The Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution will hold a commemoration at the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in East Haddam, Connecticut, on Saturday, Sept. 19, marking 250 years since colonial spy Nathan Hale was hanged by British forces on the morning of Sept. 22, 1776. At 1 p.m., a bell from the belltower of the adjacent St. Stephen's Episcopal Church will ring 13 times.
Sons and Daughters of American Revolution to mark 250th anniversary of Nathan Hale's execution in East Haddam
The Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution will hold a commemoration at the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in East Haddam, Connecticut, on Saturday, Sept. 19, marking 250 years since colonial spy Nathan Hale was hanged by British forces on the morning of Sept. 22, 1776. At 1 p.m., a bell from the belltower of the adjacent St. Stephen's Episcopal Church will ring 13 times.
The event will also include a re-dedicating and honoring of gravestones of several Revolutionary War officers in the vicinity, according to the article.
The Nathan Hale Schoolhouse was built in 1750 as the First Society School serving the Landing district in East Haddam. Hale spent approximately half a year teaching in its single room before moving to a position in New London. When fighting began in 1775, he joined the Continental Army, and was subsequently sent undercover to Long Island — posing as a schoolteacher — to gather intelligence on British troop movements. He was captured within a week, charged with espionage, and hanged in Manhattan. He is credited, described in the source as likely apocryphally, with the last words: 'I only regret I have but one life to lose for my country.'
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church was first built on what is now Porges Road approximately 15 years after Hale's death. A bell was installed in its belltower in 1794. On April 22, 1798, the bell's clapper fell onto a young man named Amasa Brainerd as he entered the church; he died two days later. The bell was subsequently sold in 1802. Local legend attributed the incident to Brainerd having neglected his churchgoing duties, though his tombstone at Riverview Cemetery suggests he was a parishioner in good standing.
A replacement bell did not arrive at St. Stephen's until around 1834. That bell — 32 inches high and 33 inches in diameter — reportedly came from a Spanish monastery and bears the inscription 'santo ano de 815,' which has prompted claims that it is the oldest bell in the Western Hemisphere. Several theories exist for how it arrived in East Haddam: one holds that it was part of spoils from Napoleon's invasion of Spain and later Wellington's conquest of Napoleon; another ties it to the defeat of a Catholic Carlist rebellion in the 1830s, after which the bell was transferred to England, shipped across the Atlantic as ballast, and found in St. Augustine, Florida, during the First Seminole War by East Haddam resident Captain Ephraim Robert Andrews. A third theory, described in recent St. Stephen's parish history as 'the most likely story,' holds that the bell was one of three sent from Spain to be sold on consignment. It is agreed that William Wyllis Pratt, son-in-law of parishioner Oliver Attwood, took charge of the bell in New York City and brought it to St. Stephen's around 1834.
Doubts exist about the bell's stated age. Its full inscription — 'Concepit de espiriti santo ano de 815 Siendo prior el V P Dn Migues Villa Nueva Procurador El V P Dn Josef Estevan Corales me Hizo' — mixes Latin and Spanish, a combination scholars would not expect from a bell cast in 815 A.D., when only Latin would have been standard. The late Rev. Richard Payne, who served as part-time Vicar at St. Stephen's in the 1980s, suggested the bell may actually date to 1815, with a digit dropped from the inscription. The bell now rings every Sunday and at special services; volunteer Betsy Barney said it is rung once for each year of a deceased parishioner's age at funerals.
- The source does not state how many people are expected to attend the Sept. 19 commemoration.
- The source does not identify which gravestones of Revolutionary War officers will be re-dedicated at the event.
- The source does not cite a named historian, linguist, or independent authority on the question of whether the bell dates to 815 A.D. or 1815.
- The source does not state whether any scientific dating or metallurgical analysis of the bell has been conducted.
- The source does not identify the specific Spanish monastery from which the second bell is said to have originated.
- The source does not state who currently organizes or leads the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution chapter holding the event.
Read the original at CT Examiner