USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 15
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When we began the plantation in the Pequot country, now called New London, I had a commission from the Massachusetts government, and the ordering of matters was left to myself. Not finding meadow sufficient for even a small plantation, unless the meadows and marshes west of Nahantic river were adjoined, I determined that the bounds of the plantation should be to the brook, now called Bride Brook, which was looked upon as certainly without Saybrook bounds. This was an encouragement to proceed with the plantation, which otherwise could not have gone on, there being no suitable accommodation near the place.
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In corroboration of this fact, and to show that the people of Saybrook at first acquiesced in this boundary line, the governor related an incident which he says "fell out the first winter of our settling there." This must have been the winter of 1646-47, which was the first spent by him in the plantation. The main points of the story were these:
A young couple in Saybrook were to be married; the groom was Jonathan Rudd. The governor does not give the name of the bride, and unfortunately the omission is not supplied by either record or tradition. The wedding day was fixed, and a magistrate from one of the upper towns on the river was engaged to perform the rite; for there was not, it seems, any person in Say- brook duly qualified to officiate on such an occasion. But, "there falling out at that time a great snow," the paths were obliterated, traveling obstructed, and intercourse with the interior interrupted; so that "the magistrate in- tended to go down thither was hindered by the depth of the snow." On the seaboard there is usually a less weight of snow, and the courses can be more readily ascertained. The nuptials must not be delayed without inevitable necessity. Application was therefore made to Mr. Winthrop to come to Saybrook and unite the parties. But he, deriving his authority from Massa- chusetts, could not legally officiate in Connecticut. "I saw it necessary (he observes) to deny them in that way, but told them for an expedient for their accommodation, if they come to the plantation it might be done. But that being too difficult for them, it was agreed that they should come to that place, which is now called Bride Brook, as being a place within the bounds of that authority whereby I then acted; otherwise I had exceeded the limits of my commission."
This proposition was accepted. On the brink of this little stream, the boundary between the two colonies, the parties met Winthrop and his friends from Pequot, and the bridal train from Saybrook. Here the ceremony was performed, under the shelter of no roof, by no hospitable fireside ; without any accommodations but those furnished by the snow-covered earth, the over- arching heaven, and perchance the sheltering side of a forest of pines or cedars. Romantic lovers have sometimes pledged their faith by joining hands over a narrow streamlet; but never, perhaps, before or since, was the legal rite performed in a situation so wild and solitary and under circum- stances so interesting and peculiar.
We are not told how the parties traveled, whether on horseback, or on sleds or snow-shoes; nor what cheer they brought with them, whether cakes or fruit, the juice of the orchard or vineyard, or the fiery extract of the cane. We only know that at that time conveniences and comforts were few, and luxuries unknown. Yet simple and homely as the accompaniments must have been, a glow of hallowed beauty will ever rest upon the scene. We fancy that we hear the foot tramp upon the crisp snow; the ice crack as they cross the frozen stream ; the wind sighs through the leafless forest; and the clear voice of Winthrop swells upon the ear like a devout strain of music, now low, and then rising high to heaven, as it passes through the varied
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accents of tender admonition, legal decision and solemn prayer. The im- pressive group stand around, wrapped in their frosty mantles, with heads reverently bowed down, and at the given sign the two plighted hands come forth from among the furs and are clasped together in token of a lifelong, affectionate trust. The scene ends in a general burst of hearty hilarity.
Bride Brook issues from a beautiful sheet of water known as Bride Lake or Pond, and runs into the Sound about a mile west of Giant's Cove. In a straight line it is not more than two miles west of Niantic Bay. The Indian name of the pond, or brook, or of both, was Sunk-i-paug, or Sunkipaug-suck.
The names of those who first received house lots in the new settlement numbered thirty-six: John Gager, Cary Latham, Samuel Lathrop, John Steb- bins, Isaac Willey, Thomas Miner, William Bordman, William Morton, Wil- liam Nicholls, Robert Hemstead, Thomas Skidmore, John Lewis; Richard Post, Robert Bedeel, John Robinson, Deane Winthrop, William Bartlett, Nathaniel Watson, John Austin, William Forbes, Edward Higbie, Jarvis Mudge, Andrew Longdon, William Hallett, Giles Smith, Peter Beesbran, James Bemis, John Fossecar, Consider Wood, George Chappell. Of these grants not all were taken up; apparently Watson, Austin, Higbie, Hallett, Smith, Busbraw, Fossecar, and Wood did not settle in the town. Mudge and Chappell came a little late, as did Jonathan Brewster, Thomas Wells, Peter Blatchford, Nathaniel Masters, all by 1650. The location of the lots may be found in Miss Caulkins' "History of New London." A considerable colony of people came with Rev. Mr. Blinman from Gloucester. Other settlers came in from time to time, and by the end of 1651 the settlers from Cape Ann had received house lots. The original town plot is thus described by Miss Caulkins:
The first home lots were laid out chiefly at the two extremities of the semicircular projection which formed the site of the town. Between these were thick swamps, waving woods, ledges of rock, and ponds of water. The oldest communication from one to the other was from Mill Brook over Post Hill, so called from Richard Post, whose house lot was on this hill, through what is now William street to Manwaring's Hill, and down Blackhall street to Truman street was the harbor's north road. Main street was opened, and from thence a cut over the hill westward was made (now Richards and Granite streets). Bank street was laid out on the very brink of the upland, above the sandy shore, and a space (now Coit street) was carried around the head of Beacon Cove to Truman street, completing the circuit of the town plot. No names were given to any of the streets for at least a century after the settlement, save that Main street was uniformly called the Town street, and Bank street the Bank. Hempstead street was one of the first laid out, and a pathway coincident with the present State street led from the end of the Town street west and northwest to meet it. Such appears to have been the original plan of the town. The cove at the north was Mill Cove; the two coves at the south, Bream and Close. Water street was the beach, and the head of it at the entrance of Mill Cove, now Sandy Point.
In 1657 Mr. Winthrop removed to Hartford, as governor of the Colony. The patent of New London issued by Deputy Governor Robert Treat
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gives the names of seventy-seven men, but Miss Caulkins is of the opinion that at that time (1704) there must have been approximately one hundred and sixty full-grown men in the town.
It is not the purpose of this volume to enter into the full details of early history, which have been so admirably compiled for New London and Nor- wich by Miss Caulkins. We print such selections rather to give a general picture of this period of county history. The names found on the rate lists, in the town records, and in various public places, are names famous in the history of New England, and indeed of the United States as a whole. The descendants of these settlers have been the builders of America. From Hurd's "History of New London County" we print the will of Mary Harris, "one of the oldest wills extant in the county":
The last Will and Testament of Mary Harries, taken from her owne mouth this 19th of Jan., 1655.
I give to my eldest daughter, Sarah Lane, the bigest brass pan, and to her daughter Mary, a silver spoone. And to her daughter Sarah, the bigest pewter dish and one silken riben. Likewise I give to her daughter Mary, a pewter candlesticke.
I give to my daughter, Mary Lawrence, my blew mohere peticote and my straw hatt and a fether boulster. And to her eldest sonne I give a silver spoone. To her second sonne a silver whissle. I give more to my daughter Mary, my next brasst pann and a thrum cushion. And to her youngest sonne I give a pewter bassen.
I give to my youngest daughter, Elizabeth Weekes, a peece of red broad cloth, being about two yards, alsoe a damask livery cloth, a gold ring, a silver spoone, a fether bed and a boulster. Alsoe, I give to my daughter, Elizabeth, my best hatt, my gowne, a brass kettle, and a woolen jacket for her husband. Alsoe, I give to my daughter Elizabeth, thirty shillings, alsoe a red whittle, a white apron, and a new white neck-cloth. Alsoe, I give to my three daugh- ters aforesaid, a quarter part to each of them, of the dyaper table-cloth and tenn shillings apcece.
I give to my sister Migges, a red peticoat, a cloth jacket, a silke hud, a quoife, a cross-cloth, and a neck-cloth.
I give to my cosen Calib Rawlyns ten shillinges.
I give to my two cosens, Mary and Elizabeth ffry, each of them five shillings.
I give to Mary Barnet a red stuff wascote.
I give to my daughter, Elizabeth, my great chest. To my daughter, Mary, a ciffer and a white neck-cloth. To my sister, Hannah Rawlin, my best cross-cloth. To my brother, Rawlin, a lased band. To my two kins- women, Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Steevens, five shillinges apeece.
I give to my brother, Migges, his three youngest children, two shillinges sixe pence apeece.
I give to my sonne Thomas, ten shillinges, if he doe come home or be alive.
I give to Rebekah Bruen, a pynt pott of pewter, a new petticoate, and wascote wch she is to spin herselfe; alsoe an old byble, and a hatt wch was my sonn Thomas his hatt.
I give to my sonne Gabriell, my house, land, cattle, and swine, with all other goodes reall and psonall in Pequet or any other place, and doe make
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him my sole executor to this my will. Witness my hand,
The mark X of MARY HARRIES.
Witness hearunto: John Winthrop, Obadiah Bruen, Willm Nyccolls.
An account of the estate left by John Winthrop, Jr., will show how wide were the interests of these early settlers :
John Winthrop, Esq., the patron and founder of New London, and gov- ernor of Connecticut for nearly eighteen years, died in Boston, April 5th, 1676. He had been called to Boston to attend the meeting of the commissioners, to which he was the delegate from Connecticut. His remains were deposited in the tomb of his father, in the cemetery of King's Chapel, where afterward his two sons were gathered to his side. His wife, who deceased not long before him, is supposed to have been buried in Hartford.
Governor Winthrop's family consisted of the two sons so often men- tioned, Fitz-John and Wait-Still, and five daughters. The sons were residents in New London at the time of their father's decease. Wait-Still succeeded his brother as major of the county regiment, but at a period ten or twelve years later, removed to Boston. Lucy, the second daughter, the wife of Edward Palmes, belongs to New London; but her death is not on record, neither is there any stone to her memory in the old burial-ground, by the side of her husband. It is therefore probable that she died abroad, and from other circumstances it is inferred that this event took place in Boston, after the death of her father, in 1676. She left a daughter Lucy, who was her only child, and this daughter, though twice married, left no issue. Her line is therefore extinct.
The very extensive landed estate of Governor Winthrop, which fell to his two sons, was possessed by them conjointly, and undivided during their lives. Fitz-John, having no sons, it was understood between the brothers that the principal part of the land grants should be kept in the name, and to this end be reserved for John, the only son of Wait Winthrop. These possessions, briefly enumerated, were Winthrop's Neck, 200 acres; Mill-pond farm, 300; land north of the town of Alewife Brook and in its vicinity, 1,500; land at Pequonuck (Groton), 6,000; Little-cove farm, half a mile square, on the east side of the river-these were within the bounds of New London. On Mystic river, five or six hundred acres; at Lanthorn Hill and its vicinity, 3,000 ; and on the coast, Fisher's Island and its Hommocks, and Goat Island. Governor Winthrop had also an undisputed title from court grants to large tracts in Voluntown, Plainfield, Canterbury, Woodstock and Saybrook, amounting to ten or twelve thousand acres. He also claimed the whole of what was called Black-lead-mine Hill in the province of Massachusetts Bay, computed to be ten miles in circumference. Magnificent as was this estate in point of extent, the value, in regard to present income, was moderate. By the provision of his will, his daughters were to have half as much estate as his sons, and he mentions that Lucy and Elizabeth had already been por- tioned with farms. The above sketch of his landed property comprises only that which remained inviolate as it passed through the hands of his sons, and his grandson John, the son of Wait, and was bequeathed by the latter to his son, John, John Still Winthrop, in 1747.
Reference has already been made to the relations of Uncas and the early settlers of the county. After the destruction of the Pequot power, the few survivors of the tribe, having been distributed amongst the Narragansetts
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and the Mohegans, were settled, some in what is now Westerly, some in what is now Waterford and New London, under the name "Nameaugs." These remnants of a once powerful tribe suffered under the severe treatment meted out to them by Uncas, who disliked Governor Winthrop for his pro- tection of the "Nameaugs."
The jealousy of Uncas precipitated several conflicts with the settlers at New London. When the commissioners of the United Colonies (noteworthy as a step toward the Albany Congress and toward later confederation) were asked by Governor Winthrop to free the Pequots from the control of Uncas, they refused to do so, but reprimanded and fined Uncas for misdeeds.
Until the settlement of Norwich, Uncas led an unsettled life, evading the attacks of his Indian foes and disputing with his white neighbors regarding his rights. The commissioners, after many attempts at settling Indian affairs, made certain awards of lands to the surviving Pequots, which awards were never carried out by the towns concerned. After the charter of 1662, whereby Stonington became a part of Connecticut, the settlement of Indian affairs became subject to the General Court of Connecticut. The records of the General Court show a long list of petitions and awards pertaining to the Indian affairs of New London county, extending over a period from 1662 to Revolutionary times. The early history of Groton and Stonington shows that the Pequots were provided with reservations and treated as wards of the State.
The Mohegans, for their fidelity at all times, were more generously treated by the State, admitted to full citizenship finally (1873), and granted absolute ownership of certain lands, much of the rest of the tribal domain being sold from time to time to settlers of New London, Norwich, and adjoin- ing towns.
Of the primitive life of the settlers we get many glimpses, by the votes of town meetings, wills, and diaries. We find in the town records the follow- ing entry :
Memorandum : that upon the 16th day of January, 1709-10, being a very cold day, upon the report of a kennel of wolves, mortal enemies to our sheep and all our other creatures, was lodged and lay in ambuscade in the Cedar Swamp, waiting there for an opportunity to devour the harmless sheep; upon information whereof, about thirty of our valiant men, well disciplined in arms and special conduct, assembled themselves and with great courage beset and surrounded the enemies in the said swamp, and shot down three of the brutish enemies, and brought their heads through the town in great triumph.
The same day a wolfe in sheepe's cloathing designed to throw an innocent man into the frozen water, where he might have perished, but was timely prevented, and the person at that time delivered frome that danger.
As the subject of wolves is thus again introduced, we may observe that at this period and for thirty years afterward a wolf-hunt was a customary autumnal sport. From ten to forty persons usually engaged in it, who sur- rounded and beat up some swamp in the neighborhood. Mill-pond Swamp
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and Cedar Swamp were frequently scoured for wolves in November or the latter part of October. George, son of John Richards, had a bounty of fII for wolves killed during the year 1717; these were probably insnared. The bounty had been raised to twenty shillings per head. The bounty for killing a wildcat was three shillings.
The settlement at New London prospered, till at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War it numbered approximately 6,000. New London's part in that struggle has been fully set forth elsewhere. The Shaw Mansion, the Nathan Hale School, Fort Trumbull, the many anecdotes of local happenings, are rich in historic interest. Miss Caulkins remarks :
So many of the inhabitants of New London had been trained as fisher- men, coasters, and mariners, that no one is surprised to find them, when the trying time came, bold, hardy, and daring in the cause of freedom. In all the southern towns of the county-Stonington, Groton, New London, Lyme- the common mass of the people were an adventurous class, and exploits of stratagem, strength, and valor, by land and sea, performed during the war of independence by persons nurtured on this coast, might still be recovered sufficient to form a volume of picturesque adventure and exciting interest. At the same time many individuals in this part of the country, and some, too, of high respectability, took a different view of the great political question and sided with the Parliament and the king. In various instances families were divided ; members of the same fireside adopted opposite opinions and became as strangers to each other; nor was it an unknown misery for parents to have children ranged on different sides of the battle-field. At one time a gallant young officer of the army, on his return from the camp, where he had signalized himself by his bravery, was escorted to his home by a grateful populace that surrounded the house and filled the air with their applausive huzzas, while at the same time his half-brother, the son of the mother who clasped him to her bosom, stigmatized as a Tory, convicted of trade with the enemy, and threatened with the wooden horse, lay concealed amid the hay of the barn, where he was fed by stealth for many days.
This anecdote is but an example of many that might be told of a similar character.
The position of New London was such that it was easily blockaded, and constantly threatened with destruction. Many fleets of hostile ships sailed by. Many a privateer slipped out of the harbor in spite of the blockade. "So great, however, was the vigilance of the British squadron on the coast that not a single prize was brought into the harbor of New London from 1776 to 1778." Of the famous attack of Arnold on the town, Miss Caulkins says:
Although New London had been repeatedly threatened, no direct attack was made upon the town till near the close of the war in 1781. General Arnold, on his return from a predatory descent upon the coasts of Virginia, was ordered to conduct a similar expedition against his native State. A large quantity of West India goods and European merchandise brought in by various privateers was at this time collected in New London; the quantity of shipping in port was also very considerable, and among the prizes recently taken was the "Hannah" (Captain Watson), a rich merchant ship from Lon- don bound to New York, which had been captured a little south of Long
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Island by Capt. Dudley Saltonstall, of the "Minerva," privateer. The loss of this ship, whose cargo was said to be the most valuable brought into America during the war, had exasperated the British, and more than any other single circumstance is thought to have led to the expedition. At no other period of the war could they have done so much mischief, at no other had the inhabitants so much to lose.
The expedition was fitted out from New York, the headquarters of Sir Henry Clinton and the British army. The plan was well conceived. Arnold designed to enter the harbor secretly in the night, and to destroy the shipping, public offices, stores, merchandise, and the fortifications on both sides of the river, with such expedition as to be able to depart before any considerable force could be collected against him. Candor in judging forbids the supposi- tion that the burning of the town and the massacre at Groton fort entered into his original design, though at the time such cruelty of purpose was charged upon him and currently believed. As flowing from his measures and taking place under his command, they stand to his account, and this responsi- bility is heavy enough without adding to it the criminal forethought.
The official report by Arnold reads as follows :
Sound, off Plumb Island, 8th Sept., 1781.
Sir,-I have the honor to inform your Excellency that the transports with the detachment of troops under my orders anchored on the Long Island shore on the 5th instant, at two o'clock P. M., about ten leagues from New London, and having made some necessary arrangements, weighed anchor at seven o'clock P. M. and stood for New London with a fair wind. At one o'clock the next morning we arrived off the harbor, when the wind suddenly shifted to the northward, and it was nine o'clock before the transports could beat in. At ten o'clock the troops in two divisions, and in four debarkations, were landed, one on each side of the harbor, about three miles from New London, that on the Groton side, consisting of the Fortieth and Fifty-fourth Regiments and the Third Battery of New Jersey volunteers, with a detach- ment of yagers and artillery, were under the command of Lieut .- Col. Eyre. The division on the New London side consisted of the Thirty-eighth Regi- ment, the Loyal Americans, the American Legion, refugees, and a detach- ment of sixty yagers, who were immediately on their landing put in motion, and at eleven o'clock, being within half a mile of Fort Trumbull, which commands New London Harbor, I detached Capt. Millett, with four com- panies of the Thirty-eighth Regiment, to attack the fort, who was joined on his march by Capt. Frink with one company of the American Legion. At the same time I advanced with the remainder of the division west of Fort Trumbull, on the road to the town, to attack a redoubt which had kept up a brisk fire upon us for some time, but which the enemy evacuated on our approach. In this work we found six pieces of cannon mounted and two dismounted. Soon after I had the pleasure to see Capt. Millett march into Fort Trumbull, under a shower of grape-shot from a number of cannon which the enemy had turned upon him; and I have the pleasure to inform your Excellency that by the sudden attack and determined bravery of the troops the fort was carried with the loss of only four or five men killed and wounded. Capt. Millett had orders to leave one company in Fort Trumbull, to detach one to the redoubt we had taken, and join me with the other companies. No time was lost on my part in gaining the town of New London. We were opposed by a small body of the enemy, with one field-piece, who were so hard pressed that they were obliged to leave the piece, which, being iron, was spiked and left.
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As soon as the enemy were alarmed in the morning we could perceive they were busily engaged in bending sails and endeavoring to get their pri- vateers and other ships up Norwich River out of our reach, but the wind being small and the tide against them they were obliged to anchor again. From information I received before and after my landing, I had reason to believe that Fort Griswold, on Groton side, was very incomplete, and I was assured by friends to government, after my landing, that there were only twenty or thirty men in the fort, the inhabitants in general being on board their ships and busy in saving their property.
On taking possession of Fort Trumbull, I found the enemy's ships would escape unless we could possess ourselves of Fort Griswold. I therefore dis- patched an officer to Lieut .- Col. Eyre with the intelligence I had received, and requested him to make an attack upon the fort as soon as possible, at which time I expected the howitzer was up and would have been made use of. On my gaining a height of ground in the rear of New London, from which I had a good prospect of Fort Griswold, I found it much more formidable than I expected, or than I had formed an idea of, from the information I had before received. I observed at the same time that the men who had escaped from Fort Trumbull had crossed in boats and thrown themselves into Fort Gris- wold, and a favorable wind springing up about this time, the enemy's ships were escaping up the river, notwithstanding the fire from Fort Trumbull and a six-pounder which I had with me. I immediately dispatched a boat with an officer to Lieut .- Col. Eyre to countermand my first order to attack the fort, but the officer arrived a few minutes too late. Lieut .- Col. Eyre had sent Capt. Beckwith with a flag to demand a surrender of the fort, which was per- emptorily refused, and the attack had commenced. After a most obstinate defense of near forty minutes, the fort was carried by the superior bravery and perseverance of the assailants. On this occasion I have to regret the loss of Maj. Montgomery, who was killed by a spear in entering the enemy's works; also of Ensign Whitlock, of the Fortieth Regiment, who was killed in the attack. Three other officers of the same regiment were wounded. Lieut .- Col. Eyre, and three other officers of the Fifty-fourth Regiment, were also wounded, but I have the satisfaction to inform your Excellency that they are all in a fair way to recover.
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