USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Waterbury > The town and city of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the aboriginal period to the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, Volume I > Part 13
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Among the laws of 1640, is the following : "It is Ordered that what prson or p"sons wthin this jurisdiction shall, after September, 1641, drinke any other Tobacco but such as is or shall be planted within these libertyes, shall forfeit for every pound so spent five shillings, except they have license from the Courte."
The first land bestowed upon any individual by the government, was Fisher's Island. It was bestowed under its present name, and
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at his own request, upon John Winthrop, subject to the " public good of the Country and trade of fishing or salt and such like."
The grasp of the government upon the individual in those mat- ters in which he might be supposed to be a law unto himself, must have been extremely irksome. His very apparel was subjected to restraint in material, in cost, and in form; his labor was under the law of hours and his rewards were fixed. No man might give or receive more than the sum determined by the General Court, except he abide the censure of that court-but this law was unpopular and soon repealed. The selling prices for most commodities were given, -and the Indian was to receive less for his corn than the white man might take. Rumors of war floated in. Mr. Ludlow, down at Fair- field, had been told by a friendly sachem that the Indians of Mid- dletown, Narragansett and elsewhere, had a combined plot for des- troying the English. A Long Island Indian revealed the plot to Mr. Eaton, at New Haven, and a Connecticut River Indian told of it. How unfriendly all the Indians were ! Mr. Saltonstall, whose lands lay above Windsor, promised to lend the Country two pieces of ordnance-"Sakers or Minions." These pieces of ordnance undoubtedly came in the forty-ton bark, in 1635, when twenty pas- sengers were " to go plant at Connecticut." The Bay was immed- iately " writt " unto to further the prosecution, or persecution, of the Indians. All fire arms were to be made perfect. A magistrate alone might receive a sachem, if he had but two men with him. For the first time-this was in August of 1642-a guard of forty men was to attend the meeting every Sabbath and lecture-day "complete in their arms," and the members of the court took an oath to keep secret its doings. The Indians were gathering for some purpose, supposed to be warlike, about Tunxis, or present Farmington. The most stringent enactments were issued: The Englishman might not deliver to any Indian, articles that he had contracted for; much less do any work for him in iron or steel, or even buy his venison; sixty " halfe Pickes " were ordered, to be of ten feet length, at least, in the wood, and the watching and warding were set in force with new zeal. A month passed by in quiet, and then ninety coats were ordered to be made defensive against Indian arrows, by being basted with cotton wool. Governor Hopkins's ship had come in; hence, the supply of "cotton wool." Six weeks went by. No harm came from Tunxis or other Indians, and, on the first of December 1642, the Capital Laws of the Colony, twelve in num- ber, were promulgated.
At this date, that " master-piece of woman's wit," Mrs. Hutchin- son, appears to have been dwelling on the river, for Dr. Bray
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Rossiter tries to collect a bill of £240 from her, but accepts £23, by order of Court. So attractive had the Indians become in three months' time to certain of the inhabitants that they took up their abode with them, and the Court found it expedient to enact a penalty for such abiding with the Indians; making it at least three years' imprisonment in the "house of correction," besides fine and corporal punishment; and no man might make any " arrowheads" for Indians under penalty of a ten pound fine, and tribute was demanded from Long Island Indians also.
In 1643 a weekly market was established, to be held every Wed- nesday at Hartford. This was for all manner of commodities, merchandise, and cattle. Highway surveyors were appointed, with liberty to call out every team and person fit for labor one day in the year to work, especially on the ways which were between town and town. The Grand Jury of twelve persons was ordered, and the foundations of the family state were considered. It was declared that "the prosperity and well-being of commonwealths did much depend upon the well government and ordering of particular families " and, as this " could not be expected where the rules of God were neglected in laying the foundation of a family state," it was ordered that no person remaining under the government of parents, masters or guardians "should make or give entertainment to any motion or suit in way of marriage without the knowledge and consent of those to whom they stood in such relation," neither should any third person intermeddle in the matter.
The commissioners of the United Colonies, in session at Boston, in October, 1643, decided that Miantinomo be delivered up to be murdered by his captor, Uncas. The harrowing story rises up again and again, and we can only cry, "Oh, why was this thing permitted ?" Neither timidity nor fear can wholly account for it. Fearing that the Narragansetts would seek to avenge the death of their sachem, it was ordered that eight men be sent to Mohegan to defend Uncas, and that each town prepare itself for defensive war. It was forbidden "to sell for day," or trust any Indian with goods or commodities, and the meeting-house guard was increased to one man from every family in which there was a soldier, who was to carry a "muskett, pystoll, or some peece," with powder and shot, to each meeting. The forfeit was twelve pence for every neglect-and forty pounds were paid to Mr. Fenwick for repairs on the fort at Saybrook. In December, 1643, there was kept a Day of Humiliation. This day seems to have been popular. In January, because of the state of their native Country, it was decided that there should be monthly a day of humiliation, "according to the course of their neighbors at New Haven." Wednesday was the day.
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The inhabitants were ordered to bring in their measures and yards and weights once in the year, to be tried and compared with the standard. Only sealed measures might be used-and only measures of seasoned wood might be sealed-and if any measure was found too little, the " seale was to be cutte out." Persons were forbidden to sell "Wyne and Strong Water " without license from the "p"ticuler Court," or any two magistrates. It had become custom- ary to sell the forbidden articles from vessels on the river, and from houses. In June, 1644, for the benefit of many strangers and pas- sengers (thus incidentally giving us a picture of the growth of inter- course), one sufficient inhabitant in each town was to keep an "Ordi- nary, for provisioning and lodging in comfortable manner; that strangers and passengers might know where to resort." The inhab- itants were to choose the men for this service, and two magistrates were to decide upon the fitness of the men for the work. It was at this time-eight years after the settlement-that the law was enacted requiring parents to certify to the Town Clerk, within three days after the birth of a child, the date of its birth, and every man within three days after his marriage, the date of that marriage. For every default, the penalty was five shillings. The Register was to receive sixpence for recording the day of the marriage and two pence for the day of the birth.
The order concerning trading with the Indians was repealed, and Uncas, "who hath bine a friend to the English," might enter the house of a magistrate or a trader, with twenty men, and his brother with ten; other sachems, if they came not with above four men.
In this year, James Hallet, an unfortunate soul of Windsor, for his theft, was to restore tenfold "for that should be proved against him, and to be branden in the hand, the next Trayening day, at Windsor." Up to this date, about six cases of corporal punishment are to be met with. The stocks at Windsor, and the pillory at Hart- ford, had been made to do duty. There had been one case of brand- ing in the cheek the letter R, and perhaps two cases of whipping "at the cart's tail," at Hartford.
In October, 1644, we find six towns within Connecticut colony. They are Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield, Stratford, Uncoa or Fairfield, and Southampton on Long Island. The latter town had sought admission. We learn the number by the appointment of two men in every town within the jurisdiction to demand of every family what it would give for the maintenance of scholars at Cam- bridge, formerly Newtown. This free-will offering, largely in corn, was, for many years, gathered annually into the place prepared for
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it, and at the convenient time, it, or its value, was sent up to "that Schoole of the Prophets wch now is"-Harvard College.
Before the end of the year 1644, Connecticut had overfilled the markets of Plymouth and Massachusetts Colonies with grain, and a company of exporting merchants seems to have been formed, chief of whom were our enterprising Governor Hopkins and Mr. William Whiting. To them, and to them only, was corn to be sold to go out of the river, for two years, and the prices for wheat, rye, and pease were regulated for them. Cattle and "Swyne" above half a year old, were to be ear-marked or branded and regis- tered in the town book.
From the beginning, the possession of the fortification and lands at the river's mouth had been desired, and in the agreement for their purchase, which was entered into in this year, Mr. Fenwick was to receive two pence per bushel for all grain that should be exported out of the river for ten years, and six pence per hundred for all "biskett " so exported. For every hog that was killed in any of the towns on the river, twelve pence per annum. For every sow or mare that was in the towns, the same sum; and twenty shillings for every hogshead of beaver traded out of the Jurisdiction, "and paste away down the River." The payments were to be in beaver, wampum, wheat, barley or pease, at the most common and indiffer- ent rates. Stringent measures were taken to prevent collusive deal- ings, and the concealing of stock, with penalties annexed. This was a very heavy tax upon the five towns. Hartford had added to her weekly market two fairs in the year, one in May, the other in Sep- tember.
In 1645 we find the colony taking the most vigorous measures "for the enlardgement of the libertyes of the Patent for the Juris- diction," for, in the sale made by Mr. Fenwick, he did not include the jurisdiction, although he promised to secure it, if he could. That he failed, and that he was under some pecuniary obligation to the country because of this failure, may be fairly inferred from a clause in his will, in which he leaves £500 to the country, contingent upon Governor Hopkins's approval. The story of the patent and charter, if it could be clearly told, would be of very great interest.
For five years little Farmington had been a plantation under the name of Tunxis, but on the first of December, 1645, she was given her English name, her bounds were established, and town rights conferred. Saybrook, or "Seabrooke," was added to the towns, making the number eight in 1645. But we may not linger in this interesting search, but must pass quickly over the field covering the period down to the beginning of our own plantation, merely
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mentioning that in 1646 our first "Body of Laws" was to be " drawn forth" by Mr. Ludlow (Fairfield therefore was probably the place where the work was done), that the destruction of a wolf was rewarded with ten shillings, that no man might let any land to the Indians, because "they mixed themselves in their labors with the English," and that the delivery of Miantinomo to Uncas caused the sending forth of forty men in this year, for " warrs," and for the support of Uncas; after which the knapsacks, pouches and powder were gathered up and delivered to Mr. Talcott.
Whatever the formula may have been for the planting of planta- tions, we have not found it. Middletown is the ninth in number, although nearly six years of plantation life passed, as in our own case, before it became a town. It must be mentioned that the business of whale fishing dates back to the year 1647, and that the probable pioneer in that business was Mr. Whiting. The company were to have seven unmolested years to make their fortunes in, but Mr. Whiting died within the first year.
It was in March, at the very close of the year 1647, that Sims- bury was to be purchased by the country, to be disposed of to inhabitants of Windsor, and the purchase was to be repaid by those that should enjoy it.
The first trace of witchcraft that the writer has noticed, appears in December of 1648, when the "Jury found a Bill of Inditement" against "Mary Jonson, on her own confession."
New London, in its formative stages, dates back to the sending of men to perpetuate the conquest of the Pequots, directly after the war. In 1648 Mr. John Winthrop was appointed magistrate there. The next year its bounds were laid and a court erected, and the Indians were not to set any traps within the bounds; but hunting and fishing, except upon the Sabbath day, were allowed to them in all the towns at that date. Faire Harbour was the first name chosen by the court for the town, but because it was an excellent harbor and a fit place for future trade, and also the only place that the English had possessed in Connecticut by conquest (and the court added that it was by a very just war upon that great and warlike people, the Pequots), and in memory of London, the new town, "settled upon the fair River of Monhegin in the Pequot country," was called New London.
The earliest mention of Stamford, in Connecticut colony, is in 1649. John Whittmore, late of Stamford, had been killed by the Indians. The court judged it "lawful and according to God in way of revenge of his blood," to make war upon the natives in and about the premises. They consulted with New Haven and ordered forty- five Connecticut men to prepare for the war.
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In November, 1649, East Hampton, on Long Island, was "accepted and entertained " under the government, it being "their importunate desire." Samuel Smith and others of Wethersfield had a ship at that port ready for her first voyage, and desired to freight it with pipe-staves. The 19th of December, 1649, was Thanksgiving day.
In 1650 foreigners were not to retail any goods within the juris- diction, nor were their goods to be retailed by any one. June 11th was Thanksgiving day, and in November of the same year, on a Wednesday, there was another Thanksgiving day. In June of 1650 certain men of Hartford asked leave for a plantation at Norwalk. If the way for such an undertaking "was clear and good," and the number and quality of the men engaged in it were such as might rationally carry on the work to the advantage of the "publique welfare and peace," and the people were willing to look after their own defense and safety, and the divisions of lands were made according to just rules approved by a committee appointed by the court, and the people would pay their just proportion of public charges, this plantation was allowed, and in 1651 it reached town estate.
At this date, 1651, and for several years before, families and small companies of families had been and were living remote from the several towns, and to these solitary dwellers and scattered ham- lets we are able to trace a considerable number of the towns, both early and late, and others, that we cannot follow, doubtless owe their origin directly to some advance dweller in the wilds, who went with or without permission.
In October of 1651, the people were building the great bridge at Hartford, and a day of fasting and humiliation was kept, because of "some diseases or infection," that was among their "neighbors and friends of the Massachusetts."
The beginning of 1653 found the Government greatly interested in the preservation of the people in and about Saybrook, because of the Indians, and apprehensions regarding the Dutch-England and Holland being at war. They were ordered to gather the scat- tered families into the town. The "Corporation in England " sent arms and ammunition for the United Colonies, of which Connecti- cut received to the value of sixty pounds. The Indians near all plantations were compelled to testify their fidelity to the English by delivering up their guns and other arms to the Governor or the Magistrate. They were not to walk in the night, except with a message to the English, and then they were to deliver themselves up to the watch, and were to be shot by the watch, if they did not.
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On the first of March, 1653, Governor Haynes died. In 1654, by order of Parliament, the colony was expected to "demeane itself against the Dutch, as an enemy to the Commonwealth of England." Accordingly, it sequestered in England's name "the Dutch house, the Hope, with all the lands, buildings, and fences thereunto belonging." "Barbados Liquors, commonly called Rum, Kill Devill or the like," had reached the colonies at this time, and the use of them had made sad havoc among the Indians, so that the most pro- hibitory laws possible were enacted. The rapid deterioration of the natives seems to date from the importation of these liquors. Wars and rumors of wars filled the horizon. "Oliver, Lord Protector of England," wrote a letter to the General Court in relation to a pro- posed expedition that stirred the colonists deeply. Uncas himself began to make complaints of unfair treatment from the English, in the taking of his lands. The United Colonies resolved upon war with Ninigret, and forty-five men were called forth to the Niantic country. They were to meet in Hartford and there begin their march. The want of an able interpreter had prevented the conveyance of the knowledge of God to the natives, and duly con- sidering " the glory of God and the everlasting welfare of those poore, lost, naked sonnes of Adam," the Court "wrott " unto Thomas Mynor of Pequot to send his son John to Hartford, that he might be educated to assist the elders to interpret the things of God to them .* And here we meet the very familiar name of Daniel Porter. He was to be allowed and paid out of the public treasury, as a salary for one year, six pounds, and in addition six shillings a jour- ney to each town upon the river, "to exercise his arte of chiur- gerie."
The first mention that is made of the Housatonic River is in 1656, when it is called the Paugasitt River. The jurisdiction rights of Connecticut over the region embraced by this river are not evi- dent to us, and were not to the colony itself, for at the date last given, Stratford requested that their bounds to the northward might be established, and the answer was, that the bounds should be "twelve miles northward by the Paugasitt River," if the juris- diction had the right of its disposal.
In 1656, we make the acquaintance, slight though it be, of our friend William Judd, the eldest of the five Judd brothers who cast their lot in with Waterbury at its beginning. He was in this year made a freeman. We learn, also, that wolf-pits were constructed to
* This lad, John Minor, sent to Hartford from New London, was one of the pioneer settlers of Wood - bury. It was he who was upon the committee for establishing the bounds between Mattatuck and Wood bury in 1680.
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catch wolves, because of the bounty derived from their capture, and that the penalty for stealing a wolf from the pit, to either Indians or English, was ten shillings, or six stripes of whipping, and that no town might entertain a Quaker, Ranter, Adamite, or other noto- rious heretic, above fourteen days, unless the town so choosing to entertain, pay five pounds per week for its safe harboring of them. We rejoice to assure the reader that this law did not arise within the heart, or brain, or at the hands of our Connecticut Colony, but was adopted by the United Colonies at the suggestion of the gov- ernor and magistrates of Massachusetts Colony. From the same source came the law of this year, forbidding the sale of a horse to an Indian, or any boats or "barkes," or any tackling belonging there- unto. It is agreeable to find that Mamanto, probably our good Indian of "Mantoe's House Rocks," twenty-four years later, in 1680, was by special grant of the Court permitted to have a horse, and he was perhaps (with a good degree of probability) employed with his horse as special messenger between Farmington and Mattatuck in that year of our house-building, for the rocks were named for him here, and the natural and artificial marks of his horse were recorded in Farmington .*
In 1656, in the three river towns there were 447 land owners, whose estates were valued at £47,710. Dr. Daniel Porter's "sal- lery" was continued, and a Dutchman, whose name was "Mr." Lawrence Cornelius, was admitted by New London and the General Court an inhabitant of that town, he to have free trade there. Free- men were admitted to the colony by the General Court; inhabitants were admitted to a town by a major vote of the town. The deputies of a town were to give certificates to men desiring to be made free- men, that the candidates were of peaceable and honest conversation, but the court reserved the right to accept or reject them at its pleasure. The qualifications required were, that the candidates should be householders who were one-and-twenty years of age, who had borne office, or who possessed thirty pounds estate. In the end of this year Stephen Hopkins, our first miller, he who built the mill which was here in 1680, was made a freeman. In 1656, also, the troubles in the church at Hartford culminated. Massachusetts min- isters and elders voluntarily proposed to visit that town and counsel the opposing parties. A "synnod " was held.
In May, 1657, sixty-five freemen were added to the list, and the Gunn name appears in the colony in the person of Jasper Gunn, who was freed from training, watching and warding "during his practise of physsicke." He had been in Connecticut earlier, cer-
* See references to Mantow and Momantow on page 30.
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tainly in 1648, and in 1649 he was attending the mill at Hartford, while Thomas Gunn was a juryman still earlier. The Gunn family filled an important place in the life of Waterbury in subsequent years.
Indians at Farmington were troublesome in 1657. A "most hor- rible murder" was committed by them at that place .* Tekomas, Agedowsickt and Wonanntownagun, alias Great James, were to be kept in prison as pledges until the murderers should be brought forth to trial and judgment. The estate of one Indian was sequestered, and the inhabitants of Farmington were to seek out, and bring before the governor, Indians who might be suspected of the crime, while the Indians themselves in and about Farmington were directed to nominate a sachem. It was a serious office to hold, that of an Indian sachem, for the English held the "heathen prince " strictly accountable for all the crimes committed by his tribe; but in this case at Farmington there seems to have been no sachem to bring to account. A fire was also occasioned at the same or nearly the same time, by which certain houses were burned; it is believed that the houses were owned by William Lewis or Francis Browne, or perhaps both. For this fire the Indians of Tunksis Sepus or Farmington, mutually pledged themselves to make an annual payment to the court for seven years of the full sum of eighty fathom of wampum. "Mamanto," (our "Mantow," it is thought), was one of the four Indians who signed this agreement. A committee was appointed to distribute the payments to Lieutenant Lewis and Francis Browne, to make up their loss by fire. This year 1657 comes to us of Waterbury with a thrill of interest, for this is the year in which we have direct and recorded evidence that white men, whose names we know, traversed some portion at least, of our valley; men who a little later were active in preparations for its settlement, and one of whom, John Stanly, lived an honorable and active life in our community until after 1700; the other, John Andrews, died while preparations for settlement were in progress.
The patience of the law-givers must have been greatly tried when Indians who had a grievance met in court, each sachem to plead his own case. The court wearied with their speeches, when on one occasion Uncas and a sachem named Foxon "justi- fied in many words." Great wisdom was required to bestow just verdicts, when present troubles were complicated with old feuds
* In the diary of John Hull, under date of April 23d, in this year, he tells us that this murder was that of an English woman and her maid, and that a little child was sorely wounded, "all within their house," and that the house was fired, "which also fired some other houses or barns ; " that the Indians, being appre- hended, delivered up the murderer, who was most horribly executed.
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