Churches in Killingworth
Thomas L. Lentz, Municipal Historian
May 9, 1667 is taken as the date for the founding of Killingworth when the General Court (Assembly) named the town Kenilworth. Shortly thereafter, on October 10, the Court gave permission for the inhabitants of Kenilworth “to gather themselves into church order.” In October 1667, a call to be minister was made to the Rev. John Woodbridge, a graduate of Harvard College. In the same year, the first church building, or meetinghouse, was built on Meetinghouse Hill in now Clinton. The Rev. Abraham Pierson was called as pastor in 1694. He holds the distinction of being the first Rector or president of what was to become Yale College and held the first classes in his house Killingworth.
In the early 1700s, descendants of the first settlers began moving into the northern part of town. Attendance at church services at that time was mandatory and people had difficulty travelling to the south for church. They petitioned the General Assembly to form a Second Ecclesiastical Society that would allow them to have their own church in the north. This was granted in 1735 and in 1737 permission was granted to form a church. The Rev. William Seward, a graduate of Yale College, became the first pastor of the Second Church in 1738 and served for 44 years. The first meetinghouse was completed in 1743. It was located between Route 81 and the hardware store on land now owned by the Killingworth Land Conservation Trust. The second meetinghouse, the present Congregational church, was completed in 1820.
For over a hundred years after the founding of the town, virtually all the residents of Killingworth belonged to the Congregational Church. However, some new residents belonged to other denominations. In 1815, there were 233 families in North Killingworth; 170 Congregationalist, 36 Episcopalian, 8 Baptist, and 19 Methodist. Baptists and Methodists attended church in other towns.
The Episcopal Church was organized in the late eighteenth century as the Episcopalian Society of North Bristol (now North Madison). The Society organized itself as a parish on July 10, 1800. Most members were from North Bristol but with an influx of members from North Killingworth it became known as the Episcopalian Society of North Bristol and North Killingworth. Construction of a church building in North Killingworth began in 1803 on land belonging to Bezaliel Bristol. In 1805, the church was named the Union Church. The church building was completed in 1816 and the sanctuary was consecrated by Bishop Hobart of New York in 1817. The first minister of the church was Nathan Bennett Burgess who had been rector of Christ Church in Guilford and St. John’s in North Guilford. In 1869, Dr. Samuel Fuller, Priest in Charge, suggested the name be changed from Union Church to Emmanuel Church. The Rev. George B. Gilbert became Priest-In-Charge of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in 1909. He revitalized the church and made it known to the world with his famous book “Forty Years a Country Preacher” published in 1939.
In 1841, a Methodist Episcopal Church was dedicated. It stood at the corner of Route 81 and Pond Meadow Road. It was later disbanded. In 1964, Father Walter Keenan of St. Mary’s Parish in Clinton held the first Catholic mass in Killingworth at the elementary school auditorium. The Roman Catholic Church of St. Lawrence was dedicated on October 15, 1966. In 1978, Father Daniel F. McGrath was named the first pastor of Saint Lawrence Church. In 1990, the Living Rock Church was dedicated with the Rev. Ryan Young as pastor.
Congregational Church in 1870
Emmanuel Episcopal Church in 1900