USA > Connecticut > New London County > Montville > History of Montville, Connecticut, formerly the North parish of New London from 1640 to 1896 > Part 4
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called, was therefore crowned sachem of Mohegan, and his installation conducted under the supervision of the govern- ment. The governor appointed two or three persons, having an understanding of the manner and language of the Indians, to be present and to signify the concurrence of the govern- ment and to keep order among the Indians during the occa- sion. The controversy respecting the Mohegan lands, which were supposed to have been forever settled in 1721, very soon revived. John Mason had never been satisfied with the de- cision then made. He had been to too great expense in the matter of pursuing the claims of the Indians before the courts. Hle stated that the charges of the Queen's Commission, held at Stonington in 1705, was 573 lbs. 12s. Sd., part of which he had already paid, and for the remainder he had made himself responsible. Mason, as guardian of the Indians, had stood responsible for their proportion of the charges of the commission, supposing that the lands which had been con- veyed in Colchester and Lyme would be either returned to the Indians or an equivalent paid for it, which would enable them to pay him the amount he had advanced for them, but all his hopes being crushed by the decision of the committee in 1721, Mason seems to have resolved to appeal for justice to the General Court, and in 1722 applied for copies of the proceedings relative to the lands of the Mohegans, and in October of the following year presented a memorial of his grievances, and a petition for redress, with the request that lie might again have the care of the Mohegans and their lands, with permission to live among them, and to cultivate such lands as they were willing to allot him. The court took no notice of his memorial at first, but afterwards granted his request to live among them. He was authorized to take charge of the affairs of the Indians, and was requested to set up a school among them to make them acquainted with the nature of the Christian religion. This favor was prob- ably out of respect to the ancestors of Captain Mason, and to the confidence which the Mohegans reposed in him. Ben
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Uncas, his council and tribe, then chose Captain Mason their overseer and confirmed the office to him and to his heirs for- ever, granting him permission to live among them, and a tract of land for his own use. Captain Mason accordingly moved from Stonington to Mohegan, improved the land al- lotted him, and for several years acted as the teacher of the Mohegans, the General Court at times granting him small sums as a compensation for his services. He still complained, however, of the injustice of being obliged to pay all the costs of a court which the colony had refused to accept, and being unwilling, and probably now unable to extort so large a sum from the tribe, he made another effort to obtain it from the colony. In May, 1725, a second memorial was presented, ask- ing that either the decision of the Queen's Commission be ful- filled, or some other method taken to liquidate the expenses thereby incurred, as well as the losses he had sustained by waiting twenty years. On the presentation of this memorial a committee was appointed which made its report in May of the following year. Objection was made to his charges, and the committee also brought up against him the resignation of the trusteeship of the Mohegan lands made in 1710, and the one thousand pounds which were paid by the colony to those persons who claimed lands of him, but were rejected by the committee. This report was accepted by the General Court, and the petition dismissed.
In the spring or summer of 1726, Major Ben Uncas, sa- chem of the Mohegans, died, and was succeeded by his son, also named Ben Uncas. Some opposition, however, was made to him by part of the tribe, but he was publicly in- stalled into the office after the Mohegan fashion, and his election was ratified by the General Court. In the meantime, Mason, still unsatisfied with the previous acts of the colony, was endeavoring to form a party among the Indians who would support him in the effort to obtain what he considered his rights. Ben Uncas the second, now sachem, remained as firm to the colony as had his father, and also a few others of
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the tribe. But Mason had succeeded in gaining over the greater part of them to his side, and the sachem, finding his authority disturbed, became strongly opposed to Mason, and as anxious to destroy his influence as the colony could desire. He had twice petitioned that other overseers be appointed for the tribe, and accordingly the General Court, in 1726, passed a resolution confirming Ben Uncas as sachem, and appointed John Hall and James Wadsworth as his guardians. Mason, though deprived of the overseership, still continued to live on the Mohegan lands, believing still that he had been wronged by the colonial government, and still claiming to be the right- ful overseer of the tribe, he resolved to carry his case before the Crown. Finding the sachem bitterly opposed to him, he came out in support of the claims of Mamohet to the sa- chemship, and succeeded in getting a large part of the tribe to adhere to him. In 1730, three guardians, James Wadsworth, Stephen Whittlesey, and Samuel Lynde were appointed with authority to lease the Indian lands to white settlers to im- prove, the rents to be received by Ben Uncas in right of his dignity as sachem. Two years afterwards the guardians were authorized to prosecute those tenants who refused to quit the lands when their leases expired. It had been pre- viously enacted that persons holding lands on the tract se- questered to the Mohegans by John Mason in 1671, should not be allowed to plead even fifteen years' possession for their claim, but should still hold them merely as tenants of the Indians, unless they could prove title and to have been fairly purchased.
Captain John Mason in 1735, with his son Samnel Mason and Mamohet, sailed for England with a determination of presenting a memorial of his grievances concerning the land in question to the King, George the second. The King re- ceived his memorial, and referred it to the Lords. They re- ported that an order of review of the case had been given in 1706, and proposed that another should now be granted, the expense of which, out of consideration for the poverty of
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the tribe, should be paid by the Crown. Before the com- mission was made out, John Mason died in England. A few weeks after the death of Mason, Mamohet was laid in the grave on old England's soil. The Mohegans, on hearing of the death of Mamohet, set up in his place John Uncas, a cousin of Ben, and son of that John who was the next older brother to Owaneco. A few months previous to the death of Mamohet, the Mohegans, while holding one of their dances, had a vote taken, whether Mamohet or Ben Uncas was their true sachem, which was unanimously in favor of Mamohet. John and Samuel Mason, after the death of their father, laid claim to the guardianship of the Indians by virtue of a public document making over the office to their father and his de- scendants in perpetuity. At this time, very few of the the tribe adhered to Ben Uncas, the sachem. Out of about a hundred men, the number then composing the tribe, only about a dozen remained firm to their sachem. These two parties drew up and signed petitions in favor of their re- spective choice. The adherents of Ben complained that Cap- tain John Mason, lately deceased, had opposed the right of Ben to the sachemship, and encouraged the Mohegans to set up a rival against him. Captain John Mason, having been per- mitted to occupy and improve some of the tribe land, out of respect to his ancestors, and in consideration of his setting up a school among them, it was now asserted that Mason, being dead, the land on which he had lived ought to return into the possession of the tribe. The General Court, upon hearing their petitions, directed the three guardians, James Wads- worth, Stephen Whittlesey, and Samuel Lynde, to go to Mo- hegan, and if possible settle the quarrel of the Indians. They were also instructed to see that their rights were protected and preserved to them, their fields fenced, and their corn protected from the cattle of the neighboring farmers. In June, 1737, a commission of review upon the unsettled af- fairs of the Mohegans was made up in England, appointing as commissioners the governor and assistants of Rhode Island,
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and the lieutenant-governor and members of New York. This created a considerable commotion in the colony of Con- necticut, especially among those settlers in the town of New London, Colchester, and the north of Lyme. The govern- ment of Connecticut began immediately its preparations to meet the approaching storm. An important point on which the fate of the trial might turn was the question as to who was the rightful sachem of the Mohegans. If Ben Uncas could retain the position and authority of that office, he might perhaps render the proceedings of the proposed commission void by refusing to acknowledge Samuel Mason as the agent of the tribe, and by declaring that the Mohegans had no cause of complaint against the colony. The majority of the Indians were indeed bitterly opposed to Ben Uncas, but a favorable opportunity was now offered to induce them to ac- knowledge his title to the office. A report had been circulated about that the eastern Indians were about to attack them, and the Mohegans thereupon applied to the government for protection against the threatening tribes. The governor re- plied that he would protect none but their lawful sachem, Ben Uncas, and those Indians who submitted to his authority. A paper, acknowledging Ben as the true and lawful sachem of the Mohegans, was drawn up and presented for the signa- tures of those who, on this condition, would accept the pro- tection of the government. Fifty-eight Indians signed the paper. Another scheme was at this time projected in order to strengthen the claims of Ben. He was to send for his son, then an indentured apprentice to Samuel Russel of Sherburne, Massachusetts, and have him married to Ann, the daughter of their former sachem, Cesar. His master refused to give him up without being compensated for that part of his ap- prenticeship which was still unexpired. Thereupon forty pounds were paid for this object, and ten pounds more for the expense of the messenger. The young man Ben was brought home to Mohegan and married to Ann, as had been proposed. Precaution was also taken in obtaining a deed from the Mo-
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hegans acknowledging that the colony had always behaved towards them with justice, disclaiming the complaint which had lately been made to the King, and releasing all persons concerned from the consequences of the decision rendered at the Queen's court in 1705. Such, however, was the influence of the Masons that only eighteen of the tribe, including the sachem, could be induced to sign the deed. A large number of the others met the next day and formally protested against what had been done, disclaiming Ben Uncas as their sachem, and denied that he had any right to release their demands. The Mason party had retained as counsel for the Mohegans William Shirley and William Bolan. The meeting of the com- missioners court being now near at hand, John Richards, one of the guardians of the Indians, who had been appointed to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Stephen Whittle- sey, was ordered to provide Ben Uncas with proper clothing to appear before the commissioners. On the fourth day of June, 1738, the commission convened at Norwich. The com- missioners were nine in number, Phillip Cortlandt and Daniel Horsmanden of New York, and the governor and six as- sistants of the colony of Rhode Island. Phillip Cortlandt was chosen president, and the commission entered upon its business. All persons interested were summoned to appear before the commission.
When the chief sachem was called, Ben Uncas, in his dignity, arose and replied that he was the chief sachem of the Mohegans. Immediately following him was John Uncas, who also asserted that he was chief sachem. The commis- sion decided to settle this point before proceeding further, and nine persons, residing in the vicinity of the Mohegans, well acquainted among the tribe, were summoned and ex- amined as to which, in their opinion, was the rightful claim- ant to the title. They each testified that John was descended from the second son of old Uncas, and that Ben was descended from a younger son, who was supposed to have been illegi- timate, that in consequence of the mixture of white blood
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in Ben, John Uncas was the true and lawful sachem of the Mohegans. Upon hearing this testimony, the Rhode Island commissioners, who appeared to have favor for the colony, ex- pressed themselves as still unsatisfied, and the attorneys for the Mohegans, seconded by Mason, at once proposed that the Indians who were present be brought forward and heard in the matter. This proposition being put to the vote, a majority of the commissioners decided against it. This was on the tenth day of June, 1738. On the following day the examination of testimony was continued, and Thomas Stanton, Captain John Morgan, and Jonathan Barker, then a missionary among the Mohegan Indians, each testified in favor of John Uncas. The council for the Mohegans again moved that the testi- mony of the Indians might be taken, first for Ben Uncas, afterwards for John Uncas. A part of the commissioners refused to take their testimony, the others dissented from the refusal. On the thirteenth of June a majority of the commissioners decided that Ben Uncas was the rightful sachem of the Mohegans, and thus ended this extraordinary hearing. The costs of this hearing had been considerable to the colony of Connecticut, and some of the items preserved in the records are not unworthy of notice. James Harris, a large land- holder and speculator, then living on land in the vicinity, pur- chased of Owaneco, sent in two bills for expense inenrred in keeping up a party among the tribe who were favorable to
the colony. The first item consisted of SIbs. 5s. 10d. for clothes and other articles furnished to Joshua and Samuel Un- cas, Simon Choychoy, and Zachery Johnson. A second item was for expenses incurred while remaining personally among the Mohegans, and endeavoring to keep them in good humor. Another item was 101bs. 13s. 7d. for feasting the Indians at their meeting for the revocation, alluding to the council con- vened, when the release was assented to by the party who favored Ben Uncas as sachem. The entire bills of Mr. Harris amounted to some more than one hundred and ninety pounds, but the General Court finally allowed him one hundred pounds.
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Difficulties, however, soon after arose between Ben Uncas and some of the people of Norwich, and he complained to the General Court that encroachments were being made on the Mohegan lands, which had so lately been reserved to them. The guardians, Wadsworth, Lynde, and Richards, were there- fore commissioned to ascertain the bounds of the Mohegan lands, and assist their sachem in maintaining them against intruders. After the close of the court in 1738, John and Samuel Mason were commissioned by their party among the Mohegans to present an appeal to the Crown. The memorial was drawn up, signed, and sent over to England. The claim of John Uncas to the sachemship was again revived. His friends claimed for him, as being the oldest surviving branch of the royal family, and this was supported by a majority of the tribe, Ben Uneas only representing the youngest branch of the royal family, and that branch as generally believed to be illegitimate. Descent among the Indians was held to be in- fluenced by the mother and not by the father. The mother of Ben, not being a woman of the royal blood, consequently John Uncas was the rightful sachem by descent. The memorial sent over to England was by the Lords Justices considered, and the former decision of the commissioners was set aside, and a new commission granted (January, 1741), empowering the governor and council of New York and the governor and council of New Jersey to try the cause.
On the 9th day of July, 1743, the commissioners held their first meeting at Norwich, then a small town. The town was filled to overflowing with strangers, representing the sev- eral parties in interest. The whole tribe of the Mohegans was quartered on the inhabitants of the town, and the two rival sachems exerted themselves each to maintain their re- spective claims to the sachemship. John Uncas and his fol- lowers were entertained by their friends, the Lathrops and Leffingwells, and other principal inhabitants of Norwich. Ben Uncas was supported mostly at the expense of the colony, and was honored with the notice of the chief offices of the
·
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government. Four parties, John Uncas, Ben Uncas, the colony of Connecticut, and the holders of disputed lands ap- peared in court, each being represented by its own attorney. The case was fully presented and argued by the several at- torneys. The trial dragged on for several days, and an im- mense amount of evidence on every point having any relation to or bearing on the case in question, was brought and ex- amined. The counsel for the colony had claimed that the Mohegans were not originally a distinct and independent peo- ple, but only an offshoot of the Pequots, which had been res- cued from servitude and rendered numerous and powerful by the friendship of the English. Thus they had properly no territory of their own, and what rights to land they could claim were passed away by Uneas' deed in 1640. Another deed had been obtained in 1659 by Mason, not as trustee of the Indians, but as an agent of the colony of Connecticut, of which he was then deputy governor. Within a year after, he had made over all the lands thus obtained to the colony, so that his subsequent reservation of a considerable portion of them to the Mohegans was illegal and consequently void. The lands in dispute had thus twice been bought in the mass, and had afterwards been purchased in tracts by individuals, and remuneration received by the Indians. The Indians them- selves were entirely satisfied, and only made trouble because they were incited to do so by selfish and intriguing men. Finally they desired that the authority of the commissions could extend further than to such lands as the sachem had in their sales reserved to themselves. The counsel on the part of the claimants denied that the Mohegans had ever sold their lands in a mass to the colony, they had only trusted it to their faithful friends from the greediness and cunning of many of the English. And when Mason had grown old, and was about to die, he had returned the greater part of it to the tribe, and the sachem had, after his decease, transferred it to the care of his children. In the Mason family it had always continued, and in that family, by the will of the Mohegans, it still re-
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mained. The complainants also denied that Ben Uncas was the true sachem, and acknowledged no one for that office but John Uncas. The counsel for Ben Uneas requested a hearing on behalf of his client, which was granted, upon which he pro- cured a paper signed by Ben Uncas as sachem of Mohegan, and by ten of his people. It was a release to the government and people of Connecticut from the present trial, acknowledg- ing that all the material assertions in their defense were true, and declaring that they held legal and honorable possession of the territory now in litigation. The hoklers of the disputed lands appeared by counsel before the commission, denying that they were complained against by those who had a right to complain, and asked to be dismissed. The counsel for the complainants replied that the tenants held lands once belonging to the Mohegans, that the Mohegans had charged them with obtaining those lands unfairly, and it was their business to repel that charge, and the proots which were alleged in its support, by substantial facts. The tenants then denied the power of the Crown to institute a commission such as was now sitting for the trial of their ease, but the commissioners overruled the de- nial. The tenants finally made a declaration that they held their titles to the lands now occupied by them by fair Indian grants, obtained for money, goods, and valuable considerations, paid to the native owners. On the seventeenth day after the opening of the commissioners' court, all the evi- dence had been finished, and the pleas of the counsels for the several parties interested heard. In reviewing the evidence, the commission went over the whole history of land trans- actions between the Mohegans and the colony of Connecticut; allowed the truth of all, or nearly all that had been urged by the advocates of the latter; expressed their belief that the Indians would not have retained a foot of land had it not been for the interference of the government; mentioned that the Mohegans now had secured to them a tract of four or five thousand acres, and pronounced a decision in favor of the col-
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ony, two out of the five, Morris and Horsmanden, dissenting from the decision as rendered. The court then adjourned to the fifth of November, 1743, at which time the judgment of the majority should be read, and final decision pronounced. On the appointed day the commissioners again met, and the judgment by Colden, Rodman, and Cortlandt was read, closing with the following decision :
The decree of Governor Dudley and his colleagues, de- livered September 3, 1705, is wholly revoked, except as to that part of the sequestered lands, which has been laid out by the colony of Connecticut for the Mohegan Indians, and which is now reserved to them as long as they exist. Bollan, coun- sel on the part of John Uncas and his friends, then presented an appeal from the decision of the court to that of the King's privy council. The appeal was sent, and the canse was tried. and finally settled in England. The last mention of these disputed claims may be found in Hartford, dated July 8, 1766, when it was to be presented to the Lords' Commission in the following February. The final decision, when it took place, was given in favor of the colony.
It has been already mentioned that John Mason, about 1723, by the request of the Mohegans, moved from Stoning- ton and settled on their land, and for several years åcted as school teacher among them. A schoolhouse, twenty-two feet long and sixteen feet wide, was by the General Assembly ordered to be built for the benefit of the Mohegan Indians, and to be paid for out of the colonial treasury. In 1727 all persons having Indian children in their families were com- manded to teach them the common English branches, and to instruct them in the Christian faith. During the fall of 1733, a minister named Jonathan Barber was sent among the Mohegans by the agents of a missionary society estab- lished in England, with a view to evangelize and spread the gospel among the Indians of North America. How long Mr. Barber remained among them, or what success attended his labors is uncertain. The indulgence by the Indians in
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the use of intoxicating liquors was found to be a great hinder- ance in the attempt to Christianize them, and the evil at this time was so extensive that some of the Indians themselves began to be alarmed. Severe laws had been enacted regu- lating the sale of intoxicating liquors to the several tribes of Indians in the colony of Connecticut, but they were broken with impunity, and rum was brought among them by the gallon, and cider by the barrel, in defiance of law. The Tn- dians were as anxious to get it as the whites were to furnish it, and it was difficult to induce an Indian to inform against those who enabled them to procure their favorite beverages. At the session of the General Assembly held in October, 1733. a law was passed partienlarly for the benefit of the Moho- gans, and was upon the petition of Ben Uncas. I will give the exact words as they are found in the colonial records:
" An Act for the more effectual Preventing the Selling Strong Drink to the Mohegan Indians: Whereas, Ben Un- cas, Sachem of said Indians has complained to this Assembly that, notwithstanding the laws now in force to prevent selling strong drink to the Indians, there is now continually much strong drink sold to the Mohegans, by means whereof their estates are impoverished, their manners debauched, and them- selves rendered more untractable to receive the Christian faith, for remedy whereof,
" Be it enacted by the governor, council and representa- tives in General Court Assembled, and by the authority of the same, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That all Cyder, Rhum, and other strong drink that shall hereafter (till this Assembly order otherwise) be found with any of the said Indians, without the allowance of Messrs. Adonijah Fitch, and Abraham Avery, living in said Mohegan, shall be forfeited to our Sovereign Lord the King, the produce of it to be in- proved for the good of the Mohegan Indians.
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