USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut, from its settlement in 1660, to January 1845 > Part 10
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session, that Messrs. Bushnell and Backus were for- mally expelled from that body.
A council was soon afterwards called to settle these difficulties ; and they had council after council for the space of six years. Mr. Saltonstall, then Governor of the Colony, visited them and used all his influence to bring about a reconciliation of parties and harmony of opinion ; but no compromise could be effected. Mr. Backus went to Boston, Ipswich and various other pla- ces to consult with the learned and pious upon this affair.
In 1715, a town vote was obtained to dismiss Mr. Woodward, forty-four to twenty-five ; but the conten- tion then grew more violent than ever, and the inhab- itants petitioned the General Court that they might be separated into two societies. This was not granted, but the Governor wrote them a letter of advice, recom- mending them to try the effect of another council. A body of the most respectable ministers in the country was accordingly convened : Mr. Stoddard, of North- ampton, was appointed moderator. After long delibe- ration, the council recommended a dissolution of the connection with Mr. Woodward, and he was accord- ingly dismissed, Sept. 13, 1716.
Mr. Woodward was a native of Dedham, Mass. After settling in Norwich, he married in 1703, Mrs. Sarah Rosewell ; on which occasion "houseing and lands" were liberally provided for him by the 1711. town. He afterwards, requested an increase of salary, but it was refused. After his dismission, he ceased to preach, and retired to a farm which he own- ed in East Haven, where the Woodwards, his descend- ants, are still found. Before he left Norwich, however, the town sued him for damages on the parsonage lands,
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and for one quarter of a year's salary which had been overpaid him ; a fact sufficiently indicative of the exas- perated feeling that had been produced by these eccle- siastical dissensions.
A few weeks after the removal of Mr. Woodward, Mr. Benjamin Lord, a native of Saybrook, and a grad- uate of Yale college, then about twenty-four 1716. years of age, began to preach in Norwich. In
June, the town appointed a day of fasting and prayer, to seek divine direction, in respect to giving him a call; the Rev. Messrs. Whiting of Windham, and Williams, of Lebanon, being invited to assist in the exercises of that occasion. Soon after this, by a unanimous vote, Mr. Lord was invited to become their minister, with the offer of £100 per annum for salary, with the use of the parsonage lands, and wood suffi- cient for his use, to be dropped at his door,-" provided he settle himself without charge to the town."
He was ordained Nov. 20, 1717; both parties uni- ting in their esteem for him, so that he was accustom- ed to say he could never tell which was most friend- ly to him. At his ordination, the Church explicitly renounced the Saybrook Platform, or code of faith.
The following members of Mr. Fitch's church were still alive :
William Backus,
Joseph Lothrop,
Stephen Gifford,
John Elderkin,
Th. Leffingwell,
Caleb Abell,
Joseph Bushnell,
Joseph Reynolds,
Richard Bushnell, Esq.,
Chr. Huntington,
Josiah Reed,
Simon Huntington,
Solomon Tracy,
Samuel Griswold,
Samuel Lothrop,
Nathaniel Backus.
These, and fifteen others, received into the church
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by Mr. Woodward, composed at this time the male members of the church.
The two deacons of Mr. Fitch's church, chosen be- fore they removed from Saybrook, were Thomas Ad- gate and Hugh Calkins. With these was afterwards associated Simon Huntington, the elder. Towards the close of the century, Simon and Christopher Hun- tington, brothers, of the second generation of settlers, one born in 1659, and the other in 1660, were ap- pointed to office ; deacons Huntington and Adgate, be- ing still alive, though aged and infirm. Soon after the ordination of Mr. Lord, the two Huntingtons having acted as deacons more than twenty years, two others were set apart to assist them, viz : Thomas Adgate and Thomas Leffingwell, both of the second genera- tion. Mr. Leffingwell dying in 1724, his three vene- rable coadjutors requested that an entire new set of deacons might be designated to office. This was not done until after the death of the two Huntingtons, [Christopher in 1735, and Simon in 1736,] when their sons, Ebenezer, son to Simon, and Hezekiah, son to Christopher, were chosen to succeed them in conjunc- tion with Mr. Adgate.
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The venerable deacon Adgate born in the eighth year of the settlement, lived to be ninety-two years of age. His existence nearly covers the whole space from the settlement to the revolution.
No other deacons were appointed until 1764, when Simon Huntington, son of deacon Ebenezer, and Si- mon Tracy, Esq., were chosen and introduced into office, with great solemnity. Hands were imposed, and Dr. Lord preached on the occasion from 2 Tim. iii. 8,9,10. [Aug. 31.]
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CHAPTER XV.
Chelsea, or the Landing. Bridges over the Shetucket.
CAPTS. James and Daniel Fitch appear to have been the first persons who began improvements at the Landing-place. The former obtained from the town " a privilege four rods in breadth by the salt water," in 166S, when he was but nineteen years of age. Little importance was then attached to this station, the chief trading points being at Trading Cove Point, on the river below the Landing, where, both before and after the settlement, a small trade had been carried on with the Indians, and on the Yantic Cove, both at Elder- kin's mill, and farther down, just above the present Wharf Bridge. These, for a number of years after the settlement, were the principal places of landing and deposite. They were the old landing places that had been used by the Indians.
In 1685, Capt. James Fitch obtained a second grant at the Landing of a piece of ground to build upon, and the next year an additional spot for the conveniency of his ware-house.
In October, 1694, Mr. Mallat, a French gentleman, desired liberty to establish a ship yard, and build ves- sels upon the river, which was freely granted, with permission also to cut what wood he wanted from the Town's Commons cast of Shetucket river. There is no record of any farther improvements at the Landing previous to the year 1700. The only road thither, led
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through Mason's Swamp, thence across the Little Plain, and over Wawecos Hill, whence it came by a long, steep and dangerous descent to the water, with a branch leading to the Shetucket, where a ferry had been kept up ever since the year 1671, at first by Hugh Amos, and afterwards by Stephen Roath.
The greater part of the tract from the Little Plain to the Shetucket was a wilderness of rocks, woods, and swamps, with only here and there a cow path, or a sheep track around the hills; where the trunk of a fallen tree thrown over a brook or chasm served in lien of bridge. Not only in the spring floods, but in common heavy rains, a great part of East Chelsea, the Point where the Shetucket comes into the river, and all the lower, or Water street, up to the ledge of rocks on which the buildings upon the north side of that street are based, were overflowed; and even in the dry season these parts of the town were little better than swamps.' What are now only moist places, and slender rills, were then ponds and broad, impetuous brooks. The Mill Pond, in the rear of Allen street, was a considerable sheet of water, and in the time of a freshet, all the land below the hills presented the appearance of a lake.
There is a close connection between extensive woods and the moisture of the earth, so that ponds and streamlets often diminish and disappear as a country is cleared of its forests. Trees condense moisture and exhale it again, and moreover prevent the profuse evaporation of the earth, so that an uncultivated coun- try is usually wet and spongy. These facts account for the shrinking of many of our pools and brooks.
1714. Caleb Bushnell obtained a grant of "a conve- nient place for building vessels," on the west side of the river, opposite the old Landing-place.
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1616. Joseph Kelley, shipwright obtained permis- sion to build vessels on the Point, the town to have the free use of his wharf.
1722. Other applications of the same nature having been made, the proprietors directed Lieut. Solomon Tracy and Ensign James Huntington, " to go down to the Landing-place and lay out what may be needful for the town's use." The next year, Lieut, Simon Lathrop, Joshua and James Huntington, and Daniel , Tracy, all spirited and enterprising men, then in the prime of life, each obtained a conveniency, as it was expressed, and began improvements at the Landing- place.
Joshua Huntington's grant is thus defined : "twenty feet square upon the water, on the west side of Rocky Point, on the north side of Lieut. Lothrop's grant, if it be there to be had; not prejudicing the conveniency to be laid out by James Huntington and Daniel Tracy."
1725. Permission granted to Lieut. Lothrop to build a wharf at his own expense, " provided it be free to all mortals." The town also built a wharf the same year.
This was in fact the era of the commencement of Chelsea ; but as yet there were no dwelling houses. The land, with the exception of these footholds upon the water's edge, all lay in common. At that time, the young people from the farms around Norwich, after haying was over, came in parties to the Landing, to wander over the hills, cat oysters, drink flip, and have a frolic. The Point was but a confused heap of rocks, and might have been bought, it is said, for £5. Kelley's shipyard stood near the spot where afterwards was the store of old Capt. Bill, which in its turn has given place, together with a part of its rocky founda- tions to the spacious building of the Norwich and Wor- cester Railroad Company. Every thing on this side
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of the river has changed its appearance, but the oppo- site bank, in Preston, has been very little altered. The rocks, the barren hills, the cedars, remain unvaried; the projecting points, with their stunted trees, are still the same. With the exception of the recent railway cut through the hill, the last hundred years has made no change in those rocky declivities around which the Shetucket sweeps into the Thames. In 1726 and 1727, the East Sheep-walk was surveyed and distributed into shares, each share into tenths, and each tenth into eight parts. Israel Lothrop and James Huntington were the town agents to execute this task. The lots varied in shape and size, and extended along the water from the Shetucket ferry to the mouth of the cove, reserving a highway through them two rods wide. A second tier was laid out in the rear of these.
After this division into small lots both buildings and inhabitants increased rapidly. In 1730 the town built another wharf ; and in 1734 Lieut. Lothrop obtained leave to build a second ware-house on the undivided land upon " the side hill, opposite his dwelling- house, thirty feet by twenty, and to hold it during the town's pleasure." Daniel Tracy, Capt. Benajah Bushnell, Nathaniel Backus, and others, about this period built dwelling-houses near the water. A flour- ishing village was soon formed, and called New Chelsy.
A very sad accident happened in the year 1728. The inhabitants were engaged in raising a cart bridge, twenty feet high and two hundred and fifty feet long. " over Showtucket river, near three miles from town," and had nearly completed the frame, when, on the 28th of June, just as they were putting together the upper work, a principal piece of timber which lay in the foundation of this upper work, being spliced, gave way at the joint, and falling, tripped up the dependent
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frame, which with its own weight careened and over- set. One hundred feet of the bridge fell, with forty men on it. The water was very low, and the people were precipitated upon the rocks in all directions. No one escaped without bruises and contusions ; twenty were severely wounded and two killed. These two were Jonathan Gale, of Canterbury, nineteen years of age, the only son of a widowed mother, who was killed instantly-" a very hopeful youth, the darling of the family"-and Mr. Daniel Tracy, son of Lieut. Thomas Tracy, and one of the last survivors of the old stock that came from Saybrook, who died the next day of his mortal wounds. Mr. Justice Backus published an account of this accident in a small pamphlet. " When the men were extricated, and carried up the banks," says he, "it formed the nearest resemblance to a field where a hot battle had been fought, that mine eyes ever saw."
Mr. Tracy " was not," says Mr. Backus, " a person concerned in the affair, only as he was a benefactor to it, and went out that day to carry the people some pro- vision, and happened to be on the bridge, at that junc- ture of danger : a man that had been always noted for an uncommon care to keep himself and others out of probable danger, and yet now himself insensibly falls into a fatal one. And very remarkable is it, that to keep his son at home this day, and so out of danger by that occasion, he chooseth to go himself on the fore- named errand, and is taken in the snare which he thought more probable to his son."
Many hair-breadth escapes occurred. Solomon Lathrop fell forty feet from the top of a needle post, and was pitched head foremost between two rocks, into a hole of deeper water than ordinary, and yet not killed. This Mr. Lathrop was father to the Rev. Jo-
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seph Lathrop of West Springfield, who was born about three years after this narrow escape of his parent.
1737. A bridge was erected over the Shetucket con- necting the Landing with Preston. To defray the expense, a public subscription was taken up which amounted to £85 15s. The number of contributors was eighty-three, and the sums varied from five shil- lings to five pounds. The highest on the list were Joshua Huntington, John Williams, Samuel and John Story, Isaac Clarke and Samuel Backus, who were probably the men doing the most business at that time. The bridge lasted only seven years ; it then sagged so much that it was pronounced unsafe, and blocked up.
The contract for the building of the Shetucket Bridge was made with Capt. William Whiting, whose name first appears on the list of inhabitants in 1732. He was the second son of Col. William Whiting, a man of courage, talents and address, who is often named in the early history of the country, for the part he took in various engagements with the French and Indians, in Maine and Canada. He was also Colonial Agent at the court of St. James, and on leaving England was constituted by royal commission Colonel of a regiment of foot, to be raised in Connecticut for the Queen's ser- vice. The original of this commission, upon parch- ment, dated April 1, 1710, and signed Sunderland, is still in possession of the family.
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CHAPTER XVI.
Rogerencs.
ABOUT the year 1720, the followers of John Rogers, a kind of Quaker, began to raise disturbances in New London County. This sect sprung up in the vicinity of New London, and has since been known as Roger- enes. 'The special object of their leader's mission, was to destroy priestcraft, and the idolatry of Sunday. They saw no more feasible project of effecting this, than by breaking up the worshipping assemblies of the Sabbath. For this purpose they were accustomed, on that day, to separate into small bands, and go through the country, entering the meeting-houses, in time of divine service, and by various noises and other provo- cations, interrupting the worship. They would carry their knitting, sewing, hatchelling, joinering, &c. into the house, and by hammering, singing and shouting, endeavor to drown the voice of the speaker. They made several visits to Dr. Lord's meeting-house, but that excellent man always treated them with great lenity. John Rogers himself, the founder of the sect, beset Dr. Lord, one Sunday morning, as lic came out of the house, to go to meeting, and followed him thither, inveighing and shouting against priestcraft, as was his usual custom. Just as the venerable minister reached the porch of the meeting-house, and taking off his hat displayed an august and graceful white wig, Rogers exclaimed in a loud voice, Benjamin ! Benja- min ! dost thou think that they wear white wigs in
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heaven ? No answer was returned, but the good man might have retorted, that a white wig would gain entrance there much more readily than a railing tongue.
In July, 1726, six of the followers of Rogers were taken up at Norwich, for travelling on the Sabbath, and committed to prison. They were tried the next day. One of them was a woman, Sarah Culver by name, called by them a singing sister. 'They stated that they were on their way from Groton to Lebanon, to baptize a person, or see him baptized by others, as circumstan- ces should be. One of their party, named Davis, they declared vested with apostolic commission and author- ity to preach and baptize. Some of this sect, had previously been taken up in other parts of the county, and fined five shillings per head for breaking the Sab- bath, and they now travelled in defiance of the law and its penalty, boasting that they could buy the idol- ators' Sabbaths for five shillings a piece. But on arii- ving at Norwich, they found, as Mr. Justice Backus observed, that they had risen in price, for being taken before the said Justice, they were sentenced to pay a fine of twenty shillings per head, or to be whipped ten or fifteen lashes each. Not being able to pay the fine, they were obliged to submit to the latter punishment. The next day they were carried out upon the plain, and there whipped with lashes of prim. It is said, also, that one of them, probably Davis, had warm tar poured upon his head, and his hat put on, while in that state, as a punishment for his contumacy, in refusing to pull off his hat in court. They were then dismissed, and proceeded on their way to Lebanon, where, the next Sabbath, they were again arrested, on the same plea, but their fines were paid for them by some compassion- ate citizens. They then challenged the ministers of
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Lebanon, Messrs. Platt and Williams, to a public de- bate, at which, says Mr. Backus, they were completely foiled.
The Hon. Joseph Jenks, deputy governor of Rhode Island, took the part of the despised Rogerenes, and issued a proclamation, respecting the proceedings at Norwich, which he caused to be posted up in various parts of his own state, in order, as it stated, that the people might see what was to be expected from a Pres- byterian government, in case Connecticut should suc- ceed in the efforts she was then making, to get the rule over the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. In reply to this proclamation, a small pamphlet was published by Joseph Backus Esq. (who appears to have succeeded Mr. Bushnell as the factotum of the town,) explanatory of this affair of the Quakers. He considers their conduct as sufficiently odious, to justify the severest castigation of the law, and declares, that as they acted in defiance of the law, "they may be said to have whipped their own backs."
CHAPTER XVII.
Currency.
IT has been observed that Mr. Lord's salary was fixed at £100 per annum. In 1726, a present was made him of £25, and the next year twelve contribu- tions were granted him, to be taken up on the first Sabbath of every month. These gratuities were to compensate for the depreciation of the currency.
Bills of Credit began to be emitted in Connecticut in 1709, and the emissions were repeated in small parcels at intervals, afterwards. For many years, however, there was little or no redundancy of the circulating medium, and of course the depreciation was trifling. The bills were not counterfeited until 1735 ; but at that time, so large a quantity of the false impression was put in circulation, that the Assembly ordered the issue of bills with an entire new stamp, to the value of £25,000, to be exchanged for the old ones then in use. These and subsequent emissions were called Bills of the New Tenor. In 1740, on account of the war with Spain, £45,000 more were emitted, and some smaller sums afterwards.
Until the emission of the New Tenor, the credit of the old bills was tolerably supported. The deprecia- tion now ran on with rapid strides, and confusion in accounts, perplexity and want of confidence in the dealings of man with man, suspension of activity and pecuniary distress was the consequence. The clash-
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ing of old and new tenor rendered the currency mazy and uncertain. Prices were greatly enhanced, but fluctuating ; impositions frequent, and speculation tri- umphed over honest industry. It was a difficult thing to graduate price to value, with a currency so vague and fluctuating.
In 1736, the town expenses were £84, of which one item was a charge of Dr. Perkins --
For keeping and salivating Christian Boyle and expenses to Hannah Rood £24 1s Od.
Yet the next year, the whole amount of the town ex- penditure, including the doctor's bill, did not amount to £14.
In 1740, wheat was 13s. per bushel ; ryc, 9 and 10s .; Indian corn, 7s. ; oats and turnips. 3s. 6; pork, Sd. or 10d. per lb. ; butter, from 1Sd. to 2s. ; sugar, the same ; molasses, 7 and Ss. per gall. ; rum, 10s. 6; men's shoes, from 15 to 18s. per pair; candles, 2s. 6 per lb .; a bushel of salt, 14s .; a quire of paper, 5s. 6 or 6s .; a quart of mustard seed 2s. 6; sheep's wool and cotton wool, about the same price, viz. 4s. per lb.
This uncertain currency was by no means confined to Connecticut. The other New England Colonies suffered in the same way. In Boston, they had little else in circulation than " Land Bank Money" and old Tenor. The following memorandum from the day- book of a Boston huckster of the same date as the above, will show that prices were very much enhanced in that capital also :
Molasses, Ss. 6 per gall. ; " a bushel of Ingin meel," 1Ss. ; a beaver hat, £3 15s .; side of sole leather, £1 19s. 6; " half a pees of Rusha Duck," £8; a sheep- skin, 10s. ; a bushel of onions, 18s. ; a pair of buckles, £4 10s. ; a pair of yarn stockings, 12s. ; " 133 yards
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of Osimbrogs," £3 11s. 6; a grate of Diamond glass, £10.
Let it be observed, that at this time, the depreciation had but just commenced. In 1741, the rate levied for the payment of Mr. Lord's salary had risen from 2d. and 3d. on the pound to 10d., and £200 was allowed him in addition to his nominal salary.
In 1751, the current expenses of the town was £751. The currency continued its downward course until 1753, when Mr. Lord received £850 as an equivalent for £100, lawful money. The bellman's salary was £40 per annum. Schooling per month from £15 to £22.
In 1757, the currency was flowing once more in its old channel. Mr. Lord's salary was reduced to £66 13s. 4d. lawful money, and twelve contributions ; the bellman's to £3 10s.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
Sheep Walks. Names.
IN 1718, there was a division of proprietary lands, called the forty acre division. In 1726, the undivid- ed lands that remained, were mainly comprised in two Sheep-walks. A public meeting was called, in which the names of the proprietors of each, were dis- tinctly declared and recorded in order to prevent, if possible, all future " strifts and law-suits." The East Sheep-walk of 900 acres, more or less, was divided in- to shares of twenty acres each, and ratified and con- firmed to forty-two proprietors, mentioned by name, or to those who claimed under them. The West Sheep-walk, by estimation 700 acres, was in like man- ner divided and confirmed to thirty-seven proprictors. Each share was then divided into tenths, and the tenths into eighths, and distributed apparently by lot. It is expressed in the records by the phrase, "making a pitch," as thus-" Capt. Bushnell made his pitch for his portion of the sheep-walk," at such a place. The last general division of proprietary lands, was in 1740, after which the accounts were closed, and the compa- ny dissolved.
The three plains were from the first settlement, re- served for public use. As early as 1670, the Little Plain was enclosed, and a fine of 5s. imposed on any one who should with horse or cattle, pass over the fence in going to, or from the town. It is pleasing to
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notice the care taken from time to time, to free the plains from all obstructions, and render hem orna- mental as well as useful to the town. Repeated ap- plications to build upon them by individuals, were re- fused, and all encroachments reprehended. " There shall be no shop, house or barn, or any other private building erected on any part of said plain," was the language of these resolutions.
The proprietors agree, vote, and grant, " that 1729. the Plain in the Town Platt, called the meeting
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