USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Mount Carmel > The old Mount Carmel parish, origins & outgrowths > Part 3
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
Davenport returned to London in 1635, and two years later embarked with his promising company for Boston. On their arrival they were most hospitably welcomed by the people already on the ground. Inducements of various kinds were offered them for casting in their lot with the Massa- chusetts colony. But the company kept an attitude of indeci- sion and for about a year engaged in systematic explorations until finally they removed to Quinnipiac.
It has been asked now and then why Hooker and his com- panions abandoned their homes at Newtown after they had become so well established to go out so far into the wilder- ness and start again under circumstances of severe hardship. And perhaps it has been asked about as often why Davenport and his company were not content to remain in the vicinity of Boston when everything was made so inviting for their settlement there. Explanations of one sort and another have been given, not always quite conclusive or satisfactory. May we not find at least a clew to the answer to these inquiries in the discipline through which, during those years in the Netherlands, Hooker and Davenport secured their final training for the building of a new kind of commonwealth?
It was not in the nature of things that these master spirits, fresh from the exile's ordeal, should look upon common- wealth building in quite the same way as those who had come over directly from England, never having seen any commu- nity life other than that of an English parish. Although these had been non-conformists and had suffered a good deal for opinions that were not approved by rulers in power, still they had not gone so very far from the traditional hab- its of thought and practice that were prevalent in England. They had come over the Atlantic in the hope of more lati- tude for themselves individually, but not with very greatly changed conceptions of the sort of community that was best. Transplanted with a sudden spade-thrust from English soil to that of a new land, they thought of little but getting their roots fastened down, and living the same sort of life they had lived before, being good Englishmen, good Christians of the ordinary kind, good citizens reverencing the King and
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New Netherland and New England.
obedient to all reasonable requirements of the law. They had not much patience with serious departures from old ways of thinking and behaving. They had a mind to keep the new wine closely shut up in old and leaky bottles.
Is it any wonder that Thomas Hooker, coming right out from the ferment of Delft and Leyden, could not stand this? Is it any more wonder that Davenport, after his world- wide contemplation of commercial enterprise at Amster- dam, did not feel like burying himself and all his London associates in a hide-bound pocket whose atmosphere had in it no exhilaration or incentive? The errands on which they came had a larger scope; and the people they had gathered about them were of like mind. The most astonishing thing in it all is that Hooker and Davenport had gained so com- plete an ascendency over their respective companies as to be able to propose an undertaking of hazards so formidable and to carry bands of men, women, and little children with them to its execution. Such an achievement throws into strong light the commanding strength of a disciplined manhood .*
* The author is indebted to Professor C. M. Andrews for this caution: "I am not quite sure how far you are justified in what you say about the influence of Holland on Hooker and Davenport. The idea is attractive, but such ideas are hard to prove. If such influence actually was felt by these men, then the results were oddly at variance, as no two political schemes could have been more unlike than those tested at Hartford and New Haven." It may fairly be taken for granted, however, that the years of exile in Holland were not barren of consequences for either of these vigorous thinkers. For Hooker in particular, who was before Davenport both in Holland and in America, one can easily believe that the free thought of the Netherlands had a great deal to do with shaping his convic- tions. And it is not so very surprising that the two men differed in their conceptions of a well-governed commonwealth. It does not appear that they were associated together in England, and they were in Holland at different times; so that their projects were thought out independently. Then, too, the circumstances under which they passed their years of exile were quite different. The atmosphere of Delft, where Hooker spent most of his time, was about as different from that of Amsterdam, where Daven- port lived, as Hooker's political views were unlike those of Davenport. Even their disagreements may be traced in a measure to the dissimilar in- fluences that played about them in those troubled years.
IV.
Pioneer Communities.
T HE migrations from eastern Massachusetts to the Connecticut River were made by a number of dis- tinct groups severally banded together beforehand. The men from Plymouth came to fix a trading post and were hardly prepared for permanence. Not so the founders of Windsor, Springfield, Wethersfield, and Hartford. The bolder spirits among them had visited the Connecticut val- ley during the year or two previous, made themselves famil- iar with the trails through the forests and the features of the country, and learned where the choicest lands were to be found and what points on the river offered most attractions for a settlement. But having decided on their course, they started out as communities made up of families-men, women, and children with domestic animals and whatever might be needed for making homes-with their church also uniting them under a religious covenant.
Their movement was practically a transfer of the neigh- borhood life that had been lived in one spot near the coast to new ground in the interior. The Windsor people had lived at Dorchester for four or five years, having gathered them- selves into a company first at old Plymouth in the west of England, where their church was formed; and now they were going in a body to the new country of Windsor. In a like orderly way, the company which settled at Springfield removed thither from old homes they had had near together at Roxbury. So too the Wethersfield settlers were for the most part from Watertown. The largest company of all, which founded Hartford, came from their previous settle- ment at Newtown, which is the site of the modern Cam- bridge. These four removals were all in the same season, during the spring and summer of 1635-36, as if in concert and by mutual agreement. It was also arranged that the set- tlers should be united under a common government; a com-
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Pioneer Communities.
mission for a provisional government to last for one year was granted them by the Massachusetts General Court, and two representatives from each of the plantations, including Springfield, had the control at the beginning. In due course, this government under the commission was extended to the second year.
The plantations of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield were made in connection with a patent for the territory of Connecticut supposedly granted by the Council for New England to the Earl of Warwick, and by him quit-claimed to certain Lords and Gentlemen in 1631. At the same time, in March, 1635-36, under the same patent, the younger John Winthrop sailed out of Boston harbor at the head of another company for the mouth of the Connecticut River, where they built a fort at Saybrook mounted with two can- nons for defence against any dangers that might threaten from the Dutch in that quarter. The several movements were parts of a comprehensive plan, in connection with which we should not forget the intimate friendship of the Earl of Warwick for Thomas Hooker, which was so close as to cause him to afford shelter to Hooker's family while Hooker was a refugee in Holland.
The removal of such large numbers from the older settle- ments in the neighborhood of Boston was easier and at- tended with smaller losses on account of the great immigra- tion from England which was then at full tide. Doubtless a strong sentiment in behalf of the immigration, and a pre- vailing desire to encourage it by affording opportunities for the newly arrived families to provide themselves with homes without delay, had much to do with the willingness of so many to give up their comfortable places and go into the wilderness to start again. There was a certain solidarity which we can hardly imagine between the people who had risked the voyage and landed safely in America and their friends on the other side who were hesitant about the great undertaking. The removals to the Connecticut River made room for as many more to leave England. They came with a rush. The vacant houses were soon filled with fresh families,
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
the churches restored to full strength, the community life carried on anew, almost as if there had been no break.
In the summer of 1637, the year after the removals to the Connecticut valley, the Davenport and Eaton company ar- rived in Boston. They met with generous hospitality and much was done to keep them somewhere in that neighbor- hood. But they had other plans and took time for wider in- vestigation before coming to a decision. Soldiers returning from the Pequot war told of the "place called Queenapick, having a fair river fit for harboring ships, and abounding with rich and goodly meadows." A party under Theophilus Eaton went to see the place and found it altogether attrac- tive. Seven of their number were selected to remain there through the following winter and Eaton with the rest went back to Boston. When the spring opened, the company as a whole embarked on shipboard and, in April, arrived at their destination.
Meanwhile, the men left on the ground were not idle. They tried in particular to get near to the Indians of the neighborhood and to be on the most friendly terms with them. These Indians were in no little danger from other Indians, belonging to hostile tribes, who might at any time overwhelm them by a sudden attack. On this account, they welcomed the prospect of an English settlement near by which might protect them. So when Eaton returned with his friends, they found the way open for negotiations, and very soon a bargain was made with the natives by which title was obtained to a considerable territory, indispensable for the settlement. The new town was then laid out in a large square divided by cross streets into nine smaller squares of which the one in the center was reserved for a public common. One group of settlers was from Yorkshire and to it was assigned the square west of the common. Another group, from Hert- fordshire, had the square adjoining on the south. The other squares were distributed to the rest of the settlers so far as they went, and after that assignments were made outside of the squares. Houses were set not very far apart for safety and defence. Adjacent fields in the country around were en-
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Pioneer Communities.
closed for pasturage and cultivation. The woods near by be- came a convenient resort for timber and fire-wood. In the center of the open square was built the meeting-house which served not only for worship, but for public assemblies gen- erally, particularly for the town meetings.
Following the laying out of New Haven came that of a companion settlement at Milford, in August, 1639. This was undertaken by a number of the New Haven people with ad- ditions from Wethersfield and elsewhere. The spot chosen was on a small stream having a good mill site a few miles to the west. Several of the Hertfordshire planters disposed of their lots in New Haven to share in this movement. There were fifty-four planters in all engaged in this undertaking. Not long after this, a fresh company arrived from England under the lead of the Reverend Henry Whitfield and Rob- ert Kitchel and started a settlement at Guilford. Then, in the following year, still another company came to New Haven from over seas and went across the Sound to establish themselves at Southold on Long Island. Again, in that same year, 1640, Captain Nathaniel Turner, as agent for New Haven, went on an excursion to that point on the coast where Stamford is now, and bought from the Indians a tract of territory, which in the following November was sold to An- drew Ward and Robert Bell, representing some twenty-two families who wished to leave Wethersfield and start a new plantation under the New Haven jurisdiction. Once more, in 1640, Reverend Samuel Eaton, one of the New Haven planters and a brother of Governor Eaton, obtained from the court a grant of Totoket, now Branford, for friends in England who were intending to come over, and himself went back to England to bring them out. Just then the po- litical situation changed so that his friends chose to stay in England and he concluded to stay with them. In this exi- gency, another company from Wethersfield took up the project and started the Branford settlement in 1643. Thus, six plantations, New Haven, Milford, Guilford, Southold, Stamford, and Branford were founded and grouped to-
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
gether .* They were formally associated in a General Court, in which each plantation was represented, and constituted the "New Haven Colony," in distinction from the "Connecticut Colony," of which Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield were the nucleus.
The northern colony was not behind that on the Sound in adding new plantations. Among these was Fairfield, in 1639, on ground the attractive features of which had been made known by soldiers who were in the "great swamp fight" not very far from there. In the same year, some first steps were taken for the settlement of Stratford; and in the following year, 1640, a large purchase of land was made beyond Fair- field, on which in course of time arose the settlement of Norwalk. These three adjacent settlements, though in the neighborhood of the New Haven towns, were under the ju- risdiction of the colony whose seat was at Hartford. At the same time that these enterprises were under way at a dis- tance, the Hartford people were also active nearer home, getting possession of the lands about the Indian village of Tunxis, in the Farmington valley, where a few years later came the settlement of Farmington. Interesting things, also, were going on at Saybrook where Winthrop built his fort. In 1639, Colonel George Fenwick founded what was called a "commonwealth" at that point; and, in 1644, Connecticut purchased from Fenwick for £1,600 the Warwick patent with jurisdiction rights in that enterprise. The settlement continued to have some importance till about twenty years later, when the Saybrook people bought a tract nine miles square on the Pequot River and removed thither with their pastor, the Reverend James Fitch, to found the town of Norwich.
So it came to pass that many settlements were started within the course of a few years, some fourteen in all be- tween 1636 and 1641, in that particular bit of territory, not to speak of those in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. What is known as the Puritan migration to New England took place, most of it, between 1630 and
* Greenwich was added in 1656.
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Pioneer Communities.
1640. This was the period during which Charles I would have no parliament and undertook to make his own will the supreme law. In ten years about twenty thousand of his dis- satisfied people went to New England, determined to make commonwealths of a better and happier sort. The number was small at the beginning but grew from year to year. When the settlers about Boston began to go over to the Con- necticut River, a great many were coming from England. Vessels crowded with passengers followed one another in swift succession over the sea; while, at home, Englishmen by hundreds made ready to join the movement as soon as they could arrange their affairs for so great a venture. This was why so many different places, far beyond immediate require- ments, were chosen for settlements; and why such large tracts of territory were secured against coming demands. A new England was fast growing into form and there was every reason to believe that its growth would keep on indefi- nitely. It was so till 1640. In that year the King suddenly called a new parliament to help him against an uprising of the Scotch Covenanters. That meeting resulted in the Long Parliament. Then the movement to New England came to a pause.
Those who were about to go over changed their minds and gave it up. Some of those who had gone came back. They could think now of making old England new, and getting the better order of things without crossing the Atlan- tic. Parliament gave them a chance. Strafford and Laud were impeached. The Star Chamber and High Commission Courts were abolished and civil war followed. Parliament joined the Scots in their Solemn League and Covenant. Oliver Cromwell and the Ironsides came upon the field. The autocratic monarchy was overthrown and England pro- claimed a free commonwealth under government by the House of Commons.
This may have been cause for exultation to the settlers in New England, but it involved a change for their prospects. The plans so widely laid for building up all the new com- munities were contingent on a steady flow of immigration.
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
The growth that had been counted on to make them prosper- ous was over. The settlements on the Connecticut River and along the Sound were designed to be ports for trade, as we know them today-Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, Norwalk, Stamford; but with ships coming and going only now and then, what chance was there for a growing com- merce? The men who had come into the undertaking because of special qualifications for life in a trading port found little to do in the crafts for which they had been trained.
This set-back, however, did not by any means bring to an end these settlements; it only changed their outlook and turned their energies into other channels. There were many ways in which to get a living; and in a new country the op- portunities for ingenuity were countless. The skill acquired in one craft could be readily turned to others. People learned to turn their hands to anything, hunting, fishing, tilling the ground, raising cattle, building houses, making garments, doing the hundred and one things that belong to civilization, whatever the conditions that have to be met. This made "Yankees" of them.
Hartford and New Haven were happy in their earliest governors. The magistrate was much of a figure in the New England settlements. He was looked up to for decisions of great weight. Governor Bradford was the ruling genius of Plymouth colony for some thirty-five years. The elder Winthrop exercised a similar influence for Massachusetts Bay. It was not very different with William Pynchon at Springfield. They were strong, wise men and their personal power went far in maintaining conditions of mutual forbear- ance and prosperity. In like manner, Hartford had for its magistrates John Haynes and Edward Hopkins; and New Haven had Theophilus Eaton. All were men of wealth and social position, experienced in handling people and dealing with large business interests. Some of them had been closely associated in England and could aid one another, if neces- sary, in their new fields of duty.
Haynes was from Essex and undoubtedly became at-
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Pioneer Communities.
tached to Hooker at the time of his famous Chelmsford lec- tures. Hooker and he came over to America together in a vessel that also carried the Reverend Samuel Stone, the Rev- erend John Cotton, and some two hundred others. Haynes was so highly regarded that he was soon chosen assistant and a year later was elected governor of Massachusetts. During the year he was governor, the movement to the Connecticut valley got under way. In that same year, also, Mabel Harla- kenden, a maiden of twenty-one, with her brother Roger and his newly wedded wife, arrived from England, having left their home in Essex and come over summer seas to share in the adventure. How much the Governor had to do with their coming, we are not told; but not many weeks went by before he and Mabel Harlakenden were married; and then, young Henry Vane having come on the ground and been chosen to fill the office of governor, Haynes and his bride followed their many friends over the trail to Hartford, where in due time the people united in choosing him to be the first governor of Connecticut.
Edward Hopkins was one of the London merchants in the company of Davenport and Eaton. He was related by mar- riage to Eaton and was one of his warmest friends. It would have been natural for him to go on with his friends to Quin- nipiac, but for some reason he chose to join the Hartford people. The basis of citizenship there was broader, and even- tually became land ownership; while, at New Haven, it was membership in the church. This disagreement was consid- ered more vital then than it would be now. Probably Hop- kins became dissatisfied with the qualification of church membership and went to the Connecticut colony on this ac- count. He was heartily welcomed there, and an arrangement was made by which Haynes and Hopkins should take turns in being governor, on alternate years, and this plan was car- ried out till the death of Haynes in 1654.
Theophilus Eaton* was quite as distinguished a figure at
* "Theophilus Eaton," by Honorable S. E. Baldwin. N. H. Col. Hist. Soc., Papers, Vol. VII, pp. 1-33.
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
New Haven. His personality was so attractive and com- manding that he seems never to have had any competitor for the dignity of governor. Undoubtedly this fact was a good deal of a magnet, attracting the other settlements to New Haven and binding the several places firmly together. If Wethersfield had contained a man strong enough to hold the confidence of the people, such a man as Haynes or Hopkins or Eaton, at the beginning, the settlers there would hardly have been so hasty in flying to Stamford and Branford. There is evidence of the power of these honored magistrates for stability in what happened after they were gone. At Hartford, the community was thrown into that wild turmoil which led a great body of the people to go away to the mead- ows above Northampton and plant the new settlements of Hadley and Hatfield; and at New Haven, after Eaton's death, came the exodus to New Jersey and the founding of Newark, while even Davenport lost heart and removed to Boston for another pastorate, where he passed the closing days of his life. If the sound judgment and balanced states- manship of the old magistrates could have remained at the helm through those troubled times, one can believe that things would have been different.
The restoration of Charles II to the throne of England made a serious change in New England affairs. It was par- ticularly so with the two colonies of Connecticut and New Haven. Then the younger John Winthrop was found to be the man for the hour. After his expedition to the mouth of the Connecticut River for the building of the fort at Say- brook, he obtained a grant of Fisher's Island at the mouth of the Thames River, built himself a house there, and a few years later started the settlement of New London and de- voted himself to the interests of that new community. This settlement belonged to the jurisdiction of Connecticut, in which he became a magistrate in 1651, was chosen governor in 1657, and continued in that office, with the exception of a single year, till his death nineteen years after. Under his management, the New Haven colony was merged with its sister colony under the name of Connecticut, a charter being
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Pioneer Communities.
granted for that purpose by the King in 1662 .* The New Haven people were generally against this measure and felt that they were wronged. It was an especially bitter experi- ence for Davenport, who saw the ambition of his life turned aside from its fulfillment. In our day, however, few will question that the union of the two colonies in one homogene- ous commonwealth was timely and wise.
The younger Winthrop had a great inheritance from his father, who was so conspicuous a figure in the beginnings of Massachusetts. He grew up in the enjoyment of those things which wealth affords, familiar with the dignities of honor- able station, with the habits of a cultivated family, trained to high standards of conduct and imbued with a sense of re- sponsibility for his deeds; his equipment for life was indeed unusual. He lived in England at different times for a num- ber of years and had not a few influential friends there. Probably he had a better knowledge of political affairs and the current thought of the old country than any other man of his day in New England. On this account, he could under- stand the point of view of English statesmen better than most of the people in the colonies. He could see what things could not be done at the King's court, and what concessions must be made to gain a point. So he was at an advantage, not only in securing the charter, but in the administration of government under the new order. With so accomplished a governor, the united colony went successfully through a dis- turbed period of transition and entered on a new stage of growth and prosperity.
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