History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 61

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317


USA > Connecticut > New London County > History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 61


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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"North of Leflingwell, and stretching towards Ox Hill, grants were laid out to Richard Hendy, Josiah Reed, and Richard Wallis, with the commons for their principal boundaries.


"Next to Leffingwell, on the street as it runs south, was the allotment of Thomas Bliss, five acres and a fourth, with a lane on the south leading to a watering- place at the river.


" John Reynolds, southeast of Thomas Bliss, six acres.


" Here was the eastern frontier of the town plot. A dense and miry thicket lay between the mill-lane and the upland plain below.


" Returning to the green which divided the settle- ment into East and West Ends, the proprietors were arranged along the street and river, west of Maj. Mason, in the following order :


" Thomas Waterman, seven acres.


"Thomas Bingham, four acres.


" John Post, six acres.


" John Birchard, seven and one-fourth acres; six- teen rods and eleven feet in front. Mr. Birchard's house, according to tradition, was fortified in the time of Philip's war, and a garrison kept in it, who made port-holes under the roof, through which to fire if they should be attacked.


"Robert Wade, six acres; sixteen rods front. This lot was sold in 1677 to Caleb Abell, and better known as the Abell homestead.


" Adjoining Wade, but with boundaries and situa- tion uncertain, was the lot of Morgan Bowers.


"Opposite Post and Birchard, on the northeast side of the street, were the allotments of William Hyde and his son Samuel, extending back into the commons. The Hyde house stood a few rods back from the town street, upon the 'highway into the woods,' as the lane was then called.


"Next west of Robert Wade, on the river side of the street, was the home-lot of John Gager, eleven and a half acres.


" Thomas Post, adjoining Gager, on the upland, six acres; 'a burying-place excepted that lyeth within his lot, and also a way to it.'


NORWICH.


249


"On the other side of the street were the locations of Nehemiah Smith and Thomas Howard.


"Beyond Thomas Post on the northwest, with lots reaching from the town street to the river, were the following proprietors in regular succession :


"Richard Edgerton, six acres; William Backus, six ; Hugh Calkins, six ; John Calkins, four and three- fourths ; Francis Griswold, seven ; Robert Allyn, five ; Jonathan Royce, six; John Baldwin, five; John Tracy, twelve; John Pease, seven, with the river on the northwest, west, and south.


" This was at the western limit of the town plot, where the river by a sudden turn to the southwest crossed the street at right angles.


" These thirty-eight lots were the first laid out, and though not all in 1659, and some perhaps not till several years later, those who held them, whether immediate possessors or not, were commonly reck- oned original proprietors.


" After the first thirty-eight propri- etors, the next inhabitants who come in as grantees of the town are John Elder- kin and Samuel Lathrop. Elderkin had two home-lots granted him in remunera- tion of services. The first grant of 1667 was laid out in the town plot, but being at too great a distance from his busi- ness, it was conveyed, with consent of the townsmen, to Samuel Lathrop, 24th August, 1668. Another was given him at the old landing-place below the Falls, where, according to contract, he built a grist-mill for the convenience of the town.


" The Lathrop house-lot comprised six acres, and had a street, highway, or lane on every side of it. Probably it lay on the side-hill opposite Adgate's. The early intermarriages in the families of Lathrop, Leffingwell, Adgate, and Bushnell, lead- ing them to divide house-lots and settle in contiguous homes, make it difficult to determine the precise situation of each original grant. We can be confident only that these families had their first dwellings near to- gether at the east end of the town plot.


" The first Samuel Lathrop appears to have erected a house on the town street before 1670.


"Samuel Lathrop, Jr., in 1679 had a piece of land given him by the town to build upon 'near his father's home-lot,' upon which he is supposed to have built the house that subsequently belonged to Col. Simon Lathrop, and still later to Rufus Lathrop Huntington. A noted pine-tree, originally of great size and height, stood near and pointed out the site even after the house was demolished.


"The next householders after these were the older sons of proprietors, of whom the most distinguished were John and Daniel Mason, sons of the major, Capt. James Fitch, and Richard and Joseph Bush- nell, sons of Mrs. Adgate. These are all ranked as first-comers, taking part in the affairs of the first gen- eration.


" Richard Bushnell's residence stood conspicuously upon the side-hill. Courts of larger or lesser signifi-


W


Pease


N


J.Tracy


Royce


Griswold


J.Calkins


T.Post


Gager


Howard


Wade


Birchard


Bowers


JJ.Post


S.Hyde


Bingham


W.Ilyde


Waterman


Mason


Gifford


Fitch


S.


Olmstead


T.


S. Backus


Tracy


Bradford


Chr


Adga+ Huntington


Reynolds


Lothrop


Read


Leffingwell


Bushnell


Hendy


Wallis


PLAN OF THE ANCIENT SETTLEMENT, 1660.


cance and meetings of various kinds were held there. One of the Courts of Commission appointed by royal authority to settle the Mohegan controversy is said to have held its sessions in the great square room of the Bushnell house.


" A careful examination of the grants and proprie- tary records shows that in 1672 land had been recorded to only seventy-seven persons within the town limits.


"In April, 1661, the first division land was laid out (this included the Little Plain) ; in 1663 the second division land, which lay towards Lebanon; and in 1668 the third, upon Quinnebaug River. After a few


S


Baldwin


Allyn


YANTIC RIVER


H.Calkins


Edgerton


N. Smith


Huntington


Bliss


250


HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.


years almost every citizen owned land in eight or ten different parcels. For the first eighty or one hundred years very few of the homesteads seem to have been alienated. They passed from one occupant to an- other by quiet inheritance, and in many cases were split into two or three portions among the sons who settled down by the side of their fathers.


" There was a peculiarity in the foundation of Norwich that distinguishes it from most other settle- ments in this part of the country. It did not begin in a random, fragmentary way, receiving accessions from this quarter and that till it gradually grew into a compact form and stable condition, but came upon the ground a town and a church. The inhabitants were not a body of adventurers fortuitously thrown together, but an association, carrying their laws as well as their liberties with them, each member bound to consult the general good as well as his own individual advantage. Steady habits, patient endur- ance, manly toil, and serene intelligence settled with them, inspiring and efficient though quiet house- mates. In the early days of the township the in- habitants labored hard, but every man helped his neighbor. Trespasses were rare ; a grand decorum of manners prevailed ; sympathy, kindly counsel, and friendly assistance softened the rigors of the wilder- ness, and the hearts of all were strengthened with the constant cheer of gospel promises. All the enact- ments and proceedings of these fathers of the town, all that we can gather concerning them from records or tradition, exhibits a well-organized community,- a people, bold, earnest, thoughtful, with the ring of the true metal in their transactions.


" The whole course of history furnishes no fairer model of a Christian settlement."


Indian Forts .- If any dependence can be placed on names and traditions, the Indians had at least three rude forts within the present bounds of Nor- wich. One at the Landing on the brow of the hill, which on this account was called at the first settle- ment Fort Hill. This was probably the citadel of Wawcequaw, the brother of Uncas. Another upon Little Fort Hill, between the Landing and Trading Cove, belonging to Uncas himself. And a third, more ancient than either of these, on the southwest- ern side of the Yantic, below the junction of Ham- mer Brook. This stood upon a rugged platform of rock, surrounded and overshadowed with woods. It was a barren and secluded spot; but the tradition has been current, particularly among the Hydes and Posts, who first owned the spot, that here was an ancient Indian fortress. It consisted of a high stone wall, inclosing an area upon the brow of the hill, and must have been designed only as a hiding-place to which to retreat in times of invasion. The stones had been broken by the Indian builders into portable size, and about the year 1790 were removed and used in the building of a cellar and for other purposes by the owner of the land.


In 1685 a patent was obtained which confirmed to the town the original tract of nine miles square, to be an entire township, "according to the tenor of East Greenwich, in Kent, in free and common soccage, and not in capite, nor by Knight's service." A copy of this patent is herewith given :


Patent of the Town of Norwich, A.D. 1685.


Whereas the General Court of Connecticut have forever granted unto the proprietors and Inhabitants of the Towne of Norwich all those lands, both meadows and uplands, within these abutments (viz.), from the mouth of Tradeing-cove Brooke, the line to run as the Brooke to the head of the Brooke, to a white oake marked N : and from thence west northwesterly to a great pond, to a black oake marked N : which stands neore the mouth of the great Brooke that runs out of the pond to Nor- wich River, which is abont soven miles from the said Tradeing Cove; and from thence the line runns North noreast nine miles to a Black oake standing by the river side, on the south of it, a little above maume- agway, and from thence the line runs south southeasterly nine miles to a white oake standing by n brooke marked N : and then the line runs south southwesterly nine miles to a white oake neero Robert Allyn and Thomas Rose's Dwelling-houses, which tree is marked N : and from thence westerly as New London Bounds runs to Mohegan river, the whole being nine miles square, the said land haveing been by purchase or otherwise lawfully obtained of the Indian natives proprietors .- And whereas the said Inhabitants and proprietors of the sd Norwich in the Colony of Connecticutt have made application to the Governor and Com- pany of the sd Colony of Connecticutt, assembled in Conrt May 25th, 1685, that they may have a patent for the confirmation of the aforesd land, so purchased and granted to them as aforesaid, and which they have stood seized, and quietly possessed of for many years late past with- out interruption. Now for a more full confirmation of the aforesd unto the present proprietors of the sd Towneship of Norwich in their possession and injoyment of the premises, know yee that the sd Governour and Company, assembled in Generall Court according to the Commission Granted to them by his magestie's charter, have given and granted, and by these presents doe give, grant, Ratifie, and confirme unto Mr. James Fitch, sent, Capt. James Fitch, Mr. Benjamine Brewster, Lieut. Thomas Tracy, Lient. Tho. Leffingwell, Mr. Christopher Huntington, Mr. Simon Huntington, Ensign William Backus, Mr. Thomas Waterman, Mr. John Burchard, and Mr. John Post, and the rest of the said present proprie- tors of the township of Norwich, their heirs, successors, and assigns for- ever; the aforesaid parcell of land, as it is Butted and Bounded, together with all the woods, meadows, pastures, ponds, waters, rivers, islands, fishings, huntings, fowleings, mines, mineralls, quarries, and precious stones, upon or within the said tract of land, and all other proffitts and comodities thereunto belonging, or in any wayes appertayning; and Doe also grant unto the aforesd Mr. James Fitch, sent, Capt. James Fitch, Mr. Benjamin Brewster, Lieut. Thomas Tracy, Lieut. Thos. Lef- fingwell, Mr. Christopher Huntington, Mr. Simon Huntington, Ensign Win. Backus, Mr. Thomas Waterman, Mr. John Burchard, and Mr. John Post, and the rest of the proprietors, Inhabitants of Norwich, their heirs, successors, and assigns forever, that the foresd tract of land shall be for- ever hereafter deemed, reputed, and be an intire towneship of itself-to have and to hold the said tract of land and premises, with all and singn- lar their appurtenances, together with the priviledges and immunities and franchises herein given and granted unto the sayd Mr. James Fitch, sent, Capt. James Fitch, Mr. Benjamine Brewster, Lient. Thomas Tracy, Lient. Thomas Leffingwell, Mr. Christopher Huntington, Mr. Simon Huntington, Ensign Wm. Backus, Mr. Thomas Waterman, Mr. John Birchard, and Mr. John Post, and other the present proprietors, Inhab- itants of Norwich, theire heirs, successors, and assignes for ever, and to the only proper use and behoofe of the sayd Mr. James Fitch, sent, Capt. James Fitch, Mr. Benjamine Brewster, Lieut. Thomas Tracy, Lieut. Thomas Leffingwell, Mr. Christopher Huntington, Mr. Simon Hunting- ton, Ensign William Backus, Mr. Thomas Waterman, Mr. John Birchard, and Mr. John Post, and other proprietors, inhabitants of Norwich, their heirs, successors, and assigns for ever, according to the tenor of East Greenwich in Kent, in free and common soccage, and not in capitte, nor by Knite's service, they to make improvement of the same as they are capable, according to the custom of the country, yielding, render- ing, and paicing therefore to our sovereign Lord, the king, his heirs and successors, his dues according to Charter. In witness whereof, we have caused the Scale of the Colony to bo hereunto affixed this twenty-first


251


NORWICH.


of May, 1685, in the first yeare of the reigne of our sovereigne lord Jamies the Second, by the grace of God, of England, Scotland, France, and Ire- land, King, Defender of the faith.


ROBERT TREAT, Governor.


SEAL.


March 30th, 1687, per order of Govr and Company of the Colony of Connecticutt.


Signed pr JOHN ALLEN, Secrety.


Entered in the pub. records, Lib. D : fo. 138, 139, Novr 27th, 1685 : pr JOHN ALLYN, Secrety.


Schools .- The first reference in the old town re- cords to schools is in 1677, when John Birchard was chosen to keep school nine months of the year for £25, provision pay.


March 31, 1679,-


" It is agreed and voated by the town that Mr. Danill Mason shall be improved as a school-master for the towne for nine months in the yeare ensuing, and to allow him twenty-five pounds to be payed partly by the children, . . . and each child that is entered for the full time to pay nine shillings and other children that come occasionally to allow three pence the week ; the rest to be payed by the Towne."


July 28, 1680, a special meeting was called to de- liberate respecting the establishment of a town school, and the whole matter committed to the charge of the selectmen, with injunctions that they should see,-


" Ist, that parents send their children; 2d, that they pay their propor- tion, according to what is judged just; 3d, that they take care parents be not oppressed, espeshally such who are disabled; 4th, that whatever is additionally necessary for the perfecting the maintenance of a school- master, is a charge and expense belonging to all the inhabitants of the town, and to be gathered as any other rates ; 5th, whatever else is neces- sary to a prudent carrying through this occasion, is committed to the discreshon of ye sd select men."


" Public works in those days were slow in progress, more from the want of hands to labor than from de- ficiency of skill or the absence of enterprise. A school-house for which appropriations had been made in 1680 was finally built in 1683 by John Hough and Samuel Roberts. These men were both from New London, but found employment in Norwich as house-builders, and about this period became residents of the town.


"1680, July 21 .- Mr. Arnold accepted as an inhabitant : the Select- men to provide him with 4 or 5 acres of land as convenient as may be.


"Mr. John Arnold was a schoolmaster and prob- ably exercised his calling for several years in Norwich, although the records do not advert to him in that ca- pacity. An allusion occurs to 'Mr. John Arnold, merchant,' who was doubtless the same person, as a variety of occupations, in a small way, were often pursued by one man in those days.


" Mr. Arnold afterwards removed to Windham, where his name is found on the list of the first twenty- two inhabitants, May, 1693. He settled in that part of the town which is now Mansfield, and the records of the place show that he had been master of a school in several different towns, and had children born at Newark, Killingworth, Norwich, and Windham.


"Schools in our early settlements were only kept a certain part of the year, varying from two to eight or nine months. In 1690 the selectmen were directed to , was but half that to the master."


provide a schoolmaster, the scholars to pay 4d. a week, and the remainder of the salary raised on the list. No further notice is taken of schools, town-wise, until 1697, when Richard Bushnell is appointed to keep the school for two months that year, and to be paid in land.


"In 1698, David Hartshorn was engaged for the same time. Here it is probable that the town school died out.


" In the year 1700 a startling fact appears in the in- dictments of the grand jury of the county : 'Norwich presented for want of a school to instruct children.'


" That measures were immediately taken to remedy this deficiency, we may infer from the fact that £6 was added to the next year's rate for repairing the school-house, and about the same time a tract of land was granted to David Knight in payment for work upon the meeting-house and school-house.


"It may not be true of all New England, but in some portions of it, for a considerable period after the first generation had passed away, education was neg- lected ; the schools were of an inferior grade, and very grudgingly and irregularly sustained. This was prob- ably owing to the paucity of good teachers and the superfluous activity of the people, which led them to break away impatiently from sedentary pursuits. But the inevitable consequence was that the grandchildren of the first settlers were more illiterate than either the generation before or after them.


"April 26, 1709, the town passed a resolution 'that they will have a schoolmaster, according to law.' This emphatic determination seems to imply an ante- cedent neglect. Richard Bushnell was again employed for a short period.


"Jan. 26, 1712. In town-meeting, Lieut. Joseph Backus, moderator :


"""It was voted that a good and sufficient schoolmaster be appointed to keep school the whole year and from year to year; one-half of the time in the Town Plot and the other half at the farms in the several quarters.'


" At this period 40s. on the list of every thousand pounds was granted by the country,-that is, by the General Court, for the benefit of schools, and each town was by law obliged to maintain a school for a certain part of the year.


"Schools were maintained by what was called a country rate of forty shillings upon the thousand pounds, and all deficiencies made up by parents and guardians. The schools were distributed over the town, and kept a longer or shorter period, according to the list of each society. In 1745 the appointment was as follows :


"School at the Landing Place to be kept. 3 months and 17 days. two in the Town Plot, one at each end ... 512 months each.


66 at Plain Hills.


2 months 19 days.


= Waweekus Hill


1 16


Great Plain


2


= 18


Wequanuk.


2 15


on Windham road


2 11


66


" If any of these schools should be kept by a woman the time was to be doubled, as the pay of the mistress


252


HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.


A school was continued here during the Revolution, and was described as furnishing instruction to " young gentlemen and ladies, lads and misses, in every branch of literature, viz., reading, writing, arithmetic, the learned languages, logic, geography, mathematics," etc. Charles White, teacher.


In 1799 a Mrs. Brooks opened a girls' school on Little Plain, but it was of short duration.


In 1782 an academical association was formed in the western part of the town-plot, and a school opened, which continued about thirty years.


Dr. Daniel Lathrop, upon his death, left a legacy of £500 for the support of a free grammar school, which was opened in 1787, with Ebenezer Punderson as teacher. It was in operation about half a century.


In 1800, William Woodbridge commenced a school in Little Plain, but it lived but a few years. Among other schools which have flourished for longer or shorter periods in Norwich were the Select School, at the town plot; a preparatory school at the Land- ing, in 1797 ; the Chelsea Grammar School, organized in 1806; the Norwich Female Academy, incorporated in 1828.


Early Births, Marriages, and Deaths .- The first birth in the plantation was that of Elizabeth Hyde, in August, 1660. She was the daughter of Samuel Hyde and Jane Lee. The second child born was Anne, daughter of Thomas Bliss. The first male child born was Christopher, son of Christopher and Ruth Huntington, Nov. 1, 1660.


The following births occurred during the first five years of the settlement :


1661 .- Sarah, dr. of John Birchard; Deborah, dr. of Francis Griswold; both born in May. Sarah Birchard died young. Deborah Gris- wold married Jonathan Crane.


John, son of John Calkins, born in July.


Abigail, dr. of Thomas Adgate, in August.


Joseph, son of Simon Huntington, in September.


1662 .- Elizabeth, dr. of Jonathan Royce, in January. John, son of William Backus, February 9.


John, son of Richard Edgerton, June 12.


Thomas, son of John Baldwin; no record of his birth found, but his age shows that he was born this year.


1663 .- Rebecca, dr. of Thomas Bliss, in March.


Lydia, dr. of John Gager, in Angust. She married Simon Hunt- ington, who was born at Saybrook in 1659.


Samnel, son of John Calkins, in October.


John, son of Jonathan Royce, in November.


1664 .- Sarah, dr. of Thomas Adgate, in January.


Elizabeth, daughter of Simon Huntington, in February, and died in infancy.


Mary, dr. of John Reynolds, in April. She married John Edger- ton, above named (born 1662).


Abigail, dr. of John Post, November 6. Thomas, son of Thomas Post, in December.


1665 .- Thomas, son of Christopher Huntington, March 18. Samuel, son of William Backus, May 2; died young.


James, son of John Birchard, July 16.


Daniel, son of Rev. James Fitch, in August. Samuel, son of Francis Griswold, in September. Sarah, dr. of Jonathan Royce, in October.


The first death was that of Sarah, wife of Thomas Post, in March, 1661, and William Backus, June 12, of the same year.


The first marriage was that of the widowed minis- ter, Rev. James Fitch, to Priscilla Mason, in October, 1664.


The First Mill .- One of the greatest inconven- iences met by the carly settlers was the want of mills for grinding corn, and this matter was usually given the early attention of the town.


The earliest vote concerning a mill was under date Dec. 11, 1660, which is the renewal of a contract stated to have been made at Saybrook, Feb. 26, 1655 [probably should be 1659-60], between John Elder- kin on the one hand, and " the town of Mohcagan" on the other, to erect a corn-mill, either by the home- lot of John Pease [at Yantic, western extremity of the town plot], or at No-man's Acre, to be completed before Nov. 1, 1661, under penalty of forfeiting twenty dollars. The toll allowed was to be 1's, and a tract of land was pledged as a compensation for the erection of the mill.


Elderkin's mill, erected first at No-man's Acre, was soon removed to a situation below the falls, and new grants and privileges were bestowed upon the pro- prietor, that it might be well sustained. Here for a long course of years stood the mill and the miller's house. This had formerly been a noted landing- place of the Indians. A fine spring of pure water gushed copiously from the side-hill near by, which was literally a perpetual fountain of sweet water, with no record or tradition of its having failed but once, and that was in the great drought of 1676.


The Mill Falls, Elderkin's Mill, "the valley near the mill in which the spring is," "the deep valley that goeth down to goodman Elderkin's house," and " the island before his house at the Mill Falls," are all referred to in the early records.


The First Chaise .- The first chaise in town was owned by Samuel Brown, who was fined for riding in it to meeting. Col. Simon Lathrop owned a chaise about this time, but the use of it was excused on his part in consequence of the frailty of his wife.


During the Revolutionary period there were six chaises in town, as follows : Gen. Jedediah Hunting- ton owned the first one that was furnished with a top that could be thrown back. It was large, low, square- bodied, and studded with brass nails with square and flat heads. Gen. Hezekiah Huntington was the owner of one .. Dr. Daniel Lathrop's chaise had a yellow body, with a red morocco top, and was furnished with a window on one side. This was considered a splendid establishment. Other owners of chaises were Dr. Theophilus Rogers, Elijah Backus, and Nathaniel Backus.




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