[N.B. Italics are our
own.] There is no reason, however, to suppose that this state of thing's
was peculiar to Glastenbury, for there is too much evidence that it
prevailed throughout the country."
Mr. Chapin's deductions from the revelations of the Glastenbury records,
will be fully justified by the experience and observation of every
antiquarian who has had occasion to _dig deep_ among the civil and
ecclesiastical records of almost any one of the older towns of New
England. We have before us, while writing, a copy, made some years
since, by ourselves, of the records of the first church of Woodstock,
Conn., covering the period from 1727 to 1777, in which are a large
number of entries, mostly the names of parties who made _confessions_ of
this sort before that church. These cases occur most frequently between
the years 1737 and 1770. Our own observation among the records of the
old churches in Windsor and East Windsor, is, in effect, the same, and
we have occasionally happened upon the original manuscript confessions
of individuals read to the church before they were formally admitted to
its communion.
[33] _History of Dedham, Mass_, (by Erastus Worthington, 1827), page
108. Under ministry of Rev.
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