Norwalk, history from 1896, Part 3

Author: Selleck, Charles Melbourne.
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: The author,
Number of Pages: 553

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The "GENERAL COURT" of the COLONY, (representing the "GOVERNOUR and COMPANY" above, ) at its May session, 1685, made the following order

"This Court for the prevention of future trouble and that every townships grants of lands as it hath been obteyned by gift, purchase, or otherways of the natives, and grant of this Court, may be settled upon them their heirs, successors and assignes for ever, according to our charter granted by his late Majesty of happy memory, This Court Doth Order that every township in this colony shall take our pattents for their sayed grants, of the Governo' and Company, which this Court doth hereby order shall be granted unto them, for the holding of such tracts of land as have been formerly or shall be hereafter granted to them by this Court and to their heires and successors and assignes firme and sure according to the tenour of our charter in free and common soccage and not in capitte nor by knights service; which patents shall be sealed with the seale of the Colony and signed by the Gov-

great deal of pleasure. . . . Gen. Phillips is to meet us there. He sent us his carriage, begging to know whether we wanted to make use of it. We took it; drank tea with Miss Johnson and supped at Col. Rob- inson's. Next week we are to have two balls, a pub- lic and private one: a breakfast out at Greenwich. Gen. Tryon has asked me to go out with him (to Greenwich probably) in his coach."*

The Tryon here referred to was Gen. Wm. Tryon, who burned Norwalk, and upon whose arrival in Nor-

*Tryon's coach caused him, some years before the burning of the town, a little trouble in Norwalk. The Gen. was riding through " The Bridge," when his establishment broke down. A clerk from one of the near-by stores, young Lambert Lock- wood, ran out and rendered the rider some assistance in his plight. The two met afterward under different circumstances. It was on April 26, 1777. at Redding Ridge. Tryon was march- ing north at the head of his army of Danbury invaders, and Lockwood was galloping south bearing a message from Gen. Cook of Danbury to Gen. Silliman of Fairfield. Young Lock-

walk harbor, Saturday evening, July 10, 1779, Eliza- beth and Cornelia Van Horne and their mother and brother David ordered their carriage to be at once made ready, in which they were driven with haste out of the doomed town.

Another letter written at about this time by one of the same party, reads :

"At last I hope that I shall be able to steal a few minutes to give you a short account of the ball, hav-

wood had not observed the British until he came quite close upon them. He was shot at, wounded and made prisoner, but recalling the youth's kindness at the time of the Norwalk coach- mishap, Tryon released him " on parole." Tryon seems to have been known at Thomas Belden's, in Norwalk. He evidently " put up" at Arnold's Norwalk Inn, as John Adams of Mass. (who used to pass through Norwalk on his way to and from the seat of Government) relates that Tryon there purchased and sub- sequently forwarded to London, a cabinet of rare natural his- tory curiosities.

NORWALK

ernor and by the Secretary in the name of this Court and entered upon record : which patent or a record of the patent shall be a sufficient evidence for all and every township that hath the same, to all intent and purposes, for the holding the sayed lands firme to them their successors and assignes forever."

NORWALK'S PATENT.

In PURSUANCE of the above ORDER the following PATENT was taken out by the TOWN OF NORWALK.

THE GOVERNOUR and COMPANY,

Etc., Etc., TO

THE PROPRIETORS OF THE TOWN- SHIP OF NORWALK.

Patent Dated July 8th, 1686 ; Recorded Vol. 4, page 1.

The patent begins as follows :-

"Tabereas, the Generall Court of Connecticut have formerly granted unto ye propri- etors inhabitants of Norwalk, all those lands both meadow and upland within these abut- ments, upon the Sea on the South and to runn from the sea towards the north full Twelve miles, and abut on the Wilderness on the North, and on Fairfield bounds on the East, and on Stamford bounds on the West, the said land having been by purchase or otherwise law- fully obtained by the Indian native proprietors ;" etc.

And goes on as follows :

"Iknow pe that the said Governor and Company, assembled in Generall Court, ac- cording to the commission, and by virtue of the power granted to them, by our late Sovereigne

ing been engaged from breakfast to this minute with a number of beaux, who came with the usual form, to make inquiries as to my health after the fatigues of the night. In the first place, I must tell you that it was most delightful; the pleasantest ball I ever was at. A most brilliant appearance of gentlemen. My partners were Mr. Fitzroy, Sir George Collier, Lord Barridale and Capt. Weeden. Danced until four o'clock. I had the greatest difficulty in the world to avoid dancing a minuet. Lady Cathcart sent to beg me as a favor that I would perform. I found myself encircled by a crowd, some on their knees importun- ing that favor. Capt. A. was sent for to use his in- fluence, but all to no purpose. Lord Cornwallis said afterward that he was very sorry he had not used his influence. I was very happy he did not, as it would have given me pain to have refused him. I was really sorry I was not able, as so much attention seemed to inspire me with confidence, and made me flatter my- self that I should have made a tolerable figure.

You were asked for by everybody, and your absence very much regretted."

Still another of this series of letters is also ad- dressed to Mrs. Edgar, and describes a dinner given in New York harbor, on board the ship Santa Mar- gurita :

"The entertainment was indeed superb. .

We assembled on board at 3 o'clock; dined at 5 ; after having regaled ourselves with all sorts of good things began to dance; after which had tea, coffee, etc .; then went to dancing which continued until 12 o'clock ; concluded the evening with a supper equal in elegance to our dinner. We really made a day and night of it, for we Flatbush folks did not get home until broad daylight. . . . After having said so much of our party, 'tis necessary to tell who it consisted of-seven of the Robinson family-Morrises-Phillips-Major Bayard-Mr. and Miss Ralston-Miss Johnson-Mrs.

NORWALK.

LORD KING CHARLES the Second of Blessed memory, in his late patent bearing date the three and twentieth day of Aprill in the fourteenth year of his said majesties Reigne, Have given and granted, and by these presents do give and grant, Ratifie and Confirme, unto Mr. Thomas Fitch, Mr. Thomas Hanford, Capt. Richard Olmstead, Mr. Thomas Bennedick, Mr. Walter Hoyt, Mr. Matthew Marven, Mr. John Ruscoe, Mr. Nathaniel Hayes, Mr. Daniel Kellog, and Mr. Thomas Seamore, and the rest of the present proprietors of the Township of Norwalk, and their heirs and assigns forever, and to each of them, in such proportion as they have already agreed upon for the division of the same, all that aforesaid tract and parcell of land as it is butted and bounded ; together with all the woods, upland, arable lands, meadows, pastures, ponds, havens, ports, waters, rivers, adjoining Islands, fishings, huntings, fowlings, mines, mineralls, quarries, and precious stones, upon or within the said tract of land, and all other profits and commodities thereunto belonging, or in any wise appertaining ; AND do also grant unto the afore named Mr. Thomas Fitch, and Mr. Thomas Hanford, . . . &c., that the aforesaid tract of land shall be forever hereafter deemed, and reputed, and be, an entire township of itself."

" To have and to hold, the said tract of land, &c ... according to the tenour of his majestie's manor of East Greenwich in the county of Kent in ye Kingdom of England, in free and common soccage, and not in cappitee nor by Knight service ; they yielding and paying therefore to our Sovereigne Lord the King, his heirs and successors, only the fifth part of all the Oar of Gold and Silver which from time to time, and at all times hereafter shall be gotten, had or otherwise obtained ; in lieu of all rents, services, duties, and demands whatsoever according to CHARTER. IN WITNESS whereof, we have caused the seal of the Colony to be hereunto affixed, this eighth day of July, 1686, in the

Hamilton-Mrs. MacAdam-two Miss Shaw's, and a vast number of gentlemen. " Don't you think we were a formidable number. We are constantly wishing for a repetition, though I fear it will not take place. These gentlemen are such birds of passage that we cannot expect them to make any stay with us. I shall regret their departure, as we shall not only lose pleasant parties, but a number of agreeable visit- ors, whose company adds much to our amusement."

Most of the foregoing letters were probably writ- ten during the progress of the war. One of the sis- ters' uncles. Governor William Livingston, writes (concerning diversions after the war had closed ) thus :

" My principal Secretary of State, who is one of my daughters, is gone to New York to shake her heels at the balls and assemblies of a metropolis which might as well be more studious of paying its taxes than of instituting expensive diversions."

The Van Ilorne's were not loyalists, as might be inferred, from the fact of their frequent attendance at the English-inaugurated functions before alluded to. Their brother, Gen. David Van Horne was a well known patriot officer; and Susan's valor is a matter of record. Under date of Chelsea, July 22, 1776 º C. (."-Charity Clark-perhaps an assumed name of one outside of the Van Horne household, writes thus to one of the family :

"Here I am, surrounded on all sides, the fields covered with barracks, and men wherever I cast my eyes, present themselves. My own house is no more an asylum. We live now with twenty odd in our house who ought not to be of our family. We scarcely know what quiet is. As for retirement, I should forget what it is were it not for the re- maining trees that sometimes remind me of former scenes. The very birds have forsaken us, or their notes are lost in the sound of fife and drum. I have wished twenty times that your uncle Livingston (Gov. Wm. Livingston, the war-Governor of New Jersey) could be obliged to live here one day. . By letters from Gen. Lee, Gen. Washington is informed of Gen. Cornwallis' defeat at Charleston, S. C. ( June 18. 1776) Three times they attempted to land, but were re- pulsed with great loss, one of their ships burned and two entirely disabled. There have been several flags of truce between Gen. Washington and Gen. Howe, (N. Y. harbor, July 1776) but to little purpose. The letters from the fleet being directed to Geo. Washing- ton, Esq., were returned unopened. By a conference with an officer who came to apologize for the super- scription and bring a letter directed in the same man- ner (with the addition of " and so forth" ) the contents are found to be merely offers of pardon on submis- sion," etc.

Gen. David Van Horne, as has been intimated, was a true patriot. The following are extracts from a letter to his sister, Mrs. Edgar.

DEAR NANNY :- I have received your letters ; the

NORWALK.

second year of the Reign of our Sovereigne Lord JAMES the Second, by the grace of God. of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith," &c.

ROBERT TREAT, Governor.

March 30th, 1686, pr. order of the Governor and Company of the Colony of Connecticut, signed Pr. me JOHN ALLYN. Secretary,

The above written is a true coppie of ye original, being examined and compared therewith, July Sth, 1686.

.A true copie of y Record, ELEAZAR KIMBERLY, Secretary.

Recorded Dec. 21st. 1708.

Pr. me JOHN Copp, Recorder.

The GENERAL COURT by an ORDER made at its M.WY SESSION, 1703, after enumer- ating several patents already given to the towns, and among them the above patent to Norwalk, enacted as follows :

"THE SAID GOVERNUK and Company, now in General Court assembled, doe enact, and it is hereby enacted by the authoritie of the same : That all and every the severall above-mentioned lands, with all the rights, priviledges and immunities contained in the above-mentioned pattents shall be and remain a full and clear estate of Inheritance in fee simple to the several proprietors of the respective townes, cither mentioned or included and intended in the said pattents, to them, their heirs and assignes forever." etc.

FROM ALL OF WHICH it will be seen that the PROPRIETORS OF THE TOWNSHIP OF NORWALK were, in 1686, constituted the LEGAL OWNERS THEREOF

last by Dr. Fog remained at the Coffee-House till my return from John Smith's. Caty was very right in saving it (the jaunt to Rye) was impossible to describe. Ridgefield roads are superior. The Johnson's have the reputation of being very clever, sociable and sen- sible girls-with them and Miss Clark, you may, if in a fit disposition for enjoyment-pass the summer with a tolerable degree of pleasure.

Lewis Morris tells me that his family are going to Fairfield. David Clarkson and the boys are at Long Island where I imagine the attack will be. They will endeavor to get our fort there, which if effected, the town falls, but not the Island, which will cost more British blood. The other night there was an alarm. occasioned by a movement of ships; it looks very much like an intention of attack, which we have been expecting every day this week, but my opinion is that it will not be before September, When it does hap- pen, don't pray that my life may be spared-but pray that I may behave well, and if my life is spared. that it may be a life of honor and reputation. If I lose

it manfully it should be your boast ; you should smile, rather than weep. God give us success in so righteous a cause. All internal enemies we are moving from Long Island; you will see a drove of them through Fairfield soon on their way to Babylon.

D. VAN HORNE. P. S .- We have just heard from Staten Island by two gentlemen from England that they hold us in very despicable light. They mean to charge bayonets and drive us before them.

At the desire of Charles Ludlow Livingston, son of Philip and Cornelia Livingston, certain portraits of the Ludlow-Van Horne family were delivered over, by a Norwalk party, to himself. Three ivory-painted likenesses of the family, however, are still here treas- ured, one of which is that of John A. Willink, who married Cornelia Ann, daughter of Charles and Eliza- beth Ludlow, and who was the son of the banker Wil- link, of Amsterdam, Holland, who is referred to in note on page six.

NORWALK.

THE SETTLEMENT

The greater portion of the territory referred to in the submitted deeds, descriptions, title and patent, was bought, as has been seen, from the natives, by Roger Ludlow and Daniel Partrick, on respectively February 26th and April 20th, 1640, but there was, as has also been noted, non-occupation of the same for several years. This condition of things, however, ceased in the autumn of 1650. On June 19th, 1650, (see deed, p. 11,) Nathaniel Ely and Richard Olmstead, both at that time of Hartford, agreed with Ludlow of Fairfield that the Norwalk Company, to be composed of at least thirty families, should proceed to the settlement of the place, and during "the next Spring at farthest," begin to break up the soil and ascertain what might be accomplished in the way of building ; which pledge appears to have been fulfilled.

Granting, then, that the settlers-it was only their advance column-had arrived in Norwalk in the fall of 1650, it is justly argued from their articles of agreement with Lud- low, as well as from the pre-advisory tenor of the Court's reply to Nathaniel Ely and Richard Olmstead, seven days later than the Ludlow transaction, that but little if anything was really done before the spring of 1651. Norwalk was unrepresented at the Capitol until many months after the latter date. This caused comment, but there was reason for the seeming delinquency. It is not to be supposed that the entire Company came at first to the new settlement, and it should be remembered that time was required for planning, preparing, organizing and ordering. Virgin soil required to be broken, primeval trees felled, temporary dwellings thrown together, cart paths cut, lots drained, fences erected, cattle-sheds made and wolf-traps set up. It speaks well for the new Company's enterprise and loyalty that it was able to send its maiden delegate, Richard Olmstead, to Hartford even as early as May, 1653.' The tardiness had provoked Court-inquiry as to the cause thereof, and the appointment of the town recorder of Fairfield? " to look into the matter ;" still, under the circumstances, there was no remissness on the part of the Norwalk founders. An extra Court-session was held early in 1653, and as yet there was no Norwalk represent- ation, but at the regular May session of the same year, both Registrar Olmstead and his neighbor, Charterer Matthew Campfield3 were present ; albeit, there had just been terrible consternation among their constituency at home because of the persistent threatenings of the Dutch.+

Ludlow was not present to greet his begotten Norwalk's maiden representative. At the session of May 18. 1653, he was attending a convention of Com- missioners of the United Colonies in Boston.

2William Hill.

SMatthew Canfield was not a deputy until the next year, 1654. lle was made a freeman May 16, 1654, as wa- also at the same time his friend Rev.

Thos. Hanford of Norwalk. Norwalk reported twen- ty-four estate holders in 1654. The entire valuation at that time was £2309. The next year Norwalk sent in no returns, and was fined forty shillings.

+The day after the Court sat Rich'd Olmstead, Ist. was appointed Sergeant, and deputed to " exercise" the Norwalk soldiers and to "examine their arms," etc. A " parade ground " was early laid out.

NORWALK.

The tradition that the immigrants' driving their live-stock ahead and crossing at the fordable confluence2 of the salt water estuary and the fresh water stream known as the Saugatuck River, made their western way over the country to the vicinity of The Rocks, from which spot was first sighted the Norwalk Valley, adown which, piloted perhaps by one who had previously gone over the route, or following an Indian's path,3 they prospect- ingly proceeded until the plain "neare to the sea" (now East Norwalk) was finally halted upon, seems reasonable and is possibly reliable. That little band was composed, for the most part, of men of simple tastes and simple traits and simple truthfulness, but of strong men nevertheless, because men of principle and purpose. It appears to have been their "plan" of settlement to concentrate at a convenient point. One idea of the "home-lot" was that of closeness and co-operation, while its general area-uniformity, (four acres) be- sides being a fair acreage-distribution of previously-cleared Indian land, may have implied the idea, also, of co-ordination.

Unquestionably the one settlement-conviction regnant with the founders was that of community-compactness ; and yet, while this may be a just remark, as the Norwalk town- plot was at first comprehended by its constituency, critical study is likely to discover that the eventual conclusions as to the magnitude of the territory embraced in the actual town- plot militated against the centralization theory. One does not get far along in one's perusal of Norwalk records before discovering the settlers "hither" tendencies, as shadowed in expressions similar to these : "the cart-path to Cranberry Plains," " the path to Soactuck," "my residence on Haynes' Ridge," "home-lot in Wilton Parish," " Bouton path to Smith's Ridge," "the Danbury Road," etc., before discovering how soon there were those among the Platt's and Fitch's who removed to Chestnut Hill, and among the Hanford's who went to New Canaan, and the St. John's, Smith's and Keeler's to Ridgefield, and the Brown's to Salem, and the Barnum's, Benedict's and Hoyt's to Danbury. It may be fairly assumed that the planters' primitive project (see dotted limitations-line on Hall's map of Norwalk) was in a measure so thwarted by the acreage temptation of the grant as to furnish one explanation of the town's cradle (East Norwalk) remaining for two hundred years scarcely more than an outlying district ; a singular exception in this particular of central growth to the sister settlements of New Haven, Fairfield and Stamford.

'These appear to have been well provided with oxen and carts. Someone says that in 1637 there were only five or six carts in the colony. Norwalk, how- ever, in 1651, appears to have been well supplied with the article. One of the earliest pioneers to die, Rich- ard Seymour, made special bequeathment of his new cart. Probably few horses, at the first, were brought to Norwalk. After a no long time, however, the number had so increased that the " horse-pound" was established, and provision made for "stray jades."

2Westport upper bridge, 1896. Ludlow, ten years previously, and the Stamford pioneers before Lud- low's day, crossed the Saugatuck at, presumably, the

present Cockcroft place, on Saugatuck river, (an- ciently Rocky-Neck.) The one lived in Fairfield, and the others went to Stamford from, it is probable, New Haven. The Norwalk pioneers, however, in coming from Hartford, would naturally take a some- what shorter route than from Hartford south to New Haven and thence west to Norwalk. Their travel- line, it is to be inferred, was more that of the tri- angle's hypothenuse.

3A tradition as old almost as the Partrick family, was that Norwalk, at the time of its settlement, " was full of Indian trails."

NORWALK.

The founders had no sooner comprehended the situation than they distinguished the east and west sides of Norwalk river as divisions one and two, and thus commenced their work of Norwalk nomenclature. Their new home was not a cleared-up domain, but largely a wilderness-tract. It is broached that their advent had been anticipated, but not so nu- merically as to have materially changed the existing state of things. Primitive conditions so confronted them that there is a sort of irony in the tradition-statement that their first days were passed in "the hollow.": The generous geography of the spot necessitated the immediate naming of its diverse localities. It is true that the grant itself had a native title,2 of the appropriateness and dignity of which its sons and daughters have occasion ever to be grateful and proud ; true, that its three rivers also, the "Nocwanton," the " Norwalke" and the "Soackuck" admirably bore their original appellations, and that the red man's "Naramake," (Belden Point) "Runckingheage, (Roaton Hill) "Pampaskeshanke," (Roaton Brook) "Winnipauk," ( a ridge near the Oblong ) "Mamachimons" and "Cockenoes," (Islands) were loyally acknowledged. This, however, was about the extent of the matter. Almost every other portion required to be designated. That there was the exhibition, less of poetry than of practicality in these designations, is evident ; and still, while the local cognomens : Campfield's Hill, Calf Pasture, Casa's Pond, Cold Spring, Cranberry Swamp, Duck Pond, Fitch's Point, Fort Point, Fruitful Spring, Gregory's Point, Haynes' Ridge, Half-Mile Island, Haynes' Swamp, Hungry Spring, Indian Brook, Indian Field, Oyster- Shell Point, Pine Hill, Ponasses Path, Stony Hill, Spruce Swamp, Stamford Path, Straw- berry Hill, The Ballast, The Coast-Banke, The Cove, The Heath, The Hithermost Plain,

1Bela St. John tradition. Hall, page 304.

2Norwaake-legitimately Indian. Note 3, page 5. Conceding that the meridians of an extant map, (Bol- ton's ) which shows the aboriginal occupation in 1609, of Norwalk, are correctly indicated, a line drawn twenty-five miles due east from the ancient New York Wall Street bastion, and from thence the same dis- tance north. would cut the islands in Long Island Sound put down in the year 1640 as " neare" the river of "Norwake." Norwake, (waake, walke or wak) is, beyond successful gainsay, the original Indian designation of that " fertile wheat country " (vide Dr. Morse'- Eighteenth Century American Gazeteer) which, lying between the " Noewanton " and the " Norwalke," and the " Norwalke " and "Sauga- tuck " rivers, is flanked and backed by a parted prong of (see Woodbridge and Willard's Geography) the Green Mountains.

To the undulating valley lying within these cleft semi-highlands, the designation " Chichester " would,

from an old map,* seem also to have at one time been applied. As a family patronymic, this term anciently obtained in this vicinity.t Still, looking elsewhere for a possible explanation of its appearance, the re- mark may be ventured that as, according to Camden, Chester is derived from the Latin Castrum, a citadel, and that as (see Appleton's Encyclopedia, old series) Cissanceaster, the name of an important citadel, is a corruption of Chichester, it may be argued that the descriptive Chichester signifies a fort or forts. The pioneers of Norwalk came to a section to which the resident savages had been driven from other localities by outnumbering forces, with whom " might makes right" was a governing principle. Here, for the purpose of self-defence, the weaker party threw up the fortification (or a series of Indian castles;) at "Fort Poynt," upon the level east from which the founders' first dwellings were erected. Which fact, it is not, perhaps, entirely unreasonable to suggest, may account for Norwalk's old-time tentative cogno- men of Chichester.

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Norwalk, history from 1896, Part 3

Author: Selleck, Charles Melbourne. Publication date: 1896 Publisher: The author, Number of Pages: 553

Author: Selleck, Charles Melbourne.
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: The author,
Number of Pages: 553