USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > The history of Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut, from the settlement of the town in 1639 to 1818, Vol. II > Part 3
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Capt. Nathan Gold, who at this time was an assistant of the General Court, was made judge of the Fairfield County Court, and Samuel Squire and Nathaniel Burr deputies. Capt. Jonathan Selleck was made sur- veyor of Fairfield County. Free grammar schools were ordered to be kept in the four counties of Hartford, New Haven, New London and Fairfield. Every town of seventy families was taxed towards the sup- port of a common school, at the rate of forty shillings upon every thou- sand pounds. In case any town neglected this order this tax was to be paid to the public treasury .*
Active measures were being carried on in Fairfield towards the es- tablishment of a college within the colony. In 1698 ten of the leading members in Connecticut were appointed to " stand as trustees to found, erect and govern a college," of which the Rev. Joseph Webb of Fairfield was one. These gentlemen met at New Haven about this time and formed themselves into a society of eleven ministers and a rector to found a college. Each minister present laid upon a table several books, which they in words " donated, for the founding of a college in this colony." Forty volumes were given, which were intrusted to the care of Mr. Russell of Branford. Donations of other books and money fol- lowed, so that the trustees were greatly encouraged with the hope that they would soon have a college for the education of young men nearer home than Cambridge College. Application was at once made to the General Assembly for a charter which should make legal this under- taking. The Hon. James Fitch of Norwich " donated sixteen hundred acres of land in Killingly, & all the glass & nails which should be necessary to build a college house & hall." +
* Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, p. 331.
t Trumbull's Hist. Conn., Vol. I., page 500.
1701]
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WAR WITH THE FRENCH AND INDIANS
1701. The following October the General Assembly granted these gentlemen " full liberty, right & privilege to erect, form, order, establish & improve " all suitable ways and means to maintain such a collegiate school. The trustees were not to exceed eleven, and not less than seven in number. They were to be above forty years of age, and chosen from the established or Congregational Church of the colony. An annual tax of one hundred and twenty pounds was granted out of the public treasury towards the support of this college. The trustees met in November at Saybrook and chose the Rev. Abraham Pierson of Killingworth rector of the college. They also fixed upon Saybrook as the most convenient place to locate the institution for the time being; but until the rector could remove thither, it was agreed that the scholars should be instructed at or near Killingworth. The library was removed from Branford to his house. Various attempts were made to induce Mr. Pierson to remove to Saybrook, but his people were wholly unwilling that he should leave them, and in consequence the students were kept at Killingworth during his life. The first commencement was held at Saybrook September 13. 1702. The use of a house and land was given by Mr. Nathaniel Lynde at Saybrook, while the college should continue there. The following year, 1703, a contribution was made throughout the colony towards erecting a college .*
Captain Nathan Gold was made an Assistant of the General Is- sembly, and Mr. Peter Burr and Lieutenant James Bennet deputies. Mr. Peter Burr was chosen Speaker of the House.
An act was passed by which the General Assembly, hitherto held at Hartford, should be held in May at Hartford, and in October at New Haven.t
The western boundary line of Fairfield Village was fixed, and the name changed to that of Stratfield.# It was given this name from being formed out of a part of the east parish of Fairfield and of the west parish of Stratford, taking a part of the former and latter names to form the new parish of Stratfield.+
A copy of the new commission for Justices of the Peace in each county was ordered to be sent to the several towns in colony.
The Rev. Mr. Webb of Fairfield and the Rev. Charles Chauncey of
* Trumbull's Hist. Conn., Vol. I., p. 501-502. Col. Rec. Conn., 1589-1706, p. 363.
t Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, p. 343.
# Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, pp. 122, 357.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD
[1702
Stratfield received the thanks of the General Assembly for preaching election sermons.
In a journal left by the Rev. Mr. Webb, he relates that on the 23d day of May, 1700, about three o'clock in the afternoon, "a prodigious tempest of wind, thunder, rain and hail, occurred; the hail stones were as large as hen's eggs, houses were unroofed, the rain fell in such abundance that it was driven by the wind under the eves & through the chimneys & roofs into the houses; blew down fences & overturned & destroyed twenty barns. The full force of the wind of this tornado, and the damage it did, lasted but three minutes, but the storm continued much longer."
1702. King William died at Hampton Court on the 8th of March, and his wife, Queen Anne, was at once proclaimed Queen of England, and crowned in Westminster Abbey on the 23d of April.
Captain Nathan Gold was chosen an Assistant and Lieutenant James Bennet and Mr. Samuel Squire deputies to the General Assembly.
By an act of the Assembly every seaport town was ordered to have a house set apart for smallpox patients, and no captain of a vessel was from this time allowed to enter within a half mile of any harbor without license from the Governor, Commander-in-Chief or from two Justices of the Peace. Fairfield was numbered one of eight lawful ports of the colony. An act was passed for entering and clearing ships and other vessels, and an officer appointed, called the Naval Officer, to attend to this business .*
In order to prevent persons who owned slaves from setting them at liberty when they were too old to take care of themselves, an act was passed causing such owners to support their slaves during their old age. t
The five assistants or judges of the counties of New Haven and Fair- field were appointed to hold the Court of Assistants at New Haven in October, and any three of them were to constitute a quorum, the eldest . assistant to preside.
The constables of Fairfield and Stratford were ordered to pay a law- ful portion out of the annual school tax to the school in Stratfield. Cap- tain Nathan Gold, Lieutenant John Wakeman and Mr. Peter Burr, or any two of them, were appointed to lay out six hundred acres of land in the town of Fairfield, for the benefit of a grammar school.+
* Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, p. 372. + Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, P. 375. # Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, p. 402.
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WAR WITH THE FRENCH AND INDIANS
1703]
In response to a letter of the Privy Council announcing the death of King William, in which the Queen expressed her good will to her sub jects in Connecticut, it was ordered that an address should be drawn up and sent to the Queen, " to congratulate her upon her majestic's happy accession to the crown, with thanks for her majestie's grace & favor manifested to us."* Soon after (May 4th) Queen Anne, the Emperor of Germany and the States General declared war against France and Spain. Thus the colonies were again involved in a French and Indian war.
A tax of two pence half-penny was laid on taxable estates in every town for the maintenance of schools. The town clerks were ordered to keep a list of the freemen of each town, and to call each freeman's name at every freeman's meeting, and if any of them was absent without good cause a fine of two shillings was imposed.+
Dougal McKensey received from the town a grant of land on the extreme end of Sasco Hill, now known as Kensey's Point. About the same time the town granted John Barlow a point of land on the opposite side of Mill River, called the Indian Sasco Neck field.
Captain Nathan Gold and Peter Burr, Esq., were chosen Assistants and Lieutenant John Wakeman and Mr. Samuel Squire deputies from Fairfield to the General Assembly.
1703. The farmers at Maxumux were given liberty to erect a school- house on the green about where the present school-house now stands. Thomas Whitney was granted liberty to build a mill upon Compo Creek. +
Forty foot of land by a town vote was granted John Edwards at Fairfield in front of his house, once the homestead of the Rev. John Jones. In this way this place was extended out into the Meeting-house Green towards the pond.
A portion of the school long-lot was granted to Joseph Bradley in exchange for other land in the Mile of Common (towards maintaining a school at Greenfield Hill). Land called Rocky Neck, lying west of the creek which puts in from Mill River, was also re-purchased of the Indians.
The hill known as Clapboard Hill, and occupied as an Indian reserva- tion, was now ordered to be purchased for the use of the town. John Burr and Moses Dimond were granted liberty to erect a saw-mill on Mill River. John Edwards and John Sturges were given liberty to bild a wharf on the Uncoway River, where the Penfield Mills afterwards stood.
+ Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, P. 397.
* Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, p. 399. + B. Town Votes, 117.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD
[1704
Mr. Peter Burr of Fairfield was made an Assistant of the General Court at this time. Captain Nathan Gold was appointed to be Judge of the Court of Assistants at New Haven .*
Soldiers in the fall were sent against the Eastern and Western Indians. A Committee of War was organized to send troops to Massachusetts and the frontier towns. Each township was confirmed in its patent rights.
1704. A special Assembly was holden in Hartford on the 15th of March, when the civil and military commissioned officers were required to care for the friendly Indians, and to set them their limits, that none of them should harbor or be exposed to the influence of unfriendly In- dians. A premium of ten pounds was offered to any one who should deliver up an unfriendly Indian. Suitable houses were ordered to be for- tified in each town. Sixty men were to be sent to garrison the County of Hampshire, sixteen of whom were to be sent from Fairfield County. Mr. John Burr, Jr., son of Major John Burr, was appointed a Commissary for the County of Fairfield.t At the meeting of the General Assembly at Hartford May TIth, Captain Nathan Gold and Mr. Peter Burr were chosen Assistants, Ensign Jolin Osborn and Sergeant John Burr deputies for Fairfield. Captain Nathan Gold, Mr. Peter Burr and Captain John Wakeman of Fairfield were appointed on a committee of public safety for Fairfield County. The frontier towns in the colony were ordered not to be broken up, as they were to be properly guarded. No male person from sixteen years old and upward was allowed to leave any of the towns, under a penalty of ten pounds. The selectmen in every town in the colony were ordered to provide a sufficient number of knapsacks and hatchets, with strong belts for them, for every sixth man in each train- band; snow-shoes were also to be provided, and the troops held in readi- ness to march in summer or winter. Encouragement was offered to friendly Indians to enlist as volunteers. Drums were ordered to be beaten for raising volunteers. A rate of a half-penny was levied on all the in- habitants of the colony. Ensign John Osborn was appointed captain and Sergeant John Hawley lieutenant for the soldiers raised in Fairfield County.#
Captain Nathan Gold was made Judge of the County Court and Pro- bate Court of Fairfield.
It was also made a law that in every county "a sober, discreet &
* Col Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, p. 412. + Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, p. 458.
# Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, p. 465.
7
1705]
WAR WITH THE FRENCH AND INDIANS
religious person should be appointed by the County Court, called the Queen's Attorney, to suppress vice & immorality."
1705. The chartered rights of the Connecticut Colony were still threatened by the ambitious intrigues of Governor Dudley of Massachu- setts and Lord Cornbury, then governor of New York. Both hoped by their influence in England and by their representations to parliament of the necessity and value of uniting all the English colonies under one government, to thus deprive the colonies of their charters and the land holders of their chartered landed estates from the General Courts. But our wise forefathers appointed Sir Henry Ashurst, a firm friend of the colonies, their agent to protect and plead with the court party of Eng- land for their chartered privileges. In the latter part of King William's reign a bill to unite all the colonies was prepared, and upon the accession of Queen Anne it was presented to parliament. But so earnestly and impressively did Sir Henry Ashurst plead the chartered rights of the colonies before the Lords, spiritual and temporal, May 3, 1701, that it could not be carried through the House. Again, in 1704. Governors Dudley and Cornbury made a direct declaration that Connecticut, " while not guilty of mal-administration, piracy, or any illegal trade. yet she had illegally & fraudulently possessed herself of large tracts of lands belonging to gentlemen residing in & out of the colony, & to Owaneco a Mohegan chief." In an article of complaints other grave charges were brought against Connecticut.
The Assembly appointed Governor John Winthrop, Captain Nathan Gold and Mr. Peter Burr, with four other gentlemen, to be a committee to consider the complaints laid against the colony in England, and to furnish their agent in England with directions and information, in order to answer said complaints. They were also instructed to inquire into the complaints of Owaneco. Before the Queen had heard from the Connecticut agent, she appointed Governor Dudley and eleven others to examine into and determine the whole affair. These men soon after gave judgment against the colony.
Sir Henry Ashurst meanwhile had not been idle, and the following year appealed to her Majesty's Council, and so ably and skilfully pre- sented the facts of the situation that in consequence her Majesty ap- pointed a commission of review. For seventy years this matter remained unsettled; but the first decision of King George III. in Council was in favor of Connecticut. During all these years Connecticut continued to
8
HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD
[1706
flourish and in the wise and even tenor of her ways to act under her chartered liberties, and in confirming her chartered privileges to the planters of each town.
1705. Captain Nathan Gold and Peter Burr, Esq., were made Assist- ants, and Lieutenant John Wakeman and Mr. John Burr deputies for Fairfield to the General Assembly. The town was visited with a sad calamity this year in the burning of Richard Ogden's mill, which was afterwards rebuilt. To burn a mill in those days was a serious matter to the inhabitants of any town.
Captain Nathan Gold was again appointed Judge of the County and Probate Courts of Fairfield.
Captain John Wakeman, Lieutenant Joseph Wakeman and Samuel Squire were appointed officers of the train-band for the east end of the town of Fairfield; and Captain John Osborn, Lieutenant John Barlow and Ensign Theophilus Hull officers for the company at the west end of the town. Messrs. Peter Burr, Sergeant Richard Hubbell and Lieu- tenant John Barlow were appointed to make a list of the freemen of Fairfield.
Byan act of parliament the colonies were ordered to supply her Majesty with masts and stores for her navy and other shipping. Captain Nathan Gold was appointed one of a company of thirty to supply this demand. Thus our fine forest trees were hewn, and the colony forced to support the English navy and shipping interests .*
During this year a distinguished French gentleman named Anthony Nougier settled at Fairfield, who became an honored and useful resident of the town.t
1706. Captain Nathan Gold and Mr. Peter Burr were again elected Assistants, and Captain John Wakeman and Mr. John Edwards deputies from Fairfield to the General Assembly. The law against heretics, so far as it respected Quakers, was repealed. Hitherto Quakers had not been allowed to remain in the colony under a penalty of five pounds against any town that entertained them. They were fined and impris- oned if they remained in the colony. " Any person who should unneces- sarily discourse with them " was made liable to a fine of 20 shillings. A fine was imposed upon masters of ships who landed them in the colony, and also upon anyone who read their books. The repeal of this law was made through the influence of Sir Henry Ashurst, the Governors of
* Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, p. 523. + Appendix Genealogical.
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WAR WITH THE FRENCH AND INDIANS
1705]
Massachusetts and New York having entered this law against the Quak- ers in their bill of complaints to the English government.
The last Thursday in May was appointed a day of fasting and prayer .*
In the October sitting of the General Assembly at New Haven all ministers and their families were made exempt from paying taxes of any kind. + Several other acts of importance were passed.
Drunkenness, " whereby a man was bereaved or disabled in his under- standing, speech or gesture," was fined ten shillings.+ All public and private tippling was forbidden under a penalty of forty shillings against the heads of families where it took place. If the offenders had not means to pay fines, then they were to be " set in the stocks not more than three hours & not less than one hour." Every town in the colony was ordered "to maintain at their own expense a good pair of stocks with lock & key to secure offenders," under a penalty of ten shillings a month against selectmen who failed to comply with this law.
Captain Nathan Gold and Mr. Peter Burr were appointed to lay out to the Rev. Samuel Wakeman two hundred acres of land granted to him May 8, 1703, as well as to lay out to Richard Osborn of Fairfield eighty acres of land for his good services in the Pequot War.$
The town appointed a committee to renew the highways between the Long lots, and to survey them as exact as possible, according to their first laying out, and make a report to the town.
The towns throughout the colony were greatly pleased at this time to receive assurances from Sir Henry Ashurst that, in spite of all the demands, expense and impositions practised upon them by Governors Dudley and Cornbury, "they had a clear right to command their own militia; & that the governors of the neighboring colonies had no right to demand their men or money, nor were they under any obligations to them beyond furnishing such quotas as her Majesty required."
This was joyous news for the colony of Connecticut, which had been put to great expense by the ill-disposed methods in which Dudley and Cornbury had drained them of men and resources. To such expenses had the colony been reduced by these extortions, that the General As- sembly was forced at this time " to levy a tax of more than two shillings on the pound, on the whole taxable list of the colony,", of which Fair-
* Col. Rec. Conn., 1689-1706, p. 547. + Col. Rec. Conn., 1706-1716, p. 2. # Col. Rec. Conn., 1706-1716, p. 5. ยง Col. Rec. Conn., 1706-1716, p. 11. " Trumbull's Hist. Conn., Vol. I., p. 451.
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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD
[1706
field bore her proportion. These taxes, says Mr. Trumbull, " were laid & collected on grain, pork & beef & other articles of produce; & were taken to Boston & shipped for the West Indies, from the sale of which money & bills of exchange were made to pay the bills drawn upon the colony in England, & to discharge its debts at home."
Since the opening of this century a new religious element had arisen, which threatened secession from the long Established Church of the colony. From its beginning Connecticut had allowed only the Congre- gational mode of worship. We have, therefore, now reached a very interesting epoch in the ecclesiastical affairs of the town of Fairfield. In the year 1701 a society was established by the Church of England for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. One special object of this society was to instruct the American Indians and African slaves in the doctrines of the Christian religion. It appears that several mission- aries from this society were sent to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey before one was sent to Connecticut. The Rev. Mr. Muirson of Rye, in the province of New York, where the Church of England was the established church, was the first clergyman who intro- duced the service of the Church of England to the people of Fairfield. It appears that he had been invited by a few English families at Stratford, who had removed there from New York, to visit and preach in that town. Mr. Trumbull says: "The ministers & people in that & the adjacent towns, it seems were alarmed at his coming, & took pains to prevent their neighbors & families from hearing him. However, the novelty of the affair & other circumstances brought together a considerable as- sembly, & Mr. Muirson baptized five & twenty persons, principally adults." Colonel Heathcote of New York accompanied him to Stratford upon this occasion .*
* "Colonel Heathcote was Judge of Westchester, and Colonel of its militia all his life ; first Mayor of the borough of Westchester ; a counsellor of the Province ; Mayor of New York for three years ; for a time Commander of the Colony's forces, and from 1715 to the time of his death Receiver General of the Customs in North America. He was also one of the founders of Trinity Church, New York." Bolton's Church in Westchester County. He resided at Mamaroneck and was very zealous in spreading the influence of the Church of England wherever he found an opportunity.
In 1679 a number of Episcopalians living in Boston petitioned King Charles that they might be allowed to exercise the rights and usages of the Church of England. The petition was granted and they soon after erected King's Chapel .- In a letter written "To the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London and all others, the Honorable Members of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, by the Rev. Mr. Keith, dated Nov. 29, 1702, he gives an interesting account of his mission, ary works after his arrival in Boston June II, of the same year. He says : " In divers places in New England where we travelled, we found many well affected to the Church, not only the people-
1707]
WAR WITH THE FRENCH OND INDIANS
1707. A special Council of War, of which Mr. Peter Burr was a member, was held at Hartford on the 6th of February, to take into con- sideration a letter sent to them from Deputy-Governor Treat; and also a letter from Colonel Schuyler, informing the Council he had informa- tion that the French and their Indian allies were about to make a descent upon the frontier towns of New England. The Photatuck and Owian- tonuck Indians were also reported to be in league with them. The Coun- cil at once resolved to send Captain John Minor and Mr. John Sherman of Woodbury with all convenient speed to "remove the said Indians to Fairfield & Stratford." But if sickness prevailed among them, then to take some of their principal persons and convey them to Fairfield, to be kept safely as hostages to secure the fidelity of those that remained in those inland places. The frontier towns of Symsbury, Waterbury, Wood- bury and Danbury were ordered to fortify themselves immediately, and to send out scouts daily to watch the enemy .*
At a special meeting of the General Assembly holden in Hartford April 2d, by order of Governor John Winthrop, he informed those pres- ent that the occasion of calling them together was on account of receiv- ing a letter from Governor Dudley requesting forces to be sent from Connecticut to assist him in an expedition against the French and Indians in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On the 3d of April Assistant Nathan Gold was made one of a committee to consider and prepare a letter in reply to Governor Dudley's. A letter was drawn up, presented and approved by both houses, in which it was stated: "They did not consider it their but several Presbyterian ministers in New England, who received us as brethren, and requested us to preach in their congregations, as accordingly we did. These were Mr. John Cotton (a grandson of old John Cotton) the Presbyterian minister at Hampton, where I preached twice, and Mr. Talcot once, having very great auditories ; Mr. Cushing, a Presbyterian minister at Salisbury, eight miles distant from Hampton westward, where we both preached on a Sunday, and I had a great auditory ; Mr Gordon Saltonstall at New London, fifty miles westward from the Narragansetts, where we both preached on a Sunday ; the people generally well affected, and those three ministers aforesaid, all worthy gentlemen, who declared their owning the Church of England, and that if they were in Eng- land, they would join in external communion with her ; and were there a bishop in America, we doubt not but several would receive ordination from him."
Among the churches enumerated in New England in 1696 in Cotton Mather's Magnalia (Chapt. 8, B. I.) he states that in the County of Suffolk, Mass. : " There is a small congregation that wor- ship God with the ceremonies of the Church of England ; served generally by a change of persons, occasionally visiting these parts of the world." AAltogether the county of Suffolk seems to have been an independency of itself, for Mather again states, that in that town there was, " also another small congregation of Antepedo Baptists, "with a settled minister named Mr. Emblin. And a French congregation of Protestant Refugees, under the pastorate of Monsieur Daille."
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