City of Derby
New Haven County
Connecticut

History of the Colony of New Haven Connecticut



History of the Colony of New Haven to it's Absorption into Connecticut
by Edward Elias Atwater

Chapters 3-5



Introduction    Chapt. 1-2    Chapt. 3-5    Chapt. 6-8   
Chapt. 9-10    Chapt. 11-12    Chapt. 13-14    Chapt. 15-16   
Chapt. 17    Chapt. 18-19    Chapt. 20-21    Appendix 1-7

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CHAPTER III.
THE VOYAGE OF THE HECTOR

IT was a great undertaking for the. company which gradually gathered around Davenport and the Eatons, to prepare for a voyage across the Atlantic, and a permanent residence in the New World. The ministers could perhaps embark, with their books and household-stuff, in a few days; but merchants engaged in foreign commerce needed several months, after deciding to emigrate, for the conversion of their capital into money, or into merchandise suitable for the adventure in which they were engaging. But this company projected something more than emigration. They were not to scatter themselves, when they disembarked, among the different settlements already established in New England, but to remain together, and lay the foundation of a new and isolated community. For this reason a more comprehensive outfit was necessary than if, they had expected to become incorporated, individually or collectively, in communities already planted. In addition to the stores shipped by individuals, there must be many things provided for the common good, by persons acting in behalf of the whole company. There is evidence, that, after the expedition arrived at New Haven, its affairs

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were managed like those of a joint-stock association, and therefore some ground for believing, that, from the beginning, those who agreed to emigrate in this company, or at least some of them, associated themselves together as partners in the profit and loss of the adventure. Higginson, some years before, had advised emigrants that "it were a wise course for those that are of abilities to join together and buy a ship for the voyage;" alleging as a reason, that transportation was so dear as five pounds a man, and ten pounds a horse, and commonly three pounds for every ton of goods. "All that come," he says, "must have victuals with them for a twelvemonth." Still earlier, Winslow had written from Plymouth, "Bring good store of clothes and bedding with you. Bring paper and linseed-oil for your windows, with cotton-yarn for your lamps." These directions, intended in both cases for emigrants coming to join communities already established, illustrate the need of studious foresight and careful cooperation in a company of persons proposing not only to remove to New England, but to begin a new and independent plantation. Davenport and Eaton had learned by experience, in fitting out vessels for the Massachusetts Bay Company, what would be needed in a new settlement, and were as well qualified, perhaps, as any could be, to prepare a list of necessary articles. The Abigail, the first ship which came to Salem, brought ten thousand bricks as ballast; and bricks with "London" stamped on them were found at the demolition of a very ancient house in

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New Haven.(*) It is not certain that the vessel in which Davenport and Eaton embarked, was, like the Abigail, ballasted with bricks; but the fact that bricks were sometimes brought from England illustrates the care with which emigrant-ships were fitted out. The Abigail brought also sea-coals, but all freighters must have soon learned that it was useless to carry fuel to a country so well timbered as New England. An emigrant-ship was further ballasted with iron, steel, lead, nails, and other heavy articles of utility. The bulk of the cargo consisted of apparel, bedding, food, tools, arms, ammunition, and seeds. Neat-cattle and goats were usually taken, and sometimes horses. Thb Massachusetts Bay Company had a rule, that a ship of two hundred tons should not carry above one hundred passengers, and other ships were limited after the same proportion. In the summer of 1636, several vessels recently arrived from England being in the harbor of Boston, Thomas Miller, the master's mate of one of them, was apprehended and brought before the Governor and Council, for saying, to some who came on board, that the colonists were traitors and rebels because they did not display the king's colors at the fort. The ship on which this insufferable speech was spoken was the Hector of London, William Femes, master. Sailing from Boston in July, she was chartered after her arrival

(* The writer remembers to have seen some of these bricks taken from the Atwater house of which Dr. Dana in his Century Sermon speaks as built by Joshua Atwater, one of the emigrants. I think, however, that the house was built by a nephew of Joshua Atwater. Certainly Thomas Attwater (as he chose to write his name), who in Dr. Dana's time occupied the house, was not descended from Joshua Atwater, but from his brother David.)

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in London by the company whose origin has been related in the preceding chapter. While they were preparing her for another voyage to Boston, she was seized by the Lords of the Admiralty for the king's service, as will appear from the following petition without date, but indorsed, "Received January, 1637:" - "To the Right Honorable the Lords and other Commissioners of his Majesty's High Court of Admiralty:- "The humble petition of the Owners and Freighters of the good ship called the Hector of London, "Humbly showeth unto your honors that your petitioners having contracted for a voyage with the said ship from here to New England for a plantation there, and from there to divers parts in the Streights, the freighters have made ready all their provisions and passengers, fitting both for the said voyage and plantation, and most of them thereupon engaged their whole estates and paid part of their moneys. Since which agreement and preparation made, the said ship is impressed for his Majesty's service whereby she is hindered from proceeding on the said intended voyage. "Their most humble suit therefore is that in respect of the petitioners' great charges already arisen before the impressing of the ship, and her not proceeding on her voyage will tend to the great loss, if not utter undoing of divers of your honors' suppliants, and for that, if it pleased God the ship do safely returne, the Custom to his Majesty of the goods to be imported in her from the Streights hither will amount to £3000 at the least, your Lordships would be pleased to give order and warrant for the release of the said ship from her impression that so she may proceed on her said voyage, "And they as in duty bound shall daily pray." This petition was supported by the following certificate, signed by Samuel Hutchinson, Richard Hutchinson, and Arthur Hollingworth, who were perhaps the owners of the Hector:- "We whose names are hereunto subscribed do hereby certify that the good ship called the Hector of London was contracted for,

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for a voyage, and that provision was made and provided before the said ship was impressed for the king's Majesty's service. In testimony whereof we have hereunder set our names the nineteenth of January A. D. 1637." On the 23d of the same month the Secretary of the Admiralty wrote to Sir William Russell, through whom the petition, with others of like import, had reached them, as follows:- "Sir,- The Lords Commissioners for the Admiralty (having perused your letter of the 2ist of this month touching the merchant ships ordered to be taken up for his Majesty's service) have commanded me to signify to you that they think it not fit to release any of the said ships upon the pretences expressed in your letter (albeit the same may be true) in regard they perceive by your letter that there are not at present any merchant ships in the Thames fit to send in their places. But when you shall certify their Lordships that there are other merchant ships in the river of the like burden and force, fit for his Majesty's service that may be completely fitted and ready by the 2oth of April next, their Lordships will consider further of the allegations of the owners of the four ships mentioned in your said letter and declare their further pleasure thereupon." Not entirely discouraged by this reply, the captain of the Hector presented another petition without date, but indorsed, "1637, February 14:" - "To the Right Honorable the Lords and other Commissioners of the Admiralty:- "The humble petition of William Femes, master of the ship called the Hector, "Humbly showeth that whereas the petitioner hath been an humble suitor to your honors for the releasing of the said ship; for that there was a contract and provision was made for a voyage long before, which tends to the ruin of many, except your honors be pleased to give order for her discharge; for that there are

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divers ships come in more fit and able for his Majesty's service, viz., the Vinty about 300 tons and 22 pieces of ordnance; the Royal Defence 300 tons and upwards, with 22 pieces of ordnance; the Pleiades 350 tons, 26 ordnance; Prudence 370 tons, 28 pieces ordnance; one whereof Mr. Wise is master, 350 tons and 24 pieces of ordnance; "His humble suit therefore is that your honors will please to give order that the said ship called the Hector may be discharged for the reasons aforesaid, that she may go on in her intended voyage, "And the petitioner with many others shall pray." Ultimately, the Hector was released; and from an order of the king in council, that the Pleiades, with other impressed vessels, should be ready for sea on the 25th of April, it may be inferred that she was substituted for the Hector. The reader will have noticed that the names of the freighters are withheld in all these negotiations for the release of their ship. It is alleged that many will suffer, and perhaps be undone, but there is nothing to call attention to any individuals as engaged in the enterprise. The lords of the council were not ignorant that considerable emigration to New England had already taken place, or that the exodus still continued; but they believed that those who went were for the most part poor and mean people, who would be of little advantage at home and might, if colonized, be of use by increasing foreign commerce. Moreover they were unaware how strongly this emigration was leavened with Puritanism. If they had known that several wealthy merchants of London, inclined to non-conformity, had embarked their whole estates in the Hector, and were intending to go to New England with their families to find there a permanent residence, they would have found means to

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frustrate the undertaking. On the 30th of April proclamation was made, "that the king - being informed that great numbers of his subjects are yearly transported into those parts of America which have been granted by patent to several persons, and there settle themselves, some of them with their families and whole estates, amongst whom are many idle and refractory humors, whose only or principal end is to live without the reach of authority - doth command his officers and ministers of the ports, not to suffer any persons, being subsidy men or of their value, to pass to any of those plantations without a license from his Majesty's commissioners for plantations first obtained; nor any under the degree of subsidy men, without a certificate from two justices of the peace where they lived, that they have taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and a testimony from the minister of the parish, of their conformity to the orders and discipline of the Church of England." As the Hector arrived in Boston on the 26th of June, we may infer from the date of this proclamation that it was issued immediately after she had sailed, and that it was occasioned by the discovery of the true nature of an expedition in which several persons, being subsidy men, or of their value, had clandestinely left the kingdom and carried away their estates. If the ship was chartered by a joint-stock association, it does not follow that only shareholders took passage in her. The Massachusetts Bay Company had a regular tariff of rates at which they received all freight that was offered, and all passengers who were approved. Theophilus Eaton owned a sixteenth of the Arbella, which had been purchased expressly for that company's

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service; and both he and Davenport, as directors of the company, had become familiar with its methods. The rates of that company were five pounds for the passage of an adult, and four pounds for a ton of goods. The association of adventurers which chartered the Hector would naturally adopt similar methods and similar rates. Having secured accommodation for themselves and their families, and for the freight which belonged to the association and to the individuals composing it, they would receive persons not shareholders, at the regular rates. Some of the emigrants may have been precluded from taking stock in the association by the expenses of emigration; but the originators of the enterprise would naturally desire that all who were of sufficient ability should have a pecuniary interest in its welfare. There was at least one passenger who did not come as an emigrant. Winthrop writes in his journal, "In the Hector came also the Lord Leigh, son and heir of the Earl of Marlborough, being about nineteen years of age, who came only to see the country. He was of very sober carriage, especially in the ship, where he was much disrespected and unworthily used by the master, one Femes, and some of the passengers; yet he bore it meekly and silently."(*) Before the Hector sailed, the company which chartered her had so increased that it became necessary to hire another vessel to accompany her on the voyage; but the name of the vessel has not been preserved to us. This unexpected increase was due to the accession

(* Winthrop perhaps changed his mind about Lord Leigh, when that youth, having accepted the governor's invitation to a dinner-party made expressly to honor him, was persuaded by Harry Vane to absent himself.)

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of those who have been mentioned as coming from Kent and from Herefordshire. Concerning the latter, we have no means of determining when Prudden began to negotiate with Davenport; but the men of Kent appear to have joined the expedition after the Hector was engaged for the voyage. Their departure was so hasty that many who wished to go were forced to wait for another opportunity, and came out two years afterward in the first ship which sailed from England direct to the harbor of New Haven. No documents have yet been found which indicate the day when the Hector and her consort sailed from London,(*) or the manner in which the officers of the port discharged their official duty in examining the certificates of the passengers. Similar requirements to those prescribed by the proclamation of April _0 had been made by a proclamation issued more than two years earlier, but were nevertheless insufficient to prevent the emigration of Puritans. Many found no difficulty in obtaining a bonafide certificate of conformity, and it does not appear that any objected to the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. If unable to obtain a certificate from the minister of the parish where they had lived, they came, some clandestinely, and some under borrowed names and corresponding passports. It is said that John Aylmer, Bishop of London in Queen Elizabeth's time, and an exile for religion in Queen

(* Sir Matthew Boynton, who had previously sent out some cattle, and some servants to care for them, in a letter dated "London, April 12, 1637," writes to John Winthrop, jun., "I have sent either of my servants half a year's wages by Mr. Hopkins, which, I pray you, deliver to them." Probably this letter came in the Hector with Mr. Hopkins. If so, she sailed after the 12th of April.)

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Mary's reign, was so small of stature, that, when the searchers were clearing the ship in which he made his escape, the merchant put him into a great wine-butt that had a partition in the middle, so that Aylmer was enclosed in the hinder part while the searchers drank of the wine which they saw drawn out of the head on the other part.(*) The Puritans of the seventeenth century were capable of exercising equal ingenuity when necessary; but, in a ship full of his friends, a person obnoxious to the government might be secreted for an hour without so much trouble, even if the searching officer were in sympathy with the lords of the Privy Council. In many cases, however, the searcher discharged his duty perfunctorily, and with no earnest desire to discover and arrest those who embarked without the required certificates. If ever lists of the passengers in the Hector and her consort should be discovered, they will probably not contain the name of John Davenport or of Samuel Eaton. Two months was perhaps the average time consumed in sailing from London to Boston in the vessels of that day. The Arbella, when she brought Winthrop and his company, was a little more than two months from Yarmouth to Salem; and there is no intimation in his journal that the voyage was unexpectedly long. Higginson says, "Our passage was short and speedy; for whereas we had three thousand miles English to sail from Old to New England, we performed the same in six weeks and three days." A passage was indeed sometimes made in less time, but in other instances was protracted to three months. A vessel made but one round

(* Fuller's Worthies, B. II., 248)

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trip in a year, leaving England in the spring and arriving home in the autumn. Crowded cabins rendered the passage uncomfortable, even when speedy; but a protracted voyage often induced not only discomfort, but disease. None of the passengers in the Hector, or in the vessel which accompanied' her, having supplied us with his journal, we must avail ourselves of diaries of contemporary voyages if we would see them in imagination pursuing - their way down the Thames, through the Channel, and over the Atlantic, Sea-sickness reigned supreme as they passed along the southern coast of their native island; but in the first pleasant weather after they had gained the open sea, they "fetched out the children and others, that were sick and lay groaning in the cabins, and, having stretched a rope from the steerage to the mainmast, made them stand, some on one side and some on the other, and sway it up and down till they were warm. By this means they soon grew well and merry." Afterward, "when the ship

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heaved and set more than usual, a few were sick, but of these such as came upon deck and stirred themselves were presently well again; therefore, our captain set our children and young men to some harmless exercises in which the seamen were very active, and did our people much good, though they would sometimes play the wags with them."(*) Once or twice during the voyage the wind blew a gale; and the passengers being confined to the cabin united in the observance of a fast with a protracted service of prayer, which, when the wind subsided, was followed by a service of thanksgiving.

"We constantly served God morning and evening, by reading and expounding a chapter, singing, and prayer; and the sabbath was solemnly kept by adding to the former, preaching twice, and catechising. Besides, the shipmaster and his company used every night to set their eight and twelve o'clock watches with singing a psalm, and prayer that was not read out of a book."(**) Sometimes one vessel so far outsailed her consort, that she must take in some sail, and stay for her, lest the two should be entirely separated for the remainder of the voyage. "Our captain, supposing us now to be near the coast, fitted on a new mainsail, that was very strong and double, and would not adventure with his old sails as before, when he had sea-room enough." "This evening we saw the new moon more than half an hour after sunset, being much smaller than it is at any time in England." "About four this morning, we sounded, and had ground at thirty fathom; and, it being somewhat calm, we put our ship a-stays, and took, in less than two hours, with a few hooks, sixty-seven codfish,

(* Winthrop) (** Higginson)

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most of them very great fish. This came very seasonably, for our salt fish was now spent, and we were taking care for victuals this day, being a fish day." "We had now fair sunshine weather, and there came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden." Four days later, both the ships lay at anchor, and the weary voyagers, were on shore, some gathering store of fine strawberries, and others entertained in the houses of friends, who feasted them with "good venison pasty, and good beer."



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CHAPTER IV.
THE WINTER SPENT IN MASSACHUSETTS

BOSTON in its infancy welcomed all Puritan immigrants. Its inhabitants rejoiced in the growth of their town and of their colony; they were pleased to find a market for the products of their gardens; they enjoyed the society of those through whom they could receive tidings from the mother-country, and with whom they could fraternize in religious worship. In many cases they found among the new-comers old acquaintances, the sight of whom awakened memories of the past and the absent, in which, after so long an exile from home, they experienced unspeakable pleasure. But the immigrants who landed in Boston on the 26th of June, 1637, received a warmer welcome than ordinary. The eminence of "the famous Mr. Davenport," and the opulence of the merchants who accompanied him, gave to this company, in the estimation of the colonists, an unusual value. Not only Boston, but the whole colony of Massachusetts, was desirous that they should settle within that Commonwealth. "Great pains were taken, not only by particular persons and towns, but by the General Court, to fix them in the colony. Charlestown made them large offers; and Newbury proposed to give up the whole town to them. The

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General Court offered them any place which they should choose." The arrival of Davenport was considered especially opportune because of the influence he might exert in bringing to an end the controversy which then divided the churches of Massachusetts in regard to Ann Hutchinson and the doctrines which she preached. "There are certain opinions which always come forth, under one form or another, in times of great religious excitement, to dishonor the truth which they simulate, and to defeat the work of God by heating the minds of men to enthusiasm, and thus leading them into licentiousness of conduct. These opinions, essentially the same under many modifications, have been known in various ages by various names, as Antinomianism, Familism, and - in our day - Perfectionism. Persons falling into these errors commonly begin by talking mystically and extravagantly about grace, the indwelling of the Spirit, the identity of believers with the person of Christ, or of the Holy Ghost, or of God. As they proceed, they learn to despise all ordinances and means of grace; they put contempt upon the Bible as a mere dead letter, worth nothing in comparison with their inspiration; they reject and revile all civil government and order; and not unfrequently they end in denying theoretically all the difference between right and wrong so far as their conduct is concerned, and in rushing to the shameless perpetration of the most loathsome wickedness. This intellectual and spiritual disease had broken out in Massachusetts, and threatened to become epidemic. An artful, enthusiastic, and eloquent

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woman, forgetting the modesty of her sex, had set herself up for a preacher; and by the adroitness with which she addressed herself to the weaknesses and prejudices of individuals and drew to her side the authority of some of the most honored names in the colony, she seemed likely, not only to lead her own blind followers to the wildest extravagances, but to spread division through all the churches. In this crisis, a man so eminent as Davenport, so much respected by all parties, so exempt from any participation in the controversy, so learned in the Scriptures, so skilled in the great art of marking distinctions and detecting fallacies, could not but be welcomed by all." A synod of "all the teaching elders in the country" was called to discuss the questions at issue, and discriminate between truth and error. Of this assembly, which began its sessions Aug. 30, and continued to sit for three weeks, Davenport was one of the most influential members. "The wisdom and learning of this worthy man," says Mather, "did contribute more than a little to dispel the fascinating mists which had suddenly disordered our affairs." A few days after the adjournment, Davenport, by request of the synod, preached a sermon in which, "with much wisdom and sound argument, he persuaded to unity."(*) Meantime it had become evident that the people who had come from the mother-country with Davenport, and acknowledged him as a leader, were not content to settle in the vicinity of Boston. Trumbull suggests that the Antinomian controversy was one reason why they wished to remove to a distance. But the same

(* Winthrop)

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writer says, "It is probable that the motive which had the greatest influence with the principal men was the desire of being at the head of a new government, modelled, both in civil and religious matters, agreeably to their own apprehensions. In laying the foundations of a new colony, there was a fair probability that they might accommodate all matters of church and commonwealth to their own feelings and sentiments. But in Massachusetts the principal men were fixed in the chief seats of government, which they were likely to keep, and their civil and religious polity was already formed." The day after the synod assembled, Theophilus Eaton started with a considerable party on a tour of exploration. The Pequot war had made the English acquainted with the country west of the Connecticut River and bordering on Long Island Sound. The Indians fled westward after the destruction of their fort at Mystic, and the English, pursued them as far as Fairfield, where on the 13th of July, seven weeks before Eaton started, so many of the Pequots were slain, that the few survivors ceased to maintain a tribal organization, and became incorporated with other tribes. In this pursuit, the troops marching on the land, and their vessels holding a parallel course on the water, the English came to a harbor, which the Indians called by a name variously written in that age, but known in modern orthography as Quinnipiac, where they staid several days. They were charmed with the country. Capt. Stoughton, in a letter to Gov. Winthrop, speaks of it as preferable to Pequot as a place for a settlement. He says, "The providence of God guided us to so excellent a country at Quellipioak river, and so all along the coast as we

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traveled, as I am confident we have not the like as yet." In another letter "from Pequot, the 2nd day of the 6th week of our warfare," he says, "For this place is scarce worthy much cost. But if you would enlarge the state and provide for the poor servants of Christ that are yet unprovided (which I esteem a worthy work), I must speak my conscience. I confess, the place and places whither God's providence carried us, that is, to Quillepiage River, and so beyond to the Dutch, is before this, or the Bay either (so far as I can judge), abundantly." This was probably written Aug. 14; and the gallant captain reached Boston on the 26th of the same month, when he had opportunity to give more copious description of what he had seen. Capt. Underhill doubtless made report answerable to what he has written in his "History of the Pequot War," of that famous place called Queenapiok. "It hath a fair river, fit for harboring of ships, and abounds with rich and goodly meadows." Moved by such tidings, Eaton went immediately to view the place; and so well did he like it, that, when he set out on his return to Boston, he left seven of his men to remain through the winter and make preparation for the arrival of the rest of the company. It was September when he and his followers first saw Quinnipiac; and they doubtless spent some weeks in the neighborhood, skirting the shore with their pinnace to examine harbors and rivers. There can be no doubt that Eaton, when he returned to Boston, was fully persuaded in his own mind, that Quinnipiac was preferable to any

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other available place for the projected plantation. Indeed, Winthrop speaks as if he thought the question already settled when Eaton started on his tour of exploration. Under date of Aug. 31, he says, "Mr. Eaton and some others of Mr. Davenport's company went to view Quinnipiac with intent to begin a plantation there. They had many offers here, and at Plymouth, and they had viewed many places, but none would content." But in a matter of so great importance it was necessary to proceed slowly. The exploring party must report to those who had remained in Massachusetts, and all the shareholders must have a voice in selecting a place for their plantation. Perhaps it was already too late in the year to build houses that would sufficiently shelter women and children from the rigor of the approaching winter, even if the work were commenced immediately. Certainly it was deemed expedient to remain in Massachusetts till the opening of spring; and this was the expectation when Eaton, leaving seven men at Quinnipiac, returned to Boston to make his report. Joshua Atwater, Francis Brown, John Beecher, Robert Pigg, and Thomas Hogg were of the seven. The names of the others have not been preserved. One of the seven died during the winter; and his bones were found in the year 1750, in digging the cellar of the stone house at the corner of George and Meadow Streets.(*) The hut which sheltered these adventurous

(* I think that the man who died was John Beecher, as his name does not occur on the earlier records, and there was a widow Beecher whose son Isaac was old enough in 1644 to take the oath of fidelity. Dr. Dana has preserved the tradition that Joshua Atwater was one of the seven who remained at Quinnipiac during the winter: Lambert mentions the four other names.)

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men was near the creek, and about fifty rods west of the place where the survivors buried the body of their comrade. A copious spring which once issued from the bank between George Street and the creek, and was covered when the creek was converted into a sewer, may have determined the location of the hut. We may imagine that they spent their time in hewing, cleaving, and sawing, in hunting and trapping, and in collecting, by means of barter with the natives, beaver and other furs for the European market. If, like their brethren at Saybrook, they had dogs, they might, by enclosing their house with palisades, lie down to sleep with as little danger of being surprised by an enemy, as if they had been in Boston. Whatever communication they had with their friends during the winter, must have been by means of special messengers. Indian runners were easily found to perform such a service.(*) We shall presently see, that before the 12th of March, letters had been sent by their friends in Massachusetts, directing them to transact with the natives for the purchase of land. Doubtless the same letters instructed them to build huts, and make all possible provision for the comfort of those who were to arrive. With the exception of these seven, the people who crossed the Atlantic in the Hector and her consort remained in Boston or in the vicinity during the winter, many of them having found employment suitable to their several vocations. Though somewhat scattered, some finding lodgings and employment in one place and some in another, they were still an organized com-

(* Trumbull quotes Roger Williams as saying, "I have known them run between eighty and a hundred miles in a summer's day.")

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pany, and as such were required by the government of Massachusetts to pay taxes as if they had already settled as a town in that Commonwealth. A tax was levied by the General Court, in November after their arrival, to pay the expenses of the Pequot war. The sum required was a thousand pounds, of which nine hundred and eighty pounds was assessed upon the several towns; the name of Mr. Eaton being added to the list of towns, with the minute, "Mr. Eaton is left out of this rate, leaving it to his discretion what he will freely give toward these charges." The difference between the amount required, and the amount of the assessments, indicates what sum it was desired that Mr. Eaton should "freely give;" and the discretion allowed him was, probably due to the fact that these expenses had been for the most part incurred before he and his party arrived in the country; the destruction of the fort at Mystic, which was the great event of the war, having taken place on the 26th of May, a full month before the Hector cast anchor in the harbor of Boston. But when another rate was levied, on the twelfth day of March of the following year, amounting to fifteen hundred pounds, Mr. Eaton's name was again appended to the list of towns with an assessment of twenty pounds, and without intimation that payment was optional. It is a noteworthy coincidence that this second tax is of the same date with the following letter:- "It may please the worthy and much honored Governor, Deputy, and Assistants, and with them the present Court, to take knowledge, that our desire of staying within this patent was real and strong, if the eye of God's providence (to whom we have committed our ways, especially in so important an enterprise as this,

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which, we confess, is far above our capacities) had guided us to a place convenient for our families and friends. Which, as our words have often expressed, so, we hope, the truth thereof is sufficiently declared by our almost nine months' patient waiting in expectation of some opportunity to be offered us, for that end, to our great charge and hindrance many ways. In all which time we have, in many prayers, commended the guidance of our apprehensions, judgments, spirits, resolutions, and ways into the good hand of the only wise God, whose prerogative it is to determine the bounds of our habitations, according to the ends for which he hath brought us into these countries; and we have considered, as we were able, by his help, whatsoever place hath been propounded to us, being ready to have with contentment accepted (if by our stay any public good might be promoted) smaller accommodations and upon dearer terms (if they might be moderately commodious) than, we believe, most men, in the same case with us in all respects, would have done. And whereas a place for an inland plantation, beyond Watertown, was propounded to us, and pressed with much importunity by some, whose words have the power of a law with us, in any way of God, we did speedily and seriously deliberate thereupon, it being the subject of the greatest part of a day's discourse. The conclusion was that, if the upland should answer the meadow ground in goodness and desirableness, (whereof yet there is some cause of doubting,) yet, considering that a boat cannot pass from the bay thither, nearer than eight or ten miles distance, and that it is so remote from the bay, and from any town, we could not see how our dwelling there would be advantageous to these plantations or compatible with our conditions or commodious for our families or for our friends. Nor can we satisfy ourselves that it is expedient for ourselves, or for our friends, that we choose such a condition, wherein we must be compelled to have our dwelling houses so far distant from our farms as Boston or Charlestown is from that place, few of our friends being able to bear the charge thereof, (whose cases, nevertheless, we are bound to consider,) and some of them, that are able, not being persuaded that it is lawful for them to live continually from the greatest part of their families, as in this case they would be necessitated to do. The season of the year, and other weighty considerations; compelled us to hasten to

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a full and final conclusion, which we are at last come unto, by God's appointment and direction, we hope, in mercy, and have sent letters to Connecticut for a speedy transacting the purchase of the parts about Quillypiac from the natives which may pretend title thereunto. By which act we absolutely and irrevocably engaged that way; and we are persuaded that God will order it for good unto these plantations, whose love so abundantly above our deserts or expectations, expressed in your desire of our abode in these parts, as we shall ever retain in thankful memory, so we, shall account ourselves thereby obliged to be any way instrumental and serviceable for the common good of these plantations as well as of those; which the divine providence hath combined together in as strong ra bond of brotherly affection, by the sameness of their condition, as Joab and Abishai were, whose several armies did mutually strengthen them both against their several enemies, ii. Sam. x. 9,10,11; or rather they are joined together, as Hippocrates his twins, to stand and fall, to grow and decay, to flourish and wither, to live and die, together. In witness of the premises we subscribe our names,

The 12th day of the 1st month, 1638." This letter, which is still preserved, is in the handwriting of Davenport, but is superscribed as follows in the handwriting of Eaton: "To the much honored, the Governor, Deputy, and Assistants." From this communication it appears that even if Eaton had returned from his tour of exploration fully expecting that he and his

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company would settle at Quinnipiac, he had not so fully expressed his determination as to preclude further effort to persuade him to remain in Massachusetts. It further appears that before the date of this communication the company had formally decided to fix their plantation at Quinnipiac, and had sent notice thereof to those who were already on the ground. Eighteen days afterward, that is, on the 3Oth of March, the leaders of the company and most of their followers embarked at Boston. After a tedious voyage of "about a fortnight they arrived at their desired port."(*) Winthrop thus narrates their departure: "Mr. Davenport and Mr. Prudden and a brother of Mr. Eaton, (being ministers also,) went by water to Quinnipiac; and with them many families removed out of this jurisdiction to plant in those parts, being much taken with the opinion of the fruitfulness of that place and more safety (as they conceived) from danger of a general governor, who was feared to be sent this summer; which though it were a great weakening to these parts, yet we expected to see a good providence of God in it, (for all possible means had been used to accommodate them here; Charlestown offered them largely, Newbury their whole town, the court any place which was free,) both for possessing those parts which lay open for an enemy, and for strengthening our friends at Connecticut, and for making room here for many, who were expected out of England this year, and for diverting the thoughts and intentions of such in England as intended evil against us, whose designs might be frustrate by our scattering so far; and such as were now gone that way were as much in the eye of the state of England as we here."

(*) Trumbull



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CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST YEAR AT QUINNIPIAC

THE company which came from London in the Hector and her consort, numbered about fifty adult men; or, including women, children, and servants, about two hundred and fifty persons. But so great was the enthusiasm excited by the report which the soldiers brought of Quinnipiac, and so strong the confidence felt in the leaders of the expedition, that when the company left Boston in the spring of 1638 its number was considerably increased by accessions from Massachusetts. Skirting the coast, and perhaps calling at Saybrook fort where Lion Gardiner, an old acquaintance of Davenport, commanded,(*) they at last reached the harbor of Quinnipiac. West of the river of that name, they saw two smaller streams pouring into the harbor, each sufficient to float such a vessel as theirs. The mouth of the East Creek was where the railway now crosses East Water Street, and vessels entering it could be floated up, over what is now the bed of the rail-

(* Gardiner, in his relation of the Pequot wars, says that it was "through the persuasion of Mr. John Davenport and Mr. Hugh Peters, with some other well-affected Englishmen of Rotterdam," that he left the service of the Prince of Orange in Holland to serve the patentees of Connecticut- Mass. Hist. Coll. XXIII., p. 136)

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way, as far as Chapel Street.(*) The West Creek emptied its waters where the sewer now crosses West Water Street. Still farther westward, beyond Oyster Point, the West River also emptied its waters into the harbor. Up the West Creek sailed Davenport and his companions, gazing with interest on the wilderness which was to be their home. They saw a plain extending inland about two miles, at which distance stood basaltic rocks colored with iron, and so prominent in the landscape that the Dutch had called the place Rodenbergh or Red Mount. It was well supplied with timber, but there were spaces where the natives had raised successive harvests of maize. A dense forest covered a small tract where the "spruce masts" grew; but the larger portion was an open forest, promising to supply sufficient timber for building houses and fences, with perhaps a little surplus for exportation in the form of clapboards and shingles. The tree under which they held their service of worship on the first sabbath after their arrival was a spreading oak which had not lacked room for development. Before the expiration of the second year it was ordered by the General Court that "no man shall cut any timber down, but where he shall be assigned by the magistrate, except on his 6wn ground." Such an enactment implies that there was no superabundance of timber in the vicinity of the settlement. On the west side of this plain were broad salt meadows, bordering the West River on either bank, and extending inland almost to the Red Hill which the planters called the West Rock. On the east side of the plain were

(* N. H. Col. Rec. I. 143)

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still more extensive salt meadows spread out on both sides of the Quinnipiac, or East River, and also on both sides of a stream flowing into it a short distance above its outlet, which the settlers named Mill River as soon as they were able to erect a mill. The meadows on the Quinnipiac extended northward much farther than those on West River. These salt meadows on both sides of the plain, yielding abundant provender without delay and without labor, had greatly influenced the company in choosing this place for their plantation. Invisible from the deck of the pinnace, they were doubtless eagerly inquired for by those who had not been of the exploring party. But, though rendered invisible by the intervention of higher ground, they so much widened the view, that on one side the eye could reach the hills beyond the West River, and, on the other, the highlands beyond the Quinnipiac.

The temporary shelters, which the first planters of New England provided for their families till they could erect permanent dwellings, were of different kinds. Some planters carried tents with them to the place chosen for a new home; some built wigwams like those of the natives. Either species would suffice in summer; but for winter they usually built huts, as they called them, similar to the modern log-cabins in the forests of the West, though in some instances if not in most, they were roofed, after the English fashion, with thatch. It was perhaps a peculiarity of New Haven, that cellars were used for temporary habitations. They were, as the name suggests, partially under ground, and perhaps in most cases on a hill- side. If built on the bank between the West Creek and George Street, with aper-

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tures opening to the south, they would be open to the sun and sheltered from the northern winds. Rev. Michael Wigglesworth,(*) who came to Quinnipiac with his parents in October, 1638, when he was about seven years old, describes the cellar in which the family spent the first winter, as covered with earth on the roof. Such a covering might be effectual to exclude the cold winds of winter, but, as the boy's experience proves, it was a poor protection from a heavy rain. When he was an old man he remembered how he had been, while asleep, drenched with water permeating the muddy roof, and had been afflicted in consequence with a dangerous illness. Doubtless the party which had wintered at the place had made ready not only a public storehouse, but several huts or cellars in which their friends who were to arrive might temporarily shelter their families. These would be visible to the new-comers as they approached the shore and ascended the creek.

The pinnace in which they had made the voyage was perhaps the property of some of the company, for such a vessel would be constantly in requisition for various services to the inhabitants of a new plantation. But, even if owned in Boston, she would remain for some days till accommodations on shore could be provided for all.

It was Friday when they left Boston; and, as they are said to have spent about a fortnight on the voyage, it was the latter part of the week when they arrived. On the sabbath they worshipped under an oak-tree near the landing; and Mr. Davenport, in a sermon on Matt, iv. I, "insisted on the temptations of the wilderness, made such observations, and gave such directions and

(* See his autobiographical paper in Appendix I)

(Trumbull, i. 96. It is apparent that Trumbull had access to some diary or other written statement of Davenport. The oak-tree was about twenty feet north of George Street, and about forty-five feet east of College Street. It is said that a section of the tree afterward supported the anvil on which two stalwart generations of Beechers hammered, before Lyman Beecher transferred the role of the family from the anvil to the pulpit. Their shop was in College Street, near the place where the tree had stood.)

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exhortations, as were pertinent to the then present condition of his hearers." He left this remark, that he "enjoyed a good day." Lambert says that Mr. Prudden preached in the afternoon, but does not give his authority. It was perhaps a Milford tradition, and it has inherent probability.

In the valedictory letter of Davenport and Eaton to the General Court of Massachusetts they say, "We have sent letters to Connecticut for a speedy transacting the purchase of the parts about Quinnipiac from the natives." The purchase had probably been effected before their arrival in April, though no written deed was signed till the following November. The natives, therefore, were expecting the large re-enforcement received by the six Englishmen with whom they were now well acquainted. They welcomed the new-comers, and were pleased to have in their neighborhood a plantation of Englishmen, to which they might retreat when molested by their enemies, and where they might barter their venison, pelts, and furs, for the much-admired tools and trinkets of the English. They now for the first time saw English women and children; and their curiosity, which, in respect to the little company left by Eaton in the preceding autumn, had waned, again drew them to the border of the West Creek. The medal

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struck two centuries afterward, in commemoration of the settlement of the town, very properly represents some of them sitting near the company assembled on Sunday under the oak-tree. "Here they witnessed the worship which the English rendered to the Great Spirit. Here they began to be acquainted with the preacher whom afterward they characterized as "so-big- study man."

The English soon after their arrival at Quinnipiac observed a day of extraordinary humiliation, when they formed a social compact, mutually promising "that as in matters that concern the gathering and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices, which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing of laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature," they would all of them be ordered by those rules which the Scripture holds forth. For more than a year they had no other civil or eccle-

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siastical organization. There were doubtless frequent meetings for the transaction of business, and, if we may judge of that year by the years that followed, there were penalties inflicted on evil-doers. But, if any individuals were authorized to act as magistrates, the record of their appointment has not been preserved. The plantation covenant, like the compact signed in the cabin of the Mayflower, was a provisional arrangement of men, who, finding themselves beyond the actual jurisdiction of any earthly government, attempted to govern themselves according to the law of God.

The first care of the planters was to choose a site for their future town; the next to lay out streets and house-lots, so that each family might as soon as possible make preparations for gardening and building. Tradition reports that they would have chosen Oyster Point but for the difficulty of digging wells, water being obtained in that neighborhood only at great depth. They decided, however, to locate the principal part of their town on the north side of the West Creek, rather than on the south side, and to make a line parallel with that stream and near its border, the base-line of the town-plot. Accordingly George Street was laid out half a mile in length and upon it as a base, a square was described. The half-mile square not being sufficient, two suburbs were added. One consisted of a four- sided piece whose shape and dimensions were determined by the two creeks as the water ran when nearing the harbor. It was bounded by George, Water, Meadow, and State Streets. The other was on the west side of the West Creek. Changes since made in the highways render

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difficult the task of defining it; but Hill Street was its eastern, or more properly north-eastern, boundary.

The square described on George Street was divided by two parallel streets running east and west, and by two parallel streets running north and south, into nine equal squares; of which the square in the centre was sequestered as a marketplace. The remaining eight squares and the suburbs were divided into house-lots, and assigned to the planters severally, who seem to have grouped themselves, to some extent, according to personal acquaintance and friendship in the old country. The Herefordshire men, for example, had their lots on the south-west and south-centre squares, or quarters, as they were then called. The eight squares were for a long time distinguished one from another by the names of some prominent persons who lived on the quarters to which their names were respectively applied. The north-east square was called Mr. Baton's quarter, or in later years the Governor's quarter. The north-centre was Mr. Robert Newman's quarter. The north-west was Mr. Tench's quarter. The west-centre was. Mr. Evance's quarter, or, for a reason which will be explained hereafter, the Yorkshire quarter. The southwest was Mr. Fowler's, or the Herefordshire quarter. Mr. Gregson's name was applied to the south-centre, Mr. Lamberton's to the south-east, and Mr. Davenport's to the east-centre. The suburbs were sufficiently indicated by that appellation without attaching the name of an inhabitant. In the division of out-lands the two suburbs were united together as one society or quarter. Four lots situated on East Water Street were included with Mr. Davenport's quarter, as one of the nine quar-

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ters or societies into which the town was divided for the allotment of out- lands. John Brockett seems to have been the chief surveyor; and he doubtless is responsible for the accuracy of angles, and the equality of the nine equal sections into which he was required to cut the larger square first laid out. The dimensions of the town plot may have been determined by the course of the creeks; for George Street, if it had been continued a few rods farther west, would have crossed the West Creek, which in its course made an angle of about ninety degrees near that point.

The town-plot having been laid out, the sections into which it was cut by its streets were assigned to groups of families drawn together by social affinity, and were severally divided among those families in house-lots differing in dimensions according to a ratio depending partly on the number of persons, in the family, and partly on the amount the family had invested in the common stock of the proprietors. Among the minor benefits secured by this elective grouping, was delay in building division fences. Each quarter, being immediately enclosed by a fence separating it from the highway, was ready for tillage. These fences were sometimes of pickets and sometimes of rails. In June, 1640, prices for both kinds were established by law. Fencing with pales must be "not above two shillings a rod for felling and cleaving posts and rails, cross-cutting, hewing, mortising, digging holes, setting up and nailing on the pales, the work being in all the parts well wrought and finished; but, in this price, pales and carting of the stuff not included." "Fencing with five rails, substantial posts, good rails, well wrought, set up, and rammed,

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that pigs, swine, goats, and other cattle may be kept out, not above two shillings a rod." A year later these rates were reduced twenty-five per cent, the reduction being probably due to the ebbing of that tide of emigration which, till the civil war in the mother-country commenced, had constantly supplied New England with money, and a market for labor as well as for cattle and other products of husbandry. There was time for building all these fences before the season had sufficiently advanced to justify the colonists in planting gardens or driving cattle across the country from Massachusetts. The cold, which had been unusually severe during the winter, was protracted into the months of spring. Winthrop records on the twenty-third day of April, "This was a very hard winter. The snow lay, from November 4th to March 23d, half a yard deep ab6ut the Massachusetts, and a yard deep beyond the Merrimack, and so the more north, the deeper; and the spring was very backward. This day it did snow two hours together (after much rain from the north-east) with flakes as great as shillings." Again he writes on the 2d of May, "The spring was so cold, that men were forced to plant their corn two or three times, for it rotted in the ground." But notwithstanding this unpropitious beginning, which threatened a dearth through all New England, warm weather afterward brought on corn beyond expectation; and Quinnipiac seems to have shared in the blessing of a good harvest, so that there was no such scarcity of bread as there had been at Hartford the preceding winter, when the price of Indian corn rose to twelve shillings per bushel, which was five or six times its usual value.

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While some were planting and fencing, others were preparing lumber for the erection of permanent dwellings. Having no mill for sawing, they were obliged to slit the logs by hand; and the tariff of prices prescribes how much more the "top-man, or he that guides the work and perhaps finds the tools," shall receive than "the pit-man, whose skill and charge is less." The log was first hewn square, and then placed on a frame over a pit, so that a man could stand beneath and assist in moving the saw. This department of industry demanded their earliest attention; so that the boards, being exposed to the winds of spring and the heat of summer, might be ready for the carpenter as soon as possible. The price of inch boards must not exceed five shillings and ninepence per hundred feet if sold in the woods, or seven shillings and ninepence if sold in the town. But, as this tariff was established in 1640, prices may have been somewhat less in 1638, when the town-plot furnished all the lumber required for immediate use. Indeed, the price of lumber had fallen considerably in 1641, when inch boards must not be sold above four shillings and eightpence per hundred in the woods, or above six shillings in the town.

Before winter most of the colonists who had arrived in April were living on their house-lots, leaving their cellars or other temporary shelters for new-comers. Some of the houses, being occupied by persons of small estates, were presumably such as a Dutch traveller saw at Plymouth, and describes as block-houses built of hewn logs. Such a presumption explains an item in a bill of sale by which one of the first planters alienated his

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house and house-lot and "two loads of clay brought home." The clay was doubtless to be "daubed" between the logs. From the mention of thatchers, and the precautions taken against fire, it may be inferred that these humbler tenements were roofed with thatch. Many of the houses, however, were of framed timber, and were covered with shingles or clapboards on the sides, and with shingles on the roof. Quinnipiac had a larger proportion of wealthy men than any other of the New England colonies. Some of them, having been accustomed to live in large and elegant houses in London, expended liberally in providing new homes. It was but natural that they should wish to maintain a style not much inferior to the style in which they had formerly lived; and as they confidently thought they were founding a commercial town in a country so rich in resources that on a single cargo exported to England they could afford to pay duties to the amount of three thousand pounds, they justified themselves in a liberal expenditure in building their houses. If they had foreseen the political changes in England which after a few years turned the flow of emigration backward toward the mother-country, - even if they had known that their plantation must depend on husbandry more than on commerce, - they might have been content with less expensive dwellings. As it was, they drew upon themselves the criticism of brethren in the other colonies. Hubbard the historian, who in 1638 was seventeen years old, speaks of their "error in great buildings," and afterward says, "They laid out too much of their stocks and estates in building of fair and stately houses, wherein they at the first outdid the rest of the country." Tradi-

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tion reports that the house of Theophilus Eaton was so large as to have nineteen fireplaces, and that it was lofty as well as large. Davenport's house, on the opposite side of the street, is said to have had thirteen fireplaces.(*) It is not necessary to believe that any of the "fair and stately" houses in Quinnipiac were finished in 1638. If the frame were set up and covered, and'a few rooms were made ready to be occupied by the family, the remainder of the work might be postponed till the next summer.

In October the planters welcomed an accession to their number which they regarded as an earnest of still greater enlargement. Ezekiel Rogers, a minister of high standing in Yorkshire, having embarked at Hull on the Humber, with a company who personally knew him and desired to enjoy his ministry, arrived in Boston late in the summer. Such representations were made to him by Davenport and Eaton or their agents, that he engaged to come with his followers to Quinnipiac; and within eight weeks after his arrival in Massachusetts a portion of his people came by water to the new settlement, encountering on the voyage a storm which drove them upon a beach of sand where they lay rocking till another tide floated them off. Rogers, expecting to be joined in a year or two by some persons of rank and wealth who had been providentially thwarted in their desire to embark with him, had inserted in his engagement to take stock in the Quinnipiac company,

(* Stiles' History of the Judges. President Stiles had been, when a boy, personally familiar with the interior of the Davenport house.)

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certain stipulations referring to these friends for whom he was authorized to act. The nature of the stipulations cannot now be known; but, whatever they were, Rogers, who did not come to Quinnipiac with the first instalment of his company, became convinced that they would not be fulfilled to his satisfaction, and laid the matter as a case of conscience before the Massachusetts elders, who advised him that he was released from his engagement. He thereupon decided to remain in. Massachusetts, and sent a pinnace to bring back those of his company who had left him in October.

Davenport and Eaton, being less willing than the Massachusetts elders to release Rogers from his engagement, detained the pinnace, and by a special messenger despatched letters of remonstrance which seem to have staggered him, till the elders again assembling and examining all the correspondence between the parties, confirmed their former judgment. He accordingly began a plantation in Massachusetts, which received the name of Rowley, from the place where he had exercised his ministry in the mother-country. But some of his Yorkshire friends, who had gone to Quinnipiac expecting that he would follow, did not return in the pinnace he sent for them. It was now winter, and perhaps the inclemency of the season disinclined them to leave the cellars in which they were sheltered. Perhaps the storm they encountered in coming, inspired them with dread of the sea. Perhaps they were pleased with the new plantation, admiring its leaders, enjoying intercourse with its people, and participating with them in sanguine expectation of its future. For

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some reason several of the Yorkshire families remained, and became permanently incorporated in the new community.

Rogers in the course of the next two years mentions several times, in letters to Gov. Winthrop, the losses sustained by the people of Rowley in consequence of coming back to Massachusetts. He says, "None do know (or few) what we are impoverished by this purchase, and Quinnipiac, and the failing of some expected friends." Again, "I suppose you hear of a new sad cross from Quinnipiac in Jo. Hardy's pinnace, wherein may be much of my estate for aught I know." And still later: "It hath been a trouble of late to my poor neighbors to hear of this" (that a part of Rowley was claimed by others) "after their purchase, and building, and return from Quinnipiac." These hints were preparatory to a claim which he formally made in the autumn of 1640, that this land claimed by another party as previously granted, should be confirmed to Rowley. Appealing before the court over which Winthrop was presiding, he "pleaded justice, upon some promises of large accommodations, &c., when we desired his sitting down with us." The scene that ensued when the request was refused on the ground that the land had already been granted, is in several respects instructive. The elder lost his temper, and by that means gained his cause; for the court, after disciplining him for contempt, "freely granted what he formerly desired." In one of the letters from Rogers to Winthrop cited above, he speaks of one of the New Haven planters as follows: "Sir: Mr. Lamberton did us much wrong. I expected his coming to the Bay: but it seems he site down at Quinnipiac: yet he hath a house in Boston: I would humbly crave your advice to Mr. Will Bellingham about it, whether we might not enter an action against him and upon proof get help by that house." This evidently refers to Rogers' disappointment in not receiving back those of his flock who staid in New Haven, and reads as if Lamberton were to be counted among them.

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The next event after the arrival of the Yorkshire company, which, deserves notice, is the formal purchase of land from the Indians. The terms had been agreed upon in the winter, but no written title had been given, formalities being postponed perhaps till a more competent interpreter than any of the planters could be obtained. Thomas Stanton, of high repute for knowledge of the Indian tongue, having been employed to come from Hartford and explain the written deed to the Indian sachem and his council, it was signed by them on the 24th of November.(*) Its full text is as follows, with the exception of two hiatuses where the record-book has been torn:-

"Articles of agreement between Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport and others, English planters at Quinnipiac on the one party, and Momaugin the Indian Sachem of Quinnipiac and Sugeogisin, Quesaquaush, Carroughood, Wesaucuck and others of his council on the other party, made and concluded the 24th of November 1638; Thomas Stanton being interpreter. "That he the said sachem, his council, and company do jointly profess, affirm and covenant that he the said Momaugin is the sole sachem of Quinnipiac, and hath an absolute and independent power to give, alien, dispose or sell, all or any part of the lands in Quinnipiac and that though he have a son now absent, yet neither his said son, nor any other person whatsoever hath any right, title or interest in any part of the said lands, so that whatsoever he, the forenamed sachem, his council and the rest of the Indians present do and conclude, shall stand firm and inviolable against all claims and persons whatsoever.

(* In "New Haven's Case Stated" it is claimed that Stanton, at the request of the New Haven people, was sent by their friends in Connecticut to assist in this purchase, and that Connecticut had thus consented to the transaction.)

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"Secondly, the said sachem, his council, and company, amongst which there was a squaw sachem called Shaumpishuh, sister to the sachem, who either had or pretended some interest in some part of the land, remembering and acknowledging the heavy taxes and eminent dangers which they lately felt and'feared from the Pequots, Mohawks, and other Indians, in regard of which they durst not stay in their country, but were forced to fly and to seek shelter under the English at Connecticut, and observing the safety and ease that other Indians enjoy near the English, of which benefit they have had a comfortable taste already, since the English began to build and plant at Quinnipiac, which with all thankfulness they now acknowledged, they jointly and freely gave and yielded up all their right, title and interest to all the land, rivers, ponds, and trees with all the liberties and appurtenances belonging unto the same in Quinnipiac to the utmost of their bounds east, west, north, south, unto Theophilus Eaton, John Davenport and others, the present English planters there and to their heirs and assigns forever, desiring from them the said English planters to receive such a portion of ground on the East side of the harbor, towards the fort at the mouth of the river of Connecticut as might be sufficient for them, being but few in number, to plant in; and yet within these limits to be hereafter assigned to them, they did covenant and freely yield up unto the said English all the meadow ground lying therein, with full liberty to choose and cut down what timber they please, for any use whatsoever, without any question, license, or consent to be asked from them the said Indians, and if, after their portion and place be limited and set out by the English as above, they the said Indians shall desire to remove to any other place within Quinnipiac bounds, but without the limits assigned them, that they do it not without leave, neither setting up any wigwam, nor breaking up any ground to plant corn, till first it be set out and appointed by the forenamed English planters for them.

"Thirdly, the said sachem, his council, and company, desiring liberty to hunt and fish within the bounds of Quinnipiac now given

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and granted to the English as before, do hereby jointly covenant and bind themselves to set no traps near any place where the ..... whether horses, oxen, kine, calves, sheep, goats, hogs or any sort ..... to take any fish out of any wier belonging 'to any English, nor to do any thing near any such wier as to disturb or affright away any fish to the prejudice of such wier or wiers, and that upon discovery of any inconveniency growing to the English by the Indians disorderly hunting, their hunting shall be regulated and limited for the preventing of any inconvenience and yet with as little damage to the Indians in their hunting as may be.

"Fourthly, the said sachem, his council, and company do hereby covenant and bind themselves that none of them shall henceforth hanker about any of the English houses at any time when the English use to meet about the public worship of God; nor on the Lord's day henceforward be seen within the compass of the English town, bearing any burdens, or offering to truck with the English for any commodity whatsoever, and that none of them henceforward without leave, open any latch belonging to any Englishman's door, nor stay in any English house after warning that he should leave the same, nor do any violence, wrong, or injury to the person of the English, Whether man, woman or child, upon any pretence whatsoever, and if the English of this plantation, by themselves or cattle, do any wrong or damage to the Indians, upon complaint, just recompense shall be made by the English; and that none of them henceforward use or take any Englishman's boat or canoe of what kind soever, from the place where it was fastened or laid, without leave from the owner first had and obtained, nor that they come into the English town with bows and arrows or any other weapons whatsoever in number above six Indians so armed at a time.

"Fifthly, the said sachem, his council, and company do truly covenant and bind themselves that if any of them shall hereafter kill or hurt any English cattle of what sort soever, though casually or negligently, they shall give full satisfaction for the loss or damage as the English shall judge equal: but if any of them for any respect, wilfully do kill or hurt any of the English cattle; upon proof, they shall pay the double value: and if, at any time, any of them find

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any of the English cattle straying or lost in the woods, they shall bring them back to the English plantation and a moderate price or recompense shall be allowed for their pains; provided if it can be proved that any of them drove away any of the English cattle wheresoever they find them, further from the English plantation to make an increase or advantage or recompense for his pains finding or bringing them back, they shall in any such case pay damages for such dealings.

"Sixthly, the number of the Quinnipiac Indians, men or youth grown to stature fit f6r service, being forty-seven at present, they do covenant and bind themselves not to receive or admit any other Indians amongst them without leave first had and obtained from the English, and that they will not, at any time hereafter, entertain or harbor any that are enemies to the English, but will presently apprehend such and deliver them to the English, and if they know or hear of any plot by the Indians or others against the English, they will forthwith discover and make the same known to them, and in case they do not, to be accounted as parties in the plot and to be proceeded against as such.

"Lastly, the said sachem, his council, and company do hereby promise truly and carefully to observe and keep all and every one of these articles of agreement; and if any of them offend in any of the promises, they jointly hereby subject and submit such offender or offenders to the consideration, censure, and punishment of the English magistrate or officers appointed among them for government, without expecting that the English should first advise with them about it: yet in any such case of punishment, if the said sachem shall desire to know the reason and equity of said proceedings, he shall truly be informed of the same.

"The former articles being read and interpreted to them, they by way of exposition desired that in the sixth article it might be added, that if any of the English cattle be killed or hurt casually, or negligently, and proof made it was done by some of the Quinnipiac Indians, they will make satisfaction, or if done by any other Indians in their sight, if they do not discover it and, if able, bring the offender to the English, they will be accounted and dealt with as guilty.

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if at any time hereafter they be affrighted in their dwellings assigned by the English unto them as before, they may repair to the English plantation for shelter and that the English will then in a just cause endeavor to defend them from wrong. But in any quarrel or wars which they shall undertake or have with other Indians, upon any occasion whatsoever, they will manage their affairs by themselves without expecting any aid from the English.

"And the English planters before mentioned accepting and granting according to the tenor of the premises do further of their own aceord, by way of free and thankful retribution, give unto the said sachem, council, and company of the Quinnipiac Indians, twelve coats of English trucking cloth, twelve alchemy spoons, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen of knives, twelve porringers, and four cases of French knives and scissors. All which being thankfully accepted by the aforesaid and the agreements in all points perfected, for ratification and fnll confirmation of the same, the sachem, his council, and sister, to these presents have set to their hands or marks the day and year above written.

MOMAUGIN his mark
SUGCOGISIN his mark
QUESAQUAUSH his mark
CARROUGHOOD his mark
WEESAUCUCK his mark
SHAUMPISHUH her mark"

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"I, Thomas Stanton, being interpreter in this treaty, do hereby profess in the presence of God that I have fully acquainted the Indians with the substance of every article and truly returned their answer and consent to the same, according to the tenor of the foregoing writing, the truth of which, if lawfully called, I shall readily confirm by my oath at any time.

THOMAS STANTON."

On the nth of December, Montowese, sachem of another tribe, "in presence and with allowance and consent of Sauseunck, an Indian who came in company with him," sold to the English a tract of land lying north of that sold by Momaugin, and described as "extending about ten miles in length from north to south, eight miles easterly from the river of Quinnipiac toward the river of Connecticut and five miles westerly toward Hudson's river." Montowese, reserving a piece of land near the village which now bears his name, "for his men which are ten, and many squaws, to plant in," received "eleven coats of trucking cloth, and one coat of English cloth made up after the English manner," in payment for the territory thus alienated.

The attesting marks of Montowese and Sawseunck are as follows:-

"MONTOWESE
"his mark SAWSEUNCK his mark"

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At the present day we are apt to think that these sachems sold their land for a ridiculously small price; but one who attentively considers all the circumstances of the case, the reservations they made, the protection they secured, and the opportunity for trade afforded by the English settlement, will perhaps conclude that what they received was of greater value to them than what they sold. It does not appear that the Indians were afterward dissatisfied with the terms of sale.

Contemporaneously with the excitement among the Yorkshire people about returning to Massachusetts, there was conference among those who had come with Prudden from Hereford, tending toward a removal from Quinnipiac to a separate plantation, in which they might enjoy his ministry. What the understanding had been between his Herefordshire flock and the London men in reference to a church and church-officers at Quinnipiac, it is impossible to determine with certainty; but, as the latter party had brought with them two ministers in whom they were interested, we may conjecture that if they encouraged the Hereford men to believe that Prudden should be their minister, they did so in expectation that he would be united with Davenport and Samuel Eaton in the eldership of the church. Trumbull relates that Prudden preached at Wethersfield during the summer of 1638; and, as a part of the first planters of Milford came from Wethersfield on account of their regard for him and some disagreement in their church, it is probable that the project of a settlement at Milford grew out of Prudden's visit to Wethersfield. Ascertaining that by uniting his friends

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in Wethersfield with those who had followed him across the sea, he could become the minister of a new plantation, and stand foremost if not alone in the eldership of its church, he naturally preferred such a position to that of a colleagueship with Davenport. Prudden's friends having determined to commence a new plantation at Wepowaug, land was formally conveyed to them by a written deed subscribed by Ansantaway the sachem of the place and by his council, Feb. 12, 1639. Lambert relates that "a twig and a piece of turf being brought to the sagamore, he placed the end of the branch in the clod, and then gave it to the English as a token that he thereby surrendered to them the soil, with all the trees and appurtenances." But, though the land was bought in February, the projected plantation was not commenced till autumn, so that those who intended to remove from Quinnipiac remained in their houses through the summer, and cultivated their fields as they had done the previous year.

We find nothing more on record concerning the first winter at Quinnipiac, except that two vessels, bound thither from Boston, were cast away in December, there being, says Winthrop, "so great a tempest of wind and snow, all the night and the next day, as had not been since our time." We may conjecture that the work of removal was not yet entirely accomplished, - that some who had come from Massachusetts in the preceding spring, and had spent the summer and autumn in the erection of houses, were now transporting to their new homes comforts for which there had been no place in their summer habitations.



History of the Colony of New Haven - End of Chapters 3-5

Introduction    Chapt. 1-2    Chapt. 3-5    Chapt. 6-8   
Chapt. 9-10    Chapt. 11-12    Chapt. 13-14    Chapt. 15-16   
Chapt. 17    Chapt. 18-19    Chapt. 20-21    Appendix 1-7


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