James Fitch (minister)

He was the first minister ordained in Saybrook, Connecticut and played a key role in negotiations with the Mohegans during King Philip's War.

[3] In June the settlers approached the three sachems of Mohegan - Uncas, Owaneco and Attawanhood - who sold them a nine square mile tract of land.

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?"

The Connecticut General Assembly authorized Fitch to hear matters of controversy between Indians and colonists and commissioned him to instruct the Mohegan in the Christian religion.

In time, Fitch's Indian congregation grew to about 30 members, but they were constantly harassed by Uncas, who had wavered in his view about Puritan Christianity.

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.

[1] His fair dealings with the native tribes spared the English settlers who were on the very frontier at that time.

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.

In 1666, Connecticut granted 120 acres to Fitch adjacent to his father-in-law John Mason's land which was known as Cedar Swamp.

The Biblical Lebanon was a mountain with groves of tall cedars and the words 'cedar' and 'Lebanon' are closely identified with the Bible.

This marriage had eight children: Daniel, John, Jeremiah, Jabez, Anna, Nathaniel, Joseph and Ebenzer.

He served as a deputy of the General Assembly of the Connecticut Colony representing Norwalk in the May 1673 session.

[10] Fitch, James (1679) The first pinciples [sic] of the doctrine of Christ 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.