USA > Connecticut > A history of Connecticut, its people and institutions, pt 1 > Part 16
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THE SHALLOP
THE KETCH
Early Sailing Vessels
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Early Manufacturers and Commerce
The slender commerce was carried on mostly from New London, whence all vessels had to clear, and where a naval officer was stationed. Goods could be imported only from the town of Berwick on the Tweed and the West Indies. In 1702, the number of lawful ports in the colony was in- creased to include Saybrook, Guilford, New Haven, Milford, Stratford, Fairfield, and Stamford. Commerce was handi- capped by scanty sawmills and shipyards, ignorance of channels and inlets, danger from pirates, and during wars, by French and Spanish privateers. The English Acts of Trade, dating from 1660, applied to the colonies, and there were restrictive laws passed by the several colonies against one another. A law was passed by the legislature in 1694, which required vessels to pay "powder money" at every fort, within whose range they came, at risk of cannonade. In 1659, nine men were appointed by the General Court, one for every port, to enter and record such goods as were sub- ject to custom. An excise of a shilling apiece was laid on beaver skins as early as 1638, and in 1659, a duty of twenty- five shillings was laid on every butt of wine, and a tax on liquor or rum, except that from Barbadoes, commonly called Kill Devil, which was not allowed to land. In 1662, an act was passed prohibiting the carrying of corn or other pro- visions out of the river, and in the same year, the General Court passed a vote to require the customs-masters to col- lect an import duty of twopence per pound on tobacco, "according to the law of England."
In 1702, Saybrook became a port of entry for the river, and was allowed a naval officer, but he was not recognized by the crown, and vessels clearing from that town were liable to seizure in England, when they could not produce clearance papers signed by the collector of the crown at New London, the only port established by British authority. In 1714, an export duty of twenty shillings per thousand was levied on barrel staves, and thirty shillings on pipe staves shipped from the colony, in which Wethersfield had the
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largest business. "Pipe staves, clapboards, and tar" appear to have been the earliest articles of export, and these were carried off in such quantities that a fear arose that there might be a total destruction of timber, and as early as 1641, a law provided for the dimensions of pipe staves, and for an inspector in every town. The staves were shipped in bundles to the West Indies; many returning in the shape of pipes or hogsheads, filled with molasses, sugar, or rum; while many were made into casks in the colony, and filled with salt beef, pork, fish, and kiln-dried corn meal for the West Indies, whence also salt was brought in large quantities. In 1715, a duty was imposed on ship timber sent to other provinces, and a duty of twelve shillings and sixpence was laid on every hundred pounds of goods imported here by non- inhabitants. In 1747, a five per cent. ad valorem duty was placed on goods imported from other colonies, if the importer resided in the colony; if he lived outside, the duty was half as much more. Exceptions to this law were iron, nails, steel, salt, beaver, leather, deerskins, fish, train-oil, whalebone, rice, tar, turpentine, window-glass, and lumber. From the report made to the Privy Council by Governor Leete in 1680, it appears that horses, rye, wheat, barley, peas, wool, hemp, flax, cider, tar, and pitch were shipped to Barbados, Jamaica, Fayal, and Madeira, but much was taken to Boston and "bartered for clothing." Afterward, beaver, deer- skins, brick, salted beef, pork, and fish, flaxseed, and onions were added to the exports, and "European goods," with salt, rum, molasses, and sugar from the West Indies, formed the chief imports.
There was another line of business carried on by the sea captains of which we have no definite records, a clandestine business, but one that had money in it, in which some of the vessels from Connecticut ports may have engaged-that of slavers. Vessels left New England for the Canary Islands "and a market," and the market was the west coast of Africa, and the return cargo was a load of blacks for the
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West India ports or the southern cities of America. We wish it were not morally certain that some Connecticut captains engaged in this traffic; but the chances are that the attractions of making money in this way would appeal as strongly to an occasional Connecticut man as to a captain from Newport, and Narragansett Bay was the home of many vessels engaged in transporting blacks from Africa. If a vessel out of the Connecticut river, or New Lon- don harbor was gone six or nine months on a trading voyage, the wise ones looked as though they could a tale unfold.
There was an effort in 1665, to make New London the center of trade in the colony; a letter was written by the colonial government to the commissioners appointed by Charles II., complaining of the low ebb in traffic, and asking for free trade for seven, ten, or twelve years. Again in 1680, there was a request for free ports for twenty, fifteen, or ten years. In describing the harbor the letter says: "A ship of five hundred tunns may go up to the Town, and come so near shoar that they may toss a biskitt on shoar." No royal privileges were granted, nor were they necessary, for the energy and enterprise of the people were sufficient. The first shipbuilder of importance at New London, the best port of the colony, was John Coit, who built barks of from twelve to twenty tons for from fifty to eighty-two pounds. In 1661, the first merchant vessel built in the place was launched with the name of New London Tryall, and the cost of it was two hundred pounds. There was soon a coast trade with New York, and in 1662, trade sprang up with Virginia in dry hides and buckskins. The captains were usually part owners, and vessels, carrying two men and a boy, went along the shore, stopping here and there to trade and dicker. New London soon became famous for its coasters and skippers, and men from other seaside places were engaged in the business. It was a notable event for the commerce of Connecticut when in October, 1707, John Shackmaple was appointed by the home government collector, surveyor,
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and searcher for the colony. Commerce increased, and horses were sent in large numbers to the West Indies. On June 26, 1724, six vessels went together, loaded with horses. The vessels were called "horse-jockeys" and forty or fifty horses were sometimes carried on one vessel. In 1720, Captain John Jeffrey came from Portsmouth, England, and settled at Groton Bank. Five years later, he built for Captain Sterling the largest vessel yet constructed on this side of the Atlantic, a vessel of seven hundred tons, and soon New London had a reputation for large ships.
In 1730, the "New England Society of Trade and Commerce" was formed with eighteen members scattered over the colony, but misfortune attended it from the start: a whaler which it sent out came to grief; other vessels were lost, and it tried to redeem its fortunes by emitting paper, but to no good purpose, and the governor and council were forced to dissolve it in 1735. In 1760, the first lighthouse on the coast was erected at the entrance to New London harbor from the proceeds of a lottery.
A famous enterprise of Connecticut Yankees started in 1740, when William and Edward Paterson came from County Tyrone, Ireland, skilled in the art of shaping tinned sheet iron into small ware. Settling in Berlin, they began work. Their goods were eagerly bought as luxuries, and in the dearth of roads and wagons they carried their products around in handcarts, and in large baskets swung from the backs of horses. Many shops were soon in full blast until the war interrupted the work. The minds of the people almost from the first turned to inventions and manufactures, and within a few years there were developed trades, engaging the skill of sawyers, carpenters, ship-carpenters, thatchers, chim- ney-sweepers, brickmakers, bricklayers, plasterers, tanners, shoemakers, saddlers, weavers, tailors, hatters, blacksmiths, gunsmiths, cutlers, nailers, millers, bakers, coopers, and potters. Often the same man practiced several trades. Little could be done without iron and copper and in 1651,
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John Winthrop, Jr., petitioned the legislature for "incourage- ment to make search and trial for metals in this country." There was a cordial response, and in 1665, iron works were projected; Winthrop and Stephen Goodyear uniting in setting up a mill for rolling balls of iron, and a forge at the outlet of Lake Saltonstall, near New Haven, and the works were in operation there for several years. In.1661, Winthrop prospected in the vicinity of Middletown, and a lead mine, which had traces of silver, was worked there by skilled miners.
Early in the eighteenth century, interest in mining awoke afresh when copper was found in Wallingford and Simsbury, and in 1709, the General Assembly granted the first charter in America to a mining company; this organization was formed to work the mine at Simsbury, now Granby. The first record of copper at Granby was in 1705, when a com- mittee from the town reported that there was a "mine of silver or copper in the town." Two years later a company was formed, and a contract made to dig for ore. The ore was shipped to England, and when assayed it was found to contain from fifteen to twenty per cent. of copper, with sprinklings of gold and silver; but the quartz mixed with it was refractory, and since England would not then allow smelters to be set up here, the cost of transportation being so heavy, with carting and loss of a vessel, which sank in the British Channel, and another captured by the French, the company bankrupted, and the buildings at the mines and the mine were attached in 1725. Work was carried on at intervals for seventy years, sometimes by slave labor some- times by free; now by private parties, then by chartered companies. In 1728, Joseph Higley took out a patent for a process of making steel-the first in America, and was given the monopoly for ten years, and in 1750, there was a steel furnace at Killingworth. The most important iron mines in Connecticut are those in Salisbury, where ore was first discovered about 1732, at Ore Hill, about a mile from the New York line-a deposit of brown hematite, and it was
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first forged at Lime Rock, five miles distant, in 1734. About 1748, a forge was erected at Lakeville, and in 1762, the first blast furnace in the state was built, about two miles from the mine. After the Revolution opened, the government took possession and put it into full operation with sixty workmen, to furnish supplies for the army. Cannon up to thirty-two- pounders, with shot and shell, were cast there. The guns were tested under the eyes of such leaders as Jay, Morris, Hamilton, and Trumbull. The guns of the Battery at New York, of the Constellation, Constitution, and many other battle-ships of the old navy, were made of the Salisbury iron, and probably at Lakeville.
Other furnaces were established in that region, and at one time Litchfield County contained as many as fifty forges. The Salisbury mines furnish iron of decided value for cannon, gun-barrels, and chains, because of its toughness. For years the government arsenal at Springfield received from Salis- bury iron for guns. It is now used for car wheels, being mixed with other iron, thereby nearly doubling the life of a wheel. There are references in the records to iron works in Lyme in 1741, in Derby in 1760; and the largest copper mine in Connecticut was opened in Bristol late in the eighteenth century. In 1766, Abel Buell of Killingworth made the first lapidary machine in this country. About 1769, there appeared the first series of historical prints-views of the battles of Lexington and Concord, also maps for Morse's geography.
Tobacco followed commerce from Virginia to Connecticut, and was first grown in the latter state in 1640; an old record says, "most people plant most so much tobacco as they spend." In 1641, the following law was passed: "It is ordered that what person or persons within this jurisdiction shall after September, 1641, drinke any other tobacco, but such as shalbe planted within their libertye, shall forfeit for every pound so spent, five shillings, except they have license from this Coute." In 1646, the law was repealed;
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and evidently the use rapidly increased, for in 1647, a law was passed to lessen the abuses arising from the new drug. It was provided that "no one under twenty years nor any other that hath not allreaddy accustomed himself to the Use thereof should take any Tobacco until he had a Certificat from some one approved in Physicke that it is usefull for him." A "Lycence" from the Court was also required. Even then, no one was to take it "Publicquely," or in "fyelds or woods, unless they be on their travill or joyney at least ten myles." The penalty for every violation was six- pence. A man might smoke at the "ordinary tyme of repast comonly called dynner," but not take any "Tobacco in any howse in the same towne where he liveth with any one in company, if there be any more than one who Useth or drinketh the same weed with him at the same tyme." For fifty years the main question concerning the use of tobacco was from the standpoint of idleness and drinking. In 1662, a bill was passed in favor of high protection, putting on a tariff of twenty-five shillings per hogshead; after 1700, tobacco was one of the exports.
In 1732, began the effort to raise silkworms. One of the earliest planters of mulberry trees was Gov. Jonathan Law, who introduced the raising of silkworms on his farm in Cheshire, and in 1747, appeared in public in the first coat and stockings made of Connecticut silk; Dr. Aspinwall of Mansfield doing much to promote the interest. The records of the General Assembly contain suggestive refer- ences to favors granted to promote infant industries; in 1708, the exclusive right was given to John Elliot to man- ufacture pitch; potash received a favor in 1743, salt in 1746, in Branford and Lyme; tar and turpentine were subjects of law from 1720, bayberry tallow in 1724; in 1732, linseed oil; bells in 1736, and glass making in 1747, when Thomas Darling of New Haven was granted exclusive right to make window glass for twenty years, provided he made five hun- dred feet in four years.
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In 1769, Abel Buell of Killingworth established the first type foundry in America, and in the collection of petitions in the State Library is his appeal, printed with his type, ask- ing for a lottery or cash to enable him to manufacture type. The manufacture of paper began in Norwich in 1768; the colony giving to Christopher Leffingwell a bounty of two- pence a quire for writing paper, and one penny a quire for printing paper. In 1776, a paper-mill in East Hartford supplied the press at Hartford, which issued about eight thousand copies a week; and manufactured also writing paper used in the colony, together with much of that used by the Continental Congress. A bill to regulate the sale of onions dates from 1772; also a bill concerning the manufac- ture of ploughs in 1771. In 1776, a man asked of the legisla- ture a loan of one hundred pounds to build a stocking factory. Inventive minds were seeking to solve the problem of per- petual motion, and asking the General Assembly for aid in achieving that brilliant exploit. It was a period of energy, enterprise, and venture-a vigorous preparation for the mar- vellous developments of the next century.
O THE HONORABLE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE COLONY OF CONNECTICUT, Convened at New-Haven the Second Thurfday of Oct- ober AD 1769:
The Memorial of ABEL BUELL of Killingworth Humbly fheweth;
That your Memorialift having Experiene'd the Great Goodnefs of this Honorable Affembly, for which he Begs Leave to render his moft Grateful Tribute of thanks, and to Affure them from a Grateful Senfe of their Clementy he has made it his unwearied Study to render himfelf Ufcful to the Cemimunity in which he lives and the American Colonies in general, and by his Unwearied application for a number of month: paft has Difcover'd the Art of Letter-Found- ing; And as a Specimen of his abilities Prefents this Memorial Imprefs'd with the Types of h's Own manufacture, and whereas by an Antient Law of this Colony, this Affembly were Graciously Pleafed to Enact that any one who Would make any Ufcful Difcoveries thou !! Receive an Encouragement there-for from this Honorable Affembly; and as the Manufacture of Types is but in Few hands even in EUROPE, he humbly Conceives it to be a most Valuable Addition to the American Manufactur", and as the Expence of erecting a Proper Foundery will be Great and beyond the abilities of your Nemcrilaift, he humbly hopes for Encouragement from this Affembly Either by Granting him the Liberty of a Lottery for Railing a Sum Sufficient to enable him to carry on the fame, or in fome other way as to this Honorable Affembly may foommeet; and your Memorialift as in duty Bound Dall ever Pray.
Juill.
1
Abel Buell's Petition for a Lottery
Facsimile of Abel Buell's petition to the Connecticut General Assembly, October, 1760. This type is believed to be the earliest type cast in America. The original is in the Connecticut State Library, Connecticut Archives, "Industry," vol. ii., Doc. 137
CHAPTER XV
EXPANSION
THE century following the grant of the charter was a season of quiet growth, during which Connecticut went steadily forward, building the institutions of a free common- wealth with judgment and energy. The charter was liberal and strong; the people thrifty, industrious, and energetic; occasions for commerce favorable; much of the soil good, and the climate stimulating. In 1680, the colonial govern- ment of Connecticut, in answer to a request of the English board of trade, sent a statement of the condition of the colony, which suggests the weakness of the colony and the sturdy hearts of the colonists. John Allyn wrote the draft of the letter, and he estimated the fighting men in train-bands of the colony at two thousand five hundred and seven, which would imply a population of ten thousand, or five persons to the square mile. The people had "little traffique abroad," except "sending what provisions we rays to Boston, where we buy goods with it, to cloath vs." He . described the country as mountainous, rocky, and swampy; most that was fit had been taken up: "what remaynes must be subdued, and gained out of the fire, as it were, by hard blowes and for small recompence." The principal towns were Hartford, New Haven, New London, and Fairfield, with twenty-six smaller towns. The buildings were of wood, stone, and brick, many of them "forty foot long and twenty broad, and some larger." The exports were farm
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products, boards, staves, and horses, mainly sent to Boston, but some to the West Indies to barter "for sugar, cotton and rumme and some money." There were but twenty merchants in the colony, few servants, and about thirty slaves. Labor was scarce and dear; wages were two shillings and two and sixpence a day; provisions were cheap; beggars and tramps "were not suffered," and when found they were bound out to service. Taxable property was estimated at one hundred and ten thousand pounds; two-fifths of it being of the nature of a poll tax, and this tax was assessed according to an arbitrary schedule of wealth or position, so that it took the nature of an income tax.
In the development of new towns, one of two methods was followed: A speculator or company might buy lands from the Indians, with the approval of the General Assembly, and as soon as the rates became sufficiently large to need the extension of the Assembly's taxing power over the little community, a committee was appointed by that body to bound out the town; it was then in order to choose constables, and send delegates to the Assembly. The other process tended to become the only one, and it was as follows: the original towns were usually extensive-six to ten miles square as Wethersfield embraced Glastonbury, Rocky Hill, Newing- ton and a part of Berlin; and persons living in remote parts finding it difficult to attend the central church, especially in winter, would ask for "winter-privileges" for a time and would have a preacher for themselves during the snowy months. When enough people could be found in a certain section to support a minister of their own, they applied to the General Assembly for permission to form a church. This usually met strong opposition from the old church, but at length the come-outers had their way; form- ing a church, which became a germ of a new town. A good example is Plainfield, which was settled as the Quinnabaug
- Plantation, and in 1700, becoming a town it was incorporated under the name of Plainfield, which gave as a brand for the
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horses turned loose to pasture, a triangle. We are not to think that changes came in the towns, and separations of neigh- borhoods into new towns as gently and quietly as spring passes into summer. Such resolute men as settled Connecti- cut seldom neglected an occasion for debate and even con- troversy, when they imagined their rights threatened, or thought they could advance their interests. "There was a border warfare between Plainfield and Canterbury, attended by pulling down fences and carrying off hay and grain. There were innumerable lawsuits, and nearly all the principal men of Canterbury were indicted for "stealing bales of hay," and fined ten shillings. In 1703, the General As- sembly ordered a division of the territory, and in 1714, the same body ordered the following of the line established at the earlier date, thus increasing the confusion, and fanning the flames of border-ruffianism; and finally, in 1721, the limits of the contending towns were established.
From 1700, until 1745, thirty new towns were incorpo- rated, and the growth in population was steady. In 1755, the board of trade estimated it at one hundred thousand. In 1762, all the soil of the colony had been allotted to town- ships, and new towns formed after that year were carved out of those already in existence. Even in the dark days of the Revolution, the energetic people continued to pop- ulate the vacant places. In 1779-80, five towns were laid out; from 1784, to 1787, twenty-one, -twelve of them in 1786. Tolland County was divided off in 1786, as Wind- ham had been in 1726, Litchfield in 1751, and Middlesex in 1765. These, with the four original counties of Fairfield, New Haven, Hartford, and New London, made the present eight counties.
The settlement of Windham County may illustrate the way the later counties came into being. Windham County is the northeast section of the state, about eighty miles from Boston, and across it travelers toiled without halting for over half a century, regarding its broken, rock-strewn
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surface, its lakes and rivers, its wild, craggy forests, miry swamps, and sandy barrens as a part of a "hideous and trackless wilderness." Large parts of it had been kept burned over by the Indians for pasturage for deer. In 1664, settlers came from Roxbury to the Nipmuck region, travel- ing over the Old Connecticut Path to form a town in what is now Woodstock, and on March 5, 1690, the Assembly voted to call it Woodstock, and in the following May, the first town meeting was held in the town. Two years later, a similar meeting was held in Windham, and Pomfret held a meeting before 1700; Plainfield, one in 1700; Canterbury, one in 1703, and Killingley in 1708. In Ashford, that wild, forest region, remote from civilization, yet on the Old Connecticut Path, which ran across what is now its common, the first town meeting was held in 1715. It came to pass that, during the forty years following the first settlement of that region, eight towns were formed in Windham County, and every one of them had settled "a learned and orthodox minister," and had grist mills, tanneries, the beginnings of roads, besides taverns. Money was scarce, food scanty, hard work plentiful, a conspicuous arena for the Great Awak- ening so soon to come, and a rich field for the builders of summer homes in recent years.
Litchfield County, so famous for its glorious scenery, learned jurists, and powerful preachers, was organized in 1751, having eleven towns, Canaan, Cornwall, Salisbury, Kent, Sharon, Torrington, Harwinton, Woodbury, New Hartford, Goshen and New Milford. This is the largest county in the state, with a gravely loam, interspersed with fertile lands, and watered by the Naugatuck, Housatonic, and Farmington rivers.
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