Lebanon Old Society

Lebanon, CT

Lebanon, CT, was incorporated in 1700 by James Fitch and John Mason, who had been given plots of land by the Mohegan Indians, the original inhabitants of the area. Its population was then 350 people, and as the town grew, it was divided into ecceliastical societies or parishes, the arm of the Congregational Church that handled secular business. When new societies were established for each new church, they were often named numerically ("First" or "Second") or descriptively, sometimes after the neighborhood or new town that formed around them. Thus, "Lebanon Old Society" refers to the first eccesiastical society established to manage the affairs of the earliest Congregational Church in the town. When it was provisionally divided in 1732 (and actually in 1804), it was referred to as "South Society," while the "new" parish was called "North Society."

Bates, Albert C. "Introdution." List of Congregational Ecclesiastical Societies Established in Connecticut Before October 1818, with their Changes. Hartford: Connecticut Historical Society, 1913. University of Connecticut Libraries, online; Simpson, Nancy. "Lebanon, Connecticut."New London County USGenweb Project. www.ctgenweb.org.