USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 21
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When Charles I. fell into Cromwell's hands, he committed him to the keeping of Whalley,# who was charged by some of the more zealous loyalists with severity towards his royal prisoner. But this falsehood the king had the generosity to deny in a letter written to Whalley after his escape.
While Charles was still in custody at Hampton Court, Captain Sayers waited on his majesty to give back the en- signs of the order of the garter that had belonged to the Prince of Orange. Whalley felt it to be his duty to inter- pose to prevent a private interview, when the king, in a fit of rage, pushed him away with both his hands. But this
* Noble's " House of Cromwell," ii, 143, 144; Camden. t Noble, ii. 144. # Carlyle, i. 234, 235.
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WHALLEY AND GOFFE.
passion was only momentary. Indeed, the gallantry and courtly demeanor of Whalley could not fail to win upon the affections of the king.
At the terrible battle of Dunbar, Whalley, with Monk, com- manded the foot forces, and had two horses shot under him .*
In 1656 he was created a lord, and appears to have plumed himself not a little upon his accession to a dignity that was much ridiculed by the king's faction. Colonel Ashfield, who knew that Whalley's principles would not allow him to en- gage in a duel, and who was aware of the keenness of his sensibilities and the suddenness of his temper, took occasion to speak in the hearing of the new dignitary in slighting and very pointed terms of Cromwell's House of Lords. Whalley was so angry that he threatened to treat him as he had pro- posed to deal with Peters, and doubtless would have been as good as his word had the insult been repeated.t With the exception of a hot temper and those lively bubbles of vanity that float upon the surface of almost every sparkling char- acter, there was not a more noble nature in the world than that of Edward Whalley. His talents as a civilian were highly respectable ; as a soldier, he was almost unrivaled in that age of military renown.
He married a sister of Sir George Middleton, that bitter enemy of Charles I. and ardent friend of Charles II. Their daughter married General Goffe, and became the mother of a numerous family.
Major General William Goffe was a son of the Rev. Ste- phen Goffe, rector of Stanmar, in Sussex. Like Whalley, he drew his sword against the king in the civil wars, and threw away the scabbard. He very early distinguished himself, and was first made a quarter-master, then a colonel of foot, and afterwards a general. He commanded Crom- well's regiment at the battle of Dunbar, as appears from the following extract from one of Cromwell's dispatches :- " For my own regiment, under command of Lieut. Col. Goffe, and my Major White, did come seasonably in, and, at the push
* Carlyle, ii. 471. + Noble, ii. 153.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
of the pike, did repel the stoutest regiment the enemy had there."* He was elected a member of parliament ; he aided in the accusation of the eleven members ; he sat in judgment upon the king, and signed the warrant for his execution. He also helped White in the difficult task of purging the par- liament of those members who could not be made to subserve the purposes of Cromwell, and for this he received the ap- pointment of major-general. To crown his honors he was created a member of Cromwell's House of Lords. He re- mained faithful to the interests of the protectorate after the death of Oliver, and signed the order for proclaiming Richard as his successor. Monk knew his uncompromising nature, and would not admit him into his secrets or treat with him as the emissary of the army. His great popularity, his bold- ness, his courage, his comprehensive intellect, the colossal proportions of his character ; above all, his disinterestedness, made him a dangerous neighbor to royalty, and especially to the house of Stuart.t
Some of the letters written by Mrs. Goffe to her husband are very beautiful, and evince a delicacy of sentiment and a depth of affection that reflect honor upon the character of both. She wrote under an assumed name, and Goffe ad- dressed her as " Mother Goldsmith." In one of these letters she writes :- " My dear, I know you are confident of my affection, yet give me leave to tell thee, thou art as dear to me as a husband can be to a wife, and if I knew any thing that I could do to make thee happy, I should do it, if the Lord would permit, though to the loss of my life."
I do not know, in all the range of female correspondence, a more wife-like and transparent sentiment, nor one more charmingly expressed. Crowns compress the brows of those who wear them into wrinkles, and the fruit of ambition but too often blisters the tongue of him who eats it, but the love of such a woman is immortal and holy as the amaranth that blooms in paradise. Now listen to the wife and mother both in one.
* Carlyle, i. 470. + Stiles, 15.
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MRS. GOFFE.
" Frederick, with such of the dear babes as can speak, pre- sent their humble duty to thee, talk much of thee, and long to see thee."*
When we consider that these letters were written with the full consciousness that they whom God had joined to- gether would never again look upon each other's faces, they assume a hallowed character, as if they were the fond, un- availing words of a survivor, muttered half in hope and half in resignation over the ashes of the dead.
" Let us comfort ourselves with this," says this noble Eng- lish matron, " though we shall never meet in this world again, yet I hope, through grace, we shall meet in heaven."+
This lady and Mrs. Godolphin, of a lineage scarcely better, -for the Middletons were a noble family, and Mrs. Goffe's grandfather, Sir Henry Cromwell,¿ entertained kings in al- most royal state at Hinchinbrook,-are among the few women whose names have come down to us from the days of the second Charles, whom we regard with honor and rev- erence as giving promise then of that change in the social con- dition of their sex that is the, boast of our age ; a change that has added a new link, and one of the brightest, in the chain of evidence that establishes the efficacy and vitality of the Christian faith.
I shall give a brief sketch of the other regicide who availed himself of our hospitality, and then I shall leave this interest- ing topic to be handled with more minuteness by some writer who has greater ability to treat of it, and more leisure for the task.
* Noble, i. p. 624. + Noble, i. 425.
# The story that was circulated during the civil wars, and long afterwards, that the Cromwells were of low descent, was one of the most shameless falsehoods that ever gained credit with the world. The ignorance or bigotry of that man who could believe such a thing in this age, ought to make him a conspicuous object. In verification of this remark, the reader is referred to the Rev. Mark Noble's " House of Cromwell," a work written by a gentleman allied in feeling and in faith to the Church of England, whose minister he was, and who was not likely to lavish praise upon that family where it was not due. Why Carlyle has spoken in such unkind terms of this author I can not say. Noble has at least the merit of writing English.
250
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Colonel John Dixwell, of the priory of Folkstone, in the county of Kent, belonged to the landed gentry of England, and was possessed of a manor and several other estates of value. He was the uncle and guardian of Sir Basil Dix- well. He was not one of those discontented spirits who desire political changes for the chances of promotion, but could make his election whether he would live upon his estates and pass his time in the elegant pursuit of letters, that offered so many attractions to a gentleman of his tastes, or whether he would engage in more stirring scenes. He pre- ferred action to repose, and took up arms in the popular cause. He soon distinguished himself, and was an officer in the army before and during the protectorate. He bore the rank of Colonel. He was a member of parliament for Kent, sheriff of that county, and in 1649 was one of the king's judges.
At the Restoration he is supposed to have left England, but whither he fled, and what ministering angels supplied him with food, are secrets that have long since passed into oblivion. As appears by an entry made in the lost journal of Goffe, he visited his brother regicides, during their resi- dence at Hadley, in February, 1665. Hutchinson informs us that he lived at Hadley for several years. This may be correct, but his granddaughter, Mrs. Caruthers, always be- lieved that he only remained there six weeks. Thence he again wandered we know not whither, and secreted * himself we know not where, until, under the assumed name of James Davids, he took up his abode at New Haven. What year he first came to New Haven is not known ; but it must have been before 1672, for he assisted in the settlement of Mr. Ling's estate in 1673, and he had boarded in Ling's fam- ily for some time previous to the decease of his host. It was generally understood by the inhabitants that Davids was not the name of the retiring and quiet stranger who had thus come among them, but they seem to have pre- ferred to remain in ignorance upon a subject that might have given trouble both to him and to themselves. He was known to Governor Jones, Mr. Street, Mr. Bishop, and a
251
COLONEL DIXWELL.
few other gentlemen who could safely be trusted with the secret ; but to none so intimately as to the Rev. James Pier- pont, who became the settled minister at New Haven in 1685. Between these two congenial spirits there existed the most faithful friendship, until it was terminated by the death of Dixwell. Their lots joined, and they were in the habit of meeting at the fence and holding long and secret interviews together, until we are told that there was a worn footpath leading from their respective houses to the place of conference. The attention of Mrs. Pierpont was arrested by this growing and secret intimacy, and she could not forbear asking her husband what he saw in that old man, that should make him so attractive. "He is a very knowing and learned man," Mr. Pierpont would reply.
While Sir Edmund Andross was in America, he visited Connecticut several times upon an errand not very welcome to the people; and probably in the course of the year 1686 he spent a Sunday at New Haven and attended public wor- ship. Sir Edmund was a soldier, and had an extensive knowledge of the world. His practiced eye rested upon the erect figure and high features of the regicide, with an earnest gaze. His curiosity was awakened. There was in the venerable man before him, a presence and bearing that spoke of other scenes than those that then surrounded him. Not only did he appear to possess sterling traits of character, but it was evident that he had been a soldier. When the services were over, Sir Edmund made inquiry after this mysterious man. "Who is he, and what is his occupation?" he asked of one of the worshipers.
" He is a merchant who resides in town."
Sir Edmund Andross shook his head-" I know that he is not a merchant," replied he, peremptorily.
Mr. Davids was not present at the afternoon service !
It would give me pleasure to trace more in detail the habits of Colonel Dixwell, and to speak more fully of his intercourse with his reverend friend, who was worthy to be the confidant of such an exile, and who was present to
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
support him with his countenance and strength in his last hour.
He died in March, 1689, in the 82d year of his age. His remains rest in New Haven, and are in the keeping of those who honor his memory. Where are the graves of Whalley and Goffe? Do they, too, slumber in the same soil? Or are the bones of Whalley still at Hadley, and did Goffe wan- der away and die in a southern clime ?
I believe that they all sleep together, but I will leave the antiquarian to settle this delicate question, if indeed he can add any thing to what Stiles* has written. I must bid adieu to the Regicides.
* I will here put upon record a little anecdote told me by a venerable graduate of Yale College, that may serve to illustrate at once the manners of President Stiles, and the reverence with which he was regarded by the students. "I knew him well," said my informant, "and honored him, for I hardly dared to love him. He was small in stature, but when he came up the chapel aisle, and bowed to the right and left as we all stood up to receive him, he filled up the space so that you could not put an eighteen-pence between him and the pews !"
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CHAPTER XII.
KING PHILIP'S WAR.
WHEN Colonel Nichols found himself master of the Dutch settlement, he entered upon the duties of his government and took up his abode in New York. The other commis- sioners proceeded to Boston and prosecuted their labors with vigor. They first made known their instructions to the gen- eral court, and gave them a statement of what would be required of them, that could not fail to surprise them, as it contained many things inconsistent with the provisions of the charter of that colony. They also insisted on a greater de- gree of toleration in ecclesiastical matters than the court was willing to concede .* The commissioners also set at defiance all the known rules of making contracts with the Indians, and went so far as to declare that the deed obtained by the people of Rhode Island was void for some trifling informality. They further decided that Atherton's deed of the large tract that he had bought in the Narragansett country, east of Pawcatuck river, was invalid, as there was no specified sum named in it as a consideration. These peremptory gentle- men also held courts in Warwick and Southerton, and attempted to make a new province independent of the col- onies. This anomalous dependency upon the crown, insti- tuted without a shadow of authority, was named by them the " King's Province." It embraced the entire Narragansett country, and extended westward to the Pawcatuck river, and northward to the southern line of Massachusetts.t
* Among the propositions made by the commissioners to the Plymouth jurisdic- tion was this :- " That all men and women of orthodox opinions, competent estates, knowledge, civil lives and not scandalous, may be admitted to the sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper, and their children to baptism." Hutchinson, i. 214. t Trumbull, i. 315.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
When they had made an end of this extraordinary mission to the Narragansett country, they returned to Boston, and in defiance of the Massachusetts charter, proceeded to exercise a jurisdiction there over all matters that did not accord with their views. The general court remonstrated against such arbitrary conduct, and thereby so offended the commissioners that they represented the colony to the king in a very un- favorable light .*
Connecticut, on the other hand, with her boundary lines, as she thought, forever settled, and her old troubles with New Haven and the Dutch brought to a close, and enjoying a large measure of the king's favor, went forward with smiling prospects to perfect her civil organization, and to plant new germs of population and strength in the unoccupied portions of her domain.
At the general assembly held in May 1666, it was enacted that the towns upon the river, from the north bounds of Wind- sor, with Farmington, to Thirty Mile Island, should be a county to be called the county of Hartford ; that the country from Pawcatuck river with Norwich, to the west bounds of Hammonassett, should constitute another county, to be called New London ; and that the large territory from the eastern bounds of Stratford to the western boundary of the colony, should be known as the county of Fairfield.t
.
For about three years a settlement had been made on the eastern bank of the Connecticut opposite Saybrook, before it was thought large enough for incorporation. But in the spring of 1667, when the general assembly met, the settle- ment had grown so rapidly that it was deemed best to incor- porate it. It received the name of Lyme,¿ and has been the seat of the Griswolds and many other families of distinction from that day to this.
As early as May 1662, a purchase had been made of the Indians of a large tract of land called Thirty Mile Island-a valuable township lying on either bank of the Connecticut
* See Hutchinson, i. 228, 229. + Colonial Records, ii. 34, 35.
# Colonial Records, ii. 60.
255
HADDAM, SIMSBURY, WALLINGFORD.
river, about thirty miles from its mouth. The original pro- prietors were twenty-eight in number, and they began their settlement on the west side of the river. The plantation had grown rapidly. At the October session of the general assembly, 1668, it was incorporated under the name of Haddam .* It included the present town of East Haddam,
then known by its Indian name of Machemoodus.t The first settlers, for the most part, were from Hartford, Weth- ersfield and Windsor. The lands that border the river are not alluvial, like those of Hartford and Glastenbury, but they are very productive, the prevailing soil being a dry, gravelly loam. There are large tracts of forest trees still standing in this town, and it presents some of the most picturesque views of the Connecticut that are to be found in its whole course. At the time of the first settlement of the town, it afforded excellent hunting and fishing ground.
In April 1644, liberty had been granted by the general court of Connecticut to Governor Hopkins and Governor Haynes to sell the district lying upon the Tunxis river called Massacoe, to such of the inhabitants of Windsor as they should select. In 1647, a new method was adopted towards instituting a plantation there, as the former one had not accomplished the object. The court therefore resolved that this same tract should be purchased by the "country," and a committee should sell it at their discretion to the planters of Windsor. This plan resulted favorably, and although the plantation was at first treated as a part of the old town of Windsor, it was so thriving and grew up to be so vigorous and hardy, that it was in May 1670, incorporated, and took the name of Simsbury.į
As the same session, the place called "New Haven vil- lage" was made a town and received and still retains the name of Wallingford.§ The lands embraced in it had been bought by Eaton and Davenport of the Indians in 1638. The settlement was projected in 1669. It was at first a part
* Colonial Records, ii. 97. + Trumbull, i. 317. # Colonial Records, ii. 127. § Ib. ii. 127.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
of New Haven, as Simsbury was of Windsor. The Rev. Samuel Street was the first minister there ; and we are told that Mr. Davenport was present and assisted in laying the foundation of the church, and, standing at the foot of the eminence where the village looks off so pleasantly upon the then fair range of woods and streams, preached a character- istic discourse from the words of Isaiah :- " My beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill."*
For about twenty years, the citizens of New Haven had been trying to establish a plantation at Paugasset, on the Naugatuck river. About the year 1653, Governor Good- year, in company with several other gentlemen of New Haven, bought a large tract of land there of the Indians. A few feeble beginnings were made the next year towards a settlement upon this purchase; and at the October session of the general court of New Haven colony, in 1655, the inhabitants of the place presented their application to be made a town. The court granted their petition, gave them the privilege of purchasing a still larger tract, and relieved them from the burden of taxation. Richard Baldwin, at the same session of the court, was appointed moderator to call meetings and conduct the affairs of the town. But this piece of legislation was very displeasing to Mr. Prudden and the other citizens of Milford, for Paugasset had been a part of that town since it was first settled, and they looked upon the act of incorporation as a dismemberment of their own territory, and an encroachment upon their municipal juris- diction. They therefore remonstrated against the doings of the court at its next session, and induced that body to re- consider its vote, at least so far as to order that Paugasset should remain a part of Milford, unless the respective parties should mutually consent to have the act of incorporation go into effect.t
In 1657 and 1659, a further purchase was made of the chief sagamores We-ta-na-mow and Ras-ke-nu-te, and the purchase was afterwards confirmed by the chief sachem,
* Lambert, 83; Barber's Hist. Coll. 253. + Trumbull, i. 321.
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THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY.
Okenuck. Some of the principal planters were Edmund Wooster, Edward Riggs, Richard Baldwin, Samuel Hopkins, Thomas Langdon and Francis French .*
Thus stood affairs with Paugusset, when in 1671 the inhabitants preferred a petition to the general assembly of Connecticut, the burden of which was their old prayer for town privileges. This oracle also responded somewhat equivocally, by determining that their southern bounds should be the north line of Milford, and that they might stretch their limits twelve miles northward, to a place called " the notch," and that as soon as they could swell their num- bers to thirty, they should be incorporated. t
For four years more, the people of this little settlement held their peace, and then, in May of the year 1675, they renewed their application. They represented that they then had twelve families, and should soon have eleven more; that they had provided a minister, built a house for him, and made all the arrangements for permanent religious worship. This last appeal was irresistible. The general assembly forth with gave them an independent existence, and called them Derby .¿ When we think of the feeble infancy of this eldest of inland towns in the valley of the Naugatuck, and see the thousands that now inhabit them, and listen to the hum of their spindles, the rattle of their looms, with all the myriad voices that industry and enterprise blend in a per- petual song of development and progress along the whole course of that swift mountain stream, the change seems indeed astonishing, and in any other country and with any other population in the world, would have been impossible.
A dispute of an ecclesiastical character, that will find a place in a subsequent chapter of this work, broke out in the church at Stratford, that ultimately led to the settlement of another plantation still further inland. This was the then cele- brated controversy between the Rev. Mr. Chauncey and the Rev. Mr. Walker and their respective parties. It began in 1664, and was agitated before the general assembly for about
* Trumbull, i. 322. t Colonial Records, ii. 148. # Ib. ii. 248, 249.
17
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
eight years. Governor Winthrop, following the good advice of Mr. Davenport to the people of Wethersfield, with a view of putting an end to this unhappy affair, proposed to Mr. Walker that he and his people should remove out of the limits of Stratford and found a new plantation by themselves, in some convenient place that they might choose. If this plan should be adopted, he himself offered to lend his influ- ence to procure a grant of land and privileges of incorpora- tion for a town.
In pursuance of this promise, we find that on the 9th of May 1672, there was granted to "Mr. Samuel Sherman, Lieut. William Curtis, Ensign Joseph Judson, and John Minor, themselves and associates, liberty to erect a plan- tation at Pomperaug .* There were a few reasonable re- strictions in this grant, that I need not name in this connec- tion. It was too late in the season for the planters who pro- posed to emigrate, to entertain the thought of breaking up the soil of the contemplated purchase, and planting it with corn to any great extent, yet they at once set about the task of making ready to go the next spring; and some of the most active men set out forthwith for the place, and planted a few acres of Indian corn, which they harvested in the fall,- and placed in cribs made of logs. But they derived little benefit from it, for the Indians and the wild beasts ate it up during the winter.t
Early the next spring, fifteen planters of Mr. Walker's party set out with their families for the valley of the Pom- peraug. They were told to follow the Pootatuck or Great River-now known as the Housatonick-" till they came to a large river flowing into it from the north. They were to follow up this stream about eight miles, when they would reach a large open plain." Upon this plain they were to stop and commence the foundations of their future town, away from the other settlements, alone in the wilderness.
With bold hearts they began their journey, but when they came to the mouth of the Pomperaug, the volume of water
* Colonial Records, ii. 177.
+ Cothren's Hist. of Woodbury, 35.
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SETTLEMENT OF WOODBURY.
[1673.]
that it added to the deep current of the Housatonick-that main artery of Western Massachusetts and Connecticut- looked so scanty to them, that they passed it by, though not without some misgivings, and continued on until they came to the mouth of the Shepaug. The size of this stream did not satisfy them much better, but they ventured to trust themselves to it, and followed it up till they became bewil- dered in the gorges and mountains of the present town of Roxbury. They now saw their mistake and hastened to repair it. They resolved not to retrace their steps, but to take an easterly course, and make the best of their way to the stream that they had passed. They journeyed over the densely wooded hills until they came to a fair swelling ridge of rich forest land, now called Good Hill, that looked down upon a delightful valley threaded by a bright river, and al- ready half subdued into good plow and meadow land by the Indians, who for generations had been preparing the way for the race before whose more systematic husbandry they were to vanish like the dew.
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