USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut, Volume II, 1760-1880 > Part 14
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- -, wife of Dr. Holmes, impressed all who knew her. Mrs. Je- mima Bradbury, widow of Hon. William Chandler, also occupied a high place among Woodstock's notable and honorable women. "En- dowed with superior natural and acquired abilities," kind, courteous, benevolent, religious, she was especially noted for her interest in natural sciences, geography, history and all kindred investigations, and for skill in imparting to others " most valuable instructions." Certain bright little boys then growing up in the families of Deacon Morse and Doctor Holmes may have received their first impulse to geographical and scientific studies from the teachings of this gifted and intelligent woman. Bright little girls as well as boys were also growing up in Woodstock. Alathea Stiles studied Latin with her accomplished father, and reports her progress in this and other studies to her learned consin. Other young ladies excelled in housewife accomplishments, and some of their exploits even found their way into the newspapers. The Hartford Courant, January 9, 1766, reports that Miss Levina, daughter of Capt. Nehemiah Lyon of Woodstock, and Miss Molly Ledoit of the same town, in one day carded and spun twenty-two skeins of good tow yarn, and that a few days after, Martha, sister of Levina, spun 194 knots of good linen yarn in one day. The same paper records an unfortunate casualty occurring at an October training. Elisha Lyon, oldest brother of these young ladies, a most promising young man, twenty-four years of age, was shot through the head by the accidental discharge of a musket and immediately expired.
The tranquillity of Woodstock during this period was somewhat dis- turbed by renewed demonstrations from the Government of Massachu- setts. That Colony had never yielded her claim to the Indented townships. Proclamations of Fast and Thanksgiving had ever been sent to them and assessments for taxes, and now she resolved to com- pel them to return to their allegiance. At the meeting of her General Assembly, Feb. 25, 1768, the following resolution was presented :-
" To the House of Representatives :-
Whereas the inhabitants of Somers, Enfield, Suffield and Woodstock, did in 1749, revolt from their subjection to this Government under which they were at first settled, and by which they had been protected at great charge in sev- eral wars, and did apply to Connecticut to receive them as being within said Colony, and said Government did at first disclaim any share in said revolt, but afterwards, by au act or law artfully established a new form of words ex- pressive of the bounds of Hartford and Windham counties, in order to give color to the officers of said counties to exercise jurisdiction over said revolt- ing inhabitants, and whereas after various attempts to persuade and compel said inhabitants to return to subjection, war began and for many years con-
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
tinued, during which Massachusetts Government desisted from all compulsory measures lest damage should accrue to his Majesty's service, and whereas by restoration of peace reasons for such forbearance cease and inhabitants still continne in revolt.
Resolved and ordered, That these inhabitants ought to have been, and from henceforth to all intents and purposes shall be considered within the limits of this Province, and under the jurisdiction of this Government, and civil and military officers are required to govern themselves accordingly, but in case of their return no arrears of taxes required of them ; notified to forbear payment of future taxes to Connecticut; selectmen required to give in a list of polls and estates, and if they don't, assessment to be made in lawful manner; sher- iff's desired to deliver copies of this resolve, to give notice to the inhabitants."
This resolution was adopted by both Houses and attempts made to carry it into execution. A copy was left by Sheriff Gardner Chandler with Jedidiah Morse, selectman of Woodstock, but it received no attention. The inhabitants of Woodstock had no desire to return to Massachusetts government, but rather manifested undne, undutiful eagerness to take another slice of her territory. The committee ap- pointed in 1753 by Rhode Island and Connecticut to examine the bounda- ry line between Massachusetts and Connecticut, had reported, " That the dividend line was wrong from the outset ; that the point selected by Woodward and Saffery for the head of Charles River was four miles south of the true head, and the stake on Wrentham Plain more than seren miles south of the most southerly part of Charles River, instead of three, as prescribed by Massachusetts' charter." Nehemiah Lyon, Jedidiah Morse, Silas Bowen, Samuel McClellan and Charles Church Chandler were now appointed by Woodstock to invite Rhode Island to appear in person before the General Assembly of Connecticut, and unite in asking to have the boundary line settled. Rhode Island so far complied with this invitation as to appoint a committee to apply to Connecticut to ascertain the result of the joint petition of 1753, " and if they can't tell, write to Mr. Partridge [her agent in England] and re- quest him to examine the papers and inform us of the circumstances the affair was under at the commencement of the late war." Wood- stock, meanwhile, appealed herself to the Assembly for the redress of this and other grievances. Its distance from Windham Court-house was a great inconvenience and trial to this township, and it eagerly joined with other northern towns of the county in devising a remedy. At a meeting held in Pomfret, Feb. 11, 1771,.at the house of Colonel Israel Putnam, Samuel Chandler, Nehemiah Lyon, Nathaniel Child, Daniel and Ebenezer Paine appeared on behalf of Woodstock, consult- ing with gentlemen from Killingly, Thompson Parish, Ashford and Union, in regard "to some new bound for the county." This confer- ence had no immediate result. Pomfret wished the county seat trans- ferred to her own borders. Woodstock had her own views upou the
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WOODSTOCK'S THREE PARISHES, ETC.
matter, thus embodied in petition, after careful consideration and amendment, May 2, 1771 :-
" Whereas your memorialists, upon a mature consideration of the excel- leney of the form of Government in Connecticut, and of the wise, equitable and righteous administration of the same, did in 1749, place themselves under the jurisdiction and patronage of the Gen. Assembly, with raised expecta- tions of a plenary protection being granted them against the claims and de- mands of Massachusetts, but had been exposed to some peculiar inconveni- ences, suffering greatly in their time, in their estates by seizures and distraints from the Province of Massachusetts, and to this day not exempt, and Massa- chusetts continuing its claims, and from year to year they have been assessed for their proportion of that Province tax, and by a resolve passed in its Gen- eral Assembly, Feb. 25, 1768, your memorialists were warned to forbear pay- ment of any future taxes to the Government of Connecticut, and the select- men of the indented towns required to give in a list of estates before next ses- sion, and in case of refusal to be assessed in such proportion as the other inhabitants of Massachusetts and payment enforced by law; and, 2, your memorialists being more than twenty-five miles distant from the court-house in Windham, are put to great cost in attending the same and the multiplicity of business necessary to be transacted, whereby the time of the court to a great degree lengthened and frequent adjournments takes place, causing much needless travel and long absence from their respective families and occupations in life, enhanceth their burdens, increases their charges and greatly tends to their impoverishment; all which grievances we have patiently borne for twenty-two years from the hope that they would be redressed ; and whereas it is the prevailing sentiment in Windham County that said county should be divided, on account of the multiplicity of business whereby parties are with their witnesses obliged to be on charge frequently week after week and cases deferred from time to time, and the inconvenience of other towns by being situate at a great distance, particularly Pomfret, Killingly, Ashford and Union, and whereas Woodstock is most conveniently situated for a shire- town, as the boundary line between Massachusetts and Connecticut now runs seven miles north from the centre of its first society upon a strait line, and the northeast corner of said boundary line at Killingly's northeast corner being about eleven miles distant, and the northwest of Union about fourteen miles, southeast corner of Killingly fourteen miles, southeast corner of Ash- ford fourteen miles from centre of first society, and upon supposition that the boundary line be run agreeable to the manifest intent of the Province Charter, three miles south of any part of Charles River, it would be about four and a half miles farther north ; and as the court-house in Windham, by being placed about two and a half miles from the south line of the county, puts the inhabit- ants of these north towns-some twenty and even thirty miles distant-to very great inconvenience and charge, beg for a committee to unite with Rhode Island in fixing boundary line with Massachusetts, and also to take a just survey of Windham County, the situation of Woodstock, and its conveniency for a shire-town.
ELISHA CHILD, JEDIDIAH MORSE, Agents."
William Williams and Joseph Trumbull were appointed by the Up- per House to consider this memorial, but the Lower House dissented. The question of removing the court-house was not yet to be considered, and as for the boundary line, so long as Connecticut had the towns, agitation was unadvisable. In attempting to gain four miles, she might lose the whole disputed territory, and so both questions were left for future generations to grapple.
BOOK VI.
WINDHAM IN THE REVOLUTION, 1764-83.
I.
OPPOSITION TO STAMP ACT. NON-IMPORTATION. HELP FOR BOSTON. RESOLVES AND ONSETS. A GREAT UPRISING.
D URING the period of time embraced in the preceding section events were occurring that demand a separate record, and careful review and consideration. The Revolution by which the American Colonies were forever released from the dominion of Great Britain was in progress. Windham County so alert and active in administering its domestic affairs was equally awake to the great public questions of the day. Its citizens had been reared to an intelli- gent participation in the government of Connecticut. As soon as a town was able to pay its part of public expenses it had sent representa tives to the General Assembly, and the proceedings and reports of those representatives were closely scrutinized and debated at home. The management of their towns, churches and schools had developed a spirit of self-reliance and independent judgment, and wise leaders and administrators were found in every community. The unusual privileges conferred by the charter of Connecticut gave her citizens for many years no pretext for murmuring, and they had been noted for attachment and loyalty to the British government in contrast with their rebellious neighbors in Massachusetts. Restrictions upon trade and manufactures, though burdensome and prejudicial to development, were viewed as perhaps needful commercial regulations, and excited no general distrust or disaffection. It was not till Great Britain claimed the right to impose a direct tax upon her American Colonies that her Connecticut subjects were roused to resistance. Taxation for the support of civil government had been hitherto associated with a voice in its administration. No town presumed to send deputies till it could pay public charges. Ministers exempted by law from rate- paying were expected to refrain from voting. The vital connection between taxation and representation had thus infused itself into the
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
popular mind. and was held as a primal axiom not to be disputed or dislodged. The report that the House of Commons had resolved. that it was proper to charge certain stamp duties in the Colonies and plantations, awoke Connectieut to a sense of her danger. The great mass of her citizens united with those of other Colonies in expressing their determination to resist this arbitrary imposition. Admit the right to levy this tax, and no seenrity was left to them. In the great conflict that followed, Windham County was deeply implicated. Her position on the main thoroughfares of travel brought her into very close and constant communication with the leading towns in the Northern Colonies. Filial and fraternal relations connected her with the flaming patriots of Boston and Providence. The earnest words and warnings of Colonel Dyer, then in London with opportunity of judging the aims and temper of the British Government, made a deep impression upon the citizens of Windham. "If the Colonists," he wrote, " do not now unite, they may bid farewell to liberty, burn their charters, and make their boast of thraldom." A still more potent stimulus was found in the pervading influence of Putnam, Durkee, and other popular military leaders, men of mettle and experi- enee, quick to apprehend the exigency and most effective in appeal to popular sympathy. Windham County's appreciation of the import- ance and solemnity of the crisis was shown in the character of the men sent to share in the deliberations of the General Assembly. Her shire-town sent its senior minister. Rev. Ebenezer Devotion, together with the venerable Nathaniel Wales, and in the following session, Hezekiah Manning, and men of years and approved judgment were selected by all the towns, viz. :-
Pomfret-Samuel Dresser, Samuel Craft.
Canterbury-Captain Jabez Fitch, Captain Daniel Tyler.
Plainfield-James Bradford, Isaac Coit.
Killingly-Briant Brown, Ebenezer Larned.
Woodstock-Nehemiah Lyon, Ebenezer Smith.
Toluntown-John Gordon, Moses Kinney.
Ashford-Amos Babcock, Jedidiah Fay.
Lebanon-Captain Joshua West, William Williams.
In spite of petitions and remonstrances from America, and earnest protestations from her friends in Parliament. the British government persisted in its purpose, and on March 22, 1765, the famous Stamp Act received the sanction of the King. The news of its enactment was received in America with the most violent demonstrations of indignation and defiance. Virginia's House of Burgesses then in session, at once resolved, " That the inhabitants of that Colony were not bound to yield obedience to this law, and that any person who
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OPPOSITION TO STAMP ACT, ETC.
should maintain that any persons other than the General Assembly had any right or power to impose taxation upon the people should be deemed an enemy to the Colony." Its resolutions in their first unmodi- fied draft were eagerly caught up, printed on broadsides, and sent throughout the land, were copied into the public journals of New England, and everywhere accepted as a true expression of public sentiment. Simultaneously and spontaneously as it seemed, inhabit- ants of hundreds of towns and villages banded together as Sons of Liberty, pledging themselves to use their utmost endeavor to resist the execution of the Stamp Act. As intelligence arrived that certain individuals had been designated to receive and distribute the obnoxious paper, which after the first of November was to be used in all business transactions, the excitement increased, and public indigna- tion vented itself upon these prospective officials. In the larger towns there were violent uprisings and tumults, stamp officers burned in effigy and their offices and dwellings sacked and demolished, while rural communities manifested their spirit and sympathy by uproarious gatherings and effigetic hanging and burning. The newspapers of the day applauded and incited these proceedings.
" What greater pleasure ean there be Than to see a stamp-man hanging on a tree,"-
was the general ery.
Windham, the most effervescent of Windham County towns, was the first to act upon this suggestion. Intelligence that one of her own citizens had been appointed deputy stamp-master under Ingersoll. threw her into great excitement. A self-appointed vigilance com- mittee instantly waited upon this gentleman, compelled him to give up the letter announcing his appointment and solemnly promise to decline the office. On the morning of August 26-famed for many similar outbreaks in other towns-this "ever memorable and respectable gentleman made his appearance in effigy, suspended between Heaven and Earth," on some conspicuous elevation upon Windham Green. People came in crowds from all the surrounding country to witness the show and join in the demonstrations. Effigies of other suspected and unpopular individuals were successively brought forward and hung up amid the jeers and opprobriums of the excited spectators. After hanging till evening the several figures were taken down and paraded all about the village and then consumed upon a bonfire with great rejoicing The staid and decorous Lebanon observed the day with more dignity and solemnity, draping her public buildings with black, and subjecting her effigies to a formal trial and sentence before pro- ceeding to hang and burn them.
15
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
These noisy demonstrations were but the prelude to more serious action. The citizens of Windham and New London Counties were fully determined to prevent the distribution of the stamps. When it was found that Governor Fitch was preparing to carry out the instrue- tions of the King, that the colony agent, Jared Ingersoll, after faith- fully opposing the passage of the bill had accepted the position of stamp-master, and that the western counties were less awake to the crisis than their own, they sallied out in great force to end the matter at once and forever. Five hundred horsemen armed with clubs and other weapons and provided with eight days' provision, marched deliberately across the country nuder the leadership of Captain John Durkee, intercepted Ingersoll on his way to Hartford and compelled him to write his name to the formal resignation prepared for him. Putnam, accredited with a prominent share in the instigation of this irruption, was detained from personal participation by illness. As soon as possible he waited upon Governor Fitch in behalf of the Sons of Liberty, to ensure that no other stamp master should be appointed, and no farther attempt made to enforce the Act, and with his usual directness assured him that if he should refuse to relinquish the con- trol of the stamped paper his house would be " leveled with the dust in five minutes." Nathan Frink, King's attorney in Pomfret, was appointed deputy stamp-master for the north part of Windham County. and went so far as to build an office for their reception, but was most positively assured by his fellow-citizens that he would never be allowed to use it for that purpose. So great was the publie excitement and interest that the very stones were made to cry out. "LIBERTY & EQUALITY," "DOWN with the STAMP Act," inseribed on a stone tablet, and hoisted in a conspicuous position above the door of Mr. Manning's dwelling, met the eyes and stimulated the zeal of the many passers over Manning's bridge in the south part of Windham town.
In the various publie convocations of this eventful epoch Wind- ham bore a conspienous part. Colonel Dyer was sent as dele- gate to the first general Congress, held in New York, in 'October. At a meeting of the Sons of Liberty in Hartford, March 25, 1766, "much more generally attended by the two eastern counties of Connecticut "-Colonel Putnam, Major Durkee and Captain Ledlie were appointed a committee to arrange a correspond- ence with the loyal Sons of Liberty in other colonies, and Ledlie, then resident in Windham, was sent as representative to a general convention of that order in Annapolis. Stamps destined for Connecticut were forcibly taken from the sloop Minerva and destroyed by the Sons of Liberty in New York harbor. By this vigorous combination and resistance the Stamp Act was made inopera-
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OPPOSITION TO STAMP ACT, ETC.
tive. When the first of November came not a sheet of the stamped paper was to be procured. It had been destroyed or sent back to England, or stowed away for safe keeping. Nearly all the business of the Colony was thus suspended. Courts and ports were closed and thousands of public offices. Land. could not be legally conveyed nor debts collected, nor wills made, nor marriage licenses procured. Relief could only be obtained by a special dispensation or permit from such governors as ventured to exercise this power in cases of extreme urgency. The consequent business derangement affected England almost as seriously as America. No debts could be collected nor goods sold in the Colonies. At the re-opening of Parliament, London mer- chants most earnestly urged the repeal of the odious Act. Pitt, and other friends of America, exerted their utmost eloquence and energies in this behalf and after a violent and protracted contest its repeal was effected. The Colonies received the tidings with many manifestations of joy and gratitude, commercial intercourse was renewed and trade and business speedily revived.
Peace and prosperity had but a brief continuance. The spirit that had evoked the Stamp Act manifested itself in other aggressions. In 1767, a bill was passed in Parliament imposing duties on tea, glass and paints, from which a publie fund should be formed to be expended in defraying the expenses of its government in America. Her Colonists resented both the tax and disposition, as thus their governors, judges and other public officers were made entirely independent of themselves and their Assemblies, and were confirmed in their suspicion that the British Government was bent npon their subjugation. Her previous policy in restricting Colonial trade and manufactures in order to leave the market open for her own productions, appeared to them another evidence of this design and showed them the necessity of more vigor- ous resistance and effective combination. Great Britain had schemed and legislated to compel America to purchase her productions; it behoved America to thwart those schemes and evade that legislation by devising some method for supplying themselves with needful articles. A meeting was called in Boston, October, 1767, to consider what effectual methods could be agreed upon to promote industry, economy and manufactures, and prevent the unnecessary importation of European commodities. A committee was appointed which sug- gested and prepared an explicit " form " in which the signers pledged themselves to encourage the use of American productions, and refrain from purchasing articles of European manufacture. A copy of this agreement was sent to every town in Massachusetts, and many in the adjacent colonies, requesting their consideration and signature. Wind- ham town with its usual promptness held a meeting, December 7,
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
1767, "to consider the letter and matters from the selectmen of Boston," appointed a number of leading citizens in each of its three parishes to prepare a suitable response, and met again a month later to receive this report :--
" Being sensible that this Colony in its situation and soil and the commodi- ties which it is naturally adapted to produce by a proper exertion of labor and industry, will not only afford the inhabitants much the greater part of the necessities and conveniences of life but a considerable surplus for exportation, but the surprising fondness of its inhabitants for the use and consumption of foreign and British manufactures and superfluities, even to a great degree of luxury and extravagance, which has so far increased beyond our ability to pay as has proved detrimental to our Mother Country, and has such pernicious influence upon the inhabitants of this Colony as, if persisted in, must involve the great part in irretrievable distress and ruin; at present plunged in debt, the balance of trade greatly against us, our small commerce declining, and poverty with all its melancholy attendants threatening, which loudly calls upon every friend to his country to exert every patriotic virtue in its full force to extricate the inhabitants from their perplexed and embar- rassed circumstances, the consequences of which are so far felt as fully to be dreaded, and being of opinion that frugality and industry with a fixed atten- tion and application to American manufactures are the most direct and obvious measures to answer these salutary purposes and are absolutely neces- sary to extricate ourselves from our present load of debt, as well as for the future prosperity of the community, do engage with and promise each other that we will not from and after the first day of March next, by land or water, transport into this Colony either for sale or our own family's use, nor pur- chase of any other person. any of the following articles produced or manu- factured out of North America, viz. : Loaf-sugar, cordage, coaches, chaises, and all sorts of carriages and harnesses for the same, men's and women's saddles, and bridles and whips, all sorts of men's hats, men's and women's apparel ready-made, men's gloves, women's hats, men's and women's shoes, sole-leather, shoe and knee buckles, iron ware, clocks, nails, gold, silver and thread lace, gold and silver buttons, diamond stone and paste ware, snuff, tobacco, mustard, clocks and watches, silversmith and jeweller's ware, broad-cloth that costs above 9s. pr. yard, muff's, tippets and all sorts of head- dress for women, women's and children's stays, starch, silk and cotton velvet, linseed oil, lawn and cambric that costs above 4s. pr. yard, malt liquors, cheese, chairs and tables, and all kinds of cabinet ware, horse combs, linen exceeding 2s. per yard, silks of any kind in garments, men's and women's stockings, and wove patterns for breeches and vests.
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