USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut, from its settlement in 1660, to January 1845 > Part 3
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A company for the settlement of a plantation at Mohegan seems to have been formed at Saybrook, as
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
early as 1653 or 4. The majority of the signers were inhabitants of that place, and probably members in full communion, of Mr. Fitch's church. Whether this was the case with Capt. John Mason, the most promi- nent person in the company, has been doubted, but upon what grounds other than that he was a man of impetuous passions and martial deeds, does not appear. Other names were from time to time, added to the company's list, from various places, until they amount- ed to thirty-five in number. Capt. Mason was more conversant with Indian affairs than any other English- man in the country. He had been the friend and ad- viser of Uncas for twenty-four years, and had frequent- ly visited him in his territory, to aid him by his coun- sel or his arms. He was, therefore, well acquainted with the adjacent country, and may have been the first to fix his eye upon the head of the Thames, as an advantageous position for a town. It is certain that all his influence was exerted to promote the projected settlement in that quarter.
In June, 1659, Uncas and his two sons, Owaneco and Attawanhood, (alias Joshua,) appeared at Say- brook and signed a deed of conveyance, which gave to the company a legal right and title to a tract of land at Mohegan, nine miles square. Seventy pounds was to be given in compensation for the land. Previous to this, in 1640, Connecticut had purchased of Uncas all his lands not actually used as planting grounds by the tribe, so that Norwich appears to have been twice, (and if a conveyance was ever made to Leffingwell, three times.) solemnly transferred from the aborigines to the whites, and an equivalent cach time given.
" On just and equal terms the land was gained ; No force of arms hath any right obtained."
4
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The oldest remaining copy of the original deed of this tract bears the date of 1663, and this appears to have been a new instrument, formally acknowledged and signed that year, and recorded at Hartford and Norwich. That it is not a literal copy of the convey- ance made at Saybrook, in 1659, is evident from the phrase, "Town and Inhabitants of Norwich." At that time, and for the first year or two after the settle- ment, the place had no other name than Mohegan .*
DEED OF NORWICH,-[As recorded in the Town Book.]
Know all men that Onkos, Owaneco, Attawanhood, Sa- chems of Moheagen have bargained, sold, and passed over, and doe by these presents sell and pass over unto the Towne and inhabitants of Norwich nine miles square of land lying and being at Moheagen and the parts thereunto ajoyneing, with all ponds, rivers, woods, quarries, mines, with all roy- alties, privileges, and appurtenances thereunto belonging, to them the said inhabitants of Norwich, theire heirs and suc- cessors forever_the said lands are to be bounded as follow- eth (viz.) to the southward on the west side of the Great River, ye line is to begin at the brooke falling into the head of Trading Cove, and soe to run west norwest seven miles- from thence the line to run nor north east nine miles, and on the East side the afores'd river to the southward the line is to joyne with New London bounds as it is now laid out and soe to run east two miles from the foresd river, and soe from thence the line is to run nor noreast nine miles and from thence to run nor norwest nine miles to meet with the western line .- In consideration whereof the sd Onkos, Owaneco and Attawanhood doe acknowledge to have received of the parties aforesd the full and juste sum of seventy pounds and doe promise and engage ourselves, heirs and successors, to warant the sd bargin and sale to the aforesd parties, their
* The original deed is not now extant. The author recollects to have heard Elisha Hyde, Esq., say that he had seen it: that it was brought from Hartford, and exhibited at the time when the great Mason controversy was tried in Norwich, and was afterwards in the posses- sion of his uncle, Richard Hyde, Esq., who was retained on the Mo- hegan side in that case.
1770858
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
heirs and successors, and them to defend from all claimes and molestations from any whatsoever .- In witness whereof we have hereunto set to our hands this 6th of June, Anno 1659.
UNKOS
his marke
OWANECO
marke"
ATTAWANHOOD
marke
Witness hereunto JOHN MASON THOMAS TRACY.
This deed is recorded in the Country Booke Agust 20th 1663 : as atests JOHN ALLYN, Sec'y.
The bounds of this tract, as more particularly descri- bed in the first volume of the Proprietors' Records, were as follows :
The line commenced at the mouth of Trading Cove, where the brook falls into the cove ; thence W. N. W. seven miles to a Great Pond, [now in the corner of Bozrah and Colchester,] the limit in this direction being denoted by a black oak marked N that stood near the outlet of the " Great Brook that runs out of the pond to Norwich river ;" thence N. N. E. nine miles to a black oak standing on the south side of the river, [ Shetucket, ] " a little above Maw-mi-ag-waug"; thence S. S. E. nine miles, crossing the Shetucket and the Quinebaug, and passing through " a Seader Swamp called Catantaquek," to a white oak tice, marked N, thirteen rods beyond a brook called Quo-qui-qua-soug, the space from the Quinebaug to this tree being just
.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
one mile and fifty-eight rods; thence S. S. W. nine miles to a white oak marked N, where Norwich and New London bounds join ; thence W. on the New London bounds two miles to Mohegan river, opposite the mouth of Trading Cove brook, where the first line began.
The southern boundary line, it will be observed, is nine miles in length, two east of the river, and seven west, without counting the breadth of the Thames, and the length of Trading Cove to the month of the brook, which would make this line nearly ten miles long. This seems to be little better than an imposition upon the Indians, who had granted in the deed only a tract nine miles square. Some uneasiness being produced by this, and an explanation demanded, the proprietors stated that the River and Cove were left out of the measurement, in compensation for a right reserved by the Indians, of using the waters for fishing and other conveniences.'
Immediately after the conveyance of this tract to the English, Major Mason, who had that year been chosen Deputy Governor of the Colony, was commissioned by the General Court to purchase of Uncas and his brother Wawecquaw, all the remainder of the Mohegan lands not actually occupied by the tribe. In this business he was successful ; a deed of cession being obtained, signed at Mohegan, August, 1659, and undoubtedly made in behalf of the colony, though this fact was afterwards denied by Mason's descendants. This business kept Major Mason several weeks in the Mohe- gan country. The Saybrook proprietors, of whom he was one, were at the same time engaged in surveying their new township, laying out their homelots, and preparing for a removal the next year ; and it was a great advantage to them, to have one at hand, to aid
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
them by those personal services and judicious counsels, which the wisdom and experience of Mason rendered so valuable. This was the fourth town of which he had been one of the founders. The other three were Dorchester, Hartford and Saybrook.
It is not probable that the proprietors found a single white resident upon the tract. In some places the for- ests had been thinned of their undergrowth by fires, to afford scope for the Indians in their passionate love of the chase, and the beaver had done his part towards clearing the lowlands and banks of the rivers. A few wigwams were scattered here and there, the occasional abodes of wandering families of Indians at certain sea- sons of the year, who came hither for supplies of fish, fruit, or game ; and the summits of some of the hills were crowned with disorderly heaps of stones, showing where some rude defence had been constructed in the course of their wars. But in every other respect the land was in its natural wild state. It was a laborious task to cut down trees, to burn the underbrush, to mark out roads and pathways, to throw temporary bridges over the runs of water, and to collect materials for building. A highway was opened from the Yantic meadows to Mason's Swamp, at the head of the Little Plain, following the windings of the Yantic, on each side of which, the proprietary home lots were laid out, and sheds and wigwams erected for temporary shelter. A pathway was likewise cleared from the centre of the settlement, to the Indian landing place below the Falls of the Yantic, near the head of the Cove. This path coincided in part with the present Mill Lane, and was the most eligible route by which the effects of the planters could be conveyed. These arrangements were made in November, 1659. A few persons probably remained on the ground during the winter.
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CHAPTER IV.
The Settlement, and Settlers.
THE Town Plot* was laid out among the windings of a pleasant vale, bordered by the rapid circuitous Yantic, and overlooked by ridges of hills. The home- lots comprised a strip several acres in breadth, on each side of the Yantic, being mostly river lands, and con- sisting each of a certain portion of meadow and pas- ture. As these lots were afterwards registered, the names of the proprietors, and the order of their loca- tion, can be pretty nearly ascertained. Beginning at the N. W. extremity of the Town Plat, the order of settlement was as follows :- John Pease, John Tracy, John Baldwin, Jonathan Royce, Robert Allyn, Francis Griswold, Nehemiah Smith, and Thomas Howard :- Jolin Calkins, Hugh Calkins, Ensign William Backus, Richard Egerton, Thomas Post, John Gadger ;- and on the opposite side of the town street, with no river land attached to their homelots, Samuel Hide and William Hide. Then again upon the river, Morgan Bowers, Robert Wade, John Birchard, John Post, Thomas Bingham, Thomas Waterman. Around the Plain were Major John Mason, Rev. Mr. Fitch, Mr. Simon Huntington and Stephen Giffords. From the Plain, the street made a detour to avoid a dense and
* In the Records, Plot or Plat, is used indifferently; sometimes it is spelt Platt.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
miry thicket. In this section were Lieut. Thomas Tracy, and nearly opposite to him, John Bradford :- Christopher Huntington, Thomas Adgate, and Jolin Holmsted; where the street again approached the river, Stephen Backus, Thomas Bliss, and John Ren- alds. On the other side of the highway, more upon the upland, were Sergeant Thomas Leffingwell and Josiah Reed. Richard Wallis and Richard Hendys were also among the first planters upon the ground. Their homelots were near together, and not far from the meeting-house plain ; but the location is not well ascertained. This makes the number of settlers thirty- eight, though it has been generally supposed that but thirty-five signed the town purchase.
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 charac- ter. The frowning ledges of rock, with which the place so peculiarly abounds, and the immense prepon- derance of forest, chastened the landscape almost into gloom. Many of the rocky heights were rendered im- pervious with stunted cedar, spruce, hemlock, juniper, savin, and the whole family of evergreen trees. The uplands and declivities were covered 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
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
concealed channels, were broad streams, to be forded with care, or avoided by tedious circuits. Flowering plants and shrubs were comparatively abundant, and the settlers must have been regaled with a succession 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 be- longing to the climate, were numerous to an uncom- mon degree, and the hissing of snakes, as well as the howling of wolves and bears, must soon have become familiar to their ears. '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 different places, they were bound together by a common faith, 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.
The Mohegans assisted them greatly in removing their goods and preparing their habitations. The number of the tribe at this period, cannot be precisely ascertained, but as this was about the time of its great- est prosperity, the whole number may be estimated at
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
2,000; the warriors at 400. For several months they kept a continual watch and guard around their white friends, and held themselves in readiness to defend them from all enemies. The Narragansetts were ex- ceedingly irritated at the plantation, as forming an obstacle to their future inroads upon the Mohegan territories. For the same reason, it was peculiarly agreeable to Uncas, and he seems to have regarded the infant settlement with especial interest. He built wigwams on the highest hills, where he kept an ad- vanced guard, and on the slightest alarm, would as- semble his warriors on the exposed borders of the town, to protect it from danger. The situation of the place, presenting on the north and east, a naked frontier to the hostile tribes, was peculiarly hazardous. It is said, that during the first summer, a hostile band approach- ed the settlement with a determination to break it up and expel the planters. It was a Sabbath morning, and their scouts creeping close to the town, saw the muskets of the citizens, stacked near the meeting- house, where they were assembled to worship, some of the houses fortified, cannon mounted, and Mohegan sentinels stationed on the hills ; on carrying back this report to their comrades, they were intimidated, and relinquished their design.
The earliest act that has been found recorded in the town books bears the date of December 11, 1660, and is a renewal of a contract stated to have been made at Saybrook, in 1654, between John Elderkin on the one hand, and " the town of Moheagan" on the other, to erect a corn mill either on the land of John Pease, or at Noman's acre, to be completed before November 1, 1661, under penalty of forfeiting £20 in money. The toll allowed was one-sixteenth, and a tract of land was to be given in compensation for the mill.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The Indians extended the term Mohegan over the · whole tract between the Yantic and Shetucket, now comprising Norwich and Lisbon. This whole territory was Mohegan, but for particular portions of it, they had individual names, each with an appropriate mean- ing. Thus their villages on the banks of the Thames were Shantok, Pumma-chog, and Massa-peag. This last name signifies a place for fishing. Some have de- rived the word Moheag' from a term signifying a rasp- berry, and have supposed that Norwich was originally and peculiarly, the Moheagan, i. e. raspberry lands, of the tribe, on account of the abundance of that fruit found here, and the custom of the Indians to come in bands at the proper season to obtain a supply. This explanation is derived entirely from tradition, and not from a knowledge of the meaning of the word in the Indian language. Certain it is, however, that the early settlers and their tawny neighbors used to ex- change civilities in respect to their peculiar natural commodities. The English would make excursions to the Indian lands in strawberry time, while the In- dians considered it their privilege to come at the proper season, with large sacks and baskets to gather rasp- berries and whortleberries, in the rocky glens and pastures of this their alienated territory.
The name Norwich was given to the place about 1662. In some old deeds recorded in New London, it is called New-Norwich. Although the name was be- stowed in honor of Norwich in England, from which place it is supposed a considerable number of the set- tlers emigrated, this fact has not been positively ascer- tained, with respect to any of them but the family of Huntingtons. The original meaning of the word ren- ders its application in this case peculiarly appropriate. In the old Saxon language it signifies North-Castle,
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
and the formidable piles of rocks found here, might easily suggest the idea of towers and battlements.
The homelots consisted in general of five or six acres cach. One of the largest portions was that of Mr. Fitch, which consisted of eleven and a half acres. His house was on the plain, fronting the N. W. He brought with him two sons, from Saybrook, of the re- spective ages of eleven and five years. On arriving at manhood they built houses near their father's, and soon became conspicuous men and able leaders in public affairs. The meeting-house stood upon the area of the plain, and was probably erected previous to the removal of the planters ; as otherwise we might expect some notice of its erection to have been found upon record among the town acts.
Major Mason's home lot consisted of eight acres ; his house stood near the river, not far from the place where it is now spanned by the Court-house bridge. Mr. Simon Huntington built on the corner where stands the house of the late Mr. Joseph Huntington. Thomas Tracy had a nine acre lot, east of Simon Huntington. The road around the square at that time, ran over the brow of the hill, in the rear of the Coit and Lathrop houses, and where it came out and turned south, Lieut. Leffingwell's house was situated. It stood high upon the rock, nearly opposite the pres- ent residence of John Hyde, Esq. The houses of Thomas Bliss and John Reynolds were upon the very sites where their descendants still live.
Each homestead had a tract of pasture land included in it, or laid out as near to it as was convenient. Where the street approached the river, the planters had their pasture lots, in the same line with the house lots on the opposite side of the stream.
Several farms were laid out during the first year, in
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
the vicinity of the town plot, and every succeeding year added to their number. New inhabitants were provided with homelots in unappropriated lands, and at intervals, public divisions were made of certain por- tions of the tract, among all the accepted inhabitants or freeholders. In April, 1661, the first division land was laid out, (this included the Little Plain;) in 1663, the second division land, which lay towards Lebanon, and in 166S, 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. In many instances, they have remained in the same fam- ily and name to the present day. 'The first alienation of a home lot, on record, is that of Robert Wade, who soon after the settlement, transferred his right to Caleb Abell, having first obtained the consent of the town.
'The first child was born in August, 1660, viz. : Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Hide and Jane Lee, who had been married the preceding year at Saybrook. The house in which this child was born stood on a declivity, sloping to the town street, in the rear of the spot where the house stands which was the residence of Elisha Hyde, Esq., deceased. At that time there was an open space a few rods square in front, since occupied by a house and garden. Here were the home lots of the two Hides, and here their immediate descendants, fathers and sons, lived. Capt. William Hide, the son of Samuel, built around this space three houses for his three oldest sons, reserving the home- stead for his fourth son.
3
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The second birth was also a female, Anne, daughter of Thomas Bliss, born in September.
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. In 1661 five births are recorded, viz. :
Elizabeth, daugter of Jonathan Royce and Debo- rah Calkins, .
. January.
John, Son of William Backus, February.
Sarah, daughter of John Burchard, May.
John, son of John Calkins, . July.
Abigail, daughter of Thomas Adgate, August.
Christopher Huntington, the first born male, lived to a good old age. The broad and venerable head- stone to his grave states that he exercised for forty years the office of deacon in the church. One of his grand-children, who held the same office for almost as long a period, Deacon Caleb Huntington, died in 1842, aged ninety-three.
This brings the whole duration of Norwich into the compass of three generations. It diminishes the time since the settlement to a narrow compass, and seems to place our ancestors distinctly before us.
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 husband's home lot, " ad- joining Goodman Gadger's lot." From these two lots an area of about ten rods square, enclosing the grave of Sarah Post, was afterwards laid out by the town as a place of public interment.
The first marriage has not been ascertained. It is doubtful whether there was a wedding in Norwich till Thomas Post married again, in 1663.
Most of the proprietors were men of mature years, and several of them had large families. Others among 5
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
them had long been wanderers and pilgrims seeking a home ; having emigrated from the old country in youth, and since that period passing from place to place, till they collected at Saybrook and joined the company that was forming for a new township. In anticipation of the settlement several marriages had taken place at Saybrook within two or three years previous ; but still it is inferred that six or eight of the proprietors were bachelors, as their marriages are sub- sequently recorded without reference to any former connection. The Rev. Mr. Fitch was a widower.
The affairs both of the town and society, civil and ecclesiastical, were all recorded together, until the year 1720. The volumes are labeled, Town Books of Acts, Votes, Grants, &c. They contain also an account of the freemen, strays, cattle-marks, lost goods, and occasionally a record of a justice's court. Afterwards the town and society affairs were separated, and the latter kept by themselves in a volume entitled " The Town-Plot Society Records." In the first books, dates are confounded and subjects intermixed with a strange degree of negligence. Some of the records seem to have been made promiscuously, with the book upside down, or upright, as it happened ; and forward or backward, wherever there was a blank space. The earliest notices relate to the granting of lands, appoint- ing fence-viewers, erecting public pounds, gates and fences, stating highways, felling trees, and regulating the running at large of swine, rams, and other domestic animals. These were the first subjects of legislation, and the first officers were Townsmen, sometimes called Overseers, and afterwards Selectmen. They were at first only two in number, and the first whose names have been found mentioned, were Hugh Calkins for the west end of the town, and Christopher Huntington for the
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
east. They were empowered to call public meetings, to take cognizance of all offences against law, order, and morality ; to settle differences, and try cases of small value. Some of the earliest entries are the fol- lowing.
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