USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 3
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > East Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 3
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > South Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 3
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Bloomfield > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 3
USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor Locks > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 3
USA > Connecticut > Tolland County > Ellington > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut : including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891 > Part 3
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. Roger Ciap's Memoirs, pub. by the Dorchester Antiq. 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 Hos- pital in Plymouth, in England. spending it in Preaching and praying; where that worthy man of God, Mr. John White of Porchester. 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 Plymonth in the Mary and John. of 400 tons burden, commanded. by Captain Squab and described as " Mr. Ludlow's vessel." " So we canse." says Clap. "by the hand of God through the Deeps comfortably : having Preaching or Expomading 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 anebor on the New England const. Their original destination was the Charles River. but an unfortunate mismader- standing which arose between the captain and his passengers resulted in the latter being summearily put ashore at Nantaskot (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 Neck, where they were kindly re- ceived by an old planter. who gave them a dinner of - fish withont bread." Thas scantily 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 Neck of South Boston. Their settlement was named (as we have reason to believe at the suggestion of Mr. Ludlow ) 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
1 " The Mary and John was the first ship. of the fleet of 1639, that arrived in the bay. At that time there were surely no pilots for ships to be found, and the refusal of the captain to attempt the passage without pilot or chart does not seem unreasonable, though Clap has sent the captain's name to posterity as a . merciless mian,' who, Trum- bull says, was afterwards obliged to pay damages for this conduct." Hist. Dor- chester, Mosx ) 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 pathetie manner.
" Oh the hunger that many suffered, and san 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 desh of all kinds scarce. And in those days, in our straits, though I cannot say God sent us a raven to ford us as he did the prophet Elijah, yet this I can say to the praise of Goat's glory, that he sent not only poor ravenous Indians, which came with their basket of corn on. their backs to trade with us, which was a good supply unto many, but also sem ships from Holland and from Ireland with provision, and Indian corn from Virginia to supply the wants of his dear servants in this will tires, 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- thr ip and his assistants, that when a ship come laden with provisions, they did ordet that the whole cargo should be bought fie a gound stek; 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 ter his people in times of straits, and to fill his servants with food and gladness. Then did all the servants of God bless ITis 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 Dir- 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 tit to make in Mir. Hayden's article, are distinguished by being bracketed thus [-] and by the letters.
THE SETTLEMENT OF WINDSOR.
BY JABEZ H. HAYDEN.
1. 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 Connecticut River, had no immediate practical result. The Plymouth people "made several voyages to the Connecticut, and found it a fine place, but had no great trade."-Bradford. "Those Indians [i. e. of Connertient 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 comitry again." -- Bradford. They had Ircard that the white men with their guns were invincible, and hoped that, masler such protection. the Pequots would no longer oppress them. Neither Plymouth nor Massachusett, 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 men about joining them in the enterprise. Massachusetts had no suitable goods for Indian trade, and though Plymouth offered them some of theits on liberal terins, 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, de., we thought not fit to medbelle 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 arm- of the States-General. And on the 8th of June, 1633, the West India Company bought from Sachem Wapyquart a traet of meadow land, "extending abont 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 Wahguinnacut, a Connecticut River sachem, who visited both colonies. 'O'Callaghan, Hist. Veor 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.
-
Sabes It. Hayden
-
25
THE PLYMOUTH TRADING COMPANY.
the Dutch quickly erected a little fort, which was defended Iny 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, verapation, and the grant of the States, the country belonged to the Dutch West Judia Company ; and requesting the Plymouth Peo- 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 inone- diate ercetion. Ile also carried with him Attawanott, and other halian savlicias, the original proprietors of the soil, who had been driven thenes by the warlike Poquois, 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 Now 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. Ile 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- vionsly sold to the company, below the month of the T unixis, or Rivntet, arriving there, 26 Sept .. 1633." They quickly put my, 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
) 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).
3 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. 28th, six days before the news reached Boston. - O'Callaghan, i. 151.
VOL. 1-4
26
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.
solil them lands : and. also, as it proved, against an attack by the Dutel. The Pilgrims had uow 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 ease to the anthori- ties at New Netherlands, which resulted in an official protest, and warn- ing to quit, served mpen Capt. Holmes, and in the sending of an armed force 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 autunm of 1633, or that Plymouth should have had enough men on the spot to successfully withs and 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 strategie move to send men higher up the river to intercept the trade which would naturally fall to the Plymouth mnen. This, however, failed, because of the breaking out 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 :
1 This protest, served 25 Oct., 1633. by Commissioner Van Carter reads thus: " The Director and Council of Nieuw Netherl und hereby give notice to Williato Holmes, lieutenant and trader, acting on behalf of the English Governor of Plymouth, at prey- 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 unon by our nation. and at present occupied by a fort, which lands have been purchas Al from the Indians and paid for. And in case of refusal, we hereby protest against all las and interest which the Privileged West India Company may sustain.
"Giver at Fort Amsterdam, in Nieuw Netherland. this xxvth Octob .. 1623."
A written answer to this was requested It was refused by Holmes. - OCulla- ghin's Hist. N. N., i. 154.
2 Dec. 22. 1634, by a letter from Plymouth, it was certified that Holmes' House had been attacked. -- Winthrop, i. 158.
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 difficulty, 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 trudling-house there fell sick of se 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. anee and for want of bedding aud liuen, and other helps, they fall into a lamentable condition, as they lie on their hard mat-, the pox breaking and matterating. and run- ning one into another, their skin cleaving (by reason thereof) to the mats they lie on. When they turn them [selves] a while side will flea off at once, as it were, and they will be all one gore of blood, and then bring very sore, what with coldl and other distempers, they die like rotten sleep. The coalition of this people was lamentable, and they fell downeso generally of this disease, as they were (in ge end) not able to help one another; no, not to make a fire, nor ut fetch a little water to drink, nor any to barie y" dead; but would strive a- long as they cont. ani when they could procure no other means to make 'tire, 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 get a little water, and sometimes dye by se way, & not be able to get in againe. But those of y" English House [Plymouth Co.'s] (though at first they were afraid of the infertiog), get seeing their woetull and sadd condition, and hearing their pitifull cries aud lamenta tions, they had compassion of them, and dayly fetched them wood and water, and made them tires, goût 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-achem himselfe ? now died, & almost all his friends & kindred. But by se marvellous goodnes & providens of God. not one of ye English was so much as sicke, or inge las measure tainted with this disease, though they dayly did these ofices for them for many weeks together. And this mercie which they showed them was kindly taken, and thankfully acknowledged of all ye Indians that knew or hemd of y same: and their masters [members of the Trading company] here jat Plyneatly dii much connuend and reward them for re same."?
Probably Attawanot, or Nattawannt, who was brought home and restored to his possessions by Holmes. See chapter on Indian History and Purchased.
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 agricultura implements, and taught them better methods of cultivation.
" Mr. Wirslow and Mr. Hopkins, with Squanto [the interpreter], went [from Ply- mouth] to visi 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 had hitherto been without iron, or other metal imple- ments.] They Dhe Plymouth taen] found the place 40 miles away, soil good, the people not many, being dead and abundantig rasted in the late great mortality which fell on all of these parts 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 had been. " ete.
Nearly fifty years ago. 1 gathered some Indian corn, which was doubtless grown in Windsor by the Indians before the whites eame. 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.
II. 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 Jourand under date of Ort. 21 ; but, at least one party from Massachusetts which went overland probably reached the Connecticut River before them.
Winthrop (i. 111) says, under date of + Sept., 1633, " John Oldham and three others with him went overland to Connectient to trade." Again ( 123), Jan. 20, 1633-4 (?). " Hall and two others who went to Connection. Nov. 84, 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 Connectieut 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 Connectiont, 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 thein is in the summer of 1635. more than a year later, when Jon- atnan Brewster, the resident agent. sends the following report to the Plymouth company :
ST : &e.
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 ye 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, nanily to be a great tow ne and have commodious dwellings for many years together. So as [to] what they will doe I
alone, or having touched another only on one side - as to indicate a meagre erop. Such kernels as are found when a chance stalk grows alone, or when a field of com is too pour to produce pollen sufficient to fertilize all the ear. A specimen of this vorn can be -ten at the Historical Society's Rooms in Hartford. - J. H. H.
' Query. - Had " the Massachusetts men " [that is, the emigrants from Watertown. Mass. ] settled at Wethersfieldl the year before and Brewster remained ignorant of the fact? And, if he knew that the Watertown people were settled there, would be have ignored the fact in this communication, descriptive of the situation on the Connecticut, to his superiors at Plymouth ?
2 . 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 [we] 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.
20
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 doc 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 ve Dutch and In- deans, and bought ye land (to your great charge, allready dishorsed), and have since held here a chargealdo possession, and kept ye Dutch from further increaching, which would els long before this day have possessed all, and kept our all others, &c. I hope these & such like arzments will stop them.s. 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 vietoals: I being forced to supply 12 men for 9 days together : and those which came hat. I entertained the best we could, helping both them [the twelve men], (and ye others) with canlows and guiles. They got me to gor 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 I gave their goods house roome according to their ernest request, and Mr Pinchon'sletter in their behalfe (which I thought good to send you, here inclosed). And what tremble
1. & pants "-hired laborers, brought over to help build their houses, probably those owing a terin of service for their passage from England.
" He evidently di! ". withstand them " on Plymouth Meadow, for the Windsor Land Records show that Role of that meadow was set out to Windsor men nutil after the 489 acres of it reserved by Plymouth, 15 May, 1637. had been surveyed and the bounds set. Three you later Windsor had set out the lots north and south of the Plymouth rever- vation, and the adjoimag lots were bounded by the P. lot, though none of the deeds were recorded until 1640, at which time the P. lot was owned by Matthew Align. Neither was the land " on the hill" set out previous to May 15. 1837, for the Plymouth ( o. were to have an acte there "to build on," opposite the meadow lot, which was afterwards occupied by Matthew Allyn. The home lots of Henry Wolcott. St. and Jr., and several others on the Island street, bounded east by Plymouth Meadow, prov- ing that they were set out later than May 15, 1637. Most of the Wolcott quota of meadow land lay in the Great Meadow; if not already assigned to them, they should have had it near them in P. Meadow.
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