[e] The notorious William Ledra of later Massachusetts fame was one of these.
[f] This year a law was passed requiring every person to carefully apply himself on the Lord's day to the duties of religion. See New Haven Hist. Soc. Papers, ii, 399.
[g] "Articles of Misdemeanor vs. Connecticut, July, 1665. "They deny to the inhabitants the exercise of the religion of the church of England; arbitrarily fining those who refuse to come to their congregational assemblies."
Law Book of Conn, printed 1670. "It is ordered that when the ministry of the word is established according to the Gospel, throughout this Colony, every person shall duly resort and attend thereunto respectively upon the Lord's day, upon public fast days and days of thanksgiving as are generally kept by appointment of authority; and any person … without necessary cause, withdrawing himself from the public ministry of the word, he shall forfeit for his absence from every such meeting five shillings."—Conn. Col. Rec. iii, 294.
[h] They reported that the colony would "not hinder any from enjoying the sacraments and using the common prayer book, provided that they hinder not the maintenance of the public minister."—Hutchinson, Hist, of Mass., p. 412.
Dr. Beardsley suggests that influential citizens may have assured them that the laws would be modified to accommodate Episcopalians.—E. E. Beardsley, Hist. of the Episcopal Church, i, p. 116.
Population in 1656, 800; 1665, 9000; 1670-80, 10,000-14,000; 1689, 17,000-20,000; 1730, approximately, 50,000; 1756, 130,000; 1761, 145,000; 1776, 200,000; 1780, 237,946—F. B. Dexter, Estimates of the Population of the American Colonies, in American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, 2d series, vol. 5.
[j] Up to 1680, there was only one Episcopal clergyman in New England, Father Jordan, of Portsmouth, N. H. There was an Episcopal clergyman at the fort in New York, and outside of Virginia and Maryland only two others in North America. There were a few Episcopal families in Stratford in 1690.
[k] Or "Propagation,"—as it is most frequently called.
[l] Mr. Muirson's report after his first visit to Stratford was that he had had "a very numerous congregation both forenoon and afternoon." He continues, "I baptized about twenty-four persons the same day…. "The Independents threatened me and all who were instrumental in bringing me thither, with prison and hard usage. They are very much incensed to see the Church (Rome's sister, as they ignorantly call her) is likely to gain ground among 'em, and use all stratagem they can invent to defeat my enterprise,"—Church Doc. Conn., i, p. 17.