USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut. Volume I, 1600-1760 > Part 25
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3. All ways running from east to west shall be four rods wide, save one or two."
The highway question being thus settled, all previous divisions of land were confirmed and established by unanimous vote of the proprietors.
Mortlake, during this period, made little progress. Houses were built within the manors, and part of the land brought under cultivation. Wiltshire was rented to Henry Earle. Five hundred acres in Kings- wood, with buildings, white servant, four oxen, four cows, two breeding mares, thirty sheep, harrow, plough, chains and cart, were leased by Mr. Belcher to Isaiah and Thompson Wood of Canterbury. That Mr. Belcher made even a summer residence of his farms is extremely doubt- ful, but he may have occasionally visited them and retained the over- sight and management of them. The pew built by him in Pomfret meeting-house was probably occupied by his tenants. The bell offered by him failed, as we have seen, to reach it. The land purchased by Saltonstall and Foye was for some years unoccupied. Samuel Williams, brother of the Rev. Ebenezer, had, like Belcher, a pew spot assigned him in Pomfret meeting-house, but never became a permanent resident. His younger brother, William, purchased of Belcher a farm west of Wiltshire, in 1719, and took immediate possession of it. His family, with those of Belcher's tenants, were probably for many years the only white inhabitants of Mortlake.
In 1714, the vacant land between Pomfret and Canterbury was
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divided between these townships, and thus the land south of Mortlake, owned by Adams, Chandler and Stoddard came under the jurisdiction of Pomfret. Richard Adams was chosen selectman in 1715, and, by a very clear vote, the town made over to him all their right and title to his land as to property. The settlement of this section was somewhat quickened by its annexation to Pomfret. Daniel Cady of Killingly, father of Mrs. Richard Adams, bought six hundred acres of land near Tatnick Hill, of Jabez Allen, in 1714, and settled there with a large family of sons and daughters. James Cady of Marlborough, pur- chased land of Richard Adams in 1716. John, Joseph and Daniel Adams then took possession of their allotments, and threw part of them into market. Sixty acres, now included in Brooklyn village, were sold by Joseph Adams in 1718, to Samuel Spalding. John Adams sold homesteads to Jabez Spicer and John Hubbard ; Daniel Adams, a farm to Samuel Shead. The twenty-five hundred acres of land between the Adams and Stoddard tracts were sold by Captain Chandler for £190, to Joseph Otis of Scituate, in 1715. Its eastern half was sold out in farms to the Rev. Ebenezer Williams, Ebenezer Whiting, Samuel Spalding, Jonathan Cady and Josiah Cleveland, in 1719; the western half was purchased by Stephen Williams, Joseph Davison and Joseph Holland, in 1723. The Stoddard tract remained for many years in the hands of its non-resident owner, save a few hundred acres, sold in 1719 to Abiel Cheney, Benjamin Chaplin of Lynn, Samuel Gardner and Samuel Pellet. Chaplin and Pellet also purchased land of Major Fitch, and were the first settlers of the southwestern corner of Pomfret.
About twenty families had gathered in the south part of Pomfret by 1720. Their position was somewhat peculiar. A distinct, independent township lay between them and the main settlement, and had to be traversed by them on their way to public worship, town-meetings and trainings. The long journey over rough roads, which they had not the power to mend or alter, was " exceedingly difficult and next to im- possible, and children were compelled a great part of the year to tarry at home on the Lord's day." Some of the residents of the south part of this region maintained church relations in Canterbury, so that the charge was divided between the Rev. Messrs. Williams and Estabrook, who visited the people, watched over them, and established a monthly lecture in the neighborhood, which was continued for some years, " but the good benefit thus accruing " made the hearers so much the more anxious to have the word of God dispensed more frequently, and in May, 1721, the following petition was presented to the Assembly, from the inhabitants north of Canterbury and south of Pomfret, showing :-
" That your memorialists are settled upon a tract of land three or four
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
miles wide and seven miles long, which, unil late years, was never circum- scribed within the bounds of any town, now divided between the two towns. That the families of said memorialists having grown more numerous than formerly, find it exceedingly difficult and next to impossible to attend worship with their families at the usual places, having many miles to travel, which, especially in the winter, is attended with great difficulty. That having been blessed by God in their outward circumstances, and in some good degree capable of taking care of themselves, and though a considerable charge to invite and settle an orthodox minister, yet the care of our children and families so requiring, your memorialists shall, with the greatest cheerfulness comply with the charge, and, therefore, pray that the inhabitants dwelling between the antient lines of the said towns of Canterbury and Pomfret may be a separate parish or precinct of preaching, as soon as they obtain a gospel minister to preach.
James Cady. Ezra Cady. Ebenezer Whiting.
Joseph Adams. John Cady.
John Woodward.
Isaac Adams.
Daniel Cady, 2d. Jabez Spicer.
Daniel Adams. Samuel Spalding. Jonas Spalding.
Richard Adams. Isaac Allen.
John Hubbard.
John Adams. Josiah Cleveland.
John Wilson.
Ezekiel Cady. Joseph Holland.
Samuel Gates.
Daniel Cady. Ezekiel Whitney.
Samuel Shead."
Jonathan Cady. Henry Smith.
To this earnest request, no answer was vouchsafed, and the memo- rialists were left to travel to their respective places of worship, while Chaplin and Gardner joined with "their Christian neighbors in Windham village." Undaunted by this failure, the south Pomfret residents next attempted to secure a separate military company, and a school in their own neighborhood. The school question was then greatly agitating Pomfret. The one school-house ordered by the town near the meeting-house, was deemed quite inadequate to the wants of a large township, and could not possibly be reached by children south of Mortlake. The inhabitants, assembled in public town-meeting, September 26, 1722, received the following communication :-
" Honored Gentlemen : We, ye inhabitants of Pomfret, south side of Gov. Saltonstall's land, humbly pray you to consider the great distance we live from the school-house now in building, and pray you to free us from the charge to school-house, and may have part of the money which comes from the treasury to keep a free school among ourselves.
Daniel Cady. James Cady. Richard Adams.
Samuel Shead. Ezekiel Cady.
Samuel Gates.
Isaac Adams. Joseph Adams.
This request was graciously granted, and a school at once established. In October, 1723, " several persons living upon a tract of land between Canterbury and the south line of Pomfret, remote from the training place of either town," received liberty from the General Court to form a distinct train-band company by themselves. Samuel Spalding was con- firmed as lieutenant and Richard Adams as ensign. October 13, 1724, Richard Adams, "for the love and good-will borne unto his well-beloved friends and neighbors, inhabitants of south addition to Pomfret and north addition to Canterbury, as also for the necessity of a convenient place for a training-field and the setting up of a school-house, did give and
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grant, for the public use of a training-field, unto the aforesaid inhabit- ants and their heirs, a certain parcel of land lying within ye aforesaid additions, west of the country road, containing one acre." This land was laid out in the western part of Mr. Adams' allotment, a mile south- east of the site of Brooklyn village. At the same date, Daniel Cady, moved by the same considerations of love, good-will and affection and "the necessity of a convenient place to bury ye bodies of the dead among us," did give and grant a certain tract of land, east of Black- well's Brook, " for ye public and necessary use of a convenient burying- place to the inhabitants of the additions aforesaid, and their heirs and assigns for ever." This gift was laid out as above designated, south of the site of the present Brooklyn village, and still forms a part of the Brooklyn burying-ground. With these improvements achieved, the inhabitants south of Mortlake were forced to rest in patience for further development.
Mortlake, itself, gave Pomfret much trouble. This intrusive, inde- pendent township was in a very lawless and unsettled condition. It had no town government, no selectmen, or other public officers, and all public improvements depended solely upon the pleasure of its owners. Though within the territory of Pomfret, it was entirely without its jurisdiction. Its inhabitants could neither vote, pay taxes, record deeds, or perform military service in Pomfret. This condition of affairs led to frequent disputes and collisions, and at length involved the town in a very burdensome and expensive lawsuit. One Peter Davison, a tenant of Belcher's, died on his farm after a brief residence, leaving a widow and idiot son of seventeen. It was a season of un- common distress and scarcity. Drouth and frost had cut off the crops, and the destitute widow was unable to procure subsistence. Peter, her idiot boy, was very troublesome and dangerous, doing much mischief unless great care was taken. The few neighbors in Mortlake could do little to relieve her ; there were no town officers to help her, and in her distress and destitution the widow applied to the selectmen of Pomfret, begging that they would take care of her son. A town-meeting was at once called, June 22, 1725, when the inhabitants declared it their opinion, " That we are not obliged by law nor conscience to take ye charge upon ourselves, and therefore desire the selectmen to make due return unto her, and if, after this, she do offer to impose the same upon the town we desire the selectmen to follow her in the law as a trespasser, at the town's charge." Thus debarred from Pomfret, the unfortunate Peter was next dispatched to Norwich, his birth-place, and there left at the house of Mr. Samuel Bishop. That town reported him as "altogether incapable of taking care of himself, and having no estate, nor near relative that hath ability or can be obliged to maintain
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
him," but, "as it was not our business," sent him back to Mortlake. Complaint was then laid before the Court of New London County, which committed poor Peter to the care of Jacob Ordway of Mort- lake-servant or tenant of Belcher-and sent out writs to Norwich and Pomfret to appear at Court and show why they should not take care of him.
The case was considered, February 16, 1726, Captain John Sabin representing Pomfret. Both towns utterly refused to assume the charge. The Court deferred decision till June, entrusting Peter, mean while, to the care of Justices Pierce, Backus and Adams, desiring that he be prevented from doing mischief and not be left in a suffering con- dition, and if they could not find any one willing to take such care of him to make use of their authority. Daniel Davison of Mansfield, a distant relative, was found willing to receive mother and son into his family. In June the case was again considered. Both towns had made ample preparations for defence. Pomfret had appointed Captain Sabin and Lieutenant Leicester Grosvenor to represent her, appro -. priating rates previously granted for schools and meeting-house repairs to defraying their charges. It was shown that the deceased Peter Davison had removed from Norwich to Mansfield when his son was an infant, and there gained a residence, and that he was never in any sense an inhabitant of Pomfret. The Court was of opinion that neither Norwich nor Pomfret was bound to support the said idiot, but Mans- field-and as that town, with Pomfret, was now incorporated into a new county, they referred the final decision of this troublesome affair to the Court of Windham County. The sum allowed during this contest for poor Peter's support-nine shillings per week for sixteen weeks-was paid from the Treasury of New London County.
XXXI.
ASHFORD. LAND PURCHASE. SETTLEMENT. TOWN
ORGANIZATION. MINISTER.
YTHE territory now included in the towns of Ashford and Eastford formed a part of the Wabbaquasset Country, conveyed to Major Fitch by Owaneco in 1684. It was a wild forest region, remote from civilization, but known and traversed from the early settlement of New England, lying directly in the route from Boston to Connecticut. The first company of Connecticut colonists encamped, it is said, on the hill north of the present Ashford village, and the old Connecticut Path
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crossed what is now its common, but for three-quarters of a century no settlement was attempted in this vicinity. The first land laid out within the present townships was a tract four miles square, now the south part of Eastford, made over to Simeon Stoddrd of Boston, in 1695, in satisfaction of a judgment of Court. Major Fitch was at the time greatly embarrassed in business affairs, and his title to the Wab- baquasset Country questioned ; Mr. Stoddard was the resident of another Colony, and neither gentleman was disposed to undertake the settlement of this wild region. Under these circumstances, the General Court of Connecticut assumed the management of its affairs, and thus enacted :-
" May 9, 1706. This Court being informed that there is a good tract of land within this Colony, westward of the town of Woodstock, southward of the town of Mansfield and adjoining to the great pond called Crystal Pond, that may be sufficient to make a good and convenient town, which tract of land this Court, being willing to secure for such good people as shall be willing to settle thereon, do, therefore, grant a township there, of the extent and bigness of eight miles square, or equivalent thereunto. And, for that end, do hereby impower, order and appoint, Maj. Jolin .Chester, Capt. Matthew Allen, Capt. Cyprian Nichols, Capt. John Higley, Mr. John Hooker, Mr. Caleb Stanley and Eleazer Kimberly, they, or any three of them, to be a committee to survey and lay out the said township of the extent and quantity as aforesaid, and to make return thereof to this Court in October next, for further confirmation; and, also, to lay out home lots and other divisions of land, and to order and man- age the affairs of the said town, and to admit and settle all such inhabitants thereon as are well approved, who shall, upon their admission, pay their proportionable parts of the charge of surveying and settling the same according to their respective allotments."
This act, implying the right of conveyance as well as jurisdiction, aroused Major Fitch to immediate action, and, before the Court's com- mittee had time to carry out their instructions, he had sold out his share of the granted township. In 1707, a tract, five miles in length and three in width, was purchased for £110, by John Cushing, Sam. Clap and David Jacob of Scituate, and laid out west of the Stoddard Tract, in the south part of what is now Ashford, under the name of the New Scituate Plantation. Captain John Chandler soon purchased a large part of this tract and a strip of land adjacent, and became the chief proprietor of New Scituate. The whole remaining territory of ancient Ashford, comprising 21,400 acres of land, was sold by Major Fitch to James Corbin of Woodstock, in 1708, who conveyed the same to David Jacob, Job Randall, and twelve others, residents of Scituate, Hingham and Andover, - Mr. Corbin retaining an equal share in the land and managing the affairs of the company.
These tracts were surveyed and laid out as rapidly as possible and efforts made to initiate a settlement in advance of the Government. No attempt was made to secure confirmation of this land from the General Court, and the proprietors evidently considered their title very doubtful. In January, 1710, Captain Chandler, in behalf of himself
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
and other proprietors of New Scituate, engaged to give John Mixer of Canterbury, for four pounds, a good deed of one hundred acres of land ; " but in case it should happen that the right or claim of said company to said land should appear to be of no force or value," the money to be returned to him. Mr. Mixer selected his land "at a place called Mount Hope, lying on the river," on the site of the present village of Warrenville, and there began the settlement of Ashford. The Connecticut road passed by or near his residence. In the follow- ing April, James Corbin sold three hundred and fifty acres of land, " north of Stoddard land, on both sides Still River," to John Perry of Marlborough, who soon settled upon. it, near the site of the present Eastford village.
The General Court, finding that settlement had already commenced while nothing had been done by the appointed committee in laying out the township, in May, 1710, ordered, appointed and fully em- powered Allen, Stanley and Higley, together with Captain Richard Bushnell and Mr. Thomas Williams, to perform this service, and, in October, further enacted :-
" That, for the better enabling the said committee the more easily to do and perform that work, this Assembly doth give and grant unto them, or any three of them as aforesaid, full power. as they shall see good, to order and appoint any one of themselves, or any surveyors of lands. to survey and lay out home-lots, or other divisions of land in the said town, for such persons as shall by them be admitted inhabitants there; and also to order and appoint any one of themselves to be a clerk or register for the said town, for the term of four years next ensuing, who shall provide a book for records, and therein enter and record all such divisions and surveys of land which they shall make, or cause to be made, within the said town as aforesaid; also, to administer to such clerk by them to be appointed, the town-clerk oath provided by law. And this Assembly do order and enact, that the said town shall be called and known by the name of Ashford, and that the cost and charge of the said work shall be borne and paid by such persons as the said committee shall receive and admit to be inhabitants within the said town."
The committee thus empowered took possession of the township and endeavored to lay it out in the name of the Colony, but met with many obstructions. The region was rough, rocky and unattractive, a great portion of it still covered with dense forest, the large number of ash trees suggesting the name of the township. These forests abounded in wolves, bears and various species of game, and were a favorite hunting-ground of the remaining Wabbequassets, furnishing large quantities of furs for James Corbin's fur trade, and perhaps led to his land purchase. Two families, five miles apart, were the only white inhabitants. For the possession of this land, a fierce contest was now pending between the Government of Connecticut and the various purchasers and greatly impeding settlement. Settlers were loth to buy of the Colony in the face of the claimants, and equally reluctant to buy of the claimants without confirmation from Government. In
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ASHFORD, SETTLEMENT, ETC.
May, 1711, both parties appealed to the Assembly ; Chandler and Corbin for confirmation of their purchases and liberty to settle ; the committee, to represent their inability to carry out their instructions under existing obstructions. The Assembly, thereupon, desired his Honor, the Governor, with advice of the appointed committee, "to take the town of Ashford into his care, appoint and instruct suitable persons to treat with the claimers, to adjust and compound with such as have any differences or claims, so far as consistent with the honor and interest of the Government and the right of particular persons, that so the settlement may proceed and be advanced and promoted."
Without waiting this legal adjustment, the claimants hurried on settlement-Philip Eastman of Woodstock, John Pitts, Benjamin Allen, + Benjamin Russel and William Ward of Marlborough, buying farms of James Corbin, and settling north of the Stoddard Tract, on Still River, in the summer of 1711. Houses were built, land broken up and a highway laid out by these settlers. In May, 1712, James Corbin renewed his efforts for confirmation, in the name of about twenty proprietors of three-fourths of Ashford, showing :-
" That, whereas, by advice of several principal men of ye Colony, they did purchase of Major Fitch the native right, with design to make a speedy settle- ment-the Gen. Court having before granted it to be a town,-and having paid considerable sums for the same, and some persons entered upon it, and, whereas, the Colony has ordered a committee to lay out and settle the same lands, which, if they be settled by others and not the proprietors, will be the ruin of said proprietors; therefore, the said proprietors do pray the Court for the jurisdiction right to be added unto their native right, on condition of settling a certain number of inhabitants of such good manners and quality as shall be approved; also, said proprietors shall, at their own charge, lay out the town plot and other divisions in due form, which will be more advantage- ous to the Colony than to lie waste, or be settled by such as will offer, and thus the gospel may be there propagated and maintained for the use of those already come and to come hereafter."
In response to this petition, and in behalf of the committee, ob- structed in their proceedings by the claims of sundry persons, the Court ordered, "That any person claiming right to land in Ashford should appear at the Gen. Court in the following October, and there set forth their pretended claims." Whether this injunction was heeded is not apparent, but certainly no right of jurisdiction was obtained. The right of Major Fitch to this land was now openly denied, and whether the claimants would succeed even in holding it was extremely doubtful. Presuming on possession, however, they continued to make sales and expedite settlement. William Price, Sen. and Jun., David Bishop, Nathaniel Walker, John Chubb and John Ross bought land of Corbin, and joined the eastern settlement. Daniel, James and Nath. Fuller of Windham, Josiah Bugbee of Woodstock, Samuel Rice and Philip Squier of Concord, purchased farms in New Scituate of Captain Chandler. The Court's committee also laid out some land in
28
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
spite of obstructions, and sold homesteads to Isaac Kendall, William Chapman, Isaac Farrar and Simon Burton, who were styled " inter- lopers" by the claimants. So many inhabitants had settled within the township, that in October, 1714, with the advice and concurrence of the claimants, they petitioned for further town privileges and liberty to organize government. The General Court after considering their prayer, granted :-
" 1. That the inhabitants of the said town, that now are settled there or hereafter may be, shall have liberty to meet and choose a clerk and selectmen, with other officers for carrying on the prudential affairs of the place, and for settling and maintaining, a minister, and building a meeting-house as in other towns.
2. That the inhabitants of the said town shall forthwith, at their own charge, procure the surveyor of the county of Hartford to lay out the bounds of the said town to the quantity of eight miles square, according to the grant of this Court.
3. That all persons that have any right to any land in Ashford at this present time, shall pay towards the building of a meeting-house, minister's house, and settling of a minister there, the sum of twenty shillings for every hundred acres of land they claim within the said town, and so proportionably for greater or lesser quantities, to be levied by a rate made by the selectinen of the said town within one year and a half from the date of this act, collected by the constable of the said town and paid to the committee hereafter in this act appointed, or such person or persons as they shall appoint to receive the same; which committee shall determine the place of the said meeting-house in the most convenient place of the said town, and take care that the money so raised shall be improved to the use hereby appointed, with all the speed that may be ; and in default of payment of the said rate by any person or persons, execution shall go upon the lands of such person or persons within the said town, if no other estate belonging to them be found within the precincts of the said town, sufficient for the payment thereof.
4. That each claimer of land in the said town of Ashford, as aforesaid, do, within one year after the date of this act, make an entry of the deeds, instru- ments or records of any sort, by which they claim the same, in a book to be provided by the said town for that purpose, and kept by the clerk of the said town, in order the better to show each person's just proportion of the tax upon lands by virtue of this act raised, and for the better enabling the said commit- tee to execute the trust reposed in them by this act.
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