Sarah Newton - Born in Church 1686 , Milford, New Haven, Connecticut, USA It is a well-recorded fact that Sarah Newton, who was the daughter of Samuel Newton, and great grand child of Hartford's founder and premiere clergyman, Rev. Thomas Hooker, Jr., was actually and physically born in church. Sarah was born in the First United Church of Christ, Milford, Connecticut in 1686. That church was their hospital, town hall, school and police station all rolled into one. Exerpts from the Town of Milford's historical information site tells us the following:

A History of First United Church of Christ, Milford, Connecticut

The First Meeting House Desiring a church and a colony of their own, they purchased land for this purpose on February 12, 1639, but they made no attempt to settle the land that winter. Their church was organized before moving to Wepawaug, which is now Milford. Originally, the government of the town was a Theocracy - a small republic independent of all outside authority. God was their only King and the Bible their only law book. Only Church members were permitted the right to vote and hold office. When Milford, as part of the New Haven Colony, merged with Connecticut Colony in 1665, the law was changed and ownership of property became the basis of citizenship in place of church membership. The early pastors of the Milford Church were well educated, numbering among them graduates of Cambridge, England; Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, Dartmouth, and Oberlin.

On August 22, 1639, The First Church of Christ in Milford, now the First United Church of Christ (Congregational) was organized in New Haven by The Reverend Peter Prudden and a company of fifteen families. They arrived in Boston on July 31, 1637, from England. A year later they sailed to what is now New Haven and held their first religious service under an oak tree on Sunday, April 25, 1638, with the founding settlers of that community.