Genealogy - pafn562 - Generated by Personal Ancestral File

Spickler and Rockwood Genealogy

Notes


Elizabeth Tracy

[Brøderbund WFT Vol. 4, Ed. 1, Tree #1769, Date of Import: Mar 10, 2000]
History of Norwich, page323, relates a story about the nature of
Elizabeth, or asshe is called in the story, "the widow Elizabeth
Backus".
During the mid 1700s , about 1745, the Separatist Church was formed as a
splinter group off the State recognized Congregationalist Church. These
souls did not feel that they should be required to pay the government tax
leveed to support the main church as they did not participate, yet the
Separate churches were not recongized by the Legislature. At Norwich,
the number of Separates was considerable, and their influence still
greater, so that at one period they out voted thestanding regular
church, and declared that they would not support a ministerby a tax.
The other party appealed to the Legislature and obtained an orderto
enforce the rates.
"The widow Elizabeth Backus was one of the first company of seceders, and
a zealous partizan of the cause. Her son had previouslysuffered an
imprisionment of twenty days, and herself, on a dark night in October,
1752, about nine o'clock, was seized by the collector, carried to jail,
and kept there thirteen days. Her tax was then paid, but without her
consent, by her son-in-law Gen. Jabez Huntington. At a subsequent
period, her grandson, Gen Jedidiah Huntington, pledged himself to pay her
rates annually,that the venerable lady might not be disturbed by any
solicitations for thatpurpose."
Her son Isaac Backus had later written of this enforcment, "They went on
in such ways for about eight years, until the spiritual weapons of truth
and love vanquished those carnal weapons, which have not been so used in
Norwich since."