USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 3
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4 Rev. JOHN WARHAM, like Mr. Maverick, was an ordained minister of the Church of England, in Exeter, and eminent as a preacher. Roger Clap, who, when a lad, lived about three miles from Exeter and often went to the city on a Lord's Day, where, as he says, " were many famous preachers of the Word of God," adds: " I look such a liking to the Rev. Mr. Warham, that I did desire to live near him, so I removed into the city." Mr. Warham, says Rev. Gowen C. Wilson (Hartford Co. Mem, Ilist .. 536). " was doubt- less descended from the same stock with William Warham, D. D. and LI. D., Arch- bishop of Canterbury, who died in 1532. The Archbishop had a brother John, whose grandson also bore that name. A branch of this family settled in Dorset, where for several generations the name lohn Warham is met with, until 1647, when one of that name sold an estate in that shire. There can be but little doubt that he belonged to this family; but the names of his parents, the year and place of his birth, where he was educated, with all else connected with his life previous to coming to this country, are now unknown. He was a young man, however, at that time, while Mr. Maverick was somewhat advanced in years." Mr. Warham (according to Max. Hist. Soc. Proced. xvii. 348) was a graduate of Oxford.
Roger Clap's Memoirs, pub, by the Dorchester Antig, and Hist. Society.
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
to live together, and therefore, as they had made choice of those two Rev. Servants of God, Mr. John Warham and Mr. John Maverick to be their Ministers, so they kept a solemn day of Fasting in the New Ilos- pital in Plymouth, in England. spending it in Preaching and praying ; where that worthy man of God, Mr. John White of Dorchester, in Dor- setshire, was present and preached unto us in the forepart of the day. and in the latter part of the day, as the people did solemnly make choice of and call these godly ministers to be their Officers, so also the Rev. Mr. Warham and Mr. Maverick did accept thereof and expressed the same." Both these gentlemen had formerly been ordained by bishops. and though now thorough non-conformists, no re-ordination was deemed necessary.
On the 20th of March, 1630, this company of 140 persons embarked at Plymouth in the Mary and John, of 400 tons burden, commanded by Captain Squab and described as " Mr. Ludlow's vessel." " So we came," says Clap. " by the hand of God through the Deeps comfortably ; having Preaching or Expounding of the Word of God, every day for Ten Weeks together, by our Ministers." On the Lord's Day, May the 30th, 1630. their good ship came to anchor on the New England coast. Their original destination was the Charles River, but an unfortunate misunder- standing which arose between the captain and his passengers resulted in the latter being sunmarily put ashore at Nantasket (now Hull), where they were obliged to shift for themselves as best they could.'
Ten of the male passengers setting out in a boat in search of the promised land reached Charlestown Neek, where they were kindly re- erived by an old planter, who gave them a dinner of - fish without bread." Thus seantily refreshed they passed up the Charles River to what is now Watertown. Here they passed two or three days, when they returned to the main part of the company, who had found a good pasture ground for their cattle at Mattapan, now known as Dorchester Nock of South Boston. Their settlement was named (as we have reason to believe at the suggestion of Mr. Undlow ) Dorchester, in honor of the Rev. Mr. White of Dorchester, England; which had also been the home of several of their own number.
The long sea voyage had probably enfeebled many of them,2 and as
" The Mary and John was the first ship. of the fleet of 1630, that arrived in the bay. At that time there were surely no pilots for ships to be found, and the refusal of The captain fo attempt the passage without pilot or chart does not seem unreasonable, though Clap has sent the captain's name to posterity as a 'merciless man,' who, Truni- bull says, was afterwards obliged to pay damages for this conduct." (Hist. Dor- cluster, Muss.) This trouble was afterwards amicably settled by the mediation of Gov. Winthrop. See his Journal, i. 28.
: See Winthrop.
23
THE DORCHESTER ( MASS. ) COLONY.
they still retained their original project of settling on the Charles River, they had made little or no provision for future want in the way of plant- ing. Consequently, shortly after their arrival, they found themselves threatened with a scarcity of food. We will let Roger Clap tell the story in his own quaint and pathetic manner.
" Oh the hunger that many suffered, and saw no hope in the eye of reason to be sup- plied, only by clams, and muscles, and fish. We did quietly build boats, and some went a fishing; but bread was with many a scarce thing, and flesh of all kinds scarce. And in those days, in our straits, though I cannot say God sent us a raven to feed us as he did the prophet Elijah, yet this I can say to the praise of God's glory, that he sent not only poor ravenous Indians, which came with their baskets of corn on their backs to trade with us, which was a good supply unto many, but also sent ships from Holland and from Ireland with provision, and Indian corn from Virginia to supply the wants of his dear servants in this wilderness, both for food and raiment. And when people's wants were great, not only in one town but in divers towns; such was the godly wisdom, care and prudence (not selfishness but self-denial) of our Governor Win- throp and his assistants, that when a ship came laden with provisions, they did order that the whole cargo should be bought for a general stock : and so accordingly it was, and distribution was made to every town, and to every person in each town, as every man had need. Thus God was pleased to care for his people in times of straits, and to till his servants with food and gladness. Then did all the servants of God bless His holy name, and love one another with pure hearts, fervently."
For a further account of their doings at this place, a subject possess- ing peculiar interest to every inhabitant of Windsor who traces his lineage back to those settlers of Dorchester, we refer to the history before mentioned.
In place of the balance of this chapter, as given in our first edition, we herewith substitute the following, written at our request by one who is easily recognized as the highest living authority on Windsor historical matters. It is the result of some thirty additional years of research, and presents a very full and clear statement of the three independent "occupations" (viz: that of the Plymouth Company, that of the Day- chester Immigration, and that of the Lords and Gentlemen, ) which com- bined in the settlement of Windsor.
Such interpolations, explanatory, or otherwise, as we have seen lit to make in Mr. Hayden's article, are distinguished by being bracketed thus [-] and by the letter s.
THE SETTLEMENT OF WINDSOR.
BY JABEZ H. HAYDEN.
I. THE OCCUPATION BY THE PLYMOUTH TRADING COMPANY.
As we have before seen (p. 19), the overtures made in 1627 by the Dutch to the Plymouth people, to join them in a mercantile venture upon the Connectiont River, had no immediate practical result. The Plymouth people " made several voyages to the Connectient, and found it a fine place, but had no great trade."-Bradford. " Those Indians [i. e. of Connectient River] seeing us not very forward to build there, solicited them of Massachusetts in like sort, for their [the Indians'] end was to be restored to their country again."-Bradford. They had heard that the white men with their guns were invincible, and hoped that, under such protection, the Pequots would no longer oppress them. Neither Plymouth nor Massachusetts were at that time ready to commence the undertaking; but later ( July 12, 1633), Mr. Winslow and Mr. Bradford of Plymouth went to Boston to confer with the Massachusetts mon about joining them in the enterprise. Massachusetts had no suitable goods for Indian trade, and though Plymouth offered them some of theirs on liberal terms, Bradford says that the negotiations came to nothing. Gov. Winthrop says (i. 105) " There was a motion to set up a trading house there to prevent the Dutch, who were about to build one, . there being three or four thousand Indians, dr., we thought not fit to meddle with it." The Plymouth people now determined to go on alone, but the Dutch at New York, who about a dozen years before had encour- aged them to do so, endeavored to forestall them. [by purchasing,' in 1632, lands from the Indians at Saybrook, on which were duly erected the arms of the States-General. And on the 8th of June, 1633, the West India Company bought from Sachem Wapyquart a tract of meadow land, "extending about a ( Dutch ) mile down along the river to the next little stream, and upwards beyond the hill, being a third of a (Dutch )" mile broad."2 On this purchase, the present site of the city of Hartford.
1 Through Wahguinnarut. a Connecticut River sachem, who visited both colonies. ' O'Callaghan, Hist. Nor Netherland, i. 151. Brodhead, i. 153, states that this forti- fied trading-house was said " to have been projected and begun in 1623," although not finished until 1633.
=
25
THE PLYMOUTH TRADING COMPANY.
the Dutch quickly erected a little fort, which was defended by two cannon and called the House of Good Hope. Events were hurrying for- ward a collision which could not long be avoided.
Early in October, the bark Blessing, from Massachusetts, voyaging to Long Island, visited New Amsterdam, where its captain showed to Van Twiller his commission, signifying that the King of England had granted to his loyal subjects the river and country of Connecticut. Whereupon the Dutch Governor wrote back a very - courteous and re- spectful" letter to the Eastern Colonies, stating that both by prior discovery, occupation, and the grant of the States, the country belonged to the Dutch West India Company ; and requesting the Plymouth Pro- ple to refrain from settling there until the matter could be determined by the proper persons, in order that they "as Christians, might dwell together in these heathenish parts."
But these courteous and pacific counsels had no weight with the Plymouth Trading Company, who, within a few days after. sent out " a large new bark." in charge of one William Holmes, a man of enterpris- ing and resolute spirit, with an equally resolute crew. Holmes had on board the frame of a house, with all the materials requisite for its imme- diate erection. He also carried with him AAttawanott, and other Indian sachems, the original proprietors of the soil, who had been driven thence by the warlike Pequots, and of whom the Plymouth people afterwards purchased the land. When he reached the Dutch fort at Hartford, the drum-beats that resounded from its walls. the cannoniers standing with lighted matches beside the " two guns," under the banner of New Noth- erlands, all gave note of warlike intent. Nor was he long left in doubt. The Dutch hailed him with an enquiry as to his intentions, and a per- emptory order to stop. He curtly replied that he held his commission from the Governor of Plymouth Colony, and that his orders were to go up the river to trade -and, notwithstanding their threats to fire upon him. he held steadily on his way to the place which the Indians had pre- viously sold to the company, below the mouth of the Tunxis, or Rivulet.1 arriving there, 26 Sept., 1633." They quickly put up the frame of the house which they had brought with them-s. ]. enclosed it with palisades (stockade ) and were soon in position to defend themselves against the Indian enemies of the friendly natives, who had invited them here and
1 The Plymouth Trading House was erected on the bank of the Connecticut River. 80 to 100 rods below the present mouth of the Tunxis (about midway of the Plymouth meadow).
2 Winthrop's Journal mentions their safe arrival in Connecticut, under date of Oct. 2d, the date probably on which he received the news. The Dutch authorities state that the Plymouth vessel reached its destination on Sept. 26th, six days before the news reached Boston. - O'Callaghan, i. 151.
VOL. I-4
26
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
sold them lands ; and, also, as it proved. against an attack by the Dutch. The Pilgrims had now out-generaled the Dutch by going above them. where they could secure the trade of the Indians, who lived higher up the river. The Dutch, at HartFord, at once reported the case to the authori- ties at New Netherlands, which resulted in an official protest, and warn- ing to quit, served upon Capt. Holmes,1 and in the sending of an armed foree of seventy men to dislodge the Plymouth people .? It seems almost incredible that the Dutch should have had so large a force here in the autumn of 1633. or that Plymouth should have had enough men on the spot to successfully withstand them. But the Plymouth men had "come to stay "; and, so far as the Dutch and Indians were concerned. proved their ability to do so. The seventy soldiers who went up in battle array. returned to Hartford without firing a gun : and the next we hear from the Dutch is of their strategic move to send men higher up the river to intercept the trade which would naturally fall to the Plymouth men. This, however, failed, because of the breaking ont of the small-pox among the Indians.3 and the Dutchmen themselves nearly perished before they reached the white settlements again. A like fatal epidemic occurred among the Windsor Indians during the same winter of 1633-4. Bradford's Journal (p. 314), gives the following account :
' This protest, served 25 Oct., 1633, by Commissioner Van Carler, reads thus: " The Director and Council of Nieuw Netherland hereby give notice to William Holmes. lieutenant and trader, acting on behalf of the English Governor of Plymouth, at pres- ent in the service of that nation, that he depart forthwith, with all his people and houses, from the lands lying on the Fresh River. continually traded upon by our nation. and at present occupied by a fort, which lands have been purchased from the Indians and paid for. And in case of refusal, we hereby protest against all loss and interest which the Privileged West India Company may sustain.
"Given at Fort Amsterdam, in Nieuw Netherland. this xxvth Octob., 1633."
A written answer to this was requested but was refused by Holines. - O'Valla- ghan's Hlixt. N. N .. i. 154.
2 Dec. 22, 1634, by a letter from Plymouth, it was certified that Holmes' House had been attacked. - Winthrop, i. 153.
3 Bradford, p. 325, says: " There was a company of people lived in the country up above in the river Connecticut [Warannoe, now Westfield. Mass. ]. a great way from their [the Plymouth] Trading-house, and were enemies of those Indians who lived about them, and of whom they [the Windsor Indians] stood in some fear (being a stout peo- ple). about a thousand of whom had inclosed themselves in a fort, which they had strongly palisadoed about. Three or four Dutchmen went up in the beginning of win- ter to live with them, and get their trade, and prevent them from bringing it to the English, or to fall into amity with them, but at spring to bring all down to their place [Hartford]. But, their enterprise failed. for it pleased God to visit those Indians with a great sickness and such a mortality that, of a thousand, above nine hundred and fifty died, and many of them did rot above ground for want of burial, and the Dutchmen almost starved before they could get away, for ice and snow. But, about February they got, with much ditheulty, to their [the Plymouth] trading-house, where they kindly received them, being almost spent with hunger and cold. Being thus refreshed divers days, they got them down to their own place [Hartford], and the Dutchmen were very thankful for this kindness."
27
FATAL EPIDEMIC AMONG THE INDIANS.
" This Spring, also, the Indians that lived about their trading-house there fell sick of ye small-poxe, and dyed most miserably ; for a sorer disease cannot befall them ; they fear it more than ye plague ; for usually they that have this disease have them in abund- ance and for want of bedding and linen, and other helps, they fall into a lamentable condition, as they lie on their hard mats, the pox breaking and matterating, and run- ning one into another, their skin eleaving (by reason thereof) to the mats they lie on. When they turn them [selves] a whole side will flea off at once, as it were, and they will be all one gore of blood, and then being very sore, what with cold and other distempers, they die like rotten sheep. The condition of this people was lamentable, and they fell downe so generally of this disease, as they were (in ye end) not able to help one another; no, not to make a fire, nor to fetch a little water to drink, nor any to burie ye dead; but would strive as long as they could, and when they could proeure no other means to make 'fire, they would burne ye wooden trayes, & dishes they ate their meate in, and their very bowes and arrowes: & some would crawle out on all fours to gett a little water, and sometimes dye by ye way, & not be able to gett in againe. But those of ye English House [Plymouth Co.'s] (though at first they were afraid of the infection), yet seeing their woefull and sadd condition, and hearing their pitifull cries and lamenta tions, they had compassion of them, and dayly fetched them wood and water, and made them fires, gott them victuals whilst they lived, and buried them when they dyed. For very few of them escaped, notwithstanding they did what they could for them, to ye hazard of themselves. The chiefe-sachem himselfe ' now died, & almost all his friends & kindred. But by ye marvellous goodnes & providens of God, not one of ye English was so much as sicke, or in ye least measure tainted with this disease, though they dayly did these offices for them for many weeks together. And this mercie which they shewed them was kindly taken, and thankfully acknowledged of all ye Indians that knew or heard of ye same: and their masters [members of the Trading company] here [at Plymoutb] did mueb commend and reward them for ye same."2
) Probably Attawanot, or Nattawanut, who was brought home and restored to his possessions by Holmes. See chapter on Indian History and Purchases.
2 'This terrible disease had prevailed about Plymouth several years before the com- ing of the Plymouth Pilgrims, as we learn from an account of a visit made from that place forty miles inward, in the summer of 1621. This account, written by Bradford (102) several years later, throws considerable light upon the art of cultivating Indian corn, as practiced by the Indians before the whites came, as well as upon the beneficial results to the Indians of the coming of the English - who occupied the open lands of the depleted tribes, supplied the survivors with European agricultural implements, and taught them better methods of cultivation.
" Mr. Winslow and Mr. Hopkins, with Squanto [the interpreter], went [from Ply- mouth] to visit Massasoit . .. but they found short commons and came home weary and hungry for the Indians used then to have nothing so much corn as they have since the Eng- lish have stored them with hoes, and [ the Indians have] seen our industry in breaking up new ground therewith, {The Indians bad hitherto been without iron, or other metal imple- ments. ] They [the Plymouth men] found the place 40 miles away, soil good, the people not many, being dead and abundantly wasted in the late great mortality which fell on all of these quarts about three years before the coming of the English, wherein thousands of them died, they not being able to bury one another. Their skulls and bones we found in many places where their homes and dwellings bad been," etc.
Nearly fifty years ago, I gathered some Indian corn, which was doubtless grown in Windsor by the Indians before the whites came. This corn was exposed by the break- ing of the Connecticut River bank, by a spring freshet, not far above the mouth of the Tunxis or Rivulet. I judged there had been about a bushel of it, in what had been an Indian grave; and had been charred to prevent its rotting, and looked like browned cof- fee berries. So many of the kernels were of an irregular shape - having been grown
28
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
HI. THE DORCHESTER AND OTHER MASSACHUSETTS IMMIGRATIONS.
As already seen, the Plymouth Company's party reached Windsor Sept. 26, 1633, and the news of their safe arrival here is entered in Winthrop's Journal under date of Oct. 2d; but, at least one party from Massachusetts which went overland probably reached the Connecticut River before them.
Winthrop (i. 111) says, under date of 4 Sept., 1633, - John Oldham and three others with him went overland to Connecticut to trade." Again (123), Jan. 20, 1633-4 (?), " Hall and two others who went to Connecticut Nov. 3d. now come home to the Bay. They found the small- pox raging among the Indians, by reason whereof they had no trade ;" and ( Ibid. ), July 15, 1634, "Six of Newtown went in the Blessing (bound to the Dutch plantation ) to discover the Connectiont River."
The reports of these parties, on their return, doubtless informed the Massachusetts people of the nature and extent of the river meadows open to cultivation, and, probably, the obtaining of accurate information was the main purpose of their journeys.
To return to the Plymouth people in Connectient, we have seen the erection of their house and defense of the same, their hospitality to the starving Dutchmen, who were their rivals in trade, and their kindness to suffering Indians in the winter of 1633-4. The next that is heard from them is in the summer of 1635, more than a year later, when Jon- athan Brewster, the resident agent, sends the following report to the Plymouth company :
Sr: &c.
Ye Massachusetts men are coming almost dayly, some by water & some by land. who are not yet determined wher to setle, though some have a great mind to yo place we are upon, and which was last bought.2 Many of them look at that which this river will not afford, except it be at this place which we have, namly to be a great towne and have commodious dwellings for many years together. So as [to] what they will dor I
alone, or having touched another only on one side -- as to indicate a meagre crop. Such kernels as are found when a chance stalk grows alone, or when a field of corn is too poor to produce pollen sufficient to fertilize all the car. A specimen of this corn can be seen at the Historical Society's Rooms in Hartford .- J. H. H.
1 Query. - Had " the Massachusetts men " [that is, the emigrants from Watertown, Mass. ] settled at Wethersfield the year before and Brewster remained ignorant of the fact? And, if he knew that the Watertown people were settled there, would he have ignored the fact in this communication, descriptive of the situation on the Connectient, to his superiors at Plymouth ?
"" Which was last bought." Bradford (314) says : " We did the Dutch no wrong, for they [of Plymouth | took not a foot of any land they [the Dutch] bought, but went to the place above them and bought that tract of land [ Plymouth Meadow and the head of the Hartford Meadow ] which belonged to those Indians which they [wel carried with us, and their friends, with whom the Dutch had nothing to do." " The last bought " was the Great Meadow which lies north of the Tunxis, or Rivulet. If the original purchase had included the Great Meadow, there would have been no "last " purchase.
29
DORCHESTER AND OTHER MASSACHUSETTS IMMIGRATIONS.
cannot yet resolve you : for [in] this place there is none of them say anything to me, but what I hear from their servants' (by whom I perceive their minds). I shall doe what I can to withstand them .? I hope they will hear reason ; as that we were here first, and entred with much difficulty and danger, both in regard to ye Dutch and In- deans, and bought ye land (to your great charge, allready disbursed), and have since held here a chargeable possession, and kept ye Dutch from further incroaching, which would els long before this day have possessed all, and kept out all others, &c. I hope these & such like argments will stop them.8 It was your will that we should use their persons and messengers kindly, & so we have done, and do dayly, to your great charge; for the first company had well nie starved, had it not been for this house. for want of victuals : 1 being forced to supply 12 men for 9 days togeather : and those which came last, 1 entertained the best we could, helping both them [the twelve men],4 (and ye others) with canows and guides. They got me to goe with them to ye Dutch, to see if I could procure some of them to have quiet setling nere them : but they did peremtor- ily withstand them. But this later company did not once speak thereof. &c. Also 1 gave their goods house roome according to their ernest request, and Mr. Pinchon's letter in their behalfe (which I thought good to send you, here inclosed). And what trouble
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