The Second Society of Lyme

Eighteenth century Connecticut Congregational Church, in addition to providing spiritual guidance oversaw the taxes and education of its corresponding “society”. Thus, church membership was highly encouraged, both to avoid ostracization and to pay one’s taxes. Wearying of the tiresome trek to the Congregational Church of Lyme, made even in the winter's frigid temperatures and summer's severe heat, the citizens of eastern Lyme petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly on May 14th of 1719 to form an additional parish to be henceforth referred to as the “Second Ecclesiastical Society of Lyme”. In response, the Connecticut Assembly soon resolved “that the town of Lyme and the petitioners … [shall report upon] the ministers that are already there, how they are settled and subsisted, and what arrears are … that this court may be the better able to resolve what encouragement it may be fit for them to give to the making of a parish” (Public Records of Connecticut).

In October of 1719, the state legislature, satisfied with the report, granted the separation, forming the Second (Ecclesiastical) Society of Lyme. What follows is an excerpt from the Public Records of Connecticut, dated October 8th of 1719: "The said Niantick [sic] Quarter is and shall be of itself a distinct society for the setting up and supporting the gospel ministry there; and the same priviledges [sic] is hereby granted unto the people inhabiting in said quarter … the inhabitants … shall be discharged from paying anything to the support of the ministry in the old society." The old society referenced was the Congregational Church in what is now Old Lyme.

According to volume III of the Lyme Records, a total of 190 acres was granted to the Society in the interest of supporting the Church's ministry. Between these two lots, one containing 90 acres and the other 100, lay Society Road, so-named for its relation to the Second Ecclesiastical Society. Additionally, an acre was given for the founding of a church graveyard. This graveyard is now referred to as the "Old Stone Church Cemetery" and may be seen in the aerial photograph below.