USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 7
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We desire now to introduce a chapter of history very unlike the pages over which we have been passing. During the three years and more since the little colonies came out of the Massachusetts Bay, many things had been transpiring there and here, and some of them such as can hardly be believed in this remote generation. But the evidence of their truth cannot well be resisted.
The following are extracts from a letter sent by Mr. Thomas Hooker to Governor John Winthrop, Sr., in the autumn of 1638. It was dis-
1 Colonial Records, vol. i. p. 290.
2 This, however, bears only on the admission of freemen. It does not take from the towns the right to admit inhabitants, by a major vote, or from inhabitants so admitted the right of voting in town affairs and in the choice of deputies, etc. - ED.
8 " History of New England," vol. i. pp. 536, 537.
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ORGANIZATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
covered by Dr. J. H. Trumbull in the office of the Massachusetts Secre- tary of State, where it had long remained unopened and unknown. It will be found a remarkable letter. We omit the opening, and shall copy only a small portion comparatively of the whole epistle, which may be found unbroken in the first volume of the " Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society," pp. 1-18: -
" I confess my head grows gray and my eyes dim, and yet I am sometimes in the watch-tower : and if the quære be, Watchman, what in the night, as the prophet speaks, I shall tell you what I have observed, and shall be bold to leave my complaints in your bosom, of what is beyond question, and then I hope I shall give you a satisfactory return of what you question in your letter.
" Before I express my observations, I must profess, by way of preface, that what I shall write are not forged imaginations and suppositions coined out of men's conceits, but that which is reported and cried openly, and carried by sea and land : secondly, my aim is not at any person, nor intendment to charge any par- ticular, with you ; because it is the common trade, that is driven amongst multi- tudes with you, and with which the heads and hearts of passengers come loaded hither, and that with grief and wonderment ; and the conclusion which is aimed at from these reproaches and practices is this, that we are a forlorn people, not worthy to be succored with company and so neither with support.
" I will particularize. If inquiry be, What be the people of Connecticut ? the reply is, Alas, poor rash-headed creatures, they rushed themselves into a war with the heathen ; and had not we rescued them, at so many hundred charges, they had been utterly undone. In all which you know there is not a true sentence ; for we did not rush into the war ; and the Lord himself did rescue before friends.
" If, after much search made for the settling of the people, and nothing suit- able found to their desires but toward Connecticut ; if yet then they will needs go from the Bay, go any whither, be any where, choose any place, any patent, - Narragansett, Plymouth, - only go not to Connecticut. We hear and bear.
" Immediately after the winter, because there was likelihood multitudes would come over, and lest any should desire to come hither, then there is a lamentable cry raised, that all their cows at Connecticut are dead, and that I had lost nine and only one left, and that was not likely to live (when I never had but eight, and they never did better than last winter). We hear still and bear.
" And lest haply some men should be encouraged to come because of my subsistence or continuance here, then the rumour is noised that I am weary of my station ; or, if I did know whither to go, or my people what way to take, we would never abide : whereas such impudent forgery is scant found in hell ; for I profess I know not a member in my congregation but sits down well apayd with his portion, and for myself, I have said what now I write, if I was to choose I would be where I am.
" But notwithstanding all this the matter is not sure, and there is some fear that some men will come toward Connecticut when ships come over ; either some have related the nature of the place, or some friends invited them ; and there- fore care must be taken, and is by this generation, as soon as any ship arrives, that persons haste presently to board them, and when no occasion is offered or ques- tion propounded for Connecticut, then their pity to their countrymen is such that they cannot but speak the truth : Alas, do you think to go to Connecticut ? Why, do you long to be undone ? If you do not, bless yourself from thence ; their upland will bear no corn, their meadows nothing but weeds, and the peo- ple are almost all starved. Still we hear and bear.
" But may be these sudden expressions will be taken as words of course, and therefore vanish away when once spoken. Let it therefore be provided that the innkeepers entertain their guests with invectives against Connecticut, and those are set on with the salt, and go off with the voyder. If any hear and stay, then
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
they be welcomed ; but if these reports cannot stop a man's proceeding, from making trial, they look at him as a Turk, or as a man scant worthy to live. Still we hear and bear.
" I suppose you are not a stranger only in Israel, nor yet usually ignorant of these things, being they are not done in a corner but in the open streets, and not by some frantic forlorn creatures, or madmen, who know not nor care what they say ; but, before the ships can come to anchor, whole boats are presently posted out to salute persons, ordinarily with such relations. The daily expressions of passengers report these, with much grief of spirit, and wonder such wretched falsehoods should be suffered amongst Christians.
" That's in New England : but send over a watch a little into Old England : and go we there to the Exchange, the very like trade is driven by persons which come from you, as though there was a resolved correspondence held in this par- ticular ; as the master and merchant who came this last year to Sea-brook Fort related, even to my amazement, there is a tongue-battle fought upon the Exchange by all the plots that can be forged to keep passengers from coming, or to hinder any from sending a vessel to Connecticut, as proclaimed an utter impossibility.
" Sir, he wants a nostril, that feels not and scents not a schismatical spirit in such a framer of falsifying relations to gratify some persons and satisfy their own ends.
" Do these things argue brotherly love ? do these issue from spirits that either pity the necessities of their brethren or would that the work of God should pros- per in their hands ? or rather argue the quite contrary. If these be the ways of God, or that the blessing of God do follow them, I never preached God's ways nor knew what belonged to them.
" I suppose these premises will easily let any reasonable man see what the conclusion must be that men would have to follow. The misery of the men of Connecticut would be marvellous acceptable to such, and therefore there is little expectation they do desire their good, and would procure it, who are not willing any good should come to them, if all the inventions of falsehood can prevail. Worthy Sir, these are not jealousies which we needlessly raise ; they are realities which passengers daily relate, and we hear and bear : and I leave them in your bosom ; only I confess I count it my duty, and I do privately and publicly pray against such wickedness; and the Lord hath wont to hear the prayer of the despised."
This remarkable language from a man so truly great as was Thomas Hooker shows that there was a large amount of human nature abroad two hundred and fifty years ago as well as now, and that too in Puritan New England.
But in spite of all hindrances, in spite of all enemies within and without, by the year 1639 four independent colonies were planted in New England, -Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven. The seed-corn was in the earth and the harvests were sure to come in due time.
45
CHARACTER AND SOCIAL POSITION OF THE SETTLERS.
SECTION II.
CHARACTER AND SOCIAL POSITION OF THE SETTLERS.
BY THE REV. INCREASE N. TARBOX, D.D.
THE leading people in the four colonies planted between 1620 and 1640 were of such a character that they left their homes, to England's great loss. Just as France, by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, drove out a large section of her best middle class - her manufacturers, artisans, and skilled workmen - to enrich England, so England herself at an earlier period drove out a multitude of her worthiest and ablest men and women to become the founders of a New England three thousand miles away.
In every one of the four colonies these choice men, able and wise, were to be found. But it cannot be regarded as unnatural that the class of emigrants should improve a little as the years passed on. More care was taken not to admit unworthy persons into the compa- nies. Men of larger wealth and standing were drawn into sympathy with the new enterprise. We think it entirely safe and fair to say that there was more average wealth and intelligence among the people who settled the river towns, 1635-1637, or those who settled New Haven in 1638, than among those who planted Plymouth in 1620, Salem in 1629, and Charlestown, Dorchester, and Watertown in 1630. We do not claim, however, that the Puritans of the Bay, of Connecticut, or of New Haven had attained any higher conceptions of true Christian liberty and brotherhood than those simple-hearted Pilgrims at Plymouth. In this respect we regard the latter as our best models. But for average culture, wealth, learning, and general intelligence, we believe that the colonies out of which the State of Connecticut has grown were in some degree in advance of the earlier ones.
This will appear more clearly, perhaps, if we bring together the names of some of the leading men in the Connecticut colony, most of whom are mentioned particularly in biographical and genealogical sketches in other chapters.
Thomas Hooker, like many of the early New England clergymen, was a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge ; was a teacher and lecturer at the University ; was noted on both sides of the water for learning and powerful preaching ; and was one of the three divines who were invited to go to England to attend the Westminster Assembly.
Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, notwithstanding the differ- ences which had occurred between him and Mr. Hooker, bears this grand and noble testimony to his character. Speaking of the sickness prevailing in Connecticut in 1647, he says : -
" But that which made the stroke more sensible and grievous both to them and all the country was the death of that faithful servant of the Lord, Mr. Thomas
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Hooker, pastor of the church in Hartford, who, for piety, prudence, wisdom, zeal, learning, and what else might make him serviceable in the place and time he lived in, might be compared with men of greatest note. And he shall need no other praise ; the fruits of his labors in both Englands shall preserve an honorable and happy remembrance of him forever."
Rev. Samuel Stone was also a graduate of Emmanuel College. His decision at Saybrook, whereby he helped Captain Mason out of his dilemma in the time of the Pequot War, added to the laurels gained in the pulpit ; and, in spite of the ecclesiastical controversies that some- what tarnished his fair fame in his later years, he was buried with funeral honors that testified to his high standing. Rev. John Warham, of Windsor, came of an ancient family, was college-bred, and was a man of good estate. Of the three clergymen connected more or less intimately with the early settlement of Wethersfield, Sherman and Denton were graduates of Cambridge.
John Haynes, the first Governor of Connecticut, came to America in the same ship with Mr. Hooker in 1633. He had his residence at Newtown, and was a member of Mr. Hooker's congregation. He came from Copford Hall, Essex, England, bringing with him wealth and choice culture. He was in the highest and best sense a Christian gen- tleman. He was made Governor in the Massachusetts Colony in 1635, so that his official duties retained him for a little time in the Bay after the removal of Mr. Hooker and his congregation to Hartford. Mr. Haynes, however, followed soon after. It may be presumed that the written constitution of Connecticut, adopted in 1639, was the work espe- cially of Mr. Hooker and Mr. Haynes, though others doubtless were consulted and lent assistance. Bancroft describes Mr. Haynes as a man " of large estate and larger affections ; of heavenly mind and spot- less life." He was a man to make himself beloved to a remarkable degree. The people of the infant colony elected him their governor in 1639, and as he could hold the office but one year at a time, they chose him every other year as long as he lived. He died March 1, 1654.
Roger Ludlow, of Windsor, was of good family, and a brother-in-law of Governor Endicott, a lawyer by profession, holding various offices in Massachusetts, and after his removal to Connecticut becoming deputy-governor, etc., and compiler of the earliest code of laws in that colony.
Edward Hopkins, the second Governor of Connecticut, came to these shores in the New Haven company, which reached the Massachusetts Bay in 1637. He married the daughter of the honored Theophilus Eaton, first Governor of the New Haven Colony. After Mr. Hopkins came to Hartford he was chosen a magistrate, and secretary of the colony, in the first election under the written constitution ; and ever after, so long as he remained here, he was in office, and in a kind of alternate way with Mr. Haynes in respect to the offices of governor and deputy-governor. In the year 1654, May 18, at a General Court, Mr. Hopkins was governor, but against his name is written absent. He had gone to England, never to return. He had been to England before, since his first coming over, on matters of public and private business. But now, in 1654, the Commonwealth was in full power, and Cromwell was at the head of the nation. Mr. Hopkins was made a Member of Parliament, Warden of the Fleet, etc. Before he could
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CHARACTER AND SOCIAL POSITION OF THE SETTLERS.
shape his plans to return, as he probably intended, he was cut short by death. He died in London, in March, 1657, leaving his large wealth, and all his property in New England, to be devoted to the academical and collegiate education of young men.
William Phelps, of Dorchester, Mass., was one of the eight commis- sioners appointed to govern the Connecticut settlements, including Agawam, one year. John Steele was also one of the eight commission- ers, and for some years his name led the list of deputies from Hartford to the General Court. Thomas Wells, another commissioner, high magistrate, colonial treasurer, deputy-governor, and governor, was one of the chief men of Hartford ; and according to tradition had been pri- vate-secretary to Lord Say and Sele before coming to America. William Swayne, " gentleman," of Wethersfield, was a commissioner. William Westwood, of Hartford, was a commissioner, constable of the Connec- ticut plantation, and deputy to the General Court. Andrew Ward, of Wethersfield, was another of the eight commissioners ; was deputy to the General Court. George Wyllys, " affluent and large-hearted," stood second and next to John Haynes on the list of Hartford proprietors in 1639 ; and was made one of the higher magistrates, deputy-governor, and governor. William Whiting stood among the first eleven names on the list of Hartford proprietors, and was colonial treasurer for six years. John Mason, of Windsor, maintained the high military reputa- tion brought to this country ; was a magistrate, commander-in-chief of the colony, deputy-governor, and greatly honored.
Henry Wolcott, of Windsor, belonged to the gentry of England, and was of large estate. He was deputy to the first General Court under the Constitution. " George Fenwick, Esq., " says Savage, in his notes to " Winthrop's History of New England," " would surely deserve more consideration than he has received from the writers about our country." He was wealthy and of good standing in England, being by profession a barrister. His wife, Lady Fenwick, was " probably the only person ever connected with the First Church of Hartford who popularly wore a title of English rank." Mr. Fenwick was chosen one of the higher magis- trates of the colony in 1647 and 1648, and on removing to England was made colonel of one of Cromwell's regiments. Matthew Allyn, one of the early and larger proprietors of Hartford, was in later years among the higher magistrates and the deputies to the General Court, of which he was sometimes moderator. On removing to Windsor he married Eliz- abeth, granddaughter of Henry Wolcott. Matthew Grant, of Windsor, bore the honorable appellation of " the Recorder," and was not only the careful keeper of town records, but also a deputy from time to time. Sir Richard Saltonstall, though resident in New England but a short time, fitted out the ship that came up.the Connecticut River to Windsor in 1635 ; and by his wealth and influence, and by his descendants, lodged his name here for perpetual remembrance.
Lyon Gardiner, constructor and commander of the fort at Saybrook, had been, to use his own language, " Engineer and Master of works of Fortifications in the legers of the Prince of Orange, in the Low Coun- tries." He purchased the island now bearing his name and still held in entail ; and if he did not himself wear the title of " Lord of the Isle of Wight," one of his immediate descendants did, as a tombstone at East- hampton, Long Island, testifies. John Webster was a leading citizen
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
of Hartford ; one of the five higher magistrates in 1639, holding office until 1655, when he became deputy-governor ; and after serving as governor in 1656, resuming his office of high magistrate and holding it until 1659. William Goodwin " was prominent in all the early trans- actions of the Hartford settlement, a man of large means and great influence." He was the first and perhaps the only ruling elder of the First Church, and his name has always been one of dignity and honor. John Talcott was a leading man in Hartford ; was for years a magis- trate and deputy, and from 1654 to 1659 colonial treasurer. John Hig- ginson, though belonging mainly to Massachusetts, was as a young man brought into interesting relations with Connecticut ; was employed at one time as chaplain at the fort in Saybrook; and was a teacher in Hartford, and while so engaged lived with Mr. Hooker as a student, helper and scribe. John Winthrop the younger surpassed even his father in culture ; had studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and had travelled and mingled with learned men on the Continent. In 1657, having served as a magistrate for some years, he was chosen governor by the people, though he had borne the title by commission since 1635. Until 1662 he was alternately governor and deputy-governor; then governor continuously until 1676.
These colonists are crowned with additional honors through their descendants immediate or remote. The son of George Wyllys, Samuel, a graduate of Harvard, was an assistant thirty years ; his grandson, Hezekiah, was colonial secretary twenty-two years ; his great-grandson, George, was colonial secretary sixty-one years, and for over two hun- dred years this family retained its wealth and social prominence. John Webster, of Hartford, was the ancestor of Noah Webster. John Talcott's son, Major John, commanded the Connecticut forces during King Philip's War, and his grandson, Joseph, was Governor of Con- necticut, 1725-1741. William Edwards, of Hartford, though not per- sonally distinguished, founded one of the most notable families in New England ; was the father of Richard Edwards, one of the most intelli- gent and valuable citizens of Hartford, and ancestor of Rev. Timothy Edwards, of Windsor, east side ; of Jonathan Edwards ; and of presi- dents Dwight and Woolsey, of Yale. With the possible exception of Robert Williams, of Roxbury, Mass., he was the ancestor of more New England clergymen than any other early settler. William Pitkin, of Hartford, was conspicuous and influential. The distinguished positions of his sons, William and Ozias, his grandsons, Governor William and Colonel John, his great-grandsons, Colonel William and Colonel George, to go no further, are related in the chapter on East Hartford. This family retained its prominence for over two hundred years. William Pitkin's sister Martha married Simon Wolcott, and was ancestress of seven governors. From Andrew Ward, of Wethersfield, was descended Aaron Burr ; and Henry Ward Bcecher gets his middle name from him. Perhaps no man among the Connecticut founders could boast among his descendants so many governors, statesmen, and judges, as Henry Wolcott, of Windsor. The (genealogical) family circle of his great-granddaughter Ursula, who married Matthew Griswold, of Lyme, includes twelve governors and thirty-four judges. The sons of Matthew Allyn, of Windsor, John and Captain Thomas, were prominent men; and from Matthew Grant, President Ulysses S. Grant was descended.
49
THE PEQUOT WAR.
SECTION III.
BY THE REV. INCREASE N. TARBOX, D.D.
THE PEQUOT WAR. - THE CODE OF 1650. - GENERAL HISTORY TO 1665.
IN 1636 John Oldham, a trader from Watertown, Massachusetts, was murdered by the Pequots while lying off Block Island. The ex- pedition under Governor John Endicott, of Salem, despatched to avenge this massacre and to demand submission from the Pequots, succeeded only in injuring a few innocent natives, and in irritating without in- timidating the warlike nation ; not only raising new hope and audacity in the breasts of the Pequots, but also inducing a kind of contempt for the English in the large and powerful tribe of the Narragansetts, inhab- iting the territory now covered by Rhode Island. There was imminent danger, by reason of this turn in affairs, that the Pequots would draw their old enemies, the Narragansetts, into league with themselves.
Without this alliance, however, the Pequots were greatly embold- ened. They knew that all the Indian tribes, far around, were afraid of them, and they now had some reason to think that the white people were equally afraid. It will be remembered that John Winthrop, Jr., began to build a fort in 1635, at the mouth of the Connecticut River, with the men and the money he had brought over from England. It was of course well understood by the Indians that this fort was a part of the system, offensive and defensive, by which the English were try- ing to establish themselves in the country, and this place therefore became an object against which the Pequots directed their hostilities. From the fall of 1635 on through the following winter squads of Pequots were lurking in the forests about this fort, never daring to come up and attack it bodily, but watching and waiting to cut off any persons who might be passing to or from distant places, or who might have to come outside the fort for any purpose whatever. Lion Gardiner, under whose care and oversight the fort had been built, had been left in charge of the same through that long and dreary winter. But the crowning act of audacity which brought matters at once to a crisis was perpetrated in the early spring of 1636, when a party of Pequots, about one hun- dred in number, found their way to the infant settlement at Wethers- field, where they killed nine men and carried away captive two girls.
It was now apparent that the Pequots had entered upon a course of hostilities which would not stop until their power was curbed or crushed. Under such circumstances the General Court came together at Hartford on the first day of May, 1637, and the first entry in the record of that meeting is as follows : -
" It is ordered that there shalbe an offensive warr agt the Pequoitt, and that there shalbe 90 men levied out of the 3 Plantacons, Hartford, Weathersfield, & Windsor (vizt) out of Harteford 42, Windsor 30, Weathersfield 18, vnder the comande of Captaine Jo: Mason, & in Case of his death or sicknes vnder comand VOL. I .- 3.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
of Rob.te Seely Leift & the 'Idest sieant or military officer survivinge, if both these miscarry."
The Massachusetts and the Plymouth colonies agreed to render aid in this war. Massachusetts in a special session of the General Court ordered a levy of one hundred and sixty men and voted £600. The military forces of the Massachusetts colony were placed under the com- mand of Major Israel Stoughton, who afterward went back to England and commanded a regiment in Cromwell's army.
It was on the 10th of May that the little army of ninety whites and seventy friendly Indians went down the river and landed at Saybrook the Monday morning following. Mr. Samuel Stone, associate minister with Mr. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, was chaplain. At Saybrook Captain John Underhill, with nineteen men, joined Captain Mason's army, and twenty men were sent back from Saybrook more effectually to guard the river settlements, which had been left in an exposed condition, so that no more than seventy of the men gathered out of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield went forward to the great battle. Of these, so far as it has been possible to recover their names, Dr. Trumbull has made the following enrolment : -
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