USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 9
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In October, 1661, the first deputies of the town, Thomas Leffingwell and Thomas Tracy, appear on the roll of the General Court at Hartford. There was but little fluctuation in the higher public offices at that period. A candidate once chosen and found to be competent and faithful, was gen- erally a life-long incumbent. The election of deputies was semi-annual, but for the first eleven years, the choice, with only two exceptions, was restricted to four persons :
Thomas Tracy. Thomas Leffingwell. Huglı Calkins. Francis Griswold.
The exceptions were Mr. Benjamin Brewster, chosen for one session in 1668 ; and John Mason, one in 1672.
Afterwards other proprietary names appear among the representatives, but the perpetuity of the office continued. Richard Bushnell, beginning at 1691, was chosen for 37 sessions ; Solomon Tracy for 19; and Joseph Backus for 34, beginning at 1704 and ending in 1733.
85
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
In the list of estates in 1663, Norwich was estimated at £2,571. Say- brook at the same time was valued at £8,000, and New London at £7,185. This was before the union with New Haven, when Connecticut comprised only eleven towns or plantations .* Of these, Norwich was the lowest on the list. By the union under the charter in 1665, and the addition of two or three new settlements, the towns in the Colony increased, during the next twelve years, to twenty-three; of these, Norwich was about the fif- teenth in valuation, reporting in 1676, persons 71, estates £4,598. Before 1688, the towns increased to twenty-six, and Norwich advanced to the ninth position, returning over 100 polls and upwards of £7,000 in estates. Those higher upon the list, in the order of valuation, were Hartford, New Haven, Windsor, Wethersfield, Fairfield, New London, Windsor, Strat- ford.
In 1676, the best house-lots in New London and Norwich went into the list at 25s. per acre, the poorer quality at 20s., and other fenced lands at 1s. In Saybrook and Stonington, none were estimated above 20s. per acre. This was also the highest estimate at New Haven, but at Hartford and Wethersfield the home-lots were listed at 40s. per acre.
Houses were not reckoned in the valuation of estates ; being " so charge- able to maintain," that they were exempted from taxation. Horses, four years old and upward, in 1665, were reckoned at £10, but in 1670, at £4.
In 1680, the Lords of the Council of Trade, in England, proposed cer- tain queries to the General Court of Connecticut, respecting the state of the Colony. In the answers to these questions, an allusion incidentally made to Norwich was perhaps the first public notice sent across the ocean that such a town had been established. In speaking of New London and Pequot river, the document says :
" A ship of 500 tunn may go up to the Towne, and come so near the shore that they may toss a biskit ashore : and vessells of about 30 tunn may pass up about 12 mile above New London, to or neer a town called Norwich."t
The number of towns in the Colony at this period was 26; the number of men, 2,507 ; in Norwich, 85.
In a roll of freemen of the Colony, recorded in 1669, Norwich has 25, viz .:
Thomas Adgate.
Richard Edgerton.
William Backus.
John Elderkin. Mr. James Fitch.
Thomas Leffingwell. Major John Mason. John Post.
John Baulden.
John Birchard.
Francis Griswell.
Thomas Post.
* The word Plantation was nearly synonymous with town,-not always meaning dis- tinctively a new town. To obtain the privileges of a plantation, was equivalent to incorporation as a town.
t Conn. Col. Rec., 3, 297.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Morgan Bowers. Benjamin Bruister. Hugh Calkins. John Calkins.
William Hide.
John Holmstead.
Christopher Huntington.
Simon Huntington.
John Renolds.
Jonathan Roice.
Nehemiah Smyth.
Thomas Tracey. Robert Wade.
Taken by us whose names arc underwritten this 9th of October, '69.
JOHN BAULDEN, JOHN RENOLD, Townsmen. JONATHAN ROICE, Constable .*
It is probable that the name of Thomas Bliss was accidentally omitted from this list, as he was one of those that had been propounded and accepted by the General Court, in 1664.
In 1681, eight other freemen were added to the list:
Hugh Amos. Thomas Bingham.
Thomas Howard. John Tracy.
Thomas Leffinewell, Jr.
Thomas Waterman t
Stephen Gifford.
John Mason.
In 1685, ----
Samuel Bliss.
Joseph Bushnell.
Samuel Lothrop, Jr. Solomon Tracy.
In 1662, Thomas Tracy, Thomas Adgate and Francis Griswold were chosen, with the townsmen, to try all cases to the value of 40s. These formed a Court of Commission.
In 1669, John Bradford, Simon Huntington and Thomas Leffingwell were the Commissioners, with William Backus acting as marshall.
In 1671, Ensign Thomas Tracy, Serg. Thomas Leffingwell and Hugh Calkins held the office. These were all appointed by the town.
The first Commissioner or Justice appointed by the General Court for the town was Ensign John Mason, 1672.
In 1676, Jolın Birchard.
In 1678, James Fitch and Thomas Tracy.
In 1686, Benjamin Brewster. The next year Mr. Brewster was com- missioned both for Norwich and New London, and in 1689, for Preston also.
Cases of over 40s. value, and all weighty matters, were carried before a special court, called a Court of Assistants, where a magistrate or assist- ant presided. Several Courts of Assistants were held in New London, at which Major Mason, with others of the magistrates, Wyllis, Wolcott, or Governor Leete, presided. These courts were subsequently merged in the County Court.
* Col. Rec. Conn., 2, 523.
t Ibid., 2, 154.
87
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Counties were constituted in 1666. New London County extended from Pawcatuck river "to the western bounds of Hammonassett planta- tion," comprising the four towns of Saybrook, New London, Stonington, and Norwich, with the new settlement at Hammonassett or Killingworth. New London was the shire town. The first County Court was held June 6, 1666. Major Mason presided, assisted by John Allyn, Assistant ; Thomas Stanton and Obadiah Bruen, Commissioners.
Major Mason continued to preside at the sessions of this court until Sep- tember, 1670, when he appeared for the last time on the bench.
The first Clerks of the County Court were Obadiah Bruen, Edward Palmes, and Daniel Wetherell, all of New London, and in office success- ively, each about two years. In 1673, John Birchard of Norwich was appointed Clerk of the Court, and held the office for eight or ten years.
Frequent courts, either of higher or lower grade, were an imperious necessity of the times. It was a litigious age. The early settlers were fond of appealing to the laws, and settling their disputes by writs, pleas, and judicial forms. A case in court was, with some men, little more than a customary part of the year's business. When the county consisted of only ive or six towns, frequently the list of cases for debt, trespass, dis- ordery conduct, and breach of law, amounted to forty or fifty at a single sessim of the court.
Inseveral instances, however, wherein Norwich as a town appears on the deket, the cases were such as show the prevalence of law and order in the community, rather than a fondness for litigation. Such are the fol- lowirg :
In 1671, the grand jury made a presentment of John Pease for living alon‹ and neglecting the Sabbath.
Ir 1680, an action was brought by Frederick Ellis against the towns- men for warning him out of the town after he had been made an inhabit- anty grant and possession of lands ; and also against Christopher Hunt- ingon, the Clerk, for refusing him a record of said lands, He was non- suied in the first case ; but in answer to the complaint against the clerk, the court ordered that Ellis should have a record of the land.
Prosecutions for slander, profanity, speaking evil of dignities, and other cases for which an unbridled tongue was answerable, were more frequent in the young, half-established communities of that period, than at the present day. An instance will be given for illustration, which has an additional interest from its connection with one who was then the great man of the nine-miles-square. With the exception, however, of this case, Mason vs. Richardson, the first band of Norwich proprietors furnished but little business for the courts,-preferring, it would seem, to settle the common cases of debt and trespass in a private way, or before a justice of the peace.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
At a County Court held in New London, June 6, 1671 : John Allyn, presiding Judge, a case was brought by "Major Mason, plaintiff, contra Amos Richardson, defendant, in an action of slander and defamation for saying he was a traytor and [had] damnified the Collonie one thousand pounds." The damages were laid at £500. The jury found for the plaintiff one hundred pounds, and costs of court, £1 Ss. The defendant applied for a review, which was granted, and the case being called up at the next September court, was respited and not brought before the Bench again till June, 1672.
In the meantime the original plaintiff, Major Mason, had been removed by death ; and when the appellant, Richardson, was summoned by the court either to withdraw his action or go on with his review, he replied that Major John Mason, who was the first plaintiff, is now deceased, and that le conceives the action dies with him." Samuel and John Maion, sons of the Major, appeared in court and tendered to defend the action, but still the plaintiff replied that he had nothing further to say than what was contained in the papers on file. The action was therefore dropped, and the judgment against the plaintiff remained in force.
At the same court, when the proceedings in this case were read Mr. Richardson disputed the record. IIe was thereupon arraigned for defam- ing the court by saying that a part of its record was not true, and find in the sum of eight pounds.
Execution to satisfy the original judgment was subsequently levid by the heirs of Mason upon the estate of Richardson, and twelve mares taken, for which only £71 being allowed, and the plaintiff claiming that they were worth much more, further litigation ensued before the matter was finally settled.
The first notice of a military organization in the town is from the Rec- ords of the General Court :
Oct. '66. Francis Griswold is confirmed Lt. to ye Traine band at Norridge and Thomas Tracy to be Ensigne.
June 1672. This Court confirms Mr. John Mason, Lieutenant, and Thomas Leffng- well, Ensigne of the Traine Band of Norwich.
These were the first militia officers. John Mason was the second son of the Major, and son-in-law of the Rev. Mr. Fitch. Though but a young man, he was already in the commission of the peace, and was this year chosen an Assistant.
In August, 1673, upon some hostile manifestations from the Dutch of New York, the militia or train-bands of Connecticut were ordered to be ready for service, and 500 dragoons raised, who were to be prepared to march at an hour's warning, to defend any place in the colony. Of these dragoons, New London County was to raise a company of one hundred :
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
James Avery of New London, Captain ; Thomas Tracy of Norwich, Lieutenant ; John Denison of Stonington, Ensign. The number of pri- vates apportioned to Norwich was 17. Saybrook had the same number ; New London 26, and Stonington 19 .* Later in the same year, Benjamin Brewster was appointed Lieutenant of this troop ; Daniel Mason, Quarter- master ; and Lieut. Tracy, Muster-master, or inspector of arms and am- munition.
According to the laws of the colony, a train-band of thirty-two persons was entitled to a Lieutenant, Ensign, and two Sergeants ; but no Captain was allowed until the band numbered sixty-four privates. John Mason was the first person in the town who attained the rank of Captain. He was commissioned during Philip's war, Sept. 15, 1675,f received a severe wound shortly afterward in the attack upon Narragansett fort, and died the next year.
Thomas Leffingwell held a Lieutenant's commission in 1676, and per- formed active service against the Indians, but did not succeed to the cap- taincy. The highest civil officer, assistant or magistrate of the town, probably had a prior claim, as in May, 1680, James Fitch was confirmed Captain of the Norwich train-band, Thomas Leffingwell Lieutenant, and William Backus Ensign.#
The predilection for military titles was a trait of our worthy ancestors, which it is not easy to reconcile with their Puritan origin and peaceful pursuits. It is rare to find upon the early records a military officer men- tioned above the rank of corporal, without the adjunct of his title. They plumed themselves upon an office in the train-bands, as a token of distin- guished rank and honor.§
Major Mason had been elected Deputy Governor of the Colony in May, 1660. His connection with the settlement of Norwich, and his res- idence in the place, gave dignity and respectability to the young town. Many people resorted thither for the transaction of public business.
Thomas Minor, in a MS. diary preserved by his descendants, records, June 18, 1664:
"Ould Cheesbrough was going to Norwig to sorender the Towne to Coneticut."
That is, transfer the jurisdiction of Stonington, or Southerton, as it was then called, from the Bay State, under which it had been comprehended, to the Colony of Connecticut, of which Mason was then the acting Gov- ernor.
* Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 207.
Ibid., 2, 366.
# Ibid., 3, 60.
§ Civil titles also were ceremoniously observed. An assistant, or magistrate, was addressed as the worshipful.
90
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Again he writes, Sept. 8, 1667 :
" We wer at Norwhich, the Commission wer there."
Referring, probably, to the Court of Commissioners, where a magistrate usually presided. While Major Mason lived, there was no other magis- trate in New London County, and he generally held his courts at home. But during several of the last years of his life, he was subject to attacks of a painful disease that often disabled him from attending to public affairs. This caused some inconvience, and led to murmurings and com- plaints, particularly at New London, where there was more trade and bustle, more of a populace, and a louder call for courts and pleas, than in any other place in the colony. It was onerous and irritating to this stir- ring community, to be dependent upon Norwich, the staid and somewhat frowning younger sister, for justice and arbitrament. In October, 1669, Mr. Wetherell of New London, Clerk of the County Court, in behalf of the Commissioners, petitioned the General Court for relief in this partic- ular, and obtained an order for an assistant or magistrate to hold a court at stated times in New London .*
After the death of Major Mason, New London County had no chief magistrate or presiding judge resident within its bounds, till May, 1674, when the following appointment is recorded :
"Major Edward Palmes is invested with magistratical power, throughout New Lon- don County and the Narragansett country."t
Major Palmes was of New London County, and Norwich in her turn found it irksome to go to her neighbor for award and decree. Between these sister townships there seems to have been little similarity of taste, and no fusion of purpose and action.
When two communities are situated near to each other, and possess nearly equal claims to patronage and favor,-especially if they lie upon the same river and expect to draw their prosperity from similar pursuits,- occasional outbreaks of jealousy and rivalship invariably make their ap- pearance. The rivalry between New London and Norwich, however, though it arose early and has never entirely disappeared, has generally exhausted itself in sportive sarcasms or a few passionate invectives, stop- ping short of aggressive deeds. It has been restricted to public matters
* The petitioner states that Major Mason, "by God's visiting hand upon him in respect of weakness and sickness of body, hath not at all times been in a capacity to undergo the great trouble that attends our courts," and further observes, " Our matters many times require able help in respect of the often recourse of merchants and stran- gers by reason of the convenience of our harbor here."
Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 115.
t Ibid., 2, 231.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
and objects of pecuniary concern, never interfering with the cultivation of social intercourse, the establishment of warm friendships, the alliance of families, and a hearty, prompt and efficient assistance in seasons of calam- ity and danger.
On festive occasions particularly, the inhabitants of the two townships were accustomed from the earliest times to unite with the utmost cordiality and sympathy. Concerted parties would turn out from both places, on horseback, and in all kinds of vehicles as they successsively served the generations, and meet half-way, at Massapeag, or Indian hill, or Cochegun rock, or some other part of Mohegan, to roast oysters, hunt squirrels, or witness the Indian dance; in spring, to gather strawberries ; in autumn, wild plums ; and in winter, upon sleds or sleighs to have a great supper at Bradford's, or Haughton's, or some other half-way house .*
Nor has the jealousy between the two places ever been so patent, nor the exasperation so bitter, as has been sometimes exhibited by different sections of either town toward each other; between Chelsea society and the Town-plot, for instance, which have had seasons of convulsive enmity so violent as to make reconciliation seemingly impossible, but which have commonly terminated in greater harmony and complacency than before.
These prefatory remarks are designed to introduce the wary, caustic, and somewhat plaintive petition sent from Norwich to the Legislature, in October, 1674, praying to be freed from their connection with New London County. It was a burden to which they had hitherto been sub- missive :
" But upon many yeares experience it hath proved so afflicting to us that wee can- not but desire to bee free from this County and come under Hartford County, if it may be. Many reasons we could give, but we fear it will not be expedient for us to men- tion them ; onely this wee must crave liberty to say, that hitherto our relation to Lon- don County hath bene an oppression unto us, wee bearing the burthen of others con- tentions, w'ch now seeme to be rather of an increasing nature than otherwise."
They further intimate that several other plantations in the county " doe sigh under the same burden and desire the like reliefe." Signed by Wil- liam Hide and John Holmstead, "Select men in the name and with the consent of the town."t
This petition was not placed on record. The Legislature wisely post- poned the consideration of the subject to the next May, and it does not appear to have been afterwards revived.
* These rural excursions to which our ancestors were so partial, were of a jubilant, exhilarating nature, especially those which took place in the genial seasons. Men and women on horses of every grade, some with pillions riding double, crowding together, filled the air with echoes, often shouting rapturously and singing on their way. Our modern pic nics fail to reproduce the joyous inspiration and healthful flush of those old festivities.
t Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 247.
92
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
By the early laws of the colony, it was ordered that every town con- taining thirty families should maintain a school to teach reading and writ- ing, and that a Latin School should be established in every county town. A grant of six hundred acres of land was made to each county, to assist in establishing this Latin School. These regulations were not always observed ; the new settlements were tardy in their educational concerns. The earliest schools were taught principally by females, who advanced their pupils but little beyond reading, spelling, and learning the catechism. The New England Primer, containing the Westminster Catechism, was the universal class-book of the children. This was first published about 1660.
In 1678, the County Court took the condition of the schools into con- sideration, and appointed a committee to see what could be done towards settling a Latin school at New London.
Members of the Committee,-
Major Edward Palmes, for New London.
Mr. James Fitch, Jr., for Norwich.
Mr. Samuel Mason, for Stonington.
Capt. Robert Chapman, for Saybrook.
Ensign Joseph Peck, for Lyme. Mr. Edward Griswold, for Killingworth.
Several years elapsed before the county grant was disposed of and a Latin school established, but the agitation of the subject seems to have aroused the towns to the importance of maintaining each a common school of its own.
In Norwich, no schoolmaster is mentioned before 1677, when John Birchard occupied the teacher's chair, and was engaged to keep nine months of the year for £25, provision pay. The next item recorded is the following :
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 deliberate 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 proportion, 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 inhab- itants of the town, and to be gathered as any other rates ; 5th, whatever else is neces- sary to a prudent carrying through this occation, is committed to the discreshon of ye sd select men."
93
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Public works in those days were slow in progress, more from the want of hands to labor, than from deficiency of skill or the absence of enter- prise. 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 school-master, and probably exercised his call- ing for several years in Norwich, although the records do not advert to him in that capacity. 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 provide a school-master, 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 ap- pointed 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 indictments 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, educa- tion was neglected ; the schools were of an inferior grade, and very grudg- ingly and irregularly sustained. This was probably owing to the paucity
* Weaver's Ancient Windham, p. 42. This Mr. Arnold was probably an English_ man, and must not be confounded with John Arnold, merchant of New London, who died in 1725, aged 73.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
of good teachers, and the superfluous activity of the people, which led them to break away impatiently from sedentary pursuits. But the inev- itable consequence was, that the grand-children of the first settlers were more illiterate than either the generation before or after them.
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