USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Mount Carmel > The old Mount Carmel parish, origins & outgrowths > Part 4
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* The shelter afforded the regicides in New Haven no doubt had in- fluence in discrediting the administration of affairs there, and paved the way for Winthrop's diplomacy.
V.
Quinnipiac Lands.
B Y their purchase from the Indians, the New Haven settlers came into possession of ample tracts of land in the neighborhood chosen for their plantation. These lands they proceeded to utilize as seemed best for the imme- diate and the prospective interests of the colony.
They brought over from early associations in England quite distinct opinions about the value of real estate. At that time, England and Wales had a population of about 4,000,- 000, of whom at least half were dependent on wages earned from day to day .* For ordinary work, a day's earnings were from a shilling to a shilling and six pence. The price of wheat was about six shillings a bushel, so that a whole week's labor would do little more than pay for a single bushel. The other half of the population were more well-to-do, and among them the landholders were in a position of especial dignity and independence, constituting, as the landed gentry, a superior class of society. For these reasons, ownership of land was significant of privilege and prerogative.
In all parts of England, a good deal of land was kept as common property for the people in general. People who had no land of their own were allowed free access to the com- mons, pasturing their cattle there in the common droves, car- rying away wood for their fires, and tilling the ground in patches laid out by mutual agreement. The commons, at that period, belonged to the institutional life of the country as much as the private estates that were fenced off for the gen- try; and in their way they were every whit as essential to the continuing life of the community.# Usages that prevailed thus in the mother country determined in large measure the
* A. P. Usher, Industrial History of England, p. 89, estimates the population of England in 1630 at 5,225,000.
Thorold Rogers, Work and Wages, pp. 431-432.
# Ibid., pp. 88-91.
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Quinnipiac Lands.
course followed by the settlers in laying out lands for their infant colony; with this advantage, however, that they could break with tradition whenever necessity called for it.
The earliest account of raising crops at New Haven tells of cultivating the ground as common. The ground referred to was in "The Neck," the land lying between the two rivers where Fair Haven is now. This particular piece had probably been cultivated before by Indians and so was easy to work. We may imagine that the men whom Eaton had left to spend the winter at New Haven had an understanding with the Indians and got to work as soon as the frost was out of the ground so as to have their plants up before the arrival of the main company. This forehandedness led to the raising of a question, when the time came for making apportion- ments to individual settlers, as to the disposal of this culti- vated spot, which was met by the following ordinance:
It is agreed by the town and accordingly ordered by the court that the Neck shall be planted or sown for the term of seven years, and that John Brockett shall go about laying it forthwith, and all dif- ferences betwixt party and party about ground formerly broken up and planted by English there shall be arbitrated by indifferent men who shall be chosen to that end.
1159337
So it seems to have been decided that this land in the Neck should continue to be common and to be cultivated in that way for seven years.
The apportionments of ground to individuals were made by exact rules according to the amount of one's property and the number of persons in his family. It was provided that no one should sell his allotment to anyone not belonging to the colony except by permission of the town, a safeguard against unwelcome neighbors. It was another rule that no planter could buy land from the Indians or anyone else for his own private use, but only for the benefit of the plantation. Prob- ably the earlier assignments were largely by individual se- lection and mutual agreement. To settle differences, this or- dinance was enacted:
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
To prevent offences as much as may be and that all men's spirits be the better satisfied with their allotments, it is ordered that where the planters do not fully agree among themselves in dividing their lands all divisions generally shall be made by lot.
The first act in the distribution of lands was the assign- ment of home lots to settlers. This took up the eight squares around the central common and a considerable number of other areas about the water front, thus marking out the nu- cleus of the community. Next came, during January, 1640, what was afterward known as the First Division of Land, covering the ground within two miles of the town; and this was followed in October, 1640, by the Second Division which extended to the uplands lying without and beyond the two miles from town. A feature of these divisions was a ju- dicious combination of upland and meadow for each allot- ment. The official record concerning these divisions is as follows:
It is ordered that in the first division which is to be made of upland and meadow within two miles of the town (a place called the Neck, being all or the greater part within two miles, not reckoned) every planter shall have after the rate of five acres of land for every £100 in estate, and for every person or head in his family (his wife with himself and children only to be reckoned) two acres and a half of land ; and further that every planter shall have in the Neck afore- said after the rate of one acre for fioo in estate and half an acre for every person; and the meadow belonging to the town being duly considered and estimated, it is ordered that every planter shall have after the rate of five acres for every £100 in estate and half an acre of meadow for every person.
And in the second division of upland lying without and beyond the two miles from the town, it is ordered that every planter shall have after the rate of twenty acres for every £100 in estate, and for every head two acres and a half.
The lands allotted in the First Division amounted to some 4,900 acres of upland, 565 acres in the Neck, and 2,000 acres of meadow; while in the Second Division the amount was some 8,200 acres. How much of this was actually taken up by those to whom it was assigned? Not all, as is fully
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Quinnipiac Lands.
shown in the records. In 1678-79, the surveyor was directed "to lay out the second division of the small lots on the west side, and the remainder of the first division of the Yorkshire Quarter" which proves that these claims had been disre- garded for nearly forty years. In 1704, attention was called to a map of Gregson's farm at Solitary Cove, in which the amount of land was made eighty-three acres and forty-five and a half rods, whereas his assignment had been one hun- dred and thirty-three acres. Here was a right to nearly fifty acres that had been unheeded for over sixty years. Of like import is an order of the town in 1668:
That all persons who have any right in lands unfenced, either of their first division or second division on the Neck, bring in the num- ber of acres before September, that there may be a new laying out of the same, and the bounds be settled and maintained according to law.
A reason for not claiming allotted lands was probably the liability for taxation involved. With the order for the Sec- ond Division, it was enacted:
That all the upland in the first division, with all the meadows in the plantation, shall pay fourpence an acre yearly, at two several days of payment, the one in April and the other in October, to raise a common stock or public treasury.
Where lands could be utilized and made productive, the payment of these taxes was accepted as a matter of course; but to pay taxes on wild land was another thing. For share- holders living in England and for any who had removed to other settlements, this was reason enough for omitting to register their rights. Most of the shares assigned to non- residents, no doubt, were left to be public property, with much other land that even the settlers were unable to im- prove.
Besides allotting lands to individual settlers, provision was also made for commons. The square in the center of the town was the most important; but the so-called "Sequestered Lands" served a valuable purpose. The Sequestered Lands of the First Division lay in the northwest part of the town, beginning near what is now Broadway and extending to the
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
neighborhood of West Rock and Pine Rock. A large tract nearer the town was designated as the "Cow Pasture," to which every morning was driven a herd of cows, coming from scores of barn-yards, to graze through the day and be driven back at night to their several owners for the milking. Along the southern edge of the Cow Pasture, about on the line of Whalley Avenue, was a path that led to the "Ox Pas- ture" beyond Beaver Pond; and this was the usual way of going to the commons beyond the Pastures, whence we may suppose the people brought timber for building and loads of wood for fuel.
The frequented thoroughfare was from the waterside with its wharves and shipping up across the "Green," as it is now called, to the Sequestered Lands, or Pastures. On either side of this medial line were the Quarters, extending out to the two-mile limit and covered by the farming lands and wood lots of the people whose homes were clustered to- gether about the meeting-house in the center. At the east and north were four contiguous Quarters, and separated from them at each end were five other contiguous Quarters at the south and west. The people living in the former came to be called "those on the east side" and the people in the latter "those on the west side." The Quarters on the east side were designated as "Mr. Davenport's," "Mr. Eaton's," "Mr. Newman's," and "Mr. Tench's"; those on the west side as "Yorkshire," "Hertfordshire," "Mr. Gregson's," "Suburbs," and "Mr. Lamberton's." In process of time, Mr. Eaton's Quarter came to be called "The Governor's," and, later, "Mr. Jones' Quarter"; Mr. Newman's became "James Heaton's," and then "The Little Quarter"; Mr. Tench's became "Horton's," next "Cooper's," and after- ward "The Second Quarter"; Hertfordshire took the name of "Goodman Gibbs"; and Yorkshire that of "Mr. Evance," while Mr. Gregson's was called "Mr. Goodyear's Quarter." This division by Quarters answered a similar purpose to the modern division by wards in the articulation of the commu- nity.
In the early years of the settlement, the lands of the First
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Quinnipiac Lands.
Division were about all that could be handled to much ad- vantage. If we take a map of New Haven, and with the Cen- ter Church for a focal point, draw a circle of two miles ra- dius, we shall find that it includes the Reservoir on Prospect Street, East Rock, Fair Haven to a point beyond the Strong school, the ground beyond the Ferry bridge nearly to Gran- nis Corner, Oyster Point, the edge of West Haven, Alling- town, Yale Field, a part of Westville, Beaver Hill and Beaver Pond, Hamden Plains nearly to the church, and the village about the Winchester Arms Works. The grounds within this area were near enough to the houses clustered about the Green, where the people lived, to be looked after and put to some practical use; but with regard to lands be- yond the two miles, it was another story; most of them were like a wilderness, haunts of foxes, wolves, rattlesnakes, and wildcats; and to think of cultivating them or pasturing cattle there was a venture that few men would care to try.
But the venture had to be made, in the interest of the settlement, if for no other reason. The men for such under- takings were those of independent means, who could engage laborers to go out and work on the land from day to day, till improvements made it practicable to build and some might be found willing to live there. The paths, old Indian trails, running from the town in different directions, attracted par- ticular attention for the advantages they offered to the grounds adjoining.
Foremost here, as in other things, was Governor Eaton; and the path for his undertaking was that leading to the . north on the west side of the Quinnipiac River. He obtained a grant for a large tract of land, three or four miles from the center, northward of East Rock, and set about making improvements. Proceeding with the cultivation of the ground, he found the lowland underlaid with superior clay and started a brickyard, beginning in this way an industry which has continued most valuable and prosperous to the present day. Eaton was soon joined by David Atwater, for whom a farm was laid out close by East Rock on ground sloping gently to the east, a homestead that still remains in
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
the Atwater family. North of this place, assignments were made to Captain Turner, William Potter, Richard Mans- field, and Francis Brewster. Brewster's land soon passed into the hands of William Bradley; and after Eaton's death his farm and brickyard went to his stepson, Thomas Yale.
On the further side of the Quinnipiac, there was another spot, on which several paths converged, one running along the east side of the river, a second going off toward the Con- necticut River and striking it where Middletown is now, and a third leading through Foxon to points along the shore. The town voted that Mr. Davenport might choose his allot- ment where he liked and take as much land as he wished. He chose this locality, outlining a considerable tract, though not an unreasonable amount. He engaged Alling Ball to become the manager of this farm, and Ball went over there to live in 1650, and was exempted from military service while in the minister's employ. Afterward, Ball had a farm of his own to the north of Davenport's.
Another path quite as important as any of these, probably more travelled, was on the further side of West Rock. The lines of travel in a new country are likely to keep to the high ground, avoiding swamps, running along a mountain's side and over hilltops, where one can have an outlook on the re- gion around and be sure of the direction in which he is going. A road from Farmington to the coast, in early times, was commonly called the "back-bone" route because it ran along the rocky ridge. This path left the ridge to come down through the alluvial valley watered by the West River. To this inviting region, Stephen Goodyear turned his attention and asked for an assignment of land there, to which the town readily assented, laying out a large tract. Goodyear engaged for his farmer Richard Sperry, who forthwith undertook the management of the land and filled the position so well that he continued to hold it all the rest of his life. After Good- year's death, the property went into Sperry's possession and was known as "Sperry's Farm." This Sperry was conspicuous in local history as a friend of the regicides. He had a large family and his descendants are numerous in Connecticut and
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Quinnipiac Lands.
elsewhere. Closely associated with him was Ralph Lines, another landholder, and father of a numerous family.
There were two other points that seemed to demand occu- pation as early as practicable, one on either side of the harbor as vessels sailed in to make port. On the right was Solitary Cove, now Morris Cove; and on the left was the reach of level plain, where now is West Haven. Mr. Gregson asked that he might have his allotment at Solitary Cove; and at the same time he suggested an allotment on the opposite side of the harbor for Mr. William Hawkins, a wealthy sub- scriber who was expected to join the colony as soon as cir- cumstances should allow. Both allotments were made with- out question, but neither fulfilled expectations. Hawkins never came over to take his place in the settlement and Greg- son failed to develop his property. Blame can hardly be at- tached to Gregson, however, for he was so absorbed in other business connected with the building up of the commercial interests of New Haven that he could scarcely have found time to look after his farm. Eventually, one half of his land came into the possession of George Pardee, Jr.
The territory south of Gregson's land, extending down to what is now Lighthouse Point, was called the "Little Neck." In 1647, William Andrews, John Cooper, and Richard Beckley jointly petitioned the town that they might have a tract of one hundred and thirteen acres here in place of sev- enty acres that had been assigned them in the vicinity of Westville. The request was granted, but their purpose was not carried out; for, in 1651, a fresh application was made by William Andrews, Richard Beckley, Matthias Hitchcock, Edward Patterson, and Edward Hitchcock, and it was or- dered that they have "the Neck of land by the sea-side be- yond the Cove and all the meadows belonging to it, below the island with a rock on it." Twenty years later, in 1671, this property was bought by Thomas Morris, and upon it was erected the Morris mansion which was the home of the family for many generations; and which was recently given, for a memorial, to the New Haven Colony Historical So- ciety by the late William S. Pardee.
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
Returning to the territory on the west side of the harbor, it appears that there were people living in that neighborhood as early as 1644, although no intimation is given of where they came from. In October of that year, one Nehemiah Smith of Stratford came to New Haven with a proposal to undertake sheep raising, and asked of the town forty acres of upland and ten of meadow by Oyster River, for this pur- pose. He obtained the grant and put the sheep on the ground, but neighbors raised such violent opposition that he was led to give it up. The town then arranged to have the sheep kept in a part of the Neck; but this did not work satis- factorily, and it was finally decided to set apart a tract near the brook, above the plains beyond the Sequestered Lands. Smith settled down there with his sheep and continued in the business with rather doubtful success for twelve years, till 1652, when he gave it up and removed to New London. The incident is especially interesting for the names "Shepherd's Pen" and "Shepherd's Brook" which became attached to this outpost.
Somehow, the people were slow to accept allotments in these parts, though special encouragement was early offered. In 1640, it was ordered:
That all the small lots about the town should have four acres of planting ground to every lot and an acre to every head layed out beyond the East River betwixt our pastor's farm and the Indian wigwams.
And in the following year another order modified this as follows:
That so many of those who have small lots by the sea as will resign the land beyond East River shall have six acres for every single person, eight for a man and his wife, and one for every child, at the end of the great plain, in lieu thereof.
This offer, however, of twice the amount of land does not appear to have had much persuasive force; for it was not till many years later that John Sackett was on the ground as the pioneer. Still later, in March, 1663-64, Matthew Gilbert obtained a grant above the Shepherd's Pen, near the Mill
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Quinnipiac Lands.
River, on which to raise fodder for his horses, which was the origin of "Gilbert's Farm," one of the landmarks in after years.
One reason why the lands beyond the Quinnipiac were so much preferred may have been the presence of the Indian village on Fort Hill with the reservations belonging to it. For the English pioneers in a strange land, with whose ways they were wholly unacquainted, it was of no little advantage to have a community of friendly natives near by, to whom they could run for information and help whenever they found themselves in a tight place. These natives were per- fectly at home on the ground and knew the things that strangers must learn if they were to make a living; how to raise corn, how to paddle a canoe, to range the forests with- out losing their way, to hunt and trap wild animals, to catch fish, to gather herbs and roots for medicinal uses, and a hun- dred other things. What wonder that these people from London and other parts of England thought it better to be in the neighborhood of such serviceable friends than off alone in a spot like the Shepherd's Pen?
With the growth of population on the east side of the Quinnipiac and the general traffic with the Indian village, it became desirable to have some means of passing over the river from one side to the other as required. This led to the establishment of a regular ferry, in 1645, which was main- tained by Francis Brown, one of the pioneers who had lived there through the winter before the settlement was made. He ran the ferry for five years and then sold it to George Pardee, who had been his apprentice in a tailoring business which he carried on besides his ferry. Pardee built himself a house, and, in 1670, was granted the ferry farm on the east side of the river, which has continued in the Pardee family down to recent times.
Another enterprise that helped the prosperity of the peo- ple beyond the river was the starting of the Iron Works at the outlet of Saltonstall Lake. This was a project of Stephen Goodyear, in which he employed John Cooper as agent, and had the cooperation of people at Branford. Bog ore had been
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The Old Mount Carmel Parish.
found in a swamp which lies above Montowese, and this was carried to the Iron Works, where it was smelted and put into form for the practical use of the colony. This manufactory was kept up for twenty-five years, from 1655 to 1680, when a grist mill was started to take its place. Governor Eaton had a large farm some two miles north of the Iron Works, be- sides the one above East Rock. He also had land in the "fresh meadow" which seems to have been near the center of East Haven as it is now. William Tuttle, Benjamin Linge, Matthew Moulthrop, and Ellis Mew had land near by, and John Potter obtained a piece to set a blacksmith shop on. As Davenport, Eaton, and Goodyear had such important interests in this part of the town, others came as a matter of course. All up and down the east side of the Quinnipiac, as far as North Haven, the lands were occupied and built upon by steadily increasing numbers.
In strong contrast was the opposite side of the town, where now are Westville, Allingtown, and West Haven. One of the early homesteads was that of William Pringle (or Prindle) who owned a large farm on the Milford line, "in that part called Holmes' Race." In 1681, he deeded a piece of ground to his neighbor, John Umberfield, and not long after made other deeds to Henry Glover and John Smith. He died in 1697, after which his son, Joseph Prindle, was prominent in affairs. The removal of the Hertfordshire people to Milford, followed by the failure of Hawkins to join the colony, proved an almost fatal hindrance to the de- velopment of the town in this direction.
The New Haven policy of allotting land to settlers was generous, not only in the amounts bestowed, but in the lati- tude of choice which was allowed. It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that looseness and carelessness were allowed. The rules were very definite and their enforcement strict to rigidity. An illustration is to be seen in the case of Thomas Fugill, the secretary of the jurisdiction, and a man of high position. He was granted, at his own request, his proportion of twenty-four acres in the Second Division, in clear ground at the foot of West Rock. He undertook in a
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Quinnipiac Lands.
quiet way to increase his amount and staked out fifty-two acres; besides this, he was not particular to keep outside the two-mile line, but took in some two-thirds of an acre of First Division land. Investigation revealed what he had been do- ing, and neither his standing in the community nor his many services to the colony were allowed to work the least pallia- tion of his offence. He was put out of office, excluded from the church, and subjected to such odium that he left the town to seek a place of hiding where his story was unknown. Perhaps this pitiable occurrence had something to do with the punctilious observance of rules and mathematical exact- ness that characterized allotments in all the subsequent divi- sions. No one afterward is known to have tried Fugill's ex- periment.
In 1667, the town of New Haven asked permission of the Connecticut General Assembly "to make a village on the East River," and, in 1670, after the settlement of Walling- ford had been effected, the Court confirmed to the town of Wallingford the territory assigned and set off for that pur- pose. By this action all the northern part of the territory of New Haven, including what is now covered by the two towns of Wallingford and Cheshire, passed under the juris- diction of Wallingford, to be allotted by a system of divi- sions, on a plan similar to the one followed in the original colony.
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