USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 3
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Four months before this sachem's restoration, the Dutch (June 8, 1633) had bought - as they alleged - from the Pequot sachem,
1 That is, the Pequot sachem. Here, as was common at that period, the name of the tribe was confounded with the name of the sachem.
2 Bradford's " History of Plymouth Colony," pp. 311, 313. "I brought in Attawanyut & there left him where he lived & died upon the ground, whom Tatobam, the Tyrant, had before expelled by war." - E. Winslow's Letter to Winthrop, 1644.
13
THE INDIANS OF THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY.
" Wapyquart, or Tattoepan, chief of Sickenames [Mystic] river," the " flat land," named Sickajoock (otherwise written, by the English, " Sicaogg," "Suckiage," "Suckiaug," etc.), -" a very extensive and beautiful flat, extending along the River, and so inland in a westerly direction, situate on the west bank of the Fresh River,"-comprising what was subsequently known as " Dutch Point " and the South Meadow of Hartford.1 According to the Dutch accounts of this purchase, it was agreed between the contracting parties, "at the request and to the great joy of the Sequeen, Altarbaenhoet,2 and all interested tribes," that " Sequeen should dwell with the Dutch." It is also stated (in a Dutch report on the boundaries, drawn about 1649) 3 that "for greater security the Sequeen and his tribe went to dwell close by Fort Hope."
In the Dutch records, the name "Sequeen," or "Sequin," is indif- ferently applied to a tribe, and to its chief sachem. These were the Indians of Mattabeset and Pyquaug, subsequently called " Wongunks " from their principal seat on and near the great bend ("wongunk ") of Connecticut River, between Middletown and Portland. Their terri- tory appears to have extended, on both sides of the river, from the north part of Haddam, northerly to, and probably to some distance above, Matianuck (or Mattanag) in Windsor. "The Chief Sequeen " - of whom the Dutch bought land in 1633, " which Chief or Sakima was, in his time, lord and right owner of the entire river and the lands thereabouts " - was probably he who was known to the English as " Sowheag " and "Sequin," sometimes designated as the " Sachem of Mattabeseck," sometimes as the "Sachem of Pyquaug."4 The strength of the Sequins had been broken in their war with the Pequots, and the number of the tribe was probably much reduced before the coming of the English ; yet Sowheag still remained a " great Sachem." He sold " Pyquang" to the planters of Wethersfield; and, later, granted a "great part of the township of Middletown " (Mattabeseck) to Gover- nor Haynes, - a grant confirmed by the remainder of his tribe in 1673. The date of his death is not known. It was before 1650; for in a report made by Governor Stuyvesant to the States-General, in 1649, he is mentioned as "the late Sequeen."5 In 1664 there was mention of " a parcel of land at Wonggum " (the Bend) which had been reserved for his posterity.6 His successor was " Turramuggus " (or " Catara- muggus"), who died before 1705, and was succeeded by his son " Peetoosol," who was living at Wongum (now in Chatham) 7 in 1706.
The SICAOG, or SUCKIAUG Indians, so called from the " black earth " (sucki-auke) of the Hartford meadows, were, probably a sub- tribe of the Sequins. Their sachem, at the coming of the English in 1633, was "Sunckquasson " (otherwise written Sequassen, Sonquas- sen, etc.), alias " Sasawin," a son of Sowheag,8 " the chief Sequeen " of the Dutch ; but his name does not appear in the Dutch record of the purchase of the Hartford meadow, and in 1640 he testified
1 New York Colonial Mannscripts, Holland Documents, i. 543; ii. 139, 140.
2 Natawannte. 3 Holland Documents, i. 543; 546, note.
4 See Judge Adams's "History of Wethersfield," in vol. ii., p. 431.
5 Holland Documents, i. 543, 546, note. 6 Connecticut Colonial Records, i. 434.
7 For further notice of the " Wongunks," see Judge Adams's "History of Wethersfield," in vol. ii., p. 432.
8 " Souwonckquawsir, old Sequin's son." - Roger Williams, 1637, in 4 Mass. Hist. Collections, vi. 207. "Sonquassen the son of the late Sequeen," named, 1649, in Holland Documents, i. 543.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
" that he never sold any ground to the Dutch, neither was at any time conquered by the Pequoyts, nor paid any tribute to them. And when he sometimes lived at Mattanag [in Windsor] and hard by his friends that lived here, that he and his men came and fought with them."
From him, in 1635 or 1636, the proprietors of Hartford bought their lands, and his grant was subsequently extended westward " so far as his country went." In 1670, this grant was confirmed by " the only inhabitants that were surviving," nine in number, including Wa- warme, his sister and "only heir." He appears to have been, from the first, friendly to the English. Just how far north his bounds ex- tended is not ascertained, but his name is joined with Natawanute, as " one of the rightful owners " of the land at Matianuck, in the sale to the Plymouth company, in 1633. We lose all trace of him, after his quarrel with the Indians of Podunk, 1656-1657. A remnant of the tribe remained - on their reservation in the South meadow in Hart- ford ; and a roll of the Indians who went to Springfield with " Captain Nessehegan," in October, 1675, to fight for the English in the Narra- gansett war, includes the names of eight Indians of Hartford. The " Sicaog tribe " was already extinct.
The Indians of Tunxis (Farmington) were a branch of the tribe of which Sequasson was chief sachem, and their lands were included in his second grant to the proprietors of Hartford. They had ample reservations of land in Farmington, and " the main body of the tribe was joined in 1730 by the Indians of Hartford ; and it received also, at various times, re-enforcements from Windsor, Middletown, and other parts of the Connecticut valley." The small band at Massaco (Sims- bury) probably belonged to the sub-tribe of Tunxis ; though in the deed to Simsbury in 1680, the Windsor sagamores, Nessahegan (of Poquan- nock ) and Seaket (or Seacut) join as proprietors and " rightful owners."
Natawanute (or Attawanyut), the sachem who had been driven out by the Pequots and was " brought home and restored " by the Plymouth company, and almost all his band were swept away by the small-pox, in the spring of 1634. The few survivors at Matianuck never again came to be regarded as a distinct tribe. Arramamet " of Matianuck " in 1636, seems to have been the immediate successor of Natawanute, but his name first appears as one of the grantors of land east of the river. He claimed (and the Colony recognized his title to) the greater part of the Podunk lands (in South Windsor and East Hartford), and these he gave by will, in 1672. to his daughter Sougonosk, the wife of Joshua (alias Attawanhood), son of Uncas.
The history of the other bands that occupied old Windsor (west and cast of the river), - particularly those of Poquannock and Podunk, - is too obscure, and their tribal relations were too complicated for adequate discussion within the narrow limits to which this section is restricted. All that is known of them has been diligently gathered by De Forest in his " History of the Indians of Connecticut," and by Dr. H. R. Stiles in the " History of Ancient Windsor," and to these authorities and to the historical sketches of the several towns, in the second volume, our readers must necessarily be referred.
Sofrumbully
15
DUTCH TRADERS ON THE RIVER.
SECTION II.
THE DUTCH TRADERS ON THE RIVER; AND THE HOUSE OF HOPE.
BY THE REV. INCREASE N. TARBOX, D.D.
WHEN the United Netherlands, after nearly half a century of strug- gle and warfare against the despotism of Spain, had, in the year 1609, triumphantly established her liberties, her position and natural alliance with the sea made her one of the most active of the seafaring nations. She opened a prosperous trade with the old nations of the East, and sent out her ships for exploration and discovery in the new regions of the West. Henry Hudson, an Englishman, and a bold navigator, friend of Captain John Smith, having been unfortunate in one or two sea-ventures, went over to Holland in 1609, and after some delays and discouragements was at last put in charge of a yacht called the " Half- Moon," manned by twenty sailors, part English and part Dutch, when he set off, like the rest of the adventurers of his day, to find the north- west passage to China. Without dwelling at all upon the details of the voyage, it is sufficient for our purpose to say that, after being variously tossed about from April 4, 1609, until the early days of September fol- lowing, he found himself in that network of waters around the spot where now stands the great city of New York. Gradually working his way northward, on the 19th of September he found himself near the site of what is now Albany. Ten or twelve years before, Cabot had sailed along the New England coast, keeping himself to the ocean pathway ; but Hudson was the first European who had entered and traced this noble river from its mouth upward ; and so it was fit and natural that it should forever bear his name.
It was in the service of the Dutch East India Company that this service was performed ; but when the "Half-Moon " returned, before reaching Holland she came to anchor in Dartmouth harbor, England. The English were so vexed and jealous that this important discovery should have been made by one of their own countrymen in the service of the Dutch, that they detained the vessel several months before they would allow her to return to her own nation.
It was soon found that Manhattan Island, with its extended water arrangements near at hand and far inland, was a most important natu- ral centre of trade then, when the whole land was wild and savage, as it is now, since the country has reached its highly civilized state. The enterprise of the Dutch was at once awakened to take advantage of this discovery, and to extend their researches in this direction still farther. The Dutch gave the name of New Netherland to their newly discovered territory.
One of the adventurers from Holland at that time was Adriaen Block, who gave his name to Block Island. In 1613, with a small
16
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
craft named the "Tiger," he crossed the ocean in this department of service. His vessel was accidentally burned in Manhattan Bay as he was about to sail homeward. Not discouraged, he set to work and built another, probably the first of the kind ever constructed on the Ameri- can shores. With this little craft, in 1614, he set out carefully to ex- plore the coast to the eastward. The following passage is taken from J. R. Brodhead (History of the State of New York, second edition, vol. i. p. 56) :-
" Sailing boldly through the then dangerous Strait of 'the Hell-gate' into 'the Great Bay,' or Long Island Sound, he carefully 'explored all the places there- about,' as far as Cape Cod. Coasting along the northern shore, inhabited by the Siwanoos, Block gave the name of 'Archipelagos' to the group of Islands oppo- site Norwalk. At the present town of Stratford he visited the 'River of Rooden- berg, or Red Hills,' now known as the 'Housatonic,' which he described as about 'a bow-shot wide,' and in the neighborhood of which dwelt the indolent tribe of Quiripey Indians. Passing eastward along the bay at the head of which New Haven now stands, and which, on account of the red sandstone hills in its neighborhood, the Dutch also soon called the 'Roodenberg,' Block came to the mouth of a large river running up [reaching up] northerly into the land. At its en- trance into the Sound it was 'very shallow,' and Block, observing that there were but few inhabitants near its mouth, ascended the river to the rapids at the head of navigation [Enfield Falls, at Warehouse Point]. Near Wethersfield he found the numerous Indian tribe of Sequins. At the latitude of 41º 48', be- tween Hartford and Windsor, he came to a fortified village of the Nawaas tribe. . . . From the circumstance that a strong downward current was perceived at a short distance above its mouth, Block immediately named this beautiful stream the 'Versch,' or 'Fresh Water River.' By the native savages it was called the Connittecock,' or 'Quonehtacut,' and the aboriginal appellation survives to the present day in the name of the river and the State of Connecticut."
Rivers are generally supposed to be fresh, but the meaning of the word in this connection is that the tide in the Connecticut did not set back so far from its mouth as in rivers usually.
This was in 1614, and no English craft of any size ever passed up the river till eighteen or nineteen years later. Meanwhile the Dutch went forward to establish a system of trade with the natives along the river, as they had done on the Hudson River, and wherever they had gained friendly access to the Indians. Vessels were coming and going between Holland and Manhattan Island, and a considerable trade had sprung up to the advantage of both parties.
With this incoming tide of prosperity the Dutch merchants and traders went before the States General of Holland, and spreading out a carefully prepared map of their discoveries, asked a charter under which they might go forward in a work likely to be advantageous to the whole country. The States General were in a complying mood, and by right of first discovery they gave a broad charter, covering the territory from the Virginia plantations on the south, to Canada on the north. The first grant made by the States General was in the way of authority given to the discoverers to make four voyages, within the space of three years from Jan. 1, 1615, to those new lands for their own benefit, and as a special reward for their services. This is set forth as follows : -
" We, therefore, in our Assembly having heard the pertinent Report of the petitioners, relative to the discoveries and finding of the said new countries
17
DUTCH TRADERS ON THE RIVER.
between the above-named limits and degrees, and also of their adventures, have consented and granted, and by these presents do consent and grant, to the said Petitioners now united into one Company that they shall be privileged exclu- sively to frequent, or cause to be visited, the above newly discovered lands, situate in America between New France and Virginia, whereof the Sea coasts lie between the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of latitude, now named New Nether- land," etc.
The power that thus granted the use of these waters and lands for three years was the power which at the expiration of this period would claim the right to govern and control these wide-reaching terri- tories for the benefit of the United Netherlands. If we inquire upon what basis this power rested, we shall find that it was simply the common claim arising from first discovery. That had been regarded by other nations as valid authority, and the Dutch would hold by the same rule.
The whole subject of European charters covering wild lands was at that time in a very loose and conflicting condition. In the charter given to Virginia by James I., only a few years before, the whole ter- ritory was conveyed from 34° to 45° north latitude. Of course this grant swept over all the places actually discovered by the Dutch. But they were in as good condition as others. There was no clear consist- ency among these European charters. As all the northern portion of the Virginia grant was as yet unoccupied by whites, it seemed natural that the Dutch, as the first comers, should take possession.
It was eighteen years after the Dutch discovery of the Connecticut River, and after they had purchased land of the Indians and built a trading-house, the "House of Hope," at what is now Hartford, before any English settler had appeared on its banks. It will have to be ad- mitted that the Dutch were very rudely treated by our English fathers. The English people seemed to act as if they were in the right and the Dutch were mere intruders. But it would have been very hard for them to show that they really had any rights, by European charters, superior to their predecessors ; and if they had no superior rights, then they were decidedly inferior, for manifestly the Dutch were the first discoverers, and first on the ground. Their trading-house at Hartford is " said to have been projected and begun" in 1623,1 fully ten years before the first Englishman made his appearance in those parts.
The Dutch statement on this point is as follows : -
" In the beginning, before the English were ever spoken of, our people, as we find it written, first carefully explored and discovered the northern parts of New Netherland and some distance on the other side of Cape Cod, and even planted an ensign on, and took possession of, Cape Cod. Anno 1614, our traders not only trafficked at the Fresh river, but had also ascended it before any English people had ever dreamed of coming there ; the latter arrived there for the first time in the year 1636 [this is a mistake, it should be 1633] after our Fort Good Hope had been a long time in existence, and almost all the land on both sides of the river had been bought by our people from the Indians ; which pur- chase took place principally in the year 1632." 2
1 Brodhead's History of the State of New York, vol. i. p. 153; though "it was not finished until 1633, ten years afterward."
2 Ibid., i. 287.
VOL. I .- 2.
18
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
This conduct on the part of the English was alike unjust and un- grateful. The Dutch in the United Netherlands had established an asylum for the oppressed, and there, through the years of English persecution, our Pilgrim and Puritan forefathers had found a secure refuge. Not a few of the leading men among the Puritan population of Massachusetts and Connecticut had been personally befriended and protected among the Dutch in Holland.
When the English settlements were planted on the river at Wethers- field, Hartford, and Windsor, they did not at once drive away the Dutch by violence, but they began to worry them away by meddlesome and unfair legislation, like the following, passed by the General Court of Connecticut in June, 1640 : -
" Whereas the Dutch Catle are impounded for trespassing the Englishmen's corne, It is the judgment of the Courte that the Dutchmen shall be made ac- quainted wth the trespasse, and satisfaction demaunded, the weh if they refuse to pay, the Cattell are to be kepte in the pownd three dayes, and then to be prysed and sold, and the trespasse to be satisfied, together wth the chardge of impound- ing, keepeing and tending the said Catle during their custody." 1
The Dutch might very naturally have answered, as in the story of the " Unjust Judge," in the spelling-book, that it was the Englishman's cattle that trespassed on the Dutchman's corn-lands.
The following, also taken from the Connecticut Colonial Records for September, 1649, is decidedly cool, considering, as we have said, that the Dutch built their trading-house and bought the Indian lands before any Englishman put in an appearance in all that region. Under a charge that the Dutch sold guns to the Indians, the General Court passed the following : -
" It is hereby ordered, that after due publication hereof, it shall not be law- full for any Frenchman, Dutchman, or person of any other Forraigne nation, or any English lining amongste them or under the gouernment of them or any of them, to trade with any Indian or Indians within the limmitts of this Jurissdic- tion, either directly or indirectly, by themselues or others, vnder penalty of con- fisscation of all such goods and vessells as shall be found so trading, or the due value thereof, vppon just proofe of any goods or any vessells so trading or traded." 2
About this time (1648-1653) the English and Dutch at home were involved in a war; and this happened fortunately for the English on these shores. They did not always cherish a great love for Old Eng- land, or exert themselves much to do her service; but now they felt that they ought also to be at war with the Dutch, to help out their own politics. Accordingly the " House of Hope," as the Dutch called their fort at Hartford, was sequestered or confiscated ; and then came along Captain John Underhill with his military men, he being then in the service of Rhode Island, who seized this fort, with its contents, and it was sold to compensate Underhill for his warlike services generally. In all this story we have to confess that we cannot praise our fathers, or take their part in their treatment of their Dutch neighbors.
1 Colonial Records of Connecticut, vol. i. p. 51.
2 Ibid., p. 197. [It should be noted here, that this order was drawn by the Com- missioners of the United Colonies of New England, at their July session, 1649, and was adopted by Connecticut and other colonies on their recommendation. - ED. ]
19
THE RIVER TOWNS PLANTED.
SECTION III.
HOW THE RIVER TOWNS CAME TO BE PLANTED.
BY THE REV. INCREASE N. TARBOX, D.D.
I. - MOTIVES TO EMIGRATION FROM MASSACHUSETTS.
HARTFORD COUNTY naturally holds a different relation to the State of Connecticut from that of any other county in the State. It is in some sense the mother rather than the child. But the three towns first planted on the river - Wethersfield, Hartford, and Windsor - were, strictly speaking, the original cradle of empire, and both the county and the State owe their existence to the towns. Before the planting of these towns there was an antecedent history leading up to this event, which might, under other conditions, be expanded into a volume.
Alexander Johnston, A.M., of the Johns Hopkins University, read a paper before the Historical and Political Science Association in 1883, entitled " The Genesis of a New England State," which has since been published in a pamphlet. He sets forth very distinctly the chaotic con- dition of land titles and political authorities out of which the State of Connecticut rose into being. Mr. Johnston says (p. 10) : -
"In 1634, then, the territory now occupied by the State of Connecticut was a veritable No-Man's-Land. It had been granted, indeed, to the Plymouth Coun- cil, but the grant stood much on a par with a presentation of a bear-skin whose natural owner was yet at large in the forest. On the north, the Massachusetts boundary line had been defined by charter, though its exact location in its whole length was still in the air ; on the east, the Plymouth purchase boundary was in the same condition. The debatable ground between these unsettled boundaries offered one of the few opportunities which the town system had to show how it can build up the body as well as provide the spirit for a State."
Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull, by his discoveries of valuable historical papers and his various writings, has shed much light upon this antece- dent, as well as upon the early history of Connecticut. Many other writers have contributed to clear up the questions belonging to this de- batable ground. But we cannot here undertake to traverse this large and interesting field.1
Turning, then, to the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, from which the founders and fathers of Connecticut came, let us inquire into the causes impelling them to this emigration, and the facts connected with their removals. The Massachusetts Company received its charter in 1628, and John Endicott, Governor, with a few families, came over that year and settled in Salem. In 1629 a larger company arrived, and
I See, for example, "The Massachusetts Colonial Records," vol. i. ; " Connecticut Co- lonial Records," vol. i. (with notes and appendices by Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull) ; Winthrop's " History of New England ;" Palfrey's "History of New England ; " Trumbull's " History of Connecticut ; " Mather's "Magnalia ; " Walker's "History of the First Church of Hartford ;" Stiles's "History of Ancient Windsor."
20
MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Salem, which had been a little settlement, became a town, and the Salem Church was organized under the pastoral care of Messrs. Higginson and Skelton. In 1630 a far larger company came over, bringing the charter and John Winthrop the Governor ; and Charlestown, Dorchester, and Watertown came into being, each with a newly organized church. This process went rapidly on until, in 1635, there were in existence in the Bay twelve churches, or what is the same, as to numbers, twelve towns. As early as 1633, but more distinctly in 1634, we discover signs of dis- content in these Massachusetts towns, and men were talking together about changing their places of residence. The earliest sign of this dis- content, which we discover through the published Massaelmsetts Rec- ords, was in Cambridge, where Mr. Thomas Hooker the year before (1633) had come over and joined a church and congregation, which were eagerly waiting his arrival.
"Att a Gen'all Courte, holden att Boston, May 14th, 1634" the following vote was passed : -
" There is leaue graunted to the inhabitants of Newe Towne [Cambridge] to seeke out some convenient place for them, with pmise that it shalbe confirmed vnto them, to which they may remove their habitacons, or haue as an addicon to that wch already they haue, pvided they doe not take it in any place to piudice a plantacon already setled." Î
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