USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 3 The Beginnings of Roman Catholicism in Connecticut > Part 18
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The last of the towns settled before 1643 was Southold, at the eastern end of Long Island, facing the Sound. In 1640 New Haven, always on the watch for opportunities to extend her territory, purchased the Yennicock region, where Southold was afterward located, of James Forret, agent of the Earl of Stirling, who had received Long Island by grant from the Council for New England. As far as we know the grant was never confirmed by the crown. There New Haven established a small company of men, women, and children, led by the Rev. John Youngs, which had come to New Haven from England in the St. John of London the same year. She retained title to the soil until in 1649 the Southold people cleared off their indebtedness and received the territory in their own right. They were somewhat more independent than were the people of Stamford, largely because of the distance, but they followed the New Haven way in all particulars, and in 1642 recognized New Haven's right to appoint their constable, until some further course should be taken "to settle a magistracy there according to God."
Totoket or Branford, which Samuel Eaton had prom- ised to make the seat of a new plantation, did not become a part of the New Haven jurisdiction until after 1643. Be- cause the region was being encroached upon by unau- thorized squatters, New Haven, who owned it, extended an invitation to some Wethersfield people to occupy it, provided they paid the cost of the purchase, joined in one jurisdiction with New Haven, and accepted the fundamental agreements upon which that jurisdiction was based. The bargain was completed in 1643 and settle- ment was effected the next year. Shortly afterward the group from Wethersfield was joined by Abraham Pierson and others from Southampton, Long Island, and the place was called Branford, a popular corruption of Brent-
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ford, a London suburb on the Thames River opposite Kew. The plantation was slow in getting started, for there appears to have been no formally organized church there until after 1650. Permanent town government must have come into being soon after, but it was not until 1653 that deputies appeared in the general court of the juris- diction.
Thus did New Haven "hive further out." The town had brought under its control Stamford, Southold, and later Branford. In its immediate neighborhood were Mil- ford and Guilford, two independent self-governing com- munities, each of which had been settled under New Haven's auspices and was in sympathy with the princi- ples governing her method of rule. All remained as they were, six separate plantations, with New Haven the center and most important member of the entire cluster, until in 1643 a situation arose that called for further action. In that year was formed the New England Con- federation, a combination of jurisdictions, not of planta- tions, to which New Haven was admitted because she was able to bring with her two subordinate settlements, over which she was able to exercise a measure of control. Before 1643 New Haven was a town, with a town or- ganization and government, but after that date she be- came a jurisdiction, a colony, because she was exercising somewhat hesitatingly but effectively, an influence that extended from eastern Long Island to the region where the Dutch and Swedes were already building forts on the Delaware or Great South River. As the New Eng- land Confederation did not admit independent planta- tions, such as were Southampton, Milford, and Guilford, it became necessary for their own protection that these towns yield some part of their independence and com- bine with an already established jurisdiction. For this
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reason Southampton joined Connecticut, and Milford and Guilford joined New Haven-Guilford on July 6, 1643, and Milford the following October.
Thus within the short space of five years, the town of New Haven had become the jurisdiction of New Haven, and the bounds of the colony had been expanded from the eastern line of Guilford to the western boundary of Milford and thence, leaping over the intervening Con- necticut towns of Stratford, Fairfield, and Norwalk, to the western line of Greenwich, which by agreement with the Dutch in 1650 had become a part of the town of Stamford. The northern boundary was never exactly drawn but it ran some ten or fifteen miles from the coast except at Paugassett, the modern Derby. Though the jurisdiction made efforts to extend its authority to Long Island and hoped that the settlements of Oyster Bay and Huntington, which had been established under New Haven's guidance, would come into the fold, it never succeeded in obtaining a footing there except at Southold. Southampton, Easthampton, Oyster Bay, and Hunting- ton all eventually threw in their lot with Connecticut, to New Haven's dismay.
This transformation from a single town into a colony and from a group of towns into a federation demanded a reshaping of the machinery of government and the superimposing of a colony jurisdiction upon the separate organizations set up by the towns. In New Haven itself until 1643 the officials were a magistrate and four depu- ties and the "general courts" were in all essentials the equivalent of town meetings. All the householders or free planters were present at these meetings, but only those who were church members, had been admitted by the court as free burgesses, and had taken the freeman's charge could vote. As New Haven acquired additional
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territory and new towns such as Stamford and Southold came into existence, these dependent communities were given representation in the "general court" of the town, a kind of hybrid arrangement that was halfway between the organization of a town and that of a colony. Not until October 23, 1643, after the admission of Guilford and Milford, was the first step taken toward the formal fash- ioning of a large federative system, by the drawing up of a fundamental agreement or frame of government for the entire jurisdiction. On the 26th a governor and deputy governor, secretary and marshal were elected for the jurisdiction and magistrates for New Haven, Milford, and Stamford. On the 27th a regular general court was held for all the towns. This court, which was the court of the jurisdiction and consisted of the governor, deputy governor, and two deputies each from New Haven, Milford, Guilford, and Stamford, concerned itself en- tirely with colony, not town, business. The fundamentals or frame of government of the jurisdiction followed closely the Massachusetts model as set down in the Cotton code. From this time forward town government and colony government were distinct and the records of the latter were kept in separate books. Unfortunately the volume carrying the entries to 1653 has disappeared, but its successor still exists and is the second volume of the printed records covering the years from 1653 to 1665.
The New Haven jurisdiction was a loose confederation of towns, scattered and lacking in unity, held together by a general court, each member of which took an oath of fidelity, while the church members in the towns took both an oath of fidelity and the freeman's charge. The general court sat as a single house, without a speaker, and passed orders or laws, some new, others amendments of or additions to the Code of 1656. These laws were read
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in the local town meetings and all the inhabitants, church members, free planters, and others were expected to obey them. Even if one could not read he was required to know and remember the law when read in his hearing. The court did a certain amount of judicial work, but justice, generally on appeal, was handled by the court of magistrates, which was heavily burdened with the duty of ferreting out cases of misconduct and which also dealt with admiralty and probate business. New Haven was unique among the New England colonies in refusing to allow trial by jury in the courts of either the town or the colony.
This was the simple form of civil and judicial organiza- tion that prevailed in the New Haven colony until its submission to Connecticut in 1665. But that this arrange- ment was not expected to be permanent, had the Dela- ware venture succeeded, is evident from the statement made in 1654 that "when God shall so inlarge the Eng- lish plantation in Delaware as that they shall grow the greater part of the jurisdiction .. . then due consideration shall be taken for ease and conveniency of both parties, as that the governor may be one yeare in one part and the next year in another and that the deputy governor be in that part where the governor is not, and that gen- erall courts for the makeing lawes may be ordinarily but once a year [instead of twice as in the jurisdiction], and where the governor resides; and if God much increase plantations in Delaware and diminish them in those parts, then possibly they may see cause that the gover- nor may be constantly there and the deputie governor here, but that the lesser part of the jurisdiction be pro- tected and eased by the greater part in rates and other- wise." But God did not enlarge the New Haven planta- tion on the Delaware, and this dream of a larger New
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Haven jurisdiction was never fulfilled. To the colony's interests on the Delaware we must now turn our attention.
Those who founded the plantation of New Haven in 1638 had before them the vision of an expanding commer- cial enterprise, which should utilize the shores of Long Island Sound, Long Island itself, and the region of the Delaware as the sphere of its energies. But they reckoned without any adequate knowledge of the obstacles that lay in their path. At no time were they able to occupy even a tenth of the world of their ambition. Almost from the start they were hedged in by the growing Connecticut commonwealth, which early took advantage of the vic- tory over the Pequots to establish settlements along the coast. They could not expand eastwardly beyond Guil- ford because Saybrook blocked the way. They were pre- vented from controlling Long Island by the unsympa- thetic attitude of the eastern and central towns already there, from Easthampton to Oyster Bay, and by the activities of Colonel John Scott who apparently was planning to set up at the western end, under himself as promoter and head, some sort of an independent govern- ment with its center at Hempstead. On the Delaware the Swedes first and the Dutch afterward were in posses- sion and were disputing the attempts of all others to intrude upon the region. Both were working under trading com- panies which were organized at home for promoting trade in the New World and were sending over ships and men to found posts and factories for traffic with the In- dians. The Dutch, first in the field (the Dutch West India Company was chartered in 1621), had built a fort on the southern point of Manhattan island, another, Fort Orange, up the Hudson, and a third, Fort Nassau, on the Delaware near the mouth of Little Timber Creek. The last named was early abandoned, so that when in 1637 the
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New Sweden Company was chartered and two vessels under Peter Minuit, with a company of colonists, were dispatched across the ocean they found the banks of the river unoccupied and laid claim to the territory in the name of the company. On Christina Creek (modern Wilmington) Minuit erected a fort, Christina, named after the reigning queen, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus. Under Johan Printz an aggressive policy was adopted, new forts were built, and the region was claimed from the upper end of the bay to the Delaware Water Gap. The Dutch returning to the river established trading houses, bouweries, and plantations at various points and disputed the Swedish claim. The contest between the two lasted for eighteen years, until in 1655 the Dutch ousted the Swedes by force and retained possession until they in turn were driven out by the English in 1664.
But in 1640 the Swedes and Dutch had hardly got more than a foothold in the territory; consequently the Davenport company, which had probably heard of the country during their own residence in Boston, determined to see what the place was like. "Some particular persons at their own charge," with the approval of the town, or- ganized a "Delaware Company" and sent an expedition, under Captain George Lamberton and Captain Nathan- iel Turner, to explore the river. With the consent of the Swedes they occupied land on the east side of the river, at Varkinskill or Salem Creek, intending to set up a plan- tation "for the advancement of the public good as in a way of trade, also for the settling of churches and planta- tions in those parts in combination with New Haven." The area of occupation was widened by a further pur- chase of land from the Indians at the mouth of the Schuylkill, nearly opposite Fort Nassau and the begin- ning of a fortification there. The Dutch, aroused by the
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menace of an English invasion, sent an expedition, seized Lamberton and others, and destroyed the fort, and it was only after an imprisonment at New Amsterdam that the prisoners were sent back to New Haven. Though the settlement at Varkinskill was unmolested, its occupants, consisting of some twenty families, suffered so much from sickness and death that in 1643 most of them gave up the enterprise and returned to New Haven. A few, however, remained and Lamberton himself went back to trade with the Indians along the river, trafficking, as the Swedes claimed, under the very shadow of Fort Christina. Governor Printz, remarking that the English were "evil neighbors," called a halt to Lamberton's activities, and instituted a court inquiry into the cir- cumstances. The court decided against the English claim and against Lamberton's right to trade, and the latter went back to New Haven filled with indignation at the treatment he had received. The matter was brought to the attention of the newly formed New England Con- federation and was, in part at least, responsible for its formation in that year. At the first meeting of the con- federation the issue came up for consideration and after debate Governor Winthrop was instructed to write to Printz demanding satisfaction. Printz reopened the case, and at an examination of witnesses in January, 1644, obtained a complete exoneration. Amicable relations were restored and when Governor Eaton and the Dela- ware Company obtained from the confederation a com- mission authorizing Captain Turner to revive the plan- tation and to continue trading in the Delaware Bay and River, Printz promised to recognize it. But as far as we know no further colonization was attempted at this time.
With the growth of the town and the expansion of the jurisdiction of New Haven after 1643, interest in the
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Delaware region was revived. Eaton wrote to Stuy- vesant protesting against the duties levied at New Am- sterdam upon goods imported into New Netherland and demanding freedom for the English trading at Manhat- tan and their right to pass the Dutch town, without interference, on their way to and from the Delaware and points south. He also reasserted New Haven's claim to lands purchased on the river. Stuyvesant had already written both to Governor Bradford of Plymouth and to Governor Endecott of Massachusetts-who had suc- ceeded Winthrop in 1647-saying that the Dutch had a "lawful right" to all the territory and would maintain it by force if necessary. Naturally, therefore, he answered Eaton to the same effect. Though the New England Con- federation refused to have any part in the undertaking, it informed the New Haven leaders that they could "dispose, improve or plant the land they have purchased ... as they shall see cause." New Haven construed this as permission to go ahead, and at a town meeting, March, 1651, on the ground that the town was overcrowded, decided to continue the Delaware project "for the good of posteritie." Before formal action was taken by the town various private efforts were made. Lieutenant Seely of Pequot War fame, carrying the commission of 1644, attempted to go down the Sound and through the East River to the Delaware, but was stopped by Stuyve- sant and imprisoned. When others tried to do the same Stuyvesant threatened "force of arms and martial op- position even to bloodshed" against them unless they desisted from their undertakings.
The danger seemed so much greater than the expected profit from the venture that for the moment Stuyvesant's threat was heeded, but the pressure of those wishing to go was too strong to be resisted and on November 2,
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1654, the business was again agitated. Still fearful of trouble the New Haveners postponed the decision until the 27th. Some said they would go if Davenport would go with them, but he declined on the ground of health. Eaton gave an evasive answer. His son, Samuel, and Francis Newman, two of the magistrates of the jurisdic- tion, were willing to take the matter into consideration. Despite this want of alacrity, the feeling prevailed that enough had been done by the town to bring the proposal to the attention of the jurisdiction, and at a general court, January 30, 1655, the town asked that the court "afford some incouragement to help forward so publique a work" for "the enlargement of the Kingdom of Christ, the spreading of the Gospel, and the good of posteritie therin, that they may live under the wings of Christ." Though the court took no definite action, the plan was debated at a town meeting, April 8, 1655, at which time the authorities made it perfectly clear that if a planta- tion were settled on the Delaware it would have to be based "on the same foundations of government as were at first laid in New Haven" and to remain "a part or member of this jurisdiction."
The Delaware project of 1654-1655 was quite different from the earlier effort, which had trade rather than settle- ment as its object. At that time a few venturesome sea captains and migrating families were concerned, now a group of men and women, not only from New Haven but from other towns as well and even from Massachusetts and Connecticut, were proposing to go as a body and set up a permanent home on the Delaware River. The move- ment was watched with considerable interest by many outside the New Haven boundaries, for it was an early phase of that expansionist urge which had sent Hooker to Connecticut, Davenport to New Haven, Prudden to Mil-
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ford, Denton to Stamford, Whitfield to Guilford, and was to send Russell to Hadley, and Fitch to Norwich. The fact that Davenport, the pastor, and Hooke, the teacher, were both invited to lead the company and that Samuel Eaton and Francis Newman consented to take part as magistrates shows that the migrating group was to be an organized company, with ecclesiastical and judi- cial unity. Furthermore, it was to become a small edition of New Haven both as town and church. But in the end nothing whatever came of the effort, though New Haven did not relinquish her claim to the territory, even after she ceased to be an independent colony.
At the outset New Haven was possessed of consider- able wealth, a fact upon which contemporary writers are all agreed. Edward Johnson, writing before 1653 in his Wonder-Working Providence, said that "many of [the settlers were] well experienced in traffique and had good estates to manage it" and Hubbard, less than half a century later, wrote of them as "Merchants of Con- siderable estates and dealing in the world [who] pro- pounded to themselves the setting up a place of trade for which they were most fitted." Some of the town's leading men had had mercantile careers in London and had accumulated a certain amount of capital, which they either brought with them in the shape of goods rather than money or left in England in the form of landed possessions from which they received financial returns. The drain upon this capital must have been heavy dur- ing the first few years in the history of the settlement. The hire of the ship, the preliminary outfitting in goods and equipment, the living during the winter in Boston, the purchase of the lands from the Indians, and the expenditure, as they themselves said, of "great estates in buildings, fencings, clearing the ground, and in all
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sorts of husbandry" must have eaten up an appreciable part of the resources brought with them. Also, the early Delaware venture, which cost the undertakers £1,000; the loss of the great ship, which was sent to England in 1646 but foundered at sea; the wasteful expenditures on the ironworks located between New Haven and Branford -all these enterprises called for heavy disbursements without any corresponding returns either of principal or profit. All the ambitious plans of the leaders had come to naught during the first fifteen years in the history of the colony and the Delaware failure was the final blow. William Hooke wrote to Cromwell in 1653 in the following disconsolate vein, "Trade is obstructed, com- modities (especially cloathing) very scanty; great dis- couragements upon the most, if not all; many still look- ing toward Ireland ... and a continual dropping away there from us, and fears of great dissolutions and deser- tions ... our cure is desperate, if the Dutch be not re- moved ... so that we and our posterity (now almost prepared to swarme forth plenteously) are confined and straitened, the sea lying before us and a rocky rude desert, unfitt for culture and destitute of commodity, behind our backs, all convenient places for accommoda- tions on the sea coast already possessed and planted."
It was during this period of depression that Cromwell endeavored to persuade the people of the colony to mi- grate first to Ireland-an effort that was at an end before 1654-and then to Hispaniola or Mexico, both of which Spanish possessions he expected to take in the famous expedition under Penn and Venables. But the New Haveners, though some of them considered Ireland favorably, finally refused to go, just as later they refused to go to Jamaica after the seizure of that island in 1655. They were willing to go to the Delaware but nowhere
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else, and they wanted war with the Dutch, in the hope that by this means the latter would be removed from New Amsterdam and the Delaware, and the way opened to a westward enlargement. They were much cast down when Massachusetts refused in 1654 to cooperate in such a war (possibly because Massachusetts found profit in the Dutch trade), and made a number of direct ap- peals to Cromwell, until peace with Holland stopped all further perseverance in that direction. "The apprehen- sion of such a thing as being removed thither [to the West Indies or the Spanish Main], or of a trade, doth for the present stop and stay many in these parts," wrote John Higginson in 1654, and it is quite clear that the New Englanders had little sympathy with Cromwell's plan of driving out the Spaniard and making room in the con- quered territory for such of them as would go there. New Haven wanted only the Delaware but the leaders of the colony were already beginning to grasp the un- welcome fact that as long as the Dutch remained in New Netherland the erection of a larger jurisdiction on a commercial and trading basis was impossible. They may even have begun to realize that the resources of the colony, already depleted, would not stand the strain of further enterprise along mercantile lines. After 1650, movements Delawareward were in the interest of coloni- zation rather than of trade.
Nevertheless, to a limited extent trade flourished in the colony, as must inevitably have been the case among a people living in towns on the shores of Long Island Sound, with harbors that were available for shipping and with leaders who had been merchants at home and were more familiar with mercantile transactions than with agriculture. But progress could not be maintained. The loss of Lamberton, Turner, and Gregson, all of whom
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with nearly seventy others went down with the "phantom ship" on its voyage across the Atlantic, was a terrible blow to the infant colony for it removed three able men, who, had they lived, might not have given up easily the plans of the founders. No one appeared to take their places. Allerton and Goodyear were not successful busi- nessmen in the later days of the colony. Prudden, Eaton, and Newman died, and Whitfield, Samuel Eaton, Hooke, Desborough, and others returned to the old country. Though a tide of immigration set in for a short time after 1660 and the numbers in the colony increased, very few of the second generation equaled the founders as leaders either in politics or in trade.
None of the towns of the jurisdiction ever became im- portant shipbuilding or ship-using communities, but all of them had trading interests and in some of them were individuals, who as sea captains and mariners, came into contact with the wider world of the north Atlantic basin. Canoes, skiffs, shallops, and lighters or floats were early in use for purposes of local communication and transpor- tation, and pinnaces, ketches, barks, and sloops of more than fifteen tons engaged in distant traffic. They crossed to Long Island, coasted along the north shore as far as New Amsterdam and the Delaware on the west, and Rhode Island and Massachusetts Bay on the east, and even went on to Newfoundland, Virginia, and Barbados. Yet the number of vessels in service cannot have been large, and most of those of any size must have come from outside the colony, either Dutch- or English-built. How early the colonists constructed their own boats it is diffi- cult to say, for the building of any ship is not certainly recorded before 1645. That small craft were fabricated before that date is attested by the presence of ship car- penters, who may have been employed in house con-
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