Chap. 9. 



RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 



197 



LANDS GRANTED FOR RELIGIOUS PURPOSES. 



PROPAGATION RIGHTS- 



of his charters with applicants and pur- 

 chasers, reserved and granted three of 

 such equal shares for relig-ious purposes, — 

 one for a glebe for the English Church, 

 — one for the Society in England " for 

 Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts," 

 and a third for the first settled minister, 

 of whatever denomination he might be. 

 One hundred and twenty five townships 

 in all were thus granted. In only a sin- 

 gle instance, Arlington, the first minis- 

 ter's share was taken up by an Episco- 

 palian. Generally the shares were taken 

 up liy the Independents. 



These lands, with the e.xception of the 

 grants last mentioned, laid uncultivated 

 many years. At length came to light a 

 conspiracy. In the year 1786 the Trus- 

 tees of Dartmouth College, with Dr.Whee- 

 lock at their head, conceived the design 

 of getting possession of them for the pur- 

 poses of education — or rather, for the pur- 

 pose of advancing the interests of that 

 seminary by identifying with them the 

 interests of education in Vermont. It was 

 proposed, by Dr. Wheelock, that the leg- 

 islature should sequester for tlie use of 

 Dartmouth College all those shares of 

 land, which had been reserved in "the 

 New Hampshire grants" for the Propaga- 

 tion Society and for Church glebes, under 

 a stipulation for certain advantages to be 

 enjoyed by Vermontese at that institution 

 and at certain proposed academies. The 

 subject was referred to the next session of 

 the legislature. It came up — was com- 

 mitted — and there was the end of it. 



The scheme of Dr. Wheelock seems to 

 have turned the attention of the legisla- 

 ture for the first time to the lands in ques- 

 tion. In October, 1787, an act was pass- 

 ed authorizing the selectmen of the sev- 

 eral towns to take them under their care 

 for the period of seven years, and to ap- 

 p\y the incomes to the improvement of the 

 same. This act was not attended to. The 

 universal saying was. Why trouble our- 

 selves with the care of other men's prop- 

 erty ? 



This act expiring in 1794, the legisla- 

 ture passed another authorizing the towns 

 to take in charge the glebes and to pay 

 over the rents and profits to the several 

 religious societies in the same, according 

 to the number of families in each. In 

 Manchester, where the Rev. Daniel Bar- 

 ber was then officiating, the constitution- 

 ality of this act was denied. A suit was 

 commenced against Mr. Barber, then in 

 occupancy of the glebe, in the Circuit 

 Court of the United States, which in Oc- 

 tober, 1798, resulted in a decision, declar- 

 ing the act of Vermont unconstitutional 

 and void. 



In 1802 the matter was again taken up 

 in the legislature, but no measure was de- 

 cided upon till 1805, when a law was pass- 

 ed to appropriate the glebe lands to the 

 support of schools. This was carried in- 

 to eflx'ct wherever there was no opposi- 

 tion. In Arlington, Manchester, Sand- 

 gate and Pawlet the Cliurch still held 

 possession. But in 1810, the Rev. Mr. 

 Bronson having charge of the Church in 

 Pawlet,thattownbrougIit an action against 

 him and the tenants, which, after going 

 through several terms of the Circuit court, 

 was at length in 1815 decided against the 

 Church. 



By this decision the claim of the Church 

 was declared to be void. The chief ground 

 of the decision was, that the original pur- 

 pose of the reservation did not take eff'ect, 

 because there was no party in existence 

 to receive, and that the government of 

 Vermont, succeeding to tliat of Great 

 Britain, might resume and re-appropriate 

 reservation at pleasure. Since this decis- 

 ion we have abandoned all expectation of 

 derivino- any benefit from this portion of 

 the Church lands, which in future, with- 

 out doubt, will be known only in the 

 Church's history. 



We turn to give some further account 

 of the lands granted to the society in Eng- 

 land for the propagation of the gospel in 

 foreio-n parts — a venerable corporation 

 chartered for missionary purposes by Wil- 

 liam III. nearly 140 years ago. 



Dr. Williams states in his history of 

 Vermont [1806] that "the society did not 

 concern itself about its lands." This is 

 not correct ; for before the revolutionary 

 war it appointed agents in this country to 

 look after them, of whom the Rev. Ranna 

 Cossett was one. And these agents ac- 

 tually took possession in some cases and 

 gave leases. In May, 1785, within two 

 years after the treaty of peace, the society 

 passed a resolution declaring its readiness 

 to make conveyance, in any safe and suit- 

 able manner, of its property in this state 

 for the benefit of the Church. A copy of 

 this resolution was transmitted to church- 

 men in Vermont. Whereupon attention 

 was eagerly turned to the devising of a 

 plan, that might meet the society's appro- 

 bation, but for a long time ineffectually. 



Meanwhile the legislature, seeing the 

 property left wild, passed an act in 1794, 

 (at the same session with the glebe act,) 

 to appropriate it to the use of schools. 

 This measure was in most instances car- 

 ried into immediate efl^ect. Under this act 

 have arisen all the difficulties, with which 

 the Church has had to contend in rela- 

 tion to these grants. Feeble herself, she 

 has had to contend against prejudice on 



