USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 32
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 32
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Another intimation that Mr. Leete had become more penitent than others approved, is contained in a letter to Mr. Gilbert from Robert Newman, formerly ruling elder in the church at New Haven, but now resident in England. He writes, "I am sorry to see that you should be so much surprised with fears of what men can or may do unto you. The fear of an evil is oft- times more than the evil feared. I hear of no danger, nor do I think any will attend you for that matter. Had not W. L. written such a pitiful letter over, the business, I think, would have died. What it may do to him I know not : they have greater matters than that to exercise their thoughts." On the same day another friend in England wrote to Gilbert, "We are very apt to be more afraid than we ought to be, or need to be."
The letter drawn up by Gov. Leete, and sanctioned by the General Court on the Ist of August, was sent to Boston by special messengers, who were to "see
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what would be done in the case." Twenty days later another court was held, occasioned by information that Massachusetts had, on the 7th of August, formally pro- claimed the king. Anxious not to come short in demonstrations of loyalty, "it was voted and concluded , as an act of the General Court," that the king should be proclaimed.
"And for the time of doing it, it was concluded to be done the next morning at nine of the clock, and the military company was desired to come to the solemnizing of it. And the form of the proclamation is as followeth : -
"Although we have not received any form of proclamation by order from his Majesty or Council of State, for the proclaiming his Majesty in this colony, yet the Court taking encouragement from what hath been in the rest of the United Colonies, hath thought fit to declare publicly and proclaim that we do acknowledge his Royal Highness, Charles the Second, King of England, Scot- land, France, and Ireland, to be our Sovereign Lord and King, and that we do acknowledge ourselves the inhabitants of this colony to be his Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects." GOD SAVE THE KING.
These public demonstrations of loyalty were prompted in large measure by fear of evil consequences to the colony, on account of its neglect to apprehend the regi- cides. They were supplemented with every possible attempt to secure the aid of those whose position ena- bled them to make intercession with the king. Before the official communication of Secretary Rawson had been received at New Haven, a letter from Davenport to Deputy-Gov. Bellingham was on its way to Bos- ton, enclosing what he calls an apology. In August, fearing that his apology had miscarried, he wrote to Sir Thomas Temple, enclosing a copy of the apology,
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and very humbly beseeching his good offices in averting from the colony of New Haven the displeasure of the king. In September Gov. Leete went to Boston, prob- ably on his way to or from the meeting of the commis- sioners of the United Colonies at Plymouth, to consult with friends there how he might escape the punishment of his neglect. The result of the conference was a letter from John Norton, teacher of the church at Bos- ton, to Richard Baxter, one of the king's chaplains. It is to be inferred from Norton's letter that there had been a change in Leete's spirit since he received Kel- lond and Kirk in his house at Guilford and read their instructions aloud in the presence of his neighbors. Norton says : -
" He, being conscious of indiscretion and some neglect (not to say how it came about) in relation to the expediting the executing of the warrant, according to his duty, sent from his Majesty for the apprehending of the two colonels, is not without fear of some displeasure that may follow thereupon, and indeed hath almost ever since been a man depressed in his spirit for the neglect wherewith he chargeth himself therein. His endeavors also since have been accordingly, and that in full degree ; as, besides his own testimony, his neighbors attest they see not what he could have done more."
At their meeting in September, the commission- ers of the United Colonies issued an order forbidding the entertainment of Whalley and Goffe, and requiring all persons who knew where they were to make known their hiding-place. This order, with the other pro- ceedings, was signed by William Leete and Benjamin Fenn, commissioners for New Haven, the last named an inhabitant of Milford, where Whalley and Goffe
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were then concealed. There is no evidence that Fenn was in the secret, and no good reason can be alleged why he should have been embarrassed with useless information.
Whalley and Goffe remained in Milford from Aug. 19, 1661, till July, 1664, when, hearing that four royal commissioners had arrived in Boston, charged to inquire after persons attainted of high treason, they thought it necessary to leave the place where they had so long resided. At first they retired to their cave on West Rock. But after they had remained there eight or ten days, some Indians, in their hunting, discovered the cave with the bed in it. This being reported, they were obliged to find another temporary retreat, the location of which is unknown. Probably they were unwillingly tarrying in New Haven till arrangements could be made for their removal to a less suspected and less frequented place. Starting on the 13th of October, and travelling only by night, they directed their steps toward Hadley, Mass., a plantation in the remotest north-western frontier of the New England settlements, recently established by emigrants from Hartford and Wethersfield. Here they were, by pre- arrangement, received and concealed by Mr. John Rus- sell, the minister of the town. With him they both continued to reside till the death of Whalley, about ten years afterward. But with their removal to Hadley their connection with the history of the New Haven colony ceases.
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CHAPTER XIX.
CONNECTICUT PROCURES A CHARTER WHICH COVERS THE TERRITORY OF NEW HAVEN.
K ING JAMES THE FIRST incorporated by let- ters-patent the "Council established at Plymouth in the county of Devon for the planting, ruling, and gov- erning of New England in America," and granted unto them and their successors and assigns all that part of America lying between the fortieth and forty-eighth degree of north latitude, and extending from sea to sea. This "Council for New England," having sold patents to New Plymouth and Massachusetts, granted to its president, Robert, Earl of Warwick, a territory supposed to be bounded on the east and north by New Plymouth and Massachusetts, and the grant was confirmed by King Charles the First. On the 19th of March the said Robert, Earl of Warwick, conveyed his title to the right honorable William, viscount Say and Seal, the right honorable Robert, Lord Brook, the right honorable Lord Rich, and the honorable Charles Fiennes, Esq., Sir Nathanael Rich, Knt., Sir Rich- ard Saltonstall, Knt., Richard Knightly, Esq., John Pym, Esq., John Hampden, John Humphrey, Esq., and Herbert Pelham, Esq., their heirs and assigns, and their associates, forever. He describes the territory as
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"all that part of New England in America, which lies and extends itself from a river there called Narragan- set River, the space of forty leagues upon a straight line near the sea-shore toward the south-west, west and by south, or west, as the coast lieth towards Vir- ginia, accounting three English miles to the league ; and also all and singular the lands and hereditaments whatsoever, lying and being within the lands aforesaid, north and south in latitude and breadth, and in length and longitude, of and within all the breadth aforesaid, throughout the main lands there, from the Western Ocean to the South Sea."
The first planters of Hartford, Windsor, and Weth- ersfield settled themselves in the territory thus con- veyed by the Earl of Warwick, without asking leave of the patentees. Some years afterward, a fort having been meanwhile built at Saybrook by the patentees, the colonial government purchased of Mr. Fenwick, the representative of the patentees, the fort and the lands upon the river. In the articles of agreement Mr. Fen- wick also promises that "all the lands from Narragan- set River to the fort of Saybrook, mentioned in a patent granted by the Earl of Warwick to certain nobles and gentlemen, shall fall under the jurisdiction of Connecti- cut if it come into his power," but makes no mention of, or allusion to, the territory occupied by the New Haven colony.
So far as appears, no claim was made by Connecticut to the territory of New Haven till 1660. In that year the town of New Haven, wishing to " set out the bounds with lasting marks," between them and Connecticut, appointed Mr. Yale, William Andrews, John Cooper,
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John Brocket, and Nathaniel Merriman, a committee to do it with the help of Montowese, the late proprie- tor. Connecticut took offence at the proceedings of this committee, and sent to New Haven the following letter : --
" Honored Gentlemen, - This Court having received informa- tion, not only by what appears in one of your laws respecting the purchase of land from the Indians, wherein there is a seeming challenge of very large interests of lands, and likewise by what intelligence we have had of your stretching your bounds up toward us, by marking trees on this side Pilgrims' Harbor," which things, as ye intrench upon our interest, so they are not satisfying or contentful, nor do we apprehend it a course furthering or strength- ening that friendly correspondency that we desire and ought to be perpetuated betwixt neighbors and confederates; especially in that we conceive you cannot be ignorant of our real and true right to those parts of the country where you are seated, both by con- quest, purchase, and possession; and though hitherto we have been silent and altogether forborne to make any absolute challenge to our own, as before, yet now we see a necessity at least to revive the memorial of our right and interest, and therefore do desire that there may be a cessation of further proceedings in this nature, until upon mature consideration there may be a determinate settlement and mutual concurrence twixt yourselves and this colony in refer- ence to the dividing bounds twixt the two colonies. It is further de- sired and requested by us that if there be any thing extant on rec- ord with you that may further the deciding this matter, it may be produced, and that there may be a time and place appointed. when some deputed for that end, furnished with full power, may meet, . that so a loving issue may be effected to prevent further troubles. And in case there be no record of grant or allowance from this
* Pilgrims' Harbor, it appears, was so called before this letter was written. It was probably a hut where travellers between Hartford and New Haven found shelter. If the regicides ever made use of it, it was after this letter was written. It was not, as President Stiles suggests, called Pilgrims' Harbor because the regicides lodged in it.
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colony, respecting the surrender not only of lands possessed by you and improved, but also such lands as it seems to us that you, under some pretended or assumed right, have induced by your bounds within your liberties, that you would be pleased to consider on some speedy course, whereby a compliance and condescendency to what is necessary and convenient for your future comfort may be obtained from us, the true proprietors of these parts of coun- try. We desire your return to our General Court in reference to our propositions, with what convenient speed may be, that so what is desired by us in point of mutual and neighborly correspondence, according to the rules of justice and righteousness, may be still maintained and continued."
Action was taken on this letter at a general court held at New Haven for the jurisdiction, May 29, 1661. It was "ordered that a committee be chosen by this Court for the treating with and issuing of any seeming difference betwixt Connecticut Colony and this, in refer- ence to the dividing bounds betwixt them, and of some seeming right to this jurisdiction, which they pretend in a letter sent to this General Court."
This order was passed thirteen days after the General Court of Connecticut had desired and authorized Gov. Winthrop to act as the agent of the colony in present- ing their address to the king, and in procuring a patent. Though the extant copy of the letter in which Connecticut for the first time lays claim to the territory of New Haven bears no date, it was written about the time when they were considering the expediency of applying for the charter which they soon after obtained. They had no copy of the conveyance from the Earl of Warwick; and if they had possessed a copy, or even the original, Mr. Fenwick had conveyed to them only what his agreement specified. It is evident that about
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this time they conceived the design of procuring a royal charter which should secure to them the whole territory conveyed to Lord Say and Seal and others, by the Earl of Warwick, even if it should include the territory of New Haven. They justified themselves in doing so on the ground, that, having paid a large sum to Mr. Fen- wick, they ought to have received for it all the territory covered by the patent which he and his associates possessed. They felt and represented to the aged Lord Say and Seal that Mr. Fenwick had dealt hardly with them, and that they ought to receive whatever was reserved by him as the representative of the patentees. While they were all agreed that it was right for Con- necticut to acquire, if possible, a legal title as extensive as the patent from the Earl of Warwick, the New Haven people having paid nothing to the patentees, they were not of one mind as to the disposition to be made of New Haven ; some holding that New Haven should be at liberty to join with them or not, while others maintained that the welfare of all parties justi- fied the compulsion of New Haven into union with Connecticut. Gov. Winthrop was himself of the first- mentioned party ; for when Davenport, hearing what was going on at Hartford, wrote to his friend, warning him "not to have his hand in so unrighteous an act as so far to extend the line of their patent, that the colony of New Haven should be involved within it," Win- throp replied,' "that the magistrates had agreed and
' The extract is from Davenport's report of Winthrop's letters in " New Haven's Case Stated." Winthrop wrote twice "from two several places :" first from Middletown, and again from New Amsterdam "at his going away." This looks as if he did not pass through New Haven in
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expressed in the presence of some ministers, that, if their line should reach us (which they knew not, the copy being in England), yet New Haven Colony should be at full liberty to join with them or not."
Embarking at New Amsterdam some time in August, Winthrop went to England, both to transact business of his own and to execute the commission with which he was intrusted by Connecticut. He was most favora- bly received by Lord Say and Seal, to whom he carried . a letter from the General Court of Connecticut. His lordship writes to him, Dec. 14, 1661 :-
" For my very loving friend, Mr. John Winthrop, living in Cole- man Street, at one Mrs. Whiting's house, near the church.
" MR. WINTHROP, - I received your letter by Mr. Richards, and I would have been glad to have had an opportunity of being at London myself to have done you and my good friends in New England the best service I could; but my weakness hath been such, and my old disease of the gout falling upon me, I did desire leave not to come up this winter, but I have writ to the Earl of Manchester, lord chamberlain of His Majesty's household, to give you the best assistance he may; and indeed, he is a noble and worthy lord, and one that loves those that are godly. And he and I did join together, that our godly friends of New England might enjoy their just rights and liberties ; and this, Col. Crowne, who, I hear, is still in London, can fully inform you. Concerning that of Connecticut, I am not able to remember all the particulars ; but I have written to my lord chamberlain, that when you shall attend him (which I think will be best for you to do, and therefore I have enclosed a letter to him in yours), that you may deliver it, and I
going from Hartford to his place of embarkation. A passage in a shallop down the river was more convenient for one who was on the way to Europe than a horseback-ride through the country. From a letter of Willet to Winthrop printed in Mass. Hist. Coll., xli., p. 396, it appears that Winthrop went to England by way of Holland.
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' have desired him to acquaint you where you may speak with Mr. Jesup, who, when we had the patent, was our clerk, and he, I believe, is able to inform you best about it, and I have desired my lord to wish him so to do. I do think he is now in London. My love remembered unto you, I shall remain,
" Your very loving friend, "W. SAY AND SEAL."
Lord Say and Seal, and the other Puritan lords and gentlemen to whom the Earl of Warwick conveyed his title to Connecticut, had secured the territory for the purpose of establishing a Puritan colony, and with the expectation that some of themselves would personally engage in the enterprise. Twenty-five years before, Winthrop himself had been constituted their agent, with instructions "to provide able men to the number of fifty at the least, for making of fortifications and building of houses at the river Connecticut and the harbor adjoining, first for their own present accommo- dations, and then such houses as may receive men of quality, which latter houses we would have to be builded within the fort." Not one, however, of the lords and gentlemen named by Warwick in his conveyance, came to Connecticut. Of the " men of quality" who in 1635 signed the agreement with Winthrop, the only one that came over was George Fenwick; and he was not one of the original patentees, but had become a partner in · the company subsequent to the conveyance from the Earl of Warwick in 1631. He seems from the day of his arrival to have full power to dispose of every thing belonging to the company; and in his conveyance of the fort and the lands on the river to the colony of Connecticut he makes no mention of any other con-
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veyor than himself. His whole conduct is that of a principal rather than of an agent. He had doubtless acquired from the other partners all their rights. At what date he had become sole proprietor, we cannot determine. Perhaps it was before he came over in 1639; for most of the patentees were then and had been for some time so earnestly and deeply engaged in saving their native land from the encroachments of tyranny, that they must have relinquished the idea of emigration. Notably, two of them, Viscount Say and Seal and John Hampden, had committed themselves to resist the requirement of ship-money ; and Hampden was prosecuted rather than Say and Seal, only because his case had a prior standing on the docket. At all events, Fenwick talks and acts, in 1644 and 1645, as if he were sole proprietor. In 1644 he makes the con- veyance before mentioned, to the colony of Connecticut in his own name; and in 1645 he makes a free gift to the plantation of Guilford of land, which, in his sale to the colony of Connecticut, he had reserved for his plantation of Saybrook. His letter of gift is so illus- trative of his character and of the condition of Guilford as to deserve transcription in full. It is as follows : -
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" MR. LEETE, - I have been moved by Mr. Whitfield to enlarge the bounds of your plantation, which otherwise, he told me, could not comfortably subsist, unto Hammonassett River; to gratify so good a friend, and to supply your wants, I have yielded to his request, which, according to his request, by this bearer I signify to you for your own and the plantation's better satisfaction, hoping it will be a means fully to settle such who, for want of fit accom- modation, begun to be wavering amongst you ; and I would com- mend to your consideration one particular, which, I conceive, might tend to common advantage, and that is, when you are all suited to
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your present content, you will bind yourselves more strictly for con- tinuing together ; for however in former times (while chapmen and money were plentiful) some have gained by removes, yet in these latter times it doth not only weaken and discourage the plantation deserted, but also wastes and consumes the estates of those that remove. Rolling stones gather no moss in these times, and our conditions now are not to expect great things. Small things, nay, moderate things, should content us. A warm fireside, and a peace- able habitation, with the chief of God's mercies, the gospel of peace, is no ordinary mercy, though other things were mean. I intended only one word, but the desire of the common good and settlement hath drawn me a little further.
" For the consideration Mr. Whitfield told me you were willing to give me for my purchase, I leave it wholly to yourselves. I. look not to my own profit, but to your comfort. Only one thing I must entreat you to take notice of, that when I understood that that land might be useful for your plantation, I did desire to ex- press my love to Mr. Whitfield and his children, and therefore offered him to suit his own occasions, which he, more intending your common advantage than his own particular, hath hitherto neglected ; yet my desire now is that you would suit him to his content; and that he would accept of what shall be allotted him as a testimony of my love intended to him, before I give up my interest to your plantation, and that therefore he may hold it free from charge as I have signified to himself. I will not now trouble you further, but with my love to yourself and plantation, rest
" Your loving friend and neighbor, " GEORGE FENWICK.
"SAYBROOK, Oct. 22, 1645."
Lord Say and Seal, though he had long since relin- quished the expectation of removing to America, re- tained the friendly feeling he had ever cherished toward the planters of New England, and was in a position, when Connecticut sought a royal charter, where his influence was very powerful. Although he had opposed the tyranny of Charles the First, he was a royalist in
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principle, and disapproved of the extreme measures to which the popular party were carried by the current of events. During the commonwealth he lived in retire- ment, and was among the first to move, when opportu- nity offered, for the restoration of the ancient constitu- tion. As a reward for his services, Charles the Second had made him lord privy seal.
The Earl of Manchester, whom Say and Seal mentions in his letter to Winthrop, was also a Puritan. He like- wise, and for similar reasons, was high in office, and high in favor with the king. Forced to resign his com- mission as commander-in-chief of one of the grand divisions of the parliamentary army, by the intrigues of men who wished to eliminate both royalty and aris- tocracy from the constitution, he, too, had lived for years in retirement, waiting for an opportunity to assist in restoring the ancient form of government. He was now lord chamberlain, and more active in public affairs than his aged friend, Say and Seal.
Winthrop himself was singularly well qualified for the negotiation in which he had engaged. A univer- sity scholar, he had made the tour of the Continent as far as to Constantinople before he emigrated to New England. Gifted by nature, and polished with the best European culture, he was qualified to converse on those subjects which were everywhere discussed in society, and by his experience in America was able to discourse of a country full of marvels to Englishmen, whether they had travelled on the Continent or journeyed only within their native land.
Every thing seemed to favor his undertaking. Though the colony had no copy of the old patent, one
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was found among the papers of Gov. Hopkins, and was by his executor delivered to Winthrop. The lord · chamberlain, moved by the lord privy seal, as well as by his own love to "those that are godly," lent to the Puritan colony his influence with the king. Mather relates that Winthrop had a ring which his grandfather received from King Charles the First, and that the acceptance by his Majesty of this souvenir of his father effectually pledged him to favor the suppliant who offered it.
The new charter was in every respect as Winthrop would desire it to be. The boundaries of the territory it confirmed to Connecticut were the same as in the patent of 1631. "With regard to powers of govern- ment, the charter was " (says Bancroft) "still more extraordinary. It conferred on the colonists unquali- fied power to govern themselves. They were allowed to elect all their own officers, to enact their own laws, to administer justice without appeals to England, to inflict punishments, to confer pardons, and, in a word, to exercise every power, deliberative and active. The
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