USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 3
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
25
PURITAN EMIGRATION IN GENERAL.
pany, which planted the colony of New Haven, had left behind them the shores of England.
The High Commission, which had cognizance of ecclesiastical offences, punished the Puritans for disobe- dience to bishops, as the Star-Chamber did for offences against the royal prerogative. This tribunal did not, indeed, mutilate its victims, and so far forth was less inhuman than the Star-Chamber. The fines which it exacted from non-conformists for their irregularities were not so large as the fines imposed by the other court, or by this same court in cases of immorality com- mitted by rich men ; but the reason doubtless was, that the non-conformists were men of moderate means. Those who suffered for non-conformity were, in many cases, clergymen without income save what they de- rived from their benefices. To such a man, the sentence of the ecclesiastical court, ejecting him from his living, was as severe as a ruinous fine would be upon a mer- chant. But, in truth, fines and imprisonment were often added to the sentence of deprivation which took from the clergyman and his family their daily bread. For example, Peter Smart, a prebendary of Durham, having inveighed in a sermon against innovations recently made in his cathedral, such as the change of the com- munion-table into an altar, and the restoration of some images and pictures which had been removed in the reign of Elizabeth, was fined five hundred pounds, com- mitted to prison, and ordered to recant. For neglect- ing to recant, he was fined again; deprived of his pre- bend, degraded from orders, and excommunicated.I He was at last released by the Long Parliament, after eleven years confinement.
I Fuller's Church History.
26
HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
The elevation of Laud to the primacy, in 1633, in- creased the troubles of the Puritans. Abbot had shielded them in his own diocese, and had encouraged, at least indirectly, other bishops to do likewise. But now there was no such shield in any diocese from the fury with which Laud assailed, not only all who deviated in any particular from the ceremonies prescribed by law, but even those who, being careful to conform in all things legally required, opposed the changes in the fur- niture and services of the church, ordained by the Privy Council at the instigation of Laud. Puritan clergymen in larger numbers than before were imprisoned. Some, having reason to expect a similar fate, concealed them- selves and, when opportunity offered, secretly embarked for New England. It was under pressure of this kind that most of the ministers who came over between 1628 and 1640 decided to leave their native land.
Though the clergy were more exposed than the laity to the storm of persecution, the latter were not exempt. If the spies of the High Commission discovered a con- venticle, - as a worshipping assembly in which the cere- monies did not conform to those of the Church of England was called, - not only the officiating minister, but all who were present, were seized, and imprisoned till on their oaths they had purged themselves of all non-conformity, or till the court was pleased to release them.
Such was the condition of England which induced the Puritan emigrants to exile themselves from their native country, and encounter the perils of the sea and of the wilderness. Colonization produced by such
3
À
27
PURITAN EMIGRATION IN GENERAL.
causes peopled New England with a superior popula- tion. The colonists were, as a class, intelligent, moral, religious, heroic. "God sifted a whole nation, that he might send choice grain over into this wilderness." I
I William Stoughton, Election Sermon, 1668.
CHAPTER II.
EVENTS WHICH INFLUENCED SOME OF THE FIRST PLANT- ERS OF NEW HAVEN TO REMOVE FROM THEIR NATIVE LAND TO NEW ENGLAND.
O N the sixth day of October, 1624, a general vestry was holden in St. Stephen's Church, Coleman Street, London, for the election of a new incumbent ; this being one of the few parishes in England where the right of presentation is vested in the parishioners. Of seventy-three votes, John Davenport, a curate in a contiguous parish, received all but three or four. He had held this curacy about six years, and was now re- garded as one of the ablest preachers in the city. "He was reported," says the Bishop of London, in reply to a letter in which Sir Richard Conway interceded for Davenport's induction, "to be factious and popular,I and to draw after him great congregations and assem- blies of common and mean people." Endowed with imagination, earnest in his piety, Calvinistic in his theology, possessing the full strength of manhood with no abatement of the fervor of youth, he was a great favorite with the merchants, tradesfolk, and artisans, whose dwellings were in Coleman Street and other
1 The bishop meant that Davenport did not stand for the king's pre- rogative.
28
EMIGRATION OF PLANTERS OF NEW HAVEN. 29
streets since surrendered entirely to business. His ad- mirers were almost universally of that class of English- men whose representatives in Parliament so much displeased King James by presenting a list of griev- ances whenever he asked for money. Therefore to be popular, whether it means to be on the side of the people or to be regarded by the people with favor, was to be suspected at court.
It was soon found that something stood in the way of Davenport's induction. The young preacher had been traduced to the king as a Puritan, or as puritanically affected ; and the king had spoken of him to the bishop of London in such terms that the bishop was unwilling to induct him into the benefice to which he had been elected. The charge of puritanism, if it meant that Davenport did not conform to all the prescribed cere- monies of the Church, had no foundation at this early date. The accusation had probably proceeded from one of the king's pages, who, having been reproved by Davenport for profane swearing, either innocently ad- judged him for that reason to be a Puritan, or revenge- fully applied an opprobrious epithet to prejudice his reprover in the king's esteem.
Davenport's friends, however, were not all " common and mean people." At his solicitation, seconded by that of Lady Mary Vere, his cause was undertaken by her brother-in-law Sir Richard Conway, principal secre- tary to his majesty, who conciliated the king, and per- suaded the bishop to proceed to the induction, which took place before the date of the following certificate, indorsed in the handwriting of Davenport on a copy of "The Thirty-Nine Articles," now in the library of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester : -
30
HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
" Novemb. 7th 1624.
"John Davenporte, Clerk, Vicar of St Stephen's in Coleman Street, London, did, this day above written, being Sunday, pub- liquely read this booke of Articles herein Contayned, being in number 39 besides the ratificacion, and declared his full and un- feigned assent and consent thereunto in the tyme of morning Prayer, next after the Second Lesson, before the whole Congre- gacion. As also the sayd John did, the same day, administer the Holy Communion in the sayd parish, in his surplis, according to ye order prescribed by ye Church of England; in the presence of these whose names are here underwritten."
The certificate is signed by one of the church-wardens and seven other parishioners, and was doubtless given on the first Sunday after his induction.
The first two or three years of Davenport's incum- bency were prosperous and comparatively peaceful. So far as can be ascertained, he conformed as faultlessly as in his curacy at St. Lawrence's, where, as he declares in a letter to Secretary Conway, he "baptized many, but never without the sign of the cross ; monthly adminis- tered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, but at no time without the surplice, nor to any but those that kneeled."
In 1627 he brought himself into trouble by uniting with other ministers in a circular letter soliciting con- tributions for the oppressed Protestants of the Upper Palatinate. Laud, who was now the principal adviser of the king, was displeased with the signers of the letter for such sympathy with Presbyterians, and caused them to be reprimanded in the Star-Chamber.
The translation of Laud in 1628, to the see of Lon- don, brought greater peril of collision between him and the Calvinistic vicar of St. Stephen's. What was Daven-
EMIGRATION OF PLANTERS OF NEW HAVEN. 31
port's first offence, is not known ; but how soon he was . summoned before the High Commission, appears 'from the following extract from one of his letters to Lady Vere : -
"LONDON, June 30, 1628.
"MADAM, - Since my recovery out of a dangerous sickness, which held me for a week or a fortnight before Shrovetide to as long after Easter, for which I return most humble thanks to the God of my life, the Father of mercies, I have had divers purposes of writing to your honor, only I delayed in hope to write some- what concerning the event and success of our High Commission troubles ; but I have hoped in vain : for to this day we are in the same condition as before, - delayed till the finishing of this session in Parliament, which now is unhappily concluded without any satis- fying contentment to the king or commonwealth. Threatenings were speedily revived against us by the new Bishop of London, Dr. Laud, even the next day after the conclusion of their session. We expect a fierce storm from the enraged spirit of the two bishops. Ours, as I am informed, hath a particular aim at me upon a former quarrel : so that I expect ere long to be deprived of my pastoral charge in Coleman Street. But I am in God's hands, not in theirs ; to whose good pleasure I do contentedly and cheerfully commit myself.1"
In January, 1631, he was required to answer certain charges brought against him by Timothy Hood, some time his curate. Hood had been dismissed for not complying with the requirement that he should reside within the parish, and, according to Davenport's rela- tion of the case, had become incensed against him for that reason. One of the charges was, that the vicar had sometimes administered the sacrament to commu- nicants who did not kneel, and the accusation was brought to a fine edge by the specification of Mrs. Dav. enport as one of the said communicants.
' Birch MSS., 4275.
---
32
HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
The vicar replied to this objection against him, that the parish contained about fourteen hundred communi- cants, and that, the chancel being small, it was a matter of necessity to administer to the communicants from pew to pew, and that the pews were sometimes so filled that it was impossible to kneel; that when he had ob- served some to sit, that might conveniently kneel, he had advised them to kneel; that, in case of refusal to kneel, he had refused to administer the sacrament to the party so refusing. The specification concerning his wife, he meets by testifying that she had received the sacrament at his hand, kneeling, many times, and that the curate had "not acquainted him, the said John Davenport, that he observed any such thing concerning his wife " as was charged.
It is evident from this disingenuous but doubtless literally true statement, that some of Davenport's parishioners, including his own wife, were at this time non-conformists, and that he had winked at their irregu- larity. It does not appear, however, that he himself had any scruple about kneeling, or had personally omitted any required ceremony.
The complaint seems to have resulted in nothing worse than a private admonition from his bishop. It was probably the conference between Laud and Daven- port in reference to this complaint to which the prelate referred, when, in his report of the diocese of London for that part of the year 1633 which elapsed before his elevation to the primacy, he said, "Since my return from Scotland, Mr. John Davenport, vicar of St. Stephen's in Coleman Street (whom I used with all moderation, and about two years since thought I had
€ 17
EMIGRATION OF PLANTERS OF NEW HAVEN. 33
settled his judgment, having him then at advantage enough to have put extremity upon him, but forbore it), hath now resigned his vicarage, declared his judg- ment against conformity with the Church of England, and is since gone (as I hear) to Amsterdam." To his moderation with Davenport in reference to the com- plaint of Hood, the prelate again referred in his defence, when on trial for his life, before the Long Parliament. One charge being, that he had forced Davenport to flee from his parish and from the country, he said in reply : "The truth is, my lords, and 'tis well known, and to some of his best friends, that I preserved him once before, and my Lord Vere came, and gave me thanks for it."
About one year after Davenport had escaped from this danger, Laud discovered the existence of a com- pany, whose design was to purchase such advowsons as, having been impropriated to laymen in the time of Henry the Eighth, were now for sale, in order that the trustees, or, as they were styled, fcoffces, of the com- pany might present for induction men whom they regarded as orthodox, that is, as Calvinists. The com- pany had been in operation for some years, and had already purchased several impropriations with money contributed for that purpose. The discovery of the project excited Laud vehemently. He hated Calvinists, whether conforming or non-conforming ; partly for their theology, and partly for their almost invariable adhe- sion to the popular side in the contest between the Commons and the king. It was part of his plan of administration to exclude them from preferment ; so that this company was, in his estimation, an organized
-
-----
-
34
HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
attempt to frustrate his plans. Davenport was one of the fcoffees of this company, and, as such, participated in the heavy displeasure of the man who in the king's name ruled both Church and State. He and his asso- ciates were apprehensive that they might be proceeded against in the Star-Chamber, and punished with ruinous fines ; but Laud, having caused the corporation to be dissolved and its property to be confiscated, abstained from further vengeance. When the prosecution was brought to an end, Davenport recorded in his Bible his thanks to God for deliverance from the thing he feared.
The policy of excluding Calvinists from church pre- ferment, even if faultless in their conformity, natu- rally forced conforming clergymen of that school of theology into closer sympathy with non-conformists, and into a wider estrangement from Laud and his associates. Doctrinal Puritans, as Calvinists were now called, finding themselves proscribed by their ecclesi- astical superiors, began to feel the force of the reasons which the ceremonial Puritans alleged for not conform- ing. Perhaps the suppression of the company of which he had been a trustee, and the confiscation of its prop- erty, turned the scales with which Davenport weighed these reasons. However this may be, it appears from his own testimony that he was "first staggered in his conformity, and afterward fully taken off, by set con- ferences and debates, which himself and sundry other ministers obtained with Mr. John Cotton, then driven from Boston [in Lincolnshire] on account of his non-conformity.
For several months he absented himself from the communion-service celebrated monthly in his church,
7
1771697
EMIGRATION OF PLANTERS OF NEW HAVEN. 35
but might perhaps in time have relapsed into conform- ity. The tidings which came on Sunday, Aug. 4, 1633, that the old Calvinistic Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbot, was dead, seem to have brought him to a decision. Abbot had been decidedly friendly to Cal- vinists who conformed, and not very severe against those who were guilty of some slight aberrations from the ritual. His brother, Sir Maurice Abbot, afterward lord mayor, was a parishioner of St. Stephen's, and had sometimes spread over Davenport the shield of the archbishop's protection. But the primate was now dead, and the succession of Laud cast its shadow be- fore. On Monday Davenport left the city; and on Tuesday Laud, returning from his missionary tour to Scotland, was saluted by the king as "my Lord of Canterbury." Davenport, after lying in concealment for about three months, escaped to Holland "disguised in a gray suit and an overgrown beard." I
We learn from one of his letters to the representative of the king of Great Britain, resident at the Hague, that when he went into that country he intended to remain only three or four months and then return to his native land. He cannot have expected that the storm which had driven him into exile would so soon subside entirely, or even sufficiently to permit him to resume his work as a Puritan preacher in England. Some thoughts may have been in his mind of undertaking in 1634 what he accomplished in 1637. He had been interested in the Massachusetts Bay Company as early certainly as 1629, having contributed money to procure the charter which the king signed in that year, and had continued from
' Letter of Stephen Goffe, dated 1633, Dec. 1g.
-------
36
HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
that time to meet with its directors and to act on its committees. A short absence might be considered ex- pedient to allow the vigilance of his enemies to abate before he should organize an expedition. Nevertheless any project of leading a colony from England to America, which he may have entertained when he . landed in Holland, was so vague that he listened to a proposal to settle permanently in Amsterdam.
If for a time he cherished the thought of finding a home in Holland, he had doubtless relinquished it as early as 1635, for in that year his family returned to England. He followed them, probably in the summer or autumn of 1636; for the organization of a company of emigrants was so far forwarded in January of the following year that they had chartered a vessel, "made ready all their provisions and passengers, fitting both for the said voyage and plantation, and most of them thereupon engaged their whole estates." I
While these preparations were in progress, Daven- port doubtless kept himself out of sight as much as he conveniently could, both on his own account, and for the sake of the expedition. Years afterward, Laud, alluding to him and his escape to New England, ex- claimed, "My arm shall reach him even there." If it had been known that those who had chartered "the good ship Hector," to carry them to New England, and had engaged their whole estates in preparing for the voyage, were to have the former vicar of St. Stephen's as their leader, their undertaking might have been ex- tinguished with as little regard to the rights of property
' Petition of the Owners and Freighters of the Good Ship called the Hector of London. State Papers : Colonial.
....
EMIGRATION OF PLANTERS OF NEW HAVEN. 37
as that of the fcoffees had been. It did, indeed, become known at last that Davenport had returned. The vicar- general of the Bishop of London, reporting his visita- tion of the diocese, writes from Braintree, March 6, "Mr. Davenport hath lately been in these parts, and at Hackney, not long since. I am told that he goeth in gray, like a country gentleman." We may infer from what this reporter relates, that Davenport had not shown himself much in public, and, from his silence in reference to the expedition to New England, that he had heard nothing of Davenport's connection with it.
About twelve months before Davenport fled from London, Samuel Eaton and John Lathrop,I two non- conforming clergymen, were imprisoned by the High Commission for holding conventicles. With the con- nivance of the jailer, Eaton continued to hold conventi- cles after his incarceration, as appears from a document preserved among the English State Papers, and here subjoined : -
" To the most Reverend Father in God, William, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, his grace, Primate and Metropolitan of all Eng- land : -
" Humbly sheweth : - The most humble petition of Francis Tucker, Bachelor of Divinity, and prisoner in Newgate for debt. That whereas there is one Samuel Eaton, prisoner in Newgate, committed by your grace for a schismatical and dangerous fellow; that the said Eaton hath held divers conventicles within the said gaol, some whereof hath been to the number of seventy persons or more, and that he was permitted by the said keeper openly and publicly to preach unto them; and that the said Eaton hath often-
' Lathrop had formerly been vicar of Egerton in Kent, but now was the teacher of a congregation of Separatists in London. Egerton had become a stronghold of Puritanism.
1
...
€
38
HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
times affirmed in his said sermons that baptism was the doctrine of devils, and its original was an institution from the devil; and often- times he would rail against your grace, affirming that all bishops were heretics, blasphemers, and antichristian. That the said keeper, having notice hereof by the petitioner, who desired him to be a means that these great resorts and conventicles might be prevented, and that he would reprove the said Eaton for the same, and remove him to some other place of the prison. That hereupon the said keeper, in a disdainful manner, replied that the petitioner should meddle with what he had to do; and if he did dislike the said Eaton and his conventicles, he would remove the petitioner into some worse place of the prison. That at this time there was a conventicle of sixty persons or more ; that the said keeper coming into the room where the conventicle was, and the said Eaton preaching unto them and maintaining dangerous opinions, having viewed the said assembly, he said there was a very fair and goodly company; and staying there some season, departed without any distaste thereat, to the great encouragement of the said Eaton and the said persons to frequent the said place. That the said keeper had a strict charge from the said commission to have a special care of the said Eaton; and that since, the said keeper hath several times permitted him to go abroad to preach to conventicles ap- pointed by him, the said Eaton. That daily there doth resort to the said Eaton much people to hear him preach. That the said petitioner reproving the said keeper for the said contempt, he thereupon abused him with uncivil language, and further, caused the said Eaton to abuse the petitioner, not only with most abusive words, but also with blows."
Eaton and Lathrop were probably released on bail, for the court after calling them several times finally decreed, Feb. 19, 1635, that for their contempt in not appearing to answer charges touching their holding conventicles, their bonds should be certified, and they attached and committed. Lathrop, fortunately for him, was already in New England, having arrived at Boston with thirty-two of his congregation Sept. 18, 1634.
.
39
EMIGRATION OF PLANTERS, OF NEW HAVEN.
Eaton, having lain in concealment till the return of Davenport from Holland, became his associate in the voyage to America. Perhaps he was drawn into such association by personal friendship, as well as by the peril to which they were exposed in common ; for both were natives of Coventry, where Eaton's father, a bene- ficed clergyman, had been the religious teacher and . guide of Davenport's childhood and youth.
Theophilus Eaton, an older brother of Samuel Eaton, was so nearly of the age of Davenport that they had been schoolmates and intimate friends in Coventry. Intended by his parents for the church, he had become a merchant in London. Respected for his character and for his success in business, he was elected at an early age Deputy Governor of the Fellowship of Eastland Merchants, and sent by them, as their agent, to super- intend their affairs and promote their interests in the countries bordering on the Baltic. Returning after an absence of three years, he became a parishioner of his friend, the vicar of St. Stephen's. Already so much a Puritan that he had scrupled when abroad at the lawful- ness of drinking toasts, he was probably, when Daven- port resigned his vicarage, as far advanced as he in non- conformity. The idea of expatriation had, perhaps, become less repulsive to his mind by reason of his long connection with the company of Massachusetts Bay, of which he was one of the original patentees, and to which he, like Davenport, had liberally. given time and money. The acquaintance he had made with the court of High Commission through the recent experience of his brother Samuel, and perhaps through personal experience as his brother's bondsman, would naturally incline him to put
40
HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
himself and his children beyond its jurisdiction. He not only joined the expedition, but acted so important a part in its history, that he and Davenport have been styled its Moses and Aaron.
Theophilus Eaton was living at this time with his second wife, whose daughter by a former husband was married to Edward Hopkins, a Puritan merchant of London. Hopkins much estcemed his wife's step- father, and resolved to accompany him to America. Two young men, David Yale and Thomas Yale, sons of Mrs. Eaton, were also of the company.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.