The history of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Part 2

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: New York : C. B. Norton
Number of Pages: 956

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The discoveries thus made opened to the adventurous mer- chants of Holland large and inviting channels of trade, in beaver skins and furs, especially with the Indians of the north, which they were by no means slow to see and improve. The Dutch West India Company was formed in 1621, and as the settlement of Nieuw Amsterdam, under its fostering care, gradually increased in size and permanence, so their commercial relations expanded and brightened. Their traders traversed the trackless forests, or paddled their light canoes along silent rivers, and visited the redman in his wigwam. The little fort at Manhattan was never free from stately Indian chiefs, whom the desire of barter, and the fame of fair dealings, had tempted thither; while an-

1 O'Callaghan, Hist. of New Netherland, 1, 73.

2 Probably an error of pronunciation and spelling.

3 In the Indian tongue Quonektacut-meaning as some say the long river ; but according to others the River of Pines, in allusion to the pine forests which once stood on its banks.

THE DUTCH IN CONNECTICUT.

nually, from the goodly harbor, went forth a gallant fleet of broad bottomed Dutch vessels, richly laden with furry treasures, to gladden the hearts of the honest burgers of Amsterdam and Hoorn.

Yet during all this time, and for many years after, there was little or no attempt at colonization. The rich and beautiful country to which they had gained access, was occupied only by a few straggling and scantily garrisoned log forts, which served as centers of trade; and their government was merely the agency of a wealthy mercantile corporation at home, whose objects and regulations were unfavorable to agricultural or in- dependent industrial pursuits. As yet no plans of comfortable settlement or visions of future empire had troubled the Dutch- man's busy brain. The meadows of the Connecticut Valley were lovely in his eyes, not as the home and inheritance of his race, but for the 10,000 beaver skins which were annually gathered from thence.1 Meanwhile events were transpiring on another Continent, and in another nation, which were destined to wrest this territory from the Dutch, and to give it for a goodly heritage unto men of a different mould and nobler aims.

England, at this time, was overcast by the thick gathering cloud of civil and religious persecution. Church and State were becoming more and more exacting in their demands; all rights of conscience and faith were abnegated, and every heart was filled with forebodings of the future. "Every corner of the nation," says Macauley, "was subjected to a constant and mi- nute inspection. Every little congregation of separatists was tracked out and broken up. Even the devotions of private fami- lies could not escape the vigilance of spies. And the tribunals afforded no protection to the subject against the civil and ecclesi- astical tyranny of that period." It was then that America, long known to the English people for its valuable fur trade and fish- eries, began to be regarded as an asylum, by those whose prin- ciples and persecutions had left them no alternative but exile. Hope whispered to their saddened hearts that, perhaps, in these

1 Winthrop, 1, 113.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

savage western wilds, they might be permitted to enjoy those privileges which were denied them at home. The experiment was made. In 1620, the Rev. John Robinson's congregation, who, for eleven years, had found a home with the kind hearted Hollanders, embarked for America, and on the memorable 11th of December,1 landcd upon the bleak and rockbound coast of Plymouth. It is not our purpose to dwell upon the details of that scene which has become one of the grandest epochs of the world's history. Suffice it to say, that the experiment was a success. Starvation, cold, and all the novel dangers of a new settlement, failed to extinguish the life, or check the growth, of the Plymouth Colony. On this portion of the Western Conti- nent were now planted two races of Europeans, with different natures and aims. The Dutchman, with his feudal institutions, and a soul absorbed in pelf. The Englishman, with his deep religious zeal, his love for popular liberty, and, it must be con- fessed, as great a love of trade as his Teutonic rival. The pro- bability that, sooner or later, their claims must conflict, was warranted equally by their national antecedents, and their di- versities of character. Yet it was not until 1627 that there was any actual communication between the two colonies.

Then the Dutchi sent a pacific and commercial embassage to Plymouth. Their envoy, Captain De Rasiere, was courteously welcomed, and honorably attended with the noise of trumpcts. The mecting was pleasant to both parties. The Dutchman was the countryman of those who had befriended them in the day of their affliction. "Our children after us," said the Pilgrims, "shall never forget the good and courteous entreaty, which we found in your country; and shall desire your prosperity forever." He in turn, seeing the sterility of their soil, invited them, as old friends, to remove to the fertile and pleasant lands on the Con - necticut. But the Pilgrims, with a frankness which savored almost of discourtesy, questioned the right of the Dutch to the banks of the Hudson, and requested them to desist from trading at Narragansett; at the same time plainly suggesting the pro- priety of a treaty with England. Good feeling, however, pre-

1 Old style.

THIE SETTLING OF NEW ENGLAND.

vailcd in their intercourse. It could hardly be otherwise with so many pleasant memories to bind them together. Yct when De Rasiere returned to New Amsterdam, it must have been with an uncomfortable apprehension of future trouble with their Eng- lishi neighbors. For, soon after his return, the authorities sent home to the Directors in the Fatherland for a reinforcement of forty soldiers. The Dutchman's heart was kind, and his voice was ever for peace. But the plain words and grasping attitude of the Plymouth colonists had sown seeds of dissension which could not fail to disturb his tranquillity. Nor were these fears entirely groundless. The success of the Plymouth Colony, as well as the continuance of religious persecution and intolerance in the mother country, gave a decided impetus to the progress of cmigration to New England.

The Charter of Massachusetts Bay, granted in 1628, was con- firmed in 1629, and the same year the first settlement under its provisions was made at Salem, by Gov. Endicott and 300 others. Charlestown was next settled by a portion of the Salem people, and the same year the patent and government of Massachusetts was transferred to New England. This was but the beginning. The next year not less than 17 ships arrived, bringing some 1500 or 1700 immigrants. Dorchester, Watertown, Roxbury, Medforth and Weymouth, were rapidly settled by the new comers. And the social necessities of these colonists, as well as their restless activity and numbers, forbadc the supposition that they would long remain within these narrow limits, when they became acquainted with the better lands and resources of the interior.

Foremost among thesc colonies of 1630, both as regards the character of its members, and the date of its arrival, was the one which settled at Dorchester, and which afterwards removed to Windsor, Conn. It had been formed mostly from the west- ern counties of England, 1 carly in the spring of 1629, by the

1 Trumbull says this " honorable company" was derived from the coun- ties of Davonshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

exertions of the Rev. John White of Dorchester, whose zeal and labors fairly entitle him to the appellation of the "great patron of New England emigration."

" Great pains were taken," says the histerian, 1 " to construct this company of such materials as should compose a well- ordered settlement, containing all the elements of our independ- ent community. Two devoted ministers, Messrs. Maverick2 and Warham, 3 were selected, not only with a view to the spiritual welfare of the plantation, but especially that their efforts might bring the Indians to the knowledge of the Gospel. Two mem- bers of the government, chosen by the freemen or stockholders of the company in London, assistants or directors, Messrs. Rosseter and Ludlow, men of character and education, were joined to the association, that their counsel and judgment might aid in preserving order, and founding the social structure upon the surest basis. Several gentlemen, past middle life, with adult families and good estates, were added. Henry Wolcott, Thomas Ford, George Dyer, William Gaylord, William Rockwell and William Phelps, were of this class. But a large

1 History of the Town of Dorchester, Mass., (edited) by a committee of Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society.

2 John Maverick was a minister of the Established Church, and resided about forty miles from Exeter, England ; he is first mentioned at the time of the assemblage in the New Hospital, Plymouth, England, to organize a Church. Cotton Mather includes him in the " First Classis" of ministers, viz : those who " were in the actual exercise of their ministry when they left England." He was " somewhat advanced of age," at that period. He took the freeman's oath May 18, 1631. A curious account of his drying some gun-powder in a pan over the fire, in the Dorchester meeting-house, which was used as a magazine also, and the wonderful escape of Maverick in the consequent explosion of a " small barrel," are described in Winthrop's Journal, i. #78. Mr. Maverick expected to remove to Connecticut, but died Feb. 3, 1636-7, aged " about sixty." " A godly man, a beloved pastor, a safe and truthful guide." Samuel Maverick, an Episcopalian, an early settler of Noddle's Island, and afterwards royal commissioner, was a son of Rev. John. For a full account of each, see Sumner's Hist. of East Boston. A. H. Q.

3 Rev. John Warham had been an eminent minister in Exeter, England, and came to New England as the teacher of the Dorchester Church.

THE DORCESTER COLONY.

portion of active, well-trained young men, either just married, or without families, such as Israel Stoughton, Roger Clap, George Minot, George Hall, Richard Collicott, Nathaniel Dun- can, and many others of their age, were the persons upon whom the more severe trials of a new settlement were expected to devolve. Three persons of some military experience - viz: Cap- tain John Mason, Captain Richard Southcote and Quarter-Master John Smith - were selected as a suitable appendage, as forcible resistance from the Indians might render the skill and discipline which these gentlemen had acquired under De Vere, in the cam- paign of the Palatinate, on the Continent, an element of safety essential to the enterprise."

" These godly people," says Roger Clap, one of the number, 1 "resolved to live together, and therefore as they had made choice of those two Rev. Servants of God, Mr. John Warham and Mr. John Maverick to be their Ministers, so they kept a solemn Day of Fasting in the New Hospital in Plymouth, in England, spending it in Preaching and praying; where that worthy man of God, Mr. John White of Dorchester, in Dorsetshire, was present and preached unto us in the forepart of the day, and in the latter part of the day, as the people did solemnly make choice of, and call these godly ministers to be their Officers, so also the Rev. Mr. Warham and Mr. Maverick did accept thereof and expressed the same."

On the 20th of March, 1630, this company of 140 persons, embarked at Plymouth, in the Mary and John, a vessel of 400 tons burden, commanded by Captain Squeb. "So we came," says Clap, " by the hand of God, through the Deeps comfortably; having Preaching, or Expounding of the Word of God, every day for Ten Weeks together, by our Ministers." On the Lord's Day, May the 30th, 1630, their good ship came to anchor, on the New England Coast. Their original destin ition was the Charles River, but an unfortunate misunderstanding which arose between the captain and his passengers, resulted in the latter being summarily put ashore at Nantasket (now Hull),

1 Roger Clap's Memoirs, published by the Dorchester Antiq. and Hist. Society.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

where they were obliged to shift for themselves as best they could. 1

Ten of the male passengers, setting out in a boat in search of the promised land, reached Charlestown Neck, where they were kindly received by an old planter, who gave them a dinner of " fish without bread." Thus scantily refreshed they passed up the Charles River to what is now Watertown. Here they passed two or three days, when they returned to the main part of the company who had found a good pasture ground for their cattle at Mattapan now known as Dorchester Neck, or South Boston. Their settlement was named Dorchester in honor of the Rev. Mr. White of Dorchester, England, which had also been the home of several of their own number.

The long sea voyage had probably enfeebled many of them, 2 and as they still retained their original project of settling on the Charles River, they had made little or no provision for future want in the way of planting. Consequently, shortly after their arrival, they found themselves threatened with a scarcity of food. We will let Roger Clap tell the story in his own quaint and pathetic manner.

" Oh the hunger that many suffered, and saw no hope in the eye of reason to be supplied, only by clams, and muscles, and fish. We did quietly build boats, and some went a fishing; but bread was with many a scarce thing, and flesh of all kinds scarce. And in those days, in our straits, though I cannot say God sent us a raven to feed us as he did the prophet Elijah, yet this I can say to the praise of God's glory, that he sent not only poor ravenous Indians, which came with their baskets of corn on their backs to trade with us, which was a good supply unto many, but also sent ships from Holland and from Ireland with provision, and Indian corn from Virginia to supply the

1 " The Mary and John was the first ship, of the fleet of 1630, that arrived in the bay. At that time there were surely no pilots for ships to be found, and the refusal of the captain to attempt the passage without pilot or chart does not seem unreasonable, though Clap has sent the captain's name to posterity as a " merciless man," who Trumbull says was afterwards obliged to pay damages for this conduct." (Hist. of Dorchester, Mass.)

This trouble was afterwards amicably settled by the mediation of Gov. Winthrop. See his Journal, 1, 28.

2 See Winthrop.

THE ENGLISH INVITED TO CONNECTICUT.

wants of his dear servants in this wilderness, both for food and raiment. And wheu people's wants were great, not only in one town but in divers towns; such was the godly wisdom, care and prudence (not selfishness but self denial) of our Go- vernor Winthrop and his assistauts, that when a ship came laden with provisions, they did order that the whole cargo should be bought for a general stock : and so accordingly it was, and dis- tribution was made to every town, and to every person in each town, as every man had need. Thus God was pleased to care for his people in times of straits, and to fill his servants with food and gladness. Then did all the servants of God bless His holy name, and love one auother with pure hearts fervently."

For a further account of their doings at this place, a subject possessing peculiar interest to every inhabitant of Windsor, who traces his lineage back to these settlers of Dorchester, we refer to the history before mentioned.

In 1631, Wahquimacut, a Connecticut River sachem visited Boston and Plymouth, earnestly soliciting both colonies to make settlemeuts on the river. While he extolled the exceeding fruit- fulness of the country, and its advantages for trade; he proffered the cordial friendship of his people; and offered the English, in case of their settlement, a full supply of corn and an anuual present of 80 beaver skins. The urgency of this invitation arose, as the English afterwards discovered, from a desire to avail himself of the skill and arms of the white men against the Pequots, who were at that time harassing and conquering the river tribes. Gov. Winthrop of the Massachusetts Colony, though he treated the sachem courteously, declined the pro- posal. Gov. Winslow of the Plymouth Colony, however, deemed the matter worthy of more consideration, and shortly after took occasion to make a journey to Connecticut, whence he returned very favorably impressed. About this time also some of the Plymouth People had been up the river to trade, and the matter appeared in so favorable a light to that colony, that in July, 1633, Mr. Winslow and Mr. Bradford visited Boston to confer with Goveruor Winthrop and the Council upon the subject. It was proposed that the two colonies should unite in the erection of a trading house on the river, for the establishment of a traffic in hemp and beaver skins. The rumored occupation of that 2

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

fine country by the Dutch was also urged as an additional rea- son for its immediate preoccupation by the English. But the enterprise of Plymouth met with a cold response from the cau- tious authorities of Massachusetts. Gov. Winthrop objected to the proposition, first, because of the number of warlike Indians on the river; secondly, because of the bar at its mouth; thirdly, because of the ice and the violence of the stream, which it was thought would render it unnavigable during a greater part of the year. Finally, he plead the poverty of the Massachusetts Colony as preventing them from joining the enterprise. To this last, the Plymouth Company replied, by generously offering to loan them sufficient capital - but it was of no avail ; The Massachusetts gentlemen, " casting many fears of danger and loss," replied " they have no mind for it."1 Finding the Massachusetts Colony thus disinclined to favor the undertaking, the Plymouth People determined to set about it themselves. A trading company was formed, and prepara- tions made for erecting a trading-house.

In September following, also, one John Oldham, with three others of Dorchester, traveled through the wilderness to Con- necticut. He was kindly received by the native chiefs, who gave him a valuable present of beaver skins. Specimens of Indian hemp which he carried back to Dorchester, were pro- nounced far superior to the English article.2 He represented the distance from the Bay to Connecticut as being about 160 miles The Dutch meanwhile had not been idle. Feeling the necessity

1 These are the words of Gov. Bradford of Plymouth. There appears truly to have been a want of ingenuousness in the action of the Massachusetts Colony. Their objections seem to us, as they probably seemed to their friends at Plymouth, "rather specious than solid." And their subsequent jealously of the Plymouth Colony - their eagerness to settle in the new country of the Connecticut after the former had made an entrance and begin- ning - together with the peremptory illiberal manner of dealing with them in regard to the settlement of Windsor, contrast strongly, and, we can not but think unfavorably, with their previous extreme caution and reluctance to embark in the enterprise.

2 Oldham also carried back some fine specimens of black lead " whereof the Indians told him there was a whole rock."-Winthrop's Journal, 1, 111.

DUTCH PURCHASE AT HARTFORD.

of maintaining their claim to the Connecticut by actual occupa- tion, Director Van Twiller, in 1632, had purchased from the Indians, lands at Saybrook, on which he had erected the arms of the States General. And on the 8th of June, 1633, the West India Company through their clerk Van Curler, bought from Sachem Wapyquart, a tract of meadow land, "extending about a [Dutch] mile down along the river, to the next little stream, and upwards beyond the kill, being a third of a [Dutch] mile broad."1 On this purchase, the present site of the city of Hart- ford, Van Curler quickly erected a little fort, which he defended with two cannon, and called the House of Good Hope. Events were hurrying forward a collision, which could not long be avoided.

Early in October, the bark Blessing, from Massachusetts, voyaging to Long Island, visited New Amsterdam, where its captain showed to Van Twiller his commission, signifying that the King of England had granted to his loyal subjects the river and country of Connecticut. Whereupon the Dutch Go- vernor wrote back a very "courteous and respectful" letter to the Eastern Colonies, stating that both by prior discovery, occu- pation, and the grant of the States, the country belonged to the Dutch West India Company; and requesting the Plymouth Peo- ple to refrain from settling there until the matter could be determined by the proper persons, in order that they "as Christians, might dwell together in these heathenish parts."

But these courteous and pacific counsels had no weight with the Plymouth Trading Company, who, within a few days after, sent out "a large new bark," in charge of one William Holmes, a man of enterprising and resolute spirit, with an equally resolute crew.2 Holmes had on board the frame of a house, with all the materials requisite for its immediate erection. He also carried with him Attawanott, and other Indian sachems, the original pro- prietors of the soil, who had been driven thence by the warlike Pequots, and of whom the Plymouth People afterwards purchased

1 O'Callaghan, Hist. New Netherland, 1, 151.

2 This was " the latter part of October," but the Dutch authorities state it as the 16th of September. See O'Callaghan.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

the land. Sailing steadily up the broad Connecticut, he suddenly found himself under the "two guns" of the newly erected Dutch fort at Hartford. The drum-beat that resounded from its walls, the cannoniers standing with lighted matches, under the banner of New Netherland, all gave note of warlike intent. Nor was he long left in doubt. The Dutch hailed him with an enquiry as to his intentions, followed by a peremptory order to stop. He curtly replied that he held his commission from the Governor of Plymouth; that his orders were to go up the river to trade, and go up he would. They threatened to fire upon him, but his English blood was up, and he proceeded on his way in cool defiance of their threats. The Dutch, for reasons best known to themselves, did not fire. Passing on a few miles, he arrived at the location which had been selected for a trading house, just below the mouth of the Tunxis (or Farmington) river, in the present town of Windsor. Here he erected his house - the first ever erected in Connecticut"1- and proceeded to fortify it with palisadoes, with the utmost dispatch.

As may be imagined, these high handed proceedings of their Yankee neighbors, produced quite a flutter among the honest traders of Nieuw Amsterdam. Gov. Van Twiller immediately wrote to the Netherlands for advice and troops, and directed Commissioner Jacobus Van Curler to serve a protest upon Cap- tain Holmes, which was done forthwith with all due solemnity, October 25th, as follows:

" The Director and Council of Nieuw Netherland hereby

1 Gov. Wolcott's Mss. By this is probably meant the first English house. Barber (Hist. Collections of Conn.) says this house " stood about two miles Southeast of the First Congregational Church, on the river bank, about twenty rods from a point of land extending down the river, near the western shore. It was at this place Farmington or Windsor River entered the Connecticut. The mouth of the river is now sixty rods above. This was changed by Gov. Wolcott's cutting a canal for a ferry boat across the point of land above men- tioned. This channel has become so much enlarged, that it is now the main channel of the river. The meadow lying in the vicinity of where the house stood is still called Plymouth Meadow", and the point near where Holmes landed is occupied by a fishing hut, and called by the boatmen on the river, Old Point Comfort.

CAPT. HOLMES AT WINDSOR.

give notice to William Holmes, lieutenant and trader, acting on behalf of the English Governor of Plymouth, at present in the service of that nation, that he depart forthwith, with all his people and houses, from the lands lying on the Fresh River, continually traded upon by our nation, and at present occupied by a fort, which lands have been purchased from the Indians and paid for. And in case of refusal, we hereby protest against all loss and interest which the Privileged West India Company may sustain.

Given at Fort Amsterdam, in Nieuw Netherland, this xxvth Octob., 1633."1

To this protest a written answer was requested but refused by Holmes. And not long after2 the Plymouth trading house was besieged by a force of 70 Dutch soldiers, who, with banners displayed, seemed to menace its destruction. Finding, however, that Holmes was fully prepared to resist their attack, they demanded a parley, which was granted. Holmes reasserted his peaceable intentions ; his just claim by purchase of the original proprietors, and his determination to maintain that claim. The parley finally ended by the peaceable withdrawal of the Dutch troops, and no further demonstrations were ever made against the Plymouth house. Yet he undoubtedly was obliged to keep a vigilant watch and ward, for with irate Dutchmen on the one hand, and the haughty Pequots, who were incensed at his bringing back the original proprietors of the soil, on the other, his position was no sinecure. As this was the last of the Dutch controversy, so far as Windsor was concerned, we shall take leave of it here. Its history pertains more to the early history of Hartford. Nor was it long. The Dutch arms at Say- brook were torn down and replaced with a fool's head, by the English, in 1634. The House of Good Hope, at Hartford, although it maintained a precarious existence for several years, was merely a house of forlorn hope; and under the aggrandizing claims of the Connecticut Colony, the Dutch possessions in these parts, within four years, dwindled to a tract of twenty-eight acres, more or less, and even those were held by sufferance of their

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The history of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Part 2

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909 Publication date: 1859 Publisher: New York : C. B. Norton Number of Pages: 956

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1859
Publisher: New York : C. B. Norton
Number of Pages: 956