Rev. Richard Mansfield
REV. RICHARD
MANSFIELD
1724 - 1820
ANGLICAN RECTOR
72 YEARS
Reverend Richard Mansfield, the first resident Church of
England clergyman in Derby, lived from 1724 to 1820 and
served for 72 years, a period marking the longest rectorship recorded in
the United States. He was born in New Haven and his father was a deacon in
the Congregational Church. However, while studying at Yale he became
interested in the Episcopal faith. In 1748, he sailed to England, was
admitted to Holy Orders by the Archbishop of Canterbury and swore an
allegiance to the king that would later cause him some difficulties at
home.
Upon his return to America, he was assigned to Derby.
There he married Sarah Anna Hull in 1751. When the Revolutionary War broke
out, Dr. Mansfield found himself in an awkward situation having pledged
his loyalty to the king. When a
pro-British letter that he had written to British authorities in New York
fell into the hands of patriots, he had to flee for his life to Long
Island in 1775. He believed that the colonists should remain loyal
subjects of the King of England (As did many others in Derby at the start
of the War!). He fled Derby from his pulpit on a Sunday morning just ahead
of a pursuing band of patriots who didn't take kindly to his pro-British
sermons.
Though he escaped safely to Long Island, while he was away, both his wife Anna, and their infant
daughter died while living in the Episcopal Glebe House Rectory. Following
the war he returned to Derby and took up his old rectorship at St. James'
Church. The animosity prevalent because of his pro-British stance seemed
to fade as the citizens turned to building their new country. Mansfield
was a very active clergyman serving all of Derby including Seymour and
Oxford.
He died in 1820 and is buried in the old cemetery on Elm
Street in Ansonia which had been the site of the first Episcopal church in
the Valley.
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