USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Norfolk > History of Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1744-1900 > Part 5
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Dated in Norfolk the 21 day of September 1758.
Jed Richards
Joseph Mills Jedediah Turner
James Benedict
Justis Gaylord
by his attorney
David Turner
Samuel Cowls
Thomas Dickinson
David Phelps
by his attorney
John Turner
Ezra Knapp
William Barbur
Cornelius Dowd
Elijah Barbur
Asahel Case
James Hotchkiss
by his attorney
Enos Hotchkiss
Isaac Pettibone
Abraham Knap
Samuel Mills
Elisha Richards
Rufus Lawrence
Eli Pettibone
Ebenezer Burr Luther Barbur
Zadok Knapp
Giles Pettibone
John Turner Jr.
Samuel Arnold
Sam'l Gaylord
Aaron Aspinwell
by his attorney
Gideon Lawrence
Cornelius Brown
Amiriah Plumb."
Past in the Lower House.
Test J. Huntington Clerk.
Concurred in the Upper House.
Test George Wyllys Sect."
From the original petition in the state archives in the State Capitol at Hartford.
Petitioners for Town Meeting.
"Upon consideration the Honorable General Assembly should re- fuse to grant to us the subscribers our memorial incorporating us as a town, we humbly pray that your honors would be pleased to ap-
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
point Mr. George Palmer, Mr. Ezra Knapp and Mr. Asel Case all of Norfolk to give out warning for a town meeting and lead us to a choice of town officers. In witness whereof we set our hands this 7 day of October, 1758."
John Turner
Cornelius Dowd
Eli Pettibone
Justis Gaylord
Sam'l Arnold
Jed'h Richards
Thomas Dickinson by his attorney
John Turner Jr.
Isaac Knapp
James Hotchkiss
Amariah Plumb
David Turner
James Benedict
Samuel Gaylord by his attorney
Jediah Turner by his attorney
Isaac Pettibone
Elishah Richards
Cornelius Brown
Giles Pettibone
Samuel Cowls
Ebenezer Burr
Joseph Mills
Samuel Mills
David Phelps."
From the original petition in the State Archives at Hartford.
Petition for town privileges.
"To the Honorable, the General Assembly of the Collony of Connecticut now sitting in Hartford in Hartford County, on the 12th day of May 1757: Wee the subscribers all of Norfolk in the county of Litchfield, humbly pray this Honorable Assembly to grant unto us and ye rest of ye inhabitants of sd town all the privileges and immunity proper to a town and such as the rest of ye towns in this Collony enjoy, in order to our regular proceeding in and doing ye public bisnes proper and nessary for a town to do. And wee being 24 families settled in sd town, and about one hundred and fifty persons; the granting of which we are humbly of opinion will be of grate advantage to sd town and promote ye welfare theirof."
Dated in Norfolk May ye 11th 1757.
John Turner Jed Richards
In the Lower House The prayer of this memorial Negatived.
John Turner Jr.
Samuel Gaylord
David Lawrence Jedediah Turner Justice Gaylord.
Test J. Huntington Clerk.
From the original manuscript, in the archives of the State, at Hartford.
Aaron Aspenwall
48
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
FROM THE STATE RECORDS.
Enactments Relating to Norfolk.
Captain Giles Pettibone and Mr. William Walter, Representa- tives for Norfolk.
January, 1778.
"Whereas, It is recommended by Congress to the respective States to cause subscriptions to be opened under the inspection of some suitable person in each town, for supplies for the war on loan office certificates, specifying the names of the lenders and the sum they are willing to lend, and that copies of such subscription papers shall from time to time be delivered to the respective commissioners of the Continental loan office, and by them transmitted to Congress; provided that no certificate shall issue for less than Two Hundred Dollars :- Resolved, That Titus Ives, in the town of Norfolk * * is hereby appointed, impowered and directed to open subscriptions in that town for the purpose recommended as aforesaid," etc.
"This Assembly do establish Elkanah Phelps to be Ensign of the North Company or Trainband, in the town of Norfolk, in the 14th Regiment in this State.
"This Assembly do establish Andrew Kingsbury to be Ensign of the First Company or Trainband in the 14th Regiment in this State." January 1778.
"Voted, That Mr. William Whiting, one of the overseers of Salisbury furnace be impowered and directed to purchase one hogs- head of New England, and one barrel of West India rum for the use of the workmen at said furnace on the best terms he may be able." February 1778. =
Mr. Hosea Wilcox, Mr. Asahel Humphrey, Representatives for Norfolk, October 1778.
"This Assembly do establish Titus Ives to be Captain of the 9th Company or Trainband in the 14th Regiment in this State.
"This Assembly do establish Elkanah Phelps to be Lieutenant, and Isaac Holt to be Ensign of the 9th Company or Trainband in the 14th Regiment in this State."
Mr. Dudley Humphrey, Capt. Michael Mills, Representatives for Norfolk, May 1779.
"An Act for making and naming a new District for a Court of Probate in this State.
"Be it enacted, etc. That the towns of Norfolk, Colebrook and Winchester, shall be one entire district for a Court of Probate, and shall be called and known by the name of the District of Norfolk, and that in said district there shall be a court of probate held by one judge, to be appointed and commissioned for that purpose according
49
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
to law ; * which court shall have and exercise the same powers, authorities and privileges that the other courts of probate in this State have, and are vested with."
"Total of the list of the town of Norfolk in the State of Con- necticut as taken upon the 20th day of August, 1788."
"£10029 7s. 11d. Single additions £76. Fourfold Assessments £156."
V.
HOW THE ORIGINAL TITLE TO LAND IN THIS TOWN WAS OBTAINED - PROPRIETORS' MEETINGS-MANNER OF DIVIDING AND DRAWING LAND - ENCOURAGEMENT TO SOMEONE TO BUILD AN IRON WORKS, EIGHTY ACRES OF LAND WAS VOTED.
To go back several years, it cannot fail to be of interest to some readers who have not had the opportunity of in- vestigating the matter to learn how the original title to the land in this and adjacent towns was obtained.
At the present day in the western part of our country, a purchaser of a section or a small fraction of a section of land demands and receives with his deed an "Abstract of Title," or a "Search," as it is sometimes called, showing a continuous chain of clear title back to the original U. S. Patent, or the old Spanish Grant, whoever the original pro- prietor may have been.
The Colony of Connecticut received a patent or "grant" of these lands from the British government, and were we curious to follow back the chain, the right or the title of the British to this as to some other of their possessions, might appear very remarkable.
After the long struggle over these "Western lands," as they were called, had been "amicably composed," and by order of the Colonial government the lands had been divided into townships and imaginary town lines established, the town of Norfolk was divided into fifty-three parts, or rights.
Those "rights," as we have already seen, were then sold at public "vendue," and a purchaser of a "right" received from a committee properly authorized by the Colonial gov-
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
ernment a deed of one undivided fifty-third part of the land of this town.
Of these fifty-three "rights" (three hundred acres in one piece having been appropriated in 1732) "for the benefit of Yale College forever, and to no other use," "one shall be for the use of the ministry forever, one for the first gospel min- ister settled, and one right for the support of the school in said town."
The purchasers of the remaining 49 rights (Hosford's first purchase and the College grant having been called one right) each received his deed before a meeting of proprietors could be held or any division of the land made.
A part of one of these original deeds is of interest:
"Know all men by these presents that we, Benjamin Hall, Jabez Hamlin and Elihu Chauncy, a Committee appointed and fully em- powered by the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut in May last to make sale of forty-nine rights or shares of land in the township of Norfolk, in the County of Litchfield, the whole of which township is to be distributed into fifty-two equal shares or rights, and that on this condition only : - that the purchasers shall be obliged to build a house, 18 feet square, 7 feet stud, and to make the same tenantable, and also clear six acres of land fit for mowing or plowing, and settle some suitable inhabitant thereupon each right respectively within four years from said purchase; and on failure thereof such deed to be void. We therefore, on the conditions above said, and also for the consideration of £133 10s. lawful money, received to our full satisfaction of John Humphrey, Esq., of Simsbury, in the County of Hartford, do give, grant, sell, bargain and confirm unto the said John Humphrey, Esq., and to his heirs and assigns forever, one full right or share of land in the said township of Norfolk; To have and to hold, etc. * * In behalf of the Governor and Company of said Colony, we do covenant and engage to warrant and defend," etc.
BENJ. HALL. JABEZ HAMLIN. ELIHU CHAUNCY.
Middletown, 24 Nov., A. D. 1754.
The first meeting of the proprietors of Norfolk was duly "warned" and held in Simsbury at the house of Jonathan
51
HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
Humphrey, Dec. 18, 1754, at which meeting they appointed a committee of three to look into the affairs respecting those persons who are settled on the undivided lands in the township of Norfolk, and see that each person settled sur- render his possession into the hands of this propriety, secur- ing the fee to the propriety.
(This action would seem somewhat arbitrary, as Cornelius Brown, for example, had already been living on and im- proving his "right" for ten years.) It is interesting to know the way in which they divided the land in this entire town into fifty-two parts or properties. This was not done in one grand division, giving each proprietor his 1-52 part of the town in one piece or farm, but in a way that must have been far more equitable. In the record of the first meeting of the proprietors is the following:
"This propriety will make a division of part of their un- divided lands in said Norfolk in manner following:
We will lay out one hundred acres of land to each right for each proprietor, and for each public right, in two several parts or lots, fifty acres for each lot, two lots to each right.
A committee of nine, hereafter named to lay out said land. shall cise each lot and endeavor to make one lot as good as another by adding more land to those lots that are not
so good land. * The committee shall first consult and lay out convenient and necessary highways as they shall judge needful, and shall lay out and bound such high- ways as they shall judge needful for country roads before they lay out the said lots."
"The committee to lay out the highways and lots were Wm. Willcockson, Jonathan Pettibone, John Paterson, Samuel Lawrence, Daniel Lawrence, Jr., Benajah Douglas, Joshua Whitney, Cornelius Brown and Samuel Gaylord. The above committee shall improve a surveyor to help per- form said service at their discretion, who shall make a plan of the highways and also of each lot.
"We will raise a rate or tax on each of the 49 rights lately purchased, of £8, in Bills of Credit of the old tenor, to de- fray the charges of laying out said highways and lots; and
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
each proprietor shall pay in said sum to Joshua Whitney, the Treasurer, before he have liberty to draw his lot or lots.
Each proprietor shall have liberty to draw his lots at the adjourned proprietors' meeting, to be held at Norfolk at the dwelling house of Cornelius Brown the first Wednes- day of May next, he paying said sum to the Treasurer.
All mines and minerals found shall belong to said pro- prietors, to be improved as they shall think fit."
At the second meeting of proprietors, held at the house of Cornelius Brown in Norfolk, May 7, 1755, the following action was taken:
"Whereas, several purchasers of rights in Norfolk, viz .: John Turner, Jun., Samuel Gaylord, Cornelius Brown, Ezra Nap, Ebenezer Nap, William Barber, George Palmer, James Hotchkiss and Samuel Manross are now in the improve- ment of lands in said Norfolk which are now laid out into lots, and requesting that they may have those lots assigned and set out to them in which their respective improvements are, Voted, that each of them who is a proprietor of a whole right shall have liberty to take to themselves one of the lots in which their improvements are, instead of drawing for their lots."
Third meeting of proprietors at the house of George Palmer, May 21, 1755.
"The committee brought in their surveys of highways and lots laid out, viz .: First laid out fifty acres to each right, which they called the first going over, and marked the num- ber of each lot on the bounds of said lot. Then laid out fifty acres more to each right, marked the number of each lot on the bounds thereof, and a mark to distinguish it, which they called the second going over. Then by agreement of the proprietors the committee selected out 52 of the lots which they judged the best, to be first drawn, part out of the first going over and part out of the second." * "The method we now agree to draw for our lots is :- 'the 52 lots be put into a hatt, and some indifferent person shall draw out a ticket which shall be numbered, which shall be the lot's number, and the lot which either proprietor shall
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
draw as above shall be held as his in severalty, and the next 52 lots shall be drawn for in the same method.' "
Someone may smile at the fact of 52 fifty acre lots having been "put into a hatt," but they understood it, and it was all right.
Very few descendants of the original proprietors have, for the past fifty years at least, been known in the town. A few are still known here, viz .: Descendants of Cornelius Brown and Titus Brown, his brother, of some of the Hum- phreys, Pettibones, Samuel Gaylord, Daniel Lawrence, Samuel Butler, David Phelps, Ezra and Ebenezer Knapp, Jeremiah Case, James Hotchkiss, and possibly others.
Someone, sometime, somewhere, may wish to know the names of these "proprietors," so I will insert them. Aside from the few first designated, each of the others was the owner of one right at the first drawing. Timothy Hosford had five rights; Jonathan Pettibone, three rights; Captain Daniel Lawrence, Jr., two rights; Benajah Douglas, two rights; Samuel Flagg, two rights. One each: John Beebe, Gideon Thompson, John Humphrey, William Wilcockson, Michael Humphrey, David Phelps, William Barber, Joshua Whitney, Ezra Nap, Ebenezer Nap, Cornelius Brown, Titus Brown, Samuel Gaylord, Samuel Manross, James Hotchkiss, John Turner, George Palmer, Isaac Pettibone, Bevell Sey- mour, Jeremiah Case, Daniel Willcockson, Jonathan Hum- phrey, Noah Humphrey, Edward Griswold, Samuel Butler, Phineas Lewis, Capt. John Patterson, Joseph Phelps, Jr., William Walter, John Beach, Jr., James Lusk, William Warner, Noah Griswold, David Griswold, Benjamin Phelps.
At this same meeting they voted to lay out to each pro- prietor of a whole right 100 acres again in two 50 acre lots, to be cised and drawn for in the same manner as the first division.
May 19, 1756. "Voted to pray the Assembly to lengthen out the time of payment, and forbare ye interest of the Bonds for said land bought at public vandue."
"Voted that the committee which laid out the second divi- sion shall have 3s. 6d. lawful money per day; the chain men
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
2s. 6d., and the surveyor which they hired to lay out said division shall have 4s. 6d. lawful money. Those persons which have wrought in the highway shall have 2s. lawful money per day."
"Voted a rate of 6s. on each right to defray the charges of laying out the second division, and mending highways."
"Voted, Whereas Wm. Walter was appointed to take care of the timber in Norfolk, and call persons to an account of what he should find trespassed in said town, and he has called some persons to account and has gott £30 14s., old tenor, and has paid the same into the hands of the proprie- tors, which we do appoint shall be appropriated for the preaching of the gospel in Norfolk," and "that Joshua Whit- ney be appointed to procure preaching so far as the said £30 14s. granted by this proprietors' meeting shall go."
"That all the money due the proprietors on former rates which has not been expended shall be appropriated to mend- . ing highways."
"Appointed a committee to take care of the grist mill place for to build a grist mill, and make their report to the ad- journed meeting what is best to be done respecting said mill place."
Sept. 29, 1756. "Appointed Joshua Whitney, Capt. Daniel Lawrence, Jr., and Ezra Knap to lay out so much common land as they shall judge needful for pondage for the use of a mill, and also what land they shall think fit for to build a grist mill on and make report."
"Voted that our Proprietors' clerk shall record survey bills, and surveys of highways that have been laid out."
February 18, 1757. Report of a committee appointed to lay out a place to build a grist mill :
"We have surveyed and laid out land and premises as followeth: Beginning at the S. W. corner of the piece of land laid out for a burying place; thence E. 24 S. 20 rods to the S. E. corner of said burying place; thence N. 24 E. 8 rods to the N. E. corner of said burying place; thence E. 24 S. 8 rods to a stake and stones standing in the south line of the highway that goes from Canaan into said Norfolk;
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
thence thirty rods to the north-east corner of Left. Samuel Gaylord's land, the lot on which he now lives; thence west- erly as said Gaylord's lot runs 40 rods to a hemlock tree and stones standing in said line; thence a straight line to the first bounds began at: and also we recommend to said proprietors that the person who bids off said privilege shall
+ have liberty of laying out five acres for pondage. *
It is that piece of land left for pondage where there is a dam built on said river. And also we do recommend to said proprietors that the same land and premises be set up at public vandue, and the person or persons who shall bid and secure the same bid to said proprietors, the most for said land and privilege of said mill place shall have the same for his or their own proper estate as a fee simple on the condi- tions hereafter named, viz .: Provided the purchaser or pur- chasers shall make and build a good grist mill on said stream, and the same have fit for grinding by ye first of September next, and also have a good lawn and give suit- able attendance during ye pleasure of sd proprietors; said lawn to have by the 1st of March, 1758; and in failure there- of, the said land and privilege still to remain in the hands of said proprietors, and for their own use to dispose of as though nothing had been here acted. Witness our hands."
DANIEL LAWRENCE, Jr. EZRA KNAP. JOSHUA WHITNEY.
February 20, 1757. Committee."
At the same meeting they appointed a committee to make the third division of two 50 acre lots to each right, as before, to employ a surveyor, and laid a tax of 20s. on a right to defray expenses.
"May 17, 1757, at a Proprietors' meeting at the house of Joshua Whitney, appointed a committee of three to look into the affair of a place for Iron Works in Norfolk, with power to lease out said place for said Iron Works to him or them who shall build the same and keep in good repair
steadily making iron. * * Said committee has power hereby to lay out 80 acres of land in the common land after
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
the third division is completed, and make a proper lease for 999 years from the date of said lease, to him or them who shall build said Iron Works, taking security that shall oblige them to keep said works in good repair for the space of fifteen years next coming, the said Iron Works to be built and made fit to make iron steadily in Norfolk by September 1st, 1758."
November 2, 1757, the drawing of the third division of land, two 50 acre lots to each right, was held.
"Voted, that no person carry out of Norfolk any stones fit for mill stones, without liberty of committee of common lands. That 150 days' work be done on the highways at the proprietors' cost. That if so much remain of the grant for laying out the third division, and a plan of the township, that £10 shall be appropriated to procure preaching in Nor- folk, 10s. for each Sabbath, provided the inhabitants pay one-half of ye preaching during the time. Joshua Whitney, Isaac Pettibone and Cornelius Dowd were committee to procure preaching."
"May 24, 1758. Appointed a committee to lay out the white pine timber land lying in the northwest part of Norfolk, bounded east on land of Abraham Barden, north on David Phelps and Jonathan Humphrey, west on Ebenezer and Ezra Knap. Fifty-two lots to be laid out in said place which is yet common, each proprietor to hold one part in severalty, and to draw for the same. This drawing Dec., 1758."
Joshua Whitney received the grist mill privilege and commenced building the mill, but sold it to Abel Phelps early in 1759, who finished the mill and ran it for several years.
"September 5, 1759, a meeting was held at Giles Petti- bone's house, when they voted to proceed to a fourth di- vision of the lands, 60 acres to each proprietor in two 30 acre lots, to be laid by pitching, in this way: 52 tickets to be made, and each proprietor shall draw for his pitch. None to proceed to pitch until Oct. 1st next. He that draws ticket No. 1 shall have the liberty of said 1st day of October to lay
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
his lot, and shall have the last pitch in the second 30 acre lots, and so on; no survey to be esteemed good and authentic unless surveyed by a surveyor and two committee men, by them signed and dated, giving the meets and bounds, length and breadth. (Benajah Douglas drew ticket No. 1, Titus Brown No. 31, Giles Pettibone No. 38, etc.) At the same meeting it was recorded that, "In 1757 a committee was ap- pointed to lease out and give conveyance of 80 acres of the undivided land, to some suitable person who would build a good iron works in Norfolk and the same have fit for making iron by September 1, 1758, and no person hath per- formed the business; and also this propriety sequestered a piece of land west of that piece of land which Mr. Abel Phelps has built a grist-mill on; now we vote and agree to take off the sequestration to the west piece of land, and vote to give it to any person or persons that will build a good sufficient Iron Works in said Norfolk and have the same fit and make iron by September 1, 1761, and our com- mittee shall lay out said 80 acres in the common land and give conveyance as formerly voted. The land west of said grant on which said Phelps' grist-mill now stands, includ- ing the west sequestration, bounds South on ye 23d lot in 1st division 1st going over; west on a highway, and north on the highway that goes to Canaan. And the same be laid by our said committee to him or them that shall undertake and preform said business, taking the security as above and in part of said 80 acres; the residue in the common land. Benajah Douglas, Joshua Whitney and George Palmer, committee, is fully impowered to preform the above busi- ness, having regard that the burying place be not infringed on."
At a Proprietor's meeting May 7, 1760, at the house of Giles Pettibone, "Voted that we will and do accept the re- port of Benajah Douglas and George Palmer this day made respecting building Iron Works, and establish their doings respecting leasing ye said works to Samuel Forbes, and privileges of the land that they have leased."
There appears from the records to have been a want of
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK.
harmony in the action of the committee in leasing the land for the Iron Works to Mr. Forbes,-the names of only two of the committee being given in the report which was ac- cepted by the meeting.
What the trouble was appears a little later.
"Voted, whereas Timothy Horsford has laid out a 30 acre pitch of land which we judge he has not the right to lay out said 30 acres, and we will defend Samuel Forbes in the possession of said land which said committee hath laid for said Forbes, and be at the cost if any shall arise respecting Forbes' quiet possession of said land. And we judge the same was sequestered before said Horsford laid his said 30 acres. This propriety had voted liberty to our committee to lay said land for the use of ye Iron works, and the same was bounded by said propriety's vote."
"Whereas Benajah Douglas is deceased, and George Palmer and said Douglas had not fully completed the affair with Samuel Forbes respecting leasing out the land, etc., to said Forbes respecting Iron works, we do now appoint Deacon Michael Humphrey to join said Palmer in complet- ing said business with said Forbes, and their doings shall be esteemed good and authentic as fully as Douglas and Palmer could."
Then follows this Protest :
"We, the subscribers, proprietors of Norfolk, in public proprietors' meeting May 7, 1760, being dissatisfied with the vote of the proprietors this day respecting ye report of the committee respecting Iron Works in Norfolk, do protest that said proprietors by their vote cannot give away an- other's land, and protest against ye proprietors voting to give away our land, or doing anything about ye same or any part thereof without our mutual consent.
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