USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 40
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
Before sailing, she was thus advertised in the Gazette, Nov. 17, 1778:
" The fine new ship Governor Trumbull, Henry Billings commander, now lying in the harbor of New London, mounting 20 carriage guns, will sail in six days, &c. Ap- ply on board, or to Howland & Coit, Norwich."
Her capture was announced in the tory paper at New York.
April 5, 1779. " The rebel frigate Trumbull is taken by the Venus and sent into St. Kitts."
The Venus herself was originally an American ship called the Bunker Hill, captured by the British, and her name changed.
The Confederacy, a continental ship of 32 guns, was one of two frigates ordered by Congress to be built in Connecticut, under the direction of the Governor and Council of Safety .* It was constructed at Norwich by Jedediah Willett, under the superintendence of Major Joshua Hunting- ton, who, as agent of the State, procured materials and workmen. She
* The other was the Trumbull, 28 guns, and built at Chatham in Connecticut river.
405
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
was built chiefly of tory-timber; the oak for her keel having been brought from the confiscated land of William Browne, in Salem, Ct .; locust trees for her trunnels were felled from a lot in New London, owned by a Bos- ton royalist ; and planks from the confiscated groves of other refugees performed their part in fashioning her hull and laying her deck. She was launched Nov. 8, 1778, and towed down the river on the 30th to be rigged and recruited at New London .*
Capt. Seth Harding was the first and only American commander of the Confederacy. She was ordered to France, carrying as passengers, Mr. Jay, the American minister, and Count de Gerard, a French envoy, but had not been long out when she encountered a furious gale, in which she rolled over, lost her masts, and though she righted again, was forced to steer for the nearest friendly port in the West Indies, to refit.
The following notice is from the Martinico Gazette of Dec. 16, 1779:
" The Continental Frigate Confederacy, 40 guns, Capt. Harding, came into our road. She left Philadelphia Oct. 27, destined for France, met with a gale on the banks of Newfoundland,t lost hier masts, had six feet of water in the hold, and arrived in the midst of perils. The Count de Gerard, late minister from the Court of France to the United States, and his Excellency John Jay, who goes to represent the States at the Court of Madrid, were on board.
" They [the ambassadors] sailed from Martinico for France Nov. 28, in the French frigate L'Aurore."
The Confederacy refitted at Martinico, and returned home. She was next sent to Cape François for clothing and other supplies for the army, and on the homeward voyage encountered two vessels of the enemy, a ship of the line and a frigate, to which she surrendered June 22, 1781. The British slightly changed her name, calling her the Confederate, and sent her to England as convoy to a fleet of transports, and with nearly 100 prisoners on board, consisting chiefly of the crews of two New Lon- don privateers which they had taken.
The privateering business not only kept the harbor of New London lively with its shifting scenes, but gave animation to all eastern Connecti- cut. Many spirited seamen were gathered from the banks of the Thames and of its branches. Capt. Thomas Parke, Nathan Moore, Nathan Pe-
* In the accounts of Joshua Huntington, the charges to the ship Confederacy amounted to £29,369.18.10; commission upon this, £1,453.9.10: total, £30,823.8.8. A number of Indians were among the workmen, who were all paid by the day, though at varying rates. Uneas, Ashpow, Quocheets, Wyox and other Mohegan names ap- pear among the workmen and crew. "Nick the fiddler" was also one of the " Con- federacy people."
t Cooper in his Naval History says that this disaster occurred east of Bermuda,- which is probably a mistake. Vol. 1, p. 195.
406
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
ters, Jeremiah Halsey, Ransford Rose, took part in the contest by cruises at sea, as well as by campaigns on land.
The most extensive shipping firm in Norwich was that of Howland & Coit. Jabez and Hezekiah Perkins were among the earliest cruisers of the war. The latter made a successful voyage to Holland and France in the letter-of-marque sloop Maria, of six guns, owned by Howland & Coit. Capt. William Wattles performed several gallant exploits in a small pri- vateer sloop belonging to Norwich, called the Phenix. In one of his expeditions he took a brig from Europe, with a valuable cargo, and sold the whole in Carolina before coming home. Unfortunately he was at last taken by the enemy and carried to Halifax, where most of his men lan- guished and died in the terrible Mill-Island prison, victims of close con- finement and starvation. At a later period of the war, Capt. Wattles was in command of the privateer Comet, and in March, 1782, on a return voyage from the West Indies, was captured a second time by the enemy. He was however soon exchanged, and in July of that year sailed for Am- sterdam in "the remarkable fast sailing and every way complete Letter of Marque brigantine Thetis." This was a prize vessel, fitted out by How- land & Coit, and sent on a trading voyage to the Texel.
The privateering business was pre-eminently one of uncertainty and hazard; strikingly varied with quick success and sudden reverse. Most of the adventurers from Norwich and New London were captured, impris- oned and exchanged during the war, and some of them more than once ; for no sooner were they released from bonds than they were ready for another chance,-acting ever upon the obstinate principle of up and at them again.
In the West India trade also, safe and remunerative voyages alternated witli loss and capture. This trade resembled the continual running of a blockade. Several of the Norwich ship-masters fell with their craft into the hands of the enemy. Of these we can name Jabez and Hezekiah Perkins, Thomas King, Ebenezer Lester, William Loring, Jabez Lord, and Elisha Lathrop. We get a few gleams of these vicissitudes from old account-books and the weekly newspapers. Capt. Elisha Lathrop was one of those who kept afloat and had a liberal share of both good and bad fortune. In August, 1781, while in the privateer sloop Mercury, he was taken and carried into New York. In February, 1782, in a trading voyage to Virginia, he was captured and carried to Charleston, which was then in possession of the enemy. His next voyage was to Guadaloupe, which he accomplished during the summer, and returned in safety Sept. .6th. On the 18th of October he sailed again, and the next announcement respecting him briefly states :
" Capt. Elisha Lathrop in a brig from Norwich, bound to the West Indies, is cap- tured and carried to Bermuda."
407
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
A few other scattered marine items belonging to this period may here find a place.
Capt. Davison left the river in a small coasting sloop, Nov. 13, 1781, bound to Boston. In rounding Cape Cod, he was blown off by strong northerly winds, driven out to sea, and after thirty-one days arrived at Guadaloupe ; lis crew in a famishing state for want of provisions. He encountered upon the ocean neither friend nor foe ; sold his sloop well, and returned in a Boston brig.
In April, 1782, Capt. Meech of Preston in a galley from Poquetannock slipped into Fire Island inlet on the Long Island coast, and captured three British coasters, one of which he engaged to ransom for £500; £150 being paid upon the spot and divided among the crew. But before the victors could get away with their spoil, several British galleys appeared off the inlet, retook the prizes, and to prevent the capture of their own galley, the Americans scuttled and sunk her, escaping themselves by land.
The privateer brigs Young Cromwell and Favorite were principally owned in Norwich, and for three years, from 1779 to 1781, were very successful in their trips, and brought in numerous prizes. The Cromwell was successively commanded by Captains Wattles, Hillard, Buddington, Reed, and Cook. She carried ten 3-pounders and thirty-eight men, and with this force captured a tory privateer called the Success, which carried eight 4-pounders, one 12-pounder in the bow, and forty-five men. She brought in her last prize Nov. 1, 1781. In her next cruise she was taken and her crew thrown into the New York fatal prison-ship, where seven- teen of the number died of pestilential fever. In May, Capt. Cook escaped by dropping himself overboard during the night and swimming to the shore, from whence he made his way home in safety. A few weeks afterward he embarked in the schooner Turn-of-times on a trading voyage to Demerara, but was again captured, and carried to Bermuda.
The brig Favorite was captured in September, 1781, by the British frigate Iris, and sent into New York.
In January, 1782, Capt. Thomas King sailed for the West Indies in a new sloop. On the voyage a tropical storm and a hostile vessel came bearing down upon him at the same time. In striving to escape the enemy he was upset by the hurricane, and his sloop left a total wreck. He and his men were taken off by the British, and carried prisoners to Antigua.
Thomas Mumford was the chief owner of the noted brig Hancock, Peter Richards master. This was originally a prize vessel, called by its British owners The Whim.
The ship Fortune, Henry Billings, commander, was built at Norwich in 1781. She lay at New London, nearly ready to sail "for Hispaniola, France, and a cruise," when the town and shipping were burnt by Arnold. The Fortune and a few other vessels escaped up the river.
408
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The following list of prize vessels sold at Norwich by auction during the latter part of the war, is collected from the newspapers of the day :
July, 1779. Ship Otter of 200 tons, and sloop Lord Howe, 30 tons, with their ap- purtenances and cargoes.
June 12, 1781. Ship Hunter, 200 tons, English built : bought by merchants in Mid- dletown, and immediately fitted at New London for a cruise; she mounted eighteen six-pounders. Brig Pontus, 90 tons, almost new.
July 13. Brig Neptune, built in New Hampshire ; recaptured by the Young Crom- well; mounting 14 carriage guns. Brig Society, 150 tons ; "well found and a fast sailer."
Aug. 28. Ship Polly, 250 tons. Schooner Hazzard, 60 tons. Schooner Surprize, 70 tons. Schooner Lucy, 40 tons. Schooner Favorite, a Virginia pilot-boat, 20 tons. Brigantine Despatch, 120 tons.
Oct. 4. Ship Achilles, British built, 270 tons. Ship Williamson, 300 tons.
Oct. 30. Brigantine Peggy, captured by the Young Cromwell and the Samson,- British built.
Nov. 22. Letter-of marque schooner Betsey, 80 tons, Virginia built, "lately cap- tured by the Young Cromwell."
1782, May 23. Sloop Polly, Virginia built, 70 tons; brigantine Alligator, 120 tons, and a small sloop,-all captured by the privateer Randolph.
June 25. Brigantines William, copper-bottomed, 100 tons ; Thetis, Virginia built, 100 tons ; Catharine and Mary, and a sloop of 30 tons.
An advertisement from the Norwich Packet may be quoted in verifica- tion of the statement that the direct intercourse of the Norwich merchants with continental Europe was not wholly intermitted during the war.
" The prime sailing Letter-of-Marque sloop Maria, Bermuda-built, mounting six carriage guns, Hezekiah Perkins master, will sail in about three weeks for France or Holland. Any persons desirous of sending bills of exchange on France, may depend on having them negotiated in the best manner. Apply to said Perkins, on board his vessel at New London, or to Howland & Coit in Norwich."-Jan. 25, 1779.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
ARNOLD, THE TRAITOR. SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION.
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
BENEDICT ARNOLD was born Jan. 3, 1741. His parents had pre- viously lost a son of the same name, and of their six children, only Ben- edict and a daughter Hannah lived to maturity.
Benedict Arnold, Sen., and his brother Oliver, were natives of Rhode Island, and coopers by trade, but became seamen, and as each had the title of Captain, it is inferred that they rose to the rank of ship-masters. They appear to have been honest, reputable citizens. Benedict took an interest in public affairs, serving occasionally in town offices, as collector, lister, surveyor, constable, and selectman.
Soon after he came to Norwich, he married (Nov. 8, 1733,) the youth- ful widow of Absalom King; a woman of pleasing person and estimable character, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Lathrop) Waterman. The inscription upon her grave-stone commemorates his affectionate remem- brance of her worth.
In Memory of HANNAH the well beloved wife of Capt. BENEDICT ARNOLD and Daughter of Mr. John and Mrs. Elizabeth Waterman. She was a Pattern of Piety, Patience and Virtue, Who died Aug. 15, 1758, ætatis suæ 52.
Tradition allows that in this case the epitaph does not exaggerate the truth. "Benedict Arnold's mother," said one who had been connected with the family, "was a saint on earth, and is now a saint in heaven."
The following is a literal copy (except in orthography) of a letter from her to her son Benedict, while he was at school in Canterbury :
410
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
To Mr. Benedict Arnold at Canterbury.
NORWICH, April 12, 1754.
Dear child. I received yours of the Ist instant, and was glad to hear that you was well ; pray, my dear, let your first concern be to make your peace with God, as it is of all concerns of the greatest importance.
Keep a steady watch over your thoughts, words and actions. Be dutiful upe riors, obliging to equals, and affable to inferiors, if any such there be. Always choose that your companions be your betters, that by their good examples you may learn.
From your affectionate mother,
HANNAH ARNOLD.
P. S. I have sent you 50s. Your father put in 20 more .- use it prudently, as you are accountable to God and your father. Your father and aunt join with me in love and service to Mr. Cogswell and lady and yourself. Your sister is from home.
It is lamentable to think that the son of such a mother, and the recip- ient of such wholesome instruction, should have become a proud, obstinate and unprincipled man; leaving behind him a name and character infa- mous in the sight of his country, and spotted with violence, corruption and treason.
Capt. Benedict Arnold, the father, died in 1761.
The house in which Benedict was born stood about half way between the older part of the town and Chelsea society. It was demolished in October, 1853, but a few years before was in a good state of preservation, and exhibited in many parts, tokens of the mischievous boyhood of Ben- edict, in whittlings, brands and hatchet-cuts upon the beams, planks, and doors. The letters B. A. and B. Arnold were stamped upon it in various places. This house had a variety of occupants after the Arnolds left it. It was sold March 31, 1764, by Benedict Arnold of New Haven to Capt. Hugh Ledlie of Windham, (with the home-lot of five and a half acres,) for £700. Capt. Ledlie's wife fell into a state of deplorable insanity, which rendered confinement necessary, and this misfortune with its attend- ant circumstances, being probably exaggerated by rumor, obtained for the house a notorious and superstitious reputation.
In the year 1775, Dea. William Philips, of Boston, the father of Lieut. Governor Philips, removed his family to Norwich, and occupied the Ar- nold house till after the British retired from Boston. Its next occupant was Mr. Malbone of Newport, who also came to Norwich to seek a refuge from the bustle and violence of war. The misfortunes of this family and the seclusion in which they lived, rather added to the fearful character which the house had acquired. It was said that seven of the name, and all nearly connected, had died within the short period of eighteen months. About ten years before the family removed to Norwich, that is, in 1767, the brig Dolphin, of Newport, owned by one of the Malbones, and com- manded by another, took fire off Point Judith, as it was returning from Jamaica, and was entirely consumed. Such was the violence of the
411
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
flames, and the rapidity of their work, that all communication was cut off between the deck and cabin, and in the latter three ladies and two child- ren perished. Those on deck escaped in boats. This, and other misfor- tunes connected with the family, had made the name almost ominous of calamity. The house was afterwards occupied by Col. Moore from New York, the father of Richard Channing Moore, the revered Bishop of Vir- ginia. The Moore family was large, and their dwelling had the reputa- tion of being the seat of hospitality and festive enjoyment. Col. Moore died at Norwich, June 19, 1784 ; his remains were removed the next year to New York, and interred in Trinity church-yard.
Two of the sons, John and Benjamin Moore, remained several years longer in Norwich ; the latter as a practitioner in physic. In 1790, John Moore was living in the Arnold house, and the census returns show that his family consisted of ten persons. He was then a prominent merchant of the place, but removed about 1793.
The occupants of the Arnold house were so often changed, that public rumor ascribed it to the supernatural sounds and sights with which it was visited. After a short experience, the bewildered residents were glad to escape from the haunted premises. At length it was left tenantless for a short time, and then purchased and repaired by Uriah Tracy, of the firm of Tracy & Coit. The house had now a native occupant : the beams and rafters, the garden and groves, were apparently appeased. The spell was broken. Mr. Tracy remained in possession for a period of forty years,- not, however, without an alarm from the invisible world, though of a dif- ferent nature from the sights and sounds that had dismayed the former inhabitants. On a warm summer's day, Sept. 2, 1800, a thunderbolt descended upon the house, shattering the windows and the mirrors, and breaking a passage out through the wall. This electric shock was per- haps necessary to purify it thoroughly from the Arnold taint .*
To return from this digression respecting the Arnold house, to the Arnold family. No one of the name in Norwich seems to have been a common-place character. Benedict, when a boy, was bold, enterprising, ambitious, active as lightning, and with a ready wit always at command. In every kind of sport, especially if mischief was to be perpetrated, he was a dauntless ringleader, and as despotic among the boys as an absolute monarch. On a day of public rejoicing for some success over the French,
* Mr. Tracy died in 1832, aged 79. His wife was a daughter of Amos Hallam of New London. She was a woman of quiet, amiable manners, and had been a favorite friend of the unfortunate Nathan Hale, but not, as has been reported, betrothed to him.
The house of Mr. James L. Ripley stands near the site of the Arnold house. The old well and its surroundings have not been altered, but remain as they were in the time of the Arnolds.
412
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Arnold, then a mere stripling, took a field-piece, and in a frolic placed it on end, so that the mouth should point upright, poured into it a large quantity of powder, and actually dropped into the muzzle, from his hand, a blazing firebrand. His activity saved him from a scorching, for though the flash streamed up within an inch of his face, he darted back and shouted huzza ! as loud as the best of the company. It is remembered also, that having, at the head of a gang of boys, seized and rolled away some valuable casks from a shop-yard, to aid in making the usual Thanks- giving bonfire, the casks were arrested on their way, by an officer sent by the owner to recover them ; upon which young Arnold was so enraged that he stripped off his coat upon the spot, and dared the constable, a stout and grave man, to fight.
At fourteen years of age he was apprenticed as a druggist to Doctors Daniel and Joshua Lathrop, and here he exhibited the same rash and fearless traits of character. A person who once remained in the shop with him during a tremendous thunder-storm, related afterwards, that at every peculiarly loud and stunning report, young Arnold would swing his hat and shout hurrah !- adding occasionally some reckless or profane ex- clamation. Once during his apprenticeship he ran away, with the design of enlisting as a soldier in the British army ; but his friends succeeded in finding him, and induced him to return to his employment .*
Miss Hannah Arnold, the sister of Benedict, was an accomplished lady, pleasing in her person, witty and affable. While the family still resided in Norwich, and of course when she was quite young, she became an object of interest and attention to a young foreigner, a transient resident of the place. His regard was reciprocated by the young lady ; but Ben- edict disliked the man, and after vainly endeavoring by milder means to break off the intimacy, he became outrageous, and vowed vengeance upon him if he ever again caught him in the house. After this the young peo- ple saw each other only by stealth, the lover timing his visits to the broth- er's absence. One evening, Benedict, who had been to New Haven, came home unexpectedly, and having entered the house without bustle, ascer- tained that the Frenchman was in the parlor with his sister. He instantly planted himself in front of the house with a loaded pistol, and commanded a servant to assail the door of the room in which they were, as if he would break it down. The young man, as Arnold expected, leaped out of the window ; the latter fired at him, but it being dark, missed his aim.
* Some of the biographers of Arnold have asserted that Dr. Lathrop was so well satisfied with his services that at the close of his apprenticeship he presented him with & bonus of £500. This is a mistake.
In Sparks' Biography of Arnold, it is said that Dr. Lemuel Hopkins was his fellow apprentice; this also is an error. It was Solomon Smith, and not Hopkins, that served with Arnold in the Lathrop drug-store.
413
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The youth escaped, but the next day left. the place, choosing rather to relinquish the lady than to run any further risk of his life. Arnold after- wards met him at the Bay of Honduras, both having gone thither on a trading voyage. A challenge was given by one or the other, and promptly accepted. They fought, and the Frenchman was severely wounded.
After leaving Dr. Lathrop, Arnold engaged in trade, and made several voyages to the West Indies as supercargo of a vessel in which he was interested. He went also to London, and returning with an assortment of drugs, books, and other goods, established himself in the retail business at New Haven. The sign of his shop was found some years since in the garret of the house where he lived, and has been lodged in the museum of the city. It is painted black, lettered in white, and has both sides alike.
B. ARNOLD, DRUGGIST,
Book-Seller &c. FROM LONDON. Sibi Totique .*
At New Haven he married a Miss Mansfield, a lady of good family, young, interesting, and accomplished, and as far as is known, his first love. He had, however, been a general favorite of the ladies, fond of their society, and floating in the gayest circles of the day. His wife died before the Revolution broke out, or about that time, leaving three child- ren, all sons.
His sister, Miss Hannah Arnold, never married. She resided with her brother, and her attachment to him remained unshaken through all his reverses and disgrace. She was doubtless convinced that in breaking off her intercourse with the French stranger, he had been influenced by a regard to her interest and happiness. After the treason and exile of her brother, she had charge of his younger sons, and they found in her a faith- ful guide and friend. She died in 1803, at Montague, in Upper Canada.
Arnold from his youth was a popular leader in martial exercises. He had attained the rank of captain in the militia, and when the news came of the battle at Lexington, he was one of the first in New Haven to arrange his business, gird on the sword, and hasten to Boston to offer his services to the country.
* "For himself and for all." The first part, for himself, is pointedly appropriate The motto has been rendered by a free translation, Wholly for himself.
414
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
His character in private life, as sketched by tradition in the place of his birth,-ostentatious, reckless, insincere and self-seeking, impetuous in act, and exaggerative in speech,-is vividly exemplified in a familiar note to Mrs. General Knox, which by some chance has been preserved. It was written before his second marriage, at a time when his proud aspirations were gratified by the favor with which he was received in fashionable circles.
WATERTOWN, 4 March, 1777.
Dear Madam : I have taken the liberty of Inclosing A Letter for the Heavenly Miss Deblois, which beg the favor of your delivering, with the Trunk of Gowns &c., which Mrs. Colburn promis'd me to Send to your House. I hope she will make no objec- tions against receiveing them. I made no doubt you will soon have the pleasure seeing the Charming Mrs. Emery, and have it in your power to give me some favour- able Iutelligence. I shall remain Under the most Anxious Suspence nntill I have the favour of a line from you, who (if I may Judge) will from your own experience, con- ceive the fond Anxiety, the Glowing hopes, and Chilling fears, that alternately possess the breast of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.