Founders And Leaders Of Connecticut 1633 1783

' 57-05977

and of Connecticut,
1783 ' '*

57-05977

Perry $5-50
Founders and leaders of
Connecticut, 1633-1783

;ANSAS CITY .MO.PUBLJC LIBRARY

DDD1 Q3t7S13 5

"*

FOUNDERS AND LEADERS

OF

CONNECTICUT

1633-1783

EDITED BY

CHARLES EDWARD PERRY

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
HARTFORD PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL

D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO ATLANTA
DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO LONDON

COPYRIGHT, 1934,
BY CHARLES E. PERRY

No part of the material covered by this
copyright may be reproduced in any form
without written permission of the publisher.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFACE

THIS volume is unique in many respects. It represents
the combined efforts of more than fifty persons, all emi-
nent in one of the fields of history, literature, religion,
medicine, law, government, education, or business. In
practically every instance the writer was chosen because
of his particular interest in, and knowledge of, the charac-
ter whom he portrays. Had not the writers themselves
recognized the need for, and the usefulness of, a volume
such as this, this book would never have been written.
The reader will find in these sketches a vast amount of
information that is freshly presented, much of it original,
and what is most important all of it authentic.

Many of the characters that are herein sketched belong
not alone to Connecticut, but to the nation: Nathan
Hale, Thomas Hooker, Ethan Allen, Roger Sherman,
Oliver Ellsworth, for example. The description of the
settlement of Weathersfield, Vermont, might apply equally
well to scores of other colonial settlements. The masterly
description of colonial Connecticut, by Professor Andrews,
is a veritable compendium of the features of the Connect-
icut in which these characters lived and builded a state.

My original intention was to produce a volume con-
taining only a few of the better-known colonial characters.
As I proceeded, however, I discovered an intense and
widespread desire among teachers of history, English,
and civics, teachers in the public schools, local history
groups, members of historical societies, and students
attending night school classes and extension courses, for
a book of greater scope. Desiring to meet this need,

Iv PREFACE

and recognizing the growing interest in our early leaders
which the approaching three years of tercentenary cele-
brations are already arousing among a large and steadily
increasing number of citizens, I have endeavored to pro-
vide a volume which will appeal to all of the above-named
groups. The history of a nation may often be learned
by reading the lives of its leaders; in the case of Connect-
icut, the lives of its founders and leaders were so closely
identified with its development that it is only by studying
the lives of these men that we may get the true picture
of Connecticut's early history.

The task of selecting the characters whose lives would
constitute the history of the colony during its first century
and a half, of obtaining writers especially qualified and
willing to portray them, and coordinating the work of
all these fifty-two persons, might have proved futile had
it not been for the splendid spirit of cooperation which
was shown by the contributors to this volume. In the
truest sense, whatever merit this work possesses was
given it by them; its faults are attributable to me.

I want to express my obligation to Mr. George S. Godard
and Mr. Albert C. Bates for their valuable criticisms in
the compilation of the list of characters. I want also
to thank Dr. Will D. Howe of Charles Scribner's Sons
for his courtesy in permitting the use of one of the sketches.

I am grateful to the following persons for their never-
failing interest in the progress of my work, and for their
many timely suggestions: Mr. Clement C. Hyde, Mr.
George S. Godard, Reverend Sherrod Soule, Mr. Trent-
well Mason White, and my father, Mr. Lewis F. Perry.

I am particularly indebted to Mr. William Buckley,
of the English Department of the Hartford Public High
School, who read most of the manuscript and made many
valuable suggestions as to style. I wish also to express
my appreciation of the courteous and capable assistance

PREFACE V

given me by Mr. Due, Miss Case, and others of the staff
of the Connecticut State Library.

I would be ungrateful indeed not to acknowledge my in-
debtedness to the following persons who, by their friendly
counsel, their reading of manuscript, or their contribu-
tions of illustrations, have added greatly to whatever
value the book may have: Mr. William B. Goodwin,
Mr. Fred D. Wish, Jr., Mr. Frank B. Gay, Mr. Frederick
E. Norton, Mr. Roger S. Baldwin, Mr. Karl Bishop,
Colonel Robert O. Eaton, and Mr. Jared B. Standish.

CHARLES EDWARD PERRY

Hartford Public High School
Hartford, Connecticut
May, 1934

CONTENTS

PREFACE lii

INTRODUCTION Governor Wilbur L. Cross . 1

COLONIAL CONNECTICUT Charles M. Andrews 5

Part One

FOUNDING THE COLONY, 1633-1663

ADRIAEN BLOCK Arthur Adams 27

ROBERT RICH Harris E. Starr 30

LORD SAYE AND SELE Henry R. Shipman .... 33

GEORGE FENWICK Henry R. Shipman" 37

LION GARDINER James Truslow Adams. . . . . 41

JOHN WINTHROP JR William B. Goodwin 44

THOMAS HOOKER Albert Bushnell Hart 50

WILLIAM GOODWIN Charles A. Goodwin 55

SAMUEL STONE Rockwell Harmon Potter 60

JOHN HAYNES. Arthur Adams 63

ROGER LUDLOW Frank D. Haines 67

JOHN STEELE Irwin Alfred Buell 73

EDWARD HOPKINS ......... .Arthur Adams 76

THE WYLLYS FAMILY ....... George Dudley Seymour .... 80

WILLIAM HOLMES . Daniel Howard 83

JOHN WARHAM Roscoe Nelson 86

JOHN MASON . .Louis P. Benezet 89

UNCAS Howard Bradstreet 95

JOHN DAVENPORT .Arthur N. Sheriff . , 99

THEOPHILUS EATON John Lee Gilson 104

EZEKIEL CHEEVER . .Raymond R. McOrmond . . . 110

viii CONTENTS

Part Two
LEADERS IN A CENTURY OF GROWTH, 1663-1763

WILLIAM LEETE Charles Lewis Biggs 113

SIR EDMUND ANDROS Viola F. Barnes 117

JOSEPH WADSWORTH Albert C. Bates 121

ROBERT TREAT Arthur Adams 124

GERSHOM BULKELEY Walter R. Steiner, M.D. . . . 128

SIR HENRY ASHURST Harris E. Starr 132

ELIHU YALE Hiram Bingham 135

GURDON SALTONSTALL Charles Edward Perry 139

TIMOTHY CUTLER Remsen Brinckerhoff Ogilby 143

JONATHAN EDWARDS Roscoe Nelson 147

ELEAZAR WHEELOCK James Dow McCallum 151

ELISHA WILLIAMS Charles W. Burpee 155

JARED ELIOT Walter R. Steiner, M.D. ... 158

SAMUEL JOHNSON Charles A. Beard 162

ROGER WOLCOTT Daniel Howard 166

THOMAS FITCH Charles Edward Perry 169

JARED INGERSOLL Charles Edward Perry 173

THOMAS GREEN Jams M. Morse 178

ABEL BUELL Irwin Alfred Buell 181

BENJAMIN GALE John F. Fulton, M.D 185

Part Three

ATTAINING INDEPENDENCE AND SETTING UP A NEW
GOVERNMENT, 1763-1783

ISRAEL PUTNAM John A. Gleason 188

THOMAS KNOWLTON Orlando C. Davis 193

NATHAN HALE George Dudley Seymour 200

WILLIAM LEDYARD Louis P. Benezet 206

ETHAN ALLEN Gilbert H. Doane 210

CONTENTS ix

BENEDICT ARNOLD Warren S. Tryon 214

DAVID HUMPHREYS Frank London Humphreys. , 221

ELIPHALET DYER Brownell Gage 226

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON George S. Godard 230

OLIVER WOLCOTT George Matthew Butcher. . . . 235

WILLIAM WILLIAMS Charles Edward Perry 241

ROGER SHERMAN Roger Sherman Baldwin 245

JONATHAN TRUMBULL Nathaniel Norton Batchelder 251

JEREMIAH WADSWORTH Frank Butler Gay 258

SILAS DEANE E. Hart Fenn 262

JOHN TRUMBULL Nathaniel Horton Batchelder 266

SAMUEL ("ANDREW") PETERS. Henry W. Lawrence 270

JEDIDIAH HUNTINGTON Harry demons 274

OLIVER ELLSWORTH William M. Maltbie 278

EZRA STILES Charles W. Burpee 284

WILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON. .George C. Groce, Jr 288

ZEPHANIAH SWIFT George E. Hinman 293

JOHN FITCH William H. Richardson 297

THE HARTFORD WITS Francis Parsons 301

FOUNDING OF A NEW ENG-
LAND TOWN Ernest W. Butterfield, ..... 307

BIBLIOGRAPHY 311

INDEX 313

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND KEYS

THE WAR OFFICE, LEBANON Frontispiece

NORTH FRONT OF THE STATE CAPITOL, HARTFORD . . 25
BOONE'S MANOR, HIGH GARRET IN BOOKING, ESSEX,

ENGLAND 35

JOHN WlNTHROP, THE YOUNGER 45

SAILING OF THE BRAINTREE COMPANY IN THE LYON, 1632 58

DRAWING UP THE FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS 71

THEOPHILUS EATON 105

WADS WORTH HIDING THE CHARTER . 121

THE SALTONSTALL MANSION, BRANFORD 141

THE SONS OF LIBERTY 175

PUTNAM LEAVING THE PLOW 189

THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL 195

NATHAN HALE 201

THE VACANT NICHE IN THE SARATOGA BATTLE MONU-
MENT 219

RETURN FROM YORKTOWN 223

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 237

ROGER SHERMAN 247

SOUTH END OF MEMORIAL HALL, CONNECTICUT STATE

LIBRARY 253

OLIVER ELLSWORTH 279

KEYS

KEY TO "THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL" 194

KEY TO CONNECTICUT SIGNERS, AND THEIR AUTOGRAPHS. 236

INTRODUCTION
HONORABLE WILBUR L. CROSS

Governor of Connecticut

THE aim of the editor of this volume is to tell the people
of Connecticut, young and old, about the founders and
leaders back in colonial days who established settlements
here and built up a civilization differing in many respects
from any other along the Atlantic seaboard. Very appro-
priately he takes as his first date 1633, when a little com-
pany from the Plymouth Colony found their way up the
great winding river and came ashore at a point now called
Windsor; and as his second date 1783, when by the
Treaty of Paris the colonies won their independence, thus
preparing the way for the wonderful achievements of the
next century and a half as the United States of America.

The rdle played by Connecticut through the colonial
period is described by Professor Andrews in an admirable
essay covering the essential characteristics of the Puritan
state which was organized by our forefathers. He ex-
plains the structure of our government and the manner
in which it was conducted, bringing out clearly that, from
the first, Connecticut was really an independent colony,
though recognizing formal allegiance to the British crown.
Generally unmolested, the leaders were permitted to go
their own way. "Connecticut can make the proud
boast/' writes Professor Andrews, "that as an organ-
ized community her people are the only ones who can
look back over three hundred years of independent self-
government/'

1

INTRODUCTION'

Just a hundred years ago, De Tocqueville, a French
political philosopher, visited the United States to study
our institutions. He was particularly impressed by
Connecticut, then shown upon maps as a little yellow
spot. 4 *Ah! gentlemen/' he afterwards exclaimed at a
dinner of Americans celebrating the Fourth of July in
Paris, "dat leetle yellow State you call Connect-de-coot,
is one very great miracle to me." To his surprise he
found, while in Washington, that nine Senators and more
than thirty members of the House of Representatives
had been born in Connect-de-cooL

Beginning with Hooker and Ludlow, Connecticut- had
throughout colonial times a long line of distinguished
patriots, statesmen, governors, judges, lawyers, clergy-
men, and educators. They were trained in public and
private schools famous in their day. They often completed
their education for "church and civil state" at Yale or
at Harvard, the two outstanding colleges in the western
world. Of all the New England colonies, it has been
claimed that Connecticut made the largest contribution
of great men to colonial history; still, all reputations,
except the very greatest, fade with time, until there may
be left little more than a name. Jonathan Edwards lives
because of a religious philosophy now regarded as dread-
ful ; Jonathan Trumbull lives on as Washington's "Brother
Jonathan "; Nathan Hale can never die, because of his
noble character and his dramatic end. Like Chaucer's
young knight slain in the lists, he was at once assured of
lasting fame:

And certainly a man hath most honour
To dyen in his excellence and flour,

Than whan his name appalled is for age;
And all foryetten is his vasallage.

INTRODUCTION 3

In the of this it is clearly the editor's en-

deavor to bring back into life a

oi worthies who laid the foundation of our
of steady habits. The brief sketches let us into the
sonalities of these men and tell us of them

did for his own time and generation. Read In connection
with Professor Andrews' delightful essay, they give us
an historical perspective which at once our minds

and makes us love our State more than ever, because
of the men who In distant times lived, labored, and died
here, leaving for us a rich and varied Inheritance.

COLONIAL CONNECTICUT 1
CHARLES M. ANDREWS

English settlement in America colony

in 1607, and ended with the establishment of thirty or
more before the end of the colonial era. The of

these settlements included the territory along the north
Atlantic coast on the west and the islands in the Carib-
bean Sea. These colonies began as private undertakings,
the furthering of which was the work of incorporated
companies, single proprietors, or groups of proprietors,
who during a century of restlessness and excitement in
England found, in America opportunities for land, trade,
and religious and political freedom. Eventually, as the
result of causes that need not be rehearsed here, nearly
all of these colonies lost their private character, were taken
out of the hands of the companies and proprietors that
controlled them, and were placed under the direct control
of the crown.

Relations between England and Her Colonies. To
bring about a more regular and efficient system of colonial
administration in America, England at the beginning of
the eighteenth century set about the difficult task, which
she never succeeded in completing, of reducing all the
private colonies to a common form that is, of bringing
them immediately under the management of the king
and his advisers in England. Thus before the year 1763,
all but five of the English settlements that were not al-

1 A few passages in this paper are reprinted, with permission, from
two essays by the writer, Connecticut's Place in Colonial History (Yale
University Press, 1924) and a chapter on Connecticut in Our Earliest
Colonial Settlements (New York University Press, 1933).

5

6 CONNECTICUT

ready royal colonies had been transformed and placed
under a royal governor and other royal officials, many of
whom were sent over from England. All these officials
derived their authority either directly or indirectly
from the king, to whom they owed obedience and alle-
giance. In these colonies there was scarcely a man hold-
ing public office who did not look to the king or the royal
governor for his commission and did not exercise his func-
tions in the king's name. All of these colonies Nova
Scotia, New Hampshire, New York, the Jerseys, Vir-
ginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Bermuda, the Bahamas,
and the British possessions in the West Indies were
subject to royal orders, warrants, and instructions, were
required to send their laws to England for confirmation
or disallowance, and were liable at any time to feel the
effects of the royal right to intervene in their affairs. The
rules, according to which these colonies were governed,
were laid down in the many commissions and instruc-
tions issued to the royal governors, which not only deter-
mined their method of administering their offices, but
placed bounds also, in some measure, upon the repre-
sentative assemblies popularly elected under a limited
franchise.

Of the five colonies that never became royal, one was
semi-royal, Massachusetts, two were proprietary, Mary-
land and Pennsylvania, and two were corporate, Connect-
icut and Rhode Island. The last two were minor colonies,
small in size and comparatively insignificant, neither of
which was or ever had been royal or proprietary or had
suffered, except during the brief period of the Andros
administration, any change in its organization or gov-
ernment. Each of them lay very largely beyond the
limits of English knowledge, for neither the Privy Coun-
cil, the Board of Trade, the Treasury, nor the Admiralty
had much information about them, either how their peo-

COLONIAL ?

pie lived, how their on and

acquired a revenue, or how

affairs. Between the mother country and

there was little communication, as far as

and finance went, for the king no to

any of their officials or to concern

legislation, unless clearly contrary to the of

land. Therefore, both Connecticut and

continued to the end the most and

of all the colonies, and the only in America

sessing and exercising complete self-government.

Scattered Nature of the Early Settlements. Connect-
icut, unlike Rhode Island and Massachusetts, agri-
culture her leading industry, and throughout the
period had as little connection with England commer-
cially as she had politically. This isolation was due in
part to the peculiar conformation of the area within which
the colony was placed. Unlike Massachusetts and Rhode
Island, the Connecticut territory was not favorable to
concentration either of people or government. It had a
long coast line and four or five great river valleys, but no
single commodious harbor where commercial activities
could converge, and where contacts could be made with
the outside world. Hence during the colonial period
Connecticut never developed any single center of mer-
cantile and trading interest to compare with that of Bos-
ton and Newport. Her people were widely scattered, as
one after another of the seventy towns, in the years be-
fore the Revolution, were settled by groups of men and
women seeking homes wherever they could find a favor-
able opportunity. Despite the oneness of their political
and ecclesiastical organization and the uniformity of their
religious belief in which they differed fundamentally
from their neighbors in Rhode Island the Connecticut
people always found association and cooperation difficult

8 CONNECTICUT

of attainment, and colony and towns rarely entered Into
combination for the common benefit of the whole. The
inhabitants of the towns were more or less isolated, their
energies were largely centered on their agricultural pur-
suits, and except for local quarrels and disputes largely
of a religious and agrarian nature their lives were
peaceful and undisturbed. There were, it is true, at least
a dozen towns in the colony that were important as ship-
building and commercial communities, sending their
sloops and schooners, laden with various local ventures
and cargoes, down the rivers and out of the harbors into
the Sound, trading with Boston and New York and to
some extent with Philadelphia and the South, and dis-
patching vessels as far as the West Indies. The Connecti-
cut sea-captains trafficked wherever they could find a
market.

Reasons for Early Settlements. The Hooker com-
pany and other emigrants from Massachusetts came to
Connecticut for the material advantages that the river
valley offered and in pursuit of political, not religious,
freedom. Of the latter Hooker had no need. He was
as conservative in matters of church polity, creed, and
discipline as he was liberally inclined in matters of political
organization and government. The Connecticut churches
followed the "New England Way/' established in Massa-
chusetts, with all its most orthodox features, and during
their entire career they adhered, much more consist-
ently than did the churches of Massachusetts, to the
Calvinistic theology and a position of denominational ex-
clusiveness. They contended for the unbounded liberty
of independency and for the perpetuation of a congeries
of local associations, each possessed of the inalienable
right to determine its own creed, sometimes but not
always confined within the limits of the Saybrook Plat-
form of 1708. As Fitz-Greene Halleck said in his well-

COLONIAL CONNECTICUT 9

known poem on Connecticut, a

none kneel save when to pray, nor

then, unless In their own way."

The desire of the leaders of the

Haynes, Ludlow, and others was to free
from the oligarchic methods of the Bay colony,
terized by the limitations upon freemanshlp and the
discretionary powers vested in the magistrates. They
wished to set up a government which Its

not from above but from Mow that Is, from the " In-
habitants " or the "people/* though It Is not
what Hooker and the others intended to

mean. They certainly did not have In mind anything
comparable with the modern idea of democracy, as the
practice adopted during the early years In the history
of the colony unmistakably shows. They wanted self-
government based rather on secular than on religious
requirements, though from the beginning they imposed
a religious qualification upon all admitted Inhabitants
and freemen by the oath of fidelity, which only a Trini-
tarian could take. They were able to do as they pleased
in these respects because they met with no opposition
among the people themselves, and because the colony
was not obliged, as was Massachusetts, to pass through
critical periods of storm and stress, contention and con-
troversy, accompanied by repression, persecution, and
banishment. From the beginning the career of the colony
was undisturbed by untoward events, and except for the
Pequot War and the troubles with the Dutch was neither
spectacular nor exciting. It contains no highly articu-
lated series of historical incidents and is almost entirely
free from those colorful happenings conflicts and dis-
orders that kept some of the other colonies, on the
governmental side, in a more or less constant state of
agitation. The importance of the colony lies rather in

1() CONNECTICUT

the men it created and the ideas and institutions it devel-
than in the more theatrical occurrences that some-
times give variety and vivacity to the life of a community.
There in the wilderness, thousands of miles from England
and widely separated from their fellow Puritans of Boston,
Springfield, and New Haven, this little band of a few
hundred souls, settled in three plantations, Hartford,
Wethersfield, and Windsor, but so closely joined as to
constitute a single people, established a form of political
organization which contained within itself the germ of
a great principle, the principle of self-government.

The Fundamental Orders. Connecticut at the begin-
ning was unhampered by any formal document originat-
ing in the king's chancery or in the councils of a trading
company. Her leaders were free to frame such govern-
ment as they desired and to put into practice such ideas
as seemed to them right. To that end, after nearly
three years of experimentation in looking after them-
selves (1636-1639), they issued through the General
Court a document famous in history as the Fundamental
Orders or Laws of Connecticut. The contents of this
document, which may or may not have been made known
at the time to the people of the towns, consists of a pre-
amble or covenant of agreement to form a government
and eleven orders or laws defining that government, some-
times in specific and sometimes in general terms. There
was little in the document that was distinctly new, so far
as the Connecticut people themselves were concerned, for
nearly all its leading features had been tested during
the earlier experimental period. But in the form that it
took it was new, in that it presented a concise, well-sys-
tematized scheme of government, cast in a constitutional
mold, and covering in simple, well-chosen language the
essentials of a public state or commonwealth. Except
in the case of the General Court itself, the Orders made

COLONIAL CONNECTICUT II

no attempt to the functions of any of the

officials or to determine where lay executive,
trative, and judicial powers, probably of the fact

that all these powers were centered in the of the

Court itself. The men who were for

noteworthy but very Incomplete frame of
were content to leave to later Courts the out of

the system as had been the case with the
colony, where the conditions were much the
the altering and elaborating of these fundamentals of a
public state "laws and orders of general concernment/"
as they were called later. There was nothing in the Funda-
mental Orders, as subsequent events were to show, that
was sacrosanct against the General Court's complete con-
trol over legislation. The governmental foundations of
the Connecticut colony were not laid all at once.

The Fundamental Orders are a constitution or civil
compact in the sense that any body of law that defines
a government has a constitutional character. It is not
a constitution analogous to our federal Constitution or
to our state constitution of today, nor was it ever taken
as a model for any of the constitutions of modern times.
Nevertheless, it is a document of which Connecticut is
deservedly proud, for it represents the first formal attempt,
in the history of this country or of any country, to draft a
frame of popular self-government, free from any power o^er
and outside of the colony itself.

Government under the Charter. Thus while other
colonies were undergoing modifications in their political
status and were one by one being transformed into royal
governments, Connecticut, a colony so small as to be
hardly visible across the water, was experimenting with
a remarkable group of political ideals, chief among which
was the exercising in all parts of her political system an
almost complete control of her own affairs. Though in

12 CONNECTICUT

the Fundamental Orders and other early official documents
her omitted all references to English authority and,

unlike the Pilgrims in their Mayflower Compact, avoided
any expressions of allegiance to England's king, their suc-
cessors could not long maintain this attitude of complete
detachment from the world of their origin.

After 1662, Connecticut became an English colony
and owed the king loyalty and obedience, and this ob-
ligation she never denied. By her own declaration made
in 1723, she was "as subject as any other colony to his
Majesties commands and to the laws provided" there-
in, and was "as solemnly engaged in [their] fidelity
to his Majesty and [had] as true and sincere allegiance
to King George as any of his subjects within his domin-
ions." Nevertheless, to all intents and purposes Connect-
icut was an autonomous state, choosing her own governor,
council, and assembly, appointing her own officials, exer-
cising her own justice, and raising her own revenue, with-
out any interference from the authorities at home. This
attitude toward the mother country was due to her being
governed by shrewd and tactful men, who saw no objec-
tion to obeying the royal commands so long as doing so
did not seriously affect the colony's unity and independ-
ence. At the same time she was able over and over again,
when it was necessary to make good her assertion that
the king and his appointees had no right to interfere in
her affairs, to interpose her charter between the colony
and the crown; and to try to prevent, though at times
unsuccessfully, certain of her people, who were aggrieved
for one reason or another, from appealing to England
for justice and a reversal of the decisions of her courts.

Industries. Connecticut was a poor colony. Money
was scarce and barter widely prevalent. There was not
enough foreign trade to bring in the necessary supply
of hard money, and except for the copper at Newgate

COLONIAL CONNECTICUT 13

and the Iron in the Salisbury hills, had no

mineral resources of her own. in anv-

thing that was useful, and rates and met in

the products of the earth, chiefly and

The lack of available skill, labor, and
facturing and commercial enterprise on a
impossible. As late as 1818 there were no
centers in Connecticut, and even the five towns
incorporated as cities in 1784 Hartford, New Haven,
New London, Norwich, and Middletown still

rural in character, 1 combining agriculture with a
amount of commerce and shipbuilding. There were no
banks, no modern methods of credit, and no way of mass-
ing small stocks so as to make available for industry the
widely scattered savings of a hundred and fifty thousand
or more people who occupied the seventy towns that
made up the colony on the eve of the Revolution. In-
evitably, therefore, diligence and frugality were the golden
rule of the Connecticut farmer, and reduction of taxes
coupled with the maintenance of the credit of the colony
was the desire and aim of every General Assembly.

Agriculture. The agricultural methods of the colony
were primitive and, except as they satisfied hunger, un-
remunerative, and they continued to be primitive and
unremunerative as long as land within the colony could
be obtained on relatively cheap and easy terms. Before
the Revolution Connecticut's population had not begun
to press seriously against the means of subsistence and
the competition of lands outside the colony had not com-
pelled the Connecticut farmer to improve conditions at
home. Farming was on a small scale and the average
husbandman, having harvested a crop sufficient for his
own needs, made little effort to create a surplus for the
purpose of seeking a market either at home or abroad.
There were enterprising men in the river and coast towns,

14 CONNECTICUT

who freighted vessels with livestock, grain, garden prod-
uce, horses, boards and pipestaves, and a small amount
of cider, flax, and hemp, and sent them to New York
or Boston in exchange for manufactured goods, and to
Madeira or the West Indies for wine, sugar, ram, and
molasses; and there was occasionally a town with a mar-
ketable staple, such as Wethersfield with her onions,
which she sold for tea, sugar, coffee, or cash. But these
instances are exceptional.

Roads were few and often impassable and transpor-
tation by oxen was a slow and exhausting ordeal. Travel
was easiest by water, but the rivers, particularly the
Connecticut, were rendered dangerous by freshets, mud
banks, sand bars, and shifting channels, and were navi-
gable only for vessels of light draft. The coast towns were
always hampered by silt blocking the harbors. The
farmer who lived away from the water highways was
necessarily isolated and remote. He saw very little hard
money and was always very careful in spending that
which he had. He was compelled to rely almost entirely
on his own local means of subsistence.

Religion. The Congregational system of church polity
and discipline permeated the colony, and its creed, as
determined by the Saybrook Platform of 1708, was rigidly
Calvinistic. Its practices observation of the Sabbath,
family prayers, church attendance, performance of the
rites of infant baptism, marriage, and burial, and opposi-
tion to divorce were everywhere prevalent. Connect-
icut in colonial times was a Puritan state and was able
to keep herself remarkably free from the influence of
creeds other than her own. Though there were in the
colony a few struggling Anglican churches, and though
Anglican, Baptist, and Quaker were able in the eight-
eenth century to obtain freedom from taxes paid to the
ministers of the orthodox faith, nevertheless dissenters

COLONIAL CONNECTICUT 15

in the colony made almost no the

vailing Calvinistic system. Though an dis-

sentient may have exercised no one

than a member of the Congregational
elected to high office in the colony. As
fourth of Connecticut, used to say, in

nial times scarcely made a dent in the
wall of Congregationalism. Connecticut and

guarded her way of the churches with
mination and carried aloft the torch of Puritanism
after Massachusetts had begun to descend the
path toward Unitarianism, transcendentalism, hetero-
doxy. Probably no other colonists were so of
a single form of church worship or a single body of doc-
trine as were the people of Connecticut before the Great
Awakening of 1740, which threatened the break-up of the
Puritan system. Despite the many religious revivals that
accompanied and followed this movement, Connecticut
continued to remain consistently orthodox for many
years after the Revolution. Dissent from the standing
order did not become widespread till late in the colonial
period and did not win complete recognition at all in
colonial times. The New England Way remained the
established order in colony and state until abrogated as
the official system by the constitution of 1818. Church
and state were closely united, for the clergy played their
part in affairs that were of a strictly prudential character,
and the civil authorities very frequently concerned them-
selves with matters that were distinctly ecclesiastical.

To the men and women of that day religion was a far
more important factor in their daily lives than were agri-
culture, commerce, or even politics, for it had to do not
with their present life but with that which was to come,
and to them their future existence was all that really
mattered. Within the towns and churches the unbounded

16 CONNECTICUT

liberty of independency demanded as its right the free
expression of what a man thought, for the personal views
of the individual or group of individuals, within the bounds
of the political and religious systems laid down for all,
were an outstanding feature of the life of the colony in
colonial days. Upon this rock of individual and group
independence Connecticut was founded, creating thereby
a people prone to controversy and litigation, but a people
also that were trained to work and endure, faithful, self-
denying, and self-controlled, with the fear of God in their
hearts and the judgment day ever before their eyes. They
deemed this world but a time of probation for one that
was better, and construed all the trials of this life as but
chastenings of the flesh and the spirit, designed by God
to prepare them for a happiness that the present world
could not confer.

Isolation and Its Effects. The very isolation of Connect-
icut from the world outside and the isolation of the towns
from each other made for self-reliance, but it also made
for provincialism and an amazing ignorance of what was
happening in other colonies and in the countries beyond
the seas. Connecticut was little touched by events be-
yond her own borders and little affected by the laws,
customs, practices, and principles that were in applica-
tion or in vogue elsewhere. She was the only colony that
did not in some degree follow English common and statute
law. There were those among her leaders particularly
her governors who knew something of what was hap-
pening in England and on the Continent and there were
legally minded men, acting as attorneys and practicing
in her courts Edwards, Lord, Pitkin, Kimberley, John
Read, James Fitch, and others who were familiar with
English pleading, legislation, and law books. There were
a few merchants and sea-captains who made distant voy-
ages and widened their experience by contact with other

COLONIAL CONNECTICUT 17

parts of the world. But the as a

its people were little lay

their immediate ken and
to the issues, especially 1763,

statesmen in the larger field.

Suffrage. Political practice as

time went on. At the beginning, when the
Orders were drawn up, the only qualification
the right to take part in the elections was by

the oath of fidelity, which by its wording Jews,

Quakers, and atheists. As there could have
of these in the colony at that time, doubtless no was
felt at throwing open the election of deputies to as
the towns were willing to admit to resident inhabitant-
ship. But admitted inhabitants could not vote for gover-
nor, magistrates, or other public officials, and so were not
entitled to attend, in person or by proxy, the court of
election in May, at which these officials were chosen.
Such attendants had to be "freemen/* and freemen were
those only of the admitted inhabitants whom the General
Court or the magistrates themselves selected on certif-
icate from the town as worthy. Thus the admitted
inhabitants in the towns who chose the deputies them-
selves freemen had to be householders or the adult
male members of households, landowners, and Trinita-
rians; while the members of the colony who chose the
higher officials were only such as might be admitted
freemen by fiat of the General Court or of the magis-
trates authorized to do so. The freemen constituted at
this time probably less than one-third of the adult males
of the colony. This is a curious situation to exist in a
colony that by popular repute is thought to have started
as a " commonwealth-democracy." 1 Later the qualifi-

1 This is the subtitle of Johnston's very misleading little volume on
Connecticut, in the American Commonwealth Series.

18 CONNECTICUT

cations of admitted inhabitants and deputies were made
somewhat more rigid by requiring the possession of a
fixed amount of property, while the number of deputies
was reduced one-half to save expense.

By the charter of 1662, the legal status of the colony
was changed to that of an incorporated trading'company,
in which membership was conferred by act of the com-
pany Itself. But the effect on the distribution of the
franchise was slight. From this time forward until 1818,
the term " freemen" was limited to those who by act of
the General Court were made " free" of the company, that
is, were willing to take an oath of fidelity to the company-
government. Thus the same division between admitted
inhabitants and freemen continued to prevail after 1662, as
before, with the important difference that after 1662 dep-
uties were chosen not by the admitted inhabitants in
town meeting but by the freemen of the towns in meet-
ings of their own. After 1689, many of the important men
of the colony, believing that the resumption of the charter
government in that year was illegal, refused to take the
oath of fidelity and become freemen, so that the numbers
of those actually voting in the eighteenth century was still
further reduced. It has been estimated that between 1662
and 1689 perhaps three-quarters of the adult male popu-
lation of the colony voted in town meetings and perhaps
half voted for the colony officials. After 1689, the pro-
portion of the latter sank at times as low as one in nine.
As no sufficient statistics are available such figures are, of
course, only approximate.

Tenure of Office. Thus in law and practice the gov-
ernment of Connecticut never was of the people, for the
people, and by the people, according to the Lincoln defi-
nition of what constitutes popular government. Connect-
icut was never a democracy in colonial times, nor was
she in fact even popularly governed. Her great glory

COLONIAL CONNECTICUT 19

lies in the fact she was at a!!

in a manner satisfactory to herself. the

spreading branches of a sys-

tem that was aristocratic, paternalistic, and to
clerical or at all events religious, in fact the

elder Winthrop's conviction the best is
the least and of that best the is

the lesser. Politics were controlled by a very few
chiefly by a coterie of individuals from the
and families, and they continued to be so
well on in the nineteenth century, even the
coloring of the colony had faded away the con-
stitution had supplanted the old charter. So
rooted in the popular mind was the habit of accepting dic-
tation, and so fixed was the Idea that government
be in the hands not of the "people" but of most

worthy to wield it, that political contests and protests
were rare in the colony. The tenure of the governor
practically for life and during the eighteenth century
only two in that office, when presented for reelection,
were ever defeated. Of the magistrates there were few
who did not continue on the list year after year, sometimes
falling back as new candidates appeared, but not often
being dropped altogether. Death, senility, or other un-
avoidable cause brought careers to an end, but only in
a few cases was popular disapproval the determining
factor.

These Connecticut leaders did not represent the "peo-
ple," for even the deputies represented the towns rather
than the inhabitants, because after 1662 they were nom-
inated in the freemen's meetings and not in the town
meetings and so were chosen by a very few men. These
leaders represented the elect of the colony, those who
were most qualified in the sight of God and toan to govern
by virtue of their orthodoxy, talents, wealth, and political

20 CONNECTICUT

experience. The deputies were always the best the towns
could furnish. In the naming of the higher officials the
voters exercised very little independence of choice; their
business was to vote, and as a rule to vote to continue
in office those that were already there. Their attitude
was one of acquiescence rather than of active determina-
tion. Connecticut politics were at times influenced by
other than ethical and spiritual considerations, partic-
ularly in the matter of land and Indian claims, but in
the main the effort to keep the same group or section in
power was less for self-gain than to preserve intact the
principles and standards of a Puritan ideal and to maintain
unaltered an attitude of conservatism and steady habits.
The leaders of the colony fought to preserve the charter
as the palladium of their liberties, not only to retain their
political independence, but also to make impossible any
tampering with a system of government that God had
stamped with his approval. They wanted rule by a
democracy as little as they wanted rule by a royal gov-
ernor. What they chiefly wanted was to be let alone to
govern themselves in their own way.

The Governor. The form that the Connecticut gov-
ernment took was the natural expression of those par-
ticular Puritan ideals and principles that took root in
the Connecticut colony. The freemen, through their
deputies from the towns, ran the colony and there was
no centralized leadership either in church or state. The
governor was always an eminently respectable man, of
unimpeachable integrity and uprightness, who was in-
variably chosen from among the oldest and most dis-
tinguished families, generally resident in one of the older
communities. He was honored and trusted by the old
and gazed upon with awe by the young, for he represented
the best of the colony's distinguished men, and was the
embodiment of all that gave the standing order its divinely

COLONIAL CONNECTICUT 21

invested authority. No ungodly or of a
ing faith could possibly have by

body of freemen, in whose lay the

of votes. The governor, though
as the king of England is today, had virtually no
He had no right of veto, no patronage, no on

legislation, no control of pardons. He never led the Assem-
bly or the voters. On the contrary, he was by
them, for they kept careful watch upon the of
such executive functions as were allowed and his
council, and required that all matters of be
submitted to them for deliberation and approval. It
never possible for the governor to have any policy of his
own independent of his council or to do anything more
than carry out the dictates of those whose mouthpiece
he was. No man in the governor's chair, unless we except
Thomas Fitch, who only tried to do what he thought was
right in a difficult situation, ever broke with the traditions
of the order he represented.

The Magistrates. The magistrates, who served in the
double capacity of advisory council to the governor and
upper house of Assembly, formed a collective group of
the same character as the governor, from among whom
the latter was always selected. They were dignified, con-
servative, and in the earlier period inclined to be inquisi-
tive and dictatorial, guardians of Puritan policy and vested
interests, and very buttresses of law and order. Being
few in number they paid a more personal and direct atten-
tion to the affairs and difficulties of the towns, and exer-
cised a great variety of functions executive, military,
financial, and judicial making appointments, investi-
gating complaints, issuing orders, and offering advice.
They drafted proclamations, and in general took charge
of whatever duties the Assembly assigned to them. As
long as Connecticut remained a religious colony, their

22 CONNECTICUT

efforts were directed to the maintenance of things as
they were, and as long as the disintegrating forces within
the colony were weak and without cohesion they had
little difficulty in accomplishing their purpose.

The Genera! Assembly. The lower house of Assembly
may possibly have been somewhat more liberally inclined
than the council or upper house, but generally speaking
it is safe to say that all were cast in the same mold and
exhibited the same habits of mind. The Assembly as a
whole was supreme in the colony and remained supreme
even after the adoption of the constitution of 1818, leading
President Dwight to say that it could do almost anything
except alter the results of an election, and the Supreme
Court of Errors to confirm the time-honored rule that the
Assembly could exercise any powers not specifically denied
by the constitution. During the colonial period the Assem-
bly controlled both the executive and the judiciary and
its powers were undefined except by statutes of its own
making, for the charter contained no details of govern-
ment. It was judge of its own proceedings and guardian
of its own privileges. Though its activities embraced
judicial as well as legislative business and a certain amount
of military supervision, its range of interest was really
very limited. It erected townships, granted land that
lay outside township bounds, inquired into the validity
of Indian purchases, permitted the formation of churches
and the calling of ministers, levied the colony rate and
authorized the expenditure of money for a great variety
of purposes, and made provision for bridges, ferries, and
sewers for the draining of wet lands. It also took a half-
hearted interest in the care of the roads. Some of -these
things, and many others as well, it left to the care of the
local authorities. It met the problems that arose year
after year, but in all that it did, which was in fact not
very much, it presented a picture of men little concerned

COLONIAL 23

with enlightened and constructive It

after the material welfare of the
relating thereto were brought to its It

interference by the king and his ministers,
to check dissent and any form of and

resisted all attempts of the radical to

upon the right of the accepted to the col-

ony.

Conservatism, or " The Land of Steady Habits.** The
very fact that the founders of Connecticut a

religious state in the wilderness, apart the

and uncontaminated by its evils, and that they and
successors tried to govern this state as the home of
designed of God to spend a part of their days in prepa-
ration for the life to come, inevitably led to the
of certain fixed habits of mind that were to persist
after the Puritan system had passed away. The peoplQ
of Connecticut in colonial times contracted conservatism
as a characteristic outlook on life and exhibited an aver-
sion to change that became temperamental and almost
congenital, so deeply ingrained was it in their natures.
These traits became a part of the stuff of which they ware
made and of the inheritance handed on to their successors
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their fear
of England ended with 1783, but their fear of democracy
lasted many years longer, finding expression in the persist-
ence of that state of mind which gave strength to the
Federalist movement in New England, permeated the
proceedings of the Hartford Convention, and underlay
the intense opposition that accompanied the adoption
of the constitution of 1818. Until the outbreak of the
Civil War Connecticut was dominated by her Puritan
heritage of unprogressiveness, and despite the constitu-
tion of 1818, which broke the monopoly of the standing
order and broadened the base of popular control, she

24 CONNECTICUT

advanced with hesitating and often unwilling steps along
the path of material improvement and social welfare.
Though deviating of late in some measure from her tradi-
tional conservative and reactionary policies in matters
of legislation, Connecticut even today bears the marks
of her Puritan past.

Connecticut' s Unique Position among the Colonies.
Connecticut's claim to distinction in American history
rests upon several indisputable facts. In the first place,
as a colony she set before the other colonies a remarkable
example of a political community entirely self-governing
and relatively at peace with itself. Whatever quarrels
took place, and they were not few, were mostly local and
in a state of low visibility when viewed from beyond her
borders. In the second place, she has probably provided
in proportion to her size more men and the ancestors of
men that have played important parts in the affairs of
the nation than any other colony, not excepting Massa-
chusetts or Virginia. In the third place, her colonial
leaders created a government that in the principles upon
which it was based was advanced for the day, in that it
recognized ultimate sovereignty as residing in all or a
part of the people and resting upon an authority derived
from below the inhabitants themselves and not from
above f rom the king and his advisers or even from God.
That is why neither Connecticut nor Rhode Island needed
to make a new constitution, as did the other newly formed
states, in the period during and after the American Revo-
lution. The source of their civil authority was such of the
people as were deemed worthy to exercise it and they had
no royal or proprietary governors to get rid of. The Puri-
tan leaders of Connecticut wanted no experiment with a
new constitutional contrivance; they were satisfied with
that which they had. Under it they had been able to
establish their own kind of government so firmly, and to

COLONIAL CONNECTICUT

25

create within the colony and so a

of contentment and satisfaction as to it to

retain the charter for thirty-five

was secured, and to in the of the

same ruling class until well on in the

NORTH FRONT OF THE STATE CAPITOL, HARTFORD

The statues represent Haynes, Wadsworth, Winthrop, Eaton, Mason,
and Ludlow. The central lunette over the door is the state seal. The otter
four represent scenes in the history of the state.

Conclusion. Connecticut, therefore, stands conspic-
uous as something unique among the English settlements
in the New World a small, isolated agricultural colony,
occupying but a tiny part of the earth's surface, lying
largely outside the main currents, commercial as well
as political, of English and colonial life, independent
of English interference and authority, protected by the
terms of a very liberal charter, and free to enforce, with-

26 CONNECTICUT

out obstruction and without restraint, the ideas that were
working within the minds of her leaders. She offered a
remarkably favorable environment within which to ex-
periment with these ideas. Racially, her territory was
occupied almost entirely by men and women of pure^
English stock. Socially, she had few rich and few poor,
few large estates and few small ones, little class feeling
and no caste distinctions, however much social differences
may have played a part in politics, society, and the eccle-
siastical order. Economically, she enjoyed an equable
distribution of wealth, mainly acquired from farms and
farming, even in the river and coast towns, where com-
merce supplemented the somewhat meagre returns that
accrued from a tilling of the soil. Religiously, she pos-
sessed but one established church, one dominating habit
of religious thought, one prevailing religious purpose in
the hearts of the vast majority of her people, and one
controlling policy that directed her government toward
the maintenance of things as they were. As state followed
colony and the twentieth century followed the eighteenth
and nineteenth in the procession of the years, all these
conditions underwent enormous changes, until the Con-
necticut of today stands before us in all her steadfastness,
material strength, and richness of character. One honor
Connecticut possesses beyond any other state of the
American Union. On April 26, 1936, she will be able to
make the proud boast that as an organized community
her people are the only ones who can look back over three
hundred years of independent self-government.

PART ONE

FOUNDING THE COLONY SECURING
THE CHARTER

1633-1663

ADRIAEN

ARTHUR ADAMS

Professor of English, Trinity , Hartford,

Adriaen Block, the dates of whose birth are

unknown, is of interest to the people of Connecticut be-
cause he was the first white man to 1 explore the Connecti-
cut River from its mouth to Windsor.

Block made a voyage to the West Indies in 1611, and
on his return to Holland, in company with Hendrick Chris-
tiaensen, stopped in the neighborhood of New York
Harbor, but did not enter the Hudson, fearing for the
safety of his heavily laden vessel. The next year a number
of Dutch merchants of Amsterdam, influenced by the re-
ports of Hudson's voyages to believe that a profitable
trade with the natives could be developed, sent Chris-
tiaensen and Block on a voyage to the Hudson River.
They returned to Holland with a favorable report, bring-
ing with them two Indians as specimens of the natives of
the country.

On October 11, 1614, the merchants who had spon-
sored these voyages of Block and Christiaensen secured
from the States General of Holland a monopoly of trade
with the Hudson River region for three years. Even be-
fore receiving the grant of this monopoly, these merchants
had sent out Christiaensen in the Fortune and Block in the
Tiger on a trading expedition. From Manhattan Island
they went in small boats into New Jersey and up the
Hudson as far as Albany, maintaining a friendly inter-
course with the Indians and building up profitable trading
relations.

27

28 CONNECTICUT

By accident, Block's ship was burned, probably near
Albany, but the resourceful sailor built a small yacht out
of the timber he found in the neighborhood and named his
yacht the Onrust (Restless); the first ship built in New
Netherland. In his small craft, some forty-four feet in
length and of about sixteen tons burden, he explored the
shore to the eastward of Manhattan. Sailing through
Hell-Gate, he coasted along the northern shore of Long
Island Sound and entered the Housatonic River. Later he
spoke of the indolent tribe of Indians which he found there.
He entered New Haven Harbor and because of the two
rocks, east and west, called the place Rodeberg (Red Hills).

Passing eastward still, he came to the mouth of a large
river running up northerly into the country. This river
he called the Versche (Fresh) River. De Laet's "New
World," giving an account of Block's exploration, says
that the river "is shallow at its mouth, and lies between
two courses, north by east and west by north, but accord-
ing to conjecture, its general direction is from the north-
northwest. In some places it is very shallow. . . . There
are few inhabitants near the mouth of the river, but at
the distance of fifteen leagues above they become numer-
ous; their nation is called Sequin. From this place the
river stretches, ten leagues, mostly in a northerly direc-
tion. . . . The natives there plant maize, and in the year
1614 they had a village resembling a fort for protection
against the attacks of their enemies. . . . This place is
situated in latitude 41 48'. The river is not navigable
with yachts for more than two leagues farther, as it is very
shallow and has a rocky bottom/' Such is the earliest
description of our noble and beloved Connecticut.

Block entered New London Harbor, noted the Thames
River, and spoke of the Pequots. He crossed the Sound to
Montauk Point and visited the island to which the Dutch
gave his name. He explored Narragansett Bay, named

AORIAEN BUCK 29

Rhode Island (Roode red), Cod, ex-

plored the coast as far north as Nahant. After his
from this trip, he exchanged with

returned to Holland.

The intelligence and care with which he his

explorations and made his notes are evident the

"Figurative Map/' the first detailed of the
coast of New England, which was drawn
supplied by Block. After he left America,
manded a whaling fleet sailing to Spitzbergen in 1615. We
last hear of him as still engaged in this industry in 1624.

ROBERT RICH
HARRIS E. STARR

E4i$r, Tk$ Dictionary of American Biography

Robert Rich, better known as the Earl of Warwick, will
always be remembered in connection with the beginnings
of Connecticut, though he never set foot on its shores,
because from him its earliest charter, the Warwick Patent,
took its name.

He was born in June, 1587, of a family prominent in
England for several generations. His father, Robert,
second Baron Rich, was created Earl of Warwick in 1618;
his mother was Penelope Devereux, whom Sir Philip
Sidney loved and immortalized in his Astrophel and Stella
sonnets; Robert, Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's favorite,
was her brother. With such connections, young Rich's
future was assured. He entered Emmanuel College, Cam-
bridge, in 1603; was made a knight of the Bath at the
coronation of King James that same year; became a
member of the Inner Temple in 1604; and represented
Maldon in Parliament in 1610 and 1614, having in the
interim spent some time in travel. A courtier in his
younger days, he performed in one of Ben Jonson's masques
and took part in royal tournaments.

High-spirited, energetic, and endowed with administra-
tive ability, he soon associated himself with ventures on
the high seas and in remote lands. Under privateering
commissions he fitted out ships which seized valuable
prizes in both the West and East Indies, thus augmenting
his fortunes but involving himself in numerous difficulties.
He also became connected with various colonization enter-

30

31

prises In the Bermudas, in Africa, In
England, and in the of the On No-

vember 3, 1620, he was given a on the of the

New England Company, of which he was the
dent; in 1624 he became a member of the in

land for Virginia, His name in New

colonial history chiefly in connection with the of

patents or charters. These patents so
they were not secret but open to the public docu-
ments conveying to others, from those legally to
grant them, certain specific rights and privileges, War-
wick, as a member of the council of the New
Company, signed early patents to the Plymouth Colony;
through his instrumentality, also, the patent of 1628
secured for the Massachusetts Colony,

His most important connection with the history of
Connecticut arose from the fact that on March 19, 1631,
he issued a patent (by what right is uncertain) conveying to
Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Brooke, and others the land ex-
tending from Narragansett River 120 miles southwestward
along the seacoast, and westward "to the South Sea." In
1639, George Fenwick came from England and took up his
residence at Saybrook as agent of the patentees, replacing
Lion Gardiner at the fort. In the meantime, farther up
the Connecticut River, Thomas Hooker's party and other
settlers from Massachusetts had established communities.
The expected English immigration did not occur, and on
December 5, 1644, Fenwick transferred the fort and its
appurtenances to representatives of these settlers for cer-
tain considerations, promising also, if it came within his
power to convey it, the land from the Narragansett to
Saybrook. Thus the Warwick Patent became the legal
basis for Connecticut's claim to its territory until April 23,
1662, when King Charles II granted the colony a royal
charter.

32 CONNECTICUT

During the reign of Charles I, Warwick was prominent
among those who opposed the king's policies and came to
be regarded by the Puritans as one of their bulwarks,
though he was more a political than an ecclesiastical dis-
senter. He was a sturdy supporter of the Parliamentary
cause during the Civil War, rendering important services,
especially as lord high admiral of the fleet, to which office
he was appointed December 7, 1643. The month before,
Parliament had set up a commission of six lords and twelve
commoners to administer colonial affairs. Appointed its
head, Warwick thus became lord high admiral and gov-
ernor-in-chief of the plantations. In this capacity he and
his associates granted to Roger Williams the patent incor-
porating Providence Plantations, in March, 1644. He took
little part in political affairs during the republic, but under
the Protectorate he was a strong supporter of Cromwell,
bearing the sword of state before him and helping to invest
him in his purple robe at his second inauguration, June
26, 1657. On February 16 of the following year, Warwick's
eventful life came to an end. He had been married three
times and had four sons and three daughters.

LORD SAYE AND
HENRY R. SHIPMAN

Associate Professor of History, Princeton University

William Fiennes, first Viscount Saye and Seie (1SS2~*
1662). Lord Saye and Sele, regarded rattier surprisingly
by his contemporary Clarendon, in the Hisivry qf Ite
Great Rebellion, as perhaps the typical Puritan of the
period before the outbreak of the Civil War in England, is
of interest to students of both English and American
history. Educated at Oxford, he entered the House of
Lords in 1613, to become one of the most prominent of the
anti-Spanish party in Parliament, and an ally for a mo-
ment of the Duke of Buckingham after the failure of the
plan to marry Prince Charles to a Spanish princess. That
alliance secured for him an advance in rank from a barony
to a viscountcy. Nevertheless, he played the part of an
implacable opponent of the king's arbitrary government^
stood firm for the restrictions on royal power embodied in
the Petition of Right, refused to pay forced loans, and was
one of the thirty peers who joined with the majority of
the Commons to carry on the civil war against the king.
During the period of the Commonwealth and Protectorate
he might have been called one of the victorious Croinwel-
lian party, but a somewhat suspicious and unwilling mem-
ber, who refused to sit in Cromwell's House of Lords, and
at the age of seventy-eight, with joy and relief, welcomed
back Charles II to his father's throne. Two years later he
died.

About 1629 he began to take an interest in colonization,
probably through his intimacy with Robert Rich, Earl of

33

34 CONNECTICUT

Warwick, the leading spirit in the group of east country
nobles and squires, friends of London business men, who
formed a veritable clan, "intimately bound together by
ties of blood, marriage, and neighbourhood"; a clan which
acted together in all that concerned colonization on the
one hand and autocratic rule on the other. Warwick,
Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Brooke, John Pym, the Earl of
Clinton, John Hampden of ship money fame, Thomas
Smythe the merchant and company promoter, were among
its members, all of them religiously and politically con-
nected- As president of the Council for New England for
several years after 1628, Warwick was in a position to aid
colonial schemes. These took two forms in Saye's mind;
the planting of a colony on the island of Providence, off
the eastern coast of Nicaragua, and colonies in New Eng-
land in southern Connecticut on land granted in 1631-
1632, by the New England Council, extending forty leagues
west from the Narragansett River, and a "plantation" at
what is now Dover, New Hampshire, bought in 1633 from
Bristol merchants. Saybrook, founded in 1635, was the
result of the second scheme. Unquestionably Lord Saye
intended to emigrate and make it his home, but absorption
in national politics diverted his attention from New Eng-
land. To the disappointment of the settlers, his rights in
New Hampshire were surrendered in 1641; those in Con-
necticut in 1644-1645. Notwithstanding our debt to him,
he never set foot on the soil of America.

It has been the fashion among historical writers to
speak harshly of a constitution for the colony drawn up in
England and dispatched by Saye to the authorities in
Massachusetts with a request for suggestions. They have
regarded the plan of government as an attempt at aristo-
cratic rule over a people who had fled from absolutism.
The facts hardly warrant the conclusion. Suggestions
were made in Boston, but the only important one was a

LORD SAYE AND 35

by the Massachusetts

should be obtainable only a

theocratic idea, but in no way a

Saye's supposedly aristocratic "proposals, or

not, he was to perform one more service for

After the Restoration he emerged from and as

^i

FroM a pk&$ogmpk by Charles A.

BOONE'S MANOR, HIGH GARRET IN BOOKING, ESSEX, ENGLAND

A typical manor house of the early seventeenth century, and the
supposed birthplace of Elder William Goodwin.

Lord Privy Seal, a member of the Privy Council, and of
the council for the colonies, used his good offices and re-
spected position at court to win for John Wintfarop, Jr.,
who was in London to seek it, a most liberal charter the
fundamental laws of 1662.

Lord Saye and Sele's life is bound up with the Puritan
movement, its struggle for England's welfare and liberty
at home and its endeavor to found sanctuaries abroad,
where society could be ordered according to the dictates of

36 CONNECTICUT

religion and justice upon an approved Puritan model.
Clarendon, Ms political opponent, had no interest in sanc-
tuaries, except for Cavaliers, but he knew Saye and has
left us a picture of him as he appeared to an adversary. He
was "a man of closed and reserved nature, of a mean and
narrow fortune, of great parts and of the highest ambition,
but whose ambition would not be satisfied with offices and
preferments, without some condescensions in and altera-
tions in ecclesiastical matters. He had for many years
been the oracle of those who were called Puritans in the
worst sense, and steered all their counsels and designs. He
had always opposed and contradicted all act of State, and
all taxes and impositions, which were not exactly legal.
In a word, he had very great authority with all the dis-
contented, who believed him to be a wise man and of very
useful temper in an age of licence, and one who would still
adhere to the law/' Wise, of a useful temper, and a sup-
porter of the law an epitaph from an enemy to which
Saybrook may point with pride.

GEORGE
HENRY R.

Associate Professor of History,

This Puritan tidier, lawyer, colonist,
tarian should be remembered as having the active

leader and governor of a movement that secured the terri-
tory, now the state of Connecticut, from the Dutch,
for his activity in getting Lieutenant Lion Gardiner to
New England in 1635. For it was the erection by Gardiner
of a fortified house at the mouth of the river that saved
the infant colonies of Windsor, Hartford, Wethersfield,
Guilford, and New Haven from extermination by the
Pequots.

George Fenwick came of a long line of border ancestry,
being descended from Sir Robert Fenwick, of Fenwick in
Yorkshire, and of Fenwick Castle, in Northumberland. He
was called to the bar inj!621-1622, and in 1626 purchased
Brinkburn Priory, Northumberland, which is still owned
by a Fenwick. Through his wife, Alice, daughter of Sir
Edward and Lady Apsley of Thackem in Sussex, he be-
came a member of that Puritan group who were interesting
themselves in colonization in the West Indies and in New
England, and in consequence took an active part in the
establishment of the settlement at the mouth of the Con-
necticut River on behalf of the Lords Proprietors under the
Warwick Patent of 1631. With others of these gentlemen,
in 1635, he signed an agreement with John Winthrop, Jr.,
by which Winthrop contracted to become the first gov-
ernor of the Lords Proprietors* settlement of Connecticut,
on the tract of land granted three years earlier by the Earl

37

38 CONNECTICUT

of Warwick, then treasurer of the Council of New Eng-
land. The intended original extent of this patent was 120
miles along the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut,
and 60 miles inland.

With Reverend Hugh Peter and Reverend John Daven-
port, Fenwick, in Holland, purchased supplies for the fort
to be established under Winthrop at Saybrook. In 1636,
Hugh Peter and Fenwick arrived from Boston at Saybrook
to find Lion Gardiner and his family and servants already
established there. Fenwick returned to England in the
summer and married his first wife, the widow of Sir John
Boteler.

In 1639, accompanied by Lady Fenwick, his son Henry,
his sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, and his kinswoman, Dame
Eleanor Selby , he arrived at New Haven with the Reverend
Henry Whitefield of Guilford, the party traveling in two
ships. They reached Saybrook overland, and Gardiner's
four-year contract being ended, Fenwick became governor
of Saybrook Colony on behalf of the patentees. For
nearly five years, Saybrook thus existed as an independent
colony, awaiting the proposed Puritan settlers who were
never able to leave England on account of the opposition
of Archbishop Laud and Sir Ferdinando Gorges.

In 1643 Fenwick initiated the New England Confedera-
tion of Colonies at Boston and became one of the two com-
missioners from Connecticut (with Edward Hopkins).
Four times Fenwick was elected a magistrate, 1644, 1645,
1647, and 1648, although he was not in the colony in 1647
and 1648.

Eventually, learning that no immigration would take
place except from Massachusetts, Fenwick sold, in Decem-
ber, 1644, the fort and all its appurtenances (but not the
land, 20 X 8 miles on both sides of the river) to the colony
of Connecticut at Hartford. As far as can be figured today,
he received the equivalent of about $50,000 in our money

39

for the price of his location. he the

promise that he would convey to all the on the
river included in the old patent, "if it
his power." In the final to

on and collect his price by ten-year an

export duty on com, biscuit, and on

beaver skins traded in, killed, and

owned.

The year following the transaction his
Fenwick, died in childbirth sometime 23,

and Fenwick returned within a short to to

take his place as a member of Parliament for Morpeth.
He had been elected in 1644, during Ms to fill

the vacancy left by his kinsman, Colonel John Fenwick of
Wallington, killed in the battle of Marston Moor. Like
many other members of Parliament who were
soldiers and who had seen service in Flanders, Fenwick
was excused from sitting, for active duty in the field on
behalf of the Parliamentary forces.

He commanded a regiment of militia in the Second Civil
War, was made governor of Berwick and governor of Leith,
key positions on the Scotch border, and was appointed a
member of the High Court of Justice to try Charles I, but
declined to serve. He took part in Cromwell's invasion of
Scotland in 1650, and cleared his native county of North-
umberland of the Loyalists who had brought the Scotch
into England. In the same year he participated with
Cromwell in the "crowning mercy" of Dtinbar. He be-
came governor of Edinburgh Castle and in the words of a
Scottish historian, the fortress was garrisoned with " Eng-
lish blasphemers under Colonel Fenwick." He later sat
for Berwick in the Protectorate Parliaments of 1654 and
1656.

Cromwell sent Fenwick in February, 1651, to demand
the surrender of Hume Castle, and there occurred an epi-

40 CONNECTICUT

sode which Carlyle, quoting Whitlocke, has made memo-
rable: "The governor answered, 4 I know not Cromwell,
and as for my castle, it is built on a rock/ Whereupon
Colonel Fenwick played upon him a little with the great
guns. But the governor still would not yield; nay, sent a "
letter couched in these singular terms:

'I, William of the Wastle,
Am now in my castle;
And aa the dogs in the town
Sfaanna gar me gang down/

So that there remained nothing but opening the mortars
upon this William of the Wastle, which did gar him gang
down more fool than he went up."

Fenwick died as governor of Berwick Castle, March 15,
1656. In his will he left "500 to the public use of the
country of New England if my very loving friend Edward
Hopkins see fit." Marking Fenwick's grave in the Parish
Church at Berwick is the following epitaph:

"Col. Geo.

Fenwicke of
Brenkburne, Esq.;
Governor of Berwick,
In the year 1652, was
A principal instru-
ment of causing this
Church to be built;
And died on March 15th,

1656.
A good man is a public good."

LION
JAMES TRUSLOW ADAMS

Nothing is known of the family of this
who was to prove so useful to the colonists, he

was born in England in 1599, In 1635 he in of

designing fortifications in the army of the Prince of
in what was then called the Low Countries. While in
Holland he had married a Mary Wilemson of Woerdon
in Rotterdam had become more or less intimate with Rev-
erend Hugh Peter, John Davenport, and others who were
soon to become interested in the planting of colonies in
Connecticut. Indeed, he was persuaded by them to emi-
grate himself, which he did, arriving with his wife in Bos-
ton on November 28, 1635. He and his family had received
free transportation, and in addition he was to receive a
salary of 100 a year for four years, on condition that he
would take charge of designing and building such fortifi-
cations and other defences as the colony might need.

Although the group which had employed him, including
Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Brooke, and Colonel George Fen-
wick, were interested in the colony at Saybrook, Gardiner
was used during his first winter in Massachusetts to build
a new fort for the Puritans in Boston Harbor. As soon as
spring came he and his wife went on to the new colony at
the mouth of the Connecticut River, where he built a fort.

The Massachusetts settlers had greatly angered the
Indians, John Endicott of that colony having played a
prominent part in stirring up the savages in Connecticut.
Gardiner, who thoroughly disapproved of the Puritan
policy in connection with the Indians, wrote Endicott:

41

42 CONNECTICUT

** You come hither to rouse these wasps about my ears and
then you will take wing and flee away/" Gardiner's fears
were all too well founded and in the spring of 1637 his fort
was attacked by the Pequots, although successfully de-
fended by himself and his band. In the succeeding part
of the war Gardiner was authorized, with Mason and
Underbill, to plan the campaign which ended in the great
fight at Mystic on May 26, 1637.

Gardiner had rendered most valuable services to the
Connecticut settlers, but desiring larger lands he bought
from the Indians what is now called "Gardiner's Island/'
which he named the Isle of Wight, and moved his family
over there at the end of his four years' service. His first
two children, a son David (the first English child born in
Connecticut) and a daughter Mary, had been born in
Connecticut, and it may have been in part to provide for
this growing family that he decided to move over to Long
Island, where another daughter was soon 4>orn. His title
to his island was confirmed to him by the Earl of Stirling,
and in 1665 Governor Nichol confirmed it to Gardiner's
son David. Twenty-three years later Governor Dongan
erected the property into a manor with the full legal rights
of an English manor. This manor, which was Gardiner's
Island, is one of the very few which have continued intact
and in the same family down to the present day.

At first Gardiner lived on this island, but in 1649 he
with others bought a tract of some thirty thousand acres,
including the land on which Eastharnpton, L.L, now
stands, moving over to a new house which he had built
there on the early Main Street in 1653, where there are
today to be found three large and attractive houses owned
by his descendants. Living there until his death in 1663,
he was a most important asset to the growing but still
small colony, owing to his influence over the Indians. His
policy, in spite of the Pequot War which was thrust upon

43

him, had a and he had a

friendship with Wyandanch, was a

the savages on Long Island to
across the Sound in Connecticut.

JOHN WINTHROP, THE YOUNGER
WILLIAM B. GOODWIN

Among all the early settlers In the colony of Connecticut,
the most amazing, the most versatile, and the most active
was John Winthrop, the Younger. It is not easy to confine
a description of this man in any short space. As a scholar,
inventor, statesman, and physician, he would at once have
become prominent in any country, even as he did in
America. The son of a famous father, John Winthrop, the
Elder, governor of Massachusetts, he was somewhat over-
shadowed during that part of his life which was spent in
or about Boston and Ipswich.

One of the most salient features about Winthrop is that
he was a tireless and extensive traveler. He made many
trips between Massachusetts and Connecticut, sometimes
overland, sometimes around Cape Cod, and sometimes
overland from Boston to Taunton, thence by boat down
Narragansett Bay and along the Sound. He visited the
Dutch at Manhattan in his father's ship, the Blessing of the
Bay; but it was as a traveler overseas, in more voyages
than any other of our early leaders, that he evidenced his
determination to be helpful both to the mother colony of
Massachusetts and to his adopted Connecticut.

John Winthrop, Jr., was born in Groton, England,
February 12, 1605. He was educated at Dublin Univer-
sity where he studied medicine; he also studied law in
London, and was subsequently admitted as a barrister
of the Inner Temple. He married first his cousin, Martha
Fones, on February 8, 1631, and she came with him to
America in the same year. After her death three years

44

JOHN WINTHROP, THE 45

later, he married Elizabeth the of

the Reverend Hugh Peter, the of the

tan cause In England and one of of

who persuaded Wlnthrop to

JOHN WINTHROP, THE YOUNGER

From a painting by George F. Wright in
Memorial Hall, Connecticut State Library.

governor. (This group was composed of Edward Hop-
kins, John Haynes, Sir Harry Vane, Reverend John
Davenport, Colonel George Fenwick, Lord Saye and Sele,
Robert, Earl of Warwick, the Duke of Manchester, John
Pym, John Hampden, Lord Brooke, Sir Richard Salton-
stall, and Sir John Clotsworthy.) When, on one of his very
numerous journeys to England, Winthrop learned of the.

46 CONNECTICUT

proposed settlement of Connecticut under the Warwick
Patent, he became, by contract with the Lords Proprie-
tors, the first governor in that enterprise, June, 1635, to
June, 1636. Its failure must have been a great disap-
pointment to Winthrop, for in it he saw the hope of a
really great resurrection of the Puritan party in Old Eng-
land, unhampered by the dominance of Stuart kings. In
the back leaves of his father's famous history or diary
are preserved in the handwriting of John Winthrop, Jr.,
the drawings of the great fortified house which he expected
to occupy as governor of Saybrook, and in which Lieu-
tenant Lion Gardiner and Colonel George Fenwick and
his Lady afterward actually lived. The failure of the ex-
pected Puritan migration to Connecticut left Winthrop
free to return to Massachusetts, where he founded Ips-
wich and took up his residence.

One of his really great services to Connecticut, however,
was rendered in connection with the unsuccessful Saybrook
enterprise. It was Winthrop who in the late autumn of
1635 dispatched Lieutenant Simon Willard, a trained
Kentish soldier, to Saybrook to prepare the way for Lion
Gardiner, the engineer, who was to complete the first Eng-
lish fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River. The
Dutch, learning of the coming of the English to fortify the
mouth of the river, had sailed to the river for the purpose
of renewing their little fort, built in 1624, but abandoned
in 1626. Willard and his twenty m$n drove off the Dutch
ships, and by this action saved the infant colony of Con-
necticut from later having to make war on the Dutch as
a matter of self-preservation. It was thus Winthrop's
prompt resourcefulness that enabled the upriver towns
gradually to obtain control of the territory that afterwards
became the state of Connecticut.

In 1646 Winthrop returned to Connecticut, and acting
under authority given by the General Court of Massa-

JOHN WINTHROP, THE 47

chusetts, he Pequot, or In the

spring of 1647 he built himself a and Ms

family there to live. At the he laid to a

large territory west of New London, a

of the present town of Lyme, His was

based on promises that had by the

Proprietors under the Warwick Patent, but the Court did
not allow the claim. He did, however, to

from 10,000 to 12,000 acres of land east and 0!

New London, possibly because the In

the Narragansett country had recorded their
to be joined to him, for the benefit of Ms leadership. In
July, the land was conceded to belong to Connecticut and
in May, 1649, Winthrop and two others were made assist-
ants, with jurisdiction over "all differences among the
inhabitants under the value of forty shillings/* In 1651
Winthrop became a magistrate of the colony of Connecti-
cut, serving as such until his election as governor in 1657.
With the exception of the following year, when he was
chosen deputy governor, Winthrop was annually chosen
governor for the remainder of his life, holding that posi-
tion longer than any other person.

His greatest service to Connecticut was undoubtedly
rendered in 1660-1662, when he obtained from Charles II
a charter which legalized the existing government without
changing its form, confirmed the colony's title to lands it
had purchased from the Indians, and extended its bounda-
ries to the Pacific Ocean. The full significance of Win-
throp's success in securing such a liberal charter can only
be appreciated when it is recalled that it was a time when
other colonies were being obliged to accept restrictions of
their powers. (Wesleyan University now possesses the
great wainscot chair which was made for Winthrop's in-
auguration, and in which he sat when he received
formally on behalf of the people of Connecticut, the

48 CONNECTICUT

longed-for charter which he had personally obtained from
the king.)

The versatile genius of this remarkable man was dis-
played in science and medicine, as well as in government.
The water-power grist mill at New London fortunately
preserved today is an evidence of his immense energy
in attempting to develop our original resources; it was the
first incorporated industry in Connecticut. When Win-
throp first came overland into Connecticut by the Indian
trail from Boston to Hartford, he learned from an Indian
chief of a place near Sturbridge where there was an out-
crop of graphite lead. This deposit he knew to be in
Massachusetts, so from that government he obtained title
to a grant ten miles square, in which he successfully mined
the lead. He also located and worked several copper
mines. About 1641 he went to England to form a com-
pany for the making of iron, being absent for approxi-
mately two years.

As an evidence of his mental activity, he is found to be
one of the first members of the Royal Society in England,
to which he was constantly sending mineral specimens
and before which he once exhibited an invention of a new
form of windmill, apparently seeking to replace the clumsy
Dutch type of mills common on Long Island.

It is, however, as a physician that he has left us the story
of his devotion to the ills to which the flesh was heir in his
day and generation. It is perhaps a far cry from the day
of Hippocrates (460-375 B.C.), the father of medicine, to
the time of John Winthrop, the Younger; yet Winthrop
might, in like manner, be termed the father of medicine
in Connecticut. His advice in medicine was sought far
and wide, necessitating his traveling many miles under
the trying conditions of the times. Such sacrifices en-
deared him to his people. There is yet preserved a list of
over 750 names of individuals whom he attended as a

JOHN WINTHROP, THE 49

healer of the sick. He frequently to for a

supply of the crude medicines of 'his

were a number of prescriptions of his he

tried out first on members of his As far as "

we now can make out, one of them he a

draft he had compounded from the and a

of alga found on the rocks at low tide on the of

his Fisher's Island grant. It must have a

medicine to take; Ms sister pathetically of the

pains it caused her.

John Winthrop's last act in his unceasing work for Con-
necticut was a visit to Boston, as a commissioner to repre-
sent the colony in the Congress of the United Colonies.
There, on the 5th day of April, 1676, he died, after a short
illness. He was buried in the cemetery of King's Chapel,
in the tomb with his father. Here also were later buried
his own two sons, Fitz-John and Wait Still.

In the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society
is still preserved the astonishing total of 50,000 letters,
in five volumes, written to and by various members of the
Winthrop family. When these thousands of letters are
finally published so that " he who runs may read," we shall
know the full story of this amazing John Winthrop, the
Younger, and learn his true value to the infant colony of
Connecticut.

THOMAS HOOKER
ALBERT BUSHNELL HART

of Government Emeritus in Harvard University

**He was bom of parents willing to bestow upon him a
liberal education. His natural temper was cheerful and
courteous, accompanied by a sensible grandeur of mind.
He was born to be considerable." That is what John
Cotton, contemporary and admirer, once wrote of young
Thomas Hooker.

The world is fortunate in the materials available for
knowledge of that emigrant, minister, commonwealth
builder, statesman, author, and early American. Hooker
and his friends left abundant first-hand material for form-
ing a judgment on him. Like most of the learned Puritan
divines, he put on record his religious convictions and his
ideas of the flaws in other people's convictions. Yet he
stands out in the liveliest company of commonwealth
builders, a devoted and beloved guide, friend, and example.

Thomas Hooker was born in a little place called Mar-
field, not far from the present city of Birmingham, Eng-
land, July 7, 1586, two years before the Invincible Armada
was proved to be vincible by the stout ships and coura-
geous seamanship of his countrymen. His youth was the
period of Queen Elizabeth, of Shakespeare, of the Hugue-
nots in France, and of the first attempts at permanent
settlement by the English in America.

Fortunately there was means behind the family sufficient
to send Thomas to that Emmanuel College at Cambridge
from which came so many of the Puritan clergy in New
England. At twenty-two he began to preach a new kind of

50

THOMAS 51

gospel, with such an of

"Our people's pallets so out of yt noe
tents them but of Mr. Hooker's But

bishop Laud put an end to his and he

school for a while in a village the

of his preaching. School children of our will be inter-
ested to know that Thomas Hooker at
"so many truant schollers in God's S^hoole, so
runnagate apprentices from the of
The persecutions of the Puritans continual and
was obliged to flee to Holland, then the bulwark of Prot-
estantism.

With England too hot and Holland too cool for the
lively young Puritan, he returned to England to
passage to the New World where he might join the
"Braintree Company," composed of his followers who had
gone to America under the leadership of William Goodwin
the year before. During his brief sojourn in England
awaiting the departure of the Griffin, Hooker was nearly
captured by agents of the Established Church. He was
saved by the nonchalance of his friend, Samuel Stone, who
stepped to the door with a pipe in his mouth; and when
the officer of the law asked for Hooker, who was only a few
feet away, replied with strict adherence to truth, If it be
he you look for, I saw him about an hour ago at such an
house in the town. You had better hasten thither after
him/'

He arrived in Boston September 4, 1633, and Ive weeks
later was established as the pastor of the church in New-
town the church to which the members of the "Brain-
tree Company " and his other followers belonged. A local
wit remarked that things were going well in the colony,
for of the three famous Puritan ministers in Boston, "did
they not have Stone for building, Cotton for clothing, and
Hooker for fishing?"

52 CONNECTICUT

On October 11, 1633, Hooker was made minister of
what still takes pride in calling itself the " First Church
in Cambridge." Hooker would have been just the kind
of man to be president of the infant college set up on the
bequest of another English Puritan minister, John Har-
vard; but a year before Harvard was founded, Hooker
had entered on the last lap of his pathway in life, the
setting up of the colony of Connecticut. Hooker and his
friends liked to have their own way, and so framed a com-
munity out of the reach of the Massachusetts government.

On May 31, 1636, the Hooker party started from Cam-
bridge through the woods to the wilderness of Connecticut.
Governor Winthrop recorded of Hooker that "his wife
was carried in a horse litter; and they drove one hundred
and sixty cattle and fed of their milk by the way." Other
people soon found the road to Connecticut from Massa-
chusetts, and before long directly from England.

From his arrival in Connecticut in June, 1636, to the end
of his life on July 7, 1647, Hooker was the strongest, most
effective, and most revered member of the colony. He
was at the same time a famous preacher, the first citizen
of the colony, and a statesman of genius. He was the sage,
"the grand old man," the philosopher, the accommodator
of differences, the typical colonial father. The colony and
the people of Connecticut realized his vast service. They
voted him such little privileges as freedom " from Common
worck in the hyway for the three yeares nextt insewing."
After a few years they handed over to him the old meeting-
house, which was too small for a church but almost a man-
sion for the parson. They listened to his counsels and
absorbed his sermons; they voted him "Mr. Hooker's
marke" for his pigs that ran at large. They adopted the
written ballot which he advocated. They called upon him
to bless the expedition which all but extirpated the Pequot
Indians (in which the writer's ancestor, Steven Hart, was

53

a participant). They to a on the

west side of the Connecticut he to

a part interest in a the In

he was to Connecticut what John Winthrop was to
chusetts, and what Roger Williams was to

the grand old man, the trusted leader.

Although he never claimed for himself
than a leading part in the great and
of founding a colony, Hooker's special and
to Connecticut must never be forgotten.

The first was his generalship in the
Massachusetts and the skill with which he and
fathers of the commonwealth carried out their enterprise,
despite powerful opposition in Massachusetts and in
England.

Hooker's second major service was his share in the
Fundamental Orders of 1639. His famous election sermon,
delivered on May 31, 1638, in which he declared that **the
choice of public magistrates belongs unto the people by
God's own allowance," and that "the foundation of au-
thority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people,"
had a powerful effect upon the minds of those who drew
up the Fundamental Orders. The framers of that im-
mortal document (among whom we again find Steven
Hart) .were greatly influenced by Hooker's common sense
and foresight. He abjured Governor Winthrop's objection
to a broad suffrage, viz., that "the best part is always the
least, and of that best part the wisest part is always the
lesser," with the unanswerable reply: "In matters which
concern the common good a general council, chosen by all,
to transact businesses which concern all, I conceive most
suitable to rule and most safe for relief of the whole."

The third outstanding service of Thomas Hooker was
in the framing of the New England Confederation of 1643,
which became a foundation-stone of the Albany Congress

54 CONNECTICUT

of 1754, and of the first and second Continental Congresses
In 1774 and 1775.

Thomas Hooker was a great man, a great thinker, a
great publicist, a great commonwealth builder, and a great
religious orator, but he was not a great writer. In the
recesses of the Harvard College Library are fifteen or more
volumes from his pen. They gave him literary fame in
their time, but they are practically unreadable In this day
and generation because of the contorted logic and theology
and the Incredibly confused style.

This pioneer, this divine, this statesman, this seer, this
modem man, devoted years of his life to abstruse research
into the principles upon which the Almighty carries on the
universe. Hooker's fundamental idea was that God Al-
mighty Is intently watching to "trip up" human beings,
who are condemned to be damned if they cannot find
arguments to controvert the conclusions of the clerical
writers. Hooker, in his formal writings, insisted that most
of mankind were lost souls; yet in his private life as a
leader of a people, as one of the framers of one of the most
successful governments that the world has ever seen, as
the head of a family, as a beloved pastor, as a renowned
preacher, Thomas Hooker Is the most modern man in the
group of commonwealth builders in America.

WILLIAM
CHARLES A. GOODWIN

President, The Wadsworth

At the crossing of the Roman roads to

Colchester and the other to London, the

house of Boone, High Garret in Becking, Essex,
it is believed, William Goodwin was born, in the year
1595. The closely spanned area that includes Boeking,
Braintree, Chelmsford, and Witham, in Essex, and Hert-
ford in Hertfordshire, was a prosperous manufacturing
region devoted largely to the weaving of cloth.

From his matriculation at Oxford in 1621, William
Goodwin returned to Bocking to spend his early man-
hood. He found the atmosphere of active business a
stimulating influence; but far more potent upon his char-
acter were the stirring sermons of a young divine named
Thomas Hooker who began to preach at St. Mary's Church
in Chelmsford. To him the countryside resorted, until
his fame reached the ears of the bishops and he fled to
Holland to save his own ears. Before he left, however,
the men of that region had already commenced the or-
ganization of the church, afterward called "Mr. Hooker's
Company, " or the "Braintree Company/* of which Good-
win was the elder and lay leader, and Mr. Hooker the
pastor. The association thus commenced was destined
to color the lives of both men deeply, and thenceforth
Goodwin's devotion to his brilliant pastor became his
principal interest.

With quiet determination, these solid men disposed
of their estates in the Old World to finance the venture

55

56 CONNECTICUT

f

into the New, and under the leadership of William Good-
win undertook their departure from London. On Sep-
tember 16, 1632, "being the Lord's day/* the Lyon arrived
in Boston Harbor with 123 passengers 50 of them chil-
drenhaving **been twelve weeks aboard, and eight
weeks from the lands end."

They commenced to "sit down at Mt. Woolaston,"
afterwards known as Braintree, but were ordered by the
Court to remove to Newtown. Here, jn the following
year, Hooker and Samuel Stone joined them, thus com-
pleting the congregation. Almost immediately there was
begun in Newtown an agitation to remove from the domina-
tion of the churches already located in the vicinity; there
was not room here for two such men as Cotton and Hooker!
The Braintree Company was an unusual company, com-
posed largely of men of property and consideration in
the Old World. When they now sought a field of their
own wherein to plant the seeds of a new commonwealth,
the prospect of losing so important a colony was not
relished by Massachusetts and was debated long in the
Court of Delegates. At the second term of the first
Assembly in 1634, in a debate on this question of removal,
Governor Winthrop writes: "... Mr. Goodwin, a very
reverend and godly man, . . . having, in heat of argu-
ment, used some unreverend speech to one of the Assist-
ants, and being reproved for the same in the open Court,
did gravely and humbly acknowledge his fault/'

In the autumn of 1635, "about sixty men, women, and
little children went by land toward Connecticut, with
their cows, horses, and swine, and after a tedious and
difficult journey arrived safe there/' It is generally be-
lieved that Goodwin was the leader of this advance party.

The land which is now Hartford was purchased in
1636 by William Goodwin and others, from the local
sachem. In the layout of the new town the lot assigned

WILLIAM 57

to Elder Goodwin was to lot on the

east, which in turn was by the

lot.

William Goodwin was a and

took little part in the political life of the
He acquired large holdings in and on the

side of the Great River, where his
Crow, he engaged in extensive The

in Burnside today are the lineal of the

established by Ckxxiwin. He was in by

the General Court to a committee to "gather up"
preserve for record "those of Gods p r vidence f

w ch have beene remarkable since on
these plantacons." What would we not give today for
the results of these labors!

The strongest influence in William Goodwin's life
undoubtedly his association with Thomas Hooker, and it
was probably his love and admiration for Hooker and Ms
desire to preserve and uphold Hooker's teachings that
led him into' the endless controversies that shadowed Ms
later life. Goodwin and Edward Hopkins were appointed
executors of the will of Hooker, were his literary executors,
and were entrusted with the care of his children. Good-
win was later appointed by Governor Hopkins as one of
four to carry out his own notable educational bequests,

When Stone succeeded Hooker in the pastorate at
Hartford, a conflict with Goodwin was inevitable. Stone
was a man of very different temper from Hooker, having
his own ideas and the will and ability to execute them.
This quarrel was felt through all New England and finally
ended in the withdrawal of Elder Goodwin with a large
body of the most prominent members and officers of the
church to "Hadleigh," in Massachusetts. At some time
during this period William Goodwin married Susanna,
relict of Thomas Hooka:. The bitterness with which

58 CONNECTICUT

the conflict raged at Hartford caused even her name to
be maligned, although afterwards it was most happily
cleared.

William Goodwin displayed in Hadley the same busi-
ness sagacity that he had shown in Hartford. The build-
ing of mills, the buying of land, and the execution and
administration of Hopkins' bequests seem to have occupied
his time. About 1670, infirm in body, he removed to

From a mural painting in the Town Hatt, Braintree, England

SAILING OF THE BRAINTREE COMPANY IN THE Lyon, 1632

The artist's conception of the departure depicts Thomas Hooker bidding
Godspeed to William Goodwin; but Hooker was in Holland at the time.

Farmington, where he lived with his stepson, the Reverend
Samuel Hooker, who wrote to John Winthrop, Jr., at
Hartford on February 25, 1672: "Among many infirme-
ties, accompanying my father Goodwin, it hath pleased
God of late to exercise him with want of sleepe. He much
desireth som thinge that might wte ye blessing of God,
Helpe him to sleepe, and for that end ... he hath en-
treated *** Bearer of ths to waite upon you: by whom
you may please to send such Counsell and Helpe as in
your wisdom shall be thought meet."

WILLIAM 59

William Goodwin in 11, 1873,

survived by his widow and

wife of John Crow. As for the

years of the latter part of William it is

to be hoped that "he accomplisht of

exchanging this life for a better tf as as

had his friend, Governor John Haynes,

SAMUEL STONE
ROCKWELL HARMON POTTER

Minister cf the First Church of Christ, Hartford, Connecticut, 1900-1928

The Reverend Samuel Stone has a notable and honor-
able place In the history of Connecticut because of his
association with Thomas Hooker, first minister of the
Church in Hartford, and because he became Mr. Hooker's
successor as the minister of that church.

Mr. Stone was bom in Hertford in England, and was
baptized in the parish church of that town on July 30,
1602. His early education was in a school attached to
the parish church of his native town where he prepared
for his matriculation at Emmanuel College. At this
college he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1624,
having been influenced there by the same Puritan teach-
ings which many of the leaders of the churches of New
England received at that same college.

He studied divinity under the guidance of the Reverend
Richard Blackerby, a graduate of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, who taught many students of theology at Aspen
in Essex County. In 1630 Mr. Stone was appointed
lecturer in the town of Towcester in Northamptonshire.
Here he achieved some distinction as an expositor of
Puritan teachings, and as a leader in the reform party
among the churches.

It was because of the notable service rendered as a
lecturer at Towcester that Mr. Stone was chosen by the
company which proposed to come to New England under
Thomas Hooker's inspiration and leadership to be "an
assistant under Mr. Hooker with something of a disciple

60

SAMUEL STONE 61

also." So it was that this had in

Newtown in anticipation of the of

and Ms associated disciple, Mr. the

across the Atlantic in the Mr,

arriving in Boston on September 4, 1633* In the
October Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone and rec-

ognized by the church at Newtown as
respectively.

During the sojourn in Newtown to

and during the ministry of Mr. Hooker in
Samuel Stone served as the teacher of the church. The
distinction between the pastor and teacher
was not very clear. It was defined by Richard
in the following terms: "And for the teacher and
the difference between them lyes in this: that is prin-
cipally to attend upon points of Knowledge and Doctrine,
though not without application, and the other to
of practice, though not without Doctrine." Dr. George
L. Walker observes: "It is obvious that the distinction
between these two offices was an obscure one; that each
was likely to be continually taking on the features of
the other. The pastor could not preach much without
dealing with matters of doctrine, and the teacher could
not instruct long without dealing with matters of prac-
tice." A contemporary record gives us a contrasted im-
pression of the two men who served the Hartford Church
as "the grave, godly, judicious Hooker/' and "the rhe-
torical Mr. Stone."

During Mr. Hooker's ministry Mr. Stone's influence
was naturally much less than that of his senior. But it
is a witness of the devotion of the people to him that when
they came to choose a name for the new community on
the banks of the Connecticut, they chose the name of
his birthplace, and the name Hartford, slightly changed
from the Hertford of old England, is a memorial to Samuel

62 CONNECTICUT

Stone. Mr. Stone continued Ms ministry after the death
of Mr. Hooker in 1647, for thirteen years in sole charge
of the church, for it was not until 1660 that an associate
was secured to share the work with him.

He was a man of broad sympathies and sprightly mind.
Some few writings from his hand remain to us, and the
impression made by him upon his contemporaries was
that of a generous, humane spirit who was able to over-
come even the difficulties of a long dissension which shad-
owed his ministry and resulted in the removal of a part
of the church to Hadley, Massachusetts.

He died on July 20, 1663, having served the church
for a period of thirty years. His grave is in the Ancient
Burying Ground of Hartford near that of Thomas Hooker,
with whom he made the great adventure to the New
World, and whose devoted helper, disciple, and successor
he became. The church and the city cherish his ministry,
for he was one of those who wrought well in the days of
the establishment of the church and the first settlement
of the town.

JOHN
ARTHUR

Profess&r of English, Trinity Hortfmd,

John Haynes, third governor of the colony of
chusetts Bay and first governor of the colony of Connect-
icut, was born May 1, 1594, at Old Holt,
His father was John Haynes, who died in 1605, and
wife was Mary Mitchell. Before settling in Essex he had
lived at Great Hadham, Hertfordshire, where the bap-
tisms of seven of his daughters are recorded and whore
he was buried.

As the eldest son, Governor Haynes inherited a good
estate, which he seems to have increased by thrift and
judicious management. Some time before 1624 he bought
the manor of Copford Hall, Essex, and at the time of Ms
emigration to New England he was said to have an in-
come of one thousand pounds a year, a large amount
for those days.

Through the influence of Winthrop, perhaps, he became
a Puritan, and in 1633 came to Boston in the Griffin with
Cotton, Hooker, Stone, and some two hundred others.
John Haynes at once became a leader in Massachusetts.
He was admitted a freeman at Cambridge in May, 1634,
and at the next election was chosen an assistant. He
was appointed one of the seven men who had charge of
"all military affairs whatsoever/' and was elected a towns-
man for Cambridge in February, 1634-35. On May 6,
1635, he succeeded Thomas Dudley as governor, much
to the disappointment of Roger Ludlow. Haynes was
not eager for the office, and in his first address declined

63

64 CONNECTICUT

to receive the usual salary, "partly in respect of their
love showed toward him, and partly because he observed
how much the people had been pressed lately with public
charges, which the poorer sort did much groan under/*

Receiving information that the Dutch were planning
a settlement on the Connecticut, he sent word to Governor
Van Twiller that the territory belonged to the English
and forbade the Dutch to settle. However, the Dutch
ignored his warning and built the " House of Hope" at
Hartford.

Haynes expressed the opinion that Winthrop had ad-
ministered justice too leniently in Massachusetts, and
promised to be more exacting. In 1635 Roger Williams,
then teacher of the church at Salem, was banished be-
cause of his erroneous doctrines and because of his efforts
to persuade his people "to renounce communion with
all the churches in the bay, as full of anti-christian pollu-
tion/' Haynes pronounced the sentence of banishment.

Upon the expiration of his term as governor, Haynes
was again chosen an assistant, and in 1636 he was ap-
pointed colonel of a Massachusetts regiment. Savage
comments that Haynes was "fortunate in being Governor
of Massachusetts, and more fortunate in removing after
his first year in office, thereby avoiding our bitter con-
tentions, to become the father of the new colony of Con-
necticut."

Doubtless from the beginning Haynes had sympathized
with the desire of Hooker and others to remove to Con-
necticut, but it was not till May, 1637, that he settled in
Hartford. Naturally, he at once became one of the leading
spirits in the colony. In 1638 he was one of the signers
of the treaty made between Connecticut and the Narra-
gansetts and Mohegans. On January 14, 1638-39, the
,colony adopted the Fundamental Orders and on April 11,
1639, Haynes was elected the first governor. As he could

65

not succeed himself in

Mm in 1640, and he in In

Wyllys was chosen, and in this

on, he and Edward Hopkins the in

years till the death of Haynes in 1654. He

uty governor in the years 1640, and

From the time that he first

made efforts to bring about a union or of

the New England colonies and was active In
about the organization of the New
tion in 1643. He represented Connecticut at
of the commissioners of the United Colonies in
1650.

Trambull tells of an Indian plot to Hayne$

Hopkins, and other prominent officers of the colony in
1646. Sequassen hired one of the Waronoke Indians to
kill them and lay the blame on Uncas. Fortunately the
Indian lost his courage and betrayed the plot. That
same year, Haynes went to England making Ms will
in anticipation of the trip to visit his old home and the
members of his family residing at Copford Hall and else-
where.

John Haynes first married Mary, daughter of Robert
Thornton of Hingham, Norfolk, England; and second,
in Massachusetts, Mabel Harlakenden, daughter of
Richard Harlakenden, of Earl's Calne, Essex, England,
and sister of Roger Harlakenden, of Cambridge, Haynes
had the following children, the first three by Ms first wife:
Robert, a Royalist in the Civil War, who dial childless
in 1657; Hezekiah, a major general in Cromwell's army,
who visited Connecticut perhaps more than once, and
who had an interest in an Indian grant of land he in-
herited Copford Hall after the death of Robert; a daughter
who married Nathaniel Eldred, of London; John, a grad-
uate of Harvard in 1656, who returned to England and

66 CONNECTICUT

became a clergyman of the Established Church; Roger,
who died young; Joseph, a graduate of Harvard In 1658,
pastor of the First Church in Hartford, who died in 1679,
aged 38; Mary, who married Joseph Cooke;, Ruth, who
married Samuel Wyllys, son of Governor George Wyllys;
Mabel, who married James Russell of Charlestown.

Governor Haynes died in Hartford, March 1, 16-54.
Tnimbull says "he was not considered in any respect
inferior to Governor Winthrop," and Bancroft says that
Haynes "was of a very large estate and larger affections;
of a heavenly mind and a spotless life; of rare sagacity
and accurate but unassuming judgment; by nature tol-
erant, ever a friend to freedom."

ROGER LUDLOW
FRANK D. HAINES

Justice* Tim Connecticut Court fff Errors

The state of Connecticut claims the unique of

being the birthplace of constitutional government. It
was here that the first written constitution framed

when a body of remarkable men developed and adopted
a social compact resting squarely upon the proposition
that sovereignty resides in the people, who themselves
prescribe and limit the power of all public officers and
magistrates. The Fundamental Orders, adopted in the
colony of Connecticut in 1639, are very generally recog-
nized as the first instance in history of an attempt to
translate this conception of government into written terms*
This was followed by what is known as the Ludlow Code,
which was adopted in 1650. It is in connection with these
momentous events that the figure of Roger Ludlow oc-
cupies a commanding place.

He came of a distinguished family in England, was
born in March, 1590, matriculated at Balliol College,
Oxford, and attained high rank in both academic and
legal studies, being particularly devoted to the subjects
of law, politics, and statecraft, and was known as a master
of the principles, forms, and precedents of legal procedure.

A charter was granted by King Charles I to the Gov-
ernor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New Eng-
land in 1630. Headed by Ludlow, the associates of this
company embarked at Plymouth in the spring of that
year and landed at what was later known as Dorchester,
Massachusetts.

67

68 CONNECTICUT

Ludlow was made the magistrate of the Great Charter
Court, the highest judicial tribunal in that common-
wealth, and afterwards became also deputy governor.
He was prominent and active in dealing with the numerous
problems of the colony and held in a remarkable degree
the confidence and esteem of the people; but his most
signal service in this formative period was in court and
council interpreting and construing the powers and
authorities granted by the general language of the king's
charter and their adaptation to the needs of Massachu-
setts Bay.

The leaders were in general accord in the view that
church membership and belief in the Bible should be a
condition of citizenship, and that wealth, education, and
social standing were requisite for leadership. Thus the
government was essentially plutocratic and aristocratic
but in no true sense democratic. Gradually, however,
these views became distasteful to some of the leaders and
led to thoughts of a new commonwealth where the civil
rights of the common man were not subject to the dic-
tates of wealth or the dominance of the church.

Among those who were moved by these and other
considerations to seek new colonization were Roger Lud-
low, then deputy governor, Thomas Hooker, one of the
great preachers, and John Haynes, who had been gov-
ernor of the colony. After much agitation and considera-
tion of the matter the consent of the Massachusetts
government was obtained in 1634, and the people of
Cambridge, Watertown, and Dorchester were granted
permission to remove to the valley of the Great River,
by which name our Connecticut River was known. They
came in small parties through the wilderness, and in the
fall of 1635 settlements were established along the river
from Windsor to Wethersfield.

The versatility and qualities of leadership displayed

69

by Ludlow are by the of

Amid the physical hardships, the the

claims of the Dutch and to the the

was occupying, and numerous to

the establishment of the it

appears that he was the man upon the

reliance was placed and to whom the

for their maintenance and security.

One of his chief concerns at this the

tion of the colony, and among his the

lishment of a court in May, 1637, of which, "by
to have been the general consent, he was the

siding magistrate. The jurisdiction of this court
very comprehensive, covering such matters as the
of the local officials and formulating laws and for

their guidance, relations with Indian tribes, formation of
a church, education of children, inventories and settle-
ment of estates of deceased persons, military training,
surveys of lands, laying of taxes, fixing of town bound-
aries, and the numerous matters which required adju-
dication. The only trained lawyer in the colony, it was
Ludlow who framed the orders and decrees of the Court
and its rules of procedure, the striking order and dignity
of which are matter of remark to this day.

The first written formulation of the new principles of
government was the so-called Fundamental Orders, which
were adopted by the colony in 1639. The lack of written
records at that period renders the details of that first
effort regrettably meager, but there is sufficient evidence
to justify the view now generally held by historians that
the conception was not that alone of any one of the strong
men who were the leaders of the colony, but a consensus of
view among them. The powerful sermons of the Reverend
Thomas Hooker reflect the sentiment of that period, and
to him as well as to Governor Haynes and to Ludlow

70 CONNECTICUT

has been ascribed much of the credit for the new view on
government.

It is now generally admitted that the Fundamental
Orders were the work of Ludlow's pen. The exact and
legal phraseology employed bear convincing internal evi-
dence that it was he, the trained lawyer and student of
government, who thus, in the words of his biographer, " set
in high lights and colors, the spirit, the purpose and the
prophecy of the preacher's words."

Seven years later 1646 an order was made by the
General Court that "Mr. Ludlow be requested to take
some paynes in drawing forth a body of laws for the gov-
ernment of this Commonwealth, and present the same
to the next General Court." This involved the creation
of a complete code of laws "grounded in precedent and
authority and fitted to the necessities of the new civiliza-
tion."

This remarkable commission to a single individual oc-
cupied him for four years and the completed draft was
adopted by the commonwealth in 1650. This Ludlow
Code is contained in the first fifty pages of the first volume
of Colonial Records, and will always remain a monument
to the trustworthiness, erudition, and legal ability of the
first lawyer of Connecticut. It was clearly the crowning
achievement of his life.

Chief Justice Swift, one of the great chief justices of
this state, has said, "It is the glory of Connecticut that
she made for herself the first real constitution in the mod-
ern sense, known to Mankind. It was carefully drawn
and skillfully worded. It was built to last." It has been
truly declared that "from this seed sprang the constitu-
tion of Connecticut, first in the series of written American
Constitutions, framed by the People for the People."

Ludlow was now sixty years of age. He had been with
the colonial troops at Uncoa, now Fairfield, at the close

71

of the Pequot War and was the

of that region for of a In he

secured a commission from the and a

settlement there upon a tract of he had

bought from the Indians at Poquoimocke, to

DRAWING UP THE FUNDAMENTAL QKDEHS

Painting by Albert Herter, ova: the bench in the
Supreme Court room, Hartford.

he afterwards repaired with his family. This venture be-
came an assured success but as time passed there arose
differences with the leaders of the mother colony at Hart-
fordtrouble with the Dutch and Indians and other
causes of friction. These greatly vexed Ludlow, who ap-
pears to have been a very high-spirited and sensitive
man, and in 1654 he sold his possessions and embarked
with his family for England, whence he never returned.

72 CONNECTICUT

History throws little light upon his later years. It is
known that he and his family were highly regarded by
Cromwell, who appointed Roger to posts of honor and
responsibility in Ireland. He settled with his family in
Dublin, where he was living at the death of his wife in
1674, at which time he was seventy-four years of age.
Rather curiously neither the date nor place of his death
is now known.

His unique service to the people of Connecticut and
to the cause of democratic government entitles him to
a place of the highest honor in the history of this state.

So far as is known there is no existing portrait of Lud-
low, but the state of Connecticut has perpetuated his
memory by placing in a niche at the west end of the
north front of the Capitol a commanding figure represent-
ing him, and, above the bench in the Supreme Court room
at Hartford, a notable mural painting by Albert Herter,
where Ludlow appears in a group of men engaged in the
consideration of the Fundamental Orders. It is said that
the picture was painted from models selected from among
early Connecticut families, in order to preserve so far as
possible the distinguishing features of the citizenry of the
colonial period. The work was done at Easthampton,
Long Island, where many such families were first settled.
The standing figure at the right represents Hooker, and
the man seated at the table with the candlelight on his
face is Ludlow.

JOHN
IRWIN ALFRED BUELL

Instructor in Hisi&ry, Trinity

John Steele was a leader among those
that came from England to Massachusetts for
sake, and even then, feeling cramped and in

their purpose, pushed on still farther to from the

wilderness a commonwealth fashioned according to their
own patterns of religious and political liberty.

Steele was bom probably at Fairsled, Essex County,
England, where he was baptized December 12, 1591.
Nothing is known of his parents and little about his early
life, but he undoubtedly received a good education. The
earliest records of his presence in this country show him
to have been in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630; and
two years later he was listed as one of the proprietors
"of Cambridge, then called Newtown* There he was made
a freeman, or elector, in 1634, and the next year was
chosen a representative from Cambridge to the General
Court of the colony. As he was a prominent member of
that group in Cambridge that were dissatisfied with con-
ditions there and were making ready to move their families
overland to the Connecticut River valley, he was ap-
pointed as one of the committee to supervise **the great
Exodus." Late in 1635 he led a small t>and of men to the
present location of Hartford to make preparations for the
larger body that was to follow under the leadership of
Thomas Hooker the following summer.

At first neither the people of the three river towns,
Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford, nor those of Massa-

73

74 CONNECTICUT

chusetts, thought of the new settlements as anything but
a part of the Massachusetts colony. As early as March,
1636, the Massachusetts Court established a provisional
government for the Connecticut group by appointing
eight leaders from their number as a commission of con-
trol "to govern the people at Connecticut for the space
of a year now next coming." This commission had almost
arbitrary powers legislative, executive, and judicial
in the government of Connecticut in 1636 and 1637. At
its first meeting Steele was chosen secretary. In 1638
Steele, Haynes, and Pyncheon went to the Massachusetts
Court to discuss the general relationships of the Connect-
icut settlements to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and
to determine whether the settlement at Agawam (Spring-
field) was to be united with the three river towns to the
south.

The contribution of Steele to the deliberations that
accompanied the framing of the Fundamental Orders is
not definitely known, as there are no records of those
meetings. He was, however, one of the small group of
men who were associated with Ludlow in drawing up this
remarkable instrument of government. At its adoption,
the secretaryship of the colony passed to Edward Hopkins,
but Steele continued as deputy from Hartford to the
General Court until his death, being reflected each year.

He was on many special committees of importance,
often with the governor and deputy governor, in deter-
mining town boundaries, settling land allotments and di-
visions, raising troops for expeditions against the Indians,
making arrangements for settlements and fortifications
at the mouth of the Connecticut River, and regulating
many other matters in the settlements. In 1640 he was
also chosen recorder, or town clerk, for the town of Hart-
ford and that year "brought into the courte 114 coppys
of the severall p r cells of land belonging to & concerning

75

114 p'sons." His lot was OB Is

Main Street of Hartford, just of the

Atheneum.

When the new settlement at was

rated In 1645, Steele was "entreated for the to be

Recorder there until ye Town have one fitt
selves/' He continued to be recorder at for

fifteen more years, or until he moved to

John Steele was married twice, at
land, October 10, 1622, to Rachel Talcott, of

Talcott, an early settler of Hartford. She in as
did also their oldest child, John, Jr. Steele's
was Mercy, the widow of Richard Seymour.

A few years before Steele's death he moved to Farat-
Ington and for a while kept the church records there. As
the earliest Farmington records are lost, we do not know
of his other activities. He died in Farmington in 1665,
and is buried in the old Farmington graveyard.

It is to Steele and to others cast in like heroic molds
that we owe the democratic beginnings of our common-
wealth. Probably because of an education superior to
that of the average settler, but doubtless also because of
a greater capacity for leadership, John Steele stood forth
with the eminent among a group where nearly all were
of the stuff of which leaders are made.

EDWARD HOPKINS
ARTHUR ADAMS

Professor of English, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut

Edward Hopkins, second governor of Connecticut, was
born in Shrewsbury, England, in 1600. He was, it seems,
a son of Edward Hopkins who married Katherine, sister
of Sir Henry Lello. Nothing is known of the early life
of Hopkins, but he became prominent as a Turkey mer-
chant in London. It is evident that he was a man of
wealth and position when he came over to New England
with Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport in 1637,
Hopkins married Anne, sister of David Yale and aunt of
Elihu Yale.

After a short stay in Boston, Hopkins settled in Hart-
ford, where he at once became one of the leading men in
the colony. He was elected assistant in 1639, and gov-
ernor in 1640. Since the Connecticut law did not permit
a governor to succeed himself, he held office alternately
as assistant and as governor periodically from 1639 till
he left the colony in 1652. He was elected assistant in
1641, 1642, 1655 and 1656; and governor in 1644, 1646,
1648, 1650, 1652 and 1654; and deputy governor in the
years 1643, 1645, 1647, 1649, 1651 and 1653.

On September 21, 1638, with Haynes and Roger Lud-
low, he signed the treaty with the Narragansett and Mo-
hegan Indians, Miantonomo and Uncas acting for their
respective tribes. In 1643, with Governor John Haynes
of the Connecticut colony, Theophilus Eaton and Thomas
Gregson of the New Haven colony, and George Fenwick
of Saybrook, he went to Boston to perfect the organiza-

76

77

tion of the United Colonies of New
ect was deemed of the by the

of New Haven and Connecticut, the "mu-

tual help and strength in all future
as in nation and religion, so in we be

continue one/* Mr. Hopkins was one of the
sioners from Connecticut to the Confederation for
years.

He was active also in business in the

being engaged in the fur trade, fishing,
and milling. In 1640 he secured the exclusive fa*

seven years to trade at Waranacoe and other on

the Connecticut River. He also imported cotton
on a large scale. For some reason, perhaps because Crom-
well appointed him a Navy Commissioner in December,
1652, he returned to England, though it is evident that
at least as late as 1654 he was expected to return to Con-
necticut. Cromwell also appointed him an Admiralty
Commissioner, November 7, 1655. His brother, Henry
Hopkins, left him by his will dated December 30, 1654, his
office of Warden of the Fleet and Keeper of the Palace of
Westminster. He represented Dartmouth, Devonshire,
in the Parliament that assembled September 17, 1656.

Hopkins died in March, 1657, in the Parish of St. Olave,
Hart Street, London. His will is dated March 7, 1657,
and was proved April 30, 1657. He left 30 to Mrs. Mary
Newton, daughter of Thomas Hooker and wife of the
Reverend Roger Newton; 30 to the eldest child of Mr.
John Cullick by Elizabeth his present wife; Ms farm at
Farmington to Mrs. Sarah Wilson, daughter of Thomas
Hooker and wife of the Reverend John Wilson of Boston;
and all debts due him, to Mrs. Susan Hooker, widow of
Thomas Hooker. To "his father," Theophilus Eaton,
John Davenport, John Cullick, and William Goodwin,
he left his residuary estate in trust, "to give some en-

78 CONNECTICUT

couragement in those foreign plantations for the breeding
tip of hopeful youths in a way of learning, both at the
Grammar School and College, for the public service of
the country in future times/* From his estate in England
he left 150 per annum to be paid to Mr. David Yale,
brother of his "dear distressed wife," for her comfortable
maintenance; and to other relatives he left large be-
quests. He provided that within six months after the
death of his wife "the sum of five hundred pounds to be
made over into New England according to the advice
of my loving friends Major Robert Thomson and Mr.
Francis Willoughby (for public ends). The 500 for
"public ends" was paid to Harvard College under a decree
in chancery in 1710. With it a township of land was
purchased, named Hopkinton in honor of the donor.

With the funds derived from the residuary estate,
grammar schools were established in Hartford, Hadley,
and New Haven. The Hopkins Grammar School in
New Haven is still doing a useful work, and in Hartford
the income from the fund is applied to the cost of instruc-
tion in certain subjects in the Hartford Public High School.

It does not seem that Governor Hopkins had any chil-
dren. Governor Winthrop in his History says: "Mr.
Hopkins, the Governor of Hartford upon Connecticut,
came to Boston and brought his wife with him, (a godly
young woman and of special parts) who was fallen into
a sad infirmity, the loss of her understanding and reason
which had been growing upon her divers years, by occa-
sion of her giving herself wholly to reading and writing,
and had written many books. Her husband, being very
loving and tender of her, was loath to grieve her; but he
saw his error, when it was too late. For if she had attended
her household affairs and such things as belong to women,
and had not gone out of her way and calling to meddle
in such things as are proper for men, whose minds are

EDWARD 79

stronger, etc., she had her wits, and

improved them usefully and In the

had set her. He brought her to Boston, left her
her brother, one Mr. Yale, a merchant, to try
might be had here for her. But no to be had."

Truly a sad episode in the life of a man, a in

New England, and one of our earliest of the

cause of education.

THE WYLLYS FAMILY
GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR

In point of public service and outstanding social rank,
the Wyllys family for nearly two hundred years was the
leading family in Hartford, if not in the colony and state.
Five generations of this proud but gentle race lived in the
fine mansion built in 1636, on what became Wyllys Hill,
named for George Wyllys, the colonist. He was of an an-
cient armigerous family (with Plantagenets in the offing),
lords of the manor of Fenny Compton in Warwickshire,
where the family had long been established. ( ' * From Eng-
land's gentlest blood, an honored name, In virtues, arts
and arms, long known to fame/") He was one of those
** gentlemen of religion" who came to New England for
s< conscience's sake." Aware of his "place in the sun,"
and with no intention of "roughing it" on his arrival in
the New World, he sent ahead his steward, William Gib-
bins, and 20 indentured servants, " furnished with proper
implements of husbandry and building," to Hartford in
1636, to build for him a house in some measure answering
to his position in life. A tract of seven acres of high land
just outside of and overlooking the little settlement on the
river was secured, and on it Gibbins and his 20 men forth-
with built the famed Wyllys Mansion. Two years later
Mr. Wyllys, with his family and servants, came to Hartford
from their old home in pleasant Warwickshire and took
possession of the house which thenceforward, for nearly
two hundred years, was to be the family home.

The mansion with its embellished grounds said to
have been laid out in simulation of the grounds at Fenny

80

Compton was for a

the finest "gentleman's seat" la and

perhaps, the first in to be

ornamented with formally laid out
tions of fruit trees, shrubs, and

The house to have the of our

Connecticut houses; certainly no of our

days surpassed it in wealth of tradition, or saw iae
company. It was the repository, 1712 on-

ward to 1809, of the original charter of Connecticut, and
of the duplicate charter from 1715 until 1817,

the document had the misfortune to be cut up by the
Widow Bissell, in fashioning the frame of a bonnet.

George Wyllys, the colonist, was given the of an

original proprietor of Hartford and was almost at
upon his arrival made a magistrate, then deputy governor,
and in 1642 he became the third governor of the colony.

His son Samuel took a prominent part in public life; he
was one of the commissioners of the United Colonies and
in 1662 one of the sworn custodians of the charter which
arrived in the fall of that year. Samuel's son HezeMah
(1672-1741), was chosen secretary of the colony in 1712,
and retained the office until his resignation in 1734. Heze-
kiah's son George (1710-1796, Yale, 1729), was, oa ac-
count of his father's ill health, made the acting secretary
of the colony at the age of 20, became secretary in 1734,
and retained the office until Ms death, having served the
colony and state for 66 years. He was succeeded as secre-
tary by his son, General Samuel (1738/9-1823, Yale, 1758),
who resigned the office in 1809 on account of ill health.

John Palsgrave Wyllys (1754-1790, Yale, 1773), another
son of Secretary Wyllys, like his Yale classmate and corre-
spondent, Nathan Hale, resigned his life in the service of
his country. He was killed in an Indian ambuscade on
the far frontier, and was buried in an unknown grave

82 CONNECTICUT

near Fort Wayne, Indiana, the first officer of the regular
United States Army to be killed in action. Of him, Ms
sister Susanna wrote two years later, kt the Glory of our
family departed with him."

This family of gentlefolk, well-bred and well educated,
cherished the English tradition of gentlemanly living and
dispensed a generous, though undoubtedly an exclusive
hospitality, in their fine old house on Wyllys Hill. They
revolved in a cycle of intermarriages. Consistently and
devoutly religious, they furnished for five generations a
pattern of clean living and good manners for the community
in which they lived, and they were unequaled as a family
for their devoted services to the state.

WILLIAM

DANIEL HOWARD

Superintendent of ,

Lieutenant William Holmes was the of the

group of Pilgrims from Plymouth,
made the first English settlement in Connecticut in
SOT in 1633.

How did they happen to make this In

Wahginnacut and Nattawanut, two Indian
the Connecticut valley, visited both Boston and Plymouth
to invite the white men to come and be their frieads and
neighbors, and the Indians doubtless hoped that the
men would also become their protectors against their
Indian enemies.

At Boston they received no encouragement, but as a
result of their call at Plymouth, Governor Winslow visited
the Connecticut valley and later decided to make a settle-
ment. In September, 1633, a party of settlers sailed for
Connecticut under the leadership of Lieutenant Holmes,
At Hartford a Dutch fort ("Good Hope") had recently
been built to keep the English away and the Dutch ordered
Holmes to turn back. He refused. The Dutch com-
mander shouted, "Strike your colors or we will fire upon
you!"

Holmes replied, " I have the commission of the Governor
of Plymouth to go up the river and I shall go/* He sailed
past the fort and the Dutch did not fire. Six miles farther
up the river, on September 26, he landed, and his men
speedily erected a house from the lumber and material
they had brought with them for that purpose.

83

84 CONNECTICUT

The Dutch lost no time in to drive out these

English, whom they as intruders. They reported

the to the authorities at Fort Amsterdam. One

month later, seventy Dutch soldiers were sent to Windsor
to drive William Holmes and his Pilgrim settlers out of the
Connecticut valley; but these settlers had come to stay.
They had already built a strong palisade around their
home and were ready to fight if need be. Lieutenant
Holmes listened to the demand of the Dutch "that he
depart forthwith, with all his people and houses." He
refused, and the Dutch commander decided that the situa-
tion did not furnish sufficient encouragement for him to
remain, so he took his soldiers back to Hartford. The
Dutch never molested the English settlement again.

Though Holmes planted and protected the settlement at
Windsor, he did not make it his permanent home, for in
1635 he was back in Massachusetts giving military train-
ing to the people of Duxbury. In the Pequot War which
followed the settling of Windsor, Wethersfield, Hartford,
and Saybrook, Lieutenant Holmes was an officer, but we
do not know what troops he commanded. The records of
his service come to us from the Plymouth Colony, and his
soldiers were probably Plymouth men. The power of the
Pequots was broken and the Connecticut valley enjoyed
peace in 1638. In that year Lieutenant Holmes was re-
sponsible for the management of the settlement he had
established at Windsor, and a court order instructed him
to remove Sachem Aramamett and his tribe from the
vicinity of the Plymouth settlement to their old home, two
or three miles farther south.

On May 3, 1638, William Holmes represented the Plym-
outh settlers as their attorney, and sold the house he
had erected in 1633 to Matthew Allyn of Hartford.
Holmes now left Windsor never to return. He went to
visit his native land and was a soldier in the English army.

S3

In 1649 he in America, at 0n

November 12 of year. The of his

that he a in Scituate,

then known as Major William

RQSCOB NELSON

Minister Emeritus of Ike First Church in Windsor

The good ship Mary and John, while making no claim
to rival the Mayflower in the affections of the American
people, deserves, at least to the folk of Connecticut, a
niche alongside of that more famous vessel. For in the
month of March, 1630, the Mary and John sailed out of
the harbor of Plymouth, England, bound for Massachu-
setts Bay, carrying in her cabin one hundred and forty
persons who founded the town of Dorchester. Most of
them later removed to the Connecticut valley. There
they set up permanent housekeeping in Windsor, planting
one of the " three vines** that are engraved upon the seal
of our state.

In that ship's company were Roger Ludlow, who drafted
the Fundamental Orders of the Connecticut Colony;
Matthew Grant, surveyor and town clerk of Windsor, one
of whose numerous descendants was President Grant;
Henry Wolcott, whose descendants have occupied posi-
tions of distinction in many states; Aaron Cooke, whose
pioneering spirit, after doing his bit in the task of Wind-
sor's foundations, took him up the river, where he became
a founder of Northampton and Hadley in Massachusetts;
and Captain John Mason, who was to play the leading role
in the Pequot War. These men are the most widely known
and famous representatives of a group of people notable
both for ability and character; by no means the least of
these was the pastor of the flock, Reverend John Warham.

In the library of the Connecticut Historical Society is a

86

87

of

and by Mr.

more of the quality of his and is

available from any but this 1$

securely in the of Mr.

cott, and no one has the key. With use of

tion, however, a vivid of Mr.

be drawn from facts as are in the of the

period.

As was the case with of the

Mr. Warham was a man of and in the

community from which he came. He Ms B.A.

degree from Oxford in 1614, and was or-

dained deacon by the Bishop of Exeter. for

fifteen years before coming to America he had in

active service as a clergyman of the Church of
doubtless with strong Puritan leanings^ as the
with numerous English clergy of the time.

The fact of Mr. Warham's choice by this of

pioneers to be their spiritual leader in such a venture
be taken as very good evidence both of his ability and char-
acter, and marks him as one who inspired the trust
confidence of others. Documentary evidence of the
thing is supplied by a little book by Roger Clap,, who as a
young man attended upon the ministry of Mr. Warham
in Exeter. Mr. Clap says, "I took such a liking unto the
Reverend Mr. John Warham that I did desire to live near
him;" and "I never so much as heard of New England
until I heard of many godly persons that were going there,
and that Mr. Warham was to go also." It is quite likely
that Mr. Clap was not the only person of the party who
boarded the Mary and John in large measure because John
Warham was to be one of the passengers.

After hewing out of the wilderness a habitation for them-
selves which they named Dorchester, in honor of the town

88 CONNECTICUT

of the name in England from which some of them

had come f pilgrims, attracted by the more fertile

lands of the Connecticut valley and doubtless for other
reasons, trekked thither five years later, and began all over
again the spade work of a new settlement, first named
Dorchester and afterwards Windsor. Among the material
and community interests of Mr. Warham in Windsor was
what in his will he called **my com mill." How he came
into possession of this mill, said to be the first in Connecti-
cut, has been left to conjecture. It is possible that Mr.
Warham, since he had private means of his own, built the
mill to supply a need felt in every household. Who better
than he knew how much the pounding of corn into meal
with mortar and pestle added to the varied drudgery of
the women? The pioneering conditions took heavy toll of
wives and mothers. The first wife of Mr. Warham died
in Dorchester before the removal to Connecticut, and he
was twice married afterwards. The com mill lessened the
toil of the household by one wearying task and the pre-
sumption is that Mr. Warham built it, and that his motive
for doing so was not wholly the toll taken for grinding the
corn.

Here in Windsor Mr. Warham continued his labors both
as "sky pilot" and guide in the wilderness. At length,
wearied with hardships and depressed by disturbing ele-
ments in the community, but beloved and honored, he fell
asleep on the first day of April, 1670.

As to the standing of John Warham in the larger com-
munity beyond the bounds of his own town and parish, it is
sufficient to quote these words of Cotton Mather, who pos-
sessed abounding knowledge of the clergymen of New
England: "The whole colony of Connecticut considered
him a principal pillar, and father of the colony."

Louis P.

It is said that Alexander the Great, at

the tomb of Achilles, cried out, 4< >h to

have had Homer as the of your ! "

of the world's staunchest warriors and
vanished into obscurity for the lack of a

Every school child in America above the age of ten is
familiar with the name of Captain Myles Not

one in ten thousand knows of Captain John Mason. Yet
the two men held equal fame in New England for
integrity, and military intelligence, and from the
point of warlike accomplishments the deeds of Mason far
outshine those of his Plymouth rival. The Reverend
Thomas Prince, writing in 1735, thus compares them:
"Capt. Standish was of a low Stature, but of such a daring
and active Genius, that even before the Arrival of the
Massachusetts Colony, He spread a Terror over all the
Tribes of Indians round about him, from the Massachu-
setts to Martha's Vineyard, and from Cape-Cod Harbour
to Narragansett. Capt. Mason was Tall and Pertly, but
never the less full of Martial Bravery and Vigour; that
He soon became the equal Dread of the mere numerous
Nations from Narragansett to Hudson's River. They
were Both the Instrumental Saviours of this Country in
the most critical Conjunctures.**

John Mason is said to have been "a Relative of Mr.
John Mason the ancient Claimer of the Province of New-
Hampshire." Be that as it may, he was a bold, courageous,
and resourceful warrior, trained in the wars of the Low

89

90 CONNECTICUT

Countries Sir Thomas Fairfax. His reputation was

so that Oliver Cromwell offered him the rank of

major in the Parliamentary' army, an honor which

declined. He came to America with Warham f s
company in 1630, and in December, 1632, he was em-
ployed by the governor and magistrates of Massachusetts
to search for Dixy Bull, a notorious pirate who had been
annoying the coast. In 1634 he assisted in planning and
building the fortifications in Boston Harbor, and in March
of the next year he represented Dorchester in the General
Court. Whether his fame would have been greater had
he remained in the Bay Colony must forever be a matter
of conjecture, for he chose to cast his lot with his pastor,
Mr. Warham, and thus became one of the first settlers of
Windsor.

Most biographers or historians begin with a bias or
prejudice one way or the other. They are like the portrait
painter whom Cromwell rebuked for painting his portrait
without the warts which adorned his face, or those literary
portrait painters who have depicted the warts alone and
called them Cromwell's countenance. In the case of
Mason we know him not only from the writings of other
historians, but from his own account, transparent, naive,
and honest, of the Pequot War. Before the actual out-
break of that struggle Mason was sent to Saybrook in
February, 1637, to reinforce Lion Gardiner who was en-
countering difficulties with the Indians. In reporting this
experience the doughty captain is not blind to his own good
qualities nor does he minimize the fear which his reputa-
tion aroused in the aborigines. He says, writing in the
third person, "that Capt. John Mason was sent by Con-
necticut Colony with twenty Men out of their small
Numbers to secure the Place; But after his coming, there
did not one Pequot appear in view for one Month Space,
which was the time he there remained."

91

the of and the of

Pequot by

swiftly the final The

attack on in and the of the two

young of the

Court to end this In

Hartford May 1, the Court "an war

against the Pequots," 90 men

Windsor, and Wethersfield, aad In

mand. On May 10, by 70

Mohegans led by Mason's on

momentous journey.

Despite his orders to the of the

(Thames) River and attack the
good sense told him that this be the

enemy watching every move and at

particular spot. A council of the
mously to obey orders, Captain Mason OIK

with God is a majority, ordered "the Chaplin he
would commend our Condition to the Lord, Night to
direct how and in what manner we should our-

selves in that Respect/' Next morning the "Chaplin"
(Samuel Stone) reported a message from God upholding
the captain and the attack was immediately ordered.
This was deliberate disobedience to the orders from the
home government, and in his story of the campaign the
worthy captain warns others that only a great man may
do this with impunity. "I declare not this to encourage
any Soldiers to Act beyond their Commission, or contrary
to it; for in so doing they run a double Hazard/' and he
cites the example of a "great Commander in Belgia" who
was killed because he went "beyond Ms Commission."
He adds a bit of wisdom for the home governments by
advising legislative bodies to choose courageous and pru-
dent leaders, "and then bind them not up into too narrow

92 CONNECTICUT

a Compass; For it is not for the wisest and ablest

Senator to foresee all Accidents and Occurrents that fall
out in the Management and Pursuit of a War."

The strategy of the man in choosing a thirty-five mile
march through the wilderness in order to take his enemy
unawares, the skill with which he chose a site for their en-
campment before the attack on the Pequot fort. May 26,
the bravery with which he, at the head of sixteen men,
boldly entered the enemy's fortress held by six hundred
hostiles, the quickness with which he grasped the idea that
fire and not the sword was the most effective weapon, all
show us that had he yielded to the Lord Protector's re-
quest, he might have attained high rank among the great
generals of English military history.

In June the General Court ordered Mason to carry on
the war against the Pequots, this time supplying him with
only 40 men. He joined Captain Israel Stoughton with
his 120 Massachusetts men at New London and relent-
lessly they pursued the doomed Pequots, finally surround-
ing them in a swamp in Westport, the 13th of July. Here
the remnants of this once powerful tribe tried valiantly to
break through the cordon of determined whites, but in the
hand-to-hand fighting that ensued some were killed, a few
escaped, and 180 were made prisoners. With this Swamp
Fight, the Pequots as a tribe passed into history.

The comforting philosophy of the doughty captain,
which permeates his whole "Brief History of the Pequot
War/' deserves some notice. After the Pequots, men,
women, and children, had been roasted alive in their fort,
slain, and sometimes eaten by the Mohegan allies of the
captain (and the Lord), or sold into slavery up the river
in Massachusetts, he exclaims, "Thus did the Lord scatter
his Enemies with his strong Arm!" It never occurs to
him that the Pequots have any claim upon their Maker.

In March, 1638, Mason was appointed commanderin-

93

of the of Ms re-

quiring him to call out the of of the

colony ten for and

Thomas to Mm the of

this rank.

When, in 1645, the of

Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
that it would be to war on the

setts, Mason was the to

forces. At the request of the of and

for their protection, he was to live as

of the fort in 1647. While he was in the

lived in peace. Dutch and o>

So vital to the continued peace of the Ms

ence felt to be, that when the New Haven
a migration to their lands in Delaware, Mason
to refuse the invitation to go as their leader. In and
again in 1657 he was sent to Long to the

Indians there, and as the emissary of the colony he
that in diplomacy as in war he could win triumphs.

In May, 1660, he was appointed deputy governor of the
colony of Connecticut, an appointment by

election and reelection annually until 1660* he was

succeeded by William Leete. During the time that Gover-
nor John Winthrop was negotiating for the charter,
performed all the duties of governor.

In 1668 he went to live In Norwich on a tract of land
granted to the town by Uncas, the Mohegan, and Ws
sons. Mason's life in Norwich was one of honor and
activity. He was chief judge of the county court until
1670, when he retired from public life. The infirmities of
old age had settled upon him and he died in June, 1672, in
his seventy-third year, full of years and honors. Many
worthy citizens of the commonwealths of Connecticut and
Massachusetts trace their ancestry to our hero. Among

94 CONNECTICUT

is Jeremiah Mason, the most distinguished jurist of
his time, the man who instructed Daniel Webster in the
law and who with him in perhaps the most

famous trial eer held in America, the Dartmouth College

case.

UNCAS
HOWARD

Director* Thi of

Uncas, chief of the the life of

the English settlements on the in a

way at the time of the Pequot War, and
forty years of association he left in an
manner, bequeathing a legacy of over ac-

quired by victory in that conflict. Although his
and exit from the stage of early Connecticut had
shadowy, his idle was flooded with limelight, re-

flected in the records of the General Court, the of

Winthrop, and in the dreary minutes of the New England
Federation. It was through his presence and his
that Connecticut was spared bloodshed with the Indians
and was kept from uprising at the time of King Philip's
War. The stories which cluster around Uncas, such as Ms
conquest of Miantonomo, his outwitting the Podunks,
the relief of Shantuk, give to Connecticut a heritage of
Indian tales unsurpassed in interest by those of the Far
West in later years.

The dramatic career of this picturesque Indian had
begun before the entrance of the English into the Connecti-
cut valley. The line of ancestry which he submitted to the
General Court states that he was of royal blood, that his
father had arranged a marriage between the eldest son,
brother of Uncas, and the daughter of the chief of the
mighty Pequots, that this brother died before the time of
the ceremony, and custom demanded that Uncas should
carry out the contract. Thus some ten years before the

95

96 CONNECTICUT

English entered upon the scene, he married Into the family
of the Pequot chief.

The marriage by no means promoted peace within the
tribe, nor developed friendship with Sassacus, Its chief.
Uncas grew proud and treacherous toward the Pequot
sachem, who became angry and drove him from the coun-
try. He took refuge among the neighboring Narragan-
setts, where he repented, humbled himself before the
Pequot chief, and begged to return to his own people. The
petition was granted and five times, the records state,
this swing between pride and repentance was repeated,
"until the English went to war against the Pequots, and
then Uncas went along with the English, and since then
the English have made him high."

Uncas was in one of his " proud" spells when the white
settlers came into the region. He had withdrawn from the
Pequot tribe and had established himself to the north and
west of their territory as chief of the Mohegans, from
which position of vantage he watched with keen interest
the arrival of the newcomers, and awaited developments
to determine what his attitude toward them should be.
When the powerful Pequots made their bloody raid upon
Wethersfield in the early spring of 1637, and the pitifully
weak settlements courageously declared offensive war upon
them, Uncas immediately offered to Captain John Mason
the services of himself and sixty Mohegans. It was an
offer that brought every advantage to the English with
only one drawback the great doubt whether or not
Uncas and his men could be trusted but Captain Mason
saw sufficient gain to warrant the risk. More than once
during the memorable expedition against the Pequot fort
the faith of the English in their Indian allies was severely
tested, but Uncas and his men ultimately won the con-
fidence of Captain Mason, and thus began an association
with the English that lasted for over forty years.

FNCAS 97

The of in

deuces. In the of EO

be was sent by

at a time of They by

were friendly, but also had

those who were hostile. They the

personality of the and m 10

which group they of the

Indian was puzzling to them, and in

making their contacts and

the distant tribes. In Uncas they saw the of a

friend and adviser in troublous

On the other hand Uncas was His

against Sassacus had arisen from the of a

that could not tolerate a superior. In the
Sassacus had been slain and the power of Ms
destroyed. Uncas saw that with support of the
all opposition toward Mm might be overcome, and
he could make his way through peace or war to
leadership among the Indians of southern New England.
His ambitions fitted perfectly with the needs of the
and he assumed the r61e of contact man between the two
races.

Uncas was well equipped to act Ms new part, for he was
a shrewd master of trickery and of force. He
his own people and knew how far he could go in
English standards upon them. The settlers demanded
and received recognition by the Indians of English courts,
law, and procedure, but when they pressed for adoption of
the Christian religion, Uncas was **not well pleased that
the English should pass over the Mohegan River and call
his Indians to pray to God/'

In various episodes Uncas showed the many sides of Ms
character. When under suspicion of secreting captive
Pequots in 1638, he made an impassioned speech at Boston

98 CONNECTICUT

before the magistrates, saying, ** This heart is not mine. It
is yours. I have no men; they are all yours. Command
me in any hard thing and I will do it. I will never believe
any Indian's word against the English. If any Indian
shall kill an Englishman, I will put him to death be he ever
so dear to me." The impression upon his hearers was one
of profound sincerity and he withdrew with tokens of es-
teem; yet through information gleaned by Roger Williams,
it was learned that even while Uncas thus dramatically
protested his loyalty, he concealed the fact that he held
six of the Pequots contrary to contract. When Uncas was
accused of mischief near Norwich in 1679, Reverend James
Fitch wrote to the secretary of the colony, " It may be that
Uncas will say that he was not at home at that time but at
Saybrook. Usually when the time is come to do mischief
he is in Saybrook. Everyone amoog us sees through this
worn and threadbare trick."

Shortly before his death, at his request, a formal agree-
ment between Uncas, as sachem of the Mohegans, and
Governor Leete for the colony, was signed in 1681. It re-
called the good friendship of forty-five years, going back
to the days of the first governors of the colony, and pledged
both parties to its continuance for all times. Whatever
may be the judgment upon the personality of Uncas, there
could be no stronger indorsement of his value to the colony
as a contact man.

The powers of Uncas gradually faded. He was no longer
active in body or in mind. Sitting at the door of his
wigwam he saluted by nod or gesture the friends who came
to him. He died in 1683, and was buried at Norwich near
the scene of his rebellions against Sassacus, the powerful
Pequot, and of his triumph over Miantonomo, the still
mightier chief of the Narragansetts.

ARTHUR N.

Head Master, Tim

John Davenport, M princely by

Mather, was in his limited very the and

quite as definitely the of Ms in an

age like our own of widening horizon and
he was in his venturesome career the

tare of environment; but his subtle,
mind and his persuasive, at times obstinate,
gave Mm power over the minds of men the of

events. He was a breaker of paths.

Men matured early in Elizabethan days.
was an influential preacher in London at the age of twenty-
seven. Bom in Coventry, Warwickshire, he
in the Church of the Holy Trinity on April 9, 1597, the
fifth son of honorable parents. His father, Henry Daven-
port, who before the end of his life was to be
sheriff, and mayor of Coventry, traced Ms In

direct line to Ormus de Daunaporte (bom in 1086). His
mother was Winifred, daughter of Richard Bamabit.
John, in boyhood and throughout life an eager student,
was educated at the Free Grammar School of Coventry
until the age of sixteen (or possibly fourteen), and then
attended Oxford University (Merton and Magdalen Col-
leges), leaving in 1615 without a degree, probably for lack
of funds. He was fortunately able in 1625 to return and
pass examinations at Magdalen for the degrees of B.D.
and M.A.

Meanwhile he led an increasingly fruitful life, first as

99

100 CONNECTICUT

chaplain at Hilton Castle near Durham, until some time
after March, 1616, then as preacher in London. In June,
1619, he was chosen curate of the church of St. Lawrence
Jewry, and on October 6, 1624, was elected by almost
unanimous vote of the parishioners (who had the rare
privilege of choosing their own pastor) to the vicarage of
St. Stephen's in Coleman Street. The nine years of his
incumbency were critical in the formation of his mind and
character. His congregation was large, middle-class,
wealthy. In its number was Theophilus Eaton, his boy-
hood schoolmate, and thereafter his devoted friend and
alter ego in the New World. The young preacher was also
closely associated with the prominent Puritan, Lady Mary
Vere. His thinking inevitably became more and more non-
conformist, and it was not long before Laud's apprehen-
sions were aroused.

In 1629 Davenport contributed fifty pounds to the
corporation interest in procuring a charter for the Mas-
sachusetts Colony, and although not named as an incorpo-
rator, attended several meetings and otherwise indicated
his interest. By 1632 Davenport was definitely committed
to the nonconformist cause. He had established friendly
terms with John Cotton, whose influence by interview and
letter in the years to follow was strong in leading to his
withdrawal from the Established Church and his later re-
moval to the New World. Upon the accession of Laud in
1633 Davenport, after consulting with his congregation
and promising to remain if they so wished, resigned his
curacy and fled to Haarlem across the Channel, there to
remain nearly three years.

This man of positive ideas and insistent spirit found not
even Holland entirely to his religious liking. There, after
six months of service as aid to Reverend John Paget in the
English Church, he became involved with the Dutch
Classis over the subject of promiscuous infant baptism,

101

and his in

a of

Cotton his to

in he as a 1101

without the of * In

apparently too he set his

tion to America, as of an im-

pressive company, in the

He was accompanied by his but

his son John (then he left la

England until 1639. The at oa

June 26. It is significant of in the

Puritan world that Laud "My

him even there.'*

The new arrivals, substantial as re-

ceived hearty welcome in Boston,
ments were made them to remain in
Davenport had his own quite definite theory of a
state to be founded on the ** design of religion/* and
was his staunch supporter. The company in

Boston nine months, Davenport taking part in the 4 * Anti-
nomian" controversy then raging, in opposition 10 the
doctrines of Ann Hutchinson. Meanwhile Eaton,
member of the duumvirate, had selected
New Haven) as their future home and there* in April,
the group of some two hundred persons arrived and set
about the work of cultivating the wilderness.

The next two years were perhaps the point of

Davenport's life. During that period the force of Ms
leadership and Eaton's was attested by the orderly estab-
lishment of church and state in a new and hostile environ-
ment without benefit of king or bishop. It is not too much
to say that until the union of the colony with Connecticut
in 1665, civil life in New Haven was very largely the
crystallized thought of one man, Davenport. Without

102 CONNECTICUT

desire for personal political eminence, he was zealous in
his effort to establish the law of the Bible over the mun-
dane affairs of men. Under his intellectual influence and
the active leadership of Eaton, the free planters of Quinni-
piack, with BO authority by charter from Parliament or
king, no written constitution of any kind, except regula-
tions of the joint stock association of proprietors, for the
period of a year achieved order by voluntary submission
to the Mosaic law. When, in June, 1639, the meeting in
Newman's great barn was held to form a permanent
government, Davenport's advocacy, with Eaton's positive
support, was instrumental in securing the adoption of the
six " queries" of the Fundamental Agreement, against the
opposition of the Separatists under Reverend Samuel
Eaton, brother of Theophilus. It was this Fundamental
Agreement, with its insistence on church membership as a
necessary qualification for the right to vote or hold office
in civil affairs, which gave the government of New Haven
its characteristic form until 1665.

Davenport was one of the "seven pillars" designated to
form the first church of New Haven and to elect the first
officers of the new government. He continued as pastor of
the church and pillar of state until 1667. Evidence is not
wanting that he kept the love as well as the respect of his
congregation and his fellow citizens. To the end he fol-
lowed tenaciously the casuistical logic of his convictions.
With Eaton, in 1665, he drew up the code known popu-
larly as the Connecticut Blue Laws. He vigorously op-
posed the "Half Way Covenant" when adopted between
1657 and 1662. In 1661 he had the courage to speak in the
pulpit in behalf of the regicides Goffe and Whalley, and to
conceal them in his home; though his letter denying
knowledge of their whereabouts betrays an unfortunate
tendency, exhibited on other occasions, to falter when
confronted with practical emergencies outside his ordinary

108

metaphysical He was active in the

of the Hopkins and in the of

its welfare. Finally, the he

was unsparing in his to the of

with Connecticut, an of the

more liberal grant of in the a

threat to his whole life's work.

When in the end New

necticut, Davenport * It was tikis sor-

row which in 1668 led him to the of his to

the First Church in Boston, he to

the former minister, John Wilson.
tion to the transfer from Ms in

who wished to retain their old pastor, of

the congregation in Boston, who to his

row views on the ** Half Way Covenant,"
the mistake of concealing portions of the
from New Haven in the hope of more
ing his dismission. Subsequent revelations in

scandal and the withdrawal of a number of the
tion of the First Church. Davenport's last days
clouded in disaster. He lived but a few months, in

March, 1670, and resting finally in King's Chapel
Ground.

THBOPHILUS EATON
JUDGE JOHN LEE GILSON

President, The New Haven Colony Historical Society

On Allhallows Day In the thirty-second year of the reign
of Elizabeth Tudor, the Virgin Queen that is, on Octo-
ber 31, 1590 there was bom to the Reverend Richard
Eaton and Ms wife Ann, at Stony-Stratford in Oxfordshire,
England, their eldest son, who was christened Theophilus.
His father, the " faithful and famous minister of the
place," being very shortly promoted by transfer to the
ancient walled city of Coventry In Warwickshire (re-
nowned for its famous Lady Godlva), he duly entered
Theophilus as a scholar at the famous Coventry Free
School, which nearly four centuries before had been
founded as the home of the Coventry Hospitallers of St.
John. Cotton Mather in the Magnolia tells us, "he there
fell into the intimate acquaintance of that worthy John
Davenport." There also, "his Ingenuity and Proficiency
render'd him notable; and so vast was his memory, . . .
as astonished all the neighborhood. . . ." During these
early days were first initiated the admiration, esteem, and
well-nigh veneration in which Davenport was held for a
lifetime by his colleague.

After a severe and exacting apprenticeship, Eaton was
at last made a freeman of London and entered upon the
career of a merchant in the Eastern trade, then centered
in the Baltic provinces. He was eventually elected
deputy governor or managing director of his trading
company, and amassed a considerable fortune. After re-
siding at the court of Denmark as agent of the king of

104

S 105

to the of to

England an of In

he a "most and

happily until her sud-
den death, left her
distracted
two infant children.

Eaton, now a mer-
chant of wealth and
reputation in London,
had come to epitomize
the more conservative of
the prosperous middle-
class tradesmen of the
time, who had become
attached to the Puritan
wing of the Established
Church. He had re-
ceived from his pious
parents all the advan-
tages that careful in-
struction by competent
private tutors afforded,
and was a broadly edu-
cated gentleman. He
was well versed in the
classics, in Roman law,
and in the languages of
the Low Countries. An
attractive personality,

pleasant manners, and an unusual business ability, with
the advantages of extensive travel on the Continent,
permitted him to move in the better circles of the small
London society of the time. He was a member and active
parishioner of Davenport's in the fashionable St. Stephen's*

EATOH

First Governor of New Haven Colony.
ftml Wftylftmi Btritfett, Sculptor.

1Q6 CONNECTICUT

For his second wife, Eaton espoused the "Prudent and
Pious Widow" of David Yale, who brought to her new
husband the family homestead at Great Budworth in Den-
bighshire, two sons, Thomas and David, Jr., both well es-
tablished as merchants, and a daughter Anne. All three
children held their stepfather in affectionate regard and
later emigrated to New Haven with him. (David became
the father of Elihu Yale; Anne married Edward Hopkins.)

In the meantime John Davenport, who had become an
extremely popular preacher in London and was a recog-
nized Puritan leader, had fled to Holland to join other
English Separatist refugees, with whom he spent three
wretched years. This exile of his lifelong friend greatly
disturbed Eaton who had cherished, for some time, com-
mercial ambitions in New England. As he was also a mili-
tant churchman, the proposal to emigrate there became
attractive. Correspondence with the distracted and dis-
contented Davenport, inviting him to become the spiritual
leader of the party, found a ready acceptance. These facts
helped to determine Eaton to assemble in London what
proved to be the last of the groups of the great Puritan
emigration, of which he was the principal shareholder.
With a considerable company of merchants and tradesmen
with whom he had associated in London, and his entire
family, he set sail in April, 1637, in his forty-seventh year,
in the ship Hector, Davenport having joined them early
in that year.

The party arrived in Boston Harbor on June 26,
where they were cordially welcomed by John Cotton, an
old friend of both leaders, who urged them to settle there.
Eaton was made a magistrate, while Davenport and
Eaton's younger brother were honored with appoint-
ments connecting them with the newly formed college
in Cambridge. But Eaton, despite this hospitable re-
ception, was determined to establish a commercial colony

i7

of his of the

of the of his

company In Cod and

Sound. He at the of

Haven and was the be-

tween the "Red Rocks," and on this as the

location for the a few

men there, he returned to his

and on April 10, 1638, the

They landed by the old at the of

George and College Streets. Properly and to

observe their first Christian Sunday the day
landing Davenport under a oak

on the temptations of the

Eaton now set about fulfilling Ms to

lish an impressive trading metropolis^ ob-

ject in view he disclosed his to John a

young surveyor and member of the company.
laid out the town plan in a half-mile
into nine equal squares, the innermost of which, con-
taining some sixteen acres (now called the Green),
to become the market place of the plantation. The se-
questration of so large a tract for public use the
scope of the undertaking and the wise and literal
thought of Eaton. This market place was the in
all New England, and the Green will forever remain an
enduring memorial to the vision of the immortal
of New Haven, the first man in all the New World to
visualize and complete a definite city plan.

As a result of the meeting held the following year, June
4, 1639, in Robert Newman's bam, a church-state was
created in New Haven, with Theophilus Eaton elected
as governor and John Davenport the pastor. Under the
leadership of Governor Eaton, New Haven existed for
a quarter of a century, without authority derived from

ICE

charter grant and without the recognition of any superior
earthly power - - the solitary instance of an absolutely
independent state on the American continent.

Within a few years the village had spread over the
nine squares with some hundred and twenty comfortable
homes. Governor Baton's house, located on Elm Street
just below Orange, and across from Davenport's, was a
famous one, in the English country style of a capital "E, "
its two ells forming a small court facing the street. The
front door opened directly into a great "hall" where the
Colony Court sat in front of a yawning stone fireplace
for its stated sessions. In this stately house, in which
thirty persons resided, Governor Eaton was accustomed
to spend most of his day, reading and at his devotions,
and dealing out justice in accordance with the Mosaic
law.

Governor Eaton organized the entire defense program
of the colony and in due time added the nearby planta-
tions to the original colony, terming the alliance "New
Haven Jurisdiction/' with legislative headquarters at
New Haven. He started a trade with Boston, Virginia,
and even with the distant Barbadoes, Bermuda, and the
Azores. When traders of the Delaware Company, which
he organized to promote a settlement on the Delaware
River, attempted to settle there, they were attacked by
the Dutch who burned their cabins, arrested them, and
confiscated their goods. Largely as a result of this incident
(1640), there was brought about the formation of the
United Colonies of New England at Boston in October,
1643.

In 1646 Governor Eaton made a final attempt to re-
coup the Delaware losses by sending a " Great Shippe"
on a voyage to England. The entire free capital of the
colony over 5000 and seventy of the ablest men
were risked in this venture; but the " Great Shippe"

iflp

at sea This

pleteci the of the

ended Governor Eaton's to a

mercial metropolis.

From this time on Ms in 1657, life in the

colony of New Haven for a

history of disappointments. The of

skins and furs, the of the the

lessening trade, and the of the of

government so dear to all of

union with the Connecticut to

the bitter complaint of their **Chii$t*s

in New Haven Colony was miserably lost." The
were considering returning the to a

new Puritan home in Ireland, but Governor
past the age when such a project was tenable,
to remain in the dream city that he loved.

Shortly after having attained his sixty-eighth year t
Governor Eaton fell ill, stricken with a malady to
he peacefully succumbed in Ms sleep, beloved,
and respected the ** Glory and Pillar" of New Haven
colony. His tomb rests but a few hundred yards
the site of his stately mansion and carries his epitaph,
composed by Cotton Mather, **New England's Glory,
full of warmth and light, stole away (and said
in the Night."

EZEKIEL CHEEVER

Emerson: ** It does not matter so much what you study as with whom
you study."

RAYMOND R. MCORMOND

Head Master, Westminster Scko@l, Simsbury, Connecticut

Ezekiel Cheever was the personification of the successful
teacher and one who did much to mold the characters
and future careers of boys destined to become notable
figures in our country's history. Cotton Mather said of
Mm In a sermon preached after his death: "Do but name
Cheever, and the Echo straight Upon that name, Good
Latin, will repeat." Cheever was a distinguished figure
especially in his later years, having "a long white beard
terminating In a point.'* It was said of him that "when
he stroked this beard to the point, it was a sign for the
boys to stand clear." He lived to be ninety-four years
of age and had the distinction of having served seventy
years as a schoolmaster, during which time he was "skill-
ful, faithful, and painful."

Ezekiel Cheever was bom in London, January 25, 1615,
the son of William Cheaver, a linen draper. Little is
known of his early education, but he studied at Christ
Hospital in 1626, and entered Emmanuel College, "that
Seminary of Puritans," as Cotton Mather called it, in
1633. He arrived in Boston in June, 1637, but stayed
only part of a year there.

Cheever began his remarkable teaching career at New
Haven in the only school which was opened during the
first year of the colony. The pastor, Mr. Davenport,
together with the magistrates, decided "what yearly allow-
no

Ill

is to be 10 it out of the of

the town." In 1641, a and of

was

His in in

where he was of the to

He had six children by Ms
is not recorded), one of in

In 1639 Cheever in the

pact for civil and He

as one of the twelve "godly ? * to the

"seven pillars" of the First Church, Dr.
"sey Bacon, in his "Historical of

in I860, declared that Ezekiel was the

picturesque character in the history of the
colony. He was a member of Court for the
in the first session and a deputy to the
in 1646. The office of deputy was an important
since there being no written code of laws, the Court
determined all personal differences.

In 1649 Cheever was censured for failing to vote for
clearing certain elders of i4 partiality and usurpation "
was accused of "uncomely gestures and carriage
the church." His arguments were so stroag
caused considerable uncertainty on the part of Davenport
and others. Cheever's superb independence of is

reflected in his declaration, upon dissenting from the Judg-
ment of the church: "I had rather suffer anything from
men than make shipwreck of a good conscience, or go
against my present light/*

While in New Haven he wrote TM Accidence, a short
introduction to the Latin tongue, which prior to 1790
had passed through twenty editions and was for more
than a century the handbook of most of the Latin schools
of New Engknd. He was a schoolmaster in New Haven
for a period of twelve years. In December, 1650, he

112 CONNECTICUT

moved to Ipswich, Massachusetts, where he stayed eleven
years. There he made a free school ''famous In all
the country/' thus causing Ipswich to rank in literature
above other towns in the county of Essex. Three years
after the death of his first wife (1649), he married, at
Ipswich, Ellen Lathrop, by whom he had four children.

He next moved, in November, 1661, to Charlestown,
where he resided for nine years more, despite the difficulty
he sometimes encountered in collecting his "salary." He
moved to Boston on January 6, 1670, to begin thirty-eight
years of faithful service as master of the Boston Latin
School. His work there was largely responsible for the
fame which that institution long after enjoyed. Gov-
ernor Hutchinson of Massachusetts was one of Cheever's
pupils in Boston, as were most of the principal men in
the city at the time of his death, August 21, 1708.

In spite of the comparatively meager records which
we have of it, the importance of Ezekiel Cheever's influ-
ence in education throughout the early life of New Haven
colony and of New England can hardly be overestimated.
His position was that of one of the founders and earliest
leaders in education in Connecticut and Massachusetts,
his activity covering the territory now occupied by the
two most important of the New England universities,
Yale and Harvard. Another fact which must not be
overlooked is the remarkable popularity of Cheever's
most prominent work, The Accidence. This book went
into classrooms all over the country wherever Latin
was studied. In this way the work of Cheever extended
in many directions and in many places where the man
himself could not go. Many of the subsequent Latin
grammars had this Accidence for their foundation. A
debt of gratitude is owed to this magnificent school-
master for his encouragement and organization of the
study of Latin at a time in our country's history when
such things were the exception rather than the rule.

PART TWO'

.LEADERS IN A CENTURY OF
1663-1763

William Leete in Ms the of

the two Connecticut for he

cessively as governor of New of the

united colonies of New Haven anil Fa-

more than forty of Connecticut's tie

was a public figure of consequence,
tinuously from the time he landed in he

He was born in Dodington in Huntingtonshire,
land, probably in 1613, the son of John
Leete. He had the advantage of a and

was admitted in due course to the practice of He

joined the Puritan movement, and to escape
left England for America in May, 1639, with Ms wife,
Anna Payne, whom he had married in 1638*

He was the only lawyer of the Reverend Henry Whit-
field's company that founded Guilford in 1639. He be-
came immediately one of the **seven pillars" of the
plantation (secretary and wheel horse, in fact).

In 1643 he became a freeman of New Haven, and one
of the two magistrates representing Guilford in New
Haven colony. When the greatest landowners left Guil-
ford about 1651, he became also the custodian and ad-
ministrator of their property. This position, in addition
to his secretaryship, made him the commanding figure
there. From 1655 on, until New Haven joined Connect-
icut, he represented the colony in the New England Con-
federation. In 1658 he became deputy governor of New

113

114 CONNECTICUT

Haven, and, on the death of the incumbent, governor
(November 18, 1660).

The trial, sentence, and execution of a king (Charles I)
by his subjects had caused a profound shock to western
Europe, and the exception of the regicides and judges
from the Act of General Amnesty at the restoration of
the monarchy met with general approval. Two of the
judges, Edward Whalley and William Goffe, who were
of those who had not only tried the king, but also signed
his death warrant, escaped to New England. They landed
in Boston and sojourned thereabout until the Act of Pro-
scription became generally known, when they fled to New
Haven. There they lodged with John Davenport, the
minister.

On May 11, 1661, two king's pursuivants who knew
where to look for their quarry appeared at Acting Gov-
ernor Leete's house in Guilford, with a request for his
authority to arrest the fugitives. Leete parleyed and de-
layed, saying he must consult the magistrates of the colony.
"We told him how ill his Sacred Majesty would resent
such horrid and detestable concealments and abettings
and set before him the danger which by law is incurred
by anyone that conceals or abets traitors." While Leete
sparred for time a messenger was sent ahead to New Haven
to warn the judges. They escaped. The pursuivants
returned to Boston and reported to Governor Endicott
on May 29, making strong arraignment of Leete in par-
ticular. On that very day the freemen of New Haven
colony elected Leete their governor. Right or wrong,
he had done that daring and defiant thing which won the
approval of all in the colony who felt that they were
through with the mother country.

By 1661, Connecticut colony had so encysted New
Haven that absorption seemed the obvious next step.
Governor Leete, realizing this, wrote to Governor Win-

115

of as he was to sail for a

"I you and we one He

had

to "As for Mr,

Leete to It was his

the or of any of us In this

It was not by to his as

Governor, but to it."

Leete yielded to and for

the leader (the r61e to

in delaying union,
fell away to Connecticut

Haven, Guilford, Milford, in

there were determined minorities in of

As soon as union was effected, an

and on May 13, 1669, deputy of the

colonies.

King Philip's War of 1675 found Governor
weary, unwilling, and earnestly anxious to
took hold as acting governor on August 20. He
with characteristic energy and resourcefulness the
arming, and provisioning of Connecticut's quota of
provided for the defense of possibly
tions, and by following up the "fort fight" of
19, forever freed Connecticut from the Indian

In his day Connecticut grew but slowly, of

the religious restrictions that hedged the
Leete was soulfully in favor of this sort of restriction
and was usually in a strong position to promote it. Church
apart, he seemed to envision the colony as a sort of yeo-
man's paradise.

Some time after the death of his first wife, by whom
he had nine children, he married Sarah Rutherford, the
widow of a considerable landowner of New Haven. Fol-
lowing her death he took as his third wife the widow of

116 CONNECTICUT

a Hartford minister, Mary (Newman) Street. There
were no children by his second and third marriages.

His last years were devoted, in cooperation with the
other administrators of the colony, to measures of ad-
justment and recovery from the losses of the Indian war.
Before he died, April 16, 1683, he saw the elect people
at peace, established, growing naturally and surely at
the rate of a hundred estates a year.

SIR

VIOLA F.

Professor oj History,

Sir Edmund Andros, son of Ms

Elizabeth Stone, of the

turesque of England's early and at

the same time one of the of

Puritan bias have presented as an of the

first order.

He was bom on the island of Guernsey of a
blended the old French seigniorial the

Upon his father's death in 1674 Andros of

the seigniory of Sausmarez, and later the

of Aldemey.

Andros was trained for the army and military serv-
ice in the West Indies, in 1666, against the Dutch. Whether
through this sojourn or through family connections for
his wife was related to the Earl of Craven, a pro-

moter of colonial enterprises he became in

colonization. When the Earl, with Ms associates,
a charter for Carolina and adopted the Fundamental
Constitutions for its government, he saw to it that Ms
relative Andros had an estate. No one could have been
better fitted for participation in that most feudal of all
colonial projects than this young Guernsey soldier. An-
dros was made landgrave in 1672, and received four
baronies totaling around 48,000 acres of land. Unfor-
tunately the curtain of oblivion has been drawn on Ms
development of this estate.

It was not until 1674 that Andros altered the career

117

118 CONNECTICUT

by which he is test known, that of colonial governor.
Upon the restoration of New York to the English by
the Dutch, the Duke of York appointed him to be his
" Lieutenant and Governour" over the lands between the
Connecticut and the Delaware, the islands adjacent, and
territory in Maine. It was here that he first faced the
two most difficult problems of the colonial seventeenth-
century governor defense, and popular demands. No
colony of the time offered those problems in more acute
form than New York, exposed on the frontier to French
and Indian attack and seething within because the Duke
had denied his colonists what every other English con-
tinental colony had, a share in the government through
a representative assembly. These problems Andros met
with credit to himself and his master.

When the Duke of York became king in 1685, he se-
lected Andros as his governor in his new colonial experi-
ment, the Dominion of New England, a unit comprising
Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Plymouth, Rhode
Island and Connecticut, the disputed area south of Massa-
chusetts known as King's Province, and the county of
Cornwall, north of Maine. By the terms of the commis-
sion the government was placed in the hands of the gov-
ernor and council alone, and the former colonial boundaries
were obliterated.

Andros' policy of administration was determined for him
by instructions given him by the Lords of Trade, which
he conscientiously tried to follow. The program fore-
shadowed in these instructions shows an intention to
destroy the Puritan theocracy as it existed in most of the
New England colonies, and to remodel New England into
a royal province similar to those existing elsewhere in
English America. The innovation was the abolition of
a representative assembly, a fatal error for which King
James himself seems to have been largely responsible.

SIR KI>M!'-N1> 119

The its

Andros to the

in by of a

law. in to

ing such to be and

quelled the insurrection, the

administration. The of of

likewise the

gationalists who up to this a on

religion. Other policies of as the

ment of English law in the his

program of strengthening the
tary service for duties, Ms of

English legal customs, all to Ms In-

creasingly hard to bear. His to

of Connecticut's royal charter were in

by the action of members of the General Court
Wadsworth, who hid the charter and kept it in his
session until May, 1715.

When the revolution in England against II

place, the colonists seized the opportunity to overthrow
Andros, laying their revolt at the feet of William as a
tribute and appealing to Mm to restore their co-

lonial charters. The king, after long delay,
complied with these requests, although completely
erating Andros, and organized Massachusetts,, with Plym-
outh and Maine added, into a province half royal in
character. In Connecticut and Rhode Maud there was
a return to the old charter government, but In Connect-
icut the desire for it was by no means unanimous.

Andros, catapulted out of his New England post, was
now transferred to Virginia, a situation far more suited
to his capabilities. The elegant military Anglican seignior
found the Virginia cavaliers more congenial than the
Mathers and their Boston flocks. He became governor

120 CONNECTICUT

of the Old Dominion in 1692, and remained In that posi-
tion until 1697. Except for a brief Interim of two years,
1704-1706, when he served as lieutenant governor of
Guernsey, he spent the rest of Ms life In London, where
he died in 1714,

ALBERT CARLOS

, The

Among these who

of Hartford was William had

Cambridge, Massachusetts, the in

June, 1636. His seventh child, to Ms

second wife, Elizabeth (Stone), was

This Joseph we may picture as a
who was at once the pride and worry of his He

WADSWORTH HIDING THE CHARTER
From the lunette on the north front of the State Capitol, Hartford.

was fearless, impetuous, and apt to speak Ms mind what-
ever the consequences. As he grew into manhood, how-
ever, he so commanded the respect of his fellow townsmen
that he was frequently chosen to positions of honor and

121

122 CONNECTICUT

trust. He was made a freeman in October, 1676, and a
townsman the same year. Later, he served at various
times as townsman and in other offices, and on com-
mittees of the town, including that for the school, one
for the building of a "fortyfy cation," one for the estab-
lishment of a ferry across the Connecticut, and one "to
Eject by Law" persons who had taken possession of
certain lands claimed by the town. He is said to have
served as a lieutenant in King Philip's War. In May,
1685, he was first chosen a deputy from Hartford to the
General Court and he served in that capacity during
seventeen sessions.

Late in 1687, occurred the incident which has made
Joseph Wadsworth famous in history. For more than a
year King James II had been endeavoring to obtain by
surrender the abrogation of the charter granted to the
colony by his predecessor, Charles II, in order to make
the whole of New England into one royal government. To
all endeavors toward a surrender of her charter rights,
Connecticut had maintained a dignified but effective re-
sistance. Finally the king determined to take over the
colony and directed Sir Edmund Andros to annex it to
his Dominion of New England. Andros informed Con-
necticut of this decision and added that he was about to
Come and meet Governor Treat and other officials of the
colony. Andros came to Hartford late on October 31,
and on the same day the General Court met, and appar-
ently believing that further resistance was useless, closed
its records with the statement that on that day Andros
"took into his hands the Government of this colony of
Connecticut." The following day Sir Edmund, in the
presence of the public officials and numerous others, took
over the government. He doubtless knew that without
the charter or an official vote of surrender, his govern-
ment was only one of force. TrumbulUs History says

JOSEPH WADSWORTH 123'

that debate upon surrender was continued until after
candles were lighted, that suddenly they were extin-
guished, and when they were relighted the charter was
gone. It had been taken by Joseph Wadsworth and se-
creted, in a hollow tree since known as the Charter Oak.
This was the historical original charter, a portion of which
is now in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical Society,
and was the only one of the two existing charters that
was then in this country. Wadsworth retained the char-
ter until May, 1715, when the Assembly recognized his
"faithful and good services" by a grant to Mm for se-
curing it "in a very troublesome season when our Con-
stitution was struck at."

He was appointed lieutenant in September, 1689, and
in October, 1693, he is said to have prevented Governor
Fletcher of New York from reading his commission of
command over the Connecticut militia by ordering the
drums of his own command to be beaten. In October,
1697, Wadsworth was made captain of the north side
train band in Hartford, and exactly two years later he
was named by the Court as one of a continuing committee
to guard the interest of the colony in its undivided lands
and to detect illegal trading with the Indians for land.
Several times he met with the censure of the upper house
of the Assembly because of his criticism or the freedom
of his speech. Late in life he studied law and became
a practicing attorney. He was three times married and
at his death in 1730 left a comfortable estate to his chil-
dren.

ROBERT TREAT

ARTHUR ADAMS

Professor of English, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut

Among those of her citizens whom Connecticut delights
to honor, few stand higher than Robert Treat, founder
of towns, legislator, soldier, and governor of the colony.

He was born in Pitminster, near Taunton, Somerset-
shire, England, where the family can be traced for three
or four generations. He was baptized February 25, 1624-
25. He was the son of Richard Treat, whose wife was
Alice Gaylord. The father was an early settler of Weth-
ersfield, in 1641, and served as ensign, deputy to the
General Court, as governor's assistant, and was a grantee
in the charter of 1662.

The future governor first comes to our notice in con-
nection with the settling of Milford in 1639. Though
hardly more than fifteen years old, he is said to have
assisted in laying out the land in the new settlement.
About 1649 he married Jane, daughter of Edmund Tabb,
one of the founders of the church in Milford. She died
in 1703, and he married, secondly, Mrs. Elizabeth (Hol-
lingsworth) Bryan, born June 16, 1641; died January 10,
1706. She was a daughter of Elder Michael and Abigail
Powell of Boston, widow of Richard Hollingsworth and
Richard Bryan.

The records of the town of Milford and of the New
Haven colony are scanty for these early years of the
life of Robert Treat. It is evident, however, that he was
growing in favor with his townsmen and was prospering.
In 1653 he was chosen deputy to the New Haven colony

124

ROBERT TREAT 125

General Court from Milford, and in 1654 he was chosen
lieutenant of the Milford train band; in 1661 he was
chosen captain, and in 1673 was commissioned major.
In 1659 he was chosen an assistant and served till 1664,
when he declined to serve. In 1661 and 1662 he was
chosen a substitute commissioner to the United Colonies
of New England. When, in 1662, the Connecticut colony
received its charter, there was, as is well known, consider-
able opposition on the part of the New Haven colony
to the union which the charter provided; yet Robert
Treat did not cherish the animosity toward the Connect-
icut colony which was felt by so many of the New Haven
people. As a boy he had lived in Wethersfield; his father
was one of the grantees of the odious charter; and his
brothers and brothers-in-law were among its prominent
citizens. Treat saw that the union was inevitable, and
with great tact he assisted in bringing it about.

His sympathy with the New Haven theory of the re-
lations of church and state was strong enough to cause
him to become the leader of those who refused to remain
in Connecticut after the two colonies united, and who
founded a new town in New Jersey, where they could
manage their government in the way in which they be-
lieved. The new settlement was called Newark and was
settled in 1666. Robert Treat was town clerk, the largest
landowner, and for four years (1668-1672) the represen-
tative for Newark in the East Jersey Assembly.

In 1672 he returned to Milford, although it does not
appear that he had ever altogether severed his connections
with it. For example, there is no evidence that he sold
his lands there; most of his children remained there;
perhaps, too, he found New Jersey even less hospitable
to his theocratic ideas of government than Connecticut.
On his return to Milford, he was at once called on for
important and onerous public service. In anticipation

126 CONNECTICUT

of a threatened invasion of Connecticut by the Dutch,
he was elected an assistant, serving for three years; he
was commissioned major and was placed in command of
all the New Haven county forces, some 120 men; and
was next in command of all the Connecticut forces. The
threatened invasion did not take place and the militia
was permitted to return home. In 1675, when King
Philip's War began, Major Treat was placed in command
of Connecticut's troops and served most creditably. He
saved Springfield from the fate that had overtaken Deer-
field, and arrived in time to defeat the Indians in then-
attack on Hadley. He led the Connecticut troops with
great bravery in the attack on the Indian fort in the
swamp, December 19, 1675, and had much to do with the
decisive victory gained there.

In 1676, Robert Treat, hero of the Indian war, was
elected deputy governor, and served till 1683 when, on
the death of Governor William Leete, he was chosen
governor. He was chosen a reserve commissioner for
the United Colonies in May, 1678, later serving as com-
missioner, and in 1684 acting as president. In 1698,
because of advancing years, he declined further elec-
tions, but held the office of deputy governor for ten years,
retiring from public life in 1708, at the age of eighty-four,
rich in the esteem and love of the people.

When Sir Edmund Andros, royal governor of the
United Province of New England, came to Hartford in
October, 1687, he appeared before the governor and the
General Court and demanded the surrender of the Con-
necticut charter; it was placed on the table. Governor
Treat then arose to make a last plea. He rehearsed the
whole history of the colony and of the charter; indeed,
he spoke so long that it became dark and candles were
lighted. Suddenly they were extinguished, and when
.they were relighted, the charter had disappeared. An-

ROBERT TREAT 127

dros, of course, was chagrined; for though the people
of Connecticut could not prevent his taking over the
government, the charter had not been surrendered and
the great seal of the royal grantor was unbroken. Le-
gally, Andros was what he has always been called a
usurper. How much of the credit for the saving of the
charter is due to Governor Treat, none can say; but it
is difficult to believe that he was ignorant of the plot to
spirit away the precious document. In any case, he had
not surrendered the liberties of the people. He had the
great satisfaction of knowing that the English courts,
during the reign of William and Mary, declared the char-
ter valid and in full force and effect.

The active public life of Governor Treat practically
ended when he retired from the governorship in 1698.
Trumbull says of him: "Few men have sustained a fairer
character, or rendered the public more important services.
He was an excellent military officer; a man of singular
courage and resolution, tempered with caution and pru-
dence. . . . He was exceedingly beloved and venerated
by the people in general, and especially by his neighbors
of Milford where he resided." He died in Milford, July
12, 1710. There his grave may still be seen in the ancient
cemetery of that ancient town.

GERSHOM BULKELEY*
WALTER R. STEINER, M.D.

In the early history of New England the medical prac-
titioners can be divided into three groups: the regular
physician, the priest or clerical physician, and the em-
piric or charlatan. In the second group we can place
Gershom Bulkeley, for he did not give up preaching until,
by reason of the weakness of his voice, he was compelled
to devote himself wholly to medical practice.

He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, about the
year 1635, of distinguished parentage. His father, the
Reverend Peter Bulkeley, was driven from England on
account of his rigid nonconformity and he was "shut up"
in Concord. He was a man of great learning and piety,
while Gershom's mother was the daughter of Sir Richard
Chetwode. Gershom was graduated from Harvard with
one other, in the class of 1655, and shortly thereafter
began to study for the ministry. We do not know whether
he also studied medicine at this time. In 1661, after
several months' trial, he was called to preside over the
church in New London, but four years later he left on
account of some friction which arose from his opposition
to the "Half Way Covenant." On June 1, 1666, he was
called by the church in Wethersfield "to come and to be
helpful to us and to settle among us in the work of the
ministry/' Here he labored until 1667, when weakness
of his voice probably caused him to resign. Then he
removed to the other side of the Connecticut River and

* This account of Bulkeley is taken by permission from my article
upon him. (J. H. R Bull., 1906, XVII, 48-55.)

128

GERSHOM BULKELEY 129

settled in the town of Glastonbury. We have no records
pertaining to his medical career before the time of King
Philip's War, but we imagine he must have had some
attainments in medicine and surgery before then, since he
was sent as chirurgeon on three expeditions in that war
and was liberally rewarded for his services.

Four of his medical account books remain, and all bear
witness to the fact that his practice was a large one. His
patients came to him from Wallingford, Farmington,
Colchester, New Haven, Hartford, Middletown, and most
of the other leading towns in Connecticut; and from
Springfield and Northampton in Massachusetts. The
names therein entered for treatment show they belonged
to some of the most prominent families in both colonies.
From his books we learn that he dispensed in heroic doses
Winthrop's "sovereigne remedy," Rubila. He was not
licensed to practice medicine, however, before 1686, and
it is possible that he secured the license then so that he
could have legal power to collect his professional fees.
His library, which was most extensive, is now much
scattered and destroyed, but some of his books are pos-
sessed by Trinity College, while many more are now
owned by the Hartford Medical Society Library, having
been presented by Dr. G. W. Russell.

Some of Bulkeley's remedies were most nauseating, but
one against "ye wind collicke" is both amusing and in-
teresting. It was sent to his father by his father-in-law,
Mr. Charles Chauncey, a Harvard president, for the use
of his mother, who was much troubled with "ye wind
collicke." It was to "take a thicke toste of white bread,
toste it thorwly & leisurely on both sides browne; in the
meane time heate one-half pint of Muscadine or somewhat
more (or for want thereof of Sacke) on a pewter dish upon
a chafing dish of water, very hot, and put ye dry toste
into it, & let it drinke up as mch of ye Muscadine (or

130 CONNECTICUT

Sacke) over ye coales as it will receive and let this toste
be applied as hot to the abdomen as she can possibly en-
dure it, and let it lie on till it be cold." He thought Mus-
cadine was more effectual than Sacke and " never failing
in ye disease." This method clearly is used today in the
hot-water bottle or electric pad.

Bulkeley's opinions were much sought for by the Court
on account of his diagnostic acumen. His knowledge of
chemistry was most profound and his laboratory was well
supplied with apparatus and chemicals. He was the
master of several languages, and besides his knowledge
of theology, medicine, and law, he was a politician in the
noblest sense of that word. His pamphlets on "The
People's Right to Election" and "Will and Doom" attest
his firm belief in the divine right of kings.

On account of ill health he journeyed to Antigua in
the West Indies with his son, Charles, in 1681, and eight
years later he speaks in one of his pamphlets of his bodily
infirmity which caused him for "much more than twenty
years" to walk upon the very mouth of the grave. De-
spite his ill health, however, he continued to practice
medicine until his death, December 2, 1713, at the age of
seventy-seven. He is buried in the cemetery back of the
Congregational Church in Wethersfield, where his im-
posing tombstone can be seen. His books and manu-
scripts which concerned medicine and chemistry, as well
as his chemical apparatus, he gave to his grandson, Richard
Treat, on condition that he pursue the study of medicine.

Various views have been given of the character of Ger-
shom Bulkeley. Chauncey, in 1721, states, " I have heard
him mentioned as a truly great man and eminent for his
skill in chemistry," while Benjamin Trumbull viewed him
as "one of the greatest physicians and surgeons then in
Connecticut." But later John Hammond Trumbull and
Palfrey somewhat detracted from these previous estimates,

GERSHOM BULKELEY 131

for besides acknowledging "his natural ability, professional
learning, or general scholarship," Tnimbuli thought that
"his overwhelming self-importance, obstinate adherence
to his own opinions or prejudices, a litigious spirit, and
the peculiarities of his political creed" detracted from
his usefulness, while Palfrey notes that "he was always
a discontented and troublesome person."

SIR HENRY ASHURST
HARRIS E. STARR

Associate Editor, The Dictionary of American Biography

Sir Henry Ashurst was an English Puritan of wealth
and influence, who, as agent for Connecticut, did much
to prevent the annulling of the colony's charter by par-
liamentary enactment during the opening years of the
eighteenth century. The office of colonial agent was the
result of a natural evolution. Obviously, occasions would
arise when it was essential to the welfare of the colonies
that someone personally present their claims in England
and at first one of the colonists would be sent over. This
custom did not entirely cease, but in time it became
apparent that it was desirable to employ a permanent
representative there, some Englishman of ability and
influence, well disposed toward the colonies. His func-
tions were to represent the colony before the Privy Coun-
cil and Parliament, present petitions, secure royal approval
of colonial legislation, appear before the English courts
if necessary, oppose measures inimical to the interests
of his clients, and in some cases to perform fiscal
duties.

Sir Henry Ashurst was born in London September 8,
1645, son of Henry and Judith (Reresby) Ashurst. His
father, descended from an old Lancashire family, became
a successful London merchant and an alderman of the
city. He was a strong supporter of the Nonconformist
cause, a close friend of Richard Baxter, and gave much
to charity. His influence extended to the colonies, for
he was treasurer of the Society for the Propagation of

132

SIR HENRY ASHURST 133

the Gospel in New England and took a lively interest in
the work of John Eliot, apostle to the Indians.

The younger Ashurst shared his father's religious con-
victions and seems to have followed in his footsteps,
though he was more prominent in public affairs and at-
tained greater political influence. He married the Hon-
orable Diana Paget, daughter of William, fifth Lord Paget,
and built Waterstock House, Oxfordshire, which there-
after was the seat of the Ashurst family. From 1681 to
1695 he was member of Parliament for Traro. On July
21, 1688, he was made a baronet. He was again in Par-
liament from 1698 to 1702, this time for Wilton, Wilts.
By religious sympathies and political connections, there-
fore, he was admirably fitted to act as agent for the col-
onies.

When appointed agent for Connecticut, Ashurst had
for some time been representing Massachusetts. He prob-
ably assisted Fitz-John Winthrop unofficially, when Win-
throp was in England (1693-1697) for the purpose of
securing an opinion from the attorney-general on the
validity of the Connecticut charter. From about 1701
until his death, Ashurst was the permanent agent of
the colony, proving himself a shrewd and energetic guard-
ian of its interests. His most valuable service, perhaps,
was his effective opposition to the formidable attempt
to do away with chartered colonial governments. On
April 24, 1701, a bill was introduced into the House of
Lords declaring void the powers of government granted
by charter. It passed the second reading, but postpone-
ment of the third reading was four times secured, and
the session closed before the bill reached the lower house.
The fight continued, however, and on February 23, 1706,
a similar bill was presented to the House of Commons.
Ashurst' s opposition to the first had been potent, and he
was able so to use his influence with the Whig members

134 CONNECTICUT

as to prevent the progress of the second. "I have the
vanity to say," he wrote in 1706, "that if you had not
employed me you would have been in a sad condition
this day."

He died at Waterstock on April 13, 1711.

ELIHU YALE
HIRAM BINGHAM

President, National Aeronautic Association, Former United States
Senator, and ex-Governor of Connecticut

When Theophllus Eaton came to America and founded
New Haven, he brought with him his wife, the widow
of David Yale, and his three stepchildren, David, Thomas,
and Anne Yale. Anne married Edward Hopkins, a fellow .,
passenger on the voyage across the Atlantic, who later be-
came governor of Connecticut. Thomas remained in Con-
necticut for a considerable period and is wrongly held
by some historians to have been the father of Elihu. David
did not stay long in New Haven but moved to Boston,
where his son Elihu appears to have been born, April 5,
1648. The rigors of New England Puritanism did not
make a strong appeal to David and he returned to Eng-
land, taking his four-year-old son with him.

It is believed that Elihu was sent to the Merchant
Tailors' School in London, where his family's conserva-
tive religious ideas were sympathetically encouraged.
Through the influence of his father, Elihu secured a posi-
tion in the powerful East India Company in 1670. After
working in London for over a year, he was sent to Madras,
India, near which city the company had established in
1649 a fortified trading post known as Fort St. George.
Here, on his arrival June 23, 1672, Elihu began his work
as a "writer" or clerk. Because of his loyal, faithful, and
attentive service he was promoted in 1677 to the grade
of "factor/' this position enabling him to subscribe to
the building of an English church, St. Mary's, within

135

136 CONNECTICUT

the fort. In this church, in 1680, he was married to Hero-
nima de Paicta, a Portuguese, the widow of an English
bookkeeper. They had four children, David, Katherine,
Anne, and Ursula.

Elihu's work for the company was eminently successful,
and in several special missions which he undertook for
the firm he proved himself to be a good diplomat and a
shrewd trader. In 1684 he was appointed acting gov-
ernor, and on July 25, 1687, he was appointed governor
of Fort St. George and president of Madras. His happi-
ness upon this new honor was short-lived, for the next
year his little son, David, died. Had this son lived to
.perpetuate his name and fame, the arguments later used
by Cotton Mather to secure a gift for the Collegiate
School might not have had so much success.

During the time of his governorship, Elihu Yale ''pro-
moted the commercial prosperity of the vicinity in many
ways/' particularly by the importation of skilled Indian
weavers to whom he assigned land on which fifty families
of one of the most famous weaving castes built their
houses. This little fact is of particular interest to us be-
cause some of their products may have found their way
to Connecticut in the three "trunks" of valuable textiles
that Yale later sent to help establish the college. For
about three years he was fairly successful as governor,
but as was usual with East Indian governors, he incurred
the displeasure of the council and was removed in 1692.
He remained in Madras until his return to England in
1699. He settled in London but kept a country place in
Wales, near Wrexham.

He became known for the open-handed liberality with
which he scattered his gifts, and soon attracted the atten-
tion of a keen young American agent of the Massachusetts
colony, Jeremiah Dummer. To his friend, the Reverend
James Pierpont, Dummer wrote on May 22, 1711, "Here is

ELIHU YALE 137

Mr. Yale . . . who has got a prodigious estate, and . . .
having no son. ..." But Yale's "prodigious estate"
yielded the struggling Saybrook institution little more than
forty volumes during the next few years. However, the
removal of the college to New Haven, where Yale's father
and grandmother had spent some years, caused the in-
fluential Cotton Mather to write to Yale, November
14, 1717. This letter, ingeniously worded, adroitly sug-
gesting both spiritual and worldly advantages to a pos-
sible patron who had lost an only son, planted a seed which
bore important fruit. Contained in the letter was this
paragraph: "Sir, though you have your felicities in your
family, which I pray God continue and multiply, yet
certainly, if what is forming at New Haven might wear
the name of Yale College, it would be better than a name
of sons and daughters. And your munificence might
easily obtain for you such a commemoration and perpetua-
tion of your valuable name, as would indeed be much
better than an Egyptian pyramid."

Fortunately, Agent Dummer continued his activities
in behalf of the college, and in 1718 three trunks of tex-
tiles, muslins, calicoes, poplins, silk crepes and "camletts"
were presented by Governor Yale to the school that was
to bear his name. They were sold in Boston and New
Haven at an advance of about 200 per cent and yielded
the trustees 562 12s. This was a large amount of money
to be received from a single individual, and when Dummer
assured Governor Saltonstall "that what he (Yale) now
does is very little in proportion to what he will do . . .,"
the trustees hastened to change the name of their "Col-
legiate School" to "Yale College." No bales of choice
textiles ever secured greater immortality for their quon-
dam owner!

When Jeremiah Dummer gave Governor Yale the news
that the college had been named after him, he seemed

138 CONNECTICUT

**more than a little pleased with his being patron of such
a of the muses/ 7 The personal vanity of the illus-
trious and wealthy ex-governor of Madras was further
gratified when the tactful Mr. Bummer suggested that
a portrait be painted and sent with more books and some
"mathematical instruments." The portrait, a full length
by Zeeman, was sent, along with goods valued at 100.
Elihu Yale was now seventy-three, and although he
promised Duxnmer to send the college 200 a year during
his life and to endow it at his death, he was forgetful.
When Dimmer called to "refresh his memory," the old
gentleman asked for a month's time to get things ready
to ship. Unfortunately for Yale College, he did not live
much longer and died July 8, 172L He was buried in
the church he had befriended at Wrexham. His epitaph
contains this quaint summary of his life;

Born in America, in Europe bred,

In Afric' travelled, and in Asia wed,

Where long he liv'd and Thrived, at London dead.

Much good, some ill he did; so hope all's even,

And that his soul, through Mercy, 's gone to heaven.

GURDON SALTONSTALL

CHARLES EDWARD PERRY

The year 1708 was one of special significance In the
religious history of Connecticut, for on the first day of
that year Gurdon Saltonstall took the oath as governor
and became the first clergyman ever to occupy that office
in the colony. In the fall of the same year, the General
Assembly endorsed the "Saybrook Platform," which pro-
vided for grouping together into consociations all the
churches in the colony. The action of the General Assem-
bly amounted to a virtual recognition of Congregation-
alism as the official religion of Connecticut a situation
that continued for over three-quarters of a century.

Gurdon Saltonstall was born in Haverhill, Massachu-
setts, March 27, 1666, the oldest son of Nathaniel, and
great-grandson of. Sir Richard Saltonstall, who was first
associate of Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts
Bay in 1630, and one of the patentees of Connecticut.
Gurdon was a precocious youth, entering Harvard College
when he was fourteen and graduating in 1684. He spent
the next few years studying with local clergymen, preparing
for the "ministry. He accepted the invitation of the First
Church of Christ in New London to become their pastor
and was ordained with great ceremony, November 19,
1691. He was given an appropriation by the town to erect
a home " suitable to his dignity/' and a dosed highway was
reopened for his private accommodation. By reason of his
scholarly sermons, his store of general knowledge, and his
dependable judgment, he soon became a figure of impor-
tance in the community. He was married three times,

139

140 CONNECTICUT

five children bom to each of his first two wives

six girls and four toys. One of the sons, Gurdon, became
a brigadier general in the continental army.

After 1698, when Pitz-John Winthrop became governor,
SaltonstalTs fame spread throughout the colony. Win-
throp, who was a member of SaltonstalTs congregation,
made his pastor his confidant in matters temporal as well
as spiritual. When Winthrop died in 1707, the Assembly,
recognizing SaltonstalTs ability and his acquaintance with
the affaire of the colony, appointed him governor. A
committee of notables journeyed to New London to in-
duce Mm to accept the office. The taking of a clergyman
from his high calling for the less exalted career of politics
was unprecedented and provoked some adverse comment.
To help overcome the hesitation of the governor-elect
to desert his calling and Ms parish, the Assembly made
a small gift to the New London church to aid it in finding
another minister, and Gurdon Saltonstall took the oath
as governor. His appointment was confirmed by elec-
tion by the voters in May, 1708, and he was reflected
annually thereafter until his death. Soon after he was
first chosen governor, he built an imposing mansion on
Lake Saltonstall on the Rosewell estate belonging to
the family of his second wife where he spent the major
part of each year with his family.

Governor Saltonstall's experiences in the ministry had
made Mm favor a sterner ecclesiastical discipline." It is
not strange, therefore, that he approved the "Platform"
which the synod of ministers and laymen drew up at
Saybrook, September 9, 1708; it may even be that his
favorable attitude influenced the Assembly in its action.

At the October session of the Assembly that year,
Thomas Short of Boston became the authorized printer
of the colony for a period of four years, on the condition
that "he shall set up a printing press in tMs Colony/'

GURDQN SALTONSTALL . 141

The press, the first in Connecticut, was set up in New
London, probably in the home of Governor SaltonstalL

SaltonstalFs early years as governor were filled with
problems occasioned by Queen Anne's War: repeated
requests for troops for expeditions against Canada, the
supplying and equipping of these troops, the raising of
revenue, and the preservation of the credit of the colony
in the face of these exactions. Boundary disputes with

THE SALTONSTALL MANSION, BRANFORD
As it appeared in 1882. From an old drawing.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York had to be
considered. It was only after the Treaty of Utrecht that
the colony had a respite from the excessive taxes and
levies of troops that the war had imposed, and the gov-
ernor experienced his first relief from the pressure of
war-time responsibilities. Before this relief came, how-
ever, the demands upon his time and energies wore to be
increased, for in 1711, at the May session of the Assembly,
a Superior Court of Judicature was created, and Governor
Saltonstall was appointed to serve as "Chief Judge of the
said Superiour Court ... for the year ensuing* ' Con-

142 CONNECTICUT

necticut's first chief justice. This appointment was a
fine tribute to the governor's integrity and capabilities,
which had already recognized and which the passing
years continued to confirm.

Perhaps the most exciting incident of SaltonstalFs ten-
ure as governor occurred in 1718. He had been a generous
patron of Yale College since its founding, belonging to
that faction which favored its location in New Haven.
The trustees, having decided to remove the college to
New Haven, encountered opposition to the removal by
the people of Saybrook and so appealed to Governor
Saltonstall. He convened Ms Council at Saybrook and
ordered the sheriff to seize the books comprising the li-
brary in effect, the college and take them to New
Haven. Although the officer encountered some resist-
ance, he was able to get the books into carts under guard;
but next morning he had to repair the carts and find new
horses before he could start for New Haven. Along the
route he was annoyed by the gibes of those who opposed
the removal and was delayed by the destruction of many
of the bridges. It is hardly surprising that he arrived
at his destination with 260 books less than he had loaded
into his carts. Because of the part Governor Saltonstall
had taken in enforcing this removal, there was an unsuc-
cessful attempt to prevent his election in 1719.

In 1722, in a debate on the merits of episcopacy before
the trustees of Yale, the governor opposed Rector Timo-
thy Cutler, who upheld episcopacy; both gentlemen
claimed the victory.

Except for the routine of his position, the dosing years
of Governor SaltonstalFs career ware singularly unevent-
ful. Although throughout his life he had enjoyed vig-
orous health, he died suddenly of apoplexy in New London,
September 20, 1724.

TIMOTHY CUTLER
REMSEN BRINCKERHOFF OGILBY

President, Trinity College, Hartford* Connecticut

Timothy Cutler was the first Harvard man to cause
consternation at Yale. That in itself should be a claim
to fame and yet as a matter of fact Ms name is prac-
tically forgotten in New Haven, and absolutely imknown
in Cambridge.

He was bom of distinguished parentage in Charles-
town, Massachusetts, on June 1, 1684, and graduated
from Harvard in the class of 1701. With a keen mind
and a zeal for truth he early acquired a reputation through-
out New England for his preaching and scholarship. So
effective was he in Ms first parish at Stratford, Connect-
icut, that when the trustees of Yale decided in 1716 to
locate the college at New Haven, after sixteen somewhat
desultory years on the Saybrook foundation, Cutler was
a natural choice as the second rector of Yale, the first
on the new site.

All might have gone well with him in that high office if
it had not been for the Yale library. Cutler, unlike the
typical college president today, seems to have had time
to read books; and once established in Ms new tasks, he
began to read eagerly in the collection of eight hundred
books wMch were the nucleus of the college. By what
process books on Episcopalian ordination came to be in-
cluded among those volumes it is hard to say; probably
the original donor of the library, the pious Dummer of
London, little knew what theological dynamite he had
sMpped across the seas. Suffice it to say that Rector

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144 CONNECTICUT

Timothy Cutler, Tutor Daniel Brown of the faculty (in
fact the whole faculty), and the Reverend Samuel Johnson,
pastor of a neighboring parish, read and discussed those
with avidity. They finally became convinced by
their reading and reasoning that their status as Congre-
gational pastors, with no authorization for their office
beyond a commission from a group of laymen, was un-
tenable, and that they must secure Episcopal ordination.

The little town of New Haven, proud indeed of its new
honors as being the seat of an institution of higher learn-
ing, was beginning to develop that favorite pastime of
all college towns - gossip. Word began to spread that
there might be doubts as to the orthodoxy of the newly
appointed head of the college. A rumor to the effect that
Rector Cutler and Tutor Brown had had nocturnal con-
versations with one Pigot, missionary of the venerable
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts, episcopally ordained (and therefore of course sus-
pected of being in league with the Pope), caused real
consternation. Two Connecticut divines wrote to Cotton
and Increase Mather in Boston as follows: "How is the
gold become dim I Our school gloried and flourished under
its first rector, the Reverend Mr. Pierson, a pattern of
piety, a man of modest behaviour, of solid learning, and
sound principles, free from the least Arminian or Epis-
copal taint, but it suffered a decay for some years, be-
cause of the want of a resident rector. But who could
have conjectured, that, its name being raised to Collegium
Yalense from Gymnasium Saybrookense, it should groan
out Ichabod, in about three years and a half under its
second rector, so unlike the first, . . ."

Governor Saltonstall, himself a noted theologian, called
a meeting of the Corporation of Yale, and there was a
great to-do. Theologians from all over the colony hurried
to New Haven for the defense of the faith against these

TIMOTHY CUTLER 145

young "upstarts/ 5 but It was of little use. The 4 *up-
starts" defended their horrid fallacies with such diabolic
logic that they sounded frightfully like truth. There
seemed no other way out; this young Harvard man
be ejected. The trustees of Yale voted that the Reverend
Mr. Cutler be excused from further services as rector of
Yale.

Fired by zeal resulting from this ordeal, Timothy Cut-
ler, Samuel Johnson, and Daniel Brown set sail from
Boston for England, November 5, 1722, to seek Episcopal
ordination. Such a trip was a real adventure in those
days. Landing at Ramsgate after a stormy voyage, they
went to Canterbury, where the kindly dean, Dr. Stanhope,
entertained them until they took coach for London. What
an impression those first services in Canterbury Cathedral
must have made upon these young men! After the plain
and simple services in the churches in the wilds of New
England, the massive architecture of the cathedral, the
music, and the appurtenances of worship must indeed
have uplifted their hearts.

They were well received in London. Bishops and dig-
nitaries showed them every possible courtesy, and prepara-
tions were soon under way for their ordination, which
was unhappily delayed as Cutler was laid low with a
severe case of smallpox. He recovered, however, and in
March, 1723, he and his two friends were ordained in
St. Martin's-in-the-Fields by the Bishop of Norwich, dele-
gated to that responsibility by the aged and infirm Bishop
of London, Dr. Robinson. The joy of the little group
over realizing the goal of their endeavors was shortly
turned to sorrow when Brown, after preaching one sermon
as a duly ordained clergyman of the Church of England,
was seized with smallpox and died.

Plans for the return to New England were now made.
Johnson was to return to Stratford and Cutler was given

146 CONNECTICUT '

the charge of Christ Church (the old North Church) In
Boston, a newly organized parish. After visits to Oxford
and Cambridge, where the university authorities con-
ferred upon Cutler the degree of Doctor of Divinity,
they sailed for their new tasks on July 26, 1723. During
the long and perilous journey of Timothy Cutler to Eng-
land to seek ordination, the adherents of the Church of
England in Boston supported his wife and children and
gave Mm a warm welcome on his return.

Of the long rectorship of Dr. Cutler at Christ Church,
much might be said. Dr. Myles of King's Chapel was a
leader in Boston, and as the rector of the mother parish
of which Christ Church was an offshoot, he proved a
staunch friend. Controversy waged hot during those
years, and Dr. Cutler was always ready with sermon and
pamphlet to do battle for his cause.

In view of his relations with Yale, it is interesting to
note that he was barred from taking the place on the
Board of Overseers of Harvard College to which he con-
sidered himself entitled by reason of being a "teaching
elder " of one of the churches in Boston. Up to the time
of his difficulties as rector of Yale, in 1722, the ministers
of the Church of England in Boston had been invited to
sit with the overseers, but after that time they were con-
sidered as tainted with heresy. So the second rector of
Yale, a Harvard graduate, found every way blocked to
being considered a fit person to sit in the councils of his
alma mater.

He died in August, 1765, at the advanced age of eighty-
two, sincerely mourned by his little flock.

JONATHAN EDWARDS
ROSCOE NELSON

Minister Emeritus of the First Ckurck in Windsor

On the twenty-ninth day of September, 1659, Esther
Warham, youngest daughter of the Reverend John War-
ham of Windsor, became the wife of the Reverend Eleazer
Mather, pastor of the church in Northampton, and after
his death, married his successor, the Reverend Solomon
Stoddard. One of the numerous children of this union,
also named Esther, came from Northampton to Windsor
to grace the manse of the Reverend Timothy Edwards,
first minister of the newly established parish on the east
side of the Great River, now the town of South Windsor.
Into this household came ten daughters and one son, Jona-
than, born October 5, 1703, who became widely famous
as a theologian, preacher, philosopher, and mystic.

Jonathan's father, Timothy Edwards, for more than
sixty years pastor of the church to which he was called
in his youth, was a man of marked personal gifts as well
as more than usual breadth of learning. But it was prob-
ably to his mother that Jonathan was "chiefly indebted
for his intellectual inheritance/' In her education, Boston
had supplemented the cultural privileges of Northamp-
ton. In person she is described as "tall, dignified, and
commanding in appearance, affable and gentle in her
manners, and regarded as surpassing her husband in
native vigor of understanding." She combined a rare
gift of mental penetration with those "religious affec-
tions" which were the theme of an elaborate treatise
by her gifted son. Jonathan's preeminence as a thinker,

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148 CONNECTICUT

matched by an equal distinction in the qualities that
the mystic and saint, marked him quite plainly
as the son of Esther Stoddard and grandson of the other
Esther of similar character*

Jonathan prepared for college in his father's home,
which was also a school in which the older daughters
pursued the same studies as their precocious brother.
He entered Yale at the age of thirteen, graduated with
Mghest honors, and remained for a two-year course in
theology. After a brief interval he returned to the college
and served two years in the office of tutor.

During his stay in New Haven he came to know Sarah
Pieirepont, the "angelic maiden " who later became his
wife. When she was thirteen years of age Edwards wrote
a description of her which reveals not a little both of the
author and of the girl whom he describes, in language of
which this is a brief sample: " She has a strange sweetness
in her mind and singular purity in her affections; is most
just and conscientious in all her conduct; and you could
not persuade her to do anything wrong or sinful if you
would give her all the world. . . . She loves to be alone,
walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have some
one invisible always conversing with her." The love story
of Jonathan and Sarah has been, not inaptly, likened to
that of Dante and Beatrice.

The real career of Edwards began when, at the age of
twenty-three, on the 15th of February, 1727, he was or-
dained and began his ministry as associate of his grand-
father Stoddard in Northampton. On the 28th of the
following July, he was married to Miss Pierrepont whom
he had praised with such rare eloquence four years before.

Fortwenty-three years Edwards continued in theservice
of the church in Northampton. There his eleven children
were born. Overshadowed at the beginning by his dis-
tinguished grandfather, not many years elapsed before

JONATHAN EDWARDS 149

the spoken and written words of Edwards spread Ms
throughout New England and beyond the sea. , Thomas
Chalmers, the famous Scotch preacher, said of Mm: "I
have long esteemed Edwards as the greatest of theolo-
gians, one who realized in his own person a most rare har-
mony between the simplicity of the Christian pastor and
the prowess of a giant in philosophy."

Under the ministry of Edwards the Northampton church
came to a notable distinction among the churches of New
England. During the " Great Awakening," the religious
movement of great intensity of which Edwards was a
principal creator and defender (1740-1745), Northampton,
according to Edwards, "was preeminently in this respect
a city set on a hill. ... A kind of Heaven upon Earth."

Wide fame, however, was no guarantee against paro-
chial troubles. Perhaps because of too severe strictures
upon the conduct of the younger people of the parish, a
bitter and determined opposition developed which resulted
in the pastor's dismissal on June 22, 1750. After months
of uncertainty as to the future he was called to Stock-
bridge, where for some eight years he was pastor of the
church and missionary to the neighboring Indians.

From the seclusion of this Berkshire wilderness he was
called to the presidency of the college of New Jersey at
Princeton, to succeed his son-in-law, the Reverend Aaron
Burr. There, about two months after his induction into
his new office, as a result of inoculation for smallpox,
he died on the twenty-second of March, 1758. His death
was followed six months later by that of Ms gifted wife,
to whom he had sent the following message by his daugh-
ter Lucy: "Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of
God that I must shortly leave you. Therefore, give my
kindest love to my dear wife and tell her that the uncom-
mon union which has so long existed between us has been
of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will

150 CONNECTICUT

continue forever; and 1 hope she will be supported under
so a trial and submit cheerfully to the will of God.

And as to my children, you are now like to be left father-
which I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek
a Father who will never fail you."

The numerous works of Edwards which in their day
exercised a boundless influence upon the thought and
life of New England, and far beyond, are now relegated
to remote shelves of libraries. Much of his theology, as
well as Ms sermons, belongs in the museum. But so long
as we admire supremest talents devoted to ideal ends,
and human personality combining in highest degree
strength and beauty, beyond the reach of praise or blame,
Jonathan Edwards, the man and the saint, will continue
to hold a place among the gratefully remembered of the
past.

ELEAZAR WHEELOCK
JAMES Dow MCCALLUM

Professor of English* Dartrnmlk CoUige

If Eleazar Wheelock had been merely pastor and re-
vivalist he would be unknown today. It was his decision
to teach the Indians, which ultimately led to the founding
of Dartmouth College, that places him in the front ranks
of American educators.

He was born in Windham, Connecticut, April 22, 1711,
the only male child of Ralph and Ruth (Huntintgton)
Wheelock. Details of his boyhood are lacking. In 1733
he was graduated from Yale College; the following year
he spent at Yale, continuing his studies. On April 29,
1735, he married Mrs. Sarah Maltby, widow of Captain
William Maltby of New Haven and daughter of the
Reverend John Davenpprt of Stamford. In June of the
same year he was installed as pastor of the Second (or
North) Society in Lebanon, where he served for thirty-
four years. During the "Great Awakening" (the reli-
gious revival which swept over New England, 1740-1745),
which coincided with the opening years of his pastorate,
he was an indefatigable itinerant preacher. Contem-
poraries accused him of encouraging the Separatists.
Undoubtedly Wheelock contributed to the emotional
excesses of the revival, and to that extent the accusation
is justified; on the other hand, as he affirms in his letters,
he condemned the Separatists for causing dissensions, and
supported consistently the Saybrook Platform.

According to Wheelock's plan for educating the Indians,
young Indian boys and girls were to be brought to Lebanon

151

152 CONNECTICUT

for Instruction. The boys to be trained in the rudi-
ments of a secular and religious education, and in fanning;
the girls were to be taught domestic arts. When suffi-
ciently accomplished, students were to return to
their homes as teachers. A few white students were also
to be accepted in the hope that they would familiarize
themselves with Indian ways and speech and later be-
come successful missionaries.

Two Delawares from New Jersey, who arrived at Leb-
anon December 18, 1754, were the first Indian pupils
in the school, called More s s or Moor's Charity School,
after Colonel Joshua More of Mansfield, who contributed
a house and a schoolhouse in Lebanon. Other Indians
were gathered from New England tribes and from the
Six Nations in New York; by 1765, Wheelock had received
at the school twenty-nine Indian boys and ten Indian girls.
In the same year he sent out eight Indians and two whites
as missionaries and schoolmasters to the Six Nations.

Various causes were responsible for the expansion of
the charity school into Dartmouth College. Principally,
Wheelock was disillusioned regarding the teaching of
the Indians; many of them were stupid, many sickened
and some died, others became drunkards. After the Fort
Stanwix Congress (1768) the Indians of the Six Nations
refused to send children to Lebanon. Moreover, Whee-
lock had at Ms disposal the sum of twelve thousand pounds,
sterling, which Nathaniel Whitaker and Samson Occom
had raised for the school in England and Scotland. With
his parishioners of the North Society Wheelock was having
difficulties; indeed, ever since his installation he and they
fretted about his salary, and he was seeking a dismission
from the parish. A change of location for himself and
for the school was therefore desirable.

A charter for Dartmouth College, dated December 13,
1769, was obtained from Governor John Wentworth of

ELEAZAR WHEELOCK 153

New Hampshire. That province by

Wheelock as the seat of the future college and the charity
school because of its proximity to Canada (whence
were to be recruited), the absence of any college within its
confines, the attractive offers of land and materials, and
the willingness of the governor to aid in obtaining a royal
charter. The college was named after William, second
Earl of Dartmouth, president of the board of English
trustees which supervised the fund raised by Whitaker
and Occom in England. Wheelock himself selected the
town of Hanover and persuaded his associates and Went-
worth to settle the college there. Thither he removed
his family and scholars from Lebanon in the year 1770.

Wheelock's correspondence, preserved in large part at
Dartmouth College, shows him to have teen most indus-
trious, overmeticulous with details, frequently irascible,
and jealous of his power. He was not a scholar, and aside
from the nine Narratives, in which he outlined the history
of his school, wrote nothing of importance. He married
twice: first, Mrs. Sarah Maltby, as noted above, by whom
he had six children; second, Mary Brinsmaid (Novem-
ber 21, 1747) by whom he had five children; of the latter
group a son, John, succeeded his father to the presidency
of Dartmouth College.

During the last years of his life Wheelock was busier
than ever before. He was president of Dartmouth College
and of Moor's Charity School, collected funds, preached,
taught, supervised farming operations and the buying of
supplies, hired laborers, served as justice of the peace,
and corresponded voluminously. He was constantly in
debt after 1774, in which year the English fund was
exhausted, and his health was poor (he suffered from a
severe skin disease, asthma, and stomachic pains) . Never-
theless he continued his labors with unabated energy
until his death, April 24, 1779.

154 CONNECTICUT

Wheelock have taught (with assistants) about

hundred fifty Indians, although the names of
less than one hundred are now recoverable. The failures
were more spectacular than the successes. His hopes for
them had been set too high, and the course of study,
which included Greek and Latin, was ill suited to a non-
descript group of Indians whose main recommendation,
aside from race, was the willingness of parents to send
them to school. Dartmouth College, accordingly, and
not Moor's Charity School, is Wheelock's monument.

ELISHA WILLIAMS
CHARLES W. BURPEE

Elisha Williams was influential in the life of Connect-
icut as a teacher, a clergyman, and a member of the Gen-
eral Assembly, but his greatest services were performed
as rector of Yale College at a time when leadership in
that struggling institution was sorely needed.

Elisha Williams, son of the Reverend William Wil-
liams, was born in Hatfield, Massachusetts, August 24,
1694. After his graduation from Harvard in 1711, he
studied theology with his father until about 1714, when
he removed to Wethersfield to study law. There he met
and married Eunice, daughter of Thomas Chester, a
worthy descendant of one of the founders of the town.
At about this same time he became a tutor of the "Col-
legiate School," holding his classes in Wethersfield and
attaining great popularity with the students. While the
whole colony, through its clergy, was much agitated over
the question of a final location for the school, Williams
was elected to the house of representatives (possibly
being drawn into politics because of his espousal of
Hartford's cause) where he served two annual sessions
as clerk.

Following this service in the Assembly he was stricken
with a severe sickness, and after recovering in 1720, he
became the minister of the newly formed Congregational
church in Newington. After four years of notable success
there he accepted the rectorship of Yale College, which
had been declined by four others. He was installed as

155

156 CONNECTICUT

rector in 1726, and under Ms the college again

prospered as it had formerly under Dr. Cutler's brief rec-
torship. Grants of land totaling fifteen hundred acres
were received in 1732 from the General Assembly, and
a gift from Dean Berkeley of Londonderry of his farm
in Newport and part of Ms library some nine hundred
books. In 1739, after thirteen years of service to Yale
in which he had raised the prestige of that institution.
Rector Williams was obliged to resign on account of his
poor health.

His health restored, he was again sent to the General
Assembly for two sessions and was chosen speaker. He
also was appointed a judge of the superior court. In
the spring of 1745, Williams became chaplain of the Con-
necticut regiment commanded by Roger Wolcott, which
joined with the other New Englanders in capturing Louis-
burg, the French "Gibraltar of America/* only to have
it returned to the French three years later by the Treaty
of Aix-Ia-Chapelle. Upon his return to Connecticut, Wil-
liams organized and became colonel of another regiment
with the purpose of invading Canada. The aid expected
from England in this venture did not materialize, and in
an attempt to press the claims of Ms soldiers for pay for
a year's furlough service, he went to England. There,
almost upon his arrival, he learned of the death of his
wife, May 31, 1750.

His errand proved fruitless and he found comfort in
the society of the Reverend Philip Doddridge, the hymn
writer, who introduced him to Elizabeth, the charming
and talented daughter of a dissenting clergyman, Thomas
Scott. They were married in Norwich, England, and re-
turned to Wethersfield in April, 1752.

Much of his time was now devoted to political service.
He was again sent to the Assembly, and in 1753 was act-
ing speaker. The same year he was a member of the com-

ELISHA WILLIAMS 157

mission to settle the Connecticut-Massachusetts

line, and in 1754 he was one of the three Connecticut rep-
resentatives in the famous but futile Albany Congress.

His varied and useful career was cut short by his death in
Wethersfield from cancer, July 24, 1755.

JARED ELIOT
WALTER R. STEINER, M.D.

Among the many names of those who deserve a place
In Connecticut's hall of fame, none Is more worthy than
Jared Eliot. Besides the ministry, he was actively en-
gaged as a physician during the whole period of his life,
being called frequently In consultation to Newport, Boston,
and other towns outside Connecticut. His inclination
to study medicine came probably from his grandmother
and mother-in-law as his father, the town physician of
Guilford, died when Jared was nine. President Stiles
declared that Eliot received his medical knowledge from
the Reverend Joshua Hobart, a learned man of Southold,
Long Island. From whatever sources he gained his knowl-
edge, Eliot was well versed in botany and was credited
with special skill In diagnosis, as well as in the treatment
of dropsy. He was the first American to be elected to the
Royal Society of London and was called by Thacher the
** father of regular medical practice in Connecticut/'

He was born in Guilford on November 7, 1685, son of
Joseph Eliot, the village pastor, and Mary, the daughter
of the Honorable Samuel and Ruth (Haynes) Wyllys of
Hartford. Eliot's grandfather was the famous apostle
to the Indians, John Eliot. Although reared in scholarly
surroundings, Jared did not early evince any indications
of his future career of usefulness. He was graduated from
Yale College with the A. B. degree in 1706, and was granted
an honorary A.M. by Harvard three years later.

While at Yale he attracted the favorable notice of its
rector, Abraham Pierson, who was also the pastor of the

158

JARED ELIOT 159

Killing-worth church. Just before his death, Pierson rec-
ommended Eliot as his successor and the
called him as pastor while he was teaching school in Guil-
ford. He was reluctantly released from his engagement in
Guilford, September 16, 1707, although he had entered and
engaged in the ministerial office in the church of Killing-
worth on June first. His ordination took place about two
years later. From then until his death on April 22, 1763,
he was pastor of the church and he is said never to have
neglected during forty years to preach a sermon on the
Sabbath. On October 26, 1710, he married Hannah
Smithson, daughter of Elizabeth, a famous midwife of
Guilford.

Much of Eliot's practice was gratuitous, and the treat-
ment of one of his parishioners, who was a neurasthenic
and an exasperating woman, was somewhat naive. He
could hardly pass by her house without being summoned
in to prescribe. He, being convinced that she was suffering
from imaginary ills and being given no peace from her,
pulverized an oily old pipe, prepared a mixture from the
powder with starch and sugar, and did up the powders
in neat papers. These he gave her with careful directions
for their use, and on the following Sunday she reported
that they had done her a world of good.

His fame grew with his years, and in 1730 he was ap-
pointed a fellow of Yale, in which office he continued
until his death. Although not always in sympathy with
the policies of President Clap, Eliot had great affection
for the college and in his will donated 10, the interest
of which was to be applied to the purchasing of books
for the library.

Jared Eliot was greatly interested in agriculture, and
in 1748 he wrote the first of his essays on "Field
husbandry in New England as it is or may be ordered."
Subsequently, he published five others with an index,

160 CONNECTICUT

concluding the in 1761. It was the first treatise

on agriculture published in this country.

He was interested in iron mines and thought that
he could obtain iron from the black sand on the beach in
Killingworth. To the workman in charge of his furnace
there, Eliot promised a barrel of rum to induce him to
make the test. The workman being a sober man "who
would use strong drink with moderation and temperance/*
finally, after painful waiting, produced malleable iron
from the sand. "Such/* says President Oilman, "in co-
lonial days was the spirit which promoted research."
Jared Eliot published the essay on "The Art of Making
Very Good, if not the Best, Iron from Seasand/' in 1762,
and was awarded a gold medal from the Royal Society of
Arts in London. Besides his interest in iron when he was
in Killingworth, he was one of the first to develop iron
mines in Salisbury, which, with the Killingworth iron,
did good service in the aid of the continental troops during
the Revolution. An additional interest was shown in his
planting of mulberry trees at Ms farm in Guilford for the
culture of the silkworm.

Eliot had a great many correspondents, including Bishop
Berkeley and Benjamin Franklin. It was probably be-
cause of Eliot's influence that Bishop Berkeley donated
his farm in Rhode Island and his books to Yale College.
Among the many stories extant about Eliot, those con-
cerning Benjamin Franklin are not without interest. On
one of Franklin's journeys between New York and Bos-
ton, which he made on horseback by way of the shore-
line road, it is said that one day in going past Mr. Eliot's
house the horse turned into the yard and refused to go
on. Eliot, noticing the occurrence, went to the door.
Dr. Franklin then apologized for the intrusion, explain-
ing that his horse was determined to stop and he could
not prevail upon him to go on. Mr. Eliot said, "The

JARED ELIOT 161

beast shows his wisdom and remembers where he
well treated. I once was his owner/' Subsequently,
Benjamin Franklin became very fond of Eliot and once
wrote him that " I remembered with pleasure the cheering
hours I enjoyed last winter in your company and I would,
with all my heart, give any ten of the thick old folios that
stand on the shelves before me for a little book of the
stories you then told me with so much propriety and
humor."

Jared Eliot had a family of eleven children: two daugh-
ters and nine sons, three of the sons, Samuel, Augustus,
and Joseph, being graduates of Yale in 1735, 1740, and
1742. All three of them practiced medicine, as did one
other son; four others became farmers and one a me-
chanic. The only daughter who survived infancy married
Dr. Benjamin Gale, the worthy successor of Jared Eliot.

Eliot's funeral sermon was preached by the Reverend
Thomas Ruggles of Guilford, who called him the "great
and venerable Dr. Jared Eliot." "His greatness con-
sisted in his wonderful power of accompanying a variety
of employments, the ministry of the Word, medicine, lit-
erature, the arts and sciences, the manufactures, with
such energy, skill, and harmony as to excel in each."

SAMUEL JOHNSON
CHARLES A. BEARD

Samuel Johnson was bom at Guilford, Connecticut,
October 14, 1696, threescore years after his great-grand-
father, Robert, left Kingston upon Hull In Yorkshire to
join the tiny settlement at New Haven. That Samuel
Johnson's footsteps toward a subsequent career in the
ministry might have been guided by ancestral and paren-
tal influences may be concluded from the fact that his
grandfather, William, and afterwards his father, Samuel,
were deacons of the church at Guilford.

Before Samuel was six years old his grandfather died,
but not without first having taught his grandson to read
which awakened in Mm a fondness for books and study
which characterized his whole life. At the age of eleven
he spent a year at Mr. Eliot's school at Guilford, until
that "man of parts" became a preacher at Killingworth.
Samuel later continued his studies under Mr. Jarnes an
excellent classical scholar educated in England and
made such progress, especially in Latin and Greek, that
at fourteen he was qualified to enter the college which
was then at Saybrook. There, moved by his propensity
for self-education, he disposed of his class duties with
dispatch and devoted his spare time to the study of He-
brew and other subjects. In 1714 he took his degree of
Bachelor of Arts, and at the age of eighteen he became
a tutor, holding his classes in Guilford. He continued
as a tutor when the college was moved to New Haven.
At the first commencement held there, September 12,
1717, h received the M.A. degree, and was selected,

162

SAMUEL JOHNSON 163

with Mr. Brown, to serve the college directly under the
trustees. Upon the sufficient completion of the
building in 1718, Mr. Johnson moved into the apart-
ments provided and set up housekeeping.

It had long been the desire of Mr. Johnson to enter
the ministry, and after being ordained in the Presbyterian
faith, he was established as minister in West Haven, March
20, 1720. The following two years were momentous ones
in his life, for they revealed a rapid transition taking
place in his thought. Meeting frequently at the college
with his friends, Cutler, Brown, and Wetmore, he reached
the conclusion that wherever the apostles propagated
Christianity, they established the episcopal form of church
government. This conclusion was a revelation which led
him and his friends to doubt the regularity and validity
of their own ordination. Despite the earnest efforts of
the trustees and Governor Saltonstall to compose the
difficulties, Mr. Johnson and his friends resigned their
places at the college to be free to go to England for or-
dination in the Episcopal faith.

The journey to England was commenced in November,
1722, and in the following March Samuel Johnson was
ordained, first deacon and then priest, and was assigned
to the mission at Stratford, Connecticut. Stopping off
at Oxford in May, and at Cambridge in June, Mr. Johnson
received the M.A. degrees from those universities. He
arrived at his post in Stratford November 4, 1723.

On September 26, 1725, he married Mrs. Charity Nicoll
of Long Island, daughter of Colonel Richard Floyd, and
widow of Benjamin Nicoll, by whom she had two sons,
William and Benjamin, and one daughter.

Mr. Johnson's work was divided between the routine
duties of the parish and his unceasing endeavors to ad-
vance the cause of the Church of England. His mission-
ary work and that of others in behalf of Episcopacy,

164 CONNECTICUT

contributed enormously to increase the number of ad-
herents of the faith, so that by 1736 there were more
than seven hundred Episcopal families in the colony.
A number of churches were built and a growing body of
young men conformed, received their holy orders, and
were assigned to serve newly established parishes. Re-
ports of Samuel Johnson's labors in behalf of the Church
penetrated to England, and he was signally rewarded in
February, 1743, by the grant of the degree of Doctor of
Divinity by diploma from the University of Oxford.

In 1753, by an act of the Assembly of New York, trus-
tees were appointed to establish a college there, and Dr.
Johnson, who had been frequently consulted, was ap-
pointed to the presidency of the college. This was King's
College, now Columbia University. On account of his
age, and because of his fear of contracting smallpox, he
accepted the appointment with the stipulation that he
might retire to the country whenever his discretion so
inclined him (a privilege he exercised several times).

During the period of his service at the college, Dr.
Johnson sustained a series of personal losses that bore
down upon Mm heavily. His younger son, William, died
in England in 1756. In the same month of June, two
years later, his wife died; and in April, 1760, her son Ben-
jamin Nicoll, upon whom Dr. Johnson looked as his own,
died at the age of forty-two. Notwithstanding his grief
over these events, he kept up his services to the improve-
ment of the college and the strengthening of the Estab-
lished Church in America.

On June 18, 1761, he married Mrs. Beach, the widow
of his old friend William Beach, whose daughter was the
wife of his own son; but the marriage was of brief du-
ration, for Mrs. Beach died of smallpox on February 9,
1763.

Dr. Johnson's advanced age and the crushing blows of

SAMUEL 165

so many losses among those dear to him to tell upon

him, and he determined to seek the peace to which a full
and serviceable life entitled him. He conducted his fifth
and last commencement at the college in May 1762, and
resigned in February, 1763. He retired to Stratford
where, with the help, subsequently, of an assistant, he
read prayers and preached twice each Sunday until De-
cember, 1767.

Always active in defense of the Church, he kept up a
wide correspondence during these years. He revised the
catechism and composed an English grammar for the
instruction of his grandchildren; both were published
in 1765. In 1767 he published in London a Hebrew
grammar. Although the civil relations between the mother
country and the colonies intervened before Dr. Johnson's
death to prevent the establishment of separate American
Episcopal bishops, nevertheless, in point of seniority, by
superior influence, and by the recognition and deferment
of his colleagues, Dr. Johnson was naturally placed at
the head of the Episcopal clergy in Connecticut.

Serene and happy in his retreat in the home of his son
in Stratford, and made all the happier by the return in
1771 of his son, Dr. William Samuel Johnson, who had
been in England as agent extraordinary for the colony,
Dr. Johnson died on January 6, 1772, and was interred
in the chancel of Christ Church in Stratford.

ROGER WOLCOTT
DANIEL HOWARD

of Schools, Windsor, Connecticut

It strange that one of the largest schools in Wind-

sor should be named in honor of a man who never at-
tended any school as a pupil in all his life, yet the Roger
Wolcott School enjoys that distinction. The man whose
name honors this school and who in turn is commemorated
by it, explains in his autobiography how it happened that
he never attended any school. His father, Simon Wol-
cott, was the son of Henry Wolcott, who had come from
England with John Warham to Dorchester, and later
removed to Windsor. Simon Wolcott became one of
Windsor's most distinguished and influential citizens,
serving many years in the General Assembly of Connect-
icut. Roger's mother, Martha Pitkin, was sister of Wil-
liam Pitkm, Esquire, of East Hartford, attorney-general
and treasurer of Connecticut. She was regarded as hav-
ing no superior in qualities and accomplishments among
the young ladies of the colony. Certainly the son of
Simon and Martha Wolcott could be expected to go to
the best school available.

Following the marriage of his parents on October 17,
1661, the family lived for ten years on the "Island," a
short distance southwest of the present Loomis Institute,
and owned land on both sides of the Connecticut River. In
1671 they removed to Simsbury to promote the settlement
of that town, and prospered until King Philip's War in
1675, when the Indians burned their buildings and ruined
their property. They returned to Windsor and rented a

166

ROGER WOLCOTT 167

home where Roger was born January 4 1679, at a
when his ** father's outward estate was at the ebb. "

The next year the family moved to South Windsor and
settled on the two-hundred-acre tract which they had re-
served when disposing of their land on the west side of the
river before going to Simsbury. The country was wild,
their neighbors were few, and they had neither church
nor school.

Although he was thus denied the opportunity for formal
education, Roger's parents took care to instruct him at
home with his brothers and sisters. When he was eight
years old his father died. Two years later his mother
married Daniel Clark, Esquire, and he wait with her to
her new home at Wilson, where Mr. Clark owned several
tracts of land, and very probably the little boy played
on the very spot where the Roger Wolcott School, named
in his honor, now stands.

He records that in the year 1690 his "mind turned to
learning." With his mother and his stepfather as guides
and teachers he made rapid progress. Four years later he
was apprenticed to a clothier with whom he remained
five years. His desire for an education now became the
controlling motive of his life. He borrowed books wherever
he could get them. He read than with care and interest.
His retentive memory made Ms mind a storehouse of
facts which his good judgment analyzed and made useful.

He made himself a man of outstanding ability and
public honors were showered upon him. In 1707 he was
chosen a selectman for the town of Windsor. Two years
later Windsor sent him as representative to the General
Assembly. In 1710 he was appointed a judge. The follow-
ing year he was sent as commissary with the Connecticut
troops that participated in the New England expedition
to Canada during Queen Anne's War. In 1714 he was
elected to the upper branch of the General Assembly. In

168 CONNECTICUT

1721 he became judge of the county court, and eleven
years later a judge of the superior court.

He took his place as one of Connecticut's earliest
writers of poetry by publishing, in 1725, Poetical Medi-
tations. Among his later published poems was an epic on
44 War with the Pequots."

He became deputy governor and chief judge of the
superior court in the same year, 1742. Three years later
he became a major general in the colonial army and not
only led the Connecticut troops in their successful expe-
dition against Cape Breton, but was also second in com-
mand of the united colonial forces that laid siege to
the fortress of Louisburg and compelled its surrender.
This made him the hero not only of Windsor but of all
Connecticut*

Six years later he was chosen governor and served in
that office for three years. In his public service he was
one of the most striking and impressive characters of his
time. He wore a flowing wig, a three-cornered hat with
a cockade, and a suit of scarlet broadcloth adorned with
gilt buttons and long gilt vellum buttonholes. He im-
pressed all with his dignity and authority.

After his retirement from public office he divided his
activities between the cultivation of his farm and the
reading of church history and theology, reserving liber-
ally of his time for the enjoyment of association with
his many friends. He died at the home of his daugh-
ter Elizabeth, wife of Captain Roger Newberry, in old
Windsor, May 17, 1767.

THOMAS FITCH
CHARLES EDWARD PERRY

The beginning of the last struggle between the French
and English for possession of North America found
Thomas Fitch in office as the newly elected governor
of Connecticut. His greatest services to the colony were
those he now rendered in meeting the emergencies that
continually arose during those memorable years of con-
flict. There were unusual expenses to be paid by issues
of bills of credit, extra taxes to be assessed and collected,
and appeals to be made to the British government for
money to reimburse the colony. All the additional burdens
of a war-distressed colony, as well as the repeated yearly
requests for ever-increasing levies of troops, he met with
an efficiency and a calmness that compelled admiration.

Thomas Fitch was born in the year 1700, in Norwalk,
Connecticut, where his great-grandfather, Thomas Fitch,
a descendant of Sir Thomas Fitch of Eltham, England,
had settled in 1639, and had become by 1665 the town's
richest planter. Thomas graduated from Yale College in
1721, receiving the Master of Arts degree and being listed
eighth in a class of fourteen, which testifies to his social
rating. During his college years he showed "a fondness
for ... some of the doctrines" of Episcopalianism, but
he remained a Congregationalist, even preaching in Nor-
walk several times when the church was without a regu-
lar minister.

He had already begun the practice of law in his home
town when his election to the General Assembly as a rep-
resentative from Norwalk marked the beginning of his

169

170 CONNECTICUT

career In public office. Between 1726 and 1740 he served
four terms as representative, six terms as justice of the
peace, and two terms as an assistant, continuing in the
last position until November, 1750. In May and Octo-
ber of 1742 he was appointed by the General Assembly
to work with Lieutenant Governor Wolcott, Jonathan
Trumbull, and John Bulkeley in revising the laws of
the colony. For reasons that cannot be ascertained, this
committee did very little work and in May, 1744, Fitch
alone was given the task. Four years later his completed
revision, regarded by English jurists as the finest colonial
code ever published, was turned over to the Assembly
and adopted. Fitch's accomplishment in revising the
laws prompted Timothy Dwight to call him "probably
the most learned lawyer who had ever been an inhabitant
of the colony/'

While this revision was going on, Fitch was attending
to his practice, serving as an assistant, and enjoying with
two others a fifteen-year monopoly of the manufacture
ofriron into steel. In 1738, 1742, and 1743 he took a lead-
ing part as one of five lawyers for the colony in the cen-
tury-old Mohegan case. Besides these activities, he served
on important boundary commissions, committees of war
(King George's War), committees to draw up petitions
to the king, and many others. The testimony of his fel-
low members and the amounts paid him for his services
both indicate that he did the bulk of the work on every
committee.

In 1750 he was chosen lieutenant governor (and chief
judge of the superior court, as was the custom) to re-
place Jonathan Law who had died; and in May, 1754,
Fitch had the distinction of being the first governor of
Connecticut ever to reach the office by defeating the
incumbent. This misfortune he, too, was to experience
a dozen years later. His work as governor during the

THOMAS FITCH 171

French and Indian War brought him widespread pop-
ularity and influence.

When it was learned, early in 1764, that Parliament
was considering passing an act imposing internal taxes
upon the colonies, the General Assembly appointed Fitch
chairman of a committee to draw up some "special rea-
sons and objections" to its passage. This committee drew
up a forceful set of logical objections which were sent to
England late in the year, but failed to stop the passage
of the Stamp Act.

Popular disapproval of the governor began probably
about September, 1765, when Jared Ingersoll, the co-
lonial stampmaster, was forced by the Sons of Liberty
to resign. Fitch immediately urged the Assembly to
prosecute them as rioters, but his request was ignored
because the Assembly was sympathetic with the purposes
of the Sons of Liberty. As November first approached
the final date before which every colonial governor must
take the oath to support the Stamp Act Fitch vainly
sought advice from the lower house of the Assembly as
to what course he should take. Finally, faced with a
1000 penalty for failure to comply, Fitch called the
upper house together on the last day of October and in
the presence of only four of the twelve assistants the
others refusing to remain he swore the oath that sealed
his political fate. From then on until the repeal of the
Stamp Act, local organizations of the Sons of Liberty
assumed many of the powers regularly exercised by the
government. In March, 1766, Fitch was offered, but did
not accept, the help of the British naval forces to enforce
the laws. Ingersoll wrote that "no one dares, and few in
power are disposed to punish any violences that are
offered to the Authority of the Act/' Israel Putnam,
leader of the Sons of Liberty, told Governor Fitch that
if he should fail to turn over to the Sons any stamped

172 CONNECTICUT

paper he might receive, his house would be "levelled with
the dust in five minutes. "

In the face of these conditions, and recognizing the
growing feeling of resentment toward himself, Governor
Fitch sought to justify his action by publishing in March,
1766, "Some Reasons/' explaining why he had taken
the oath and appealing to the fairness of the people. But
his appeal was to deaf ears. The old order that he so
loyally represented had been repudiated and a new order
was taking its place. When the votes were counted in
May, it was found that not only had Fitch been defeated
by William Pitkin of Hartford, but the four assistants
who had stood by him had also failed of reelection. Ex-
cept for his election as a representative from Norwalk in
1772, Fitch never again held public office, though he was
honored with nomination annually until his death, July
18, *1774.

Of his later life little is definitely known. He was
advocate general of the vice-admiralty court of Massa-
chusetts Bay in 1770, but it is not certain that he ever
performed the duties of the office. Apparently he re-
covered much of the prestige and respect which he had
earlier enjoyed. If we accept a persistent family tradition,
we may picture him as spending much of his time read-
ing and conversing with his many friends, oftentimes
reclining in his favorite chair under a friendly elm which
he had planted in front of his home in Norwalk.

Of the large number of children of Governor Fitch,
three girls and six boys, one son, Colonel Thomas, at-
tained immortality as the inspiration for the ditty "Yan-
kee Doodle/'

JARED INGERSOLL
CHARLES EDWARD PERRY

In the stirring period that followed the French and
Indian War, when Great Britain was endeavoring to
secure more effective control of her colonial possessions,
no figure in Connecticut was more prominently identified
with the march of events affecting the relations between
the mother country and her colonies than Jared Inger-
soll. No other American not even the talented Benjamin
Franklin watched with greater interest or greater trepi-
dation the circumstances that led to the passage of the
Stamp Act; no other American made any truer predic-
tions of its doleful consequences. IngersolFs experiences
in the colony as king's attorney had qualified him to
gauge the temper of the people and to estimate the re-
ception that might be accorded such legislation as the
"fatal black act" provided. Yet despite his warnings to
the English leaders, he, like Franklin, was powerless to
prevent the passage of the act.

Jared Ingersoll was born in Milford, June 3, 1722, the
son of Jonathan Ingersoll and Sarah, widow of David
Miles of New Haven. Upon his graduation from Yale
in 1742, Ingersoll was awarded the Berkeley scholarship,
and after finishing the extra year of study to which this
honor entitled him he married Hannah Whiting, sister
of his brother-in-law John, clerk of the New Haven
county court. Only one of their four children lived beyond
childhood.

The political career of Jared Ingersoll began in Novem-
ber, 1751, with his appointment as king's attorney for

173

174 CONNECTICUT

New Haven county. The duties of office he performed
with vigor and impartiality. He twice represented Con-
necticut as special agent, and agent in London. During
his first agency, 1758-1761, he attempted, without suc-
cess, to secure control of the masting trade of New Eng-
land. His association and friendship with many leading
Englishmen during this sojourn help explain his tolerance
for England's colonial policy and his subsequent Toryism.

Thomas Whately, Secretary of the Treasury in the
new Greaville ministry, who sought IngersoU's opinion
on the proposed new taxes in 1764, was bluntly informed
that any kind of a tax he might suggest, "other than such
as shall be laid by the Legislative bodies here would
go down with the people like Chopt hay." When the
famous "Book of Reasons," containing the objections of
Connecticut to the proposed taxes, was drawn up that
year by a committee of members of the General Assembly,
Ingersoll was the only outsider to serve on the committee.
On his arrival in England in December for his second
agency, he and Benjamin Franklin met Grenville and
other members of Parliament to present the colonial
protests. The chief outcome of their discussions appears
to have been the conversion of both Americans to the
belief that the stamp tax was both necessary and just!

Advised by Franklin, Ingersoll accepted the commission
of "Stamp Master General for New England Colonies/'
and returned home July 25, 1765, to be besieged with re-
quests for appointments as deputy distributors; even the
noted lawyer, William Samuel Johnson, offered his
services for Stratford, "if it be agreeable." Opposition to
the enforcement of the Stamp Act developed slowly but
steadily in Connecticut under the vigorous leadership of
Israel Putnam and the Sons of Liberty. In August, Inger-
soll was burned in effigy in several towns. By September
tenth conditions were becoming so alarming that Gover-

JARED INGERSOLL

175

nor Fitch called a special session for September nineteenth
at Hartford, and Ingersoll ordered held in New York all
the stamps earmarked for Connecticut.

Upon learning that the Sons of Liberty were approach-
ing New Haven to force his resignation, Ingersoll, fear-

Courtesy of Jaral Attfcr StamKsk

THE SONS OF LIBERTY

Demanding the resignation of Jared Ingersoll as Stamp-
master, in Wethersfieid.

ing blcxxlshed and disorder for his fellow townsmen,
started for Hartford on the eighteenth. By the time he
had reached Wethersfield the next forenoon, five hundred
horsemen were accompanying him, every man equipped
with " pretty long and large new made white Staves."
After a three-hour parley before the house of Colonel John
Chester and at a nearby tavern, Ingersoll, perceiving the

176 CONNECTICUT

growing restlessness of the crowd and declaring "the cause
is not worth dying for," resigned. He was obliged to read
Ms resignation to the mob and give three lusty cheers for
" Liberty and Property." A short delay for lunch followed
this demonstration, after which the large body of horsemen,
now numbering about a thousand, formed itself into a long
column and with the unhappy Ingersoll in its midst pur-
sued its leisurely way along the dusty road to Hartford.
There, within earshot of the General Assembly, he again
had to react his resignation in a loud voice and shout
"Liberty and Property" three times; whereupon the
crowd seemed satisfied and dispersed.

Although he had been serving as justice of the peace
for New Haven county since May, 1765, and had resumed
his position as king's attorney in November, 1766, he
eagerly sought a more lucrative position. He was finally
rewarded by appointment as judge of admiralty for the
middle colonies at the very handsome salary of 600.
His jurisdiction including the ports of New York and
Philadelphia, he took up his headquarters in the latter
city in 1771. It was here that he became involved in the
notorious Susquehanna dispute.

The Susquehanna Company was a large group of persons
living in and near Windham, organized for the purpose
of occupying lands in the Wyoming Valley in Pennsyl-
vania. By the time the Assembly had made the contro-
versial tract a Connecticut town Westmoreland
and had annexed it to Litchfield county in January, 1774,
Ingersoll was convinced of the unreasonableness of the
Connecticut claims. He made a painstaking investi-
gation of the rival claims and turned this information
over to Provost Smith of the College of Pennsylvania, who
published a pamphlet ruinous to Connecticut's side of the
argument. Naturally, Ingersoll became the target for the
resentment of his native colony. He defended his action

JARED 177

by'asserting that he had given the to

considerable hesitation, being "aware from experience,
that in case I should communicate nothing, I be

suspected of communicating everything . . . that I
know/*

When the Revolution began, neither his lifelong friend-
ships with American leaders nor his acquaintance with
John Adams, his fellow boarder for a while in Phila-
delphia, was sufficient to overcome the earlier attach-
ments he had formed for Great Britain. He stayed in
Philadelphia until capture of the city by the British
seemed imminent, when he was arrested and placed on
parole. On September 4, 1777, he was sent to Connecticut,
where the governor permitted him to take up his resi-
dence in New Haven, a paroled prisoner! Here he lived
until his death, August 25, 1781, his son Jared, who em-
braced the colonial cause, living with him after 1778.

Following the death of his wife, October 8, 1779, Inger-
soll waited only the customary three months before many-
ing Hannah Miles, the well-to-do widow of Enos Ailing
(Yale, 1746).

It is apparent that as the war wore on, Ingersoll showed
a growing sympathy for the American cause* In 1780
he prepared and sent to the president of the Congress
a somewhat elaborate treatise designed to solve the fi-
nancial problems of that hard-pressed body. Through-
out his career Jared Ingersoll showed a high sense of
justice and an unyielding respect for law, upholding his
position with dignity, often in the face of adverse public
opinion. The lenient treatment he received at Wethers-
field may be attributed, not unreasonably, to a recog-
nition of these qualities, rather than to any inherent
gentleness in the character or temper of the mob*

THOMAS GREEN

JAR vis M. MORSE

Instructor in History* Brawn University

The memory of Thomas Green is kept alive not through
the record of forceful editorials such as those which have
made Horace Greeley famous, but through the two papers
which he founded, one of which has come down to us as
the Hartford Courant and the other as the New Haven
Journal Courier.

Thomas Green was born in New London, August 25,
1735. He came of a venerable and prolific family of print-
ers, since he could include among his relatives in that
profession his father, several uncles, his grandfather and
his great-grandfather, Samuel Green, who had published
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the famous Indian Bible
translated by John Eliot. It is not strange, therefore,
that Thomas also entered the printing trade, receiving
his early training in New London. When twenty-two
years.old he left for New Haven, where he entered the shop
of John Holt, who was editing the Connecticut Gazette
for its owner, James Parker. Holt soon moved to New
York, leaving young Green in charge of the New Haven
enterprise, but this arrangement did not long continue.
The situation became less comfortable for him when the
paper, which he had practically controlled for four years,
was turned over to a new manager, Benjamin Mecom,
aephew of Benjamin Franklin. Thomas had also become
a family man, having married Desire Sanford in 1761, and
fvith two children to support he was anxious to realize
greater independence by setting up in business for himself.

178

THOMAS GREEN 179

Hence in the summer of 1764 he moved to Hartford,
then a small town of four thousand Inhabitants. Although
the colony at that time contained several towns
than Hartford, in some of which a newspaper was pub-
lished before the end of the eighteenth century, the present
capital city was destined to surpass them all in and
wealth, so that Green made a fortunate choice of location
for his first paper. He selected as an office a small second-
floor place over James Mookler's barter shop, on the
west side of Main Street, between the Park River bridge
and the court house. Eighteenth-century printers were
prone to locate their offices near barber shops or taverns
because of the advantages to be gained from such places
in the accumulation of news. On October 29, 1764, ap-
peared the first issue of the Connecticut Courant, printed
on a full sheet of portfolio size folded once, so that a page
was about eight by fourteen inches, with two columns
of printed matter to the page.

The Courant came into existence at the beginning of
the period in American history termed U pre-Revolution-
ary" and it is interesting to observe that Thomas Green
expressed no decided opinions on the merits of the contro-
versy arising between the colonies and the mother country.
Green was a cautious editor who rarely expressed Ms
personal views in print. Perhaps the nearest approach to
a forthright statement of his opinions on contemporary
society was the following editorial comment, called forth
by rumors that Englishmen supposed most colonials to
be wealthy : " This is the effect, 'tis true, of our own prodi-
gality; but we are corrected by those who receive the
Benefit of it/' In its earlier years, therefore, the Courant
was a conservative paper, though Green's conservatism
was greatly surpassed by editors of the- early nineteenth
century.

The Couranfs founder did not give all his attention

180 CONNECTICUT

to editing; he had to eke out the small financial returns
from a little paper sold to less than five hundred sub-
scribers at six shillings the year by engaging in a general
business as bookseller and stationer, selling Bibles, prayer
books, quills, slates, sealing wax, ink, spectacles, and writ-
ing paper. He printed other matter perhaps fully as im-
portant as the Courant: election sermons, broadside
proclamations, almanacs, pamphlets, and the like.

Green stayed in Hartford only three years. Some time
before 1767 his brother Samuel had gone to New Haven,
and in that year Thomas removed there also, beginning
a partnership with his brother and founding another
paper, the Connecticut Journal and New Haven Post Boy.
The Courant was left to Ebenezer Watson, though Green
retained a financial interest in the paper until December,
1770.

While in Hartford he had furthered, though in tem-
perate fashion, the cause of colonial liberty, but in New
Haven his natural caution led him to desert the cause of
radicalism. Through the Revolutionary period he tried
to fill that next-to-impossible r61e of impartial spectator,
an attempt which caused him to be regarded as a Tory,
though he was not molested by the advocates of American
independence. The two Greens continued in business
together until Samuel died, in 1799, when Thomas Green,
Jr., was taken into partnership with his father. Thomas
Green retired in 1809, and died in May, 1812 (the exact
day is not known), being mourned by the citizens of New
Haven as a benevolent gentleman of particular suavity
of manner.

ABEL BUELL
IRWIN ALFRED BUELL

Instructor in History, Trinity College, Hartford*

Abe! Buell, Connecticut's most versatile mechanical
genius of the colonial period, was bom at Kttlingworth,
Connecticut, Febuary 1, 1742, the son of John Buell. At
the age of nineteen or twenty, possibly while still serv-
ing an apprenticeship with Ebenezer Chittendon, a gold-
smith of Madison, he married Mary Parker and soon after
started out independently as a worker in precious metals.
Possibly because of the pressure of financial difficulties
attendant on his youthful marriage, he altered several
five-shilling notes to the more attractive denomination
of five pounds. Caught in the act, he was brought before
the court at Norwich and sentenced to branding on the
forehead, imprisonment, and forfeiture of property to
reimburse the holders of the false notes; but a certain
amount of leniency was shown because of his youth. The
brand was placed high on his forehead that his hair might
cover it, and two months after his imprisonment the Gen-
eral Court, "from a compassionate regard and pity on
his youthful follies/' released him under bond to remain
in Kiliingworth. Thus inauspiciously did BuelFs career
begin.

He next set about experimenting with the construction
of a lapidary machine of his own invention for grinding and
polishing crystals and precious stones. The result of his
labors was the first machine of this kind in the country.
In 1766 he presented a ring containing several stones all
of his own workmanship to the prosecuting attorney,

181

182 CONNECTICUT

Matthew Griswold, and at about the same time sent a
petition to the General Court for the restoration of his civic
liberties. These were granted him and he was again free,
without property and with a stain upon his character, but
with an ambition to make things.

Returning to Ms occupation of worker In metals and
adding to it his new-found skill as a lapidary, he now
began experiments in the making of printing type.
Relying on his own inventiveness and possibly some
little knowledge obtained from a few books, he succeeded
in founding the first type ever made in English America.
In May, 1769, Edes and Gill of Boston printed an ad-
vertisement for Mm in type of Ms own casting; and a copy
of this first proof ever printed with American-made type
may be found in the Yale University Library. Needing
money to cany on his new enterprise, Buell sent to the
General Court a petition printed in type of Ms own de-
signing and casting, asking for financial assistance. He
was loaned one hundred pounds for seven years without
interest, but before the money arrived he had decided to
move to New Haven. There he was diverted for a time
from type founding by interest in copperplate engraving,
and he was tibe first Connecticut engraver of record. About
1774 he engraved a chart of Saybrook Bar to make easier
the navigation of the lower Connecticut. He was associ-
ated with Amos Doolittle of New Haven in making four
views of the battle of Lexington, and as early as 1775 he
engraved diplomas for Yale College. During part of the
time In the next few years he was absent from New Haven
and was associated with Bernard Romans, the Dutch
engineer and mapmaker, in preparing Romans' map of
North America, and also with Rivington, a loyalist printer
of New York. Some of the work signed by Romans was
very probably that of Buell, and some of it was undoubt-
edly that of Paul Revere. Buelfs first wife having died,

ABEL BIJELL 183

he married Aletta Devoe; and she carried on Ms
during his absence and made it pay, as he never

Buell was back in New Haven in 1778, and was
in a variety of business ventures. He was auctioneer,
metal worker, painter, engraver, proprietor of a line of
packet boats, and part owner of the Porcupine, a privateer
commissioned by Governor TrambulL He also invented
a machine for planting com. Resuming his type founding,
he sold considerable amounts to the Connecticut Jmrml
and to the Connecticut Gazette of New London, but he no
longer had a monopoly.

Early in 1784 he advertised the first map of the new
United States "ever compiled, engraved, and finished
by one man and an American." Copies of this map still
exist. The following year he held one-eighth of the stock
in a "Company for Coining Coppers" authorized by
the Assembly. The stamping machine used was one of
Buell's inventions and is said to have turned out one hun-
dred twenty coins a minute. This "New Haven Mint"
coined nearly four thousand pounds' worth of copper coins
within three years and was later employed to make them
for Congress. The machine was technically successful,
but the contract with the state was not profitable to the
company.

Buell left New Haven in 1789 to visit England. It is
said that while there he was consulted and was of consider-
able assistance in making plans and in helping to con-
struct some iron bridges. He returned with enthusiasm
for building a cotton factory, bringing with him a Mr.
William Mclntosh to assist him. With the aid of some
New York capitalists they constructed a factory near
Westville, one of the first of its kind, if not the first, in
Connecticut. The Assembly granted a subsidy for it, but
it did not succeed. Yet within thirty years the manu-
facture of cotton cloth was a very profitable business.

184 CONNECTICUT

Buell's enterprises were too far ahead of the demand for
what he had to offer.

In 1797 he was back at the silversmith trade. Two
years later he left New Haven for Hartford and opened
a shop near the North Meeting House there. In 1803 he
was in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and was there ten
years later, although he may have returned to New Haven
in the interim. He died in the almshouse at New Haven,
April 10, 1822, at the age of eighty-one.

Abe! Buell's life is one that is difficult to measure or
judge by ordinary gauges. He was a genius who lacked
stability and who once, at least, found a law of society
too easy to break. We may forgive him his failures and
weaknesses for the contributions he made. "Aliquando
bonus dormitat Homerus."

BENJAMIN GALE
JOHN F. FULTON, M.D.

School of Medicine, Yak University

During the first century and a half of American co-
lonial history the practice of medicine rested largely in
the willing but unscientific hands of the clergy. Formal
education in the profession was practically unknown,
the prospective physician usually acquiring his knowledge
through a sort of apprenticeship served with one whose
reputation as a doctor was already established. Such was
the system by which Benjamin Gale came to be recognized
as one of the best of the colonial doctors.

Born in Jamaica, Long Island, December 14, 1715,
the son of John and Mary Gale, he spent his childhood
and early youth in Goshen, New York, to which place his
family had removed. He received his M.A. from Yale
College in 1733, and choosing medicine as a career, went
for his training to the Reverend Jared Eliot, pastor of
the church in Killingworth, who was quite celebrated as a
successful practitioner of medicine. That this association
was profitable to Gale is well attested by the eminence
which he soon attained in his profession. Moreover, he
established himself in Killingworth by marrying Eliot's
daughter, Hannah, June 6, 1739, and taking over the
practice of his father-in-law.

In an age when statistics did not often receive the at-
tention they sometimes deserved, Dr. Gale was acclaimed
in Europe as well as America for a paper read by John
Huxham before the Royal Society of London, May 23,
1765. In this paper Gale recommended that mercury

185

186 CONNECTICUT

and antimony inunctions be used "prior to receiving the
pustule" in treating smallpox. As proof of the efficacy
of this treatment he quoted extensive data he had col-
lected during several epidemic years in Boston.

Benjamin Gale was gifted with the versatility commonly
found in men of Ms profession. He was an independent
thinker, with strong convictions. For his achievement
in devising an improved drill plow, he was awarded a
medal from the Society of Arts in Lx>ndon. For twenty
years he served as a representative in the colonial
Assembly, 1747-1767. Although he was a son of Yale,
he condemned the efforts of his alma mater to secure
financial aid from the General Assembly in 1765. His
activities during the Revolution appear paradoxical. He
helped David Bushnell in his famous experiment with
the American Turtle, designed to blow up the British
fleet (November, 1775); yet, throughout the war and
afterward, he contributed articles to colonial newspapers
criticizing the alliance with France, urging the break-up
of the states and a reunion with Great Britian, and ex-
pressing contempt for the federal Constitution and the
new government.

If further evidence is needed that Benjamin Gale was
one of that growing number of individual thinkers whose
opinions were soon to result in the rise of political parties,
it is to be found in the inscription on his monument in the
Killingworth cemetery: "In memory of Dr. Benjamin
Gale, who after a life of usefulness in his profession, and
a laborious study of the Prophesies, fell asleep May
GAD 1790, AET. 75, fully expecting to rise again . . ."
From this inscription, as well as from his request to be
so buried that when he rose from the dead the first sight
to meet his eyes would be his own house, we know him
to have been a Millenarian. From the confidences con-
tained in the famous diary of President Ezra Stiles, we

BENJAMIN GALE 187

obtain this information about Dr. Benjamin Gale: "A
singular character! . . . Believed in tmi versa! final salvation

of all but deists and apostates, who were to be annihi-
lated. . . Expectant of the Millennium. . . He a

of integrity and uprightness, and of great skill in the med-
ical profession, and a successful practitioner. . . .
meant to be a friend to civil and religious liberty and to
his country. . . ."

PART THREE

ATTAINING INDEPENDENCE AND
SETTING UP A NEW GOVERNMENT

1763-1783

ISRAEL PUTNAM
JOHN A. GLEASON

Formerly Hist&riam, The Putnam Phalanx

It would not be possible to find a more striking exponent
of the nigged individualism so characteristic of Ameri-
cans of colonial and Revolutionary days than Israel
Putnam. He was, throughout his rough-and-tumble
lifetime, a man of indomitable courage, instantaneous
decision, and bold action. He possessed a God-given talent
for leadership which could inspire in his followers a valor
like his own, and truly it can be said that "he dared to
lead where any dared to follow." Pioneer ranger and
major general, he was a natural hero who could not be
produced in any other country, or in any other times,
than in the days when this country, through the medium
of constant warfare, was being welded into a nation.

We first find Israel Putnam as a leader of the Colonials
in breaking the power of France in the North American
continent, and then as a leader of the states along the
Atlantic in wresting liberty from the tyranny of England.
Putnam's feats of arms in these struggles seem as legend-
ary as the stories of Hector and Achilles, of ancient Troy,
of Alexander who sought more worlds to conquer, or of
Romulus and Remus and other Roman heroes; but they
are substantiated by official documents that are trust-
worthy. These documents include his official reports as
a scout in the French and Indian campaigns, his diary of
his activities in the South, his General Orders in the
Revolution and in the campaign against the Spanish at
Havana; and finally, the letters in his own handwriting,

188

ISRAEL PUTNAM

189

wherein he defied all rules of orthography or
of syntax.

What schoolboy has not thrilled at the
prints depicting the messenger from Lexington Con-
cord informing Putnam, plowing in his fields, that Brit-
ish redcoats had shed the blood of American patriots;
at Putnam abandoning the plow, calling for Ms sword
and mounting his horse, without even waiting to change

PUTNAM LEAVING THE PLOW

From the lunette on the north front of the
State Capitol, Hartford.

his working clothes, and setting out, after a hurried visit
to the governor, for the scene of action in and around
Boston? Or who has ever tired of the story of the wolf
den and of the young husbandman newly come from his
native town of Danvers in Massachusetts, who took the
lead of his neighbors in the chase of the wolf which
was laying heavy toll upon the sheep; how he led the
pursuit for many hours; how at last after sunset, with
the fierce animal safely holed in what seemed a den Im-
possible of penetration, this hero called for a lantern and
a rope; how with the lantern held before him and the rope

190 CONNECTICUT

attached to his waist, he plunged into the subterranean
blackness and slew the animal, and was hauled to safety
by his admiring fellow hunters, dragging after him the
beast which had been wreaking sad havoc among their
sheep and lambs? Then there are the story and the
plate depicting Ms escape from the British soldiers
at Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1779, when he rode his
horse down a steep declivity at breakneck speed, while
Ms pursuers were forced to halt, amazed by his reckless
bravery, and empty their guns in his general direction.
TMs indeed was one occasion where none dared to follow!

Is it any wonder that the state of Connecticut has
preserved the wolf den at Pomfret, or that the Putnam
Phalanx, an ancient military organization glorying in
the name of Putnam as its patron saint, preserves the
ancient plow in its armory, as well as the general's saddle
and saddlebags? These possessions have been declared
authentic, and it is known beyond a doubt that the plow
actually belonged to Fanner Putnam; but no person can
say whether it was the particular implement which he
was using when the fateful news from Lexington was
brought to him.

His life and character delineate him as one of the world's
greatest military captains. Many of the traditions in
wMch he figured as the chief character have been rescued
from the confusion of romance and tradition, and for
centuries will thrill the youth of Ms native country. Many
contemporaneous documents which have been made avail-
able by Mstorians give us a more thrilling impression of
his daring deals than even the most exaggerated stories
of Ms exploits. One of Ms biographers says of Putnam,
"The reputation for indomitable courage, ready resource-
fulness, practical efficiency, sterling integrity, and warm-
hearted companionableness that he gained in the colonial
wars was of invaluable help in the first years of the

ISRAEL PUTNAM 191

American Revolution, for it inspired the patriots under
his leadership with glowing enthusiasm and bold confi-
dence in their struggle for freedom."

Israel Putnam was bom January 7, 1718, and a
stalwart man of thirty-seven when the final clash broke
out between England and France for the control of North
America. At about the same time Washington, who
was to hold Putnam in high esteem throughout Ms life-
time, was having his first experience with British regulars
in the ill-fated Braddock expedition, Putnam was serv-
ing as a Connecticut volunteer in the expeditions against
Crown Point and Ticonderoga. The conduct of Wash-
ington along the wilderness road was duplicated by that
of Putnam at the bloody battle of Lake George. Shortly
after the battle, he was requisitioned for duty as a ranger,
and soon achieved the rank of captain. In a scouting
expedition, he was taken prisoner and lashed to a tree
where it was decided to roast him alive. The flames
were already scorching him when he was saved from this
horrible fate by a French officer and taken before General
Montcalm at Ticonderoga. Putnam was sent to Mon-
treal and then to Quebec as a prisoner, but finally secured
an exchange by a stratagem which pictured him an old
man who wished to be at home with his wife and children.
After the reduction of Canada, the General Assembly
made him a lieutenant colonel. It was in this capacity
that he commanded an expedition of provincials against
Havana and participated in the capture of that city.
Upon returning to his Pomfret farm, he became a
member of the "Sons of Liberty," and took a leading
part in that organization as a champion of freedom in
Connecticut.

His activities were climaxed by the message from
Lexington, and he started on his journey to Cambridge
at night, riding a hundred miles in eighteen hours!

192 CONNECTICUT

Within a week, he was in general command of the minute-
men and individual volunteers, under General Artemas
Ward. It is no longer denied that Putnam was in com-
mand at Bunker Hill, and certainly he was responsible
for the fortifying of Breed's Hill; nor has there been any
doubt that it was he who gave the order, "Don't fire
till you see the whites of their eyes!"

On nomination by General Washington, he was made
fourth major general by Congress. He distinguished
himself in the defense of New York against Howe's
overwhelming forces in 1776. In one of the darkest hours
of the war, when confusion reigned in Philadelphia, he
established martial law in that city. Following the
victory of Washington at Princeton, he was placed in
command of the Hudson highlands. After a court of
inquiry had exonerated him from responsibility in the
loss of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, Putnam was
ordered by Washington to return to Connecticut, where
he devoted ail Ms time to aiding Governor Trumbull
in the recruiting service.

While on the way to Morristown, New Jersey, to re-
join the army in December, 1779, the general was stricken
with paralysis. His final days were gladdened by a letter
from 'Washington, which he treasured in great pride.
Putnam passed away May 29, 1790, and was buried
with great military pomp in the cemetery at Brooklyn,
Connecticut.

THOMAS KNOWLTON
ORLANDO C. DAVIS

One of the Connecticut faces known to the American
schoolboys of every generation is that of Thomas Know!-
ton, the hatless central figure in TrumbuITs picture of
the Battle of Bunker Hill. The keenly alert face and
the determined pose of this roughly dressed American
soldier appeal to all who see it as a perfect exemplification
of an intelligent citizen resolutely defending his rights,
even against overwhelming odds. Regarding these por-
traits in TrumbulFs historical paintings General Wash-
ington said to Lafayette that the painter "has spared
no pains in obtaining from the life the likenesses of these
characters."

Thomas Knowlton was born at Ash ford, in November,
1740, the seventh in a family of nine children. On
his father's four-hundred-acre farm the boy not only
learned how to raise crops and take care of farm animals
but also developed self-reliance. So it is not surprising to
find Thomas enlisted for service in the French and Indian
War at the age of sixteen, and at the age of seventeen
renowned for bravery and hairbreadth escapes. At
eighteen he was a sergeant in the First Connecticut Regi-
ment, at nineteen an ensign, and at twenty-one a second
lieutenant.

In 1762 he took part in the British expedition which
ended in the capture of Havana, after which he re-
turned to the young wife (Anna Keyes) whom he had
married April 5, 1759. From 1762 to 1775 we find him
living the life of a farmer, and so respected for good

193

194

CONNECTICUT

THOMAS

195

196 CONNECTICUT

judgment that at the age of thirty-three he was elected
a selectman. At this period of Ms life he has been de-
scribed as "erect and handsome, affable and courteous,
with a winsomeness that drew friends and a constancy
that held them."

When news of the Lexington fight reached Ashford
he hastened to the rendezvous of the Ashford company,
was chosen its captain, and in two datys was leading his
company to Boston. A few ; days later this company be-
came a part of Israel Putnam's Connecticut Regiment
Number Three and was stationed at Cambridge

When it was learned that the British planneci to take
possession of Charlestown peninsula, the Americans has-
tened to occupy it. On the evening of June 16, 1775,
Colonel Prescott was ordered forward with about twelve
hundred men, Captain KnoWlton with his two hundred
men being in this force. These troops, by working all
night, succeeded in building a redoubt on Breed's Hill.
To protect the rear of this redoubt, Rnowlton improvised
on the east side of the hill a slight breastwork, by filling
new-mown t*ay between two fences. Reenforced by New
Hampshire and fresh Connecticut troops just before the
first British assault, Knowlton and his men turned back
two attacks on either side of the line and then effectively
protected the retreat of Prescott's main forces, which
had fought in the redoubt until the ammunition was ex-
hausted.

Richard Frothingham, the historian, says that "though
the rail fence was not the great post of the day, it was
there that a large part of the battle was fought/' Colonel
Stark of the New Hampshire troops says regarding the
effectiveness of the close-range American fire at the rail
fence, " The dead lay as thick as sheep in a field." Knowl-
ton's part in the battle has always been praised as being
highly meritorious and amply justifying his assignment

THOMAS KNOWLTON 197

by General Putnam to lead the Connecticut in

Prescott's force.

During the siege of Boston, Captain Knowlton's
efficiency brought him continually to the favorable atten-
tion of Washington, who made him a major, January 1,
1776. On the night of January 8, Knowlton
by Washington to burn the remaining houses near the foot
of Bunker Hill and to capture the British guard. The
American force brought back its prisoners and returned
from the raid without any injuries. Washington com-
mended Knowlton "for the spirit, conduct and secrecy
with which they burnt the houses near the enemy's quar-
ters . . . and for not firing a shot, as nothing betrays
greater signs of fear and less of the soldier than to begin
a loose undirected and unaiming firing/*

During the spring of 1776, Major Knowlton had a large
share in the organization of the Twentieth Continental
Regiment with which he remained until his appointment
to a special command. Soon after the British evacuated
Boston in March, the Connecticut troops started for New
York and arrived in time to aid Washington in the cam-
paign about that city. In midsummer Washington made
frequent use of Knowlton's unerring military judgment in
investigating enemy positions and devising plans for at-
tack. On August twelfth Knowlton was appointed lieu-
tenant colonel, and about September first was placed in
command of an independent corps known as Knowlton's
Rangers, which took its orders direct from General Wash-
ington. This group was chosen from New England sol-
diers who volunteered for dangerous duty, and included
resolute spirits like the brave Captain Nathan Hale.

On September 16, 1776, the American troops, dis-
couraged and without proper equipment or provisions,
with their main force resting on Harlem Heights, just
north of the present 130th Street near the Hudson River,

198 CONNECTICUT

engaged In the first battle of the Revolution in which they
thoroughly routed and chased the British off the field.
This battle of Harlem Heights served the same purpose of
encouragement in the New York campaign as did the
battle of Bunker Hill in the Boston campaign. At about
daybreak the Rangers, in ascertaining the enemy's exact
position, were attacked by a larger British force and a hot
skirmish resulted, but they bravely stood their ground, re-
treating after a time only to prevent being outflanked.
Here General Washington took personal command of the
battle, ordering other troops to make a frontal attack while
Knowlton led an attack on the enemy's flank. In the
spirited action which followed, the Americans drove the
British back toward their line despite three determined
stands. At about midday during this advance, Colonel
Knowlton was mortally wounded and died within an hour.
Adjutant General Read wrote, "Our greatest loss is poor
Knowlton whose name and spirit ought to be immortal.
I assisted him off and when gasping in the agonies of death
all his inquiry was whether we had driven the enemy."
In his orders the next day General Washington said, "The
gallant and brave Colonel Knowlton who would have been
an honor to any company fell yesterday while gloriously
fighting."

Colonel Knowlton' s service to his country had always
shown courage and dependability, but he was remarkable
for good military judgment and a genius for leadership.
He really led his men from his position in the front line,
and his order was always, "Come on, boys/' Colonel
Aaron Burr, who knew Knowlton's military ability from
personal observation, said it was impossible to promote
such a man too rapidly, adding that, if Knowlton had had
the whole control at the battle of Bunker Hill, the result
would have been even more fortunate.

Though Knowlton was buried with military honors

THOMAS KNOWLTON 199

soon after the battle of Harlem Heights and near the
of action, the exact spot is not known, and
to do him honor now go to the cemetery in Ashford, Con-
necticut, where a monument is erected to him and his wife.
The state of Connecticut has worthily expressed its appre-
ciation of his patriotic devotion through the erection, in
1895, of a bronze statue of Colonel Knowlton on the
grounds of the state Capitol.

NATHAN HALE
GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR

"And one there was his name immortal now
Who died not to the ring of rattling steel,
Or battle-march of spirit-stirring drum,
But. far from comrades and from friendly camp,
Alone upon the scaffold/'

When Sir William Howe ordered Nathan Hale to be
hanged, he doubtless meant to make an end of the young
American captain; but in fact he made the beginning of
him. From that moment Nathan Hale passed from an
engaging and capable personality into an enduring na-
tional symbol. Today his name evokes in every mind
the picture of his tragic fate on the gallows, and the pre-
cious memory of the youthful patriot's now immortal
words "I only regret that I have but one life to lose
for my country."

Nathan Hale was born June 6, 1755, at Coventry.
On both sides of the house his forbears were people of
energy, education, and character. They sprang from
what a writer has called "earth's best blood/* albeit a
religious, rather than a patrician, ancestry. His father,
Deacon Richard Hale, was a successful farmer and a zeal-
ous patriot during the American struggle for independence.
His mother, Elizabeth Strong, came from a family whose
members for generations had participated in public
affairs. Nathan was one of a large family even for those
days, there being twelve children, nine sons and three
daughters.

With his brother Enoch (grandfather of the Reverend
Edward Everett Hale), Nathan was prepared for Yale

200

Cowrtesy tf George ZWfejf Seymour

NATHAN HALE
From the figure by Bela Lyon Pratt.

202 CONNECTICUT

by the local minister, Reverend Joseph Huntington, a
classical scholar in an "age of homespun," from whom it
is probable that Hale acquired his easy and engaging
manners and his interest in the heroes of antiquity (Cyrus
the Great and Philip of Macedon). The two brothers
entered Yale in 1769, lodging in Connecticut Hall, the
only building now remaining that Hale knew. In his
sophomore year he was elected to membership in Linonia,
a secret fraternity founded in 1753, and devoted to "in-
citement to literary exertion/* Thenceforward he became
the leading figure in the society, organizing if not actually
founding the famous Linonia library.

After graduation, Hale traveled on horseback to Ports-
mouth, New Hampshire, where he visited his uncle, Major
Samuel Hale, preceptor of the famous Latin School there.
His visit was in no way unusual except for one incident;
he now met for the first time his cousin, Samuel Hale,
who became an incorrigible Tory and was charged with
having betrayed Nathan when he was apprehended as
a spy in New York. (It is likely that Samuel identified
rather than betrayed Nathan.)

Returning home, Hale taught school in East Haddam
from October, 1773, to March, 1774; and from then until
July 1, 1775, in New London. As a teacher he was
notably successful and exceedingly popular. In New
London, as formerly at New Haven, he engaged in amaz-
ing athletic stunts that must have made a salutary im-
pression upon any boys who had dreamed of "putting
something over on teacher." He wrote to his uncle of
summer classes of young ladies who came to the school-
house from five to seven in the morning attracted,
as we may imagine, more by the young collegian's hand-
some person and winning address than by any passion
for the "three R's."

On July 1, 1775, he received a lieutenancy from the

NATHAN 208

General Assembly and after two months of he

joined Washington's army at Cambridge he partic-

ipated in the siege of Boston. Amidst his smromtd-
ings he found time to correspond with his family
friends, to read a little, and to indulge in his favorite
sports, football and wrestling. Yet these diversions did
not cause him to neglect the capable performance of Ms
duties, for on New Year's Day of 1776, he was promoted to
a captaincy (the original commission is at Yale). After
the evacuation of Boston in March, the colonial army
was moved to New York, where Hale arrived April thirti-
eth. Before the middle of May, he had accomplished, with
the help of several members of his company, the feat of
cutting out a sloop loaded with supplies from under the
very guns of the British man-of-war Asia. This brilliant
exploit may have been a factor in his selection by Lieu-
tenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton as one of the four
captains in a new company, " Congresses Own," better
known as "Knowlton's Rangers," organized directly after
the battle of Long Island.

When Washington now sought information about the
enemy that could only be obtained through work of a
secret agent, he turned to the gallant Knowlton* A man
of ability and devotion must be found to enter the enemy's
lines as a spy; but spy service under the rules of war must
be volunteered or hired. Knowlton, in turn, called upon
the captains of his " Rangers " for volunteers. To the first
call no one responded; upon a second call Hale alone
volunteered. To the entreaty of his intimate friend and
comrade, Captain William Hull, Hale said quietly, "I
wish to be useful, and every kind of service necessary to
the public good becomes honorable by being necessary."

It is a question whether Hale received his instructions
fijDm Knowlton or directly from Washington, which is
more probable. About September twelfth, Hale left the

204 CONNECTICUT

camp on Harlem Heights and with Ms close friend, Ser-
geant Stephen Hempstead of New London, proceeded in
a roundabout manner to Norwaik f where he was ferried
across the Sound in a sloop and landed at Huntington,
Long Island. Here Hempstead left him, to see him no
more in life. Hale had with him his college diploma as
an introduction to his assumed calling, for he had deter-
mined to act the r61e of a schoolmaster. Nothing of his
sojourn in the British lines is known, but after accomplish-
ing Ms mission he crossed over from Long Island to New
York* As he was approaching his own picket lines on the
night of September twenty-first, he was captured as a
spy by the British and was taken before General Howe.
Sketches and other useful military information were taken
from him and **he at once declared his name, his rank in
the American Army, and his object in coming within the
British lines." Howe, without any formal trial, ordered
him to be executed the next day. Tradition has it that
he was confined that night in the greenhouse of the Beek-
man mansion.

When brought out for execution the following morning,
Hale attracted the notice of Captain John Montr6sor,
chief engineer of His Britannic Majesty's forces in Amer-
ica, who had a marquee on the parade ground "near the
fatal spot/* Montr^sor, interested in Hale doubtless be-
cause of the drawings found on his person, obtained
permission from William Cunningham, Howe's brutal
provost marshal, to allow Hale the courtesy of his tent
while preparations for hanging the prisoner were being
made. And so it happened that on his way to the gallows
that Sunday morning, Hale became the guest, for a brief
space, of a gentleman whose humanity provided the only
bright spot in Kale's story following his capture.

Kale's innate heroism now sustained Mm with suih
gentle dignity and composure of bearing, and so lifted

NATHAN HALE 2QS

him above the sharpness of the hour f that Montresor
filled with admiration and compassion for the young
captain in his tent. So calm was Hale he askedMon-
tresor for writing materials and wrote to his brother
Enoch and to Colonel Knowlton, who, though did

not know it, had died on Harlem Heights a few days
before. Shortly after he had finished writing. Hale
summoned to the gallows.

"He hears with no outward sign of emotion the half-stifled
cries of the women and children who watch his forward march
to the beat of muffled drums. Simply and quietly he walks to
his doom, thinking, perchance, of the broad landscape of his
boyhood home beyond the Eastern hills in Coventry, of Con-
necticut Hall where he spent so many happy hours, of the
loved home circle and his friends. We can imagine him un-
flinching without, but tremulous within he was young, life
was dear to him, the earth that he looked upon was fair,
friendship had been sweet to him, he did not wish to die. . . ,

". . . We almost hear whispered above, in the stillness of the
vacant air, descending as a precious legacy upon us, the youth-
ful patriot's now immortal last words i I only regret that I
have but one life to lose for my country'/*

WILLIAM LEDYARD
Louis P. BENEZET

"These," wrote Thomas Paine, "are times that try
men's souls." How often it happens that the soul of a
man, his real self, lies dormant and is unknown, perhaps
even to himself, because it has never been put to trial I
Many biographies have been written in great detail of
men whose lives have been easy and secure. In fact, we
know less of the real souls of such men than we do of
others, the incidents of whose early life are shrouded in
obscurity, but who stood out like beacon lights in time of
storm and crisis. So it must be with William Ledyard.
Of his early life, his antecedents, the first part of his mili-
tary career, little is told by the old historians. But in
the moment of crisis and trial he rose to great heights and
we catch a glimpse of a high-minded patriot, devoted,
ready, like Lafayette, to give his all for the cause of others.

He was born at Groton, Connecticut, on December
6, 1738, and was married some twenty-two years later to
Anne Williams of Stonington, who bore him nine children.
Ledyard is a common name in that part of Connecticut,
and not less than eighteen relatives of William Ledyard
fought under him at New London.

It was in the summer of 1781 that Sir Henry Clinton,
British commander at New York, ordered Benedict
Arnold, the turncoat, to attack New London. We do
not know that this was at Arnold's suggestion, but there
is strong reason to suspect it. This was his old home and
he knew from the days of his service in the American army
that the city was comparatively defenseless. It was his
idea to sail into the harbor at night and burn and destroy

206

WILLIAM 207

the shipping, the merchandise, and the

tia could be gathered together to Mm. But un-

favorable winds held the British expedition and It

was well along into the morning before Arnold's could
be landed.

Now comes the crisis for William Ledyard. He
the commander of the little group of men entrusted
the defense of the two so-called forts built to guard the
harbor. Arnold, with nine hundred troops, landed on the
west side of the Thames on September sixth. Another
force, consisting of eight hundred, landed on the Groton
side of the river. Colonel Ledyard sent orders that the
rude breastwork known as Fort Trambull should be aban-
doned after a single volley had been fired. Having obeyed
this command, the little garrison of twenty-three men
escaped across the river, some of them being wounded on
the way by musket shots from the British war vessels.
Meanwhile, Ledyard had gathered his force of one hundred
and fifty-five men in Fort Griswold, determining to stand
to the last against the enemy in this spot. As he went
down to cross the ferry at New London, he turned to some
of his friends, who had followed to wish Mm success, and
remarked quietly, " If today I must lose honor or life, you,
who know me, can tell which it will be." He had no way
of knowing that these words would ever be preserved.
He was not recording them for posterity. It was the sim-
ple, manly statement of a gentlemen to Ms Mends; no
bombast here nor braggadocio.

Meanwhile, Arnold had blundered. He had formed the
idea that Fort Griswold, which Ledyard was defending,
would fall an easy prey to the British arms. Accordingly
he ordered Colonel Eyre, commander on the Groton side,
to storm the fort. In New London Arnold received in-
formation as to the number and temper of the defenders
wMch caused him to change Ms mind and send a second

208 CONNECTICUT

to Eyre countermanding his first. This message
came too late. Eyre had twice summoned the fort to
surrender, adding with his second threat that if he was
forced to storm the fortifications "martial law should be
put in force." This was a slightly veiled threat of massa-
cre, but the staunch Ledyard was unaffected. "We shall
not surrender, let the consequences be what they may/'
rang back Ledyard's reply. Again we glimpse the man,
staunch, soldierly, determined, with one hundred and fifty
men at his back, outnumbered five to one, as resolute
as their commander. This is not the story of the New
London massacre, but a testimonial to the character of
William Ledyard. Suffice it to say that this little group
of Americans killed or wounded their own number of
British before the enemy broke through the ramparts
and forced an entry.

Colonel Eyre and Major Montgomery, his second in
command, were both grievously wounded. Surrounded
on all sides by overwhelming numbers of the enemy, with
ammunition gone and weapons reduced to scythes and
spears, the Americans stood helplessly by while the British
turned their own cannon upon them. At this point the
gallant Ledyard saw that further resistance was hopeless
and that he would simply throw away, needlessly, the
lives of his men. He ordered them to throw down their
arms. They did so, but the British fire still continued.
"Who commands this fort?" called out one Major
Broomfield, the now ranking officer of the British. Step-
ping forward and extending the handle of his sword, our
hero replied firmly, "I did, sir, but you do now." They
were his last words, for Broomfield instantly slew the
defenseless man with his own weapon. His men followed
their commander's example until another British officer,
sick at heart, cried out to them to stop, for his soul could
not bear such carnage.

WILLIAM LED YARD 209

Such is the little glimpse we have into of

William Ledyard* but it shows us a great deal. In
time of crisis he is tried and not found wanting. A
devotion to duty, a resolution in the of

death, a skillful and devoted resistance to the enemy, a
mind unclouded by the passions of war, a dignity,

a little touch of humor in his answer to his murderer's
question these make William Ledyard stand out as
an example of the best product of the early colonies* the
type of man to whom we are proud to point as an ex-
ample of revolutionary patriotism.

His monument in Groton bears this inscription:
"... He lived, the Pattern of Magnanimity; Courtesy;
and Humanity. He fell the Victim of ungenerous Rage
and Cruelty."

ETHAN ALLEN
GILBERT H. DOANE

Librarian, The University of Nebraska

Ethan Allen, the eldest son of Joseph and Mary (Baker)
Allen, was born in Litchfield, January 10, 1737/8. His
father, Joseph, was the great-grandson of Samuel Allen,
who probably came to New England with the Dorchester
Company in 1630. Samuel's son Nehemiah moved to
Northampton, Massachusetts, where his son Samuel was
born. This Samuel married Mercy Wright and became
the father of Joseph. Joseph's wife, Mary Baker, the
daughter of John and Sarah Baker, was the aunt of
Remember Baker, who later became one of Ethan's asso-
ciates in the struggle to make Vermont a state.

Very little is known of Ethan's boyhood other than
the fact that he was studying with the Reverend Jonathan
Lee of Salisbury, when his father died in 1755, and his
formal education was cut short by the necessity of earn-
ing a living. Impulsive, impetuous, and probably attain-
ing his manly stature at an early age, he served in the
French and Indian War, and took, part in the march
to Fort William Henry in 1757. Although he saw no
further service in these more or less professional wars,
he had had a taste of the roving life of a soldier, and
found it hard to settle down. After various attempts to
establish himself in mining iron ore in Woodbury, and
lead in Northampton, he found the call to the wilderness
too strong to resist, and moved, with his growing family,
northward to the newly settled New Hampshire Grants.
He had established his family in Arlington, Vermont,

210

ETHAN ALLEN 211

by 1770, and was assuming an Important part in the
affairs of the "Grants/' as Vermont was called.

In 1749 and 1750, Governor Banning Wentworth of
the province of New Hampshire began to grant town-
ships to groups of associates, these townships lying in
the western half of the province, between the Connecticut
River and Lake Champlain. In 1763 the governor of
New York likewise made grants in this territory,

for he claimed that the eastern boundary of the province
of New York was the Connecticut River. Trouble
between the settlers under the charters granted by Gover-
nor Wentworth and those who bought land from the New
York speculators to whom the governor of New York
had granted large tracts. The ** Yorkers" attempted to
evict the older settlers, and not infrequently blood was
shed as the rights of one side or the other were forcibly
asserted. By 1770 this trouble had assumed such pro-
portions that the New Hampshire grantees were ready
to fight a "Yorker" on sight. Ethan, ever ready for a
fray, glorying in his brawn and strength, having purchased
rights to innumerable acres of land in company with Ms
four brothers, Heber, Heman, Levi, and Ira, naturally
took sides with the grantees, and quickly organized the
famous Green Mountain Boys.

The news of the battle of Lexington put a momentary
quietus on the hostility between the grantees and the
" Yorkers," while Ethan led his band of hard-fighting and
adventure-loving backwoodsmen, in company with the
famous (and later infamous) Colonel Benedict Arnold, on
the morning of May 10, 1775, across the lake to attack
and capture the English fort at Ticonderoga. His words,
as he pounded on the door of the fort to awaken its
sleeping garrison, are reputed to have been: "Open and
surrender in the name of the great Jehovah and the Con-
tinental Congress !" Half-dressed officers, rubbing their

212 CONNECTICUT

eyes with one hand and clutching clothing to cover their
nakedness in the other, gasped in surprise, as the coonskin-
capped and leather-jerkined force of one hundred and
eighty men tramped up the stairs to the main compound
of the fort, and demanded the arms of the English.

Shortly after this, Ethan, ever active, led his company
or regiment to the attack on Montreal. Here, however,
Ms foolhardiness got the better of his sense, and he was
captured by the English and taken as a prisoner to Eng-
land. He was in captivity for two years and eight months,
but was finally exchanged in New York on May 6,
1778. A few days later he was breveted a colonel by
General Washington and returned to Bennington. He
found that the grantees, in a convention at Westminster,
Vermont, in January, 1777, had declared their indepen-
dence from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New
York, and had set up, on their own authority, the "State
of New Connecticut/* a name soon changed to Vermont
at the suggestion of Dr. Thomas Young, whom Allen
had known in his youth. His brother, Ira Allen, was
treasurer of the young republic, for Vermont was virtually
that until 1791.

Ethan immediately resumed an active part in the state's
affairs, and soon forgot his allegiance to the cause of the
colonies in his manipulation of state politics. It was only
two years later that he became involved in what has
since been called "the Haldiman affair." He received a
letter delivered by a mysterious messenger one day in
July, 1780. That letter suggested a conference between
representatives of the government of Vermont and the
British command in Canada. A few selected officials of
the tiny government, including the diplomatic Ira and
Governor Thomas Chittenden, opened secret negotiations
with the idea of making Vermont an autonomous British
province. The Aliens have been called traitors because

ETHAN ALLEN 213

of these transactions. Actually, it is

Ira, in his own astute way, trying to the

tant Continental Congress to the

of Vermont, and win her admittance to the of

colonies. It was not until 1791 that an act was

and Vermont was admitted as the fourteenth

Meanwhile, February 17, 1789, Ethan Allen had
of apoplexy while driving home on a load of hay in Col-
chester, near Burlington, Vermont. He buried in
Burlington, where a tall shaft marks Ms grave,

Ethan Allen married, first, in Connecticut, Juae 23,
1762, Mary Brownson, daughter of Cornelius and Abigail
(Jackson) Brownson. She was baptized September 1,
1733; she died in Sunderland, or Arlington, Vermont,
early in 1783. By her Allen had the following children;
Lorraine, Joseph E., Lucy Caroline, Mary Ann, and
Pamelia. Practically all, if not all, of the living de-
scendants of Ethan Allen descend from Ms daughter
Lucy Caroline, who was bom in 1768. She married Judge
Samuel Hitchcock of Burlington on May 26, 1789. One
of her descendants is Mrs. Anne Hitchcock Sims, wife of
Admiral William S. Sims of World War fame.

Ethan married, second, at Westminster, Vermont, Feb-
ruary 9, 1784, Mrs. Frances (Montnesor) Buchanan,
daughter of a Captain Montresor, and widow of a Captain
Buchanan. She was born April 4, 1760. By her Ethan
had four more children: Fanny, bom November 13,
1784, who died a nun in Montreal, December 10, 1819
(for whom the Fanny Allen Hospital near Burlington,
Vermont, is named), Ethan Voltaire, Hannibal Montresor,
and Ethan Alphonso (who married and had issue, but
whose descendants appear to have died out in 1905).
On October 28, 1793, four years after Ethan Allen's
death, his widow married Dr. Jabez Penniman, at West-
minster. She had other children by this third marriage.

BENEDICT ARNOLD
WARREN S. TRYON

Assistant Professor of History, Simmons College

Perhaps in all American history, certainly in that of
Connecticut, there is no person whose life bears better
witness to Mark Antony's cynical aphorism that "the
evil that men do lives after them," while "the good is
oft interred with their bones." Now for nearly one hun-
dred and fifty years the memory of Benedict Arnold has
been pursued with a malignant hatred and a cold fury,
so that while today every schoolboy instinctively links
his name with treason and vile betrayal, even compara-
tively well-informed persons are scarcely aware that he
was also a gallant man, a patriot who rendered great
services to his country. Yet without condoning the crime
of his treason, it can now be readily admitted that the
provocation was great and that his previous services to
the nation warrant more than the overwhelming obloquy
of his one colossal mistake.

Benedict Arnold, the fourth in direct descent bearing
that name, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, January
14, 1741, of a distinguished Rhode Island ancestry, his
great-grandfather having been president and later thrice
governor of that tiny commonwealth in the seventeenth
century. His father was less worthy, being a ne'er-do-well
who died ultimately in poverty and drunkenness. His
mother, a strict Calvinist, endeavored to instill the pre-
cepts of religion and morality in her son, but by methods
so repressive that she ultimately produced a result entirely
opposite to her intentions.

214

BENEDICT 215

Though Benedict was not studious, he a fair

education at Norwich and the of drug-

gist. His whole youth was marked by
revolt, though stories of his cruelty are
apocryphal. When fourteen he ran away to the French
and Indian War just commencing, brought back at
the instance of his mother, but again ran away the follow-
ing year and saw service on Lake Champlain. But the
military life lost its glamour and homesickness set in,
so he deserted, an act from the consequences of which
he was saved by consideration for Ms youth.

Norwich was too small a town to hold the ambitious
boy, and he left for New Haven when he was twenty-one.
There he set himself up as a druggist and, with a combina-
tion not unknown to modern times, sold books as well.
On the twenty-second of February, 1767, he married
Margaret Mansfield, by whom he had three children.
The drug and bookselling enterprise was not sufficiently
profitable and he gradually entered the West India trade,
traveling widely between Quebec and the Sugar Isles sell-
ing horses and mules to the planters. He grew prosperous
and became a citizen of consequence in New Haven, and
finally captain of one of the town's militia companies.

With the outbreak of the Revolution he espoused the*
patriot cause and in its early years rendered heroic and
valuable service. His first engagements ware in the region
of Lake Champlain between April and July, 1775. With
Ethan Allen he captured Fort Ticonderoga on May 10,
and on his own volition raided the British military sup-
plies at the northern end of the lake and destroyed Fort
St. Johns. Innumerable quarrels between the command-
ers and the rivalries of the various colonial governments
at length disgusted him and he returned to Connecticut
in midsummer. Greater work was in store for him in
the winter of 1775 and 1776. Placed by Washington in

216 CONNECTICUT

command of an expedition sent by a new route to attack
Quebec, he and his army straggled through the Maine
woods, lakes, and rivers on one of the most heroic marches
in all American military history. Through snow and icy
waters Arnold reached the citadel, and together with
Montgomery, who had traveled by the usual route of
Lake Champlaint, made an assault on December 31, 1775,
against a superior and well-situated force. Despite the
courage of the leaders, Montgomery being killed and Ar-
nold severely wounded, the attempt failed. He later tried
to capture the fortress by siege, but the effort was aban-
doned in June, 1776. No episode in his life better illus-
trates the hardy courage and the inspiration to heroism
with which he could inspire others than this memorable
offensive.

He was soon summoned again to the defense of the
Champlain region where he hastily built a nondescript
fleet to oppose Carleton. Though defeated in two battles
off Valcour Island and Crown Point in October, Arnold
forced Carleton to abandon Ms efforts to isolate the New
England states from the others. The spring of 1777
found Arnold back once more in Ms native state defending
the military supplies at Danbury wMch had been raided
by Governor Tryon of New York. The autumn of the
same year witnessed his final and greatest contribution
to the American cause when he aided in defeating the
triple assault planned by the British in New York state,
in wMch three converging armies were to tear asunder
the northern states and stifle the Revolution by dividing
its adherents. Arnold, though with but a small force,
advanced quickly and so terrified St. Leger that his army
was put to hopeless flight. At Saratoga Arnold gave
valuable aid in capturing Burgoyne's army, the last hope
of the plan. How great was the credit due him in the
first battle at Freeman's Farm is a matter of dispute;

BENEDICT ARNOLD 217

in the second battle at he was

wounded. The British reckoned as an

as seriously as with the actual commander, Gates. In
the light of Gates's subsequent career one can under-
stand the commanding position Arnold in secur-
ing the victory which was the decisive in the
of American independence.

Despite these successive contributions to the
cause, all had not been going well with Arnold.
troubles had fallen upon him. In June, 1775, his
died. He was in financial difficulties by reason of the
large expenditures he had made out of his own purse in
behalf of the American cause. Though he had repeatedly
asked the Continental Congress for reimbursement, so far
he had secured nothing but a paltry $800. Finally, Con-
gress had added to injury an insult which would have
antagonized a spirit even less haughty than Arnold's.
On the nineteenth of February, 1777, Congress promoted
five brigadier generals to the rank of major general, and
though Arnold had exhibited great talents in the war,
had made many contributions to its success, and was
superior in rank to all of those advanced, he received no
promotion. After the defense of Connecticut, Congress
tardily awarded him his major generalship, but without
restoring his rank above the other five. Unable to secure
his rightful rank from the faction-torn Congress and even
subjected to an investigation of his conduct in Montreal,
Arnold's blazing wrath caused him to resign; only the plea
of Washington caused him to reconsider. Not till after
the campaign against Burgoyne did Congress restore Ar-
nold to his rank. All this left a deep impression on him
and laid the foundation for Ms act of treason.

After the evacuation of Philadelphia in June, 1778,
Washington placed Arnold in command there. It was
not until 1779, however, that his treasonable correspond-

218 CONNECTICUT

ence began. The causes that motivated his treason are
not altogether clear. First, Philadelphia was filled with
the well-to-do loyalist families with whom Arnold now
commenced to associate. In April, 1779, he married
Margaret Shippen, the daughter of a moderate loyalist,
and the unconscious pressure as he saw so much position,
wealth, influence, and breeding on the king's side, must
have Impressed him greatly. Second, he needed money.
He had purchased a magnificent estate, entertained lav-
ishly, and sought to penetrate the wealthy Philadelphia
society; on his small pay this was impossible and he soon
fell badly into debt. Third, he became involved in a
conflict with the Pennsylvania civil authorities who pur-
sued him with relentless fault-finding, eventually trump-
ing up a series of trifling charges which were laid before
the Continental Congress. Ultimately he was cleared of
most of the charges, but on two trivial counts the court
found him guilty and Congress ordered Washington to
reprimand him. Though the cornmander-in-chief couched
the reprimand in tactful terms amounting to praise, the
spirit of Arnold was highly inflamed. Fourth, the al-
liance with France proved highly distasteful to one holding
strict Protestant views and inheriting the colonial tradi-
tion of the French and Indian War. Finally, there is
always the possibility that Arnold was sincerely converted
to the British cause; he himself always maintained this.
In the Philadelphia circles in which Arnold moved, it was
believed that the colonial cause was now hopeless and
that the restoration of peace was the most important
thing for the distracted land. Arnold may indeed have
come to this point of view and in justice should be ac-
credited with its honest intention.

The treasonable correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton
began in May or June, 1779, and continued throughout
that and the following year. At first anonymously and

BENEDICT ARNOLD

219

in codes, the movements of troops, their the

disposition of supplies^and the activities of the French,
were all revealed. Even Mrs. Arnold in the

correspondence. The definite action for the of

West Point took place in 1780. Arnold,

THE VACANT NICHE

A tribute in the Saratoga Battle Monument at Schuylenrllle, New York,
to Benedict Arnold's part in the battle of Saratoga. The other three niches
contain figures representing Generals Gates, Morgan, and Schuyler.

20,000 if successful, and 10,000 if not, discussed the
matter and the means with Major Andre. The latter's
capture, which resulted in his execution as a spy, revealed
the whole affair, and Arnold, recognizing that all was
lost, fled to the British lines in September, 1780.

For the rest of the Revolution Arnold fought in the
British army. In December, 1780, he led a raid on Vir-

220 CONNECTICUT

ginia in which Richmond was burned. In September of
the following year he shamefully raided his erstwhile Con-
necticut neighbors at New London. Though he was not
responsible for the massacre at Fort Griswold, he had
sole responsibility for the burning of the town. Shortly
after the capture of Cornwallis, Arnold and his family
departed for England.

Life in England was bitterly disappointing and vexed
with financial worries. He sought reentry into military
life, but despite the backing of Sir Henry Clinton was
unable to secure a position. Comparative poverty fell
upon him and although he repeatedly petitioned for ad-
ditional compensations from Parliament, the price of his
treason never advanced beyond 6,315 and some 13,400
acres of Canadian land which proved worthless. Some
time was spent in Canada and the West Indies as he
turned to commercial pursuits, but the rewards were not
great; during the Napoleonic wars he equipped privateers,
but even here few successes came. Throughout the entire
trouble his wife stood staunchly and loyally by him and
won much sympathy in English circles. Though always
** conscious of the rectitude of my intentions," as he ex-
pressed it, Arnold felt keenly the slights and misfortunes
which fell upon him, and sank slowly into melancholia.
The end came in London, June 20, 1801.

DAVID HUMPHREYS
FRANK LANDON HUMPHREYS

Chaplain-General, Society of the

A recent biographer of George Washington deplores the
fact that the "beautiful and significant scene of Washing-
ton's Roman tribute to the Majesty of the Republic and
its Congress** the presentation of the flags surrendered
by the British and Hessians at Yorktown has been so
ignored by historians. Although the details of this cere-
mony are often omitted in our histories of the Revolution,
it made the name of Colonel David Humphreys justly
famous throughout the country.

Humphreys' intimacy with Washington and his per-
sonal influence over him were probably greater than any
other man's and are revealed in a letter to Washington,
which contains the following words, "How different the
story of your life, and the history of our country, had
you persevered in the determination which you had so
firmly made, not to accept the Presidency, and I am glad
that in our long walks and talks at Mount Vernon, I
was able to persuade you that it was your duty to take
that great responsibility."

David Humphreys was born July 10, 1752, at Derby,
where his father, the Reverend Daniel Humphreys, was for
over fifty years pastor of the "Established Church." His
mother was a woman of rare gifts in person, mind, and
heart, and was known over the countryside as "Lady
Humphreys," a complimentary title conferred by one of
the faculty of Yale, where her boy won a place in the

221

222 CONNECTICUT

44 Bards of Yale" and a parchment among the "Sons of
EH" in the class of 1771.

After graduation young Humphreys became principal
of the Wethersfield Academy and later tutored in a
private family. The Revolutionary War called him to
his first military duties, and he became captain and
adjutant in Colonel Thompson's Regiment of the Con-
necticut Line. Here he wrote a description of BushnelFs
Turtle, the first torpedo boat ever built. Soon after-
wards, with the help of his faithful body servant, Jethro
Martin, he enlisted two companies of Negroes, the first
colored troops in the service of this government.

In the " Lexington Alarm" he was in the forefront.
From captain in 1777, he passed to major of brigade,
and for gallantry at the capture of Fort Montgomery
was made aide-de-camp to "Old Put " (Israel Putnam).
Besides fighting the enemy with his sword, Humphreys
gave new heart to the "men at the butt" by his pen,
which sent among them tuneful lyrics on timely themes.
When Putnam suffered his stroke of paralysis and retired,
Humphreys became aide to General Washington. This
position, and that of secretary, he held longer than any
other person-

At Yorktown Colonel Humphreys had a separate com-
mand and the special honor of receiving from the army
of Cornwallis the twenty-four captured British standards.
Upon his appointment by Washington to carry a letter
and the surrendered flags to Congress, Colonel Humphreys
left the headquarters near Yorktown with a few servants
and a military escort, and rode with all possible expedition
to Philadelphia. He was acclaimed enthusiastically all
along his journey as the representative of the commander-
in-cWef, bearing trophies of the success of the American
and French armies. Arriving in Philadelphia on Saturday,
November third, he was "met on the Common by the

DAVID

223

City Troop of Horse and was the

preceded by the colors of the United and France,"

At the state house Colonel Humphreys the

communication of his chief to the President and
and the various sergeants brought in the by

one. It was a dramatic scene. Washington's

Prom tke origin^ by J&h TntmiwH

RETURN FROM YGRKTOWN

After his long trip from Yorktown, General Washington's messenger arrives
at the state house to present the captured flags to Congress.

in part, "I have committed them (the flags) to the care
of one of my aides, whom for his fidelity and good services
I beg leave to recommend to Congress and Your Excel-
lency." Congress referred the letter to a special com-
mittee which on November seventh voted "That an
elegant sword be presented in the name of the United
States in Congress assembled to Colonel Humphreys, ..."

224 CONNECTICUT

It was said there was no envy felt by his brother officers,
for all believed that Into no better hands could the em-
blems of their victory have been confided.

When Washington resigned his commission as com-
mander-in-chief. Colonel Humphreys alone accompanied
him to Annapolis, and then returned with him to Mount
Veraon as his guest. There he became an intimate mem-
ber of Washington's family, regularly sitting at the head
of the table and carving. Shortly after this return to
private life Washington recommended his faithful friend
and companion to Congress for an appointment. As a
result, Humphreys was named secretary of the diplo-
matic commission to Europe, charged with negotiating
treaties of trade and amity. He sailed in July, 1784,
and during his stay abroad he was in frequent communi-
cation with Washington, who relied upon "my dear Hum-
phreys" to keep him informed on occurrences there.

In 1786 Humphreys returned to the United States, and
while visiting at Mount Vernon wrote his celebrated ode,
"The Happiness of America." The same year he entered
politics as a member of the legislature of his native state
and also became famous as a leading spirit of the renowned
"Hartford Wits/' He participated in the quelling of
Shays's Rebellion and was appointed t6 command a Con-
necticut regiment for service in the western part of the
state's claim. Upon the reduction of this command he
again became a guest at Mount Vernon and was present
when the messenger arrived to notify Washington of his
election to the Presidency. Humphreys accompanied
Washington to New York, becoming secretary and acting
as major-domo on all ceremonious occasions. Washing-
ton nominated him for Secretary of Foreign Affairs (State),
but the Senate voted otherwise. He was made secretary
of the commission to reestablish commercial relations
with England and France, and later was appointed minis-

DAVID 225

ter to Portugal and to he was

serving in this capacity he was by to

return and once more a of his

and to finish his days at Mount Vernon. He was
every facility to aid him in writing Washington's life
under Ms personal supervision. Had Humphreys
able to accept this generous offer he would have left a
name for all time, but his impending to an

English lady obliged him to decline. In reply, Washing-
ton somewhat pathetically writes, "Perhaps the
for a friend In whom I might confide in my declining
years Impelled me to over-persuade you to give up your
high post and come to us, but be assured that when you
come to America, no roof will offer a warmer welcome to
both yourself and Mrs. Humphreys."

Various other things David Humphreys did for his
state and his country. While ambassador to Spain he
brought to Connecticut some merino sheep, which it was
then a capital offense to take out of Spain, and he built
his mills to become one of the fathers of New England
industries. Upon the organization of the Military Society
of the Cincinnati, the gallant colonel was one of the
original members. In the War of 1812 he became com-
missioner-in-chief of the Connecticut forces.

This versatile diplomat, soldier, and poet died at New
Haven, February 21, 1818. The epitaph on his grave in
the Grove Street Cemetery there is written in Latin.
Colonel Trumbull, friend of Humphreys and fellow aide
on Washington's staff, wrote another epitaph which was
not used, but which describes the deeds and accomplish-
ments of his friend. It closes with these lines:

"Patron of arts, and guardian of the state;
Friend to the poor, and favour'd by the great;
To sum all titles to respect, in one
tlere Humphreys rests bdov'd of Washington."

ELIPHALET DYER
BROWNEI!, GAGE

Head Master, The School, SuffieM, Connecticut

The men who fought In the American War of Inde-
pendence to maintain what they believed were the rights
of their communities were the solid, dependable citizens,
of whom Eliphalet Dyer was a typical example. Lawyer,
judge, faithful public servant, soldier, man of affairs, Dyer
continued before, during, and after the Revolution to
carry on the social life of his town and state. Though
his work was solid and faithful, there is no indication of
brilliance or inspiration in it. This is shown in the plain-
spoken words of John Adams who wrote of the members
of the Continental Congress of 1775: "Dyer is long-
winded and round about, obscure and cloudy, very talk-
ative and very tedious, yet an honest, worthy man.
Means and judges well."

Dyer was a descendant of the early colonial families.
His great-grandfather, Thomas Dyer, was a cloth manu-
facturer of Shepton Mallet, Somersetshire, who settled
in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1632. Eliphalet's father,
Thomas, settled in Windham in 1715. He married Lydia
Backus, whose mother was Mary Bingham, the Backuses
and the Binghams both being old Windham families.
Eliphalet was born September 14, 1721. At the age of
twenty- four he married Htddah Bowen of Providence, and
they raised a family of five sons and one daughter.

Following his graduation from Yale in the class of 1740,
he studied law in Windham, was admitted to the bar in
1746, and was made a justice of the peace in the same

226

ELIPHALET 227

year. He speedily a as a

practitioner, and in 1766 was judge of

the superior court. He continued in
1789, when he was made chief justice, this

office until he retired in 1793.

The accounts indicate that Eliphalet might
a military career if he had chosen. When he twenty-
four he was made a captain of militia and
later was promoted to be a major. In 1755 he was
a lieutenant colonel and took part in the expedition
against Crown Point. Three years later he was made
colonel in the expedition which Connecticut contributed
for the invasion of Canada. In 1776 he was offered the
rank of brigadier general in the continental army, but
declined it because his services seemed to be more needed
in Congress, and in his own state.

Dyer began his public service as town clerk and justice
of the peace. In 1747 he was elected a deputy to the
General Assembly in which he served much of the time
until, in 1762, he was elected an assistant. He continual
in this office for two years during the important period
before the war, throughout the conflict, and the years
immediately following. In 1765 he was the first named of
three delegates of Connecticut to the Stamp Act Congress.
When Governor Fitch called his Council together to wit-
ness his oath to administer the Act, Dyer was one of
those who withdrew. This loyalty to the popular cause
led to his election to the superior court the next year.

In 1774 Dyer was the first named of three delegates
appointed to represent Connecticut in the first Conti-
nental Congress, and remained a delegate to Congress
until 1783, except for two years, 1776 and 1779. In
1775 he was appointed on the first Connecticut Commit-
tee of Safety. He thus served throughout the struggle
between the colonies and the mother country, either in

228 CONNECTICUT

Congress or on the most important councils of his own
state.

Dyer's business enterprise made him one of the founders
of the Susquehanna Company in 1753. As one of its
chief promoters he was one of a committee who negotiated
with the Indians of the Six Nations for the purchase of
land, and in 1755 he was one of the company's agents to
petition the General Assembly for permission to settle
on the lands they had purchased. In 1763 he went to
England as representative of the company to get a con-
firmation of the title obtained from the Indians, but was
not successful in securing it. He seems to have impressed
himself on the officials he met in London, for they made
him comptroller of the port of New London. In 1769
as the agent of the company and in 1773 as a commis-
sioner appointed by the Assembly, he went to Philadelphia
to adjust claims resulting from the Wyoming venture.
The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania had put forward an
adverse claim based on a previous Crown grant to William
Penn, and in 1781 a board of commissioners was ap-
pointed by the Congress to settle the dispute. Dyer ap-
peared as counsel for Connecticut before this board at
Tirenton, but the decision favored Pennsylvania. His
support of this forlorn enterprise was one of the influences
that led hundreds of men to take their wives and
children to these new western lands, though they were
attacked and repeatedly driven off by the forces of the
Pennsylvania colony and the Indians.

In his home in Windham, Dyer lived in considerable
state, with his family and household of slaves, including
a body servant who was a famous character and the son
of an African chief. Besides his law practice, Dyer was
engaged in various enterprises; he owned a flour mill at
South Windham mth its water power and dam, and a
grist mill on the brook to the east of his home. He gave

ELI PH A LET DYER 229

his son, Benjamin, a thousand pounds to the

drug store in that region. Dyer lived
after retiring from public life in 1793, and Ms

active mind to the last; he died May 13, 1807. He was
known as a gentleman of the old school, punctilious in
dress and manners, who deplored the innovations
growth of liberal views in religion and politics which fol-
lowed the Revolution.

This brief sketch of the facts of Eliphalet Dyer's life
reveals him as a citizen to whom his fellows trusted their
affairs, public and private, and also as a man who shared
the hopes, interests, and ideals of Ms time and participated
in the effort to realize them. His manner of living gives
us the picture of a New England Puritan in an age when
men had learned a dignified but comfortable way of life;
yet he was one who still retained the conscientiousness
and high sense of public duty which characterized so many
of those who made the history of Connecticut during the
Revolutionary period.

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON
GEORGE S. GODARD

Stati Librarian of Connecticut

Samuel Huntington was a man who rendered conspicu-
ous service for his town, state, and nation, in the trou-
blous times of our national beginnings. A cooper by trade,
but a lawyer by profession, he became President of the
Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, lieutenant governor and then governor of his
native state of Connecticut,

He was born July 3, 1731, in Windham, the second
eldest son of Nathaniel and Mehetable (Thurston) Hunt-
ington. His father, who was a farmer and clothier, man-
aged to give three of his sons a liberal education, but
Samuel had to help on the farm. At sixteen he was
apprenticed to a cooper and served out his term, but
being possessed of an inquisitive mind, a natural studious-
ness, and excellent understanding, he "left the Trimming
of Casks for the more Lucrative occupation of Trimming
Mankind." Mrs. Caulkins, the noted historian of Nor-
wich, says that his "mind was naturally acute and in-
vestigating, and his thirst for mental improvement so
great as to surmount all obstacles/' With the aid of only
a few books he urged his way to the bar in 1758, and
started to practice law in Norwich, where he shortly be-
came very popular in his profession.

On April 17, 1761, Samuel Huntington married Mar-
tha, daughter of the Reverend Ebenezer Devotion, of
Windham. She was imbued with the same Puritan spirit
as Samuel and inherited Huguenot blood through her

230

SAMUEL 231

father. They had no children, but two

children of Samuel's brother, the

who had married Martha's sister. One of

Samuel the Third, became governor of Ohio; the other,

Frances, or Fanny, became the wife of the

Edward Dorr Griffin, president of Williams College.

Samuel Huntington began his public life at a
time 1765 when the Stamp Act was being widely
discussed. He opposed its oppressiveness and ever after
aligned himself against oppressive and unconstitutional
acts of those in power. However, he did not oppose the
British Crown as such, as seen by his appointment in
1765 as king's attorney for Connecticut, in which office
he served with distinction. He was justice of the peace
for New London county, 1765-1775, and a judge of the
superior court in 1773 and for many years after.

In 1765, also, Huntington represented Norwich in the
General Assembly; in 1773 he was nominated a member
of the Council of Assistants and took his seat there in
1775. He served on many committees during the Revo-
lution: committees on defense, on currency, the Council
of Safety, committees on military measures, on prices,
on the question of revising the Articles of Confedera-
tion, on Western lands, and many others. In October,
1775, the General Assembly appointed him a delegate
to the Continental Congress, and he took Ms seat in
Congress, January 16, 1776. "No member "was more
marked for diligent and laborious working, unselfish patri-
otism or wise statesmanship." He was placed on im-
portant committees, including those on Indian affairs,
arms manufacture, capture and condemnation of prison-
ers, and supplies of ammunition; he was made a member
of the Marine Court (for the control of the navy); and
last, but not least, he signed the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. He was unanimously elected President of the

232 CONNECTICUT

Continental Congress twice in succession, in 1779 and in
1780, and continued his eminent work as presiding officer
till ill health forced him to resign. After two months of
hesitation, Congress reluctantly accepted his resignation,
July 6 1781, and passed a vote of thanks **in testimony
of appreciation of his conduct in the chair and in the
execution of public business."

He returned home, "the same unassuming man," and
resumed his posts (which had been left vacant) on the
tench and in the Council of Connecticut. The year 1783
found him back in Congress, where he served from July
29 to November 4, after which he retired to his Norwich
home. But his counsel was sought in the high places, so
in quick succession he was made chief justice of the
superior court of Connecticut, 1784-1785, lieutenant
governor, 1785, and then governor, 1786. He was yearly
reflected governor by the freemen till his death. His
gubernatorial administration was marked by peace, pros-
perity, and the flourishing condition of civil and military
affairs for all of which blessings he never failed to thank
Almighty God in Ms beautifully concise Thanksgiving and
Fast Day proclamations.

The Huntington Family in America says that as a gov-
ernor Samuel Huntington inspired confidence and won
esteem, and was second to no governor, with the possible
exception of "Brother Jonathan" TrumbulL Certain it is
that Huntington always had the best interests of the
state in mind, as his messages to the General Assembly
attest. In the one dated October 13, 1791, among other
things he suggests that means be devised for giving en-
couragement to useful manufactures and to agriculture
within the state (which should tend to increase popula-
tion) ; and in the message of May 14, 1795, he suggests
improvement of public roads and bridges.

Huntington showed his approval of the 1787 Consti-

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON 233

tution (drafted in federal convention) by
ing It in Connecticut; and in 1789 he was
mentioned to serve as President or Vice-President of the
United States.

It is worthy of note that although Samuel
had an extremely slight formal education, even for
days, yet in October, 1777, he is shown to be a of

the committee chosen to confer with the corporation of
Yale College concerning placing "the education of
in that important seminary . . . upon a more
plan of usefulness.** His appreciation of arts and learning
led to the enactment of Connecticut's copyright law, en-
titled "An Act for the Encouragement of Literature and
Genius," January, 1783. In that same month (presum-
ably) he is designated a director of the Plainfield Academy.

Samuel Huntington is described by Hannah Phelps
Huntington (a distant relative who lived in his family for
twenty-four years), as a middle-sized man with rather
formal manners, a bright and penetrating eye, and a
swarthy complexion; "a cool, deliberate man, moderate
and circumspect/' and of a serene temper. He detected
a spirit of extravagance beginning to appear among the
people, and tried to counteract it by setting an example
in economical habits, which some contemporaries desig-
nated as parsimonious. But this is proved untrue by
the various benefactions now known to be his work. The
inventory of his estate, completed February 5, 1796, lists
many items, including notes due, which throw interesting
sidelights on his character as already mentioned.

Samuel Huntington was more of a judge than an orator,
his outstanding characteristics in speech and correspond-
ence being brevity and caution. His genius, courage,
and perseverance led him from the r61e of plow-boy and
cooper to an eminent reputation as lawyer, jurist, and
statesman, and to the highest seats in both the nation

234 CONNECTICUT

and the state. His love of justice, punctuality, integrity,
common sense, dignity (there was no false pride in him),
calm temper, and self-reliance need only be mentioned.
Throughout his life he was known for his conscientious
Christian character. He was almost always present, and
occasionally led, at meetings. His religious confidence
remained unwavering to the end.

Samuel Huntington died January 5, 1796, at Norwich,
and was buried in Norwichtown cemetery. He was sur-
vived by his adopted son and daughter, his wife having
died June 4, 1794. "For David, after he had served his
own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep." (Text
of funeral sermon preached by the Reverend Joseph
Strong.)

OLIVER WOLCOTT
GEORGE MATTHEW BUTCHER

Professor of History* Weskyon Uniwt$Uy

The Declaration of Independence was signed by four
delegates from Connecticut of whom two, Samuel Hunt-
ington and Oliver Wolcott, served as governors of the
state. To the Wolcott family belongs the unique distinc-
tion in American history of having furnished a father,
Roger (1751-1754), a son, Oliver (1796-1797), and a grand-
son, Oliver, Jr. (1817-1828), as governors of their state.
Moreover, Roger's daughter, Ursula, was the wife of
Governor Matthew Griswold (1784-1786) and mother of
Governor Roger Griswold (1811-1812). Thus the Wol-
cotts surpass even the family of Jonathan Trambull, which
furnished three governors of the state, though not in lineal
descent.

Oliver Wolcott was born in South Windsor, November
20, 1726, the youngest son of Roger and Sarah (Drake)
Wolcott. Roger Wolcott, who was the grandson of one
of the earliest settlers of Windsor, died in his eighty-ninth
year in 1767. In 1747 Oliver Wolcott was graduated from
Yale College, where one of his classmates was Lyman
Hall, a native of Connecticut who also became a signer
of the Declaration of Independence, but as a representa-
tive of Georgia.

Shortly after graduation young Wolcott began a military
career, which was destined to last for thirty-five years, by
accepting from Governor Clinton of New York a com-
mission as captain of a company of volunteers which he
raised. With this company he served against the French

235

236

CONNECTICUT

along the northern border during the final year of King
George's War. He then took up the study of medicine
with his older brother, Dr. Alexander Wolcott of Windsor,
though he was engaged in active practice for only a brief
time, if at all. In 1751 he removed to Litchfield, which
had been selected as county seat of the newly created

CmrUsy 4 #* WadswrOt AOmmim

KEY TO CONNECTICUT SIGNERS, AND THEIR AUTOGRAPHS
In Trambull's painting an the opposite page.

county of Litchfield. At this date and for many years
after, the village was a frontier community and the con-
ditions of life extremely primitive. Wolcott was chosen
the first sheriff of the county and served in that capacity
for many years. Later on he represented the town in the
Assembly. On August 17, 1774, he presided at a town
meeting and drafted vigorous resolutions against the
Boston Port Bill which were adopted. In the same year

OLIVER WOLCOTT

237

238 CONNECTICUT

he was chosen a member of the governor's Council. For
the ensuing twelve years he was an active participant in
the strenuous activities of this body under the leadership
of Jonathan Tnimbuil in making Connecticut's participa-
tion in the struggle for independence conspicuous and
invaluable. During these same years he "held the local
offices of judge of the county court of common pleas and
judge of the district court of probate for considerable
periods.

In view of Ms long service in the militia, Wolcott was
chosen, in 1774, colonel of the seventeenth regiment of
militia, and on August 12, 1776, he was appointed briga-
dier general of the sixth brigade, and in May, 1779, was
promoted to be second major general of the state militia.
In this capacity he served until the end of the war.
After the New York campaign, the two principal occasions
when he saw active service were with a body of volunteers
under Gates, in the concluding weeks of the campaign
against Burgoyne in 1777, and in the effort to repulse
Tryon's raid into the state in July, 1779.

When the second Continental Congress assembled in
May, 1775, Wolcott was present as one of the delegates
from Connecticut and served until 1778, and again from
1780 to 1784. The regularity of his attendance at the
sessions was frequently interrupted by his activities in the
other forms of public service already recounted. As one
of the most steadfast defenders of the rights of the colonies,
he early recognized that permanent severance of relations
with England was inevitable. Though his modesty for-
bade much participation in debates, his sound judgment,
his undoubted integrity, his varied experience, and his skill
as an administrator led to his service on a multitude of
committees, notably the treasury board, commissions to
treat with the Indians, especially the Six Nations, and
committees to deal with military questions.

OLIVER WOLCGTT 239

During the progress of the war, Wolcott
busied in recruiting troops, fitting them out,
them forward to join the continental army in active serv-
ice. He and Ms family gave unstintingly of their and
means to supply the needs of the soldiers in
to alleviate their hardships. In the con-

ditions of the severe winter of 1779-1780, the
sacrifices to relieve the conditions of the soldiers
rigorous.

Perhaps the most famous episode in Wolcott's career
occurred shortly after the signing of the Declaration of
Independence. In celebration of that event the people
of New York City had pulled down a leaden statue of
George III, which had been erected some years before.
Wolcott secured most, if not all, of the statue and trans-
ported it to his home in Litchfield, where his family and
neighbors converted it into over 42,000 bullets for use of
the army. Thus, as one patriot observed, the redcoats
"would have melted majesty fired at them/'

When Huntington was chosen governor in 1786, Wol-
cott was elected lieutenant governor, and reelected with
Huntington until the latter's death on January 5, 1796.
He then succeeded to the governorship, which he held
until his own death at Litchfield on December 1, 1797.
As a member of the Connecticut convention of January,
1788, he spoke and voted in favor of ratifying the new
federal Constitution. In each of the first three presi-
dential elections he was chosen as one of the Connecticut
members of the electoral college and cast his vote for
the Federalist candidates.

Wolcott was married in 1755 to Laura (Lorana), a
daughter of Captain Daniel and Lois (Cornwall) Collins
of Guilford, who died in 1794. She was notable for her
strong-mindedness, energy, and thrift, which she displayed
especially in managing the family affairs and property

240 CONNECTICUT

during her husband's absence in public service. There
were bom of this marriage, in addition to Oliver, the future
governor, another son, Frederick, and a daughter, Mary
Ann. She was famous for her remarkable beauty, charm,
and varied accomplishments, and became the wife of
Chauncey Goodrich, a prominent figure in the political
life of the state and the nation.

Oliver Wolcott was of dark complexion, tall and erect,
and of dignified bearipg. Though his mature years were
all spent in the public service, his intellectual interests
and Ms demeanor bespoke the scholar rather than the man
of affairs. His clear judgment and firmness of purpose
were combined with consideration for the views and rights
of others. Honor, magnanimity, and rectitude distin-
guished his personal relations. His sense of justice and
spirit of benevolence were illustrated by his freeing his
slave, Caesar, in 1786. Sincere piety, unusual familiarity
with religious and theological writings, and devotion to
his church crowned the character of this Christian gentle-
man and patriot.

WILLIAM WILLIAMS
CHARLES EDWARD PERRY

The whole-hearted enthusiasm with which William
Williams supported the American cause in the Revolution
was such that he could not tolerate a devotion ardent
than his own. He often became impatient with even his
closest friends, as is illustrated by an incident reported to
have happened in December, 1776. At one of the numer-
ous meetings of the Connecticut Council of Safety held
in Lebanon, two fellow members, William Hillhouse and
Benjamin Huntington, stayed at Williams* home. The
conversation dwelt very naturally upon the then partic-
ularly discouraging colonial outlook. Williams said lie
knew what his fate would be if the colonies were not suc-
cessful, for, said he, "One thing I have done which the
British will never pardon; I have signed the Declaration
of Independence; I shall be hung/' Huntington com-
placently observed that he had never committed Ms name
to any paper or document criticizing the British govern-
ment. Williams thereupon drew himself erect and de-
clared scornfully, "Then, sir, you deserve to be hanged,
for not doing your duty."

William Williams was born in Lebanon, April 18, 1731,
being of the fifth generation from Robert Williams, who
came originally from Wales with his wife and settled in
Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he was admitted as a
freeman in 1638. Williams' father, Solomon, a brother of
President Elisha Williams of Yale, was a graduate of Har-
vard College in 1719, and was the minister in Lebanon for

241

242 CONNECTICUT

fifty-four years. Williams' mother was Mary, daughter
of Colonel Porter of Hadley, Massachusetts.

Under the instruction of Nathan Tisdale, who conducted
a successful school in Lebanon, Williams was prepared
for Harvard, which he entered at the early age of sixteen
and from which he graduated in 1751. Two years later
he was given an honorary degree by Yale College. He
returned to Lebanon, where he studied theology with
his father for several years, with the intention of entering
the ministry. In December, 1752, he was chosen town
clerk, which office carried with it the town treasurership,
and both of these offices he held for forty-four years. He
was elected selectman in 1759, and held that office for
twenty-six years.

In 1755 he entered the army in the French and Indian
War, on the staff of his cousin Colonel Ephraim Williams
(who founded Williams College), and participated in
several fierce conflicts on the Canadian border. Soon
after his cousin was killed, Williams, thoroughly dis-
gusted with the conduct and leadership of the second-rate
English officers, returned to Lebanon. At the age of
twenty-five he was elected a representative, and with
but few interruptions he continued to represent his town
until 1784. He was chosen speaker of the house for nine
sessions and clerk for seventeen, and his record of attend-
ance at all regular and special meetings of the Assembly
(about ninety in all) undoubtedly surpasses that of any
other member.

After having been a bachelor for forty years, he was
married, February 14, 1771, to Mary, second daughter
of Governor Trumbull, by whom he had three children,
Solomon, Faith, and William Trumbull. This marriage
united two influential families in the work of the colony,
and Trumbull found in Williams not only a beloved son-
in-law but a strong helper in all Ms difficulties.

WILLIAM WILLIAMS 243

About the time of Ms marriage he by

the Assembly as judge of probate for the dis-

trict, and during forty years of service in capacity
not a single decision of his was reversed by the
court, In May, 1777, he was made a judge of the county
court, an office which he held to the end of his life.

When the Council of Safety for Connecticut organ-
ized in May, 1775, Williams was one of the
selected, and was appointed and acted as its clerk through-
out its existence. The little War Office in Lebanon, in
which were held over twelve hundred meetings of the
Council of Safety, became a veritable workshop for the
two devoted and self-effacing patriots, Jonathan Tnunbull
and William Williams. In October, having been chosen
as an alternate delegate to the Continental Congress, he
resigned his military commission as colonel of the Twelfth
Regiment, which he had received in 1773. On July
11, 1776, Williams received from Colonel Joseph Trumbull
the first copy of the Declaration of Independence to reach
the colony. Word was also sent that an alternate was
needed in place of Oliver Wolcott, who had left the Con-
gress because of ill health. Williams was directed by the
Council to replace him at Philadelphia where, soon after
his arrival, he signed the Declaration of Independence,
October 2, 1776.

Now that the war had commenced, Williams devoted
himself whole-heartedly to the service of Ms country.
By articles in the newspapers and by speeches, as well
as by his own enthusiasm, he aroused support for the
American cause. During the gloomy days of 1777,
Williams sent beef, clothing, and gold to the army at
Valley Forge with the statement to his friends that he
would be paid if independence were achieved, and if it
were not, the loss would be of no account to him. Through
his personal solicitation over one thousand blankets were

244 CONNECTICUT

secured from a total population of slightly less than four
thousand, and people even took the weights out of their
decks to supply lead for bullets.

In 1780, after having served as a member of the upper
branch of the Assembly for four terms, he was defeated
for reelection, but in 1784 he was again chosen, and was
reflected each year until he retired from public affairs in
1804. In 1787, because of his opposition to the "Society
of the Cincinnati/' Williams was consigned to death and
oblivion by the Hartford Wits in their poem, "The
Anarchiad." Even though the people of Lebanon were
opposed to the adoption of the United States Constitution,
they showed their confidence in and respect for Williams
by sending him as one of their two delegates to the state
convention at Hartford, in January, 1788, where he voted
for ratification.

Few men have been privileged to serve their town,
colony, state, and country in such a variety of offices and
so creditably as did William Williams. At the end of his
life his friends could truly say of him that he had fulfilled
the desire he expressed in his youth, that he could live the
life of an honest politician. He died at Lebanon, August 2,
1811, the last of the Connecticut signers, and is buried in
the Trumbull tomb, the final resting place of more noted
men and women than any similar mausoleum in the state.

ROGER
ROGER SHERMAN BALDWIN

On the wall of the United Church on New
where Roger Sherman worshiped, is a
bearing an inscription prepared by the late ex-Governor
Simeon E. Baldwin. The final lines of the inscription
are the following: "One of the Committee which drew
the Declaration of Independence; of that which reported
the Articles of Confederation; of the Convention that
framed the National Constitution; and a Signer of
three Charters of American Liberty." Only one man
could truly have these lines written of him Roger
Sherman,

Roger Sherman, son of William Sherman and Mehetabel
Wellington, was born at Newton, Massachusetts, April 19,
1721. His grandfather, Joseph Sherman of Watertown,
was of plain yeoman stock; he was village blacksmith,
selectman, and assistant to the General Court. When
Sherman was two years old, his father bought a tract from
the Indians on a low ridge lying east of the Neponset
River, in that part of Stoughton now known as Canton.
He laid off a lot of seventy-seven acres and built a mod-
erate-sized house with an adjoining shed, under which a
horse and cart could stand, connecting with a small tool
shop beyond. Here Sherman grew up, next to the eldest
in a family of seven children. In spring and summer he
worked on the farm, learned to plow a furrow with a yoke
of oxen, and to swing an axe and cut cordwood. His
father was a part-time boot- and shoemaker and early
taught the boy the trade; on October first they took their

245

246 CONNECTICUT

orders for boots to be delivered in November. In the
winter Sherman trudged through the snow and forest a
mile and a quarter to the twelve by fourteen foot school-
house at Canton Comer. On Sundays he heard two stiff
sermons on dogmatic theology by the Reverend Samuel
Dunbar.

The early death of his father, in the winter of 1741,
threw upon Sherman at the age of twenty the support of
his mother and the younger children. The following winter
he joined the church at Stoughton and was ever thereafter
a consistent Christian. He always looked back with fond-
ness to those days at Canton, and often in later years
returned for a vacation. It was during those early years
that he developed an iron constitution, unflagging indus-
try, and unconquerable courage that were to serve him in
good stead in years to come.

In the spring of 1742 the entire family took the Con-
necticut trail for the town of New Milford, where his
brother William had already removed. Sherman wheeled
his personal baggage on a barrow as far as Canton Corner;
it took fourteen days to reach Hartford, traveling on
foot.

Sherman had a keen interest in mathematics and while
plying his trade of shoemaker kept a book propped up
in front of him. In 1745 he qualified as county surveyor
for New Haven county. In 1750 he and his brother
William opened a store, and ten years later added others
in New Haven and Wallingford, which he continued for
many years with profit. In these ten years, between
surveying, dealing in real estate, and running a general
store, he had amassed a tidy fortune. By 1748 he was
able to purchase a house and lot in Park Lane, New
Milford, which he made his home. On November 17,
1749, he married Elizabeth Hartwell, daughter of Deacon
Joseph Hartwell of Stoughton. Of the seven children

24?

who were bom to them, three in the Revolu-

tionary Army*

In his spare moments Sherman by

calculating lunar eclipses, and at the of

he published at Boston from 1749 to 1761 a of

almanacs for the use
of Massachusetts Prov-
ince; Sherman's pro-
verbial caution shows
itself in the observa-
tions as to weather. He
was an inveterate
reader and found time
to read law. In Febru-
ary, 1754, he was ad-
mitted to practice. In
eighteen years of resi-
dence at New Milford,
he served the town as
selectman, town clerk,
and assistant to the
General Court.

Mrs. Sherman died in
1760, and the following
year he moved to New
Haven where he gave,
up active practice and
devoted himself to mercantile business. On May 12,
1763, he married his second wife, Rebecca Prescott, of
Danvers, Massachusetts, whom he had met while on a
visit to his brother Josiah, at Woburn. Rebecca Prescott
was intelligent, well educated, and noted for her beauty.
During the stormy years when her husband was almost
continually absent in attendance at Congress, she brought
up her young flock of eight children two boys and five

Cmtrtesy &/ Roger Skermm Behlwm

ROGER SHERMAN
From a painting by an unknown artist

248 CONNECTICUT

girls reached maturity /but ooe daughter died in childhood
and managed her large household with prudence.

In 1765 Sherman was appointed treasurer of Yale
College, an office he held for eleven years; during this
period, in 1768, Yale conferred upon him an honorary
MJL degree. In 1766 he was appointed a judge of the
superior court. Soon after his removal from New Milford
to New Haven, he represented the town in the General
Assembly, where he served on important committees.

In 1774, Roger Sherman became one of the three del-
egates from Connecticut to the first Continental Con-
gress. From then on for eight years he was in continual
attendance at the Continental Congress. He was then
fifty-three years of age, in the full maturity of his powers,
and he performed prodigious work. In 1776 he was a
member of a committee to devise ways and means to
raise ten million dollars; of a committee to concert plans
for the ensuing campaign, with Generals Washington,
Gates, and Mifflin; of the Board of War and Ordnance;
of a committee to visit army headquarters. In addition,
he was appointed on the two most distinguished commit-
tees of the Congress: June eleventh, to the Committee of
Five, with Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, and Robert
Livingston, to draft the Declaration of Independence;
and June twelfth, to the Committee of Thirteen, one from
each state, to prepare the Articles of Confederation.

The capacity for hard work of the New England mem-
bers secured them a preponderant influence in the Con-
gress, which aroused the jealousy of the more easy-going
Southerners. Sherman rose at 5:00 A.M., worked in
committee from 7:00 to 10:00 A.M., then in sessions of the
Congress from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.; and then in com-
mittee session again until 10:00 P.M. Men who knew him
said this arduous work took a toll of eight years from his
life. John Adams, in speaking of his own labors on the

SHERMAN 240

Board of War, of which was a

says: "The duties of this me In

employment, not to say drudgery, from the of

June, 1776, till the eleventh of November, 1777, I

left Congress forever."

Throughout his life, Sherman persistently the

issue of paper money without a or as he

styled it, the "emission of bills of credit." As a
in New Milford, he had come in contact the
of depreciated currency, and in 1759 had an

open letter, urging the restriction of circulation of depre-
ciated currency from the adjoining states of New York
and Rhode Island. Throughout the period of the war,
and thereafter, he repeatedly urged upon the Connecticut
legislature the desirability of raising the requisitions from
Congress by taxation, rather than by emission of bills of
credit.

Following the war, Sherman was a leader in securing
a charter for New Haven. In November, 1784, he was
elected the city's first mayor, and occupied this office
until his death.

Sherman's position in the Constitutional Convention
of 1787 was unique. At sixty-six, he ranked next to
Franklin in age, but Sherman's service of eight years in
the Continental Congress exceeded that of any other
delegate; he was one of the eleven signers of the Decla-
ration of Independence who were present.

On June eleventh, he proposed "that the proportion
of suffrage in the first branch should be according to the
respective numbers of free inhabitants, and that in the
second branch or Senate each state should have one vote
and no more." This was the first direct presentation of
that compromise plan through which the conflicting
claims of the large and the small states were finally ad-
justed. In a final remodeling of the plan, two Senators

250 CONNECTICUT

were allowed for each state. The burden of supporting
this resolution before the Convention fell upon Sherman,
and perhaps was the greatest single contribution he made
there.

As a member of the first United States Congress,
1789-1791, and as a Senator, 1791-1793, Mr. Sherman
supported Alexander Hamilton's program for a national
bank and a protective tariff, and ably defended on the
floor of the House the assumption of the state debts by
the national government. Though he was sixty-eight
years of age when he entered Congress, Mr. Sherman
never spoke to greater advantage than there. The late
ex-Governor Simeon E. Baldwin, a critical historian, ranks
Roger Sherman fourth or fifth of six outstanding men
who rendered conspicuous service as statesmen during
the Revolutionary period and the formation of the Union.

Sherman enjoyed a good story and always had a keen
sense of humor. In his last sickness, friends having de-
cided to have a consultation of physicians, he was asked
if he objected. He replied with a smile, "No, I don't
object; only I have noticed that in such cases the patient
generally dies/*

Worn out by incessant labors for the state, he died "in
harness/* July 23, 1793, at his own quiet residence in New
Haven. From the diary of Ezra Stiles, president of Yale
College, is taken the following extract: "1793, July 23,
. . . about sunsetting, a bright luminary set in New
Haven: the Honorable Roger Sherman Esquire died at
seven o'clock ... an extraordinary man, a venerable
uncorrupted patriot/'

JONATHAN TRUMBULL
NATHANIEL HORTON BATCHELDER

Head Master, The L&@mi$ School, Windsor*

In December, 1795, the Reverend Jeremy Belknap
wrote, "Arrived at my house the chests and boxes of
papers from Governor Trambulfs at Lebanon. They
were sent from Norwich, carted across Cape Cod, and
thence brought up to Boston in a vessel from Bamsta-
ble." A short time before, Mr. Belknap had been down
at a cost of $17.19 to inspect these papers, including
official records and personal correspondence, carefully
saved by Jonathan Trumbull, and tendered by Ms son
David to the Massachusetts Historical Society, because
there was then no official repository in Connecticut, and
he preferred not to give them to a college library, where
they would probably become "food for worms."

It was a full century and a quarter later that the papers,
lacking one precious volume destroyed by fire, were gra-
ciously returned to the State Library in Hartford, and
received with becoming ceremony. "The matter" was
"extremely miscellaneous," much wheat and some chaff,
many records of unimportant routine, but also many in-
valuable letters from Washington, Gates, and Schuyler;
a whole volume of correspondence with the President of
the Continental Congress; and another with Doctor Wil-
liam Samuel Johnson, agent for Connecticut in London.
The vital thing about such documents is that they shall
be preserved and made readily accessible (the Massa-
chusetts Society printed four volumes of selections), but
sentiment would dictate that the records of so remarkable

251

252 CONNECTICUT

a career should rest in the capital of the state over which
Trumbull ruled for fourteen years, with so much satis-
faction to the citizens that it became 4< a rare thing to
see a counting of votes."

Whoever would write the life of Trumbull must write
the history of his times. For fifty years he was steadily
employed in the service of state and country as member
of the Connecticut General Assembly, speaker of the
house of representatives, assistant for twenty-four years,
during twenty of which he was also judge of the county
court and judge of probate. For three years he was
chief justice of the superior court of the colony and
deputy governor, before becoming governor in 1769. He
was the rebel governor, the only chief magistrate when the
Revolution broke out who was not an appointee of the
king, or a loyalist, the only one who remained in office
throughout the conflict, a man with a price on his head,
and one that some Englishmen would have killed "as
they would a rattlesnake."

His eldest son, Joseph, was first commissary general of
the continental army, and died as a result of his exertions.
Reliable testimony said that his loss cost the country
many lives and $5,000,000. Jonathan, Jr., was secre-
tary and first aide to Washington, first Comptroller of
the Treasury, a Representative in the first Congress under
the Constitution, and governor of Connecticut for nine
years. John, soldier and diplomat, is better known as the
illustrator of the Revolution. Two daughters, Faith and
Mary, married respectively Colonel, later General, Jedi-
diah Huntington, and William Williams, signer of the
Declaration of Independence. Only David remained
rather quietly at home in the state commissary depart-
ment, perhaps his father's silent right-hand man in both
public and private affairs. Yet, thick as honors came,
Trumbull was so modest and unassuming that he once

JONATHAN TRUMBULL

253

sent a message asking for. the of a

without his knowledge, which the of His

Excellency on the governor. He **High

sounding Titles intoxicate the mind/* 44 It is Honor

VIEW OF THE SOUTH END OP MEMORIAL HAIL,
CONNECTICUT STATE LIBRARY

The portrait on the left is of Oliver Wolcott; that on the right is of
Jonathan Trumbull; the center portrait is Stuart's Washington. Under-
neath the portrait of Washington are shown the charter of 1662 (center)
and the official engrossed copy of the Connecticut constitution of 1818
(right).

and Happiness enough to meet the Approbation of
Heaven, of my conscience, and of my Brethren,"

A quaint evidence of the progress of this remarkable
family in the public estimation is the ranking of its mem-
bers at Harvard College, which the father and three of
the sons attended. Jonathan was a farm boy. His father,
Joseph, was born in Suffield, moved to Simsbury, and
thence to Lebanon, where he purchased a homestead,

254 CONNECTICUT

subject to a mortgage of 340 evidence of small means
and great faith. Jonathan was bom October 12, 1710.
Entering college at thirteen, he was ranked twenty-eighth
among thirty-seven members of the class of 1727. Just
how the ratings were made or by whom is difficult to dis-
cover, but the prominence of the family seems to have
been the chief factor. A farm boy from Connecticut cut
little figure. Yet in 1756, Joseph ranked third in his class,
and three years later Jonathan, Jr., was first.

These were the days of Presidents Leverett and Wads-
worth, when Hebrew, Greek, and Latin were the principal
studies. Trumbull won distinction as a scholar, and joined
a secret religious society. Among his contemporaries were
many destined to play important r61es on one side or
the other during the Revolution. Hutchinson, the royal
governor of Massachusetts, was a classmate, but if college
halls echoed to the debates of these two men so strongly
contrasted in birth, opinion, and career, the record is
silent. Harvard was then, as ever since, hospitable to
differences of opinion.

From college Trumbull went back to Lebanon and the
study of theology, but the death of an uncle at sea made
it necessary for him to assist with the farm and a growing
mercantile business, A pleasant story is told of this
period. It was desirable for Jonathan to go to Boston
at times to dispose of livestock. There he occasionally
encountered the aristocratic Reverend Samuel Welles,
who, when pastor at Lebanon and the owner of the best
house in town, had been his tutor. Welles was not eager to
admit acquaintanceship with this young man in farmer's
garb. But the tables were turned when Welles revisited
Lebanon, greeted the citizen of growing importance, and
was roundly snubbed with, " If you don't know me in Bos-
ton, I don't know you in Lebanon/'

Life in a country town, busy as it doubtless was with

JONATHAN TRUMBULL 258

farm duties, trade, reading theology and law, never-

theless have been rather uneventful.
reigned when the comely Mistress Faith Robinson, de-
scended from John Alden, came occasionally to visit her
sister, wife of Jacob Eliot, pastor of Goshen She

was a blooming girl of seventeen, Trumbull a
young man of twenty-five, already a merilber of the legis-
lature, when they married, December 9,, 1735.

The mercantile ventures throve till Ttfffenbull had
trading with the West Indies, Newfoundland, Liverpool,
Bristol, and London. He advanced from one civil post
to another. And he held a commission in the militia,
learning much of military affairs. He : saw nothing of
actual service in the French and Indian wars, though he
had a large share in planning the expedition against Crown
Point and Ticonderoga.

TrumbulFs great period began with the Revolution.
When news from Lexington arrived, his store was made
the rallying point for all troops in the vicinity, and the
governor himself with his sons and son-in-law Williams,
labored to deal out powder and bullets and provisions.
From then on he worked for the cause unceasingly. Since
he was the only patriot governor, Connecticut was sub-
ject to unusual calls for men, money, and provisions. An
inscription in Trumbull College at Yale preserves the
tradition that Washington said, " We must consult Brother
Jonathan/' By whatever title, " consult" he certainly
did. Letter after letter brought temperate but urgent
requests. Cattle did not arrive with regularity to provide
fresh meat for the army. Troops went home when their
short periods of enlistment expired. Clothing was desper-
ately needed. Powder and balls were never adequate. No
call was made in vain. There was lead at Middletown,
and iron at Salisbury. Trumbull gave personal attention
to stimulating production of ore. Cattle were steadily

256 CONNECTICUT

on the road, and Trambull helped to organize shipments
from the several states so that the animals should arrive
in reasonable numbers with some regularity. In one year
he noted, "this state raised nine million eight hundred and
sixteen thousand and fifty-six and one-third dollars for
Continental and state purposes."

In his efforts he was ably seconded by his devoted wife.
There is a picture preserved of Lebanon Meeting House
when a collection was being taken for the army, with
Madam Faith Trambull rising eagerly to offer a magnifi-
cent scarlet cloak, presented to her by Rochambeau. It
was afterward cut into strips and used as trimming for
uniforms, let us hope to the inspiration of the soldiers.

The career of the administrator is likely to be less pic-
turesque than that of the soldier or orator, but not less
important. Trumbull did not occupy the center of the
stage, but he did yeornan service behind the scenes. From
his home and store near by, which became the War Office,
he sent out letters to reconcile disputes between officers,
maintain supplies, cheer the commander-in-chief, and even
to raise funds abroad. One letter of thirty large octavo
pages, in answer to questions about conditions in America
from Baron Van der Capellan in Amsterdam, forwarded
by Henry Laurens, brought liberal subscriptions to a
Dutch loan to the United States. The Marquis de Chas-
tellux, from the gay court of Louis XVI, wrote in his
Voyages dans I'AmMque, "He is over seventy years old,
his entire life is devoted to affairs, which he loves with a
passion, whether they be great or small; or, rather, there
are none for him of this latter dass."

To Lebanon, sooner or later, came Washington, Knox,
Sullivan, Putnam, Franklin, Samuel and John Adams,
Jay, Jefferson, Rochambeau, Lafayette, and Lauzun to
confer with Trumbull and be entertained by him. Here
the Council of Safety met almost throughout the conflict.

JONATHAN 257

The little War Office, with its old-fashioned roof,

fairly takes rank with the more magnificent
Hall in Philadelphia and Faneuil in as a

cradle of Liberty. Only, like its owner, it was unobtrusive
and did its work quietly. There were earnest conferences
rather than noisy mass meetings; less said, but quite as
much done.

The war over, Trumbull asked to be relieved of office,
and penned a parting address, full of affection, piety, and
homely wisdom. Pleading for a strong federal union, he
likened the jealousy which withholds necessary powers
to "the practice of a farmer, who should deprive his
laboring man of the tools necessary for Ms business, lest
he should hurt himself, or injure his employer, and yet
expects his work to be accomplished.*'

He was now a Fellow of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, and a Doctor of Laws of Yale and
Edinburgh, truly "full of years and honors/' but with
short time left to enjoy them. On August 17, 1785, in
his seventy-fifth year, he was laid to rest in the cemetery
of his beloved Lebanon.

JEREMIAH WADSWORTH
FRANK BUTLER GAY

Director Emeritus of Wadsworth Atkemum* and Librarian
of Watkinson Library, Hartford, Connecticut

Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth, of Revolutionary fame,
was not only the leading citizen of Hartford, but a national
and an international personage as well. His intimate
letters to General Nathanael Greene show his great diver-
sity of interests and wide experience in the shipping busi-
ness, the army, finance, and foreign exchange. He came
to be regarded by Alexander Hamilton and Robert Morris
as one of the most capable financiers of the time. Having
a generous, sympathetic nature, he was an important
figure in the social life of the period. He was not a college-
bred man, but in later life both Yale and Dartmouth
conferred on him their honorary M.A. degrees, thus certi-
fying to his more than ordinary mental ability and intel-
lectual accomplishments.

Colonel Wadsworth was born on July 12, 1743, in
Hartford, son of the Reverend Daniel Wadsworth and
his wife Abigail, daughter of Governor Joseph Talcott.
His father, who was pastor of the First Church of Christ
in Connecticut, and a great-grandson of William Wads-
worth, one of the original settlers of Hartford, was a
sincere evangelical minister as well as a man of great
wealth and prominence in the then overgrown country
town. He died in his forty-third year, leaving his widow,
four daughters, and his four-year-old son.

Soon after his father's death Jeremiah was placed in the
family of his uncle, Mathew Talcott, Esquire, of Middle-

258

JEREMIAH 259

town, where he spent his youth. There is no
he had any regular academic education
provided by the dame school of Middietown, and
tutoring. When he was about eighteen years old, he
threatened with consumption and so to sea in

one of his uncle's vessels. His health improved he
continued his life at sea, rising to be mate and
captain of his ship. On September 29, 1767, he
Mehitable Russell, daughter of the Reverend William
Russell of Middietown, They had three children, Daniel,
Catherine, and Harriet, the latter of whom died early in
life in Bermuda. In 1773 the family moved from Middle-
town to the Wadsworth mansion in Hartford where they
became prominent in the life of the town.

When the Revolution broke out, Captain Wadsworth
had to give up his seafaring life and thereafter devoted
himself to his country's cause. Under Colonel Joseph
Trumbull he filled the position of deputy commissary so
satisfactorily that Congress appointed him commissary
general of purchases upon the resignation of Colonel
TrumbulL This post required him to procure food,
clothing, and supplies for Washington's army* From
Wadsworth' s letters to his intimate friend, General Greene,
it is easy to see the great trials and difficulties which beset
him on all sides. It was impossible to get bread for the
soldiers without money, and money was scarce. He was
also hampered by the lethargy of those with whom he
worked. In a letter dated at Hartford, April 4, 1779, he
wrote to General Greene saying, "Our General Assembly
meet here on Wednesday next, I shall write them a letter
which I hope will wake them up, if it dont may they
Sleep the Sleep of Death." He was troubled, too, by the
opposition of "damned rascals who are trying to fatten
themselves at the expense of the department." A letter
full of his troubles at this time closes with "God bless

260 CONNECTICUT

You and a small number more who deserve it, there are
not many I am sure." Even in his discouragement, how-
ever, he assured General Greene that "malice, misplaced
blame, or censure can not turn me from the paths of duty
to my Country."

When Comte de Rochambeau met with the difficulty
of purchasing provisions for the French army in a new
country with an unfamiliar language, he turned the whole
matter over to Colonel Wadsworth, who acted as com-
missary for the French army until the close of the war.
He performed these duties with such success that when
he went to France in July, 1783, to present his records,
the French government accepted his accounts and paid
him liberally. His business in Paris completed, he and
his son Daniel traveled in France, England, and Ireland,
investing in goods and observing agricultural methods.
The purchases he sold in Philadelphia and Hartford on
his return to this country at the end of the following year.

In addition to his connection with the French army
during the war, he was frequently called in consultation
with General Washington, whose confidence he shared,
and whojpa he entertained whenever the general visited
Hartford. The Wadsworth home was the center of much
hospitality, for besides Washington, it numbered among
its guests Lafayette, Rochambeau, and many others.
Colonel Wadsworth led the company which performed
escort duty when Washington, Lafayette, Knox, Rocham-
beau, and Admiral Tiernay came to Hartford in May,
1781, to consult with "Brother Jonathan" Trumbull.
They met in the Wadsworth house but adjourned to
General Webb's house in Wethersfield, as Webb was con-
fined there by gout. This consultation resulted in the
Yorktown campaign.

Owing to his inestimable service to his country during
the war, Colonel Wadsworth was chosen a member of the

JEREMIAH WAIXSWOKTH 261

state convention for ratifying the Constitution of the
United States. Following this, he was a Repre-

sentative to the first three Congresses. In May, 1795, he
was chosen representative to the General Assembly
was a member of the Council of Connecticut, 1795-1801.

In addition to his political popularity, he much
sought after in the business world. He was a close friend
of Robert Morris and Alexander Haimltoa, on
advice he was made president of the Bank of New York
and a director of the first Bank of the United States. He
was one of the founders of the Bank of North America la
Philadelphia and was instrumental in organizing various
corporations in his native city. Among the most note-
worthy of these were the Hartford Bank, now the Hartford
National Bank, and the first fire insurance company, which
was a partnership, now the Hartford Fire Insurance Com-
pany. His activities were not confined to the business
and financial projects of his city, but included the cultural
as well, for in 1799 he was one of the founders of the Hart-
ford Library Company which still survives as the Hartford
Public Library.

Colonel Wadsworth died on April 30, 1804, and lies
buried in the old First Church yard in Hartford. His
historic mansion and home lot passed into public posses-
sion by the gift of his childless son Daniel, who founded
there the Wadsworth Atheneum, which through its varied
cultural activities preserves the honorable name.

SILAS DEANE

HONORABLE E. HART FENN

Representative in Congress from Connecticut, 1921-1931

On the walls of a corridor in the Senate wing of the
Capitol in Washington are portraits in fresco of a number
of prominent men connected with the early history of the
United States, among them Roger Sherman, Jonathan
Trumbull, Israel Putnam, and Silas Deane. Thus, years
after his death, a grateful country pays belated honor to
the services of the Connecticut patriot, Silas Deane.

He was born in Groton, December 24, 1737, the son of
Sarah (Barker) and Silas Deane, a blacksmith, and was
graduated from Yale in the class of 1758. For a time he
taught school, then studied law and was admitted to the
bar in 1761. The next year he opened a law office in
Wethersfield, where he soon became a man of consequence.
In 1763 he received the A.M. degree from Yale and mar-
ried Mehitable, the widow of Joseph Webb and mother
of six children. Deane now engaged successfully in the
mercantile business as an exporter and importer, and the
year after his marriage he built the house now known as
the "Silas Deane House." (In this house, June 29-30,
1775, General Washington passed the night on his way to
take command of the continental army at Cambridge.)
In the lot adjoining his house on the south side was
Deane's place of business.

Mrs. Deane lived only a few years and died of consump-
tion in October, 1767. In 1768 Deane married Elizabeth,
daughter of General Gurdon Saltonstall of Norwich, who
died June 9, 1774, leaving a son, Jesse. About the time

262

SILAS DEANE 263

of his second marriage, Deane was elected one of Wethers-
field's representatives in the General Assembly where he
took a leading part in protesting against England's re-
striction of colonial commerce. He served on various
town committees in Wethersfield, and in 1773 was made
secretary of the Connecticut Committee of Correspond-
ence. The following year he served as clerk of a meeting
of Connecticut merchants who declared "non-intercourse"
against the Newport merchants for their alleged failure
to observe the non-importation agreement. He was one
of Connecticut's three delegates to both the first and
second Continental Congresses, though his departure for
Philadelphia for the opening of the second Congress was
delayed while he completed arrangements for helping to
finance the expedition against Fort Ticonderoga, May 10,
1775.

During his service in the Continental Congress, Deane
estimated the cost of equipping an army, formulated
rules for a navy, purchased the first vessel for the navy,
and became a member of the Committee of Secret Cor-
respondence empowered to buy arms and equipment in
Europe. Under the authority of a commission dated
March 2, 1776, and signed by Benjamin Franklin and
other members of this committee, Silas Deane became
the first American commissioner to France, with authority
"to transact such business, commercial and political, as
we have committed to his care/' He left the same month,
landing in Spain to evade capture by the British, and
arriving in Paris in July.

As England was at peace with France, assistance could
not be given openly to the American cause, but an arrange-
ment was made with the dramatist Caron de Beaumar-
chais, who posed as a merchant, and organized the ficti-
tious firm of Roderique Hortalez et Cie, through which
the French government furnished money, cannon, small

264 CONNECTICUT

arms, and ammunition for twenty-five thousand men.
This arrangement continued until the alliance between
France and the United States in February, 1778. Through
Deane's efforts eight cargoes of supplies, valued at one
million dollars, were sent from France for use by the
American forces. He was also instrumental in enlisting
Lafayette, Steuben, DeKalb, Pulaski, and others for
service in the American army. Under the authority of
his commission he made Lafayette and Steuben major
generals. Deane remained the sole representative of the
colonies in France until September, 1776, when Congress
appointed Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee to co-
operate with him.

Lee, who had been the American financial agent in
Europe, displayed a jealous disposition toward Deane and
made trouble for him by averring that Beaumarchais,
on behalf of the French government, had offered to the
colonies without solicitation a gift of 200,000 louis d'or,
together with munitions of war. Deane denied this story
as well as another that he had used his position to advance
his private fortune, when the fact was that it had been
seriously impaired. But the stories reached Congress, and
early in 1778 Deane was recalled to America for question-
ing. Because of his haste in leaving France, he had
neglected to bring his vouchers of expenses, which were
scattered in several French ports, and a final settlement
with Congress could not be made without .them. No
formal charges of irregularity were made, however, and
towards the end of the year the French government noti-
fied Congress that the supplies sent from France were pur-
chases, and not gifts! Congress thereupon offered Deane
$10,000 in depreciated Continental currency in payment
for his services as agent, but he would not accept it.

Deane returned to France in July, 1780, intending to
secure an auditing of his accounts there. Arriving without

SILAS DEANE 265

means, he was obliged to look to friends for his mainte-
nance, his only resources being the claim against the
American government for his services. This was ignored
for nearly eight years more, when an audit of his accounts
in 1787 showed that the United States owed him $30,000.
Deane never received a dollar of this money, but in 1842,
fifty-three years after his death, Congress appropriated
$37,000 on the ground that a former audit, made when
Arthur Lee was commissioner of accounts, was "ex
parte, erroneous, and a gross injustice to Silas Deane.'*

The remaining years of Deane' s life were passed on the
Continent and in England, where he sought to interest
English capital in America. On September 22, 1789, he
left London to sail from Deal for home, but the day
following he was stricken suddenly on board ship and
died in the early afternoon. The ship returned to Deal
and there, probably in the churchyard of St. George's,
the Connecticut patriot was buried.

It seems fitting to close this sketch of the life of Silas
Deane with the words of Robert Morris, the eminent
financier of the Revolution, who wrote to Benjamin
Franklin on March 31, 1780: "I consider Mr. Deane as
a martyr to the cause of America. After rendering the
most signal and important service, he has been reviled
and traduced in the most shameful manner. But I have
no doubt the day will come, when his merits shall be
universally acknowledged, and the authors of these cal-
umnies held in the detestation they deserve."

JOHN TRUMBULL
NATHANIEL HORTON BATCHELDER

Head Master, The Loomis School, Windsor, Connecticut

"Bury me at the feet of my great Master/' So wrote
John Trambull, and, In obedience to his request, his
remains lie in a crypt beneath the Yale Gallery of Fine
Arts, as near as possible to the "Trenton Washington."
This painting depicts Washington in "his military char-
acter, in the most sublime moment of its execution/' with
the likeness of the artist as the orderly holding his hero's
horse. In the same room are some fifty paintings by the
same hand, showing characters and scenes of the Revolu-
tion, together with fifty-eight priceless miniature portraits
a fitting memorial to a patriot, diplomat, and artist.

What a kaleidoscopic career, from the farm in peaceful
Lebanon to Harvard College, to the studio of Copley, to
Blinker Hill, with the tragic episode of his sister's madness
and death through fear for the fate of her husband and
brother, to the fields of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, to
London and association with West, incarceration in retali-
ation for the execution of Andre, to Paris and the fall of
the Bastille. Trumbull knew well most of the leading men
of his time in America, England, and France. Sir John
Temple arranged for his first visit to London, Lord George
Germaine promised him protection, Burke interceded for
him when imprisoned, Lawrence and Stuart were fellow
students under West. Sir Joshua Reynolds paid him a
sincere, if backhanded, compliment when he mistook the
picture of Bunker Hill for West's and praised him for the
improvement in color. As secretary to Jay in the nego-

266

JOHN TRUMBULL 267

tiation of "Jay's Treaty" and as one of the commissioners
to carry out its provisions, he spent eight years in diplo-
matic service in London. The painting of the Declaration
of Independence, unfairly criticized by Randolph as the
"Shin Piece " because it showed so many legs, was con-
ceived and begun in Franklin's house in Paris. The
likenesses of the French officers in the historical paintings
were taken from life in their home country.

John, son of Governor Jonathan Trumbull and Faith
Robinson, was born in Lebanon, June 6, 1756, of Scotch-
English ancestry. Only assiduous care by his mother
brought him through childhood troubles. At fifteen and
a half, he had been prepared in a little school of seventy
or eighty, to which pupils came from the South and from
the West Indies, for the junior year at Harvard. He
graduated in 1773, and taught for a while under Tisdale
in the school at Lebanon before momentous happenings
called him.

As a soldier Trumbull's career was brief but promising.
He had attracted attention by a sketch of the British
fortifications at Bunker Hill, became second aide to Wash-
ington, and then deputy adjutant general to Gates. John
Fiske rates him as superior in military sagacity to the
older officers about him. But politics or inefficiency, or
both, delayed his commission, and, when it came, it was
dated three months late, so that some officers of more
recent appointment outranked him. It seems incredible
that a son of the governor of Connecticut, with two
brothers high in the service, could retire from the conflict
in which his feelings were deeply engaged. But Trumbull
was proud, sensitive, possibly crotchety. Hancock had
said slightingly, "That family is well provided for/' and
had been tartly and justly answered, "We are secure of
four halters, if we do not succeed." At any rate, Colonel
Trumbull resigned from the army in pique, and, except

268 CONNECTICUT

for a brief excursion with Sullivan and cTEstaing in Rhode
Island, bore arms no more.

If It seems incredible that a man in Trumbuirs position
should resign his commission, what shall be said of his
taking up residence in England during the war to study
art? Shall we assume that hostility on both sides was
less acute than perfervid orators would have us believe?
Certainly there were circles in London where the son of a
rebel governor, himself lately in arms against his king,
was welcome and happy. With Sir John Temple's help
he went to England and pursued his art^studies till, upon
the execution of Andre, some of the Tories had him accused
of high treason. King George promised that he would
not be put to death, but it was only after some indignity,
a night in a highwayman's bed and eight months in a jail,
that powerful influences released him on condition that
he leave the country.

Exciting as was his private life, and considerable as
was his public service, it is his professional career as a
painter by which Trumbull will be remembered. His
grand project was a series of fourteen paintings, twenty
by tMrty inches, from which engravings were to be made
and sold at three guineas each. Washington subscribed
for four sets, and wrote enthusiastically to Lafayette to
promote sales in France. Hamilton, Jay, and Adams
were among the three hundred and forty-four.subscribers.
Trumbull went up and down the land and abroad to
secure likenesses; he would have no portrait in any scene
that was not from life or an authoritative source; no
detail of equipment but was meticulously studied. The
series, though never finished, is an authentic record of
the Revolution and its personages. Some of the canvases
have a high degree of merit; a few, like the Declaration
of Independence, are almost" universally known. What is
less known, though better art, is the collection of minia-

JOHN TRUMBULL 269

tures which were made as data for the groups. These of
their kind are quite unexcelled.

Trumbull's reputation as a painter gains nothing from
the four large paintings in the Capitol at Washington,
commissioned in 1817, at a price of "$32,000. These, the
Declaration, the Surrenders of Burgoyne and Comwallis,
and Washington Resigning his Commission, were enlarge-
ments from the small canvases to twelve by eighteen feet.
For such a task Trumbull had no adequate training.
Moreover, for many years he had suffered misfortunes, and
his art had been neglected. Long before, his father had
reminded him that "Connecticut is not Athens." Patron-
age for the fine arts is meager in a young country. Trum-
bull had been impoverished by the War of 1812, and had
been reduced to selling scraps of plate and furniture. His
art had reached its height about 1794, and since, through
lack of encouragement, had been on the decline.

In 1831 Yale College provided the patronage that was
lacking from private sources by agreeing to pay an annuity
of a thousand dollars a year in return for all the paintings
still in the artist's possession. Thus Trumbull became a
pioneer in the development of American art museums,
and for a dozen years was able to devote himself to the
erection of a building and the arrangement of his treasures.
Happy the artist, who, after the turmoil and vicissitudes
of life, has such an opportunity to bring together in ideal
setting the bulk of his work, as a memorial to himself,
his friends, and a cause!

SAMUEL ("ANDREW") PETERS
HENRY W. LAWRENCE

Professor of History, Connecticut College

At about the time that the American Revolution was
ending its military phase, there was published anony-
mously in London a General History of Connecticut, a
book in which were described with some gusto the aston-
ishing "Blue Laws" of New Haven. This book made in-
teresting reading for the Englishmen of that day, because
it told of the ludicrously absurd and harshly cruel laws
and customs among the rebel Americans. What loyal
Briton could, indeed, refrain from roars of merriment
upon reading such things as the following about the
Puritanic regulations for daily living among his despised
provincial enemies?

Over in that backwoods region of religibus fanaticism,
said this history, the law provides that "no one shall
travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep house, cut hair,
or shave, on the Sabbath-day. No woman shall kiss her
child on the Sabbath or Fasting day. No one shall read
Common Prayer, keep Christmas or Saint days, make
minced pies, dance, play cards, or play on any instrument
of music, except the drum, trumpet, and jewsharp.
Every male shall have his hair cut round, according to a
cap."

To these amusing aspects of fanaticism, the anonymous
historian added its cruelties. The laws made by these
people of "Newhaven," said he, "consist of a vast multi-
tude, and were very properly termed Blue Laws; i.e., bloody
Laws; for they were all sanctified with excommunication,

270

SAMUEL PETERS 271

confiscation, fines, banishment, whippings, cutting off the
ears, burning the tongue, and death. Europe at this day
might well say the Religion of the first settlers at New-
haven was fanaticism turned mad ..."

Most of the applause for this intimate picture of life in
Connecticut has come from abroad. From the first,
down almost to the present day, Americans have searched
their vocabularies for terms sufficiently bitter and wither-
ing to do this author justice. Some were so polite as to
say merely that he was a liar; but others have shown less
restraint. The book "is the baseless invention of an em-
bittered Tory," says one. Another calls him a "menda-
cious refugee," and a third declares that he "not only
invented the blue-law code, but he forged legal cases for
its application."

This anonymous writer, whose name was Samuel
(Andrew) Peters, was born in Hebron, November 20, 1735,
and graduated from Yale College in 1757. He happened
to be a college mate and fellow townsman of the pains-
takingly exact Benjamin Trumbull, famous historian of
Connecticut. Trumbull once said that "of all men with
whom he had ever been acquainted, Dr. Peters he had
thought, from his first knowledge of him, the least to be
depended on as to any matter of fact."

After studying theology, Peters went to England in
1758, was ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal
Church in 1759, and returned to America as a missionary
in 1760. He remained as a rector in his birthplace till
1774, when his Tory sentiments clashed with the local
patriotic fervor and he fled to England.

He remained in England till 1805, apparently angling
for an American bishopric. Indeed, his General History
of Connecticut, published in 1781, is said to have been
motivated by a desire for prestige among his superiors in
the Church of England and not revenge upon his pere-

272 CONNECTICUT

cutors in America. In 1791, we find him writing to high
ecclesiastical authority concerning his possible appoint-
ment as "Bishop of Canada/' In 1795, he narrowly
missed being made bishop of Vermont. He relates that
after u the independence of America was secured, the
Episcopalians who had settled the state of Verdmont, with
the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Puritans, unanimously
elected him their bishop, and invited him to accept the
office, and return from England to his native country. "
He was willing to comply, but difficulties as to his conse-
cration finally prevented.

An opportunity to verify Peters' alleged habit of exag-
geration is available to anyone who will journey down the
Connecticut River, from Canada to Saybrook, in search
of that exact spot where, according to the Peters narrative,
the " water is consolidated without frost, by pressure, by
swiftness, between the pinching, sturdy rocks, to such a
degree of induration, that no iron crow can be forced into
it; here iron, lead, and cork have one common weight."

All this does not disprove, of course, the statements he
made about the "Blue Laws," but it would naturally in-
cline us not to accept those statements unless they were
confirmed from some other source of information. As a
matter of fact, many of them are so confirmed. In a most
thorough study of the question made some years ago, in
1898, a careful scholar reached the following conclusions,
among others: "1. Over one-half of Peters' 'Blue Laws'
did exist in New Haven, expressly or in the form of judicial
customs under the common law. 2. More than four-fifths
of them existed, in the same fashion, in one or more of the
colonies of New England. We conclude, then, that
Peters, in spite of his blunders, does not seriously mis-
represent the spirit of the sterner side of New England
legislation, and that patriotic souls have no real cause to
complain."

SAMUEL PETERS 273

Peters died in New York, April 19, 1826. On his tomb-
stone the name appears as Samuel Peters, as it does also
in his books. Occasionally, however, he signed himself
Samuel Andrew Peters, possibly to honor the memory of
his two brothers who bore the name Andrew, one of whom
died in infancy, the other when nearing manhood.

JEDIDIAH HUNTINGTON
HARRY CLEMONS

Librarian, The University of Virginia

Lydia H. Sigourney, the Hartford poetess, was inclined
towards diffuseness in her literary efforts. But she once
described General Jedidiah Huntington "a patriotic
and saintly man and the friend of Washington" with
the terseness of a telegram. Those ten words include the
three salient facts in the career of this Revolutionary
general of Connecticut.

General Huntington came of a family that was both
patriotic and saintly. Simon Huntington, the Puritan
founder of the family, died in 1633, on his voyage to New
England. His youngest son, Simon, was among the
original settlers of Norwich. He prospered and became a
leader in public affairs and in the church. This second
Simon's great-grandsoii, Jabez, increased the family for-
tunes by becoming the owner of a fleet of vessels which
carried on trade with the West Indies. By 1774 it had
become evident to intelligent patriots that there was grave
danger of war with England. Such a war would mean
much more than the thrill of fife and drum. Jabez realized
that if he chose the side of the colonies, it would -involve
the wrecking of his business, danger for his home, and
separation from his mother country. Of his seven children,
all bearing Biblical names, the eldest, Jedidiah, was then
thirty-one, and the youngest, Zachariah, not quite ten.
The father called this family about him. After an earnest
prayer, he solemnly and firmly stated that he had decided
to throw in his lot with the colonists. But a decision for

274

JEDIDIAH HUNTINGTON 275

independence should be made with independence; and
each of the children was free to make his own choice.
There was no hesitation. Beginning with Jedidiah, each
young Huntington pledged consecration to his country's
and his father's cause. In the stirring years which fol-
lowed, those pledges were nobly kept. Of the father and
five sons, four attained the rank of general, two during
the Revolutionary War and two in later service for the
new nation.

Jedidiah Huntington was born at Norwich on August 4,
1743. He studied at Harvard College and graduated with
honor in 1763. Returning to Norwich, he joined his
father in business. At the age of twenty-three he made a
public profession of religion and became an active member
of the church. He also belonged to the Sons of Liberty,
and held in rapid succession the ranks of ensign, lieutenant,
captain, and colonel of militia. A week after the battle
of Lexington he arrived in Cambridge at the head of his
regiment. He and his soldiers were a part of the force
that seized Dorchester Heights and compelled the evacua-
tion of Boston by the British. Amid those exciting events
began the friendship with General Washington that dis-
tinguished the remainder of his life.

After the evacuation of Boston he marched with the
army to New York, on the way entertaining the com-
mander-in-chief at his home in Norwich. But there was
little opportunity for the leisurely delights of hospitality.
In the campaign about New York, his regiment fought
bravely at the battle of Long Island and in a number of
lesser skirmishes. During Tryon's raid on the American
supplies at Danbury in April, 1777, Colonel Huntington
joined forces with Benedict Arnold to hurl back the
British troops in much the same fashion that they had
been forced to retreat at Lexington and Concord. Shortly
after this engagement he was made a brigadier general

276 CONNECTICUT

at the express request of Washington. Through the
summer of 1777 he was stationed with General Putnam
at Peekskill, but in the autumn he was recalled to the
main army near Philadelphia. He was with Washington
at Valley Forge that winter of inaction, discouragement,
and bitter suffering that tested the American character as
only such a period of depression can test a nation.

There is a portrait of Jedidiah Huntington painted by
his brother-in-law, John Trumbull, which depicts him as
he appeared during those years. It is the portrait of a
countenance both handsome and manly. The features
and poise are those of an aristocrat. The eyes are piercing
but friendly, and the sensitive mouth is tightly closed.
It is the eager face of a man who is loyal to a great cause
and to a great leader. We need not wonder that this
young comrade won the friendship of George Washington.

After Valley Forge General Huntington saw little
fighting. But Washington utilized his sound judgment by
appointing him on the commissions which investigated
the loss of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, the misconduct
of Charles Lee at Monmouth, and the tragic case of Major
Andr6. While the tide of war moved southward towards
Yorktown, General Huntington and his Connecticut
brigade were stationed at various posts in the Hudson
valley; by 1783, they formed a part of the garrison at
West Point. During this period he was one of the four
officers who drafted the constitution of the Society of the
Cincinnati. As soon as peace was in sight, home and
business called him, and in the latter part of 1783 he
resigned from the army. He retired with the brevet rank
of major general and with what probably meant more to
him, a letter from General Washington containing stately
praise for his faithful services and warm expressions of
sincere attachment.

The war had brought serious loss to the family fortune,

JEDIDIAH HUNTINGTON 277

and there had been generous contributions towards the
expenses of the army. Meantime there was a growing
family. Jedidiah's first wife, Faith, the daughter of
Governor Trumbull, had died in 1775. During the war
he had married Ann Moore, the sister of Bishop Moore of
Virginia, and eight children, four sons and four daughters,
had been born. The father resumed not only business
and home life, but also his earnest support of the church
and his interest in public affairs. He was one of the first
members of the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions and was a delegate from Norwich to the
state convention which ratified the Constitution of the
United States. He served as high sheriff of New London
county (1788-1789), and as treasurer of Connecticut
(1789-1790).

Throughout the years following his retirement from the
army his attachment to his great leader continued. In
1789 President Washington appointed him collector of
customs for the port of New London. His duties were so
performed that he was continued in office through four
presidential administrations until his resignation. This
was presented shortly before his death, which occurred on
September 25, 1818, in his seventy-fifth year. The
enthusiasms of youth had long since given place to the
solid traits of a public-spirited man of business. But as
long as bodily strength remained, his business was the
loyal performance of that last commission from his com-
mander and friend.

OLIVER ELLSWORTH

WILLIAM M. MALTBIE

Chuf Justice, The Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors

There are few, if any, sons of Connecticut in whom it
can justly take more pride than in Oliver Ellsworth. He
was born in 1745, in Windsor, where his family had previ-
ously resided for almost a hundred years. Entering Yale
in 1762, he undoubtedly shared in the disorder and dis-
content then rife at that college, and in 1764 he was, "at
the desire of his parents," dismissed. He then entered
Nassau Hall, now Princeton University, from which he
graduated in 1766. Although his parents had wished him
to enter the ministry and he did study for that profession
for a year, he turned to the law. Admitted to the bar at
Hartford, he established his home, with his wife, a grand-
daughter of Governor Oliver Wolcott, on a farm near
Windsor, whence he used to walk to Hartford to attend
court sessions. Soon, in the troublous times just before
the Revolution, he came to display a deep interest in,
and talent for, public service.

When he was only twenty-eight he was elected to the
General Assembly and served for two years. Beginning
before, and continuing throughout the Revolution, he was
a member of the Committee on the Pay Table, which
largely managed the finances of the colony. For six
years, beginning in 1778, he was a member of the Conti ^
nental Congress and although, like most of its members,
he was by no means regular in his attendance, he became
one of its leading men; and in his later service there, one
finds his name often coupled with those of Hamilton and

278

OLIVER ELLSWORTH

279

Madison, either in debate with them or serving with them
on important committees. In 1779 he was chosen a
member of the Connecticut Committee of Safety. Mean :
while he was steadily acquiring experience and gaining in
renown as a lawyer; he became state's attorney for Hart-
ford county in 1777; and by 1779 he was called by Noah
Webster, who had studied in his law office, one of "the
three mighties" of the
Connecticut bar, the
others being William
Samuel Johnson and
Titus Hosmer.

In 1785 he was ap-
pointed a judge of the
superior court of this
state. Two years later
he became a member of
the Constitutional Con-
vention. There he with
his colleagues, Roger
Sherman and William
Samuel Johnson, formed
one of the strongest of
the state delegations.
It was they who more
than any others were
instrumental in secur-
ing the compromise as to representation of the states
in Congress (an issue, disagreement as to which almost
brought the labors of the convention to an untimely end).
In the final struggle over that compromise it was Ells-
worth's advocacy, more even than that of his great col-
league, Roger Sherman, which won the day; and in the
debates he held his own against such opponents as Madi-
son, James Wilson, and Riifus King. That compromise

OLIVER ELLSWORTH
Miniature by John Trumbull.

(Courtesy of the Gallery of Fine Arts, Yale
University.)

280 CONNECTICUT

secured, he continued to take a leading part in the deliber-
ations of the convention, and he was one of the Committee
of Five chosen by it to give final shape to the Constitu-
tion. After its approval by the convention he was th
leader in the Connecticut convention which ratified it.
After one of his powerful and vehement speeches in
reply to Pierpont Edwards, who was opposing ratification,
Edwards said he felt "like a lightning bug in broad day-
light."

When the new government was established, Ellsworth
was one of the first Senators from Connecticut. He drafted
and did much to secure the passage of the law which estab-
lished the federal judicial system, a system which in its
essence has never been changed, a commonplace to us
now but at the time the object of bitter attacks by the
"states-rights" men, because of the large powers given
federal courts. In many other ways he made his power
and influence felt in the Senate, came to be regarded
during the presidency of Washington as the administra-
tion leader, and was perhaps first in the strong group of
Federalists so powerful there. John Adams said of him
that "he was the firmest pillar in Washington's adminis-
tration in the Senate." It was he who, as a result of a
conference among a small group of Senators, suggested to
President Washington the plan of sending to England an
envoy plenipotentiary to seek to smooth out misunder-
standings and difficulties between that country and ours
which at the time carried with them the imminent threat
of war; and he ended his career in the Senate by his
strong and successful advocacy of the unpopular treaty
which John Jay, the envoy, had negotiated. Something
of his influence in the Senate may be seen in Aaron Burr's
remark that "If Ellsworth had happened to spell the
name of the Deity with two d's, it would have "taken the
Senate three weeks to expunge the superfluous letter."

OLIVER ELLSWORTH 281

In 1796, much to his own surprise, Ellsworth was
appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States. Modestly and with hesitation he accepted.
While that Court was not confronted in those early days
with the great issues in the determination of which a little
later, under the leadership of John Marshall, the form of
our government was really shaped and fixed, he proved
himself perhaps the ablest judge who during his time
sat, or before him had sat, upon the bench of that Court.
To it he brought great learning and ability, industry,
courage, and a wide experience, and he performed well the
duties of that exacting office. Yet even there his sim-
plicity still remained. It is told that when on one of his
official tours a wheel on the coach in which he was riding
broke, he displayed much skill in repairing it; and when
an impressed observer asked: "Who is the gentleman
who understands everything and is eloquent about a
coach wheel/' the surprising reply was: "The Chief Jus-
tice of the United States."

In 1799 he resigned when, against his will, he was
appointed by President Adams as one of three envoys
extraordinary to France, in the effort to avoid a war
which was imminent with that country. Unused to diplo-
matic practices and hampered by the instructions given,
the envoys faced a hard task; yet Ellsworth worked with
his usual courage, patience, and good sense. Finally dis-
regarding their instructions, he and his associates negoti-
ated a treaty with Napoleon which freed the United
States from European entanglements and laid the basis
for the great increase in maritime commerce of this
country which occurred in the following years. A bitter
strife followed in this country over the ratification of the
treaty, but the respect in which Ellsworth was held is well
shown by the fact that, despite the common practice of
the times, which was to impugn the motives of one's

282 CONNECTICUT

opponents, Ellsworth's integrity and sincerity were not
questioned, and the most that could be suggested against
him was that in a state of failing health his mind had
weakened. In fact, illness compelled him to remain in
Europe for a time to seek recuperation.

In 1801 he returned to his home in Windsor. Almost
immediately he became one of the assistants of the
Council and thereby ex officio a member of the Connecti-
cut Supreme Court. In 1807, when the state judicial
system was reorganized, he became chief justice of Con-
necticut, an office which he held, however, very briefly,
for he died at Windsor in the fall of that year.

His friend, President Dwight of Yale, describes him:
"Mr. Ellsworth was formed to be a great man. His
presence was tall, dignified, and commanding; and his
manners, though wholly destitute of haughtiness and
arrogance, were such as irresistibly to excite in others,
wherever he was present, the sense of inferiority. His
very attitude inspired awe/' Although Ellsworth spent
all his adult life in public service, it was said of him that
he never sought public office. He was a forceful and per-
suasive speaker but not a polished orator. Lacking many
of the attributes which make for public appeal, he was
admired and followed for his unquestioned integrity, his
unfailing courage, his industry, and his sound sense.
When others became angry or disgruntled, he was patient,
calm, and conciliatory. Daniel Webster described him as
one "who has left behind him, on the records of the gov-
ernment of his country, proofs of the clearest intelligence
and the deepest sagacity, as well as of the utmost purity
and integrity of character."

Though spending most of his adult years among the
great men of his time and in the larger centers of popu-
lation, he was always simple and modest, never losing his
interest in the public concerns of the little town from which

OLIVER ELLSWORTH 283

he came, and always looking to it as his home. Today the
house he built and in which he lived stands as a memorial
to his memory. Over the fireplace hangs an ''opinion"
which he delivered: " I have visited several countries and
I like my own the best. I have been in all the states of
the Union and Connecticut is the best state. Windsor is
the pleasantest town in the state of Connecticut, and I
have the pleasantest place in the town of Windsor. I am
content, perfectly content, to die on the banks of the
Connecticut."

EZRA STILES
CHARLES W. BURPEE

According to Judge John Woodworth of the New York
Supreme Court, Ezra Stiles "was undoubtedly one of the
most learned men of his day. There was scarcely a
department of literature or science in which he was not
quite at home, while in some branches he was confessedly
without a rival, at least on this side of the Atlantic. ' ' Thus
did one who was a student at Yale characterize her great
president. Though Stiles was of slight physique, he was
a man of marvelous energy and endurance, and was
methodical and exact in everything he undertook. He
left sixty volumes of manuscripts covering all phases of
his own work, and much of interest and value about his
contemporaries and life in America and abroad.

Stiles's first American ancestor was John Stiles of Mil-
broke, England, who came with his wife (the first English
woman to set foot on Connecticut soil) and his three
brothers in 1635. They intended to establish a large
"park" for Sir Richard Saltonstall at the site of the
present Windsor, but found that the Ludlow-Warham
party had preceded them by a few days. Eventually they
joined with the Windsor settlers. Ezra's father was
the Reverend Isaac Stiles, an eminent minister of North
Haven who became involved in what Ezra called "the
hocus pocus of political New Lightism." His mother was
the daughter of the Reverend Edward Taylor of Westfield,
Massachusetts.

Ezra was ready for Yale at the age of twelve but that

284

EZRA STILES 285

being considered too young, he was held back three years,
entering in 1742. The difficulties connected with pay-
ment of his college expenses were partially overcome when
his qualities as a student won the affection of President
Clap and others, who found means to assist him. His
graduation thesis was, "The Hereditary Right of Kings Is
Not Divine Authority." After his post-graduate studies
and his ordination in 1749, he preached to the Indians at
Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Poor physical condition and
certain religious qualms caused him to turn from the
ministry to law, meanwhile exploring all the religious sects.
Then, in 1755, with an M.A. degree from Harvard, he de-
clined an offer from the Episcopal leaders and accepted
a call to the Second Congregational Church at Newport,
Rhode Island. There, as indeed in his whole life, he
"sought the society and good will of worthy men."

On February 17, 1757, Stiles married Maria Elizabeth
Hubbard of New Haven, by whom he had eight children,
two boys and six girls.

The variety of his interests was manifold. In 1763
Benjamin Franklin gave him a thermometer, which led
Stiles to begin a series of daily weather records that he
continued until the day of his death. His interest in
astronomy continued also throughout his life. For a
period of years he systematically promoted the growth
of mulberry trees in Connecticut, confident that the silk
industry could be advanced. Overcome with shame
because he could not read Hebrew when he received a
doctor's degree from Harvard, he made himself so much a
master of that, and of Arabic and Armenian, that after
one year he could translate the Bible into those languages;
he and Governor Trumbull actually corresponded in
Hebrew. In 1769 he began his literary diary a veritable
compendium of information that is the delight of his-
torians. Through the recommendation of Franklin, the

286 CONNECTICUT

University of Edinburgh conferred upon Stiles the degree
of LL.D. in 1775.

When British threats and turmoil caused most of his
Newport congregation to remove, he stayed for a time,
going to Dighton, Massachusetts, in March, 1776. A year
later he declined a call to Boston and accepted one to the
church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In September,
1777, he was offered the presidency of Yale in place of
Dr. Daggett, who had resigned. Although Stiles wrote
that "at best the diadem of a president is a crown of
thorns/' he took time to canvass, by personal visits, the
possibilities of his former congregation's return to New-
port, and the sentiments of leading Connecticut com-
munities, Governor Trumbull, and the Boston clergy.
Everywhere he was urged to accept. After spending sev-
eral days in fasting and prayer, he informed the Ports-
mouth church that despite his preference for the church
he believed he should devote his remaining days to the
cause of education in connection with religion. To the
corporation of the college he wrote a letter of acceptance,
vouchsafing, however, that "the superadded honor of
the presidency will appear more than balanced by its
increased labors and weighty cares."

He assumed his duties in July, 1778, and so satisfactory
was his administration that it was universally commended
by corporation and students. When the British under
Tryon attacked New Haven, Stiles, with his telescope on
the top of the college chapel, kept the authorities informed
of the progress of the enemy in the harbor. After Dir.
Daggett's death in 1780, President Stiles took over the
all-important divinity professorship in addition to his
other duties. He became a member of the American
Philosophical Society, a fellow of the Connecticut Society
of Arts and Sciences and of other similar organizations,
and was granted the degree of D.D. by Princeton.

EZRA STILES 28?

Stiles's devoted first wife died in 1775, and in October,
1782, he married the widow of William Checkley of
Providence. President Stiles died May 12, 1795, after an
illness of four days.

One of the chief events of Dr. Stiles's presidency of
Yale was the action of the General Assembly in 1792,
when, after a full examination and a commendation for
efficiency, it was voted to give the college a balance of
uncollected taxes, while the trustees in return were to
make the governor, lieutenant governor, and six senators
"for the time being/' members of the corporation. This
brought to an end the long estrangement between the
college and the General Assembly. At once the professor-
ship of mathematics and natural philosophy was properly
endowed, and in commemoration of the new "union" a
new building was erected and named Union Hall, later
known as South College.

WILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON
GEORGE C. GROCE, JR.

Instructor, Department of History, Columbia University

The influence of William Samuel Johnson upon his own
and succeeding generations was of three sorts: legal,
political, and aesthetic.

As a practicing attorney, Johnson probably played an
important part in bringing about the acceptance of Eng-
lish common law in Connecticut, where, in later life, he
was spoken of as the "Father" of the Connecticut bar.
In politics, Johnson, who engaged "the Hearts of Men by
the sweetness of his temper/' exercised a consistent influ-
ence for peace, conciliation, and moderation. Through
his public addresses and his teaching at Columbia College
he doubtless helped to familiarize his contemporaries
with the aesthetic standards of his English associates,
Sir Joshua Reynolds, the elder Sheridan, Oliver Gold-
smith, and the lexicographer Samuel Johnson.

William Samuel Johnson was the son of Samuel Johnson,
D.D., the Anglican missionary and Berkeley an philoso-
pher, and of Charity (Floyd Nicoll) Johnson. The
younger Johnson, who was born at Stratford on October
7, 1727, was instructed in the Anglican faith and care-
fully prepared for college by his father. After distinguish-
ing himself in classical studies, he was graduated in 1744
from Yale College, from which institution, as well as from
Harvard, he received the degree of Master of Arts three
years later. On November 4, 1749, he was married to
Arm Beach. With her and the seven of their children who
reached maturity he seems to have enjoyed a congenial

288

WILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON 289

and affectionate family life until the death of Mrs. John-
son on April 4, 1796.

In choosing a profession he hesitated for a time between
the ministry, the law, and a career at arms, but eventually
turned to the law. As was usual at the time, he received
his training by attending the colonial law courts and
through reading the relatively few law books which were
available. Gradually, however, he acquired a remarkable
legal library, and before 1760 he was one of the recognized
leaders of the Connecticut bar. In 1766, through the
influence of his father and the Archbishop of Canterbury,
he was granted the degree of Doctor of Civil Laws by
Oxford University.

Meanwhile, the Stamp Act agitations of 1765 found
Dr. Johnson a deputy from Stratford to the Connecti-
cut General Assembly. He spoke with fervor against the
Stamp Act, but the evidence does not indicate that he
favored the violent measures of the Sons of Liberty. He
was one of the three Connecticut delegates to the Stamp
Act Congress in New York and served on the committee
which drafted the address to the king. In May, 1766,
he was elected to one of the twelve seats in the governor's
Council, being, according to Ezra Stiles, the first Anglican
in Connecticut history to hold this office. The following
October he was appointed by the General Assembly to
represent the colony before the Privy Council at London
in the Mohegan case, a case so important that an adverse
decision might have brought the colonial charter into
jeopardy.

During almost five years abroad (1767 to 1771) he
advocated the American non-importation movement,
deprecated violent measures, and sought to protect the
rights of Connecticut and her charter of 1662. In the
course of his European residence his close association with
distinguished English lawyers, his observation of the

290 CONNECTICUT

procedure of all the English courts of law, the Inns of
Court, and the French Parlement of Paris afforded him
exceptional opportunities for legal study. Upon his return
home, the General Assembly, which formally thanked him
for his part in the successful presentation of the Mohegan
case and for his efforts on behalf of American liberty,
bestowed upon him a superior court judgeship (which he
soon resigned) and a lieutenant colonelcy in the militia.

The coming of the Revolution brought with it a reversal
of Dr. Johnson's fortunes, since his affection for England,
his Anglican faith, his fear of France, his dislike of vio-
lence, his material interests, as well as his family connec-
tions led him to oppose a separation of the colonies from
the British Empire. He declined to become a member of
the first Continental Congress, resigned his commission
in the militia, undertook an unsuccessful peace mission
to General Gage after the fighting at Lexington and, in
1776, was not reflected to the seat in the Council which
he had held since 1766. Having been debarred from
legal practice for failure to take an oath of allegiance to
the "free and independent" state of Connecticut, he
retired to Stratford, where he was "very unhappy with
the insults of the common people/' When the British
fleet was ravaging the coast of Connecticut in the summer
of 1779, a group of Stratford citizens petitioned Dr. John-
son to request his former acquaintance, General Tryon,
to spare the town. Although a military court of inquiry
failed to show that Johnson communicated with the Brit-
ish, he was arrested and was obliged to appear before
Governor Trumbull and the Council of Safety at Lebanon.
After his old associates in government heard Johnson's
case and he u freely and voluntarily" took the oath of
allegiance to the state, he was permitted to return to
Stratford "till further orders."

Dr. Johnson now resumed his practice at the bar,

WILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON 291

and in 1782 was chosen one of three attorneys to repre-
sent Connecticut before a federal court of arbitration
which met at Trenton to pass upon the conflicting claims
of Connecticut and Pennsylvania to lands in the Wyoming
Valley. The court unanimously awarded jurisdiction over
the lands to Pennsylvania, but left for future settlement
the soil rights of the Connecticut men who had settled in
the Valley. In 1784, when this question was to be pre-
sented before Congress, Johnson was elected a member
of that body by the General Assembly. He was an
extremely useful delegate in national affairs, but his most
important service to his state was rendered in connection
with an agreement whereby Connecticut, upon ceding her
other western land claims to the federal government, was
permitted to retain a tract of land in northern Ohio of
about the same size as that which was lost through the
Trenton decision. The Connecticut settlers at Wyoming
got nothing from their home state or from the Confedera-
tion, but Connecticut received $1,200,000 from the sale
of the Ohio lands, and made that sum the basis of its
school fund.

Johnson's most important services to the nation at
large were rendered at the Constitutional Convention of
1787, where he was a constant force for conciliation and
the drafting of a Constitution which, while materially
strengthening the federal government, would safeguard
the rights of the states. It is probable that Dr. Johnson,
Roger Sherman, and Oliver Ellsworth, together with
their allies from the small states, were largely responsible
for the "Great Compromise." On such legal questions
as the extension of the jurisdiction of federal courts to
equity as well as law, his suggestions were readily incor-
porated into the Constitution. As a member of the Con-
necticut ratifying convention in 1788, he delivered a
learned and eloquent plea for ratification.

292 CONNECTICUT

After his acceptance of the presidency of Columbia
College in the autumn of 1787, Dr. Johnson apparently
desired to withdraw from public life, but in October, 1788,
he was elected the first United States Senator from Con-
necticut. In the Senate, he favored Hamilton's financial
measures, had a share in determining the organization and
jurisdiction of the federal courts, and helped draft the
first United States penal code, patent act, and copyright
law. As the removal of the national capital to Phila-
delphia made his attendance in the Senate incompatible
with his duties at Columbia, he resigned his federal Office
on March 4, 1791.

Dr. Johnson's twelve-year administration at Columbia
was characterized by urbanity, catholicity, and harmony.
A contemporary remembered him as "the tout ensemble of
a perfect man, in face, form, and proportion," Upon cere-
monial occasions he presided with dignity and for many
years instructed the young gentlemen of the college in
logic, rhetoric, and belles-lettres, receiving repeated marks
of esteem from trustees and students.

After a serious illness he returned to Stratford and
resigned the presidency in July, 1800. Following his
marriage to Mrs. Mary Beach in December, 1800, he
lived in retirement at Ms old home until his death on
November 14, 1819.

[ANIAH SWIFT
GEORGE E. HINMAN

Justice, The Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors

The first published compilation in systematic order and
form of the laws in effect in any American state was made
in Connecticut, where also had been prepared and printed
the first volume of reports of judicial decisions issued
in the United States Kirby's Reports, 1789. Distin-
guished and useful as was his entire career, the preeminent
and most permanent accomplishment of Zephaniah Swift
was his Digest of the Laws of Connecticut, the revised
and perfected successor of his System, the first volume
of which was published in Windham in 1795, and the
second in 1796. In the earlier work he produced the first
comprehensive statement of so much of the English
common law as was adapted and applicable to American
conditions and therefore suited to adoption here, supple-
mented by such Connecticut statutes as had then been
enacted and by such principles as had been established
by the courts. He had long experience in the practice
of law and in legislative and judicial positions.

Upon his retirement from the office of chief justice in
1819, having, as he stated, "been placed at leisure at an
age too advanced to think of resuming the practice of the
law, and not so advanced as to be willing to spend my
time in idleness," he determined to devote the evening
of his life to the revision of the System. The result was
the Digest, the first volume of which was published in
1822, the second in 1823. In it were set forth concisely
and with great clearness the leading rules and principles

293

294 CONNECTICUT

of English law and equity which were recognized in the
United States, comprising, in effect, a commentary on
American common law, together with further principles
deduced from Connecticut decisions, and rules established
by statute. Although more than a century has intervened,
its value and utility as a compendium of common law
and equity principles are still generally recognized. It
bears lasting witness to his legal and literary talents,
wide reading and cultivation, broad and varied experience,
extensive research, and arduous labors; it constitutes a
veritable monument to his memory.

The other attainments of his conspicuously active life,
however, not only contributed to this crowning accom-
plishment but were also, in themselves, notable. Born in
Wareham, Massachusetts, February 27, 1759, he came,
when a child, with his parents to Lebanon, Connecticut,
entered Yale College at the age of fifteen, and was gradu-
ated in 1778. He immediately engaged in the study of
the law, and on admission to the bar commenced practice
in Mansfield, but soon settled in Windham. He con-
tinued to reside there throughout his life, his legal ability,
industry, and other qualities winning for him recognition
and success, both professionally and politically.

From 1787 until 1793 he represented Windham in the
house of representatives at one or both of the semi-
annual sessions, and he served as clerk of the house in
1792. In 1793 he was the first Representative elected to
Congress from northeastern Connecticut, serving until
1797, when he declined reelection. In October of that
year he was returned to the Connecticut house of repre-
sentatives and chosen speaker, serving in that office until
his election to the Council in 1799.

In 1800 he accompanied, as secretary, the envoys extraor-
dinary headed by Chief Justice Ellsworth, sent to France
by President Adams to negotiate settlement of the many

ZEPHANIAH SWIFT 295

matters in dispute between that republic and the United
States, and remained until the spring of 1801, thereby
enjoying exceptional opportunities for observation of
great men and events, and acquaintance with interna-
tional relations and affairs.

On his return he again became a member of the Council,
but in October of the same year was elected by the General
Assembly a judge of the superior court and served thir-
teen years by annual reelection. Although the twelve
members of the Council with the governor and lieutenant
governor then composed the Supreme Court of Errors,
this change was actually a promotion from a legal and
judicial standpoint, as he became thereby a judicial
officer; and not long thereafter, in 1806, the judges of
the superior court, sitting together, superseded the Coun-
cil as the court of appeal. In 1810 he published a digest
of the law of evidence, the first American book on that
subject, and included in the same volume a treatise on
bills of exchange and promissory notes.

In May, 1815, he was chosen chief justice and served
as such until retired in 1819, when the number of judges
of the Supreme Court of Errors was reduced from nine
to five. His judicial opinions were characterized by clear-
ness and original reasoning without frequent citation of
authorities and were, on occasion, vigorous and emphatic,
but usually brief and never diffuse. As chief justice he
introduced and adhered to the innovation of stating first
his opinion in every case decided, whether or not it ac-
corded with the majority of the court. The same practice
was followed for a time by his successor, Chief Justice
Hosmer, but soon there was a return to the previous cus-
tom, which has since been followed, of distributing among
the members of the court the work of preparing the pre-
vailing opinions in the several cases.

As already noted, Judge Swift did not resume active

296 CONNECTICUT

practice, but his activity continued throughout his remain-
ing years. The preparation of his Digest necessarily
involved an immense amount of time and toil. Law
students seeking instruction in his office in Windham
were so numerous that it became known as Swift's Law
School. He again represented his town in the house of
representatives in 1820, 1821, and 1822. In 1820 he was
appointed chairman of a committee of three to make a
revision of the statutes, made necessary by the adoption
of the constitution of 1818, and was largely responsible
for the thoroughness and excellence of the 1821 revision,
which has ever since held high rank in the history of
American statute law.

Throughout his career he was courageous and militant
in support of reforms which appeared to him to be needed,
and he lived to see realized numerous improvements in
the judicial system which he had advocated. In 1907
Chief Justice Baldwin justly said of him, "To Zephaniah
Swift more than to any other man Connecticut owes her
simple and orderly system of private law/' It is now
definitely established that Judge Swift prepared, indexed,
and supervised the publication of the first compilation of
United States Statutes published under order of Congress
(4 Annals 1229). The compilation was published in
three volumes and included the Acts of Congress to March,
1797, the treaties made by the United States, and an
index which was so extensive as to constitute a complete
digest of the existing laws of the United States.

The inscription which Judge Swift caused to be placed
upon the title page of the second volume of his Digest,
"Extremum hunc, Arethusa, mihi concede laborem,"
proved sadly prophetic. He died, while the book was in
press, on September 27, 1823, while visiting his son in
Warren, Ohio.

JOHN FITCH
WILLIAM H. RICHARDSON

Department of Local History, Jersey City, New Jersey

John Fitch, mathematical genius, explorer, and inven-
tor, was born at South Windsor, January 21, 1743. One
of a family of six children, he spent his boyhood *' crazy
for learning." His formal schooling ended when he was
ten; at that time he "sunk himself in debt 12s" to buy
Salmon's Geography -, which he memorized. At thirteen
he mastered Hodder's Arithmetic, and this ended his
"book learning."

Encouraged by the grandson of Governor Roger Wol-
cott, he went into an unprofitable venture of making
brass clocks. In 1767 he married Lucy Roberts of Sims-
bury, and a son was born to them. Early in 1769, because
of domestic incompatibilities, Fitch left his home and
never went back to his family, to which a daughter was
afterwards born. He wandered for several months as an
itinerant clock repairer, and in May he dropped his pack
in Trenton, New Jersey, penniless. There he started
making and peddling brass sleeve buttons, and cleaning
clocks on his tramp trips.

In July, 1776, he was commissioned a second lieutenant
and appointed armorer for the "Flying Camp" of the
army in New Jersey (then on its way to its rendezvous
at Perth Amboy). He worked nights and Sundays
with his men, organizing small arms and accoutrements.
When the British occupied Trenton later in the year, his
tools and property and means for a livelihood were lost,
and he went to Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where he

297

298 CONNECTICUT

drilled regularly with a company. The next winter, 1777-
1778, he organized a sutler's camp at Valley Forge, which
proved prosperous for a time, but came to grief because
of the continued depreciation of the currency.

Having become interested in western land warrants,
which were quite numerous at the time, Fitch was com-
missioned by Congress in 1780 as deputy surveyor of the
Northwestern Territory. Between that year and 1785 he
made five round-trip journeys, chiefly on foot, exploring
and surveying the area. His contribution to our knowl-
edge of that land was invaluable. In 1784 he made a
copperplate map of it, squeezing the prints in a press that
he had improvised. (Copies of this map are now among
the rarest in cartographic treasures.)

On January 4, 1785, he became a member of the Masonic
order, at Bristol, Pennsylvania. In April, while walking
along the road, limping with rheumatism contracted on
his last exploring tour, thoughts of the comfort of a
" horseless chaise" flashed over him; presently the idea
of a steamboat one that might penetrate the rivers of
the lands he knew possessed his mind. He and a friend
soon made a model in brass, with wooden side paddle-
wheels. The boat floated, the engine steamed, the paddles
beat; steam navigation for the commerce of all America
was born on that little pond near Davisville, Pennsylvania,
in the summer of 1785!

On August 10, Fitch organized his first documentation
about it; on August 29, he took the model and his
papers to Congress; on November 4, he showed General
Washington his "proofs " at Mount Vernon. In 1786 and
1787 five state legislatures New Jersey, Delaware, New
York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia gave Fitch the exclu-
sive grants of their waters for the development of com-
merce by his steamboat.

For the motivation of all his boats except the first

JOHN FITCH 299

model, Fitch used sets of canoe-like paddles, suspended
from a frame; the paddles were at first suspended over
the sides, and in the later boats, over the stem. In 1790
Fitch's second boat steamed thousands of miles before be-
ing laid up about September 19. It made regular voyages
between Philadelphia, Bristol, Chester, Pennsylvania;
Wilmington, Delaware; Belvidere, Burlington, and Tren-
ton, New Jersey. Fitch's steamboat demonstrations were
the only successful ones in the world up to that time.
The third boat, biggest and best of all, commenced in
1791, was abandoned the next year, partly because of the
award made by the partisan "Commissioners for the
Promotion of Useful Arts" of identical patents except
for their names issued to Fitch and to Rumsey (April
23, 1791).

Early in 1793 Fitch went to France to develop his inven-
tion under the rights granted to him in the Fitch- Vail
agreement of 1791 (under which he could exploit his
invention in as many as nine European countries); but
France was in the throes of the Revolution. In disgust
and despair, Fitch entrusted the tin sea-farer's case con-
taining the papers describing his scheme of steam naviga-
tion to Vail, at L'Orient. These papers were "examined"
by Fulton and Livingston in 1795; that they were copied
and appropriated is a matter now established beyond
question.

While waiting for a ship to bring him back to America
in 1793, Fitch published in London a pamphlet, "The
Columbia Ready Reckoner," a most remarkable compila-
tion of figures by which "a moderate genius" could learn
to navigate a vessel.

Following his return from Europe in 1794, Fitch re-
mained for nearly two years with his brother-in-law,
Timothy King, in East Windsor, Connecticut. In 1797,
Fitch set out for Kentucky, "to establish steamboats in

300 CONNECTICUT

western waters." Early in 1798, at the request of Robert
Livingston, the New York legislature transferred to him
the three unexpired years of Fitch's exclusive use of the
waters of that state! The news of this perfidy reached
Fitch, then living in Bardstown, Kentucky. On June 25,
1798, he made his will; a few days later he was dead,
entering on Westcott's testimony the portal of his
golden dreams, a suicide.

Curiously enough, this unholy expropriation of Fitch's
exclusive rights (and later New York legislative enact-
ments that sealed the Hudson River and every navigable
tributary in New Jersey as the "private puddle " of the
Fulton-Livingston monopoly) met its retribution. On
March 2, 1824, Chief Justice John Marshall declared the
whole business repugnant to the Constitution and void,
and annulled the laws of New York by which it was sup-
ported and maintained.

The story of this unfortunate genius is disheartening.
He lived and died unrecognized and unrewarded for the
invaluable contributions he made to the development of
steam transportation, and for his unique part in the open-
ing of our new West.

THE HARTFORD WITS
FRANCIS PARSONS

We shall form a more accurate estimate of this group
of writers if we think of them as the intelligentsia of their
day, rather than as " wits' ' in the modern sense of humor-
ous persons. For they were not without serious purposes.
The record states that their weekly meetings were largely
devoted to legal, philosophical, and political discussions.
They began to write, as a group, toward the end of the
War for Independence and they were ardent patriots.
Most of them had served in the army during that war.
The future of our young country, which was beginning
one of the most extraordinary political and social experi-
ments in all history, was of vital concern to them. It was
natural that, living in Connecticut, they should be advo-
cates of Federalism. It was, of course, a period character-
ized by the confusion that seems to follow every war. A
good deal of false philosophy was in the air; a destructive
religious and spiritual tendency was apparent. The
Hartford Wits undertook what we should now call a '"de-
bunking" campaign. Like Joseph Addison in the Spec-
tator eighty years or so before, they attacked what they
considered the false gods with the rapier of satire and
ridicule rather than with the bludgeon of denunciation.

Then, too, there is apparent a devotion in them to the
higher ideals of literature. They were a Yale group and
most of them had been concerned in the recent effort for
a broadening curriculum and an increasing interest in
literary pursuits at the little college in New Haven and
their effort had been successful. They were devotees of

301

302 CONNECTICUT

the Muses, who hoped for an idigenous American literature
and who ridiculed what was bombastic and pretentious
in the writing of their contemporaries. The events that
generally inspired their pens have long since passed into
the limbo of forgotten things. Their allusions have lost
their connotations, their satire its biting edge. Their
fashion of ridicule has gone out. Today no one reads them
and few know who they were. And yet and yet, in
their day and generation they exerted an influence that
had its power and that made our little Connecticut for a
while the literary center of the country.

Who were these men, who once counted so definitely,
but whose "effusions" now gather dust on the remote
shelves of old libraries?

To begin with, there was John Trumbull, not the
painter, the son of the war governor, but the lawyer and
judge, a first cousin once removed of the governor. He
settled in Hartford four months before Corawallis sur-
rendered. Already he was a personage. His "Progress
of Dulness," published in 1772, when he was pursuing
post-graduate studies at Yale, and "designed," he says,
"to expose the absurd methods of education which then
prevailed," had been a vital factor in the campaign for
the enlargement of the college curriculum. But his great
work was "M'Fingal," a mock epic, satirizing the position
of the Tories at the outbreak of the war. Frail health
and preoccupation with public affairs interfered somewhat
with TtumbulTs later literary work, but he participated
to a large degree in the group writings and probably
possessed the keenest intellect of the "Friendly Club," as
the Wits called themselves.

Joel Barlow came to Hartford the year after Trumbull's
arrival. He is the most baffling member of the coterie.
How it happened that his mind harbored such a tremen-
dous and persistent urge to produce verses when it is

THE HARTFORD WITS 303

obvious that nature never intended that he should be a
poet is one of the mysteries of human history. Yet his
" Vision of Columbus/' later expanded into "The Colum-
biad/' was a real vision. It is heavy reading and someone
has suggested it might just as well have been written in
prose; yet there is fibre there, and it is odd and perhaps
significant to find in these labored couplets prophecies of
the League of Nations and of the Panama Canal. Barlow
was a theorist and a visionary. The ultimate brotherhood
of all mankind was part of his dream and his prose pam-
phlet "Advice to the Privileged Orders/ 7 was a remarkable
essay in the philosophy of government and social relations.

About 1784 Hartford became the home of Dr. Lemuel
Hopkins. He was a "character/' and his long nose,
prominent eyes, and ungainly figure were the outward and
visible signs of his eccentric genius. To say that he was
critical of others is to put it mildly. His ire was easily
aroused and he appears to have had no fear of libel actions.
He exposed what he considered pretention and hypocrisy,
whether in politics, religion, or the practice of medicine,
with a caustic satire that must have made interesting
reading both to his victims and his sympathizers. Most
of his verses are part of the composite writings of the
Wits "The Anarchiad," "The Political Greenhouse/'
"The Echo" and no separate edition of his work has
been published.

A large, stately, genial, energetic, and sophisticated
person was Colonel David Humphreys, the friend of
Washington, who, though not a permanent Hartford resi-
dent, must have been often in the city, and who was a
prominent member of the Friendly Club. Ardent patri-
otism was the motive power behind most of his verse.
His "Poem Addressed to the Armies of the United States "
was published in New Haven in 1780, and later in London
and Paris. A famous soldier, an able diplomat, Colonel

304 CONNECTICUT

Humphreys was one of the most interesting members of
our literati. Moreover, he was, says Duychink, "formed
for friendship."

Another non-resident was Timothy Dwight, destined
to become Yale's great president, succeeding Ezra Stiles
in 1795. In 1771, when he was nineteen, he began his
tremendous epic "The Conquest of Canaan/' which ran
to the appalling length of eleven "books" and took three
years to complete. This was published at Hartford in
1785, and reprinted in London in 1788. In 1794 another
long piece of verse, "Greenfield Hill," appeared, which,
like its predecessor, was republished in England. Both of
these poems, if they can be so called, are imitative and
prolix and Trumbull complained that there were so many
thunderstorms in "The Conquest of Canaan" that the
author ought to supply a lightning rod along with the
verses. Timothy Dwight is remembered today in his
literary character, not as the producer of these long com-
positions, but as the author of his rendering in verse of
the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Psalm (beginning
"I love Thy kingdom, Lord"), of the patriotic hymn,
"Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise," which in its day
was declaimed by hundreds of school children before
admiring elders and scornful contemporaries, and of
"Travels in New England and New York." He was a
man of tremendous energy and industry and obtained a
reputation for infallibility that made his nickname of
"Pope" Dwight no idle appellation.

Richard Alsop of Middletown was drawn into the fellow-
ship, and must have been often in Hartford for meetings of
the Friendly Club and for visits to his brother John, who
kept a bookshop there. He was a scholar and a linguist,
with a sincere interest in culture and literature that tran-
scended any desire for publicity or fame. Some of his
verses seem to the modern ear to have more genuine

THE HARTFORD WITS 305

poetic feeling and inspiration than those of his contem-
poraries, but much that he wrote never was published.

There were other lesser lights in the brotherhood, some
of them younger men who carried on the traditions as the
original membership became depleted. Theodore Dwight,
brother of Timothy, collaborated in "The Echo/' Dr.
Mason F. Cogswell, valedictorian and youngest member
of the Yale class of 1780, settled in Hartford in 1789, and
turned his hand to verse in the collective productions of
the club. Another physician, Dr. Elihu Hubbard Smith,
began practice in Wethersfield probably in the autumn of
1791, and was drawn by similarity of tastes and his
instinctive poetic urge into the circle. He is chiefly
remembered as the editor of the first American anthology,
American Poems, Selected and Original, published in 1793,
in which, among others, verses of the Wits were reprinted.
Noah Webster, the great lexicographer, was in Hartford
during part of the life of the club and was an intimate of
most of its members.

We cannot end this brief record without mention of
one fact that should not be forgotten in connection with
these men, and that is that they served their state and
their country in diverse practical ways as well as in the
realm of the Muses. Trumbull had an active law practice,
was often in the General Assembly, was state's attorney
for Hartford county, and became a justice of the superior
court. Humphreys was sent abroad in various diplo-
matic capacities and toward the end of his life established
around his woolen mills at his native Humphreysville,
now Seymour, an ideal industrial community. Hopkins,
Cogswell, and Smith were eminent in their profession of
medicine, the first two at any rate being pioneers in cer-
tain branches of medicine and surgery. Smith died of
yellow fever in New York at the age of twenty-seven,
while fighting the epidemic. Allusion has been made to

306 CONNECTICUT

Timothy Dwight's career as educator, and he was also a
theologian of note. His brother Theodore was a publicist
and newspaper editor of great influence in his time.
Barlow had a strange and interesting life abroad where,
like Humphreys, he represented his country. At the last
he was our minister plenipotentiary to France. He died
of hardship and exposure while trying vainly, in the midst
of the retreat from Moscow, to find Napoleon, on an
important mission. It is characteristic of Barlow that
within a day or two of his death he was dictating verses
from his sick bed.

FOUNDING OF A NEW ENGLAND TOWN
ERNEST W. BUTTERFIELD

Commissioner of Education, State of Connecticut

The great northern migration which between 1760 and
1800 created New Connecticut, or as it has since been
called, Vermont, has been almost forgotten, yet it consti-
tutes one of the dramatic episodes of New England history.

In 1760 the older towns of New England, the agri-
cultural towns, were overcrowded, families were large,
low-priced land had disappeared, wages were low, and
marriages were by necessity delayed. At the same time
in the towns of wealth, money had accumulated, culture
and leisure abounded, and investments were sought.
It was a period for speculation, and the close of the French
and Indian wars made possible land speculations in the
larger two-thirds of what is now New England.

James Truslow Adams has estimated that not over
20,000 came from England to New England in the years
of the Puritan migration, but during thirty years, at
least as many from Connecticut went north in this second
migration. The movement commenced as soon as the
French and Indian wars were over in 1759. It was
checked by the years of conflict with the mother country
and then it became a torrential wave. Many went also
from the old towns in southern New Hampshire, and from
Massachusetts went even more than from Connecticut.
But in Connecticut every shore and valley town sent the
young and the ambitious.

The characteristics of the three groups were early noted.

307

308 CONNECTICUT

The New Hampshire migrants were the most restless,
the most venturesome. They built the mills, they were
the carpenters and blacksmiths and storekeepers. The
Massachusetts settlers were small farmers, somewhat
given to education and very much inclined to religion.
From Connecticut came wealth and political domination
and social prestige, so that whenever a Hubbard married
a Haskall the proud boast was repeated, "We Connecticut
people are not poor white trash."

The business of establishing a town was surprisingly
easy. The royal governor at Portsmouth, for his own
profits and the glory of the crown, issued the charters for
towns six miles square. The governor collected about one
hundred dollars, kept for himself five hundred selected
acres, required that an additional share should be given
to the Church of England, one to the first minister, one
to the incorporated missionary society of the English
Church, and one to the schools; and he stood ready with
members of his family and entourage to speculate by
holding unsought shares. He retained also all pines
needed for masting the royal navy. He claimed the right
to demand from each proprietor one ear of Indian corn
or one shilling annually forever and he required forfeiture
from those who did not clear and build.

In 1761 the Lyman family of New Haven, as many
another family, had money to invest, and was looking for
speculation and profit, and so it agreed to form a corpora-
tion of sixty to seventy proprietors and with equal shares
to purchase an undeveloped town. Eleven proprietors
were Lymans, five were Wrights, four were Thompsons,
and there were two Aliens, and two Phelps brothers; and
all of these were related by marriage.

Naomi Lyman, twenty-one years of age, was the only
woman speculator. Governor Wentworth added himself,
his father-in-law, his brother-in-law, his brother and his

FOUNDING OF A NEW TOWN 309

nephew, his attorney-general, and two wealthy neighbors
to the company. The first assessment was for the charter,
the second, twice in amount, for the surveying. Benjamin
Allen reported that the town consisted of one thousand
acres of river meadow covered with pine trees, of four
thousand acres of pleasant slopes from the meadows to the
hill land, of eight thousand acres of hilltops and of ten
thousand acres of back land, intervales, and foothills of
the Green Mountains.

Accordingly, each proprietor might have 13 acres in
division one, 54 in division two, 108 in division three, and
134 acres in the last division. The lots were numbered,
the hat passed four times and each shareholder received
as the fates decreed. Of course, no proprietor drew con-
tiguous lots, and no possible farm was created, but few
of these proprietors planned to settle in the wilderness.
They were realtors with lots to sell. No proprietor lived
in Wethersfield, Connecticut, but the proprietors believed
that by naming the town Weathersfield they would be
able in the Connecticut town to carry on a vigorous selling
campaign. The plan worked, and of the early settlers
many were from ancient Wethersfield.

The charter was granted in 1761, and the town was
fathered by the proprietors for ten years. In 1772 the
first town meeting was held with Daniel Tuttle as moder-
ator and with Benjamin Allen and Allen Blakeslee as
overseers. Then to William Upham, clerk, the proprietors
surrendered their book of records and a new republic was
in existence. Tradition declares that at the first meeting
of proprietors the only joke of the eighteenth century in
Puritan New England had its expression: "We will name
it Wethersfield and spell it with an additional "a," for we
want to change this confounded Connecticut weather."

The proprietors sold and resold. The church of New
Haven speculated. It bought the rights of loyalist Wise-

310 CONNECTICUT

man Cloggette and sold at a loss. The proprietors bribed
and paid bounties, they shifted the Church of England
lots from their original tillable locations to the steep slopes
of Ascutney Mountain. They forgot the ear of corn and
the shilling, for Berniing Wentworth with his royal insignia
had seen fit to go hastily to Halifax, and not a few of the
settlers remembered Bunker Hill, Bennington, and Sara-
toga, and were not impressed with the authority of King
George.

The New York census of 1771 found in Weathersfield
four families, with eight men or big boys, four women, and
eight children. A year later at the first town meeting
eleven men were present and each was elected to office.
In 1775 twenty-four men signed the association test and
in 1791 the first United States census showed a population
of over two hundred families and 1,146 inhabitants.

In twenty years twenty settlers had increased more
than fiftyfold. Weathersfield was but one of two hundred
towns where the like story could be told. In their life-
time, these settlers and pioneers saw a township of twenty-
three thousand acres turned from original forests to homes
of civilization. They saw fields cleared, roads constructed,
buildings erected, and all of the equipment of culture
transplanted from southern to northern New England.
For them these new towns had a present and a future, but
no past.

This migration was the great adventure with which the
century closed.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES

(This list has been selected as containing references to much im-
portant original material pertaining to the lives of the characters por-
trayed within this book. The list is not, of course, complete. With the
exception of the manuscripts and archives in the State Library and in
the office of the Secretary of State, these sources are available in most
Connecticut public libraries.)

ARCHIVES OF CONNECTICUT

In the State Library: Many thousands of papers relat-
ing to the Colony of Connecticut before 1790, pasted into
162 large folio volumes (with 100 more in process of being
bound) and indexed by subjects. A total of 2,500,000
manuscripts.

In the office of the Secretary of State: State records
and manuscript volumes.

BRADFORD, WILLIAM. History of Plymouth Plantation,
1620-1647. 2 vols. Boston, 1912.

Connecticut Historical Society Collections. 24 vols. 1860-
1932.

DEXTER, F. B. (ed.). Extracts from the Itineraries and
Other Miscellanies of Ezra Stiles. New Haven, 1916.

MATHER, COTTON. Magnalia Christi Americana. 1702.

New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Quar-
terly Periodical.) 87 vols. Boston, 1847-.

New Haven Colony Historical Society. Ancient Town
Records, 1649-1684. 2 vols. New Haven, 1917-1919.

New Haven Colony Historical Society Papers. 9 vols. New
Haven, 1865.

ORR, CHARLES (ed.). History of the Pequol War. (Con-

311

312 CONNECTICUT

temporary accounts by Mason, Underbill, Vincent, and

Gardiner.) Cleveland, 1897,
Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1636-1776.

(Usually designated: Colonial Records of Connecticut.)

15 vols. Hartford, 1850-1890.
Public Records of the State of Connecticut . . . with the

Journal of the Council of Safety. (A continuation of the

Public Records of the Colony.) 1776-1781. 3 vols.

Hartford, 1894-1922.
Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, 1638-

1649. Hartford, 1857-1858.
Records of the Colony or Jurisdiction of New Haven, from

May, 1653, to the Union. Hartford, 1858.
STILES, H. R. History of Ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut.

2 vols. New York, 1904.

History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Con-
necticut, 1635-1891. 2 vols. Hartford, 1891-1892.
WINTHROP, JOHN. History of New England from 1630 to

1649. (Edited by J. Savage.) Boston, 1853.

GENERAL HISTORIES OF CONNECTICUT (Selected)

CLARK, G. L. A History of Connecticut. New York, 1914.

HOLLISTER, G. H. History of Connecticut. 2 vols. Hart-
ford, 1858.

JOHNSTON, A. Connecticut. Boston, 1887.

MORGAN, F. (ed.). Connecticut as a Colony and as a State.
4 vols. Hartford, 1904.

OSBORN, N. G. (ed.). History of Connecticut in Mono-
graphic Form. 5 vols. New York, 1925.

PETERS, S. A. General History of Connecticut, 1632-1781.
New York, 1877.

TRUMBULL, B. Complete History of Connecticut, 1630-
1764. 2 vols. New London, 1898,

INDEX

INDEX

Accidence, The, 111, 112
Adams, James Truslow, quoted, 307
Adams, John, quoted, 226, 249, 280
"Advice to the Privileged Orders,"

303

Agawam, 74

Agent, colonial, duties of, 132
Agriculture of Connecticut, 13-14
Allen, Ethan: ancestry and birth of,
210; captures Fort Ticonderoga,
211-212; death of, 213; descend-
ants of, 213; in French and
Indian War, 210; and "Haldi-
man affair," 212-213; organizes
Green Mountain Boys, 211; taken
prisoner, 212
Alsop, Richard, 304
American Poems, Selected and Orig-
inal, 305

"Anarchiad, The," 303
Andre, Major, 219, 266, 276
Andros, Sir Edmund : appointed colo-
nial governor, 118; and Connecti-
cut charter, 119, 122-123, 126-127;
and Dominion of New England,
118; governor of Old Dominion,
119-120; interest of, in coloniza-
tion, 117; overthrow of, 119;
policies of, 118
Aramamett, 84

Arnold, Benedict: attacks New
London, 206-207; death of, 220;
difficulties of, with Congress,
217; as a druggist, 215; family
of, 214; in French and Indian
War, 215; life of, in England,
220; marriages of, 215, 218; mo-
tives for treason of, 218; services
of, with Americans in Revolution,
211-212, 215-218; treason of, 219
Articles of Confederation, 248
Ashurst, Sir Henry : appointed agent
for Connecticut, 133; assists Fitz-
John Winthrop, 133; death of,
134; family of, 132; helps save
charter, 133-134; marriage of, 133
Asia, 203

Baldwin, Simeon E-, quoted, 245,
250, 296

313

Bancroft, George, quoted, 66

Barlow, Joel, 302-303, 306

Belknap, Reverend Jeremy, quoted,
251

Berkeley, Bishop, 160

Blessing of the Bay, 44

Block, Adriaen : buildsOfims/,28; dis-
covers Connecticut River, 28; ex-
plores Hudson River, 27; granted
monopoly, 27; other explora-
tions of, 28-29

"Blue Laws," 102, 270-271, 272

"Book of Reasons," 174

"Brain tree Company," 51, 55, 56

"Brother Jonathan," see Trumbull,
Jonathan

Buell, Abel: birth of, 181; builds
cotton factory, 183; death of,
184; as engraver, 181, 182;
founds first type, 182; impris-
oned, 181; invents lapidary ma-
chine, 181; marriages of, 181, 183

Bulkeley, Gershom: character of,
130-131; education of, 128; in
King Philip's War, 129; in New
L ^ndon, 128; practices medicine,
129; remedy of, for "ye wind
collicke," 129-130; in Wethers
field, 128; writings of, 130

Burr, Aaron, quoted, 198, 280

Bushnell, David, 186

Chalmers, Thomas, quoted, 149

Charter Oak, 123

Charter of Connecticut, 11-12, 47,
81, 119, 122-123, 126-127, 133-
134

Chastellux, de, Marquis, quoted, 256

Cheever, Ezekiel: author of The
Accidence, 111; censured, 111; in
Charlestown, Mass., 112; in-
fluence of, in education, 110, 112;
in Ipswich, Mass., 111-112;
master of Boston Latin School,
112; in New Haven, 110-111

Christiaensen, Hendrick, 27

Clap, Roger, quoted, 87

Clarendon, Edward H., quoted, 33,
36

Clotsworthy, Sir John, 45

314

INDEX

Cogswell, Dr. Mason F., 305

Colonial agent, see Agent, colonial

Colonial Connecticut: agriculture
in, 13-14; conservatism in, 23-24; "
Fundamental Orders of, 10-11;
General Assembly in, 22-23;
government under the charter in,
11-12; governor in, 20-21; in-
dustries in, 12-13; isolation of,
16-17; magistrates in, 21-22;
reasons for early settlements in,
8-10; relations between England
and, 5-7; religion in, 14-16;
scattered nature of early settle-
ments in, 7-8; suffrage in, 17-18;
tenure of office in, 18-20; unique
position of, among colonies, 24-25

Colonial Records, 70

"Columbia Ready Reckoner," 299

"Columbiad, The/' 303

Connecticut, colonial, see Colonial
Connecticut

Connecticut Courant, 178

Connecticut Gazette, 178

Connecticut Journal and New Haven
Post Boy, 178

Connecticut ratifying convention
(1788), 291

"Conquest of Canaan, The," 304

Conservatism in colonial Connecti-
cut, 23-24

Constitutional Convention (1787),
249, 291

Continental Congress, 248

Cooke, Aaron, 86

Cotton, John: friendship with
Davenport, 100; quoted, 50

Council of Safety, 241, 243, 256-
257

Cutler, Timothy: in charge of
Christ Church, Boston, 146;
chosen rector of Yale, 143; de-
bates with Governor Saltonstall,
142; dismissed from Yale, 145;
favors Episcopalianism, 144-145;
ordination of, 145

Dartmouth College, 151, 152-153
Davenport, John: and Blue Laws,
102; in Boston, 101, 103; char-
acter of, 99; death of, 103; early
life of, 99; and Fenwick, 38;
flees to Holland, 100, 106; and
Hopkins Grammar School, 103;
influence of, in New Haven, 101-
102; and Laud, 100, 101; letter
of, to Winthrop, 115; one of
"seven pillars," 102; preacher in
London, 99-100: preaches at New
Haven, 107

Deane, Silas: appointed first com-
missioner to France, 263; early
life of, 262; last years of, 265;
marriages of, 262; member of
Committee of Secret Correspond-
ence, 263; in mercantile business,
262; recalled by Congress, 264;
returns to France, 264-265; se-
cures French aid, 263-264

Declaration of Independence, 243,
248

Delaware Company, 108

Digest of the Laws of Connecticut,
293-294, 296

Dominion of New England, 118

Dummer, Jeremiah, 136, 138, 143

Dutch fort, 64, 83

Dwight, Theodore, 305

Dwight, Timothy, 304, 306; quoted,
282

Dyer, Eliphalet: in Continental
Congress, 226, 227; delegate to
Stamp Act Congress, 227; family
of, 226; in French and Indian
War, 227; life of, in Windham,
226; marriage of, 226; and
Susquehanna Co., 228; and Wy-
oming claims, 228

Eaton, Theophilus: agent of king,
104; and Blue Laws, 102; in
Boston, 106; and Davenport,
105, 106; death of, 109; early
life of, 104; founds New Haven,
107-108; governor of New Haven,
108; home of, 108; marriages of,
105, 106; merchant in London,
105; organizes Delaware Com-
pany, 108; sails for America, 106

"Echo, The," 303

Edwards, Jonathan: death of, 149;
family of, 147; and the "Great
Awakening," 149; letter of, to
daughter, 149-150; mother of,
147; at Northampton, Mass.,
148-149; president of Princeton,
149; at Stockbridge, Mass., 149;
wife of, 148, 149; at Yale, 148

Eliot, Jared: awarded medal, 160;
and Benjamin Franklin, 160-161;
education of, 158-159; family of,
158; marriage of, 159; member of
Royal Society, 158; ordained, 159;
writes treatise on agriculture, 159

Ellsworth, Oliver: birth and educa-
tion of, 278; character of, 282-
283; Chief Justice, 281; in
Constitutional Convention 1 , 279-
280, 291; in Continental Con-
gress, 278; envoy to France,

INDEX

315

281-282; as a lawyer, 279; sup-
ports Jay's Treaty, 280; U. S.
Senator, 280-281

Emmanuel College, 60

Endicott, John, 91

England, see Relations between
England and her colonies

Entrance, 53

Episcopalianism in Connecticut, 144

Fenwick, George: governor of Say-
brook, 38; initiates New England
Confederation, 38; and Lords
Proprietors, 37; marriage of, 38;
returns to England, 39; sells
Saybrook fort, 31, 38-39

Fiennes, William, see Saye and Sele,
Lord

Fitch, Reverend James, quoted, 98

Fitch, John: death of, 300; in
France, 299; grants to, by states,
298; invents first steamboat, 298;
in Kentucky, 299-300; operates
steamboats, 298, 299; in Revolu-
tion, 297-298; surveys Northwest
Territory, 298; youth of, 297

Fitch, Thomas: chosen governor,
170; defeated by Pitkin, 172;
final years of, 172; graduates from
Yale, 169; and Israel Putnam,
171-172; and Mohegan case,
170; objects to passage of Stamp
Act, 171; publishes Some Rea-
sons," 172; revises laws, 170;
takes oath to support Stamp Act,

Fort Griswold, 206-209
Fort Ticonderoga, 211-212, 263
Franklin, Benjamin, 160-161, 285
"Friendly Club," see Hartford Wits
Fundamental Agreement, 102
Fundamental Orders, the, 10-11,
53, 64, 67, 73

Gale, Benjamin: ^ acclaimed for
treatise, 185; activities of, during
Revolution, 186; inscription on
monument of, 186-187; mar-
riage of, 185; studies medicine,
185; versatility of, 186; youth
of, 185

Gardiner, Lion; builds fort in
Boston Harbor, 41; buys island,
42; on Long Island, 42-43; in
Low Countries, 41
General Assembly, 22-23
George III, statue of, 239
Goffe, William, see Regicides
Goodwin, William: association of,
with Hooker, 55, 57; business

ability of, 57, 58; censured, 56;
final sickness of, 58; home of, 55;
leader of the "Braintree Com-
pany," 55; quarrel of, with
Stone, 57-58

Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 38
Governor, the colonial, 20-21
Grant, Matthew, 86
"Great Awakening," the, 149, 151
"Great Compromise," the, 279,291
Green, Thomas: a cautious editor,
179; death of, 180; family of,
178; founds Connecticut Courant,
179; founds Connecticut Journal
and New Haven Post Boy, 180;
marriage of, 178; regarded as a
Tory, 180

Green Mountain Boys, 211
Greene, General ^lathanael, letter

to, 259, 260
"Greenfield Hill," 304
Gregson, Thomas, 76
Griffin, 51, 63
Griswold, Fort, see Fort Griswold

"Haldiman affair," the, 212-213

Hale, Nathan: execution of, 204-
205; exploit as spy and capture
of, 203-204; family of, 200; in
"Knowlton's Rangers," 203; as
a teacher, 202; volunteers for
spy service, 203; in Washington's
army, 203; at Yale, 202

Hamilton, Alexander, 261

Hartford, naming of, 61

Hartford Courant, see Connecticut
Courant

Hartford Wits: aims of, 301; com-
posite writings of, 303; influence
of, 301-302; other services of,
members of, 301

Haynes, John: banishes Roger
Williams, 64; birth of, 63;
children of, 65-66; comes to
Boston, 63; death of, 66; first
governor of Connecticut, 64-65;
governor of Massachusetts, 74;
marriages of, 65; mission of, to
Massachusetts, 74; organizer of
New England Confederation, 65;

g'.ot to assassinate, 65; visits
ngland, 65; warns Dutch, 64
Hector, 101

Hillhouse, William, 241
Holmes, William: defies Dutch, 83,

84; leads settlers to Windsor,

83; in Pequot War, 84
Hooker, Reverend Samuel, 58
Hooker, Thomas: in Cambridge,

Mass., 52; invests Mason with

316

INDEX

rank of office, 93; privileges of,
52-53; removes to Connecticut,
52; at St. Mary's, 51, 55;
saved by Stone, 51; services to
Connecticut, 53-54; as a teacher,
51; and William Goodwin, 57;
youth of, 50

Hopkins, Edward: as a business
man, 77; gifts of, for education,
78; marriage of, 76; offices of,
76, 77; organizer of United
Colonies of New England, 38,
76-77; returns to England, 77;
succeeds Steele, 74; will of, 77-78

Hopkins, Dr. Lemuel, 303

Hopkins Grammar Schools, 77-78,
103

Hopkinton, Massachusetts, 78

Hortalez et Cie, 263-264

" House of Hope," 64, 83

Humphreys, David: association of,
with Washington, 221, 224; career
of, 222, 224-225, 305; carries
flags to Congress, 222-223; death
of, 225; enlists Negroes, 222;
epitaph of, 225; family of, 221;
member of Hartford Wits, 224,
303-304; member of Society of
the Cincinnati, 225; in War of
1812, 225

Huntington, Benjamin, 241

Huntington, Jabez, 274

Huntington, Jedidiah: appearance
of, 276; collector of port of New
London, 277; death of, 277;
drafts constitution of Society of
the Cincinnati, 276; family of,
274, 275; friendship of, with
Washington, 275, 277; helps
Arnold, 275; marriages of, 252,
277; services in Revolution,
275-276; at siege of Boston,
275; at Valley Forge, 276

Huntington, Samuel: character of,
230, 233-234; in Continental
Congress, 231-232; death of,
234; family and youth of, 230,
231; father of copyright law,
233; governor of Connecticut,
232; marriage of, 230; opposes
Stamp Act, 231

Industries of Connecticut, 12-13
Ingersoll, Jared: agent for Con-
necticut, 174; appointed stamp-
master, 174; birth of, 173; death
of, 177; judge of admiralty, 176;
king's attorney, 173-174, 176;
marriages of, 173, 177; paroled,
177; and Sons of Liberty, 174-

176; and Stamp Act, 171; in
Susquehanna dispute, 176-177

Jay's Treaty, 266-267, 280
Johnson, Samuel: birth of, 162;
death of, 165; education of, 162;
favors Episcopalianism, 144; head
of Episcopal clergy, 165; mar-
riages of, 163, 164; ordained,
145,163; president of King's Col-
lege, 164; returns to Stratford,
165; in Stratford, 163
Johnson, William Samuel : death of,
292; debarred, 290; education of,
288, 289; family of, 288; and
"Great Compromise/' 291; in-
fluence of, 288, 289, 292; mar-
riages of, 288-289, 292; in
Mohegan case, 289, 290; op-
poses separation from England,
290; president of Columbia,
292; and Stamp Act, 289; U. S.
Senator, 291; and Wyoming
claims, 291

King Philip's War, 115

Knowlton, Thomas: at battle of
Harlem Heights, 197-198; birth
of, 193; at Bunker Hill, 196-197,
198; commands "Rangers," 197;
commended by Washington, 197;
in French and Indian War, 193;
killed, 198; marriage of, 193

"Knowlton's Rangers," see "Rang-
ers"

Laud, Archbishop, 38, 51, 100, 101

Ledyard, William: character of,
209; death of, 208; and defense
of Fort Griswold, 207-209; mar-
riage of, 206

Leete, William: birth and educa-
tion of, 113; delays union with
Connecticut, 115; founds Guil-
ford, 113; governor of New
Haven, 114, 115; in King
Philip's War, 115; letter of, to
Winthrop, 115; marriages of,
115-116; and regicides, 114;
and Uncas, 98

Lords of Trade, 118

Ludlow, Roger: accompanies War-
ham, 86; education of, 67;
establishes first Court, 69; and
Fundamental Orders, 69-70;
given posts by Cromwell, 72;
leadership of, 68; and Ludlow
Code, 70; in Massachusetts, 67,
68; in Pequot War, 70-71;
settles in Poquonnocke, 71

INDEX

317

Ludlow Code, 70
Lyon, 56

"M'Fingal,"302

Magistrates, colonial, 21-22

Manchester, Duke of, 45

Marshall, John, decision of, 300

Mary and John, 86

Mason, John: comes to America,
86; compared with Myles Stand-
ish, 89; deputy governor, 93;
heads militia, 92-93; leads ex-
pedition against Pequots, 91-92;
in Massachusetts, 90; in Norwich,
93; reenforces Gardiner, 42, 90; at
Saybrook, 93; in Swamp Fight,
92; and Uncas, 96

Massachusetts, character of early
government of, 68

Mather, Cotton, quoted, 88, 104,
109, 110, 137

Medicine, practice of, 185

Migration to Vermont, 307, 308

Mohegan case, 289

More's Charity School, see Wheelock,
Eleazar

Morris, Robert, 261; quoted, 265

Nattawanut, 83

"New Connecticut," see Vermont

New England Confederation, 38,
65, 76-77

New Haven, first government of,
101-102

New Haven Green, 107

New Haven Journal Courier, see Con-
necticut Journal and New Haven
Post Boy

Newman's barn, 102, 107

Northwest Territory, survey of, 298

Occom, Samson, 152
Oldham, John, 91
Onrust, 28

Palfrey, John G., quoted, 131

Pastor, duties of, 61

Patents, colonial, nature of, 31

Pequot War, 91-92

Peter, Reverend Hugh, 38, 41, 45

Peters, Samuel: birth of, 271; and

Blue Laws, 270-271, 272; death

of, 273

Pitkin, William, 172
Platform, Saybrook, see Saybrook

Platform
"Poem Addressed to the Armies of

the United States," 303-304
Poetical Meditations, 168
"Political Greenhouse, The/' 303

Porcupine, 183

Printing in Connecticut, 140-141
"Progress of Dulness," 302
Putnam, Israel: aids Governor
TrumbuH, 192; birth of, 191; at
Bunker Hill, 192; death of, 192;
exploits of, in French and Indian
War, 191; and Sons of Liberty,
171-172, 191; stories about,
189-190
Pym, John, 45
Pyncheon, William, 74

Quebec, attack on, 216

"Rangers/' Knowlton's, 197, 203

Regicides, 102, 114

Relations between England and her
C9lonies, 5-7

Religion in colonial Connecticut,
14-16; see also Saybrook Plat-
form and Episcopalianism in
Connecticut

Rich, Robert: business enterprises
of, 30-31; and Cromwell, 32;
in English Civil War, 32; family
of, 30; grants patents, 31, 32;
interest of, in colonization, 33-34;
president of Council of New Eng-
land, 34

Robinson, Faith, 255

Rubila, 49, 129

Saltonstall, Gurdon : appointed gov-
ernor, 140; birth and education
of, 139; death of, 142; debate of,
with Cutler, 142; favors Say-
brook Platform, 140; first chief
justice of Connecticut, 141-142;
and Fitz-John Winthrop, 140;
mansion of, 140; pastor at New
London, 139, 140; and removal
of Yale, 142

Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 45

Sassacus, 96

Saybrook, 46

Saybrook Platform: endorsed by
General Assembly, 139; Salton-
stall and the, 140; supported by
Wheelock, 151

Saye and Sele, Lord : aids Winthrop,
35; estimate of, by Clarendon,
36; intention of, to emigrate, 34;
in Parliament, 33

School fund of Connecticut, 291

Sherman, Roger: in Constitutional
Convention, 249-250; death of,
250; first mayor of New Haven,
249; life of, in New Milford, 246,
247; marriages of, 246, 247;

318

INDEX

removal of, to Connecticut, 246;
services in the Continental Con-
gress, 248-249; for sound money,
249; in U. S. Congress, 250;
youth of, 245-246
Short, Thomas, 140
Smith, Dr. Elihu Hubbard, 205
Society of the Cincinnati, 225, 276
Sons of Liberty, 171-172, 174-176,

191, 289
Spectator, 301
Stamp Act, 171, 173, 174
Steady habits, see Conservatism in

colonial Connecticut
Steamboat, invention of the, 298
Steele, John: death of, 75; and
Fundamental Orders, 73; leads
band to Hartford, 73; marriages
of, 75; in Massachusetts, 73;
moves to Farmington, 75; public
offices of, 74, 75; secretary of
commission, 74

Stiles, Ezra: accepts presidency of
Yale, 286; ancestry of, 284;
diary of, quoted, 186-187, 250;
marriages of, 285, 287; at New-
port, 285; various interests of,
284, 285-286

Stone, Samuel: birth and educa-
tion of, 60; death of, 62; lecturer,
60; minister at Hartford, 61-62;
at Newtown, 61 ; in Pequot War,
91; quarrels with Goodwin, 57-
58; saves Hooker, 51; teacher,
61

Stoughton, Israel, 92
Suffrage in Connecticut, 17-18
Supreme Court of Errors, 282, 295
Susquehanna Company, 176-177,

Swamp Fight, 92

Swift, Zephaniah: chief justice of
Connecticut, 295; compiles U. S.
Statutes, 296; Law School of, 296;
member of Council, 294, 295;
prepares Digest, 293-294; secre-
tary of delegation to France, 294-
295

Swift's Law School, 296

Teacher, duties of, in colonial days,

61
Tenure of office in Connecticut. 18-

20
Ticonderoga, Fort, see Fort Ticon-

deroga
Treat, Robert: birth and baptism

of, 124; and charter, 126-127;

death of, 126; deputy governor,

126; estimates of, 127; governor,

126; in King Philip's War, 126;
a leader in Newark, N. J., 125;
marriages of, 124

Trumbull, David, 252

Trumbull, Faith, 252

Trumbull, Faith (Robinson ) , 255, 256

Trumbull, John (artist): ancestry
of, 267; as an artist, 266, 268-
269; and Jay's Treaty, 266-267;
imprisoned, 268; in Revolution,
267-268; writes epitaph of
Humphreys, 225; and Yale, 269

Trumbull, John (author), 252, 302,
304, 305

Trumbull, John Hammond, quoted,
127, 131

Trumbull, Jonathan: character of,
252-253; children of, 252; con-
sulted by Washington, 255;
death of, 257; early life of, 253-
254; marriage of, 255; mer-
cantile ventures of, 255; retire-
ment of, 257; services of, as
governor, 252, 255-256

Trumbull, Jonathan, Jr., 252

Trumbull, Joseph, 252, 259

Trumbull, Mary, 242, 252

Trumbull Art Gallery, 269

Trumbull family, correspondence
and papers of, 251

Tryon's raids, 216, 275, 286, 290

Uncas: and Mason, 91, 96; as
contact man, 97; death of, 98;
and Sassacus, 96; signs agree-
ment, 98; speech of, 97-98

United Colonies of New England,
see New England Confederation

United States Statutes, 296

Vane, Sir Harry, 45

Vermont, 210-211, 212, 213, 307

Wadsworth, Jeremiah: ancestry and
birth of, 258; business activities
of, 261; commissary general,
259,260; death of, 261; honorary
degrees of, 258; hospitality of,
260; marriage of, 259; member of
state convention, 259-260

Wadsworth, Joseph: character of,
121; and Connecticut charter,
122-123; Governor Fletcher and,
123; later life of, 123

Wadsworth, William, 121, 258

Wadsworth Atheneum, 261

Wahginnacut, 83

Warham, John: influence of, 87, 88;
mill of, 88; sails for America, 86

War Office, 243, 257

INDEX

319

Warwick, Earl of, see Rich, Robert

Warwick Patent, 31

Washington, George, quoted, 193,

197, 225
Weathersfteld, Vermont, 308-310;

see also Vermont
Webster, Daniel, 94
Webster, Noah, 305; quoted, 279
Wentworth, Benning, 211, 308, 310
Whalley, Edward, see Regicides
Wheelock, Eleazar: death of, 153;
education of, 151; founds Dart-
mouth College, 152-153; and the
"Great Awakening/' 151; last
years of, 153; marriages of,
151, 153; opens Indian school,
152; parentage of, 151; supports
Saybrook Platform, 151
Whitaker, Nathaniel, 152
"Will and Doom/' 130
Willard, Lieutenant Simon, 46.
Williams, Elisha: in Albany Con-
gress, 157; chaplain, 156; in
England, 156; marriages of, 155,
156; minister in Newington, 155;
rector of Yale, 156; tutor, 155
Williams, Roger, 64
Williams, William: clerk of Council
of Safety, 241, 243; death of, 244;
education of, 242; family of, 241-
242; in French and Indian War,
242; marriage of, 242, 252;
services of, during Revolution,
243-244; signs ' Declaration of
Independence, 243; at state con-
vention, 244

Windsor, settlement of, 83
Winthrop, Fitz-John, 133, 140
Winthrop, John (Junior) : aided by
Saye and Sele, 35; becomes
governor, 37, 46; education of,

44; founds New London, 47;
invents windmill, 48; marriages
of, 44^-45; mines of, _48; as a
physician, 48-49; Rubila of, 49,
129; saves Saybrook, 46; secures
charter, 47; travels of, 44

Winthrop, John (Senior), quoted,
56, 78-79

Wits, Hartford, see Hartford Wits

Wolcott, Henry, 86, 87

Wolcott, Oliver: activities of, dur-
ing Revolution, 238, 239; birth
and education of, 235; children
of, 240; in Continental Congress,
238; estimate of, 240; family of,
235; marriage of, 239; military
career of, 235-236, 238; removal
of, to Litchfield, 236; and statue
of George III, 239

Wolcott, Roger: appearance of,
168; family of, 166; governor,
168; leads troops, 168; as a poet,
168; in Queen Anne's War, 167

Wyandanch, 43

Wyllys family: George, 81; George
(colonist), 80, 81; Hezekiah, 81;
John Palsgrave, 81-82; Samuel,
81; General Samuel, 81

Wyllys mansion, 80-81, 82

Wyoming claims, 291

Yale College, removal of, 142
Yale, Elihu: birth of, 135; and
Dummer, 136, 138; death of,
138; death of son of, 136; epitaph
over grave of, 138; gifts of, to
Yale College, 137, 138; marriage
of, 136; Mather's letters to, 137;
work of, with East India Com-
pany, 135, 136
"Yankee Doodle," 172

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