USA > Connecticut > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex county, Connecticut, with biographical sketches of its prominent men > Part 95
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February 1669, it was ordered that whenever any land was to be given to any individual, every one should have notice of the proposed grant, and it should not issue unless every inhabitant assented to it. This resolution appears to have been too strong for practical application
The division of the common land was under discus- sion at an early day, and this was resolved upon at a meeting December 11th 1670. Then it was decided that
43
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
land should be laid out to individuals so as to make the distribution equal among the householders. At this time a tract of common land extending one and a half miles inland from the river was reserved to be held in common forever, but this reservation was relinquished by action of the town, March 13th 1671. The decision to lay out all undivided land was confirmed February 7th 1671. Allotments of land were made according to the valued property of householders.
June 13th 1671, it was decided that a division should be made in which there should be twenty acres laid out to every hundred pounds valuation. In this division lots were chosen by individuals as their names were drawn by lot. Simon Smith and George Gates were chosen to ap- praise all the buildings that had been erected since the first appraisement, and to make a new list of the estate of each individual as a basis upon which he was to take up land. The choice of location was drawn in order as fol- lows: "Mr. Bate, George Gates, Thomas Brooks, parson- age lot, Daniel Brainrd, John Baly, Wiates lot, Garird Spenser, Tho. Spenser, Steven Luxford, John Hensson, Joseph Stanrd, Samuell Spenser, James Welles, widow blachford, thomas Shailler, william Corbe, Mr. Noyes, John Bate, william ventrous, Goodman Ackley, thymo Spenser, thomas Smith, Goodman dybell, dainell Cone, william Clark, John Paranes." This was the first general division of common land on the west side of the river, and it was probably not laid out in a body, but each man in the order in which his choice occurred was allowed to select twenty acres to every hundred pounds of his valued estate, wherever he desired to locate it upon land that was. not already taken.
In 1686, the town decided that no more land should be taken up by individuals on the west side of the river within two and a half miles of the river. This estab- lished a line which is afterward mentioned in records as the "two mile and a half line."
The "Third Division of Outlands " was ordered by vote of the town Januarv 27th 1707. It covered a tract of land one mile and sixty rods square, in the northwest corner of the town, adjoining Durham on the west and Middletown on the north. It was laid out in thirty lots with the dividing lines running north and south and a highway running across them from east to west. The lots were numbered beginning at the east corner. The number of proprietors had now reached thirty. The sur- vey of this tract seems to have been so carelessly done that when about seven years later the lots were re- measured more accurately the whole tract was found to be two miles, 152 rods, two feet, five inches long instead of the one mile and 60 rods.
The "Fifth Division " was ordered by vote of the town, March 13th 1716. It was to include the land en- compassed by the northern and southern bounds of the town and the " two mile and a half line" on the west and a line running parallel with it one mile from it to the east. The scale upon which this division was made was fifty acres to the hundred pounds. It was to be laid out
in no regular order, but as the individual selections should determine. There were 36 drawers.
January 14th 1719, the people in town meeting decided that in the future division of land every inhabitant, whether he had been a proprietor or not, should be en- titled to a lot according to the appraisement of his estate on the public list. The list of the estates in this society for that year was as follows:
Capt. James Wells, £130, 75 .; Elijah Brainerd, 77, II; Benjamin Baily, 43, 2; Joseph Ray, 3; Daniel Hubbard, 79: Joseph Clark, 42; Daniel Spencer, 30; Benjamin Towner, 49; Gerrard Spencer, 140, 10; John Fiske, 40, 10; Samuel Ingram, 36; Thomas Selden, 69, 5; John Baily jun'r, 47, 12; Mr. Simon Smith, 101, 15; Ens. Moses Ventrous, 118, 14; Timothy Shaler, 85; Daniel Clark, 64, 5; John Ventrous, 66, 10; James Ray Sen'r, 43; John Spencer, 19; Azariah Dickison, 54, 18; James Ray Jun'r, 38; John Clark, 50, 2, 6; Dea. Thomas Brooks, 54, 13, 6; Hezekiah Brainerd, 116, 15, William Brainerd, 103, 8; Benjamin Smith, 100, 15; John Bai- ly, 58, ro; Lt. James Brainerd, 121, 5; Richard Walkly, 54; Solomon Bate, 62; John Bate, 28, 5; Jonathan Bate, 19, 15; David Arnold, 29; Deacon Jo- seph Arnold, 116,. 5; Nathaniel Baily 52; Ebenezer Ar- nold, 73, 7, 6; Isaac Tyler, 41, 2, 6; Nathaniel Spencer, 41, 3; Lieut. Thomas Clark, 115, 15; John Coe, 42; Ca- leb Cone, 70, 13; Widow Bate, 49; Nathaniel Smith, 22, 2, 6; William Clark, 84, 15; Jonathan Arnold, 94; Tim- othy Spencer, 69, 10; Caleb Brainerd, 108, 16; Serg't Thomas Shaler, 105; Joshua Arnold, 45, 12; John Ar- nold, 39, 18, 6; Ephraim Baily, 25, 17, 6; Joseph Smith, 81, 1; William Smith, 39, 17, 6; Isaac Bartlett, 18; Tim- othy Walters, 39, 2; Simon Smith jr., 38; Jonathan Smith, 18; James Brainerd jr., 24; Thomas Brooks jr., 24; Mr. Phineas Fiske, 64, 1 1, 6.
A division of land beyond the "two mile and a half line " was ordered February 29th 1720. This was dis- tributed on the scale of 60 acres to the 100 pounds. There were 100 who drew lots in this division.
Another division, based on a ratio of 10, 20, or 30 acres to the too pounds, according to location of lots, was de- termined on in 1723, to be laid out by the Ist of March of that year. There were 100 who drew lots in this dis- tribution.
ESTABLISHING THE BOUNDS.
The lands granted to the settlers of this town by the Indian deed were not all confirmed to them. It over- lapped on the north some of the land that had already been confirmed to Middletown, and this of course had to be relinquished. But the greatest conflict of claims was with Saybrook and Lyme on the south. The claim of these two towns was based upon a grant of the Leg- islature to the old town of Saybrook when it included the territory of the other to extend its borders four miles further north, making the north line of that town twelve miles from the sea. This encroached heavily upon the land that Haddam had bought of the Indians,
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HADDAM-BOUNDARY LINES.
by the authority of the Legislature. However, the claims of Thirty Mile Island appear to precede those of Say- brook yet the question caused much dispute and its final settlement looked more like the decision of superior forces than of impartial justice. Committees were fre- quently appointed to meet the representatives of the other towns to negotiate a settlement, and the case was carried to the General Court, where it received its final decision. February 9th 1667, the town sent Abram Deible " to goe to Sea-Brooke to treat with them for a meeting to agree about ye bounds betweene our townes." Some arrangement was undoubtedly made for on the 27th of the same month the town appointed Gerrard Spencer, Abram Deible, and Samuel Butler "to treat wth Sea Brooke men about ye bounds." On the roth of March following the townsmen were directed to send a letter to the committee to give them a hearing. A hear- ing was gained, and in May 1668 the General Court ap- pointed a committee to labor with these plantations "to gayne a complyance betweene them " &c., before the October meeting of the court.
June 3d, this town appointed Abram Deible and Rich- ard Piper to go to Hartford to meet the committee in behalf of the town. The committee reported and the General Court accordingly recommended that the line be settled according to the proposition of Saybrook men, which was a compromise making the north line of Say- brook and Lyme ten miles from the sea instead of twelve miles as they had claimed, or eight miles as Thirty Mile Island contended they were only entitled to. A com- mittee was now, October 20th, appointed to join with Saybrook in conference, the result of which seems to have been an agreement, however reluctant the commit- tee of this town may liave been to consent to it. In the following May the matter was again before the General Court, the town having on the 5th appointed William Clark, to represent them before that body, and if need be to employ counsel. The court now gave its decision in accordance with the plan already mentioned. At the same time it granted that the bounds of Haddam should run from the river on the west six miles in to the wilder- ness provided it did not interfere with any other grant pre- viously made. November 3rst 1669, the town appointed a committee of four men to measure the town lines ac- cording to the recent decision-of the court. Several at- tempts were made before this could be satisfactorily ac- complished, and we find the town appointing committees at different times to lay out the bounds. Finally, April 5th 1671, the committees of the two towns, Haddam and Saybrook, met and ran the line from a point on the river two miles south of the marked tree that stood twelve miles from the sea, west into the woods. This point on the river was then near the lower end of Twenty Mile Island.
The controversy with Lyme was nearly the same as that with Saybrook, and the decision of the General Court had an equal application to it. But a longer time seems to have been used in obtaining a full settlement of the line. Committees were appointed at different times
in 1669, 1670, and 1673, to accomplish this, and they finally, May 7th 1673, agreed upon the boundary in the following language: "that the devident line betwixt our townes shall run from the Great river begining in the midel way betwixt the lower point of Mr. Chapman's meadow and the uper side of the mouth of the Cove above the major Leueret's farme hows and so to run east the extent of the bounds of haddam and that the above sayd devident Line shall be and Continue notwithstand- ing grantes and Agreements whatever the diuiding line betwixt our boundės ffor euer."
The line between this town and Killingworth had been an unsettled one until May 1669, when the General Court decreed that the north line of Killingworth as far as Haddam extended westward, should be a continuation of the line between Haddam and Saybrook. In December 1704, some disturbance appears to have arisen over this matter, which was placed in the hands of a committee, and thus, no doubt, satisfactorily disposed of.
The bounds of Haddam, though by the circumstances narrated they were contracted on the south, were enlarged on the east by a grant of the General Court in May 1674, which made the east line of the town a north line from the southeast corner, which was six miles from the river.
A condition that accompanied this extension, was that the town should grant Mr. Robert Chapman fifty acres of land by his house to the northward of his meadow abutting on the river, and 300 acres besides to be located by the discretion of a committee named in the grant, in consideration of which Mr. Chapman was to relinquish whatever claim he had on any other land in the town limits.
In 1675, the General Court appointed Mr. Nathaniel White and Deacon John Hall to lay out the bounds of Haddam, both east and west, according to the grants.
In 1705, September 12th, the bounds of Haddam were run by Caleb Stanly along the Middletown line six miles from the river westward, thence south 38 degrees east- erly, being a course nearest parallel with the river, to a point on the south line of Haddam six miles from the river. This parallel line then formed the dividing line between this town and Durham. Its course was after- ward changed for the northern part by the annexation of what was called the Haddam Quarter to Durham, which was done in October 1773.
About the year 1685, a settlement was begun on the east side of the river, below Salmon River, which in- creased until it became strong enough to be made a sep- arate town by the name of East Haddam.
THE TOWN ECCLESIASTICAL.
The history of the town under this caption is neces- sarily a history of the First Ecclesiastical Society of Haddam, now represented by the Congregational church at Haddam Centre. In preparing this sketch the works of Dr. Field and Rev. E. E. Lewis have been drawn upon for a considerable part of the substance incorpo- rated in it.
The movements of the settlers for the first few years
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
are enveloped in much obscurity, but there is evidence to show that the worship of God was one of the first matters to which they gave attention, and it is without doubt that the observance of public worship began with the settlement. A private house was used for this pur- pose for 10 or 12 years. As has already been seen the proprietors in all their divisions of land set apart one It was probably completed sufficiently to admit being used during that year, though it remained in an unfin- ished condition for several years longer. share for the benefit of the .parsonage, and another share for whoever should be their first minister. It appears that the Rev. Jonathan Willowby was employed here for Rev. Nicholas Noyes came here in 1668, on a salary of £40, and the use of the minister's lot, the salary to be paid, " one half in wheat and Pease, and the other half in Porke and indian Corne." Several years later this sal- ary was increased somewhat. By remaining for a term of four years he became entitled to the lot that had been set apart for the first minister, and afterward received a time, but though the first minister of whom there is any account, he was probably not fully settled, and therefore did not receive the share that had been set apart for the first minister. The Rev. Nicholas Noyes succeeded him, and answered the conditions sufficiently to receive the share referred to. This share, including all the additions that were from time to time made to other parcels of ground. He appears to have been held it, amounted to over 500 acres, though it is not probable in high esteem by the people, who made efforts to retain him longer in this field, but he withdrew about the year 1682. that Mr. Noyes received all this. Parts of it were held and afterward given to other ministers.
There is a tradition that the first meeting house was built on a site about thirty rods below the present county jail, and on the opposite side of the street.
In February 1667, Joseph Arnold gave a part of his home lot for the site of a house for Mr. Willowby. Documentary evidence uniformly associates the home lot of Joseph Arnold with the burying ground and church site. Before or soon after the completion of his house, Mr. Willowby left, and the house naturally fell into the possession of the town. Having no other use for it, and having no meeting house, they used it for that purpose. December 7th 1667, the town arrived at the following de- cision, and this is the first record that has been found touching the subject of building a meeting house:
" At the same metting it was a Greed and notted by the in habytantes that the settled plas whear the meting houes shall be bilt is at the frunt of the minestryes Lote in the Litell medowe Lying a gainest the eand of the hom lote of Joseph Arnuld, that now he dwelles in."
The minister's lot here spoken of was probably that whereon Mr. Willowby's house had been begun, which, as has been seen, was taken from the home lot of Joseph Arnold. This house was used for the meetings of the town, and without doubt for meetings for worship. No- vember 11th 1669, the town voted that Mr. Noyes should have liberty to take the parsonage for his own use, but before he did so he should give the town sufficient no- tice to allow them time to secure another place to meet in. February 7th 1670, Mr. Noyes accordingly gave the town " warning to provid themselves a place fit to meet in by this time come two yeare." The town, November 2Ist 1670, voted to build a meeting house, and appointed a committee to attend to it with power to call out the in- habitants to work upon it in proportion to their several estates as should be decided by the discretion of the committee. But little if anything was done until Febru- ary 1673, when a rate of forty pounds was ordered to be paid in labor or money for the building of the meeting house, and in March the town contracted with John
Clarke to frame the building. It was to be 28 feet long, 24 feet wide, and 13 feet between joints, and in its sides were to be eight windows. May 15th 1674, the towns- men were ordered to go forward with the work of build- ing, and buy shingles, clapboards and nails to finish the building.
About this time the town paid Goodman Henerson ten shillings for sweeping the meeting house, and Joseph Arnold eight shillings for drumming. This was for the year 1682.
In January 1683, a committee was sent to New Lon- don to solicit Mr. John James to become minister here. Though but little is known regarding his ministry here, it is supposed that he came soon after that time and re- mained several years, perhaps till 1691.
In the summer of 1691, Rev. Jeremiah Hobart, from Hempstead, Long Island, came here and entered upon the work of the ministry. The town offered him £60 salary, and firewood, besides the parsonage lands on both sides of the river, and a lot of four and a half acres, on which they agreed to build a house for him. This house was to be 40 feet in length by 18 feet in breadth, and 10 feet in height of posts. The town went forward with the work of building, and as they progressed, the item of nails was provided for by selling 20 acres of land at Moodus to Thomas Hungerford. Mr. Hobart thus be- came settled as pastor of this people, though not for- mally installed. Some difficulties afterward arose, by which the people became dissatisfied, and in April 1695 they refused to acknowledge him as their pastor, and ap- plied to the Assembly to be organized into a church ac- cording to the accepted form, which was done in 1796.
Their relations with Mr. Hobart, however, were not settled by this action, and after the matter had occa- sioned considerable trouble, the Assembly, in 1698, appointed a committee to investigate and determine the controversy. That committee met in November, and after deliberating for some time upon the matter, declared that the agreement that had at first been entered into was still binding upon each party. This decision was accepted and acted upon, and Mr. Hobart was accordingly installed as pastor of the newly organ- ized church, in November 1700, he being then 70 years of age. From that time forward, neither he nor the people seem to have been fully satisfied. His salary
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HADDAM-ECCLESIASTICAL SOCIETY.
remained at £40 a year and firewood, which was to be cut by the people, every male person in the town between the ages of 16 and 60 years being required to cut wood one day in the year for him. In 1705, the quantity allowed him for the year was 80 loads, and it was to be brought in by the 10th of November. In 1709, he was allowed 40 cords for the year. There was probably a large faction in the society that was opposed to Mr. Hobart, and in consequence his salary and the other obligations of the people to him were not promptly fulfilled; and this annoyed and irritated the aged min- ister, whose manner was probably not as conciliatory as might have been expedient under the circumstances.
In connection with this subject, a glimpse of the records of the town affords an interesting illustration. In the last end of the first book of town records, a leaf has been torn out, and the pages that precede it contain a long account of a difficulty between Mr. Hobart and the town with reference to his engagement here, in which the decision of a committee of the General Court of Connecticut was required to adjust the matter. Fol- lowing the torn leaf is this curious record, which explains itself:
1
" HADDAM, March ye 6th 170§."
"At a meeting of the Towne in Generall both west & east side inhabitants; Convened together to consider what may be thought adviseable to be done in order to the unuseall & unthought of difficulty which arises in s'd Towne Respecting the Reverend Mr. Jerimiah Hobbarts tearing out part of a leaf out of the ancient Towne book, and for the repairing of the foresaid breach wee doe unanimously make choyce of Cap'tn John Chapman, Deacon Thomas Gates, deacon Daniell Cone, Lieut. James Wells and deacon Thomas Brooks a Committee: who are hereby Impowered and desired to take all moderate & ruleable Methods that the fore s'd Town book may be made vallid and Sufficient to all persons that now are or ever after Shall be Concerned with s'd Town book. The fore. said Inhabitants do oblige themselves to defray all necessary Charges that the fore s'd Committee shall be att in prosicuting the above said designe."
The committee report that if the copy of what was torn out can be found and duly recorded again it shall be valid, or if Mr. Hobart would deliver up all papers having reference to the record torn out, and would agree not to give any further trouble to the town or any one in regard to the matters therein contained, then with Mr. Hobart's acquiescence the town book was to be valid to all intents and purposes. Mr. Hobart, in his answer, dated March 12th 170%, complies with the arrangement of the committee "in real self-deniall for peace & loues sake," and agrees to suppress and destroy all papers that he has that might give him any advantage over the town to make them any trouble for the lack of the missing record.
After a period of 24 years' labor with this people Mr. Hobart died at the age of 85 years, having been assisted for a little more than a year by a colleague. He attended public worship in the forenoon of Sunday, November 6th 1815, and partook of the sacrament, and during the
intermission between services died suddenly while sitting in his chair.
This ecclesiastical society comprehended the whole people of the town, on both sides of the river. But to- ward the close of the century the people of East Had- dam were incorporated as a separate society.
But little is known of the positions occupied in church sittings by different individuals, nor what deference was paid to wealth, age, or rank, but that the matter of order- ly seating was not ignored may be seen from the follow- ing paragraph, from the minutes of a town meeting in December 1714:
"Capt. James Wells, Lft. Thomas Clark, Simon Smith, Thomas Brooks, and Joseph Arnold were Chosen a Com- mitty to order where persons should Sett in the meeting hous for the future."
The Rev. Phineas Fisk, a graduate of Yale College, was ordained as colleague of Mr. Hobart, January 27th 1714. The people, in their call to him, which was acted upon in town meeting, November 15th 1712, enumerated the following inducements in case he would be their minister until " providentially and inevitably removed or prevented :" a home lot of six acres; 40 acres on the neck; 20 acres of timber land; 30 acres from the commons; a one-hundred-and-fifty-pound (?) right in all ' the common land; a new house to be built for him, 42 by 19 feet and 16 feet between joints, with a lean-to 10 feet wide the whole length of the house, a stone cellar and a " stack of chimneys with three smoakes below and two above in the chambers,"-Mr. Fisk however to find nails and glass ;- the use of the parsonage lands; one day's work annually from all the hands and teams in town within a distance of two and a half miles of him; and in addition to all this a salary of 35 pounds the first year, 45 the second year and so on to increase until it amounted to 70 pounds a year. The pastorate of Mr. Fisk was a long and pleasant one, harmony prevailing between him and his people. This salary was increased until in 1736 it reached as high as 110 pounds.
In 1718, the town decided to build a new meeting house. A period of prosperity seemed to be smiling upon the society, and a house of larger dimensions was needed. This was to be 36 by 44 feet on the ground and 20 feet between joints, and it was to be located at " the most convenient place adjoining to the burying lot." A building committee was appointed in 1819, and a tax of four pence on the pound was laid upon the list to pro- vide funds for the work. The house was completed about September 1721. The roof was covered with shingles two feet long and averaging five inches wide which cost 25 shillings a thousand; the clap-boards for the sides were four and one-half feet long and six inches wide, and for them was paid seven shillings a hundred. That the inside was plastered is probable from the fact that 300 bushels of shells and 4,000 cedar lath were or- | dered, the shells doubtless being burned into lime. The church was seated with pews, and had galleries. Addi- tional pews were afterward put in at different times to accommodate the wants of an increasing congregation.
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