USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 4
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1 Mason's Narrative. It is stated that during this retreat they were continually fired at by warriors concealed behind rocks and trees; yet not an arrow reached them. The Indian allies that accompanied the English, had a skirmish with the Pequots, which Underhill thus describes: " They came not near one another, but shot remote, and not point-blank, as we often do with our bullets, but at rovers, and then they gaze up in the sky to see where the arrow falls, and not until it is fallen, do they shoot again." Of this mode of warfare he says: " They might figlit seven years and not kill seven men."
2 In a subsequent part of this history, the conjecture is hazarded that Stoughton's encampment was on the neck, now occupied by Fort Trumbull. One of the pleas afterward propounded by Massachusetts in support of her claim to the jurisdiction of the west side of the river, was that of first possession, founded on the fact that Capt. Stoughton had built houses there during the Pequot war. The Connecticut agents in their rejoinder speak of it in the singular number, as the house which the people of the Bay built, and which themselves afterward carried off, or at least a great part of it. Hazard, vol. 2.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
annals, as the first English house erected in New London. And here probably a Sabbath service was held by Mr. Wilson, and the solemn accents of Christian worship were intermingled for the first time with the voices of the desert.
Capt. Stoughton found it no easy task to clear the coast and contig- uous country of the ill-fated Pequots. At one time he came upon the trail of a retreating party, and pursued them beyond the Connecticut, where losing the track, he desisted and returned to his former posi- tion.' Yotash, a Narragansett chief, with a band of warriors, was with him, and proved an efficient aid in hunting out the concealed Pequots.2 Having tracked a large party of the fugitives to the deep recesses of a thicket or swamp, on the east side of the river,-probably the noted place of refuge of the Pequots, called by them Ohomo- wauke, or the Owl's Nest, and sometimes Cuppacommock, or the Hiding-place,3-he led Capt. Stoughton and his men thither, who surrounded the swamp and took more than 100 prisoners. They were a feeble, half-famished party, that yielded to the conquerors without offering the least resistance. Let pity drop a tear at their fate. The sachem4 was reprieved for a time, upon his promise of assisting the English in their search for Sassacus ; the women and children, about eighty in number, were reserved for bondage: the doom of the remainder will be given in the words of the historian of the Indian wars, Rev. William Hubbard, of Ipswich.
" The men among them, to the number of thirty,5 were turned presently into Charon's ferry-boat, under the command of skipper Gallup, who despatched them a little without the harbor."
It is sad to think that the pure waters of our beautiful river should have closed over the fate of these unresisting children of the forest.
1 Winthrop's Journal, vol. 1, p. 232.
2 R. Williams, (Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. 21, p. 163,) in alluding to the Pequot captain taken prisoner by Yotash, and reserved for future service, says, he was kept under guard in the English houses, using the plural number. The text attempts to reconcile the different authorities by supposing that Stoughton erected a kind of block-house, with a cluster of huts around it, all surrounded by an inclosure, which gave it a kind of unity.
3 Williams, ut supra, p. 160. Afterward known as the Pine, or Mast Swamp of Groton.
4 Not two sachems, as some have represented, but one, with the long and apparently double name of Puttaquappuonck-quame.
5 Winthrop says twenty-two; Trumbull, twenty-eight; thirty men were taken in the swamp, and he subtracts two for the long-named sachem.
4
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Mr. Wilson had left the army before this execution took place. The commanders by whose authority it was performed, acted in conform- ity with their instructions and the spirit of the age. The precise date of this awful act of vengeance has not been ascertained: it was near the last of June, 1637.1 Capt. Stoughton was joined in his encamp- ment by Mr. Haines, Mr. Ludlow, Capt. Mason, and thirty or forty men from the towns on Connecticut River-also by Miantinomoh, the Narragansett chief sachem, and 200 warriors, who came over by land. Uncas and his men, with the whole Nahantick tribe, were also with- in call. What a brave and stirring scene for that olden time, was exhibited on this promontory, then so wild and gloomy,-now beauti- fied by cultivation, and covered with a fair town !
The Pequots as a nation were soon nearly extinct. Guided by Indian allies who knew every pass of the country, the English forces pursued them to the west by sea and land, carrying destruction with them. The haunts of the fugitives were discovered, many warriors killed, and women and children captured. Their chief and his few followers fleeing from the hot pursuit, were chased along the coast, with a haste and vigilance that left no chance of escape; and driven upon the weapons of the Mohawks, another equally unrelenting foe, they perished : and in that day no one pitied them.
So little did our ancestors understand the true spirit of Christianity, in regard to the ignorant natives of the land, that they appear to have swept the Pequots from existence without any misgivings of con- science or sensibility. In the work of destruction they displayed neither reluctance nor compunction; and at the close of it sang hymns of thanksgiving to God, ascribing their success to the wisdom of those measures, which his providence had inspired, approved, and crowned with success. An overruling power was indeed making use of their instrumentality, to accomplish its wise designs. The wilder- ness has been subdued, the face of nature beautified by cultivation ; villages have sprung up like blossoms, and cities like stately trees ; churches have been multiplied, and the living God is now acknowl- edged and honored in a region that for ages had been devoted to the worship of evil spirits.
1 Winthrop records it under date of first week in July; Trumbull has the marginal date of June. It must have been the last of June or first of July. Capt. Stoughton arrived at Pequot " a fortnight after the Connecticut forces reached home,"-that is, about the middle of June. He returned to Boston, August 26th.
CHAPTER II.
The Founder of New London .- His personal history .- Grants of Fisher's Island. Settlement of Pequot Harbor .- Natal day .- Commission from Massachusetts. First planters .- Bride Brook marriage. 1645, 1646.
JOHN WINTHROP, the younger, eminently deserves the title of Founder of New. London. He selected the site, projected the under- taking, entered into it with zeal and embarked his fortune in the en- terprise. His house upon Fisher's Island was the first English resi- dence in the Pequot country. He brought on the first company of settlers, laid out the plan of the new town, organized the municipal government, conciliated the neighboring Indians, and determined the bounds of the plantation.
The family seat of the Winthrops in England, was at Groton, in Suffolk. Hence the name of Groton, bestowed on those lands east of the river, which were at first included in New London. Adam Win- throp, of Suffolk, was a gentleman of fair estate and honorable char- acter : the maiden name of his wife, which was Still, we find pre- served among his descendants. Their oldest son, John, was the leader of that second Puritan emigration from England, which settled the colony of Massachusetts, and is justly considered the founder of Bos- ton. His first wife, whom he married at a very early age, was Mary, daughter of John Forth, Esq., of Great Stanbridge, Essex ;1 and of this marriage, the eldest child was John, known with us as John Winthrop, the younger,-Governor of Connecticut, and the person in whose history, as founder of New London, we are now particularly interested. He was born February 12th, 1605-6. At the age of six- teen he was sent to the University of Dublin, where he continued about three years.2 In 1627, when twenty-one years of age, he was in the service of the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham, in the fruit-
1 Savage. Notes to Winthrop's Journal, vol. 1, p. 164.
2 Savage. (MS.)
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
less attempt to assist the Protestants of Rochelle, in France. He married, February 8th, 1630-1, Martha, daughter of Thomas Fones, Esq., of London,1 and arrived in Massachusetts with his wife Nov. 2d, the same year. This lady died at Agawam, (Ipswich,) May 14th, 1634,2 leaving no children.
After her death, Mr. Winthrop spent some time in England, where he married, Feb. 12th, 1635, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Read, Esq., of Wickford, in Essex ;3 and returned with her to this country. He arrived the next October,4 and having been commissioned by the patentees of Connecticut, to build a fort and begin a plantation at Saybrook, (as before mentioned,) was immediately occupied with that business. But the commission was only for one year, and we have no account of its renewal. In 1638 and '39, he was living at Ipswich, where he set up salt-works at Ryal side.5 October 7th, 1640, he obtained from the General Court of Massachusetts, a grant of Fisher's Island, so far as it was theirs to grant, reserving the right of Connecticut, if it should be decided to belong to that colony.6 In order therefore to obtain a clear title, he applied to Connecticut, and was answered by the Court as follows :
" April 9, 1641.
" Upon Mr. Winthrop's motion to the Court for Fysher's Island, it is the mind of the Court that so far as it hinders not the public good of the country, either for fortifying for defence, or setting up a trade for fishing or salt, and such like, he shall have liberty to proceed therein."7
The islands in Long Island Sound were at first very naturally re- garded as lying within the jurisdiction of Connecticut. But in 1664 they were all included in the patent of New York, and Connecticut having reluctantly yielded her title, Winthrop obtained from Governor Nicholls, of New York, a patent, bearing date Mar. 28th, 1668, which confirmed to him the possession of Fisher's Island, and declared it to
1 Savage. Gleanings in Mass. Hist. Coll. 2d series, vol. 8, p. 207.
2 Felt's Hist. of Ipswich.
3 She was baptized at Wickford, Nov. 27th, 1614. Savage, MS.
4 Hugh Peters, a Puritan divine, came over at the same time, with the expectation of settling in America. It is probable that he was the step-father of Mrs. Winthrop. Peters is said to have married a gentlewoman of Essex, about the year 1625, (see Gen. Reg., vol. 5, p. 11,) and there are reasons for supposing that she was the relict of Ed- ward Read, Esq. See Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d series, 10, 2, 27.
5 Felt, p. 73.
6 Ut supra.
7 Colonial Records of Connecticut, vol. 1, p. 64.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
be " an entire enfranchised township, manor and place of itself, in no wise subordinate or belonging unto or dependent upon, any riding, township, place or jurisdiction whatever."1
Winthrop's title to Fisher's Island was therefore confirmed by three colonies.2 This island had been a noted fishing ground of the Pequots ; it was also a fine park for the huntsman, the woods that densely shaded the interior being well stocked with deer, and other wild animals. In the days of Indian prosperity, it must have been a place of great resort, especially in the summer season. Canoes might be seen gliding over the waves, children sporting on the shore, women weaving mats on the grass, and hunters with bow and arrow plunging into the thickets. After the destruction of the Pequots, this fair island lay deserted, unclaimed, waiting for a possessor. Win- throp seized the favorable moment, and became the fortunate owner of one of the richest gems of the Sound.
But he appears to have been in no haste to occupy his grant. After it was confirmed by Connecticut, in 1641, he went to England, and was long absent. Returning in 1643, he brought over workmen, stock and implements to establish iron works; which were soon com- menced at Lynn and Braintree, and for a time, were prosecuted with zeal and success.3 Mr. Winthrop had an investigating turn of mind, and a great love for the natural sciences. His education had been scientific ; he was fond of mineralogical pursuits, and ever on the watch to detect the treasures concealed in the bosom of the earth, and to bring them forth for the benefit of man.
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It is probable that he commenced building and planting on Fish- er's Island, in the spring of 1644, before he obtained the following grant from the General Court of Massachusetts.
" 1644, June 28. Granted to Mr. Winthrop, a plantation at or near Pequod for iron works "4
By Pequod, we must understand the territory lying around Pequot harbor : the word plantation, is indefinite, but doubtless merely im- plied a liberal sufficiency of land for the contemplated works. It seems to have been well understood between Mr. Winthrop and the
1 Thompson's Hist. of Long Island, p. 249.
2 Thompson states that Winthrop purchased the island in 1644. The facts in the text show that it was a free grant from Massachusetts, confirmed by Connecticut and New York.
3 Savage: notes to Winthrop, vol. 2, p. 213.
4 Felt, p. 73.
4*
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magistrates, that he was to take possession of the Pequot territory, and throw it open for immediate occupancy and settlement. The special grant to himself was but the first stroke of this main design. Many persons in the Bay colony had fixed their minds upon Pequot harbor as a desirable place for a new plantation. The position was the best on the coast for trade with the Indians and the Dutch, and they naturally wished to reap the advantage, by anticipating their neighbors on Connecticut River, and settling it as a colony under their jurisdiction.
Capt. Stoughton, while encamped at Pequot in 1637, had written to the Governor and Council, recommending it as a good site for a plantation. His letter was apparently in answer to enquiries made by them. After mentioning the principal defect in the country-the entire absence of meadows-and that for the most part it was too rocky for the plough,-he proceeds to state that "the upland is good."
" Indeed, were there no better, 'twere worthy the best of us, the upland be- ing, as I judge, stronger land than the bay upland.
" But if you would enlarge the state and provide for the poor servants of Christ, that are yet unprovided, (which I esteem a worthy work,) I must speak my conscience. It seems to me, God hath much people to bring hither, and the place is too strait, [i. e., the settlements in the Bay,] most think. And if so, then considering, 1st, the goodness of the land ; 2d, the fairness of the title ; 3d, the neighborhood to Connecticut ;1 4th, the good access that may be there- to, wherein it is before Connecticut, &c., and 5th, that an ill neighbor may possess it, if a good do not,-I should readily give it my good word, if any good souls have a good liking to it."2
Capt. Stoughton's opinion of the goodness of the land, though given with caution, was perhaps too favorable. The ancient domain of the Pequots, Mohegans and Nahanticks, must have been in its original state, a wilderness of stern and desolate character. An un- derlying base of rock, is every where ambitious to intrude into light, and often appears in huge masses heaped together, or broken, and tossed about in wild disorder. Places often occur, where the surface is actually bristled with rocks, and as a general fact, the country is uneven and the soil hard to cultivate. A large amount of physical energy must be expended, before the way. is prepared for ordinary tillage and the improvements of taste. It was no light task that lay
1 The name Connecticut, was then confined to the plantations on the river : Pequot was not a part of it.
2 Sav. Win., vol. 1, app., p. 400, where Stoughton's letter is given entire. "From Pequid, 2d day of the 6th week of our warfare."
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
unaccomplished in the future, to clear away the tangled forests, re- claim the stony pastures, the rugged hill tops and miry swamps, and soften down the stern landscape to fertile fields and pleasant gardens.
In the summer of 1645, we find the work actually commenced. Win- throp is at Pequot Harbor, engaged in clearing up the land, and laying out the new plantation. With him,-heart and hand in the undertaking,-is Mr. Thomas Peters, the brother of Hugh. This gentleman was an ejected Puritan clergyman from Cornwall, Eng- land, who had been officiating as minister of Saybrook; or more properly as chaplain to Mr. Fenwick and the garrison of the Fort.1 He entered cordially into the project of a new settlement, with the expectation. of becoming a permanent inhabitant, and doubtless of exercising his sacred functions in the place.
This was the summer in which Pessacus, the Narragansett sa- chem, with a large number of warriors, breathing vengeance for the death of Miantinomoh, invaded Mohegan, and with flight and terror before him, broke up the principal village of the tribe. The women and children, as usual, fled to woods and hiding-places, and Uncas and his warriors, after a severe conflict, in which many of them were wounded, took refuge within the inclosure of their principal fort, where they were besieged by their foes. Hunger would soon have brought them to a disgraceful submission, had they not been re -. lieved by the timely arrival of a boat-load of provisions sent by Capt. Mason, from Saybrook. Favored by the darkness of the night, and the want of vigilance in the invaders, this supply was safely con- veyed into the fortress. In the morning, the Narragansetts discov- ering that not only the necessities of Uncas were relieved, but that he was encouraged by the presence and protection of the English, suddenly relinquished the siege and departed.
Messrs. Winthrop and Peters also went to the scene of conflict, probably with the design of mediating between the parties, but reached the spot just after the flight of the invaders.
A letter written by Mr. Peters to the elder Winthrop, at Boston, respecting this Indian foray, is extant, in which he says-
" I with your son, were at Uncus' fort, where I dressed [the wounds of ] seventeen men, and left plasters to dress seventeen more, who were wounded in Uncus' brother's wigwam before we came."2
1 Successor to Mr. Higginson. The date of his arrival in this country is not ascer- tained. He was at Saybrook in 1643. (Half-century Sermon of Rev. Mr. Hotchkiss, of Saybrook, and Trumbull's Connecticut.)
2 Sav. Win., vol. 2, app., p. 380.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
There is yet other proof that Winthrop was on the ground, begin- ning the plantation, or preparing its way, in 1645. Roger Williams addressed a letter
" For his honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at Pequt-These- Nar. 22. 4. 45." [Narraganset, 22 June, 1645.]
In this letter he observes :- " William Cheesbrough now come in shall be readily assisted for your and his own sake,"-implying that Chesebrough came from Pequot with advices from Mr. Winthrop. At the close of his letter he adds,-" Loving salutes to your dearest and kind sister."1
The lady to whom allusion is here made, as being then at Pequot, was Mrs. Lake. She is often mentioned in subsequent letters of the same series, and was probably the sister of Mrs. Winthrop. How she came to be present in the rude encampment of this first summer, before Mr. Winthrop brought on his wife and children, and when no better accommodations could be furnished than those of the wood- man's tent, or the Indian wigwam, can not be accurately stated. In the absence of proof, the supposition may be made, that she had been dwelling at Saybrook with the Fenwicks and Mr. Peters, and came with the latter to the infant settlement.2
Honor to Margaret Lake! the first European female that trod upon our fair heritage.
Here then are three persons who can be named as being upon the ground in the summer of 1645. Without doubt a small band of in- dependent planters were also engaged in laying out and fencing lots, erecting huts, and providing food for their cattle. We learn from subsequent claims and references, that the marshes and meadows in the vicinity, were mowed that year, viz :- at Lower Mamacock, by Robert Hempstead ; at Upper Mamacock, by John Stebbins and Isaac Willey ; and at Fog-plain, by Cary Latham and Jacob Water- house.3 It is likewise probable that Thomas Miner and William
1 Mass. Hist. Coll., 2d series, vol. 9, p. 268. Chesebrough was engaged in the Indian trade.
2 If, as is conjectured, Mrs. Winthrop and Mrs. Lake, were the step-daughters of Hugh Peters, Mr. Thomas Peters, according to current acceptation, was their uncle.
3 Of Latham, we have incidental testimony from Winthrop himself, who, in a doc ument upon record, says that he was with him "in the beginning of the plantation." The first grants of Robert Hempstead, have in the old book of grants, the marginal date of 1645.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Morton belonged to this advance party. It may be conjectured that some eight or ten planters remained through the season, accommoda- ted partly in the huts of the Indians, and that Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Peters, and Mrs. Lake retired to Boston, before winter came on with severity.
That a beginning of the plantation was thus made in 1645, is fur- ther placed beyond doubt, by the court order issued for its govern- ment the next year, which speaks of it as already begun, and this be- ing early in the season, must refer to what was done the preceding year. But all historians who have treated of the settlement of New London, have placed its commencement in 1646. And as a settle- ment or sitting down, as our fathers termed it, supposes permanent habitations and municipal laws, that period is the most accurate. There is a manifest propriety in dating the existence of the town, from the time when the commission for government was issued, and we are happily enabled to determine the point in this manner.
THE NATAL DAY OF NEW LONDON, 6TH OF MAY, 1646.
" At a General Court held at Boston, 6th of May, 1646. Whereas Mr. John Winthrop, Jun., and some others, have by allowance of this Court begun a plantation in the Pequot country, which appertains to this jurisdiction, as part of our proportion of the conquered country, and whereas this Court is informed that some Indians who are now planted upon the place, where the said planta- tion is begun, are willing to remove from their planting ground for the more quiet and convenient settling of the English there, so that they may have another convenient place appointed,-it is therefore ordered that Mr. John Winthrop may appoint unto such Indians as are willing to remove, their lands on the other side, that is, on the east side of the Great River of the Pequot country, or some other place for their convenient planting and subsistence, which may be to the good liking and satisfaction of the said Indians, and likewise to such of the Pequot Indians as shall desire to live there, submitting themselves to the English government, &c.
" And whereas Mr. Thomas Peters is intended to inhabit in the said planta- tion,-this Court doth think fit to join him to assist the said Mr. Winthrop, for the better carrying on the work of said plantation. A true copy," &c. New London Records, Book VI.
The elder Winthrop records the commencement of the plantation under date of June, 1646.
" A plantation was this year begun at Pequod river, by Mr. John Winthrop, Jun., [and] Mr. Thomas Peter, a minister, (brother to Mr. Peter, of Salem,) and [at] this Court, power was given to them two for ordering and governing the plantation, till further order, although it was uncertain whether it would fall within our jurisdiction or not, because they of Connecticut challenged it by
1
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
virtue of a patent from the king, which was never showed us." " It mattered not much to which jurisdiction it did belong, seeing the confederation made all as one; but it was of great concernment to have it planted, to be a curb to the Indians."1
The uncertainty with respect to jurisdiction, hung at first like a cloud over the plantation. The subject was discussed at the meet- ing of the commissioners at New Haven, in September, 1646. Mas- sachusetts claimed by conquest, Connecticut by patent, purchase and conquest. The record says :
" It was remembered that in a treaty betwixt them at Cambridge, in 1638, not perfected, a proposition was made that Pequot river, in reference to the con- quest, should be the bounds betwixt them, but Mr Fenwick was not then there to plead the patent, neither had Connecticut then any title to those lands by purchase or deed of gift from Uncus."
The decision at this time was, that unless hereafter, Massachusetts should show better title, the jurisdiction should belong to Connecti- cut. This issue did not settle the controversy. It was again agita- ted at the Commissioners' Court, held at Boston, in July, 1647; at which time Mr. Winthrop, who had been supposed to favor the claims of Massachusetts, expressed himself as "more indifferent," but affirmed that some members of the plantation, who had settled there, in reference to the government of Massachusetts, and in expectation of large privileges from that colony, would be much disappointed, if it should be assigned to any other jurisdiction.
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