The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 57

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company
Number of Pages: 1038

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 57

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SIMSBURY was Windsor's second eldest-born. In April, 1642, the court granted the Governor and Mr. Haines " liberty to dispose of the ground vppon that parte of Tunxis River cauled Massacowe, to such inhabitants of Wyndsor as they shall see cause." About 1643, John Griffen and Michael ITumphrey came to Windsor and engaged in the manufacture of tar and turpentine, and in this business became acquainted with the piney wilderness of Massaco, of which Griffin subsequently became the pioneer settler. But, one day, Mannabanosee, a Massaco Indian, having " wittingly " kindled a fire in the woods, which consumed a large quantity of Griffin's tar, was arrested and brought to trial in Hartford. The "payment of 500 fathom of wampum." which was imposed upon him by the court as fine for his misdemeanor, (in default of which he was "either to serve, or to be shipped out, and exchanged for neagers, as the case will justly beare." ) was so excessive that to escape the penalty, he was obliged to give Griffin a deed of Massaco. And to help him in his trouble, the other " Indians, the proprietors of Massaco. came together and made tender of all the lands in Massaro, for the redemption of the Indian out of his hands, being they were not able to make good the payment of five hundred fathom of wampum for the satisfaction."

From Simsbury 1st Bk. of Deeds : " Thomas Bancroft, & 36 yrs, or thereabouts, Tes- tifieth upon oath that when he and his brother John Griffin wer at Massaco they went a Hunting for Moose & being at a Hunting Wigwam they went with Mamanto, who desired liberty of my Brother Griffin to plant at Weatauge Meadow; my brother gave him liberty, and he the said Manantoe did then acknowledge John Griffin to be the true owner of the lands of Massachoe and upon that account he desired liberty to plant in the meadows at Wetaug: he further Testifieth that he heard pawnsattaquam at Massaco say that John Griffin was now the sachem of Massachoe & the Indians had no right to any of these lands to whom Tunxes bounds; for they had wholly made out their right to John Griffin and further sayeth not. Taken upon oath 11 of March 1661 in Hartford. Memorandum, pawmattaquam excepted two acres; this was taken upon oath before me, Matthew Allyn, March, 1661."

478

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

This. subsequently known as " Griffin's Lordship," was, in 1672, released by Griffin to the proprietors of the town, in consideration of a grant made to himtin 1663, of 200 aeres north of the falls (in recogni- tion of his having been " the first to perfect the art of making pitch and tarre in these parts " ), as well as of another later grant of a mile and a half square. He was a permanent seltler there in 1664; in 1666, the then undivided lands at Massaco were laid out to several Windsor men ; and, again in 1667, by a committee-Simon Wolcott, Capt. Newberry, and Deacon Moore. In Oct., 1668, about twenty-five men assembled at the house of John Moore, Jr., in Windsor, adjusted the terms of settlement upon their several allotments at Massaco, and within two years were nearly all settled thereon. By a return made to the court, 1669, we learn the names of those who were then "stated inhabitants of Massaco, and have been freemen of Windsor," viz. :

Thomas Barber

Michacl Humphry

Samuel Pinney

John Case

Josua Holcomb

Samuel Filley

Thomas Martal

Joseph Phelps John Pettibone

John Griffin

Luke Hill

Joseph Skinner

Peter Buell

To which list may be added the names of

John Brooks (1682), Thos. Barber (1676), John Terry (1676).

Jolin Bartlett (1669),

Nath'l Gillett (1670).

This " Appendix to Windsor," as it was officially termed, was finally created a town, on the petition of its inhabitants, 1670; and its name was declared to be SIMMSBURY -possibly in recognition of Simon Woleott (familiarly called " Sim." a son of Mr. Henry Wolcott, and father of Gov. Roger Wolcott ), who was a prominent man in both town and colony.

To the settlement of FARMINGTON, 1640-1655, Windsor contributed Thomas Orton, Anthony Hawkins ( before 1662), John Porter. Richard Weller.

HADLEY, Mass., settled 1659-60, though a direet ontgrowth from Hartford, aided by Wethersfield, drew from Windsor some of its best men - Peter Tilton, who became a magistrate there : Dea. Henry Clarke, Aaron Cooke, and others.

NORTHAMPTON, settled 1654-6, attracted, among others, Thos. Bas- comb (1656): Capt. Aaron Cooke; Josiah Dewey (1663); Thos. Ford ( before 1672) : William Hanmum, Wm. Hubbard, Nath'l Phelps ( 1657); Eltwood Pomeroy ( before 1671 ): Lient. David Wilton, George Alexan- der. Joshua Carter, John Hillier, Jr.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., John Barber (1671), John Dumbleton, and others : DEERFIELD, Mass., Arthur Williams, 1657-8: NORWALK. Matt.

179

COLONIZATION FROM WINDSOR.

Sessions : STAMFORD. Thos. Thornton and his son-in-law, John Strong. 1654.

" Mr." Edward Griswold, who came to Windsor in 1639. removed thence in 1663 or 1664 to the new settlement of Hamonoscett, of which he was a prominent founder, and to which he gave the name of KENILWORTH (later corrupted to Killingworth ), after his own English birthplace. He was accompanied thither by William Hayden, the emigrant ancestor of the Windsor Haydens; Samuel Buell, 1667. In 1663, the following Windsor names found on petitions ( State Arch., Towns and Lands, Vol. 1., before 1696) relative to the farms at Hammonoscott, are sufficiently indicative of Windsor's interest in that enterprise, viz .:

John Owen Edward Elmore

Isaac Phelps

William Hillier Steven Tailor

Samuel Rockwell

Edward King

Samuel Grant Thos. Gunn

Thomas Burnham

Timo. Buckland John Osborn

COLCHESTER, settled 1699, and probably named by Gov. Fitz-John Winthrop after the English town of the same name, numbered among its early settlers the following from Windsor:

Samuel Loomis Nathaniel Loomis

Evan lones Shubael Rowley

Josiah Gillett, Sen. and Ir.

Micael Taintor, and others.

LEBRON was settled in 1704, and incorporated 1707-8. by a com- pany, of whom the principal men and the greater number of settlers were from Windsor.

TOLLAND, purchased from the Indians by two prominent Windsor men, was largely settled by an overflow from Windsor, and was incor- porated in 1717. It was probably named in honor of Mr. Henry Wol- cott's English birthplace.

HADDAM was settled, 1668, by twenty-eight young men from Wind- sor, Hartford, and Wethersfield. It was probably named in honor of Gov. Haynes, whose family estates in England were at Great Haddam, Hertfordshire.

BOLTON, where settlement began about 1716. and organization 1720. drew very largely from Windsor: among them -

Timothy Stanley John Bissell Moses Thrall Ichabod Marshall

Charles Strong

Joet White

David Strong

derusha White

Jonathan Story

Lemnel White

Loomis

480

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

The Western Land Grants. - From an article published in the Hurt- ford Co. Mem. Hist. (i. 76) by Miss MARY K. TALCOTT, we extract the following well-digested statement of the carlier colonizations in which Windsor and Hartford were concerned. Speaking of the Peace of Utrecht, which had given the colonists a respite from warfare and a chance to subdue the wilderness around them, she says :

"The people of Hartford and Windsor had begun even earlier to plan new town- ships on the land grants to these two towns by the General Assembly in 1686. This grant was a hasty measure, adopted in anticipation of the coming of Sir Edmund Andros, when it was feared he would att. npt to sequestrate the nnimproved lands held by the Governor and Company of Connecticut, under the charter of King Charles H., as well as to annul the charter itself. The grant to Hartford and Windsor consisted of 'those lands on the north of Woodbury and Mattatuck, and on the west of Farming- ton and Simsbury to the Massachusetts line north, and to run west to the Hlousatunnuck River (provided it be not, a part of it, formerly granted to any particular person). to make a plantation or village thereon.' After the flight of Andros, in 1689, when the charter government was resumed, no action was taken in regard to the lands. 'It is probable that the General Court, while composed mostly of those who voted the grant, were unwilling by a revocation to incur the imputation of having made a fictitious dis- posal of the lands: and that the grantees, while the well-known intent of the grants was fresh in their remembrance, were slow to repudiate the implied trust, by any overt act of ownership.' (Boyd's Hist, of Winchester.) In 1707, more than twenty yearsafter the grant, and after most of those then on the stage bad passed away, Maj. William Whit. ing, Mr. Nathaniel Hooker, and Mr. Caleb Stanley were appointed to survey this tract of land in conjunction with a committee from Windsor. The same committee, with the addition of Mr. Richard Edwards, were appointed, Jan. 19, 1208, to treat with Mr. John Reade of Stratford, and other claimants to these lands, to settle the boundaries, and to adopt legal measures, if necessary, in defense of the rights of the two towns. Here the matter seemed to rest for a time; but, Nov. 2. 1713. after peace was declared, Capt. John Sheldon, Lieut. Cyprian Nichols, and Mr. Sedgwick were appointed a com- mittee to take account of the quantity and quality of the lands, and to ascertain the nature of the Indian claims to the territory. Two years later, in 1715, Col. Win. Whit- ing. Ens. John Marsh, and Ens. Thomas Seymor were appointed in conjunction with the Windsor committee to lay out one or two towns in this tract of land: and in pursu- ance of these directions, in 1717, the town of Litchfield, at first called New Bantam, was laid out. Certain considerable persons in Farmington having obtained, by purchase, the native's right to a portion of this township, after some negotiation, one-sixth part of it was set apart for them, provided that they release and convey to the two towns their claims to the western lands. In May, 1719, the assembly confirmed the rights of the settlers of Litchfield, but with evident disapproval of the proceedings of Hartford and Windsor, appends this declaration, that the whole tract north of Litchfield and Woodbury 'shall Hie for the further disposal of the Assembly.' This appears to have been something of a check upon the plans of the two towns, and made it necessary for them to go through the form of requesting the assent of the assembly to their next pro- ject, - Maj. Talcott, Capt. Cook, and Ens. Seymor being appointed, Dec. 14, 1719, to ask leave of the assembly to settle one or more townships on the remainder of the west- ern lands. There is no evidence that any such consent was ever received; but, in 1720, Ens. Thos. Seymor and Sgt. James Ensign were appointed to purchase the territory of the natives; and later in the same year it was voted that a list of the inhabitants of the town, purchasers of the western lands, be made so that every purchaser should receive his proportion. Dec. 19, 1721, Capt. John Sheldon was charged with the responsibility of selecting a place for another ' plantation.' The next year John Seymor, Samuel Cat-

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481

WINDSOR'S WESTERN LAND GRANTS.

lin, and Wm. Baker, of II., were appointed, with Thos. More and Job Ellsworth of W .. ' to take a further view of the land in order to settling another town.' April 1, 1723, this committee reported the laying out of a town of 67 allotments, and it was voted that the allotments be disposed of at £6 cash. The General Assembly was at last aroused, and at its May session ordered the King's Attorney for the County of New Haven to arrest the Hartford and Windsor committees, who had the matter in charge. Public feeling ran so high in Hartford County that civil process against the trespassers could not be executed; so the New Haven officials were called upon to act. Hartford and Windsor responded by appointing a committee to appear and explain before the assem- bly their proceedings with regard to the lands, and to propose a compromise, dividing the lands by a line drawn from the northwest corner of Litchfield north to the Mass. line, the colony taking the western division; the eastern to be confirmed to Hartford and Windsor. This was not aeceded to"" and finally, after a long and careful ex- amination of claims by the committee of The assembly, in 1726 they proposed that the whole tract of land in question should be equally divided between the colony and the two towns, - the colony to have the western portion and H and W. the eastern; also, that Litchfield should not come into the division, but should belong to the proprietors. This territory ceded to Il. and W. embraced the present towns of Colebrook, Hartland, Torrington, Winchester, Burkhamsted, New Hartford, and Harwinton, -an estimated area of 291, 806 acres, to which should be added the township of Litchfield, covering 35,000 acres more. The Government was probably actuated by an earnest desire to have these valuable lands thrown open for settlement, as could not be well done while this conflict continued; for, although called an equal division, the quantity of land reserved to the colony was only 120,000 acres. Notwithstanding this concession, the compact was not fully ratified until Aug. 20, 1729, when the patent was duly executed, and received the colony's seal. The next year the General Assembly annexed all the western lands belonging to 11. and W. to Hartford County. Capt. Thos. Seymor and Lieut. Roger Newberry were appointed in May, 1731, to make a division of these lands, and Mr. Kim- berly made a survey, from which it was calculated that five towns might be laid out east ward of the llonsatonick River, four north of Litchfield, and one between L. and the river. The deed dividing the lands between the two towns bears date Feb. 11. 1732, and the proprietors of Hartford became the owners of Hartland. Winchester, New Hart- ford, and the eastern half of Harwinton; while Colebrook, Barkhamsted, Torrington, and the western half of Hurinton were assigned to WINDSOR. The assembly passed a law that each taxpayer of the two towns, on their lists for 1720, should own a share, in proportion to his list, in one of these new townships, at the rate of not more than three acres to the pound of his list. The lands belonging to the colony were sold, and the proceeds were devoted to the support of schools, this money being divided among the towns then settled, to remain a perpetual fund."

" With the exception of Harrinton, which was settled quickly, and of Ner Hurt- ford, settled a few years later, these new townships were not occupied before 1750.

" During the period of those Western land troubles Windsor and Hartford had also other claims, the adjustment of which led to much active excitement in the two com- munities. It seems that Joshua, Sachem of the Nianties, by his will (1676), gave to certain persons of Windsor and Hartford large tracts of land in the present counties of Windham and Tolland. lis title was questionable, and it was with much hesitation that the will was admitted to probate; and then only on condition that the legatees should ' submit the dispose and improvement of the said lands to the General Court's ordering, to make a plantation of.' In 1706 the Hartford legatees received a grant of township privileges for Coventry, and in 1:15 those of WINDSOR were authorized to lay out Tollund. But, previously to this, Capt. Jeremiah Fitch of Norwich had pur- chased a large tract in Coventry, deriving his title by deed from a Windsor settler, who had bought from one of the Windsor legatees; and a part of his farm, being within the tract reserved by Joshua for his sons, was willed by the last survivor, VOL. I .- 61

482

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR,

Abimelech, to Major John Clarke and Rev. Thomas Buckingham of Saybrook. Clarke, in May, 1721, brought an action against Fitch, in the Superior Court, to recover possession of these lands; and judgment was given in his favor, and execution granted for the costs. Capt. Fitch was obdurate, and the execution was returned unsettled, and the captain was imprisoned. His neighbors were aroused by what they considered an outrage on their rights- for most of them were living on farms to which there were conflicting titles; and they decided to demonstrate their opinion in unmistakable terms. On the 22d Oct., 1722, a party of about fifty from the Hop River country, joined by some from (East) Windsor, crossed the Hartford Ferry, and proceeded to the jail, where they demanded Capt. Fitch's release. This being denied, they battered down the door, carried the captain off in triumph, and effected a general jail-de- livery. Col. Win. Whiting, High Sheriff, with such assistance as he could at the moment sveure, pursued and overtook them at the river-side; but, after some blows and scuffling, the invaders got the best of him, and escaped across the ferry. The General Court ordered a special court to sit at Hartford, May, 1723, at which fifteen of these offenders were tried and convicted; but Capt. Fitch was fully acquitted of all participation in the cmente, the court not considering that he did wrong to walk out of jail when the doors were open."

TORRINGTON, said, at the time of its cession to Windsor, in 1732, to contain 20,924 acres, was granted to Matthew Allyn and Roger Wolcott, Esq's., and the rest of the Windsor proprietors, 106 in number, who held their first business meeting in Windsor. Sept. 10, 1733. Its survey was completed in 1734 ; its first family settled in 1737 ; it was incorporated 1740, and its church organized 1741. Its settlers on the west side of the township were from Windsor and Durham; those on the cast side from Windsor. The following Windsor men were settlers at Torrington before 1757, viz .:

Nathaniel Barber (grandson of Thomas, the emigrant) and wife; David and brother lohn Birge (fourth generation from Daniel, the emigrant); Benjamin Bissell; Shubael Case: John Cook, made a deacon in 1755; Thomas and brother Abraham Dibble; Shubael Griswold; Nehemiah Gaylord (third from Deacon Gaylord of Wind- sor), and wife: William Grant; JJoseph Hoskins; Jonathan Gillett; Joel, Ebenezer, leha- bod, Aaron, and James, descendants of Joseph Loomis, the emigrant to Windsor; Thomas Marshall (third from Capt. Samuel of Windsor); Charles Mather (grandson of Rev. Samuel of Windsor); JJohm Phelps (grandson of Mr. William, the emigrant to Windsor); Joshua, in same line; Rev. Nathaniel Roberts, in 1743, married a daughter of Rev. Mr. Marsh of Windsor: Jacob Strong and wife (descendant of Elder John of Windsor); Joel and David Thrall (descendants of Timothy of Windsor); Ebenezer Winchell. See also, Orenti's Hist. of Torrington.

BARKHAMSTED, containing at the time of its cession, in 1732, 20,531 acres, was granted to Capt. Thomas More, Lient. Jonathan Ellsworth, and the rest of the proprietors.

COLEBROOK, containing at the time of its cession, in 1732. 18,199 aeres, was granted to Capt. Samuel Wheeler, Henry Woleott, and others. It was surveyed and laid out in 1760 into 79 rights, the number of the original proprietors. Sixty acres were laid out as a " minister's lot ": 100 for the parsonage; 100 for a school lot ; and 10 as a parade,

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483

WINDSOR'S SHARE IN THE WESTERN RESERVE.

on which to erect a meeting-house. The committee who laid out the town were Peletiah Mills, Josiah Phelps, 24, James Rockwell (fourth generation from Deacon William), Ephraim Wolcott, and Nathaniel Filley. The first settler was Benjamin Horton, and Dee., 1765, Joseph Rockwell, from (East) Windsor, and family : Joseph Seymour, Jan .. 1766 ; then Joseph Seymour; Nathan Bass, who married Anne Rockwell : Samuel Rockwell -both these last named from ( East) Windsor.

NORFOLK was begun in 1744 by Windsor and Hartford men.

The Pennsylvania Settlements. In 1753 the Susquehanna Company was formed in Connecticut to colonize the Wyoming Valley, then claimed by Connecticut under its ancient charter, and the Indian title was secured to a large tract there; and in 1757 another Connecticut company purchased and located on the Delaware River. Emigration from Connectieut poured in apace. but the Pennsylvanians opposed the new settlers; and from this time to the close of the Revolution the whole Susquehanna region became the theater of conflicting land titles, of embittered local controversies, of terrible massacres and widespread devastations by Indian and European warfare -culminating in the massaere of Wyoming, in which many Windsor men bore a share, and by which many a Windsor family was driven from its home back to the old home in Connecticut.'

Windsor had its share in the peopling of VERMONT - a State where between 40 and 50 towns bearing Connecticut names evidence the share which the latter State has had in peopling it, and where Windsor names are of common occurrence.

Settlement of the Western Reserve. But Windsor men have been further afield than the limits of New England in their search for homes. The charters granted to the different American colonies by the British Crown during the 17th century were given with no clear definition of the quantity of territory, or of the running of boundary lines, which they involved. They were all framed, like that of Connecticut, to border on certain Atlantic seacoast limits, but to run westward " to the South Sea"-a then unknown point - but which would, according to our present knowledge, extend to the Pacific. These charters. especially those of Massachusetts, Connecticut. New York, New Jersey, and Penn- sylvania, were ultimately found to conflict with one another ; and upon the establishment of a General Government of the United States, at the close of our Revolutionary struggle, these conflicting claims had, in

1 See note on p. 49, on the Pennomite and Yauker War; also Miner's Hist. of Wyour ing: Lossing's Illustrated Field Book of the American Reed dion, i 343; and an article on Early Connectiont Claims in Pennsylvania, by T. J. Chapman, in May. Am. History. 1884, 238.

484

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

some way, to be adjusted. Finally a compromise was effected, by which the different states ceded to the General Government their western land; and, under this arrangement, Connecticut, in 1786, ceded her western lands under her oldl charter, to the United States, reserving, however, an area of 3,300,000 acres, included within the present State of Ohio, and covering the present counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Cuyahoga, Medina, Lorain, Huron, Eric, and north part of Mahoning and Summit. The transaction was finally con- cluded between Connecticut and the United States in 1800, and the right of jurisdiction in the ceded lands conveyed by Congress to the State of Ohio.

The disposition of this immense area, and of the funds which would arise from its sale, now became the great public question of the day in Connecticut, and finally after much and violent agitation of the subjeet in the legislature, the press, and the church, it was decided by the State that such funds should be devoted to the purposes of a perma- nent State educational fund - a fund which, with its accretions and additions, now amounts to over $2,000,000. As soon as this land was open to purchase, it was bought by a syndicate of wealthy men in the State, who purchased the whole territory, and immediately opened offices for its sale to emigrants. " For years this work went on, and for years the long procession of emigrant wagons were making their weary jour- ney from Connecticut to Ohio. These moving crowds were followed by the Connecticut Missionary Society, with religions teachers and preachers, who might form churches and schools, and fix the population on the old-fashioned New England foundations. Of course, the emigra- tion to the Reserve was not wholly from Connectient. The emigrants came from many quarters, but the dominant stream flowed from the . Land of Steady Habits'; and the older generation used to like the name New Connecticut better than any other." OLIVER PHELPS (son of Charles ), a native of Windsor, where he was born 1758, and removed in carly manhood to Suffield, was the leader in this enterprise, its largest subscriber, and chief manager. Ile took $168,185 of its stock in his own name, and, with Gideon Granger, Jr., of Suffield, another 880,000, the total amount of stock being $1,200,000.' Among the names of this syndicate occur those of Newberry, Phelps, Loomis, King, and Mather ; and one has only to consult the genealogies of this History of Windsor to see how thoroughly and extensively Windsor was identified with this great exodus from Connecticut. Scarcely a family, if any, within the limits of the towns once comprising Old Windsor was unrepresented amid the new villages of the Connectient Reserve.

' Dr. Henry Barnard's Hist. of the School Fund of Conn., 1853 (Legislative Doc.), p. 107.

485

MIGRATIONS TO THE GENESEE COUNTRY.

The Phelps and Gorham Purchase. Mr. Oliver Phelps had also been the promoter of a similar, though earlier, enterprise. Massachu- setts, having ceded the title for her western lands to the General Govern- ment, had received as compensation a large tract of land in "the Genesee country," in the present State of New York. In company with Mr. Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts, Mr. Phelps had purchased a large tract of this land, now embracing the whole of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, and Steuben counties, the larger portion of Wayne and Allegany, and lesser portions of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming counties, comprising altogether 2,200,000 acres, purchased partly from Massachusetts, and partly from the Indian proprietors ; and this new field of opportunity drew many Windsor families from their old homes beside the Great River - as one will also see by consulting our genealo- gies.

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The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 57

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909 Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company Number of Pages: 1038

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company
Number of Pages: 1038