The Griffins and the Congregational Church

In the seventeenth century, there were two primary reasons to go to North America, economics and religion. The colonist who founded Massachusetts came to be able to practice their religion, as they believed, They wanted to create “a city on the hill” and the only way to do this was to have everyone in the community participating fully.  This was known as full communion or full covenant.  People that weren’t willing to participate at this level were asked (forced) to leave the community.  This created a community steeped in the culture, education, politics and family life of Congregationalism.  In the early part of the 18^th century as families spread out and immigrants moved in that weren’t part of the “city on the hill”, religion seemed to become less important in the community.  However the preachers of the first great awakening sought to keep the culture in the communities tied to religious belief.  In the attempt to do this they created the half covenant, which would still allow for religious participation while not having full communion.  However the desired outcome was still full communion and being a complete part of the community.  This happened in all of the New England colonies that were an outgrowth of the Massachusetts colony. So what was the relationship between the Griffins and the Church?  Samuel and Mary would have been part of the 1^st Society, the original congregation in Killingworth, whose records have been lost thus there is no record of their marriage or baptism of the children. The first documented Church interaction is when Thankful was recognized as owning the covenant  “OC” in the 2^nd Society, May 3,1747, joined by her sister Jerusha, April 11, 1753. The recording of a marriage in church records indicates a level of involvement and the baptism of your children indicated an act of joining in faith with Jesus and   acceptance into fellowship of the Church.  Thankful married into one of the most prominent families in the Church, the Buells, her Father in Law, a Deacon.  Thankful was later granted Full Communion, her children baptized. Samuel’s marriage to Marah Griffen is not recorded but their children Lois, Polly and Azubah were baptized and they together owned the covenant. The same was true with his marriages to Mercy Nettleton and their sons Joel and Asahel, and Mercy Bailey and their children, Molly, Worden, Mercy, Samuel, John and Daniel. Both of those marriages are in the church records.  James and Jerusha married in and became part of other congregations. The records documenting Church involvement continued into the next generation, with the families of, Lois and Stephen Kelsey, Azubah and Henry Davis, Polly and Reuben Dowd, Mercy and Ithamar Pelton and Worden and Rhoda Hull.   What did church involvement mean?  The bible was the primer as they learned to read.  Their music came from the hymns of the church service.  The gospel messaged permeated every aspect of their lives.  An example of the extent of their religiosity can be found in the will of Mercy Bailey’s great grandfather, Henry Farnum. “I do give my soul into the hands of God who hath created me ….. when he shall be pleased to call for it”.  The originals of all of these church documents are still housed at the Congregational Chapel in Killingworth, Conn.