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 22
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In 1678, the boundary committee appointed in 1675, was called upon to report, but failed to do duty, and in October, 1679, was again called upon to report in May 1680; and it was ordered that "no farm be laid out within eight miles of either of those places, until return had been made." In May, 1680, the four men, Wm. Judd, Edward Worcester [Wooster], Lieut. Joseph Judson, and Mr. John Banks, proving still delinquent, a new committee was appointed "to view and measure the distances between Derby, Woodbury and Mattatuck and consider what might be suitable bounds for each plantation."
It is evident that Derby and Mattatuck had become weary with waiting for the court's committee to act, for on the last day of April, 1680, the respective towns had appointed a committee to act in determining a line between the settlements, and had given their agents full power "to make a final issue of the matter before it
190
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
should come to the Court." And so it happened that three days after the appointment of the court's new committee, Derby and Mattatuck appeared, on May 18, 1680, before that tribunal with the following as their agreement concerning Mattatuck's south and Derby's north bound line. Twelve-Mile hill has long been a recog- nized landmark. It was given its name, and the twelve-mile stake was placed upon it, to indicate that Derby's north bound was twelve miles from Milford's north bound. The name and the stake carry the date back to the year 1671, when Derby was not even a planta- tion, but the home of a few settlers who were ambitious to be recognized and owned by the colony. To-day, Twelve-Mile hill is called Andrews hill. It lies to the west of Naugatuck, and has an interesting and eventful history of its own.
The following is the agreement between Derby and Mattatuck that was sanctioned by the court on May 18, 1680 :
" The sowth bounds of Mattatock doe begin at a stake at Derby's Twelve Mile end, and from that stake to extend a west line where Derby and Mattatuck shall meet Woodbury bounds, and from that stake aforesaid at the end of Derby Twelve Miles, to goe wth a straight line to a stone marked wth M on the north side, and D on the south side, lyeing on the west side of Nagatuck or Mattatuck river, and from that stone* to the mouth of Beacon Hill brook where it falls into the Nagatuck or Mattatuck river, and that brook to be the dividing line eastward between Mattatuck and Derby." Thus the first boundary line of the township was estab- lished before town rights were bestowed, and without the interven- tion of the court, and to the evident satisfaction of both parties.
The precedent seemed a good one for Mattatuck and Woodbury to follow. Accordingly, on June 29, 1680, William and Thomas Judd and John Standly, Junior, for Mattatuck-John Minor, Joseph Judson and Israel Curtice for Woodbury, had a meeting and unani- mously agreed upon the following boundary :
"That there be a line run, due east from the westernmost part of the bounds agreed and concluded between Mattatuck and Derby, to Mattatuck river, and so that line to be run from the sayd river two miles and twelve score rodd due west, and then a line runn from the eastermost part of the great pond comonly known by the name Quassapauge, from such a part of the pond as by us allready is agreed on, fowerscore rods due east, and then a straight line from that fourescore rod to the aforesaid west corner between Derby and Mattatuck, and from the aforesaid corner fouerscore rod due east from the pond." The bounds were to run from the given
* It is thought that the marked stone referred to was lost or destroyed about 1849, in the construction of the Naugatuck railroad.
191
THIE TOWNSHIP OF 1686.
points due north to the northward extent of each plantation's bound. May 18, 1681, the General Court "confirmed and rattified the boundaries agreed upon between Mattatuck and Woodbury and granted that Mattatuck plantation should run eight miles north from the town plott;" and also that Mattatuck's bounds on the east should be upon Farmington's bounds. The north bound of Wood- bury was not established until two years later; it was to run eight miles north from the north bounds of Derby.
Lieutenant John Standly and John Norton were "to lay out Mattatuck bounds." That very day, May 19, 1681, our John Standly had been confirmed lieutenant of the "traine band of Farmington," of which organization his father, John Standly, had been for sev- eral years the captain. Accordingly the court gave to him his new title when, a few hours later, they placed him upon the committee to lay out our bounds. What a temptation it must have been to stay in Farmington, with the added glory of being a lieutenant there ! If anything could have won him from allegiance to the new planta- tion, surely this temptation offered by his townsmen, would have accomplished its purpose; but he laid his military title down and became plain John Standly of Mattatuck. On several committees that were made in reference to local matters, he was afterward
called Lieutenant Standly. Although the committee had been appointed in 1681, and had duly attended the commission, the court did not accept and ratify the return. Possibly it awaited the time when the proprietors should have acquired title to the entire terri- tory within its allotted area. In the year 1684, three deeds were obtained from its Indian owners. April 29, 1684, nine Indians, for nine pounds, conveyed a section of land, as an addition to the tract conveyed in 1674. It was on its north side, and extended eight miles north from Mount Taylor. On an east and west line its extent was eight miles. At a point on this eight-mile northern line of the township, Standly and Norton marked a certain tree with their initials. This tree, in time, became lost, and the loss of it led to complications which proved a loss of territory to Waterbury; but we must wait forty years for the coming of that event.
December 2, 1684, ten Indians, for nine pounds, conveyed "one parcel of land at Mattatuck situate on [the] east side of Nagatuck or Mattatuck river, to extend three miles westward from the afore- sayd river-three miles toward Woodbury, butting upon the rock called Mount Tayler; an east line to be run from thence to Farm- ington bounds, [and] a west line from the fore-mentioned rock, this to be the butment north-butting east on Farmington bounds, and from the great rock called the ordinary at the west of Farmington bounds upon a south line to Beacon Hill brook or Milford or New
192
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
Haven bounds, butting south upon Beacon Hill brook and Pauga- suck bounds-west upon Pototuck and Pomeraug. This parcel of land being [and] laying within the township of Mattatuck bounded as afore prescribed."
February 20, 1684, twelve Indians, for six pounds, conveyed twenty parcels of land; nine on the east and eleven on the west side of the Naugatuck river. On the east side, the nine parcels with attractive Indian names lay between the mouth of Beacon Hill brook and Fulling Mill brook (at Union City), while the eleven par- cels on the west side seem to have extended from the first men- tioned brook to Cedar swamp, on the north side of Quassapaug pond. This deed is replete with points of interest. It presents to our notice the very unusual fact that twelve Indians conveyed nine par- cels of land, each parcel bearing its own descriptive name (its sig- nificance unknown to us), and the nine parcels circumscribed in area by two tributaries of the Naugatuck river, which are, possibly, not more than two miles asunder, and this in a region popularly supposed to have contained no "town of Indians." We here pre-
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193
THE TOWNSHIP OF 1686.
sent this unique deed. The reproduction is a little less than one- third of the size of the original.
A timid suggestion may perhaps be allowed to enter here, in view of the above deed and other facts that have come to the notice of the writer. It will be remembered that the small-pox raged so extensively about 1634 that the Indian tribes as far to the westward of the Connecticut river "as could be heard of," were almost depop- ulated by that disease. In view of that fact, we can readily under- stand how once populous "towns of Indians" came to be broken up and deserted. The suggestion is, that the twelve signers of the decd of February, 1684, were the representatives of a tribe whose tribal name was the "Nagantucks," and that it had a "town" at some point between the two brooks; a town which had been given up at a date prior to the conveyance of the lands to the men of Mat- tatuck. In that region there was very early (certainly before Mat- tatuck was settled), a place called "The Deer's Delight." Can one imagine a more fitting deer park than the region lying between the entrance of Beacon Hill brook into the river and present Seymour, or a finer place for an Indian village than the vicinity of that brook at the straits of the river? In 1672, Nagantucks was recognized as a place or locality. It was associated (in the bounds of New Haven or Milford, perhaps both), directly with "the rock called the Beacon, lying upon the upper end of the hill called Beacon Hill, and with the three chestnut trees growing from one root, being on the next hill, called the Reare Hill." We here present the said three
chestnut trees of 1672. They were still growing from one root in 1891. The town charter of New Haven described the north- west corner of that township as marked by the same three chest- nut trees growing from one root, in which patent they are called the Three Sisters. These trees became the boundary corner of the towns of Waterbury, Wal- lingford and New Haven, and also one corner of a bound be- tween Waterbury and Milford. They were sometimes called the Three Brothers. This clump of trees seems never to have been cut, but to have been left to
THE THREE SISTERS, ALIAS THE THREE BROTHERS.
I3
194
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
stand until nature laid it to rest and appointed its heirs. At the present time, three large, ancient looking chestnut trees remain at the place and constitute the corner bounds of Naugatuck, Beth- any and Prospect.
It may be noticed that Mattatuck's north bound was to run "eight miles north from the town plot," which gave to that planta- tion about five miles of wilderness north of the north bound of Woodbury, whose north line was to run eight miles north from the north line of Derby.
Just four days after the men of Mattatuck, in little Connecticut Colony, obtained from the Indians the last of the deeds of 1684, there was sent forth from the "Councill Chamber in Whitehall" to the "Principal Officers and Inhabitants of Connecticut," the announce- ment of the death of King Charles II., which event occurred on that very day; and on the same day the proclamation of his only brother and heir as King James II., was likewise announced to Con- necticut. Directions were sent out, and the form for the same was enclosed, that similar proclamations might be made in the chief towns. All men in office here were to continue in office until the pleasure of the new king should be made known. James II. was duly proclaimed at Hartford, April 19, 1685, about two of the clock, with great solemnity and affection, and then Robert Treat, of Mil- ford, Governor,-he who but two months before was receiving the Indians to witness the marks they signed on Mattatuck's deed-by order of the Council, did address the new King in due form, giving assurance that "his proclamation as King of Great Britain, Ireland and France had been duly made with acclamations of joy and affec- tion, properly accompanied with petitions to the King of Kings for the long life and happy reign of his Majesty." Then, having done his duty by the king, he, the same day, prepared an address, in which he besought his most "Excellent Majestie to grant the benign shines of his favour to the poor Colony of Connecticut in the continuance of the liberties and properties granted by their late sovereign, Charles the Second, of blessed memory, that they might be encouraged in their small beginnings and live under his royal shadow a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and hon- esty." The address closed with due protestation of loyalty, duty and obedience.
But we must turn away from the response of King James II .- from all the arts and wiles of his would-be "Counsellors," and the efforts that were made to dissolve the colonial system-and simply announce that, before Mattatuck became a town, Connecticut colony had every reason to apprehend the loss of its charter. For twenty-
195
THE TOWNSHIP OF 1686.
three years it had rejoiced in its possession and experienced all the blessings of its kingly protection. The men who received it were yet alive. They had in memory the ninth of October, 1662, the day on which it was "publiquely read in audience of ye freemen, at Hartford, and declared to belong to them." They had heard the oath administered to "Mr. Willys, to Captain John Talcott, and to Lieut. John Allyn;" the solemn oath to take into their custody the priceless three sheep-skins, and safely to keep them. To the same men they had seen Governor John Winthrop deliver the "Duplicate of that charter," in 1663. They had paid their full share of corn for that costly luxury; paid it in two-thirds wheat and one-third pease -dry and merchantable. Their persons and carts, their boats and canoes had been hired or pressed into service "to carry and trans- port" the corn from the towns to the vessels that bore the grain to New London. They had felt all the glad elation that came, when from Long Island and from the farthest western bounds, even to the very borders of the Hudson's river, the towns one after another came up, by deputy or petition, to be taken under the protection of that charter. Then the freemen had kept a Thanksgiving, appointed because of the success of their "Honored Governor in obtaining the Charter of his Majestie, their Sovereign," and for the free trade that had been ordered in all places in the colony. Now, a day of public humiliation was appointed, to lament "the sin of their great unreformedness under the uplifting of God's hand against them." In the election sermon it was declared that He had "smitten them in all the labers of their hands, by blastings, mildews, catterpillars, worms, tares, floods and droughts."
In 1686, just as the inhabitants of Mattatuck were waiting for the crown of all their labors-acceptance into the corporation, as a town entitled to send its deputies to the assembly-the priceless charter was in peril.
The freemen of Connecticut were aroused ! Many miles of terri- tory, rich in mystery and replete with possibilities, lay to the north- ward and westward of the settled townships. The charter gave authority to " The Governor and Company of the Colony of Con- necticut " to bestow these lands upon the colonists; but there was no time for the organization and settlement of new towns. The General Assembly resolved to enlarge the River Towns. To Hart- ford and Windsor was given all the region lying between Wood- bury and Mattatuck, and the Massachusetts line on the north; and between Farmington and Simsbury, and the Housatonic river on the west. It gave to other townships other lands. It bestowed hun- dreds of acres upon individual men, for reasons that were not stated of record.
196
HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
To properly equip the little Ship of State to outride the approaching onset, it anchored each town within its jurisdiction fast to the precious charter, by a "pattent " chain. The pattern, after which each chain was to be wrought, was prepared. It was in readiness in court on May 14, 1685; the day on which the towns were ordered to take out, each one, its own little charter. Matta- tuck had never sent a deputy to the Assembly at Hartford in 1685, and therefore, in all probability, did not petition for a charter at the date given in the instrument as May 14, 1685, but merely fol- lowed, when she did petition, the formula that was provided at that time. If the above date be accepted as the true one, then Water- bury and Lyme were the earliest petitioners for charters, and the patent must have been sought by Mattatuck. Mattatuck's last appearance in public, by name, was May 19, 1686, and the date of the granting of Waterbury's charter was the following February.
A glance at a copy of Waterbury's patent of 1686, under the light of the following facts, will convince the observer that it was not a valid charter. The patents, or charters, were "to be signed by the governor, and by the secretary, in the name and by order of the General Court of Connecticut." The month after they were thus signed, it was ordered that they be sent back to Hartford, that they might receive the legal title of "Authority." They were then to be signed by " The Governor and Company of the Colony of Con- necticut." Waterbury's charter of 1686, as copied for Bronson's His- tory, bears the following signature only:
" Pr order of the General court of Connecticut.
JOHN ALLYN, Secret'y."
HOUSE OF CHARLES D. KINGSBURY, IN WHICH THE EARLY RECORDS WERE FOUND.
197
THE TOWNSHIP OF 1686.
We give the charter of that date, accompanied by a view of the lands included within it. The circular map of the township was sketched from the summit of Malmalick, one of the finest of the lofty, round hills, for which the region is noted. It lies south-west of Town Plot. From its summit the entire range of the township can be seen.
WATERBURY'S PATENT OF 1686.
Whereas the Generall Court of Connecticut have formerly Granted unto the inhabitants of Waterbury all those lands within these abutments viz. upon New Haven in part & Milford in part & Derby in part on the south & upon Wood- bury in part & upon the comons in part on the west & upon comon land on the North: & east in part upon Farmington Bounds & in part upon the comons & from the South to the north line extends Thirteen Miles in length & from Farm- ington bounds to Woodbury about nine Miles breadth at the North & somewhat less at the South end, the sayd lands having been by purchase or otherwise law- fully obtayned of the native proprietors. And whereas the proprietor Inhabitants of Waterbury in the colony of Connecticut in Newengland have made application to the Governor & company of the sayd colony of Connecticut assembled in Court the fourteenth of May one Thousand Six Hundred & Eighty-five that they may have a patent for the confirmation of the afoarsayd lands as it is Butted & Bounded afoarsayd unto the present proprietors of the sayd Township of Waterbury which they have for some years past enjoyed without Interruption. Now for more full confirmation of the premises & afoarsayd Tract of land as it is butted and Bounded afoarsayd unto the present proprietors of the Township of Waterbury Know yee that the sayd Govr & company assembled in Generall Court according to the commission granted to them by our late Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second of the blessed Memory in his letters patent bearing date the Three & Twentyeth day of April in the fourteenth year of his Sayd Maties Reigne have given and Granted & by these presents doe give grant rattify & confirm unto Thomas Judd, John Standly, Robert Porter, Edmund Scott, Isaac Brun- son, John Wilton & the rest of the proprieters Inhabitants of the Towne of Water- bury & their heirs & assigns forever & to each of them in such proportion as they have already agreed upon for the division of the Same all that afoarsayd Tract of land as it is butted & Bounded together with all the woods uplands arable lande meadows pastures ponds waters Rivers fishings foulings mines Mineralls Quarries & precious Stones upon and within the sayd Tract of lands with all other profits and commodities thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining & we doe also Grant unto the aforenamed Thomas Judd, John Standly, Robert Porter, Edmund Scott, Isaac Brunson, John Wilton the rest of the prsent proprietors Inhabitants of Waterbury their heirs and assigns forever, that the foresayd Tracts of land shall be forever hereafter deemed reputed & be an Intire Township of it Selfe to have & to hold the sayd Tract of lands & premises with all & Singular their appurtenances together with the priviledges, Immunities & franchises herein given and granted to the sayd Thomas Judd, John Stanly, Robert Porter, Edmund Scott, Isaac Brunson, John Wilton & others the present proprietor Inhabitants of Waterbury their heirs assigns & to the only proper use and behoofe of the sayd Thomas Judd, John Standly, Robert Porter, Edmund Scott, Isaac Brunson, John Wilton & the other proprietors Inhabitants of Waterbury their heirs & assigns forever according to the Tennore of his Maties Manar of East Greenwich in the County Kent in the
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