USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 14
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" Sept. 9. 1669. In answer to Mr. Broadstreet's proposition for easeing him in the chardge of his wood the Towne doe freely consent to help him therein, and some with carts and some for cutting and that next traineing daye a tyme be apoynted for accomplishment thereof and that Leiff' Avery be deputed to nominate ye daye."
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
" Nov. 29.
" Left. Avery, Mr. Rogers, James Morgan Sen. and John Morgan chosen to lay out the King's highway between Norwich and Mystick.
" Wm. Hough, John Stebbins, Clement Miner and Isaac Willey to lay out the King's highway between New London and the head of Niantick river.
" John Keeny is appointed to sell powder, shot and lead to any Indian or Indians, he having purchased his liberty therein at 33s. to be paid to the town."
" Feb. 28. 1669 [70.]
" Charles Hill chosen Recorder.
" Manasse Minor is admitted an Inhabitant in this Towne."
Manasseh Minor is supposed to have been the first born male of New London, and the first son of the town admitted to the privileges of an inhabitant.1 Others of the second generation, Clement Minor, brother of Manasseh, Daniel Comstock, Isaac Willey, Jr., Robert Douglas, Gabriel Harris, Joseph Coite, Samuel Rogers, Jonathan Royce, had arrived at maturity, and been received as men among the fathers ; but they looked to other places, and some of them across the waters for their nativity. Manasseh Minor was the child of the soil. This simple fact, more than any array of words, sets before us the lapse of time, and the age and progress of the town.
" 16 Jan., 1670-1. Mr. Edward Palmes hath liberty granted to make a seate for himself and relations at ye north end of ye pulpitt.
" Voted that there be 2 Galleryes made on each side ye meeting house, -- [the width of two seats."]
Here terminate those original memoranda which have hitherto been so faithfully followed. We shall no longer have the guidance of the moderator's little note-books. The records for the next forty years were very loosely kept, the entries being made in a hasty manner, and with little regard to the order of occurrence.
Mr. Bradstreet's ordination was delayed four years after he be- came the minister of the town. His salary was at first £90 per an- num, in current country pay, with fire wood furnished, and the par- sonage kept in repair. This was soon increased to £100, which was equal to the salary of some of the most noted ministers in New Eng- land at that period. In 1681, after his health began to fail, it was further enlarged to £120.
The church record kept by Mr. Bradstreet, commences Oct. 5,
1 Mr. Minor continued in New London ten or twelve years; he then returned to Stonington where he died March 22d, 1728-9. Most of his children were born in New London.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
1670, which, according to Trumbull, the historian of Connecticut, was the day of his ordination, but that fact is not noticed in the re- cord. It begins with the following list :
" The Members of the Church.
Lieutenant James Avery, and wife.
Thomas Miner, and wife.
James Morgan, senior, and wife.
William Meades, and wife.
Mr. William Douglas, and wife.
John Smith, and wife. Mr. Ralph Parker, and wife. William Hough, and wife.
William Nichols, Robert Royce,
John Prentice, Mrs. Rogers,
Goodwife Gallop, of Mystick, Goodwife Keeny,
Goodwife Coyte, Goodwife Lewis.
" Mr. James Rogers not long after owned a member here, being a member in full communion in Milford church."
This ordination was the first in town : no previous minister had been regularly settled. Whether the church was formed at this, or some former period, is left doubtful, as neither the church nor the town records allude to any organization. It would seem strange, if during the twenty years that had elapsed since the gathering of the congregation under Mr. Blinman's oversight, there had been no em- bodiment into church estate,-no covenant or bond of union agreed upon by the church members. Trumbull, however, supposes that the church was not formed until Mr. Bradstreet's ordination. According to the laws of the colony, no persons could embody into church estate " without the consent of the General Court, and approbation of the neighboring elders." There is no account on record of application made by the town for this privilege, either at this or any preceding period.
Before closing the chapter, the new names that appear between 1661 and 1671, must be collected. Several of those contained in the following list have been already mentioned incidentally.
In 1661, Robert Lattemore (Latimer) is first mentioned. He was a mariner. William Cotter had a house-lot grant of six acres ; his wife was Elinor, but no other family has been traced. In October, " Goodman Hansell, the smith," was received as an inhabitant. This was the person elsewhere called George Halsall, the blacksmith. In Jan. 1661-2, John Borden was admitted to the privileges of an in- habitant. He had recently married the daughter of William Hough,
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
and was probably a son of the John Borden of 1650. After a few years he removed to Lyme. At the same time permission was given to " John Ells, the glover," to live in the town. Ells is probably a mistake for Ellis. --
In 1662, we first meet with the names of Abraham Dea, William Peake or Pike, Edmund Fanning, (east side of the river,) Josiah Read, Thomas Stafford, John Terrall.
In 1663, John Daniel, Samuel Chester, and. William Condy appear. The two last were from Boston, and engaged in the West India trade, as commanders, owners and factors. They had a warehouse and landing place on Close Cove. Condy, after a few years, returned to Boston. Early in 1664, court orders were published prohibiting the use of "cardes and shufflebords," and warning the inhabitants " not to entertane strange young men." Transient residents, who were not grantees and householders, were the persons affected by this order, and it aroused them to the necessity of applying for per- mission to remain. The roll of applicants consisted of Abraham Daynes, William Chapell, William Collins, George Codner, William Cooley, John Elce, ( Ellis,) Charles Haynes, Thomas Marshall, Wil- liam Measure, John Sullaven, William Terrall, Samuel Tubbs. Most of these were allowed to remain, and a general permit was added:
" All other sojourners not mentioned, carrying themselves well, are allowed to live in the towne, else lyable upon warning to begone."
The same year we find notices of Richard Dart, who bought (Sept. 12th, 1664) the house and lot of William Welman,1 Benjamin Grant, afterward of Lyme, Oliver Manwaring, son-in-law of Joshua Raymond, Thomas Martin, Samuel Starr, son-in-law of Jonathan Brewster, William Williams, a grantee on the east side of the river, and Captain John and Wait Winthrop, the sons of the governor.
In 1665, Charles Hill and Christopher Christophers appear on the roll of inhabitants. They were traders in partnership, and made their first purchases on Mill Cove, of warehouses and wharfage, where Richard Hartley and John Tinker had previously traded. The firm of Hill and Christophers was probably the first regular co- partnership in the town. Mr. Christophers was a mariner, and en- gaged in trade with Barbadoes : he had an older brother, Jeffrey Christophers, also a mariner, who probably settled in the place at the
1 Welman removed to Killingworth, where he died in 1670.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
same time, though his name does not occur so early. They both brought families with them.
In 1666, persons who are mentioned as inhabitants, but without any reference to date of arrival or settlement, are Benjamin Atwell, Thomas Forster, commanding a vessel in the Barbadoes trade, George Sharswood, Thomas Robinson, Peter Spicer, (living east of the river,) and Gabriel Woodmancy.
In 1667, appear John Baldwin, Peter Treby, Joseph Truman, and John Wheeler. About 1668, Philip Bill came from Ipswich, and set- tled east of the river, near Robert Allyn and George Geer. Thomas Bolles, supposed to have come from Wells, in Maine, settled in the town plot. In 1670, or near that time, we first meet with Thomas Dymond and Benjamin Shapley, both mariners, the former from Fairfield, and the latter from Charlestown, in the neighborhood of Boston.
To these we may add John Gard, George Garmand, Joseph Elliot, Henry Philips, and Nicholas Towson, names that are on the rate list of 1667, but are not mentioned elsewhere upon the records.
CHAPTER XI.
Bankruptcy of William Addis .- Some account of Thomas Reavell .-- Broils and lawsuits .-- Tinker versus Morton, Haughton and Thomson .-- The constable's protest .-- Thomson's deposition .-- Lieut. Smith absconds and settles in Vir- ginia .-- Names and estates from rate lists .-- Epitaph on Richard Lord .-- Brief notices of removed persons, Lake, Bruen, Blatchford, Lane, Allyn, Caulkins, Gager, Lothrop.
THE history of this decade of years (from 1660 to 1670) will not be complete without taking up some points to which no reference is made in the moderator's minutes, hitherto followed.
Governor Winthrop issued an order, April 25th, 1661, for a court of investigation to sit at New London, and examine the affairs of Wil- liam Addis, on complaint of Mr. Thomas Reavell, the principal cred- itor of Mr. Addis. The court sat in May, and consisted of Deputy Governor Mason and the assistant and commissioners of New Lon- don, viz., Mr. Tinker, Mr. Bruen, and Mr. Rogers. It appeared that Mr. Addis had been intrusted by Mr. Reavell and his friends in London, with a cargo of merchandise and several sums of money amounting to £760 sterling, to trade with and improve for the said Reavell and his friends, in New England. He had made no re- turns : he acknowledged the trust, but said the capital had nearly all disappeared ; he could not tell how, except that he had lost £300 by fire, and somewhat by a defect in meat, which he had sent to Barba- does, consigned to Mr. Reavell. No dishonesty was proved against him ; he freely resigned all that he had remaining; expressed great sorrow for the result and threw himself on the charity of Mr. Rea- vell to be allowed to remain in his house and pursue his calling for a subsistence and livelihood in his old age.
William Addis had been an early resident at Gloucester, Mass., where he was one of the townsmen in 1642, but he is not mentioned on the records of that place after 1649, and there is no evidence that
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
he was ever a land owner there.1 The years that intervened between his disappearance from Gloucester, and his first grant in New Lon- don, (Dec. 19th, 1658,) may have been spent in England, where he obtained the credit and embarked in the enterprise which in the end proved ruinous to him.2
We are unable to say who Mr. Reavell was. In 1658, he was said to be "merchant of London;" in 1660, of Barbadoes ; and a letter of attorney to Nathaniel Sylvester, of Shelter Island, in 1662,3 styles him vaguely "Thomas Revell, of New England." The governor's commission mentions no residence. By means of the house and land conveyed to him, he was for a number of years, a proprietor in New London, and his name appears on the rate lists.
There can be little doubt but that he was one of the supporters of the Commonwealth, who was proscribed at the restoration, and obliged to remain in some degree of concealment and obscurity. Perhaps he may be identified as the same Thomas Revel that lived for many years the life of a hermit in the woods of Quincy.4 His decease must have been anterior to 1667, as Charles Hill that year brought an action of debt against his estate for freight of horses, at some for- mer period, to Barbadoes. Recovered £155 and costs.
In 1672, Alexander Bryan, of Milford, brought a similar action against the estate, and recovered £95. To satisfy, in part, these creditors, Mr. Reavell's house and land were taken. It was the same tenement that Mr. Blinman conveyed to William Addis, on his departure for England, and stood at the west end of the old bridge over Bream Cove.
The years 1661 and 1662 were noted for strife and turbulence among the inhabitants. Cases of calumny and riot were common.
1 J. G. Babson, Esq., of Gloucester, (MS.)
2 His daughter, Millicent, the only child of whom we have obtained information, married, first, William Southmead, and by him had two sons, William and John South- mead. Her second husband was William Ash, of Gloucester, and her third, Thomas Beebee, of New London.
3 This letter was for the recovery of certain goods belonging to Mr. Reavell, in the hands of Richard Hartley, deceased.
4 " When he died the Governor of the Province and other distinguished men came out of Boston and were his pall-bearers. From which circumstance his true charac- ter was brought to light." See note in Whitney's Hist. of Quincy. He is there called " a regicide of the reign of Charles I." This must be a mistake, as no one of that name was member of the parliament that pronounced sentence on Charles I.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
The disorderly elements of society were in motion, and the influence of the wise and good was scarcely sufficient to keep them in subjec- tion. No clear account of any one case can be given, as they ap- pear before us only in the form of depositions, protests, suits at law, fines and complaints. Several of the inhabitants accused Mr. Tinker, the assistant and first magistrate in town, of speaking treasonable words, and of using dishonorable means to obtain testimony against his adversaries ; and Mr. Tinker brought suits for defamation against Messrs. Haughton, Morton and Thomson, the Indian missionary. The trials were in the Particular Court, and the issue may be gath- ered from a passage in the records of the General Court.
" This Court upon consideration of Mr. Tinker's encouragement in his place and employment, do order £12 to be paid to him by the treasurer out of the fines imposed on Morton, Haughton, and Mr. Thomson."1
Mr. Tinker was popular both with the town authorities and the General Court, and had been chosen townsman, list and rate-maker, deputy and assistant. He had established a distillery in the town, and was not only licensed by the court to distill and retail liquors, but empowered to suppress all others who sold by retail in the township. It was with little chance of success that accusations against a char- acter so highly respected were carried before the magistrates at Hartford. That venerable body doubtless regarded with apprehen- sive forebodings the new and boisterous community that was growing up under their shadow. We can at least imagine them to have had some misgivings when William Morton, the constable, led off with the following pompous protest :
" To all whome it may concerne.
" You may please to take notice that I William Morton of New London be- ing chosen by the Towne of New London to be a Constable and by oath being bound to execute that place faithfully as also being a free Denison of that most famos country of England and have taken an oath of that Land to be true to his Royall Maiesty o' now Gracious King Charles the Seacond of Glorious re- nowne, I count that I cannot be faitlifull unto my oath nor to his maiestie, nei- ther should I be faitlifull to the Country wch lyes under reproaches for such maner of speeches and cariages already wherefore having evidences that M" John Tinker, who is lookt at as one that should exsicute Justice and sworne by oath soe to doe, espetially to studdie the honor of o" Royall King and of his Life and happie being, yet notwithstanding the saide Tinker allthough it was notoriously knowne unto him that some had spoaken Treason against the king 1
1 Conn. Col. Rec., vol. 1, p. 382.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
in a high degree to the greate dishonor of his Royall maiestie and farther some pressed him againe and againe to doe Justice for the king yet although they declared what and what was to be testified by one there preasent, he flung away the testimony, wherefore in the name of his maiesty whose deputy I am I doe protest against the said Tinker, that he has consealed treason against the king contrary to the Lawes of England, so as I conceive has brought himselfe under treason, And as I doe protest against him I desire all that reade this or heare of it to be my witnesses-published by me. 20. March : 1662.
" In New London in New England.
" WILLIAM MORTON, " Constable."
A writ of attachment was issued by the Court, at their May ses- sion, against William Morton and Richard Haughton, bringing them under a bond of £500 to appear and answer to the suit of Mr. John Tinker, before his majesty's court of justice in Hartford, the next .September. In October of the same year, before any accommoda- tion or decision had taken place, Mr. Tinker died suddenly in Hart- ford, and was honored with a funeral at the public expense. Though the principal party was thus removed from all participation in the suit, it was prolonged for several years. It was finally referred to a committee of the Legislature in May, 1666.1 A curious reference to what took place in the trial of the case in Sept., 1662, is found in a deposition of Mr. Thomson, recorded in New London.
" I William Thomson, Clarke, being present when Mr. Morton had a tryall in Hartford in New England in the year of our Lord God 1662 about treason spoken against his sacred Majestie when Mr. Mathew Allin being the modera- tor in the Governor's absence did deny to try the said cause by the laws of Old England when it was required by the said Morton that he would doe justice for the king, he answered tauntingly to the said Morton-he should have justice, if it were to hang half a dusen of you .- Further saith not.
74 1 : Thompson
" Jurator coram me, George Jordan, Aprill 26, 1664.
'' Test Georgius Wilkins, Clericus County Surry, Virginia."
Lieutenant Samuel Smith, from his first settlement in the town was much trusted in public affairs, nor is it manifest that in any in- stance he performed the duties of office otherwise than with discre-
1 Conn. Colonial Records, vol. 2, p. 27.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
tion and honor. The last time that his name appears on the town record as an inhabitant, was Jan. 15th, 1663-4, when he was appointed one of a committee to treat with Mr. Bulkley concerning his ordina- tion. On the 28th of March, 1664, his wife Rebecca Smith, in his behalf, conveys his farm, at Upper Alewife Cove, to Robert Love- land in payment of debts due to him. From other sources we learn that the lieutenant had left wife, home and friends, and gone to Vir- ginia without any intention of returning. No reason is assigned for the act: though somewhat involved in debt, he had sufficient estate to satisfy his creditors. Copies of the letters written to him by the Rev. Mr. Bulkley, with other papers relating to this singular affair, have been preserved.1 Mr. Bulkley exhorted him in moving terms to return to the path of duty, setting before him his former station and influence in society, and his religious profession, depicting also the grief of his wife and aged mother. The lieutenant's own let- ters are dated at Roanoke :2 he addresses his wife in terms plausible and affectionate ;3 sends love to father, mother, brothers and sisters, and is solicitous to be remembered in the prayers of his friends. All this had no meaning : it was soon apparent that the lieutenant had absconded and that his wife was deserted. In August, 1665, some gentlemen of Hartford wrote to him, making one more attempt to re- claim the wanderer, but it is not known that he took any notice of it.
Lieut. Smith is supposed to have been the son of that Lieut. Sam- uel Smith, Sen., of Wethersfield, who removed about the year 1660, to Hadley.4 His wife was a daughter of Rev. Henry Smith, of Weth- ersfield. After her desertion, she returned to her former home, and having obtained a divorce from her delinquent husband, was in 1669 the wife of Nathaniel Bowman of Wethersfield. Lieut. Smith had no children by this wife, but it is supposed that he married at the south and left descendants there.
Rate lists for the ministry tax are extant for the years 1664, 1666 and 1667. After this period no rate list can be found till 1708. In the
1 Among the State Records at Hartford; in a volume of arranged documents, la- beled Divorces.
2 His residence is sometimes said to be in Virginia, and again in Carolina. He says in one of his letters, "I live at the house of one Samuel Stevens, in the province of Carolina."
3 Calls her " sweetheart," and subscribes himself " your loving husband till death." 4 Judd, of Northampton, (MS.)
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
list of 1664, the number of names is one hundred and five. This in- cludes non-residents who owned property in the town. In this list, the amount of each man's taxable property is given and the rate lev- ied upon it is carried out. The assessment of James Rogers is nearly double that of any other inhabitant. He is estimated at £548, and his rate £7 19s. 10d. "John Winthrop Squire," who heads the list, is set down at £185, and his rate £2 14s. He was at this time a non-resident. Mr. Palmes, £224. John Picket, who is next high- est to James Rogers, £299 10s. James Morgan, £252. Robert Bur- rows, £246. James Avery, £236. Cary Latham, £217. George Tongue, £182. John Prentis, £176. Andrew Lester, Sen., £170. Edward Stallion, £169. Robert Royce, £163. These are all the es- tates over £150. Between £75 and £150 are thirty-two. It must be remembered that land at this period was of little value, and estimated low. In the list of 1666, the number of names is 116, and in that of the next year 127. Of the whole number, four are referred to as deceased, viz., Sergt. Richard Hartley, Thomas Hungerford, William Morton, and Mr. Robert Parke. About seventeen may be marked as non-residents, consisting principally of persons who had removed, or merchants of other places who had an interest in the trade of the port. Mr. Blinman, the ex-minister, Mr. Thomson, the former In- dian missionary, and Mr. Newman, minister of Wenham, are on the list. Mr. James Richards, of Hartford, is among the number : he was probably a land-owner by inheritance from Wm. Gibbons, who was his father-in-law, and had bought land at Pequonnuck. Mr. Fitch, (probably Samuel, of Hartford,) Samuel Hackburne, from Roxbury, and Robert Lay, (of Lyme) are enrolled ; as also Lord, Savage, Stillinger, Revell, Richardson, who have been heretofore noticed.
Richard Lord. Both father and son of this name, merchants of Hartford, had commercial dealings in New London. The senior Mr. Lord, died in the place and was interred in the old burial ground. A table of red sandstone covers his grave. It is now sunk a little below the surface of the turf, and has a gaping fracture through it, but the inscription is legible. It is probably the oldest inscribed tombstone east of Connecticut River. A copy will be given as near to a fac-simile as can be executed in type.
AN EPITAPH ON CAPTAINE RICHARD LORD DECEASED. MAY 17 1662 ATATIS SVÆE 51 .
THE BRIGHT STARRE OF OVR CAVALLRIE LYES HERE VNTO THE STATE A COVNSELOVR FVLL DEARe
n
AND TO y TRUTH A FRIEND OF SWEETE CONTEAT.
TO HARTFORD TOWNE A SILVER ORNAMENT.
WHO CAN DENY TO POORe he WAS RELEIFE
AND IN COMPOSING PAROXYSMES WAS CHEIFE.
TO MARCHANTES AS A PATTERNE HE MIGHT STAND ADVENTRING DANGERS NEW BY SEA AND LAND.
HISTORY
OF NEW LONDON.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Richard Lord was captain of a troop of horsemen established in Connecticut in 1658-the first cavalry of the colony. This explains " the bright star of our cavalry," in the first line. The expression " composing paroxysms," is obscure, but it may allude to a happy fac- ulty of reconciling parties at variance. Mr. Lord's name is found on several arbitrations for accommodating difficulties.
The removals before 1670 of persons who had lived from five to eighteen years in the plantation amounted to a dozen or more. Mr. Winthrop, as already mentioned, went to Hartford ; Mrs. Lake to Ipswich ; Obadiah Bruen and Hugh Roberts to Newark ; Peter Blatchford to Haddam ; Daniel Lane to Setauket, Long Island ; and the settlement of Norwich took away Robert Allyn, Hugh Caulkins, with his son John, and son-in-law Jonathan Royce, John Elderkin, Samuel Lothrop, and John Gager.
Who was Mrs. Margaret Lake? No satisfactory answer can be given to this question. Her birth, parentage, husband, and the pe- riod of her coming to this country are alike unknown. The sugges- tion has been made in a former chapter, that she was sister to Mr. Winthrop's wife. That she was in some way intimately connected with the Winthrop family of New London, is placed beyond doubt by documents in which she is represented as sister to the parents, and near of kin to the children. Fitz John and Wait Winthrop in a deed of 1681 to Mrs. Hannah Gallop, the daughter of Mrs. Lake, say of her-" the said Hannah being a person related to and beloved of both our honored father and ourselves."
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