1 October 1724 A.D. Richard Mansfield Born—Colonial Anglican &
Royalist in Connecticut; He Opted out of
CT Congregationalism While Studying at Yale
This week
we’ll be looking at some historic buildings in the Lower Naugatuck River Valley
towns of Derby and Ansonia. Reverend Richard
Mansfield
was the first clergyman of the Church of England to reside in Derby. Although
his father was a deacon in the Congregational Church, Mansfield had converted to
Anglicanism after studying at Yale and was ordained by the Archbishop of
Canterbury himself in England. Assigned to Derby in 1748, Rev. Mansfield would serve for 72
years, the longest recorded rectorship in the United States. In Derby, Rev.
Mansfield lived in a saltbox house on what is today
Jewett Street in Ansonia (which later separated from Derby). The house had been built around
1700 and was purchased the the Episcopal Church in 1748 as a home for its
rector, thus becoming an Episcopal Glebe House Rectory. His tenure was not
without serious difficulties, however, because during the Revolutionary War,
the loyalist Rev. Mansfield was forced to flee to
Long Island. Although he returned to his old rectorship after the war, his wife
Anna and infant daughter had died during his absence. During Rev. Mansfield’s tenure in Derby, the Episcopal Church
had two successive
buildings.
The first church was erected on Elm
Street (in what is now Ansonia) in 1737. Itinerant Anglican priests had
preached there until Rev. Mansfield arrived in 1748. A new church was completed
on Derby Avenue in 1799, where Rev. Mansfield served until his death in 1820.
He is buried in the Episcopal cemetery on
Elm Street,
his monument marking where the first Episcopal church’s alter had been when it
stood at that location. In 1926, the Mansfield House was moved across
Jewett Street to make way for St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church and School.
Preserved by the Mansfield House Association, the building was given to the
Antiquarian and Landmarks Society. Later, in 1960, the A&L gave the house
to the Derby Historical Society.
Update:
Last year the house acquired a new owner, who has posted about the house on his
blog. Here’s a great article about the restoration
of the house. Another post is about the south
garret, while others discuss the history of the
house, a Bible once owned by
Rev. Richard Mansfield and thermal imaging,
No comments:
Post a Comment