USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 37
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ANDREW BENTON, 1660, Wethersfield lane ; came from Milford ; m. (1) Hannah, dau. of George Stocking, of Hartford ; (2) Ann (prob. dau. of John Cole) ; d. July 31, 1683, æ. 63. His widow d. April 19, 1686 ; had 9 ch.
JOHN BIGELOW, 1668, son of John, of Watertown, who came from Wrentham, Co. Suffolk ; b. Oct. 27, 1643 ; m. Rebecca, dau. of George Butler ; died ab. 1707. JONATHAN BIGELOW, 1670 ; brother of John, b. Dec. 11, 1646; m. (1) 1671,
1 The sons of Samuel and Hezekiah died young, or unm .; the dan's removed from Hart- ford. Mary, dau. of Samuel, m. John M. Gannett. Amelia, dau. of Hezekiah, m. Asher Adams, of Charlestown, and the Wyllys name is extinct in the male line.
273
LATER SETTLERS.
Rebecca, dau. of John and Rebecca (Greenhill) Shepard, of Hartford ; (2) Mary, dau. of Samuel Olcott, of H .; (3) Mary Benton ; d. Jan. 9, 1710-11. MR. JOHN BLACKLEACH, 1661, son of John, of Boston ; adm. inhabitant, Sept. 1661 ; his father had bought the home-lot of Elder Wm. Goodwin, on the corner of Main and Arch Sts., and conveyed it to him, June 20, 1661 ; he sold it to Thomas Welles, 1666, and perhaps then rem. to Wethersfield ; he was master of the " Hartford Merchant " in 1677, and partner with Richard Lord in his enterprises ; constable, 1664; went to England, 1678, returned next year ; m. (1) perhaps, Elizabeth, dau. of Henry Webb, of Boston ; (2) Elizabeth, dau. of Benjamin Herbert, of Hartford ; d. in Wethersfield, Sept. 7, 1703, æ. 77. His widow d. June 12, 1708. They had 3 ch.
STEPHEN BRACY (BRACE), 1672 ; came from Swanzey; d. 1692 ; inv. £400.
THOMAS CADWELL, 1652 ; m. 1658, Elizabeth, widow of Robert Wilson, and dau. of Deacon Edward Stebbin ; lived on a portion of Dea. Stebbin's home-lot on the corner of the streets now Front and State Sts .; constable, 1662; licensed to keep the ferry in 1681 ; d. Oct. 9, 1694 ; had 10 ch.
ISAAC CAKEBREAD was a soldier in King Philip's War ; in Hartford bef. 1680 ; lived on the highway now Ehm St. ; m. Hepzibah Jones, 1677 ; died 1698. JOHN CAMP, 1668 ; lived on Wethersfield lane ; m. Mary, dau. of Robert Sanford ; d. March 14, 1710-11.
JOSHUA CARTER, 1691 ; son of Joshua Carter, of Deerfield ; b. June 6, 1668; m. May 21, 1691, Mary, dau. of John Skinner, of Hartford ; lived on Rocky Hill.
RICHARD CASE, 1669, East Hartford ; freeman, 1671 ; hayward of Hockanum meadow ; m. Elizabeth, dau. of John Purkas, of Hartford ; d. March 30, 1694 ; inv., £203. 2. 6 ; had 3 ch. (Names kinsman Thomas Olcott in his will.) THOMAS CATLIN, b. ab. 1612 ; first mentioned in Col. Rec. in 1644 ; chimney- viewer, 1647, 1648, 1653 ; surveyor of highways, 1655; townsman, 1659; constable, 1662-1674 ; m. (1) Mary ; (2) Mary, widow of Ed. Elmer ; d. 1690. JOHN COLE, b. ab. 1612; Hartford 1655 ; constable, 1657; d. 1685.
JOSEPH COLLIER, 1666 ; chimney-viewer, 1669 ; m. as 2d w. Elizabeth, dau. of Robert Sandford, bef. 1676 ; d. Nov. 16, 1691 ; his widow d. 1695-6.
AARON COOKE, 1686, son of Aaron and Sarah (Westwood) Cooke, of Hadley,
b. 1663; m. Martha, dau. of Mr. John Allyn ; townsman, 1686, 1689, 1693, 1699, 1703; d. April 15, 1725, æ. 61 ; had 7 ch.
HUMPHREY DAVIE, EsQ., son of Sir John Davie, of Creedy, Co. Devon, came to Hartford from Boston ; m. as 2d w. Sarah, widow of James Richards, Esq., and dau. of William Gibbon ; d. in H. Feb. 18, 1688-9; his eldest son, John, who grad. from Harvard Coll. 1681, succeeded to the baronetcy in 1707.
JACOB DEMING, 1696, son of John Deming, of Wethersfield, b. Aug. 26, 1670 ; m. March 14, 1694-5, Elizabeth, dau. of Richard Edwards ; his widow m. Jonathan Hinckley before 1714. D. had 4 ch.
ALEXANDER DOUGLASS, 1669 ; lived "up Neck;" chimney-viewer, 1672 ; m. a dau. of Nicholas Clark, of Hartford ; d. Oct. 3, 1688; had 3 daurs.
MR. JOSEPH FITCH, 1655 (Savage says 1660) ; m. Mary, dau. of Rev. Samuel Stone, bef. 1663; townsman, 1662; in 1669 he made Sam'l Wyllys his at- torney to sell his lands at Great Birch, Co. Essex, when he went to England ; he removed to Windsor, east side of the river, prob. bef. 1672.
MR. SAMUEL FITCH, 1650 ; engaged to keep school for three years from Jan. 1, 1649-50 ; freeman, May, 1651; m. 1651, Susanna, widow of William Whiting; deputy, 1654, 1655; d. 1659 ; had 2 ch.
LAMOROCK FLOWERS, 1686, West Division ; m. Lydia, dau. of Joseph Smith, of Hartford ; d. June 19, 1716 ; had 8 ch.
MR. GEORGE GARDNER, 1673 ; m. ab. 1671, Elizabeth, widow of Rev. Samuel Stone, as his 2d wife; d. Aug. 20, 1679 ; inv. £3001. 0. 6. ; his widow d. 1681.
JOHN GILBERT, 1648; m. May 6, 1647, Amy, dau. of Thomas Lord, of Hartford; VOL. I. - 18.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
freeman, 1657 ; constable, 1660 ; townsman, 1663, 1667, 1675, 1679, 1684 ; d. Dec. 29, 1690 ; his widow d. Jan. 8, 1691.
MR. JONATHAN GILBERT, b. 1618; brother of John ; m. Jan. 29, 1645-6, Mary, dau. of Elder John White ; his wife d. ab. 1650, and he m. (2) Mary, dau. of Hugh Wells; townsman, 1658, 1664, 1670, 1674, 1678 ; deputy, collector of customs, and Marshal of the Colony ; d. Dec. 10, 1682, æ. 64; his widow d. July 3, 1700 ; they had 11 ch.
PETER GRANT, 1677, Wethersfield lane ; d. 1681 ; leaving widow, Mary.
NATHANIEL GREENSMITH, 1655 ; he and his wife were both executed for witch- craft at H. ; his execution took place Jan. 25, 1662-3 ; hers in 1662 ; as a part of his effects were claimed by Hannah and Sarah Elson, it is prob. that he m. the widow of John Elson, of Wethersfield, whose 2d husband, Gervase Mudge, d. 1652 ; inv. £181. 18. 5.
HENRY GRIHMES, or GRAHAM, 1661, Wethersfield lane; chimney-viewer, 1661; freeman, 1669; d. 1684; inv. £745; his widow, Mary, d. 1685 ; had 8 ch. HENRY HAYWARD, or HOWARD, 1663 ; b. ab. 1623 ; came from Wethersfield ; malt- ster ; m. Sept. 28, 1648, Sarah Stone, in H. ; will proved April 4, 1709 ; inv. £531.14. 6. ; had 7 ch.
ARTHUR HENBURY, 1691 ; b. ab. 1646 ; had been of Simsbury ; m. (1) May 5, 1670, Lydia, dau. of Luke Hill, of S. ; (2) ab. 1689, widow Martha Bement ; buried in H., Aug. 1, 1697 ; had 5 ch. His widow m. John Shepherd, sen". JOHN HENDERSON or HANNISON ; m. Martha, dau. of George Steele ; d. 1688. BENJAMIN HERBERT, or HARBERT, 1644 ; m. Aug. 22, 1644, Christian Nethercott ; chimney-viewer, 1652, 1656, 1660 ; his wife's will dated Sept. 10, 1670, leaves property to her kinsmen, Abel and John Nethercoat, "living in old England, near Banbury ;" he m. (2) Jane -; living in 1685 ; one ch.
THOMAS HILL, 1685 ; from Middletown ; d. 1704, leaving w. Mary and 6 ch. BARNABAS HINSDALE, 1693, Rocky Hill; b. Feb. 20, 1668 ; son of Barnabas Hins- dale, of Deerfield ; m. Nov. 9, 1693, Martha Smith, dau. of Joseph, of H., d. " in the great sickness," Jan. 25, 1725 ; his widow d. 1738 ; had 9 ch. ISAAC HINSDALE, brother of Barnabas, b. Sept. 15, 1673 ; settled in West Hart- ford, 1697; m. Jan. 6, 1715, Lydia Loomis ; d. 1739 ; had 4 ch.
SAMUEL KECHERELL, 1644; house-lot on the highway on the bank of the Little River, bounded east by the "Burying plat "; he died prob. bef. 1656, and his widow sold her dwelling-house to Ozias Goodwin ; one ch.
SAMUEL KELLOGG, son of Lieut. Joseph, rem. to H. from Hadley, where he was b. Sept. 28, 1662; m. Sarah, dau. of John Merrills, of H., Sept. 22, 1687. JOHN KELLY, 1655, south side ; freeman, 1658; m. (1) Grace, dau. of Samuel Wakeman, of H .; (2) Bethiah -; d. bef. Feb., 1663-4; inv. £14.11.9. THOMAS KING, 1688 ; b. in Northampton, son of John and Sarah (Holton) King;
m. (1) Nov. 17, 1683, Abigail, dau. of Jedediah Strong; she d. 1689, and he m. (2) 1690, Mary, dau. of Robert Webster, of H., who d. Sept. 27, 1706; (3) -; he d. Dec. 26, 1711 ; his widow d. Jan. 2, 1711-12 ; had 5 ch.
GEORGE KNIGHT, 1674; lived "up Neck ;" d. bef. May 13, 1698; inv. £257. Widow Sarah, and several daurs.
THOMAS LONG, 1665; m. (1) Sarah, dau. of John and Sarah (Wadsworth) Wil- cox; rem. to Windsor, east side of the river, bef. 1694; divorced, and m. (2) Sarah, dau. of Edward Elmer ; d. Nov. 8, 1711.
JOEL MARSHALL, 1682; will proved Jan., 1721 ; had 5 ch.
THOMAS MARSHALL, 1668, Wethersfield lane; will proved Dec. 30, 1692 ; had 7 ch. JOHN MASON, 1678; b. ab. 1652; m. Hannah (dau. of Daniel Arnold ?) ; d. Feb. 19, 1697-8 ; inv. £245. 11 .; had 8 ch.
JOHN MERRILLS, 1657; tanner ; son of Abraham Merrills, of Newtown ; adopted by Gregory Wolterton; freeman, 1658; chimney-viewer, 1664, 1673 ; towns- man, 1684, 1694, 1700 ; m. Sarah, dau. of John Watson, of Hartford ; rem. to the West Division ; d. July 18, 1712; had 10 ch.
275
LATER SETTLERS.
CORNELIUS MERRY, 1698 ; son of Cornelius Merry, of Northampton, an Irishman ; settled in the West Division ; d. there, Aug. 9, 1760, æ. 94.
JOHN MITCHELL, 1655 ; d. July 28, 1683 ; inv. £132 ; left widow, Mary, and 6 ch. THOMAS MORGAN, 1690, West Division ; m. Rachel - ; had 4 ch.
SERG'T JOSEPH NASH, 1658, son of Thomas, of New Haven ; freeman, 1658 ; his first wife, Mary, d. in New Haven, in 1654 ; m. (2) bef. June 15, 1665, Margaret, widow of Arthur Smith, of Hartford; appointed sealer of weights for the counties, and for H., Oct. 1670; granted liberty to set up a shop, Aug. 8, 1671; constable, 1661; townsman, 1672 ; d. 1678; had one child.
TIMOTHY NASH, 1661, brother of Joseph ; m. ab. 1657, Rebecca, dau. of Rev. Samuel Stone ; rem. to Hadley, 1663 ; d. March 13, 1699 ; his widow d. 1709. ADAM NICCOLS, 1655 ; came from New Haven ; m. Anna, sister of Mr. John Wakeman ; d. Aug. 25, 1682 ; had 5 ch.
CYPRIAN NICHOLS, 1664, b. 1642 ; 1 came from Witham, Co. Essex ; bought house and land of William Whiting, of London, on the highway now Governor St., which had been his father's house-lot, April 6, 1664; freeman, May 21, 1668; townsman, 1670, 1675, 1676, 1685, 1688, 1692, 1696, 1697 ; had 3 ch.
TIMOTHY PHELPS, 1692, son of Samuel, of Windsor ; m. (1) Nov. 18, 1686, Sarah, dau. of Walter Gaylord, of W .; (2) Nov. 13, 1690, Sarah, dau. of Daniel Pratt ; d. 1712.
MR. WILLIAM PITKIN, 1659, son of Roger, of London ; East Hartford ; liberty granted him to keep school in Hartford, March, 1660; freeman, Oct., 1662 ; m. Hannah, dau. of Ozias Goodwin, of Hartford ; he was bred a lawyer ; At- torney for the Colony ; deputy, 1675 ; treasurer, 1676, 1677 ; Assistant several years ; d. Dec. 15, 1694, æ. 58 ; had 8 ch.
WILLIAM RANDOLPH (RANDALL) ; m. Mary, widow of Peter Grant, of Hartford; d. Dec., 1684; his widow d. 1688.
ROBERT REEVE, 1655; m. (1) Mary, dau. of John Skinner, of H. ; (2) Elizabeth, dau. of John Nott, of Wethersfield ; freeman, 1658; chimney-viewer, 1661; surveyor of highways, 1667; constable, 1671; d. Feb. 1680-1 ; had 9 ch. MR. JAMES RICHARDS, 1663; son of Thomas Richards, of Plymouth, Mass. ; in. Sarah, dau. of William Gibbons ; townsman, 1662 ; freeman, 1664 ; magis- trate, 1664-1680 ; Commissioner of the United Colonies, 1672, 1675; "in calling he was a merchant, and traded extensively in real estate ;" d. June 11, 1680. He gave £50 to the Latin School in H., £20 to the poor of H. His gravestone is in the old Centre burying-ground, having on it his coat of arms, - Argent, four lozenges conjoined in fesse gules, between two bars sable ; those of the family of Richards, of East Bagborough, Co. Somerset ; he had 5 ch. JOHN ROBERTS, 1682 ; m. after 1674, Elizabeth, dau. of Rev. Samuel Stone, and divorced wife of William Sedgwick, of Hartford ; he rem. to New Jersey. SAMUEL ROBINSON (ROBERTSON), 1665 ; house-lot on the Neck ; d. Aug. 30, 1682; inv. £55. 9. ; left a widow and 5 ch.
JOHN SADD, tanner, 1674; came from Earl's Colne, Co. Essex ; house-lot on the present Park ; m. ab. 1690, as 2d wife, Hepsibah, widow of John Pratt ; d. Dec. 20, 1694 ; inv. £1901. 5. 10. ; his widow, Hepsibah, d. Dec. 20, 1711. NATHANIEL SANDFORD, 1655, Wethersfield lane; chimney-viewer, 1657; sur- veyor of highways, 1663, 1667; d. 1687 ; one child.
ROBERT SANDFORD, 1646; house-lot on the road to the Cow Pasture ; m. Ann, dau. of Jeremy Adams; d. 1676. His widow d. 1682 ; they had 8 ch. ADRIAN SCROOP, " of Hartford," witnesses a deed from Simon Wolcott to Richard
Lord, March 31, 1665, and again May 8, 1667. Dr. Stiles in his book on the regicides offers the opinion that this is Col. Adrian Scrope, who signed King Charles's death-warrant ; but he was executed in London, Oct. 17, 1660. ROBERT SHIRLEY, b. ab. 1647 ; 1677 was a servant to Mr. James Richards, who gave him land ; he owned the house-lot of " his father, Marshall George Grave,
1 He testified, in 1707, that he lived for thirteen years in the same house in Hartford with William Westwood (q. v.).
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Decd," and land near Rocky Hill divided with him by his " brother, John Grave;" he m. (2) Sarah, dau. of Joseph Easton, Sr. ; d. 1711.
SERGEANT JOHN SHEPARD, 1670; son of Edward, of Cambridge; cooper ; house- lot on highway now Lafayette St .; m. (1) Oct. 1, 1649, Rebecca, dau. of Sam- uel Greenhill, of H .; (2) Susannah, widow of William Goodwin, of H .; (3) Sept. 8, 1698, Martha, widow of Arthur Henbury ; d. June 12, 1707 ; 11 ch. JOSEPH SMITH, 1655 ; m. April 20, 1656, Lydia, dau. of Rev. Ephraim Huit, of Windsor; died, 1689-90; had 14 ch.
GERARD SPECK, 1665 ; m. Mary, dau. of John Purkas, before 1663; chimney- viewer, 1671 ; an agreement made between him and Thomas Burr, Feb. 22, 1685-6, provides that Burr will maintain Speck with all the "necessaries comely and convenient for such an aged person," and Speck agrees, for these conditions, and for the love he bears to Burr and his wife, to give them all his estate, house, barn, and home-lot.
THOMAS THORNTON, 1677 ; house-lot on the highway now Elm St. ; he had lived at Milford ; there m. 1674, Hannah, dau. of Nathaniel Farrand ; chimney- viewer, 1680 ; in 1699 he owned the house and land which formerly belonged to " my Brother " Marshal George Grave ; d. Sept. 22, 1703 ; had one ch. THOMAS TOMLINSON, 1665 ; house-lot on the Neck ; d. March 27, 1685 ; his widow
Elizabeth m. (2) John Long, bef. Oct. 23, 1685 ; they had 7 ch. JOHN TURNER, 1675 ; in. Susanna, dau. of John Merrill.
BEVIL WATERS,1 1661, Wethersfield lane; b. ab. 1648; apprenticed to Thomas Watts, carpenter, 1661-67 ; freeman, 1669; townsman, 1682; m. (1) unkn. ; (2) Dec. 13, 1722, Sarah, widow of Joseph Mygatt, dau. of Robert Webster; d. Feb. 14, 1729-30 ; had 3 ch.
CALEB WATSON, 1674; b. at Roxbury, 1641; son of John ; gr. H. C. 1661; taught school at Hadley, 1665-1667 ; m. Dec. 15, 1665, Mary, dau. of George Hyde, of Boston ; taught school in Hartford, 1674-1705 ; d. 1725-6 (s. p.). JOHN WATSON, 1644 ; juror, 1644; surveyor of highways, 1647; d. 1650 ; inv. June 4, £126. 1. 6. His widow, Margaret, d. 1683 ; they had 3 ch. MR. ELIEZER WAY, 1666 ; freeman, 1669 ; surveyor of highways, 1671 ; d. July 12, 1687 ; inv. Aug. 9, £867. 3. 11 ; his widow, Mary, d. 1701 ; had 4 ch. THOMAS WHAPLES, 1653 ; d. ab. Dec. 10, 1671, leaving a widow and 7 ch. SAMUEL WHEELER, 1687 ; m. Sarah, dau. of Peter Grant, of Hartford ; d. June 29, 1712; inv. £46. 4 ; had 7 ch.
GILES WHITING, 1644 ; freed from training, Jan. 3, 1643-4; d. 1656 ; by a nun- cupative will left all his estate to his " brother William Leawes " (Lewis). NATHANIEL WILLETT, 1642; m. (1) Elizabeth, widow of Samuel Wakeman ; (2)
Hannah, dau. of Jeremy Adams, of H. ; (3) Ellinor, widow of Jasper Clem- ents, and Nathaniel Browne, of Middletown; constable, 1645, 1659 ; towns- man, 1654, 1666, 1670, 1675, 1678, 1682 ; d. Jan. 4, 1698 ; had 4 ch. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, 1645 ; cooper ; b. ab. 1625 ; m. Nov. 20, 1647, Jane West- over; d. Dec. 17, 1689 ; his widow d. Dec. 25, 1689 ; they had 9 ch.
JOHN WILSON, 1675 ; b. ab. 1650 ; son of Robert, of Farmington ; freeman, 1675 ; house-lot on the highway now Front St., part of that of his gr .- f. Deacon Ed- ward Stebbin ; m. Lydia, dau. of John Cole, of H. ; chosen Deacon of the South Church, 1688; townsman, 1690; d. 1698 ; inv. March 1 ; had 3 ch. PHINEAS WILSON, 1675, a wealthy merchant from Dublin ; m. (1) Mary, dau. of Nathaniel Sandford ; (2) Elizabeth, dau. of John Crow, widow of William Warren, of Hartford; d. 1692; inv. £2204 ; his widow d. July 10, 1727- aged 87.
May R. Talcott.
1 " Bevil Waters, alias Walters," in a deed dated Nov. 14, 1681.
277
THE FIRST CHURCH.
SECTION III.
THE FIRST CHURCH.
BY THE REV. GEORGE LEON WALKER, D.D.
THE ecclesiastical organization known as the First Church of Hart- ford antedates by two or three years the settlement of the town. The precise time of its organization at Newtown (Cambridge), Mass., is uncertain, though there is a high degree of probability that it occurred sometime in 1632.1
The earliest distinctly ascertainable date in its history, however, is Oct. 11, 1633, at which time the Rev. Thomas Hooker and the Rev. Samuel Stone were ordained respectively its pastor and teacher.2 William Goodwin had probably earlier been chosen ruling elder, and Andrew Warner and one or more others, deacons. The company of people thus con- Hackany federated into church fellowship, after the early New England way of mutual agreement and subscription to a cov- enant, had to a considerable extent been acquainted with Mr. Hooker in England, and some of them had stood in a quasi parishional relation- ship to him during his occupancy of the Puritan Lectureship at Chelms- ford, in Essex, from the vicinity of which place many of them came. Mr. Hooker, for whom this company waited, while for more than a year previous to his arrival they were called by his name, reached America in the " Griffin," Sept. 4, 1633, accompanied by his destined associate in the Newtown Church service, the Rev. Samuel Stone, and by the Rev. John Cotton and Mr. John Haynes.
Mr. Hooker was born at Marfield, in Leicester ; it is believed in July, 1586. This little hamlet of Marfield is one of four tithings or towns, which make up the parish of Tilton, and itself contains but five houses, having had six at the time of Hooker's birth. He was educated first at the grammar school of Market Bosworth, and subsequently at Queen's and Emmanuel Colleges at Cambridge. He took his Bachelor's degree at Emmanuel in January, 1608, and his Master's in 1611. Here at Emmanuel, after receiving his Master's degree, he resided some years as Fellow on Sir Wolstan Dixie's foundation. Sometime, probably in 1620, Mr. Hooker became rector of the donative parish of Esher, in Surrey, where he married, and from whence he went, apparently in 1625 or 1626, to Chelmsford, in Essex, as lec- turer in the Church of St. Mary's, then under the charge of the Rev. John Michaelson. Here he was, in the latter part of 1629, silenced by Bishop Laud ; and in 1630 was compelled to fly the country to Holland, where he preached successively in Amsterdam, Delft, and Rotterdam,
1 The question of the date of organization is discussed in the present writer's " History of the First Church of Hartford," pp. 53-61.
2 Savage's "Winthrop's Journal," vol. i. p. 137.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
until the overtures made to him by his former parishioners and acquaint- ances induced him to follow them to their home in America.
The Rev. Samuel Stone, who came with Mr. Hooker, was born at Hertford, in Hertfordshire, and baptized in the Church of All Saints July 30, 1602. He was educated at Em-
Şam: Stone. manuel College, Cambridge, taking his Mas- ter's degree in 1624, and studying divinity with the Rev. Richard Blackerby, at Aspen, in Essex. In 1630 he became lecturer at Towcester, in Northamptonshire, from which place he joined Mr. Hooker as his associate in the American en- terprise.
The Church at Newtown being, by the induction of Pastor Hooker and Teacher Stone into their respective offices, fully equipped for its ap- propriate work, found itself in the winter of 1633 in the midst of what William Wood, writing that same year, describes as " one of the neatest and best compacted towns in New England."
But gradually, and from very near the establishment of the Newtown community, arose a certain uneasiness respecting their situation. The inhabitants " complained [May, 1634] of straitness for want of land,"1 and various efforts were made on the part of the Court for their quiet and satisfaction. Enlargements were granted in September, 1634, embracing the territory now known as the townships of Brookline, Brighton, Newton, and Arlington; but the restlessness continued. Various causes have been assigned for it, - personal, political, relig- ious ; and probably all of them in some degree conspired. Nor is it necessary to decide which was most potent. The Newtown people were of like passions with others, and they were conscious of the pos- session of materials for a colony by themselves. The views of their leaders, ecclesiastical and civil, differed to some extent from those of others in the Bay, and found expression of the difference on more than one occasion. The land question was but an ostensible difficulty. Con- trasts of temperament and oppositions of judgment in some political and even religious matters availed more than scantiness of acres ; and it implies nothing derogatory to the character either of those who went or those who remained, that the Newtown company felt that they might be happier under an administration distinctively their own, and in some other spot of the boundless new continent than that to which the Court had ordered them in 1632.2
Their " strong bent" to go, at last prevailed. The arrival in the autumn of 1635 of a large number of immigrants into the Bay, and the gathering of a portion of them into church estate under the care of the Rev. Thomas Shepard, in February, 1636, enabled them to find purchasers for their houses, and left them free to go.
The 31st of May, 1636, saw them on their pilgrimage. The way was through a pathless wilderness. Their guides were the com- pass and the north star. The lowing of a hundred and sixty cattle sounding through the forest aisles summoned them to each morning's advance. Goats and sheep and swine lent their voices to the chorus. Their journey lasted a fortnight ; the toilsome and devious way leading near to the mouth of the Chicopee, and thence down along the banks
1 Winthrop, vol. i. p. 157.
2 History of the First Church, in Hartford, pp. 73-83.
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THE FIRST CHURCH.
of the Connecticut, swollen with springtime's melted snows. The pas- tor's wife, an invalid, was borne on a litter because of her infirmity. It must have been near the middle of June when their goal was reached ; and, borne on rafts and boats across the wide, full river, the corporate fellowship of the First Church reached its abiding home on Hartford soil. Arrived upon the ground, and the land duly purchased from the Indians through the agency of Mr. Stone the teacher and Mr. Goodwin the ruling elder of the Church, a temporary meeting-house was built on the southerly side of the plot afterward known as Meeting-House Square. This in two or three years gave place to a more permanent structure on the same square a little farther to the east, - a structure which served the uses of the community for nearly a hundred years. Near the meeting-house, on the same public square, were the jail, the stocks, and the whipping-post; and a little farther off to the north- west side of the square was the first burial-ground; soon abandoned, however, for another location down the " great street."
Connection with any ecclesiastical organization was never in the Connecticut colony a condition of civil privilege ; nor was it ever af- firmed of Mr. Hooker at Hartford, as it was affirmed of Mr. Cotton at Boston, that " whatever he delivered in the pulpit was soon put into an order of court if of a civil, or set up as a practice in the church if of an ecclesiastical concernment." 1 Nevertheless, the Church and the civil community were closely related in that formative time, and the hand of the ministers was in almost all current affairs. Mr. Stone' chaplained the troops on the memorable Pequot expedition in 1637, and the soldiers of the little army were probably nearly to a man church- members. Mr. Hooker preached with utmost freedom on what would now be called political topics. Especially conspicuous as well as forever memorable was Mr. Hooker's part in preparing the way for and laying down the principles of the fundamental laws of the colony adopted in 1639. A sermon by him, preached on Thursday, May 31, 1638, before a session of the Court, has been declared to be "the earliest known suggestion of a fundamental law, enacted not by royal charter, nor by concession from any previously existing government, but by the people themselves, - a primary and supreme law by which the government is constituted, and which not only provides for the free choice of magistrates by the people, but also 'sets the bounds and limitations of the power and place to which' each magistrate is called." 2
Nor did the removal of the Hartford Church a hundred miles into the forest wilderness separate it at all from the Bay churches in inter- est. The pastor and teacher and delegates from the brotherhood were present and active in Boston in August, 1637, at the synod concerning Mrs. Anne Hutchinson's religious vagaries, and at the synod at Cam- bridge in 1643 called to antagonize the spread of Presbyterianism. So, too, were Mr. Stone and delegates present at the Cambridge synod of 1647 and 1648, which formulated the platform known by its Cambridge birthplace. Mr. Hooker, however, had died July 7, 1647, in an epi- demical sickness which prevailed throughout New England, at the age
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