USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 10
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" the Charter was brought in and laid upon the table, where the Assembly was sitting. . . . The lights were instantly extinguished, and one Captain [Jo- seph] Wadsworth, of Hartford, in the most silent and secret manner, carried off the Charter, and secreted it in a hollow tree, fronting the house of the Honorable Samuel Wyllys, then one of the magistrates of the colony. The people appeared all peaceable and orderly. The candles were officiously relighted ; but the patent was gone, and no discovery could be made of it, or of the person who had con- veyed it away. Sir Edmond assumed the government, and the records of the colony were closed, in the following words" :-
And he quotes the entry we have recited above. The latter version accords with the ancient tradition. Captain Wadsworth was a brother of John Wadsworth, one of the Assistants present, from Farmington.
What is certain is, that the Charter was never surrendered ; and, indeed, there never was any decree ordering its surrender or annulling it. No such order could have been made upon the quo warranto; and a judgment of that kind would not have been responsive to the writ or its demands.
Andros may or may not have been a " usurper " in Massachusetts, whose charter had been annulled under a scire facias. At Hartford his government was that of a usurper ; for he had no judicial warrant for the exercise of authority there, and he exceeded the very doubtful au- thority granted by the King. He abolished the General Court and the Court of Assistants, and he set up new tribunals in their stead. He established a Superior Court, Courts of General Sessions, and Courts of Common Pleas. He commissioned judges and justices of the peace. Allyn, who had been Judge of the County Court for Hartford County, was made Judge of the Common Pleas Court. The Assistants of the General Court were made Justices ; as were also some others, including Gershom Bulkeley. He commissioned Governor Treat to be Colonel of Militia ; and evidently sought to placate officials whom he had removed, by placing them in new offices. His Council at Boston enacted laws for the government of Connecticut until the revolution of 1689.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
With the accession of William and Mary to the throne, the charter government was resumed, in May, 1689; Andros and Randolph having been arrested and deposed in April of that year. In 1704 Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, and Lord Cornbury, Governor of New York, made futile efforts to have the Charter revoked. That instrument re- mained in force, so far as Connecticut chose to have it, until the adop- tion of our Constitution.
Through the courtesy of the Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, the writer is enabled to mention some of the doings of the courts of the Andros government in Hartford County. The original records of those courts are in the possession of Mr. Trumbull, to whom they were presented by the late Thomas G. Talcott, Esq. They were among the "Talcott papers," and have never been published. They are in twenty-five closely written folio pages.
The first Court of Sessions held at Hartford was begun on March 5, 1687-8. The "Justices " present were : Lieutenant-Colonel John Talcott, Humphrey Davie, and Samuel Wyllys, of Hartford; Gershom Bulkeley, Samuel Talcott, and Jolın Chester, of Wethersfield ; Benja- min Newberry, of Windsor ; John Wadsworth, of Farmington ; and Giles Hamlin, of Middletown. Mr. Davie had lived in Boston, but was of Hartford at the date of his decease, Feb. 18, 1688-9. He was a brother of Sir John Davie, of Creedy, County of Devon, England ; to whom his son John, of Groton, Conn., succeeded as heir to the baronial estate and title.
The Grand Jury consisted of : Nathaniel Stanley and Joseph Wads- worth, of Hartford ; James Steele, Sr., William Burnham, and John Chester, (Jr. ? ), of Wethersfield ; and John Bissell, John Moore, Return Strong, and Nathaniel Loomis, of Windsor. A marshal attended upon the court.
The first ease tried was a prosecution of " Mr. Joseph Mallison " (?), for assaulting Stephen Chester, of Wethersfield. Several other prose- cutions were tried. Packers and gaugers, cullers (of fish), and sealers of weights and measures were appointed for Hartford, Windsor, Weth- ersfield, Middletown, Farmington, Haddam, Waterbury, and Simsbury.
A session of the Inferior Court of Pleas was begun on the 8th of March, 1687-8. At this court John Allyn was the judge ; and the Jus- tices above mentioned (excepting Davie) were his associates on the bench. Several civil causes were tried, and some wills were probated. Justice Davie was present in April and May. Another Court of Sessions was begun June 5, 1688. At this term, besides the trial of causes, commissioners and constables were appointed for some of the towns, and probate matters were attended to. A special session was held June 19, and a Court of Pleas the same day, with Allyn as judge. Another term of the Court of Sessions was begun September 4. This was a general session. Special sessions were held September 11 and 18. In the following February and March there were sessions of the Court of Pleas, the last one having been on March 7, 1688-9. Suits and prosecutions were tried, and wills were probated. Several wills are recorded in extenso. Ferry-keepers (for Lyme and Wethersfield) and taverners were licensed.
The territory over which jurisdiction was conferred by the Charter was bounded northerly by Massachusetts, easterly by "Narrogancett
ABLAN & PROSS
Site of the Charter Oak, marked by marble slab. Jewish Synagogue. Second (Cong.) Church.
RESIDENCE OF A. P. HYDE, ON CHARTER OAK PLACE.
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THE CHARTER AND THE CHARTER OAK.
River," southerly " by the Sea," and westerly by "the South Sea." This last-mentioned limit was, in later times, construed by Connecticut. to be the Pacific Ocean ; but it is probable that the Crown had no idea of the vastness of the extent westerly. The tenure was " in free and common socage ;" which, practically, was as good as a fee-simple. The instrument was written upon three skins, or pieces of parchment ; at
THE CHARTER OAK.
the beginning of the first of which is a finely executed drawing of the head of Charles I. There was originally suspended from the foot of the document an immense waxen seal; but it long ago crumbled to pieces. The whole was encased in a box, the wood of which resembles that of the Scotch fir. The box is now in the possession of the Connecti- cut Historical Society. The charter may be seen at the office of the Secretary of the State, in the Capitol, enclosed in a carved frame, part of which is of wood of the old tree itself.
The tree stood upon land on the homestead of the celebrated Wyllys family, until 1827, when the place became the property of Stephen Bulke- ley, a descendant of that Gershom Bulkeley who had shown so much dis- respect for the Charter. In 1840 the property descended to Bulkeley's daughter, Catharine, the wife of the Hon. Isaac W. Stuart. This gen- tleman did all that could be done to preserve the venerable oak, and remained the keeper of it until its prostration, which occurred in a high wind, Aug. 21, 1856. From its wood thousands of small articles were made, including " nutmegs," and larger productions were not uncommon. Among the latter may be mentioned the chair of the presiding officer of
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
the Connecticut Senate. It was designed by a son of Governor A. H. Holley, and carved by one Vigneaux, a Frenchman. Several seedlings from the tree are known to exist; two of which, one a fine and thrifty specimen, are growing on Bushnell Park. The species is the common white oak (Quercus alba of botanists), and is one of slow growth. The parent tree is said to have been twenty-one feet in circumference at a height of seven feet from the ground. And it is also said that, in the presence of Mr. Stuart, twenty-one persons occupied its cavity at a time. Near its base the breadth of the trunk was very much greater than at the height of a person's head. A careful computation, made by Pro- fessor John Brocklesby while the tree was prostrate, fixed its age at a little less than a thousand years. A marble tablet marks the spot whereon the old oak stood.
Many facts concerning the Charter Oak, and the various representa- tions, on canvas and paper, which have been made of it, will be found in the recently published monograph on the subject, by Mr. William 1. Fletcher, lately assistant-librarian of the Watkinson Library. One of the most valuable views, in a historical sense, is a small painting, made by George Francis, in 1818, for Mr. Daniel Wadsworth. Mr. Charles De Wolf Brownell, about 1855, made several sketches and oil-paintings of the tree, the finest of which is owned by the heirs of the late Gov- ernor Marshall Jewell. The Francis painting, and several other views, are in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical Society.
SMAcam
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GENERAL HISTORY TO THE END OF THE REVOLUTION.
SECTION III.
GENERAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTY TO THE END OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
BY MISS MARY K. TALCOTT.
THE history of the County of Hartford during this period must relate very largely to the wars in which the English colonies were involved with the French and Indians. The very existence of the colonies was often menaced, and every able-bodied man bore his share in the incessant conflicts rendered necessary by the unceasing hostility of the savage foe and the ambitious projects of the French. The Colony of Connecticut sent men both to Albany and New York to assist the inhabitants in repelling the assaults of the savage bands despatched by Count Frontenac to ravage their borders. Captain Jonathan Bull, afterward sergeant-major of Hartford County, went with his company from Hartford to Albany, in 1689, to aid in the defence of that region, and in the following winter his troop was among the number surprised by the French at Schenectady. His lieutenant, one sergeant, and three privates were killed in that massacre, and five men were cap- tured. This attack, and the one made shortly after on Salmon Falls, on the Connecticut River, caused great alarm in New England, and constant watchfulness was required of all. More troops were sent to Albany, and also to the settlements in Massachusetts on the Connecti- cut. These settlements were quite as dependent upon Connecticut, especially Hartford County, as upon the people of the Bay, for assist- ance in time of danger. In 1693 Sir William Phipps asked the Gen- eral Assembly to aid in protecting the eastern settlements in Maine and Massachusetts ; and a company of sixty Englishmen and forty Indians was sent, commanded by Colonel William Whiting.
In October, 1696, the Rev. Mr. Stoddard, Captain Patrick, and the Rev. Mr. Williams appealed to the General Assembly of Connecticut for a speedy supply of forty or fifty men for defence. In response, forty men were raised in Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor, under command of Lieutenant Stephen Hollister, to march with all possible speed to Deerfield.
The Peace of Ryswick, in 1697, gave a much needed repose to the colonists, who had spent freely their blood and money to repel their fierce and crafty enemy. Notwithstanding the strain and depletion caused by these wars and rumors of wars, the people increased in numbers ; and in 1690 the oldest town in the colony, Wethersfield, was divided, that part of it lying east of the Great River being made a town, and called Glastonbury. This was the first division of any of the old townships in the county, but it was the precursor of many more.
The records of the county court for this period show with what
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
vigilance the magistrates watched over the manners and morals of the inhabitants. They were jealous of their own dignity, and rigorously punished all contempt of their authority. April 9, 1690, Samuel Gay- lord was fined 20s. for disobeying Mr. Henry Wolcott's commands to stay before him in court; and on the 28th of November, the same year, Benjamin Crane was fined £15 for speaking ill of the authori- tics, also to give a £50 bond for good behavior. His grievous offence consisted in calling the magistrates a company of "forsworn wretches," and saying "that their authority was neither of the King nor of God, but of the Devil." In 1706, Captain Joseph Wadsworth, well known in tradition as the preserver of the charter, was fined 5s. for hot-headed remarks in court and hasty reflections on the judges. The same year Bevil Waters, of Hartford, was indicted for "cursing the court," - having said, after a judgment had been rendered against him, " God bless you over the left shoulder."
Many persons were presented before the court for not attending public worship, and 58. was the ordinary fine; though occasionally, when there were aggravating circumstances, the fine was increased. Philip Goffe, of Hartford, and his wife Naomi, when accused of absent- ing themselves from public worship, made their defence, "that in their Conscience they could not, nor would they, go to meeting on the Sab- bath day." For this bold declaration they were fined 20s. Profanity was heavily fined, 10s. being the ordinary rate. Drunkenness was much more common, the Indians being frequent offenders in spite of tlie rigorous precautions adopted to prevent them from obtaining liquor. The English also succumbed to the influence of intoxicating drinks even on solemn occasions; for, on the 5th of April, 1698, George Haines was fined 10s., or to sit in the stocks two hours, for being drunk at Jonathan Dibble's funeral.
A tavern in Hartford was kept by Disbrow Spencer, and his hospi- rality appears to have been accompanied by many discreditable inci- dents. Playing at cards was forbidden by law, but Spencer allowed it in his house on the sly; and Oct. 11, 1703, when the soldiers were come together from the adjoining towns for training, a brawl occurred in the night between Joseph Grant and Richard Tudor, caused by a disagreement at cards. When they were tried, John Butler testified that he saw them playing cards for money, and that there was plenty of drink to be had in the house. Grant was fined 20s. for playing cards, 10s. more for unseasonable company-keeping ; and Spencer had to pay 10s. for entertaining at unseasonable hours. Three years later this same Disbrow Spencer was again brought before the Court, this time as a duellist. He and Henry Merry, of Lyme, having a quarrel, challenged each other to meet with swords at the common landing- place in Hartford, there to decide their differences by force of arms. The complaint was not proved, and they were discharged ; so Hartford can hardly compete with Boston for the honor of the first duel in New England.
Besides punishing the sins of the people, the court also directed them whither to look for spiritual aid. Sept. 5, 1702, on account of the prevalence of " Epidemicall" diseases in this county, and also of the continuance of the drought, the ministers and congregations were recommended to keep the 24th of September as a "day of humiliation
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GENERAL HISTORY TO THE END OF THE REVOLUTION.
and prayer to Almighty God, that he would look in merey upon us his Wilderness people.'
The intimate connection between Church and State brought ecclo- siastical matters occasionally before the Court, the payment of the rates being made very unwillingly in some cases : and the liberty of the inhabitants to leave one church in Hartford and go to the other was questioned.
In 1698 William Whiting was High Sheriff, and under his direction a new prison-house was ordered to be built in Hartford. The Sheriff of Hartford County was then a very important official, almost next to the Governor in dignity, and the position was usually held by some prominent man. Colonel Whiting held the office for many years, also represented Hartford in the General Assembly, and frequently led the colonial troops in the French and Indian wars. In 1708 he received from the Assembly the sum of £30 for his good services in the county of Hampshire, and in this colony. He was a son of the Rev. John Whiting, minister of the First Church in Hartford, after- ward first pastor of the Second Church. This family is prominent in our military annals, and many of its members held high civil positions.
The War of the Spanish Succession in Europe, in 1702, again set the colonists in battle array. As usual, a requisition was made from Massachusetts for aid, and a committee of war was appointed with plenary powers to send troops into Massachusetts and the frontier towns of Connecticut. Jan. 1, 1704, four hundred men were ordered to be raised by the committee, to be in readiness upon any sudden occurrence, to have 12s. per week, furnishing themselves with arms, ammunition, snow-shoes, and Indian shoes. The committee of war for this county consisted of Nathaniel Stanly, Esq., of Hartford, Mr. William Pitkin of East Hartford, Major John Chester of Wethers- field, Major William Whiting of Hartford, Captain Cyprian Nichols of Hartford, Captain Matthew Allyn of Windsor, and Captain Aaron Cook of Hartford,1- all prominent men in the colony. In 1707 the colonists were again alarmed by rumors of another French and Indian invasion, and on the 6th of February a council of war was convened at Hartford, the governor and principal military men of the colony being present. Measures of defence were organized, more especially against the Indians within our borders. The sum of £50 was allowed out of the treasury for procuring dogs, in the northern frontier towns, "to hunt after the Indian enemy ;" and the committee of war in Hart- ford County were directed to obtain as many dogs as that sum would allow, to be always ready for the service. Indian methods of warfare were adopted in allying the savages with the colonial soldiers. A scouting-party was sent out, in 1710, towards "the lake," 2 consisting of four or five Englishmen and sixty Indians ; and they were to receive from the treasury £10 for cach scalp they should bring in.
In 1711 a large expedition for the reduction of Canada was raised, and sanguine expectations were cherished of its success. A general fast was appointed throughout the colony, Aug. 15, 1711, to be followed by fasts on the last Thursday of every month "until the present expedition to Canada be ended." The major of Hartford County was
1 Colonial Records, vol. iv. p. 21.
2 Lake George.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
directed, Dec. 27, 1711, to impress men for service in Hampshire County, if they did not offer : a scouting-party being needed, to be posted on some eminence above Deerfield for the discovery of the enemy.
The Peace of Utrecht, in 1713, gave the wearied colonists a res- pite from fighting, which they improved by devoting themselves with energy to the occupation and subduing of the wilderness which sur- rounded them on every side.
The people of Hartford and Windsor had begun even earlier to plan new townships on the land granted to these two towns by the General Assembly in 1686. This grant was a hasty measure adopted in anticipation of the coming of Sir Edmund Andros, when it was feared he would attempt to sequestrate the unappropriated lands held by the Governor and company of Connecticut under the charter of King Charles II., as well as to annul the charter itself. The grant to Hart- ford and Windsor consisted of " those lands on the north of Woodbury and Mattatuck, and on the west of Farmington and Simsbury, to the Massachusetts line north, and to run west to the Housatunnuck River (provided it be not, or part of it, formerly granted to any particular person), to make a plantation or village thereon." After the flight of Andros, in 1689, when the charter government was resumed, no action was taken in regard to the lands. "It is probable that the General Court, while composed mainly of those who voted the grant, were un- willing, by a revocation, to incur the imputation of having made a fictitious disposal of the lands ; and that the grantees, while the well- known intent of the grants was fresh in their remembrance, were slow to repudiate the implied trust by any overt act of ownership." 1 In 1707, more than twenty years after the grant, and after most of those then on the stage had passed away, Major William Whiting, Mr. Nathaniel Hooker, and Mr. Caleb Stanly were appointed to survey this tract of land in conjunction with a committee from Windsor. The same committee, with the addition of Mr. Richard Edwards, were appointed, Jan. 19, 1708, to treat with Mr. John Reade, of Stratford, and other claimants to these lands, to settle the boundaries, and to adopt legal measures, if necessary, in defence of the rights of the two towns. Here the matter seemed to rest for a time ; but Nov. 2, 1713, after peace was declared, Captain John Sheldon, Lieutenant Cyprian Nichols, and Mr. Samuel Sedgwick were appointed a committee to take account of the quantity and quality of the lands, and to ascertain the nature of the Indian claims to the territory. Two years later, in 1715, Colonel William Whiting, Ensign John Marsh, and Ensign Thomas Seymor were appointed in conjunction with the Windsor com- mittee to lay out one or two towns in this tract of land; and in pursu- ance of these directions, in 1717, the town of Litchfield, at first called New Bantam, was laid out. Certain considerable persons in Farming- ton having obtained by purchase the native's right to a portion of this township, after some negotiation, one sixth part of it was set apart for them, provided that they release and convey to the two towns their claims to the western lands. In May, 1719, the General Assembly confirmed the rights of the settlers of Litchfield ; but with evident dis- approval of the proceedings of Hartford and Windsor appends the
1 Boyd's History of Winchester, p. 10.
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GENERAL HISTORY TO THE END OF THE REVOLUTION.
declaration that the whole tract north of Litchfield and Woodbury " shall lie for the further disposal of the Assembly." This appears to have been something of a check upon the plans of the two towns, and made it necessary for them to go through the form of requesting the assent of the Assembly to their next project, - Major Talcott, Captain Cook, and Ensign Seymor being appointed, Dec. 14, 1719, to ask leave of the Assembly to settle one or more townships on the remain- der of the western lands. There is no evidence that any such consent was ever received; but in 1720 Ensign Thomas Seymor and Ser- geant James Ensign were appointed to purchase the territory of the natives ; and later in the same year it was voted that a list of the inhabitants of the town, purchasers of the western lands, be made, so that every purchaser should receive his proportion. Dec. 19, 1721, Captain John Sheldon was charged with the responsibility of selecting a place for another " plantation." The next year John Seymor, Sam- uel Catlin, and William Baker, of Hartford, were appointed, with Thomas More and Job Elsworth, of Windsor, "to take a further view of the land in order to settling another town." April 1, 1723, this committee reported the laying out of a town of sixty-seven allotments, and it was voted that the allotments be disposed of at £6 each. The General Assembly was at last aroused, and at its May session ordered the King's attorney for the County of New Haven to arrest the Hartford and Windsor committees, who had the matter in charge. Publie feeling ran so high in Hartford County that civil process against the trespassers could not be executed ; so the New Haven officials were called upon to act. Hartford responded by appointing Joseph Talcott, Esq., Captain Hezekiah Wyllys, Lieutenant Thomas Seymor, and Mr. James Ensign to appear before the Assembly and explain and defend the proceedings with regard to the lands. They were also to propose a compromise, dividing the lands by a line drawn from the northwest corner of Litchfield north to the Massachusetts line, the colony taking the western division, the eastern to be confirmed to Hartford and Windsor. This was not acceded to; and finally, after a long and care- ful examination of claims by the committee of the Assembly, in 1726 they proposed that the whole tract of land in question should be equally divided between the colony and the two towns, - the colony to have the western portion and Hartford and Windsor the eastern ; also that Litchfield should not come into the division, but should belong to the proprietors. This territory ceded to Hartford and Windsor embraced the present towns of Colebrook, Hartland, Winchester, Barkhamsted, Torrington, New Hartford, and Harwinton, -an estimated area of 291,806 acres, to which should be added the township of Litchfield,
covering 35,000 acres more. The Government was probably actuated by an earnest desire to have these valuable lands thrown open for settle- ment, as could not well be done while this conflict continued ; for, although called an equal division, the quantity of land reserved to the colony was only 120,000 acres. Notwithstanding this concession, the compact was not finally ratified until Aug. 30, 1729, when the patent was duly executed, and received the colony's seal. The next year the General Assembly annexed all the western lands belonging to Hartford and Windsor to the County of Hartford. Captain Thomas Seymor and Lieutenant Roger Newberry were appointed in May, 1731, to make
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