USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > History of New Britain, with sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut. 1640-1889 > Part 2
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Berlin > History of New Britain, with sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut. 1640-1889 > Part 2
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > New Britain > History of New Britain, with sketches of Farmington and Berlin, Connecticut. 1640-1889 > Part 2
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There is no decisive evidence that any Indian tribe or clan ever had their residence or built their wigwams within the present limits of New Britain. Indians, however, were accustomed to hunt in the forests and fish in the streams of this territory, and arrow-heads and other stone implements have been found near the sources of the Quinnipiac River, on the banks of the stream formerly known as Gilbird's River, and in other places, in sufficient quantities to indicate that there might have been temporary encampments at these places.
CHAPTER II.
SETTLEMENT OF FARMINGTON, GREAT SWAMP, OR KENSINGTON, AND NEW BRITAIN.
THE primitive towns of Connecticut may be included in two groups - the Connecticut River group, comprising Windsor, Wethersfield, Hartford, and Saybrook - all settled between 1633 and 1635; and the Sound group further west on Long Island Sound, which included New Haven, settled in 1638, and Guilford, Milford, Stratford, and Fairfield - all settled in 1639. These towns were situated on navigable waters, and had the advantage of direct communication by sailing vessels, both with each other and with the towns of Massachusetts Bay.
In 1640, or less than two years after the settlements were begun in the shore towns, and only seven years after the first settlement was made within the limits of the State, Farmington was settled. This place had none of the advan- tages of a location on the Sound or a large river, but the fertile meadows upon the banks of the "Tunxis," and the favorable situation of the adjoining land, attracted the attention of some of the most enterprising men of the river towns.
The purpose which led to this settlement may be seen in part, in the following action of the General Court, at a session held January 16, 1639 :
" It is ordered both for the satisfaction of those of Hartford and Windsore, who formerly mooved the court for some enlargement of accommodacon, and also for or neighbors of Wethersfield, who desire a plantacon there, that Mr. Phelps, Mr. Hill, Thomas Scott, Wm Gibons, Robert Rose, and James Boosy, shall as soon as with any conveniency may be, view those parts by Vnxus Sepos wch may be suitable for those purposes and make return of their doings to the court which is adjourned for that end to the 20th of Febr att 10 of the clocke in the morning."
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FARMINGTON -GREAT SWAMP, OR KENSINGTON.
At the session of the adjourned General Court, held Feb- ruary 20, 1639, the following action was taken :
" Or neighbors of Wethersfield in regard the weather hath not hitherto suited for the viewing of Vnxus Sepos, and that a General Court ere long will fall in course, intimated their willingness to defer the issue of the business until then ; only it was conceaued fitt and ordered accordingly, that Mr. Wells, Capt. Mason and George Hubberd be added to the former Committee who are with their view to vnderstand the desires of or neighbors of Wethersfield, and to consider of such bounds as they judge fitt for them, and to return their opinions to the court."
The next General Court was held in June, 1640, the session opening the eleventh, and on the fifteenth this matter was taken up again, and referred to the particular court to conclude the conditions for the planting of Tunxis.
The settlement was soon after made by persons from Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor, who, a few years before, had emigrated from Watertown, Roxbury, Dorchester, and Newtown, in Massachusetts. Though the site selected for the plantation had been included in the original purchase of the territory from the Sachems of the Connecticut valley, it was re-purchased of the Tunxis Indians. Few families made their homes here at first ; but in a few years, by acces- sions from the older settlements, its growth indicated per- manency. It was incorporated as a town in 1645, before either Saybrook or Fairfield ; and for more than a quarter of a century, it was the only town within the present limits of the State which was not situated on navigable waters.
The following order of the court is from the public records of the colony, the orthography unchanged :
" Deceber the first, 1645. Jo: Heynes Esqr, Gour. Ed. Hopkins Esq", Dep. Its Ordered, that the Plantation cauled Tunxis shalbe cauled Farmington, and that the bownds thereof shalbe as followeth ; The Esterne bownds shall meet with the westerne of these plantations, weh are to be fiue myles on this side the Great River, and the Northern bownds shall be fiue myles fro the hill in the great meadow towards Massaco, and the southerne bownds fro the said hill shalbe fiue myles, and they shall haue liberty to improue ten myles further then the said fiue, and to hinder others frö the like vntill the Court see fitt otherwise to dispose of yt. And the said Plantation are to attend the generall Orders formerly
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
.
made by this Court, setled by the Comittee to who the same was referred, and other occations as the rest of the Piantations vpon the River doe. And Mr. Steele is intreated for the prsent to be recorder there vntill the Towne haue one fitt among theselues. They also are to haue the like libertyes as the other Townes vpon the River, for making Orders among theselues, pruided they alter not any fundamentall agreements settled by the said Comittee, hitherto attended."
Farmington, as thus incorporated, was fifteen miles or more in extent from north to south, and by additions after- wards made, was twelve or thirteen miles in width, including more than one twenty-fifth of the present area of the State .* Bounded north by Simsbury (Massaco), and east by the older settlements, Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, it extended southerly to the tract held by the New Haven colony, now Meriden, and on the west to "the western woods." A rate of ten pounds was assessed upon the plan- tation. In 1685, the General Court granted a patent con- firming to the proprietors of the town the tract originally granted in 1645.
At first, house lots were laid out for dwellings on the west end of the road from Farmington to Hartford, and along the main street. Some of these lots were five acres in extent, and those on the west side of Main Street extended to the river. The first homes were cabins made of logs, dovetailed and locked together and filled in with clay, with a huge stone fire-place. The floors were the earth, or flattened logs laid upon the earth, and the rooms were formed by curtains of cloth suspended on wires. One choice lot was set apart for the man who would erect a mill, and about the time the place became a town, or in 1645 or 1646, a saw-mill and grist-mill seem to have been in operation. After the mills were erected, sawed lumber could be obtained for building, and corn and other grains be converted into meal and flour for the use of the people. The . houses were at first plain ; the diet and clothing were simple ;
* As measured from the first monuments affixed, the town was found to be about sixteen miles by twelve.
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FARMINGTON - GREAT SWAMP, OR KENSINGTON.
there were no carriages and no occasion for display, and the wants of the community were mostly supplied from its own limited resources. The number of families was at first small, but in a few years the number of settlers increased more rapidly, so that in 1645 the plantation was deemed worthy to become a town.
Some idea of the comparative value of the land in this town may be obtained from the report of the committee appointed by the General Court in 1676, "to put a value upon all the lands in the several plantations, how they shall be valued in the list of estates." There were at this time twenty-six plantations in the State, whose land was appraised by this committee. In Stonington, Saybrook, Killingworth, New Haven, and some towns west, none of the land was appraised at more than twenty shillings per acre. In New London, Norwich, Guilford, and a few other of the shore towns, the best house lots were appraised at twenty-five shillings per acre, but no land of any kind south of Middle- town and Farmington was valued at a higher price. In Farmington, the home lots were appraised, one-half at twenty shillings per acre, and one-half at fifteen shillings, while one- third of the meadow land was valued at forty shillings per acre, and two-thirds at twenty shillings. The only towns in the State which at that time had a higher valuation put upon their meadow land were Windsor, Hartford, and Wethers- field. Meadow land was considered the most valuable of any, and this fact may explain why so many settlements were made near natural meadows.
The growth of this purely agricultural village, removed from navigable waters, separated from the river towns by mountains, and from the shore towns by twenty miles of pathless woods, was for some years phenomenal. In 1655, fifteen years after the original settlement of the place, and ten years from its organization as a town, the number of ratable persons in the town was forty-six, and the grand list of their estates was £5,519, while Hartford at the same date had one hundred and seventy-seven ratable persons, or nearly
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
four times as many as Farmington, and its grand list was £19,609, or more than three and a half times as great as that of Farmington. One hundred years later, or when the first recorded census of Hartford County was taken in 1756, Middletown, then in Hartford County, was the most populous town, with 5,664 inhabitants, Windsor, the second in popula- tion, had 4,220, Farmington, 3,707, and Hartford, 3,027. In 1774, Farmington had become the first town in the county, with a population of 6,069, while Hartford had 5,031, and Middletown, having lost Chatham, had a population of 4,878.
During this period Farmington lost quite a number of its
citizens, who were in Major Paterson's company in the French War, and died, yet its increase in population was 2,362, or nearly sixty-four per cent., while the increase in Middletown, including Chatham, was less than thirty per cent., and in Windsor, including East Windsor, which had been formed from Windsor in 1768, but twenty-one per cent. Before the census of 1782 was taken, Southington had been set off and incorporated as a distinct town, but at that date Farmington was still the most populous town in Hartford County.
The general character and standing of the founders of Farmington may be learned by considering the social and official position of the early proprietors of the soil of this town. A list of the owners of house-lots, prepared from the records in Farmington and Hartford by Rev. William S. Porter in 1840, comprised the following, viz. :
" Mr. John Haynes, Esq., Mr. Samuel Wyllys, Mr. Edward Hopkins, Mr. Thomas Welles, Mr. John Steele, Mr. John Talcott, Mr. John Web- ster, Elder William Goodwin, William Pantry, Thomas Scott, Dea. Andrew Warner, John White, Stephen Hart, William Lewis, Rev. Roger Newton, Thomas Webster, Matthew Webster, Nicholas Mason, Thomas Barnes, John Pratt, Renold Marvin, Matthew Marvin, John Brownson, Richard Brownson, George Orvice, Thomas Porter, Francis Browne, John Warner, Thomas Demon, John Cole, Dea. Thomas Judd, Thomas Upson, Dea. Isaac Moore, John Lomes, William Hitchcock, John Wilcock, and Nathaniel Watson."
John Haynes was Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony before removing to Hartford. He was the first Governor of Connecticut, being elected in 1639, and each alternate year until his death in 1653, and in most of the other years was chosen Deputy-Governor.
·
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FARMINGTON - GREAT SWAMP, OR KENSINGTON.
Edward Hopkins, a large landed proprietor of Hartford, was appointed the first Secretary of the Colony in 1638, and in 1640 was appointed Gov- ernor, alternating with Governor Haynes, holding the office alternate years until his return to England in 1653. He was several times Deputy-Gov- ernor, was one of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, and signed in behalf of Connecticut the articles of Confederation in 1643. After his return to Europe he was warden of the fleet, Commissioner of the admi- ralty, and member of parliament. He had a house-lot and a farm in Farmington, which, by his will, were devised to his daughter, Mary Hop- kins Newton, wife of the first minister of Farmington. He also left bequests which formed the foundations of the Hopkins Grammar Schools in Hartford and New Haven.
Samuel Wyllys, the son of Gov. George Wyllys, married the daughter of Governor Haynes, was magistrate for more than thirty years, was repeatedly appointed moderator of the General Court, and for four years was one of the Connecticut Commissioners for the United Colonies, and was extensively engaged in trade, having several sugar plantations in the West Indies.
Thomas Welles was a member of the Court of Magistrates, 1637-1654, was the first Treasurer of the colony in 1639, was Secretary, 1640-1649, Deputy-Governor for four years, and Governor in 1655 and 1658.
John Steele was Deputy in Massachusetts in 1634 and 1635, Secretary of the Connecticut Colony, 1636-1639, town clerk of Hartford, and after his removal to Farmington in 1645, was town clerk of that town.
John Talcott was a Deputy and an assistant, was Treasurer of the Colony, 1654-1659, one of the Commissioners of the New England Colo- nies, a townsman (selectman), of Hartford, and held other offices of trust.
John Webster was a member of the Court of Magistrates, 1639-1655, then Deputy-Governor, and in 1656-1657, Governor. He was a Commis- sioner of the United Colonies, and one of the committee to form a code of criminal laws.
William Goodwin was a Deputy in Massachusetts, and a man of great influence in church and state, both in Massachusetts and in Connecticut. He was a large landed proprietor in Hartford, and one of the agents appointed to purchase Farmington from the Indians. He was ruling elder of the First Church in Hartford, and afterwards of the church in Hadley, where he had removed. His-latter years were passed in Farmington where he had a house lot and farm, and where he died in 1673.
William Pantry was one of the wealthiest original proprietors of Hart- ford, was townsman in 1641, 1645, and constable in 1649.
Thomas Scott, one of the original proprietors of Hartford, was one of the commission appointed by the General Court in 1639, "to view those parts by Vnxus Sepos " (Tunxis or Farmington) " which may be suitable for a plantation," and was as well acquainted as any one with the advantages of the place.
Andrew Warner was one of the Commissioners for ordering affairs at
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
Connecticut, was deacon of the First Church, Hartford, but afterwards removed to Hatfield, and then to Farmington.
John White was townsman at Cambridge, and after removing to Hartford, was townsman there for four years, was frequently a juror, and was ruling elder in the church.
Stephen Hart, one of the original proprietors of Hartford, was deacon of Rev. Thomas Hooker's church at Cambridge and at Hartford, and afterwards was the first deacon of the church at Farmington. He was Deputy from the latter place 1647-1655, and 1660, and ancestor of most of the Harts of Farmington, Berlin, and New Britain.
John Wilcock, an original proprietor of Hartford, was chosen sur- veyor of highways, and townsman.
Most of these proprietors were actual settlers, and all were interested in the place, as owners of house lots. It would be difficult to find anywhere a settlement or planta- tion with founders of a higher character. There were after- wards added others who contributed to the material prosperity of the town, and the high intellectual and moral character of society, by becoming householders and residents.
In 1672, the number of proprietors of the land included in the various Farmington grants numbered eighty-four. These were the survivors of the original owners, and of others who had purchased lots later, or heirs of the deceased. Three, Mr. Wyllys, and the heirs of Governor Haynes and Governor Hopkins, were non-residents. These eighty-four proprietors took possession of the unappropriated land within the limits of the several grants, and, after reserving certain portions for the Indians and for public uses, divided the remainder into sections and sub-divisions, and distrib- uted it among the proprietors according to their lists. These sections and divisions are referred to subsequently in the land records of Farmington, and the towns formed from it.
The house lots first occupied were principally on the main street of the village. Stephen Hart, one of the leading pioneers of the place, if not the inspirer of the project which led to its settlement, had his homestead on one of the largest house lots, on the west side of the street, near the center ; and directly opposite his homestead the plat for the meeting-
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FARMINGTON - GREAT SWAMP, OR KENSINGTON.
house was reserved. The lot next north of Hart's belonged originally to Thomas Upson, but was sold and resold until it became the homestead of John Lee, the son-in-law of Stephen Hart. John Steele, the recorder, John Andrews, and John and William Judd, and some others, lived further north, on the west side of the highway. Governor Haynes' lot was further to the north, on the road leading to Unionville, and Governor Hopkins' lot was about as far south of Stephen Hart's, on the west side of the path. Between Stephen Hart and the Hopkins lot were the house lots of John Hart, son of Stephen, Thomas Porter, John Wadsworth, and others. On the east side of the path, commencing at the north end of the street, were William Smith, John North, Samuel Steele, Matthew Woodruff, Ventries, Barnes, and some others. The homesteads of Rev. Roger Newton and Rev. Samuel Hooker were on the east side of the path, nearly as far south as Governor Hopkins' lot. Further east, on a path leading to the mountain, were the Brownsons and others, and on or near the path leading to Hartford from the north end of the street, were Lewis, Moore, Norton, Warner, Webster, and Woodford, and some others. East of the main street, and towards the mountain, were the wood lots and pastures of many of those owning house lots on the principal streets, and a few homesteads ; but the houses of the early settlers were chiefly on Main Street.
The first settlement within the present limits of Berlin was made by Sergeant Richard Beckley,* a planter from New Haven, about 1660. The General Court, October 8, 1668, granted to him " three hundred acres of land lying on both sides of Mattabesett River, to run up from New Haven path." This tract was within the bounds of Wethersfield,
* Richard Beckley appears to have been one of the first settlers of New Haven, and one of the members of Mr. Davenport's church. When the list of planters, with their families, and estates, was taken in 1643, Richard Beckley was given in as having a family of four persons, and an estate of £20. In 1646, he and "Sister Beckley " were seated in the second seat, indicating prominence. He seems to have been in New Haven as late as 1659, and in 1682 he was ap- pointed a constable in Wethersfield, so that he probably came to Beckley Quar- ter about 1660. He died August 5, 1690. 3
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
and the grant was confirmed by that town, at a meeting held February 23, 1670-71. Beckley had purchased the land of Terramoogus, an Indian chief, who had succeeded the sachem, Sowheag. He had upon it a house and barn, before this confirmation by the town. Others by the name of Beckley were settled about him, and the place was termed "Beckley Quarter." This was included in the second Wethersfield society in 1713, but in 1715 was united to the society of Kensington, and this was consequently the first settlement in Berlin.
It was not long after the incorporation of Farmington as a town that a few of the proprietors made improve- ments to the east of the center, on the Hartford road. Gradually the settlement in this direction extended to the southeast, until it included a portion of the present territory of New Britain. This section never belonged to the Great Swamp Society, but was a part of the parish of Farmington, or of Wethersfield, until the New Britain Society was organ- ized. It included Clark Hill and Wolf Plain, or the north part of Stanley Quarter ; and the settlement was afterwards extended westerly towards Horse Plain, until it intersected the farms taken up by persons who came directly over Farm- ington Mountain. The cabins were built at irregular inter- vals near the foot of the mountain as far south as Hart Quarter. About the same time, or soon after, a few families from Wethersfield settled in the northeast part of what was afterwards the parish of New Britain, on the north end of East Street .*
The settlement at Christian Lane was a separate enter- prise.
In August, 1661, the General Court made the following grant to Jonathan Gilbert, an officer of the court :
* In 1786, after Berlin was separated from Farmington, a commission consisting of Selah Hart, Gad Stanley, Jonathan Hubbard, Elias Beckley, and Jonathan Belden as committee of Berlin, and John Robbins, Samuel W. Wil- liams, Samuel May, John Hanmer, and Martin Kellogg, selectmen of Weth- ersfield, run the boundary line between Berlin and Wethersfield, adopting in part the line established between Farmington and Wethersfield in 1670.
.
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FARMINGTON - GREAT SWAMP, OR KENSINGTON.
"Three hundred acres of upland and fifty acres of meadow, provided it be not prejudicial where he finds it to any plantation that now is, or hereafter may be settled."
In March of the next year a grant was made to Daniel Clark, Secretary of the Court, and John Moore, of four hun- dred acres, and in 1665 another grant was made to Daniel Clark, as follows :
" An augmentation to his former grant to ye sum of one hundred acres of upland; and he hath liberty to take up for his meadow land the remainder of the meadow that is not taken up at Jonathan Gilbert's farm, if it there to be had with an hundred acres of upland adjoining, and the rest to make up his former grant at some place upon Mattabesett River, where he can have it free from those limitations inserted in his former grant."
The grants to Gilbert, Clark, and Moore were taken up in the southeast part of Farmington, within the present towns of Berlin, New Britain, and Meriden, on the principal " path " between Hartford and New Haven. Some question seems to have arisen in regard to a portion of these grants, and it was decided in the following manner :
" The Court of Election hearing what hath been alleged to the case by Farmington, as also by Captain Clark, do judge that the true and just right in the said land belongs to Captain Clark, provided it be not within Farmington's first grant of five miles."
As Clark's grant was evidently beyond this " first grant," the land was confirmed to Captain Clark, and James Stcele and Hugh Wells were appointed " to lay out the land where Captain Clark first took it up at Mattabesett River."
In 1672, Jonathan Gilbert bought Clark's tract and rights, and added to the territory which he then owned by other grants from the General Court, and by purchases, until he held title to more than one thousand acres, extend- ing from the southeastern part of New Britain to the south- ern part of Berlin, including a portion of the valley of the Mattabesett_River. This tract was much the longest from north to south, the southern part extending as far south as the present bounds of Meriden. Besides upland, it included
1
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HISTORY OF NEW BRITAIN, ETC.
three pieces of meadow, described in the Colonial Records as the "North Meadow, Beaver Meadow, and the South Meadow."*
Captain Andrew Belcher, a wealthy merchant of Boston, when visiting Hartford was accustomed to stop at Gilbert's tavern, and he married one of Gilbert's daughters. He bought this tract of land of his father-in-law, and pro- ceeded to make improvements by opening highways, build- ing tenement houses, and in other ways making it invit- ing to settlers. He made additions to the tract by pur- chase until he owned a large territory, including land now
· within the bounds of New Britain, Berlin, and Meriden. The southern portion became known as "Merideen," or " Mori- dan," and the northern part as the "Great Swamp." A portion of one of the highways in the northern part, after- wards known as " Christian Lane," was laid out parallel with the boundary line between Wethersfield and Farming- ton, and twenty-two rods west of it. It was upon this road, extending directly north and south for about a mile, that the first settlement of the Great Swamp parish was made. It was upon Belcher's tract, and on a part of it which he had opened for improvement.
In 1686-7, Richard Seymour and others began a settle- ment a few rods south of the present boundary line between New Britain and Berlin. Mr. Seymour's house was on the west side of the road. Near it, and about four rods from the road, the fort or stockade was built. This fort was made by setting logs or palisades, sixteen feet high, upright in the ground. These logs were sharpened at the top, and, with the gate or entrance to the fort carefully guarded, afforded protection against sudden attack from Indians or wild animals. A well of never-failing water was dug a few feet from the fort. The dirt and soil to the depth of sixteen feet was thrown out by hand without windlass or rope. This well was so thoroughly constructed
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