USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 4
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 4
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John Evance, a London merchant and a parishioner of St. Stephen's, was present at the general vestry when Davenport was elected vicar in October, 1624. He had been married in May of the same year to Anne Young. It has been assumed by some writers that many of the New Haven planters had been parishioners of Daven- port in London. He was so popular and prominent a preacher, that probably all of the company who had lived in London had heard him preach; but of the seventy-three persons present at the general vestry in October, 1624, only one is known to have come with Davenport to New Haven. Theophilus Eaton may have been a parishioner thus carly ; but, even if so, was prob- ably absent at that time in the East countries. Other New Haven names than those of Evance and Eaton are found on the parish register of St. Stephen's ; but the names are such as might be found elsewhere in England, and most of the persons who brought them to America are known to have crossed the Atlantic at an earlier or a later date than Eaton, Evance, and Davenport.
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EMIGRATION OF PLANTERS OF NEW HAVEN. 41
Besides these who were related to Davenport, as his former parishioners, or to Theophilus Eaton by family ties, several citizens of London joined the company. Not all of them can now be distinguished from those who came from other parts of the kingdom, but there is more or less authority for including in such a list the names of Stephen Goodyear, Richard Malbon, Thomas Gregson, William Peck, Robert Newman, Francis New- man, and Ezekiel Cheever.
The London men with their families forming the nucleus of the company, other families or companies from the rural counties became united with it. One group of families came from Kent, or, in other words, from the diocese of Canterbury, which, three years before, by the death of Archbishop Abbot, had fallen under the immediate administration of Laud. Abbot was, like the Puritans, a Calvinist in his theology ; like them he was in sympathy with the reformed churches of the Continent, continuing to tolerate the French refugees, who from the time of Elizabeth had main- tained worship according to the forms of their own church within his diocese and even in the basement of his cathedral ; like them he believed in the sanctifi- cation of the Lord's day, preventing the reading, in the parish church of Croydon where he was residing at the time, of King James's proclamation which allowed and encouraged athletic games on the afternoon of Sun- day. It was natural that a man so much in sympa- thy with the Puritans should deal leniently with them in regard to their deviations from ritual regularity. He was loath to deprive the Church of its most instruc-
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
tive and influential preachers, and hoped by mild treat- ment to bring them back to conformity.
Upon the accession of Laud, there was an immediate and radical change in the administration of the diocese. In the reports which he rendered annually to the king, the primate complains, both in 1634 and 1635, of a part of Kent around Ashford, as specially infected with distemper against the Church. In his account for 1636, he said, -
." I have every year acquainted your majesty, and so must do now, that there are still about Ashford and Egerton divers Brown- ists and other Separatists. But they are so very mean and poor people, that we know not what to do with them. They are said to be the disciples of one Turner and Fenner, who were long since apprehended by order of your Majesty's High Commission Court. But how this part came to be so infected with such a humor of separation, I know not, unless it were by too much connivance at their first beginning. Neither do I see any remedy like to be, unless some of their chief seducers be driven to abjure the king- dom; which must be done by the judges at the common law, but is not in our power."
On the margin of the paper containing this account the king wrote, "Inform me of the particulars, and I shall command the judges to make them abjure." Among the English State Papers is a " Book of Rough Notes " by the king's secretary, containing these and other memoranda : -
"1634 JAN. 6. - Proceedings of the Council at their several meet- ings during this month beginning this day.
"JAN. 21. - A catalogue of books written by anabaptists.
"That the statute of abjuration may be put in execution against some principal men. That the judges be spoken with against Fenner and Turner.
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EMIGRATION OF PLANTERS OF NEW HAVEN. 43
"Speak with Lord Keeper and Mr. Attorney to draw a procla- mation for altering the style or date of the year to begin in January.
"JAN. 25. - To mind the Lords and Lord Keeper to speak with the judges and Mr. Attorney about altering the date of year [of] our Lord; that it may begin the first of January as in other king- doms.
"And about putting the statute of abjuration ; to be put in exe- cution against Fenner and Turner.
"Mr. Attorney is to speak with the judges about the date [of] beginning the new year."
From these documents it is evident that the attention of Laud was turned in 1636, and the beginning of the following year, to the Separatists about Ashford and Egerton in Kent, and that he attempted to have the statute of abjuration put in execution against them. Such a movement of one so powerful and so relentless accounts for the emigration of the Kentish men, who, according to tradition, came with Davenport, or two years later with Whitfield, bringing so many family names identical with the names inscribed in the church- yards of Kent.I
Another company came from Hereford, a shire in the West of England, bordering on Wales. The particular events which moved them to leave their homes at that time are yet to seek; but it is known that they left
" The writer may be excused for specifying two brothers of his own name, whose ancestral home, though in another parish, was less than two miles from Egerton Church and in full view of its massive tower. Joshua Atwater, the elder of the two, had established himself as "a mercer " at Ashford. David Atwater, from whom all in America who bear that family name are descended, had not completed his twenty-second year when he landed in America. They had buried their father in November, 1636, and their mother in the following January; and, being thus liberated from filial duties, joined the expedition with their sister, the only surviving member of the family besides themselves.
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under the influence and guidance of Peter Prudden, a clergyman of Hereford, well known to all of them by reputation, if not by personal knowledge of him as a preacher and pastor. Probably they learned through him of the expedition originated by Davenport and his friends, and became, through his agency, members of the association which, leaving London in April, 1637, founded New Haven in April, 1638. The fact that after they had belonged to the association more than two years, after they had resided some months in the new plantation, after some of them had built for them- selves houses, and had left behind them the hardest of the hardships incident to such an enterprise, they sepa- rated themselves from their associates, removed to Mil- ford, and settled in a town by themselves, with Prudden for their minister, evinces the strength and permanence of their attachment to the man whom they followed in leaving their homes in England. The Herefordshire people, for reasons which will appear hereafter, can be with more certainty distinguished from their fellow- passengers, and grouped together, than those from Kent or those from London.
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CHAPTER III.
THE VOYAGE OF THE HECTOR. ·
TT was a great undertaking for the company which gradually gathered around Davenport and the Eatons, to prepare for a voyage across the Atlantic, and a per- manent residence in the New World. The ministers could perhaps embark, with their books and household- stuff, in a few days ; but merchants engaged in foreign commerce needed several months, after deciding to emi- grate, for the conversion of their capital into money, or into merchandise suitable for the adventure in which they were engaging.
But this company projected something more than emigration. They were not to scatter themselves, when they disembarked, among the different settle- ments already established in New England, but to remain together, and lay the foundation of a new and isolated community. For this reason a more compre- hensive outfit was necessary than if they had expected to become incorporated, individually or collectively, in communities already planted. In addition to the stores shipped by individuals, there must be many things provided for the common good, by persons acting in behalf of the whole company. There is evidence, that, after the expedition arrived at New Haven, its affairs
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
were managed like those of a joint-stock association, and therefore some ground for believing, that, from the beginning, those who agreed to emigrate in this com- pany, or at least some of them, associated themselves together as partners in the profit and loss of the adven- ture.
Higginson, some years before, had advised emigrants that "it were a wise course for those that are of abilities to join together and buy a ship for the voyage ; " alleging as a reason, that transportation was so dear as five pounds a man, and ten pounds a horse, and commonly three pounds for every ton of goods. "All that come," he says, "must have victuals with them for a twelve- month." Still earlier, Winslow had written from Plymouth, "Bring good store of clothes and bedding with you. Bring paper and linseed-oil for your windows, with cotton-yarn for your lamps."
These directions, intended in both cases for emigrants coming to join communities already established, illus- trate the need of studious foresight and careful co- operation in a company of persons proposing not only to remove to New England, but to begin a new and independent plantation.
Davenport and Eaton had learned by experience, in fitting out vessels for the Massachusetts Bay Company, what would be needed in a new settlement, and were as well qualified, perhaps, as any could be, to prepare a list of necessary articles. The Abigail, the first ship which came to Salem, brought ten thousand bricks as ballast ; and bricks with " London " stamped on them were found at the demolition of a very ancient house in
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THE VOYAGE OF THE HECTOR.
New Haven.I It is not certain that the vessel in which Davenport and Eaton embarked, was, like the Abigail, ballasted with bricks; but the fact that bricks were sometimes brought from England illustrates the care with which emigrant-ships were fitted out. The Abi- gail brought also sea-coals, but all freighters must have soon learned that it was useless to carry fuel to a coun- try so well timbered as New England. An emigrant- ship was further ballasted with iron, steel, lead, nails, and other heavy articles of utility. The bulk of the cargo consisted of apparel, bedding, food, tools, arms, ammu- nition, and seeds. Neat-cattle and goats were usually taken, and sometimes horses. The Massachusetts Bay Company had a rule, that a ship of two hundred tons should not carry above one hundred passengers, and other ships were limited after the same proportion.
In the summer of 1636, several vessels recently ar- rived from England being in the harbor of Boston, Thomas Miller, the master's mate of one of them, was apprehended and brought before the Governor and Council, for saying, to some who came on board, that the colonists were traitors and rebels because they did not display the king's colors at the fort. The ship on which this insufferable speech was spoken was the Hector of London, William Fernes, master. Sailing from Boston in July, she was chartered after her arrival
' The writer remembers to have seen some of these bricks taken from the Atwater house of which Dr. Dana in his. Century Sermon speaks as built by Joshua Atwater, one of the emigrants. I think, however, that the house was built by a nephew of Joshua Atwater. Certainly Thomas Att- water (as he chose to write his name), who in Dr. Dana's time occupied the house, was not descended from Joshua Atwater, but from his brother David.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
in London by the company whose origin has been re- lated in the preceding chapter. While they were pre- paring her for another voyage to Boston, she was seized by the Lords of the Admiralty for the king's service, as will appear from the following petition without date, but indorsed, "Received January, 1637 :" -
" To the Right Honorable the Lords and other Commissioners of his Majesty's High Court of Admiralty :-
"The humble petition of the Owners and Freighters of the good ship called the Hector of London,
" Humbly showeth unto your honors that your petitioners having contracted for a voyage with the said ship from here to New Eng- land for a plantation there, and from there to divers parts in the Streights, the freighters have made ready all their provisions and passengers, fitting both for the said voyage and plantation, and most of them thereupon engaged their whole estates and paid part of their moneys. Since which agreement and preparation made, the said ship is impressed for his Majesty's service whereby she is hindered from proceeding on the said intended voyage.
" Their most humble suit therefore is that in respect of the peti- tioners' great charges already arisen before the impressing of the ship, and her not proceeding on her voyage will tend to the great loss, if not utter undoing of divers of your honors' suppliants, and for that, if it pleased God the ship do safely returne, the Custom to his Majesty of the goods to be imported in her from the Streights hither will amount to £3000 at the least, your Lordships would be pleased to give order and warrant for the release of the said ship from her impression that so she may proceed on her said voyage,
" And they as in duty bound shall daily pray."
This petition was supported by the following certifi- cate, signed by Samuel Hutchinson, Richard Hutchin- son, and Arthur Hollingworth, who were perhaps the owners of the Hector :-
" We whose names are hereunto subscribed do hereby certify that the good ship called the Hector of London was contracted for,
٢٨ - قـ ال.دجاج للا من
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THE VOYAGE OF THE HECTOR.
for a voyage, and that provision was made and provided before the said ship was impressed for the king's Majesty's service. In testi- mony whereof we have hereunder set our names the nineteenth of January A. D. 1637."
On the 23d of the same month the Secretary of the Admiralty wrote to Sir William Russell, through whom the petition, with others of like import, had reached them, as follows : -
" SIR, - The Lords Commissioners for the Admiralty (having perused your letter of the 21st of this month touching the mer- chant ships ordered to be taken up for his Majesty's service) have commanded me to signify to you that they think it not fit to release any of the said ships upon the pretences expressed in your letter (albeit the same may be true) in regard they perceive by your letter that there are not at present any merchant ships in the Thames fit to send in their places. But when you shall certify their Lordships that there are other merchant ships in the river of the like burden and force, fit for his Majesty's service that may be completely fitted and ready by the 20th of April next, their Lordships will consider further of the allegations of the owners of the four ships men- tioned in your said letter and declare their further pleasure there- upon."
Not entirely discouraged by this reply, the captain of the Hector presented another petition without date, but indorsed, " 1637, February 14 :" -
" To the Right Honorable the Lords and other Commissioners of the Admiralty : -
"The humble petition of William Fernes, master of the ship called the Hector,
"Humbly showeth that whereas the petitioner hath been an humble suitor to your honors for the releasing of the said ship; for that there was a contract and provision was made for a voyage long before, which tends to the ruin of many, except your honors be pleased to give order for her discharge; for that there are
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divers ships come in more fit and able for his Majesty's service, viz., the Vinty about 300 tons and 22 pieces of ordnance; the Royal Defence 300 tons and upwards, with 22 pieces of ordnance ; the Pleiades 350 tons, 26 ordnance ; Prudence 370 tons, 28 pieces ordnance; one whereof Mr. Wise is master, 350 tons and 24 pieces of ordnance ;
" His humble suit therefore is that your honors will please to give order that the said ship called the Hector may be discharged for the reasons aforesaid, that she may go on in her intended voyage, " And the petitioner with many others shall pray."
Ultimately, the Hector was released; and from an order of the king in council, that the Pleiades, with other impressed vessels, should be ready for sea on the 25th of April, it may be inferred that she was substi- tuted for the Hector. The reader will have noticed that the names of the freighters are withheld in all these negotiations for the release of their ship. It is alleged that many will suffer, and perhaps be undone, but there is nothing to call attention to any individuals as engaged in the enterprise.
The lords of the council were not ignorant that con- siderable emigration to New England had already taken place, or that the exodus still continued; but they be- lieved that those who went were for the most part poor and mean people, who would be of little advantage at home and might, if colonized, be of use by increasing foreign commerce. Moreover they were unaware how strongly this emigration was leavened with Puritanism. If they had known that several wealthy merchants of London, inclined to non-conformity, had embarked their whole estates in the Hector, and were intending to go to New England with their families to find there a permanent residence, they would have found means to
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THE VOYAGE OF THE HECTOR.
frustrate the undertaking. On the 30th of April proc- lamation was made, "that the king -being informed that great numbers of his subjects are yearly trans- ported into those parts of America which have been granted by patent to several persons, and there settle themselves, some of them with their families and whole estates, amongst whom are many idle and refractory humors, whose only or principal end is to live without the reach of authority -doth command his officers and ministers of the ports, not to suffer any persons, being subsidy men or of their value, to pass to any of those plantations without a license from his Majesty's com- missioners for plantations first obtained ; nor any under the degree of subsidy men, without a certificate from two justices of the peace where they lived, that they have taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and a testimony from the minister of the parish, of their conformity to the orders and discipline of the Church of England." As the Hector arrived in Boston on the 26th of June, we may infer from the date of this proclama- tion that it was issued immediately after she had sailed, and that it was occasioned by the discovery of the true nature of an expedition in which several persons, being subsidy men, or of their value, had clandestinely left the kingdom and carried away their estates.
If the ship was chartered by a joint-stock association, it does not follow that only shareholders took passage in her. The Massachusetts Bay Company had a regu- lar tariff of rates at which they received all freight that was offered, and all passengers who were approved. Theophilus Eaton owned a sixteenth of the Arbella, which had been purchased expressly for that company's
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
service ; and both he and Davenport, as directors of the company, had become familiar with its methods. The rates of that company were five pounds for the passage of an adult, and four pounds for a ton of goods. The association of adventurers which chartered the Hec- tor would naturally adopt similar methods and similar rates. Having secured accommodation for themselves and their families, and for the freight which belonged to the association and to the individuals composing it, they would receive persons not shareholders, at the regular rates. Some of the emigrants may have been precluded from taking stock in the association by the expenses of emigration ; but the originators of the enterprise would naturally desire that all who were of sufficient ability should have a pecuniary interest in its welfare. There was at least one passenger who did not come as an emi- grant. Winthrop writes in his journal, "In the Hec- ' tor came also the Lord Leigh, son and heir of the Earl of Marlborough, being about nineteen years of age, who came only to see the country. He was of very sober carriage, especially in the ship, where he was much dis- respected and unworthily used by the master, one Fernes, and some of the passengers ; yet he bore it meekly and silently." 1
Before the Hector sailed, the company which char- tered her had so increased that it became necessary to hire another vessel to accompany her on the voyage; but the name of the vessel has not been preserved to us. This unexpected increase was due to the accession
' Winthrop perhaps changed his mind about Lord Leigh, when that youth, having accepted the governor's invitation to a dinner-party made expressly to honor him, was persuaded by Harry Vane to absent himself.
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THE VOYAGE OF THE HECTOR.
of those who have been mentioned as coming from Kent and from Herefordshire. Concerning the latter, we have no means of determining when Prudden began to negotiate with Davenport; but the men of Kent appear to have joined the expedition after the Hector was engaged for the voyage. Their departure was so hasty that many who wished to go were forced to wait ' for another opportunity, and came out two years after- ward in the first ship which sailed from England direct to the harbor of New Haven.
No documents have yet been found which indicate the day when the Hector and her consort sailed from London,' or the manner in which the officers of the port discharged their official duty in examining the cer- tificates of the passengers. Similar requirements to those prescribed by the proclamation of April 30 had been made by a proclamation issued more than two years earlier, but were nevertheless insufficient to pre- vent the emigration of Puritans. Many found no diffi- culty in obtaining a bona-fide certificate of conformity, and it does not appear that any objected to the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. If unable to obtain a certificate from the minister of the parish where they had lived, they came, some clandestinely, and some under borrowed names and corresponding passports. It is said that John Aylmer, Bishop of London in Queen Elizabeth's time, and an exile for religion in Queen
' Sir Matthew Boynton, who had previously sent out some cattle, and some servants to care for them, in a letter dated "London, April 12, 1637," writes to John Winthrop, jun., "I have sent either of my servants half a year's wages by Mr. Hopkins, which, I pray you, deliver to them." Proba- bly this letter came in the Hector with Mr. Hopkins. If so, she sailed after the 12th of April.
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Mary's reign, was so small of stature, that, when the searchers were clearing the ship in which he made his escape, the merchant put him into a great wine-butt that had a partition in the middle, so that Aylmer was enclosed in the hinder part while the searchers drank of the wine which they saw drawn out of the head on the other part.1 The Puritans of the seventeenth century were capable of exercising equal ingenuity when neces- sary ; but, in a ship full of his friends, a person obnox- ious to the government might be secreted for an hour without so much trouble, even if the searching officer were in sympathy with the lords of the Privy Council. In many cases, however, the searcher discharged his duty perfunctorily, and with no earnest desire to dis- cover and arrest those who embarked without the re- quired certificates. If ever lists of the passengers in the Hector and her consort should be discovered, they will probably not contain the name of John Davenport or of Samucl Eaton.
Two months was perhaps the average time consumed in sailing from London to Boston in the vessels of that day. The Arbella, when she brought Winthrop and his company, was a little more than two months from Yarmouth to Salem ; and there is no intimation in his journal that the voyage was unexpectedly long. Hig- ginson says, "Our passage was short and speedy ; for whereas we had three thousand miles English to sail from Old to New England, we performed the same in six weeks and three days." A passage was indeed some- times made in less time, but in other instances was pro- tracted to three months. A vessel made but one round
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