USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 23
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For payment, the builder was to receive one-eighth of the vessel and £165, of which £16 was to be in silver money, and the rest in merchantable goods. The spikes, nails, bolts and iron work were at the charge of the owners.
John Leeds was another ship-wright contemporary with those already mentioned. He constructed a small brigantine, of eighteen or
1 He left a son bearing his own name, Hugh, and six daughters. Martha, one of the daughters, married the second Clement Miner, of New London; but the remainder of the family removed from the town, and most or all of them were afterward of Mid- dletown.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
twenty tuns, called the Tryall, and sold in 1683, by John Plumbe, for £80 in pieces of eight, paid down, and the Swallow, a sloop con- tracted for by Peter Bradley, 2d, in 1687, but not finished until after Bradley's deatlı.
Almost every merchant that sent out vessels at this period made an occasional voyage himself, either as master or supercargo. Ralph Parker, Samuel Chester, Richard and John Christophers, John and Jonathan Prentis, John and Adam Picket, and the two Hallams, were at the same time merchants and practical seamen. In 1686, the Prosperous, a brigantine, thirty tuns burden, was owned by the Prentis brothers, and the Hopewell, a ketch, by the Pickets.
After 1680, John Wheeler took a prominent position in the mari- time business of the town. A vessel was built for him in 1689 and 1690, for the European trade, and sent out under the command of Capt. Samuel Chester. The owner died before the first voyage was completed, and the vessel was assigned to his creditors, merchants in London.
Two brigantines, styled also ships, the Adventure' and the Society, of sixty-five and sixty-eight tuns burden, both built in Great Britain, were owned in 1698, by Picket and Christophers. The value of such a vessel when new, was about £500.
In 1699, a new building yard was given by the town to John Coit, son of Joseph. This was on the bank, by the side of the Point of Rocks, where vessels of the largest draught might be built. This point was a bold, projecting ledge opposite the Picket lot, and was used for a landing place. Iron rings were linked into the rock, for the convenience of fastening vessels.2 The ferry-boat often touched here to land passengers for the lower end of the town, and in 1729, when Mr. Coit built a wharf by the Point of Rocks, the ferry right was reserved.
From the " Boston News Letter," which began to be issued in April, 1704, and was the first newspaper published in North Ameri- ca, a few notices may be gathered relating to New London.
1 Some of the communion plate of the First Cong. Church bears the inscription, " Presented by the owners of the ship Adventure, in 1699."
2 The day New London was burnt, Sept. 6th, 1781, the Lady Spencer, a successful privateer, lay fastened to this rock. All the projecting points have since been leveled and the site is now covered by the wharves and buildings of the Brown brothers. The mansion of the family standing near, was constructed from the stone blasted from the ancient Point of Rocks.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
" New London, May 11, 1704. Capt. Edward Parry, in the Adventure, is beginning to load for London, and will sail in about 3 weeks."
" May 18. Capt. Parry, in the brigantine Adventure, being dead, the own- ers design Samuel Chester, master, who is to go with the Virginia fleet. Mr. Shapley is preparing to go to Barbadoes."
" June 1. Capt. Chester, from New London, and Capt. Davison, from New York, will sail in 10 days for London, with the Virginia Convoy."
These notes show that it was an enterprise of considerable magni- tude, and of slow accomplishment, to fit out a vessel for Europe. By further search we find that Capt. Chester sailed on the 12th of June, a month after the vessel began to take in her cargo, and probably missed the convoy, as he was taken by the French. Capt. Davison arrived safe in London.
" New London, Aug. 3, 1704.
" Yesterday, his Honor our Governor, went in his pinnace to Hartford. We are much alarmed by reason of a very great ship and two sloops said to be seen at Block Island, and supposed to be French."
In October, 1707, John Shackmaple, an Englishman, was commis- sioned by Robert Quarry, surveyor general, to be collector, surveyor, and searcher for Connecticut. He was confirmed in office by a new commission, issued May 3d, 1718, by the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations. His district included Connecticut, Fisher's Island, Gardiner's Island, and the east end of Long Island. The office of surveyor and searcher was afterward separated from that of collector, and the appointment given to John Shackmaple, Jun., in 1728, by James Stevens, surveyor general. Mr. Shackmaple, the elder, is supposed to have died about 1730. His son succeeded him in the collectorship, and the office of surveyor was given to Richard Durfey, of Newport., The residence of these English families in the town was not without influence on the manners of the inhabitants, and their style of living. Major Peter Buor, from the island of St. Christophers, was at the same time a resident, having purchased the Bentworth farm at Nahantick, of the heirs of Edward Palmes, in 1723.1 These foreign residents, gradually gathered around them a circle of society more gay, more in the English style, than had before been known in the place, and led to the formation and establishment of an Episcopal church.
1 Before Major Buor's decease, this farm passed into the hands of his creditors, and was purchased by Capt. Durfey, in 1740, which brought it back to the Palmes family, into which Durfey had married.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
There was yet another officer connected with the customs, who was styled the naval officer of the district. Christopher Christo- phers held this office from the year 1715 to his death in 1728.
The following brief notices, collected from a private diary, and arranged as a marine list, will show that a large proportion of the coasting trade centered in Boston, fourteen sloops arriving from thence in six weeks. The year is 1711.
" Sept. 8. Braddick arrived from Albany. Skolinks sailed for Long Island.
" 12. Manwaring arrived. A sloop was launched by Mr. Coit.
" Oct. 13. Wilson and Lothrop arrived from Boston, and 2 sloops more ; also a brig from R. I. for Barbadoes, was forced in by the storm, ran on the rocks and was damaged. Capt. Tilleness, (Tillinghast.)
" 14. R. Christophers arrived from Barbadoes.
" 20. The R. I. brig sailed, and a sloop.
" 22. Harris sailed for Norwich.
" 26. Tudor and Ray arrived from Boston. Saw a sloop at anchor near Watch Point ; thought her a French privateer, but she proved to be Plaisted, of Boston, from the Wine Islands.
" 28. Ray sailed for Boston.
" Nov. 9. Hamlin arrived from Boston ; also Elton.
" 28. Two sloops arrived from Boston.
"30. Four sloops in from Boston."
In 1712, what was called the Connecticut Fleet sailed for Boston, 8th of May, under convoy of an armned vessel which had been sent round for its guard, on account of the rumors of French privateers on the coast. A French brig, with 150 men, was soon afterward re- ported as hovering along the coast, near the entrance to the Sound. It was apprehended that she might turn suddenly into the harbor and fire upon the town. On the 25th of the month, a watch was set at Harbor's Mouth to give notice if an enemy approached.
The passage from Barbadoes usually varied from eighteen to thirty days. Thomas Prentis and Richard Christophers were veterans in this trade. One of the vessels of Capt. Christophers bore the happy names of two of his daughters, " The Grace and Ruth." Madeira, Saltertudas, the Bermudas and Turks Islands, were also visited by our traders. John Mayhew, for more than forty years, sailed from this port. John Hutton, John Picket, third of that name, Peter Manwaring and James Rogers, were well known commanders. The boys of the town were early familiarized with marine terms and hand- icraft. Most of the young men, earlier or later, made a few voyages to sea, and many a promising son of a good family was cut off un- timely by storm, or wreck, or West India fever.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
The vessels built at New London had hitherto been principally sloops ; now and then a brigantine, a snow, and perhaps a brig had been launched. In April, 1714, Capt. Hutton, who had a building- yard in the lower part of the town, launched a snow, and in January, 1716, a ship.
In 1715, Samuel Edgecombe built a brig. In 1719, one was built at Coite's ship-yard for Capt. Joseph Gardiner. Sloops had been built not only at New London, but at Pequonuck and at James Rogers' Cove, (Poquayogh.)
In March, 1717, a piratical vessel came into the Sound, and several coasters were overhauled and robbed.
On the 7th of June, 1717, Prentis, Christophers and Picket, in their several vessels arrived from Barbadoes. It was noticed that they had left the harbor together, arrived out the same day, sailed again on their return voyage the same day, and made Montauk Point together.
On the 12th of July, 1723, a Rhode Island sloop, in which Capt. Peter Manwaring and John Christophers, of New London, were passengers, homeward bound, was wrecked on the south side of Mon- tauk, and all on board perished. The surge, heaving the dead bodies and pieces of the wreck on shore, gave the only notice of the event. Manwaring was a seaman of more than twenty years' service. His vessel had been seized and condemned at Martinico, and he was re- turning home in this sloop.
In May, 1723, a brigantine from New London, called the Isle of Wight, Richard Christophers master, was lost near Sandy Hook, on her homeward passage from Barbadoes. She was owned by Benja- min Starr, John Gardiner, Jr., and others.
A prominent article of export to the West Indies was horses. On the 26th of June, 1724, six vessels left the harbor together, all freighted with horses for the West Indies. The craft that carried these animals, from the first commencement of the trade, have been known familiarly as Horse-jockeys. August 16th, 1716, Capt. Hut- ton sailed for Barbadoes, with forty-five horses on board. This was an unusually large number ; probably he was in the ship that was constructed under his own direction.
About the year 1720, Capt. John Jeffrey, who had been a master ship-builder in Portsmouth, England, emigrated to America, with his family. He came first to New London, but regarding the opposite side of the river as offering peculiar facilities for ship-building, he
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
fixed his residence on Groton Bank. In 1723, he contracted to build for Capt. James Sterling, the largest ship that had been constructed this side the Atlantic ; and that a favorable position for his work might be obtained, the following petition was presented :
" Petition of James Stirling and John Jeffrey to the town of Groton :
" That whereas by the encouragement we have met and the situation of the place, we are desirous to promote the building of ships on the east side of the river, we request of the town that they will grant us the liberty of a building- yard at the ferry, viz., all the land betwixt the ferry wharf and land granted to Deacon John Seabury, of said Groton, on the south of his land, for twelve years. " Granted Feb. 12, 1723-4. Provided that they build the Great Ship that is now designed to be built by said petitioners in said building-yard."
Jeffrey's great ship was launched Oct. 12th, 1725. Its burden was 700 tuns. A throng of people (says a contemporary diarist) lined both sides of the river, to see it propelled into the water. It went off easy, graceful and erect. Capt. Jeffrey built a number of small vessels, and one other large ship, burden 570 tuns. It was named the Don Carlos, and sailed for Lisbon under the command of Capt. Hope, Nov. 29th, 1733. The capacity of Jeffrey's vessels is reported so large, that the inquiry is suggested whether the tunnage was estimated as at the present time. Nothing appears, however, to countenance a doubt on that point. New London had the reputation, at that period, of building large ships. Douglas, in his History of the British Settlements-a work written before 1750-has the fol- lowing passage :
" In Connecticut are eight convenient shipping ports for small craft, but all masters enter and clear at the port of New London, a good harbor five miles within land [probably an error in printing. for three miles,] and deep water ; here they build large ships, but their timber is spungy and not durable."
The first reference to a schooner,' that has been noticed, is in 1730. Two at that time sailed from the port, one belonging to New London and the other to Norwich. In the latter, Nathaniel Shaw, in 1732, went master in a voyage to Ireland. He arrived in port Nov. 7th, having lost on his passage out, five out of fifteen men by the small-pox.
In 1730, an association was formed, called " The New London So-
1 This denomination of vessel is supposed to be of recent origin. See Mass. Hist. Coll., 1st series, vol. 9, p. 234.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
ciety of Trade and Commerce," which being legalized and patroni zed by the colonial government, went into immediate operation. Loans upon mortgage were obtained from the public treasury, and the capital employed in trade. It had about eighty members, scat- tered over the whole colony. John Curtiss, of Wethersfield, being chosen treasurer, removed to New London. The society built or purchased several vessels, and embarked in new channels of enter- prise. For a couple of years it promised well, giving a great impe- tus to business. Public opinion was however behind it; and its misfortunes increased its unpopularity. A schooner sent out by the society for whales, returned unsuccessful, Nov. 13th, 1733. The same schooner was then put into the southern coasting trade. Returning from North Carolina with pitch and tar, she disposed of her cargo in Rhode Island, and coming from thence through Fisher's Island Sound, Jan. 19th, 1734-5, encountered a violent storm of wind, snow and rain, in the midst of which she struck a rock near Mason's Isl- and, and almost instantly filled and sunk. Three out of the five per- sons on board perished, viz., Elisha Turner the master, Job Taber passenger, and John Gove. This sad calamity, so near home, and after a prosperous voyage, filled the town with solemnity. Mr. Ad- ams preached an admonitory sermon on the occasion, and the body of young Taber, being carried to the Baptist meeting-house, on Fort Hill, after a similar address from the pastor there, was interred with every demonstration of sympathy and respect.
To facilitate its operations, the New London society emitted bills of credit or society notes, to run twelve years from the day of date, Oct. 25th, 1732, to Oct 25th, 1744. These bills were hailed by the bus- iness part of the community with delight. They went into immediate circulation. But the government was alarmed ; wise men declared the whole fabric to be made of paper; and having no solid support, it must soon be destroyed. Very soon the whole colony was in com- motion. The governor and council issued an order denouncing " the new money," and an extra session of the assembly was convened to consider the bold position of the society. This was in Feb., 1733. The legislature dissolved the association, and the mortgages were as- sumed by the governor and company, and the bills allowed to run, till they could be called in, and the affairs of the society settled.
But the association was not so easily put down, although according to their own statement, " a great part of their stock had been con- sumed by losses at sea, and disappointments at home," and they were
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
now assailed by legislative hostility and public odium, the managers determined to hold on, and threatened an appeal to England.
Nov. 21st, 1733, they had a meeting and Wm. Goddard, from Ma- deira, having made them a present of a quarter-cask of wine, they knocked out the head, and invited those who had been their enemies to drink ; and they themselves drank to the health of the king, queen and Mr. Goddard, and to the prosperity of the society. The great guns were fired, and the sky rung with huzzas.1 This mode of scat- tering present trouble was somewhat characteristic of the town. When soberer thoughts came, they retraced their steps, and by their own consent ceased to exist. At a meeting held June 5th, 1735, they unanimously dissolved themselves. The distress to which the society had given birth could not be disposed of so easily. The members were impoverished, and hampered with obligations which they could not discharge. The evils produced by the association could only be effaced by time.
" Sept. 1738 .- A Sloop from N L. is lost at Nevis, being upset in a hurri- cane; all on board perished. John Walsworth of Groton owned both sloop and cargo. John Mumford was her captain and Thomas Comstock mate."2
" 26 Oct .- John Ledyard of Groton sailed for England in a new Snow built by Capt. Jeffrey." [This was the father of Ledyard the traveler. ]
" 16 Jan., 1741-2-James Rogers sailed for Bristol in the new ship."
" May 12, 42 .- A large snow in the harbor; said to be a Moravian : many passengers of both sexes."
" 17 Jan .- 1748-A large ship of 200 or 300 tons came in : a prize taken from the French by a N York privateer."
" May 2, 1750-This day 3 brigs from the West Indies arrived together in the harbor. Their commanders were Nath! Coit, Jeremiah Miller, and Capt. Grose." »
" Dec. 7, 1750 .- In the morning more than 20 sail of vessels lay in the har- bor, mostly bound to the West Indies. Several sailed during the day."
In the year 1751, a brig belonging to Col. Saltonstall, was upset, in a hurricane, on her outward passage. Gurdon Miller, John Hal- lam and four others were lost. Capt. Leeds and one man were saved.
" Foreign vessels entered and cleared in the Port of New London from 25th
1 New England Weekly Journal.
2 Some of these items are from the diary of Joshua Hempstead, Esq .; others from newspapers.
HISTORY OF NE W LONDON. 245
of March 1748 to the 25th of March 1749, scarce any registered more than 80 tons and generally are West India traders.
Entered inwards
Cleared outwards
Brigantines 3
Brigantines 20
Schooners 4
Schooners 5
Sloops 30
Sloops 37
-
37
62" 1
A fair proportion of this fleet was owned in Norwich, which had become a flourishing town, of six parishes, fast increasing in trade and agriculture, and paid at that time the highest tax of any town- ship in the colony.
1 Douglas, vol. 2, p. 162. Afterward he says, (p. 180:)
" Connecticut uses scarce any foreign trade; lately they send some small craft to the W. Indies; they vent their produce in the neighboring colonies, viz., wheat, Indian corn, beaver, pork, butter, horses and flax."
This author certainly underrated the exports of the colony. In the article of horses, especially, more were brought from other colonies here to be shipped for a southern market, than were sent from hence to our neighbors.
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CHAPTER XVII.
GLEANINGS FROM THE COURT RECORDS.
IT was remarked by the inhabitants of other towns that something bold, uncommon and startling was always going on at New London. This was the effect of its commerce, its enterprise, its trains of com- ers and goers, its compact, busy streets. It was easy to raise a mob here; easy to get up a feast, a frolick, or a fracas. The activity of men's minds outstripped their learning and their reflection ; and this led them into vagaries. Men who had long been rovers, and unac- customed to restraint, gathered here, and sought their own interest and pleasure, with too little regard to the laws. The Puritan magistrates of the town were obliged to maintain a continual conflict with the corrupting influences from without. A changeful, seafaring popu- lace can not be expected to have the stability and serenity of a quiet inland town. Education in the second generation was necessarily much neglected, and on this account many of the sons stood lower in the scale than their fathers. An examination of the court records, fixes upon the mind an impression that this second stage of the set- tlement was one marked with more coarseness, ignorance and vice, than the one before or after it. We may hazard the remark that re- ligion, law, and the principles of virtue, had less sway for the thirty years preceding 1700, than at an earlier period, or for the next thirty years after 1700. This opinion is given with some hesitation, for offenses change character with the progress of time, and it is easy to mistake the decrease of this or that species of vice, for a radical im- provement in morality. The depravity may be as great, yet exist in some new shape ; or the particular offense may be as frequent, only kept more out of sight.
With respect to the era of which we are speaking, it may be ob- served that the rigor of the law was so great, that all the impurities
-
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
of the community were made manifest by it. We see what iniquity there was, in its whole length and breadth.
Drunkenness was perhaps more prevalent here than in other towns of the colony, simply on account of the importation of liquors into the port. Selling liquor to the Indians was another offense growing out of position. This, though illegal, was not then regarded as dis- graceful ; some good men, and even women, were fined for doing it. Another class of offenses heavily amerced, were those which viola- ted religious order ; such as swearing, blasphemy, labor, traveling and sailing on the Sabbath, and non-attendance at the customary place of worship. In these particulars, the laws themselves were stringent ; they were also rigidly enforced and strictly interpreted. Swearing included expressions which might now be regarded as mere vulgarity ; blasphemy and profanity took a wide range, and covered denunciations of the system of worship as established in the colony, or of its officiating organs, whether ministers or magistrates.
Cases of defamation, quarrels and sudden assaults were numerous. Violations of modesty and purity before marriage, were but too fre- quent, and this in the face of a stern magistracy and strict Puritan usage. Robbery and theft, with the single exception of horse-steal- ing, were very uncommon.
It is gratifying to know, that many of the offenses committed were by persons who afterward reformed. Men who came into the com- munity with free principles and irregular habits, were soon broken in by the restraints of society, and became, in the end, firm supporters of law and religion. The sons of the fathers also, after having dashed about awhile in defiance of the pulpit and the bench, settled down into industrious and peaceable citizens.
In 1663, the commissioners' court was ordered to be held in New London quarterly : Obadiah Bruen and James Avery, commission- ers. Charges in trial of actions were-entrance of the action, 1s. 6d .; trial, 2s. 6d .; warrant, 6d .; attachment, 1s .; witnesses, by the day, 1s. 6d .; secretary's fee, 2s. 6d .; jury, 6d. Constable's fee not mentioned.
Before this court came numerous actions for small debts, and com- plaints of evil speaking and disorderly conduct. Wills were proved and marriages performed in this court, as well as in the higher courts.
A few examples of cases may serve to illustrate the manners and customs of the age. The following, before the justices or commis- sioners' court, are abridged and given in substance.
June 30, 1664. Mrs. Houghton summons Mrs. Skillinger before the Commis- sioners to answer for abusing her daughter in the meeting-house : we not finding
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
legal proofs hereof, judge it meet that Mrs. Houghton tutor her daughter better and not occasion disturbance in the meeting-house, by any unmeet carriage to her betters hereafter, and this being the first time we enforce no farther.
Complaint entered against Mrs. Katharine Clay for keeping an inmate con- trary to order.
Also against Thomas Marshall for abiding at Mr. Humphrey Clay's contrary to order-(i. e., contrary to an order of the Gen. Court forbidding tavern keep- ers to harbor inmates beyond a certain time.)
Humphrey Clay for entertaining a young man at his house fined 40s. and costs. Thomas Marshall for remaining at Mr. Clay's, fined 5s.
Katharine Clay presented for selling liquors at her house, selling lead to the Indians, profanation of the Sabbath, eard-playing and entertaining strange men, &c.
Humphrey Clay was bound over to the court of assistants, to answer for these offenses of his wife. Following the case to this court, we find that Mr. Clay and wife were convicted of keeping a disorderly house, and fined £40, or to leave the colony within six months, in which case half the fine was remitted. Mr. Clay chose the latter course, and sold his land and two dwelling-houses (situated on what was then called Foxen's Hill) to Mr. Bulkley, stipulating to vacate them before Michaelmas.
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