USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 7
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
South of Huntington's corner was a ravine, with a pitch of several feet, through which, in times of abundant rain, another gurgling stream, formed by rivulets trickling down from Sentry Hill, passed into the dense alder swamp below.
South of this ravine was the allotment of Thomas Adgate, whose land met that of Olmstead at the corner, completing the circle of home-lots around the central block.
Opposite the homestead of Adgate a branch of the town street ascended Sentry Hill and came down again to the main road below the corner, in the line of the old Indian trail toward the fords of the Yantic.
Upon this side road near where it came into the Town street, was the
65
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
lot of Sergt. Thomas Leffingwell, twelve acres, with an additional pasture lot of ten acres, with Indian wigwams then upon it, "abutting easterly upon the rocks." The house lot was eighty-six rods in length upon the narrow highway. The residence of the late Judge Hyde (originally a Leffingwell mansion,) stands on this old house lot; but the first house built upon it by the ancient proprietor is supposed to have stood on the opposite side of the road, founded upon a rock and sheltered by the hill.
Sergt. Leffingwell was peculiarly the soldier and guardsman of the new town, and Sentry Hill was the look-out post, commanding the customary Indian route from Narragansett to Mohegan. A sentry box was built on the summit, and in times of danger and excitement a constant watch was kept from the height. Here too, in the war with Philip, a small guard- house was built, sufficient for some ten or twelve soldiers to be housed. It has of late been called Center Hill, an unconscious change from Sen- try, that has probably obtained currency from the supposition that the name referred to its position among other elevations in this multitude of hills. Nor is the name at present inapplicable, this being not far from the center of the modern township, though by no means central in refer- ence to the original nine miles square.
North of Leffingwell, and stretching toward Ox Hill, grants were laid out to Richard Hendy, Josiah Reed, and Richard Wallis, with the com- mons 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. This homestead is still in the occupation of his descendants, and the house itself in its frame-work is doubtless the original habitation built by the first grantee.
John Reynolds, southeast of Thomas Bliss, six acres ; bounded south by the highway to the old landing-place, i. e., mill-lane. This is another homestead which has descended by inheritance to the present generation.
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 settlement into East and West Ends, the proprietors were arranged along the street and river, west of Major Mason, in the following order :
Thomas Waterman, seven acres.
Thomas Bingham, four acres ; a strip running from the street to the river.
Jolın Post, six acres.
The meadow land of Waterman and his neighbor Post is incidentally mentioned at an early date. This meadow, which lay in the rear of the old Waterman and Post homesteads, has recently become the seat of a large manufacturing establishment. 5
66
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The Waterman house was nearly opposite the residence of the late Dr. Turner. The Post house stood by the side of a noisy rivulet that crossed the street and leaped down to the glen below. The older portion of the house still standing on the spot, is supposed to have been a part of the original dwelling built by the first John Post.
John Birchard, seven and one-fourth acres : sixteen rods and eleven feet in front. Mr. Birchard's house is supposed to be the one still extant at the entrance of Hammer-brook lane, and, taken as a whole, is without doubt the most ancient house remaining in Norwich. It has had various owners and occupants, but no lean-tos, porches, additions or improvements of any kind have changed its original outward form. According to tradi- tion, it 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 aeres : 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 situation uncertain, was the lot of Morgan Bowers. Probably his house was in Hammer-brook lane.
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, near the present residence of Henry B. Tracy. The father and son prob- ably formed but one family. The Mansfield house, built by one of the later Hydes, on a part of the old home-lot, has descended to the present owner by inheritance on the maternal side from the Hydes, and has never been conveyed out of the family.
Next west of Robert Wade, on the river side of the street, was the home-lot of John Gager, eleven and a half acres; part of it a dense swamp, and Hammer brook running through it.
Thomas Post, adjoining Gager, on the upland, six acres; "a burying- place excepted that lyeth within his lot, and also a way to it."
On the other side of the street were the locations of Nehemiah Smith [fifteen acres ] and Thomas Howard, with Hammer brook running between them.
Beyond Thomas Post on the northwest, with lots reaching from the town street to the river, were the following proprietors in regular suc- cession :
Richard Edgerton, six acres; William Backus, six; Hugh Calkins, six ; John Calkins, four and three-fourths; Francis Griswold, seven ; Kobert Allyn, five ; Jonathan Royce, six ; John Baldwin, 5; John Tracy, twelve; John Pease, seven, with the river on the northwest, west and south.
FIRST HOUSE LOTS 1660.
Pease
J. Tracy
Baldwin
Royce
Allyn
Griswold
J.Calkins
Edgerton
Howard
Gager
N. Smith
Birchard
S.Hyde
J.Post
W.Hyde
Bingham
Waterman
Mason
Gifford
Huntington
Fitch
S.
Olmstead
T.
Bradford
Tracy
S. Backus
Ch!
Adga+ Huntington
Bliss
Read
Reynolds
Lothrop
Bushnell
Hendy
Leffingwell
Wallis
S
E
T. Post
Wade
Bowers
H.Calkins
W
--- N
68
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
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 reckoned original proprietors.
As heretofore intimated, several of these first home-lots, or parts of them-those of William Hyde, Simon Huntington, Thomas Leffingwell, Thomas Bliss, and John Reynolds-shorn indeed of their original dimen- sions and of their first-built dwellings, but each a portion of the original grant of November, 1659, and with a representative house upon it, the most recent of which dates backward more than a century, remain in the possession and occupancy of descendants, having never been alienated, sold, or purchased, but descending by inheritance to the present day. In a country where the tenure is allodial and there are no rights of primo- geniture or laws of entailment, instances of two hundred years of family ownership are not very common. Similar examples are to be found among the farms within the Nine-miles-square, but the home-lots above named are supposed to be all that claim the distinction within the present bounds of Norwich.
After the first thirty-eight proprietors, the next inhabitants who come in as grantees of the town, are John Elderkin and Samuel Lothrop. Elder- kin had two home-lots granted him in remuneration of services. The first grant of 1667 was laid out in the town plot, but being at too great a dis- tance from his business, it was conveyed, with consent of the townsmen, to Samuel Lothrop, 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 Lothrop 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 Lothrop, Leffing- well, Adgate, and Bushnell, leading 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 together at the east end of the town plot.
The first Samuel Lothrop appears to have erected a house on the town street before 1670. The house built by Dr. Daniel Lathrop* about the year 1745, probably stands on the same site.
Samuel Lothrop, 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 sup- posed to have built the house that subsequently belonged to Col. Simon Lathrop, and still later to Rufus Lathrop Huntington. A noted pine-tree,
* Now Mrs. Gilman's.
69
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
originally of great size and height, stood near and pointed out the site even after the house was demolished. But within a few years, this interesting landmark, the old Lathrop pine, reminding us of the stout Louisburg Colonel, has disappeared.
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 Bushnell, sons of Mrs. Adgate. These are all ranked as first-comers, taking part in the affairs of the first generation.
Richard Bushnell's residence stood conspicuously upon the side-hill, where is now the mansion of Daniel W. Coit, Esq. Courts of larger or lesser significance 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 proprietary 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 Leb- anon ; and in 1668, the third, upon Quinebaug river. After a few 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 another, 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.
The impression made by the scenery upon the minds of the planters, at their first arrival, must have been on the whole of a hopeful though solemn character. The frowning ledges of rock, with which the place so pecul- iarly abounds, and the immense preponderance of forest, chastened the landscape almost into gloom. Many of the rocky heights were rendered impervious with stunted cedar, spruce, hemlock, juniper, savin, and the whole family of evergreen trees. The uplands and declivities were cov- ered with groves of oak, walnut, chestnut and maple, and having been partially cleared of underwood, were designated as Indian hunting grounds. The lowlands were dense with alder, willow, hazlenut, and other shrubs ; and the plains, now so smooth and grassy, were rough with bogs and stumps, mullein, thistle, and various unsightly weeds. The inequalities of the ground were much greater than at present. Running waters now scantily trickling down the rocks, or murmuring over a few small stones, were then rushing torrents, and the little brooks that creep under the streets in concealed channels, were broad streams, to be forded with care, or avoided by tedious circuits. Flowering plants and shrubs were com-
70
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
paratively abundant, and the settlers must have been regaled with a suc- cession of scents and blossoms, from the arbutus, the shad-flower, the dog- wood, the early honeysuckle, and the laurel, which, at the time of their removal, were in bloom. Birds and animals of almost every species belonging to the climate, were numerous to an uncommon degree. The evening air often brought with it from the dingles and swamps of the neighborhood, low howlings or melancholy whines, mingled with the hoots and plaints of owl and screech-owl, or the less demonstrative but more nerve-trying hiss and rattle of the venomous serpent tribes.
To complete the view, it may be added, that the streams swarmed with fish and wild fowl; in the brooks and meadows were found the beaver and the otter ; and through the whole scene stalked at intervals the Indian and the deer.
On this spot the hardy race of Puritans sat down with a determination to make the wilderness smile around them, to build up the institutions of religion and education, and to leave their children members of a secure and cultivated community. They were a fearless and resolute people, most of them being men of tried fortitude and experience, upright and devout, industrious and enterprising. Though assembled from many dif- ferent places, they were bound together by a common faitlı, a common interest, and a common danger. They were an associated body, both in their civil and ecclesiastical capacity, and only a few weeks were necessary to give them the form and stability of a well-ordered society.
There was a peculiarity in the foundation of Norwich, that distinguishes it from most other settlements 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, car- rying 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 endurance, manly toil, and serene intelligence, set- tled with them, inspiring and efficient though quiet housemates. In the early days of the township, the inhabitants 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 wilderness, and the hearts of all were strengthened with the constant cheer of gospel promises. All the enactments 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.
CHAPTER V.
NAME OF THE TOWN. FIRST THINGS AND EARLY CUSTOMS.
THE name, Norwich, was probably selected for the new township before the actual settlement, but it did not come immediately into familiar use. For the first two or three years it was generally known as the new town- ship of Mohegan. The earliest notice of the English name upon the rec- ords of the General Court is in March, 1660-1, where "the Constable at Seabrook " is required to levy a certain sum "upon ye estates of such at Norridge as are defective in their rates."*
The settlement appears to have been accepted and enrolled as a legal township, under the government of Connecticut, in May, 1662. The act is omitted in the records of the General Court, but during the session of October preceding, the following order was issued :
" This Court orders ye Secretary to write a letter to Norridge, to send vp a Comit- tee in May next invested with full [power] to issue ye affair respecting settling that Plantation vnder this Goverment."t
The name was undoubtedly bestowed in honorable remembrance of Norwich in England; but why? Was it suggested by resemblance of situation, or was there anything about the old English city so becoming and acceptable to the minds of these dwellers in the wilderness, that they wished their settlement to become a New-Norwich ? The most natural supposition is, that the prominent persons engaged in the new plantation came from old Norwich, and wished to perpetuate the familiar name by giving it to their American home. But as yet, no such connection has been traced between the ancient city and the new settlement, except through the brothers Huntington, and even with them the link is uncer-
* Conn. Col. Rec., 1, 362.
t Ibid., 1, 374. In early records it is often called New-Norwich. In a journal kept by Thomas Miner of Stonington, and preserved by his descendants in MS., there are, from 1662 to 1676, fifteen references to Norwich, but they are chiefly bare memoran- dums of going thither, with nothing suggestive about them but the variations in spell- ing the name. In three places it is correct; the other changes are Norwitch, Nor- which, Norwige, Norwig, Norige.
72
LISTORY OF NOT.W. C ..
tain or slight. Major Mason was the controlling spirit of the party, and without doubt the name was either suggested in the first place by him, or sanctioned by his special favor. If Norwich, the capital of Norfolk Co., England, had been the place of his nativity, it would be easy to account for the planting of the name in this new soil. But it is not known where Major Mason was born.
The original meaning of the word Norwich, renders its application to the new township strikingly appropriate. It is derived from North-wic, a Saxon name, signifying North-Castle, and the formidable piles of rocks found here, some of them crowned with the stone forts of the Indians, are forcibly suggestive of walls, towers and battlements.
Mill. In settling a plantation, one of the first necessities to be pro- vided for was the grinding of corn. Maize was the common grain, and a mill was indispensable.
The earliest town act of which any record has been recovered, bears the date of Dec. 11, 1660. It is the renewal of a contract stated to have been made at Saybrook, Feb. 26, 1655,* [probably should be 1659-60,] between John Elderkin on the one hand, and "the town of Moheagan ' 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 $20. The toll allowed was to be 7g, 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 proprietor, 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 perpet- ual fountain of sweet waters, 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
* This date, 1655, is a mistake of the recorder. In 1701, a controversy having arisen between the Town and the second John Elderkin respecting the mill, a com- mittee was appointed to review what was called the old Covenant with Elderkin, and give a clear statement of the case. In their report they affirm that Elderkin was obli- gated to maintain a mill for the use of the town, or forfeit the lands and privileges appertaining to the mill. To the record of this report a notice is appended, that the old agreement with Elderkin, "bearing date 1655, the town do now declare to be an error in the date." The true date is not given, but probably it was during the winter of 1659-60.
73
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
referred to in the early records, with circumstances indicating that they were locally grouped together.
Forty acres on the south side of the Little Plain side-hills, upon the cove, were given to the mill, " to lye to it with the Landing Place, for the use of the town," and to be improved by John Elderkin, the miller.
This grant covered the Indian burying-place, and was coupled with a reservation that the Indians should have free access to the spot, and the right of sepulture-privileges which it may be inferred from this stipula- tion the town had promised to Uncas. The grant extended over the greater part of what is now Washington street. It was afterwards pur- chased by Col. Simon Lathrop.
First Births. Elizabeth Hyde, born in August, 1660,* was the first- born child of the plantation. The parents, Samuel Hyde and Jane Lee, had been married the preceding year at Saybrook. The house where this first daughter of Norwich opened her eyes upon the world, stood on a declivity sloping to the town street, with higher land in the back ground, bristling with massive rocks and heavily shadowed with chestnut and oak. This homestead remained in the Hyde family for five generations, the last occupant of the name being Elisha Hyde, Esq., Mayor of the city.}
The second offspring of the plantation was also a female-Anne, daugh- ter of Thomas Bliss, born in September, 1660.
Elizabeth Hyde married Richard Lord of Saybrook.
Anne Bliss married Josiah Rockwell.
The first-born male child was Christopher, son of Christopher and Ruth Huntington, Nov. 1. There is no record of any other births during the year 1660.
The following occurred during the first five years of the settlement. They were not registered at the time, but are gathered from subsequent records. This list may not comprise the whole number of births during that period, but no others have been traced.
1661. Sarah, dr. of John Birchard; Deborah, dr. of Francis Griswold ; both born in May. Sarah Birchard died young. Deborah Griswold 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, Feb. 9. John, son of Richard Edgerton, June 12.
* In the town registry of these ancient births, the day of the month is seldom given. Mr. Birchard, the first clerk, was very remiss in this respect.
t The present residence of H. B. Tracy, Esq.
.
74
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
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 August. She married Simon Huntington, who was born at Saybrook in 1659.
Samuel, 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 Edgerton, above named, (born 1662.)
Abigail, dr. of John Post, Nov. 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.
Deaths. The earliest death on record is that of Sarah, wife of Thomas Post, who died in March, 1661, and was buried in a corner of her hus- band's home-lot, "adjoining Goodman Gadger's lot."
The elder William Backus was probably the second person, at least the second of mature age, summoned from the plantation. His will is dated June 12, 1661, and though the time of his death is not known, it may be inferred that he died shortly afterward. The arrangements of the will show that the testator considered himself near death. The homestead which he left to Stephen is recorded to the latter with the date 1661. Moreover, the testator nowhere appears after that period, and his son, William Backus, is mentioned in 1662 without the distinction of junior.
Marriages. Of the first marriage in the plantation no special informa- tion has come down to us, either by record or tradition. Most of the proprietors were men of mature years, with considerable families, and among the younger class several marriages had taken place at Saybrook within two or three years previous, in anticipation of the settlement. Thomas Post was married to his second wife, Rebecca, daughter of Oba- diah Bruen, Sept. 2, 1663, but the rite was undoubtedly performed at her father's house in New London. We may therefore conclude that the first nuptial ceremony within the bounds of the new plantation, was that in which its widowed minister, the Rev. James Fitch, was united to Pris- cilla Mason. This was in October, 1664, and as the marriage service was then commonly performed by a magistrate, we may suppose that Major Mason himself officiated upon the occasion.
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.