BENJAMIN COLTON was a grandson of George Colton, the English emigrant to Springfield and Suffield, Massachusetts, and son of Ephraim Colton, of that part of Springfield now Longmeadow, by his second marriage with Esther, daughter of Samuel Marshfield. He was the seventh of his father's eighteen children, and was born (probably) in 1690.
In May, 1711, the General Assembly of Connecticut granted leave to the inhabitants (about twenty-seven families) of the western portion of the town of Hartford (now West Hartford) to constitute a separate parish; and in pursuance of this permission, Mr. Colton was soon after employed by them on trial as a candidate for the pastorate. At a meeting of the society on the 5th of October, 1713, definite proposals were made to him with respect to salary for a series of years; and on his acceptance of these, a church of twenty-nine members was gathered under the name of the Fourth Church of Christ in Hartford, and he was ordained pastor, February 24, 1713–14. His earlier ministry was prosperous, and the church shared largely in the results of the great awakening of 1740, though he was himself classed as an “Old Light.”
Traces of dissatisfaction with him appear upon the records of the Society by 1753,-the first occasion being apparently his alleged excessive resentment in the case of a personal quarrel. On July 2, 1754, a committee was appointed “to treat with Mr. Colton, First about some matters of grievance, and if that can be well got over, then to discourse with him about a settled salary of what he will abide by without making any more difficulty, if the Society pay the sum they agree with him about.”
No satisfactory agreement was then reached; but the next action taken was in September, 1756, when after an unsuccessful attempt “to refer the affairs with Mr. Colton to referees,” it was “voted, we will do nothing further about Mr. Colton's affair;" and “Voted, the committee go on to hire Mr. Russel to preach here.” On December 11, 1756, the following conclusion was reached: “Whereas the Rev". Mr. Ben". Colton has for more than seven months last past been under such bodily weakness as to render him unable to serve this Society in the work of the Gospel ministry, and there seems to be a probability that he will not again ever be able to serve said society in said work, it is therefore voted by said Society to give the said Mr. Colton the sum of £25 new tenor bills, provided he accept thereof and thereupon resigns his pastoral office in this Society.” The next year provision was made for an annual allowance of £12% to be paid him during life, “provided he meddle not with the affairs of the ministry or the government of the church for the future.”
He survived, in broken health, until March 1, 1759, when he died in West Hartford, aged about 69 years.
He married, December 3, 1713, Ruth, eldest daughter of the Rev. Edward Taylor (Harv. Coll. 1671), of Westfield, Massachusetts. She was born 1693 and died May 30, 1725.
He was again married, in 1726, to Elizabeth, daughter of the Hon. William Pitkin, Jr., of Hartford. She was born August 18, 1689, and died October 11, 1760.
He had two sons and two daughters by the first marriage, and three daughters and two sons by the second. His eldest son, Eli, graduated at this College in 1737, and his youngest, George, in 1756. One daughter married the Rev. Adonijah Bidwell (Y. C. 1740). Of his children, all except the eldest son and one daughter survived him.
He published -
1. Two Sermons Deliver'd at Hartford . . The first Sermon Treats of the change of the Sabbath, from the Seventh, to the First Day of the Week. From Acts xx, 7. . . The second Sermon Treats of Baptism, From Acts viii, 38. N. Lond., 1735. 16°, pp. 67. [C. H. S. Prince.
2. The Danger of Apostacie, shewed in a Sermon [from Joshua xxiv, 2.0] Preached before the General Assembly of Connecticut, May 12, 1737. N. London, 1738. 16°, pp. 60. [C. H. S. Harv. Y. C.
AUTHORITIES.
Cothren, Hist. of Woodbury, ii, 1479.
Hinman, Catalogue of Puritan Settlers of Conn., 680.
Morris, Hist. Discourses at W. Hartford, 1863.
N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Register, xxii, 194; xxxvii, 34.
