USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 27
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 27
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London and in the East countries. He would have been such if the Puritan party had been in power, and he consequently in security. He was probably more so by reason of the annoyances and dangers to which he and his friends were exposed. Having undertaken to establish a new plantation in the wilderness, his greater responsibility would naturally produce a deeper serious- ness. A member of his family testifies that "he seldom used any recreations, but, being a great reader, all the time he could spare from company and business, he commonly spent in his beloved study." It would be an error, however, to suppose that this seriousness had with it no admixture of gayety ; for Hubbard, who was partly his contemporary, describes him as "of such pleasantness and fecundity of harmless wit as can hardly be paralleled."
Residence in a new country also influenced social life, but not as much as in many other cases of removal to a wilderness. It has been said in modern time that emigration tends to barbarism ; but this could not have been true in their case, in any considerable degree. From the first sabbath, they maintained the public worship of God. Before the first year had passed, their children were gathered into a school. Laws were as diligently executed as anywhere in the world. Every plantation had in it from the first some per- sons of polite manners, to whom those of less culture looked up with respect. The principal plantation was a compact and populous town, and some of its inhabit- ants were not only refined, but wealthy. The pecu- liarity of their social state was not that they were more barbarous than other Englishmen, but it consisted
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rather in that mutual dependence and helpfulness usu- ally to be found in a new country. News from home was communicated to the neighbors. Letters of intel- ligence, an institution which during the existence of the colony began to give place to printed newspapers, were passed from hand to hand.1 Corn was husked and houses were "raised" by neighborly kindness. The whole plantation sympathized with a family afflicted with sickness, and the neighbors assisted them in nurs- ing and watching. Families entertained travellers after the manner of Christians of the first centuries, and highly prized their visits as seasons of fellowship, and opportunities for learning the news of the day. The train-band and the night watch were also peculiar features of the social system incident to a plantation in the wilderness. Comparing the social state in the New Haven colony with that which now obtains on the same territory, we find more manifestation of social in- equality. This appears in the titles prefixed to names. The name of a young man had no prefix till he became a master workman. Then, if he were an artisan or a husbandman, he might be addressed by the honorary title of Goodman, and his wife might be called Good- wife or Goody. A person who employed laborers but did not labor with them was distinguished from one whose prefix was Goodman, by the prefix Mr. This term of respect was accorded to elders, magistrates, teachers, merchants, and men of wealth, whether en- gaged in merchandise, or living in retirement from
' Notice on page 419 what Mr. Davenport says of "the two Weekly Intelligences." These were, I think, two numbers of a printed periodi- cal.
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trade.I Social inequality was also strikingly manifest in the " seating of the meeting-house," the governor and deputy-governor being seated on the front form, and allowed its whole length for the accommodation of themselves and their guests, while others were disposed behind them and in the end seats, according to social position ; but a back seat of the same length as those in front was considered sufficiently long for seven men. The women on the other side of the house were ar- ranged with the same consideration of rank. No seats were assigned to persons inferior to a goodman and a goodwife.
Although many of the people were much confined at home during the week by domestic industry, all as- sembled every Sunday for worship. In but few cases was the attendance perfunctory. They went to the house of God from a sense of duty, but they went with a willing mind. They were interested, not only in the worship and instruction of the church, but in the as- sembly. Their social longings were gratified with the announcement of intended marriages, with "bills " ask- ing the prayers of the church for the sick, for the recently bereaved, for those about to make a voyage to Boston ; or with " bills " returning thanks for recovery from a dangerous illness or for a safe return from a journey or a voyage. Besides such personal items as reached their ears by way of the pulpit, others came to them in a more private way as they spoke with ac-
' In Massachusetts it was "ordered that Josias Plastowe shall, for stealing four baskets of corn from the Indians, return them eight baskets again, be fined five pounds, and hereafter to be called by the name of Josias and not Mr. as formerly he used to be."
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quaintances dwelling in a different quarter or at the farms. It was a satisfaction to persons, who, during the week, had seen only the inmates of their own houses and a few neighbors, even to look on such an assembly.
Let the reader fancy himself entering the market- place in New Haven town, while Stephen Metcalf and Robert Bassett, "the common drummers for the town," are sounding the second drum on a Sunday morning. . The chimney-smoke rises not only from the habitations of the town, but from as many sabbath-day houses as there are families dwelling at the farms.1 From every direction families are approaching the square. The limping Wigglesworth, whose lameness was afterward so severe "that he is not able to come to the meeting, and so is many times deprived of the ordinances," starting early from his house, (which was in Chapel Street, near the intersection since made by High Street,) is the first to enter the south door of the sanc- tuary. Seeley, straight and stalwart in contrast with this poor cripple, stands near, conversing with the mas-
' A sabbath-day house was a hut, in one end of which horses might be sheltered, and in the other end was a room having a fireplace and furnished, perhaps, with a bench, a few chairs, and a table. Here the owners arrived soon after the first drum, and, if cold, kindled a fire. Here they deposited their lunch, and any wraps which might be superfluous in the meeting-house. Hither they came to spend the intermission of wor- ship. The writer remembers such houses in a country parish near New Haven, where he visited when a child. In one of them he spent an inter- mission, dividing his attention, when in the room devoted to the human inmates, between doughnuts and the open fireplace with its rusty fire-dogs and large bed of live coals; but preferring the company of the pony behind the chimney to that of the solemn people before the fire. He was born a little too late to remember sabbath-day houses in New Haven, but his father has told him where this and that family had such accom modations.
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ter of the watch, as the watchmen move away to patrol the town. Following Wigglesworth comes "the right worshipful Stephen Goodyear, Esquire," deputy-gover- nor, and his neighbor, the reverend teacher of the church, William Hooke,' afterward chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, wearing gown and bands. On the east side of the market-place, the pastor, also in gown and bands, comes in solitary meditation through the passage which the town had given him between Mr. Crane's lot and Mr. Rowe's lot, "that he may go out of his own garden to the meeting-house." His family, that they may not intrude upon him in this holy hour, come through the public street. Gov. Eaton, with his aged mother lean- ing on his arm, walks up on the opposite side of the same street, and crosses over from Mr. Perry's corner, followed by his honored guests and the rest of his nu- merous household. When all but a few tardy families have reached the meeting-house, the drums cease to beat. The squadron on duty for the day march in, and seat themselves on the soldiers' seats near the east door, which is "kept clear from women and children sitting there, that if there be occasion for the soldiers to go suddenly forth, they may have free passage."
Days of extraordinary humiliation were appointed by the General Court from time to time in view of public calamities or apprehended danger. On such days there were two assemblies; and abstinence from labor and amusements was required as on the Lord's Day, though with less rigidness of interpretation, the prohibition crystallizing in later times into the formula, " All servile
' Mr. Hooke had the lot which had been Zachariah Whitman's, at the corner of Chapel and College Streets.
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labor and vain recreations on said day are by law forbid- den." On Thanksgiving Day, as we learn from Daven- port's letter to Winthrop, in which he mentions Gov. Newman's sickness and death, there were also two ser- vices in the meeting-house. Adding these occasional assemblies to those of the Lord's Day, we find that the whole population were often called together. But there were, besides, convocations on lecture-days, occasional church-meetings, and in the several neighborhoods "pri- vate meetings wherein they that dwelt nearest together gave their accounts one to another of God's gracious work upon them, and prayed together, and conferred, to their mutual edification." These private meetings were held weekly, and in the day-time, as appears from a ques- tion which Mr. Peck, the school-master, propounded to the court, "whether the master shall have liberty to be at neighbors' meetings once every week." Assemblies for worship were certainly a very important feature in social life.
Almost equally prominent were military trainings. Soldiers were on duty every night. One-fourth of the men subject to bear arms were paraded before the meet- ing-house every Sunday, and were at frequent intervals trained on a week-day. Six times in a year the whole military force of the plantation was called out. A gen- eral training brought together, not only those obliged to train, but old men, women, and children, as spectators of the military exercises, and of the athletic games with which they were accompanied. Almost as many people were in the market-place on training-day as on Sunday, and those who came had greater opportunity for social converse than on the day of worship. The
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enjoyment which each experienced in watching the manœuvres of the soldiers, and the games of cudgel, backsword, fencing, running, leaping, wrestling, stool- ball, nine-pins, and quoits, was enhanced by sharing the spectacle with the multitude, meeting old friends, and making acquaintance with persons of congenial spirit.
Election-days were also occasions when the people left their homes, and came together. The meeting of a plantation court did not indeed bring out the wives and daughters of the planters as a general training did ; but when the annual election for the jurisdiction took place, the pillion was fastened behind the saddle, and the goodwife rode with her goodman to the seat of government to truck some of the yarn she had been spinning, for ribbons and other foreign goods, as well as to gather up the gossip of the year. On such occa- sions a store of cake was provided beforehand, and "election cake " is consequently one of the institutions received from our forefathers.
For several years there were two fairs held annually at the town of New Haven, one in May, and one in September, for the sale of cattle and other merchandise. These of course attracted people from all parts of the jurisdiction.
In addition to these public assemblies of one kind and another, there was daily intercourse between neigh- bors. Women sometimes carried their wheels from one house to another, that they might spin in company. There were gatherings at weddings and at funerals. There was neighborly assistance in nursing and watch- ing the sick. There was, as has been already related, social visiting in the evening after the Lord's Day.
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There were house-raisings, when the neighbors assem- bled to lift and put together the timbers of a new dwell- ing ; and house-warmings, when, being again invited, some months later, they came to rejoice with those who had taken possession of a new dwelling. There were huskings in the autumn when the maize had been gathered and brought in ; but in the plantation of New Haven single persons were not allowed to "meet together upon pretence of husking Indian corn, out of the family to which they belong, after nine of the clock at night, unless the master or parent of such person or · persons be with them to prevent disorders at such times, or some fit person intrusted to that end by the said parent or master."
In view of the frequency with which the planters were convened in greater or less companies, it is evi- dent, that, however affected by their Puritanism and by emigration to a wilderness, they were a social people. They did not retire within themselves to live recluse from human converse, but endeavored to purify their social life. In this respect New Haven resembled the other New England colonies, but, contrary to a somewhat prevalent opinion, did not go as far as the other colonies in attempts to control social life by legislation.I "Mixt dancing " was discountenanced, and, by construction, . forbidden, but there was no legal prohibition of dancing. The General Court, referring in 1660 to some former
" Professor Kingsley, in a note to his historical discourse, delivered on the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of New Haven, traces the impression that there had been "blue laws" at New Haven as far back as the year 1767, when Judge Smith of New York, having heard of such a code, embraced the opportunity afforded by a visit to New Haven to examine the early records of the colony. "A lie will travel round the world while Truth is putting on her boots."
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laws of a very general nature, designed to restrain idle or evil living or miscarryings, declared in explanation :-
" Now that it may more clearly be understood what we judge to be such miscarriages or misdemeanors amongst such persons, as do thus tend to discourage God's work under our hands, and may prove hurtful and hindersome to the profiting of our posterity ris- ing, we do express that not only such night meetings unseason- ably, but corrupt songs and foolish jesting or such like discourses, wanton and lascivious carriages, mixt dancings, immoderate play- Ing at any sort of sports and games, or mere idle living out of an honest calling industriously, or extravagant expenses by drinking, apparel, and so forth, have all and every of them such a tendency."
Gaming by shuffle-board was prohibited, as was shuffle-board at taverns, and by minors, but there was no enactment against shuffle-board as such. Card-play- ing was not forbidden, but the explanatory declaration of the General Court cited above, was on one occasion publicly read as a warning to Samuel Andrews, Good- wife Spinage, and James Eaton, when, being summoned before the Court, they were charged with allowing young persons to play cards in their houses. Goodwife Spinage said "that the scholars had played at cards there [at her house] on the last days of the week and on play-days in the afternoon, but in the evening, never." Andrews " confessed he had done wrong, and professed his hearty sorrow." Eaton "acknowledged that he might have spent his time better, and if it were to do again, he would not do it, being it is judged unlawful and gives offence ; but for the thing itself, unless all recreation be unlawful, he cannot see that what he hath done is evil." The Court suspended judgment, " hoping that this will be a warning to them to take heed of such
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evil practices, and to improve their houses to better purposes for time to come than herein they have done." But as if Eaton had given less satisfaction than the others, he was called again some three months after- ward, when he declared unto the Court that he under- stood that there were "reports abroad of his miscarriage in suffering some young persons to be at his house at an unseasonable time, which report he acknowledged to be true, and professed his hearty sorrow for it, and his desire to see the evil of it more and more, and that God would help him for time to come to keep a con- science void of offence toward God and toward men." I
There were in New Haven no sumptuary laws, and, so far as appears, there was, with the exception of the explanatory declaration in 1660, no attempt to restrain extravagance in apparel, either by legal enactment or by the concentration of public opinion. In Massa- chusetts, Winthrop writes, about six months after the settlement at New Haven was begun, that "the Court, taking into consideration the great disorder general throughout the country in costliness of apparel and
' Some of the descendants of this James Eaton, or as his name is more commonly written, James Heaton, claim that he was a son of The- ophilus Eaton, jun., the younger son of Gov. Eaton, alleging that he gave the name Theophilus to one of his sons, that the name has been repeated in every generation since, and that their family still possess land in North Haven, east of the Quinnipiac, which belonged to the governor. I can- not find that the governor had any land east of the Quinnipiac, except at Stony River. Any presumptive evidence afforded by the name Theophi- lus disappears when we learn from the parish register of St. Stephen's that Theophilus, son of Theophilus and Anne Eaton, was baptized March II, 1631, and from the New Haven records that James Eaton took the oath of fidelity April 4, 1654. Theophilus Eaton, jun., could not have been eight years old when James Eaton was born.
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following new fashions, sent for the elders of the churches, and conferred with them about it, and laid it upon them, as belonging to them, to redress it by urging it upon the consciences of their people, which they promised to do. But little was done about it ; for divers of the elders' wives were in some measure part- ners in this general disorder." Some years previously there had been an order of the Court prompted by sim- ilar feelings, and having a similar design. Afterward there were in different years several orders designed to restrain extravagance in apparel, especially "amongst people of mean condition," one of them expressly pro- viding that " this law shall not extend to the restraint of any magistrate or other public officer of this jurisdiction, or any settled military officer, or soldier in time of mili- tary service, or any other whose education and employ- ments have been above the ordinary degree, or whose estates have been considerable, though now decayed."
But nothing similar to this is found on the records of New Haven. Some writer, noticing that both Plym- outh and New Haven differed from Massachusetts in that they did not attempt to regulate dress, says that Plymouth was too poor, and New Haven too rich, for such legislation. Perhaps, however, New Haven was restrained from enacting sumptuary laws more by its mercantile character than by its wealth. Its leading men had been accustomed not only to wear rich cloth- ing themselves, and to see it worn by others, but to increase their estates by selling cloth to all comers who were able to pay for it. Their feelings were conse- quently different from those of a man like Winthrop, who had never been a merchant, and had, like other
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English country gentlemen, regarded rich apparel as a prerogative of the gentry.
As Gov. Eaton's wearing apparel was appraised after his death at £50, it would seem that he could not have favored sumptuary legislation consistently with his own habits, unless he did it in the aristocratic spirit of the Massachusetts law. Considering how much greater purchasing power there was then in fifty pounds sterling than there is now, we must conclude that in his dress, as well as in the furniture of his house, he "maintained a port in some measure answerable to his place."
CHAPTER XVII.
HISTORY OF THE COLONIAL GOVERNMENT TO THE RESTORATION OF THE STUARTS.
W TE have seen that the colony of New Haven, when it entered into combination with Connecticut, Plymouth, and Massachusetts, consisted of the planta- tions at New Haven, Southold, and Stamford, and that Guilford and Milford were shortly afterward received as component parts of the jurisdiction. In the spring of 1644 Totoket, or Branford, "a place fit for a small plantation, betwixt New Haven and Guilford," was sold to Mr. Swain and others of Wethersfield, upon condition that they should join in one jurisdiction with New Haven and the other plantations, upon "the funda- mental agreement settled in October, 1643, which they, duly considering, readily accepted." Southampton, on Long Island, having placed itself under the jurisdic- tion of Connecticut, a minority of the people, with their minister, Mr. Abraham Pierson, preferring the theo- cratic constitution of New Haven, removed to Branford and united themselves with the company from Weth- ersfield. From this time to its dissolution the jufis- diction consisted of the six plantations of New Haven, Southold, Stamford,' Guilford, Milford, and Branford.
' Greenwich was regarded as a part of Stamford.
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In two important particulars New Haven differed from the other colonies. It was part of its "funda- mental law," as we have already seen, that only church- members should be free-burgesses or voters. By "fun- damental " was meant unchangeable. In our day it is generally allowed that a people have the right to change the constitution of their government ; and most written constitutions recognize their own mutability by indicating the method in which a change may be wrought. But the fundamental law established by the planters of Quinnipiac on "the fourth day of the fourth month, called June, 1639," and afterward assented to by the other plantations constituting the jurisdiction of New Haven, was designed to be unalterable. It was understood to be a compact, or agreement, from which those who had assented to it could not recede. In the words of the colonial constitution, "it was agreed and concluded as a fundamental order not to be dis- puted or questioned hereafter, that none shall be ad- mitted to be free burgesses in any of the plantations within this jurisdiction for the future, but such planters as are members of some or other of the approved churches in New England." I
The second particular in which New Haven differed from the other colonies was in the disuse of juries. In the plantation courts, and in the courts of the juris- diction, the judges determined all questions of fact, as well as of law, and of discretionary punishment. It has 'been thought by some that Gov. Eaton's residence
" In Massachusetts only church-members could be made freemen, till the law was changed by command of King Charles the Second. But the requirement of church-membership was not "a fundamental law."
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in the Baltic countries suggested this departure from English law. But if suggested by any thing he had seen in other lands, it was doubtless commended to him and to others who acted with him in establishing a new government, by its conformity to the institutions of Moses.
The records give no evidence that the disuse of juries occasioned any trouble; but Hubbard thus criticises this peculiarity of New Haven : "Those who were employed in laying the foundation of New Haven colony, though famed for much wisdom, experience, and judgment, yet did they not foresee all the inconveniency that might arise from such a frame of government, so differing from the other colonies in the constitution thereof, manifest in their declining that prudent and equal tem- perament of all interests in their administration of justice, with them managed by the sole authority of the rulers without the concurrence of a jury, the benefit of which had been so long confirmed by the experience of some ages in our own nation ; for where the whole determining, as well both matter of fact as matter of law, with the sentence and execution thereof, depends on the sole authority of the judges, what can be more done for the establishing of an arbitrary power ?"
Hubbard also testifies as follows concerning the lim- itation of the right of suffrage: "There had been an appearance of unquietness in the minds of sundry, upon the account of enfranchisement and sundry civil privi- leges thence flowing, which they thought too shortly tethered up in the foundation of the government." His testimony on this subject is confirmed by that of the records, as will hereafter appear.
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