USA > Connecticut > New London County > Old Lyme > The educational history of Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1635-1935 > Part 4
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Then they decided as to the admission of new associates, distributed land among individuals, voted as to the location of the new roads and looked after the general interests of the community very much as towns do now. Not less than three or more than nine selectmen were chosen to administer the affairs of the township during the months that passed be-
9. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History, II, 134-142.
10. Trumbull, History of Connecticut, pp. 250-251.
II. Ibid., p. 297.
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Educational History of Old Lyme.
tween the town meetings. Other town officers were chosen to care for the particular needs of the community. The judicial authority was exercised by a court of magistrates.
These then were the privileges and duties with which the town of Lyme was vested in 1667 when her proprietors met for the first time in town meeting to set up the government of this new plantation. These earliest records are very brief and bear so many different dates during the year 1667 that it be- comes very evident that as yet there was no schedule for town meetings. Such occasions must have served the immediate convenience of these new proprietors.12 Together they sug- gest the simple and urgent needs of the people. Two of these ten records refer to the admission of inhabitants, one to the complaint of New London concerning boundaries, another to the appointment of two men to make a list of the town in or- der to set up the minister's rate and a fourth to the appoint- ment of Goodman Waller with forty men to have oversight over the building of the Duck River Bridge.13 The remaining records refer to the regulations affecting the cutting and sale of timber from the common land, to the election of William Waller as constable, to that of Mr. Lay and John Comstock as "survars" and to the appointment of a committee of three men to be in charge of the laying out of highways.
The elected town officers generally included a town clerk, two townsmen, two surveyors, three viewers of the fences, one hayward, a pound keeper, one measurer of the lands, and two collectors of the minister's rate. Additional officers were ap- pointed as the needs of the town increased. In 1682, for ex- ample, three pounds were authorized in the town: one between the rivers, one on the west bank of Duck River and a third over Black Hall River. Similarly, on May 4, 1684, the town appointed Sergeant Lord, Corporal Lay and Samuel Tucker
12. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1664-1727. Records for 1667.
13. This reference to forty men to assist in the building of the Duck River Bridge suggests an error in the spelling of four since there were probably not more than forty men in the town and a committee of three or four townsmen was the general practice in the handling of local affairs. Otherwise we must conclude that all the men assisted in building the bridge.
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The Beginnings of Public Schooling.
masters of the sheep in the town. Then again in 1685 two selectmen were added "to those that are already chosen" and Ensign Peck was elected brander of horses for the north side of Duck River.14 In this connection we note also the earliest record of a town audit in November 1689 when Captain John Sill, one of the respected men of the town, was chosen espe- cially to serve with the three regularly elected townsmen in making up the town accounts.15 Furthermore, the greatly ex- tended list of town officers elected in 1696 reflects the even more extended needs and interests of the community. These officers included a moderator, two constables, three towns- men, three surveyors, two collectors of the minister's rate, one sealer of measures and weights, two fence viewers, three pound keepers, one sealer of leather and an ordinary keeper. A culler of staves was elected soon after to direct and to con- trol the sale and export of that commodity.16
The concentration of these early settlers on the available flat land and meadows on either side of Duck River and the necessity of traffic across the river is indicated in a vote taken on March 2, 1673, providing that "a good sufficient cart- bridge be bulte over Duck River by the publicke town charge some time betwixte this and the last of June next." Additional money for the completion of the bridge was made available through a special town rate of ten pounds voted on December 2, 1674. At this time we can picture the Duck River as the waterway between a considerable group of simple homesites. Many settlers had barns and cattle, wharves and small boats, while to the larger estates were added gristmills or sawmills and more commodious facilities for living.
Our next interest is in the gradual movement of these people away from the "overpopulated" Duck River area. We are interested in the effects of expansion and growing com- munity needs. Otherwise how could we evaluate their educa- tional experience or understand their plan for schooling as it is revealed through the records of the town? We must know
14. Ibid., 1682-1684. 15. Ibid., November 27, 1689.
16. Ibid., 1696 (no further date given).
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much of their manner of life; we must know where they lived, how they lived, what their resources and abilities were and something of the educational influence of the church in these early days. We are interested also in the nature of the town meetings, for here we may learn much of the character of the people and the prevailing social structure. That the town meetings were serious affairs where rights were increasingly guarded is emphasized by the following citation referring to the qualifications of a proprietor in the town. The citation not only provides valuable information but suggests that some question had arisen to which this was the complete and final answer:
It was declared that those are accounted the proprietors of the town who did derive that right from Saybrook, and also those who were received as inhabitants to make up the number of thirty and to make up the township according to the order of the General Court and also those persons that are granted by the towne a ninety pound accommo- dation or that have bought or given them a ninety pound accommoda- tion are proprietors and them only are counted proprietors and no person doth enter anything against it but those and those only are pro- prietors.17
Three interesting provisions for the calling and regulating of town meetings appeared soon after, when it was voted "that in the future three signe posts shall be set up upon the Towne charge and notis upon these three posts shall be counted a sufficient warning for the Town meeting in Lyme"; also in connection with the control of meetings that "if any man in the Towne meeting shall speake without leave of the moderator he shall paye five pence for every offence to be entered by the clarke and gathered by the present Townsmen and delivered to the Treasury for the Towns use"; while in regard to the closing of the meeting it was voted that "for the futter the towne meetings in Lyme shall be dismiste at the setting of the Son and if the Son is not to be sen then it is left to the moderator and the townsmen to determine when the Son is set."18
17. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1664-1727, December 26, 1698. 18. Ibid., December 24, 1708.
The Beginnings of Public Schooling. 35
The items of business which came before the town meet- ings varied greatly in character and scope. Of those consid- ered, one of the most important during this particular period had to do with the "Division of the Land." This is also of very particular significance since the division of the land, the spread of the oncoming generations over the land and the contingent building of main highways determined in a large measure the location and distribution of district schools.
This method of land division was not new. It reflected the experience of the settlers as English tenantry and made clear their familiarity with English agricultural life. This English agrarian system accommodated itself to the New England notions of equity,19 so marked in Connecticut, but its adaptation to the varying topography of the Lyme planta- tions challenged the ingenuity of her surveyors. Generally the land was divided into home lots, upland, meadow and com- mon land although other designations are not infrequent.20 Various methods were used to obtain equality and hasten cul- tivation while removal was discouraged by liability to for- feiture.
Before the incorporation of the town of Lyme the first and second divisions of land in the parent town appear to have been completed. At that time the land in Lyme had been sur- veyed and the sections around Black Hall and Duck River had been divided, according to lots, among certain of the pro- prietors of Saybrook. The lots so drawn became in part the holdings of the first proprietors of Lyme, as has been previ- ously indicated. As a result, frequent references are to be
19. New England bears a striking resemblance to the English agrarian com- munity. All elements of the early English town were in the New England village. They changed the English system little in order to apply its methods of allotment to a new country. All changes were in the direction of higher ideas of prosperity and equality which New Englanders brought with them. Three principles of organization were: (1) prevention of accumulation of land in the hands of the few; (2) subserving equality; (3) hastening settle- ments and the improvement of land. Andrews, The Connecticut Intestacy Law, Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut, Committee on Historical Publications, pp. 1-4.
20. Labaree, Milford, Connecticut, pp. 4-7.
36 Educational History of Old Lyme.
found in the early Lyme land transactions "to my rights in the first and second division."
It is evident that Lyme continued this process of land divi- sion and that the larger part of the town which was held from the beginning as common land was later divided among the proprietors in two main surveys-the third and fourth divi- sions-of which the fourth division. had several parts. The public acts affecting land division between 1676 and 1680 are not designated as the third division, but since none before 1676 and none after 1680 are so designated it has been as- sumed that this was the period of the third division. During the year 1676 there were many citations given to land distri- bution and land exchanges, while numerous grants of ten acres were made to townsmen in payment of public services. It also appears that when these items were cared for, the gen- eral plan of the third division was carried forward.21 This made possible a very widespread movement of the people away from the original settlement. It also created a consider- able demand for timber, for houses and barns, for bridges and highways and for all the first needs of an expanding popula- tion.
The method of land division and the prevailing principles of individual rights are clearly indicated. All persons were required to present by the first Monday in January in 1676 what evidences they had for claiming a right to land in the town. They were further requested to state what land they desired, so that it might be granted to them, if it injured no former grant. All persons failing to appear at this time were to lose their grant.22 These grants were also "supplied and satisfied" in the order in which they were first given, with the original Saybrook grants taking precedence.23
Then at a special town meeting held to arrange for the "Division of the Land" it was agreed "that all the arable Land from Thomas Lee's House and from the head of the
21. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1664-1724. Records between 1676 and 1680 referring to the third division of the land.
22. Ibid., November 27, 1686.
23. Ibid., "Anno 1676-7."
The Beginnings of Public Schooling. 37
Leutant's River so high as the Salt Water runs, to the great pond where Wm. Measur and Joseph Peck's land is already lay'd out and from thence upon an East line to the extent of the bounds shall be measured surveyed and Divided unto each party in the Towne. . " Further provisions were made so that each quarter of the town should have the land lying nearest to it, in order that "the quarter over Duck River should not be infringed by the quarter Between the Rivers, nor they Between the Rivers by those over Black Hall.")24
The final act on May 28, 1679, made provision for the property rights of minors and gave definite advantage to the heads of large families. By this act the town agreed that every inhabitant in the town should have "proportionable" in the division of the outlands and that every child in the town, male and female, that had not received land gratis from the town should be allowed land to the value of eighteen pence per year for every year that they had lived in the town. This land was to be added to the holdings of the heads of fami- lies. 25
These acts apparently completed all the details and regula- tions connected with the third division for no later reference is made to it, and at a town meeting in September 1683 "Mr." Mathew Griswold, Ensign Joseph Peck, Sergeant Thomas Lee and William Ely were chosen a committee to survey and measure all the land in the town lying at the Haddam corner, that it might be divided into the fourth division.26 This di- rected attention to a portion of the town remote from the original settlement and far removed from the homes of the surveyors. One wonders how the survey was executed, how many men were actually employed and just how they jour- neyed from Black Point and Black Hall to Haddam Corners. Possibly they went by water, following the Great River to the Eight Mile River and thence to its source in the Haddam
24. Ibid., "Anno 1678-9, December 9."
25. Ibid., May 28, 1679.
26. Ibid., September 1683. The beginning of the fourth division of the land.
38 Educational History of Old Lyme.
neighborhood. In any event the length of the journey pre- cluded frequent returns, so it is probable that the surveyors set up camp and remained in the country, appraising the tim- ber conditions while they worked.
In the end, their report, presented on March 24, 1684, showed the amount of land surveyed to be less than was an- ticipated, so the town again voted as an addition to the former grant that all arable and mowable land in the town should be surveyed and all land remaining after the former grants had been allowed should be disposed of "for or towards the build- ing of the meeting house."
The final distribution of this land was, however, consider- ably delayed. Not until 1689 do the names of the sixty pro- prietors of the town appear with their property holdings and the amounts of land to be assigned them in the fourth divi- sion.27 Mathew Griswold's share of this division was dated 1686/87. It refers to land in Paquncke, later Salem. To his son went a large tract "to be payed to the Townsmen or their order for the finishing of the meeting house." In this manner the payment of town debts by land grants further aided in the development of a landed aristocracy.28 Finally on June 8, I702, sixty-seven29 lots were drawn, with the amounts and values of the land given. These grants varied widely in loca- tion, in size and in per acre value, as a few citations from the list will easily verify.
27. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1664-1724, 1689, P. 34.
28. "These holdings aggregating well over 4000 acres were released of all Indian claims in 1720." Perkins, Chronicles of a Connecticut Farm, p. 17.
29. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, 1664-1724, June 8, 1702. A se- lected list of land grants showing the variation of location, size and per acre value :
Lott 1, 25 acres near Mile Crick 8s 1od per acre.
Lott 24, 15 acres north of Roaring Brook. LI, IIS 2d in total.
Lott 26, 9 acres 4s 6d an acre.
Lott 27, 10 acres 5s an acre.
Lott 43-in part to Mr. Griswold senior-436 acres at Chestnut Hill and Norwich Plaine 2s per acre.
Lott 52-Richard Smith-near Four Mile River, 45 acres at 3s per acre.
The Beginnings of Public Schooling. 39
With this, the division of all the land within the original bounds of Lyme was completed. The method of its distribu- tion has been reviewed and an attempt has been made to dem- onstrate the advantages accruing to original proprietors and the immediate general effect of this condition upon family wealth. Much of the land was concentrated, as a direct result, in the hands of a few and so remained for many years. This created a powerful and limited landed aristocracy which con- trolled all aspects of public life including the organization and direction of public schooling. In fact, the afterglow of this early land system still remains as a dominant force in the civic life of Lyme and Old Lyme.
In spite of this concentration, the younger generations in these families were quick to make use of the lands of their fathers. New hamlets grew up and a very real prosperity fol- lowed. Consequently, the most frequent items in the town- meeting records thereafter were those which made provision for transportation and travel.
The ferry between Lyme and Saybrook which was au- thorized in 1662 by a vote of the general court continued a regular service at fixed rates. These rates were twelve pence for a horse and man and six pence for a single person. The rates varied regularly with the seasons and were considerably increased in 1696 and 1698.30
That the town also had a network of highways before 1700 is clearly shown in the index to deeds for this period. The first of these highways was built through the Neck to the ferry during April of 1666. Only two others preceded the expan- sion period which started in 1676 with the laying out of the third division. These two in 1674 and 1675 went to Boggy Hole Swamp and by John Chappell and John Lay's house. Eleven other highways were constructed in the remaining quarter of the century. Together they opened up vast new sections of the town, distributing the population, strengthen- ing the resources and decentralizing the interests. These were
30. Beers, History of Middlesex County. Saybrook Ferry, 1662, p. 36.
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Educational History of Old Lyme.
the conditions which, when intensified, led in the following century to the development of the district school system. 31
These highways were laid out from five to ten rods in width and early provided general pasturage for the livestock of the proprietors. The number of cattle or hogs allowed per person was fixed by town regulation and was administered by the constables. Consequently on March 31, 1674, "it was voted and agreed that there shall be a good sufficient fence of fore feet high against hogs and cattle maintained in the town" -- and it became the duty of the fence binders to enforce this law and as far as possible to secure the cattle in the highway. In building these highways the town first appointed a committee of two or three men to view the land under consideration and report to the next town meeting. If the report were favorable a covenant was drawn up with the parties immediately con- cerned, fixing the conditions which would regulate both the building and the use of the highway. An interesting covenant of this nature was drawn up on July 7, 1701, between the town of Lyme and Thomas and Richard Lord which included provisions for the building of the first highway over Lord's Hill to the landing place at the mouth of Tatumheage Brook.32
31. Records of highways built in Lyme between 1666 and 1670, taken from Lyme Records, Index to Deeds, 1666-1700:
April 1666-To Ferry through Neck.
October 1674-Boggy Hole Swamp. 1675-John Chappell and John Lay.
October 7, 1676-Connecticut River through Ely's.
November 27, 1676-Near Duck River.
July 21, 1678-Leading north on East Side of Lieutenant River.
May 20, 1679-To River near Tatumheage.
1681-To Giant's Neck.
1683-Meeting House to Duck River.
1686-Opposite Calves Island.
1686-Through Mathers Neck.
1687-To Saw Mill on Eight Mile River.
1688-Near the Great Pond.
1697-To Black Point.
32. A covenant drawn up on July 7, 1701, between the town of Lyme and Thomas and Richard Lord: "Agreed by the Towne on the one party and Thomas and Richard Lord of the other party that Ensign Lee and Ensign Peck and Benjamin Noyes shall lay out a good sufficient highwaye downe to the
The Beginnings of Public Schooling. 4I
Similarly a number of landing places were authorized by the town to make convenient the landing of hay, brought in from the salt meadows, and to facilitate the delivery of other general stores that were conveyed more easily by boat. These landing places served the areas near Duck River, at Tatum- heage, near Christophers, and opposite Calves Island.33 Also in 1708 the bridges over Duck River and Black Hall River were made town bridges to be maintained at a town charge while the small cart-bridge over Lieutenant River was re- placed, at private cost, by a drawbridge which would "not prevent the passage of boats of hay and lumber."
These deeds for highways, bridges and public landing places with their dates and locations have very special signifi- cance if they are studied in connection with other public acts that came at intervals between 1667 and 1712. In this time two new generations of young men and women came forward to fortify and stimulate the plans of the original settlers. Both need and ambition influenced their spread into the outlands, while Indian affairs were increasingly favorable after 1675. The building of highways, bridges and landing places paved the way to their newly acquired homesites. They made pos- sible the building of sawmills and gristmills, hastened the dis- tribution of the people and determined in a large measure the location of schools and the later division of the ecclesiastical society. Over these highways we can watch the overflow of
coave between Richard and Thomas Lords land near their houses with a good open wattering and a landing place at the coave at the mouth of Tatumheage brook and Richard Lord doth heare bind himselfe and his hairs in a bound of forty pounds in current money of this collony to make aforesaid highwaye con- venient for carting by the first of June next ensuing and to keep the aforesaid highway in good repair for the Towne. Taken out of the Covenant by Joseph Peck, Recorder. RICHARD LORD, THOMAS LORD." Lyme Records, Town Meet- ing Book, July 7, 1701.
33. Landing places authorized by the town of Lyme in the seventeenth cen- tury.
October 5, 1680-Hay Landing for Duck River Men. February 11, 1683-Near Tatumheage. February 1686-Near Christophers. January 6, 1686-Opposite Calves Island. September 29, 1701-Tatumheage Brook.
1
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Educational History of Old Lyme.
the original plantation move along the shore, up the river valleys and into the richly wooded hillsides.
With this expansion came a great increase in economic needs which were met, in the absence of tradesmen among the first proprietors of the town, through a series of subsidized grants. These grants were drawn up in such a way as to indicate clearly the rights given and the responsibilities required. In this man- ner the town granted to Leonard Austin in 1673 "the sixteen acres of land in the planting field for a home lot and ten acres to be laid out in some other place and a fifty pound common- age provided the said Leonard Austin doth come and inhabit the same within a year from the date hereof and perform the town work of weaving for reasonable satisfaction."34 Simi- larly, in 1677, the town made a contract with Thomas Terry for the running of a saw- and gristmill near Mile Creek; while on February 1, 1681, Ensign Joseph Peck, Edward DeWolfe and Richard Lord, "natives of the town," were given a contract to provide timber from their sawmill on Eight Mile River for the beams and planks necessary for the new meetinghouse to be erected on Meeting House Hill.35 Forty acres were also laid out to the "owners of the saw mill on saw mill river . .. upon condition that they perform theire en- gagement of sawing timber for the meeting house."
Again in 1684 two millers were brought into the town through contracts. Goodman Hall was given ten acres at a place commonly called Boyer's Hole Plains and John Wade received the mill rights (at the headwaters of the Lieutenant
34. Lyme Records, Town Meeting Book, February 7, 1673.
35. A contract for the timber for the meetinghouse on Meeting House Hill : "Ensign Joseph Peck, Edward DeWolfe and Richard Lord are granted Liberty to buylde a saw mill att Eight Myle River with priveledge of the timber on the Commons to Saw; They hereby do engage in Consideration of the same liberty to provide and saw all the timber for the Beame of such a meeting house as shall be concluded to be bought by the towne between this and michelmas next come twelve month or if the town doo not Cause to Conclude before that time that then within twelve months after notice given them they shall accomplish the same, also shall saw and provide all the planck suitable for the Lower floors provided that the said mill be not carried away or disabled before the said time." Lyme Records, Land Grants and Ear Marks. February 1, 1681, p. 21.
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