Rev. James Fitch (24 December 1622 – 18 November 1702) was instrumental in the founding of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

and Lebanon, Connecticut. He was the first minister ordained in

Saybrook, Connecticut Deep River is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut. The population was 4,415 at the 2020 census. The town center is designated by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place (CDP). Deep River is part of what the locals call the "Tri- ...

and played a key role in negotiations with the

Mohegans The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the east ...

during

King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...

Early life

Fitch was born in Bocking, county of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, England on 24 December 1622 to Thomas and Anna (Reeve) Fitch. His father died when he was 10 years old but he left money in the will so that his son could study at Cambridge. Instead, Fitch was taken under the wing of a family friend Rev.

Thomas Hooker Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding spea ...

of Chelmsford and probably began studying to be a minister. He studied languages during his youth.

Immigration to America

In 1638 at the age of 16, Fitch sailed to America with his brother Thomas. He finished his theological study in Hartford, Connecticut under the Reverend Hooker and Reverend

Samuel Stone Samuel Stone (July 18, 1602 – 20 July 1663) was a Puritan minister and co-founder of Hartford, Connecticut. Biography Stone was born in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire, England. The name of the town is pronounced "Hartford". ...

, also of Bocking, England. A new church was built in Saybrook, Connecticut and Fitch was ordained as its first minister in 1646.

Settlement at Norwich

In May of 1659, the congregation at Saybrook applied to the General Court at Hartford for permission to make a new settlement at Norwich and received permission. In June the settlers approached the three

sachem Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...

s of Mohegan -

Uncas Uncas () was a ''sachem'' of the Mohegans who made the Mohegans the leading regional Indian tribe in lower Connecticut, through his alliance with the New England colonists against other Indian tribes. Early life and family Uncas was born n ...

, Owaneco and Attawanhood - who sold them a nine square mile tract of land. Fitch accompanied the congregation as their leader along with Major John Mason. Shortly after his arrival at Norwich, the Hartford church extended to him a call to be their pastor. This offered him a wider field and greater influence, but he declined and replied, "With whom then, shall I leave these few poor sheep in the wilderness?" He was devoted to his people, and they retained to the last a deep affection for him.

Interactions with the Mohegans

Rev. Fitch learned several local languages and preached Christianity to the native Americans in their own language. The

Connecticut General Assembly The Connecticut General Assembly (CGA) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is a bicameral body composed of the 151-member House of Representatives and the 36-member Senate. It meets in the state capital, Hartford. Th ...

authorized Fitch to hear matters of controversy between Indians and colonists and commissioned him to instruct the Mohegan in the Christian religion. Uncas sought to make Fitch the successor to John Mason's guardianship of the Mohegan after Mason's death in 1672, and initially encouraged tribal members to attend Fitch's instructions. In time, Fitch's Indian congregation grew to about 30 members, but they were constantly harassed by Uncas, who had wavered in his view about Puritan Christianity. When King Philip's War began in 1675, Rev. Fitch was instrumental in acting as an envoy and getting Uncas and the Mohegans and the

Pequots The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, or t ...

to side with the English against King Philip's Narragansett tribes. His fair dealings with the native tribes spared the English settlers who were on the very frontier at that time. After the war, he was responsible, in part, for the surrendering Indians formerly allied to Philip that gathered at Shetucket.

Founding of Lebanon

The town of Lebanon has its origins with the settlers of Norwich, including Rev. Fitch, who wanted to expand beyond the "nine miles square" they had bought from the Mohegans. In 1666, Connecticut granted 120 acres to Fitch adjacent to his father-in-law John Mason's land which was known as Cedar Swamp. The Mohegan leader Joshua Uncas bequeathed an additional six-mile strip to Mason's son, Captain John Mason Jr. in 1675, who split the land with Fitch, his father-in-law. This area was known as "Fitch and Mason's Mile", or just "The Mile" and became Lebanon. The stands of white cedar in Cedar Swamp in the Goshen section of town reminded Fitch of the Biblical cedars of Lebanon, which were used to build

King Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (, , ), was the Temple in Jerusalem between the 10th century BC and . According to the Hebrew Bible, it was commissioned by Solomon in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited by th ...

. The Biblical Lebanon was a mountain with groves of tall cedars and the words 'cedar' and 'Lebanon' are closely identified with the Bible. Although the North American white cedar is not the same species as the true cedar of Lebanon, it was a fitting association for Puritans to make. Thus Fitch gave the name of Lebanon to the new plantation when settlement began. The General Court confirmed the name in 1697. Lebanon was the first town in the colony to receive a Biblical name. The town of Lebanon was incorporated by the General Assembly of the Connecticut Colony on 10 October 1700.

Family life

In October 1648, Rev. Fitch married Abigail Whitfield, daughter of the Rev. Henry Whitfield of

Guilford, Connecticut Guilford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, that borders Madison, Branford, North Branford and Durham, and is situated on I-95 and the Connecticut seacoast. The population was 22,073 at the 2020 census. History Guil ...

. They had six children: James, born Aug. 1649; Abigail, Aug. 1650; Elizabeth, Jan. 1651; Hannah, Sept. 1653; Samuel, April 1655 and Dorothy, April 1658. Abigail died on 9 September 1659, just before Fitch moved to Norwich. Rev. Fitch married Priscilla Mason, daughter of Major John Mason in October 1664. This marriage had eight children: Daniel, John, Jeremiah, Jabez, Anna, Nathaniel, Joseph and Ebenzer. In his latter years, Rev. Fitch lived in Lebanon with one of his children and died there in November 1702 at the age of 79. He is buried at the Old Cemetery in Lebanon. The brother of Rev. Fitch was Thomas Fitch Jr. (14 October 1612 – 14 April 1704) who was a founding settler of Norwalk, Connecticut. He served as a deputy of the General Assembly of the Connecticut Colony representing Norwalk in the May 1673 session.

Writings

Fitch, James (1679
The_first_pinciples_[sic
of_the_doctrine_of_Christ.html" ;"title="ic">The first pinciples ic">The_first_pinciples_[sic
of_the_doctrine_of_Christtogether_with_stronger_meat_for_them_that_are_skil'd_in_the_word_of_righteousness,_or,_the_doctrine_of_living_unto_God,_wherein_the_body_of_divinity_is_briefly_and_methodically_handled_by_way_of_question_and_answer_/_published_at_the_desire_and_for_the_use_of_the_Church_of_Christ_in_Norwich_in_New-England''.''_Boston:_John_Foster.

__Further_reading_

Fitch,_J.G._(1886)_iarchive:genealogyoffitch00fitc.html" ;"title="ic
of the doctrine of Christ">ic">The first pinciples [sic
of the doctrine of Christtogether with stronger meat for them that are skil'd in the word of righteousness, or, the doctrine of living unto God, wherein the body of divinity is briefly and methodically handled by way of question and answer / published at the desire and for the use of the Church of Christ in Norwich in New-England''.'' Boston: John Foster.

References

External links

Rev. James Fitch on Find A Grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitch, James American Puritans Settlers of Connecticut English emigrants 1600s births 17th-century New England Puritan ministers 1622 births 1702 deaths People from Bocking, Essex