USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume I > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
March 17 the valley tribesmen stole down through Pine Mea- dow (Windsor Locks) where they killed one man, over to Sims- bury where they plundered and burned houses the settlers had abandoned. Fiction marks a cave on the west side of Talcott Mountain as the aerie from which King Philip himself watched the flames; since the cave was on the farm of the Phelps family,
131
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
the probability is that the names with their similarity in sound became confused in successive generations which told of the raid.
Again Treat was called back to search for vagabond Indians who killed or wounded a colonist here or there and increased the anxiety. Philip himself was rejoicing in his freedom from at- tack, and was planning a combined invasion of the Boston terri- tory, where farmers and villagers were huddling in despair, when Treat led a band of Connecticut men into Rhode Island, by strategy on April 3 annihilated one band of Indians and soon brought back the Narragansett chief Canonchet. To the offer of his life if he would secure peace, Canonchet replied that he wished to die before his heart was made soft and before he had spoken words unworthy of himself. On April 8, the council at Hartford formally acknowledged the receipt of his head from the Mohegans and Pequots to whom he had been turned over for execution.
Treat had resigned about that time to accept the position of deputy governor and had been succeeded by Maj. John Talcott. The Connecticut troops were ordered to join Henchman and his Massachusetts men for a final attack on Philip in his stronghold on Mount Wachusett in Massachusetts. Henchman having been misled and Talcott alone not being strong enough for the attack, the Connecticut commander took his own course westerly and did that thorough work up through the Connecticut valley which has caused him to be memorialized there. Unknown to the In- dians, he was inside the stockade at Hadley the night of June 11 when they had assembled for their massacre, and from that time on, he and Henchman who had come up with him gave them no rest. Philip was off for the Narragansett country but Talcott, with Newberry and Denison, were there ahead of him. Striking as he went, Talcott reached Providence where he learned that peace was being talked of, "upon which information," he re- ported, "being willing to set our seal upon it, we posted away and drest Providence's necks, killing and capturing sixty-seven Indians we found there."
Meantime the Massachusetts troops, convinced at last that Indian scouts were an essential, were pressing the devastators hard throughout eastern Massachusetts. Having learned of Philip's lair near Bristol, they hastened down into Rhode Island
132
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
nor rested till they had surrounded him. On August 12, one of the Indians shot and killed him as he was escaping from his hiding place. Bands making their way westward terrified again the up-river region whither Talcott hurried in August to give them their final blow.
Hartford County activities during the period had been con- stant. As early as 1674 it had been ordered that certain houses in each community should be fortified to afford place of refuge in case of attack. In July, 1675, 150 dragoons and troopers were operating between here and New London. After John Colt had been shot by skulkers in the South Meadows in September, Major Treat kept a patrol of thirty dragoons there for some time. When 110 men were called for in November, to report to Major Treat, Hartford's quota was 30, Windsor's 28, Wethersfield's 20, Farm- ington's 15 and Middletown's 14, with a horse to every third man. At the Swamp Fight, Wethersfield was represented by Lieut. John Stedman who was killed and by Lieut. Samuel Mar- tin, Capt. Samuel Welles, Lieut. John Chester, Lieut. Thomas Hollister and Rev. Gershom Bulkeley, chaplain and surgeon, who was overcome. After that fight, in the expedition into Rhode Island, John Fitch of Wethersfield commanded the county dra- goons; Samuel Martin, Sr., was a lieutenant in Captain Watts' company. In February, 1676, eighty from the county went with Major Talcott to Rhode Island. William Hills of East Hartford was shot in the Hockanum meadows. A garrison was estab- lished in Glastonbury and the Indians were told to build a fort. John Kirby was shot between Wethersfield and Middletown. In March of that year eighty were sent to Captain Newberry's com- mand in Northampton. The Council of War ordered the release of Sachem Turramugas, Sowheag's successor, who had been held for conspiracy. In June, 1676, the Hartford company was divided into two parts, the southern section under the command of John Stanley of Hartford; Thomas Hollister of Wethersfield lieutenant and John Wyett ensign. After King Philip's death, Hollister was authorized to return ten prisoners to the Mohegan allies; the rest of the prisoners were sold as slaves by order of Major Talcott. Henry Denslow of Windsor and Edward Elmor in South Windsor were shot in the summer of 1676. To meet
---
133
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
expenses in this war, the colony paid an extra tax of 11 pence on the pound for three years.
After this war, Indians ceased to be a serious problem in local government barring an affair with Minigret and the Long Island Indians. Tribal control, independent settlements with a governor in control, in this place and in that, with no one want- ing them for neighbors, the remnants of the Pequots spent their last days in comparatively modern times near Groton and Ston- ington, aided by the state. The Mohegans, lords over wide terri- tory, sold plots of ground first to one white man and then to an- other, often for a drink or a trinket, until there was confusion that occupied the attention of courts in England and in Connecti- cut for seventy years. Major Mason had accepted from Uncas the large tract known as "Sequestered Land" which never was encroached upon till after Mason's death in Norwich in 1672. He considered it the property of the colony as by deed, a conten- tion earnestly presented by those who bought into lawsuits and eventually so maintained by the colony.
Not far from Mason's grave is that of Uncas who lived ten years longer than he, meantime distinguishing himself again in King Philip's war. In the cemetery set apart for the royal fam- ily of the Pequots and Mohegans stands his monument, the foun- dation stone of which was put in place in 1833 by President An- drew Jackson, who was accompanied by Vice President Van Buren, Governor Edwards and members of the President's cabinet.
The Podunks and the other Indians of Hartford County, as will be seen in some of the town histories in this work, faded away rapidly. A number of them removed to the western sec- tion of the county whence they were taken to Stockbridge, Mass., and eventually, with other wanderers, to Stockbridge, N. Y., to jurisdiction of the Oneidas. The tribe was called the Brother- tons. Samson Occum, the Mohegan Indian minister, one of the Indian pupils of Doctor Wheelock whose attainments inspired the founding of Dartmouth College, was their pastor and died there in 1792. They moved on to Calumet County, Wisconsin, where their descendants, admitted to citizenship in 1839, became a prosperous community.
134
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
Four years after the war favorable report of conditions was sent to England by the colony. The militia numbered 2,500 and one troop of sixty horse. Of Indian neighbors there were 500 fighting men. Trade was chiefly with Boston and the commodi- ties were provisions, lumber and horses. Imports amounted to £9,000 annually. Wheat crops were failures. There were twenty "petty merchants," few foreign merchants, few servants and fewer slaves-not over thirty. There were so few English, Scotch and Irish coming in that no account could be made of them. Nearly all the people were Congregationalists with a few Presby- terians and four or five "seven-day" men and the same number of Quakers. In the twenty-six towns there were twenty-one churches with settled ministers whose stipend was from £50 to £100. The poor were well cared for, labor was "dear"-two shil- lings or more a day, and provisions cheap. Beggars and vaga- bonds were not allowed.
Rhode Island invaders were driven back over the line while Connecticut claimed her boundary by charter and also by con- quest in the late war, in which Rhode Island had done nothing. Rhode Island's claim to part of the Connecticut territory was set aside by commissioners appointed by the King. This dispute was revived again under the claim of the heirs of the Duke of Hamil- ton and fruitless litigation continued many years.
XII THE ANDROS USURPATION
CHARTER NOT INVALIDATED-SIGNIFICANCE OF RESENTMENT-CHAR- TER OAK EPISODE AND MYSTERY OF "DUPLICATE"-CONTROL OF MILITIA MAINTAINED.
In the short breathing spell for quiet, independent yet loyal expansion, another crisis was impending. It was unlike that which the barbarians had created because it was imposed by those then in control in the mother country and therefore un- natural, and it was to find its culmination in freedom with in- dependence a hundred years later. Charles II could be gracious; he could be flattering in correspondence, as when comparing this colony with that of the Bay, but he also could "play" favorites. His grant of previously granted territory to his brother James, Duke of York, was only one example. Also there were men who could take advantage of his good nature.
Foremost among these was Edward Randolph. From com- mercial and imperialistic standpoint, the program for combining territory under one control was much in line with the programs of later years and later colonization, but the fallacy here lay in the misconception of the disposition of fellow Englishmen and men who had gone out to secure freedom of thought. To pre- pare the way for such large combine as he would like, Randolph cast aspersions upon New England and especially upon the Bay Colony. For Connecticut he made good use of the Saybrook in- cident to demonstrate the haughtiness of this colony at the time Governor Andros had sought to assert York's title. When York himself came to the throne upon his brother's death in 1685, England's Board of Trade had reason to expect early amalgama- tion, under gubernatorial control, from the Delaware to Canada.
In popular understanding, a charter is a sacred instrument, not to be annulled without a hearing. During James' tyrannical
135
136
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
reign, however, such established principle was ignored. £ The form of a hearing in English court was outwardly recognized, as here seen, but in reality was brushed aside. Charter or no char- ter, as the colonists knew from their counsellors in London, the government of Andros alone would be endorsed by the King; the holder of a charter in 1687 could not stand against such supreme authority ; nor were rights of subjects in the colonies to be estab- lished through later reigns until there was recourse to arms, in 1775. Then it was to be the sentiment of genuine English people at home as well as here which prevailed against un-English mon- archs and influence.
Hartford County history has to do only with Hartford fea- tures of the coercion now employed, the most spectacular of all of them inasmuch as here was the seat of the only free constitu- tional government. Here was the best exemplification of the principle of assemblage in town meetings, which James espe- cially abhorred. The "town" is traceable back into the history of European races. In England it was the "parish." In the Bay Colony, indicated in its original charter, it took the form of a governmental system, and the first regular town legislation in the General Court was at the time of the Hooker arguments there in 1635. The town meeting was to infuriate Andros till his overthrow and imprisonment in 1689. It was to remain down through generations a distinctively New England institution of which Jefferson said: "It is the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its preservation." It gave a voice to freedom which at times was inharmonious with the environment of the sanctuary in which it usually was held, or may have threatened the foun- dations of the "town hall" later erected for it, like a palladium, but it kept the interest of the individual at a white heat.
What King James and Andros would not suppress but would control from their royal seats was the soldiery. It was through fear of such monarchical conception that foresighted Connecti- cut from the first had quietly provided that control must remain under the colonial and subsequently the state government. Per- sistence in this is deeply marked throughout Connecticut his- tory, as a colony and as a member of confederated and then of united states. The reasons will appear in regular order.
--
137
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
With these points in mind, the events from 1685 to 1700 become more than incidents in historical narrative. Andros came to Boston as governor of New England in December, 1686. Randolph as collector and tale-bearer had been stirring up the indignation of all the colonies and in 1684 had secured the an- nulment of the Massachusetts charter in court. In 1685 he issued writ of quo warranto because Connecticut was in the hands of an "independent party." He wrote to Hartford that nothing now remained on Connecticut's part but to think of humble submission and dutiful surrender of the charter; if there were resort to law, the colony would be attached to New York, a great "calamity;" and with the jocularity of a Caesar Borgia- also of great persuasive eloquence-he added: "Bless not your- selves with vain expectation of advantage and spinning out of time by delay. I will engage, though the weather be warm, the writs will keep sound, as good as when first landed."
It chanced that the writs were served too late and hence were defective. A third was issued and when delivered was accom- panied by a letter from Andros saying he would receive surren- der of charter if tendered. Under the tyranny of James, that signified that the surrender was merely a matter of form; the result would be the same one way or the other. The colonists realized this but preferred to adhere to form. Governor Treat replied that William Whiting was then in London as attorney; therefore he asked for time but said, of course, that he was "in duty bound" to submit to the King's demands. Some of the few local supporters of Andros, like Rev. Gershom Bulkeley who in 1692 wrote the document "Will and Doom," insisted that Con- necticut should be willing. Others were disturbed by the threat of being joined to New York. The majority calmly bided the out- come. In October Andros wrote the governor that he had orders to compel annexation to Boston and he would soon be in Hart- ford. Receiving no reply, he set forth October 26, 1687 (accord- ing to Judge Sewall's diary), with sundry of his council, justices and other gentlemen, four blue-coats, two trumpeters, fifteen or twenty red-coats, with small guns and short lances in the tops of them, by way of Providence and the Wethersfield ferry (where he was greeted by Gershom Bulkeley). Thence he was escorted by the Hartford County troop under command of Capt. Samuel
138
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
Talcott of Wethersfield, and a detachment of the Hartford train- band, to the Adams-Sanford tavern in Hartford.
Governor Andros was ushered into the chamber of the Gen- eral Assembly in the old inn on Main Street. His retinue and soldiers and the colony's escort remained outside. The inn-keep- er's entertainment for those without, on this grand occasion, was even more lavish than usual. With austere respect Andros-he who had met one defeat at the hands of Captain Bull at Saybrook -was escorted to the governor's chair. Patiently he listened to the defense arguments. They were prolonged by distinguished colonists till the hour for lighting candles. The charter lay ex- posed in its box on the table. To him as he listened quietly, with- out wasting breath, it was but a piece of sheepskin; to the colon- ists, studiously gracious in their manner though they were, it was the symbol of sacred rights inherited from Hooker and per- petuated by Winthrop. The room, lighted by the flickering "dips," became close and uncomfortable. A window was opened to clear the tobacco smoke and cool the tired brains. An October puff and the feeble lights were extinguished, but quickly restored out of respect for His Majesty's representative. No record was made of what had happened in the moments of darkness; it was not a subject to be bruited around and published in King James' England. Andros had caused his royal commission as gover- nor to be read and he appointed Governor Treat, with rank of colonel, and Capt. John Allyn, who was the secretary of the col- ony and of the meeting, to be members of his council which was to sit in Boston and make the laws. The secretary handed the seal to Sir Edmund, and at some time later closed his report with these words:
His Excellency, Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, Captain- General and Governor of His Majesty's Territory and Do- minion in New England, by order from His Majesty, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, the 31st of October, 1687, took into his hands the government of this colony of Connec- ticut, it being by His Majesty annexed to the Massachusetts and other colonies under His Majesty's government. FINIS.
The sentence seems to bear the earmarks of dictation.
In the interval of darkness in the meeting, the charter had disappeared. Andros may have made no stir; he had learned something about these people since he met Captain Bull at Say-
CHARTER OAK AND GOVERNOR WYLLYS MANSION From an old painting
--
141
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
brook; on that humiliating occasion he had spoken in the name of the Duke of York; today he had spoken in the name of the same man but "His Majesty," and he was conscious of his vic- tory; nothing more need concern him. But the symbol of liberty had fallen into the hands of Joseph Wadsworth, an officer in the militia who probably was one of the colonial escort and whose brother John was a member of the Assembly, from Farmington. By him it was hurried to a place of safety, a hole in a great oak in front of the house of Magistrate Samuel Wyllys. This is on the authority of the historian of the next century, Dr. Benjamin Trumbull of New Haven who got such traditions at first hand or very nearly. In the better days of 1715, a resolution was intro- duced in the lower house of the Assembly to give the captain £4 for his "securing the Duplicate Charter of this colony in a very troublesome season when our Constitution was struck at, and in safety keeping and preserving the same ever since unto this day." In the upper house, where the captain was not popular because of contemptuous words for which he had been publicly repri- manded, the amount was cut to 20 shillings, and the resolution so passed.
This parchment ever after was sacredly guarded. Eventually it was framed in wood of the tree in which it had been hidden, and then hung in the secretary's office. Now in its beautiful carved frame it rests in a special safe, open for public inspection, in the Memorial Hall of the State Library Building, beside Stuart's portrait of Washington. What had become of the other charter? In the fighting of wars of European origin and endeavoring to catch up with their own affairs meantime, the colonists must have been too engaged to think about it. If there was inquisitiveness during the reign of James, there were reasons for suppressing it. Treat in the council was saving Connecticut from most of the ills that were meted out to the other colonies, and it was best to let a sleeping dog lie. After James was driven from the throne in 1689 and King William had restored the colony's rights -- which indeed had scarcely been suspended except in name-there was constantly enough besides the charter to command the thoughts of the colonists, and the duplicate was all sufficient. The only mystery thereto attaching is how they knew this was the "dupli- cate" unless it were by private statement of one of the guardian committee who had known the whereabouts of the original. The
142
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
committee had been composed of Samuel Wyllys, John Talcott and John Allen. Wyllys was one of the foremost citizens of the town; on his land it was that the oak stood in which the charter was hidden. The descendants of Wyllys were no less distinguished than he. His namesake (1739-1823) was the first captain of the Governor's Foot Guard, colonel in the Revolution, town clerk, secretary of the state and major-general in the militia. He main- tained the old homestead.
The colonial government had acknowledged the receipt of "the charter, the duplicate and the old copy of the former charter"- meaning doubtless the Warwick Patent which Winthrop had un- earthed. It had been understood that Winthrop would bring over the duplicate of his charter when he came. The acknowledgment can then be interpreted to mean "the charter" (duplicate form) and the two copies of the old one, no trace of either of which had been found when wanted (or not wanted). The copy which the committee had had in charge till Andros came was in all proba- bility the only charter the colony had, for it can be assumed that the Assembly would not have rewarded Wadsworth in 1715 for saving a copy if it already had the original. Roger Wolcott was chairman of the committee that framed that resolution. He was a boy at the time of Andros' visit. When well on in years, in 1759, he gave reminiscences of the affair and was quoted as saying that Nathaniel Stanley took one copy and Governor Talcott the other. Talcott was governor from 1725 to 1742.
But on August 26, 1686, the government had sent a letter to Counselor Whiting in London, according to the "Colonial Rec- ords," instructing him to appear at the next term of court in Lon- don, to be held in February, 1687, when writs would be returnable in the action of quo warranto; within six months he was to be prepared and have the "duplicate of our charter ready to be estab- lished," "(which by Governor Winthrop was left with Mr. James Porter of London and since by us he was ordered to deliver it to you.)" If there were to be any charges against the colony, he should request sufficient time to make answer and decide whether to go to the court or to the King. Delay, it evi- dently was reasoned, might prevent the worst of alternatives- annexation to New York or Massachusetts. The King's Council appears to have considered it in the nature of a waiver and
!
.......
COLONY'S HISTORIC CHARTER UNDER STUART'S PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON Memorial Hall, Library Building, Hartford
145
HARTFORD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT
dropped the quo warranto threat against the charter itself. The point here is that this definitely locates a charter parchment in 1686-7. It remained for Librarian Albert C. Bates of the Con- necticut Historical Society in very recent years to trace this out. When the copy then in England reached Hartford cannot be de- termined; it might not have been till a number of years there- after, for experience had taught that it was well to keep a copy in London for reference. It made no stir when it came, playing the part of "second fiddle" to the one that had been so joyously greeted and had been hidden in the oak.
A young Trinity College student who became secretary of the state in 1858, unwittingly revealed it after rescuing it from muti- lation in the interests of feminine art. The student was John Boyd of Winsted. He was boarding in the family of Rev. Dr. Flint of the South Church. One day he saw a piece of old parch- ment on the sewing stand of the doctor's mother. She told him it had been brought to her by Mrs. Wyllys to use as cardboard in making over a hat and gave it to him in return for a simple sub- stitute. Not till eight years afterward did he inspect it and dis- cover that it was a large remnant of the charter, already started on the road to ruin.
What has added to the misapprehension in history is the use of the word "duplicate." Both charters were "duplicate" accord- ing to custom and as appears on the face of each. It was as though the issue had been: "One charter in duplicate." The question of which was the technical duplicate was not settled till 1898, when Rev. Dr. Love obtained a copy of the record of May 10, 1662, from the accounts of the Hanaper in London, showing that the fee for the original was £5 and for the engrosser's copy "XXs- iiij." Comparison with the marginal notations on the parchments made it clear that the duplicate which Andros would have seized was the one that had been honored in history and romance and that the one that had stood ready for duty in England was the original duplicate. Withal in the second duplicate a small word had been omitted by the copyist, and it is omitted in the various copies that have been made by students, indicating that the first duplicate was still in oblivion. Winthrop's purpose in leaving the first duplicate in London quite likely had been to furnish the strongest evidence should question arise about the wording, as was possible in those times, considering the sweep of its liber-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.