USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 14
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 14
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"Thirdly, to impose an oath upon all the magistrates for the faithful discharge of the trust committed to them, according to their best abilities, and to call them to account for the breach of any laws established, or for other misdemeanors, and to censure them as the quality of the offence shall require."
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" Fourthly, to impose an oath of fidelity and due subjection to the laws upon all the free burgesses, free planters, and other inhabitants within the whole jurisdiction."
" Fifthly, to settle and levy rates and contributions upon all the several plantations, for the public service of the plantation."
"Sixthly, to hear and determine all causes, whether civil or criminal, which by appeal or complaint shall be orderly brought unto them from any of the other courts, or from any of the other plantations. In all which, with whatsoever else shall fall within their cognizance or judicature, they shall proceed according to the Scriptures, which is the rule of all righteous laws and sentences ; and nothing shall pass as an act of the general court, but by the consent of the major part of magistrates and the greater part of deputies."
The adoption of this constitution seems to have put an end to that confusion of ideas which had sometimes allowed the administration of both plantation and colo- nial affairs in the same court. The written constitution may have helped the New Haven men to discriminate ; and the presence in the court of members from Guilford and Milford, hitherto independent plantations, necessa- rily tended strongly in the same direction. The colo- nial constitution remained substantially the same from this time till the colony was absorbed into Connecticut, more than twenty years afterward. The union of these plantations in a colonial government, and the confed- eration of the colony with the other colonies of New England, were auxiliary to security and peace.
CHAPTER XI.
INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS.
F `ROM the establishment of the New Haven colo- nial government, to its extinction by the absorption of the colony into Connecticut, there was a period of twenty-two years. Before proceeding to narrate the political history of the colony during this period, we propose to give some account of the various industries in which its people were employed; of its institutions for the maintenance of intelligence, morality, and reli- gion ; of its military organization and achievements ; of the aboriginal inhabitants with whom its people had intercourse ; and of the domestic and social life which resulted from these concurrent influences.
The leading men at Quinnipiac, having been engaged in commerce before their emigration, endeavored to make their new plantation a commercial town. Trade was soon established with Boston, New Amsterdam, - as New York was then called, - Delaware Bay, Vir- ginia, Barbadoes, and England.
Supplies from the mother-country came chiefly by way of Boston ; for the three ships which in 1639 sailed direct from England to Quinnipiac were exceptions to the custom that emigrants into New England landed in
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Massachusetts. If the tide of emigration had not ebbed soon after the settlement was made at Quinni- piac, ships from England might have cast anchor in its "fair haven" with such frequency as to render the plantations in the neighborhood independent of Boston as a base of supplies. But, as it happened, small vessels owned in New Haven, and navigated by her seamen, sailed frequently to and fro between the two ports. Doubtless they sometimes returned home freighted with merchandise purchased of Massachusetts men ; but there is evidence that New Haven merchants exported and imported by way of Boston, sending their beaver and other furs to be transferred to the ships which had brought them English goods.
The diary of Winthrop records several such voyages that were disastrous, and others that were dangerous, though without fatal results. Nicholas Augur, one of the earliest physicians at New Haven, occupied himself to some extent, as did also his colleagues in the practice of medicine, in commercial adventures. In 1669, " being about to sail for Boston," he made his will, as if he regarded the voyage as exposing him to unusual peril of his life. In 1676 he made another voyage to the same port ; and on his return, setting sail from Boston on the tenth of September, he was shipwrecked on an uninhab- ited island off Cape Sable, where he and all his fellow- voyagers died except Ephraim Howe, the captain of the ketch, who, having endured great hardship during the winter, was taken off by a vessel in the following sum- mer and carried to Salem, whence he returned to his family at New Haven after an absence of nearly eleven months. The pinnaces, shallops, and ketches employed
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in this coasting-trade, carried letters and packages from friend to friend; seamen and passengers rendering such service as is now performed by express-companies and by the postmen of the government.I
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The trade with Manhattan, as Fort Amsterdam is at first named in the records, did not apparently include any great amount of European supplies : otherwise it was in general of similar character to that maintained with Massachusetts Bay. The Dutch however, being exempt from the prejudice against tobacco manifested by the good people of Boston, the merchants of New Haven, when they anchored at Fort Amsterdam on their return from a southern voyage, carried on shore many hogsheads of this Virginia product.2 To the same market they conveyed their imports from the West Indies, such as cotton, sugar, molasses, and "strong water ;" completing a cargo with such prod- ucts of their own neighborhood as wheat, biscuit, beef,
' The germ of a post-office appears in an order of the General Court of Massachusetts passed Nov. 5, 1639: "For preventing the miscarriage of letters, it is ordered, that notice be given that Richard Fairbanks's house in Boston is the place appointed for all letters which are brought from beyond the seas, or are to be sent thither, to be brought unto; and he is to take care that they be delivered or sent according to their direc- tions; and he is allowed for every such letter one penny, and must an- swer all miscarriages through his own neglect in this kind; provided that no man shall be compelled to bring his letters thither, except he please."
2 Sumptuary laws were early enacted in Massachusetts, prohibiting the use of and the traffic in tobacco. These laws were repealed, in 1637, while the New Haven company were sojourning in Massachusetts; but, though the prohibitory laws were repealed, some of the prejudice which led to their enactment must have remained. The only law regulating the use of tobacco, at New Haven, was one passed by the general court for the jurisdiction in reference to danger from fire.
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pork, hides, and furs. It is not so evident what they received in return ; but probably the trade between the two towns was chiefly an exchange of merchandise for the supply of whatever articles might be temporarily scarce and dear in either market. The Dutch at one time attempted to discriminate between their own shipping and that of their English neighbors, requiring the latter to anchor under "an erected hand," and to pay an ad valorem duty of ten per cent on all imports and exports ; but were shamed into reciprocity by the sharp pen of Gov. Eaton, backed by the commissioners of the United Colonies.
Stephen Goodyear, who in the prosecution of this commerce between the towns often visited Fort Am- sterdam, purchased there of the Dutch governor a ship called the Zwoll, to be delivered in the harbor of New Haven. Under pretext of conveying the ship in safety, the Dutch put soldiers on board, who on a Sunday boarded and seized the St. Beninio, a Dutch vessel lying in the harbor of New Haven, and carried her away to Fort Amsterdam, where the vessel was confiscated as a smuggler, the owner having evaded payment of certain duties or "recognitions " claimed by his government. William Westerhouse, who owned the vessel, and Samuel Goodenhouse, another Dutch merchant in some way implicated in the business, were then sojourning at New Haven, and, finding it more agreeable to remain than to follow the vessel which had been seized, placed themselves under the protec- tion of the court, and became permanent residents. The settlement at New Haven of these strangers served to abate somewhat the commercial discour-
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agement consequent on a succession of losses. The ac- quisition of Westerhouse was additionally pleasing, be- cause he was not only a merchant, but a practitioner of medicine. Not long after he became a citizen, he in- trusted a cask of liquor to John Lawrencson to be retailed. Some disorder having attracted attention, a fine was imposed upon Lawrencson for "selling strong waters by small quantities," contrary to an order of the court. Westerhouse, hearing of it, "acquainted the court through Mr. Evance, his interpreter, that he knew it not to be an offence to the court that he em- ployed any to sell his strong water, but seeing he had done it he justified the court in the fine they had laid, and he came to tender the payment. The court told him they looked not upon it as his fault, for they intended not to fine him ; but, seeing he would pay it, the court considering how useful he had been in the town by giving physic to many persons, and to some of them freely, the court agreed not to take the fine, but returned it to him again."
Within three years after the foundations of govern- ment had been laid at New Haven, "there was a pur- chase made by some particular persons of sundry plan- tations in Delaware Bay, at their own charge, for the advancement of public good, as in a way of trade, so also for the settling of churches and plantations in those parts in combination with this. And thereupon it was propounded to the general court, whether plantations should be settled in Delaware Bay in combination with this town, - yea or nay; and, upon consideration and debate, it was assented unto by the court, and expressed
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by holding up of hands." This attempt to establish an English settlement in Delaware Bay encountered oppo- sition from the Dutch and from the Swedes, both of whom claimed exclusive jurisdiction in those waters, and, though contending one with the other, united in resisting the English. In 1642 the governor of New Amsterdam "despatched an armed force, and with great hostility burned the English trading-houses, violently seized and for a time detained their goods, and would not give them time to take an inventory of them. The Dutch also took the company's boat, and a number of the English planters whom they kept as prisoners. The damages done to the English at Delaware were estimated at a thousand pounds sterling." I
The same year the Swedish governor seized and imprisoned George Lamberton, "master of the pin- nace called the Cock," and some of his seamen, on a false charge of inciting the Indians to rise against the Swedes. Finding himself unable to support the charge, he improved the opportunity to impose a fine for trading at Delaware, though within the limits of the New Haven purchase. Not long after, Mr. Lamberton, happening to be at New Amsterdam, was compelled by the Dutch governor to give an account of all the beaver he had purchased at the New Haven trading-post in Delaware Bay, and to pay an impost upon the whole.
The next year, New Haven becoming confederate with the other New England colonies, the commis- sioners of the United Colonies' sent letters of remon- strance to the Dutch and the Swedes, and gave Lam- berton a commission to treat with the Swedish
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governor in their name about satisfaction for the in- juries done him, and about the settlement of an English plantation in Delaware Bay.
The settlement of a plantation was delayed, however, from one year to another, till, in 1651, a company of about fifty men, chiefly from New Haven and Totoket, afterwards called Branford, started on a voyage for Delaware Bay with the intention of beginning the plan- tation so long kept in abeyance. Bearing a commis- . sion from Gov. Eaton, and letters from him and from the governor of Massachusetts to the Dutch governor, explaining their intention, and assuring him that they would settle upon their own lands only and give no disturbance to their neighbors, they came to anchor at New Amsterdam, and sent their letters on shore. " But no sooner had Gov. Stuyvesant received the letters than he arrested the bearers, and committed them close prisoners under guard. Then sending for the master of the vessel to come on shore, that he might speak with him, he arrested and committed him. Others, as they came on shore to visit and assist their neighbors, were confined with them. The Dutch governor desired to see their commission, promising it should be returned when he had taken a copy. But, when it was demanded of him, he would not return it to them. Nor would he release the men from confinement until he had forced them to give it under their hands that they would not prosecute their voyage, but, without loss of time, return to New Haven. He threatened, that, if he should after- wards find any of them at Delaware, he would not only seize their goods, but send them prisoners into Hol- land." I
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Three years later, as appears from the following ex- tract from the records, another attempt was made :--
" At a general court for the town of New Haven, Nov. 2, 1654, the governor read a letter he wrote on the 6th of July, by order of the general court, to the Swedish governor, with his answer in Latin, dated Aug. I, and the answer of the commissioners to that, dated Sept. 23. At the same time he informed them, that, while attending the meeting of the commissioners at Hartford. several had spoken with him in reference to settling at Delaware Bay, if it might be planted. The town was desired to consider which way it may be carried on. After much debate about it, and scarce any manifesting their willingness to go at present, a com- mittee was chosen; viz., Robert Seely, William Davis, Thomas Munson, and Thomas Jeffrey, to whom any that are willing to go may repair to be taken notice of, and that, if there be cause, they treat with those of New Haven who have purchased those lands, to know what consideration they expect for them."
"On the 27th of November the committee reported that they had spoken with sundry persons in the town, but that not answer- ing expectation, they got a meeting of the brethren and neigh- bors, and for the most part they were willing to help forward the work, some in person, others in estate, so the work might be carried on and foundations laid according to God; and at that meeting they desired that the governor and one of the magis- trates, with one or both the elders, might by their persons help forward that work, whereupon they had a church-meeting, and propounded their desire. The elders declared they were willing to further the work, and glad it was in hand; but Mr. Davenport said in reference to his health, he sees not his way clear to engage in it in person; nor Mr. Hooke, because his wife is gone for England, and he knows not how God will dispose of her. The governor gave no positive answer; but said it was worthy of con- sideration."
"They further informed that some from other plantations see a need of the work, and are willing to engage in it, and the rather if it be begun by New Haven, and foundations laid as here, and government so carried on, thinking it will be for the good of them and their posterity."
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"They also declared that they had treated with the proprietors about the purchase of the land, and understand that they are out above six hundred pounds, but are willing to take three hundred pounds to be paid in four years."
Mr. Samuel Eaton 1 and Mr. Francis Newman, being invited to go with the company as magistrates, took the matter into consideration, and on the 4th of December signified their conditional assent. At a general court for the jurisdiction, on the thirtieth day of the following January, a petition was presented on behalf of a com- pany of persons intending to remove to Delaware Bay, wherein they propounded that the Court "would afford some encouragement to help forward so public a work." The Court returned answer : -
"I. That they are willing so far to deny themselves for the fur- therance of that work in order to the ends propounded, as to grant liberty to one or both of those magistrates mentioned to go along with them, who, with such other fit persons as this court shall see meet to join with them, may be empowered for managing of all mat- ters of civil government there, according to such commission as shall be given them by this court."
"2. That they will either take the propriety of all the purchased lands into their own hands, or leave it to such as shall undertake the planting of it, provided that it be and remain a part or member of this jurisdiction. And for their encouragement they purpose
" The person here intended was a son of Theophilus Eaton by his first wife. He graduated at Harvard College in 1649. In April, 1654, the people of New Haven, "hearing that Mr. Samuel Eaton, son of our gov- ernor, is now sent for into the Bay, which, if attended to, they feared they may be deprived, not only for the present, but for the future, of the help- fulness which they have hoped for from him, and considering the small number of first able helps here for the work of magistracy for the present, who also by age are wearing away," induced him to remain with them by offering to elect him magistrate. He was accordingly elected, and had now been in office about six months.
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when God shall so enlarge the English plantations in Delaware as that they shall grow the greater part of the jurisdiction, that then due consideration shall be taken for the ease and conveniency of both parts, as that the governor may be one year in one part and the next year in another, and the deputy governor to be in that part where the governor is not, and that general courts for making laws may be ordinarily but once a year, and where the governor resides ; and if God much increase plantations in Delaware, and diminish them in these parts, then possibly they may see cause that the governor may be constantly there and the deputy governor here, but that the lesser part of the jurisdiction be protected and eased by the greater part, both in rates and otherwise, which they conceive will be both acceptable to God and (as appears by the conclusions of the commissioners anno 1651) most satisfying to the rest of the United Colonies."
" 3. That for the matters of charge propounded for encourage- ment to be given or lent, to help on their first beginnings, they will propound the things to the several particular plantations, and pro- mote the business for procuring something that way, and shall return their answer with all convenient speed."
A special messenger was sent to Massachusetts in hope of securing recruits from that colony ; for at a general court for the town of New Haven held on the 16th of the following March :-
" The town was informed that the occasion of this meeting is to let them understand how things are at present concerning Delaware, now John Cooper is returned. He finds little encouragement in the Bay, few being willing to engage in it at present, and therefore they may consider whether to carry it on themselves or to let it fall. Mr. Goodyear said, notwithstanding the discouragements from the Bay, if a considerable company appear that will go, he will adven- ture his person and estate to go with them in that design ; but a report of three ships being come to the Swedes, seems to make the business more difficult. After much debate about it, it was voted by the town in this case, that they will be at twenty or thirty pounds charge ; that Mr. Goodyear, Sergeant Jeffrey, and such other as they
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may think fit to take with them, may go to Delaware, and carry the commissioners' letter, and treat with the Swedes about a peaceable settlement of the English upon their own right; and then after har- vest, if things be cleared the company may resort thither for the planting of it."
On the 9th of April (1655) : -
"The town was informed that there were several who have pur- poses to go, but they conceive they want number of men and estate to carry it on ; now if any be willing to further it in person or estate, they may do well to declare it. It having been first made known to them, that, though they may go free and not engaged to be a part of this jurisdiction, yet they and all such as come after must engage upon the same foundations of government as were at first laid at New Haven, which were now read unto them, and though some objections were made, yet notwithstanding the business pro- ceeded, and divers declared themselves willing to further it."
" And for their further encouragement the town granted, if any go and leave none in their family fit to watch, their wives shall not be put upon the trouble and charge to hire a watchman, the persons only which are present being to carry on that service. They also further agreed to lend the company the two small guns which are the town's, or else one of them and one of the bigger, if they can procure leave of the jurisdiction for it, with at least half a hundred of shot for that bigger gun if they have it, and a meet proportion of musket bullets, according to what the town hath, and also a barrel of that powder which the town bought of Mr. Evance. And concerning their houses and lands which they leave, what of them lieth unimproved shall be freed from all rates one year and a half from the time they leave them, paying as now they do for what they improve. Then they shall have one year's time more, that they shall pay but one penny an acre for fenced land and meadow as they do at present."
The project for establishing a plantation at Delaware Bay was never carried into execution ; but the agitation of it for fourteen years not only evinces great interest
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in that particular region, springing out of and nurtured by the voyages of New Haven merchants, but illustrates the extent to which the commercial spirit ruled in New Haven. It shows us a people, who, having become sat- isfied that they could never in their present home see their wishes fulfilled, were looking for new shores, where, "foundations being laid as here, and govern- ment so carried on," the younger plantation might be- come "the greater part of the jurisdiction."
It is not impertinent here to observe that during this agitation of the people of New Haven about a removal to Delaware, two attempts were made by Cromwell to divert their attention to other places. Hutchinson says, "Cromwell had been very desirous of drawing off the New Englanders to people Ireland after his suc- cesses there ; and the inhabitants of New Haven had serious thoughts of removing, but did not carry their design into execution." In another place he says, of the New Haven people, "They had offers from Ireland after the wars were over, and were in treaty for the purchase of lands there for a small distinct province by themselves." Mather says, "They entered into some treaties about the city of Galway, which they were to have had as a small province to themselves." If any formal action was taken at New Haven on the proposal of Cromwell, it was probably taken by the jurisdiction, whose records from 1644 to 1653 have been lost.I Five years afterward the Lord Protector, having taken the
1 In Ellis's Collection of Original Letters Illustrative of English His- tory is a letter of certain ministers and others in New England replying to and entertaining Cromwell's proposal. None of the signers are New Haven men. Its date is Dec. 31, 1650.
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island of Jamaica from the Spaniards, offered a portion of it to the people of New Haven. A letter of instruc- tions for Daniel Gookin, bound for New England, is still extant in the State Paper Office at London, dated Sept. 26, 1655. According to the epitome prepared for the calendar published by authority, he is instructed : -
"To acquaint the governors and inhabitants in New England that the English army took possession of Jamaica on the Ioth of May last : to describe the situation and goodness of the island, the plenty of horses and cattle, and the convenience of the harbors, which are now being fortified by the English : that there are about seven thousand well armed men there, besides eight hunded more lately sent over with Major Robert Sedgwick, a commissioner in the civil affairs of the island; and that it is intended to defend the place against all attempts, and to have a good fleet always in those seas : to offer to the people of New England to remove to Jamaica, in convenient numbers, for certain specified reasons, viz., to en- lighten those parts (a chief end of our undertaking the design) by people who know and fear the Lord, and that those of New England, driven from the land of their nativity into that desert and barren wilderness for conscience' sake, may remove to a land of plenty : to make these propositions to the people of New Haven, who have thoughts of removing to Delaware Bay, viz., that a part of the island next to some good harbor will be granted to them and their heirs forever without payment of rent for seven years, and then one penny an acre ; their goods of the growth and manufacture of the island shall be three years free from customs ; one of their number to be from time to time appointed governor and commander-in-chief, with persons to assist in the management of affairs ; six ships will be sent for their transportation ; twenty acres granted to every male above twelve years old, and ten to every other male or female, six weeks after the agreement is concluded; the whole number of males to be transported within two years."
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