James Fitch

Rev. James Fitch (24 December 1622 – 18 November 1702) was instrumental in the founding of Norwich and Lebanon, Connecticut. He was the first minister ordained in Saybrook, Connecticut and played a key role in negotiations with the Mohegans during King Philip's War.

Early life

Fitch was born in Bocking, county of Essex, England on 24 December 1622 to Thomas and Anna (Reeve) Fitch. Instead, Fitch was taken under the wing of a family friend Rev. Thomas Hooker of Chelmsford and probably began studying to be a minister. A new church was built in Saybrook, Connecticut and Fitch was ordained as its first minister in 1646. Fitch accompanied the congregation as their leader along with Major John Mason.

Shortly after his arrival at Norwich, the Hartford church extended to him a call to be their pastor. This offered him a wider field and greater influence, but he declined and replied, "With whom then, shall I leave these few poor sheep in the wilderness?" He was devoted to his people, and they retained to the last a deep affection for him.

When King Philip's War began in 1675, Rev. Fitch was instrumental in acting as an envoy and getting Uncas and the Mohegans and the Pequots to side with the English against King Philip's Narragansett tribes.

The Rev. Mr. Fitch appears to have been a man of true philanthropy and of enlarged missionary zeal. He made early efforts to instruct the natives in the truth of the gospel. He took pains to acquire their tongue, and was a frequent visitor in their wigwams. He impressed them with his own sincerity and benevolence, so that others who like Uncas himself remained obstinate in their unbelief, accorded him their entire confidence and regarded him with affectionate respect. To their temporal, as well as spiritual wants, he was always alive. His converts were formed into a settlement by themselves upon lands which he partly presented and partly procured for them from the town.|Bishop Lee's Discourse at Norwich Jubilee, p. 133. As quoted in Genealogy of the Fitch Family, page 11.

The stands of white cedar in Cedar Swamp in the Goshen section of town reminded Fitch of the Biblical cedars of Lebanon, which were used to build King Solomon's Temple. The Biblical Lebanon was a mountain with groves of tall cedars and the words 'cedar' and 'Lebanon' are closely identified with the Bible. Although the North American white cedar is not the same species as the true cedar of Lebanon, it was a fitting association for Puritans to make. Thus Fitch gave the name of Lebanon to the new plantation when settlement began. The General Court confirmed the name in 1697. Lebanon was the first town in the colony to receive a Biblical name. The town of Lebanon was incorporated by the General Assembly of the Connecticut Colony on 10 October 1700.

Family life In October 1648, Fitch married Abigail Whitfield, daughter of the Henry Whitfield of Guilford, Connecticut. They had six children: James, born Aug. 1649; Abigail, Aug. 1650; Elizabeth, Jan. 1651; Hannah, Sept. 1653; Samuel, April 1655 and Dorothy, April 1658. Abigail died on 9 September 1659, just before Fitch moved to Norwich.

Writings Fitch, James (1679) together with stronger meat for them that are skil'd in the word of righteousness, or, the doctrine of living unto God, wherein the body of divinity is briefly and methodically handled by way of question and answer / published at the desire and for the use of the Church of Christ in Norwich in New-England. Boston: John Foster.