USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut. Volume I, 1600-1760 > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
The good tidings received from the Nipmuck wilderness greatly cheered the heart of the excellent Mr. Eliot, and in September, 1674, he sat out on a tour to the new Praying Towns, to confirm the churches, settle the teachers over them and establish civil government. He was accompanied by Major Daniel Gookin, who had been appointed by the General Court of Massachusetts, magistrate over the Praying In- dians, with power to hold courts and "constitute and appoint Indian commissioners in their several plantations, to hear and determine such matters as do arise among themselves, with officers to execute com- mands and warrants." This visit of Eliot is the most striking and note- worthy event in Windham's aboriginal history, and is detailed with great clearness and vividness by Major Gookin. Five or six godly persons went with them on their journey. After visiting Hamannesset and Ma- chauge, they came, September 14, to a village near Lake Chaubongagum -afterward included in Dudley-where nine families were collected. The chief man and sachem in this vicinity was Black James, "a person that had approved himself diligent, courageous, faithful and zealous to suppress sin," and who was now appointed constable of all the praying towns. Joseph, one of the young missionaries, was teacher at Chau- bongagum. Here Mr. Eliot preached, prayed, sang psalms and spent part of the night discoursing. Next day, accompanied by Black James and Joseph, he proceeded to Myanexet, " seven miles southwest, a village situated in a very fertile country, west of a fresh river called Mohigan." Twenty families were gathered here, comprising, by Gookin's estimate, a hundred souls-men, women and children-all eager to welcome and hear the missionaries. A religious service was held, Mr. Eliot preaching in the Indian tongue, from the words, " Lift up your heads, O ye gates and the King of Glory shall come
* It has been stated by several historians, unfamiliar with these localities, that the place called Quinnatisset is now included in Woodstock, but the original deeds from the natives to English purchasers, make it absolutely certain that this name designated territory now in Thompson.
8
HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
in." At the close of the sermon, Mr. Eliot led forward John Moqua, a pious and sober person, and presented him to the people to be their minister, whom they thankfully accepted in the Lord. Moqua then read a suitable psalm, which was sung by the Assembly. After prayer, the teacher was exhorted to be diligent and faithful, and to take good care of the flock, and the people charged to yield him obedience and subjection.
Major Gookin reported another village at Quinnatisset, six miles south, " within four miles of the south line of Massachusetts Colony," where there were also twenty families and a hundred souls, but they went not to it, being straightened for time and the way rough and dangerous, " but they saw and spake with some of the principal people, and appointed a sober and pious young man of Natick, called Daniel, to be their minister, whom they accepted in the Lord."
After rest and refreshment, the party proceeded on their way, and late in the evening, after a toilsome journey arrived at Wabbaquasset. According to Major Gookin (whose distances are not always accurate), this town was nine or ten miles from Myanexet, six miles west of Mohigan River, and seventy-two miles southwest from Boston; and contained thirty families and a hundred and fifty souls. It was situated in a very rich soil, as was manifested by the goodly crop of Indian corn then nearly ingathered, not less than forty bushels to an acre. A spacious wigwam, about sixty feet long and twenty wide, was the residence of the sachem, who was inclined to religion and had the meetings on Sabbath days at his house. The Sagamore was absent, but his squaw courteously admitted the strangers into his wigwam, and provided liberally in their way for their Indian companions. News of their arrival soon spread through the village. The teacher Sampson hastened to greet and welcome the missionaries, and also divers of the principal people, with whom they spent a good part of the night in prayer, singing psalms and exhortations. One grim Indian alone sat mute and took no part in what was passing. At length, after a great space, he arose and spake, and declaring himself a messenger from Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans, who challenged right to and dominion over this people of Wabbaquasset-" Uncas," said he, "is not well pleased that the English should pass over Mohegan River to call his Indians to pray to God."
The timid Wabbaquassets quailed at this lofty message from their sovereign master, but Mr. Eliot answered calmly, "That it was his work to call upon men everywhere to repent and embrace the Gospel, but he did not meddle with civil right or jurisdiction." Gookin, with the authority befitting his office as magistrate, then declared unto him, and desired him to inform Uncas, "That Wabbaquasset was within
9
ABORIGINAL GLEANINGS.
the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and that the government of that people did belong to them, and they do look upon themselves con- cerned to promote the good of all people within their limits, especially if they embrace Christianity-yet it was not intended to abridge the Indian sachems of their just and ancient rights over the Indians in respect of paying tribute or any other dues, but the. main design of the English was to bring them to the good knowledge of God in Christ and to suppress among them their sins of drunkenness, idolatry, powwowing and witchcraft. As for the English, they had taken no tribute from them, nor taxed them with anything of that kind." With this declaration, the evening session ended ; the Indians dispersed ; the messenger of Uncas vanished to appear no more, but his irruption among the little band of Indian disciples gathered at the great Apostle's feet is the most picturesque incident in Windham's early history.
The day following, September 16th, 1674, is one of the most memorable in Windham annals. The presence of the distinguished visitors was now widely known and had doubtless drawn together at Wabbaquasset all the Indians from surrounding sections. The Praying Indians from Myanexet and Quinnatisset were there, and many others who had never before attended a religious service nor heard of the Englishman's God. Public worship was held at an early hour-" Sampson first reading and setting the first part of the 119th Psalm," which was sung by the assembly. Mr. Eliot next prayed and then preached to them in their own language from Matthew vi: 23-" But if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness,"-concluding the service with prayer.
Major Gookin then held a court, establishing civil governments among the natives. First he approved the teacher Sampson-whom he described as " an active and ingenious person, who spake good English and read well,"-and next the constable, Black James ; giving each of them a charge to be diligent and faithful in their places: and also exhorted the people to yield obedience to the Gospel of Christ and to those set in order there. He then published a warrant or order, empower- ing the constable to suppress drunkenness and Sabbath-breaking, and especially powwowing and idolatry, and after warning given, to appre- hend all delinquents and bring them before authority to answer for their misdoings. For smaller faults to bring them before Wattasa Companum of Hassanamesset-" a grave and pious man of the chief sachem's blood ; " for idolatry and powwowing, to bring them before himself.
Having thus settled religious ordinances and civil authority, Mr. Eliot and his friends took leave of this people of Wabbaquasset, and
2
10
HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
returned the same day through Myanexet to Chaubongagum, greatly pleased with the progress of Christianity and civilization among these tractable and friendly Indians. Seventy families had been reclaimed from heathenism and barbarism and were gathered in churches with ministers set over them, and from this fair beginning they could not but hope that light would shine into all the dark region around them.
These hopeful prospects were soon blighted. The Narraganset war broke out in the following summer and swept away at once the result of years of missionary labor. The villages were deserted ; the churches fell to pieces ; the Praying Indians relapsed into savages. The Nipmucks east of the Quinebaug joined the Narragansets ; the fearful Wabba- quassets left their pleasant villages and planting fields, and threw themselves under the protection of Uncas at Mohegan. Early in August, 1675, a company of Providence men, under Captain Nathaniel Thomas, went out in pursuit of Philip-who had just effected his escape to the Nipmuck Country,-and on the night of August 3d, reached the second fort in that country, " called by the Indians Wapo- soshequash "-(Wabbaquasset). This was on a hill, a mile or two west of what is now Woodstock Hill. Captain Thomas reports " a very good inland country, well watered with rivers and brooks, special good land, great quantities of special good corn and beans and stately wig- wams as I never saw the like, but not one Indian to be seen." The Wabbaquassets were then serving with the Mohegans, and aided in vari- ous forays and expeditions, bringing in on one occasion over a hundred of Philip's men, so that each warrior, at the close of the campaign of 1675, was rewarded for his services by " a payre of breechis " from the Connecticut government.
No battle or skirmish is reported during the war within Windham County territory, but it was repeatedly traversed by scouting parties, and companies of soldiers were sent at different times to "gather all the corne and secure all the swine that could be found therein." In June, 1676, Major Talcot sat out from Norwich on an expedition through the Nipmuck Country with 240 English soldiers and 200 Indian warriors. They marched first to Egunk, where they hoped to salute the enemy, and thence to Wabbaquasset, scouring the woods through this long tract, but found the country everywhere deserted. At Wabbaquasset, they found a fort and about forty acres of corn growing, but no enemy. The village, with its " stately wigwams" had perhaps been previously destroyed. They demolished fort and corn and then proceeded to Chaubongagum, where they killed and captured fifty-two of the enemy.
The death of Philip the following August closed this bloody and
11
ABORIGINAL GLEANINGS.
destructive war. The Nipmucks found themselves almost annihilated. " I went to Connecticut," said Sagamore Sam of Nashaway, "about the captives there and found the English had destroyed those Indians, and when I came home we were also destroyed." The grave and pious Wattasa Companum, enticed away by Philip's men, was executed in Boston. Gookin was the only magistrate who opposed the people in their rage against the wretched natives. The few remaining Nipmucks found a refuge with some distant tribes ; the Wabbaquassets remained with Uncas at Mohegan. The aboriginal inhabitants of the future Windham County were destroyed or scattered, and their territory opened to English settlement and occupation.
nd
ed
ad
n
) 0 S
1
BOOK I. 1676-1726.
I.
MASSACHUSETTS BOUNDARY LINE. NIPMUCK AND MOHEGAN LAND TRANSFERS.
THOUGH Windham County is so clearly within the limits of Connecticut, the northern part of this territory was long held by Massachusetts. The boundary between these colonies was many years disputed. The patent of Connecticut allowed her territory to extend northward to the head of Narraganset River, but the previous grant to Massachusetts restricted it to the southern bound of the Bay Colony-" three miles south of every part of Charles River." In 1642, Massachusetts employed Nathaniel Woodward and Solomon Saffery, characterized by her as "skillful and approved artists," to run her southern boundary line. A point on Wrentham Plain was adjudged by them to be three miles south of the most southerly part of Charles River, and there they fixed a station. They then, according to Trumbull, took a sloop and sailed round to Long Island Sound, and thence up Connecticut River to the house of one Bissel in Windsor, where they established another station some ten or twelve miles south of that in Wrentham. The line joining these points was the famous " Woodward's and Saffery's Line," accepted by Massachusetts as her southern boundary, and maintained by her seventy years against the reiterated representations and remonstrances of Connecticut. By this deflection, the land now included in the towns of Woodstock and Thompson was appended to Massachusetts, and as a part of the vacant Nipmuck Country awaited her disposal.
That colony was too much impoverished and weakened by the war to be able at once to appropriate her acquisitions, and some years passed ere she attempted even to explore and survey them. The Indians, as they recovered from the shock of defeat, gathered again around their old homes and laid claim to various sections. In May, 1681, the General Court of Massachusetts appointed William Stough ton and Joseph Dudley, two of her most prominent public men, "To take particular care and inspection into the matter of the land in the Nipmuck Country, and what titles were pretended to it by Indians and
14
HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
others." A meeting of claimants was accordingly held at Cambridge village, in June, Mr. John Eliot assisting as interpreter. Black James, the former constable at Chabongagum, now appeared as claimant for the south part of the Nipmuck Country. The commissioners found the Indians " willing enough to make claim to the whole country, but litigious and doubtful among themselves," and allowed them till Sep- tember to arrange some mutual agreement, and then spent a week exploring the country, attended by the principal claimants. They reported Black James' claim as "capable of good settlement, if not too scant of meadow, though uncertain what will fall within our bounds if our line be to be questioned," and advised " that some compensation be made to all the claimers for a full surrender of their lands to the Government and Company of Massachusetts." This advice was accepted, and Stoughton and Dudley further empowered "to treat with the claimers, and agree with them upon the easiest terms that may be obtained." In the following winter the negotiations were completed, and February 10, 1682, the whole Nipmuck Country from the north of Massachusetts to Nash-a-way, at the junction of the Quinebaug and French Rivers, Connecticut-a tract fifty miles long by twenty wide-was made over to the Massachusetts government for the sum of fifty pounds. Black James received for himself and some forty followers, twenty pounds in money and a Reservation of five miles square.
This Indian Reservation was laid out in two sections-one " at a place called Myanexet," east of the Quinebaug, now included in the towns of Dudley, Webster and Thompson,-the other at Quinna- tisset, now the south part of Thompson. Five thousand acres at Quinnatisset and a large tract at Myanexet, being a moiety or full half of the whole Reservation, were immediately conveyed, for the sum of ten pounds, to Stoughton and Dudley. A deed, subscribed November 10, 1682, by Black James and other "Indian natives and natural descendants of the ancient proprietors and inhabitants of the Nipmuck Country," released all right to this land and constituted Stoughton and Dudley the first white proprietors of Windham's share of the Nip- muck Country. Dudley long retained his fine farm on the Quinebang. The Quinnatisset land was soon made over to purchasers. The throw- ing of so large a tract of country into market incited an immediate rage for land speculation, and capitalists hastened to secure possession of favorable localities. June 18, 1683, Joseph Dudley, for £250, conveyed to Thomas Freak of Hamington, Wells County, England, two thousand acres of forest land in the Nipmuck Country, part of a greater quantity purchased of Black James, "as the same shall be set out by a surveyor." Two thousand acres in upland and meadow, " at
15
MASSACHUSETTS BOUNDARY LINE, ETC.
a certain place called and known by the natives Quinnatisset," were also made over by Stoughton, in consideration of £20) current money, to Robert Thompson of North Newington, Middlesex, England-a very noted personage, president of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and a firm and devoted friend of the colonies. The land thus purchased was laid out in June, 1684, by John Gore, of Roxbury, under the supervision of Colonel William Dudley. Freak's farm included the site of the present Thompson village. The line dividing it from Thompson's ran through an old Indian fort on a hill a mile eastward. Five hundred acres south of Freak's were laid out to Gore ; five hundred on the north to Benjamin Gambling of Roxbury, assistant surveyor. These Quinnatisset farms are memorable, not only as the first laid out in the northern part of Windham County, but from their connection with the disputed southern boundary of Massa- chusetts. Woodward's and Saffery's line crossed the Quinebaug, at its junction with the French River, and thence ran on northeasterly to Rhode Island and Wrentham. It was intended to make this line the south bound of the Quinnatisset farms, but, by an unfortunate blunder, the greater part of Thompson's land and an angle of Gore's fell south of it, intruding upon what even Massachusetts acknowledged as Con- necticut territory-an intrusion which occasioned much confusion and controversy. No attempt was made to occupy and cultivate these farms by their owners. Thompson's land remained in his family for upwards of an hundred years, and the town that subsequently included it was named in his honor.
.
CHART OF QUINNATISSET.
C
b
a
a
e
3
d
a. Woodward's and Saffery's Line. b. Freak's Farm. c. Gardner's and
Gambling's land. fort.
d. Thompson's land. e. Gore's land. f. Old Indian
se
16
HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
Twelve hundred acres of land between the Quinebaug and French Rivers were sold by Nanasogegog of Nipmuck, with the consent of Black James, to Jonathan Curtis, Thomas Dudley, Samnel Rice and others, in 1634, but other claimants apparently secured it. Five hundred acres, each, allowed by the Massachusetts government to John Collins and John Cotton, were laid ont east of the Quinebang in Quinnatisset. A thousand-acre tract, "granted to the children of Mr. William Whiting, sometime of Hartford," was laid out south of Lake Chaubongagum.
The whole Wabbaqnasset Country was yielded by Massachusetts to the claim of Uncas, who, favored by the government and encouraged by interested advisers, assumed to himself a large share of eastern Connecticut. The tract confirmed to him as the hereditary territory of the Mohegans was bounded on the north by a line running from Mahmunsook on Whetstone Brook to the junction of the Quinebaug and Assawaga at Acquiunk, thence westward to the Willimantic and far beyond it. The Wabbaquasset Country was held by him as a Pequot conquest. It extended from the Mohegan north bound far into Massachusetts, and westward from the Quinebaug to a line running through the " great pond Snipsic," now in Tolland. This large tract was given by Uncas to his second son, Owaneco, while the land between the Appaquage and Willimantic Rivers was assigned by him to his third son, Atanawahood or Joshua, sachem of the Western Niantics. Joshua died in May, 1676, from injuries received during the Narra- ganset war, and left a will, bequeathing the land between the Willimantic and Appaquage to Captain John Mason and fifteen other gentlemen, " in trust for a plantation." His estate was settled accord- ing to the terms of the will, the General Assembly of Connecticut allowing the Norwich legatees the lands bequeathed to them at Appaquage, which, as soon as practicable, was incorporated as the township of Windham.
The first transfer of land in Windham County territory to an English proprietor was that of the Quinebaug Country to Governor Winthrop, in 1653 ; the second, more than a quarter of a century later, conveyed a part of the same land to gentlemen in Norwich. The Court of New London County, September, 1679, adjudged that Uncas and Owaneco should " pass over their Indian right of six hundred acres of land for satisfaction for their men's burning the county prison," in a drunken outbreak. The General Court in October confirmed this verdict, and ordered James Fitch, Jun., treasurer of the county, to sell and dispose of the land. Six hundred acres of land, lying on both sides the Quinebaug, extending from Wanungatuck on the north to a brook now known as Rowland's on the south, previously included in
te
ar
16
de
17
MASSACHUSETTS BOUNDARY LINE, ETC.
Winthrop's purchase, were selected by Fitch and sold for forty pounds to John, Solomon and Daniel Tracy and Richard Bushnell, and laid out in June, 1680, by himself and Lieutenant Leffingwell. A farm south of John Tracy's division, adjoining the river island, Peagscom- sueck, which gave its name to this section of the Quinebaug valley, was given to James Fitch by Owaneco, and laid out during this summer. Although the General Court had allowed the Governor his purchase at Quinebaug, it had ordered, May, 1680, that "if Uncas hath right to any land about Quinebaug he may make it out and dispose of it to his son Owaneco, and such gentlemen as he shall see cause." Under this sanction, Owaneco assumed the right to the whole Quinebaug Country as well as Wabbaquasset. Swarms of greedy land hunters now assailed the Mohegan chieftain, eager to obtain possession of these lands upon any pretext. Their chief friends and patrons were the sons of Major John Mason, the renowned conqueror of the Pequots ; Mr. Fitch, the excellent minister of Norwich ; and his eldest son, James. Uncas was sinking into dotage; Owaneco was drunken and worthless. Conscious of his own inability to retain or dispose of this land, the latter personage yielded to the influence and ascendency of the younger James Fitch, consented to receive him as his guardian, and thus formally acknowledged him :-
" Whereas, at a General Court in Hartford, May 13, 1680, my father, Uncas, had liberty to dispose unto me his land upon Quinebaug River, and the Court at the same time granting me liberty to dispose of it unto gentlemen among them, as I should see cause to do, and a good part thereof I have disposed of already; but finding that some, through their great importunity, and others taking advantage of me when I am in drink, by causing me to sign deeds, not only wronging myself but may spoil it ever being a plantation-for these and other reasons, I make over all my right and title of any and of all my lands and meadows unto my loving friend James Fitch, Jun., for him to dispose of as he shall see cause."
Dec. 22, 1680.
The mark
Of OWANECO.
The signature of Owaneco to any deed of sale was thenceforth considered of no value without the countersign of Fitch. A formal deed of conveyance, executed by Owaneco and confirmed by the General Court of Connecticut, made over to Captain James Fitch, in 1684, the whole Wabbaquasset Country. The Mohegan and Wabba- quasset countries were then for the first time surveyed and bounded, and their bounds confirmed by the Assembly. The whole of the territory now embraced in Windham County, save Joshua's tract ·
3
1
Se ot
1
18
HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
between the Willimantic and Appaquage Rivers and a strip east of the Quinebaug, divided between Massachusetts and Connecticut Colonies, was thus placed in the hands of one individual, destined to play a very prominent part in its early history and subsequent development. Captain-afterwards better known as Major-James Fitch, was a man of great energy, shrewdness and business capacity. As soon as he gained possession of this land he threw it into market. Personal interest, as well as the good of the public, led him to seek to dispose of these vast tracts to good and substantial settlers; to colonies and towns rather than to individuals and speculators. The northern part of Wabbaquasset was under the jurisdiction of Massa- chusetts, and to a Massachusetts company Fitch sold his. first town- ship.
II.
ROXBURY'S COLONY.
TI THE town of Roxbury was one of the most ancient and influential in Massachusetts Colony. "The Roxbury people were the best that came from England," and filled many of the highest offices in the colonial government. `Nothing was lacking for their growth and prosperity but a larger area of territory, their "limits being so scanty and not capable of enlargement " that several persons-" not having received the same benefit of issuing forth as other towns have done, when it has pleased God to increase the inhabitants thereof in their posterity "-were compelled to remove out of the town and colony.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.