USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 35
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* From actual examination it appears that more than four-fifths of the early landed proprietors of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor, belonged to families that had arms granted to them in Great Britain. Other settlers in various parts of Connecticut, at an early or later day, bearing family names that appear never to have borne arms, are believed to have been descended from the landed gentry or other genteel English families, such as Chittenden, Ingersoll, Pitkin, Silliman, Lyman, Olmsted, Upson, Cullick, Treadwell.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
make them objects of suspicion to many of the more strict order of puritans.
Besides, not only their religion, but their very physical condition, made it difficult for them to cherish with much care any thing that was not obviously connected with the great business of life. The ax of the planter, as its biting edge penetrated deeper and deeper into the vitals of the for- est, letting in the sunbeams to scare away the deer that roamed over the parks that had no palings or gates, other than the natural barriers of river, mountain, or ocean, while it strengthened the hand of him who wielded it and carved his individuality upon the stumps of oak or pine, to remain there after he should have been laid to rest, was yet no fit- ting instrument to record the vanity of the past time. What had he to do with the past? The grim present was low- ering upon him with all its sharp and angular realities. In- dians, wild beasts, famine, cold, the diseases that lurk along the borders of new settlements, the French, the Dutch, the devil, and all the other calamities, actual or imaginary, that kept his faculties constantly stretched to their highest ten- sion, gave him little time to look backward. Life, to a pur- itan, was a warfare, commencing with the dawn of his own existence, to be waged with a stout heart and steady hand until that existence should be lost in a future, boundless and eternal. Little time had he for the soft reverie and day- dreaming that belong to a stage of society that blends inter- nal culture with easy circumstances and leisure-loving retirement. His business was to work. Other men retreated from the world to avoid its cares ; he fled to the solitudes of nature to begin life anew. I do not mean to say that this was universally true. A few families from old ties, not easily sundered, binding them to the country of their birth, still kept up a communication with the past; but even in these exceptional instances it was lost in a few generations, and has only been revived within the last century, by resort- ing to the English repositories of such facts. I know this to be the case in all families now in New England that are
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THE FIRST PLANTERS OF CONNECTICUT.
able to give any accurate history of their lineage, extend- ing beyond the first emigrants. Even the most illustrious names in our history, though readily traced in England, have been neglected to a degree that could not be accounted for by any one who should fail to keep in view the motives that actuated the emigrants, the necessities that surrounded them, the almost incredible amount of labor that they performed, and the estimate that they placed upon this life and the next.
I have said that the first English planters of Connecticut were of no vulgar origin. Many of them were poor, many of them when they sailed for America were in the more humble walks of life; but the planters, the substantial land holders, who began to plant those "three vines in the wil- derness," sprung from the better classes, and a large propor- tion of them from the landed gentry of England. This fact is proved not only by tracing individual families, but by the very names that those founders of our republic bore. Any one who choses to look at the catalogue of good old Eng- lish names that will be found at the close of this voulme, and compare it with any well arranged book of general heraldry, will see that they had either stolen their names, or that they were honorably descended. The first emigrants, it is true, brought with them many servants, but most of them were so from temporary causes, and were as unlike the stolid English laborer who then tilled, as his father and grandfa- ther had done before him, the fields of the opulent English landholder, as the seventeenth century was unlike the twelfth.
This large infusion of the blood of the better class of English families might lead, were it philosophically consid- ered, to an explanation of much that has been thought to be new and peculiar in our institutions and our people. I should hardly expect to be contradicted by any well informed genealogist either in England or America, were I to express my belief that there is hardly a man now living whose descent can be traced to the early planters of Connecticut, who will not be found to be derived, through one branch or
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
another of his pedigree, from those families who helped to frame the British constitution, who elaborated by slow degrees the common law, who advocated the doctrines of both with their tongues and their pens, or defended them with their swords.
But it may not be clear to every mind how it happened that the early planters, if they were of such good descent, should have submitted to the most menial labors in an age when the gentry were, much more than now, a non-producing class. I reply that they were driven to it by the sternest necessity. They were poor; many of them had made great sacrifices to remove their families and their friends to Amer- ica. Laborers were few, and they had no money to trans- port them in such numbers as were needed in a new coun- try, to subdue the lands and render them habitable. Most of all, they were in want of mechanics. They needed houses to screen them from the weather, they must be pro- vided with cloth, which they could not import, and that cloth must be made into garments. Their horses could not go afield, or from town to town unshod ; nor could their sons and daughters live without shoes. From these stern neces- sities they learned the dignity of labor. If they could not procure carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, weavers, and clothiers, in any other manner, it was evident that they must learn these several employments themselves, and teach them to their children. They found themselves obliged to fell the trees and till the grounds, that they might have bread. The best planters, therefore, could find nothing degrading in the use of the ax or the plow. Besides, their religion and hab- itudes of mind taught them to look with reverence rather than with scorn upon all the useful occupations of life, as tending to help forward the human soul upon a journey, at the close of which it was to be invested with a robe of white and adorned with a crown of gold.
Some of them had anticipated this, and had learned to prac- tise some useful art or mystery, either before leaving England, or while in Holland or Germany. Hence, Henry Wolcott,
Y
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THE EARLY GOVERNORS.
whose ancestors could be traced back as far as the reign of William the Conqueror, does not appear to have withheld his daughter's hand from Mathew Griswold, because he was a stone-cutter and made monuments for the few who chose to retain a custom that Welles, Leete, and the whole Wyllys family appear to have despised. Roger Wolcott, too, a grandson of the emigrant, and himself the first of the line of governors bearing that name, a man of letters and elevated views, was proud to labor in the field as a husbandman, and on rainy days and in the long winter evenings, to fill up the intervals of study in plying the shuttle that his bright-eyed sons and rosy-cheeked daughters might be warmly clad. Governor Webster, and Governor Wells, if they did not la- bor with their own hands, taught their sons to toil. Governor Leete, at the very time that he discharged the duties of chief magistrate of the colony, and while he was secreting the re- gicides at his house, kept a country store for the accommoda- tion of his neighbors, and for many years earned a livelihood by keeping the records of Guilford. His sons were, it is be- lieved, all taught to work in the field. Governor Treat was as well skilled in the mysteries of plowing a corn-field, or mowing a hay-field, as in fighting the battles of the colony, or defending her charter. His father, Richard Treat, a patentee named in the charter, and one of the first gentle- men in the colony, daily crossed the Connecticut river in a boat, and lent his strong muscles to the task of breaking up the fallow land of Glastenbury. Winthrop submitted to the severest hardships in removing from Boston to Pequot (now New London,) in going from place to place to exercise the functions of a magistrate, in acting as mediator between con- tending parties, in procuring land titles and defending them for himself and for others, in purchasing mines, in perform- ing the office of physician, to say nothing of the burdens of public life. For these services he did not scruple to receive a fair compensation. If he did not labor with his hands, we may presume from what we know of his character, that it was from no fear of soiling them, but merely because his
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
time was worth more in other departments of usefulness. Governor Law spent a portion of his time in the cultivation of his plantation.
I could multiply instances of names and individuals whose fame will not die while history has a niche still remaining for the statues of the fathers of the republic. I need only say, that high or low, through all the grades of society, labor was respectable, while idleness and vice were, as they have always been in every well regulated government, looked upon with suspicion.
Thus frugal, industrious, honest, the fathers of the colony were unconsciously laying the foundation of a structure, im- perishable because built in accordance with the eternal laws of God's truth-imperishable, I mean, unless the indolence and hollow pretensions of their descendants shall dismantle its walls, and leave its solid frame-work to the injurious ac- tion of the elements. No people that hold labor in derision can maintain its position for three centuries. No servitude is so debasing, as that which nature is keeping in reserve for the descendants of a people who studiously inculcate in the minds of their children that it is better to be idle and hungry. than to earn an honest livelihood by work.
Are we to infer, then, from the fact that physical labor was cherished by all classes of our ancestors with such care- are we to infer that they had no grades, no distinctions, in their social fabric ? So far was this from being the case, that I have found in the records of no people worthy to be called civilized, the internal evidences of grade and rank ad- justed more carefully than can be traced in the files and books of the early documentary history of our own colony. It may be interesting to the reader to know into what classes and grades society was divided.
1. The title of " Honorable" was entirely unknown in our colonial records until 1685, and was subsequently for many years applied only to the governor, and seldom to him. Pre- vious to that date, however, the chief magistrate was some- times designated as "our Worshipful Governor," and "our
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EARLY TITLES IN CONNECTICUT.
Honored Governor." Similar titles were also occasionally given to the Deputy Governor .*
The next title was that of " Esquire," employed very sparingly for the first century after the emigration, and hav- ing about the same signification that it had in England, in the times of Elizabeth and James I. Those who had been possessed of landed estates in England, and had been liber- ally educated, younger sons of the nobility, and the sons of baronets and knights, were addressed in writing by the addi- tion of esquire, placed after the name and before or after that of the place of residence. When addressed colloquial- ly, the title was a prefix usually abbreviated into the mono- syllable, " Squire." In Connecticut, this title was confined almost exclusively to the governor and deputy governor, until of the union with New Haven colony was effected in 1665. The only exceptions found upon our records, are in the cases of Colonel Fenwick, of Saybrook, and John Win- throp, who was subsequently chosen governor. Indeed, it would seem that office of whatever grade did not necessarily make the official an esquire. Mr. Thomas Wells, was a magis- trate for seventeen years, deputy governor for one year, and was chosen governor for the second time, before he was dig- nified with that honorable title.t
The next title to be noticed is that of " Gentleman" or, as it was usually abbreviated " Gent." This designation, which occurs but seldom upon our early records, is essentially an English title, is placed at the end of the name, and, like esquire, either before or after the place of residence. Aside from its general application, it was used in England especial- ly to designate that class who hold a middle rank between esquires and masters. This distinction seems to have been soon discarded in Connecticut.
* This title appears to have been first applied in Connecticut to Major Andross ; and by him to Governor Winthrop.
+ Such titles as the following sometimes occur on our records, or in letters ad- dressed to the individuals named, and others, viz : "the Honored Major Talcott," " the Worshipful Captain John Allyn," "the Worshipful and much Honored John Winthrop," &c.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
The prefix of " Master" (Mr.) belonged to all gentlemen, including those designated by the higher marks of rank that have been mentioned above. Master corresponds very nearly in meaning to the English word, gentleman. In Con- necticut, it embraced clergymen, and planters of good family and estate who were members of the General Court; those bred up at a university, and those of sufficient education to manage the general affairs of the colony, either in a civil or ecclesiastical way, and who had been sufficiently well born. Comparatively few of the representatives from the several towns, even though they might be returned year after year, were honored with this title. To be called master, or to have one's name recorded by the secretary with that prefix, two hundred years ago, was a more certain index of the rank of the individual as respects birth, education, and good moral character, than any one of the high-sounding ap- pellations with which many men of no merit whatever, in our day of swift locomotion, are content to cajole others in order that they may be enriched in their turn with the same spurious currency. It may be observed, by reference to our colonial records, that there were scores of men of good family and in honorable stations who still did not possess all the requisite qualities of masters. It was seldom that young men, of whatever rank, were called masters.
The appellation of " Sir," besides its ordinary use, was employed in a technical and limited sense to designate young gentlemen who were under graduates at a university or col- lege. Hence, a son of Governor Winthrop, Mr. Sherman, or Governor Treat, returning home from Yale or Cambridge, to spend a vacation, would be greeted by their old companions as Sir Winthrop, Sir Sherman, or Sir Treat.
" Goodman," was also a term of civility, and in a certain qualified sense might be called a title. Its application pre- dicated of him to whom it was given, a humble origin, and it comprehended the better sort of yeomen, laborers, tenants, and other dependents above the grade of servants, who own- ed a small estate, and who sustained a good moral character.
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MILITARY AND ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES.
Our colonial records afford several instances of deputies to the General Court who were signalized by this mark of the public regard. The corresponding term as applied to the other sex, was Goodwife.
Military titles were considered of a very high order, as we should naturally expect to find them in a colony that was in an almost uninterrupted state of war from the time of the burning of the Pequot fort, until the close of the American revolution. These titles, therefore, abound in our early colonial records, from that of captain down to that of cor- poral, and usually took precedence of the ordinary terms of address. These gradations of official rank were expressed by the usual abbreviations, and were seldom omitted. Previous to 1654, the highest military office in the colony was that of captain ; and previous to 1652, the only captain in the colony was John Mason, whose jurisdiction extended throughout Connecticut. Captain Mason, and especially in later years, Major Mason, when he visited the militia of the different towns, as he did at stated intervals, was gazed at by the boys and girls of the settlement with eyes of wide wonder, as a man to be reverenced, but not approached.
Those titles of an Ecclesiastical nature were of course held in high esteem by our Puritan fathers, both in Old Eng- land and in New England. The clerical prefix of Reverend, does not occur upon our colonial records until about 1670 ;* the members of the profession bearing the simple titles of Mr., Pastor, Teacher, or Elder. Deacons were regarded with reverence, and were often employed in civil as well as in ec- clesiastical affairs. The title frequently occurs in the list of deputies and commissioners. In New Haven colony, where all the freemen were church members, the term or title of " Brother," was often used as a prefix to the names of per- sons appointed to civil office.
I have said that many of the principal emigrants brought over servants with them from England. Such was the scarcity of laborers that, with the exception of the clergy, nearly all
* The general term, " the Reverend Elders," occurs much earlier.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
the original proprietors toiled earnestly upon their planta- tions, and frequently in the same field with their servants. But after the fibres of the state became more firmly knit, after the lands were partially cleared, when corn and money began to be more abundant, and after the tide of emigration, check- ed for awhile, had brought a liberal supply of working-men who were willing to till the fields and make new conquests over the still abounding forests, society began to assume its old English features, and distinct generic orders were form- ed upon a somewhat stable basis long before the revolution.
These orders were distinguished by the terms gentlemen, yeomen, merchants,* mechanics, and servants, or domes- tics. The lines drawn around these respective classes were not so strict as to be in the way of personal merit when it sought to rise ; but were sufficiently so to characterize the several grades. By this time the name of planter had almost entirely disappeared from our records, and that of farmer had been partially substituted.
The term, Yeoman, was applied to that class of freehold- ers and planters who stood next in rank to gentlemen, of whose position I have spoken elsewhere. Some of the yeomen bore the title of master, and they were frequently called to discharge important public trusts. By this time, too, from the want of the guards that in England had always proved so favorable to the growth and continuance of privi- leged classes, very many of the descendants of the best families who emigrated to Connecticut, had glided imper- ceptibly from their position at that time, and had taken the middle stage. Many of the yeomen were as well born, and had as much pride of family, as the educated class. Indeed, the latter class was to a good extent made up from the yeo- manry of the more cultivated sort, who could easily resume the place that their ancestors had filled with such honor.
* The early traders, especially in the small settlements and towns, of course did but a small business in that line, and were often freeholders and planters in addition. They subsequently became a distinct and very respectable class.
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1
THE ARISTOCRACY.
The last remark is true of many of the merchants and mechanics of those times.
The educated class filled the pulpit, the bench, the magis- tracy, the bar, and the medical profession, and constituted much the largest portion of the aristocracy, which grew more rapidly than ever before, from the time that the slave- trade first gave it nutriment, until it reached its zenith about twenty years after the close of the revolution. Many of the officers of the army, who were regarded with deep rev- erence by the people, were the principal pillars of the aris- tocracy. But the most thoroughly patrician body of men in Connecticut was the clergy, who exercised an almost un- limited authority over the inhabitants. I do not believe there ever was an aristocracy more deserving of respect, as well from the high tone of its morality as from the stateliness and general decorum that distinguished its members ; nor do I believe there ever was a yeomanry more independent and manly or less the victims of envy.
This state of things continued, with such variations as be- longed to the gradual development of society, down to the close of Governor Smith's administration, when the freemen voluntarily laid aside the charter that they had never sur- rendered to the crown.
With all this respect paid to orders and officials, growing partly out of their religious belief, that taught them to rever- ence all powers and dignitaries except such as they believed to be wrongfully applied, and partly out of those English pre- judices that they brought with them, in favor of gentle lin- eage and established authorities, they were obliged to live in a very humble and simple way for many years. Their dwellings were at first mostly constructed of logs. The planters who spent the first winter in Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor, had no better houses than the wretched huts that colliers now use upon our mountains as a temporary shelter while they are watching their coal-pits and drawing their coal. After Hooker and Wareham, with their com- panies, arrived in the valley, better dwellings were construct-
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
ed, and in all the old towns a few frame houses were soon reared for the more wealthy and respectable citizens. The houses of the ministers were made as elegant and comfort- able as the circumstances of the people would afford. The dwellings of the governor and more wealthy magistrates and gentlemen, were some of them expensive. The house built by the Rev. Henry Whitfield, at Guilford, was of stone, with very solid and massive walls, that have withstood the action of the frosts and the other harsh influences of the climate, and will do so yet for hundreds of years, if man, that worst of all destroyers, will permit it to remain. It is the oldest house now standing in the United States, and is a fit memorial of the enduring fame of Whitfield, the founder of Guilford .* The house of Desborough was also of stone, but the walls were long ago thrown down.
Most of the buildings in the colony, however, were con- structed of wood, and the better classes, after the first thirty years, lived in framed houses. These frames were made of heavy oak timbers, some of them eighteen inches in diame- ter. The rafters were larger than the plates, sills and beams of our modern country houses, and supported slit sticks called, in the rude architectural language of the day, "ribs," that were laid across them at regular distances, and to which long rent shingles of cedar were fastened with tough wrought nails. The sides of the building were covered with oak clapboards rent from the tree and smoothed with a shaving- knife. These outer boards lapped over each other, and were fastened to the upright and horizontal timbers by nails much larger than those now used in the roof-eaving. Within, the sides of the rooms only were plastered, while the sleepers and the upper floor were exposed to view. The floors were of oaken plank. The windows consisted of two small leaden frames set with diamond-shaped panes, secured by hinges that opened outward, and were fastened against the side of
* This venerable structure was built about the year 1640, and, on account of its impregnable walls, was sometimes used as a block-house or fort by the settlers.
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THE DWELLINGS OF THE PIONEERS.
the house. When closed, the two sashes formed nearly a square. The outer doors of the mansion were of double oaken planks, made as solid as a single piece of timber by nails or spikes driven into them in the angles of diamonds .* When these gates of his domestic paradise were secured at night by the heavy wooden bars that had stood throughout the day leaning against the wall, the planter and his family had little cause to fear the entrance of wild beasts or Indians, and other burglars for many years there were none in Con- necticut. Indeed, after the Indians had been tamed and the wolves and bears driven farther off by the gradual destruc- tion of their old haunts, the tenants of these humble Arca- dian castles slept peacefully from one year to another with- out even barring or bolting their doors.
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