Excerpt from An Historical Address; Delivered at the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary, of the First Church of Christ, in Colchester, Connecticut: August 27th, 1903

These two decisions of the Supreme Court in regard to Ecclesiastical Societies are supported by later decisions affirming the same doctrines. Thus the town of Colchester, or the Inhabitants of the town of Colchester at the time of its incorporation in 1698 possessed ecclesiastical powers, that is, the legal right to hold property and incur obligations for religious purposes; while the First Church, the religious organization itself, was not established here until 1703. These ecclesiastical powers the town exercised in its regular town meeting until 1725 - and possibly a little later - when a Second Society was set off by the General Court of the Colony, the inhabitants of that part of the town not included in this new Society continuing the ecclesiastical powers thus formerly used by the town under the name of the First Ecclesiastical Society. This, as I understand it, was the origin of the First Ecclesiastical Society.

Hence it is that from the early town records, and not from the records of the First Ecclesiastical Society, we are able to find facts relating to the early management of the affairs of this church. In fact, the town records contain all that we know concerning its early history. They antedate all other records concerning this church.

As for the church records themselves, they are contained in three books. The first one consists of some old leaves, saved, evidently, from an older book, and contains nothing prior to_1732; from then to the year 1792 there are quite a number of entries, being, however, for the most part, names of members, with a list of baptisms and marriages. From 1792 to the present day there are two books of Church records which are fairly complete, containing minutes of the actual doings and business of the Church.

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