USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > The history of Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, from the settlement of the town in 1639 to 1818. Vol. I > Part 5
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* The best proof of this fact was found by the author-in a volume of land records in the state archives of the capitol at Hartford. Attached to a paper, giving liberty to Henry Gray and John Green to settle at Maxumux, is the following statement made in William Hill's hand-writing : " The above said is a true copy of the original paper that I found on file, of the Court acts left with me as clark by Mr Ludlow ; the frontispiece of the original writing I have not copied, it being so defaced and worn through age, that I could not take a copy thereof, but found it was an agreement between the town of Fairfield and the above said parties and the Court, being the tenth day of November, 1648.
(Signed) WILLIAM HILL, CLARK."
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Ludlow to Fairfield, but gives a valuable clue to the first laying out of the town. It is as follows :
" The testimony of John Green aged fifty eight years, or there-abouts, testifies as fol- loweth : that about the first settling of the town of Fairfield, Thomas Staples, Thomas New- ton, Edward Jessop & Edmund Strickland, having home-lots in ye rear of ye lots.that Mr. Ludlow's lot lay in, ye said four above sd. persons, agreed that ye sd. Thomas Staples should take his lot at ye rear of all ye four lots, & cut all those lots so much ye shorter, which according to ye first laying out there, was as long as Mr. Ludlow's lot, but giving ye said Thomas Staples some allowance in measure, he had his lot taken out of ye rear of all their lots, & upon ye sd. Thomas Staples remove at ye rear of ye lots: ye sd. Thomas Newton, Edward Jessop & Edmund Strickland did engage to ye sd. Thomas Staples to make & maintain forever ye reare fence for their respective lots that butted upon ye sd. Thomas Staples lot, & further this deponent saith not.
This is a true copy of
ye original recorded & compared this I. of Feb 1688. by me, Nathan Gold, Recorder. Town Book A. of Deeds, page 593.
Taken upon oath before me this 28. Nov. 1672. WILLIAM HILL, Commissioner."
Turning from this important record to the first pages of the book in which it is found, the names of Edward Jessop and Emund Strickland have disappeared from the square. Edward Jessop early sold most of his lands at Fairfield and went to Stamford, and afterwards settled at New- town, Long Island. Edmund Strickland also went to Long Island and settled at Middleburg. Their home lots at Fairfield were afterwards occu- pied by Robert Hawkins and John Barlow, sr. The boundaries of Roger Ludlow's land and that of Thomas Newton's fully corroborate, as will be seen, the statement of John Green :
"4. Feb. 1653. Granted to Roger Ludlow from the town one home-lot of five acres, more or less, bounded northeast with the highway ; northwest with the highway ; south- west with the land of Thomas Morehouse; & on the southeast with the highway. *
2. Dec. 1653. Alexander Bryant of Milford, purchased of Thomas Newton a dwell- ing-house, barn & home-lot, containing two acres & a half, more or less, bounded on the north east with the land of Thomas Morehouse, sometimes John Barlow's ; south east with the highway ; south west with the Land of Robert Hawkins ; & on the north west with the land of Thomas Staples." +
From these two records it will be seen that the five lots in this square were in 1653 occupied by Roger Ludlow, Thomas Morehouse, Thomas Newton, Robert Hawkins and Thomas Staples, the two lots first owned by Edward Jessop and Edmund Strickland having passed, before the town
* A. Town Deeds, p. 86.
+ A, Town Deeds, p. 56.
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records were begun, into the possession of Robert Hawkins and John Barlow, sr. The lot of the latter again passed into the possession of Thomas Morehouse.
This square, which should always bear the name of Ludlow square, is the one lying north of that on which the Congregational church now stands. Roger Ludlow had also a pasture lot granted him of six acres "on the northeast side of the highway that runs down by the home-lot, bounded southeast, southwest, & northwest by the commons & highways, & north- east by the Windsor-field," the present residence of Mrs. Abraham Ben- son.
Having accomplished the object of his journey, Roger Ludlow re- turned to Hartford and appeared before the session of the General Court, held on the 10th of October, 1639. He had been fined ten shillings for absence from a court held on the 10th of September. He therefore took occasion at this time to apologize for his absence, as well as for having begun a plantation at Uncoway instead of Pequonnock. He said : " Mr. Deputy informed the Court that he hath understood since his return, of- fence hath beene taken att some of his p'cedings in his late jorney to Pequannocke, and the parts thereabouts : he therefore desired to make knowne what had beene done by him therein, wch was this ; Att his com- ing downe to Quinnipiocke the hand of the Lord was uppon him in taking away some of his Cattle, wch prevented him in some of his purposes there for selling some of them : Afterwards att his coming to Pequannocke he found cause to alter his former thoughts of wintering his Cattle there, and understanding that the beginnings of a Plantacon beyond that was not caryed on according to the agreement made with those who were inter- essed in ordering the same, and that by some things wch appeared to him, his apprehensions were that some others intended to take up the sayd place, who had not acquainted this Court with their purposes therein, w.ch might be preiudiciall to this Comonwealth, and knowing himselfe to be one of those to whom the disposel of that plantacon was comitted, he ad- ventured to drive his Cattle thither, make provition for them there, and to sett out himselfe and some others house lotts to build on there, and sub- mitts himselfe to the Court to judge whether he hath transgressed the Comission or nott."
The court, taking the circumstances of the case into consideration, saw fit to reprimand Ludlow, for having transgressed the bounds of his com- mission. They did not see why he should be excused for his neglect of duty in not having given notice to the court "of what he did, notwith- standing his allegations of the inconveniences which otherwise might have
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occurred : yet, that the thing might more fully appear as he had repre- sented, & that matters might be ordered in a comely manner," Gov- ernor John Haynes and Mr. Thomas Wells were appointed a committee "to repair thither & take a view of the aforesaid occasions, & if, in their judgment, both persons & things settled by him, be soe as.com- fortably be confirmed, they remain as they are, or otherwise altered att their discrestion ; & they are to report things how they find them, to the next General Court, that a full issue may be given to the matter in hand, as things shall then appear." *
Governor Haynes and Mr. Wells were also appointed to administer the oath of fidelity to the planters of Pequonnock; make such free as they saw fit ; order them to send two deputies to the two General Courts in April and September; and for all suits of law under forty shillings to hold court among themselves, and to choose seven men among them with liberty to appeal to the General Court. Seargant Nichols t was for the time being appointed to train and exercise the men in military discipline. The committee were also to consult with Mr. Prudens, of the Stratford plantation, and to settle the difference between them and the Pequonnock planters as to who had most right to the places in controversy, and most need of them, and to determine whatever was " most agreeable to equity and reason."
The reference made by Ludlow "to the beginnings of a plantation beyond Uncoa," was without doubt to Rippowams or Stamford, which had been visited by Andrew Ward, Robert Coe, Francis Bell, and others from Wethersfield, about the same time he received a commission to begin a settlement at Pequonnock.#
The colony of New Haven was settled in 1638, by the Rev. John Davenport, Theophilus Eaton and other gentlemen of influence and wealth, who arrived at Boston on the 26th of July, 1637. " Having heard of the pursuit of the Pequots, & the fine tract along the shore from Saybrook to Fairfield, Mr. Eaton & others in the fall of 1637, made a journey to Connecticut, & having explored the coast along the Sound, pitched upon Quinnipiac for their settlement." They undoubtedly in-
* Coll. Record, Connecticut 1, 35, 36.
+ Probably Isaac Nichols, of Stratford. Ibid., 1, 36.
# It does not appear, as has been suggested, that Ludlow referred to Stratford, which was settled about the same time that the settlement of Fairfield was begun, for he would then have had no excuse for seizing upon lands further west than his commission granted. The fear, he states " that some others intended to take up the said place, who had not acquainted that court with their purposes." led him to push on and seize upon the lands west of Pequonnock, as far as the little Sasqua river.
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tended to form a colony of sufficient size and strength to exist separate and apart from all others. The Connecticut colony, therefore, had reasons for being on the alert, lest the opulent planters of New Haven should by purchase of the natives lay claim to all the lands lying along the Sound. These planters who accompanied the Rev. John Davenport to New Eng- land were men of good character and wealth, who, out of love and respect to their pastor, had followed him to the New World. Unlike the suffering colonists of Plymouth, Massachusetts and Connecticut, who had spent the money they brought to this country in the purchase of cattle, and neces- sary supplies to be forwarded from England, they were new comers, with handsome fortunes at command. Mr. Theophilus Eaton had been deputy- governor of the East India company, an ambassador from England to the King of Denmark, and was a rich London merchant. Their project was to have a great trading city in New England, and to found a distinct colony .*
It would appear from the apology of Ludlow, that the planters who had gone from Wethersfield to Rippowams, had not gained permission from the General Court of the Connecticut colony to begin that settle- ment; but on the contrary, had joined the colony of New Haven, the names of Andrew Ward and Francis Bell having been enrolled in the list of New Haven freemen in 1639 from Rippowams.
Ludlow, therefore, had the sagacity and far-secing policy to secure as much land west of Pequonnock, as would entitle the colony of Connec- ticut to Black Rock, one of the finest harbors on the Sound, and the two excellent harbors of Pequonnock and Sasqua or Mill river ; also to claim by purchase from the natives, all the lands stretching from the west bounds of Stratford to the western limits of the Sasqua Indian lands. The wisdom of his course was evident, when, in July, 1640, Captain Tur- ner, as agent of the New Haven colony, bought of Ponus, sagamore of Toquams, and of Wascussue, sagamore of Shippan, all the grounds belonging to the said Sagamores, except a piece of ground which Ponus reserved for himself and the other Indians to plant upon. Thus the plantation of Rippowams or Toquams and Shippan fell under the jurisdic- tion of the New Haven colony. In October following the planters of Rippowams or Stamford purchased this plantation from the New Haven planters.+
The colonists throughout New England greatly feared that a governor might be sent out from England. Each colony therefore became zealous to acquire as much territory as possible, and to begin plantations as
* Trumbull's History of Connecticut.
+ New Haven Colony Record, 1, 45.
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speedily as safety would permit. The leading men came to New England to establish a republican form of government, to elect their chief magis- trate from among themselves, and to be a republic in all save the name, -while as yet in their infancy they were under a monarchy. Each founder of a new colony aspired to be its chief magistrate; hence there arose a strife between the Connecticut and New Haven colonies to enlarge their territories, as a matter of political power.
Connecticut and New Haven were, in reality, without patents to their lands. They were simply subjects of the mother-country, having seized upon and occupied a portion of the lands claimed by the Warwick patent. This patent was conveyed on the 19th of March, 1631, by the Earl of Warwick, president of the Council of Plymouth, under his hand and seal, to the Honorable Viscount Say and Seal, Robert Lord Brooks, Robert Lord Rich and their associates to the number of eleven, and to their heirs and assigns and associates forever. It embraced : " All that part of New England in America, which lies & extends itself from a river there called the Narragansett river, the space of forty leagues upon a straight line near the sea shore towards the southwest, as the coast lieth towards Virginia, accounting three English miles to the league, & also all & singular the lands & hereditaments whatsoever, lying & being within the bounds aforesaid, north & south in latitude & breadth, & in length & longitude, of & within all the breadth aforesaid, throughout the main lands there, from the western ocean to the south sea," * or the Pacific Ocean.
It also included all the islands within its limits on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Accounting three English miles to a league, gives the coast line of this patent 120 miles. "This grant extends from Point Judith to New York; & from thence in a west line to the south sea ; & if we take the Narragansett river, in its whole length, this tract will extend as far north as Worcester: it comprehends the whole of the colony of Connecticut & much more. t
Both the Connecticut and New Haven planters, under these circum- stances, were cager to obtain, as early as a favorable opportunity offered, a valid title to the lands they occupied. #
* In 1630 this tract was granted by the Council of Plymouth to the Earl of Warwick, and the same year confirmed to him by a patent from King Charles I. ; hence it is called the Warwick Patent, and the Old Patent of Connecticut.
+ Manuscript of President Clap. See Trumbull's History of Connecticut, I, 28.
# The great mistake into which some of our carly historians have fallen, has been that of repre- senting the planters of Connecticut patentees of Viscount Say and Scal, Lord Brook and others. whereas, in reality, they never were patentees of those gentlemen. This error appears to have
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" In purchasing lands, & in making settlements in the wilderness, the first planters of Connecticut expended great estates ; & many of the adventurers expended more than the lands & buildings were worth, with all the improvements which had been made upon them." After the Pequot war, Uncas and the chiefs of other tribes of Connecticut claimed a native title to their old possessions. The colonists therefore made peace with them by purchasing of their sachem from time to time as much land as they required. Uncas who had been presented with a hundred of the Pequot captives, having been joined by many other Indians, could number about five hundred warriors. As the successor of Sassicus in the Pequot line of descent, he claimed the old Pequot grounds at New London and Groton. The colony therefore purchased of him and his successors, all the lands lying within the Mohegan country, and afterwards all the particular towns where a " settlement was made." They were often obliged to renew their league with him and his successors, the Mohegan sachems, and to make new presents and to take new deeds, in order to preserve the peace of the colony .* This led to a law being enacted in 1638, whereby the planters were not allowed to purchase lands of the Indians, unless they fully ac. knowledged themselves the lawful possessors of the soil. Every town was required by the General Court to lay out a reservation for the Indians of whom they had purchased their lands, and to give them the privilege of hunting and fishing within their limits, as well as to cut firewood, which custom continued for more than a hundred years after the settlements began. The General Court protected them from their enemies, and from insult, fraud and violence from the planters. At the beginning of a plan-
arisen from the idea, that the contract made by the General Court of Connecticut with Mr. Fen- wick, for the purchase of the fort at Saybrook and its appurtenances and lands upon the river, was "a purchase by Connecticut of the jurisdiction right to the territory included in the Earl of War- wick's grant to Viscount Say & Seal & his associates ; or in other words as an assignment to the colony of the old patent of 1632 by Mr. Fenwick & his co-proprietors. It will be seen, however. on referring to the agreement itself, that it is merely a contract of sale of the fort at Say- brook & its appurtenances & lands upon the river-with a pledge on the part of Mr. Fenwick, to convey to the colony, 'if it came into his power,' all the lands between Saybrook & the Narragansett river, included in the old patent. Such conveyance does not appear ever to have been made ; on the contrary. repeated admissions of the General Court, show that it was not made, & that so far as receiving any legal assignment or transfer of the old patent the colony was (so late as 1661) without even a copy of it, & not fully informed of the rights & privileges which it was supposed to confer. The settlers of the River towns had not-before or after the agreement with Mr. Fenwick-any right of jurisdiction, except such as grew out of occupation, purchase of the native proprietors, or, (in the case of the Pequot country) by right of conquest."-Col. Rec. Conn., I. Appendix. No. III., 569.
* Probably the sobriquet of an " Indian-giver" arose from this desire of the Indians to take back what they had already sold or given away.
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tation, the law required when any company of Indians sat down near it, that they should declare who their chief sachem was, and that the said sachem should pay to the English such trespasses as his men committed by spoiling or killing cattle or swine, either with traps, dogs or arrows. If guilty of crime against the English, they were to be delivered up to justice by their sachems.
Before following Ludlow back to Uncoway, certain acts of the General Court for the benefit of the towns are worthy of notice. At the same time that he made his apology before the court, he assisted in preparing and offering the following laws, viz. : that all the towns within the juris- diction should each have power to dispose of their own undisposed lands, " and all other commodities arising out of their own limits bounded out by the court, the liberties of the great rivers excepted ; " to choose their own officers; to impose penalties for any breach of the law ; to estreat and levy the same, and for non-payment to distrain either by seiz- ing upon personal estate or to sell their houses or lands ; to choose 3, 5, or 7 once every year of their chief inhabitants, one of whom should be chosen moderator, who should have a casting voice, in case there should be an equal number of votes ; which said persons should meet together every two months, to hear and determine all controversies either by trespass or debts not exceeding 40s., provided both parties lived in the same town ; and that any two of them should summon parties to appear before their court to answer an action ; to administer the oath to witnesses; and to give judgment and execution against offending parties. In case of dis- satisfaction, the aggrieved parties were given power to appeal to a higher court.
Each town was ordered to be provided with a ledger book with an alphabetical index, and each book numbered alphabetically ; and to choose a town-clerk or register, who should immediately register every man's land. Every landholder was required to take a record of his lands to the town-clerk within three months under a penalty of Ios a month. No bargains or mortgages of lands were to be accounted of any value until they were recorded. At each session of the General Court, and once every year, the constables in the several towns, were required to read or cause to read, in some public meeting, all such laws as were then in force.
The office of a constable in those days was one of great importance. "He was the arm of the law and the embodiment of its majesty." From the date of his appointment, the town became a valid incorporation, sub- ject to taxation and entitled to representation. Upon all public occasions he appeared before the court with his long pole surmounted with the
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British emblem of royalty; and for a time after the Revolution his pole was crowned with the American eagle. For the better keeping in mind of God's providences, which had been "remarkable since their first under- takings," Governor Ludlow and others were appointed to take pains to collect the same from the towns in which they resided, and to bring them in to the next court in April, to be recorded, and kept among the archives at Hartford, which Ludlow faithfully carried out.
Besides the General Court, the court of election, and the justice's court, there was a particular court, which consisted of the deputies or representatives of the General Court, to decide judicial and civil actions, debts and trespasses of over forty shillings .* Upon the adjournment of this session of the General Court, Ludlow returned to Uncoway and con- tinued his labor of laying out the town. Five wide streets were laid out near the old Meeting-house green, two of them running north-east and south-west, and three crossing these, running north-west and south-east to the Sound. + Four squares were laid out, cach covering from twenty-five to thirty acres, which remain to-day almost precisely as Ludlow laid them out. These squares will be named after the persons who first settled upon them, viz. : the Ludlow, the Newton, the Frost, and the Burr squares. The first, or Ludlow square, which lies north of the present Congregational Church, has already been mentioned.
The second, or Newton square, lies south-east of the Ludlow square on the opposite side of the street, which, in those days, was called " the street which runs through the centre of the town." A wide street was also opened in the rear of this square, running north-east from Concord street. On the south-west corner of this square, three acres were laid out for the use of the minister called "parsonage land." # The third, or Frost square, lies south-west of the Ludlow square, on the north-east corner of which, about one acre was laid out and formed a part of the Meeting-house green for the purpose of building a meeting-house, court-house, and school-house. The fourth, or Burr square, lies on the south-east side of
* Col. Rec. Conn., I, 36-40.
t The pioneers of New England had every reason to make good use of the compass ; and these streets and squares were no doubt laid out with the compass at hand, as well as the English measuring line of acres, rods, etc. The accurate lines of these streets and squares are north-east and south-east, north-west and south-west. The author has taken the liberty of naming the main avenues after Ludlow, Frost and Hill, and the other streets Dorchester and Windsor. Concord street was so named by the Concord settlers in 1644.
# This land was purchased by the Rev. Noah Ilobart, and afterward occupied by the Rev. Andrew Elliot in 1779 ; a new house was erected after the town was burned in 1779, and recently occupied by Miss Eliza Hull.
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the street, opposite the Frost square. On the north-west corner of this, opposite the Meeting-house square, about three acres were laid out for a military or public park, which has ever since been called the "Meeting- house green." Between three and four acres more were laid out in the rear of this, that nearest the green for a home-lot and dwelling-house for the minister; and that on the north-east corner of the square for a burial place, which was called " Burial Hill." A pond of fresh, running water lay on the west side of the Meeting-house green, which some years after the settlement, was called Edwards' pond .* Stately buttonball trees stood like aged sentinels upon the green. On the south-west side of the Burr square was a street or lane, leading to the Sound ; and on the south- east or rear, a lane was opened, which closed on the north-east with the fence of Burial-hill-which was for many years the first and only grave yard of the town, and was much larger than it is at the present day.
Among those who joined Ludlow in September of this year, were William Frost, his son Daniel Frost, and his son-in-law John Gray, all of whom settled upon the Frost square.t William Frost took up his home- lot of two and one-half acres on the south-west side of the church and school land. About this time, or soon after, John Foster took up three acres in the rear of this lot. Next adjoining William Frost's lot on the west, Francis Purdie took up three and three-quarter acres, running through the square from the south-east to the north-west. Daniel Frost took up three and three-quarter acres west of this, which also extended through the whole width of the square. John Nichols, a brother of Isaac and Caleb Nichols, of Stratford, took up two and a half acres west of Daniel Frost. John Gray, who, before the month of May, 1639, had mar- ried Elizabeth a daughter of William Frost and widow of John Watson, sold his house and home-lot in Lynn, Massachusetts, about the Ist of August following, and before the 28th of September (perhaps accom- panied his father-in-law to Uncoway), took up two and a half acres on the south-east corner of Frost square. Henry Whelpley soon after took up three acres next adjoining John Gray's lot, extending to the south- west corner of the square. At a later date, John Green took up three acres on the north-west side of this square, between Henry Whelpley's lot and Daniel Frost's. Richard Westcot took up two and a half acres on the south-east side of the square between John Gray and John Nichols.
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