16 A HALF CENTURY. 



Church in Hartford, Rev. Thomas Hooker, left a lastmg im- 

 press on both Church and State in the whole colony, and 

 this was probably nowhere felt more deeply than in the mother 

 Church at Farmington. His son, Rev, Samuel Hooker, the 

 second pastor of the Farmington Church, had the families of 

 the Great Swamp Society, and what was afterwards Kensington 

 and New Britain, in his parish during the latter part of his 

 ministry. So long as he was pastor, the people at Great Swamp 

 would go to the meeting-house in Farmington on foot or on 

 horseback, six or eight miles, without complaint, to worship and 

 be instructed by this eminent minister and faithful pastor. Other 

 Farmington pastors and laymen, especially Rev. Timothy Pitkin 

 and Rev. Noah Porter, D.D., and Colonel Fisher Gay, and 

 Governor Treadwell, aided and befriended New Britain in its 

 earlier days of weakness, and contributed to the social and re- 

 ligious character of the place. 



One of the most active men in securing the organization of 

 the Great Swamp Society was Stephen Lee, son of John Lee, 

 one of the Hooker company that came to Hartford in 1636. 

 When the Great Swamp Church was organized in 1712, in the 

 list of the seven pillars the name of Stephen Lee was placed 

 next that of the pastor, and when the meeting-house was seated, 

 he was assigned to the post of honor, the pew next the pulpit. 

 He v/as a conscientious supporter of the Great Swamp or Ken- 

 sington Church, until he believed it necessary to have preach- 

 ing in what was afterwards the New Britain Society. Then 

 he headed the petition for that privilege, and for nearly fifteen 

 years petitioned, counseled, and labored, until his prayer was 

 answered and the request granted. On his death his mantle 

 fell upon his grandson. Colonel Isaac Lee, then thirty-six years 

 of age, who at once became a leader both in civil and religious 

 affairs in the new parish. He had for several years joined his 

 grandfather and others in petitioning for the new Society, and 

 when it was incorporated in 1754, he gave it its name, "New 

 Britain." On its organization he was appointed its clerk, and 

 held the office nearly forty years. He was one of the original 

 members of the First Church, a member of the standing com- 



