USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 25
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* Colonial Records, il. 263, 264.
+ Mather's Magnalia, b. i. p. 145 ; Holmes, i. 387.
296
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Connecticut did not blush to own their parentage; when we see rash youth jostling gray-haired age aside, and hot im- pulse blinding the eyes of wisdom with the dust of his char- iot-wheels as he drives swiftly past on his destructive career -then, if at no other moment, the strong bright eye, the benevolent face, with its indescribable blending of caution and enthusiasm, reveals to us the Winthrop of the old time, such as the poets and painters of a day yet to come will delineate him. But this is not my task, and I return to give a brief account of the Winthrop of history.
John Winthrop, of Connecticut, was the oldest son of the Hon. John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts, and was born at Groton in England, in the year 1605 .* He was not
* The Winthrops are said to have come from Northumberland, whence they removed into Nottinghamshire and settled in a little village which still bears the name of Winthrop, near Newark. From this place the ancestors of the American branch of the family went to London. As this has been one of the most eminent families in New England, we here insert the Winthrop genealogy in a single line.
1. Adam Winthrop, a lawyer of distinction, soon after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII., was lord of the manor of Groton, county Suffolk, where he died, and was buried Nov. 12, 1562.
2. Adam Winthrop (his son) was also bred to the law; married Anne Browne, 20 Feb. 1579. His burial appears upon the register at Groton, 29 March, 1623.
3. John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts, was born in Groton, 12 Jan. 1588; came to New England in 1630; died in Boston, 26 March, 1649. He married (1st) Mary, daughter of John Forth, Esq., of Great Stanbridge, Essex, who died 1615; (2d) Thomasine, daughter of Wm. Clopton, who died 1616; (3d) Margaret, daughter of Sir John Tindale, Kt., who died 1647.
4. John Winthrop, F. R. S., Governor of Connecticut, was born in Groton, 12 Feb. 1606. His first wife was Martha Fones ; his second, Elizabeth Read, daughter of a widow whom the famous Hugh Peters afterwards married. He died April 5, 1676.
5. Fitz John Winthrop, F. R. S., Governor of Connecticut, was born in Ips- wich, Mass., 14 March, 1639 ; died in Boston, 17 Nov. 1717. 5. Wait Still Winthrop (brother of Fitz John) was Chief Justice of Massachusetts ; he died in Boston about 1688.
6. John Winthrop, F. R. S. (son of Wait Still,) born in New London, 26 Aug. 1681 ; married Anna, daughter of Gov. Joseph Dudley. He died 1 Aug. 1747.
7. John Still Winthrop, born 15 Jan. 1720; died 6 June 1776. His wife was Jane, daughter of Francis Borland, of Boston, and granddaughter of the
297
CHARACTER OF WINTHROP.
only the eldest son, but he was also the darling and idol of his father's heart, who educated him at Trinity College, Dublin. I am able to find in the annals of that day, nothing more lovely and confiding than the letters written by this excellent father to a son of such promise that every eye turned towards him with interest while the youth was still growing in stature and wisdom, and while his character was blossoming with sentiments that afterwards ripened into great thoughts and noble actions. Even if the elder Win- throp had not been a historical character, we should seem to know him as a kindly neighbor and friend from the charming tone of these letters. Other fathers, in writing to their ab- sent sons, usually pen their doubts and fears, and qualify their expressions of love with those of parental solicitude. Most fathers dictate to their sons what course to pursue when absent from home, and assume a demeanor and show of patriarchal authority. But Winthrop takes a different course. He opens his whole heart to the boy as a lover would whisper his passion in the ear of his betrothed. He keeps nothing from his favorite. His large family, his many expenses, the engrossing cares of business, the anxieties that his other children give him, are all told with the charming simplicity of affection. At the same time he bids him spend freely whatever money his circumstances appear to indicate as requisite to maintain the position of a gentleman's son at a university.
" I purposed," he says in one of these letters, " to send you by this bearer such books as you wrote for; only Aristotle I can not, because your uncle Fones is not at London to buy it, and I know not whether you would have Latin or Greek. I purpose also to send you cloth for a gown and
Hon. T. Lindall, of Salem, Judge of the Superior Court and Speaker of the Pro- vincial Legislature.
8. Thomas Lindall Winthrop, LL.D., Lieut. Governor of Massachusetts, was born 6 March 1760; died 22 Feb. 1841.
9. Robert Charles .Winthrop, LL.D., of Boston, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives ; United States Senator.
298
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
suit ; but for a study gown, you had best buy some coarse Irish cloth .*
It may be interesting to the reader to know more about the history of the suit of clothes and the gown, that were both in danger of being outgrown by this college youth, who, as we shall see by the following extract from another com- munication, had not yet attained his full stature : " You may line your gown with some warm baize, and wear it out, for else you will soon outgrow it, and if you be not already in a frieze jerkin I wish you to get one speedily ; and howsoever you clothe yourself when you stir, be sure you keep warm when you study or sleep. I send you no money, because you may have of your uncle what you need."t
It does not require a very lively imagination in any one who is familiar with the Winthrop portrait, to figure to him- self the appearance of the future governor of Connecticut poring over the pages of Aristotle of a winter evening, pro- tected from the cold by that warm baize lining and frieze jerkin. The youth may be fairly presumed to have followed his father's advice and worn out the gown at the elbows long before he outgrew it. The appellations, "loving son," "son John," " well beloved," and other expressions of endearment, abound in all these communications, not only during the young man's stay at the university, but down to the time when death separated them.
After he had finished his academical course with great honor, in order that nothing might be wanting to develop his faculties, young Winthrop was sent, (a rare accomplish- ment in those days,) to make the tour of Europe. He accordingly traveled in France, Germany, Holland, Italy and Turkey. Thus, before he had entered upon his twenty-fifth year, he was a thorough scholar, was possessed of liberal
* Savage's Winthrop, i. 404. In the Appendix to the first volume of Win- throp's History, Mr. Savage has given sixty-four family letters, nearly all of which were written by the elder John Winthrop to his son.
# Ib., i. 405.
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CHARACTER OF WINTHROP.
views, a deep knowledge of the world in its varied aspects, and the most elegant and courtly manners.
In 1631 he sailed with his father for America,* and was chosen a magistrate of Massachusetts. He soon after went back to England, but in 1635 returned, as I have informed the reader in another place, with a commission to build a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut river, and to hold the place of governor of that river. In 1651, he was chosen into the magistracy of Connecticut. In 1657, he was elected gover- nor of the colony, and in 1658, he was made deputy gover- nor ; in 1659 he was again placed at the head of the magis- tracy.t
The rest of his history I have already attempted to set forth, and can add little to what I have said. His life and character may be gathered from his state papers, his letters, his counsels and his deeds. He was one of the first chemists of his age, was an excellent physician, and as a diplomatist and statesman he had no superior in his day.
Though his bones repose in a sister colony, whither he had gone in the service of Connecticut, yet his heart was hers to its last beat. It must have taken away something from the bitterness of death, that though away from home he was not among strangers, and that friendly hands would place his remains in the same tomb with those of his honored father, to await the signal that they both believed would burst the bonds of the sepulchre, and leave them free in the enjoyment of a new intercourse, more spiritual, more pure and delightful than the old.
* See Mather's Magnalia, b. ii. 143 ; Trumbull, i. 345. + Colonial Records.
CHAPTER XIV.
ADMINISTRATION OF ANDROSS.
AT the close of Philip's War, Connecticut found herself deeply involved in debt. She had indeed kept that dan- gerous enemy from her borders, and her women and children had been spared the horrors of captivity, and had been kept safe from the pitiless edge of the scalping-knife. Still, she had suffered much. Her noble corps of volunteers had been kept in constant service. A large proportion of her brave men had been continually on duty at home, keeping watch and ward in their respective towns. They were obliged to build forts, to construct palisades about their settlements and around those houses that were selected on account of their position or strength, as fit places of refuge for the infirm and the old, helpless infancy and defenseless womanhood.
But heavy as was her expenditure, the republic lost no time in regaining her former independent position. For three years after the war began, her freeholders submitted to the tedious tax of eleven pence on the pound upon the grand list, besides paying all the customary town and parish rates. To discharge her public debt, an additional tax of eight pence upon the pound was now fixed for two years .* The colony, it was hoped, might repose upon her laurels now that Philip was dead and the Narragansetts were crushed to the earth.
The General Assembly determined that Connecticut should be remunerated for her services in the late war, by taking possession of that large tract of country whence the brave Denison and his volunteers had driven the subjects of Nanuntenoo-a country that Rhode Island had failed to de- fend. The Assembly set at defiance the decision of Nichols
* Colonial Records.
301
BOUNDARY QUESTIONS.
and his fellow commissioners, making the Narragansett country and Rhode Island a king's province, as it was averred that these gentlemen were not clothed with power to make such new colonies. The agreement made between Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Clark they also repudiated, as it was subsequent to the charter and completed without the author- ity of the colony delegated to Winthrop. Besides, it was claimed that the charter of Rhode Island recognized but one article of that agreement, and that all the other parts of it had always been disregarded by the inhabitants of Rhode Island. Many instances were speciously given, wherein it was alleged that they had invaded the property of the settlers named in those articles, driven off their cattle, burned their fences, and pulled down their houses .* That Connecticut behaved in this matter after the custom that governs power- ful states in their relations with weaker ones, I have good cause to believe. Why should she be expected to form an exception to a rule that has never been violated perhaps since the foundation of civil politics in the world ?
Edward Hutchinson, William Hudson, and others, claim- ants of a large tract of land in the Pequot and Narragansett country, also applied to the Assembly for relief against Rhode Island and found a ready response to their suit.t
Were I to go fully into the details of all the boundary questions that from time to time employed our common- wealth the first hundred and fifty years, I should fill a volume that might better be devoted to documentary history. There was doubtless blame on both sides.
Although Connecticut had made such efforts to prevent a false construction being put upon her conduct at court in the Andross affair, she did not succeed as she had hoped. Winthrop, the powerful mediator between her and the king, could no longer lend her his assistance in the hour of trial. The charmed ring had lost its spell, the eloquent voice could plead her cause no more. Enemies now began to thicken around her. Among others who had now learned her
* Trumbull, i. 353. + See J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Records, ii. 553, 589, 590.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
friendless condition, was that common scourger of all the New England colonies, the dark, ill-boding man-Edward Randolph.
In 1676, he arrived in Boston and commenced a series of vexations and interferences that only ended with his death. He was in the habit of returning to England every autumn, and there pouring into the royal ear the poisonous slanders that he had so industriously distilled during the summer. In the spring he would return and pass the time in fomenting dissensions among the people, and exercising over them the tyranny that was so natural to him. His pastime was the lively one of writing letters to the king's ministers and favor- ites, complaining of the opposition that he found in New England to the trade and navigation laws. This ambitious man was possessed of no ordinary abilities, and was stimu- lated to action by an intense desire of self-aggrandizement that would never allow him to rest until he should, if possible, have built for himself a monument upon the ruins of the colonies .*
On account of the gloomy prospects of the colonies, the Congress recommended a general fast, that the people might humble themselves with prayer. In conformity with this request, Connecticut appointed the third Tuesday of No- vember 1678, for a day of humiliation.
In May 1679, the General Assembly, with a view to pre- vent the people of Rhode Island, and others, from taking pos- session of lands in Narragansett, enacted that none of the conquered lands should be taken up or laid out into farms without special orders from the Assembly.
This question of jurisdiction began now to assume a serious aspect. In September 1679, Governor Cranston, of Rhode Island, held a court in Narragansett. The matter kept growing worse, until, on the 7th of April 1683, the king granted a commission to Edward Cranfield, Esq., lieutenant governor of New Hampshire, William Stoughton, Joseph Dudley, Edward Randolph, Samuel Shrimpton, John Fitz
* In a representation of his services to the committee of council, he boasts of having made eight voyages to New England in nine years.
303
THE HAMILTON CLAIM.
[1683.]
Winthrop, Edward Palmes, Nathaniel Saltonstall, and John Pyncheon, jr., Esquires, or any three of them, of whom Cran- field or Randolph should constitute one, to examine into the claims as well of the crown as of all other persons and cor- porations, to the jurisdiction and title of a certain tract of land within his majesty's dominion of New England, called the king's province or Narragansett country .*
On the 22d of August of the same year, the commissioners met at the house of Richard Smith in the disputed territory. They cited all parties interested in the subject-matter of their commission to appear before them with their charters, deeds, and other exhibits, under which they pretended to have derived a title. These gentlemen, after a full hearing of the evidence, adjourned to Boston, where they made a report to the king, declaring that the jurisdiction of the country was in the colony of Connecticut.t The joy that attended this victory gained by Connecticut over the king and the colony of Rhode Island, was qualified by the appear- ance of another enemy, more formidable because more malicious.
On the 30th of June 1683, Edward Randolph had received a power of attorney from William and Anne, duke and duchess of Hamilton, and James, earl of Aran, their son, and grandson of James, marquis of Hamilton, to sue and receive their right of interest in lands, islands, houses, and tenements in New England. This representative of his betters, in the discharge of his duties under the power, hastened to appear before the commissioners at Boston, and in the name of his principals claimed title to the Narragansett country by a deed that bore date 1635. These new parties of course had a right to a full hearing, and had one at great length. Con- necticut made an admirable defense, and one that was truly unanswerable. So it was afterwards found to be when in- vestigated by the learned Trevor and that unrivalled author- ity, Sir Francis Pemberton. "Marquis Hamilton," says Sir
* Trumbull, i. 358.
t This report may be found in full in Trumbull, i. 359, 360.
304
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Francis in his able opinion, "nor his heirs, or any deriving from him, have ever had possession or laid out any thing upon the premises, nor made any claim in said country, until the year 1683, which was about forty-eight years after said grant." Mr. Trevor advised that the grant to Rhode Island was not valid in law, being subsequent to the grant to Connecticut.
The colony meanwhile received letters from the king, giving information of a conspiracy against himself and his brother, the duke of York. The General Assembly replied in a very sensible and respectful manner, that they were much shocked at the tidings, and that for themselves "they prayed for kings and all men, and especially for his majesty and all in authority under him; that they feared God and honored the king."*
New complaints were now framed against the colonies, a share of which fell to Connecticut. It was reported and believed in England that the colonies favored piracy and harbored pirates, and in support of this charge it was averred that no laws had been passed in New England against that crime. A letter was written by the king's order to the gov- ernor and company, demanding that a law should be passed for the suppression of that offense, so much abhorred by all good men, and so directly in violation of the law of nations as well as of the law of England. On the 5th of July 1684, therefore, a special assembly was called and a law passed against piracy, a copy whereof was forthwith sent to the king's secretary of state.
As early as 1673, a number of the citizens of Farmington had presented their petition to the General Assembly, pray- ing that a committee might be appointed to view Mattatuck, and make their report, whether the lands there were suffi- ciently fertile to maintain a plantation. The committee was sent out, and in May 1674 reported to the Assembly that Mattatuck could accommodate thirty families.t The Gen- eral Assembly then appointed a second committee to super-
* Colonial Records. + Colonial Records.
305
WATERBURY.
[1686.]
intend the proposed settlement. The number of planters who owned shares in the Mattatuck lands at the commence- ment of this enterprise was less than thirty. In May 1686, they were invested with corporate privileges, and exchanged the aboriginal name for that of Waterbury. Its beginnings were not prosperous, nor were its prospects at all flattering for many years. Although the site of the town was not un- pleasant, and the meadows that bordered the river were very inviting, yet the people were long pursued by a variety of calamities.
In February 1691, the town was almost destroyed by an inundation. The rain fell in such abundance that the Nau- gatuck rose to a great height, and swept through the valley with such terrible violence, that the soil of the meadows was torn and washed down with the current, and the whole sur- face of the fields was left rough and disfigured with loose stones. Many of the people, shocked at the desolation wrought by the flood, abjured their homes and fled from the town forever. In the fall of 1712, the place was almost depopulated by an epidemic, that left scarcely enough living inhabitants to attend upon the sick and minister the last rites to the dead .*
Indeed, for many years, and until the commencement of the present century, Waterbury was not thought to be a town that could offer any very strong inducements to those who were seeking a favorable situation for a permanent abode.
But a change has come over the aspect of the place, that reminds us of the transformations that we find in tales of Arabian enchantment. The river, once so destructive to those who dwelt upon its banks, though sometimes even now in its more gamesome moods it loses its self-control and deluges the lands and houses of the inhabitants, is no longer the instrument of destruction to them, but is, notwithstand- ing its lively looks and the racy joyousness of its motions, their common drudge and plodding laborer in all depart- ments of their manifold enterprises. The difference between
* Trumbull, i. 367.
20
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
the twenty-eight families at Mattatuck, flying from the meager settlement where poverty, inundation and disease threatened their extermination, and the young city of Water- bury, with its stone church towers, its rich mansions, its manufactories and its population that is now numbered by thousands, affords to a reflective mind a practical illustration scarcely equalled even upon the prairies of the west, of the self-renewing vigor and boundless exuberance of health that characterizes the blood of the old pioneers of New England. The Naugatuck valley, but a few years ago unknown, almost unexplored even by the citizens of Hartford and New Haven, is now one of the most interesting and busy thoroughfares in New England. How long it will be before the traveler who takes his seat in the train at Derby, will be able to journey its whole length to Winsted, without once losing sight of brick stores and stone manufactories standing by the stream, and graceful white houses perched upon the hill-sides on either hand, let the prophetic decide. I have only to do with the past.
The insertion of the settlement of Waterbury in this place, according to its chronological order, will not call for an excuse. Let us now return to the general history of that period.
During the latter years of the reign of Charles II. the king had become so reckless of his pledges and his faith, that he did not scruple to set the dangerous example of violating the charters that had been granted by the crown. Owing to the friendship that the king entertained for Winthrop, we have seen that Connecticut was favored by him to a degree even after the death of that great man. But no sooner had Charles demised and the sceptre passed into the hands of his bigoted brother, King James II., than Connecticut was called upon to contend against her sovereign for liberties that had been affirmed to her by the most solemn muniments known to the law of England.
The accession of James II. took place on the 6th day of February 1685, and such was his haste to violate the honor of the crown, that early in the summer of 1685 a quo
:
307
QUO WARRANTOS.
[1686.]
warranto was issued against the governor and company of Connecticut, citing them to appear before the king, within eight days of St. Martin's, to show by what right and tenor they exercised certain powers and privileges .*
On the 6th of July 1686, the governor of Connecticut called a special assembly to take measures to procure the chartered rights of the colony. The assembly that day addressed a letter to his majesty, praying him, “to pardon their faults in government and continue them a distinct colony." The burden of their prayer was, that he would "recall the writ of quo warranto."t Never was a supplica- tion more utterly disregarded.
On the 21st of the same month, came that old and dreaded enemy of the colonies, Edward Randolph, and brought with him two writs of quo warranto, which he delivered to Gov- ernor Treat. The day of appearance named in them was passed, long before the writs were served.
On receiving these formidable documents, accompanied with a letter from Richard Normansel, one of the sheriff's of London, Governor Treat called another special assembly, that met on the 28th of July. Mr. Whiting was immediately appointed the agent of the colony to repair to England and present its petition before the king. He was instructed to inform his majesty at what a late day the writs had arrived, so that it was impossible that the colony should have had a hearing at the time and place named in them. He was fur- ther directed to represent how great injuries the colony would sustain by a loss of its charter, and more particularly by a dismemberment of its territory. Should the agent fail in this matter, he was ordered to implore the king to con- tinue inviolate the enjoyment of property among them, and above all that he would preserve to them their religious privileges.}
* Chalmers, b. i. 295 ; Trumbull, i. 367. The articles of high misdemeanor, which were exhibited against the governor and company, are in Chalmers, b. i. 301-404. They are signed by Edmund Randolph.
+ Colony Records, (MS) vol. iii. 182, 183. # Colony Records.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
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