USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut. Volume I, 1600-1760 > Part 17
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In 1717-18, John Stoyell, one of the most noted school-masters of the day, was employed by several persons in the middle of the town to instruct their own children and others for twelve months. The town accordingly ordered all the school money for the year to be delivered to these persons and made it the public school for the whole town, the cost to each child being four-pence a week beside the public money. In 1719, Henry Wake was school-master three months at Edward Spald- ing's quarter, receiving for service his diet and five pounds. In 1721, Mr. Walton maintained perambulatory schools in the different neighbor- hoods, the town paying him twelve pounds, finding board and keeping a horse for him. In 1720, the town was divided into to school dis- tricts north and south of meeting-house, each to order its own schools. In May, 1722, the first school-house was ordered-forty or fifty rods from the meeting-house on the country road, and in 1725, two others were completed-one at the south end between James Deane's and Thomas Smith's; one at the north, near Joseph Shepard's.
The bridge over the Quinebaug having now been carried away, Samuel Shepard, living on the public road near a convenient place for crossing, was at considerable charge to provide a ferry boat sufficient to carry a horse and man and was allowed by the Assembly, May, 1722, "to keep said ferry for the space of five years next coming; and the fees thereof, are stated to be four-pence for horse and man." No other public ferry was allowed between the towns, Shepard was to keep good and suitable vessels for transportation over the ferry and attend to its service.
Notwithstanding her repeated rebuffs and failures, Plainfield con- tinued to make application for the country land eastward, accruing to her, as she persistently maintained both by manifest destiny and present
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possession. In 1719, a special effort was made and John Fellows and Timothy Pierce appointed to press their claims for this land-as no more than a lawful equivalent for their land on the Quinebaug-and even offered forty pounds for it. A committee was accordingly ap- pointed by the General Court, which after viewing the land and con- sidering all the circumstances recommended its annexation to the town- ship of Voluntown then struggling for existence. This advice was followed and the contested country land incorporated into the more needy township-Plainfield still refusing to accept the situation and resolutely retaining its commons for pasturage. Even as late as 1723, she protested " against the new addition to Voluntown which takes 759 acres lying within the ancient limits of Plainfield included in Win- throp's deed" and obtained a fresh committee to inquire into facts.
The difficulties with Canterbury were not removed even when the question, of fee was settled in Plainfield's favor, and both towns contin- ued "to fight it out on that line " for many years. Committees were long requisite " to see persons that pull down or demolish Canterbury fence," and numerous petitions vainly urged the re statement and set- tlement of the boundary line. The General Field, so needful for the sustenance of the inhabitants, gave endless trouble and vexation ; its fencing was maintained with great labor and difficulty and its proper care and clearing necessitated the employment of from sixteen to twenty-three " field-drivers"-a public town office instituted about 1720.
Plainfield's unhappy land and boundary quarrels not only retarded her growth and prosperity, but developed much recklessness and law- lessness among its inhabitants. Reports of many disorders and irregu- larities are found in New London Court records : acts not only of insurbordination and violence but of scandalous immoralities. A son of one of the oldest families was severely punished, "for falsifying cer- tain bills of credit" and " uttering them so falsified," while a prominent resident of the town, convicted of improper intimacy with the wife of one of its oldest and most respected citizens, was sentenced-"To be whipped twenty-five stripes on his naked body ; burnt on the forehead with the letter A by a hot iron and to wear a halter about his neck on the outside of his garment during his abode in this Colony so that it may be visible, and when found without it, upon proper infor- mation, to be whipped again and pay charge of prosecution."
No record is left of the growth and condition of the Plainfield church during this period. Joshua Whitney was elected to the deacon's office, upon the decease of William Douglas in 1719. Thomas Williams, one of Plainfield's most active public men, died in 1723. Timothy Pierce succeeded him in the captaincy of the train band and other public offices, served as representative from 1717 to 1726; in 1718, was appointed
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justice of the peace; in 1725, justice of the Quorum for New London County, and judge of the Probate Court in the district of Windham. In 1725, Plainfield was visited by a " very distressing sickness and great mortality," so that they could not get help among themselves to attend the sick but were obliged to rely upon other towns for aid. About twenty persons were buried in town within a few months, including some of its first and leading citizens, viz. John Hall, Samuel Shepard, James Deane, Benjamin Palmer, Matthias Button, Ephraim Wheeler, Phillip Bump and Samuel Howe. The aboriginal inhabitants of the Quinebaug Country were now rapidly passing away-not so much from any violent disease as from their change of habits, and especially from excessive use of liquor, from which it was found impossible to restrain them.
XXI.
CANTERBURY.
C MANTERBURY, when endowed with town privileges, October, 1703, had but few inhabitants - only ten west-side residents signing the articles of separation - but their character and circum- stances made amends for the smallness of their number. Most of them were men of means and position, accustomed to the manage- ment of public affairs and well fitted to initiate and carry on the settlement of the new township. Major Fitch, as " lord-proprietor" of much of the land, had probably the sole sway for a time, but Elisha Paine, the Adamses, Clevelands and Johnsons, were men of energy and public spirit and soon assumed the reins of government. Their residences were in the east of the town, overlooking the Quine- baug valley. The privilege of Rowland's Brook, a short distance northwest from Peagscomsuck, was granted to Samuel Adams in 1703, for building and maintaining a corn-mill. Suitable " ways" con- nected the settlement with Norwich, Windham and distant Wood- stock. Obadiah Johnson, living near the Quinebaug opposite Isaac Shepard's, was allowed, in 1703, to keep a house of public entertain- ment-" provided he keeps good order"-and here town meetings were held and public business transacted.
No record of the organization of town government is preserved, but it was doubtless soon effected. The first town-clerk was probably Eli- sha Paine; the first selectmen, William Johnson, Samuel Adams and
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Eleazer Brown. The first recorded public act of the town was its pro- test against the breach of the articles of separation, making the Quine- baug River the boundary line between the townships instead of a line due south from the centre of Peagscomsuck Island-a change which Canterbury never consented to and which caused, as we have seen, endless confusion and contentions.
The absence of early records makes it difficult to trace the pro- gress of the town, but it was probably very slow for several years. The tenure of the land was prejudical to its growth and best interests. " Before we were a town," reports Mr. Samuel Adams, " Major Fitch, Richard Bushnell and the Tracys had swept up all the good land upon the Quinebaug, with all the other good land, wheresoever it lay, and all for a song or a trifle ; so that there was nothing left but poor rocky hills and hungry land such as no wise man under Heaven would have ventured to settle upon." Settlers were encouraged to come by a promise of good land upon reasonable terms if they would settle a town, but found themselves deceived and deluded. Land titles were obscure and conflicting and some tracts had been sold and re-sold by Owaneco till it was impossible to tell who was the rightful owner, and often sub- duing and cultivating such rough lands as were left them, the settlers had often to pay off successive claimants or be sued from Court to Court to their great cost and damage. Mr. Adams declares, that he " bought first of Major Fitch ; then of Captain Mason and Owaneco ; third of Captain John Mason, so as to avoid all trouble, and lastly of Captain Bushnell ; and in addition to all this, was harassed by suits with the Tracys." Other settlers met with equal difficulties in securing land and titles, and had to pay oppressive rents and heavy rates and charges.
With these obstacles and difficulties, population increased but slowly. Eleazer Brown of Chelmsford, bought land at Wanungatuck of the Tracys in 1704. Jonathan Ashley, Benjamin Baldwin and Henry Smith appear among the inhabitants in 1705. Samuel Butts of Dor- chester settled near Wanungatuck in 1706, and John Pelton and Jeremiah Plympton, Charles and Paul Davenport of Dorchester, bought land in the south of Canterbury, " with buildings and fences," of Jeremiah Fitch the same year.
As the difficulty of crossing the Quinebaug River to attend re- ligious worship, had been the chief ground of town organization, the Canterbury people, as soon as practicable, procured a minister and established regular religious services, prepared timber and made some arrangements for building a meeting-house. In 1705, Robert Green, for thirty shillings, made over to the inhabitants of Canterbury, three and a half acres of land on a hill near his house, "to build and erect a
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meeting-house on, or for training, or any other use the said inhabitants of Canterbury shall see cause for,"-a plot still known as Canterbury Green. The number of settlers was still so small that they felt unequal to the great work of building a house of worship and settling a min- ister without increase of territory and population. A strip of unappro- priated land on the north was found to be as essential to their existence and prosperity, as " the country land east" to their Plainfield neighbors. Some of the residents of this land-Richard Adams, John Woodward, Edward Spalding and Jabez Utter-were anxious to join with them in establishing religious worship. After one or two fruitless appeals, for assistance and enlargement, Major Fitch and Elisha Paine thus petitioned the General Assembly :-
" Whereas two years ago you were pleased to grant us, the inhabitants of Canterbury, to be a town separate from Plainfield, yet although it was not at first our seeking or desire yet being over-persuaded and advised by the Reve- rends Messrs. Noyes, Saltonstall and Treat to yield unto said desires and offers of our neighbors on ye east side of the Quinebaug, according to an agreement that has been before you more than once; and since, also we did petition this Assembly for that which is so highly necessary, viz. to put your sanction to an agreement for the equal and just way of raising our public charges, partly on lands unimproved (as hath been the reasonable custom in new places, until our meeting-house and ministerial house be built). We also petitioned for ye en- largement of our town bounds northward up to Captain Blackwell's south line -it being about two and a half or three miles. As to these, our so reasona- ble requests, the honorable and considerate Lower House did once and again in two several General Assemblies grant our request, but once and again it was stopped and lodged in ye Upper House, for what just reason we know not. But if any be, we humbly pray we may be informed of it; and that which makes it seem yet more strange to us, is, that in all such grants, particular persons' property is secured. Honored Gentlemen and since it is so that we have gotten timber for a meeting-house and are treating with a young min- ister to settle with us, who has been some time with us, so as that now its verily the case with us, if that this Honorable Assembly do not grant our de- sires, ye House of God will not be built and no minister settled. That your- selves may be more sensible of our condition, we have made choice of our loving neighbors, Major James Fitch and Mr. Elisha Paine, to offer this our third petition, who are ye Queen's loyal subjects and your willing and humble servants.
May, 1705."
The Assembly, thereupon, approved, ratified and confirmed the method agreed upon for levying rates and referred the request for en- largement to the General Court in October, which failed to consider it-whereupon Canterbury, in her zeal to possess this land, came again to the Honorable Assembly, May 6, 1706, with her fourth application, humbly showing :-
" Whereas formerly, so now we humbly pray that there be a grant of an ell- largement on our town bounds at the north end up to Captain Blackwell's south line, which is about three miles and in reason can not be added to any other town neither is it capable of being a town by itself-
The Honorable Deputies were so just as to grant our reasonable desire but how or why it stopped in the Worshipful Upper House, we know not and 'tis so much the more strange to us in that all such grants property is to be se- cured so that no person can be damnified. We pray you, kind gentlemen, to consider our condition; our town about four miles wide; Norwich on ye south; Windham on ye west and Plainfield on the east-so that there is
19
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
no other way for an enlargement but this strip of land which we have thus prayed-for; without ye expectation of which we would never have undertook to be a town; without which, all our hitherto endeavors to be a town, is like to come to nought; our timber we have got for a meeting- house is likely to lie and rot-the people will do nothing more about it because of our straightness ; no minister dare venture to settle amongst us unless we be enlarged; our inhabitants that love religion are drawing off and our lands are like to fall in such men's hands as care not for the gospel-so that ere long there will not be so much as the name of religion in this place. Now your granting unto us that which was so just and reasonable on your part and ab- solutely necessary on our part will oblige us to pray that the God of justice and mercy would be pleased to bless and direct you, so that we, and all the new plantations who are going forward to build God's house and settle a min- ister, may have occasion to bless God for you and your administrations. So prays your willing and obedient servants, the inhabitants of Canterbury, by
Elisha Paine, William Johnson, Eleazer Brown, Select-men.
Captain Joseph Wadsworth and Captain Nichols of Hartford, with our neighbors Major Fitch and Tixhall Ensworth, chosen to appear and manage this petition.'
Undismayed by the deplorable consequences threatened, the " Wor- shipful Upper House " still refused to grant this petition for reasons hereafter indicated. The failure of attempts to secure jurisdiction of the valley land has been already related, and the southern and western bounds of Canterbury were equally unsettled and unsatisfactory. The southern line was easily rectified, but the western remained in con- troversy for nearly half a century. Canterbury assumed the original bound prescribed by Uncas and laid down by the first surveyors of Joshua's Tract. Windham maintained the true south line run by her own committee. The gore between these lines was claimed by both towns. It has been stated by many historians, even by Trumbull, usually so accurate, that " Canterbury originally belonged to Wind- ham," but this is manifestly impossible, as the territory of Windham was restricted by the terms of the will to a line south from Appaquage, and by the orders of Uncas, who had charge of its laying out, the line was run a little west of south, following Nipmuck Path rather than the compass. The bitter and protracted contest for the land between these rival boundaries probably led to the belief that the whole territory was in conflict and that Canterbury had once belonged to Windham. In 1704, Windham appointed a committee to treat with Canterbury people respecting their bounds and not to agree with them further west than a certain specified point. Canterbury not agreeing to anything but the original line, the committee was directed, "to run a south line from Appaquage and fix boundaries," and, a few years later, proceeded to lay out the disputed land and assume its jurisdiction. The first Canter- bury settlers in this vicinity were Stephen Cook, Richard and Benoni Woodward and Joseph Hide, who purchased land on Little River in 1703. Jonathan Hide and Stephen Frost soon after settled in this
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section. George Lilly, who purchased land between Nipmuck Path and Little River in 1710, was claimed by Windham.
In 1707, Canterbury organized her first military company ; William Johnson, ensign. In 1708, she was released from the payment of country rate to the Colony, on condition that the money due "be improved by them for the building a meeting house in their town within one year next coming." In 1709, she gave in a list of thirty- five male inhabitants and £1,619. 10s. taxable estates.
With the aid thus afforded, Canterbury was able in time to complete her meeting house, even without the land north which had been deemed so indispensable. A house for the minister was also provided, and, in 1711, the town received liberty from the Assembly "to gather a church and call a minister to office amongst them, according to the rules of the gospel and the order of discipline established by this Government." The minister called was Mr. Samuel Estabrook, son of Rev. Joseph Estabrook, of Concord, a graduate of Harvard in 1696, who had been some years preaching in Canterbury to general accept- ance. Nothing is known of the terms of settlement. "The church was constituted June 13, 1711 "-Rev. Messrs. Whiting, Coit, John Woodward, of Norwich, and Salmon Treat, of Preston, officiating in the public services. The covenant adopted was more elaborate than those in the neighboring churches. No mention was made of Say- brook Platform nor any specific form of discipline indicated. The signers agreed, "to hold fast the doctrines of faith and good manners contained in the Scriptures of Truth," and " to submit to the discipline of Christ in his church that the worship of God may be upheld in the power and spiritualness thereof among us." Samuel Estabrook, Eleazer Brown, Elisha Paine, Samuel , Cleveland, John Woodward, Richard Woodward and Stephen Frost, signing the cove- nant, were recognized as the 'seven pillars' or constituent members of the church, and Mr. Estabrook ordained the same day as its pastor. Mr. Whiting gave the charge, Mr. Treat the right hand of fellowship. Eleazer Brown was soon chosen deacon. Timothy Backus, James Hyde, Josiah Cleveland, Richard Adams, Jun., Samuel Butts, Thomas Brown, with their wives, Mrs. Samuel Adams and one or two others, united with the church in 1712-13, making the whole membership twenty five.
Having thus provided for religious worship and ordinances, the people of Canterbury devoted themselves with equal earnestness to the settlement of their secular affairs, as the various quarrels respecting bounds and land titles greatly impeded progress. Major Fitch had already moved to the Assembly for liberty to survey and settle the western boundary line, and upon further representations from Elisha
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
Paine and Samuel Adams-sent as deputies by Canterbury in May, 1711-of the uncomfortable state and condition of the people, "by reason of their divers claims and controversies about their lands in that town, and about their titles to the same and division thoreof, and by reason that several persons there have bought and purchased of the Indians or others, one and the same parcel in many places,"-the Assembly, " being minded and willing to make a quiet, peaceable and just settle- ment of the said lands," appointed William Pitkin, Esq., Messrs John Elliott, Solomon Tracy, Samuel Adams and Samuel Butts, or any three of them, to be a committee to advise and assist in stating, dividing and settling said land. Yet, with all their care, no perma- nent settlement was then effected. Obadiah Johnson and Samuel Adams offered to throw up to the town one third of their purchase from Owaneco, accommodating the town with minister's lot and ministry lot, the remainder to be divided between the inhabitants, and have all surveyed and parceled out, taking advice from two or three Indians-provided this purchase was confirmed to them. The town so far accepted this offer that two hundred acres of land near the meeting- house and thirty in the west of the town were laid out to Mr. Estabrook, but no further division was accomplished for some years.
At the instigation of Major Fitch, the disputed lines between Windham and Canterbury were thoroughly investigated in 1710-11. Bushnell and Leffingwell, who had assisted in the first survey of Joshua's Tract, both testified that they were sent by Uncas to measure eight miles south from Appaquage by Nipmuck Path, that they then understood that the land to the east of the Path was Owaneco's, and did know that the Legatees never by all their actions nor in their viewing the lands for a patent, supposed "that they had any title on the east side of said path." The General Assembly, after hearing their reports and testimonies, was of opinion that the original line, running from Appaquage to a white oak tree marked with the letter B, ought to be the dividing line between the towns, and therefore empowered and ordered the worshipful Matthew Allen, Esq., and Mr. John Plumb, May, 1712, " to endeavor to find out and renew the said line, and extend it to Norwich bounds and renew and refresh the same with proper marks," but if unable to find this " antient line" they were to run and stake one, according to the description of the same and the last Will of Joshua. The committee was able to find the line and refresh it, and in May, 1713, it was confirmed by the General Assembly as the dividing line between Canterbury and Windham.
In other matters, Canterbury was equally successful. A petition was sent to the General Assembly, May 5, 1712, showing " that though
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the town of Plainfield was once regularly laid out and our money paid for it, yet through some mishap, the return of the committee appointed was lost out of Court and never recorded," and also that the Justice of Plainfield had refused to swear the listers, " which, with the uncertainty of our town bounds (not being recorded), puts us out of capacity either for town or country rates ; " and praying " that the town bounds might be stated and confirmed according to the former laying out by Messrs. Wetherell, Pitkin and Ely, as ordered by the General Court in 1699," and " that lysters may be sworn, that we may the better per- form our respective duties, and that for time to come there may be some person empowered to administer the oath to our town officers." The Assembly, in response, granted full power unto the town-clerk of Canterbury to administer the necessary oaths required by law for town officers, and directed Mr. John Plumb, New London County surveyor, to run and settle the bounds of the town. Mr. Plumb proceeded to Canterbury and made the needful surveys, " but found two lines between Plainfield and Canterbury had been granted by the General Assembly, one, the Quinebaug ; the other, somewhat differing, and no direction given him by which line to run, whereby he was at a loss and prayed for direction." The Assembly once more took the matter into con- sideration, and, notwithstanding a most earnest petition from Plainfield that the bound might extend no further west than the Quinebaug River, resolved, October, 1714 :-
" That the surveyor of the County of New London, upon the motion and at the charge of the town of Canterbury, run the east bounds of the said town, viz., from the centre of the island called Peagscomsuck, a due east line one quarter of a mile, and from thence a straight line to the south bounds, to fall upon the south bounds within a mile eastward from Quinebaug River, pursuant to the agreement of the inhabitants of the cast and west sides of the town of Plainfield, made on December 24, 1702, and compleat the same and make return thereof, as well as of.the other lines of said town ordered to be run by the said surveyor."
Not only did Canterbury thus regain the jurisdiction of this im- portant part of her original territory and secure the confirmation of the strip contested by Windham, but she was also enlarged by the annexation of land northward, the Assembly enacting, October, 1714, " that the tract of land between the towns of Canterbury and Plainfield should be equally divided and the southern part belong to Canterbury." Richard Adams, John Woodward, Edward Spalding and Daniel Cady, residents of this tract, were thus added to the inhabitants of Canter- bury.
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