USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 12
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 12
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We have already observed that a few families from Kent, moved by the change which took place in eccle- siastical administration when Laud succeeded Abbot, had emigrated in the company of Mr. Davenport. These were the earnest of a company from Kent, Sur- rey, and Sussex, which came two years later, and settled in Guilford. That the two companies were connected, and that they were in communication after the arrival of Mr. Davenport at Quinnipiac, appears from the fact that Mr. Whitfield sailed direct for Quinnipiac, and that Mr. Davenport's only child, whom his parents had left behind on account of his tender years, came with his nurse in the same ship, as also from the covenant
1
MILFORD, GUILFORD, SOUTHOLD, STAMFORD. 161
which Mr. Whitfield's company made and signed on shipboard.I The covenant was as follows :-
" We, whose names are hereunder written, intending by God's gracious permission to plant ourselves in New England, and, if it may be, in the southerly part, about Quinnipiac : We do faithfully promise each to each, for ourselves and families, and those that belong to us ; that we will, the Lord assisting us, sit down and join ourselves together in one entire plantation ; and to be helpful each to the other in every common work, according to every man's ability and as need shall require ; and we promise not to desert or leave each other or the plantation, but with the consent of the rest or the greater part of the company who have entered into this engagement.
" As for our gathering together in a church way, and the choice of officers and members to be joined together in that way, we do refer ourselves until such time as it shall please God to settle us in our plantation.
" In witness whereof we subscribe our hands the first day of June, 1639.
" ROBERT KITCHEL. WM. DUDLEY.
JOHN BISHOP. JOHN PARMELIN.
FRANCIS BUSHNELL. JOHN MEPHAM.
WILLIAM CHITTENDEN. HENRY WHITFIELD.
WILLIAM LEETE.
THOMAS NORTON.
THOMAS JONES.
ABRAHAM CRUTTENDEN.
JOHN JORDAN.
FRANCIS CHATFIELD. -
WILLIAM STONE.
WILLIAM HALL.
JOHN HOADLEY. THOMAS NASH.
JOHN STONE. HENRY KINGSNORTH.
WILLIAM PLANE. HENRY DOWD.
RICHARD GUTRIDGE.
THOMAS COOK."
JOHN HUGHES.
The exact time when Mr. Whitfield and his fellow- voyagers arrived in the harbor of Quinnipiac cannot be
' Inquiry for the autograph of this covenant has been unsuccessful.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
ascertained ; but there is reason to believe they were near the end of their voyage when they signed the above agreement, three days previous to the meeting of the New Haven planters in Mr. Newman's barn, when permanent foundations of ecclesiastical and civil order were laid. It is here given as found in the " His- tory of Guilford " by Ralph D. Smith. Under date of · "Quinnipiac, July 28, 1639," Mr. Davenport writes to his friend Lady Vere : -
" MADAM, - By the good hand of our God upon us, my dear child is safely arrived with sundry desirable friends, as Mr. Fen- wick and his lady, Mr. Whitfield, &c., to our great comfort.
"Their passage was so ordered, as it appeared that prayers were accepted. For they had no sickness in the ship except a little sea-sickness; not one died, but they brought to shore one more than was known to be in the vessel at their coming forth, for a woman was safely delivered of a child, and both were alive and well. They attained to the haven where they would be, in seven weeks. Their provisions at sea held good to the last. About the time when we guessed they might approach near us, we set a day apart for public extraordinary humiliation by fasting and prayer, in which we commended them into the hands of our God whom winds and seas obey, and shortly after sent out a pinnace to pilot them to our harbor: for it was the first ship that ever cast anchor in this place. But our pilot, having waited for them a fortnight, grew weary and returned home ; and the very next night after, the ship came in, guided by God's own hand to our town. The sight of the harbor did so please the captain of the ship and all the passengers, that. he called it the Fair Haven. Since that, another ship hath brought sundry passengers, and a third is expected daily."
It appears from this letter that Mr. Whitfield's com- pany did not all come in one ship. The signers of the agreement are twenty-five in number, of whom one, and perhaps two, did not settle at Guilford. Thomas Nash,
MILFORD, GUILFORD, SOUTHOLD, STAMFORD. 163
being a smith competent to repair guns as well as to do general work in the line of his trade, became a planter at New Haven, and is third in the list of those who signed the fundamental agreement after it was copied into the record-book. The reasons why he should reside in the larger plantation were so weighty that his fellow-passengers doubtless released him from his agreement. The name of John Hughes not appearing on the earliest record of planters at Guilford, it may be conjectured that he died at an early date, or was diverted from that to some other plantation.
As the first ship brought only twenty-three of the first planters of Guilford, we must conclude that the others arrived in the second or in the second and third ships mentioned in Mr. Davenport's letter. If the first ship arrived in June, the second early in July, and the third I soon after the date of the letter, we may conclude that only preliminary steps were taken for selecting a site previous to the arrival of the last division of their company. Soon after all had arrived, a meeting was held in Mr. Newman's barn, which is thus alluded to in the "Guilford Book of the more fixed Orders for the Plantation."
"JANUARY 31st 1649 (N. S. 1650).
"Upon a review of the more fixed agreements, laws and orders formerly and from time to time made, The General Court here held the day and year aforesaid thought fit, agreed and established them
' It is a reasonable conjecture that the third ship brought the company which settled Southold on Long Island. As the first vessel is known to have brought about half of the Guilford families, the second would prob- ably be sufficient for the transportation of the remainder. The third ves- sel sufficiently accounts for the presence at New Haven of the Southold Company, a problem which, so far as the writer is aware, no one has attempted to solve.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
according to the ensuing draft, as followeth, viz., -first we do ac- knowledge, ratify, confirm and allow the agreement made in Mr. Newman's barn ' at Quillipeack, now called New Haven, that the whole lands called Menunkatuck should be purchased for us and our heirs, but the deed-writings thereabouts to be made and drawn (from the Indians) in the name of these six planters in our steads, viz., Henry Whitfield, Robert Kitchel, William Leete, William Chit- tenden, John Bishop and John Caffinge; notwithstanding all and every planter shall pay his proportionable part or share towards all the charges and expenses for purchasing, selling, securing or carry- ing on the necessary public affairs of this plantation according to such rule and manner of rating as shall be from time to time agreed on in this plantation."
According to this agreement made in Mr. Newman's barn, a purchase was made from Shaumpishuh, the sachem squaw of Menunkatuck, which is defined in the following deed :-
" Articles of agreement made and agreed on the 29th of September, 1639, between Henry Whitfield, Robert Kitchel, William Chit- . tenden, Wm. Leete, John Bishop and Jno. Caffinch, English planters of Menunkatuck, and the sachem squaw of Menunka- tuck together with the Indian inhabitants of Menunkatuck as followeth :
" First, that the sachem squaw is the sole owner, possessor and inheritor of all the lands lying between Ruttawoo anu Ajicomick river.
"Secondly, that the said sachem squaw with the consent of the Indians there inhabiting (who are all, together with herself, to re- move from thence) doth sell unto the foresaid English planters all the lands lying within the aforesaid limits of Ruttawoo and Ajico- mick river.
"Thirdly, that the said sachem squaw having received twelve
" This was a meeting of the newly arrived Guilford planters, and should not be confounded with the earlier meeting of New Haven planters on the fourth day of June.
MILFORD, GUILFORD, SOUTHOLD, STAMFORD. 165
coats, twelve fathom of wampum, twelve glasses, twelve pairs of shoes, twelve hatchets, twelve pairs of stockings, twelve hoes, four kettles, twelve knives, twelve hats, twelve porringers, twelve spoons, two English coats, professeth herself to be fully paid and satisfied."
SACHEM SQUAW, her mark.
"JOHN HIGGINSON "}Wit Witnesses. ROBT. NEWMAN HENRY WHITFIELD, in the name of the rest."
Additional territory was afterward purchased of other Indians; but the aforesaid deed covers all the land within the present limits of Guilford.
At the time when the deed was written, the pur- chasers must have been already resident on the land purchased, as they are described as "English planters of Menunkatuck." Probably those who arrived in the first ship had visited the place, and prepared the way by negotiating with the Indians, so that, soon after the others came to land, all went together to their new home. If this be true, the deed was signed at Menunka- tuck, though there is no proof of this in the writing itself. The presence of John Higginson, one of the witnesses, is worthy of notice. This young gentleman, now in the twenty-fourth year of his age, may have stopped at the new settlement merely for needful re- freshment as he journeyed from Saybrook Fort, where he was chaplain, to visit his mother at Quinnipiac. But, if this was his first introduction to the planters of Menunkatuck, we may conclude from his subsequent history that he soon repeated his visit ; for within two years he married a daughter of Mr. Whitfield, and fixed his residence at Guilford.
Trumbull says of the founders of this plantation :-
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
" As they were from Kent and Surrey, they took much pains to find a tract of land resembling that from which they had removed. They therefore finally pitched upon Guilford, which, toward the sea, where they made the principal settlement, was low, moist, rich land, liberal indeed to the husbandman, especially the great plain south of the town. This had been already cleared and enriched by the natives. The vast quantities of shells and manure, which in a course of ages they had brought upon it from the sea, had con- tributed much to the natural richness of the soil. There were also nearly adjoining to this several necks, or points of land, near the sea, clear, rich, and fertile, prepared for immediate improvement."
No list of planters is extant bearing an earlier date than 1650. About that time a catalogue of the free- men was recorded, to which were appended the names of planters not yet admitted to the right of suffrage. Two or three names of each of these classes appear to have been added as late as 1652. The freemen of the plantation were : -
Henry Whitfield. Jno. Higginson. 1
Thomas Jones. William Hall.
George Hubbard.
Thomas Betts.
Mr. Samuel Desborough.
John Parmelin, sen.
Mr. Robert Kitchel. Mr. Wm. Chittenden.
Henry Kingsnorth.
Thomas Cook.
Mr. Wm. Leete. Thomas Jordan. John Hoadley.
Richard Bristow.
John Scranton.
John Parmelin, Jr. John Fowler. Wm. Dudley. Richard Gutridge.
George Bartlett. Jasper Stillwell.
Abraham Cruttenden, sen.
Alexander Chalker.
· Edward Benton.
John Stone.
John Evarts.
The planters who had not been admitted as freemen were :-
MILFORD, GUILFORD, SOUTHOLD, STAMFORD. 167
John Bishop, sen.
John Johnson.
Thomas Chatfield.
John Sheader.
Francis Bushnell.
Samuel Blachley.
Henry Dowd.
Thomas French.
Richard Hughes.
Stephen Bishop.
George Chatfield.
Thomas Stevens.
William Stone.
William Boreman.
John Stevens.
Edward Seward.
Benjamin Wright.
George Highland.
John Linsley.
Abraham Cruttenden, Jr.
The planters of both these classes were at that time forty-eight in number ; of whom four, namely, John Higginson, George Hubbard, John Fowler, and Thomas Betts, had not been of the company of original plant- ers. · Higginson came from Saybrook, where he had been chaplain for four years; and the three others re- moved from Milford. But the plantation had lost as many or more by removals from it as it had gained by removals to it from other places; and at least seven proprietors are known to have died before 1650. We have seen how Thomas Nash, who came in the same ship with Whitfield, was detached from the company. John Caffinge, or Caffinch, one of the six trustees for purchasing and holding land, and the only one of them who did not come in the same ship with Whitfield, be- came a planter at New Haven within two or three years after the deeds were signed in which he is named as grantee. Thomas Relf and Thomas Dunk had also removed. In the list of the dead were Thom- as Norton, Thomas Mills, John Mepham, John Jordan, William Somers, William Plane, and Francis Austin.
The catalogue of planters in 1650 doubtless contains some names of young men, who, coming with their
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
parents in 1639, had since become proprietors. If these amounted to seven, the number of planters in 1639 was the same as in 1650. Comparing Guilford with other plantations in New England during these eleven years, we must conclude that if it had neither gained nor lost in population, it had been compara- tively prosperous. England, which had sent so many Puritans to America, was now governed by Puritans, and emigration had consequently ceased. Many plan- tations were losing from year to year more families by the removal of those who were "going home " and by deaths than they gained by marriages. The people of Guilford, depending entirely on agriculture for subsist- ence, and having abundance of fertile land, though they suffered in the general depression, were not so much impoverished as the merchants of New Haven.
From the commencement of the plantation till the gathering of a church in 1643, the undivided lands were held in trust by the six planters in whose name the deed was originally taken. Four of the six were early designated as a provisional committee in whom all civil power was vested. At a meeting of the planters held Feb. 2, 1642, it was "agreed that the civil power for administration of justice and preservation of peace shall remain in the hands of Robert Kitchel, William Chittenden, John Bishop, and William Leete, formerly chosen for that work, until some may be chosen out of the church that shall be gathered here." Mr. Whit- field was doubtless excused from acting in this provis- ional magistracy on account of his pastoral relation, and Mr. Caffinch had removed to New Haven. When the church had been formed, civil government was
MILFORD, GUILFORD, SOUTHOLD, STAMFORD. 169
instituted by the members of it; and the record of its institution is preceded by the following minute con- cerning the provisional committee of four : viz., -
" Into their hands we did put full power and authority to act, order, and despatch all matters respecting the public weal and civil government of the plantation till a church was gathered among us, which the Lord in mercy having now done according to the desire of our hearts ; the said four men at the public meet- ing having resigned up their trust as most safe and suitable for securing of those main ends for which we came hither," &c.
What the main ends thus alluded to were, may be learned from the following extract : -
"The main ends which we propounded to ourselves in our com- ing hither were that we may settle and uphold the ordinances of God in an explicit Congregational church way with most purity, peace, and liberty, for the benefit both of ourselves and our pos- terities after us."
Their ideal church, for the realization of which they had been willing to make so great sacrifices, was insti- tuted June 19, 1643, after the example of New Haven and Milford, by choosing seven men who might admit other approved persons. The seven who were chosen were Henry Whitfield, John Higginson, Samuel Des- borough, William Leete, Jacob Sheafe, John Mepham, and John Hoadley.
The settlement of their ecclesiastical and civil polity may have been hastened by events taking place be- yond the precincts of Guilford. . Commissioners from the four colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecti- cut, and New Haven had agreed on Articles of Con- federation ; and these articles had been signed at Bos- ton on the nineteenth day of May, just one month
VAR ...
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
before the church of Guilford was instituted. This confederation of colonies was formed for mutual assist- ance and defence, and was deemed especially neces- sary in view of the distracted condition of England, which forbade them to expect help from the mother country in any quarrel that might arise with the colo- nies of Holland or Sweden, or against any combina- tion of savages to extirpate the white people.
Such a confederation of the four New England colo- nies made it necessary that the plantations about New Haven, if they would reap the expected advantages of the confederation, should be combined into one colo- nial government. The plantations at Stamford and at Southold on Long Island were already united with the plantation 'at New Haven in one jurisdiction. Guilford accordingly qualified itself to be admitted, by organizing its plantation government after the pattern set by New Haven, and proposed by that plantation as a condition of union with it in one colonial govern- ment.
The planters of Guilford who were not church-mem- bers were not inferior in magnanimous self-abnegation to those of New Haven, who for the public weal and in allegiance to principle had relinquished the right of suffrage. So far as is known, none objected to the fundamental agreement thus expressed : "We do now therefore, all and every of us, agree, order and conclude that only such planters as are also members of the church here shall be and be called freemen, and that such freemen only shall have power to elect magis- trates, deputies, and other officers of public interest or authority in matters of importance concerning either
MILFORD, GUILFORD, SOUTHOLD, STAMFORD. 171
the civil affairs or government here, from amongst themselves and not elsewhere ; and to take an account of all such officers for the honest and faithful discharge of their several places respectively."
. It will be observed that by this agreement civil pow- er is restricted to members of the church in Guilford ; while at New Haven church-membership in general was the required qualification, and members of "other approved churches " were admitted freemen, as well as members of the church in New Haven. But this di- vergence from the New Haven rule was probably owing to the fact that all church-members at Guilford entered at once into the new ecclesiastical organization.
Southold on Long Island was settled by a compa- ny emigrating from Norfolkshire, England, under the guidance of Rev. John Youngs. As they sailed direct for New Haven, it may be inferred that their leader was in communication with Mr. Davenport, and had heard · from him since his arrival at Quinnipiac. There is no documentary testimony in regard to the time of their arrival. The common opinion is, that they came over in 1640; and this opinion seems to be founded on the testimony of Trumbull, that Mr. Youngs gathered his church anew on the 21st of October, 1640. But, if they arrived in New Haven in the summer of 1640, we should hardly expect, in view of what the planters at New Haven, Milford, and. Guilford did, that they would be prepared for the formal organization of a church the same year. That they had been some time on the ground when the church was instituted, appears from the record "that one man sold his house only
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
four days afterward."I If Mr. Youngs conferred with . Mr. Davenport in the spring of 1637, and waited to hear that the latter had found " accommodations " suf- ciently ample for himself and for his friends, he needed not to wait longer than 1639. Moreover, tradition says that Mr. Youngs' company staid some time at New Haven. For these reasons it is not improbable that they landed at New Haven in 1639, and that they came in the vessel mentioned in Mr. Davenport's letter to Lady Vere, "as expected daily." Be this as it may, they not only shaped their institutions according to the pattern set by the planters of New Haven, but placed themselves from the first under the same jurisdiction. Milford and Guilford, though using the mould fashioned by Davenport and Eaton, had established each a juris- diction entirely independent. But Southold, or Yenni- cot (as it was for a time called), was a part of the jurisdiction of New Haven. Hubbard says, "This came to pass by reason of the purchase of the land by some of New Haven, who disposed of it to the inhabitants . upon condition of their union." Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that, Mr. Youngs' company hav- ing been persuaded to unite their plantation with that at New Haven under one jurisdiction, the magistrates assisted them in their negotiations, and took the deed in their own name as officers of the jurisdiction. That the conveyance was made to the jurisdiction, and not to the plantation of Southold, is.evident from the peti- tion of the freemen of Southold at a general court held at New Haven for the jurisdiction, the 30th of May,
' History of Southold, by Rev. Epher Whitaker, in New Haven Colo- ny Historical Society Coll., Vol. II.
MILFORD, GUILFORD, SOUTHOLD, STAMFORD. 173
1649, "that the purchase of their plantation might be made over to them." But, though Yennicot was nomi- nally a part of the jurisdiction of New Haven, it does not appear that it was represented in any court at New Haven, or that any legislative action was taken in re- gard to it at New Haven for several years. Stamford appears on the record earlier than Southold, as a plan- tation combined with that at New Haven. The free- men of Southold were for the time being, left to man- age their own affairs, and no sufficiently cogent reason urged them to send deputies to the court at New Haven.
"Among the early settlers," says Rev. Epher Whit- aker, "were Rev. John Youngs, William Wells, Esq., Barnabas Horton, Peter Hallock, John Tuthill, Richard Terry, Thomas Mapes, Matthias Corwin, Robert Ak- erly, John Corey, John Conklyne, John Budd, Thomas Moore, Richard Benjamin, Philemon Dickerson, Bar- nabas Wines, James Reeve, William Purrier, John Tucker, Jeremiah Vail, Henry Case, John Swazey, Charles Glover, Robert Smyth, Richard Skidmore, John Elton, Thomas Benedict, John Booth, Richard Brown, Ralph Goldsmith, Simon Grover, Thomas Cooper, Caleb Curtis, Thomas Dimon, James Haines, John Herbert, Peter Paine, and Samuel King." . But some of these did not come from England with Mr. Youngs' company, and did not become planters at Southold when it was first settled. Lieut. John Budd removed from New Haven, and probably others from other plantations. Trumbull mentions Mr. Youngs, Mr. William Wells, Mr. Barnabas Horton, Thomas Mapes, John Tuthill, and Matthias Corwin as "some of the principal men."
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
When Trumbull speaks of Mr. Youngs as gathering his church anew, he seems to intimate that some of his company had been under his pastoral care in England. Youngs had probably been the pastor of a Separate or Congregational church in Hingham, Norfolkshire, and, like John Lothrop, had brought his church with him. Though Trumbull says nothing of gathering the church upon a foundation-work of seven men chosen for that purpose, there can be no doubt, considering the close union between New Haven and Southold, that the church was gathered in that way, or that the seven thus chosen were the foundation and beginning of the general court, as well as of the church.
Stamford was purchased of the Indians by Capt. Turner, as agent for the people of New Haven, July I, 1640. New Haven doubtless purchased the territory for the sake of securing it for planters who would establish institutions like her own. On the fourth day of November in the same year, the General Court of New Haven sold the territory to Andrew Ward and Robert Coe, the representatives of about twenty-two families wishing to leave Wethersfield, and establish a new plantation after the pattern set by New Haven, and under its jurisdiction. The terms of the sale were : -
"First, that they shall repay unto the said town of New Haven all the charges which they have disbursed about it, which comes to £33, as appears by a note or schedule hereunto annexed. Secondly, that they reserve a fifth part of the said plantation to be disposed of at the appointment of this court to such desirable persons as may be expected, or as God shall send hither; pro- vided, that, if within one whole year such persons do not come to fill up those lots so reserved, that then it shall be free for the said 1
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