USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut, from its settlement in 1660, to January 1845 > Part 17
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It is not surprising that the subject of taxation should be one of exciting interest in a community who were annually paying 6d., 9d. and 12d. on the pound for the use of the army. At one time in Connecticut, when the currency was at par, a rate of even 14d. was necessary to meet the exigencies of the treasury.
The town afterwards presented another petition to the Assembly, the substance of which was, that every kind of property, and that only, should be the object of taxation. This general principle, they say, is in their view, the only equitable one. Committees were sent to several neighboring towns, to get their minds on the subject, and they at length resolved to publish at the expense of the town, the prevalent views of the citizens on taxation, in the form of a letter to the free- men of the state, a copy of it to be sent to every town. In this letter, the deficiencies of the existing system
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were ably pointed out. The objections against the poll-tax were these :
" That it is a personal tax, and ought to be paid in personal service, that is, in defending the community; that it is a double tax, the poor man paying for his poll, which is the substitute for his labor, and for the avails of his labor also ; that it is impolitic, as tending to prevent early marriages, which promote industry, frugality, and every social virtue."
Again, three years later, the town made another effort through their representatives, to obtain their favorite measures ; that polls should either be struck out of the list of taxation, or set at a very low rate ; and that all who pay taxes should vote as freemen.
"June 30, 1779. Voted, that a committee of fifty able, judicious men be appointed to engage fifty able-bodied, effect- ive men, required of this town to fill up our complement of the Continental Army for three years, or during the war ; each member of the committee to procure one soldier, and pay him twenty silver dollars bounty, over and above the bounty given by the state, and pay him the same annually, as long as he continues in the service ; also 40s. per month in silver money, or Indian corn at 3s. per bushel, fresh pork at 3d. per pound, and wheat at 6s. per bushel."
The Committee were not able to carry this vote into effect : the term of enlistment was too long ; nor were the men raised until by a subsequent vote the term of service was restricted to six months. In July of the same year, upon a requisition of the Governor, twenty- seven more men were enlisted for six months, to whom the same bounty and pay were given.
In 1781, the General Assembly passed an act to arrange all the inhabitants of the State into classes, each class to raise so many recruits and furnish such and such clothing and other supplies. Norwich at first refused to enter upon this system, and remonstra-
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ted. With great reluctance, the measure was at last adopted by the inhabitants, and being found to accon- plish the end, was continued through the war, though it was never popular with them.
1783. Instructions were given to the representatives to use their influence with the Assembly to obtain a remonstrance against the five years' pay granted by Congress to the officers of the Continental army. The resolution passed by the town on this subject, was fiery, dictatorial and extravagant. A single paragraph will show its bombastic character :
" For a free people just rising out of a threatening slavery, into free shining pospects of a most glorious peace and inde- pendence, now to be taxed without their consent, to support and maintain a large number of gentlemen as pensioners, in a time of universal peace, is, in our view, unconstitutional and directly in opposition to the sentiment of the states at large, and was one great spoke in the wheel which moved at first our late struggle with our imperious and tyrannical foes."
Further instructions were given at the same time to the representatives to urge upon the assembly the ne- cessity of keeping a watchful eye upon the proceedings of Congress, to see that they did not exceed the pow- ers vested in them, and to appoint a committee at every session to take into consideration the journals of Congress, and approve or disapprove, applaud or cen- sure the conduct of the delegates.
At no period during the war were the people of Nor- wich alarmed with the fear of a direct invasion of the enemy, except at the time of the attack on New Lon- don, Sept. 6, 17S1. It was then rumored that Arnold. inflamed with hatred against the country he had be- trayed, and harboring a particular spite to his native town, had determined at all hazards to march thither, and spread desolation through the homes of his ancient
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friends and neighbors. Preparations were, therefore, made to receive him; goods were packed, and women and children made ready for flight. The fiery patriots of Norwich wished for nothing more than that he should attempt to march thither, as it would give them a long coveted opportunity of wreaking their vengeance on the traitor. But the undertaking was too hazardous ; Arnold, if he had the will, was too prudent to attempt anything but a sudden and transient descent upon the sea-board.
The last time that the militia were called out during the war, was in September, 1782. A detail of the circumstances will serve as a specimen of the harrass- ing alarms which had previously often occurred.
Benajah Leffingwell was then Lieutenant Colonel of the twentieth regiment, and at seven o'clock in the morning, an express reached him with the following order :
"To Major Leffingwell: I have certain intelligence that there is a large fleet in the Sound, designed for some part of the Main __ would hereby request you without loss of time, to notify the regiment under your command, to be ready to march at the shortest notice-also send expresses to New London immediately for further news, and continue express- es as occasion may be. Your humble servant in the great- est haste, SAMUEL M'CLELLAND, Colonel.
Wednesday morning, six o'clock.
I have much more to say if I had time-I am on the road to New London from Windham, where express came to me in the night."
Before nine o'clock the whole regiment had been summoned to turn out with one or two days provisions, and be ready to march on hearing the alarm guns.
The regiment upon the ground that day, as the returns of the orderly book show, consisted of one field officer, thirty-five commissioned, do., and 758
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men, in eleven companies, under the following Cap- tains :
Joseph Carew, Moses Stephens, Jonathan Waterman,
Samuel Wheat, William Pride, Samuel Lovett, Isaac Johnson, Jabez Deming, Jacob De Witt.
Nathan Waterman, Alnor Ladd,
Orders at last came for them to march ; they were just ready to start, when the order was counterman- ded; again an express arrived saying that the fleet appeared to be bound in, and orders were issued to stand ready ; one hour they heard that the enemy was making preparations for a descent ; the next that the fleet was moving up the Sound. Finally the hostile ships having explored Gardiner's Bay, flitted out of the Sound, and the militia after two days of harrassing suspense, were dismissed to their homes.
CHAPTER XXIX.
Biographical Sketches.
GEN. JABEZ HUNTINGTON
WAS born at Norwich, in 1719. He graduated at Yale College in 1741, and soon afterwards enter- ed largely into mercantile and commercial pursuits, and made a handsome fortune, principally in the West India trade. The central part of the town plot, was before the revolution the seat of consider- able business. The street where Gen. H. resided, now so quiet and serene that every day wears the garb of the Sabbath, was then thronged with men and horses, and frequently blocked up with teams laden with country produce. Nearly 100 mechanics of more than a dozen different occupations, might then be numbered around the square. Gen. Hunting- ton and his sons had large stores in this'vicinity ; forty or fifty merchant vessels at that time sailed from the port, and of these twenty, were owned and fitted out by Gen. Huntington, nineteen of them in the West India trade ; the other made voyages to Old England. The business of Gen. H. was mostly transacted in the town two miles from the port.
Gen. Huntington commenced his patriotic career in 1750, when he was chosen to the Colonial Assembly. For several years he presided over the lower house as Speaker, and afterwards was a member of the Council. On the breaking out of the revolutionary war, he lost nearly half of his property, either by capture of his
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vessels, or from other circumstances connected with that calamitous period.
In the early part of the war, he was an active mem- ber of the Council of Safety, and Major General of the militia. His sons were all ardent patriots; two of them Jedidiah and Ebenezer entered into the army and served during the war. The exertions made by Gen. Huntington for his country, connected with the exci- ting events of the day and the pressure of private business, were destructive to his health; and in 1779 brought on a hypochondriac disorder, which gradually reduced him to a state of bodily imbecility and partial alienation of mind, which covered the last seven years of his life with a gloomy shadow. He died in 1786. His sons settled around him, establishing their homesteads in his immediate vicinity ; though subse- quent to the death of his father, Gen. Jedidiah remo- ved to New London.
GEN. JEDIDIAH HUNTINGTON
Was born at Norwich, in 1743, and graduated at Cambridge, in 1763, on which occasion he pronounced the first English oration delivered in that college at commencement. Settling near his father in his native place, he engaged with him in mercantile pursuits, but soon became noted as one of the Sons of Lib- erty, and an active Captain of the militia. He en- tered with spirit into all the measures of his towns- men in resisting oppression, and being raised to the command of a regiment, joined the Continental army with it in 1775. Two years afterwards, Congress gave him the commission of Brigadier General, which office he held with honor during the war, obtaining the confidence and attachment of Washington, and the grateful respect of his country.
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In 1789, he was appointed by Washington, Collect- or of the port of New London, to which place he removed and resided there till his death in 1818. Agreeably to a direction contained in his will, his re- mains were carried to Norwich and deposited in the family tomb.
Gen. Huntington made a profession of religion when quite a young man, and his conduct through life was that of a consistent Christian. He was a man of prayer, active in the promotion of religious objects, liberal in his charities, and a zealous friend of mis- sions. He was one of the first members of the Amer- ican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and continued active in its concerns till his death.
His first wife was Faith, daughter to Gov. Trumbull, who died at Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1775, while on the way with her husband to the continental camp at Cambridge. His second wife, sister to Bishop Moore, of Virginia, survived him, and died in 1831.
CAPT. ROBERT NILES
Was in the service of the State, during the whole war, first as commander of the armed schooner Spy, and afterwards of the Dolphin. In the former vessel he was employed to carry to France the ratified copy of the treaty between that country and the infant Republic. Two other copies were sent out by other conveyances, but both fell into the hands of the British. The copy conveyed in the Spy safely reached its destination. Capt. Niles was a native of Groton, and born in 1734. He died at Norwich, in 1818.
CAPT. SETH HARDING,
Commander of the armed brigantine Defence, owned by the State of Connecticut, was a citizen of Norwich.
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In the early part of the war he was considered next to Capt. Manly, the most successful of the American cruisers. He brought into New London several valua- ble prize vessels laden with ivory, mahogany, warlike stores, wearing apparel, and West India products. Whatever may now be the opinion of moralists with respect to privateering, it is undeniable that it was at that time regarded by the highest authorities in the country, as a laudable and honorable business. On the 18th and 19th of June, 1776, Capt. Harding captur- ed near the opening of Boston Bay, three British vessels with recruits for their army in Boston. His prisoners amounted to 322, mostly Highlanders. Among them was Col. Campbell, of Gen. Frazer's regiment.
Capt. Harding afterwards commanded the Confed- eracy, a ship of thirty-six guns. This ship was built in the river Thames, a few miles below the Landing, and sent to France after ammunition and stores. No- tice of the time of its sailing from France on the return voyage, together with its destination, which it was intended should be kept secret, having been obtained by some persons inimical to the American canse, it was by them communicated to the British officers, who caused a fleet to be placed in ambush, at the mouth of Delaware Bay. The Confederacy with its valuable stores fell into their hands.
MAJOR NATHAN PETERS
Of Norwich, was an active soldier during the war. He joined the Connecticut volunteers, on the news of the battle of Lexington, and marched with them to Boston. He was engaged in the battles of Long Island, York Island, Throg's Point, Princeton, Trenton and Newport.
Happening to be at home on furlough in September 1781, when the British made a descent upon New
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London, with characteristic ardor, he rushed to the scene of action, and was the first person who entered Groton Fort, after it had been deserted by the British troops. Hovering somewhere in the vicinity, he scarcely waited for them to embark before he cautious- ly entered the fort, and with his own hands extin- guished the train which had been laid to cause an explosion of the magazine. In five minutes more the whole would have been a heap of ruins, under which the dead and dying would have been buried.
Maj. Peters died at Norwich, in 1824, aged 79.
BENEDICT ARNOLD.
The biography of this celebrated traitor has been re- peatedly and ably written. It is only intended here to give a few desultory sketches, which may be consid- ered as the reminiscences of those who were personally acquainted with the family. His birth is recorded in the town book, Jan. 3, 1741. His parents had previ- ously lost a son of the same name, and of their six children, only Benedict and Hannah lived to maturity. He was descended from the Arnolds of Rhode Island, an honorable name in that colony, where one of his ancestors, bearing also the name of Benedict, held for fifteen years the office of Governor. Two brothers of this family, Benedict and Oliver, coopers by trade, re- moved from Newport to Norwich, about the year 1730. The elder of the two, Benedict, or as the name is writ- ten in the Norwich Books, Benedick, relinquished his occupation and engaged in trade and public affairs. He was an active, enterprising man, though passionate in his disposition. He appears to have served as col- lector, lister, selectman, constable, and militia captain.
His marriage to Mrs. Hannah King, whose maiden name was Lathrop, is recorded November 8, 1733.
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Mrs. Arnold was a woman of good exterior and estim- able qualities. We learn from her grave stone, that she died in 1759, aged fifty-nine. She is there char- acterized as " A. pattern of patience, piety, and virtue," and tradition allows that the truth is not exagge- rated. The following is a literal copy (except in or- thography) of a letter from her to her son Benedict, while he was at school in Canterbury. The original is probably still in existence.
" To Mr. Benedict Arnold, at Canterbury. NORWICH, April 12, 1754.
Dear child. I received yours of the 1st 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 ac- tions. Be dutiful to superiors, 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 ._ 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 recipient of such wholesome instruc- tion, should have become a proud, obstinate and un- principled man ; leaving behind him a name and char- acter infamous in the sight of his country, and spotted with violence, corruption and treason.
The house in which Benedict was born is still in a state of good preservation, though considerably enlarg- ed since first built by his father. A few years since many parts of it exhibited marks of his mischievous childhood, in whittlings, brands, and hatchet cuts, upon the beams, planks, and doors. The letters B.
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A. and B. Arnold were stamped upon it in various places. This house had a variety of occupants after the Arnolds left it. A man by the name of Laidley was its next inhabitant; and his wife, who had been long insane, dying suddenly and strangely, some sup- posed that her dissolution had been hastened by harsh treatment. She had been known to escape from the house to the adjacent woods in a state of frenzy, and those who assisted in her recapture stated that she was almost naked, and her body lacerated cruelly either by herself or others. A small room or closet in the house, with no aperture for air or light, and with a door only half the height of a person, was reported to be the place of her confinement, and these circumstan- ces, probably exaggerated by rumor, obtained for the house a notorious and superstitious reputation.
In the year 1775, Deacon William Philips, of Boston, the father of Lieut. Governor Philips, removed his family to Norwich, and occupied the Arnold house, till after the British retired from Boston. Its next oc- cupant was Mr. Malbone, of Newport, who also came to Norwich to seek a refuge from the bustle and vio- lence of war. The misfortunes of this family, and the seclusion in which they lived, rather added to the fear- ful 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 commanded by another, took fire off Point Judith, as it was returning from Ja- maica, and was entirely consumed. Such was the vio- lence of the 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 chil-
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dren perished. Those on deck escaped in boats. Thi .. and other misfortunes connected with the family, h .d made the name almost ominous of calamity. The house was afterwards tenanted successively, though but for a short period, by several pure and noble-minded gentlemen, among whom were William Hubbard E-q. and Thomas Mumford Esq. The occupants were changed so often, that public rumor ascribed it to the supernatural sounds and sights with which it was haunted. At a subsequent period it was taken by a disbanded officer, whose late suppers, revels, and card- playing, added another kind of gloomy notoriety to the tenement, so that after his departure it remained tenantless for several years, till purchased and repaired by Mr. Uriah Tracy, to whose heirs it now belongs.
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 char- acter. Benedict, when a boy, was bold, enterprising, ambitious, active as lightning, and with a ready wit always at command. In every kind of sport, espe- cially if mischief was to be perpetrated, he was a daunt- less ring-leader, and as despotic among the boys as an absolute monarch. On a day of public rejoicing for some success over the French, 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 drop- ped into the muzzle, from his hand, a blazing fire- brand. 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
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making the usual thanksgiving 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 Drs. Daniel and Joshua Lathrop, and here he exhibited the same rash and fearless traits of char- acter. A person who once remained in the shop with him during a tremendous thunder storm, related after- wards, that at every peculiarly loud and stunning re- port, young Arnold would swing his hat and shout hurrah! adding occasionally some reckless or profane exclamation. 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. Other anecdotes of his youth may be found in Spark's "Life and Treason of Benedict Arnold." Dr. Solomon Smith was the fellow apprentice of Arnold, and not Dr. Hop- kins, as is stated in that memoir.
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 re- ciprocated by the young lady ; but Benedict 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 brother's absence. One evening Ben-
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edict, who had been to New Haven, came home tin- expectedly, and having entered the house without bustle, ascertaincd 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 ain. 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 afterwards met him at the Bay of Hondurus, 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.
Miss Arnold was never married. After the death of her father she resided principally with her brother. She died at Montague, in Upper Canada, in 1803, aged sixty years.
The last exploit of Arnold during the war was the burning of New London. No act of his cast more dis- honor upon his reputation. Its contignity to his birth- place rendered it more than probable that he would meet in mortal combat some of the companions of his childhood and pations of his youth. It was truly a fratricidal deed.
Oliver Arnold, brother to Benedict Senior, and uncle to the traitor, at his death left a widow and five chil- dren, in straitened circumstances. They had a small house and garden, but nothing more. To these rela- tions, Benedict was always kind and liberal. To one of the sons, by the name of Freegift, he gave the ed- ucation of a scholar, and designed him for one of the professions; but the young man joined himself to the
المدائرية
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Sons of Liberty, entered into the naval service, under Paul Jones, and after fighting bravely, came home with a ruined constitution, to languish and die. The other son, Oliver, was of a roving disposition, and had a peculiar talent at making extempore verses. A spe- cimen of this talent, though trifling in its character, may perhaps be acceptable.
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