioners. But after Croswell had collected the funds, the wily Rector of Christ Church Hartford organized a "bait and switch" move to Hartford, whereupon the name was changed to Trinity College. In his diary on May 7, 1824, Thursday, Croswell noted that, “The Trustees of Washington College met in New Haven this day – and after some discussion, fixed the location of that Institution in Hartford – a location which will probably become fatal to the interests of that institution.”   To the right is an engraving of a bronze statue to the memory of Bishop Brownell, Trinity College, Hartford, courtesy of the Connecticut Historical Society.

1833

On June 15, President Andrew Jackson visits New Haven; accompanying him were Vice President Martin Van Buren and other dignitaries.The next day General Jackson attended services in Trinity Church and heard Rev. Harry Croswell preach. According to one account, "Thurlow Weed, of the Albany Journal afterward gave currency to a story that the behavior in church, of Mr. Martin Van Buren was so indecorous that he ought to have been disciplined by the "tythingman", but this was indignantly denied by many who had attended the services."  Croswell knew both Weed and Van Buren well -- Weed was a former errand boy in the Croswell's print shop in Catskill Landing, while Croswell's nephew Edwin Croswell was an editor of the Albany Argus, a newspaper that strongly supported Van Buren, and Croswell knew Van Buren from his days in Hudson, New York, when Van Buren was the Democratic party surrogate of Columbia County, New York from 1808 until 1813, the time when the party was trying to put Harry in jail with some eventuall success. Unable to derail Van Buren's less than brilliant career with this bit of gossip -- Van Buren was a rathe uninspiring President of the US from 1837 to 1841 -- Weed went on to create the Republican party and put President Lincoln in the White House.

Jackson this year also was the first president to take ride on a train , perhaps in something that looked very much like this 1833 carriage-style car.

1841

After President William Henry Harrison dies after only 32 days in office. The Rev. Harry Croswell preaches A Discourse, on the Death of the President of the United States.

1842

Despite Rector Dr. Harry Croswell’s strong opposition, the vestry in 1842 changed long practice and demanded that all black parishioners sit in the organ loft at the back of the church; they reserved just four pew “slips” for over 40 people. Harry Croswell, the man who had ministered alone in New Haven to the black community since his arrival in 1814, supported the disenfranchised black members of Trinity to found St. Luke’s all black Episcopal Church in New Haven in 1844. A group of 46 black Trinity Episcopalians met in Trinity’s Glebe Lecture Room until they could build their own church. The Rev. Eli Worthington Stokes led the new congregation. Its members included the clerk Peter Vogelsang who in April of 1765, became one the first black commissioned officers in the army during the civil war, and treasurer Alexander DuBois, grandfather of the great civil rights leader W. E. B. Du Bois.  The St. Luke's Episcopal Church, built in 1905 is a lost Gothic Revival building, and perhaps hints at the design of the mother church.

1848

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Samuel Farmar Jarvis, Historiographer of the Church, preaches at the Diocesan Convention the sermon The Colonies of Heaven. In the Appendix he prints The CONCORDAT BETWEEN THE CHURCHES OF SCOTLAND AND CONNECTICUT -- which lays out seven articles. "Whereas it has been represented to us the Bishops of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, by the Reverend Dr. Samuel Seabury, your fellow Presbyter in Connecticut, that you are desirous to have the blessings of a free, valid, and purely Ecclesiastical Episcopacy communicated to you, and that you do consider the Scottish Episcopacy to be such in every sense of the word".

1856

The Rev. Harry Croswell preaches on December 31, 1854 his sermon Forty Years in Trinity Parish: A Pastoral Letter to the Parishioners of Trinity Church, New Haven. His sermon is taken from I CORINTHIANS II: 3, And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.”  He knows his end is approaching.

In his sermon he sums up his record as a clergyman: BAPTISMS, administered by the Rector, 2525, By all others, including Assistants, Associates, and visiting Clergymen, 193, Aggregate, 2718; MARRIAGES, by the Rector, 804, By all others, 106, Aggregate, 910; BURIALS, by the Rector, 1814, By all others, 76, Aggregate, 2090.
 

1858

The Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell dies, and is buried with great honor. Rev. Samuel Benedict, the Assistant minister, takes over as the interim Rector for one year. While Trinity survived the Revolution and the War of 1812 without too much patriotic disgrace, the Rev. Samuel Benedict became Rector of St. James Church, Marietta, Georgia. During the civil war he proved more loyal to the Confederate cause than to his native Connecticut roots and to Harry Croswell; while Marietta was occupied by northern troops, he refused to say prayers for Abraham Lincoln. He was arrested, then banished to Canada for disloyalty. One can only admire the wisdom of the vestry who passed him over for the next rector of Trinity Church, the great and learned Rev. Harwood. After the war, Rev. Benedict returned to Marietta, and he is remembered in the Marietta Museum of History there.  The New Haven Museum has no portrait, image, or exhibit of Harry Croswell.

1858

The Rev. Daniel Raynes Goodwin preaches Christianity Neither Ascetic nor Fanatic.at Triniity.

1863

In the Civil War, at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863, former Trinity member Peter Vogelsang, the oldest member of the all-black 54th led by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, is wounded in a heroic but doomed charge on the Fort, but survives; on April of 1765 he becomes one of the first black commissioned officers in the American army. Vogelsang was also a founding member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, New Haven; he was one of 46 black founding members who left Trinity when the vestry voted to restrict black members to a handful of pews in the back of the church. As clerk of the newly formed St. Luke’s he worked with Rector Croswell to found the new all black church in New Haven.

1866

The Rev. Edwin Harwood preaches The Protestant Episcopal Church in New Haven and for New England: A Sermon Preached at the Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Consecration of Trinity Church, New Haven, Wednesday, February 16th, 1866. It contains quite a bit on the early History of Trinity Church on the Green

1859

In February the parish votes to call the Rev. Dr. Edwin Harwood (1822 – 1902). In contrast to his predecessor Dr. Harry Croswell, who had virtually no formal education and whose doctorate was well-deserved but honorary, the brilliant and learned Dr. Harwood – then just 37 – had a great deal of education. Harwood graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 18, where he studied under Henry Reed, a disciple of Wordsworth. From there he entered Andover Theological Seminary, intending intention to become a minister in the Presbyterian Church, but influenced by the Oxford Movement, after two years at Andover he transferred his affection to the Episcopacy and his seminary to the General Theological Seminary in New York; he graduated in 1844 and was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church. Harwood subsequently was Rector at Oyster Bay, N.Y, at St. Paul's, East Chester, N. Y., and St . James', Hamilton Square, N. Y., and in 1852 he organized the Church of the Incarnation, New York City. From 1854-59 he was Professor of Interpretation of the New Testament, Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Connecticut. From 1859 to 1895 Harwood was Rector of the Trinity Church, New Haven. In 1862 Trinity College, of Hartford, conferred upon him the degree of D.D. Rector Harwood was a member of many prominent historical and Biblical societies, the New England Colony Historical, the Society of Biblical Exegesis, etc. He was the author of many sermons, pamphlets and historical reprints, and he was one of the translators and editors of Lange's Commentaries on the Bible. He died at New Haven, Conn., January 12, 1902. He would be Trinity's rector for 36 years, and die in New Haven, though he is not buried there.

1862

The Trinity Church Home is established.  A distinguished board of trustees, led by Dr. Harwood, is appointed to govern it. A charter for Trinity Home for the elderly is obtained in May, and the home is opened on the 23d of October. Its first location was a rented house in Leffingwell Alley (now part of Center Street) near Temple.  It "is created for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in the city of New Haven, refuge for the poor and friendless members of Trinity Parish, and such others as the board of managers may think are entitled to its benefits" For more. see Trinity Home 1948. An end note on the 1948 printed copy of the by-laws notes that Dr. Hardwood is "most Learned perhaps & Colorful rector Trinity ever had. " CKE [Mrs. Benjamin English?], though most of us would probably give that title to Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell.

1869

Mr. Joseph E. Sheffield, "a generous benefactor of this parish" builds three buildings on one campus plot in downtown New Haven on George Street: a "Parish School of Trinity Church" building with apartments for the teachers and a chaplain, a "Trinity Church Home" for the elderly, and between these two buildings, "Trinity Chapel".  They were designed by the noted New Haven Architect, Henry Austin.  The existing Trinity Home with eight inhabitants is moved to the new building on April 15, 1869. Today, the chapel has become the New Haven Branch of the Salvation Army.

This is both a great year and a tragic one for Rev. Dr. Harwood. In addition to the consecration of the new chapel and window, Hardwood’s eldest daughter Honora, after having been disappointed by the rejection of her first love, was to be married to a second suitor on October 7 in a very publically announced ceremony at Trinity Church – after which Harwood would preside over the opening of the Protestant Episcopal Church Congress in his hometown of Philadelphia. But on September 28, Honora secretly meets her original beau in New York City, and elopes with him to Europe. His second daughter Alida had recently secretly converted to Roman Catholicism; she was sick with malaria, and the news of her sister’s elopement sends her into a rapid decline. On her deathbed she asks for a Catholic priest. After much heartsickness and agony, Rev. Harwood and Father McGivney of St. Mary’s Church, New Haven, agree she can be buried according to both rites.

John Williams preached Men for the Times: The Sermon Preached before the Convention of the Diocese of Connecticut in Trinity Church, New Haven, June 12, 1883, in Commemoration of the Election of Samuel Seabury as First Bishop of Connecticut, March 25, 1783 

1893

Rev. Dr. Edwin Harwood delivers an address in memory of Phillips Brooks, Late Bishop of Massachusetts.

1894

Rev. Dr. Edwin Harwood delivers a discourse The Beginnings of the Episcopal Church in New Haven.

1899

The Rev. Frank Woods Baker becomes Rector.

The Rev. Dr. J. J. McCOOK,Rector of St. John’s, East Hartford, and Professor in Trinity College. delivers the sermon Dreams and Visions: A Sermon Preached at the Opening of the Convention of the Diocese of Connecticut in Trinity Church, New Haven, St. Barnabas' Day, June 11, A.D. 1901.

1902

Dr. Edwin Hardwood dies.  The Rev. Stewart Means of St. John's Church, New Haven, preaches In Memoriam, EDWIN HARWOOD, Doctor in Divinity.

1905

The land and three buildings of the Trinity Parish School, Chapel, and Home are sold to the Italian Baptist Mission with the kind agreement of Joesph E. Sheffield's heirs. The greater part of the money received was invested in the purchase of the house and lot at the corner of Oak Place and Howard. .  The new location is described in the Annual reports of the State Board of Charities of Connecticut in 1921 as "..about three-quarters of a mile southwest from the center. The house occupied for the purpose 'is a commodious, three-storied structure, situated in a large yard, and provides comfortable accommodations for eleven old ladies, besides the necessary employees. The Home is owned and maintained by Trinity Church, Protestant Episcopal, and is designed to care for the aged, needy women of that parish. Arrangements are also made by which other persons in the diocese may be received, provided there is no home for the aged in the person's place of residence."  Its location is a matter of some dispute: records places it at the corner of Oak Place and Howard, at 186 Oak Street, and at 406 Oak Street -- which would place it on what is today 1 Legion Ave, at the north-east boundy of the Hill district of New Haven.  It is now a parking lot, but this 1911 Atlas map gives an indication of what it might have looked like at the time.

1908

The Rev. Dr. Charles Otis Scoville becomes Rector.

1908

Trinity Parish House moves from 160 Temple Street to 310-312 Temple Street, a building bought by the heirs of E. Hayes Trowbridge for $65,000.

1912

The stone reredos was dedicated on March 24, 1912. Designed by Charles Coolidge Haight of New York, the work was executed by sculptor Lee Lawrie, who also sculpted the figure of Atlas in front of Rockefeller Center, the reredos in St. Thomas', New York City, and the state capitol in Nebraska – the elegant angels above the neo-Gothic statues seem to predict Lawrie’s future art deco style in the streamlined, repetition, symmetry, and simplicity of the tall narrow angels.

1925

The Rev. Dr.  Scoville organizes detailed plans for a new Parish House to be built at the corner of Wall and Church streets; the old Temple Street building is swapped for the land with Yale University. Since it contains a rectory, the 70 Trumbull Street house is also sold for $25,000. Funds donated by Mrs. Lucy Boardman along with $95,000 in pledges by 450 parishioners allow the cornerstone to be laid in 1923. The building is designed by Charles Scranton Palmer in “Ivy League Gothic” to blend in with its Yale neighbors -- a prudent decision as it will be sold back to Yale in 1980. Opening ceremonies are held in August of 1925.  To the right is the entrance to the building.

1926

Trinity Home moves from 186 Oak Street to 84 Norton Street. Today the Norton Street building it houses the New Haven Reentry House, a residential program providing adult male probationers with coordinated services to find stable housing and employment.

1935

The Rev. Theodore H. Evans becomes Rector.

1939

The Rev. Scoville comes back and fills in for a year as interim Rector.

1940

The Rev. C. Lawson Willard becomes Rector.

1970

The Rev. Craig Biddle III becomes Rector.

1971

Trinity Home on 84 Norton Street is sold for $56,000, and the eight ladies living there were placed at St. Paul's home at 600 Chapel Street. The Trinity Home Board continues on with the work of the original mission, managing the donated endowment of Sheffield and others over the years.  Today the building is the

1977

The Rev. Andrew Fiddler becomes Rector.

1980

Trinity Church sells the Parish House to Yale University as a gift from John Hay Whitney, (Yale class of 1926).  After extensive remodeling, it is re-opened in 1981 as the Whitney Humanities Center. Its three floors accommodate an art gallery, conference rooms, seminar spaces, offices, and support facilities, as well as a state-of-the-art lecture hall and auditorium, and the former gym has become a theater. The carving of the ship to the right was possibly a reference to the ships that carried the missionary priests of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel from England to America to found and minster to Trinity Parish New Haven; it has become the logo of the Whitney Center.

2011

The Rev. Dr. Luk de Volder becomes Rector.