USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 15
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 15
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It does not appear from the records whether the pro- ject of removing to Delaware Bay had been abandoned
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before this offer of Cromwell reached New Haven, or whether it gave place to his proposal of Jamaica; but his offer was at first favorably entertained. When it had been before the people for consideration about three weeks, the governor desiring the town at a meeting held May 19, 1656, to give an answer : -
" Lieut. John Nash spoke what he conceived to be the mind of the generality of the town, viz., That they conceive it is a work of God, and that it should be encouraged, and if they see meet per- sons go before them, that is, engage in the design to go with them, or quickly after, fit to carry on the work of Christ in commonwealth and also in church affairs, they are free, and will attend the providence of God in it : provided that they have further encourage- ment, both of the healthfulness of the place and a prosperous going on of the war, that other places thereabouts be taken, with what also Richard Miles may bring from Capt. Martin. And that this was the town's mind, they all declared by vote."
On the 28th of the same month the matter was brought before the General Court for the jurisdiction, where a copy of the instructions given by his Highness the Lord Protector to Capt. Gookin was read, with letters from Capt. Gookin and letters from Major Sedg- wick from Jamaica, and the intelligence which Richard Miles (who by this time had arrived home) "brought from Capt. Martin, to whom he was sent to inquire." " The deputies from the several plantations were desired to let the Court understand what is the mind of their towns in this business." " Much debate there was about this thing, and a serious weighing and considering thereof." The proposal received less favor in this assembly than it had in the town-meeting at New Haven. Perhaps the other plantations, where husbandry was the
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principal occupation, did not feel so much need of a change as New Haven felt : perhaps the intelligence which Deacon Miles brought, had affected unfavorably even the New Haven people. The conclusion to which the General Court of the jurisdiction came was : "Though they cannot but acknowledge the great love, care, and tender respect of his Highness the Lord Pro- tector to New England in general, and to this colony in particular, yet for divers reasons they cannot conclude that God calls them to a present remove."
The disposition to find a place more favorably situated for commerce, seems from this time to have yielded to a purpose to make the best of the opportunities afforded by New Haven, and to a willingness so to modify the original intention of the planters that the town should be less dependent on commerce, and give more attention to agriculture, than was at first expected.
In the attempt to write the history of commerce with Delaware Bay, we have been led into a history of the efforts to connect with that commerce the establish- ment there, of a plantation under the New Haven colonial government. Such a relation is, however, pertinent to the subject, for these efforts grew out of the commerce which New Haven merchants prosecuted between the two places.
Of the commerce itself there is much less to record than we have written of these futile attempts to estab- lish at Delaware Bay the jurisdiction of New Haven and of England. The traffic was carried on by a cor- poration which owned two large tracts of land lying - one on each side of the bay - above the Swedish forts. On one of these parcels of land was a trading-house
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where agents of the company remained to traffic with the Indians, and collect beaver and other pelts to be sent home by the vessels which from time to time came into the bay.
In their traffic with Virginia the New Haven mer chants traded with the English planters, and not with the aborigines as at Delaware. Tobacco was the staple export of Virginia, but they brought away in addition, store of beaver which the planters had pur- chased of the Indians. In exchange for these commodi- ties they left with the Virginians supplies brought from England and from Barbadoes, as well as from home. The following extract from the record of a general court for the jurisdiction is illustrative : -
" Mr. Allerton, Ensign Bryan, and Mr. Augur appeared and informed the court, that, by reason of bad biscuit and flour they have had from James Rogers of Milford, they have suffered much damage, and likewise the place lies under reproach at Virginia and Barbadoes, so as when other men from other places can have a ready market for their goods, that from hence lies by and will not sell, or if it do, it is for little above half so much as others sell for ; they desire, therefore, that some course may be taken to remedy this grievance. The court approved of their proposition, and thought it a thing very just and necessary to be done, and sent for the baker and miller from Milford, who also appeared, and, after some debate, did confess there had been formerly some miscarriages. The baker imputed it, or a great part of it, to the miller's grinding his corn so badly, which the miller now acknowledgeth might be through want of skill, but he hopes now it is and will be better, which the baker owned; and, as Mr. Allerton now informed his bread is at present better, after much debate about this business, James Rogers was told, that if, after this warning, his flour or bread prove bad, he must expect that the damage will fall upon him, unless it may be proved that the defectiveness of it came by some other means."
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The first mention of commerce between New Haven and Barbadoes occurs in a letter written by Deputy- Gov. Goodyear, advising Gov. Stuyvesant of the deliv- ery of beef, which Goodyear had contracted to deliver . upon demand, probably in payment for the ship which the Dutch governor had sent to him at New Haven. The Dutch commissary having come for the beef at a time inopportune for Goodyear, the latter writes : "I was necessitated to furnish a great part out of what I had provided for the Barbadoes ; but my en- deavors are and shall be to my utmost to perform my covenants in all things. I desire we may attend peace and neighborly love and correspondency one with another." This letter dated Nov. 22, 1647, must have been written at a very early period in the his- tory of the trade with Barbadoes ; for sugar, the prin- cipal product of that island, began to be exported to England in 1646. At a court held Dec. 7, 1647, "Stephen Reekes, master of a vessel that came from the Barbadoes, was called before the court to answer for some miscarriages of his on the sabbath day, viz. : that he, the said Stephen, did, contrary to the law of God, and of this place, haul up his ship to or towards the neck-bridge upon the sabbath, which is a labor proper for the six days, and not to be under- taken on the Lord's day." As Mr. Reekes was ex- cused on the ground that he was a stranger, and "did not do it out of contempt but ignorantly," it is evi- dent that vessels not owned in New Haven partici- pated thus early in transporting hither the products of Barbadoes. In 1651 Mr. Goodyear sold Shelter Island, which he had owned about ten years, for "sixteen hun-
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dred pounds of good, merchantable, muscovado sugar.1 One of the purchasers certainly was a resident of Bar badoes, and apparently two others; so that it may be presumed that the sugar was delivered in the West Indies, and brought away by Goodyear in his own ship. To illustrate further the use made of this product of Barbadoes as a medium of exchange, reference is made to the fact already mentioned, that Lieut. Budd sold his house in New Haven for a hogshead of sugar.
A more interesting illustration is that which Dr. Bacon thus records in his Historical Discourses : "In the year 1665, on the day of the anniversary thanks- giving, a contribution was 'given in' for 'the saints that were in want in England.' This was at the time when, in that country, so many ministers, ejected from their places of settlement, were, by a succession of enactments, studiously cut off from all means of obtain- ing bread for themselves, their wives, and their chil- dren. The contribution was made, as almost all pay- ments of debts or of taxes were made at that period, in grain and other commodities ; there being no money in circulation, and no banks by which credit could be con- verted into currency. It was paid over to the deacons in the February following. We, to whom it is so easy, in the present state of commerce, to remit the value of any contribution to almost any part of the world, can- not easily imagine the circuitous process by which that contribution reached the 'poor- saints' whom it was intended to relieve. By the deacons, the articles con- tributed were probably first exchanged to some extent
' "Muscovado. The name given to unrefined or moist sugar." - Brande's Dictionary.
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for other commodities more suitable for exportation. Then, the amount was sent to Barbadoes, with which island the merchants of this place had intercourse, and was exchanged for sugars, which were thence sent to England, to the care of four individuals, two of whom were Mr. Hooke the former teacher, and Mr. Newman the ruling elder, of this church. In 1671 Mr. Hooke, in a letter to the church, said, 'Mr. Caryl, Mr. Barker, Mr. Newman, and myself have received sugars from Barbadoes to the value of about ninety pounds, and have disposed of it to several poor ministers, and min- isters' widows. And this fruit of your bounty is very thankfully received and acknowledged by us.'"
Commerce between New Haven and the mother- country was chiefly carried on by way of Boston and - Barbadoes. Bills of exchange on London were pur- chased with beaver-skins and other products of New England exported from Boston, or with sugar pro- cured by barter in Barbadoes. The funds thus ob- tained were invested in English goods, sometimes by the New Haven merchants in person when visiting their native land, but usually by their correspondents residing in London. These English goods were sent out in the ships which sailed every spring for Massa- chusetts Bay, and at Boston were re-shipped to New Haven.
Allusion has been made to three vessels, which in 1639 came to New Haven direct from England. We have now to speak of an attempt made at New Haven to establish at a later date a direct trade with the mother-country. Such an achievement was regarded as
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beyond the ability of any individual, and yet so desira- ble as to demand a general combination of effort. A company was formed, in which apparently all who were able to help, took more or less stock. This company, called "The Ship Fellowship," bought or built a ship which they made ready for sea in January, 1646. She was chartered for a voyage to London, by another association called "The Company of Merchants of New Haven." The feoffees of the ship-fellowship were " Mr. Wakeman, Mr. Atwater, Mr. Crane, and Goodman Miles." The company of merchants con- sisted of "Mr. Theophilus Eaton ( now governor ), Mr. Stephen Goodyear, Mr. Richard Malbon, and Mr. Thomas Gregson." Winthrop says, "She was laden with pease and some wheat, all in bulk, with about two hundred West India hides, and store of beaver and plate, so as it was estimated in all at five thousand pounds." Seventy persons embarked in her, some of whom were counted among the most valued inhabitants of New Haven. Dr. Bacon has graphically depicted the departure of the vessel, and the solicitude felt for her safety by those whom she left behind. "In the month of January, 1646, the harbor being frozen over, a passage is cut through the ice, with saws, for three miles ; and 'the great ship' on which so much de- pends is out upon the waters and ready to begin her voyage. Mr. Davenport and a great company of the people go out upon the ice, to give the last farewell to their friends. The pastor in solemn prayer com- mends them to the protection of God, and they depart. The winter passes away ; the ice-bound harbor breaks into ripples before the soft breezes of the spring.
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Vessels from England arrive on the coast; but they bring no tidings of the New Haven ship. Vain is the solicitude of wives and children, of kindred and friends. Vain are all inquiries.
'They ask the waves, and ask the felon winds, And question every gust of rugged wings That blows from off each beaked promontory.'
" Month after month, hope waits for tidings. Affec- tion, unwilling to believe the worst, frames one con- jecture and another to account for the delay. Perhaps they have been blown out of their track upon some undiscovered shore, from which they will by and by return, to surprise us with their safety : perhaps they have been captured, and are now in confinement. How many prayers are offered for the return of that ship, with its priceless treasures of life and affection ! At last anxiety gradually settles down into despair. Gradually they learn to speak of the wise and public- spirited Gregson, the brave and soldier-like Turner, the adventurous Lamberton, that 'right godly woman' the wife of Mr. Goodyear, and the others, as friends whose faces are never more to be seen among the living. In November, 1647, their estates are settled, and they are put upon record as deceased." I
Besides its commerce with the places which have been indicated, New Haven made occasional ventures out of the usual channels, as opportunity offered. Boston had considerable trade with the Canary Islands,
" Of this ship, and of the strange atmospheric phenomenon which the people of New Haven regarded as a miraculous tableau of her fate, some further account may be found in Appendix III.
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and Winthrop has put on record an attempt which New Haven made to share in it. We copy from his journal under the date of July 2, 1643 :-
" Here arrived one Mr. Carman, master of the ship called (blank), of one hundred and eighty tons. He went from New Haven in December last, laden with clapboards for the Canaries, being earnestly commended to the Lord's protection by the church there. At the island of Palma he was set upon by a Turkish pirate of three hundred tons, twenty-six pieces of ordnance, and two hundred men. He fought with her three hours, having but twenty men and but seven pieces of ordnance that he could use, and his muskets were unserviceable with rust. The Turk lay across his hawse, so as he was forced to shoot through his own hoodings, and by these shot killed many Turks. Then the Turk lay by his side, and boarded him with near one hundred men, and cut all his ropes, &c. ; but his shot having killed the captain of the Turkish ship, and broken her tiller, the Turk took in his own ensign, and fell off from him, but in such haste as he left about fifty of his men aboard him. Then the master and some of his men came up, and fought with those fifty, hand to hand, and slew so many of them as the rest leaped overboard. The master had many wounds on his head and body, and divers of his men were wounded, yet but one slain. So with much difficulty he got to the island (being in view thereof), where he was very courteously entertained, and supplied with whatever he wanted."
Besides merchants engaged in coasting and foreign trade, there were shopkeepers in New Haven who kept for sale an assortment of such goods as were required by the people of the town and of the other plantations. One of these was a widow named Stolyon, living in the Herefordshire quarter, in a house which Richard Platt of Milford built and still continued to own. A disagree- ment between her and Capt. Turner concerning a bar- gain in which he was to buy cloth of her, and she to buy
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cows of him, served to put on record specifications in a charge of extortion, from which one may glean some knowledge of prices, and of the methods in which trade was carried on : -
" I. The captain complained that she sold some cloth to William Bradley, at 20 shillings per yard, that cost her about 12 shillings, for which she received wheat at 3 shillings 6 pence per bushel, and sold it presently to the baker at 5 shillings per bushel, who received it of William Bradley, only she forbearing her money six months. 2. That the cloth which Lieutenant Seeley bought of her for 20 shillings per yard last year, she hath sold this year for seven bushels of wheat a yard, to be delivered in her chamber, which she confest. 3. That she would not take wampum for commodities at six a penny, though it were the same she had paid to others at six, but she would have seven a penny. Thomas Robinson testified that his wife gave her 8 pence in wampum at seven a penny, though she had but newly received the same wampum of Mrs. Stolyon at six. 4. That she sold primers at 9 pence apiece which cost but 4 pence here in New England. 5. That she would not take beaver which was merchantable with others, at S shillings a pound, but she said she would have it at 7 shillings, and well dried in the sun or in an oven. Lieutenant Seeley, the marshal, and Isaac Mould testified it. John Dillingham by that means lost 5 shillings in a skin (that cost him 20 shillings of Mr. Evance, and sold to her), viz., 2 shillings 6 pence in the weight and 2 shillings 6 pence in the price. 6. She sold a piece of cloth to the two Mecars at 23 shillings 4 pence per yard in wampum : the cloth cost her about 12 shillings per yard, and sold when wampum was in great request. 7. That she sold a yard of the same cloth to a man of Connecticut at 22 shillings per yard, to be delivered in Indian corn at 2 shillings per bushel at home. 8. She sold Eng- lish mohair at 6 shillings per yard, which Mr. Goodyear and Mr. Atwater affirmed might be bought in England for 3 shillings 2 pence per yard at the utmost. 9. She sold thread after the rate of 12 shillings per pound, which cost not above 2 shillings 2 pence in Old England. 10. That she sold needles at one a penny which might be bought in Old England at 12 pence or 18 pence per hun- dred, as Mr. Francis Newman affirmeth."
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These specifications will give the reader some idea not only of prices, but of that scarcity of money which the records everywhere make apparent. Dr. Bacon has taken notice of the fact that when Gov. Eaton died, "the richest man in New Haven, with something like seven hundred dollars' worth of plate in his house, had only about ten dollars in money." The inventories of the time seldom mentioned gold or silver coin. Rates were collected in wheat, rye, pease, or maize, at a price fixed by the court. These grains and beaver- skins, being always marketable, were much used in trade. Wampum, or Indian money, consisted, says Trumbull, of "small beads, most curiously wrought out of shells, and perforated in the centre, so that 'they might be strung on belts, in chains and brace- lets. These were of several sorts. The Indians in Connecticut, and in New England in general, made black, blue, and white wampum. Six of the white beads passed for a penny, and three of the black or blue for the same." In December, 1645, "it was ordered that wampum shall go for current pay in this plantation in any payment under twenty shillings, if half be black and half be white; and, in case any question shall arise about the badness of any wam- pum, Mr. Goodyear shall judge if they repair to him." The scarcity of money naturally occasioned much use of credit; the probate-records showing lists of small debts, some of them less than a shilling, due to and by the estate inventoried. The town- records also bear witness to the same fact, allow- ing us to see that when A owed B, and B owed C, arrangements were made for A to deliver to C some
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commodity which he required, and thus to cancel both debts.
Although the leading planters of Quinnipiac relied on commerce as the chief means of prosperity to themselves and to their town, they all engaged from the first to some extent in husbandry. As the years advanced, and they found themselves disappointed in their town as a seat of commerce, and unable to remove to a place more opportune to their pursuits, they set a relatively greater, if not an absolutely greater, value on husbandry. For the first year or two, tillage was confined to the home-lots; then it was extended to the fields in the first division of upland. Afterward farmsteads were established in the second division ; some occupied by the owners them- selves, and some by tenants, or by bailiffs as agents for the proprietors. At East Farms, a neighborhood on the west side of the Quinnipiac, were the allot- ments of David Atwater, Nathanael Turner, William Potter, Richard Mansfield, Francis Brewster, and Gov. Eaton. The governor had another farm at Stoney River, in East Haven, consisting of fifty acres of meadow, "with upland answering that proportion." Mr. Brewster must also have had land of the second division elsewhere than at East Farms, as that farm contained only one hundred and fifty-four acres of upland, and thirty-three of meadow. This land of Mr. Brewster soon passed into the possession of William Bradley ; and Gov. Eaton's farm, "by the brick-kilns," was, by his children, transferred to their half-brother, Thomas Yale. The four families of Atwater, Turner,
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Potter, and Mansfield have never entirely disappeared from that neighborhood. Mr. Davenport's farm was on the opposite side of the Quinnipiac. A portion of it remained in his family for six generations.I Mr. Gregson had a farm in East Haven, near Morris Cove, or, as it was then called, Solitary Cove. Dodd says, in his East Haven Register, that Gregson placed his family there before embarking for England in "the great ship;" but there is no sufficient evidence that the family vacated their stately house in the town, or that Gregson ever intended to give to the culti- vation of the farm his personal attention. Mr. Good- year's farm was north of the town, and in the neigh- borhood of Pine Rock.
The planters brought with them, or procured from Massachusetts, plants and seeds which soon yielded the vegetables and fruits they had been accustomed to enjoy in England. On the first day of July, 1640, a naughty boy was, by order of the court, "whipped for running from his master, and stealing fruit out of Goodman Ward's lot or garden." Goodman Ward must have given early attention to the planting of his currant-bushes, to have fruit in the third summer of the plantation's history. The English grains, especially wheat, rye, and pease, were sown, and seem to have rewarded the labor of the husbandman more bountifully than in our time, producing a supply for the home
" A diagram of Mr. Davenport's farm, as surveyed by Mark Pearce in 1646, may be seen in the Town Records, Vol. III. p. 296. "The general total of the lands belonging to this farm is seven hundred eighty-three acres and two rods." The diagram and survey were recorded by Rev. John Davenport of Stamford, grandson of Rev. John Davenport of New Haven.
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market, and some surplus for export. From the aborigines the English learned to plant Indian corn, and to stimulate its growth with fish. Cattle - such as swine, goats, oxen, and horses - were suffered to pasture on unenclosed lands, and increased in number from year to year. Cows - when the public cow- pasture did not furnish sufficient grass - were driven abroad under the care of herdsmen, whose active aid they sometimes needed in leaving the soft, treacher- ous swamps where the feed was most luxuriant.
In the other plantations of the jurisdiction, husbandry occupied the time and attention of a much larger part of the people than at New Haven. At Milford, a few planters were engaged in commerce; and some who were artisans worked at their trades, but the population was not sufficiently numerous to support many kinds of handicraft. Guilford was even more closely limited to tillage as an occupation. In consequence of the de- cision of Thomas Nash to settle at New Haven, serious inconvenience was experienced for want of a smith, till, in 1652, Thomas Smith came from Fairfield, on the in- vitation of the planters, who gave him a considerable tract of land, "on condition of serving the town in the trade of a smith, upon just and moderate terms, for the space of five years."
The annals of husbandry are not eventful, and the records afford but little information upon that subject which would interest the general reader. There were pounds and pound-keepers, defective fences, unruly cattle, fines, and awards for damages. We read in the town-records of New Haven : " It is ordered, that, for what blackbirds John Brocket or others kill, he or
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