George Whitfield's Incredible Journey Through Middletown, CT in October 1740

"Why, Mr. Whitefield," inquired a friend one day,
"why do you so often preach on 'Ye must be born again?'"

"Because," replied Mr. Whitefield,
looking solemnly into the face of his questioner, "Ye must be born again!"

In October of 1740, George Whitfield made an impromptu stop along the Connecticut River in Middletown. It is estimated that a crowd of 4,000 gathered at that time. This was more than the population of any settlement or town in the colony at that time. Middletown at this time was the largest city in the colony due to its location and bustling economy of the shipping industry. This gathering happened during the height of became known as the Great Awakening. Following are excerpts from writings regarding the incident.

…Loath to part with Whitefield, Edwards accompanied him for the next two days as he rode to East Windsor, the home of his father, the Rev. Timothy Edwards. After preaching to his people Whitefield said, “His wife was as aged, I believe, as himself, and I fancied I was sitting in the house of Zacharias and Elizabeth. I parted from him and his son with regret:’

Two days after leaving Edwards, Whitefield came to Middletown. One of his hearers, Nathan Cole, an unlettered farmer, wrote an account which demonstrates how the mere announcement “Whitefield will preach!” brought virtually the whole countryside hunying to hear him. Cole wrote.

one morning all on a Suding there came a messanger & said mr whitefield is to preach at middletown this morning at 10 o’clock. i was in my field, dropt my tool & run home and throu my house and bad my wife to get ready quick & run to my pastire for my hors with all my might fearing i should be too late to hear him & took up my wife and went forward as fast as I thought ye hors could bear & when my hors began to be out of breth would get down and put my wife on ye saddel and bid her ride as fast as she could and not Stop for me except i bad her & so would run until I was almost out of breth & then mount my hors again.

i saw before me a cloud or fog….as i came nearer ye road i heard a noise something like a low rumbling thunder & presently found out it was ye rumbling of horses feet….i could see men and horses slipping along. . . . i found a vacance between two horses to slip in my hors & my wife said law our cloaths will be all spoiled….and when we gat down to ye old meeting house there was a great multitude... . I looked towards ye great river I see ye fery boats running swift forward and backward—when I see mr whitefield come up upon ye scaffold he looked almost angellical, a young slim slender youth before thousands of people and with a bold undainted countenance & my hearing how god was with him everywhere…. it solemnized my mind & put me in a trembling fear…. for he looked as if he was clothed with authority & a sweet solemnity sat upon his brow….my old foundation was broken up and I see my righteousness would not save me.

Taken from George Whitefield: Laboring in the Great Awakening, p.91

Whitefield’s Preaching Came In Time To Fill Spiritual Void
by Diana Ross McCain, Time Capsules, The Hartford Courant

Imagine the international celebrity of Paul McCartney combined with the evangelical fervor of the Rev. Dr. Billy Graham, and you will have some idea of the impact that English religious revivalist the Rev. George Whitefield had on New Englanders when he visited the region in 1740.

So great was the excitement generated by Whitefield’s preaching, so eager, even desperate were people to hear his message, that when word spread on the morning of Oct. 23, 1740, that he would be making an unscheduled stop at 10 am. That very day to speak in Middletown, within a matter of hours there gathered an audience of 4,000 — the equivalent of about 5 percent of the population of the entire colony of Connecticut at that time.

Anglican minister George Whitefield was only 25 when, in 1739, having ignited a major religious revival in his native England, he crossed the Atlantic intending to do the same in the British colonies He had spent a year in America, speaking to enormous crowds with great impact in a string of cities that included Philadelphia, New York, Savannah, Charleston and Boston, before he arrived in Middletown on that autumn day while on his way from Springfield, Mass., to New Haven.

Benjamin Franklin himself testified to Whitefield’s extraordinary talents as a preacher. Listening one night to Whitefield preach in Philadelphia, Franklin, out of curiosity to see how far the evangelist’s voice could travel, moved progressively farther away to the point that he estimated that Whitefield “might be heard by more than thirty thousand” listeners.

Franklin had turned down Whitefield’s request for a donation toward building an orphanage in Georgia, a project that Franklin considered impractical for several reasons.

However, Franklin recalled, “I happened soon after to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers. Another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that, and determined me to give the silver. And he finished so admirably that I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector’s dish, gold and all.”

New England was ripe for George Whitefield’s message. The zeal that had prompted Puritan pioneers to come to the New World wilderness a century earlier to establish a society based upon the Bible, one that would serve to all the world as an example of Christianity triumphant, had cooled over the course of subsequent generations.

By the late 1730s the Puritan, or Congregationalist, faith had become for many of its adherents rigid, stale, overly intellectual and meaningless. Large numbers of people felt a spiritual void that George Whitefield’s preaching of a faith that sprang from the heart rather than the head seemed to fill.

Just how thirsty the people of central Connecticut were for George Whitefield’s refreshing words is dramatically demonstrated by the account of one of those 4,000 who gathered in Middletown to hear him speak, 29-year-old Nathan Cole of Kensington. The original document containing Cole’s description, which has appeared in print a number of times, is at The Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford.

Cole was laboring in his field when around 9 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, a messenger arrived with the news that George Whitefield would be preaching in Middletown later that same morning. Cole had heard such phenomenal accounts of the conversions that resulted from Whitefield’s speaking that, “I longed to see and hear him, and wished he would come this way.” Dropping his tool, Cole raced to tell his wife to get ready, then to get his horse. With little more than an hour to cover the dozen miles to Middletown, Cole and his wife left immediately, sometimes both riding, sometimes Nathan running to give the horse a rest from its double burden, traveling “as if we were fleeing for our lives; all the while fearing we should be too late to hear the Sermon.”

The Coles headed for Middletown via present-day Cromwell When they were about a mile from the road that ran from Wethersfield to Middletown, Nathan wrote, “on high land I saw before me a Cloud or fogg rising,” that he assumed was mist that had formed in the Connecticut River valley.

“But as I came nearer the road, I heard a noise something like a low rumbling thunder and presently found it was the noise of Horses feet coming down the Road and this Cloud was a Cloud of dust made by the Horses feet.” When they reached the road, he discovered “a steady Stream of horses and their riders, all of a Lather and foam with sweat….every horse seemed to go with all his might to carry his rider to hear news from heaven for the saving of Souls.”

After their frantic ride of 12 miles, along which Cole recalled “I saw no man at work in his field, but all seemed to be gone,” he and his wife finally reached the site of the Middletown meetinghouse where Whitefield was to speak. Looking out at the Connecticut River Cole “saw the ferry boats Running swift backward and forward bring Over loads of people…the land and banks over the river looked black with people and horses.”

When at last Whitefield appeared before the crowd, Cole instantly sensed that his frenzied journey had been entirely justified. Whitefield looked “almost Angelical,” Cole recalled, [sic] …as if he was Cloathed with Authority from the Great God.” The sermon he delivered was everything Cole had hoped and prayed it would be.

“My hearing him preach, gave me a heart wound,” was how Cole described the profound impact George Whitefield’s words had upon him. The Kensington farmer became one of the thousands whose religious faith was rekindled in the revival sparked by George Whitefield’s preaching that came to be known as the Great Awakening, and which transformed not only Middletown, but Connecticut, New England, and indeed all of British North America, forever.

Diana Ross McCain of Durham has written about Connecticut history for numerous newspapers and magazines. If you have suggestions for future columns, please drop a line by fax at (860) 343-5220, or by writing to The Extra, c/a The Courant, 373 E. Main St.. Middletown, CT 06457.

Franklin, the first truly scientific observer of lightning, listened to Christ’s twenty-five-year-old lightning rod preaching from the courthouse steps, and was amazed at the carrying power of his voice. Retracing his steps backwards down Market Street until he could no longer at last hear him, the amazed Franklin computed that in an open space, [George] Whitfield’s words could be heard by thirty-thousand people!

And on more than one occasion, they were. Even when he came unexpectedly to a town, there was an astonishing turnout. For example, there was the time that he felt God wanted him to change his itinerary at the last minute and preach at Middletown, Connecticut. The moment they knew he was coming, riders galloped down all the roads ahead of him, spreading the word that the man who had preached in Philadelphia “like on of the old apostles” would soon be preaching in front of the meetinghouse. Farmers dropped their hoes and left their plows, grabbed their wives and mounted their horses. One observer described the sound like distant thunder, and he saw a great cloud rising along the road – everyone was riding as fast as he could down the dirt road to Middletown. When Whitefield arrived, several thousand horses had been tethered in long lines at the back of a vast crowd of dust-covered farmers. It looked as if an entire cavalry division had dismounted and was awaiting him!¹

“If George Whitfield wished to set America ablaze for God, he must win New England.”²

¹ Peter Marshall, Jr. & David Manuel, Jr., The Light and the Glory, Grand Rapids, MI, Fleming H. Revell, 1977, pp. 248-9.
² Pollock, John, George Whitfield and the Great Awakening, Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday & Co., 1972.

As Whitfield's health was failing, the crowds who came to hear him were as large as had ever been. His last message was preached in Exeter, New Hampshire on the green. Whitefield preached about the incomparable excellencies of Christ, all the while he seemed to look straight into heaven. Finally he cried out, "I go! I go to rest prepared. My sun has arisen and by the aid of heaven has given light to many. It is now about to set... No! It is about to rise to the zenith of immortal glory.... O thought divine! I shall soon be in a world where time, age, pain, and sorrow are unknown. My body fails, my spirit expands. How willingly I would ever live to preach Christ! But I die to be with Him!"

Early the next morning, his words came true.

Links to sites about George Whitfield (1714-1770)

Whitfield's Sermons

For Christmas Day: Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
written with Charles Wesley & Martin Madan

Christian Heroes Site on Whitfield

George Whitfield: Great Men of God
from Christians in Touch

More Whitfield Sermons

Even More Whitfield Sermons

Whitfield's Letter to Wesley on the Sermon "Free Grace"

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