The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 6

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 6

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There is no doubt that the Stiles party were, after the Plymouth

1 Winthrop's Journal, i. 161. under date of June 16, 1635, records that, " A bark of 40 tons arrived [at Boston] set forth with twenty servants, by Sir Richard Saltonstall, to go plant at Connecticut." And Saltonstall, in his letter to Governor Winthrop, Jr. (p. 45), says his Pinnace lay at Boston ten days, which would bring the time of its de- parture to the Connecticut to 26th of June. - R. R. S.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

Trading Company, the first actual settlers of Windsor. On page 16 of a folio manuscript volume, in the Augmentation office, in Rolls Court, Westminster Hall, London, entitled " the Register of y names of all ye Passenger[$] weh Passed from y Port of London for an whole year end- ing at Amas, 1635." - ( Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d series, viii. 252 : N. Eng. Gen. Reg., xiv .: Drake's Results of Researches among the British Arch- ivex relative to the Founders of N. Eng., 1860, and Hatton's Original Lists of' Emigrants to American Plantations, etc .. 1877.)- we find a full list of this party, as follows:

" March 16. 1634-5, theis vnder-written names are to be transported to New Eng- land, imbarqued in the Christian de Lo [non], Joh White, M, bound thither, the Men have taken the oath [of] Allegeance and Supremacie." - Mildred Bredstet.1

fFRANCIS STILES.

aged 35 yrs., 37

Robert Robinson, aged 45 yrs.,

THO : BASSETT,

EDWARD PATTESON, 33

THO : STYLES, . . 20

ffr. Marshall, ..

THO: BARBER,

21 Rich. Heylei, 8

Tho. Halford. .. 20

Jo. Ilarris,

Jas. Ilorwood. 66

JO. REEVES, ..

Thos, ffoulfoot.

lane Worden,4

.las. Busket,

JOAN STILES.

35 ..

THOS. Coop,2 .

18 HENRY STILES,

En. PRESTON.

JO: STILES.

9 MM0.

Jo. Cribb,

RACHELL STILES,

28 yrs.

GEO. C'HAPPEL.

Of these, sixteen, whose names are printed in small capitals, are positively known to have settled in Windsor. Three of these were females, and (family) tradition, has also preserved the name of Rachel, wife of John Stiles, as the first English woman who stepped ashore in Windsor. Mr. Francis Stiles, the leader of the party, was a master carpenter of London, and to him (or to his eldest brother Henry - likewise a master carpenter, as well as a freeman of London) nearly all the males of this list were apprenticed, some before, and some after their coming to America .- s.]

Before the arrival of this Patentees' pioneer party, the Dorchester men were evidently hokling in reserve the actual occupation of the Great Meadow, yet out of some lingering respect for Plymouth's claims, were searching elsewhere for a suitable place for settlement.' Still they could

1 These italicized words are in the margin of the list, showing from what parish they brought certificates of their conformity to the rules and discipline of the Church of England. St. Mildred's Church was destroyed by the great fire of London, 1666, and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren.

" Probably Cooper, though the MISS. is as above, without abbreviation mark.

3 The MSS. appears to me plain.

4 Drake makes this Morden.

(Above notes by S. G. DRAKE.)

Tho. Hankseworth, .. 23

JO. DYER,

30 Jo. STILES, HENRIE STILES, 40

DORCHESTER SETTLERS RESIST THE PATENTEES' CLAIM.

not but resent the claims of these new comers, who proposed, under authority of a patent which recognized neither Plymouth nor Massaelni- setts men, nor Dutchmen, as having any right to the land in "the Three Towns," to begin forthwith a plantation "between the Plymouth Truck- ing House and the falls," (i. e., on the Great Meadow). Mr. Roger Lud- low was there, the controlling spirit of the Dorchester party, and the Patentees party was summarily told to keep " hands off." So, Mr. Stiles stayed his hands, and reported the state of affairs to his superiors in England, and the following letter written by Sir Richard Saltonstall, upon receipt of his agent's statement, throws an interesting light upon the matter.

"ffor my worthy good ffreind M' John Winthropp, Gouerneur of the Plantations at Conetecot Ryuer in New England, these d[elivere]d per Frs. Styles, whom God preserve.

" Good Mr. Winthrop:

"Being credibly informed (as by the enclosed 1 may appeare) that there hath been some abuse and injurie done me by Mr. Ludlowe & others, of Dorchester, who would not suffer Franeis Styles & his men to impall grounde where I appointed them att Con- neeticut, although both by patent, which I tooke aboue foure yeares since, & preposses- sion, Dorchester men, being then vnsettled, & seeking vp the Riner abone the falls for a place to plant vpon butt findeing none better to their likeing they speedily came backe againe & discharged my worke men, casteing lotts vpon that place, where he was pur- posed to begine his worcke; notwithstanding he often tould them what great charge 1 had beene att In sending him & so many men, to prepare a house against my comming & enclose grounde for my cattle, & how the damage would fall heavie upon those that thus hindered me, whom Francis Styles conciued to hane best right to make choyse of any place there. Notwithstanding, they resisted him, slighteing me with many vnbe- sceming words, such as he was vnwilling to relate to me, but will justifie vpon his oath before authoritie, when he is called to itt. Therefore, wee bauing appointed you to be our Gouernour there, the rest of the Companye being sencible of this affront to me. would hane signified there minde in a generall letter vnto you but that I tould them sitthe itt did concerne myself in particular and might perhaps breed some jealousies In the people, and so distast them with ovr Governmentt; wherevpon they advised me write vnto you to request you with all speed & diligence to examine this matter, & if (for the substance) you find itt as to vs itt appeares, by this information heerewith sent you, that then In a faire & gentle way you give notice to Dorchester men of this greate wronge they hane donne me & let being the first that to further this designe sent my pinnace thither at my owne great charge of almost a thousand pounds, which now is cast away by theire detaineing so long before she couldle vnlayd; and for which inius- tice I may require satisfaction, as also for my prouision which cost abone fine hun dreth pounds, and are now (I heare) almost al spent by this meanes, and not any palling as yet sett vp att that place where I appointed them; which had ) but imagined they would have this greedily snatched vp all the best grounds ypon that Riuer, my pinnace should rather have sought a pylate at New Plymouth, then to haue stayd ten days as she did in the Bay to have given them such warneing thus to prevent me & lett them spaire (as I am tould they may very well), forth of that great quantity they have in- grossed to themselues, so much as my proportion comes too, and if they have built any

' Referring probably to Mr. Francis Styles " Relacion." or letter to him to which he elsewhere refers; and probably also to Bartholomew Greene's letter -see Note to p. I7.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

houses therespon, I will pay them their reasonable charges for the same. But I pray yon, either goe yourselfe with some skilful men with you, or send Sergiaent Gardnier & some with him to sett out my grounds (1,600 akers) where it may be most convenient, bet weene Plymouth Trucking house and the falls, according to my direction given both to the maister of my pinnace and to Francis Styles, which I thinke they will not now denie me, understanding what charge I am att (with others of the Companie) to secure this River mouth for the difence of them all, wherein we hope you will negelect no meanes, according to our great trust reposed in you. Thus besecching the lord to pros- per the worke begun, I commend you with all ovr affaires vnder your charge to the gra- tious direction and protection of ovr good God in whome lam

" Your most assured loveing friend

" RIC. SALTONSTALL

" For my worthyly Respected Friend Mr. John Winthrop Governeur of the Plantations upon Connectacut Ryver in New England Whitefriers, [Eng.], Feb'y 27, 1635 [6] '(Labelled) Sir Richard Saltonstall -1636."

Saltonstall was authorized to write to Gov. Winthrop, in preference to an official communication from the Patentees, "lest it might breed some jealousies in the people, and so distaste them with our govern- ment." Possibly, if " the people" had not had "a distaste" for the government of Lords and Gentlemen at home, in England, they would not have had the honor of giving to the Colony of Connecticut " the first written Constitution the world ever saw."

The Patentees, thus thwarted by the Dorchester party, sent to their lately-appointed Governor, John Winthrop, Jr., to Saybrook, where they had erected a fort and commenced a settlement : and he, with Sir Henry Vane, then at Boston, opened negotiations with " the river towns," claim- ing that " either of the three towns gone thither [i. e., to the Connecticut River] must give place."" This claim covered the Plymouth as well as

1 Winthrop's Journal, i. 170- "Smo., 6 [Sept. 6], 1635: There came also John Win- throp the Younger, with commission from Lord Say, Lord Brooke, and divers other great persons in England to begin a plantation in Connecticut and to govern them."

(/ bid., i. 397): "Sir Henry Vane came to Boston. This noble Lord having orders from the said Lords and others, treated with the Magistrates here [at the Bay] and those who were to go to Connecticut about the said design of the Lords to this issue, that either of the three towns gone thither should give place on full satisfaction [i.e., on being paid for their improvements], or else sufficient room must be found there for the Lords and their companies." Winthrop thus gives the terms proposed: " Whereas there is a patent granted to certain persons of quality, of the river of Connectient, with the places adjoining . .. they conceive they have full power and authority to govern and dispose of all persons and affairs within the limits of said patent [Narragansett Bay to California ] . . . we conceive that the present face of affairs in Connecticut, as it now appears, ad- mit or require a pertinent and plain answer to these necessary queries from the towns that are lately removed from Massachusetts Bay to take up plantations within the aforesaid patents.

" Imprimis, whether they do acknowledge the right and claims of said persons of quality, and, in testimony thereof, will and do submit to their present Governor, Mr. John Winthrop, the younger?

" Secondly. Under what right and pretense they have lately taken up these planta-

DORCHESTER SETTLERS HOLD THE GROUND.

the Massachusetts settlements. These negotiations, as Winthrop's Jour- nal tells us, "were with the magistrates here [at Boston], and those who were to go to Connectient"; this was in the winter of 1635-6, proving that Mr. Ludlow went back with others from Windsor that winter, and that it was prior to the death of Rev. Mr. Maverick, which occurred at Boston, Feb. 3, 1636, as he and Mr. Indlowe are named in the negotiations.

Though the document referred to (note 1, p. 46) " requires a per- tinent and plain answer" from the Three Towns, yet only Dorchester ( Windsor) men are named, probably because they had taken up the par- ticular spot selected by the Lords and Gentlemen for their settlement - and possibly as their future capitol.

The land which the Dorchester party hesitated to take up withont the eunsent of Plymouth, these Patentees proposed to take without so much as saying to Plymouth " by your leave"; so that, when it had he- come a question between themselves and the Lords and Gentlemen, as to who should occupy the Great Meadow, the Dorchester party -as the stronger-"sat down on" the Stiles party, and taking possession of the Great Meadow, began to prepare dwellings along the brow of the meadow-hill for their expected families. Stiles and his party were crowded to the extreme north end of the meadow, occupying the later Chief Justice Ellsworth place, where " he built himself a suitable house."

Besides the complication of affairs arising from the conflicting claims of the Plymouth Company, the Dorchester settlers and the Pat- entees, which thus confronted Mr. Francis Stiles upon his arrival in Windsor, there may have been some doubts in his mind as to the exact location designated by his orders. From a letter written to Sir Richard Saltonstall, December, 1635, by one Bartholomew Greene, who appears to have been an agent for him, and to have had some personal knowledge of affairs upon the Connectient River ( which letter will be found in note below) ' it would seem that " Mr. White" (probably John White, the

tions within the precincts aforementioned, and what government they intend to live under, because the said country is out of the claim of the Massachusetts patent.

"To Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Maverick, Mr. Newbury, Mr. Stoughton, and the rest en- gaged in the business of Connecticut plantation in the town of Dorchester.

" [Signed] II. VANE, JR. J. WINTHROP, JR.

HUGH PETERS."

1 Letter from Bartholomew Greene to Sir Richard Saltonstall. - Maxx, Hist Coll .. Fifth Series, i. 216, 217.)

"To the Right Worshipful and his most lovinge M. Sur Richard Saltonstall, Knight, at his house in Whitt Streete. London.

" Right Worshipful, - my humbill servfieles is remembered. Haninge soe titt a mesenger I canot but right a word or tow. This is to certifie your worshipp this mesen- ger was at Canaticoatt, and can tell you how the case stands. For my parte, it is a

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

master of Saltonstall's vessel, which brought over the Stiles party of workmen ) had "commission to be [i. e., to locate] on one side of the river. Mr. Stiles on the other" ; and, on the margin of the original letter we find the following endorsement, said to be in Sir Richard's handwriting, " they were to plant on that side of ye ryuer, New Plymuth trading-house was buylt. - Mr. Brewster's poept to Frans : Styles." And also when Bartholomew Groen finally succeeded (as Stiles and White seemed to have failed to do) in securing the services of a surveyor, it was found that " there was not ground, neather for medow nor aribell or pastur gronds, that would give," Sir Richard " content : " and " the Plim- month men " also, making common cause with Dorchester in this matter, attempted to " discharge " the Stiles party. Well might Inekless Salton- stall say, " had I but imagined they would have thus greedily snatched up all the best ground on the river, my pinnace should rather have songht a pilot at Plymouth than to have stayed ten days as she did in the Bay and given them such warning thus to prevent me."-s.]

Bradford (340) gives us, later on, copies of a correspondence he- tween Dorchester and Plymouth relative to the seizure of the land by the former, in which the former say " it [the Great Meadow ] was the Lord's waste and for the present altogether void of inhabitants to cultivate it " [the Indians were all dead] ; and apologizing to Plymouth for holding on to the disputed territory, they urge the " meertain possibilities of this or that to be [i. e., which might be accomplished] by any : we judg- ing them [the Lords and Gentlemen] (in such a case as ours especially )

greefe to me but the truthe is I canot, we could not do no mor in it. I did vse the best consell, and vse wat meayns I coukl in the busnes for yor good, but M' Whitt[e] com- ision was to be one side of the river, Mr Stilles one the other, and after I had vse meyns, when M' Whitt and M Stills went, and could not get a man to goe by no means; and as soonne as 1 hurd the[y ] went not forward in the bus[i]nes, I put myself vpon it agayne, and at last got a man to go to measur it out at a dear ratte, and when he came ther ther was not ground, neather for medow nor ariball or pastur gronds, that would gine yor worshipp content, that the men darst not lay it out; the shuld a done yor worshipp [w ]ronge in the same, seing that Dorchester men had taken vp the best place befor, and Plimmoeth men sente a letter to discarg of men for medellinge with it, sayinge it was ther right; for I conscane that MF Ludloe was the cheffe man that hinderd it. He was the onli man of Dorchester that sett downe ther. I hope that this barer, MF Wood- cock[s] man [Jo Dueix on Margin] will certifie you how it is. I have riten manie letters for this purpose. Other things I have bine larger in letters. I am loath to be tow trobellsome to yor worshipp in the lik expressures. M' Hooker hath expresse some- thinge that waye. The Lord direct you and advise you for the best, and further yor ofrings for his glorie and yor good and all ours. Thus wh my serues agayne, I com! yon to the only wise God, and rest yor poor servant to the vtter most of my power to command.

"BARTHI. GREENE

· From Watertown this 30 of December, 1635.

.Undorsed by Sir R. Saltonstall), mr that this letter be sent to M. John Winthrope, our Govern' at Conectaentt, web Frs Styles his relation."

DEFENCE OF DORCHESTER'S PROMPT ACTION.

not meet to be equalled with [our] present actions (such as ours are) much less [the claim of the Patentees] to be preferred before them [us]."

Some parties are pleased to denounce Dorchester for taking up land, not that which the Plymouth people had first settled, but that of which they had extinguished the Indian title. Goodwin's Pilgrim Republic (393), terms them " pious bandits." But the Dorchester people ( "in such a case as ours, especially " ) could hardly have acted differently. A delegation of them had come on to Connectient to prepare for the coming of their families, and found themselves shut up to the Great Meadow : the Dutch " did peremptorily withstand the Massachusetts men quiet settling near them " - Brewster - (but the Hartford men " got there " notwithstanding) ; Plymouth Meadow was already ocenpied, and the Connertient Patentees, by their agent, Mr. Francis Stiles, " pro- posed to begin work on the only place that was available." What won- der then that " Mr. Ludlow and others" acted as they did.'

The Pilgrim Republic says (393), that " the Dorchester [ Windsor ] people turned away from hundreds of square miles [of land] at their disposal, and told him [Brewster] that, as the Plymouth land pleased them, they should take it and built upon it." This is by no means a fair statement of the facts, but the author should have added that, while the hundreds of miles of primeval forest land through which the Massa- chusetts men pushed their way to reach the Connecticut River was just as good as any on the river, outside of the open meadows (once the plant- ing ground of Indians, who had been removed by the small-pox ), and no better than the forest land at their own doors in Massachusetts, still

I But, when have these descendants made a less gallant fight for the possession of any good land they wanted from that day to this ? Hartford shared with Windsor the Patent given by the court, in 1686, for the uninhabited land lying west of Simsbury. and when, half a century later, these lands were wanted for settlement, Hartford and Windsor were reminded that when the lands were given, it was because the court knew that they would revert to the Crown, if Andros succeeded in getting the charter. After considerable controversy the Colony got back half of it, retaining territory enough for three and a half towns apiece. A later generation, about the time of the Revolution, discovered some beautiful lands at Wyoming in the Valley of the Susque. hannah, which was within the ancient bounds (viz., "west by the South Seas "- Pacific), and the Connecticut people poured in there to the number of about 2,000, and fought with the Pennamites for possession. During the Revolutionary War, British sokliers, Tories, and Indians fell upon them, killed abont 300, and the rest fled back to Connectient. After the close of the war, the land west of Pennsylvania was claimed by Connectient, and Congress granted the northeast corner of Ohio, which lies in the latitude of Connecticut. (See T. J. Chapman's article in Mag. of Am. Blixt., 1884. p. 238, on Early Conn. Claims in Pennsylvania.) Many of us remember the struggle to get possession of Kansas, and the sending of Sharps' rifles to our friends. The rush to gain a place in Oklahoma within a year past was a perfect cyclone compared with the breeze which swept over our Connecticut Valley two hundred and fifty years ago.

VOL. 1 .- 7

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

these meadows were the only acres fit for immediate cultivation. And it is the prime necessity of any first emigration, from that day to this, that it shall settle upon that place which will yield the quickest returns for the labor spent upon it.

A little consideration of topographical facts will show the urgency of Dorchester's need at that time, when meadows were scarce. Ply- mouth Meadow (then already settled ) contained about 100 acres ; the Great Meudow, north of the Plymouth Meadow, and separated therefrom by the Tunxis river, holds about 600 acres; Sequestered Meadow, lying still further north, and about three miles from Plymouth Meadow, has some seventy-live acres: and Pine Meadow (below Windsor Locks ). about five miles north of Plymouth Meadow, has sixty to seventy acres; one hundred aeres at Podunek, and two or three small meadows on the Tunxis.

Then, extending our survey to the south, two miles below Plymouth Meadow is the head of Hartford Meadow, which extends along the river for about three miles, and contained about 1,000 acres of available land. Below Hartford and the Dutch fort was the South Meadow, and he- vond that the Wethersfield Meadow. Then comes Rocky Hill, with miles of high banks and no meadows, with Mattabesie ( Middletown) Meadows still further down the river. There are meadows on the east side of the river, but they were then covered with forests. The fact that no company or individual settled, at first, on the east side, is strong presumptive evidence of this: and the record of deeds in Windsor shows that the land on the east side of the river was set out in lots three miles long, bounded west by the river, with no mention of " meadow," or " meadow and upland," except on one hundred acres of "meadow" at Podunk. On the west side, every man's " meadow " was described in a separate deed ; and so was the meadow at Podunk, where (with a few exceptions, which read "meadow & upland,") the remnant of a tribe of Indians were living on a "meadow" lying on Podunk farther back from the Connecticut, and once numerous enough to culti- vate both that meadow and the " abont 100 acres lying on the Great River." The epidemic of small-pox which removed the last Indian from the Great Meadow and Sequestered Meadow in Windsor, had rendered those meadows "the Lord's waste" of which the Endlow party spoke as being " void of inhabitants that indeed minded the employment thereof to the right ends for which land was created." These meadows were the grounds to which the white men had been invited in 1631, and the only grounds to which they could bring their families and raise food for them.

[And to this place, therefore, they immediately began to gather their families. It will be seen that there were several concurrent causes at

IMPELLING MOTIVES OF THE DORCHESTER IMMIGRATION.

work to inaugurate and expedite this emigration: (1) Massachusetts, as Cotton Mather says, was " like a hive overstocked with hees, and many thought of swarming into new plantations; (2) there was the in- ducement of a profitable fur trade: (3) it was known that the Connecti- cut Patentees were preparing to take possession of their patent at the river's mouth ; and the subject agitated the people of the Bay to such a degree that a public fast was appointed, September 18, 1634.1 Roger Laidlow, one of the assistants, and a leading inhabitant of Dorchester, strongly opposed the movement. In this state of affairs, Israel Stongh- ton, one of the first deputies of Dorchester, had an altercation with Governor Winthrop, and published a pamphlet which occasioned his expulsion from the House." and the Dorchester people petitioned in vain for a remission of his sentence. Roger Ludlow of Dorchester aimed at being governor of Massachusetts Colony in 1635, and protested openly against the choice of Governor Haynes, and was, in consequence, left ont of the magistracy. It is not improbable that these wealthy and influential gentlemen sought a more congenial field for their political ambition than the Bay Colony presented to them at that moment. It is certain that Mr. Ludlow suddenly changed his views on the subject, and was actively engaged in the project in 1635, which he had with zeal opposed in 1634. These different considerations will suffice to account for the movement which was at first opposed by the government, but in the spring of 1635 " reluctantly assented to,"" on the condition that the new colonies should continue within the jurisdiction, and be considered as a part of Massachusetts. Early in the preceding June the General Court of Massachusetts had granted "3 pieces [or cannon] to the plan- tations that shall remove to Connectient, to fortify themselves." In September, Win. Westwood was appointed " constable for the plantations in Connecticut, together with a new supply of arms and ammunition for the colonies, and liberty to appoint their own constables."-s. ]

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The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 6

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