USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Stratford > A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut > Part 12
USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut > Part 12
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First Settlers of Stratford.
Bay, now Setauket, L. I., in 1659, asking to be admitted into Connecticut colony.
Moses Wheeler was at New Haven and had land pro- portioned to him in the first division that was made in that town, which occurred between the years 1641 and 1643. At that time his family consisted of two persons, which must have been himself and wife, and his estate was fifty-eight pounds.
There is nothing definite as to when he came to America or from what part of England, but the Wheeler family have been residents several hundred years in the county of Kent, southeast of and adjoining to London, and it would seem probable that he came with the New Haven Company which came from London ; yet, if his sister married the Rev. Adam Blakeman, as believed, it would indicate that possibly he may have come from another county than that of Kent.
In May, 1648, Moses Wheeler was an inhabitant of Strat- ford, for at that time Roger Ludlow presented to the General Court a request that Mr. Wheeler should be allowed to keep a ferry at Stratford, and the decision of the matter being referred to the next Fairfield Court, the request was granted. It appears from these records that the ferry was then already established, and the application to the court was to secure the privilege as legal property.
What the conditions for the privilege of the ferry were is not stated, but seventeen years later, Nov. 21, 1670, the town saw fit to lease to " Moses Wheeler, ship carpenter, the ferry with thirty or forty acres of upland and six of meadow joining to the ferry for twenty-one years, without tax or rate except six pence per annum during said lease." The inhabit- ants were to be " ferried over for one half-penny per person, two pence per horse or beast." If he should leave the ferry at the end of twenty-one years, the town agreed to pay him for his improvements and take the property. By the will of Moses Wheeler, Jr., proved Jan. 23, 1724-5, it is ascertained that he received the ferry from his father and left it to his own son Elnathan Wheeler, and therefore the ferry contin- ued in the same family, at least three generations, or nearly one hundred years.
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History of Stratford.
It is probable that Moses Wheeler was the first ship carpenter in Stratford, and that he continued to work at his trade, then much needed, and to cultivate his forty-six acres or more of land, while he attended the duties of the ferry many years. He died in 1698; having been born in 1598, therefore may have been the first centenarian white man in New England.
Mr. Samuel Sherman purchased in Stratford of Caleb Nichols a house and lot and other land in about 1650, and became one of the substantial, prominent men of the town. The family is traced back into England by the Rev. Henry Beers Sherman, of Esopus, N. Y., and the Rev. David Sherman, D.D.,1 of Hopkinton, Mass., in regular suc- cession, to the beginning of the sixteenth century, with inter- esting notes of the family a number of generations anterior to that.
" The family is of German extraction. In the fatherland the name Sherman, Schurman, Schearmaun, Scherman often occurs, and was doubtless transferred, many centuries ago, to the vicinity of London by the Saxon emigration, where it still remains. From this metropolitan stock a scion was trans- planted to Dedham, county of Essex, England, which long flourished and sent forth other shoots. The name is derived from the original occupation of the family, for they were cloth dressers, or shearers of cloth. The family at Dedham retained the same occupation and also the same coat-of-arms as worn by those in and about London.
" There are found in New England two distinct families, one of them descending from William Sherman, who came to Plymouth with the Pilgrims about 1630, and settled at Marshfield, where some of his descendants still remain, but of his place of birth or immediate ancestry nothing is known.
" The other is the Dedham family, a branch of which emigrated to America and settled in the vicinity of Boston. Of this family, the first in the line, and perhaps the one who emigrated to Dedham, was Henry Sherman, of whom but few dates or facts are known, except that he bore the Suffolk
1 See New England Genealogical Register for January and May, 1870.
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First Settlers of Stratford.
coat-of-arms and died in 1589. His son Henry was the father of Edmund, the first emigrant of this line to America. He was born in Dedham, and married in England, in 1611, Judith Angier, and came to America about 1632, and settled in Watertown, Mass., whence they removed to Wethersfield, Conn., and thence to New Haven, where he died."
Samuel Sherman, born in Dedham, England, in 1618, son of the above Edward, came to this country with his father and was in Wethersfield as early as 1637, for in May of that year he was a member of the Committee which acted as the Court when war was declared against the Pequots, before the General Court was organized. The position he thus occu- pied was that afterwards denominated an assistant, and now a senator ; the title he bore was that of " Mr." and this when, according to the dates given, he was only nineteen years of age ; but he was probably twenty-one, and his being elected or appointed to that office even at twenty-one, assures that he possessed superior education, or he would not have been so selected from a score of others capable and older, his own father among the number.
Mr. Samuel Sherman was elected an assistant three suc- cessive years from 1662, and he served the State in this or some other capacity so profitably that the court granted him "a farm of two hundred and fifty acres of land upon New Haven river whereof fifty acres may be meadow, so it be out of the bounds of the town."
His next service was upon an important war committee consisting of Mr. Gould, Mr. Camfield, Ens. Judson, Mr. Lawes, Lt. Olmstead or any three of them, for, war between England and the Dutch States general having been declared Feb. 22, 1665, and the news of it having reached the colonies in June of that year with the information that DeRuyter, the Dutch admiral, with a considerable force was to visit New York City, the coast on Long Island Sound was divided into three districts for self-defence. But the Dutch admiral did not come. This news of war dangers produced great excite- ment among the people on the coast.
Liberty was granted by the General Court May 9, 1672, to " Mr. Samuel Sherman, Lt. Wm. Curtis, Ens. Joseph Judson
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History of Stratford.
and John Minor, themselves and their associates, to erect a. plantation at Pomperaug," which grant eventuated in the set- tlement of Woodbury.
Mr. Sherman was thus a valuable as well as a prominent member of the early township of Stratford. He died in the year 1700.
Henry Tomlinson was in Milford as early as 1652; removed to Stratford in the autumn of 1656, where, April I, 1657, he purchased of Joshua Atwater a house and lot and several pieces of land and became a permanent inhabitant. Before coming to Stratford, in June, 1656, the town of Mil- ford brought a complaint against him and he against it, as to the ownership of a house, both claiming it, as an ordinary or tavern which he had conducted one or more years as a town officer, and the town charged him with " breaking the juris- diction order in selling strong water at a greater price than is allowed, and wine and dyet at (as is conceived) immoderate prices whereby the town suffers, and some have said they never came at the like place for dearness." Soon after this Mr. Tomlinson removed to Stratford, but the suit was brought in court several times until the spring of 1659, when it was again put over until the next October, and that is the last that is recorded concerning it except as it came up in another form. The Governor of New Haven had rendered a decision of small penalty against Mr. Tomlinson, and he in turn arrested the governor, by legal process, as having done him a personal injury. This arrest of the chief magistrate of the colony created much excitement, and after two hearings in court Mr. Tomlinson was fined £100, and required to give bonds in that sum with the assurance that the court would " call for the £100 when it should see cause," and there the matter stands to the present time, so far as the records show. In Milford he was not a member of the church and hence not a voter, and this may have had something to do with the lawsuit.
Henry Tomlinson came from England with a wife, two sons, Jonas and Abraham, and several daughters. His son Abraham died on the passage hither, and his son Agur was born in Stratford. The tradition is that his nephew came-
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First Settlers of Stratford.
with him to this country, and there was a Robert Tomlinson in Milford whose wife was dismissed from the church in Mil- ford to Stratford Church in 1653, and who died in Stratford, and his widow married John Birdsey, Sen., about 1688.
William Tomlinson was accepted an inhabitant in Derby in December, 1677, who is supposed, in consequence of several favoring facts, to have been the son of this Robert of Milford and Stratford.
Henry Tomlinson was one of the most active business men of Stratford and known as such in the Colony. He was not a military man; he had no title to his name, but was a farmer, buying, selling and cultivating land. In 1668 he and Joseph Hawley-another land buyer-purchased a large tract of land in Derby -- "all that tract of land lying upon the Great Neck near unto Pawgassett, for . the consideration of £6. Ios.,"1 and in 1671 he and others by permission of the General Court purchased a large tract of land of the Indians of Weantinock-New Milford.
His will was dated in the winter of 1680-81 and proved April 28, 1681, and his inventory amounted to £518 16s. 2d., besides his tract of land at Weantinock, which he gave to his " two sons," Jonas and Agur.
The old Bible, printed in 1599, which Henry Tomlinson brought to this country, is still preserved, although it has removed west to the state of Michigan. The coat-of-arms in a painting of the family has been preserved many years through the care of Governor Gideon Tomlinson and his descendants.
The descendants of Henry Tomlinson have been promi- nent in business enterprises and professions in many parts of the country.
Hugh Griffin became an inhabitant probably about 1654, and purchased of the town a house and lot.
John Ferguson purchased land in Stratford of James Blakeman, Nov. 28, 1660, and appears to have been a resident, and in October, 1664, sold his estate to Abraham Wakeman and removed from the town.
1 Col. Rec., ii. 303.
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History of Stratford.
Thomas Beardsley purchased in Stratford, Feb. 7, 1661, a house and lot of land amounting to ten acres or more, became an inhabitant, and died Feb. 13, 1688. How he was related to the other Beardsley family, if at all, has not been ascertained.
John Beach, son of Richard of New Haven (says Sav- age), perhaps a brother, came to Stratford and bought his first land here May 21, 1660, of Ens. Bryan of Milford, " one house lot 2 acres." He had then a wife and four children.
In January, 1671, he was made an auctioneer by the following vote: "John Beach was chosen crier for the town, and to be allowed. four pence for every thing he cries; that is to say for all sorts of cattle and all other things of smaller value, two years."
Benjamin Beach, son of Richard of New Haven, came to Stratford a single man.
Thomas Quenby may have been a son of William Quenby, had a home lot and was a land owner in Stratford about 1660, and removed to West Chester, N. Y., about 1664.
Francis Jacockes had a home lot in Stratford about 1660, but disappeared soon. He may have been the father of William and Joshua, who were in Hempstead, L. I., in 1682. His descendants are said to be still in New Haven, Conn.
Jonas Halstead was among the early dwellers of Strat- ford, went to Jamaica, L. I., before 1660.
Edward Higbee had a home lot in Stratford, but removed to Jamaica, L. I., before 1660.
John Barlow had a home lot in Stratford about 1660 and removed to Fairfield.
CHAPTER VII.
CONFLICTS, WARS, WITCHCRAFT.
ONCERNING the toil, endurances and hope through which the settlers of Strat- ford, as well as those of neighboring plan- tations, passed the first stage of their pro- gress, it is difficult to write without com- miseration, gloom and indignation. Com- miseration for them as separated from their native land and kindred, the greatness of their privations and toils, and the enmity with which they were watched by the natives around them ; gloom in view of their early dead, and general want of knowledge in order to adapt themselves to the untried conditions of life to which they were sub- ject ; and of indignation at the outrage of the civil and ecclesiastical governments which drove them to renounce their manhood as to conscience and reason, or flee from their native land into an untried, unset- tled and uncivilized wilderness; and finally, indignation that these commonly intelligent and Christianized men should have brought with them so much of the superstition, bigotry and stupid foolishness of the old country as they did, by which they were lead to treat the natives of the land in a barbarous manner, and to hang poor innocent old women as supposed witches. However execrable some of their beliefs and practices were, they brought them all with them from Old England with the exception of a very few items taken up anew from the law of Moses. They came here with the same minds and principles with which they and their neigh- bors were possessed in England, with one grand and noble ex-
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History of Stratford.
ception, which was that they had scarcely put their feet upon American soil before a great light of freedom shone around them and at once transformed them into independent repub- lics; the like of which had never yet been conceived by mortal man. Suddenly, as the comet dashes into sight from its trackless journey, the new earth spread its wide and fertile domain to a coming nation of liberated and enlightened free- men; and such was the amazement to the awakened mind that they scarcely dreamed to what end it would come, only that they were defiant to tyrants, and pledged to the improvement of the grand opportunities spread before them until " further light should come."
With such a comprehensive view of practical life, destiny spread before them the grand achievements which they in due time organized and established, and into the glory of which we have already in part, entered. Hence, in view of the reward we now possess as to a largely enlightened nation, it is unfitting that we should cast a disparaging reflection upon those through whom we possess so advantageous an inheritance. No greater eulogy can be set forth concerning any one than the actualities of life, for anything beyond this dwindles into insignificance. Therefore we proceed to gather the items now scattered far and wide in hundreds of family Bibles, stacks of town records and personal manu- scripts, and place them in book form for the perusal of thousands of interested readers, and as the starting point for future and further research and collections.
How, then, did these wilderness planters make such steady and marvelous progress under the new, varied and difficult, as well as discouraging circumstances around them, during the first twenty years of their Stratford plantation ?
Wars and Rumors of Wars.
In a preceding chapter, pages 55-60, the effects upon Stratford and neighboring towns of the Indian war with the Dutch at New York, which began in 1643, has been carefully narrated, and only a few things remain to be written. The settlers did not come to this country prepared for war, but were almost wholly without implements and materials for
I 39
Wars and Rumors of Wars.
such a conflict. Neither had they the means or necessary appliances for making war materials to any considerable extent, and therefore they were to a great degree defenceless. One of the first things they did in Stratford, after fitting up the few guns they possessed, was, according to tradition, the fortifying the village against the Indians, by building palisades. This was done by setting into the ground wide slab-like stakes or split logs and posts close together, from eight to twelve feet high, making a palisade fence, from the Housatonic river across the north part of what was soon afterwards known as Watch-house Hill, and still later Academy Hill, to the swamp on the west side of the village, and then southward as far as was necessary to secure the settlers from a sudden attack by the Indians. In later years these palisades were renewed and the place further secured as directed by the General Court and attended to by a Strat- ford town vote.
In providing for the safety of the community, soldiers were drafted and placed on watch during the nights, and at particularly alarming times, during the day, and for the con- venience of these soldiers a house was built on the hill, and hence the name Watch-house Hill. From this hill, when the trees were not half or a quarter as numerous as now, the whole village and far beyond it, could be overlooked and a careful watch kept by a few men.
It is possible that as early as 1643 the palisades were built so as to inclose a smail territory at the mouth of the creek where the first meeting-house stood, for the hill a little to the east was called Guard Hill because of the soldiers keeping guard there at a very early period. From this hill, in 1643, a careful watch could have been kept over a few families -perhaps twenty or twenty-five-who were then dwelling there.
In 1649, new difficulties arose with Indians about Stam- ford and adjoining plantations. Forty-five soldiers were ordered by the General Court to be drafted and placed under Roger Ludlow, with William Hull and William Beardsley to assist, but the war passed off without bloodshed, although with a great fright to the people.
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History of Stratford.
Added to this at this time was the great Revolution in England which resulted in the execution of Charles I. and the military dictatorship of Cromwell, which in effect threw the Colonies upon their own resources of sustenance and military defence, and furthered their ideas of personal and Colonial freedom, although they had not the least thought of independency from the mother country. Stratford above all the plantations was loyal although some of its citizens were among the most pronounced opponents to the political claim that none but church members should be freemen so far as to be allowed to vote ; for, in 1663, after the restoration of Charles II. to the throne and the officers were sent to this colony to arrest Messrs. Goff and Whalley, the Regicides, Stratford Constables obeyed the order of search, while other towns refused, and presented a bill to the General Court for £6. 178 Id, which the Court refused to allow,1 and probably the bill is still unpaid.
In the year 1652 war broke out between England and Holland, and it at once was expected that the conflict would be extended to America and prosecuted between the Dutch possessions at New Amsterdam, afterwards New York, and the New England Colonies. Trumbull says: "The com- mencement of hostilities this year between England and Holland, the perfidious management of the Dutch Governor, with apprehensions of the rising of the Indians, spread a general alarm through the Colony."2
In May, 1653, "the Commissioners of the United Col- onies, who were at this time in session at Boston, having ' considered what number of soldiers might be requisite if God call the Colonies to make war against the Dutch, con- · cluded that five hundred for the first expedition shall be the number out of the four jurisdictions, and apportioned this number to the several Colonies as follows: to Massa- chusetts, 333 ; to Plymouth, 60; to Connecticut, 65 ; to New Haven, 42."3 At this time also England sent over "a par- cel of arms and ammunition, as a supply, and for the con- venience of the United Colonies, and ordered "that the
1 Col. Rec. i. 393.
Trumbull, i. 201.
3 Col. Rec., i. 241.
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Wars and Rumors of Wars.
same should be divided as follows: to the Massachusetts, £309, 178, 8ª; to Plymouth, £57, 148, 10d; to Connecticut, £60, 68, 10d ; and to New Haven, £50, 48," the division being made according to tax lists of the several Colonies.
The part which Connecticut was to bear in this cam- paign is indicated by the record of the General Court, May 21, 1653. "The Court having received orders from the Commissioners that there are to be sixty-five men to be prepared forthwith, to be at a day's warning with provisions suitable ; the Court raiseth the men out of the several towns of this Jurisdiction as followeth, who are to be forthwith impressed to be at a day's warning or call, as also that suita- ble provisions and ammunition shall be forthwith prepared :-
Windsor, 12
Norwack, I
Farmington, 5 Seabrook, 5
Pequett, 5
Hartford, 15
Mattebezek, I
Wethersfield, 8
Fairfield, 8 Stratford, 6 = 64.4
" The officers of this Company that the Court requires to be over them, are as follows: Lieut. Cooke is to be Com- mander in Chief; Lieut. Bull to be their Lieutenant ; Lieut. Thomas Wheeler, of Fairfield, to be their Ensign ; Richard Olmstead, of Norwocke, to be a Sergeant; and the other is to be chosen by the officers of this Company ; Hugh Wells to be their drummer."
In drafting men for this war a committee was appointed in each town to act with the constable, to fill which Goodman Groves and Goodman Thornton were appointed for Stratford.
The tax list for Stratford for the year 1654, only one year later, as rendered to the General Court, contained seventy- four tax payers, who were the owners of land or heads of families, but not the entire number of the inhabitants. Hence this draft took one in twelve of the men, and this while a home guard or watch was kept for self-defence, just in plant- ing time in the spring. The calamity of the time is indicated by the General Court, June 25, 1653, thus: " It is ordered by this Court that there shall forthwith be presented to the Bay the present distresses, fears and dangers that the English
4 Ibid, 242.
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History of Stratford.
bordering upon the Dutch, both upon the Main [land] and Long Island are in."
After these preparations for war had continued from May until September, the news came that Massachusetts would take no part in the proposed war against the Dutch, which decision gave great offense to Connecticut and New Haven, because they were greatly exposed to injury by the Dutch, and had already made large expenditures for the war, while Massachusetts was not, and had not. The Court of New Haven convened October 12, and that of Connecticut November 25, both considering that the Court of Massachu- setts had willfully violated the articles of union. The people at Stamford and Fairfield became much agitated and Capt. Underhill, of Greenwich, sent to his friends at Rhode Island for assistance " and with such Englishmen as he could obtain made the best defence in his power."'
Trumbull says: " The Dutch at New Netherlands waited only for a reinforcement from Holland to attack and reduce the English colonies. Of this both they and the English were in constant expectation. It was reported and feared that when the signals should be given from the Dutch ships the Indians would rise, fire the English buildings and make destructive work." If such had been the case no plantations would have suffered more than Stratford, Fairfield and Derby, for here were by far the greatest number of Indians except east of New London. But fortunately the Dutch fleet of reinforcement was defeated by the English at sea, and the Indians remained friends to the settlers.
It was from the midst of these times of peril that some trouble arose concerning Mr. Roger Ludlow, the staunchest and ablest man as a lawyer and statesman that was at the time in Connecticut. Trumbull says : "Stamford complained that the government was bad, and the charges unreasonable, and that they were neglected and deprived of their just privileges. They sent to the General Court at New Haven desiring them to prosecute the war against the Dutch, re- solved to raise a number of men among themselves, and prayed for permission to enlist volunters in the several towns.
5 Trumbull, i. 213.
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Wars and Rumors of Wars.
" The town of Fairfield held a meeting on the subject, and determined to prosecute the war. They appointed Mr. Ludlow commander-in-chief. He was in the centre of the evidence against the Dutch, had been one of the commission- ers at the several meetings at Boston relative to the affair, had been zealous and active for the war, and conceiving himself and the town in imminent danger unless the Dutch could be removed from the neighborhood, too hastily accepted of the appointment. Robert Bassett and John Chapman were at the head of this party. They attempted to foment insurrections and, without any instructions from authority, to raise volunteers for an expedition against the Nether- lands."
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