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CLAS G574.67 BOOK. TEGL
OTIS LIBRARY, NORWICH, CONN.
CHARLES BOSWELL FUND.
DISCARD
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02857 1211
GC 974.602 N41to Townshend, Charles Hervey, 1833-1904. A pictorial history of "Raynham" and its vicinity
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1
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/pictorialhistory00town
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WEST VIEWS FROM "RAYNHAM,"
New Haven, Conn.
A PICTORIAL HISTORY
OF
"RAYNHAM"
AND ITS VICINITY
(The Townshend Double Reflecting and Repeating Circle)
BY CHARLES HERVEY TOWNSHEND OF
"RAYNHAM," NEW HAVEN, CONN., U. S. A.
1900
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
G.974.67-T661
TO MY BROTHER JAMES MULFORD TOWNSEND THIS WORK IS WITH THE GREATEST PLEASURE DEDICATED BY HIS AFFECTIONATE BROTHER CHARLES HERVEY TOWNSHEND,
" Raynham," May 15th, 1900.
Copyright 1900 BY CHARLES HERVEY TOWNSHEND. New Haven, Conn., U. S. A.
THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR CO., NEW HAVEN, CONN.
1
CHAS. HERVEY TOWNSHEND.
PREFACE.
+.+
This Pictorial History of "Raynham" and its vicinity has been put in print to preserve tradition and many interesting incidents which have occurred in this section of the town of New Haven since the landing of the first settlers in the autumn of 1637, with the hope that it may stimulate others to prepare a more perfect volume of this or other sections of the Old Colony of New Haven.
This collection of local historical and biographical matter with the accompanying illustrations is not only the result of much research but of personal talks with men and women who were gray- haired when the author was a boy, and who were eye-witnesses of many of the scenes he has here attempted to describe. Some of the subjects treated of here have never before appeared in type, and being matters of reminiscence would never be known to the public nuless they were put in printed form-this the author has attempted to do. Interested as he has always been in this part of the present city of New Haven, which has been much changed of late, and which has lost many of its ancient landmarks, he has attempted to preserve some of them before they are entirely destroyed.
To the older men in the community he has no doubt that the book will appeal as part of their own experience, and to the younger as interesting matter relating to their City, its Forts, Light Houses, Battle Grounds, Parks, Breakwaters and spacious Harbor; the latter, the delight of the author's boy- hood days, where his first lessons in marine affairs were learned and its problems solved; and now its improvement and enlargement looking to the future is the author's fond ambition. The reduced reproduction of the United States Coast and Geodetic Surveys, Chart of New Haven Harbor (which was made up in part by the author's effort, as correspondence abundantly proves), is here published as an introduction to the scenes portrayed.
As a book of this kind will naturally have errors and omissions, it is suggested to those who are in possession of more authentic facts that they be noted in the blank pages bound into the end for the purpose, and so history may be made more perfect.
C. H. T.
66544
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
" Raynham,"
1
View from "Raynham " Hill East ward,
3
Col. Edmund Fanning,
4
The Engagement at "Raynham,"
5
Gen. Tryon,
9
Town of Townsend,
9
Joshua Chandler,
10
The Morris Mansion,
11
The Ancient Salt Works at Morris Cove,
13
Morris Cove and Palisades,
15
Old New Haven Light House,
17 19 21
Ruins of Fort Wooster and Beacon Hill, .
23
Gen. David Wooster,
25
Hasslar's Survey Camp,
27
The Shell Fish Industry,
28
Fort Hale, 29
31
Wreck of Steamer Chief Justice Marshall,
32
Reminiscences of Fort Hale,
33
Capture of Sloop "Susan,"
35
View of Site of Iron Works and Bradley House,
37
Commodore Sir George Collier,
40
The East Haven Militia,
41
East Haven Green (illustration),
43
Signal Mast on Beacon Hill (illustration),
44
East Haven's Stone Meeting-House, . 45
New Haven Harbor (illustration),
47
Governor Theophilus Eaton,
47
The Phantom Ship of New Haven, .
New Haven Palisaded or Fortified, .
Capt. Nathan Hale, .
NORTH-EAST VIEW OF "RAYNHAM,"
New Haven, Conn.
RAYNHAM.
Raynham," the property of the Townsend or Townshend family, is located on the East shore of New Haven Harbor and S. E. from the old town plot three (3) miles. It is a part of the ancient reservation of the Quinnipiack Indians, set off to this tribe with treaty rights by the Gov. Eaton settlers, who bought the original town of New Haven of them and when East Haven was made a town in 1786, this section was brought within its limits. When this part of the town of East Haven was annexed to New Haven it returned gracefully to "mother town," the proprietors of this section, with pleasure, giving loyal support to all measures that are just regarding the government.
" Raynham" is named for the chief seat of the Marquis Townshend in the County Norfolk, England, and has interest for the now proprietors whose ancestors, the Morrises and Tuttles, bought these estates from the Quinnipiack Indians. This reservation seems to have been kept intact as originally laid out until the year 1679, when at a town meeting held December 29th of that year, several propositions to buy the Indian lands were made by the inhabitants of the East side and were considered. One of the propositions was that they of the village (East IIaven) may have liberty to purchase some land of the Indians near Mr. Gregson's farm (Solitary Cove) if the Indians are willing to sell it. Other propositions of a like nature were referred to a commission and the town having heard the report of the commission in answer recommended caution, saying, " As to the purchase of land from the Indians near Mr. Gregson's farm, New Haven being bound in covenant to supply the Indians with planting lands when they need it, it is questionable how far liberty to purchase land of them may consist with that engagement unless with due caution is to be considered."
The Quinnipiack Indians at this date (1680) seem to have numbered at least one hundred men and it was judged not expedient to sell their rights to the reservation, as there was still left unoccu- pied town and sequestered land sufficient for the settlers wants. About 1716 the last town lands were sold and on this date there seems to have been a great diminution of this Indian tribe occasioned by the Indian wars and the English conquest of the West Indies, where many of the Quinnipiacks went as soldiers and sailors and died with disease or in battle, the Quinnipiacks having contributed in each of these contests a part of the quota of Connecticut, and this loss of men to the tribe may have set on foot again the scheme to buy from them a portion of their lands adjoining the ferries and meadows on the West and the farms on the East, and in order to make all purchases of Indian lands valid to date, at a General Assembly holden at Hartford on Thursday May 9th 1717 an act was passed concerning purchase of native rights of land.
" This assembly observing many difficulties and perplexities arising in the government by reason of many purchases of land made of Indian tribes without the proceedings, allowance or subsequent approbation of this assembly. * It is hereby declared by this assembly and the authority therefor that all lands in this government are holden of the King of Great Britain as the Lord of the fee and that no title to any land in this Colony can acceed of any purchase made of Indians on pretence of their being native proprietors thereof within the allowance or approbation of this assembly as aforesaid shall be given in evidence of any man's title not pleadible in any Court * * * "
This assembly appointed a commission to examine into and report to the next assembly all land claims together with the opinion thereon to the end that the said assembly may settle the whole affair and proceed to the settlement of all the undisposed lands of the Colony in such manner as shall then be determined that all future trouble about the settlement may be avoided. The act of this assembly seems to have settled all purchase of Indian lands to this date, 1717.
As the Quinnipiacks had been tribute payers they were not considered, by the Eaton settlers, to be the sole owners of the soil, for the title to this section of North America was claimed by England by right of the Cabot discovery and later through its occupation in accordance with the public law of that time as known in Western Europe, and it was under this title confirmed by the Earl of War- wick's charter and the subsequent purchase of the native's "pretended rights" to the Quinnipiack region that the squatter colony of New Haven held title until the younger Winthrop obtained the scooping charter for Connecticut in 1664. " As of his Manor of East Greenwich in County Kent in free and common socage and not in capite, nor by knight service."
-2-
It was therefore the undoubted right of the Town of New Haven to grant permission to a Pro- prietors' Committee, appointed by Townsmen to sell (as the Indians gradually passed away) their right to the land we now occupy.
About 1720 the Townsmen whose farms adjoined the Indian Reservation began to encroach thereon and in order to protect the Indians in their rights a Proprietors' Committee was appointed to execute a quit claim of the said proprietors' rights unto the Indian land to those purchasers of East Haven, having due regard that necessary planting lands, 30 acres, be reserved for the Indians.
In 1673 the South End residents and George Pardee, who owned the Ferry farm and had bought part of the Gregson farm in order to get a more direct road than the old country road which led around through East Haven village, bought of the Indian Sagamore George, for 12 shillings a road, one rod wide from the country road (Four Corners) to Solitary Cove, but the agreement was not completed until June 10th, 1692, when a record of it was made in Vol. I, p. 533, New Haven Records, signed GEORGE (Indian)
Wit. UMBESEE (Seal) HASOMANG (Seal)
Wit. for Town JOHN COOPER (Seal) JOHN POTTER (Seal)
The road was finally increased to two rods wide and when that avenue was improved it was made four rods wide and named Townsend Avenue.
Among the purchasers of the Indian lands were John Morris and Joseph Tuttle, who were the largest land holders in the town and sold their holdings to small and large. purchasers, as we are told, at reasonable prices for the times.
Joseph Tuttle's purchase was that part of the old and new Indian field bordering on the Ferries and the Black Rock, Tuttle Hill, Beacon Hill and Prospect Hill (" Raynham ").
The East bounds of the reservation South of the East Haven Road still show remnants of the Indian fence and, since the memory of the writer, remnants of the meadow fence along the edge of the salt meadow have been in evidence. The salt meadows seem not to have been included in the Indian lands so far as the " Raynham " estates go, but were gradually purchased by the holders of the uplands, and came as an inheritance to Joseph Tuttle, Jr., whose heirs in 1796 sold at different times these lands to the Townsends, who have, during the past century, bought and sold numerous parts of the original purchase of their ancestor from the Indians.
" Raynham " is a Post Office and an electric railroad station and is supplied with gas and water, the latter brought through Townsend Ave. from the famous Lake Saltonstall, also by running brooks, one with an ontlet into Fowler's Creek and Long Island Sound ; the other into New Haven Harbor, and both fed with numerous springs of pure water. The location of the mansion house is Latitude 41° 16' 34" N., Longitude 72° 53' 45" W. It is delightfully situated on an elevation on the South side of Beacon Hill, with a sea exposure, and its nearness to Long Island Sound would seem to temper the cold of winter and the heat of sumnier.
The soil is a rich sandy loam mixed with stones and clay in the low grounds, except where the salt marsh lands abound, which are affected more or less by the ebb and flow of the tide. The uplands produce excellent timber, hay, cereals and fruit. It can grow all vegetables known in this belt and the salt marsh grasses are rich nourishment for cattle and horses. The fish of the sea and the fowl of the air are many, but their annual appearance is not as numerous as at the early settlement of the country, when great shoals of sea animals and fishes frequented our harbor and enormous flocks of land and sea fowl, obscuring for the time the face of the sun.
Gales of wind and fogs are frequent and the equinoctial storms are as severe as those recorded by the early settlers. Winter seems to be milder than formerly, although heavy snow storms are frequent. Summer heat is more intense for a few days during times of great humidity.
BARTON.
VIEW FROM "RAYNHAM" PARK-Eastward,
VIEW FROM "RAYNHAM" HILL, EASTWARD.
The beantiful view Eastward from the " Raynham " estate on the summit of "Raynham " Hills is a fine combination of landscape and sea view. To the Northward are the Meriden Mountains and the hills West and North of Lake Saltonstall stand forth in bold relief against the sky, while far in the distance, Eastward, the church spires of Branford may be noticed. To the South East Faulkland Island, with its conspicnous Light House, stands out against the horizon, and beyond, across the broad expanse of the Sound, the bluffs of " Old Long Island's sea-girt shore " loom in sight.
At the foot of the "Raynham " (old Prospect) Hill winds the circuitous " Halls cartway " lead- ing from the Morris Cove road to East Haven through the Bridge Swamp and meeting the old main road to East Haven, at Auger's Corner. This road is in part the South East line of the New Indian Field and met the Indian Fence at the short turn Eastward in the cartway at Townsend bars.
Here along the road on July 5, 1779, was pursued by a squad of British and Hessian soldiers guided by the tory, Thomas Chandler, a party of retreating patriots, among whom were Chandler Pardee, who was shot through the chest, and Eli Forbes, who was badly wounded near the Tuttle house and brook. Both received pensions from the U. S. Government on account of injuries sustained by these wounds.
I repeat the story as told me by Mr. Amos Barnes, who has seen the scars on Mr. Pardce's body, front and back, and had placed the fingers of each hand at the same time on both scars. It seems that the ball had almost passed through the body, and remaining under the skin was extracted by Dr. Hubbard, of New Haven, the next day at the Saltonstall house, where Pardee had been carried by his friends to die. Chandler Pardee lived on his farm at Morris Cove, and like many of his neighbors was skilled in sea and land affairs.
The night before the British landed Mr. Pardee had returned home from a visit dressed in his Sunday suit, silver shoe and knee buckles and all. The approach of the enemy's fleet coming up the Sound with light south-west winds and calms was known, but its destination supposed to be to the Eastward. The inhabitants were on the alert watching its movements, and Mr. Pardee with the rest. During the night a gun to anchor boomed forth from the Commodore's ship, and at daylight (3.00 A. M.) revealed the fleet at anchor in the offing, and preparations to land, which brought Mr. Pardee and his neighbors to the beach, where, assisted with a field piece, they began to dispute the advance of the invaders step by step. Being overpowered by numbers, they were pursued in their retreat, some up the road now Townsend avenue, others up " Hall's cartway " and across the fields East of Beacon Hill by Tuttle brook, where Pardee fell wounded and feigned dead, and Thomas Chandler, son of Joshua Chandler, of New Haven, a licutenant in the King's American (Tory) Regiment, said to a soldier, who was about to dispatch him with a bayonet, "Let him alonc. He is gone. I have hunted foxes many a day with him."
As Pardce and his party passed the Tuttle house, Mrs. Tuttle seeing the red coats in pur- suit made an effort to flee with her children. Looking around she saw several of the enemy level their muskets to fire, and calling to her children to lie down in the grass, the volley went over their heads. Shortly after her house was in flames, the enemy passed on and the fire was soon extinguished by her neighbors.
The old East Haven Stone Meeting House was built by a sturdy yeomanry in 1769, to excel the red brick edifice on the New Haven Green, and visited by the enemy during the Revolutionary War, the picturesque village surroundings on the plain below it with the Tappanshasiske, the East Haven river of our day, meandering through the meadows and rocks to Long Island Sound ; the lovely Morris Cove with the old mansion house of the Morrises in the distance with the Light House; East Haven Green and its white liberty pole with Old Glory floating from its top, marking the spot where in Revolutionary days four regiments of militia assembled under Generals Ward and Hart to repel an invasion which had progressed as far as the occupation of Beacon Hill -all these points and places of beauty and interest may be seen from "Raynham" Hills in the sun- light of a clear summer day.
- 4 .
As the aforesaid Thomas Chandler was a Lieutenant in the King's American Tory Regiment, and Edmund Fanning, its Colonel, an abridged sketch of Colonel Fanning may interest.
Edmund Fanning was the son of Colonel Phineas Fanning, and was born on Long Island, in 1737. Of his childhood nothing more is known than that he was quite precocious. He entered Yale College, at New Haven, in 1753, and, while there, exhibited an uncommon devotion to his studies, graduating, in 1757, with the highest honors of liis class. On leaving college, he devoted himself to the study of the law, and removed to Hillsboro', North Carolina, where he commenced the practice of his profession, in which he must have acquired great celebrity as a lawyer, as, in 1760, he received from his alma mater the degree of doctor of laws.
At this time Mr. Fanning seems to have been very popular; for in 1763, he was chosen clerk of the superior court, and the same year was honored with a colonel's commission for the county of Orange. He was also elected representative from his county to the colonial legislature. Soon after this he acquired the ill will of his fellow-citizens by the manifestation of strong tory attachments and by making the most exorbitant charges for legal services. He also took a conspicuous part in quell- ing a rebellion against the severe exactions of the government, and rendered himself exceedingly obnoxious by the bitterness of the prosecution and the indefatigable zeal he manifested in bringing the leaders of that movement to the scaffold. At length the public indignation manifested itself in acts of violence. His office and library were destroyed, and many indignities heaped upon his person. Feeling that his life was in danger, he fled to New York, in 1771, as secretary to Governor Tryon. Afterwards he sought reparation from the legislature, for the losses he had sustained, by a petition through the governor. Such was the popular indignation that the legislature not only unanimously rejected the petition, but rebuked the governor for presenting it.
On the opening of the revolutionary contest, as was to have been expected, Mr. Fanning attached himself to the British cause. Lord Howe, then in possession of the city of New York, in 1776, gave him a colonel's commission in "The King's American Regiment of Foot." He was engaged in several of the most important conflicts of the day, and fought with the loyalists through the whole war. After considerable service, in which he showed himself a brave and shrewd soldier, he received the appointment of surveyor general, which office he held until the close of the war.
In the latter part of 1783, Fanning, in company with many other loyalists, fled to Nova Scotia, and became a permanent resident of that province. After holding several minor offices, he was made lieutenant-governor of the province in 1786. In this high office he exhibited great capabilities, and commanded the approval of the ministry who appointed him.
In 1794, Colonel Fanning was transferred to Prince Edward's Island, of which he was made governor. His administration of that office was judicious and vigorous. The indiscretion of his earlier life, while in North Carolina, was ever a subject of deep regret to him ; and, although of an ardent and hasty temper, he led a stainless and honorable life, and became an able jurist and legis- lator. He held the office of governor nearly twenty years. About the period of his last appoint- ment, he married, and some of his descendants still dwell in that colony. He was commissioned a brigadier-general in 1808, but performed, we believe, no service under that commission.
In 1814-15, General Fanning went to England and took up his residence in the city of London. Here, respected by all who knew him, he passed the remainder of his life. He retired from active life and gave himself up to those pursuits which an elegant taste, high literary acquisitions and large wealth might be supposed to indicate. Here he lived in the enjoyment of a reputation without reproach, surrounded by many friends, and in possession of the blessings belonging to a ripe old age, until he reached his eighty-second year. He died in London in 1818.
L
11/1
ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN BRITISH FORCES AND PATRIOTS
at "Raynham," New Haven, July 5th, 1779.
THE ENGAGEMENT AT "RAYNHAM."
The battle fonght here between the British and Patriot forces is worthy of notice, as this section of the town during the two wars with England has suffered both from fire and sword, by sea and land. The most notable occurrence which has passed into history was this engagement on the Raynham estates on the morning of July 5, 1779, between a division of the British Army under Major-General Tryon and the Patriot under the brave Bradley, Bishop and Pierpont.
It appears that after the capture of the Black Rock Fort, the enemy took up their line of march from Pardee's (Morris Cove), along the road since named Townsend Avenue, which led through a heavily wooded country below the now Fort Hale road, where Lieut. Pierpont, reinforced with part of the garrison of the abandoned Black Rock Fort, again opened fire. I have often heard described the appearance of this division with their red and blue coats marching in column on this road, a section of which turned up East Haven road at Mr. Ley's corner in pursuit of Chandler Pardee and his neighbors. Mr. Pardee afterward was shot down and left for dead in the Fresh meadows near the Tuttle brook.
This road of two rods wide was fenced with stones, bushes and in some instances a Virginia zig- zag fence led westerly of Beacon Hill to the Ferrys. The patriots, equally divided in the field and the road, would get in an occasional shot on the skirmishers and advance guard of the enemy. Generally with good effect.
There were also two field pieces in the road keeping up a continuous fire and afterwards hauled along in retreat to a new position and fired ; each shot making a swarth through the ranks of the invaders. On the left and just north of the now Townsend house stood the quiet home of Mr. Joseph Tuttle, surrounded with garden, orchard and meadows, and his field of golden grain ; ripe for the har- vest, but not yet cut. From this position looking westward over a land-scape of remarkable and diversified beauty, and at the time said to be second to none in New England, could be seen the pointed spires of the churches of the Town of New Haven across the beautiful bay ; old Trinity and Red Brick meeting house, and the tower of Yale College just peeping through the trees, marking the spot of future wealth and increasing knowledge ; all beautified by the Orange hills with Long Island Sound in the distance. To the north and eastward the "Raynham " woods and Beacon Hill, where the earthworks had been thrown up around the old beacon, about which was marshalled the flower of New Haven yeomanry. Eastward of the now Townsend Honse, "Raynham," is Prospect Hill, on which was the enemy's signal station, where the next morning Capt. Jedediah Andrews with his neighbors masked by a brush fence (during a fog), shot the commander of the station and two of his men, who were cooking a sheep for breakfast, and now bittersweet and evergreen marks the spot where they were buried.
We have been told that Mr. Tuttle and his son, a lad of seventeen, had joined the garrison at the Black Rock Fort and were among its defenders and were captured by the enemy and carried to New York as prisoners of war. On the approach of the enemy his wife buried her plate and valuables in an iron pot, yoked the oxen to a cart and with a few useful articles of wearing apparel and the kitchen, started for North Haven with her children, viewing as they went their home in flames.
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