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 44
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In May 1771, the First Society asked the General Assembly for the return of the moneys that had been taken from it, but obtained no redress. In the same year the selectmen were appointed "to go and view and find a convenient place for a Burying Place in the west part of the First society." The site selected was the first place of burial in Middlebury.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES-THE EARLIEST INTIMATION OF AN APPROACHING WAR-A COMMITTEE OF IN- SPECTION-WATERBURY RESOLVES TO ABIDE BY THE ASSOCIATION ENTERED INTO BY CONGRESS- MASSACHUSETTS BOYCOTTS THE IMPORTERS OF BRITISH GOODS-BOSTON RIOTING - THE BOSTON PORT-BILL-WINDHAM'S GIFT OF SHEEP-THIRTEEN GENTLEMEN IN WATERBURY RECEIVE CONTRIBUTIONS FOR BOSTON - WATER- BURY'S MILITARY COMPANIES 1770-1775-POPULATION IN 1774- CHURCHMEN-AN ARMY OF SIX THOUSAND MEN IN APRIL, 1775- WATERBURY SENT 152 SOLDIERS-CAPT. PHINEAS PORTER'S COM- PANY-DISAFFECTION AT NORTHBURY-THE REV. JOHN R. MAR- SHALL-CAPT. BROWN-STEPHEN UPSON-A "RUMPUS" IN WATER- BURY - THE REV. MR. INGLIS- DR. MANSFIELD - THE REV. JAMES SCOVILL-BENJAMIN BALDWIN-BIRTH OF THE NATION AT PHILA- DELPHIA-GENERAL HOWE'S BRITISH FLEET-GENERAL WASHING- TON'S APPEAL FOR CONNECTICUT MILITIA - WATERBURY TROOPS REACH NEW YORK-THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE READ- STATUE OF KING GEORGE OVERTHROWN -MAJOR PHINEAS POR- TER'S ORDERLY BOOK-WATERBURY MEN IN MANY PLACES.
I N May, 1774, the House of Representatives, under solemn and serious conditions, passed eleven resolutions, which, after having been in the Lower House read distinctly three several times and considered, were voted and passed with great unanimity.
In the Ist resolution, his Majesty King George is acknowledged to be the lawful and rightful King of Great Britain, and the duty is admitted of the people of his kingdom, including the Colony of Connecticut, to bear faithful and true allegiance to their king and to defend him in all attempts upon his person, crown or dignity; in the 2d, the colonists laid claim to all the liberties and privileges of natural born subjects, as fully as though they had been born within the realm of England, claiming property in their own estate, and the right to be taxed by their own consent only, given in person or by their representatives, that their liberties or free customs were not to be taken from them, and that they were not to be sentenced or condemned but by the lawful judgment of their peers, all of which they claimed by their charter; in the 3d, that the only lawful repre- sentatives of the freemen were the persons elected by them to serve
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
in the General Assembly; in the 4th, the right to be governed by their General Assembly in the article of taxing and internal police was set forth, with the claim that the same had been enjoyed more than a century under the charter which had neither been forfeited nor surrendered, but had during all the century been constantly recognized by King and Parliament; in the 5th, the Assembly pro- tested against the erection of new Courts of Admiralty vested with powers above and not subject to the common-law courts of the Colony to determine suits relating to duties and forfeitures, as being foreign to the established jurisdiction of the former courts of admiralty in America on the ground that it was "destructive of one of their most darling rights, that of Tryal by Juries," which was held in esteem as one chief excellence of the British consti- tution, and a principal bulwark of English liberty; in the 6th, pro- test was made against the apprehending and carrying persons beyond the sea to be tried for any crime committed within the Colony, or trial by any court constituted by act of Parliament or otherwise within the Colony in a summary way, without a jury; in the 7th, declaration was made that any harbor or port duly consti- tuted and opened could not be shut up and discharged except by an act of the legislature, without subverting the rights, and destroy- ing the property of subjects; in the 8th, the act of Parliament inflicting pains and penalties on the town of Boston by blocking up its harbor was a precedent justly alarming to the colonists and inconsistent with their constitutional rights and liberties; in the 9th, the Colony promised that whenever his Majesty's service should require the aid of her people, most cheerfully to grant its proportion of men and money for the defense, protection and security of the British American dominions; in the roth, it was set forth that according to the extent and circumstances of the American Colonies, there were within them as many loyal, virtu- ous, industrious and well-governed subjects as in any part of the British dominions, that they were as warmly engaged to promote the best good and real glory of the grand whole of the Empire as any subjects within it, and that the colonists looked upon their connection with Great Britain (under God) as the greatest security to the colony, which connection they ardently wished might con- tinue to the latest posterity, declaring that the Constitution of the Colony of Connecticut as understood and practiced upon ever since it existed until the late troubles intervened, was the surest band of union, confidence and mutual prosperity between the mother country and her colonies, and the best foundation on which to build the good of the whole, whether considered in a civil, military or
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WATERBURY IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
mercantile light; in the 11th, acknowledgment was made of the duty owed by the colony, to king, country, themselves and their posterity to maintain, defend and preserve their rights and liber- ties, and to transmit them entire and inviolate to the latest gene- rations, and announcing a fixed, determined and unalterable resolu- tion faithfully to discharge that duty.
When Capt. Jonathan Baldwin, and Joseph Hopkins, Esq., unflinchingly declared their unbounded patriotism by subscribing in behalf of Waterbury to the resolutions, of which the above is a mere outline, they had been twelve times deputies to the General Assembly.
The earliest intimation of an approaching war to be found in our record appears Nov. 17, 1774, when a meeting was warned to take action on the "IIth Article of the Association of the General Congress." The above "Article" recommended that every town should appoint a committee whose business it should be attentively to observe the conduct of all persons touching that Association of the General Congress, and if any one was found inimical to it the case was to be published in the Gazette-"to the end that all such foes to the rights of British America might be publicly known and universally contemned as the enemies of American lib- erty." Thereafter, all dealings with such persons were to be broken off. The town at once appointed its Committee of Inspection. The men chosen on this important occasion were Joseph Hop- kins, Dr. Ebenezer Beardsley, Deacon Andrew Bronson, and James Bronson from the First society; Capt. John Welton from the Church of England in the First society; Capt. Gideon Hotchkiss and John Lewis from Salem; Deacon Timothy Judd, Capt. Benjamin Richards (who kept a tavern) and Stephen Matthews from West- bury; Dr. Roger Conant, Jesse Curtis (one of seventeen Curtis men) and Nathaniel Barnes from Northbury; and Josiah Rogers from Farmingbury.
The people in town meeting assembled, agreed and resolved faithfully to adhere to, and strictly to abide by the association entered into by said Congress-and the above committee were to see the same carried into execution in every article thereof. The town clerk was instructed to get a copy of the doings of the Con- gress, well bound, at the cost of the town, and lodge it in his office, there to remain among the records of the town for the use of future generations. If it should be decided to hold a County congress, the committee already appointed was to choose two out of their number to attend such congress. Thus Waterbury valiantly pledged herself, and entered with no uncertain voice into the dark struggle.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
Dec. 22, 1774, a second meeting was held, at which an order was given for a new and larger building in which to store the Town stock, and to increase the stock to double the amount hitherto held. This increase was in response to a colonial order and must have equalled 300 pounds of powder, 1200 pounds of bullets, and 1800 flints to meet the requirements at that date.
Notwithstanding the absence of written evidence, we may not for a moment believe that the war did not begin in Waterbury in 1770, as well as elsewhere. Nearly all the maritime towns on the continent could not, at that date, have entered into an agreement not to import British goods, a few necessary articles excepted, until the Act of Parliament imposing certain duties on tea, glass, paper, painters' colors, oil and other articles, was repealed; the Massachu- setts towns could not have been "boycotting" in 1770 in the most fundamental manner the merchants who imported British goods, neither buying themselves, nor suffering any one acting for them to buy, and saying : "Neither will we buy of those that shall buy or exchange any articles of Goods with them," and voting : "That to the End the Generations which are yet unborn may know who they were that laughed at the Distresses and Calamities of this people, and instead of striving to save their Country when in imminent Danger, did strive to render ineffectual a virtuous and commendable Plan," and ordering that "the names of the Importers should be annually read in Town meeting "-could these things have been, and this remote town felt no thrill of patriotism? Are we to suppose that the story of Griffin's wharf; the cargoes of the brig Beaver, the ships Eleanor and Dartmouth; the meeting in Faneuil Hall to determine ways and means of getting rid of the cargoes of the three obnoxious Indiamen; the adjournment to the South Church; Josiah Quincy's speech; Governor Hutchinson's refusal to send away the ships; the return of the committee about sundown to the church with the report of his refusal; the rush of the sixty-five men to the harbor, the dock, the ships, the tea-that all this rioting on the 16th day of December, 1773, in the face of an English fleet and English soldiers in the castle, had not been told and borne fruit that fell upon some luckless trader in forbidden luxuries in Waterbury before 1774?
The Boston Port bill went into operation the first day of June, 1774. By its terms no person was permitted to land anything at Boston, or at Charlestown. In Boston harbor on Noddle's, Hog, Snake, Deer, Apple, Bird and Spectacle islands were many sheep and cattle, likewise hay and wood, all of which the inhabitants of Boston needed for daily use-and the Port bill denied them. It was
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WATERBURY IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
a desperate situation-the neck of Charlestown reached out to the north for food and help, and the neck of Boston pleaded with the south for assistance, and by the twenty-fourth day of June the cry had reached Windham, Connecticut. On that day nine gentlemen of that town met at their meeting-house door to go forth and gather food in answer to that cry. In three days they collected 257 sheep which were driven to Roxbury, there to await an opportu- nity to get them into Boston. A letter accompanied the gift, in which letter the givers begged the men of Boston to suffer and be strong remembering what had been done for the country by its founders, and closing with the words : "We know you suffer, and feel for you. As a testimony of our commiseration for your misfortunes, we have procured a small flock of sheep, which at this season are not so good as we could wish, but are the best we had. This small present, gen- tlemen, we beg you would accept and apply to the relief of those honest, industrious poor, who are most oppressed by the late oppressive acts."
It was November 22, 1774, that in Waterbury a committee of thirteen men was appointed to receive donations contributed towards the relief of the poor in Boston. Col. Jonathan Baldwin (this was a few days after he received his commission as lieutenant-colonel of the roth regiment of militia) and Joseph Hopkins of the meeting house, Captain John Welton, Esqr., and Stephen Welton of the Church of England received for the centre-James Porter for the Hop Swamp region-Captain Samuel Hikcox and Timothy Judd, Esq., for Westbury-Stephen Seymour, Randal Evans and David Smith for Northbury-Josiah Rogers for Farmingbury-Samuel Lewis, Esq., and John Hopkins for Salem. We are denied the pleasure of knowing what was sent to Boston from Waterbury as the result of the ingathering of the above gentlemen.
In order to obtain a glimpse of Waterbury's position in the militia of the colony at the beginning of the war we must review her military record for a few years.
In 1770 Waterbury's military officers and companies were: In the First society, three companies-in Westbury, two (called the East and the West company)-in Northbury, two-in Farmingbury one - making eight military companies in the township. The officers of the first of the three companies in the First society were Capt. Ezra Bronson, Lieut. Ashbel Porter, Ens. Stephen Miles-of the second, Capt. Abraham Hikcox, Lieut. Hezekiah Brown, Ens. Joseph Warner-of the third, Capt. John Lewis, Lieut. Samuel Porter, Ens. Amos Osborn. Of the West company in Westbury the officers were Capt. Abel Woodward, Lieut. Peter Welton, Ens.
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
Thomas Cole. The other Westbury company-having been the second in the township in the date of its formation, continued to be called the Second Waterbury company-its officers in 1770 were Capt. Samuel Hikcox, Lieut. Richard Seymour, Ens. Samuel Brown. In Northbury, the First company was commanded by Capt. Randal Evans, Lieut. Bartholomew Pond-the Second company's officers were Capt. David Blakesly, Lieut. Eliphalet Hartshorn, Ens. Jude Blakesly. Of the "newly erected company in the winter parish of Waterbury, so called," or Farmingbury, Josiah Rogers was lieu- tenant and John Alcock ensign. In 1771, Thomas Cole was captain and Benjamin Richards lieutenant of the West company in West- bury. Samuel Curtis was lieutenant, Nathaniel Barnes, ensign in the First company of Northbury. In 1772, Phineas Porter was ensign in the First company of Waterbury. Samuel Brown was lieutenant, Michael Dayton, ensign in the Second company. Samuel Porter was captain, Thomas Kincaid, lieutenant, in the Third company. In 1773, no changes were made. In 1774, all the companies of Waterbury belonged in the 10th regiment, of which Jonathan Baldwin was lieutenant-colonel (in the room of Elisha Hall gone to Great Britain). In October of that year the First com- pany of Waterbury, Capt. Phineas Porter, Lieut. Reuben Blakslee, Ens. Isaac Bronson, Jr., became the 2d company of that regiment. The Second Waterbury company, Capt. Hezekiah Brown, Lieut. Isaac Benham, Ens. Ephraim Warner (all Church of England men), became the 12th company. A Northbury company, Capt. Michael Dayton, Lieut. Stephen Matthews, Ens. Thomas Fenn, became the 7th company; a second Northbury company, Capt. Nathaniel Barnes, Lieut. Lazarus Ives, Ens. James Warner became the 10th company; a third Northbury company, Capt. Benjamin Richards, Ens. Nathaniel Edwards, became the 13th company, and a fourth Northbury company appears-Capt. Amos Bronson, Ens. Samuel Scovill (both of the Church of England), forming the 14th company.
In March, 1775, Moses Foot of the Northbury parish, with other inhabitants, informed the Assembly that they had with great care and expense applied themselves to the use of arms and the art of war, and prayed to be constituted a military company. In April, 1775, (the next month), Joseph Garnsey of the Westbury parish appeared with the same request. The Assembly made answer by commissioning Capt. Jesse Curtiss, Lieut. Moses Foot, Ens. Roger Conant, officers of the Northbury company, which became the 18th company ; and by commissioning Capt. Joseph Garnsey, Lieut. Jonathan Roberts, Ens. Benjamin Richards officers of the Westbury company, which became the 19th company. At the same time
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WATERBURY IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
Capt. John Lewis, Lieut. Ira Bebee, Ens. Israel Terril, of Salem parish, were commissioned officers over that company, which became the 15th company-all in the 10th regiment.
According to the census of Connecticut colony in 1774 Water- bury had 3526 inhabitants. There were 1228 children under ten years, 609 girls, 619 boys-807 young persons between ten and twenty, of whom 427 were males, 380 females; of this number nine- teen young women were married, and five young men-of 1407 between twenty and seventy, 700 were men, 707 women; of this number 132 men and 138 women were unmarried-21 women and 6 men were over seventy and unmarried-there were 34 negroes, 13 under twenty. Of Indians, but 4 remained, 3 under twenty-one, a woman over twenty.
We can add that Waterbury's tax-paying population in 1774 consisted of about 750 persons-a very few of whom were women. These were scattered through the ancient town in the following manner: 221 belonged at the centre, 212 in present Watertown, 181 in present Plymouth and Thomaston, 46 in present Wolcott, and 91 in present Naugatuck, including the settlers in present Prospect. The Middlebury settlers were included in Waterbury centre. These were again divided by their church relations in the following manner: Of the First society's 221 tax-payers, 140 were numbered as First-society men, 79 as Church of England men. In Watertown, Mr. Trumbull's people of the Established Church were 165, Church of England, 47. In Plymouth, 144 went to Mr. Storrs' meeting house, 37 to the English Church. In the Salem or Naugatuck parish, 82 were meeting-house people, 9 were churchmen. In Farmingbury society or Wolcott, 38 belonged to the Established Church, 8 to the Church of England. Taking the township as a whole, we find 571 men paying taxes who belonged to the Estab- lished Church, and 180 to the Church of England, or, about one man in four whose loyalty to King George was anchored within the deep waters of his more or less religious nature. The temptations which the churchmen experienced to ignore many things that the non- churchmen felt to be treasonable in their very nature, are clearly seen to-day. More earnest men were probably never held to duty on the earth, then these whigs and tories-men that were grown out of the same conditions of life and habit, men whose ancestors side by side had lived and died. The story, although it has been breathed from lip to lip for more than a century, and dropped in innumer- able words from a thousand pens, will forever remain untold.
It is difficult to make an estimate for the young men of the town who were old enough for military duty, but not for tax-paying, but,
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
including all available material, we think there may have been not far from one thousand men in the township. It is not proposed to follow the militia companies through the war, but a list has been made of the men who joined the forces for campaign purposes, and of certain of the officers who served on the field, by which we are able to show that Waterbury's place is very near, if not at the head of the line of towns, and that her number of men is in full pro- portion to her officers-whereas it has disparagingly been said that her "men were all officers." In January, 1775, there were nine militia companies of 540 men.
In April, 1775, it was ordered that one-fourth part of the militia in the colony should be enlisted, equipped and assembled for the special defense and safety of the colony. The premium was fifty- two shillings and one month's advanced pay. Every man provided his own blanket, knapsack and clothing, and was allowed ten shill- ings for his own "arms, a good bayonet, and cartouch box." The colony required 3000 stand of arms and announced that all that should be made and completed by the first day of July would be purchased by the colony at a reasonable price. Waterbury went forth about this time to the Mad river, where she built a "gun factory " and probably made guns for her country.
An army of 6000 men was raised and divided into six regiments of ten companies each, 100 men to a company. In the Ist regiment, Phineas Porter was captain, Stephen Matthews Ist lieut., Isaac Bronson, Jr., 2d lieut., David Smith, ens. of the 8th company. Jesse Curtiss was 2d lieut. and Nathaniel Edwards,* ens. in the 5th com- pany. James Blakesley was 2d lieut. in the Ist company, and pro- moted to be Ist lieut. in the 9th company. Aaron Foot, "sometimes of Waterbury, sometimes of Litchfield," was 2d lieut. in the 4th company. In the 2d regiment, Ezekiel Scott was commissioned Ist lieut. in April, and within a month was promoted to be captain of the 2d company.
In 1775 Waterbury was the twelfth town in point of wealth in the colony. New Haven, with her £72,515, stood first. Farmington stood second with £71,582. Waterbury had £41,243, less than £5000 more than half the wealth of New Haven or Farmington. The additions have not been estimated. The returns of the number of soldiers sent in from fifty-five of the seventy towns in 1775 are determined in this manner. The poll-tax of a soldier, £18, was abated. Waterbury claimed an abatement on £2736 for 152 men sent to the war. Farmington sent 157 men, New Haven 152-
* The Nathan Edwards of the Colonial Records.
WATERBURY IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
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Farmington (our mother) the most loyal town in the colony ! Her eldest child, Waterbury, second only to that mother of all the towns in the commonwealth in the first year of the war !
Dr. Bronson tells us that Capt. Phineas Porter's company was to be raised in Waterbury; that it was in readiness and about to march late in May, 1775; that its term of service was not to exceed seven months. According to the "Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution," issued from the Adjutant General's Office in Hartford in 1889, the enlistment roll of this company is missing. The names of thirty men belonging to it are given, as discharged from service in the Northern Department-all but four of them in November. The first man on the list is John Woodruff of Mr. Trumble's flock in Westbury. The second man is given as Jonah Hall, who was from Salem parish, and whose perfect name was Jonathan Hall. His name on our tax-list is Jonah Hall. Stephen Hotchkiss of the First church was the third man; Zadock Curtiss of Northbury the fourth.
The 5th company in the same regiment (the Ist) must also have been recruited from Waterbury, if not in Waterbury. Its Ist and 2d lieutenants, Jesse Curtiss and Nathaniel Edwards; its ser- geants, Aaron Matthews and Stephen Scott; its clerk, Eli Curtis; its corporals, Edward Dunbar and Amos Hikcox; its fifer, Giles Dunbar; its drummer, Joel Judd; beside fifty-one of its centinels, or privates, were Waterbury men. Their names are :
Elijah Weed,
Daniel Seymour,
Isaac Pendleton,
Ezekiel Sanford,
John Eggleston,
Israel Williams,
Lyman Curtiss,
Allyn Judd,
Obed Williams,
David Foot,
Amos Matthews,
Bartholomew Williams,
Timothy Pond,
Elisha Parker,
Michael Dayton,
Elisha Street,
Solomon Trumbull,
Luman Luddington,
Josiah Barns,
Isaac Barnes,
Nathaniel Merrils,
Epenetus Buckingham, John Doolittle,
James Fancher,
Titus Fulford,
Josiah Edwards,
Solomon Griggs, Joash Seymour,
Elisha Hicox,
David Foot, Jr.,
Joseph Pribble,
Consider Hicox,
Rufus Farrington (Yar- rington ? )
Samuel Barnes, Archibald Blakeslee,
Joseph Hotchkiss, Daniel Judd,
John Fulford,
Elijah Smith,
Freeman Judd,
James Thomas,
Demas Judd,
Woolsey Scott, Joseph Lewis,
Benjamin Warner,
Thomas Merchant,
Stephen Judd,
Bronson Foot.
Gershom Scott,
Amos Dunbar,
Solomon Way,
The above men served from May to December, 1775, and were at the siege of Boston.
27
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HISTORY OF WATERBURY.
Northbury was somewhat turbulent from the beginning. The earliest signs of disaffection came from that section. John Sutliff, Jr., and other men who were members of the West company in that parish, in April 1775 informed the General Assembly that "the major part of the company, both officers and soldiers were totally disaffected to the general cause of American liberty, and altogether refused to adopt the measures advised by the Continental Congress, but were accustomed to speak and act in direct opposition thereto." Capt. Amos Bronson and Ensign Samuel Scovill were "cashiered and dismissed from their military offices." The colonel of the regi- ment was ordered "to lead the company to the choice of a captain and ensign and other needful officers." In October, "on informa- tion of the state, circumstances and doings" of that company, it was "dissolved," and all persons by law obliged to do military duty were annexed to the companies under the command of Capt. Jesse Curtiss and Capt. Nathaniel Barns.
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