USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 7
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 7
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" Thirdly, the said sachem, his council, and company, desiring liberty to hunt and fish within the bounds of Quinnipiac now given
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
and granted to the English as before, do hereby jointly covenant and bind themselves to set no traps near any place where the . . . . . . whether horses, oxen, kine, calves, sheep, goats, hogs or any sort . . . to take any fish out of any wier belonging to any English, nor to do any thing near any such wier as to disturb or affright away any fish to the prejudice of such wier or wiers, and that upon discovery of any inconvenience growing to the English by the Indians disorderly hunting, their hunting shall be regulated and limited for the preventing of any inconvenience and yet with as little damage to the Indians in their hunting as may be.
"Fourthly, the said sachem, his council, and company do hereby covenant and bind themselves that none of them shall henceforth hanker about any of the English houses at any time when the English use to meet about the public worship of God; nor on the Lord's day henceforward be seen within the compass of the Eng- lish town, bearing any burdens, or offering to truck with the English for any commodity whatsoever, and that none of them hencefor- ward without leave, open any latch belonging to any Englishman's door, nor stay in any English house after warning that he should leave the same, nor do any violence, wrong, or injury to the person of the English, whether man, woman or child, upon any pretence whatsoever, and if the English of this plantation, by themselves or
cattle, do any wrong or damage to the Indians, upon complaint, just recompense shall be made by the English; and that none of them henceforward use or take any Englishman's boat or canoe of what kind soever, from the place where it was fastened or laid, without leave from the owner first had and obtained, nor that they come into the English town with bows and arrows or any other weapons whatsoever in number above six Indians so armed at a time.
" Fifthly, the said sachem, his council, and company do truly covenant and bind themselves that if any of them shall hereafter kill or hurt any English cattle of what sort soever, though casually or negligently, they shall give full satisfaction for the loss or damage as the English shall judge equal : but if any of them for any respect, wilfully do kill or hurt any of the English cattle; upon proof, they shall pay the double value : and if, at any time, any of them find
.
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THE FIRST YEAR AT QUINNIPIAC.
any of the English cattle straying or lost in the woods, they shall bring them back to the English plantation and a moderate price or recompense shall be allowed for their pains; provided if it can be proved that any of them drove away any of the English cattle wheresoever they find them, further from the English plantation to make an increase or advantage or recompense for his pains finding or bringing them back, they shall in any such case pay damages for such dealings.
"Sixthly, the number of the Quinnipiac Indians, men or youth grown to stature fit for service, being forty-seven at present, they do covenant and bind themselves not to receive or admit any other Indians amongst them without leave first had and obtained from the English, and that they will not, at any time hereafter, entertain or harbor any that are enemies to the English, but will presently apprehend such and deliver them to the English, and if they know or hear of any plot by the Indians or others against the English, they will forthwith discover and make the same known to them, and in case they do not, to be accounted as parties in the plot and to be proceeded against as such.
" Lastly, the said sachem, his council, and company do hereby promise truly and carefully to observe and keep all and every one of these articles of agreement; and if any of them offend in any of the promises, they jointly hereby subject and submit such offender or offenders to the consideration, censure, and punish- ment of the English magistrate or officers appointed among them for government, without expecting that the English should first advise with them about it: yet in any such case of punishment, if the said sachem shall desire to know the reason and equity of said proceedings, he shall truly be informed of the same.
"The former articles being read and interpreted to them, they by way of exposition desired that in the sixth article it might be added, that if any of the English cattle be killed or hurt casually, or negligently, and proof made it was done by some of the Quinni- piac Indians, they will make satisfaction, or if done by any other Indians in their sight, if they do not discover it and, if able, bring the offender to the English, they will be accounted and dealt with as guilty.
" In consideration of all which, they desire from the English, that,
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
if at any time hereafter they be affrighted in their dwellings assigned by the English unto them as before, they may repair to the English plantation for shelter and that the English will then in a just cause endeavor to defend them from wrong. But in any quarrel or wars which they shall undertake or have with other Indians, upon any occasion whatsoever, they will manage their affairs by themselves without expecting any aid from the English.
" And the English planters before mentioned accepting and grant- ing according to the tenor of the premises do further of their own accord, by way of free and thankful retribution, give unto the said sachem, council, and company of the Quinnipiac Indians, twelve coats of English trucking cloth, twelve alchemy spoons, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen of knives, twelve porringers, and four cases of French knives and scissors. All which being thank- fully accepted by the aforesaid and the agreements in all points perfected, for ratification and full confirmation of the same, the sachem, his council, and sister, to these presents have set to their hands or marks the day and year above written.
MOMAUGIN
his mark
SUGCOGISIN
his mark
QUESAQUAUSH
his mark
CARROUGHOOD
his mark
WEESAUCUCK
his mark
SHAUMPISHUH
her mark"
.
-===
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THE FIRST YEAR AT QUINNIPIAC.
"I, Thomas Stanton, being interpreter in this treaty, do hereby profess in the presence of God that I have fully acquainted the Indians with the substance of every article and truly returned their answer and consent to the same, according to the tenor of the fore- going writing, the truth of which, if lawfully called, I shall readily confirm by my oath at any time.
THOMAS STANTON."
On the IIth of December, Montowese, sachem of another tribe, "in presence and with allowance and consent of Sauseunck, an Indian who came in company with him," sold to the English a tract of land lying north of that sold by Momaugin, and described as "ex- tending about ten miles in length from north to south, eight miles easterly from the river of Quinnipiac to- ward the river of Connecticut and five miles westerly toward Hudson's river." Montowese, reserving a piece of land near the village which now bears his name, "for his men which are ten, and many squaws, to plant in," received "eleven coats of trucking cloth, and one coat of English cloth made up after the English manner," in payment for the territory thus alienated.
The attesting marks of Montowese and Sawseunck are as follows : -
"MONTOWESE
his mark
SAWSEUNCK
his mark"
.
+
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
At the present day we are apt to think that these sachems sold their land for a ridiculously small price ; but one who attentively considers all the circumstances of the case, the reservations they made, the protection they secured, and the opportunity for trade afforded by the English settlement, will perhaps conclude that what they received was of greater value to them than what they sold. It does not appear that the Indians were afterward dissatisfied with the terms of sale.
Contemporaneously with the excitement among the Yorkshire people about returning to Massachusetts, there was conference among those who had come with Prudden from Hereford, tending toward a removal from Quinnipiac to a separate plantation, in which they might enjoy his ministry. What the understanding had been between his Herefordshire flock and the London men in reference to a church and church-officers at Quinnipiac, it is impossible to determine with cer- tainty ; but, as the latter party had brought with them two ministers in whom they were interested, we may conjecture that if they encouraged the Hereford men to believe that Prudden should be their minister, they did so in expectation that he would be united with Daven- port and Samuel Eaton in the eldership of the church.
Trumbull relates that Prudden preached at Wethers- field during the summer of 1638; and, as a part of the first planters of Milford came. from Wethersfield on account of their regard for him and some disagree- ment in their church, it is probable that the project of a settlement at Milford grew out of Prudden's visit to Wethersfield. Ascertaining that by uniting his friends
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THE FIRST YEAR AT QUINNIPIAC.
in Wethersfield with those who had followed him across the sea, he could become the minister of a new planta- tion, and stand foremost if not alone in the eldership of its church, he naturally preferred such a position to that of a colleagueship with Davenport.
Prudden's friends having determined to commence a new plantation at Wepowaug, land was formally con- veyed to them by a written deed subscribed by Ansan- taway the sachem of the place and by his council, Feb. 12, 1639. Lambert relates that "a twig and a piece of turf being brought to the sagamore, he placed the end of the branch in the clod, and then gave it to the Eng- lish as a token that he thereby surrendered to them the soil, with all the trees and appurtenances." But, though the land was bought in February, the projected planta- tion was not commenced till autumn, so that those who intended to remove from Quinnipiac remained in their houses through the summer, and cultivated their fields as they had done the previous year.
We find nothing more on record concerning the first winter at Quinnipiac, except that two vessels, bound thither from Boston, were cast away in December, there being, says Winthrop, "so great a tempest of wind and snow, all the night and the next day, as had not been since our time." We may conjecture that the work of removal was not yet entirely accomplished, -that some who had come from Massachusetts in the preceding spring, and had spent the summer and au- tumn in the erection of houses, were now transporting to their new homes comforts for which there had been no place in their summer habitations.
4
CHAPTER VI.
FOUNDATIONS LAID IN CHURCH AND STATE.
T HE spring of 1639 found the plantation at Quin- nipiac no farther advanced in its ecclesiastical or its civil organization than on the morrow after its "first . day of extraordinary humiliation." Its public property was still managed by the members, or in ordinary cases, by the officers, of the joint-stock association. Civil government was administered, if at all, by a democ- racy acknowledging no authority but that of God, and no constitution but God's word as contained in the Scriptures. Public worship was regularly offered, but no church had been instituted and no sacraments had been celebrated.
.
Several reasons may be suggested for the slowness with which the planters came to the work of organi- zation. They had much to occupy their minds and hands during the first summer, in providing for the ap- proaching winter. During the winter the Yorkshire people were exercised in mind with the question, whether they should remain, or go back to Massachu- setts, and, till this question was decided, were not ready to unite with any church. The leading men in the plantation would naturally prefer to wait for their de- cision, rather than to proceed immediately with an
92
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FOUNDATIONS LAID IN CHURCH AND STATE.
organization which did not include so desirable an * addition.
The Hereford men began in the autumn, and perhaps late in the summer, to think of removing, and by mid- winter had purchased land at Milford, and thus were fully committed. So long as they were hesitating, their brethren would wait for their decision as they had done for.that of the Yorkshire people, though with a different feeling toward their proposal to remove. There is no reason to believe that the people of Quinnipiac were unwilling that a new plantation should be established a few miles west of their own; for, if their population should be thereby somewhat diminished, those who re- moved would still be near them, and would draw to the neighborhood a considerable accession of planters. So far as appears, Prudden and Davenport were as much at one in their plans after the former had decided to estab- lish a new plantation, as before.
We may find another reason for the slowness with which the planters came to the work of laying founda- tions of Church and State, in the difference of opinion which prevailed among them in regard to such founda- tions. Some had been non-conforming members of the Church of England ; others had separated themselves from the national church while still residing in the mother-country. In other words, there were in the colony both Puritans and Separatists. But, so far as concerns church organization, these two classes were practically agreed. As the Puritans of Massachusetts felt themselves obliged to follow the example of the Separatists at Plymouth in organizing their churches, so at Quinnipiac those who had never yet belonged to
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
a Congregational church saw that such a church was the only ecclesiastical organization possible to them in their circumstances. There was a difference of opinion, how- . ever, in the colony, on the question whether civil author- ity should be confined to men who were in communion with the church ; and this difference was to a great ex- tent coincident with the division into the two classes of Puritans and Separatists. The Puritan planters of Mas- sachusetts relinquished episcopacy because they did not see their way clear to retain it ; but they would not relin- quish the old English idea that the State should be gov- erned by Christians only, and that the Christian charac- ter thus required should be certified by the Church. Following the Separatists at Plymouth in organizing their churches, they would not follow them in admitting to the elective franchise planters who were not church- members. The English idea long prevailed in Massa- chusetts ; but the Plymouth or Separatist belief that church-membership is not an essential qualification of free burgesses gradually gained adherents. When the river-towns in Connecticut were planted by emigrants from Massachusetts, so much progress had been made from the Puritan toward the Separatist theory, that church-membership was never required in the colony of Connecticut as a qualification for the elective fran- chise.
There being in the colony at Quinnipiac some who belonged to Congregational churches, and some who had never separated from the Church of England, there was a tendency in these two classes to divide on the question whether civil authority should be confined to members of the church. The Separatists desired to lay
95
FOUNDATIONS LAID IN CHURCH AND STATE.
the foundations of both Church and State in accordance with the Plymouth model. Their leader, Samuel Eaton, stood up for the principle that all free planters, that is, proprietors in the plantation, however they might dele- gate authority, should have power to resume it into their own hands. But Davenport, who had never been a Separatist, and would have been content to remain in the Establishment if only his party had been in the ascendant, stoutly defended with Scriptural arguments the position that the power of choosing magistrates, of making and repealing laws, of dividing inheritances, and of deciding differences, should be vested in church- members. In the course of the debate between them Davenport wrote a treatise, afterward printed and still extant, entitled, " A Discourse about Civil Government in a New Plantation whose Design is Religion." Ulti- mately the views of Davenport prevailed over all op- position, but not till a long time had been consumed in the discussion.
On the fourth day of June, 1639, a meeting of all the proprietors, or free planters as they were called, was held in the barn of Mr. Robert Newman, "to consult about settling civil government according to God, and about the nomination of persons that might be found by consent of all, fittest in all respects for the founda- tion work of a church." In reporting this meeting we shall chiefly use the language of the contemporary record : -
" For the better enabling them to discern the mind of God and to agree accordingly concerning the establishment of civil order, Mr. John Davenport propounded divers queries to them, publicly praying them to consider seriously in the presence and fear of God
96
HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
the weight of the business they met about, and not to be rash or slight in giving their votes to things they understood not, but to digest fully and thoroughly what should be propounded to them, and without respect to men, as they should be satisfied and per- suaded in their own minds, to give their answers in such sort as they would be willing they should stand upon record for posterity."
At the earnest request of Mr. Davenport, -
"Mr. Robert Newman was entreated to write in characters and to read distinctly and audibly in the hearing of all the people what was propounded and accorded on, that it might appear that all consented to matters propounded, according to words written by him."
Mr. Davenport then proposed his queries as fol- lows : -
"QUERY I .- Whether the Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men as well in the government of families and commonwealths as in matters of the church.
" This was assented unto by all, no man dissenting, as was ex -. pressed by holding up of hands. Afterward it was read over to them that they might see in what words their vote was expressed. They again expressed their consent thereto by holding up their hands, no man dissenting.
"QUERY 2. - Whereas there was a covenant solemnly made by the whole assembly of free planters of this plantation the first day of extraordinary humiliation which we had after we came together, that as in matters that concern the gathering and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices which concern civil order, as choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing of laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature, we would all of us be ordered by those rules which the Scripture holds forth to us (this covenant was called a plantation covenant to dis- tinguish it from a church covenant which could not at that time be made, a church not being then gathered, but was deferred till a church might be gathered according to God); it was demanded
-
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FOUNDATIONS LAID IN CHURCH AND STATE.
whether all the free planters do hold themselves bound by that covenant in all business of that nature which are expressed in the covenant to submit themselves to be ordered by the rules held forth in the Scripture.
"This also was assented to by all, and no man gainsaid it, and they did testify the same by holding up their hands, both when it was first propounded, and confirmed the same by holding up their hands when it was read unto them in public. John Clarke, being absent when the covenant was made, doth now manifest his con- sent to it: also Richard Beach, Andrew Low, Goodman Banister, Arthur Halbidge, John Potter, Robert Hill, John Brockett, and John Johnson, being not admitted planters when the covenant was made, do now express their consent to it.
"QUERY 3. - Those who have been received as free planters and are settled in the plantation with a purpose, resolution and desire that they may be admitted into church fellowship according to Christ as soon as God shall fit them thereunto, were desired to express it by holding up of hands : accordingly all did express this to be their desire and purpose by holding up their hands twice, viz., both at the proposal of it, and after when these written words were read unto them."
The response to this question is instructive, as it shows that all the proprietors were earnestly religious men, were desirous of being admitted to the communion of the church, and, if they had not already become con- scious of spiritual enlightenment wrought in them by . the Spirit of God, were hoping for such an experience to qualify them for such admission. The "purpose, resolution, and desire" to be admitted into church-fel- lowship thus unanimously declared, prepare us to learn with less astonishment that in response to the fifth query, to which those that preceded logically conducted, they voted to confine the elective franchise to church- members.
.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
"QUERY 4. - All the free planters were called upon to express whether they held themselves bound to establish such civil order as might best conduce to the securing of the purity and peace of the ordinances to themselves and their posterity according to God. In answer hereunto they expressed by holding up their hands twice as before, that they held themselves bound to establish such as might best conduce to the ends aforesaid."
After some remarks by Mr. Davenport, the fifth query was propounded as follows : -
" QUERY 5. - Whether free burgesses shall be chosen out of church members, they that are in the foundation work of the church being actually free burgesses and to choose to themselves out of the like estate of church fellowship: and the power of choosing magistrates and officers from among themselves, and the power of making and repealing laws according to the word, and the dividing of inheritances, and deciding of differences that may arise, and all the businesses of like nature are to be transacted by those free bur- gesses.
" This was put to vote and agreed unto by the lifting up of hands twice as in the former it was done. Then one man stood up after the vote was past, expressing his dissent from the rest in part, yet granting Ist, That magistrates should be men fearing God; 2d, That the church is the company whence ordinarily such men may be expected; 3d, That they that choose them ought to be men fearing God : only at this he stuck that free planters ought not to give this power out of their hands. Another stood up and answered that in this case nothing was done but with their consent. The former answered that all the free planters ought to resume this power into their own hands again if things were not orderly carried. Mr. Theophilus Eaton answered that in all places they choose committees; in like manner the companies of London choose the liveries by whom the public magistrates are chosen. In this the rest are not wronged, because they expect in time to be of the livery themselves and to have the same power. Some others entreated the former to give his arguments and reasons whereupon he dissented. He refused to do it, and said they might
----
99
FOUNDATIONS LAID IN CHURCH AND STATE.
not rationally demand it, seeing he let the vote pass on freely and did not speak till after it was past, because he would not hinder what they agreed upon. Then Mr. Davenport, after a short rela- tion of some former passages between them two' about this ques- tion, prayed the company that nothing might be concluded by them in this mighty question but what themselves were persuaded to be agreeing with the mind of God, and [as ] they had heard what had been said since the voting, entreated them again to consider of it and put it again to vote as before."
The assembly having again unanimously assented, and some who had previously leaned to the opposite side, or halted between the two opinions, having given vocal expression to their confidence that the action taken was "according to the mind of God revealed in the Scriptures : - "
" Mr. Robert Newman was desired to write it as an order, where- unto every one that hereafter should be admitted here as planters should submit and testify the same by subscribing their names to the order, namely, that church-members only shall be free burgesses, and that they only shall choose magistrates and officers among themselves."
The elective franchise being thus limited to church- members, the assembly proceeded to consider and de- termine what method they should pursue in organizing their church : -
" Mr. Davenport advised that the names of such as were to be admitted might be publicly propounded, to the end that they who
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