USA > Connecticut > The public records of the Colony of Connecticut, prior to the Union with New Haven colony, 1636-1665 > Part 1
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Connecticut.
THE
F 97
. C7
PUBLIC RECORDS
v. 1
OF THE
1636/1665
COLONY OF CONNECTICUT,
PRIOR TO THE UNION WITH NEW HAVEN COLONY,
MAY, 1665;
TRANSCRIBED AND PUBLISHED, (IN ACCORDANCE WITH A RESOLUTION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE,
WITII OCCASIONAL NOTES, AND AN APPENDIX ;
T
.I
TRANSTVLIT
By J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL,
COR. SEC. CONN. HIST. SOCIETY; COR. MEMB. N. YORK HIST, SOCIETY, ETC.
HARTFORD: BROWN & PARSONS. 0 1850.
DOES NOT CIRCULATE
At a General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, holden at Hartford, in said State, on the first Wednesday of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine:
Resolved, That the Secretary of State be authorized to purchase for the use of the State, two hundred and fifty copies of a publication of the Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, prior to the union with New Haven colony, under the Charter of 1662. Provided, that such publication shall be made with the approval, and under the supervision of the Secretary, and shall be authenticated by his official certificate as a true and literal copy of the original record ; and provided also, that the expense of the same shall not exceed two dollars per copy ; and that the literal copy of the original record, above specified, be deposited with the Secretary of State, for the use of the State.
Resolved, That the copies so purchased be distributed by the Secretary, as follows ; one copy to the town clerk of each town in this State, to be preserved in his office, for the use of the town ; one copy to the Governor and to each of the State Officers of this State ; one copy to the Gov- ernor of each of the several states and territories, of the United States ; one copy to the library of Congress; and the remainder of said two hundred and fifty copies, to be deposited in the office of the Secretary of State, subject to the disposal of the General Assembly.
PRESS OF CASE, TIFFANY & CO., HARTFORD, CONN.
PREFACE.
THE early annals of a State require no formal introduction to the descendants of its founders. If the transcriber have well accom- plished the task which a love of the olden time impelled him to undertake, and which the liberality of the Legislature supplied, in part, the means of prosecuting, no doubt can exist as to the favorable reception of the volume now presented to the citizens of Connecticut. The value which may attach to it must, of course, mainly depend upon the degree of confidence entertained in its accuracy as a ' true, full and literal copy of the original Record.' The professions or assurances of the transcriber, could do little to impart such confi- dence ; nor could they give additional weight to the certificate of official authentication, or to such internal evidence of reliability as, it is hoped, a careful perusal of the volume may supply.
A notice of the condition and arrangement of the original records, and of the plan adopted by the transcriber in the construction of this work, may not, however, be deemed inappropriate.
The first volume of the Colony Records is in three parts, origin- ally bound in as many separate volumes. The first of these consists of the records of the General and Particular Courts, commencing with the session held at Newtown, (Hartford,) April 26th, 1636, (by the magistrates commissioned by Massachusetts, to ' govern the people at Connecticut,'*) and closing with the December session of the Court of Magistrates, 1649. Next following, (separated by a few blank pages from the Court Records,) are the records of Wills
* The commission " to severall persons, to govern the people at Connecticutt for the space of a year [then] next coming," was granted by the General Court of Massachusetts, March 3d, 1635(6,)-after consultation with John Winthrop, then lately "appointed governor by certain noble personages and men of quality, interested in the said River, which are yet in England." The commissioners named were Roger Ludlow Esq., William Pincheon Esq., John Steele, Wil- liam Swaine, Henry Smith, William Phelps, William Westwood and Andrew Ward. See the commission, at length, in Hazard's State Papers, Vol. 1, p. 321.
134482
iv
PREFACE.
and Inventories. The remainder of the volume contains Grants and Conveyances of Lands, by towns and individuals, some of which are of as recent date as 1702 ; the greater part, however, having been transcribed from the several town records, between 1662 and 1690. These have not been included in the present publication, the propo- sed limits of which would not admit of their insertion, and the omission being regarded of the less importance, as copies of most of them are to be found elsewhere, and as the interest which attaches to them is mainly local or personal. Six pages of recognizances and bonds for prosecution, of various years, entered at the begin- ning of the volume, preceding the first page of the Court records, have likewise been omitted, in publication.
The second volume contains the records of the General Court from February, 1650, to October, 1669 ;- and at the other end of the book, separately paged, is recorded the Code of 1650, with such ad- ditional orders ' of general concernment,' as were, from time to time, passed by the General Court.
The second volume of the records of the Particular Court, or Court of Magistrates, comprising a period of about thirteen years, (from January, 1650, to June, 1663,) and including the Probate Records, long since disappeared from the Secretary's Office, and is supposed to be irrecoverably lost. The third volume, commencing June, 1663, and containing, at one end, such Wills and Inventories as were brought for record between that date and Sept. 1677, was, some years since, rebound, and lettered, " PROBATE RECORDS, VOL. III .- COUNTY COURT."
In transcribing the first volume for the press, occasional changes of its arrangement have been deemed advisable, for the purpose of facilitating reference, and to preserve chronological sequence. Thus, the Constitution of 1639, has been transposed from the end of the volume, to its proper place, preceding the record of the April Court :* the wills and inventories recorded prior to 1644, have been brought together, at the end of the Court Records, and placed with others subsequently recorded :{ the records of such sessions of the Court as were entered by the Secretary after others of subsequent date, have been restored to their proper order. These, with other similar changes, have been made with less hesitation, from the fact that the paging of the original has been carefully retained, at the side of each printed page.
* Pages 20-26.
t See note, on page 442.
V
PREFACE.
The names of magistrates and deputies, and of jurors in the sev- eral courts, are, in the original, recorded on the margins of the pages. To retain this arrangement, in the printed copy, would have been, on many accounts, inconvenient. The names of the members of the court have therefore been placed, in double columns, at the com- mencement of each session.
While the orthography of the original has been preserved through- out, it has not seemed necessary to adhere as closely to the anoma- lous punctuation, or the use of capital letters, practised by the early recorders. To have done so would have increased the difficulties of perusal and materially detracted from the interest of the volume to the general reader. Yet the liberty taken in these particulars has been cautiously used, and in all cases where the sense of the original could be affected by the change of position or interpolation of a comma or period, the record has been printed precisely as orig- inally punctuated.
The more common abbreviations employed in the work, require no explanation. Nor will it be necessary to inform those who are at all conversant with old manuscripts, that a single mor n, with a cir- cumflex or dash above it, (ñ or ñ) was frequently substituted for the double consonant ;- or that the same mark placed above a vowel indi- cated the omission of the consonant, (usually m or n, ) immediately following ; (as fro for from, tiõ for tion, at the end of a word. )
Where portions of the original are wholly or in part obliterated, the missing words (when obviously indicated by the context,) have been supplied by the transcriber. Such words are, in all cases, included in brackets. If the word to be supplied has seemed at all doubtful, or if the record could possibly have admitted of a different reading, the portion in brackets has been italicized or is followed by a mark of interrogation. In a few instances, where a slip of the recorder's pen has occasioned an evident error in the original, the correction has been suggested in a foot note, or indicated by an itali- cized word, placed in brackets, with an interrogation mark.
In two instances only, slight changes have, for obvious reasons, been made in the language of the record. In one case, (on page 55, ) a few words, (in brackets,) have been substituted, as of less excep- tionable phraseology than the original : in the other, (on page 157,) the omission of a line is indicated by a note at the foot of the page.
Such extracts from the Records of the United Colonies as have been occasionally introduced in the notes and appendix, have been made from the manuscript (cotemporary) copy preserved in the Sec-
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PREFACE.
retary's Office. Numerous errors, especially in dates and names, occur in the copy of these records published in the second volume of Hazard's State Papers,-to which publication, however, it has in some cases been found convenient to refer, by page.
When the publication of this volume was first proposed by the transcriber, and at the time of securing a legislative appropriation for its encouragement, an accurate copy of the original was all that was contemplated. In the course of publication, however, the lib- erty has been taken of introducing an occasional note, explanatory or illustrative of the text,-and a number of interesting historical documents, not previously published, have been included in an Ap- pendix. Two Indexes, of names and subjects, have also been pre- pared, which, if less copious and complete than the antiquarian or genealogist could wish, it is hoped may in some degree facilitate their researches, and aid the general reader to refer to the contents of the volume. Fac-similes of the autographs of members of the first Court of Election under the Constitution of 1639, and of Magis- trates chosen at the Union of the Colonies, in 1665, have been pre- pared with all possible care and accuracy, from originals collected in part from early files in the State Department, and in part from the town records of Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor. Fac-similes of portions of the original records, in the hand writing of each of the secretaries* who held office prior to the Union, have also been intro- duced. These additions, and the consequent increase of the cost of publication, will account for the advance upon the original subscrip- tion price, at which the remainder of the edition is offered to non- subscribers.
However imperfectly the task of the transcriber may have been accomplished, it is hoped that succeeding Legislatures may not thereby be deterred from lending their aid to the prosecution of a work, already too long delayed, of which this volume is to be re- garded only as the commencement ;- that of giving to the public, in
* A reference (upon the fac-simile, facing page 9,) to John Steel, as 'Secretary' of the col_ ony, from 1636 to 1639, may require a word of explanation,-as his appointment to that office is no where mentioned in the record. A comparison of the first pages of the Colony Records with the early records of Hartford and Farmington, during the period Mr. Steel was recorder of those towns, leaves no doubt of the identity of the hand writing. The chirography of Mr. S. was somewhat peculiar (as may be seen by inspection of the fac-simile of an unusually legible speci- men of it,) and cannot well be mistaken. The first four, part of the fifth, and the tenth pages of the first volume are in this hand. Pages six to nine, inclusive, are in a different, and far more legible hand,-possibly that of Mr. Clement Chaplin, whom Dr. Trumbull concludes (in Hist. of Conn., 1. 95,) to have been "the first secretary." There are, however, upon all of these pages, occasional interlineations and additions, in the hand writing of Mr. Steel.
vii
PREFACE.
a permanent form, and thus securing the preservation of all the early records of the Colony, prior to 1700,-together with such co- temporary documents of historical value or interest, as are preserved in the State Department. These latter constitute a large portion, indeed, almost all that yet remains to us, of the documentary history of the colony for the first half century succeeding its settlement. Of comparatively few of them are copies, even in manuscript, extant,- and the loss or injury of the originals would therefore be utterly irre- parable. And yet, whatever precautions may be taken to ensure their preservation, by placing them beyond the reach of ordinary accident, no care can enable them much longer to withstand the ravages of time. As the ink fades and the paper crumbles, the work of transcribing not only becomes more difficult, but leads to less accurate and reliable results. Whatever is to be done to per- petuate these early annals of our state and memorials of its founders, should be done soon.
Hartford, March 1st, 1850.
J. H. T.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Records of the General and Particular Courts, from April, 1636, to December, 1649, [from Vol. I., pp. 1-209.] 1 Records of the General Court, from Feb., 1650, to May, 1665, [from Vol. II., pp. 1-205.] 204
Record of Wills and Inventories, 1640 to 1649,-[from Vol. I.] 442
Code of Laws, established by the General Court, May, 1650, 0 509
Certificate of the Secretary of State,
554
Appendix :
No. I. Letter from Sir Wm. Boswell, relating to encroach- ments of the Dutch, 565
No. II. The articles of combination with Southampton, (L. I.) 566
No. III. Respecting the agreement with Mr. Fenwick, 568
No. IV. The claims of Massachusetts to the Pequot country, 570 No. V: Letter from Connecticut to Easthampton, 572
No. VI. Respecting the settlement of accounts with Capt. John Cullick, 573
No. VII. Abstract of the will of George Fenwick, 574
No. VIII. Letter to the Comm'rs of the U. Colonies, complaining of affronts received from the Narragansetts, 576
No. IX. Letters from Mr. William Goodwin, respecting Gov. Hopkins' Legacy, 578
No. X. Instructions to Gov. Winthrop, agent for procuring the Charter ; Address to the King; and Letter to the Earl of Manchester, . · 579
No. XI. Petition of Mrs. Elizabeth Cullick, to the General Court, 1663, 585 No. XII. List of documents relating to the Union with New Haven, 586
Index of Names, 591
General Index, 597
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COLONIAL RECORDS.
[VOLUME [.]
[1]
A CORTE HOLDEN ATT NEWTON 26 APR. 1636.
Roger Ludlowe Esqr., Mr. Westwood,
Mr. Steele, Mr. Warde.
Mr. Phelpes,
It was now complayned yt Henry Stiles or some of the ser- [vants] had traded a peece wth the Indians for Corne. It is ordered yt [the] saide Henry Stiles shall, betweene & the next Cort, regaine [the] saide peece from the saide Indians in a faire & legall waye, or els this Corte will take it into further consideracon.
It is ordered yt from henceforth none yt are wthin the Juris- dic[tion] of this Cort, shall trade wth the natiues or Indians any peece or pistoll or gunn or powder or shott, vnder such heavie penalty as vppon such misdemeanor the Corte shall thinke meete.
Constables sworne, for Dorchester, Newtowne & Water- towne, for this next yeere and vntill newe be chosen, are Henry Walcott for Dorchester, Samuell Wakemā for Newtowne & Daniell Finch for Watertowne.
Whereas there be divers strange Swine in the seurall plant- acons yt their owners are not knowen & yet doe & are likelie to Comitt many trespasses. It is therefore ordered yt the saide plantacons shall forthwth take notice of them & their markes, & giue speedy notice amonge the plantacons both of them & their mrkes & if in a fortenight noe owners come forth then the saide plantacons or plantacon where such Swine are, may appraise them att a value & sell them & take the money to
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PUBLIC RECORDS
some publicke vse of the saide plantacon, vnlesse their doe wthin one whole yeere after appr a true owner & then the money it was sould for is to be restored, priuded alwaies yt when the owner appr before the money or Swine be redeliured there be deducted such Somes & Chardges & trespasses as haue beene comitted & expended in & aboute him or them.
It is likewise ordered if any Swine stray from oute their owne Plantacon into another they shalbe subiect [to] the orders yt are there made concerninge Swine.
Whereas there was a dismission granted by the C[hurch] of Waterton in the Masachusetts, dated 29th of Ma[ ] last to An- drewe Warde, Jo : Sherman, Jo : Stickland, Rob'te Coo, Rob'te Reynold & Jonas Weede, wth intent to forme a newe in a Ch : Coveññte in this River of Conectecott, the saide prties haue soe accordingly done wth the publicke allowance of the rest of the members of the saide Churches, as by certificate nowe prduced apprs. It is therefore in this prsent Cort ratified & confirmed, they prmissing shortlie publicquely to renewe the [said] Covennte vppon notice to the rest of the Churches.
A CORTE HELD ATT DORCHESTER, JUNE 7th, 1636.
Mr. Ludlowe, Mr. Westwood,
Mr. Steele, Mr. Warde.
Mr. Phelpes,
Whereas, the last Corte Henry Stiles was ordered to regaine [a] peece he had traded wth the Indians wch doth not appr that he hath done, It is ordered that a warrt shalbe directed to him to prforme the same by the next Cort & and then prson- ally to appr [&] answere his neglect.
It is ordered yt there shalbe a sufficient Watch maynte[ined] in every towne & yt the Constable of each Towne shall d[uly] warne the same & see yt the inhabitants or residents doe seurally in their Turne observe the same accordinge as [the] Inhabitants doe agree, wch said watch shall begin & end wn the Courte or magistrates shall thinke meete.
It is ordered yt Samuell Wakeman & Geo: Hubberd shall [survey] the breadth of the plantacon of Dorchester howe
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OF CONNECTICUT.
farre [it] shall extend aboue Mr. Stiles & shall certifie vnto the [next] Corte their prceedinges herein to th' end it may be then confirmed, and yt they shall haue from the saide Towne satisfaccon for their paines. And the saide Samuell Wake[man] shall doe the like for Watertowne in their bredth toward [the] mouth of the River & have the like satisfaccon. And this done wthout faile before the next Corte vppon peine [of] 40tie shillinges of each heade yt shall faile therein.
It is ordered that every souldier in each plantacon shall haue in his howse in a readines before th' end of August next twoe pounde of powder, & yt they shall shew it to the Constable whenever he shall call them vnto it vppon the penalty of Xs. for every failure wch is presentlie to be le[vied] by the saide Con- stable wthout [resistance] as alsoe 20 bul[letts of leade in the like readines vppon the same penalty and in the same manner to be levied.]
[2]
A CORTE HELD ATT WATERTOWNE 1º 7br, 1636.
Roger Ludlowe Esqr., Mr. Wm. Phelps,
Mr. Jo : Steele, Mr. Wm. Westwoode,
Mr. Wm. Swaine, Mr. Andr: Warde.
It is ordered yt the order concerninge Powder & Bulletts, of the 7th of June last be nowe prsentlie published in the seurall plantacons & yt there be respite given vntill th'end of this instant moneth & then to be putt in execucon without faile.
Whereas there was tendered to vs an Inventory of the estate of Mr. Jo : Oldā wch seemed to bee somewhat vncerteinely valued, wee therefore thinke meete to, & soe it is ordered, that Mr. Jo : Plum & Rich : Gildersleeue togeather wth the Con- stable shall survey the saide Inventory and prfect the same be- fore the next Corte & then to deliur it into the Corte.
It is ordered yt Thurston Rayner as he hath hitherto done soe shall continue to looke to & prserue the Corne of Mr. Olda & shall inn* the same in a seasonable tyme & shall bringe an Accompt the next Cort what quantitie there is of it as alsoe of his labor & then the Cort will out of the same allott vnto him soe many bushells as shalbe reasonable for his paines &
*Inn; to house, to put under cover. Webster.
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PUBLIC RECORDS
labor. And in the meane if he hath vse of some for his owne spendinge to take some wch shalbe then deducted out of what wilbe due to him. And then the Cort will give finall order con- cerninge the same.
It is ordered yt every plantacon shall traine once in every moneth, & if vppon complainte of their military officer it appr that there bee divers very vnskilfull the sayde plantacon may appointe the officer to traine oftener the saide vnskillfull. And yt the saide military officer take veiwe of their seurall Armes whether they be seruiceable or noe. And for default of every souldiers absent the absent to paye 5s. for every tyme wthout lawfull excuse wthin 2 dayes after tendered to the Comrs or one of them in the saide plantacon. And for any default in Armes vppon warnings to them by the saide officer to amend the same & a tyme sett & if not then amended by the tyme ap- pointed, 1s. every tyme. And where Armes are wholly want- inge to be bounde over to answere it at the next Corte.
Whereas it appred by a wrytinge vnder hand of Mr. Olda that twoe of the mares yt are nowe seized vppon by Daniell Finch Constable of Watertowne, as Mr. Oldames goodes, are the goodes of Mr. Tho: Allen. And therefore it is ordered that the said mares shalbe deliured to the saide Mr. Allen into his owne possession or his assignes.
It is ordered by consent of Srieant Seely plt against the inhabitants of the Towne of Watertowne defts, yt a Jurer shalbe wthdrawen, and yt the defts doe vndertake to prduce an order wherein they will make it appr yt it was ordered yt if the inhabitants of the saide Towne did not remoue wth their Families to Conectecott by th' end of this instant moneth or els there was noe prpriety due to them in the devident of the landes of the saide Towne & yt the hand or the consent of the saide Willm Bassum is herevnto. And if the saide order be not prduced here to the Corte by the 2d Cort after this the, Inhabitants are to pay the plte damages.
The first of November, 1636.
Srieant Seely plte.
Inhabitants of Watertowne defts.
The Jury finde for the plte that hee is to have as an adven-
1
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OF CONNECTICUT.
turer & as a man that was in the Condicon that Bassam vnder whom he claymed was in.
Guilford, June 16: 1665 .*
This is to certify unto all whom it may concerne, that vpon his certaine knowledge, by the advice of the Court, Wethersfeild men gaue so much unto Sowheag as was to his sattisfaction for all their plantations lyeing on both sides the great Riuer, wth the Islands, viz. six miles in bredth on both sides the Riuer, & six miles deep from the River westward, and three miles deep from the Riuer eastward. Thus testifyeth George Hubbard. By me George Hubbard. Taken upon oath Before me Willm Leete ;
This is a true coppy of the originell being examined & com- pared therewith this 18 of May, 1667, pr me
John Allyn : Secret'y.
[3] A CORTE HELD ATT NEWE TOWNE 8br 4to, 1636.
Mr. Ludlowe, Mr. Phelpes, Mr. Swaine, Mr. Westwoode,
Mr. Steele, Mr. Warde.
It is ordered that a Warrant be directed to Daniell Finch to sumon Rich : Gildersleeue to appr the next Corte or other meetinge of the Comrs to bringe in an Inventory of Mr. Old- ames estate wch was sometyme in his handes as alsoe to sumon any other to appr that hath in his handes or canne declare where any of th' estate of the saide Mr. Oldā is yt is not as yet revealed.
A CORTE HELD ATT NEWE TOWNE 1º NOVEMBI, 1636.
Mr. Ludlowe, Mr. Phelps, Mr. Pyncheon, Mr. Westwoode,
Mr. Swaine, Mr. Warde. Mr. Steele,
It is ordered that Srieant Seely shall betweene this & the next Corte consider of such noates & Inventories as haue come to his handes or knowledge concerninge the estate of
* This certificate, is inserted at the foot of the 2d Page of the original, in the hand writing of Mr. Allyn.
2*
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PUBLIC RECORDS
Mr. Oldam & then deliuer them into the Corte vppon oath & in the meane to prduce any noate or Inventory to Mr. Swayne & Mr. Warde that he hath or cann come by yt may make for the furtherance of the discouery of the estate of the saide Mr Oldā, to th' end the Cort may then prceede in yt business as they shall see cause.
It is ordered øyt Srieant Stickland is to haue for 7 days ser- uice to the Rivers mouth, aboute Cattle of Mr. Michell & the lo : or their Agents, 21s. The rest yt went in the same seruice 14s. a peece, every Plantacon to defray the chardge of their owne men for the prsent & yt the constables shall make a rate to that purpose.
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