USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 11
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At this period the time for service was made known by beat of drum. What was the peculiar beat of the instrument that signified a summons to divine worship, we do not learn ; but undoubtedly some difference of stroke and tune distinguished the Sabbath drum from the drum military or civic.
1 The site was considerably higher than at present, a large quantity of earth and stone having been since taken from this hill to assist in filling up the pond and marsh to form the present Water Street.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
" March 22, 1651-2.
" The towne have agreed with Peter Blatchford to beat the drum all saboth dayes, training dayes and town publique meetings for the sume of 3lb., to be paid him in a towne rate."
Blatchford continued several years in this office. The custom of denoting the hour for public worship by beat of drum, may have con- tinued until a bell was procured, but no allusion to it has been noticed later than 1675.
Though this first meeting-house had no bell, we can not doubt but that it was crowned with that appendage which our ancestors vener- ated under the name of steeple, and which they regarded as an indis- pensable part of a completed house of worship. The cupola now became the look-out post of the watchman, and this rendered it a use- ful as well as an ornamental adjunct to the church. The sentinel from this elevated tower commanded a prospect in which the solemnity of the vast wilderness was broken and relieved by touches of great beau- ty. From the north, came flowing down between wood-land banks, the fair river, which, after spreading into a noble harbor, swept gracefully into the Sound. Following its course outward, the eye glanced easily over a long extent of Long Island, while every sail that passed between that coast and the Connecticut shore, up or down the Sound, might be distinctly seen. Directly beneath lay the young settlement, a rugged, half-cleared promontory, but enlivened with pleasant habitations, and bordered, even then, with those light canvas wings that foreshadowed a thriving commerce.
As a finale to the history of the barn so long used for a church, we may here notice a fact gleaned from the county court records of some fifteen or eighteen years' later date. William Rogers, the owner of the building had returned to Boston, and on his death, the heirs of his estate claimed that the rent had not been fully paid ; and Hugh Caulkins, who had been the town's surety, then a proprietor in Nor- wich, finds himself suddenly served with a writ from Mr. Leake, a Boston attorney, for £3, 10s., the amount of the debt. He accord- ingly satisfied the demand, and then applied to the town for redress. The obligation was acknowledged, and a vote passed to indemnify the surety.
" Feb. 27, "72-3.
" Upon demand made by Hugh Calkin for money due to Mr. Leake, of Bos- ton, for improvement of a barn of Goodman Rogers, which said Calkin stood engaged for to pay, this town doth promise to pay one barrel of pork to said Cal- kin some time the next winter."
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
,
On the north of the meeting-house was the lot reserved for pur- poses of sepulture. The ordinance which describes its bounds, and legally sets it apart for this use, is dated June 6th; 1653, and declares, "It shall ever bee for a Common Buriall place, and never be impro- priated by any." This is the oldest grave-yard in New London county.
" March 26, 1655.
" Goodman Cumstock is chosen to be grave-maker for the town, and he shall have 4s. for men and women's graves, and for all children's graves, 3s. for every grave he makes."
" Feb. 25, 1661-2. Old Goodman Cumstock is chosen sexton, whose worke is to order youth in the meeting-house, sweep the meeting-house, and beat out dogs, for which he is to have 40s. a year : he is also to make all graves; for a man or woman he is to have 4s., for children, 2s. a grave, to be paid by sur- vivors."
In the rear of Meeting-house Hill, was the town pound. The in- sufficient fencing, and the number of strays, made a pound a very necessary appurtenance. Yet it is curious to observe the quantity of legislation which was expended in procuring one. The subject was regularly brought up several times a year, a rate perhaps voted, a person appointed to build the pound and to keep it; yet there was no pound completed till 1663 or 1664. It was then erected " be- tween Goodman Cumstock's and Goodman Waller's," (on Williams Street, corner of Vauxhall,) and here it remained for at least 150 years. The place is still called by the aged, Pound corner.
On Meeting-house Hill also, the first accommodations were provided for prisoners.
" March 10, 1661-2.
" Goodman Longdon is chosen to be the prison-keeper, and his house for the town prison till the town take further order, provision is to be provided by the town, the prisoner being to pay for it with all other charges before he be set free."L
The earliest notice of Mr. Blinman in this country is from the records of Plymouth colony, March 2d, 1640. This, according to present reckoning, was 1641, but earlier than any vessel could arrive that season, which makes it probable that he came over in 1640.
" Mr. Richard Blindman, Mr. Hugh Prychard, Mr. Obadiah Brewen, John Sadler, Hugh Cauken, Walter Tibbott, propounded for freemanship."
1 Longdon's house stood near the intersection of Broad and Hempstead streets.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Gov. Winthrop mentions Mr. Blinman's arrival and settlement, without giving the date.
" One Mr. Blinman, a minister in Wales, a godly and able man, came over with some friends of his, and being invited to Green's Harbour, [since Marsh - field,] near Plymouth, they went thither, but ere the year was expired there fell out some difference among them, which by no means could be reconciled, so as they agreed to part, and he came with his company and sat down at Cape Anne, which at this court, [May, 1642,] was established to be a plantation, and called Gloucester."1
The differences alluded to above, between the former settlers and the new comers at Marshfield, appear to have been wholly of a theo- logical nature, and regarded minor points of discipline. From the account given of this affair in the Ecclesiastical History of Massa- chusetts,2 we gather that the main topics on which the two parties disagreed were, the importance of a learned ministry, and how far lay brethren should be encouraged to exercise their gifts in the church. The historian says :
" Mr. Blinman, a gentleman of Wales, and a preacher of the gospel, was one who expected to find a welcome reception. Being invited to Green's Har- bour, near Plymouth, he and his friends meant there to settle, but the influence of a few gifted brethren made learning or prudence of little avail. They com- pared him ' to a piece of new cloth in an old garment,' and thought they could do better without patching. The old and new planters, to speak a more modern style, could not agree and parted."
The church record of Plymouth in speaking of Marshfield, has this remark :
" This church of Marshfield was begun and afterward carried on by the help and assistance, under God, of Mr. Edward Winslow, who at the first procured several Welsh gentlemen of good note thither, with Mr. Blinman, a godly, able minister."3
Another original notice of this divine is in Lechford's Plain Deal- ing, written in 1641. It has a savor, as might be expected, of the bitterness of that author.
" Master Wilson did lately ride to Green's Harbour, in Plymouth patent, to appease a broyle betweene one master Thomas, as I take it his name is, and master Blindman, where master Blindman went by the worst."4
1 Sav. Winthrop, vol. 2, p. 64.
2 Mass. Hist. Coll., 1st series, vol. 9, p. 39.
3 Davis, Morton's Memorial, p. 416.
4 Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d series, vol. 3, p. 106.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
It is an inquiry of some interest to the genealogist, who composed that Welsh party which came over with Mr. Blinman. It is fair to presume that a considerable number of his fellow-passengers settled with him at Green Harbor, and subsequently removed with him in a body to Cape Ann. Thither therefore we must follow them. On that billowy mass of rocks, that promontory so singularly bold in position and outline, and so picturesque in appearance, they fixed their second encampment in this new world.
The following slip from the town records of Gloucester may indi- cate several of the Welsh party.
" 2 May, '42. On the first ordering and disposing of the affairs of Glou- cester by Mr. Endicott and Mr. Downing, these eight were chosen to manage the prudential affairs.
Wm. Steevens,
Mr. Bruen,
Wm. Addis,
Mr. Norton,
Mr. Milwood,
Mr. Fryer,
Mr. Saddler,
Walter Tybbot."
It is not necessary to suppose that all the names of Mr. Blinman's party should be of Welsh origin. They came from Chepstow, in Monmouthshire; a county which is now considered a part of Eng- land proper, though it lies upon the border of Wales, and formerly was reckoned to belong to that country. The Welsh language is said to prevail among the common people of that shire, but it is cer- tain that Mr. Blinman's party spoke good English, though sprinkled of course with some provincialisms. This fact affords sufficient proof, either that they were not Welshmen in the accurate sense of the term, or that they belonged to that more enlightened portion of the inhabitants who used the English language.
In point of fact, it was not the peasantry of Great Britain, nor her paupers, nor her fortune-hunters, that founded New England. It was her staunch yeomanry, her intelligent mechanics, her merchants, her farmers, her middle classes-and of devout women not a few- whose enlarged vision beheld a realm of freedom beyond the ocean, and whose independent spirits disdained the yoke of oppression, were it to be imposed either on the soul or the body. The character of our country might have been very different had her pioneer settlers, or even their patrons and directors, been the younger sons of the gentry, or disappointed placemen, importunate suitors, and their ser- vile followers. An active husbandman fearing God, or a sturdy
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
blacksmith, honest and independent, exercising at once his reason, his electoral right, and his sledge hammer, is better than a hundred pensioned lords to be the founder of a town, or the father of a race.
Mr. Blinman may have been himself a native of Gloucestershire, which joins Monmouth where he had preached. The settlement at Cape Ann was probably named Gloucester in compliment to him. When he finally left America, and returned to England, it was to Bristol (which is in the county of Gloucester) that he retired, as to an ancient home which in all his wanderings had never been for- gotten. People are often found returning to the scenes of early days to die. There is a natural attachment in man to his birth-place, which in most cases renders it pleasing to him to lie down in his grave near the place where his cradle was rocked.
That Mr. Blinman was a native of Gloucester, England, rests, however, only on supposition and probability. In the new Glouces- ter he resided about eight years. The records of the town give no particular account of his ministry, nor of the causes which led him to remove to New London. He was probably unmarried when he came to America. In the registry of births in Gloucester is the fol- lowing record.
" Children of Mr. Richard Blinman and his wife Mary : Jeremiah born 20 July, 1642.
Ezekiel 10 Nov. 1643. Azarikam " 2 Jan. 1646.""
Johnson, in his Wonder-working Providence, which was written apparently while Mr. Blinman was at Gloucester, has this account of him and the origin of the church at that place.
" There was another town and church of Christ erected in the Mattachuset Government upon the northern Cape of the Bay, called Cape Ann, a place of fishing, being peopled with fishermen, till the reverend Mr. Richard Blindman, came from a place in Plimouth Patten, called Green Harbour, with some few people of his acquaintance and settled down with them, named the town Glou- cester, and gathered into a Church, being but a small number, about 50 per- sons, they called to office this godly reverend man, whose gifts and abilities to handle the word, is not inferior to many others, laboring much against the er- rors of the times, of a sweet, humble, heavenly carriage."2
1 In this name there is a superfluous letter. Azrikam is a proper Hebrew name, found in Scripture, and signifying, " A help against the enemy."
2 Mass. Hist. Coll., 2d series, vol. 7, p. 32.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
In the verse that follows, he probably alludes to Mr. Blinman's proposed removal to Pequot.
" Blinman be blith in him, who thee hath taken To feed his flock, a few poor scattered sheep,
Why should they be of thee at all forsaken,
Thy honor's high, that any thou may'st keep."
The first notice of Mr. Blinman's arrival at New London, (then Pequot) is his appearance at a town meeting in November, 1650. Several of his ancient flock accompanied or followed him in this new emigration. Obadiah Bruen, Hugh Caulkins, William Hough and James Morgan were perhaps of this number. Robert Parke, Wil- liam Addis, and several others, who settled in the place at a later date, are conjectured to have belonged originally to the same party.
Of Mr. Blinman's ministerial labors here, no record has been pre- served ; not a single contemporaneous allusion can be found to his capacity, or to the result of his labors in that department. We have reason to infer however, that he was acceptable to the people, and that his intercourse with them was entirely harmonious. His grants of land were almost innumerable ; and his applications for grants either for himself or others, were responded to with liberality. Yet his disposition was evidently generous, not grasping. A proof of this is exhibited in his voluntary release of the town from their engage- ment to increase his salary annually :
" Feb. 25, 1653. Forasmuch as the town was ingaged to Mr. Blynman for a set stypend and soe to increase it yeerly Mr. Blynman is freely willing to free the towne henceforward from that ingadgement."
It is not known that Mr. Blinman was ever inducted into office, or that any church organization took place under his ministry. Yet he is uniformly styled " pastor of the church," which is strong evidence that a church association of some kind had been formed in the town. His reasons for leaving the church and the country are entirely un- known. Not a word of dispraise uttered against him from any indi- vidual is preserved, except the hasty insinuation of Capt. Denison heretofore mentioned, which he publicly recalled. The period when he relinquished his charge can be very nearly ascertained, for in Jan., 1657-8, he uses the customary formula, "I, Richard Blinman of Pequot," and in March of the same year, " I, R. B., at present of New Haven."
Proofs of his liberality and kindness of heart occasionally gleam
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
upon us, showing that a free and loving intercourse was kept up be- tween him and friends left behind. April 27th, 1658, he writes from New Haven : "Loving friend, Mr. Morton-I do approve of my wife's sale of that lot," &c.
April 26th,, he executes a deed of gift of two pieces of land :
" To the honored John Winthrop Esq. Governor upon Connecticut, in trust for the use of Mrs. Elizabeth Winthrop, the wife of the said John Winthrop and her heirs."
Most of his land on the General Neck, and at Upper Mamacock, he sold to James Rogers and to the bill of sale he adds : "I do hope it may be a blessing to you and yours."
He also conveyed a piece of land as a gift to Samuel Beeby, and another to Mr. William Thomson, the Indian teacher; the latter in the following terms :
" Loving friend Mr. Thomson.
" I was bold by brother Parkes formerly to tender a small gift to you, viz. a piece of land and swamp which was given me for a wood lot lying towards the west side of William Cumstock's hill, which if you please to accept as a token of my love I do freely give and confirm it to you.
" Your loving friend,
Richard Blinman.
New Haven, April 11, 1659."
Soon after this last date, Mr. Blinman came to New London to settle some remaining affairs, and to embark with his family for Eng- land, by way of Newfoundland. His house and house lot he sold to William Addis, and his farm at Harbor's Mouth to John Tinker. The witnesses to this last deed were Samuel Rogers and Ezekiel Blinman. This is the only glimpse we obtain of Mr. Blinman's sec- ond son in this country. In this deed the form used, is, "I, Richard Blinman, late pastor of the church of Christ, at New London."
A deed to Andrew Lester, and settlement of accounts with James Rogers, were dated 12th of July. He sailed shortly afterward. The Rev. John Davenport, of New Haven, in writing to Mr. Win- throp, mentions that he had received from Mr. Blinman " a large letter," dated at Newfoundland, August 22d, 1659, and adds :
" Whereby I understand that God hath brought him and his to Newfound- land, in safety and health, and maketh his ministry acceptable to all the peo- ple there, except some Quakers, and much desired and flocked unto, and he
A
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
hath made choice of a ship for Barnstaple, to his content, the master being godly."
The farms of Mr. Blinman at Pine Neck and Fort Hill were not sold when he left the country. They were afterward purchased by Christopher Christophers, and the deed of conveyance is from
" I, Richard Blinman, with Mary my wife, now dwelling in the castle, in the city of Bristol, England."
" 10 Jan. 1670-1."
Mr. Blinman's successor at Green's Harbor, Marshfield, was Mr. Edward Bulkley : at New London, Mr. Gershom Bulkley. There is this coincidence in the annals of the two places, that the first min -. isters of each were Blinman and Bulkley.
Mr. Blinman's oldest son, Jeremiah, or Jeremy, did not leave the country with his father. His name occurs occasionally for several years afterward. In 1663 he was plaintiff in an action of debt, versus John Raymond ; and about that period incurred, by judgment of the county court, the penalty of £5, which was the usual fine for a violation of the laws of purity.
CHAPTER VIII.
A CHAPTER OF NAMES-ENGLISH AND ABORIGINAL.
"THE Indian name of New London," says Trumbull, "was Na- meaug, alias Towawog." The first was undoubtedly the prevalent name: it was used, with many variations in the spelling, to designate both the site of the town and the natives found upon it. The Indian names are all descriptive, and this is supposed to mean a fishing place, being compounded of Namas,1 fish, and eag, aug, eak, termina- tions which signify land.
The other name, Tawaw-wog, is not often found on record : it occurs however, as an alias, in several deeds,2 about the date of 1654. It is probable that this also has a reference to fish ; and may be de- rived from Tataug or Tatau-og, black-fish, for which the neighboring waters are still renowned.
The minutes heretofore quoted show conclusively that it was the wish of the first settlers, the fathers of the plantation, that their adopted home should bear the name of London. This was no sug- gestion of vainglory, the result of a high-wrought expectation of ri- valing the metropolitan splendor of Great Britain ; but a very nat- ural mode of expressing their deep-rooted affection for the land of their birth. The General Court hesitated in regard to this name, and proposed Fair Harbor, as a more appropriate term. But the inhabitants declined the proposition, and resolved to adhere to the old Indian name, until they could obtain the one of their choice.
The Legislature at length yielded to their wishes, and legalized
1 Namau-us, fish, R. Williams.
2 A few examples, all from the handwriting of Mr. Bruen, will show the variations of orthography in these names: " Thomas Parke of the towne of Pequott otherwise called Nameeg or Tawaw-wag." (1653.) " Samuell Lothrop of the towne of Pequot (alias Nameeag and Tawaw-og." (1654.) " Richard Blinman, pastor of the church at Pequot, (otherwise called Nameeug and Tawaw-wog.")
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
the favorite name of the inhabitants, by an act of March 24th, 1658, expressed in the following gracious and acceptable terms :
" Whereas it hath been a commendable practice of the inhabitants of all the colonies of these parts, that as this country hath its denomination from our dear native country of England, and thence is called New England ; so the planters, in their first settling of most new plantations, have given names to those plant- ations of some cities and towns in England, thereby intending to keep up and leave to posterity the memorial of several places of note there, as Boston, Hart- ford, Windsor, York, Ipswich, Braintree, Exeter. This court considering, that there hath yet no place in any of the colonies, been named in memory of the city of London, there being a new plantation within this jurisdiction of Con- necticut, settled upon the fair river of Monhegin, in the Pequot country, it be- ing an excellent harbour and a fit and convenient place for future trade, it being also the only place which the English of these parts have possessed by con- quest, and that by a very just war, upon that great and warlike people, the Pequots, that therefore, they might thereby leave to posterity the memory of that renowned city of London, from whence we had our transportation, have thought fit, in honor to that famous city, to call the said plantation NEW LONDON."1
At what period " the fair river of Monhegin," received its present designation, the Thames, is uncertain. Neither the colonial records, nor those of the town, enable us to fix the period. The proper name given by the Indians to this river, has unfortunately been lost. The English settlers called it from the tribes on its banks, "the Mohi- ganic River," or river of Mohegan; the Pequot, or river of the Pe- quots. We have seen that the Dutch explorers conferred upon it the names of Frisius, and Little Fresh River. In singular opposition to this name, the early planters of the town called it the Great River. This term, used as a proper name, is found on a large number of grants and deeds. It was used by Winthrop and others in the be- ginning of the plantation, and for many years afterward. Jonathan Brewster, the town-clerk of 1650, called it "the Great River of Pe- quett." The reason is not obvious ; for persons acquainted with the Connecticut and the Hudson, would never have termed it Great, in the absolute sense, and there was no stream near, of larger size than brooks and rivulets, to suggest a comparison. May it not have been like others of our names, a translation of the aboriginal term ? Sava- ges are ever boastful; and to the Pequots and Mohegans, here was
1 Conn. Col. Rec., vol. 1, p. 313. The name sometimes appears in old records with- out the prefix of New. A grant of the Legislature in 1659, mentions " the plantation of London."
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
the one great river-the river of a great people-of the god Sassa- cous and his unconquerable warriors.
Allowing probability to this suggestion, we are next led to inquire, what was that native term which implied Great River. Pleasant indeed would it be to recover the aboriginal name of our beloved Thames. The western branch of the river was called by the natives Yantuck or Yantic, a word which is supposed to mean a rapid, roar- ing stream.1 This signification is peculiarly appropriate; for the river, though small, is swift and noisy, and near its mouth, being com- pressed between high cliffs, and obstructed by a rugged ledge of gran- ite, it works its way through the fissures, tumbling with noise and foam, into a smooth estuary or basin, by the side of which was a fa- mous Indian landing, or canoe-place. This fall, the distinguishing feature of the river and of its neighborhood, would be the first to at- tract the notice of the savage, the first object to be named, and its name the one to which others might be referred and compared. Thus the river took the name of the water-fall and was called the Yan- tuck ; then the larger river into which it flowed, would be the Mishi (great) or Masha-yantuck, euphonized into Mashantuck, and signify- ing the Great Yantuck. This, we venture to propose as the aborig- inal name of the Thames. But it is offered as a suggestion, not an assertion. As all Indian names are significant, and we have scarcely anything else to remind us of this vanishing race, the older children of the land we inhabit, it can not be deemed idle or impertinent to preserve what we have, and to recover all we can, of these fading memorials.
This word Mashantuck, with the syllable kuk, added, which in the Indian language designates a hill-top, or headland, might naturally be applied to the rugged, hilly country upon the river. For, among the Indians, as well as among civilized nations, it was no strange thing for the name of a river to be extended over the adjacent coun- try, or on the other hand, for the name of the country to overshadow the river. In point of fact the name Mashantakuk, with its varia- tions, Mashantucket2 and Mishantuxet, was applied by the natives to the western bank of the river, or certain portions of it. In a deed from Uncas and his sons to John Mason in 1671, Mashantakuk is used as a general name for the whole Mohegan reservation. Shan-
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