On March 30, 1638 the founders of New Haven left Boston with Gov. Eaton and their minister, John Davenport, to found a colony where they could live on their own terms. They were seeking relief from religious persecutions and illegal "taxation" in England by King Charles I, especially after he dissolved his third Parliament with the purpose of ruling without it. The beginnings of New Haven and its government occurred at the meeting of St. Stephen’s Parish, Coleman Street, London on October 6, 1624 when John Davenport, from Oxford, was elected as minister at age 27. Located in the middle of the financial district of London (see below) the parish was mostly middle class and, while officially part of the Church of England, strongly Puritan and Non-Conformist in its views.
In the seventeenth century, Coleman Street was a fair and large street with houses, serving as the principal artery between Moorgate and Lothbury. There were a number of alleys off to each side which is still the case.
The parish extended from about 100 feet west of Coleman Street to Draper’s Gasrdens and from Lothbury, north to beyond the Wall. The original church was in southwest corner of the parish. The church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, then rebuilt by Wren. It was damaged in 1940 during the Blitz, the site was sold and the parish was united to St Margaret Lothbury in 1954. St Margaret Lothbury was also rebuilt by Wren in 1686 and is the parish church of the Bank of England. It is located on Lothbury EC2 in The City of London and contains many church furnishings rescued after the blitz from other churches in the City.
Before the Great Fire of 1666 there were over a hundred church spires dominating the skyline. Ninety-seven of these were parish churches that fell within the walls of the City and many were extremely small. The Great Fire destroyed eighty-nine churches and, if the City authorities and Sir Christopher Wren, who was in charge of the rebuilding, had been allowed to prevail, the restored City would have had fewer parishes. But the demands of citizens prevailed and an Act passed in 1670 stated that fifty-one of the destroyed churches were to be rebuilt. This still meant that many old parishes would vanish entirely, their parishes being united to nearby ones, though they would continue to be represented by churchwardens and parish clerks and often retained their own parish registers for many years. Of those churches rebuilt by Wren, many were to be destroyed during World War Two and only thirty-eight survive today. (Continued)
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