The history of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Part 4

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

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history of ancient Windsor, Connecticut > Part 4

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In August the Plymouth Colony formally protested against the usurpation of the Dorchester settlers on the Connecticut; and the Dutch also, alarmed at the increase of English immigra- tion on the river, sent to Holland for instructions. In Septem- ber, the Massachusetts General Court appointed one William

THE EMIGRATION TO WINDSOR.

Westwood " constable for the plantations in Connecticut," and shortly after, they granted a new supply of arms and ammuni- tion to the new colonies, together with leave to appoint their own constables. Meanwhile, at the mouth of the Connecticut River, Gov. John Winthrop, Jr., was preparing to erect a fort by order of the Patentees of Connecticut. 1

In the last days of this "pleasantest of autumnal months " (Oct. 15), the main body of the emigration, about sixty men, women and children,2 set forth from Dorchester on their long and toilsome journey to the Valley of the Connecticut. Their household furniture, bedding and winter provisions were sent around by water, and it is probable that some families also took this means of conveyauce. " Never before had the forests of America witnessed such a scene as this." Driving the cattle before them; the compass their only guide through the bewil-

1 Winthrop, I, 173.

2 Winthrop says (vol. I, p. 171): about 60 men, women and children, went by land to Connecticut, with their cows, heifers and swine, and after a tedious and difficult journey, arrived there safe. Contrary to the general opinion, we believe that this party of 1635, who drove their cattle before them, were principally Dorchester people. For they are particularly mentioned by the same author, as suffering much, and losing most of their cattle during the succeeding severe winter. And the Newtown people drove so many cattle the next summer on their route to Hartford that we can not suppose they had driven many to Conn. before. Haines, in his account of Dorchester, Mass., says that about 100 people removed to Conn. in 1635, most of which were Dorchester People, joined by a few from Newtown and Watertown. Trumbull says that Mr. Warham did not remove with his charge at this time, but came to Con- necticut in Sept. 1636. But we find no mention of him during this time, in Massachusetts, though Mr. Hooker (of Hartford) took part in councils until the next summer. Nor can we understand why a new church should have been formed at Dorchester while Mr. Warham remained. Winthrop says a council was called, April 11, 1636, to form a new church, "a great part of the old one being gone to Connecticut." Its formation, however, from theological reasons, was deferred until August. In view of these circumstances, we feel warranted in our belief that the emigration of 1635, consisted mostly of Dorchester People, who settled at Windsor, and that their pastor came with them.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

dering mazes of the unbroken forests, commencing and ending each day's march with songs of praise, and heartfelt utterances of prayer, which sounded strangely amid these solitudes - they journeyed on. That which is now a four or five hours' trip, was to them, encumbered as they were with women and children, and slow moving cattle, a journey of two weeks.1 Before they reached the Connecticut, the hues of autumn had faded from the forests, and their leafless branches were swaying to and fro in the wintry storm. Winter, indeed, set in unusually early. By the 15th of November, the river was closed, and as yet the vessel containing their household goods and provisions had not: arrived, nor were there any tidings of it. The rude shelter and accommodations which had been provided for themselves and their cattle, proved to be quite insufficient to protect them against the extreme inclemency of the season. They were able to get only a portion of their cattle across the river, the remain- der were left to winter themselves as best they could, on the acorns and roots of the forest. At this time (Nov. 26) a party of thirteen, driven by hunger and distress, attempted to return to Massachusetts, through the woods. One of the number fell through the ice and was drowned; and the remainder would have perished " but that by God's providence, they lighted upon an Indian wigwam.2 As it was they were ten days in reaching

1 In regard to the course of the first settlers, on their way to the Connecti- cut, Dr. McClure's MSS., in possession of Conn. Hist. Soc., preserve the following narrative :

"In a conversation with the late aged and respectable Captain Sabin, of Pomfret, Ct., he related to me the following discovery, viz : About 40 years ago he felled a large and ancient oak, about the north line of Pomfret, adjoin- ing Woodstock. On cutting within some inches of the heart of the tree, it was seen to have been cut and chipped with some sharp tool like an axe. Rightly judging that at the time when it must have been done, the Indians, so far inland, were destitute and ignorant of the use of iron tools, he counted the number of the annular circular rings from the said marks to the bark of the tree, and found there were as many rings as the years which had intervened from the migration of the Dorchester party to that time, Hence the ‘ proba- bility that they journeyed along the north border of Pomfret, and as they traveled by a compass, the conjecture is corroborated by that course being nearly in a direct line from Boston to the place of their settlement on the Connecticut river.' "

2 Winthrop's Journal.

A DREADFUL WINTER.

the Bay.1 By the Ist of December, the condition of the infant colonies on the river was perilous in the extreme. Many were destitute of provisions; those who were not, were unable per- manently to relieve their neighbors, and the only alternative was to reach their vessel, which was supposed to be fast in the ice below. A company of seventy, 2 of all ages and both sexes, now set out in search, intending doubtless to winter on board the vessel. Shelterless and scantily supplied with food, they toiled on, day after day, through snows and storm, hoping at every turn of the stream to discover the wished for relief. Who can picture the sufferings of that painful march, or their disappoint- ment as they reached the sea, and looked, but looked in vain for succor. How applicable to their condition are these words of Webster: " We hear the whisperings of youthful impa- tience, and we see chilled and shivering childhood, houseless but for a mother's arms, couchless but for a mother's breast, till our blood almost freezes."

But God, in whom they trusted, was not unmindful of His suffering ones. His arm was stretched out to save. A small vessel, the Rebecca, of 60 tons, which had attempted to ascend the river to trade, before the winter set in, had become entan- gled in the ice, twenty miles from the river's mouth.3 Fortun- ately a storm of rain came up, which though it drenched the sufferers, released the vessel which came to their relief; and Providence sending favorable winds, "they came " says Gov. Winthrop, "to Mass. in 5 days, which was a great mercy of God, for otherwise they had all perished with famine, as some did." The few who remained in Connecticut through this fear- ful winter, suffered much, as did their cattle also, from insuffi- ciency of both food and shelter. They literally lived on acorns, malt and grains, with what food they could gain by hunting, and such as was given them by the Indians. Their losses were.

1 Winthrop's Journal.

2 Ibid.

3 Winthrop says, that while the Rebecca lay there in the ice, the Dutch sent a sloop to take possession of the mouth of the river, but the men got two pieces [cannon] on shore, and would not suffer them to land.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

very heavy, that of the Dorchester People being as much as £2000 in cattle alone.1

Early in the month of March, 1635-6, Connecticut was set apart as a colony, under a commission granted by the General Court of Massachusetts, "to several persons to govern the peo- ple at Connecticut for the space of a year [then] next coming."2 The commissioners named were Roger Ludlow and William Phelps, of Windsor; John Steele, William Westwood and An- drew Ward, of Hartford; and William Pyncheon, of Springfield; William Swaine and Henry Smith, of Wethersfield.

With the first dawn of spring (April 16, 1636), those brave hearts who had survived the toils and exposure of the previous winter, again undauntedly turned their footsteps towards Con- necticut. They comprised the larger part of the Dorchester Church, with, as some say, their surviving pastor, Mr. War- ham.3 Their settlement at Matianuck, was named Dorchester, in honor of the plantation from which they had emigrated. About the same time also Mr. Pyncheon and others from Rox- bury, Mass., settled at Agawam, now the city of Springfield. And in June following, came the venerable Hooker, with his companions from Cambridge, Mass., who settled at Suckiaug, now the beautiful city of Hartford, where a few settlers had "made a goodly beginning a little before."4 Wethersfield had been precariously settled in 1634, by a few who "managed to live " through the trying scenes of 1635-6.5

1 Winthrop says that those cattle which " came late and could not be put over (i. e. across the river) fared well all winter, without hay." - 2 This was done after due consultation with John Winthrop, then lately "appointed governor by certain noble personages and men of quality [the Patentees, Saltonstall and others] interested in the said River, which are yet in England."

3 See note on p. 25.

4 There is evidence that Hooker and his party were preceded by a few who held some town meetings as early as 1635.

5 In the absence of other positive evidence, the claim of Wethersfield as the oldest town in the State, is substantiated by a judicial decision to that effect in the Colony Court (see Col. Rec., 1, 513) which can not be gainsaid.

THE BIRTH OF CONNECTICUT.

Thus, almost simultaneously, in the rich soil and the choicest spots of the beautiful Connecticut Valley, were the seeds planted which were destined to take root, and germinate into a mighty commonwealth. And the history of that commonwealth, for more than two centuries, has borne witness to the strong and simple faith of its founders, so appropriately and significantly expressed in the motto of our state:

" QUI TRANSTULIT, SUSTINET."1

1 " He who transplanted, still sustains."

CHAPTER II.

1636-1650.

WE HAVE HEARD WITH OUR EARS, O GOD ! OUR FATHERS HAVE TOLD US WHAT WORK THOU DIDST IN THEIR DAYS, IN THE TIMES OF OLD. HOW THOU DIDST DRIVE OUT THE HEATHEN WITH THY HAND, AND PLANTEDST THEM ; HOW THOU DIDST AFFLICT THE PEOPLE AND CAST THEM OUT. FOR THEY GOT NOT THE LAND IN POSSESSION BY THEIR OWN SWORD, NEITHER DID THEIR OWN ARM SAVE THEM : BUT THY RIGHT HAND, AND THINE ARM, AND THE LIGHT OF THY COUNTENANCE, BECAUSE THOU HADST A FAVOR UNTO THEM .- Psalm, xliv, 1-3.

The town records of Windsor, or Dorchester as it was first called, prior to 1650, having crumbled away under the remorse- less tooth of Time, we have undoubtedly lost much which it would be both pleasant and profitable to know. Yet from the Colonial Documents, 1 and such fragmentary manuscripts as have escaped the ravages of time and neglect, we are enabled to trace, in outline at least, the growth and development of the infant town during the first fifteen eventful years of its exist- ence.

The first item we have, is from a record of the first court held at Newtown (Hartford), April 26, 1636, by the commissioners appointed by Massachusetts for the colonies on the Connecticut. At this court complaint was made "that Henry Stiles [of Dor- chester], or some of the ser [vants2] had traded a piece with the Indians for corn." Situated as they were in a new country, and surrounded by Indians, with whom their intercourse was neces-

1 The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1635, to 16-, 3 vols. Svo, edited by J. Hammond Trumbull, Esq.

2 Probably meaning the servants of Saltonstall and the Patentees.

FIRST COURT IN THE COLONY.

sarily guarded, this act was justly deemed a grave offence, and one that imperiled the general safety. It was therefore "ordered that [the] said Henry Stiles, shall between and the next court, regain [the] said piece from the said Indians in a fair and legal way, or else this court will take it into further con- sideration." An order was also promulgated, "that from hence- forth none that are within the jurisdiction of this court, shall trade with the natives or Indians any piece, or pistol, or gun, or powder, or shot." At the next court held at Dorchester (Windsor), Henry Stiles, not having complied with the order of the previous court, was ordered to do so by the next one, and to appear personally and answer his neglect. It was also "ordered, that there shall be a sufficient watch maintained in every town, " under the direction of the constable; and that "every soldier in each plantation " should have on hand, before the end of August following, 2 lbs of powder, and 20 bullets of lead, ready to show it to the constable, upon demand. Non- compliance was to be met with a fine of 10 shillings for each failure, " which is presently to be levied by the said constable, without resistance." It was further ordered at the next court held at Watertown (Wethersfield), that, "every plantation shall train once a month;" and if there were any " very unskill- ful" in such exercises, "the plantation may appoint the officer to train oftener the said unskillful." Every absence from train- ing, without lawful excuse tendered within two days, was to be punished by a fine of two shillings. Any neglect to mend or keep their weapons in repair, was fined in the same amount, and if arms were " wholly wanting," the delinquent was to be bound over to answer for it at the next court.

In all these regulations we find evidence of the prudence and constant watchfulness which was necessarily imposed upon these settlers in a new country. They built their humble cabins amid the wilds of Matianuck, as the prophet Jeremiah and his friends rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, with their arms in their hands. " In no part of New England, were the Indians so numerous, in proportion to the territory, as in this valley, and traditions of the horrors of the Indian wars are linked with almost every village throughout its whole extent. For ninety years after

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

the first settlement, there was scarcely an hour in which the inhabitants, especially of the frontier towns, could travel in the forests, work in the fields, worship God in their churches, or lie down in their beds at night, without apprehension of attack from their stealthy and remorseless foe. The fact that the attacks of the Indian were preceded by no note of preparation, gave a sense of insecurity to the members of the family at home, or the heads of the family abroad, which made the real danger, great as it was, seem more formidable. The blow fell where and when it was least expected. When the Indian seemed most intent on his avocation of hunting and fishing, or in planning some distant expedition - then the farmer in the field would be surprised by an ambuscade, or on his return home find his house in ashes, his wife and children butchered or hurried away into captivity; or the quiet of his slumbers would be broken by the war-whoop, and the darkness of midnight illu- mined by the glare of the village on fire. Those were trials of which the present generation can know nothing."1

They were trials, however, to which the settlers of Windsor were fully exposed, and from which a merciful Providence, in a remarkable degree, preserved them. The Indians who resided in their neighborhood always exhibited a friendly feeling, and seem to have regarded the presence of the whites as a protec- tion against the exactions and attacks of the Pequots and Mohawks, both of which tribes assumed the rights of conquest over these Valley Indians! Yet, the character of the Indian was always uncertain, and experience dictated the necessity of constant care and jealous watchfulness in all their dealings with them.

Added to the constant dread of Indian treachery, was no small amount of loss and trouble among their cattle, who had suffered so much from exposure during the previous winter.

Winthrop, under date of " 9 [Decem]ber, 1636," says, "Things went not well at Connecticut. Their cattle did, many of them cast their young, as they had done the year before."

At the court of February 21, 1636-7, the plantation of Dorches-

1 Introduction to the Foote Genealogy, by Nathaniel Goodwin.

SETTLEMENT OF BOUNDARIES.

ter received its present name of Windsor, 1 and a committee appointed for the purpose, by a previous court, brought in a report that the bounds thereof should "extend towards the Falls, on the same side the plantation stands, 2 to a brook called Kettle Brook, and so over the Great River, 3 upon the same line that Newtown and Dorchester doth between them. And so it is ordered by the court." Also, " the bounds between Hartford and Windsor is agreed to be at the upper end of the great mea- dow of the said Hartford toward Windsor at the Pale [fence] that is now there set up by the said Hartford, which is abut- ting upon the Great River, upon a due east line, and into the county from the said Pale upon a due west line, as parallel to the said east line as far as they have now paled, and after- wards the bounds to go into the country upon the same west line. But it is to be so much shorter towards Windsor as the place where the Girte that comes along at the end of the said meadow, and falls into the said Great River is shorter than their pale; and over the said Great River the said plantation of Windsor is to come to the rivulets'4 mouth, that falls into the said Great River of Connecticut, and there the said Hartford is to run due east into the country, which is ordered accordingly."

This spring the contentions and negotiations between the Plymouth Company and the Dorchester People, concerning the land at Matianuck, upon which the latter had so unceremoni- ously squatted, at their first coming, were brought to a close. It seems that in February, 1635-6, prior to the return of the emigrants to the Connecticut, whence they had been driven by the severity of the previous winter, Mr. Winslow of Plymouth, went up to the Bay, to adjust the matter in dispute.5 He demanded that the Plymouth People should be allowed a reservation of one-sixteenth part of the land, and £100 as damages, " which those of Dorchester not consenting unto, they

1 Undoubtedly, although we know not with what particular reasons in honor of Windsor, the royal abode of England's sovereigns.

2 The west side of the River.

3 Connecticut river.

4 Podunk River.

5 Winthrop's Journal.

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR.

break off [negotiations] ; those of Plymouth expecting to have due recompense after[wards], by course of justice, if they went on." There seems to have been an evident intention, among some of the leaders of the Dorchester party, to maintain their position at any cost, and to force the Plymouth Company either to re- linquish or sell out their claim to them. Yet we do not be- lieve that these high-handed measures at coercion were sanc- tioned by the more thoughtful and conscientious among their number, for Winthrop distinctly says, that " divers resolved to quit the place, if they could not agree with those of Plymouth." Seeing this evident determination of their neighbors to force an issue, feeling that to offer forcible resistance would be useless, and " that to live in continnal contention with their friends and neighbors would be uncomfortable, and too heavy a burden to bear. Therefore, for peace sake (though they conceived they suffered much in this thing)," the Plymouth People "thought it better to let them have it upon as good terms as they could get; and so they fell to treaty. The first thing that [because they had made so many and long disputes about it] they [the Plymouth People] would have them [of Dorchester] to grant was, that they [Plymouth] had right to it, or else they would never treat about it. The which being acknowledged and yielded unto by them, this was the conclusion they came unto in the end, after much ado:" Ist, that Plymouth should reserve a six- teenth of all the land they had purchased from the Indians, leaving the rest of the land excepting a small "moiety to those of Newtown " (or Hartford1) to the Dorchester settlers. This Plymouth Reservation "was to be taken in two places; one towards the [trading] house, the other towards Newtown's proportion [Hartford bds.]." 2d, The Plymouth Company were to receive equitable compensation for the land which they had purchased from the Indians.

Accordingly, on the 15th of May, 1637, Thomas Prince, in

1 The reason for this is thus given in Bradford's Journal : " They of New- town dealt more fairly, desiring only what they could conveniently spare, from a competency reserved for a plantation, for themselves, which made them [the Plymouth men] more careful to procure a moiety for them, in this agreement and distribution." An honorable testimony, truly.

PLYMOUTH COMPANY SELL TO WINDSOR.

behalf of the Colony of New Plymouth, formally transferred and sold to the inhabitants of Windsor, Conn., the lands owned by said Company, by a deed, of which this is a copy:

"An agreement made by Thomas Prince, for and in behalf of New Plymouth in America, and the inhabitants of Windsor, upon Connecticott, in the said America, the 15th day of May, 1637, as followeth, viz, Imprimis. In consideration of thirty- seven pounds ten shillings to be paid about three months hence, the said Thomas Prince doth sell unto the inhabitants of Wind- sor all the ground, meadow and upland, from a marked tree about a quarter of a mile above Mr. Stiles1 [on the] North, [to] the great swamp next the bounds of Hartford [on the] South, for length. And in breadth into the country towards Poquo- nack as far as Sequasson and Nattawanut, two sachems hath or had (as proprieties) all which hath been purchased of the said Sequasson and Nattawanut, for a valuable considera- tion, the particulars whereof do appear by a note now produced by the said Thomas Prince, always excepted and reserved to the House of the said New Plymouth, 43 acres of meadow, and three quarters, and in upland on the other side of the swamp, next their meadow 40 acres, viz, 40 rods in breadth and in length 160 rods into the country for the present, and afterwards as other lots are laid out they are to have their proportion within their bounds aforesaid. There is likewise excepted 70 rods in breadth towards the bounds of the said Hartford in an indif- ferent place, to be agreed upon, and to go in length to the ends of the bounds, aforesaid. In witness whereof the parties afore- said, have set their hands and seals the day and year above written.

Signed, sealed and delivered. In presence of JOSIAS WINSLOW. ROGER LUDLOW.

THOS. MARSHFIELD. WILLIAM PHELPS. The mark of WM. BUTLER. JOHN WHITFIELD. The above deed or instrument is a true copy of the original being compared therewith Apl. 7, 1673 per us JOHN TALCOTT Asst.2 JOHN ALLYN, Sec'y

To the copy of this deed on the town records of Windsor, is appended the following note by Matthew Grant, the Recorder: " This Bargain as it is above exprest, and was written and

1 Mr. (Francis) Stiles's place was on the ground occupied by the Chief- Justice Ellsworth house, now owned by the widow of his son, Martin Ells- worth, deceased.

2 These signatures are affixed to the copy of the deed on the Colony Re- cords, but omitted on that in the Windsor Records. The omission of Mr. Prince's signature is probably an error of transcription.

1148924

HISTORY OF ANCIENT WINDSOR

assigned, I can certainly Testify does not mention or speak to every particular, of the bargain as it was issued with Mr. Prince, before it was put in writing. This should have been the frame of it. Dorchester men that came from the Mass. Bay up here to Connecticut to settle in the place now called Windsor; Plymouth men challenged propriety here, by a purchase of the land from the Indians, whereupon in the latter end of the '35 year, some of our Principal men meeting with some of the Plymouth men in Dorchester, labored to Drive a Bargain with them to buy out their [claim], which they challenged by purchase, & came to Terms, & then May '37 as it is above exprest, then our com- pany being generally together (that intended to settle here) Mr. Prince being come up here, in the behalf of the Plymouth men, that were partners in their purchase, issued the bargain with us. We were to pay them £37 10s for their whole purchase, which Mr. Prince presented to us in writing, only they Reserved the 16 part off for themselves & their 16 part in meadow land came by measuring of ye meadow to 43 acres 3 quarters, which was bounded out to Mr. Prince, he being present, by myself ap- pointed by our Company, in Plymouth meadow so called by that account. Their 16th part in upland they took up near the bounds of Hartford, 70 rods in breadth by the River & so to continue to the ends of the bounds. They were also to have one acre to build on, upon the Hill against their meadow.1 Also Mr. P. said he had purchased the land on the East side of the [Conn.] River that lies between Scantic and Namerick, & that we should have in lieu of 40 rods in breadth of upland & to run in length 160 rods, from the swamp, to be 40 acres, & afterward to have their proportion within their bounds, according to a 40 acre man, in the commons.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The history of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Part 4

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