John Hubbard, the second son of the Hon. Colonel John Hubbard, and the younger brother of the next-named graduate, was born in New Haven, January 24, 1726-27.
He studied theology, and was licensed to preach by the New Haven Association, May 27, 1746. He very soon, however, entered on a mercantile career in New Haven; in 1748, he was in partnership with Chauncey Whittelsey (Y. C. 1738). He married, January 25, 1749-50, Rebecca, daughter of Captain Isaac and Mary (Atwater) Dickerman, of New Haven, born July 2, 1726.
He continued to preach occasionally, though for some years reputed somewhat unorthodox in his beliefs. Finally, on the 5th of October, 1767, when in his 41st year, the church in the parish (afterwards the town) of Meriden, in Wallingford, Connecticut, invited him, by a vote of 42 to 21, to preach for four Sundays on probation; at a meeting of the ecclesiastical society, immediately after, he was given a call to settle, by a vote of 65 to 37. When the four weeks' probation had expired, the church again voted, 42 to 21, to invite Mr. Hubbard to settle as pastor, though the minority protested against the irregularity of employing him without having consulted the County Association of Ministers. The minority went further, and made formal complaint to the Association, which on his refusing to answer revoked (November 11, 1767) the license to preach which they had given him twenty-one and a half years before. The church, nevertheless, bound to vindicate the rights of the local churches to choose their own pastors, as against Associations and Consociations, invited a council to meet, December 29, for Mr. Hubbard's ordination. The Consociation of the Churches of the county met in Meriden on the same day, by invitation of the minority; and the two ecclesiastical bodies were for four days in discussion, until the council decided that on account of "the broken and divided state of the church and society" they were not prepared to proceed to ordination. As the breach was not healed, however, the majority finally called another council, which on June 22, 1769, ordained Mr. Hubbard. The transactions of the Council and the Consociation in 1767 were published (N. H. 8o, pp. 22), as was also a Letter from the Association, in 1769 (N. H. 8o, pp. 24).
Mr. Hubbard's good qualities of heart and power as a preacher gradually won back the opposing element, and he grew in favor with the society, until he was disabled from service in the winter of 1783-84 by being thrown from his sleigh. A colleague was settled in June, 1786, and Mr. Hubbard died on the 18th of the following November, in his 60th year.
After the death of his first wife, he married, September 20, 1770, Mary, widow of George Frost, of Newport, by birth a Russell, who died March 2, 1806, being that day 70 years of age ; the match was made by the intervention of his sister's husband, Dr. Ezra Stiles, Mrs. Frost's pastor.
He left two sons by his first marriage.
AUTHORITIES.
Davis, Hist. of Wallingford, 216-29.
Hungerford, Centennial Sermons, 32-40, 65-71.
Perkins, Hist. Sketches of Meriden, 56-9.
Tuttle, Hist. sketch of Hubbard Family, 11-15.
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