USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Stratford > A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut > Part 8
USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > A history of the old town of Stratford and the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut > Part 8
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Trumbull, 103.
14 Mr. Wm. A. Beers, in Magazine of American History, April, 1882.
83
The First Constitution.
tion and far-reaching results it ranks with the best that have been formulated by the profoundest statesmen. It was not perfect : Ludlowe was not a perfect legislator; but it ap- proached so near completeness. that Dr. Leonard Bacon said of it: ' It is the first example in history of a written Constitu- tion-a distinct organic law, and defining its powers.'"
B
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST PLANTERS.
1639-1651.
EGINNING in a wilderness, bordering on the great sea, a settlement of English inhab- itants, for the perpetuation of posterity under the broad principles of religious free- ROA dom and uprightness, as well as an enlarged perception of civil rights, was the honored 10 privilege of the first planters of Stratford. Admitting that their opinions of religious and civil liberty were not equal to those entertained two hundred years later, yet, the advanced position which they took upon emigrating from the terrible restrictions placed by their native country, upon the ideas which they did entertain, was and is still, a marvel in itself; and it has proved already to be the germinating seed which has been scattered to a joyful extent to nearly every nation under the sun. Notwithstanding some odium of Blue Laws, the originating point of liberty in its best applications, for two hundred and fifty years, has been the State of Connecticut; and, among the very earliest protéstants against restrictions upon such freedom were found prominent planters at Stratford. Dark- ness in the thought-world as well as in the physical, is only dispelled by the incoming of light ; and as light penetrates, the mental soil becomes prolific, the same as the physical, and hence America has grown from its small beginnings at the germ principles of mighty freedom, to its present mar- velously grand proportions of national liberty and government. In the history of the world, nothing has ever half equaled.
85
The name of the Township.
this growth, nor the completeness, and marvelous develop- ments of national government and freedom.
Stratford began with a few families ; grew and prospered until it surpassed many of its neighbors and thereafter sent forth an innumerable number of families to establish and replenish other plantations in the exercise of the same energy and expanding thought that marked its own early history, and which have secured for it a fame highly honorable to any people. It was recognized first as an established plantation, in 1639, although tradition reports that one family-William Judson-if not more, settled here in the year 1638.
That it was settled by a number of inhabitants in 1639, is evident not only from tradition, but from the following extracts from the records of the General Court, October 10, 1639:1 " And Mr. Governor [John Haynes] and Mr. Wells [Thomas Wells, afterwards Governor] were intreated to attend this service, [to view the plantation laid out by Mr. Ludlow], and they are desired to confer with the planters at Pequannocke, to give them the oath of fidelity, inake such free as they see fit, order them to send one or two deputies to the General Courts of September and April, and for deciding of differences and controversies under 40$, among them, to propound to them and give them power to choose 7 men from among themselves, with liberty of appeal to the Court here; as also to assign Sergent Nichols for the present to train the men and exercise them in military disci- pline: and they are further desired to speak with Mr. Prudden, and that plantation that the difference between them and Pequannocke plantation may be peaceably decided, and to this end that different men may be chosen to judge who have most right to the places in controversy and most need of them, and accordingly determine as shall be most agreeable to equity and reason."
According to this the plantation was settled so far as to have men enough to be exercised in training, and so as to choose seven men as a court for matters under 40% of value ; and also there was a difference as to boundaries between the
1 Col. Rec., i. 36.
86
History of Stratford.
two plantations, Stratford being called Pequannock; and the Court sought to have them send deputies, as a township.
This indicates that Mr. Blakeman and his company had arrived from Wethersfield, for without them there would have been too few to meet the supposition of the Court.
At this time the plantation is called Pequonnocke, by the Court, and in June 1640, it is called Cupheag, and the same the next September, and in April, 1643, it is called Stratford. The name therefore, must have been changed between September, 1640, and April, 1643.
As to the name, Stratford, and how it became the name of this locality, there are some interesting items. Hon. James Savage, author of a Genealogical Dictionary, speaking of Thomas Alsop and his brother Joseph Alsop at New Haven, says: "It may be that the father of these youth was that of John Alsop, rated for a subsidy in 1598, to the same parish and at the same time with William Shakespear, nor would it be very extravagant to suppose, that he too went up to London from Stratford on Avon," and thence came to America, and also to Stratford among the first settlers, per- haps in 1639, and that through him the name was thought of and used. It has been suggested that since Samuel Sherman, an early settler at Stratford, came from near Stratford, Essex county, England, quite another place from that where Shakes- pear was born, the place may have been named after this town in Essex by the suggestion of Mr. Sherman; but it should be remembered that the Connecticut Stratford was so named ten years or more before Samuel Sherman settled in it, and therefore he had nothing to do with naming it .*
A company, it is said, was organized at Wethersfield with Mr. Adam Blakeman as minister, for the purpose of settlement at Cupheag. Some of this company were persons who had been connected in church relations with Mr. Blakeman in England and had accompained him thither, and others joined him at Wethersfield. Tradition says there were fourteen or fifteen in this company, and it has appeared in print that there were seventeen, but it is impossible, now,
* See Biographical Sketch of Wm. Beardsley.
87
First Settlers of Stratford.
to fix the number. Several of the first planters had grown- up sons, over twenty-one years of age, and if these were counted, the number, apparently, must have been over seven- teen.
The location at first of quite a number of families in the southern part of the present village of Stratford, near the site of the first meeting house, may indicate that they came to the place at the same time and made their homes near each other for better protection against the Indians.
It is also improbable that a company of families with Mr. Blakeman as their minister, should come from Wethersfield to settle at Stratford without some agreement or specific understanding about the ownership of the land, as it was then not only under the supervision of the Court, but claimed by it as conquered and ceded territory. Hence we find in 1656 the General Court confirms the boundaries and consequently the right of the soil to the inhabitants then residing here, in these words: "This Court, at the request of Stratford, doe graunt that their bounds shall be 12 myle northward, by Paugasitt River, if it be att the dispose by right of this Jurisdiction ;" and therefore the inhabitants then in the town, some of them or all, were the owners of this territory, by agreement with the Court.
All the proceedings of the town, from the first record now remaining, are founded upon the implied ownership by a company of first settlers. It appears by the records, and tradition confirms the same, that about the year 1650 the records, then kept in a private house, were accidentally burned, destroying every entry made from 1639 to that time, and then the claims of the settlers, most of them, were reëntered by the town clerk, as the parties described them and as was generally known to be the facts. After this, when new parties came into the town, they were granted a home lot of about two acres free, upon condition that they would build upon and improve it for three years, after which they could sell it to their own profit if they desired so to do. Hence most of the entries are dated in 1651 or later; one land record bears the date of 1648, and one town meeting act bears that of 1650.
88
History of Stratford.
If a definite authoritative account or biographical sketch of each of these original first settlers could be given, in- cluding the place of birth, social and civil relations and a statement of the leading occurrences which drove them to emigrate to this country, it would be a portion of history of much value as well as of decided interest. We know in a general way the causes of this emigration, but as to individu- als we have no particulars except those of Mrs. Mirable, the wife of John Thompson. In the absence of such information as we would be delighted to obtain, we must be content with the few items which can now be gleaned from the desolated and long neglected field.
The settlement of Stratford was not made by a company organized for the purpose in England as was the case with several other towns, but by individuals, in a kind of inde- pendent or isolated way, except those who came in company with Mr. Blakeman. These seem to have been more numer- ous than has been generally conceded. Of some of the families settled here it is stated that they came direct from England, but as no vessels landed at Stratford these must have come through Massachusetts, and hence may have joined Mr. Blakeman's company at Wethersfield, or, under a concert of arrangement, joined him at Stratford in the Spring of 1639. The fact that there were a certain number of proprietors, or patentees, or owners of the whole territory, necessarily requires concert of action under some specific agreement with the General Court, and that, too, for some consideration of value, else they could have had no right to the exclusion of others. These were 15, perhaps 17, and if any others came they were required to buy land of these 17, individually or collectively, or receive it by gift from the town. Dr. Trumbull's statements, for want of thoroughness of research as to the purchase of the township of the natives, are so erroneous that his other statements may be taken with some doubt, yet in regard to the coming of the first principal settlers he may be nearly correct, for he probably obtained his information in this particular from aged living persons who at that date would be likely to retain the facts. He says :
89
First Settlers of Stratford.
" Mr. Fairchild, who was a principal planter, and the first gentleman in the town vested with civil authority,? came directly from England. Mr. John and Mr. William Curtiss and Mr. Samuel [should be Joseph] Hawley were from Roxbury, and Mr. Joseph [should be William] Judson and Mr. Timothy [should be William] Willcoxson from Concord in Massachusetts. These were the first principal gen- tlemen in the town and church of Stratford. A few years after the settlement commenced, Mr. John Birdseye removed from Milford and became a man of emi- nence both in the town and church. There were also several of the chief planters from Boston, and Mr. Samuel Wells, with his three sons, John, Thomas and Samuel, from Wethersfield, Mr. Adam Blakeman, who had been episcopally ordained in England, and a preacher of some note, first at Leicester and after- wards in Derbyshire, was their minister, and one of the first planters. It is said that he was followed by a number of the faithful into this country, to whom he was so dear, that they said, in the language of Ruth, 'Intreat us not to leave thee, for whither thou goest we will go; thy people shall be our people, and thy God our God !' These, doubtless, collected about him in this infant settlement."
Mr. John W. Barber, writing in 1836, says:
" The first settlers appear to have located themselves about one hundred and fifty rods south of the Episcopal Church, the first chimney being erected near that spot ; it was taken down about two years since. The first burying ground was near that spot. Mr. William Judson, one of the first settlers, came into Stratford in 1638. He lived at the southwest corner of Meetinghouse hill or green, in a house constructed of stone. Mr. Abner Judson, his descendant, lives on the same spot, in a house which has stood one hundred and thirteen years, and is still in good repair."
The fact, repeatedly recorded, of the divisions of the common land proves that the town was owned by a certain number of persons, who, as proprietors of the whole (and if so then these persons obtained these shares or rights of the General Court which claimed the ownership at the time), secured the same for some consideration or stipulation, which was, probably, the simple fact of taking possession by actual settlement by a certain number of inhabitants within a speci- fied time; for this was a method pursued in other towns at the time and soon after.
Common land, or " the commons," was land not divided or disposed of ; " sequestered " was that given away, either
2 This is an error according to the Conn. Col. Records, i. 53, " Genl. Court, June 15, 1640, . . . It is so ordered that Mr. William Hopkins of Cupheage be a commissioner to join with Mr. Ludlowe in all Executions in their particular court or otherwise and is now sworn to that purpose." This was for Cupheag and Un- coway, before Mr. Fairchild was elected magistrate.
90
History of Stratford.
for public or private use, but generally for public ; "divis- ions" were a certain number of acres surveyed to each and every proprietor, which sometimes were measured into lots which were numbered and the numbers being put on paper and into a hat or box were drawn out, one to each proprie- tor; this was called drawing lots.
The " Common Field " was land for cultivation, owned by several or all of the proprietors, and a fence made around the whole instead of each making a fence around his own, for which latter work too much time would be required. There were two of these common fields. The first was constructed by making a fence from the brook on the west side of Little Neck to the swamp west and then down to the marsh, and thus shutting all the cattle and swine out into the forests northward. When the present records begin this first com- mon field is frequently called the Old Field, and this name is still applied to a considerable part of the territory imme- diately south of Stratford village.
The second common field was made before the year 1648, since that is the date when Robert Rice has land recorded as being in that field. This was called the New Field, and was made by a fence running west across Claboard hill to what is now Buce's brook or still further to Mill creek. This is indicated by a record made March 5, 1665-6, locating a part of the fence at the northeast corner of the field and south- ward.3 This field was then reserved for a " winter field ;" that is, the fence was kept up and gates closed in order to leave the corn and stacks of hay and grain in that field secure from the cattle during the winter. Some years the Old Field was kept for the same purpose-a " winter field." 4
A few years later, that is before 1652, another field was constructed by a fence across the neck about where Old Mill Green now is, from Mill Creek to Pequannock River, which
3 " It was agreed at a lawful [town] meeting that the New field shall be kept for a winter field the two following years and liberty for a fence to be drawn along the swamp on the east side of Claboard Hill and so down to the old swamp land to the creek."
4 " Oct. 10, 1664. It was agreed that the Great Neck shall be kept this year for a winter field."
First Settlers of Stratford.
was called the "New Pasture," and afterwards the southern part of this field was called " New Pasture Point." About the same time, perhaps a little earlier, another field was made up the Housatonic river, called the " Oxe Pasture," which is frequently mentioned on the records.
It should be remembered that these fields were largely without forests when the white settlers first came. Probably the Old Field, and perhaps some part of the land where Stratford village was located had been somewhat cultivated by the Indians before the settlers came, at least it was largely cleared from forests, for if it had not been, so few inhabitants could not have cleared it and laid out a village with such regularity, to such an extent, as was done within four or five years. For in 1639 or 1640 the principal company of settlers came from Wethersfield, and in 1648 the village plot was all laid out, and, apparently, had been for several years. The tradition is that they came on foot and horseback, and forded the river to reach the west side, which seems almost if not quite incredible since the depth of the river at present pre- cludes a supposition of fording it. The strong indications are that they came by boat, and if they did not their house- hold goods did, and were landed at the mouth of Mack's creek, where they made their first tents or huts, houses, and meeting house, and afterwards laid out their village upon a very appropriate and beautiful plan, and thus it remains to- day with but few changes as to its principal streets. When they had laid the highways they proceeded to make the first division, which was a home lot, a piece of meadow, and a piece of upland for planting ; the home lot containing usually two and a half acres, and the other pieces varying according to quality ; all distribution of lands being passed by vote at the town meetings. When after planters came a grant of two and a half acres was made to them free of cost upon con- dition that they should build a dwelling upon it and improve it during three years, after which they could keep it or sell it at their own pleasure. These grants were called " home lots," but when a dwelling had been erected upon them they were called " house lots."
The oldest date of such a lot or of anything, now upon
.
92
History of Stratford.
record, is that of Robert Rice's lands, Sept. 16, 1648; all previous to this having been lost or destroyed ;- said to have been burned, probably by accident, they having been kept in a private house.
It is quite certain that dwellings were not builded upon every home lot granted, but in some cases they were sold and united to other lots, as in the case of John Birdseye at the south end of the village, who purchased several.
Running through the New Field was a stream called Nesumpaw's Creek, and a portion of the territory in the New Field was called Nesumpaws' ; which title was first the name of an Indian and applied to a tract of land on which his wigwam stood. The name is spelled at first on the town records Nesingpaws or Neesingpaws, and later Nesumpaws.
" Claboard Hill " lay at the north of the New Field, a part of the hill being included in that field. Stony Brook Hill was afterwards called Old Mill Hill.
The Pequannock field was constructed, probably, about 1655, for it had been sometime established according to a town vote in January, 1661. It was on the Pequannock plain south of Golden Hill, east of Fairfield bounds.
The Calf-pen plain or Upper plain was north of, and, probably, included a part of, the Golden Hill Reservation, as the Reservation was laid out in 1659. This plain was estab- lished for young cattle very early, probably before 1650. This locality was afterwards and even yet is known as Bull's head. It was here probably where Richard Butler's swine were pastured when Nimrod " willfully killed some of them," and a law suit followed, or at least was granted to follow, by the Court.
The following is the list of the owners of fence about the first common field, the fence being a little over 353 rods in length, which if it surrounded the entire field inclosed nearly fifty acres, but if it was a fence direct across the neck to Fresh Pond it would have inclosed several hundred acres, or all of Great Neck as well as Little Neck.
This list is without date but must have been recorded before 1651, since William Burritt's name is on it and he died that year.
93
First Settlers of Stratford.
" A note of every man's fence in the old field with what numbers and the several rods.
rods. feet. inch.
rods. feet. inch.
I Thomas Skidmore, -12 3
O 22 William Crooker, 2 IO 2
2 John Wells, .6 O
0 23 John Hurd, 43
8
O
3 John Reader, 9
O 24 Arthur Bosticke. 6
9
O
4 Adam Blakeman, 14 O 25 John Tomson, IO
9
O
5 Richard Harvey 9 I
6 26 Robert Cooe, 0
IO
2
6 John Peacock, 5
4
6 27 Thomas Ufford, 12
6
3
7 William Quenby, 4
O O 28 Joseph Hawley 6
9 O
8 Robert Rice, 13
8
O 29 Jeremiah Judson, II O
9 William Burritt, 5
4 6 30 Joshua Judson,
IO Mr. Knell, 5 4 6 31 Mr. Seabrook, 1 00 0
II John Peatite, IO
9
O 32 Henry Gregory, 8 00
O
12 John Brownsmayd, 9
6 33 Richard Booth, 8
00 O
13 William Wilcoxson, __ 12 3
O 34 Mr. Waklin 2
IO O
14 Richard Butler, 6 9
15 John Peake, IO
9
O 36 Thomas Sherwood, 5
4
6
16 Thomas Fayrchild, 6
9
37 Francis Hall, I8
3
O
17 Joseph Judson, 4
O
18 Adam Hurd, 4
O
O 39 John Curtis, 1
IO
0
19 Daniell Titterton II
14
0 40 John Birdzie,. .IO
9
O
20 Philip Groves, 9
I
6 41 Isack Nickoles, 2
IO
21 Francis Peacocke, -5
4
6
O 35 Widow Curtis, 2
IO 2
38 William Beardsley, ._ 24
6 0
It is probable that this is not a complete list of the original company. Robert Cooe-number 26-was Robert, Junior, and just twenty-three years of age, and hence was not an original proprietor, yet his father, who was at Wethers- field at the time, may have been. Thomas Alsop appears to have been one of the original company, but his name is not on this list.
The following sketches of the first settlers at Stratford are much less complete than they would be if written at the end of the work. It is probable that these men had not the ' least surmise or apprehension of the relation they were to occupy in regard to a free people for many centuries to come. Each supposed himself to be simply an individual, seeking the prosperity of himself and family, but time has revealed that each was a pillar in a great temple of human
94
History of Stratford.
government, for freedom and marvelous success. They sought, modestly and mainly, a simple home of personal possession and comforts, and in securing these, laid, in con- nection with other like plantations which were as independent republics, the foundations for a government which, after a little less than two centuries and a half, is, for the elevation of mankind, the most sublime the sun ever shone upon. It is often the case that the most perfectly carved marble statue occupies but an unobtrusive corner in a great temple, so the work and life of each family in such a plantation may seem at the time but an insignificant space partially filled, yet in the ages to follow, that which was the obscure germ will bloom into the crowning national glory ; even as accom- plished Presidents of the United States from the back-woods log cabins. Under such possibilities no family is too obscure to be noticed in a work like the present; and even if it were, the fact of a faithful mention of all, may prove a stim- ulant to high ambition and success in a most obscure corner ; and therefore, so far as time and cost will allow, it is the pur- pose to mention in a historical manner as far as possible, every person that has had a residence in the good old town of Stratford. But few books if any in the English language have had greater influence to incite noble ambition and histori- cal culture than Plutarch's Lives, and following in this same line America has already an unprecedented number of large volumes of Biographical Dictionaries and Cyclopedias. It is not then unseemly or aside from good historic order to allow local history to partake largely of the biographical style.
When the years are counted over, and the generations numbered who have already passed away since Stratford was first settled, the time seems long, and the various paths through which its citizens have journeyed seem wearisome to think of, but when we bring to mind the courage, endurance, toil and enjoyments which were the portion of these citizens we are both sad and delighted. Two hundred and thirty- four years have passed since the date of the paper which contains the forty-one names of whom we give, first, a brief outline of their remarkable lives-remarkable, if for nothing else, yet for the circumstances which surrounded them, and
95
First Settlers of Stratford.
for the nation planted by them, and for that which has grown from their intellectual and religious planting. And what changes have taken place since those forty-one built their rude log houses at or near Sandy Hollow Banks, where they erected their first meeting-house! Some years since while digging near the site of the old meeting-house a party ex- humed a skull-bone : that was a representative of one of these early settlers, which one it matters not; it was one of them ; -all gone to dust but one bone-and so are they all.
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