USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 9
USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > History of the colony of New Haven to its absorption into Connecticut > Part 9
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CHAPTER VIII.
THE PERSONNEL OF THE PLANTATION.
W ITH the map in hand, let us survey the town, and review the list of proprietors. As we pass around the several quarters, perhaps no time will be more suitable for such information in regard to the colonists as is obtainable and of sufficient importance to be recorded.
Commencing with the north-east quarter, we find a large part of it owned by Gov. Eaton and his rela- tions. The governor's homestead was on Elm Street, about equidistant from the corners of the square. Here he lived with his wife, his mother, his four children, and the two sons of his wife by her first husband. In later years Mrs. Hopkins, wife of Edward Hopkins, the gov- ernor of Hartford, having become incurably insane, spent much time in the family under the care of her mother.1 Several young persons of both sexes, wards
' Winthrop writes in his diary April 13, 1645: "Mr. Hopkins, the governor of Hartford upon Connecticut, came to Boston and brought his wife with him (a godly young woman and of special parts), who was fallen into a sad infirmity, the loss of her understanding and reason, which had been growing upon her divers years, by occasion of her giving herself wholly to reading and writing, and had written many books. Her hus- band, being very loving and tender of her, was loath to grieve her; but he
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THE PERSONNEL OF THE PLANTATION.
of Eaton, also found a home under his roof. In addi- tion, there was, as appears from the records, a numerous retinue of servants for the work of the house and of the field. Mather says that the family sometimes consisted of not less than thirty persons.
The New Haven Colony Historical Society has in its possession a portrait said to have belonged to the . Eaton family. It was painted in 1635, and in the
A PORTRAIT WHICH BELONGED TO THE EATON FAMILY.
twenty-fifth year of the age of the lady whom it pictures. In one corner is a coat of arms, which, in connection with the' dates, may determine whether it represents Mrs. Hopkins, the daughter of Mrs. Eaton by her first husband, or Mary, the daughter of Gov. Eaton by his
saw his error when it was too late. For if she had attended her household affairs and such things as belong to women, and not gone out of her way and calling to meddle in such things as are proper for men, whose minds are stronger, &c., she had kept her wits, and might have improved them usefully and honorably in the place God had set her."
HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
first wife, or some other lady. At present the question is in suspense.
The principal apartment of the dwelling-house, de- nominated, as in the mother-country, the hall, was the first to be entered. It was sufficiently spacious to ac- commodate the whole family when assembled at meals and at prayers. It contained, according to the inven- tory taken after the governor's decease, "a drawing- table," "a round table," "green cushions," "a great chair with needlework," "high chairs," "high stools," "low chairs," "low stools," "Turkey carpets," "high wine stools," and "great brass andirons."
"The parlor," probably adjoining the hall and having windows opening upon the street, served as a withdraw- ing-room, to which the elder members of the family and their guests retired from the crowd and bustle of the hall. But, according to the fashion of the time, the parlor contained the furniture of a bedroom, and was occasionally used as the sleeping-apartment of a guest.
Mather, speaking of Eaton's manner of life, says that "it was his custom when he first rose in the morning to repair unto his study; " and again, that, "being a great reader, all the time he could spare from company and business, he commonly spent in his beloved study." There is no mention in the inventory of "the study," but perhaps the apartment referred to by Mather was described by the appraisers as "the counting-house," the two names denoting that it was used both as a library and as an office.
If these three rooms filled the front of the mansion, the reader may locate behind them at his own discretion the winter-kitchen, the summer-kitchen, the buttery, the
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THE PERSONNEL OF THE PLANTATION.
pantry, - offices necessarily implied, even if not men- tioned as connected with an extensive homestead of the seventeenth century, - and then add the brew-house and the warehouse, both mentioned in the inventory.
Of the sleeping-apartments in the second story, the green chamber, so called from the color of its drapery, was chief in the expensiveness and elegance of its furni- ture, and presumably in its size, situation, and wainscot- ing. The walls of the blue chamber were hung with tapestry, but the green drapery was of better quality than the blue. The blue chamber had a Turkey carpet, but the appraisers set a higher value on the carpet in the green chamber. All the other sleeping-rooms were furnished each with a feather-bed of greater or less value, but the green chamber had a bed of down. In this chamber, probably, was displayed the silver basin and ewer, double gilt, and curiously wrought with gold, which the Fellowship of Eastland Merchants had pre- sented to Mrs. Eaton, in acknowledgment of her hus- band's services as their agent in the countries about the Baltic. The appraisers valued it at forty pounds sterling, but did not put it in the inventory because Mrs. Eaton claimed it as "her proper estate."
There was in the house, in addition to the bowl and ewer, plate to the value of one hundred and seven pounds, eleven shillings, sterling. Taking into consid- eration all that we know of the house and furniture, we must conclude with Hubbard, that the governor "maintained a port in some measure answerable to his place."
Samuel Eaton, who owned and occupied the land between his brother's premises and State Street, ob-
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
taining in 1640 from the court a grant of Totoket, "for . such friends as he shall bring over from old England, and upon such terms as shall be agreed betwixt himself and the committee chosen to that purpose," sailed for the mother-country, to return with a band of colonists and settle a new plantation at Branford. But he found his friends well pleased with the new condition of affairs in England, and unwilling to emigrate. He himself, pre- ferring to remain in his native land, sent a power-of- attorney to his brother ; by whom the corner-lot, which had been Samuel Eaton's, was sold in 1649 to Francis Newman. It afterward became the property of James Bishop, and remained in his family more than two centuries.
Edward Hopkins, though he settled in Hartford, was one of the first proprietors of Quinnipiac. At a court held the third day of November, 1639, the town ordered, "that Mr. Hopkins shall have two hogsheads of lime for his present use, and as much more as will finish his house as he now intends it, he thinking that two hogs- heads more will serve." One can scarcely doubt that Mr. Hopkins's house was in the same quarter with that of his beloved father-in-law; but the tax-schedule of 1641 does not contain his name, and there is no exist- ing record of the alienation of the house and land. The order concerning the lime seems to imply that he had made some change in his intentions, and we may infer that his determination to settle in Hartford was formed after the house was begun and before it was finished. Having spent some time in Connecticut, while his fellow-passengers in the Hector were sojourning in Massachusetts, he did not rejoin them when they re-
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THE PERSONNEL OF THE PLANTATION.
moved to Quinnipiac, though he retained his interest as a joint-proprietor in their plantation. Becoming gradually adherent to Connecticut, where he sat as a deputy in the General Court as early as March, 1638, and was chosen to assist in the magistracy in April, 1639, he probably sold his estate in New Haven before the tax-schedule of 1641 was written ; but which of the proprietors in the governor's quarter succeeded him, cannot be determined. Though removed from daily intercourse with Eaton, he cherished such love for him to the end of life, that, as he lay on his death-bed in England, he said, "How often have I pleased myself with thoughts of a joyful meeting with my father Eaton! I remember with what pleasure he would come down the street, that he might meet me when I came from Hartford to New Haven; but with how much greater pleasure shall we shortly meet one an- other in heaven !" In his will, after providing for his "poor distressed wife," and giving to friends tokens of his affection, he bequeathed his estate to trustees for the promotion : of liberal education in New England. The Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven owes its existence to this bequest.
Although we cannot determine with certainty where Mr. Hopkins's house was situated, it is a plausible con- jecture that he alienated his land and buildings to William Tuttle, who, in 1641, owned the lot on the cor- ner of Grove and State Streets. Mr. Tuttle, who came over in the Planter in 1635, was, in April, 1639, still a resident of Boston, as appears from the baptism of one of his children there on the seventh day of that month ; but some time in the same year he removed to
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
Quinnipiac, for he signed the fundamental agreement before it was copied into the record-book. Although not a member of the court, he was active and influen- tial in public affairs. His daughter Elizabeth became the wife of Richard Edwards of Hartford, and the mother of Rev. Timothy Edwards of East Windsor, who numbered among his children the greatest of American metaphysicians and ten daughters, "every one of which has been said to be six feet tall, making sixty feet of daughters, all of them strong in mind." I
The lot on Grove Street, adjoining Mr. Tuttle's, be- longed to the mother of Theophilus and Samuel Eaton; but, as she was an inmate of the governor's family, probably ho buildings were erected while it was in her possession. She sold it, in 1646, to Richard Perry.
West of Mrs. Eaton's land was that of David Yale, who, when the schedule of 1641 was written, was still unmarried. In 1645 he purchased a house in Boston, where his second child was born the same year. While residing in Boston he distinguished himself as a friend of the Church of England, joining with a few others in a petition for liberty to use its liturgy. A few years later he returned to the mother-country, where he re- mained to the end of life. To his care his still insane sister was committed by Gov. Hopkins, when he died in 1657. He was the father of Elihu Yale, for whom Yale College was named.
Ezekiel Cheever, who lived at the corner of Grove and Church Streets, came in the Hector from Lon- don, where he was born, Jan. 25, 1615. He opened a school in his own house a few months after he arrived
* Semi-centennial sermon of Rev. Joab Brace, D.D.
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THE PERSONNEL OF THE PLANTATION.
at Quinnipiac with the main company of planters, and was thenceforth the schoolmaster of the plantation, receiving for some time a yearly stipend of twenty pounds, which, in 1644, was increased to thirty pounds. He was one of the twelve chosen for the foundation work of the Church and State, and, though never or- dained to the ministry, occasionally preached. Both , in the field of education and in the field of theology he was an author, having written "A Short Introduction to the Latin Tongue," which he called an " Accidence," and a book on the millennium, under the title " Scripture Prophecies Explained." He was chosen a member of the Court for the plantation at its first session, when it was instituted by the seven appointed for that purpose, and, in 1646, was one of the deputies to the General Court of the Jurisdiction. Dissenting from the judg- ment of the church and its elders, in respect to some cases of discipline, he commented on their action with such severity that he was himself censured in 1649.1 Soon after this, and perhaps on account of it, he re- moved from New Haven, and, according to Mather, "died in Boston, August 21, 1708, in the ninety-fourth year of his age, after he had been a skilful, painful, faithful schoolmaster for seventy years." President
. Stiles mentions two aged clergymen of his acquaintance who had been pupils of Cheever, one of whom said, "that he wore a long white beard, terminating in a point ; that, when he stroked his beard to the point, it was a sign to the boys to stand clear."
Nathanael Turner, whose home-lot was on Church
' In Conn. Hist. Soc., Coll. I., may be seen the "Trial of Ezekiel Cheever, before the Church at New Haven."
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
Street, next south of Mr. Cheever's, came from Eng- land with Winthrop in 1630, and was one of the most considerable citizens of Lynn, representing the town in the first General Court of Massachusetts. In January, 1637, his house was destroyed by fire, "with all that was in it save the persons ;" and this event happening the same year that tidings came of "that famous place called Quinnipiac," with "a fair river, fit for harboring of ships," and "rich and goodly meadows," may have occasioned his removal from Lynn. Having had mili- tary experience as an officer in the Pequot war, he was from the beginning intrusted with "the command and ordering of all martial affairs " in the new plantation. To facilitate the performance of this trust it was- ordered by the Court "that Capt. Turner shall have his lot of meadow and upland where he shall choose it for his own convenience, that he may attend the service of the town which his place requires." He accordingly located a farm about three miles from the market-place, between East Rock and Quinnipiac River. After his death, if not before, his family resided at the farm. He was lost at sea in "the great ship" which sailed from New Haven in January, 1646.
Richard Perry, the only proprietor in Mr. Eaton's quarter who has not been mentioned, lived at the corner of Church and Elm Streets. Having married Mary, the daughter of Richard Malbon, in the old country, he accompanied his father-in-law from London to New Haven. He took an active part in the public affairs of the plantation, and in 1646, when Fugill, the secre- tary of the court, had fallen into disgrace, was chosen to succeed him in that office. He sold his house to
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THE PERSONNEL OF THE PLANTATION.
Thomas Kimberly in 1649, and after that date his name does not occur in the records.
Passing from the north-east square to the east-centre square, we find Mr. Davenport's lot on the corner of Elm and State Streets, and his house on Elm Street, nearly opposite Mr. Eaton's. Here the pastor and his wife received their only child after a separation from him of .
JOHN DAVENPORT. [From a portrait in possession of Yale College.]
more than two years ; the child having been left in Eng- land, and brought over by a maid-servant in a ship, which, in the summer of 1639, sailed from England direct for the harbor of Quinnipiac.
Richard Malbon lived on State Street, his lot being next south of Mr. Davenport's. He was one of the London merchants who came with Eaton and Daven- port, was one of the twelve chosen for the foundation of Church and State, and one of the five whom the
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
twelve sifted out of that number by their own action before the foundation was laid. For some reason, prob- ably for want of church-membership, he was not ad- mitted a member of the court till February, 1642; but only two months after he was made a freeman, he was chosen one of four deputies for the half-year ensuing to assist the magistrates "by way of advice, but not to have any power by way of sentence," and was the first- named of the four. Such a limitation was expressly put upon the deputies in the October election of that year, and was probably implied in the election six months before. In this office he was continued for a long time by re-election, and, after the organization of the Colonial Government, was often a deputy to repre- sent the plantation in the General Court of the Juris- diction. In 1646 he was appointed by that body, one of its magistrates in New Haven. The town mani- fested its confidence in him as a military officer by appointing him "to order the watches and all the mar- tial affairs of this plantation," during Capt. Turner's absence at the Delaware Bay in 1642; and again, when Turner was about to embark in the ill-fated ship of 1646, by choosing Malbon " captain, with liberty to resign his place to Capt. Turner at his return." Mr. Malbon was an enterprising merchant, trading coastwise and in the West Indies. He was also one of "the company of merchants of New Haven," who chartered for a voyage to England the ship in which the town lost so much property and so many valuable lives.
Next south of the Malbon house was that of Thomas Nash, formerly a member of the church in Leyden, Hol- land, and one of the five who wrote from that city in
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THE PERSONNEL OF THE PLANTATION.
1625, to their brethren in Plymouth, informing them of the death of John Robinson, pastor of the church which included in its membership the planters of Plymouth, as well as the brethren still sojourning in Leyden. Mr. Nash came from England to New Haven with Mr. Whit- field and his company, and was one of the signers of the agreement which that company made on shipboard to remain together. But being not only a smith, but a gunsmith, it was for the common welfare as well as his own, that he should have his shop in the largest and most central plantation. His change of purpose was probably after the fundamental agreement was made, as he had not signed his name to it when it was copied into the record-book. He must have been advanced beyond the zenith of life, for his eldest son became a proprietor and a freeman not long after his father.
John Benham probably came from England in 1630, and had been a freeman in Dorchester, Mass. Remov- ing to New Haven, he wrought as a brickmaker. As late as 165 1 he petitioned for compensation for time spent at the first settlement in searching for clay suitable for making brick, and his claim was allowed. He was also, by appointment, town-crier. Although himself a free- man, he was at one time implicated in what the Gen- eral Court of the Jurisdiction regarded as "a factious, if not seditious," opposition to the "fundamental law " which limited the right of suffrage.
John Chapman had also been a freeman of Massa- chusetts before he came to New Haven. He removed to Fairfield in 1647, and thence to Stamford, where he made his will, 1665.
Thomas Kimberly removed from Dorchester, Mass.,
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
to New Haven, where he was admitted a freeman in November, 1639. It is said that his son Eleazar, bap- tized the same month, was the first child born of Eng- lish parents in Quinnipiac. Mr. Kimberly was one of two pound-keepers appointed by the town in January, 1643 ; and the pound of which he had charge was situ- ated on the east side of State Street, opposite the house of Thomas Nash. Mr. Kimberly had only a small estate when he came to New Haven, but his five children enti- tled him under the rule of allotment to a much larger acreage than he could draw for his estate. After the removal of Seeley, the first marshal, Kimberly was appointed to that office.
Matthew Gilbert, who lived at the corner of Chapel and Church Streets, in a house fronting toward the market-place, doubtless came with Eaton and Daven- port from England, for there is no record of him in Massachusetts ; but whether he had been a citizen of London, or had come from some other part of the king- dom, is not known. His election to be one of the seven founders of the theocracy shows that he was, even in the beginning of the settlement, held in high estima- tion ; and the appointment of him as a deacon shows that he retained the confidence of the church in subse- quent years. He was honored with political as well as ecclesiastical office, being first an assistant magistrate of the jurisdiction, and afterward deputy-governor. A rough stone still standing on the green, marked "M. G. So," marks the place of his burial. President Stiles con- jectured that the M was a W, inverted for the purpose of concealing from his enemies the last resting-place of William Goffe, the regicide; but acknowledged that he
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THE PERSONNEL OF THE PLANTATION.
had not found the least tradition or surmise that Goffe was buried in New Haven till he himself conjectured it. The initials are those of Matthew Gilbert ; and, if the Arabic numerals were designed (as Stiles supposed) to express that the person buried beneath died in 1680, they give correctly the date of Gilbert's death. More probably they were meant to indicate the number of years he had lived.
Owen Rowe, a citizen of London, took stock in the plantation company, but could not leave home when the Hector sailed. He, however, sent his son Nathanael, a boy in his teens, under the care of Davenport and the Eatons. The youth was left behind in Massachusetts in the spring of 1638, that he might pursue his studies under the care of Nathanael Eaton, the brother of Theophilus and Samuel Eaton, who about that time commenced his extraordinary and disgraceful career as master of the school afterward called Harvard Col- lege.1 There is extant a pathetic letter from young Rowe to Gov. Winthrop, complaining that Eaton had never given him anty instruction, and soliciting the gov- ernor to advise him how he may return to his father.2 Owen Rowe, delaying to come till the civil war broke out, became a colonel in the Parliamentary army, and, when King Charles was tried for treason, was one of the judges who condemned him to death. It appears from the records, that, like other wealthy friends of New
" The coincidence in time between the arrival of the Ilector, and the appearance of Nathanael Eaton as an educator, suggests that he may have come in the same ship with his brothers. Winthrop in his Journal, and Savage in his Notes thereupon, have jointly given a graphic picture of him and of his wife, the housekeeper of the college.
? This letter may be found in Appendix II.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN COLONY.
England who did not emigrate, he sent over, as an ad- venture, some cattle. These were regarded as security for the expense of fencing, and for the rates to be paid "in consideration of his lot and estate here given in." His town-lot was on Church Street, next north of Mr. Gilbert's. As it touched Mr. Davenport's lot in the rear, it was ordered by the town (doubtless at the pas- tor's suggestion), "that when Mr. Rowe's lot shall be fenced in, our pastor shall have a way or passage eight feet broad betwixt it and Mr. Crane's lot, that he may go out of his own garden to the meeting-house." Mr. Rowe not making his appearance, the lot was, after some years, divided and granted on certain conditions to Mr. Davenport, Mr. Gilbert, and Mr. Crane, the adjoining proprietors.
The lot on the corner of Church and Elm Streets was at first reserved by the proprietors as a parsonage, if at Mr. Davenport's death or removal it should be needed, but afterward was granted to Nicholas Augur, a practitioner of medicine. This grant had not been made when the schedule of 1641 was written, and the earliest mention of Mr. Augur is in 1644. Some rela- tion of Mr. Augur's troubles as a practitioner of medi- cine, and of the wretchedness of his death, will be given in subsequent chapters.
Jasper Crane, the only remaining occupant of the east-centre square, was presumably from London, as he was much connected with the London men in various ways. He first put in his estate at one hundred and eighty pounds, and land was assigned him according in amount with that appraisal ; but before the meadows and the out-lands of the third division were allotted, he
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THE PERSONNEL OF THE PLANTATION.
was permitted to increase his appraisal to four hundred and eighty pounds, and receive thereafter correspond- ing allotments of land. He afterward removed to Bran- ford; represented that town in the General Court of the Jurisdiction in 1653, and was afterward chosen to be a magistrate.
Four lots on East Water Street, fronting the harbor, were, for the allotment of out-lands, attached to Mr. Davenport's quarter. Their proprietors were James Russell, George Ward, Lawrence Ward, and Moses Wheeler.
Commencing the survey of the south-east square at the corner of Chapel and State Streets, we find the house of William Preston, a Yorkshireman, who died in 1647, leaving a large family, and a small estate here, which was supplemented by his right in a house, land, and other goods "in Yorkshire, in a town called Gigles- weke, in Craven." He and his wife had the care of the meeting-house, which she was to "sweep and dress " every week, having one shilling a week for her pains. He was at one time under the censure of the church, but in his will describes himself as "a member of the church of New Haven." I
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