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OS   iw-sp-r^.  ^- 1 

HISTORY 


OF 


NE¥   LONDON, 


CONNECTICUT. 


FROM  THE  FIK8T  SURVEY  OF  THE  COAST  IN  1612,  TO  1852. 


I 


L     .  .'   >• 


BY  FRANCES  MANWARING  CAULKINS. 


/- 


^  I  have  ccDtidered  the  days  of  old,  the  yean  of  ancient  times.'*    Ps.  Lzxvn.  5. 


Hie  Seal  of  Hew  London,  adopted  in  1784. 


NEW  LONDON: 

PUBLISHED   BY   THE  AUTHOR. 

1852. 


/3  .  fHu 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1852,  by 

F.   M.  OAULKINS, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Connecticut. 


HARVARD       ^HJl(Pf^Tr 

APR  041979 


PRESS  OF  CASK,  TIFFAITT  AND  OOBCPANTf  BABTFOBD,  CT. 


PREFACE. 


This  work  has  not  been  hastily  written,  but  is  the  result  of  several 
years  of  patient  research.     It  originated  in  the  first  place,  from  a  deep 
interest  in  the  subject — a  fondness  for  lingering  in  the  avenues  of  the 
past,  and  of  linking  places,  persons  and  events  in  historic  association. 
The  pleasure  connected  tvith  the  occupation  has  thus  lightened  the 
toil ;  yet  it  is  not  pretended  that  the  work  was  wtdertaken  with  no 
view  to  its  being  published.     It  has  been  from  tfic  ibst,  the  aim  and 
hope  of  the  author  to  produce  a  work  worthy  .of  publication — a  history 
that  would  be  honorable  to  her  native  place,  and  to  those  neighboring 
towns  that  were  connected  with  it  in  their  origin.     New  London 
county  is  a  locality  no  way  inferior  in  interest  to  any  part  of  the 
state.  ,  Its  early  history  is  full  of  life  and  vivid  anecdote.     Here  the 
white  and  the  red  race  flourished  for  a  time  side  by  side ;  while  hard-  / 
ships,  reverses  and  adventures  of  various  kinds  marked  its  subse- 
quent progress.     A  conviction  of  the  fertility  of  this  unexplored  field 
of  research,  connected  with  the  sentiment  of  veneration  for  a  region 
that  had  been  the  refuge  and  home  of  her  ancestors,  in  all  their 
branches,  led  to  a  design,  early  formed  and  perseveringly  cherished 
by  the  author,  to  write  the  liistory  both  of  Norwich  and  of  New  Lon- 
don.   Taste,  leisure,  opportunity,  and  above  all  the  kind  permission 
of  a  benignant  providence,  have  concurred  in  allowing  this  design  to 
be  accomplished. 

The  divine  command  to  "remember  the  days  of  old,  and  consider 
the  years  of  many  generations,"  so  often  repeated  in  varying  terms  in 
Holy  Writ,  is  an  imperative  argument  for  the  preservation  of  memo- 
rials of  the  past.  The  hand  of  God  is  seen  in  the  history  of  towns  as 
well  as  in  that  of  nations.  The  purest  and  noblest  love  of  the  olden 
time  is  that  which  draws  from  its  annals,  motives  of  gratitude  and 
thanksgiving  for  the  past— counsels  and  warnings  for  the  future. 
It  is  the  ardent  desire  of  the  writer  to  engage  the  present  generation 


IV  PREFACE. 

in  this  ennobling  stadj  of  their  past  history,  and  to  awaken  a  senti- 
ment of  deeper  and  more  affectionate  sympathy  with  our  ancestors, 
than  has  hitherto  been  felt.  In  the  first  place  we  find  a  band  of  ex- 
iles, far  from  their  native  land,  and  in  great  part  strangers  to  each 
other,  collecting  together,  acting  together,  and  amid  trials  and  embar- 
rassments cheerfully  encountered  and  bravely  overcome,  effecting  a 
settlement  upon  this  rugged  coast ;  and  following  the  course  of  years, 
we  meet  with  generation  after  generation,  who  endured  great  and 
manifold  fluctuations  of  fortune,  as  they  successively  labored  to  im- 
prove and  enlarge  their  inheritance  into  those  ample  accommodations 
and  facilities  for  future  progress  which  we  now  enjoy. 

The  work  is  extended  into  a  larger  volume  than  was  at  first  anti- 
cipated; yet  such  is  the  affluence  of  materials,  that  a  second  of  equal 
size  might  easily  have  been  prepared,  had  the  author  chosen  to  wan- 
der at  large  into  the  paths  of  family  genealogy  and  individual  biogra- 
phy. A  prevalent  object  in  view,  was  to  illustrate  the  gradual  prog- 
ress of  society,  firotn  the  commencement  of  the  township  among  the 
huts  of  the  Indians,  where  the  first  planters  found  shelter,  to  its  pres- 
ent maturity  of  two  centuries.  Many  simple  and  homely  traits,  and 
slight  incidents,  are  therefore  admitted,  which  by  themselves  would 
seem  trivial  and  below  the  digriity  of  history.  "  Posterity,"  said 
John  Quincy  Adams,  "delights  in  details."  This  is  true ;  but  details 
are  great  incumbrances  to  the  easy  flow  of  narrative  writing.  Less 
precision  on  minor  points,  fewer  dates  and  names,  and  greater  license 
of  description  and  imaginative  sketching,  would  have  rendered  the 
work  more  uniform  and  interesting,  yet  it  might  have  diminished  its 
value  for  local  reference. 

In  the  spelling  of  Indian  names  entire  uniformity  has  not  been  pre- 
served. These  names  have  not  yet  been  reduced  to  any  common 
standard,  and  the  variations  are  innumerable.  The  point  most  per- 
plexing to  an  historian  is  the  transmutation  that  gradually  takes 
place  in  the  course  of  a  series  of  records  in  the  same  name,  as  in 
Nayhantick  or  Naihanticut,  now  Niantic,  and  in  Naywayonck,  now 
Noank.  There  appears  to  be  an  absurdity  in  writing  Niantic  and 
Noank,  when  treating  of  the  early  history,  and  a  species  of  affecta- 
tion in  obtruding  the  old  name  against  the  popular  orthography  of  the 
present  day.  In  these  words,  therefore,  and  some  others,  a  common 
uniform  system  of  spelling  has  not  been  preserved. 


CONTENTS. 


Introdacti<m  and  outUne  map  of  the  harbor, 


PAOB. 

18-17 


CHAPTER  L— BEFOBE  THE  SETTLEMENT. 


PeqnotB,  Mohegans  and  Nahantics,  19-21 
Block^ssnnrey  of  tiie  coast,  -  -21-24 
Dutch  map,  1616,       ...  28 

Chart  of  the  coast  by  B.  Williams,  24 
Outline  map  of  the  coast,  -  -  26 
Eng^h  settlements  on  the  Connecticut,  26 
Winthrop*s  contract  fbr  Kahantick,  27 
Stone  and  Norton,  killed  by  Pequots,  28 
Oldham,  killed  at  Block  Island,  -  29 
£ndicot*s  expedition,         -       -       -    29 


Rayage  of  Block  Island,         -       -  80 

Visit  to  Pequot  Harbor,     -  .     -       -  80 

Skirmish  on  the  Groton  side,          -  82 

Skirmish  on  the  New  London  side,    -  88 
Why  Uncas  joined  the  English,        84, 85 

Mason's  expedition,  -       -       -       -  86 

His  march  to  Pequot  Harbor,         -  86 

Stoughton*s  encampment,         -       -  86 

Prisoners  oftheOwPs  Nest,  -       .  87 

End  of  the  Pequot  War,    ...  88 


CHAPTER  n.— FOUNDATION  OF  THE  TOWN. 


Winthioj)  family  sketch,        .       .  89 

Grant  of  Fisher'^s  Island,    ...  40 

First  erant  at  Pequot,     -       -       -  41 

Stougnton's  recommendation.    -       -  42 

Peters,  the  coa^'utor  of  Wintnrop,  48 

Proofe  of  a  beginning  in  1646,    -       -  44 

First  European  female  at  N.  Lcmdon,  44 


Natalday  of  New  London,        -  -  44 

Commission  of  Winthrop  and  Peters,  46 

Contest  for  the  jurisdiction,       -  -  46 

Winthrop  brings  his  family,  -  -  47 

Bride  Brook  marriage,       -       -  48, 49 

Indian  name  of  Bride  Brook,  -  49 

Outline  map  of  the  yicinity,      -  -  49 


CHAPTER  m.— INDDIN  NEIGHBORS. 


Gochiknak,  .....  61 
Uncas  arrogant  and  surly,  -  -  61,  62 
The  Nameaugs  timid  and  friendly,  -  62 
Indian  hunt,  .....  62 
Uncas  fayored  by  the  commissioners,    63 


Winthrop  fayors  the  Nameaugs,  -  68 
Waweeouaw  the  most  troublesome  Ind.,  68 
Foxen  tne  wisest  Indian,  -  -  64 
Counselof  the  elder  Winthrop,  -  -  64 
Horror  of  the  Pequot  name,   -       -       66 


CHAPTER  IV.— EARLIEST  TOWN  ACTS. 


Town  oflfcers,    ....  -    66 

By4awsofNameaug,    -       -  67,68 

Aiewife  Brook,  Foxen's  Hill,  -       67 

Poquanuck,  Quittapeag,    -       -  -    68 

Nameang  called  Pequot,        -  -       68 

First  thirty-six  grantees,  -       -  69,  60 

liamacook.  Upper  and  Lower,  -       60 

Land  diyision  east  of  tiie  riyer,  -  -    61 

General  sketch  of  the  town  plot,  -       62 

Court  orders  respecting  Pequot,  -    68 


Name  "  Fair  Harbor"  proposed,     -  64 

Bounds  of  the  town  enlarged,    -       -  64 

Soldier  grant,          ....  66 

Deed orUncas  to  Brewster,       -       -  66 

The  town  mill,       ....  66 
Grantees  of  1650  and  1661,       -       67, 68 

Arriyal  of  the  minister,          -       -  09 

Grantees  from  Cape  Ann,         -       -  70 

New.  or  Cape  Ann  Street  opened,  71 

Earliest  buths, 72 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V^GBANTEES  AND  TOWN  AFFAIRS. 


PreservmtionofrecordS|         -  -       78 

Moderator's  minutes,         -       -  -    74 

At  work  on  the  mill  dam,      -  -       74 

Green  Harbor.    Robin  Hood's  Bay,  -    76 

Ballot  for  Deputies,        -       -  -       76 

The  name  **  lAmdon''*  proposed,  -    76 

Various  grantees,       -       -       -  76-78 

Grant  of  the  present  Parade,  -       77 

Mason's  grant  at  Mystic,    -       .  .    78 

Chesebrough  vertut  Leighton^  -       78 

Chippachane.    Pequot-sepos,    -  -    78 

Indians  of  J^wavonk,    -       -  -       79 

Autographs  of  Mason  and  Gallop,  -    79 

Preservation  of  trees,     -       -  -       79 


Grant  of  the  Mystic  Islands.      -       -  80 

Division  of  the  Neck.    Uhuhioh,    -  81 

Cowkeeper's  ajnreement.    -       -       -  82 

Salt-marsh.    Wears.    Quagani^xet,  82 

Earliest  deaths,          ....  82 

The  blacksmith.    The  lieutenant,  88 

Measures  of  defense  against  Indians,  84 
Grantees.    Harris  legend.     -       -   85, 86 

Bream  Cove.    Lake^  Lake,      -       -  87 

Innkeepers.    Ferry  lease,       -       -  89 

Winthrop's  removal  to  Hartford,       -  90 

His  homestead  and  mill,         -       -  91 

Duties  of  the  townsmen,  (selectmen,)  92 

Additional  residents  to  1660,  -       -  98 


CHAPTER  VI.— FARM  GRANTS. 


Winthrop's  Ferry  farm,  -  -  94 
Nahantick  and  Neck  srants,  -  -  95 
Poquioffh.  Bruen's  Neck.  Fog  Plain,  95 
Cohanzie.  The  Mountain,  -  -  95 
Farms  on  the  river,  (west  side,)  -  95, 96 
Poquanuck,  and  Mvstic  Fort  Hill,  -  96 
Groton  Bonk,  and  Pocketannuck,  -  97 
Mashantuoket  Lantern  HiU,  -  -  97 
Grants  at  Mystic,  ....  98 
Wampassok.  Mistux^t  Quonaduck,  99 
Beginnings  at  Pawkatuck,  .  .  99 
Chesebrough  at  Wickutequock,      99, 100 


Stanton  on  the  Pawkatuck,  -  -  101 
Minor's  grant  at  Tagwourcke,  -  -  102 
Grant  to  Gov.  Haynes,  -       -      102 

Sold  to  Walter  Pahner,  -  -  -  102 
Controversv  for  the  jurisdiction,  -  108 
Pawkatuck  assiened  to  Mass.,  -  -  104 
Made  a  town  and  named  Southerton,  104 
The  decision  reviewed  and  confirmed,  105,6 
Annulled  by  the  charter  of  Chas.  II.,  106 
Southerton  named  "  Mistick,"  -  106 
"  Mistick"  named  Stonington,  -  -  106 
Border  difficulties,  .       .       -      107 


CHAPTER  Vn.— ECCLESIASTICAL  AFFAIRS. 


The  Bam  meeting-house,  ...  108 
First  regular  moving-house,  -      109 

The  Sabbath  drum  and  drummer,  109, 110 
The  cupola  a  watch-tower,  -  -  110 
Ancient  burial-eround.  -  -  -  111 
Early  notices  or  Mr.  Blinman,       111,  112 


Who  composed  the  Welsh  party,  -  118 
Of  what  class  were  the  pilgrims,  -  118 
Mr.  Blinman  at  Green  Harbor.  -  -  118 
At  Gloucester.  At  New  London,  114, 115 
His  departure  and  autograph.  -  -  116 
At  Newfoundhmd  and  Bristol,       116, 117 


CHAPTER  Vra.— LOCAL  NAMES. 


Derivation  of  Nameaug&  Tawaw-wog,118 
Sanction  of  the  name  "  New  London,"  119 
What  was  the  Indian  name  of  the 

Thames?         -       -       -       -  119 


Mashantuck  suggested,  -       -      120 

Original  local  names,         ...  121 
List  of  Indian  names,      -       -       122-126 


CHAPTER  IX.-INDIAN  NEIGHBORS. 


Committee  to  conciliate  Uncas, 
Narragansetts  overrun  Mohegan,   -      127 
Uncas  besieged  and  relieved,     -       -  127 
Invaded  by  rocomticlcs  and  Narragan- 
setts,         127 

Brewster's  complaints,  -       -       -      128 


126  )  Uncas  and  Foxen,  wanderers,  -  -  128 
Appointment  of  a  Poquot  missionary,  128 
Youths  educated  for  Indian  teachers,  129 
The  two  Pequot  bands,  -  -  -  129 
\^Tiere  settled, 180 


CHAPTER  X.— TOWN  AFFAIRS  TO  1670. 


Contract  with  a  new  minister,  -  -  181 
Parentage  of  Mr.  Bulkley,  -  -  182 
Moderator's  minutes,  ...  182,  188 


Fort  HiU.  Sandy  Point.  The  Spring,  188 
Tongue's  rocks,  and  the  Bank,  -  184 
The  Dook  oflaws.    Town  grievance,   125 


CONTEPf  T8. 


Vll 


AUosion  to  wfaAUnff,  -  -  -  -  186 
**  Nahantick  way-side,"  namedJordao,186 
Various  minutes.  Pawcatuck  rates,  186, 7 
Guns  finom  Saybrook,  -  -  -  187 
Mr.  Biilkley*s  ministry  terminates,  -  137 
Applications  for  a  minister,  -  -  188 
Mr.  Bradstreet  engaged,    -  -  189 


Parsonage  built,     -       -       -  -     140 

Autographs  of  town-clerks,       -  -141 

Scrivener  or  attorney.    JaU,  -  -      141 

Wolves.    Highways  laid  out,    -  142,148 

Mr.  Bradstreet's  ordination,    -  -      148 
Members  of  his  church,      ...  144 

New  inhabitants  to  1670,        -  144-146 


CHAPTER  XL— DIGRESSIONS. 


Court  on  bankruptcy,  -  -  -  147 
Afl&drs  of  Addis  and  Kevell,  -  147, 148 
Mr.  Tinker's  popularity,  -  -  -  149 
The  constable's  ptrotest,  -       -      149 

Tlunnson's  deposition  and  autograph,  160 
lieutenant  Sxnith  absconds,  -       -      151 


Rate  lists  and  assessments,  -  161, 168 
Deceased  and  non-resident  proprietors,  152 
Richard  Lord's  decease  ana  epitaph,  152, 8 
Removals  before  1670,  -  -  -  164 
Doubts  respecting  Mr.  Lake,  -  -  164 
Biography  of  those  who  removed,    166-60 


CHAPTER  Xn.— BOUNDARIES. 


Committees  and  reports  on  bounds,  161, 2 
Claim  of  Uncas  disputed,  -  -  -  168 
WinUirop's  letter  to  James  Rogers,  164 
Treaty  made  and  Uncas  paid,  166 

Contest  with  Lyme,  -  -  165-168 
Mowing  skirmish  at  Black  Point.  -  168 
Winthrop's  testimony  at  the  trial,  169 
Indians  of  Black  Pomt,      -       -       -  170 


The  Hammonassets,  and  the  giant,       170 

The  soldier  mnt.    Obed  land,  171 

A  glance  at  Lyme,     -       -       -  -  172 

Tomb  of  Lady  Fenwick,       -  178, 174 

Lyme  organized  into  a  town,     -  -  175 

Fwrst  setuers  of  Lyme,   -  176,176 

Black  Hall.    Mesopotamia,       -  176, 177 

Meeting-house  arbitratiou,      -  -      177 


CHAPTER  XIIL— TOWN  OFFICERS  TO  1690. 


Characteristics  of  the  inhabitants. 
Original  plan  of  the  town, 
Brc^in|;  out  of  Philip's  War, 
Wait  Winthrop's  expedition. 
Six  houses  fortified,       ... 
Migor  Treat's  expedition,  - 
Swamp  fight,  .... 

Indian  auxiliaries,  .... 
Wounded  men  broueht  to  N.  LondoUv 
Throe  expeditions  of  M^'or  Talcott,  185, 6 
The  ten  border  raids,  ...  187 
Men  killed  in  Connecticut,         -       -  188 


179 
180 
181 
182 
183 
184 
184 
184 
186 


Death  of  Winthrop,  the  founder,  -  188 
His  family  and  estate,  ...  189 
Second  roceting-house  built,  190-192 

What  became  of  the  old  one,  -  -  192 
Illness  and  death  of  Mr.  Bradstreet,  198 
His  church  record,  -        -      194 

Ministrv  of  Mr.  Oakes  and  Mr.  Bomet,  196 
Mr.  Saftonstall  ordained,  -  -  -  197 
"  A  large  brass  bell"  procured,  -  197 

Saltonstall  Sunday  procession,  -  198 
Epidemic  fever  and  its  victims,  -  198 
Meeting-house  burnt  and  another  buUt,200 


CHAPTER  XIV.—THE  ROGERENES. 


James  Rogers  and  his  family,  201,  202 
Founder  of  the  Rogerene  sect,  -  -  203 
First  Sabbatarians  of  New  London,  208 
Baptism  in  Winthrop's  Cove,  -  -  204 
Rogerene  principles,  -  -  204, 205 
Penalties  of  the  law,  -  -  -  206,206 
Willof  James  Rogers,  -  -  -  207 
Elizabeth  Rogers  divorced  from  John,  208 
Her  subsequent  marriages,  -  -  208, 9 
Peter  Pratt's  book  against  Rogers,  209 
Rejoinder  of  John  Ro^rs,  Jr.,  -  -  210 
Persecution  on  both  sides,     -       210,  211 


The  periwig  contribution, 
The  prison  proclamation. 


-  211 
-      212 

Mittimus  against  Ro^ra,  ...  212 
Long  imprisonment  m  Hartford,  -  218 
Suit  of  Mr.  Saltonstall  against  Rogers,  218 
Apology  for  both  sides,  -  -  214,  215 
Self-perfonned  marriage  rite,  -  -  216 
Voluntary  separation  of  the  parties,  217 
Warrant  agamst  Rosers  as  insane,  218 
He  escapes  to  New  York,  -  -  -  219 
His  last  outbreak,  ....  219 
His  death,  burial  and  writings,      220,  221 


CHAPTER  XV.— THE  LIVEEN  LEGACY. 


History  of  John  Liveen,     - 
His  will  and  executors,  - 


-  222 1  Mrs.  Liveen's  death  and  wHl,     -       .  224 
-     228 1  The  Hallams  contest  the  first  will,       224 


VUl 


CONTENTS. 


Its  yalidibr  establUhed  by  the  oourte,  225  I  Appeal  of  M%jor  Pahnes,  -  217,  220 
Appeal  of  the  Hallams  to  Englaiid,  226  Sketch  of  the  liveen  legnioy,  -  -228 
The  will  smtained,    -       -       -       -  226  I 


CHAPTEB  XVL— EABLY  COMMEBCE. 


Petitioii  of  the  colony  that  New  Lon- 
don might  be  made  a  free  port,  229 
Duties  imposed  on  lic^uors.  -  -  280 
Furst  vessels  and  their  builders,  -  281 
Coasters  and  skippers,  -  -  281,  282 
Protests  of  Mr.  Loveland,  -  -  288 
Trade  with  Newfoundland,  -  -  284 
Trade  with  Barbadoes,  -  -  -  284 
Vessels,  builders,  owners  and  masters, 

286-288 


Ck)it*s  buikUng  yard,  -       -       -  288 

Newspaper  notices,  ...  289 
English  officers  of  the  customs,  -  289 

Marine  list  in  1711,  -  -  -  240 
Commercial  memoranda,  -  -  240, 241 
Jeffirey*s  large  ships,  ...  242 
The  society  of  trade  and  commerce,  248 
Dissolution  of  the  society,  -  -  244 
Marine  items  and  fleet  of  1749,      244,  246 


CHAPTEB  XVn.— COUBT  BECOBDS. 


General  remarks^  ...  246,  247 
Cases  before  the  justices*  court,  -  248 
Cases  before  the  assistants*  court,  -  248 
Capt.  Denison's  difliculties,    -       -     248 


County  court    Its  officers,       -  -  249 

Cases  before  the  county  court,  260,  268 

Prerogative  or  probate  court,     -  .  268 

Courts  for  trial  of  horse-coursers,  264-66 


CHAPTEB  XVra—EVENTS  TO  1700. 


Winthrop*s  ^sampaign  in  New  York,  266 
Capt.  Livingstones  exile  and  marria^,  267 
Petition  to  the  mother  country  for  aid 

in  fortifying  New  London,  267 

Fort  built  on  the  Parade,  -  -  268 
Guns  brought  from  Saybrook,  -       -  268 


The  Province  galley,  -  -  -  268 
Act  of  addition  to  the  town,  |-  -  269 
The  patent  and  patentees,  -  '  269, 262 
The  town  commons,  -  -  -  -  268 
Bank  lots  sold  and  courthouse  built,  268 
New  inhabitants  to  1700,   -       -    264-266 


CHAPTEB  XLX.— OBITUABIES. 


Customs  at  Amends,  -  -  267 

Tools  and  furniture,  -       -      268 

Ancient  men  living  in  1700,       -  268 


Catalogue  of  the  dead,    -       -       268-874 
See  Index  of  Names  at  the  close  of  tiie 
volume.* 


CHAPTEB  XX.— EVENTS  TO  1760. 


Post-offices  and  postage  in  1710,  -  876 
Scraps  from  the  Boston  News  Letter,  876 
Death  of  Gov.  Fitz-John  Winthrop,  876 
Mr.  Saltonstall  chosen  governor,  876 

Summary  of  his  character  and  ministry,  876 
Mr.  Adams  ordained  his  successor,  879 
Seating  the  people.  Pew  rivohy.  879 
Briefs  and  contnbutions,        -  880 

List  and  census  for  1708  and  1709,  880 
Incidents  ofthe  French  War,  -  881 
Superior  court  first  held  hi  N.  London,  882 
Death  of  Gov.  SaltonstalL     -       -       882 


His  family. 884 

Strife  wftn  Norwich  respecting  the 

courts,       -----    884 
Memorial  to  the  governor  on  fortifica- 
tion,   886 

Appeal  to  the  king  threatened,  -  887 
War  with  France  and  Spain,  -  887,  888 
Second  memorial  rejected,  -  -  889 
Petition  to  the  king  drafted,  -  -  890 
Expedition  against  Louisburg,  -  891, 92 
GUmpse  of  D^Anville's  fleet,    -       -    898 


♦The  ancient  apple-tree  which  is  depicted  in  this  chapter,  (p.  284,)  supposed  to 
have  been  nearly  coeval  with  the  town,  and  to  have  borne  fruit  for  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  was  blown  down  in  a  high  wind  Sept  11th,  1862,  shortly  after  the  page  on 
which  itappears  was  printed,  and  while  the  latter  part  of  the  work  was  yet  in  the 
press. 


C0NTBNT8. 

CHAPTEB  XXL— MISCELLANEOUS  TOPICS. 


IX 


ChilAren^s  manners, .    •>       -       -  t96 ! 

Bartlet*t  legacy  to  the  town  sehoo],  M6 

Qnmmar-echool  established,        •>  907 , 

First  tchool-hoose,  ...  898  ' 

A  free  school  among  the  farmers,  899 

Grammar-school  in  the  North  Paridi,  400 

Bope  ferry  established.    ...  402 

Accoont  of  the  Ferry  uurm,  -  402 

Winthrop's  mill,       .       .       .       .  408 


Jordan  null.  Other  mills,  -  408,404 
Wolves  continue  troublesome,  -    404 

The  great  snow  and  snow  sermon,  406 
The  movhig  rock  at  Jordan  Cove,  -  406 
Various  amusements,  -  -  406-409 
Memoranda,  ....       409 

Fb*st  execution,  ....  410 
Seyere  season  of  1740-41,  -  -  411 
Death  of  Winthrop  in  England,      412,  418 


CHAPTER  XXn.— GROTON. 


Qrotoo  ineorporated,  ...  414 
Account  of  Sir  John  Davie,  -  -  415 
Packer's  visit  to  Creedy,      -       -       417 


Autograph  of  Davie,  -  -  -  417 
Mhiisters  of  Groton,  -  -  418,421 
Baptist  church  of  Groton,        -     422, 428 


CHAPTER  XXin.--THE  NORTH  PABISH. 


First  white  settler  hi  Mohegan,  -       425 

Death  of  Uncas  and  Owaneco,  -    426 

Meanhig  of  their  names,        -  426,  427 

Early  grantees  of  Indian  lands,  427,  428 

Great  purchase  at  Mohegan,  -       428 

Deed  of  feofltaient,  -       -       -  -    428 


Cesar^s  deed  to  New  London,  -  480 
Protest  of  Gov.  Saltonstall,  '-  -  480 
Committee  to  settle  the  North  Parish,  481 
MmistryofMr.  Hillhouse,  -  -  482 
Ordination  of  Jewett,  -  -  -  485 
Deacons  of  the  church,    -       -       -    485 


CHAPTEB  XXIV.— BAPTIST  CHUBCH. 


First  regular  Baptists,  -       -       -       486 
Church  built  at  Fort  Hill,  on  the  Neck, 
by  Furst  and  Seventh  Day  Baptisto 

united. 486 

Ministry  of  Elder  Gorton,        -       -    487 


The  Bowe  legacy,,        .       .       .  4«7 

Gorton  driven  from  the  nnlpit,         -  488 

Dissolution  of  the  chnrcn.    -       -  488 

Baptist  church  organized  in  Lyme,  489 


CHAPTEB  XXV.— EPISCOPAL  CHUBCH. 


Formation  of  an  Episcopal  society,  440 
Subscribers  to  build  a  church,  -  440 
Church  erected  on  the  Parade,  -  441 
Anecdote  concerning  the  steeple,  442 
Seabury  family,  ....  448 
Mbnstry  of  Mr.  Seabury  m  N.  London,  448 


Glebe  house  built,         ...  445 

Mmistry  of  Mr.  GravM.    -       -       -  445 

Difficulty  durinff  the  Revolution,  446 

Compelled  to  reunquish  the  pulpit,  446 

Bedres  to  New  York.    His  death,  447 

Church  destroyed  in  1781,       -       -  481 


CHAPTEB  XXVL— THE  GBEAT  AWAKENING. 


Preaching  of  Mr.  Tennent,   - 
Of  Mr.  Parsons  and  Mr.  Davenport, 
Council  at  KiUingworth, 
Brainerd*8  letter  to  Dr.  Belhuny,     - 
Members  withdraw  firom  the  church, 
The  Shepherd's  Tent  society  formed. 


449  Davenport's  last  visit,  -       -       -       454 

450  Burning  of  the  books  and  j^urments,  455 
450  Trial  of  those  concerned  in  it,  -  456 
462  Accounts  of  it  by  Trumbull  and  Peters,  458 
452  Whitefield's  visits  to  New  London,  459, 460 
458 1  Notice  of  Bev.  Jonathan  Barber,    -       461 


CHAPTEB  XXVn.— EVENTS  TO  1774. 


New  Sivle,  ....       462 

,  A  Spanish  vessel  arrives  in  distress,  462 
The  cargo  landed  and  partly  stolen,  468,  4 
Conclave  in  Cedar  Swamp,  -       465 

Escape  of  the  culprits,     -       >       -    466 
Coni^usion  of  the  affair,       -        467,468 


Execution  of  Sarah  Bramble,  -       468 

Visit  of  Col.  Washington.         -  -    469 

Arrival  of  French  neutrals,  -       470 

News  paragraphs,         -       -  470,  471 

First  newspaper  established,  -       472 

Public  events,          -       -       -  -    478 


0ONTBNT8. 


Lotteries.    Lid^t-hoose,       •       -  474 

Almft-honse.    Ferry  wharf.   Bridge,  476 

Five  engine.   Bunneae  sketch,  476 

s  Shipping  and  castom-hoose,    •        -  477 

Second  newspaper  coouneDoed,    -  478 


Anecdotesof  the  Cygnet,        -  -    479 

Edict  against  barberry  bushes,  -       480 

Celebration  of  the  5th  of  Nor.,  481, 8 

Effecto  of  the  Stanq>  Act,         -  482,  8  . 

Sketch  of  the  trade  of  the  port,  488-86 


CHAPTEB  XXVffl.— ECCLESIASTICAL  AFFAIBS. 


Ministry  of  Bev.  Mr.  Adams.  -  486,7 
Meeting-house  struck  by  lightning,  487 
Mmistiy  of  Rev.  Mather  Byles,  -  489 
Outbreak  of  the  Bogerenes,  -       490-494 


Tarring  and  feathering,  .  -  -  494 
Mr.  Byles  relinquishes  his  office,  496-98 
Settlement  of  Mr.  Woodbridge,  -  498 
His  ministry  and  death,         -        499, 600 


CHAPTEB  XXIX.— BEVOLUTIONABY  TOPICS. 


Townships  in  1774,  -  -  -  601 
Various  committees  and  delegations,  602, 3 
Becords  removed,  -  _  -  503 
Vote  on  the  confederation,  -  -  604 
Early  advocates  of  freedom,         -    606,6 


What  was  done  in  respect  to  tea,  -  607 
Shaw's  purchases  of  powder,  -  608 
Expedition  of  Commodore  Hopkins,  609, 10 
English  collectors,  -  -  -  611 
The  Shaw  family,    -       -       -       -    612 


CHAPTEB  XXX.— MiLlTABY  AFFAIBS. 


Details  of  militia,    ...  618,14 

Companies  at  Bunker  Hill,   -  -       614 

Kathau  Hale  at  New  London,  -    615 

Attack  on  Stomngton,           -  -        616 

First  alarm  at  New  London,     -  -    517 

Beports  on  fortilicatioii,        -  617-519 

BuUdmg  Fort  Trumbull,          -  620,  521 


The  garrison,    Militia  in  service,  -    621 

Marauders.    Long  Island  traders,  622, 28 

A  year  of  alarms,         -       -  628-626 

Army  details,           -       -       -  -    526 
Exchanges  of  prisoners,        -        -  627, 28 

Further  alarm  and  distress,  629-681 

Various  worthy  soldiers  named,  581-84 


Privateering, 
State  armed  vessels. 
Continental  vessels, 
French  ships  in  port, 


CHAPTEB  XXXI.— NAVAL  AFFAIBS. 

685-542  ;  Severe  winter  of  1779-80,      -        -       648 
688    Account  of  the  ship  Putnam,    -  643 

689,  40 .  Combat  between  the  Trumbull  and 
542,  Watt, 648 


CHAPTEB  XXXn.— ABNOLD'S  INVASION. 


British  expedition  against  the  town,  545 
Debarkation  of  the  troops,  -  -  646 
Flight  of  the  uihabitants,  -        -    547 

March  of  the  troops  over  Town  HUl,  549 
Fort  Trumbull  evacuated,  -  -  549 
March  of  Upham's  division,  -  -  561 
Destruction  of  the  town  and  incidents 

connected  with  it,  -         552-557 

Landing  on  the  Groton  side,  -  667 
Storming  of  the  fort  and  massacre  of 

the  garrison,  -       -         667-664 


Incident  of  the  wagon,      -        -  -    665 

Burning  of  Groton  village,    -  -        666 

Train  laid  to  blow  up  the  fort.  -    666 
Fire  extinguished  by  M^jor  Peters,      666 

Loss  on  both  sides,    -        -        -  667,  570 

Compensation  by  fire  lands,  -       570 

What  records  w'cre  burnt,       -  -    571 

Anniversary  celebrations,     -  -       571 

Groton  monument,           -       -  -    572 


CHAPTEB  XXXin.-EVENTS  TO  1800. 


Morals  and  manners,  -  -  -  673 
Various  seamen  commemorated,  674,  75 
The  plank  vessel  bnilt,  -  -  676 
Execution  of  Hannah  Okkuish,  -  676 
Death  of  Capt.  John  Chapman,  -  677 
Custom-house  officers,     -       -       -    577 


Allen's  marine  list,       -       -       -       573 
French  emigrants,    -        -        -        -    679 
Loss  of  seamen  in  the  West  India  ser- 
vice, -       -       -       .       581^  2 
Account  of  the  yellow  fever,  583-86 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  XXXIV.— CHURCHES. 


Transieiit  ministorBf     -       -       -  686 
Death  by  lightning,          -       -       -    587 

Con^gational  church  of  1786.    -  588 

Mimstiy  of  Rey.  Henrv  Channfng,  589 

Settlement  of  Rev.  Abel  McEwen,  590 

The  Gnnite  chnrch  built,    -       -  591 

Second  Cong.  Church  established,  691 

Church  of  &  James  re-erected,  592 


Bishop  Seabnry's  ministry. 
His  successors,         -       -       - 
The  Gothic  church  built. 
History  of  the  Methodist  society, 
History  of  the  Baptist  churches, 
Uniyersalist  church, 
Roman  Catholics,  -       -       . 

Epitaph  on  Bishop  Seabnry,    - 


XI 


594 
694 
695 
699 
599 
600 
600 


CHAPTER  XXXV.— THE  ANCIENT  TOWN  REVIEWED. 


(Proton  churches,  ...  601, 2 
Grotoo  village,  -  -  -  -  602 
Sketch  of  Ledyard,  -       -       -    608 

Present  condition  of  the  Pequots,  604 
Montville  organixed,  ...  605 
Its  ecclesiasQcal  histonr,  -  606-609 
Meetizig^ioose  struck  by  Hg^tning,  606 
Establishment  of  yarioos  churches,  607,8 


Waterford  hicoiporated,  -  -  609 
Niantic  Bay  and  River,  -  -  -  610 
Ancient  Bi^tist  church,  -  -  611 
Elder  Darrow^s  ministry,  -  -  612 
Other  Baptist  churches,  -  618, 14 
Sketch  of  East  Lyme.  -  -  614,15 
The  old  Synagogue,  tne  stone  church,  616 
Black  Point  and  Niantic  Indians,         617 


CHAPTER  XXXVL— EVENTS  TO  1815. 


Ctty  of  New  London  incorporated,  619 
Succession  of  mayors,  -       -       620 

The  town  grammar«choQl,  -  -  621 
The  Union  school,  ...  622 
Female  academies,  ....  628 
The  Buikley  bequest,  .       -       -       628 

The  fort  land, 624 

The  second  burial  ground,  -  -  625 
Almshouse  bnih,  -  -  -  -626 
General  survey  of  streets,    -        626-629 


Execution  of  Pequot  Harry,         -  629 

Second  war  with  Great  Britahi,      -  680 
Decatur's  squadron  chased  into  the 

port,  -       -       -       -       .  681 

Blockade  by  the  British  fleet,      -  681 

The  torpedo  attempt,       ...  68S 

Gen.  Burbeck  takes  oominand,    -  688 

The  bbte  light  excitement,       -       -  685 

Trips  (^  the  Juno,         ...  686 

Peace  and  festivity,         .       -       -  687 


CHAPTER  XXXVn.— WHALING. 


Tfret  whaling  edict  m  Connecticut,  688 

"•■■■^Progress  of  American  whaling,        -  689 

Its  commencement  at  Sagfaarbor,  640 
^— .^Che  businoM  commenced  at  N.  Loodon,  640 

And  pursued  from  1805  to  1808,       -  641 

Z"  Revival  in  1819,    -        -       -       -  641 

The  earliest  whale  ships  employed,  642 


Successftil  voyages  and  noted  cap- 
tains, -       -       -       -       648,4 
Statistics  of  the  whaling  business,        645 
And  of  the  California  trade,  -       646 
Whaling  merchants  in  1852,  and  num- 
ber of  ships  owned  by  each  film,  647 


CHAPTER  XXXVIH.— SUMMARY  TO  1852. 


Collectors  of  the  port  from  1789, 
^*^^<3ommercial  memoranda,  -    649,  650 

U^t-honses  of  New  London  district,  650 
Dangers  on  the  coast,  ...  651 
Fort  Trumbull,        -       -       -       .662 

'First  steam  navigation.         -       -       662 

Voyage  of  the  steam-snip  Savannah ; 
its  captain  and  sailing  master 
from  New  London,         -       -       658 
Newspapers  published  in  1852, 


Review  of  newspaper  history,   -    655-658 


648  I  Fire  companies,  turnpike  companies,   658 

'""    Ferry  to  Groton,  -       -       -       669 

Severe  winters  and  width  4>f  the  river. 

Funeral  of  the  Walton  fiMuihr,      -       661 

Interment  of  the  remains  of  commodore 

G.  W.  Rodgers,  .       .       -    661 

Banks  and  other  incorporations,  662^  68 
Railroads.  Cedar  Grove  Cemetery,  664 
Population  at  different  periods,  -  666,  6 
Various  catalogues,       -  667-672 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  LONDON, 


INTRODUCTION. 

In  the  eastern  part  of  Connecticut  is  a  river,  named  in  honor  of 
the  Thames  of  England,  which,  about  two  miles  from  its  mouth, 
forms  the  harbor  of  New  London. 

"  Here  fond  remembrance  stampt  her  much  loved  names ; 
Here  boasts  the  soil  its  London  and  its  Thames,"' 

The  mouth  of  the  river  lies  directly  open  to  Long  Island  Sound.  It 
has  no  intricate  channel,  no  extensive  shoals  or  chains  of  islands,  to 
obstruct  the  passage,  but  presents  to  view  a  ^edr,  open  port,  inviting 
every  passing  sail,  by  the  facUi^  of  entrance  and  security  of  anchor- 
age, to  drop  in  and  enjoy  her  luxKimmodations.  The  harbor  is  a 
deep,  spacious  and  convenient  basin ;  abounding  in  choice  fish,  and 
its  margin  furnished  with  sandy  beaches,  finely  situated  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  sea  air  and  sea  bathing. 

In  the  lowest  spring  tides  the  harbor  has  twenty-five  feet  of  water, 
and  this  depth  extends  several  miles  above  New  London.  Ships  of 
the  line  may  therefore  enter  at  all  times  of  the  tide  and  ascend  as  far 
as  Grale-town,  seven  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river.  To  this 
place  there  b  usually  in  the  channel  a  depth  of  twenty-seven  feet,  and 
vessels  drawing  eight  feet  of  water  find  no  difiiculty  in  reaching  Nor- 
wich, twelve  miles  from  the  mouth. 

New  London  harbor  is  the  key  of  Long  Island  Sound  and  the 
only  naval  station  of  importance  between  Newport  and  New  York. 
In  its  capacious  bosom  a  large  fieet  may  find  anchorage  and  ride  out 
a  tempest ;  nor  is  there  any  port  on  tlie  coast  more  advantageously 
dtnaied  for  the  reception  of  a  squadron  pursued  by  an  overmastering 

1  Philip  Freucan. 


14  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

enemy.  This  was  proved  in  the  last  war  with  Great  Britain,  when 
the  United  States,  Macedonian  and  Hornet,  closely  pursued  hj  a 
superior  British  force,  put  into  the  harbor  and  found  a  secure  shelter. 
C!ommodore  John  Rodgers,  who  wintered  here  with  his  squadron  in 
1811,  said  it  was  the  best  ship  harbor  he  had  ever  visited,  except 
one :  the  exception  was  understood  to  be  in  Europe. 

It  is  seldom  closed  by  ice ;  remaining  open  through  the  whole  win- 
ter, except  in  seasons  of  intense  frost,  which  occur  at  intervals,  some- 
times of  many  years.  Nor  is  it  ever  troubled  with  floating  ice,  for 
that  which  is  made  within  the  harbor  or  comes  down  the  stream, 
owing  to  the  course  of  currents  off  the  mouth  of  the  river,  drifts 
directly  out  to  sea. 

The  township  of  New  London  originally  extended  on  the  Sound 
from  Pawkatuck  River  to  Bride  Brook,  in  Lyme,  and  on  the  north  to 
the  present  bounds  of  Bozrah,  Norwich  and  Preston.  Within  these 
limits  there  are  now,  east  of  the  river  Thames,  Groton,  Ledyard  and 
Stonington,  and  west  of  the  river,  New  London,  Montville,  Waterford 
and  East  Lyme.  At  the  present  day,  in  superficial  extent,  it  is  the 
smallest  town  in  the  state — less  than  four  miles  in  length  and  only 
three-fourths  of  a  mile  in  width.  The  city  boundaries  coincide' with 
those  of  the  town.  The  compact  portion  of  the  city  is  built  upon  an 
elevated  semicircle,  projecting  from  the  western  baijik  of  the  river, 
between  two  and  three  miles  from  the  Sound. 

Latitude  of  New  London  light-house,  41®  18'  55". 

Longitude  west  of  Greenwich,  72**  5'  44".» 

The  outward  appearance  of  New  London,  down  to  a  period  consid- 
erably within  the  precincts  of  the  present  century,  was  homely  and 
uninviting.  The  old  town  burnt  by  Arnold,  could  boast  of  very  little 
elegance ;  many  of  the  buildings,  through  long  acquaintance  with 
time,  were  tottering  on  the  verge  of  decay;  and  the  houses  that 
replaced  them,  hastily  built  by  an  impoverished  people,  were  in  gen- 
eral plain,  clumsy  and  of  moderate  dimensions.  Neatness,  elegance 
and  taste  were  limited  to  a  few  conspicuous  exceptions.  Moreover, 
the  town  had  this  disadvantage,  that  in  approaching  it,  either  by  land 
or  water,  its  best  houses  were  not  seen.  It  was  therefore  generally 
regarded  by  travelers  as  a  mean  and  contemptible  place.  Within 
the  period  in  which  steamboats  have  traversed  the  Sound,  a  passen- 
ger, standing  by  the  captain  on  deck,  as  the  boat  came  up  the  harbor, 
exclaimed  with  energy,  ^  If  I  only  had  the  money  T     "What  would 

1  United  States  Coast  Surrey,  1846. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  15 

you  do?"  inquired  the  commander,  "^y  thcU  town  and  bum  lY,"  he 
quickly  replied. 

Since  the  utterance  of  this  dire  threat  great  improvements  have 
been  made.  The  city  now  contains  ten  structures  for  public  worship, 
two  of  them  new  and  elegant  stone  churches,  in  the  Gothic  style  of 
architecture ;  a  custom-house  and  county  prison,  both  of  granite ; 
several  extensive  manufacturing  establishments,  two  of  which  employ 
engines  of  great  power  and  several  hundred  men ;  several  blocks  of 
stately  brick  buildings,  in  one  of  which  is  a  spacious  hall  for  public 
exhibitions  ;  and  many  elegant  private  mansions.  A  railway,  start- 
ing from  the  city  and  running  nearly  seventy  miles  north  to  the  great 
Western  road  of  Massachusetts,  furnishes  an  eligible  route  to  Boston 
and  to  Albany.  A  second  railway,  extending  to  New  Haven  along 
the  margin  of  the  Sound,  completes  the  land  communication  with  New 
York.  And  in  the  forefront  of  the  town,  admirably  situated  for  the  de- 
fense of  the  harbor,  stands  Fort  Trumbull,  a  fine  specimen  of  mural  ar- 
chitecture, complete  in  design  and  finish,  massive,  new,  and  in  perfect 
order. 

Groton  Monument  overlooking  the  harbor  is  another  impressive 
feature  of  the  scene.  Under  its  shadow  lie  the  ruins  of  old  Fort 
Griswold,  from  whose  battlements  a  fine  view  is  obtained  of  the  town 
and  the  river.  From  the  summit  of  the  monument,  the  prospect  to 
the  south,  of  the  Sound,  its  coasts  and  its  islands,  is  absolutely  peer- 
less and  magnificent. 

Here  lie  Connecticut  and  Long  Island,  forever  looking  at  each 
other  firom  their  white  shores,  with  loving  eyes,  linked  as  they  are  by 
the  ties  of  a  common  origin,  congenial  character  and  similar  institu- 
tions ;  and  guarding  with  watchful  care  that  inland  sea,  which,  won 
from  the  ocean,  lies  like  a  noble  captive  between  them,  subdued  to 
their  service  and  inclosed  by  their  protecting  arms. 

How  changed  is  this  whole  scene,  landward  and  seaward,  since 
the  period  when  we  may  suppose  the  young,  ambitious  Winthrop, 
with  knapsack  and  musket,  under  the  guidance  of  some  Indian  chief, 
struggled  through  the  wilderness  from  Saybrook,  and  pausing  per- 
chance on  the  summit  of  Town  Hill,  looked  down  upon  the  wild  and 
solitary  landscape!  How  his  heart  would  beat,  could  he  now  stand 
upon  that  spot  in  the  garb  of  mortality,  with  earthly  feelings  still 
yearning  in  his  bosom,  and  survey  the  fair  town  which  he  first  began 
to  hew  out  of  the  wilderness !  The  Sound  which  he  had  navigated 
and  admired ;  the  harbor,  whose  commercial  aptitude  he  must  hav^ 
discovered  at  a  glance ;  the  heights  on  the  other  side  of  the  riTer, 
since  named  from  his  own  birth-place ;  the  Neck,  where  aflerwardy 


16  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

in  the  infancy  of  the  town,  he  bnilt  his  house  of  rough  stone  and 
planted  his  orchard  with  English  trees — all  these  enduring  features 
remain  the  same  as  when  they  first  broke  upon  his  vision.  But 
where  he  then  saw  only  a  confused  mass  of  sterile  rocks  and  stunted 
trees,  or  swamps  and  thickets,  relieved  only  by  a  few  Indian  smokes 
that  rose  from  their  depths,  there  are  now  wharves,  and  spires,  and 
fortresses;  trains  of  cars  gliding  over  iron  tracks  ;  hills  furrowed  with 
the  cemeteries  of  the  dead,  and  streets  crowded  with  the  mansions  of 
the  living. 

How  populous  likewise  have  these  waters  become !  Then,  perhaps 
a  solitary  canoe  appeared  on  the  horizon,  or  was  seen  dimly  gliding 
along  the  weedy  shores.  Now,  an  ever  changeful  scene  is  presented 
to  the  eye.  Barges  and  boats,  whose  oars  drip  liquid  silver ;  the 
light-keeled  smack,  with  its  slant  sheet  bearing  up  before  the  wind ; 
sloops  and  schooners,  which,  though  built  for  use  and  deep  with 
freight,  display  only  ease  and  grace  in  form  and  motion ;  the  stout 
whale-ship,  familiar  with  the  high  latitudes  and  counting  her  voyage 
by  years,  bound  out  or  in,  with  hope  in  the  one  case  and  gladness  in 
the  other,  paramount  upon  her  deck ;  and  lines  of  steamers,  the 
mediums  of  harmonious  intercourse,  making  friends  of  strangers  and 
neighborhood  of  distance,  under  whose  canvas  shades  beauty  reclines 
and  childhood  pursues  its  gambols  with  the  comfort  and  security  of 
land — are  objects  which,  in  the  genial  seasons,  give  a  pleasing  variety 
to  the  surface  of  the  Sound. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 


17 


Groton. 
iJIomiiTt«ni . 
^JPort  Grivwold 


Long.  W.  from  Greenwich,  7%^  fir  4r. 
KEW  JLONDOU  HABBOB. 


2* 


CHAPTER  I. 

Hifltorical  Sketch  of  tbe  Peqaou,  and  of  their  Countrjr,  preTious  to  the  Settle- 
ment of  the  English. 

Whbk  the  English  commenced  their  settlements  upon  Connecticut 
River,  they  found  residing  upon  the  sea-coast,  in  a  south-easterlj 
coarse  from  their  plantations,  a  tribe  of  Indians,  exceedingly  fierce, 
waiiike  and  craftj.  These  were  the  Pequots.  Their  immediate 
territory  extended  from  Connecticut  River  to  Wekapaug  Creek, 
about  four  miles  east  of  the  Pawkatuck,  and  back  into  the  country 
indefinitely,  covering  what  is  now  New  London  county.  On  the 
southern  coast,  bordering  upon  Long  Island  Sound,  they  had  their 
villages  and  fishing  stations.  Far  and  wide  in  the  rear  extended  the 
hunting  fields,  the  deer  tracks,  the  war-paths  of  the  tribe,  and  a 
shadowy  depth  of  swamps  and  thickets,  inhabited  only  by  beasts  of 
prey,  or  perchance  a  few  rebels  and  outcasts,  that  had  escaped  from 
the  tyranny  of  the  sachem  or  from  the  fierce  avenger  of  blood. 

But  the  power  of  the  Pequots  was  felt  beyond  these  bounds. 
Other  tribes  had  been  overrun  by  their  war  parties,  a  tribute  imposed, 
and  a  paramount  dominion  established.  Prince,  in  his  introduction 
to  Mason^s  Pequot  War,  says  that  this  tribe  extended  westward  to 
Connecticut  River,  and  over  it  as  far  as  Branford,  if  not  to  Quinnipi- 
ack  (New  Haven.)  Gookin,  in  his  account  of  the  New  England 
Indians,  states  that  the  sachem  of  the  Pequots  held  dominion  over  a 
part  of  Long  Island ;  over  the  Mohegans,  the  Quinnipiaks ; 

**  Yea,  over  all  the  people  that  dwelt  upon  Connecticut  River,  and  over  some 
of  the  most  southerly  inhabitanu  of  the  Nipmuok  countiy." 

The  central  seat  of  the  tribe  was  between  the  two  rivers  now 
known  as  the  Thames  and  the  Mystic  Their  principal  villages  or 
hamlets  were  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  latter,  and  were  overlooked 
«Dd  guarded  by  two  fortifications — one  near  the  head  of  the  river,  on 


20  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

a  height  still  called  Pequot  Hill ;  and  the  other  on  a  ridge  nearer  the 
Sound,  known  as  Fort  Hill ;  both  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  present 
town  of  Groton.  These  posts  were  fortified  villages,  rather  than  forts  ; 
each  consisting  of  a  cluster  of  cabins,  surrounded  by  a  strong  fence 
built  of  stakes,  logs  and  interwoven  trees. 

On  the  west  bank  of  the  river  now  the  Thames,  were  the  Mohe- 
gans,  with  Uncas  for  their  sachem ;  the  southern  border  of  whose 
territory  was  about  six  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Gov. 
Winthrop  the  elder,  says  that  Uncas  dwelt  "in  the  twist  of  Pequod 
River ;"  meaning  the  bow-like  portion  of  the  river  lying  south  of 
Trading  Cove.'  The  chiefs  of  this  tribe  were  of  the  royal  family  of 
the  Pequots. 

South  of  the  Mohegans,  down  to  the  river's  mouth,  the  natives 
were  called  by  some  early  writers  Mohegans,  and  by  others  Pequots. 
Subsequent  to  the  Pequot  War,  the  remnant  that  was  left  took  the 
name  of  the  place  where  they  dwelt,  and  were  distinguished  as  Nam- 
e-augs.     They  were  undoubtedly  of  the  true  Pequot  race. 

About  the  mouth  of  Pawkatuck  River  and  eastward  of  it,  was  a 
tribe  called  the  Eastern  Nahanticks,  over  whom  the  Pequots  cliumed 
authority,  but  w^ho  were  sometimes  in  alliance  with  the  Narragan- 
setts. 

Around  Nahantick  Bay  (in  Waterford  and  East  Lyme)  were  the 
Western  Nahanticks.^  They  had  a  fort  or  look-out  post  directly  at 
the  head  of  Nahantick  River,  and  another  on  the  summit  ridge  of 
Black  Point,  overlooking  the  Sound.  Their  hunting  lands  and  fish- 
ing grounds  extended  west  to  Connecticut  River. 

These  are  all  the  aborigines  of  New  London  county  of  whom  any 
account  has  been  preserved.  They  all  belonged  to  the  wide-spread 
Delaware  or  Algonquin  race,  and  used  the  same  language,  but  with 
considerable  variety  of  intonation  and  emphasis.  The  fact  is  now 
well  established,  that  the  difference  in  the  aboriginal  dialects  of  New 

1  Winthrop*»  Joumal,  tub  a$m,  1688.  **  Unkns,  qHom  Okoco,  13ig  Monahegan  Sachem 
in  the  twist  of  Pequod  River,  came  to  BoAton  with  87  men."  Olcoco  is  doubtless  a 
misprint  for  Okacc,  one  of  the  names  of  Uncas,  or  rather,  a  slow,  reverential  way  of 
pronouncing  his  name.  Sassacus  was  likewise  pronounced,  at  times,  Sas8ac6-as  and 
Sassa-qud-MS.  Pequot  also  with  the  o  long,  PekO-ot,  Pequ6-odt.  Uukus,  as  in  the 
above  extract  fh)m  Winthrop,  or  Oukos,  as  in  Mason's  account  of  the*  Pequot  War, 
would  be  better  ortliography  for  the  sachem's  name  than  Uncas;  but  where  the  sound 
is  so  nearly  the  same,  it  is  needless  to  alter  the  current  spelling. 

3  Mason  says :  "About  midwny  between  Pequot  Harbor  and  Saybrook,  we  fell  upon 
a  people  called  Kayandcks,  belonging  to  the  Pequods."  Moss.  Hist.  Coll.,  Vol.  18, 
p.  144. 


HISTORY     or     NEW    LONDON.  21 

En^and  was  not  so  great  but  tbat  the  tribes  easily  understood  each 
other.  With  respect  to  the  clans  in  the  vicinity  of  New  London,  no 
material  difference  could  be  discerned  in  their  physical  conformation, 
their  character  or  their  customs.  In  government  they  formed  a  con- 
federacy, and  their  chief  sachem  at  this  period  was  the  powerful 
Sassacus.  Uncas,  the  Mohegan  chief,  was  his  kinsman  by  blood, 
and  probably  also  his  son-in-law ;  for  it  is  said  that  he  had  married, 
about  ten  years  before  the  Pequot  War,  the  daughter  of  Tatobam, 
the  Pequot  sachem :  Tatobam  was  one  of  the  names  of  Sassacus. 

It  is  generally  conceded  by  historians,  that  the  Pequots  were  ori- 
ginally an  inland  tribe,  dwelling  north-east  of  the  Hudson  River,  and 
belonging  to  that  class  of  the  aborigines  termed  Mohickans  or  Mohick- 
anders ;  and  that  they  reached  the  sea-coast  by  successive  stages, 
conquering  or  driving  away  the  older  tribes  that  came  in  their  way. 
It  may  be  that  the  Nahantick^i,  on  the  east  and  west,  were  a  people 
found  upon  the  coast,  subdued  at  first,  and  afterward  intermingled 
with  the  conquerors.  This  would  account  for  their  readiness  to 
throw  off  the  Pequot  yoke  whenever  an  opportunity  offered.  But 
the  Mohegans  do  not  appear  to  have  been  in  any  way  distinguished 
from  the  Pequots,  except  in  name,  and  in  this  respect  they  were  the 
older  people,*  retaining  the  original  name.  The  designation  of  Pe- 
quat$  was  no  older  than  the  father  of  Sassacus,  from  whom  it  was 
derived ;  he  being  called  Wo-pequoit,  or  Wo-pequand,  and  sometimes 
Pekoath.* 

The  coast  of  New  London  county  was  first  explored  by  the  Dutch 
navigators,  beginning  with  Capt.  Adrian  Block  in  1614.  This  com- 
mander, in  a  small  vessel  constructed  upon  the  banks  of  the  Hud- 
son— a  yacht  called  the  Bestlessj^  forty-four  feet  and  a  half  long,  and 
^even  and  a  half  wide — passed  through  Hell-gate  into  the  Sound, 
and  examined  the  coast  as  far  eastward  as  Cape  Cod.  He  appears 
to  have  entered  the  principal  harbors  and  ascended  the  rivers  to  some 
distance.  Montauk  Point  he  called  Fisher's  Hook,  from  the  employ- 
ment of  the  natives,  who  gained  their  chief  subsistence  from  the  sea. 


1  This  agrees  with  the  tradition  of  the  Mohegani.  The  ancient  burial-place  of  the 
■ftchenu  was  in  their  domain,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tantick ;  now  in  Norwich.  The 
■acheiDt*  grares  at  that  place  were  mentk>ned  on  the  first  settlement  of  the  town, 
mmny  years  before  Uncas  was  bnried  there. 

SThe  elder  Winthrop,  in  his  first  notice  of  the  tribe,  in  1684,  calls  them  Peqnims; 
bftt  the  Dutch,  who  risited  them  twenty  years  before,  noticed  them  as  Pequatoos,  and 
in  the  m^  drawn  by  these  first  explorers,  they  are  laid  down  as  Pequats.  Winthrop^s 
Joaraal,  voL  1 ;  New  York  Hist  ColL,  new  series,  voL  1,  p.  SM. 

8  0*CaUagfaan*s  New  Netheriands,  p.  71. 


22 


HISTORY    OP    NBW    LONDON. 


Fisher's  Island  probably  received  its  name  on  the  same  account,  or 
from  its  being  a  good  position  for  fishing,  but  at  a  later  period  than 
Block's  survey.'  To  Block  Island  he  gave  his  own  name,  and  it  is 
accordingly  laid  down  on  the  old  Dutch  maps  as  ^'Adrian's  Eyland" 
and  ^Ad.  Block's  Eyland."  This  enterprising  navigator  so  thorough- 
ly explored  the  beautiful  inland  basin  known  as  Long  Island  Sound, 
laying  open  its  bays,  rivers  and  islands  to  the  view  of  the  Old  World, 
that  we  can  not  but  wish  it  had  obtained,  in  honor  of  him,  the  name 
of  Adrian's  Sea,  We  should  then  have  a  western  Adriatic,  appro- 
priately so  named,  and  not  a  servile  imitation,  as  many  of  our  names 
are,  from  the  geography  of  Europe. 

De  Laet,  an  early  Dutch  geographer,  and  the  first  who  has  de- 
scribed with  any  minuteness  the  coast  of  Connecticut,  compiled  his 
account  from  the  journals  and  charts  of  Adrian  Block.  His  descrip- 
tion of  the  coast  of  New  London  county  is  as  follows  :* 

*•  Within  the  Great  Bay  [Long  Island  Sound]  there  lies  a  crooked  point,  [the 
Latin  edition  says,  **  in  the  shape  of  a  sickle,"]  behind  which  there  is  a  small 
stream  or  inlet,  which  was  called  by  our  people  East  River,  since  it  extends 
toward  the  east." 

No  one  can  doubt  but  that  Watch  Hill  Point  and  Pawkatuck 
River  are  here  indicated :  the  sickle  form  of  the  sandy  cape  and  the 
easterly  course  of  the  river,  identify  them  with  precbion. 

"  There  is  another  small  river  toward  the  west  where  the  coast  bends,  which 
our  countrymen  called  the  river  of  Siccanemos,  after  the  name  of  the  Sagimos 
[Sachem.]  Here  is  a  good  harbor  or  roadstead  behind  a  sand  point  about  half 
a  mile  from  the  western  shore,  in  two  and  a  half  fathoms  water.  The  river 
comes  for  the  most  part  from  the  north-east,  and  is  in  some  places  very  shallow, 
having  but  nine  feet  of  water  at  the  confluence  of  a  small  stream,  and  in  other 
places  only  six  feet.  I'hen  there  are  kills  or  creeks  with  full  five  fathoms 
water,  but  navigation  for  ships  extends  only  fifteen  or  eighteen  miles.  Salmoa 
are  found  there.  The  people  who  dwell  on  this  river,  according  to  the  state- 
ments of  our  people,  are  called  Pequatoos,  and  are  the  enemies  of  the  Wapa- 
noos**  [Wampanoogs  or  Narragansetts.] 

1  Thompson  (History  of  Long  Island,  p.  OB)  says  that  Fisher's  Island  was  origfaially 
called  Vissher's  Island,  and  was  so  named  by  Block,  probably  after  one  of  his  com- 
panions. The  same  assertion  has  been  made  by  other  historians,  but  it  does  not  ap- 
I>ear  on  what  authority.  Its  position  is  noted  by  the  Dutch  geographer  De  Laet,  and 
it  is  laid  down  on  the  early  Dutch  maps,  but  no  name  is  given  to  It 

2De  Laet  wrote  his  work  both  in  Dutch  and  Latin:  the  latter,  not  being  a  transla- 
tion of  the  former,  but  competed  anew,  varies  from  the  other  in  some  points.  Trans- 
lations fiom  both  works,  of  those  parts  which  relate  to  the  coast  of  New  York  and 
New  England,  are  given  in  N.  Y.  Hist  Coll.,  new  series,  vol.  1;  from  which  the  ex- 
tracts in  the  text  are  taken. 


HI8TORT    OP    NEW     LONDON. 


23 


DUTCH  MAP  OF  1616. 

The  riTer  here  described  was  probably  the  Mystic.  The  variation 
of  the  soundings,  the  sand  points,  shoals  and  creeks,  all  apply  to  that 
neighborhood.*  The  Mystic,  also,  was  peculiariy  the  river  of  the 
Pequots,  although  the  name  Pequot  River  was  afterward  given  to 
the  Thames,  that  being  the  largest  river  of  the  Pequot  territory  and 
the  one  principally  visited  by  the  English  and  Dutch  traders.  The 
tribe,  however,  was  most  numerous  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Mystic  and 
their  fortresses  commanded  its  whole  extent. 

In  some  particulars  the  account  is  not  precisely  accurate ;  nor 
could  we  reasonably  expect  that  the  first  rude  survey  of  a  coast  em- 
barrassed as  this  is,  with  creeks,  coves  and  islands,  should  exactly 
correspond  with  charts  made  two  or  three  centuries  later.  In  a  part 
of  the  description,  it  is  evident  that  the  Mystic  is  confounded  with 
the  river  next  surveyed.  When  it  is  said,  '<  navigation  extends  fifteen 
or  eighteen  miles,"  we  can  not  doubt  but  that  the  geographer  has 
misplaced  a  fact  which,  in  the  original  surveys,  referred  to  the 
Thames. 

The  writer  proceeds : 

"A  small  island  lies  to  the  south-west  by  south  from  this  river  as  the  coast 
nms  (Fisher's  Idand ;]  near  the  west  end  of  it,  a  north-west  by  west  moon 


1  **  Mlstick  River,  or  Harbor,  is  an  arm  of  the  sea  navigable  for  vessels  drawing  six- 
teen feet  of  water,  about  two  miles  from  its  mouth:  at  that  point  obstructed  by  a  bar 
of  hard  sand,  about  fifteen  rods  in  width,  allowing  only  thirteen  feet  depth  at  high 
water,  with  a  channel  above  the  bar,  sixteen  feet  deep,  up  to  the  wharves.  The  nav- 
igathm  is  impeded,  also,  in  consequence  of  its  channel  being  very  crooked.'*  [Asa 
Fish,  Esq.,  MS.] 


24 


HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON. 


causes  low  water.    We  next  find  on  the  main,  a  small  stream  to  which  oar 
people  gave  the  name  of  the  Little  Fresh  River,  where  some  ^de  is  carried 

on  with  the  natives,  who  are  called  Morhicans.'* 

• 

Here  we  have  the  first  glimpse  of  our  own  fair  stream,  with  the 
name  given  it,  probably  by  Capt.  Block  himself,  in  1614.  The  ad- 
junct Little  was  necessary  to  distinguish  it  from  the  Connecticut, 
which  had  been  previously  named  by  the  Dutch,  Fresh  River.  De 
Laet's  Latin  edition,  which  was  written  later  than  the  other,  does 
not  name  the  Little  Fresh  River,  but  notices  what  is  evidently  the 
same  stream,  under  another  name : 

*'  From  thence  the  coast  turns  a  little  to  the  south,  and  a  small  river  is  seen» 
which  o^  people  named  Frisius,  where  a  trade  is  carried  on  with  the  Morhi- 
cans.*' 

From  all  this  it  appears  that  the  rivers  on  the  coast  of  New  Lon- 
don county,  discovered  and  partially  explored  by  the  Dutch,  were : 

1.  East  River,  or  the  Pawkatuck. 

2.  Siccanemos,  or  the  river  of  the  Sachem,  now  Mystic. 

3.  Little  Fresh  River,  or  the  Frisius,  now  Thames.! 

Roger  Williams,  in  a  letter  to  Governor  Winthrop,  ot  Massachu* 
setts,  written  in  1636,  sketches  a  rude  chart  of  the  following  geo- 
graphical points  on  the  Pequot  coast  passing  from  Connecticut  River 
eastward  by  land:"* 

1.  River  Qunnihticut. 

2.  A  fort  of  Nayantaquit  men,  confederate  with  the  Pequts.  [Head  of  Ni- 
antick  Bay.] 

3.  Mohiganic  River.     [The  Thames.] 

4.  Wein:»hauks,  where  Sassacous  the  chief  sachem  is.  [Probably  the  royal 
fortress  in  Groton.] 

5.  Mistick  Fort  and  River,  where  is  Mamobo,  another  chief  sachem.  [The 
fort  afterward  taken  by  Capt.  Mason.] 

6.  Nayantaquit,  [Fort  and  River.] 

1  In  these  Dutch  accounts  there  are  in  fact  four  streams,  instead  of  three,  obscurely 
indicated ;  but  this  must  be  ascribed  to  the  confusion  produced  by  comparing  diflferent 
journals,  since  there  is  no  such  fourth  stream  between  Connecticut  River  and  Narra- 
ganset,  except  the  Niantick,  and  on  the  charts  made  by  these  discoverers  of  the  coast 
Niantick  River  and  Bay  are  wholly  omitted,  which  is  presumptive  proof  that  they 
were  not  explored.  See  N.  Y.  Hist.  Coll.,  vol.  1,  pp.  296,  807;  also  tlie  Dutch  map 
of  1616,  in  0*Callaghan.  The  original  of  this  map  was  obtained  in  Holland,  1841,  by 
J.  Romeyn  Broadhead. 

2  Moss.  Hist  CoU.,  2d  series,  vol.  1,  p.  161. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 


35 


26  HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON. 

The  Dutch  having  explored  the  coast  of  the  SoUnd,  and  estab- 
lished a  trade  with  the  natives,  claimed  the  country  as  an  appanage 
of  their  province  of  New  Netherland.  For  a  number  of  years,  the 
traders  from  New  Amsterdam  (now  New  York)  almost  exclusively 
resorted  to  this  coast  and  engrossed  the  trade.  It  was  their  inten- 
tion also  to  form  settlements  in  these  parts,  and  particularly  on 
Connecticut  River.  In  1632,  they  bought  of  the  natives  a  spot  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river  which  they  named  Kievit's  Hook,'  (Saybrook,) 
and  on  the  8th  of  June,  1633,  obtained  an  Indian  grant  of  another 
pai'cel  of  land  on  the  river,  near  where  Hartford  is  situated.  Here 
^  they  erected  a  trading-post,  and  called  it  the  House  of  Good  Hope. 
They  made  preparations  also  to  take  possession  of  Kievit's  Hook, 
but  in  both  cases  the  English  crowded  in  and  retained  possession. 
Tlie  latter  asserted  a  priority  of  ri^t,  and  had,  in  fact,  extended  their 
patents  over  the  whole  country  east  of  the  Hudson. 

In  the  range  of  the  year  1635,  four  English  plantations  were  com- 
menced upon  Connecticut  River ;  three  of  them  by  congregations 
that  removed,  each  with  its  minister,  from  the  Bay  settlements.  The 
people  from  Watertown  settled  at  Wethersfield,*  those  from  Dor- 
chester at  Windsor,  and  those  from  Newtown  (alias  Cambridge)  at 
Hartford.  The  fourth  settlement  was  made  at  Saybrook,  by  John 
Winthrop,  Jun.,  who  had  received  a  commission  from  Lord  Say 
and .  Seal,  Lord  Brook  and  others,  patentees  of  Connecticut,  to  be 
governor  of  the  river  and  the  parts  adjacent  for  one  year.  An  ad- 
vance party  of  twenty  men,  dispatched  by  him,  sailed  from  Boston 
Nov.  3,  and  arriving,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  took  possession  of 
Saybrook  Point.  This  party  was  just  in  time  to  prevent  the  occu* 
padon  of  the  spot  by  the  Dutch.  A  sloop  from  New  Netherland 
arrived  a  few  days  afterward,  with  men  and  stores,  to  effect  a  settle^ 
ment;  but  the  English  had  mounted  two  pieces  of  cannon  and 
would  not  permit  them  to  land. 

Little  was  effected  in  either  of  the  four  plantations  before  the  suc- 
ceeding year.  Hartford  was  nearly  broken  up  by  the  severity  of 
the  winter  and  a  deficiency  of  provisions.  At  Saybrook,  hut^  were 
erected  for  temjjorary  shelter,  and  the  place  kept  by  Lion  Gardiner, 
who  had  been  sent  over  from  England  as  engineer  to  erect  the  forti- 


1  Kieveet  is  the  Dutch  name  for  a  shore  bird  called  by  us  the  Peeweet  0*Calla- 
fhan,  p.  149. 

S  Wetfaersfield  is  regarded  as  the  oldest  town  on  the  river:  some  of  the  planters 
treeted  huts  in  1684,  and  spent  tiie  winter  on  the  ground.    Trumbull,  Hist.  Conn. 


HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON.  27 

ficadons.  When  the  spring  advanced,  Mr.  Winthrop  entered  on  the 
work  with  vigor.  Houses  were  built,  a  fortification  erected,  and  a 
settlement  commenced.* 

From  the  proceedings  of  Winthrop,  it  may  be  inferred  that  while 
in  command  at  Sajbrook,  in  1686,  he  was  looking  forward  to  a  set- 
tlement, on  or  near  the  river  of  the  Pequots,  as  the  next  advance 
post  to  be  taken  hj  the  English.  He  probably  coasted  along  the 
shore,  became  acquainted  with  Fisher's  Island  and  Pequot  River,, 
and  perhaps  fixed  upon  the  spot  now  New  London,  as  the  site  of  a 
future  town.  Such  a  measure  may  have  been  within  the  scope  of 
his  instructions.  At  a  subsequent  period,  when  Massachusetts  chal- 
lenged the  jurisdiction  of  the  place,  Mr.  Fen  wick,  then  the  agent  of 
the  company,  came  forward  "for  himself  and  som^^noble  personages," 
interested  in  the  Warwick  patent,  and  claimed  the  lands  in  question, 
asserting, 

"  That  Pecoat  Harbor  and  the  lands  adjoining  wore  of  the  greatest  concem- 
xnent  to  those  interested  in  Connecticut  River,  and  that  they  had  a  special  aim 
and  respect  to  it,  when  first  they  consulted  about  planting  in  those  parts.'^ 

As  a  preparatory  measure  to  a  settlement,  Winthrop  established  a 
friendly  intercourse  with  the  sachem  of  the  Western  Nahanticks, 
called  Sassyous,'^  and  entered  into  a  verbal  contract  with  him  for  a 
considerable  portion  of  his  territory.  Relying  upon  the  validity  of 
this  contract,  he  afterward  claimed  the  lands  of  this  tribe  (now  East 
Lyme  and  a  part  of  Waterford)  as  his  personal  property,  and,  in 
1647,  applied  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  who 
had  the  charge  of  Indian  affairs,  to  confirm  his  title.  But  they  re- 
garded the  claim  as  vague  and  indefinite ;  Winthrop  could  show  no 
writing,  assign  no  date,  describe  no  bounds.  The  Connecticut  dele- 
gation opposed  the  claim ;  the  court  declined  acting  upon  it ;  and  the 
subject  was  never  revived.* 

In  1 633,  Captains  Stone  and  Norton,  two  Englishmen  engaged  in 
the  Indian  trade,  were  killed  in  an  affray  with  the  Pequots  in  Con- 


1  TrumbulL 

2  See  proceedings  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  in  Hazard's  Collec- 
tion of  State  Papers. 

8  Or  Sashious.  This  name  is  so  mnch  like  Sassacus,  that  one  is  at  ilrst  tempted  to 
deem  it  a  misprint:  yet  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  this  artless,  confiding  sachem 
wab  the  terrible  Pequot  chief,  described  by  the  Indians  as  "  o^  one  god—mo  mmrooM 
km  him,'' 

4  Hazard,  voL  2,  p.  98.    See  also  Tmmbull's  Hist  of  Conn.,  voL  1,  oh.  8. 


28  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDOIT.;^ 

necticut  River.^  The  Indians  sent  an  embassy  to  Boston  with  ex- 
planations of  this  outrage,  throwing  the  chief  blame  on  the  yietims 
themselves,  and  offering  a  present,  the  cnstomary  token  of  amity. 
This  present  was  received,  though  with  reluctance,  the  explanation 
not  being  deemed  satisfactory.  The  Indians  were  charged  with 
duplicity,  and  though  professing  friendship,  were  supposed  to  be  really 
hostile  and  ready  at  any  favorable  opportunity  to  cut  off  their  En- 
glish neighbors.  This  construction  of  their  conduct  appears  to  have 
been  harsh  and  unmerited.  Lion  Gardiner  and  some  other  contem- 
poraries thought  more  favorably  of  them.  In  reviewing  the  case, 
there  appear  strong  grounds  for  believing  that  the  whole  Pequot  con- 
federacy, together  with  their  sachem,  were  friendly  to  the  English, 
at  the  time  the  latter  commenced  their  settlements  on  the  river. 
The  massacre  of  the  two  English  traders  was  evidently  an  unpre- 
meditated affair,  the  sudden  outbreak  of  minds  exasperated  by  inju- 
ry. Capt.  Stone  had  maltreated  the  Indians ;  and  they,  turning  up- 
on their  oppressor,  slew  him,  partly  in  self-defense  and  partly  in 
revenge.  This  offense  had,  moreover,  been  obliterated  in  their  view 
of  the  case,  by  conciliatory  embassies,  by  presents  and  a  treaty ; 
and  they  now  turned  with  a  placable,  if  not  a  friendly  disposition, 
toward  their  new  neighbors  at  Saybrodt. 

It  is  not  to  be  assumed,  however,  that  the  friendship  of  the  Pe- 
quots  was  founded  on  any  higher  principle  than  greediness  of  gain, 
or  desire  of  obtaining  assistance  against  the  Narragansetts.  The  gov- 
ernment of  Massachusetts  distrusted  all  their  pretensions,  and  while 
Winthrop  was  stiU  at  Saybrook,  sent  instructions  to  him  to  demand 
of  the  Pequots  ^'a  solemn  meeting  for  conference,''  in  which  he  was 
to  lay  before  them  all  the  charges  that  had  been  brought  against 
them ;  and  if  they  could  not  clear  themselves,  or  refused  reparation, 
the  present  which  they  had  sent  to  Boston,  (and  which  was  now  for- 
warded to  Saybrook,)  was  to  be  returned  to  them,  and  a  protest  equiv- 
alent to  a  declaration  of  war  was  to  be  proclaimed  in  their  bearing.' 

These  instructions  were  dated  at  Boston,  July  4th,  1636,  and  to- 
gether with  the  present  were  brought  to  Saybi-ook  by  Mr.  Fenwick 
and  Mr.  Hugh  Peters,  with  whom  came  Thomas  Stanton  to  act  as 
interpreter.  Lieut  Gardiner  notes  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Oldham  at 
the  same  time,  in  his  pinnace,  on  a  trading  voyage.  The  others 
came  by  land. 

1  Sarage's  Winthrop,  vol.  1,  p.  128. 

S  Moss.  Hist.  CoIL,  2d  series,  yoI.  2,  p.  129. 


HIST6ftY    OF    NBW#LONDON.  39 

The  Peqoot  sachem  was  sent  for,  and  the  present,  which  consist- 
ed of  ^otter-skin  coats,  and  beaver,  and  skeins  of  wampum,"  was 
returned.  Lieut.  Gardiner,  who  foresaw  that  a  destructive  war  would 
be  the  consequence,  made  use  of  both  argument  and  entreatj  to  pre- 
vent it,  but  in  vain. 

A  new  cause  of  complaint — ^not  against  the  Pequots  particularlj, 
but  affecting  them  as  belonging  to  the  great  class  of  dangerous  neigh- 
bors— ^was  furnished  about  the  same  time.  Mr.  Oldham,  while  en- 
gaged in  traffic  with  the  natives  of  Block  Island,  was  suddenly  as- 
sailed by  a  large  number  of  Indians  and  slain  on  the  deck  of  his  own 
pinnace.  This  barbarous  act  was  avenged  in  a  speedy  and  signal 
manner.  John  Gallop,  another  Indian  trader,  happening  to  be  in 
that  part  of  the  Sound  at  the  same  time,  discovered  Oldham's  vessel 
fiill  of  Indians,  and  suspecting  what  they  had  done,  bore  down  upon 
them  with  repeated  shocks,  nearly  pversetting  the  pinnace,  and  gall- 
ing them  the  while  with  musket  shot,  which  so  terrified  the  Indians 
that  ten  out  of  the  fourteen  on  board  plunged  into  the  sea  and  were 
drowned.  Two  others.  Gallop  succeeded  in  making  prisoners,  and 
one  of  these  he  bound  and  threw  overboard.^ 

The  murder  of  Mr.  Oldham  caused  great  excitement.  Not  only 
all  the  Indians  of  Block  Island,  but  many  of  the  Niantick  and  Nar- 
ragansett  sachems  were  accused  either  of  being  accessory  to  the 
crime,  or  of  protecting  the  perpetrators.  An  expedition  was  forth- 
with fitted  out  from  Boston,  for  the  purpose  of  ''doing  justice  on  the 
Indians"  for  this  and  other  acts  of  hostility  and  barbarism.  Ninety 
men  were  raised  and  distributed  to  four  ofilcers,  of  whom  Capt.  John 
Underbill,  who  wrote  an  account  of  the  expedition,  was  one.  The 
superior  command  was  given  to  Capt.  John  £ndicott.  His  orders 
were  stem  and  vindictive : 

"  To  put  to  death  the  men  of  Block  Island,  but  to  spare  the  women  and 
children,  and  to  bring  them  awaj ,  and  to  take  posse98ion  of  the  island ;  and 
firom  thence  to  go  to  the  Pequods,  to  demand  the  murderers  of  Capt.  Stone  and 
other  English,  and  one  thousand  fathom  of  wampum  for  damages,  &c.,  and 
some  of  their  children  for  hostages,  which  if  they  should  refuse  they  were  to 
obtain  by  force."* 

These  orders  were  executed  more  mercifully  than  they  were  con- 
ceived. Endicott's  troops  did  little  more  than  alarm  and  terrify  the 
natives  by  sudden  invasions,  threats,  skirmishing,  and  a  wanton 
destruction  of  their  few  goods  and  homely  habitations.     At  Block 


1  Winthrop»s  JoumaL  2  Ibid.,  voL  1,  p.  182. 


30  HISTORY^OF    NEW    LONDON* 

Island  the  J  burnt  two  villages,  containing  about  sixty  wigwams,  with 
all  their  mats  and  com,  and  destroyed  seven  canoes.  Capt.  Under- 
bill sajs  that  they  also  slew  ''some  four  Indians  and  maimed  others." 
From  thence  they  proceeded  to  Saybrook  to  refresh  themselves,  and 
.obtaining  from  Lieut.  Gardiner  a  reenforcement  of  twenty  men  in 
two  shallops,  they  sailed  for  Pequot  Harbor,  in  order  to  demand  sat- 
isfaction for  the  murder  of  Captains  Stone  apd  Norton  in  1 633. 

According  to  Capt.  Underbill's  narrative,  they  sailed  along  the 
Nahantick  coast,  (Lyme  and  Waterford,)  in  ^Ye  vessels.  The  In- 
dians discovering  them  came  in  multitudes  to  the  shore,  and  ran  along 
the  water  side,  crying  out,  "  What  cheer,  Englishmen  ?  What  cheer  ? 
Are  you  angry  ?  Will  you  kill  us  ?  Do  you  come  to  fight  ?  What 
cheer.  Englishmen  ?  What  cheer  ?"  They  kept  this  up  till  the  Eng- 
lish came  to  Pequot  River,  which  they  entered,  and  during  the  night 
lay  at  anchor  in  the  harbor,  having  the  Nahantick  Indians  on  the  west 
side  and  the  Pequots  on  the  east,  who  made  up  large  fires,  and  kept 
watch,  fearing  they  would  land. 

**  They  made  most  doleful  and  woful  cries  all  the  night,  hallooing  one  to 
another^  and  giving  the  word  from  place  to  place  to  gather  their  forces  together, 
fearing  the  English  were  come  to  war  against  them.*' 

The  next  morning  the  English  vessels  proceeded  into  the  harbor. 
From  the  east  side,  now  Groton,  the  natives  flocked  to  the  shore  to 
meet  the  strange  armament,  apparently  unconscious  of  ofiense.  And 
now  a  canoe  puts  off  from  the  land  with  an  ambassador : 

**  A  grave  senior,  a  man  of  good  understanding,  portly  carriage,  grave  and 
majestical  in  his  expressions  :*'^ 

who  demands  of  the  English  why  they  come  among  them  ?  The  lat- 
ter reply : 

"  The  Governors  of  the  Bay  sent  us  to  demand  the  heads  of  those 
persons  that  have  slain  Capt.  Norton  and  Capt.  Stone,  and  the  rest 
of  their  company  ;  it  is  not  the  custom  of  the  English  to  suffer  mur- 
derers to  live." 

The  discreet  ambassador,  instead  of  an  immediate  answer  to  tliis 
demand,  endeavored  to  palliate  the  charge.  Capt.  Stone,  he  said, 
had  beguiled  their  sachem  to  come  on  board  his  vessel,  and  then  slew 
him ;  whereupon  the  sachem's  son  slew  Capt.  Stone,  and  an  affray 
succeeding,  the  English  set  fire  to  the  powder,  blew  up  the  vessel 
and  destroyed  themselves.     Moi-eover,  he  said,  they  had  taken  them 

1  UnderhiU's  Narrative. 


HI8TOBY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 


31 


for  Dutchm^i ;  the  Indians  were  friendly  to  the  English,  bat  not  to 
the  Dutch,  yet  they  were  not  able  always  to  distinguish  between 
them. 

These  excuses  were  not  satisfactory :  the  English  captain  repeats 
his  demand :  ^  We  must  have  the  heads  of  these  men  who  have  slain 
oars,  or  else  we  will  fight^  We  would  speak  with  your  sachem." 
'^  But  our  sachem  is  absent,"  they  reply :  '^  Sassacus  is  gone  to  Long 
Island.'"  "  Then,"  said  the  commander,  "  go  and  tell  the  other  sa- 
chem. Bring  him  to  us  that  we  may  speak  with  him,  or  else  we  will 
beat  up  the  drum,  and  march  through  the  country  and  spoil  your 
com."^ 

Hereupon  the  messenger  takes  leave,  promising  to^find  the  sachem : 
his  canoe  returns  swiftly  to  the  shore  and  the  English  speedily 
follow. 

'*  Our  men  landetl  with  much  danger,  if  the  Indians  had  made  use  of  their 
advantage,  for  all  the  shore  was  high  ragged  rocks. "^ 

But  they  met  with  no  opposition,  and  having  made  good  their  land- 
ing, the  Indian  ambassador  entreated  them  to  go  no  further,  but  re- 
main on  the  shore,  till  he  could  return  with  an  answer  to  their  de- 
mands. But  the  English  imagining  there  was  craft  in  this  proposal, 
refused.  We  were  "  not  willing  to  be  at  their  direction,"  says  Un- 
derbill, but  "  having  set  our  men  in  battalia,  marched  up  the  ascent." 

From  the  data  here  given,  it  may  be  conclusively  inferred  that  they 
landed  opposite  the  present  town  of  New  London  and  marched  up 
some  part  of  that  fair  highland  ndge,  which  is  now  hallowed  with  the 
ruins  of  Fort  Griswold,  and  overshadowed  by  Groton  Monument. 
To  the  summit  of  this  hill,  then  in  a  wild  and  obstructed  condi- 
tion, the  English  troops  toiled  and  clambered,  still  maintaining  their 
martial  array.  At  length  they  reach  a  level,  where  a  wide  region  of 
hill  and  dale,  dotted  with  the  wigwams  and  corn-fields  of  the  natives, 
spreads  before  them.  And  here  a  messenger  appears,  entreating 
them  to  stop,  for  the  sachem^  is  found  and  will  soon  come  before 
them.  They  halt,  and  the  wondering  natives  come  fiocking  about 
them  unarmed.  In  a  short  time  some  three  hundred  had  assembled,^ 
and  four  hours  were  spent  in  parley.  Kutshamokin,  a  Massachusetts 
sachem,  that  had  accompanied  the  English,  acted  as  interpreter,  pass- 
ing to  and  fro  between  the  parties,  with  demands  from  one  and  excu- 

1  Underliill.  2  Winthrop.  8  Underhill.  4  Winthrop. 

6  Mommenoteck.    Underhill.  .  e  Wmthrop. 


32  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

sea  from  the  other,  which  indicate  a  relactance  on  the  part  of  Endi* 
cott  to  come  to  extremities,  and  great  timidity  and  distrust  on  the  side 
of  the  Indians.  The  object  of  the  latter  was  evidently  to  gain  time 
for  the  removal  of  their  women  and  children,  and  the  concealment  of 
their  choicest  goods,  which  having  in  great  part  effected,  the  warriors 
also  began  to  withdraw.  At  this  point  the  English  commander  hast- 
ily putting  an  end  to  the  conference,  bade  them  take  care  of  them- 
selves, for  they  had  dared  the  English  to  come  and  fight  with  them, 
and  now  they  were  come  for  that  purpose. 

Upon  this  the  drum  beat  for  battle,  and  the  Indians  fled  with  ra- 
pidity, shooting  their  harmless  arrows  from  behind  the  screen  of 
rocks  and  thicke^.  The  troops  marched  after  them,  entered  tHeir 
town  and  burnt  all  their  wigwams  and  mats.     Underbill  says : 

**  We  suddenly  set  upon  our  inarch,  and  gave  fire  to  as  many  as  we  could 
come  near,  firing  their  wigwams,  spoiling  their  corn,  and  many  other  necessa- 
ries that  tliey  had  buried  in  the  ground  we  raked  up,  which  the  soldiers  had 
for  booty.  Thus  we  spent  the  day  burning  and  sx>oiling  the  country.  Towards 
night  embarked  ourselves." 

According  to  "Winthrop's  account,  two  Indians  were  killed  and 
others  wounded.  Underbill  says  that  numbers  of  their  men  were 
slain  and  many  wounded.  But  Lion  Gardiner,  in  his  narrative,  as- 
serts that  only  one  Indian  was  killed,  and  that  one  by  Kutshamokin, 
who  crept  into  a  thicket,  agreeably  to  the  usual  mode  of  Indian  fight- 
ing, killed  a  man  and  brought  off  his  scalp  as  a  trophy.  He  ascribes 
the  subsequent  Pequot  war,  and  all  its  atrocities,  to  the  exasperation 
caused  by  this  one  act. 

*'  Thus  far  I  had  written  in  a  book  that  all  men  and  posterity  might  know 
how  and  why  so  many  honest  men  had  their  blood  shed,  and  some  flayed 
alive,  and  others  cut  in  pieces  and  roasted  alive,  only  because  Kichamokin,  a 
Bay  Indian,  killed  one  Pequot.**» 

The  next  morning,  Sept  7th  or  8th,  the  troops  landed  on  the  west 
side  of  the  river,  but  had  no  conference  with  the  natives. 

**  No  Indians  would  come  near  us,  [says  Underbill,]  but  run  from  us  as  the 
deer  from  the  dogs.  But  having  burnt  and  spoiled  what  we  could  light  on,  we 
embarked  our  men,  and  set  sail  for  the  Bay." 


1  Gardiner*8  Peqnot  Wars. 

Kutshamokin  sent  the  scalp  as  a  present  to  Canonicus,  the  Narragansett  sachem, 
who  triumphantly  forwarded  it  from  sachem  to  sachem  through  his  country.  Noth- 
ing could  have  roused  the  Pequots  to  greater  rage  than  this  triumph  of  thehr  foes* 
Winthrop,  vol.  1.  p.  196. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  33 

On  the  14th  of  September,  Capt*  Endieott  and  his  troops  arrived 
in  Boston,  and  Gov.  Winthrop  notes  it  in  his  journal  as  ^*a  marvel- 
ons  providence  of  God  that  not  a  hair  fell  from  the  head  of  any  of 
tiiem,  nor  anj  sick  or  feeble  person  among  them." 

When  the  troops  irom  Massachusetts  departed,  the  two  shallops 
and  the  twenty  men  that  had  joined  them  at  Saybrook,  were  left  be- 
hind in  Pequot  Harbor,  waiting  for  a  fair  wind.  While  thus  delay- 
ing, they  had  before  them,  in  full  view  upon  the  west  side,  the  fine 
fields  of  waving  com  that  surrounded  the  smoldering  dwellings  of 
the  natives,  which  they  had  burnt  the  day  before,  and  they  resolved 
to  secure  the  spoil.  It  was  in  expectation  of  some  such  booty,  that 
Lieut.  Gardiner  had  provided  them  with  bags ;'  and  now  hastening 
to  the  shore,  they  filled  their  sacks  with  the  silky  ears,  and  returning, 
deposited  their  burdens  in  the  shallop.  They  then  went  back  for 
more,  and  had  laden  themselves  with  plunder  a  second  time,  when, 
on  a  sudden,  frightful  yells  and  thick-fiying  arrows,  gave  notice  that 
they  were  surrounded  by  the  infuriated  savages. 

Immediately  they  threw  down  their  sacks  and  prepared  for  action. 
The  Indians  kept  under  covert,  and  only  showed  themselves  a  few  at 
a  time,  when  they  darted  forth,  discharged  their  arrows,  and  again 
plunged  into  the  thicket.  The  English  were  in  an  open  piece  of 
ground,  and  only  half  their  number  had  muskets  which  could  reach 
the  enemy.  These  were  arranged  in  single  file,  while  the  others 
stood  in  readiness  to  repel  a  direct  assault 

This  desultory  skirmishing  continued  for  most  of  the  afternoon. 
The  English  supposed  that  they  killed  several  Indians  and  wounded 
more,  but  the  latter  were  too  wary  to  hazard  a  direct  encounter,  and 
finding  th^  could  make  no  impression  on  their  enemies,  they  became 
**  weary  of  the  sport,"  as  the  annalist  says,  ^  and  gave  the  English 
leave  to  retire  to  their  boat."*  It  is  wonderful  that  the  whole  party 
was  not  cut  off,  as  the  Indians  had  them  wholly  in  their  power. 
Either  from  want  of  skill,  or  badness  of  position,  they  did  little  harm 
in  this  attack.     Winthrop  observes, 

"  Their  arrows  were  all  shot  compass,^  so  as  one  man  standing  single,  could 
easilf  see»and  avoid  them  ;  and  one  was  employed  to  gather  np  their  arrows. 

1  **  Sirs,  seehig  you  win  go,  I  pray  yea,  if  yon  don't  load  your  barks  with  Peqnots, 
load  them  with  com."    See  Gardiner's  Pequot  Wars. 
3  Hubbard's  Indian  Wars. 

S  **  Compass-wise,"  says  Hubbard.  Probably  it  means,  ahnlng  higher  than  the 
otgect 


M 


HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON. 


Only  one  of  the  Engliah  was  wounded,  being  shot  through  the  leg  with  an 
arrow."* 

There  is  no  doubt  but  this  conflict  took  place  on  some  part  of  the 
present  site  of  New  London.  This  and  the  burning  of  the  wigwams 
and  canoes  by  Endicott's  men  the  preceding  day,  are  the  first  histori- 
cal incidents  connected  with  the  spot.  They  are  otherwise  of  but 
trifling  importance.^ 

Endicott's  expedition,  timid  and  unproductive  as  it  seemed  to  be, 
accomplished  one  object  thoroughly :  it  drove  the  Pequots  into  deter- 
mined hostility.  From  this  time  forth  they  dispkyed  toward  the 
English  the  most  inveterate  hatred.  With  a  thirst  which  only  savage 
bosoms  could  feel,  they  longed  to  plunder,  to  torture,  to  exterminate 
the  detested  race ;  to  drink  their  blood  and  eat  their  flesh.  The  re- 
ligious systemi  of  heathenism  are  hostile  not  only  to  the  moral  vir- 
tues, but  even  to  human  sympathies ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  but  that 
savages  find  an  actual  pleasure  in  the  excitement  of  diabolic  cruelty. 
Their  savage  customs  harmonize  with  the  character  of  their  deities ; 
they  have  nqver  learned  to  check  an  appetite,  to  forgive  an  injury, 
or  to  love  an  enemy. 

The  Mohcgans,  from  the  commencement  of  the  contest,  acted  with 
the  English.  They  were  no  better  than  the  Pequots ;  the  two  tribes 
were  equally  destitute  of  the  arts  of  civilized  life,  and  of  the  social 
and  humane  virtues.  But  one  was  a  'proud  and  conquering  people  ; 
the  other  tributary  and  prudent.  The  respective  chieftains  were 
formed  on  the  model  of  these  peculiar  characteristics.  Sassacus  was 
overbearing,  impulsive  and  fierce ;  Uncas,  wary,  intriguing  and  plau- 
sible. Both,  m  their  intercourse  with  their  white  neighbors,  were 
swayed  by  the  same  motives,  temporal  advantage,  or  the  passionate 
desire  of  revenge. 

1  Winthrop,  1.  p.  197. 

2  Trumbull,  in  HLst.  Conn.,  ch.  5,  states  that  the  English  party  in  this  skirmish  con- 
sisted of  Capt  Underbill  and  twenty  of  the  Mnssocbuftetts  tixiops  who  had  stayed  be- 
hind to  reenforce  the  garrison  at  Saybrook ;  but  this  is  evidently  a  mistake.  Under- 
hiirs  narrative  of  tlie  expedition  gives  no  account  of  it,  for  the  plain  reason  that  he 
had  the  day  before  sailed  with  the  Snoops  to  Xarragansett.  It  was  not  till  the  next 
April  that  he  was  sent  with  twenty  men  tp  Saybrook.  Capt,  Gardiner  particularly 
states  that  his  men  were  left  behind  at  Pequot  when  the  others  sailed;  that  they  hud 
a  skirmish  with  the  Indians,  and  that  they  brought  home  a  quantity  of  com,  he  hav- 
ing taken  the  precaution  when  they  went  away  to  supply  them  with  sacks  for  the 
purpose.  The  commander  of  this  little  party,  who  seems  to  have  conducted  the  affiur 
with  skill  and  cool  intrepidity,  is  no  where  mentioned.  Winthrop,  in  his  Journal, 
Hubbard  in  Indian  Wars,  Increase  Mather  and  Lion  Gardiner,  all  have  recorded  the 
hicident  with  little  variation. 


HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON. 


35 


At  the  time  of  the  first  arrival  of  the  English  colonists  upon  Con- 
necticut Biver,  Uncas  had  quarreled  with  his  liege  lord,  and  driven 
from  his  territory,  had  taken  refuge  with  a  few  adherents  among  the 
Indians  in  the  vicinity  of  Hartford  and  Windsor.  Banished  men  and 
outlaws,  poor  and  oppressed,  they  naturally  attached  themselves  to 
the  English ;  in  the  first  place  for  protection,  and  afterward  for  ven- 
geance against  a  common  enemy.  Their  only  hope  was  in  the  de- 
struction of  the  Pequots,  and  they  joined  in  the  contest  with  earnest- 
ness and  good  faith.  It  was  the  commencement  of  an  alliance  be- 
tween the  English  colonists  and  the  Mohegans,  which  never  met  with 
any  serious  interruption.  No  instance  has  occurred  from  that  time 
'  to  the  present,  in  which  any  portion  of  the  tribe  has  been  found  in 
arms  against  the  colony.  It  is  not  often  that  an  ignorant  and  pas- 
sionate people  remain  so  true  to  their  interest.  On  the  other  side,  the 
colony  ever  afterward  considered  itself  the  guardian  of  the  tribe,  and 
down  to  the  present  time,  has  acted  as  its  friend  and  protector. 

The  cruelties  perpetrated  by  the  Pequote  hastened  their  destruc- 
tion. The  conflict  was  short.  A  body  of  men  from  the  three  towns 
on  the  river,  under  the  valiant  Capt.  John  Mason,  aided  and  guided 
by  the  Mohegans  and  Narragansetts,  and  favored  by  various  provi- 
dential circumstances,  came  suddenly  upon  a  stronghold  of  the  Pe- 
quots, consisting  of  a  collection  of  wigwams  inclosed  with  a  log  pali- 
sade, standing  in  an  elevated  position,  near  the  head  of  Mystic 
River,  and  by  fire  and  slaughter  destroyed  the  whole  encampment. 
This  event  took  place  on  Friday,  May  26,  1637.*  Our  subject  does 
not  lead  us  to  treat  of  the  conflict  in  detail 

After  the  destruction  of  the  fort,  Capt.  Mason  was  obliged  to  march 
through  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country  to  meet  his  vessels  at  Pe- 
quot  harbor.  The  tract  over  which  he  had  to  pass,  still  rugged  and 
iiiLsome  to  the  traveler,  was  at  that  time  a  trackless,  and  literally,  a 
howling  wilderness,  haunted  not  only  by  wild  beasts,  but  by  wilder 
human  foes,  breathing  deadly  enmity  and  revenge.  It  required  men, 
such  as  those  fathers  of  Connecticut  were — men  of  enduring  sinew, 
as  well  as  fearless  spirit — to  fight  the  terrible  battle,  and  perform  the 
arduous  march  of  that  renowned  day.  Twenty  of  their  number  were 
wounded;  their  ammunition  was  expended;  their  Indian  allies  were 
too  timid  and  fearful  to  be  any  security  to  them,  and  the  enemy,  nu- 
merous and  infuriated,  hung  upon  their  rear  through  the  whole  march. 
Yet  they  kept  in  close  order,  steadily  pursuing  their  course,  carrying 

1  Massachasetto  Hist  ColL  3d  ser.  vol.  8,  p.  141,  note. 


36  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

their  wounded,  and  fighting  their  way  through  swamp  and  thicket. 
It  was  a  happy  moment,  when  in  the  words  of  the  gallant  leader  of 
the  party, 

'*  Marching  on  to  the  top  of  an  hill  adjoining  to  the  harbor,  with  our  colors 
flying,  (having  left  our  drum  at  the  place  of  our  rendezvous  the  night  before,) 
we  8ee  our  vessel  there  riding  at  anchor,  to  our  great  rejoicing,  and  come  to  the 
water  side,  we  there  sat  down  in  quiet. '*i 

At  Pequot  Harbor  they  were  joined  by  Capt  Patrick,  with  a  Ply- 
mouth company,  who  came  to  the  scene  of  action  too  late  to  take  a 
part  in  it  Having  sent  the  greater  part  of  his  wearied  troops  home 
by  sea,  Capt  Mason  with  twenty  men,  and  Capt  Patrick  with  his 
company,  and  the  great  body  of  their  Narragansett  allies,  who  had 
kept  with  them,  and  durst  not  return  home  through  the  Pequot  coun- 
try, landed  on  the  west  side  of  the  river  (New  London)  and  pro- 
ceeded through  the  woods  to  Saybrook. 

In  June,  Capt  Stoughton,  with  120  men  from  Massachusetts,  ac- 
companied by  the  Rev.  John  Wilson,  as  chaplain,  arrived  at  Pequot 
Harbor.  This  was  the  U8ual  place  of  rendezvous  for  the  troops  of  the 
three  colonies.  The  object  of  Stoughton's  expedition  was  to  extir- 
pate, if  possible,  the  remaining  Pequots.  In  pursuance  of  this  object, 
he  pitched  his  camp  on  the  west  side  of  the  harbor,  where  he  built  a 
house  or  houses,  and  kept  his  liead-quarters  for  two  months  or  more.' 
We  may  suppose  these  quarters  to  have  comprised  a  large  barrack 
for  temporary  summer  shelter,  and  some  huts  or  wigwams  near  it; 
the  whole  surrounded  with  fascines  or  palisades  for  defense.  Rude  as 
this  encampment  may  have  been,  it  merits  a  conspicuous  place  in  our 


1  Mason*8  Narrative.  It  is  stated  that  during  this  retreat  thej  were  conliniuillj  fired 
at  b J  warriors  concealed  behind  rocks  and  trees ;  jet  not  an  arrow  reached  them.  The 
Indian  allies  that  accompanied  the  English,  had  a  skirmish  with  the  Pequots,  which 
Underbill  thus  describes:  **  They  came  not  near  one  anotiier,  but  shot  remote,  and  not 
point-blank,  as  we  often  do  with  our  bullets,  but  at  rovers,  and  then  they  gaxe  up  hi 
the  sky  to  see  where  the  arrow  foils,  and  not  until  it  is  fallen,  do  they  shoot  again.'* 
Of  this  mode  of  warfare  he  says:  "  They  might  fight  seven ^ears  and  not  kill  seven 
men.** 

2  In  a  subsequent  part  of  this  history,  the  coi^ectnre  is  hazarded  that  Stoughton't 
encampment  was  on  the  neck,  now  occupied  by  Fort  TrumbuU.  One  of  the  pleas 
afterward  propounded  by  Massachusetts  in  support  of  her  claim  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  west  side  of  the  river,  was  that  of  first  possession,  founded  on  the  fact  that  Ciqit. 
Stoug^ton  had  built  Jumses  there  during  the  Pequot  war.  The  Connecticut  agents  hi 
their  rejoinder  speak  of  it  in  the  singular  number,  as  the  htftue  which  the  people  of  the 
Bay  built,  and  which  themselves  afterward  carried  off,  or  at  least  a  great  part  of  it. 
Hazard,  vol.  2. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  37 

aimalB,  as  the  first  English  hoase  erected  m  New  Lonckm.  And  here 
pro]i>abl7  a  Sabhath  service  was  held  by  Mr.  Wilson,  and  the  solemn 
accents  of  ^Christian  worship  were  intermingled  for  the  first  time  witii 
the  voices  of  the  desert. 

Ci^t.  Stoughton  found  it  no  easy  task  to  clear  the  coast  and  contig- 
uous country  of  the  ill-&ted  Pequots.  At  one  time  he  came  upon  the 
trail  of  a  retreating  party,  and  pursued  them  beyond  the  Connecticut^ 
where  losing  the  track,  he  desisted  and  returned  to  his  former  posi- 
tion.' Yotash,  a  Narragansett  chief,  with  a  band  of  warriors,  was 
with  him,  and  proved  an  efficient  aid  in  hunting  out  the  concealed 
Pequots.^  Having  tracked  a  large  party  of  the  fugitives  to  the  deep 
recesses  of  a  thicket  or  swamp,  on  the  east  side  of  the  river, — ^probably 
the  noted  place  of  refuge  of  the  Pequots,  called  by  them  Ohomo- 
wauke,  or  the  Owl's  Nest,  and  sometimes  Cuppacommock,  or  the 
Hiding-place,^ — he  led  Capt.  Stoughton  and  his  men  thither,  who 
surrounded  the  swamp  and  f^ok  more  than  100  prisoners.  They 
were  a  feeble,  half-famished  party,  that  yielded  to  the  conquerors 
without  offering  the  least  resistance.  Let  pity  drop  a  tear  at  their 
fate.  The  sachem^  was  reprieved  for  a  time,  upon  his  promise  of 
assisdng  the  English  in  their  search  for  Sassacus ;  the  women  and 
children,  about  eighty  in  number,  were  reserved  for  bondage:  the 
doom  of  the  remainder  will  be  given  in  the  words  of  the  historian  of 
the  Indian  wars,  Kev.  William  Hubbard,  of  Ipswich. 

••  Tlie  men  among  them,  to  the  number  of  thirty,*  were  turned  presently  into 
Charon's  ferry-boat,  under  the  command  of  skipper  Gullup,  who  despatched 
them  a  little  without  the  harbor.** 

It  is  sad  to  think  that  the  pure  waters  of  our  beautiful  river  should 
have  closed  over  the  fate  of  these  unresisting  children  of  the  forest. 

1  Winthrop's  Jotunal,  vol.  1,  p.  8S2. 

t  B.  Wmiams,  (Mass.  Hist.  CoIL,  vol.  21,  p.  168,)  hi  alluding  to  the  Peqnot  captahi 
aiken  prisoner  by  Totash,  and  reserved  for  future  service,  says,  he  was  kept  under 
guard  in  the  EngKsh  houset^  using  the  plural  number.  The  text  attempts  to  reconcile 
tbe  different  authorities  by  supposhig  that  Stoughton  erected  a  kind  of  block-house, 
with  a  cluster  of  huts  around  it,  all  surroimded  by  an  inclosure,  which  gave  it  a  kind 
of  unity. 

8  Williams,  vi  supra,  p.  160.  Afterward  known  as  the  Pine,  or  Mast  Swamp  of 
Groton. 

4  Not  two  sachems,  as  some  have  represented,  but  one,  with  the  long  and  apparently 
doable  name  of  Puttaquappuonck-quame. 

6  Wtnthrop  says  twenty-two;  Trumbull,  twenty-eight;  thirty  mei\  were  taken  in 
tlie  flwanq),  and  he  subtracts  two  for  the  long-named  sachem. 

4 


38  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

Mr.  Wilson  had  left  the  armj  before  this  execatkm  took  place.  The 
commanders  bj  whose  authoritj  it  was  performed,  acted  in  conform- 
itj  with  their  instructions  and  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The  precise  date 
of  this  awful  act  of  vengeance  has  not  been  ascertained:  it  was  near 
the  last  of  June,  1637.'  Capt.  Stoughton  was  joined  in  his  encamp- 
ment by  Mr.  Haines,  Mr.  Ludlow,  Ci4)t  Mason,  and  thirty  or  forty 
men  from  the  towns  on  Connecticut  River — also  by  Miantin^moh,  the 
Narragansett  chief  sachem,  and  200  warriors,  who  came  over  by  land* 
Uncas  and  his  men,  with  the  whole  Nahantick  tribe,  were  also  with- 
in calL  What  a  brave  and  stirring  scene  for  that  olden  time,  was 
exhibited  on  this  promontory,  then  so  wild  and  gloomy, — ^now  beauti- 
fied by  cultivation,  and  covered  with  a  fair  town  I 

The  Pequots  as  a  nation  were  soon  nearly  extinct.  Guided  by 
Indian  allies  who  knew  every  pass  of  the  country,  the  English  forces 
pursued  them  to  the  west  by  sea  and  land,  carrying  destruction  with 
them.  The  haunts  of  the  fugitives  were  discovered,  many  warricnrs 
killed,  and  women  and  children  captured.  Their  chief  and  his  few 
followers  fleeing  fix>m  the  hot  pursuit,  were  chased  along  the  coast, 
with  a  haste  and  vigilance  that  left  no  chance  of  escape ;  and  driven 
upon  the  weapons  of  the  Mohawks,  another  equally  unrelenting  foe, 
they  perished :  and  in  that  day  no  one. pitied  them. 

So  little  did  our  ancestors  understand  the  true  spirit  of  Christianity, 
in  regard  to  the  ignorant  natives  of  the  land,  that  they  appear  to  have 
swept  the  Pequots  from  existence  without  any  misgivings  of  con- 
science or  sensibility.  In  the  work  of  destruction  they  displayed 
neither  reluctance  nor  compunction;  and  at  the  close  of  it  sang 
hymns  of  thanksgiving  to  Gk>d,  ascribing  their  success  to  the  wisdom 
of  those  measures,  which  his  providence  had  inspired,  approved,  and 
crowned  with  success.  An  overruling  power  was  indeed  making  use 
of  their  instrumentality,  to  accomplish  its  wise  designs.  The  wilder- 
ness has  been  subdued,  the  face  of  natm'e  beautified  by  cultivation  ; 
villages  have  sprung  up  like  blossoms,  and  cities  like  stately  trees ; 
churches  have  been  multiplied,  and  the  living  God  is  now  acknowl- 
edged and  honoi'ed  in  a  region  that  for  ages  had  been  devoted  to  the 
worship  of  evil  spirits. 


1  Winthrop  records  it  under  date  of  first  week  in  Jaly ;  Tmmbull  has  the  margmal 
date  of  June.  It  must  have  been  the  last  of  June  or  first  of  July.  Capt.  Stoughton 
arrived  at  Pequot  "  a  fortnight  after  the  Connecticut  forces  reached  home,**— that  is, 
about  the  middle  of  June.    He  returned  to  Boston,  August  26th. 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Founder  of  New  London. — His  personal  history. — Grants  of  Fisher's  Island. 
Senlement  ofPeqnot  Harbor. — ^Natal  day.— Commission  from  Massachusetts. 
First  planters. — Bride  Brook  marriage.     1645,  1646. 

John  Winthbop,  the  younger,  eminentlj  deserves  the  title  of 
Founder  of  New  London.  He  selected  the  site,  projected  the  under^ 
taking,  entered  into  it  with  zeal  and  embarked  his  fortune  in  the  en- 
terprise. His  house  upon  Fisher's  Island  was  the  first  English  resi- 
dence in  the  Pequot  country.  He  brought  on  the  first  company  of 
settlers,  laid  out  the  plan  of  the  new  town,  organized  the  municipal 
govemment,  conciliated  the  neighboring  Indians,  and  determined  the 
bounds  of  the  plantation. 

The  family  seat  of  the  Winthrops  in  England,  was  at  Groton,  in 
Sufiblk.  Hence  the  name  of  Groton,  bestowed  on  those  lands  east  of 
the  river,  which  were  at  first  included  in  New  London.  Adam  Win- 
throp,  of  Sufiblk,  was  a  gentleman  of  fair  estate  and  honorable  char- 
acter :  the  maiden  name  of  his  wife,  which  was  StiUf  we  find  pre- 
served among  his  descSendants.  Their  oldest  son,  John,  was  the  leader 
of  that  second  Puritan  emigration  from  England,  which  settled  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts,  and  is  justly  considered  the  founder  of  Bos- 
ton. His  first  wife,  whom  he  married  at  a  very  early  age,  was  Mary, 
daughter  of  John  Forth,  Esq.,  of  Great  Stanbridge,  Essex  ;^  and  of 
this  marriage,  the  eldest  child  was  John,  known  with  us  as  John 
Winthrop,  the  younger, — Governor  of  Connecticut,  and  the  person  in 
whose  history,  as  founder  of  New  London,  we  are  now  particularly 
interested.  He  was  bom  February  12th,  1605-6.  At  the  age  of  six- 
teen he  was  sent  to  the  University  of  Dublin,  where  he  continued 
about  three  years."  In  1627,  when  twenty-one  years  of  age,  he  was 
in  the  service  of  the  unfortunate  Duke  of  Buckingham,  in  the  fruit- 


1  Savage.    Notes  to  Winthrop^s  Joomalf  vol.  1,  p.  164. 

2  Savage.    (MS.) 


40  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

less  attempt  to  assist  the  Protestants  of  Bochelle,  in  France.  He 
married,  February  8th,  1680-1,  Martha,  daughter  of  Thomas  Fones, 
Esq.,  of  London,'  and  arrived  in  Massachusetts  with  his  wife  Nov. 
2d,  the  same  year.  This  lady  died  at  Agawam,  (Ipswich,)  May 
14th,  1684,'  leaving  no  children. 

After  her  death,  Mr.  Winthrop  spent  some  time  in  England,  where 
he  married,  Feb.  12th,  1685,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Edward  Read, 
Esq.,  of  Wickford,  in  Essex ;'  and  returned  with  her  to  this  country. 
He  arrived  the  next  October,*  and  having  been  commissioned  by  the 
patentees  of  Connecticut,  to  build  a  fort  and  begin  a  plantation  at 
Saybrook,  (as  before  mentioned,)  was  immediately  occupied  with 
that  business.  But  the  commission  was  only  for  one  year,  and  we 
have  no  account  of  its  renewal  In  1688  and  '89,  he  was  living  at 
Ipswich,  where  he  set  up  salt-works  at  Ryal  side.*  October  7th,  1 640, 
he  obtained  from  the  Greneral  Court  of  Massachusetts,  a  grant  of 
Fisher's  Island,  so  far  as  it  was  theirs  to  grant,  reserving  the  right  of 
Connecticut,  if  it  should  be  decided  to  belong  to  that  colony.'  In 
order  therefore  to  obtain  a  clear  title,  he  applied  to  Connecticut,  and 
n^as  answered  by  the  Court  as  follows : 

«« April  9,  1641. 

**  Upon  Mr.  Winthrop's  motion  to  the  Court  for  Fysher's  Island,  it  is  the  mind 
of  the  Court  that  so  far  as  it  hinders  not  the  public  good  of  the  country,  either 
for  fortifying  for  defence,  or  setting  up  a  trade  for  fishing  or  salt,  and  such  like, 
he  shall  have  liberty-  to  proceed  therein."'' 

The  islands  in  Long  Island  Sound  were  at  first  very  naturally  re- 
garded as  lying  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut.  But  in  1664 
they  were  all  included  in  the  patent  of  New  York,  and  Connecticut 
having  reluctantly  yielded  her  title,  Winthrop  obtained  from  Governor 
Nicholls,  of  New  York,  a  patent,  bearing  date  Mar.  28th,  1668,  which 
confirmed  to  him  the  possession  of  Fisher's  Island,  and  declared  it  to 


1  Savage.    Gleanings  in  Mass.  Hist.  CoU.  Sd  series,  vol.  8^  p.  207. 

2  Feirs  Hist,  of  Ipswich. 

8  She  was  baptized  at  Wickford,  Nov.  27th,  1614.    Savage,  MS. 

4  Hugh  Peters,  a  Puritan  divine,  came  over  at  the  same  time,  with  the  expeiitatioD 
of  settling  in  America.  It  is  probable  that  he  was  the  step-fathbr  of  Mrs.  Winthrop. 
Peters  is  said  to  have  married  a  gentlewoman  of  Essex,  abont  the  year  1625,  (ftee  Gen. 
Beg.,  voL  5,  p.  11,)  and  there  are  reasons  for  supposing  that  she  was  the  relict  of  £d« 
ward  Read,  Esq.    See  Mass.  Hist.  ColL,  8d  series,  10,  2,  27. 

6  Felt,  p.  78. 

6  Vintpra. 

7  Colonial  Becoidi  of  Connecticut,  voL  1,  p.  64. 


HISTORY   OF   NEW     LONDON.  41 

be  ^  an  entire  enfiranchked  township,  manor  and  place  of  itself,  in  no 
wise  subordinate  or  belonging  unto  or  dependent  upon,  any  riding, 
township,  place  or  jurisdiction  whatever."^ 

Winthrop's  title  to  Fisher's  Island  was  therefore  confinned  by 
three  colonies.'  This  island  had  been  a  noted  fishing  ground  of  the 
Peqoots ;  it  was  also  a  fine  park  for  the  huntsman,  the  woods  that 
densely  shaded  the  interior  being  well  stocked  with  deer,  and  other 
wild  animals.  In  the  days  of  Indian  prosperity,  it  must  have  been 
a  place  of  great  resort,  especially  in  the  summer  season.  Canoes 
might  be  seen  glidiug  over  the  waves,  children  sporting  on  the  shore, 
women  weaving  mats  on  the  grass,  and  hunters  with  bow  and  arrow 
plun^g  into  the  thickets.  After  the  destruction  of  the  Pequots,  this 
iittr  island  lay  deserted,  unclaimed,  waiting  for  a  possessor.  Win- 
throp  seized  the  favorable  moment,  and  became  the  fortunate  owner 
of  one  of  the  richest  gems  of  the  Sound. 

But  he  appears  to  have  been  in  no  haste  to  occupy  his  grant* 
After  it  was  confirmed  by  Connecticut,  in  1641,  he  went  to  England, 
and  was  long  absent  Returning  in  1643,  he  brought  over  workmen, 
stock  and  implements  to  establish  iron  works ;  which  were  soon  com- 
menced at  Lynn  and  Braintree,  and  for  a  time,  were  prosecuted  with 
zeal  and  success.'  Mr.  Winthrop  had  an  investigating  turn  of  mind, 
and  a  great  love  for  the  natiiral  sciences.  His  education  had  been 
scientific ;  he  was  fond  of  mineralogical  pursuits,  and  ever  on  the 
watch  to  detect  the  treasures  concealed  in  the  bosom  of  the  eai-th,  and 
to  brin^them  forth  for  the  benefit  of  man. 

It  is  probable  that  he  commenced  building  and  planting  on  Fish- 
er's Island,  in  the  spring  of  1644,  before  he  obtained  the  foUowiog 
grant  from  the  Greneral  Court  of  Massachusetts. 

•*  1644,  June  28.  Granted  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  a  plantation  at  or  near  Peqiiotl 
for  iron  works."*  , 

By  Pequody  we  must  understand  the  territory  lying  around  Pequot 
harbor :  the  word  plantation,  is  indefinite,  but  doubtless  merely  im- 
plied a  liberal  sufficiency  of  land  for  the  contemplated  works.  It 
seems  to  have  been  well  understood  between  Mr.  Winthrop  and  the 

1  Thompson's  Hist,  of  Long  Island,  p.  249. 

2  Thompson  states  that  Whithiop  jfkrchastd  the  island  in  1644.  The  facts  in  the 
text  show  that  it  was  a  free  grant  from  Massachusetts,  confirmed  bj  Connecticut  and 
New  York. 

S  Savage :  notes  to  Winthrop,  vol.  2^  p.  218. 
4  Felt,  p.  78. 

4* 


42  BISTORT     OF     NBW     LONDON. 

magistrates,  that  he  was  to  take  possession  of  the  Pe^piot  territorj, 
and  throw  it  open  for  immediate  occupancy  and  settlement.  The 
special  grant  to  himself  was  but  the  first  stroke  of  this  main  desagn. 
Many  persons  in  the  Bay  colony  had  fixed  their  minds  upon  Pequot 
harbor  as  a  desirable  place  for  a  new  plantation.  The  position  was 
the  best  on  the  coast  for  trade  with  the  Indians  and  the  Dutch,  and 
they  naturally  wished  to  reap  the  advantage,  by  antidpatiog  their 
neighbors  on  Connecticut  River,  and  settling  it  as  a  colony  under  their 
jurisdiction. 

Capt.  Stoughton,  while  encamped  at  Pequot  in  1637,  had  written 
to  the  Grovemor  and  Council,  recommending  it  as  a  good  site  for  a 
plantation.  His  letter  was  apparently  in  answer  to  enquiries  made 
by  them.  After  mentioning  the  principal  defect  in  the  country — the 
entire  absence  of  meadows — and  that  for  the  most  part  it  was  too 
rocky  for  the  plough, — he  proceeds  to  state  that  '^  the  upland  is  good.'* 

**  Indeed,  were  there  no  better,  'twere  worthy  the  best  of  us,  the  upland  be- 
ing, as  I  judge,  stronger  land  than  the  bay  upland. 

**  But  if  you  would  enlarge  the  state  and  provide  for  the  poor  servants  of 
Christ,  that  are  yet  unprovided,  (which  I  esteem  a  worthy  work,)  I  must  speak 
my  conscience.  It  seems  to  me,  God  hath  much  people  to  bring  hither,  and 
the  place  is  too  strait,  [t.  c,  the  settlements  in  the  Bay,]  most  think.  And  if  so, 
then  considering,  1st,  the  goodness  of  the  land ;  2d,  the  fairness  of  the  title; 
3d,  the  neighborhood  to  Connecticut  ;*  4th,  the  good  access  that  may  be  there- 
to, wherein  it  is  before  Connecticut,  dec,  and  5th,  that  an  ill  neighbor  may 
possess  it,  if  a  good  do  not, — I  should  readily  give  it  my  good  word,  if  any 
good  souls  have  a  good  liking  to  it"^  « 

Capt  Stougfaton's  opinion  of  the  goodness  of  the  land,  though 
given  with  caution,  was  perhaps  too  favorable.  The  ancient  domain 
of  the  Pequots,  Mohegans  and  Nahanticks,  must  have  been  in  ita 
original  state,  a  wilderness  of  stem  and  desolate  character.  An  un- 
derlying base  of  rock,  is  every  where  ambitious  to  intrude  into  light, 
and  oflen  appears  in  huge  masses  heaped  together,  or  broken,  and 
tossed  about  in  wild  disorder.  Places  often  occur,  where  the  surface 
is  actually  bristled  with  rocks,  and  as  a  general  fact,  the  countiy  ia 
uneven  and  the  soil  hard  to  cultivate.  A  large  amount  of  physical 
energy  must  be  expended,  before  the  way  is  prepared  for  ordinary 
tillage  and  the  improvements  of  taste.     It  was  no  light  task  that  lay 

_ 

1  The  name  GmnecUcul^  was  then  confined  to  the  plantations  on  the  river:  Pequot 
was  not  a  part  of  it. 

2  Sav.  Win!,  vol.  1,  app.,  p.  400,  where  Sto\igfaton*s  letter  is  given  entire.  "  From 
Pequid,  Sd  day  of  the  6th  week  of  our  warfare.** 


9IBTOBT    OP    NBW    LONDON.  43 

iDMuscompMabed  in  the  future,  to  clear  awaj  the  tangled  forests,  re- 
claim the  fttODj  pastures,  the  rugged  hill  tops  and  miry  swamps,  and 
soften  down  the  stem  landscape  to  fertile  fields  and  pleasant  gardens. 

In  the  summer  of  1 645,  we  find  the  work  actuaUy  commenced.  Win- 
throp  is  at  Pequot  Harbor,  engaged  in  clearing  up  the  land,  and 
laying  out  the  new  plantation.  With  him, — ^heart  and  hand  in  the 
imdeitidking,— ^  Mr.  Thomas  Peters,  the  brother  of  Hugh.  This 
gentleman  was  an  ejected  Puritan  clergyman  from  Cornwall,  Eng- 
land, who  had  been  officiating  as  minister  of  Saybrook ;  or  more 
properly  as  chaplain  to  Mr.  Fenwick  and  the  garrison  of  the  Fort* 
He  entered  cordially  into  the  project  of  a  new  settlement,  with  the 
expectation  of  becoming  a  permanent  inhabitant,  and  doubtless  of 
exercising  his  sacred  functions  in  the  place. 

This  was  the  summer  in  which  Pessacus,  the  Narragansett  sa- 
chem, with  a  large  number  of  warriors,  breathing  vengeance  for  the 
death  of  Miantinomoh,  invaded  Mohegan,  and  with  flight  and  terror 
before  him,  broke  up  the  principal  village  of  the  tribe.  The  women 
and  children,  as  usual,  fled  to  woods  and  hiding-places,  and  Uncas 
and  his  warriors,  after  a  severe  conflict,  in  which  many  of  them  were  - 
wounded,  took  refuge  within  the  inclosure  of  their  principal  fort, 
where  they  were  besieged  by  their  foes.  Hunger  would  soon  have 
brought  them  to  a  disgraceful  submission,  had  they  not  been  re- 
lieved by  the  timely  arrival  of  a  boat-load  of  provisions  sent  by  Capt 
Mason,  from  Saybrook.  Favored  by  the  darkness  of  the  night,  and 
the  want  of  vigilance  in  the  invaders,  this  supply  was  safely  con- 
veyed into  the  fortress.  In  the  morning,  the  Narragansetts  discov- 
ering that  not  only  the  necessities  of  Uncas  were  relieved,  but  that 
he  was  encouraged  by  the  presence  and  protection  of  the  English, 
suddenly  relinquished  the  siege  and  departed. 

Messrs.  Winthrop  and  Peters  also  went  to  the  scene  of  conflict, 
probably  with  the  design  of  mediating  between  the  parties,  but 
reached  the  spot  just  after  the  flight  of  the  invaders. 

A  letter  written  by  Mr.  Peters  to  the  elder  Winthrop,  at  Boston, 
respecting  this  Indian  foray,  is  extant,  in  which  he  says — 

•*  1  with  your  son,  were  at  Uncus'  fort,  where  I  dressed  [the  wounds  of] 
seventeen  men,  and  left  plasters  to  dress  seventeen  more,  who  were  wounded 
in  Uncus'  brother's  wigwam  before  we  came."* 

1  Successor  to  Mr.  Higginson.  The  date  of  his  arrival  in  this  country  is  not  ascep- 
tained.  He  was  at  Saybrook  in  1643.  (Half-century  Sermon  of  Rev.  Mr.  Hotchkiss, 
e€  Saybrook,  and  Trumbull^s  Connecticut.) 

2  Sav.  Win.,  voL  2,  app.,  p.  880. 


44  aiSTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

There  is  jet  other  proof  that  Winthrop  was  on  the  ground,  he^n^ 
ning  the  plantation,  or  preparing  its  waj,  in  1645.  Roger  Williama 
addressed  a  letter 

**  For  his  honored,  kind  friend,  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  at  Pequt — These — 
Nar.  22.  4.  45."     [Narraganset,  22  June,  1645.] 

In  this  letter  he  observes : — ^*'  William  Cheesbrough  now  come  in 
shall  be  readilj  assisted  for  your  and  his  own  sake," — ^implying  that 
Chesebrough  came  from  Pequot  with  advices  from  Mr.  Winthrop. 
At  ^e  close  of  his  letter  he  adds, — ^*'  Loving  salutes  to  your  dearest 
and  kind  sister."^ 

The  lady  to  whom  allusion  is  here  made,  as  being  then  at  Pequot^ 
was  Mrs.  Lake.  She  is  oflen  mentioned  in  subsequent  letters  of  the 
same  series,  and  was  probably  tiie  sister  of  Mrs.  Winthrop.  How 
she  came  to  be  present  in  the  rude  encampment  of  this  first  summer, 
before  Mr.  Winthrop  brought  on  his  wife  and  children,  and  when  no 
better  accommodations  could  be  furnished  than  those  of  the  wood- 
man's tent,  or  the  Lidian  wigwam,  can  not  be  accurately  stated.  In 
.  the  absence  of  proof,  the  supposition  may  be  made,  that  she  had 
been  dwelling  at'  Saybrook  with  the  Fenwicks  and  Mr.  Peters,  and 
came  with  the  latter  to  the  infant  settlement.' 

Honor  to  Margaret  Lake  I  the  first  European  female  that  trod 
upon  our  fair  heritage. 

Here  then  are  three  persons  who  can  be  named  as  being  upon  the 
ground  in  the  sunmier  of  1645.  Without  doubt  a  small  band  of  in* 
dependent  planters  were  also  engaged  in  laying  out  and  fencing  lots, 
erecting  huts,  and  providing  food  for  their  cattle.  We  learn  from 
subsequent  claims  and  references,  that  the  marshes  and  meadows  in 
the  vicinity,  were  mowed  that  year,  viz : — at  Lower  Mamacock,  by 
Robert  Hempstead;  at  Upper  Mamacock,  by  John  Stebbins  and 
Isaac  Willey ;  and  at  Fog-plain,  by  Gary  Latham  and  Jacob  AVater- 
house.'    It  is  likewise  probable  that  Thomas  Miner  and  William 


1  Mass.  Hist  Coll.,  2d  series,  y<d.  9,  p.  268.    Chesebrough  was  engaged  hi  the 
Indian  trade. 

2  If,  as  is  conjectured,  Mrs.  Winthrop  and  Mrs.  Lake,  were  the  step-danghtere  of 
Hugh  Peters,  Mr.  Thomas  Peters,  according  to  current  acceptation,  was  their  uncle. 

8  Of  Latham,  we  have  incidental  testimony  from  Winthrop  himself,  who,  in  a  doo 
nment  upon  record,  says  that  he  was  with  him  '*  in  the  beginning  of  the  plantation.*' 
The  first  grants  of  Robert  Hempstead,  have  in  the  old  book  of  grants,  the  marginal 
date  of  1646. 


HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON.  45 

Monrton  belonged  to  this  advance  partf.  It  maj  be  conjectured  that 
some  eight  or  ten  planters  remained  through  the  season,  accommoda- 
ted partly  in  the  huts  of  the  Indians,  and  that  Mr.  Winthrop,  Mr. 
Peters,  and  Mrs.  Lake  retired  to  Boston,  before  winter  came  on  with 
Beverity. 

That  a  beginning  of  the  plantation  was  thus  made  in  1645,  is  fur- 
ther placed  beyond  doubt,  by  the  court  order  issued  for  its  goyerh- 
ment  the  next  year,  which  speaks  of  it  as  already  begun,  and  this  be- 
ing early  in  the  season,  must  refer  to  what  was  done  the  preceding 
year.  But  all  historians  who  hare  treated  of  the  settlement  of  New 
liondon,  have  placed  its  commencement  in  1646.  And  as  a  settle- 
ment or  fiUing  downy  as  our  fathers  termed  it,  supposes  permanent 
habitations  and  municipal  laws,  that  period  is  the  most  accurate. 
There  is  a  manifest  propriety  in  dating  the  existence  of  the  town, 
from  the  time  when  the  conoonission  for  gOYcmment  was  issued,  and 
we  are  happily  enabled  to  determine  the  point  in  this  manner. 

The  Natal  Day  of  New  London,  6th  op  Mat,  1646. 

**  At  a  General  Court  held  at  Boston,  6th  of  May,  1646.  Whereas  Mr.  John 
Winihrop,  Jan.,  and  some  others,  have  by  allowance  of  this  Court  begun  a 
plantation  in  the  Pequot  country,  which  appertains  to  this  jurisdiction,  as  part 
of  oar  proportion  of  the  conquered  country,  and  whereas  this  Court  is  infoimed 
that  some  Indians  who  are  now  planted  upon  the  place,  where  the  said  planta- 
tion is  begun,  are  willing  to  remove  from  their  planting  ground  for  the  more 
qaiet  and  convenient  settling  of  the  English  there,  so  that  they  may  have  another 
convenient  place  appointed, — it  is  therefore  ordered  that  Mr.  John  Winthrop 
may  appoint  unto  such  Indians  as  are  willing  to  remove,  their  lands  on  the 
other  side,  that  is,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Great  River  of  the  Pequot  country > 
or  some  other  place  for  their  convenient  planting  and  subsistence,  which  may 
be.  to  the  good  liking  and  satisfaction  of  the  said  Indians,  and  likewise  to  such 
of  the  Pequot  Indians  as  shall  desire  to  live  there,  submitting  themselves  to  the 
English  government,  &c. 

'*  And  whereas  Mr.  Thomas  Peters  is  intended  to  inhabit  in  the  said  planta- 
tion,— this  Court  dath  think  fit  to  join  him  to  assist  the  said  Mr.  Winthrop,  for 
the  better  carrying  on  the  work  of  said  plantation.  A  true  copy,"  &c.  New 
London  Records,  Book  VI. 

The  elder  Winthrop  records  the  commencement  of  the  plantation 
under  date  of  June,  1646. 

*•  a  plantation  was  this  year  begun  at  Pequod  river,  by  Mr.  John  Winthrop, 
Jan.,  [and]  Mr.  Thomas  Peter,  a  minister,  (brother  to  Mr.  Peter,  of  Salem,) 
and  [at]  this  Court,  power  was  given  to  them  two  for  ordering  and  governing 
the  plantation,  till  further  order,  although  it  was  uncertain  whether  it  would  fall 
within  our  jurisdiction  or  not,  because  they  of  Connecticut  challenged  it  by 


46  HISTOKT     or    NEW    LONDON* 

virtue  of  a  patent  from  the  king,  wbtelr  wat  nerer  showed  ui."  '*  It  mattered 
not  much  to  which  jurisdiction  it  did  belong,  seeing  the  confederation  made  all 
as  one ;  but  it  was  of  great  concernment  to  have  it  planted,  to  be  a  curb  to  the 
Indians."* 

The  uncertaintj  with  respect  to  jarisdiction,  hung  at  first  like  a 
cloud  over  the  plantation.  The  subject  was  discussed  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  commissioners  at  New  Haven,  in  September,  1646.  Mas- 
sachusetts claimed  by  conquest,  Connecticut  bj  patent,  purchase  and 
conquest.     The  record  sajs : 

**  It  was  remembered  that  in  a  treaty  betwixt  them  at  Cambridge,  in  1638, 
not  perfisoted,  a  proposition  was  made  that  Pequot  river,  in  reference  to  the  con- 
quest, should  be  the  bounds  betwixt  them,  but  Mr.  Fenwick  was  not  then  there 
to  plead  the  patent,  neither  had  Connecticut  then  any  title  to  those  lands  by 
purchase  or  deed  of  gift  from  Uncus." 

The  decisimi  at  this  time  was,  that  ueAeas  hereafter,  Massachusetts 
should  show  better  tiUe,  the  jurisdiction  should  belong  to  Connecti- 
cut. This  issue  did  not  settle  the  controversy.  It  was  again  agita- 
ted at  the  Commissioners'  Court,  held  at  Boston,  in  July,  1 647 ;  at 
which  time  Mr.  Winthrop,  who  had  been  supposed  to  favor  the  claims 
of  Massachusetts,  expressed  himself  as  ^^more  indifferent,"  but 
affirmed  that  some  members  of  the  plantation,  who  had  settled  there, 
in  reference  to  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  expectation 
of  large  privileges  from  that  colony,  would  be  much  disappointed,  if  it 
should  be  assigned  to  any  other  jurisdiction. 

The  majority  again  gave  their  voice  in  favor  dT  Connecticaty 
assigning  this  reason — ^^'Jurisdiction  goeth  constantly  with  the 
Patent''^ 

Massachusetts  made  repeated  exceptions  to  this  decision.  The 
argument  was  in  truth  weak,  inasmuch  as  the  Warwick  Patent  seems 
never  to  have  b^en  transferred  to  Connecticut, — ^the  colony  being  for 
many  years  without  even  a  copy  of  that  insteiiment.  The  right  from 
conquest  was  the  only  valid  foundation  on  which  she  could  rest  her 
claim,  and  here  her  position  was  impregnable. 

Mr.  Peters  appears  to  have  been  from  the  first,  associated  with 
Winthrop  in  the  projected  settlement,  having  a  coordinate  autiioritj 
and  manifesting  an  equal  degree  of  zeal  and  energy  in  the  under- 
taking. But  his  continuance  in  the  country,  and  all  his  plans  in  re- 
gard to  the  new  town,  were  cut  short  by  a  summons  from  home, 

1  Sav.  Winthrop,  ToL  S,  p.  365. 

a  Becordi  of  the  United  Coloniei.    (Hasard,  vol.  S.) 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LOI^DON.  47 

inYiting  him  to  return  to  the  guidance  of  his  ancient  flock  in  Com- 
walL  He  left  Pequot,  never  to  see  it  again,  in  the  autumn  of  1646.^ 
In  November  he  was  in  Boston  preparing  to  embark.^ 

Mr.  Winthrop  removed  his  family  from  Boston  in  October,  '46 ; 
his  brother,  Deane  WinUirop,  accompanied  him.  Thej  came  by 
sea,  encountering  a  violent  tempest  on  the  passage,  and  dwelt  during 
the  first  winter  on  Fisher's  Island.  A  part  of  the  children  were  left 
behind  in  Boston,  but  joined  their  parents  the  next  summer;  at 
which  time,  Mr.  Winthrop  having  built  a  house,  removed  his  family 
to  the  town  plot^  Mrs.  Lake  returned  to  the  plantation  in  1647) 
and  was  regarded  as  an  inhabitant,  having  a  home  lot  assigned  to 
her,  and  sharing  in  grants  and  divisions  of  land,  as  other  settlers, 
though  she  was  not  a  householder.  She  resided  in  the  family  of 
Winthrop  until  after  he  was  chosen  governor  of  the  colony,  and  re- 
moved to  Hartford.  The  latter  part  of  her  life  was  spent  at  Ips- 
wich. 

Gk)vemor  Winthrop,  of  Massachusetts,  regarded  the  new  planta- 
tion with  great  interest.  As  a  patriot,  a  statesman  and  a  father,  his 
mind  expatiated  upon  it  with  hope  and  solicitude.  A  few  days  after 
the  departure  from  Boston  of  his  son,  with  his*  family,  he  wrote  to 
him: 

^**  The  blessing  of  the  Lord  be  upon  you,  and  he  protect  and  guide  you  in  this 
great  undertaking." 

'*  I  commend  you  and  my  good  daughter,  and  your  children,  and  Deane,  and 
an  your  company  in  your  plantation,  (whom  I  desire  to  salute,)  to  the  gracious 
pioteetion  and  blessing  of  the  Lord/' 

To  this  chapter  may  properly  be  added  the  relation  of  a  romantic 
incident  that  occurred  at  an  early  period  of  the  settlement,  and  which 

1  Edward  Winslow,  hi  his  work  "  New  England's  Salamander  Discovered,"  written 
in  EDi^and  in  1647,  has  this  passage:  Mr.  Thomas  Peters,  a  mii^ter  that  was  driven 
out  of  Cornwall  by  Sir  Ralph  Hopton  in  these  late  wars,  and  fled  to  New  Enghuid  for 
shelter,  being  called  back  by  his  people,  and  now  m  London,  &c. 

S  SaT.  Win.,  toL  2,  app.,  p.  862.  His  wife  never  came  to  this  countiy.  See  Gen. 
Beg.  voL  2,  p.  68,  where  in  a  letter  to  the  elder  Winthrop,  he  complains  that  though 
he  had  written  many  letters  to  his  wife  and  brother,  he  "  never  could  receive  one  syl- 
lable from  either." 

S  See  letters  from  the  elder  Winthrop  to  his  son,  in  the  appendix  to  Savage's  Win- 
throp. They  are  directed  to  Fisher's  Island,  until  May,  1647,  when  the  address  is 
•*  To  my  very  good  son,  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  at  Nameage,  upon  Pequot  river."  Mr. 
Wiiithrop*s  children,  Elixabeth,  Wait-Still,  Mary  and  Lucy,  were  left  for  tiie  first  sea- 
son in  Boston.  Probably  Fitz-John  and  Margaret,  the  latter  an  infant,  came  with 
thi^  parents.  Martha  was  b<»ti  at  Pequot  in  July  or  August,  1648.  Anne,  the 
youngest  child,  was  also  in  all  probabili^  bom  here,  but  neither  of  these  births  are  on 
our  recoffds* 


48 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 


had  an  important  bearing  on  the  western  boundary  question  that  sub- 
sequently threw  ^e  town  into  a  belligerent  attitude  toward  Lyme. 

In  March,  1672,  when  the  controversy  in  respect  to  bounds  be- 
tween New  London  and  Lyme  was  carried  before  the  Legislature, 
Mr.  Winthrop,  then  governor  of  the  colony,  being  called  on  for  hia 
testimony,  gave  it  in  a  narrative  form  ;  his  object  being  to  show  ex- 
plicitly, that  the  little  stream  known  as  Bride  Brook,  was  originally 
regarded  as  the  boundary  between  the  two  plantations.  The  pre- 
amble of  his  deposition  is  in  substance  as  follows  : 

•*  When  we  began  the  plantation  in  the  Pequot  country,  now  called  New  Lon- 
don, I  bad  a  commission  from  the  Massachusetts  government,  and  the  ordering 
of  matters  was  left  to  myself.  Not  finding  meadow  sufficient  for  even  a  small 
plantation,  unless  the  meadows  and  marshes  west  of  Nahantick  river  were  ad- 
joined, I  determined  that  the  bounds  of  the  plantation  should  be  to  the  brook, 
now  called  Bride  Brook,  which  was  looked  upon  as  certainly  without  Saybrook 
bounds.  This  was  an  encouragement  to  proceed  with  the  plantation,  which 
otherwise  could  not  have  gone  on,  there  being  no  suitable  accommodation  near 
the  place." 

Li  corroboration  of  this  fact,  and  to  show  that  the  people  of  Say- 
brook  at  first  acquiesced  in  this  boundary  line,  the  governor  related 
an  incident  which  he' says  ''fell  out  the  first  winter  of  our  settling 
there."  This  must  have  been  the  winter  of  1646-7,  which  was  the 
first  spent  by  him  in  the  plantation.  The  main  points  of  the  stoiy 
were  these : 

A  young  couple  in  Saybrook  were  to  be  married :  the  groom  was 
Jonathan  Rudd.  The  governor  does  not  give  the  name  of  the  bride, 
and  unfortunately  the  omission  is  not  supplied  by  either  record  or 
tradition.  The  wedding  day  was  fixed,  and  a  magistrate  from  one 
of  the  upper  towns  on  the  river,  was  engaged  to  perform  ihe  rite ; 
for  there  was  not,  it  seems,  any  person  in  Saybrook  duly  qualified  to 
officiate  on  such  an  occasion.  But, ''  there  falling  out  at  that  time  a 
great  snow,'*  the  paths  were  obliterated,  traveling  obstructed,  and  in- 
tercourse with  the  interior  interrupted ;  so  that  ^  the  magistrate 
intended  to  go  down  thither  was  hindered  by  the  depth  of  the  snow." 
On  the  sea-board  there  is  usually  a  less  weight  of  snow,  and  the 
courses  can  be  more  readily  ascertained.  The  nuptials  must  not  be 
delayed  without  inevitable  necessity.  Application  was  therefore 
made  to  Mr,  Winthrop  to  come  to  Saybrook,  and  unite  the  parties. 
But  he,  deriving  his  authority  from  Massachusetts,  could  not  legally 
officiate  in  Connecticut 

**  I  saw  it  necessary  [he  observes]  to  deny  them  in  that  way,  but  told 
them  for  an  expedient  for  their  accommodation,  if  they  come  to  the  plantation 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON.  49 

it  mtglit  be  done.  But  that  being  too  difficult  for  them,  it  was  agreed  that 
tlief  should  come  to  that  place,  which  is  now  called  Bride  Brook,  as  being  a 
place  within  the  bounds  of  that  authoritj  whereby  I  then  acted ;  otherwise  I 
had  exceeded  the  limits  of  my  commission." 

This  propoeition  was  accepted.  On  the  brink  of  this  little  stream, 
the  bonndary  between  two  colonies,  the  parties  met :  Winthrop  and 
his  friends  from  Peqnot,  and  the  bridal  train  from  Saybrook.  Here 
the  ceremony  was  performed,  under  the  shelter  of  no  roof,  by  no 
lioq>itable  fireside ;  without  any  accommodations  but  those  furnished 
by  the  snow-coTcred  earth,  the  overarching  heaven,  and  perchance 
the  sheltering  side  of  a  forest  of  pines  or  cedars.  Bomantic  lovers 
have  sometimes  pledged  their  faith  by  joining  hands  over  a  narrow 
streamlet ;  but  never,  perhaps,  before  or  since,  was  the  legal  rite  per- 
formed, in  a  situation  so  wild  and  solitary,  and  under  circumstances 
so  interesting  and  peculiar. 

We  are  not  told  how  the  parties  traveled,  whether  on  horseback, 
or  on  sleds  or  snow-shoes ;  nor  what  cheer  they  brought  with  them, 
whether  cakes  or  fruit,  the  juice  of  the  orchard  or  vineyard,  or  the 
fiery  extract  of  the  cane.  We  only  know  that  at  that  time  conven- 
iences and  comforts  were  few,  and  luxuries  unknown.  Yet  simple 
and  homely  as  the  accompaniments  must  have  been,  a  glow  of  hal- 
lowed beauty  will  ever  rest  upon  the  scene.  We  fancy  that  we  hear 
the  foot-tramp  upon  the  crisp  snow ;  the  ice  cracks  as  they  cross 
the  frozen  stream ;  the  wind  sighs  through  the  leafless  forest,  and 
the  clear  voice  of  Winthrop  swells  upon  the  ear  like  a  devout  strain 
of  music,  now  low,  and  then  rising  high  to  heaven,  as  it  passes 
through  the  varied  accents  of  tender  admonition,  legal  decision  and 
solemn  prayer.  The  impressive  group  stand  around,  wrapped  in 
their  frosty  mantles,  with  heads  reverently  bowed  down,  and  at  the 
given  sign,  the  two  plighted  hands  come  forth  from  among  the  furs, 
and  are  clasped  together  in  token  of  a  life-long,  affectionate  trust. 
Hie  scene  ends  in  a  general  burst  of  hearty  hilarity. 

Bride  Brook  issues  from  a  beautiful  sheet  of  water,  known  as 
BrUb  Lake  or  Pond,  and  runs  into  the  Sound  about  a  mile  west  of 
Gianfs  Gove.'  In  a  straight  line  it  is  not  more  than  two  miles  west 
of  Niantick  Bay.  The  Indian  name  of  the  pond,  or  brook,  or  of  both, 
was  Snnk-i-paug  or  Sunkipaug-suck.^ 

1 "  SnnkipttQg  means  cold  uxsUr,  In  Elliot's  Indian  Bible,  Prov.  86 :  26,  he  has,  As 
wlycy  [cold  water]  to  a  thirsty  sool,  &c.  So  in  Matthew,  10 :  42.~Whoeoever  shall 
1^  tfomtipog  [a  cnp  of  cold  water]  to  one  of  these  little  ones,**  &c     (S.  Judd,  MS. ) 

5 


50 


BISTORT     or     NEW     LONDON. 


\XAST 

\, 

f 

\j.YMl 

n/ 

, 

J                  >^ 
\                        K 

i 

( 

1 

I             >    jxaJk*           U 

r 

V 

\ 

} 

I       "1 

)      ^ 
^^*^. 

SKETCH  OF  BBIDE  BROOK. 

It  received  the  name  of  Bride  Brook  on  the  spot,  at  the  time  of 
the  nuptial  celebration. '  Winthrop  in  his  deposition,  (which  is  on 
file  among  the  state  records  at  Hartford,)  says,  ^^  and  at  thai  time  the 
place  had  (i.  e.,  received)  the  denominattan  of  Bride  Brook,**  That 
a  considerable  company  had  aissembled  is  evident  from  the  narrative, 
which  alludes  to  those  present  from  Pequot,  and  to  the  gentlemen  of 
the  other  party,  who  ^  were  weU  satisfied  with  what  was  done.** 

Thus  it  appears  that  Bride  Brook  was  originally  the  western 
boundary  of  New  London.  It  had  been  fixed  upon  as  the  terminus 
between  her  and  Sayboook,  anterior  to  the  marriage  solemnized  upon 
its  eastern  brink,  though  it  obtained  its  name  from  that  occurrence. 


CHAPTER   III. 

Indian  neighbors. — The  Nameugs  and  Mohegans. — ^Hostility  of  ITnoas.— Pro« 
ceedings  of  the  Commissioners  relative  to  the  Peqnots. 

The  whole  extent  of  the  new  settlement  was  a  conquered  conn- 
try.  No  Indian  titles  were  to  be  obtained,  no  Indian  claims  settled* 
It  was  emphaticallj,  as  it  was  then  caUed,  Pequot ;  the  land  left  by 
an  extinguished  tribe ;  or  if  not  extinguished  in  fact,  legally  held  to 
be  so,  and  doomed  to  extinction.  According  to  Winthrop's  own  tes- 
timony,* before  laying  out  the  plantation,  he  collected  all  the  neigh- 
boring Indians  in  one  assembly  in  order  to  ascertain  the  legitimate 
bounds  occupied  by  ^e  Pequot  tribe,  that  no  encroachment  might  be 
made  on  the  rights  of  ihe  Mohegans,  and  that  Uncas  then  made  no 
pretence  to  any  land  east  of  the  river,  nor  claimed  on  the  west  side 
any  further  south  than  Cochikuack,  or  Saw-mill  brook,  and  the  coto  . 
into  which  it  flows.*     This  therefore  was  the  northern  boundary. 

Uncas  was  at  first  much  in  favor  of  the  settlement  of  Winthrop  in 
his  neighborhood,  and  made  him  a  present  of  wampum  in  token  of 
satisfaction.  He  was  then  in  want  of  aid  against  the  Narragansetts* 
But  his  strong  attachment  to  Major  Mason,  and  others  of  the  Con- 
necticut magistrates,  operated  to  produce  distrust  of  a  company  that 
belonged  to  another  jurisdiction.  To  add  to  this  estrangement,  a 
local  jealousy  arose.  The  remnant  of  the  Pequots  that  survived  the 
stru^le  of  1 637,  (and  they  were  more  numerous  than  had  been  sup- 
posed at  the  time,)  were  principally  assigned  to  the  care  of  Uncas, 
and  subjected  to  a  burdensome  tribute.  A  small  settlement  of  these 
Indians  was  found  by  the  English  on  the  site  selected  for  their  plan- 
tation.   They  were  Pequots^  but  caUed,  from  the  place  they  inhab- 

1  Letter  of  the  governor,  Jnne,  1606,  on  Co.  Coort  Records. 

2  About  six  miles  north  of  New  London  Harbor,  where  is  now  the  village  of  Uncas- 
viOe. 


52  HISTORY     OF   NRW    LONDON* 

itedy  bj  the  distinctive  name  of  Nameangs  or  Namearks.  The  chief 
man  among  them  was  Gassasinamon,  to  whom  the  English  gave  the 
familiar  name  of  Rohin. 
t  These  Indians  received  the  English  with  (^n  arms.  Themselves, 
their  huts,  and  all  their  scanty  accommodations,  were  at  their  dispo; 
sal.  Thej  served  as  guides,  messengers,  assistants  and  servants, 
and  thej  were  repaid  with  friendship  and  protection.  The  English 
interfered  to  soften  the  rigor  of  Uncas,  and  abate  his  unreasonable 
exactions.  The  courtesy  with  which  he  at  first  i:ieceived  them,  there- 
fore, was  soon  changed  to  jealousy  and  distrust.  The  first  years  of 
the  plantation  were  rendered  tumultuous  and  uneasy  by  his  threats. 
Straggling  bands  of  savage  warriors,  surly  and  defying,  were  often 
seen  hovering  about  the  settlement,  to  the  great  terror  of  the  inhab- 
itants. 

The  agents  of  the  plantation  say : 

**  He  quieUy  took  oflenoe  and  fett  to  ouuiigcs ;  his  «arriage  hatfi  been  shioe 
a»  if  h«  intemUd,  by  alaranu  and  affngbtmflot»,  to  distrust  and  break  up  tbe 

plantation."* 

The  first  considerable  breach  of  the  peace  occurred  in  die  summer 
of  1646.  The  circumstances  were  briefly  these.  Mr.  Peters  had 
been  indisposed,  and  while  recovering,  requested  the  Nameaugs  to 
procure  him  some  venison.  The  latter  hesitated,  through  fear  of 
Uncas,  tiieir  liege  lord,  who  arrogated  to  himself  the  sole  privilege 
of  making  a  hunt  within  his  dominions.  Being  encouraged,  however, 
to  make  the  attempt,  and  counseled  to  hunt  east  of  the  river,  and  to 
go,  as  if  from  an  Engfish  town,  with  Englishmen  in  company,  Robinf 
with  twenty  of  his  men,  and  a  few  of  the  whites,  crossed  the  river, 
and  uniting  with  another  band  of  Pequots  and  Eastern  Nahanticks, 
under  Wequashkook,  went  forth  in  bold  array,  to  drive  the  deer 
through  the  vast  wilderness  on  that  side  of  the  river.  But  Uncas 
obtained  notice  of  their  design,  and  lay  in  wait  for  them  with  300 
men,  armed  for  war.  Seizing  the  favorable  moment,  he  burst  forth 
upon  the  unprepared  sportsmen,  with  all  the  noise  and  fury  of  an. 
Indian  onset,  and  pursued  them  with  great  clamor  and  fierceness 
back  to  the  plantation.  The  arrows  fiew  thick,  and  some  of  the  Pe- 
quots were  wounded.  Some  Indian  habitations  were  plundered,  and 
cattle  driven  away.  Slight  losses  were  also  sustained  by  the  Eng- 
lish.   The  Mohegan  warriors,  on  their  return  homeward,  showed 

1  Beoords  of  the  Commissioners  in  Hazard,  vol.  S. 


BISTORT     OF     NEW     LONDON.  53 


tiwrnsdves  an  die  failki  near  ike  town  plot^  Makiiig  hostile  demon- 
flteatkmsy  ihaA  filled  the  unaU  band  of  setden  with  perplexity  and 
spiwehennon* 

Tlie  CooFt  €£  CoBuaiseionera  of  the  United  Colonies^  to  whom  the 
adjnatment  of  all  Indian  affiurs  belonged,  met  in  September  at  New 
Haven.  Mr.  Peteri,  b  j  letter,  complained  of  the  ootrag^e  committed 
1^  Uncas.  Wm.  Mort<m  also  appeared  in  person  as  agent  of  the 
plantation,  accompanied  by  three  Nameangs,  and  preferred  various 
charges  against  Uncas ;  all  corroborating  the  fact  that  he  maintained 
an  insolent  and  threatening  attitude  toward  the  English,  and  was 
nniformlj  cruel  and  oppressive  to  the  Pequots.  The  sachem  being 
confronted  with  his  accusers,  had  the  address  to  prove  them  in  the 
wrong,  except  in  the  matter  of  alarming  and  dbturbing  the  English, 
bj  vindicating  his  right,  and  punishing  his  rebellious  subjects,  so  im- 
mediately in  their  vicinity.  For  this  offense  he  apologized,  and  was 
let  off  widi  a  reprimand.  Mr.  Morton  and  his  three  witnesses  were 
rather  unceremoniously  dismissed,  and  the  Nameaugs  were  impera- 
tively commanded  to  return  to  their  allegiance  to  Uncas. 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  commissioners,  (July,  1647,)  Winthrop 
was  himself  present,  and  presented  a  petition  signed  by  sixty-two 
Indians  "  now  dwelling  at  Namyok,"  entreating  to  be  released  from 
subjection  to  Uncas,  and  allowed  to  settle  together  in  one  place  un- 
der ^e  protection  of  the  English.  In  the  debate  upon  this  petition, 
the  whole  conduct  of  Uncas  was  reviewed,  and  th^  court  acknowl- 
edged that  the  outrage  of  the  preceding  summer  bad  been  too  lightly 
treated  by  them.  In  addition  to  former  complaints,  it  was  stated 
that  he  had  been  more  recently  guilty  of  extensive  depredations  upon 
the  Nipmucks,  who  had  settled  on  the  Quinebaug  river,  under  the 
protection  of  the  Massachusetts  government. 

The  charge  also  of  insolent  bearing,  and  hostility  toward  the  new 
settlement  at  Pequot  was  reiterated  against  the  sachem.  Winthrop 
stated,  that  Nowequa,^  the  brother  of  Uncas,  had  made  a  descent 
with  his  men  upon  the  coast  of  Fisher's  Island,  destroyed  a  canoe 
and  alarmed  his  people  who  were  there.  The  same  chief,  on  his  re- 
tom  to  Mohegan, 

**  HoTeied  around  the  English  plantation  in  a  suspicious  manner,  with  forty 
or  fiftj  of  his  men,  many  of  them  armed  with  guns,  to  the  affrightment  not  only 
of  the  Indians  on  the  shore  (so  that  some  of  them  began  to  bring  their  goods  to 
the  English  houses)  but  divers  of  the  English  themselves.*" 

1  The  same  as  Waweequa  or  Waweekui.  2  Hazard,  toI.  2. 

5' 


54  HJBTORT    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

Foxon,  tiie  deputy  of  Uncas  at  this  court,  was  a  prudent  and  skill- 
ful counselor,  esteemed  by  the  natives  ^  the  wisest  Indian  in  the 
country."^  He  used  his  utmost  endeavors  to  exculpate  the  sachem 
from  the  various  charges  brought  against  him,  but  admitted  the  guilt 
of  Waweequa,  under  whom,  he  said,  and  without  the  knowlec^  of 
Uncas,  the  hostile  incursion  had  been  made  on  the  Nipmucks. 

The  court  rebuked  Uncas  for  his  "  sinful  miscarriages,"  and  amer- 
ced him  in  one  hundred  fathoms  of  wampum,  but  repeated  the  order 
that  ^e  Pequots  should  return  to  his  sway  and  become  amalgamated 
with  his  people : 

**  Yet  they  thought  fit  that  the  old  men  who  were  at  Nam-e-oke  before  Mr. 
Winthrop's  coming,  should  continue  there,  or  be  so  provided  for  as  may  best 
suit  the  English  at  Pequot,  but  under  subjection  to  Uncas  as  the  rest.** 

The  refusal  of  the  court  to  comply  with  the  earnest  petition  of  the 
oppressed  Nameaugs,  may  seem  harsh  at  the  present  day.  But  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  Pequots  were  then  a  terror  to  the 
whole  country.  The  very  name  caused  an  involuntary  shuddering, 
or  excited  strong  disgust.  The  commissioners  excuse  their  decision 
by  saying,  that  they  had  not  forgotten  "  the  proud  wars  some  years 
since  made  by  them,  and  the  decree  subsequently  passed  that  they 
should  not  be  suffered  to  retain  their  name,  or  be  a  distinct  people.'** 

It  can  not  be  denied  that  in  all  controversies  between  the  Mohe- 
gans  and  other  Indian  tribes,  the  colonial  authorities  were  inclined 
to  favor  Uncas.  This  chief,  by  the  destruction  of  his  enemies,  and 
the  gratitude  of  the  English,  was  daily  rising  into  importance.  The 
elder  Winthrop  counseled  his  son,  to  cultivate  the  friendship  of  a 
chief,  whose  proximity  would  render  him  an  inconvenient  enemy : 

*<  I  hear  that  Uncas  is  much  at  Connecticut,  soliciting,  &c.  Seeing  he  is 
your  neighbor,  I  would  wish  you  not  to  be  averse  to  reconciliation  with  him,  if 
they  of  Connecticut  desire  it. "J* 

Several  years  elapsed  before  these  amicable  relations  were  estab- 
lished. It  is  doubtful  whether  Mr.  Winthrop  and  the  sachem  were 
ever  cordial  friends. 

The  decision  of  the  commissioners  that  the  Nameaugs  should  be 
amalgamated  with  the  Mohegans  was  never  carried  into  effect  The 
English  planters  countenanced  them  in  throwing  off  the  yoke,  and 

1  Letter  of  Elliot.    Mass.  His.  CoU.,  2d  series,  vol.  4,  p.  57. 

2  Hazard. 

8  Letter  of  1647.    Savage's  Winthrop. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  55 

boldly  stood  between  them  and  their  exasperated  chief.^  The  de- 
cree was  solemnly  re^nacted  by  the  court  in  October,  '48.  "  And 
it  was  now  thooght  fit,"  says  the  record,  "^  that  Mr.  John  Winthrop 
be  informed  of  the  continued  minds  and  resolutions  of  the  commis- 
sioners for  their  return ;"  that  in  case  Uncas  should  be  obliged  to 
enforce  the  order,  he  should  not  be  opposed  by  him  and  his  company, 
nor  the  Pequots  sheltered  by  them.  Again  in  July,  '49,  the  com- 
missioners uttered  their  testimony  against  ^e  continued  withdrawing 
of  the  Pequots  from  Uncas.  The  country  at  large  could  not  allow 
the  hated  name  to  be  perpetuated.  Though  some  of  the  Nameaugs 
had  never  taken  any  part  in  the  strife  with  the  English,  others  had 
undoubtedly  been  numbered  among  the  warriors  of  Sassacus,  and 
some  were  even  accused  by  the  Mohegans  of  having  been  in  the 
Mystic  fort  fight,  and  to  have  escaped  under  cover  of  the  smoke. 
Those  of  the  tribe  that  had  taken  part  in  the  barbarous  outrages 
committed  at  Saybrook  and  Wethersfield  in  1636,  were  regarded 
with  yet  greater  detestation. 

So  late  as  1651,  Major  Mason  and  Thomas  Stanton  were  commis- 
sioned by  the  Greneral  Court  to  make  a  rigid  inquest  whether  any  of 
those  "murtherers  of  the  English  before  the  Pequett  warres,"  could 
be  found,  that  they  might  "  be  brought  to  condign  punishment" 


1  Letter  of  B.  WiUiaxns  to  Winthrop  in  Oct,  1648,  notices  "  the  oatrageons  carriage 
of  Onka«  among  yoo." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Ancient  Records.— Early  Regulations.— First  Grantees. — First  dirisioa  of  lands. 
Court  orders  for  the  Govemmfnt. — Enlargement  of  Bounds. — Indian  trading 
house. — First  Minister. — Earliest  Births. 

The  earliest  records  of  the  town  were  made  in  a  looselj  stitched 
hock,  which  is  now  in  a  fragmentary  state.  Some  succeeding  scribe 
has  labeled  it  "The  Antientest  Book,  for  1648,  49,  50,"— but  a  few 
fragments  are  found  in  it  dated  yet  earlier, — in  1646  and  '7. 

Who  was  the  clerk  or  recorder  of  this  old  book  is  not  ascertained. 
He  uses  the  orthography,  Hempsteed,  Lothroup,  Winthroup,  Isarke 
Willie,  Minor,  dec.  Instances  of  provincialism  in  employing  and 
omitting  the  aspirate  occur,  as  huse  for  use ;  eavy  for  heavy.  The 
two  Winthrops,  John  and  Deane,  are  uniformly  entitled  Mr.,  as  are 
also  Jonathan  Brewster  and  Robert  Pai^e,  when  they  appear  in  the 
plantation;  but  all  others  are  styled  Goodman,  or  mentioned  by 
Christian  and  surname,  without  any  prefix. 

The  public  officers  at  this  time  were  one  constable,  five  townsmen, 
among  whom  Winthrop  held  a  paramount  authority,  two  fence-view- 
ers and  clearers  of  highways,  and  two  overseers  of  wears.  The  an- 
nual meeting  was  held  on  the  last  Thursday  in  February.  The  legal 
or  dating  year  began  on  the  25th  of  March.  Subsequently,  though 
not  in  this  oldest  book,  the  double  date  was  used  between  the  25th  of 
February  and  25th  of  March.  In  one  end  of  the  book  was  kept  the 
account  of  town  meetings  and  regulations  made  by  the  inhabitants,  or 
by  ihe  townsmen,  and  in  the  other,  (the  book  being  turned,)  a  record 
of  house-lots  and  other  grants. 

That  which  appears  to  be  the  oldest  remaining  page  of  ihis  ^  An- 
tientest Book,"  and  consequently  the  oldest  fragment  of  record  extant 
in  the  town,  begins  with  No.  13  of  a  serifs  of  by-laws ;  the  first 
twelve  being  lost.  It  is  dated  July,  the  year  gone,  but  we  learn  from 
the  dates  following  that  it  was  1646. 


BISTORT    OF    NBW    ftONBON.  97 


IX  '^ItitagieedbytbeiBhabitantsi^KmiDaeiifitfaaitheluidUuif  1 
the  oze  pastnev  at  the  end  of  the  field  hj  {obn  Robimons  and  lo  between  the 
highway  and  the  great  river  alonng  to  alwife  brooke*  shall  be  for  acoren  [com] 
Md  fyt  the  Toe  of  the  town  to  make  a  generall  filde. 

**  The  17  of  Desember  William  Mortonf  meadow  was  leeorded  and  the  tame 
day  Robert  Hempsteeds  plot  by  the  cove  2  pole." 

The  oz-paBture  was  on  the  river,  north  of  Winthrop's  Neck.  The 
fencing  of  this  pflstnre,  to  receive  the  cattle  of  the  planters,  and  the 
bonding  of  a  bridge  over  the  hrook  at  the  north  end  of  the  town  plot, 
were  probabl  j  some  of  the  first  preparatory  steps  toward  the  settle- 
Bkenl. 

The  next  regolations  are*  nnimportaiit ;  relating  to  trespasses  of 
cattle  and  laying  out  of  lots. 

**  John  Stabens  and  Robert  Hemptteed  are  chown  to  view  the  fenoet  for  this 
rm,  n647.r 

•*  25  of  febnmrrie  1647,  [1648,  New  Style  ] 

**  The  Inhabitants  of  Nameeng  did  chuse  with  a  joynt  conseut  Mr.  John  win* 
thioap,  Robert  hempsteed,  Samuell  lothroop,  Isarke  willie  and  Thomas  Minor 
to  fwt  in  aU  Towne  afiaires  as  the  other  fouer  did  the  last  yeare  with  Mx.  John 
winthroop  having  the  same  power  as  he  did  have  the  last  yeare  only  no  plant- 
ing groande  must  be  granted  or  laid  ont  for  this  yeare  but  in  the  generall  ooien 
[com]  fielde  at  foxens  hill'  the  other  side  of  the  great  river^  we  may  lay  out,  by 
lot  enly  must  it  be  laid  out. 

"  the  same  day  Isarke  willie  was  granted  by  the  said  inhabitants  to  have  » 
plinting  lot  at  the  other  side  of  the  cove  by  Mr.  deane  winthroups  lot. 

"  It  is  ordered  the  2  of  march  [1648]  whosoever  ftom  this  time  forward  shaU 
ttke  up  any  lot  that  if  he  com  not  Ih  six  months  time  to  inhabit  his  lot  shall  be 
ibrflte  to  the  Towne — and  fur^er  it  is  agreed  that  no  prsons  or  pson  [person] 
ihsll  have  admittance  into  the  Towne  of  Nameeng  there  tt>  be  aa  inhabitant 
OEsept  the  pties  or  ptie  [party]  shall  bring  some  testimonie  from  the  mages*' 
tntes  or  Elders  of  the  place  that  they  com  from  or  from  some  neighbor  planta- 
tioai  and  some  good  Christian,  what  their  carriage  is  or  have  been." 

This  laat  order  has  a  Hne  draiwik  o^er  it  as  expunged.    Itwasprot>- 

ITUsnigged  Indiaa  name  is  ^  only  one  vsed  in  tibe  records  to  designate  the 
phBtatkiQ  tia  1040. 

t  Alewife  Brook,  three  mfles  north  of  ^  town  plot,  a  stretm  flowing  into  what  is 
BOW  called  BoUes  Cove.  On  the  Great  Neck,  south-west  of  the  town,  were  another 
>tntm  and  cove,  bearing  the  same  name,  and  stm  retaining  it 

3  Fozen'8  Hm  was  that  beautiAil  ridge  of  land  on  the  west  side  of  the  river,  north  of 
tke  town  plot,  where  is  now  the  mansion  of  Oapt  Lyman  Allyn,  with  the  Congdon 
plaee,  and  the  fiurms  of  the  Messrs.  BoUes. 

4  Qreat  Biver,  or  Great  River  of  Peqnot  is  the  name  uniformly  given  in  the  eariy 
nocrdi,  to  the  river  opposite  the  town,  while  ftrther  up  the  stream,  it  was  invariably 
esOed  Mohegan  Rf ver. 


58  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

Mjproposedy  bat  not  sanctioned  hj  a  majoritj.  No  such  stringent 
law  in  regard  to  inhabitancj  was  ever  in  operation.  The  following 
regulation  of  the  same  date,  would  be  regarded  at  the  present  daj  as 
sufficientlj  exacting  and  arbitrary. 

"  It  is  agreed  by  the  inhabitants  that  any  man  being  lawfully  warned  to  apeax 
at  any  generall  towne  meeting,  that  refuse,  or  that  do  not  com  at  the  time  sp- 
poynted,  or  within  half  an  houre  of  the  apointed  time,  if  he  be  at  home,  or 
have  notice  of  the  citation,  that  man  shall  pay  to  the  constabell  two  shillings 
and  six  pence  for  the  use  of  the  towne,  or  if  any  person  do  voate  after  the  com- 
panie  be  com  to  voate,  or  before  the  meeting  be  ended,  without  the  companies 
leave,  that  partie  shall  likewise  pay  two  shillings  and  six  pence  for  his  disorder ; 
and  further  it  is  agreed  that  if  any  failes  in  ekher  of  these  two  thinges  before 
mentioned,  and  refuse  to  pay  the  penaltie,  when  the  constabell  demaudes  it,  the 
constabell  shall  have  power  to  distraine. 

<*  March,  1648.  It  is  agreed  if  any  person  do  kill  any  wolfe  or  wolfs  within 
the  town  of  Nameeug,  he  that  kills  the  wolf  shall  have  of  everie  familie  in 
towne  six  pence  conditionaly  that  he  bring  the  head  and  the  skin  to  any  two  of 
the  townsmen. 

«The  16  of  Jannarie,  1648.  [1649.] 

"  It  is  agreed  by  the  townsmen  of  Nameeug  that  Mr.  John  winthroup  is  granted 
to  set  up  a  were  and  to  make  huse  of  the  river  at  poquanuck*  at  the  uper  end 
of  the  plaine  for  to  take  fish  and  so  to  make  improvement  of  it,  to  him  and  his 
heires  and  asings. 

**  The  1 7  of  februarie,  1648.  The  meadow  that  Robert  hempsteed  did  formerly 
mow  liing  by  quittapeage  Rocke*  is  granted  to  Andrew  loungdon  and  giles 
smith  from  the  great  Rock  at  the  north  end  and  so  to  hould  in  breadth  of  the 
pon  as  far  towards  the  plombeech  as  any  was  mowed  by  Robert  hempsteed.*' 

% 

Young  as  the  township  was,  we  find  that  this  last  extract  reverts 

to  what  had  formerly  been  done.  This  and  other  similar  references 
>add  strength  to  the  intimations  given  that  a  band  of  planters  was  here 
as  early  as  1645,  making  preparations  for  a  permanent  settlement. 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  the  record  of  the  next  annual  meeting 
the  formula  is  varied ;  the  name  Nameeug  is  dropped  and  apparently 
no  more  authority  is  given  to  Winthrop  than  to  the  other  townsmen. 

'«  22  Feb.  1648,  ['49.]  The  inhabitants  of  Pequit  plantation  have  chosen  by  a 
loynt  consent  Mr.  John  Winthroup,  Robert  Hempsteed,  Carie  Latham,  John 

1  Poquanuck  is  the  name  of  a  small  stream  which  runs  south  throu|^  Groton  and 
enters  a  cove  or  creek  of  the  Sound,  about  two  miles  east  of  the  Thames.  The  name 
is  also  applied  to  the  village  and  plain  in  its  vicinity,  but  is  now  generally  written  Pe- 
quonuck.    The  aboriginal  name  of  Windsor  and  of  a  part  of  Stratford  was  similar. 

2  Quittapeag  Rock,  may  have  given  name  to  what  are  now  known  as  Quinnapeag 
Rocks,  on  the  west  side  of  the  river's  mouth,  but  the  former  must  have  stood  Auther 
in  upon  the  shore.  Quittapeag  was  either  the  Light-House  ledge  or  Long  Bock,  half 
a  mile  south-west  of  the  Light-House. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW    LONDON.  59 

Stobens  and  Thomas  Minor  for  this  yeare  following  to  act  in  all  towne  afiaires 
as  well  in  the  disposing  of  lands  as  in  other  prudeotiall  occasions  for  the  towne. 
'*  The  same  day  the  inhabitants  did  consent  and  desier  that  the  plantation 
may  be  called  London.** 

It  was  proposed  also  that  in  the  records  the  town  should  be  styled 
**  Pequit  plantation  or  London,"  joining  the  two  together. 

Thus  early  did  the  inhabitants  select  their  name ;  fixing  upon  the 
one,  which  of  all  others  should  be  most  generally  suggestive  of  the 
far-off  home  they  had  left  behind.  To  this  choice  they  faithfully  ad- 
hered through  many  discouragements.  The  General  Ck>urt  demur- 
s' at  their  favorite  name,  declined  to  sanction  it,  and  as  we  shall 
see  suggested  another,  which  the  inhabitants  refused  to  adopt.  The 
Indian  names  therefore  continued  to  be  used  in  the  records,  though 
we  may  readily  suppose  that  the  chosen  designation  of  the  planters 
came  into  colloquial  use,  and  that  the  growing  settlement  was  soon 
known  in  the  abbreviated  style  of  the  olden  time,  as  Lon'on  town  or 
New  Lon'on. 

Other  regula^ons  made  in  '48  and  '49,  are  not  of  sufficient  interest 
to  be  given  at  laige.  They  relate  to  the  marking  of  cattle ; — the  im- 
pounding of  cattle  and  swine,  and  the  disposition  to  be  made  of 
strays, — the  order  in  which  the  owners  of  cattle  were  by  turns  to 
relieve  the  cow-keeper  on  the  Sabbath, — the  laying  out  of  highways 
east  of  the  river,  and  the  penalty  attached  to  taking  away  another 
person's  canoe,  when  fastened  to  the  shore.  The  cattle  of  the  in- 
habitants, the  swine,  the  corn-fields,  the  salt  marsh,  and  the  wears, 
were  evidently  their  principal  pecuniary  concerns.  Waterhouse  and 
Stobens  were  chosen  overseers  of  the  wears  for  the  year  '49. 

TVe  turn  now  to  the  record  of  house-lots,  and  the  names  of  the  first 
planters.  It  is  plain  that  no  grants  had  been  recorded  before  1647, 
but  many  of  the  planters  were  before  this  in  actual  possession  of  lots. 
When  therefore,  they  were  confirmed  and  registered,  reference  was 
occasionally  made  to  the  fence  that  inclosed  the  lot,  or  the  house 
built  upon  it. 

Tlie  home-lots  were  originally  numbered  up  to  thirty-eight ;  but 
erasures  and  alterations  were  made,  reducing  the  names  of  grantees 
to  ^rty-six ;  of  Uiese,  the  first  six  are  missing,  and  several  of  the 
reminder  are  partially  erased,  but  by  comparison  with  subsequent 
records,  the  whole  thirty-six  can  be  ascertained. 

1.  John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  whose  home-lot  was  undoubtedly  selected 
by  himself  before  all  others :  it  covered  the  Neck  still  known  by  his 
name.    The  next  five  were  probably  John  Gager,  Gary  Latham, 


60  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

Samuel  Lotluop,  John  Stebbins,  and  Isaac  Willej,  wbose  h<Miie- 
Bteads  lay  north-west  of  Mr.  Winthrop's,  on  tlie  upper  part  of  what 
are  now  Williams  Street  and  Main  Street 

*'  7.  Jacob  Waterhouse  is  granted  by  a  general  roate  an'd  jojnt  consent  of  the 
townsmen  of  Nameeug  to  have  six  ackers  for  an  botue  lot  next  to  John  Stu* 
bens,  be  it  more  or  less." 

Such  is  the  style  of  all  the  house-lot  grants :  a  parcel  of  meadow,^ 
and  of  upland,  at  a  distance  from  the  home-lot  is  added  to  each. 

8.  Thomas  Miner ;  9.  William  Bordman ;  10.  William  Morton* 
These  three  were  in  the  south-west  part  of  the  town-plot,  between 
Bream  and 'Close  Coves,  covering  what  is  now  known  as  Shaw's 
Neck.  Miner's  lot  was  one  of  the  earliest  taken  up  in  the  planta- 
tion. Bordman  in  a  short  time  sold  out  to  Morton,  and  left  tlie 
place.* 

After  these  are  William  Nicholls,  Robert  Hempsteed,  whose  lot  is 
said  to  lie  ^  on  the  north  side  of  his  house  between  two  little  fresk 
streams,"  Thomas  Skidmore,  John  Lewis,  Bichard  Post,  Robert  Be- 
deU,  John  Robinson,  Deane  Winthrop,  William  Bartlett,  (on  the 
cove  called  Close  Cove ;  this  lot  is  dated  in  the  margin  15  Oct., 
1647 ;)  Nathaniel  Watson,  John  Austin,  William  Forbes,  Edward 
Higbie,  Jarvis  Mudge,  Andrew  Longdon;  (''  at  the  top  of  the  hill 
called  Meeting-house  Hill,  hj  a  little  run  of  fresh  water ;")  William 
Hallett,  Giles  Smith,  Peter  Busbraw,  James  Bemis,  John  Fossecar, 
Consider  Wood,  Greorge  ChappelL  After  these  the  grants  are  re- 
corded in  a  different  hand,  and  are  of  later  date.  Mr.  Jonathan 
Brewster,  Oct  5th,  1649.  Thomas  Wells,  Peter  Blatchford,  Na- 
thaniel Masters,  all  dated  Feb.  16,  '49-50. 

In  the  above  list  of  grants,  those  which  are  crossed,  or  indorsed  as 
forfeited,  are,  Watson,  Austin,  Higbie,  Mudge,  Hallet,  Smith,  Bus- 
braw, Fossecar,  Wood,  ChappeU.  Mudge  and  Chappell,  however, 
settled  in  the  town  a  little  later. 

The  list  of  cattle-marks  in  the  writing  of  this  first  clerk,  that  is, 
before  1650,  furnishes  but  sixteen  names,  viz.,  Winthrop,  Morton, 


1  The  "salt  meadow  on  Mamaqoacke**  was  added  in  portkniB  of  two  acres  each  to 
the  honse-lot  grants,  as  far  as  it  went.  A  maish  called  Spring  meadow  was  ex- 
hausted in  the  same  way.  Mamaquack,  or  as  written  afterward,  Mamacock,  was 
the  neck  of  land  on  which  Fort  TrmnboU  is  situated.  A  neck  of  land  two  miles  up 
the  riyer  bore  the  same  name. 

S  A  William  Boardman  died  a  few  years  later  at  Qoitford,  leaving  no  issue.  Ee 
was  probably  the  same  person.    [Judd,  MS.] 


HISTORY     or    HEW     LONDON.  61 

Waterhoose,  Stebbins,  Wilkj,  Nieboili,  Skidmore,^  LoUifom  Bedell, 
Latham,  Lewis,  HeMpstead,  Bordman,  Gager,  Miner,  Bartlett 
That  of  Mr.  BrewBter  is  next  added. 

Preparatory  to  a  division  of  lands  on  the  east  side  of  the  river,  two 
grants  are  recorded  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  who  was  allowed  a  first  choice 
of  his  portion,  while  the  other  shares  went  by  lot.  The  first  is  a  farm 
of  princely  dimensions  at  Poqnonuck,  and  the  other  a  lot  on  the 
river.  The  lands  in  these  situations,  on  the  Sound  and  on  the  river, 
being  those  which  the  inhabitants  could  immediately  make  available, 
were  the  first  divided.  The  upland  on  the  river  furnished  planting 
fields,  and  the  Poquonuck  plains,  meadow  and  grass  land. 

T^lnthrop's  farm  embraced  a  tract  about  three  miles  in  length  from 
north  to  south,  averaging  perhaps  a  mile  in  breadth,  lying  between 
Poquonuck  Creek  or  River  and  what  was  then  called  East  or  Straight 
Cove,  (since  known  as  Mnmford's  Cove.)  On  the  south  it  was 
washed  by  the  Sound  and  intersected  by  inlets  of  salt  water.  Li 
this  compass  were  all  the  varieties  of  forest  and  meadow,  arable  land, 
pasture  and  salt  marsh,  which  are  useful  to  the  farmer,  and  pleasing 
to  the  eye  of  taste.  It  lay  also  in  an  opposite  position  to  Winthrop's 
island  farm,  so  that  the  owner  of  these  two  noble  domains  could  look 
over  Fisher^s  Island  Sound,  from  either  side,  and  rest  his  eye  on  his 
own  fair  possessions. 

Winthrop's  grant  on  the  east  bank  of  the  river  was  ^  right  against 
the  sandy  point  of  hb  own  home  lot,  the  length  eight  score  pole  and 
the  breadth  eight  score  pole  f  that  is,  on  Groton  bank,  opposite  the 
eastern  spur  of  Winthrop's  Neck.  These  grants  being  settled,  the 
other  planters  drew  lots  for  their  shares  on  the  17th  and  Slstof  Jan- 
.  nary,  1648-9.  From  these  lists  we  obtain  two  catalogues  of  those  who 
may  be  considered  as  first  comers. 

^  A  dirision  of  lands  on  the  east  side  of  tlie  Great  River  of  Fequoet,  north  of  Mr. 
Winthrop's  lot." 

The  list  contains  but  eighteen  names  :  the  shares  were  of  twenty, 
thirty  and  forty  acres.  The  division  of  Poquonuck  plain  was  in  lots 
of  the  same  average  size,  and  the  number  of  grantees  twenty-two, 
viz^  Austin,  Bartlett^  Bedell,  Bemas,  Bordman,  Bussbraw,  Fossi- 
ker,  Gager,  Hallet,  Hempstead,  Latham,  Lewis,  Longdon,  Lothrop^ 
^^Gner,  Morton,  NichoUs,  Robinson,  Smith,  Stebbins,  Waterhouse, 
Willey.  These  were  undoubtedly  all  actual  residents  of  the  town 
I^ot  at  that  time,  and  expecting  to  cultivate  the  land  the  next  season ; 
but  Austin,  Bordman,  Bussbraw,  Hallet,  Robinson  and  Smith  soon 
6 


62  BISTORT     OF    NEW     LOXDON. 

disappeared  from  the  plantation,  forfeiting  or  selling  their  grants* 
Deane  Winthrop,  after  a  short  residence  with  his  brother,  returned 
to  Boston,  and  is  no  further  eonnectjed  with  our  history.  It  is^no 
matter  of  surprise  that  a  portion  of  the  planters  determined  to  look 
further  for  a  more  favorable  position.  The  sterile  soil,  yielding  bat 
a  scanty  return  in  proportion  to  the  labor  required  for  its  cultivation, 
must  have  discouraged  many,  who  were  expecting  to  gain  a  liveli- 
hood by  husbandry. 

The  first  house  lots  were  laid  out  chiefly  at  the  two  extremities  of 
the  semicircular  projection  which  formed  the  site  of  the  town.  Be- 
tween these,  were  thick  swamps,  waving  woods,  ledges  of  rock,  and 
ponds  of  water.  The  oldest  communication  from  one  to  the  other, 
was  from  Mill  Brook  over  Post  Hill, — so  called  from  Richard  Post, 
whose  house  lot  was  on  this  hill, — ^through  what  is  now  William  St. 
to  Manwaring's  Hill,  and  down  Blackball  St.  to  Truman  St.  and  the 
Harbor's  Month  Road.  Main  St.  was  opened,  and  from  thence  a 
cut  over  the  hill  westward  was  made,  (now  Richards  and  Granite 
Sts.)  Bank  St.  was  laid  out  on  the  very  brink  of  the  upland,  above 
the  sandy  shore,  and  a  spur  (now  Coit  St.)  was  carried  around  the 
head  of  Bream  Cove  to  Truman  St.,  completing  the  circuit  of  the 
town  plot.  No  names  were  given  to  any  of  the  streets  for  at  least 
a  century  after  the  settlement ;  save  that  Main  St  was  uniformly 
called  the  Town  St.  and  Bank  St.  the  Bank.  Hempstead  St  was 
one  of  the  first  laid  out,  and  a  pathway  coincident  with  the  present 
State  St  led  from  the  end  of  the  Town  St.,  west  and  north-west,  to 
meet  it.  Such  appears  to  have  been  the  original  plan  of  the  town. 
The  cove  at  the  north  was  Mill  Cove ;  the  two  coves  at  the  south, 
Bream  and  Close.  Water  St  was  the  Beach,  and  the  head  of  it  at 
the  entrance  of  Mill  Cove,  was  Sandy  Point. 

The  streams  were  larger  tlian  at  present.  Mill  and  Truman's 
Brooks  were  called  little  rivers,  A  considerable  stream*  crossed  the 
Town  St,  (above  the  intersection  of  Church  St,)  and  flowing  east 
and  north-east  ran  into  the  cove  not  far  from  Federal  St.  A 
rivulet,  meandering  from  Manwaring's  Hill,  along  the  side  of  Rob- 
ert Hempstead's  lot  into  Bream  Cove,  was  called  Vine  Brook.  Small 
gushing  rills  of  pure  water  were  numerous ;  and  ponds  and  miry 
thickets,  from  whence  the  shrill-voiced  frogs  announced  approaching 
spring,  were  freely  scattered  over  the  surface  of  the  town  plot. 

1  Afterward  called  SoIomon^s  Brook,  from  Solomou  Coit,  through  whose  garden  it 
flowed. 


HISTORY     OP     NBW     LONDON.  63 

The  eariiest  houses  were  undoubtedlj  built  of  timber  that  grew 
on  or  near  the  spot  where  they  stood.  Along  Mill  Cove  some  large 
trees  were  left  standing ;'  the  hiU-side,  sloping  from  the  summit  to 
the  water,  was  probably  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  a  dense  wood- 
lot,  very  rugged  and  in  sOTue  parts  precipitous  and  rocky.  It  seems 
to  have  been  Winthrop's  original  design,  that  a  meeting-house  should 
be  built  on  this  height,  and  therefore  from  the  first,  the  whole  ridge 
lying  between  the  present  First  and  Second  Burial-Grounds,  was 
called  Meeting-house  HilL 

Near  the  center  of  the  town  plot  was  a  prominent  ledge  of  gran- 
ite, lying  north  and  south,  (near  Union  St,)  which  was  left  for  a 
century  and  a  half  in  its  native  condition,  forming  a  kind  of  back- 
ground to  the  eastern  portion  of  the  town,  with  only  here  and  there 
a  house  west  of  it  This  ledge  is  now  in  the  crowded  part  of  the 
city,  having  all  its  projecting  and  rugged  points  lowered,  or  entirely 
blasted  away,  and  wearing  a  beautiful  crown  of  churches.' 

Nothing  appears  on  the  town  books  from  first  to  last,  relative  to 
the  contending  claims  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  for  the  ju- 
risdiction of  the  place.  No  one  would  even  conjecture,  from  any 
tiling  recorded  here,  that  the  right  of  the  latter  colony  was  ever  called 
in  question.  After  the  decision  of  the  conmiissioners  in  July,  '47, 
in  favor  of  Connecticut,  the  jurisdiction  was  quietly  conceded  to 
her. 

An  order  of  the  General  Court,  Sept  9th,  1647,  intimates  that  the 
question  of  jurisdiction  is  at  rest 

"  The  Court  thinks  meet  that  a  Commission  be  directed  to  Mr.  Wynthrop  to 
execute  justice  according  to  our  lawes  and  the  rule  of  righteousnes." 

This  commission  was  renewed  the  next  year,  and  Winthrop  con- 
tinued in  the  magistracy  until  chosen  to  higher  office  in  the  colony. 

At  the  session  of  the  General  Court  in  May,  1649,  the  following 
regulations  were  made  respecting  Pequot : 

1.  The  inhabitants  were  exempted  from  all  public  country  charges,  t.  c, 
taxes  for  the  support  of  the  colonial  government,  for  the  space  of  three  years 
ensuing. 

2.  The  bounds  of  the  plantation  were  restricted  to  four  miles  each  side  of  the 

1  These  particulars  are  gathered  from  the  descriptions  of  grants,  bound-macks,  and 
old  deeds. 

2  The  Fhrst  Congr^;ational  Church,  the  old  Methodist,  and  two  Baptist  Churches' 
are  on  this  ledge. 


64  HI8TOBT    OF     ICBW     LONDON. 

river,  and  six  miles  from  the  sea  northwerd  into  the  ooontry,  **  till  the  court 
shall  see  cause  and  hare  encouragement  to  add  thereunto*  provided  they  enter- 
tain none  amongst  them  as  inhabitants  that  shall  be  obnoxious  to  this  jurisdic- 
tion, and  that  the  aforesaid  bounds  be  not  distributed  to  less  than  forty  fam- 
flles." 

S,  John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  with  Thomas  Miner  and  Samuel  Lothrop  as  aesist- 
ant0»  were  to  have  power  as  a  court  to  decide  all  differences  among  the  inhab- 
itanto  under  the  value  of  forty  shillings. 

3.  Uncas  and  his  tribe  were  prohibited  from  setting  any  traps,  but  not  from 
hunting  and  fishing  within  the  bounds  of  the  plantation. 

5.  The  inhabitants  were  not  allowed  to  monopolize  the  com  trade  with  the 
Indians  in  the  river ;  which  trade  was  to  be  leA  free  to  all  in  the  united 
oolonies. 

6.  **  The  Ckmrte  commends  the  name  of  Faire  Harbour  to  them  for  to  bee  the 
name  of  theire  Towne." 

7.  Thomas  Miner  was  appointed  *<  Military  Sergeant  in  the  Towne  of  Pe- 
quett,"  with  power  to  call  forth  and  train  the  inhabitants. 

At  the  same  seseioD,  orders  were  isstied  with  respect  to  certain 
individuals  at  Pequot^  viz.,  Robert  Bedell,  Gary  Latham  and  Isaac 
Willejy  charged  with  resisting  a  constable,  and  letting  go  an  Indian 
committed  to  their  charge;  ^one  Hallett,"  accused  of  living  with 
another  man's  wife ;  and  Mary  Barnes/  whose  offense  is  not  speci- 
fied ;  all  o£  whom  were  summoned  to  appear  at  Hartford  and  answer 
for  their  conduct  The  inspection  of  the  General  Court  at  that  pe- 
riod apparently  extended  to  every  household,  and  took  cognizance  of 
the  character  and  conduct  of  every  individual  within  their  jurisdic- 
tion. 

William  Hallett  about  this  period,  and  probably  in  consequence  of 
the  warrant  against  him  from  the  court,  forfeited  his  grants  and  left 
the  plantation. 

In  May,  1650,  the  General  Court  added  to  the  bounds  of  the  town 
two  miles  from  the  sea  northward ;  and  a  year  later  extended  the 
western  boundary  to  l^ride  Brook,  where  it  had  been  at  first  marked 
out  by  Winthrop.  This  grant,  with  the  condition  annexed,  was  in 
the  following  terms : 

"Act  of  Assembly,  May  15,  1651. 
"  This  Court  taking  into  consideration  the  proposition  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Pequoet  for  some  enlargement  of  meadowe  at  Naihanticot  and  whereas  there 
was  500  ackers  of  ground  lying  in  Pequoet  granted  to  five  of  Captin  Mason's 
souldiers  at  the  Pequoat  warr,  wch  being  taken  up  by  Pequoet  they  doe  desire 
may  be  recompensed  at  Naihanticot :  the  Ck>urt  desires  and  appoynu  John 

1  This  person  has  not  been  ftirther  trtced. 


HISfORY    OP    NBW    I.ON»OIf.  96 

C^rka  and  Thomas  Bexehazd  of  Seabrooko  duMdd  goe  to  Peqaour  and  ^ava 
the  said  parcell  of  land  theie  given  to  the  aooldiert  and  taken  up  by  Paquoat  at 
beibre,  and  then  goe  to  Naihantioot  and  lay  out  there  onto  the  said  aouldien 
snch  and  soe  much  land,  as  may  be  fully  equivalent  to  there  former  grant  of 
land  at  Pequoet. 

**And  for  the  inhabitants  of  Pequoet  the  Court  grants  that  there  bounds  shall 
come  to  Bride  Brook,  (the  former  grant  excepted)  provided  that  it  doth  not 
come  within  the  bounds  of  Seabrooke,  and  provided  that  what  meadowe  or 
marsh  there  is  above  200  ackers  it  shall  be  reserved  for  the  Countries  use  and 
for  there  dispose."^ 

The  above  named  grant  was  laid  out  to  Lieut  Thomas  Bull  and 
four  others  of  Mason's  soldiers.  The  town  record  sajs,  '^  the  land 
given  to  Lieutenant  Bull  and  other  well  deserving  soldiers,  lies  at  a 
place  called  Sargent's  Head,  on  the  west  side  of  Nahantick  Baj." 

The  next  election  of  town  officers,  which  was  probably  the  fourth 
regular  annual  election,  is  recorded  in  a  different  hand  from  the  pre* 
vious  records,  and  varies  from  them  in  orthograph j. 

'*  At  a  town  meeting  at  Namearke,!  the  25th  of  Feb.  1649  [*50]  these  fewer 
men  chosen  for  townesmen. 

Mr.  John  Winthrop, 
Mr.  Johnnathan  Brewster, 
Robert  Hempstead, 
William  NichoUs. 
**  At  the  same  meeting  John  Stubblnes  is  chosen  Constable  for  the  towne 
Namearke.** 

Mr.  Brewster  must  have  been  chosen  clerk  or  recorder  about  tlie 
same  time.  The  succeeding  records  of  that  year  are  in  his  hand,  and 
he  adds  to  his  signature  "  Clarke  of  the  Towne  of  Pequett"  His 
business  as  an  Lidian  trader,  kept  him  much  abroad,  and  he  held  the 
office  but  one  year. 

Winthrop  and  Brewster  were  made  freemen  of  Connecticut  col- 
ony, in  May,  1650.  Li  September  of  that  year  Mr.  Brewster  and 
Thomas  Miner  appeared  at  the  General  Court  as  the  first  deputies 
from  Pequot 

The  first  town  grants  to  Brewster  were  in  September,  *49.  He 
established  a  trading-house  with  the  Mohegans,  at  a  point  on  the 

1  See  GoL  Bee.  of  Conn.,  p.  221.  The  text  is  copied  from  New  London  Town 
Book,  No.  1,  p.  89.  The  only  variations  from  the  colonial  record  are  in  the  spelling: 
tiie  ktter  has  Niantecutt,  Peqaett;  the  town  copy,  Naihanticot,  Pequoet 

2  hi  the  orthography  of  hidian  names  some  clerks  made  use  of  k,  where  others  em- 
{doyed  g.  Thus,  one  class  wrote  Nameeug,  Mohegan  or  Monhegun,  Massapeog,  Nip- 
mng,  and  another  Nameark  or  Namy-ok,  Maohekon,  Massapeak,  Neepmook. 

6* 


66  HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONPON. 

eftst  side  of  the  river  opposite  to  their  principal  settlemeat    At  this 
place  which  is  still  called  bj  his  name,  Brewster^s  Neck,  he  laid  oa 
for  himself  a  large  farm.    The  deed  of  the  land  was  given  him  bj 
Uncas,  in  substance  as  follows  :^ 

*^ April  25,  1650.  I,  Unquas,  Sachem  of  Mauhekon,  doe  gire  freeAy  unto  Jon- 
athan Brewster  of  Pequett,  a  tract  of  land,  being  a  phiine  of  arable  land, 
bounded  on  the  south  side  with  a  great  Coave  called  Poccatannoc  ke,  on  the 
north  with  the  old  Poccatuck  path  that  goes  to  the  Trading  Coave,  &c.  For, 
and  in  consideration  thereof,  the  said  J.  B.  binds  himself  and  his  heirs  to  keep 
a  house  for  trading  goods  with  the  Indians." 

[Signed  by  the  Sachem  and  witnessed  by  William  Baker  and  John  Fossi- 
ker.] 

This  deed  was  confirmed  by  the  town,  Nov.  30th,  1652,  and  it« 
bounds  determined.  It  comprised  the  whole  neck  on  which  the 
trading-house  stood,  ^  450  acres  laid  out  bj  the  measurers."' 

The  Greneral  Court  in  May,  1650,  censured  Mr.  Brewster  for  the 
steps  he  had  taken  in  establishing  this  trade. 

'*  Whereas  Mr.  Jonathan  Brewster  hath  set  up  a  trading  house  at  Mohegan, 
this  Court  declares  that  they  cannot  but  judge  the  thing  very  disorderly,  nev- 
ertheless considering  his  condition,  they  are  content  he  should  proceed  therein 
for  the  present  and  till  they  see  cause  to  the  contrary."^ 

On  the  10th  of  Nov.,  1 650,  a  town  meeting  was  held  to  arrange  a 
system  of  cooperation  with  Mr.  Winthrop,  in  establishing  a  mill  to 
grind  com.  Sixteen  persons  were  said  to  be  present,  though  only 
fifleen  are  enumerated,  \'iz. 

Mr.  Winthrop,  Mr.  Parke,  Jonathan  Brewster,  Robert  Hempsted,  William 
Nicholls,  John  Gager,  Thomas  Stanton,  William  Bartlett,  Peter  Blatchford, 
William  Comstock,  William  Taylor,  Mr.  Blinman,  Samuel  Lothrop,  John 
Lewis,  William  Morton. 

The  establishment  of  a  mill  was  an  object  of  prime  importance. 
It  was  decided  that  the  inhabitants  should  be  at  the  charge  of  '^  mak- 
ing the  dam  and  heavy  work  belonging  to  the  milne ;"  six  men  were 

1  New  London  Deeds. 

2  Actually,  600  or  700.  It  was  subsequently  left  to  Mr.  Brewster's  option  to  have 
his  farm  included  within  the  bounds  of  New  London  or  of  Norwich.  He  chose  to  be- 
long to  the  latter. 

8  Colonial  Records,  p.  209. 

Mr.  Brewster  had  been  preTiously  engaged  hi  trading  along  the  coast  from  New 
England  to  Virginia,  and  had  met  with  losses.  When  he  came  to  Pequot  his  Bay 
creditors  had  stripped  him  of  his  estate.  This  explains  tlie  reference  of  the  Court  to 
his  condition.    See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  2d  series,  voL  9,  p.  281. 


HISTORY    or    NXW    LONDON. 


67 


seleeted  to  perform  the  work,  and  make  it  snbfttantial  and  sufficienty 
(to  be  paid  two  shillings  per  day,)  and  six  others  were  to  rate  the 
town,  to  defraj  the  charge. 

**  Further,  it  is  agreed  that  no  person  or  persons  shall  set  up  any  other  milne 
to  grind  com  for  the  town  ofPequett  within  the  limits  of  the  town  either  for  the 
present,  nor  for  the  fViture,  so  long  as  Mr.  John  Winthrop  or  his  heirs,  do  up- 
hold a  milne  to  grind  the  town  com." 

A  considerable  addition  was  made  to  the  number  of  grantees  dur- 
ing the  year  1650.  Robert  Parke  and  his  son  Thcmias  had  resided 
for  several  years  in  Wethersfield,  from  which  place  the  former  was 
deputy  to  the  Greneral  Court  in  1641  and  '42.  They  came  to  the 
Pequot  plantation  in  the  spring  of  1650.  Mr.  Parke  purchased  the 
house  lot  of  Mr.  Brewster,  with  its  improvements,  on  Meeting-house 
Hill,  (comer  of  Granite  and  Hempstead  Sts.)  Mr.  Brewster  re- 
ceived a  new  lot  from  the  town,  (which  better  accommodated^im  as 
an  Indian  trader,)  at  the  lower  end  of  the  bank,  south  of  the  present 
Tilley  Su  It  was  long  afterward  known  as  the  Picket  lot.  Rob- 
ert Burrows  removed  from  Wethersfield,  about  the  same  time  with 
the  Parkes.  Hb  first  grant  is  dat^d  June  2.  He  had  a  house  lot  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  town,  but  appears  to  have  settled  at  Poquo- 
nuck  that  year  or  the  next.  Grants  were  also  made  during  the  sum- 
mer to  Richard  Belden,  Philip  Kerwithy,  (Carwithy,)  Samuel  Mar- 
tin and  William  Taylor,  but  they  proved  to  be  transient  inhabitants. 
Taylor  remained  till  1653 ;  the  others  forfeited  their  grants. 

On  the  19  th  of  October,  1650,  grants  were  made  by  the  towns- 
men to 

"  Mr.  Blynman,  Obadiah  Brnen,  Hughe  Cuukin,  Hughe  Roberts,  John  Coite, 
Andrew  Lester,  James  Averye,  Robert  Isbell." 

These  were  all  from  Gloucester,  a  town  on  the  eastern  coast  of 
Massachusetts,  situated  upon  the  peninsula  of  Cape  Ann.  Mr.  Rich- 
ard Blinman  had  been  the  minister  of  Gloucester,  for  eight  years, 
and  was  now  engaged  to  become  the  minister  of  the  Pequot  planta- 
tion. The  others  were  a  party  of  his  friends,  who  purposed  to  re- 
move with  him,  and  came  on  to  make  preparatory  arrangements. 
William  Keeny,  Ralph  Pai^er,  William  Wellman,  Robert  Brookes, 
Thomas  Stanton  and  John  Elderkin,'  all  had  grants  of  nearly  the 

1  One  of  the  grants  to  Eldcrkin  was  "  four  acres  of  upland  on  the  neck  by  the  Eng- 
lish house/*    This  is  supposed  to  refer  to  the  ruins  of  the  building  erected  by  the  Mas- 


68  HISTORY    OP    NXW    LONDON. 

same  date,  and  the  three  fint  named  probably  bdonged  also  to  the 
Cape  Ann  party. 

Thomas  Stanton's  house  lot  consisted  of  six  acres  on  the  Bank^ 
north-east  of  Brewster's.  This  locality  might  be  now  designated  as 
fronting  on  Bank  Street,  north  of  TiUey,  and  extending  back  to 
Methodist  Street  He  sold  it  in  1657  to  Greorge  Tongue.  Robert 
Brookes  had  a  house  lot  given  him,  but  forfeited  it. 

Before  the  end  of  the  municipal  year,  Feb.  25th,  1650-1,  we  find 
the  names  of  Greorge  Chappell,  William  Comstock,  Thomas  Doxey, 
John  GaUop,  Thomas  Hungerford,  Mrs.  Lake,  Captain  Sybada,  Ed- 
ward Scott,  Edward  Stallion,  Thomas  Stedman,  and  Matthew  Waller, 
all  applicants  for  house  lots. 

Kempo  Sybada,  the  Dutch  captain,  was  accommodated  with  a  lot 
fronting  on  MiU  Cove,  the  town  street  running  through  it,  and  extend- 
ing west  to  the  present  Huntington  Street.  In  later  times  it  was 
Shapley  property,  and  Shapley  Street  was  cut  through  it.  Next 
south  was  Thomas  Doxey's  lot,  reaching  to  the  present  Federal 
Street,  and  still  farther  south  the  lots  of  Edward  Stallion  and  Thomas 
Bay  ley,  (Bailey,)  extending  nearly  to  State  Street,  Bay  ley's  lot  of 
three  acres  was  granted  in  August,  1651.  West  of  Stallion  and  Bay- 
ley,  was  Peter  Blatchford's  lot,  that  had  been  laid  out  the  previous 
year  and  was  estimated  at  eight  acres,  but  much  encumbered  with 
swamp  and  rock.  Church  Street  now  intersects  this  large  lot,  which 
had  its  front  on  State  Street,  extending  east  and  west  from  Union  to 
Meridian  Streets. 

On  the  town  street,  east  of  Stallion  and  Bayley,  a  lot  of  ample 
dimensions  was  laid  out  to  John  Gallop,  eight  acres  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  town,  covering  the  space  east  of  the  town  street  to  the  beach, 
and  extending  north  from  State  Street  to  Federal. 

George  Chappell's  lot,  granted  Feb.  20th,  1651-2,  was  afterward 
the  Manwaring  homestead,  on  Manwaring's  Hill. 

William  Comstock's  location  was  on  Post  Hill,  near  the  present 
comer  of  Yauxhall  and  WiUi.ams  Streets.  Mrs.  Lake  and  John 
Elderkin  had  a  lot  of  eight  acres  divided  between  them,  next  south 
of  Comstock.  The  dividing  line  between  them  was  directly  opposite 
the  intersection  of  the  highway  now  called  Granite  Street.    South  of 


sachusetts  forces  as  related  in  Chapter  I.  It  is  never  referred  to  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  designate  its  locality.  But  it  seems  ts  have  been  near  the  town  plot,  and  on  a  neck, 
Winthn)p*5  Neck  was  engrossed  by  his  house  lot.  Where  coidd  it  have  been,  if  not  on 
the  upland  part  of  Mamacock,  u  e.  where  Fort  Trumbull  now  stands  ? 


HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON.  69 

them,  near  the  intersection  of  the  present  Brood  Street,  was  Matthew 
Waller.  This  elevated  neighborhood  was  called  Waller's  Hill. 
Thomas  Hungerford  had  a  lot  on  the  Bank,  next  above  Stanton's. 
Edward  Scott  and  Thomas  Stedman  forfeited  their  grants,  though  at 
a  period  fifteen  years  later,  Stedman,  or  another  person  of  the  same 
name,  became  an  inhabitant. 

Trombnll,  in  the  History  of  Connecticut,  treating  of  the  plantation 
at  Pequot,  places  the  removal  of  Mr.  Blinman  under  1648  : 

*•*  This  year  Mr.  Richard  Blinman,  who  had  heen  a  minister  in  England,  re- 
moved from  Gloucester  to  the  new  settlement;  in  consequence  of  which  a  con- 
siderable addition  was  made  to  the  numbers  who  had  kept  their  station.'* 

This  date  is  too  early.  A  comparison  of  the  records  of  Gloucester 
with  those  of  New  London  shows  that  he  did  not  remove  till  1650. 
The  records  of  neither  place  afford  us  any  clue  to  the  causes  which 
led  to  this  change  of  abode.  No  disagreement  of  Mr.  Blinman  with 
his  parishioners  at  Gloucester  is  mentioned.  Ecclesiastical  dissen- 
sions, however,  existed  in  the  colony,  from  which  he  may  have  wished 
to  escape.  He  appears  to  have  been  desirous  also,  of  living  near  to 
some  settlement  of  the  natives,  in  order  to  devote  a  part  of  his  time 
to  their  instruction. 

The  original  contract  of  the  town  with  Mr.  Blinman  has  not  been 
preserved ;  but  from  subsequent  references  it  appears  that  a  committee 
had  been  sent  to  confer  with  him,  who  had  pledged  liberal  aceommo- 
dadons  of  land,  with  a  salary  of  £60  per  annumy  which  was  to  be 
enlarged  as  the  ability  of  the  town  increased.  A  house  lot  of  six 
acres,  on  Meeting-House  Hill,  was  confirmed  to  him  Dec.  20th,  1 650, 
"three  acres  whereof,  (says  the  record,)  were  given  by  the  town's 
agents,  as  appears  in  the  articles,  and  the  other  three  by  a  public 
town  meeting."  This  house  lot  covered  some  of  the  highest  land  in 
the  town  plot  and  was  directly  north  of  that  of  Mr.  Parke.  De- 
scribed by  modem  boundaries,  it  occupied  the  space  between  the 
old  burial-ground  and  Williams  Street,  along  the  north  side  of  Gran- 
ite Street  The  town  built  his  house  for  him,  as  appears  from  vari- 
ous references  and  charges  respecting  it,  but  on  what  part  of  the  lot 
it  stood  is  uncertain.' 

The  whole  eastern  or  Cape  Ann  company  that  proposed  removing 
with  Mr.  Blinman,  could  not  have  been  less  than  twenty  families. 

1  If  conjecture  might  be  allowed,  we  shoidd  fix  the  site  on  the  slope  of  the  hill 
upon  the  north-west  side,  nearlj  opposite  Bichard  Post's  lot,  where  is  yet  remaining 
an  aodent  well  on  the  street  side. 


70  HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON. 

Nearly  this  number  of  planters  came  on  the  next  spring,  but  some 
of  them  merelj  to  explore  and  view  the  countiy.  Perhi^w  a  dozen 
brought  with  them  their  families,  cattle  and  goods,  and  became  per- 
manent inhabitants.  Several  of  these  are  supposed  to  hare  been 
members  of  Mr.  Blinman's  church  at  Chepstowe,  in  Monmouthshire, 
England,  before  his  ejection.  Thej  had  accompanied  him  over  the 
ocean,  had  kept  with  him  at  Marshfield  and  at  Gloucester,  and  now 
followed  his  fortunes  to  the  shore  of  the  Sound.  They  were  fanners 
and  mechanics,  who  had  found  Gloucester,  which  was  then  little 
more  than  a  fishing  station,  an  unfavorable  place  for  their  occupations, 
and  hoped  by  coming  further  south  to  meet  with  a  less  sterile  soil 
and  a  fairer  field  for  enterprise.  It  was  certainly  an  object  for  the 
faithful  pastor  and  his  tried  friends  to  keep  together,  and  as  Pequot 
was  without  a  minister  and  casting  about  to  obtain  one,  the  arrange- 
ment was  an  agreeable  one  on  all  sides.  The  settlement  of  the 
Parkes  in  the  plantation  was  also  very -probably  linked  with  the  re- 
moval of  Mr.  Blinman,  he  being  connected  with  them  by  family  ties.^ 

In  March,  1651,  the  principal  body  of  these  eastern  emigrants 
arrived ;  in  addition  to  those  already  named,  John  Coite  the  young- 
er, William  Hough,  Thomas  Jones,  Edmund  Marshall  and  his  son 
John,  William  Meades  and  James  Morgan,  belonged  to  the  same 
company.  With  them  came  also  Robert  Allyn,  from  Salem,  and 
Philip  Taber,  from  "  Martin's  Vineyard."  The  plantation  at  this 
period  was  a  place  of  considerable  resort,  and  a  number  of  persons 
enrolled  their  names  and  obtained  grants,  whose  wavering  purposes 
soon  carried  them  elsewhere.  The  younger  Coite,  the  two  MarshaUs, 
and  Thomas  Jones,  after  a  short  residence,  returned  to  Gloucester. 
Philip  Taber  commenced  buildmg  a  house  on  Foxen*s  Hill,  which 
he  never  occupied  or  completed.  It  was  sold  by  his  btother-in-law 
Gary  Latham,  in  1653. 

Several  other  persons  also  appear  among  the  grantees  or  planters 
of  the  town  at  this  fiood  time  of  increase,  but  no  certain  date  caa 
be  given  for  their  arrival.  These  are  Matthew  Beckwith,  the  Beeby 
brothers,  (John,  Samuel  and  Thomas,)  Peter  Collins,  George  Har- 
wood,  Richard  Poole  and  John  Packer.  Samuel  Beeby,  and  per- 
haps John,  had  been  for  some  time  in  the  plantation,  in  the  service 


1  It  is  probable  that  Mr.  Blinman's  wife  Mary,  and  Dorothy,  wife  of  Thomas  Parke, 
were  sisters.  In  various  deeds  and  covenants  on  record,  Mr.  Blinman  calls  Thcmias 
Parke  kit  brother;  and  in  a  deed  of  1658,  he  conveys  land  which  he  says  *'  I  had  of 
my  brother-in4aw  Thomas  Parke." 


I 


HISTORY   OP   NEW   LONDON.  71 

* 

of  Mr.  Winthrop.  Thomas  is  supposed  to  have  come  with  the  east- 
ern company.  All  had  house  lots  given  them  in  the  spring  of  1651. 
Next  to  Mr.  Blinman,  the  person  of  most  note  in  the  Cape  Ann 
compan  J,  was  Obadiah  Bruen.  He  had  been  recorder  and  one  of 
the  townsmen  of  Gloucester  for  several  jears,  and  in  transferring  his 
residence  seeps  to  have  taken  his  pen  and  his  official  duty  with  him. 
His  latest  regbtration  in  Gloucester  was  made  in  December,  and  the 
succeeding  February  he  was  recorder  and  one  of  the  townsmen  of 
Pequot.  The  house  lot  accorded  to  him  was  on  Meeting-House  Hill, 
and  covered  a  considerable  part  of  what  is  now  the  town  square, 
leaving  only  narrow  highways  on  the  north  and  west,  and  extending 
Bonth  to  the  present  Broad  Street  Portions  of  it  were  afterward 
given  up  to  the  town,  by  himself  and  subsequent  owners.  He  sold 
it  in  1653  to  William  Hough. 

Early  in  1651,  New  Street,  in  the  rear  of  the  town  plot,  was 
opened  for  the  accommodation  of  the  Cape  Ann  company.     This 
position  was  designated  as  ^  beyond  the  brook  and  the  ministry  lot." 
It  was  carved  into  house  lots  and  took  the  name  of  Cape  Ann  Lane. 
The  lots  on  this  street  were  nine  in  number,  of  six  acres  each,  ex- 
tending both  sides  of  the  narrow  street,  from  the  alder  swamp  in 
front  to  Cedar  Swamp  on  the  west     Beginning  at  the  lower  end, 
Hugh  Calkins  had  the  first  lot  by  the  Lyme  road,  or  highway  to 
Nahantick,  as  it  was  then  called,  and  next  him  was  his  son-in-law 
Hugh  Roberts  ;  then  Coite,  Lester,  Avery,  AUyn,  Meades,  Hough, 
IsbelL    The  Beebys  and  Marshalls  were  yet  farther  north.    James 
Morgan  was  "on  the  path  to  New  Street,"  (t.  «.,  Ashcrafl  Street) 
William  Keeny  was  nearly  opposite  the  south  entrance  to  New  Street, 
on  the  Nahantick  road.     Parker  was  next  below  him,  at  the  head  of 
Close  Cove,  and  Wellman  on  the  same  cove,  south-east  of  Parker. 
Wellman  and  Coite,  however  exchanged  lots :  the  latter  was  a  ship- 
carpenter  and  wished  to  be  near  the  water,  where  he  could  be  accom- 
modated with  a  building  yard. 

The  house  lots  accorded  to  the  new  comers  were  mostly  in  the 
rear  of  the  town  plot,  where  the  position  was  inconvenient  and 
dreaiy,  and  the  soil  hard  to  cultivate.  Many  were  discouraged  and 
went  away,  who  would  perhaps  have  remained,  had  their  home  lots 
been  more  inviting.  These  remarks  particularly  apply  to  that  series 
of  home  bts  laid  out  at  this  time  through  New  Street  and  northward 
of  it  Even  those  who  had  the  courage  to  settle  down  in  this  part 
of  the  plantation,  soon  abandoned  the  land  to  pasturage  or  waste,  and 
found  other  homesteads.  It  is  but  recently  that  this  quarter  of  the 
town  has  resumed  some  importance.     Cape  Ann  and  Lewis  Lanes, 


72  HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON. 

r 

after  nearlj  two  hundred  years  of  desolation,  are  beginning  once 
more  to  be  peopled  and  cultivated. 

Earliest  Births. 

*«  MarjT,  daughter  of  Robert  Hempstead,  was  born  26  March,  1647.** 

This  is  supposed  to  be  the  first  birth  after  the  settlement.  It  is  not 
recorded  in  the  town  book,  but  is  taken  from  the  will  of  Robert  Hemp- 
stead, at  the  close  of  which  is  an  indorsement  of  the  births  of  all  his 
children,  certified  bj  himself.  No  birth  anterior  to  this  date  can  be 
ascertained ;  and  the  uniform  current  of  tradition  gives  to  thi»  the 
priority.  Joshua  Hempstead,  great-grandson,  of  Robert,  in  a  memo- 
randum made  in  his  diary  about  seventy  years  after  the  settlement, 
stated  that  the  above-named  Mary  Hempstead  was  the  first  bom  of 
English  parents  in  New  London. 

Robert  Hempstead  may  also  have  been  the  first  person  married 
in  the  settlement.  The  above-named  Mary  was  his  oldest  child. 
His  wife  Joanna  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  daughter  of  Isaac  and 
Joanna  Willie.  Winthrop  was  undoubtedly  the  officiating  magis- 
trate, in  the  earliest  marriages,  but  no  record  of  any  marriage  by 
him,  or  incidental  notice  of  any  other  than  the  one  at  Bride  Brook, 
has  come  down  to  us. 

It  should  be  noticed  that  in  the  town  registry  of  births  there  are 
several  which  bear  an  earlier  date  than  that  of  Mary  Hempstead ; 
but  on  a  close  investigation,  it  will  be  found  that  these  took  place  in 
other  towns.  The  registry  entitled  "Births  in  New  London,"  be- 
gins with  the  following  record : 

"  Hannah,  the  daughter  of  James  Avery,  was  born  11  Oct.  1644. 

"James,  the  son  of  do. — l-"^  Dec.  1646. 

"  Mary,  the  daughter  of  do.— 19  Feb.  1647.** 

Yet  James  Avery  did  not  settle  in  the  place  till  1651,  and  upon  ex- 
amination of  the  records  of  Gloucester,  Mass.,  from  whence  he  re- 
moved, we  find  the  births  of  these  children  recorded  there.  This  is 
not  a  solitary  instance  of  loose  and  inaccurate  registry,  calculated  to 
mislead  inquirers. 

Next  after  Mary  Hempstead,  and  the  first-bom  male  of  New 
London,  was  Manasseh,  son  of  Thomas  and  Grace  Miner,  bom 
April  28th,  1647.  Nor  can  we  find  any  other  births  recorded  earl- 
ier than  the  next  two  children  of  Thomas  Miner.  But  we  know 
from  other  authority,  that  Winthrop's  daughter  Martha^  was  bom 
here  in  July  or  August,  1648.  Other  births,  also,  may  have  taken 
place,  of  which  the  record,  if  any  were  made,  is  lost. 

1  Savage's  Wmthrop,  vol.  2,  app.,  p.  866. 


CHAPTER  V. 

New  Recorder  and  Moderaior. — ^Extracts  from  the  Moderator's  Memorandum 
Books,  with  a  running  commentary. — Grants,  Grantees  and  Town  Afiair8> 
1651-1661. 

Feb.  25th,  1650  [51.]  The  four  townsmen  chosen  were  Messrs* 
Winthrop,  Stebbins,  R.  Parke  and  Bnien*  This  was  the  last  year 
in  which  Winthrop  acted  in  that  capacity^  though  he  continued  to 
be  consulted  in  all  important  affairs.  His  duties  as  an  assistant  of 
the  colony,  and  his  various  private  undertakings,  m  setting  up  mills 
and  foi^es,  and  his  large  trading  and  farming  operations,  sufficiently 
account  for  his  retiring,  in  a  great  measure,  from  town  concerns^ 

At  the  same  annual  election  of  town  officers^  a  very  important  ^p 
pointment  was  made. 

<*  By  a  generall  consent  Obadiah  Bruen  was  choeen  Recoider  of  tke  town* 
of  Pequot," 

Mr.  Bruen  continued  in  this  office  without  interruption  fbr  raxteen 
years,  and  was  usually  moderator  of  the  town  meetings;  so  that 
Bcarcely  any  record  of  deeds,  votes,  choice  of  officers,  accounts,  bills 
of  lading,  or  copies  of  legislative  acts,  can  be  found  belonging  to 
that  period,  in  any  other  handwriting  tiban  his.  Ten  years  after 
this  appointment,  a  resolution  was  adopted  by  the  Ave  townsmen, 
which  shows  a  laudable  desire  to  preserve  the  public  documents,  and 
as  it  relates  to  the  matter  now  in  hand,  it  may  be  copied  here,  though 
not  in  the  order  of  time. 

"  Feb. «,  1660. 

"  For  the  settling  perfecting  and  fairly  recording  of  all  reconi8>  for  the  town's 
use  and  good  of  after  posteriti^,  wee  agreed  that  there  shall  be  a  towne  booke, 
with  an  Alphabet  in  it,  wherein  all  acts  passed.  Orders  or  agreements,  shall 
hereafter  be  fairly  ^recorded,  whether  past  or  to  come,  for  the  effecting  here- 
of, we  agree  that  all  the  old  bookes  of  records  shall  be  searched  into  for  what 
b  material  concerning  tbtt  public  good,  to  be  drawn  out  into  a  booke  provided 

7 


74  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

and  paid  for  by  the  Recorder,  who  shall  have  6d.  paid  him  out  of  the  town 
rate  for  every  act,  law  or  order  recorded." 

[Signed  by  the  townsmen,  Obadiah  Bruen,  Hugh  Calkin,  James  Rogers, 
James  Avery,  William  Nichols.] 

"The  old  bookes  of  records"  were  those  sheets  which  furnished 
matter  for  the  foregoing  chapter,  and  several  subsequent  small  mem- 
orandum books  kept  hj  the  moderators  and  town-clerk.  Extracts 
fix)m  these  were  now  engrossed  into  a  larger  book,  which  is  labeled 
"Town  Book  No.  1,  Letter  E."  Those  regulations  which  continued 
in  force,  and  other  items  important  to  the  well-being  of  the  fown, 
were  transferred  to  the  new  book,  but  not  in  regular  order,  and  some- 
times strangely  intermixed  with  the  current  affairs  of  the  period 
when  the  copy  was  made.  Grants  were  copied  and  registered  with 
more  precise  bounds,  in  a  book  by  themselves,  which  is  referred  to 
as  the  "old  book  under  Mr.  Brewster;"  the  re^tration  having  been 
commenced  by  him. 

Fortunately,  a  part  of  the  series  of  memorandum  books  from  which 
the  extracts  were  made,  remain,  though  in  a  fragmentary  state  and 
sometimes  illegible.  But  even  in  this  state,  they  are  of  far  greater 
value  than  the  subsequent  copy.  They  are  more  ample  and  minute 
in  detail,  and  being  made  by  the  clerk  upon  the  spot,  they  bring  us 
nearer  to  the  scene  and  make  the  picture  more  vivid.  These  brief 
jottings  down,  therefore,  will  be  followed  as  far  as  they  go.  Their 
suggestive  tendency  and  the  bold  outlines  they  sketch,  will  more  than 
compensate  for  breaking  the  regular  course  of  historical  narrative. 
Such  explanations  as  may  render  them  intelligible  will  be  interwoven. 

The  earliest  minute  in  Mr.  Bruen's  hand  is  on  a  scrap  of  paper, 
apparently  part  of  the  first  leaf  of  a  memorandum  book.  It  is  dated 
July,  1651,  and  affords  a  full  list  of  the  actual  inhabitants  at  that 
time. 

•*  The  names  of  all  y'  wrought  at  the  Mill  Dam. 

Kary  Latham  Taylor 

Jn»  Gallope  Willey 

Jn«  Gager  Hanshut 

Thom.  Park©  Tabor 

Jn<*  Stubbin  Waterhouse  half  a  day. 

Longdon  Comstock 

Mynor  Beeby  pr  M'  Parke 
Chappell                                              0  Bruen 

Tho*  Welles  NichoU 

Lewis  Masters 

Bemas  Blatchford 
Mudg 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON.  75 

Keny  Hungerford 

Parker  Stalioa 

Wellman  Waller 

Brewster  Ha  r  wood 

Bartlet  Burrows 

Morton  Packer 

Waterhonse  Doxe 

Hempsted  Burden 

Fosttiker  MarsbalL 
Stanton 

Pour  names  on  the  list  belong  to  transient  or  fluctuating  resi* 
dents,  viz.,  Thomas  Hanshut,  Nathaniel  Masters,  John  Fossiker  and 
John  Borden ;  who,  after  remaining  a  jear,  or  two  years,  and  com- 
ing and  going  several  times,  finallj  lefl  the  plantation. 

•*  July  30 — Richard  Hauton  a  Boston  man  desires  a  lot." 

Though  here  called  a  Boston  man,  the  name  of  Richard  Haugh- 
ton  is  not  found  on  the  early  records  of  that  place,  except  in  the 
conveyance  of  a  dwelling-house  and  garden  to  Samson  Shore,  tailor^ 
27  of  8  mo.  51,*  which  probably  was  about  the  period  that  he  re- 
moved his  family  to  Pequot  He  had  married  the  widow  Charlet, 
of  Boston,  and  the  tenement  had  probably  belonged  to  her.  Ustagh- 
ton  had  a  house  lot  granted  on  Foxen's  HilL 

"Aug.  15ih,  1651. 

**  It  is  agreed  that  there  shall  be  a  common  field  fenced  in  ;  the  fence  begin- 
ning about  Greene  Harbor,  and  to  run  through  the  woods  to  Robin  Hood's  Bay." 

This  was  for  the  planting  of  Indian  com.  Robin  Hood's  Bay  is 
DOW  Jordan  Cove.  The  former  appellation  was  retained  but  a  short 
time.  The  name  Green  Harbor,  still  in  familiar  use,  came  in  with 
the  emigrants  from  Cape  Ann,  and  was  probably  so  called  in  remem- 
brance of  Green  Harbor,  now  Marshfield,  where  Mr.  Blinman  and 
his  friends  had  dwelt  before  going  to  Gloucester. 

Aug.  29th.  The  following  sketch  is  supposed  from  the  votes  that 
follow,  to  show  the  result  of  a  ballot  for  deputies  to  the  General 
Court. 

Brewster   i  I  I  I  II  I 7 


Mvnor    i  1  i  II 

1  M  1  1  10 
2 
3 
1 
5 

M  II  II  1  1  1 

0 

Parke            1  1 

III                     3 

Stanton        1  1  1 

1  1                       2 

Bruen            1 

1                         1 

Calkin.    Mill 

.        1  1  i  1  II  1  II  1 

_io 

iJames  Savage,  Esq.,  (MS.) 


76  HISTORY   OF   NEW   LONDOIV* 

"  The  Towne  have  sent  to  the  Court  by  there  Deputjt  Hugh  Calkin  &  Thoma* 
Mynor  that  the  Towne's  name  map  be  coiled  London. 
"  And  to  know  there  enlargement  to  Pockatuck. 
**  Also  about  Indians  powther." 

This  second  implication  concerning  the  name  of  the  town,  was  no 
more  successful  than  the  former  had  been.  The  Court  in  Septem- 
ber,  while  it  confirmed  the  enlargement  of  the  bounds  to  Pawka- 
tuck  River,  called  the  town  hj  its  old  name,  ^^Nameage,**^ 

**Memorandum$  for  town  meeting.  Sept,  20. 
^  Tt>  propound  bying  of  Mr.  Parks  bame.' 
**  A  rate  for  Mr.  BIynmans  half  yeer  :  chnse  rater. 
**  Speak  about  new  drum, 
**  Chuse  one  to  mn  the  lyne  to  Pockatuck. 
**  Read  the  Towne  grant  from  the  Court. 
**  A  training  day.    A  rate  for  the  book  of  lawes. 
**  Amoo  RijtherBon  is  to  have  a  lot." 

IKchardlson  was  fretn  Boston,  and  hapd  commercial  dealings  with 
the  planters..  Instead  of  taking  up  a  new  lot,  he  purchased  that  of 
Richard  Post,  on  Post  Hill.  The  conveyance  was  made  to  him  by 
Richard  Post,  hammersmith,  who  henceforth  disappears  firom  the  roll 
of  inhabitants. 

Under  this  date  a  minute  is  made  of  several  rate  lists,  which  are 
interesting  as  illustrative  of  ^he  simplicity  of  the  times.  They  are 
the  statistics  of  a  fresh-settl^,  frugal  people,  with  food,  raiment  and 
housekeeping  of  the  plainest;  kind  that  could  be  called  comfortable, 
abounding  only  in  land  and  tbe  hope  of  future  good.  After  enum- 
erating house  and  house  lot^  meadow,  marsh  and  upland,  the  planter 
had  from  two  to  four  cows ;  half  %  dozen  calves,  yearlings  and  two 
years  old ;  a  litter  of  swine,  and  t¥^o.  or  three  sheep,  or  perhi^  only 
a  share  in  a  stock  of  two  or  three  sheep.  This  was  all  the  ratable 
property  of  even  some  of  the  ddest  settlers,  a»  Willey,  Waterhouse, 
and  Lewis.  Waterhoose  had  Wis  ox,  ap^  it  is  the  ov^  one  men- 
tioned on  five  rate  lists. 

"  October. 

"  John  Picket,  Mr.  Stanton  enfcMrmed  mee^  (3  or  4  yeaxos  ago^)  desiie<j(  a  lott — 
now  desires  to  renew  it,  and  desires  a  lott  by  thp  Dutph  Captins,  a  seaman,— 
granted. 

1  CoU  B«o.  Conn.,  vol.  1,  p.  224. 

2  Mr.  Parke's  bam  was  used  for  the  nMstij9$-hou^»^  anc^  th^  oajU  tiojM^o^.11^  b^ 
bpat  of  dnwif 


HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON.  77 

"Mrs.  Lake  requests  for  upland  and  meddo  to  her  house  lott. 
"Cowkeeper  expects  pay  for  CJowes  he  desires  to  know  from  us  what  every 
one  must  pay. 
"About  66.  to  make  up  the  mill  dam. 
"Another  rate  for  the  ministry. 
"A  rate  for  the  new  meeting  house.** 

Other  names  that  make  their  first  appearance  during  the  year  1651^ 
principallj  as  grantees,  are : 

"Richard  Aerie,/.  I  John  Davies,  Edward  Messenger, 

Goodman  Barker,/.  Capt.  Benason,  John  Pickworth,/. 

(of  Charlestowne,)  Goodman  Garlick,  /.  John  Read,/. 

Lieutenant  Bud,/.  John  Gesbie,/  Thomas  Roach, 

JohnCoale,/.  John  Ingason,/  William  Vincent,/.** 
Edward  Codner, 

Very  few  of  these  persons  became  permanent  settlers.  Most  of 
them,  after  a  short  residence  and  several  changes  of  location,  for- 
feited their  grants.  It  was  the  rule  that  lots  not  built  upon  or  fenced 
'within  six  months,  were  forfeited.  Grants  made  in  the  early  part  of 
the  year  and  neglected,  were  declared  forfeit  at  Michaelmas  ;^  but 
on  application  the  time  was  often  extended  to  nine  months  or  a  year. 

Richard  Aery  was  from  Gloucester,  and  probably  a  mariner,  as 
he  often  visited  the  place  in  subsequent  years. 

Lieutenant  Budd  was  from  New  Haven  colony.  The  house  lot 
given  him  was  directly  in  the  center  of  the  town  plot,  covering  what 
is  now  called  the  Parade,  leaving  only  a  strip  for  fort  land  on  the 
water-side  and  a  highway  on  the  north.  The  grantee  forfeited  his 
lot,  and  it  was  given  to  Amos  Richardson  in  exchange  for  his  Post 
lot 

John  Cole  is  called  "a  ploo-right,"  (plow  maker.)     Among  oth* 

er  grants,  ^the  marsh  upon  pyne  island"  was  given  him.     This  isl« 

and,  or  islet,  which  lies  on  the  Groton  shore,  still  retains  its  desig* 

nation,  though  long  since  denuded  of  the  original  growth  of  pines 

?  from  which  it  was  derived. 

Capt  George  Denison,  from  Boxbury,  Mass.,  had  a  house  lot  giv- 
en him  on  what  is  now  Hempstead  Street,  opposite  the  present  jail. 
It  has  smce  been  known  as  the  old  Chapman  homestead. 

Goodman  Grarlick  was  probably  the  Joseph  Garlick  afterward  of 


1/.,  forfeited. 

2  The  20th  of  September.    Mr,  Bmen  wrote  the  word  mighelstide. 


79  BXVTaSY    or    new    L0]I90K# 

East  Hampton^  L.  L,  who  beeame  conspiciioiis  m*16$7,.«i  aeeovnt 
of  the  arrest  of  his  wife  oa  suspicion  of  witchcraft.^ 

Thomas  Roach  is  not  recorded  as  a  grantee  of  this  year ;  but  in  a 
deposition  made  bj  him  in  1708,  he  states  that  he  came  to  the  town 
^  nearly  fifty-eight  years  ago,"  which  would  place  him  ia  this  list* 

Nov.  loth,  a  house  lot  in  the  lower  part  of  the  town,  near  Close 
Cove,  was  laid  out  to  William  Chesebrough ;  from  which  it  may  be 
inferred  that  the  grantee  was  purposing  to  transfer  his  residence  from 
Pawkatuck,  where  he  had  been  living  a  wild  and  solitary  life  for  op- 
ward  of  two  years,  to  the  town  plot.  There  is  no  evidence  that  this 
plan  was  accomplished,  or  that  he  in  any  way  occiqMed  the  grant  in 
town.    It  was  afterward  given  to  Mr.  Bruen. 

Just  a  month  later,  Mr.  Chesebrough  was  again  before  the  towns- 
men, in  regard  to  a  private  grievance,  and  obtained  an  order  in  his 
fiivor. 

'*  Whereas  Goodman  Cbpesbrougb  is  as  we  are  informed  hindered  of  Joha 
Leigh  ton  to  fetch  home  his  haie  wee  the  townsmen  of  Peqoot  doe  order  that 
the  said  Goodman  Cheesbrough'  shall  have  liberty  to  goe  any  way  he  shall  see 
most  coiivenient  for  him  to  bring  it  home  withoat  any  let  or  hindrance  from 
the  said  John  Leighton.  This  is  determined  by  us  untiU  the  Towne  shall  take 
further  order  to  dispose  both  of  the  way  and  land." 

The  town  having  had  their  claim  to  the  lands  lying  east  of  Mys- 
tic River  confirmed  by  the  Creneral  Court,  made  their  first  grant  on 
that  side,  November  15th,  1651,  to  Capt.  Mason.  At  the  session  of 
the  Court  in  September,  a  grant  had  been  made  to  the  gallant  cap* 
tain — as  a  bounty  out  of  the  conquered  territory— of  an  island  in 
Mystic  Bay  (called  by  the  Indians  Chippachaug,  but  since  known  as 
Mason's  Island)  and  one  hundred  acres  of  land  on  the  adjoining 
main-land.  To  this  the  town  added  their  gratuity,  joining  another 
hundred  acres  to  the  former  grant ;  and  at  a  subsequent  period  they 
extended  his  boundary  still  further  to  the  eastward.  The  main-land 
portion  of  this  noble  farm  was  washed  by  the  salt  water  on  three 
sides,  forming  a  neck;  and  on  the  north-west  was  a  small  brook, 
called  by  the  Indians  pequotseposy  afterward  a  well  known  boundary 
between  Mason  and  Denison  land. 


1  Thompson's  Hist  Long  Island,  p.  189.  Col.  Rec,  app.,  p.  678.  Mass.  Hist  CJolL, 
8d  series,  roL  10,  p.  188. 

2  The  older  clerks  were  by  no  means  consistent  in  their  spelling.  Mr.  Bmen  writes 
Cheesebrooke  in  one  passage  and  Cheesbrougfa  in  another.  He  often  made  the  mis- 
take of  writing  Blatchfield  for  Blatchford.  John  Leighton  may  have  been  the  same 
as  John  Lawton,  afterward  of  Westerly. 


B18TOKT    or    NEW    LONDOIY.  79 

Gapt.  Mason  was  at  tbat  time  intent  on  obtaining  the  remoyal  of 
the  elan  of  Indians  tbat  bad  settled  under  the  rule  of  Cassasinamon 
on  the  IxMrder  of  Mjstie  Bay,  opposite  his  island.  At  the  same  date 
with  his  first  grant  from  the  town,  a  preamble  and  resolutions  are 
sketched  in  the  moderator's  note-book,  with  interlineations  in  Cap^ 
Mason's  hand,  portending  a  speedy  change  of  habitation  to  this  for- 
lorn remnant  (^  the  Pequot  race,  who  are  here  called  Nemeaks. 
The  townsmen  declare  that  they  have  special  use  for  the  land  and 
the  Indians  must  be  removed ;  ''the  worshipful  Capt.  Mason"  enga- 
ges to  effect  their  removal  and  to  place  them  with  Uncas,  where  they 
shidl  have  land  of  their  own  ''as  long  as  Uncas  doth  hold  his  inter- 
est there  and  they  demean  themselves  in  a  quiet  and  peaceable 
manner."  This  |Hroposition,  if  brought  before  the  town,  wad  not 
carried :  the  Indians  were  not  removed  from  Naiwayonk  till  sixteen 
years  later.  An  agreement,  however,  was  made  with  the  Indians, 
obliging  them  to  keep  their  planting  grounds  well  fenced,  and  that 
they  should  bear  all  damages  made  by  cattle  of  the  English  on  their 
com,  as  well  as  make  good  all  damage  by  their  cattle  on  the  com  of 
the  English.  This  was  signed  by  their  chief,  in  behalf  of  his  com- 
pany, on  the  moderator's  book,  Nov.  18th,  1651. 


his  mark. 


"Nov.  27,  1651. 

*'  It  is  ordered  that  no  man  shall  transport  pipe-staves,  bolts,  clap-boards  or 
shingles  from  this  side  of  the  river  without  leave  of  the  townsmen  upon  pen- 
alty of  5t.  the  hnndred.'' 

"Feb.  21, 1651-2. 

**  None  shall  fell  any  trees  upon  tlie  Common  within  10  pole  of  any  man*8 
fence.  Of  ahout  the  common  field  fence  next  unto  the  Commons." 

These  regulations  display  a  prudent  forethought  rather  uncommon 
in  the  first  settlers  of  a  well  forested  country.    The  first  has  a  bear- 


80  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

ing  upon  the  wanton  havoc  of  timber,  and  the  other  on  the  preser- 
vation  of  trees  for  shade  around  the  borders  of  the  highways  and 
fields.  The  fathers  of  the  town  were  solicitous,  from  the  first,  to 
prevent  an  indiscriminate  waste  of  the  wood-lands.  Ordinances  to 
preserve  the  timber  upon  the  commons,  and  all  trees  that  were  de- 
sirable to  be  left  for  shade  in  the  streets  and  highways,  and  also  in 
the  broader  commons,  may  be  traced  downward  into  the  next  cen- 
tury. The  townsmen  were  directed  to  mark  all  such  trees  with 
marking  irons  with  the  letter  S,  and  a  fine  was  imposed  for  cutting 
them  down.  In  their  eagerness  to  clear  the  country  and  open  to 
themselves  a  broader  scope  of  the  sun  and  stars,  they  were  not  un- 
mindful of  beauty,  propriety  and  the  claims  of  posterity — arguments 
which  have  had  less  weight  with  some  succeeding  generations. 

•'Dec.  6. 

*<  Mr.  Winthrop  hath  a  small  island  given  him :  one  of  the  outermost  of 
Mistick's  islands  yt  lyes  next  his  own  island,  yt  upon  which  he  puts  his  ram 
goates,  now  named  Ram -Goat  island."  i 

Several  of  the  larger  farmers,  at  this  period,  made  an  attempt  to 
keep  goats.  On  the  east  side  of  the  river  were  several  large  herds 
containing  from  twenty  to  fifly  goats.  A  by-law  was  made  for  their 
regulation : 

"May  28,  1651. 

**  It  is  ordered  that  all  dammage  done  by  goates  is  to  be  vewed  by  three  in- 
different men,  and  as  they  shall  judge  the  real  dammage,  double  dammage 
is  to  be  allowed.** 

Mr.  Winthrop  was  probably  the  only  one  who  persevered  in  rais- 
ing goats.  At  a  time  when  the  Narragansett  Indians  were  con- 
sidered turbulent,  (November,  1654,)  a  report  was  current  "that  they 
had  killed  two  hundred  of  Mr.  Winthrop's  goats."* 

The  Mystic  islands,  with  the  exception  of  Chippachaug  or  Mason's 
Island,  were  small  and  of  slight  value,  and  yet  were  early  solicited 
from  the  town  as  grants. 

"  Dec.  16,  1651. 

**  Thomas  Mynor  hath  given  him  at  Mistick  a  small  island  lying  between 
Chipichuock  [Mason's  Island]  and  the  Indians ;  at  the  east  end  of  it  there  is  a 
little  upland  full  of  bushes." 

iNow  Bradford's  Island,  a  favorite  summer  resort 
2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  8d  series,  vol.  10,  p.  4. 


BISTORT    OF     NBW     LONDOSf.  81 

The  possession  <^  this  mland  was  contested  with  Mr.  Miner,  and 
be  sorrendered  the  grant.  It  is  prdlMible  that  Mr.  Blinman  had  some 
ciaim  to  it,  and  that  it  was  the  island  granted  to  the  latter,  as 
follows — 

"  Feb.  5, 1653,  ['4.] 

*<Hr.  Blinman  hath  given  bim  a  small  island,  a  wcxxly  island  against  Capt. 
Mason's  island  at  Mistkk :  called  by  the  Indian  name  of  Ashowughcummocke." 

In  Majy  1655,  ''a  small  woody  island  near  his  island  at  Mistick'^ 
was  granted  to  ^  Major  Mason  of  Seabrook."  This  is  probably  a 
third  grant  of  the  same  island.  ^  Sixpenny  island  at  the  mouth  of 
Mistick,"  was  granted  to  Robert  Hempstead  and  John  Stebbins  in 
1652.  Notwithstanding  its  derisive  name  it  contained  near  twenty 
acres  of  marsh. 

Dnring  the  winter  of  1651-2  the  common  lands  upon  the  Great 
Neck,  consisting  of  ieJl  the  old  ground  between  the  town  and  Alewife 
Brook,'  were  laid  out  and  divided  by  lot  The  lots  were  arranged, 
in  tiers  upon  the  river  to  the  brook,  and  then  beyond,  by  what  was; 
called  '^  the  blackamore's  river,"^  and  from  thenee  along  the  Sound. 
These  were  for  plowing  and  mowing  lots,  and  in  the  rear  was 
kid  oat  a  series  of  woodland  lots,  double  the  size  of  the  others  and 
reaching  from  the  ox-pasture  near  the  town  to  Robin  Hood's  Bay.. 
If  this  were  not  sufficient,  the  measurers  were  to  go  forward  towardi 
the  north  of  Uhuhiock^  River,  until  all  had  their  lots  laid  out. 
These  difficult  divisions  appear  to  have  been  managed  with  skill  and 
fairness.  It  is  interesting  to  note  the  care  and  precision  with  which 
the  townsmen  form  the  plan  and  give  the  directions  to  the  surveyors. 
The  one  who  had  the  first  lot — that  is,  the  lot  nearest  home — in  the 
mowing  land,  was  to  have  th6  last  in  the  wood-land :  and  the  portions 
of  the  common  fencing  were  arranged  in  the  same  order.  Care  was 
taken  that  all  should  have  equal  portions  of  old  and  new  ground,  and 
it  was  a  general  rule  that  allowance  should  be  made  for  defects.  All 
large  rocks  and  swamps  unfit  for  use,  were  to  be  lefi  unmeasured 
and  cast  into  the  nearest  lots. 

The  agreements  made  with  the  cow-keepers  display  the  same  prin- 
c]fles  of  prudential  care  and  equal  justice.     The  cattle  were  divided 

1  This  is  Lower  Alewife  Brook,  a  pleasant  little  stream  on  the  Great  Neck. 

t  A  brook  beyond  Alewife,  so  called  at  that  time  on  acooont  of  some  Indian  wig- 
wsms  remaining  near  it 
8  Or  Uhnhioh,  the  al^riginal  name  of  Jordan  Brook. 


r 


» 


82  HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON. 

into  two  herds,  with  each  a  keeper,  who  began  his  time  at  the  19th 
of  April,  and  received  the  herd  at  certain  portions  of  the  town,  go- 
ing forth  with  them  at  sun  half  an  hour  high  and  bringing  them  home 
half  an  hour  before  the  sun  set 

**  For  the  Lords  days  he  is  to  keep  them  every  4th  Lords  day  and  to  give  one 
days  notice  to  him  that  hath  most  cattle  first  to  keep  them  upon  the  Lords  day 
and  so  whoever  hath  one  more  than  an  other  to  warn  him  before  he  that  hath 
fewer  to  keep  them  a  Lord^s  day  and  after  he  that  hath  but  one  cow  shall  keep 
them  his  day,  then  to  begin  again  with  him  that  hath  most,  twice  warning 
them  that  have  double  the  cattle  that  their  neighbors  have  before  once  waming 
him  that  hath  but  half  that  his  neighbor  hath. 

**  The  keeper  for  his  paines  is  to  have  12«.  a  weeke — for  his  pay  he  is  to  have 
1  pound  of  butter  for  every  cow,  and  the  rest  of  his  pay  in  wompum  or  In- 
diane  Corne,  at  2f.  6^^.  p.  bushell  in  the  moneth  of  October." 

The  waste  marsh  generally  overflowed,  was  given  to  a  company 
of  undertakers,  viz.,  Mr.  Denison,  Hugh  Caulkins,  John  Elderkin 
and  Andrew  Lester,  who  undertook  to  drain  it,  and  were  to  have  all 
the  land  "  now  under  water  forever."     It  was  added  : 

**  The  undertakers  have  liberty  to  make  a  weare.  They  are  to  leave  it  open 
two  nights  every  week  for  the  coming  up  of  the  alewives.  The  town  to  have 
freedom  to  take  what  they  please  at  the  usual  place  or  to  buy  them  at  the 
weare  at  20  alewives  for  a  penny  for  their  eating." 

The  salt  marshes  were  esteemed  as  the  first  class  of  lands  by  the 
planters.  Those  near  the  harbor's  mouth  were  known  by  the  Indian 
name  of  Quaganapoxet  and  were  mostly  granted  to  the  settlers  from 
Gloucester,  as  a  kind  of  bonus  to  induce  them  to  remove,  and  as 
furnishing  a  ready-made  food  for  the  cattle  they  brought  with  thenu 
They  are  often  referred  to  as  "  the  marshes  given  to  Cape  Ann  men." 

March  17th,  1651-2. 

Among  the  subjects  minuted  to  be  brought  before  the  townsmen^ 
is  the  following : 

**  Mudge*s  will : — his  house  and  house  lot :  Thomas  Mynor  puts  in  for  a  debt 
of  20sA."  [.i  e.,  due  to  him  from  estate  of  Mudge.] 

The  decease  of  Jarvis  Mudge  probably  occurred  two  or  three 
•days  before  this  date.  It  is  the  first  death  in  the  plantation  to  which 
Any  allusion  is  made  on  records  now  extant.  Thomas  Doxey  died 
about  the  same  time,  but  whether  at  home  or  abroad  is  not  known, 
jas  no  contemporaneous  reference  is  made  to  the  event.  He  had  a 
grant  of  land  recorded  to  him,  Dec.  2d,  1651,  and  his  wife  is  called 
^  widow  Kathren  Doxey"  on  the  9th  of  April,  1652.    Jarvis  Mudge 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  83 

was  undoabtedlj  interred  in  the  old  burial-ground,  as  it  lay  contigu- 
ous to  his  house  lot  and  had  not  then  been  inclosed.  It  is  probable 
that  these  were  the  first  relics  lefl  to  molder  in  that  venerable  place. 
The  families  of  these  two  deceased  individuals  soon  removed  to  other 
parts  of  the  country,  leaving  none  of  either  name  in  New  London. 
Wills  and  inventories  were  at  that  time  engrossed  upon  the  town 
book,  and  sent  to  the  Assistants'  Court  at  Hartford  for  probate ;  but 
no  papers  relative  to  the  estate  of  either  Mudge  or  Doxey  are  extant, 
except  the  following  item. 

"June  18,  1653.  The  Court  at  Hartford  give  liberty  to  the  townsmen  of  Pe- 
qaot  to  dispose  of  the  lot  of  the  widow  Mudge  towards  the  paying  of  tho 
debu,  and  the  bettering  of  the  children's  portions.**' 

The  first  registered  death  was  that  of  a  child  bom  in  the  town. 

"Ana  daughter  of  Thomas  and  Grace  Minor  bora  2S  April  1049 :  died  13 
August  1652.*' 

(  A  blacksmith  is  an  important  personage  in  a  new  settlement. 
Richard  Post  and  others  of  the  first  comers  were  of  this  profession, 
bat  they  had  left  the  place,  and  an  invitation  was  extended  to  John 
Prentis,  of  Roxburj,  to  become  an  inhabitant  and  wield  the  hammer 
for  the  public  benefit.     The  town  of  Hadley  had  made  a  similar  pro- 

^  posal  to  him,*  but  he  came  to  Pequot  on  a  visit  of  inquiry,  and  en- 
tered into  a  contract  with  Mr.  Winthrop  and  the  townsmen,  who,  be- 
ing authorized  by  the  town,  engaged,  if  he*  would  remove,  to  build  . 
bim  a  house  and  shop,  pay  the  expense  of  his  transportation,  and 
provide  him  with  half  a  ton  of  iron,  also  "  twenty  or  thirty  pound  of 
Steele,"  to  be  ready  by  the  middle  of  May.  These  articles  were 
signed  Feb.  28th,  1651-2,  and  at  the  same  date  he  received  the 
iisual  accommodations  of  a  planter,  house  lot,  upland  and  meadow. 

^  The  house  lot  of  two  acres  was  in  an  eligible  and  central  position^  at 
the  comer  of  the  present  State  and  Bai^k  Streets.' 

About  the  same  period  a  house  lot  near  the  mill  brook  was  laid 
^t  to  Lieutenant  Samuel  Smith,  from  Wethersfield,  a  person  whose 
^"^spectable  standing  as  an  officer  and  capacity  for  business  made  him 
ft  welcome  inhabitant.     He  was  subsequently  chosen  "  the  towne's 


1  New  London  Town  Book. 

'  SyWetter  Judd,  Esq.,  of  Northampton,  (MS.) 

'  "Hie  Prentis  lot  with  two  honsea  upon  it,  one  of  them  altered  from  the  shop,  was 
P^»"Jha8ed  in  Feb.,  1668  by  Joshua  Raymond.  A  part  of  it  was  owned  by  the  Ray- 
n^nds  for  150  years. 


/ 


S4  HISTOftY     OP    NBW    LONDON. 

"May  20. 

"  Water  [Walter]  Harries  of  Dorchester  desires  a  house  lot  beyond  the  plot 
of  land  by  John  Coites.     Granted.** 

This  house  lot  was  at  the  south  end  of  the  town,  toward  Green 
Harbor.  Additions  were  subsequently  made  to  it  from  the  ox  pasture 
•on  the  opposite  side  of  the  way,  and  a  quantity  of  ^hideous  rocks" 
near  by  were  thrown  in  unmeasured. 

"  Aug.  29. 

**  Jolin  Stoder  [Stoddard]  hath  a  house  lot  jjiven  him  at  Foxen's  hill,— 6 
acres,  highwaies  to  be  allowed  to  common  land  and  to  fetch  stones." 

The  transportation  of  stones  alluded  to  in  this  grant  refers  to  a 
ledge  of  granite  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  a  mile  from  town,  where 
stones  for  building  were  quarried.  "A  highway  to  the  Quarry"  was 
reserved  in  grants  near  it  Winthrop's  house  and  some  others  were 
tuilt  of  stone,  probably  from  this  ledge.* 

Other  grantees  and  new  inhabitants  of  1652. 

Thomas  Griffin,  afterward  of  Pawkatuck. 
William  Rogers,  from  Boston. 
Nehemiah  Smith,  sometime  of  New  Haven. 
Richard  Smith,  from  Martin's  Vineyard.     He  bought  the  Mudge 
liouse  lot,  but  after  a  few  years  removed  to  Wethersfield. 
Nathaniel  Tappin :  grants  forfeited. 

The  charge  of  the  town-clerk  for  his  services  during  the  year 
1652,  was  as  follows : 

**  O.  B.  for  writing  and  recording  for  the  Towne,  orders,  agreements,  peti- 
tions, letters.  Court  grants,  rates,  gathering  and  perfecting  rates,  writing  before> 
at,  and  after  town  meeting,  covenants  of  cow-keeper  and  smith,  £6." 

In  1652  a  general  apprehension  existed  throughout  the  country 
that  the  Indians  were  preparing  for  hostilities.  The  Narrag^Uisetts 
were  especially  regarded  with  suspicion,  and  preparations  were  made 
in  the  frontier  towns  to  guard  against  surprise.  At  Pequot  ike  town 
orders  were  peremptory  for  arming  individuals  and  keeping  a  vigilant 
eye  upon  the  natives.  Watchmen  were  kept  on  the  look-out,  both 
night  and  day.  A  fresh  supply  of  ammunition  was  procured  and 
the  following  directions  published  : 

1  The  houses  of  Jamt^s  Rogers  and  Edward  Stallion,  both  built  before  1660,  were 
«f  stone.    Stallion's  Wtts  on  the  Town  Street:  afterward  fidgecombe  property. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  85 

"July  8, 1652. 

**  forfeiture  of  false  raising  of  an  alarum  10/. 

"  forfeiture  of  not  coming  when  an  alarum  is  raised  51. 

**  forfeiture  of  not  coming  to  there  pticular  squadron  61, 

"It  is  agreed  y^  it  shall  be  a  just  alarum  when  3  gunnes  are  distinctly  shot  of, 
ind  the  drum  striking  up  an  alarum. 

"If  the  watchmen  here  a  gunn  in  the  night,  they  well  considering  where- 
thegunn  was  firing  if  they  conceive  to  be  in  the  Towne  may  raise  an  alarum. 

"  for  the  setiag  of  a  gunn  for  a  wolfe  they  y*  set  a  gunn  for  that  end  shall 
tcquaint  the  constable  where  he  sets  it  that  he  may  acquaint  the  watch." 

Three  places  in  the  town  were  fortified,  the  mill,  the  meeting-house, 
and  the  hoase  of  Hugh  Caulkins,  which  stood  at  the  lower  end  of  the 
town,  near  the  entrance  of  Cape  Ann  Lane.  The  inhabitants  were 
divided  into  three  squadrons,  and  in  case  of  an  alarm  Sergeant 
Miner's  squadron  was  to  repair  to  Hugh  Caulkins',  Captain  Denison's 
to  the  meeting-house,  and  Lieut  Smith's  to  the  mill. 

Severe  restrictions  were  laid  upon  the  trade  with  the  Lidians  in 
the  river,  which  was  to  be  confined  to  Brewster's  trading-house.  No 
individual  could  go  up  the  river  and  buy  com  without  a  special 
license,  which  was  only  to  be  given  in  case  of  great  scarcity.  Hap- 
pily no  alarm  occurred,  and  all  fear  of  an  Indian  war  soon  died 
away.  But  Mr.  Brewster  was  allowed  for  several  years  to  monop- 
olize the  Indian  trade.  This  granting  of  monopolies  was  perhaps 
the  greatest  error  committed  by  the  fathers  of  the  town  in  their  leg- 
islation. ' 

"April  25,  1053. 

"Captain  Denison,  Goodman  Chcesebrooke,  Mr.  Brewster,  and  Obadiah 
Braen  are  chosen  to  make  a  list  of  the  male  persons  in  rown  16  years  old  and 
upward,  and  a  true  valuation  of  all  real  and  personal  estate  of  the  said  persons 
according  to  order  of  the  Court.  Goodman  Cheesebrooke  is  chosen  Commis- 
atoner  to  carry  the  list  to  the  Court  In  September  next." 

This  was  the  first  list  of  the  town  returned  to  the  General  Court, 
the  inhabitants  having  been  heretofore  fr^e  from  the  colonial  tax. 
The  list  amounted  to  £3,334,  which  ranked  the  town  sixth  in  the 
colony:  the  five  river  towns,  Hartford,  Windsor,  Wethersfield,  Farm- 
"igton  and  Saybrook,  took  the  precedence. 

The  house  lot  grants  for  this  year  were  not  numerous.  After 
16o2  there  was  no  general  resort  of  settlers  to  the  plantation.  Feb. 
20th  a  house  lot  on  Lower  Mamacock,  with  other  accommodations, 
^as  pledged  to  a  Mr.  Phillips  tn  case  he  come.  This  was  perhaps 
the  same  lot  that  had  been  given  to  John  Elderkin  and  surrendered 
^y  liim.  Mr.  Phillips  never  came,  and  the  next  December  the  lot 
8 


86  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

was  given  to  John  Picket  and  Thomas  Hungerford  for  fire-wood. 
This  is  worthy  of  notice,  as  showing  that  the  rugged  promontory, 
now  almost  denuded  of  trees,  smoothed  down,  and  crowned  with  a 
noble  fortress,  could  then  boast  of  verdant  boughs  and  forest  walks. 
August  9  th,  house  lots  were  granted  to  "Amos  Richardson's 
brother  the  millwright" — afterward  caDed  his  brother-in-law — end 
to  "Nehemiah  Smith's  brother,''  without  naming  them.  The  former 
subsequently  had  a  grant  of  a  large  farm  east  of  the  river  under  the 
same  vague  denomination  :  he  has  not  been  identified.  The  latter 
was  John  Smith,  who  had  been  for  some  time  resident  in  Boston,  and 
came  to  Fequot  with  wife  and  one  daughter.  At  the  same  time  a 
grant  was  made  to  "  Goodman  White,  shoemaker,  of  Dorchester,"  of 
whom  there  is  no  subsequent  notice.  November  20th,  grants  were 
made  to  Edward  Culver  of  a  farm  at  Mystic  and  a  house  lot  io  town. 

**  Dec.  5.     Goodman  Harries  for  his  son  Gabriell  hath  given  him  sixe  ackers 
of  upland  for  an  house  lot  ioyning  next  to  Iiis  father's." 

This  was  doubtless  a  preparatory  step  to  the  marriage  of  Grabriel 
Harris  and  Elizabeth  Abbot,  which  took  place  at  Gruilford,  March 
8d,  1653-4.  Tradition  adds  to  the  simple  record  <^  the  marriage 
many  romantic  incidents.  It  is  said  that  a  vessel  with  emigrants 
from  England,  bound  to  New  Haven,  put  in  to  Pequot  Harbor  for  a 
shelter  in  foul  weather  and  anchored  near  the  lonely  dweUing  of  the 
Harris  family,  which  stood  upon  the  river  side.  Gabriel-  went  off 
in  his  fishing  boat  and  invited  the  emigrants  to  his  father's  house* 
The  whole  party  accordingly  landed,  and  a  great  part  of  the  night 
was  spent  in  feasting  and  hilarity.  One  of  the  emigrants  was  a 
young  female,  to  whom  Gabriel  was  so  assiduous  and  successful  in 
his  attentions,  that  when  the  company  returned  to  the  vessel  they 
were  betrothed  lovers.  Some,  indeed,  relate  that  a  clergyman  or 
magistrate  was  present,  and  the  young  couple  were  actually  married 
that  night.  But  the  tradition  that  harmonises  best  with  fact  is,  that 
the  emigrants  went  on  their  way,  and  the  young  man  shortly  afler- 
ward  new  painted  and  rigged  his  father's  pinnace  and  foDowing  the 
wake  of  the  vessel  through  the  Sound,  came  back  merrily,  bringing 
a  bride  and  her  household  gear.* 

Bream  Cove  was  at  this  time  a  noted  landing-place.  The  decked 
boats  and  pinnaces  used  in  that  day  ran  nearly  up  to  the  head,  and 
on  the  west  side  were  several  shore  rocks,  where  it  was  convenient 


1  The  record  of  this  marriage  was  commimieated  hj  Balph  D.  Smith,  Esq.,  of  Guil- 
ford.   Elizabeth  Abbot  was  probably  a  daughter  of  Robert  Abbot,  of  Branford. 


HISTORY    OF   NEW     LONDON.  87 

to  Lmd.  The  house  lots  of  l^bert  Hempstead  and  James  Bemas 
reached  to  the  cove,  with  the  highway  (now  Coit  Street)  separatiBg 
them  into  two^  divisions.  In  December,  1658,  the  remainder  of  the 
land  on  the  east  side  of  the  cove,  was  divided  equally  between  three 
other  B*s,  Beckwith,  Bruen  and  Blatchford.  About  the  same  time, 
also,  Mr.  Blinman  removed  to  the  lower  part  of  the  town  and  had 
his  house  lot  on  the  west  side  of  the  same  cove,  where  it  is  supposed 
that  he  dwelt  until  he  left  the  place.*  His  house  stood  near  where 
the  old  bridge  crossed  the  cove* 

"  Dec.  19.     Mrs.  Lake  hath  given  her  in  the  woods  west  from  the  town  at  a 
^    plame,  by  a  pond  called  Plaine  lake,  300  acres  of  upland  with  the  meado  by 
the  pond  and  the  pond." 

The  beautiful  sheet  of  water  here  called  Plain  Lake  has  since 

j  been  called  Lake's  Lake,  or  Lake's  Pond,  and  is  now  included  in 

I  Chesterfield  society,  Montville.     The  farm  laid  out  to  Mrs.  Lake, 

1  nominally  three  hundred  acres,  being  measured  with  the  generous 

amplitude  so  common  in  that  day,  was  twice  the  size  of  the  Uteral 

grauL    It  was  of  a  seven-cornered  figure,  inclosing  the  beautiful 

I  oval  lake.     Within  the  area  were  hill-sides  and  glens,  wood-lands  and 

swamps  almost  impenetrable.     This  estate  was  bequeathed  by  Mrs. 

Lake  to  the  children  of  her  daughter  Gallop,  by  whom  it  was  sold 

'  to  the  Prentis  brothers,  sons  of  John  Prentis. 

The  new  inhabitants  of  1654  were  John  Lockwood,  William 
Roberts,  William  Collins,  Sergeant  Richard  Hartley  and  Peter 
Bradley.  Hartley  appears  to  have  come  from  England  with  a  stock 
of  English  goods,  which  he  opened  in  a  shop  on  Mill  Cove.  Peter 
Bradley  was  a  seaman,  who  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Jon- 
^^than  Brewster,  and  bought  the  house  lot  of  John  G^lop.  John 
Chynnery,  of  Watertown,^  at  the  same  period  bought  Capt.  Denison's 
homestead,  the  latter  having  previously  removed  to  Mystic. 

April  9th.  The  or^er  was  re^nacted  enforcing  attendance  upon 
town  meeting  and  a  fine  of  one  shilling  imposed  upon  absentees  when 
lawfully  warned. 

"  The  aforesaid  fyne  also  they  shall  pay  if  they  come  not  within  halfe  an 
bowre  a(\($r  the  beating  of  the  drum  and  stay  the  whole  day  or  until!  they  be 
dianissed  by  a  publick  voate." 


1  This  swann  of  B^s  appears  to  have  be^n  nnconscioosly  gathered  around  the 
cove.   Peter  Harris  afterward  built  on  the  spot  occupied  by  Mr.  Blinman. 

2  Perhaps  this  was  the  John  Chenary,  who  was  one  of  sixteen  men,  slain  by  the 
Indians  Sept  4th,  1675,  at  Squakeag.    Coffin's  Newbury,  p.  889. 


88  HISTOBT     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

The  order  for  a  town  meeting  was  giyen  bj  the  townsmen  to  the 
constable,  who  gave  notice  to  the  wamer  and  drummer.  The  warn- 
er  left  a  summons  at  every  house :  the  drum  began  t^  beat  half  an 
hour  before  the  time  for  business,  and  if  a  constable,  two  townsmen 
and  fifteen  inhabitants  appeared,  it  was  a  legal  meeting. 

'*  June  2.     Goodman  Harries  is  chosen  by  the  Towne  ordinary  keeper. 

'*  June  20.  Capt.  Denison  is  chosen  Commissioner  and  to  him  is  chosen  Mr. 
Brewster  Mr.  Stanton  and  Hugh  Calkin  to  make  a  list  of  the  state  of  the  towne 
and  the  inhabitants  and  to  make  the  Country  rate  of  Twenty  pounds." 

August  28th.  The  former  law  granting  a  tax  of  sixpence  from 
every  family  for  the  killing  of  a  wolf,  was  repealed,  and  a  bounty  of 
twenty  shillings  substituted. 

**  The  Towne  having  nominated  and  chosen  Goodman  Cheesebrooke*  Oba- 
diah  Bruen  and  Hugh  Calkin  whom  to  present  to  the  Court  desire  that  they 
may  have  power  together  with  Mr.  Winthrop  and  Captin  Denison  or  any  three 
of  them  for  the  ending  of  small  causes  in  the  town." 

This  petition  was  not  granted  and  the  inhabitants  were  obliged  for 
some  time  longer  to  carry  their  law  cases  to  Hartford  for  adjudication. 

«*  Nov.  6. 

**  John  Elderkin  was  chosen  Ordinary  Keeper. 

**  An  order  from  the  Court  forbidding  the  sale  of  strong  liquors  by  any  bat 
persons  lycensed  by  the  Court  was  published. 

"  Widdo  Harris  was  granted  by  voat  also  to  keep  an  ordinary  if  she  will." 

Walter  Harris  died  the  day  this  vote  was  taken,  and  Elderkin 
was  chosen  as  his  successor,  who  was  confirmed  in  his  office  and 
licensed  by  the  General  Court.  At  the  northern  extremity  of  the 
town,  on  Foxen's  Hill,  another  inn  was  established  about  this  period, 
by  Humphrey  Clay  and  his  wife  Eatherine.  How  far  it  was  sanc- 
tioned by  the  town  we  can  not  learn,  as  the  note-books  of  Mr.  Bruen 
from  the  early  part  of  1655,  to  September,  1661,  are  lost  and  the 
regular  town  book  is  scanty  in  its  record.  The  inn  of  Mr.  Clay 
continued  to  be  a  place  of  notoriety  until  16^,  when  it  was  broken 
up  and  its  landlord  banished  from  the  place  for  breaches  of  law  and 
order. 

"  At  a  General  Town  meeting  Sept.  1,  1656. 

**  George  Tongue  is  chosen  to  keep  an  ordinary  in  the  town  of  Pequot  for 
the  space  of  5  years,  who  is  to  allow  all  inhabitants  that  live  abroad  the  same 
privilege  that  strangers  have»  and  all  other  inhabitants  the  like  privilege  ex- 
cepting lodging.  He  is  also  to  keep  good  order  and  sutlicient  accommodation 
according  to  Court  Order  being  not  to  lay  it  down  under  6  months  warning, 
unto  which  I  hereunto  set  my  hand 

**GE0Ras  TONOK.* 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  89 

Greorge  Tongue  about  this  period  bought  the  house  and  lot  of 
Thomas  Stanton  on  the  Bank,  north-east  of  the  Picket  lot ;  and  here 
he  opened  the  house  of  entertainment  which  he  kept  during  his  life, 
and  which,  being  continued  by  his  family,  was  the  most  noted  inn  of 
the  town  for  sixty  years. 

The  establishment  of  a  regular  ferry  over  the  river  was  an  object 
of  prime  importance  to  the  inhabitants,  all  of  whom  had  shares  of 
land  in  two  or  three  parcels  on  the  east  side.  The  waters  at  this 
spot  may  be  technically  termed  rugged.  There  is  no  bar,  as  at  Say- 
brook,  to  mitigate  the  vehemence  of  the  swell,  and  the  mouth  of  the 
river  lying  open  to  the  Sound,  it  sometimes  rolls  like  the  sea. 
The  width  across  in  the  narrowest  part  opposite  the  town,  is  a 
little  less  than  half  a  mile^  but  it  spreads  both  above  and  below  this 
point  to  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  mile.  November  6th,  1651,  arti- 
cles were  drawn  to  lease  the  ferry  to  Edward  Messenger  for  twenty- 
one  years.  This  arrangement  lasted  two  or  three  years,  and  then 
Messenger  gave  up  his  lease  and  removed  to  Windsor. 

In  1654  the  disposal  of  the  ferry  was  left  to  Mr.  Winthrop  and 
the  townsmen,  who  entered  into  "articles  of  agreement"  with  Gary 
Latham,  granting  him  a  lease  and  monopoly  of 

**  The  ferry  over  Pequot  river,  at  the  town  of  Peqaot,  for  fifty  years — from 
the  twenty-fifth  of  March,*  1665.  The  said  Gary  to  take  3rf.  of  every  passenger 
for  his  fare,  6rf.  fbr  tvery  horse  or  great  beast,  and  3rf.  for  a  calf  or  swine : — 
and  to  have  liberty  to  keep  some  provisions  and  some  strong  liquors  or  wine 
for  the  refreshment  of  passengers. — No  English  or  Indian  are  to  pass  over  any  y 
near  the  ferry  place  that  they  take  pay  for, — if  they  do  the  said  Gary  may  re- 
quire it" 

Mr.  Latham,  on  his  part,  bound  himself  to  attend  the  service  im- 
nwdiately  with  a  good  canoe  and  to  provide,  within  a  year's  time,  a 
sufficient  boat  to  convey  man  and  beast.  He  abo  engaged  to  build  a 
house  on  the  ferry  lot  east  of  the  river  before  the  next  October,  to 
dweU  there  and  to  keep  the  ferry  carefully,  or  cause  it  to  be  so  kept, 
for  the  whole  term  of  years. 

/In  October,  1654,  the  first  levy  of  soldiers  was  made  in  the  plan-     / 
tation.    The  New  England  confederacy  had  decided  to  raise  an  army 
of  two  hundred  and  seventy  men  and  send  them  into  the  Narragan- 
sett  conntry  to  overawe  the  Indians.     G>nnecticut  was  to  furnish 
fi>rtj-five  men,  with  the  necessary  equipments ;  and  of  this  force  the 


1  This  was  the  first  day  of  the  civil  vear. 
8* 


90  HI3TORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

quota  of  Pequot  was  ^four  men,  one  drum,  and  one  pair  of  euUeHB.^^ 
The  expedition  was  a  fruitless  one :  the  soldiers  suffered  many  hard- 
ships, but  had  little  fighting  to  do. 

In  Maj,  1657,  Mr.  Brewster  was  made  an  assistant  and  Mr.  Win- 
throp  chosen  governor  of  the  colony.  This  last  act  caused  the  re- 
moval from  town  of  its  friend  and  patron.  The  varied  information 
of  Mr.  Winthrop ;  his  occasional  practice  as  a  physician;  his  econom- 
ical science ;  his  readiness  to  ent«r  into  new  paths  of  enterprise ;  his 
charity,  kindness  and  affability,  made  him  extremely  popular.  His 
residence  in  the  town  was  a  privilege,  although  public  affairs  for  two 
or  three  years,  had  kept  him  much  of  the  time  away.  But  it  was 
manifestly  inconvenient  for  the  chief  magistrate  to  reside  at  Pequot, 
which  was  then  in  a  comer  of  the  colony,  with  a  wilderness  to  be 
traversed  in  order  to  reach  any  other  settlement  At  the  solicitation 
of  the  Greneral  Court,  he  removed  with  his  family  and  goods  to 
Hartford* 

**  12  Aug :  1657— This  Court  orders  that  Mr.  Winthrop,  being  chosen  Gov- 
ernor of  this  Colony,  shall  be  again  desired  to  oome  and  live  in  Hartford,  with 
bis  family,  while  he  governs,  they  grant  him  the  yearly  use  or  profits  of  the 
houding  and  lands  in  Hartford  belonging  to  Mr.  John  Haynes,  which  shall  be 
yearly  discharged  out  of  the  public  treasury." 

**  Oct.  1.     The  Court  doth  appoint  the  Treasurer  to  provide  horses  and  men 
to  send  for  Mr.  Winthrop,  in  case  he  is  minded  to  come  to  dwell  with  us."^ 
* 

Before  Mr.  Winthrop*s  removal  to  Hartford  he  leased  the  town 
mill  to  James  Rogers,  a  baker  from  Milford,  who  had  traded  much  in 
the  place,  and  in  1657  or  1658  became  an  inhabitant.  As  an  accom- 
modation to  Mr.  Rogers  in  point  of  residence,  he  also  alienated  to 
him  a  building  spot  from  the  north  end  of  his  home-lot,  next  to  the 
mill;  on  which  Mr.  Rogers  erected  a  dwelling-house  and  bakery, 
both  of  stone. 

Mr.  Winthrop's  own  homestead,  in  1660  or  1661,  passed  into  the 
occupancy  of  Edward  Palmes,  who  had  married  his  daughter  Lucy. 
Mf.  Palmes  was  of  New  Haven,  but  after  his  marriage  transferred 
his  residence  to  the  Winthrop  homestead ;  which,  with  the  farm  at 
Nahantick,  the  governor  subsequently  confirmed  to  him  by  will.  In 
that  document  this  estate  is  thus  described : 

**  The  Stone-house,  formerly  my  dwelling  house  in  New  London  with  gar- 
den and  orchard  as  formerly  conveyed  to  said  Palmes  and  in  his  use  and  pos- 
session, with  the  yard  or  land  lying  to  the  north  of  the  said  house  to  join  \irith 

\  Col.  Rec,  vol.  1,  pp.  801,  806. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    hOHt^Oli.  dl 

Jtmes  Rogers  :** — *'  also  a  lot  of  6  acres  lying  east  of  the  bouse  bounded  north 
by  the  oxe-pasture  and  east  by  the  Great  River,  and  having  two  great  oak 
trees  near  the  south  line." 

This  stone  house,  built  in  1648,  stood  near  the  head  of  the  cove 
on  the  east  side,  between  the  street  (since  laid  out  and  appropnatelj 
named  Winthrop  Street)  and  the  water.  The  ox  pasture  to  which 
the  will  refers  was  inclosed  the  same  year.  Samuel  Beeby,  in  a 
deposition  of  1708,  testified  that  he  and  his  brother  made  the  fence 
to  it  "sixty  years  since,"  and  that  "Mr.  Winthrop's  goats  and  cattle 
were  kept  therein  as  well  as  his  oxen."  The  "old  stone  house"  is 
mentioned  in  the  will  of  Major  Palmes,  in  1712,  who  bequeathed  it 
to  his  daughter  Lucy,  the  only  child  of  his  first  wife ;  who,  having  no 
children,  left  it  to  her  brothers,  Guy  and  Bryan  Palmes.  This  home- 
stead is  supposed  to  have  been  for  more  than  a  century  the  only 
dwelling  on  the  neck,  which  was  then  a  rugged  point,  lying  mostly 
in  its  natural  state  and  finely  shaded  with  forest  trees.  It  was  sold 
about  1740  to  John  Plumbe. 

The  mill,  being  a  monopoly,  could  not  fail  to  become  a  source  of 
grievance.  One  mill  was  manifestly  insufficient  for  a  growing  com- 
munity, and  the  lessee  could  not  satisfy  the  inhabitants.  Governor 
Winthrc^  subsequently  had  a  long  suit  with  Mr.  Rogers  for  breach 
of  contract  in  regard  to  the  mill,  but  recovered  no  damages.  The 
town  likewise  uttered  their  complaints  to  the  General  Court,  that 
they  were  not  "duely  served  in  the  grinding  of  their  com,"  and 
were  thereby  "  much  damnified ;"  upon  which  the  Court  ordered, 
that  Mr.  Bogers,  to  prevent  "  disturbance  of  the  peace,"  should  give 
"  a  daily  attendance  at  the  mill." 

After  1662,  the  sons  of  the  governor,  Fitz  John  and  Wait  Still 
Winthrop,  returned  to  the  plantation  and  became  regular  inhabitants. 
Between  the  latter  and  Mr.  Rogers  a  long  and  troublesome  litigation 
was  maintained  in  regard  to  bounds  and  trespasses,  notices  of  which 
are  scattered  over  the  records  of  the  County  Court  for  several  years. 
In  1669,  Capt.  Wait  Winthrop  set  up  a  bolting  mill  on  land  claimed 
by  Mr.  Rogers,  who,  as  an  offset,  immediately  began  to  erect  a  build- 
ing, on  his  own  land,  but  in  such  a  position  as  wholly  to  obstruct  the 
only  convenient  passage  to  the  Said  bolting  mill.  This  brought  mat- 
ters to  a  crisis.  Richard  Lord,  of  Hartford,  and  Amos  Richardson, 
of  Stonington,  were  chosen  umpires,  and  the  parties  interchangeably 
signed  an  agreement  as  a  final  issue  to  all  disputes,  suits  at  law  and 
controversies,  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the  date  thereof. 


92  HISTORY    OP    HfiW    LONDON. 

Winthrop  paid  for  the  land  on  which  the  mill  stood ;  Rogers  took 
down  his  building  frame,  and  threw  the  land  into  the  highway,  and  all 
other  differences  were  arranged  in  the  like  amicable  manner.' 

In  March,  1658-9  the  General  Court  appointed  John  Smith  com- 
missioner of  the  customs  at  New  London.  This  was  the  first  regular 
custom-house  officer  in  the  town,  and  probablj  in  the  colony. 

May,  1660,  the  General  Court  granted  New  London  to  have  an 
assistant  and  three  commissioners  with  full  power  to  issue  small 
causes.  For  the  year  ensuing  Mr.  John  Tinker  was  chosen  assist- 
ant ;  Mr.  Bruen,  James  Rogers  and  John  Smith,  commi^ioners. 

Feb.  25  th,  1659-60.  At  this  annual  town  meeting  a  paper  <^ 
instruction  and  advice  was  prepared  for  the  use  of  the  townsmen  and 
sanctioned  by  the  public  voice,  which  furnishes  a  clear  summary  of 
the  various  duties  of  those  unsalaried  officers  called  townsmen  or 
selectmen,  so  essential  in  the  organization  of  our  New  England 
towns.  This  document  appears  to  have  been  drawn  up  in  answer  to 
a  previous  application  of  the  townsmen,  ^^  to  know  of  the  town  what 
their  duties  were."     Li  substance  as  foUows : 

1.  To  keep  up  Che  town  bounds,  and  see  that  the  fence- viewers  discharge 
their  duty  with  respect  to  individual  property. 

2.  To  take  care  that  children  are  educated,  servants  well  ordered  and  in- 
structed, and  no  person  suffered  to  live  in  idleness. 

3.  That  the  laws  of  the  jurisdiction  be  maintained ; — no  inmates  harbored 
above  two  or  three  weeks  without  consent  of  the  town ;  and  the  magazine  kept 
supplied  with  arm's  and  ammnnition. 

4.  That  the  streets,  lanes,  highways  and  commons  be  preserved  free  from  all 
encroachments  and  that  they  appoint  some  equal  way  for  the  clearing  of 
the  streets  in  the  town  from  trees,  shrubs,  bushes  and  underwood,  and  call  forth 
the  inhabitants  in  convenient  time  and  manner  for  effecting  the  same. 

5.  That  they  take  care  of  the  meeting-house  and  provide  glass  windows  for 
it,  with  all  convenient  speed. 

6.  **  That  they  consider  of  some  absolute  and  perfect  way  and  coarse  to  be 
taken  for  a  perfect  platforme  of  settling  and  maintaining  of  the  recordes  respect- 
ing the  towne,  that  they  bo  fully  clearly  and  fairly  kept,  for  the  use,  benefit  and 
peaceful  state  of  the  town,  and  aller  posterity.'* 

7.  That  they  consult  together  and  with  the  moderator,  of  all  matters  to  be 
propounded  at  town  meetings  so  as  better  to  effect  needful  things  and  prevent 
needless  questions  and  cogitations. 

8.  That  they  determine  all  matters  concerning  the  Indians  that  inhabit 
mmongst  us. 

1  The  Rogera  homestead  was  purchased  by  Madam  Winthrop  In  1718,  and  reunited 
to  the  original  estote.  John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  the  son  of  Wait  Winthrop,  about  that 
period  removed  to  New  London,  and  fixed  his  residence  on  this  spot 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  93 

9.  That  they  regulate  the  felling,  sawing  fiind  transporting  of  timber ;  masts, 
boards,  planks,  pipe-staves.  Sec. 

10.  That  they  see  the  ferries  well  kept. 

11.  That  they  determine  all  complaints  respecting  land  grants  ;  except  the 
difficult  and  doubtful  cases,  which  must  be  referred  to  the  town. 

12.  That  they  have  regular  meetings  for  business  and  give  notice  of  the 
time  and  place  thereof,  by  a  paper  upon  the  meeting-house. 

Signed  by  John  Timeer,  Moderator. 

Before  quitting  this  period  it  will  be  proper  to  gather  up  the 
names  (not  jet  mentioned)  of  residents  that  came  in  during  the  in- 
terral  for  which  Mr.  Bruen's  minutes  are  lost 

Addis,  William  :  came  from  Boston  165d  or  59. 

Bartlet,  Robert:  brother  of  William,  first  mentioned  1657. 

Bloomfield,  William,  from  Hartford,  1659:  removed  in  1663  to  Newtown, 
L.I. 

Bowen,  Thomas,  1657:  removed  to  Rehoboth,  and  there  died  in  1663. 

Brooks,  Thomas,  1659  and  '60  :  aiterwards  removed. 

Chapman  William,  1657  :  bought  the  house  and  lot  that  had  been  Capt. 
Denison's  of  Mr  Blinman,  agent  of  John  Chynnery. 

Cow<lall,  John,  a  trader  who  became  bankrupt  in  1659,  and  left  the  place. 

Crocker,  Thomas  :  bought  bouse  in  New  Street,  1660. 

Douglas,  William  ;  from  Boston,  1659. 

Leuard,  Thomas,  1657  :  house  lot  at  Foxen*8 — removed  in  1663. 

Loveland,  Robert :  mariner  and  trader  from  Boston,  165S. 

MoQte,  Mil^s :  from  Milibrd,  1657  :  purchased  the  homestead  and  other 
aUotments  of  John  Gager. 

Raymond,  Joshua,  1658. 

Kichards,  John.  The  first  notice  of  him  is  in  1660,  but  be  may  have  been 
in  the  plantation  two  or  three  years.  He  purchased,  on  what  is  now  State 
Street — the  south  side — two  houselots  originally  given  to  Waterhouse  and  Bru- 
ea.  He  built  bis  hou.«e  at.  the  corner  of  the  present  Huntington  Street,  and  this 
remained  for  more  than  a  century  the  homestead  of  the  family. 

Koyce,  Robert,  1657. 

Shaw,  Thomas,  1656  :  was  alWwnrd  of  Pawkatuck. 

Smith,  Edward,  1660  :  nephew  of  Nehemiah  and  John  Smith. 

Tinker,  John :  a  grave  and  able  man,  from  the  MassachutK^tts  colony. 

WeihercU,  Daniel :  from  Scituate,  1659. 

Wood,  John,  1660. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

General  sketch  of  grants, — west  and  east  of  the  river,— at  Mystic  and  Pawlui- 
tuck. — Early  grantees  east  of  the  Mystic— Contention  for  the  jurisdictioa. — 
The  plantation  named  Stonington. 

The  first  grants  had  been  made  on  a  limited  scale,  and  with  refers 
ence  to  immediate  occupation  and  improvement.  But  after  1651, 
the  ideas  of  the  planters  expanded  ;  there  was  an  eagerness  for  the 
spoils,  a  thirsting  after  large  domains,  and  a  lavish  division  of  farms 
both  east  and  west  of  the  river — at  Nahantick — ^up  the  river  toward 
Mohegan — three  miles  out  of  town,  if  it  he  there — four  or  ^^q  miles, 
if  he  canfnd  it — at  Mystic — at  Pawkatuck  : — a  little  meadow  here, 
a  little  marsh  there, — the  islands,  the  swamps,  and  the  ledges, — till 
we  might  fancy  the  town  was  playing  at  that  ancient  game  galled 
Give  away.  Divisions  to  old  settlers  and  grants  to  new  ones,  follow 
in  rapid  succession,  and  the  clerk  and  moderator  record  little  else. 
A  brief  survey  of  the  most  prominent  grants,  is  all  that  will  be  here 
attempted. 

The  first  farm  taken  up  at  Nahantick  was  by  Mr.  Winthrop.  It 
is  not  found  recorded,  but  is  mentioned  as  the  farm  which  Mr.  Win- 
throp chose.  It  consisted  of  6  or  700  acres,  east  of  the  bar  and  Gut 
of  Nahantick,  including  what  is  now  Millstone  Point,  and  extending 
north  to  the  country  road.  In  October,  1660,  the  Greneral  Court 
added  to  this  farm  the  privilege  of  keeping  the  ferry  near  it,  which 
caused  it  to  be  known  as  the  Ferry  farm.  It  was  a  part  of  the  por- 
tion bestowed  by  Mr.  Winthrop  on  his  daughter  Lucy,  the  wife  of 
Edward  Palmes. 

Adjoining  the  Ferry  farm  was  that  of  John  Prentis,  and  north  of 
these,  on  the  bay,  Hugh  Caulkins  and  William  Keeny ;  at  Pine  Neck, 
Mr.  Blinman  ;  "  rounding  the  head  of  the  river,"  Isaac  Willey  ;  and 
yet  farther  west,  Matthew  Beckwith  ;  whose  land,  on  the  adjustment 
of  the  boundary  with  Lyme,  was  found  to  lie  mostly  within  the 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  95 

bounds  of  that  town,  though  his  house  was  on  the  portion  belonging 
to  New  London. 

Mr.  Bruen  had  an  early  grant  on  the  west  side  of  Jordan  Cove, 
which  is  still  known  as  Bruen's  Neck:  Greorge  Harwood*s  land 
joined  Bruen's.  This  locality  was  designated  as  ^  old  ground  that 
had  been  planted  by  Indians."  Robert  Parke  had  a  valuable  grant 
at  Poquiogh— the  Indian  name  of  the  tract  east  of  the  cove — and 
next  to  him,  smaller  portions  were  laid  out  to  the  Beeby  brothers. 
"  The  three  Beebys"  had  also  divisions  at  Fog  Plain,  a  name  which 
is  still  in  familiar  use.  Many  of  the  small  grants  on  this  plain  were 
bought  up  by  William  Hough. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  years,  James  Rogers,  by  purchasing  the 
divisions  of  Robert  Hempstead  and  Robert  Parke,  called  Groshen, 
and  various  smaller  shares  of  proprietors,  became  '  the  largest  land- 
holder on  the  neck.  Himself,  three  sons,  and  son-in-law,  Samuel 
Beeby,  all  Imd  farms  in  this  quarter.  The  Harbor's  Mouth  farm, 
was  an  original  grant  to  Mr.  Blinman,  but  was  afterward  the  prop* 
erty  of  John  Tinker.  Andrew  Lester  was  another  early  resident 
upon  the  neck. 

In  the  district  now  called  Cohanzie,  north-west  of  the  town  plot, 
was  Mr.  Winthrop's  Mill-pond  farm,  which  was  probably  a  grant 
attached  to  his  privilege  of  the  mill  strefun.  His  right  to  a  portion 
of  it,*being  afterward  contested,  the  witnesses  produced  in  court  tes- 
tified diat  Mr.  Winthrop  occupied  this  farm  "  before  Cape  Ann  men 
came  to  the  town." 

Not  far  from  the  town  plot,  on  the  north  side  of  the  mill  brook, 
was  a  swampy  meadow  called  Little  Owl  Meadow :  this  was  given 
to  James  Avery.  Advancing  still  to  the  northward  we  meet  with  a 
tract  of  high  ridgy  land,  often  called  the  Mountain.  Here  Edward 
Pafanes,  and  Samuel  and  Nathaniel  Royce  had  grants,  which  were 
eaDed  Mountain  farms.^     This  was  a  rough  and  barren  region. 

North  of  the  town  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river,  was  a  long  array 
of  grants :  the  most  extensive  ^ere  those  of  Winthrop,  Stebbins, 
Blinman,  Lothrop,  Bartlet  and  ^Waterhouse.  Mr.  Blinman's  farm 
indttded  "  Upper  Mamoquack  Neck."  The  grant  of  Waterhouse 
covered  « the  Neck  at  the  Straits'  Mouth." 

Winthrop  had  other  important  grants  in  this  quarter.    April  14th, 


1  An  English  emigrant  at  a  later  day  settled  on  one  of  these  farms;  and  the  witti- 
cism was  carrent  that  he  selected  the  spot  on  the  supposition  that  frvm  ike  topqf  tk€ 
rochi  he  eov&^see  England. 


96  HtBTORY   OP     NEW     LONDON. 

1 653,  the  whole  water-oourse  of  Alewife  Brook  was  granted  him,  with 
ample  privileges  of  erecting  mills,  making  dams  and  ponds,  cutting 
down  timber,  and  taking  up  land  on  its  banks.  He  erected  a  house 
near  the  saw-mill  in  1658,  probably  the  first  on  the  west  side  of  the 
river,  so  far  north  as  this.  This  was  followed  a  few  months  later  hj 
a  grant  of  land,  and  saw-mill  privileges  still  farther  north,  on  the 
Saw-mill  Brook,  near  the  present  Uncasville  factory.  On  the  same 
Saw-mill  Brook,  John  Elderkin,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  accu- 
mulated 770  acres,  which  he  sold  April  22d,  1662,  to  Mr.  Antipas 
Newman,  of  Wenham,  son-in-law  to  Mr.  Winthrop.' 

Daniel  Comstock,  who  was  the  son-in-law  of  Elderkin,  was  an 
early  resident  in  this  vicinity.  A  farm  on  Saw-mill  Brook,  origin- 
ally given  to  Lieut  Samuel  Smith,  was  purchased  by  Comstock,  in 
1 664,  and  has  remained  ever  since  in  the  occupation  of  his  descend- 
ants. 

The  earliest  grants  in  the  southern  part  of  Groton  or  Poquonock, 
have  been  already  mentioned.  They  were  highly  valued,  as  the  soil 
could  be  brought  into  immediate  use.  Some  of  it  was  meadow  and 
marsh,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  the  upland  had  been  formerly 
>^  cultivated  by  the  Indians.  Allusions  in  the  boundaries  of  grants,  are 
made  to  the  Indian  paths  and  the  Indian  fort.  Many  of  the  original 
small  grants  were  afterward  bought  up  by  merchants  for  speculation. 
Major  Pyncheon,  of  Springfield,  and  his  partner  James  Rogers,  en- 
grossed more  than  2,000  acres.  In  December,  1652,  a  highway 
was  laid  out  running  directly  through  the  narrow  lots,  above  the 
head  of  Poquonock  CJove  to  Mystic  River.  This  answers  to  the 
present  main  road  to  Mystic  Bridge.  The  earliest  settlers  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Mystic,  were  Robert  Burrows,  John  Packer,  and 
Robert  Parke.  Burrows  had  a  grant  of  "  a  parcel  of  land  between 
the  west  side  of  the  river  and  a  high  mountain  of  rocks,"  dated  April 
dd,  1651.  It  is  not  probable  that  houses  were  built  and  actual  settle- 
ments effected  before  1653.  Aaron  Starke  and  John  Fish  were  said 
to  be  of  Mystic^  in  1655  ;  John  Bennet,  in  1660 ;  Edmund  Fanning, 
in  1662,  and  Edward  Culver,  in  1664.  Edward  Culver's  farm  was 
called  by  the  Indians  Chepadaso. 

William  Meades,  James  Morgan,  James  Avery,  Nehemiah  and 
John  Smith,  were  early  resident  farmers  in  South  Groton.    They 


1  A  tripartite  diviBion  of  this  land  was  made  in  1708,  among  Mr.  Newman's  hein, 
viz.,  John  Newman,  physician  of  Gloucester,  Elizabeth  Newman,  spinster,  and  Sybil, 
wife  of  John  Edwards,  of  Boston. 


UI8TOET    OF    HEW     LOlfDON*  97 

received  their  granto  in  1652  and  '58,  but  conthiiied  to  reside  in  the 
town  plot  with  their  families  till  about  1655.  Between  this  and 
1660,  thej  transferred  their  residence  to  the  other  side  of  the  river. 
Ctrj  Latham,  as  lessee  of  the  ferry,  was  the  first  to  be  domiciliated 
open  Groton  Bank.  Thomas  Bajley  settled  north  of  Winthrop's 
land  on  the  river.  The  Chesters,  Lesters,  Starrs,  were  somewhat 
later  upon  the  ground — ^not  settlers  till  after  1660.  Andrew  Les- 
ter, Jun.,  settled  upon  land  given  to  his  father. 

Proceeding  up  the  river  to  that  division  of  the  township  which  is 
now  Ledjard,  we  find  a  series  of  farms  laid  out  on  the  northern 
boundary,  adjoining  Brewster's  land,  early  in  1653,  to  Allyn,  Avery, 
Coite,  Isbell,^  Picket,  and  others,  which  were  called  the  Pocketan- 
nock  grants.  Some  of  these  were  found  to  be  beyond  the  town 
bounds. 

Robert  Allyn  and  John  Gager  removed  to  this  quarter  about  1656. 
The  country  in  the  rear  of  these  hardy  pioneers  was  desolate  and 
wild  in  the  extreme.  It  was  here  that  the  Indian  reservation  Ma- 
shantucket  was  laid  out,  and  the  remnant  of  the  Pequots  settled  in 
1667.  Allyn  and  Gager  were  so  far  removed  from  the  town  plot  as 
to  be  scarcely  able  to  take  part  in  its  concerns,  or  share  in  its  privi- 
leges. The  General  Court  at  their  May  session  in  1658,  consider- 
ately released  them  from  their  fines  for  not  attending  the  town  train- 
ing.' They  appear,  however,  still  to  have  attended  the  Sabbath 
meeting,  probably  coming  down  the  river  in  canoes.  George  Greer 
married  a  daughter  of  Robert  Allyn,  in  1659,  and  settled  in  the 
neighborhood.  A  grant  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  May  6th,  1656,  would 
probably  fall  within  the  present  bounds  of  Ledyard. 

"  Mr.  Winthrop  hath  given  him  the  Ptone  quarry,  south-east  of  Pockatannock 
River,  near  the  footpath  from  Mohegan  to  Mistick.** 

Near  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  township,  toward  the  present 
town  of  North  Stonington,  is  an  elevation  that  from  the  earliest  set- 
tlement has  been  called  Lantern  Hill.  The  name  is  said  to  be  deri- 
ved from  a  large  naked  rock  not  far  from  the  summit,  which,  seen 
fvom  a  distance,  in  a  certain  position,  or  at  a  certain  hour  of  the 
daj,  shines  like  a  light  The  Indians  had  probably  named  it  from 
this  peculiarity,  and  the  English  adopted  the  idea.  East  of  this  hill 
is  »  great  pond,  and  a  chain  of  ponds^ — sources  of  the  Mystic— which 


1  hbelPs  turn  was  boo^t,  1666,  by  George  Geer. 
ICoL  Bee,  voL  1,  p.  817. 

9 


V 


98  HISTORY    OF     NBW     LONDON* 

at  first  was  regarded  as  **  our  outmost  bounds"  in  that  direction.  In 
1652  and  1653,  Mr.  Winthrop  obtained  grants  of ""  Lanthome  HilV' 
the  swamps  and  meadows  between  the  hill  and  the  great  pond,  with 
water  and  timber  privileges  at  his  pleasure,  and  also  a  strip  of  land 
twenty  poles  wide  on  each  side  of  the  Mystic,  <*from  the  place  where 
the  tide  flows  to  the  end  of  our  bounds  up  the  river." 

Capt.  Mason's  grant  east  of  the  Mystic  has  been  noticed.  A  series 
of  other  grants  on  that  side  commenced  Dec  30th,  1652,  with  200 
acres  to  Capt.  Denison,  whose  eastern  boundary  was  the  Pequot- 
sepos,  mentioned  in  Mason's  grant ;  and  260  to  Mr.  Blinman,  to  be 
laid  out  in  the  same  form  as  Denison's,  viz.,  100  poles  in  breadUi 
upon  the  river.  Other  grantees  of  nearly  the  same  date  were  James 
Morgan,  Mr.  Winthrop,  John  Grallop,  Mrs.  Lake,'  Mr.  Parke  and  the 
Beeby  brothers,  (now  increased  to  four,)  Mr.  Blinman  after  a  year 
or  two  relinquished  his  Mystic  farm  to  Thomas  Parke,  in  exchange 
for  the  accommodations  of  the  latter  in  the  town  plot  Denison, 
Grallop,  Robert  and  Thomas  Parke,  and  Nathaniel  Beeby,  probably 
removed  to  their  farms  in  1654.  Denison  sold  what  he  styles  ^my 
new  dwelling-house,"  in  the  town  plot,  to  John  Chynnery,  of  Water- 
town,  early  in  that  year. 

The  grants  to  John  Gallop  are  recorded  as  follows  : 

"  Feb.  9,  1652-3. 

'*  John  Gallop  in  consideration  and  with  respect  unto  the  services  his  father 
hath  done  for  the  country,  hath  given  him  up  the  river  of  Mistick,  which  side 
he  will,  300  acres  of  upland." 

"  Feb.  6,  1653-4. 

**  John  Gallop  hath  given  him  a  further  addition  to  his  land  at  Mistick,  ISO 
acres;  which  he  accepts  of  and  acknowk*dgeth  him^lfe  satisfyde  for  what 
land  he 'formerly  laide  claime  unto  upon  the  General  Neck,  as  a  gift  of  his 
father's,  which  as  he  saith,  was  given  to  his  father  by  General  Stoughton,  fifter 
the  Pequot  warr."* 

Between  Capt.  Mason's  farm  and  Chesebrough's,  were  several 
necks  of  land,  extending  into  the  Sound  and  separated  by  creeks. 
The  neck  east  of  Mason  was  allotted  to  Gary  Ltttham,  who  in  a  short 
time  sold  it  to  Thomas  Minor.     Beyond  this  were  two  points  or 


1  The  wife  of  John  Gallop  inherited  the  land  given  to  her  mother,  Mrs.  Lake. 

2  This  second  John  Gallop,  as  well  as  his  father,  had  performed  service  against  the 
Pequots.  In  1671,  the  General  Court  gave  bounties  of  land  to  various  persons  who 
had  been  engaged  m  the  Pequot  War:— cunong  them  were  three  names  belonging  to 
New  London,— John  Gallop,  granted  100  acres,— James  Rogers,  60,— Peter  Blatch- 
ford*s  heirs,  60. 


HISTORY     OF    NEW    LONDON.  99 

necksy  one  of  them  called  "  a  pyne  neck,"  with  a  broad  cove  between 
Uiem :  these  were  granted  to  Isaac  Willej,  and  sold  by  him  to  Amos 
Richardson.  Another  still  larger  neck,  called  Wampassock,  and 
containing  550  acres  of  upland,  with  a  smaller  neck  adjoining,  was 
given  to  Hagh  Caulkins.     This  was  subsequently  sold  to  Winthrop. 

Next  beyond  Caulkins,  and  separated  from  him  by  a  brook  called 
Mistuxet,  was  a  tract  of  several  hundred  acres  allotted  to  Amos 
Richardson  and  his  brother.  A  part  of  this  division  was  known  by 
the  Indian  name  of  Quonaduck. 

The  number  and  value  of  the  grants  made  at  various  times  to  Mr. 
Winthrop,  afford  conclusive  proof  that  the  town  was  not  ungrateful 
to  its  founder.  It  has  been  seen  that  at  Fisher's  Island,  at  Pequot 
Harbor,  at  Alewife  Cove  and  Saw-mill  Brook,  (north  of  the  Harbor,) 
at  Nahantick,  at  Groton  and  at  Mystic,  he  was  not  only  the  first  and 
largest  proprietor,  but  apparently  the  first  operator  and  occupant. 
It  was  probably  the  same  on  the  Pawkatuck  River.  Roger  Williams 
writing  to  him  in  March,  1649,  says : 

*'  I  am  exceedingly  glad  of  your  beginnings  at  Pwokatock." 

It  was  about  this  time  that  Winthrop,  assisted  by  Thomas  Stanton, 
held  a  conference  with  Ninigret,  the  Narragansett  sachem  at  We- 
qnatucket,  with  a  view  to  conciliate  his  Indian  neighbors,  and  have 
a  fair  understanding  in  regard  to  bounds.  Probably  at  the  same 
period,  or  very  soon  afterward,  William  Chesebrough,  encouraged 
by  Winthrop,  and  under  a  pledge  from  him  of  assistance  and  accom- 
modation, erected  his  first  lodge  in  the  wilderness,  on  the  borders  of 
the  Wickutequock*  Creek.  Winthrop  was  then  acting  under  a  com- 
mission from  Massachusetts,  and  Chesebrough  regarded  himself  as 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  that  colony.  But  in  November,  1649,  the 
magistrates  of  Connecticut  took  cognizance  of  the  proceedings  of 
Chesebrough,  who  had  engaged  in  trade  with  the  Indians  of  Long 
Island,  and  sent  a  warrant  to  the  constable  of  Pequot,  ordering  him 
to  desist.  This  order  was  disregarded,  on  the  plea  that  he  belonged 
to  another  jurisdiction.  Subsequently  a  greater  degree  of  severity 
was  manifested  toward  him,  and  he  was  commanded  to  leave  the 
territory,  or  appear  before  the  court  and  make  good  his  defense. 

Mr.  Chesebrough  was  by  trade  a  smith,  and  the  magistrates  were 
apprehensive  that  he  might  aid  the  Indians  in  obtaining  those  tools 


1  A  cove  and  creek,  east  of  Stonlngton  Point;  perhaps  the  same  as  Weqnatocket, 
betiore  mentioned. 


100  HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON. 

and  fire-Anns  which  would  render  them  more  dangerous  a^  enemies. 
He  appeared  at  Hartford  in  March,  1650-51,  imd  made  a  statement 
of  the  fiacts  in  his  case.  He  had  sold,  he  said,  house  and  lands  at  Re- 
hoboth,  and  all  the  appurtenances  of  his  trade,  not  reserving  took 
even  to  repair  a  gun-lock  or  make  a  screw  pin,  and  had  come  with 
his  £Euining  stock  to  Pequot,  with  the  expectation  of  settling  among 
the  planters  there ;  but  not  finding  accommodations  that  suited  him, 
he  had  established  himself  upon  the  salt  marsh  kt  Pawkatuck,  which 
could  be  mowed  immediately,  and  would  furnish  provbion  for  his 
cattle.  In  so  doing  he  had  been  encouraged  by  Mr.  Winthrop, 
whose  commission  from  Massachusetts  was  supposed  to  extend  over 
Pawkatuck.  He  had  not  wandered,  he  said,  into  the  wilderness  to 
enjoy  in  savage  solitude  any  strange  heretical  opinions,  for  his  reli- 
gious belief  was  in  entire  hanmrny  with  the  churches  of  Christ  estab- 
lished in  the  colonies  :.  moreover,  he  did  not  expect  to  remain  long 
alone,  as  he  had  grounds  to  hope  that  others  would  settle  around  him, 
if  permission  from  the  court  might  be  obtained.^ 

The  court  were  undoubtedly  right  in  disapproving  of  the  lonely 
life  he  led  at  Wickutequock.  The  tendency  of  man  among  savages, 
without  the  watch  of  his  equals  and  the  check  of  society,  is  to  de- 
generate ;  to  decline  from  the  standard  of  morals,  and  gradually  to 
relinquish  all  Christian  observances.  Yet  under  the  circumstances 
<rf  the  case,  they  were  certainly  rigorous  in  their  censure  of  Chese- 
brough.  The  record  says,  "they  expressed  themselves  altogether 
unsatisfied.''  They  were  no  further  conciliated  than  to  decree  that 
if  he  would  enter  into  a  bond  of  £100  not  to  prosecute  any  unlawful 
trade  with  the  Indians,  and  before  the  next  court  would  give  in  the 
names  of  "  a  considerable  company"  of  acceptable  i^ersons,  who  would 
engage  to  settle  at  Pawkatuck  before  the  next  winter,  "  they  would 
not  compel  him  to  remove." 

In  September,  1651,  Mr.  Chesebrough  was  against  Hartford,  en- 
deavoring to  obtain  a  legal  title  to  the  land  he  occupied.  Mr.  Win- 
throp and  the  deputies  from  Pequot  engaged  that  if  he  would  place 
himself  on  the  footing  of  an  inhabitant  of  Pequot,  he  should  have  his 
land  confirmed  to  him  by  grant  of  the  town.  To  this  he  acceded. 
In  November,  a  house-lot  was  given  him,  which,  however,  he  never 
occupied.  Hb  other  lands  were  confirmed  to  him  by  the  town, 
January  8th,  1651-2.  The  grant  b  recorded  with  the  following 
preamble : 

1  Col,  Rcc.,  vol.  1,  pp.  200,  210, 


HIBTORT    OF    NBW    LONDON.  101 

'*  Whereat  Hugh  Calkin  and  Thomas  Minor  were  appointed  by  the  towns- 
men of  Pequol  to  view  and  agree  with,  and  bound  out  unto  William  Chese- 
brough  and  bis  two  sons,  Samuel  and  Nathaniel,  according  to  a  covenant  for- 
merly made  by  Mr.  Winthrop,  Hugh  Calkin  and  Thomas  Minor,  with  William 
Chesebrough,  at  Hartford,  to  allow  them  a  comfortable,  convenient  subsistence 
of  land,  we  do  all  agree  as  foUoweth  : — We  Hugh  Calkin  and  Thomas  Minor 
have  bounded  out  300  acres  more  or  less,"  dec. 

After  describing  the  bounds  of  the  tract,  which  lay  on  the  salt 
water,  covering  what  is  now  Stonington  Borough,  it  is  added,  "the 
said  land  doth  fully  satisfy  William  Chesebrough  and  his  sons." 
This  grant  was,  nevertheless,  liberally  enlarged  afterward.  In  the 
town  book  is  a  memorandum  of  the  full  amount  given  him  before  the 
separation  of  the  towns — "  uplands,  2,299  acres  ; — meadows,  63  J." 

On  the  Pawkatuck  River  the  first  white  inhabitant  was  Thomas 
Stanton.  His  trading  establishment  was  probably  coeval  with  the 
farming  operations  of  Chesebrough,  but  as  a  fixed  resident,  with  a 
fireside  and  a  family,-  he  was  later  upon  the  ground.  He  him- 
self appears  to  have  beejn  always  upon  the  wing,  yet  always  within 
calL  As  interpreter  to  tne  colony,  wherever  a  court,  a  conference  or 
a  treaty  was  to  be  held,  or  a  sale  made,  in  which  the  Indians  were  a 
party,  he  was  required  to  be  present.  Never,  perhaps,  did  the 
acquisition  of  a  barbarous  >  langui^e  give  to  a  man  such  immediate, 
wide-spread  and  lasting  importance.  From  the  year  1 686,  when  he 
was  Winthrop's  interpreter  with  the  Nahantick  sachem,  to  1670, 
when  Uncas  visited  him  with  a  train  of  warriors  and  captains  to  get 
him  to  write  his  will,  his  name  is  connected  with  almost  every  Indian 
transaction  on  record.  > 

In  February,  164D-50,  the  Greneral  Court  gave  permission  to 
Stanton  to  erect  a  trading-house  at  Pawkatuck  and  to  have  "  six 
acres  of  planting  ground  and  liberty  of  feed  and  mowing  according 
to  his  present  occasions ;"  adding  to  these  grants  a  monopoly  of  the 
Indian  trade  of  the  river  for  three  years.  These  privileges  probably 
induced  him  to  bring  his  family  to  Pequot,  where  he  established 
himself  in  1651  and  continued  to  reside,  taking  part  in  the  various 
business  of  the  town,  until  he  sold  out  to  George  Tongue  in  1656. 
His  first  town  grant  at  Pawkatuck  was  in  March,  1652 — three 
hundred  acres  in  quantity,  laid  out  in  a  square  upon  the  river,  next 
to  his  grant  from  the  Court.  The  whole  of  Pawkatuck  Neck  and 
the  Hommocks  (u  e.,  small  islands)  that  lay  near  to  it  were  subse- 
quently given  him.  Other  farms  were  also  granted  on  the  Pawka- 
tiicky  in  the  neighborhood  of  Stanton ;  and  April  4th,  1653,  a  liberal 
9^ 


103  HISTORY     OF     NfiW     LONDON. 

grant  was  made  to  Mr.  Winthrop  of  the  water-course  of  the  river, 
with  liberty  to  erect  dams  and  mills  on  anj  part  of  it  or  on  anj  of 
its  branches,  and  to  cut  timber  on  anj  common  land  near  it,  together 
with  a  landing-place,  and  a  clause  of  general  pnyilege  annexed,  vix. 

•*  Liberty  to  dig  up  and  make  use  of  any  Iron-stone  or  other  stone  or  earth  in 
any  place  wilhin  the  land  of  thia  town.** 

Thomas  Minor,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Pequot,  was  one  of  the 
first  to  remove  to  that  part  of  the  plantation  called  Pawkatuck.  His 
homestead,  at  the  head  of  Close  Cove,  was  one  of  the  best  tene- 
ments in  the  place.  The  bill  of  sale  mentions  house,  bam,  fences, 
orchard,  garden,  yards,  apple  and  pear-trees,  and  gooseberry -trteM* 
Minor  reserved  the  privilege  of  removing  a  part  of  the  fruit-trees. 
Price  £50  and  possession  given  the  15th  of  October,  1652.' 

The  next  year  we  find  Thomas  Minor  east  of  the  Mystic,  where 
he  bought  Latham's  Neck,  and  in  December  had  a  town  grant, 

•«  Joining  his  father's  land  [father-in  law,  Walter  Palmer]  at  Pockatuck  upon 
the  norward  side  of  the  path  that  goes  to  Mr.  Stanton's.*'* 

Of  his  subsequent  grants,  the  following  are  the  most  considerable. 

«*  June  19,  1655.  Thomas  Mynor  hath  given  him  by  consent  of  the  Court 
held  at  Pequot  and  by  the  townsmen  of  Pequot  200  acres  in  a  place  called 
Tagwouroke  bounded  on  the  south  with  the  foot-path  that  ruus  from  tlie  head 
of  Mistick  river  to  Pockatuck  wading  place,  and  by  Chesebrough's  land." 

"  J  657 — Granted  to  Thomas  Miner,  and  his  son  Clement — from  Stony  brook 
easterly,  108  pole  joining  his  former  grant,<^thence  north  one  mile  and  60  pole, 
thence  east  103  pole  to  his  son  Clement's  grant, — Clement's  land  to  run  on  an 
easterly  line  from  this  to  Walter  Palmer's  land,  whose  land  bounds  it  south," 
&c: 

April  5th,  1652,  the  townsmen  made  a  grant  of  three  hundred 
acres  at  Pawkatuck,  lying  east  and  south-east  of  Chesebrough's  land, 
to  Hon.  John  Haynes,  then  governor  of  the  colony.  The  grantee 
sold  it  to  Walter  Palmer,  of  Rehoboth.  The  contract  was  witnessed 
by  Thomas  Minor  and  his  son  John :  possession  given  July  15th, 
1653.  The  price,  one  hundred  pounds  ^*in  such  cattle,  mares,  oxen, 
and  cowes,"  as  Mr.  Haynes  should  select  out  of  Palmer's  stock,  and 
ten  pounds  to  be  paid  the  next  year. 

This  transaction  indicates  with  sufficient  accuracy  the  period  of 
Palmer's  settlement  on  the  Sound.     His  first  grant  from  the  town 

1  It  went  into  the  occupation  first  of  Thomas  Parke  and  next  of  Richard  Haughton. 
%    The  latter  bought  it  in  November,  1656. 

2  Referring,  probably,  to  Stanton*8  trading-house. 


HI8TOAT    OP    NEW     LONDON.  103 

was  in  February,  1653-4— one  hondred  acres  ^near  to  the  land  he 
bought  of  Mr.  Haines."  The  next  year  he  had  five  hundred  acres, 
and  so  on  to  May,  1655,  when  a  note  is  made — 

"All  his  land  bought  and  given,  1190  acres  :  56  meadow.'* 

These  were  the  first  and  most  considerable  planters  at  Pawka- 
tuck,  but  numerous  other  grants  were  made  coincident  with  these. 
The  farms  laid  out  by  the  townsmen  of  Pequot  were  not,  indeed, 
nnmerons,  but  the  marsh  or  meadow  was  aUotted  in  small  parcels  to 
some  twenty-five  or  thirty  individuals,  to  supply  deficiencies  in  ear- 
lier grants  nearer  home. 

The  whole  territory,  from  Nahantiek  east  to  Nahantick  west,  con- 
tinued to  be  regarded  as  one  township,  acting  together  in  town  meet- 
ings, in  the  choice  of  deputies  and  in  voting  for  magistrates  of  the 
colony.  They  formed  also  but  one  ecclesiastical  society,  Mr.  Blin- 
man's  rates  being  levied  over  the  whole  tract  until  1 657.' 

The  early  planters  at  Mystic  continued  to  attend  the  Sabbath  ser- 
vice at  Pequot,  and  were  as  often  consulted  about  the  meeting-house 
and  house  for  the  minister,  and  other  parish  business,  as  before  their 
jemovaL  Occasionally,  they  were  accommodated  with  lectures  in 
their  own  neighborhood.  After  1657,  when  Mr.  William  Thompson 
was  appointed  missionary  to  the  Pequots,  it  is  probable  that  many  of 
the  farmers  attended  the  Indian  meeting,  and  that  the  Minors  and 
Stantons,  who  were  noted  proficients  in  the  Indian  language,  acted 
as  the  preacher's  interpreters  with  the  Indians. 

At  a  town  meeting,  August  28th,  1654,  an  interesting  movement 
was  made  in  regard  to  Pawcatuck. 

*'  It  was  voated  and  agreed  that  three  or  foure  men  should  be  chosen  unto 
three  of  PocUatucke  and  Misticke  to  debate,  reason  and  conclude  whether 
Misticke  and  Pockatucke  shall  be  a  town  and  upon  what  termes;  and  to  de- 
lermine  the  case  in  no  othnr  way,  but  in  a  way  of  love  and  reason,  and  not  by 
Toate :  To  which  end  these  Seaven,  Mr.  Winthrop,  Goodman  Calkin,  Gary 
Latham,  Goodman  Elderkin,  Mr.  Robert  Parke,  Goodman  Cheesebrooke  and 
Captaia  George  Denison  were  chosen  by  the  major  part  of  the  towne  and  soe 
to  act." 

No  separation  of  these  sister  settlements  from  Pequot  was  at  this 
time  effected ;  but  their  struggles  to  break  loose  and  form  an  inde- 
pendent township  were  henceforth  unremitted.     Many  of  the  inhab- 


l"Thi8  Court  doth  order  that  the  hihabitnnts  of  Mistick  and  Paucatuck  shall  pay 
to  Mr.  BUmnon  that  which  was  due  to  liim  for  the  last  yeare,  soil:  to  March  Uist" 
Order  of  General  Court,  May,  1667. 


104  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

itants  west  of  the  river  likewise  regarded  a  separatism  as  desirable.^ 
It  might  tend  to  heal  the  distractions  then  existing  among  the  Bet» 
tiers  at  Pawkatuck,  who  were  experiencing  the  usual  calamities  of  a 
border  land  and  disputed  title.  Disunion  and  misrule  were  preva- 
lent :  neighbor  was  at  variance  with  neighbor,  not  only  in  regard  to 
town  rights,  but  with  respect  to  colonial  jurisdiction,  the  removal  of 
the  Indians  and  the  territorial  claims  of  Rhode  Island. 

In  1657  the  call  for  a  separation  became  too  strong  to  be  neglect- 
ed. The  General  Court  appointed  Messrs.  Winthrop,  Mason,  Tal- 
cott  and  Alljn,  (the  secretary,)  to  meet  at  Pequot  and  compose  the 
differences  between  that  plantation  and  the  inhabitants  of  Mystic 
and  Pawkatuck  ;  or  if  not  able  to  effect  this,  to  mak^  a  return  of  the 
situation  of  afiairs  to  the  nexf 'Court 

The  contention  between  Massachusetts  and  .Connecticut  for  the 
jurisdiction  of  Pawkatuck  was  adverse  to  her  municipal  interests. 
Massachusetts,  notwithstanding  her  distance  and  the  inconsiderable 
advantage  that  could  accrue  to  her  from  the  connection,  was  reluc- 
tant to  yield  her  claim  to  a  portion  of  the  Pequot  territory,  and  in 
September,  1658,  the  court  of  commissioners  decided  that  the  whole 
territory  should  be  separated  into  two  plantations ;  all  east  of  the. 
Mystic  to  be  under  the  direction  of  Massachusetts  and  all  west  of 
it  to  belong  to  Connecticut : 

*•  Finding  that  the  Pequot  country,  which  extended  from  Naihantick  to  a 
place  called  Wetapauge  about  tenn  nifles  eastward  from  Mistick  river,  may 
conveniently  accommodate  two  plantations  or  townships,  wee  therefore  (re- 
specting things  as  they  now  stand)  doe  conclude  that  Mistick  river  be  the 
bounds  betweene  them  as  to  propriety  and  jurisdiction,"  &c. 

Pawkatuck  by  this  decision  being  adjudged  to  Massachusetts,  that 
colony  without  delay  extended  her  sway  over  it  and  in  October  con- 
ferred upon  the  inhabitants  the  privileges  of  a  town,  with  the  name 
of  Southerton.  It  was  annexed  to  Suffolk  county.  Walter  Palmer 
was  appointed  constable ;  Capt  Denison  was  to  solemnize  marriages, 
and  the  prudential  affairs  until  a  choice  of  townsmen  should  be  made, 
were  confided  to  Capt.  Denison,  Robert  Parke,  William  Chesebrough 
and  Thomas  Minor.' 

1  Mr.  Blinman  appears  at  this  time  to  have  supported  the  separation  party,  though 
he  afterward  gave  his  influence  to  the  other  side  of  the  question.  This  accounts  for 
an  unguarded  remark  of  Capt  Denison,  *^  that  Mr.  Blinman  did  preach  for  Pawcatnck 
and  Mystick  being  a  town  before  he  tK>ld  hiA  land  at  My  stick  ;**  for  which  he  afterward 
apologized  before  the  Qeneral  Court    Col.  Rec.,  vol.  1,  p.  299. 

2  In  B.  I.  Hist  Coll.,  pp.  68, 269,  John  Muior  is  substituted  for  Thomas  Mhior.  This 
is  an  error. 


JilSTORT   OF   NEW   LONDON.  105 

At  the  next  session  of  the  Court,  M^r  Mason  as  the  advocate 
of  Connecticut,  called  for  a  review  <rf  the  decision.  He  claimed 
the  territory  in  question,  in  behalf  of  the  colony,  first,  as  compre- 
heiuied  within  the  patent  of  the  lord-proprietors  of  Saybrook  fort, 
who  had  expended  at  least  £6,000,  not  for  that  small  tract  alone,  but 
expecting  therewith  the  country  round  about,  as  other  'colonies  had 
done.  Second,  from  possession  before  the  Pequot  war — as  by  hold- 
ing Saybrook  fort,  none  protesting  against  it,  a  right  to  the  country 
was  implied  and  understood.  He  also  claimed  that  the  tacit  allow- 
ance of  the  commissioners  for  some  ten  years  past  confirmed  the 
claim  ;  and  finally  he  asserted  that  Connecticut  had  a  full  and  indis- 
putable right  by  conquest;  the  overthrow  of  the  Pequots  having 
been  achieved  by  her  people,  "  God  succeeding  the  undertaking," 
without  any  chaise,  assistance  or  advice  from  Massachusetts. 

The  agents  of  Massachusetts  were  as  positive  and  explicit.  They 
claimed  at  least  an  equal  ri^t  by  conquest,  as  having  had  their 
forces  two  or  three  months  in  the  field,  at  an  expense  treble  that  of 
Connecticut:  they  were  partners  and  confederates,  and  ought  to 
share  as  sueh.  In  point  of  possession  they  claimed  as  having  first 
occupied  the  country,  by  building  houses  in  Mr.  Stoughton's  time, 
and  then  by  Mr.  Winthrop's  settUng  on  the  west  side  of  the  river^ 
with  a  commission  from  their  Court,  '*  himself  being  most  desirous 
to  oontinne  under  that  government." 

Major  Mason  rejoined :  "  you  mention  a  possession  house ;  which 
house  was  not  in  the  Pequot  country,  being  on  the  west  side  of  the 
river  and  again  deserted  and  most  of  it  carried  away  by  yourselves 
before  any  £nglish  again  possessed  it" 

in  the  warmth  of  his  argument  he  here  denies  that  the  Pequots 
had  any  right  to  the  territory  .west  of  the  river.  As  tl»  guardian 
and  advocate  of  the  Mohegans,  he  probably  challenged  it  all  for  them. 

The  claim  of  Massachusetts  from  partnership  in  the  Pequot  war, 
he  disposes  of  in  the  following  manner : 

"  If  the  English  should  have  beaten  the  Flemings  out  of  Flanders  and  they 
fly  into  another  domain  : — if  the  French  should  there  meet  the  English  and 
join  with  them  to  pursue  the  Flemings,  would  that  give  the  French  a  right  to 
Flanders  r 

There  is  fallacy  in  this  comparison.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but 
that  the  two  colonies  were  joint  conquerors  and  as  far  as  conquest 
gives  right,  joint  proprietors  of  the  Pequot  territory.  The  argument 
from  possession  also  was  nearly  equal.     Connecticut  had  in  a  man-^ 


106  HI8TORT     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

ner  possessed  the  country  by  publicly  challeiiging  it,  by  ordering  a 
commission  to  survey  it,  and  granting  lands  there  to  Mason  and  his 
soldiers  soon  aflter  the  war.  On  the  other  side,  Mr.  Stoughton,  by 
order  of  the  magistrates  of  Boston,  had  selected  the  place  for  a  plan- 
tation, and  Mr.  Winthrop  had  commenced  his  operations  under  a 
commission  from  that  colony.  One  side  of  the  river  was  as  trul^ 
conquered  country  as  the  other ;  for  the  Nameaugs,  if  not  Pequota 
proper,  were  virtual  members  of  the  confederacy. 

The  commissioners  refused  to  vary  the  decision  they  had  made  in 
1 658,  and  the  new  township  was  regarded  as  an  appendage  of  the  Bay 
colony  some  four  or  ^ve  years  longer.  The  charter  of  Connecticut, 
obtained  in  1662,  extended  the  jurisdiction  of  the  colony  to  the 
Pawkatuck  River.  Measures  were  then  taken  by  the  Greneral 
Court  to  establish  its  authority  over  the  premises.  The  title  of 
Connecticut  could  not  now  be  fairly  disputed,  but  it  was  not  recog- 
nized by  all  parties  and  quiet  and  harmony  established,  until  about 
1665. 

In  October,  1664,  the  General  Court  passed  an  act  of  oblivion  for 
all  past  offenses  implying  a  contempt  of  their  authority,  to  all  inhab- 
itants of  Mystic  and  Pawkatuck, "  Capt.  Denison  only  except."  His 
offense  was  more  aggravated  than  that  of  others,  for  he  had  con- 
tinued to  exercise  his  office  as  a  magistrate  commissioned  by  Massa* 
chusetts,  after  the  charter  was  in  operation  and  he  had  been  warned 
by  the  authorities  to  desist 

The  records  of  the  town  are  extant  from  1664.  John  Stanton 
was  the  first  recorder;  Mr.  James  Noyes  the  first  minister.  A 
country  rate  was  first  collected  in  1666.  All  grants  made  by  the 
town  of  Pequot  before  the  separation,  were  received  as  legitimate 
and  confirmed  by  the  new  authorities. 

Orders  of  the  General  Court. 

*•  October,  1665. 

*•  Southerton  is  by  this  Court  named  Mistick  in  memory  of  that  victory  God 
was  pleased  to  give  this  people  of  Connecticut  over  the  Pequot  Indians." 

««  May,  1068. 

**  The  town  of  Mistlok  is  by  this  Court  named  Stonington.  The  court  doth 
grant  to  the  plantation  to  extend  the  bounds  thereof  ten  miles  from  the  sea  up 
into  the  country  northward  :  and  eastwards  to  the  river  called  Paukatuck. 

**  This  Court  doth  pass  an  act  of  indemnity  to  Capt.  George  Denison  upon 
the  same  grounds  as  was  formerly  granted  to  other  inhabitanu  of  Stonington." 

Notwithstanding  this  act  of  grace  Capt.  Denison  and  the  author- 
ities at  Hartford  were  not  on  terms  of  mutual  good-will  until  the 


HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON.  107 

path  of  reconciliation  was  made  smooth  by  the  gallant  conduct  of 
Denison  in  the  Indian  war  of  1676. 

Another  serious  cause  of  disturbance  in  this  young  town  arose 
from  the  unsettled  state  of  the  eastern  boundary.  The  plantation 
had  been  designed  to  extend  as  far  east  as  Wekapaug,  the  limit  of 
the  Pequot  country ;  and  this  included  Sqummacutt,  or  Westerly, 
now  in  Rhode  Island.  Charles'  charter  extended  the  colony  to 
**  NarragcautU  JRiver.*'  No  such  river  being  known,  Connecticut 
claimed  that  Narragansett  Bay  and  the  river  flowing  into  it  from 
the  north-west  were  the  boundary  assigned.  Rhode  Island,  on  the 
other  hand,  asserted  that  Westerly  had  belonged  to  the  Nahanticks, 
not  to  the  Pequots,  and  that  Pawkatuck  River  was  the  true  Narra- 
gansett of  the  Connecticut  charter.  Moreover,  the  country  between 
Narragansett  Bay  and  the  Pawkatuc^  had  been  included  in  both  her 
charters,  that  obtained  by  Roger  Williams  in  1644  and  that  granted 
by  Charles  11.  in  1663.     Mr.  Williams  observes : 

**  From  Pawkatuck  river  hitberward  being  but  a  patch  of  ground,  full  of 
troublefiome  inhabitantii,  I  did,  as  1  judge  inoffensively,  draw  our  poor  and  iu- 
coostderable  line.** 

Both  colonies. extended  their  jurisdiction  over  this  disputed  tract 
and  made  grants  of  th^  land :  the  inhabitants  consequently  adhered 
some  to  one  side  and  some  to  the  other.  The  contest  was  long  and 
arduous,  and  had  all  the  incidents  usually  attendant  upon  border  hos- 
tilities, such  as  overlapping  deeds,  disputed  claims,  suits  at  law,  ar- 
rests, distrains,  imprisonments,  scuffles  and  violent  ejectments.  The 
warfare  was  bloodless,  but  well  seasoned  with  blows,  bruises  and  abu- 
sive language.  It  was  natural  that  New  London  should  take  a  lively 
interest  in  these  struggles.  United  in  their  origin ;  not  rivals,  but 
members  of  the  same  family ;  the  two  plantations,  though  separated 
in  municipal  government,  remained  bound  in  fraternal  amity.  Most 
of  the  original  inhabitants  of  Stonington  had  first  been  inhabitants 
of  New  London,  aAd  their  names  are  as  familiar  to  the  records  of 
the  one  place  as  df  the  other. 

In  June,  1670,  commissioners  appointed  by  the  two  colonies  to 
nd^nst  the  difficulties  between  them,  met  in  New  London,  at  the  inn 
<^  George  Tongue;  but  no  compromise  could  be  efiected.  Gapt. 
Fits  John  Winthrop  was  a  member  of  this  committee,  and  also  of 
another  court  of  commissioners  appointed  on  the  samte  business  in 
1672. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

The  Bam  Meeting-house. — First  regular  Meeting-house. — The  Sabbath  drum. 
Burial-place. — Some  account  of  Mr.  Blinman  and  his  removals. — The  Welsh 
party. — Mr.  Blinman's  return  to  England. 

The  first  house  of  worship  in  the  plantation  was  a  lai^  bam, 
which  stood  in  a  noble  and  conspicuous  situation,  on  what  was  then 
called  Meeting-house  Hill.  On  all  sides  the  planters  with  their  fam- 
ilies ascended  to  the  Sabbath  service ;  and  the  armed  watchmen  that 
guarded  their  worship,  might  be  so  placed  as  to  overlook  all  their 
habitations.  The  rude  simplicity  of  these  acconmiodations  gives 
a  peculiar  interest  to  the  sublimity  of  the  scene.  The  bam  was  on 
the  house-lot  of  Robert  Parke,  (Hempstead  Street,  south  comer  of 
Granite  Street.*)  The  watch  was  probably  stationed  a  little  north, 
on  the  still  higher  ground,  above  the  burial-place.' 

«*  August  29, 1C51. 

"  For  Mr.  Parke's  barn  ethe  towne  doe  agree  for  the  use  of  it  until  midsummer 
next,  to  give  him  a  day*s  work  a  peece  for  a  meeting-house, — to  be  redy  by  the 
Saboth  come  a  moneth. 

**  Mem.  Mr.  Parke  is  willing  to  accept  of  3/." 

**  [Same  date.]  Goodman  Elderkin  doth  undertake  to  build  a  meeting-hoaae 
about  the  same  demention  of  Mr.  Parke's  his  barne,  and  clapboard  it  for  the 
sum  of  eight  pounds,  provided  the  towne  cary  the  tymber  to  the  place  and  find 
nales.     And  for  his  pay  he  requires  a  cow  and  50t.  in  peage.'* 

In  1652,  Mr.  Parke  sold  his  house-lot  to  liVllliam  Rogers,  from 
Boston.  The  bam  had  been  fitted  up  for  comfortable  worship,  aad  ia 
spoken  of  as  the  meeting-house  in  the  following  item. 

1  On  or  near  the  spot  where  is  now  the  house  of  Mr.  William  Albertson.  After  the 
decay  of  these  first  old  tenements  built  by  Mr.  Parke,  no  dweUing-hoose  was  erected 
on  this  lot  till  Mr.  Albertson  built  in  1846. 

2  Where  is  now  the  house  of  Capt  John  Rice,  which  stands  at  the  south-east  cor- 
ner of  the  Blinman  lot,  and  on  higher  ground  than  any  other  habitation  in  the  com- 
pact part  of  New  London. 


HI8T0RT    OF    NEW    LONDON.  109 

'  **  30  Janet  *«^3.  Wee  the  townsmen  of  Pequot  have  agreed  with  Goodroan 
Rogers  for  the  meeting-house  for  two  years  from  the  date  hereof,  for  the  summe 
of  3/.  per  annum.  If  we  build  a  leantoo  he  is  to  allow  for  it  in  the  rent,  and  i^ 
it  come  to  more  he  is  to  allow  it,  and  for  flooring  and  what  charges  the  town  is 
at,  he  is  willing  to  allow  when  the  time  is  expired." 

Jndhe  meantime  a  rate  of  £14  was  levied  to  build  a  new  meeting- 
house, and  the  site  fixed  bj  a  town  vote,  December  16th,  1652,  which 
Mr.  Bruen  thus  records  : 

"  The  place  for  the  new  meeting-house  was  concluded  on  by  the  meeting  to 
be  in  the  highwaie,  taking  a  comer  of  my  lot  to  supply  the  highwaie." 

The  highway  here  referred  to,  with  the  north  part  of  Mr.  Bruen's 
lot  relinquished  for  the  purpose,  formed  the  area  now  known  as  the 
Town  Square,  and  this  first  meeting-house  is  supposed  to  have  stood 
precisely  upon  the  site  of  the  present  ahns-house.'  It  was  undoubt- 
edly a  building  of  the  simplest  and  plainest  style  of  construction,  yet 
full  three  years  were  consumed  in  its  erection.  Capt.  Denison  and 
Lieutenant  Smith  were  the  building  committee,  and  collected  the  rate 
for  it  They  were  discharged  from  duty  in  February,  1 655,  at  which 
time  we  may  suppose  it  to  have  been  in  a  fit  condition  for  service. 
The  inhabitants  had  so  much  to  do — each  on  his  own  homestead — 
the  straggle  to  obtain  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  life  was  so 
eoDtinual  and  earnest,  that  public  works  were  long  in  completion. 
No  man  worked  at  a  trade  or  profession  except  at  intervals  ;  John 
Elderkin,  the  meeting-house  contractor  and  mill-wright,  had  other 
irons  in  the  fire ;  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  work  was  per- 
formed by  the  inhabitants  themselves,  in  turn,  and  in  this  way  th& 
progress  must  be  slow.  The  house  was  perhaps  raised  and  covered 
the  first  year,  floored  and  glazed  the  next,  pulpit  and  seats  made  the 
third — a  gallery,  it  may  be,  the  fourth,  and  by  that  time  it  needed  a 
new  covering,  or  the  bounds  were  too  straight,  and  a  lean-to  must  be 
added. 

At  this  period  the  time  for  service  was  made  known  by  beat  of 
drum.  What  was  the  peculiar  beat  of  the  instrument  that  signified  a 
summons  to  divine  worship,  we  do  not  learn  ;  but  undoubtedly  some 
difference  of  stroke  and  tune  distinguished  the  Sabbath  drum  from 
the  drum  military  or  civic. 


1  The  site  was  considerably  higher  than  at  present,  a  large  quantity  of  earth  and 
stone  having  been  since  taken  from  this  hill  to  assist  in  filling  up  the  pond  and  marsh 
to  form  the  present  Water  Street, 

10 


no  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON* 

"  March  22, 1651-2. 

•*  The  towne  have  agreed  with  Peter  Blatchford  to  beat  the  drum  all  saboth 
^  dayes,  training  dayes  and  town  publique  meetings  for  the  sume  of  3lb. ,  to  be 
paid  him  in  a  towne  rate.'* 

Blatchford  continued  several  years  in  this  office*  The  custom  of 
denoting  the  hour  for  public  worship  by  beat  of  drum,  may  hay^ccm- 
tinued  until  a  bell  was  procured,  but  no  allusion  to  it  has  been  noticed 
later  than  1675. 

Though  this  first  meeting-house  had  no  bell,  we  can  not  doubt  but 
that  it  was  crowned  with  that  appendage  which  our  ancestors  vener- 
ated under  the  name  of  steeple,  and  which  they  regarded  as  an  indis- 
pensable part  of  a  completed  house  of  worship.  The  cupola  now 
became  the  look-out  post  of  the  watchman,  and  this  rendered  it  a  use- 
ful as  well  as  an  ornamental  adjunct  to  the  church.  The  sentinel  from 
this  elevated  tower  commanded  a  prospect  in  which  the  solemnity  of 
the  vast  wilderness  was  broken  and  relieved  by  touches  of  great  beau- 
ty. From  the  north,  came  flowing  down  between  wood-land  banks, 
the  fair  river,  which,  after  spreading  into  a  noble  harbdr,  swept 
gracefully  into  the  Sound.  Following  its  course  outward,  the  eye 
glanced  easily  over  a  long  extent  of  Long  Island,  while  every  sail 
that  passed  between  that  coast  and  the  Connecticut  shore,  up  or 
down  the  Sound,  might  be  distinctly  seen.  Directly  beneath  lay  the 
young  settlement,  a  rugged,  half-cleared  promontory,  but  enlivened 
with  pleasant  habitations,  and  bordered,  even  then,  with  those  light 
canvas  wings  that  foreshadowed  a  thriving  commerce. 

As  2k  finale  to  the  history  of  the  bam  so  long  used  for  a  church, 
we  may  here  notice  a  fact  gleaned  from  the  county  court  records  of 
some  fifteen  or  eighteen  years'  later  date.  William  Rogers,  the  owner 
of  the  building  had  returned  to  Boston,  and  on  his  death,  the  heirs 
of  his  estate  claimed  that  the  rent  had  not  been  fully  paid ;  and  Hugh 
Caulkins,  who  had  been  the  town's  surety,  then  a  proprietor  in  Nor- 
wich, finds  himself  suddenly  served  with  a  writ  from  Mr.  Leake,  a 
Boston  attorney,  for  £3,  10«.,  the  amount  of  the  debt  He  accord- 
ingly satisfied  the  demand,  and  then  applied  to  the  town  for  redress. 
The  obligation  was  acknowledged,  and  a  vote  passed  to  indemnify  the 
surety. 

"  Feb.  27,  '72-3. 

**  Upon  demand  made  by  Hugh  Calkin  for  money  due  to  Mr.  Leake,  of  Bos- 
ton, for  improvement  of  a  bam  of  Goodman  Rogers,  which  said  Calkin  stood 
engaged  for  to  pay,  this  town  doth  promise  to  pay  one  barrel  of  pork  to  said  Cal- 
kin some  time  the  next  winter." 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  Ill 

On  the  north  of  the  meeting-hoase  was  the  lot  reserved  for  pur 
poses  of  sepulture.  The  ordinance  which  describes  its  bounds,  an< 
legally  sets  it  apart  for  this  use,  is  dated  June  6th,  1 653,  and  declares 
"It  shall  ever  bee  for  a  Comulon  Buriall  place,  and  never  be  impro 
priated  hj  any."  This  is  the  oldest  grave-yard  in  New  Londoi. 
eounty. 

"  March  2G,  1055. 

"  Goodman  Cumstock  is  chosen  to  be  grave-maker  for  the  town,  and  he  shal 
have  4$.  for  men  and  women's  graves,  and  for  all  children's  graves,  3t.  for  ever) 
grave  he  makes.*'  * 

*'  Feb.  35,  16GI-2.     Old  Goodman  Cumstock  is  chosen  sexton,  whose  work 
is  to  order  youth  in  the  meeting-house,  sweep  the  meeting-house,  and  beat  ou 
dogs,  for  which  he  is  to  have  40«.  a  year :  he  is  also  to  make  all  graves ;  foi 
a  man  or  woman  he  is  to  have  4s.,  for  children,  2s.  a  grave,  to  be  paid  by  iur* 
tfivon" 

In  the  rear  of  Meeting-house  Hill,  was  the  town  pound.  The  in- 
sufficient fencing,  and  the  number  of  strays,  made  a  pound  a  very 
necessary  appurtenance.  Yet  it  is  curious  to  observe  the  quantity 
of  legislation  which  was  expended  in  procuring  one.  The  subject 
was  regularly  brought  up  several  times  a  year,  a  rate  perhaps  voted, 
a  person  appointed  to  build  the  pound  and  to  keep  it ;  yet  there  was 
no  pound  completed  till  1663  or  1664.  It  was  then  erected  ^be- 
tween Groodman  Gnmstock's  and  Groodman  Waller's,"  (on  Williams 
Street,  corner  of  Vauxhall,)  and  here  it  remained  for  at  least  150 
years.     The  place  is  still  called  by  the  aged,  Pound  comer. 

On  Meeting-house  Hill  also,  the  first  accommodations  were  provided 
for  prisoners. 

"March  10,  1661-2. 

"  Goodman  Longdon  is  chosen  to  be  the  prison*keeper,  and  his  bouse  for  the 
town  prison  till  the  town  take  further  order,  provision  is  to  be  provided  by  the 
town,  the  prisoner  being  to  pay  for  it  with  all  other  charges  before  he  be  set 
free.*** 

The  earliest  notice  of  Mr.  Blinman  in  this  country  is  from  the 
records  of  Plymouth  colony,  March  2d,  1640.  This,  according  to 
present  reckoning,  was  1641,  but  earlier  than  any  vessel  could  arrive 
that  season,  which  makes  it  probable  that  he  came  over  in  1640. 

"  Mr.  Kichard  Blindman,  Mr.  Hugh  Prychard,  Mr.  Obadiah  Brewen,  John 
Sadler,  Hugh  Cauken,  Walter  Tibbott,  propounded  for  freemanship." 

1  Longdon*8  honse  stood  near  tht  intersection  of  Broad  and  Hempstead  streets. 


^ 


112  HISTORY    OF   NBW    LONDON. 

Grov.  ^Winthrop  mentioiiB  Mr.  Blinman's  arrival  and  settlement, 
without  giving  the  date. 

<*  One  Mr.  Blinman,  a  minister  in  Wales,  a  godly  and  able  man,  came  over 
with  some  friends  of  his,  and  being  invited  to  Green*s  Harbour,  [since  Marsk- 
fleld,]  near  Plfmoutb,  they  went  thither,  but  ere  the  year  was  expired  there  fell 
out  some  difference  among  them,  which  by  no  means  could  be  reconciled,  so 
as  they  agreed  to  part,  and  he  came  with  his  company  and  sat  down  «t  Cape 
Anne,  which  at  this  court,  [May,  1642,]  was  ^tablished  to  be  a  plantation, 
and  called  Gloucester.*** 

The  differences  alluded  to  above,  between  the  former  settlers  and 
the  new  comers  at  Marshfield,  appear  to  have  been  wholly  of  a  theo- 
logical nature,  and  regarded  minor  points  of  discipline.  From  the 
account  given  of  'this  afiair  in  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Massa- 
chusetts,^ we  gather  that  the  main  topics  on  which  the  two  parties  - 
disagreed  were,  the  importance  of  a  learned  ministry,  and  how  far  lay 
brethren  should  be  encouraged  to  exercise  their  gifts  in  the  church. 
The  historian  says : 

••  Mr.  Blinman,  a  gentleman  of- Wales,  and  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  was 
one  who  expected  to  find  a  welcome  reception.  Being  invited  to  Green*^  Har- 
bour, near  Plymouth,  he  and  his  friends  meant  there  to  settle,  but  the  influence 
of  a  few  gifted  brethren  made  learning  or  prudence  of  little  avail.  They  com- 
pared him  *  to  a  piece  of  new  cloth  in  an  old  garment,'  and  thought  they 
could  do  better  without  patching.  The  old  and  new  planters,  to  speak  a  more 
modem  style,  could  not  agree  and  parted." 

The  church  record  of  Plymouth  in  speaking  of  Marshfield,  has 
this  remark: 

**  This  church  of  Marshfield  was  begun  and  afterward  carried  on  by  the  help 
and  assistance,  under  God,  of  Mr.  Edward  Winslow,  who  at  the  first  procured 
several  Welsh  gentlemen  of  good  note  thither,  with  Mr.  HUnman,  a  godly,  able 
minister."^ 

Another  original  notice  of  this  divine  is  in  Lechford's  Plain  Deal- 
ing, written  in  1641.  It  has  It  savor,  as  might  be  expected,  of  the 
bitterness  of  that  author. 

"  Master  Wilson  did  lately  ride  to  Green's  Harbour,  in  Plymouth  patent,  to 
appease  a  broyle  betweene  one  master  Thomas,  as  I  take  it  his  name  is,  and 
master  Blindman,  where  master  Blindman  went  by  the  worst."* 

1  Sav.  Wfaithrop,  vol.  2,  p.  64. 

2  Mass.  Hist  Coll.,  Ist  series,  vol.  9,  p.  89. 
8  Davis,  Morton*s  Memorial,  p.  416. 

4  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  8d  series,  vol.  8,  p.  106. 


HISTOBT     OP     NEW     LONDON.  113 

It  is  an  inqniiy  of  some  interest  to  the  genealogist,  who  composed 
that  Welsh  partj  which  came  over  with  Mr.  Blinman.  It  is  fair  to 
pTesmne  that  a  considerable  number  of  his  fellow-passengers  settled 
with  him  at  Green  Harbor,  and  subsequently  removed  with  him  in  a 
body  to  Cape  Ann.  Thither  therefore  we  must  follow  them.  On 
that  billowy  mass  of  rocks,  that  promontory  so  singularly  bold  in 
position  and  outline,  and  so  picturesque  In  appearance,  they  fixed 
their  second  encampment  in  this  new  world. 

The  following  slip  from  the  town  records  of  Gloucester  may  indi- 
cate several  of  the  Welsh  party. 

**  2  May,  *42.  On  the  first  ordering  and  disposing  of  the  affairs  of  Glou- 
cester by  Mr.  Endicott  and  Mr.  Downing,  these  eight  were  chosen  to  manage 
thepnidential  affairs. 

Wm.  StecTens,  Mr.  Bruen, 

Wm.  Addis,  Mr.  Norton, 

Mr.  Milwood,  Mr.  Fryer, 

Mr.  Saddler,  Walter  Tybbot." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  all  the  names  of  Mr.  Blinman's 
party  should  be  of  Welsh  origin.  They  came  from  Chepstow,  in 
Monmouthshire ;  a  county  which  is  now  considered  a  part  of  Eng- 
land proper,  though  it  lies  upon  the  border  of  "Wales,  and  formerly 
was  reckoned  to  belong  to  that  country.  The  Welsh  language  is 
said  to  prevail  among  the  common  people  of  that  shire,  but  it  is  cer- 
tain that  Mr.  Blinman's  party  spoke  good  English,  though  sprinkled 
of  course  with  some  provincialisms.  This  fact  affords  sufficient 
proof,  either  that  they  were  not  Welshmen  in  the  accurate  sense  of 
the  term,  or  that  they  belonged  to  that  more  enlightened  portion  of 
the  inhabitants  who  used  the  English  language. 

In  point  of  fact,  it  was  not  the  peasantry  of  Great  Britain,  nor  her 
paupers,  nor  her  fortune-hunters,  that  founded  New  England.  It 
was  her  staunch  yeomanry,  her  intelligent  mechanics,  her  merchants, 
her  farmers,  her  middle  classes — and  of  devout  women  not  a  few — 
whose  enlarged  vision  beheld  a  realm  of  freedom  beyond  the  ocean, 
and  whose  independent  spirits  disdained  the  yoke  of  oppression,  were 
it  to  be  imposed  either  on  the  soul  or  the  body.  The  character  of 
our  comitry  might  have  been  very  different  had  her  pioneer  settlerei 
or  even  their  patrons  and  directors,  been  the  younger  sons  of  the 
gentry,  or  disappointed  placemen,  importunate  suitors,  and  their  ser- 
vile followers.     An  active  husbandman  fearing  God,  or  a  sturdy 

10* 


114  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

blacksmith,  honest  and  iDdependent,  exercising  at  once  his  reason, 
his  electoral  right,  and  his  sledge  hammer,  la  better  than  a  hmidred 
pensioned  lords  to  be  the  founder  of  a  town,  or  the  father  of  a  race. 

Mr.  Blinman  may  have  been  himself  a  native  of  Gloucestershire, 
which  joins  Monmouth  where  he  had  preached.  The  settlement  at 
Gape  Ann  was  probably  named  Gloucester  in  compliment  to  him. 
When  he  finally  left  America,  and  returned  to  England,  it  was  to 
Bristol  (which  is  in  the  county  of  Gloucester)  that  he  retired,  as 
to  an  ancient  home  which  in  all  his  wanderings  had  never  been  for- 
gotten. People  are  often  found  returning  to  the  scenes  of  early  days 
to  die.  There  is  a  natural  attachment  in  man  to  his  birth-place, 
which  in  most  cases  renders  it  pleasing  to  him  to  lie  down  in  his 
grave  near  the  place  where  his  cradle  was  rocked. 

That  Mr.  Blinman  was  a  native  of  Gloucester,  England,  rests, 
however,  only  on  supposition  and  probability.  In  the  new  Glouces- 
ter he  resided  about  eight  years.  The  records  of  the  town  give  no 
particular  account  of  his  ministry,  nor  of  the  causes  which  led  him  to 
remove  to  New  London.  He  was  probably  unmarried  when  he 
came  to  America.  In  the  registry  of  births  in  Gloucester  is  the  foL- 
lowing  record. 

**  Children  of  Mr.  Richard  Blinman  and  his  wife  Mary : 
Jeremiah  bom  20  July,  1642. 
Ezekiel        **     10  Nov.  1643. 
Azarikam    ««      2  Jan.  1646."i 

Johnson,  in  his  Wonder-working  Providence,  which  was  written 
apparently  while  Mr.  Blinman  was  at  Gloucester,  has  this  account 
of  him  and  the  origin  of  the  church  at  that  place. 

**  There  was  another  town  and  church  of  Christ  erected  in  the  Mattachuset 
Government  upon  the  northern  Cape  of  the  Bay,  called  Cape  Ann,  a  place  of 
fishing,  being  peopled  with  fishermen,  till  the  reverend  Mr.  Richard  Blindman, 
came  from  a  place  in  Plimouth  Patten,  called  Green  Harhour,  with  some  few 
people  of  his  acquaintance  and  settled  down  with  them,  named  the  town  Glou- 
cester, and  grathered  into  a  Church,  being  but  a  small  number,  about  50  per- 
sons, they  called  to  office  this  godly  reverend  man,  whose  g'lfis  and  abilities  to 
handle  the  word,  is  not  inferior  to  many  others,  laboring  much  against  the  er- 
rors of  the  times,  of  a  sweet,  humble,  hcavenl>  carriage.**^ 

1  In  this  name  there  is  a  snperfluons  letter.  Azrikam  is  a  proper  Hebrew  name, 
found  in  Scripture,  and  signifying,  "  A  help  against  the  enemy." 

2  Mass.  Hist  Coll.,  2d  series,  voL  7,  p.  82. 


HISTORY     OF    NBW    LONDON.  115 

In  tlie  Veree  that  follows,  he  probaUj  alludes  to  Mr.  Blinman's 
proposed  removal  to  Pequot. 

"  Blinman  be  blith  in  him,  who  thee  hath  taken 
To  feed  his  flock,  a  few  poor  scattered  sheep. 
Why  should  they  be  of  thee  at  all  forsaken, 
Thy  honor's  high,  that  any  thou  may*8t  keep." 

The  first  notice  of  Mr.  Blinman's  arrival  at  New  London,  (then 
Pequot)  is  his  appearance  at  a  town  meeting  in  November,  1650. 
Several  of  his  ancient  flock  acc<Hnpanied  or  followed  him  in  this  new 
emigration.  Obadiah  Bruen,  Hugh  Caulkins,  WiUiam  Hough  and 
James  Morgan  were  perhaps  of  this  number.  Rohert  Parke,  Wil- 
liam Addis,  and  several  others,  who  settled  in  the  place  at  a  later 
date,  are  conjectured  to  have  helonged  originally  to  the  same  party. 

Of  Mr.  Blinman's  ministerial  labors  here,  no  record  has  been  pre- 
served ;  not  a  single  contemporaneous  allusion  can  be  found  to  his 
capacity,  or  to  the  result  of  his  labors  in  that  department.  We  have 
reason  to  infer  however,  that  he  was  acceptable  to  the  people,  and 
that  his  intercourse  with  them  was  entirely  harmonious.  His  grants 
of  land  were  almost  innumerable ;  and  his  applications  for  grants 
either  for  himself  or  others,  were  responded  to  with  hberality.  Yet 
his  disposition  was  evidently  generous,  not  grasping.  A  proof  of  this 
is  exhibited  in  his  voluntary  release  of  the  town  from  their  engage- 
ment to  increase  his  salary  annually :  « 

"  Feb.  35,  1653.  Forasmuch  as  the  town  was  iugagcd  to  Mr.  Blynman  for 
a  set  stypend  and  soe  to  increase  it  yeerly  Mr.  Blynman  is  freely  willing  to  free 
the  towne  henceforward  from  that  ingadgement." 

It  is  not  known  that  Mr.  Blinman  was  ever  inducted  into  office,  or 
that  any  church  organization  took  place  under  his  ministry.  Yet  he 
is  uniformly  styled  "  pastor  of  the  church,"  which  is  strong  evidence 
that  a  church  association  of  some  kind  had  been  formed  in  the  town. 
His  reasons  for  leaving  the  church  and  the  country  are  entirely  un- 
known. Not  a  word  of  dispraise  uttered  against  him  from  any  indi- 
vidual is  preserved,  except  the  hasty  insinuation  of  Capt.  Denison 
heretofore  mentioned,  which  he  publicly  recaUed.  The  period  when 
he  relinquished  his  charge  can  be  very  nearly  ascertained,  for  in  Jan., 
1657-8,  he  uses  the  customary  formula,  "I,  Richard  Blinman  of 
Pequot,"  and  in  March  of  the  same  year,  "  I,  R.  B.,  at  present  of 
New  Haven." 
Proofs  of  his  liberality  and  kindness  of  heart  occasionally  gleam 


116  HI8T0BY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

upon  U8,  showing  that  a  free  and  loving  intercourse  was  kept  up  be- 
tween him  and  friends  left  behind.    April  27th,  1658,  he  writes  frwn 
New  Haven  :   "  Loving  friend,  Mr.  Morton — ^I  do  approve  of  my 
wife's  sale  of  that  lot,"  &c. 
April  26th„  he  executes  a  deed  of  gift  of  two  pieces  of  land: 

*^  To  the  honbred  John  Winthrop  Esq.  Governor  upon  Connecticut,  in  trust 
for  the  use  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Winthrop,  the  wife  of  the  said  John  Winthrop 
and  her  heirs." 

'  Most  of  his  land  on  the  Greneral  Neck,  and  at  Upper  Mamacock, 
he  sold  to  James  Rogers  and  to  the  bill  of  sale  he  adds :  ^^  I  do  hope 
it  may  be  a  blessing  to  you  and  yours." 

He  also  conveyed  a  piece  of  land  as  a  gift  to  Samuel  Beeby,  and 
another  to  Mr.  William  Thomson,  the  Indian  teacher ;  the  latter  in 
the  following  terms : 

**  Loving  friend  Mr.  Tliomson. 

«*  I  was  bold  by  brother  Parkcs  formerly  to  tender  a  small  gift  to  you,  viz.  a 
piece  of  land  and  swamp  which  was  given  me  for  a  wood  lot  lying  towards  the 
west  side  of  William  Curastock*s  hill,  which  if  you  please  to  accept  as  a  token 
of  my  love  I  do  freely  give  and  confirm  it  to  you. 
«*  Your  loving  friend. 

New  Havfl«,  April  11,  IGSO.**         ^^ — 

Soon  after  this  last  date,  Mr.  Blinman  came  to  New  London  to 
settle  some  remaining  affairs,  and  to  embark  with  his  family  for  Eng- 
land, by  way  of  Newfoundland.  His  house  and  house  lot  he  sold  to 
William  Addis,  and  his  farm  at  Harbor's  Mouth  to  John  Tinker. 
The  witnesses  to  this  last  deed  were  Samuel  Rogers  and  Ezekiel 
Blinman.  This  is  the  only  glimpse  we  obtain  of  Mr.  Blinman's  sec- 
ond son  in  this  country.  In  this  deed  the  form  used,  is,  "  I,  Richard 
Blinman,  late  pastor  of  the  church  of  Christ,  at  New  London." 

A  deed  to  Andrew  Lester,  and  settlement  of  accounts  with  James 
Rogers,  were  dated  12th  of  July.  He  sailed  shortly  afterward. 
The  Rev.  John  Davenport,  of  New  Haven,  in  writing  to  Mr.  Win- 
throp, mentions  that  he  had  received  from  Mr.  Blinman  "^  a  large 
letter,"  dated  at  Newfoundland,  August  22d,  1C59,  and  adds : 

"  Whereby  I  understand  that  God  hath  brought  him  and  his  to  Newfound- 
land, in  safety  and  health,  and  m^eth  his  ministry  acceptable  to  all  the  peo- 
ple there,  except  some  Quakers,  and  much  desired  and  flocked  unto,  and  he 


HISTOBT     OP     NEW     LONDON.  117 

hath  made  choice  of  a  ship  for  Barnstaple,  to  his  content,  the  master  being 
godly." 

The  farms  of  Mr.  Blinman  at  Pine  Neck  and  Fort  Hill  were  not 
sold  when  he  left  the  country.  They  were  afterward  purchased  by 
Christopher  Christophers,  and  the  deed  of  conveyance  is  from 

"  I,  Richard  Blinman,  with  Mary  my  wife,  now  dwelling  in  the  castle,  in 
the  city  of  Bristol,  England." 
«« 10  Jan.  1670-1." 

Mr.  Blinman's  successor  at  Green's  Harbor,  Marshfield,  was  Mr. 
Edward  Bulkley :  at  New  London,  Mr.  Grershom  Bulkley.  There 
is  this  coincidence  in  the  annals  of  the  two  places,  that  the  first  min- 
isters of  each  were  Blinman  and  Bulkley. 

Mr.  Blinman's  oldest  son,  Jeremiah,  or  Jeremy,  did  not  leave  the 
country  with  his  father.  His  name  occurs  occasionally  for  several 
years  afterward.  In  1668  he  was  plaintiff  in  an  action  of  debt, 
versus  John  Raymond ;  and  about  that  period  incurred,  by  judgment 
of  the  county  qpurt,  the  penalty  of  £5,  which  was  the  usual  fine  for 
a  violation  of  the  laws  of  purity. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

A    CHAPTER    OP  NAMES ENGLISH  AND    ABORIGINAL. 

"  The  Indian  name  of  New  London,"  says  Trumbull,  "  was  Na- 
meaug,  alias  Towawog."  The  first  was  undouLtedly  the  prevalent 
ndme :  it  was  used,  with  many  variations  in  the  spelling,  to  designate 
both  the  site  of  the  town  and  the  natives  found  upon  it  The  Indian 
names  are  all  descriptive,  and  this  is  supposed  to  mean  a  fishing 
place,  being  compounded  of  NamaSj  fishy  and  eag^  qtig,  eak^  termina- 
tions which  signify  land. 

The  other  name,  Tawaw-wog,  is  not  often  found  on  record :  it 
occurs  however,  as  an  alias,  in  several  deeds,*  about  the  date  of  1654. 
It  is  probable  that  this  also  has  a  reference  to  fish  ;  and  may  be  de- 
rived from  Tataug  or  Tatau-og^  Uackfish^  for  which  the  neighboring 
waters  are  still  renowned. 

The  minutes  heretofore  quoted  show  conclusively  that  it  was  the 
wish  of  the  first  settlers,  the  fathers  of  the  plantation,  that  their 
adopted  home  should  bear  the  name  of  London.  This  was  no  sug- 
gestion of  vainglory,  the  result  of  a  high- wrought  expectation  of  ri- 
valing the  metropolitan  splendor  of  Great  Britain  ;  but  a  very  nat- 
ural mode  of  expressing  their  deep-rooted  affection  for  the  land  of 
their  birth.  The  General  Court  hesitated  in  regard  to  this  name, 
and  proposed  Fair  Harbor^  as  a  more  appropriate  term.  But  the 
inhabitants  declined  the  proposition,  and  resolved  to  adhere  to  the  old 
Indian  name,  until  they  could  obtain  the  one  of  their  choice. 

The  Legislature  at  length  yielded  to  their  wishes,  and  legalized 


1  Naman-us,  fbh,  R.  Williams. 

2  A  few  examples,  all  from  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Bruen,  will  show  the  variatioiu 
•of  orthography  in  these  names:  "  Thomas  Parke  of  the  towne  of  Pequott  otherwise 
xsalled  Nameeg  or  Tawaw-wag."  (1668.)  "  Samuell  Lothrop  of  the  towne  of  Pequot 
Dallas  Nameeag  and  Tawaw-og.**  (1654.)  "  Richard  Blinman,  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Pequot,  (otherwise  called  Ijameeug  and  Tawaw-wog.'*) 


HISTORY    OF    NEW   LONDON.  119 

the  favorite  name  of  the  inhabitants,  by  an  act  of  March  24th,  1658, 
expressed  in  the  following  gracious  and  acceptable  terms : 

"  Whereas  it  hath  been  a  commendable  practice  of  the  inhabitants  of  all  the 
colonies  of  these  parts,  that  as  this  country  hath  its  denomination  from  our  dear 
native  country  of  England,  and  thence  is  called  New  England  ;  so  the  planters, 
in  their  first  settling  of  most  new  plantations,  have  given  names  to  those  plant- 
ations of  some  cities  and  towns  in  England,  thereby  intending  to  keep  up  and 
leave  to  posterity  the  memorial  of  several  places  of  note  there,  as  Botton,  Hart' 
fordt  Windsor ,  York,  Ipswich,  Braintree,  Exeter.  This  court  considering,  that 
there  hath  yet  no  place  in  any  of  the  colonies,  been  named  in  memory  of  the 
city  of  London,  there  being  a  new  plantation  within  this  jurisdiction  of  Ck^n* 
neeticat,  settled  upon  the  fair  river  of  Monhegin,  in  the  Pequot  country,  it  be- 
ing an  excellent  harbour  and  a  fit  and  convenient  place  for  future  trade,  it  being 
alio  the  only  place  which  ahe  English  of  these  parts  have  possessed  by  con- 
quest, and  that  by  a  very  just  war,  upon  that  great  and  warlike  people,  the 
Pequots,  that  therefore,  they  might  thereby  leave  to  posterity  the  memory  of 
that  renowned  city  of  London,  from  whence  we  had  our  transportation,  have 
thought  fit,  in  honor  to  that  famous  city,  to  call  the  said  plantation  New 

LORDOM."" 

At  what  period  **  the  fair  river  of  Mbnhegtn"  received  its  present 
designation,  the  Thamei,  is  uncertain.  Neither  the  colonial  records, 
nor  those  of  the  town,  enable  us  to  fix  the  period.  The  proper  name 
given  by  the  Indians  to  this  river,  has  unfortunately  been  lost.  The 
English  settlers  called  it  from  the  tribes  on  its  banks,  "  the  Mohi- 
ganic  River,'*  or  river  of  Mohegan ;  the  Pequot,  or  river  of  the  Pe- 
quots.  "We  have  seen  that  the  Dutch  explorers  conferred  upon  it  the 
names  of  Frisius,  and  Little  Fresh  River.  In  singular  opposition  to 
this  name,  the  early  planters  o^  the  town  called  it  the  Great  Exver. 
This  term,  uted  as  a  proper  name,  is  found  on  a  large  number  of 
grants  and  deeds.  It  was  used  by  Winthrop  and  others  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  plantation,  and  for  many  years  afterward.  Jonathan 
Brewster,  the  town-clerk  of  1650,  called  it  "the  Great  River  of  Pe- 
quett."  The  reason  is  not  obvious  ;  for  persons  acquainted  with  the 
Connecdcut  and  the  Hudson,  would  never  have  termed  it  Great,  in 
the  absolute  sense,  and  there  was  no  stream  near,  of  larger  size  than 
brooks  and  rivulets,  to  suggest  a  comparison.  May  it  not  have  been 
like  others  of  our  names,  a  translation  of  the  aboriginal  term  ?  Sava- 
ges are  ever  boastful ;  and  to  the  Pequots  and  Mohegans,  here  was 


1  Conn.  CoL  Eec.,  vol.  1,  p.  818.  The  name  sometimes  appears  in  old.records  with- 
out the  prefix  of  New.  A  grant  of  the  Legblature  in  1669,  mentions  "  the  plantation 
of  London." 


120  HISTORY     OP   NEW     LONDON* 

the  one  great  rtt^er— the  river  of  a  great  people— of  the  god  Sassa- 
cous  and  his  unconquerable  warriors. 

Allowing  probability  to  this  suggestion,  we  are  next  led  to  inquire, 
what  was  that  native  term  which  implied  Great  River.  Pleasant 
indeed  would  it  be  to  recover  the  aboriginal  name  of  our  beloved 
Thames.  The  western  branch  of  the  river  was  called  hj  the  natives 
Yantuck  or  Yantic,  a  word  which  is  supposed  to  mean  a  rapid,  roar- 
ing stream.*  This  signification  is  peculiarly  appropriate;  for  the 
river,  though  small,  is  swift  and  noisy,  and  near  its  mouth,  being  com- 
pressed between  high  cliffs,  and  obstructed  by  a  rugged  ledge  of  gran- 
ite, it  works  its  way  through  the  fissures,  tumbling  with  noise  and 
foam,  into  a  smooth  estuary  or  basin,  by  the  side  of  which  was  a  ^ 
mous  Indian  landing,  or  canoe-place.  This  fall,  the  distinguishing 
feature  of  the  river  and  of  its  neighborhood,  would  be  the  first  to  at- 
tract the  notice  of  the  savage,  the  first  object  to  be  named,  and  its 
name  the  one  to  which  others  might  be  referred  and  compared.  Thus 
the  river  took  the  name  of  the  water-fall  and  was  called  the  Yan- 
tuck ;  then  the  larger  river  into  which  it  flowed,  would  be  the  Mishi 
(great)  or  Masha-yantuck,  euphonized  into  Mashantuck,  and  signify- 
ing the  Great  Yantuck.  This,  we  venture  to  propose  as  the  aborig- 
inal name  of  the  Thames.  But  it  is  offered  as  a  suggestion,  not  an 
assertion.  As  all  Indian  names  are  significant,  and  we  have  scarcely 
anything  else  to  remind  us  of  this  vanishing  race,  the  older  children 
of  the  land  we  inhabit,  it  can  not  be  deemed  idle  or  impertinent  to 
preserve  what  we  have,  and  to  recover  all  we  can,  of  these  fading 
memorials. 

Thi&  word  Mashantuck,  with  the  syllable  kuk,  added,  which  in  the 
Indian  language  designates  a  hill-top,  or  headland,  might  naturally 
be  applied  to  the  rugged,  hilly  country  upon  the  river.  For,  among 
the  Indians,  as  well  as  among  civilized  nations,  it  was  no  strange 
thing  for  the  name  of  a  river  to  be  extended  over  the  adjacent  coun- 
try, or  on  the  other  hand,  for  the  name  of  the  country  to  overshadow 
the  river.  In  point  of  fact  the  name  Mashantakuk,  with  its  varia- 
tions, Mashantucket*  and  Mishantuxet,  was  applied  by  the  natives 
to  the  western  bank  of  the  river,  or  certain  portions  of  it.  In  a  deed 
from  Uncas  and  his  sons  to  John  Mason  in  1671,  Mashantakuk  is 
used  as  a  general  name  for  the  whole  Mohegan  reservation.     Sha^- 

iJudd,  ofKorthamptoD,  (MS.) 

2  The  suffix  et  appears  to  be  a  terminal  sonud  without  signification. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  121 

tok,  a  name  still  given  to  a  portion  of  Mohegan,  bordering  on  the 
river,  is  probably  an  abbreviation  of  the  same  word. 

Most  of  the  local  names  adopted  at  the  first  settlement,  have  been 
preserved  with  remarkable  pertinacity.  Trading  Cove,  Long  Cove, 
Little  Cove,  the  Straits'  Mouthy  Massapeag  and  Mamacock — all  in 
the  river ;  Fog  Plain,  Mile  Phiin,  X  Plain,  Flat  Rock,  Great  Hill, 
Ridge  Hill,  Mullein  Hill,  Pine  Neck,  Wigwamps,  Log-bridge  Hill, 
(now  Loggy  Hill,)  west  of  the  town ;  Winthrop's  Neck  and  Cove, 
Bream  Cove,  Green  Harbor,  Goshen  Neck,  Alewifa  Cove — are 
names  that  were  all  in  use  before  1660,  and  most  of  them  in  1652. 
What  is  now  Niantic  Bridge  was  at  first  known  as  "  Gutt  Ferry,"  and 
after  1790,  as  Rope  Ferry,  which  is  still  in  use.  Gardiner's  Inland 
was  Isle  of  Wight,  and  Plum  Island  (rather  later)  Isle  of  Patmo.'^. 
Nassau  Island,  as  a  name  for  Long  Island,  appears  on  deeds  between 
1690  and  1700.  Great  and  Little  Gull  Islands  were  undoubtedly 
so  named  on  account  of  the  sea-gulls  that  here  had  their  haunts,  and 
whitened  the  shore  with  the  abundance  of  their  eggs.  The  Indians 
had  probably  named  them  from  the  same  striking  circumstance,  and 
this  Indian  name,  it  is  conjectured,^ was  identical  witli  that  given  to 
a  point  on  the  Stonington  coast — Wampassok  or  Warapasliok — a 
name  supposed  to  signify  a  white  land,  or  a  land  frequented  by  white 
birds.* 

One  of  the  islets  in  the  river  just  below  Fort  Trumbull  was  very 
early  known  as  Nicholl's  Cod,  perhaps  from  William  Nicholls  an 
early  settler :  the  other  at  a  later  period  was  called  Powder  Island. 
Bartlet*s  Reef,  south-west  of  the  mouth  of  the  river,  may  have  had 
its  name  from  William  or  Robert  Bartlet,  who  were  coasters  or  skip- 
pers on  the  coast  before  1660.  This  however  is  not  certainly 
known. 

Bachelor's  Cove  and  Jupiter  Point,  on  the  Groton  shore,  were 
names  used  in  1653,  but  can  not  now  be  located.  Latham's  Chair,  a 
duster  of  rocks,  in  the  mouth  of  tlie  river,  near  Eastern  Point,  is 
hijd  down  on  charts. 

Cohanzie  (a  district  in  Waterford)  is  not  on  record  before  1750, 
bat  may  have  been  familiarly  used  at  an  earlier  date.  Its  origin 
is  not  known,  but  in  all  probability  it  is  a  modification  of  some  Indian 
name.    According  to  tradition  it  is  derived  from  an  old  Pequot  who 


1  Wampi^  white  ;  WampaA^  a  species  of  wild  goose,  and  probably  applied  to  other 
Kris  of  white  plumage.  Womptnacuck^  "  white  head  birds,"— a  name  given  to  the 
CHle.    SeeMiss.  Hist.GolL,2dseries,yol.  4,p.  S76. 

11 


122 


HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON. 


had  a  wigwam  in  a  dense  swamp  in  the  district,  where  he  dwelt  and 
made  brooms  and  baskets  for  his  neighbors,  long  after  all  others  of 
his  race  had  disappeared  from  the  neighborhood. 

Cedar  Swamp,  Ash  Swamp,  Owl  Swamp,  and  other  swamps  of  the 
neighborhood,  all  at  different  periods  have  enjoyed  the  reputation  of 
being  haunted — ^not  generally,  however,  by  ghosts  of  the  dead,  but 
by  living  bugbears — such  as  old  Indians,  deserters  from  English 
ships,  witches,  and  trampers.  That  species  of  tradition  which  is 
founded  upon  deeds  of  murder  and  violence,  has  never  gained  much 
of  a  foothold  in  this  vicinity.  The  Ash  Swamp  ghost  was  perhaps 
an  exception,  though  the  legend  appears  to  have  faded  from  memo- 
ry :  it  was  the  apparition  of  a  woman  that  always  appeared  with  a 
white  apron  over  her  head,  so  that  her  face  was  never  seen.  A  ghost 
was  at  one  time  in  the  last  century  said  to  haunt  the  vicinity  of  Mile 
Brook,  where  belated  travelers  were  sure  to  find  an  old  woman  em- 
ployed in  letting  down  bars  that  constantly  replaced  themselves,  as 
they  fell  from  her  hand. 

The  following  Indian  names  belong  to  the  original  Pequot  or  Mo- 
hegan  territory.  A  part  of  thenw  are  still  in  use  :  the  others  have 
been  gleaned  from  records  or  tradition. 

CoW'WauSy  a  rugged  tract  of  land  lying  west  of  the  Mohegan 
or  Norwich  road.  It  is  the  Indian  word  for  pine-tree  and  designated 
a  locality  where  pines  were  found.  Cowassit^  the  Indian  name  of 
Blackweirs  Brook,  that  flows  into  the  Quinebaug  in  Canterbury,  and 
CawisscUiick,  in  the  north-east  part  of  Stonington,  are  words  of  the 
same  origin. 

GungewampSy  a  high,  rugged  hill  three  and  a  half  miles  north- 
east of  Groton  Ferry. 

Magunky  sl  locality  on  the  Great  Neck,  formerly  so  called.  It 
may  mean  a  large  tree,  Magunkahquog,  the  Indian  name  of  Hop- 
kinton,  Mass.,  is  said  to  signify,  a  plcice  of  great  trees. 

Mamacock,  the  neck  of  land  on  which  Fort  Trumbull  is  situated ; 
also  a  neck  of  land  two  miles  higher  up  the  river.  R.  Williams  de- 
fines Maumacock  ''  a  point  of  land  bending  like  a  hook." 

Mashapatig,  now  Gardiner's  Lake.  It  was  in  the  north-west  cor- 
ner of  the  ancient  bounds  of  New  London  and  the  south-west  comer 
of  ancient  Norwich.  The  English  called  it  at  first,  "  20-mile-pond." 
It  appears  to  mean  simply  Great  Pond.  Other  sheets  of  water  in 
New  England  bore  the  same  name. 

Masia-peag  ;  probably  a  word  of  the  same  origin  and  significa- 
tion as  the  foregoing.     It  is  the  name  of  a  large  cove  nmning  into 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON.  123 

Mohegan  from  the  river,  six  miles  north  of  New  London  and  so  in- 
closed by  the  land  as  to  resemble  a  pond.  The  banks  o{  the  cove 
bear  the  same  name.     It  was  sometimes  written  Mashpeage. 

Massa-wamasoff,  a  brook  and  cove  in  Mohegan,  north  of  Massa- 
peag. 

Mmatucky  a  high,  bold  hill-top,  in  Waterford,  commanding  a  fine 
view  of  the  Sound.  The  word  may  perhaps  be  of  the  same  origin 
as  Montauk. 

Mistuckset,  a  brook  in  Stonington  forming  a  boundary  of  land  at 
Qaonaduck,  granted  to  Amos  Richardson  in  1653. 

Mystic :  this  name  is  similar  to  the  foregoing.  It  is  undoubtedly 
the  true  aboriginal  name  of  the  river,  and  not  brought,  as  some  have 
supposed,  by  the  English  settlers,  from  the  Mystick  which  flows  into 
Boston  Bay.  Roger  Williams  calls  it  Mtstiek  before  the  Pequot 
"War.  There  is  probably  some  natural  feature  conmion  to  the  two 
rivers  which  suggested  the  name.  It  is  now  usually  written  without 
the  k — ^Mystic. 

Ifaawckiuck.  Samuel  Lathrop's  farm,  on  the  west  bank  of  Pe- 
quot River,  four  or  five  miles  from  New  London,  was  said  to  be  at 
Namucksuck. 

Nantneag.  Winthrop  sent  to  Sir  Hans  Sloane  a  epecunen  of  a 
new  mineral,  which  he  says  was  found  '^  at  Nantneag,  three  miles 
from  New  London."  The  mineral  received  the  name  of  Colum- 
bium.    No  place  in  the  vicinity  is  now  known  as  Nantneag. 

Naiw(tyonk  or  Nowayunck,  now  abbreviated  to  Noank,  a  peninsula 
at  the  mouth  of  Mystic  River,  on  the  west  side.  CaMasinamon's 
party  of  Pequot  Indians  was  collected  on  this  peninsula  very  soon 
after  the  settlement  of  New  London,  and  remained  here  till  about 
1667,  when  they  were  removed  to  Mashantucket.  A  thriving  and 
picturesque  village  is  now  spread  over  the  rugged  ledges  of  Noank. 

Nayantick  or  Nahantick:  Roger  Williams  wrote  Nayantaquit; 
other  variations  are  numerous.  It  is  now  commonly  written  Niantic 
The  bar  at  Rope  Ferry  (south-west  extremity  of  Waterford)  was 
probably  the  original  western  Nahantick,  and  Watch  Hill  Neck,  or 
the  south-west  part  of  Westerly,  the  eastern  Nahantick.  Nahantick 
is  the  same  word  as  Nahant  and  apparently  designates  a  long,  sandy 
point  or  beach :  the  syllable  ick  is  probably  expletive. 

Oxo-paug-suck,  This  rugged  Indian  word  has  been  transmuted 
by  custom  into  one  much  more  barbarous,  viz.,  Oxy-boxy.  It  desig- 
nated a  smkU  pond  in  the  north  parish  of  New  London  (now  Mont- 
ville)  and  a  wild,  dashing  brook  which  issued  from  it  and  flowed 


124  HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON. 

south-east  into  the  Thames.  In  the  lower  part  of  its  course  the 
stream  was  called  by  the  Indians  Cochikuack  and  by  the  English 
Saw-mill  Brook.  Its  banks  are  in  many  places  very  bold  and  ro- 
mantic. A  series  of  mills  and  factories  (twelve  in  number)  now 
occupy  the  choice  positions  on  its  course,  and  a  village  remarkably 
picturesque  and  umbrageous  has  grown  up  near  its  mouth,  which  is 
called  Uncasville. 

Poqicetannuck,  a  river  and  cove  on  the  east  side  of  the  Thames, 
where  Brewster's  trading-house  was  situated.  The  name  is  still  re- 
tained and  designates  also  a  pleasant  village  thix)ugh  which  the 
stream  flows.  Two  definitions,  of  directly  opposite  import,  may  be 
suggested  for  this  word :  a  fact  which  illustrates  the  difficulty  of 
fixing  the  signification  of  Indian  names.  Poqua,  it  is  said,  signifies 
an  oaky  and  Poqua-tannoch  is,  then,  a  place  where  there  are  many 
oak-trees,  a  forest  of  oaks.  Again,  poqua  signifies  open,  and  places 
with  that  prefix  denote  open  fields  or  cleared  grounds.  Poquetannticky 
then,  means  a  place  free  from  all  trees. 

Poqtiaug^  or  more  properly  Poquyogh,  a  small  bay  or  cove,  be- 
tween two  and  three  miles  west  of  the  mouth  of  the  Thames.  The 
word  may  be  derived  from  Pequaw-hoch  or  Quatv-haug,  the  name  of 
the  large  round  clam,  which  was  very  abundant  in  this  vicinity. 
The  English  at  first  called  it  Robin  Hood's  Bay,  but  this  name  was 
soon  dropped  and  that  of  Jordan  substituted ;  which  name  now  des- 
ignates the  cove,  the  brook  flowing  into  it,  and  the  adjoining  district. 
It  was  probably  bestowed  by  some  devout  proprietor  in  honor  of  the 
Jordan  of  Palestine. 

Shinicosset,  in  Groton,  east  side  of  the  harbor's  mouth. 

SepoS'tamesuck,  a  cove  and  brook  in  Mohegan,  west  side  of  the 
river. 

Swichichog,  a  rocky  point  in  Mohegan,  west  side  of  the  river. 
Swegotchy^  west  side  of  Niantic  Bay :  perhaps  both  have  some  ref- 
erence to  saqtitshy  saquukog,  clams. 

Tauba-konomok,  a  high  hill  in  the  western  part  of  Waterford, 
overlooking  Lake's  Pond :  now  abridged  to  Konom  ok.  It  is  men- 
tioned in  a  town  act  of  March  14th,  1693-4. 

"  Then  voted  that  the  land  lying  between  Popple-swamp  and  Taba-cono- 
mock  hill  shall  be  and  remain  for  the  town's  use  forever  common." 

Uhuhiohj  written  also  Uhuoigk^  Whoohyoh^  and  sometimes  the 
last  letter  h.  This  name  was  applied  to  Jordan  Brook  where  it  falls 
into  the  cove  and  to  the  swampy  thickets  on  its  borders.    The  sound 


HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON.  125 

80  much  resembles  the  hooting  of  an  owl  as  to  suggest  the  idea  that 
the  name  was  derived  from  that  bird.  The  Mohegan  word  for  owl 
was,  however,  Koohoo-hy-om ;  and  we  hazard,  as  a  more  pleasing  con- 
jecture, that  it  was  the  Indian  word  for  the  whippowil,  and  so  named 
on  account  of  the  woods  and  brakes  in  the  vicinity  having  been  no- 
ted retreats  of  this  interesting  night-warbler.  Using  what  is  called 
in  the  notation  of  Indian  languages  the  whistled  w^  it  would  be 
written  JPuhioh}  May  not  the  name  of  the  fair  river  of  the  west, 
Ohio,  have  a  similar  origin  ? 

Wikopasset  or  Weekopeesuck,  a  small  island  at  the  north-east  end 
of  Fisher's  Island. 

Wee-powaug^  a  place  north  of  Brewster's  farm  at  Poquetannuck, 
where  Uncas  gave  to  John  Picket  six  or  seven  hundred  acres  of 
land.     It  fell  to  his  son-in-law  Charles  Hill.' 

1  Heckwelder  and  Dnponceau  would  probably  have  given  it  this  orthography. 
3  Gomi.  CoL  Bee.,  voL  2,  p.  142.  ' 


ir 


r 


CHAPTER  IX. 

UncRS  at  variance  with  the  English. — Repeatedly  invaded  by  the  Narragan- 
setu. — Incident  at  Brewster's  Neck. — Efforts  to  instruct  the  Indians  by  Blin- 
man,  Thompson,  Minor  and  Stanton. — Removal  and  settlement  of  the  two 
bands  of  Pequots. 

The  Mohegans  and  the  planters  at  Peqaot  continued  to  be  for 
several  years  troublesome  neighbors  to  each  other.  The  sachem 
was  ever  complaining  of  encroachments  upon  his  royalties  and  the 
English  farmers  of  Indian  aggressions  upon  their  property.  In 
March,  165^4,  the  planters,  apparently  in  some  sudden  burst  of 
indignation,  made  an  irruption  into  the  Indian  territory  and  took  pos- 
session of 

**  Uncas  his  fort,  and  many  of  his  wigwams  at  Monheag,"* 

The  sachem,  as  usual,  carried  his  grievances  to  Hartford ;  and 
the  General  Court  ordered  a  letter  of  inquiry  and  remonstrance  to 
be  written  to  the  town.  This  was  followed  by  the  appointment  of  a 
committee.  Major  Mason,  Matthew  Griswold  and  Mr.  Winthrop,  to 
review  the  boundary  line  between  the  plantation  and  the  Indians 
and  to  "endeavor  to  compose  differences  between  Pequett  and  Uncas 
in  love  and  peace."^  This  appears  to  have  quieted  the  present  un- 
easiness, and  for  several  succeeding  years  the  enmity  of  the  Nar- 
ragansetts  furnished  the  sachem  with  a  motive  to  conciliate  the  Eng- 
lish. 

Between  1640  and  1660  he  was  repeatedly  invaded  by  hostile 
bands  of  his  own  race,  that  swept  over  him  like  the  gust  of  a  whirl- 
wind and  drove  him  for  refuge  into  some  stone  fort  or  gloomy  Cappa- 

1  Conn.  Col.  Bee,  vol.  1,  p.  251. 

2  Vt  fupra,  p.  267. 


HI8TORV    OP     NteW     tONOOW*  l27 

cnmmock.^  It  is  wonderful  that  he  should  always  have  escaped 
from  an  enmity  so  deadly  and  unremitting,  and  that  he  should  have 
increased  in  numbers  and  strength  while  so  frequently  engaged  in 
hostilities. 

In  1657,  the  Narragansetts,  taking  their  usual  route  through  the 
wilderness,  and  crossing  the  fords  of  the  Shetucket  and  Yantic,  pour- 
ed down  upon  Mohegan,  marking  their  course  with  slaughter  and 
devastation.'  Uncas  fled  before  them,  and  took  refuge  in  a  fort  at 
the  head  of  Nahantick  River,  where  his  enemies  closely  besieged 
him.  It  is  probable  that  he  would  soon  have  been  obliged  to  submit 
to  terms,  had  not  his  English  neighbors  hastened  to  his  relief.  Lieut, 
James  Avery,  Mr.  Brewster,  Richard  Haughton,  Samuel  Lothrop 
and  others  well  armed,  succeeded  in  throwing  themselves  into  the 
fort ;  and  the  Narragansetts,  fearing  to  engage  in  a  conflict  with  the 
English,  broke  up  the  siege  and  returned  home.  Major  Mason,  the 
patron  of  Uncas,  hastened  to  lay  before  the  General  Court  an  ac- 
count of  the  danger  to  which  he  had  been  exposed.^  The  Legisla- 
ture approved  of  the  measures  that  had  been  taken  for  his  protec- 
tion, and  requested  Mr.  Brewster  to  leave  a  few  men  in  the  fortress 
with  Uncas,  to  defend  him,  if  again  he  should  be  assaulted,  and  to 
keep  a  strict  watch  over  the  Narragansetts. 

The  commissioners  who  met  at  Boston  in  September,  took  a  dif- 
ferent view  of  the  case.  They  had  come  to  the  determination  of 
leaving  the  Indians  to  fight  their  own  battles,  and  therefore  disap- 
proved of  the  interference  of  the  English  in  favor  of  Uncas.  A 
letter  was  forthwith  dispatched  to  Pequot  directing  Mr.  Brewster 
and  the  others,  in  Nahantick  fort,  to  retire  immediately  to  their  own 
dwellings,  and  leave  Uncas  to  manage  his  affairs  himself.  For  the 
time  to  come,  they  prohibited  any  interference  in  the  quarrels  of  In- 
dians with  one  another,  either  by  colonies  or  individuals,  except  in 
cases  of  necessary  self-defense. 

The  next  year  Uncas  was  again  invaded  by  the  Narragansetts, 
and  with  them — ^united  against  their  common  enemy— came  the  Po- 
komticks  and  other  tribes  belonging  to  Connecticut  River.  The  Eng- 
lish did  not  always  escape  imnoyance  from  these  marauding  parties. 

1  This  name  probably  refers  to  an  islet  in  a  swamp. 

2  "  The  Narragansetts  killed  and  took  captive  diverse  of  his  men  and  seized  much 
of  his  goods."    Hazard,  vol.  2. 

8  Conn.  CJol.  Rec.,  vol.  1,  pp.  801,  802. 


128 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON* 


Mr.  Brewster  preferred  a  complaint  to  the  commissioners  at  their 
next  meeting,  that  the  invaders 

**  Killed  an  Indian  employed  in  his  service,  and  flying  to  Mistress  Brewster 
for  succor  ;  yet  they  violently  took  him  from  her,  and  shot  him  by  her  side  to 
\xeT  great  affrightment."^ 

This  incident  undouhtedly  occurred  on  Brewster's  Neck  at  Poque- 
tannuck.  The  Indians  in  their  defense  said  that  the  Mohegans,  their 
enemies,  took  shelter  in  Mr.  Brewster's  house  and  were  there  pro- 
tected ;  that  Mr.  Brewster  and  Mr.  Thompson  supplied  them  with 
guns,  powder  and.  shot ;  that  being  on  the  west  side  of  the  river, 
they  were  shot  at  by  two  men  from  the  east  side,  whereupon  their 
young  warriors  crossed  the  stream,  and  not  finding  the  offenders, 
concluded  they  had  taken  shelter  in  the  house,  and  pursued  them 
thither.  This  defense  had  but  little  weight  with  the  commissioners ; 
who  amerced  the  offending  Indians  in  120  fathoms  of  wampum. 

The  repeated  invasion  of  his  enemies  drove  Uncas  for  a  time  from 
his  residence  in  Mohegan  proper.  He  sheltered  himself  for  two  or 
three  years  within  the  circle  of  the  English  settlements,  and  dwelt 
at  Nahantick,  at  Black  Point,  and  even  west  of  Saybrook,  on  lands 
claimed  by  him  at  Killingworth  and  Branford.  It  was  not  till  after 
the  settlement  of  Norwich  in  1660,  that  he  once  more  established 
himself  in  his  old  home. 

The  migratory  habits  of  the  Indians,  who  seldom  spent  summer 
and  winter  in  the  same  place,  will  account  in  some  degree  for  their 
wide-spread  claims  of  possession.  Foxen,  the  friend  and  counselor 
of  Uncas  has  left  his  name  indelibly  impressed  in  the  neighborhood 
of  New  London  and  on  the  plains  of  East  Haven.*  This  fact  alone 
would  show  the  extent  of  the  Mohegan  right  of  dominion ;  or  rather 
of  the  Pequot  right,  to  which  the  Mohegans  succeeded. 

In  1657,  the  court  of  commissioners,  acting  as  agents  to  the 
"  Society  for  propagating  the  Grospel  in  New  England,"  proposed  to 
Mr.  Blinman  to  become  the  missionary  of  the  Pequots  and  Mohe- 
gans, offering  a  salary  of  £20 per  annum,  and  pay  for  an  interpreter. 
Mr.  Blinman  declined ;  and  the  same  year  Mr.  William  Thomson,' 
a  graduate  of  Harvard  College,  and  son  of  the  first  minister  of 
Braintree,  Mass.,  was  engaged  for  the  office.     His  salary  from  the 


1  Becords  of  the  Commissioners,  in  Hazard,  vol.  2. 

2  East  Haven  Begister,  p.  18. 

8  This  is  his  own  orthography:  Farmer  in  his  Begister  writes  it  Tompson. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  129 

commissioners  was  £10  per  annum,  for  the  first  two  years,  and  £20 
per  annitmj  for  the  next  two  ;  but  after  1661  the  stipend  was  with- 
held, with  the  remark,  that  he  had  "  neglected  the  business."  His 
services  were  confined  entirely  to  the  Pequots  at  Mystic  and  Paw- 
katuck.*  Uncas  uniformly  declined  all  offers  of  introducing  religions 
instmction  among  his  people.  Mr.  Thomson  left  New  London  in 
feeble  health  in  1663,  and  in  September,  1664,  was  in  Surry  county, 
Virginia. 

The  commissioners  made  many  praiseworthy  attempts  to  obtain 
regular  religious  instruction  for  the  Pequots,  but  met  with  only  par- 
tial success.  In  1654,  they  selected  John  the  son  of  Thomas  Minor 
and  proposed  to  educate  him  for  an  Indian  teacher.  John  the  son 
of  Thomas  Stanton  was  also  received  by  them  for  the  same  purpose. 
They  were  both  kept  at  school  and  college  for  two  or  three  years ; 
but  the  young  men  ultimately  left  their  studies  and  devoted  them- 
selves to  other  pursuits. 

The  remnant  of  the  Pequots  not  amalgamated  with  the  Mohegans 
were  principally  collected  into  two  bands :  one  of  them  hved  on  or 
near  the  Mystic,  having  Cassasinamon.  (called  by  the  English  Robin) 
for  their  chief;  the  other,  on  or  near  the  Pawkatuck,  under  Casha- 
wasset  (or  Harmon  Garrett.)  These  miserable  fragments  of  a  tribe 
for  many  years  annually  sent  their  plea  to  the  court  of  commission- 
ers asking  for  more  land.  Their  situation  was  indeed  pitiable.  The 
English  crowded  them  on  every  side.  Their  com  was  often  ruined 
by  the  breaking  in  of  wild  horses,  and  loose  cattle  and  swine ;  and 
they  were  not  allowed  to  fish,  or  hunt,  or  trespass  in  any  manner 
upon  lands  churned  either  by  Uncas  or  by  the  English.  Toward 
these  people,  the  commissioners  in  1 658.  and  onward  appear  to  have 
been  kindly  disposed.  They  repeatedly  granted  them  certain  tracts 
of  land  and  appointed  persons  to  see  to  their  removal  and  accommo- 
dation. In  1663,  they  wrote  letters  to  the  towns  of  New  London 
and  Southerton  requiring  them  immediately  to  lay  out  those  lands 
which  had  been  granted  to  the  Indians,  "  anno  58."  Even  this  imper- 
ative proceeding  led  to  no  immediate  result.  It  was  the  favorite 
plan  of  the  Connecticut  authorities,  to  settle  the  Pequots  at  Mohe- 
gan,  under  the  sway  of  Uncas,  and  they  consented  with  reluc- 
tance that  they  should  remain  a  distinct  community.     Mr.  Winthrop, 


1  Mr.  Thomson  had  a  farm  at  Mystic,  but  his  residence  was  in  the  town  plot,  on 
what  is  now  Manwaring's  Hill.  His  house  was  sold  when  he  left  the  town,  to  Oliver 
Manwaring, 


lao 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 


Capt  Benison,  Capt  James  Avery,  and  some  other  men  of  inflaence, 
dissotifeii  from  these  views  and  labored  for  the  accommodation  of 

the    P<H]lH>lH. 

In  I IUJ4,  the  commissioners  referred  the  charge  and  responsibility 
of  ixnioving  the  Indians  to  the  Connecticut  delegation.  After  a 
ftmiit^r  :it  niggle  of  three  years  with  various  contending  parties,  the 
object  IV 11^  accomplished.    The  Connecticut  committee  report  in  1 667 : 

"  As  Utr  ihti  Pcquot  Indians  they  are  settled  on  a  large  tract  of  land  for  their 
pbintinff  fttid  subsistence,  which  we  wish  had  been  sooner  attended,  but  being 
litiw  ullLtird,  we  hope  will  satisfy  our  confederates." 

This  refers  to  the  Mystic  Indians,  who  were  removed  to  the  inte- 
rior of  tLie  northern  part  of  the  plantation,  and  settled  on  a  reserva- 
tion of  two  thousand  acres,  called  Mashan tucket,  a  name  probably 
traiisfern  d  from  the  Mohegan  reserved  lands  west  of  the  river,' 
to  wliifh  it  had  been  previously  applied.  Cassasinamon^  remained 
tJi^  ruler  or  governor  of  this  party  until  his  death  in  1692.  Other 
nominal  rhiefs  of  their  own  people  followed,  but  the  actual  direction 
<if  their  affairs,  down  to  the  present  day,  has  been  intrusted  to  agents, 
uppoiuted  by  the  legislature. 

The  removal  and  settlement  of  Harmon  Grarrett's  company  was 
attended  with  yet  more  difficulty.'  They  were  ultimately  settled, 
ai)il  |>robahly  about  1670,  on  a  reservation  a  few  miles  east  of 
H^i^liaolueket,  in  what  is  now  North  Stonington.  Harmon  Garret, 
0tLerwi:^e  called  Wequash-kook,  and  sometimes  Cashawasset,  died 
in  107 o  ur  1676.  Momoho  succeeded  and  died  in  1695.  Both  of 
thcao  Pequot  bands  remained  faithful  to  the  English  in  Philip's 
War  and  performed  good  service. 

1  in  llki?  inanner  the  name  Nameog,  or  Nameak,  had  been  applied  to  tiie  place 
nhem  iliK'T  dwelt  at  Mystic. 

a  Urq  would  like  to  know  whether  the  wit  of  this  tawny  chieftain  were  as  ^picy  at 
hk  name.    Cnssia-cinnamon — ^how  pungent  and  aromatic ! 

3  Sc*  Slit^fl.  Hist  Coll.,8d  series,  vol.  10,  pp.  64-69,  where  are  letters  to  Gov.  Win- 
1hr<yp  on  thr:i  Pequot  business,  from  Capt  Denison  and  Mr.  James  Noyes,  which  show 
Hiat  evctn  i^andid  and  honest  men  may  take  different  views  of  the  same  subject. 
Ilea]  1^0  plodds  for  the  Indians  with  an  eloquence  and  ardor  highly  honorable  to  him. 


CHAPTER  X- 

Town  afiairs,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  from  1661  to  1671.— rExtracts  from  the 
Moderator's  minutes,  "with  explanations  and  comments. — Ministry  of  Mr. 
Bulkley  and  Mr.  Bradstreet. — First  church  formed.— First  ordination. 

The  year  1661  presents  us  with  a  new  minister.  Mr.  Gershom 
Bnlklej,  of  Concord,  in  the  Bay  colony,  having  preached  several 
months  in  the  place,  entered  into  a  contract  to  become  the  minister 
of  the  town.  This  was  merely  an  engagement  for  a  term  of  years, 
and  contained  no  reference  to  a  settlement  or  ordination.  The  town 
pledged  a  salary  of  £80  yearly  for  three  years,  and  afterward  more, 
if  the  people  found  themselves  able  to  give  more,  or  "as  much  more 
as  God  shall  move  their  hearts  to  give,  and  they  do  find  it  needful  to 
be  paid."  It  was  to  be  reckoned  in  provisions  or  English  goods  ; 
and  for  the  first  three  years  he  was  to  have  "  all  such  silver  as  is 
weekly  contributed  by  strangers,  to  help  towards  the  buying  of 
books."  The  town  was  to  pay  for  the  trsuisportation  of  himself, 
family  and  eflects  from  Concord ;  provide  him  with  a  dwelling-house, 
orchard,  garden  and  pasture,  and  with  upland  and  meadow  for  a 
small  farm ;  supply  him  yearly  with  fire-wood  for  the  use  of  his 
family,  and  "  do  their  endeavor  to  suit  him  with  a  servant-man  or 
youth,  and  a  maid,  he  paying  for  their  time."  Finally,  if  Mr.  Bulk- 
ley  should  die  during  the  continuance  of  his  ministry,  his  wife  and 
children  should  receive  from  the  town  "  the  full  and  just  sum  of  £60 
sterling." 

This  contract  was  afterward  modified.  To  obviate  some  difficul- 
ty which  occurred  in  building  the  parsonage,  Mr.  Bulkley  proposed 
to  provide  himself  with  a  house,  and  free  the  town  from  the  engage- 
ment to  pay  £60  to  his  family  in  case  of  his  decease,  for  the  sum  of 
£B0  in  hand.  To  this  the  town  consented  on  condition  that  he  re- 
mained with  them  seven  years,  but  they  added  this  clause. 

**In  case  he  remove  before  the  7  yeer,  he  li  to  return  the  80/.  agen,  but  if  he 
stay  the  7  yeere  out,  the  80/.  is  wholly  given  him,  or  if  God  take  him  away  be- 
fore this  tyme  of  7  yeeres,  the  whole  is  given  his  wife  and  children." 


132 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 


Mr.  Bulkley  was  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Peter  Bulkley,  first  minister 
of  Concord,  Mass.  His  mother,  the  second  wife  of  his  father,  was 
Grace,  daughter  of  Sir  Richard  Chitwood.  It  has  been  often  rela- 
ted concerning  this  lady,  that  she  apparently  died  on  her  passage  to 
this  country.  Her  husband  supposing  land  to  be  near,  and  unwilling 
to  consign  the  beloved  form  to  a  watery  grave,  urgently  entreated 
the  captain  that  the  body  might  be  kept  one  day  more,  and  yet  another 
and  another  day ;  to  which,  as  no  signs  of  decay  had  appeared,  he 
consented.  On  the  third  day  symptoms  of  vitality  were  observed, 
and  before  they  reached  the  land,  animation,  so  long  suspended,  was 
restored ;  and  though  carried  from  the  vessel  an  invalid,  she  recovered 
and  lived  to  old  age.  Her  son,  Gershom,  was  born  soon  after  their 
arrival,  Dec.  26th,  1635.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  College,  in  1655, 
and  married,  Oct.  26th,  1659,  Siirah  Chauncey,  daughter  of  the  presi- 
dent of  that  institution.  His  father  died  in  1659.  His  widowed 
mother,  Mrs.  Grace  Bulkley,  followed  her  son  to  New  London, 
where  she  purchased  the  homestead  of  William  Hough,  "  hard  below 
the  meeting-house  that  now  is,"  and  dwelt  in  the  town,  a  householder, 
"so  long  as  her  son  remained  its  minister. 

Mr.  Bulkley,  after  having  freed  the  town  from  their  engagement 
to  build  a  parsonage,  purchased  the  homestead  of  Samuel  Lothrop, 
who  was  about  removing  to  the  new  settlement  of  Norwich.  The 
house  is  said  to  have  stood  beyond  the  bridge,  over  the  mill  brook, 
on  the  east  side  of  the  highway  toward  Mohegan.  Here  Mr.  Bulk- 
ley  dwelt  during  his  residence  in  New  London.' 

Minuses  from  the  Moderator's  hook. 
"  Mr.  Thomson  to  be  clccred" — (freed  from  paying  rntes.) 


"  Mr.  Tinker,  James  Morgan,  and  Obadiah  Brucn,  are  chosen  to  seat  the 
people  in  the  meeting-house,  which,  they  doing,  the  inhabitants  &re  to  rest 
silent." 


"  Dec.  1,  1661.  The  towne  have  agreed  with  Goodman  Elderkin  and  Good- 
man Waller  to  repare  the  turret  of  the  meeting-house,  and  to  pay  them  what 
they  shall  demand  in  reason." 

«*  To  know  what  allowance  Mr.  Tinker  shall  have  for  his  tyme  spent  in  exer- 
cising in  publique. 

**  To  return  an  account  of  contributions. 

**  May  5,  1662.  Thomas  Bowen  hath  given  him  by  the  towne  forty  shillings 
of  the  contribution  wompum," 


1  Probably  where  is  How  the  Hallam  house,  late  the  residence  of  the  aged  sisters, 
Mrs.  Thomas  Poole  and  Mrs.  Robert  Hallam. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  ^  133 

Why  Thomas  Bowen  should  receive  a  part  of  the  money  given  for 
ecclesiastical  purposes  is  not  explained.  He  had  dwelt  but  a  short 
time  in  the  place,  and  very  soon  removed  to  Behoboth,  where  he 
cUedin  1663.  Mr.  Tinker  is  supposed  to  have  led  the  public  worship 
before  Mr.  Bulkley's  arrival.  The  town  voted  him  a  compensation 
of  £6.  He  was  rate-maker,  collector  and  commissioner  for  the  year 
1662,  and  also  an  assistant  of  the  colony. 

"Jan.  6,  1661-2. 

"  The  highway  to  the  water  by  Mr.   Morton's  is  voated  to  be  4  pole  wide.** 
[Now  Blinman  street] 
'*  All  the  military  offisers  are  to  lay  out  fort  hill  by  the  next  meeting.*' 

Fort  Hill  was  an  elevated  upland  ridge  on  the  eastern  border  of 
the  present  Parade,  with  an  abrupt  projecting  slope  to  the  water  side, 
which  caused  it  to  be  called  also  a  point.  In  the  course  of  time  it 
has  been  graded  and  rounded,  so  as  to  be  no  longer  either  a  hill  or  a 
point  It  was  expressly  reserved  on  the  first  laying  out  of  the  town, 
for  the  purpose  of  fortification. 

"  Sept.  '61. 

"Mr.  Thomsons  request  of  3  pole  of  land  by  the  water  side  upon  Mill  Cove." 

"  Oct.  24.     Mr.  Lords  request  in  writing. 

"  Mr.  Savages  request  in  writing. 

"  Mr.  Lovelands  request  in  writing. 

"  A  Dutchman  and  his  wile  request  of  the  towne." 

"  Dec.  1.  Three  men,  (Morgan,  Latham,  Avery,)  chosen  by  the  town  to  vew 
the  poynt  of  land  and  confirme  it  to  Mr.  Loveland,  Mr.  Tinker,  Mr.  Lane,  and 
Mr.  Station,  in  the  best  way  they  can,  leaving  sufiisient  way  to  the  Spring  for 
all  neighbors." 

t*  Sept.  24,  '62, 

"  Mr.  Pinsions  request  for  a  place  for  wharfage  and  building  and  outland. 

"  Hugh  Moles  request  for  a  place  by  the  water  side  to  build  vessels  on,  and 
a  wharfe. 

"  Consider  to  do  something  about  the  townes  landing  place." 

"Jan.  26,  '62-3.  Mr.  Pinsions  request  per  Mr.  James  Rogers, — the 
towne  doe  give  him  three  pole  out  of  yt  sixe  pole  yt  is  allowed  for  the  towne  a 
landiiig  place,  neere  Sandie  poynt,  provided  he  build  and  wharfe  within  one 
ycere  after  this  grant;  the  landing  place  to  be  but  three  pole  wide." 

The  above  extracts  give  evidence  of  an  increasing  trade,  which 
was  bringing  the  beaches  and  sandy  border  of  the  town  into  use- 
Mr.  Thomson  was  the  Indian  missionarj,  whose  engagements  with 
his  simple  flock  do  not  appear  to  have  interfered  with  his  attention 
to  civil  affairs.  Richard  Lord  was  of  Hartford ;  Habijah  Savage 
and  Robert  Loveland,  of  Boston;  "the  Dutchman"  was  probably 
Jacob  Skillinger,  of  New  Haven,  All  these  persons  were  more  or 
12  ^ 


134  «HI8T0RY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

less  interested  in  the  commerce  of  the  port,  and  made  application  for 
smflll  gi  ants  of  land  for  the  erection  of  warehouses.  Sandy  Point 
waa  the  swell  or  circlet  of  the  shore,  just  at  the  head  of  the  present 
Water  Street.  Here  was  the  town  landing  place,  and  the  ferry  stairs, 
where  passengers  from  the  east  side  of  the  river  landed.  The 
spring,  which  was  to  be  kept  free  for  the  accommodation  of  the  pub- 
lic, wa.s  on  the  north  side  of  the  present  Federal  Street,  east  of  the 
heiul  of  Bradley  Street,  gushing  out  of  the  side  hill,  and  flowing  into 
the  rivi T-  It  was  famous  in  the  early  history  of  the  town  for  its 
\)\xre,  euld^  abundant  waters,  but  from  the  gradual  elevation  of  the 
ground  near  the  water  side,  it  has  of  late  years  entirely  disappeared.* 
Capt,  Juba  Pyncheon,  of  Springfield,  very  early  entered  into  corres- 
pondeiH-e,  in  the  way  of  trade,  with  the  plantation,  first  with  Win- 
throp  and  afterward  with  James  Rogers,  sending  cattle  and  produce 
hiihi  r  to  be  shipped  for  other  markets.  "  The  path  to  Pequot,"  trav- 
eled by  his  droves,  is  mentioned  in  the  early  records  of  Springfield. 
The  site  tor  a  warehouse  granted  him  out  of  the  landing-place,  re- 
verted nfterward  to  the  town.  Hugh  Mould,  a  son-in-law  of  John 
Coite,  was  allowed  a  sufficient  quantity  of  land  at  Sandy  Point,  for  a 
carpenter's  yard,  provided  it  could  be  obtained  and  not  "hinder  the 
careening  of  vessels."  Another  person  who  was  at  this  time  a  resi- 
dent trader,  though  not  mentioned  so  early  in  the  minutes,  was  Sam- 
uel Harkl)um,  or  Hagborn,  from  the  Bay  colony.  He  was  received 
as  an  inhabitant,  but  meeting  with  some  reverses,  left  the  town  in 
1665- 

In  Fp4>.,  1661-2,  George  Tongue  was  granted  four  poles  of  land 
lief  ore  hU  house-lot  on  the  bank.  This  was  the  origin  of  the  names, 
Tnngue'B  Bank,  Tongue's  Rocks,  and  Tongue's  Cliff,  which  contin- 
ued to  he  applied  to  that  portion  of  the  water  side  now  covered  with 
I  he  wharves  and  buildings  of  Capt.  A.  Basse  tt  and  the  Brown  broth- 
ers, lotAj]:  after  the  name  had  othenvise  become  extinct  in  the  town. 

At  the  same  time,  grants  were  made  of  small  portions  of  the  water 
side,  ni.^xl  south  of  the  fort  land,  to  John  Culver,'  William  Douglas, 
itnd  Ja^hua  Raymond.  The  remainder  of  the  Bank,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  li  building  yard  granted  U)  John  Coite,  in  1699,  was  left  com- 
mon until  the  next  century. 

"  -2^}  Feb  ,  *61-2.     Mr.  Addis  granted  to  sell  bcere.** 

**  r^  MhI}',  *0'2.  Goodman  Culver  is  chosen  and  allowed  of  by  the  towne  for  the 
niakmg  oJ' bread  andbruing  ofbeere  for  the  publicke  good." 

1  Eldest  son  of  Edward  Culver. 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  LONDON*  135 

'*Tke  towne  desire  Mr.  Tinker  to  be  by  ye  court  conformed  assistant  for  this 
yeer,  and  Oba:  Bruen  for  the  taking  of  oathes  and  making  of  warrants  and 
attachments." 

**  The  Book  of  Lawes  is  voated  to  be  called  for  by  the  constable,  Peter 
Blatchford,  and  to  be  delivered  to  O.  Bruen,  recorder,  for  the  use  of  the  towne." 

This  Book  of  Laws  must  have  been  a  manuscript  copy  of  the 
principal  enactments  of  the  Greneral  Court :  every  town  within  the 
jurisdiction  being  required  to  possess  one  such  copy.  The  colony 
had  no  book  of  printed  laws  until  1673.  The  most  prominent  orders 
of  the  General  Court,  were  usually  brought  home  by  the  deputies, 
and  read  or  published,  as  it  was  called,  in  the  next  town  meeting,  and 
the  most  important  were  engrossed  in  the  town  book. 

"  31  March,  1663. 

'*  James  Rogers,  James  Morgan,  John  Prentis,  and  Peter  Blatchford,  are 
chosen  to  draw  a  petition  to  the  Ck)urt  respecting  the  grievances  of  the  town. 

"  Whereas  Gary  Latham  and  Mr.  Douglas  are  by  the  Court  fined  for  not  fully 
presenting  the  town  list,  anno  1663,  the  town  see  cause  to  petition  the  Court  as 
a  grievance,  not  finding  wherein  they  have  failed  except  in  some  few  houses. 
Voted,  also  about  the  rate  of  £35,  8t.  9d,  as  over- rated  £1,500,  by  the  Court  in 
March,  '62-3." 

From  the  Colonial  Becords  we  learn  that  the  court  had  severely 
rebuked  the  listers  of  the  town  for  the  low  valuation  they  had  given 
to  estates,  observing,  "  they  have  not  attended  any  rule  of  righteous- 
ness in  their  work,  but  have  acted  very  corruptly  therein."  The 
fines  were  remitted  in  May,  1668. 

"  16  AprU. 

*'  The  town  agree  with  Robert  Bartlet  for  the  making  of  a  pair  of  Stocks  with 
9  holes  fitted  to  put  on  the  irons  for  13s.  4d" 

**  May  7.  John  Culver  is  chosen  for  this  next  yeere  to  drumm  Saboth  days 
and  as  formerly  for  meetings. 

**  Francis  Hall^  hath  given  him  two  pole  of  land  by  the  water  side,  if  it  be 
there." 

"  Jiue  9.  Cary  Latham,  Mr.  Douglas  and  Ralph  Parker  were  to  make  the 
Coxmtry  rate  by  the  list  they  made  of  the  Town  Rate  in  *62.  Our  rate  accord- 
ing to  our  hst  being  about  291.  3s.  9d,     Court  say  35/.  8s.  9d, 

Cary  Latham,  with  myself,  O.  B.  voted  to  speake  with  the  committy  from 
Court  sent  to  heare  the  Case,  depending,  (as  the  Court  expresseth  it,)  betwixt 
Uncaa  and  the  Inhabitants  of  New  London." 

**  July  20.  Order  from  the  Court  to  make  the  rate  31/.  6«.,  and  to  be  sent  by 
October  next." 

"  16  Sept. 

"  Mr.  Witherell,  Lieut.  Smith,  James  Morgan  and  Oba.  Bruen  chosen  to 

1  Han  was  of  Stratford,  but  had  commercial  dealings  in  New  London. 


136  HISTORY    OP   NEW    LONDON. 

hear  the  grievances  of  the  inhabitants  of  wrong  done  by  the  Indians,  and  draw 
a  petition  in  the  town's  behalf."  , 

«•  26  Oct.  This  being  the  town  meeting,  James  Bemas  should  have  ac- 
knowledged his  offence  against  the  Major — he  came  not  to  it. 

"  Mr.  Skill inger  propounded  the  sale  of  his  land  and  house  this  day, — none 
offered  any  thing." 

Skillinger  in  1668  and  '69  was  of  Southampton,  L.  L,  and  one  of 
a  company  associated  for  the  purpose  of  whaling  in  boats  along  the 
coast' 

"Dec.  14. 

"  MrWinthrop  hath  all  his  land  at  Naihantick  given  him  rate  free  for  tyme 
to  come.  Also  he  hath  given  hire  a  pond  of  water  betwixt  his  land  at  nai- 
hantick and  the  land  now  in  possession  of  John  Printice.  John  Printice  ob- 
jects against  this  towne  grant  orye  pond. 

"  George  Chappie  hath  given  him  6  acres  of  land  for  a  house-lot  betwixt 
the  neck  fence  and  Jordan  river,  part  of  itbutingon  Jordan  river." 

This  is  the  earliest  notice  found  of  the  name  Jordan,  applied  to  the 
stream  that  has  ever  since  borne  the  designation.  Chappell  had  sold 
his  house-lot  in  town  to  the  Indian  missionary,  William  Thomson, 
and  soon  removed  to  this  new  grant  "by  Naihantick  way-side." 
The  September  following,  Clement  Minor  applied  for  a  house-lot  next 
to  Greorge  Chappell,  where  it  is  said  "he  hath  now  built."  These 
were  the  first  settlers  in  the  Jordan  district. 

"15 Jan:  *63-4.'  James  Rogers,  Levt.  Smith,  Gary  Latham,  John  Smith, 
and  William  Hough,  are  appoynted  to  goe  to  Mr.  Buckley  for  the  settling  him 
amongst  us." 

"  25  Feb.    Old  Mrs.  Buckleys  request  to  be  read. 

**  Mr.  Buckley  for  enlarging  maintenance  yt  he  may  keep  a  man  and  also 
take  the  geting  of  wood  into  his  owne  handes — if  not  let  10/.  more  be  aded  to 
our  town  rate  for  wood  cutting  and  carting,  and  4/.  for  raising  the  pulpct. 

**  Inhabitants  not  to  entertane  strange  young  men.     Vide  country  order,  read. 

"  The  order  of  cardes  and  order  of  shufflebords : — I  read. 

**  It  is  agreed  by  the  towne  that  henceforward  Mr.  Buckley  shall  have  sixe 
score  pound  a  yeere,  in  provision  pay,  good  and  marchandable,  he  freeing  the 
towne  from  all  other  ingagements." 

"  April  18. 

**  A  Country  rate  sent  to  us  from  Hartford, — this  day  was  the  first  day  I  herd 
of  it;  29/.  18$.  9d. 

**  3  or  4  Listers  to  be  chosen,  one  of  them  a  Commissioner ;  Mr.  Wethereli, 
Commissioner." 

"Sept.  21. 

"  To  determine  a  more  certain  way  for  the  ministry  to  be  upheld  amongst  us. 

1  Thompson's  Long  Island,  p.  191. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  137 

"Th^  Tr*<Dwne  hare  agreed  that  there  shall  be  a  petition  drawn  in  the  behalf 
of  theT*OA^/-ue,  Mr.  James  Rogers,  Ensigne  Avery  and  Mr.  Welherell  are  chosen 
to  see  1 1  S>^  done  with  reference  to  Puckatuck  pay  of  rates  to  our  towne  as  for- 
P,erlytlic53r    did." 

"At  t^bft.ia  towne  meeting  it  was  voated  that  there  should  be  an  Atturnye  for 
tlioio>»'«^^  ^o  see  to  the  coming  in  of  the  ministers  rate  and  other  towne  rates. 
pgterl^l».t<2liford  chosen  Attumey." 

..Jsa.=    0»  1664-5. 

n^et^T-    X3latchford  to  be  paid  for  a  voyage  to  the  River's  Moutli,  about  the 

1^^   Creneral  Court,  in  May,  1660,  had  ordered  that  two  great 

gODS,  ^^^itt  shot  convenient,  then  at  Saybrook,  should  be  lent  to  New 

l^ttdon.      The  above  charge  was  doubtless  connected  with  the  remo- 

ta\  of  tHese  pieces.     Under  the  same  date  is  noticed  a  debt  of  15«. 

to  B-icliaa:^  Hartley,  for  providing  a  "  seat  for  the  guard  in  the  meet- 

ing-^ouse,"  an  item  showing  that  men  still  went  armed  to  the  house  of 

woTftbip,  and  that  the  fear  of  sudden  attacks  from  Indians  had  not 

BXibsided. 

"Goodman  Barrose chosen  ferryman  for  Mistick  river,  to  ferry  a  horse  and  a 
i^nforagroat, 

"Goodman  Culver  is  allowed  by  the  towne  to  sell  liquors,  provided  he  shall 
brew  also,  ells  not :  provided  also  the  court  allow  of  it,  ingaging  always  to 
hare  good  beere  and  good  dyet  and  lodging  for  man  and  horse,  to  attende 
alMe  to  good  order." 

"At a  town  meeting  Feb.  25,  1664  [1665.] 

"The  towne  being  desired  to  declare  there  myndes  concerning  Mr.  Bulkley, 
it  was  propounded  whether  they  were  willing  to  leave  Mr.  Bulkley  to  the  lib- 
ertye  of  his  conscience  without  compelling  him  or  enforcing  him  to  anything  in 
the  executioD  of  his  place  and  office  contrarye  to  his  light  according  to  the  laws 
of  the  cominonweltb. 

"Voated  to  be  there  myndes.** 

This  is  the  first  intimation  on  record  of  any  uneasiness  existing 
between  Mr.  Bulkley  and  the  people.  There  are  no  church  records 
that  reach  back  to  this  period,  and  his  reasons  for  leaving  are  but  ob- 
scurely mtimated.  lie  had  not  been  settled  and  no  great  formality 
was  necessary  to  his  departure. 

"  At  a  towne  meeting,  June  10. 

"  The  Towne  understanding  Mr.  Buckleys  intention  to  goe  into  the  Bay  have 
sent  James  Morgan  and  Mr.  Douglas  to  desire  him  to  stay  untill  seacond  day 
com  seventnigbt  which  day  the  Towne  have  agreed  to  ask  againe  Mr.  Fitch 
to  speake  with  him  in  order  to  know  Mr.  Buckleys  mynde  fullyc  whether  he 
will  continoe  with  us  or  no  to  preach  the  gospell." 

12» 


138 


HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON. 


That  this  overture  was  unsuccessful  is  evident  from  a  subsequent 
eiiti7: 

**  July  10— *65,     In  towne  meeting. 

**  U  it  b^*  your  myndes  yl  Mr.  James  Rogers  shall  goe  in  the  behalfe  of  the 
lowne  lo  Mr.  Brewster  to  give  him  a  call  and  to  know  whether  he  will  come 
U)  lis  lo  b«  ouf  minister,  and  yt  he  shall  intercead  to  Mr.  Pell  first  to  be  helpful 
TO  U3  herein  J  manifest  it  by  llAing  up  your  hands.     Voted." 

The  person  to  whom  this  application  was  made  is  supposed  to  have 
been  He  v.  Nathaniel  Brewster,  of  Brookhaven,  L.  I.  No  further 
alliLsion  ii$  miide  to  him. 


•'  24  July.  John  Packer  desires  that  Leif\enant  Avery  and  James  Morgan 
may  ifsnn  lUe  busines  yt  is  now  in  contest  betwixt  him  and  the  Indians  atNai- 
wayuncko  and  lo  compound  with  them  in  the  best  way  they  can  with  land  to 
ittlisfflction  of  the  Indians  and  Goodman  Packer.     Voted." 

"  9  October.  Mr.  Douglas  by  a  full  voate  none  manifesting  themselves  to  the 
noniniry,  wns  chosen  to  goe  to  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr,  Elliot  to  desire  there  advise 
i4[id  hv\p  Tuf  iti<5  procureinge  of  a  minister  for  the  towne." 

"  Nov.  24.  A  town  meeting  concerning  what  Mr.  Douglas  hath  done  about 
n  minisler/* 

•*  Xov.  Qif  1065.  It  is  agreed  at  this  town  meeting  that  a  letter  be  writ  and 
Bent  I  nitn  liiu  lown  to  Deacon  Parke  of  Roxburye  to  treat  with  Mr.  Broadstrect 
in  iUts  b^liiillV  of  the  towne  to  come  to  us  for  this  end  to  supply  the  towne  in 
tile  workc* «[  die  ministry,  in  which  letter  sent  full  powre  be  given  to  Mr.  Parke 
to  act  in  our  buhulf,  the  towne  expressing  themselves  willing  to  give  60lb  and 
tttthrf  thnn  Hint  the  work  seas,  to  proceed  to  ten  pound  more,  giving  our  trusty 
triend  Ubt^tty  to  treat  with  others  in  case  our  desire  of  Mr.  Broadstreet  faile." 

**  A  Court  order  for  a  brand- mark  and  horses  to  be  branded,  this  day  read. 

"Mr.  Dou;?lin  confermed  in  his  place  for  the  Townes  packer  of  meat.  And 
m\*o  he  was  voted  and  chosen  to  brand  mark  all  horses  with  L  on  the  left  shoul- 
dvT  and  is  to  record  all  horses  soe  branded." 

"  Jiui:  V2.  u:m  ['06.] 

'*  Tiie  return  of  Mr.  Brodstreet*s  letter  to  be  read. 

"  Thoinaa  Uobinson  to  propound  [for  an  inhabitant.] 

"  A  rate  to  underpin  the  meeting-house. 

*'  Concern  iiife  messengers  to  goe  for  Mr.  Bradstreet. 

**  AliK)  fur  a  pioce  where  he  shall  be  when  he  comes.  Also  for  provision  for 
tbtJ  (jit;s^!*LMigt.'r!*, — some  course  to  be  taken  for  6  lb  for  them. 

"  TUtf  Town  rate  for  Nihantick  part         .  .  .  £26  6f.  6d, 

*'  The  Bail  mdo  ye  River  ....  £35  6s.  lOrf." 

"  Feb.  26.  It  is  voated  that  Left^  Avery  and  James  Morgan  be  chosen  mes- 
wA^er^  lo  fetch  yp  Mr.  Bradstreet  as  soon  as  moderate  weather  presents." 

»*  Jolin  Smith  and  goodraan  Nicholls  shall  receive  Contribution  every  Lords 
dm  ye  and  preservti  it  for  ye  publick  good. 

"  It  is  voated  and  agreed  that  the  townsmen  shall  have  power  to  provide 
what  i&  needful  for  the  Messengers  that  are  sent  to  Mr.  Bradstreet  and  allao  to 
provido  for  him  a  piaoe  to  reside  in  at  his  coming. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  139 

"  Mr.  Douglas  and  goodman  Hough  are  voted  by  ye  Towne  to  demand  the 
SO  pound  of  Mr.  Buckley  which  he  stands  ingaged  to  pay  to  ye  towne. 

"  Voted  by  ye  Towne  that  Leifft.  Avery  and  James  Morgan  have  power  to 
agree  with  any  person  that  hath  a  serviceable  horse  to  be  emploied  in  fetching 
up  Mr.  Bradstreet  and  what  agreement  they  make  the  towne  to  allowe  and 
make  good  the  same." 

[In  the  Town  accounts  of  the  next  year  appears  due 
*•  To  GoodmEm  Prentice  for  his  horse,  10«. 
To  Goodman  Royce  for  ye  ministers  dyet,  151b."] 

"  Voted  that  a  Towne  rate  of  401b.  be  made  imediately  for  ye  payment  of 
Towne  depts  and  providing  to  acomadaCe  a  minister  and  repareing  the  meeting 
house." 

At  the  same  date  with  the  foregoing  arrangements  in  regard  to  Mr. 
Bradstreet,  a  vote  was  passed,  which  shows  that  no  embittered  feel- 
ing had  grown  up  between  IVlr.  Bulkley  and  the  people.  Though  he 
had  ceased  to  be  considered  as  their  minister,  he  remained  in  the 
town,  and  occupied  the  pulpit  with  acceptance  until  a  successor  was 
obtained. 

**  It  is  voated  and  agreed  that  Mr.  Buckley  for  his  time  and  paines  taken  in 
preaching  the  word  of  God  to  us  since  the  time  of  his  yeere  was  expired  shall 
have  thirty  pounds  to  be  gathered  by  a  rate." 

Mr.  Bulkley  is  supposed  to  have  removed  from  New  London  to 
Wethersfield  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  1667.  The  thirty  pounds 
voted  him  by  the  town,  was  relinquished,  in  part  payment  of  the 
eighty  pounds  for  wliich  he  stood  indebted.  The  town  was  inveter- 
ate and  persevering  in  its  attempts  to  recover  the  remaining  fifty 
pounds,  and  kept  up  the  dunning  process  until  Mr.  Bulkley,  in  1668, 
mortgaged  his  house  and  lot  to  Samuel  Shrimpton  of  Boston,  and  ob- 
tained means  to  liquidate  the  debt.  Mr.  Bulkley  was  minister  of 
the  church  in  Wethersficld,  for  a  number  of  years,  but  finally  gave 
up  preaching  for  the  practice  of  medicine,  on  account  it  is  said  of  the 
weakness  of  his  voice.  lie  was  a  man  of  learning  and  added  to  his 
theological  attainments  no  inconsiderable  knowledge  of  medicine  and 
surgery. 

The  house  lot  lying  south  of  the  meeting  house,  originally  Mr. 
Bruen's,  was  now  purchased  for  the  ministry,  of  Mr.  Douglas,  and 
Mrs.  Grace  Bulkley. 

"  Jane  1,  16G6. 

"  Voted  by  a  Vnanimoas consent  that  Mr.  Bradstreet  is  acepted  in  ye  worke 
of  ye  ministry  amongst  vs,  and  that  he  have  80  lb.  pr  yeare  to  encourage  him 
in  the  worke,  to  be  gathered  by  way  of  rate. 

"Voted  by  the  Towne  that  there  shall  be  a  house  imediately  built  for  ye  min- 


140  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

istry,  the  dimensions  to  be  36  foote  in  length  and  25  in  breadth  and  13  studd 
betwixt  ye  joynts  with  a  staclc  of  stone  chimneys  in  the  midst.  The  house  to 
be  a  girt  house. 

"  The  towne  are  free  to  give  for  ye  building  of  the  house  one  hundred  pound 
and  allso  to  farther  payc  ye  masons  for  building  a  stone  chimney  and  glaze  ye 
house  windowes. 

"  Voted  by  the  towne  that  the  house  now  agreed  upon  to  be  bnildt  for  the 
ministry,  and  allso  the  house  and  land  bought  of  Mr.  Douglass  together  with  ye 
land  which  hitherto  hath  been  reserved  for  the  ministry  shall  so  remaine  both 
houses  and  lands  for  the  ministry,  both  to  us  and  our  succeeding  generatiobs 
never  to  be  sold  or  alienated  to  any  other  vse  forever." 

For  the  immediate  accommodation  of  Mr.  Bradstreet,  the  house 
vacated  by  Mr.  Bulkley  was  hired  for  one  year  from  April  1,  1667 ; 
house,  orchard  and  six  acre  lot  for  ten  pounds  provision  pay.  In  the 
mean  time  spirited  exertions  were  made  to  build  "the  Towne's 
house,"  or  parsonage,  and  to  have  it  completed  during  the  year.  It 
was  the  business  of  the  whole  town  to  erect  this  house,  and  the  inhab- 
itants at  large  were  called  together  to  give  directions  concerning  the 
different  parts.  Distinct  votes  were  taken  about  the  stone  work, 
iron  work  and  wood  work, — "  the  bigness  of  the  seller,"  the  carting, 
the  digging,  the  lime  and  the  nails.  "  Griswell  and  Parkes"  must  do 
the  iron-work — Nathaniel  Royce  dig  the  cellar  the  size  of  one  room 
and  seven  feet  deep.  When  it  was  completed,  a  committee  was  cho- 
sen to  view  the  work  and  determine  if  it  was  well  done — the  masons 
in  particular  were  not  to  be  paid  until  it  was  ascertained  that  the 
chimneys  were  sufficient.  The  cost  appears  to  have  come  very 
nearly  within  the  one  hundred  pounds  granted  for  the  purpose. 

Mr.  Bradstreet's  salary  was  increased  to  ninety  pounds  per  an- 
num, and  a  committee  appointed  in  December,  1667,  to  endeavor  to 
effect  an  imme'diate  settlement,  but  from  causes  not  explained  a  delay 
of  three  years  occurred  before  this  was  accomplished. 

The  liand  writing  of  Obadiah  Bruen  in  the  minutes,  ceases  with 
the  year  1665.  William  Douglas  and  Daniel  Wetherell  were  after- 
ward moderators  alternately,  and  continued  the  minutes  to  1670. 
Mr.  Bruen  held  the  office  of  Recorder  another  year,  and  then  re- 
moved to  Newark,  New  Jersey.  Mr.  Douglas  was  Recorder  for  the 
year  1667.     Mr.  Wetherell  for  1668  and  1669. 


HISTOBT     OP     NEW    LONDON.  141 

First  Town  Clerks. 

"25  Feb.  66-7. 

**^\)CrtRice  [Royce]  voated  and  chosen  by  the  towne  to  keep  ye  Ordi- 

Mr.  Royce  lived  on  Poet-hill.  The  town  had  granted  him  the 
house  lot  of  Richard  Post,  to  which  he  added  by  purchase  the  Blin- 
n»an  and  Mudge  house  lots- 

"15  Aug.  67.  Myselfe  [Douglas]  chosen  to  hold  the  box  for  the  contribu- 
"oiifl  and  this  to  be  propounded  to  Mr.  Bradstreet  to  have  his  advise  therein, 
•♦^illiain  Nickols  is  also  chosen  for  that  worke. 

it  \&  voated  that  the  men  chosen  to  call  the  collectors  to  account  shall  have 
*  ***te'  of  atomey  to  impower  them  to  do  their  work,  and  that  Mr.  Meryt  shall 
write  it.** 

^^8  is  the  earliest  notice  of  Thomas  Meritt,  or  Maritt,  who  was 
"®  afterwards  employed  as  writer  or  scrivener  for  the  town. 

^^    »  ^tober.    John  Prentis  chosen  Townes  attorney. 

'  ''^^ember.    It  is  voted  that  the  prison  house  shall  stand  by  ye  meeting 

.  .  "^ote  intimates  that  the  inhabitants  were  about  to  erect  a  town 
J  »  ^t  ^as  probably  placed  according  to  the  vote  on  the  open  square, 
.         ^^  meeting  house.     This  was  the  jail  so  much  used  for  Indians 

^  ^ioae  of  Philip's  war,  and  was  the  first  erected  in  the  town. 

^   <^minals  had  hitherto  been  kept  under  ward  in  a  private 

llOQSA  • 

»  State  criminals  tnmsported  to  Hartford,  and  there  was  no  im- 

\  ^^>^^^^^  ^^^  ^^^    ^^^  ^^®  ^^  ^^^®  enacted  in  the  colony  in 
>  exempted  debtors  from  imprisonment,  except  in  cases  of  fraud 
ot  concealment  of  property.    The  words  are : 


142 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 


**  No  man's  person  shaR  be  kept  in  prison  for  debt  but  when  there  appears 
some  estate  which  he  will  not  produce."    [See  Code  of  1650  in  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  1. 

««1.  July  1669. 

**  Alexander  Piggin  hath  given  him  some  land  at  the  head  of  Mill  Core 
enough  to  make  three  or  four  pitts  for  dressing  of  leather  amongst  the  springs.** 

Mr.  Pjgan  was  from  Norwich,  England,  and  an  inhabitant  of  some 
three  years  st^ding.  He  was  not  the  first  person  to  practise  ''the 
art  and  mystery  of  tanning,"  in  the  place ;  Hugh  Roberts  was  a  tan- 
ner, and  had  his  pits  or  vats  in  a  meadow  near  the  entrance  of  Cape 
Ann  Lane.  His  establishment  was  purchased  about  1670,  by  Joseph 
Truman. 

"  It  is  voted  and  agreed  that  Clement  Miner  have  sold  him  sixe  acors  upland 
over  against  his  house  upon  the  north  side  the  highway  that  goes  to  Niantick, 
and  8  acor«  of  swampy  land  near  Goodman  Houghs  which  land  is  for  consid- 
eration of  8  wolves  by  him  killed.  And  the  towne  doth  order  the  Townesman 
to  give  him  a  deed  of  sale  for  the  same." 

The  swamps  around  New  London  were  infested  to  an  unusual  de- 
gree with  these  perilous  animals.  Though  an  act  of  the  Grenerai 
Court  had  ordered  every  town  to  pay  a  bounty  of  fifteen  shillings  for 
the  killing  of  a  wolf  within  its  bounds.  New  London  had  always  paid 
twenty  shillings.  On  every  side  of  the  plantation  these  animals 
abounded.  The  bounty  had  been  demanded  by  Edmund  Fanning, 
James  Morgan,  James  Avery, — ^these  were  killed  east  of  the  river ; 
by  Daniel  Comstock,  towards  Mohegan ;  William  Peake,  in  Cedar 
Swamp,  and  Hugh  Caulkins,  were  paid  four  pounds  for  killing  four 
wolves  in  the  year  1660,  at  Nahantick.  After  1667,  the  bounty  was 
sixteen  shillings,  paid  half  by  the  towns,  and  half  by  the  country  treas- 
ury. In  1 673,  this  bounty  was  claimed  by  Nehemiah  Smith,  and  Sam- 
uel and  Nathaniel  Royce  for  killing  each  five  wolves  ;  Matthew  Beck- 
with  two,  and  Aaron  Starke  two ;  making  nineteen  howling  tenants 
of  the  forest  destroyed  within  the  limits  of  the  town  that  year.  The 
havoc  made  by  wild  beasts  was  a  great  drawback  on  the  wool-grow- 
ing interest  which  was  then  of  more  importance  to  the  farmers  than 
at  the  present  day. 


".Sept.  9.  1669.  In  answer  to  Mr.  Broadstreet's  proposition  for  easeing  him 
in  the  chardge  of  his  wood  the  Towne  doe  freely  consent  to  help  him  therein, 
and  some  with  carts  and  some  for  cutting  and  that  next  traineing  daye  a  tyme 
be  apoynted  for  accomplishment  thereof  and  that  Leifi**  Avery  be  deputed  to 
nominate  ye  daye.*' 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  143 

"Nov.  QO. 

'*  Left.  Avery,  Mr.  Rogers,  James  Morgan  Sen.  and  John  Morgan  chosen  to 
lay  oat  the  King's  highway  between  Norwich  and  Mystick. 

"Wm.  Hough,  John  Stebbins,  Clement  Miner  and  Isaac  Willey  to  lay  out 
the  Ring's  highway  between  New  London  and  the  head  of  Niantick  river. 

*'  John  Keeny  is  appointed  to  sell  powder,  shot  and  lead  to  any  Indian  or 
Indians,  he  having  purchased  his  liberty  therein  at  33s.  to  be  paid  to  the 
town." 

••Feb.  28.  1669  [70.] 

••  Charles  Hill  chosen  Recorder. 

••Manasse  Minor  is  admitted  an  Inhabitant  in  this  Towne.*' 

Manasseh  Minor  is  supposed  to  hare  been  the  first  bom  male  of 
New  London,  and  the  first  son  of  the  town  admitted  to  the  privileges 
of  an  inhabitant*  Others  of  the  second  generation,  Clement  Minor, 
brother  of  Manasseh,  Daniel  Comstock,  Isaac  Willey,  Jr.,  Robert 
Donglas,  Grabriel  Harris,  Joseph  Coite,  Samuel  Rogers,  Jonathan 
^7ce,had  arriyed  at  maturity,  and  been  received  as  men  among  the 
Others ;  but  they  looked  to  other  places,  and  some  of  them  across  the 
waters  for  their  nativity.  Manasseh  Minor  was  the  child  of  the  soil. 
This  simple  fact,  more  than  any  array  of  words,  sets  before  us  the 
lapse  of  time,  and  the  age  and  progress  of  the  town. 

"16  Jan.,  1670-1.  Mr.  Edward  Palmes  hath  liberty  granted  to  make  a 
•»te  for  himself  and  rehitions  at  ye  north  end  of  ye  pulpitt. 

•*  Voted  that  there  be  2  Galleryes  made  on  each  side  ye  meeting  house, — [the 
width  of  two  seats."] 

Here  terminate  those  original  memoranda  which  have  hitherto 
^^«€n  so  faithfully  followed.  We  shall  no  longer  have  the  guidance 
of  the  moderator's  "little  note-books.  The  records  for  the  next  forty 
years  were  very  loosely  kept,  the  entries  being  made  in  a  hasty 
''■manner,  and  with  little  regard  to  the  order  of  occurrence. 

Mr.  Bradstreet's  ordination  was  delayed  four  years  after  he  be- 
came the  minister  of  the  town.  His  salary  was  at  first  £90  per  an- 
nmn,  in  current  country  pay,  with  fire  wood  furnished,  and  the  par- 
^^^'^  kept  in  repair.  This  was  soon  increased  to  £100,  which  waa 
equal  to  the  salary  of  some  of  the  most  noted  ministers  in  New  Eng- 
l^d  at  that  period.  In  1681,  afler  his  health  began  to  fail,  it  was 
^^er  enlarged  to  £120. 

The  church  record  kept  by  Mr.  Bradstreet,  commences  Oct  5, 

IMr.  Uinot  conthined  in  New  London  ten  or  twelve  years;  he  then  retomed  to 
Stooington  'Where  he  died  March  22d,  1728-9.  Most  of  his  children  were  bom  hi  New 
Umdon. 


144  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

1670,  which,  according  to  Trumbull,  the  historian  of  Connecticut, 
was  the  day  of  his  ordination,  but  that  fact  is  not  noticed  in  the  re- 
cord.    It  begins  with  the  following  list : 

"  Tlie  Members  of  the  Church, 

Lieutenant  James  Avery,  and  wife. 

Thomas  Miner,  and  wife. 

James  Morgan,  senior,  and  wife. 

William  Meades,  and  wife. 

Mr.  William  Douglas,  and  wife. 

John  Smith,  and  wife. 

Mr.  Ralph  Parker,  and  wife. 

William  Hough,  and  wife. 
William  Nichols,  Robert  Rojce, 

John  Prentice,  Mrs.  Rogers, 

Goodwife  Gallop,  of  My  stick.      Good  wife  Keeny, 
Goodwife  Coyte,  Goodwife  Lewis. 

"  Mr.  James  Rogers  not  long  after  owned  a  m**.mber  here,  being  a  member 
in  full  communion  in  Milford  church." 

This  ordination  was  the  first  in  town :  no  previous  minister  had 
been  regularly  settled.  .  Whether  the  church  was  formed  at  this,  or 
some  former  period,  is  left  doubtful,  as  neither  the  church  nor  the 
town  records  allude  to  any  organization.  It  would  seem  strange,  if 
during  the  twenty  years  that  had  elapsed  since  the  gathering  of  the 
congregation  under  Mr.  Blinman's  oversight,  there  had  been  no  em- 
bodiment into  church  estate, — no  covenant  or  bond  of  union  agreed 
upon  by  the  church  members.  Trumbull,  however,  supposes  that  the 
church  was  not  formed  until  Mr.  Bradstreet's  ordination.  According 
to  the  laws  of  the  colony,  no  persons  could  embody  into  church  estate 
"  without  the  consent  of  the  Greneral  Court,  and  'approbation  of  the 
neighboring  elders."  There  is  no  account  on  record  of  application 
made  by  the  town  for  this  privilege,  either  at  this  or  any  preceding 
period. 

Before  closing  the  chapter,  the  new  names  that  appear  between 
1661  and  1671,  must  be  collected.  Several  of  those  contained  in  the 
following  list  have  been  already  mentioned  incidentally. 

In  1661,  Robert  Lattemore  (Latimer)  is  first  mentioned.  He  was 
a  mariner.  William  Cotter  had  a  house-lot  grant  of  six  acres ;  his 
wife  was  Elinor,  but  no  other  family  has  been  traced.  In  October, 
"  Groodman  Hansell,  the  smith,"  was  received  as  an  inhabitant.  This 
was  the  person  elsewhere  called  Greorge  Halsali,  the  blacksmith.  In 
Jan.  1661-2,  John  Borden  was  admitted  to  the  privileges  of  an  in- 
habitant.    He  had  recendy  married  the  daughter  of  William  Hough, 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  146 

and  was  probably  a  son  of  the  John  B(»xlen  of  1650.  After  a  few 
years  he  remoTed  to  Ljme.  At  the  same  time  permissioB  was  given 
to  *^  John  ^Us^  the  glover,"  to  live  in  the  town.  Ells  is  probably  a 
mistake  for  £Ui8. 

In  1662,  we  first  meet  with  the  names  of  Abraham  Dea,  William 
Peake  or  Pike,  Edmund  Fannin^y  (east  side  of  the  river,)  Josiah 
Beady  Thomas  Stafardy  John  TerraU. 

In  1663,  John  Daniel,  Samuel  Chester ,  and  William  Condy  appear. 
The  two  last  were  from  Boston,  and  engaged  in  the  West  India 
trade,  as  commanders,  owners  and  factors.  They  had  a  warehouse 
and  landing  place  on  Close  Cove.  Condy,  after  a  few  years,  returned 
to  Boston.  Early  in  1664,  court  orders  were  published  prohibiting 
the  use  of  ^^  cardes  and  shufflebords,"  and  warning  the  inhabitants 
"  not  to  entertane  strange  young  men."  Transient  residents,  who 
were  not  grantees  and  householders,  were  the  persons  affected  by 
this  order,  and  it  aroused  them  to  the  necessity  of  applying  for  per- 
mission to  remain.  The  roll  of  applicants  consisted  of  Abraham 
Daynes,  William  Chapelly  Wilham  Collins,  George  Codnery  William 
Cooleify  John  Elce,  (EUiSy)  Charles  HayneSy  Thomas  MarshaUy  Wil- 
liam Measure,  John  SttUavetiy  William  Terrcdl,  Samuel  Tubhs.  Most 
of  these  were  allowed  to  remain,  and  a  general  permit  was  added: 

"  All  other  sojourners  not  mentioned,  carrying  themselves  well,  are  allowed 
to  live  in  the  towne,  else  lyable  upon  warning  to  begone." 

The  same  year  we  find  notices  of  Ilichard  Dart,  who  bought 
(Sept  12th,  1664)  the  house  and  lot  of  William  Wehnan,*  Benjamm 
Grant,  afterward  of  Lyme,  Oliver  Manwaringy  son-in-law  of  Joshua 
Baymond,  Thomas  Martiny  Samuel  Starry  son-in-law  of  Jonathan 
Brewster,  William  WiUiamSy  a  grantee  on  the  east  side  of  the  river, 
and  Captain  John  and  Wait  Winthropy  the  sons  of  the  governor. 

In  1665,  Charles  HiU  and  Christopher  Christophers  appear  on 
the  roll  of  inhabitants.  They  were  traders  in  partnership,  and  made 
their  first  purchases  on  Mill  Cove,  of  warehouses  and  wharfage, 
where  Richard  Hartley  and  John  Tinker  had  previously  traded. 
The  firm  of  Hill  and  Christophers  was  probably  the  first  regular  co- 
partnership in  the  town.  Mr.  Christophers  was  a  mariner,  and  en- 
gaged in  trade  with  Barbadoes :  he  had  an  older  brother,  Jefirey 
Christophers,  also  a  mariner,  who  probably  settled  in  the  place  at  the 

1  Welman  removed  to  Killingworth,  where  he  died  in  1670. 

13 


146 


HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 


same  time^  though  his  name  does  not  occur  so  earlj.  Thej  both 
brought  families  with  them. 

Iq  1666,  persons  who  are  mentioned  as  inhabitants,  but  without 
any  reference  to  date  of  arrival  or  settlement,  are  Benjamin  Atwell, 
Thomas  Forster,  commanding  a  vessel  in  the  Barbadoes  trade, 
George  Sharswood,  Thomas  JRohtnsan,  Peter  Spicer,  (living  east  of 
the  river,)  and  Grabriel  Woodmancy. 

In  1667,  appear  John  Bcddwiny  Peter  Trehyj  Joseph  Truman^  and 
John  Wheeler,  About  1668,  Philip  BiU  came  from  Ipswich,  and  set- 
tied  east  of  the  river,  near  Robert  Allyn  and  Greorge  Greer.  Thomas 
Bollei,  supposed  to  have  come  from  Wells,  in  Maine,  settled  in  the  town 
plot.  In  1670,  or  near  that  time,  we  first  meet  with  Thomas  Dymond 
atid  Benjamin  Shapley^  both  mariners,  the  former  from  Fairfield,  and 
the  latter  from  Charlestown,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston. 

To  these  we  may  add  John  Crardj  George  Garmcmd,  Joseph  Elliot^ 
Henry  Philips,  and  Nicholas  Towsoriy  names  that  are  on  the  rate  list 
of  1667,  but  are  not  mentioned  elsewhere  upon  the  records. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Bankraptcy  of  William  Addis. — Some  account  of  Thomas'Reavell. — Broils  and 
laursaits — Tinker  venui  Morton,  Haughton  and  Thomson. — The  constable*8 
protest — Thomson's  deposition. — ^Lieut.  Smith  absconds  and  settles  in  Vir- 
ginia.— Names  and  estates  from  rate  lists. — Epitaph  on  Richard  Lord.-* 
Brief  notices  of  removed  persons.  Lake,  Bruen,  Blatchford,  Lane,  AUyn, 
Caulkins,  Gager,  Lothrop. 

The  history  of  this  decade  of  jears  (from  1660  to  1670)  will  not 
be  complete  without  taking  np  some  points  to  which  no  reference  is 
made  in  the  moderator's  minutes,  hitherto  followed. 

Grovemor  Winthrop  issued  an  order,  April  25th,  1661,  for  a  court  of 
investigation  to  sit  at  New  London,  and  examine  the  affairs  of  Wil- 
liam Addis,  on  complaint  of  Mr.  Thomas  Reavell,  the  principal  cred- 
itor of  Mr.  Addis.  The  court  sat  in  Maj,  and  consisted  of  Deputy 
governor  Mason  and  the  assistant  and  commissioners  of  New  Lon- 
don, Tiz.,  Mr.  Tinker,  Mr.  Bruen,  and  Mr.  Rogers.  It  appeared 
that  Mr.  Addis  had  been  intrusted  by  Mr.  Reavell  and  his  friends 
in  London,  with  a  cargo  of  merchandise  and  several  sums  of  money 
amounting  to  £760  sterling,  to  trade  with  and  improve  for  the  said 
Reavell  and  his  friends,  in  New  England.  He  had  made  no  re- 
turns :  he  acknowledged  the  trust,  but  said  the  capital  had  nearly  all 
disappeared ;  he  could  not  tell  how,  except  that  he  had  lost  £800  by 
fire,  and  somewhat  by  a  defect  in  meat,  which  he  had  sent  to  Barfoa- 
does,  consigned  to  Mr.  Reavell.  No  dishonesty  was  proved  against 
him  J  he  freely  resigned  all  that  he  had  remaining ;  expressed  great 
SOrro^  for  the  result  and  threw  himself  on  the  charity  of  Mr.  Rea- 
Tell  ^  ^^  allowed  to  remain  in  his  house  and  pursue  his  calling  for  a 
^^istence  and  livelihood  in  his  old  age. 

William  Addis  had  been  an  eai*ly  resident  at  Gloucester,  Mass., 
^tiere  be  was  one  of  the  townsmen  in  1642,  but  he  is  not  mentioned 
00  the  records  of  that  place  afler  1649,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that 


► 


148  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

he  was  ever  a  land  owner  there.*     The  years  that  intervened  between 
his  disappearance  from  Gloucester,  and  his  first  grant  in  New  Lon 
don,  (Dec  19th,  1658,)  may  have  been  spent  in  England,  where  he 
obtained  the  credit  and  embarked  in  the  enterprise  which  in  the  end 
proved  ruinous  to  him.* 

"We  are  unable  to  say  who  Mr.  Reavell  was.  In  1658,  he  was 
said  to  be  ^'  merchant  of  London ;"  in  1 660,  of  Barhctdoes  ;  and  a  letter 
of  attorney  to  Nathaniel  Sylvester,  of  Shelter  Island,  in  1662,^  styles 
him  vaguely  "  Thomas  Re  veil,  of  New  England."  The  governor's 
commission  mentions  no  residence.  By  means  of  the  house  and  land 
conveyed  to  him,  he  was  for  a  number  of  years,  a  proprietor  in  New 
London,  and  his  name  appears  on  the  rate  lists. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  he  was  one  of  the  supporters  of 
the  Commonwealth,  who  was  proscribed  at  the  restoration,  and  obliged 
to  remain  in  some  degree  of  concealment  and  obscurity.  Perhaps 
he  may  be  identified  as  the  same  Thomas  Revel  that  lived  for  many 
years  the  life  of  a  hermit  in  the  woods  of  Quincy.*  His  decease 
must  have  been  anterior  to  1667,  as  Charles  Hill  that  year  brought 
an  action  of  debt  against  his  estate  for  freight  of  horses,  at  some  for- 
mer period,  to  Barbadoes.     Recovered  £155  and  costs. 

In  1672,  Alexander  Brytfn,  of  Milford,  brought  a  similar  action 
against  the  estate,  and  recovered  £95.  To  satisfy,  in  part,  these 
creditors,  Mr.  ReavelPs  house  and  land  were  taken.  It  was  the 
same  tenement  that  Mr.  Blinman  conveyed  to  William  Addis,  on  his 
departure  for  England,  and  stood  at  the  west  end  of  the  old  bridge 
over  Bream  Cove. 


The  years  1661  and  1662  were  noted  for  strife  and  turbulence 
among  the  inhabitants.     Cases  of  calumny  and  riot  were  common. 

IJ.  G.  Babeon,  Esq.,  of  GJoncester,  (MS.) 

2  His  daughter,  Millicent,  the  only  chfld  of  whom  we  have  obtained  infonnation, 
married,  first,  William  Southmead,  and  by  him  had  two  son?,  William  and  John  South- 
mead.  Her  second  husband  was  William  Ash,  of  Gloucester,  and  her  third,  Thomas 
Beebee,  of  New  London. 

8  This  letter  was  for  the  recovery  of  certain  goods  belonging  to  Mr.  Reavell,  in  the 
hands  of  Richard  Hartley,  deceased. 

4  "  When  he  died  the  Governor  of  the  Province  and  other  distinguished  men  came 
out  of  Boston  and  were  his  pall-bearers.  From  which  circumstance  his  true  charac- 
ter was  brought  to  light."  See  note  in  Whitney's  Hist  of  Quincy.  He  is  there 
called  "  a  regicide  of  the  reign  of  Charles  I."  This  must  be  a  mistake,  as  no  one  of 
that  name  was  member  of  the  parliament  that  pronounced  sentence  on  Charles  I. 


UlSTORV     OF     NI^W     LONI>OI<^4  149 

The  disorderlj  elements  of  society  were  in  motion,  and  the  influence 
of  the  wise  and  good  was  scarcely  sufficient  to  keep  them  in  subjec- 
tion. No  clear  account  of  any  one  case  can  be  given,  as  they  ap- 
pear before  us  only  in  the  form  of  depositions,  protests,  suits  at  law, 
fines  and  complaints.  Several  of  the  inhabitants  accused  Mr.  Tinker^ 
the  assistant  and  first  magistrate  in  town,  of  speaking  treasonable 
words,  and  of  using  dishonorable  means  to  obtain  testimony  against 
his  adversaries ;  and  Mr.  Tinker  brought  suits  for  defamation  against 
Messrs.  Haughton,  Morton  and  Thomson,  the  Indian  missionary* 
The  trials  were  in  the  Particular  Court,  and  the  issue  may  be  gath- 
ered from  a  passage  in  the  records  of  the  General  Court. 

**  This  Court  upon  consideration  of  Mr.  Tinker's  encouragement  in  his  place 
and  employment,  do  order  £\2  to  be  paid  to  him  by  the  treasurer  out  of  the 
fines  imposed  on  Morton,  Haughton,  and  Mr.  Thomson.*** 

Mr.  Tinker  was  popular  both  with  the  town  authorities  and  the 
General  Court,  and  had  been  chosen  townsman,  list  and  rate-maker, 
deputy  and  assistant  He  had  established  a  distillery  in  the  town, 
and  was  not  only  licensed  by  the  court  to  distill  and  retail  liquors,  but 
empowered  to  suppress  all  others  who  sold  by  retail  in  the  township. 
It  was  with  little  chance  of  success  that  accusations  against  a  char- 
acter so  highly  respected  were  carried  before  the  magistrates  at 
Hartford.  That  venerable  body  doubtless  regarded  with  apprehen- 
sive forebodings  the  new  and  boisterous  community  that  was  growing 
up  under  their  shadow.  We  can  at  least  imagine  them  to  have  had 
some  misgivings  when  William  Morton,  the  constable,  led  off  with 
the  following  pompous  protest : 

"  To  all  whome  it  may  concerne. 

**  You  may  please  to  take  notice  that  I  William  Morton  of  New  London  be- 
ing chosen  by  the  Towne  of  New  London  to  be  a  Constable  and  by  oath  being 
bound  to  execute  that  place  faithfully  as  also  being  a  free  Denison  of  that  roost 
famos  country  of  England  and  have  taken  an  oath  of  that  Land  to  be  true  to 
his  Royall  Maiesty  o'  now  Gracious  King  Charles  the  Seacond  of  Glorious  re- 
nowne,  I  count  that  I  cannot  be  futhfull  unto  my  oath  nor  to  his  maiestie,  nei- 
ther should  I  be  faithfull  to  the  Country  wch  lyes  under  reproaches  for  such 
maner  of  speeches  and  cariages  already  wherefore  having  evidences  that  M*^ 
John  Tinker,  who  is  lookt  at  as  one  that  should  exsicute  Justice  and  swome 
by  oath  soe  to  doe,  eapetially  to  studdie  the  bono'  of  o'  Royall  King  and  of  his 
Life  and  happie  being,  ye^otwithstanding  the  saide  Tinker  allthough  it  was 
notoriously  knowne  unto  hmi  that  some  had  spoaken  Treason  against  the  king 


1  Conn.  Col.  Bee.,  vol.  1,  p.  882. 

13* 


\ 


150  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

in  a  high  dtgree  to  the  greate  dishonor  of  his  Royall  maiestie  and  farther  some 
pressed  lijm  againe-and  againe  to  doe  Justice  for  the  king  yet  although  they 
declared  what  and  what  was  to  be  testified  by  one  there  preasent,  he  flung 
aw^y  tfie  testimony,  wherefore  in  the  name  of  his  maiesty  whose  deputy  I  ara 
I  doo  protect  against  the  said  Tinker,  that  he  has  consealed  treason  against  the 
king  contrary  to  the  Lawes  of  England,  so  as  I  conceive  has  brought  himselfe 
titidei  tT«H^on,  And  as  I  doe  protest  against  him'  I  desire  all  that  reade  this  or 
heare  of  it  to  be  my  witnesses — published  by  me.  20.  March :  1662. 

"  William  Morton, 
••  In  New  London  in  New  England.  "  Constable.*' 

A  wrife  of  attachment  was  issued  by  the  Court,  at  their  May  ses- 
Bion,  against  William  Morton  and  Richard  Haughton,  bringing  them 
under  a  bond  of  £500  to  appear  and  answer  to  the  suit  of  Mr.  John 
Tinker,  he  fore  his  majesty's  court  of  justice  in  Hartford,  the  next 
September,  In  October  of  the  same  year,  before  any  accommoda- 
tion or  tlecision  had  taken  place,  Mr.  Tinker  died  suddenly  in  Hart- 
ibrdy  arnl  was  honored  with  a  funeral  at  the  public  expense.  Though 
the  pritu'ipal  party  was  thus  removed  from  all  participation  in  the 
suit,  it  was  prolonged  for  several  years.  It  was  finally  referred  to  a 
eommittre  of  the  Legislature  in  May,  1666.*  A  curious  reference 
to  wh'it  took  place  in  the  trial  of  the  case  in  Sept.,  1662,  is  found  in  a 
depositkta  of  Mr.  Thomson,  recorded  in  New  London. 

**  I  William  Thomson,  Clarke,  being  present  when  Mr.  Morton  had  a  tryall 
in  Harttbrd  in  New  England  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  God  1662  about  treason 
spoken  ogiiinst  his  sacred  Mtijestie  when  Mr.  Mathew  AUin  being  the  modera- 
tor in  tht*  Governor's  ab:<cnce  did  deny  to  try  the  said  cause  by  the  laws  of  Old 
England  when  it  was  required  by  the  said  Morton  that  he  would  doe  justice  for 
the  king,  he  answered  tauntingly  to  the  said  Morton — he  should  have  justice, 
if  it  won*  to  hang  half  a  dusen  of  you. — Further  saith  not. 


C^  -rrf 


"  Jurator  coram  me,  George  Jordan,  Aprill  26,  1664. 

''  Tei-t  Georgius  Wilkins,  Clericus  County  Surry,  Virginia.' 


liieutenant  Samuel  Smith,  from  his  first  settlement  in  the  town 
was  mtich  trusted  in  public  affairs,  nor  is  it  manifest  that  in  any  in- 
stance he  performed  the  duties  of  office  othCTwise  than  with  discre- 

1  Conn.  Colonial  Records,  vol  2,  p.  27. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  151 

tion  and  honor.  The  last  time  that  his  name  appears  on  the  town 
record  as  an  inhabitant,  was  Jan.  15th,  1668-4,  when  he  was  appointed 
one  of  a  committee  to  treat  with  Mr.  Bulklej  concerning  his  ordina- 
tion. On  the  28th  of  March,  1664,  his  wife  Rebecca  Smith,  in  bis 
behalf,  conveys  his  farm,  at  Upper  Alewife  Cove,  to  Robert  Love- 
land  in  payment  of  debts  due  to  him.  From  other  sources  we  learn 
that  the  lieutenant  had  left  wife,  home  and  friends,  and  gone  to  Vir- 
ginia without  any  intention  of  returning.  No  reason  is  assigned  for 
the  act :  though  somewhat  involved  in  debt,  he  had  sufficient  estate 
to  satisfy  his  creditors.  Copies  of  the  letters  written  to  him  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Bulkley,  with  other  papers  relating  to  this  singular  affair, 
have  been  preserved.'  Mr.  Bulkley  exhorted  him  in  moving  terms 
to  return  to  the  path  of  duty,  setting  before  him  his  former  station 
and  influence  in  society,  and  his  religious  profession,  depicting  also 
the  grief  of  his  wife  and  aged  mother.  The  lieutenant's  own  let- 
ters are  dated  at  Roanoke  r'  he  addresses  his  wife  in  terms  plausible 
and  affectionate  ;^  sends  love  to  father,  mother,  brothers  and  sisters, 
and  is  solicitous  to  be  remembered  in  the  prayers  of  his  friends.  All 
this  had  no  meaning :  it  was  soon  apparent  that  the  lieutenant  had 
absconded  and  that  his  wife  was  deserted.  In  August,  1665,  some 
gentlemen  of  Hartford  wrote  to  him,  making  one  more  attempt  to  re- 
claim the  wanderer,  but  it  is  not  known  that  he  took  any  notice  of  it* 
Lieut*  Smith  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  son  of  that  Lieut  Sam- 
uel Smith,  Sen.,  of  Wethersfield,  who  removed  about  the  year  1660, 
to  Hadley.*  His  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Rev.  Henry  Smith,  of  Weth- 
ersfield. After  her  desertion,  she  returned  to  her  former  home,  and 
having  obtained  a  divorce  from  her  delinquent  husband,  was  in  1669 
the  wife  of  Nathaniel  Bowman  of  Wethersfield.  Lieut.  Smith  had 
no  children  by  this  wife,  but  it  is  supposed  that  he  married  at  the 
south  and  left  descendants  there. 


Rate  lists  for  the  ministry  tax  are  extant  for  the  years  1664,  1666 
and  1667.    After  this  period  no  rate  list  can  be  found  till  1708.    Li  the 


1  Among  the  State  Records  at  Hartford;  in  a  volume  of  arranged  documents,  la^ 
bded  Diwrcti. 

3  Hig  residence  is  sometimes  said  to  be  in  Virginia,  and  again  in  Carolina.  He  says 
in  one  of  his  letters,  "  I  live  at  the  house  of  one  Samuel  Stevens,  in  the  province  of 
Carolina." 

3  Calls  her  "^  sweetheart,"  and  subscribes  himself  **  your  loving  husband  till  death.** 

4  Jadd,  of  Northampton,  (MS.) 


153  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

list  of  1664,  the  number  of  names  is  one  hundred  and  five.  This  in- 
cludes non-residents  who  owned  property  in  the  town.  In  this  list, 
tlie  amount  of  each  man's  taxable  property  is  given  and  the  rate  lev- 
iifd  upon  it  is  carried  out  The  assessment  of  James  Rogers  is  nearly 
double  that  of  any  other  inhabitant  He  is  estimated  at  £548,  and 
lus  rate  £7  Ids.  lOcL  "  John  Winthrop  Squire,"  who  heads  the  list, 
u  set  down  at  £185,  and  his  rate  £2  14«.  He  was  at  this  time  a 
uon-resident.  Mr.  Pahnes,  £224.  John  Picket,  who  is  next  high- 
est to  James  Rogers,  £299  10<.  James  Morgan,  £252.  Robert  Bur- 
rows, £246.  James  Avery,  £236.  Gary  Latham,  £217.  Geor^ 
Tongue,  £182.  John  Prentis,  £176.  Andrew  Lester,. Sen.,  £170. 
]>lward  Stallion,  £169.  Robert  Royce,  £163.  These  are  all  the  es- 
tates over  £150.  Between  £75  and  £150  are  thirty-two.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  land  at  this  period  was  of  little  value,  and  estimated 
low.  In  the  list  of  1666,  the  number  of  names  is  116,  and  in  that  of 
tlie  next  year  127.  Of  the  whole  number,  four  are  referred  to  as 
fleceased,  viz.,  Sergt  Richard  Hartley,  Thomas  Hungerford,  William 
Morton,  and  Mr.  Robert  Parke.  About  seventeen  may  be  marked 
ani  non-residents,  consisting  principally  of  persons  who  had  removed, 
or  merchants  of  other  places  who  had  an  interest  in  the  trade  of  the 
port.  Mr,  Blinman,  the  ex-minister,  Mr.  Thomson,  the  former  In- 
dian missionary,  and  Mr.  Newman,  minister  of  Wenham,  are  on  the 
list.  Mr.  James  Richards,  of  Hartford,  is  among  the  number :  he 
was  probably  a  land-owner  by  inheritance  from  Wm.  Gibbons,  "who 
WU6  his  father-in-law,  and  had  bought  land  at  Pequonnuck.  Mr. 
Fitch,  (probably  Samuel,  of  Hartford,)  Samuel  Hackbume,  from 
llaxbury,  and  Robert  Lay,  (of  Lyme)  are  enrolled ;  as  also  Lord, 
Savage,  Stillinger,  Re  veil,  Richardson,  who  have  been  heretofore 
noticed. 


Richard  Lord,  Both  father  and  son  of  this  name,  merchants  of 
Hartford,  had  commercial  dealings  in  New  London.  The  senior 
i\lE<.  Lord,  died  in  the  place  and  was  interred  in  the  old  burial 
ground.  A  table  of  red  sandstone  covers  his  grave.  It  is  now 
etmk  a  little  below  the  surface  of  the  turf,  and  has  a  gaping  fracture 
through  it,  but  the  inscription  is  legible.  It  is  probably  the  oldest 
iiiscribed  tombstone  east  of  Connecticut  River.  A  copy  wiU  be 
given  as  near  to  a  fac-simile  as  can  be  executed  in  type. 


HISTORY     OF     NKW     LONDON. 


153 


: 


154  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

Richard  Lord  was  captain  of  a  troop  of  horsemen  established  in 
Connecticut  in  1658 — the  first  cavalry  of  the  colony.  This  explains 
**  the  bright  star  of  our  cavalry,"  in  the  first  line.  The  expression 
**  composing  paroxysms,"  is  obscure,  but  it  may  allude  to  a  happy  fac- 
ulty of  reconciling  parties  at  variance.  Mr.  Lord's  name  is  found 
on  ^several  arbitrations  for  accommodating  difficulties. 


The  removals*  before  1670  of  persons  who  had  lived  from  five  to 
eighteen  years  in  the  plantation  amounted  to  a  dozen  or  more.  Mr. 
Win throp,  as  already  mentioned,  went  to  Hartford;  Mrs.  Lake  to 
Ipswich ;  Obadiah  Bruen  and  Hugh  Roberts  to  Newark ;  Peter 
Blacchford  to  Haddam ;  Daniel  Lane  to  Setauket,  Long  Island  ;  and 
tlie  settlement  of  Norwich  took  away  Robert  Allyn,  Hugh  Caulkins, 
with  his  son  John,  and  son-in-law  Jonathan  Royce,  John  Elderkin, 
Sikmuel  Lothrop,  and  John  Gager. 

Who  was  Mrs.  Margaret  Lake  ?  No  satisfactory  answer  can  be 
given  to  this  question.  Her  birth,  parentage,  husband,  and  the  pe- 
riod of  her  coming  to  this  country  are  alike  unknown.  The  sugges- 
tion has  been  made  in  a  former  chapter,  that  she  was  sister  to  Mr. 
Winthrop's  wife.  That  she  was  in  some  way  intimately  connected 
with  the  Winthrop  family  of  New  London,  is  placed  beyond  doubt 
by  documents  in  which  she  is  represented  as  sister  to  the  parents, 
and  near  of  kin  to  the  children.  Fitz  John  and  Wait  Winthrop  in  a 
de<*d  of  1681  to  Mrs.  Hannah  Gallop,  the  daughter  of  Mrs.  Lake, 
say  of  her — "  the  said  Hannah  being  a  person  related  to  and  beloved 
of  both  our  honored  father  and  ourselves." 

Mi's.  Lake,  as  well  as  the  Winthrops,  was  also  connected  with 
the  t  wo  families  of  Epes  and  Symonds,  of  Ipswich,  but  the  degree  of 
rel^itionship  between  these  several  families  has  not  been  positively 
ascertained. 

The  farm  at  Lake's  Pond  and  other  lands  of  Mrs.  Lake  in  New 
London  were  inherited  by  her  daughter  Gallop.  The  signature  to 
aevei-al  documents  of  hers,  recorded  in  New  London,  consists  of  her 
initials  only,  in  printed  form,  M  L.,  which  are  attested  as  her  mark. 
8hii  liied  in  Ipswich  in  1672,*  leaving  two  children — Hannah,  wife 
of  John  Gallop,  of  New  London,  and  Martha,  wife  of  Thomas  Harris, 
of  I[i:^wich. 

1  Felt*8  History  of  Ipswich,  p.  160.  , 


HISTORY    OP   NEW    LONDON.  155 

Obadiah  Bruen.  Dnring  the  sixteen  years  in  which  Mr.  Bruen 
dwelt  in  the  joang  plantation,  he  was  perhaps  more  intimately  iden- 
tified with  its  public  concerns  than  any  other  man.  He  was  chosen 
a  townsman  for  fifteen  years  in  succession,  and  except  the  first  year, 
uniformly  first  townsman  and  moderator.  He  was  usually  on  all 
committees  for  granting  lands,  building  meeting-houses  and  accom- 
modating differences.  He  was  clerk  or  recorder  of  the  town  all  the 
time  he  was  an  inhabitant;  and  in  1661,  on  the  first  organization  of 
Ae  County  Court,  he  was  chosen  clerk  of  that  body.  In  the  char- 
ter of  Connecticut  granted  by  Charles  II.,  his  name  appears  as 
one  of  the  patentees  of  the  colony,  and  the  only  one  from  the  town, 
which  is  proof  that  he  was  then  considered  its  most  prominent  inhab- 
itant. He  appears  to  have  been  a  persevering,  plodding,  able  and 
discreet  man,  who  accomplished  a  large  amount  of  business,  was  help- 
ful to  every  body,  and  left  every  thing  which  he  undertook,  the  bet- 
ter for  his  management. 

Mr.  Bruen  was  entered  a  freeman  of  Plymouth  colony,  March  2d, 
1640-41,  being  then  a  resident  at  Green  Harbor,  (Marshfield.)  In 
May,  1642,  he  was  of  Gloucester,  and  the  first  town-clerk  of  that 
place  who  has  left  any  records.  Before  1650,  he  was  chosen  seven 
times  deputy  to  the  Greneral  Court.*  The  births  of  two  children  are 
entered  at  Gloticester  in  his  own  hand : 

"  Hannah,  daughter  of  Obadiah  Bruen  by  Sarae,  his  wife,  was  born  9th  day 
of  January,  1643. 
"John,  son  of  do.  2.  June  1646." 

Only  two  other  children,  Mary  and  Rebecca,  both  probably  older 
than  these,  have  been  traced. 

Mr.  Bmen's  emigration  from  Cape  Ann  to  Pequot  Harbor,  and 
his  usefubess  here,  have  been  noticed  in  the  preceding  pages.  He 
bade  farewell  to  New  London  in  1667,  having  joined  a  company  of 
planters  from  several  towns  on  the  Sound,  who  had  formed  an  asso- 
ciation to  purchase  and  settle  a  township  on  the  Passaic  River  in 
New  Jersey.  The  settlement  had  been  commenced  by  a  portion  of 
tiie  company  the  year  before.  The  deed  of  purchase  from  the  In- 
dians is  dated  July  11th,  1667,  and  signed  by  Obadjah  Bruen,  Michael 
Tompkins,  Samuel  Ketchell,  John  Browne,  and  Robert  Denison,  in 
behalf  of  their  associates,  amoimting  to  about  forty  persons.*  An  ad- 
ditional party  of  twenty-three  joined  them  the  same  year,  and  all  uni- 

1  Babaon,  of  Gbucester,  (MS.)        2  Whitehead's  East  Jersey  under  the  Proprietors. 


156  HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON. 

ted  in  forming  one  township,  which  received  the  name  of  Newark,  in 
cotnpliment,  it  is  said,  to  their  pastor,  the  Rev.  Abraham  PiersoD, 
who  had  preached  at  Newark  in  Nottinghamshire,  England. 

Of  the  sixty-three  persons  whose  names  are  given  as  the  first  set- 
llf  rs  of  Newark,  two  certainly  were  from  New  London,  Obadiah 
Bruen  and  Hugh  Roberts,  the  son-in-law  of  Hugh  Caulkins.  Mr. 
Roberts  was  living  at  Newark  in  1670,  but  our  records  furnish  no 
hiU^T  reference  to  him.*  Two  others  on  the  list  of  settlers,  though 
not.  from  New  London,  were  intimately  connected  with  Mr.  Bruen, 
and  rloubtless  main  links  in  the  chain  which  drew  him  away  from 
New  London.  These  were  John  Baldwin,  Sen.,  and  John  Baldwin, 
Jim.,  of  Milford,  father  and  son,  who  married  sisters,  the  daughters 
ol"  Mr.  Bruen :  the  elder  Baldwin  married  the  elder  sister,  Mary,  in 
]G-^3;  and  the  younger  Baldwin,  son  by  a  former  wife,  and  bom  in 
ir>l(>,  married  the  younger  sister,  Hannah  Bruen,  in  1663.  Mr. 
Brtten's  other  daughter  married  Thomas  Post,  of  Norwich. 

Mr.  Bruen  does  not  appear  on  the  records  of  Newark,  as  an  office 
lioUler.  The  period  of  his  death  is  uncertain,  and  his  grave  unknown. 
Tlip  latest  information  respecting  him  is  derived  from  a  letter  written 
by  liim  in  1680,  to  his  son-in-law,  Thomas  Post  of  Norwich,  which  is 
rc>i'f>rded  at  New  London  as  voucher  to  a  sale  of  land,  which  it  au- 
tborized.  In  that  letter  he  refers  to  himself  and  wife,  his  son  John 
arjil  (laughter  Hannah,  with  their  respective  partners,  as  all  in  health. 
*'  It  hath  pleased  God,"  he  observes,  "hitherto  to  continue  our  lives 
ami  liberties,  though  it  hath  pleased  him  to  embitter  our  comforts  by 
taking  to  himself  our  Reverend  pastor,  Mr.  Pierson,  Aug.  9th,  1679." 
He  proceeds  to  state  that  the  loss  had  been  in  some  measure  sup- 
plied. They  had  called  and  ordained  Mr.  Abraham  Pierson,  the 
son  of  their  former  pastor,  "  who  follows  the  steps  of  his  ancient 
father  in  godliness,  praise  to  our  Grod." 


Peter  Biatchford,  Mr.  Blatchford  had  been  for  eighteen  years  an 
inhtibitant  of  New  London,  and  always  a  servant  of  the  town,  as 
drummer,  tax-gatherer,  committee  man,  constable,  list  and  rate 
maker,  or  town's  attorney.  In  1 668,  John  Elderkin  transferred  to 
hitn  a  contract  that  he  had  made  to  build  a  grist-mill  at  Thirty-mile 
I^hiiid,  in  Connecticut  River.  To  this  settlement,  which,  in  October 
of  that  year,  the  General  Court  made  a  plantation  by  the  name  of 

1  Samuel,  son  of  Hagh  Roberts,  was  afterward  of  Norwich. 


HISTORY     OP    NE'WC     LONDON.  157 

Haddam,  he  removed.  His  homestead  m  New  London,  he  aliena- 
ted, Jime  15th,  1668,  to  Charles  Hill,  for  £2  in  hand,  and  £90  to  be 
paid  the  fall  ensuing.     This  proviso  is  added : 

"  If  P.  B.  is  not  able  to  despatch  his  affairs  so  as  to  carry  away  his  familyi 
he  is  to  have  the  liberty  of  the  house  and  barn  till  the  spring  of  *69."i 

It  is  probable  that  he  effected  his  removal  before  the  next  spring, 
as  in  May,  1669,  he  was  chosen  deputy  to  the  General  Court  from 
Haddam,  and  again  in  May,  1670.  He  died  in  1671,  aged  forty-six. 
His  wife  was  Hannah,  daughter  of  Isaac  Willey,  and  their  children, 
Peter,  Hannah  and  Joanna.  No  dates  of  marriage  or  of  births  have 
been  found.  The  relict  married  Samuel  Spencer,  of  Haddam,  whose 
former  wife  was  the  widow  of  Thomas  Hungerford,  of  New  London. 


Daniel  Lane.  Mr.  Lane  removed  from  New  London  in  1662: 
be  had  been  ten  years  an  inhabitant,  having  married  in  1652,  Catha- 
rine, relict  of  Thomas  Doxey.  In  1666,  he  was  one  of  the  patentees 
to  whom  Grovemor  NichoUs  confirmed  the  grant  of  the  town  of 
Brookhaven,  Long  Island.  Of  his  family  there  is  no  account  in  New 
London.  The  Doxey  or  Lane  homestead  was  sold  to  Christopher 
Christophers,  1666.* 


Robert  AUyn,  before  coming  to  New  London,  had  resided  at  least 
twelve  years  in  Salem:  he  was  there  in  1637,  a  member  of  the 
church  in  1642,  and  had  three  children  baptized  there,  John,  Sarah 
and  Mary.  After  the  settlement  of  Norwich,  he  had  a  house-lot  in 
that  plantation,  was  constable  in  1669,  and  in  deeds  is  styled  ^for- 
merly of  New  London,  but  now  of  New  Norridge."  After  a  time, 
relinquishing  his  house-lot  to  his  son  John,  he  returned  to  his  farm, 
and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  once  more  an  inhabitant  of  New 
London.  He  died  in  1683,  being  probably  about  seventy-five  years 
of  age.  He  was  freed  from  training  in  1 668,  an  immunity  not  usually 
granted  to  men  under  sixty.  The  heirs  to  his  estate  were  five  chil- 
dren, viz.,  John ;  Sarah,  wife  of  George  Geer ;  Mary,  wife  of  Thomas 

1  Bhitchford'8  house-lot,  afterward  the  Hill  lot,  and  still  later  the  Erving  lot,  finonted 
on  State  Street,  and  extended  from  the  present  Union  to  Huntington  Street,  hiduding 
the  site  of  the  First  Soc.  Cong.  Church. 

2  The  house  stood  on  the  site  of  the  old  Wheat  house,  in  Main  street,  taken  down  in 
1861,  and  was  perhaps  a  part  of  the  same  house. 

14 


mS  HISTORY     0,P     NUW     LONDON* 

Parke  ;  Haonah,  wife  of  Thomas  Boee ;  and  Deborah,  then  nnmar- 

WmKU 

Jolin,  the  only  son  of  Robert  Allyn,  married,  Dec,  24th,  1668, 
Elizabetli,  ditugliter  of  John  Gager.  After  the  death  of  his  father, 
h(^  left  Ntirwich  and  relumed  to  the  paternal  farm,  where  he  built  a 
honst^  and  warehouse  near  th^  river,  at  a  place  smce  known  as 
Ailyn'8  Foint. 


Hugh  Catdkins^  was  one  of  the  party  that  came  with  Mr.  Blin- 
man^  in  1G40,  from  Hon  mouth  <*ln  re,  on  the  borders  of  Wales.  He 
broii*2;ht  with  him  wife  Ann  and  several  children,  and  settled  with 
others  of  tlie  party,  tin^t  at  Mai  ^ihfield,  and  then  at  Gloucester.  At 
tUc  Juttcr  place  he  was  one  of  the  selectmen  from  1643  to  1648  in 
elu&ive,  a  eonimiBsioner  fur  the  trial  of  small  causes  in  1645,  and 
deputy  to  the  General  Court  in  1050  and  1651.* 

In  mi  ftccoGut  extant  at  {Tlouccster,  reference  is  made  to  the  time 
**wlien  Hugh  Caulkin  went  with  the  cattle  to  Pequot."  This  was 
doubtless  in  IGr^l,  and  it  seems  to  intimate  that  in  his  removal  he 
look  the  land  route  throupb  tbe  wilderness,  and  had  charge  of  the 
stvck  belonging  lo  the  emigmiit  company.  He  dwelt  at  New  Lon- 
d(>n  about  ten  years,  and  during  that  period  was  twelve  times  chosen 
deputy  to  the  General  Court j  the  elections  being  semi-annuaL  He 
Wtt^  one  of  the  town^imen  fi-om  1652  to  1661  inclusive.  In  1660  he 
united  witli  a  company  of  proprietors  associated  to  settle  Norwich, 
jLud  a  church  being  or|ranized  at  Say  brook  previous  to  the  removal, 
hv  was  cho.<en  one  of  its  deaeoua.  In  1663  and  1664,  he  was  deputy 
to  the  court  from  Noruich.  He  died  in  1690,  aged  ninety  years* 
He  is  supjmsed  to  he  tlie  progenitor  of  most,  if  not  of  all,  who  bear  the 
name  in  the  United  State.^, 

He  left  two  bons,  John  and  David  ;  ages  unknown.  John  was  one 
of  tlie  proprietors  of  Norwich ;  David,  the  youngest,  remained  at 
New  London,  and  inherited  \m  father's. farm,  at  Nahantick,  which  is 
now  owned  by  his  descendants  in  a  right  line  of  the  sixth  generation. 


John  Elderkin  was  a  mill-wright,  ship-wright,  and  house-carpen- 
ter, and  the  general  contractor  for  the  building  of  mills,  bridges  and 

t  Tbb  nrnnt!  od  t1i»  «Arly  recordjs  li^  nv>8t  frequently  written  CdUcm^  but  sometimes 
Chu/iiV:  the  s  is  iio\xt  ii.^cd,  Tlte  latter  mode  of  spelling  the  name  is  preferable,  as 
k)d[''util>(f  boiler  till]  pn>rLui)cmtiou. 

3  lliibtoUf  or  Glpujcc^t«rt  MS* 


BiaTORY    OF    NEW     LOICDON.  159 

meeting-hoiises^  ia  N«ir  London,  Norwich  and  ti&e  set^ements  in 
their  yicinitj,  for  a  period  of  thirty-five  years.  He  had  been  enga- 
ged in  the  same  line  in  MaBaachosetta^  before  he  came  to  Pequoi ; 
and  cim  be  traced  as  a  resident  in  varions  ]daces,  pursuing  these  oc- 
cupations. In  a  deposition  of  1672,  he  states  his  age  to  be  fifty*4ix, 
and  that  he  came  to  New  London  the  same  year  that  Mr.  Blinmanfs 
company  came.  This  was  early  in  1651,  when  the  town  mill  was 
built  Mr.  Winthrop  had  solicited  his  services  two  years  before,  and 
had  engaged  Roger  Williams  to  mediate  in  his  favor,  from  which  it 
may  be  inferred  that  Elderkin  was  then  at  Providence.^  He  built 
not  only  the  first  meeting-house  in  New  L<mdim>  but  f^e  second, 
which  was  erected  in  Mr.  Bradstreet^s  time. 

Mr.  Eld^kin  was  apparently  a  mcurried  man  when  he  came  to  New 
London  :  he  was  at  least  a  householder,  and  this  supposes  a  family. 
But  of  this  wife  or  of  children  by  her  there  is  no  account  on  record. 
He  married,  after  1657,  Widow  Elizabeth  Gaylord,  of  Windsor,  and 
by  her  had  several  children.  She  had  also  two  children  by  her  first 
husband.  Mr.  Elderkin  died  at  Norwich,  June  23d,  1687  ;  Eliza- 
beth, his  relict,  June  8th,  1716,  aged  ninety-five.' 


John  Gager.  At  the  time  of  Mr.  Gager's  death  in  1703,  he  had 
been  more  than  forty  years  an  inhabitant  of  Norwich.  His  oldest 
son,  John,  bom  September,  1647,  died  in  1690,  without  issue.  He 
was  then  of  New  London,  as  &n  occupant  of  the  farm  given  by  the 
town  to  his  father.  This  farm  lay  on  the  river,  south  of  Allyn's  land, 
and  was  sold  in  1696,  to  Ralph  Stoddard,  and  has  ever  since  been 
Stoddard  land.  John  Gager,  senior,  left  one  son,  Samuel,  and  six 
daughters,  the  wives  of  John  Allyn,  Daniel  Brewster,  Jeremiah  Rip- 
ley, Simon  Huntington,  Joshua  Abell,  and  Caleb  Forbes. 


Samu$l  Loihrop.  Though  Mr.  Lothrop  removed  to  Norwich  about 
the  year  1668,  his  farm  ^  at  Namucksuck,  on  the  west  side  of  the 
Great  River,"  remained  in  the  family  until  1735,  when  his  grandson^ 
Nathaniel,  having  cleared  the  land  of  other  claims,  sold  out  to  Joseph 
Powers,'  (260  acres,  with  house  and  bam,  for  £2,300,  old  tenor.) 


1  Mass.  Hist  CoIL,  8d  series,  vol.  10,  p.  280. 

2  In  Hist  of  Norwich,  p.  117,  the  age  and  death  of  Elderkin*8  wj/e  are  given  as  "kit 
age  and  date  of  death.  The  error  appears  to  have  been  caused  by  the  omission  of  a 
line  in  printing. 

8  Now  Browning  farm. 


160 


HISTORY     OF    NEW    LONDON. 


The  tiro  oldest  children  of  Samael  Lothrop  intermarried  with  the 
family  of  Robert  Rojce.  John  Lothrop  (bom  December,  1646) 
married  Ruth  Royce ;  Isaac  Royce  married  Elizabeth  Lothrop,  (bom 
March,  1648,)  December  15th,  1669;  the  doable  ceremony  being 
performed '  by  Daniel  Wetherell,  commissioner.  Both  conple  re- 
moved to  Wallingford,  Conn.  Samael  Lothrop  died  at  Norwich, 
February  19th,  1700. 

**  Mrs.  Abigail  Latbrop  died  at  Norwicb,  Jan.  23d,  1735,  in  her  104tb  year. 
Her  fattier,  Jobn  Done,  and  bis  wife,  came  to  Plymouth,  in  1630,  and  there 
ftlm  was  liorn  the  next  year.  She  lived  single  till  sixty  years  old,  and  then  mar- 
3rled  Mr.  John  Lathrop,  of  Norwich,  [miitfike  for  SamueC]  who  lired  ten  yean 
and  thf^n  died.    Mr.  Lathrop's  descendants  at  her  decease  were  365.**^ 


2  JVsw  England  Weekly  Jimmal:  Boston,  1786. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

CommiseioBfl  and  reports  on  the  northern  and  western  boundary.— <<!)laimt  of 
Uncas  long  contested. — Indian  deed  of  New  London,  1669. — Proh>nged  con- 
test with  Lyme. — Contention  at  Black  Point. — Bride  Brook  boundary. — Sold- 
ier grant. — Black  Point  Indians. — Traditions  of  a  combat  and  a  race. — 
iMgressiou  in  regard  to  L3rme,  Lady  Fenwick's  tomb  and  the  graves  of  the 
fathers. 

Thb  court  grant  of  territory  to  Pequot,  in  May,  1650,  fixed  the 
extent  on  the  north,  at  eight  miles  from  the  sea.  This  northern  line, 
on  the  east  side  of  the  river,  was  determined  by  a  town  committee,  in 
1652.  They  began  at  a  point  on  the  Sound,  four  miles  east  of  the 
river,  and  struck  a  line  eight  miles  north,  which  ended  at  the  head  of 
the  great  pond  a  mile  and  a  half  north  of  Lantern  Hill,^  leaving  the 
pond  wholly  within  the  bounds :  from  thence  a  west  line  crossed  the 
head  of  Poquetannuck  Cove,  and  came  upon  Mohegan  River,  opposite 
Fort  HiU,  at  Trading  Cove,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  above  Brewster's 
trading-house. 

In  May,  1661,  the  Greneral  Court  appointed  a  committee  of  three, 
Matthew  Griswold,  Thomas  Tracy,  and  James  Morgan,  to  fry,  tliat 
is,  rectify  the  boimds  of  New  London.  "  New  London  people,"  says 
the  order,  "have  liberty  to  procure  the  ablest  person  they  can  to  assist 
in  this  matter."  The  town  appointed  Daniel  Lane  and  Ralph  Par- 
ker.    This  committee  reported  October  28th. 

«*  We  began  at  the  broad  bay  at  Naihantik  and  soe  upon  a  northerly  lyne 
8  miles  up  into  the  conntry,  and  then  upon  a  due  east  lyne,  and  fell  in  upon 
the  Mohegan  country  above,  upon  the  side  of  the  great  plaine,  where  we 
marked  a  white  ouke  tree  on  a  hill,  and  another  on  the  east  side  of  the  path 
that  goes  to  New  Norwige."* 

1  This,  instead  of  eight  miles,  must  hare  beea  ten,  from  the  southern  shore. 

2  This  was  at  least  eleven  miles  from  the  Sound.  The  north-west  comer  bound  was 
in  the  present  town  of  Salem. 


162 


StSTOET    OW    NEW    LONDON* 


Upon  tlie  boundary  line  east  of  the  river,  no  report  was  made ;  and 
Ili€  ftraplitude  of  the  tncafloretiient  on  the  other  side,  offended  the 
court,  A  note  waa  sent  to  the  town  authorities,  (Dec-  8th,  1661,) 
ceBsiuring  them  for  not  littending  to  their  order  in  regard  to  the  east- 
em  line,  adding : 

•*  And  you  may^  hi^Tcby  tako  notice  that  what  hath  been  done  in  eifiending  the 
bonnd»  on  the  yrt^l  »iti&  is  directly  cross  to  the  expressed  direction  in  the  said 
order,  rMtJeciiug  the  bound*  of  the  plantation.*' 

The  committee  was  hereupon  sent  td  ascertain  once  more  the 
northern  line  cast  of  the  river,  which  reported  January  22d,  1661-2, 
declaring  that  they  had  measured  "according  to  the  best  art  of  8 
myles  hy  the  chaiiie  ujKin  the  ground  as  the  land  laye,"  and  had  fixed 
tipon  a  bound-mark  tree,  at  the  cove  near  Mr.  Brewster's,  which 
f^kiofl  upon  an  cjtst  and  west  Une,  from  the  north  end  of  the  hill  on 
which  Unca3  ha«l  his  fort.  This  varied  but  little  from  the  measure- 
ment of  1652* 

In  Octcjber,  10(33,  the  conrt  issued  a  new  conmiission  on  the  west- 
em  boundary,  wliich  was  contested  by  Saybrook. 

**  MntdKJW  Griswold,  WiUiam  Waller  and  Thomas  Miner,  are  appointed  to 
ftate  the  wcsiljomHUofNt'W  LomU>ij,  and  Ensign  Tracy  and  James  Morgan  or 
any  other  whom  tUi?  two  towns  of  New  London  and  Norwich  do  appoint,  are 
tci  see  it  doae.  Thty  art  lo  bt*gm  at  some  suitable  place  as  they  shall  judge  in- 
dilTerent,  tJmt  they  itiay  havci  aa  much  land  without  as  there  is  sea  within."* 

The  Fame  committee  or  any  two  of  them  were  empowered  to  settle 
with  Uneas,  and  determine  what  compensation  he  should  have  for  so 
much  of  his  hmd  a.^  tell  within  the  bounds  of  New  London,  and  issue 
the  case  fully  "  IMonday  c^^me  4  weeks,  or  aa  soon  as  may  be." 
Thid  order  was  obeyed  witliout  delay.    The  report  says: 

*'  Vfa  find  that  the  &nd  of  tUe  8  miles  into  the  Country  falls  right  with 
the  aotith  side  of  the  TntdiDg  Cave's  Mouth  upon  New  London  river,  by  i^ 
dlD^t  eiiftt  line  from  the  corner  tree  of  the  west  bounds. 

"  S<;i^oiii}|y  t  Unkuahiap  la  rating  lands  cometh  on  the  south  side,  bounded  with 
CokichLwokti  river,^  from  die  footp&th  that  leads  to  Mr.  Brewster's  eastMrard. 
And  from  the  footpath  west  ii  goes  away  W.  N.  W.  to  the  west  bounds  of 
if.L. 

**  Thirdly^  we  do  dcitcrmirtu  that  for  Unkus  his  right  from  Cokichiwoke  river 
south  and  aa  aa  the  W.  N,  W.  Imc  runs,  as  also  his  whole  right  on  the  east  side 


1  New  Lutidori  Records t  ^cko^  ^*    It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  order  was  better  nndei^ 
ItCH^d  thei).  th^m  it  k  uoia'' 

3  Saw^nuU  Brook ;  Ff^uoticef  Cochickuwock* 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  163 

of  the  Great  river  within  the  bonnds  of  New  London,  he  the  said  Unkut  or  hit 
assigns  shall  receive  the  full  and  just  sum  of  fifteen  pounds  in  some  current 
pay." 

The  claim  of  Tineas  is  obscurely  expressed  in  the  above  report. 
The  sachem  had  been  encouraged  to  look  up  his  ancient  rights,  and 
now  brought  forward  claims  that  had  been  heretofore  both  tacitly  and 
expressly  relinquished.  He  maintained  that  the  land  between  the 
bound-mark  tree  on  Cochikuwock  brook,  south  to  Mamacock, ''  was 
his  father's  land  and  so  his,"  and  that  on  the  east  side  the  town  had 
taken  in  three  miles  of  his  land  for  which  he  had  received  no  com- 
pensation ;  for  all  which  his  demand  was  now  £20  in  current  pay, 
which  the  committee  reduced  to  £15. 

This  report,  assenting  to  these  claims,  exasperated  the  town.  The 
inhabitants  rose  as  one  man  against  it.  They  had  repeatedly  satis- 
fied Uncas  for  his  lands  west  of  the  river,  and  to  the  Pequot  country 
on  the  east  side,  they  would  not  allow  that  he  had  any  right  whatever. 
A  town  meeting  was  called  October  26th,  which  passed  the  following 
Tote: 

"  Caiy  Latham  and  Hugh  Roberts  are  ohoaen  by  the  towne  to  meet  the  men 
chosen  by  Court  order  to  settle  our  towne  boundes  (Oct  8.  62)  whoe  are  from 
the  towne  to  disalow  any  proceedings  in  laying  out  of  any  boundes  for  us  by 
them." 

Dec.  14th,  a  meeting  was  held  in  which  more  pacific  counsels  pre- 
vailed. It  was  agreed  that  the  £15  should  be  raised  by  a  town  rate 
and  paid  to  Uncas,  on  condition  that  he  would  give  a  quit-claim  deed 
for  all  land  within  the  bounds  of  New  London.  But  public  opinion 
in  the  town  would  not  sustain  this  vote,  and  the  rate  could  not  be 
levied.  The  inhabitants  refused  also  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the 
court  conmiittee,  Messrs.  Griswold,  Waller  and  Minor,  until  enforced 
by  an  order  of  the  court.* 

In  May,  1666,  the  complaint  of  Uncas  was  carried  before  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Legislature,  which  sanctioned  his  claims,  and  approved 
of  his  demand  of  twenty  pounds. 

**  And  [we]  do  advise  the  towne  to  pay  him  the  said  sum  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  clearer  title,  preservation  of  peace  and  preventing- further  trouble  and 
charge  to  themselves  or  the  country." 

The  town  however  would  not  inmiediately  yield  the  point,  and  the 


1  Colonial  Records,  vol.  1,  p.  419. 


I€4  HISTORY     OF     NEW     L  O  If  B  O  IC. 

caae  was  brought  before  the  Particular  Court,  held  at  New  London  in 
junt,  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  governor  of  the  colony  appears  to  have 
fa\^or«d  one  party,  and  Major  Mason,  the  deputy  governor,  the 
other.  To  the  town  agents,  Gary  Latham  and  James  Rogers,  Grov- 
enior  Winthrop  forwarded  from  Hartford  a  copy  of  the  agreement 
witli  Uncas  in  1654,  and  also  gave  his  testimony  in  respect  to  iht 
cove  u  ant  made  with  the  Indians  on  the  first  laying  out  of  the  town. 
In  writing  to  Gary  Latham,  he  says : 

"  You  know  that  at  the  first  beginning  when  we  had  all  the  Indians  together, 
and  challenged  the  Fequot  bounds  to  Mohegan,  Uncas  then  had  no  pretence  to 
any  Ly  i  ng  on  this  side  the  Great  Cove,  and  much  less  to  any  of  the  Fequot  conn- 
\tY  on  the  east  side  the  Great  River."i 

Governor  Winthrop' s  Letter  to  Mr.  Jamet  Rggert. 

"LoTing  friend 

"  Since  you  went  home  I  found  a  writeing  which  I  tould  the  Court  I  was 
^niQ  ifiore  was  such  a  writing  which  I  could  not  then  finde  which  doth  clearly 
sliow  ihat  the  business  which  now  Uncas  doth  again  contend  for  was  with  his 
Dwiie  L-oQsent  issued  12  yeers  since,  and  that  then  Uncas  did  not  so  much  as 
chalk  11^13  anything  towards  New  London  farther  than  the  brooke  called  Co- 
cbicUuack  which  is  at  the  Great  Coave  between  the  Saw  Mill  and  Monheg^an. 
1  ^encl  herewith  a  coppie  of  that  writeing.  I  have  the  original  of  the  Majors 
ownt.'  hand  and  Uncas  his  hand  is  also  to  it,  as  you  will  see.  I  keepe  the  orig- 
iufil  writeing  and  this  is  certain  that  at  that  time  Uncas  had  not  the  least  pre- 
tence rr>  any  part  of  the  east  side  of  the  river,  within  New  London  bounds. 
For  if  lie  had  he  would  then  have  challenged  when  we  agreed  about  the  bounds 
at  CciLhlchuack  that  Uncas  was  contented  should  be  as  far  as  he  could  chal- 
{^jx^c  for  Mohegan  lands.  Neither  did  that  take  away  the  boundes  of  the  towne 
flirt  lier  la  wards  Monhegan  if  they  should  agree  with  Uncas  for  any  part  or  the 
wlioh.^  or  it,  to  the  full  extent  of  the  bounde,  but  there  was  not  the  least  claime 
to  any  parte  of  the  east  side  of  the  river  within  the  Pequot  country  where  the 
boundes  do  goe  of  N  L.  I  hope  it  will  not  be  possible  to  be  seen  that  Uncas 
Dhauld  againe  have  cause  to  make  a  new  claime  within  the  towne  boundes 
nflur  such  an  issue,  under  his  owne  hand  mark  in  testimony  of  his  satisfaction 
there  in.  Not  else  at  present  but  my  loving  remembrance  to  yourself  and  all 
yours  nad  rest  your  loving  friend 


h^fn4^cfl^ 


"  Hartford,  June  4th,  1666. 

**  I  font  this  copy  by  my  sonn  Palmes  and  desired  him  to  leave  it  if  he  went 
into  ihe  Bay." 


1  Records  of  County  Court  • 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  165 

The  document  forwarded  was  an  agreement  made  with  Uncas, 
Jane  10th,  1654,  by  John  Wmthrop,  John  Mason  and  Matthew  Gris- 
wold,  fixing  the  northern  boundary  of  Nameug  at  Cochickuwock 
Brook,  "  where  the  foot  path  to  Monhegon  now  goeth  over  the  brook 
or  cove,"  and  from  thence  it  was  to  run  upon  a  west-north-west  line 
indefinitely  into  the  wilderness. 

These  papers  were  exhibited  in  court  and  recorded,  but  the  diffi- 
culty with  Uncas  was  left  unsettled.  In  June,  1668,  James  Avery 
and  Gary  Latham  were  appointed  by  the  town  to  treat  with  the  sa- 
cliem,  and  make  a  final  settlement  of  the  boundary  line.  This  re- 
sulted in  the  payment  to  Uncas  of  fifteen  pounds,'  and  in  procuring 
from  him  a  formal  deed,  which  confirmed  the  bounds  of  the  town  as 
already  laid  out  both  east  and  west  of  the  river. 

We  learn  from  tradition,  that  at  the  signing  of  this  deed,  the  whole 
Mohegan  tribe  was  assembled ;  that  Uncas  and  his  son  Owaneco  ap- 
peared in  barbaric  splendor,  arrayed  in  a  motley  garb  of  native  cos- 
tome  and  English  regimentals ;  that  the  whites  fiocked  in  from  the 
neighborhood,  either  as  curious  witnesses  of  the  sport,  or  sharers  in 
it,  and  two  or  three  days  were  spent  in  feasting,  frolicking  and 
gunes. 

On  the  east  side  of  the  river,  Poquetannuck  Cove  was  the  com- 
mendng  point  of  the  northern  boundary  line.  The  General  Court 
snbeequently  ordered  that  the  land  near  this  boundary  line  which  had 
not  been  granted  to  particular  persons,  should  for  the  present  lie  com- 
mon to  the  towns  of  New  London  and  Norwich.  Mr.  Benjamin 
Brewster,  then  the  principal  resident  on  this  tract,  was  left  at  liberty 
to  connect  himself  with  either  of  the  two  that  suited  his  convenience. 
He  preferred  to  belong  to  Norwich. 

The  town  was  agitated  by  a  controversy  still  more  unhappy  in  re- 
gard to  its  western  boundary.  Winthrop  had  originally  fixed  upon 
Bride  Brook  as  the  limit  of  his  plantation,  and  the  General  Court  had 
allowed  of  this  extent,  provided  it  did  not  come  within  the  territory 
of  Saybrook ;  that  is,  within  ^yb  miles  east  of  Connecticut  River. 
The  inhabitants  were,  perhaps,  too  ready  to  assume  that  this  bound- 
aiy  did  not  entrench  upon  their  neighbors.  Relying  upon  the  court 
grant,  they  regarded  the  land  between  Nahantick  Bay  and  Bride 
Brook,  which  included  Black  Point  and  Giant's  Neck,  as  their  own, 


1  The  payment  of  this  gratuity  waa  assumed  by  James  Avery,  Daniel  Wetherell 
•nd  Joshna  Raymond,  who  were  indemnified  by  the  town  with  each  two  hundred 
acres  of  land. 


166 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 


and  f re  el  J  scattered  their  grants  in  that  direction.  The  people  of 
Saj^brook,  after  a  time,  advancing  with  their  claims  toward  the  east, 
asserted  that  the  Bride  Brook  boundary  included  a  mile  or  more  of 
their  territory,  and  they  also  disposed  of  lands  in  the  disputed  tract. 
A  new  township  was  about  to-be  formed  out  of  that  part  of  Saybrook 
whicli  h\y  east  of  the  river,  (to  be  called  Lyme,)  and  the  bounds  be- 
mg  considered  narrow,  they  were  eager  to  extend  it  east  as  far  as 
possible,  and  would  gladly  have  had  it  reach  Nahantick  Bay.  Com- 
mittees were  appointed  by  the  two  parties  from  year  to  year,  but 
without  any  approach  toward  a  settlement  of  the  question.  New 
London  sustained  the  contest  with  warmth  and  energy. 

■*  Ai  El  towne  meeting  Nov.  21.  1664. 

•'  Will  you  join  as  one  man  to  beare  all  charges  in  seeking  our  right  of  that 
lund  ibat  \y^s  in  suspense  betwixt  us  and  Seabrooke. 

"  Aj^n^ed  upon  and  voated  yt  they  would. 

*'  Jfiti  ibs  Morgan,  Ralph  Parker  and  James  Bemas  are  desired  to  make  a  lyne 
for  trynii  of  what  land  lyes  betwixt  us  and  Seabrooke  boundes. 

''  Smnvti  Rogers  and  Ensigne  Averye  are  desired  to  manage  the  business  be- 
twixi  us  Hud  Seabrooke." 

"Jan.  i*»  J664-5. 

**  Collin  Winthropi  and  Mr.  Edward  Palmes  are  chosen  by  the  Towne  to 
maiiEigi.'  ^hv  business  betwixt  us  and  Seabrook  about  the  land  in  suspense — aX- 
lowiiii^  thcfin  liberty  to  make  choyce  of  one  Attumaye  or  more  to  aasist  them 
and  lo  tiikc  such  of  the  inhabitants  also  along  with  them  afl  they  shall  see  most 
tittedfuL  to  Qjsist.*' 

In  1 667,  the  town  authorized  Mr.  John  Allyn  of  Hartford,  Mr. 
Palmes*,  Mr.  "Wetherell,  and  the  partners,  Hill  and  Christophers,  of 
New  London,  to  recover  the  rights  of  the  town  and  settle  the  bound- 
ary ^*  according  to  ancient  grants  of  the  court,"  at  their  own  charge ; 
engaging,  in  case  of  success,  to  remunerate  them  with  three  hundred 
Acr?3  each,  at  Black  Point.  They  also  pledged  two  hundred  acres 
for  the  use  of  the  ministry,  and  two  hundred  as  a  personal  gift  to  Mr. 

This  commission  led  to  no  result ;  and  the  town  subsequently  in- 
trusted the  business  to  their  deputies,  who  were  to  obtain  the  assist- 
ance of  an  attorney.  Sergeant  Thomas  Minor  was  also  requested 
**  to  be  helpful  to  them."     These  agents  entered  into  an  agreement 


1  Thl-i  wDs  FitlE-John  Wmthrop,  eldest  son  of  the  governor.  He  had  spent  some 
time  in  Kiigiand,  and  was  there  captain  of  a  troop  of  horse.  About  this  time  Wait- 
0kOI  Winthmp  was  chosen  captain  of  the  tram-band  in  New  London,  so  that  both 
>r9lhot7  had  the  title  of  captain. 


HtBTORT     OF     NEW     LONDON.  167 

litli  those  of  Lyme  at  Hartford,  in  which  they  not  only  relinquished 
all  claim  to  the  disputed  mile,  but  gave  up  also  a  certain  portion  of 
Black  Point,  which  had  always  been  regarded  as  legitimately  within 
tlie  bounds  of  New  London.  This  document,  interchangeably  signed 
and  attested,  was  presented  to  ihe  Legislature,  and  sanctioned  by 
that  body,  before  it  was  exhibited  to  the  town  of  New  London. 
When  the  deputies  came  honfe  and  reported  what  they  had  done,  a 
stonn  ensued.  The  inhabitants  indignantly  refused  to  ratify  the 
agreement 

"In  towne  meeting  June  26. 1668. 

"The  towne  by  voat  have  protested  against  the  agreement  made  by  our  dep- 
uties Leftenant  Avery  and  Gary  Latham  with  the  men  of  lime,  Mathew  Gris- 
well  and  Wiliam  Waller  about  the  land  at  our  west  bounds  as  being  wholly  un- 
KUisfied  with  that  agreement  that  they  made  which  was  in  a  paper  read  to  the 
towne  or  any  other  agreement  by  them  made  or  yt  they  shall  make  for  the  towne 
to  abridge  theire  former  bounds,  as  granted  by  the  Court  formerly  as  apears  by 
record." 

After  this  period,  the  town  intrusted  the  management  of  the  busi- 
ness to  Mr.  Palmes,  Mr.  Condy  and  Mr.  Prentis ;  prohibting  them 
however  from  any  settlement  of  the  boundary  line,  that  did  not  conform 
to  "  the  ancient  grant  of  the  court,"  and  particularly  directing  them 
to  recover  Black  Point,  of  which,  they  say^  "  we  have  been  wrong- 
fully deprived  by  the  inhabitants  of  Seabrooke." 

In  May,  1671,  the  town  annulled  all  former  grants  made  by  them 
of  land  at  Black  Point,  except  a  farm  to  Mr.  Bradstreet,  a  faim  to 
Mr.  John  Allyn  and  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  acres  to  the  min- 
istry of  the  town.  This  last  tract,  which  they  declared  to  be  seques- 
tered for  the  use  of  the  ministry  forever,  is  said  to  lie  at  "  our  west 
bounds  at  Black  Point."  It  was  in  fact  the  same  land  that  in  the 
agreement  of  1668,  had  been  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  ministry  in 
Lyme.  A  committee  of  eight  resolute  men,  two  of  them  officers  of 
the  train-bands,  were  appointed  to  survey  and  lay  out  this  farm. 
These  measures  intimate  that  the  agitation  on  both  sides  was  advan- 
cing toward  a  crisis.  Accordingly,  an  explosion  took  place  in  Au-^ 
gost^  ludicrous  and  grotesque  in  its  features,  but  in  its  consequences 
salutary.  It  cooled  the  air,  and  satisfied  those  on  both  sides  who 
were  disposed  to  resort  to  force,  leaving  the  way  clear  for  a  more  ra- 
tional issue  of  the  dispute.  This  outbreak  calls  for  especial  notice, 
since  it  came  about  as  near  to  a  civil  war  as  the  inhabitants  of  the 
steady-habited  land  have  ever  been  known  to  advance. 

The  people  of  New  London  and  Lyme  were  both  determined  to 


168 


HISTORY    OP    NBW    LONDON. 


mow  the  grass  on  a  portion  of  the  debatable  land — the  twenty-five 
acres  of  meadow  belonging  to  the  ministry  farm.  Large  parties 
went  out  from  both  towns  for  the  purpose,  and  having  probably  some 
secret  intimation  of  each  other's  design,  they  met  on  the  ground  at 
the  same  time.  The  conflict  that  ensued  of  tongues,  rakes,  scythes, 
clubs,  and  fisticuffs,  though  the  actors  were  in  good  earnest,  and  thor- 
oughly enraged,  appears  to  have  been  ifiore  clownish  and  comic,  than 
fearful  or  sublime.  The  account  we  have  of  it  is  taken  from  the  tes- 
timony of  witnesses  on  the  trial  of  the  rioters  in  March,  1661-2.  No 
evidence  appears  to  have  been  more  dispassionate  than  that  of  Mr. 
Palmes.  He  was  then  living  on  his  farm  at  Nahantick  Bar,  and 
when  the  New  London  party  came  along  on  their  way  to  mow  the 
marsh,  he  joined  them,  for  no  other  purpose,  he  said,  than  to  act  as  a 
pacificator  if  any  struggle  should  take  place.  The  Lyme  men,  under 
their  usual  leaders,  Matthew  Griswold  and  William  Waller,  were  in 
possession  of  the  ground  when  the  other  party  advanced,  led  on  by 
Clement  Minor  and  supported  by  Mr.  Palmes,  the  peace-maker. 
Constables  were  in  attendance  on  either  side,  and  Messrs.  Griswold 
and  Palmes  were  in  the  commission  of  the  peace  and  could  authorize 
warrants  of  apprehension  on  the  spot  As  the  New  London  men  ap- 
proached, and  swinging  their  sythes  began  to  mow,  the  Lyme  con- 
stable drew  nigh,  with  a-  warrant  for  the  apprehension  of  Ensign 
Minor,  which,  beginning  to  read.  Sergeant  Beeby  interrupted  him, 
crying  out,  "  We  care  not  a  straw  for  your  paper."  Others  of  the 
company  added  contemptuous  expressions  and  mockeries,  on  which 
the  constable,  shouting  to  his  party,  demanded  their  aid  in  arresting 
Clement  Minor.  The  Lyme  men  on  the  instant  came  rushing  for- 
ward, waving  their  weapons,  while  the  New  London  party  brandish- 
ing theirs,  threatened  to  mow  down  any  one  that  should  touch  their 
leader.  The  constable,  however,  had  grasped  his  man,  and  a  general 
tumult  of  shouts,  revilings,  wrestlings,  kicks  and  blows  followed. 
The  weapons  seem  to  have  been  pretty  generally  abandoned ;  though 
one  of  the  Lyme  company,  Richard  Smith,  was  knocked  down  with 
a  pitchfork,  and  John  Baldwin,  of  New  London,  was  accused  of 
bruising  another  person  with  a  cudgel.  Major  Palmes,  in  retaliation 
of  the  arrest  of  Minor,  furnished  a  warrant  for  the  apprehension  of 
Griswold,  but  he  was  not  captured.  The  noisy  encounter  was  ter- 
minated, without  any  serious  injury  on  either  side.  The  cooler  heads 
among  them  succeeded  in  pacifying  the  rest.  Ensign  Minor,  the 
only  captive  taken,  was  released  on  the  spot.  Messrs.  Palmes,  Gris- 
wold and  Waller,  having  agreed  to  let  the  law  decide  the  controversy, 


HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON.  169 

**  drank  a  dram  of  seemiiig  friendBhip  together/'  and  all  retired  qui- 
etly fit>m  the  field. 

Each  party  subsequently  indicted  the  other  for  assault,  violence 
and  riotous  practices,  and  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  finding  an  im- 
partial and  uninterested  court  and  jury  in  New  London  county,  they 
were  tried — twenty-one  men  of  New  London  and  fifteen  of  Lyme — 
at  Hartford.  A  penalty  of  nine  pounds  was  imposed  upon  New 
London,  and  five  pounds  upon  Lyme,  but  both  fines  were  afterward 
remitted  by  the  clemency  of  the  Greneral  Court' 

It  was  at  the  trial  of  this  case,  March  12th,  1671-2,  that  Goviemor 
Winthrop's  deposition  was  produced,  in  which  he  referred  to  the  ro- 
mantic nuptials  at  Bride  Brook,  in  the  infancy  of  the  plantation,  as 
heretofore  related.  With  respect  to  the  original  western  boundary, 
lie  makes,  in  substance,  the  following  statement : 

'  '*  When  we  began  a  plantation  in  the  Pequot  country,  now  called  New  Lon- 
don, I  had  a  commission  from  the  Massachusetts,  and  the  ordering  of  matters 
was  left  to  mywlf.  Not  finding  meadow  sufficient  for  even  a  small  plantation, 
unless  the  meadows  and  marshes  west  of  Nayantick  river  were  adjoined,  I  de- 
termined ijic  bounds  of  the  plantation  should  be  to  the  brook,  now  called  Bride 
brook,  which  was  looked  upon  as  certainly  without  Saybrook  bounds.  This 
was  an  encouragement  to  proceed  with  the  plantation  which  otherwise  could 
not  have  gone  on,  there  being  no  suitable  accommodation  near  the  place." 

The  tract  of  land  so  long  controverted,  was  about  two  miles  in 
width,  and  now  forms  a  part  of  East  Lyme.  The  General  Court  or- 
dered five  miles  to  be  measured  east  from  Connecticut  River,  an«i 
four  miles  west  from  Pequot  River,  and  the  space  between  to  be  di- 
vided between  the  rival  towns.  This  brought  Black  Point  within 
the  bounds  of  New  London.  An  order  on  the  town  book,  April  8th, 
1672,  directs  the  ministry  farm  at  Black  Point  to  be  immediately  laid 
out,  **  the  rights  of  the  town  being  recovered."  This  is  the  first  allu- 
sion to  the  difficulty  on  the  town  books  since  May,  1671,  no  mention 
being  there  made  of  the  mowing  riot.  The  grantees  of  New  London, 
'whose  lands  fell  within  the  bounds  assigned  to  Lyme,  were  indemni- 
fied elsewhere. 

A  great  part  of  the  tract  thus  freed  from  claims  and  suits  had  been 
occupied  by  the  Lidians.  Some  of  these  were  now  acconunodated 
with  lands  by  Lyme  in  the  northern  part  of  their  plantation  on  Eight 
Mile  River.    Those  residing  on  Black  Point  were  allowed  by  New 


1  This  afl^  at  Black  Pomt  has  been  called  a  riot ;  it  was  rather  a  fracas,  or  hub- 
bub. 

15 


390 


HISTORY     OF   NEW     LONDON. 


London  to  remain,  and  to  occupj,  on  lease,  240  acres  of  upland,  at 
an  annual  rent  of  three  bushels  of  Indian  com  per  acre.  For  a 
B  timber  of  years  afterward,  this  little  Indian  community,  contrary  to 
most  others  when  overshadowed  by  a  higher  degree  of  civilization^ 
prospered  and  increased  in  numbers.  About  the  year  1740  they 
were  estimated  at  forty  families.  They  have  since  been  constantly 
diminishing,  and  are  now  tottering  on  the  verge  of  extinction. 

The  difficulties  with  Lyme  continued  several  years  longer  in  the 
form  of  a  series  of  vexatious  lawsuits.  In  1685,  the  town  granted 
to  Major  Palmes  850  acres  of  land  in  remuneration  "  for  the  charges 
^nd  disbursements  of  many  years,  particularly  in  sustaining  a  course 
of  law  with  the  town  of  Lyme  concerning  the  west  bounds."  John 
I'rentis  had  200  acres  for  similar  services.  Among  individual  claim- 
unU  to  the  debatable  land  the  longest  and  most  energetic  contest 
\^k&  maintained  between  Christopher  Christophers  and  Thomas  Lee. 
Both  towns  became  partizans  in  this  protracted  suit.  The  rival 
rUimants  came  to  an  agreement  June  dd,  1686,  by  which  Lee  relin- 
ijuished  his  claim  to  ^^  the  land  on  Black  Point  possessed  by  the 
Kahanticks,  Ilanmionassetts  and  Mejuarnes/'  which  is  said  to  lie 
"  next  to  the  Giant's  land." 

The  Hammonassetts  were  a  clan  of  eight  families  who  had  ex- 
changed their  lands  in  the  neighborhood  of  Guilford  for  a  settlement 
ua  Black  Point.  The  Giant's  land  was  a  lot  on  the  point  laid  out 
f^ovei*al  years  before  by  Matthew  Griswold  and  Thomas  Bliss,  agents 
of  the  town  of  Saybrook,  to  an  Indian  sumamed  the  Gtanty  and  hon- 
f>rcd  with  the  gigantic  name  of  Mamaraka-gurgana.  It  is  probable 
iliat  Mejuarnes  was  another  name  for  this  foi*midable  personage, 
Hu  is  supposed  to  have  resided  originally  at  Giant's  Neck,  and  to 
have  exchanged  this  place  for  the  land  on  the  point.  The  two  sons 
t>f  the  Giant  were  Paguran  and  Tatto-bitton.  The  latter,  after  the 
i1«icease  of  his  brother,  sold  what  was  left;  of  the  Giant's  land  to 
Christopher  Christophers,  July  1st,  1687.* 

North  of  Black  Point,  on  Nahantick  Bay,  was  the  soldier  grant. 
This  was  a  tract  given  to  five  of  Capt.  Mason's  companions  in  the 
Pt(|uot  War,  in  lieu  of  a  grant  made  to  them  in  1642,  of  "  500  acres 
H\  the  Pequot  country;"  by  which  vague  phrase,  the  vicinity  of 
Pequot  Harbor  appears  to  have  been  understood.     The  grant  being 


1  The  Christophers  land  on  Black  Point  was  sufficient  for  two  or  three  moderate 
ftirtiis.  A  considerable  part  of  it  fell  by  inheritance  to  the  children  of  Thomas  Man- 
louring,  whose  -wife  was  a  Christophers. 


/ 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  171 

neglected  and  the  land  otherwise  occupied,  the  Greneral  Court  in 
1650,  transferred  the  gratuity  of  the*  soldiers  to  NianUcutt.  The 
town  record  says : 

**  The  land  granted  to  Lieutenant  Thomas  Ball  and  other  well  deserving 
soldiers  lyeth  at  a  place  called  Sargent's  Head." 

Sergeant's  Head,  called  by  the  Indians  Pataquonk,  was  a  hiU  of 
moderate  elevation  above  the  sand-bar,  on  the  bay.  From  thence 
the  soldier  land  extended  west  to  a  fresh  pond,  to  which  the  name  of 
Soldier's  Reward  was  given.  On  the  south-west  of  this,  a  tract  of  100 
acres  had  been  secured  to  the  Hammonassetts,  and  was  called,  from 
the  name  of  their  chief,  Obed  land.  The  soldier  grant,  having  been 
laid  oat  so  as  to  include  the  Obed  land,  an  exchange  was  effected  pj 
.  the  General  Court,  and  200  acres  added  to  the  grant  on  the  north 
side  as  a  compensation  for  the  100  relinquished  on  the  south.  The 
Hammonassetts,  however,  sold  their  reservation  to  the  proprietors  of 
the  grant,  March  9th,  1691-2.*  Three  days  later,  (March  12th, 
1692,)  Joseph  and  Jonathan  Bull  of  Hartford,  who  appear  at  this 
time  to  have  been  the  sole  proprietors  of  the  tract,  conveyed  the 
Obed  land  and  700  acres  north  of  it  to  Nehemiah  Smith,  of  New 
London.^ 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  these  border  difficulties  it  may  be 
well  to  notice  the  manner  in  which,  according  to  time-honored  legends, 
the  question  was  settled.  Tradition  asserts  that  the  issue  was  brought 
about,  not  by  committees,  courts,  or  legislative  enactments,  but  by  a 
trial  of  skill  and  strength  between  champions  selected  for  the  pur- 
pose, which  was  regarded  as  leaving  it  to  the  Lard  to  decide. 

The  account  given  by  Dr.  Dwight  in  his  travels,  who  regards  it  as 
authentic  history,  is  as  follows : 

"  The  inhabitants  of  both  townships  agreed  to  settle  their  respective  titles  to ' 

the  land  in  controversy,  by  a  combat  between  two  champions  to  be  chosen  by 

each  for  that  purpose.     New  London  selected  two  men  of  the  names  of  Picket 

and  Latimer:  Lyme  committed  its  cause  to  two  others,  named  Griswold  and 

^1'    On  a  day  mutually  appointed,  the  champions  appeared  iiutlie  field, 

wid  fought  with  their  fists,  till  victory  declared  in  favor  of  each  of  the  Lyme 

combatants.    Lyme  then  quietly  took  possession  of  the  controverted  tract,  and 

has  held  ii  undisputed,  to  the  present  day.     This  it  is  presumed,  is  the  only 

instance,  in  which  a  public  controversy  has  been  decided  in  New  England 

^T  pugilism." 

.  "  is  probable  that  the  Hammonassetts  emigrated  elsewhere,  but  their  subsequent 
nwtory  has  not  been  traced. 
3  ThomM  Bradford,  tiie  brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Smith,  was  his  partner  in  the  purchase. 


f?S 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 


Anotber  version  of  the  story  is,  .that  the  line  was  settled  by  a 
race  instead  of  a  pugilistic  contest.  The  champions  are  said  to  have 
Eitartf'd  at  the  same  moment  from  either  side  of  the  disputed  tract, 
and  the  line  was  run  north  and  south  from  the  point  where  they  met. 
The  Lyme  men  being  the  swiftest  of  foot  obtained  the  largest  portion. 

It  ought  to  be  observed  that  all  written  accounts  of  this  judicial 
eombfii,  are  of  comparatively  recent  origin,  and  there  is  no  allusion 
to  any  such  contest  on  the  records  of  either  town.  It  can  not  there- 
fore h«ve  any  weight  as  historic  truth.  As  a  matter  of  curiosity  or 
Bupor^tltion,  among  individuals,  some  such  ordeal  may  have  been 
tried,  but  it  is  quite  improbable  that  the  two  towns  decided  their 
boundary  question  in  this  manner.  New  London  always  insisted 
thfit  it  should  be  determined  ^according  to  ancient  grants  of  the 
eourtj"  referring  to  Bride  Brook,  where  the  god  Terminus  had  been 
act  up. 

A  short  digression  respecting  the  early  inhabitants  of  Lyme  msLj 
not  be  iuappropriate  in  this  connection.  Lyme  was  originally  a  part 
of  Suybrook ;  the  first  grantees  were  the  inhabitants  of  Saybrook 
town  plot,  and  among  the  earhest  proprietors  names  are  found  be- 
longing^ to  that  company  from  Saybrook,  which  removed  in  1659  and 
166(>j  to  Norwich :  viz.,  Thomas  Adgate ;  Thomas  Bhss,  (whose 
Lyme  land  was  sold  to  Richard  Smith ;)  Morgan  Bowers ;  Francis 
GrisM'old,  (an  early  proprietor  on  "  Bride  Plaine ;")  John  Holmsted ; 
Biniou  and  Christopher  Huntington,  (the  latter  sold  to  John  Borden  ;) 
Capuvin  John  Mason ;  John  RevnoldSj  (wh^  anld  T)f ^ ,  an^  1  aaq^  ^^ 
WxiIstuu-EjCQcklEayO  and  Richard  Wallis.  These  original  proprie- 
tors of  Lyme  were  all  afterward  of  Norwich.*  Their  places  in 
Lymu  were  mostly  filled  by  settlers  of  a  later  generation. 

According  to  tradition  the  first  actual  occupant  in  Lyme  Tvas 
Matthow  Griswold.  His  title  must  have  emanated  from  Col.  George 
Fej3>vick,  but  the  grant  can  not  now  be  found  on  record.  It  consisted 
of  a  tine  segment  of  land,  washed  by  the  Sound  and  the  river,  at  the 
soutli'west  extremity  of  the  present  town,  and  is  said  to  have  been  a  fief 
or  feudal  grant,  held  upon  the  tenure  of  keeping  the  monument  of 
Lady  Fenwick,^  the  deceased  wife  of  the  colonel,  in  good  repair. 


1  PresiJi*nt  Styles  in  his  Itinerary  mentions  a  curions  tradition  respecting  the  pro- 
prierora  of  Norwich — that  they  were  driven  from  their  ancient  habitations  in  Lyme 
and  Saybrook  by  bktcb-lnrds, 

2  Lmiy  Alice  Fen  wick  was  the  daughter  of  Sir  Edward  Apsley  Knight;  hor  first 
hu^bnuJ  WOK  Sir  John  Botler,  (or  Butler,)  and  as  a  matter  of  courtesy  she  retained 
her  tUlc^  nltflr  her  nMrriage  to  Col.  Fenwick. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LaNBON.  173 

Of  this  there  is  no  proof.  Yet  certain  it  is  that  the  Griswold  home- 
stead was  favorably  situated  for  the  pious  office  of  keeping  watch 
over  the  Fenwick  tomb.  No  calamity  could  happen  to  it,  which 
might  not  be  observed  from  various  parts  of  the  Black-Hall  domain. 

Lady  Fenwick  died  in  Saybrook  about  the  year  1648.  The  pre- 
cise date  has  not  been  ascertained ;  nor  is  there  any  cotemporary 
record,  that  speaks  directly  of  her  death.  She  was  buried  on  the 
brow  of  the  river  bank,  in  a  spot  supposed  to  have  been  within  the 
indosure  of  the  old  wooden  fort  constructed  by  Lion  Gardiner  in 
1635,  and  destroyed  by  fire  in  1647.  The  fort  was  rebuilt  of  earth 
and  stone,  on  another  knoll  of  the  bank,  but  time  has  reduced  this 
also  to  a  level  with  the  surface,  and  nothing  remains  of  it  but  some 
slight  traces  of  a  ditch  and  embankments.  The  monument  of  Lady 
Fenwick  is  constructed  of  a  greyish  red  sandstone — the  color  of  the 
Portland  quarries.  The  scroll  or  table-piece  is  entire,  but  the  sup- 
porters are  dilapidated,  and  the  inscription,  if  it  ever  had  any,  is 
efiaced. 

This  tomb  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  workmanship  of  Matthew 
Griswold,  to  whose  skill  other  monumental  tablets  of  that  day  have 
been  attributed.  It  may  have  been  bespoken  by  Col.  Fenwick,  be- 
fore he  returned  to  England,  but  not  completed  at  the  time  of  his 
decease  in  1657.  A  receipt  is  registered  at  Saybrook,  dated  April 
Ist,  1679,  wherein  Matthew  Griswold,  Senior,  acknowledges  having 
received 

"  The  fall  and  just  sum  of  seven  pounds  sterling,  from  the  agent  of  Benja- 
min Batten,  Esq.,  of  London,  in  payment  for  the  tomb-stone  of  the  Lady  Alice 
Botler,  late  of  Saybrook." 

Had  this  monument  been  completed  before  the  death  of  Col.  Fen- 
wick, his  wealth,  his  high  and  honorable  character,  and  the  large 
estate  he  had  in  Connecticut,  forbid  the  supposition  that  payment 
would  have  been  so  long  delayed.  Was  it,  in  point  of  fact,  ever 
completed  ?  Is  there  any  proof  that  it  ever  contained  any  inscrip- 
tion? Mr.  Griswold  perhaps  expected  an  inscription  ib  be  sent 
from  England,  which  never  arrived.*     The  general  opinion  has  in- 


1  In  Uie  ancient  burial  place  at  New  London,  some  of  ttie  stones  were  set  before 
the  inscription  was  cut,  as  is  ascertained  from  notes  made  by  the  graver  at  the  time, 
in  his  journal  or  diary.  There  arc  two  sandstone  tables  which  it  is  presumed  he  left 
unfinished  at  the  time  of  his  death.  On  one  the  inscription  is  just  commenced,  and 
tiie  other  ig  left  like  the  Fenwick  tomb,  entirely  void  of  a  record. 

15' 


H4 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON* 


deed  been,  that  the  tomb  once  exhibited  a  record,  but  that  time  has 
effaced  the  letters.     Dr.  Dwight  said  of  it  in  1810 : 

'*  The  sandstone  of  which  it  is  built,  is  of  so  perishable  a  nature,  that  the 
lofcription  has  been  obliterated,  beyond  the  remembrance  of  the  oldest  exist' 
Img  inhabitants.*' 
> 

If  this  statement  be  correct,  the  letters  were  entirely  worn  out  with- 
in seventy  or  eighty  years  from  the  time  they  were  cut.  Yet  the  red 
sandstone  of  the  country,  instead  of  perishing  so  readily,  is  found  in 
other  cases  to  grow  harder  by  exposure,  and  to  preserve  inscriptions 
with  tenacity.  To  the  handiwork  of  Matthew  Griswold,  is  also  at- 
tributed the  monument  which  covers  the  remains  of  his  father-in-lawf 
Henry  Wolcot,  in  the  burial  ground  at  Windsor,  which  is  of  similar 
sstone  with  the  Fenwick  table,  and  probably  quite  as  old — Wolcot 
died  in  1655 — but  the  inscription  is  entirely  legible.  If  the  Fen- 
wick epitaph  was  worn  out  in  eighty  years,  would  this  be  entire  at 
I  lie  end  of  two  centuries? 

One  would  indeed  wish  to  believe  that  something  commemorative 
and  appropriate,  had  been  inscribed  on  the  tomb  of  Lady  Alice.  It 
19  adding  sorrow  to  desolation,  when  we  assume  that  it  was  left  un- 
finished, uninscribed,  erected  by  stranger  hands  on  a  distant  shore. 

The  solitude,  the  stem  and  dreary  simplicity  of  the  monumentt 
firesent  a  vivid  contrast  to  the  history  of  the  gentle  lady  it  was  de- 
fiigned  to  commemorate — nobly  born  and  delicately  nurtured  in  the 
hosom  of  English  refinement,  and  under  the  shadow  of  English  oaks. 
A  dark  stone  tablet,  with  a  heavy  scroll  half-broken  down  ;  without 
ornament,  without  inclosure ;  nothing  over,  or  around,  but  the  hill, 
the  vaulted  heavens,  and  the  waters  murmuring  along  the  shore ; 
lying  bleak  and  lonely  on  the  river's  brink,  looking  out  toward  the 
melancholy  sea,  and  suggesting  the  thought  that  the  fair  exile  had 
died  longing  to  behold  once  more  her  island  home — such  is  the  Fen- 
wick tomb. 


When  a  town  is  to  be  organized,  the  preliminary  step  is  the  choice 
of  a  constable.  It  is  the  first  act  of  self-government — an  unfurling 
of  the  banner  of  independence  by  a  subordinate  district.  Accord- 
ingly, when  Saybrook  was  to  be  divided,  and  the  east  side  prepared 
to  set  up  for  itself,  an  order  authorizing  them  to  choose  and  qualify 
such  an  officer,  was  issued  by  a  court  of  assistants  held  at  New  Lon- 
don May  31st,  1664 — Deputy  Grovemor  Mason,  and  Messrs.  Tal- 
cott,  Bruen  and  Avery  on  the  bench. 


HISTORY    OP    NBW   LONDON.  176 

**  This  Coart  apprehending  a  neoeasity  of  goYemment  on  the  east  side  of  the 
river  of  Seabrooke  do  order  that  the  inhabitants  of  Seabrooke  meet  forthwith 
and  make  choice  of  a  Constable  for  the  use  of  the  Country  and  the  inhabitants 
on  the  said  east  side,  and  the  oath  to  be  administered  by  Mr.  Chapman. 

"Also  that  the  people  at  such  times  and  seasons  as  they  cannot  go  to  the  pob- 
lic  ordinance  in  the  town  on  the  other  side,  that  they  agree  to  meet  together  at 
one  place  every  Lord's  day  at  a  house  agreed  upon  by  them,  for  the  sanctiBca- 
tion  of  the  Si^bbath  in.  a  public  way,  according  to  [the  command  of]  God. 

"And  this  Court  desires  the  selectmen  of  Seabrook  to  see  that  children  and 
servants  through  these  limits  be  catechised  and  instructed  according  to  order  of 
Court." 

On  the  13th  of  Feb.,  1665-6,  articles  of  agreement  were  entered 
into  between  the  two  divisions  of  Saybrook,  preparatory  to  what 
they  style  "  a  loving  parting.'^     The  preamble  states  that— 

"  The  inhabitants  east  of  the  river  desiring  to  be  a  plantation  by  themselves 
do  declare  that  they  have  a  competency  of  lands  to  entertain  thirty  families." 

The  Lyme  committee  that  signed  the  parting  covenant  were : 

••  Matthew  Griswold,  William  Waller, 

Reinold  Marvin,  John  Lay  Senr., 

Hichard  Smith,  John  Comstock." 

The  new  township  was  called  Lyme^  a  name  derived  from  Lyme 
Begis  on  the  coast  of  Dorsetshire,  a  small  port^  from  whence  prob* 
abJy  Mr.  Griswold,  if  not  others  of  the  planters,  took  his  departure 
from  England.  This  name  was  sanctioned  by  the  Legislature  in 
May,  1667.  The  first  land  records,  after  the' town  was  organized^ 
are  attested  by  Matthew  Griswold  and  Reinold  Marvin.  The  latter 
died  in  1676  at  the  early  age  of  forty-two,  and  the  name  of  Thomas 
Lee  succeeds  as  the  land  comissioner. 

The  first  settlers  of  Lyme  were  mostly  of  the  second  generation 
of  emigrants  from  Europe.  Matthew  Griswold  must  be  excepted, 
the  patriarch,  and  for  a  long  term  of  years  the  principal  magistrate 
of  the  town.  Thomas  Lee,  Henry  Champion  and  John  Lay  must 
also  be  reckoned  of  the  first  generation.  Henry  Champion  died  in 
1708,  verging  toward  the  age  of  one  hundred  years.  John  Lay 
died  in  1675 ;  in  his  last  will  and  testament  he  says,  "being  grown 
aged."  His  son  John  Lay,  Jun.,  was  bom  in  1633,  probably  on  the 
other  side  of  the  water.  By  a  second  wife  he  had  a  second  son 
Johuy — both  of  them  living  at  their  father's  decease.    Thomas  Lee 


176 


BISTORT    OP    NBW    LONDON. 


came  to  America  in  the  family  of  his  ^Etther,  in  1640  or  1641,  prob- 
ably then  a  youth.* 

Mr.  Griswold  died  in  Dec,  1698,  or  in  Jan.,  1698-9,  and  was  over 
eighty  years  of  age.  No  memorial  of  his  grave  has  been  found*  It 
would  be  satisfactory  could  we  discover  but  a  rude  stone,  and  a  few 
letters  to  note  the  death-day  and  the  resting-place  of  one  whose 
chisel  had  so  often  carved  memorials  for  others.  There  is  always 
satisfaction  in  finding  a  stone  with  its  record  at  the  head  of  a  grave, 
even  when  we  feel  no  special  interest  in  the  tenant  that  lies  beneath. 
It  seems  to  say  that  love  and  respect  followed  the  departed  one  to 
his  narrow  home,  and  did  not  suddenly  terminate  there.  But  in  the 
first  era  of  our  country,  the  absence  of  an  inscribed  stone  is  no 
evidence  of  neglect  or  indigence.  Men  who  are  skillful  to  work  in 
stone  are  seldom  found  in  a  new  country,  and  labor  is  engrossed  with 
occupations  necessary  to  the  living. 

Thomas  Lee  died  in  1705  :'  his  burial  place  is  also  shrouded  in 
obscurity.  These  are  not  mentioned  as  solitary  instances.  Every 
where  in  our  country  we  miss  the  graves  of  the  fathers.  The  first 
generation  and  many  of  the  second  seem  to  have  dropped  silently 
and  unnoticed  into  the  bosom  of  the  earth.  It  is  indeed  of  slight 
importance,  since  we  have  other  memorials  more  honorable  and  last- 
ing than  those  of  stone,  to  attest  the  character  of  those  much  endur- 
ing men. 

Tradition  relates  that  the  meadows  and  corn-fields  along  the  river 
in  southern  Lyme,  were  first  cultivated  by  armed  men,  ^ho  came 
over  from  Saybrook,  with  guns  and  pikes,  as  well  as  agricultural  im- 
plements, to  mow  the  marshes  and  to  plant  and  gather  the  harvest. 
Mr.  Griswold,  it  is  said,  was  the  first  to  build  a  habitation  on  that 
side,  and  this  being  occupied  for  several  years  solely  by  his  negro 
servants,  was  familiarly  called  Black-Hall,  a  name  which  was  at  first 
retained  to  designate  the  Griswold  lands,  but  is  now  the  sectional 
term  for  the  district  in  which  they  lie.  The  location  of  Black-Hall 
Point  is  very  beautiful ;  the  land  slopes  to  the  Sound  and  projects  so 
far  into  it  that  in  winter  the  sun  rises  and  sets  over  the  water.    Every 


1  A  manuscript  account  of  the  Lee  family  says:  "In  1641  came  Mr.  Brown  from 
England  with  Thomas  Lee  and  wife  and  three  children ;  the  wife  of  Lee  was  Brown's 
daughter.  Lee  died  on  the  passage  with  smaU-pox;  his  wife  and  children  came  to 
Saybrook." 

2  The  will  of  Ensign  Thomas  Lee,  Senior,  was  proved  Feb.  19th,  1704-6. 


HtSTOBT     OP     NEW    LONDON.  17? 

sail  that  passes  through  the  Sound  is  in  fufl  view,  and  often  on  a 
fine  day  fifty  or  more  may  be  seen  at  one  time.' 

North  of  Black-Hall,  ^^  between  the  rivers,''  as  it  is  locally  called, 
that  is,  between  Black-Hall  Creek  and  Duck  Creek,  both  emptying 
into  Connecticut  River,  John  Lay  and  Isaac  Waterhouse  were  proba- 
bly the  earliest  settlers.  The  latter  was  the  oldest  son  of  Jacob  Wa- 
terhouse, of  New  London;  he  purchased  in  1667,  all  the  lands  of 
Major  Mason,  in  Lyme.  Li  this  district,  on  a  high  bleak  hill,  three 
meeting-houses  were  built  in  succession.  A  bold  position  for  a 
church,  high  and  solitary,  towering  almost  over  Saybrook  itself, 
saluting  every  passing  sail  within  a  wide  sweep  of  vision,  and  indica- 
ting even  to  the  inhabitants  of  Long  Island,  with  its  heaven-pointed 
finger,  the  region  of  happiness. 

The  first  meeting-house  on  this  breezy  height  was  erected  about 
1670.  In  a  new  plantation  the  buildings  are  necessarily  rude  and  ifl- 
complete ;  destined  soon  to  give  place  to  others.  This  first  church 
arrived  at  old  age  in  fifteen  years.  The  inhabitants  could  not  agree 
on  the  site  for  its  successor,  and  were  obliged  to  call  in  magistrates 
from  abroad  to  compose  their  differences  and  settle  the  disputed 
point  The  report  of  these  arbitrators  is  so  honorably  characteristic 
of  the  magistracy  of  that  age,  that  it  well  deserves  to  be  quoted  entire. 
It  is  the  spirit  of  Puritanism,  condensed  into  an  example. 

*<  Tlu  Agreement  abotU  the  Meeting- Bouee, 

**  Whereas  by  the  General  Court  May  last  we  were  appointed  to  hear  and 
determine  a  controversy  between  the  inhabitants  of  Lyme  concerning  the  place 
where  the  next  meeting-house  shall  stand,  and  having  seen  the  places  desired 
hf  the  several  inhabitants,  and  having  heard  their  several  allegations  and  rea- 
loot  why  they  would  have  the  meeting-house  stand  in  th^  places  by  them  de- 
nied, and  the  returns  they  have  been  pleased  to  make  one  unto  another  there- 
upon, and  seriously  considered  of  the  premises,  in  order  to  the  putting  of  a  fina^ 
issue  to  the  case,  we  saw  reason  to  pitch  upon  two  places  where  to  set  the 
meeting-houie,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  greatest  part  of  the  people  of  Lyme, 
we,  alter  calling  upon  the  Lord,  commended  the  decision  of  the  case  to  a  lot, 
which  lot  fell  upon  the  southermost  we  had  appointed,  which  is  upon  the  hill 
where  the  now  meeting-house  stands,  more  northerly  in  the  very  place  where 
we  shall  stalce  it  out,  and  we  do  order  and  appoint  the  said  meeting-house  x8  be 
erected:  and  now,  worthy  and  much  respected  friends,  we  have  according  to 
oar  best  judgment  led  you  to  an  issue  of  your  controversy  ;  we  request  and  ad- 
vise you  to  lay  aside  all  former  dissatisfaction  that  has  risen  amongst  you  in 
the  management  of  this  affair  hitherto,  and  that  lilUgibWl  be  buried  and  for- 


1  Mr.  Matthew  Griswold,  the  present  occupant  of  Black-HaU,  hifonned  the  author 
that  on  a  fiur,  calm  morning  he  had  counted  one  hundred  saU  of  vossdi  within  sight 


178 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 


gatten  hy  you  and  never  more  revived  by  any  amongst  you,  and  that  yoa  do 
forthwith  in  the  best  time  and  manner  you  can,  join  heart  and  hand  in  the' 
building  and  erecting  a  meeting-house  in  the  place  by  the  special  providence  of 
God  stated  and  laid  out  to  you  for  that  purpose,  and  desire  the  favorable  ac- 
ceptance of  our  desires  and  endeavors  to  promote  your  peace,  and  that  the  God 
of  peace  may  direct  you  into  ways  of  peace  and  good  agreement,  that  his  pres- 
ence and  blessing  may  be  your  portion,  which  is  the  heart's  desire  of  your 
friends,  *•  John  Talcott, 

"  John  Allin." 

"  This  day  in  Lyme,  June  4th,  1686." 

[From  Lyme  Records,  Book  1.] 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Prom  1670  to  1690. — General  View.— Indian  War. — ^Account  of  the  expedi- 
tioas  from  New  London  county.^^Death  of  Governor  Winthrop. — Erection  of 
the  second  meeting-house. — Illness  and  death  of  Mr.  Bradstreet. — Transient 
ministers. — Popularity  of  Mr.  Saltonstall.— His  ordination. — Heat  and  dis- 
ease— Sir  Edmund  Andross. — Meeting-house  btimt.— The  third  or  Salton- 
stall meeting-house  built. 

Evert  glimpse  that  is  now  obtained  of  the  plantation  exhibits  en- 
terprise, and  a  slowly  growing  prosperity.  But  the  growth  of  towns 
in  that  day  was  gradual,  a  struggle  for  life,  bearing  no  resemblance 
to  ihe  rapid  expansion  of  American  settlements  in  later  days.  In 
1670,  Uie  list  of  the  town  was  but  £8,506,  and  seven  years  later, 
(after  the  Indian  war,)  it  was  less,  £8,206.  Hartford,  Windsor, 
Weihersfield,  New  Haven,  and  even  Fairfield  and  Milford  were 
before  New  London.  Property  was  here  more  uncertain  than  in 
most  other  towns.  •  The  comers  and  goers  were  many,  and  names 
incidentally  appear  upon  the  records  which  are  never  heard  of  after- 
ward. New  London  had  peculiar  characteristics  for  that  day,  a 
floating,  wavering,  self-confident  populace,  inured  to  the  hardships  of 
the  sea,  to  artisan  labor,  and  the  tillage  of  a  stubborn  soil,  but  easily 
drawn  aside  to  recreation,  and  we  infer  from  the  complaints  against 
them,  noby  and  litigious.  The  character  of  the  town  long  reflected 
these  peculiar  features  ;  but  amid  the  changeful  elements,  a  substan- 
tial class  of  worthy  citizens  were  always  to  be  found ;  men  who  were 
neither  fickle,  nor  contentious,  nor  irreligious,  but  of  the  genuine, 
New  England  stamp ;  felling  the  forest  and  subduing  the  reluctant 
earth ;  toiUng  in  the  work-shop,  or  pulling  at  the  oar ;  now  gather- 
ing with  right  merry  heart  in  the  social  circle,  now  governing  the 
town,  or  with  lowly  veneration  engaged  in  the  worship  of  God. 

It  i^pears  to  have  been  the  original  plan  of  the  town  that  the  first 
line  of  dwelling-houses  bordering  the  semi-circular  shore,  from  the 


180 


BISTORT     OF     NEW     LONDON. 


I 


head  of  Winthrop's  Cove  to  the  end  of  the  point  now  known  as 
8haw*8  Neck,  a  distance  of  more  than  a  mile  and  a  half,  shoold,  bs 
far  as  practicable,  face  the  wat«r,  with  an  open  street  or  quay  in  front 
^f  them.  Had  this  design  been  carried  out,  a  noble  promenade  would 
lifive  been  left  along  the  shore,  girdling  the  city  with  beauty,  and  pre- 
Bcnting  a  fine  picture  seaward.  All  the  first  houses  in  Main  and 
BMtik  Streets,  were  built  on  the  west  side  of  the  street,  while  the  east 
si  tie,  the  shore,  beach  or  marsh,  that  bordered  the  town,  was  left  in 
common.  From  the  eastern  part  of  the  Parade,  where  is  now  the 
Ferry  wharf,  the  coast  originally  turned  to  the  west,  more  abruptly 
thun  at  present,  and  was  bordered  by  a  strip  of  sand-beach,  inclosing 
a  narrow,  salt-water  pond  or  marsh,  which  haying  been  filled  in  and 
protected  by  a  wall,  forms  the  present  Water  Street.  At  the  head  of 
this  beach  were  the  ferry  stairs  and  the  old  town  landing-place,  where 
in  1703,  was  built  the  town  wharf.  This  site  had  been  early  chosen 
for  town  purposes,  on  account  of  its  affording  the  easiest  ascent  to  the 
area  or  platform  of  the  town.  Almost  every  street  below  this  point, 
leading  to  the  water,  had  an  abrupt  pitch  to  the  shore,  which  time 
and  highway  labor  have  worn  away.  After  1670,  the  border  of  the 
ctive  running  up  to  the  mill,  began  to  be  occupied.  The  water-craft 
of  that  day  being  mostly  sloops,  or  decked  boats,  found  no  difficulty 
in  ascending  nearly  to  the  head  of  the  cove,  and  shops  or  warehouses 
were  soon  erected  along  the  western  side,  filling  this  part  of  the  town 
witli  the  hum  of  business.  On  the  shore  side  of  Bank  Street,  very 
few  grants  were  made  until  about  1720.  The  town  mainly  consisted 
of  two  ends.  Hence  a  distinction  was  early  made  and  long  continued 
between  up-towners  and  down-towners.  In  later  days,  and  no  doubt 
iminemorially,  rivalry  and  feuds,  challenges  at  playing  ball,  snow- 
balling, and  occasional  fights,  took  place  between  the  boys  of  the  two 
ends. 

After  1666,  for  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  the  commissioners  (jus- 
tices) for  New  London  were  almost  invariably  Messrs.  Avery,  Weth- 
crtdl  and  Palmes.  In  1674,  Mr.  Palmes  was  invested  by  the  Gren- 
eral  Court  with  the  superior  power  of  a  magistrate,  through  New 
XfOMdon  county  and  the  Narragansett  country.  In  military  afiairs, 
after  the  decease  of  Major  Mason,  Fitz-John  Winthrop  took  the  lead, 
and  next  to  him  were  Palmes  and  Avery.  In  1672,  a  company  of 
trrjopers  was  raised,  forty  in  number,  of  which  Edward  Palmes  waa 
appointed  caption,  John  Mason,  of  Norwich,  lieutenant,^  and  Joshua 

1  Son  to  M^jor  Mason. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  18L 

Sajmondy  oornet.^     This  was  the  first  organized  company  of  horse- 
men in  the  county. 

The  year  1675  brought  with  it  the  gloom  and  terror  of  an  Indian 
war.  After  near  forty  years  of  quiet,  following  the  vindictive  strug- 
gle with  the  PequotS)  the  whole  country  was  terror-struck  with  the 
ne^s  that  a  wide-spread  combination  of  Wampanoags,  Narragansetts, 
and  other  tribes  had  been  formed,  with  the  design  and  desperate  hope 
of  exterminating  the  white  race  from  the  land.  Suddenly,  before  any 
effectual  measures  of  defense  had  been  concerted,  Philip,  with  his 
fierce  horde  of  warriors,  burst  out  of  the  dark  cloud  like  a  thunder- 
bolt 

Connecticut,  as  well  as  the  neighboring  colonies,  lay  exposed  to  an 
immediate  assault.  Her  eastern  frontier  was  open  to  the  Narragan- 
setU ;  Norwich  and  Stonington  were  particularly  in  danger.  With- 
in her  limits  were  bands  of  Indians,  who  might  perhaps  be  induced  to 
join  the  enemy,  and  one  of  these  bands,  the  Mohegans,  was  at  no 
time  more  powerful  than  at  this  juncture.  Patronized  by  the  Ma- 
sons, and  having  his  frontier  protected  by  Norwich,  UQcas  had  been 
for  fifteen  years  increasing  in  numbers  and  strength.  This  wary 
sachem  kept  his  neighbors  for  some  time  in  doubt  which  party  he 
would  join  in  the  contest.  Messris.  Wetherell  and  Avery  made  him 
a  visit  on  the  28th  of  June,  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  how  he  stood 
affected  to  Philip's  designs,  and  returned,  apprehensive  that  he  was 
leagued  with  the  enemy.  In  Mr.  Wetherell's  letter  to  the  governor, 
be  says : 

"  We  have  reason  to  believe  that  most  of  his  men  are  gone  that  way,  for  he 
hath  very  few  men  at  home," — "  tis  certain  he  hath  lately  had  a  great  corres- 
pODdence  with  Philip,  and  many  presents  have  passed."' 

On  Sunday,  June  24th,  the  first  overt  act  of  hostility  was  commit* 
ted  by  Philip.  Several  houses  were  burned  and  men  slaughtered  at 
Siransey.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  news  reached  New  London 
till  Jane  29th,  when  it  was  brought  by  a  messenger  on  his  way  to 
Hartford,  dispatched  by  Mr.  Stanton  to  carry  the  fearful  tidings  to 
the  governor.  A  thrill  of  horror  ran  through  the  community.  Mr. 
Wietherell  wyote  urgently  to  "Governor  Winthrop,  June  29th  and 
30th,  for  assistance. 


1  It  was  much  the  custom  then  to  address  people  by  their  titles  of  office.  Comet 
Raymond  is  mentioned  on  the  town  books  by  his  title,  as  naturally  as  Captain  Palmes 
by  his. 

2  Mass.  Hist,  Coll.,  8d  scries,  vol.  10,  p.  118. 

16 


1 


182  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

"  It  is  reported  that  Philip  is  Tery  near  us  and  expects  further  assistance 
from  Uncas." 

**  We  have  great  reason  to  believe  that  there  is  an  universal  combination  of 
the  Indians,  and  fear  you  cannot  aid  us  timely.  We  are  calling  in  all  our  out 
livers,  and  shall  by  God's  assistance,  do  our  best  for  our  defence,  but  hope  that 
your  Honor,  with  the  rest  of  the  honorable  Council  will  despatch  present  sup- 
plies for  our  aid.*'^ 

Major  John  Winthrop,  the  highest  military  commander  in  the 
county,  was  then  dangerously  ill,  and  this  was  calculated  to  increase 
the  panic  of  the  three  eastern  towns.  The  Council  of  War  immedi" 
ately  dispatched  forty  men  to  their  aid,  and  Captain  Wait  Winthrop 
being  authorized  to  act  both  as  a  military  commander  and  a  commis- 
sioner, raised  a  considerable  force,  and  marched  directly  into  the  In- 
dian territory.  Here  he  met  the  troops  and  commissioner  sent  from 
Massachusetts,  and  assisted  in  concluding  a  treaty  with  the  Narra- 
gansetts,  which  quieted  for  a  time  the  alarm  of  the  eastern  towns. 
The  Mohegans,  after  some  little  hesitation,  and  the  Pequots  and  Na- 
hanticks,  with  acceptable  readiness,  joined  the  £nglish ;  and  both 
eventually  performed  essential  service. 

During  the  summer  the  principal  seat  of  the  war  was  in  the  inte- 
rior of  Massachusetts,  and  the  towns  on  Connecticut  River  were  the 
sufferers.  But  as  winter  approached,  the  hostile  Indians  concentra- 
ted their  forces  in  the  Narragansett  territory,  in  dangerous  proximity 
to  the  Connecticut  frontier. 

The  military  regulations  enforced  by  the  Greneral  Court  in  October 
were  of  a  stem  and  vigorous  cast,  and  embodied  in  terms  of  anxious 
solemnity.  They  were  in  fact  equivalent  to  putting  the  whol0  colony 
under  the  ban  of  martial  law.  The  most  important  enactments  were 
these :  sixty  soldiers  to  be  raised  in  every  county — the  Pequots  to  be 
assigned  to  the  charge  of  Capt.  Avery,  and  the  Mohegans  to  Capt. 
Mason — places  of  defense  and  refuge  to  be  imrftediately  fortified  in 
every  plantation — ^neglect  of  orders  in  time  of  assault  to  be  punished 
with  death — ^no  provisions  allowed  to  be  carried  out  of  the  colony 
without  special  license — and  no  male  between  the  ages  of  fourteen 
and  seventy,  suffered  to  leave  the  colony  without  special  permission 
from  the  council,  or  from  four  assistants,  under  penalty  of  £100.* 


1  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  8d  series  vol.  10,  p.  119. 

2  These  orders  are  recorded  at  New  London  with  the  following  indorsement:  "  To 
y«  Constable  of  Norwitch,  N.  London,  Stonington,  Lyme,  Kenllworth  and  Saybrooke, 
to  be  posted  from  Constable  to  Constable  forthwith  and  published  and  recortled,  and 
then  to  be  returned  to  the  Clarke  of  the  Coonty.'* 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  183 

In  compliance  with  the  order  respecting  fortifications,  a  committee 
of  seven  persons  was  appointed  in  New  London,  Fitz-John  Winthrop, 
James  Rogers,  William  Douglas,  William  Hough,  Christopher  Chris- 
tophers, Samuel  Rogers  and  Thomas  Beeby,  who  issued  an  order 
(October  28th)  for  six  points  to  be  immediately  fortified,  viz. : 

1.  The  stone  house  at  the  mill,  near  Major  Paknes  and  Samuel 
Rogers,  for  defense  of  that  end  of  the  town. 

2.  The  houses  of  Mr.  Christophers  and  Mr.  Edgecombe,  for  de- 
fense of  that  neighborhood.  (On  Main  Street,  each  side  of  Federal 
Street.) 

3.  Mr.  Bradstreet's  and  the  town  house.  (By  the  town  home, 
probably  the  meeting-house  was  meant,  which  was  near  Mr.  Brad- 
street's.) 

4.  Mr.  Charles  Hill's.  (On  State  Street,  probably  comer  of  M^ 
ridian.) 

5.  Mr.  Joshua  Raymond's.     (Comer  of  Parade  and  Bank  Streets.) 

6.  Mr.  Ralph  Parker's.  (At  the  head  of  Close  Cove,  in  the  lower 
part  of  the  town.) 

New  London,  Norwich  and  Stonington  were  all  partially  fortified 
in  this  manner,  and  a  constant  guard  was  maintained.  Li  the  bel- 
fries of  the  meeting-houses,  and  on  the  high  hills,  watchmen  were 
kept  on  the  look-out,  with  sentry-boxes  erected  for  their  accommoda- 
tion.^ 

The  United  Colonies  seem  to  have  been  pervaded  with  the  idea 
that  a  crisis  in  their  existence  had  arrived  which  demanded  bold  and 
immediate  measures.  To  meet  this  crisis,  they  determined  on  a  win- 
ter campaign,  in  which  an  overpowering  force  should  be  sent  into  the 
thickets  of  Narragansett,  to  attack  the  lion  in  his  den.  An  army 
was  raised  of  one  thousand  men.  The  proportion  of  Connecticut 
was  three  hundred  and  fifVeen,  who  were  placed  under  the  command 
of  Major  Robert  Treat,  of  Milford,  and  ordered  to  rendezvous  at 
New  London. 

A  town  always  suffers  from  being  made  a  gathering-place  for  Sold- 
iers. New  London  was  soon  in  a  state  of  bustle  and  excitement, 
and,  during  the  remainder  of  the  war,  continued  to  be  a  camp  for  the 
troops,  a  store-house  for  supplies,  and  a  hospital  for  the  sick — ^full  of 
disturbance,  discomfort  and  complaints. 

The  troops  began  to  collect  the  latter  part  of  November.     Those 


1  A  height  oTerlooking  Norwich  groen,  is  still  known  as  Sentry  Hill,  fh>m  this  cir 
cnmstance. 


184  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

from  Fairfield  and  New  Haven  counties  came  mostly  by  water ; 
those  from  other  comities  by  land.  New  London  county  raised 
seventy  men  under  Capt.  John  Mason,  of  Norwich,  beside  Pequots 
aad  Mohegans  under  Capt  Grallop.  Of  the  seventy  men,  Norwich 
contributed  eighteen ;  New  London,  Stonington  and  Lyme,  ftrty ; 
Saybrook,  eight ;  Eillingworth,  four.  The  whole  force  was  to  be  at 
New  London  Dec.  10th.  Great  exertions  were  made  to  obtmn  the 
requisite  quantity  of  provisions  and  all  the  apparatus  of  war.  Mr. 
Wetherell  was  the  active  magistrate,  Joshua  Raymond  the  commis- 
sary. Wheat  was  sent  from  other  parts  of  the  colony,  here  to  be 
ground  and  baked.  Indians  were  to  be  fitted  with  caps  and  stock- 
ings. The  town  also  furnished  a  quantity  of  powder,  bullets  and 
fiints,  and  ten  stands  of  arms.  At  length  there  was  an  impressment 
of  beef,  pork,  com  and  rum,  horses  and  carts,  and  the  army  marched.^ 

These  troops,  forming  a  junction  with  those  of  the  other  colonies, 
were  engaged  in  the  fearful  swamp  fight  at  Narragansett,^  Dec.  19th, 
1675.  A  complete  victory  was  here  obtained  over  the  savage  foe, 
but  at  great  expense  of  life  on  both  sides.  The  number  of  Lidians 
killed  on  the  side  of  the  enemy,  was  estimated  at  nearly  a  thousand. 
Of  the  English  army,  two  hundred  were  killed  and  wounded,  of  whom 
eighty  were  of  the  Connecticut  line — a  large  proportion  out  of  three 
hundred  and  fifteen.  The  loss  sustained  by  the  friendly  Indians  (if 
any)  is  not  included  in  this  number. 

The  Mohegans  in  this  fight  were  under  the  command  of  Capt. 
John  Gallop,  of  Stonington,  who  was  numbered  among  the  slain. 
Capt.  Avery  had  charge  of  the  Pequots.  It  was  afterward  reported 
by  some,  that  the  Connecticut  Indians  would  not  fight  in  this  battle, 
but  discharged  their  guns  into  the  air.  This  must  be  an  error.  Capt. 
Gallop,  their  gallant  leader,  was  slain  in  the  fury  of  the  onset.  No 
charge  of  cowardice  or  insubordination  was  brought  against  them 
after  their  return  home  ;  while  on  the  contrary,  rewards  for  faithftil 
service  were  bestowed  on  several.  In  the  accounts  of  the  county 
treasurer,  are  notices  of  cloth  and  provisions  dealt  out  to  various  indi- 
viduals, after  they  came  from  the  battle.  Among  these  are  the 
names  of  Momoho,  Nanasquee,  Tomquash  and  bis  brother — ^  com 
delivered  Cassasinamon's  squaw,"  and  "  blew  cloth  for  stockings  to 
Ninnicraft's  daughter's  Captayne  and  his  brother."  Capt.  John  Ma- 
son, of  Norwich,  received  a  wound,  with  which  he  languished  till  the 

« 

1  These  particulars  are  gathered  from  accounts  afterward  presented  for  payment. 

2  Within  the  limits  of  the  present  town  of  South  Kingston,  R.  I. 


HI8TOBT  OP  NEW  LONDON.         185 

next  September,  and  then  died.  The  wounded  men  were  mostly 
brought  to  New  London  to  be  healed,  and  were  attended  bj  Mr. 
Gershom  Bulkley,  the  former  nunister  of  the  town,  who  had  accom- 
panied Uie  expedition  in  the  capacity  of  sorgeon. 

In  January,  1 675-6,  another  army  of  one  thousand  men  was  raised. 
The  Connecticut  quota  was  again  three  hundred  and  fifteen ;  their 
leader  Major  Treat,  and  their  rendezvous,  New  London.  They  be- 
gan their  march  on  the  26th,  passed  through  Stonington  into  Uie 
Narragansett  country,  and  from  thence  north-westerly  into  the  Nip- 
muck  region,  clearing  away  the  Lidians  in  their  course,  but  meeting 
with  no  opportunity  to  strike  a  heavy  blow.  Uncas  himself  accom- 
panied this  expedition ;  and  the  Council  of  War  wrote  to  Mr.  Bulkley 
to  return  thanks  for  their  good  service,  to  Uncas  and  Owaneco  of 
the  Mohegans,  and  to  Robin  Cassasinamon  and  Momoho  of  the 
Pequots.^ 

During  the  winter.  New  London  suffered  exceedingly  from  the 
quartering  of  soldiers  upon  the  inhabitants,  and  the  great  scarcity  of 
provisions.  In  May,  the  Greneral  Court  authorized  the  enlistment  of 
three  hundred  and  fifty  men,  as  a  standing  army,  to  be  in  readiness 
for  any  service.  This  force,  which  was  under  the  command  of  Ma- 
jof  John  Talcott,  was  almost  immediately  ordered  into  the  field,  Nor- 
wich at  this  time  being  designated  as  the  gathering  place.  Mr. 
Wctherell  and  Mr.  Douglas  were  the  commissaries,  and  New  Lon- 
don, for  the  third  time,  was  a  depot  for  supplies.  The  number  of 
Indian  auxiliaries  engaged  at  this  time  was  unusually  large.  Major 
Talcott  left  Norwich  June  2d,  and  entering  the  wilderness  marched 
directly  toward  the  upper  towns  on  Connecticut  River,  where  the 
opportune  arrival  of  so  large  a  force,  is  supposed  to  have  saved  Had- 
ley  from  Indian  devastation.^  Capt.  Greorge  Denison  had  command 
of  the  company  raised  in  New  London  county ;  Lieut.  Thomas  Lef- 
fingwell,  of  Norwich,  and  Ensign  John  Beeby,  of  New  London,  were 
with  him.  This  company  went  up  the  river  by  water  to  Northamp- 
ton, and  from  thence  joined  Major  Talcott  with  supplies,  of  which  the 
army  was  in  pressing  need.  They  had  suffered  so  much  on  their 
route,  that  the  soldiers  gave  it  the  name  of  the  long  and  hungry 
march?    Mr.  Fitch,  of  Norwich,  went  with  them  as  chaplain,  and  Mr. 

I 

,  1  Coiuu  Colonial  Records,  voL  2,  p.  406. 

I  2  Trumbull's  History  of  Connecticut 

8  Ibid.  Major  Tallcott  complained  that  the  bread  they  had  with  them  was  all  cov- 
ered with  bhio  mold,  and  adds  expressively,  *'  Bread  made  for  this  wilderness  work 
had  need  be  well  dried."    Conn,  Colonial  Becords,  vol.  2,  p.  468. 

16* 


186  History   of  new  london^ 

Bulkley  as  surgeon.  This  army  returned  to  Connecticut  about  Jane 
10th,  having  scoured  the  country  far  up  the  river,  but  met  with  very 
few  of  the  enemy.  The  Council  of  War  ordered  a  coat  to  be  given  to 
every  Indian  out  in  this  long  march,  "  in  regard  (they  observe)  the 
service  was  tedious  and  little  or  no  plunder  gained.'*^ 

After  a  few  days'  refreshment,  this  spirited  army  again  entered  the 
hostile  districts,  and  marching  first  to  the  north-west  of  Providence, 
then  turning  to  the  south'^ast,  explored  the  forests  and  necks  down 
to  Point  Judith.  From  thence  they  returned  through  Westerly  to 
Stonington  and  New  London.  In  this  expedition  great  havoc  was 
made  among  the  Narragansetts.  Magnus,  the  old  queen  or  sunk- 
squaw,  was  slain,  and  in  two  engagements,  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
eight  Indians  were  killed  and  captured.  Major  Talcott,  while  at 
Warwick  Neck,  ^  having  advice  that  Philip  was  beat  down  toward 
Mount  Hope,"  would  have  pursued  him  to  this  haunt,  if  his  Indian 
auxiliaries  had  not  positively  refused  to  accompany  him.' 

Major  Talcott's  little  army,  after  a  short  dispersion  and  rest,  was 
ordered  to  re-assemble  at  New  London  on  the  18th  of  July#  They 
marched  again  about  the  20th,  and  made  their  way  this  time  into  the 
very  heart  of  Plymouth  colony.  July  31st,  they  were  at  Taunton. 
From  thence  they  returned  homeward,  but  hearing  that  a  large  par^ 
of  Indians  who  were  taking  their  fiight  westward,  into  the  wilder^ 
ness,  had  conmiitted  some  depredations  on  cattle  and  com  near  West^ 
field,  they  immediately  took  the  route  thither,  and  pursuing  the  trail 
of  the  now  forlorn  and  famished  savages,  they  had  a  sharp  and  final 
struggle  ¥rith  them,  beyond  the  Housatonick,  in  the  route  to  Albany.' 
The  troops  then  returned  to  Connecticut,  and  on  the  18th  of  August 
were  ordered  by  the  council  to  repair  to  their  respective  counties, 
and  disband  their  men.  Philip  had  been  hunted  down  and  slain 
(August  12th)  by  the  Plymouth  men,  and  the  war  was  at  an  end. 

Betuming  to  an  early  period  of  the  contest,  we  find  that  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1675-6,  commenced  that  series  of  forays,  into  the  Indian  terri- 
tory, which  issuing  at  short  intervals  from  New  London  county,  and 
led  by  those  noted  Indian-fighters,  Denison  and  Avery,  contributed 
in  no  small  degree  to  the  favorable  result.  These  partisan  bands 
were  composed  of  volunteers,  regular  soldiers,  Pequots,  Mohegans, 

1  Conn.  Colonial  Records^  vol.  2,  p.  466. 

3  Letter  of  Talcott,  in  Colonial  Records,  vol.  2,  p.  458. 

8  In  the  present  town  of  Stockbridge.    (See  Hubbard^s  Indian  Wars.) 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  187 

tmd  Nahanticks-— disorderly  among  themselves,  but  condensed  against 
the  foe — the  Indians  usually  double  the  number  of  the  whites,  and 
more  useful  as  scouts  and*  plunderers,  than  in  direct  attack.  It  was 
in  the  third  of  these  roving  excursions,  begun  March  28th,  and  ended 
April  10  th,  1676,  that  the  brave  Narragansett  chieflain,  Canonchet, 
was  taken  prisoner.  This  was  one  of  the  great  exploits  of  the  war. 
The  unfortunate  captive  was  brought  to  Stonington,  and  there  put  to 
death,. after  the  Indian  mode  of  execution,  being  shot  by  Owaneco, 
and  two  Pequot  sachems,  the  nearest  to  his  own  rank  among  the  con* 
querors.'  This  was  done  by  the  captors,  without  any  waiting  for  ad- 
Tice,  or  reference  to  superior  authority.* 

The  Indians  taken  in  arms  during  this  war,  were  generally  execu* 
ted.  As  far  as  those  caUed  warriors  were  concerned,  it  was  a  war  of 
extermination.  Quarter  was  seldom  conceded,  and  death  followed 
dose  upon  capture  and  submission.  This  was  the  customary  and  le- 
galized mode  of  proceeding  in  wars  with  savages,  and  regarded  as 
the  only  safe  course,  the  dictate  of  stem  necessity.  The  women  and 
children  were  saved,  and  either  amalgamated  with  the  Mohegans  or 
distributed  among  the  English  for  servants* 

The  signal  service  performed  by  these  partisan  bands,  is  thus  ac* 
knowledged  by  Hubbard,  the  early  historian  of  the  Indian  wars. 

"The  inhabitants  of  New  London,  Norwich  and  Stonington,  apprehensive  of 
their  danger,  by  reason  of  the  near  bordering  of  the  enemy,  and  upon  other  pru- 
dent considerations,  voluntarily  listed  themselves  under  some  able  gentlemen, 
tod  resolute  soldiers  among  themselves,  Major  Palmes,  Capt.  George  Denison, 
Capt.  Aveiy,  with  whom,  or  under  whom,  within  the  compass  of  1676,  they 
made  tenor  more  several  expeditions,  in  all  which,  at  those  several  times,  they 
killed  and  took  two  hundred  and  thirty-nine  of  the  enemy,  by  the  help  and  as- 
sistance of  the  Pequots,  Mohegans,  and  a  few  friendly  Narragansetts ;  besides 
thirty  taken  in  their  long  march  homeward,  after  the  fort  fight,  December  19th, 
'75 ;  and  besides  sixteen  captivated  in  the  second  expedition,  not  reckoned 
within  the  compass  of  the  said  number ;  together  with  fif\y  guns,  antt  spoiling 
the  eaemy  of  an  hundred  bushels  of  corn." 

These  expeditions  had  very  much  the  character  of  marauding  par- 
ties, or  border  raids.     The  £nglish  were  generally  mounted,  and  the 


1  Hubbard.    The  Pequot  sachems  were  probably  Cassasmamon  and  Momoho. 

2  Major  Palmes,  m  a  letter  to  the  Council  of  War,  dated  April  6th,  1076,  alluding  to 
the  death  of  the  Narragansett  sachem,  says:  "  Might  my  opinion  pass  when  there  is 
no  help,  I  apprehend  it  might  have  proved  more  for  the  public  benefit  if  his  execution 
bad  been  deferred  till  your  Honors  had  the  intelligence  first  of  his  behjg  seized." 
(Council  Beoords.) 


188  HISTORY     OF    NSW     LONDON. 

Indians  on  foot.  The  latter  had  no  wages,  but  were  recompensed  with 
the  plunder  thej  obtained,  a  portion  of  the  prisoners  for  servants,  and 
various  presents  from  the  government.  In  most  instances,  die  sol- 
diers retained  the  booty  and  the  captives  that  they  brought  home. 
Capt.  Denison  was  the  most  conspicuous  soldier  of  New  London 
county.  Captains  Avery  and  Minor  were  also  prominent  in  these 
excursions.  Major  Palmes,  though  active  in  the  forwarding  depart- 
ment, took  the  field  but  once,  and  that  was  in  one  of  the  flitting  in- 
roads into  the  Narragansett  territory.^ 

The  statement  has  been  sometimes  made,  that  Connecticut  lost  no 
men  on  her  own  soil  in  Philip's  War.  This  is  an  error.  Five  men, 
at  least,  within  her  limits,  were  sacrificed  by  sudden  shot  from  a  lurk- 
ing foe. 

1.  Two  men  belonging  to  Norwich,  Josiah  Hock  well  and  John 
Reynolds,  were  slain  on  the  27th  or  28th  of  January,  1675-6,  on  the 
east  side  of  Shetucket  River,  which  they  had  crossed  for  the  purpose 
of  spreading  flax.  Their  bodies  were  found  thrown  down  the  river 
bank,  with  the  usual  Indian  trophy  taken  from  their  heads.  A  young 
lad,  the  son  of  Rockwell,  who  was  with  them,  could  not  be  found,  and  ^ 
was  supposed  to  have  been  carried  away  as  a  prisoner,  but  he  was 
never  heard  of  afterward.* 

2.  John  Kirby,  of  Middletown,  was  killed  between  Middletown 
and  Wethersfield. 

3.  Edward  Ebnore,  or  Elmer,  was  slain  in  East  Windsor. 

4.  Henry  Denslow,  slain  in  Windsor. 

5.  William  Hill,  of  East  Hartford,  wounded  but  not  killed.' 
These  were  all  in  1676. 


John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  the  patron  and  founder  of  New  London,  and 
governor  of  Connecticut  for  nearly  eighteen  years,  died  in  Boston, 


1  The  summary  given  above,  of  the  part  taken  by  Connecticut  hi  the  contest  with 
Philip,  is  partly  drawn  from  the  journal  of  the  Council  of  War,  from  1676  to  1678, 
preserved  among  the  records  of  the  colony,  and  recently  printed  in  vol.  3,  of  the  Colo- 
nial Records  of  Connecticut    (Hartford,  1862.) 

2  An  account  of  this  tragedy  was  sent  by  Major  Palmes  to  the  governor  and  ooon- 
cil,  m  a  letter  dated  Jan.  29th.  He  calls  Rockwell's  name  Joseph,  and  gives  fifteen  or 
sixteen  years  as  the  age  of  the  son.  The  author  has  ascertained  that  it  was  Josiah 
Rockwell  that  was  slain,  and  his  son  Joseph,  who  was  with  him,  was  bom  in  March, 
1666. 

8  The  last  four  instances  are  mentioned  m  the  examination  of  an  Indian,  named 
Menowniet,  taken  captive  near  Farmington.  (Colonial  Records,  vol.  2,  p.  471.)  The 
name  of  John  Erby,  not  mentioned  in  the  examhiation,  is  supplied  by  Mr.  Jndd,  at 
whose  instance,  also,  Edward  Ehnore  is  substituted  for  G.  Ebnore. 


».\ 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  189 

AprQ  5th,  1 676.'  He  had  been  called  to  Boston  to  attend  the  meeting 
of  the  commissioners,  to  which  he  was  the  delegate  from  Connecti- 
cuL  His  remains  were  deposited  in  the  tomb  of  his*  father,^  in  the 
cemetery  of  King's  Chapel,  where  afterward  his  two  sons  were  gath* 
ered  to  his  side.  His  wife,  who  deceased  not  long  before  him,  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  bnried  in  Hartford*^ 

Grovemor  Winthrop's  family  consisted  of  the  two  sons  so  often 
mentioned,  Fitz-John  and  Wait-Still,^  and  five  daughters.  The  sons 
were  residents  in  New  London  at  the  time  of  their  father's  decease. 
Wait-Still  succeeded  his  brother  as  mi^or  of  the  county  regiment,* 
Iwt  at  a  period  ten  or  twelve  years  later,  removed  to  Boston.     Lucy,  ^ 

the  second  daughter,  ^  wife  of  Edward  Palmes,  belongs  to  New  ^  ^^  ^  ^ 
London ;  but  her  death  is  not  on  record,  neither  is  there  any  stone  X 
to  her  memory  in  the  old  burial-ground,  by  the  side  of  her  husband. 
It  is  therefore  probable  that  she  died  abroad,  and  from  other  circum- 
stances it  is  inferred  that  this  event  took  place  in  Boston,  after  the 
death  of  her  father,  in  1676.*  She  left  a  daughter,  Lucy,  who  was 
her  only  child,  and  this  daughter,  though  twice  married,  left  no  issue. 
Her  line  is  therefore  extinct.'' 

The  very  extensive  landed  estate  of  Governor  Winthrop,  which 
fell  to  his  two  sons,  was  possessed  by  them  conjointly,  and  undivided 
during  their  lives.  Fitz-John,  having  no  sods,  it  was  understood 
between  the  brothers,  that  the  principal  part  of  the  land  grants, 
should  be  kept  in  the  name,  and  to  this  end  be  reserved  for  John,  the 
only  son  of  Wait  Winthrop.  These  possessions,  briefly  enumerated, 
were  Winthrop's  Neck,  200  acres ;  Mill-pond  farm,  300  ;  land  north 
of  the  town  on  Alewife  Brook  and  in  its  vicinity,  1,500 ;  land  at 
Pequonuck,  (Groton)  6,000 ;  Little-cove  farm  half  a  mile  square  on 

1  Hig  will  may  be  found  in  the  registry  of  Suffolk  county,  Mass.  It  is  also  recorded 
in  Hartford. 

2  Elliot's  Biograpnical  Dictionary. 

a  She  vas  living  in  March,  1670.    Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  8d  series,  vol.  10,  p.  79. 
4  The  adjuncts  FiUi  and  <SWff,  are  very  seldom  used  on  the  New  London  records. 
6  This  regiment,  in  1680,  consisted  of  609  men. 

6  The  family  of  Major  Palmes  was  in  Boston  during  the  Indian  troubles.  Mrs. 
Pahnes  was  living,  at  the  date  of  her  father's  will,  April  8d,  1676,  but  in  November, 
1678,  the  minister  of  New  London  records  the  baptism  of  a  child  of  M^jor  Palmes,  by 
a  second  wife. 

7  The  first  husband  of  Lucy  Palmes  was  Samuel  Gray,  a  goldsmith,  of  New  Lon- 
don—originally from  Boston— who  died  in  1718.  She  afterward  married  Samuel 
Lynde,  of  Saybrook,  being  his  second  wife. 


7 


190  HISTORY    OP    NBW     LONDON. 

the  east  side  of  the  river — these  were  within  the  bounds  of  New 
London.  On  Mystic  River,  five  or  six  hundred  acres  ;  at  Lanthom 
Hill  and  its  vicinity,  3,000 ;  and  on  the  coast,  Fisher's  Island  and  its 
Hommocks,  and  Goat  Island.  Grovemor  Winthrop  had  also  an  undis- 
puted title  from  court  grants  to  large  tracts  in  Voluntown,  Plainfield, 
Canterbury,  Woodstock  and  Saybrook,  amounting  to  ten  or  twelve 
thousand  acres.  He  also  claimed  the  whole  of  what  was  called 
Black-lead-mine  Hill  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  computed 
to  be  ten  miles  in  circumference.  Magnificent  as  was  this  estate  in 
point  of  extent,  the  value,  in  regard  to  present  income,  was  moderate. 
By  the  provisions  of  his  will,  his  daughters  were  to  have  half  as 
much  estate  as  his  sons,  and  he  mentions  that  Lucy  and  Elizabeth  had 
already  been  portioned  with  farms.  The  above  sketch  of  his  landed 
property  comprises  only  that  which  remained  inviolate  as  it  passed 
through  the  hands  of  his  sons,  and  his  grandson  John,  the  son  of 
Wait,  and  was  bequeathed  by  the  latter  to  his  son,  John,  John  Still 
Winthrop,  Still  Winthrop,  in  1747.* 


April  11th,  1678.  At  this  date  was  exhibited  in  town  meeting  a 
list  of  the  proper,  or  accepted  inhabitants  of  the  town,  and  their 
names  registered.  The  list  comprises  104  names.  Only  household- 
ers or  heads  of  families  are  supposed  to  be  included.  The  number 
of  freemen  that  had  been  recorded  at  this  time  was  forty-five,  and 
only  twenty  more  are  added  before  1700. 


On  the  last  Thursday,  in  Feb.,  1677-^,  a  town  meeting  was  held  to 
deliberate  respecting  a  new  meeting-house.  The  old,  or  Blinman 
house,  had  stood  twenty  or  twenty-five  years  ;  it  was  not  only  decay- 
ing, but  the  town  had  outgrown  its  dimensions.  It  was  resolved  to 
build  a  new  one  by  the  side  of  the  old,  the  latter  tc^be  kept  for  use 
until  the  other  should  be  completed.  The  building  committee  were 
Capt.  Avery,  Charles  Hill  and  Thomas  Beeby,  who  procured  the 
timber  and  made  preparations  to  build.  But  now  a  strong  party  ap- 
peared in  favor  of  an  entirely  new  site — viz.,  the  comer  of  an  un- 
improved lot  that  had  been  reserved  for  the  ministry.' 


1  The  will  ennmerating  these  possessions,  is  on  record  in  New  London. 

2  On  Hempstead  Street  at  the  south-west  comer  of  Broad  Street,  just  where  the 
Edgecombe  house  now  stands. 


HIBTORY    OP    NBW     LONDON.  191 

A  vote  was  obtained  to  build  upon  tbis  spot,  but  tbe  dissatisfaction 
was  so  great,  especially  among  tbe  people  east  of  tbe  river,  tbat  a 
meeting  to  reconsider  tbe  subject  was  called  April  19tb,  1679,  wbicb 
passed  tbe  following  conciliatory  resolution. 

••  The  town  sees  cause,  for  the  avoiding  of  future  animosities,  and  for  satisfac- 
tiaa  of  our  loving  neighbors  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  to  condescend  that  the 
new  meeting-house  shall  be  built  near  the  old,  Mr.  Bradstreet  having  spared 
part  of  his  lot  to  be  made  him  good  on  tbe  other  side,  for  the  accommodation 
of  this  work ;  but  that  the  vote  above  [t.  e,,  before  taken]  was  and  is,  good  in 
law,  and  irrevocable,  but  by  the  loving  consent  of  neighbors  is  altered,  which 
shall  be  no  precedent  for  ihture  altering  any  town  vote." 

Tbe  second  or  Bradstreet  meeting-bouse,  was  tberefore  built  near 
tbe  old  one,  on  tbe  soutb^west  comer  of  wbat  was  called  tbe  meeting- 
bouse  green  (now  Town  Square.)  It  is  not  strange  tbat  tbe  inbab* 
itants  east  of  tbe  river  sbould  bave  murmured  at  any  aggravation  of 
tbeir  Sabbatb-day  journeys,  wbicb  at  tbe  best,  were  of  a  wearisome 
lengtb,  crossing  tbe  river  and  ascending  from  tbe  ferry  stairs  to  tbe 
town  street,  and  from  tbence  up  tbe  bill  tbrougb  tbe  present  Ricbards 
Street  to  tbe  place  of  worsbip.  We  are  disposed  to  ask,  wby  under 
sucb  circumstances  tbe  bouse  was  built  on  a  bill  at  all  ?  wby  not  on 
a  level  near  tbe  water's  edge  ?  Tbe  answer  is  ready — ^tbe  early 
cburcb  of  New  £ngland  was  not  only  a  cburcb,  but  a  tower,  and  a 
beacon :  its  turret  must  serve  as  a  look-out  post,  affording  timely 
notice  sbould  any  danger  tbreaten  tbe  dwellings  of  tbose  who  were 
engaged  in  tbe  service  of  tbe  sanctuary.  Moreover,  tbe  people  of 
New  England  seem  to  bave  bad  a  natural  taste  for  a  cburcb  set  on  a 
bill.  It  was  to  tbem  tbe  position  of  beauty,  propriety,  and  adapta- 
tion. 

The  contract  for  building  the  meeting-bouse  was  made  with  tlobn 
Elderkin  and  Samuel  Lotbrop.  It  was  to  be  forty  feet  square ;  tbe 
studs  twenty  feet  high  with  a  turret  answerable ;  two  galleries,  four- 
teen windows,  three  doors;  and  to  set  up  on  all  tbe  four  gables  of  tbe 
bouse,  pyramids  comely  and  fit  for  tbe  work,  and  as  many  lights  in 
each  window  as  direction  sbould  be  given :  a  year  and  a  half  allowed 
for  its  completion :  £240  to  be  paid  in  provision,  viz.,  in  wheat, 
pease,  poriL  and  beef,  in  quantity  proportional :  tbe  town  to  find  nails, 
^ass,  iron-work,  and  ropes  for  rearing ;  also  to  boat  and  cart  tbe 
timber  to  tbe  place  and  provide  sufficient  help  to  rear  the  work. 

This  meeting-bouse,  instead  of  being  completed  as  tbe  contract 
specifies,  in  October,  1 680,  lingered  several  years  in  tbe  road  to  com- 
pletion.   Repeated  orders  were  enacted  concerning  it;  tbe  pulpit 


192  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

from  the  old  house  was  removed  to  it ;  the  carpenters  were  accoBed 
of  violating  their  contract,  and  the  work  not  satisfying  the  committee^ 
two  of  the  craft  from  other  towns — John  Frink,  of  St<mington,  and 
Edward  DeWolf,  of  Lyme — were  called  in  to  view  the  work,  and 
arbitrate  between'  builders  and  people.  SepU  6th,  1682,  the  town 
came  to  this  emphatic  decision : 

•*  Voted  :  that  the  meeting-house  shall  be  completed  and  finished  to  worship 
God  in  ;  according  to  conformity  of  duty  of.  Church  and  Town,  and  Town  and 
Church." 

The  old  Blinman  edifice — ^the  imadomed  church  and  watch-tower 
of  the  wilderness — decayed  and  dismantled,  was  sold  to  Capt  Avery, 
in  June,  1684,  for  £6,  with  the  condition  annexed,  that  he  should 
remove  it  in  one  month's  time.  According  to  tradition,  he  took  it 
down  and  transporting  the  materials  across  the  river  used  them  in 
building  his  own  house  at  Pequonuck.  Retaining  through  this  pro* 
cess  something  of  its  sacred  predilections,  it  was  again  used  as  a 
house  of  worship  about  a  century  after  its  removal,  by  Elder  Parke 
Avery,  a  Jeader  of  the  separatists.  The  same  timbers,  the  same 
boards,  joyfully  resounded  once  more  to  the  ancient  but  well  remem- 
bered voices  of  exhortation  and  praise.  This  house  is  still  extant^ 
and  with  its  later  but  yet  antique  additions,  and  its  charming  situa- 
tion, exhibits  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  picturesque  farm-houses 
in  the  county. 

While  the  meeting-house  was  building  the  parsonage  was  to  be 
repaired.  This,  though  called  a  parsonage  and  the  town  house,  and 
kept  in  repair  by  the  town,  had  been  given  to  Mr.  Bradstreet  aad 
was  his  property  in  fee-simple.  It  stood  on  the  south  side  of  the 
present  Town  Square. 

"March  22d,  1680-1. 

•*  Voted,  that  Mr.  Thomas  Parkes,  Senior,  hath  given  liim  one  hundred  acres 
of  land  in  one  entire  piece  adjoining  his  own  land,  in  consideration  of  providing 
good  cedar  clapboards,  for  the  parsonage  house,  and  nails  and  workmanship 
and  all  other  charge  about  the  same,  to  be  finished  by  the  last  of  August  next 
ensuing." 

In  1680,  Mr.  Bradstreet's  health  hegan  to  decline.  In  August, 
1681,  heing  no  longer  ahle  to  preach,  he  proposed  to  the  town  to  re- 
sign his  charge,  but  the  people  requested  him  to  remain  with  them 
adding: 

"  The  town  is  willing  to  allow  him  a  comfortable  maintenance  as  God  shall 
enable  them,  and  they  will  wait  God's  providence  in  respect  of  his  health. 


HISTORY    OF     NBW     LONDON.  193 

**  Voted,  to  aHow  him  jCl20  a  jrear  in  provision  pay*  and  also  to  find  him  his 
fire-wood,  ninety  loads  for  the  ensuing  year." 

The  baptism  of  a  child  is  recorded  Aagust  12th,  1688,  in  Mr. 
Bradstreet's  hand :  this  is  the  last  token  of  him  living.  On  the  19th 
of  November,  a  rate  was  voted  to  pay  Mrs.  Bradstreet  the  arrears  due  to 
ber  deceased  husband.  His  death  is  not  registered,  neither  is  there 
any  memorial  stone  bearing  his  name  in  the  burial-ground. 

Rev.  Simon  Bradstreet  was  the  oldest  son  of  Hon.  Simon  Bradstreet  who 
was  governor  of  Mass.  from  May,  1679,  to  May,  1692,  with  the  exception  of  two 
years,  *87,  and  '88,  which  belong  to  the  iron  rule  of  Sir  Edmund  Andross. 
The  son  died  at  the  age  of  forty-five,  while  the  father,  though  venerable  in  age, 
was  in  the  mid  career  of  usefulness.^  The  mother  of  Rev.  Simon  Bradstreet 
was  Ann,  d.  of  Gov.  Thomas  Dudley.  He  was  bora  in  1638 ;  grad.  at  H.  C. 
in  1660 ;  began  to  preach  in  N.  L.  in  1666 ;  was  ordained  in  1670  and  died  in 
1683. 

•*  Children  of  Simon  Bradstreet  and  his  wife  Lucy. 

••Simon  b.  7.  March  1670-1,  baptized  12.  March. 

••Anne  b.  31.  Dec.  1672,  bap.  5.  Jan.  1672-3, died  2.  Oct.  1681. 

•«  John  b.  3.  Nov.  1676,  bap.  5.  Nov. 

••Lucy  b.  24.  Oct.  16b0,  bap   31.  Oct." 

Mrs.  Lucy,  relict  of  Rev.  Simon  Bradstreet,  afterward  married 
Daniel  Epes,  of  Ipswich,  whom  she  likewise  survived.  In  1697, 
the  Bradstreet  house-lot  in  NewXondon,  was  sold  to  Nicholas  Hallam, 
and  the  deed  of  sale  signed  by  Mrs.  Epes  and  her  oldest  son, 
**  Symon  Bradstreet  of  Medford,  clerk."  * 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  church  at  Mr.  Bradstreet's  ordina- 
tion, in  1670,  consisted  of  twenty-four  members.  During  his  min- 
istry forty-four  were  added,  four  only  by  dismission  from  other 
churches. 

"  Mr«.  Ann  Latimer  from  the  old  church  at  Boston. 

•*  Widow  Lester  from  the  cbarch  at  Concord. 

*•  Old  Goodman  Moore  and  his  wife  from  the  oh.  at  Milford.** 

Mr.  Bradstreet's  record  of  baptisms  comprises  seventeen  belong- 
ing to  other  churches,  and  438  of  his  own  church :  of  these  last  a  con- 
siderable number  were  adults ;  some  parents  being  baptized  them- 


1  Gov.  Bradstreet  died  hi  Salem  March  27th,  1697,  at  the  age  of  nhiety-fonr. 

9  This  yonnger  Simon  Bradstreet,  a  native  of  New  London,  was  afterward  minister 
ef  Charlestown,  Mass.,  and  a  man  of  great  classical  attammeuts,  but  of  an  infirm 
eonstitntion  and  desponding  temperament  His  son  of  the  same  name,  the  fbnrth  that 
had  borne  it  in  lineal  succession,  was  ordaioed  i^t  >{(urblehead,  January  4th,  1788. 
(Mass.  Hist  CoU.,  lat  series,  Vol.  8,  p.  76.) 

X7 


1A4  HISTORY     OP    NBW     LONDON. 

selves,  at  the  time  that  they  owned  the  covenant,  and  presented  their 
children  for  baptism. 

Baptisms  followed  close  upcm  births ;  numerous  instances  may  be 
found  where  the  child  was  but  one,  two  or  three  days  old ;  children 
of  ministers,  deacons,  &c.,  were  usually  less  than  a  week  old.  To 
renew,  or  own  the  covenant  of  baptism,  entitled  a  parent  to  the  priv- 
ilege of  presenting  his  or  her  children  for  baptism.  And  not  only 
children,  but  grandchildren,  children  bound  to  the  person  as  ap- 
prentices, and  slaves,  might  be  presented  by  giving  a  pledge  for  their 
Christian  education. 

There  is  no  account  of  any  marriage  performed  by  Mr.  Bradstreet. 
Tlux)ughout  all  New  England,  previous  to  1680,  the  marriage  rite 
was  performed  by  magistrates,  or  by  persons  specially  empowered  by 
the  colonial  authorities.  Hutchinson  supposes  that  in  MassadiuseUs 
there  was  no  instance  of  a  marriage  by  a  clergyman  during  the  exis- 
tence of  their  first  charter — that  is,  previous  to  1684.*  It  is  singu- 
lar, that  in  a  country  and  at  a  period  of  time  when  the  clergy  were 
BO  much  venerated,  the  privilege  of  solemnizing  the  marriage  con- 
tract should  not  have  been  assigned  to  them.  When  also  the  im- 
portance of  the  act  is  considered,  the  sacrcdness  of  its  associations,  and 
the  propriety  of  regarding  it  as  a  holy  rite,  we  are  surprised  that  our 
devout  ancestors  should  not  have  connected  the  sanctions  of  religion 
with  this  most  important  of  their  social  compacts.  Yet  even  when  a 
clergyman  was  present,  the  ordinance  was  made  valid  by  a  magis- 
trate. 

The  first  marriages  in  town  were  by  Mr.  Winthrop :  none  of  these 
are  recorded.  Wm.  Chesebrough,  Capt.  George  Denison  and  Mr. 
Bruen  officiated  in  these  services  being  commissioners  ;  but  by  far  the 
greater  number  of  marriages  between  1670  and  1700  were  by  Dan- 
iel Wetherell,  Esq. 

The  appointment  of  deacons  is  not  registered.  William  Douglas 
may  have  been  the  first  person  that  held  the  office  after  Mr.  Brad- 
street's  ordination.  He  was  at  least  active  in  the  church  economy, 
and  held  the  box  at  the  door  for  contributions.  He  died  in  1682. 
In  1C83,  William  Hough  and  Joseph  Coite  wiere  deacons  ;  the  for- 
mer died  August  10th,  of  that  year,  before  Mr.  Bradstreet's  decease. 


1  "  All  marriages  in  New  England  were  formerly  performed  by  the  civil  magistrate, 
bat  of  late  thej  are  more  frequently  solemnized  by  the  cleigy."  Keai's  Kew  £ng, 
land,  vol.  2,  p.  253. 


HISTORY   OP  NEW    LONDON.  199 

and  no  other  deacon  except  Coite,  ie  mentioned  daring  the  next  ten 
jears. 

"  At  a  Towne  meeting  November  ye  19,  1683. 

«•  Voted  that  Major  John  Winthrop,  Major  Edward  Palmes,  Capt.  James 
Avery,  Mr.  Daniel  Wetherell,  Mr.  Chrlsto.  Christophers,  Tho:  Beebee,  Joseph 
Gotte,  John  Prentis  Sen',  Clement  Miner,  Charles  Hill,  are  appointed  a  Comit- 
lee  in  behalf  of  the  towne  to  send  a  letter  by  Capt.  Way te  Winthrop  to  tlie 
reverend  Mr.  Mather  and  Mr.  Wooliard  [Willard]  ministers  at  boston  for  there 
advice  and  counsell  in  attayneing  a  minister  for  the  town  to  supply  the  place 
of  Mr.  Bradstreet  deceased,  and  that  the  sd  Capt.  Winthrop  shall  have  instruc- 
tions from  the  sd  Comittee  to  manadge  that  affaire  w^  them." 

No  minister  was  obtained  until  the  next  June,  when  the  commit- 
tee gave  notice  that  they  had  applied  to  Mr.  Edward  Cakes,  of  Cam- 
bridge, and  received  a  favorable  answer.  The  town  declared  their 
approbation,  and  voted  Mr.  Oakes  a  salary  equal  to  £100  per  annum^ 
for  80  long  a  time  as  he  and  they  could  agree  together. 

Mr.  Oakes  is  presumed  to  be  the  Edward  Oakes  that  graduated  at 
Cambridge,  in  the  class  of  1679.  He  preached  in  New  London 
about  a  year,  and  some  preparatory  steps  to  a  settlement  were  taken. 
But  the  inhabitants  were  not  unanimous  in  his  favor,  and  he  left  the 
plaoe.^  In  September,  1685,  the  committee  of  supply  obtained  the 
services  of  Mr.  Thomas  Bamet,  who  arrived  in  town  soon  afterward 
with  his  family,  and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  a  pastor. .  These  he 
performed  to  such  entire  satisfaction,  that  in  November  a  vote  was 
passed  by  the  town  in  acceptance  of  his  ministry.    Again,  Dec  26th, 

'*  Mr.  Thomas  Bamett  by  full  consent  none  contradicting  was  accepted  by 
the  inhabitants  to  be  their  minister."  "  Major  John  Winthrop  is  chosen  to  ap- 
pear as  the  mouth  of  the  Town  to  declare  their  acceptance  of  Mr.  Barnett." 
"  The  time  for  ye  solemnity  of  Mr.  Barnetts  admittance  to  all  ministerial  offices 
is  lell  to  the  direction  of  Mr.  Bamett  and  the  townsmen  to  appoint  the  day." 

It  is  a  fact,  but  an  unaccountable  one,  that  after  this  date,  Mr.  Bar- 
net's  name  disappears  from  the  records.  No  hint  has  been  found  to 
explain  why  the  arrangement  with  him  failed,  and  the  connection 
was  dissolved.  He  is  never  again  mentioned  except  in  the  town  ac- 
counts, where  Jonathan  Prentis  exhibits  a  debt  of  16«.  "for  going 
with  Mr.  Bamet  to  Swanzea.** 

Mr.  Bamett  was  an  English  clergyman,  ejected  from  his  living  for 
non-conformity,  and  driven  from  England   by  the  rigorous  church 


1  Farmer,  in  his  Genealogical  Register,  says  he  died  yoting.    His  decease,  therefore, 
probably  took  place  soon  after  leaving  New  London. 


196  HISTORY     OF     NBW     LONDON. 

measures  which  followed  the  restoration  of  the  house  of  Stuart  to  tlie 
throne,*  that  is,  after  1662.  His  history  after  leaving  New  Londoo, 
has  not  been  traced.' 

On  the  22d  of  June,  1687,  the  inhabitants  were  again  assembled 
in  solemn  deliberation  upon  that  oft  recurring  and  momentous  ques- 
tion— What  are  ^  the  best  ways  and  means  for  procuring  an  able 
minister  of  the  gospel  ?"  A  committee  of  seven,  with  Colonel  John 
Winthrop  at  the  head,  was  appointed  to  act  for  the  town,  which  after 
a  few  months'  delay  was  so  fortunate  as  to  secure  the  services  of  the 
Rev.  Gurdon  SaltonstalL  He  preached  during  the  winter  and  in  a 
short  time  engaged  all  hearts  and  votes  in  his  favor.  In  May,  1688, 
the  inhabitants  passed  a  unanimous  vote  of  acceptance  of  his  minis- 
try, requesting  his  continuance  among  them,  promising  to  give  him 
due  encouragement,  and  adding,  "  on  his  return  from  Boston,  whither 
he  is  shortly  going,  they  will  proceed  to  have  him  ordained."  The 
ordination,  however,  did  not  take  place,  though  the  cause  of  delay  is 
not  mentioned.  Another  vote  of  acceptance  was  passed  the  7th  of 
June,  1689. 

In  the  mean  time  an  attempt  was  made,  as  had  been  done  once  be- 
fore, to  dispense  with  the  odious  system  of  minister's  rates,  and  to 
raise  the  salary  by  voluntary  subscriptions  of  an  annual  sum.  A 
paper  was  accordingly  circulated,  a  copy  of  which  is  extant  The 
number  of  subscribers  is  105,  embracing  names  that  were  scattered 
over  the  township  from  Nahantic  Bay  to  Mystic,  and  from  Poquetan- 
nuck  to  the  Sound.  The  amount  pledged  was  £57,  which  being  in- 
sufficient, the  project  failed,  and  the  rates  continued  to  be  levied  as 
formerly. 

In  1690,  a  rate  was  levied  for  the  purpose  of  finishing  the  interior 
of  the  meeting-house,  which  to  this  time  had  not  been  furnished  with 
regular  seats.  This  being  completed,  the  townsmen,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Ensign  Clement  Minor  and  Sergeant  Thomas  Beeby,  assigned 
seats  to  the  inhabitants.  This  was  always  an  afiair  of  magnitude, 
and  the  town  had  frequently  been  obliged  to  interfere  to  adjust  doubt- 
ful cases  of  precedence  and  compel  satisfaction.  At  this  time  only- 
one  case  is  reported  for  their  decision. 

**  Joseph  Beckwith  having  paid  40*.  towards  finishing  the  meeting-bouse,  is 


1  Mather's  Magnalia,  vol.  l,p.  216,  (Hartford  edition.) 

2  Perhaps  he  was  unexpectedly  recalled  to  England,    This  would  account  for  his 
sudden  departure  from  New  London. 


UISTOHY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  197 

mllowed  a  seat  in  the  4th  seat,  and  his  wife  also  in  the  4th  seat,  on  the  woman's 
side." 

These  proceedings  in  regard  to  the  meeting-house  were  tokens  fore- 
showing that  the  ordination  was  at  hand.  At  a  town  meeting  on  the 
25th  of  August,  1691 — ^**  number  of  persons  present,  heads  of  fami- 
lies, 65" — the  votes  of  1688  and  1689  respecting  the  acceptance  of 
Mr.  Saltonstall  for  the  ministry,  were  read  and  confirmed,  and  the 
townsmen  empowered  to  make  arrangements  with  him  for  his  ordina- 
tion. 

**  Voted  that  the  Hon**  Major  General  John  Winthrop  is  to  appear  as  the 
mouth  of  the  Town  at  Mr.  Saitonstalfs  ordination,  to  declare  the  town's  accept- 
ance of  him  to  the  ministry."* 

The  solemnity  took  place  November  25th,  1691. 

The  assisting  ministers  were  Mr.  Elliot  and  Mr.  Woodbridge, 
probable  Rev.  Joseph  Elliot,  of  Guilford,  and  Rev.  Timothy  Wood- 
bridge,  of  Hartford.  No  additions  to  the  church  and  no  baptisms 
had  been  recorded  since  Mr.  Bradstreet's  death,  that  is,  between 
August,  1683,  and  November,  1691.  Previous  to  his  ordination 
(November  19th)  Mr.  Saltonstall  was  received  as  a  member  of  the 
church.  This  was  then  the  customary  mode  of  proceeding.  It  ap- 
pears to  have  been  regarded  as  requisite,  and  a  matter  of  course,  that 
a  minister  should  belong  to  the  church  over  which  he  officiated. 
The  number  of  members  enrolled  was  thirty-five. 

To  signalize  the  entrance  of  Mr.  Saltonstall  on  his  official  duties,  a 
bell  was  procured,  "  a  large  brass  bell,"  the  first  in  the  town  and  in 
New  London  county.  It  cost  £25  in  current  money,'  and  for  ringing 
it,  William  Chapman,  sexton,  was  to  have  forty  shillings  added  to  his 
annual  salary  of  £3.  It  may  be  inferred  from  the  boisterous  reputa- 
tion of  the  town,  that  this  bell  met  with  no  very  gentle  usage,  and 
that  it  poured  forth  some  lively  explosions  of  alarm  or  triumph,  fh)m 
its  elevated  post,  before  it  was  involved  in  the  destruction  of  the 
building  to  which  it  was  attached. 

Mr.  Saltonstall,  assisted  by  a  gratuity  from  the  town,  purchased  a 
lot,  and  built  a  house  for  himself.  This  lot  was  in  the  upper  ^rt  of 
the  town,  on  both  sides  of  the  street  The  house  stood  high  and  con- 
spicuous on  the  town  hiU,^  and  for  his  accommodation  the  Codner 

1  The  receipt  for  payment  is  from  "Richard  Jones,  attorney  to  George  Makeenrie, 
merchant  of  the  Citty  of  Yorke." 

2  On  the  spot  now  occupied  by  the  house  of  Capt.  Andrew  Mather. 

17« 


X99  HtflTORT   OF   NBW    hOHDOH. 

highway,  or  *^  old  pathwaj  from  the  meeting-hoiise  to  the  ndJly**  in  ike 
rear  of  his  house,  which  had  been  shut  up,  was  re-op«ied  and  laid 
out,  twenty-five  feet  wide.  This  path  was  then  a  mere  bed  of  loose 
stones,  and  bristling  rocks,  and  such  in  a  great  measure  it  still  re- 
mains,' being  better  known  as  Stony-Hill  Lane,  than  as  Huntingtoa 
Street,  of  which  it  forms  the  north  end.  By  a  gate  from  the  orchard 
in  the  rear  of  his  house,  Mr.  Saltonstall  was  brought  within  a  few  rods 
of  the  church,  and  the  worst  part  of  the  declivity,  in  ascending  to  the 
house  of  worship,  was  avoided. 

At  a  later  period,  when  Mr.  Saltonstall  had  become  governor  of 
the  colony,  it  is  retained  by  tradition,  that  he  might  be  seen  on  a 
Sunday  morning,  issuing  from  this  orchard^  g&te,  and  moving  with  a 
slow,  majestic  step  to  the  meeting-house,  accompanied  by  his  wife, 
and  followed  by  his  diildren,  four  sons  and  four  daughters,  marshaled 
in  order,  and  the  servants  of  the  family  in  the  rear.  The  same  usage 
was  maintained  by  his  son,  General  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  whose  fanuly 
furnished  a  procession  of  fourteen  sons  and  daughters,  when  all  were 
present,  which  might  often  have  happened  between  1758  and  ITCS, 
as  then  all  were  living,  and  all  of  an  age  to  attend  meeting. 

The  summer  of  1689  was  noted  for  extreme  heat ;  this  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  virulent  epidemic,  which  visited  almost  every  family, 
either  in  a  qualiiie<l  or  mortal  form,  and  proved  fatal  in  more  than 
twenty  cases.  Most  of  these  occurred  in  July  and  August.  Mr. 
Wetherell,  then  the  recorder,  inserted  in  the  town  book  a  list  of  the 
dead,  under  the  following  caption : 

"An  account  of  seveml  persons  deceased  by  the  present  distemper  of  sore 
throat  and  fever,  which  dii^temper  hath  parsed  through  most  families,  and 
proved  very  mortal  with  many,  especially  to  those  who  now  have  it  in  this 
more  than  ordinary  extremity  of  hot  weather,  the  like  having  not  been  known 
ill  the  memory  of  man.** 

Those  who  perished  by  this  epidemic,  above  the  age  of  childhood, 
were  Philip  Bill,  senior ;  Walter  Bodington ;  Edward  Smith  and  hi« 
wife,  and  their  son,  John,  fifleen  years  of  age ;  Widow  Nicholls,  and 
the  wives  of  Ensign  Morgan,  Samuel  Fox,  John  Picket,  and  Mr. 
Holmes.  About  the  same  period,  Christopher  Jeffers,  a  ferryman, 
was  drowned,  and  Abel  Moore,  the  constable,  died  on  the  road,  as  he 
was  returning  from  a  journey  to  Boston,  and  was  buried  at  Dedhanu 

A  disease  so  malignant  would  naturally  cast  a  pall  of  gloom  over  it 

1  Its  condition  has  been  greatly  ameliorated  the  present  year,  186S. 


RI8TORT    OF    NEW    LONDON*  199 

popiilation  so  sparse  and  intimately  connected.     At  the  same  time 
the  whole  country  was  full  of  anxiety  and  apprehension  in  regard  to 
their  liberties.     No  direct  allusion  is  made  in  the  records  of  the  town 
to  the  baneful  transit  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  athwart  the  prosperity 
of  New  England.     His  administration  caused  a  general  interruption 
of  the  laws  of  the  colony  for  eighteen  months.     He  assumed  the  gov- 
ernment and  abrogated  the  charter  at  Hartford,  October  Slst,  1687. 
One  of  his  regulations  was  that  no  town  meetings  should  be  held  ex- 
cept once  a  year,  in  the  month  of  May,  for  the  choice  of  town  officers. 
Agreeably  to  this  law,  the  annual  town  meeting  was  held  in  New 
London,  May  21st,  and  no  other  is  recorded  until  after  the  fall  of  the 
royal  delegate.     On  the  18th  of  April,  1689,  the  inhabitants  of  Bos- 
ton rose  in  arms,  seized  and  imprisoned  Andros,  and  persuaded  the 
old  governor  and  council  to  resume  the  government.     This  example 
was  followed  by  Connecticut.     The  General  Court  was  speedily  as- 
sembled, and  an  order  restoring  the  former  laws  was  published  on  the 
9th  of  May.     The  charter  now  came  out  from  its  thick-ribbed  hiding- 
place  in  the  renowned  oak,  and  re-assumed  its  former  supremacy. 
The  court  order  was  enrolled  and  published  at  New  London,  and  the 
annual  meeting  for  the  choice  of  town  officers  called  on  the  7th  of 
June.     In  point  of  fact  it  was  convened  by  officers  whose  authority 
had  expired  on  the  2l8t  of  May,  and  the  minutes  of  the  meeting  say: 

"  Upon  some  dispute  that  happened  whether  this  town  meeting  was  Legally 
warned,  it  was  put  to  voate,  and  by  a  Generall  Voate  parsed  to  be  Legall,  and 
then  proceeded  to  Choice  of  Towne  officers." 

This  was  a  summary  mode  of  deciding  a  question  of  law,  but  it  sat- 
isfied the  majority,  and  the  decision  was  not  afterward  disturbed. 

««11.  July  1694. 

**  Voted  that  a  new  meeting-house  shall  be  forthwith  built,  and  that  a  rate  of 
12  pence  on  the  pound  be  made  for  it..  Capt.  Wetherell,  Mr.  Pygan,  Capt. 
James  Morgan,  Lt.  James  Avery,  Mr.  John  Davie,  Serg^  Nehemiah  Smith, 
Ensign  John  Hough,  and  Richard  Chrii^topliers,  are  chosen  a  committee  to 
ngree  with  workmen  for  building  the  house,  and  managing  the  whole  conern 
about  it.** 

The  regular  registry  of  the  town  leaves  us  wholly  in  the  dark  as 
to  the  cause  of  this  sudden  movement  in  respect  to  a  meeting-house  ; 
but  from  incidental  testimony  it  is  ascertained  that  the  Bradstreet 
meeting-house  was  destroyed  by  fire,  probably  in  June  of  this  year. 
It  was  supposed  to  be  an  act  of  incendiarism,  and  public  fame  attrib- 
uted it  to  the  followers  of  John  Rogers,  a  new  sect  that  had  lately 


200  HISTORY     OP     NBW     LONDON. 

arisen  in  the  town,  of  which  an  account  will  be  given  in  a  future 
chapter.  Several  of  these  people  were  arrested  and  tried  for  the 
crime,  but  it  could  not  be  proved  against  them,  and  they  may  now 
without  hesitation  be  pronounced  innocent.  For  they  were  at  that 
time  obnoxious  to  the  community ;  public  sentiment  was  enlisted  on 
the  other  side,  and  had  they  committed  a  deed  which  was  then  es- 
teemed a  high  degree  of  sacrilege,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  they 
could  have  escaped  exposure  and  penalty. 

Unwonted  energy  was  displayed  in  replacing  the  lost  edifice.  In 
four  years*  time,  the  third,  which  we  may  call  the  Saltonstall  meeting- 
house, was  so  far  completed  as  to  be  used  for  divine  service.  It 
stood  on  the  same,  height  of  ground  that  had  been  hallowed  by  its 
predecessors. 

"  July  18,  1698. 

**  Voted  that  the  town  accepts  the  gift  of  the  Bell  given  by  Governoc  Win- 
throp  for  the  meeting  house  with  great  thankfulness  and  desire  that  their  thanks 
may  be  given  to  his  Honor  for  the  same. 

«  Voted  that  the  bell  be  forthwith  hanged  and  placed  on  the  top  of  the  meeting 
house  at  charge  of  the  town,  the  townsmen  to  procure  it  to  be  done. 

«(  Voted  whether  the  town  will  finish  the  meeting  house  this  summer. 

*«  Voted— that  it  shall  be  done." 

The  house  was  soon  after  finished,  and  the  people  seated :  liberty 
was  however  given  to  certain  individuals  to  build  their  own  pews, 
under  regulations  in  respect  to  "  place  and  bigness,"  and  they  paying 
no  less  in  the  rates  for  finishing  the  house.  Lastly,  the  sexton  was 
appointed. 

**  Voted  that  William  HalUy  is  chosen  sexton  to  sweep  and  cleane  the  meeting 
house  every  weeke  and  to  open  the  dores  upon  all  publique  meetings  and  to 
ring  the  bell  upon  the  Sabbath  day  and  all  other  publique  days  of  meeting  and 
allso  to  ring  the  bell  every  night  at  nine  of  the  clock  winter  and  sumer,'  for 
which  service  the  towne  hath  voated  to  give  him  five  pounds  in  money  and  ten 
shillings  yearly." 

How  small  these  arrangements  ;  how  simple  such  accommodations 
appear  by  the  side  of  the  costly  structures  for  worship  that  are  now 
spread-  over  the  land.  Yet  if  the  glory  of  the  temple  depends  on  the 
divine  presence,  upon  humble  service  and  fervent  aspirations,  who  will 
say  that  the  stupendous  piles  of  latter  days  are  more  honored  than 
their  lowly  predecessors  I 


1  This  ctufew-bell,  with  the  slight  alteration  of  ringing  it  at  eight  o'clock  instead  of 
nine,  on  Saturday  night,  has  been  regularly  continued  down  to  1851. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE   BOGERS   FAMILY,   AND   THE   SECT    OP   ROGERENES. 

The  unity  of  religious  worship  in  New  London,  was  fir^  inter- 
rupted bj  James  Rogers  and  his  sons.  A  brief  account  of  the  family 
will  lead  to  the  history  of  their  religious  doctrines. 

James  Rogers  is  supposed  to  be  the  James  Boger,  who  came  to 
America,  in  the  Increase,  1 635,  aged  20.^  As  James  Rogers,  he  is 
first  known  to  us  at  Stratford,  where  he  married  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  Samuel  Rowland,^  and  is  afterward  found  at  Milford,  where  his 
wife  united  with  Mr.  Prudden's  church  in  1645,  and  himself  in  1652. 
Their  children  were,  Samuel,  whose  birth  has  not  been  found  on  rec- 
ord, but  his  wiU,  dated  Feb.  12th,  1712-13,  states  his  age  to  be  "  72 
and  upwards,"  which  will  place  it  in  1640 ;  JFoseph,  baptized  in  Mil- 
ford,  1646 ;  John,  in  1648  ;  Bathsheba,  in  1650;  James,  not  record- 
ed, but  next  in  order :  Jonathan,  bom  Dec.  3l8t,  1655  ;. Elizabeth, 
1658. 

Mr.  Rogers  had  dealings  in  New  London  in  1656,  and  between 
that  time  and  1660,  fixed  himself  permanently  in  the  plantation. 
Here  he  soon  acquired  property  and  influence,  and  was  much  em- 
ployed both  in  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs.     He  was  six  times  rep- 
resentative to  the  General  Court.     Mr.  Winthrop  had  encouraged 
his  settlement  in  the  place,  and  had  accommodated  him  with  a  portion 
of  his  own  house  lot,  next  the  mill,  on  which  Rogers  built  a  dwelling- 
house  of  stone.'     He  was  a  baker  on  a  large  scale,  often  furnishing 
biscuit  for  seamen,  and  for  colonial  troops,  and  between  1660  and 

1  Gleanlnp.    Mum.  Hist.  CoU.,  2d  series,  vol.  8,  p.  161. 

2  Samuel  Bowland  left  his  farm  to  Samuel  Rogers,  his  grandson,  which  leads  to  the 
supposition  that  Elizabeth  was  his  only  child. 

8  This  spot  was  afterward  re-purchased  by  the  Winthrop  family,  and  was  the  site 
of  the  house  built  by  John  Still  Winthrop,  and  now  owned  by  C.  A.  Lewis,  Esq. 


302  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

1670  had  a  greater  interest  in  the  trade  of  the  port  than  any  other 
person  in  the  place.  His  landed  possessions  were  very  extensive, 
consisting  of  several  hundred  acres  on  the  Great  Neck,  the  fine  tract 
of  land  at  Mohegan  called  the  Pamechaug  farm,  several  house-lots  in 
town,  and  twenty-four  hundred  acres  east  of  the  river,  which  he  held 
in  partnership  with  Col.  Pyncheon,  of  Springfield. 

Perhaps  no  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  New  London,  numbers  at 
the  present  day  so  great  a  throng  of  descendants  as  James  Rogers. 
His  five  sons  are  the  progenitors  of  as  many  distinct  lines,  each  trac- 
ing to  its  immediate  founder,  and  seldom  cognizant  of  their  common 
ancestor.  His  daughters  were  women  of  great  energy  of  character. 
Elizabeth  married  Samuel  Beeby ;  Bathsheba  married  first  Richard 
Smithy  and  second  Samuel  Fox.  She  was  an  early  seceder  from  the 
church^  courting  persecution  and  much  persecuted. 

Samuel  Rogers  married,  Nov.  17th,  1664,  Mary,  daughter  of  ThonuM 
Stant^ ;  the  parenti  of  the  two  p«ties,  entering  into  a  formal  con- 
tract, and  each  pledging  £200  as  a  marriage  portion  to  the  couple. 
Mr.  Rogers,  in  fulfillment  of  his  bond,  conveyed  to  his  son  his  stcme 
house  and  bakery,  at  the  head  of  Winthrop's  (or  Mill)  Cove,  where 
the  latter  commenced  his  housekeeping  and  dwelt  for  fif\e«i  or 
twenty  years.  He  then  removed  to  the  out-lands  of  the  town,  near 
\  the  Mohegan  tribe,  and  became  the  first  English  settler  within  the 
limits  of  the  present  town  of  Montville. 

Joseph,  James  and  Jonathan  Rogers,  though  living  at  first  in  the 
town  plot,  removed  to  farms  upon  the  Great  Neck,  given  them  by 
their  father.  Like  most  active  men  of  that  time,  they  had  a  variety 
of  occupations,  each  and  all  operating  as  tradesmen,  mechanics, 
boatmen,  seamen  and  farmers. 

James,  the  fourth  son,  married,  November  5th,  1674,  Mary,  daugh* 
ter  of  Jeffrey  Jordan,  of  Ireland.  According  to  tradition,  he  com- 
manded a  vessel  which  brought  over  from  Ireland,  a  number  of  re- 
^  demptioners,  and  among  them  a  family  of  the  name  of  Jordan.  On 
their  arrival  he  became  the  purchaser  of  the  oldest  daughter,  Mary, 
and  married  her.  In  after  life  he  was  accustomed  to  say,  sportively, 
that  it  was  the  richest  cargo  he  ever  shipped,  and  the  best  bargiun 
he  ever  made.  Several  of  his  descendants  of  the  same  name  in  a 
^ght  Une^-weresea-captains. 

John  Rogers,  the  third  son  of  James,  having  become  conspicuous 
as  the  founder  of  a  sect,  which,  though  small  in  point  of  numbers, 
has  been  of  considerably  local  notoriety,  requires  a  more  extended 
notice.      No  man  in  New  London  county  was  at  one  time  more  no- 


c 


BISTORT    OP    NEW    LONDON.  208 


ted  than  he ;  no  ime  ffofiered  so  hearilj  from  the  arm  of  the  law,  the 
tongue  of  romor,  and  the  pen  of  contemporary  writers.  His  follow- 
ers still  exist,  &  handiul  indeed,  hut  jet  a  distinct  people,  venerating 
the  mme  of  their  founder,  and  esteeming  him  a  man  eminent  for 
pietj  and  filled  with  the  love  of  God  and  hib  neighbor.  His  oppo- 
nents, on  the  other  hand,  have  left  us  an  image  of  the  man  that  ex- 
eites  not  only  indignation  and  pity,  but  profound  disgust.  Ample 
matCTials  exist  on  both  sides  for  his  history,  but  the  two  faces  of 
Janus  could  not  be  more  imhke.  Rogers  himself  produced  tracts  and 
trsatises  in  abundance,  which  oflen  refer  to  his  own  experience ;  and 
his  foflowers  have  been,  to  a  considerable  degree,  a  print-loving  peo- 
ple. His  son,  John  Rogers  the  second,  was  a  ready  writer.  John 
BoUee,  a  noted  disciple,  was  fluent  with  the  pen,  and  adroit  in  argu- 
ment ;  and  the  family  of  Watrous,  the  more  recent  leaders  of  the  sect, 
have  issued  various  pamphlets,  to  vindicate  their  course  and  record 
their  sufferings.  This  is  not  therefore  a  one-sided  case,  in  which  the 
anaigned  have  had  no  one  to  speak  for  them.  It  may  be  said,  how- . 
erer,  with  truth,  that  the  accounts  on  one  side  have  been  but  little 
consulted,  and  that  the  statements  which  have  had  the  widest  circu- 
btkm,  come  from  the  opponents  of  the  Rogerenes.  This  may  be  re^ 
gnrded  as  a  sufficient  reason  for  entering  more  at  large  upon  their 
origin  and  history. 

John  Rogers  was  married,  Oct.  17th,  1670,  at  Black  Hall,  in  Lyme, 
to  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Matthew  Griswold.  The  rite  was  per- 
formed by  the  father  of  the  bride,  and  accompanied  with  the  formal- 
ity of  a  written  contract  and  dowry ;  the  husband  settling  his  farm 
at  Upper  Mamacock,  on  the  wife,  in  ca<)e  of  his  death,  or  separation 
from  her,  during  her  life.  On  this  farm,  two  miles  north  of  New 
London,  af^r  their  marriage,  they  dwelt,  and  had  two  children : 

Elizabeth,  born  Nov.  8th,  1671. 
John,  born  March  20th,  1674. 

James  Rogers  and  his  wife  and  children,  and  those  connected  with 
the  latter  as  partners  in  marriage,  with  the  exception  of  Samuel 
Rogers  and  wife,  all  becAne  dissenters  in  some  sort  from  the  estab- 
lished Congregational  church,  which  was  then  the  <mly  one  recog- 
nized by  the  laws  of  the  land.  The  origin  of  this  dissent  may  be 
traced  to  an  intercourse  which  began  in  the  way  of  trade,  with  the 
Sabbatarians,  or  Seventh-day  Baptists  of  Rhode  Island.  John  and 
James  Rogers,  Jun.,  first  embraced  the  Sabbatarian  principles,  and 
were  baptized  vn  1674;  Jonathan,  in  1675;  James  Rogers,  Sen.^ 


/ 


204  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

with  hiB  wife  and  daughter  BaUisheba,  ia  1676,  and  these  were  re* 
ceived  as  members  of  the  Seventh-day  church  at  Newport  Jona- 
than Rogers  still  further  cemented  his  union  with  the  Serenth-daj 
community,  by  marriage  with  Naomi  Burdick,  a  daughter  of  one  fji 
the  elders  of  the  church.  Of  the  baptism  of  Joseph  Rogers  we  have 
no  account*  His  wife  went  down  into  the  water  on  Sunday,  Nov. 
24th,  1677,  near  the  house  of  Samuel  Rogers,  at  the  head  of  Win- 
throp's  Cove.  Elders  Hubbard  and  Hiscox,  from  Rhode  Island, 
were  present,  and  it  was  expected  that  one  of  them  would  perform 
the  rite ;  but  the  town  authorities  having  interfered  and  requested 
them  to  do  it  elsewhere,  on  account  of  the  noise  and  tumult  that 
might  ensue,  they  acquiesced  in  the  reasonableness  of  the  proposal, 
and  declined  acting  on  the  occasion.  But  John  Rogers  would  assent 
to  no  compromise,  and  assuming  on  the  spot  the  authority  of  an 
elder,  and  the  responsibility  of  the  act,  he  led  the  candidate  into  the 
water,  and  performed  the  baptism.' 

From  this  time  forth,  John  Rogers  began  to  draw  off  from  the 
Sabbatarians,  and  to  broach  certain  peculiar  notions  of  his  own.  He 
assumed  the  ministerial  offices  of  baptizing  and  preaching,  and  hav- 
ing gained  a  few  disciples,  originated  a  new  sect,  forming  a  church 
or  society,  which  were  called  Rogerenes,  or  Rogerene  Quakers,  and 
sometimes  Rogerene  Baptists. 

A  great  and  predominant  trait  of  the  founder  of  the  sect,  and  of 
his  immediate  followers,  was  their  determination  to  be  persecuted. 
They  were  aggressive,  and  never  better  pleased  than  when  by  shak- 
ing the  pillars,  they  had  brought  down  the  edifice  upon  their  own 
heads.  They  esteemed  it  a  matter  of  duty,  not  only  to  suffer  fines, 
distrainment,  degradation,  imprisonment  and  felonious  penalties  with 
patience,  but  to  obtrude  themselves  upon  the  law,  and  challenge  its 
power,  and  in  fact  to  persecute  others,  by  interrupting  their  worship, 
and  vehemently  denouncing  what  they  esteemed  sacred.  This  point 
the  followers  of  Rogers  have  abrogated.  At  the  present  day  they 
never  molest  the  worship  of  others,  and  are  themselves  unmolested. 

In  respect  to  the  most  important  articles  of  Christianity,  Rogers 
was  strenuously  orthodox.  He  held  to  saltation  by  faith  in  Christ, 
the  Trinity,  the  new  birth,  the  resurrection  of  the  just  and  unjust,' 
and  an  eternal  judgment  He  maintained  also  obedience  to  the  civil 
government,  except  in  matters  of  conscience  and  religion.    A  town  or 


1 A  more  particular  account  of  this  afl&ir  may  be  found  in  Backus*  Church  History 
and  in  Benedict's  Histoxy  of  the  Baptists,  toL  2,  p.  422. 


BISTORT     OP     NBW     LONDON.  205 

^ountiy  rate  the  Bogerenes  always  considered  Uiemselyes  bound  to 
pay,  but  the  minister's  rate  they  abhorred— denouncing  as  unscrip- 
toral  all  intezference  of  the  civil  power  in  the  worship  of  God  Of 
tiieir  peculiar  characteristics  a  brief  summary  must  here  suffice. 

In  respect  to  baptism,  and  the  rejection  of  the  first  day  Sabbath, 
they  agree  with  the  Sabbatarians,  but  they  diverge  from  them  on 
other  points.  They  consider  all  days  alike  in  respect  to  sanctity, 
and  though  they,  meet  for  religious  purposes  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  when  the  exercise  is  over,  they  regard  themselves  as  free  to 
labor  as  on  any  other  day.  They  have  no  houses  set  apart  for  public 
worship,  and  regard  a  steeple,  a  pulpit,  a  cushion,  a  church,  and  a 
salaried  minister  in  a  black  suit  of  clothes,  as  utter  abominations. 
They  hold  that  a  public  oath  is  like  any  other  swearing,  a  profana- 
tion of  the  Holy  Name,  and  plainly  forbidden  in  Scripture.  They 
make  no  prayers  in  public  worship  or  in  the  family :  John  Rogers 
conceived  that  all  prayers  should  be  mental  and  not  vocal,  except  on 
special  occasions  when  the  Spirit  of  Grod  moving  within,  prompted 
the  use  of  the  voice.  They  use  no  means  for  the  recovery  of  health, 
except  psre,  kindness  and  attention,  considering  all  resort  to  drugs, 
medicines  and  physicians,  as  sinful. 

The  entire  rejection  of  the  Sabbath,  and  of  a  resident  ministry , 
were  opinions  exceedingly  repugnant  to  the  community  at  lai^,  and 
were  rendered  more  so  by  the  violent  and  obtrusive  manner  in  which 
they  were  propagated.  Their  author  went  boldly  forth,  exhorting 
and  testifying  in  streets,  disturbing  public  worship,  and  courting  per- 
secution with  an  eagerness  that  seemed  akin  to  an  aspiration  after 
martyrdom.  His  creed  was  also  exceedingly  distasteful  to  the  reg- 
ular Seventh-day  people.  It  was  probably  in  opposition  to  them, 
that  having  his  choice  of  days,  as  regarding  them  equal  in  point  of 
sanctity,  he  held  his  meetings  for  religious  purposes  on  the  first 
rather  than  on  the  seventh  day. 

In  1676,  the  fines  and  imprisonments  of  James  Rogers  and  his 
sons,  for  profanation  of  the  Sabbath,  commenced.  For  this,  and  for 
neglect  of  worship,  they  and  some  of  their  followers  were  usually 
arraigned  at  every  session  of  court,  for  a  long  course  of  years.  The 
fine  was  at  first  five  shillings,  then  ten  shillings,  then  fifteen  shillings. 
At  the  June  court  in  1677,  the  following  persons  were  arraigned, 
and  each  fined  £5. 

James  Rogers,  senior,  for  high-handed,  presumptuous  profanation 
of  the  Sabbath,  by  attending  to  his  work ;  Elizabeth  Rogers,  his 
wife,  and  James  and  Jonathan  Rogers,  for  the  same* 
18 


206  HISTORY     OP    NEW    LONDOK« 

John  Rogers,  on  examinatioD,  said  he  had  been  hard  at  work 
making  shoes  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  he  would  have  done 
the  same  had  the  shop  stood  under  the  window  of  Mr.  Wetherell's 
house  ;  yea,  under  the  window  of  the  meeting-house. 

Bathshua  Smith,  for  fixing  a  scandalous  paper  on  the  meeting- 
house. 

Mary,  wife  of  James  Rogers,  jutiior,  for  absence  i^m  public  wor- 
ship. 

Again  in  September,  1677,  the  court  ordered  that  John  Rogers 
should  be  called  to  account  once  a  month,  and  fined  £5  each  time ; 
others  of  the  family  were  amerced  to  the  same  amount  for  blasphemy 
against  the  Sabbath,  cidling  it  an  idol,  and  for  stigmatizing  the  rev- 
erend ministers  as  hirelings.  After  this,  sitting  in  the  stocks  and 
whipping  were  added. 

In  May,  1678,  (says  Backus,)  Joseph  Claire  wrote  to  his  father 
Hubbard,  from  Westerly,  that  John  and  James  Rogers,  with  their 
father,  were  in  prison ;  having  previously  excommunicated  Jonathan, 
chiefly  because  he  did  not  retain  their  judgment  of  the  unlawfulness 
of  using  medicine,  nor  accuse  himself  before  authority  of  workii^  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week. 

Jonathan  Rogers  now  stood  alone  among  the  brothers,  adhering 
steadfastly  to  the  Sabbatarian  principles,  from  which  he  never  swerved. 
His  family  became  the  nucleus  of  a  small  society  of  this  denomina- 
tion on  the  Great  Neck,  which  has  ever  since  existed.  From  genei^ 
ation  to  generation  they  connected  themselves  with  churches  of  their 
own  faith  in  Rhode  Island,  at  first  with  that  of  Newport,  and  after- 
ward with  that  of  Hopkinton  and  Westerly,  until  in  the  year  1784, 
109  years  afler  the  baptism  of  their  founder,  Jonathan  Rogers,  they 
were  organized  into  a  distinct  church  and  society.  A  further  ac- 
count of  the  Seventh-day  community  on  the  Neck  will  be  given  in 
the  sequel  of  our  history. 

In  1680,  the  magistrates  of  Connecticut,  giving  an  account  of  the 
colony  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  say : 

**  Our  people  in  this  colony,  are  some  strict  Congregational  men,  others  more 
large  Congregational  men,  and  some  moderate  Presbyterians,  &^c.— there  are 
four  or  six  seventh-day  men,  and  about  so  many  more  Quakers.''^ 

These  Quakers  and  Seventh-day  men  were  probably  all  in  New 
London,  and  nearly  all  in  the  Rogers  fieunily.    The  elder  James 

1  Hinman*s  Antiquities,  p.  142. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  207 

Rogers  was  an  upright,  circumspect  man.    There  is  no  account  of 
any  dealings  with  him  and  his  wife  on  account  of  their  secession 
from  Mr.  Bradstreet's  church.     No  vote  of  expulsion  or  censure  is 
recorded.     Of  his  latter  years  little  is  known.     Elder  Hubhard,  of 
Newport,  is  quoted  by  Backus  as  stating  that  Mr.  Rogers  had  one  of 
hb  limbs  severely  bruised  by  the  wheel  of  a  loaded  cart  that  passed 
over  it,  and  that  he  himself  saw  him  when  he  had  remained  for  six 
weeks  in  a  most  deplorable  condition,  strenuously  refusing  the  use  of 
means  to  alleviate  his  sufferings,  but  patiently  waiting  in  accordance 
with  his  principles,  to  be  relieved  by  faith.     Whether  he  recovered 
from  this  injury  or  not  is  unknown.     His  death  occurred  in  February, 
1687-8,  when  the  government  of  Sir  Edmund  Andross  was  para- 
mount in  New  England.     His  will  was  therefore  proved  in  Boston. 
The  first  settlement  of  the  estate  was  entirely  harmonious.     The 
children  in  accordance  with  the  earnest  request  of  their  father,  made 
an  amicable  division  of  the  estate,  which  was  sanctioned  by  the  Gren- 
eral  Court,  May  12th,  1692. 

The  original  will  of  Mr.  Rogers  is  on  file  in  the  probate  office  of 
New  London.  It  is  in  the  handwriting  of  his  son  John,  and  remark- 
able for  the  simple  solemnity  of  its  preamble. 

"  The  Last  Will  and  Testament  of  James  Rogers,  Sen',  being  in  perfect 
memoiy  and  understanding  but  under  the  hand  of  God  by  sickness : — this  I 
leave  with  my  wife  and  children,  sons  and  daughters,  I  being  old  and  knowing    . 
that  the  time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand. 

"  What  I  have  of  ihis  world  I  leave  among  you,  desiring  you  not  to  fall  out  or 
contend  about  it ;  but  let  your  love  one  to  another  appear  more  than  to  the 
estate  I  leave  with  you,  which  is  but  of  this  world. 

**  And  for  your  comfort  I  signify  to  you  that  I  have  a  perfect  assurance  of  an 
interest  in  Jesus  Christ  and  an  eternal  happy  state  in  the  world  to  come,  and 
do  know  and  see  that  my  name  is  written  in  the  book  of  life,  and  therefore 
monm  not  for  me,  as  they  that  are  without  bope." 

In  a  snbsequent  part  of  the  document  he  says : 

"If  any  difference  should  arise,  &c.,  my  will  is,  that  there  shall  be  no  law- 
ing  among  my  children  before  earthly  judges,  but  that  the  controversy  be  ended 
by  lot,  and  so  I  refer  to  the  judgment  of  God,  and  as  the  lot  comes  forth,  so 
,  shall  it  be." 

In  thig  respect  unfortunately  the  will  of  the  father  was  never  ac- 
complished :  his  children,  notwithstanding  their  first  pacific  arrange" 
ment,  engaged  afterward  in  long  and  acrimonious  contention,  respect- 
ing boundaries,  in  the  course  of  which  earthly  judges  were  often 
obliged  to  interfere  and  enforce  a  settlement 


V 


208  HISTORY    OF    NEV    LONPOIV. 

Soon  after  John  Rogers  connected  himself  with  the  Sahbatarians^ 
hifl  wife  left  him  and  returned  to  her  finther.  In  Maj,  1675,  she  ap- 
plied to  the  legislature  for  a  divorce,  grounding  her  plea  not  only  up- 
'on  the  heterodoxy  of  her  husband,  but  upon  certain  alleged  immoral- 
ities. The  court,  after  the  delay  of  nearly  a  year  aod  a  half,  granted 
her  petition. 

At  a  session  of  ^e  General  Court,  held  at  Hartford,  October  12th9 
1676: 

"  The  Court  having  considered  the  petition  of  Elizabeth  Rogers,  the.  wife  of 
John  Rogers,  for  a  release  from  her  conjugal  bond  to  her  husband,  with  all  the 
allegations  and  proofs  presented,  to  clear  the  righteousness  of  her  desires,  do 
find  jnst  cause  to  grant  her  desire,  and  do  free  her  from  her  conjugal  bond  to 
the  said  John  Rogers." 

By  a  subsequent  act  a£  Assembly,  (October,  1677,)  she  was  allowed 
to  retain  her  two  children  wholly  under  her  own  charge ;  the  court 
giving  as  a  reason  the  heterodoxy  of  Rogers,  both  in  opinion  and 
practice,  he  having  declared  in  open  court  that  he  utterly  renounced 
the  visible  worship  of  New  England,  and  regarded  the  Christian 
Sabbath  as  a  mere  invention. 

Rogers  was  incensed  at  these  decisions  of  the  court.  The  bill  oF 
divorce  did  not  specify  any  offense  on  his  part,  as  the  base  upon  whicfai 
it  was  granted,  and  he  ever  aflerward  maintained  that  they  had  taken 
away  his  wife  without  rendering  to  him,  or  to  the  public,  any  reason 
why  Ihey  had  done  it.  He  seems  to  have  long  cherished  the  hope 
that  she  would  repent  of  her  desertion,  and  return  to  him  ;  but  in  less 
than  two  years  she  married  again. 

"  Peter  Pratt  was  married  unto  Elisabeth  Griswold,  that  wa«  divorced  from 
John  Rogers,  5lh  of  August,  1679  '*" 

The  children  of  Rogers  remained  with  their  mother  during  their 
childhood,  but  both  when  they  became  old  enough  to  act  for  them- 
selves, preferred  to  live  with  their  father.  Elizabeth  was  sent  to  him 
by  her  mother,  of  her  own  free  will,  when  she  was  about  fourteen 
years  of  age,  and  resided  with  him  till  1 G89  or  1 690,  when  she  was 
married  to  Stephen  Prentis,  of  Bruen's  Neck.  At  her  wedding,  her 
brother  John,  then  about  fifleen  years  of  age,  came  also  to  his  father, 
by  permission  of  his  mother,  to  stay  as  long  as  he  pleased.  She  after- 
ward sent  a  constable  forcibly  to  reclaim  him,  and  he  was  seized  and 
carried  back  to  Lyme  ;  yet  he  soon  retunied  to  his  father,  embraced 

1  Becorded  in  Lyme. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  309 

his  doctrines,*  and  pnraiied  a  similar  oomse  of  itinerant  testimonj 
against  the  public  worship  of  the  land. 

An  agreement  was  signed  in  1687,  hj  which  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  Matthew  Griswold,  senior,  engages  to  relinquish  all  claim  to  the 
ICamacock  farm,  ^  provided  John  Rogers  will  pay  her  £30  and  never 
trouble  her  father  about  the  farm  agun."  Bj  this  arrangement  the 
&rm  reverted  to  Rogers,  and  his  son,  John  Rogers,  junior,  marrying 
Ms  cousin,  Bathsheba  Smith,  settled  at  Mamacock.  There,  not- 
withstanding his  long  testimony  and  his  many  weary  trials  and  im- 
prisonments, he  reared  to  maturity  a  family  of  eighteen  children, 
most  of  them  like  their  parents,  sturdy  Rogerenes.'  Mamacock,  and 
the  neighboring  highland  over  which  they  spread,  has  ever  since 
been  known  as  Quaker  HilL 

Peter  Pratt,  the  second  husband  of  Elizabeth  Griswold,  died 
March  24th,  1688.  Shortly  afterward  she  contracted  a  third  mar- 
riage with  Matthew  Beckwith,  2d.^  By  the  second  marriage  with 
Mr.  Pratt,  she  had  a  son,  Peter,  who  while  a  young  man,  studying 
for  the  profession  of  the  law,  in  New  London,  very  naturally  renewed 
his  youthfid  intimacy  with  his  half-brother,  John  Rogers,  junior,  of 
Mamacock.  This  brought  him  often  into  the  company  of  the  elder 
Rogers,  to  whose  exhortations  he  listened  complacently,  till  at  length 
embracing  his  dogmas  and  becoming  his  disciple,  he  received  bap- 
tism at  his  hands,  and  endured  fines,  imprisonment  and  public  abuse, 
on  account  of  his  Quakerism.  But  after  a  time,  leaving  New  Lon- 
don, and  entering  upon  other  associations,  he  relinquished  the  Roger- 
ene  cause,  and  made  a  public  acknowledgment  that  he  had  labored 
under  a  delusion.  Still  further  to  manifest  the  sincerity  of  his  re- 
cantation, he  wrote  an  account  of  his  lapse  and  recovery,  entitled : 

"  The  Prey  taken  from  the  Strong,  or  an  Historical  Account  of  the  Recovery 
of  one  from  the  dangerous  errors  of  Quakerism.** 

In  this  narrative,  Rogers  is  drawn,  not  only  as  an  obstinate,  heter- 
odox enthusiast,  but  many  revolting  circumstances  are  added,  which 
would  justify  the  greatest  odium  ever  cast  upon  him.  It  was  not 
published  till  1724,  three  years  after  the  death  of  Rogers.  He  could 
not  therefore  answer  for  himself,  but  the  indignation  of  the  son  was 


1  In  the  phnseology  of  the  sect,  he  di$dpUd  in  with  him  immediatehf, 
t  John  Bogen,  2d,  by  his  two  wives  had  twenty  children:  two  died  in  infancy. 
8  By  thi«  third  marriage  she  liad  one  daughter,  Qriswold  Beckwith,  afterward  the 
wife  of  Eliakun  Cooley,  junior,  of  Springfield. 

18» 


210  H18T0RT     OF    NEW    LONDON. 

roused,  and  in  defense  of  his  father,  he  entered  into  controversy  trith  ~ 
his  brother,  and  published  a  rejoinder,  from  which  portions  of  the  pre* 
ceding  narrative  have  been  taken.  He  meets  the  charges  against 
the  moral  and  domestic  character  of  his  father,  with  a  bold  denial  of 
their  truth  ;  but  his  erratic  course  in  matters  of  f^th  and  religious 
practice,  he  makes  no  attempt  to  palliate,  these  being  points  in  which, 
he  himself,  and  the  whole  sect,  gloried.  He  denies,  however,  that 
his  father  was  properly  classed  among  Quakers,  observing : 

**  In  his  lifetime  he  was  the  only  man  in  Conn,  colony,  I  have  ever  heard 
of,  that  did  publicly  in  print  oppose  the  Quakers  in  those  main  principles 
wherein  they  differ  from  other  sects.** 

But  the  term  Quaker  had  been  firmlj  fixed  upon  them  by  their 
opponents,  and  they  were  customarily  confounded  with  the  Ranters, 
or  Ranting  Quakers,  known  in  the  early  days  of  the  colony.  Yet 
they  never  came  under  the  severe  excision  of  the  law  enacted 
against  those  people  in  1656  and  1658  ;  that  is,  they  were  never  for- 
cibly transported  out  of  the  colony,  nor  were  others  prohibited  from 
intercourse  with  them.  Yet  John  Rogers  states  that  under  the  pro- 
visions of  this  law,  his  books  were  condemned  and  burnt  as  heretical. 
The  law  itself  was  disallowed  and  made  void  by  an  act  of  the  Queen 
in  Council,  October  Uth,  1705.  There  were  other  laws,  however, 
by  which  the  Rogerenes  were  convicted.  By  the  early  code  of  Con- 
necticut, absence  from  public  worship  was  to  be  visited  by  a  penalty 
of  five  shillings  ;  labor  on  the  Sabbath,  twenty  shillings ;  and  the  per- 
formance of  church  ordinances  by  any  other  person  than  an  improved, 
minister  of  the  colony,  or  an  attendance  thereupon,  £5.- 

Though  in  most  of  the  cases  of  arrest  and  punishment,  the  Roger- 
enes were  the  aggressors,  and  drew  down  the  arm  of  the  law  on  their 
own  heads,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  they  encountered  a  vigoroua 
and  determined  opposition.  Offense  was  promptly  met  by  penaltjr. 
Attempts  were  made  to  weary  them  out,  and  break  them  up  by  a 
series  of  fines,  imposed  upon  presentments  of  the  grand  jury.  These 
fines  were  many  times  repeated,  and  the  estates  of  the  offenders 
melted  under  the  seizures  of  the  constable,  as  snow  melts  before  the 
sun.  The  course  was  a  cruel  one,  and  by  no  means  popular.  At 
length  the  magistrates  could  scarcely  find  an  officer  willing  to  per- 
form the  irksome  task  of  distraining.  And  it  is  probable  that  all 
penalties  would  have  been  silently  dropped,  had  they  not  kept  up  ihe 
aggressive  system  of  testifying,  as  it  was  called;  that  is,  presenting 
themselves  in  the  religious  assemblies  of  their  neighbors,  to  utter 


HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON.  211 

their  teatunonj  against  the  worship.  In  this  line,  John  Rogers,  and 
the  elder  sister,  were  the  principal  offenders ;  often  carrying  their 
woi^  into  meeting,  and  interrupting  the  service  with  exclamations 
and  protests  against  what  was  said  or  done. 

The  records  of  the  county  court  abound  with  instances  to  verify 
these  statements.     Only  a  sample  will  be  given  : 

"  April  14th,  1685.  Judges  upon  the  bench,  Fitch,  Avery  and  Wetherell. 
John  Rogers,  James  Rogers,  Jr.,  Samuel  Beebee,  Jr.,  and  Joanna  Way,  are 
complained  of  for  profaning  God*s  holy  day  by  servile  work,  and  are  grown  to 
that  height  of  impiety  as  to  come  at  several  times  into  the  town  to  re-baptize 
several  persons ;  and  when  God's  people  were  met  together  on  the  Lord's  day  JL 
to  worship  God,  several  of  them  came  and  made  great  disturbance,  behaving 
themselves  in  such  a  frantic  manner  as  if  possessed  with  a  diabolical  spirit,  so 
affrighting  and  amazing  that  several  women  swooned  and  fainted  away.  John 
Rogers  to  be  whipped  flAeen  lashes,  and  for  unlawfully  re-baptizing  to  pay 
£5.     The  others  to  be  whipped." 

One  of  the  most  notorious  instances  of  contempt  exhibited  by 
Bogers  against  the  religious  worship  of  his  fellow-townsmen,  was  the 
sending  of  a  wig  to  a  contribution  made  in  aid  of  the  ministry.  This 
was  in  derision  of  the  full-bottomed  wigs  then  worn  by  the  clergy. 
It  was  sent  by  some  one  who  depos^ed  it  in  his  name  in  the  contri- 
bution box  that  was  passed  around  in  meeting.  Rogers  relished  a 
joke,  and  was  often  represented  by  his  opponents  as  shaking  his  sides 
with  laughter  at  the  confusion  into  which  they  were  thrown  by  his 
hiroads  upon  them.  What  course  was  pursued  by  the  authorities  in 
regard  to  the  wig  is  not  known,  but  the  following  candid  apology  is 
found  on  the  town  book,  subscribed  by  the  offender's  own  hand. 

'*  Whereas  I  John  Rogers  of  New  London  did  rashly  and  unadvisedly  send 
a  perewigg  to  the  contribution  of  New  London,  which  did  reflectt  dishonor  up- 
on that  which  my  neighbours  ye  inhabitanto  of  New  London  account  the  ways 
and  ordinances  of  God  and  ministry  of  the  word  to  the  greate  offence  of  them, 
I  doe  herebye  declare  that  I  am  sorry  for  the  sayde  action  and  doe  desire  all 
those  whom  I  have  offended  to  accept  this  my  publique  acknowledgement  as 
fuU  saiisfaclion.     27th,  1 :  91.*  John  Rogers." 

The  regret  here  expressed  must  have  been  but  a  temporary  emo- 
tion, as  he  resumed  immediately  the  same  career  of  offense.     In  Nov., 
1692,  besides  his  customary  fines  for  working  on  the  Sabbath,  and  for       ,  4 
hapdzing,  he  was  amerced  £4  for  entertaining  Banks  and  Case 

1  New  London  Town  Bee.,  lib.  4,  folio  46. 


313  HISTORY   OF   NEW   LONDON. 

(itinerant  exhorters)  for  a  month  or  more  at  fais  boose.    In  1698  ) 

and  1694,  he  and  others  of  his  family  were  particularly  eager  to  win  I 

the  notice  of  the  law.  Samuel  Fox,  presented  for  catching  eels  on 
Sunday,*  said  that  he  made  no  difference  of  days ;  his  wife  Bathshna 
Fox  went  openly  to  the  meeting-house  to  proclaim  that  she  had  been 
doing  servile  woii^  on  their  Sabbath ;  John  Rogers  accompanied  her, 
interrupting  the  minister,  and  proclaiming  a  shnilar  offense.  James 
Rogers  and  his  wife  assaulted  the  constable  as  he  was  rolling  away 
a  barrel  of  beef  that  he  had  distrained  for  the  minister's  rate,  threw 
scalding  water  upon  him,  and  recaptured  the  beef.* 

To  various  offenses  of  this  nature,  Rogers  added  the  greater  one 
of  trundling  a  wheelbarrow  into  the  porch  of  the  meeting-house 
during  the  time  of  service ;  for  which  after  being  set  in  the  stocks 
he  was  put  into  prison,  and  there  kept  for  a  considerable  time. 
While  thus  held  in  durance,  he  hung  out  of  the  window  a  board 
with  the  following  proclamation  attached ; 

**  I,  John  Rogers,  a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  doth  here  make  an  open  decla- 
ration of  war  against  the  great  red  dragon,  and  against  the  beast  to  which  he 
gives  power;  and  against  the  false  church  that  rides  upon  the  beast;  and 
against  the  false  prophets  who  are  established  by  the  dragon  and  the  beast ; 
and  also  a  proclamation  of  derisicH  against  the  sword  of  the  devil's  spirit, 
which  is  prisons,  stocks,  whips,  fines  and  revilings,  all  which  is  to  defend  the 
doctrines  of  devils.*** 

On  the  next  Sunday  after  this  writing  was  hung  out,  Rogers  being 
allowed  the  privilege  of  the  prison  limits  on  that  day,  rushed  into 
the  meeting-house  during  service,  and  with  great  noise  and  vehemence 
interrupted  the  minister,  and  denounced  the  worship.  This  led  to 
the  issuing  of  a  warrant  to  remove  him  to  Hartford  gaoL  The 
mittimus,  dated  March  28th,  1694,  and  signed  by  James  Fitch,  assist- 
ant, sets  forth : 

**  Whereas  John  Rodgers  of  New  London  hath  of  late  set  himself  in  a  furioat 
way  in  direct  opposition  to  the  true  worship  and  pure  ordinances,  and  holy  in- 
stitutions of  God,  as  also  on  the  Lord's  Day  passing  out  of  prison  in  the  time  of 
public  worship,  running  into  the  meeting-house  in  a  railing  and  raging  man- 
ner, as  being  guilty  of  blasphemy,*'  &c. 


1  Records  of  County  Court 

2  Rogers  himself  in  one  of  his  pamphlets  gives  a  copy  of  this  writing.    It  is  aho  in 
Benedict's  Hist,  vol.  2,  p.  423. 


HISTORY     Ol'    NEW     LONDON.  213 

At  Hartford  he  was  tried  and  fined  £5,  and  required  to  give  a 
bond  of  £50  not  to  disturb  the  chnrches  hereafter,  and  seated  upon 
the  gallows  a  quarter  of  an  hour  with  a  halter  about  his  neck.  Re- 
fusing as  usual  to  pay  the  fine  and  give  the  security,  he  was  i^emand- 
ed  to  prison  and  kept  there  from  his  first  ccHumitment  three  years 
and  eight  months. 

Daring  this  imprisonment,  according  to  the  account  of  his  son,  he 
was  treated  with  great  severity,  and  at  one  time  taken  out  and  cruelly 
scourged.^ 

While  Rogers  was  in  prison  an  attack  upon  the  government  and 
colony  appeared,  signed  by  Richard  Steer,  Samuel  Beebe,  Jr.,  Jona- 
than and  James  Rogers,  accusing  them  of  persecution  of  dissenters, 
nfurrow  principles,  self-interest,  spirit  of  domineering;  and  that  to 
compel  people  to  pay  for  a  Presbyterian  minister,  is  against  the  laws 
of  England,  is  rapine,  robbery  and  oppression. 

A  special  court  was  held  at  New  London,  Jan.  24th,  1694-5,  to 
consider  this  libelous  paper.  The  subscribers  were  fined  £5  each^ 
whereupon  they  appealed  to  the  Court  of  Assistants  at  Hartford, 
which  confirming  the  first  decision,  they  threatened  an  appeal  to 
Cesar,  that  is  to  the  throne  of  England.  In  all  probability  this  was 
never  prosecuted. 

Rogers  had  not  been  long  released  from  prison  before  he  threw 
himself  into  the  very  jaws  of  the  lion,  as  it  were,  by  pjrovoking  a 
personal  collision  with  Mr.  Saltonstall,  the  minister  of  the  town. 

••  At  a  session  of  the  county  court  held  at  New  London,  Sept.  20th,  1698. 
Members  of  the  Court,  Capt.  Daniel  Wetherell  Esq.  and  justices  William  Eljr 
and  Natheniel  Lyndo.  Mr.  Gurdon  Saltonstall  minister  of  the  gospel  plf. 
pr  contra  John  Rogers  Sen'',  deft  in  an  action  of  the  case  for  defamation. 
Whereas  you  the  said  John  Rogers  did  sometime  in  the  month  of  June 
last  past,  raise  a  lying,  false  and  scandalous  report  against  him  the  said  Mr. 
Garden  Saltonstall  and  did  publish  the  same  in  the  hearing  of  diverse  persons, 
that  is  to  say — did  in  their  hearing  openly  declare  that  the  said  Saltonstall  hav- 
ing promised  to  dispute  with  you  publicly  on  the  holy  scriptures  did  contrary 
to  his  said  engagement  shift  or  wave  the  said  dispute  which  he  had  promised 
you,  which  said  false  report  he  the  said  Saltonstall  complaineth  of  as  to  his 
great  scandall  and  to  his  damage  unto  such  value  as  shall  to  the  said  court  be 
made  to  appear.  In  this  action  the  jury  finds  for  the  plaintiff  six  hundred 
pounds,  and  costs  of  court,  £1,  10."  • 

It  wonld  be  wearisome  and  useless  to  enumerate  all  the  instances 

1  Answer  of  John  Rogers,  Jr.,  to  Peter  Pratt 

2  County  Court  Records. 


214  HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON. 

of  collision  between  Rogers  and  the  anthorities  of  the  land,  which 
even  at  this  distance  of  time  might  be  collected.  It  is  stated  by  his 
followers  that  after  his  conversion  he  was  near  one-third  of  his  life- 
time confined  in  prisons.  ^  I  have/'  he  observes,  writing  in  1706, 
^been  sentenced  to  pay  hundreds  of  pounds,  laid  in  iron  chains, 
cruelly  scourged,  endured  long  imprisonments,  set  in  the  stocks  many 
hours  together,"  &c.  John,  the  younger,  states  that  hil  father's  suf- 
ferings continued  for  more  than  forty-five  years,  and  adds,  '^  I  suppose 
the  like  has  not  been  known  in  the  kingdom  of  England  for  some 
ages  past." 

It  was  certainly  a  great  error  in  the  early  planters  o£  New  Eng- 
land to  endeavor  to  produce  uniformity  in  doctrine  by  the  strong  aim 
of  physical  force.  Was  ever  religious  dissent  subdued  either  by 
petty  annoyance  or  actual  cruelty  ?  Is  it  possible  ever  to  make  a 
true  convert  by  persecution  ?  The  principle  of  toleration  was,  how- 
ever, then  less  clearly  understood,  and  the  offenses  of  the  Rogerenes 
were  multiplied  and  exaggerated  both  by  prejudice  and  rumor.  The 
crime  of  blasphemy  was  one  that  was  often  hurled  against  them. 
Doubtless  a  sober  mind  would  not  now  give  so  harsh  a  name,  to  ex- 
pressions which  our  ancestors  deemed  blasphemous. 

In  reviewing  this  controversy  we  can  not  avoid  acknowledging  that 
there  was  great  blame  on  both  sides,  and  our  sympathies  pass  alter- 
nately from^one  to  the  other.  The  course  pursued  by  the  Rogerenes 
was  exceedingly  vexatious.  The  provoking  assurance  with  which 
they  would  enter  a  church,  attack  a  minister,  or  challenge  an  argu- 
ment, is  said  to  have  been  quite  intolerable.  Suppose,  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  a  man  like  Rogers  of  a  bold  spirit,  ready  tongue,  and  loud 
voice,  should  rise  up  in  a  worshiping  assembly,  and  tell  the  people 
they  were  entangled  in  the  net  of  Antichrist,  and  sunk  deep  in  the 
mire  of  idolatry ;  then  turning  to  the  preacher,  call  him  a  hireling 
shepherd,  making  merchandise  of  his  fiock,  and  declaring  that  the 
rites  he  administered,  viz.,  baptism  by  sprinkling — the  baptism  of 
infants — and  the  celebration  of  the  sacrament  at  any  time  but  at 
night — were  anttchristtan  fopperies;  accompanying  all  this  with 
violent  contortions,  coarse  expletives  and  foaming  at  the  mouth : 
would  it  not  require  great  forbearance  on  the  part  of  the  congrega- 
tion not  to  call  a  constable,  and  forcibly  remove  the  offender  ?  Yet 
the  Rogerenes  frequently  used  more  aggressive  language  than  this, 
and  went  to  greater  lengths  in  their  testimony  against  the  idol  Sabbath. 
Their  own  narratives  and  controversial  writings  prove  this ;  nor  do 


HI8T0RT    OF    NEW    LONDON.  215 

thej  offer  any  palliation  of  their  course  in  this  respect,  but  regard  it 
as  a  datj  they  mast  perform,  a  cross  thej  mast  bear. 

Viewing  the  established  order  of  the  colony,  only  on  the  dark  and 
frowning  side,  they  considered  it  a  righteous  act  to  treat  it  with  defi- 
ance and  aggression.  The  demands  of  collectors,  the  brief  of  the 
constable,  were  ever  molesting  their  habitations.  It  was  now  a  cow, 
then  a  few  sheep,  the  oxen  at  the  plow,  the  standiilg  com,  the  stack 
of  hay,  the  thrashed  wheat,  and  anon,  piece  after  piece  of  land,  all 
taken  from  them  to  uphold  a  system  which  they  denounced.  Yet 
our  sympathy  with  these  sufferers  is  unavoidably  lessened  by  the  fact, 
that  they  courted  persecution  and  gloried  in  it ;  often  informing  against 
themselves,  and  compelling  the  violated  law  to  bring  down  its  arm 
Hpon  them.     Says  John  Bolles : 

**  God  gave  rae  such  a  cheerful  spirit  in  this  warfare,  that  when  I  had  not  the 
knowledge  that  the  grand-juryraan  saw  me  at  work  on  the  first  day,  I  would 
inform  against  myseif  before  witness,  till  they  gave  out,  and  let  me  plow  and 
eart  and  do  whatsoever  I  have  occasion  to  on  this  day.*' 

What  should  a  magistrate  do?  Often  in  despite  of  himself  he 
was  forced  into  severity.  He  had  sworn  to  enforce  the  laws ;  he 
might  shut  his  eyes  and  ears  and  refuse  to  know  that  such  things 
were  done,  but  here  was  a  race  who  would  not  allow  of  such  conniv- 
ance ;  they  obtruded  their  violations  of  the  law  upon  his  notice ;  and 
he  felt  obliged  to  convict  and  condemn.  The  authorities'were  not  in 
the  first  place  inclined  to  rigor :  they  were  not  a  persecuting  people. 
New  London  county  more  tlian  any  other  part  of  Connecticut,  per- 
haps from  its  vicinity  to  Rhode  Island,  has  ever  been  a  stage 
whereon  varied  opinions  might  exhibit  themselves  freely,  and  a  dif- 
ference of  worship  was  early  tolerated.  Governor  Saltonstall  was 
perhaps  more  uniformly  rigorous  than  any  other  magistrate  in  re- 
pressing the  Rogerene  disturbances.  Nevertheless,  while  sitting  as 
chief  judge  of  the  superior  court,  he  used  his  utmost  endeavors,  by 
argument  and  conciliation,  to  persuade  them  to  refrain  from  molesting 
the  worship  of  their  neighbors. 

*•  He  gave  his  word  [says  John  Bolles]  that  to  persuade  us  to  forbear,  if  we 
would  be  quiet,  and  worship  God  In  our  own  way  according  to  our  consciences, 
he  would  punish  any  of  their  people  that  should  disturb  us  in  our  worship." 

Here  was  an  opportunity  for  a  compact  which  might  have  led  to  a 
lasting  peace.  But  the  principles  of  the  Rogerenes  would  not  allow 
oi  compromise. 

It  is  somewhat  singular  that  in  the  midst  of  so  much  obloquy,  John 


216  BISTORT    OP    NEW    LONDON* 

Rogers  skould  have  oontinued  to  take  part  in  public  affairs.  He  vas 
neyer  disfranchised ;  when  out  of  prison  he  was  always  ready  with 
his  Tote ;  was  a  warm  partisan  and  frequently  chosen  to  some  inferior 
town  office,  such  as  sealer  of  leather,  surveyor  of  highways,  &c«  • 
Crimes,  such  as  the  code  of  the  present  day  would  define  them,  were 
seldom  or  never  proved  against  the  Rogerenes,  but  it  must  be  allowed 
that  coarseness,  vulgarity,  and  impertinent  obtrusiveness,  come  near 
to  crimes,  in  the  estimation  of  pure  minds. 

In  the  year  1700  Rogers  having  lived  single,  from  the  desertion  of 
his  wife  twenty-five  years,  married  himself  to  Mary  Ransford.  She 
is  said  to  have  been  a  maid-servant  whom  he  had  bought ;  probably 
one  of  that  class  of  persons  called  Redemptioners.  The  spirit  and 
temper  of  this  new  wife  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  she  had 
already  been  arraigned  before  the  court,  for  throwing  scalding  water 
out  of  the  window  upon  the  head  of  the  constable  who  csune  to  col- 
lect the  minister's  rate.  As  Rogers  would  not  be  married  by  any 
minister  or  magistrate  of  Connecticut,  he  was  in  a  dilemma  how  to 
have  the  rite  solemnized.  His  mode  of  proceeding  is  thus  described 
by  his  son : 

**  They  agreed  to  go  into  the  County  Court,  and  there  declare  their  marriage; 
and  accordingly  they  did  so ;  he  leading  his  bride  by  the  hand  into  court, 
where  the  judges  were  sitting,  and  a  multitude  of  spectators  present,  and  then 
desired  the  whole  assembly  to  take  notice,  that  he  took  that  woman  to  be  hit 
wife ;  his  bride  also  assenting  to  what  he  said.  Whereupon  the  judge  (Weth- 
erell)  offered  to  marry  them  in  tlieir  form,  which  he  refused,  telling  them  that 
he  had  once  been  married  by  their  authority  and  by  their  authority  they  had 
taken  away  his  wife  again,  and  rendered  him  no  reason  why  they  did  it.  Up- 
on which  account  he  looked  upon  their  form  of  marriage  to  be  of  no  value, 
and  therefore  he  would  be  married  by  their  form  no  more.  And  from  the  court 
he  went  to  the  governor's  house,  (Fitz-John  Winthrop's)  with  his  bride  and 
declared  their  marriage  to  the  governor,  who  seemed  to  like  it  well  enough, 
and  wished  them  much  joy,  which  is  the  usual  compliment." 

This  ceremony  thus  publicly  performed,  John  Rogers,  Jr.,  supposes 
"  every  unprejudiced  person  will  judge  as  authentic  as  any  marriage 
that  was  ever  made  in  Connecticut  colony."  The  authorities  did  not 
look  upon  it  in  this  light  Rogers  herein  set  at  defiance  the  common 
law,  which  in  matters  of  civil  concernment,  his  own  principles  bound 
him  to  obey. 

A  story  has  been  currently  reported  that  this  self-married  couple 
presented  themselves  also  before  Mr.  Saltonstall,  the  minister,  and 
that  he  wittily  contrived  to  make  the  marriage  legal,  against  their 
will.    Assuming  an  air  c^  doubt  and  surprise,  he  says,  Do  you  really, 


BISTORT     OP     NEW     LONDON.  217 

John,  take  this  jour  serrant-maid,  bought  with  jour  monej,  for  jour 
wife  ?  Do  jou,  Marj,  take  this  man  so  much  older  than  jourself  for 
jonr  husband  ?  and  receiving  from  both  an  affirmative  answer,  he 
ezdaimed :  Then  I  pronounce  jou,  according  to  the  laws  of  this 
colon  J,  man  and  wife.  Upon  this  Rogers,  after  a  pause,  shook  his 
head,  and  observed,  Ah,  Gurdon !  thou  art  a  cunning  creature. 

This  anecdote,  or  something  like  it,  maj  be  true  of  some  other 
Bogerene  marriage,  but  not  of  this,  for  then  no  doubt  would  have 
arisen  respecting  the  validitj  of  the  union. 

The  connection  was  an  unhappj  one ;  violent  familj  quarrels  en- 
saed,  between  the  reputed  wife,  and  John  Rogers  the  jounger  and 
his  familj,  in  the  course  of  which  the  law  was  several  times  invoked 
to  preserve  peace,  and  the  elder  Rogers  himself  was  forced  to  appl j 
to  the  court  for  assistance  in  quelling  these  domestic  broils. 

The  compliant  of  John  Rogers  against  his  son,  and  ^  the  woman 
which  the  court  calls  Marj  Ransford,  Which  I  have  taken  for  mj, 
wife,  seeing  mj  lawful  wife  is  kept  from  me  bj  this  government,"  is 
extant  in  his  own  handwriting,  dated  27th  of  4th  month,  1700. 

In  1703,  on  the  presentment  of  the  grand-jurj,  the  -count j  court  . 
summoned  Marj  Ransford,  the  reputed  wife  of  John  Rogers,  before 
them,  declared  her  marriage  invalid,  sentenced  her  to  paj  a  fine  of 
40«.  or  receive  ten  stripes,  and  prohibited  her  return  to  Rogers  under 
still  heavier  penalties.  Upon  this  she  came  round  to  the^ide  of  the 
court,  acknowledged  her  marriage  illegal,  cast  off  the  protection  and 
aathoritj  of  Rogers,  and  refused  to  regard  him  as  her  husband. 

Soon  after  this  she  escaped  from  confinement  and  fled  to  Block 
Island,  leaving  her  two  children  with  their  father.  Rogers  appears 
to  have  renounced  her  as  heartilj  and  as  publiclj  as  she  did  him ; 
so  that  actuall J  the j  both  married  and  unmarried  themselves*  The j 
had  never  afterward  anj  connection  with  each  other. 

About  this  time  Rogers  made  a  rash  and  almost  insane  attempt  to 
regain  his  divorced  wife,  then  united  to  Matthew  Beckwith.  A  writ 
was  issued  against  him  in  Januarj,  1702-3,  on  complaint  of  Beck- 
with, charging  him  with  lajing  hands  on  her,  declaring  she  was  his 
wife,  and  threatening  Beckwith  that  he  would  have  her  in  spite  of 
him: — all  which  Rogers  confessed  to  be  true,  but  defended,  on  the 
plea  that  she  was  reallj  his  wife. 

"  In  County  Court,  June,  1703. — Matthew  Beiskwith  Sen'  appeared  in  court 
and  swore  his  Majesty's  peace  against  John  Rogers,  for  that  he  was  in  fear  of 
his  life  from  him."* 

1  Cotmty  Qonrt  B^cor^, 

19 


218  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

In  1710,  Mary  Ransford  was  married  to  Robert  Jones,  of  Block 
Island ;  and  in  1714,  Rogers  married  the  widow  Sarah  Coles,  of 
Oyster  Bay,  L.  I.,  the  ceremony  being  performed  within  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Rhode  Island,  by  a  magistrate  of  that  colony.'  With  this  con- 
nection there  was  never  any  interference. 

The  troubles  of  Rogers  did  not  cease  with  old  age.  His  sea  was 
never  smooth.  His  bold,  aggressive  spirit  knew  not  how  to  keep  the 
peace.  In  1711,  he  was  fined  and  imprisoned  for  misdemeanor  in 
court,  contempt  of  its  authority,  and  vituperation  of  the  judges.  He 
himself  states  that  his  offense  consisted  in  charging  the  court  with 
injustice  for  trying  a,  case  of  life  and  death  without  a  jury.  This  was 
in  the  case  of  one  John  Jackson,  for  whom  Rogers  took  up  the  battle- 
ax.  Instead  of  retracting  his  words,  he  defends  them  and  reiterates 
the  charge.  Refusing  to  give  bonds  for  his  good  behavior  until  the 
next  term  of  court,  he  was  imprisoned  in  New  London  jaiL  This 
was  in  the  winter  season,  and  he  thus  describes  his  condition  : 

'*  My  son  was  wont  in  cold  nights  to  come  to  the  grates  of  the  window  to  see 
how  I  did,  and  contrived  privately  to  help  me  to  some  fire,  &c.  But  he  coming 
in  a  very  cold  Dight  called  to  me  and  perceiving  that  I  was  not  in  my  right 
senses,  was  in  a  fright,  and  ran  along  the  street,  crying,  *  The  authority  hath 
killed  my  father,*  and  cryed  at  the  Sheriff's,  *  You  have  killed  ray  father* — ^upon 
which  the  town  was  raised  and  forthwith  the  prison  doors  were  opened  and  fire 
brought  in  and  hot  stones  wrapt  in  cloth  laid  at  m>  feet  and  about  me,  and  the 
minister  Adams  sent  me  a  bottle  of  spirits  and  his  wife  a  cordial,  whose  kind- 
nets  I  must  acknowledge. 

**  But  when  those  of  you  in  authority  saw  that  I  recovered,  you  had  up  my 
son  and  fined  him  for  making  a  riot  in  the  night,  and  took  for  the  fine  and 
charge,  three  of  the  best  cows  I  had." 

His  confinement  continued  until  the  time  was  out  for  which  the 
bond  was  demanded.  He  was  then  released,  but  the  very  next  day 
he  was  arrested  on  the  following  warrant: 

•*  By  special  order  of  his  Majesty's  Superior  Court,  now  holden  in  New  Lon- 
don, you  are  hereby  required  in  her  Majesty's  name,  to  take  John  Rogers,  Senior, 
of  New  London,  who  to  the  view  of  said  Court  appears  to  be  under  an  high  de- 
gree of  distraction,  and  him  secure  in  her  Majesty's  Gaol  for  the  County  afore- 
said, in  some  dark  room  or  apartment  thereof,  that  proper  means  may  be  used 
for  his  cure,  and  till  he  be  recovered  from  his  madness  and  you  receive  order 
for  his  release.     Signed  by  order  of  said  Court,  March  26,  1712. 

••  Jonathan  Law,  Clerk. 

««  Test,  John  Prentis,  Sheriff." 

1  Kanutive  of  John  Bogers,  Jr. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  219 

This  order  was  immediatelj  executed.  Rogers  was  removed  to 
an  inner  prison  and  all  light  excluded.  But  the  town  was  soon  in  an 
uproar ;  the  populace  interfered  and  tore  awaj  the  plank  that  had 
been  nailed  over  the  window.  Some  English  officers  then  in  town 
also  made  application  to  the  authorities  to  mitigate  his  treatment^ 
and  he  was  carried  to  the  sherifiTs  house  and  there  kept.  Two  days 
afterward,  he  received,  he  said,  a  private  warning  that  it  was  deter- 
mined to  convey  him  to  Hartford,  shave  his  head,  and  deliver  him 
over  to  a  French  doctor  to  be  medically  treated  for  insanity.  "Where- 
upon by  the  aid  of  his  son  and  the  neighbors,  he  escaped  in  the  night, 
and  was  rowed  in  a  boat  over  to  Long  Island.  Thither  he  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  constable,  and  pursued  by  the  "  hue  and  cry,"  from 
town  to  town,  as  he  traveled  with  all  possible  secrecy  and  dispatch 
to  New  York,  where  at  length  arriving  safely,  he  hastened  to  the 
fort,  and  threw  himself  upon  the  protection  of  Grovemor  Hunter,  by 
whom  he  was  kindly  received  and  sheltered.  Here  he  remained 
three  months,  and  then  returned  home,  where  probably  he  would  not 
have  been  molested,  if  he  had  remained  quiet  But  no  sooner  was 
he  recruited,  than  he  returned  to  the  very  position  he  had  taken  with 
80  much  hazard  before  his  imprisonment,  resuming  the  prosecution  of 
the  judges  of  the  inferior  court  before  the  Greneral  Court,  forjudging 
upon  life  and  death  without  a  jury  in  the  aforesaid  case  of  John 
Jackson.  He  was  nonsuited,  had  all  the  charges  to  pay,  and  another 
heavy  fine. 

The  next  outbreak,  and  the  last  during  the  life  of  the  elder  Rogers, 
is  tiiDS  related  hj  the  son : 

"  John  Rogers  and  divers  of  his  Socletjr  having  as  good  a  right  to  New  Lon- 
don meecing-faouse  as  any  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town,  it  being  built  by  a 
public  rate,  every  one  paying  their  proportion  according  to  their  estate,'  did 
propose  to  hold  his  meetings  there  at  noon  time,  between  the  Presbyterian  meet- 
ings, so  as  not  to  disturb  them  in  either  of  their  meetings.  And  accordingly, 
we  came  to  the  meeting-house  and  finding  their  meeting  was  not  finished,  we 
stood  without  the  door  till  they  had  ended  and  were  come  oat ;  and  then  John 
Rogers  lold  the  people  that  our  coming  was  to  hold  our  meeting,  between  their 
meetings,  and  that  we  had  no  design  to  make  any  disturbance,  but  would  break 
up  oar  meeting  as  soon  as  they  were  ready  for  their  afternoon  meeting. 
Whereupon  several  of  the  neighbors  manifested  their  freedom  in  the  matter ; 
yet  the  Constable  came  in  the  time  of  our  meeting  with  an  order  to  break  it 


1  **  The  bnildmg  of  the  meeting-house  cost  me  three  of  the  best  fat  cattle  I  had  that 
year,  and  as  many  shoes  as  was  sold  for  thirty  shillings  In  silver  money." — John 
Rogers,  Sen. 


220  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

up»  and  with  his  attendants  yiolently  laid  hands  on  several  of  us,  hanling  men 
and  women  out  of  the  meeting,  like  as  Saul  did  in  his  unconverted  state,  and 
for  no  other  crime  than  what  I  have  here  truly  related. 

**  John  Rogers  was  had  to  Court  and  charged  with  a  riot,  drc.  If  myself  had 
been  the  Judge,  as  I  was  not,  I  should  have  thought  the  constable  to  have  been 
guilty  of  the  riot,  and  not  John  Rogers.  However,  he  was  fined  10s.,  for  which 
the  officer  first  took  ten  sheep,  and  then  complained  they  were  not  snfficiept  to 
answer  the  fine  and  charges,  whereupon  he  came  a  second  time  and  took  a 
milch-cow  out  of  the  pasture,  and  so  we  heard  no  more  about  it,  by  which  I 
suppose  the  cow  and  ten  sheep  satisfied  the  fine  and  charges.  This  was  the 
last  fine  that  was  laid  on  him,  for  he  soon  aAer  died." 

Joseph  Backus,  Ssq.,  of  Norwich,  writing  in  the  jear  1726,  gires 
this  account  of  the  death  of  the  Bogerene  leader : 

*'  John  Rogers  pretended  that  h^  was  proof  against  all  infection  of  body  as 
well  as  of  mind,  which  the  wicked  only  (he  said)  were  susceptible  of,  and  Co 
put  the  matter  upon  trial,  daringly  ventured  into  Boston  in  the  time  of  tlie 
Small  Pox;  but  received  the  infection  and  dyed  of  it,  with  several  of  bis  iiunily 
taking  it  from  him." 

In  answer  to  this  statement,  John  Rogers  the  second  observes : 

**  It  is  well  known  that  it  had  been  his  practice  for  more  than  forty  years  past» 
to  visit  all  sick  persons  as  oAen  as  he  had  opportunity,  and  particularly  those 
who  had  die  Small  Pox ;  when  in  the  height  of  their  distemper  he  has  sat  on 
their  bed-side  several  hours  at  a  time,  discoursing  of  the  things  of  God  v  so  that 
his  going  to  Boston  the  last  time,  was  no  other  than  his  constant  practice  had 
been  ever  since  he  made  a  profession  of  religion. 

**  Now  let  every  unprejudiced  reader  take  notice  how  little  cause  J.  Backus 
has  to  reflect  John  Rogers^s  manner  of  death  upon  him  who  lived  to  the  age  of 
seventy-three  years,  and  then  died,  in  his  own  house,  and  on  his  own  bed,  hav- 
ing his  reason  continued  to  the  last  and  manifesting  his  peace  with  God,  and 
perfect  assurance  of  a  better  life." 

**  Oct.  17, 1721  died  Joh^  Rogers  Sen. 

•«  Nov.  6,      «•        «*    John  Rogers  3rd,  aged  21  years  and  6  days. 
**  Nov.  13,   «<        «<     Bathsheba,  wife  of  John  Rogers  2nd. 
«*AU  of  small  pox."i 

Rogers  was  buried  directly  upon  the  bank  of  the  Thames,  within 
the  bounds  of  his  Mamacock  farm.  Here  he  had  set  aside  a  place 
of  family  sepulture,  which  his  son  John,  in  1751,  secured  to  his  de- 
scendants by  deed  for  a  burial  place.  It  is  still  occasionally  used  for 
that  purpose,  and  it  is  supposed  that  in  all,  sixty  or  eighty  interments 
have  here  been  made :  but  the  wearing  away  of  the  bank  is  gradually 
intruding  upon  them.    As  the  Rogerenes  do  not  approve  of  monu* 


1  Town  Record  of  New  London. 


HI8TORT    OF    NEW     LONDON.  221 

maits  to  the  memory  of  the  dead,  only  two  or  three  inscribed  stones 
mark  the  spot 

Rogers  was  a  prolific  writer.  In  the  introduction  to  his  ^  Midnight 
Cry"  he  observes :  "  This  is  the  sixth  book  printed  for  me  in  single 
Yolomes."  He  argaed  upon  theological  subjects  with  considerable 
skill  and  perspicuity.  The  inventory  of  his  estate  was  £410.  Among 
the  articles  enumerated  are : 

Several  chests  and  packages  of  his  own  books. 

Seven  Bibles :  PoweFs  and  Clarke's  Concordances. 


19» 


CHAPTER    XV. 

HIBTORT  OP  THE    HVEEN    LEGACY — ^VARIOUS    APPEALS    TO    ENG- 
LAND. 

John  Liveen,  a  considerable  merchant  of  New  London,  died 
October  19th,  1689.  He  was  of  English  birth,  but  carried  when 
young  to  Barbadoes,  and  knew  not  that  he  had  father,  or  mother,  or 
any  l^indred  upon  earth.  Before  emigrating  to  New  London,  he  had 
married  Alice  Hallam,  the  widow  of  a  Barbadoes  trader,  who  had  an 
estate  of  about  £200,  which  with  the  business  accommodations  of  her 
former  husband,  passed  into  the  hands  of  Liveen.  She  had  two  sons, 
John  and  Nicholas,  who  when  the  family  came  to  New  London,  in 
1676,  were  about  twelve  and  fifteen  years  of  age — John  being  the 
oldest.  By  the  will  of  Mr.  Liveen,  executed  the  day  of  his  death, 
the  bulk  of  his  estate,  after  subtracting  some  trifling  legacies,  was  be- 
queathed "  to  the  ministry  of  New  London" — ^his  wife,  however,  to 
have  the  use  of  one-third  of  it  during  her  life. 

It  had  been  expected  that  her  sons,  for  whom  he  had  always  man- 
ifested a  becoming  affection,  would  be  his  heirs,  but  they  were  cut 
off  with  insignificant  legacies.  What  rendered  the  will  still  more 
extraordinary,  was  the  fact,  that  Mr.  Liveen  was,  in  religion,  what 
was  then  called  an  Anabaptist,  and  had  never  been  known  to  at- 
tend any  religious  meeting  in  the  town,  during  the  twelve  years  of 
his  inhabitancy.  His  business  sometimes  led  him  to  Boston,  and 
when  there,  he  went  to  hear  Mr.  Milbume  preach,  at  the  Anabaptist 
house  of  worship,  and  this  was  his  only  attendance  at  meeting  in 
America.  He  had  scruples  about  taking  an  oath,  and  when  chosen 
to  the  office  of  constable,  would  not  be  sworn  in  the  customary  way, 


HIBTORT     OF     NEW     LONDON.  223 

but  pledged  himself  to  perform  the  duty  on  penalty  of  perjury.  The 
will  was  written  hj  Daniel  Taylor,  of  Saybrook,  then  living  with 
Liveen ;  the  executors  appointed  were  General  Fitz-John  Winthrop, 
and  Major  Edward  Palmes.  It  was  proved  at  a  special  court  in 
New  London,  at  which  Governor  Treat  presided  ;  but  the  authority 
of  this  court  was  challenged — Sir  Edmund  Andross  having  at  that 
time  annulled  the  charter  government  of  the  colony,  and  declared  no 
testaments  valid,  that  were  not  carried  to  Boston  for  probate.  The 
will  was  therefore  kept  back,  until  Connecticut,  in  1690,  resumed  her 
former  government.  It  was  then  demanded  by  the  county  court  for 
probate.  But  the  colony  having  restored  her  ancient  system  with- 
out waiting  for  instructions  from  the  crown.  Major  Palmes,  who  had 
borne  office  under  Andross,  refused  to  acknowledge  the  legality  of 
the  court,  or  to  produce  the  will ;  and  General  Winthrop,  the  other 
executor,  was  absent  with  the  army,  on  the  northern  frontier. 

In  October,  1690,  Mrs.  Liveen,  in  her  own  name,  and  the  town  by 
its  deputies,  petitioned  the  General  Court  to  devise  measures  for  the 
speedy  probate  of  the  will  and  the  settlement  of  the  estate.  The 
widow  stated  that  Major  Palmes  kept  the  will,  and  a  ship  was  then 
ready  for  sea,  by  which  "  he  intended  to  send  to  his  own  counCry,'* 
for  orders  respecting  it.  It  will  be  observed  that  this  petition  of 
Mrs.  Liveen,  implies  that  she  considered  the  will  valid  and  acqui- 
esced  in  its  provisions. 

The  affair  was  again  referred  to  the  county  court.  Before  that 
body,  the  town  brought  an  action  against  the  executors  for  not  deliv- 
ering that  portion  of  the  estate  bequeathed  to  the  ministry.  Major 
Palmes  being  cited  to  appear,  sent  a  written  refusal,  denying  the  au- 
thority of  the  court  as  not  derived  from  the  crown,  and  accusing  them 
of  arbitrary  and  star-chamber  n^asures,  to  which  he  said  freehom 
ntbjecU  could  not  submit 

The  court,  however,  proceeded  to  settle  the  estate  upon  a  recorded 
copy  of  the  will.  The  amount  of  the  personal  property  devised,  was 
estimated  at  something  more  than  £2,000,  but  this  amount  could  not 
be  realized.  A  provision  of  the  will  prohibited  the  sueing  of  debtors 
at  law,  so  that  the  outstanding  debts,  amounting  to  some  hundreds  of 
pounds,  could  not  be  collected,  the  ground  being  taken  that  the  testa- 
tor intended  to  make  his  debtors,  legatees. 

Among  the  assets,  was  a  vessel  called  the  Liveen,  burden  one  hun- 
dred tons,  which  was  sold  to  John  Hallam  and  Alexander  Pygan,  for 
£600 — ^Nicholas  Hallam  being  one  of  thf  witnesses  to  the  bill  of 


324  HISTOBT     OP     NBW     LONDOIT. 

sale.    This  act  was  yirtuallj  an  acceptance  on  the  part  of  tlie  bcmis  of 
Mrs.  Liveen,  of  the  wilL 

Here  the  case  rested,  the  estate  remaining  in  the  hands  of  the  ex- 
ecutors, and  the  town  receiving  an  annual  dividend,  until  the  death 
of  Mrs.  Liveen,  in  1698.  By  her  will  she  bequeathed  the  whole  es- 
tate,  which  had  been  kept  in  a  measure  integral,  to  her  sons.  This 
will  was  utterly  inconsistent  with  that  of  her  husband,  and  therefore 
the  Hallams,  before  it  was  exhibited  for  probate,  that  is,  in  October, 
1698,  applied  to  the  Court  of  Assbtants  for  liberty  to  contest  the  Li- 
veen will,  which  was  refused  them.  The  young  men  protested,  and 
a  special  court  was  appointed  to  try  the  case.  This  court  sat  in 
New  London,  Nov.,  1698,  and  again  in  1699.  Many  witnesses  were 
examined,  and  great  labor  expended. 

The  ground  taken  by  the  contestors  was,  first,  the  vagueness  isi  the 
terms  used  in  the  wilL  What  does  he  mean  by  the  mini$try ;  he 
names  no  person,  no  sect,  no  community ;  the  word  mtnutry  is  in- 
definite and  has  no  construction  in  law.  Again,  if  the  bequest  be 
good  to  any  community,  it  must  be  to  the  ministry  appointed  and  al- 
lowed by  the  laws  of  England. 

On  the  other  hand  it  was  argued  that  the  terms  ministers  and  min- 
istry, in  the  laws  of  the  colony,  and  in  common  speech,  had  a  partic- 
ular application  to  persons  exercising  the  sacred  office,  under  the 
authority  of  the  government  of  the  colony.  Neither  could  the  terms 
in  the  will  apply  to  a  ministry  that  had  no  existence  in  the  town. 
Moreover,  Mr.  Liveen  knew  well  what  was  understood  by  those  tennSy. 
and  in  1688,  had  voluntarily  subscribed  to  a  fund  for  the  support  of 
the  minister  of  New  London,  Mr.  SaltonstalL 

The  second  plea  advanced  by  the  contestors  was,  that  Mr.  Liveen 
was  not  in  a  condition  to  make  a  will,  and  unconscious  of  what  he  dfd 
when  he  signed  it  Several  witnesses  testified  that  he  was  confused 
in  mind,  in  great  pain,  and  overpersuaded  by  Mr.  Taylor  to  sign  the 
writing.  But  the  most  remarkable  witness  on  this  side  was  Miyor 
Palmes,  who  was  placed  in  the  singular  position  of  defending  the  will 
as  one  of  its  executors,  and  testifying  against  its  validity  as  a  witness 
for  the  Hallams.  He  bore  witness  to  the  affection  of  Mr.  Liveen  for 
his  sons-in-law — to  his  often  expressed  intention  of  leaving  his  estate 
to  them — and  to  his  entire  dissent  from  the  established  ministry  of 
the  town.  He  also  asserted  that  Mr.  Taylor  had  previously  written 
the  will,  but  did  not  produce  it  to  the  view  of  Mr.  Liveen,  till  the 
day  of  his  decease,  at  which  time  he  kept  constimtly  with  him,  allow- 
ing no  one  to  speak  to  him  but  in  his  presence. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 


225 


On  the  other  side,  the  testimony  was  no  less  ample.  Several 
neighbors,  friends  and  attendants  who  were  all  with  the  sick  man,  a 
greater  or  less  part  of  the  day  on  which  he  died,  testified  that  his 
reason,  judgment  and  memory  were  perfect,  till  within  an  hour  of  his 
death.  He  was  not  then  supposed  to  be  near  his  end ;  being  able  to 
sit  up  and  to  more  about  with  help.  He  was  led  to  the  table  to  sign 
the  will,  and  as  he  did  it,  he  said,  ^  I  write  my  name  John  Liveen." 
He  afterward  spoke  complacently  of  what  he  had  done  for  the  town, 
and  Major  Wait  Winthrop  coming  in,  he  showed  him  the  will,  and 
desired  him  to  read  it,  asking  him  how  he  liked  it  Major  Winthrop 
then  said,  "  Is  this  your  will,  Mr,  Liveen  ?"  to  which  he  replied,  "  It 
is  my  last  will  and  testament."  Subsequently  he  observed,  "  Many 
will  say  I  am  not  in  my  right  senses,  but  I  am."  To  Mrs.  Pygan 
be  spoke  also  of  what  he  had  done,  saying,  <<  I  would  not  have  you 
troubled  that  my  brother  is  not  an  executor  of  the  will ;  I  had  a  rea- 
son for  it"' 

Tho  court  decided  that  the  case  was  not  sustained,  and  the  will 
was  valid.  The  brothers  appealed  to  the  Court  of  Assistants,  and 
the  case  was  earned  to  Hartford.  Here  the  decision  of  the  lower 
court  was  confirmed  May  2d,  1700.  Upon  which  the  contestors  de- 
manded permission  to  appeal  to  the  king  and  queen,  (William  and 
Mary,J  in  counciL  This  they  were  prohibited  from  doing,  the  right 
of  i^peal  in  such  cases  being  denied  by  the  colonial  government,  and 
Urns  a  new  element  of  discord  was  brought  into  the  conflict  The 
>  brothers  entered  their  protest  and  declared  their  intention  of  contest- 
ing the  right  of  the  colony  to  forbid  an  appeal  before  the  English 
pourts.  At  this  juncture  one  of  the  appellants  was  suddenly  removed 
from  the  scene.     John  Hallam  died  at  Stonington,  Nov.  20th,  1700. 

The  labor  of  prosecuting  the  question  of  appeal,  and  of  contesting 
the  will,  now  devolved  solely  upon  Nicholas  Hallam,  whose  determi- 
nation increased  with  every  difficulty,  and  rendered  him  superior  to 
emergencies.  He  proceeded  to  England,  to  manage  his  interests  in 
person,  and  was  there  detained  for  nearly  two  years.  The  question 
of  appeal  came  within  the  scope  of  authority  committed  to  the  Lords 
Commissioners  of  Trade  and  -  Plantations.  It  was  accordingly  ar- 
gued before  that  body.  Sir  Henry  Ashurst,  agent  of  the  colony,  en- 
deavored to  prove  that  Connecticut,  by  its  charter,  had  a  right  to 


1  According  to  a  custom  in  those  days,  Lireen  calls  Mr.  Pygan  his  broAer^  becanse 
their  children  were  united  in  marriage:  Nicholas  Hallam,  the  step-son  of  Lireen,  had 
married  Sarah  Pygan. 


226 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 


hear,  determine,  and  bring  to  a  final  issue,  all  causes  and  controver- 
sies arising  within  that  colonj,  without  any  appeal  elsewhere.  But 
the  lords  decided  otherwise ;  the  king  approved  their  decision,  and 
Mr.  Hallam  was  allowed  to  bring  his  case  before  the  council.  Here, 
the  action  seemed  to  remove  the  settlement  of  the  business  to  a  still 
greater  distance.  An  order  in  ^council  of  March  1 8th,  1 701-2,  set  forth 
that  the  examinations  had  not  been  taken  in  due  form  of  law,  the 
witnesses  not  having  been  interchangeably  examined,  and  therefore 
the  parties  should  be  sent  back  to  Connecticut  to  correct  the  error, 
and  all  documents  must  be  transmitted  under  the  broad  seal  of  the 
colony. 

The  examinations  were  now  to  be  renewed  from  the  beginning,  and 
'  scattered  witnesses  to  be  reassembled.  Major  Palmes  withdrew  his 
name  from  the  defense  of  the  will,  in  which  he  had  never  heartily 
concurred,  and  Fitz-John  Winthrop  was  left  the  nominal  respondent 
in  the  case,  though  it  was  regarded  as  an  affair  of  the  colony.  A 
court  of  probate  was  held  in  New  London  in  Jan.,  1702-3,  in  which 
the  witnesses  were  examined  by  both  parties,  and  subjected  to  a  te- 
dious interrogatory  detail.  The  documents  were  oflBcially  sealed  and 
transmitted  to  her  majesty  in  council:  (King  William  had  died  while 
the  case  was  pending,  and  Anne  was  now  the  sovereign  of  England.) 
The  case  was  heard  in  June  or  July,  1704 ;  at  first  it  was  confidently 
expected  that  Hallam  would  gain  his  cause,  but  the  respondents  hav- 
ing exhibited,  in  council,  the  original  bill  of  sale  of  the  Liveen,  to 
which  the  appellant  was  a  witness,  it  was  regarded  as  an  acknowl- 
edgment on  his  part  of  the  validity  of  the  will,  and  the  decision  of 
the  colonial  courts  was  thereupon  approved  and  confirmed. 

The  defense  of  the  will  cost  the  colony  £60.  Mr.  Hallam  is  sup- 
posed to  have  expended  £300  in  contesting  it*  He  made  several 
voyages  to  England  on  this  business,  and  when  there,  used  his  influ- 
ence against  the  colonial  government,  not  only  in  this  question  of  ap- 
peals, but  also  in  the  Mason  controversy,  uniting  with  the  Masons 
and  the  Indian  party  who  were  then  carrying  their  complaints  to  the 
throne.  Major  Palmes  was  also  in  England  at  the  same  time,  with 
grievances  of  his  own  to  cast  into  the  scale  against  the  colony.  He 
had  become  involved  in  a  lawsuit  with  his  brothers-in-law,  Fitz- 
John  and  Wait-Still  Winthrop,  respecting  the  portion  of  his  wife. 


1  He  estimated  the  expenses  of  his  last  voyage  and  suit  in  England  at  i)l79  If.  6dl, 
one-half  of  which  he  charged,  probably  with  justice,  to  the  heirs  of  his  brother  John. 
They  ret\ised  to  pay  it,  and  on  his  return  from  England  he  was  involved  in  a  lawsuit 
with  them  for  its  recovery. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  227 

Judgment  being  pronounced  against  him  in  the  colonial  courts,  he 
also  appealed  to  the  king  in  council,  and  proceeded  to  England  to 
prosecute  his  case.  The  coimcil,  on  examination,  found  no  occasion 
for  reversing  the  decision  already  made.  It  is  highly  honorable  to 
Connecticut,  that  the  judgments  of  her  courts  should  have  been  thus 
repeatedly  confirmed  by  the  highest  court  of  judicature  in  the  British 
nation. 

Major  Palmes  entered  warmly  into  the  Indian  controversy,  de- 
nouncing the  policy  that  had  been  pursued  toward  the  natives,  and 
joining  with  Mason,  Hallam  and  others,  in  accusing  the  colony  of 
having  unjustly  dispossessed  the  Mohegans  from  their  lands.  Queen 
Anne  appointed  a  court  of  commission  to  issue  and  determine  this 
case  between  the  colony  and  the  Masons  and  Mohegans,  and  Major 
Palmes  was  nominated  as  one  of  the  commissioners.  This  court  sat 
at  Stonington,  in  1704. 

New  London  appears  to  be  rather  undesir^tbly  distinguished  for 
her  rash  and  injudicious  appeals  and  threatenings  to  appeal,  to  the 
laws  and  authority  of  the  mother  country  for  the  settlement  of  con- 
troversies. This  was  undoubtedly  owing  to  the  commercial  inter- 
course which  she  then  eiyoyed,  direct  with  England,  the  number  of 
her  people  bom  there,  and  the  influence  of  her  name,  which  had  in- 
duced a  habit  of  regarding  herself  as  a  New  London — a  portion  of 
the  old  country  lodged  on  this  side  of  the  water.  England  was 
nearer  to  her  than  to  other  towns  in  the  colony. 

The  Liveen  property  recovered  by  the  town,  consisted  of  two 
dwelling-houses,  a  large  lot  attached  to  one  of  the  houses,  now  form- 
ing the  north  side  of  Richards  Street,  and  extending  from  the  old 
burial  ground  to  the  cove;  and  in  money,  £300  sterling,  equal  to 
780  ounces  of  silver,  which  was  left  in  the  hands  of  the  executor,  and 
afterward  of  his  brother.  Wait  Winthrop,  of  Boston,  on  lease  or 
loan.  After  the  death  of  the  two  brothers,  it  was  loaned  to  other 
persons,  the  care  of  it  being  invested,  by  the  General  Court,  in  a 
committee  of  three  persons,  viz.,  Robert  Latimer,  Joshua  Hempstead 
and  James  Rogers,  (third  of  that  name.)  In  1735,  Hempstead,  the 
only  survivor  of  the  committee,  refused  to  deliver  up  the  papers,  or 
give  a  letter  of  attorney  to  enable  the  town  to  recover  the  money. 
On  application  to  the  General  Court,  a  new  committee  was  appoint- 
ed, to  continue  in  office  like  the  former,  during  life,  but  all  vacancies 
to  be  filled  by  nomination  of  the  town.  The  mterest  of  this  money, 
and  the  rent  of  the  other  Liveen  estate,  formed  a  part  of  the  regular 
salary  of  the  minister,  while  there  was  but  one  recognized  church  in 


228  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

town,  and  was  afterward  expressly  allotted  by  goyemment,  to  tii6 
Congregational  or  ancient  church. 

To  avoid  the  necessity  of  again  taking  up  the  subject  of  the  Liyeen 
legacy,  its  further  history  will  be  sketched  here.  In  the  year  1738, 
there  was  a  general  sale  of  the  parsonage  or  glebe  lands  of  the  town, 
and  the  Liveen  landed  estate  was  disposed  of  like  the  rest  at  auction.^ 

It  produced  nearly  £800,  and  the  other  glebe  lots  upward  of 
£500.  The  Liveen  money  at  interest  was  then  estimated  at  £600, 
the  whole  making  an  aggregate  fund  of  nearly  £1,900  ;  but  it  must 
be  understood  that  this  was  reckoned  in  the  new  tenor,  or  deprecia- 
ted currency.  But  even  with  that  allowance,  the  interest  was  nearly 
sufficient  to  pay  the  salary  of  the  minister,  to  which  purpose  it  was 
without  doubt  applied  for  many  years.  The  whole  fund  has,  in  the 
course  of  time,  melted  away,  and  seems  to  have  left  no  record  of  its 
loss  behind.  We  may  suppose  that  the  rapid  depreciation  of  the  cur- 
rency, the  great  commercial  losses  before  the  Revolution,  and  the  mis- 
eries that  the  town  suffered  during  the  war,  affected  this  as  well  as 
all  other  interests,  and  reduced  it  to  insignificance.  What  remained 
of  it  ailer  the  Revolution,  was  loaned  out  in  small  sums  to  several  indi- 
viduals, and  has  probably  dwindled  away  in  the  bankruptcies  of  the 
holders. 


1  One  of  the  Liyeen  hooses,  stood  on  Main  Street,  at  the  south-eaAt  comer  of  Rich- 
ards Street  This  was  bought  and  taken  down  by  George  Richards,  who  owned  the 
land  next  to  it.  The  other  Liveen  house  stood  opposite  on  the  north-east  comer  of 
Richards  Street,  and  was  purchased  by  Daniel  Ck>llins.  The  laige  lot  adjoining  waa 
sold  in  five  parcels  or  house  lots;  one  was  bought  by  Robert  Latimer,  and  has  since 
been  a  parsonage  lot  once  more. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

CHRONICLE   OF  THE   EABLT   COMMEBCE   OF  NEW   LONDON — ^FBOK 
1660  TO    1750. 

New  London  was  settled  with  the  hope  and  prospect  of  making 
it  a  place  of  trade.  Commerce  was  expected  U>  become  its  presiding 
genius,  under  whose  fostering  care  it  was  to  grow  and  prosper.  In 
a  letter  from  the  colonial  government  to  the  commissioners  appointed 
by  Charles  11.  to  inquire  into  the  Duke  of  Hamilton's  claim  in  1665, 
is  the  following  passage  : 

.  ••  Whereas  this  colony  is  at  a  very  low  ebb  in  respect  to  traffick,  and  although 
out  of  a  respect  to  our  relation  to  the  English  nation,  and  that  we  might  be  ac- 
counted a  people  under  the  Sovereignty  and  protection  of  his  Majestic  the  King 
of  England,  we  presumed  to  put  the  name  or  appellation  of  Ntw-London,  upon 
one  of  our  towns,  which  nature  hath  furnished  with  a  safe  and  commodious 
harbour,  though  but  a  poor  people,  and  discapacitated  in  several  respects  to 
promote  trafiique ;  we  humbly  crave  of  our  gracious  Sovreigne,  that  he  would 
be  pleased  out  of  his  Princely  bounty,  to  grant  it  to  be  a  place  of  free  trade,  for 
"7,  10,  or  12  years,  as  his  Royall  heart  shall  encline  to  conferr,  as  a  boon  upon 
his  poor  yett  loyal  subjects."* 

Again,  in  a  letter  of  1680,  to  the  lords  of  the  privy  council,  they 
entreat  that  ^  New  London  or  some  other  of  our  ports  might  be  made 
free  ports  for  20,  or  15,  or  10  yeares  ;"  and  in  describing  the  harbor 
they  say,  "  a  ship  of  500  tunns  may  go  up  to  the  Town  and  come  so 
near  the  shoar,  that  they  may  toss  a  biskitt  on  shoar."' 

No  royal  privileges  were,  however,  conferred  upon  the  port,  nor  did 
it  need  them ;  the  dowiy  of  nature  was  rich  and  ample,  and  the  en- 
terprise and  sagacity  of  the  inhabitants  were  soon  on  the  alert,  to 
profit  by  their  advantages. 


1  ffioman*s  Antiquities,  p.  61,  %  Vi  wpm^  p.  144. 

20 


232  HISTORY    OP     NEW    LONDON. 

The  affairs  of  Robert  Chanell  were  settled  by  the  townsmen ;  Rob- 
ert Latimer  purchased  the  whole  vessel,  and  all  that  remained  after 
paying  the  debts,  was  remitted  to  Chanell's  wife  and  children  in 
England.^ 

The  early  coasting  trade  was  principally  with  Boston.  From 
thence  clothing  and  household  goods,  implements  of  husbandry,  mili- 
tary acoouterments,  powder  and  lead,  were  obtained.  The  returns 
were  in  peltries  and  wampum.  A  petty  traffick  was  also  kept  up  with 
Rhode  Island  and  Long  Island,  by  boats  and  small  sloops.  Very 
soon  the  coasting  trade  was  extended  to  the  ManhadoeSy  (New  York,) 
and  occasionally  to  Virginia.  In  1662,  there  was  some  trade  with 
the  latter  place  for  dry  hides,  and  buck-skins.' 

With  the  south,  however,  the  trafSck  was  very  limited.  "  We 
have  no  need  of  Virginia  trade,"  say  the  magistrates  in  1680,  "most 
people  planting  so  much  tobacco  as  they  need."  Tobacco  and  wheat 
were  then  common  articles  of  culture ;  not  for  export,  but  to  the  full 
extent  of  domestic  consumption.  These  articles  of  produce  are  now 
rare  in  the  state,  and  in  New  London  county  are  almost  entire^ 
unknown. 

The  master  of  a  vessel  was  generally  part  owner  of  both  craft  and 
cargo,  and  not  unfrequently  was  his  own  factor,  agent  and  trades- 
man. In  the  small  coasters,  especially,  the  master  or  skipper  was 
entirely  independent  of  orders.  He  went  from  place  to  place,  chaf- 
fering and  bartering,  often  changing  his  course,  and  prolonging  Ids 
stay  on  his  own  responsibility.  His  boy  was  under  his  command ; 
but  his  man  if  he  had  one,  frequently  brought  a  venture  with  him^ 
and  might  trade  on  his  own  account  New  London  before  1700  was 
as  much  noted  for  these  coasting  vessels  and  skippers,  as  of  late 
years  for  her  fine  fleet  of  smacks  and  smack-men.  Among  the  early 
planters,  William  Bartlett,  Mathew  B^kwith,  Thomas  Doxey,  Peter 
Bradley,  Thomas  Skidmore,  Edward  Stallion,  Thomas  Stedman^ 
Thomas  Dymond,  and  many  others,  were  of  this  class. 


Elisha  North,  a  distingaished  physician  from  Litchfield  county,  settled  in  New  London  in 
1818  and  pursned  his  professional  practice  in  the  town  for  thirty  years.  He  died  Dec. 
aoib,  1848,  aged  78. 

1  Among  the  debts  owing  him  was  ;£15  by  Mr.  Comelins  Stinwicke  at  ihe  Monim- 
tos  (Manhattan)  and  a  hogshead  of  tobacco  "  at  Kirkatan  in  Vii^nia.'* 

2  The  least  buck-skin  was  to  weigh  four  pounds  and  a  half.  A  ponnd  and  half  of 
hides  was  equal  in  value  to  a  pound  of  buck-skin — one  pound  of  hides  equaled  two 
pounds  of  old  iron — two  pounds  of  hides  equaled  one  pound  of  old  pewter.  Here  are 
€ld  iron  and  old  pewter,  having  a  fixed  vtUue,  as  articles  of  barter  and  merchandiaft  t 


HISTORY    or     NEW     LONDON.  233 

In  May,  1G60,  **ite  ship  Hope,"  from  Malaga  in  Spain,  witli  a 
i^argo  of  wine,  raisins  and  almonds,  came  into  the  harbor,  storm-beaten 
and  in  want  of  provisions.  The  master  was  Robert  Warner ;  and 
the  supercargo  Robert  Loveland,*  who  had  chartered  the  vessel  for 
l^rginia,  there  to  take  in*a  fresh  cargo  and  return  to  Spain,  discharg- 
ing at  Alicant.  The  voyage  had  been  long  and  tempestuous,  the 
cargo  was  damaged,  the  ship  leaky,  and  information  received  on  their 
arrival,  of  the  state  of  affairs  in  Virginia,  induced  them  to  relinquish 
the  intended  voyage  thither.  The  supercargo  then  proposed  to  dis- 
charge the  freight  and  have  the  vessel  **  sheathed  and  trimmed"  at 
New  London ;  after  thb  to  take  in  provisions  for  Newfoundland,  and 
there  obtain  a  cargo  of  fish  for  Alicant,  the  original  destination.  The 
commander  refusing  imperatively  to  concur  in  these  measures,  Mr* 
Loveland  entered  a  protest,  charging  him  with  having  violated  his 
engagements  in  various  particulars.  The  difficulty  was  finally  set- 
tled by  arbitration ;  the  cargo  was  landed  and  sold  at  New  London,' 
C^t.  Warner  paid,  and  he  and  his  ship  dismissed. 

From  this  period  Mr.  Loveland  became  a  resident  in  the  town,  . 
Intering  so  fully  into  commercial  concerns,  as  to  make  a  sketch  of  I 
his  subsequent  history  appropriate  in  this  chapter.  In  1661  he  pre- 
sents himself  as  prosecuting  a  voyage  to  Newfoundland,  and  enters  a 
protest  against  George  Tongue,  ordinary-keeper,  that  being  indebted 
to  him  a  considerable  sum,  which  he  had  promised  to  pay  in  such 
articles  as  were  proper  for  the  intended  voyage,  which,  says  the  pro- 
test, "  are  only  wheat,  pease  and  pork" — when  the  time  arrived  and 
the  protester  demanded  his  due,  he  was  told  that  he  must  take  "horses 
and  pipe-staves,"  or  he  would  pay  him  nothing ;  and  these  articles 
were  not  marketable  in  Newfoundland. 

Mr.  Loveland  appears  to  have  been  often  disquieted ;  and  to  find 
repeated  occasions  for  protests  and  manifestoes.  He  purchased  of 
Daniel  Lane  a  considerable  tract  of  land  at  Green  Harbor  with  the 
idea  of  building  wharves  and  warehouses  and  making  it  a  port  of 
entry  for  the  town.  When  he  found  it  unsuitable  for  the  purpose,  he 
entered  a  protest  against  Mr.  Lane  for  selling  it  to  him  under  false 
pretenses,  charging  the  said  Lane  with  asserting  "  that  it  was  a  good 
harbor  for  shipping  to  enter  and  ride,  by  reason  it  is  defended  by  a 

1  Robert  Loveland  was  of  Boston,  1646.    Sav.  Win.,  vol.  2,  p.  262. 

2  Capt  James  Oliver,  Mr.  Bobert  Gibbs  and  Mr.  Lake,  merchants  of  Boston,  appear 
to  have  had  an  interest  in  the  cargo.  Among  the  lading  was  a  quantity  of  Malaga 
vine-lees  and  molasses,  for  distillation.  These  commodities  were  purchased  and  di^ 
tilled  into  liquors,  bj  persons  who  had  recently  set  up  **  a  still  and  worm,**  in  the  place- 

20* 


234  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

ledge  of  rocks  lying  off,  and  y*  there  is  12  feete  at  low  water,  be- 
twixt the  said  ledge  and  the  shore,  and  within  2}  rod  of  the  shore," 
whereas  he,  the  said  Loveland  had  sounded  and  found  <MiIy  shoal 
water.* 

The  title  of  Mr.  accorded  to  Mr.  Loveland,  probably  indicates 
that  he  had  been  made  a  freeman. 

<*  Oct.  27.  1662.     The  magistrates  have  freed  Mr.  Robert  Loveland  from 
watching,  warding  and  training.'*' 

At  this  immunity  was  not  often  granted  before  sixty  years  of  age, 
it  may  be  inferred  that  he  was  advanced  in  life.     A  few  more  years 
and  we  find  him  on  the  brink  of  the  grave.     On  the  27th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1668,  he  assigned  all  his  estate,  whether  lands,  houses,  horses, 
cattle,  debts  due  by  book,  bill  or  bond,  either  in  New  England,  Vir- 
ginia or  elsewhere,  to  Alexander  Pygan.     This  bequest  was  of  the 
same  nature  as  a  will  and  probably  indicates  the  period  of  his  death. 
It  is  signed  with  a  mark,  instead  of  his  name.     Mr.  Bradstreet,  who 
was  one  of  the  witnesses,  testified  that  Mr.  Loveland  was  sound  in 
mind  and  judgment,  but  unable  through  great  weakness  to  write  hia 
name. 
II       A  commercial  intercourse  was  very  early  opened  between  New 
'  London  and  Newfoundland.     Silly  Cove,  Petty  Harbor  and  Reynolds 
on  that  island,  as  well  as  St.  Johns,  were  frequented  by  our  vessels. 
Pork,  beef,  and  other  provisions  were  carried  there,  an4  not  only  dry 
fish,  but  West  India  produce  brought  back.     It  is  strange  that  a  cir- 
cuitous trade,  involving  reshipments  and  ennanced  prices,  should 
have  been  pursued  at  a  time,  when  direct  voyages  from  New  London 
to  the  West  Indies  were  of  conmion  occurrence.     The  trade  with 
^  k   Newfoundland  was  continued  till  after  1700. 

fl       With  the  bland  of  Barbadoes  the  commercial  relations  were  more 

r    intimate  than  with  any  other  distant  port.     Two  voyages  were  made 

\    by  a  vessel  yearly.     Horses,  cattle,  beef,  pork,  and  sometimes  pipe- 

1   staves  were  exchanged  for  sugar  and  molasses  and  at  a  later  period 

\  rum.     An  interchange  of  inhabitants  occasionally  took  place.     Agen- 

I  cies  from  New  London  were  established  there,  and  several  persons 

1  emigrating  from  Barbadoes,  became  permanent  inhabitants  of  New 

I  London.     The  Barbadoes  trade  was  the  most  lucrative  business  of 

^the  period.     Merchants  of  Hartford,  Middletown  and  Wethersfield 

1  This  land  was  received  back  by  Mr.  Lane. 

2  Beoorded  on  .the  Town  Book. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW    LONDON.  236 

made  shipments  from  New  London.  Capt.  Giles  Hamlin,  Capt. 
John  Chester  and  other  conmianders  from  the  river  towns,  often  took 
in  their  cai^;oes  here.' 

In  April,  1669,  an  English  vessel,  probably  built  and  sent  to  New 
England  purposely  for  sale,  and  called  the  America^  was  sold  by 
"  John  Prout,  of  Plymouth,  county  of  Devon,  in  Great  Britain^ 
mariner^* — who  appears  to  have  been  both  commander  and  owner — 
to  Richard  Lord  and  John  Blackleach,  of  Hartford,  for  £230.  She 
was  seventy  tuns  burden,  and  was  then  '^  riding  at  anchor  in  the 
harbor  of  New  London." 

Several  vessels  were  built  by  Mould  and  Coit,  for  the  partners 
Hill  and  Christophers.  Among  them  were  the  New  London,  seventy 
tuns,  delivered  to  the  owners,  June  25th,  1666,  and  called  a  ship; 
the  barque  Regard^  1668 ;  and  the  sloop  Charles,  twenty  tuns,  1672. 
The  New  London  was  larger  than  any  vessel  heretofore  constructed 
in  the  place,  and  was  employed  in  European  voyages.  Thomas 
Forster,  John  Prout  and  John  Prentis  (second  of  the  name)  were 
successively  her  commanders.  In  1689,  her  invoice  registered  "  two 
large  brass  bells  with  wheels,"  consigned  to  Greorge  Mackenzie,  mer- 
chant of  New  York.'  One  of  these  bells  was  unported  for  the  town 
of  New  London,  and  was  soon  after  suspended  ^'  in  the  turret  of  the 
meeting-house,"  apparently  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  inhabit- 
ants. It  was  the  first  bell  that  ever  vibrated  in  the  eastern  part  of 
Connecticut. 

The  John  and  Hester,  stated  variously  at  ninety  and  one  hundred 
tuns  burden,  was  undoubtedly  the  largest  of  Mould's  vessels.  It  was 
built  "  for  the  proper  account  of  John  Prentis,  Senior,"  and  delivered 
to  him  October  14th,  1678.  One-half  was  sold  to  William  Darrall 
of  New  York  for  £222,  10«.*     The  sons  of  John  Prentis,  John  and 


1  The  foIiowlDg  receipt  shows  the  comparative  value  of  two  prune  articles  of  ex- 
change. 

"  Borbadoes : — I  underwrit  do  hereby  ackowlcdge  to  have  received  of  Mr.  Jeflrey 
Christophers  one  bl.  of  pork  pr.  account  of  Mr.  Beiyomin  Brewster,  the  which  I  have 
Bold  for  300  lbs.  of  sugar.    Elisha  Sanford.    Aug.  18th,  1671. 

"  True  copy  of  the  receipt  which  was  sent  back  to  Barbadoes  by  Mr.  Giles  Hamliu 
in  the  Ship  John  and  James.    Oct.  29th,  1671.    Charles  Hill,  Becorder." 

2  This  probably  notes  the  first  arrival  in  this  country  of  Capt  John  Prout,  after 
ward  of  New  Haven. 

8  See  ofi/e,  chapter  18. 

4  Payment  to  be  made  in  New  York  flour  at  15«.  per  cwt.  and  pork  at  60*.  per 
barrel. 


236  BISTORT    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

Jonathan,  both  of  whom  became  noted  sea-captains,  made  several 
voyages  in  this  vessel. 

Another  vessel  owned  at  this  time  in  New  London,  and  probablj 
built  by  Mould,  was  the  SuccesSy  a  ketch,  rated  at  fiflj-four  tuns.  A 
captam,  mate,  boatswain  and  one  sailor,  formed  a  full  complement  of 
men  for  a  vessel  like  this.  The  coasters  had  seldom  more  than  two 
men  and  a  boy.  Sept.  6th,  1677,  the  Success,  John  Leeds  com- 
mander, sailed  for  Nevis,  with  stock,  and  in  lat.  36®  north,  encountered 
^  a  violent  storm  of  wind  and  tempest  of  sea  that  continued  from  the 
Sabbath  day  to  the  Fryday  following," — in  which  they  iost  twenty- 
six  horses  overboard,  and  sprung  a  leak,  whereupon  they  bore  up 
helm,  returned  home  and  entered  protest.  The  Success  belonged  to 
John  Liveen ;  and  in  several  voyages  to  Barbadoes,  was  oonmianded 
by  his  son-in-law,  Capt.  John  Hallam,  of  Stonington.  In  1688  she 
was  sold  by  Mr.  Liveen,  for  £114,  to  Ralph  Townsend,  late  of  New 
Haven,  but  then  resident  in  New  London — who  changed  her  name 
to  RcdpKi  Adventure.  She  was  afterward  in  command  of  Capt. 
Benjamin  Shapley. 

The  little  fleet  of  New  London  was  often  thinned  by  disasters'. 
The  barque  Providence,  coming  in  from  sea,  was  lost  with  her  cargo 
on  the  rocks  at  Fisher's  Island  Point  in  the  night  of  Nov.  28th,  1679. 
The  master  Thomas  Dymond,  and  his  two  assistants  John  Mayhew 
and  Ezekiel  Turner,  were  barely  saved.  This  is  not  the  first  in- 
stance recorded  of  wreck  upon  this  dangerous  point.  The  John  and 
Lucy,  an  English  merchant  vessel,  was  here  totally  lost  in  1671,  and 
it  is  probable  that  her  crew  also  perished.' 

It  is  not  easy  to  determine  the  character  of  a  vessel  from  the 
nomenclature  used  at  that  period.  The  terms  ship  and  barque  were 
nearly  as  general  in  their  signification  as  vessel.  Boat,  sloop,  snow, 
ketch  and  brigantine  were  all  of  vague  import.  The  Endeavour, 
twenty  tuns,  of  1660,  is  called  a  barque,  and  another  Endeavour  of 
fifty-two  tuns,  built  in  1 690,  by  James  Bennet  for  Adam  Picket,  is 
also  a  barque.  The  Speedwell  of  1660,  fourteen  tuns,  is  a  boat  or 
barque;  but  another  Speedwell  of  1684,  Daniel  Shapley,  master, 
is  styled  a  ship.  To  what  description  of  vessel  they  belonged  can  not 
be  determined.  Probably  no  three-masted  vessel  was  owned  in  the 
port  till  afler  1700. 

1  The  gnus  of  the  ship  were  recovered  by  New  London  seamen  and  delivered  to 
the  order  of  Francis  Brinley,  merchant  of  Newport,  who  had  been  appointed  attorney 
for  the  owners.  The  rocks  on  Fisher's  Island  Point  have  lately  acquired  a  fearfol 
notoriety  by  the  loss  of  the  steamer  Atlantic,  wrecked  upon  them  Nov.  27th,  184S. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.     *  237 

The  list  of  vessels  belon^ng  to  New  London,  as  returned  by  the 
magistrates  at  Hartford  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  in 
1680,  was : 

'*  Two  ships,  one  70  tons,  the  other  90 ;  three  ketches,  about  50  tons  each ; 
two  sloops,  15  tons  each." 

This  was  about  one-third  of  the  tonnage  of  the  colony.  Shortly 
afterward  the  Liveen,  which  is  called  a  ship,  and  the  brigantine  Re* 
coveryy  were  added  to  the  shipping  of  the  port.  The  former  was 
owned  by  John  Liveen,  and  sold  afler  his  death,  in  1689,  for  £600. 
The  Recoveiy  was  from  Southampton,  Long  Island,  and  pui^hased 
by  Alexander  Pygan. 

The  last  vessel  built  by  Hugh  Mould,  that  can  be  mentioned  by 
name,  was  the  Edward  and  Margaret^  a  sloop  of  thirty  tons  burden, 
constructed  for  Edward  Stallion,  in  1681.  Mr.  Mould  is  supposed 
to  have  come  from  Barnstable,  near  Cape  Cod.  He  can  be  traced 
in  New  London,  from  June  11th,  1662,  the  date  of  his  marriage  with 
Martha,  daughter  of  John  Coite,  to  «lpne,  1691.  He  is  then  con- 
cealed from  our  view,  probably  by  the  shadow  of  death.^ 

Another  noted  ship-builder  of  this  coast,  coming  next  in  the  order 
of  time,  was  Joseph  Wells,  of  Westerly,  on  the  Pawkatuck  River. 
Of  his  vessels  we  can  only  mention  with  certainty  as  belonging  to 
this  port,  the  Alexander  and  Martha^  built  by  contract  in  1681,  for 
Alexander  Pygan,  Samuel  Rogers  and  Daniel  Stanton.  The  dimen- 
sions but  not  the  tunnage  are  stated. 

"  The  length  to  he  40  and  one  foot  hy  the  keel  from  the  after  part  of  the  post 
to  the  breaking  afore  at  the  gardboard,  12  foot  rake  forward  under  her  toad 
mark  and  at  least  16  foot  wide  upon  the  midship  beam,  to  have  11  flat  tim- 
bers and  9  foot  floor,  and  the  swoop  at  the  cuttock  9  foot,  and  by  the  transom 
12  foot,  the  main  deck  to  have  a  fall  by  the  main  mast,  with  a  cabin,  and  also 
a  cook  room  with  a  forecastle.** 

For  payment,  the  builder  was  to  receive  one-eighth  of  the  vessel 
and  £165,  of  which  £16  was  to  be  in  silver  money,  and  the  rest  in 
merchantable  goods.  The  spikes,  nails,  bolts  and  iron  work  were  at 
the  charge  of  the  owners. 

John  Leeds  was  another  ship-wright  contemporary  with  those 
already  mentioned.     He  constructed  a  small  brigantine,  of  eighteen  or 


1  He  left  a  son  bearing  his  own  name,  Hugh,  and  six  danghters.  Martha,  one  of 
the  daughten,  married  the  second  Clement  Miner,  of  New  London ;  bat  the  remainder 
of  the  family  reiteved  from  the  town,  and  most  or  all  of  them  were  afterward  of  Mid- 
dletown. 


238  '     HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

twenty  tuns,  called  the  TryaU^  and  sold  in  1683,  by  John  Plumbe,for 
£80  in  pieces  of  eight,  paid  down,  and  the  SwaUow^  a  sloop  con- 
tracted for  by  Peter  Bradley,  2d,  in  1687,  but  not  finished  until  aft«r 
Bradley's  death. 

Almost  every  merchant  that  sent  out  vessels  at  this  period  made 
an  occasional  voyage  himself,  either  as  master  or  supercargo.  Ralph 
Parker,  Samuel  Chester,  Richard  and  John  Christophers,  John  and 
Jonathan  Prentis,  John  and  Adam  Picket,  and  the  two  Hallama, 
were  at  the  same  time  merchants  and  practical  seamen.  In  1686, 
the  Prosperous,  a  brigantine,  thirty  tuns  burden,  was  owned  by  tiie 
Prentis  brothers,  and  the  Hopewell,  a  ketch,  by  the  Pickets. 

After  1680,  John  Wheeler  took  a  prominent  position  in  the  mari- 
time business  of  the  town.  A  vessel  was  built  for  him  in  1689  and 
1690,  for  the  European  trade,  and  sent  out  under  the  command  of 
Capt.  Samuel  Chester.  The  owner  died  before  the  first  voyage  was 
completed,  and  the  vessel  was  assigned  to  his  creditors,  merchants  in 
London. 

Two  brigantines,  styled  aho  ships,  the  Adventure^  and  the  Societjfy 
of  sixty-five  and  sixty-eight  tuns  burden,  both  built  in  Great  Britain, 
were  owned  in  1698,  by  Picket  and  Christophers.  "The  value  of 
such  a  vessel  when  new,  was  about  £500. 

In  1699,  a  new  building  yard  was  given  by  the  town  to  John  Coit, 
son  of  Joseph.  This  was  on  the  bank,  by  the  side  of  the  Point  of 
Rocks,  where  vessels  of  the  largest  draught  might  be  built.  This 
point  was  a  bold,  projecting  ledge  opposite  the  Picket  lot,  and  was 
used  for  a  landing  place.  Iron  rings  were  linked  into  the  rock,  for 
the  convenience  of  fastening  vessels.'  The  ferry-boat  often  touched 
here  to  land  passengers  for  the  lower  end  of  the  town,  and  in  1729, 
when  Mr.  Coit  built  a  wharf  by  the  Point  of  Rocks,  the  ferry  right 
was  reserved. 

From  the  " Boston  News  Letter,*  which  began  to  be  issued  in 
April,  1704,  and  was  the  first  newspaper  published  in  North  Ameri- 
ca, a  few  notices  may  be  gathered  relating  to  New  London. 


1  Some  of  the  communion  plate  of  the  First  Cong.  Church  bean  the  inscriptioii, 
"  Presented  by  the  owners  of  the  ship  Adrenture,  in  1699." 

t  The  day  New  London  was  burnt,  Sept  Sth,  1781,  the  Lady  Spencer,  a  snocessfVil 
privateer,  lay  fastened  to  this  rock.  All  the  projecting  points  have  since  been  le^elwl 
and  the  site  is  now  covered  by  the  wharves  and  buildings  of  the  Brown  brothers. 
The  mansion  of  the  family  standing  near,  was  constructed  from  the  stone  blasted  ftom 
the  ancient  Point  of  Bocks. 


HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON.  239 

'^  New  London,  May  11,  1704.  Capt  Edward  Pturry,  in  the  Adventure,  is 
beginning  to  load  for  London,  and  will  sail  in  about  3  weeks.*' 

••  May  18.  Capt.  Parry,  in  the  brigantine  Adventure,  being  dead,  the  own- 
ers design  Samuel  Chester,  master,  who  is  to  go  with  the  Virginia  fleet.  Mr. 
Shapley  is  preparing  to  go  to  Barbadoes.'* 

**  June  1.  Capt.  Chester,  from  New  London,  and  Capt.  Davison,  from  New 
York,  will  sail  in  10  days  for  London,  with  the  Virginia  Convoy." 

These  notes  show  that  it  was  an  enterprise  of  considerable  magni- 
tude, and  of  slow  accomplishment,  to  fit  out  a  vessel  for  Europe.  By 
further  search  we  find  that  Capt.  Chester  sailed  on  the  12th  of  June, 
a  month  after  the  vessel  began  to  take  in  her  cargo,  and  probably 
missed  the  convoy,  as  he  was  taken  by  the  French.  Capt  Davison 
arrived  safe  in  London. 

"  New  London,  Aug.  3,  1704. 

••  Yesterday,  his  Honor  our  Governor,  went  in  his  pinnace  to  Hartford.  We 
are  much  alarmed  by  reason  of  a  very  great  ship  and  two  sloops  said  to  be  rfeen 
at  Block  Island,  and  supposed  to  be  French." 

In  October,  1707,  John  Shackmaple,  an  Englishman,  was  commis- 
sioned by  Robert  Quarry,  surveyor  general,  to  be  collector,  surveyor, 
and  searcher  ^r  Connecticut.  He  was  confirmed  in  office  by  a  new 
commission,  issued  May  3d,  1718,  by  the  Lords  Commissioners  of 
Trade  and  Plantations.  His  district  included  Connecticut,  Fisher's 
Island,  Qardiner^s  Island,  and  the  east  end  of  Long  Island.  The 
office  of  surveyor  and  searcher  was  afterward  separated  from  that 
of  colle^or,  and  the  appointment  given  to  John  Shackmaple,  Jun.,  in 
1728,  by  James  Stevens,  surveyor  general  Mr.  Shackmaple,  the 
elder,  is  supposed  to  have  died  about  1730.  His  son  succeeded  him 
in  the  collectorship,  and  the  office  of  surveyor  was  given  to  Richard 
Dnrfey,  of  Newport.  The  residence  of  these  English  families  in  the 
town  was  not  without  influence  on  the  manners  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  their  style  of  living.  Major  Peter  Buor,  from  the  island  of  St. 
Christophers,  was  at  the  same  time  a  resident,  having  purchased  the 
Bentworth  farm  at  Nahantick,  of  the  heirs  of  Edward  Palmes,  in 
1723.^  These  foreign  residents,  gradually  gathered  around  them  a 
circle  of  society  more  gay,  more  in  the  English  style,  than  had  before 
been  known  in  the  place,  and  led  to  the  formation  and  establishment 
of  an  Episcopal  church. 

1  Before  Major  Buor*8  decease,  this  farm  passed  mto  the  hands  of  his  creditors,  and 
was  purchased  by  Capt  Dnrfey,  In  1740,  which  brought  it  back  to  the  Pahnes  fiunily, 
into  which  Durfey  had  married. 


240  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

There  was  yet  another  officer  connected  with  the  castoms,  who 
was  styled  the  naval  officer  of  the  district  Christopher  Christo- 
phers held  this  office  from  the  year  1715  to  his  death  in  1728. 

The  following  brief  notices,  collected  from  a  private  diary,  and 
arranged  as  a  marine  list,  will  show  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
coasting  trade  centered  in  Boston,  fourteen  sloops  arriving  from 
thence  in  six  weeks.     The  year  is  1711. 

*<  Sept.  8.     Braddick  arrived  from  Albany.    Skolinks  sailed  for  Long  Island. 

*<  12.     Manwaring  arrived.    A  sloop  was  launched  by  Mr.  Coit. 

**  Oct.  13.  Wilson  and  Lothrop  arrived  from  Boston,  and  2  sloops  more ; 
also  a  brig  from  R.  I.  for  Barbadoes,  was  forced  in  by  the  storm,  ran  on  the 
rocks  and  was  damaged.     Capt.  Tilleness,  (Tillinghast.) 

**  14.     R.  Christophers  arrived  from  Barbadoes. 

"  20.     The  R.  I.  b'rig  sailed,  and  a  sloop. 

**  22.     Harris  sailed  for  Norwich. 

**.26.  Tudor  and  Kay  arrived  from  Boston.  Saw  a  sloop  at  anchor  near 
Watch  Point ;  thought  her  a  French  privateer,  but  she  proved  to  be  Plaisted,  of 
Bof  ton,  from  the  Wine  Islands. 

«•  28.     Ray  sailed  for  Boston. 

*'  Nov.  9.     Hamlin  arrived  from  Boston ;  also  Elton. 

•*  23.     Two  sloops  arrived  from  Boston. 

**  30.     Four  sloops  in  from  Boston."  * 

In  1712,  what  was  called  the  ConnecHctU  Fleet  sailed  for  Boston, 
8th  of  May,  under  convoy  of  an  armed  vessel  which  had  been  sent 
round  for  its  guard,  on  account  of  the  rumors  of  French  privateers  on 
the  coast.  A  French  brig,  with  150  men,  was  soon  afterward  re- 
ported as  hovering  along  the  coast,  near  the  entrance  to  the  Sound. 
It  was  apprehended  that  she  might  turn  suddenly  into  the  harbor  and 
fire  upon  the  town.  On  the  25th  of  the  month,  a  watch  was  set  at 
Harbor's  Mouth  to  give  notice  if  an  enemy  approached. 

The  passage  from  Barbadoes  usually  varied  from  eighteen  to  thirty 
days.  Thomas  Prentis  and  Richard  Christophers  were  veterans  in 
this  trade.  One  of  the  vessels  of  Capt.  Christophers  bore  the  happy 
names  of  two  of  his  daughters,  '^  The  Grace  and  Ruth."  Madeira, 
Saltertudas,  the  Bermudas  and  Turks  Islands,  were  also  visited  by 
our  traders.  John  Mayhew,  for  more  than  forty  years,  sailed  from 
this  port.  John  Hutton,  John  Picket,  third  of  that  name,  Peter 
Manwaring  and  James  Rogers,  were  well  known  commanders.  The 
boys  of  the  town  were  early  familiarized  with  marine  terms  and  hand- 
icraft. Most  of  the  young  men,  earlier  or  later,  made  a  few  voyages 
to  sea,  and  knany  a  promising  son  of  a  good  family  was  cut  off  un- 
timely by  storm,  or  wreck,  or  West  India  fever. 


HISTORY     OF     KEW     LONDON.  341 

The  vessels  built  at  New  London  had  hitherto  been  principaUj 
sloops ;  now  and  then  a  brigantine,  a  snow,  and  perhaps  a  hrtg  had 
been  launched.  In  Aprils  1714,  Capt.  Hutton,  who  had  a  building- 
yard  in  the  lower  part  of  the  town,  launched  a  snow,  and  in  January, 
1716,  a  ship. 

In  1715,  Samuel  Edgecombe  built  a  ^'^.  In  1719,  one  was  built 
at  Coite's  ship-yard  for  Capt.  Joseph  Grardiner.  Sloops  had  been 
built  not  only  at  New  London,  but  at  Pequonuck  and  at  James 
Bogere'.  Cove,  (Poquayogh.) 

In  March,  1717,  a  piratical  vessel  came  into  the  Sound,  and  several 
coasters  were  overhauled  and  robbed. 

On  the  7th  of  June,  1717,  Prentis,  Christophers  and  Picket,  in 
their  several  vessels  arrived  from  Barbadoes.  It  was  noticed  that 
they  had  left  the  harbor  together,  arrived  out  the  same  day,  sailed 
again  on  their  return  voyage  the  same  day,  and  made  Montauk  Point 
together. 

On  the  12th  of  July,  1723,  a  Rhode  Island  sloop,  in  which  Capt. 
Peter  Manwaring  and  John  Christophers,  of  New  London,  were 
passengers,  homeward  bound,  was  wrecked  on  the  south  side  of  Mon- 
tauk, and  all  on  board  perished.  The  surge,  heaving  the  dead  bodies 
and  pieces  of  the  wreck  on  shore,  gave  the  only  notice  of  the  event. 
Manwaring  was  a  seaman  of  more  than  twenty  years'  service.  His 
vessel  had  been  seized  and  condemned  at  Martinico,  and  he  was  re- 
turning home  in  this  sloop. 

In  May,  1723,  a  brigantine  from  New  London,  called  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  Richard  Christophers  master,  was  lost  near  Sandy  Hook,  on 
her  homeward  passage  from  Barbadoes.  She  was  owned  by  Benja- 
min Starr,  John  Gardiner,  Jr.,  and  others. 

A  prominent  article  of  export  to  the  West  Indies  was  horses.  On 
the  26th  of  June,  1724,  six  vessels  left  the  harbor  together,  all 
freighted  with  horses  for  the  West  Indies.  The  crafl  that  carried 
these  animals,  from  the  first  commencement  of  the  trade,  have  been 
known  familiarly  as  Horse-jockeys.  August  16th,  1716,  Capt.  Hut- 
ton  sailed  for  Barbadoes,  with  forty-five  horses  on  board.  This  was 
an  unusually  large  number ;  probably  he  was  in  the  ship  that  was 
constructed  under  his  own  direction. 

About  the  year  1720,  Capt  John  Jeffrey,  who  had  been  a  master 

ship-builder  in  Portsmouth,  England,  emigrated  to  America,  with  his 

family.     He  came  first  to  New  London,  but  regarding  the  opposite 

side  of  the  river  as  offering  peculiar  facilities  for  ship-building,  he 

21 


242  HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON. 

fixed  his  residence  on  Groton  Bank.  In  1723,  he  contracted  to  build 
for  Capt.  James  Sterling,  the  largest  ship  that  had  been  constructed 
this  side  the  Atlantic ;  and  that  a  favorable  position  for  his  work 
might  be  obtained,  the  following  petition  was  presented : 

"  Petition  of  James  Stirling  and  John  Jeffrey  to  the  town  of  Groton  : 

*•  That  whereas  by  the  encouragement  we  have  met  and  the  situation  of  the 
place,  we  are  desirous  to  promote  the  buihiing  of  ships  on  the  east  side  of  the 
river,  we  request  of  the  town  that  they  will  grant  us  the  liberty  of  a  building- 
yard  at  the  ferry,  viz.,  all  the  land  betwixt  the  ferry  wharf  and  land  granted  to 
Deacon  John  Seabury,  of  said  Groton,  on  the  south  of  his  land,  for  twelve  years. 

"  Granted  Feb.  12,  1723-4.  Provided  that  they  build  the  Great  Ship  that  is 
now  designed  to  be  built  by  said  petitioners  in  said  building-yard.** 

Jeffrey's  great  skip  was  launched  Oct.  12th,  1725.  Its  burden 
was  700  tuns.  A  throng  of  people  (says  a  contemporary  diarist) 
lined  both  sides  of  the  river,  to  see  it  propelled  into  the  water.  It 
went  off  easy,  graceful  and  erect  Capt.  Jeffrey  built  a  number  of 
small  vessels,  and  one  other  large  ship,  burden  570  tuns.  It  was 
named  the  Don  Carlos,  and  sailed  for  Lisbon  under  the  command  of 
Capt.  Hope,  Nov.  29th,  1733.  The  capacity  of  Jeffrey's  vessels  is 
reported  so  large,  that  the  inquiry  is  suggested  whether  the  tunnage 
was  estimated  as  at  the  present  time.  Nothing  appears,  however,  to 
countenance  a  doubt  on  that  point.  New  London  had  the  reputation, 
at  that  period,  of  building  large  ships.  Douglas,  in  his  History  of 
the  British  Settlements — a  work  written  before  1750 — has  the  fol- 
lowing passage : 

"  In  Connecticut  are  eight  convenient  shipping  ports  for  small  crafk,  but  all 
masters  enter  and  clear  at  the  port  of  New  London,  a  good  hatbor  five  miles 
within  land  \jfrobably  an  euror  in  printing  for  three  milei,']  and  deep  water ; 
here  they  build  large  ships,  but  their  timber  is  spungy  atjd  not  durable.*' 

The  first  reference  to  a  schooner,^  that  has  been  noticed,  is  in 
1730.  Two  at  that  time  sailed  from  the  port,  one  belonging  to  New 
London  and  the  other  to  Norwich.  In  the  latter,  Nathaniel  Shaw, 
in  1732,  went  master  in  a  voyage  to  Ireland.  He  arrived  in  port 
Nov.  7th,  having  lost  on  his  passage  out,  five  out  of  fifteen  men  by  the 
small-pox. 
^  In  1730,  an  association  was  formed,  called  "  The  New  London  So- 


1  This  denomination  of  vessel  is  supposed  to  be  of  recent  origin.    See  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.,  1st  series,  vol.  9,  p.  234. 


HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON.  243 

ciety  of  Trade  and  Commerce,"  which  being  legalized  and  patroni 
zed  by  the  colonial  government,  went  into  immediate  operation. 
Loans,  upon  mortgage  were  obtained  from  the  public  treasury,  and 
the  capital  employed  in  trade.  It  had  about  eighty  members,  scat- 
tered over  the  whole  colony.  John  Curtiss,  of  Wethersfield,  being 
chosen  treasurer,  removed  to  New  London.  The  society  built  or 
purchased  several  vessels,  and  embarked  in  new  channels  of  enter- 
prise. For  a  couple  of  years  it  promised  well,  giving  a  great  impe- 
tus to  business.  Public  opinion  was  however  behind  it ;  and  its 
misfortunes  increased  its  unpopularity.  A  schooner  sent  out  by  the 
society  for  whales,  returned  unsuccessful,  Nov.  13th,  1733.  The  same 
schooner  was  then  put  into  the  southern  coasting  trade.  Returning 
from  North  Carolina  with  pitch  and  tar,  she  disposed  of  her  cargo  in 
Rhode  Island,  and  coming  from  thence  through  Fisher's  Island 
Sound,  Jan.  19th,  1734-5,  encountered  a  violent  storm  of  wind,  snow 
and  rain,  in  the  midst  of  which  she  struck  a  rock  near  Mason's  Isl- 
and, and  almost  instantly  filled  and  sunk.  •  Three  out  of  the  five  per- 
8on^  on  board  perished,  viz.,  Elisha  Turner  the  master,  Job  Taber 
passenger,  and  John  Gove.  This  sad  calamity,  so  near  home,  and 
after  a  prosperous  voyage,  filled  the  town  with  solemnity.  Mr.  Ad- 
ams preached  an  admonitory  sermon  on  the  occasion,  and  the  body 
of  young  Taber,  being  carried  to  the  Baptist  meeting-house,  on  Fort 
Hill,  after  a  similar  address  from  the  pastor  there,  was  interred  with 
every  demonstration  of  sympathy  and  respect. 

To  facilitate  its  of^erations,  the  New  London  society  emitted  bills 
of  credit  or  society  notes,  to  run  twelve  years  from  the  day  of  date? 
Oct.  25th,  1732,  to  Oct  25th,  1744.  These  bills  were  hailed  by  the  bus- 
iness part  of  the  community  with  delight.  They  went  into  immediate 
circulation.  But  the  government  was  alarmed  ;  wise  men  declared 
the  whole  fabric  to  be  made  of  paper ;  and  having  no  solid  support, 
it  must  soon  be  destroyed.  Very  soon  the  whole  colony  was  in  com- 
motion. The  governor  and  council  issued  an  order  denouncing  **  the 
new  money,"  and  an  extra  session  of  the  assembly  was  convened  to 
consider  the  bold  position  of  the  society.  This  was  in  Feb.,  1738. 
The  legislature  dissolved  the  association,  and  the  mortgages  were  as- 
sumed by  the  governor  and  company,  and  the  bills  allowed  to  run, 
till  they  could  be  called  in,  and  the  affairs  of  the  society  settled. 

But  the  association  was  not  so  easily  put  down,  although  according 
to  their  own  statement,  "  a  great  part  of  their  t>tock  had  been  con- 
sumed by  losses  at  sea,  and  disappointments  at  home,"  and  they  were 


244  BISTORT     OF    NBW     LONDON. 

now  assailed  by  legislative  hostility  and  public  odium,  the  managers 
determined  to  hold  on,  and  threatened  an  appeal  to  England. 

Nov.  2l8t,  1788,  they  had  a  meeting  and  Wm.  Groddard,  from  Ma- 
deira, having  made  them  a  present  of  a  quarter-cask  of  wine,  they 
knocked  out  the  head,  and  invited  those  who  had  been  their  enemies 
to  drink  ;  and  they  themselves  drank  to  the  health  of  the  king,  queen 
and  Mr.  Goddard,  and  to  the  prosperity  of  the  society.  The  great 
guns  were  fired,  and  the  sky  rung  with  huzzas.^  This  mode  of  scat- 
taring  present  trouble  was  somewhat  characteristic  of  the  town. 
When  soberer  thoughts  came,  they  retraced  their  stq)s,  and  by  their 
own  consent  ceased  to  exist.  At  a  meeting  held  June  5th,  1785, 
they  unanimously  dissolved  themselves.  The  distress  to  which  the 
society  had  given  birth  could  not  be  disposed  of  so  easily.  The 
members  were  impoverished,  and  hampered  with  obligations  which 
they  could  not  discharge.  The  evils  produced  by  the  as8ociati<m 
could  only  be  effaced  by  time. 


«  Sept.  1738.— A  Sloop  from  N  L.  it  lost  at  Nevis,  being  upset  in  a  hurri- 
cane ;  all  on  board  perished.  John  Walsworth  of  Groton  owned  both  sloop 
and  cargo.     John  Mumford  was  her  captain  and  Thomas  Comstock  mate."' 

**  26  Oct. — John  Ledyard  of  Groton  sailed  for  England  in  a  new  Snow  built 
hj  Capt.  Jeffrey.'*     [This  was  the  father  of  Ledyard  the  traveler.] 

*<  16  Jan.,  1741-2 — James  Rogers  sailed  for  Bristol  in  the  new  sfct>." 

<*  May  12,  42. — A  large  snow  in  the  harbor ;  said  to  be  a  Moravian :  many 
passengers  of  both  sexes."  • 

**  17  Jan.— 1748— A  large  ship  of  200  or  300  tons  came^in  :  a  prize  taken 
from  the  French  by  a  N  York  privateer."  / 

«*  May  2,  1750 — This  day  3  brigs  from  the  West  Indies  arrived  together  in  / 

the  harbor.     Their  commanders  were  Nath'  Colt,  Jeremiah  Miller,  and  Capt. 
Grose." 

"  Dec.  7,  1750. — In  the  morning  more  than  20  sail  of  vessels  lay  in  the  bar- 
bor,  mostly  bound  to  the  West  Indies.     Several  sailed  during  the  day."  I 

In  the  year  1751,  a  brig  belonging  to  Col.  Saltonstall,  was  upset, 
in  a  hurricane,  on  her  outward  passage.  Gurdon  Miller,  John  Hal- 
lam  and  four  others  were  lost.  Capt.  Leeds  and  one  man  were 
saved. 

**  Foreign  vessels  entered  und  cleared  in  the  Port  of  New  London  from  25th 


1  Kew  Ikglmtd  Weekhf  Journal 

2  Some  of  these  items  are  from  tiie  diary  of  Joshua  Hempstead,  Esq.;  others  from 
newspapers. 


HIStORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  245 

of  March  1748  to  the  25th  of  Blaroh  1749,  scarce  any  registered  more  than  80 

tons  and  generally  are  West  India  traders. 

Entered  inwards  Cleared  outwards 

Brtgantines  3  Brigantines         20 

Schooners  4  Schooners  5 

Sloops  30  Sloops  37 

37  62" " 

A  fair  proportion  of  this  fleet  was  owned  in  Norwich,  which  had 
become  a  flourishing  town,  of  six  parishes,  fast  increasing  in  trade 
and  agriculture,  and  paid  at  that  time  the  highest  tax  of  any  town- 
ship in  the  colonj. 


1  Douglas,  yol.  2,  p.  162.    Afterward  he  says,  (p.  180:) 

**  Connecticut  usee  scarce  any  foreign  trade;  lately  they  send  some  small  craft  to 
tiie  W.  Indies ;  they  vent  their  produce  in  the  neighboring  colonies,  viz.,  wheat,  Indian 
com,  beaver,  pork,  butter,  horses  and  flax.'* 

This  author  certainly  underrated  the  exports  of  the  colony.  In  the  article  ot  hones, 
especially,  more  were  brought  ftom  other  colonies  here  to  be  shipped  for  a  southern 
market,  than  were  sent  from  hence  to  our  neighbors. 


21' 


CHAPTER   XVII, 

GLEANINGS  FROM  THE  COUBT  RECORDS. 

It  was  remarked  by  the  inhabitants  of  other  towns  that  something 
bold,  uncommon  and  startling  was  always  going  on  at  New  London. 
This  was  the  effect  of  its  commerce,  its  enterprise,  its  trains  of  com- 
ers and  goers,  its  compact,  busy  streets.  It  was  easy  to  raise  a  mob 
here ;  easy  to  get  up  a  feast,  a  frolick,  or  a  fracas.  The  activity  of 
men's  minds  outstripped  their  learning  and  their  reflection ;  and  this 
led  them  into  vagaries.  Men  who  had  long  been  rovers,  and  unac- 
customed to  restraint,  gathered  here,  and  sought  their  own  interest  and 
pleasure,  with  too  little  regard  to  the  laws.  The  Puritan  magistrates 
of  the  town  were  obliged  to  maintain  a  continual  conflict  with  the 
corrupting  influences  from  without  A  changeful,  seafaring  popu- 
lace can  not  be  expected  to  have  the  stability  and  serenity  of  a  quiet 
inland  town.  Education  in  the  second  generation  was  necessarily 
much  neglected,  and  on  this  account  many  of  the  sons  stood  lower  in 
the  scale  than  their  fathers.  An  examination  of  the  court  records, 
fixes  upon  the  mind  an  impression  that  this  second  stage  of  the  set- 
tlement was  one  marked  with  more  coarseness,  ignorance  and  vice, 
than  the  one  before  or  after  it.  We  may  hazard  the  remark  that  re- 
ligion, law,  and  the  principles  of  virtue,  had  less  sway  for  the  thirty 
years  preceding  1700,  than  at  an  earlier  period,  or  for  the  next  thirty 
years  after  1700.  This  opinion  is  given  with  some  hesitation,  for 
offenses  change  character  with  the  progress  of  time,  and  it  is  easy  to 
mistake  the  decrease  of  this  or  that  species  of  vice,  for  a  radical  im- 
provement in  morality.  The  depravity  may  be  as  great,  yet  exist  in 
some  new  shape ;  or  the  particular  offense  may  be  as  frequent,  only 
kept  more  out  of  sight. 

With  respect  to  the  era  of  which  we  are  speaking,  it  may  be  ob- 
served that  the  rigor  of  the  law  was  so  great,  that  all  the  impurities 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  247 

of  the  cammvmitj  were  made  manifest  by  it    We  see  what  iniquitj 
there  was,  in  its  whole  length  and  breadth. 

Drunkenness  was  perhaps  more  prevalent  here  than  in  other  towns 
of  the  colony,  simply  on  account  of  the  importation  of  liquors  into 
the  port  Selling  liquor  to  the  Indians  was  another  offense  growing 
out  of  position.  This,  though  illegal,  was  not  then  regarded  as  dis- 
graceful ;  some  good  men,  and  even  women,  were  fined  for  doing  it 
Another  class  of  offenses  heavily  amerced,  were  those  which  viola- 
ted religious  order ;  such  as  swearing,  blasphemy,  labor,  traveling 
and  sailing  on  the  Sabbath,  and  non-attendance  at  the  customary 
place  of  worship.  In  these  particulars,  the  laws  themselves  were 
stringent ;  they  were  also  rigidly  enforced  and  strictly  interpreted. 
Swearing  included  expressions  which  might  now  be  regarded  as 
mere  vulgarity ;  blasphemy  and  profanity  took  a  wide  range,  and 
covered  denunciations  of  the  system  of  worship  as  established  in  the 
colony,  or  of  its  officiating  organs,  whether  ministers  or  magistrates. 

Cases  of  defamation,  quarrels  and  sudden  assaults  were  numerous. 
Violations  of  modesty  and  purity  before  marriage,  were  but  too  fre- 
quent, and  this  in  the  face  of  a  stem  magistracy  and  strict  Puritan 
usage.  Robbery  and  theft,  with  the  single  exception  of  horse-steal- 
ing, were  very  uncommon. 

It  is  gratifying  to  know,  that  many  of  the  offenses  committed  were 
by  persons  who  afterward  reformed.  Men  who  came  into  the  com- 
munity with  free  principles  and  irregular  habits,  were  soon  broken  in 
by  the  restraints  of  society,  and  became,  in  the  end,  firm  supporters 
of  law  and  religion.  The  sons  of  the  fathers  also,  after  having  dashed 
about  awhile  in  defiance  of  the  pulpit  and  the  bench,  settled  down 
into  industrious  and  peaceable  citizens. 

In  1663,  the  commissioners'  court  was  ordered  to  be  held  in  New 
London  quarterly :  Obadiah  Bruen  and  James  Avery,  commission- 
ers. Charges  in  trial  of  actions  were— entrance  of  the  action.  Is. 
6ci;  trial,  2s,  Qd.;  warrant,  QcL;  attachment.  Is,;  witnesses,  by  the  day, 
Is.  6rf.;  secretary's  fee,  2s.  6<i!.;  jury,  6d.  Constable's  fee  not  mentioned. 

Before  this  court  came  numerous  actions  for  small  debts,  and  com- 
plaints of  evil  speaking  and  disorderly  conduct  Wills  were  proved 
and  marriages  performed  in  this  court,  as  well  as  in  the  higher  courts. 

A  few  examples  of  cases  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  manners  and 
customs  of  the  age.  The  following,  before  the  justices  or  commis- 
sioners' court,  are  abridged  and  given  in  substance. 

June  30,  1664.  Mrs.  Houghton  summons  Mrs.  Skillinger  before  the  Commis- 
sioners to  answer  for  abusing  her  daughter  in  the  meeting-house  :  we  not  finding 


248  HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON. 

Idgal  proofs  hereof,  judge  it  meet  that  Mrs.  Houghton  tutor  her  daughter  better 
and  not  occasion  disturbance  in  the  meeting-house,  by  any  unmeet  carriage  to 
her  betters  hereafter,  and  this  being  the  first  time  we  enforce  no  farther. 

Complaint  entered  against  Mrs.  Katharine  Clay  for  keeping  an  inmate  co^ 
trary  to  order. 

Also  against  Thomas  Marshall  for  abiding  at  Mr.  Humphrey  Clay's  contrary 
to  order — (i.  e.,  contrary  to  an  order  of  the  Gen.  Court  forbidding  tavern  keep> 
ers  to  harbor  inmates  beyond  a  certain  time.) 

Humphrey  Clay  for  entertaining  a  young  man  at  his  house  fined  40f.  and 
costs.     Thomas  Marshall  for  remaining  at  Mr.  Clay's,  fined  5f . 

Katharine  Clay  presented  for  selling  liquors  at  her  house,  selling  lead  to  the 
Indians,  profanation  of  the  Sabbath,  card-playing  and  entertaining  strange 
men,  &c. 

Humphrey  Clay  was  bound  over  to  the  court  of  assistants,  to 
answer  for  these  oflfenses  of  his  wife.  Following  the  case  to  this 
court,  we  find  that  Mr.  Clay  and  wife  were  convicted  of  keeping  a 
disorderly  house,  and  fined  £40,  or  to  leave  the  colony  within  six 
months,  in  which  case  half  the  fine  was  remitted.  Mr.  Clay  chose 
the  latter  course,  and  sold  his  land  and  two  dwelling-houses  (situated 
on  what  was  then  called  Foxen's  Hill)  to  Mr.  Bulkley,  stipulating  to 
vacate  them  before  Michaelmas. 

Minutes  ofcctses  before  Court  of  Assistants^  1664,  1665  an{/1666. 

'*  Isaac  Waterbouse  indicted  for  throwing  the  cart  and  stocks  into  the  Cove. 

••  Several  persons  fined  for  pulling  down  Mrs.  Tinker's  house.  A  person  be- 
longing to  Seabrook,  for  uttering  contumelious  speeches  against  his  Majesty 
when  in  liquor;  to  be  whipt  immediately  at  New  London,  and  a  quarter  of  a 
year  hence  at  Seubrook  ;  Mr.  Chapman  to  see  it  done. 

*•  Unca&  versus  Matthew  Beckwortb,  Jun.,  for  burning  a  wigwam  of  his. 

**  Cases  of  defamation,— Samuel  Chester  vs.  Good  wife  Chappie,— Thomas 
Beeby  vs.  Hugh  Williams,  a  stranger,  for  defaming  his  wife, — Matthew  Grb- 
wall  vs.  Wolston  Brockway  and  wife, — Wolston  Brockway  and  wife  vs.  Mat- 
thew Griswall, — Capt.  Denison  vs.  Thomas  Shaw, — Capt.  Denison  vs.  Elisha 
and  William  Cheesebrook 

**  Wolston  Brockway  complained  of  by  Matthew  Griswall  for  entertaining  a 
runaM'ay  at  his  house." 

Before  this  court  Capt.  Denison  brought  various  charges  against  a 
yoim'g  man  at  Mystic,  by  the  name  of  John  Carr,  accusing  him  of 
engaging  the  affections  of  his  daughter  Anne  without  leave — of  pro- 
posing to  her  to  leave  her  father's  house  and  marry  him— of  taking  a 
cap  and  belt  and  silver  spoon  from  his  house,  and  finally  of  defaming 
his  daughter.  Carr  retracted  all  that  he  had  said  against  the  young 
lady,  but  was  fined  on  the  other  counts  £34,  Is,  6rf. 

John  Carr  appears  to  have  had  an  extra  quantity  of  wild  oats  to 


BISTORT     OF    NEW    LONDON.  349 

BOW ;  the  next  year  he  was  again  arraigned,  together  with  John  Ash- 
craft,  for  various  misdemeanors,  endeavoring  to  entice  women  from 
their  husbands,  concealing  themselves  in  houses,  writing  letters  which 
had  been  intercepted,  &c.  Thej  were  fined,  and  the  wives  of  sev- 
eral men  solemnly  warned  and  ordered  to  take  care.  (John*  Carr 
died  1675.) 

Capt  Denison  was  himself  presented  at  the  same  session  of  the 
court,  (1664,)  by  the  constable  of  Southerton,  for  marrying  William 
Measure  and  Alice  Tinker,  and  put  under  bond  of  £100  to  appear  at 
Hartford,  in  October,  and  answer  to  the  presentment,  and  likewise 
for  such  other  misdemeanors  as  shall  there  be  charged  against  him. 

By  referring  to  the  records  of  the  General  Court,  it  is  ascertained 
that  Capt.  Denison  forfeited  this  recognizance ;  being  three  times 
called  he  did  not  appear.  His  offense  probably  consisted  in  the  com- 
mission under  which  he  acted,  which  was  derived  from  Massachu- 
setts ;  Capt.  Denison  having  hitherto  rei^sed  to  submit  to  the  author- 
ity of  Connecticut.  But  in  May,  1666,  the  difficulty  was  accommo- 
dated, and  he  was  included  in  the  indemnity  granted  to  other  inhab- 
itants of  Stonington. 

County  courts  were  constituted  by  the  Greneral  Assembly  in  May, 
1666.  New  London  county  extended  from  Pawkatuck  River  to  th« 
west  bounds  of  Hammonasset  plantation,  (Killingworth,)  including 
all  the  eastern  part  of  the  colony,  and  the  courts  were  to  be  held  an- 
nually, in  June  and  September,  at  New  London. 

The  first  court  assembled  September  20th,  1666.  Major  Mason, 
Tliomas  Stanton  and  Lieutenant  Pratt,  of  Saybrook,  occupied  the 
bench;  Obadiah  Bruen,  clerk.  Jn  June,  1667,  Duiiel  Wetherell 
was  appointed  clerk  and  treasurer.  After  this  period  Major  Mason's 
health  began  to  decline,  and  he  was  seldom  able  to  attend  on  the 
court ;  as  there  was  no  other  mi^gistrate  in  the  county,'  the  Greneral 
Court,  after  1670,  nominated  assistanto  to  hold  the  court  in  New 
London  annually.  In  1676,  Capt  John  Mason,  oldest  son  of  Major 
Mason,  was  chosen  assistant,  but  the  same  year  in  December,  re- 
ceived his  death  wound.  Capt.  James  Fitch  was  the  next  assistant 
from  New  London  county.  He  came  in  about  1680,  and  Samuel 
Mason,  of  Stonington,  soon  afterward. 

County  Marshalls.  Thomas  Marritt  (or  Merritt)  appointed  in 
December,  1668  ;  resigned,  1674. 


1  In  May,  1674,  Migor  Palmes  wai  inretted  with  the  antlioritj  of  a  saagistrate  for 
New  London  county,  bot  was  never  chosen  an  assistant,  thongh  often  nominated. 


250  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

Samuel  Starr  appointed  1674;  resigned,  1682. 
Stephen  Merrick,  appointed  1682. 
John  Plumbe,  appointed  1 690. 

MinuteB  of  cases,  chiefly  before  the  County  Court. 

"  1667.  Alexander  Pygan  complained  of  by  Widow  Kebecca  Redfin.  [Red- 
field,]  for  enticing  away  her  daughter's  affections  contrary  to  the  laws  of  this 
corporation. 

•*  Goodwife  Willey  presented  for  not  attending  public  worship,  and  bringing 
her  children  thither  ;  fined  St. 

•*  Matthew  Waller  for  the  same  offence,  do. 

"  George  Tongue  and  wife  were  solemnly  reprimanded  for  their  many 
offences  against  God  and  man  and  each  other.  On  their  submission  and  prom- 
ise of  reformation,  and  engaging  to  keep  up  the  solemn  duty  of  prayer  and  the 
service  of  God  in  the  family,  they  were  released  by  paying  a  fine  of  JC3. 

**  Hugh  Mould,  Joseph  Coit  and  John  Stephens,  all  three  being  ship  carpen-  • 
ters,  are  at  their  liberty  and  freed  from  common  training. 

**  Wait  Winthrop,  as  attorney  to  Governor  Winthrop  vs.  James  Rogers. 
Both  parties  claimed  a  certain  pair  of  stillyards  ;  Rogers  had  recovered  judg- 
ment; it  was  now  ordered  that  the  stillyards  should  be  kept  by  Daniel  Weth- 
erell  till  Richard  Arey  should  see  them.^ 

"1670.  Unc has  brought  under  a  bond  of  XIOO  for  appearance  of  his  son, 
Foxen,*  and  two  Indians,  Jumpe  and  Towtukhag,  and  8  Indians  more  for 
breaking  open  a  warehouse.  He  was  fined  dO  bushels  of  Indian  corn  for  his 
son,  5  pound  in  wampum  to  Mr.  Samuel  Clarke  and  20  pound  in  wampum  to 
the  country  trea&ury. 

"  Major  Mason  vs.  Amos  Richardson,  for  defamation,  calling  him  a  traitor, 
and  saying  that  he  had  damnified  the  colony  £1,000.3  Defendant  fined  £100 
and  costs  of  court. 

**  John  Lewis  presented  by  the  grand  jury  for  absenting  himself  at  unseason- 
able hours  of  the  night,  to  the  great  grief  of  his  parents. 

**  John  Lewis  and  Sarah  Chapman  presented  for  sitting  together  on  the  Lord's 
day,  under  an  apple  tree,  m  Goodman  Chapman's  orchard. 

"  William  Billings  and  Philip  Bill  fined  for  neglect  of  training. 

**  1672.     Edward  Palmes,  clerk  of  the  cpurt. 

*<  Richard  Ely,  in  right  of  his  wife,  Elizabeth,  [Bulnj]  versus  John  CuUick, 
as  adm*r  on  estate  of  George  Fenwick.  This  was  an  action  for  recovery  of  a 
legacy  lef\  said  Elizabeth,  by  the  will  of  Fenwick.     Recovered  £915  and  costs. 

"John  Pease  complained  of  by  the  townsmen  of  Norwich,  for  liviiig  alone, 
for  idleness, and  not  attending  public  worship;  this  court  orders  that  the  said 
townsmen  do  provide  that  Pease  be  entertained  into  some  suitable  family,  he 


1  For  the  purpose  of  ascertamlng  if  they  were  the  same  steelyards  that  the  said 
Aery  sold  to  James  Rogers. 

2  Not  Foxen,  the  counselor  of  Uncas. 

8  Mi^or  Mason  also  carried  this  complaint  against  Mr.  Richardson,  before  the  Gen- 
eral Court    See  Conn.  CoL  Reo.,  voL  2,  p.  168. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  251 

paying  for  his  bpard  and  accommodation,  and  that  he  employ  himself  in  some  * 
lawful  calling. 

**  A  negro  servant  of  Charles  Hill  presented  for  shooting  at  and  wounding  a 
child  of  Charles  Hayues. 

"  1073.     John  Birchwood,  of  Norwich,  appointed  clerk. 

**  Widow  Bradley  presented  for  a  second  oifence,  in  having  a  child  born  out 
of  wedlock,  the  father  of  both  being  Christopher  Christophers,  a  married  man  ; 
sentenced  to  pay  the  usual  tine  of  £5,  bnd  also  to  wear  on  her  cap  a  paper 
whereon  her  olfence  is  written,  as  a  warning  to  others,  or  else  to  pay  j£l5." 
Samuel  Starr  became  her  bondsman  for  £16.  ^ 

**  Ann  Latimer  brought  suit  against  Alexander  Pygan  for  shooting  her  horse  ; 
damages  laid  at  30f.  Defendant  lined  and  bound  over  to  good  behaviour  for 
presumptuous  and  illegal  carriage  in  shooting  Mistress  Latimer's  horse. 

"  James  Rogers,  Jr.,  for  sailing  in  a  vessel  on  the  Lord's  day,  fined  20f. 

*•  Edward  Stallion  for  sailing  his  vessel  from  New  London  to  Norwich  on  tho 
Sabbath,  40». 

**  Steven  Chalker,  for  driving  cattle  on  the  Sabbath  day,  20f. 

"  Sept.  1674.  Complaint  entered  against  Stonington  for  want  of  convenient 
highways  to  the  meeting-house.  The  court  ordered  that  there  shall  be  four 
principal  highways  according  as  they  shall  agree  among  themselves  to  the  four 
angles,  and  one  also  to  tho  Landing-place,  to  be  stated  by  James  Avery  and 
James  Morgan,  within  two  months. 

"  Sept.  1676.  James  Rogers,  Sen.,  John,  James  and  Jonathan,  his  sons, 
presented  for  profanation  of  the  Sabbath,  which  is  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
and  said  persons  boldly  in  the  presence  of  this  court  asserting  that  they  have 
not,  and  for  the  future  will  not  refrain  attending  to  any  servile  occasions  on 
said  day,  they  arc  fined  10s.  each,  and  put  under  a  bond  of  i^lO  each,  or  to 
continue  in  prison. 

"  Matthew  Griswold  and  his  dr.  Elizabeth  versus  John  Rogers,  (husband  of 
said  Elizabeth,)  for  breach  of  covenant  and  neglect  of  duty ;  referred  to  the 
Court  of  Assistants. 

"  John  Rogers  ordered  to  appear  at  Hartford  Court,  and  released  from  prison 
a  few  days  to  prepare  himself  to  go.* 

"  1677.     Thomas  Dunke  for  neglecting  to  teach  his  servant  to  read  is  fined  lOs. 

**  Major  John  Winthrop  vs.  Major  Edward  Palmes,  for  detaining  a  certain 
copper  furnace  and  the  cover  to  it ;  damages  laid  at  £6. 

•*  William  Gibson  owned  working  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  ;  fined  5». 

**  1680.     Capt.  John  Nash,  presiding  judge. 

**  Thomas  Dymond  vs.  barque  Providence,  stranded  on  Fisher's  Island,  for 
salvage  of  goods. ^ 


1  Christopher  Christophers  and  tiie  Widow  Bradley  were  afterward  married,  prob- 
ably in  1676.  Offenses  of  this  nature  were  often  presented  by  the  grand-jurors. 
This  one  is  noticed  on  account  of  its  peculiar  penalty. 

2  This  was  the  commencement  of  the  dealings  with  the  Rogers  family.  As  the 
subject  is  amply  treated  in  a  foregoing  chapter}  the  subsequent  cases  respecting  them 
will  be  omitted  in  these  extracts. 

8  This  and  similar  cases  that  oocnr  show  that  the  county  court  had  cognizance  of 
marine  affiiirs  and  cnstom-honse  duties. 


^f 


252  HiBTORY    or    NEW    LONDON* 

'*  1681.  Unchas  complaint  of  much  damago  in  his  com  hj  English  hortei 
this  year, 

"  16S2.  New  London  presented  for  not  haying  a  grammar  school,  fined 
jClO ;  also  for  not  having  an  English  school  for  reading  and  writing,  £5, 

**  William  Gibson  and  William  Chapell  fined  for  fishing  on  the  Sabbath. 

**  Elizabeth  Wajr  presented  for  hot  living  with  her  husband.  The  court 
orders  her  to  go  to  her  husband  or  to  be  imprisoned." 

Her  husband  resided  in  Saybrook,  and  she  persisted  in  remaining 
with  her  mother,  at  New  London.  She  was  the  onlj  daughter  of 
John  and  Joanna  Smith.  A  remonstrance  of  her  husband  against  her 
desertion  of  him  is  on  record  at  Saybrook.  The  order  of  court  was 
disregarded., 

**  Capt.  George  Denison  and  John  Wheeler  fined  15s.  for  not  attending  public 
worship. 

"  16S6.  Chr.  Christophers  vs.  Thomas  I^ee,  for  trespass  on  his  land  at  Black 
Point.  The  jury  find  that  a  north  line  from  Reynold  Marvin's  N.  E.  corner 
to  come  to  the  Gyant's  land,  takes  in  a  part  of  the  land  plowed  by  Thomas 
Lee,  by  which  they  find  said  Lee  a  trespasser,  and  that  he  surrender  to  C.  G. 
all  west  of  said  north  line. 

"  1687.  Mr.  Joseph  Hadloy,  of  Youngers,  in  the  government  of  New  Yerk» 
enters  complaint  against  William  Willoughby  and  Mary  Wedge,  formerly  so 
called,  yt  the  said  woman  and  Willoughby  are  run  from  Torke,  and  she  is  a 
runaway  from  her  husband  Ak*  Peeterson,  and  is  now  at  Mr.  Elyes. 

"  This  court  grants  liberty  unto  Mr.  Charles  Bulkley  to  practise  physick  in 
this  county,  and  grants  him  license  according  to  what  power  is  in  them  so  to  do. 

**  Oliver  Manwaring  licensed  to  keep  a  house  ofpubltque  entertainment  and 
retail  drink,  40s.  pr.  year. 

*•  Mr.  Plumbe  for  his  license  to  pay  £3  pr.  year. 

**  Complaint  being  made  to  this  court  by  John  Prentice  against  William 
Bcebe  for  keeping  company  with  his  daughter  Mercy,  and  endeavoring  to  gain 
her  afiections  in  order  to  a  marriage,  without  acquainting  her  parents,  which 
is  contrary  to  law,  the  said  Wm.  Beebe  is  ordered  to  pay  a  fine  to  the  County 
Treasury  of  X5. 

**  At  a  County  Court  held  at  New  London,  June  4,  1689.  Whereas  the 
Governor  and  Company  in  this  colony  of  Connecticut  have  re-assumed  the 
government,'  May  the  9th  last  past,  and  an  order  of  the  General  Assembly 
that  all  laws  of  this  Colony  formerly  made  according  to  Charter,  and  Courts 
constituted  in  this  Colony  for  administration  of  justice,  as  before  the  late  inter- 
ruption, shall  be  of  full  force  and  virtue  for  the  future,  until  further  order,  dec. 

*<  Sept.  10S9.  By  reason  of  the  afflicting  hand  of  God  upon  us  with  sore  and 
general  sickness,  that  we  are  incapacitated  to  serve  the  King  and  Country  at 
this  time,  we  see  cause  to  adjourn  this  Court  until  the  first  Tuesday  in  Novem- 
ber next. 

**  1690,  June.  John  Prentice,  Jun.,  master  of  the  ship  [vessel]  New  Lon- 
don, action  of  debt  against  said  ship  for  wages  in  navigating  said  ship  to  Eu- 
rope and  back. 


ttlSTdRY    OP    NBW    LONDON.  253 

**  Nicholas  HftUam  brings  ti  similar  action,  being  assistant  [mate]  on  board 
said  ship. 

*'  The  Court  adjoiimed  to  first  Tuesday  in  August,  on  account  of  the  conta- 
gious distemper  in  town. 

**  July  3, 1690.  Special  Court  called  by  petition  of  Mrs.  Alice  Living,  to 
settle  the  estate  of  her  husband.  Major  Palmes  refusing  to  produce  the  will, 
administration  was  granted  to  Mrs.  Living. 

**  Jonathan  Hall,  of  Saybrook,  for  setting  sail  on  the  Sabbath,  July  27, 
fined  40f . 

*'  1693,  June.  George  Denison,!  grandson  of  Capt.  G.  Denison,  a  st^ylent  of 
Harvard  College,  prosecuted  for  an  assault  on  the  constable,  while  in  the  exe- 
cution of  his  duty. 

**  Sept.  John  Chapell,  Israel  Richards,  John  Crocker  and  Thomas  Atwell, 
presented  for  nightwalking  on  the  Sabbath  night,  Sept.  17,  and  committing 
various  misdemeanors,  as  pulling  up  bridges  and  fences,  cutting  the  manes  and 
tails  of  horses,  and  setting  up  logs  against  people's  doors ;  sentenced  to  pay  lOi . 
each,  and  sit  two  hours  in  the  stocks." 

The  first  prerogative  court  in  the  county  was  held  at  Lyme, 
April  13th,  1699.  The  next  at  New  London,  August  28th.  Daniel 
Wetherell,  Esq.,  judge.  This  court  henceforward  relieved  the  county 
court  from  the  onerous  burden  of  probate  of  wills  and  settlement  of 
estates. 

The  justices  of  peace  in  New  London,  in  1700,  were  Richard 
Christophers  and  Nehemiah  Smith.  The  former  was  judge  of  pro- 
bate in  1716. 

In  1700,  Lebanon  was  included  in  New  London  county,  and  in 
1702,  Plainfield.  The  other  towns  were  New  London,  Norwich, 
Stonington,  Preston,  Lyme,  Sayhrook  and  Killingworth. 

<*  Complaintt  of  the  Grand  Jwry  to  the  Cowt  holden  at  New  London,  June  4, 
1700. 

**  New  London  for  want  of  a  Grammar  School ;  also  want  of  a  Pound,  and 
deficiency  of  Stocks. 

**  Stonington  for  having  no  Stocks  according  to  law ;  also  no  sworn  brander 
of  horses. 

**  Norwich  for  want  of  a  School  to  instruct  children. 

**  Preston  for  want  of  Stocks,  and  not  having  a  Guard  on  the  Sabbath  and 
other  public  days." 

«*  June  4,  1701.  New  London  County  was  presented  by  the  Grand  Jury  as 
deficient  in  her  County  prison,  and  for  not  providing  a  County  standard  of 
weights  and  measures ;  also  for  great  neglect  in  the  perambulating  of  bounds 
betwixt  town  and  town. 


1  This  was  probably  George,  son  of  John  Denison,  of  Stonington,  and  the  same  per- 
son that  in  June,  1698,  was  chosen  clerk  of  the  cotmty  court  He  was  son-in4aw  of 
Mr.  Wetherell,  who  was  then  chief  judge. 

22 


254  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

**  New  London  and  Lebanon  presented  for  a  deficiency  in  their  town  stock  of 
ammunition.'* 

Note  on  Horse-coursing, — In  the  trade  with  Barhadoes,  Surinam^ 
and  other  southern  ports,  no  article  of  export  was  more  profitable 
than  horses.  A  law  was  enacted  in  1660,  requiring  that  every  horse 
sent  out  of  the  colony  should  be  registered,  with  its  marks,  age  and 
owner.     Accordingly,  in  1661,  we  find  recorded  : 

"  Mr.  #lay*8  gray  mare  shipt  for  Barbadoes  in  the  Roebuck ;  ^Iso  four  mares 
delivered  by  Harlakenden  Symonds,  and  one  shipt  by  Mr.  Tinker.'* 

As  the  ti*ade  increased  from  year  to  year,  the  raising  of  horses  be- 
came an  important  business,  and  many  farmers  entered  into  it  largely. 

Lands  at  that  time  being  in  a  great  degree  uninclosed,  the  animals 
were  let  loose  in  the  woods,  with  the  mark  of  the  owner  carefully 
branded  upon  them.  The  ease  with  which  they  could  be  i  nveigled  and 
carried  off,  and  the  stamp  of  the  owner  obliterated  or  concealed,  en- 
couraged an  illicit  trade  in  these  animals,  which  soon  filled  the  courts 
with  cases  of  theft  and  robbery.  A  bold  rover  in  the  woods  might 
entrap  half  a  dozen  horses  with  ease,  and  shooting  off  through  In- 
dian paths  by  night,  reach  some  port  in  a  neighboring  colony  where 
himself  and  the  mark  upon  his  horses  were  alike  unknown ;  and  be- 
fore the  right  owner  could  get  track  of  them,  they  were  afar  on  the 
ocean,  out  of  reach  of  proof.  Many  persons,  otherwise  respectable, 
entered  into  this  business  or  connived  at  it.  Men  who  would  scorn 
to  pocket  a  sixpence  that  belonged  to  another,  seemed  to  think  it  no 
crime  to  throw  a  noose  over  the  head  of  a  horse  running  loose  upon 
the  common,  and  nullify  the  signet  of  the  owner,  or  engraft  upon  it 
the  mark  that  designated  their  own  property. 

Those  who  traded  in  horses,  that  is,  who  went  round  the  country, 
buying  them  up,  gathering  them  into  pounds  ready  for  sale,  or  driv- 
ing them  to  the  ports  from  whence  they  were  to  be  shipped,  were 
called  Horse-coursers.  Of  these,  very  few  escaped  the  suspicion  of 
having  at  one  time  or  another  enlarged  a  drove  by  gathering  into  it 
some  to  which  they  had  no  just  or  legal  claim. 

Courts  were  several  times  held  at  New  London,  Norwich  and 
Stonington,  for  the  trial  of  persons  accused  of  taking  up  and  appro- 
priating stray  horses,  and  the  developments  were  such  as  to  throw  a 
dark  shade  upon  the  habits  of  horse-coursers.  The  punishments  in- 
flicted were  fines  and  whippings.  At  Stonington,  Jan.  12th,  1 683-4, 
a  court  was  held  for  the  trial  of  horse-coursers ;  it  is  the  first  of 
which  any  account  has  been  found.     Two  persons  were  convicted ; 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  255 

one  was  sentenced  to  pay  £10,  or  to  have  fifteen  lashes;  the  other 
£5,  or  to  have  ten  lashes.  Other  persons  who  knew  of  the  offense, 
which  the  court  calls  a  crying  evil,  against  which  they  are  hound  to 
bear  testimony,  and  concealed  it,  were  also  fined. 

Similar  instances  occurred  from  year  to  year ;  but  the  delinquency 
was  not  upon  a  large  scale.  A  stray  colt  was  concealed,  a  mare  sur- 
reptitiously obtained,  a  pacer  ferreted  away,  or  perhaps  three  or  four 
horses  at  a  swoop  carried  out  of  the  colony.  But  as  we  approach 
the  end  of  the  century,  the  disclosures  become  more  alaiming.  In- 
dividuals in  all  parts  of  the  county,  from  Lebanon  to  Stonington, 
became  implicated ;  some  were  convicted ;  others  declared  "  suspi- 
ciously guilty." 

In  June,  1700,  an  adjourned  court  was  held  at  New  London  pur- 
posely for  the  trial  of  horse-coursers.  The  penalty  for  a  first  offense 
was  a  fine  of  £10  and  to  be  whipped  ten  lashes ;  for  a  second,  £20 
and  twenty  lashes ;  for  a  third,  £30  and  thirty  lashes,  and  so  on. 
One  notorious  offender  was  convicted  three  times,  but  by  the  clemency 
of  the  court,  the  lashes  were  each  time  remitted. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Campaign  of  General  Winthrop  on  the  northern  frontier. — Fort  built  on  the 
Parade. — ^Province  Galley. — Bringing  the  guns  from  Saybrook. — Patent- 
Proprietors.— Commons. — Court-House. — New  inhabitants. 

In  the  year  1690,  New  York  and  the  New  England  colonies  uni- 
ted in  sending  an  expedition  against  Canada,  from  which  province 
the  French  and  Indians  had  issued  and  destroyed  Schenectady, 
Feb.  8th,  1690.  The  command  of  the  land  forces  was  given  to  Fitz- 
John  Winthrop,  who  had  the  rank  of  major-general  and  commander- 
in-chief.  Sir  William  Phipps  commanded  the  fleet  Winthrop 
marched  with  his  forces  to  Lake  Champlain,  but  could  go  no  further. 
The  Indian  auxiliaries  failed ;  provisions  were  scarce,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  retreat  to  Albany  for  subsistence.  The  fleet  was  no  less 
unfortunate ;  it  sailed  too  late,  and  on  arriving  at  Quebec,  found  the 
place  too  strong  for  them.  Afler  an  abortive  attempt  upon  the  town, 
in  which  they  received  more  injury  than  they  inflicted,  the  fleet  re- 
turned home  and  the  whole  enterprise  utterly  failed. 

The  government  of  New  York  was  greatly  exasperated  at  General 
Winthrop's  retreat,  attributing  the  failure  of  the  expedition  entirely 
to  him.  If  he  had  pressed  onward  they  said,  to  Montreal  and  kept 
the  French  troops  occupied  in  that  quarter,  Quebec,  left  defenseless, 
would  have  surrendered  at  the  first  summons.  So  great  was  their 
dissatisfaction,  that  on  Winthrop's  arrival  at  Albany  they  procured 
his  arrest,  and  he  was  only  saved  from  a  disgraceful  trial  before  pre- 
judiced judges,  by  the  bold  and  adventurous  friendship  of  the 
Mohawks  under  his  command.  They  crossed  the  river,  freed  their 
general  from  restraint,  and  gallantly  conducted  him  back  to  the 
camp.' 

1  Trumbull's  Hist  of  Conn.,  ch.  16. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  257 

The  reputation  of  Winthrop  in  his  native  colony  was  not  dimin- 
ished hj  the  disastrous  issue  of  the  enterprise.  After  the  strictest 
scrutiny  the  Legislature  approved  of  his  conduct,  and  in  view  of  the 
difficulties  that  he  encountered,  deemed  that  he  had  acted  the  part  of 
a  wise  and  discreet  commander.  But  in  New  York  he  was  regarded 
with  bitter  animosity ;  and  the  officers  belonging  to  his  council,  who 
had  concurred  in  his  measures,  were  obliged  to  retire  with  him  to 
Connecticut,  there  to  wait  till  the  fury  of  the  storm  was  spent. 
Among  these  exiles  was  Captain,  (afterward  Colonel)  John  Livings- 
ton, who  accompanied  Winthrop  to  Hartford  and  subsequently  to 
New  London,  where  he  became  a  landholder  and  an  inhabitant.  He 
married  Mary  the  only  child  of  General  Winthrop,  and  continued  to 
make  New  London  his  home,  until  November,  1718,  when  he  went 
to  England  on  some  business,  and  there  died. 

While  the  troops  of  the  colony  were  absent  on  the  Canadian  fron- 
tier, several  French  privateers  entering  Long  Island  Sound,  captured 
a  number  of  vessels,  and  with  hostile  demonstrations  greatly  alarmed 
Stonington,  New  London  and  Saybrook.  The  militia  from  the  inte- 
rior were  summoned  to  the  defense  of  the  seaboard,  and  for  a  few 
days  great  excitement  prevailed.  But  the  enemy  were  not  in  suffi- 
cient force  to  hazard  a  conflict,  and  they  contented  themselves  with 
a  descent  upon  Block  Island,  where  they  took  several  of  the  inhabit- 
ants prisoners  and  a  considerable  booty. 

Danger  at  this  time  came  so  near  New  London  that  the  inhabit- 
ants were  aroused  to  the  necessity  of  fortifying  the  town.  Notwith- 
standing the  site  for  a  fort  had  been  so  early  marked  out,  nothing  in 
this  line  had  as  yet  been  commenced.  Both  the  town  and  the  colony 
appear  to  have  relied  on  the  mother  country  for  assistance  in  fortify- 
ing New  London. 

In  1680  the  government,  in  reply  to  certain  questions  proposed  by 
the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  speak  thus  of  the  town  and 
harbor: 

"  The  Harbor  lyeth  about  a  league  up  the  river,  where  the  town  is ;  ships  of 
great  burden  may  come-  up  to  town,  and  lye  secure  in  any  winds ;  where  is 
great  need  of  fortification,  but  we  want  estate  to  make  fortification  and  pur- 
chase artillery  for  it,  and  we  should  thankfully  acknowledge  the  favor  of  any 
benefactors,  that  would  contribute  towards  the  doing  of  something  towards  the 
good  work.*** 

But  while  they  were  waiting  for  aid  from  abroad,  the  town  might 


1  Hinman*s  Autiqtdtaes,  p.  187. 


258  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

be  ruined  by  a  single  bold  stroke  of  piracy.  The  Greneral  Court 
therefore  assumed  the  business,  and  in  the  course  of  the  year  1691 
a  fort  or  battery  was  constructed,  and  furnished  the  same  season, 
with  "  six  great  guns  from  Seabrook" — ^probably  four  or  six-pounders. 
This  fortification  stood  on  the  point  or  eastern  border  of  the  present 
Parade,  where  is  now  the  Ferry  wharf.  On  the  higher  ground  to  the 
west  were  the  magazine  and  guard-house. 

The  Province  galley  was  at  this  time  commanded  by  Capt.  John 
Prentis,  (second  of  that  name ;)  its  rendezvous  was  at  New  London. 
In  May,  1695,  he  was  suddenly  ordered  to  equip  for  an  expedition — 
which  was  to  last  only  three  weeks.  Men,  arms  and  provisions  were 
impressed  for  immediate  service ;  May  27th,  Mr.  Wetherell  notes, 
"  Ten  soldiers  arrived  from  New  Haven  and  Fairfield  Co.,  impressed 
for  the  Province  sloop."  The  object  of  this  cruise  has  not  been 
ascertained.  After  this  period  for  several  years  Capt  Prentis  had  a 
general  charge  and  oversight  of  the  fort,  by  commission  from  the 
governor,  but  no  regular  garrison  was  maintained,  and  the  works 
hastily  built,  soon  decayed. 

The  warfare  on  the  northern  frontier  continued,  until  the  mother 
nations  were  pacified  at  the  peace  of  Ryswick  in  1697. 

The  exhibits  of  debt  and  credit,  dry  and  trivial  as  the  entries  may 
seem,  are  often  illustrative  of  the  history  and  manners  of  the  times. 
A  few  items  from  the  accounts  of  the  town  and  county  treasurer  may 
be  cited  as  examples. 

"  1691.  To  Sam"  Raymond  5  dayes  for  fetching  yegunns — he  went  by  land 
w**»  his  horse,  lOi. 

**  To  Capt.  Wetherell,  5  dayes  do, — w*  expense  for  himself  and  Raymond 
and  provision  for  those  yt  went  by  water  i&2.  4<.  3d. 

"  To  John  Prentis,  Jeremy  Chapman,  Oliver  Manwaring,  Nath*  ChappeU, 
WiU"  Miner,  Thomas  Crocker,  Thomas  Daniels, — ^for  fetching  ye  gunns  from 
Seabrook,  (from  15  to  ]8<.  each.) 

««  To  Mr.  Plambe  for  his  horse  boat  to  fetch  ye  gunns  &c.  £1.  lOi.  6d. 

**  To  Jonathan  Hall  pr  himself  and  sloop  for  ye  gunns  £3, 

**  To  widow  Mary  Haris  for  15  gls  rum  and  6'^  sugar  when  the  guns  were 
fetcht,  £1,  2f.  lOd. 

**  To  John  Richards  for  searching  ye  gunns'*  dec. 

The  same  year  bounty  money  was  claimed  for  kiUing  twenty-four 
wolves— of  which  number  Lieut.  James  Avery  killed  nine,  and  John 
Morgan  five.'     In  the  accounts  of  this  year  we  obtain  the  first  inti- 


1  Mr.  Wetherell  notes,  July  80th,  1695 :  "  Paid  an  Indian  for  killing  a  wolf  this 
morning  up  by  Mr.  Wheeler's  four  shillings  cash." 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 


259 


madon  of  a  town^s  poor.  Various  expenses  are  paid  for  Mr.  Loydenj 
a  name  that  appears  no  where  else  in  the  town's  history,  and  Capt. 
Morgan  is  remunerated  for  "keeping  doctor  Marret  14  weekes — Is. 
pr.  weeke." 

B7  act  of  Assembly,  May  13th,  1703,  an  addition  was  made  to  the 
bounds  of  New  London,  of  a  tract  between  the  north  bounds  of  the 
town  and  the  southern  bounds  of  Norwich,  extending  from  the  north- 
east boundary  line  of  Lyme  to  Trading  Cove,  and  by  the  cove  to 
the  Great  River. 

This  included  the  Lidian  lands  or  Mohegan  reservation,  which  had 
long  been  claimed  by  the  town,  but  not  legally  included  in  their 
bounds. 

'*  Patent  of  New  London  sanctioned  by  the  Governor  and  Company,  14.  Oct. 
1704. 

*•  To  all  persons  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come, — The  Governor  and  Com- 
pany of  her  Majesty's  Colony  of  Connecticut  in  General  Court  assembled  send 
greeting: — Whereas  we  the  said  Gov'  and  Com p' by  virtue  of  Letters  Patent 
tons  granted  by  his  Royal  Maj'  Charles  the  Second  of  England *&c.  king, 
bearing  date  the  23d  day  of  April,  in  the  14th  year  of  his  reign,  A.  D.  1663, 
have  formerly  by  certain  acts  and  grants  passed  in  Gen.  Assembly  given  and 
granted  to 


John  Winthrop  Esq. 
Waite  Winthrop  Esq. 
Daniel  Wetherell  Esq. 
Richard  Christophers  Esq. 
Mr.  Nehemiah  Smith 
Capt.  James  Morgan 
John  Allyn 
William  Douglas 
Joseph  Latham 
Capt.  John  Avery 
David  Calkins 
Capt.  John  Prentis 
Liev*  John  Hough 
John  Stubbin 
John  Keeney 
Robert  Douglas 
John  Burrows 
Samuel  Fish 
Thomas  Crocker 
Richard  Dart 
Samuel  Rogers  Sen' 
John  Rogers  Sen' 
James  Rogers 
John  Lewis 
Daniel  Stubbin 


/ 


George  Geares 
Thomas  Bolles 
Benjamin  Shapley 
John  Edgecombe 
Jonathan  Prentis 
Peter  Harris 
Samuel  Avery 
Robert  Lattimore 
Lawrence  Codner 
John  Turrell 
John  Richards  I 
Peter  Strickland 
Stephen  Prentis 
John  Plumbe 
Samuel  Rogers  Jun : 
John  Fox 
Samuel  Beebee 
Oliver  Manwaring 
John  Coit 
George  Chappell 
Joseph  Miner 
John  Beckwith 
Philip  Bill 
Thomas  Starr 
John  Davie 


260  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

James  Morgan  Jun :  Peter  Grary 

Charles  Hill  Joshua  Wheeler 

Joshaa  Hempsted  Richard  Williami 

Jonas  Greene  Richard  Morgan 

Joseph  Truman  Abel  More 

Thomas  Way  Adam  Picket 

Jeremiah  Chapman  James  Avery 

Thomas  Bayley  John  Daniels 

Daniel  Comstock  Christopher  Darrow 

Joshua  Baker  Andrew  Lester 

John  Wickwire  John  Chapel 

Benjamin  Atwell  Daniel  Lester 

Thomas  Williams  Samuel  Rogers  (Joseph's  son) 

Samuel  Waller 
with  divers  other  persons  and  to  their  Heirs  or  Assigns  or  such  as  shall  legally 
succeed  or  represent  them,  or  either  of  them  forever,  a  just  and  legal  propriety 
in  a  certain  tract  of  land  now  commonly  called  and  known  by  the  name  of 
New  London,  lying  and  being  within  the  Colony  aforesaid,  to  us  by  the  said 
Letters  Patent  granted  to  be  disposed  of  as  in  the  said  Letters  Patent  is  direct- 
ed, and  bounded  as  hereaAer  folio weth,  and  the  said  John  Winthrop,  Waite 
Winthrop,  ^c. — [here  the  names  are  all  repeated] — with  such  other  persons  as 
are  at  this  present  time  by  virtue  of  the  aforesaid  acts  and  grants  proprietors 
of  the  said  tract  of  land,  having  made  application  to  us  for  a  more  ample  con- 
firmation of  their  propriety  in  the  said  tract  of  land  which  they  are  now  in  pos- 
session of,  by  a  good  and  sufficient  instrument  signed  and  sealed  with  the  seal 
of  this  Corporation,  therefore  Know  Ye,  that  the  said  Gov'  and  Comp^  in 
Gen^  Court  assembled,  by  virtue  of  the  aforesaid  Letters  Patent  and  for  divers 
good  causes  and  considerations  pursuant  to  the  end  of  said  Letters  Pattent,  us 
hereunto  moving.  Have  given,  granted  and  confirmed  and  by  these  presents  do 
llirther  fully,  clearly  and  amply,  give  grant  and  confirra«to  the  aforesaid  John 
Winthrop  Esq.  Waite  Winthrop  Esq.  Daniel  Wetherell  Esq.  Richard  Christo- 
phers Esq.  Mr.  Nehemiah  Smith,  Capt.  James  Morgan,  with  all  the  other 
above  named  persons,  and  all  other  persons  at  this  present  time  proprietors  with 
them  of  the  said  tract  of  land,  now  being  in  their  full  and  x>eaceable  possession 
and  seisin,  and  to  their  Heirs  and  Assigns  or  such  as  shall  legally  succeed  or 
represent  them  or  either  of  them  forever,  the  aforesaid  tract  of  land  commonly 
called  and  known  by  the  name  of  New  London,  lying  in  the  colony  afore- 
said, and  bounded  as  foUoweth — that  is  to  say, — on  the  West  by  a  ditch  and 
two  heaps  of  stones  on  the  west  side  of  Nayhantick  Bay,  on  the  land  formerly 
called  The  Soldier's  Farm,  about  40  rods  eastward  of  the  house  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Bradford,  and  from  thence  North  by  a  line  that  goes  three  rods  to  y*  west  of 
y*  falls  in  Nayhantick  river  and  from  thence  North  to  a  black  oak  tree  8  miles 
from  the  ditch  aforesaid,  which  tree  hath  a  heap  of  stones  about  it,  and  is 
marked  on  the  west  side  WE,  and  on  y*  east  side  IP,  being  an  antient  bound 
mark  between  New  London  and  Lyme,  and  from  that  tree  East  half  a  mile  and 
16  rods  to  a  black  oak  tree  with  a  heap  of  stones  about  it,  marked  with  the  let- 
ter L  and  from  thence  north  to  the  northeast  comer  of  the  bounds  of  the  town 
of  Lyme  and  from  the  said  N.  E.  comer  bounds  of  Lyme  upon  a  straight  line 


HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON. 


26L 


to  the  Soathwest  corner  of  the  south  bounds  of  the  town  of  Norwich : — On 
J*  North  by  the  south  bounds  of  the  aforesaid  Norwich,  as  the  said  bounds  are 
Stated  from  the  aforesaid  S.  W  comer  down  to  a  Cove  commonly  called  Trad- 
ing Cove,  and  from  thence  by  the  sd  Cove  to  y*  Great  River,  commonly  called 
New  London  river  and  from  the  j>Iace  where  y*  said  Cove  joins  to  the  said 
river  by  a  line  crossing  the  fiver  obliquely  eastward  to  the  mouth  of  a  Cove 
commonly  called  Paukatannuk  Cove,  and  from  thence  by  the  said  Paukatan- 
nnk  to  the  head  thereof,  and  from  thence  upon  a  direct  line  to  an  oak  tree 
marked  and  standing  near  the  dwelling  house  of  Thomas  Rose,  which  tree  is 
y*  S.  E.  comer  of  the  bounds  of  y*  aforesaid  Norwich,  and  from  thence  by  an 
East  line  to  the  bounds  of  the  town  of  Stonington,  which  line  divides  betwixt 
New  London  and  Preston. — On  the  east  by  a  line  which  ranneth  south  from 
the  place  where  the  above  mentioned  north  bounds  of  New  London  aforesaid 
meets  with  the  said  bounds  of  Stonington  till  it  comes  to  the  place  where  the 
Pond  by  Lanthorn  Hill  empties  itself  into  the  Brook,  and  from  thence  by  y* 
main  stream  of  sd  brook  till  it  falls  into  y*  river  called  Mistick  River  and  firom 
thence  by  y*  said  Mistick  River  till  it  falls  into  the  Sea  or  Sound  to  y*  north  of 
Fisher's  Island  :^0n  the  South  by  the  Sea  or  Sound  from  the  mouth  of  the 
aforesaid  Mistick  River  to  the  west  side  of  Nayhantick  Bay  to  the  aforesaid 
ditch  and  two  heaps  of  stones  about  it. — Together  with  all  and  singular  the 
Messuages,  Tenements,  meadowes,  pastures,  commons,  woods,  underwoods, 
waters,  fishings,  small  islands  or  islets,  and  hereditaments  whatsoever,  being 
parcel  belonging  or  anjrways  appertaining  to  the  tract  aforesaid,  and  do  hereby 
grant  and  confirm  to  the  said  Proprietors,  their  Heirs,  or  Assigns,  or  such  as 
shall  legally  succeed  or  represent  them,  his  or  their  several  particular  respective 
proprieties  in  y*  said  premises  given  and  confirmed  according  to  such  allot- 
ments or  divisions  as  they  the  said  present  Proprietors  have  already  made,  or 
shall  hereafter  make  of  the  same — 

«« To  htswB  and  to  hold  the  said  tract  of  land  with  the  premises  aforesaid,  to 
them  the  said  John  Winthrop  Esq,  Waite  Winthrop  Esq,  Daniel  Witherell 
Esq,  Richard  Christophers  Esq,  M'.  Nehemiah  Smith,  Capt.  James  Morgan, 
and  all  y*  rest  of  the  above  mentioned  persons,  and  all  other  the  present  Pro- 
prietors of  y*  said  tract  and  premises,  their  Heirs  or  Assigns,  or  such  as  shall 
legally  succeed  and  represent  them  forever,  as  a  good,  sure,  right,  full,  perfect, 
absolute  and  lawful  estate  in  fee  simple,  and  according  to  y*  aforesaid  Letters 
Patent  after  the  most  free  tenor  of  her  Majesty*  Manor  of  East-Greenwich  in 
the  County  of  Kent, — 

"  To  the  sole,  only  and  proper  use  and  behoof  of  the  said  John  Winthrop  Esq, 
with  all  the  above  named  persons  and  all  others  the  present  Proprietors  of  said 
tract  and  premises,  their  Heirs  and  Assigns,  or  such  as  shall  legally  succeed  and 
represent  them  forever,  as  a  good,  sure,  rightful  estate  in  manner  as  afore- 
said,— Reserving  only  to  her  present  Majesty,  our  sovereign  Lady  Ann  of  Eng- 
land &c.  Queen,  and  her  successors  forever  one  fifth  part  of  all  gold  or  silver 
mines  or  ore  that  hath  been  or  shall  be  found  within  the  premises  so  granted 
and  confirmed. 

**  Always  provided  that  whatsoever  land  within  the  aforesaid  tract  which  for" 
merly  did  and  now  doth  belong  unto,  and  is  the  just  and  proper  right  of  Uncas 
late  Sachem  of  Mohegan,  or  Owaneco  his  son  or  any  other  Indian  Sachem 
whatsoever,  and  hath  not  yet  been  lawfully  purchased  of  the  said  Sachems,  or 


362 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 


acquired  by  the  English,  doth  and  shall  still  remain  y  right  and  property  of 
J*  said  Indian  Sachems  or  their  Heirs,  and  shall  not  be  entered  upon,  or  im- 
proved, or  claimed  as  property  by  the  aforesaid  persons  to  whom  the  said  tract 
is  hereby  confirmed,  or  any  of  them  by  virtue  of  this  instrument,  nor  shall  any- 
thing herein  contained  be  at  any  time  deemed,  taken  or  constructed  to  the  preju- 
dice of  any  of  the  said  Sachems  or  their  Heirs  right  to  the  said  land  within  the 
said  tract  aforesaid  which  hath  not  yet  been  sold  or  alienated  by  them,  but  their 
said  right  shall  be  and  remain  good  and  free  to  them  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
in  the  Law,  and  the  said  land  which  they  have  right  in  aforesaid  shall  be  and 
remain  as  free  for  their  own  proper  occupation  and  improvement  as  if  it  had 
not  been  included  in  the  bounds  of  the  aforesaid  New  London,  as  specified  in 
this  instrument^- 

•*  And  further,  we  the  said  Gov'  and  Corop'  y*  aforesaid  tract  of  land  and 
premises  and  every  part  and  parcel  thereof  hereby  granted  and  confirmed  to  the 
said  John  Winthrop,  Waite  Winthrop,  Daniel  Wetherell  ^c, — [here  all  the 
names  are  again  repeated] — and  the  rest  of  the  present  proprietors  thereof,  their 
Heirs  and  Assigns,  or  such  as  shall  legally  succeed  and  represent  them  to  their 
own  proper  use  and  uses  in  the  manner  and  under  the  limitation  above  ex- 
pressed against  us  and  all  and  every  other  person  or  persons  lawfully  claiming 
by,  from  or  under  us,  shall  and  will  warrant  and  forever  defend  by  these 
presents — 

**  In  witness  whereof  we  have  ordered  the  present  instrument  to  be  signed 
by  the  Deputy  Gov'  of  this  Corporation  and  by  y*  Secretary  of  the  same  as  also 
that  the  seal  of  this  Corporation  be  afiixed  hereunto  this  14th  day  of  October  in 
y,  third  year  of  her  Maj«  Reign  A.  D.  1704. 

"  Robert  Treat  Dep.  Gov*. 

**  Eleazbr  Kimbsrlt  Sec'  ** 

Though  only  seventy-seven  names  are  registered  in  the  patent, 
the  whole  number  of  full-grown  men  having  a  right  in  the  town  was 
perhaps  at  that  time  one  hundred  and  sixty  or  one  hundred  and 
seventy.  A  man  might  have  three  or  four  sons  of  mature  age,  yet 
generally  in  the  patent,  only  the  father,  or  the  father  and  eldest  son 
were  mentioned.  Other  names  were  also  omitted  which  ought  to 
have  been  enrolled,  and  which  were  added  to  the  list  of  patentees 
afterward.  These  were  Lieut.  John  Beeby,  Thomas,  son  of  Sergt. 
Thomas  Beeby,  Samuel  Fox,  Samuel  Chapman,  William  Gibson, 
Nicholas  and  Amos  Hallam,  Sampson  Haughton,  Jonathan  Haynes, 
William  Hatch,  Alexander  Pygan,  Joshua  Raymond  and  Hon.  Gur- 
don  Saltonstall. 

"  13  Deer  1703. 

**  Voted,  that  the  Town  Patent,  be  forthwith  drawn  upon  parchment  and 
that  all  the  freeholders  of  this  town  who  are  desirous  to  have  their  names  en- 
tered therein,  shall  bring  them  to  the  Moderator  within  a  month." 

This  vote  was  never  carried  into  effect. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  263 

The  commons  of  the  town  were  a  source  of  great  agitation  and 
discord.  The  inhabitants  could  not  agree  upon  a  principle  according 
to  which  they  should  be  divided.  One  party  would  have  had  them 
distributed  equally  to  the  whole  body  of  voters ;  another,  with  Grov- 
emor  Saltonstall  at  the  head,  was  for  restricting  them  to  proprietors. 
The  contention  was  protracted  and  acrimonious. 

In  1724,  the  proprietors  were  regularly  enrolled,  and  henceforward 
held  their  meetings  distinct  from  the  freeholders.  Divisions  of  land 
were  limited  to  patentees,  and  no  person  was  a  patentee,  who  was  not 
a  lawful  proprietor  before  the  date  of  the  patent.  May  10th,  1703. 

fThe  whole  commonage  was  arranged  in  three  great  divisions : 

1.  The  inner  or  grass  commons,  in  and  near  the  town. 

2.  The  middle  or  wood  commons. 

3.  Outside  commons ;  included  in  the  north  parish,  and  divided 
from  the  town  by  "  a  line  nmning  from  New  London  N.  W.  comer 
tree,  to  white  rock  in  Mohegan  River." 

The  first  meeting  of  the  proprietors  was  held  Jan.  2l8t,  1723-4 ; 
John  Richards  clerk,  who  held  the  office  till  near  the  period  of  his 
death  in  1765.  No  meeting  is  entered  on  record  between  April 
15th,  1740,  and  March  5th,  1762.  Later  than  this  they  occurred 
generally  at  intervals  of  four  or  five  years. 

It  has  been  heretofore  observed,  that  the  river  border  of  the  town, 
in  the  line  of  Water  and  Bank  Streets,  had  been  left  unappropria- 
ted— a  common  belonging  to  the  town.  On  the  bank  a  few  lots 
were  sold  in  1714,  but  afterward  resumed,  and  the  whole,  with  reser- 
vations here  and  there  of  a  common  way  to  the  water,  were  disposed 
of  between  1722  and  1724.  Each  lot  was  about  three. rods  in 
breadth  upon  the  water,  and  the  average  price  £3.  The  proceeds  of 
the  sales  were  appropriated  to  the  building  of  a  house  for  town  meet- 
ings and  the  accommodation  of  the  courts. 

This  court-house,  the  first  in  the  eastern  part  of  Connecticut,  stood 
at  the  south-east  comer  of  the  meeting-house  square,  or  green,  front- 
ing west.  It  was  raised  April  20th,  1724.  The  length  was  forty- 
eight  feet ;  half  as  wide,  and  twenty  feet  between  joints  :  the  builder 
John  Hough  ;  the  cost  £48.  When  finished,  the  arms  and  anmiu- 
nition  of  the  town  were  lodged  in  the  garret,  and  "  Solomon  Coit  was 
chosen  to  keep  the  town  magazine  gratis"  This  house,  with  repairs, 
continued  in  use  till  1767. 


264  HISTORY   OF    NEW     LONDON. 

New  Inhabitantt  that  appear  between  1670  and  1700. 

[The  exact  period  of  setUemenC  can  not  always  be  obtained ;  many  of  the 
dates  are  merely  an  approximation  to  the  time  of  arrival.  By  the  phrase  eatt 
of  the  river,  the  present  towns  of  Groton  and  Ledyard  are  indicated;  by  the 
North  Parieh,  Montville ;  and  by  Nahantickf  Jordan  and  Great  Neck,  Water- 
ford.] 

Ames,  John  and  David ;  probably  brothers,  and  it  is  conjectured  from  Ando- 
ver,  Mass. — settled  east  of  the  river  about  1696.  The  name  is  often  writte^) 
£ams  and  Emms. 

Ashby,  Anthony ;  at  Mystic  1688,  and  perhaps  earlier. 

Baker,  Joshua ;  from  Boston,  not  long  after  1670. 

Blake,  Jeremiah ;  bought  land  in  July,  1681 — on  the  list  of  1688,  &c. 

Bodington,  or  Buddington,  Walter ;  east  of  the  river  in  1679. 

Brookes,  Henry ;  living  at  Nahantick  in  1699. 

Bucknall  or  Buckland,  Samuel;  cattle-mark  recorded  in  1674.  He  married, 
(1)  the  widow  of  Matthew  Beckwith,  Sen.;  (2)  the  widow  of  PhUip  Bill,  Sen. 

Bulkley,  Dr.  Charles;  son  of  Rev.  Gershom — ^licensed  by  the  Co.  Court  to 
practice  physic,  and  settled  in  the  town  16S7. 

Butler,  Thomas  and  John  ;  before  1690,  and  perhaps  much  earlier. 

Button,  Peter;  in  the  North  Parish,  probably  before  1700. 

Camp,  William ;  in  the  Jordan  District,  before  1690. 

Cannon,  Robert ;  accepted  as  an  inhabitant  in  town  meeting,  1678. 

Carder,  Richard ;  east  of  the  river,  about  1700. 

Carpenter,  David ;  at  Nahantick  ferry,  16&0. 

Chandler,  John;  licensed  to  keep  a  house  of  entertainment,  1698. 

Cherry,  John ;  a  transient  inhabitant  about  1680. 

Crary,  Peter ;  east  of  the  river ;  cattle-mark  is  recorded  in  1680. 

Darrow,  George ;  between  1675  and  1680. 

Davis,  Andrew ;  east  of  the  river  about  16S0. 

Davie,  John  ;  bought  farm  at  Pequonuck,  (Groton,)  1692. 

Dcnison,  George;  son  of  John  of  Stonington ;  of  New  London,  1694. 

Dennis, 'George ;  from  Long  Island,  about  16S0. 

Dodge,  Israel;  on  a  farm  in  the  North  Parish,  1694. 

Ellis,  Christopher ;  admitted  inhabitant  1682. 

Edgecombe,  John  ^  about  1673. 

Fargo,  Moses ;  house  lot  granted  1680. 

Fountain,  Aaron ;  son-in-law  of  Samuel  Beeby.  His  house  on  the  Great 
Neck  is  mentioned  in  1683. 

Foote,  Pasco;  1678 — son-in-law  of  Edward  Stallion. 

Fosdick,  Samuel;  from  Charlestown,  Mass.,  1680. 

Fox,  two  brothers,  Samuel  and  John,  about  1675. 

Gibson,  Roger,  and  his  son  William  ;  living  on  the  Great  Neck  in  1680, 

Gtilbert,  Samuel,  in  North  Parish ;  on  a  list  subscribing  for  the  ministry  of 
New  London,  in  1688. 

Green,  Jonas ;  probably  of  the  Cambridge  family  of  Greens— commanded  a 
coasting  vessel,  and  fixed  his  residence  in  New  London,  in  1694,  lived  on  Mill 
Cove,  in  a  house  sold  by  his  descendanu  to  John  Colfax. 

Hackley,  Peter ;  erected  a  fulling-mill  at  Jordan,  1694. 


HISTORY   OF   NEW    LONDON.  265 

Hall,  Jonathan  ;  in  1676  or  1677,  he  exchanged  his  aooonunodationt  in  New 
Raven,  for  those  of  John  Stevens  in  New  London. 

Halsey,  William;  1689. 

Harvey,  John ;  at  Nahantick,  1682. 

Hatch,  William;  about  1690. 

Hawke,  or  Hawkes,  John ;  a  serge-maker,  1698. 

Haynes,  Josiah ;  at  Pequonnok,  (Groton,)  1696. 

Holloway,  Jacob ;  about  1700. 

Holmes,  Thomas ;  he  had  wife,  Lucretia.  Their  ton  John  was  bom  March 
11th,  1686. 

Holt,  Nathaniel ;  1673. 

Hubbard,  Hugh ;  about  1670 ;  from  Derbyshire,  Eng. 

Hubbell,  Ebenezer;  from  Stratfteld,  Fairfield  Co.,  after  1690. 

Hurlbut,  Stephen  ;  about  1695,  probably  from  Windsor. 

Hutchinson,  George ;  about  1680.  His  wife  Margaret,  obtained  a  divorce 
from  him  in  1686,  on  the  plea  of  three  years'  absence  and  desertion. 

Jennings,  Richard ;  from  Barbadoes,  1677. 

Johnson,  Thomas  and  Charles ;  before  1690. 

Jones,  Thomas;*  1677,  probably  from  Gloucester,  Mass. 

Leach,  or  Leech,  Thomas ;  about  1680. 

Leeds,  John  ;  from  Kent  Co.,  Eng.,  1674. 

Loomer,  Stephen ;  1687. 

Mayhew,  John ;  from  Devonshire,  Eng.,  1676. 

Maynard,  Zachariah ;  '*  formerly  living  at  Marlborough ;"  settled  east  of  the 
river,  beyond  Robert  AUyn,  1697. 

McCarty,  Owen ;  1693. 

Minter,  Tobias ;  son  of  Ezer,  of  Newfoundland,  married  1672,  died  1673. 

M inter,  Tristram  ;  his  relict  in  1674  married  Joshua  Baker. 

Mitchel,  or  Mighill,  Thomas;  a  ship-wright,  had  his  building-yard  in  1696, 
near  the  Fort  land. 

Mortimer,  Thomas ;  often  Maltimore ;  a  constable  in  1680. 

Munsell,  or  Munson,  Thomas;  on  the  Great  Neck,  1683. 

Mynard,  or  Maynard,  William ;  about  1690,  from  Hampshire,  Eng. 

Nest,  Joseph ;  1678. 

Pember,  Thomas ;  1696. 

Pemberton,  Joseph ;  from  Westerly,  after  1680. 

Pendall,  William ;  mariner  and  ship-wright,  1676. 

Persey,  Robert ;  a  transient  inhabitant ;  bought  a  house  1678,  sold  it  1679. 

Plimpton,  Robert ;  1681. 

Plumbe,  John ;  before  1680. 

Potts,  William ;  from  Newcastle,  Eng.,  1678 ;  married  a  daughter  of  James 
Avery ;  was  constable  east  of  the  river  1684. 

Rice,  Gershom ;  east  of  the  river,  before  1700. 

Rose-Morgan,  Richard ;  1683. 

Russell,  Daniel,  1675. 

Satterly,  Benedict ;  after  1680. 

Seabury,  John ;  east  of  the  river  before  1700. 

Scarritt,  Richard,  1695. 

Singleton,  Richard;  east  of  the  rivei ;  oattle-mark  recorded  1686. 

23 


266  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON, 

'  Springer,  Dennis ;  Imnd  granted  him  eaft  of  the  riyer  in  1696. 

Steer,  Richard;  1690. 

Strickland,  Peter;  probably  about  1670. 

Swaddel,  William ;  east  of  the  river ;  cattle*mark  1689. 

Thome,  William ;  from  Dorsetshire,  Eng.  He  married  in  1676,  Lydia,  relict 
of  Thomas  Bayley.      East  of  the  river. 

Turner,  Ezekiel ;  son  of  John,  of  Situate,  1678. 

Walker,  Richard ;  1695. 

Walworth,  William ;  east  of  the  river,  about  1690. 

Way,  Thomas ;  about  1687. 

Weeks,  John ;  east  of  the  river  before  1700  ;  probably  from  Portsmouth,  N.  H. 

Wickwire,  John ;  1676. 

Willett,  James;  accepted  inhabitant,  1681.  He  was  from  Swansea,  and 
bought  the  fhrm  of  Wm.  Meades,  east  of  the  river. . 

WUlett,  John ;  1682. 

Williams,  Thomas;  1670. 

Williams,  John;  east  of  the  river;  his  name  is  on  the  ministry  subscription 
list  of  1688. 

WiUoughby,  William ;  ai)out  1697. 

Young,  Thomas;  from  Southold,  1693,  married  Mary,  relict  of  Peter  Brad- 
ley, 2d. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Obituabiss  of  thb  Eablt  Sbttlbbs. 

Taking  our  positioD  on  the  high  ground  at  the  heginning  of  a  new 
century,  let  us  pause  and  review  the  band  of  early  setders,  who  sit- 
ting down  among  these  barren  rocks,  erected  these  buildings,  planted 
these  gardens,  manned  these  decks,  and  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath  led 
their  children  up  these  winding  paths  to  worship  Grod  in  that  single 
church — ^that  decent  and  comely  building,  plain  in  appearance,  but 
beautified  by  praise,  which  sate  on  the  hill-top,  side  by  side  with  the 
lowly  mansions  of  the  dead.  From  those  silent  chambers  let  us  evoke 
the  shades  of  the  fathers,  and  record  some  few  fragments  of  their 
history,  not  irrecoverably  buried  with  them  in  the  darkness  oi 
oblivion. 

There  is  an  interest  lingering  about  these  early  dead  which  belongs 
to  no  later  nu^e.  The  minutest  details  seem  vivid  and  important. 
A  death  in  that  small  community  was  a  great  event.  The  magia<* 
trate,  the  minister,  and  the  fathers  of  the  town,  came  to  the  bed  of  the 
dying  to  witness  his  testament  and  gather  up  his  last  words.  It  was 
soon  known  to  every  individual  of  the  plantation  that  one  of  their 
number  had  been  cut  down.  All  were  eager  once  more  to  gaze  upon 
the  face  they  had  known  so  well ;  they  flocked  to  the  funeral ;  the 
near  neighbors  and  coevals  of  the  dead  bore  him  on  their  shoulders  to 
the  grave ;  the  whole  community  with  solemn  step  and  downcast 
«yed,  followed  him  to  his  long  home. 

Riding  at  funerals  was  not  then  in  vogue ;  and  a  hearse  was  un- 
known. A  horse  litter  may  in  some  cases  have  been  used ;  but  the 
usual  mode  of  carrying  the  dead  was  on  a  shoulder  bier.  In  this 
way  persons  were  sometimes  brought  into  town  for  interment  even 
from  a  distance  of  five  or  six  miles.  Frequent  rests  or  halts  were 
made,  and  the  bearers  often  changed.  These  funeral  customs  con- 
tinued down  to  the  period  of  the  Revolution. 


268  HISTORY    OP     N^W     LONDON. 

Our  ancestors  do  not  often  appear  to  us  in  all  the  homeliness  of 
their  true  portraiture.  Imagination  colors  the  truth,  and  we  over- 
look the  simplicity  of  their  attire  and  the  poverty  of  their  accommo- 
dations. Estates  before  1700  were  small ;  conveniences  few,  and 
the  stock  of  furniture  and  garments  extremely  limited.  Many  of 
the  large  estates  of  modem  times  have  been  built  up  from  very  small 
beginnings. 

Each  man  was  in  a  great  measure  his  own  mechanic  and  artisan, 
and  he  wrought  with  imperfect  tools.  Most  of  these  toools  were 
made  of  Taunton  iron  ;  a  coarse  bog  ore,  which  could  produce  only 
a  dull  edge,  and  was  easily  broken.  The  value  of  iron  may  be  in- 
ferred from  the  fact  that  old  iron  was  of  sufficient  importance  to  be 
estimated  among  movables.  In  the  early  inventories  very  few  chain 
are  mentioned.  Stools,  benches  and  forms,  took  their  place ;  joint- 
stools  came  next,  and  still  later,  many  families  were  provided  with  the 
high-backed  settle,  a  cumbersome  piece  (rf"  furniture,  but  of  great  com- 
fort in  a  farmer's  kitchen.  A  broad  box-like  cupboard,  with  shelves 
above,  where  the  pewter  was  arranged,  and  called  the  dresser,  was 
another  appendage  of  the  kitchen.  The  houses  were  cheaply,  rudely 
built,  with  many  apertures  for  the  entrance  of  wind  and  frost ;  the 
outside  door  frequently  opening  directly  into  the  family  room,  where 
the  fire-place  was  wide  enough  to  admit  an  eight  feet  log,  and  had  a 
draught  almost  equal  to  a  constant  bellows.  The  most  finished  tim- 
bers in  the  house,  even  those  that  protruded  as  siUs  and  cross-b^ams 
in  the  best  rooms,  were  hatchet-hacked,  and  the  wainscoting  unplaned. 

One  of  the  first  objects  with  every  thrifty  householder,  was  to  get 
apple-trees  in  growth.  Most  of  the  homesteads  consisted  of  a  house, 
garden  and  orchard.  Cider  was  the  most  common  beverage  of  the 
country.  Some  beer  was  drank.  They  had  no  tea  nor  coffee,  and 
at  first  very  little  sugar  or  molasses.  When  the  trade  with  Barba- 
does  commenced,  which  was  about  1 660,  sugar  and  molasses  became 
common.  The  latter  was  often  distilled  after  importation.  Broth, 
porridge,  hasty-pudding,  johnny-cake  and  samp,  were  articles  of  daily 
consumption.  They  had  no  potatoes,  but  beans  and  pumpkins  in 
great  abundance. 

Of  the  first-comers,  1650  or  before,  John  Stebbins,  George  Chap- 
pel,  Thomas  Parke,  Thomas  Roach,  and  three  of  the  Beeby  broth- 
ers, lived  into  the  eighteenth  century :  Tliomas  Beeby,  the  other 
brother,  died  but  a  short  time  previous.  John  Gager  was  living,  but 
in  another  settlement.  Alexander  Pygan,  Oliver  Manwaring,  and 
some  others  who  had  settled  in  the  town  before  1 660,  were  yet  upon 


HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON.  969 

the  0ti^e  of  life.  The  deaths  that  strew  the  way,  are  thmly  scattered^ 
showing  that  life  and  health  were  here  as  secure  from  disease,  except- 
ing only  one  or  two  seasons  of  epidemic  sickness,  as  in  the  most 
favored  portions  of  New  England. 


Jarvis  Hfudge  and  TTiomas  Doxey. 
Mention  has  already  heen  made  of  the  decease  of  these  two  per- 
sons in  the  year  1652,  the  first  deaths  in  the  plantation.  Jarvis 
Mudge  had  married  at  Wethersfield,  in  1649,  the  relict  of  Abraham 
Elsing.  His  wife  had  two  daughters  by  her  former  husband,  and 
Mr.  Mudge  left  two  sons,  Moses  and  Micah ;  but  of  ages  unknown, 
and  it  cannot  therefore  be  decided  whether  they  were  the  children 
of  this  or  some  former  wife.  Moses  Mudge,  in  1696,  was  of  Sharon, 
and  Micah,  in  1698,  of  Lebanon.  Thomas  Doxey  left  a  son  Thomas, 
who  in  1673,  sold  some  estate  that  had  belonged  to  his  father,  "with 
consent  of  my  mother,  Katherine,  wife  of  Daniel  Lane."  No  other 
child  is  mentioned.  The  removal  of  Daniel  Lane,  after  a  few  years, 
to  Long  Island,  carried  the  whole  family  from  New  London. 


Walter  Harris^  died  November  6^A,  1654. 

A  Tessel  called  the  William  and  Francis,  came  to  America  in 
1632,  bringing  among  its  passengers,  Walter  Harris,*  who  settled  in 
Weymouth,  where  he  remained  about  twenty  years,  and  then  came 
to  Pequot  Harbor.  On  his  first  application  for  a  house-lot,  he  i^ 
styled  of  Dorchester  y  which  makes  it  probable  that  his  last  temporary 
abiding  place  had  been  in  that  town.  He  had  two  sons,  Gabriel  and 
Thomas.  His  wife,  whose  maiden  name  was  Mary  Fry,*  survived 
him  less  than  three  months  ;  one  inventory  and  settlement  of  estate 
sufficed  for  both. 

The  nimcupative  will  of  Mrs.  Harris  will  be  given  at  large,  omit- 
ting only  the  customary  formula  at  the  commencement.  It  is  one  of 
the  oldest  wills  extant  in  the  county,  and  if  rich  in  allusions  to  cos- 
tume and  furniture.  From  a  clause  in  this  will  it  may  be  inferred 
that  Thomas  Harris  had  been  betrothed  to  Rebecca,  daughter  of 
Obadiah  Bruen.  This  young  man,  according  to  tradition,  had  been 
sent  to  England  to  recover  some  property  that  had  fallen  to  the  fam- 

1  Savage,  (MS.) 

2  See  will  of  William  Frj,  in  Hist  and  Gen.  Reg.,  vol.  2,  p.  886. 

23* 


370  nturonr  ot  New  lokdow* 

ily,  and  WAS  supposed  to  have  been  lost  at  sea,  as  he  was  never  heard 
of  afterward* 

'*  The  last  Will  and  Testament  of  Maiy  Harries*  taken  from  her  owne  mouth  * 
this  19th  of  Jan.,  1655. 

"  I  give  to  my  eldest  daughter,  Sarah  Lane,  the  bigest  brass  pan,  and  to  her 
daughter  Mary,  a  silver  spoone.  And  to  her  daughter  Sarah,  the  bigest  pewter 
dish  and  one  silken  riben.  Likewise  I  give  to  her  daughter  Mary,  a  pewter 
candlesticke. 

"  I  give  to  my  daughter,  Mary  Lawrence,  my  blew  mohere  peticote  and  my 
straw  hatt  and  a  fether  boulster.  And  to  her  eldest  sonne  I  give  a  silver 
spoone.  To  her  second  sonne  a  silver  whissle.  I  give  more  to  my  daughter 
Mary,  my  next  brasst  pann  and  a  thrum  cushion.  And  to  her  yongest  sonne 
I  give  a  pewter  bassen. 

"  I  give  to  my  yongest  daughter,  Elizabeth  Weekes,  a  peeoe  of  red  broad 
cloth,  being  about  two  yards,  alsoe  a  damask  livery  cloth,  a  gold  ring,  a  silver 
spoone,  a  fether  bed  and  a  boulster.  Alsoe,  I  give  to  my  daughter  Elizabeth, 
my  best  hntt,  my  gowne,  a  brass  kettle,  and  a  woolejx  jacket  for  her  husband. 
Alsoe,  I  give  to  my  daughter  Elizabeth,  thirty  shillings,  alsoe  a  red  whittle,^  a 
white  apron  and  a  new  white  neck-cloth.  Alsoe,  I  give  to  my  three  daughters 
aforesaid,  a  quarter  part  to  each  of  them,  of  the  dyaper  table  cloth  and  tenn 
shillings  apeece. 

**  I  give  to  my  sister  Migges,  a  red  peticoat,  a  cloth  jacket,  a  silke  hud,  a 
quoife,^  a  cross-cloth,  and  a  neck-cloth. 

**  I  give  to  my  cosen  Calib  Rawlyns  ten  shillinges. 

**  I  give  to  my  two  cosens,  Mary  and  Elizabeth  firy,  each  of  them  five  shil- 
linges. 

**  I  give  to  Mary  Barnet  a  red  stuff  wascote. 

**  I  give  to  my  daughter,  Elizabeth,  my  great  chest.     To  my  daughter,  Mary, 
*  a  cifier^  and  a  white  neck-cloth.     To  my  sister,  Hannah  Rawlin,  my  best 
cross  cloth.     To  my  brother,  Rawlin,  a  lased  band.    To  my  two  kinswomen, 
Elizabeth  Hubbard  and  Mary  Steevens,  five  shillinges  a  peece. 

**  I  give  to  my  brother,  Migges,  his  three  youngest  children,  two  shillinges 
sixe  pence  a  peece. 

**  I  give  to  my  sonne  Thomas,  ten  shilUnges,  if  he  doe  come  home  or  be  alive. 

**  I  give  to  Rebekah  Bruen,  a  pynt  pott  of  pewter,  a  new  petticoate  and  was- 
cote wch  she  is  to  spin  herselfe ;  alsoe  an  old  byble,  and  a  hatt  wch  was  my 
sonn  Thomas  his  hatt. 

**  I  give  to  my  so^e  Gabriell,  my  house,  land,  cattle  and  swine,  with  all 
other  goodes  reall  and  psonaft  in  Pequet  or  any  other  place,  and  doe  make  him 
my  sole  executor  to  this  my  will.    Witness  my  hand, 

<'  Witness  hearunto.  The  mark  of  (S  Mart  Harribs. 

"  John  Winthrop, 

"  Obadiah  Bruen, 

"  WilU  Nyccoils."* 

1  A  kind  of  short  cloak.  2  A  cap. 

8  Some  kind  of  cap  or  head-dress.  Quoif  and  cifier  are  firom  the  French  co\fe  and 
coiffure,  4  New  London  Records,  lib.  8. 


HISTORY    OP    NBW    LONDON.  ^271 

The  Harris  family  ranked  in  point  of  comfort  and  accommoda- 
tions with  the  well-to-do  portion  of  the  community.  They  had  a  bet- 
ter supply  of  pewter  than  is  found  in  many  early  inventories,  and 
such  articles  of  convenience  as  a  gridiron,  chopping-knife,  brewing 
tub,  smoothing-iron,  ^  four  silver  spoons  and  two  cushions/'  The  house 
consisted  of  a  front-room,  lean-to,  shop-room  and  two  chambers. 

Gabriel  Harris  died  in  1684 ;  Elizabeth,  his  relict,  August  17th, 
1702. 

The  inventory  of  Gabriel  Harris,  compared  with  that  of  his  father, 
illustrates  the  rapid  march  of  improvement  in  the  plantation.  The 
homestead,  consisting  of  a  new  house,  orchard,  cider-mill  and  smith's 
shop,  valued  together  at  £200,  was  assigned  to  Thomas,  the  eldest 
son,  for  his  double  portion.  The  inheritance  of  the  other  children, 
six  in  number,  was  £100  each.     Among  the  wearing  apparel  are: 

••  A  broad-cloth  coat  with  red  lining.  * 

*•  Two  Castors,  [beaver  bats.] 

*'  A  white  serge  coat :  a  Kersey  coat. 

*'  A  serge  coat  and  dotiblet :  a  wash-leather  doublet. 

*•  Two  red  wescotes — a  stuff  coat  and  breeches. 

**  Four  looms  and  tackling  :  a  sitk  loom. 

**  An  Indian  maid-servant,  valued  at  X15. 

•*  Three  Canoes,"  &c. 

Thomas  Harris,  oldest  son  of  Gabriel,  died  in  Barbadoes,  June 
9th,  1691,  leaving  an  estate  estimated  at  £927.  His  relict,  Mary, 
(a  daughter  of  Daniel  Wetherell,)  married  George  Denison,  grandson 
of  Greorge  the  first,  of  Stonington.  His  only  child,  Mary,  bom  Nov. 
4th,  1690,  was  regarded  as  the  richest  heiress  in  the  settlement* 
About  1712,  she  became  the  wife  of  Walter  Butler. 


Peter  CoUins,  died  in  May  or  June,  1655. 
He  is  generally  styled  Mr.  Collins,  His  will  and  inventory  are 
almost  all  that  is  known  of  him.  Apparently  he  had  no  family  and 
lived  alone.  He  distributes  his  effects,  appraised  at  £57,  among  his 
neighbors  and  friends ;  the  house  and  land  to  Richard  Poole.  The 
simplicity  of  the  age  is  shown  in  the  small  number  of  articles  with 
which  he  accomplished  his  house-keeping:  a  bed  and  one  pillow;  a 
blanket,  a  sheet  and  a  green  coverlet ;  one  chair,  three  forms,  two 
barrels,  three  brass  kettles,  one  iron  pot,  one  frying-pan,  a  butter-tub 
and  a  quart  pot.  These  were  all  the  accommodations  sufficiently 
important  to  be  noticed,  of  a  man  who  seems  to  have  been  respected 


372  HISTORY     OF     NBW     LONDON. 

and  respectable, — who  had  house  and  lands  and  three  cows  ;  a  val- 
uable article  at  that  period — with  some  other  stock.  The  milk-keeU 
ers,  trenchers,  and  wooden  spoons,  whittled  out,  or  bought  of  Indians, 
were  probably  considered  of  too  little  value  to  be  appraised. 


Robert  Isbdl,  died  about  1655. 

He  maj  have  been  the  Robert  Isabell  who  had  land  granted  him 
in  Salem  1637.'  He  left,  relict  Ann,  (who  married  Wilham  Nich- 
olls,)  and  two  children  Eleazar  and  Hannah.  Eleazar  married  Nov. 
1st,  1668,  Elizabeth  French  and  removed  to  KiUingworth,  where  he 
died,  1677. 

Hannah  Isbell  married  first  Thomajs  Stedman,  August  6th,  1668, 
and  second  John  Fox,  both  of  New  London. 


Robert  Hempstead,  died  in  June,  1655. 
The  following  memorandum  is  appended  to  his  will : 

**  The  ages  of  my  3  children. 
Mary  Hempsted  was  borne  March  26th,  1647. 
Joshua  Hempsted  my  sonne  was  borne  June  16,  1640. 
Hannah  Hempsted  was  borne  April  11,  1652. 
This  I  Robert  Hempsted  testifie  under  my  hand." 

The  name  of  Robert  Hempstead  has  not  been  traced  in  New  Eng- 
land previous  to  its  appearance  on  our  records.  It  is  probable  that 
when  he  came  to  Pequot  with  Winthrop  in  1 645,  he  had  recently 
arrived  in  the  country  and  was  a  young,  unmarried  man.  A  report 
has  obtained  currency  that  he  was  a  knight  and  entitled  to  the  ad- 
dress of  Sir.  This  idea  is  not  countenanced  by  anything  that  ap- 
pears on  record.  It  originated  probably  from  the  rude  handwriting 
of  the  recorder,  in  which  an  unskillful  reader  might  easily  mistake 
the  title  of  Mr.  for  that  of  Sir, 

In  regard  to  Mary  Hempstead,  the  first-born  of  New  London,  we 
may  allow  fancy,  so  long  as  she  does  not  falsify  history,  to  fill  up  the 
brief  outline  that  we  find  on  record,  with  warm  and  vivid  pictures. 
We  may  call  her  the  first  fair  fiower  that  sprang  out  of  the  dreary 
wilderness ;  the  blessed  token  that  famiUes  would  be  multiplied  on 
these  desolate  shores,  and  homes  made  cheerful  and  happy  with  the 
presence  of  children.     We  may  think  of  her  as  beautiful  and  good ; 

1  Felt's  History  of  Salem,  p.  169. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  273 

pure  like  the  lilj ;  fresh  and  bloonung  like  the  rose :  yet  not  a  crea- 
ture of  romance,  too  etherial  for  earthlj  fellowship,  floating  a  few 
years  through  bower  and  hall,  and  then  exhaled  to  Eden — but  a 
noble-hearted,  much-enduring  woman;  prudent,  cheerful  and  reli- 
gious ;  working  diligently  with  her  hands,  living  to  a  goodly  age,  and 
rearing  to  maturity  a  family  of  ten  chil(Lren,  two  sons  and  eight 
daughters,  an  apt  and  beautiful  symbol  for  the  young  country. 

Mary  Hempstead  was  united  in  marriage  with  Robert  Douglas, 
Sept.  28th,  1665.  She  had  eleven  children,  one  of  whom  died  in 
infancy.  Having  lived  to  see  the  other  ten  all  settled  in  famiUes  of 
their  own,  she  fell  asleep,  December  26th,  1711.  Her  husband  was 
gathered  by  her  side  January  15th,  1715-6. 

Hannah  Hempstead  married  first,  Abel  Moore,  and  second,  Sam- 
uel Waller.  Joanna,  the  relict  of  Robert  Hempstead,  married  An- 
drew Lester.  Joshua,  the  only  son  of  Robert  Hempstead,  married 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Greenfield  Larrabee.  This  coufle  had  a 
family  of  eight  daughters  and  an  only  son,  Joshua,  who  was  bom 
Sept.  Ist,  1678,  and  with  him  the  male  line  of  the  family  again  com- 
mences. This  person — Joshua  Hempstead,  2d — took  an  active  part  in 
the  afiairs  of  the  town  for  a  period  of  fifty  years,  reckoning  from 
1708.  The  "  Hempstead  Diary,"  repeatedly  quoted  in  this  history? 
was  a  private  journal  kept  by  him,  from  the  year  1711  to  his  death 
in  1758.  A  portion  of  the  manuscript  has  been  lost,  but  the  larger 
part  is  still  preserved.  Its  contents  are  chiefly  of  a  personal  and 
domestic  character,  but  it  contains  brief  notices  of  town  afiairs  and 
references  to  the  public  transactions  of  the  country. 

Its  author  was  a  remarkable  man— one  that  might  serve  to  repre- 
sent, or  at  least  illustrate,  the  age,  country  and  society  in  which  he 
lived.  The  diversity  of  his  occupations  marks  a  custom  of  the  day : 
he  was  at  once  farmer,  surveyor,  house  and  ship  carpenter,  attorney, 
stone-cutter,  sailor  and  trader.  He  generally  held  three  or  four  town 
offices ;  was  justice  of  the  peace,  judge  of  probate,  executor  of  vari- 
ous wills,  overseer  to  widows,  guardian  to  orphans,  member  of  all 
committees,  every  body's  helper  and  adviser,  and  cousin  to  half  of 
the  community.  Of  the  Winthrop  family  he  was  a  friend  and  con- 
fidential agent,  managing  their  business  concerns  whenever  the  head 
of  the  family  was  absent. 

The  original  homestead  of  Robert  Hempstead  remains  in  the  pos- 
session of  one  branch  of  his  descendants.  The  house  now  standing 
on  the  spot,  is  undoubjtedly  the  most  ancient  building  in  New  London. 
It  is  nevertheless  a  house  of  the  second  generation  from  the  settle- 


274  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

ment  The  first  houses,  rode  and  hastily  bailt,  passed  away  with  the 
first  generation.  The  age  of  the  Hempstead  house  is  determined  bj 
the  Hempstead  diarj.  The  writer  occupied  the  dwelling,  and  writ- 
ing in  1743,  says  it  had  been  built  sixty-five  years. 

Other  items  from  the  diary  that  may  be  interesting  in  this  con- 
nection are  the  following. 

"April  26,  1729  my  aunt  Waller  died,  aged  77,  youngest  daughter  of  mj 
grand-father  Hempstead  and  born  near  this  house,  in  the  old  one  built  by  m; 
grandfather.** 

**  Mary,  wife  of  Robert  Douglas  was  my  father's  eldest  sister  and  bom  in 
New  London  in  Jan:  1646-7, — the  first  child  of  English  parents  bom  in  this 
town."     (Mistake  in  the  month,  compared  with  the  date  in  her  father's  will.) 

21  Jan:  1738-9 — Cut  down  one  half  of  the  great  yellow  apple  tree,  east  iiom 
the  house,  which  was  planted  by  my  grandfather  90  years  agone. 


•  William  Rohertt^  died  in  April  or  Mayy  1667. 
Little  is  known  of  him.  He  had  been  in  the  service  of  Mr.  Stan- 
ton and  had  settled  but  recently  in  Peqnot  He  lived  alone ;  in  half 
a  house  owned  in  partnership  with  George  Harwood,  to  whose  wife 
and  son  he  left  his  whole  property,  which  was  valued  at  only  £26. 
A  bear-skin  and  a  chest  are  mentioned  in  the  inventory,  but  no  bed, 
table  or  chair.  He  had  two  cows  and  some  other  stock,  plenty  of 
land,  decent  apparel,  a  razor,  a  pewter  porringer,  three  spoons  and  a 
glass  bottle ;  but  nothing  else  except  tubs,  trays,  bags,  and  Indian 
baskets.  This  may  be  regarded  as  the  inventory  of  a  hermit  of  the 
woods — ^a  settler  of  the  simplest  class,  who  had  built  a  lodge  in  the 
thicket,  on  the  outskirts  of  the  plantation. 


William  Bartlett,  died  in  1658. 
Tliis  person  is  sometimes  called  a  ship-wright ;  and  again  a  sea- 
man. He  was  a  lame  man,  engaged  in  the  boating  trade  along  the 
coast  of  the  Sound.  A  deed  is  recorded,  executed  by  him  in  March, 
1658,  but  he  soon  after  appears  to  us  for  the  last  time  at  Southold,  L.  I.9 
in  company  with  George  Tongue,  William  Cooley,and  his  brother  Rob- 
ert Bartlett.  He  there  traded  with  a  Dutchman  named  Sanders  Len- 
nison,  of  whom  he  purchased  a  quantity  of  rum,  in  value  £7, 10«.,  and 
paid  for  it  in  "  wampum  and  inianiJ*  In  1664  Lennison  brought  an 
action  against  Bartlett's  estate  for  this  sum,  affirming  that  it  had 
never  been  paid.  From  the  depositions  in  tliis  case  and  other  cir- 
cumstcmces,  it  is  inferred  that  Bartlett  died  on  the  voyage,  or  soon 


BISTORT    OF    NEW    LONPON*  275 

after  reaching  home.  The  date  is  not  mentioned.  He  had  probably 
no  children,  as  his  property  passed  into  the  hands  of  his  widow  and 
his  brother  Bobert  In  1664  the  former  assigns  all  her  interest  in 
the  estate  to  the  latter  in  consideration  of  a  '<  maintenance  for  six  jears 
past  by  his  industrious  care,"  and  his  engagement  to  provide  for  her 
future  wants.*  This  intimates  that  she  had  been  a  widow  during 
that  time. 


John  Cait,  died  August  i9thy  1659. 

Mrs.  Mary  Coit  died  Jan.  2d,  1676,  aged  eighty.  This  may  be 
regarded  as  almost  a  solitary  instance  of  protracted  widowhood  for 
that  day—- our  ancestors,  at  whateyer  age  bereaved,  having  been  much 
addicted  to  second  and  even  third  and  fourth  marriages.  If  the  age 
of  Mr.  Coit  equaled  that  of  his  wife,  they  were  more  advanced  in 
years  than  most  of  the  early  settlers  of  the  town ;  a  couple — t^  be 
ranked  with  Jonathan  Brewster  and  wife  and  Walter  Harris  and 
wife — ^for  whose  birth  we  look  back  into  the  shadow  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  The  will  of  John  Coit  (Aug.  Ist,  1659)  provides 
for  his  son  Joseph  and  two  daughters,  Mary  and  Martha ;  but  he  re- 
fers to  four  other  children,  two  sons  and  two  daughters  absent  from 
him,  and  leaves  them  a  trifling  legacy  "  in  case  they  be  living." 

Of  these  four  absent  children,  the  only  one  that  has  been  identified 
is  John  Coit  the  younger,  who  came  to  the  plantation  with  his  father 
in  1651  and  had  a  house-lot  laid  out  to  him,  but  soon  returned  to 
Gloucester,  where  he  fixed  his  residence.  The  other  three  children 
had  perhaps  been  left  in  England.  The  two  young  daughters  at 
New  London,  married  John  Stevens  and  Hugh  Mould.  Joseph,  the 
youngest  son  of  John  Coit,  is  the  ancestor  of  all  the  Connecticut 
stock  of  Coits,  and  perhaps  of  all  who  bear  the  name  in  the  United 
States.*  He  married  (July  13th,  1667)  Martha,  daughter  of  Wil- 
liam Harris,  of  Windsor  or  Wethersfield — was  chosen  deacon  of  the 
church  about  1680,  and  died  March  27th,  1704.^  Joseph  the  second 
son  of  Joseph  and  Martha  Coit,  was  the  first  native  of  New  London 


1  In  the  abo7e  instrament  she  is  called  Susan  Bartlett,  but  ebewhere  Sarah.  Her 
age,  given  in  1662,  was  seventy. 

8  An  emigrant  from  New  London  planted  the  name  in  Saco,  Maine,  before  the  Revo- 
lution; others  have  smce  carried  it  to  New  York  and  the  Western  States. 

8  Neither  the  date  of  his  birth,  nor  his  age  at  the  time  of  his  decease,  has  been  as- 
certained. 


276  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

that  received  a  collegiate  education.  His  name  is  on  the  first  list  of 
graduates  of  the  seminary  founded  at  Saybrook,  which  was  thd  germ- 
that  expanded  into  Yale  College ;  he  took  also  a  degree  at  Harvard 
University  in  1704.  Plainfield  honors  him  as  her  first  minister ;  and 
his  descendants  are  supposed  to  be  more  numerous  than  any  other 
branch  of  the  family. 


Jonathan  Brewster,  died  in  1661.^ 

No  probate  papers  relating  to  his  estate  have  been  found ;  but  bills 
of  sale  are  recorded,  dated  in  1658,  conveying  all  his  property  in  the 
town  plot,  and  his  house  and  land  at  Poquetannuck,'  with  ^his  mov- 
ables, cattle  and  swine — "  to  wit  4  oxen,  12  cows,  8  yearlings  and  20 
swine,"  to  his  son,  Benjamin  Brewster,  and  his  son-in-law  John 
Picket.  Feb.  14th,  1661-2,  Mr.  Picket  relinquishes  his  interest  in 
the  assignment  to  his  brother-in-law,  stipulating  only 

«*  That  my  mother-in-law,  Mrs.  Brewster,  the  late  wife  of  ray  father  Mr. 
Jonathan  Brewster,  shall  have  a  full  and  competent  means  out  of  his  estate 
during  her  life,  from  the  said  B.  B.  at  her  own  dispose  freely  and  fully  to  com- 
mand at  her  own  pleasure." 

The  same  trustees,  Brewster  and  Picket,  also  conveyed  certain 
lands  to  their  sisters  Grace  and  Hannah,  but  in  the  settlement  of  the 
estate,  no  allusion  is  made  to  other  children. 

Mrs.  Lucretia  Brewster,  the  wife  of  Jonathan,  was  evidently  a 
woman  of  note  and  respectability  among  her  compeers.  She  has 
always  the  prefix  of  honor  (Mrs.  or  Mistress)  and  is  usually  present- 
ed to  view  in  some  useful  capacity — an  attendant  upon  the  sick  and 
dying  as  nurse,  doctress,  or  midwife — or  a  witness  to  wills  and  other 
important  transactions.  She  was  one  of  the  first  band  of  pilgrims 
that  arrived  at  Plymouth  in  the  Mayflower,  December,  1620,  being  a 
member  of  the  family  of  her  father-in-law,  elder  William  Brewster 
and  having  one  child,  William,  with  her.'  Her  husband  came  over 
in  the  Fortune,  which  arrived  Nov.  10th,  1621.* 


1  He  was  living  in  March,  1660-1.    See  CoL  Bee.,  voL  1,  p.  862. 
a  The  orthography  of  this  name  Is  yariable;  that  used  in  the  text  is  peihape  the 
most  prevalent,  but  Pocketannuck  is  nearest  the  pronunciation. 
8  ShortleflPs  Ibt  m  Hist  and  Gen.  Beg.,  vol.  1,  p.  60. 
4  Davis  on  Morton's  Memorial  p.  878. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON.  277 

Jonathan  Brewster  settled  first  in  Duxbnry  and  was  several  times 
representative  from  that  place.  Subsequently  he  engaged  in  the 
coasting  trade,  and  was  master  and  probably  owner  of  a  small  vessel 
plying  from  Plymouth  along  the  coast  to  Virginia.  In  this  way  he 
became  acquainted  with  Pequot  Harbor,  and  entered  the  river  to 
trade  with  the  natives.  In  the  spring  of  1649  we  find  him  over- 
whelmed with  pecuniary  disasters.  Mr.  Williams  of  Providence 
gives  this  notice  of  his  misfortunes  to  Mr.  Winthrop : 

**  Sir  (though  Mr.  Brewster  write  me  not  word  of  it)  yet  in  privBte  I  am  bold 
to  tell  you  that  I  hear  it  hath  pleased  God  greatly  to  afflict  him  in  the  thorns  of 
this  life :  He  was  intended  for  Virginili,  his  creditors  in  the  Bay  oame  to  Port«?- 
mouth  and  unhung  his  rudder,  carried  him  to  the  Bay  where  he  was  forced  to 
make  over  house,  land,  cattle,  and  part  with  all  to  his  chest.  Oh  how  sweet  is 
a  dry  morsel  and  an  handful,  with  quietness  from  earth  and  Heaven."^ 

At  the  time  of  this  misfortune,  Mr.  Brewster  was  purposing  a 
change  of  residence  and  probably  removed  to  Mr.  Winthrop's  planta- 
tion as  soon  as  he  could  arrange  his  affairs  with  his  creditors.  He 
was  "  Clarke  of  the  Towne  of  Pequitt"  in  Sept.,  1649.  Part  of  his 
family  came  with  him ;  but  several  children  remained  behind.  He 
had  two  sons,  William  and  Jonathan,  on  the  military  roll  in  Dux- 
bury,  in  1643 ;  the  latter  only  sixteen  years  of  age.*  William  was  in 
the  Narragansett  war  of  1645,  after  which  his  name  is  not  found  on 
the  old  colony  records.'  Jonathan  disappears  from  Duxbury  about 
1 649,  and  it  may  be  assumed  that  these  two  sons  died  without  issue. 
Two  daughters  are  traced  in  the  old  colony — Lucretia  mentioned  at 
the  early  date  of  1627,*  and  Mary,  who  married  John  Turner  of 
Situate. 

At  New  London  we  find  one  son  and  four  daughters. 

Benjamin,  married,  1659,  Anna  Dart,  and  settled  at  Brewster's  Neck,  on  the 
farm  of  his  father. 

Elizabeth,  married,  first,  Peter  Bradley,  and  second,  Christopher  Christo- 
phars.     She  was  aged  forty-two  in  I6S0. 

Ruth,  married  John  Piclcet,.  probably  about  1652. 

Grace,  married,  August  4th,  1650,  Daniel  Wetherell. 

Hannah,  married,  Dec.  25th,  1664,  Samuel  Starr.  She  was  aged  thirty- 
seven  in  1680. 


1  Mass.  Hist  Coll.,  2d  series,  vol.  9,  p.  281. 

2  Marcia  Thomas,  of  Marshfield,  (MS.) 
8  Ctftoro.  4  VtiuprcL 

24 


278  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

Ezekiel  Turner,  a  grandson  of  Mr.  Brewster,  from  Sitoate,  set* 
tied  in  New  London,  about  the  year  1675. 


Richard  Poole,  died  April  2^th,  1662.' 
No  grant  to  this  person  is  on  record,  nor  does  he  appear  on  any 
list  of  inhabitants,  but  his  name  is  often  mentioned.  He  is  some- 
times called  Mr.  Poole,  and  after  his  death  is  referred  to  as  old  Poole. 
He  lived  alone,  near  the  union  of  what  are  now  Ashcraft  and  Wil- 
Uams  Streets.  His  estate,  estimated  at  about  £58,  he  left  wholly  to 
the  wife  and  children  of  George  Tongue. 


Peter  Bradley,^  died  in  June,  1662. 
The  wife  of  Bradley  was  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Jonathan  Brews- 
t'^r,  but  of  the  marriage,  no  record  has  been  found.  He  was  a  mar- 
iner, and  after  his  settlement  in  New  London,  plied  a  sloop  or  sail- 
boat through  the  Sound.  His  death  is  supposed  to  have  occurred 
while  absent  on  a  cruise,  as  in  the  list  of  his  effects  is  mentioned — 
"  His  boat  and  sea-clothing  inventoried  at  Flushen."  Between  the 
families  of  Bradley  and  Christophers,  three  intermarriages  took  place 

Children  of  Peter  and  Elizabeth  Bradley, 

1.  Elizabeth,  b.  March  16th,  1654-5.  m.  Sept.  22d,  1570,  Thomas  Dymond. 

2.  Peter  b.  Sept.  7th,  1658,  m.  Mary  Christophers,  May  9th,  1678. 

3.  Lucretia  b.  1660.  m.  Jan.  16th,  1681-2,  Richard  Christophers.  Eliza- 
beth, relict  of  Peter  Bradley,  m.  Christopher  Christophers." 

Peter  Bradley,  2d,  and  his  brother-in-law,  Thomas  Dymond,  both 
died  in  1687,  as  did  also  their  father-in-law,  Christopher  Christophers. 
Bradley  deceased  August  Ist,  eight  days  after  Mr.  Christophers; 
leaving  but  one  child,  Christopher,  bom  July  11th,  1679.  The 
county  court  summarily  settled  the  estate,  giving  to  the  widow,  £300, 
and  to  the  son,  £590.  Mary,  relict  of  Peter  Bradley,  married 
Thomas  Youngs,  of  Southold,  and  this  event  in  the  end  transplanted 
the  Bradley  family  to  Long  Island. 

The  Bradley  lot,  originally  John  Gallop's,  lying  east  side  of  the 
Town  Street,  between  the  present  State  and  Federal,  and  sloping 

1  Walter  Palmer  probably  died  about  the  same  period,  in  Stonington.  The  probate 
action  on  his  will  was  11th  of  May.    Savage,  (MS.) 

S  This  name,  on  the  records,  is  frequently  written  Bratdey;  and  sometimas  Brad- 
2ey,  alias  Brawley. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON.  279 

down  to  the  marsh,  where  is  now  Water  Street,  was  appraised  in  the 
inventory  of  Peter  Bradley,  1st,  at  only  £30.  The  Bradley  house 
was  near  the  north  end,  with  a  lane  to  it  from  the  Town  Street.  In 
more  recent  times  it  was  known  as  the  Shackmaple  house.  North  of 
it,  and  originally  a  piece  of  the  lot,  was  the  homestead  of  Daniel 
Wetherell,  (where  is  now  the  Pool  property.)  Some  other  small 
portions  were  sold  by  Peter  Bradley,  2d,  but  after  his  death  it  re- 
mained unimproved  and  integral,  until  1730,  when  it  was  sold  by 
Jonathan  Bradley,  of  Southold,  son  of  Christopher,  deceased,  to  Dan- 
iel Tuthill,  for  £500.  It  was  then  called  eight  acres.  Tuthill  had 
it  laid  out  in  streets  and  blocks,  and  subdivided  into  small  house-lots, 
which  were  put  immediately  into  the  market  There  are  now  nearly 
two  hundred  buildings  on  this  lot. 

Thomas  Dymond,  who  married  Elizabeth  Bradley,  was  a  mariner 
from  Fairfield,  and  probably  brother  of  John  Dymond,  heretofore 
mentioned.  He  was  a  constable  in  1679.  His  children  were,  Eliz- 
abeth, bom  1672  ;  Thomas,  1675;  Moses,  1677  ;  Ruth,  1680;  John, 
1686.  The  name  and  family  passed  away  from  New  London.  The 
house  and  wharf  of  Thomas  Dymond,  on  Bream  Cove,  were  pur- 
chased in  1702,  by  Benjamin  Starr.  The  Dymond  heirs  continued 
to  be  proprietors  of  the  Inner  Commons  till  1719. 


WiUiam  RedfieM^^  died  in  1662. 

The  earliest  notice  of  him  is  in  a  deed  of  gift  from  Jonathan 
Brewster,  of  "  ten  acres  of  arable  land  at  Monhegan,  whereon  the  said 
Redfyne  hath  built  a  house,"  (May  29th,  1654.)  He  had  a  son 
James,  who  in  April,  1662,  bound  himself  apprentice  to  Hugh  Rob- 
erts, tanner,  with  consent,  he  says,  of  father  and  mother.  Gershom 
Bulkley  and  Lucretia  Brewster  were  witnesses  of  the  indenture, 
being  then  probably  in  attendance  upon  the  dying  father.  The  widow 
Rebecca  Redfield  is  often  mentioned.  She  had  two  daughters,  Re- 
becca, wife  of  Thomas  Roach,  and  Judith,  wife  of  Alexander  Pygan. 
Thomas  Bayley  married,  (Jan.  10th,  1655-6,)  Lydia,  daughter  of 
James  Redfield.     It  is  probable  that  this  was  a  sister  of  William. 

James  Redfield,  probably  the  apprentice  before-mentioned,  is  on 
the  rate  list  of  1666,  but  his  history  from  this  point,  is  not  clearly  as*- 
certained.  A  James  Redfield  married  Elizabeth  IIow,  at  New  Ha- 
ven, in  1609,  and  had  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  bom  in  1670.     A  per- 

1  Thu  name,  on  tlio  early  records,  is  often  strangely  corrupted  into  Redfin. 


280  HISTORY    OF   NEW    LONDON. 

son  of  the  same  name,  a  weaver  by  trade,  was  a  resident  of  Saybrocd^ 
in  1676.'  One  or  both  of  these  may  be  identical  with  James,  son  of 
William,  of  New  London  ;  and  as  Redfield  was  not  a  very  common 
name,  it  would  not  be  strange  if  all  the  three  might  be  reduced  to 
one. 


Sergeant  Richard  Hartley^  died  Aug.  1th,  1662. 
The  title  of  Sergeant,  is  derived  from  office  held  before  he  came 
to  New  London.  He  was  an  Englishman,  and  acted  as  agent  to 
merchants  in  England,  who  consigned  goods  to  him  to  sell.  His  will 
was*  written  down  from  his  mouth,  Aug.  6th,  "  Witnesses,  Gershom 
Bulkley,  minister,  Obadiah  Bruen,  Recorder,  Lucresia  Brewster, 
midwife,  Wm.  Hough,  constable.'*  His  inventory  amounted  to 
£281,  6«.  9(£.;  one  chest  of  his  goods  was  afterward  claimed  by 
Thomas  ReavelL  He  left  his  property  to  his  wife  and  only  child  in 
England.  In  1673,  his  house-lot,  warehouse  and  wharf,  were  sold 
by  James  Avery,  as  attorney  to  Mary  Wadsworth,  formerly  wife  to 
Richard  Hartley,  and  Martha  Hartley,  daughter  of  the  same,  both  oi 
Stanfield,  in  the  county  of  York,  England. 


Isaac  WiUey^  Jr.,  died  in  Aug.,  1662. 

He  was  a  young  man,  probably  not  long  married.  His  inventory, 
though  slender,  contains  a  few  articles  not  very  common,  viz.,  "tynen 
pans ;  a  tynen  quart  pot ;  cotton  yam,"  &c.,  together  with  one  so 
common  as  to  be  almost  universal — a  dram  cup,  which  appears  in 
nearly  every  inventory  for  a  century  or  more  after  the  settlement 

Isaac  Willey,  Jr.,  left  no  children ;  his  relict,  Frances,  married 
Clement  Minor. 


John  Tinker,  died  at  Hartford,  in  Oct.,  1662. 
The  General  Court  ordered  that  the  expenses  of  his  sickness  and 
funeral,  amounting  to  £8,  6«.  4(f.,  should  be  paid  out  of  the  public 
treasury. 

•    **  Children  of  John  and  Alice  Tinker. 
,    "  1.  Mary  bom  2  July  lGo3  4.  Samuel  born  1  April,  1C59 

•*  2.  John      *•     4  Aug      55  5.  Rlioda      "    23  Feb.  1001-2." 

"  3.  Arao8    "     28  Oct.     57 


1  Conn.  Col.  Kec.,  vol.  2,  p.  468. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  281 

Alice,  relict  of  John  Tinker,  married,  in  1664,  Wm.  Measure,  a 
scrivener  or  attorney,  who  subsequently  removed  with  the  family  to 
Lyme.  Mr.  Measure  died  during  the  administration  of  Sir  Edmund 
Andross,  and  his  inventory,  dated  July  27th,  1688,  is  recorded  in 
Boston.  His  relict,  Alice,  died  Nov.  20th,  1714,  aged  eighty-five 
years  to  a  day. 


ThamoB  Hung  erf ord,  died  1663. 

Estate,  £100.  Children,  three — "Thomas,  aged  about  fifteen; 
Sarah,  nine ;  Hannah,  four  years  old,  this  first  of  May,  1663."  The 
relict  of  Thomas  Hungerford,  married  Samuel  Spencer,  of  East  Had- 
dam ;  one  of  the  daughters  mmried  Lewis  Hughes,  of  Lyme. 

On  the  road  leading  from  New  London  to  the  Nahantick  bar, 
(Rope  Ferry)  nearly  in  the  parallel  of  Bruen*s  Neck,  is  a  large  sin- 
gle rock  of  granite,  that  in  former  times  was  popularly  known  as 
Hungerford's  Fort  It  is  also  mentioned  on  the  proprietary  records 
in  describing  the  pathway  to  Bruen*s  Neck,  as  "  the  great  rock  called 
Hungerfort's  Fort."  We  must  refer  to  tradition  for  the  origin 
of  the  name.  It  is  said  that  a  young  daughter  of  the  Hunger- 
ford  fomily,  (Hannah  ?)  being  alone  on  this  road,  on  her  way  to 
school,  found  herself  watched  and  pursued  by  a  hungry  wolf.  He 
made  his  approaches  cautiously,  and  she  had  time  to  secure  some 
weapon  of  defense,  and  to  retreat  to  this  rock  before  he  actually  made 
his  attack.  And  here  she  succeeded  in  beating  him  ofi*,  though  he 
made  several  leaps  up  the  rock,  and  his  fearful  bark  almost  bewil- 
dered her  senses,  till  assistance  came. 

We  can  not  account  for  the  name  and  the  tradition,  without  allow- 
ing that  some  strange  incident  occurred  in  connection  with  the  rock, 
and  that  a  wolf  and  a  member  of  the  Hungerford  family  were  involv- 
ed in  it;  but  the  above  account  may  not  be  a  correct  version  of  the 
story. 

Thomas  Hungerford,  2d,  had  a  grant  of  land  in  1 673,  "  four  miles 
from  town,"  and  his  name  occurs,  as  an  inhabitant,  for  ten  or  twelve 
years,  though  he  was  afterward  of  Lyme.  The  heroine  of  the  rock 
is  more  likely  to  have  been  a  member  of  his  family,  than  of  that  of 
his  father,  whose  residence  was  in  the  town  plot,  on  the  bank. 

24* 


282  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

jRobert  Farke,^  died  1665. 
Mr.  Parke  was  called  an  aged  man,  in  1662.  His  will  is  on  the 
town  book,  dated  May  14th,  1660;  proved  in  March,  1664-5.  He 
names  onlj  three  children,  William,  Samuel  and  Thomas.  Of  the 
second  son,  Samuel,  we  have  no  information,  except  what  may  be 
inferred  from  the  clause  relating  to  him  in  the  will.  The  oldest  son. 
Deacon  William  Parke,  of  Roxbury,  executor  of  the  wiD,  is  directed 
to  pay  to  Samuel,  £50. 

«*  Provided  my  said  son  Samuel,  shall  first  come  and  demand  the  same  in 
Roxbury  within  the  time  and  space  of  seven  years  next  and  immediately  after 
the  date  hereof." 

Mr.  Parke  was  of  Wethersfield,  in  1640,  and  made  freeman  of  the 
colony  in  April,  of  that  year.  He  was  deputy  to  the  Greneral  Court 
in  Sept.,  1641,  and  again  in  Sept.,  1642 ;'  but  removed  to  Pequot  in 
1649  ;  was  a  resident  in  the  towB  plot  about  six  years,  and  then  es- 
tablished himself  on  the  banks  of  the  Mystic. 

Thomas  Parke,  son  of  Robert,  was  also  of  Wethersfield,  and  had 
two  children  born  there — Martha,  in  1646,  and  Thomas,  in  1648. 
His  wife,  Dorothy,  is  supposed  to  have  been  sister  to  Mrs.  Blinman ; 
the  family  name  has  not  been  recovered.  Thomas  Parke,  after  resi- 
ding a  number  of  years  at  Mystic,  within  the  bounds  of  Stonington, 
removed  with  his  son,  Thomas  Parise,  Jr.,  to  lands  belonging  to  them 
in  the  northern  part  of  New  London,  And,  in  1680,  they  were  both 
reckoned  as  inhabitants  of  the  latter  place.  They  were  afterward 
included  in  Preston,  and  Thomas  Parke,  Sen.,  was  the  first  deacon  of 
Mr.  Treat's  church,  organized  in  that  town  in  1698.  He  died  July 
30th,  1709.  Beside  the  children  before  mentioned,  he  had  sons,  Rob- 
ert, Nathaniel,  William  and  John,  and  daughters,  Alice  and  Dorothy, 
of  whom  no  dates  of  birth  have  been  found.'  Alice  Parke  became 
the  wife  of  Greenfield  Larrabee,  (second  of  the  name,)  and  Dorothy 
Parke,  of  Joseph  Morgan. 


1  Often  written  Parks. 

2  Conn.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  1,  pp.  46,  66,  74. 

8  The  name  of  Alice  Parke  is  found  as  a  wibiess  to  deeds  executed  in  1668,  which 
makes  it  probable  that  she  was  older  than  those  bora  hi  Wethersfield,  otherwise  she 
could  not  have  been  more  than  eight  or  nme  years  of  age.  The  law  had  not  probably- 
determined  the  ago  necessary  to  constitute  a  legal  witness,  but  this  was  quite  too 
young. 


BISTORT    OF    NBW    LONDON.  283 

James  BemcUy  died  in  July,  1665. 
This  date  is  obtained  by  inference.  James  Bemas  had  been  cho- 
sen constable  for  the  year  1665 ;  but  on  the  24th  of  July,  Joseph  Coit 
was  appointed  in  his  place,  and  his  wife  was  soon  after  mentioned  as 
the  widow  Bemas.  She  married  in  1672  or  1673,  Edward  Griswold, 
of  Killingworth.  Two  daughters  of  the  widow  Bemas  were  baptized 
in  1671,  Rebecca  and  Mary;  but  of  the  last-named,  nothing  further 
is  known.  Rebecca,  daughter  of  James*  Bemas,  married,  April  3d, 
1672,  Tobias  Minter,  an  emigrant  from  Newfoundland,  and  had  a  son 
Tobias  bom  Feb.  26th,  1673-4.  Her  husband  soon  died,  probably  at 
sea,  and  she  married,  June  17th,  1674,  John  Dymond,  another  seaman, 
and  had  children,  John,  bom  in  1675,  Sarah,  in  1676,  and  Jonathan, 
1678.  The  period  of  Dymond's  death  is  not  ascertained;  but  the 
widow  was  united  to  a  third  sailor  husband,  as  per  record : 

"Benedict  Shatterly,  son  of  William ^hatterly  of  Devonshire,  Old  England, 
near  £xon»  was  marryed  unto  Rebecca  the  widow  of  John  Dymond,  August  2, 
1682." 

Shatterly  (or  Satterly)  is  supposed  to  have  died  about  1 689.  He 
left  two  daughters,  Sarah  and  Rebecca,  and  probably  a  son.  Sarah 
Satterly  married  Joseph  Wickham,  of  Killingworth.  A  late  notice 
of  Rebecca  is  obtained  from  Hempstead's  Journal,  under  date  of  1749- 
He  is  recording  a  visit  that  he  had  made  to  Long  Island,  and  says : 

**  I  called  to  see  Joseph  Sweezy  and  Rebekah  his  wife,  formerly  of  Occubauk 
in  Southold.  She  was  a  New  London  woman ;  her  maiden  name  was  Sat- 
terly, born  in  an  old  house  that  belonged  to  her  mother  in  old  Mr.  Coit*s  lot  that 
joins  to  mine." 

The  Bemas  house-lot,  lying  next  to  Robert  Hempstead's,  with  a 
run  of  water  between,  was  purchased  of  the  heirs  of  John  Coit,  the 
deed  of  confirmation  being  signed  by  Tobias  Minter,  grandson  of 
James  Bemas,  June  8th,  1694.  It  then  comprised  seven  acres,  and 
included  the  hollow  lot,  through  which  Cottage  Street  was  opened  in 
1845,  and  a  landing-place  on  the  cove,  where  the  old  Bocage  house 
now  stands.  Mr.  Coit  built  a  new  house  on  the  lot,  which  escaped 
the  burning  brand  of  the  invader  in  1781,  and  with  the  well-ordered 
grounds  that  surround  it,  still  forms  one  of  the  choice  homesteads  of 
the  town.  The  old- Bemas  house  stood  west  of  this,  near  the  rivulet, 
with  an  orchard  in  the  rear,  upon  the  sloping  land  beneath  the  ledge 
of  rocks.  Of  this  orchard,  one  representative,  an  ancient  apple-tree, 
is  yet  standing — a  relic  of  a  family  that  entirely  passed  away  from 
the  place,  one  hundred  and  sixty  years  ago.     We  can  scarcely  point 


284 


HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON. 


to  any  memorial  of  the  founders  of  the  town,  more  venerable  than 
that  apple-tree ;  and  though  it  may  not  have  been  one  of  those  nurs- 
ery plants,  of  which  it  is  said,  Winthrop  obtained  a  large  number,  and 
distributed  as  a  bonus  to  the  first  settlers,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
but  that  it  was  a  fruit-bearing  tree  before  1700.* 


Ancient  Apple  Tree,  on  the  ground  of  Jonathan  Coit,  Esq. 


Andrew  Longdon. 
This  person  was  an  early  settler  in  Wethersfield.  He  was  on  the 
jury  of  the  Particular  Court,  at  Hartford,  in  Sept,  1643.*  In  1649, 
came  to  Pequot  Harbor.  In  1660,  was  appointed  prison-keeper,  and 
his  house  to  be  used  as  the  town-prison.  In  July,  1665,  Margaret, 
widow  of  Andrew  Longdon,  conveys  her  land,  cattle  and  goods,  to 


1  The  trunk  of  this  apple-tree,  measured  a  little  above  the  surface  of  the  ground,  is 
fourteen  or  fifteen  feet  in  circumference ;  the  hollow  within,  about  nine  feet  Throe 
or  four  persons  can  stand  together  in  the  trunk,  which  is  a  mere  shell,  although  the 
tree  has  yet  several  thrifty  limbs,  which  have  blossomed  profVisely  the  present  year, 
(1852.)    It  is  several  yean  since  it  has  produced  any  fruit 

2  Conn.  Ck>l.  Rec,  vol.  1,  p.  92. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  285 

Wm.  Douglas,  on  condition  that  he  maintain  her  during  life,  give  her 
a  decent  burial,  and  discharge  her  husband's  debts.  This  is  the  only 
allusion  to  his  death.  The  relict  was  living  in  1667.  No  children 
are  mentioned.     The  name  is  identical  with  Langdon. 


William  Chesehrough,  died  June  dth,  1667. 

Though  living  at  Pawkatuck,  Mr.  Chesebrough  was  chosen  deputy 
from  New  London  to  the  General  Court,  'five  times  between  1 653 
and  1657.  No  fact  shows  more  clearly  the  identity  of  the  two  settle- 
ments at  that  time.  The  name  of  Mr.  Chesebrough's  wife  is  said  by 
family  tradition  to  have  been  Deborah.  No  daughter  is  mentioned. 
He  had  five  sons,  Nathaniel,  Elihu,  Samuel,  Elisha  and  Joseph. 
The  last  mentioned  was  bom  at  Braintree,  July  18th,  1640.  This 
Joseph  was  probably  the  one  that  according  to  tradition  died  sud- 
denly, soon  after  the  remt)val  of  the  family  to  Pawkatuck:  It  is  said 
that  one  of  the  sons,  a  young  lad,  while  mowing  on  the  marsh,  cut 
himself  with  the  scythe  so  severely  that  he  bled  to  death.  lie  was 
interred  on  the  banks  of  Wicketequack  Creek,  which  flowed  past 
their  lonely  residence.  The  spot  thus  early  consecrated  by  receiving 
the  dead  into  its  bosom,  became  the  common  burial-ground  of  the 
family  and  the  neighborhood.  Here,  undoubtedly,  Mr.  Chesebrough 
and  all  his  sons  were  buried.  Here,  probably,  lies  the  first  Walter 
Palmer,  in  the  midst  of  an  untold  throng  of  descendants.  Here  we 
may  suppose  Thomas  Stanton  to  have  been  garnered,  near  the  stones 
bearing  the  names  of  his  sons  Robert  and  Thomas.  Here,  also,  were 
laid  to  rest  the  remains  of  Thomas  Minor,  and  of  his  son.  Deacon 
Manasseh  Minor,  the  first-bom  male  of  New  London.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  James  Noyes,  Hallam,  Searle,  Thomson,  Breed,  and  other  an- 
cients of  Stonington,  repose  in  this  hallowed  ground. 


John  Picket,  died  August  16<A,  1667. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  a  full  record  of  the  early  marriages, 
which  were  undoubtedly  by  Mr.  Winthrop,  was  not  preserved.  The 
marriage  of  John  Picket  and  Ruth  Brewster  belongs  to  the  unre- 
corded list.     Their  children  were  : 

1.  Mary,  who  married  Benjamin  Shapley. 

2.  llutii,  who  married  Mr.  Moses  Noyes,  first  minister  of  Lyme. 

3.  William,  who  died  about  1690. 

4.  John,  born  July  25th,  165G. 


286  HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON. 

5.  Adam,  born  November  15th,  165S. 

6.  Mercy,  born  January  16th,  1600-1  ;  married  Samuel  Fosdick. 

Mr.  Picket's  estate  was  appraised  at  £1,140.  This  was  sufficient 
to  rank  him,  at  that  period,  as  one  of  the  wealthiest  merchants  of  the 
place. 

Ruth,  relict  of  John  Picket,  married,  July  18th,  1668,  Charles  Hill. 

The  three  sons  of  Mr.  Picket  died  young,  and  at  sea;  two  of  them, 
and  perhaps  all,  in  the  island  of  Barbadoes.  John  and  William  were 
unmarried. 

Adam  Picket  iharried.  May  16th,  1680,  Hannah,  daughter  of 
Daniel  Wetherell.  He  died  in  1691,  leaving  two  sons ;  Adam,  bom 
in  1681  ;  John,  in  1685.  The  former  died  in  1709,  without  issue,  so 
that  the  family  genealogy  recommences  with  a  unit. 

The  Picket  house-lot,  at  the  south-western  extremity  of  the  bank, 
descended  nearly  integral*  to  the  fourth  John  Picket,  among  whose 
children  it  was  divided,  and  sold  i>J  them  in  ^mall  house  plots,  between 
1740  and  1750.  Brewer  Street  was  opened  on  the  western  border  of 
this  lot  in  1745,  and  at  first  called  Picket  Street.  John  Picket,  the 
fifth  of  the  name,  removed  from  New  London,  and  with  him,  the  male 
branch  of  the  family  passed  away  from  the  place.  Descendants  may 
be  traced  in  the  line  of  Peter  Latimer,  whose  wife  was  Hannah 
Picket,  and  of  Richard  Christophers,  who  married  Mary  Picket, 
daughters  of  John  Picket  the  fourth. 


Andrew  lister  died  June  7th,  1669. 
The  births  of  four  children  of  Andrew  and  Barbara  Lester  are  re- 
corded at  Gloucester,  viz.: 

1.  Daniel,  born  April  15ih,  1642.  3.  Mary,  born  December  26th,  1C47. 

2.  Andrew,  born  Dec.  26th,  1644.         4.  Anno,  born  March  21st,  1651. 

Andrew  Lester  was  licensed  to  keep  a  house  of  entertainment  at 
Gloucester,  by  the  county  court,  26th  of  second  month,  1 648.  He 
removed  to  Pequot  in  1651 ;  was  constable  and  collector  in  1668. 


1  One  exception  must  be  made;  a  portion  of  the  lot  had  been  given  by  the  first 
John  Picket  to  his  daughter,  Mercy,  the  wife  of  Samuel  Fosdick,  by  whom  it  was  sold 
to  William  Rogers,  and  by  him  to  George  Denison,  ship-wright  of  Westerly,  and  by 
the  latter,  in  1784,  to  Capt.  Nathaniel  Shaw.  Capt.  Shaw  blasted  awny  the  rocks  to 
obtain  a  convenient  site,  and  ont  of  the  materials  erected  the  stone  houj«e,  now  the 
residence  of  one  of  his  descendants,  N.  S.  Perkins,  M.  D.  It  has  been  enlarged  by  the 
present  possessor,  in  the  same  way  that  it  was  fir^t  built — with  materials  uprooted 
from  the  foundation  on  which  it  stands. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  287 

His  wife  Barbara,  died  February  2d,  1653-4,  the  first  death  of  a 
woman  on  record  in  the  plantation.  His  second  wife  was  Joanna, 
relict  of  Robert  Hempstead,  who  died  before  1660 ;  no  children  men- 
tioned.    By  a  third  wife,  Ann,  he  had : 

5.  Timothy,  bom  July  4th,  1662 ;  6.  Joseph,  bom  June  15th, 
1664;  7.  Benjamin.  His  relict  married  Isaac  Willey.  "Widow 
Anna  Willey,  sometime  wif<?  to  Andrew  Lester,  Sen.,  deceased,"  died 
in  1692. 

Sergeant  Daniel  Lester,  oldest  son  of  Andrew,  lived  upon  the 
Great  Neck,  where  he  died  January  16th,  1716-17.  He  was  brought 
into  town  and  buried  under  arms.  Joseph  and  Benjamin  Lester  also 
settled  on  farms  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town  plot.  The  descendants 
of  the  latter  are  very  numerous.  By  his  first  wife,  Ann  Stedman,  he 
had  nine  sons  and  two  daughters,  and  probably  other  children  by  a 
second  wife.  No  descendants  .of  Timothy,  son  of  Andrew  Lester 
have  been  traced. 

Andrew  Lester,  Jr.,  settled  east  of  the  river ;  was  constable  for 
that  side  in  1669,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  first  deacon  of 
the  Groton  church.     He  died  in  1708. 


WiUiam  Mwrton,  died  1669, 

A  native  of  London  and  proud  of  his  birthplace,  it  is  probable 
that  the  influence  of  William  Morton  had  something  to  do  with  the 
persevering  determination  of  the  inhabitants  to  call  their  plantation 
New  London.  He  was  the  first  proprietor  of  that  sandy  point  over 
which  Howard  Street  now  mns  to  meet  the  new  bridge  to  Mama- 
cock.  This  was  at  first  called  Morton's  Point ;  then  Hog  Neck, 
from  the  droves  of  swine  that  resorted  thither  to  root  up  the  clams  at 
low  tide ;  and  afterward  Windmill  Point,  from  the  structure  erected 
upon  it.  It  has  also  at  various  times  borne  the  names  of  its  owners, 
Fosdick,  Howard,  &c.,  and  is  now  a  part  of  the  larger  point  known 
as  Shaw's  Neck. 

On  this  point,  the  latter  years  of  Mr.  Morton's  life  were  spent  in 
comparative  silence  and  poverty.  In  1668,  it  is  noted  in  the  modera- 
tor's book,  "  Mr.  Morton's  town  rate  is  remitted,"  and  at  the  June 
session  of  the  county  court  in  1669,  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Wether- 
ell  to  settle  his  estate,  shows  that  he  had  deceased.  The  last  remnant 
of  this  estate,  consisting  of  a  ten  acre  grant  at  Bachelor's  Cove,  in 
Groton,  given  to  him  by  the  town  in  1650,  was  sold  in  1695,  to 
Waite  Winthrop,  Esq.,  and  the  deed  confirmed  by  Morton's  heirs : 


288  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

**  Nathaniel  Randall,  of  Boston,  baker,  son  and  heir  apparent  to  John  Ran- 
dall, late  of  the  parish  of  St.  James,  Clerkenwell,  Co.  of  Middlesex,  London, 
silk-throsler,  deceased,  and  Elizabeth  his  wife,  also  deceased,  who  was  sister 
and  heir  of  William  Mourton,  late  of  New  London,  gentleman,  deceased." 

Mr.  Morton  must  be  added  to  the  list  of  childless  and  lonely  men 
to  be  found  among  the  planters  of  New  London.  The  two  Bartletts, 
Collins,  Cotter,  Longdon,  Loveland,  Merritt,  Morton,  Poole,  Roberts, 
lefl  no  descendants  here,  and  several  of  them  i^pear  to  have  been  un- 
married* 


Robert  Latimer^  died  about  1671. 

This  is  ascertained  from  the  proceedings  on  the  settlement  of  the 
estate  in  1698,  when  his  relict  Ann  presented  the  inventory,  and  re- 
quested a  legal  distribution  of  the  property  of  her  husband,  "  who  de- 
ceased twenty-two  years  since."  Mrs.  Ann  Latimer  had  two  children 
by  her  first  husband,  Matthew  Jones,  of  Boston.  These  were  Matthew 
and  Sarah.     The  children  of  Robert  and  Ann  Latimer  were  also  two : 

Robert,  bom  February  5th,  1668-4;  Elizabeth,  bom  November 
14th,  1667.  The  two  sisters  married  brothers.  Sarah  Jones  became 
the  wife  of  John  Prentis ;  Elizabeth  Latimer,  of  Jonathan  Prentis. 
Mrs.  Latimer  died  in  1698,  and  the  estate  was  divided  among  the 
four  children,  in  nearly  equal  proportion.  Matthew  Jones,  the  son  of 
Mrs.  Latimer,  was  a  sea-captain,  sailing  from  Boston,  and  at  no  time 
appears  as  an  inhabitant  of  New  London.  The  Latimer  homestead 
was  on  the  Town  Street  and.  Winthrop's  Cove,  comprising  the  old 
Congregational  parsonage,  and  the  Edgar  place  opposite. 

Capt.  Robert  Latimer,  2d,  amassed  a  considerable  estate  in  land. 
Beside  the  homestead  in  town,  he  purchased  the  Royce  and  Com- 
stock  lots,  on  Williams  and  Vauxhall  Streets,  covering  the  ridge  of 
Post  Hill.  Westward  of  the  town  plot,  he  inherited  a  considerable 
tract  of  swamp  and  cedar  land,  on  one  portion  of  which  Cedar  Grove 
Cemetery  was  laid  out  in  1851,  the  land  having  to  that  time  remained 
in  the  possession  of  his  descendants.  He  owned  likewise  a  farm  at 
Black  Point,  and  an  unmeasured  quantity  of  wild  land  in  the  woods, 
in  what  is  now  Chesterfield  Society,  in  Montville. 

No  connection  between  the  Latimers  of  New  London  and  the  early 
planter  of  this  name  in  Wethersfield  has  been  traced.     It  is  mos^ 

1  Usually  in  the  earlier  records  written  Lattemore. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  289 

probable  that  Robert  Latimer,  of  New  London,  was  an  emigrant 
direct  from  England. 


JEdward  Codner}  died  1671. 

He  appears  to  have  been  a  mariner  and  trader ;  was  of  New  Lon- 
don, 1651,  with  wife  Priscilla;  came  from  Saybrook  ;  returned  thith- 
er again,  and  there  died,  leaving  a  widow  Alice.  His  possessions  in 
New  London  accrued  to  his  son,  Laurence  or  Laurent,  who  was  ad- 
ministrator of  the  estate.     He  left  also  a  daughter. 

Laurence  Codner  was  an  inhabitant  before  1664.  By  his  wife 
Sarah,  he  had  three  children,  two  of  them  sons,  who  died  in  infancy. 
His  daughter  Sarah  married  Thomas  Bennet,  of  Mystic.  The  Cod- 
ner homestead  was  on  the  Town  Street,  north  of  the  present  Hunt- 
ington lane,  and  extending  to  the  old  burial  ground.  It  was  the 
original  home-lot  of  Jarvis  Mudge. 

George  Codner,  of  New  London,  1662  and  1664,  has  not  been  fur- 
ther traced. 


WiUiam  Nicholh,  died  September  Uh,  1673. 

A  person  of  this  name,  and  probably  the  same  man,  had  land  given 
him  in  Salem,  1638.'  He  was  an  early  and  substantial  settler  at  Pe- 
quot ;  often  on  committees,  and  sustaining  both  town  and  church  offi- 
ces. He  married  Ann,  relict  of  Robert  Isbell,  but  no  allusion  is  made 
to  children  by  this  or  any  former  wife.  Widow  Ann  Nicholls  died 
September  15th,  1689.  Her  two  children,  by  her  first  husband,  died 
before  her,  but  she  left  four  grandchildren,  a  son  and  daughter  of 
Eleazer  Isbell,  and  a  son  and  daughter  of  Thomas  Stedman. 


George  Tonge,  died  in  1674. 

The  early  records  have  his  name  written  Tongue,  but  the  orthog- 
raphy used  by  himself  is  given  above.  In  the  will  of  Peter  Collins,  in 
1655,  Capt.  James  Tong  is  mentioned  as  a  debtor  to  the  estate.  This 
person  was  not  of  New  London,  but  he  may  have  been  brother  of 
George,  of  whom  nothing  is  known  until  he  appears  in  New  London 
about  1652.     His  marriage  is  not  recorded. 


1  Sometiines  CodnalL  2  Felt,  p.  169. 

25 


290  HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONBOK. 

Chiidren  of  Oeorge  and  Margery  Tonge  : 

1.  Elizabeth,  bora  October  20th,  1652 ;  married  Fitz-John  Winthrop. 

2.  Hannah,  born  July  20th,  1654  ;  married  Joshua  Baker. 

3.  Mary,  bora  September  17th,  1656;  married  John  Wickwire. 

4.  George,  born  May  8ih,  1658. 

George  Tonge  was  sixty-eight  years  of  age  in  1668.  His  wife 
was  probably  younger.  Hempstead's  diary  mentions  the  death  of 
"  Groody  Tongue,"  December  1st,  1713  ;  this  was  undoubtedly  his 
relict.  No  other  family  of  the  name  appears  among  the  inhabitants. 
The  inn  so  long  kept  by  George  Tonge  and  his  widow  and  heirs,  stood 
on  the  bank  between  the  present  Pearl  and  Tilley  Streets.  Madam 
Winthrop  inherited  the  house,  and  occupied  it  after  the  death  of  her 
husband.  She  sold  portions  of  the  lot  to  John  Mayhew,  Joseph  Tal- 
man  and  others.  A  small,  gray  head-stone  in  the  old  burial  ground 
bears  the  following  inscription  : 

"  Herb  ltsth  the  Boor 
OF  Madam  Klizabktc 
Winthrop,  wife  of 
the  honovrable 
GovERNovR  Winthrop, 
WHO  died  April  tb  25"«, 

1731,  IN  HBR  79'»  YEAR." 

George  Tonge  and  his  wife  and  children,  as  legatees  of  Richard 
Poole,  inherited  a  considerable  tract  of  land  in  the  North  Parish,  which 
went  into  the  Baker  and  Wickwire  families.  Pole's  or  Poole's  Hill, 
which  designates  a  reach  of  high  forest  land  in  Montville,  is  supposed 
to  derive  its  name  from  Richard  Poole.  Of  Greorge  Tonge  the  sec- 
ond, (bom  1658,)  no  information  whatever  has  been  recovered;  but  we 
may  assume  with  probability  that  he  was  the  father  of  John  Tongue, 
who  married  Anna  Wheeler,  November  21st,  1702,  and  had  a  nu- 
merous family  of  sons  and  daughters. 


Thomas  Bayley^  died  ahotU  1675, 

Thomas  Bayley  married,  January  10th,  1655-6,  Lydia,  daughter  of 
James  Redfield.  The  same  month  a  grant  was  made  to  him  by  the 
townsmen,  "  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  Mr.  Winthrop,"  of  a  lot 
lying  north  of  Mr.  Winthrop's  land,  upon  the  east  side  of  the  river. 
Relinquishing  his  house  in  the  town  plot,  he  settled  on  this  grant, 

1  His  descendants  uniformly  write  the  name  Bailey. 


HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON.  291 

which  hj  subsequent  additions  expanded  into  a  farm.     His  children 
were: 

1.  Mary,  born  February  14th,  1656-7;  married  Andrew  Davis. 

2.  Thomas,  born  March  5th,  1658-9. 

3.  John,  bom  in  April,  1661. 

4.  William,  born  April  17th,  1664. 

5.  James,  bom  September  26tb,  1666. 

6.  Joseph. 

7.  Lydia. 

Lydia,  relict  of  Thomas  Bayley,  married  in  1676,  William  Thome,  of  Dor- 
setshire, old  England. 


William  Keeny,  died  1675. 

He  was  aged  sixty-one  in  1662,  and  hb  wife  Agnes  (or  Annis,) 
sixty-three.  His  daughter  Susannah,  who  married  Ralph  Parker, 
thirty-four;  Mary,  who  married  Samuel  Beeby,  twenty-two,  and 
his  son  John,  twenty-one.     No  other  children  are  mentioned. 

John  Keeny,  son  of  William,  married  in  October,  1661,  Sarah, 
daughter  of  William  Douglas.  They  had  daughter  Susannah,  bom 
September  6th,  1662,  who  married  Ezekiel  Turner.  No  other  child 
is  recorded.  The  wife  died  August  4th,  1689.  John  Keeny  was 
subsequently  twice  married,  and  had  five  daughters,  and  a  son  John ; 
the  latter  bom  Febraary  13th,  1700-1. 

John  Keeny  died  February  3d,  1716,  on  the  Keeny  land,  at  Na- 
hantick,  which  has  since  been  divided  into  three  or  four  farms. 


John  Gallop. 

He  was  the  son  of  John  Grallop,  of  Massachusetts,  and  both  father 
and  son  were  renowned  as  Indian  fighters.  Capt.  John  Gallop,  of 
Stonington,  was  one  of  the  six  captains  slain  in  the  Narragansett  fort 
fight,  Dec.  19th,  1675,  His  wife  was  Hannah,  daughter  of  Mrs. 
Margaret  Lake.  The  division  made  of  his  estate  by  order  of  the 
county  court,  was,  to  the  widow,  £100  ;  to  the  oldest  son,  John,  £137 ; 
to  Ben- Adam,  £90  ;  to  William  and  Samuel,  £89  each  ;  to  the  five 
daughters,  £70  each.  No  record  of  the  births  of  these  children  has 
been  recovered.  The  sons  are  supposed  to  be  mentioned  above  in 
the  order  of  age.  Ben- Adam  was  bom  in  1655 ;  William  in  1658. 
The  order  in  which  the  daughters  should  be  placed  is  not  known. 


292  UISTORT     OF     NEW     LOfTDON- 

Hannah,  married  Jarie  ]Stb,  1Q72,  3tHph«n  Qifford,  of  Norwii^b. 
Christobel,  triarrictl,  1677,  Peter  Crcery,  or  Crary,  of  N,  hoa&tmf  iGtmimJ^ 
Elizabeth,  married  Henry  Stevens,  of  Stoz^Lnj^TOti. 
Mory,  in  a  fried  John  Cole,  of  Boston, 
Margaret,  not  married  in  1704. 


Joshm  Mayviond^  difd  April  ^itK  167G, 

Ricljard  and  Judith  lia^ment,  were  mcmb^rg  of  the  ciiarch  at  Sa- 
lem, in  1G34,  Win,  Rayment,  of  Salem j  1 G48,  afttT^anl  of  Beverly, 
HTid  John,  abo  of  Beverly,  where  lie  died  in  1703,  apjed  eighty -seveu, 
were  prtibahly  brolher^  of  Eirliard,  Trjidition  in  the  fjvmily  of  rtie 
latter,  stutcH  that  hk  brothers  set  I  led  in  Beverly,  Richard  and  his  sons 
appear  to  liave  left  Sakra  as  enrlj  as  1  G58t  perhaps  bdbre,  and  to 
haye  Bcattered  themselves  along  the  shore  of  I^oiig  Island  Sound* 
Tije  father  was  for  a  time  at  Nonvalk,  aiul  then  at  Sayhrook  ;  at  the 
latter  place  his  identity  is§  detcj-mined  by  doeunients  whieh  style  him, 
"  formerly  of  Balem,  and  late  of  Norwalk-"  He  died  at  Say  brook  in 
1692,  lie  had  children,  Richard,  John,  Daniel,  Samuel,  Joshua,  and 
a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  who  married  Oliver  Manwaring.  Of  Hichard^ 
nothing  has  been  recovered  but  the  faet  that  the  inventory  of  Eich- 
ard  Baymond,  Jr.,  was  exhibited  at  eounty  court  in  1G80. 

John  settled  in  Norwalk,  aad  there  left  de.^eendantss. 

Daniel  married,  first,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Gabriel  Harris,  and 
Lad  two  daughters,  EUzabeth  and  Sarah;  aocoad,  Rebecca,  daughter 
of  John  Lay,  by  whom  he  had  sons^  Richard^  Samuel,  and  pei-haps 
others.  He  Uvcd  in  Lyme  ;  died,  161^(5,  and  his  widow  married  Sam- 
uel Gager,  of  Norwich, 

Samuel  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Neheminh  Smith,  and  settled 
in  New  London,  where  they  both  died  after  1700,  leaving  a  eonaid- 
erable  estate,  but  no  children. 

n/*j»huay  married  Eliniibethj  daughter  of  Nehemiah  Smithy  Bee. 
10th,  11)59*  lie  purcln^ed  the  Prcntis  home-lot,  m  New  London, 
and  left  it  to  his  children,  together  ivith  a  valuable  farm  in  Mohegan, 
on  the  road  to  Norwich, 

Children  ofJfftk^ia  aai  Elizabeth  Rfffmitnd, 

1.  ioslian,      horn  SepL  Isilit  IGtifl.     4.   Hannah,  biirn  An^,  Sth.  IfVJS, 

2.  EhKnbeTh,  "  May  ^Jilu  1662.  5,  Mar^,  **  Mnreli  litb,  11171-0, 
X  Ann;  "  May  12ih,  1054,  tl,  K^ptriencc, "  Jnn.  20tb,  1<17^^ 
Two  titUers,  liicbard  uml  Jlebitabel*  tlji>d  in  Inbiticy. 

Experience  R ay mouti,  dieil  Ji*ue  Qflih,  lOSy,  agi^d  fifteen  yctirn. 

EliaabctU,  f*3l(et  of  Jo^bua  Ilnymond»  inarricd  Guorgt  Dennis*  of  Long  hUad. 


HI8TOBY     OF     NBW     LONDON.  29S 

Joshua  Bajmond^  second,  married  Mercj,  daughter  of  James  Sands, 
of  Block  Island,  April  29th,  1683. 

It  is  this  Mercj  Raymond,  whose  name  has  been  connected,  bj  a 
mixture  of  truth  and  fable,  with  the  story  of  the  noted  pirate,  Captain 
Ejdd.^  Mr.  Raymond  died  in  1704,  ^^  at  the  home-seat  of  the  Sands 
family,"  which  he  had  bought  of  his  brother-in-law,  Niles,  on  Block 
Island.  It  was  a  lonely  and  exposed  situation,  by  the  sea-shore,  with 
a  landing-place  near,  where  strange  sea-craft,  as  well  as  neighboring 
coasters,  often  touched.  Here  the  family  dwelt,  and  Mr.  Raymond 
being  much  of  the  time  absent  in  New  London,  the  care  and  man- 
agement of  the  homestead  devolved  upon  his  wife,  who  is  represent- 
ed as  a  woman  of  great  thrift  and  energy. 

The  legendary  tale  is,  that  Capt.  Eidd  made  her  little  harbor  his 
anchorage-ground,  alternately  with  Gardiner's  Bay  ;  that  she  feasted 
him,  supplied  him.  with  provisions,  and  boarded  a  strange  lady,  whom 
he  called  his  wife,  a  considerable  time  ;  and  that  when  he  was  ready 
to  depart,  he  bade  her  hold  out  her  apron,  which  she  did,  and  he 
threw  in  handfuls  of  gold,  jewels  and  other  precious  commodities,  un^ 
til  it  was  full,  as  the  wages  of  her  hospitality. 

This  fanciful  story  was  doubtless  the  development  of  a  simple  fact, 
that  Kidd  landed  upon  her  farm,  and  she  being  solitary  and  unpro- 
tected, took  the  part  of  prudence,  supplied  him  freely  with  what  he 
would  otherwise  have  taken  by  force,  and  received  his  money  in  pay- 
ment for  her  accommodations.  The  Kidd  story,  however,  became  a 
source  of  pleasantry  and  gossip  among  the  acquaintances  of  the  fam- 
ily, and  they  were  popularly  said  to  have  been  enriched  hy  the  apron.^ 


Bohert  JRof/ce,  died  in  1676. 
This  name  is  identical  with  Hice.  The  Robert  Royce,  of  New 
London,  is  presumed  to  be  the  Robert  Hice  who  was  entered  free- 
man in  Mass.,  1634,  and  one  of  those  disarmed  in  Boston,  1637,  for 
adherence  to  the  opinions  and  party  of  Wheelright  and  Hutchinson.' 
When  he  left  Boston  is  not  known ;  but  he  is  found  at  Stratford, 
west  of  New  Haven,  before  1650,*  and  was  there  in  1656.     In  1657 


1  He  is  called  Robert  Kidd  in  the  ballad ;  bat  WUUam  in  history. 

2  Oar  langaage  does  not  form  a  cognomen  to  torse  as  the  Latin:  the  posterity  of 
OUlias  were  called  kcco-plati,  enriched  by  the  well    (See  Plutarch.) 

8  Savage,  on  Winthrop,  vol.  1,  p.  248. 
4  Judd,  of  Northampton^  (MS.) 


'^.< 


294  aiBTORT    OF    NEW    LONDON^ 

he  came  to  New  London,  and  the  town  granted  hun  the  original 
Post  lot,  on  Post  Hill.  He  was  hj  trade  a  shoemaker,  was  consta- 
ble in  1660,  one  of  the  townsmen  in  1663,  in  1667  appointed  to  keep 
an  ordinary,  and  the  same  year,  "  freed  from  training,"  probably  on 
account  of  age.     He  was  again  townsman  in  1668. 

Three  children  of  Robert  and  Elizabeth  Rice  are  recorded  in  Bos- 
ton ;  Joshua,  bom  1637 ;  Nathaniel,  1639,  and  a  daughter  that  died 
in  infancy.'  Of  Joshua,  nothing  further  is  known.  At  New  Lon- 
don, we  find  mementos  of  five  sons  and  three  daughters.  Jonathan  was 
perhaps  the  oldest  son  ;  he  married  in  June,  1660,  Deborah,  daugh- 
ter of  Hugh  Caulkins,  and  removed  to  Norwich,  of  which  town  he  wa« 
one  of  the  first  proprietors.  Nehemiah  may  be  ranked,  by  supposi- 
tion, as  the  second  son;  he  married,  Nov.  20th,  1660,  Hannah, 
daughter  of  James  Morgan.  In  1668,  Robert  Royce  petitioned  the 
town  for  a  grant  of  land  to  settle  his  two  sons,  Samuel  and  Nathan- 
iel. This  was  granted ;  their  father  gave  them  also  his  mountain 
farm,  "bought  of  Weaver  Smith,  and  lying  west  of  Alewife  Bro<A, 
by  the  mountain."  The  name  of  Royce's  Mountain  was  long  retain- 
ed in  that  locality.  The  Royce  Mountain  farm  was  purchased  by 
John  and  Wait  Winthrop,  in  1691 — ^the  present  Miller  farm  is  a 
part  of  it. 

Samuel  Royce  married,  Jan.  9th,  1666-7,  Hannah,  daughter  of 
Josiah  Churchwood,  of  Wethersfield. 

Isaac  Royce  was  married  to  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Samuel  Lo- 
throp,  and  John  Lothrop  was  married  to  Ruth,  daughter  of  Isaac 
Royce,  Dec.  15th,  1669.  This  double  marriage  was  performed  by 
Daniel  Wetherell,  commissioner,  and  probably  in  the  court-room,  as 
it  was  recorded  among  the  other  proceedings  of  the  court  Mar- 
riages were  sometimes  conducted  in  that  manner ;  the  couple  enter- 
ing the  room  with  their  friends,  and  arranging  themselves  in  front  of 
the  bench. 

Nehemiah,  Samuel,  Nathaniel  and  Isaac  Royce,  all  removed  with 
their  families  to  Wallingford,  a  township  that  had  been  recently  set 
off  from  New  Haven,  and  previously  called  New  Haven  village. 
The  marriage  and  children  of  Nathaniel  Royce  are  not  registered  in 
New  London.  At  a  late  period  of  his  life,  he  married  the  relict  of 
Sergeant  Peter  Famham,  of  Killingworth,  and  was  living  at  Walling- 
ford in  1712.'     None  of  the  Royce  family  was  left  at  New  London, 

1  Becords  of  Boston. 

2  Sergeant  Farnhiuu  died  in  1704;  the  maiden  name  of  his  wifb  was  WiloozBon. 


HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON.  295 

after  the  death  of  Bobert,  but  his  aged  widow,  who,  in  1688,  was  still 
an  occupant  of  the  Post  Hill  homestead,  which  was  subsequentlj  sold 
to  John  Frentis.  The  remainder  of  the  Rojce  land  was  purchased 
by  Rev.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  and  has  of  late  been  known  as  the  Mum- 
ford  lot.  It  lies  west  of  the  old  burial-ground,  and  was  the  original 
house-lot  of  Bey.  Richard  Blinmim. 


Jacob  Waterkottse,  died  1676. 

The  date  is  obtained  from  the  probate  of  his  will,  which  was  in 
September,  of  this  year.  He  was  probably  an  old  man,  as  all  his 
children  were  of  age,  and  he  was  released  from  militia  duty  in  1665. 
His  wife  was  Hannah,  and  his  oldest  sons,  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Ja- 
cob ;  but  the  order  of  their  age  was  not  patriarchal,  Isaac  being 
repeatedly  called  the  oldest  son.  He  had  also  sons,  John,  Joseph 
and  Benjamin ;  and  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  who  married  John  Baker. 
Isaac  settled  in  Lyme  ;  Abraham  in  Saybrook  ;  Joseph  and  Benja- 
min died  without  issue ;  the  latter  at  sea,  and  according  to  tradition, 
at  the  hands  of  pirates.  John  was  a  soldier  in  Philip's  War,  and 
present  at  the  Narragansett  fort  fight,  in  December,  1676.  He  died 
in  1687,  leaving  an  infant  son,  Jacob,  and  no  other  child.  His  relict, 
whose  maiden  name  is  not  recovered,  married  John  Hayden,  of  Say- 
brook. 

Jacob,  married,  about  1690,  Ann,  daughter  of  Robert  Douglas,  and 
had  sons,  John,  William,  Robert,  Joseph  and  Gideon,  but  no  daugh- 
ters have  been  traced. 

The  name  Waterhouse  was  very  soon  abbreviated  into  Watrous, 
which  is  the  orthography  now  generally  used. 


John  Lewis,  died  Dee,  8rt,  1676. 
The  name  John  Lewis,  is  found  several  times  repeated  among  the 
early  emigrants  to  New  England.  One  came  over  in  the  Hercules, 
from  Sandwich,  in  1635,  with  wife,  Sarah,  and  one  child;  and  was 
enrolled  as  from  Tenterden,  in  Kent*  This  is  probably  the  same 
that  appears  on  the  list  of  freemen  in  Scituate,  Mass.*,  1637.*    He 

1  Savage.    Gleaniogs  in  Mass.  Hist  CoIL,  8d  series,  vol.  8,  p.  276. 

2  Deane^s  Hist.  Scituate,  p.  804. 


296  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDOlf. 

afterward  disappears  from  the  records  of  that  town,  and  we  suppose 
him  to  be  the  John  Lewis,  who  came  to  New  London,  1648. 

Another  John  Lewis,  who  was  probably  an  original  emigrant,  set* 
tied  in  Saybrook  or  Lyme ;  his  inventory  was  presented  at  the  coun^ 
court,  in  1670. 

Still  another  John  Lewis  was  living  at  "  Sqummacutt,"  (Westeriy) 
in  1673. 

Jolin  Lewis,  of  New  London,  had  a  son  John,  who  was  a  young 
man  in  1670,  constable  in  1681,  and  after  1700,  sergeant  of  the  train- 
bands. He  married  Elizabeth  Huntley,  of  Lyme,  where  his  oldest 
son,  John  8d,  settled.  Sergeant  John  Lewis  was  himself  instantly 
killed,  as  he  sat  on  horseback,  by  the  sudden  fall  of  the  limb  of  a  tree, 
which  men  were  cutting.  May  9th,  1717. 

Nathaniel  and  Joseph  Lewis,  are  names  that  appear  on  the  rate- 
list  of  1667,  as  partners  in  estate.  They  were  transient  residents, 
and  probably  sons  of  Greorge  Lewis,  of  Scituilte,^  brother  of  John, 
the  freeman  of  1637.  K  the  latter,  as  we  have  supposed,  was  iden- 
tical with  John  Lewis,  of  New  London,  these  young  men  were  his 
nephews. 

Thomas  Stanton^  of  Stonington,  died  1678. 
The  probate  of  his  will  was  in  June,  of  that  year.  Li  a  list  of 
passengers  registered  in  England  to  sail  for  Virginia,  in  1635,  is 
found  the  name  of  Thomas  Stanton,  aged  twenty.^  If  this  was  our 
Thomas  Stanton,  of  Connecticut,  which  can  scarcely  be  doubted,  he 
must  soon  have  made  his  way  to  New  England,  and  have  become 
rapidly  an  adept  in  the  Indian  language.  He  testified  himself,  before 
the  court  of  commissioners  of  New  England,  that  he  had  acted  as 
interpreter  to  Winthrop,  before  the  Pequot  war,  and  while  the  latter 
was  in  command  at  Saybrook,  (1636.)  It  is  probable,  that  on  land- 
ing in  Virginia,  he  went  immediately  among  the  Indians,  and  gained 
some  knowledge  of  their  language,  which  was  radically  the  same 
as  that  of  the  New  England  tribes,  and  having,  perhaps,  obtained 
a  quantity  of  peltries,  he  came  north  with  them,  and  made  his 
first  stop  at  Saybrook.  That  Stanton  subsequently  visited  the  In- 
dians in  Virginia,  for  the  purposes  of  trade,  may  be  gathered  from  a 
curious  fragment  in  the  New  London  county  records,  which  is  with- 
out date,  but  appears  to  have  been  entered  in  1668  or  1669. 

1  Dcane,  p.  808.  2  Hiat  and  Gen.  Register,  voL  2,  p.  118. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  297 

**  Whereas  Capt.  Wm.  Morrice  hath  reported  and  informed  the  Kiags'  Com- 
missioner that  Mr.  Thomas  Stanton,  Senr,  did,  in  Virginia,  some  20  odd  years 
since,  cause  a  massacre  among  the  Indians,  whereby  to  gain  their  Beaver  to 
himself,  and  the  said  Morrice  accused  Richard  Arye,  mariner,  to  be  his  author  : 
These  may  certify  all  whom  it  may  concern  that  the  said  Arey  being  examined 
concerning  [a  word  or  two  torn  off]  report,  doth  absolutely  deny  that  he  knew 
or  reported  any  such  thing  [torn  off]  Morrice  nor  ever  heard  of  any  such  thing 
[torn  off]  Mr.  Stanton  in  Virginia  to  his  remembrance.  This  was  acknowl- 
edged in  Court  by  Richard  Arey,  as  attest  Daniel  Wetherell,  Recorder.** 

The  services  of  Mr.  Stanton  as  interpreter  during  the  Pequot  War 
were  invaluable.  He  was  moreover  a  man  of  trust  and  intelligence, 
and  his  knowledge  of  the  country  and  of  the  natives  made  him  a  use- 
ful pioneer  and  counselor  in  all  land  questions,  as  well  as  in  all  diffi- 
culties with  the  Indians. 

In  1638,  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut  appointed  him  a  stated 
Indian  interpreter,  with  a  salary  of  £10  per  annum.  He  was  to 
attend  courts  upon  all  occasions,  general  and  particular  courts,  and 
meetings  of  magistrates,  wherever  and  whenever  the  controversy  was 
between  whites  and  Indians. 

Mrs.  Anna  Stanton,  relict  of  Thomas,  died  in  1688.  She  had 
lived  several  years  in  the  family  of  her  son-in-law,  Rev.  James 
Noyes.  The  children  of  Thomas  Stanton  can  be  ascertained  only 
by  inference  and  comparison  of  circumstances.  The  following  list  is 
the  result  of  considerable  investigation,  and  may  be  nearly  correct. 

1.  Thomas,  died  in  1718,  aged  eighty.  He  had  a  son,  Thomas,  dd,  who 
died  in  1683,  aged  eighteen. 

2.  John,  died  October  3d,  1713,  aged  seventy-two. 

3.  Mary,  married  November  17th,  1662,  Samuel  Rogers. 

4.  Hannah,  married  November  20th,  1662,  Nehemiah  Palmer. 

5.  Joseph,  baptized  in  Hartford,  March  21st,  16461 

6.  Banid,  died  before  16S9,  and  it  is  supposed  in  Barbadoes,  leaving  there  a 
wife  and  one  child  * 

7.  Dorothy,  married  Rev.  James  Noyes;  died  in  1742,  in  her  ninety-first  year. 

8.  Robert,  died  in  1724,  aged  seventy-one. 

9.  Sarah,  married  William  Denison;  died  in  1713,  aged  fifty-nine.  All 
these  were  living  in  1711,  except  Sarah  and  Daniel. 


Matthew  Waller,  died  in  1680. 
Of  this  person  little  is  known.     He  was  perhaps  the  Matthew 
Waller,  of  Salem,  1637,  and  the  Sarah  Waller,  member  of  Salem 

1  Mrs.  Anna  Stanton,  relict  of  Thomas,  left  a  legacy  "  to  the  fatheriess  child  in  Bar- 
badoes," without  mentioning  its  name  or  parentage. 


298  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

church,  In  1648,'  may  have  been  his  wife.  He  had  two  daughters, 
Rebecca  and  Sarah,  who  owned  the  covenant  and  were  baptized  in 
1671.  Rebecca  married  Thomas  BoUes  and  died  in  1712,  leaving 
no  issue.     Sarah  was  unmarried  in  1699. 

Ensign  William  Waller,  of  Lyme,  was  brother  of  Matthew.  One 
of  his  sons,  Samuel  Waller,  lived  on  a  farm  at  Niantick,  within  the 
bounds  of  New  London,  where  he  died  in  1742,  very  aged. 


Matthew  Beckunth^^  died  December  13^,  1681. 

His  death  being  sudden  and  the  result  of  accident,  a  jury  was  sum- 
moned, who  gave  their  verdict,  that  "he  came  to  his  death  by  mis- 
taking his  way  in  a  dark  night,  and  falling  from  a  clift  of  rocks." 
Estate  £393.  He  left  wife  Elizabeth,  and  children,  Matthew,  John, 
Joseph,  Benjamin,  and  two  daughters,  widows,  the  relicts  of  Robert 
Gerard'  and  Benjamin  Grant,  both  of  whom  were  mariners,  and  had 
probably  perished  at  sea.*  No  other  children  are  mentioned  in  the 
brief  record  of  the  settlement  of  the  estate ;  but  Nathaniel  Beckwith, 
of  Lyme,  may  upon  supposition,  be  included  among  his  sons. 

Matthew  Beckwith,  Jun.,  like  his  father,  and  most  of  the  family, 
was  a  seaman.  The  births  of  his  two  oldest  children,  Matthew  and 
John,  are  registered  in  Guilford,  where  he  probably  married  and  re- 
sided for  a  time.  The  next  three,  James,  Jonah  and  Prudence,  are 
on  record  in  New  London ;  and  three  more,  Elizabeth,  Ruth  and 
Sarah,  in  Lyme,  where  he  fixed  his  abode  in  1677.  These  were  by 
his  first  wife.  His  second  wife  was  Elizabeth,  relict  of  Peter  Pratt, 
by  whom  he  had  one  daughter,  named  Grtswold.  All  these  children 
are  named  in  his  will  except  Sarah.     He  died  June  4lh,  1727. 

Joseph  and  Nathaniel  Beckwith,  sons  of  Matthew,  Sen.,  settled 
in  Lyme ;  John  and  Benjamin,  in  New  London.  John  Beckwith, 
in  a  deposition  presented  in  county  court  in  1740,  stated  that  he  had 
lived  for  seventy  years  near  Niantick  ferry.  He  is  the  ancestor  of 
the  Waterford  family  of  Beckwiths. 

1  Felt's  Salem,  pp.  170,  176. 

2  This  name  is  written  also  Beckwoiih  and  Becket 
8  Frequently  written  Jarret. 

4  Benjamin  Grant  died  in  1670.    He  was  a  son  of  Christopher  Grant,  of  Water- 
town  or  Cambridge,  and  left  a  son  Benjamin,  who  in  1698,  was  of  Cambridge. 


HISTORY     OP     NBW    LONDON.  299 

Richard  Haughion^  died  in  1682. 

This  event  took  place  at  Wethersfield,  while  Mr.  Haughton  was 
engaged  at  work,  as  a  shipwright,  on  a  vessel  there.  Of  his  children 
no  regular  list  has  been  obtained.  Massapeag  Neck,  a  fine  tract  of 
land  on  the  river,  within  the  bounds  of  Mohegan  proper,  was  granted 
to  Haughton  by  deed  of  the  sachem  Uncas,  August  19th,  1658.  The 
•laws  of  the  colony  prohibited  individuals  from  contracting  with  the 
Indians  for  land;  nevertheless  the  General  Court  confirmed  this 
grant,  upon  certain  conditions,  assigning  as  one  reason  for  their  in- 
dulgence to  Mr.  Haughton,  "his  charge  of  children."  We  infer 
from  this  that  he  had  a  young  and  numerous  family.  Eight  children 
can  be  traced ;  of  whom  three  sons,  Robert,  Joseph  and  John,  are 
supposed  to  belong  to  a  first  unknown  wife,  dating  their  birth  anterior 
to  the  settlement  of  the  family  at  New  London.^  Robert's  name  oc- 
curs as  a  witness  in  1655.  In  1675  he  was  a  resident  in  Boston,  a 
marinei:,  and  in  command  of  a  vessel.  He  was  afterward  at  Milford, 
where  he  died  about  the  year  1678,  leaving  three  children,  Robert, 
Sarah  and  Hannah.'  His  relict  married  Benjamin  Smith,  of  Mil- 
ford.  The  daughter,  Sarah,  married  Daniel  Northrop,  and  in  1735 
was  apparently  the  only  surviving  heir  to  certain  divisions  of  land 
accruing  to  her  father  from  the  family  rights  in  New  London. 

Joseph  Haughton  was  twenty-three  years  of  age  in  1662.  He 
died  in  1697,  and  apparently  left  no  family. 

John  Haughton,  shipwright,  died  in  1704,  leaving  wife  and  children. 

The  wife  that  Richard  Haughton  brought  with  him  to  New  Lon- 
don, was  Katherine,  formerly  wife  to  Nicholas  Qiarlet  or  Qielet, 
whom  he  had  recently  married.  She  had  two  daughters  by  her  for- 
mer husband,  Elizabeth  (bom  July  15th,  1645)  and  Mary,  whose 
joint  portion  was  £100.'  The  remainder  of  Richard  Hanghton's 
children  may  be  assigned  to  this  wife,  viz.,  sons  Sampson  and  James 
and  three  daughters — Abigail,  married  Thomas  Leach ;  Katherine, 
married  John  Butler ;  and  Mercy,  married  Samuel  Bill.  Katherine, 
wife  of  Richard  Haughton,  died  August  9th,  1670.     He  afterward 


1  The  name  of  Richard  Haughton  is  found  in  1646,  among  the  settlers  in  Milford. 
Lambert's  New  Haven  Colony,  p.  91. 

2  Judd,  of  Northampton,  (MS.) 

8  They  had  the  note  and  surety  of  their  father-in-law  for  this  sum,  which  in  1668 
was  indorsed  by  Elizabeth  Charlet,  $adsfied.  This  was  probably  the  period  of  her 
marriage. 


300  HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON. 

married  Alice  ,  who  survived  him  and  became  the  wife  of 

Daniel  Crombe,  of  Westerly. 

Massapeag  Neck  was  sold  hj  the  Haughton  heirs  to  Fitz-John 
Winthrop.  Sampson  Haughton,  the  ancestor  of  the  Montville  branch 
of  the  family,  in  1746,  settled  in  the  neighborhood  of  Massi^peag,  on 
a  farm  which  he  purchased  of  Grodfrey  Malbone,  of  Newport,  lying 
on  both  sides  of  the  country  road  between  New  London  and  Nor- 
wich. Haughton's  farm  became  a  noted  halfway  station  between  the* 
two  places. 


William  Douglas,  died  Jvly  26<A,  1682. 

He  was  of  Ipswich,  1641;'  of  Boston,  1646;  made  freeman  of 
Mass.,  1646;'  <^  New  London,  December,  1659.  From  various 
depositions  it  appears  that  he  was  bom  in  1610 ;  his  wife  was  about 
the  same  age.'  Her  maiden  name  was  Ann  Mattle;  she  was  daugh- 
ter of  Thomas,  and  sister  of  Robert  Mattle,  of  Ringstead,  in  North- 
amptonshire ;  both  of  whom  had  deceased  before  1670,  leaving  prop- 
erty to  which  she  was  the  legal  heir.* 

Their  children  were  Robert,  bom  about  1639 ;  William,  bom  in 
Boston,  May  2d,  1645  ;^  Anna,  wife  of  Nathaniel  Gary ;  Elizabeth, 
wife  of  John  Chandler,^  and  Susannah,  who  came  with  her  parents  to 
New  London,  and  married  in  October,  1661,  John  Keeny. 

Mr.  Douglas  was  one  of  the  townsmen  in  1663,  1666  and  1667; 
recorder  and  moderator  in  1668  ;  sealer  and  packer  in  1673 ;  and  on 
various  important  committees,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  from  year  to 
year.  He  had  a  farm  granted  him  in  1 660,  **  three  miles  or  more  west 
of  the  town  plot,  with  a  brook  running  through  it ;"  and  another  in 
1667,  '*  towards  the  head  of  the  brook  called  Jordan,  about  four  miles 
from  town,  on  each  side  of  the  Lidian  path  to  Nahantick."  These 
farms  were  inherited  by  his  sons,  and  are  still  in  the  possession  of 
their  descendants. 

William  Douglas,  Sen.,  and  wife,  with  his  two  sons  and  their 
wives,  and  his  daughter,  Keeny,  were  all  members  of  Mr.  Bradstreet's 
church,  in  1672.     Robert  Douglas  married,  September  28th,  1665, 

1  Hist  and  Qen.  Beg.,  vol.  2,  p.  176. 

2  Savage's  Winthrop^  vol.  2,  p.  874. 

8  He  was  sixty-five  in  1676;  his  wife  sixty  in  1670. 

4  Depositions  taken  before  Gov.  Bellingham,  of  Mass.,  on  record  in  New  London. 

6  Boston  Records. 

6  Lincoln's  Hist  Woroesteri  p.  276. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  301 

Hary,  daughter  of  Robert  Hempetead ;  the  first-born  of  New  Lon- 
don. William  Douglas,  2d,  held  the  office  of  deacon  in  the  church 
at  New  London,  about  thirty  years.  He  married,  December  18th, 
1667,  Abiah,  daughter  of  William  Hough.  His  oldest  son,  William, 
removed  to  Flainfield,  and  was  one  of  the  first  deacons  of  the  church 
in  that  place.  He  is  the  ancestor  of  the  Douglas  families  of  Plain- 
field. 

No  family  among  the  early  settlers  of  the  town  has  sent  more  colo- 
nies to  other  parts  of  the  Union  than  that  of  Douglas.  The  descend- 
ants of  William,  1st,  are  widely  dispersed  through  New  York,  and 
the  states  farther  west,  and  also  in  some  of  the  southern  states.  He 
and  his  immediate  family  wrote  the  name  Douglas,  with  one  b; 
Douglass  is  a  variation  of  later  times. 

[The  Chandlers,  of  Woodstock,  were  connected  with  New  Lon- 
don by  so  many  ties,  that  a  short  digression  respecting  them  may  not 
be  amiss.  John  Chandler,  son  of  William,  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  re- 
moved with  a  company  from  Roxbury,  to  a  place  then  regarded  as  a 
portion  of  Worcester  county,  Mass.,  and  called  New  Roxbury.  It 
was  afterward  named  Woodstock,  and  included  in  Connecticut,  form- 
ing a  part  of  New  London  county.*  This  John  Chandler,  second  of 
the  name  in  this  country,  was  the  one  who  married  Elizabeth,  daugh- 
ter of  William  Douglas.  His  oldest  son,  John,  married  Mary,  daugh- 
ter of  Joshua  Raymond,  of  New  London,  and  resided  several  years 
in  the  place.  The  births  of  his  first  four  children,  John,  Joshua, 
William  and  Mary,  are  recorded  here.  The  family  afterward  re- 
turned to  Woodstock,  but  the  third  John,  agreeably  to  the  custom  of 
his  ancestors,  came  down  to  the  salt  water  for  a  wife,  and  married^ 
about  1718,  Hannah,  daughter  of  John  Grardiner,  of  the  Isle  of  Wight. 
He  also  resided  for  a  short  period  in  New  London,  and  the  fourth 
John  Chandler,  in  lineal  succession,  was  bom  here,  February  26th, 
1720.] 


Robert  Burrows y*  died  in  Augtut,  1682. 
Robert  Burrows  married  in  Wethersfield  about  the  year  1645, 
Mary,  relict  of  Samuel  Ireland.^     She  had  two  daughters  by  her 

1  Kow  in  Windham  county, 

2  This  name  is  now  geq^^rally  written  Borroogfas  or  Bnrroogh. 

8  Irehmd  came  to  America  in  1685.    "  Samuel  Ireland,  carpenter  aged  thirty-two^ 
Uxor,  thirty— Martha,  one  and  a  halt'*    Sav.  Gleanings,  p.  261« 

26 


302  SI8TORT    OP     NEW    LONDON. 

first  husband,  Martha  and  Marj,  whose  portion  of  £30  each  was  de* 
livered  to  their  father-in-law,  Burrows,  by  John  Latimer  of  Wcth- 
ersfield,  Oct.  20th,  1651.  For  the  faithful  performance  of  his  trust, 
Burrows  pledged  his  house,  land  and  stock  at  Fequonock,  which 
shows  how  early  he  had  settled  east  of  the  river.  Mary,  wife  of 
Robert  Burrows,  died  in  Dec,  1672.  Only  two  children  have  been 
traced :  Samuel  and  John,  both  presented  to  be  made  freemen  of  the 
colony  in  October,  1669.  The  subsequent  history  of  Samuel  is  not 
known.  John  married,  Dec.  14th,  1670,  Hannah  daughter  of  Ed- 
ward Culver,  and  had  a  large  family  of  children.     He  died  in  1699. 


Amos  Richardson^  of  Stomngton,  died  Aug.  bthy  1683. 

Mary,  his  relict,  survived  him  but  a  few  weeks.  John,  the  oldest 
son  of  Mr.  Richardson,  was  minister  of  the  church  in  Newbury, 
Mass.,  where  he  was  settled  in  1674.  He  had  two  other  sons,  Ste- 
phen and  Samuel,  and  a  daughter,  Prudence,  who  married,  first, 
March  15th,  1682-3,  John  Hallam;  second,  March  17th,  1702-3, 
Elnathan  Miner. 

A  lingering  lawsuit  was  sustained  by  Mr.  Richardson  for  several 
years  against  the  town  of  New  London  to  obtain  possession  of  a 
house  lot,  formerly  granted  him,  which,  comprising  the  greater  por- 
tion of  the  Parade,  (State  St.,)  had  been  assumed  by  the  town  for  a 
highway  and  public  square.  Mr.  John  Plumbe  was  Richardson's 
attorney.  It  was  at  last  decided  that  Richardson  should  be  indemni- 
fied for  his  lot,  out  of  the  nearest  unoccupied  land  that  the  town 
owned.  In  execution  of  this  judgment  the  marshal  took  four  pieces ; 
one  piece  of  ninety-six  rods,  being  a  part  of  the  original  lot  and  on 
the  north  side  of  it,  the  same  on  which  the  first  Episcop^  church 
was  afterward  erected;  a  lot  at  the  comer  of  Main  and  State  Streets, 
west  side,*  which  had  hitherto  been  left  common  and  uninclosed ;  ten 
rods  on  Mill  Cove,  and  one  hundred  rods  on  the  Beach. 

"  These  two  last  pieces  (says  the  marshal's  return)  were  prized 
according  to  law,  on  the  Cove,  one  rod  for  two,  and  on  the  Beach,  two 
rods  for  one ;  the  four  pieces  containing  285  rods  were  delivered  to  Mr. 
Amos  Richardson  and  accepted  in  full  satisfaction;  Feb.  13,  1681." 


William  Hough^  died  August  lO^A,  1683. 
The  family  of  Samuel  Hough,  oldest  son  of  William,  is  registered 

1  This  lot  was  asBigned  to  Mr.  Plumbe  for  his  serrioes  in  managing  the  case. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  303 

at  Saybrooky  and  in  connection  witli  the  record  it  is  stated  that  Wil- 
liam Hough,  was  a  son  of  Edward  Hough,  of  West  Chester  in 
Cheshire,  England.  It  has  not  been  ascertained  that  this  Edward 
Hough  emigrated  to  America,  but  a  widow  Ann  Hough  that  died  in 
Gloucester,  Mass.,  in  1672,  aged  eighty-five  jears,  was  perhaps  his 
relict,  and  the  mother  oi  William  Hough. 

William  Hough  married  Sarah,  daughter  of  Hugh  Calkin,  October 
28th,  1635. 

Chitdrtn. 

1.  Hannah  b.  July  31, 1646.  6.  WiUiam  b.  Oct,  13,  1657. 

2.  Abiah      «*  Sept.  15,  1048.  7.  Jonathan  "  Feb.  7,  1659-60. 

3.  Sarah      ««  Mar.  23,  1651.  8.  Deborah    «•  Oct.  21,  1662. 

4.  Samuel  «  Mar.  9,  1652-3.  9.  Abigail      **  Mar.  5,  1665-6. 
6.  John       "  Oct.  17,  1655.                    10.  Anna        "  Aug.  29,  1667. 

Hannah  Hough  married  John  Borden  of  Lyme ;  Abiah  married 
the  second  William  Douglas ;  Sarah  married  David  Carpenter. 

The  marriage  of  William  Hough  and  the  births  of  three  childreii,  are 
recorded  at  Gloucester ;  the  remainder'  in  New  London,  but  it  is  men- 
tioned that  Samuel  was  bom  in  Saybrook.  The  father  being  a 
house  builder  might  have  been  temporarily  employed  in  that  place. 

The  last  four  children  of  William  Hough  are  not  afterward  found  at 
New  London ;  it  is  probable  that  they  were  scattered  in  other  towns. 
Samuel  the  oldest  son  settled  in  Saybrook.  Capt.  John  Hough,  the 
second  son,  was  a  noted  man  of  his  time,  powerful  in  frame  and 
energetic  in  character.  His  wife  was  Sarah  Post,  of  Norwich,  and 
Capt.  Hough  was  at  one  time  a  resident  in  that  place.  His  death 
was  caused  by  a  fall  from  the  scaffolding  of  a  house  which  he  was 
building  in  New  London,  August  26th,  1715.*  No  external  injury 
could  be  discovered,  but  he  lived  only  an  hour.  Such  an  event  was 
sufficient  at  that  time  to  move  the  whole  town. 

William  Hough,  Jun.,  married  Ann,  daughter  of  Samuel  Lothrop^ 
of  Norwich.  He  died  April  22d,  1705.  His  relict,  Widow  Ann 
Hough,  died  in  Norwich  Nov.  19th,  1745. 


John  Baldwin,  of  Stonington,  died  August  19^A,  1683. 

Among  the  original  emigrants  from  Great  Britain  to  the  shores  of 
New  England,  were  several  John  Baldwins.     Two  of  these,  father 

1  This  hoose,  which  belonged  to  Richard  Christophers,  was  on  State  Street,  the  end 
to  the  street,  near  the  comer  of  the  present  Bradley  Street,  but  at  that  time  no  street 
was  opened  east  of  it,  and  the  house  fronted  the  water.  Capt  Hongh  fell  fh>m  th® 
8oath-east  comer,  on  the  spot  now  occupied  by  W.  H.  Chapman,  merchant. 


304  HISTORY    Olf    N£W     LONDON. 

and  son,  who  married  Mary  and  Hannah  Bruen,  hare  already  been 
mentioned  in  this  history,  as  belonging  to  Milford,  and  subsequently 
joining  the  company  that  purchased  Newark.  Another  John  Bald- 
win wa«  of  Guilford,  where  he  married  Hannah  Burchet,  or  Birchard' 
in  1653,  and  afterward  removed  to  Norwich.  A  fourth  John  B^d- 
win  was  the  one  now  under  consideration,  and  may  be  distinguished 
as  the  son  of  Sylvester,  of  whom  John,  Sen.,  of  Milford,  was  probably 
a  brother. 

Sylvester  Baldwin  died  on  the  voyage  from  Great  Britain,  a  pass- 
enger in  the  Martin,  1638,  making  his  will  ^^  on  the  main  ocean  bound 
for  New  England."  In  this  will  he  is  said  to  be  of  Aston-Clinton  in 
Bucks ;  he  notes  wife  Sarah,  sons  Richard  and  John,  and  daughters 
Sarah,  Mary,  Martha  and  Ruth.  The  will  was  proved  in  July,  be- 
fore Deputy  Governor  Dudley  of  Mass.* 

In  1 643,  the  Widow  Baldwin  is  found  enrolled  among  the  residents 
of  New  Haven ;  five  in  her  family  and  her  estate  estimated  at  £800.' 
She  afterward  married  John*  Astwood,  one  of  the  first  planters  of 
Milford,  and  removed  to  that  place.^  Richard  Baldwin,  her  oldest 
son,  married  and  settled  at  Milford.  John,  the  second  son,  we  sup- 
pose to  be  the  person  who  came  to  New  London,  where  his  name 
appears  occasionally  after  1654,  but  not  as  a  fixed  resident  till  about 
ten  years  later. 

He  is  on  the  rate  list  of  1667,  and  on  the  roll  of  freemen  in  1668* 
He  purchased  two  houses  in  the  town  plot  and  had  several  grants  of 
land. 

His  first  wife  died  at  Milford  in  1658,  leaving  a  son,  John,  bom  in 
1657.*  This  son  came  to  New  London  with  him,  received  adult 
baptism  in  1674  and  after  that  event  is  lost  to  our  records.  From 
some  probate  testimony  given  at  a  much  later  period,  we  learn  that 
soon  after  arriving  at  maturity,  he  sailed  for  England  and  never  re- 
turned.* 

John  Baldwin,  the  father,  married  July  24th,  1672,  Rebecca, 
relict  of  Elisha  Chesebrough,  and  daughter  of  Walter  Palmer.  This 
connection  with  a  richly  dowried  widow,  whose  posessions  lay  in 
Stonington,  led  to  an  immediate  transfer  of  his  residence  to  that 

1  Savage  (MS.) 

2  L4unbert*s  Hist  New  Hayen  Colcniy,  p.  54. 
8  R.  Smith,  Esq.,  of  GnUford,  (MS.) 

4  Ibid, 
6  Ibid. 


HISTORY    OF   NEW    LONDON.  305 

,place.     By  this  marriage  he  liad  a  son  Sylyester  and  seyeral 
daughters. 


Benjamin  AtweU,  died  1683. 

The  name  suggests  a  family  connection  with  the  Benjamin  AtweU 
killed  by  the  Indians,  while  he  was  engaged  in  hay-making,  August 
11th,  1676,  at  Casco,  within  a  mile  of  the  present  Portland,  Maine.^ 
Benjamin  AtweU  of  New  London,  had  been  at  that  time  about  ten 
years  an  inhabitant.  He  was  constable  of  the  town  in  1675.  He 
had  a  son  Benjamin,  whoke  birth  is  not  recorded  in  New  London ; 
Thomas  bom  1670;  John,  1675;  Joseph,  1677;  Richard,  1679; 
and  Samuel,  the  youngest  child,  bom  April  23d,  1 682.  Joseph,  Rich- 
ard and  Samuel,  settled  about  1710,  on  wUd  land  in  the  North  Parish 
of  New  London.  Joseph  died  without  issue.  Descendants  of  the 
others  remain  in  that  vicinity. 

Two  of  the  grandchUdren  of  Samuel,  that  is,  of  the  fourth  gener- 
ation from  the  first  settler  Benjamin,  were  Uving  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  year  1850.  These  were  Samuel  AtweU  and  his>  sister 
Lucretia,  chUdren  of  Samuel  AtweU  second.  Samuel  died  Nov. 
26th,  1850,  aged  ninety-five  years  and  six  months ;  Lucretia,  daughter 
of  Samuel  second  and  reUct  of  Joseph  AtweU,  died  Oct.  25th,  1851, 
aged  102  years.  She  was  bom  Nov.  19th,  1749,  O.  S.  Here  are 
three  generations  covering  the  space  from  1682  to  1851. 

Benjamin  and  Thomas  AtweU,  the  two  oldest  sons  of  Benjamin 
senior,  died  in  New  London  leaving  descendants.  John,  in  1712, 
was  of  Saybrook. 


Daniel  Comstock,  died  1683. 
WiUiam  Comstock  the  father  of  Daniel,  came  from  Hartford  in 
1649  and  lived  to  old  age  in  his  house  upon  Post  Hill;  (near  north 
comer  of  WiUiams  and  VauxhaU  Streets.)  His  wife  Elizabeth  was 
aged  fifty-five  in  1663.  No  record  has  been  found  of  the  death  of 
either.  His  land  was  inherited  by  his  son  Daniel,  of  New  London, 
and  grandson  WilUam,  of  Lyme.  The  latter  was  a  son  of  John 
Comstock  deceased — and  his  mother  Abigail  in  1680,  was  the  wife 
of  Moses  Huntley,  of  Lyme.  It  is  probable  that  Daniel  and  John 
were  the  only  children  of  WUliam  Comstock,  sen.,  and  his  wife 


1  Willis'  Hist  of  Portland,  pp.  184, 144. 

26* 


306  &I8TORT    OP    NKW    LONDON. 

Eliaabeih.  John  is  the  ancestor  of  the  Ljme  havlj  of  CamstockB, 
and  Daniel  of  those  of  the  North  Parish  or  Montville.  The  hitter, 
as  appears  from  statements  of  his  age,  was  horn  about  1630.  His 
wife,  whose  name  was  Faltiah,  was  a  daughter,  or  step-daughter  <^ 
John  Elderkin.  Thej  had  a  son  Daniel  and  eight  daughters,  whose 
births  are  not  recorded ;  but  they  were  all  baptized  bj  Mr.  Bradstreet 
in  April  and  NoTcmber,  1671.  Af^er  this  two  other  sons  were  bap- 
tized; Eangsland  in  1673,  and  Samuel  in  1677. 


John  Lockwoody  died  in  1683. 
We  suppose  this  person  to  have  been  the  son  of  Elizabeth,  wife  of 
Gary  Latham,  by  a  former  husband  Edward  Lockwood,  and  the  same 
whose  birth  stands  on  record  in  Boston,  9th  month,  1632.^  He 
dwelt  on  Foxen's  Hill,  at  a  place  since  known  as  a  Wheeler  home- 
stead. In  the  settlement  of  the  estate,  no  heir  appears  but  Edmund 
Lockwood  of  Stamford,  who  is  called  his  brother. 


Halph  Parker,  died  in  1683. 
He  had  a  house  in  Gloucester  in  1647.  Sold  out  there  ^'  24th  of 
8  m.  1651"  and  was  the  same  y^ar  a  grantee  at  New  London.  He 
appears  to  have  been  wholly  engaged  in  marine  affairs — sending  out 
vessels  and  sometimes  going  himself  to  sea.  No  births,  marriages  or 
deaths  of  bis  family  are  recorded.  It  is  ascertained,  howeyer,  that 
his  wife  was  Susannah,  daughter  of  Wm.  Keeny ;  though  not  proba- 
bly his  first  wife,  as  her  age  in  October,  1662,  was  thirty-four  and 
that  of  his  daughter  Mary  nineteen.  This  daughter  Mary  married 
William  Condy  of  Boston,  about  1 663 :  another  daughter,  Susannah^ 
married  Thomas  Forster  in  1666.  Keeny,  Condy,  Forster  and 
Paricer  were  all  masters  of  vessels,  as  was  also  at  a  later  period, 
Jonathan  Parker,  son  of  Ralph.  In  the  year  1710  Thomas  Parker 
of  Boston,  son  of  Jonathan,  was  the  principal  heir  to  certain  estate 
of  the  family  left  in  New  London. 


Edmund  Fanning,  died  in  December,  1683. 
It  has  been  transmitted  from  one  generation  to  another  in  the  Fan- 
ning family  that  their  ancestor  ^  Edmund  Fajining,  escaped  from 

1  Hist  and  Gen.  Reg.,  voL  2,  p.  181.  and  vol  4,  p.  181. 


HtSTORT    OW    NEW    LONDON.  807 

Dablin  in  1641,  in  the  time  of  the  great  rebellion,  in  which  100,000 
Protestants  fell  Tictims  to  the  fury  of  the  Roman  Catholics,"  *  and 
afler  eleven  years  of  wandering  and  uncertamty  he  found  a  resting 
place  in  that  part  of  New  London  now  called  Groton,  in  the  year 
1652.  On  the  town  records  the  name  is  not  mentioned  till  ten  years 
later,  but  it  is  then  in  a  way  that  denotes  previous  residence.  In  the 
inventory  of  goods  of  Richard  Poole,  April  25th,  1662,  one  article 

**  Two  cowes  and  one  steere  now  with  Edmon  ffaning." 

After  this  he  has  a  grant  of  land ;  claims  the  bounty  for  killing  a 
wolf;  is  chosen  to  some  town  office ;  is  propounded  to  be  made  a 
freeman  in  Stonington,  and  thus  occasionally  gleams  upon  us,  till  we 
come  to  the  last  item — ^the  probate  of  his  estate. 

Feb.,  1688-4,  «  The  widow  Fanning  is  to  pay  10  shillings  for  the 
settlement  of  her  estate,  it  being  done  at  a  called  Court,  which  the 
derk  is  to  demand  and  receive." 

The  estate  was  distributed  to  the  widow  and  four  sons — Edmundy 
John,  Thomas  and  William,  and  two  grandsons,  William  and  Benja- 
min Hewet. 

Several  of  the  family  have  in  latter  days  been  eminent  as  naviga- 
tors f  others  have  gained  distinction  in  naval  battles  and  in  military 
a&irs.^ 


Charles  Hill,  died  in  October,  1684. 

The  first  copartnership  in  trading  at  New  London,  of  which  we 

have  any  knowledge,  is  that  of  Hill  and  Christophers,  "  Charles  Hill, 

of  London,  guirdler,  and  Christopher  Christophers,  mariner."     The 

earliest  date  respecting  them  is  June  26th,  1665,  when  they  pur- 


1  MS.  infonnation  from  late  Oapt  John  Fanning^  of  Norwich. 

a  In  1797,  '98  and  '99,  Capt  Edmund  Fanning,  of  Stonhigton,  made  a  Toyage  for 
seals  in  the  ship  Betsey,  in  which  he  discovered  several  islands  near  the  equator,  not 
before  laid  down  on  any  chart  They  are  known  as  Fanning's  Islands.  (See  Fan- 
sing's  Voyages  round  the  World.) 

8  Nathaniel  Fanning,  brother  of  Edmund,  the  discoverer,  was  an  officer  in  the  ship 
of  Paul  Jones  at  the  time  of  his  celebrated  naval  battle,  and  by  his  gallant  daring 
contributed  essentially  to  the  brilliant  result  He  was  stationed  in  the  maintop  of 
Jones'  ship  and  led  his  men  upon  the  interlocked  yards  to  the  enemy's  top,  which  was 
cleared  by  the  well  ducted  fire  of  his  conmiand.  He  died  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  Sept 
80th,  1806.  Edmund  Fibming,  cousin  of  Nathaniel,  fought  on  the  other  side  during 
the  Revolutionary  War.  He  was  colonel  of  a  regiment  raised  on  Long  Island  and 
called  the  Associated  Refugees.  (Onderdonk's  Revolutionary  Incidents  of  Queen's 
County.)    He  died  in  London  in  1818. 


308  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.. 

chased  a  warehouse  that  had  been  John  Tinkei^'s,  cm  Mill  Cove. 
Hill,  though  styled  of  London,  had  previously  been  at  the  souUi,  for 
in  1668,  he  assigned  to  Robert  Frowse,  merchant,  all  right  to  a  plan- 
tation in  Maryland,  with  milch  cows  and  small  cattle,  &c«,  which  had 
been  four  years  jointly  owned  and  cultivated  by  them. 

Mr.  Hill  was  chosen  recorder  of  the  town,  February  25th,  1669-70, 
and  held  the  office  till  his  death.  His  handwriting  was  compact  and 
neat,  but  not  distinct.  He  was  also  clerk  of  the  county  court  at  the 
time  of  his  decease.  His  first  marriage  is  thus  recorded :  ''  Charles, 
son  to  Creorge  Hill,  of  Barley,  Derbyshire,  Esq.,  was  married  July 
16, 1668,  to  Ruth,  widow  of  John  Ficket."  Children — Jane,  bom 
December  9th,  1669  ;  Charles,  October  16th,  1671 ;  Ruth,  baptized 
October,  1673,  probably  died  in  infancy ;  Jonathan,  bom  December, 
1674.  Ruth,  wife  of  Charles  Hill,  died  April  80th,  1677.  Charles 
Hill  married,  second,  June  12th,  1678,  Rachel,  daughter  of  Major 
John  Mason,  deputy  govemor  of  the  colony.  This  second  wife  and 
her  infant  child  died  in  1679. 

Charles  Hill,  second,  married  Abigail  Fox,  August  28th,  1701, 
Jonathan  Hill  married  Mary  Sharswood,  the  date  not  recovered. 


Pasco  Footey  died  probably  in  1684. 

We  can  scarcely  err  in  assuming  that  he  was  son  of  Fasco  Foote, 
of  Salem,  and  that  he  was  the  Fasco  Foote,  Jr.,  of  the  Salem  records, 
who  married  2d  10th  month,  1668,  Martha  Wood,  and  of  whose  mar- 
riage three  sons  are  the  recorded  issue,  Malachi,  Martha  and  Fasco.* 
He  appears  in  New  London  as  a  mariner,  engaged  in  the  Newfound- 
land trade,  and  marries  November  30th,  1678,  Margaret,  daughter  of 
Edward  Stallion.  Three  children  were  the  issue  of  this  marriage, 
whose  births  are  not  recorded,  Isaac,  Stallion  and  Margaret  Ed- 
ward Stallion,  the  grandfather,  by  a  deed  of  adoption,  took  the  second 
son.  Stallion,  for  his  own  child,  and  at  the  same  time,  Fasco  Foote 
settled  his  house  and  land  in  New  London,  on  his  youngest  child, 
Margaret.  These  deeds,  executed  January  6th,  1683-4,  give  us  our 
latest  information  of  Fasco  Foote.  His  relict  married  James  Haynes, 
in  1687  or  1688. 

Stallion  Foote  died  in  1710,  leaving  a  wife,  Ann,  and  an  only 
child,  of  his  own  name,  StaUion^  who  died  suddenly  at  the  house  ojf 
John  Williams,  on  Groton  bank,  January  9th,  1714-15,  aged  six 

1  Goodwin's  Foote  Genealogy,  p.  892. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  309 

years*  On  the  7th  of  March  succeeding  the  death  of  the  child,  an 
entry  was  made  on  the  New  London  record,  of  the  following  import : 
*<  Isaac,  son  of  Pasco  Foote,  late  of  New  London,  deceased,  and  Mar- 
garet his  wife,  hath  desired  his  name  may  be  now  recorded,  Isaac, 
alias  Stallion  Foote."  This  person  after  1715,  disappears  from  our 
records. 


Charles  Haynez. 
His  inventory  was  presented  in  1685.     This  is  all  the  information 
obtained  respecting  the  period  of  his  decease.     Ilis  marriage  is  not 
recorded. 

Children  of  Charltz  Haynet  and  hi$  wife  Mary. 

1.  James,  bom  March  1st,  1664-5.       4.  Jonathan,  born  June  20th,  1674. 

2.  Peter,       "   November  2l8t,  1666.     6.  Mary,  «•     October  29th,  1678. 

3.  Charles,  "    Sept.  25th,  1669.  6.  Hercules,     ««   AprU  29th,  16S1. 

James  and  Jonathan  Haynes  settled  in  New  London,  and  left;  de- 
scendants. 


Edward  CtdveVj  died  in  1685. 

He  had  lived  at  Dedham,  where  the  births  of  three  children  are 
recorded:  John,  April  15th,  1640  ;  Joshua,  January  12th,  1642-3; 
Samuel,  January  9th,  1644-5  ;  and  at  Roxbury,  where  the  record  of 
baptisms  adds  two  more  to  the  list  of  children,  Grershom,  December 
3d,  1648  ;  Hannah,  April  11th,  1651.*  His  arrival  at  Pequot  is  an- 
nounced by  a  land  grant  in  1653.  He  purchased  the  house-lot  of 
Robert  Burrows,  given  to  the  latter  by  the  town,  and  established 
himself  as  a  baker  and  brewer.  In  1664  he  relinquished  the  home- 
stead to  his  son  John,  and  removed  to  a  place  near  the  head  of  Mys- 
tic, but  within  New  London  bounds,  called  by  the  Indians  Chepadaso, 
and  in  one  place  recorded  as  Chepados  HilL  During  Philip's  War, 
Edward  Culver  was  a  noted  soldier  and  partisan,  often  sent  out  with 
Indian  scouts  to  explore  the  wilderness.'  In  1681,  he  is  called 
"  wheel-right  of  Mystic."  The  sons  of  Edward  and  Ann  Culver, 
expressly  named,  are  John,  Joshua,  Samuel  and  Joseph.^  It  is  sup- 
posed that  Edward  Culver,  of  Norwich,  1680,  having  wife  Sarah, 

1  Savage,  (MS.) 

9  Conn.  Col.  Rec.,  toL  2,  pp.  408,  417. 

8  Perhaps  Gerthom^  baptized  at  Roxbuy,  1648,  is  a  mistake  for  Jntph, 


310  HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON. 

and  children  ranging  in  birth  from  1681  to  1694,  aad  in  1700,  an 
inhabitant  of  the  new  town  of  Lebanon,  should  be  added  to  the  list. 
If  so,  he  was  probably  bom  after  the  removal  to  Pequot,  or  about 
1654.  The  identity  of  his  name,  however,  is  the  only  evidence  we 
can  produce  of  the  relationship. 

John  Culver  was  for  several  years  a  resident  in  New  Haven,  where 
the  birth  of  a  daughter,  Abigail,  is  recorded  in  1676,  and  son,  James, 
in  1679.*  He  ultimately  returned  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  Mystic 
Joshua  Culver,  married  in  1673,  Elizabeth  Ford,  of  New  Haven,  and 
settled  in  Wallingford.*  Samuel  Culver,  about  the  year  1674,  eloped 
with  the  wife  of  John  Fish,  and  is  not  known  to  have  ever  returned 
to  this  part  of  the  country.  Joseph  Culver  settled  on  his  father's 
lands  at  Groton. 


Isaac  WiUey,^  died  about  1685. 

Willey's  house-lot  was  on  Mill  Brook,  at  the  base  of  Post  HilL 
He  was  an  agriculturist,  and  soon  removed  to  a  farm  at  the  head  of 
Nahantic  River,  which  was  confirmed  to  "old  goodman  Willie,"  in 
1664.  It  is  probable  that  both  he  and  his  wife  Joanna,  had  passed 
the  bounds  of  middle  age,  and  that  all  their  children  were  bom  before 
they  came  to  the  banks  of  the  Pequot.  Isaac  "Willey,  Jr.,  was  a  mar- 
ried man  at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1662 ;  John  Willey  was  one 
who  wrought  on  the  mill-dam  in  1651 ;  Abraham  had  married  and 
settled  in  Haddam  before  his  father's  decease.  No  other  sons  are 
known.  Hannah,  wife  of  Peter  Blatchford,  is  the  only  daughter  ex- 
pressly named  as  such,  but  inferential  testimony  leads  us  to  enroll 
among  the  members  of  this  family,  Joanna,  wife  of  Robert  Hemp- 
stead, and  afterward  of  Andrew  Lester;  Mary,  wife  of  Samuel  Tubbs, 
and  Sarah,  wife  of  John  TerralL 

Isaac  Willey  married,  second,  after  1670,  Anna,  relict  of  Andrew 
Lester,*  who  survived  him.  The  Willey  farm  was  sold  to  Abel 
Moore  and  Chr.  Christophers.  John  Willey  married  in  1670,  Miri- 
am, daughter  of  Miles  Moore.     He  lived  beyond  the  head  of  Nahan- 


1  Judd,  of  Northampton,  (MS.)  2  Ibid. 

8  He  wrote  his  name  Itarh  WtUy.  Mr.  Bmen^s  orthography  uras  WUKe :  he  had  a 
par^lity  for  this  termination,  and  wrote  Averie,  MarU^  Doxie,  &c. 

4  She  had  been  the  third  wife  of  his  former  son-in-law.  Relationship  was  some- 
times curiously  involved  by  marriages.  It  must  be  recollected  that  the  males  out- 
numbered the  females,  and  there  could  be  no  wide  range  of  choice  in  the  selection  of  a 
wife. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

tiek,  and  wHen  the  bounds  between  New  London  and  L jme  were  de- 
termined, his  farm  was  split  bj  the  line,  leaving  twenty  acres,  on 
whkh  stood  his  house,  in  New  London. 

Abraham  Willey,  the  ancestor  of  the  Haddam  family,  married 
Elizabeth,  daaghter  of  Thomas  Mortimer,  of  New  London. 


Jame$  Morgan^  died  abotU  1685. 

He  was  about  seventy-eight  years  of  age.*  The  earliest  notice  of 
him  is  from  the  records  of  Boston,  where  the  birth  of  his  daughter, 
Hannah,  is  registered,  eighteenth  day,  fifth  month,  1642.'  He  was 
afterward  of  Gloucester,  and  came  with  the  Cape  Ann  company  to 
Pequot,  where  he  acted  as  one  of  the  townsmen,  from  1653  to  1656, 
inclusive.  His  homestead,  "  on  the  path  to  New  Street,"  was  sold 
December  25th,  1657.  He  then  removed  east  of  the  river,  where 
he  had  large  grants  of  land.  The  following  additional  grant  alludes 
to  his  dwelling : 

"  James  Morgan  hath  given  him  about  six  acres  of  upland  where  the  wig- 
wams were  in  the  path  that  goes  from  his  house  towards  Culver's  among  the 
rocky  hills." 

He  was  often  employed  by  the  public  in  land  surveys,  stating  high- 
ways and  determining  boundaries,  and  was  nine  times  deputy  to  the 
Greneral  Court.  His  estate  was  settled  in  1685,  by  division  among 
his  four  children,  James,  John,  Joseph  and  Hannah,  wife  of  Nehe- 
miah  Royce. 

James  Morgan,  2d,  married,  J,*8ome  time  in  the  month  of  November, 
1666,"  Mary  Vine,=*  of  old  England.  This  was  the  Capt.  James 
Morgan,  of  Groton,  who  died  December  8th,  1711.  John  Morgan 
married,  November  16th,  1665,  Rachel  Dymond,  by  whom  he  had 
seven  children.  By  a  second  wife,  Elizabeth,  supposed  to  have  been 
daughter  of  William  Jones,  of  New  Haven,*  and  granddaughter  of 
Governor  Eaton,  he  had  six  other  children.  Lieut  John  Morgan 
died  in  Groton,  1712.  Joseph  Morgan  married,  in  April,  1670,  Dor- 
othy, daughter  of  Thomas  Parke.     He  died  in  Preston,  April  6i\ 

1  Conn.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  1,  p.  SOO. 

2  Hist  and  Gen.  Reg.,  vol  6,  p.  184.  9 

8  Of  the  Vine  family  there  has  been  no  account  recorered.  The  name  can  be  traced 
in  several  families,  as  Vine  Starr,  Vhie  Utley,  Vhie  Stoddard,  &c. 

4  In  settling  Mr.  Jones*  estate  in  1707,  one  of  the  children  mentioned  is  Elizabeth 
wife  of  John  Morgan.    Jndd,  (MS.) 


312  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON* 

1704.     These  three  sons  are  progenitors  of  a  numerous  body  of  de- 
scendants. 

Richard  Rose-Morgan,  who  settled  in  the  western  part  of  New 
London,  (now  Waterford,)  in  1679  or  1680,  is  the  ancestor  of  another 
line  of  Morgans,  probably  of  a  different  family  from  James  Morgan* 
His  descendants  for  a  considerable  period,  retained  the  adjunct  of 
Hose,  apparently  to  distinguish  them  from  that  family.  Richard 
Rose-Morgan  died  in  1698,  leaving  sons,  John,  Richard  and  Benja- 
min, and  several  daughters.  His  relict,  widow  Hope-stUl  Morgan^ 
died  June  1st,  1712. 


Oartf  Latham,  died  in  1685* 

Elizabeth,  wife  of  Gary  Latham,  was  daughter  of  John  Masters, 
and  relict  of  Edward  Lockwood.  Two  children  are  recorded  in  Bos- 
ton: Thomas,  bom  ninth  month,  1639  ;  Joseph,  second  of  tenth  month, 
probably  1642.*  John  Latham,  who  died  at  New  London,  about 
1684,  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  third  son.  The  daughters  were 
four  in  number :  Elizabeth,  wife  of  John  Leeds ;  Jane,  of  Hugh  Hub- 
bard ;  Lydia,  of  John  Packer,  and  Hannah,  unmarried  at  the  time  of 
her  father's  decease.  Mr.  Latham  served  in  various  town  offices ; 
he  was  one  of  the  townsmen  or  selectmen  for  sixteen  years,  and  was 
six  times  deputy  to  the  General  Court,  from  May,  1664,  to  1670. 
His  large  grants  of  land  enriched  his  descendants. 

Thomas  Latham,  oldest  son  of  Gary,  married,  October  15th,  1673, 
Rebecca,  daughter  of  Hugh  Wells,  of  Wethersfield.  He  died  before 
hb  father,  December  14th,  1677,  leaVing  an  only  son,  SamueL  His 
relict  married  John  Packer. 

Joseph,  the  second  son,  had  a  numerous  family.  His  marriage  is 
not  recorded  at  New  London.  His  first  child,  Gary,  was  bom  at 
Newfoundland,  July  14th,  1668.  He  died  in  1706,  leaving  seven 
sons,  and  a  daughter,  Lydia,  the  wife  of  Benjamin  Starr. 


Thomas  For$ter,  died  in  1685. 
Of  this  sea-captain  nearly  all  that  is  presented  to  our  view  is  the 
registry  of  his  marriage,  and  birth  of  his  children. 

"  Thomas,  soa  of  John  Forster,  of  Kingsware,  was  married  to  Susannah^ 
daughter  of  Ralph  Parker,  27th  of  March,  1665-6. 

1  Hist  and  G«ii.  Beg.,  vol  4,  p.  181. 


BISTORT     OF    NEW    LONDON.  313 

1.  Susannah,  bom  March  4th,  1660-7.  5.  Samuel,  bom  Sept.  22d,  1678. 

2.  Thomas,      **    Feb.  36th,  1668-9.  6.  Rebecca,  baptized  June,  1681. 

3.  Jonathan,    **     Aug.  17th,  1673.  7.  Ebenezer,       **        April,  1683.** 

4.  Mary,  "    June  14th,  1675. 

Thomas  Forster  appears  to  have  had  brothers,  Edward  and  Jona- 
than.    His  son,  Jonathan,  settled  in  Westerly,  Rhode  Island. 


Bugh  HtMardy  died  in  1685. 

**  Hugh  Hubbard,  of  Derbyshire,  old  England,  was  married  to  Jane, 
daughter  of  Gary  Latham,  in  March,  1672-3."  Beside  a  son  that 
died  in  infancy,  they  had  four  daughters  :  1.  Mary,  bom  November 
17th,  1674;  married,  in  1697,  "  Ichabod  Sayre,  son  of  Francis  Sayre, 
of  Southampton,  on  Nassau  Id.,  N.  Y."  This  was  the  first  mar- 
riage recorded  by  Rev.  Gurdon  SaltonstalL  2.  Lydia,  bom  Febm- 
ary  7th,  1675-6 ;  married  John  Burrows.  3.  Margaret.  4.  Jane. 
The  relict  of  Hugh  Hubbard  married  John  Williams,  and  died  May 
dd,  1739,  aged  ninety-one. 


Cfahriel  Woodmanc^,  died  in  1685. 

He  is  first  introduced  to  our  notice  by  the  purchase  of  a  homestead 
on  what  is  now  Shaw's  Neck  and  Truman  Street,  in  November,  1665. 
Three  sons  are  mentioned :  Thomas,  bora  September  17th,  1670 ; 
settled  in  Shrewsbury,  Monmouth  county.  New  Jersey  ;  Joseph  and 
Gabriel.  The  last  mentioned  died  without  issue,  in  September, 
1720,  aged  thirty-four.  There  was  also  a  daughter,  Sarah,  bora  in 
March,  1673,  who  married  in  Killingworth,  where  she  had  descend- 
ants of  the  names  of  Hurd,  Carter  and  Nettleton.  Joseph,  whom 
we  may  assume  was  bora  about  1680,  is  the  ancestor  of  the  Wood- 
mancys  of  Groton. 


Aaron  Starke,  died  in  1685. 

This  name  is  found  at  Mystic  as  early  as  1658.  In  May,  1666, 
Aaron  Starke  was  among  those  who  were  to  take  the  freeman's  oath 
in  Stonington,  and  in  October,  1669,  was  accepted  as  freeman  of  New 
London.  In  the  interim  he  had  purchased  the  farm  of  William 
Thomson,  the  Pequot  missionary,  near  the  head  of  Mystic,  which 
brought  him  within  the  bounds  of  New  London.  Neither  his  mar- 
riage nor  his  children  are  found  recorded,  but  from  the  settlement  of 
27 


314  'history   of  new   london. 

his  estate,  it  may  be  gathered  that  he  had  sons,  Aaron,  John  and 
William,  and  that  John  Fish  and  Josiah  Hajnes  were  his  sons-in- 
law. 


John  SteMnns,  died  probably  in  1685. 

In  one  deposition  on  record,  his  age  is  said  to  be  sixty,  in  1661, 
and  in  another,  seventy,  in  1675.  Where  the  mistake  lies,  can  not  be 
decided.  It  is  probable  that  he  was  the  John  Stebbins  who  had  a 
son  John  bom  at  Watertown,  in  1640.^  His  wife,  Margaret,  died 
January  1st,  1678-9.  Three  children  are  mentioned  :  John,  Daniel, 
and  the  wife  of  Thomas  Marshall,  of  Hartford.  John  Stebbins,  2d, 
was  married  about  1663 ;  his  wife  was  Deborah,  and  is  supposed  to 
have  been  a  daughter  of  Miles  Moore.  He  died  in  1707.  Daniel 
Stebbins  married  Bethiah,  daughter  of  Daniel  Comstock.  The  broth- 
ers, John  and  Daniel  Stebbins,  were  of  that  company  to  whom  the 
Mohegan  sachems  made  a  munificent  grant  of  a  large  part  of  Hebron 
and  Colchester. 

The  name  is  almost  invariably  written  in  the  earlier  records,  Stub- 
bin,  or  Stubbing. 


No  due  has  been  obtained  to  the  period  of  decease  of  Thomas 
Marritt,  Nathaniel  Holt,  John  Fish  and  William  Feake.  Their 
names,  however,  disappear  from  the  rolls  of  living  men,  about  1685. 

Thomas  MarrxtL — The  name  is  given  in  his  own  orthography, 
but  it  is  commonly  recorded  Merrit  He  was  probably  the  Thomas 
Maryot,  made  freeman  of  the  Bay  colony  in  1636,*  and  the  Thomas 
Merrit,  of  Cambridge,  mentioned  in  the  will  of  John  Benjamin,  in 
1645.^  At  New  London,  his  first  appearance  is  in  1664 ;  he  was 
chosen  custom-master  of  the  port,  and  county  marshal,  Dec  15th, 
1668,  and  was,  for  several  years,  the  most  conspicuous  attorney  in 
the  place. 


Nathaniel  HoU. — William  Holt,  of  New  Haven,  had  a  son,  Na- 
thaniel, bom  in  1647,  who  settled  in  New  London  in  1673,  and  mar- 
ried, April  5th,  1680,  Rebecca,  daughter  of  Thomas  Beeby,  2d. 

1  Farmer's  Kegister. 

2  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  2,  p.  866. 

8  Hist,  and  Gen.  Reg.,  vol.  8,  p.  177.  In  Mass.  Hist  Coll.,  8d  series,  vol.  10,  p.  118, 
Mr»  Myrior  is  probably  a  mistake  for  MyrioU 


HISTORY     OF    NEW    LONDON.  315 

Only  two  children  of  this  marriage  are  recorded — William,  bom  July 
15th,  1681 ;  Nathaniel,  July  18th,  1682.  From  Thomas  Beeby,  the 
Holt  family  inherited  the  original  homestead  granted  by  the  town  to 
Thomas  Parke,  lying  south-west  of  Robert  Hempstead's  lot,  with  a 
highway,  (Hempstead  Street,)  between  them.  Sergeant  Thomas 
Beeby  purchased  this  lot  of  five  acres,  and  left  it  to  his  descendants. 
In  the  original  grant  it  is  said,  ''  to  run  up  the  hill  am(mg  the  rocks.** 
This  description  remained  characteristic  of  the  surface  for  nearly 
two  hundred  years,  but  its  aptness  is  now  fast  melting  away,  before 
an  advancing  line  of  neat  dwelling-houses,  from  whose  windows  the 
occupants  look  out  over  the  roofs  of  their  neighbors,  upon  a  goodly 
prospect.^ 


John  Fish. — Probably  identical  with  the  John  Fish,  who  was  of 
Lynn,  1637.*  In  New  London,  he  appears  early  in  1655,  with  wife 
and  children.  Of  the  latter,  only  three  are  traced,  John,  Jonathan 
and  Samuel.  In  1667,  the  wife  of  John  Fish  was  Martha — probably 
a  second  wife,  and  a  young  woman.  She  was  subsequently  several 
times  arraigned  and  admonished,  on  account  of  improper  conduct, 
and  finally  eloped  with  Samuel  Culver.  Mr.  Fish  obtained  a  divorce 
from  his  recreant  wife,  in  1680,  at  which  time  it  is  said  she  had  been 
gone  six  or  seven  years.  Of  the  guilty  couple  nothing  further  is 
known.  The  estate  of  Mr.  Fish  was  divided  in  1687,  between  his 
two  sons,  Jonathan  and  Samuel.  John  Fish,  Jr.,  is  mentioned  in 
1684,  but  his  name  not  appearing  in  the  division  of  the  estate,  it  may 
be  conjectured  that  he  had  received  his  portion  and  settled  else- 
where.^ 


William  Peake,  or  Pike. — His  residence  was  west  of  the  town- 
plot,  on  the  path  leading  to  Fog  Plain.  Only  three  children  are 
mentioned : 

Sarah,  married,  Dec.  27th,  1671,  Abraham  Dayneor  Deane. 


1  About  the  year  1840,  Mr.  David  Bishop,  with  great  labor,  succeeded  in  cutting  a 
chamber  out  of  the  solid  roclc  for  a  foundation,  upon  wtiich  he  erected  a  handsome 
house.  A  street  has  since  been  opened  over  the  hill,  a  numl>er  of  neat  houses  built, 
and  the  name  of  Mountain  Avenue  given  to  it 

2  Farmer^s  Register. 

8  Perhaps  in  Newtown,  Long  Island.  In  the  patent  of  Newtown,  granted  in  1686, 
are  the  names  of  John,  Samuel  and  Nathan  Fish.  The  same  names  occur  among  the 
tons  of  Samuel  Fish,  of  Groton,  suggesting  a  connection  with  the  Newtown  family. 


316 


HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON. 


William,  who  settled  in  Ljrme,  and  manied,  June  24th,  1679,  Abi- 
gail Comstock. 

John,  who  remained  in  New  London,  had  wife,  Elizabeth,  and 
children,  John,  born  1690;  Samuel,  1698;  William,  1695,  and  Ruth, 
1699.    John  Pike  died,  Oct.  2d,  1699. 


Chriitopher  Ohr%$topher9,  died  July  234,  1687. 

Two  brothers,  of  the  name  of  Christophers,  both  mariners,  and  en- 
gaged in  the  exchange  trade  with  Barbadoes,  settled  in  New  London 
about  1665. 

Jeffrey  was  aged  fiftj-five  in  1676;  of  course  bom  about  1621 
Christopher  was,  at  his  death,  aged  fiflj-six;  bom  about  1631.. 
That  thej  were  brothers,  conclusive  evidence  remains,  in  documents 
upon  record,  wherein  the  relationship  is  expressed. 

Jeffrey  Christophers  had  a  son  of  the  same  name,  who  was  also  a 
mariner,  and  who  died  May  17th,  1690,  of  the  small-pox.  Jane,  the 
wife  of  the  said  Jeffrey  Christophers,  Jr.,  died  of  the  same  disease 
three  weeks  after  her  husband.  Jeffrey,  Sen.,  had  no  other  s<m. 
Three  daughters  are  mentioned:  Joanna,  wife  of  John  Mayhew; 
Margaret,  wife  of  Abraham  Corey,  of  Southold,  and  the  wife  of  a 
Mr.  Parker,  or  Packer,  of  the  same  place.  Li  1700,  JeStrej  Chris- 
tophers was  living  at  Southold,  with  one  of  these  daughters.  The 
date  of  his  death  is  not  known. 

Christopher  Christophers,  having  purchased  the  Doxey  or  Lane 
house-lot,  on  the  Town  Street,  built  thereon,  about  1680,  a  new  house 
which  is  supposed  to  be  the  same  structure,  in  the  frame  and  fashion 
of  it,  that  has  been  known,  of  late  years,  as  the  Wheat  house.  Ac- 
cording to  tradition,  the  timber  of  which  it  was  built,  grew  upon  the 
spot.  Afler  one  hundred  and  seventy  years  of  endurance,  the  frame 
was  still  firm  and  substantial  It  was  one  of  the  six  fortified  houses 
of  1676,  and  subsequently,  when  enlarged,  the  addition  was  built  over 
the  old  sloping  roof.  Another  and  larger  house  was  built  by  the  side 
of  it,  on  the  same  home-lot,  and  probably  on  the  site  of  the  Doxey  or 
Lane  house,  about  the  year  1710,  in  which  resided  the  second  Chris- 
topher Christophers,  grandson  of  the  former.  This  has  more  recently 
been  known  as  the  Hurlbut  house,  (comer  of  Main  and  Federal 
Streets.)  Both  of  these  houses  were  taken  down  in  1851,  and  the 
new  and  tasteful  mansions  of  Messrs.  Lawrence  and  Miner,  now  oc- 
cupy their  places. 

Mr.  Christophers  brought  with  him  to  New  London,  a  wife,  Mary, 


HISTORY     OF     NBW     LONDON.  317 

and  three  children,  Richard,  John  and  Mary,  An  ancient  record  in 
the  family,  states  that  Richard  was  bom,  July  13th,  1662,  at  Ohof- 
ton^i  JForriBy  in  Devonshire,  England ;  probably  Cherston  Ferrers,  a 
Tillage  on  Torbay,  near  Dartmouth.  Mrs.  Mary  Christophers  died 
July  13th,  1676,  aged  fifly-fiye  years,  which  was  ten  years  in  ad- 
yance  of  the  age  of  her  husband.  Her  grave-stone  is  the  second  in 
chronological  order  in  the  old  burial-ground,  being  the  next  in  date 
to  the  tablet  of  Richard  Lord.  Mr.  Christophers  afterward  married 
Elizabeth,  relict  of  Peter  Bra41ey.  A  certificate  of  this  marriage  is 
indorsed  upon  one  of  the  town  books,  without  any  reference  to  time, 
or  place,  or  the  officiating  magistrate,  but  simply  attested  by  two  wit- 
nesses, Mary  Shapley  and  Jane  Hill,  the  latter  a  child,  eight  or  nine 
years  of  age — both  nieces  of  the  bride. 

Christopher  Christophers  died  July  23d,  1687,  aged  fifty-six. 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Christophers,  died  in  1708,  "aged  about  seventy."* 

Richard  Christophers  married,  Jan.  26th,  1681,  Lucretia  Bradley. 
She  died  in  1691.  His  second  wife  was  Grace  Turner,  of  Situate. 
Hhe  two  wives  were  cousins,  and  both  granddaughters  of  Jonathan 
Brewster.  Richard  Christophers  was  much  employed  in  public  af- 
fairs, and  one  of  the  most  prominent  individuals  of  the  town  in  his 
day.  He  was  an  assistant  in  the  colony,  judge  of  the  county  court 
and  court  of  probate.  He  died  June  9th,  1726,  leaving  a  large  es- 
tate. His  will  provides  for  two  sons  and  seven  daughters.  Six  sons 
had  deceased  before  him.  His  oldest  son,  Christopher,  succeeded  to 
all  his  appointments  and  public  offices,  but  very  soon  followed  him 
into  the  grave.  He  died  Feb.  5th,  1728-9,  in  the  forty-sixth  year 
of  his  age.     Estate,  £4,468. 

John  Christophers,  second  son  of  the  first  Christopher  Christo- 
phers, married,  July  28th,  1696,  Elizabeth  Mulford,  of  Long  Island. 
He  died  in  Barbadoes  in  1703.  His  only  son,  John,  was  wrecked 
near  Montauk,  on  a  return  voyage  from  the  same  island,  and  drowned, 
in  July,  1723.  By  this  event,  the  male  issue  in  this  branch  became 
extinct,  and  the  name  centered  in  the  family  of  Richard.  The  elder 
John  Christophers  had  two  daughters,  who  inherited  the  estate.  Eliz- 
abeth who  married  the  third  Joshua  Raymond,  had  the  farm  on  Ni- 
antick  River,  called  Pine  Neck.     Esther,  who  married  Thomas  Man- 


1 A  part  of  her  grave-stone,  containing  the  date,  is  broken  off  and  missing,  but  if 
Mrs.  Christophers  was  forty-two  years  of  age  in  1680,  the  date  most  have  been  1708. 
See  note  before,  under  article  Bradley, 

27* 


818  HISTORY    OP    NEW    tONBON. 

waring,  had  the  farm  at  Black  Point     Elizabeth,  relict  of  John 
Christophers,  married  the  third  John  Picket 

The  names  of  Picket  and  Christophers,  which,  for  a  centorj  and  a 
half  were  common  in  the  town,  and  borne  by  persons  of  note  and  af- 
flnence,  whose  families  also  were  numerous,  have  entirely  disappeared 
from  the  place ;  but  it  is  supposed  that  some  branches,  formerly  di- 
verging from  the  parent  stock  in  New  London,  are  continued  in  other 
parts  of  the  Union. 

John  Richards,  died  in  1687. 

Of  this  person,  no  account  previous  to  his  appearance  in  New  Lon- 
don, has  been  found.  His  marriage  is  not  recorded,  and  it  is  proba- 
ble that  it  took  place  elsewhere.  He  had  seven  children  baptized, 
March  26th,  1671 — John,  Israel,  Mary,  Penelope,  Lydia,  Elizabeth 
and  Hannah.  David  was  baptized  July  27th,  1673.  It  is  presumed 
that  these  eight  form  a  complete  list  of  his  children.  John,  the  old- 
est son,  was  bom  in  1666.  He  married  Love,  daughter  of  Oliver 
Manwaring,  and  had  a  family  of  ten  children,  all  of  whom  died  under 
twenty  years  of  age,  except  four — John,  George,  Samuel  and  Lydia. 
John  married  Anna  Prentis ;  George  married  Esther  Hough ;  Sam- 
uel married  Ann,  (Denison,)  relict  of  Jabez  Hough  :  Lydia  married 
John  Proctor,  of  Boston. 

Israel,  the  second  son  of  the  elder  John  Richards,  inherited  from 
his  father  a  farm,  "  near  the  Mill  Pond,  about  two  miles  to  the  north- 
ward of  the  town  plot."  .  He  had  two  sons,  Israel  and  Jeremiah,  and 
several  daughters. 

David  Richards,  the  third  son,  married  Elizabeth  Raymond,  Dec. 
14th,  1698. 

Samuel  Starry  died,  probably,  in  1688. 

Mr.  Starr  is  not  mentioned  upon  the  records  of  New  London,  at  an 
earlier  date  than  his  marriage  with  Hannah,  daughter  of  Jonathan 
Brewster,  Dec  23d,  1664.  His  wife  was  aged  thirty-seven,  in  1680. 
Their  children  were,  Samuel,  bom  Dec  11th,  1665;  Thomas,  Sept 
27th,  1668 ;  Comfort,  baptized  by  Mr.  Bradstreet,  in  August,  1671 ; 
Jonathan,  baptized  in  1674,  and  Benjamin,  in  1679. 

The  residence  of  this  family  was  on  the  south-west  comer  of  the 
Bradley  lot,  (comer  of  Main  and  State  Streets,  or  Button  wood  com- 
er.)    Mr.  Starr  was  appointed  county  marshal,^  in  1678,  and  prob- 

1  Equivalent  to  sherifiEl 


s. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  319 

ablj  held  the  office  till  his  death.  No  will,  inventorj,  or  record  of 
the  settlement  of  his  estate  has  been  found,  but  a  deed  was  executed 
Feb.  2d,  1687-8,  bj  Hannah,  widow  of  Samuel  Starr,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  her  husband  had  then  recently  deceased. 

Samuel  Starr  was  undoubtedly  a  descendant  of  "  Comfort  Starr, 
of.Ashford,  chirurgeon/'  who  came  to  New  £ngland,  in  the  Hercu- 
les, of  Sandwich,  1635,  with  three  children  and  three  servants.*  The 
coincidence  of  names,  suggests  an  intimate  family  connection.  The 
three  children  of  the  chirurgeon  are  supposed  to  have  been  Thomas, 
John  and  Comfort.  Thomas  followed  the  profession  of  his  father,  is 
styled  a  surgeon,  and  was  living  in  Yarmouth,  Mass.,  from  1648  to 
1670.*  He  had  two  children  bom  in  Situate — Comfort,  in  1644,  and 
Elizabeth,  in  1646.  It  is  probable  that  he  had  other  children,  and 
according  to  our  conjecture,  one  older,  viz.,  our  Samuel  Starr,  of  New 
London.  The  church  records  of  Ipswich,  state  that  Mary,  wife  of 
Comfort  Starr,  was  admitted  to  that  church  in  March,  1671,  and  in 
May,  1673,  dismissed  to  the  church  in  New  London.  She  was  re- 
ceived here  in  June,  and  her  husband's  name  appears  on  the « town 
record,  about  the  same  period,  but  he  is  supposed  to  have  removed 
to  Middletown.  This  was  probably  the  brother  of  Samuel,  and  iden- 
tical with  Comfort  Starr,  bom  in  1644. 

Samuel  Starr,  Jun.,  is  mentioned  in  1685,  and  again  in  1687.  He 
then  disappears,  and  no  descendants  have  been  found  in  this  vicinity. 
Of  Comfort,  third  son  of  Samuel,  nothing  is  known  after  his  bap- 
tism in  1671.  It  may  be  presumed  that  he  died  young.  The  second 
and  fourth  sons,  Thomas  and  Jonathan,  settled  east  of  the  river,  in 
the  present  town  of  Groton,  on  land  which  some  of  their  descendants 
still  occupy.  Thomas  Starr  is  called  a  shipwright.  In  the  year 
1710,  he  sold  a  sloop,  called  the  Sea  Flower,  which  he  describes  as 
'^  a  square  stemed  vessel  of  sixty-seven  tons,  and  six-seventh  of  a  ton 
burden,  built  by  me  in  Groton,"  for  £180.  This  is  our  latest  account 
of  him  till  we  meet  with  the  notice  of  his  death,  which  took  place 
Jan.  31st,  1711-12. 

Thomas  and  Jonathan  Starr  married  sisters,  Mary  and  Elizabeth 
Morgan,  daughters  of  Capt.  James  Morgan.  Samuel,  the  oldest  son 
of  Jonathan,  removed  to  Norwich,  and  is  the  founder  of  the  Norwich 
family  of  Starrs.  Jonathan,  the  second  son,  was  the  ancestor  of  the 
present  Jonathan  Starr,  Esq.,  of  New  London,  and  of  the  late  Capt. 

1  QleaniDgs  by  Savage,  in  Moss.  Hist  CoD.,  8d  series,  vol.  8,  p.  276. 

2  Deane*8  Hist  of  Situate,  p.  847,  and  Thatcher's  Medical  Biography. 


320  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

Jared  Starr.  Richard,  another  brother  of  this  family,  removed  to 
Hinsdale,  Mass.,  and  was  one  of  the  fathers  of  that  new  settlementf 
and  a  founder  of  its  infant  church.' 

The  descendants  of  Jonathan  Starr  have  been  remarkable  for  lon^* 
gevity — eight  of  his  children  lived  to  be  eighty,  and  most  of  them 
over  eighty-five  years  of  age.  One  of  his  daughters,  Mrs.  Turner, 
was  one  hundred  years  and  seven  months  old.  In  the  family  of  his 
son  Jonathan,  the  father,  mother  and  four  children,  averaged  ninety 
years  of  age.  The  third  Jonathan  lived  to  be  ninety-five,  and  his 
brother,  Capt.  Jared  Starr,  to  his  ninetieth  year.  A  similar  length 
^  of  years  characterized  their  partners  in  marriage.  Mrs.  Mary  (Sea- 
bury)  Starr,  lived  to  the  age  of  ninety-nine  years  ;  and  Elizabeth, 
relict  of  Capt  Joseph  Starr,  of  Groton,  (brother  of  Jonathan,  2d,) 
died  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  years,  four  months  and  eight  days. 

Benjamin  Starr,  the  youngest  son  of  the  first  Samuel,  (born  1679,) 
settled  in  New  London,  and  has  had  many  descendants  here.  He 
purchased,  in  1702,  of  the  heirs  of  Thomas  Dymond,  a  house,  garden, 
and  i|(harf,  upon  Bream  Cove,  east  side,  where  the  old  bridge  crossed 
the  cove,  which  was  then  regarded  as  the  end  of  the  town  in  that  di- 
rection. The  phrase — ^from  the  fort  to  Benjamin  Starr's — compre- 
hended the  whole  length  of  the  bank.  The  water,  at  high  tide,  came 
up  to  the  base  of  Mr.  Starr's  house ;  and  the  dwellings  south-east  of 
it,  known  as  the  Crocker  and  Perriman  houses,  founded  on  the  rocks, 
had  the  tide  directly  in  their  rear,  so  las  to  preclude  the  use  fif  doors 
on  the  water  side.  The  quantity  of  made  land  in  that  vicinity,  and 
the  recession  of  the  water,  consequent  upon  bridging  and  wharfing, 
has  entirely  altered  the  original  form  of  the  shore  around  Bream 
Cove.  A  foot-bridge,  with  a  draw,  spanned  the  cove,  by  the  side  of 
Mr.  Starr,  and  connected  him  with  his  opposite  neighbor,  Peter 
Harris. 


Philip  JBiU,  died  My  Sth,  1689. 

Mr.  Bill,  and  a  daughter  named  Margaret,  died  the  same  day,  vic- 
tims of  an  epidemic  throat  distemper,  that  was  prevalent  in  July  and 


1  Richard  Starr  was  a  man  eminent  for  piety.  Mrs.  Mary  Starr  (wife  of  Jonathan) 
itted  to  Bay, ''  Brother  Richard  comes  to  see  us  once  a  year,  and  I  always  feel  at  his 
departure,  as  if  an  angel  had  heen  visiting  us.**  This  testimonial  is  the  more  pleasing, 
from  the  fact  that  the  two  families  belonged  to  different  religious  denominations- 
Richard  Stair  was  a  Congregationalist;  Mrs.  Starr  of  the  Episcopal  communion. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  331 

August  of  this  year.  He  settled  east  of  the  river,  in  that  part  of  the 
township  which  is  now  Ledjard,  before  1670.  Mr.  Bradstreet  bap- 
tized his  son  Jonathan,  November  5  th,  1671,  and  adds  to  the  record 
that  the  father  was  member  of  the  churdi  at  Ipswich.  Another  son, 
Joshua,  was  baptized  in  1675.  The  older  children,  probably  bom  in 
Ipswich,  were  Philip,  Samuel,  John  and  Elizabeth.  Hannah,  relict 
of  Philip  Bill,  married  Samuel  BucknalL  Philip  Bill,  Jr.,  was  ser- 
geant of  the  first  company  of  train-bands  formed  in  Groton.  His  wife 
was  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Andrew  Lester.  Their  oldest  son,  Philip, 
was  lost  at  sea,  or  died  abroad.  Sergeant  Philip  Bill,  who  *' lived 
near  the  Long  Hill  in  Groton,"  died  July  10th,  1739,  aged  above 
eighty.  "The  church  bell  (says  Hempstead  in  his  diary,)  tolled 
twice  on  that  occasion."  We  infer  from  this  that  it  was  customary 
at  that  day  to  have  only  a  death-bell  to  announce  decease,  but  no 
passing-bell  to  solemnize  the  funeraL 


AhdMoorey  died  July  9M,  1689. 

This  event  occurred  at  Dedham,  Mass.,  and  was  caused  by  the  ex- 
treme heat  of  the  weather.  He  was  constable  of  the  town*that  year* 
and  had  been  to  Boston,  probably  on  business  connected  with  his 
public  duties. 

Abel  Moore  was  the  son,  and  as  far  as  we  know  the  only  son  of 
Miles  Moore,  and  his  wife,  Isabel  Joyner.  Of  the  death  of  the  par- 
ents we  ]iave  no  account,  but  it  is  probable  that  they  had  deceased 
before  their  son.  They  were  both  living  in  1680,  when  Mr.  Brad- 
street  records  as  admitted  to  full  conmiunion  in  the  church,  '*old 
goodman  Moore  and  his  wife,  sometime  members  of  the  church  at 
Guildford" — Guilford  is  here  unquestionably  a  mistake  for  Milford. 
Miriam,  wife  of  John  Willey,  is  the  only  daughter  of  Miles  Moore, 
that  is  well  ascertained;  but  it  is  probable  that  Deborah,  wife  of 
John  Stebbins,  Jun.,  had  the  same  parentage. 

Abel  Moore  married,  September  22d,  1670,  Hannah,  daughter  of 
Robert  Hempstead.  Their  children  were  Miles,  bom  September 
24th,  1671 ;  Abel,  July  14th,  1674;  Mary,  bom  in  1678;  John  in 
1680,  and  Joshua,  to  whose  birth  or  age  no  reference  has  been  found. 
Hannah,  relict  of  Abel  Moore,  married  Samuel  Waller. 


Smith. 
We  find  the  name  of  Giles  Smith,  at  Hartford,  in  1639;  at  New 
London,  in  1647  ;  at  Fairfield,  in  1661.    These  three  are  doubtless 


322  HISTORY    OP   NEW     LONDON. 

one  and  the  same  person.    At  Fairfield,  he  found  a  resting  place, 
and  there  remained  till  his  death.^ 

Ralph  Smith  was  a  transient  resident  in  1657,  and  again  in  1659. 

Richard  Smith  came  to  the  plantation  in  1652,  from  '^  Martin's 
Vineyard,"  but  soon  went  to  Wethersfield.  Another  Richard  Smith 
was  a  householder  in  1655,  occupying  the  lot  of  Jarvis  Mudge,  near 
the  burial  ground ;  but  he  also  removed  to  Wethersfield,  where  the 
two  were  styled  senior  and  junior,  but  they  do  not  appear  to  have 
been  father  and  son.  This  name,  Richard  Smithy  was  of^n  repeated 
on  the  list  of  early  emigrants.  Two  persons  bearing  it,  one  aged 
forty-three,  and  the  other  twenty-eight,  are  among  the  passengers 
that  came  to  America  in  the  SpeedweUyin  1656.^  A  Richard  Smith 
settled  in  Narragansett,  before  1650,  and  was  a  man  of  influence  in 
all  concerns  relating  to  the  Indians  of  that  neighborhood.  He  had  a 
son  of  the  same  name.  Another  Richard  Smith  belongs  to  the  early 
history  of  Lyme,  where  his  name  appears  as  a  landholder  in  1670. 
These  have  been  enumerated,  in  order  to  distinguish  them  carefully . 
from  Richard  Smith  of  New  London,  who  had  no  connection  that  can 
be  discovered,  with  any  of  them. 

**  Richard  Smith  and  Bathsheba  Rogers  (daughter  of  James,)  were  married 
together  by  me,  Daniel  Wetherell,  commissioner,  March  4,  1669,  (70)." 

Mr.  Smith  died  in  1682,  and  his  relict  married  Samuel  Fox. 
Four  children  of  the  first  marriage  are  mentioned,  viz.,  Elizabeth, 
who  married  William  Camp ;  Bathsheba,  who  married  hef  cousin, 
John  Rogers,  2d ;  John,  who  subsequently  settled  in  the  North  Par- 
ish, and  left  descendants  there,  and  James.  The  last  named  was 
probably  the  oldest  son.  He  was  baptized  April  12th,  1674  ;  mar- 
ried Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Jonathan  Rogers,  and  has  had  an  un- 
broken Ime  of  descendants  in  the  town  to  the  present  day.  He  is  the 
ancestor  of  the  four  brothers  Smith,  who  have  been  such  successful 
whaling  captains  from  New  London,  since  the  year  1820. 

Other  early  settlers  of  New  London,  of  the  name  of  Smith,  were 
Nehemiah,  John  and  Edward.  The  first  two  were  brothers,  and  the 
last  named,  their  nephew.  Nehemiah  had  previously  lived  in  New 
Haven,  and  the  birth  of  his  son  Nehemiah,  the  only  soh  that  appears 
on  record,  was  registered  there  in  1646.  John  Smith  came  from 
Boston,  with  his  wife  Joanna  and  daughter  Elizabeth,  who  appears 

1  Judd,  of  Northampton,  (MS.) 

2  Hiat  and  Gen.  Reg.,  voL  1,  p.  182. 


HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON.  323 

to  have  been  his  oolj  child.  Edward  Smith  is  first  named  in  1660. 
He  settled  on  a  farm  east  of  the  river. 

Nehoniah  Smith,  the  elder,  connected  lumself  with  the  association 
that  setUed  Norwich,  in  1660,  and  removed  to  that  plantation,  where 
he  died  in  1684.  He  left  four  daughters :  Mary,  wife  of  Samuel 
Raymond;  Ann,  wife  of  Thomas  Bradford ;  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Joshua 
Raymond,  and  Experience,  wife  of  Joshua  Abel,  of  Norwich.  His 
son,  Nehemiah  Smith,  2d,  married  Lydia,  daughter  of  Alexander 
Winchester,  of  Roxbury,  October  24th,  1669.  He  was  for  many 
years  in  the  commission  of  the  peace,  an  honorable  and  venerated 
man;  usually  styled  on  the  records,  Mr,  Justice  Smith.  He  died  in 
1727,  and  was  buried  at  Pequonuck,  in  Groton,  where  the  latter 
years  of  his  life  were  spent.  It  was  this  Nehemiah  Smith  who  made 
the  large  purchase  of  soldier  land  at  Niantic,  in  1692,  which  he 
assigned,  in  1698,  to  his  second  son,  SamueL  The  latter  settled  on 
this  land,  and  is  the  progenitor  of  several  families  of  the  name,  both 
•  of  Lyme  and  New  London. 

John  Smith  remained  in  the  town  plot,  and  afler  1659,  held  the 
offices  of  conmiissioner,  custom-master  and  grand-juryman.  His  res- 
idence was  in  New,  or  Cape  Ann  Street. 

"  Feb.  1666-7.  John  Smith  hath  given  him  the  two  trees  that  stand  in  the 
street  before  his  house  for  shade,  not  to  be  cut  down  by  any  person." 

He  died  in  1680.  His  will  was  accepted  in  the  county  court,  with 
thb  notification,  "  The  court  doth  desire  tiie  widow  to  consider  her 
husband's  kinsman,  Edward  Smith."  The  will  had  been  made  in 
favor  of  the  wife,  in  violation,  as  was  claimed,  of  certain  promises 
made  to  his  ^nephew.  A  suit  at  law  ensued  between  the  parties. 
The  case  was  finally  carried  to  tiie  court  of  assistants,  at  Hartford,  by 
whose  decision  the  will  was  sustained.  Joanna  Smith,  the  widow, 
was  noted  as  a  doctress.  She  made  salves,  and  was  skillful  to  heal 
wounds  and  bruises,  as  well  as  to  nurse  and  tend  the  sick.  Her  ser- 
vices in  this  way,  she  maintained,  had  contributed  in  no  small  degree 
to  the  prosperity  of  her  husband.  She  died  in  1687,  aged  about  sev- 
enty-three years.  Her  estate  was  inherited  by  her  daughter,  Eliza- 
beth Way,  of  Lyme,  and  her  grandsons,  Greorge  and  Thomas  Way. 

Edward  Smith  married,  June  7th,  1663,'  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
Thomas  Bliss,  of  Norwich.  This  couple,  together  with  their  son 
John,  aged  fifteen,  died  of  the  epidemic  disease  of  1689 ;  the  son, 
July  8th ;  the  wife,  July  10th,  and  Edward  Smith,  July  14th.  They 
left  a  son,  Obadiah,  twdve  years  of  age,  and  six  daughters,  who  all 


324  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

went  to  reside  with  their  friends  in  Norwich,  and  mostly  settled  ia 
that  place.' 

These,  with  Lieut  Samuel  Smith,  from  Wethersfield,  whose  career 
has  been  traced  in  a  preceding  chapter,  comprise  all  the  grantees  of 
the  town,  of  the  name  of  Smith,  previous  to  1690. 


Walter  Bodington,  died  September  17 th,  1689. 

He  was  a  single  man  who  had  occupied  for  a  few  years  certain 
lands  east  of  the  river,  which  he  purchased  of  the  heirs  of  Thomas 
Bailey.  The  orthography  of  the  name  has  since  varied  into  Budding- 
ton.  Walter  Bodington,  Jr.,  nephew  of  the  deceased,  was  appointed 
administrator,  as  being  nearest  of  kin. '  Joseph  Nest  had  some  inter- 
est in  the  estate,  perhaps  in  right  of  his  wife,  who  may  have  been  sis- 
ter to  the  younger  Walter.  Of  this  family  no  early  record  is  found, 
either  of  marriages  or  births.  The  second  Walter  Bodington  died 
November  20th,  1713.  His  will  mentions  son  Walter,  and  children* 
of  John  Wood ;  from  which  it  is  inferred  that  Mary,  the  fiist  wife  of 
John  Wood,  was  his  daughter.  The  Buddington  family  of  Groton, 
have  never  suffered  the  name  of  Walter  to  be  at  any  time  missing  from 
the  family  line. 


John  Packer,  died  in  1689. 

With  this  early  settler  in  Groton,  only  a  slight  acquaintance  has 
been  obtained.  He  fixed  his  habitation,  about  the  year  1655,  in  close 
proximity  to  the  Pequot  Indians,  who  had  congregated  at  Naiwayonk, 
(Noank.)  His  children  can  only  be  gathered  incidentally.  He  had 
John,  Samuel  and  Richard,  probably  by  his  first  wife,  Elizabeth. 
He  married  for  his  second  wife,  June  24th,  1676,  Rebecca,  widow  of 
Thomas  Latham,  and  had  a  son  James,  baptized  September  11th,  1 681. 
Two  other  sons,  Joseph  and  Benjamin,  and  a  daughter  named  Re- 
becca, may  also  be  assigned  to  this  wife,  who  survived  him,  and  after- 
ward married  a  Watson,  of  Kingston,  Rhode  Island. 

John  Packer,  2d,  married  Lydia,  daughter  of  Caiy  Latham.  He 
died  in  1701.  Benjamin  Packer,  in  1709,  <'  having  been  impressed 
into  the  army  to  fight  the  French,"  made  his  will,  bequeathing  his 


1  The  son  was  that  Capt  Obadiah  Smith,  of  Norwich,  who  died  in  1727,  and  whose 
grave-fitone  bears  the  quaint,  but  touching  epitaph: 

"  And  now  beneath  these  carved  stones, 
Rich  treasure  lies—dear  Smith,  his  bones.*' 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  325 

patrimony  of  sixty  acres  of  land,  to  his  brothers,  James  and  Joseph^ 
and  sister  Rebecca.  He  probably  never  returned  from  the  frontier. 
Capt  James  Packer  inherited  from  his  father  a  controversy  re- 
specting the  extent  of  his  lands  at  Nawayonk,  which  commenced  with 
the  Indians  before  their  removal,  and  was  continued  with  the  town  oi 
Groton.  In  1735,  a  compromise  was  effected  by  commissioners  ap- 
pointed by  the  (Jeneral  Assembly.  This  was  an  occasion  of  great 
local  interest,  and  on  the  5th  of  August,  when  the  commissioners, 
"  Major  Timothy  Pierce,  Mr.  West,  of  Lebanon,  and  Sheriff  Hunting- 
ton, of  Windham,"  left  New  London,  on  their  way  to  view  the  con- 
tested premises,  they  were  accompanied  by  forty  mounted  men  from 
the  town,  and  found  their  train  continually  increasing  as  they  pro- 
ceeded. On  the  ground  a  large  assembly  had  convened.  The  neigh- 
boring farm-houses.  Smith's,  Niles',  &c.,  were  filled  to  overflowing 
with  guests.^  This  b  mentioned  as  exhibiting  a  characteristic  of  the 
times.  Our  early  local  history  is  every  where  besprinkled  with  such 
gatherings.     Cs^t.  James  Packer  died  in  1764,  aged  eighty-four. 


William  Chapell,  died  in  1689  or  1690. 

This  name  is  often  in  the  confused  orthography  of  the  old  records 
confounded  with  Chappell^  but  they  appear  to  have  been  from  the  first, 
distinct  names.  Some  clerks  were  very  careful  to  note  the  distinc- 
tion, putting  an  accent  over  the  a,  or  writing  it  double,  Chaapel, 
William  Chapell,  in  1659,  bought  a  house-lot  in  New  Street,  in  part- 
nership with  Richard  Waring,  (Warren  ?)  In  1667,  he  was  asso- 
ciated with  William  Peake,  in  the  purchase  of  various  lots  of  rugged, 
uncleared  land,  hill,  ledge  and  swamp,  on  the  west  side  of  the  town 
plot,  which  they  divided  between  them.^  William  Peake  settled  on 
what  has  since  been  called  the  Rockdale  farm,  now  James  Brown's, 
and  William  Chapell,  on  the  Cohanzie  road,  upon  what  is  at  present 
known  as  the  Cavarly  farm.  A  considerable  part  of  the  Chapell  land 
was  afterward  purchased  by  the  Latimer  family. 

Children  of  WiUiam  Chapell  and  hit  wife  Christian, 

1.  Mary,  born  February  14th,  1668-9  ;  married  John  Wood. 

2.  John,  bom  Feb.  28th,  1671-2;  married  Sarah  Lewis,  August  26th,  1698. 


1  Hempstead^s  Diary. 

2  A  considerable  part  of  the  Peake  and  Chapell  Und  was  sold  by  them  to  Mrs.  Ann 
Latimer.  On  this  Latimer  purchase,  which  lay  on  the  south-eastern  slope  of  Wolf- 
pit  Hill,  (now  Prospect  Hill,)  the  Cedar  Grove  Cemetery  was  hdd  out  in  1861. 

28 


326  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

3.  William,  "  born  nigh  the  end  of  Sept.  1677." 

4.  Christian,      «*       "    "end  of  Feb.  1680-1 ;"  married  a  Fairbanks. 

5.  William. 

6.  Joseph,  married  Bethiah  Dart. 

Edward  Stallion  married  Christian  Chapell,  relict  of  William,  in  1693. 

In  February,  1695,  William  Chapell,  aged  eight  years  and  a  half, 
was  delivered  "  to  Jonathan  Prentis,  mariner,  to  be  instructed  in  the 
mariner's  art  and  navigation,  by  said  Prentis,  or  in  case  of  his  death, 
by  his  Dame''  This  lad  died  in  1704.  The  descendants  of  John 
and  Joseph  Chapell,  the  oldest  and  youngest  sons  of  William  and 
Christian,  are  numerous.  There  was  a  John  Chapell,  of  Lyme,  in 
1678,  and  onward,  probably  brother  of  William,  senior,  of  New 
London. 


Thomas  Minor, ^  died  October  23d,  1690. 

Mrs.  Grace  Minor  deceased  the  same  month.  A  long  stone  of 
rough  granite  in  the  burial  ground  at  Wickutequack,  almost  imbedded 
in  the  turf,  bears  the  following  rudely  cut  inscription  :  "  Here  lyeth 
the  body  of  Lieutenant  Thomas  Minor,  aged  eighty-three  years.  De- 
parted 1690."  It  is  said  that  Mr.  Minor  had  selected  this  stone 
from  his  own  fields,  and  had  often  pointed  it  out  to  his  family,  with 
the  request — Lay  this  stone  on  my  grave. 

Mr.  Minor  bore  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  settlement,  both  of  New 
London  and  Stonington.  His  personal  history  belongs  more  particu- 
larly to  the  latter  place.  His  wife  was  Grace,  daughter  of  Walter 
Palmer,  and  his  children  recorded  in  New  London,  are  Manasseh, 
born  April  28th,  1647,  to  whom  we  must  accord  the  distinction  of 
being  the  first  bom  male  after  the  settlement  of  the  town  ;  two  daugh- 
ters who  died  in  infancy ;  Samuel,  bom  March  4th,  1652,  and  Han- 
nah, bom  September  15th,  1655.  He  had  several  sons  older  than 
Manasseh,  viz.,  John,  Joseph,  Thomas,  Clement  and  Ephraim. 

John  Minor  was  for  a  short  period  under  instruction  at  the  expense 
of  the  commissioners  of  the  New  England  colonies,  who  wished  to 
prepare  him  for  an  interpreter  and  tether  of  the  gospel  to  the  In- 
dians. The  education  of  John  Stanton  was  also  provided  for  in  the 
same  way.  The  proficiency  of  these  youths  in  the  Indian  language, 
probably  led  to  the  selection.  Neither  of  them  followed  out  the  plan 
of  their  patrons,  though  both  became  useful  men,  turning  their  edu- 


1  This  name  is  now  commonly  written  Miner.    We  use  in  this  work,  the  original 
autograph  authority. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  327 

cation  to  good  account,  as  recorders,  justices,  &c.  John  Minor  is 
supposed  to  have  emigrated  to  Stratford,  in  1657  or  1658,  and  from 
thence  removed  to  Woodburj,  where  he  served  as  town-clerk  for 
manj  jears.^  The  only  son  of  Thomas  Minor  that  settled  perma- 
nentlj  in  New  London,  was  Clement. 

Clement  Minor  married  in  16Q2,  Frances,  relict  of  Isaac  Willey,  Jr. 
Children  of  Clemeni  and  Frances  Minor. 
Mary,  born  Jan.  lOth,  16G4-5.  William,  born  Nov.  6th,  1670. 

Joseph,  "     Aug.  6th,  1668.  Ann,  "    Nov.  30th,  1672. 

Clement,  bom  Oct.  6tli,  166S. 
Frances,  wife  of  Clement  Minor,  died  Jan.  6th,  1672-3. 
He  married  second,  Martha,  daughter  of  William  Wellman,  formerly  of  New 
liOndon,  but  then  of  Killingworth. 

Phebe,  daughter  of  Clement  and  Frances  Minor,  was  born  April  ISth,  1679. 
(This  is  so  recorded,  but  Frances  is  a  palpable  mistake  for  Martha.) 
Martha,  wife  of  Clement  Minor,  died  July  5th,  1681. 

Mr.  Minor  usually  appears  on  the  records  either  as  Ensign  Clem- 
ent, or  Deacon  Clement  Minor.  He  married  a  third  wife — Joanna — 
whose  death  occurred  very  near  his  own,  in  October,  1700. 

**  William  Mynar^  married  Lydia,  daughter  of  John  Richards, 
Nov.  15.  1678."  This  was  not  a  descendant  of  Thomas  Minor,  but 
the  person  better  known  as  William  Mynard  or  Maynard. 


Ckorge  MiUer,  died  in  1690. 

This  person  had  been  a  resident,  east  of  the  river,  (in  Groton,) 
from  the  year  1679,  and  perhaps  longer.  He  left  four  daughters, 
Mary,  wife  of  Stephen  Loomer ;  Elizabeth,  second  wife  of  Edward 
Stallion ;  Sarah,  second  wife  of  the  second  John  Packer,  and  Priscil- 
la,  then  unmarried. 

Robert  Miller  settled  in  the  Nahantick  district,  upon  the  border 
of  Lyme,  about  1687.  He  died  May  14th,  1711,  leaving  sons  Rob- 
ert and  John.  No  connection  has  been  ascertained  between  George 
of  Groton,  and  Robert  of  Nahantick. 


John  Lamb. 
This  name  is  found  on  the  New  London  Rate  List  of  1664,  and 
on  the  list  of  freemen  in  1669.     In  December,  1663,  he  is  styled 


1  Capt  John  Minor  was  deputy  from  Stratford  to  the  General  Court,  in  October* 
1676.    Ckmn.  Ck>L  Reo.,  voL  2,  p.  286. 


\ 


\ 


328  HisTOigsr  of   new    london. 

"  John  Lamb,  now  of  Pockatuck,  alias  Southerton."  He  purchased 
land  of  Edward  and  Ann  Culver  ''at  a  place  called  in  Indian 
Wontobish,  near  the  house  of  the  said  Lamb."  This  land  was  in 
1695,  confirmed  to  Thomas,  "  oldest  son  of  John  Lamb,  deceased,"  bj 
John,  son  of  Edward  Culver ;  and  Thomas  Lamb  assigns  a  part  of 
it  to  his  brother  SamueL^ 

Another  John  Lamb  of  Stonington  died  Jan.  10th,  1703-4,  leav- 
ing a  wife  Ljdia — sons  John,  Joseph  and  David — and  seven  daugh- 
ters. 

Isaac  Lamb  was  an  inhabitant  of  Groton  in  1696.  He  died  in 
1728 — ^leaving  six  daughters,  No  other  residents  of  this  name  have 
been  traced  before  1700. 


John  Bennetydied  September  22dy  1691. 

This  person  was  at  Mystic  as  early  as  1658.  He  had  sods — ^Wil- 
liam (bom  1660 ;)  John  and  Joseph. 

James  Bennet,  shipwright,  died  in  New  London  May  7th,  1690. 

Thomas  Bennet  was  a  resident  of  New  London  from  1692  to 
1710.  He  removed  to  Groton  and  there  died  Feb.  4th,  1722.  His 
wife  was  Sarah,  the  only  surviving  child  of  Lawrence  Codner. 

Henry  Bennet  of  Lyme  died  in  1726,  leaving  three  sons  and  four 
married  daughters.  It  is  probable  that  all  these  had  a  commoo 
ancestor,  whose  name  does  not  appear  on  our  records. 


John  Prentis. 

No  account  of  the  death  of  this  early  member  of  the  community 
has  been  found,  but  the  probate  proceedings  show  that  it  took  place 
in  1691. 

Valentine  Prentis  or  Prentice  came  to  New  England  in  1631,  with 
wife  Alice  and  son  John,  having  buried  one  child  at  sea.  He  settled 
in  Roxbury,  where  he  soon  died,  and  his  relict  married  (April  3dy 
1634)  John  Watson.* 

John  Prentis,  the  son  of  Valentine  and  Alice,  became  an  inhabit- 
ant of  New  London  in  1652,  and  probably  brought  his  wife,  Hester, 
with  him  from  Roxbury.    Though  living  in  New  London  he  con- 

1  The  names  are  similar  to  those  found  in  the  fiunily  of  John  Lamb  of  Springfield) 
but  a  connection  with  that  family  has  not  been  ascertained. 

2  Genealogy  of  the  Prentis  &mily,  by  C.  J,  F.  Binney, 


HISTOKT     OF     NEW     LONDON.  329 

nected  himself  with  the  Roxbury  church  in  September,  1665,  and 
thither  he  carried  most  of  his  children  to  be  baptized. 

Children  of  John  and  Better  Prentit,  recorded  in  New  London, 
John,  born  Aug.  6th,  1652.  Stephen,  Dec.  26th,  1666. 

Joseph,  bom  Apr.  2d,  1655,  died  1676.      Mercy,       "  1668,  died  1689. 
Jonathan,  born  July  15th,  1657.  Hannah,  born  June,  1672. 

Esther, J^rn  July  20th,  1660^  Thomas,    |  ^^^  j,,^^ 

Peter,  bom  July  31st,  1663,  died  1670.     Elizabeth,  ) 

In  1685,  John  Prentis  married  Rebecca,  daughter  of  Ralph  Parker, 
bj  whom  he  had  a  son  Ralph,  who  was  infirm  from  his  birth,  and 
maintained  until  death  from  the  estate  of  his  parents.  These  are  all 
the  children  that  appear  on  record,  but  in  the  final  settlement  of  the 
estate  of  Prentis  in  1706,  a  Valentine  Prentis  of  Woodbury  comes 
in  for  a  share,  and  gives  a  quitclaim  deed  to  the  executor,  whom  he 
caUs  ^  mj  loving  brother,  Capt  John  Prentis."  Again,  on  the  death 
of  Capt.  Thomas  Prentis,  youngest  son  of  John,  who  died  without 
issue  in  1741,  his  estate  was  distributed  to  seven  brothers  and  sisters, 
one  of  whom  was  Valentine  Prentis  of  "Woodbury.  These  facts 
justify  us  in  assigning  to  Valentine  a  place  among  the  sons  of  John 
Prentis,  and  probably  he  was  the  youngest  child  of  the  first  marriagci 
and  bom  before  1680. 

Esther  Prentis  married  Benadam  Gallop  of  Stonlngton. 
Hannah  Prentis  married  Lient.  John  Frink  of  Stonington. 
Elizabeth  Prentis  lived  unmarried  to  the  age  of  ninety-five. 
She  died  December  13th,  1770. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  John  Prentis  was  by  trade  a  black- 
smith. He  pursued  his  craft  in  New  London  for  six  or  seven  years 
and  then  removed  to  a  farm  in  the  neighborhood  of  Robin  Hood's 
Bay  (Jordan  Cove)  near  the  Bentworth  farm ;  but  in  a  few  years 
once  more  changed  h\6  main  pursuit  and  entered  upon  a  seafaring 
life.  His  sons  also,  one  after  another  (according  to  the  usual  custom 
of  New  London)  began  the  business  of  life  upon  the  sea.  In  1675, 
John  Prentis,  Jr.,  commanded  the  barque  Adventure,  in  the  Bar- 
badoes  trade.  In  1680,  the  elder  John  and  his  son  Jonathan  owned 
and  navigated  a  vessel,  bearing  the  family  name  of  "  John  and  Hes- 
ter.'' Thomas  Prentis  also  became  a  noted  sea-captain,  making  a 
constant  succession  of  voyages  to  Newfoundland  and  tl;^e  West  In- 
dies, from  1695  to  1720. 

John  Prentis  the  second,  married  Sarah  Jones,  daughter  of  Mrs. 
Ann  Latimer,  by  her  first  husband  Matthew  Jones  of  Boston.     They 
had  a  family  of  five  daughters,  who  were  connected  in  marriage  as 
28* 


330  HlfttOfiT   Ol^    NEW    LOUDON* 

follows :  j/b^jith  Oapt.  Thomas  Hosmer ;  Sarah  with  ThomaB  ICg- 
hill,  both  of  Hartford:  Patience,  with  Rev.  John  Bnlkley  of  C<^- 
chester ;  Elizabeth,  with  Samuel  Green,  (son  of  Jonas  Green,)  and 
Irene  with  Naboth  Graves — ^the  two  last  of  New  London.  Among 
these  children,  the  father,  in  1711,  distributed  the  Indian  servants  of 
his  household — Rachel  and  her  children*— in  this  order : 

<*  To  my  son-in-law  Thomas  Hosmer  of  Hartford,  one  black  girl  named  Si- 
mone,  till  she  is  30 — then  she  is  to  be  free.  To  my  son-in-law  John  Bulkley* 
Bilhah,— to  be  free  at  32.  To  my  daughter  Sarah,  Zilpha — to  be  free  at  32 — 
To  my  daughter  Elizabeth,  a  black  boy  named  Hannibal— to  be  free  at  35. 
To  my  daughter  Irene,  a  boy  named  York,  free  at  35.  To  Scipio  I  have  prom- 
ised freedom  at  30.  Rachel  the  mother,  I  give  to  Irene — also  the  little  girl  with 
her,  named  Dido,  who  is  to  be  free  at  32.**  To  this  bequest  is  added  to  the 
three  youngest  daughters,  then  unmarried,  each—-*'  a  feather  bed  and  its  fbr- 
niture."* 

Stephen  Prentis,  son  of  John  the  elder,  inherited  the  fEirm  d  his 
father,  near  Niantic  ferry,  where  he  died  in  1758,  aged  ninety-two. 
His  wife  was  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  John  Rogers  and  granddaughter 
of  Matthew  Griswold. 


John   Wheeler,  died  December  IQth,  1691. 

No  connection  has  been  traced  between  John  Wheeler  of  New 
London,  and  Thomas  and  Isaac  Wheeler,  cotemporary  inhabitants  of 
Stonington.  John  is  first  presented  to  us,  as  part  owner  of  a  vessel 
called  the  Zebulon,  in  1667.  He  entered  largely  into  mercantile 
concerns,  traded  with  the  West  Indies,  and  had  a  vessel  built  under 
his  own  superintendence,  which  at  the  period  of  his  death  had  just 
returned  from  an  English  voyage* 

He  left  a  son,  Zaccheus,  sixteen  years  of  age,  who  died,. without 
issue  in  1703 ;  also  sons  Joshua,  eleven  years  of  age,  and  William, 
eight.  These  lived  to  old  age,  and  left  descendants.  Elizabeth, 
relict  of  John  Wheeler,  married  Richard  Steer^— a  person  of  whom 
very  little  is  known,  except  in  connection  with  the  Wheeler  family. 
He  appears  to  have  had  a  good  business  education,  and  to  have  been 
esteemed  for  capacity  and  intelligence,  but  his  native  place  and 
parentage  are  unknown,  and  he  stands  disconnected  with  posterity. 


1  A  high  bedstead,  with  a  large  feather-bed  beat  up  full  and  round,  with  long  cur- 
tains and  an  elaborately  quilted  spread,  was  an  article  of  housekeeping  highly  prized 
by  our  ancestral  dames. 


BISTORT    OF    NEW    LONDON.  331 

Avery* 

Christopher  Ayerj  was  one  of  the  selectmen  of  Gloucester,  Mass., 
between  1646  and  1654.'  On  the  8th  of  August,  1665,  he  is  at 
New  London  purchasing  the  house,  orchard  and  lot  of  Bobert  Bur. 
rows,  in  the  tovm  plot.  In  June,  1667,  he  was  released  from  watch- 
ing and  training.  In  October,  1669,  made  freeman  of  the  colony. 
Charles  Hill,  the  town-clerk,  makes  this  memorandum  of  his  decease. 

^Christopher  Avery's  death,  vide,  near  the  death  of  mother 
Brewster." 

The  reference  is  to  Lucretia,  relict  of  Jonathan  Brewster,  (moth- 
er-in-law to  Mr.  Hill,)  but  no  record  of  her  death  is  to  be  found. 
James  Avery  in  1685  gives  a  deed  to  his  four  sons,  of  the  house, 
orchard  and  land,  '^  which  belonged,  (he  says)  to  my  deceased  father 
Christopher  Avery." 

No  other  son  but  James,  has  been  traced.  It  may  be  conjectured 
that  this  family  came  from  Salisbury,  England,  as  a  Christopher 
Avery  of  that  place,  had  wife  Mary  buried  in  1591.* 

James  Avery  and  Joanna  Greenslade  were  married,  Nov.  10th, 
1643.  This  is  recorded  in  Gloucester.  The  records  of  Boston 
church  have  the  following  entry. 

•*  17  of  1  mo.  16  i4.  Our  sister  Joan  Greenslade,  now  the  wife  of  one  James 
ATeriil  had  granted  her  by  the  church's  silence,  letters  of  recommendation  to 
the  Ch.  at  Gloster.*'^ 

The  births  of  three  children  are  recorded  at  Gloucester ;  these  are 
repeated  at  New  London,  and  the  others  registered  from  time  to  time. 
The  whole  list  is  as  follows. 

Hannah,  bom  Oct.  12th,  1644.  Rebecca,  bom  Oct.  6th,  1656. 

James,        ««    Dec.  16th,  1646.  Jonathan,     •«    Jan.  5th,  1658-9. 

Mary,         "    Feb.  19th,  1648.  Christopher,"  Ap.  30th,  1661. 

Thomas,    ««    May  6th,  1651.  Samuel,        «•  Aug.  14th,  1664. 

John*  «'    Feb.  10th,  1653-4.  Joanna,  1669. 

James  Avery  was  sixty-two  years  old  in  1682  ;  of  course  bom  on 
the  other  side  of  the  ocean  about  1620.  At  New  London  he  took 
an  important  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  plantation.  He  was  chosen 
townsmen  in  1660  and  held  the  ofl&ce  twenty-three  years,  ending  with 
1680.     He  was  successively,  ensign,  lieutenant  and  captain  of  the 


1  Babson  of  Gloucester. 

a  Mais.  Hist  ColL,  8d  seriM,  vol.  10,  p.  189. 

Z  Sayage  (MS.) 


332  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

onlj  oompanj  of  train-bands  in  the  town,  and  was  in  active  service 
through  Philip's  War.  He  was  twelve  times  deputy  to  the  Greneral 
CJourt,  between  1658  and  1680,  was  in  the  commission  of  the  peace, 
and  sat  as  assistant  judge  in  the  county  court. 

He  removed  to  Pequonuck,  east  of  the  river,  between  1660  and 
1670,  where  both  he  and  his  wife  were  living  in  1693.  Deeds  of 
lands  to  his  sons,  including  the  homestead  farm,  in  Feb.,  1693-4,  prob 
ably  indicate  the  near  approach  of  death.  His  sons  Jonathan  and 
Christopher  died  young,  and  probably  without  issue.  The  descend- 
ants of  James,  Jr.,  Thomas,  John,  and  Samuel,  are  very  numerous, 
and  may  be  regarded  as  four  distinct  streams  of  life.  Groton  is  the 
principal  hive  of  the  family. 


Capt,  George  Denison,  died  Oct  23(2,  1694. 

This  event  took  place  at  Hartford  during  the  session  of  the  Gren- 
eral Court.  His  grave-stone  at  that  place  is  extant,  and  the  age 
given,  seventy-six,  shows  that  the  date  of  1621,  which  has  been  as- 
signed for  his  birth,  ia  too  late,  and  that  1619  should  be  substituted. 
This  diminishes  the  difference  of  age  between  him  and  his  second 
wife  Ann^  who,  according  to  the  memorial  tablet  erected  by  her  de- 
scendants at  Mystic,  deceased  Sept  26th,  1712,  aged  ninety-seven. 

The  history  of  Greorge  Denison  will  not  be  fully  attempted  here, 
but  a  few  data  gathered  with  care  may  be  offered,  as  contributions 
toward  the  task  of  liberating  the  facts  from  the  webs  which  ingen- 
ious fancy  and  exaggerative  tradition,  have  thrown  around  them. 

William  Denison  is  accounted  a  fellow-passenger  with  the  Rev. 
John  Elliot,  of  Roxbury,  in  "  the  Lyon,"  which*  brought  emigrants 
to  America  in  1631.  His  name  is  the  third  on  the  list  of  church 
members  of  Roxbury,  in  the  record  made  by  Elliot.  He  is  known 
to  have  brought  with  him  three  sons,  Daniel,  Edward  and  Greorge. 
The  latter  married  in  1640,  Bridget  Thompson,  who  is  supposed  to 
have  been  a  sister  of  the  Rev.  William  Thompson,  of  Braintree, 
Mass.  They  had  two  children,  Sarah,  bom  March  20th,  1641,  and 
Hannah,  bom  May  20th,  1643.  His  wife  died  in  August,  1643. 
Mr.  Denison  the  same  year  visited  his  native  country,  and  engaged 
in  the  civil  conflict  with  which  the  kingdom  was  convulsed.  He 
was  absent  a  couple  of  years,  and  on  his  return  brought  with  him 
a  second  wife' — ^a  lady  of  Irish  parentage,  viz.,  Ann,  daughter  of 

1  It  is  one  of  the  many  traditions  respecting  Capt  George  Denison,  that  he  started 
for  Eng^d  to  obtain  a  second  wife,  from  the  ftineral  of  the  fint,  only  waiting  to  see 
the  remains  deposited  in  the  grave,  bat  not  retoming  to  his  house,  before  he  set  oat. 


HISTORY    OP   NEW    LONDON.  333 

John  Borrowdale  or  Borrodil.  It  is  a  probable  conjecture  that  he 
brought  also  an  infant  son  with  him.  He  is  known  to  have  had  a 
son  George,  of  whose  birth  or  baptism  no  record  is  found  on  this 
side  of  the  ocean.  The  elder  Winthrop  at  this  period  calls  him  "a 
young  soldier  lately  come  out  of  the  wars  in  England,"  whom  the 
yoimg  men  of  Roxbury  wished  to  choose  for  their  captain ;  but  "  the 
ancient  and  chief  men  of  the  town,"  gathered  together,  out- voted 
them  and  prevented  them  from  carrying  their  point.'  Two  chil- 
dren of  George  and  Ann  Denison  are  recorded  in  Roxbury,  John, 
bom  June  14th,  1646;  Ann,  May  20th,  1649.* 

In  1651,  we  find  George  Denison  among  the  planters  at  Pequot, 
where  he  took  up  a  house  lot,  built  a  house  and  engaged  in  public  affairs. 
In  1654  he  removed  to  a  farm,  on  the  east  5ide  of  Mystic  River,  then 
within  the  bounds  of  the  same  plantation,  but  afterward  included  in 
Stonington.  In  1670  he  had  three  children  baptized  by  Mr.  Brad- 
street,  William,  Margaret  and  Borradil,  which  makes  his  number 
eight.  On  the  old  town  book  of  Stonington  is  recorded  the  death  of 
Mary,  daughter  of  George  Denison,  Nov.  10th,  1670-1.  This,  we 
suppose  to  have  been  a  ninth  child,  who  died  an  infant. 

Our  early  history  presents  no  character  of  bolder  and  more  active 
spirit  than  Capt.  Denison.  He  reminds  us  of  the  border  men  of 
Scotland.  Though  he  failed  in  attaining  the  rank  of  captain,  at 
Roxbury,  yet  in  our  colony,  he  was  at  his  first  coming  greeted  with 
the  title,  and  was  very  soon  employed  in  various  offices  of  trust  and 
honor — such  as  commissioner,  and  deputy  to  the  Greneral  Court. 
When  the  plantation  of  Mystic  and  Pawkatuck,  was  severed  from 
New  London  and  placed  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts 
with  the  name  of  Southerton,  the  chief  management  of  afiairs  was 
intrusted  to  him. 

Yet  notwithstanding  Capt  Denison's  position  as  a  magistrate  and 
legislator,  we  do  not  always  find  him  in  the  strict  path  of  law  and 
order.     He  had  frequent  disputes  and  lawsuits ;  he  brought  actions 


1  Savage's  Winthrop,  vol.  2,  p.  807. 

2  These  dates  from  the  Boxbury  records  were  communicated  by  James  Savage,  Esq., 
of  Boston,  who  observes  that  Margaret,  the  third  wife  of  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard  of 
Cambridge,  and  after  his  death  the  wife  of  his  successor,  Rev.  Jonathan  MitcheU,  bore 
the  family  name  of  Borrowdale,  and  was  probably  sister  to  Mrs.  Ann  Denison.  As 
these  two  females  are  the  only  persons  known  in  the  new  world  of  the  name,  their 
consanguinity  can  scarcely  be  doubted. 


334  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

for  slander  and  defamation  against  several  of  his  neighbors,  and  was 
himself  arraigned  for  violations  of  existing  laws. 

He  was,  however,  encompassed  with  ditficulties.  The  young  town 
of  which  he  was  one  of  the  conspicuous  founders  was  convulsed  by 
territorial  and  jurisdictional  claims  and  he  could  not  be  loyal  to  two 
governments  at  once.  If  he  obeyed  one,  he  must  of  course  be  stig- 
matized as  a  rebel  to  the  other. 

As  a  magistrate  of  Massachusetts  he  performed  the  marriage  rite 
for  William  Measure  and  Alice  Tinker,  and  was  immediately  prose- 
cuted by  Connecticut  for  an  illegal  act,  and  heavily  fined.  As  a 
friend  to  the  Indians  and  an  agent  of  the  commissioners  of  the  Uni- 
ted Colonies,  he  was  in  favor  of  allowing  them  to  remain  in  their 
customary  hamlets  by  the  sea,  and  haunts  upon  the  neighboring  hills; 
but  the  other  authorities  of  the  town  and  colony,  were  bent  upon 
driving  them  back,  to  settle  among  the  primeval  forests.  This  of 
course,  led  to  contention. 

The  will  of  Greorge  Denison  dated  Nov.  20th,  1693,  was  exhibited 
and  proved  in  the  county  court,  in  June,  1695.*  The  children  named 
in  its  provisions  were  three  sons — Greorge,  John  and  William,  and 
five  daughters — Sarah  Stanton,  Hannah  Saxton,  Ann  Palmer,  Mar- 
garet Brown,  and  Borradil  Stanton. 

George  Denison  the  second,  became  an  inhabitant  of  Westerly,  a 
town  comprising  the  tract  so  long  in  debate  between  the  king's 
province  and  Connecticut  colony.  He  had  three  sons,  Greoi^g^  Ed- 
ward and  Joseph. 

John  Denison  married  Phebe  Lay,  of  Saybrook.  The  parental 
contract  between  Capt.  George  and  Mrs.  Ann  Denison  on  the  one 
part,  and  Mr.  Robert  Lay  on  the  other,  for  the  marriage  of  their 
children,  John  Denison  and  Phebe  Lay,  is  recorded  at  Saybrook,  but 
bears  no  date. 

William  the  third  son  of  Capt.  Greorge,  inherited  the  paternal 
homestead  in  Stonington. 

Greorge  Denison,  son  of  John,  of  Stonington,  and  grandson  of  Capt. 
Greorge,  (bom  March  28th,  1671,)  graduated  at  Harvard  College,  in 
1693,  and  settled  as  an  attorney  in  New  London,  where  he  married 
(1694)  Mary,  daughter  of  Daniel  Wetherell,  and  relict  of  Thomas 
Harris.  The  family  of  this  George  Denison  belongs  to  New  Lon- 
don, but  it  can  not  be  here  displayed  in  detail.  He  had  two  sons, 
Daniel  and  Wetherell,  and  six  daughters.     The  latter,  as  they  grew 

1  The  original  will  is  not  on  file  in  the  probate  ofilce,  bnt  is  supposed  to  be  extant 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  335 

up,  were  esteemed  the  flower  of  the  young  society  of  the  place. 
They  married  Edward  Hallam,  Gibson  Harris,  John  Hough,  Jona- 
than Latimer,  Samuel  Richards,  and  William  Douglas. 

In  1698,  George  Denison  was  chosen  clerk  of  the  county  court 
and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  January  20th,  1719-20,  was  recorder  of 
the  town  and  clerk  of  probate.     His  signature  so  often  recurring  on 
the  files  and  books  of  the  town,  may  appropriately  be  represented 
here. 


^^  T^aw^^ 


Robert  Denison,  brother  of  the  last  named,  (bom  September  17th, 
1673,)  purchased  a  tract  of  Indian  land  in  1710,  near  the  north-west^ 
comer  of  New  London.  It  lay  upon  Mashipaug  (Gardiner's)  Lake 
where  the  bounds  of  Norwich,  New  London  and  Colchester,  came 
together.  At  what  period  he  removed  his  family  thither  is  not 
known,  but  probably  about  1712.  He  is  known  to  the  records  as 
Capt.  Robert  Denison,  of  the  North  Parish,  and  died  about  1737. 
His  son  Robert  served  in  the  French  wars  during  several  campaigns, 
was  a  captain  in  Wolcott's  brigade,  at  the  taking  of  Louisburg,  and 
afterward  promoted  to  the  rank  of  major.  Being  a  man  of  stalwart 
form  and  military  bearing,  he  was  much  noticed  by  the  British  offi- 
cers, with  whom  he  was  associated.  He  married  Deborah,  daughter 
of  Matthew  Griswold,  2d,  of  Lyme,  and  in  1760,  removed  with  most 
of  his  family  to  Nova  Scotia. 


Peter  Spicer,  died  probahly  in  1695. 

He  was  one  of  the  resident  farmers  in  that  part  of  the  township 
which  is  now  Ledyard.  We  find  him  a  landholder  in  1666.  The 
inventory  of  his  estate  was  presented  to  the  judge  of  probate,  by  his 
wife  Mary,  in  1695.  From  her  settlement  of  the  estate,  it  appears 
that  the  children  were,  Edward,  Samuel,  Peter,  William,  Joseph, 
Abigail,  Ruth,  Hannah  and  Jane.  Capt.  Abel  Spicer,  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary army,  was  from  thb  family. 


John  Leeds,  died  prohaUy  in  1696. 
The  following  extracts  from  the  town  and  church  records,  contain 
all  the  information  that  has  been  gathered  of  the  family  of  John  Leeds. 

**  John  Leeds,  of  Staplehowe,  in  Kent,  Old  England,  wag  married  to  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  of  Gary  Latham,  June  25th,  1678." 


336  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

«*  Mr.  Leeds'  child  John,  baptized  March  13th,  1690-1. 

«*        "       daughter  Elizabeth,  baptized  October  16th,  1681 . 

««        "       son  William,  baptized  May  20th,  1683. 
Widow  Leeds'  two  children  baptized,  Gideon  and  Thomas,  August  Ist,  1697.*' 

John  Leeds  is  first  introduced  to  us  in  1674,as  a  mariner,  commander 
of  the  Success,  bound  to  Nevis.  He  engaged  afterward  in  building 
vessels,  and  had  a  ship-yard  on  the  east  side  of  the  river. 


John  Mayhew,  died  1696. 
This  name  appears  after  1670,  belonging  to  one  of  that  class  of 
persons  who  had  their  principal  home  on  the  deep,  and  their  rendez- 
vous in  New  London. 

"John  Mayhew,  from  Devonshire,  Old  England,  mariner,  was  married  unto 
Johanna,  daughter  of  Jeffrey  Christophers,  December  26th,  1676." 

Children  of  John  Mayhew, 

1.  John,  bom  December  1 5th,  1677. 

2.  Wait,  born  October  4th,  1680. 

3.  Elizabeth,  bom  Eebmary  8th,  1683-4. 

4.  Joanna ;  5.  Mary ;  6.  Patience  t  these  three  were  baptized  July  9tb,  1693. 

"Wait  Mayhew,  the  second  son,  died  in  1707,  without  issue.  John 
Mayhew,  2d,  was  a  noted  ship-master  in  the  West  India  and  New- 
foundland trade,  and  attended  the  sea  expedition  against  Canada,  in 
1711,  in  the  capacity  of  a  pilot.  The  next  year  he  was  sent  to  Eng- 
land to  give  his  testimony  respecting  the  disastrous  shipwrecks  in  the 
St  Lawrence,  that  frustrated  the  expedition.  He  died  in  1727,  leav- 
ing several  children,  but  only  one  son,  John,  who  died  without  issue, 
in  1745.  The  Mayhew  property  was  inherited  by  female  descend- 
ants of  the  names  of  Talman,  Lanpheer  and  Howard. 


John  Flumbe,^  died  in  1696. 
Plumbe  is  one  of  the  oldest  names  in  (Connecticut.  Mr.  John 
Plumbe  was  of  Wethersfield,  1636,  and  a  magistrate  in  1637.*  He 
had  a  warehouse  burnt  at  Saybrook,  in  the  Pequot  War.  In  Februa- 
ry, 1664-5,  he  was  appointed  inspector  of  the  lading  of  vessels  at 
Wethersfield.^     He  was  engaged  in  the  coasting  trade,  and  his  name 

1  This  is  his  own  orthography;  on  the  colonial  records  it  is  Plom. 

2  Conn.  Col.  Rec.,  voL  1,  p.  18. 
8  a  st^o,  p.  121. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  X)7 

incidentanj  appears  in  the  records  of  Tarious  towns  on  the  river,  and 
along  the  coast  of  the  Sound.  An  account  has  been  preserved  among 
the  Winthrop  papers  of  a  remaiiLable  meteor  which  he  saw  one  night 
in  October,  1665.  ^  I  being  then  (he  observes)  rouing  in  my  bote 
to  groton  ;***  probably  from  Seabrook^  where  his  account  is  dated. 
In  1670  he  is  noticed  as  carrying  dispatches  between  Giovemors 
Winthrop,  of  Hartford,  and  Lovelace,  of  New  York,*  We  have  no 
account  of  him  at  New  London,  as  an  inhabitant  of  the  town,  until  he 
was  chosen  constable,  in  February,  1679-80.  He  was  afterward 
known  as  marshal  of  the  county  and  innkeeper.  He  had  three  chil- 
dren baptized  in  New  London:  Mercy,  in  1677 ;  Greorge,  in  1679, 
and  Sarah,  in  1682.  But  he  had  other  children  much  older  than 
these,  vie,  John,  Samuel,  Joseph  and  Greene.  Samuel  and  Joseph 
settled  in  Milford ;  Jphn,  was  at  first  of  Milford,  but  afterward  of 
New  London,  and  for  many  years  a  deacon  of  the  church.  Greene 
also  settled  in  New  London ;  Greorge,  in  Stonington. 


Jo$eph  TnunoHy  died  in  1697. 
Joseph  Truman  came  to  New  Londcm  in  1666,  and  was  chosen  con* 
stable  the  next  year.  Truman's  Brook  and  Truman  Street  are  names 
derived  from  him  and  his  dEunily.  He  had  a  tannery  at  each  end  of 
this  street,  on  Truman's  Brook  and  the  brook  which  ran  into  Bream 
Cove,  near  the  Hempstead  lot.  Li  his  will,  executed  in  September, 
1696,  he  mentions  four  children :  Joseph,  Thomas,  Elizabeth  and 
Mary.  Neither  his  marriage,  nor  the  births  of  his  children  are  in 
the  town  registry. 


Joneph  and  Jonathan  Rogers* 
These  were  the  second  and  fifth  sons  of  James  Rogers,  Senior,  and 
are  supposed  to  have  died  in  1697,  at  the  respective  ages  of  fifty-one 
and  forty-seven,  both  leaving  large  families.    The  other  three  sons 
of  James  Bogers  lived  into  the  next  century. 

Samuel  Rogers  died  December  let,  1713,  aged  seven tj-three. 
James  Rogers     '<     Novembei  8th,  1713,  aged  sixty-three. 
John  Rogers        "     October  17th,  1721,  aged  seventy- three. 


1  Mass.  Hist  GoIL,  8d  series,  voL  10,  p.  57.  This  is  the  eariiest  instance  that  has 
been  observed  of  the  application  of  the  name  Groion,  to  the  east  side  of  the  river. 
Probably  it  was  first  used  to  designate  Winthrop^s  farm  at  Peqnonnck. 

t  d  Mpra,  p.  79. 

29 


338  HISTORY    OF    NEW   LONDON. 

Ebenezer  Hubhell^  died  in  1698. 
A  brief  paragraph  will  contain  all  our  information  of  this  person. 
He  was  a  native  of  Stratfield,  in  Fairfield  county,  married  Mary, 
daughter  of  Gabriel  Harris,  and  purchased  the  homestead  of  Samson 
Haughton,  (comer  of  Truman  and  Blinman  Streets.)  He  had  a 
daughter  Elizabeth,  bom  in  1693,  and  a  son  Ebenezer,  in  1695.  His 
relict  married  Ebenezer  Griffing.  The  son  Ebenezer,  died  in  1720, 
probably  without  issue.  > 


The  Beeht/^  brothers. 
The  phrase  "  John  Beebj  and  his  brothers,"  used  in  the  early 
grants  to  the  family,  leads  to  the  supposition  that  John  was  the  oldest 
of  the  four.  They  may  be  arranged  with  probability  in  the  order  of 
John,  Thomas,  Samuel  and  Nathaniel.  They  all  lived  to  advanced 
age. 

1.  John  Beeby  married  Abigail,  daughter  of  James  Yorke,  of 
Stonington.  He  h^  three  children — John,  Benjamin  and  a  daugh- 
ter Rebecca,  who  married  Richard  Shaw,  of  Easthampton.  No 
other  children  can  be  traced.  He  was  for  several  years  sergeant  of 
the  train-band,  but  in  1690  was  advanced  to  the  lieutenancy,  and  his 
brother  Thomas  chosen  sergeant.  No  allusion  has  been  found  that 
can  assist  in  fixing  the  period  of  his  death.  His  relict  died  March 
9th,  1725,  aged  eighty-six  or  eighty-seven.  The  annalist  who  re- 
cords it,  observes,  '^  Her  husband  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  this 
town." 

2.  Thomas  Beeby's  wife  was  Millicent,  daughter  of  William  Ad- 
dis, he  being  her  third  husband.  Tlie  two  former  were  William  Ash 
and  William  Southmead,  both  of  Gloucester ;  though  Southmead  had 
formerly  lived  in  Boston,  and  owned  a  tenement  thei'e.*  Ash  and 
Southmead  were  probably  both  mariners  or  coast  traders.  Two  sons 
belonged  to  the  second  marriage,  William  and  John  Southmead,  who 
came  with  their  mother  to  New  London.  Of  their  ages  no  estimate 
can  be  formed.  They  became  mariners,  and  their  names  occur  only 
mcidentally.  Of  John  we  lose  sight  in  a  short  time.  William  is 
supposed  to  have  settled  ultimately  in  Middletown. 


1  The  brothers  wrote  the  name  indifferently  Beebee  and  Beeby.    The  autograph 
sometimes  varies  on  the  same  page. 

2  It  was  sold  in  1668,  by  Thomas  and  MUlicent  Beeby,  for  the  benefit  of  the  sons  of 
William  and  Millicent  Southmead.    Savage,'  (MS.) 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  339 

The  cbildren  of  Thomas  and  Millicent  Beebj,  were  one  son, 
Thomas,  who  lived  to  old  age,  but  was  a  cripple  and  never  married ; 
Millicent,  wife  of  Nicholas  Darrow ;  Hannah,  wife  of  John  Hawke, 
and  Rebecca,  wife  of  Nathaniel  Holt  Sergeant  Thomas  Beeby  died 
in  the  early  part  of  1699.  His  homestead  descended  to  his  son 
Thomas,  by  whom  it  was  conveyed  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  to  his 
nephew,  William  Holt, 

3.  Samuel  Beeby,  in  a  deposition  of  1708,  states  his  age  at  seventy- 
seven,  and  says,  "  I  came  to  this  town  nearly  sixty  years  ago."  He 
died  in  1712,  leaving  a  wife,  Mary.  His  former  wife  was  Agnes  or 
Annis,  daughter  of  William  Keeny.  Whether  the  children  all  be- 
longed to  the  first  wife,  or  should  be  distributed  between  the  two  is 
doubtful.  They  were  Samuel,  William,  Nathaniel,  Thomas,  Jona- 
than, Agnes,  (wife  of  John  Daniels,)  Ann,  (wife  of  Thomas  Crocker,) 
Susannah,  (wife  of  Aaron  Fountain,)  Mary,  (wife  of  Richard  Tozor.) 
William  Beeby,  one  of  the  sons  of  Samuel,  married  Ruth,  daughter 
of  Jonathan  Rogers,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Sabbatarian  commu- 
nity on  the  Qreat  Neck.  Jonathan,  probably  the  youngest  son,  and 
bom  about  1676,  was  an  early  settler  of  East  Haddam,  where  he 
was  living  in  1750. 

Samuel  Beebyi  second,  oldest  son  of  Samuel  the  elder,  obtained  in 
his  day  a  considerable  local  renown.  He  married  (February  9th, 
1681-2)  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  Rogers,  and  in  right  of  his 
wife,  as  well  as  by  extensive  purchases  of  the  Indians,  became  a  great 
landholder.  He  was  one  of  three  who  owned  Plum  Island,  in  the 
Sound,  and  living  upon  the  island  in  plentiful  farmer  style,  with 
sloops  and  boats  for  pleasure  or  traffic  at  his  command,  he  was  often 
sportively  called  "  King  Beebee,"  and  "  Lord  of  the  Islands."  A 
rock  in  the  sea,  not  far  from  his  farm,  was  called  "  Beebee's  throne." 
Plum  Island  is  an  appanage  of  Southold,  Suffolk  county.  Long  Isl- 
and, and  Mr.  Beeby,  by  removing  to  that  island,  transferred  himself 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  New  York. 

4.  Nathaniel  Beeby,  supposed  to  be  the  youngest  of  the  four  broth- 
ers, settled  in  Stonington.  His  land  was  afterward  absorbed  in  the 
large  estates  of  his  neighl)ors,  the  Denisons.  In  the  will  of  William 
Denison,  (1715,)  he  disposes  of  the  Beeby  land,  but  adds,  "I  order 
my  executors  to  take  a  special  care  of  Mr.  Nathaniel  Beeby  during 
his  life,  and  to  give  him  a  Christian  burial  at  his  death."  Accordingly 
we  find  the  gravestone  of  this  venerable  man,  near  that  of  the  Den- 
isons. The  inscription  states  that  he  died  December  17th,  1724, 
aged  ninety-three.     Estimating  from  the  given  data,  the  births  of 


340  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

Samuel  and  NaUianiel  Beeby  would  both  come  within  the  verge  of 
1631.  It  is  probable  that  Samuel's  was  in  1630  and  Nathaniel's  in 
1632. 


WiUtam  Chapman^  died  December  ISih,  1699. 

This  name  first  appears  in  1657,  when  William  Chapman  bought 
the  Denison  house-lot  on  the  present  Hempstead  Street,  neaiij  oppo- 
site the  jail.  No  record  is  found  of  his  family.  The  children  named 
in  his  win,  were  John,  William,  Samuel,  Jeremiah,  Joseph,  Sarah 
and  Rebecca. 

John  Chapman,  by  supposition  named  as  the  oldest  son,  remoyed 
in  1706,  with  hb  family,  to  Colchester,  where  he  was  Hiring  in  Mayt 
1748,  when  it  was  observed  that  ^  he  would  be  ninety-five  years  old 
next  November."  We  may  therefore  date  his  birth  in  November, 
1653. 

William  Chapman  married  Hannah,  daughter  of  Daniel  Lester, 
and  is  supposed  to  have  settled  in  Groton.  « 

Samuel  Chapman  is  the  ancestor  of  the  Waterford  family  of  Chap- 
mans.  He  lived  in  the  Cohanzie  district,  reared  to  maturity  nine 
children,  and  died  November  2dy  1758,  aged  ninety-three.  Before 
his  death  he  conveyed  his  homestead  to  his  grandson,  NathanieL 

Joseph  Chapman  was  a  mariner.  He  removed  his  fiunily  to  Nor* 
wich,  where  he  died  June  10th,  1725. 

Jeremiah  Chapman,  probably  the  youngest  of  the  five  brothers, 
retained  the  family  hcnnestead.  He  died  September  6th,  1755,  aged 
eighty-eight.  All  the  brothers  left  considerable  families,  and  their 
posterity  is  now  widely  dispersed. 


Stephen  Loomery  died  in  1700. 
This  name  is  not  found  in  New  London  before  1687.  Mr.  Loom- 
er's  wife  was  a  daughter  of  George  Miller.  His  children,  and  their 
ages  at  the  time  of  his  death,  were  as  follows :  John,  sixteen ;  Mary, 
thirteen ;  Martha,  eleven ;  Samuel,  eight ;  Elizabeth,  five.  Li  fol- 
lowing out  the  fortunes  of  the  family,  we  find  that  John,  tfie  oldest 
son,  was  a  seaman,  and  probably  perished  by  storm  or  wreck,  as 
in  1715,  he  had  not  been  heard  from  for  several  years.  Mary,  relict 
of  Stephen  Loomer,  married  in  1701,  Caleb  Abel,  of  Norwich,  and 
this  carried  the  remainder  of  the  family  to  that  place. 


HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON.  341 

David  Carpenter y  died  in  1700. 
The  period  of  his  settlement  in  the  town  was  probably  coincident 
with  his  marriage  to  Sarah,  daughter  of  William  Hough — to  both 
events  the  conjectural  date  of  1676  may  be  assigned.  Mr.  Carpen- 
ter lived  at  Niantic  Ferry,  of  which  he  had  a  lease  from  Edward 
Palmes.  He  left  an  only  son,  David,  baptized  Nov.  12th,  1682,  and 
several  daughters.  His  relict  married  William  Stevens,  of  Killing- 
worth. 

Alexander  P^gan,  died  in  1701. 
On  his  first  arrival  in  the  plantation,  Mr.  Pygan  appears  to  have 
been  a  lawless  young  man,  of  '^  passionate  and  distempered  carriage,** 
as  it  was  then  expressed ;  one  who  we  may  suppose  "  left  his  coun- 
try for  his  country's  good."  But  the  restraints  and  influences  with 
which  he  was  here  surrounded,  produced  their  legitimate  effect,  and 
he  became  a  discreet  and  valuable  member  of  the  community. 

Alexander  Pygan,  of  Norwich,  Old  England,  was  married  unto  Judith, 
daughter  of  William  Redfin,  (Redfield,)  June  17th,  1667. 

Children. 

1.  Sarah,  bom  Feb.  23d,  1669-70  ;  married  Nicholas  Halfam. 

2.  Jane,      •*     Feb.,  1670-1 ;  married  Jonas  Green. 
Mrs.  Judith  Pygan  died  April  30th,  1678. 

After  the  death  of  his  wife,  Mr.  Pygan  dwelt  a  few  years  at  Say- 
brook,  where  he  had  a  shop  of  goods,  and  was  licensed  by  the  county 
court  as  an  innkeeper.  Here  also  he  married  an  es^able  woman, 
Lydia,  relict  of  Samuel  Boyes,  April  15th,  1684.  Only  one  child 
was  the  issue  of  this  marriage. 

3.  Lydia,  born  Jan.  10th,  16S4-5  ;   married  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams. 
Samuel  Boyes,  the  son  of  Mrs.  Lydia  Pygan,  by  her  first  husband,  was  bom 
Dec.  6lh,  1673. 

Mr.  Pygan  soon  returned  with  his  family  to  New  London,  where 
he  died  in  the  year  1701.  He  is  the  only  person  of  the  family  name 
of  Pj'gan,  that  the  labor  of  genealogists  has  as  yet  brought  to  light 
in  New  England.  His  relict,  Mrs.  Lydia  Pygan,  died  July  20th, 
1734  She  was  the  daughter  of  William  and  Lydia  Bemont,  of  Say- 
brook,  and  bom  March  9th,  1644.* 


1  Her  mother  is  said  to  have  been  a  Danfarth ;  perhaps  daughter  of  Nicholas  Dan- 
forth,  of  Boston. 

29' 


349  HISTORY   OF   NEW   LONDOlf. 

Thomas  Stedmany  died  in  1701. 

This  name  is  found  at  New  London,  at  the  earlj  date  of  1649,  but 
it  soon  afterward  disappears.  In  1666,  Thomas  Stedman  is  again 
on  the  list  of  inhabitants,  living  near  Niantic  River.  He  married 
(Aug.  6th,  1668)  Hannah,  daughter  of  Robert  Isbell,  and  st^H 
daughter  to  TVllliam  NichoUs.  Thej  had  two  children,  John,  bom 
Dec.  25th,  1669,  and  Ann,  who  married  Benjamin  Lester.  John 
left  descendants. 

Thomas  Stedman,  of  New  London,  was  brother  of  Lieut.  John 
Stedman,  of  Wethersfield,  who,  in  1675,  was  ccmmiander  of  a  com- 
pany of  sixty  dragoons,  raised  in  Hartford  county.  The  following 
letter  on  record  at  New  London,  is  evidence  of  this  connection : 

**  Loving  brother  Thomas  ^tedman. 

**  My  love  to  yourself  uid  your  little  ones,  my  cousins,  and  to  Uncle  Nicholls 
and  to  Aunt  and  to  the  rest  of  my  friends,  certifying  you  that  through  God'a 
mercy  and  goodness  to  us,  we  are  in  reasonable  good  health. 

'*  Brother,  These  are  to  get  you  to  assist  my  son  in  selling  or  letting  my  house 
which  I  bought  of  Benjamin  Atwell,  and  what  you  shall  do  in  that  business  I 
do  firmly  bind  myself  to  confirm  and  ratify.  As  witness  my  hand  this  last  day 
of  October,  1672,  from  Wethersfield." 

Extracted  out  of  the  original  letter  under  the  hand  of  John  Stedman,  Sen. 


BiUUr. 
Thomas  and  Jdbin  Butler  are  not  presented  to  our  notice  as  inhab- 
itants of  New  London,  until  after  1680.    Probably  they  were  broth* 
ers.    No  account  ai  the  marriage  or  family  of  ^ther  is  on  record. 

<*  Thomas  Butler  died  Dec.  30th,  1701,  aged  fifty-nine. 

John  Butler  died  March  36th,  1733,  aged  eighty. 

Katherine,  wife  of  John  Butler,  died  Jan.  34th,  1738-9,  ag«^  sixty-seven. 
She  was  a  daughter  of  Richard  Haughton, 

Allan  MuIHqs,  chirurgeon,  son  of  Doctor  Alexander  MulUns,  of  Galway,  Ire- 
land, was  married  to  AbigaU,  daughter  of  John  Butler,  of  New  London,  April 
8th,  1735." 

Thomas  Butler^s  family  can  not  be  given  with  certainty,  but  noth- 
ing appears  to  forbid  the  supposition  that  Lieutenant  Walter  Butler, 
a  prominent  inhabitant  about  1712,  and  afterward,  was  his  son. 
Walter  Butler  married  Mary,  only  child  of  Thomas  Harris,  and 
granddaughter  of  Capt  Daniel  WetherelL  The  date  of  the  marriage 
has  not  been  recovered. 


HISTORY    OP    NBW    LONDON* 


343 


ChUdrtn. 

1.  Mary,  bora  Aug.  29th,  1714.  4.  Jane,      bap.  July  10th,  1720. 

2.  Thomas,  "    Jan.  31st,  1715-16.       5.  Katherine,  "    Aug.  26th,  1722. 

3.  Walter,    "    May  27th,  1718.  6.  Lydia,        ••    Jan.  10th,  1724-6. 

Lieut  Butler  married,  in  1727,  Deborah,  relict  of  Ebenezer  Den- 
nis, and  had  a  son,  John,  baptized  April  28th,  1728. 

The  name  of  Walter  Butler  is  associated  with  the  annals  of  Tryon 
county,  New  Yorit,  as  well  as  with  New  London.  He  received  a 
military  appointment  in  the  Mohawk  country,  in  1J728,  and  fourteen 
jears  later  removed  his  family  thither,  Mr.  Hempstead  makes  an 
entry  in  his  diary : 

*'Nov.  6th,  1742,  Mrs.  Butter,  wife  of  Capt.  Walter  Butler,  and  her  children 
and  ftLmily,  is  gone  away  by  water  to  New  York,  in  order  to  go  to  him  in  the 
Northern  Countries,  above  Albany,  where  he  hath  been  several  years  Captain 
of  the  Forto." 

CnpU  Butler  was  the  ancestor  of  those  Colonels  Butler,  John  and 
Walter,  who  were  associated  with  the  Johnsons  as  royalists  in  the 
commencement  of  the  Bevolutionary  War.*  The  family,  for  many 
years,  continued  to  visit,  occasionally,  th^ir  ancient  home.' 

Very  few  of  the  descendants  of  Thomas  and  John  Butler,  are  now 
found  in  this  vicinity ;  but  the  hills  and  crags  have  been  charged  to 
keep  their  name,  and  they  have  hitherto  been  faithful  to  their  trust. 
In  the  western  part  of  Waterford,  is  a  sterile,  hard-favored  district, 
with  abrupt  hills,  and  more  stone  and  rock  than  soil,  which  is  locally 
called  Butler^iawn — a  name  derived  fi^om  this  ancient  family  of 
Butlers. 

Oc^.  Samuel  Foidick^  died  August  27th,  1702. 
Samuel  Fosdick,  ^from  Charlestown,  in  the  Bay,''  appears  at 
New  London  about  1680.  According  to  manuscripts  preserved  in 
the  &mi]y,  he  was  the  son  of  John  Fosdick  and  Anna  Shapley,  who 
were  married  in  1648 ;  and  the  said  John  was  a  son  of  Stephen  Fos- 
dick, of  Charlestown,  who  died  May  21st,  1664. 


1  See  Annals  of  Tryon  Co.  and  Barber's  New  York  Coll.  In  the  latter  yrork  is  a 
view  <ji  Butler  House. 

2  It  was  probably  through  the  prompting  of  the  Butlers,  that  Sir  Wm.  Johnson  and 
his  son,  afterward  resorted  to  New  London  for  recreation  and  the  sea-breese.  One  of 
these  visits  is  noticed  in  the  Gazette,  May  4th,  1767.  *'  Sir  Wm.  Johnson,  Bart,  arrived 
in  town,  for  the  benefit  of  the  sea  air,  and  to  ei\joy  some  relaxation  from  Indian  af- 
fidrs.  June  18,  arrived  Shr  John  Johnson,  Cd.  Crogfaan  and  several  other  gentlemen 
flrom  Fort  Johnson." 


344  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

"  Samuel,  son  of  John  Fosdick,  of  Charlestown,  New  England,  married 
Mercy,  daughter  of  John  Picket,  of  New  London,  Nov.  1,  1682."  They  had 
children : 

1.  Samuel,  bom  Sept.  18th,  16S4.        .     5.  John,    bom  Feb.  1st,  1693-4. 

2.  Mercy,       "     Nov.  30th,  1686.  6.  Thomas,  ««    Aug.  20th,  1696. 

3.  Ruth,         "     June  27th,  1689.  7.  Mary,       "    July  7th,  1699. 

4.  Anna,        ««     Dec.  8th,  1691. 

Mercy,  relict  of  Samuel  Fosdick,  married  John  Arnold. 

Capt  Samuel  Fosdick  was  one  of  the  owners  of  Plum  Island,  and 
liad  thereon  a  farm  imder  cultivation,  well  stocked  and  productive. 
His  residence  in  town  was  oh  what  was  then  often  called  Fosdick's 
Neck,  (now  Shaw's.)  He  also  possessed,  in  right  of  his  wife,  that 
part  of  the  Picket  lot,  which  was  subsequently  purchased  bj  Capt. 
Nathaniel  Shaw.  Another  house-lot,  owned  by  him  on  the  bank, 
comprising  nearly  the  whole  block  between  Grolden  and  Tilley  Streets, 
was  estimated,'  in  the  list  of  his  estate,  at  only  £30.  It  then  lay  va- 
cant, but  afterward  became  the  valuable  homestead  of  his  youngest 
son,  Thomas,  and  his  descendants.  A  glance  at  the  inventory  of 
Capt.  Fosdick,  will  show  the  ample  and  comfortable  style  of  house- 
keeping, to  which  the  inhabitants  had  attained  in  1700.  Five  feather 
beds,  one  of  them  with  a  suit  of  red  curtains  ;  twenty  pair  of  sheets  ; 
sixteen  blankets ;  three  silk  blankets ;  three  looking-glasses ;  three 
large  brass  kettles ;  two  silver  cups,  and  other  articles  in  this 
proportion,  are  enumerated.  But  there  are  also  certain  implements 
mentioned,  the  fashion  of  which  has  with  time  passed  away,  viz., 
four  wheels  ;  twelve  pewter  basins  ;  two  dozen  pewter  porringers, 
&c.  The  matrons  of  those  days  took  as  much  delight  in  a  well-ar- 
ranged dresser,  and  its  rows  of  shining  pewter,  with  perhaps  here 
and  there  a  spoon,  a  cup,  or  a  tankard  of  silver  interspersed,  as  they 
now  do  in  sideboards  of  mahogany  or  rose-wood,  and  services  of 
plate. 

Samuel,  the  oldest  son  of  Capt.  Samuel  Fosdick,  removed  to  Oys- 
ter Bay,  Long  Island,  where  he  was  living  in  1750.  John,  the  sec- 
ond son,  went  to  Guilford.  Thomas,  remained  in  New  London,  and 
is  best  known  on  record  as  Deacon  Thomas  Fosdick.  He  married, 
June  29th,  1720,  Esther,  daughter  of  Lodowick  Updike. 

The  daughters  of  Capt.  Samuel  Fosdick  were  also  widely  scattered 
by  marriage.  Mercy,  married  Thomas  Jiggles,  of  Boston ;  Ruth,  an 
Oglesby  of  New  York ;  Anna,  Thomas  Latham,  of  Groton,  and  Mary, 
Richard  Sutton,  of  Charlestown. 


niSTOBT    OF    NEW    LONDON.  345 

Joseph  Pemhertany  died  Oct.  14M,  1702. 
James  Pemberton  had  a  son,  Joseph,  born  in  Boston  in  1655/  with 
whom  we  venture  to  identify  the  Joseph  Pemberton,  here  noticed. 
He  resided  in  Westerly,  before  coming  to  New  London.  His  relict, 
Mary,  removed  to  Boston,  with  her  sons  James  and  Joseph.  Two 
married  daughters  were  left  in  New  London,  Mary,  wife  of  Alexan- 
der Baker,  and  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Jonathan  Rogers,  both  of  the  north 
parish,  (now  Montville.) 


William  Walworth*  died  in  1708. 

William  Walworth  is  first  known  to  ns  as  the  lessee  of  Fisher's 
Island,  or  of  a  considerable  part  of  it ;  and  it  is  a  tradition  of  the 
family  that  he  came  directly  from  England  to  assume  this  charge,  at 
the  invitation  of  the  owner  of  the  island,  Fitz-John  Winthrop,  who 
wished  to  introduce  the  English  methods  of  farming.  William  Wal- 
worth and  his  wife  Owned  the  covenant,  and  were  baptized  with  their 
infant  child,  Martha,  Jan.  24th,  1691-2.  Their  children,  at  the 
time  of  the  father's  decease,  were  Martha,  Mary,  John,  Joanna, 
Thomas  and  James,  the  last  two  twins,  and  all  between  the  ages  of 
two  and  twelve  years.  Abigail,  relict  of  William  Walworth,  died 
Jan.  14th,  1751-2 ;  having  been  forty-eight  years  a  widow.  This 
was  certainly  an  uncommon  instance  for  an  age,  renowned  not  only 
for  earljf,  but  for  hasty,  frequent,  and  late  marriages. 

John  Walworth,  second  son  of  William,  had  also  a  lease  of  Fish- 
er's Island,  for  a  long  term  of  years.  He  died  in  1748.  His  inven- 
tory mentions  four  negro  servants,  a  herd  of  near  fifty  homed  cattle, 
eight  hundred  and  twelve  sheep,  and  a  stud  of  thirty-two  horses, 
mares  and  colts.  He  had  also  seventy-seven  ounces  of  wrought 
plate,  and  other  valuable  household  articles.  It  has  been  the  fortune 
of  Fisher's  Island,  to  enrich  many  of  its  tenants,  especially  in  former 
days.  Not  only  the  Walworths,  but  the  Mumfords  and  Browns, 
drew  a  large  incotne  from  the  lease  of  the  island.  From  John  Wal- 
worth, descended  the  person  of  the  same  name,  who  commenced  the 
settlement  of  Painesville,  Ohio,  and  at  the  period  of  his  death,  in 
1812,  was  collector  of  customs  in  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

R.  H.  Walworth,  Esq.,  of  Saratoga,  is  a  descendant  from  William, 
the  ddest  son  of  William  and  Abigail  Walworth. 

1  Fanner't  Beglstm*. 

1  On  earij  records  the  name  is  Bometinies  Walsworth  and  Alltwortfa. 


346 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 


Edward  StaUian,  died  May  14/A,  1703. 

When  this  person  made  his  first  appearance  in  the  plantation,  Mr. 
Bnien,  the  clerk,  recorded  his  name  Stanley.  It  was  soon  altered 
to  Stallion,  or  Stallon.  In  later  times  it  has  heen  identified  with 
Sterling,  which  may  have  been  the  true  name. 

Edward  Stallion  was  at  first  a  coasting  trader,  but  later  in  life  be- 
came a  resident  farmer  in  North  Groton,  (now  Ledyard.)  His  chil- 
dren  are  only  named  incidentally,  and  the  list  obtained  is  probably 
incomplete.  Deborah,  wife  of  James  Avery,  Jr.,  Sarah,  wife  of 
John  Edgecombe,  and  Margaret,  wife  of  Pasco  Foote,  were  his 
daughters.  His  first  wife,  Margaret,  died  after  1680.  He  married 
in  1685,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  George  Miller,  by  whom  he  had  two 
children,  names  not  mentioned.  In  1693,  he  married,  a  third  time, 
Christian,  relict  of  Wm.  Chapell,  who  survived  \^\m.  He  left  a  son, 
Edward,  probably  one  of  the  two  children  by  the  second  wife,  who,  in 
1720,  was  of  Preston,  and  left  descendants  there.  The  death  of  Ed- 
ward Stallion,  Sen.,  was  the  result  of  an  accident,  which  is  suflSciently 
detailed  in  the  following  verdict : 

"Wee  the  Subscribers  being  impaneld  and  sworne  on  a  jury  of  inquest  to 
view  the  body  of  Edward  Stallion — have  accordingly  viewed  the  corpse  and 
according  to  the  best  of  our  judgments  and  by  what  information  wee  have  had 
doe  judge  that  he  was  drowned  by  falling  out  of  his  Canno  the  14fh  day  of  this 
instant  and  that  hee  had  noe  harm  from  any  person  by  force  or  violence.  New 
London  May  y«  31,  1703. 

Joseph  Latham  "Wm.  Potts 

Wm  Thorne  (his  mark.  T.)  John  Bayley 

Andrew  Lester  Joshua  Bill 

Phillip  Bill  Jonathan  Lester 

Gershom  Rice  James  Morgan 

Wm  Swadle 
John  Williams." 

Though  dated  at  New  London,  this  jury  was  impanneled  in  that 
part  of  the  township  which  is  now  Ledyard,  and  the  names  belong 
to  that  place  and  Groton.     The  town  had  not  thenjbeen  divided. 


EzeJdel  Turner,  died  January  16M,  1703-4. 
He  waa  a  son  of  John  Turner  of  Scituate,  and  grandson  of  Hum- 
phrey Turner,  an  emigrant  of  1 628.  His  mother  was  Mary,  daughter 
of  Jonathan  Brewster.  At  New  London  we  have  no  account  of  hun 
earlier  than  his  marriage  with  Susannah,  daughter  of  John  Keeny, 
Dec  26th,  1678.  He  left  one  son  Ezekiel,  and  a  band  of  ten  daugh- 
ters, the  youngest  an  infant  at  the  time  of  his  decease.     His  neighbor. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  847 

OHver  Mimwaring,  had  two  sons  and  eight  daughters  of  nearly  coin- 
cident ages,  and  it  was  a  common  saying,  that  these  two  families  had 
daughters  enough  to  stock  the  town. 

Ezekiel  Turner,  second,  married  Borradil  Denison  and  settled  in 
Groton.  Elisha  and  Thomas  Turner,  supposed  also  to  come  from 
the  Scitnate  family,  settled  in  the  town  after  1720.  From  Thomas, 
who  married  Patience,  daughter  of  John  BoUes,  (Nov.  23d,  1727,) 
most  of  the  Turner  families  of  New  London  and  Montville  are  de- 
scended. 

Jonathan  Turner  from  South  Kingston  purchased  in  1735,  a  farm 
upon  the  Grreat  Neck  (Waterford)  and  has  also  descendants  in  New 
London  and  its  neighborhood. 


Sergeant    George  Darrow^  died  in  1704. 
From  inferential  testimony  it  is  ascertained  that  George  Darrow 
married  Mary,  relict  of  George  Sharswood.     The  baptisms  but  not 
the  births  of  their  children  are  recorded : 

1.  Christopher,  bap.  Dec.  1st,  167S.         3.  Nicholas,  May  20th,  1683. 

2.  George,  "     Oct.  17th,  16S0.      4.  Jane,  April  17th,  1692. 
Mary,  wife  of  George  Darrow,  died  in  1698. 

George  Darrow  and  Elizabeth  Marshall  of  Hartford  were  married  Aug.  10th, 
1702. 

The  above  list  comprises  all  the  children  recorded,  but  there  may 
have  been  others.  Christopher  Darrow  married  Elizabeth  Packer, 
a  granddaughter  of  Gary  Latham.  In  a  comer  of  a  field  upon  the 
Great  Neck,  on  what  was  formerly  a  Darrow  farm,  is  a  group  of 
four  gravestones;  one  of  them  bears  the  following  inscription: 

"  In  memory  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Darrow,  wife  of  Mr.  Christopher  Darrow, 
who  died  in  February  1758,  aged  78  years.  She  was  mother  to  8  children,  43 
grand-children,  30  great  grand-children.     Has  had  100"  (descendants?) 

Major  Christopher  Darrow,  a  brave  soldier  of  the  French  and 
Revolutionary  Wars,  who  lived  in  the  North  Parish,  and  Elder  Zadok 
Darrow,  a  venerable  Baptist  minister  of  Waterford,  were  descendants 
of  Christopher  and  Elizabeth  Darrow. 


George  Sharswood. 
Only  flitting  gleams  are  obtained  of  this  person  and  his  family. 
They  come  and  go  like  figures  exhibited  for  scenic  eflfect.     George 
Sharswood  appears  before  us  in  1666 ;  is  inserted  in  the  rate  list  o*^ 


348  HISTORY     OP    NEW    LONDON* 

1667 ;  the  next  year  builds  a  house,  and  apparently  about  the  same 
time  becomes  a  married  man,  though  of  this  event  we  can  find  no 
record.  His  children  presented  for  baptism  were,  George  and  Wil* 
liam,  April  2d,  1671 ;  Mary  in  1672,  and  Katherine  in  1674.  Of 
his  death  there  is  no  account;  but  before  1678,  the  relict  had  mar- 
ried Greorge  Darrow.  The  children  being  young,  the  estate  was  left 
unsettled,  and  in  a  few  years,  only  William  and  Mary  were  living. 

June  24th,  1700,  William  Sharswood  *"  scHuetime  of  Cape  May  bat 
|iow  of  New  London,"  has  the  house  and  land  of  his  father  made 
over  to  him  by  a  quitclaim  deed  from  Sergt  George  Darrow.  The 
September  following  he  has  three  children,  Jonathan,  George  and 
Abigail,  baptized  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  SaltonstalL  He  then  disappears 
from  our  sight. 

In  September,  1704,  measures  were  instituted  to  settle  the  estate 
of  the  elder  Sharswood,  and  in  the  course  of  the  proceedings  we 
learn  that  the  daughter,  Mary,  was  the  wife  of  Jonathan  Hill,  and 
that  William  Sharswood,  the  son,  had  recently  deceased  in  New  Cas- 
tle county  Delaware. 

In  1705,  Abigail,  relict  of  William  Sharswood,  was  the  wife  of 
Greorge  Polly  of  Philadelphia.  The  estate  in  New  London  was  not 
fully  settled  till  1724,  nearly  Mty  years  after  the  decease  of  George 
Sharswood.  Jonathan  Hill  was  the  admmistrator,  and,  the  acquit- 
tances were  signed  by  Abigail  Polly  and  the  surviving  sons  of  Wil- 
liam Sharswood — William,  of  Newcastle,  and  Greorge  and  James,  of 
Philadelphia.^ 


John  Harvey y  died  in  January y  1705. 
The  name  of  John  Harvey  is  first  noticed  about  1682.     He  was 
then  living  near  the  head  of  Niantic  River,  and  perhaps  within  the 
bounds  of  Lyme.     He  left  sons  John  and  Thomas,  and  daughter 
Elizabeth  Willey. 


WiUianu. 
No  genealogy  in  New  London  county  is  more  extensive  and  per- 
plexing than  that  of  Williams.     The  £Bunilies  of  that  name  are  de- 
rived from  several  distinct  ancestors.    Among  them  John  Williams 
and  Thomas  Williams  appear  to  stand  disconnected ;  at  least,  no 


1  The  present  George  Sharswood,  Esq.,  of  PhUadelphia,  is  a  descendant  of  George 
of  New  London. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  349 

relationsliip  with  their  contemporaries  has  been  traced,  or  with  each 
other.  They  are  entirely  distinct  from  the  Stonington  family  of 
Williams,  although  the  names  are  in  many  cases  identical 

The  first  WtlUttms  in  New  London  was  WiUiam^  who  is  in  the 
rate  list  of  1664.  He  lived  on  the  east,  or  Groton  side  of  the  river, 
and  died  in  1704,  leaving  four  sons,  Richard,  William,  Henry  and 
Stephen,  all  of  full  age,  and  a  daughter  Mary,  wife  of  Samuel  Packer. 
Thomas  Williams  appears  in  the  plantation,  about  1670.  His 
cattle  mark  was  enrolled  in  1680.  He  lived  west  of  the  river  at  or 
near  Mohegan,  and  died  Sept  24th,  1705,  about  sixty-one  years  of 
age.  He  left  a  widow  Joanna  and  eleven  children,  between  the  ages 
of  twelve  and  thirty-three  years,  and  a  grandchild  who  was  heir  of 
a  deceased  daughter.  The  sons  were  John,  Thomas,  Jonathan,  Wil- 
liam, Samuel  and  Ebenezer. 

John  Williams,  another  independent  branch  of  this  extended  name, 
married  in  1685  or  1686,  Jane,  relict  of  Hugh  Hubbard  and  daugh- 
ter of  Gary  Latham.  No  trace  of  him  earlier  than  this  has  been 
noticed.  He  succeeded  to  the  lease  of  the  ferry,  (granted  for  fifty 
years  to  Gary  Latham,)  and  lived,  as  did  also  his  wife,  to  advanced 
age.  "  He  kept  the  ferry,"  says  Hempbtead*s  diary,  "  when  Groton 
and  New  London  were  one  town,  and  had  but  one  minister,  and  one 
captain's  company."  When  he  died,  Dec  3d,  1741,  within  the  same 
bounds  were  eight  religious  societies,  and  nine  military  companies, 
five  on  the  west  side  and  four  in  Groton.  He  left  an  only  son,  Peter, 
of  whom  Gapt.  John  Williams  who  perished  in  the  massacre  at 
Groton  fort  in  1781,  was  a  descendant. 

John  and  Eleazar  Williams,  brother  and  son  of  Isaac  Williams, 
of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  settled  in  Stonington  about  the  year  1687,  and 
are  the  ancestors  of  another  distinct  line,  branches  of  which  have 
been  many  years  resident  in  New  London  and  Norwich.  The  gen- 
ealogy of  this  family  belongs  more  particularly  to  Stonington. 

Ebenezer  Williams,  son  of  Samuel  of  Roxbury,  and  cousin  of 
John  and  Eleazar,  settled  also  in  Stonington,  and  left  descendants 
there.  He  was  brother  of  the  Rev.  John  Williams,  first  minister  of 
Deerfield,  who  was  taken  captive  with  his  family  by  the  French  and 
Indians  in  1701.  A  passage  from  Hempstead's  diary  avouches  this 
relationship: 

<*  Sept.  9,  1733.  Mr.  Ebenezer  Williams  of  Stonington  is  come  to  see  a 
French  woman  in  town  that  says  she  is  daughter  to  his  brother  the  late  Rev. 
Mr.  Williams  of  Deerfield  taken  by  the  French  and  Indians  thirty  years  ago.** 

30 


360  HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON. 

This  passage  rrfers  to  a  yomig  daagfater  of  the  Deerfield  fimufy 
tliat  was  never  redeemed  from  captivitj,  but  lired  and  died  among 
the  Indians.  She  was  probabl j  often  personated  for  sinister  ends. 
The  French  woman  mentioned  above  was  unquestionably  an  impostor. 

Capt  John  Williams,  of  Poqoetannock,  (Ledyard,)  was  yet  another 
original  settler  of  the  name.  He  is  said  to  have  come  directly  from 
Wales  and  to  have  had  no  relationship  with  other  families  in  the 
country.    We  quote  a  cotemporary  notice  of  his  death : 

<*  Jan.  12,  1741-2.  Gapt»  John  Williams  died  at  Pockatonnock  of  pleurisy, 
after  7  dajrs'  illness.  He  was  a  good  commonwealth's  man,  traded  much  by 
sea  and  land  with  good  success  for  many  years,  and  acquired  wholly  by  his 
own  industry  a  great  estate.     He  was  a  very  just  dealer,  aged  abont  60  years."! 

Brigadier-Greneral  Joseph  Williams  of  Norwich,  one  of  the  West- 
em  Reserve  purchasers,  was  a  son  of  Capt  John  Williams. 


Benjamin  ShapUy^  died  August  8dj  1706. 
Benjamin,  son  of  Nicholas  Shapleigh  of  Boston,  was  bom,  accord- 
ing to  Farmer's  Register,  in  1645.  We  find  no  difficulty  in  appro- 
priating this  birth  to  Benjamin  Shapley,  mariner,  who  about  1670 
became  an  inhabitant  of  New  London.  The  facts  which  have  been 
gathered  respecting  his  family  are  as  follows : 

**  Benjamin,  son  of  Nicholas  Shapley  of  Charlestown,  married  Mary,  daugh- 
ter of  John  Picket,  April  1  Oih,  1672." 

Children. 

1.  Ruth,  b.  Dec.  24th,  1672 — married  John  Morgan  of  Groton. 

2.  Benjamin,  b.  Mar.  20lh,  1675 — m.  Ruth,  daughter  of  Thomas  Dymond. 

3.  Mary,  b.  Mar.  26th,  1677 — married  Joseph  Truman. 

4.  Joseph,  b.  Aug.  15th,  1681 — died  young. 

5.  Ann,  b.  Aug.  Slst,  1685— married  Thomas  Avery  of  Groton. 

6.  Daniel,  b.  Feb.  14ih,  1689-90— m.  AblgaU  Pierson  of  KiUingworth. 

7.  Jane,  b, 1696 — married  Joshua  Appleton. 

8.  Adam,  b. 1698 — died  young. 

Mary,  relict  of  Benjamin  Shapley,  died  Jan.  15th,  1734-5.  The 
Shapley  house-lot  was  on  Main  Street,  next  north  of  the  Christo- 
phers lot,  and  was  originally  laid  out  to  Kempo  Sybada,  a  Dutch 
captain.  Shapley  Street  was  opened  through  it  in  1746.  Captain 
Adam  Shapley,  who  received  his  death  wound  at  Fort  Griswold,  in 
1781,  was  a  descendant  of  Daniel  Shapley. 

1  Hempstead,  (MS.) 


HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON.  351 

Antkony  Ashhy. 
A  person  of  this  name  kept  a  house  of  entertainment  at  Salem  in 
1670.^  It  was  prohahly  the  same  man  that  afterward  came  to  New 
London,  and  settled  east  of  the  river.  He  was  on  the  jury  of  the 
county  court  in  1690.  His  two  daughters  Mary  and  Hannah,  united 
with  the  church  in  New  London  in  1694.  His  decease  took  place 
before  1708.  Anthony  Ashby,  Jr.,  collector  for  the  east  side  in  1696, 
died  in  1712.  

George  Dennis. 

The  period  of  his  death  is  uncertain,  but  it  was  preTious  to  1708. 
He  came  to  New  London  from  Long  Island,  and  married  Elizabeth, 
relict  of  Joshua  Raymond.  They  had  but  one  child,  Ebeneaer,  who 
was  bom  Oct.  23d,  1682.  Ebenezer  Dennis  inherited  from  his 
mother  a  dwelling-house,  choicely  situated  near  the  water,  and  com- 
manding a  fine  prospect  of  the  harbor,  where  about  the  year  1710  he 
opened  a  house  of  entertainment.  His  first  wife  was  Sarah,  daugh- 
ter of  Capt.  John  Hough,  and  his  second,  Deborah  Ely  of  Lyme. 
He  died  in  1726 ;  his  relict  the  next  year  married  Lieut.  Walter 
Butler,  and  removed  with  him  to  the  Indian  frontier  in  the  western 
part  of  New  York.  The  family  mansion  was  sold  in  1728  to  Mat- 
thew Stewart;  it  was  where  the  Frink  house  now  stands  in  Bank 
Street. 

Mr.  Dennis  by  his  will  left  £25  to  be  distributed  to  the  poor  of 
the  town.  Among  his  effects  139  books  are  enumerated,  whiclb 
though  most  of  them  were  of  small  value,  formed  a  considerable 
library  for  the  time,  probably  the  largest  in  the  town. 


Peter  Orary,  of  Groton^  died  in  1708. 
He  married  in  December,  1677,  Christobel,  daughter  of  John  Gal- 
lop.    His  oldest  child,  Christobel,  was  bom  "  the  latter  end  of  Feb., 
1678-9."     Other  children  mentioned  m  his  will  were  Peter,  John, 
William;  Robert,  Margaret  and  Ann. 


John  Daniely  died  about  1709. 
This  date  is  obtained  by  approximation :  he  was  living  in  the  early 
part  of  1709,  and  in  July,  1710,  Mary,  widow  of  John  Daniels,  is 
mentioned.     His  earliest  date  at  New  London  is  in  April,  1663, 
when  his  name  is  given  without  the  «,  John  DanieL 

iFelt 


362  HISTORY    OP     NEW    LONDON. 

John  Daniel  married  Mary,  daughter  of  George  Chappell,  Jan.  19th,  1664-6. 

Children. 

1.  John,  born  Jan.  19th,  1605-6.  6.  Rachel,  born  Feb.  27th,  1676. 

2.  Mary,    "    Oct.  12th,  1667.  7.  Sarah,       ••    Feb.  10th,  1679. 

3.  Thomas,   "    Dec.  3l8t,  1669,  9.  Jonathan,  «•     Oct.  15ih,  16S2. 

4.  Christian,  **     Mar.  Sd,  1671.  9.  Clement,  (not  recorded.) 

5.  Hannah,    **    Ap.  20th,  1674. 

Before  his  decease  John  Daniel  divided  his  lands  among  his  four 
sons,  giving  the  homestead,  adjoining  the  farms  of  John  Keeny  and 
Samuel  Manwaring,  to  Thomas. 

John  Daniels,  2d,  married  Agnes  Beeby,  Dec.  3d,  1685.  He 
died  Jan.  15th,  1756,  "  wanting  15  days  of  90  years  old."'  Thomas 
Daniels,  the  second  son,  died  Oct.  12th,  1725.  All  the  sons  left  de- 
scendants.' 


George  ChappeUj  died  in  1709. 
Among  the  emigrants  for  New  England,  in  "  the  Christian"  fix)m 
London,  1635,  was  Greorge  Chappell,  aged  twenty.^  He  was  at 
Wethersfield,  in  1637,  and  can  be  traced  there  as  a  resident  until 
1649,*  which  was  probably  about  the  time  that  he  came  to  Pequot, 
bringing  with  him  a  wife,  Margaret,  and  some  three  or  four  children. 
Of  his  marriage,  or  of  the  births  of  these  children,  no  account  is  pre- 
served at  Wethersfield.  The  whole  list  of  his  family,  as  gathered 
from  various  sources,  is  as  follows : 

1.  Mary,  married  John  Daniels.  6.  Hester,    bom  April  15th,  1662. 

2.  Rachel,  married  Thomas  Crocker.  7.  Sarah,  "  Feb.    14th,  1665-6. 

3.  John,  removed  to  Flushing,  L.  I.  8.  Nathaniel,    "  May  21st,  1668. 

4.  George,  bom  March  5th,  1653-4.  9.  Caleb,  ««  Oct     7th,   1671. 

5.  Elizabeth,  bom  Aug.  30th,  1656. 

At  the  time  of  George  Chappell's  decease,  these  nine  children 
were  all  living,  as  was  also  his  aged  wife,  whom  he  committed  to  the 
special  care  of  his  son  Caleb  and  grandson  Comfort.     Caleb  Chap- 


1  By  comparing  this  estimate  with  the  date  of  his  birth  it  will  be  seen  that  allow- 
ance is  made  for  the  change  that  had  taken  place  in  the  style.  His  birth  is  given  in 
0.  S.  and  his  death  in  N.  S.  According  to  the  coirent  date,  only  four  days  were 
wanting  of  ninety  years. 

2  C.  F.  Daniels,  the  present  editor  of  the  iS>to  London  Daily  and  Weekly  Ckromchf 
is  a  descendant  in  the  line  of  Thonuu  Daniels. 

8  Savage's  Gleanings  in  Mass.  Hist  Coll.,  8d  series,  toL  8,  p.  262. 

4  Conn.  Col.  Bee.,  vol  1,  p.  194. 


HISTORT     OP     NEW     LONDON.  353 

pell  had  previously  removed  to  Lebanon,  from  whence  his  son  Amos 
went  to  Sharon,  and  settled  in  that  part  of  the  township  which  is  now 
Ellsworth.'  The  second  George  Chappell  married,  first,  Alice  Way, 
and  second,  Mary  Douglas.  He  had  two  sons,  George  and  Comfort ; 
from  the  latter,  the  late  Capt.  Edward  Chappell,  of  New  London, 
descended.  Families  of  this  name  in  New  London  and  the  neigh- 
boring towns,  are  numerous,  all  tracing  back  to  George,  for  their  an- 
cestor. Branches  from  this  stock  are  also  disseminated  in  various 
parts  of  the  Union. 


Capt,  Samuel  Chester ^  died  in  1710. 

A  sea-captain  in  the  West  Lidia  line,  he  receives  his  first  grant  of 
land  in  New  London,  for  a  warehouse,  in  1 664,  in  company  with 
William  Condy,  of  Boston,  who  was  styled  his  nephew.'  He  subse- 
quently removed  to  the  east  side  of  the  river,  where  he  dwelt  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  He  was  much  employed  in  land  surveys,  and  in 
1693,  was  one  of  the  agents  appointed  by  the  Greneral  Court  to  meet 
with  a  committee  from  Massachusetts,  to  renew  and  settle  the 
boundaries  between  the  two  colonies.  His  children,  baptized  in  New 
London,  but  births  not  recorded,  were,  John,  Susannah  and  Samuel, 
in  1670;  Mercy,  1673  ;  Hannah,  1694,  and  Jonathan,  1697.  His 
will,  dated  in  1708,  mentions  only  Abraham,  John,  Jonathan  and 
Mercy  Burrows. 

Mr.  Chester  had  a  large  tract  of  land  in  the  North  Parish,  bought 
of  Owaneco  and  Josiah,  Mohegan  sachems.  It  is  probable  that;  one 
of  his  sons  settled  upon  it,  and  that  the  Chester  family,  of  Montville, 
are  his  descendants. 


William  Condy. 
In  connection  with  Capt.  Chester,  a  brief  notice  is  due  to  William 
Condy.  His  wife  was  Mary,  daughter  of  Ralph  Parker.  He  had 
four  children  presented  together  for  baptism,  March  23d,  107 2-3 — 
Richard,  William,  Ebenezer  and  Ralph.  The  family  removed  to 
Boston  about  1 680.  A  letter  from  Mr.  Condy,  dated  June  1 4tli,  1 688, 
to  Capt.  Chester,  is  recorded  at  New  London,  requesting  him  to  make 

1  Sedgwick'8  Hist  of  Sharon,  p.  72. 

8  This  term  like  that  of  brother  and  consm  has  a  considerable  range  of  application. 
Hugh  Caulkins  in  a  deed  of  gift  to  William  Douglas  who  had  married  his  grand- 
danghter,  and  was  no  otherwise  related  to  him,  calls  him  Im  nephew, 

30* 


394  mSTORT     OP     NEW    LONDON. 

sale  ci  <me  hundred  aad  fifty  acres  of  land  that  had  been  fpren  him 
bj  the  town.    He  says : 

**  Loring  nnole, 

•*  I  would  desire  if  you  can  sell  the  land  that  Ijreth  on  yoor  side  of  the  rlTer  to 
do  me  that  kindness  as  to  sell  it  for  me  at  the  best  adyantage,  and  send  it  doiwn 
to  me  the  next  spring,  and  giTe  a  bill  of  sale  for  the  same,  and  this  shall  be 
your  discharge.  If  you  sell  it  take  it  in  pork  if  you  can  for  that  will  be  the 
best  commodity  here.     I  am  now  ready  to  sail  for  Barbadoes/*  &c. 

The  Condy  family  long  retained  a  honse-lot  in  town,  which  came 
to  them  from  Ralph  Parker.  This  estate  was  presented  in  the  in- 
ventory of  the  second  William  Condy,  in  1710,  "  late  of  Boston,  but 
formerly  of  New  London,  where  he  was  bom,"  and  was  sold  by  a 
third  William  Condy,  of  Boston,  in  1717. 


I%amas  Mortimer,  died  Moreh  llth,  1709-10. 
This  name  was  often  written  Maltimore  and  Mortimore.  We  have 
little  information  concerning  the  person  who  bore  it,  and  with  whom, 
apparently,  it  became  extinct.  He  was  a  constable  in  1680.  His 
wife,  Elizabeth,  survived  him  but  a  few  months.  The  only  persons 
mentioned  as  devisees  or  heirs,  were  two  daughters — Mary,  wife  <^ 
Robert  Stoddard,  and  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Abraham  Willey,  and  their 
children. 


William  Mynard,  died  in  1711. 

This  person  was  on  original  emigrant  from  Great  Britain  ;  he  had 
a  brother  Greorge,  who  died  at  Fording  Bridge,  in  Hampshire,  Eng- 
land, to  whose  estate  he  was  an  heir.  The  name  appears  to  have 
been  originally  identical  with  Maynard,  and  is  often  also  confounded 
with  Minor.  William  Mynard  married  Lydia  Richards,  Nov.  15th, 
1678.  They  had  a  son,  William,  bom  Nov.  16th,  1680,  but  no  oth- 
er recorded.  At  his  death,  he  is  said  to  have  wife,  Lydia,  and  nine 
children,  three  of  them  under  age.  The  names  are  not  given,  but 
the  four  brothers,  William,  George,  David  and  Jonathan,  (Mynard, 
Maynard,  Mainer,)  who  were  all  householders  about  1730,  were  prob- 
ably sons  of  William  and  Lydia ;  but  the  genealogy  is  obscured  by 
the  uncertainty  of  the  name. 

Zacharias  Maynard,  or  Mayner,  purchased  a  farm  in  1697,  near 
Robert  Allyn  and  Thomas  Rose,  (in  Ledyard.)  His  wife  was  a 
daughter  of  Robert  Geer. 


BISTORT    OP    NSW   LONDON.  356 

Thomas  Fember, 
Drowned,  Sept.  27th,  1711,  in  Nahantic  Biyer,  on  whose  banks 
he  dwelt  He  had  three  children  baptized  in  1692,  viz.,  Mercy, 
Thomas  and  Elizabeth;  also,  Ann,  baptized  1694,  and  John,  1696. 
At  the  period  of  his  death,  only  four  children  were  living.  He  left 
a  wife,  Agnes,  who  was  for  many  years  famous  as  a  nurse  and  doc- 
tress.  Of  this  kind  of  character,  the  changing  customs  of  the  age 
have  scarcely  left  us  a  type.  But  tradition  relates  many  vivid  anec** 
dotes  respecting  this  energetic  and  experienced  race  of  female  prac- 
titioners. No  medical  man  of  the  present  day,  can  be  more  ready  to 
answer  a  night-call — ^to  start  from  sleep,  mount  a  horse,  and  ride  off 
six  or  seven  miles  in  darkness  or  tempest,  sustained  by  the  hope  of 
alleviating  misery,  than  were  these  able  nursing  mothers  of  former 
times.  A  seventh  daughter  was  particularly  marked  and  set  aside  for 
the  office,  and  imbounded  confidence  was  placed  in  her  skill  to  stroke 
for  the  king's  evil,  to  cure  cancers,  alleviate  asthma,  and  set  bones. 


Richard  Singleton,  died  Oct.  16<A,  1711. 
The  record  of  his  death  styles  him  ferryman  of  Groton.  Origin- 
ally he  was  a  mariner,  and  probably  took  the  ferry  when  the  fifty 
years'  lease  of  Latham  expired,  in  1705,  in  company  with  John  Wil- 
liams, or  perhaps  alternating  with  him.  Both  lived  on  Groton  Bank 
and  were  lessees  of  the  ferry  about  the  same  time.  Mr.  Singleton 
left  nine  children,  of  whom  only  Bichard,  William,  Wait-Still  and 
the  wife  of  Samuel  Latham  are  mentioned.  His  will  directs  that  his 
children  in  Carolina  and  his  children  in  Groton,  should  share  equally 
in  his  estate,  which  however  was  small.  Among  the  special  bequests 
are,  to  his  wife  a  negro  man  valued  at  £40 ;  to  son  Bichard  the 
Church  History  of  New  England,  £1 ;  to  William  a  large  church 
Bible,  "old  England  print,"  £1,  15*.;  to  Wait-Still  two  rods  of  land 
and  a  buccaneer  gun. 


Welh. 
Thomas  Wells  was  one  of  the  early  band  of  planters  at  Pequot 
Harbor;  probably  on  the  ground  in  1648,  and  certainly  in  1649. 
He  was  a  carpenter,  and  worked  with  Elderkin,  on  mills  and  meet- 
ing-houses. The  last  notice  of  him  on  the  town  record  is  in  1661, 
when  WeDs  and  Elderkin  were  employed  to  repair  the  turret  of  the 
meeting-house.    No  account  can  be  found  of  the  sale  of  his  house  or 


866  HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON. 

land.     He  may  have  left  the  settlement^  or  he  may  be  coneealed  from 
our  view  by  dwelling  on  a  farm  remote  from  the  center  of  business. 

A  Thomas  Wells — ^whether  another  or  the  same  has  not  been  as** 
certained-^is  found  at  Stonington  or  Westerly,  about  the  year  1677, 
engaged  in  constructing  vessels  at  a  ship-yard  on  the  Pawkatuck 
River.  He  is  styled,  "  of  Ipswich,  shipwright."  In  1680,  having  a 
lawsuit  with  Amos  Richardson,  respecting  a  vessel  of  forty-eight 
tuns  burden,  which  he  had  contracted  to  build  for  him,  two  of  his  sons 
appeared  as  witnesses,  viz.,  Joseph,  aged  twenty-two,  and  Thomas, 
seventeen.'  Of  Thomas  Wells,  we  have  no  later  information,  but  his 
iratemity  to  Joseph  is  thus  established. 

« Joseph  Welhy  of  Groton,  died  October  26th,  1711."  We  sup- 
pose this  person  to  have  been  the  noted  ship-builder  of  Pawkatuck 
River,  and  that  he  is  styled  of  Groton,  from  the  circumstance  of  his 
having  a  farm  and  family  residence  near  the  head  of  Mystic,  on  the 
Groton  side  of  the  river.  It  is  certain  that  a  farm  in  this  position,' 
was  occupied,  at  a  very  early  period,  by  a  Wells  family.  Descend- 
ants of  the  ancient  owners,  whom  we  suppose  to  have  been  first 
Thomas  Wells,  and  then  his  son  Joseph,  are  at  this  day  (1850)  liv- 
ing in  the  same  place,  and  in  the  same  low-browed,  unaltered  house, 
in  the  shadow  of  Porter's  Rocks,  where  Joseph  Wells  died.  It  is 
near  a  gap  in  the  ledge  where  Mason  and  Underhill  rested  with  their 
company  a  few  hours,  before  making  their  terrible  onslaught  upon 
the  Pequots,  in  the  expedition  of  May,  1687.  The  will  of  Joseph 
Wells,  executed  ^yq  days  before  his  decease,  mentions  wife  Hannah, 
and  children  Joseph,  John,  Thomas  and  Anne. 


Jacoh  Holloway^  died  Nov^  9th,  1711. 
He  appears  in  the  plantation  a  little  before  1700.     Left  a  son, 
John,  and  daughters.  Rose  and  Ai^n.     His  wife  died  four  days  after 
the  decease  of  her  husband. 


Joseph  Nest,  died  Dec.  Sth,  1711.  . 
Mr.  Nest's  wife  deceased  before  him,  and  he  lived  apparently 
alone,  in  a  small  tenement  in  the  angle  of  the  Lyme  and  Great  Neck 
roads.     Susannah,  wife  of  Greorge  Way,  appears  to  have  been  his 
daughter.     No  other  relatives  have  been  traced. 
> 

1  Judd,  of  NorthamptoD,  (MS.) 


HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON.  357 

John  Terrall,  died  Feb.  27th,  1712. 

His  wife,  Mrs.  Sarah  Terrall,  died  March  7th,  succeeding.  No 
children  are  mentioned  in  the  will  of  the  latter,  but  she  was  probably 
a  second  wife. 

Terrall  should  undoubtedly  be  written  Tyrrel,  Two  persons  of 
the  name  appear  in  New  London,  in  the  year  1662,  William,  a  tailor, 
and  John,  a  seaman.  The  former,"  probably,  soon  left  the  place. 
John  Terrall  is  in  the  rate  list  of  1664.  Of  his  family,  there  is  no 
account,  except  a  single  entry  upon  the  church  record :  "  Goodman 
Tyrrell's  two  children,  William  and  Mary,  baptized  May  7th,  1671. 


John  Wtckmre,  died  in  March  or  April,  1712. 

This  person  was  an  early  settler  in  Mohegan,  or  the  North  Parish, 
(now  Montville.)  CoL  John  Livingston  was  one  of  the  executors 
named  in  his  wilL  Madam  Winthrop,  (relict  of  Governor  Fitz-John,) 
at  her  death,  left  legacies  to  "  sister  Wickwire's  children." 

John  Wickwire  married  Mary,  daughter  of  George  and  Margery 
Tongue,  Nov.  6th,  1676. 

ChUdren, 

1.  George,       bom  Oct.  4th,  1677.  5.  Jonathan,  born  Feb.  19th,  1691. 

2.  Christopher,  "    Jan.  8th,  1679-80.      6.  Peter,  "    Mar.    2d,    1694. 

3.  John,  «♦    Dec.  2d,  1685.  7.  Ann,  •*    Sept.  25th,  1697. 

4.  Elizabeth,     "    Mar.  23d,  1688-9. 


Thomas  Short. 

"  Here  lyeth  the  body  of  Thomas  Short,  who  deceased  Sept.  27th, 
1712,  aged  thirty  years."  The  small  head-stone  in  the  old  burial- 
ground,  which  bears  this  inscription,  shows  where  the  remains  of  the 
first  printer  in  the  colony  of  Connecticut  are  deposited.  He  had  been 
instructed  in  his  art  by  Bartholomew  Green,  of  Boston,  who  recom- 
mended him  to  the  authorities  of  Connecticut,  for  a  colony  printer, 
in  which  oflSce  he  established  himself  at  New  London,  in  1709.  In 
1710,  he  issued  "  The  Saybrook  Platform  of  Church  Discipline," 
the  first  book  printed  in  the  colony.'  After  this  he  printed  sermons 
and  pamphlets,  and  performed  what  public  work  the  governor  and 
company  required,  till  death  put  an  early  stop  to  his  labors.  Two 
children  of  Thomas  and  Elizabeth  Short,  are  recorded  at  New  Lon- 

1  Thomaa'  History  of  Printing,  vol.  1,  p.  406. 


358  UISTORT    OP    NEW    LONDON* 

don — Catharine,  bom  in  1709;  Charles  in  1711.    His  relict  manied 
Solomon  Colt,  Aug.  8th,  1714. 


Thomoi  MufuMy  died  in  1712. 
We  find  this  person  mentioned  in  1681.     He  was  on  a  e<Hnmittee 
to  lay  out  a  highway  in  1683.     His  wife  was^Lydia,  and  his  children 
Jacob,  Elisha,  Mercy  and  Deliverance.    In  1723,  Jacob  was  of 
Windsor,  and  Elisha  of  Norwich. 


Stephen  JHurlhut,  died  October  7thj  1712. 
The  Hurlbut  family,  of  Connecticut,  commences  with  Thomas 
Hurlbut,  who  was  one  of  the  garrison  at  Saybrook  Fort  in  1636,  and 
settled  in  Wethersfield  about  1 640^  Stephen,  who  came  to  New 
London  after  1690,  was  probably  one  of  his  descendants,  and  a  na- 
tive of  Wethersfield.  He  married,  about  1696,  Hannah,  daughter  of 
Robert  Douglas,  and  between  1697  and  1711,  had  seven  children 
baptized — Stephen,  Freelove,  Mary,  John,  Sarah,  Titus,  Joseph. 
Stephen,  the  oldest  son,  died  in  1725.  John  is  the  ancestor  of  the 
Ledyard  family  of  Hurlbuts,  and  Joseph  of  that  of  New  London. 
Capt.  Titus  Hurlbut  was  a  man  of  considerable  distinction  in  his 
day ;  he  served  in  the  French  wars,  and  was  a  captain  of  the  old 
fort  that  stood  on  the  eastern  border  of  the  Parade,  near  the  present 
ferry  wharf  His  descendants,  in  the  male  line,  removed  to  the 
western  states. 


WiUiam  Campy  died  October  9<A,  1713. 
He  was  an  inhabitant  of  the  Jordan  district.     His  wife  was  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  of  Richard  Smith.     His  two  sons  William  and  James 
removed  to  the  North  Parish,  (now  Montville.) 


SaUam, 
John  and  Nicholas  Hallam  were  the  sons  of  Mrs.  Alice  Liveen, 
by  a  former  marriage,  and  probably  bom  in  Barbadoes — John  in 
1661,  and  Nicholas  in  1664.  John  married  Prudence,  daughter  of 
Amos  Richardson,  in  1682,  and  fixed  his  residence  in  Stonington» 
where  he  died  in  1700.  His  possessions  were  large;  a  thousand  acres 
of  land  were  leased  to  him  in  perpetuity  by  John  Richardson  of 
Newbury  in  1692  ^for  the  consideration  of  five  shillings  and  an 


HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON.  359 

annual  rent  of  one  pepper-corn ;"  and  his  inventorj  gives  evidence  of 
a  style  of  dress  and  housekeeping,  more  expensive  and  showy  than 
was  common  in  those  days.  It  contains  silver  plate,  mantle  and  coat 
of  hroadclothf  lined  with  silk,  ^seventeen  horse  kind/'  four  negro  ser* 
vants,  &c. 

**  Nicholas  Hallam  married  Sarah,  daughter  of  Alexander  Pjrgan,  July  8f 
16S6.     Children  s 

1.  Alexander  bom  Oct.  22,  1688. 

2.  Edward        '<    Ap.  25,  1693,  (married  Grace  Denison.) 

3.  Sarah  "    Mar.  29,  1695,  (married  Joseph  Merrills.) 
(Mrs.  Sarah  Hallam  died  in  the  year  1700.) 

Nicholas  Hallam  was  married  Jan.  2, 1700-1  to  widow  Elizabeth  Meadea 
whose  maiden  name  was  OuUiver,  in  Bromley  church,  on  the  backside  of  Bow 
without  Stepney  church,  in  London,  Old  England*  Their  daughter  Elizabeth 
was  born  in  the  parish  of  St.  John  Wapping,  near  Wapping  New  Stairs,  in 
London  Feb.  22,  1701-2,  (married  Samuel  Latimer.) 

5.  Mary  born  in  New  London  Oct.  11,  1705,  (married  Nathaniel  Hempstead 
and  Joseph  Truman.) 

6.  John  bom  Aug.  3,  1708,  (married  Mary  Johnson.)" 

Mr.  Hallam's  gravestone  states  that  he  died  Sept.  18th,  1714,  at 
the  age  of  forty-nine  years,  five  months  and  twenty-nine  days.  His 
wife  survived  him  twenty-one  years. 

At  this  period,  many  families  in  town  owned  slaves,  for  domestic 
service ;  some  but  one,  others  two  or  three ;  very  few  more  than  foun 
The  inventory  of  Nicholas  Hallam  comprises  "  a  negro  man  named 
Lonnon,"  valued  at  £30 ;  his  wife  disposes  of  her  '^  negro  woman 
Flora,  and  girl  Judith."  Among  the  family  effects  are  articles  that 
were  probably  brought  from  England,  when  Hallam  returned  with 
his  English  wife  in  1703— such  as  a  clock  and  gecretary*  Mrs. 
Hallam  bequeaths  to  one  of  her  daughters  a  diamond  ring,  and  a 
chest  made  of  Bermuda  cedar ;  to  another,  '^  the  hair-trunk  I  brought 
from  London,  and  my  gold  chaine  necklace  containing  seven  chaines 
and  a  locket." 

Alexander  Hallam  died  abroad.  The  will  of  his  father  contiuns  a 
bequest  to  him  ^  if  he  be  living  and  return  home  within  twenty  years." 
In  1720  his  inventory  was  presented  for  probate  with  the  label,  sup* 
posed  to  he  dead.  Edward  Hallam  was  town-clerk  from  December^ 
1720,  to  his  death  in  1736.* 

IRev.  Kobert  A.  Hallam,  rector  of  St.  James*  Chnrch,  New  London,  is  the  ^nly 
•nrrlTiDg  male  deeoendaat  of  Nioholas  Hallam,  in  the  line  of  the  name. 


360  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON* 

Major  Edward  Palmes,  died  March  21«<,  1714-15. 

The  same  day  died  Capt.  John  Prentis,  2d.  They  were  both 
buried  on  the  23d,  under  arms;  Capt  Prentis  in  the  morning 
and  Major  Pahnes  in  the  afternoon.  The  latter  died  on  his  farm  at 
Nahantick,  but  was  brought  into  town  for  interment.  Mr.  Hemp- 
stead's diary  notices  the  extreme  severity  of  the  weather  at  the  time, 
and  says  of  Major  Palmes — "  He  was  well  and  dead  in  two  hours 
and  a  half."  His  gravestone  states  that  he  was  in  his  seventy-eighth 
year ;  we  may  therefore  place  his  birth  in  the  year  1638. 

Guy  and  Edward  Palmes  were  both  traders  in  1659  and  1660; 
the  latter  in  New  Haven,  and  the  former  in  one  of  the  towns  west  of 
it  upon  the  Sound.  In  December,  1660,  Edward  had  removed  to 
New  London.  From  various  sources  it  is  ascertained  that  he  mar- 
ried Lucy  Winthrop,  daughter  of  Governor  Winthrop  of  Connecticut, 
and  after  her  death  a  Widow  Davis,  and  that  by  his  first  wife  he  had 
a  daughter  Lucy,  who  married  (first)  Samuel  Gray,  and  (second) 
Samuel  Lynde  of  Saybrook;  but  of  these  successive  events  no  ex- 
plicit documentary  evidence  is  to  be  found  in  New  London.  Dates 
therefore  can  not  be  given.  Two  children  of  Major  Palmes  by  his 
second  wife,  are  on  Mr.  Bradstreet's  record  of  baptisms : 

«*  Baptized  Nov.  17,  1678,  Major  Palmes  his  child  by  his  second  wife  who 

was  Capt.  Davis  his  relict, Guy.. 

"  Baptized  Oct.  1,  1C62,  Major  Palmes  his  child Andrew.** 

The  Bentworth  farm  of  Major  Palmes  at  Nahantick  was  mort- 
gaged to  Capt.  Charles  Chambers  of  Charlestown  for  £853.  He 
left,  however,  five  other  valuable  farms.  The  Winthrop  homestead 
in  the  town  plot,  and  the  Mountain  farm,  bought  of  Samuel  Royce, 
he  gave  to  his  daughter  Lucy  Gray,  but  the  remainder  of  his  estate 
went  to  his  son  Andrew.  These  are  the  only  children  mentioned  in 
his  will,  and  probably  all  that  survived  infancy. 

Andrew  Palmes  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1703,  and  died 
in  1721.  He  had  four  sons,  Guy,  Bryan,  Edward  and  Andrew,  and 
a  daughter  Sarah,  who  married  Richard  Durfey.  The  name  of 
Palmes  is  now  extinct  in  New  London.  The  Brainerd  family  is 
descended  in  the  female  line  from  Capt.  Edward  Pahnes,  the  third 
son  of  Andrew. 


St  chard  Jennings,  died  Dec.  12thy  1715. 
Richard  Jennings  and  Elizabeth  Reynolds  were  married  ^  the  be- 
gmning  of  June,  1 678."    They  were  both  emigrants  from  Barbadoes. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  961 

Their  children  were,  first,  Samuel,  bom  March  11th,  1679 ;  second, 
Richard,  1680 ;  third,  Elinor,  who  married  Richard  Manwaring. 


Thomas  Crocker,  died  Jan.  IfUh,  1715-6. 
The  descendants  of  this  person  are  numerous  and  widely  scattered. 
At  the  time  of  his  decease  he  was  eighty-three  years  of  age  and  had 
Kved  about  fifty  years  in  the  town.     His  wife,  Rachel,  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Greorge  Chi^pelL    Their  children  were : 

1.  Mary,  b.  Mar.  4th,  166S-9.  4.  Samuel,  b.  July  27th,  1676. 

2.  Thomas,  b.  Sept.  Xst,  1670.  6.  William, 1630. 

3.  John, 1672.  6.  Andrew, 1683. 

The  second  Thomas  Crocker  lived  to  the  age  of  his  father,  eighty- 
three  years  and  seven  months.  WiUiam  Crocker,  the  fourth  son,  was 
a  resolute  partisan  officer  in  the  frontier  wars,  during  the  earlier  part 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  was  styled  "  captain  of  the  scouts.*' 
John  Crocker  of  the  third  generation  (son  of  John,)  was  also  a  sol- 
dier of  the  French  wars,  and  their  victim.  He  came  home  from  the 
frontier  sick,  and  died  soon  afterward,  Nov.  30th,  1746,  aged  forty. 


David  Caulkiniy  died  Nov.  25th,  1717. 

Hugh  Caulkin(8)  and  his  son  John  removed  to  Norwich  in  1660. 
David  the  younger  son  remained  in  New  London,  and  inherited  the 
homestead  farm  given  by  the  town  to  his  father  at  Nahantick.  Ed- 
ward Palmes,  John  Prentis,  David  Caulkins  and  William  Keeny 
Hved  on  adjoining  &rms,  and  for  a  considerable  period  occupied  a 
district  by  themselves,  around  the  present  Rope  Ferry  and  Millstone 
Point 

David  Caulkins  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Thomaa  Bliss  of  Nor- 
wich. 

Children. 

1.  David,  b.  July  5th,  1674.  6.  Mary. 

2.  Ann,  b.  Nov.  8th,  1676.  7.  Joseph,  bap.  Nor.  8d,  1694. 

3.  Jonathan,  b.  Jan.  9th,  1678-^.         8.  Lydia,     **    Aug.  9th»  1696. 

4.  Peter,  b.  Oct,  9th,  1681.  9.  Ann, 

5.  John,  . 

Lieut  Jonathan  Caulkins,  second  son  of  David,  served  in  the  fron- 
tier wars  against  the  French.    A  later  descendant  of  the  same  name, 
Ci^  Jonathan  Caulkins,  was  in  the  field  during  a  considerable  por- 
tion  of  the  Bevolutionary  War. 
31 


362  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

Ensign  George   Wag,  died  in  Feb,,  1716-7. 

This  was  the  period  of  the  Crreat  Snow,  famous  throughout  New 
England.  Ensign  Way  lived  at  the  West  Farms,  not  far  from 
Lake's  Pond,  and  after  his  decease  his  remains  were  kept  for  eleven 
or  twelve  days,  on  account  of  the  impassable  state  of  ihe  roads.  He 
was  finally  interred  on  the  7th  of  March,  being  brought  into  town  hj 
men  on  snow-shoes. 

The  famOy  of  Ensign  Way  removed  from  New  London.  He  had 
several  children,  but  Lyme  was  probably  the  place  of  their  nativity. 
His  wife  was  Susannah,  daughter  of  Joseph  Nest 

Greorge  and  Thomas  Way  were  brothers ;  their  father  was  George 
Way,  of  Lyme,  or  Saybrook,  and  theu*  mother  the  only  child  of  John 
and  Joanna  Smith.  Thomas  Way  appears  to  have  lived  from  child- 
hood in  New  London.  His  wife  was  Ann,  daughter  of  Andrew 
Lester,  and  he  had  ten  children  ranging  in  birth  from  1688  to  1714. 
About  the  year  1720,  he  removed  with  the  younger  part  of  his 
family  to  East  Haven,  where  he  died  in  1726.  His  sons  David  and 
James  married  in  East  Haven ;'  John,  another  son,  settled  in  Wal- 
lingford. 

Thomas  Way,  Jr.,  died  in  New  London  before  the  removal  of  the 
family,  at  the  age  of  twenty.  A  small  stone  of  rough  granite  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  his  grave,  on  which  the  following  rudely  picked 
characters  may  still  be  deciphered. 

T.  W.  DIED  ye  22  DEC.  170  11  (1711.) 

Daniel  Way,  the  oldest  son  of  Thomas,  bom  Dec.  23d,  1688,  and 
Ebenezer,  bom  Oct.  30th,  1693,  are  ancestors  of  the  Way  families 
of  New  London  and  Waterford,  branches  of  which  have  emigrated 
to  Vermont,  New  Hampshire  and  other  states  and  also  to  Canada. 
Capt.  Ebenezer  Way,  of  the  old  fourth  United  States  regiment,  who 
commanded  a  company  in  the  army  of  General  Harrison  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Tippecanoe,  was  a  descendant  of  Ebenezer,  son  of  Thomas. 


Joshua  Baker,  died  Dec.  27th,  1717. 

He  was  son  of  Alexander  Baker  of  Boston,  and  bom  at  the  latter 

place  in  1642.     He  came  to  New  London  about  1670,  and  married 

Sept.  13th,  1674,  Hannah,  relict  of  Tristram  Minter.    They  had 

Alexander,  bom  Dec.  16th,  1677  ;  Joshua,  Jan.  5th,  1678-9 ;  Joha, 

1  Dodd'a  East  Haven  Register,  p.  169. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW    LONDON.  363 

Dec  24th,  1681 ;  Hannah  and  Sarah,  twins,  1684;  also  a  son  Ben- 
jamin and  daughters  Mercy  and  Patience. 

Another  Baker  family  belongs  to  New  London,  of  earlier  date 
than  that  of  Joshua.  "  "William  Baker  of  Pequot,"  is  noticed  in 
1653.  Thomas,  bj  supposition  his  son,  was  a  householder  in  1686, 
living  north  of  the  town  plot  at  Foxen's  Hill.  No  registry  of  mar- 
riage, birth  or  death  relating  to  this  family  before  1700,  has  been 
found.    John  Baker  marrried  Phebe  Douglas,  Jan.  17th,  1703—4. 


Thomas  Joness  died  Oct,  6<A,  1718. 
His  wife  was  Catharine,  daughter  of  Thomas  Gammon  of  New- 
foundland, whom  he  married  June  25th,  1677.     He  lived  at  first 
near  Alewif e  G)ve,  but  removed  into  the  North  Parish,  and  his  only 
son  Thomas  became  a  proprietor  of  the  town  of  Colchester. 


Daniel  WethereU, 
The  following  memorials  collected  from  the  town  book,  and  from 
the  graveyard,  are  more  comprehensive  than  they  would  be  if  mold- 
ed into  any  other  form. 

"  Daniel  WethereU  was  bom  Nov.  29,  1630,  at  the  Free  School-house  in 
Maidstone,  Kent,  Old  England." 

•*  Daniel  WethereU  of  New  London,  son  of  William  WethereU,  Clericus  of 
Soituate,  was  married  August  4,  1659,  to  Grace,  daughter  of  Mr.  Jonathan 
Brewster." 

ChUdrtn, 

1.  Hannah,  b.  Mar.  21st,  1659-60.  3.  Daniel,  b.  Jan.  26th,  1670-1. 

2.  Mary,  b.  Oct.  7th,  1668.  4.  Samuel,  bap.  Oct.  19th,  1679. 

"  Here  lyeth  the  body  of  Capt"  Daniel  WethereU  Esq.  who  died  AprU  ye 
14t*  1719  in  the  S^  year  of  his  age." 

Ci^t.  Wetherell's  usefulness  continued  almost  to  the  day  of  his 
death.  From  1680  to  1710  he  was  more  prominent  in  public  af- 
fairs than  any  other  inhabitant  of  the  town.  He  was  town-clerk, 
moderator,  justice,  assistant,  judge  of  probate,  and  judge  of  the  coun- 
ty court.  No  man  in  the  county  stood  higher  in  point  of  talent  and 
integrity. 

The  two  sons  of  Capt  "WethereU  died  young.  His  daughter  Han- 
nah married  Adam  Picket;  Mary  married  first,  Thomas  Harris, 
and  second,  Greorge  Denison.  His  family,  like  the  families  of  several 
other  founders  and  benefactors  of  the  town — Picket,  Christophers, 
Palmes,  Shaw,  &c. — was  perpetuated  only  in  the  female  line. 


364  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON* 

Andrew  Davis,  of  Groton,  died  April  29dy  1719. 
John  Davis  was  one  of  the  planters  of  Pequot  in  1651,  and  came 
prohahlj  from  Ipswich.  In  1662  he  was  master  of  a  vessel.  His 
death  is  not  registered,  but  there  is  little  hazard  in  assuming  that  his 
relict  was  the  Widow  Davis  whom  Major  Palmes  married  for  his 
second  wife,  and  that  Andrew  Davis  of  Groton  was  his  son.  It  is 
difficult  to  construct  a  familj  history  out  of  the  scanty  materials  af- 
forded by  early  records.  We  gather  fragments,  but  the  thread  is 
wanting  which  should  bind  them  together.  The  wife  of  Andrew 
Davis  was  Mary,  daughter  of  Thomas  Bailey.  Of  his  children  we 
can  obtain  no  information,  except  that  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  An- 
drew Davis,  Jr.,  was  his  son.  The  latter  married  Sarah  Baker, 
Dec.  9th,  1708.  A  Comfort  Davis,  mentioned  in  1719,  and  William 
Davis  who  died  in  1725,  may  also  be  sons. 


Lieut.  John  JRicharde,  died  Nov.  2dj  1720. 

He  was  the  oldest  son  of  the  first  John  Richards,  and  his  wife  was 
Love,  daughter  of  Oliver  Man  waring.  He  had  a  large  family  often 
or  twelve  children,  of  whom  only  four  (John,  George,  Samuel  and 
Lydia)  survived  their  father.  His  inventory,  which  comprises  gold 
hutons,  silver  plate,  and  gold  and  silver  coin,  shows  that  an  advance 
had  been  ma^  beyond  the  simple  frugality  of  the  first  times.  He 
owned  the  Bartlett  farm  on  the  river,  one-half  of  which  was  prized 
at  £815,  which  indicates  a  still  greater  advance  in  the  value  of  lands. 
No  spot  in  New  London  was  more  noted  than  the  comer  of  Lieut. 
Richards  (now  opposite  the  court-house.)  It  was  for  many  years 
the  most  western  dwelling  in  that  direction,  with  only  the  school- 
house  and  pasture  lots  beyond. 

Capt  George  Richards,  a  son  of  Lieut  John,  was  a  man  of  large 
stature  and  great  physical  strength.  Stories  are  told  of  his  wrest- 
ling with  various  gigantic  Indians,  and  always  coming  off  conqueror 
from  the  combat.  Capt.  Guy  Richards,  for  many  years  a  noted 
merchant  in  New  London,  Colonel  William  Richards  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary army,  and  Capt  Peter  Richards,  slain  in  the  sack  of  Fort 
Griswold  in  1781,  are  among  the  descendants  of  Lieut  John  Rich- 
ards. 


Col.  John  Livingeton,  died  1720. 
**  The  inventory  of  Lieut  CoL  John  Livingston,  late  of  New  Lon- 
don taken  at  the  house  of  Mrs.  Sarah  Knight  in  Norwich,  at  the  de- 


BISTORT    OF    NEW    LONDON.  365 

sire  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Livingston  widow  of  jt  deceased  who  is 
appointed  administratrix,  March  10,  1720-1.'*  The  list  of  effects 
under  this  heading  is  slender.  The  principal  items  are  103  ounces 
of  wrought  plate  at  10«.  6c?.  per  ounce ;  a  japanned  cabinet,  and  a 
field  tent.  Colonel  Livington  died  abroad.  His  residence  in  New 
London  has  already  been  noticed.  He  speculated  largely  in  Indian 
lands.  Li  1705  he  purchased  "Patomechaug"  300  acres,  of  Samuel 
Rogers,  and  sold  it  subsequently  to  Charles  Whiting.  In  1710  he 
was  one  of  the  four  purchasers  of  all  Mohegan,  the  reservation  of 
the  Indians  excepted.  He  had  a  farm  on  Saw-mill  Brook,  (now 
Uncasville)  of  400  acres  which  he  cultivated  as  a  homestead.  Here 
he  had  his  mills  and  dwelling-house,  the  latter  standing  on  the  west 
side  of  the  road  to  Norwich.  It  was  here  that  his  first  wife,  Mrs. 
Mary  Livingston,  the  only  child  of  Grovemor  Fit^-John  Winthrop, 
died,  Jan.  dth,  1712-13.  She  was  not  interred  till  the  16th;  the 
weather  being  very  inclement  and  the  snow  deep,  she  could  not  be 
brought  into  town  till  that  time. 

Colonel  Livingston's  second  wife  was  Elizabeth,  daughter  and 
only  child  of  Mrs.  Sarah  Knight.  The  marriage  has  not  been  found 
registered.  To  Mrs.  Knight,  Livingston  first  mortgaged,  and  then 
sold  the  Mohegan  farm.  The  title  therefore  accrued  to  Mrs.  Living- 
ston from  her  mother,  and  not  her  husband.  She  sold  it  to  Capt. 
Stephen  Harding  of  Warwick.  Colonel  Livingston  had  no  children 
by  either  wife.  The  grave  of  the  first — the  daughter  of  Winthrop— 
is  undistinguished  and  unknown.  A  table  of  freestone,  with  the 
following  inscription,  perpetuates  the  memory  of  the  second. 

**  Inter**  vnder  this  stone  is  the  body  of  Mdm  Elizabeth  Livingston^  relict  of  • 
Col.  John  Livingstone  of  New  London  who  departed  this  life  March  17th, 
A.  D.  1735-6  in  the  4Sth  year  of  her  age.'* 

The  following  are  items  from  the  inventory  of  her  efiects : 

A  negro  woman.  Rose ;  man,  Pompey. 

Lidian  man,  named  John  Nothing. 

Silver  plate,  amounting  to  £234,  13«. 

A  damask  table-cloth,  SOs, 

Four  gold  rings ;  one  silver  ring ;  one  stoned  ring. 

A  pair  of  stoned  earrings  ;  a  stone  drop  for  the  neck. 

A  red  stone  for  a  locket ;  two  pair  of  gold  buttons. 

A  diamond  ring  with  five  diamonds,  (prized  at  £30.) 

31* 


366  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

John  Edgteombj  died  April  Wthj  1721. 

His  will  calls  him  aged.  His  estate  was  appraised  at  £681,  and 
consisted  of  a  homestead  in  the  town  plot,  and  two  considerable 
farms. 

'*  John,  son  of  Nicholas  Edgecombe,  of  Plymouth,  Old  England,  was  married 
to  Sarah,  daughter  of  Edward  Stallion,  Feb.  9th,  1673." 

ChUdrtn. 

1.  John,  bom  November  14th,  1675;  married  Hannah  Hempstead. 

2.  Sarah,  born  July  29th,  1678  ;  married  John  Bolles. 

3.  Joanna,  bom  March  3d,  1679-80 ;  married  Henry  Delamore. 

4.  Nicholas,  born  January  23d,  1681-2.      ^^ 
6.  Samuel,  bom  1690.  S.^  f f-  \^%  ^^%  ^ 

6.  Thomas. 

Mr.  John  Edgeoombe  married  for  his  seoond  wife,  Elizabeth,  relict  of  Joshua 
Hempstead. 

The  name  of  Edgecomb  is  connected  with  the  early  settlement  of 
Maine.  Sir  Richard  Edgecomb,  of  Mount  Edgecomb,  Devonshire, 
had  an  extensive  grant  of  land  from  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  in  1637, 
on  Casco  Bay  and  the  Saco  River.  Nicholas  Edgecomb,  who  is 
supposed  to  have  been  a  near  relative,  was  actively  engaged  in  es- 
tablbhing  a  settlement  on  the  bay,  and  himself  visited  it  in  1658. 
This  person  was  probably  the  father  of  John  Edgecomb,  of  New 
London.  Robert  Edgecomb,  another  supposed  son  of  Nicholas,  set- 
tled in  Saco,  and  left  descendants  there.* 

Henry  Delamore  married  Joanna  Edgecomb,  Feb.  14th,  1716-17. 
He  was  a  recent  Emigrant  from  the  old  world,  and  styled  himself 
<*  late  master  spar-maker  to  his  majesty  the  king  of  Great  Britain,  at 
'  Port  Mahon."  His  second  wife  was  Miriam  Graves,  but  it  does  not 
appear  that  he  left  children  by  either  wife.  His  relict,  Miriam  Del- 
amore, married  the  second  John  Bolles,  and  this  carried  the  Delamore 
homestead  into  the  Bolles  family.  It  was  where  the  Thatcher  house 
now  stands,  on  Main  Street,  at  the  comer  of  Masonic  Street. 


Capt,  Peter  Manwaring,  died  Jtdy  29fA,  1723. 

He  perished  by  shipwreck,  on  the  south  side  of  Montauk  Point,  as 
stated  in  a  previous  chapter.  This  enterprising  mariner  is  first  named 
a  little  before  1700.  His  relationship  with  Oliver  Man  waring  has 
not  been  ascertained,  but  the  probability  is  that  he  was  his  nephew. 

1  See  Folsom*8  Hist,  of  Saco  and  Biddeford,  p.  112. 


HISTORY    OP    N£W     LONDON.  367 

He  followed  the  seas  with  great  assiduity.    His  fiamily  consisted  of 
a  wife  and  three  daughters. 

Thomas  Manwaring  was  probably  a  younger  brother  of  Peter. 
He  married  in  1722,  Esther  Christophers,  and  is  the  ancestor  of  the 
Lyme  branch  of  Manwarings. 


Oliver  Manwaring,  died  November  8rf,  1723. 

He  was  then  ninety  years  of  age,  and  had  been  an  inhabitant  of  the 
town  about  sixty  years.  His  house-lot  of  eleven  acres  was  bought  on 
the  3d  of  November,  1664.  The  nucleus  of  this  homestead,  consist- 
ing of  the  house  plot  and  garden,  has  never  been  alienated  by  the 
family,  but  is  still  in  the  possession  of  a  descendant  in  the  direct  male 
line  from  Oliver. 

Oliver  Manwaring  married  Hannah,  daughter  of  Richard  Ray- 
mond. His  wife  connected  herself  with  Mr.  Bradstreet'^  church,  in 
1671,  at  which  time  they  had  four  children  baptized :  Hannah,  Eliz- 
abeth, Prudence  and  Love.  After  this  were  baptized  in  order, 
Richard,  July  13th,  1673 ;  Judith,  in  April,  1676 ;  Oliver,  February 
2d,  1678-9;  Bathsheba,  May  9th,  1680;  Anne,  June  18th,  1682; 
Mercy.  All  these  children  were  living  at  the  period  of  Mr.  Man- 
waring's  death  :  the  eight  daughters  were  married  and  had  families. 
He  bequeathed  to  his  grandson,  John  Richards,  (the  son  of  his  daugh- 
ter Love,)  all  bills  and  bonds  due  to  him  "and  particularly  that  bond 
which  I  had  from  my  nephew,  Oliver  Manwaring,  in  England." 


Sergeant  Ehenezer  Griffingy  died  September  2d,  1723. 

His  age  was  fifty  years,  and  he  had  been  about  twenty-five  in  New 
London.  His  pfu^ntage  and  native  place  have  not  been  ascertained. 
He  married  Mary,  relict  of  Ebenezer  Hubbell,  February  9th,  1702-3. 
Their  children  were  John,  Samuel,  Peter,  Lydia  and  Mary.  John 
and  Samuel  left  descendants. 


Richard  Dart,  died  September  2Uh,  1724. 

This  was  sixty  years  and  twelve,  days  after  the  date  of  his  first 
purchase  in  New  London.  He  was  eighty-nine  years  of  age.  His 
oldest  son,  Daniel,  bom  May  3d,  1666,  married,  August  4th,  1686, 
Elizabeth  Douglas,  and  about  the  year  1716,  removed  to  Bolton,  in 
Hartford  county.    Most  of  his  children,  eleven  in  number,  either 


368  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

went  with  him  or  followed  in  his  track.  The  other  sons  of  Richard 
and  Bethiah  Dart,  were  Richard,  bom  May  7th,  1667  ;  Roger,  No- 
vember 22d,  1670,  and  Ebenezer,  February  18th,  1672-3.  These 
all  became  fathers  of  families,  and  their  descendants  are  numerous. 


John  Arnold^  died  Atigust  16^,  1725. 

His  gravestone  says  "  aged  about  73."  His  wife  died  November 
28th,  of  the  same  year.  We  assume  with  confidence  that  John  Ar^ 
nold  was  a  son  of  Joseph  Arnold,  of  Braintree,  Mass.,  the  latter  hav- 
ing the  birth  of  a  son  John  registered  April  2d,  1650-1.  He  was  a 
resident  in  Norwich,  in  1681,  and  later;  but  before  1700,  removed 
to  New  London,  where  he  married,  December  6th,  1703,  Mercy,  re- 
lict of  Samuel  Fosdick.  They  had  two  daughters:  1.  Ruhamah, 
who  married  an  Ely,  of  Lyme,  and  2.  Lucretia,  who  became  the 
second  wife  of  John  Proctor,  Al  M. 


Ifarwood. 

George  Harwood  can  be  traced  as  a  resident  in  New  Irondon  only 
between  the  years  1651  and  1657,  inclusive.  He  had  a  son  John, 
whose  birth  probably  stands  recorded  in  Boston — John,  the  son  of 
Greorge  and  Jane  Harwood,  bom  July  5th,  1639.*  The  family  prob- 
ably resided  on  the  outlands  of  the  town,  and  therefore  seldom  pre- 
sent themselves  to  our  view.  John  Harwood,  a  young  man  age4 
twenty-three  years,  and  apparently  the  last  of  the  family,  died  Feb- 
ruary 23d,  1726.  He  made  a  brief  will,  in  which  he  mentions  no 
relative,  but  bequeaths  what  little  estate  he  has  to  Lydia,  daughter  of 
Israel  Richards. 


Tk€fiias  BoUes,'  died  May  26<A,  1727,  aged  eighty-four. 

Samud  BoUes,  died  Augtist  10th,  1842,  aged  ninety-nine. 

The  person  last  mentioned  was  grandson  to  the  former,  and  yet  the 
time  between  the  birth  of  the  one,  and  the  decease  of  the  other,  was 
199  years,  an  immense  space  to  be  covered  by  three  generations,  and 
a  remarkable  instance  for  our  country,  where  the  practice  of  early 

1  Hut  and  Qen.  Beg.,  vol.  2,  p.  180. 
a  At  fint  frequently  written  Bowles. 


HISTORY    OF     NEW    LONDON.  369 

marriages  operates  to  crowd  the  generations  closely  together.  The 
intervening  link  is  John  Bolles  :  Samuel  was  the  son  of  his  old  age, 
bom  when  his  father  had  numbered  sixty-seyen  years. 

A  family  tradition  states  that  Thomas  Bolles  came  to  this  country 
with  brothers,  and  that  they  arrived  first  upon  the  Kennebeck  coasts 
but  Winthrop,  the  founder  of  New  XiOndon,  having  some  knowledge 
of  the  family,  invited  them  all  to  his  plantation.  Only  Thomas  an- 
swered the  call,  the  others  remaining  where  they  first  landed.  It  is 
some  corroboration  of  this  account  that  the  name  of  Bolles  is  found 
among  the  early  settlers  of  Wells,  in  Maine. 

Thomas  Bolles  is  found  at  New  London  about  1668.  Of  his  mar^ 
riage  we  have  no  account.  He  bought  house  and  land  at  Foxen's 
Hill,  and  there  lived  with  his  wife  Mary  and  three  children  :  Mary, 
bom  in  1673 ;  Joseph,  in  1675,'  and  John,  in  August,  1677. 

On  the  5th  or  6th  of  June,  1678,  while  Mr.  Bolles  was  absent 
from  home,  a  sudden  and  terrific  blow  bereaved  him  of  most  of  his 
family.  His  wife  and  two  oldest  children  were  found  dead,  welter- 
ing in  their  blood,  with  the  infant,  wailing  but  unhurt,  by  the  side  of 
its  mother.  The  author  of  this  bloody  deed  proved  to  be  a  vagabond 
youth,  who  demanded  shelter  and  lodging  in  the  house,  which  the 
woman  refused.  Some  angry  words  ensued,  and  the  reckless  lad, 
seizing  an  ax  that  lay  at  the  wood  pile,  mshed  in  and  took  awful 
vengeance.  He  soon  afterward  confessed  the  crime,  was  carried  to 
Hartford,  tried  by  the  court  of  assistants,  October  3d,  condenmed 
and  executed  at  Hartford,  October  9th,  1678. 

The  records  of  the  town  do  not  contain  the  slightest  allusion  to 
this  act  of  atrocity.  Tradition,  however,  has  faithfully  preserved 
the  history,  coinciding  in  important  facts  with  the  account  contained 
in  documents  on  file  among  the  colonial  records  at  Hartford.  John 
Bolles,  the  infant  thus  providentially  preserved  from  slaughter,  in  a 
pamphlet  which  he  published  in  after  life,  concerning  his  peculiar 
religious  tenets,  alludes  to  the  tragic  event  of  his  infancy,  in  the  fol- 
lowing terms: 

**  My  father  lived  aboul  a  mile  from  New  London  town,  and  my  mother  was 
at  home  with  only  three  little  children.  I  being  the  youngest,  aboat  ten  months 
old,  she,  with  the  other  two  were  murdered  by  a  youth  about  sixteen  years  of 
age,  who  was  alYerward  executed  at  Hartford,  and  I  was  found  at  my  dead 
mother's  breast.'' 


1  In  some  papers  at  Hartford,  this  child  is  called  Thomas ;  at  his  baptism  the  name 
registered  was  Joseph. 


370  HISTORY    OP    NBW    LONDOIff. 

Tradition  states  that  the  blood  of  the  child  Maiy,  who  was  killed 
as  she  was  endeavoring  to  escape  from  the  door,  flowed  out  upon  the 
rock  on  which  the  house  stood,  and  that  the  stains  long  remained.^ 

Thomas  Bolles  married,  2.  Rebecca,  daughter  of  Matthew  Waller, 
who  died  Felruary  10th,  1711-2.  His  third  wife  was  HopestiU, 
relict  of  Nathaniel  Chappell,  who  surrived  him,  and  died  in  1753, 
aged  about  ninety.  Mr.  Bolles  was  much  employed  in  town  affairs, 
and  for  nearly  twenty  years  was  in  the  commission  of  the  peace.  It 
does  not  appear  that  he  had  any  children  after  the  death  of  his  first 
wife. 

John  Bolles  married  Sarah,  daughter  of  John  Edgecomb,  July  Sd, 
1699,  by  whom  he  had  eight  sons  and  two  daughters.  By  a  second 
wife,  EHzabeth  Wood,  of  Groton,  he  had  five  more  children :  Samuel, 
the  youngest,  was  bom  May  10th,  1744.  Mr.  Bolles  died  in  1767, 
aged  ninety,  and  in  his  will  enumerates  thirteen  children  then  living. 
Similar  instances  in  our  early  history,  where  the  heads  of  a  family 
and  six,  eight  or  ten  children  all  live  beyond  the  span  allotted  to  our 
race,  occur  with  sufficient  frequency  to  produce  the  impression  that 
life  to  maturity  was  more  certain,  and  cases  of  medium  longevity 
more  numerous  in  the  first  three  generations  after  the  settlement,  than 
in  the  three  that  succeed  them.  Certainly  such  instances  were  of 
more  frequent  occurrence  than  at  the  present  day,  in  proportion  to 
the  population. 


Samuel  FoXy  died  September  4tk,  1727,  aged  seventy-seven, 

Samuel  and  John  Fox  were  sons  of  Thomas  Fox,  of  Concord. 
Samuel  Fox  married  Mary,  supposed  to  be  daughter  of  Andrew  Les- 
ter, and  bom  in  Gloucester,  in  1647,  March  30th,  1675-6.  They 
had  a  son  Samuel,  bom  April  24th,  1681.  After  this  he  contracted 
a  second,  third  and  fourth  marriage,  and  had  sons,  Isaac,  Samuel  and 
Benjamin,  which  should  probably  be  assigned  to  the  second  wife, 
Joanna,  who  died  in  1689.  The  third  wife  was  Bathsheba,  relict  of 
Richard  Smith,  and  daughter  of  James  Rogers,  (bom  in  Milford, 
1650.)  There  is  no  record  made  of  any  marriages  or  births  in  the 
fiEunily  afler  1681.  A  singular  caprice  led  Mr.  Fox  and  some  others 
in  that  day  to  give  the  same  name  to  two  children  by  a  different 


1  This  honse  is  said  to  have  stood  a  little  south  of  the  stone  mansion  built  by  Capt. 
Daniel  Deshon^  now  owned  by  Capt.  Lyman  Allyn.  The  platform  of  rock,  near 
which  the  house  stood,  has  been  partly  blasted  away. 


HISTORY    OP   NEW    LONDON.  371 

mother.  When  a  name,  therefore,  is  repeated  in  a  list  of  children,  it 
is  not  always  an  indication  that  the  first  named  had  died  before  the 
birth  of  the  other.  Samuel  Fox,  in  his  will,  makes  bequests  to  his 
two  sons,  Samuel  the  elder  and  younger.  The  former  had  settled  in 
the  North  Parish,  at  a  place  still  known  as  Fox's  Mills.  He  is  the 
ancestor  of  the  Fox  families  of  Montville. 

John  Fox,  son  of  Thomas,  of  Concord,  married  Sarah,  daughter  of 
Crreenfield  Larrabee,  June  2d,  1678.  They  had  a  son  John,  bom 
June  Ist,  1680,  who  died  December  12th,  1711,  leaving  a  wife,  Eliz- 
abeth,  but  no  children.  They  had  other  sons  and  daughters,  but  all 
died  without  issue,  except  Benjamin.  In  a  deed  of  1718,  he  calls 
Benjamin,  ^^  my  only  child  which  it  hath  pleased  God  to  continue  in 
the  land  of  the  living." 

John  Fox  married,  2.  Hannah,  relict  of  Thomas  Stedman;  8. 
Mary,  daughter  of  Daniel  Lester,  2d.  His  last  wife  was  fifty  years 
yoimger  than  himself,  and  granddaughter  to  his  sister.' 


Mrs.  Sarah  Knight. 

A  cloud  of  uncertainty  rests  upon  the  history  of  Mrs.  Knight. 
She  was  bom  about  1665,  but  where,  of  what  parentage,  when  mar- 
ried, who  was  her  husband,  and  when  he  was  taken  from  her  by 
death,  are  points  not  yet  ascertained.  All  that  is  known  of  her  kin- 
dred is,  that  she  was  related  to  the  Prout  and  Trowbridge  families, 
of  New  Haven.  The  few  data  that  have  been  gathered  respecting 
her,  in  this  vicinity,  will  be  rehearsed  in  order.  In  1698,  she  appears 
at  Norwich,  with  goods  to  sell,  and  is  styled  widow  and  shopkeeper. 
In  this  connection  it  may  be  mentioned  that  among  the  planters,  in  a 
settlement  then  recently  commenced  by  Major  James  Fitch,  of  Nor- 
wich, at  Peagscomtuck,  now  Canterbury,  was  a  John  Knight,  who 
died  in  1695.  It  is  possible  that  Mrs.  Knight  was  his  relict ;  she 
appears  to  have  had  one  child  only,  a  daughter  Elizabeth ;  and  it  is 
probable  that  John  Knight  had  no  sons,  as  the  continuation  of  his 
name  and  family  has  not  been  traced.  He  is  not  the  ancestor  of  the 
Knight  family  afterward  found  at  the  West  Farms,  in  Norwich, 
which  originated  with  David  EInight,  who  married  Sarah  Backus,  in 
1692,  had  sons  and  daughters,  and  died  in  1744. 

Mrs.  Knight  remained  but  a  short  time  in  Norwich^  perhaps  three 

1  The  wife  of  Daniel  Lester,  Sen.,  was  Hannah  Fox,  of  Concord.  This  singular 
connection  is  mentioned  in  the  New  £ngland  Weekly  Journal,  printed  in  Boston, 
April  20th,  1780,  after  noticing  the  death  of  John  Fox. 


372 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 


or  four  years.  At  the  time  of  her  celebrated  journey  from  Boston  to 
New  York,  in  1704,  she  was  a  resident  of  Boston.  In  1717,  she  was 
again  living  at  Norwich ;  a  silver  cup  for  the  communion  service  was 
presented  bj  her  to  the  church,  and  the  town  by  vote,  August  12tfa, 
gave  her  liberty  to  "  sit  in  the  pew  where  she  used  to  sit"  In  1718, 
March  26th, .  Mrs.  Knight  and  six  other  persons  were  presented  in 
one  indictment  *'  for  selling  strong  drink  to  the  Indians."  They  were 
fined  twenty  shillings  and  costs.  It  is  added  to  tibe  record,  ^  Mrs. 
Knight  accused  her  maid,  Ann  Clark,  of  the  fact."  After  this  peri- 
od, Mrs.  Knight  appears  as  a  land  purchaser  in  the  North  Parish  <^ 
New  London,  generally  as  a  partner  with  Joseph  Bradford ;  she  was 
also  a  pew-holder  in  the  new  church  built  in  that  parish,  about  1724, 
and  was  sometimes  styled  of  Norwich,  and  sometimes  of  New  Lon- 
don. This  can  be  easily  accounted  for,  as  she  retained  her  dwelling- 
house  in  Norwich,  but  her  farms,  where  she  spent  a  portion  of  her 
time,  were  within  the  bounds  of  New  London.  On  one  of  the  latter, 
the  Livingston  farm,  upon  the  NorwiUi  road,  she  kept  entertainment 
for  travelers,  and  is  called  innkeeper.  At  this  place  she  died,  and 
was  brought  to  New  London  for  interment.  A  gray  head-stone,  of 
which  an  exact  impression  is  given  below,  marks  the  place. 


(XT  K  JE:  Jl  j^CB 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  37S 

The  only  cWld  of  Mrs.  Xnight,  Elizabeth,  relict  of  Col.  John 
Livingston,  survived  her  and  presented  her  inventory,  which  com- 
prised two  farms  in  Mohegan  with  housing  and  mills — £1,600,  and 
estate  in  Norwich — ^£210.  Mrs,  Elnight  was  a  woman  of  consider- 
able distinction  in  her  day.  She  certainly  possessed  more  than  a 
common  portion  of  energy,  talent  and  education.  She  wrote  poetry 
and  diaries,  transacted  various  kinds  of  business,  speculated  in  In- 
dian lands,  and  at  different  times  kept  a  tavern,  managed  a  shop  of 
merchandise  and  cultivated  a  farm.  Her  journal  kept  during  a 
journey  from  Boston  to  New  York,  performed  on  horseback  and  in 
company  with  the  post  or  with  chance  travelers,  in  the  year  1704, 
was  published  a  few  years  since  under  the  editorial  supervision  of 
Mr.  Theodore  D wight.  This  journal  in  manuscript  had  been  care- 
fully preserved  in  the  Christophers  family,  to  whom  it  came  after 
the  death  of  Mrs.  Livingston ;  Sarah,  wife  of  Christopher  Chris- 
tophers, who  was  a  Prout,  of  New  Haven,  and  a  relative,  being  ap- 
pointed to  administer  on  her  estate.  From  a  descendant  of  this 
Mrs.  Christophers,  viz.,  Mrs.  Ichabod  Wetmore,  of  Middletownt 
the  manuscript  was  obtained  for  publication.  It  had  been  neatly 
copied  into  a  small  book.  The  original  was  not  returned  to  Mrs. 
Wetmore  and  is  now  supposed  to  be  lost.* 


George  Geer,  died  in  1727. 

The  Isbell  farm  bought  by  Greorge  Geer  Oct.  Slst,  1665,  was  bound- 
ed north  by  the  line  between  New  London  and  Norwich,  (now  Led- 
yard  and  Preston.)  George  Geer  married  Sarah,  daughter  of  Rob- 
ert Allyn,  Feb.  17th,  1658-9.  They  had  six  sons  and  as  many 
daughters.  Capt.  Robert  Geer  was  one  of  the  leading  inhabitants  of 
North  Groton  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteentib  century,  and 
his  mill  was  one  of  the  three  places  where  all  warnings  were  to  be 
posted. 

^    Fargo. 
The  first  of  this  name  in  New  London  was  Moses,  who  became  a 
resident  in  1680.     He  had  nine  children,  of  whom  the  five  youngest 
were   sons — ^Moses,  Ralph,  Robert,  Thomas   and  Aaron.     Moses 

1  These  particnlars  were  commimicated  by  the  daughter  of  Mrs.  Wetmore,  Mrs. 
Andrew  Mather,  of  New  London. 

32 


374  HISTORY     OF   NEW     LONDON. 

Fargo,  or  Firgo  as  it  was  then  often  ^tten,  and  his  wife  Sarah, 
were  both  living  in  1726. 


Thomas  Leach,  died  Nov.  24thy  1782. 
He  was  eighty  years  of  age  and  had  dwelt  in  the  town  upward  of 
fifty  years.  By  his  first  wife,  Abigail,  daughter  of  Richard  Haugh- 
ton,  he  had  but  one  child ;  viz.,  Sarah,  who  was  bom  in  1684  and 
married  in  1706  to  Andrew  Crocker.  His  second  wife  was  Mary 
daughter  of  Clement  Miner ;  and  his  third,  the  relict  of  John  Crock- 
er. His  children  by  the  three  wives  amounted  to  thirteen.  The 
sons  who  lived  to  have  families  were,  Thomas,  bom  about  1690 ; 
Clement,  in  1698 ;  Samuel,  in  1707 ;  Joseph,  in  1709 ;  Richard,  in 
1711,  and  Jonathan,  1716. 


John  Ames  J  died  June  Isty  1785. 
He  had  been  about  forty  years  an  inhabitant  of  New  London,  and 
had  sons,  John,  Robert  and  Samuel.    No  registry  of  their  births  has 
been  found. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Prom  noO  to  1750.— Death  of  Governor  Winthrop.— The  Miniflter  of  New 
London  chosen  Governor.— Settlement  of  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams. — List  of 
1708  and  1709.— Expedition  of  1711  against  Canada.— Death  of  Governor 
SaltonstaU. — ^War  with  Spain. — Memorials  and  petitions  for  fortification.— • 
Petition  to  the'  King. — ^Expedition  to  Cape  Breton. 

When  post-offices  and  post  roads  were  established  la  America, 
which  was  near  the  commencement  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
great  route  from  Boston  to  New  York  was  through  New  London, 
which  was  then  reckoned  110  miles  from  Boston  and  156  from  New 
York.  Bj  act  of  Parliament  in  1710,  New  London  was  made  the 
chief  post-office  in  Connecticut ;  single  letters  from  thence  to  New 
Yoik  paid  ninepence ;  to  anj  place  sixty  miles  distant,  fonrpence ; 
one  hundred  miles  distant,  sixpence.' 


From  the  Boston  News  Letter^  which  began  to  be  issued  in  April, 
1704,  and  was  the  first  newspaper  published  in  North  America,  the 
following  extracts  are  taken. 

**  New  London,  Aug.  9th,  1704.  On  Thursday  last  marched  from  hence, 
Capt.  John  Livingston  with  a  hrave  company  of  volunteers,  English  and  In- 
dians to  reinforce  the  frontiers." 

'*  Boston,  June  1 1th,  1705.  Captain  John  Livingston,  with  the  other  messen- 
gers sent  hy  our  Governor  to  the  Governor  of  Canada  at  Quebeck  to  concert 
the  exchange  of  prisoners,  returned  this  day." 

"  Boston,  Nov.  27th,  1707.  About  4  o'clock  this  morning  the  Honorable  John 
Winthrop,  Esq.,  Governor  of  his  Majesty's  Colony  of  Connecticut,  departed 
this  life  in  the  69th  year  of  his  age :  being  bom  at  Ipswich  in  New  England, 
March  14th,  anno  1638  : — Whose  body  is  to  be  interred  here  on  Thursday  next 
the  4th  of  December." 

The  event  annomiced  in  this  last  extract  claims  some  further  no- 
tice from  the  historian  of  New  London.     Grovemor  Winthrop  had 

1  See  this  act  hi  Mass.  Hist  CoU.,  8d  series,  vol  7,  p.  71. 


376  HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON. 

gone  to  Boston  for  medical  aid,  in  an  enfeebled  state  of  health.  He 
died  in  the  tenth  year  of  his  office,  and  was  interred  in  the  same 
tomb  with  his  father  and  grandfather,  in  the  church-yard  of  King's 
Chapel.  His  public  duties  since  the  year  1690  had  kept  him  much 
of  the  time  away  from  New  London,  yet  this  always  continued  to 
be  his  home.  His  death  was  an  important  eyent  to  the  town.  As 
a  member  of  the  commonwealth  it  had  lost  its  head,  and  as  a  com- 
munity it  was  bereaved  of  a  tried  friend  and  influential  citizen.  It 
led  the  way  also  to  another  removal — that  of  their  minister.  On 
the  death  of  the  governor,  a  special  assembly  was  convened*  to  elect 
a  temporary  successor,  and  a  majority  of  the  votes  were  given  for 
the  Rev.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  of  New  London.  He  accepted  the 
appointment  and  on  the  Ist  of  January,  1708,  took  the  oath  of  office. 
At  the  annual  election  in  May,  he  was  chosen  governor  by  the  votes 
of  the  freemen  and  was  annually  reelected  to  the  office  from  that 
time  until  his  death. 

A  transition  so  sudden  from  the  sacred  desk  to  the  chair  of  the 
magistrate  is  an  unusual,  if  not  a  solitary  event  How  the  appoint- 
ment was  received  by  the  church  and  congregation  under  Mr.  Sal- 
tonstalFs  charge,  we  do  not  learn,  as  no  entry  was  made  on  either 
the  town  or  church  record  respecting  it  But  from  the  known  pop- 
ularity of  Mr.  Saltonstall,  we  may  suppose  that  in  the  first  instance 
they  were  filled  with  grief  and  amazement.  We  are  told  by  the 
historian  Trumbull,  that  the  Assembly  addressed  a  letter  to  his  peo- 
ple, acquainting  them  that  their  minister  was  called  to  engage  in 
another  important  course  of  service  and  using  arguments  to  indnee 
them  to  acquiesce  in  the  result. 

Mr.  Saltonstall  himself  has  been  freely  censured  for  thus  resign- 
ing a  spiritual  incumbency  to  engage  in  the  routine  of  temporal 
affairs.  The  Rev.  Isaac  Backus,  the  venerable  Baptist  author  of 
the  Church  History  of  New  England,  says  of  him  with  severity : 
"  He  readily  quitted  the  solemn  charge  of  souls  for  worldly  promo- 
tion." But  Mr.  Saltonstall  doubtless  acted  upon  his  own  convictions 
of  duty  and  believed  that  he  could  more  effectually  benefit  his  gen- 
eration in  the  charge  which  he  now  assumed  than  in  that  which  he 
laid  down.  He  had  been  the  messenger  of  the  town  for  twenty  years 
and  may  even  have  thought  that  a  change  of  ministration  would  not 
be  injurious  to  his  flock,  especially  as  he  still  remained  in  tlie  church 
and  stood  ready  as  before  to  assist  them  with  his  counsel. 

The  personal  gifts  of  Mr.  Saltonstall  added  much  to  his  influence. 
He  was  tall  and  well  proportioned,  and  of  dignified  aspect  and  de- 


HISTORY     OP     NBW     LONDON.  877 

loeanor.  Some  points  of  bis  character  carried  perhaps  to  excess, 
acquired  for  him  the  reputation  of  being  severe,  imperious,  ^d  oi 
seeking  self-aggrandization.  But  among  bis  brethren  of  the  clergy 
be  enjoyed  unbounded  popularity.  He  strove  to  exalt  the  minis- 
terial office  and  maintain  its  dignity,  and  was  himself  the  exponent 
of  rigid  orthodoxy.  It  was  perhaps  clerical  influence,  acting  invis- 
ibly, which  raised  him  to  the  chief  magistracy.  He  loved  synods 
and  councils  and  was  for  giving  them  large  powers.  A  friend  to 
law  and  order,  he  would  have  men  submit  to  authority  and  live 
soberly,  taking  reason  and  religion  for  ^eir  guides.  In  his  view, 
the  affairs  of  both  church  and  state  should  he  managed  by  rules, 
judiciously  established  and  then  made  firm  and  unalterable.  The 
platform  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  formed  at  Saybrook,  accepted  by 
most  of  the  churches,  and  established  as  the  law  of  the  state  in 
October,  1708,  was  the  embodiment  of  the  principles  which  he 
favored.     That  instrument  owed  much  to  his  counsels  and  influence. 

Being  thus  an  advocate  for  rigorous  ecclesiastical  authority,  he 
was  disposed  to  check  all  who  dissented  from  the  established  rule, 
with  the  harsh  strokes  of  discipline.  It  was  during  his  ministry 
that  the  principles  of  the  regular  Baptists  were  planted  in  Groton. 
On  that  side  of  the  river,  within  the  circle  of  his  own  church,  many 
were  discontented  with  his  ministry.  A  list  of  "  Complaints  against 
the  Elder  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  New  London,"  was  drawn 
up  in  1700,  signed  by  five  members  of  the  church,  viz.,  James 
Avery,  John  Morgan,  Samuel  Bill,  John  Fox  and  James  Morgan, 
Jr.,  and  carried  before  the  General  Court  in  May,  who  referred  it  to 
an  ecclesiastical  council  that  was  to  convene  at  Killingworth  in  June. 
Of  the  nature  of  these  complaints  we  are  not  informed.  The  result 
of  the  council  was  conmiunicated  to  the  church  in  New  London, 
June  19th ;  and  this  was  followed  by  a  vote  of  suspension  from 
church  privileges  of  the  offending  members.  The  difficulty  did  not 
end  here.  A  paper  of  remonstrances  was  next  drawn  up  and  signed 
by  several  persons,  who  were  dealt  with  in  the  same  way — suspended 
from  membership  until  they  should  acknowledge  their  offense  and 
tender  their  submission.  These  persons  were  termed  subscribers  in 
a  way  of  reproach ;  but  most  of  them  were  afterward  reconciled  to 
the  elder  and  restored  to  the  church. 

Mr.  Saltonstall's  register  of  baptisms  commences  Dec.  6th,  1691, 

and  ends  Dec.  21st,  1707.     The  number  is  about  six  hundred  and 

forty.     The  admissions  to  the  church  during  this  period  of  sixteen 

years,  were  one  hundred  and  fifty-four.    The  number  of  marriages 

32* 


878  fifSYORT     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

recorded  by  him  is  thirty-seyen.  The  first  is  in  March,  1697,  and 
this  is  the  earliest  notice  we  find  of  the  marriage  rite  performed  by 
a  clergyman  in  New  London.  It  may  be  inferred  from  the  limited 
nmnber  in  his  register,  that  even  at  this  period  the  magistrate  had 
more  business  in  this  line  than  the  minister. 

A  town  meeting  was  held,  June  7th,  1708,  to  determine  on  the 
means  to  be  employed  in  order  to  obtain  ^an  able  and  faiUiM  min- 
ister of  the  gospeL"  It  will  be  remembered  that  at  this  time  the 
whole  town  (since  the  separation  of  Groton)  contained  but  one 
meeting-house,  one  regular  church  and  congregation,  and  one  or^ 
dained  minbter.  The  whole,  therefore,  were  concerned  in  the 
vacancy  of  the  pulpit  It  was  decided  that  Deacon  William  Doug- 
lass and  Deacon  John  Plumbe  should  repair  with  all  convenient 
speed  to  Boston  and  ask  advice  of  the  reverend  ministers  there, 
with  respect  to  a  fitting  person,  and  '^  to  mention  to  them  particulariy 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Adams,  who  now  preaches  in  Boston,  and  ask 
their  thoughts  concerning  his  being  called  to  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try here."  Whatever  person  should  be  recommended  they  were  to 
invite  in  the  name  of  the  town  to  come  and  preach  "  for  some  con- 
venient term  in  order  to  a  settlement,  if  it  may  be,  and  to  wait  upon 
him  in  his  journey  hither."  Finally,  it  was  ordered  '^  that  the  select- 
men furnish  the  deacons  with  money  to  defray  the  charges  of  their 
journey." 

This  mission  was  successful ;  the  services  of  Mr.  Eliphalet  Adams, 
a  young  minister  of  great  promise,  were  engaged,  and  on  the  return 
of  the  deacons  with  this  favorable  report,  the  town  expressed  entire 
satisfaction  at  the  prospect  before  them  and  complimented  the  en- 
voys with  a  gratuity  in  lands.  In  their  vote  they  say :  **  Mr.  Adams 
is  well  accepted  by  the  town  for  the  ministry,  and  if  he  shall  see 
cause  to  settle,  we  will  do  what  is  honorable  for  his  settlement  and 
support," 

Mr.  Adams  was  the  son  of  Rev.  William  Adams,  of  Dedham, 
Mass.,  by  his  first  wife,  Mary  Manning.  The  second  wife  and  relict 
of  Rev.  William  Adams  had  married  Major  James  Fitch,  of  Can- 
terbury ;  and  one  of  his  daughters  was  united  in  marriage  with  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Whiting,  of  Windham.  Eliphalet  Adams  having 
these  connections  in  Connecticut,  had  spent  considerable  time  in  the 
colony,  and  his  character  and  style  of  preaching  were  well'  known. 
No  long  delay,  therefore,  was  necessary  to  enable  the  people  of 
New  London  to  decide  on  his  qualifications.  He  arrived  in  town 
August  20th,  and  an  invitation  to  settle  was  extended  to  him  Sep- 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON*  379 

tember  Sth,  with  a  request  for  a  speedj  ordination,  and  offering  him 
as  a  settlement  the  hundred  pounds  given  bj  the  countrj  to  the 
town  toward  the  settlement  of  a  minister. 

The  gratuity  here  mentioned  was  bestowed  by  the  legislature  as  a 
compensation  in  part  for  depriving  the  town  of  its  former  minister^ 
Mr.  Saltonstall— oil  in  return  for  light.  To  this  sum  £88  were 
added  bj  subscription.  The  salary  was  fixed  at  £90  per  annunif 
which  was  to  be  made  up  in  three  several  ways — ^by  rates,  by  inter- 
est of  the  Liveen  fund,  and  by  strangers'  money :  that  is,  contribu* 
tions  from  visitors  in  the  town  who  should  attend  church.  It  was 
customary  for  strangers  of  distinction  to  make  a  handsome  donation 
on  such  occasions,  and  it  was  usually  kept  distinct  from  the  offerings 
of  the  inhabitants ;  the  latter  being  often  deducted  from  their  rates. 

Mr.  Adams  was  ordained  Feb.  9th,  1708-9.  Gov.  Saltonstall 
appeared  as  the  representative  of  the  town  to  declare  their  accep* 
tance  of  the  candidate.  The  assisting  ministers  were  Mr.  Samuel 
Whiting,  Mr.  James  Noyes  and  Mr.  Timothy  Woodbridge. 

A  committee  was  soon  afterward  chosen  to  seat  the  meeting-house, 
or  rather  to  fill  the  vacancies,  for  it  was  ordered  that  no  person  should 
be  removed,  unless  it  was  to  be  seated  higher,  and  in  graduating  the 
places,  the  committee  were  instructed  to  consider  age  and  service 
done  to  the  town  and  charges  l^ome  in  town  affairs.  Leave  was 
given  to  Gov.  Saltonstall  to  build  himself  a  pew  on  the  north  side 
of  the  meeting-house,  between  the  pfllpit  and  the  north-west  comer 
pew ;  "his  honor  agreeing  with  the  successors  of  the  late  Gov. 
Winthrop  for  removing  the  pew  he  sat  in,  either  home  to.  the  pulpit, 
or  home  to  the  comer  pew,  to  make  room  for  building  the  pew  afore- 
said.'' The  capacity  of  the  meeting-house  was  soon  afterward  en- 
larged by  building  an  additional  gallery  on  each  side  above  the  first. 

At  this  period,  the  pews  of  greatest  honor  were  each  side  of  the 
pulpit.  As  we  pursue  the  line  cf  years  downward,  we  find  the  pew 
always  a  subject  of  interest.  No  woman  of  spirit  and  ambition  re- 
garded it  as  a  matter  of  indifference  in  what  pew  she  should  sit  in 
church. 

"  In  town  meeting  April  30,  1723,  it  is  voted — 

"  That  Mrs.  Green  the  deacon's  wife  be  seated  in  y*  fore  seat  on  the  woman*» 
side." 

"  Mercy  Jiggels  is  by  vote  seated  in  the  third  seat  on  the  woman's  side  where 
she  is  ordered  by  the  town  to  sit." 

"  Jan.  13,  1723-4.  Voted,  that  for  the  benefit  of  setting  the  psalm  Mr.  Fo§- 
dick  is  seated  in  the  third  seat  at  the  end  next  the  altar." 


380  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

It  almost  excites  a  smile  at  the  present  day  to  see  so  much  grave 
legislation  about  the  seats  of  individuals  at  church  ;  but  birth,  rank 
and  station  had  certain  privileges  in  those  days  which  are  no  Icmger 
conceded,  and  this  was  one  of  the  channels  in  which  emulation  ran« 
In  1728,  a  controversy  between  two  families  nearly  related,  about 
the  possession  of  a  pew,  reached  such  a  height,  ^at  it  was  brought 
before  the  town  meeting,  and  a  committee  appointed  to  hear  the 
matter  and  order  one  of  them  to  desist  going  into  the  pew.  It  ap- 
peared that  ^e  two  men,  brothers-in-law,  occupying  the  pew  together, 
the  wife  of  each  claimed  the  upper  seat,  which  was  the  post  of  honor, 
and  neither  would  yield  the  precedence. 

While  inside  of  the  church,  and  treating  of  its  arrangements,  a  few 
details  from  the  Hempstead  diary  may  be  interesting. 

«*  July  23.  (1721)  A  contribution  to  build  a  bouse  for  the  Rector  of  Yale  Col- 
lege; a  very  small  one." 

"  Aug.  5.  (1722)  A  contribution  for  the  support  of  the  Presbyterian  ministers 
to  preach  at  Providence — per  order  of  the  Governor  and  Company." 

*'  Nov.  14.  (1725)  A  contribution  for  a  Canterbury  woman,  who  had  three 
children  at  a  birth  and  all  living." 

**  May  19  (1731.)  I  paid  Mr.  Adams  30«.  which  I  subscribed  to  give  him  to 
buy  him  a  negro  man." 

**  Aug.  17.  (1734)  A  large  book  of  Mr.  Baxter's  works  is  brought  into  the 
meeting  house  and  lell  there  to  read  in,  between  meetings  for  those  who  stay 
there." 

The  following  vote  was  p^toed  at  a  meeting  of  the  church,  in 
1726: 

"  Whereas  divers  persons  of  good  character  and  deportment  stand  off  from 
joining  us  because  a  relation  of  experience  is  insisted  on — it  is  agreed  that  here- 
after this  is  not  to  be  considered  a  test,  but  indifferent,  and  those  who  have 
great  scruple  and  difficulty  may  be  excused." 


The  list  of  New  London,  returned  to  the  Greneral  Court  in  Octo- 
ber, 1708,  was  £8,476,  14*.  Number  of  males,  249.  Hartford, 
New  Haven,  Windsor  and  Norwich,  stood  higher  in  point  of  jMX>p- 
erty,  but  only  Hartford  and  Windsor  in  the  number  of  men. 

In  Oct,  1709,  the  list  was  £10,288,  8«.;  males,  188.  The  re- 
duction in  one  year  of  the  number  of  males,  is  sixty-one.  Norwich 
also  was  reduced  from  174  to  155  ;  Hartford  from  320  to  230.  Con- 
necticut  raised  that  year  a  body  of  350  men,  under  Col.  Whiting,  for 
the  Canadian  frontier,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  returns  were  made 
while  they  were  in  the  field.  In  that  case,  New  London  furnished 
beyond  her  proportion  of  the  quota,      v 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  381 

Expeditions  against  Canada  formed  a  marked  feature  of  the  colo- 
nial history  of  New  England.  Those  vain  enterprises  were  always 
recurring,  and  consuming  the  strength  and  treasure  of  the  country, 
without  any  compensation.  The  officers  of  the  regiment  raised  in 
Connecticut,  in  1709,  ^ere  Col.  Wm.  Whiting,  Major  Allyn,  Capt. 
John  Clark,  of  Saybrook,  and  Capt.  John  Livingston,  of  New  Lon- 
don ;  the  last  two  both  having  the  rank  of  major,  but  commanding 
foot  companies.  Among  the  enlistments  from  New  London  county, 
for  the  expedition  of  1711,  were  fifty-four  Lidians,  procured  by  Grov. 
Saltonstall,  and  commanded  by  Capt.  Peter  Mason.^ 

The  meetings  of  the  governor  and  council  were  often  held  at  New 
London,  during  the  Saltonstall  administration.  In  March,  1711,  the 
governor  was  visited  by  some  French  embassadors,  but  the  particular 
object  they  had  in  view  is  not  known.^  During  the  whole  of  that 
year,  the  occasional  appearance  of  French  vessels  on  the  coast  kept 
the  inhabitants  in  a  state  of  constant  apprehension.  Li  May  and 
June,  a  military  watch  was  kept  up  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor  for 
forty-six  nights^  under  the  charge  of  Lieut.  John  Richards.  The  ex- 
pediti<Hi  against  Canada,  of  this  year,  was  exceedingly  unfortunate. 
Heavy  were  the  tidings  that  came  through  the  country,  after  the 
wreck  of  the  English  fleet  in  the  St.  Lawrence,  Aug.  22d.  That 
disastrous  event  fixed  a  black  seal  on  the  day.  It  was  in  this  expe- 
dition that  Capt.  John  Mayhew,  of  New  London,  an  old  Newfound- 
land trader,  was  employed  as  a  pilot. 

In  June,  1712,  the  governor  and  council  ordered  a  beacon  to  be 
erected  on  the  west  end  of  Fisher's  Island,  and  a  guard  of  seven  men, 
under  charge  of  Nathaniel  Beebe,  to  be  kept  there,  with  a  boat  in 
readiness  to  convey  intelligence  to  the  main  land.  Privateers  were 
hovering  upon  the  coast,  and  it  was  apprehended  that  they  might 
combine  together,  and'  seizing  a  favorable  opportunity,  slip  into  the 
harbor  and  surprise  the  town.  The  Fisher's  Island  watch  was  kept 
up  for  three  months.  New  London  in  this  war  suffered  considerably 
in  her  shipping,  several  of  her  merchant  vessels  being  cut  off  by 
French  privateers.     Hempstead  writes  : 

"Aug.  5.  (1712)     Wm.  Crocker,  Captain  of  the  Scouts,  came  home  from 

1  Council  Beoords. 

2  ^  March  21, 1712.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Governor  and  Council,  Ordered  that  the 
Treasurer  pay  to  Joseph  Chamberlin  of  Colchester  the  sum  of  one  pound  and  thirteen 
BhiUings  for  his  entertainment  of  the  French  Embassadors  in  their  journey  to  and  fh>m 
New  London  in  March  1711."— Council  Beoords. 


382  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

Northampton ;  one  of  his  men  had  been  killed,  and  two  taken  prisoners — all 
three  belonging  to  Hartford."* 

"  Oct.  30.  A  suspension  of  arms  was  proclaimed  at  ye  fort ;  two  guns  and 
three  chaml>ers  were  fired.** 

*'  Aug.  26.  (171^)  Peace  was  proclaimed  between  England  and  France ; 
both  companies  in  arms."  , 

**  Dec.  3.  (1714)  King  George  was  proclaimed — the  four  companies  were  in 
arms." 

The  existence,  at  this  period,  of  four  military  companies,  two  of 
which  had  been  recently  formed,  one  in  the  North  Parish,  and  the 
other  at  the  West  Farms,  shows  the  advance  of  population.  In 
1683,  there  was  but  one  company  of  train-bands  in  all  New  London, 
which  then  included  Groton. 


The  superior  court  was  held  in  New  London,  for  the  first  time, 
in  September,  1711.  No  court-house  having  then  been  erected,  the 
session  was  held  in  the  meeting-house.  Before  this  period  the  supe- 
rior court  had  only  sat  in  New  Haven  and  Hartford.  It  was  now 
made  a  circuit  court,  each  county  to  have  two  sessions  annually. 
Richard  Christophers  was  one  of  the  assistant  judges,  and  Capt  John 
Prentis,  county  sheriff. 


"  In  town  meeting  April  15.  1717. 

**  Voted  that  this  town  do  utterly  oppose  and  protest  against  Robert  Jacklin 
a  negro  man's  buying  any  land  in  this  town,  or  being  an  inhabitant  within  s'd 
town  and  do  further  desire  the  deputies  yt  shall  attend  the  Court  in  May  next 
yt  they  represent  the  same  to  the  Gen.  Assembly  that  they  would  take  soma 
prudent  care  that  no  person  of  yt  colour  may  ever  have  any  possessions  or  free- 
hold estate  within  this  government." 


Sept  20th,  1724,  Governor  Saltonstall  died  very  suddenly  of  apo- 
plexy, having  been  apparently  in  full  health  the  preceding  day.  He 
was  interred  the  twenty-second,  with  all  the  civic  and  military  hon- 
ors which  the  town  could  give.  Col.  Whiting,  and  Captains  Lati- 
mer and  Christophers,  were  the  officers  in  command.  "  The  horse 
and  foot  marched  in  four  files  ;  the  drums,  colors,  trumpets,  halberts, 
and  hilts  of  swords  covered  with  black,  and  twenty  cannons  firing  at 
half  a  minute's  distance."  After  the  body  had  been  laid  in  its  rest- 
ing-place, two  volleys  were  discharged  firom  the  fort,  and  then  the 


1 "  Due  Crocker's  Comp^— Oct  i2, 1712.— je216, 16s.  edl"— State  Becords. 


HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON*  383 

military  companies,  first  tlie  troop,  and  afterward  the  foot,  ^'  marching 
in  single  file,  as  each  respectively  came  against  the  tomb,  discharged^ 
and  so  drew  up  orderly  into  a  body  as  before,  and  dismissed."* 

The  remains  of  Grovemor  Saltonstall  wen  deposited  in  a  tomb, 
which  he  had  caused  to  be  excavated  in  the  burial-ground  for  him^ 
self  and  family,  and  in  which  his  second  wife,  Elizabeth,  and  her  in- 
fant child,  had  been  previously  laid.  John  Gkrdiner,  son-in  law  of 
the  governor,  died  a  few  months  after  him,  (Jan.  15th,  1725,)  and 
was  the  fourth  inhabitant  of  this  silent  chamber.  Another  son-in- 
law,  Richard  Christophers,  was  gathered  here  in  1736,  and  Capt* 
Boswell  Saltonstall,  the  oldest  son  of  the  governor  that  survived  in- 
fancy, in  1738.  Other  members  of  the  family  have  been  laid  here, 
from  time  to  time.'  The  tablet  that  surmounts  the  tomb  is  adorned 
with  the  fiEunily  hatchment,  and  the  following  inscription : 

«•  Here  lyeth  the  body  of  the  Honourable  Gurdon  Saltonstall  Esqnire,  (Jov- 
emonr  of  Gonnectlcntt  who  died  September  the  20th,  in  the  59th  year  of  his 
age,  1724.*' 

Governor  Saltonstall  was  bom  at  Haverhill,  Mass.,  in  1666,  and 
graduated  at  Harvard,  in  1684.  His  name,  Gurdon,  was  derived 
from  the  family  of  his  grandmother,  whose  name  was  Mariel  Gurdon 
He  had  three  wives — ^first,  Jerusha,  daughter  of  James  Richards,  of' 
Hartford,  who  died  in  Boston,  July  25th,  1697  ;  second,  Elizabeth, 
only  child  of  William  Rosewell,  of  Branford,  Conn.,  who  died  in  New 
London,  Sept.  12th,  1710 ;  third,  Mary,  daughter  of  William  Whit- 
tingham,  and  relict  of  William  Clarke,  of  Boston,  who  survived  him, 
and  died  in  Boston,  in  1729.* 


1  Hempstead. 

2  It  is  not  remembered  that  this  tomb  has  been  opened  but  three  times  since  the 
commencement  of  the  present  century— in  1811  for  the  reception  of  the  remains  of 
Winthrop  Saltonstall,  Esq.;  in  1845,  for  those  of  an  nnmarried  daughter  of  the  same, 
Ann  Dudley  Saltonstall,  aged  seventy-five;  and  once  to  receive  the  body  of  a  young 
child  of  William  W.  Saltonstall,  formerly  of  New  London,  but  now  of  Chicago. 

8  The  births  of  his  children  and  the  death  of  his  second  wife  are  registered  at  New 
London,  but  neither  of  his  marriages. 


384  BISTORT    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

Children  of  Chirdon  Saltonttall,  E$q. ,  and  Jerutha  ht$  ttfife. 

1.  Elizabeth,  bom  May  11th,  1690;   married,  first,  Richard  Christophers; 
second,  Isaac  Ledyard. 

2.  Mary,  born  Feb.  15th,  1691-2;  married  Jeremiah  Miller. 

3.  Sarah,  born  April  8th,  1694  ;  married,  first,  John  Gardiner ;  second,  Sam- 
uel Davis  ;  third,  Thomas  Davis. 

4.  Jerusha,  bora  July  6th,  1695 ;  died  Sept.  12tb,  1695. 

5.  Gurdon,  bom  July  17th,  1696  ;  died  July  27th,  1696. 

Children  of  Ourdon  Saltonstall,  Esq.,  and  Elizabeth,  hit  wife. 

6.  Rosewell,  born  Jan.  19th,  1701-2.     Settled  in  Branford. 

7.  Katherine,  born  June  19th,  1704;  married Brattle. 

8.  Nathaniel,  bora  July  Ist,  1707  ;  married  Lucretia  Araold,  in  1733. 

9.  Gurdon,  born  Dec.  22d,  1703;  married  Rebecca  Winthrop,  in  1733. 
10.  Richard,  born  Sept.  Ist,  1710;  died  Sept.  12th,  1710. 

Capt.  Rosewell  Saltonstall,  the  oldest  son  of  the  goveraoi;  that  sur- 
vived infancy,  married  a  lady  of  Hartford,  (Mary,  daughter  of  Joto 
Haynes,  and  relict  of  Elisha  Lord,)  and  fixed  his  residence  in  Bran- 
ford,  the  home  of  his  maternal  ancestors ;  hut  he  died  in  New  Lon- 
don, while  on  a  visit  to  his  brother  Gurdon,  Oct.  1st,  1738.  He  had 
been  seized  with  a  nervous  fever,  the  first  day  of  his  airival,  and  lived 
but  twelve  days  afterward.  It  was  remarked  that  he  seemingly 
came  home  on  purpose  to  die,  and  be  laid  in  the  tomb  with  his  par- 
ents. He  was  highly  esteemed  in  New  London,  being  a  man  of  irre- 
proachable Christian  character,  and  amiable  in  all  the  relations  of 
life.  His  relict  married  Rev.  Thomas  Clap,  of  Windham,  afterward 
president  of  Yale  College. 


La  the  year  1785,  the  county  of  New  London  exhibited  a  scene  of 
internal  strife  and  uneasiness,  which  continued  for  several  years.  It 
was  caused  by  a  local  jealousy  between  the  rival  towns  of  New  Lon- 
don and  Norwich,  for  the  possession  of  the  courts.  An  act  of  Asr 
sembly  in  October,  1734,  decreed  that  the  superior  and  county  courts 
should  henceforward  be  held  alternately  at  New  London  and  Nor- 
wich, elevating  the  latter,  place  to  the  rank  of  a  half-shire  town. 
This  act,  the  inhabitants  of  New  London  declared  to  be  injurious  to, 
them,  "and  of  ill  example.''  They  remonstrated,  and  petitioned 
again  and  again,  to  have  it  repealed,  but  without  success.  In  the 
spring  of  1739,  the  agents  of  the  town  were  instructed  to  pledge  the 
reimbursement  to  Norwich  of  what  had  been  laid  out  by  them  in 
building  a  court-house  and  prison  since  the  passage  of  the  act,  in  case 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONIXON.  385 

it  should  be  rescinded.    The  Assembly,  however,  reftised  once  more 
to  remove  the  courts  from  Norwich. 

It  was  perhaps  this  controversy  which  made  the  existing  authori- 
ties so  unpopular  in  New  London.  At  the  freemen's  meeting  of 
April  8th,  1740,  Hempstead  observes,  that  the  people  "  were  furi- 
ously set  to  make  an  alteration  in  the  public  officers  of  the  govern- 
ment ;  one  hundred  and  forty-three  voters — not  above  six  or  seven  for 
the  old  governor,  and  generally  for  Mr.  Elliot,  Grovemor,and  Thomas 
Fitch,  Li^ut  Grovemor."  Talcott  was  however  continued  in  office 
till  his  death,  which  took  place  Oct  11th,  1741 ;  and  on  that  occasion, 
New  London,  by  demonstrations  of  respect  paid  to  his  memory, 
showed  that  her  enmity  had  been  temporary  and  was  then  forgotten. 


Litelligence  was  received  in  the  autumn  of  1739,  that  letters  of 
marque  and  reprisal  had  been  issued  under  the  great  seal  of  England, 
against  Spain.  The  numerous  depredations  upon  English  commerce, 
the  unlawful  seizures  of  English  subjects  and  their  property,  had 
provoked  this  measure.  Affairs  had  been  for  some  time  rapidly  tend- 
ing toward  an  open  rupture.  Preparations  for  hostilities  were  made 
by  both  kingdoms,  and  there  was  every  reason  to  suppose  that  war 
would  soon  be  declared,  and  that  its  disastrous  effects  would  extend 
to  the  colonial  settlements  in  North  America.  No  place  upon  the 
sea-board  was  more  exposed,  or  less  prepared  for  defense,  than  New 
London.  The  inhabitants  were  alarmed ;  they  assembled  in  town 
meetings  and  prepared  a  memorial  to  the  governor,  urging  him  to 
convene  the  legislature  without  delay,  and  to  recommend  to  them 
the  immediate  fortification  of  the  town.  This  memorial,  approved  by 
the  town  on  the  first  Monday  in  January,  1740,  was  drafted  by  a 
committee  consisting  of  John  Curtiss,  Jeremiah  Miller,  John  Rich- 
ards, Thomas  Prentis  and  Nathaniel  Saltonstall.  It  is  an  interesting 
document,  evidently  emanating  from  full  hearts,  that  pour  forth  ar- 
guments, few  indeed  in  number,  but  conveyed  in  copious  terms. 
The  considerations  which  they  urge  are  of  this  nature  : 

•*  That  the  port  is  an  outward  port,  and  the  chief  haven  in  the  colony,  liable 
to  sudden  surprisal,  and  the  present  defense  utterly  inefficient  to  protect  it  in 
such  peril. 

"  That  it  is  greatly  for  the  interest  of  the  whole  colony,  that  it  should  be  put  . 
into  a  proper  state  of  defense,  as  all  our  vessels  are  obliged  here  to  enter  and 
clear,  and  there  is  no  fort  erected  in  any  other  port  or  haven  upon  all  the  sea- 
coast  of  this  colony,  nor  vessel  of  force  to  guard  the  same,  and  so  no  safety  to 

33 


386  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

them  who  go  out,  nor  to  them  that  come  iiii  nor  refuge  for  the  pursued,  but 
much  greater  danger  within  the  harbor  than  without. 

"  That  this  weak  and  undefended  condition  of  the  town  and  port  renders  ns 
an  easy  prey,  and  will  in  all  reasonable  construction,  invite  the  attempts  of  our 
enemies  against  us,  seeing  or  hearing  concerning  us  that  we  live  carelessly 
without  walls  or  strongholds,  or  other  defense  under  heaven,  and  are  unwor- 
thy the  care  of  providence,  without  the  exercise  of  prudent  endeavors  for  the 
safety  of  our  lives  and  fortunes.** 

In  conclusion  thej  saj  : 

"  Forasmuch  as  this  colony  hath  not  as  yet  been  much  burdened,  nor  the 
public  treasure  exhausted  with  expensive  fortifications  and  garrisons  to  defend 
their  frontiers  by  sea  and  land,  as  the  neighboring  provinces  have,  the  charges 
thereof  can  not  be  distressing,  nor  justly  esteemed  grievous  to  the  inhabitanu  at 
this  day ;  but  we  rather  hope  that  as  all  the  other  provinces  are  not  only  in  a 
proper  stat9  of  defense,  but  are  less  or  more  provided  for  the  offensive  party 
and  to  contend  with  the  enemy  in  battle,  so  this  colony  upon  like  occasion  will 
exemplify  that  figure  and  heroic  dignity  it  hath  a  right  to  assume,  as  well  for 
the  honor  of  the  government  as  the  safety  of  its  borders,  and  provide  and  equip 
a  suitable  vessel  to  guard  the  coasting  vessels,  and  to  be  ready  on  other  occa- 
sions, as  well  as  erect  proper  fortifications  to  defend  the  town  and  veeseb  in 
the  port.*' 

The  reply  of  the  governor,  addressed  to  the  selectmen,  was  of  a 
moderate  temper,  assuring  them  of  his  hearty  concurrence  in  any 
future  measure  for  their  defense,  but  deqjlining  to  convene  the  legisla- 
ture expressly  for  that  purpose.  This  letter  was  laid  before  the  town 
January  24th,  1739-40,  and  acted  like  oil  upon  ignited  coals.  Since 
the  draft  of  the  petition,  authentic  news  had  arrived  of  the  formal 
declaration  of  war,  and  the  town  in  their  excitement  declared  ^  that 
the  danger  of  a  surprisal  by  the  sudden  attack  of  the  enemy  is  most 
imminent  and  certain."  A  second  address  to  the  governor  was  voted, 
and  Messrs.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  Jeremiah  Miller,  Richard  Durfey, 
John  Curtiss  and  John  Prentis,  were  detailed  for  a  committee  to  wait 
personally  upon  his  honor,  and  prefer  the  petition  with  urgency. 

In  consequence  of  this  second  petition,  the  governor  convened  his 
council  at  Hartford,  February  7th,  upon  whose  deliberations  the 
committee  from  New  London  attended. 

The  firmness  of  the  council  was  proof  against  importunity.  They 
were  too  prudent  to  vote  away  the  money  of  the  people  without  giv- 
ing them  a  chance  to  be  consulted.  Yet  they  yielded  in  some  meas- 
ure, and  out  of  the  funds  ali-eady  appropriated  for  the  defense  of  the 
searcoast,  they  ordered  the  battery  at  New  London  to  be  recon- 
structed, furnished  with  some  suitable  pieces  of  cannon,  and  garrisoned 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  387 

hj  a  detachment  of  forty  men  from  the  militia  of  the  town,  ten  of 
whom  were  to  be  always  on  duty. 

These  measures  fiedled  to  satisfy  the  town.  Being  laid  before  the 
people  at  a  public  meeting,  they  declared  them  wholly  inadequate  to 
the  exigency.     The  question  being  put, 

**  Whether  it  be  expedient  for  this  town  to  rest  in  the  provision  that  the  gov- 
ernor and  council  have  made  for  their  safety ;  resolved  in  the  negative,** 

After  a  preamble  fully  stating  what  had  been  done,  and  their  great 
apprehension  of  invasion,  the  record  proceeds : 

*'  In  confidence  that  his  majesty's  tender  care  of  his  subjects  extends  to  these 
distant  parts  of  his  dominions  and  exposed  plantations,  and  out  of  his  royal 
bounty  and  indulgence  to  the  infant  state  of  this  colony,  will  grant  us  effectual 
redress  according  to  the  necessity  and  urgency  of  the  case : 

**  Voted,  that  his  sacred  majesty  King  George  the  second,  our  rightful  sover- 
eign, be  humbly  euldressed  in  this  our  extremity,  and  that  a  petition  proper 
therefore  be  prepared  and  laid  before  this  meeting." 

A  petition  was  accordingly  prepared,  but  it  is  scarcely  necessary 
to  say  that  it  was  never  wafled  across  the  ocean.  The  governor  and 
leading  men  of  the  colony  used  their  influence  to  conciliate  the  in- 
habitants, and  prevent  the  execution  of  the  design.  Several  town 
meetings  were  held  on  the  subject,  which  adjourned  from  day  to  day 
without  doing  any  business,  until  February  28th,  when  the  question 
was  put, 

"  Whether  the  prosecution  of  our  address  to  his  majesty  to  render  the  port 
and  town  of  New  London  defensible  against  the  invasion  of  our  enemies  shall 
be  suspended  till  the  sessions  of  the  General  Assembly  in  May  next ;  resolved 
in  the  affirmative." 

The  inhabitants  were  thus  quieted  for  a  time,  renting  in  the  confi- 
dent expectation  that  the  Assembly  would  devise  some  plan  of  de- 
fense for  a  town  and  harbor  which  was  in  fact  their  frontier  and  out- 
post. In  the  mean  time  the  attention  of  all  New  England  was  diverted 
toward  a  grand  expedition  fitted  out  by  the  British  ministry  against 
the  Spanish  dominions  in  the  West  Indies  and  on  the  northern  coast 
of  South  America.  Troops  were  raised  in  the  colonies  by  voluntary 
enlistinent,  to  join  this  expedition.  They  went  forth  with  high 
hopes,  but  the  issue  was  disastrous.  Admiral  Vernon,  who  com- 
manded the  British  squadron,  took  Forto  Bello,  in  November,  1739, 
only  to  make  it  the  grave  of  the  army.  The  same  commander,  sub- 
sequently besieged  Carthagena,  but  his  force  was  so  reduced  by  a 
mortal  sickness,  which  was  engendered  in  those  tropical  climes  and' 


388  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

carried  off  its  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  that  he  was  obliged 
to  abandon  the  siege  and  return  to  Jamaica. 

No  military  roll  or  domestic  record  has  preserved  the  names  of 
those  soldiers  from  Connecticut,  who  shared  in  the  plunder  of  Porto 
Bello,  or  died  miserably  under  the  walls  of  Carthagena.  But  it  maj 
-  be  conjectured  that  various  names  which  disappear  from  the  rolls 
about  this  time,  were  extinguished  in  that  unfortunate  enterprise,  or 
in  the  expedition  against  Cuba,  which  soon  followed. 

War  was  declared  against  Spain  in  the  spring  of  1740.  Gurdon 
Saltonstall,  of  New  London,  having  been  raised  to  the  rank  of  colonel 
of  the  militia,  gave  a  banquet  on  the  24th  of  April,  to  his  friends  ; 
and  at  this  entertainment,  a  large  number  of  civil  and  military  offi- 
cers, and  other  inhabitants  being  assembled,  the  colonel  read  the  proc^" 
lamation  of  the  governor,  that  day  received,  declaring  war  to  exiat 
with  Spain.* 

In  July,  1740,  six  recruiting  lieutenants  came  on  from  New  York, 
bringing  200  stands  of  arms,  and  other  equipments  for  volunteers. 
Landing  first  at  New  London,  they  dispersed  toward  Boston,  Provi- 
dence and  Hartford,  beating  up  for  men  to  join  the  king's  forces  in 
another  expedition  against  the  Spaniards.  Cuba  was  now  to  be  the 
object  of  attack.  A  soldier's  tent  was  forthwith  erected  on  the 
training  field,  near  the  meeting-house,  and  an  officer  stationed  there 
to  enlist  recruits.  Many  young  men  of  the  town  and  neighborhood 
were  induced  to  join  the  company.  They  sailed  in  August.  The 
fate  of  the  expedition,  as  in  the  former  case,  was  decided  by  a  mortal 
disease,  which  cut  ofi*  a  large  part  of  the  army.  In  the  summer  of 
1742,  a  few  sick  men  were  brought  home  from  Jamaica;  they  dis- 
seminated the  fatal  camp  epidemic  through  the  several  families  to 
which  they  belonged,  and  these  spread  it  yet  further  in  the  town,  and 
thus  the  number  of  victims  of  the  expedition  was  doubled. 

In  the  spring  of  1744,  intelligence  was  received  that  a  new  power 
had  entered  into  the  contest.  France  had  declared  war  against  Eng- 
land, and  England  against  France.  This  was  just  the  drop  which 
made  our  excitable  town  overflow.  Little  had  been  done  in  the  way 
of  fortification.  Rumors  of  invasion  thickened  the  air;  faces  were 
sad  and  hearts  heavy  with  apprehension. 

The  legislature  was  then  in  session,  and  it  was  confidently  expected 
that  they  would  not  separate  without  making  some  provision  for  the 


1  Hempstead.    The  diarist  obsenres,  "  The  colonel  wet  his  new  commission  boun- 
tiAilly." 


fitSTORT    OF    NBW    LONDON^  389 

• 

Sefense  ci  New  London.  Bat  in  thid  the  town  was  greatlj  disap- 
pointed ;  no  appropriation  was  made  for  their  relief.  As  soon  as 
this  was  known,  a  town  meeting  was  warned,  which  met  the  12th  of 
June,  to  consider  their  grievances.  After  ordering  watch-houses  to 
he  huilt  at  the  harbor's  mouth,  and  on  the  fort  land,  (now  Parade,) 
they  appointed  committees  to  draw  up  a  memorial  to  the  govenu^ 
and  a  petition  to  the  king,  the  latter  to  be  held  in  reserve,  and  only 
used  if  the  former  ^plication  should  be  unsuccessful. 

The  committee  immediately  drafted  a  memorial  to  the  governor : 

'*  When  (say  they)  the  Honourable  General  Assembly  at  their  last  session  had 
advice  that  war  was  proclaimed  in  England  against  our  most  formidable  enemy 
the  king  of  Prance,  it  was  generally  concluded  here,  that  some  adequate  pro- 
vision for  oar  security  would  have  been  made.  But  when  our  representatives 
returned,  and  we  were  informed  nothing  could  be  obtained  for  us,  we  were 
greatly  surprised  and  distressed.'* 

They  proceed  to  state  that  the  harbor  of  ten  had  vessels  riding  in  it 
to  the  value  of  eighty  thousand  pounds,  and  now  that  France  had 
joined  in  the  war,  even  those  of  greater  value  might  be  expected  in  ; 
that  the  European  and  household  goods  were  of  sufficient  importance 
to  invite  an  enemy,  and  that  probably  the  first  French  privateers  that 
should  appear  on  the  coast,  knowing  the  value  of  the  plunder,  and  the 
weakness  of  the  place,  *'  whose  only  defense  under  heaven  is  a  battery 
of  four  guns  in  town,  and  three  for  alarm  at  the  harbor's  mouth," 
would  make  an  immediate  descent  upon  them.  The  memorialists 
then  give  loose  to  their  fears  and  fancy,  and  delineate  the  picture  that 
would  be  presented  when  the  town  should  be  overcome  "  by  a  French 
enemy ;''  houses  in  fames,  substance  plundered,  inhabitants  slaugh- 
tered. ^  Alas  !  (say  they)  it  will  then  be  too  late  for  those  that  re- 
main to  fly  to  your  honor  for  aid  to  preserve  the  lives  and  fortunes 
thus  unhappily  destroyed."  They  next  advert  to  what  the  king  had 
done  toward  fortifying  Greorgia  and  Boston,  and  observe  that  if  the 
colony  do  nothing  for  them,  they  shall  think  it  **  a  duty  we  owe  to 
Almighty  Grod,  who  commands  us  to  preserve  our  own  lives,  to  apply 
to  the  king  for  aid."  They  conclude  with  disclaiming  any  disgust 
with  the  government,  or  any  intention  to  bring  the  charter  privileges 
into  danger  by  this  measure,  which  they  say  is  purely  a  measure  of 
self-defense,  and  inclosing  a  copy  of  the  petition,  intended  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  king,  they  subscribe,  in  behalf  of  the  distressed  town  of 
New  London, 

G.  Saltonstall,     Daniel  Dbnison,  )  Committee. 
Solomon  Coit,        Thomas  Fosdick,  > 
22* 


390  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

No  favorable  answer  being  obtained  to  this'memorial,  a  vote  paaaed 
in  town  meeting,  26th  of  June,  authorizing  the  selectmen  to  take  im- 
mediate measures  to  forward  to  the  king  the  following  petition  :^ 

"  The  humble  representation  and  petition  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of 
New  London,  in  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  in  New  England,  to  the  king's 
most  excellent  majesty : 

"  May  it  please  your  majesty,  we  your  very  dutiful  and  obedient  subjeots 
being  fully  sensible  that  your  majesty's  royal  ear  is  ever  open  and  ready  to 
hear,  and  your  paternal  care  and  goodness  ever  ready  to  diffuse  itself  even  to 
your  most  remote  subjects,  beg  leave  with  the  greatest  submission  to  represent 
the  consequence  [importance]  of  this  harbor  and  town,  and  its  defenseless  state. 
"  Our  harbor  is  the  principal  one  in  this  colony,  and  perhaps  the  best  in 
North  America,  capable  to  receive  the  whole  navy  of  Great  Britain,  being  at 
least  seven  miles  in  length,  and  near  one  mile  in  breadth,  six  fathoms  water, 
bold  shore  and  excellent  anchor-ground  ;  all  the  navigation  trading  to  this  col- 
ony enter  and  clear  at  your  majesty's  custom-house  in  this  port,  and  we  shall 
probably  have  twenty,  thirty,  or  perhaps  forty  vessels  at  a  time,  laden  mostly 
with  provisions,  belonging  to  this  and  the  neighboring  governments,  waiting 
for  convoy,  and  have  not  any  thing  to  defend  such  fleet  from  your  majestjr's 
enemies  but  a  battery  of  seven  guns,  (some  of  which  are  very  unfit  for  serviee,) 
and  three  other  guns  at  the  harbor's  mouth,  about  three  miles  distant,  and  have 
no  reason  to  question  but  an  enemy  on  our  coast  will  soon  gain  intelligence, 
when  such  number  of  vessels  shall  be  here,  and  we  fear  make  them  a  quick 
prey.    With  such  large  quantities  of  provisions,  they  will  be  enabled  to  fit  out 
many  more  privateers,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  other  your  majestjr's  good 
subjects,  and  what  renders  such  attempts  from  an  enemy  more  to  be  expected, 
is  the  easy  entrance  to  this  harbor,  it  being  very  free  and  bold,  and  in  three 
hours'  sail  they  may  be  again  without  hind  in  the  open  sea. 
*•  Our  town  has  upward  of  300  fighting  men — and  therein  is  your  majesty's 
*  custom-house    above    mentioned — every  inhabitant  true  and  loyal   to  your 
majesty,  but  by  great  losses  suffered  at  sea,  by  the  depredations  of  the  Span- 
iards, &c.,  are  not  able  of  ourselves  to  put  our  harbor  tmd  town  in  a  proper 
posture  of  defense,  and  fear  we  shall  fall  an  easy  prey  to  an  haughty,  aspiring 
enemy  unless  your  majesty  graciously  provide  for  our  defense  in  this  our  weak 
state.    "We  beg  leave  to  throw  ourselves  at  your  majesty's  feet,  our  most  gra- 
cious king  and  common  father  to  his  subjects,  beseeching  your  majesty  in  your 
royal  wisdom  and  paternal  care,  to  order  such  defense  for  us,  as  may  enable  us 
in  a  manner  becoming  Englishmen,  to  repel  the  attempts  of  your  majesty's 
enemies  that  shall  be  made  on  us,  and  secure  all  your  majesty's  good  subjects 
coming  into  this  harbor  for  protection. 

**  We  pray  the  mighty  King  of  kings  to  preserve  your  sacred  majesty  from 
all  the  attempts  of  open  and  secret  enemies — to  bless  and  prosper  your  arms, 
and  to  clothe  your  enemies  with  confusion,  that  your  majesty  may  be  long  con- 
tinued to  reign  over  us  and  then  be  received  to  reign  in  eternal  glory.  Amen." 


1  The  committee  to  prepare  this  petition  were  Jose;^  Coit,  Richard  Dnrfey,  Ed- 
ward Bobinson,  Jonathan  Prentis,  Solomon  Colt. 


HISTORY     OP     NBW     LONDON.  391 

Of  the  fate  of  tliis  petition  nothing  further  is  known ;  it  is  never 
heard  from  again,  either  town-wise  or  otherwise.  The  records  of  the 
town  are  from  this  period  entirely  silent  in  regard  to  the  war,  which* 
it  may  be  remembered,  continued  four  years  longer  and  was  termina- 
ted by  the  treaty  of  Aix  la  Chapelle  in  April,  1748.  In  the  mean 
time  the  noted  expedition  to  Cape  Breton  intervened,  and  though  the 
records  contain  no  allusion  to  it,  a  few  facts,  gleaned  from  other 
sources  will  be  given,  in  order  to  show  the  connection  of  the  town 
with  that  great  adventure  of  New  England  enterprise. 

The  Greneral  Assembly,  by  a  vote  of  Feb.  7th,  1744-5,  ordered 
500  men  to  be  immediately  raised  in  Connecticut  by  voluntary  en- 
listment, to  join  the  forces  of  the  other  New  England  colonies  in  the 
expedition  against  Cape  Breton.  The  premium  offered  was  large,  viz. 
ten  pounds  in  old  tenor  bills,  one  month's  wages  paid  before  embarking, 
and  an  exemption  from  all  impressments  for  two  years.  The  sloop 
Defence  was  to  be  equipped  and  manned  and  to  sail  as  a  convoy  with 
the  transports.  The  land  forces  were  ordered  to  New  London  to 
embark,  and  to  return  to  New  London  to  disband.  Roger  Wolcott 
was  appointed  commander-in-chief;  Andrew  Burr,  colonel ;  Simon 
Lothrop,  lieut.  colonel ;  Israel  Newton,  major. 

The  men  were  divided  into  eight  companies,  under  the  following 
captains : 

David  Wooster,  Robert  Denison, 

Stephen  Lee,  Andrew  Ward, 

Daniel  Chapman,  James  Church, 

William  Whiting,  Henry  King. 

Of  these  captains,  Lee,  Chapman  and  Denison  were  from  New 
London,  as  were  also  John  Colfax  and  Nathaniel  Green,  lieutenants. 
Capt.  John  Prentis  commanded  the  Defence.  Col.  Saltonstall  was 
one  of  the  committee  to  superintend  the  concern — Jeremiah  Miller 
was  the  commissary  of  the  foi'ces.  Alexander  Wolcott,  resident  at 
New  London,  went  out  as  surgeon's  mate. 

The  troops  began  to  gather  at  New  London  the  last  week  in  March. 
The  tents  were  pitched  in  a  field  north-west  of  the  town  plot,  which 
has  ever  since  been  known  as  the  Soldier  lot.  It  is  between  the  Nor- 
wich and  old  Colchester  roads. 

April  1st,  Gen.  Wolcott  arrived  and  was  welcomed  witb  salutes 
from  the  fort  and  the  sloop  Defence.  His  tent  was  pitched  on  the 
hill  at  the  south-east  comer  of  the  burial  place.  On  Sunday  the  7th 
Mr.  Adams  preached  to  the  general  and  soldiers,  drawn  up  on  the 
meeting-house  green.     On  the  9th  the  conmiissions  were  published 


382  HIBTORT    OF    NEW    L0l<II>OIt« 

with  imposing  eeremoniM.  The  eight  compatiies  were  arranged  in 
close  order  on  the  green ;  and  the  throng  of  Bpectaton  corered  the 
hill..  Through  them,  G^n.  Wolcott,  enpported  right  and  left  by  CoL 
Andrew  Burr  and  Lieut.  CoL  Simon  Lothrop,  marched  bareheaded 
from  his  tent  to  the  door  of  the  court-house,  where  the  commissions 
were  read.^  The  troops  embarked  SatuHaj,  April  18th,  and  the 
next  day  at  1  o'clock,  P.  M.,  the  fleet  sailed.  It  consisted  of  die 
colonial  sloops  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  four  other  sloops ; 
two  brigs  and  one  schooner.  The  Defence  carried  Gen.  Wolcott  and 
100  men. 

Two  months  of  anxious  suspense  to  the  country,  and  eager  thirst* 
ing  for  news,  succeeded.  The  24th  of  April  was  kept  through  New 
England  as  a  public  fast  for  the  success  of  the  enterprise.  On 
the  19  th  of  June  the  moumftd  tidings  arrived  that  our  forces  had 
been  defeated  in  an  attempt  upon  the  Island  Battery  with  a  loss  of 
170  men.  Major  Newton  of  Colchester  and  Israel  Dodge  of  the 
North  Parish,  were  among  those  who. had  fallen  victims  to  disease. 
Soon  afterward,  Lieut  Nathaniel  Green  of  New  London,  came 
home  sick.  New  recruits  were  demanded.  In  this  vicinity  200  men 
were  speedily  raised  and  marched  into  town,  from  whence  they  were 
taken  by  transports  sent  round  from  Boston,  which  sailed  for  the  seat 
of  war,  July  6th.  The  next  day,  a  special  post  from  Boston,  came 
shouting  through  the  town — 

Louisburg  is  taken! 

On  the  18th  of  July,  the  Middletown  transport,  Capt.  Doane, 
arrived  in  the  harbor  with  General  "Wolcott  and  eighty  soldiers, 
mostly  sick.  The  25th  of  the  same  month,  was  the  day  of  public 
thanksgiving  for  our  success. 

Capt  Prentis  in  the  colony  sloop  returned  the  latter  part  of  Octo- 
ber. Of  his  crew  of  100  men,  not  one  had  fallen  by  the  sword,  but 
a  fourth  part  had  died  of  disease.  November  4th,  two  transports  left 
the  port  with  1,50  recruits  for  Cape  Breton.  The  next  spring,  the 
remains  of  the  army  began  to  return.  On  the  27th  of  June  Ci4)t 
Fitch  came  home  with  a  considerable  party,  and  on  the  2d  of  July  a 
schooner  brought  in  the  last  of  the  Connecticut  troops,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  that  had  enlisted  for  three  years. 

Thuf  ends  as  connected  with  our  port,  this  brilliant,  but  unprofita- 
ble expedition.  Capt.  Prentis  in  the  sloop  Defence,  had  made  a  part 
of  the  naval  force,  and  was  with  the  fleet  in  actual  service  at  the 

1  Hempstead. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  893 

time  that  tke  rich  prizes  were  taken.  In  April,  1746,  he  accompa- 
nied Mr.  James  Bowdoin,  of  Boston,  to  England,  to  urge  the  claim  of 
the  provincial  seamen  to  a  share  of  the  prize-money,  which  was  with- 
held by  Admiral  Warren.  The  admiralty  allowed  the  claim,  and 
placed  the  British  and  provincial  vessels  on  the  same  footing.  But 
Capt  Prentis  while  awaiting  the  decision  of  the  court,  made  an  ex- 
cursion into  Cornwall,  to  visit  the  Edgecombs  of  Mount  Edgecomb, 
being  invited  thither  to  partake  of  the  Christmas  festivities.  While 
absent  on  this  tour,  he  took  the  small-pox ;  of  which  disease  he  died, 
after  his  return  to  London,  in  January,  1  »6-7. 

Scarcely  were  the  wearied  troops  from  Louisburg  disbanded  be- 
fore a  flourish  of  drums  and  trumpets  sounded  through  the  country, 
demanding  enlistments  to  go  against  Canada.  On  the  30th  of  June, 
1746,  a  general  muster  of  the  ^ve  military  companies  of  New  Lon- 
don was  called,  in  order  to  obtain  volunteers  for  a  new  army,  which 
like  that  of  the  previous  year  had  its  rendezvous  at  New  London. 
The  forces  gathered  in  August,  700  in  number,  and  encamped  on 
Winthrop's  Neck,  about  twenty  days.  The  officers  vied  with  each 
other  in  their  tents,  but  that  of  Capt.  Henry  King  of  Norwich  was 
acknowledged  to  exceed  the  others  in  the  neatness  and  order  of  its 
arrangements.  On  the  12th  of  September,  they  broke  up  and  em- 
barked for  the  scene  of  action. 

On  the  24th  of  September,  1746,  news  arrived  in  town  by  ex- 
press from  Boston  "  that  a  French  fleet  of  twenty^ix  men  of  war^ 
and  15,000  land  soldiers  in  transports,  were  seen  off  Cape  Sables  on 
the  10th  instant."* 

This  article  is  only  given  as  an  instance  of  the  uncertainty  and 
exaggeration  of  rumor.  The  fleet  seen  was  the  celebrated*  armament 
under  the  Duke  D'Anville,  supposed  to  Jiave  been  fitted  out  to  recover 
Louisburg  and  Annapolis,  to  destroy  Boston,  and  devastate  the  New 
England  coast.  It  consisted  of  eleven  ships  of  the  line,  thirty  war 
vessels  carrying  from  ten  to  thirty  guns,  and  transports  with  3,100> 
regular  troops.^ 

Active  exertions  were  made  in  all  the  colonies  to  defend  the  most 
important  and  exposed  positions  on  the  coast,  and  the  troops  raised 
were  prepared  to  concentrate  their  forces  wherever  an  invasion  should 
be  attempted.  In  Connecticut  one-half  of  the  whole  militia  was  de-- 
tached  and  ordered  to  be  in  readiness  to  march  in  case  of  an  inva- 
sion.   The  issue  is  well  known.    A  series  of  remarkable  calamities 

1  Hempstead.  2  Tmmbull's  Coon.,  vol.  2,  p.  286. 


3d4  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

assailed  the  French  fleet  Storm,  shipwreck,  failure  of  expected 
recruits  and  supplies,  pestilential  disease,  divided  councils,  discon- 
certed plans,  the  sudden  death  of  successive  commanders,  and  a  final 
destructive  blow  from  a  furious  tempest,  all  concurred  so  oppor- 
tunely in  the  discomfiture  of  the  French  fleet,  that  thej  seemed  like 
visible  agents  employed  by  Providence,  to  avert  the  danger  from 
New  England.  Dr.  Holmes  in  his  Annals  observes  that  the  country 
was  saved  as  in  ancient  times,  when  "  the  stars  in  their  courses  fought 
against  Sisera." 

{Note  concerning  Capt.  PrentU,  As  it  is  a  part  of  the  business  of  the  histo- 
rian to  preserve  all  popular  superstitions  and  traditions  that  illustrate  the  cus- 
toms and  opinions  of  the  age,  we  must  here  notice  a  story  that  probably  grew 
out  of  the  prolonged  absence  of  Capt  Prentis  in  England*  and  the  anxiety  of 
his  friends  concerning  him.  It  was  aAerward  currently  reported,  that  the  very 
day  he  died  in  London,  a  man  on  horseback,  mounted  on  just  such  a  horse  as 
Prentis  used  to  ride,  came  galloping  into  New  London,  before  sunrise,  and  at 
each  end  of  the  towji  stopped  at  a  house,  and  with  loud  knocks  upon  the  door, 
gave  notice  "  Capt.  Prentis  is  dead  !"  He  then  disappeared,  his  transit  having 
been  so  rapid  that  no  one  was  able  to  discern  his  countenance,  or  klentily  his 
person. 

Capt.  Prentis  left  six  children  under  nine  years  of  age ;  five  of  them  w^ere 
daughters.  Previous  to  his  voyage  to  England,  he  had  bought  up  the  claims 
of  his  crew  to  their  share  of  the  prize-money.  This  money  was  allowed  by  the 
admiralty,  and  transmitted  to  Boston,  but  from  some  delay,  the  causes  of  which 
are  not  now  understood,  it  was  not  paid  over  to  the  heirs  of^rentis  for  many 
years;  not  indeed  until  afler  the  marriage  of  all  his  daughters.  It  waa  finally 
obtained  through  the  exertions  of  Richard  Law,  Esq.,  who  had  married  one  of 
the  daughters.  Business  matters  were  not  then  so  generally  settled  by  attor- 
neyship and  proxy  as  at  present,  and  on  the  occasion  of  the  payment  of  these 
arrears  the  family  train,  consisting  of  the  younger  John  Prentis  and  his  five 
sisters,  with  their  respective  husbands,  all  went  to  Boston  together,  to  receive 
their  dues.  The  females  had  never  before  been  so  far  away  from  home,  and 
almost  every  incident  was  to  them  a  novel  adventure.  Two  days  were  occu- 
pied in  going,  and  the  same  in  returning  ;  the  intermediate  night  being  spent 
at  a  tavern  in  Plainfield.  Each  of  the  men  was  a  character  of  peculiar  stamp. 
Among  them  were  a  lawyer,  a  mechanic,  a  merchant,  a  farmer  and  two  sea- 
captains,  one  of  them  of  Irish  birth.  Capt.  William  Coit  was  particularly 
original  in  his  manner.  He  was  blunt,  jovial,  eccentric  ;  very  large  in  frame ; 
fierce  and  military  in  his  bearing,  and  noted  for  always  wearing  a  scarlet  cloak. 
The  populace  of  New  London  called  him  the  great  red  dragon^  We  can 
readily  imagine  that  this  journey  would  be  full  of  strange  scenes  and  occur- 
.  rences.  Could  it  be  faithfully  described  no  fanciful  embellishmente  would  be 
necessary  to  render  it  a  rare  descriptive  skeich.i] 


1  The  author  may  be  allowed  to  name  an  esteemed  fHend,  the  late  Captain  Richard 
Law,  as  the  source  from  whence  this  and  other  vivid  pictures  of  past  scenes,  are 
derived. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

Schools.— Ferries.— Mills.— Wolves.— Great  Snow  of  1717  —The  Moving 
Rock.  — Am  usements. — Memoranda. 

Having  brought  the  general  history  of  the  town  to  the  year  1750, 
we  may  now  return  and  gather  up  the  fragments  that  have  been  drop- 
ped by  the  way,  or  set  aside,  in  order  to  be  arranged  as  topics. 

Schools.  For  the  first  fifty  years  after  the  settlement,  very  little 
is  on  record  in  respect  to  schools ;  and  from  the  numerous  instances 
of  persons  in  the  second  generation  who  could  not  write  their  names, 
it  is  evident  that  education  was  at  a  low  ebb.  Female  instruction,  in 
particular,  must  have  been  greatly  neglected,  when  the  daughters  of 
men  who  occupied  important  offices  in  the  town  and  church,  were 
obliged  to  make  a  mark  for  their  signature.  Yet  the  business  of 
teaching  was  then  principally  performed  by  women.  The  school- 
ma'am  is  older  than  the  school-master.  Every  quarter  of  the  town 
had  its  mistress,  who  taught  children  to  behave ;  to  ply  the  needle 
through  all  the  mysteries  of  hemming,  over-hand,  stitching  and  darn- 
ing, up  to  the  sampler ;  and  to  read  from  A,  £,  C,  through  the 
spelling-book  to  the  Psalter.  Children  were  taught  to  be  mannerly^ 
and  pay  respect  to  their  elders,  especially  to  dignitaries.  In  the 
street,  they  stood  aside  when  they  met  any  respectable  person  or 
stranger,  and  saluted  them  with  a  bow  or  courtesy,  stopping  modestly 
till  they  had  passed.  This  was  called  making  their  manners.  In 
some  places  in  the  interior  of  New  England,  this  pleasing  and  rever- 
ent custom  still  maintains  its  ground.  A  traveler  finds  himself  in 
one  of  these  virgin  districts,  and  as  he  approaches  a  low  school-house 
by  the  way-side,  he  is  warned  by  eye  and  ear,  that  he  has  fallen  upon 
forenoon  play-tide.  The  children  are  engaged  in  boisterous  games. 
Suddenly  every  sound  ceases  ;  the  ranks  are  drawn  up  on  each  side 
of  the  road  in  single  file ;  the  little  girls  fold  their  hands  before  them 


396  HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON. 

with  a  prim  courtesy,  and  the  heads  of  the  boys  are  uncovered  with  a 
grotesque  swing  of  the  hat,  or  buff-cap.  Who  is  not  inly  delighted 
with  this  primitive  salutation  ?  It  is  like  finding  a  clear  spring  of 
water  gushing  out  pf  a  rock  by  the  way-side. 

Peculiar  reverence  was  paid  to  the  minister.  Bold  was  the  urchin 
who  dared  to  laugh  within  his  hearing.  That  reverend  personage 
was  accustomed  to  catechise  them  once  a  month  in  the  meeting- 
house, and  to  accompany  the  exercise  with  many  a  stem  reproof,  or 
grave  admonition. 

In  the  year  1 673,  Robert  Bartlet,  a  lonely  man  living  near  Ga- 
briel Harris,  on  Close  Cove,  died  ;  and  by  a  nuncupative  will,  made 
in  presence  of  some  of  the  selectmen  and  other  respectable  persons, 
bequeathed  his  estate  to  the  town,  to  be  improved  for  the  education 
of  children.  The  records  of  the  county  court  attest  that  this  will 
was  accepted  and  recorded  at  the  June  session,  and  administration 
granted  to  the  five  gentlemen  specified  therein ;  viz.,  Rev.  Simon 
Bradstreet,  Edward  Palmes,  Daniel  Wetherell,  Charles  Hill  and 
Joshua  Raymond.  It  may  be  presumed  that  Bartlet  had  no  chil- 
dren, no  relatives,  no  intimate  friends  with  him,  or  near  him,  and  that 
he  acted  by  the  advice  of  those  around  him,  to  wit,  the  minister  and 
the  magistrates. 

The  oldest  books  of  wills  belonging  to  the  county,  were  destroyed 
in  the  burning  of  the  town  by  the  British,  in  1781 ;  and  neither  the 
original  will  of  Bartlet,  nor  any  copy  of  it,  has  been  found.  But  it 
is  ascertained  from  various  legislative  acts  and  town  votes,  that  the 
main  purpose  expressed,  was  the  support  of  a  school,  where  the  poor 
of  the  town  might  be  instructed.  No  other  specification  is  mentioned, 
except  a  request  that  Gabriel  Harris  might  be  requited  for  the  kind- 
ness shown  him  in  his  sickness.  To  this  the  administrators  faithfully 
attended,  and  by  deed  of  Dec.  19th,  1674,  conveyed  to  Harris  two 
acres  of  land  at  Mamacock,  as  a  compensation  for  his  care  of 
Bartlet 

Three  Robert  Bartlets  are  found  among  the  early  emigrants  to 
New  England,  between  whom  no  connection  has  been  ascertained : 
one  arrived  in  1623,*  in  the  vessel  called  the  Anne,  (which  came 
next  after  the  Mayflower  and  Fortune,)  and  is  known  to  have  con- 
tinued in  or  near  Plymouth,  where  he  left  posterity.^    A  second  of 

1  Davis*  New  England  MemoriaL 

2  Savage,  (Ms.) 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  397 

the  name  is  found  among  the  first  settlers  of  Hartford,  and  is  men- 
tioned by  Trumbull  as  suffering  a  severe  penalty  in  1646,  for  an  in- 
^ngement  of  the  old  Connecticut  code.  This  person  removed  to 
Northampton  in  1665,  and  there  died  in  1676,  leaving  several  chil- 
dren.' The  third  of  the  name  is  our  Robert  Bartlet,  of  New  Lon- 
don, who  was  the  brother  of  William  Bartlet,  one  of  the  earliest  set- 
tlers of  the  place,  whose  property  he  inherited  about  1658.  Very 
little  more  is  known  of  him.  He  appears  to  have  lived  with  his 
brother's  widow,  and  to  have  taken  care  of  her  till  her  death.  In  a 
deposition  of  Feb.,  1664-5,  his  age  is  stated  to  be  sixty-nine  or  there- 
abouts, which  would  make  him  seventy-eight  at  death. 

The  estate  which  Bartlet  bequeathed  to  the  town,  consisted  of  his 
homestead  on  Close  Cove,  a  farm  of  two  hundred  and  fiily  acres  on 
the  river,  north  of  the  town,  various  divisions  of  out-lands,  and  the 
rights  of  an  original  proprietor  in  the  commons.  Nothing  was  done 
with  it  for  many  years. 

In  1678,  the  law  of  the  Assembly  requiring  that  every  town  of 
thirty  families  should  maintain  a  school  to  teach  children  to  read  and 
write,  was  copied  into  the  town  book,  and  a  committee  of  five  men 
chosen,  "  to  consider  of  some  effectual  means  to  procure  a  school- 
master." This  is  the  first  town  action  respecting  a  writing-school ; 
and  from  this  period  it  may  be  presumed  that  one  was  kept  during  a 
part  of  each  year,  but  perhaps  for  not  more  than  three  months. 

The  first  Bartlet  committee  was  appointed  in  1698 — Thomas 
Bolles,  Samuel  Fosdick  and  Richard  Christophers,  who  were  direct- 
ed to  look  after  the  estate,  and  see  that  it  was  faithfully  improved 
according  to  the  wiU  of  the  donor. 

*'  Dec.  14,  1698. 

"  Voated  that  the  Towne  Granu  one  halfe  penjr  in  mony  upon  the  List  of 
Estate  to  be  raised  for  the  use  of  a  free  Schoole  that  shall  teach  Children  to 
Reade  Write  and  Cypher  and  ye  Lattin  Tongue,  which  School  shall  be  kept 
two-thirds  of  the  yeare  on  the  West  side  and  one  third  part  of  the  yeare  on  the 
East  side  of  the  river.  By  Reading  is  intended  such  Children  as  are  in  theire 
psalters." 

In  May,  1701,  the  vote  was  reiterated  that  a  grammar-school 
should  be  established ;  the  selectmen  to  agree  with  a  teacher ;  to 
employ  the  stipend  allowed  by  the  country,  (iOs.  per  £1,000,)  and 
the  revenue  of  the  Bartlet  estate — the  latter  for  the  benefit  of  the 


IJudd,  of  Northampton,  (MS.) 

34 


398  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

poor — and  parents  and  masters  to  make  up  what  more  shoald  be 
necessary. 

Here,  then,  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  we  may  date  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  first  regular  grammar  and  Latin  school  of  the  town. 
The  first  masters  whose  names  have  been  recovered,  were  Denis<m 
in  1708,  Bumham,  1710,  and  John  Gardiner^  of  the  Isle  of  Wight^ 
(Grardiner's  Island,)  in  1712. 

In  1713,  application  was  made  to  the  General  Assembly  for  per- 
mission to  dispose  of  the  Bartlet  lands ;  this  was  granted.  By  a  spe- 
cial act  of  May  14th,  the  Assembly  vested  the  title  of  those  lands  in 
certain  feoffees,  to  wit,  '*  Richard  Christophers,  Jonathan  Prentis, 
John  Plumbe,  John  Richards,  and  James  Rogers,  Jun.,  and  their 
heirs  forever,  for  the  use  of  a  public  Latin  School  in  the  town  of 
New  London." 

We  can  not  but  observe,  that  this  appropriation  of  the  legacy  spe- 
cially to  a  Latin  school,  appears  to  be  swerving  from  the  will  of  the 
donor,  which  was  understood  to  regard  principally  the  instruction  of 
the  poor  in  the  common  branches  of  learning. 

This  committee  made  sale  of  most  of  the  Bartlet  donation ;  five 
parcels  of  land  on  the  Great  Neck,  some  lots  at  Nahantick  and  Nai- 
wayonk,  and  the  farm  on  the  river  ;  the  latter  was  purchased  by  John 
Richards,  for  £300.  This  measure  was  a  present  benefit,  but  gained 
at  the  expense  of  a  greater  future  good.  Every  year  was  enhancing 
the  value  of  the  lands,  and  had  they  been  retained  a  century,  using 
only  the  yearly  rent,  they  would  have  been  ample  endowment  for  an 
academy. 

The  same  year,  (1713,)  a  school-house  was  built,  twenty  feet  by 
sixteen,  and  seven  feet  between  joints — expense  defrayed  by  a  town 
rate.  This  building,  the  first  school-house  in  town  of  which  we  have 
any  account,  stood  on  what  is  now  the  south-west  comer  of  Hemp- 
stead and  Broad  Streets.  Tliis  spot  was  then  the  north-east  comer  of 
an  ecclesiastical  reservation  ;  the  street  mnning  west  had  not  been 
opened  beyond  this  point,  and  the  school-house  stood  at  the  head  of 
it.  When  the  lot  was  sold  in  1738,  the  deed  expressly  mentions  that 
it  took  in  the  site  of  the  old  school-house.  To  this  school  it  is  under- 
stood that  girls  were  not  admitted  promiscuously  with  boys  :  but  at- 
tended by  themselves  on  certain  days  of  the  week,  an  hour  at  a  time, 
at  the  close  of  the  boys'  school,  for  the  purpose  of  learning  to  write. 

**  Oct.  1,  1716.  Voted  that  Mr.  Jeremiah  Miller  is  well  accepted  and  ap- 
proved as  our  School- master." 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 


399 


Mr.  Miller  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1709.  He  was  engaged 
as  principal  of  the  grammar-school  in  New  London,  in  1714,  and 
continued  in  that  situation  for  twelve  or  fifteen  years.  After  this  we 
find  the  following  masters  mentioned  before  1750 : 

Mr.  Cole,  in  1733.  Jeremiah  Chapman,  1738. 

Allan  MuUins,  1734.  Thaddeus  Belts,  1740. 

Nicholas  Hallam,  1735.  Jonathan  Copp,  1747. 

The  designation,  "  Bartlet  School,"  was  not  used  until  a  very  re- 
cent period.  During  the  whole  of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  had  no 
name  but  "  New  London  Grammar  SchooL" 

"  In  town  meeting  March  5,  1721-2. 

"  Whereas  the  town  by  the  settlement  thereof  doth  in  great  part  consist  of 
farmers  which,  many  of  them  are  not  able  to  go  through  the  charges  of  keeping 
their  children  to  school  in  the  town  plot : — And  whereas  the  school  in  the  town 
plot  hath  been  a  very  considerable  charge,  being  a  Grammar  school,  so  that  the 
town  hath  not  been  so  well  able  to  maintain  two  schools : — but  whereas  now 
Providence  hath  so  ordered  that  we  have  got  our  600  acres  of  school  land  set- 
tled, which  was  given  by  the  country  to  the  grammar  school,  which  if  sold 
with  the  interest  of  that  money  and  the  interest  of  the  money  left  by  Mr.  Bart- 
lett  to  our  school,  which  sd  Bartlett  did  desire  that  the  estate  left  by  him  might 
be  improved  for  the  help  of  the  learning  of  children  that  their  parents  was  not 
well  able  to  learn  them,  and  this  town  considering  the  great  necessity  of  educa- 
tion to  children,  both  for  the- advantage  of  their  future  state  and  towards  their 
comfortable  subsistence  in  the  world,  and  being  satisfied  that  if  the  school  land 
were  sold,  we  may  set  up  a  school  or  schools  among  our  farmers,  doth  appoint 
the  deputies  of  the  town  to  make  application  in  the  name  and  behalf  of  the 
town  to  the  General  Assembly  in  May  next,  that  they  would  be  pleased  to  grant 
this  town  liberty  to  appoint  trustees  of  the  school,  who  may  have  power  to  sell 
the  land,  and  let  the  money  upon  interest  for  the  use  aforesaid.** 

This  application  to  the  Legislature  failed  of  success.  A  school 
was  nevertheless  commenced  in  the  North  Parish,  and  a  rate  appro- 
priated for  its  support.  It  produced,  however,  great  strife  and  con- 
tention ;  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  plot  set  their  faces  like  flint 
against  paying  taxes  for  the  support  of  schools  among  the  farmers. 
The  town  was  reduced  to  a  dilemma,  and  repeated  'their  petition  to 
the  Assembly  for  liberty  to  sell  the  school  land.  They  expressed  an 
earnest  desire  that  the  children  of  the  town  should  be  taught  "  read- 
ing and  other  learning,  and  to  know  their  duty  toward  Grod  and  man," 
for  the  furtherance  of  which  ends  they  had  '^settled  another  school 
in  the  remote  part  of  the  town,  which  goeth  on  with  good  success," 
but  which,  they  say,  can  not  be  kept  up  and  the  peace  of  the  town 
preserved,  unless  the  land  is  sold.     This  petition  was  granted.    The 


400  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

600  acres  had  been  laid  ont  in  the  North  Parish,  on  the  borders  of 
Lyme.  It  was  purchased  bj  Mrs.  Mercj  Raymond  and  Mr.  John 
Merritt.  The  school  money  Reived  horn  the  fond  now  established, 
was  in  1725,  £120.  The  town  decided  that  one-half  shoald  be  re- 
served for  the  grammar-school,  in  the  town  plot,  and  the  remainder 
divided  among  the  quarter,  or  circulating  schools,  established  in  dif- 
ferent districts. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  the  people  of  the  North  Parish,  aided  by 
their  proportion  of  the  fund,  established  a  grammar-school  in  their 
district.  Mr.  Allan  MuUins  was  engaged  as  the  principal  for  ei^t 
years,  "  to  teach  reading,  writing,  grammar  and  arithmetic."  His 
salary  was  £25  per  cmnum,  with  a  gift  of  ten  acres  of  land  in  fee,  for- 
ever. At  the  expiration  of  his  engagement  in  1734,  he  took  the 
grammar-school  in  the  town  plot,  which  paid  a  salary  of  £20  per 
quarter. 

The  committee  chosen  to  organize  a  regular  system  of  schools  for 
the  town,  took  unwearied  pains  to  arrange  them  in  a  just  and  equal 
manner,  that  not  a  single  family  should  be  left  out  of  the  calculation, 
and  all  parties  might  be  conciliated.  They  were  not  able  to  accom- 
plish their  designs.  In  1726,  the  quarters  were  in*  a  state  of  great 
excitement.  The  special  cause  of  disturbance  does  not  appear ;  but 
in  the  main  it  was  a  struggle  on  the  part  of  the  farming  districts  to 
obtain  an  equal  participation  in  the  Bartlet  and  other  school  moneys. 

A  town  meeting  was  summoned  June  27th,  by  Capt.  Rogers,  the 
first  townsman,  but  his  colleagues  not  concurring  in  it,  the  measure 
was  illegal.  Hempstead  observes :  "  The  farmers  universally  were 
there,  in  order  to  gain  a  vote  to  their  mind  about  the  schools,  but  lost 
their  labor." 

The  annual  town  meeting  for  the  choice  of  officers  was  held  De- 
cember 26th,  and  the  diarist  records,  "The  farmers  came  in  roundly, 
and  the  town  mustered  as  well  to  match  them,  and  a  great  strife  and 
hot  words,  but  no  legal  choice."  The  only  entry  concerning  the  meet- 
ing, on  the  town  book,  was  this  : 

**  Capt.  Jnmes  Rogers  chosen  first  townsman  ;  this  meeting  adjourned  till  to- 
morrow at  twelve  o'clock." 

Capt  Rogers  was  the  farmers'  candidate ;  he  then  owned  and  oc- 
cupied what  was  afterward  known  as  the  Tabor  farm,  on  the  Great 
Neck.  The  adjourned  meeting,  December  27th,  opened  under  threat- 
ening auspices ;  each  party  turned  out  in  greater  numbers  than  be- 
fore ;  150  voters  were  present.     The  record  says : 


HISTORY   OP   NEW   LONDON.  401 

"  "Wliereas  yesterday  there  was  a  misunderstanding  in  the  choice  of  the  first 
townsman,  Capt.  Rogers  being  then  chose  and  entered,  he  for  the  peace  and 
health  of  the  town  relinquishes  that  choice. 

«*  Capt.  Christophers  chosen  first  townsman. 

**  Capt.  Joshua  Hempstead,  second. 

**  Capt.  James  Rogers,  third,'*  &c. 

Mr.  Hempstead  writes  in  his  diary  on  the  evening  after  the  above 
stormy  session : 

**  I  went  with  Mr.  Douglas  to  see  Capt.  Rogers,  who  sent  for  us  to  ask  our 
forgiveness  in  any  thing  that  he  had  spoken  that  might  offend  us ;  we  forgave 
him  and  he  forgave  us." 

Happy  mode  of  terminating  an  angry  controversy  I 
The  two  committees  for  the  Bartlet  fund  and  the  common  school 
fund,  were  for  a  time  distinct  In  1733,  all  the  original  Bartlet 
feoffees  were  dead,  and  the  Assembly  having  designated  their  heirs  as 
successors,  Mr.  Plumbe,  the  heir  of  the  last  survivor,  refused  to  de- 
liver up  the  papers  to  the  town.  This  diflBculty  was  referred  to  the 
legislature,  who  united  the  two  funds,  and  gave  the  charge  to  a  new 
committee,  who  like  the  former  were  to  hold  the  office  during  life,  but 
all  vacancies  w€re  to  be  filled  by  the  town. 

This  arrangement  seemed  to  work  well,  and  was  continued  for 
many  years ;  but  in  later  times  the  Bartlet  or  grammar-school  com- 
mittee, like  that  for  the  common  school,  haa  been  annually  appointed. 
The  fund  in  modem  days  has  never  yielded  a  sufficient  sum  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  school.  Time  has  diminished  instead  of  increas- 
ing the  amount. 


Ferries. 

In  town  meeting  February  26th,  1701-2. 

"  Voted  with  full  consent  that  ye  ferry  over  the  Great  River  which  was  for- 
merly leased  to  Mr.  Gary  Latham  deceased,  his  hcires  and  nsigns,  with  the 
ferry  lott  and  house  belonging  thereunto,  shall  afler  the  expiration  of  the  afore- 
said lease,  wch  will  be  the  23th  of  March,  in  the  year  1705,  for  ever  belong  to 
a  grammar  school,  wch  shall  be  kept  in  this  (own,  and  the  rents  thereof  be 
yearly  payd  to  the  master  of  sd  school,  in  part  of  his  yearly  sallery.  Provided 
nevertheless,  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  town,  on  Lord's  days,  thanksgiving 
days,  days  of  humiliation  and  town  meeting  days,  shall  be  ferriage  free,  that  is, 
such  as  shall  cross  the  ferry  to  attend  publiquo  worship  or  town  meetings  on 
such  days." 

The  above  judicious  enactment  has  never  been  molested ;  the  rent 
of  the  ferry  still  belongs  to  the  public  granunar-school  of  the  town. 
34* 


404  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

Brook,"  in  the  year  1712.  This  also  is  a  romantic  spot;  the  current 
flows  into  a  quiet,  shaded  basin,  which  is  used  for  a  baptismal  font,  by 
the  religious  society  located  in  its  neighborhood. 

The  first  fulling-mill  was  established  by  Peter  Hackley,  in  1693, 
on  Nahantick  River,  "  below  the  highway,  where  the  fresh  stream  falls 
into  the  salt  water."  About  the  same  period,  John  Prentis  erected 
a  saw-mill  at  Nahantick. 

The  saw-mills  of  Grovemor  Winthrop  have  been  heretofore  noticed. 
In  1691,  Fitz-John  Winthrop  established  one  near  Long  Cove,  on  the 
east  side  of  the  river.  In  1713,  the  town  granted  to  "  Lt  ColL  John 
Livingston,  of  N.  L.,  what  right  they  have  to  Saw-mill  Brook,  to 
erect  a  saw-mill  and  fulling-mill  thereon."  Major  Wait  Winthrop 
sent  in  a  protest,  which  the  town  declared  to  be  null  and  void,  and 
refused  to  have  it  recorded.  The  same  year  Samuel  Waller  and  his 
son  Samuel,  were  allowed  to  erect  a  saw-mill  on  the  stream  which 
runs  from  Lake's  Pond  to  Nahantick  River. 

In  1719,  half  an  acre  of  land  on  Town  Hill,  was  set  apart  for  the 
erection  of  a  wind-milL  This  was  just  west  of  the  Harris  house.  In 
1726,  Capt.  James  Rogers  erected  a  wind-mill  on  this  spot. 

In  1721,  Joseph  Smith  obtained  liberty  to  erect  fulling  and  grist- 
mills at  Upper  Alewife  Cove.  From  him  and  his  family  this  locality 
obtained  the  appellation  of  Smith's  Cove.  George  Richards,  the 
same  year,  erected  a  saw-mill  on  Alewife  Brook.  These  were  the 
earliest  mill-seats  of  the  town. 


Wolves, 

**  Mumorandutn  :  that  upon  Monday  the  lOthday  of  January,  1709-10,  being 
a  very  cold  day,  upon  the  report  of  a  kennel  of  wolves,  mortal  enemies  to  our 
sheep  and  all  our  other  creatures,  was  lodged  and  lay  in  ambufcade  in  the 
Cedar  Swamp,  waiting  there  lor  an  opportunity  to  devour  the  harmless  sheep; 
upon  information  whereof,  about  thirty  of  our  valiant  men,  well  disciplined  in 
arms  and  spetial  conduct,  assembled  themselves  and  with  great  courage  beset 
and  surrounded  the  enemies  in  the  said  swamp,  and  shot  down  three  of  the 
brutish  enemies,  and  brought  their  heads  through  the  town  in  great  triumph.** 

**  The  same  day  a  wolfe  in  sheepe's  cloathing  designed  to  throw  an  inocent 
man  into  the  frozen  water,  where  he  might  have  perished,  but  was  timely  pre- 
vented, and  the  person  at  that  time  delivered  frome  that  danger."  i 

As  the  subject  of  wolves  is  thus  again  introduced,  we  may  observe 
that  at  this  period  and  for  thirty  years  afterward,  a  wolf-hunt  was  a 

1 . — . 

1  New  London  records,  book  4,  Uiserted  on  a  blank  leaf  of  the  index,  by  D.  Weth- 
erell,  clerk. 


HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON.  405 

customary  autumnal  sport.  From  ten  to  fortj  persons  usually  en- 
gs^ed  in  it,  who  surrounded  and  beat  up  some  swamp  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. Mill-pond  Swamp  and  Cedar  Swamp  were  frequently 
scoured  for  wolves,  in  November  or  the  latter  part  of  October. 
George,  son  of  John  Richards,  had  a  bounty  of  £11  for  wolves  killed 
during  the  year  1717.  These  were  probably  insnared.  The  bounty 
had  been  raised  to  twenty  shillings  per  head.  The  bounty  for  killing 
a  wild-cat  was  three  shillings. 

It  was  not  till  1714  that  any  enactment  was  made  to  encourage  the 
killing  of  foxes.  At  that  time  a  bounty  was  offered  of  three  shillings 
for  a  grown  fox ;  with  whelps,  four  shillings ;  a  whelp,  one  shilling. 


The  Great  Snow  of  February,  1716-17,  is  famous  in  the  annals 
of  New  England.  It  commenced  snowing  with  wind  north-east,  on 
the  twentieth  of  February,  and  continued  all  night :  the  snow  was 
knee-deep  in  the  morning.  There  was  no  cessation  of  the  storm 
during  the  day  and  a  part  of  the  next  night ;  the  wind  all  the  time 
blowing  furiously,  and  the  drifts  in  some  places  ten  and  twelve  feet 
high.  Friday,  22d,  was  a  fair  day,  with  the  wind  north-west,  blow- 
ing hard  and  the  weather  very  cold.  A  few  people,  here  and  there, 
began  to  break  through  the  drifts  and  visit  their  neighbors.  The  2dd 
was  more  moderate.  On  Sunday,  24th,  was  another  fall  of  snow ; 
very  windy  and  cold,  wind  north-east.  No  meeting.  Many  horses 
and  cattle  found  dead.  After  this,  the  weather  was,  for  three  days, 
fair  and  moderate.  On  the  29th,  was  another  snow  of  several  hours' 
duration,  and  on  the  2d  of  March,  rain  and  snow.' 

On  Sunday,  March  Sd,  Mr.  Adams  resumed  the  service  at  the 
meeting-house,  and  preached  a  sermon  from  that  passage  of  Nahum, 
which  says,  "  The  Lord  hath  his  way  in  the  whirlwind  and  in  the 
stormy  and  the  clouds  are  the  dust  of  his  feet.**  The  audience  is  char- 
acterized, in  the  diary  of  Mr.  Hempstead,  as  "  a  thin  appearance." 
The  sermon,  however,  was  sent  forth  to  preach  more  extensively, 
being  printed  by  Mr.  Green,  with  the  title, 

**  A  Discourse  Occasioned  by  tlie  late  Distressing  Storm  Which  began  Feb. 
20,  1716,  17.  As  it  was  deliver'd  March  3d,  171C-7.  By  Eliphalet  Adams, 
A.  M.,  Pastor  of  the  Church  in  New  London." 

At  the  time  of  the  great  snow,  the  acyoumed  county  court  was  sit- 
1  These  notices  of  the  weather  from  day  to  day,  are  from  Hempstead's  joumaL 


406  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

ting  in  New  London,  cmd  was  for  several  days  interrupted  bj  the 
storm.     The  session  was  held  in  the  Plumb  house,  (State  Street.) 


The  Moving  Roch  In  the  New  England  Weekly  Journal^  printed 
at  Boston,  (August  31st,  1736,)  an  account  is  given  of  a  wonderful 
moving  rock,  at  New  London.  As  this  phenomenon  excited  consid- 
erable notice  at  the  time,  it  demands  our  attention,  though  probably 
the  force  of  the  tide  is  sufficient  to  account  for  the  wonderful  part  of 
the  story. 

**  A  Rock  ten  feet  long  and  six  through,  judged  to  weigh  20,000  pounds,  had 
lain  many  years  at  the  water's  edge  at  New  London  :  it  is  lately  removed,  (how, 
no  one  knows,)  about  twenty-five  feet  on  rising  ground ;  and  water  fills  the 
hole  where  the  rock  used  to  be." 

The  rock  here  mentioned  was  not  in  the  town  plot,  but  three  or 
four  miles  distant,  at  Poquyogh,  or  Jordan  Cove.  It  was  supposed 
to  have  been  removed  in  the  spring,  as  when  first  observed,  the  rock- 
weed  upon  it  was  green,  but  soon  dried  up.  It  had  evidently  been 
forced  up  a  ledge,  the  attrition  of  the  stone  marking  its  course,  and 
was  lodged  on  the  platform  above.  In  September  of  the  same  year, 
it  was  found  to  have  been  moved  four  and  a  half  feet  farther  on  the 
land,  and  its  position  changed.  In  May,  1737,  it  was  found  a  little 
farther  removed.  The  fame  of  the  Moving  Rock  of  Poquyogh  was 
considerably  extended,  and  numbers  of  curious  persons  went  to  see 
it.  Some  attributed  the  phenomenon  to  thunder,  others  to  an  earth- 
quake, or  to  an  uncommon  tide,  or  to  an  agency  wholly  supernatural, 
according  to  each  one's  fancy  or  judgment. 


Amttsements.  The  choice  of  military  officers  was  always  accom- 
panied with  a  feast,  or  treat,  given  to  the  company  by  the  successful 
candidate.  Thus — Edward  Hallam,  chosen  clerk  of  the  company, 
(1715,)  distributed  cakes  and  gave  them  a  barrel  of  cider  to  drink. 
A  captain,  chosen  to  office,  might  perhaps  give  a  bushel  of  cakes  and 
a  gallon  of  rum.  An  appointment  to  a  civil  office  was  often  celebra- 
ted by  a  festival.  Daniel  Hubbard,  appointed  sheriff  of  the  county, 
opened  his  house  for  the  reception  of  guests,  at  an  evening  entertain- 
ment, July  28th,  1735. 

On  training  days,  shooting  at  a  mark  was  a  customary  sport  The 
prizes  were  usually  given  by  some  of  the  wealthier  citizens,  and  were 
generally  of  small  value,  from  five  to  twenty  shillings.    A  silk  hand- 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  407 

kerchief  was  a  common  prize ;  a  pair  of  shoe-buckles  an  uncommon 
one.  Sometimes  a  sum  of  money  was  clubbed  by  the  company,  to  be 
won.  Shooting  at  a  mark  was  also  one  of  the  customary  Thanksgiv- 
ing sports.  But  the  prize  in  this  case  was  generally  a  goose  or  a 
turkey. 

The  Thanksgiving  festival  was  kept  very  much  in  the  same  way 
as  in  other  parts  of  New  England.  Its  predominant  feature  was 
feasting,  and  without  the  adjuncts  of  the  roast-turkey  and  pumpkin- 
pie,  would  scarcely  have  been  recognized  as  genuine.  The  supply  of 
these  articles  at  New  London,  appears  to  have  been  always  equal  to- 
the  emergency ;  at  least  there  is  no  account  on  record  of  an  omission 
or  delay  of  the  festival,  through  any  deficiency  of  the  stores.  Col- 
chester, one  of  the  younger  sisters  of  New  London,  has  been  less  for- 
tunate. In  the  year  1705,  that  town,  assuming  a  discretionary  power, 
which  they  doubtless  thought  the  extremity  of  the  case  justified, 
voted  to  put  off  Thanksgiving,  which  had  been  appointed  for  the  first 
Thursday  in  November,  till  Jiie  second  Thursday  of  the  month,  be- 
cause, says  the  record,  "  our  present  circumstances  are  such  that  it 
cannot  with  conveniency  be  attended  on  that  day."*  The  tnconven-- 
tencffy  according  to  tradition,  was  a  deficiency  of  molasses,  so  indis- 
pensably necessary  to  perfect  the  flavor  of  the  pumpkin.  The  town 
meeting  which  passed  the  vote,  was  held  Oct.  29th,  and  before  the 
second  Thursday  of  November,  there  was  a  reasonable  expectation 
that  a  supply  could  be  obtained. 

Horse-races  were  not  common,  but  sometimes  took  place.  Here 
follows  a  notice  of  one : 

**  30  March  1725.  A  horse-racing  to-day  at  Champlin*s,  (near  Rope  Ferry.) 
Five  horses  ran  at  once.  Each  paid  down  40  shillingft  and  he  that  outrun  re- 
ceived the  JC20  from  Major  Buor.     One  Bly  carried  oif  the  money."* 

Raisings  were  seasons  of  feasting  and  festivity.  A  dinner  or  sup- 
per usually  followed.  At  the  raising  of  Mr.  Curtiss*  house,  Aug. 
13th,  1734,  twenty-five  were  invited  to  a  supper  at  the  tavern:  they 
were  all  ReformadoeSy  u  e,,  belonging  to  a  club  of  that  name. 

In  the  following  extract,  there  is  an  allusion  to  the  raising  of  the 
steeple  of  the  old  Episcopal  church,  that  stood  on  the  Parade  : 

"  1735.  Sept.  3. — Last  night  about  one  or  two  o'clock  the  new  Snow  built 
by  John  Colt  Jr.  for  Benjamin  and  Isaac  Ledyard,  Capt.  Broadhurst  of  Great 
Britain  Commander,  burthen  about  120  tons,  ready  to  sail,  look  fire,  no  man 

1  Colchester  Town  Records.  3  Hempstead. 


408  HtSTOAT   OF   NEW   LONDON* 

being  on  board  and  burnt  down  to  her  bottom,  and  consumed  all  the  masts  or 
i^igK^ug  and  sails*  and  loading  except  some  small  matters  in  the  bottom  and 
heavy  timber,  and  drove  ashore  on  Douglas  Beach.  It  is  supposed  to  be  wil- 
fully done,  the  Captain  having  sent  the  men  on  shore  in  the  day  time  to  help 
raising  the  lop  of  the  steeple  of  the  Church.  They  were  all  scattered  abroad, 
some  in  one  place,  and  some  in  another.  They  suspect  the  Captain  to  be 
guilty  and  have  put  him  to  prison."^ 

A  few  notices  of  weddings,  public  rejoicings  and  shows,  may  be 
allowed  as  illustrative  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  period : 

April  17th,  1729.  A  lion  was  brought  to  town  in  a  wagon  drawn 
by  four  oxen.  It  came  by  way  of  Lyme  and  Saybrook,  and  had  been 
all  winter  traveling  through  the  western  towns.  The  preceding  au- 
tumn it  had  visited  Long  Island,  New  York,  the  Jerseys  and  Albany. 
It  was  several  days  in  New  London,  and  was  lodged  in  Madam  Win- 
throp's  stable,  (Bank  Street) 

April  13th,  1732.  A  great  entertainment  was  made  at  Madam 
Wintlirop's,  on  occasion  of  the  marriage  of  Samuel  Browne,  of  Sa- 
lem, and  Katherine  Winthrop,  which  fbok  place  a  fortnight  previ- 
ous, but  was  that  day  first  made  public.  Mr.  Hempstead  says,  "  I 
was  invited,  and  presented  with  a  pair  of  gloves."  Matthew  Stew- 
art, of  New  London,  was  married  at  Narragansett,  Oct  19th,  1735, 
to  the  daughter  of  William  Grardiner.  On  his  return  home  with  his 
bride,  he  gave  an  entertainment,  which  surpassed  in  stunptuousness 
any  thing  before  exhibited  in  the  place. 

July  2d,  1736,  the  inhabitants  manifested  their  joy  at  the  marriage 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales  with  a  Protestant  princess,  by  a  public  cele- 
bration of  more  than  common  note.  The  military  officers,  with  some 
soldiers  and  music,  were  out  on  the  occasion.  Hempstead's  account 
says : 

*•  We  had  a  barrel  of  powder  out  of  our  town  stock  by  order  of  the  select 
men,  and  fired  seven  cannon  and  chambers,  three  rounds  at  the  ibrt,  and  three 
volHes  of  small  arms,  and  marched  up  to  the  Town  House  anddrank  the  Prince 
and  Princesses  healths.  Old  Mr.  Gard'ner  being  in  town  gave  us  a  di6  bill  to 
be  drunk  out  there  and  then  we  went  to  George  Richards'  and  supped  and 
drank  wine  till  ten  o'clock  upon  Club." 

"  March  1,  1737-8.  Last  night  a  great  number  of  Sky  Rockets  were  fired 
off  from  the  roof  of  Durfey's  house  [in  Bradley  Street,]  in  honor  to  Queen  Caro- 
line's birth,  and  the  sad  news  of  her  death  is  come  this  day  by  the  post  from 
New  York."    Hempstead. 


1  Hempstead.  From  probate  papers  on  file,  we  learn  that  this  English  captain 
was  suffered  to  break  prison  and  decamp:  his  books,  bed  and  clotiies  were  sold  at  ao 
outcry,  to  discharge  his  debts. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  409 

The  following  account  of  an  excursion  for  pleasure,  is  sketched 
from  minutes  in  Hempstead's  diar7, 1789.  On  the  third  of  October, 
Madam  Winthrop,  wife  of  John  Winthrop,  who  was  then  in  England, 
her  son  John,  and  daughter  Ann,  C!ol.  Saltonstall  and  wife  and  two 
children,  CoL  Browne,  of  Salem,  with  his  wife  and  child,  and  Mr- 
Joshua  Hempstead,  went  on  a  visit  to  Fisher's  Island,  which  was  then 
leased  to  George  Mumford.  The  whole  party  crossed  with  Mr. 
Mumford  in  his  sail-boat,  and  remained  four  days  on  the  island,  nobly 
entertained  by  the  Mumford  family.  The  first  day  was  diversified 
with  an  excursion  to  the  east  end  of  the  island ;  the  second  day  a 
fierce  storm  confined  them  to  the  house ;  on  the  third,  they  had  a 
morning  drive  to  the  west  end,  and  a  visit  to  the  woods  ;  in  the  after- 
noon a  famous  deer  hunt  Saltonstall  brought  down  a  doe,  and  Mum- 
ford two  bucks,  one  of  which  was  immediately  dispatched  by  a  car- 
rier to  Mr.  Wanton,  of  Newport,  as  a  present  from  the  party.  On  the 
7th  of  October  they  started  for  home  at  nine  in  the  morning,  but  got 
becalmed ;  the  fiood  failed  them,  and  they  ran  into  Mystic.  Landing 
near  the  house  of  Mr.  Burrows,  all  walked  from  thence  to  John  "Wal- 
worth's, where  they  obtained  horses,  and  reached  home  in  the 
evening. 

Memoranda  in  Chronological  Order, 

In  May,  1724,  Richard  Rogers  of  New  London,  stated  to  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  that  he  had  eight  looms  in  operation  for  making  dtick 
or  canvas,  and  had  expended  £140.  Again,  in  October,  1725,  he 
stated  that  he  had  expended  £250.  The  court  granted  him  the  sole 
right  of  making  duck  or  canvas  in  the  colony  for  ten  years. 

April  24th,  1733.  This  was  the  day  of  election,  or  of  freemen's 
meeting.  Thirty  new  freemen  were  admitted,  and  one  hundred  and 
forty  voters  present     This  was  considered  a  great  assembly. 

July  21st,  1733.  The  commissioners  appointed  by  Boston  and 
Rhode  Island  to  settle  the  line  east  of  Pawtucket  River,  met  at  the 
court-house  in  New  London,  viz..  Col.  Hicks  of  Hempstead,  Col. 
Morris  of  Westchester,  and  Mr.  Jackson  of  Jamaica,  in  the  colony  of 
New  York  ;  Roger  Wolcott  and  James  Wadsworth,  Esqrs.,  and  Mr. 
Joseph  Fowler  of  this  colony,  with  divers  gentlemen  of  Boston  and 
Rhode  Island  to  assist . 

Sept  10th,  1734.     Ten  negro  slaves  taken  to  prison  for  being  out 
unseasonably  in  a  frolic  at  old  Wright's :  three  tfiat  went  without 
leave  were  whipped ;   seven  that  had  leave,  were  dismissed  on  pay- 
ment of  their  part  of  the  fine,  5s.  3d*  each. 
35 


410  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

Nov.  28th,  1784.  A  white  man  and  Indian  fined  for  killing  deer 
at  Fisher's  Island. 

In  1735,  Solomon  Coit  of  New  London,  in  a  petition  to  the  Gen- 
eral Court,  stated  that  he  was  the  only  person  in  the  colony  who  had 
works  for  distilling  molasses. 

**  March  3,  (1736-7,)  News  of  the  death  of  Capt.  John  Mason  of  New  Lon- 
don is  come  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  Winthrop  by  Capt.  Walker,  who  wrote  on  the 
25th  of  Decs  that  he  died  the  last  Sunday,  in  Lumbert  St.  of  the  Small  Pox. 
Young  Mahomet  died  there  also  of  small  pox  last  summer."     (Hempstead.) 

Capt.  Mason,  mentioned  above,  had  resided  long  among  the  Mo- 
hegans,  and  had  been  at  various  times  their  school-master,  agent,  over- 
seer and  guardian.  After  the  death  of  Cesar,  in  1723,  the  tribe  was 
divided  in  regard  to  the  sachemdom.  One  party,  supported  by  the 
colonial  government,  was  in  favor  of  Ben-Uncas,  the  uncle  of  Cesar ; 
the  other,  encouraged  by  Mason,  declared  Mahomet,  a  grandson  of 
Owaneco,  the  rightful  heir.  Ben-Uncas  having  prevailed,  Mason 
took  the  younger  sachem  to  England,  to  obtain  the  recognition  of  his 
rights,  where  they  both  died.     , 

**  April  30. — A  sad  riot  in  town ;  a  great  deal  of  fighting  between  the  grand- 
jurymen,  Shackmaple,  Durfey,  Keith  and  others."    (Hempstead.) 

Jan.  3,  1788.  This  day  was  sold  in  New  London,  the  township  of 
western  lands  which  had  been  assigned  to  this  county.  It  was  divi- 
ded into  fifty  lots,  which  were  sold  off  at  prices  varying  from  £132 
to  £157. 

May  3d,  1738.  Katherine  Garrett,  commonly  called  Indian  Kate, 
was  executed  on  Town  HUl,  for  the  murder  of  her  infant  child.  The 
deed  had  been  committed  at  Saybrook,  about  six  months  previous, 
but  she  had  been  brought  to  New  London  for  confinement  and  trial, 
and  the  execution  was  ordered  to  be  here  also.  The  sermon  of  Mr. 
Adams,  on  the  occasion,  was  published.  Katherine  was  a  Pequot  of 
the  North  Stonington  reservation,  twenty-seven  years  of  age;  she  had 
been  brought  up  at  Saybrook,  and  well  instructed.  This  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  first  execution  in  New  London. 

Capt.  Nathaniel  Coit  was  a  noted  ship-master  of  New  London 
employed  for  a  number  of  years  in  the  Irish  trade.  The  following 
account  of  the  loss  of  his  vessel,  near  Cork,  is  from  an  English 
newspaper.  •• 

Jan.  6th,  1740.  •*  The  Dolphin  of  New  England,  Nathaniel  Coit  master, 
from  Cork,  is  wrecked  on  a  great  rock  called  tlie  Roane  Cariggs  on  the  Bay  of 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON*  411 

Bantry,  about  four  leagues  from  town.  The  vessel  was  staved  to  pieces,  and  a 
passenger  drowned,  but  the  Capl.  and  crew,  who  were  six  in  number,  got  up- 
on the  rock.  The  bad  weather  continuing,  no  body  would  venture  to  save 
them,  but  nine  brothers,  sons  of  Morten  Sulivan  of  Beerhoven,  who  after  ob- 
taining their  father's  leave  and  blessing,  boldly  ventured  forth  and  brought  the 
Captain  and  sailors  ashore." 

One  of  the  seasons  noted  in  the  annals  of  New  England  for  intense 
cold  was  the  winter  of  1740-41.  The  extreme  severity  of  the 
weather  at  New  London  commenced  with  a  violent  snow-storm  at 
Christmas.  By  the  7th  of  January,  the  river  was  frozen  over  be- 
tween Groton  and  Winthrop's  Neck ;  and  the  intense  cold  continued 
without  interruption  from  that  time  to  the  middle  of  March.  The 
ice  extended  into  the  Sound  toward  Long  Island  as  far  as  could  be 
seen  from  the  town ;  Fisher's  Island  was  united  to  the  main  land  by 
a  solid  bed.  On  the  14th  of  February  a  tent  was  erected  midway 
in  the  river  between  New  London  and  Groton,  where  an  entertain- 
ment was  provided.  A  beaten  path  crossed  daily  by  hundreds  of 
people  extended  from  the  Fort  (now  Ferry  wharf)  to  Groton,  which 
was  considered  safe  for  any  burden  till  after  the  12th  of  March,  at 
which  time  the  river  was  open  to  the  ferry,  but  fast  above.  People 
continued  to  cross  on  the  ice  at  Winthrop's  Neck  till  the  24th,  when 
the  river  began  to  break  up.  Ice  in  large  blocks  remained  in  vari- 
ous places  almost  to  midsummer.  At  one  spot  in  Lyme  parties  as- 
sembled to  drink  punch  made  of  ice  that  lay  among  the  ledges,  as 
late  as  July  10th. 

July  Slst,  1742.  A  severe  thunder-storm  in  which  a  son  of  Jona- 
than Lester  of  Groton,  ten  years  of  age,  was  struck  and  killed.  He 
was  near  his  father's  house  at  work  upon  hay,  and  had  two  brothers 
with  him,  one  of  whom  was  slightly  woimded,  the  other  untouched. 

July  2d,  1743.  A  succession  of  thunder-showers.  Two  lads  on 
horseback  near  the  town  on  the  Norwich  road  were  killed,  and  the 
horse  also  on  which  they  rode.  They  were  buried  the  next  day  in 
one  grave.  They  were  each  thirteen  years  of  age,  and  sisters'  chil- 
dren: grandchildren  of  Nathaniel  Beeby,  Senior.  The  house  of 
Samuel  Chapman  (on  the  Cohanzie  road)  was  struck  by  the  same 
bolt  and  much  shivered. 

Oct.  22d,  1747.     Hempstead  writes — 

"  News  came  by  the  post  of  the  death  of  my  good  friend,  John  Winthrop 
Esq.  of  this  town,  in  London  G.  B.  where  he  hath  been  ever  since  1726.  Ho 
sailed  from  hence  in  July,  twenty-one  years  since  ;  was  aged  about  sixty-six." 

The  John  Winthrop  here  mentioned  was  the  son  of  Wait-Still 


412  HISTORY    OP   NBW    LONDOIY. 

Winthrop/  and  born  in  N«w  LoiMb»Aug.  6th,  1681.  His  death  is 
said  by  other  authorities  to  have  taken  place  at  Sydenham  in  Kent, 
Aug.  Ist,  1747. 

This  gentleman  had  succeeded  to  most  of  the  estate  both  of  his 
father  and  his  uncle ;  for  Fitz-John  and  Wait-Still  Winthrop  bad 
never  divided  the  landed  estate  which  they  inherited  from  their  father. 
The  former  having  but  one  child,  Mrs.  Livingston,  and  she  destitute 
of  heirs,  it  seems  to  have  been  understood  between  the  brothers,  that 
the  landed  possessions  should  descend  undiminished  to  John,  the  son 
of  Wait.  This  also  was  the  tenor  of  a  general  deed  executed  by 
Grovemor  Winthrop  in  1700,  and  produced  after  his  death.  A  con- 
siderable amount  of  testimony  was  abo  brought  forward  to  corrobo- 
rate this  instrument.  Among  other  depositions  on  record  at  New 
London,  is  that  of  Joseph  Dudley,  Esq.,  the  father-in-law  of  the 
younger  John  Winthrop,  who  testified, 

**  I  have  near  forty  years  had  a  particular  intimacy  and  friendship  with  the 
Hon.  John  Winthrop,  Esq.,  late  Governor  of  Connecticut  Colony  and  have  oft- 
en heard  him  declare  that  he  would  keep  his  father's  estate  inviolate  and  un- 
broken for  the  heirs  of  the  family, and  the  name  of  his  father; — and  in  the 
summer  of  1707  when  the  present  John  Winthrop  Esq.  offered  an  intermarriage 
with  my  daughter,  the  said  late  Governor  treated  with  me  of  that  marriage  of 
his  nephew ;  he  told  me  he  was  the  best  heir  in  the  Provinces  ;  and  that  all  he 
had,  as  well  as  all  that  his  father  had,  was  for  him,"  &c. 

The  deed  however  could  not  be  proved ;  for  it  had  never  been  re- 
corded ;  Samuel  Mason  before  whom  it  was  ackowledged,  had  de- 
ceased, and  the  witnesses  (Wm.  Thompson  and  Jeremiah  Hooper) 
could  not  be  identified.  Mr.  Winthrop  had  an  only  sister,  married 
to  Thomas  Lechmere,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  who  claimed  an  equal  portion 
of  the  estate.  A  lawsuit  between  the  parties  ensued.  The  case  was 
carried  from  court  to  court  in  Connecticut,  and  decided  in  favor  of 
Lechmere.  Winthrop  appealed  to  the  king  in  council,. and  in  July, 
1726,  went  to  England  to  sustain  his  cause  in  person. 

He  was  favorably  received,  and  succeeded  in  his  case.  A  decree 
of  the  king  in  council,  in  1728,  set  aside  the  decision  of  the  colonial 
court,  and  declared  John  Winthrop  the  sole  heir  of  all  the  landed 
estate  of  his  father  and  uncle,  grounding  this  decision  on  the 
English  law  of  primogeniture.  This  decree  was  regarded  in  Con- 
necticut as  a  public  calamity,  inasmuch  as  it  involved  the  abrogation 
of  the  colonial  law  respecting  intestate  estates,  (which  was  declared 


1  Tnunboll  erroneously  calls  him  (vol.  2,  oh.  4)  son  of  the  last  Qovernor  Win- 
throp; he  was  his  nephew. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  413 

null  and  void)  and  established  the  law  of  England  giving  all  real 
estate  to  the  oldest  son.  Had  this  decision  been  actually  enforced 
we  can  scarcely  conceive  of  any  single  act  that  would  have  caused  a 
greater  amount  of  perplexity,  suffering  and  despair  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  colony.  Families  would  have  been  broken  up,  and  estates 
thrown  into  a  mass  of  confusion.  Happily  the  wise  exertions  of  the 
friends  and  agents  of  the  colony  averted  the  blow.  A  subsequent 
decision  was  obtained  confirming  Winthrop  in  his  possessions,  but 
allowing  the  law  of  inheritance  in  the  colony  to  remain  as  before. 

Mr.  Winthrop  never  returned  to  America.  He  was  disaffected 
with  the  colonial  government,  and  the  course  he  had  taken  rendered 
him  unpopular  at  home,  which  may  account  for  his  long  residence  of 
twenty-one  years  in  England.  His  family  continued  at  New  London 
BXid  in  1741,  his  oldest  son,  John  StiU  "WinthnJp,  went  out  to  him 
and  remained  with  him  till  his  death. 

"  Nov.  25th,  174S.  In  the  eTening  I  went  up  to  Col.  Saltonstaira  to  see  John 
Winthrop  who  this  night  arrived  with  Mrs.  Hide  from  London,  by  the  way  of 
Nantucket  first  and  Rhode  Island  next,  and  Fisher's  Island  last.  Great  joy  to 
his  mother  and  friends.  He  has  been  gone  seven  years  next  February."  (Hejpp- 
stead.) 

35* 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

GroUm  made  a  town. — Account  of  Sir  John  Davie,  its  first  town -clerk  .—Packer'i 
visit  to  the  baronet. — First  three  ministers  of  the  church,  Woodbridge,  Owen 
and  Kirtlaud. — North  society  formed. — Preaching  of  Seabury,  Punderson, 
Croswell  and  Johnson. — ^Baptist  churches. 

The  inhabitants  on  the  east  side  of  the  river,  began  to  ask  for  a 
separate  organization  about  the  year  1700.  They  supposed  them- 
sehres  able  to  stand  alone  and  take  rank  among  the  group  of  towns 
that  were  gathering  in  the  colony. 

There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  the  parting  of  New  London 
from  her  friend  and  associate  was  otherwise  than  amicable.  Daugh- 
ter she  could  scarcely  be  called,  being  of  nearly  equal  age,  but  she 
had  been  fostered  like  a  sister  and  was  now  at  her  own  request  to  be 
released  from  watch  and  ward,  and  left  to  her  own  management. 

The  terras  on  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  west  side  consented  that 
those  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  should  be  a  town  of  themselves, 
were  arranged  and  voted,  Feb.  20th,  1704-5,  and  were,  in  substance, 
as  follows : 

**  That  they  pay  their  proportion  of  the  town's  debts ;  that  the  ferry  and 
the  land  and  house  belonging  to  it,  shall  continue  to  belong  to  the  free  school  on 
the  west  side ;  that  all  estate  hitherto  given  to  the  ministry,  or  for  the  sup- 
port of  schools  shall  remain  the  property  of  the  west  side;  that  the  inhabitants 
of  the  west  side  shall  retain  their  right  to  cut  masts  or  timber  in  the  pine 
swamp  near  the  straits  on  the  east  side,  and  the  said  swamp  forever  remain 
common  to  both  sides ;  that  inhabitants  on  either  side,  owning  property  on  the 
other  side  shall  each  retain  their  right  as  proprietors." 

The  same  year  the  Assembly  passed  an  act  incorporating  the  town 
by  the  name  of  Groton.  It  is  probable  that  this  designation  had 
long  been  in  familiar  use ;  it  was  intended  to  commemorate  Groton 
in  Suffolk  where  the  Winthrops  originated,  and  was  probably  first 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  416 

given  by  Winthrop,  or  his  sons,  to  the  large  family  possessions  on 
Poquonock  Creek  and  Bay. 

The  separation  was  almost  a  split  through  the  center  in  point  of 
dimensions.  The  part  cut  off  contained  upward  of  seventy-two 
square  miles :  the  greatest  length  from  Groton  Long  Point  to  Poque- 
tannock  is  fourteen  miles ;  the  breadth  from  six  to  seven  and  a  half 
miles.  It  was  then  an  expanse  of  farms,  forests  and  waste  land, 
with  nothing  like  a  hamlet  or  point  of  centralization  in  the  whole  area, 
but  it  is  now  pleasantly  sprinkled  with  villages  and  neighborhoods. 

The  first  town  meeting  held  in  Groton  was  in  December,  1705. 
Samuel  Avery  was  chosen  moderator  and  first  townsman,  and  was 
annually  re-chosen,  until  near  the  period  of  his  death  in  1723.  The 
other  townsmen  were  Samuel  Fish,  Nehemiah  Smith,  Capt.  James 
Morgan  and  Greorge  G^er.  John  Davie,  clerk ;  Jonathan  Starr,  con- 
stable. 

John  Barnard  was  chosen  school-master.^ 

John  Davie,  the  first  town-clerk  in  Groton,  continued  in  office  till 
December,  1707,  when  Nehemiah  Smith  was  chosen  to  succeed  him. 
The  handwriting  of  Davie  was  peculiarly  bold  and  distinct.  He  had 
graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1681,  and  appears  from  the  offices 
to  which  he  was  chosen  to  have  been  a  man  of  activity  and  intelli- 
gence. He  established  himself  in  1698  on  a  farm  at  Poquonuck — 
the  same  that  had  been  first  broken  up  and  cultivated  by  William 
Meades.  We  find  him  a  rate-collector  in  1695;  the  next  year  a 
townsman  or  selectman ;  constable  for  the  east  side  in  1702,  and  re- 
corder of  the  new  town  of  Groton  in  1705. 

A  deed  of  sale  is  recorded  in  New  London,  which  is  in  substance 
as  follows :  "  Sarah  Davie,  relict  widow  of  Humphrey  Davie  some- 
time of  Boston  in  New  England  and  late  of  Hartford  in  New  Eng- 
land aforesaid,  Esq.,  deceased — ^for  and  in  consideration  of  sixty 
pounds  current  money  of  New  England  paid  by  John  Davie  of  New 
London  in  New  England  aforesaid,  yeoman,  son  of  the  i*aid  Hum- 
phrey Davie,  deceased,"  relinquishes  to  him  all  right  and  title  to  a 
certain  piece  of  land  in  Boston,  containing  two  acres  and  a  half — 
"  in  the  present  tenure  and  occupation  of  Mr.  James  Allyne  minister 
in  Boston  aforesaid."     July  3d,  1699. 

This  is  conclusive  testimony  that  John  Davie  of  Groton,  was  son 
of  Humphrey  Davie,  who  died  in  Hartford,  Feb.  18th,  1688-9. 


1 "  Mistrees  Barnard  is  to  be  paid  twenty  shillings  per  ammm  for  sweeping  tiie 
meeting  honse  and  keeping  the  key.**    Groton  Records. 


416  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

Humphrey  was  brother  of  Sir  John  Davie  of  England,  who  was 
created  a  baronet  Sept.  9th,  1641.  To  this  baronetcy,  and  the  estate 
attached  to  it,  John  Davie  of  Groton,  farmer  and  town-clerk,  suc- 
ceeded in  1707.  On  receiving  intelligence  of  his  good  fortune,  he 
settled  his  affairs  in  haste,  leased  out  his  farm,  and  went  to  England 
to  take  possession  of  his  inheritance.'  The  last  time  his  name  is 
mentioned  on  the  Groton  book  previous  to  his  departure,  is  in  the 
record  of  a  gift  of  £6  to  be  laid  out  in  plate,  for  the  communion 
service  of  Mr.  Woodbridge's  church.  He  never  revisited  this  coun- 
try; but  subsequently  sold  his  farm  and  other  lands,  with  his 
cattle,  stock,  and  proprietary  rights,  to  John  Grardiner  of  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  (Gardiner's  Island.)  The  deed  was  given  by  "  Sir  John 
Davie  of  Greedy,  County  of  Devon,  within  the  kingdom  of  England, 
Baronet:"— Aug.  21st,  1722.' 

"  The  children  of  John  Davie*'  are  recorded  in  Groton,  (first 
book,)  in  his  own  hand,  as  follows : 

"  Mary,    bom  June  30th,  1693.  John,  born  July  27th,  1700. 

Sarah,        "      Oct.  2Ut,  1695.  Humphrey,     "     April  12ih,  1702. 

Elizabeth,"     March  17th,  1697-8.    William,        "     March  22d,  1705-6. 
♦♦  These  were  all  born  in  the  town  now  called  Groton." 

The  above-named  children,  with  the  exception  of  the  youngest, 
are  on  the  record  of  baptisms  by  Rev.  Gurdon  Soltonstall,  who  enters 
them  as  children  of  "  Mr.  John  Davids,''*  and  under  date  of  May 
26th,  1695,  notes :  "  Brother  Davids  Indian  Jane  made  a  profession 
of  y*  Christian  faith,  and  taking  hold  of  the  Covenant  was  baptized." 
This  mistake  in  the  name  was  then  common.  The  title  brother  is  not 
here  used  to  designate  merely  church  relationship :  Mr.  Saltonstall 
and  Mr.  Davie  had  married  sisters — daughters  of  James  Richards, 
of  Hartford — which  was,  doubtless,  in  the  first  place  the  moving 
cause  of  Davie's  settlement  and  residence  in  Groton. 

According  to  tradition,  the  unconscious  baronet  was  hoeing  com 


1  Douglas  observes  (Summary,  vol.  2,  p.  184)  that  a  donation  of  boolu  was  made  to 
the  library  of  Yale  College  "  by  Sir  Jolm  Davie  of  Groton  upon  his  recovery  of  the 
family  honors  and  estate  in  England."  The  word  recovery  seems  to  intimate  that  hla 
title  was  -contested. 

2  The  consideration,  £500,  Sir  John  Davie  eyipowered  his  attorney,  Gurdon  Sal- 
tonstall, to  pay  over  in  the  following  manner;  to  wit,  to  Mrs.  Margaret  Franklin  of 
Boston,  £250;  to  Mr.  Daniel  Taylor,  minister  of  the  gospel  at  Newark,  Mrs.  Mary 
Pratt,  and  Mrs.  Mather  of  Saybrook,  each  jC83,  6«.  ScL  These  were  probably  his 
nearest  relatives  in  America,  and  to  them  he  relinquished  his  estate  on  this  side  of 
the  ocean. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  417 

on  his  fknn  when  informed  of  his  accession  to  fortune.  James 
Packer,  one  of  his  neighbors,  was  at  work  with  him,  and  they  were 
at  strife  to  see  which  would  do  the  most  work  in  the  least  time. 
Letters  had  been  s^t  from  England  to  look  up  the  heir  of  the 
Davie  estate  and  application  being  made  to  Mr.  Saltonstall,  he  im- 
mediately dispatched  a  messenger  to  Groton  with  the  tidings.  ^  This 
messenger  arriving  at  the  house,  was  directed  to  the  field ;  and  as  he 
approached  Davie,  who  was  at  work  barefoot,  with  shirt-sleeves  and 
trowsers  rolled  up,  he  inquired  his  name ;  and  on  receiving  an  an- 
swer, struck  him  upon  the  shoulder  and  raising  his  hat  exclaimed, 
"  I  salute  you  Sir  John  Davie." 

James  Packer  had  made  several  voyages,  and  when  Sir  John 
Davie  left  Groton  he  gave  him  a  hearty  invitation,  if  he  should 
ever  find  himself  in  England,  to  come  to  his  estate  in  Devonshire 
and  make  him  a  visit,  assuring  him  that  it  would  always  give  him 
pleasure  to  see  an  old  neighbor  and  hear  from  his  American  home. 
A  few  years  later.  Packer  being  in  England,  took  the  stage-coach 
from  London  and  went  out  to  Sir  John's  estate.  He  arrived  just  as 
the  family  were  sitting  down  to  dinner,  with  a  party  of  the  neigh- 
boring gentry  for  guests.  Sir  John  recognized  his  former  comrade 
at  once ;  received  him  with  open  cordiality ;  introduced  him  to  the 
company  as  an  American  friend ;  and  treated  him  with  marked  at- 
tention. The  next  day  he  carried  him  over  all  his  grounds  and 
showed  him  his  various  accommodations.  Before  parting,  Sir  John 
and  his  lady  had  a  long  and  free  conversation  with  their  visitor,  in 
the  course  of  which  the  baronet  expressed  himself  thus : 

"  You  see  how  I  live.  Packer  :  I  have  an  abundance  of  this  world's  goods, 
and  can  gratify  myself  with  a  continual  succession  of  pleasures,  but  after  all 
I  am  not  so  happy  as  I  was  when  you  and  I  changed  work  at  threshing  and 
we  had  but  one  dish  for  dinner,  and  that  was  com-beans" 


Q^m^n 


2i 


The  ecclesiastical  independence  of  Groton  was  antecedent  to  its 
political  organization.  The  first  arrangement  for  their  accommoda- 
tion on  the  Sabbath,  was  in  1687,  when  it  was  ordered  that  for  the 


418  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

fiiture  they  should  have  liberty  to  invite  the  minister  of  the  town 
to  preach  on  their  side  of  the  river  every  third  Sabbath  during  the 
four  most  inclement  months  of  the  year.  In  1702,  the  town  con- 
sented that  they  should  organize  a  church  and  have  a  minister  of 
their  own,  granting  him  a  salary  of  £70  "per  annum  and  authorizing 
them  to  build  a  meeting-house  thirty-five  feet  square.  The  whole 
was  to  be  accomplished  and  maintained  at  the  joint  expense  of  the 
east  and  west  sides. 

Mr.  Ephraim  Woodbridge  was  ordained  their  first  minister,  Nov. 
8th,  1704.  Of  his  ministry  httle  is  known,  no  church  or  society 
records  of  that  period  being  extant.  He  was  a  son  of  the  Rev. 
John  Woodbridge,  of  Killingworth  and  Wethersfield,  and  grandson 
of  Rev.  John  Woodbridge,  an  ejected  minister  from  Wiltshire,  En- 
gland, who  died  at  Newbury,  Mass.,  in  1G95,  aged  eighty-two. 
Soon  after  his  settlement  he  married  Hannah,  daughter  of  James 
Morgan,  who  was  of  equal  age  with  himself:  both  were  bom  in 
1680.  He  died  Dec.  1st,  .1725.  Dr.  Dudley  Woodbridge,*  of 
Stonington,  and  Paul  Woodbridge,  of  South  Kingston,  R.  L,  were 
his  sons. 

We  might  here  strike  off  the  history  of  Groton,  since  technically 
considered  it  is  no  longer  a  part  of  the  history  of  New  London ; 
but  one  who  has  lingered  long  in  the  vicinity  of  that  granite  town- 
ship and  become  interested  in  its  various  associations,  will  not  be 
willing  to  part  suddenly  from  so  dear  a  friend.  Let  this  serve  as  an 
apology  for  keeping  hold  of  the  historical  thread  of  the  older  Groton 
churches,  and  for  introducing  occasionally  some  matters  that  belong 
rather  to  Groton  than  to  New  London. 

The  second  minister  of  the  first  church  of  Groton,  was  Rev.  John 
Owen.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1723,'  and  was  or- 
dained at  Groton  Nov.  22d,  1727.^  His  first  wife  was  Anna  Mor- 
gan, whom  he  married  Nov.  25th,  1730.  His  second  wife  was 
Mary,  relict  of  Rev.  James  HiUhouse,  of  the  North  Parish  of  New 
London.* 

1  The  name  of  Dudley  in  the  Woodbridge  family  was  derived  from  the  wife  of 
Rev.  John  Woodbridge  of  Wiltshire,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Gov.  Thomas  Dudley, 
of  Massachusetts. 

2  Farmer. 

S  Trumbull. 

4  She  survived  Mr.  Owen  and  married  Rev.  Mr.  Dorrance,  of  Voluntown.  Tradi- 
tion says  that  the  three  husbands  were  all  natives  of  Ireland.  In  the  case  of  Mr. 
Owen  this  is  donbtfhl;  though  he  might  be  of  Irish  extraction. 


HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON.  419 

Mr.  Owen  was  distingaished  for  liberality  of  opinion  toward  those 
who  differed  from  him  in  points  of  doctrine ;  advocating  religious 
toleration  to  an  extent  that  often  exposed  him  to  the  suspicions  of 
his  brethren  and  the  rebukes  of  magistrates.^  A  gravestone  in  the 
ancient  burial-ground  at  Pequonuck,  informs  the  passer-by  that 
"  The  Reverend  and  pioui  Mr.  John  Owen,  the  Second  ordained 
minister  in  Groton,  died  Lrord's  day  morning,  June  14, 1753,  in  ye 
65th  year  of  his  age — 

God^s  faithful  Seer  J' 

The  only  son  of  Mr.  Owen  was  for  many  yeiurs  town-clerk  and 
teacher  of  the  grammar-school  of  New  London. 

Third  minister,  Rev.  Daniel  Kirtland  ;^  installed  Dec  17th,  1755 ; 
dismissed  1758. 

Groton  being  a  large  town,  with  great  inequality  of  surface,  which 
rendered  it  very  inconvenient  for  Sabbath-day  assemblage  in  any  one 
point,  as  soon  as  the  advance  of  population  would  allow,  the  northern 
part,  by  permission  of  the  legislature,  withdrew  and  organized  a 
second  ecclesiastical  society.  The  first  recorded  meeting  of  this 
society  was  held  at  the  house  of  Capt.  John  Morgan,  Jan.  Sd,  1725~6« 
The  first  preacher  to  this  society  was  Mr.  Samuel  Seabury,  then  a 
young  man  just  assuming  {he  sacred  office.  He  was  not  ordained 
or  settled,  and  remained  with  them  only  ten  weeks ;  having  preached 
four  Sabbaths  at  Capt.  John  Morgan's,  four  at  William  Morgan's, 
and  two  at  Ralph  Stoddard's.  At  the  expiration  of  this  term  or  soon 
afterward,  he  declared  himself  a  convert  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church  of  England  and  crossed  the  ocean  to  obtain  Episcopal  ordi- 
nation. He  returned  to  thid  country  commissioned  as  a  resident 
missionary  to  the  Episcopal  church  in  New  London.  Mr.  Seabury 
was  a  native  of  Groton,  bom  July  8th,  1706. 

In  November,  1726,  a  survey  was  made  of  the  parish  of  North 
Groton,  in  order  to  discover  the  exact  center,  which  the  inhabitants 
had  determined  should  be  the  site  of  their  meeting-house.  The 
central  point  was  f<9und  to  be  "  forty  or  ^hy  rods  from  the  south»west 
comer  of  Capt.  John  Morgan's  great  pasture,"  on  land  belonging  to 
Samuel  Newton,  from  whom  it  was  obtained  by  exchange  for  the 
society  training  field.     Until  the  house  should  be  finished  the  preach- 


1  Trumbull,  Backus,  Qreat  Awakening,  &c. 

2  Erroneously  called  Samuel  by  Trumbull.    There  are  some  flight  eiroiB  in  Tram 
bull*8  dates  respecting  Groton  ministers. 


430 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 


ing  places  designated  were  the  houses  of  Capt.  John  Morgan,  Will- 
iam Morgan,  Robert  Alljn  and  Ensign  William  Williams.  The 
warning  posts  of  the  society  where  notices  were  to  be  set  up,  were 
at  Capt.  Morgan's,  Ralph  Stoddard's  and  Sergt.  Robert  Greer's  mill. 
Several  preachers  succeeded  Mr.  Seabury ;  each  engaged  but  for  a 
limited  time.     No  minister  was  settled  undl  1729. 

♦*  In  society  meeting,  Aug.  28th,  1729. 

♦*  Voted  to  call  *Vir.  Ebenezer  Punderson  to  be  our  gospel-preaching  miaister 
and  to  ofler  him  a  settlement  of  jC400  to  be  paid  in  two  years,  and  a  standing 
salary  of  £100." 

"  At  a  session  of  the  General  Assembly  in  New  Haven,  Oct  9th,  1729. 

**  This  Assembly  grants  leave  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  north  society  in  the 
town  of  Groton  to  embody  into  church  estate,  they  first  obtaining  the  consent 
of  their  neighboring  churches/* 

Mr.  Punderson  was  ordained  Dec.  29th,  1729.  Mr.  Adams  of 
New  London  preached  the  sermon.  The  meeting-house,  though 
not  entirely  completed,  was  comfortably  fitted  for  the  ceremony. 

On  the  first  day  of  January,  1733^,  Mr.  Punderson  made  a  com- 
munication to  the  society,  avowing  himself  "  a  conformist  to  the 
Episcopal  church  of  England,"  and  expressing  doubts  of  the  validity 
of  his  ordination.  This  notice  was  received  in  the  first  place  with 
amazement  and  sorrow,  and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  reason 
with  him  and  endeavor  to  convince  him  that  his  ordination  was  canon- 
ical and  his  position  safe  and  desirable.  Of  course  this  measure 
was  unavailing.  A  council  was  convened  at  the  house  of  Capt 
Morgan  Feb.  5th,  and  the  connection  dissolved. 

The  society  after  this  event  was  twq  years  without  any  regular 
preaching.  The  Rev.  Andrew  Croswell,  their  next  minister,  was 
ordained  Oct.  14th,  1736.  The  settlement  offered  him  was  £200 
per  annum  for  the  first  two  years  and  £110  per  annum  afterward. 
The  previous  unhappy  experience  of  the  society  induced  them  to 
add  the  following  condition. 

"  In  case  he  should  withdraw  from  the  established  religion  of  this  govern- 
ment to  any  other  persuasion,  he  shall  return  £200  to  the  society." 

Rev.  Andrew  Croswell  was  ordained  Oct.  14th,  1736.  He  was  a 
man  of  ardent  temperament  and,  like  Mr.  Owen,  deeply  interested 
in  the  Great  Awakening.  The  revival  of  religion  in  1740  and  1741, 
designated  by  that  term,  swept  through  no  part  of  New  England 
with  a  current  more  powerful  than  in  New  London  county.  Lyme, 
New  London,  Groton  and  Stonington  were  in  a  state  of  fervid  ex- 
citement.    Mr.  Croswell  came  out  in  writing  as  the  champion  of 


HISTORY     OP    NEW    LONDON.  421 

Whitefield  and  of  Davenport     He  went  forth,  also,  to  interest  other 
parishes  than  his  own  in  the  new  way  of  presenting  truth.     In  Feb-, 
ruary  and  March,  1742,  he  was  preaching  in  different  towns  in  Massa- 
chusett6,  with  good  success,  but  with  ^Hrregular  zeaL"^ 

In  1746,  Mr.  Croswell  decided  on  leaving  Groton.  Having  made 
known  his  determination,  a  society  meeting  was  called,  which  passed 
the  following  vote : 

"Aug  21st,  174G.  Whereas  Mr.  Croswell  is  determined  to  leave  this  society, 
he  thinking  himself  called  of  God  so  to  do,  which  thing  we  don't  approve  of, 
yet  we  shall  not  oppose  him  therein,  but  leave  him  to  his  own  choice." 

Under  this  Mr.  Croswell  entered  his  resignation. 

**  Groton,  Aug.  2 1st.  Whereas  I  the  subscriber  once  took  the  bharge  of  the 
society  in  North  Groton,  and  they  having  led  it  to  my  choice  to  go  away  if  I 
saw  fit  and  thought  myself  called  so  to  do,  I  now  resign  my  pastoral  office  over 
them,  wishing  them  the  best  of  heavenly  blessings  and  that  the  Most  High 
God,  if  he  pleases,  would  give  them  a  pastor  according  to  their  own  heart. 

"Andrew  Ceoswkll." 

This  was  the  whole  form  of  dismission.  Mr.  Croswell  went  to 
Boston,  and  in  April,  1748,  the  society  voted  that  he  was  dismissed. 
Mr.  Croswell  became  the  first  pastor  of  the  Eleventh  Congregational 
Church  in  Boston,  which  worshiped  in  what  had  been  the  French 
Protestant  church  in  School  Street.  He  was  installed  Oct.  6th, 
1748,  and  continued  in  this  charge  till  his  death,  April  12th,  1785, 
aged  seventy-six. 

Mr.  Jacob  Johnson,  the  third  minister  of  this  society,  was  ordained 
in  June,  1749,  and  remained  with  them  twenty-three  years.  In  Oc- 
tober, 1772,  at  a  society  meeting,  he  asked  for  a  dismission,  and  the 
result  is  recorded  in  two  words,  "  Voted,  dismissed."' 

Other  societies  than  the  Congregational  had  gained  precedence  in 
the  parish.  A  church  of  Separates  had  been  formed,  which  kept  to- 
gether a  few  years  under  Elder  Park  Allyn.  Some  Episcopalians 
and  some  Rogerenes  were  within  their  limits.  In  1770,  thirty-five 
families  in  that  society  had  been  released  from  the  ministerial  rates 
on  account  of  attending  worship  elsewhere.  Tl^e  Congregational 
society  kept  together  a  short  time  after  the  dismission  of  Mr.  John- 


1  See  Great  Awakening,  by  Joseph  Tracy. 

Commissary  Gordon,  of  South  Carolina,  wrote  and  published  six  letters  against 
Whitefield  in  1740.  Mr.  Croswell  wrote  an  answer  "in  his  usual  biting  style"— p.  66. 
He  wrote  also  a  Reply  to  the  Declaration  of  the  Associated  Pastors  of  Boston  and 
Charlestown,  dated  at  Oroton,  July  16th,  1742 — ^ibid. 

2  Society  Record. 

36 


422  HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON. 

Bon,  and  then  gradually  dwindled  away  and  became  extinct.  When 
reorganized  under  the  ministry  of  thQ  Rey.  Mr.  Tuttle,  in  1810,  not 
a  single  member  of  the  old  church  remained,  nor  could  any  record  of 
former  members  be  found. 


Groton  Baptist  Church.  The  early  history  of  this  church  is  in- 
dissolubly  connected  with  the  name  of  Wightman.  According  to 
tradition,  five  brothers  of  the  name,  all  Baptists,  settled  in  Rhode 
Island,  and  were  reported  to  be  descendants  of  Edward  Wightman, 
one  of  the  last  who  suffered  death  for  conscience'  sake  in  England, 
having  been  burnt  for  heresy  at  Litchfield,  in  1612.  Valentine 
Wightman,  a  son  of  one  of  the  brothers,  removed  to  Groton,  in  1705,* 
on  the  invitation  of  a  few  families  who  were  favorably  inclined  toward 
the  Baptist  principles,  and  after  exercising  his  gifts  for  a  few  years, 
gathered  a  church  and  was  ordained  in  1710. 

Elder  Valentine  Wightman  died  June  9th,  1747.  Daniel  Fisk,  of 
Rhode  Island,  was  his  successor  for  about  seven  years.  Timothy 
Wightman,  the  son  of  the  founder,  was  then  ordained  pastor  of  the 
church.  May  20th,  1756,  and  continued  in  charge  forty-two  years. 
He  died  November  l4th,  1796,  in  the  seventy-eighth  year  of  his  age, 
leaving  a,  church  of  215  members.  Mrs.  Mary  Wightman,  his  ven- 
erable consort,  died  February  19th,  1817,  aged  ninety-two  years.* 

John  Gano  Wightman,  the  son  of  Timothy,  succeeded  his  father  in 
office,  and  the  length  of  his  ministry  almost  equaled  that  of  his 
parent.  He  was  ordained  in  1800,  and  died  July  ISth,  1841,  aged 
seventy-four.  Ministers  sprang  from  the  elder  Wightman  like 
branches  from  a  fruitful  vine.  Many  of  his  descendants,  both  in  the 
male  and  female  lines,  have  borne  the  pastoral  office. 

The  Wightman  church  stood  upon  one  of  the  wood-land  ridges  be- 
tween Center  Groton  and  Head  of  Mystic.  A  burial-ground  lay  by 
its  side,  where  the  two  last  elders,  with  their  wives,  repose.  It  is 
probable,  also,  that  the  founder  of  the  church  rests  here  also,  but  no 
tablet  is  enriched  with  his  name. 

A  few  years  since  this  society  built  a  new  meeting-house,  near  the 
village,  at  the  Head  of  Mystic,  and  thither  the  church  has  been  trans- 
ferred. The  ancient  edifice  has  been  refitted,  and  is  now  used  for 
town  purposes. 

1  Benedict's  History  of  the  Baptists. 

2  Qravestone  in  the  burial-ground  near  the  old  Wightman  chtirch. 


HI8TOST    OF    NEW   LONDON.  423 

A  second  Baptist  church  was  formed  in  Groton,  in  1765,  with 
Elder  Silas  Barrows  for  its  pastor.  This  church  held  to  the  princi* 
pie  o£  mixed  communion  till  1797,  when  the  practice  was  relin- 
quished. The  meeting-house  was  built  on  Indian  Hill,  not  far  from 
the  spot  where  stood  the  royal  fortress  and  village  of  Sassacus,  in 
1637  :  not  the  one  stormed  hj  Mason,  but  that  in  which  the  chief 
and  the  flower  of  his  forces  slept  that  fatal  night,  unconscious  of  the 
danger  of  their  friends.  The  religious  service  and  the  church  mem- 
bers have  been  transferred  to  other  sections  of  the  town,  and  the 
house  itself  has  been  recently  demolished. 


CHAPTEB  XXIII. 

t 

Early  Indian  deeds. — First  white  settler  in  Mohegan. — Names  and  signatures 
of  the  Indian  sachems. — Years  of  strife  and  difficulty  in  the  North  Parish. — 
Church  formed. — Meeting-house  built. — Ministries  ol  Hillhouse  and  Jeweti. 

The  early  history  of  the  North  Parish  of  New  London,  runs 
through  a  maze  of  perplexity  and  contention.  Some  of  the  finest 
farms  in  that  district  flew  from  one  possessor  to  another,  like  balls  in 
the  hands  of  players.  Here  were  the  Mohegans,  with  all  their  na- 
tive and  seigniorial  rights ;  the  Masons,  guardians  chosen  by  the  In- 
dians, with  all  their  claims ;  various  settlers  upon  the  land  with  bounds 
vague  and  indefinite  ;  Indian  deeds  of  tracts,  not  only  with  bounds 
undefined,  but  some  of  them  almost  boundless,  and  legislative  grants 
bitterly  contested.  No  where  in  this  region  had  speculation  so  wide 
a  scope.  Anarchy  was  for  a  while  the  consequence ;  but  it  is  con- 
soling to  look  back  and  see  how  the  tempest  passed  away,  and  left  the 
aspect  of  society  clear  and  serene. 

The  Indian  lands  were  inclosed  by  the  settlements  of  New  London 
and  Norwich.  After  Philip's  War,  when  the  English  inhabitants  be- 
gan to  consider  themselves  secure  and  flourishing,  many  a  longing 
eye  was  cast  toward  the  tempting  prize  that  lay  upon  their  borders. 
The  avarice  of  the  white  and  the  improvidence  of  the  red  man,  con- 
verged to  the  same  point,  and  a  multiplicity  of  Indian  grants  was 
the  result.  Some  were  gifts  of  friendship,  or  in  requital  of  favors 
double  the  value  of  the  lands ;  some  were  obtained  by  fair  and  honest 
trade  ;  others  were  openly  fraudulent,  or  the  perquisites  of  adminis- 
tering to  the  vicious  thirst  of  the  Indian,  and  degrading  him  below 
his  native  barbarism.  Nearly  all  of  them  were,  however,  indorsed 
by  the  Masons,  the  Fitches,  or  the  legislature,  and  therefore  stood, 
according  to  colonial  acts,  on  legal  ground.  In  point  of  actual  market 
value,  the  Indians  were  generally,  not  only  paid,  but  overpaid,  lav- 
ishly paid,  for  their  lands. 

Those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  tribe,  will  be  slow  to  believe 
that  they  were  too  shy  or  modest  in  their  demands.     An  Indian  gift 


\ 


HISTORY     OP    NBW     LONDON.  425 

is,  in  thiB  neighborhood,  a  proverb,  indicating  a  present  made  to  se- 
cure a  return  of  double  or  treble  value. 

The  first  grants  of  land  within  the  Mohegan  reservation,  north  of 
New  London,  were  made  by  Uncas,  in  August,  1658,  to  Richard 
Haughton  and  James  Rogers,  and  consisted  of  valuable  farms  on  the 
river,  at  places  called  Massapeag  and  Pamechaug.  These  had  been 
the  favorite  grounds  of  Uncas  and  his  chiefs,  but  at  this  period  he 
had  been  broken  up  by  the  Narragansetts,  and  was  dwelling  at  Nian- 
tic.  The  deed  of  Norwich  was  signed  June  6th,  1659,  and  the  set- 
tlement of  that  place  commencing  immediately  and  affording  him 
protection,  Uncas  returned  to  his  former  abode,  and  set  up  his  prin- 
cipal wigwam  at  Pamechaug,  near  the  Rogers  grant. 

The  first  actual  settler  on  the  Indian  land  was  Samuel  Rogers,  the 
oldest  son  of  James.  The  period  of  his  removal  can  not  be  definitely 
ascertained,  but  probably  it  was  soon  after  1670.  He  had  long  been 
on  intimate  terms  with  Uncas,  who  importuned  him  to  settle  in  his 
nei^borhood,  and  bestowed  on  him  a  valuable  farm  upon  Saw-mill 
Brook ;  promising  in  case  of  any  emergency,  he  would  hasten  with 
all  his  warriors  to  his  assistance.  On  this  tract  Rogers  built  his 
house  of  hewn  plank,  surrounded  it  with  a  wall,  and  mounted  a  big 
gun  in  front.  When  prepared  for  the  experiment,  he  fired  a  signal 
of  alarm,  which  had  been  concerted  with  his  tawny  friend,  in  case 
either  should  be  disturbed  by  an  enemy ;  and  in  half  an  hour's  time 
grim  bands  of  warriors  were  seen  on  the  hills,  and  soon  came  rushing 
down  with  the  sachem  at  their  head,  to  the  rescue  of  their  friend. 
Rogers  had  prepared  a  feast  for  their  entertainment,  but  it  is  proba- 
ble that  they  relished  the  trick  nearly  as  much  as  the  banquet.  It 
was  one  of  their  own  jests  :  they  were  always  delighted  with  contri- 
vance and  stratagem. 

Rogers  became  a  large  landholder  in  Mohegan.  He  had  deeds  of 
land  not  only  from  Uncas,  but  his  sons  Owaneco  and  Josiah,  in  rec- 
ompense for  services  rendered  to  them  and  their  tribe.  Gifts  of 
land  were  also  bestowed  by  these  sachems  on  his  son  Jonathan,  and 
his  daughter  Sarah,  the  wife  of  James  Harris. 

Joshua  Raymond  was  perhaps  the  second  person  who  built  on  the 
Indian  lands.  lie  was  one  of  three  persons  who  in  1668  advanced 
the  £15  which  the  town  was  to  pay  Uncas,  and  received  compensa- 
tion in  Indian  land.  He  was  also  one  of  the  committee  that  laid  out 
the  road  between  Norwich  and  New  London,  leading  through  the 
Indian  reservation,  and  for  this  service  received  a  farm  on  the  route, 
which  became  the  nucleus  of  a  tract  of  1,000  acres,  lying  together, 
36* 


426  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

that  was  owned  hj  his  deecendants.  Mr.  Raymond  died  in  1676, 
and  it  is  supposed  that  the  dwelling-house  was  built  and  the  farm  im- 
proved by  him  before  his  death  ;  for  his  son,  Joshua  Raymond,  2d, 
styles  it  **  my  father's  homestead  farm  in  the  Mohegan  fields."  The 
house  stood  in  a  commanding  position  on  the  west  side  of  the  road  to 
Norwich,  eight  miles  from  New  London,  and  remained  in  possession 
of  the  family  175  years.' 

The  latest  signature  of  the  sachem  Uncas  is  found  under  date  of 
June,  1683.  A  deed  to  Samuel  Chester  was  signed  June  ISth,  and 
a  grant  of  several  thousand  acres  in  Colchester,  or  the  south  part  of 
Hebron,  to  the  Stebbins  brothers,  was  acknowledged  before  Samuel 
Mason,  about  the  same  period.  In  June,  1684,  Owaneco,  in  a  deed 
to  James  Fitch,  styles  himself  son  of  Uncas,  deceased.  This  is  the 
nearest  approximation  obtained  to  the  death  of  Uncas.  He  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  very  aged,  and  there  are  traditions  that  during 
the  latter  years  of  his  life,  he  was  generally  found  sitting  by  the  door 
of  his  wigwam  (uleep,  and  that  it  was  not  easy  to  rouse  his  mind  to 
activity.  The  sachem  was  undoubtedly  buried  at  Norwich,  in  a 
select  position  on  the  banks  of  the  Yantic,  which  is  supposed  to  have 
been  the  place  of  his  father's  sepulture,'  and  which  has  ever  since 
been  exclusively  devoted  to  the  descendants  of  Uncas.  In  tiiis 
cemetery  an  obelisk  of  granite  was  erected  by  fenaale  gifls  in  1842, 
which  has  for  its  inscription  a  single  name, 

Uncas. 

What  is  the  occult  meaning  of  this  word  Unkus,  Onkos,  Wonkas, 
Onkace  ?  Was  it  the  original  name  of  the  sachem,  or  the  new  naine, 
descriptive  of  some  trait  of  character  or  exploit,  which  according  to 
Indian  usage  was  given  him  on  arriving  at  the  dignity  of  a  chief? 
The  latter  opinion  may  be  assumed  with  some  probability.  In  the 
deed  of  1640,  to  the  governor  and  magistrates  of  Connecticut,  his 
name  appears  with  an  alias,  "  Uncas,  alias  Poquiem."  The  latter 
may  have  been  his  domestic  or  youthful  name,  the  former  that  of  the 
chief.  Wonkas  has  a  resemblance  to  Wonx,  the  Mohegan  word  for 
fox,  an  animal  to  whose  character  that  of  the  sachem  was  so  closely 
allied,  that  it  might  naturally  suggest  the  transfer  of  the  name. 
Judging  from  the  sound,  we  might  likewise  suppose  that  the  term 
Wonnux,  used  by  tlie  Indians  for  Englishmen  or  white  men,  was  de- 

1  Bought  of  George  Rajinond,  about  1848,  by  Capt  James  Fitch,  who  took  down 
the  ancient  hon^e,  and  erected  a  new  one  on  the  same  commanding  site. 
3  The  IwUoH  gracet  are  mentioned  in  the  earliest  grant  of  the  hind. 


HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON.  437 

rived  from  Wonx,  the  fox.  Bat  in  regard  to  the  signification  of  In- 
dian words,  it  is  easy  to  be  led  astray  by  analogy.  We  can  seldom 
prove  any  thing  and  are  obliged  to  rest  in  conjecture.  It  is  not  even 
known,  except  from  inference  and  probability,  that  the  craft  and 
guile  of  the  fox  had  been  observed  by  the  Mohegans. 

For  the  name  of  Owaneco,  the  son  and  successor  of  Uncas,  as 
brave  a  sachem,  but  more  pliant  and  amiable,  we  must  find  a  less  re- 
proachful derivation.  The  word  wuneco  is  one  of  the  numerous  vari- 
ations of  a  term  which  signifies  handsome,  or  fair  and  good,  and  if  we 
prefix  the  o  which  was  used  before  w  to  represent  that  peculiar 
enunciation  of  the  letter  by  the  Indians  which  is  called  the  whistled 
iOj  we  shall  have  the  exact  name  of  the  son  of  Uncas,  Owaneco  or 
Wnecko.* 

The  signature  of  Uncas,  after  he  had  become  habituated  to  the 
practice  of  making  a  mark  for  his  name,  was  generally  a  rude  rep- 
resentation of  the  upper  part  of  the  human  form,  the  head,  arms  and 
chest,  with  a  mark  in  the  center,  denoting  the  heart ;  sometimes,  but 
not  often,  the  lower  limbs  were  added.  The  mark  of  Owaneco  was 
uniformly  a  fowl  or  bird,  sometimes  suggesting  the  idea  of  a  wild 
turkey,  and  again  of  a  pigeon  or  smaller  bird.  This  has  led  to  the 
supposition  that  his  name  lyas  identical  with  that  of  some  bird,  which 
he  thus  assumed  for  his  totem  or  mark. 

Among  the  earliest  grantees  under  Indian  deeds  were  Charles  Hill, 
(1678,)  Samuel  Chester,  (1G83,)  George  Tonge  and  Daniel  Fitch. 
Hill's  tract  of  several  hundred  acres,  was  conveyed  to  him  by  Uncas, 
in  exchange  for  Betty,  an  Indian  woman  taken  captive  in  Philip's 
War,  and  given  to  Capt  James  Avery,  who  sold  her  to  Charles  Hill, 

In  October,  1698,  the  General  Court  granted  to  John  Winthrop, 
governor  of  the  colony,  and  Rev.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  who  preached 
the  election  sermon,  conjointly,  a  tract  of  four  hundred  acres  of  land 
in  the  western  part  of  the  Mohegan  fields.  This  tract  was  laid  out 
by  Capt.  John  Frentis,  Feb.  20th,  1 698-9.  At  a  later  period,  (1705,) 
John  Hubbard  and  Elisba  Paine  ran  the  bounds  of  this  tract,  and 
found  it  to  contain  eleven  hundred  and  odd  acres.  It  lay  on  the  east 
side  of  Mashapaug  or  Twenty  Mile  Pond,  above  the  farm  of  Samuel 
Rogers.  This  grant  was  the  cause  of  long  and  angry  controversy. 
The  Masons  raised  an  outcry  against  it;  the  neighboring  colonies 
caught  it  up,  and  the  reverberation  was  loud  in  England,  where  the 


1  For  suggestions  respecting  tlie  derivation  of  the  namea  Uncas  and  Owaneco,  the 
author  is  indebted  to  Mr.  Jndd,  of  Northampton. 


438  HISTORY     OF    NEW    LOIfDON. 

throne  was  led  to  believe  that  great  wrong  had  been  ^(me  the  Indians 
hj  this  giving  away  of  their  lands. 

In  the  year  1705,  when  the  queen's  court  of  commission  sate  at 
Stonington,  Capt  John  Prentis  testified  that  he  had  surveyed  and  re- 
turned about  three  thousand  acres  between  New  London  and  Nor- 
wich to  nineteen  different  persons.  At  the  same  court  it  was  stated 
that  the  following  persons  had  settled  on  the  Indian  fields,  viz.,  Sam- 
uel Rogers,  Sen.,  Samuel  Rogers,  Jr.,  Benjamin  Atwell,  Israel 
Dodge,  Greorge  Fevor,  (Le  Fevre,)  Samuel  Gilbert,  James  Harris, 
Thomas  Jones,  Sen.,  Thomas  Jones,  Jr.,  Philip  Marsey,  William 
Miner,  (Mynard,)  John  Tongue,  Richard  Skarritt. 

Others  who  had  lands  laid  out  to  them  were  GU)vemor  Winthrop, 
Rev.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  Daniel  Wetherell,  John  Plumbe,  Caleb 
Watson,  Greorge  Denison,  Charles  Hill,  Jonathan  Hill — all  these 
were  summoned  as  intruders  between  New  London  and  Norwich.' 

Jan.  11th,  1709-10,  Owaneco  signed  a  deed  of  sale  conveying 
^ye  hundred  acres  of  land  to  Robert  Denison,  of  Stonington,  for  the 
consideration  of  £20,  part  in  silver  money,  and  the  remainder  in 
goods  at  money  price. 

This  was  followed,  May  10th,  1710,  by  a  conveyance  of  great  im- 
port, being  no  less  than  a  general  deed  of -all  the  Mohegan  lands  be- 
tween Norwich  and  the  old  town-line  of  New  London,  that  had  not 
been  heretofore  alienated — excepting  only  the  eastern  or  sequestered 
part  which  was  actually  occupied  by  the  tribe — ^to  Major  John  Liv- 
ingston, Lieut.  Robert  Denison,  Samuel  Rogers,  Jr.,  and  James  Har- 
ris, Jr.,  in  the  proportion  of  two-fifths  to  Livingston,  and  one-fifth  to 
each  of  the  other  partners.  The  price  paid  was  £50.  Livingston 
afterward  purchased  the  share  of  Rogers,  which  made  him  the  holder 
of  three-fifths.     This  conveyance  comprised  several  thousand  acres. 

At  the  same  time  a  deed  of  feoffment,  or  trust,  was  executed  in 
favor  of  the  Hon.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  Capt  John  Mason,  Major 
John  Livingston,  Capt.  Daniel  Fitch  and  Capt.  John  Stanton,  by 
which  the  eastern  part,  or  sequestered  tract,  was  forever  settled  on 
the  Mohegan  tribe,  under  the  regulations  of  the  feoffees  and  their 
successors,  ^^  so  long  as  there  shall  be  any  Mohegans  found  or  known 
of  alive  in  the  world" — excepting  only  some  small  parcels  in  the  pos- 
session of  others,  which  were  to  be  confirmed  to  them :   to  wit,  Capt. 


1  At  the  court  of  commission  on  the  Mason  controversy  in  1748,  sixty-four  persons 
were  summoned  as  intruders  on  the  Indian  lands.  This  included  planters  scattered 
over  the  present  townships  of  Montville,  Colchester  and  Salem. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON.  429 

Daniel  Fitch  was  to  be  secured  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  farm,  and 
Major  Livingston  in  the  possession  of  the  tract  claimed  by  him. 
These  important  documents  were  signed  by  Owaneco,  Ben  Uncas, 
Caesar,  and  several  counselors  and  chief  men  of  the  tribe. 

These  proceedings  gave  great  uneasiness  to  the  inhabitants  of 
New  London,  who  regarded  the  Indian  land  as  granted  to  them  by 
the  act  of  addition  to  the  town,  passed  by  the  General  Court  in  May, 
1703,  and  expressly  guarantied  by  their  patent.  A  town  meeting 
was  held  July  17th,  1710,  and  a  committee  appomted  to  prosecute 
Col.  Livingston  and  his  associates  before  the  Assembly,  for  a  breach 
of  law.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  struggle  for  possession,  which 
continued  many  years.  The  North  Parish  was  in  an  unsettled  and 
disorderly  state  ;  no  man  felt  secure  of  his  title.  The  Indians  being 
much  courted  and  caressed  in  some  quarters,  became  exacting,  and 
self-important  It  was  not,  however,  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  In- 
dians, but  the  selfishness  and  cupidity  of  various  claimants  among  the 
whites,  that  was  the  real  cause  of  the  controversy.  To  benefit  the 
Indians  was  but  a  pretense ;  they  were  mere  tools  used  by  grasping 
and  uneasy  men,  to  obtain  their  own  selfish  ends.  Had  the  Indians 
been  successful  in  their  suit,  and  wrenched  from  the  hands  of  the 
English  occupants  every  acre  of  the  ground  that  they  had  inclosed 
and  subdued,  they  would  not  have  reaped  the  benefit  themselves. 
Others  would  have  grasped  the  prize,  ««id  the  result  would  merely 
have  been  a  change  of  ownership  among  the  whites. 

Owaneco  died  in  1710,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Cesar;  who 
being  young,  inefficient  and  intemperate,  the  Assembly  appointed 
Ben-Uncas,  the  brother  of  Owaneco,  and  certain  chief  men  of  the 
tribe,  to  act  as  his  guardians.  This  left  it  uncertain  whether  the 
chief  authority  was  vested  in  Ben-Uncas  or  Cesar.  In  1713,  the 
feoffees  renewed  their  deed  with  the  latter,  and  on  the  lOth  of  May, 
1714,  with  the  former — the  conveyance  being  also  signed  by  about 
fifty  of  the  tribe,  in  token  of  approval.  Capt.  Daniel  Fitch  having 
been  removed  by  death,  two  other  gentlemen  were  nominated  by  the 
General  Court,  and  added  to  the  number  of  feoffees,  viz.,  William 
Whiting  of  Hartford,  and  John  Elliot  of  Windsor. 

The  gentlemen  purchasers  and  the  feoffees,  declared  that  one  great 
object  which  they  had  in  view,  in  assuming  the  guardianship  of  the 
Parish,  was  the  settlement  of  a  minister,  who  should  have  for  his 
charge  the  various  classes  within  the  precincts,  whether  proprietors, 
tenants  upon  Indian  leases,  or  Indians  themselves.  New  London  re- 
garded this  as  a  mere  pretext  to  obtain  the  lands,  and  uttered  from 


430  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

time  to  time  bitter  complaints.  In  September,  1713,  she  instracted 
her  deputies  to  laj  before  the  Assemblj,  "  the  oppression  and  hard- 
ships endeavored  to  be  put  upon  the  town,  concerning  the  lands  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  township,  and  the  pretense  of  a  minister  to 
be  settled  there" — spraying  the  Assembly  "  to  stop  the  proceedings  of 
certain  persons  who  were  in  a  way  to  wrong  the  natives  as  well  as 
to  injure  the  town's  rights." 

A  large  farm  in  Colchester,  lying  north  and  west  of  Mashapaug, 
had  belonged  to  Major  Mason,  and  was,  in  fact,  the  farm  that  he  had 
reserved  to  himself  when  he  surrendered  to  the  colony  in  1660,  the 
rights  that  the  Indian  sachems  had  made  over  to  him.  This  ftam 
had  descended  to  his  grandson,  Capt.  Peter  Mason,  son  of  Capt.  Dan- 
iel Mason  of  Stonington — who,  living  near  the  Indians,  and  having 
a  hereditary  right  to'  be  their  adviser,  had  acquired  considerable  in- 
fluence among  them.  As  a  Masony  he  was  of  course  hostile  to  the 
deed  of  feoffment ;  and  was  therefore  employed  by  the  town  of  New 
London  to  obtain  a  counter  cession  of  the  Indian  lands  in  their  favor, 
80  as  to  nullify  the  deed.  Through  his  influence  a  great  Indian 
council  was  held,  and  the  selectmen  of  New  London  obtained  from 
the  young  sachem  Cesar,  May  SOth,  1715,  for  the  sum  of  £100,  a 
general  deed  of  all  the  ungranted  land  "^  between  Norwich  and  New 
London  old  bounds,  and  from  Mohegan  River  westerly  to  Colches- 
ter and  Lyme."  This  instrument  declares  that  ^  the  just  right  of 
purchase  of  said  lands  doth  belong  to  the  town  of  New  London  and 
no  other,"  and  that  all  former  conveyances  were  void,  having  been 
fraudulently  obtained  by  <'  taking  advantage  of  the  old  age  of  my 
father  Owaneco."  * 

A  series  of  town  acts  followed  the  execution  of  this  deed.  A  suf- 
ficiency of  land  was  secured  to  Cesar  and  his  tribe,  and  the  title  to 
the  remainder  was  vested  in  the  proprietors  of  New  London  in  cer- 
tain proportions  ;  reserving  five  hundred  acres  to  Capt.  Peter  Mason, 
who  assumed  the  payment  of  the  hundred  pounds  gratuity.  Against 
all  these  proceedings  on  the  part  of  the  town.  Governor  Saltonstall 
entered  a  stem  protest  A  paper,  containing  what  he  calls  his 
thoughts  concerning  their  measures,  was  read  in  town  meeting,  and 
recorded  in  book  vii.,  where  it  covers  six  folio  pages. 

<^  I  hear,"  he  observes,  ^^  the  bargain  is  cheap,  not  above  £100  imt 
the  whole  land  put  in  trust — nay,  I  am  told  there  is  a  project  to 
bring  that  down  to  the  insignificant  sum  of  £3.  You  may  be  assured 
that  its  worth  above  ten  times  as  much  as  the  £100  pretended  to  be 
the  price  of  it."     He  reminds  them  that  they  have  already  about 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  431 

seventeen  thousand  acres  <^  common  or  nndivided  land,  within  the 
ancient  bounds  of  the  town,  and  that  it  would  be  more  for  their  inter- 
est as  well  as  credit,  to  improre  that  to  which  they  had  an  undisputed 
title,  than  to  go  about  to  make  a  purchase  of  Mohegan,  while  the 
title  of  it  was  under  discussion  in  the  common  pleas. 

The  General  Court  refusing  to  confirm  the  acts  of  the  town,  the 
royal  deed  of  Cesar  became  a  nullity,  and  the  town  acts  and  grants 
based  thereon,  were  made  void.  Cesar  died  in  1720,  and  the  same 
year  the  Assembly  appointed  "  James  Wadsworth,  Esq.,  Mr.  John 
Hooker,  and  Capt  John  Hall,"  a  committee  to  settle  all  existing  con- 
troversies, and  provide  for  the  settlement  of  a  gospel  minister  at  Mo- 
hegan. Two  of  these,  Messrs.  Wadsworth  and  Hall,  met  at  the 
house  of  Mr.  Joseph  Bradford,  on  the  Mohegan  lands,  Feb.  22d, 
1720-21,  and  held  a  court  of  commission,  with  powers  to  hear,  re- 
view and  decide  all  disputes  respecting  the  Indian  lands.  This 
court  was  eminently  one  of  pacification  ;  almost  every  claimant  was 
quieted  in  his  possessions  ;  the  deed  of  feoffment  was  confirmed,  and 
the  reversion  of  the  sequestered  lands,  when  the  tribe  should  become 
extinct,  settled  upon  New  London.  The  commissioners  ratified  all 
the  court  grants — the  farms  of  Winthrop  and  Saltonstall — six  hun- 
dred acres  to  the  New  London  school — two  hundred  acr^s  to  Caleb 
Watson — the  purchase  of  Livingston  and  his  associates,  excepting 
only  a  tract  of  five  hundred  acres  to  be  taken  out  for  the  use  of  the 
ministry — the  claim  of  Campbell  and  Dixon,  who  bought  of  Owaneco 
and  Cesar — the  farm  of  Stephen  Maples — the  lease  of  Samuel  Fair- 
banks^— and,  in  general,  all  Lidian  engagements  previous  to  1710. 

The  tract  of  land  to  be  reserved  for  the  ministry,  was  left  unde- 
termined by  the  commissioners.  The  inhabitants  could  not  by  any 
means  hitherto  used,  be  brought  to  agree  on  a  place  where  the  meet- 
ing-house should  be  built,  and  it  was  desirable  to  lay  out  a  farm  for 
the  minister  as  near  to  the  meeting-house  as  should  be  convenient* 
This  matter  was  therefore  left  unsettled,  and  at  the  request  of  the 
inhabitants,  referred  to  the  General  Assembly. 

The  North  Parish  soon  became  tranquil.  Governor  Saltonstall, 
who  had  the  accommodation  of  their  difficulties,  and  the  settlement 
of  a  minister  among  them  very  much  at  heart,  exerted  himself  to  al- 
lay animosities,  to  soothe  troubled  minds,  and  harmonize  neighbor- 


1  Fairbanks  had  a  lease  from  Owaneco  in  1710,  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  on 
condition  of  making  and  maintaining  two  hundred  rods  of  fence.  The  feoffees  added 
a  new  tenure — a  yearly  fat  lamb,  if  demanded. 


432  HISTORY    OF     NKW     LONDON. 

hoods.  He  lived  to  see  his  hopes  realized.  It  was  finally  decided 
that  the  meeting-house  should  stand  on  Raymond  Hill,  and  Jan.  17th, 
1721-2,  John  Merritt  and  Mercy  Raymond  gave  a  deed  of  two  acres 
of  land,  out  of  the  farm  then  occupied  by  Major  Merrit,  to  Capt 
Robert  Denison,  Mr.  Joseph  Bradford,  Mr.  Jonathan  Hill,  Mr.  Na- 
thaniel Otis,  and  Ensign  John  Vibert,  in  trust  for  the  inhabitants  of 
the  North  Parish,  for  the  site  of  a  church,  and  for  a  church-yard  or 
burial-place.  A  religious  society  being  organized,  Governor  Salton- 
stall  recommended  them  to  engage  the  services  of  Mr.  James  Hill- 
house,  from  Ireland,  who  was  then  in  Boston.  To  him  they  applied, 
through  the  agency  of  the  governor,  offering  him  a  salary  of  £100 
per  annum  ;  and  having  received  a  favorable  answer,  Mr.  Jonathan 
Copp  was  commissioned  to  go  on  and  accompany  him  to  the  scene  of 
his  future  labors. 

Mr.  Hillhouse  preached  his  first  sermons  in  the  west  room  of  Mr. 
Samuel  Allen's  tavern.     Li  his  church  record  he  says  : 

•*  1  was  installed  October  the  3cl  day  1722. 

*•  Mr.  Adams  preached  from  Acts  16:9.  There  was  Seven  that  belonged 
to  the  Church  at  my  instalment — Capt.  [Thomas]  Avery,  Capt.  [Robert]  Den- 
ison, Mr.  Nath'.  Otis,  Mr  [Samuel]  Allen,.  Mr.  [John]  Vibber,  Charles  Camp- 
bell, and  one  peacon.  Mr.  Jonathan  Copp  was  chosen  deacon  of  this  Church 
and  accepted  it,  Nov.  19,  1722." 

This  was  the  second  Congregational  church  of  New  London. 
The  meeting-house  was  raised  July  11th,  1723.  While  it  was  build- 
ing, Mr.  Hillhouse  made  a  brief  visit  to  his  father-land,  but  returned 
before  the  close  of  the  year.  The  most  commanding  point  in  the 
parish  was  usually  chosen  by  our  ancestors  for  the  site  of  a  church. 
In  this  instance  a  wide  and  fair  landscape  was  spread  around  the  sa- 
cred edifice.  To  the  south,  the  vision  extends  to  Long  Island  Sound ; 
on  the  east,  to  heights  of  land  in  Voluntown  and  North  Stonington. 
A  legion  of  lower  hills  fills  all  the  intervening  space ;  villages  are 
concealed  by  foliage,  or  secreted  in  the  valleys ;  only  here  and  there 
a  house  upon  a  hill,  a  hamlet  by  a  stream,  or  a  spire  rising  above  the 
trees,  breaks  the  circumference  of  wood-land  scenery.  At  that  period 
it  was  literally  a  church  in  the  wilderness  ;  a  solitary  beacon  in  the 
center  of  a  mighty  forest. 

In  accordance  with  the  style  of  architecture  then  prevalent,  this 
meeting-house  had  greater  breadth  than  length ;  the  pulpit  being 
placed  in  one  of  the  sides  of  greatest  extent.  It  had  two  tiers  of  free 
benches  in  the  middle,  a  row  of  pews  around  the  wall,  three  doors, 


HISTORY     OP     NBW     LONDON.  433 

and  gallerj-stairs  in  two  comers.  The  pews  were  built  aJt  the  charge 
of  the  owners,  and  not  completed  till  1727.  Those  of  greatest  honor 
w-ere  each  side  of  the  pulpit,  and  each  side  of  the  door  opposite  the 
pulpit.  These  four  pews  were  occupied  by  Mrs.  Raymond  and  her 
son  Joshua,  Capt  Robert  Denison,*  Capt  John  Mason  and  Madam 
Livingston,  Mr.  Joseph  Otis  and  Major  John  Merritt.  Only  four- 
teen pews  were  built :  the  other  seats  were  free. 

About  the  year  1730,  some  unhappy  difficulties  arose  in  the  parish, 
which  ended  in  alienating  a  part  of  the  people  from  their  minister. 
Of  this  contest  little  is  now  known,  except  that  it  was  protracted  and 
violent.  It  is  said  to  have  commenced  in  a  controversy  between  Mr. 
HiUhouse  and  his  next  neighbor,  Capt.  Denison,  in  regard  to  their 
respective  bounds.  An  ecclesiastical  council,  convened  by  a  major- 
ity of  the  parish,  finding  it  impossible  to  compose  the  differences,  dis- 
solved the  connection.  This  act  Mr.  Hillhouse  considered  illegal, 
as  he  had  not  concurred  in  calling  the  council,  and  therefore  refused 
to  relinquish  his  office.  The  congregation  was  now  split  into  two 
assemblies,  each  claiming  the  house  and  the  pulpit.  Other  ministers 
were  employed  by  the  majority  of  the  congregation,  but  Mr.  Hill- 
house  continued  to  exercise  his  frinctions  after  the  settlement  of  a 
successor — ^his  record  of  admissions  to  the  church  is  continued  to 
1737,  and  of  baptisms  to  August,  1740.  He  died  December  15th, 
1740,  aged  fifty-three.'  To  the  registry  of  his  death  in  the  New 
London  town  book^  the  recorder  adds  this  note : 

*'  He  was  descended  from  a  respectable  family  in  Ireland,  being  the  second 
son  of  Mr.  John  Hillhouse,  of  Freehall,  (in  the  county  of  Londonderry.)  Good 
natural  abilities,  a  liberal  education,  and  a  well-attempered  zeal  for  the  tmth, 
rendered  him  eminent  and  useful  in  the  ministry  in  this  place." 

Mr.  Hillhouse  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Glasgow.  His 
father  had  deceased  before  he  came  to  America,  and  the  family  es- 
tate had  devolved  upon  his  elder  brother.  He  married  after  his  set- 
tlement, Mary,  daughter  of  Daniel  Fitch,  one  of  his  parishioners. 
He  left  two  sons  :  William,  bom  Aug.  25th,  1728,  and  James  Abra^ 


1  A  special  vote  gave  Capt  Denison  liberty  to  build  a  pew  for  himself  and  heirs 
forever,  in  consideration  for  what  he  had  given  toward  settling  the  gospel,  viz.,  £42  to 
the  meeting-house,  ten  acres  of  land  to  the  ministry,  and  fifty  to  the  minister.  His 
pew  was  to  reach  from  post  to  poet,  and  be  of  the  same  width  as  the  pulpit  and  deac- 
on's seat 

2  His  estate  was  appraised  at  £6,906.  Henry's  AnnotatioDS|  in  the  inventory, 
were  estimated  at  £80. 

37 


434  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

ham,  May  12th,  1730.  His  relict  was  sabsequentlj  twice  married, 
and  being  made  a  widow  for  the  third  time,  she  returned  to  the  North 
Parish,  and  dwelt  with  her  children  till  her  death.  The  inscription 
on  her  gravestone  is  peculiarly  comprehensive : 

"  Here  lies  one  who  served  near  the  Altar,  having  been  the  virtuous  Consort 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hillhouse,  Rev.  Mr.  Owen  and  Rev.  Mr.  Dorrance.  She  died 
October,  1768.     iEtatis  62." 

Between  his  installment  in  October,  1722,  and  the  first  of  May, 
1737,  Mr.  Hillhouse  admitted  to  the  church  198  new  members  and 
eighteen  from  other  churches.  Eight  others  (the  seven  pillars  and 
deacon)  formed  the  church  before  his  installment  His  record  of 
baptisms  comprises  one  hundred  and  eighty  children  and  forty  adults ; 
marriages,  thirty-five.  \^ 

In  1738,  Mr.  David  JewAt,  whobad  been  employed  as  a  mission- 
ary  to  the  Mohegana-aila  was  much  i_n  favor  with  the  sachem  and 
the  tribe,  being  also  acceptable  to  the  people  of  the  parish^  wfts  in- 
vited  to  become  their  minister.  He  accepted  the  call,  and  having 
been  received  as  a  member  of  the  church,  by  dismission  and  recom- 
mendation from  the  church  at  Rowley,  Mass.,  he  was  ordained,  Oct 
8d,  1739. 

An  ordination  at  that  period  called  forth  a  great  concourse  of 
people,  and,  what  appears  strange  at  the  present  day,  was  usually 
followed  by  a  dance  and  supper  that  consumed  most  of  the  night 
An  ordination  ball  was  as  common  as  the  ordination  itself.  Yet  it 
must  not  be  supposed  that  the  clergy  or  ^ny  of  the  fathers  in  the 
church  took  part  in  it :  it  was  the  congregation  hall. 

No  minister  in  the  country  stood  higher  among  his  own  flock,  or 
in  the  esteem  of  his  brethren,  than  Mr.  Jewett  He  was  a  man  of 
dignified  deportment,  rigorous  in  discipline,  but  very  fervent  in  preach- 
ing and  uniformly  assiduous  in  his  calling.^ 

In  1750  the  meeting-house  was  entirely  out  of  repair.  The  build- 
ings of  those  days  were  constructed  of  the  most  enduring  materials, 
but  the  workmanship  was  clumsy  and  defective ;  the  frame  might 
last  for  ages,  but  the  building  was  a  ruin  in  one  generation.  The 
sacred  edifice  was  again  refitted  and  finished  ofi*  in  the  neatest  style 
of  those  days — ^  colored  on  the  outside  with  lamp-black  and  Spankh 


1  The  name  of  Mr.  Jewett*8  wife  was  Patience  Phillips.  He  married  her  in  Cam- 
bridge or  Boston.  Thon^  laboring  under  the  disadvantage  of  having  but  one  hand, 
it  is  said  that  she  could  use  the  needle  and  the  distaff,  and  perform  all  other  duties  of 
a  notable  housewife,  as  well  as  most  women  with  two. 


.{ 


HISTORY    OP   NEW    LONDON.  435 

lead,  and  the  door  and  window-trimmings  painted  white."     It  was 
then  prepared  for  a  second  term  of  twenty  years'  service. 

In  1756  Mr.  Jewett  obtained  leave  of  absence  for  several  months, 
^<  being  caUed  by  the  providence  of  God  to  go  into  the  army  as 
chaplain."  This  was  a  service  to  which  he  was  afterward  very 
often  called,  not  only  during  the  French  War,  but  in  that  of  the 
Revolution.  His  animated  manner  and  his  energetic  language  made 
him  very  popular  as  an  army  chaplain. 

Deacons  of  Mr.  Jewett* s  Church, 

Joshua  Raymond,  chosen  May  23d,  1740. 
David  (son  to  Deacon  Jonathan)  Copp,  chosen  July  4th,  1746. 
Joshua  (son  to  Deacon  Joshua)  Raymond,  chosen  June  3d,  1763. 
Joseph  Otis,  successor  to  Deacon  David  Copp  deceased. 
Joseph  Chester,  successor  to  Deacon  Joseph  (Jtis,  who  removed. 

Jonathan  Copp  removed  to  the  North  Parish  from  Stonington  in 
1713,  but  was  originally  from  Boston  and  of  the  family  from  which 
Copp's  Hill  derives  its  name. 

Joseph  Otis  was  from  Scituate,  Mass.  In  1716  he  purchased  a 
large  quantity  of  land  in  the  North  Parish,  above  Ra3rmond's,  and 
in  Colchester,  on  which  he  and  his  family  settled.  He  died  in  1754 
at  the  age  of  ninety. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

Origin  of  the  Fort  Hill  Baptist  Church. — Gorton's  ordination  and  ministry. — 
Rowe's  legacy. — Internal  strife  and  extinction  of  the  church. 

The  regular  Baptists  of  New  London  go  back  for  their  origin 
almost  to  the  dawn  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  first  account 
we  have  of  their  society  is  derived  from  a  petition  to  the  Greneral 
CJourt  in  1704,  for  "  the  settlement  of  their  meeting."  They  called 
themselves  ^*  Dissenters ;"  stated  that  their  society  comprised  six 
brethren  and  six  sisters ;  that  they  had  an  ordained  teacher  with  them 
viz.,  Daniel  Pierce ;  and  that  they  held  their  meetings  at  William 
Stark's. 

After  1720  they  increased  in  numbers  and  infiuenee.  They  were 
joined  by  Joseph  Gilbert  and  William  Roe  or  Bowe,  the  latter  an 
emigrant  from  England,  and  by  Philip  Taber  from  Rhode  Island^ 
who  in  1726  purchased  the  farm  of  Capt.  James  Rogers  on  the 
Neck.  On  the  28th  of  November,  1726,  Stephen  Gk)rton  was  or- 
dained their  pastor,  by  Elder  Valentine  Wightman,  of  Groton, 
This  was  the  third  religious  society  established  in  the  town,  It  be- 
came extinct  before  the  end  of  the  century ;  its  history,  therefore, 
will  here  be  briefly  pursued  to  its  close. 

This  society  united  with  their  neighbors  of  the  seventh-day  per- 
suasion in  building  a  house  of  worship.  The  site  was  given  by 
Isaac  Fox  and  the  title  vested  by  deed  of  Jan.  9th,  1729-80,  in  the 
two  societies  known  as  "  First  and  Seventh-day  Baptists."  The 
trustees  were  Samuel  Fox,  Samuel  Wescote,  Jonathan  Rogers  and 
Philip  Taber.  This  meeting-house  very  well  accommodated  both 
societies,  as  they  met  on  different  days.  It  stood  upon  the  rocky 
summit  of  Fort  Hill ;  the  ascent  painfully  precipitous'  on  one  side, 
but  the  position  beautiful,  commanding  a  fair  expanse  of  the  Sound. 
The  edifice  was  square,  small  upon  the  ground,  and  high  beyond  a 
due  proportion.     This  peculiarity  obtained  for  it  in  later  days  the 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  437 

familiar  appellation  of  the  pepper-box.  The  shell  of  the  edifice — 
dismantled  of  pulpit,  gallery,  seats  and  windows ;  ghostlike  and 
blackened  by  time — ^kept  possession  of  the  hill  until  the  year  1847, 
when  it  was  taken  down. 

Elder  Stephen  Gorton  was  bom  in  Rhode  Island,  March  21st, 
1703-4 ;'  consequently  he  was  but  twenty-two  years  of  age  when 
ordained.  He  married,  soon  after  his  settlement,  Sarah,  relict  of 
Jonathan  Haynes  and  daughter  of  James  Rogers  2d,  a  woman  of 
piety  and  considerable  estate,  who  was  more  than  twenty  years  his 
senior  (bom  in  1682)  and  had  twelve  children  by  her  first  husband.' 
Mr.  Gorton  was  a  man  of  good  capacity  and  fluent  oratory.  It  has 
been  said  that  his  knowledge  was  all  self-acquired,  except  reading 
and  writing,  which  were  taught  him  by  his  wife.  His  marriage 
with  Mrs.  Haynes  gave  him  respectability  and  influence.  She  died 
in  1766,  aged  eighty-four  ;^  after  which  he  married  again  and  almost 
immediately  fell  into  disrepute.  He  is  said  to  have  imbibed  Socin- 
ian  principles  and  to  have  been  low  and  irregular  in  his  habits. 

John  Starke  was  the  deacon  of  Elder  Grorton's  church.  Its  great- 
est benefactor  was  William  Rowe,  who  among  other  donations  gave 
a  piece  of  land  adjoining  the  meeting-house  for  a  burial-place,  vest- 
ing the  title  in  the  First-day  Baptists,  and  providing  in  case  of  their 
extinction,  that  it  should  be  held  by  churches  of  that  denomination 
in  Groton  and  Newport,  "  until  there  should  be  a  First-day  Baptist 
church  in  New  London  again."  Mr.  Rowe  afterward  removed  to 
North  Stonington  and  eventually  to  Canterbury,  where  he  died.  By 
his  will,  made  in  1749,  he  left  all  his  books  of  divinity  and  three 
hundred  ounces  of  silver,  or  paper  currency  equivalent  thereunto, 
for  the  use  and  support  of  the  Fort  Hill  church  and  ministry.  The 
money  was  to  be  improved  and  the  principal  kept  good. 

This  church  is  understood  to  have  held  to  open  communion  and 
the  laying  on  of  hands  in  immersion.^  The  members  were  scattered 
over  a  wide  area.  Several  lived  in  the  town  plot ;  Nehemiah  Smith 
of  East  Lyme  and  Jonathan  Rathbone  of  Colchester  belonged  to 
this  church ;  and  in  1731  several  persons  belonging  to  Wallingford, 


1  Becorded  in  New  London  at  his  own  reqaest 

2  Trumbull  says  he  married  a  QmnecUaU  girl;  he  should  have  said  a  OmnecUcwt 
matrcn. 

8  See  her  gravestone  in  the  Fort  Hill  burial-ground. 

4  MS.  sketch  written  by  Bev.  Henry  Channing.    He  says:  "  The  number  of  mem 
bers  never  went  over  one  hundred  and  fifty,  I  believe." 

37' 


438  HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON. 

thirteen  miles  north  of  New  Haven,  united  with  it^  Philip  Taber^ 
erne  (^  the  pillars  of  this  church,  died  Dec  27th,  1750.  His  reli- 
gious views  harmonized  more  particularly  with  the  Six  Principle 
Baptists  of  North  Kingston,  R.  I.,  to  whom  he  left  a  legacy  in  his 
wilL     The  doctrines  of  this  sect  are  based  on  Hebrews,  vi.  1,  2. 

During  the  latter  part  of  Mr.  Gorton's  ministry,  the  church  very 
much  declined ;  the  moral  character  of  the  elder  was  impeached, 
and  the  parties  for  and  against  him  were  fierce  and  vehement  in 
their  dissensions.  Mr.  Gorton  was  summoned  before  a  Baptist  con- 
vention in  Rhode  Island  for  tHal,  and  though  the  main  charges 
against  him  were  not  proved,  his  conduct  was  condemned  as  un- 
worthy the  office  of  elder,  and  the  convention  recommended  his  dis- 
mission. He  would  not,  however,  be  dismissed,  and  having  still  a 
few  followers,  kept  possession  of  the  pulpit  and  the  Rowe  legacy,  of 
which  he  was  a  trustee,  and  excommunicated  those  who  had  with- 
drawn from  him— that  is  to  say,  more  than  three-fourths  of  the 
whole  church.  Thus  things  continued  till  the  year  1772,  when  the 
withdrawn  members  having  engaged  Mr.  David  Sprague  from  Rhode 
Island  for  their  leader,  resolved  on  obtaining  possession  of  the  meet- 
ing-house and  the  annuity.  On  Sunday,  June  7th,  they  collected  to- 
gether and  proceeded  to  the  house  of  worship,  where  they  found  Mr. 
Gorton  officiating  in  the  pulpit,  with  the  communion  table  spread  be- 
fore him.  One  of  the  most  resolute  of  the  party  ascended  the  pulpit, 
forcibly  expelled  its  occupant,  and  drove  him  and  his  wife  and  their 
whole  company  from  the  sacred  precincts.  It  has  been  said,  also, 
that  as  he  went  down  the  hill,  they  threw  his  Bible  after  him.  Of 
this  act,  however,  the  complaint  afterward  entered  by  the  grand-juror 
against  Mr.  Taber  as  principal  in  this  transaction,  says  nothing.  It 
accused  him  of  collaring  Mr.  Gorton,  beating  him  out  of  the  pulpit, 
and  pushing  away  his  wife  when  she  came  to  his  rescue.  The  indict- 
ment was  for  breach  of  the  peace  and  profanation  of  the  Sabbath. 
Mr.  Taber  was  fined  on  both  counts.^ 

Mr.  Sprague's  party  had  now  possession  of  the  house  and  Gorton's 
of  the  annuity.  Actions  in  law  were  commenced  by  each  against 
the  other.  The  struggle  issued  in  the  utter  extinction  of  the  church 
as  an  independent  body  iCnd  the  loss  of  their  fund.  The  period  of 
dissolution  could  not  vary  much  from  1774.     The  members  were 

1  Benedict,  Hist.  Bap. 

8  The  particulars  of  this  affidr  and  the  date  of  the  year  are  taken  from  the  raoocd 
of  the  justice's  court  held  on  the  occasion. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  439 

dispersed.  Some  of  them  united  with  another  Baptist  society  in 
the  western  part  of  the  town,  which  had  originated  in  a  meeting  of 
the  separatists  about  twenty-five  years  previous,  and  was  then  flour- 
ishing under  the  ministry  of  Elder  Zadok  Darrow. 

Elder  Grorton  removed  to  the  western  part  of  the  state  and  in 
1779  was  of  Southerton  (Hartford  county.)  He  left  behind  him  in 
New  London  no  family,  no  church  records,  no  faithful  flock  to  lament 
his  loss ;  nothing  but  a  dispersed  congregation  and  a  tarnished  name. 

Nehemiah  Smith,  who  resided  in  the  eastern  part  of  Lyme,  with- 
drew at  an  early  period  from  the  Fort  Hill  church  and  set  up  meet- 
ings in  his  own  house,  by  which  means  Bt^ist  principles  became 
disseminated  in  the  neighborhood.  It  is  stated  in  Benedict's  History 
of  the  Baptists,  that  Valentine  Wightman  preached  in  Lyme  in  1727, 
and  was  "  challenged  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bulkley  of  Colchester  to  a 
public  dispute,  which  was  first  maintained  in  a  verbal  manner  and  after- 
ward kept  up  in  writing."  This  preaching  was  probably  at  Nehe- 
miah Smith's.  A  church  was  soon  gathered  in  the  vicinity  and  Josh- 
ua Rogers  (also  from  the  Fort  Hill  church)  was  ordained  elder  at 
the  house  of  Mr.  Smith,  Oct.  11th,  1743.  After  officiating  as  pastor 
for  ten  or  twelve  years,  he  fell  into  disrepute  and  died  by  his  own 
hand  in  1756.  The  members  of  the  church  being  few  in  number 
and  scattered  in  point  of  residence,  joined  other  Baptist  societies  as 
they  were  formed,  and  this  the  most  ancient  Baptist  organization  in 
Lyme,  became  extinct. 


CHAPTER  XXV- 

Formation  of  an  Episcopal  society. — Building  of  a  church. — Family  of  Sea- 
bury — Ministers  Seabury  and  Graves. — The  church  closed.'^Unsuccessful 
attempts  to  procure  a  whig  pastor. — The  church  burnt  by  the  enemy. 

Rby.  James  McSparran  resided  many  years  in  the  Narragan- 
sett  country  as  an  Episcopal  missionary,  sustained  by  the  ^  Society 
for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts."  His  ministry 
there  extended  from  1721  to  1757.  In  a  sketch  of  the  colonies 
which  he  sent  home  to  his  patrons  and  which  was  published  under  the 
tide  of  "America  Dissected,"  in  speaking  of  Connecticut  he  says :  "I 
myself  began  one  church  by  occasional  visits  among  them,  at  a  place 
called  New  London."  The  claim  which  Dr.  McSparran  thus  ad- 
vances to  the  honor  of  having  founded  the  Episcopal  church  in  New 
London,  is  undoubtedly  valid.  He  was  probably  at  first  invited 
hither  by  the  English  residents  of  the  place,  and  his  zeal  and  energy 
soon  enlarged  the  number  of  adherents  to  the  church.  The  earUest 
entry  on  the  parish  records  is  as  follows : 

**  Colony  Connecticott,  June  6,  1725. 

"  Wee  the  subscribers  doe  oblige  ourselves  to  pay  to  the  Rev.  Mr  James 
McSparran,  or  to  his  substitute,  he  being  Treasurer,  the  particular  sums  an- 
nexed  to  our  names  for  the  building  and  erecting  a  Church  for  the  service  of 
Almighty  God,  according  to  the  Liturgie  of  the  Church  of  England  as  by  law 
established. 

John  Merritt  £50 
Peter  Buor  60 

John  Braddick  25 
John  Gridley  10 
James  Sterling  25 
Walter  Butler      10 

Most  of  these  subscribers,  but  not  all,  were  residents  in  New  Lon- 
don.    Gridley  and  Kay  belonged  to  Newport     Buor,  Tilley^  and 

1  James  TiUey  was  £rom  Edford,  in  Devonshire,  England. 


John  Bennett 

£3 

James  TiUey 

10 

George  Smith 

3 

Nathi  Kay 

20 

James  Packer 

5 

Giles  Goddard 

6" 

HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  441 

Smith  were  all  Englishmen  who  had  recently  established  themselves 
in  the  place.  Braddick  was  of  English  birth — a  son  of  Capt.  John 
Braddick,  then  of  Southold,  Long  Island,  but  "late  of  London/ 
John  Merritt  had  been  for  some  years  a  resident  in  the  North  Parish 
of  New  London,  and  had  liberally  patronized  the  Congregational 
church,  built  there  in  1722.  He  died  in  1732,  but  his  widow,  Mrs- 
Janette  Merritt,  and  his  grandson  Merritt  Smith  continued  in  the 
Episcopal  society.  Bennett,  Packer  and  Gk>ddard,  belonged  in  Gro- 
ton ;  but  the  last  named,  Dr.  Giles  Goddard,  soon  removed  to  New 
London.  Sterling  was  a  sea-captain  sailing  from  the  port.  Walter 
Butler  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  native  of  the  town. 

The  next  recorded  action  was  the  formation  of  a  standing  com- 
mittee, to  purchase  a  site  and  erect  the  contemplated  church.  This 
consisted  of  seven  persons — Messrs.  Merritt,  Buor,  Sterling  and 
Butler,  before-mentioned,  together  with  John  Shackmaple,  Thomas 
Mumford  and  William  Norton. 

Shackmaple  was  an  officer  of  the  customs,  son  of  the  collector 
Shackmaple,  then  recently  deceased.  It  is  probable  that  the  meet- 
ings for  worship  before  the  erection  of  the  church  were  held  at  the 
house  of  his  mother  Mrs.  Sarah  Shackmaple,  in  the  northern  divis- 
ion of  Bradley  St.  Thomas  Mumford  was  a  merchant,  trading  in 
New  London,  but  having  his  residence  in  Groton,  upon  the  opposite 
side  of  the  river.  Norton  is  not  a  name  belonging  to  New  London, 
and  is  not  mentioned  after  1726. 

The  first  proposition  before  the  committee  was  this.  The  Episco- 
pal society  in  Newport  being  then  engaged  in  erecting  a  new  church, 
it  was  proposed  to  apply  for  the  old  one ;  and  if  obtained,  to  take  it 
down,  bring  it  to  New  London  and  re-erect  the  whole  edifice  in  its 
original  proportions.  Dr.  McSparran  went  to  Newport  as  agent  in 
this  business,  but  some  obstacles  arising,  the  plan  was  relinquished ; 
and  it  was  decided  that  a  new  church  should  be  built,  of  smaller  di- 
mensions. 

The  site  chosen  for  the  edifice  was  a  vacant  lot  on  the  Parade, 
which  had  been  relinquished  by  the  town  to  Amos  Richardson,  as  a 
part  of  his  original  house  lot  grant.  It  consisted  of  about  twenty 
square  rods,  lying  in  an  angular  form,  the  east  end  being  in  a  line 
with  the  west  side  of  Bradley  Street,  and  the  west  end  tapering  to  a 
point  Edward  Hallam  purchased  it  in  1725  of  Richardson's  heirs. 
It  was  now  bought  for  £50  by  Thomas  Lechmere  of  Boston,  who 
took  the  deed  in  his  own  name  and  then  conveyed  it  to  the  commit- 
tee of  the  society  as  a  free  gift — 


442  HISTORY     iTF     NEW     LONDON. 

"  To  erect  thereon  a  church  or  decent  edifice  for  the  worship  of  God  accord- 
ing to  the  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England,  to  be  forever  devoted  to  this  sacred 
and  pious  use,  to  keep  up  a  church  thereon,  and  bury  their  dead  thereon.*'  Dated 
June  20th,  1726. 

A  building  fund  was  raised  by  subscription.  Considerable  sums 
were  given  in  Boston,  Newport  and  Providence.  In  New  York  the 
aggregate  sum  of  £75  was  obtained  through  the  agency  of  Capt. 
Matthew  Norris,  and  among  the  donors  are  the  names  of  Bumef 
Bayard,  DeLancey,  Duer,  Morris  and  Van  Rensalaer.  Some  con- 
tributions came  also  from  Philadelphia.  The  whole  sum  raised  was 
little  short  of  £500. 

The  contract  for  building  the  church  was  made  with  Capt  John 
Hough.  It  was  completed  and  opened  for  public  worship  in  the 
autumn  of  1732.  The  form  was  square,'  fifty  feet  each  way, "  thirty- 
two  feet  height  of  studd  and  five  windows,  with  two  double  doors  on 
the  west  end,  the  roof  half  flat  and  the  other  half  arched  on  each 
side."     The  original  number  of  pews  was  twenty-two. 

In  1741  a  subscription  of  £182,  was  taken  up  by  the  minister  and 
wardens— chiefly  as  they. stated,  "for  enlarging  our  bell."  In  1755 
the  edifice  was  thoroughly  repaired,  a  new  steeple  built,  the  bell  recasts 
and  a  clock  added.  As  the  congregation  increased,  a  gallery  was 
built  with  two  tiers  of  pews,  and  attics  above  the  gallery ;  and  yet 
later,  the  space  around  the  pulpit  was  diminished,  and  the  south  door 
shut  up,  in  order  to  occupy  the  room  with  new  pews.  Repairs  and 
improvements  were  again  made  in  1774. 

The  style  used  in  the  records  is  "  The  Episcopal  Church  of  New 
London,"  until  1741,  when  it  begins  to  be  designated  as  "  St.  James' 
Church,"  New  London." 

A  traditionary  anecdote  connected  with  this  ancient  church  is  too 
interesting  to  be  omitted.  The  steeple  or  belfry  terminated  in  a 
staff,  crowned  with  a  gilt  ball.  In  this  ball  an  Indian  arrow  was 
fixed,  hanging  diagonally  from  one  side  and  remaining  there  until  the 
destruction  of  the  church.  It  is  said  that  a  delegation  of  Indians 
passing  through  the  place  were  courteously  entertained  by  the  elder 
Nathaniel  Shaw.  In  traversing  the  town  with  their  host,  as  they 
stood  looking  at  the  church,  the  war-chief  of  the  party  took  an 


1  This  was  hi  accordance  with  Dr.  McSparran's  advice— "  if  built  sqnare,  it  may  in 
time  be  lengthened  and  enlarged.'*  The  timber  for  the  frame  was  furnished  by  Ma- 
jor Buor,  and  probably  grew  on  his  Bentworth  farm.  Among  the  items  of  expendi- 
ture is— Sept  80th,  172&— ^*  for  drink  at  movhig  the  frame  £6.** 


HISTORY     aP    NEW   LONDON.  443 

Bunrow  from  his  quiver,  and  fixing  it  in  his  bow,  aimed  at  this  ball. 
The  arrow  pierced  the  wood,  and  the  barb  was  firmly  fixed  in  the 
balL  "  Thai"  said  the  chief,  turning  with  a  triumphant  smile  to 
Capt.  Shaw,  '^  make  you  remember  Indian  came  here,  and  haw  he 
ehoot:* 

Coincident  with  the  establishment  of  an  Episcopal  church  in  New 
London,  Mr.  Samuel  Seabury,  a  young  minister  of  Groton,  renounced 
Congregationalism,  and  embraced  the  doctrines  and  liturgy  of  the 
Church  of  England.  This  has  been  already  mentioned  in  treating  of 
*he  North  Groton  or  Ledyard  church ;  but  a  brief  digression  will 
here  be  made  in  order  to  introduce  the  father  of  the  candidate.  Dea- 
con Seabury,  to  our  history. 

John  and  Samuel  Seabury  from  Duxbury,  Mass.,  appear  in  Con- 
necticut, a  little  before  the  year  1700.  Samuel  in  1702  made  pur- 
chases of  land  in  Lebanon,  but  his  name  is  not  found  on* any  early 
list  of  inhabitants  in  that  plantation.  John  settled  first  in  Stonington 
where  the  birth  of  his  son  David  is  recorded  Jan.  16th,  1699.  Li 
1704  he  exchanged  his  farm  in  Stonington  for  one  in  Groton,  to 
which  he  immediately  removed,  and  being  shortly  afterward  chosen 
a  deacon  in  the  Congregational  church  is  principally  known  to  our 
local  annals  as  Deacon  John  Seabury  of  Groton.  His  family  was 
registered  by  the  town-clerk  as  follows : 

John  Seabury  married  Elizabeth  Alden  Dec.  0th,  1697. 

Children. 

1.  David,  bom  Jan.  16th,  1699.  5.  Samuel,  bom  July  8th,  1706. 

2.  John,       "  and  died  in  1700.  6.  Mary,        •*     Nov.  11th,  1708. 

3.  Patience,**    May  5th,  1702.  7.  Sarah,       **     March  10th,  1710-11. 

4.  John,       **     May  22d,  1704.  8.  Nathaniel,**    July  3l8t,  1720. 

The  period  of  Deacon  Seabury's  death  has  not  been  ascertained. 
He  was  probably  interred  in  the  ancient  burial-ground  at  Pequonuck, 
where  sleep  the  two  excellent  ministers,  Woodbridge  and  Owen,  to 
whose  church  he  belonged.  His  relict  Elizabeth — ^a  granddaughter 
of  John  Alden  of  the  Mayflower — is  interred  at  Stonington.  She 
died  Jan.  4th,  1771,  aged  ninety-four.  It  is  inscribed  on  her  grave- 
stone that  she  lived  to  see  the  fourth  generation  of  her  descendants. 

Samuel  Seabury,  son  of  John,  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in 
1724,  and  being  licensed  as  a  Congregational  minister  preached 
several  months  in  the  year  1726  to  the  church  that  had  been  newly 
established  in  North  Groton.  He  declared  himself  a  convert  to  the 
Church  of  England  in  1730,  and  the  next  year  went  to  England 
where  he  received  Episcopal  ordination  from  the  Bishop  of  London. 


444  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

Mr.  Seabury  after  his  return  to  America,  received  a  commission 
from  the  "  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,"  to 
exercise  his  sacred  functions  in  New  London,  granting  him  a  yearly 
annuity  of  sixty  pounds,  lawful  money  of  Great  Britain,  with  an 
arrearage,  or  payment  backward  ^  from  the  feast-day  of  St.  John  the 
Baptist  which  was  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1730  :*' 

**  Provided  alway$\  and  on  condition  that  the  said  Samuel  Seabury  do  with- 
out delay  at  the  first  opportunity  after  the  date  hereof  cause  himself  to  be  con- 
veyed to  New  London  aforesaid,  and  from  and  after  his  arrival  continue  to 
reside  there  unless  otherwise  directed  by  the  said  Society  and  do  with  fidelity 
and  diligence  discbarge  his  holy  function,  otherwise  this  grant  to  be  void." 
May  19ih,  1732. 

Mr.  Seabnry  met  with  the  society  at  New  London,  April  lOth, 
1732.     The  first  church  officers  were  then  chosen. 
Ohurch-wardens. 
Thomas  Mumford,  John  Braddick. 

Vestry^meTU 
John  Shackmaple,  James  Packer, 

Matthew  Stewart,  Giles  Goddard. 

Thomas  Manwaring. 
Mr.  Mumford  officiated,  either  as  warden  or  vestry-man,  twenty- 
three  years;  and  Matthew  Stewart  twenty-seven  years.  Samuel 
Edgecombe  and  Dr.  Guy  Palmes  were  early  and  important  members 
of  the  society :  the  former  was  vestry-man  or  warden,  without  inter- 
val from  1735  to  1767  inclusive. 

Mr.  ^e&hury  though  styled  a  missionary  officiated  in  all  respects 
as  the  pastor  of  the  church.  He  remained  in  New  London  about 
eleven  years.  His  residence  during  the  latter  part  of  the  time  was 
in  State  Street,  in  a  house  which  he  built  in  1737,  and  sold  in  1744  to 
Edward  Palmes.     It  is  now  the  Brainerd  homestead. 

The  first  wife  of  Mr.  Seabury  was  Abigail,  daughter  of  Thomas 
Mumford.     She  died  in  1731,  leaving  two  children — 
Caleb,  bom  Feb.  27th,  1728. 
Samuel,  "     Nov.  30th,  1729. 
After  his  return  from  Europe  Mr.  Seabury  married  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Adam  Powell  of  Newport,  and  had  six  other  children. 

Early  in  1743,  Mr.  Seabury  was  transferred  by  the  society  under 
whose  auspices  he  labored  to  Hempstead,  Long  Island.  This  remov- 
al was  made  at  the  solicitation  of  the  people  there  and  with  his  own 
consent.  He  lived  pleasantly  at  Hempstead,  occupying  a  small  f€Lrm» 
and  beside  his  pastoral  duties  engaging  in  the  education  of  youth. 


BI8TOEY    OF     NEW     LONDON.  445 

His  last  sennon  is  said  to  have  been  preached  at  New  London,  while 
on  a  visit  to  his  relatives  and  former  flock.  Returning  home  from 
this  excursion  somewhat  indisposed,  he  never  went  out  again,  but 
sickened  and  died,  June  15th,  1764. 

Before  Mr.  Seabury  left  New  London  the  church  applied  to  ^e 
society  in  England  for  a  successor.  Jix  their  letter  to  the  secretary 
Feb.  26th,  1742-3,  they  observe— 

'*  The  very  great  convulsions  occasioned  here  and  in  diverse  other  places  o 
this  Colony  by  the  breaking  out  of  what  is  called  the  *'  New  Light**  makes  this 
a  melancholy  juncture  to  have  our  church  empty  and  unsupplied." 

Several  years  elapsed  before  a  successor  arrived.  Mr.  Matthew 
Graves  at  length  received  the  appointment ;  and  his  name  is  regis- 
tered as  present  at  a  parish  meeting  April  11th,  1748.  Previous  to 
his  arrival  a  glebe  or  parsonage  had  been  secured  for  the  use  of  the 
pastor.  Land  for  this  purpose  had  been  freely  given  by  Samuel 
Edgecombe  on  Main  Street,  "  four  rods  front  and  nine  rods  deep.'* 
The  title  was  not  vested  in  the  church,  but  in  the  Society  for  Propa- 
gating the  Grospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Episcopal 
church  in  New  London.  The  house  built  upon  this  site  about  1750 
is  still  extant ;  and  though  much  improved  in  style  and  convenience 
by  the  present  rector,  retains  its  original  frame-work  and  most  of 
its  old  interior  arrangements.  Li  the  guest  chamber,  on  one  of  the 
panes  a  text  of  Scripture  is  engraved  with  a  diamond  in  a  neat,  fair 
hand,  '^  Thou  art  careful  and  troubled  about  many  things,  but  one 
thing  is  needfuL** 

This  is  said  to  have  been  done  by  Rev.  John  Graves  of  Provi- 
dence,' brother  of  Matthew,  while  lodging  in  the  chamber,  and  was 
doubless  intended  as  a  gentle  admonition  to  his  sister.  Miss  Joanna, 
who  presided  over  the  household  concerns. 

Mr.  Graves  remained  in  New  London  more  than  thirty  years ; 
exercising  his  functions  discreetly,  and  living  a  blameless  life.  He 
preached  often  in  Groton,  Hebron  and  Norwich ;  was  assiduous  in 
his  attentions  to  the  sick,  the  poor  and  to  prisoners  in  jail,  and  fre- 
quently united  in  worship  with  Christians  of  other  names.  Rev.  Eli- 
phalet  Adams,  the  Congregational  minister,  of  the  town,  in  acknowl- 
edging the  kind  attentions  of  friends  and  neighbors  at  the  trying 


1  Bey.  John  Graves  as  a  preacher  had  a  higher  reputation  than  his  brother  Mat- 
thew. Mr.  Hempstead  writes,  Nov.  2dd,  1766,  **  I  went  to  the  Church  to  hear  Mr. 
Graves's  brother— a  fiunous  man." 

38 


446  HISTORY     OF   NEW     LONDON. 

period  of  his  wife's  illness  and  death,  observes :  '^  The  Reverend 
Mr.  Graves  prayed  with  us  again  and  again  with  much  sympathy." 
It  was  said  also  that  afler  the  death  of  Mr.  Adams  he  zealously 
encouraged  the  settlement  of  his  successor.  This  was  given  as  a 
reason  by  the  wardens  of  St.  Paul's  Church  in  Narragansett,  why 
they  did  not  wish  him  to  be  transferred  to  them,  as  the  successor  oE 
Dr.  McSparran,  in  1757. 

«*  He  has  lately  given  great  olTenco  to  his  brethren  and  us,  by  being  officious 
in  settling  a  dissenting  teacher  at  New  London,  and  injudicious  enough  to  be 
present  at  his  ordination." 

After  the  commencement  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  Mr.  Graves 
gave  umbrage  to  the  citizens  at  large,  and  even  to  a  majority  of  his 
own  parishioners,  who  were  ardent  whigs,  by  continuing  to  read  the 
prayers  for  the  king  and  royal  family.  No  entry  appears  on  the  par- 
ish records  betwixt  April  l7th,  1775,  and  November  13th,  1778. 
During  this  period  the  regular  course  of  parish  business  was  inter- 
rupted ;  no  church  officers  were  chosen,  and  no  service  was  per- 
formed in  the  church.  From  the  recitals  of  the  aged  we  learn  that 
Mr,  Graves  had  been  respectfully  requested  to  desist  from  reading 
the  obnoxious  part  of  the  hturgy,  but  with  this  request  he  declared 
that  he  could  not  conscientiously  comply.  It  was  then  intimated  to 
him  that  if  he  persisted  it  was  at  his  peril,  and  he  must  abide  the 
consequences.  Accordingly  the  next  Sunday  a  determined  party  of 
whigs  stationed  themselves  near  the  door,  with  one  in  the  porch  to 
keep  his  hand  on  the  bell  rope,  and  as  soon  as  the  minister,  who  was 
aware  of  the  arrangement,  began  the  obnoxious  prayer,  which  he  did 
with  a  firm  voice,  the  bell  sounded  and  the  throng  rushed  into  the 
house.  They  were  led  on,  it  is  said,  by  the  brothers  Thomas  and 
David  Mumford,  both  men  of  commanding  aspect  and  powerful  frame, 
who  ascended  the  pulpit  stairs,  and  taking  each  an  arm  of  the  minis- 
ter, brought  him  expeditiously  to  the  level  of  the  floor.  Some  great 
outrage  might  have  been  committed,  for  mobbing  was  then  frequent, 
and  the  rage  against  toryism  unmitigated ;  but  two  resolute  matrons 
belonging  to  the  church,  rushed  forward,  and  placing  themselves  in 
front  of  the  unfortunate  clergyman,  declared  their  intention  of  stand- 
ing between  him  and  harm.  The  Mumfords  relinquished  their  pris- 
oner, and  the  women  protected  him  from  the  populace  till  he  escaped 
by  a  side  door  and  found  shelter  in  a  neighboring  house.  "  He  fled 
in  his  surplice  to  the  house  of  a  parishioner,  who  though  a  warm 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  447 

whig,  was  his  personal  friend,  and  protected  him  from  the  violence  of 
the  mob,*" 

This  was  the  last  time  that  Mr.  Graves  officiated  in  New  London. 
Afler  the  mob  dispersed,  the  doors  were  locked,  and  it  was  regarded 
as  too  hazardous  to  attempt  the  renewal  of  the  services  for  the  next 
three  years. 

"  At  a  parish  meeting  Nov.  14th,  1778. 

"  Pat  to  vote,  that  no  person  be  permitted  to  enter  the  church  and  act  as  a 
pastor  to  it,  unlets  he  openly  prays  for  Congress  and  the  free  and  independent 
states  of  America,  and  their  prosperity  by  sea  and  land." 

The  vote  on  this  question  stood  fourteen  to  eleven,  but  several 
being  challenged  as  having  no  right  to  vote,  the  issue  was  ten  on  each 
side. 

"  Voted,  that  the  church-wardens  wait  on  the  Rev.  Mr.  Graves  and  let  him 
know  of  the  foregoing  vote,  and  if  it  be  agreeable  to  him,  he  may  reassume  the 
church  of  St.  James,  and  officiate  as  pastor  thereof,  he  praying  and  conform- 
ing to  said  vote.  If  so,  he  may  be  admitted  to-morrow,  being  Sunday,  15th 
Nov.  Agreeable  to  the  above,  we  the  church-wardens  waited  on  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Graves,  and  acquainted  him  with  the  resolve  of  the  parishioners,  to  which  he 
^replied,  he  could  not  comply  therewith. 

Thomas  Allen,  )      Chwch- 


:-} 


John  Deshon,    3     Wardens. 

This  determination  rendered  Mr.  Graves  so  unpopular  that  it  was 
considered  undesirable  for  him  to  remain  at  New  London.  In  Au- 
gust, 1779,  Mr.  Shaw,  the  naval  agent  of  the  port,  sent  a  flag  of 
truce  to  convey  him  to  New  York,  where  he  died  suddenly,  after 
only  two  days*  illness,  April  6th,  1780.  He  was  never  married  ;  a 
maidien  sister  who  had  always  resided  with  him  in  New  London, 
went  with  him  to  New  York,  and  returned  lonely  and  disconsolate 
after  his  death. 

"June  25th,  1780. 

"  Voted,  that  Mrs.  Joanna  Graves  has  liberty  to  enter  the  parsonage  house 
after  the  29th  August  next,  and  enjoy  one  bed  room  and  one  lower  room,  until 
a  minister  is  called  to  officiate  in  the  church  of  St.  James." 

This  venerable  lady  afterward  removed  to  Providence. 

Officers  of  the  church  were  again  chosen  in  September,  1779: 


1  Rev.  R.  A.  Hallam.  See  His.  of  Narragansett  Church,  by  Updike.  Many  versions 
of  this  event,  the  dragging  of  the  English  minister  fh>m  the  ptilpit,  and  the  locking  up 
of  the  church,  have  been  current.  The  author  has  endeavored  to  give  a  clear  state- 
ment;  but  being  drawn  from  discordant  materials,  it  may  not  be  enthrely  correct. 


448  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON* 

Thomas  Allen,  first  warden ;  John  Hertell,  second.  These  are  the 
last  on  record  under  the  old  order  of  things,  and  continued  nominallj 
in  office  until  the  torch  of  the  invader  laid  the  greater  pM*t  of  the 
town  in  ruins. 

The  church  was  again  opened,  though  not  for  Episcopal  service,  in 
January,  1780,  The  Congregational  society,  to  whom  the  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Adams  was  then  preaching,  was.  alio  wed  the  use  of  the  church 
for  their  services,  by  a  vote  of  the  parishioners,  "  during  the  severity 
of  the  season,  and  the  pleasure  of  the  church.*'  This  was  an  accom- 
modation, as  the  Congregational  edifice  was  on  the  summit  of  a  bleak 
hill,  and  that  winter  one  of  unprecedented  severity. 

The  next  year  and  the  next,  attempts  were  made  to  revive  the  Epis- 
copal  service. 

**  At  a  parish  meeting  June  25th,  17S0,  Thomas  Allen,  moderator,  voted 
that  the  church  wardens  call  on  the  Rev.  Mr.  Tyler,  of  Norwich,  to  officiate  in 
the  church,  or  any  gentleman  that  will  officiate  as  he  does,  retpeeting  the  pray* 
trs,  as  Mr.  Lewis,  or  H.  Parker,  of  Boston,  or  Mr.  Freeman." 

"April  16th,  1781. 

'*  Voted  that  the  wardens  call  on  some  Rev.  gentleman  to  officiate  in  the 
church  of  St  James,  i.  e.  as  Rev.  Mr.  Jarvis.or  Mr.  Hubbard  do." 

No  pastor  was,  however,  procured.  The  church  was  destroyed  in 
the  general  conflagration  of  September  6th,  1781.  We  may  suppose 
that  of  the  numbers  who  afler  this  catastrophe  stood  in  sad  contem- 
plation gazing  upon  the  ruins,  very  few  felt  a  sharper  pang  of  grief 
than  John  Bloyd,  who  had  been  for  many  years  tiie  sexton.  He  had 
kept  the  key,  and  taken  charge  of  the  edifice  during  the  whole  period 
of  the  wiur ;  to  him  doubtless  it  was  a  cherished  object  of  affection, 
and  the  view  of  its  smoldering  heap  must  have  carried  desolation  to 
his  heart.* 


1 A  subscription  for  Bloyd*t  benefit  was  oircnUted  by  the  wardens  in  1786.    He  was 
Afterward  the  first  oHj  crier. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

The  Great  Awakening  of  1741.— Preaching  of  Tennent,  Davenport  and  others. 
Act  of  Assembly  in  May,  1742.— Separate  society  formed.— The  Shepherd's 
tent. — ^Accessions  to  the  church. — Burning  of  the  books. — Trial  of  the  book- 
burners. — ^Descriptions  of  the  scene  by  Trumbull  and  Peters. — Whitefield's 
visits.— Ministry  and  death  of  his  fHend  Barber,  of  Groton. 

Thb  years  1740  and  1741  vr&re  distinguished  by  the  greatest  re- 
vival of  religion  ever  known  in  New  England.  Great  was  the  power 
of  preaching.  The  state  of  society  was  very  much  renovated  by  its 
influence.  But  the  stream  did  not  flow  every  where  in  a  clear  and 
smooth  current  Sometimes  it  was  turbid,  and  often  lashe^  into  a 
foam.  Most  of  the  leading  ministers  and  magistrates  of  Connecticut 
beheld  its  progress  with  distrust  and  fear.  Hence  arose  divisions  in 
the  churches ;  the  seceders  being  at  flrst  called  New  Lights  and 
Congregational  Separates,  but  most  of  them  coalescing  afterward 
with  the  Baptist  denomination. 

In  New  London  the  fervor  of  excitement  commenced  with  the 
preaching  of  three  sermons  by  Mr.  Gilbert  Tennent,  March  80th, 
1741 ;  at  noon,  at  three  P.  M.  and  in  the  evening.  Night-preachingi 
as  it  was  termed,  was  at  that  period  very  unusual.  Mr.  Tennent  had 
large  congregations  ;  not  only  the  whole  throng  of  the  town's  people 
attended,  but  the  fanners  came  in  with  their  families.  The  next  day 
he  preached  four  times,  to  still  increasing  numbers,  the  assembly  be- 
ing swelled  by  accessions  from  the  neighboring  towns.  April  1st, 
many  from  this  throng  accompanied  him  to  East  Lyme,  to  hear  him 
again,  and  others  joined  the  train  along  the  rood. 

Meetings  now  became  very  frequent :  the  neighboring  clergymen 
assisted  each  other  in  weekly  lectures,  being  all  greatly  enlivened  in 
their  exercises ;  and  the  assemblies  unwontedly  large  and  devout. 
On  the  19th  of  May,  the  children  of  the  town  were  assembled,  and 
short  sermons  were  addressed  to  them  in  terms  adapted  to  their  com- 
38* 


450  BIBTOttY    6f    new    LONDON. 

prehension ;  they  were  arranged  in  ranks  according  to  size  and  age, 
the  boys  in  one  company  ami  the  girls  in  another.  Toward  the  end 
of  that  month,  Mr.  Mills,  o^  Derby,  arrived  in  town,  and  Mr.  Eells, 
of  Stonington,  came  over ;  these  joining  Mr.  Adams,  a  series  of  lec- 
tures were  preached,  forming  what  would  now  be  called  a  protracted 
meeting.  "  The  whole  week,"  says  Hempstead,  writing  on  the  6th 
of  June,  ^  hath  been  kept  as  a  Sabbath,  and  with  the  greatest  success 
imaginable.  Never  was  any  such  time  here,  and  scarce  any  where 
else.  The  wonderful  works  of  Grod  have  been  made  evident  in  the 
powerful  conviction  and  conversion  of  diverse  persons  in  an  extraor- 
dinary manner." 

On  the  16th  June,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Parsons,  of  Lyme,  an  earnest  re- 
vivalist, came  to  New  London  at  the  express  invitation  of  Mr.  Adams, 
in  order  to  reconcile  if  possible,  the  two  parties  which  had  sprung 
up,  and  threatened  a  rupture  in  the  congregation.  He  preached  two 
sermons,  one  at  the  meeting-house,  and  the  other  in  the  evening,  at 
the  dwelling  of  Mr.  Curtis.  In  an  account  afterward  published  by 
Mr.  Parsons,  of  the  part  he  took  in  the  great  revival,  speaking  of 
this  visit  to  New  London,  he  observes : 

"  The  success  was  not  acoording  to  my  wishes.  I  found  mutual  rising  jeal> 
ousies,  tftid  as  I  thought  groundless  surmisings  in  some  instances,  prevailing 
among  them  These  difficulties  increased  afterward ;  and  for  want  of  charity 
and  mutual  condescension  and  forbearance,  they  have  produced  an  open  sepa- 
ration." 

The  two  parties  consisted  of  the  new  converts,,  who  exhibited  a 
flaming  zeal,  and  those  who  opposed  the  work,  being  excited  proba- 
bly to  this  opposition  by  the  imprudence  of  the  converts. 

Mr.  James  Davenport;^  of  Southold,  Long  Island,  the  most  ardent 
and  renowned  enthusiast  of  this  exciting  period,  preached  his  first 
sermon  at  New  London,  on  the  18th  of  July.  The  service  was  at  the 
meeting-house,  and  held  in  the  evening.  Hempstead,  in  his  diary, 
thus  describes  the  scene : 

**  Divers  women  were  terrified  and  cried  out  exceedingly.  When  Mr.  Da- 
venport had  dismissed  the  congriegution  some  went  out  and  others  stayed  ;  he 
then  went  into  the  broad  alley,  which  was  much  crowded,  and  there  he 
screamed  out,  *  Come  to  Christ\  come  to  Christ !  come  away  !  come  away  !* 
Then  he  went  into  the  third  pewy>n  the  women's  side,  and  kept  there,  some- 
times singing,  sometimes  prayins;  ho  and  his  companions  all  taking  their 
turns,  and  the  women  fieiinting  an\l  in  hysterics.  This  confusion  continued 
till  ten  o'clock  at  night,  and  then  hejwent  oflf  singing  through  the  streets." 

Mr.  Davenport  visited  also  the  North  Parish,  and  preached  in  his 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  451 

costomaiy  violent  and  denunciatory  manner.     The  Rev.  Mr.  Jewett 
pastor  of  the  church,  declining  to  give  him  an  account  of  his  religious 
experience,  he  declared  in  puhlic  that  it  was  his  opinion,  or  at  least 
his  great  fear,  that  Mr.  Jewett  was  an  unconverted  person. 

From  New  London  the  preacher  passed  over  to  Groton,  where  he 
held  meetings  four  or  ^ve  days  successively,  to  audiences  of  ahout 
one  thousand  persons.  On  the  23d  of  July,  he  continued  the  meeting 
till  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  some  of  the  hearers  remained  all 
night  under  the  oak-tree  where  he  preached,  or  in  the  meeting-house. 
"  About  sixty,"  says  Hempstead,  "  were  wounded ;  many  strong  men 
as  well  as  others." 

On  the  24th  he  preached  in  the  west  meeting-house  in  Stonington, 
where  it  was  said  near  100  persons  were  struck  under  conviction.* 
The  meeting  was  much  disturbed,  "  hundreds  crying  out."  The  next 
day  he  ascended  a  rugged  knoll  near  the  meeting-house,  and  with  a 
rock  for  his  pulpit,  proclaimed  his  message  in  the  open  air.  "  Sev- 
eral were  wounded,"  says  Hempstead,  "but  not  like  yesterday." 
The  next  day,  Sunday,  he  made  his  appearance  at  the  center  meeting- 
house in  Stonington,  where  Rev.  Nathaniel  Eells  was  the  pastor. 
Not  being  invited  into  the  pulpit,  he  took  his  station  under  the  trees 
near  by,  where  he  condemned  Mr.  Eells  for  his  want  of  fervor  and 
spirituality.  This  severe  way  of  judging  their  minister,  was  so  dis- 
tasteful to  his  audience  that  it  gradually  melted  away ;  most  of  the 
people  joining  the  regular  congregation  in  the  meeting-house. 

Itinerant  preaching  was  a  new  element  in  the  Congregationalism 
of  New  England,  and  did  not  assimilate  well  with  the  ancient  consti- 
tution. On  the  24th  of  November,  a  grand  council  of  ministers  and 
messengers,  delegated  from  all  parts  of  the  colony,  met  at  Killing- 
worth,  as  directed  by  an  act  of  Assembly,  to  discuss  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  traveling  ministers ;  the  disorders  occasioned  by  them ;  the 
odium  they  brought  upon  settled  ministers,  and  the  countenance  they 
gave  to  Separatists.  This  council  condemned  as  disorderly,  all 
preaching  of  one  minister,  within  the  parish  of  another,  without  his 
leave.  In  conformity  with  this  ecclesiastical  decision,  the  General 
Court,  in  May,  1742,  enacted  a  stringent  law,  directed  chiefly  against 
irregular  ministers  and  exhorters ;  entitled  "  An  act  for  regulating 
abuses  and  correcting  disorders  in  ecclesiastical  affairs."  The  gen- 
eral association  of  ministers  of  the  colony  met  at  New  London,  in 
June,  and  endorsed  this  new  law  with  the  seal  of  their  approbation.* 

1  Great  Awakening,  p.  166.  2  TrombulL 


452  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON* 

Under  tliis  law,  Mr.  Thatcher,  (probably  Rev.  Peter  Thatcher,  of 
Middleburj,)  was  arrested  for  preaching  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Curtis, 
in  New  London,  on  the  24th  of  June,  carried  before  a  justice  and  sen- 
tenced to  be  sent  from  constable  to  constable  out  of  the  colony.  In 
execution  of  this  sentence  he  was  forwarded,  June  26th,  to  the  Groton 
constable,  who  allowed  him  to  return  to  New  London  the  same  night, 
where  he  pursued  the  same  course  of  preaching  and  exhorting  as  be- 
fore, though  more  privately,  and  no  further  notice  appears  to  have 
been  taken  of  him  by  the  authorities.  The  law  was  a  violation  of 
the  rights  of  conscience  and  of  personal  freedom,  so  manifest  and  un- 
justifiable, that  it  could  not  be  long  enforced.* 

At  this  period,  New  London  county  was  regarded  abroad  as  the 
focus  of  enthusiasm,  discord  and  confusion.  A  letter  to  Mr.  Bellamy, 
from  Bev.  David  Brainerd,  often  himself  classed  among  enthusiasts, 
alludes  to  the  false  zeal  and  disorderly  condition  of  the  churches  in 
New  London  and  Stonington.  He  writes  from  Saybrook,  February 
4th,  1742. 

**  Last  week  I  preached  for  Mr.  Fish,  of  Stonington ;  the  Lord  helped  me  to 
be  all  love  there,  while  I  was  [pleading]  for  religion,  so  that  if  they  had  any 
intention  to  quarrel  with  me,-  the  Lord  helped  me  to  love  them  all  to  death. 
There  was  much  false  zeal  among  them,  so  that  some  began  to  separate  from 
that  dear  man.  He  desired  me  if  I  wrote  to  you  to  remember  his  affectionate 
love  to  you,  and  tell  you  he  wanted  to  see  you  in  those  parts  more  than  any 
roan  on  earth ;  and  indeed  I  believe  you  might  do  service  there  if  the  Lord 
should  help  you  to  softness.  There  is,  I  believe,  much  fal#e  religion  in  sundry 
of  those  eastern  towns.  I  preached  also  at  Now  London,  where  I  conceive 
there  is  wild  confusion,  too  long  to  mention ;  if  you  should  see  Mr.  Pierpont,  of 
New  Haven,  he  could  tell  you  something."* 

At  the  communion  service  on  the  29th  of  Nov.,  1742,  it  was  no- 
ticed that  five  prominent  members  of  Mr.  Adams'  church  were 
absent ;  viz.,  John  Curtis,  Christopher  and  John  Christophers,  John 
and  Peter  Harris.  Tliis  was  the  nucleus  of  the  party  that  assembled 
by  themselves,  at  each  other's  houses.  The  deadness  of  the  church 
and  the  legal  preaching,  as  they  termed  it,  were  the  reasons  they 
gave  for  secession.  They  and  others  associated  themselves  into  a 
separate  society,  and  were  qualified  by  the  county  court  to  hold 
meetings  and  worship  together,  without  molestation.     Mr.  Timothy 


1 "  It  fell  in  a  few  years  and  buried  the  party  which  enacted  it  in  its  ruins."  Great 
Awakening,  p.  239, 

2  Extracted  IVom  the  orighud  impabllshed  letter  flimished  the  author,  by  Bev. 
Tryon  Edwards,  of  Kew  Loudon. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  453 

Allen  from  West  Haven  was  their  teacher.^  Mr.  Jonathan  Hill  was 
an  exhorter,  and  many  others  took  a  similar  part.  • 

After  a  time  the  house  of  Samuel  Harris  (Truman  Street,  comer 
of  Blinman,)  was  fitted  up  for  this  society,  and  called  "  The  Shep- 
herd's Tent."  It  was  intended  to  be  an  academy  or  institution  for 
educating  young  men  to  become  exhorters,  teachers  and  ministers- 
How  many  resorted  to  it,  is  not  known.  Mr.  Allen  resided  with  his 
family  in  the  samd  building  and  kept  his  school  for  initiates  in  the 
upper  part. 

In  the  meetings  of  the  Separates  at  the  Shepherd's  Tent,  laymen 
and  women  were  allowed  freedom  of  speech,  and  a  relation  of  Chris- 
tian experience  was  usually  expected  from  those  who  attended.^ 
There  is  no  doubt  but  that  in  most  cases,  all  things  were  done  decent- 
}j  and  in  order,  but  sometimes  when  the  excitement  was  great, 
preaching,  praying,  singing  and  exhorting,  all  went  on  together,  and 
confusion  was  the  inevitable  result.  The  whole  number  that  with- 
drew from  the  congregation  of  Mr.  Adams  was  afterward  estimated 
at  100. 

All  the  churches  in  New  London  county  participated  more  or  less 
in  the  great  awakening.  Mr.  Jewett  of  the  North  Parish  of  New 
London  after  a  time  entered  into  it  with  glowing  zeal.  The  revival 
in  his  congregation  began  under  the  instrumentality  of  Mr.  Parsons 
of  West  Jjjiae  in  December,  1741.  He  preached  there  two  suc- 
cessive days,  and  about  twenty  persons  were  regarded  as  converts. 
In  the  evening  of  the  second  day,  just  after  the  blessing  was  pro- 
nounced and  the  usual  service  closed,  (Mr.  Parsons  observes),  "  a 
wonderful  outpouring  of  the  Spirit"  was  experienced.  Mr.  Jewett 
had  returned  from  Lyme  where  he  had  been  to  supply  the  pulpit  in 
exchange  with  his  friend,  and  coming  in  to  the  assembly  during  the 
exercises,  received  a  new  baptism  from  on  high.  "  He  seemed  to 
be  full  of  life  and  spirit  fipom  the  Lord."*     From  that  time  all  dissen- 


1  "  July  lOth,  1742.  I  was  at  Mr.  MUler*8  with  the  reat  of  the  authority  to  speak 
with  Mr.  Allen  a  suspended  minister  who  is  come  here  from  New  Haven  west  side , 
and  sets  up  to  preach  in  private  houses.'^    Hempstead. 

2  "  Feb.  2d.  Nath.  Williams  of  Stonington  lodged  here.  He  went  over  m  the  eve- 
nhig  to  the  Shepherd's  tent  and  there  related  his  Christian  experiences  in  order  to 
have  their  approbation,  but  behold  quite  the  contrary,  for  they  upon  examination, 
find  him  yet  in  an  unconverted  state,  and  he  confesses  the  justice  of  their  judgment* 
and  says  that  he  hath  judged  others  diverse  times,  and  though  he  is  unwilling  to  be- 
lieve it,  yet  like  others  he  is  forced  to  bear  it.**    Ibid. 

8  Parsons. 


454  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

tion  in  his  church  disappeared,  and  those  that  had  been  on  the  point 
of  separation  from  his  ministry,  now  ^'  had  their  hearte  wonderfullj 
united  to  him." 

Messrs.  Owen  and  Croswell  of  Groton  had  also  visits  from  the 
revivalist  preachers,  whom  they  welcomed  with  genuine  sympathy. 
Mr.  Croswell,  in  July,  1742,  took  up  the  pen  in  defense  of  the  course 
pursued  by  Mr.  Davenport,  who  had  been  severely  censured  in  reso- 
lutions emanating  from  the  associated  churches  of  Boston  and  Charles- 
town  in  Massachusette.^ 

The  principal  accessions  to  the  church  of  Mr.  Adams  were  in 
1741  from  May  to  September  inclusive.  In  this  period  eighty  mem- 
bers were  received ;  during  the  next  three  months  only  four.  The 
Seceders,  however,  kept  up  the  life  and  fervor  of  their  zeal  for  two 
or  three  years :  and  their  meetings  continued  to  be  marked  "  witk  ' 
great  cryings  out  of  many."  The  magistrates  of  the  town  some-  ' 
times  interfered  with  warnings  and  reproofs  but  in  general  they  were 
allowed  to  conduct  their  worship  in  their  own  way. 

Early  in  March,  1743,  Mr.  Davenport  again  visited  New  London ; 
sent  hither  with  a  message  from  Grod,  as  he  averred,  to  purify  the 
little  company  of  Separatists  from  some  evils  that  had  crept  in 
among  them.  His  mind  was  in  a  state  of  fervid  exaltation,  amount- 
ing to  frenzy.  Bodily  ailments  and  overstrained  faculties  had  so  dis- 
ordered his  reason  that  he  could  no  longer  keep  within  the  bounds  of 
order  and  propriety.  On  Sunday  evening  March  6th,  a  strdnge  scene 
was  exhibited.  This  was  the  time  of  the  burning  of  the  books ; 
which  has  been  regarded  as  the  most  conspicuous  instance  of  fanati- 
cism which  occurred  in  New  England  during  this  period  of  religious 
enthusiasm.  Of  this  transaction  unfortunately,  no  account  has  been 
left  by  an  eye-witness.* 

According  to  report,  Mr.  Davenport  preached  one  of  his  impet- 
uous exclamatory  sermons  on  the  necessity  of  forming  a  pure  church. 
In  order  to  do  this  the  candidates  must  cast  away  every  kind  of  idol ; 
and  as  one  species  of  idolatry,  he  denounced  certain  religious  books 
which  had  been  worshiped  as  guides,  and  exalted  into  standards  of 
'  faith,  but  which,  he  said,  contained  false  doctrines  and  misled  men  to 


1  Great  Awakening,  p.  244. 

2  Hempstead,  whose  diary  has  been  so  often  quoted  was  at  this  time  at  Long  Island. 
On  the  preceding  Sabbath,  (Feb.  27th,)  he  had  heard  Mr.  Davenport  hold  forth  at 
Sonthold  and  his  description  of  the  service  prepares  the  mind  to  believe  that  he  might 
reach  any  degree  of  extravagance.  He  says,  **  The  praying  was  without  form  or 
comeliness.** 


HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON.  455 

their  ruin.  He  urged  his  hearers  with  great  vehemence,  to  cast 
awaj,  bum  up,  and  utterly  destroy  every  object  which  had  been  re- 
garded with  idolatrous  veneration.  The  power  of  Mr.  Davenport 
over  the  sympathies  of  an  audience,  was  very  great,  and  at  the  close 
of  his  service  when  a  call  was  made  upon  the  people  immediately  to 
purify  themselves  by  renouncing  idolatry,  the  whole  congregation  res- 
ponded to  the  proposition.  It  was  then  proposed  to  repair  to  a  cer- 
tain place,  each  with  his  idol  and  his  heretical  books,  and  there  to 
make  a  bonfire  and  utterly  consume  them.  This  extravagant  de- 
mand was  acceded  to  with  enthusiasm  and  alacrity.  A  fire  was  im- 
mediately kindled  upon  the  open  space  near  the  town  wharf,  fronting 
the  house  of  Mr.  Christophers,  where  it  is  probable  the  sermon  was 
preached,  and  thither  in  the  dusk  of  night  hastened  a  throng  of  in- 
fatuated people  of  both  sexes,  each  with  books,  or  sermons,  or  some 
article  pleasing  to  the  sight  or  engaging  to  the  thoughts  of  its  owner, 
which  he,  or  she,  with  loud  ejaculations  of  prayer  or  praise,  cast 
vehemently  into  the  fire. 

Women,  it  is  said,  came  with  their  ornamental  attire,  their  hoops, 
calashes  and  satin  cardinab;  men  with  their  silk  stockings,  em- 
broidered vests  and  buckles.  Whatever  they  had  esteemed  and 
cherished  as  valuable  must  now  be  sacrificed.  Most  of  the  articles 
were  of  a  nature  to  be  quickly  consumed,  but  the  heavy  books  lay 
long  upon  the  smoldering  heap,  and  some  of  them  were  even 
adroitly  rescued  by  lookers  on,  though  in  a  charred  condition.  A 
copy  of  Russell's  Seven  Sermons,  which  was  abstracted  from  the 
embers  with  one  comer  burnt  ofi^,  was  long  preserved  as  a  memorial 
of  this  erratic  proceeding. 

This  ebullition  of  misguided  zeal  appears  to  have  operated  on  the 
troubled  mindsi  of  those  engaged  in  it,  like  a  storm  upon  the  moody 
atmosphere,  dispersing  the  mists,  calming  the  air,  and  cooling  the 
temperature.  From  this  period  the  New  Light  party  in  New  Lon- 
don took  reason  and  discretion  for  their  guides  and  interpreted  more 
soberly  the  suggestions  of  conscience  and  the  commands  of  Scripture. 
Reports  of  what  had  been  done  however,  flew  abroad  on  the  wings 
of  the  wind,  and  all  the  regular  clergy  were  alarmed.  The  burning 
of  books  so  highly  esteemed  in  the  country,  works  of  eminent  dis- 
senters and  other  evangelical  divines,  was  almost  considered  sacrilege. 
On  the  30th  of  March  a  council  of  ministers  met  at  the  house  of 
Mr.  Adams  to  solace  him  under  his  trials  with  their  advice  and  sym- 
pathy, and  to  consult  respecting  ^Hhe  disorders  subsisting  among 
those  called  New  Lights."     The  ministers  present  were  Edwards  of 


456  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

Northampton,  Williams  of  Lebanon,  Lord  of  Norwich,  Meacham  ^ 
Coventry,  Pomeroy  of  Hebron,  Bellamy  of  Woodbury,  Rosseter  of 
Stonington  and  the  younger  Buel  of  Coventry.  On  the  Slst  Mr. 
Edwards  preached  a  sermon  very  suitable  to  the  times,  as  bearing 
witness  against  the  prevailing  disorders,  caused  by  enthusiasm."^ 
After  which  a  great  concourse  of  people  repaired  to  the  court-house 
where  the  actors  in  the  scene  of  burning  the  books  were  to  have 
their  trial ;  writs  having  been  filed  against  them  on  the  plea  of  pro- 

fiming  the  Sabbath. 

t, 

'*  At  a  Court  held  in  New  London,  in  the  county  of  New  London  March  31st, 
1743,  and  continued  by  adjournment  to  the  5th  of  April,  1743.  Present  J. 
Hempstead  justice  of  the  Peace." 

John  Curtiss,  Timothy  Allen,  Christopher  Christophers,  Daniel  Shapley, 
Tu thill,  and  Sweasy  being  arrested  and  brought  before  this  Court  (upon  the 
presentment  of  one  of  the  grand-jurors  of  our  Lord  the  King)  to  answer  to  the 
complaint  exhibited  ngainst  them,  for  that  the  persons  aforesaid  did  on  the  6th 
day  of  March  instant,  being  Sabbath  or  Lord*s  Day  gather  themselves  together 
with  divers  other  persons  unknown,  (being  some  of  them  inhabitants  of  New 
London,  and  some  of  them  transient  persons)  in  the  Town  Street  in  New  Lon- 
don aforesaid,  near  the  dwelling-house  of  Edward  Robinson  of  New  London, 
and  being  so  gathered  together  did  there  and  then  profane  said  day  by  kindling 
a  fire  in  or  near  the  street  aforesaid  and  by  throwing  into  said  fire  sundry  good 
and  useful  treatises,  books  of  practical  godliness,  the  works  of  able  divines, 
and  whilst  said  books  were  consuming  in  the  flames,  did  shout,  hollow  and 
scream,  &o.  (as  per  writ  dated  March  29tb,  1743.) 

**  And  the  parties  defend ;  say  they  are  not  guilty ;  and  ibr  plea  say  that  they 
are  members  of  a  Society  allowed  by  the  Statutes  of  William  and  Mary  in  tho 
first  year  of  their  reign  to  worship  God  according  to  their  own  consciences,  in 
a  way  different  from  that  established  in,  and  by  the  laws  of  this  Colony  and 
were  most  of  them  qualified  at  the  County  Court  in  this  County  before  the  day 
aforesaid,  according  to  said  statutes,  and  the  rest  were  by  them  then  called  to 
assist  as  teachers  and  persons  to  join  in  worship  with  said  Society ;  that  on  the 
day  mentioned  in  the  writ,  they  all  with  many  others  were  assembled  for  wor- 
ship accordingly  and  that  they  in  their  consciences  were  then  persuaded  that 
heretical  books  in  their  custody  ought  publicly  to  be  burned,  that  they  accord- 
ingly burned  those  they  thought  to  be  such,  that  the  same  was  solemnized  with 
prayer,  and  singing  praises  to  God,  and  that  nothing  in  itself  immoral  was  oora- 
mitted  by  them  therein — that  in  that  burning,  praying  and  singing  in  such  their 
separate  society,  was  what  they  then  judged  in  their  consciences  Duty  and 
agreeable  to  the  word  of  God,  Acts  19,  10,  and  is  the  same  mentioned  in  the 
writ,  and  no  other  things  were  done,  nor  with  other  view  or  motive. 

**  The  case  is  considered  and  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  Court  that  they  are  all 

1  Hempstead. 

2  Copied  verbatim  firom  a  report  of  the  case  found  among  the  papers  of  the  justice 
'  who  presided. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  457 

of  them  sevemlly  guilty  of  the  profanation  of  the  Sabbath»  or  Lord's  Day,  con- 
trary to  the  laws  of  this  Colony,  and  therefore  give  judgment  that  they  the  said 
John  Curtis,  &c.  pay  a  fine  of  five  shillings  each  and  the  cost  of  prosecution; 
taxed  at  jSl,  1S<,  Sd,  to  be  proportionably  paid  between  them  being  6<,  5id, 
each,  Old  Tenor.  In  Lawful  money  the  fine  for  each  is  16d,  and  the  part  of 
the  charge  to  each  1  shilling  7^^." 

<*  C.  Christophers  paid  his  part  in  Court*  and  John  Curtis  to  constable 
Burch." 

It  will  be  observed  that  here  is  not  a  hint  given  that  aught  was 
cast  into  the  fire  except  books.  This  being  the  most  heinous  part  of 
the  offense,  it  was  the  only  count  mentioned  in  the  indictment.  We 
have  Davenport's  own  admission  that  articles  of  apparel  formed  part 
of  the  heap.  Nevertheless  rumor  and  imagination  have  without 
doubt  greatly  embellished  the  scene. 

One  thing  is  certain — this  little  company  of  enthusiasts  never  ac- 
complished their  favorite  idea  of  forming  a  pure  church  under  a 
divinely  appointed  teacher.  They  fasted  and  prayed,  once  it  is  said 
for  three  successive  days,  hoping,  that  Grod  by  some  sensible  token 
would  point  out  the  man  to  preside  over  them ;  but  no  sign  was 
granted,  nor  could  they  ever  agree  upon  a  leader.  Mr.  AHen  left 
them  soon  ader  the  burning  of  the  books.  In  a  few  years  the  society 
ceased  to  exist,  but  several  of  the  members  united  with  a  small  com- 
pany of  Separatists  that  assembled  in  the  western  part  of  the  tqwn 
under  the  leading  of  Nathan  Howard.^ 

Mr.  Davenport  was  ordered  by  the  General  Assembly  to  leave  the 
colony  and  prohibited  by  penalties  from  returning.  He  subsequently 
recovered  from  his  delusion,  confessed  his  errors,  and  wrote  a  recan- 
tation, which  was  published  in  Boston  in  1744.  In  this  tract  he 
particularly  deplores  and  condemns  the  burning  of  the  books  and 
clothes  in  New  London,  an  act  which  he  admits  originated  with  him, 
and  in  the  execution  of  which  he  took  a  prominent  part. 

It  is  now  allowed  that  Mr.  Davenport  was  a  man  of  piety  and 
talent,  very  powerful  and  persuasive  in  his  pulpit  efforts,  and  setting 
aside  these  four  or  five  years  of  enthusiasm  in  which  he  seemed 
transported  into  the  regions  of  fanaticism,  and  in  a  manner  beside 


1  **  A  leading  woman  among  these  New  Lights  formed  a  small  party  whose  distin- 
guishing tenet  was  celibacy  and  went  so  far  as  to  separate  man  and  wife ;  however 
she  was  the  first  to  marry,  and  her  little  party  mostly  joined  the  Moravians.  The 
leading  lady  becoming  a  widow  turned  to  the  Muggletonians  of  whom  a  small  party 
was  formed  here,  headed  by  one  Champlin  from  Rhode  Island,  and  now  supported  by 
Boger  Gibson  firom  Glasgow.'*  [The  aboTO  extract  is  from  a  oumoseript  of  Bot* 
Henry  Channing  written  about  1790.] 

39 


458  HISTORY    aP     NBW     LONDOir. 

himself,  bis  Mfe  was  passed  in  usefulness,  peace  and  honor.  Mr. 
Allen  also,  appears  to  have  been  carried  through  the  storm  without 
shipwreck  and  wafted  into  the  pacific  sea.  He  was  a  young  man  at 
the  time  that  he  presided  in  the  Shepherd's  Tent,  and  after  that  event 
officiated  with  acceptance  in  the  sacred  office  for  nearly  sixty  years.' 
The  historian  of  Connecticut,  Trumbull,  gives  the  following  ac- 
count of  the  burning  of  the  books. 

**  In  New  London  they  made  a  large  fire  to  bum  their  books,  clothes  and 
ornaments,  which  they  called  their  idols ;  and  which  they  determined  to  for- 
sake a.d  utterly  put  away.  This  imaginary  work  of  piety  and  self-denial  they 
undertook  on  the  Lord*s  day  and  brought  their  clothes,  books,  necklaces  and 
jewels  together  ip  the  main  street.  They  began  with  burning  their  erroneous 
books ;  dropping  them  one  ader  another  into  the  fire,  pronouncing  ibese  words : 
**  If  the  author  of  this  book  died  in  the  same  sentiments  and  faith  in  which  he 
wrote  it,  as  the  smoke  of  this  pile  ascends,  so  the  smoke  of  his  torment  will 
ascend  forever  and  ever.  Hallelujah!  Amen  !**  But  they  were  prevented  from 
burning  their  clothes  and  jewels.  John  Lee  of  Lyme,  told  them  his  idols  were 
bis  wife  and  children,  and  that  he  could  not  bum  them ;  it  would  be  contrary 
to  the  laws  of  God  and  man :  That  it  was  impossible  to  destroy  idolatry  with- 
out a  change  of  heart,  and  of  the  affections." 

It  is  understood  that  the  historian  derived  his  account  from  tradi- 
tion and  the  detail  is  undoubtedly  as  accurate  as  could  be  obtained 
from  that  source,  sixty  years  after  the  transaction.  But  the  impre- 
cations said  to  have  been  uttered  may  be  reasonably  doubted.  In 
that  day  such  language  would  probably  have  been  construed  into 
blasphemy  and  made  a  strong  point  in  the  indictment,  which,  how- 
ever, under  this  head,  charges  the  offenders  with  nothing  worse,  than 
shouting  and  screaming  ;  and  they  in  their  plea,  admit  only  that  they 
accompanied  the  sacrificial  rite,  with  prayer  and  singmg  praise  to 

God. 

In  the  History  of  Connecticut,  usually  accredited  to  Rev.  Samuel 
Peters,  of  Hebron,  the  chief  agency  in  burning  the  idols  is  ascribed 
to  Whitefield,  who  is  represented  as  crying  out  from  the  pulpit: 


1  In  the  year  1800,  he  was  pastor  of  a  church  in  Chesterfield,  Mass. ;  aged  eighty- 
five.  One  of  the  charges  exhibited  against  him  in  the  trying  timt,  and  for  which  he 
was  suspended  by  the  ecclesiastioal  body  to  which  he  belonged,  was,  that  he  had 
e«mpared  the  Scriptures  to  an  old  ahnanac  This,  which  was  spread  through  the 
bmd  to  his  discredit,  was  not^  according  to  his  o^-n  explanation,  made  in  his  defense, 
a  fiur  statement  of  his  words.  He  had  said,  "  The  reading  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
without  Ae  concurring  influence  and  operation  trf  the  Spirit  of  God  will  no  more 
MDvert  a  sinner  than  the  reading  of  an  old  ahnanac."  The  manner  of  expression  he 
hhnself  afterwards  lamented. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  459 

*^  Repent — do  violence  to  no  man*-part  with  your  self-righteouaness,  your 
silk  gowns  and  laced  petticoats — burn  your  ruffles,  necklaces,  jewels,  rings, 
tinselled  waistcoats;  your  morality  and  your  bishop's  books — this  very  night  or 
damnation  will  be  your  portion  before  the  morning  dawn." 

*<  The  people,"  sajs  the  historian,  **  rather  through  fear  than  faith,  instantly 
went  out  on  the  common,  and  prepared  for  heaven  by  burning  all  the  above- 
enumerated  goods,  excepting  their  seif-righteousness,  which  was  exchanged  for 
the  preacher's  velvet  breeches." 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  state  that  the  association  of  Whitefidd 
with  this  scene,  is  inaccurate,  and  that  the  whole  account  is  a  bur- 
lesque. Mr.  Whitefield's  first  visit  to  New  London  county  was  in 
1745,  two  years  after  the  book-burning.  Some  minutes  of  his  preach- 
ing and  progress  in  this  vicinity,  may  appropriately  be  connected 
with  the  subject  of  this  chapter. 


In  the  course  of  Whitefield's  tour  through  New  England,  in  the 
summer  of  1745,  he  arrived  at  Norwich  August  1st,  and  remained 
there  several  days.  He  preached  in  the  North  Parish  of  New  Lon- 
don August  9th,  and  in  New  London  town-plot,  the  10th,  taking  for 
his  text,  1  Peter,  ii.  7,  first  clause  of  the  verse.  On  Sunday,  11th, 
he  preached  twice  in  the  open  air,  standing  under  an  oak-tree,  in  his 
traveling  chair,  the  horse  having  been  taken  from  it.  We  are  not 
informed  where  this  oak-tree  stood,  but  most  probably  it  was  near 
the  old  meeting-house,  on  some  part  of  the  present  Town  Square. 
His  morning  text  was  from  Rom.  xiii.  14, first  part:  aflemoon.  Rev. 
iiL  20.  The  assembly  was  large ;  people  from  Norwich,  Stonington 
and  Lyme,  attended.  The  next  day  he  went  to  Lyme,  followed  by 
crowds,  who  could  not  be  satisfied  without  hearing  more  of  his  rich 
eloquence.  His  wife  came  through  town  toward  night,  on  her  way 
to  join  him.  She  was  in  a  chaise,  accomplmied  by  two  men  on 
horses,  and  lodged  at  Solomon  Miner's,  on  the  way  to  the  Rope 
Ferry.     From  Lyme,  the  whole  party  crossed  over  to  Long  Island.^ 

Before  Mr.  Whitefield  agcufi  visited  New  London,  his  intimate 
friend,  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Bitrber,  had  been  settled  as  minister  in  the 
neighboring  town  of  Groton.  Mr.  Barber  was  bom  at  West  Spring- 
field, Mass.,  January  31st,  1712;'  graduated  at  Yale  College  1730. 
In  1734,  he  was  employed  as  a  missionary  among  the  Mohegans. 
In  1740,  he  met  with  Whitefield,  and  being  favorably  inclined  to- 

1  Hempstead. 

2  From  his  grave-€tone  in  Grotoo. 


^  • 


•400  HISTORY     OF     NKW     LONDOX* 

vord  him  beforehand*  became  alnib*!t  immediatelj  his  dieeiple,  his 
admirer,  hb  assoaiate,  hh  devoted,  loving  and  beloved  friend.^ 
Whitefteld  returned  hh  aiftfction  with  ardor,  and  persuaded  him  to 
lake  charge  of  tlie  Orjihau  House*  esitahli#hed  by  him  in  F  Ion  da- 
Here  he  remained  alioiit  seven  ycarB*  Returnintr  to  the  north,  Mr- 
Barber  was  oi-dained  at  Oyster  ronds,  Nov,  Otb,  1757,  but  not  set- 
tled over  any  chureh,^  IIo  ^va.^  Installed  over  the  first  or  SoutU  8a- 
eiety  in  Groton,  Kov.  3 J,  17^8* 

Mr*  Whitefield  a*ain  vis^itL-d  Now  London  in  1703*  He  crossed 
the  Sound  from  Lon^'^  Islanil,  ^[  on  day,  Feb.  Gth,  and  preaehed  on 
Wednesday  evening.  In  the  Congregational  meetiJig-bou&e^  from 
Phih  i*  i^K  The  next  day  he  pi"oeeeded  to  Boslon.^  In  JutKi  of 
the  same  year^  he  returned  from  Bof?lon  byway  of  Providence-  lie 
traveled  in  his  chariot,  and  ivto[iped  in  Ororon  at  the  lum.'iie  of  Mr, 
Barber,  where  he  was  received  as  a  weleome  and  much  honored 
guest. 

Notice  bad  been  given  of  Ins  coming*  and  at  ten  oVloek  next  morn- 
ing he  preached,  standing  on  a  ecaftolding  that  had  Iwen  extended 
for  the  purpOise,  on  a  level  with  the  second  story  of  Mr.  Barber's 
bouse^  and  upon  whieli  lie  stepped  from  the  chamber  window*  Ail 
the  area  around  was  thronged  with  the  audience.  Many  people  had 
left  home  the  day  before,  or  had  traveled  all  night  to  be  upon  the 
f^|XJt.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  discourse,  he  entered  hi&  ehanot  and 
went  on  his  way,  a  multitude  of  people  aceompanyiug  Ijim  on  horee^ 
or  following  on  foot  to  Groton  ferry,  fbnr  mile^.  After  crossing  the 
ferry  he  was  received  by  a  similar  crowd  on  the  Town  wharf.  He 
remained  in  town  hut  an  hour,  and  then  proceeded  on  his  journey  to 
the  soatlL*     This  was  his  third  and  la.<t  \i^ir  to  New  London. 

Mr*  Barber**  house,  where  Mr*  Whitefield  preaehetl,  is  still  starjd- 
ing^  ID  the  village  which  is  now  called  Center  G  to  ton*  Down  to  tL<r 
year  1832,  when  the  hou.^e  was  occupied  by  a  daughter  of  Mr,  Bar- 
ber, an  original  portrait  of  t lie  eloquent  preacher,  his  own  gift  tCJ  liis 
friend,  still  hung  against  the  [jarlor  walL 

Mr,  Barber  wa^s  an  enthusiftj=!t  :  be  had  assocwtted  not  only  with 
Whitefield^  but  very  ranch  with  Davenport,     Many  excellent  men  in 

1  Seo  »rs  in  tcrestlngflc count  of  the  fi™im^tijig  of  \VlLit*fleId  and  Barber,  bi  Traef*i 
Great  Awakening,  p.  B6, 

3  Prime*fl  Uing  Ulaiid,  p*  186, 
S  New  L,<m<ltifv  Gdzetto* 

4  UlnnpfUmd. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  461 

that  dajy  were  believers  in  impressions,  impulses  and  ecstacies.^ 
Imagination  was  trusted  more  than  judgment,  and  transports  of  feel- 
ing were  valued  beyond  the  decisions  of  reason.  Such  a  state  of 
things  naturally  tends  to  destroy  the  equilibrium  of  the  character. 
Despair,  melancholy,  mania,  are  but  a  step  distant  from  the  religious 
enthusiast  The  last  years  of  Mr.  Barber  were  passed  under  a  thick 
cloud ;  his  reason  obscUred ;  the  healthy  tone  of  his  mind  destroyed. 
In  this  state  of  alienation,  dark,  distressed  and  melancholy,  he  sud- 
denly died  Oct.  8th,  1783.  He  had  not  preached  for  nearly  twenty 
years.  The  society  record  says,  ^  he  was  taken  from  his  usefulness 
in  the  last  part  of  the  year  1765." 


1  Great  Awakening,  p.  100. 


39* 


CHAPTER   XXVII- 

Change  of  style.— A  Spanish  vessel  long  detained  in  New  London  and  part  of 
its  cargo  stolen.— Execution  of  Sarah  Bramble.— Col  Washington  in  town.— 
Another  memorial  on  fortification.— The  French  Neutrals.- Incidents  of  the 
war. — The  Greens,  a  family  of  printers. — Issue  of  the  New  London  Sum- 
mary.— Loyalty. — Lotteries. — ^Various  articles  of  intelligence.  Issue  of  the 
New  London  Gazette.— The  British  ship  Cygnet.— Barberries. — ^Pope-day. 
Revenue  oppression.^Trade. 

It  is  well  known  that  in  .the  month  of  September,  1752,  an  inter- 
ruption occurs  in  the  dates,  occasioned  by  the  correction  of  the  style. 
Hempstead's  diary,  next  after  September  2d,  has  the  following 
entry: 

«  Sept.  14,  1753.— Fair :— and  such  a  day  as  we  never  had  before !  By  act 
of  Parliament  to  bring  Old  Style  into  New  Style,  eleven  days  is  taken  out  of 
this  month  at  this  place,  and  then  the  time  to  go  on  as  heretofore." 


On  the  26th  of  November,  1752,  a  Spanish  vessel  struck  on  Bart- 
let's  Reef,  a  little  west  of  the  harbor  of  New  London,  and  sustained 
so  much  injury  as  to  be  rendered  entirely  helpless.  Capt  Richard 
Durfey,  in  the  custom-house  barge,  went  out  to  her  relief.  She  was 
found  to  be  of  that  description  of  vessel  called  a  snow ;  of  two  hun* 
dred  tuns  burden  ;  with  a  crew  of  forty  men,  and  liamed  ^  the  St 
Joseph  and  St.  Helena."  On  her  voyage  homeward  ^m  the  gulf 
of  Mexico  to  Cadiz,  she  had  encountered  severe  gales,  and  was  so 
much  damaged  that  her  commander  had  bent  his  course  toward  New 
London  to  refit,  and  was  endeavoring  to  enter  the  harbor,  when  the 
accident  occurred.  She  was  richly  freighted  with  indigo,  and  other 
valuable  products  of  the  Spanish  colonies,  and  had  on  board  sundry 
chests,  boxes  and  kegs  of  gold  and  silver,  in  bullion  and  coin.  It  was 
necessary  to.  lighten  the  ship,  and  Capt.  Durfey  brought  away  thirty- 
seven  chests  of  dollars,  and  three  oi  gold  in  doubloons,  with  other 
goods,  which  were  stored  in  the  cellar  of  CoL  Saltonstall's  dwelling- 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  463 

house  in  Main  Street  All  die  forms  of  law  were  satisfied  in  the 
way  of  taking  evidences,  acknowledgments,  and  receipts,  and  a  guard 
of  six  men  was  detailed  to  watch  the  money.  The  arrival  in  port  of 
so  large  a  treasure,  magnified  and  varied  by  rumor,  threw  the  town 
into  a  ferment,  and  the  report  of  it  ran  like  wild-fire  through  the 
country.  The  violent  and  lawless  part  of  the  community  were  eager 
to  get  a  portion  of  it,  either  by  fair  means  or  fouL 

The  snow  being  lightened,  fioated  from  the  reef,  and  was  towed 
up  to  the  wharf,  where  she  was  unladen,  and*  the  remainder  of  her 
goods  stored  in  Robert  Sloan's  warehouse,  near  the  Town  wharf,  with 
a  guard  of  four  men  to  keep  watch  over  them. 

And  now  a  controversy  arose  between  the  colonial  and  the  custom- 
house officers,  which  party  should  have  the  custody  of  the  treasure. 
The  governor,  having  had  prompt  advice  of  the  situation  of  the  for- 
eign vessel,  had  commissioned  Col.  Saltonstall  to  act  for  the  colony ; 
but  the  collector,  Joseph  Hull,'  Esq.,  claimed  the  whole  cognizance 
of  the  affiur.  He  and  his  assistant,  Mr.  Chew,  proceeding  to  make 
an  appraisement  and  examination  of  the  cargo,  were  met  by  the  re- 
fusal of  Col.  Saltonstall  to  deliver  up  that  part  of  it  which  was  in  his 
charge.  Violent  disputes  ensued,  and  a  court  of  admiralty  was  called 
to  decide  the  question.  The  session  was  held  in  the  court-house,  De- 
cember 18th,  and  the  judge,  deciding  in  favor  of  the  custom-house, 
issued  an  order  to  Mr.  Hull  to  have  the  Spanish  efiects  appraised  and 
taken  into  his  custody. 

On  the  28th,  Mr.  Hull,  with  the  judge's  order  in  his  keeping,  ac- 
companied by  a  justice  of  the  peace  and  a  throng  of  followers,  some 
armed  with  clubs,  and  himself  flourishing  a  naked  cutlass,  ]Ht>ceeded 
to  the  house  of  CoL  Saltonstall,  and  demanded  the  treasure.  The 
latter,  having  received  the  governor's  commands  to  keep  the  goods 
till  further  order  should  be  given,  was  prepared  to  contest  the  point 
They  found  his  house  surrounded  by  an  armed  guard,  and  two  con- 
stables at  the  gate,  one  of  whom  read  the  riot  act  to  the  approaching 
company,  and  ordered  them  to  disperse.  Violent  altercation,  but  no 
bloodshed  ensued ;  the  invaders  gave  up  the  point,  and  departed, 
though  in  great  anger.' 

The  snow,  upon  examination,  was  condemned  as  unseaworthy ;  and 
the  severity  of  winter  now  coming  on,  the  Spaniards  abandoned  all 
hope  of  departing  till  another  year's  sailing-time  should  come  round. 

1  Errcmeoiisly,  JSff,  in  Trumbull's  History  of  Ckuinecticat 
8  **  Much  roiled/*  is  Hempstead's  expression. 


464  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

£arl7  in  the  spring  of  1758,  a  Teasel  was  procured  for  them ;  and  no 
good  reason  seems  to  be  given  why  thej  did  not  forthwith  demand 
their  goods  and  put  to  sea.  At  least,  the  cause  of  the  detention  is 
not  now  known.  According  to  Trumbull's  account,  a  part  of  the 
cargo  was  shipped  on  the  2dd  of  April,  and  nothing  appeared  but 
that  the  whole  was  readj  for  delivery  at  that  time. 

It  would  have  been  a  relief  to  the  town  to  have  them  depart ;  for 
the  business  kept  the  authorities  of  the  place  embroiled,  and  collis- 
ions frequently  took  place  between  the  Spanish  crew,  and  the  low 
part  of  the  populace  with  whom  they  associated ;  so  that  street  fights 
were  frequent.  Delays,  however,  took  place  ;  and  when  at  last  Don 
Joseph  Miguel  de  St.  Juan,  the  supercargo,  was  ready  to  receive  the 
remainder  of  his  efiects,  they  were  not  to  be  found.  A  portion  of  the 
money,  a  large  part  of  the  indigo,  and  some  of  the  other  goods  were 
missing.  The  injured  foreigner  demanded  his  property  of  the  col- 
lector ;  he  knew  nothing  about  it :  of  Col.  Saltonstall;  he  was  equally 
ignorant:  no  one  knew  aught  of  the  matter;  all  were  in  the  daric 
The  Spaniard  was  resolute,  not  to  depart  without  his  full  cargo,  or 
its  equivalent.  He  spent  the  summer  in  waiting,  soliciting,  threat- 
ening and  demanding,  but  obtained  no  redress.  In  October,  he  pre- 
sented a  memorial  to  the  Legislature,  stating  the  facts,  demanding 
indemnity,  and  throwing  the  case  upon  the  colony  for  adjudication. 
It  was  his  plan,  since  he  could  not  obtain  the  whole  of  the  cargo,  to 
reland  the  remainder,  deliver  it  into  the  hands  of  the  authorities,  dis- 
charge his  crew,  and  go  home  to  his  sovereign  with  his  ccmiplaintSy 
leaving  the  colony  responsible  for  the  whole  concern.  The  Assembly 
declined  to  interfere  any  further  than  to  empower  the  governor  lo 
aid  in  a  public  search  after  the  missing  treasure. 

It  was  due  to  the  reputation  of  individuals,  to  the  town  and  to  the 
colony,  that  the  whole  afiair  should  have  been  thoroughly  investiga- 
ted.    Governor  Wokott'  was  censured  for  not  showing  more  activi^ 


1  According  to  Trambull,  the  unpopularity  growing  out  of  this  affair,  lost  Wolcott 
hlB  election  the  next  year.  A  politioal  ballad  of  rather  later  date,  (probably  ntvar 
printed)  has  this  verse: 

"  Who  next  succeeded  to  the  helm 
Was  stately  smoking  Roger: 
The  same  to  Cape  Breton  had  been, 

But  was  no  seaman  or  soldier. 
During  his  cruise  a  S^xmiMh  Snow 
Fired  on  him  a  broad-side,  Sir, 
He  reoeiTed  a  wound  by  a  golden  ball, 
And  of  that  wound  he  died,  Sir.*' 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  465 

'  in  behalf  of  the  foreigners  ;  Col.  Saltonstall  for  not  having  safely 
kept  the  treasure  ;  the  town  authorities  for  not  preventing  the  rob- 
bery, and  Mr.  Hull  for  taking  no  better  care  of  property  intrusted  to 
him.  The  country  was  agitated  with  rumors  that  enhanced  the 
value  of  the  cfiects  embezzled,  and  increased  the  numbers  of  the 
guilty. 

That  the  foreigners  had  been  robbed  was  too  evident  to  be  dispu- 
ted ;  and  suspicion  very  naturally  fell  upon  the  watchmen  appointed 
to  guard  the  treasure.  Among  those  who  had  been  on  guard  at  Col. 
SaltonstalFs,  were  four  young  men  upon  whom  rumor  fixed — and  it 
was  soon  whispered  around  that  they  had  been  furtively  traced  in  the 
hush  of  night,  to  the  recesses  of  Cedar  Swamp,  in  the  rear  of  the 
town,  and  there,  upon  a  knoll  of  dry  ground,  they  had  been  seen  di- 
viding, by  lantern-light,  a  shining  heap  of  gold.  These  men  were 
arrested,  together  with  a  fifth  person,  supposed  to  be  a  receiver  and 
confederate.  An  examination  took  place  before  the  magistrates,  and 
one  of  the  men  turning  evidence  for  the  prosecution,  related  the 
whole  affair.  He  stated  that  they  were  on  guard  at  Col.  Salton- 
stall's  ;  that  the  treasure  was  kept  in  a  vault  or  inner  cellar,  between 
strong  stone  walls ;  but  the  weather  being  inclement,  the  guard  were 
allowed  to  take  shelter  in  an  outer  cellar,  where  beer  was  provided 
for  their  refreshment  The  contiguity  to  so  much  gold,  fired  them 
to  possess  it,  and  yielding  to  the  temptation,  they  laboriously  dug 
under  the  partition  of  the  stone-wall,  and  with  ropes  and  hooks  con- 
trived to  extract  a  box  in  which  was  about  an  equal  amount  in  bulk, 
of  gold  and  silver — the  silver  in  dollars,  and  the  gold  chiefly  in  doub- 
loons— a  thousand  of  the  former,  and  ^ve  times  that  value  of  the  lat- 
ter. Having  obtained  the  treasure,  they  hastened  to  Cedar  Swamp, 
and  digging  a  hole  upon  Grifling's  Island,*  they  poured  out  the  gold 
and  buried  it,  and  hurrying  back  with  the  box,  filled  it  with  stones 
and  gravel,  and  replaced  it  in  the  vault  from  which  it  had  been  ab- 
stracted, carefully  filling  up  the  hole,  and  obliterating  all  traces  of 
their  criminal  night  work.  Afterward,  at  their  leisure,  they  exhumed 
their  gold  and  divided  it,  each  concealing  his  portion  in  some  place 
unknown  to  the  others. 

This  was  not  the  only  robbery  said  to  be  committed  upon  the  un- 
fortunate Spaniards.  During  the  night  of  December  16th,  1753, 
Sloan's  warehouse  was  broken  open,  and  several  ceroons  of  indigo 

1  A  name  given  to  a  knoll  of  upland  in  the  heart  of  Cedar  Swamp. 


466  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

abstracted.  That  part  of  the  cargo  that  had  been  shipped,  was  also  . 
found  to  be  diminished ;  indigo  and  bags  of  dollars  had  been  carried 
off  while  the  vessel  lay  at  the  wharf.  Such  were  the  tales  dissemina- 
ted by  rumor,  but  they  were  undoubtedly  much  exaggerated.  It  is 
probable  that  the  thefts  were  all  petty,  except  that  at  the  Saltonstall 
cellar.  Three  other  persons,  however,  were  arrested  and  impris- 
oned. But  early  in  the  spring,  before  any  trial  of  the  culprits  had 
taken  place,  they  escaped  from  confinement  and  fled.  It  appears 
that  the  whole  company  were  kept  in  one  apartment,  and  iron  crows 
being  furnished  them  from  without,  in  the  night  of  March  11th,  1754, 
they  broke  down  the  door  of  the  jail,  and  making  directly  for  the 
river,  seized  the  first  boat  they  found,  and  rowed  out  of  the  harbor 
without  being  pursued.  They  were  eight  in  number,  but  thia  in- 
cluded one  or  two  that  had  been  arrested  on  other  chaises.  What 
became  of  them  afterward  is  not  known.  No  vigorous  attempts  wore 
made  either  to  retake  the  fugitives,  or  recover  the  treasure.  Unfor- 
tunately many  persons  had  loose  notions  concerning  the  fraud  and 
dishonesty  of  the  act  It  was  Spanish  property,  in  custody  of  aa 
officer  of  the  king's  customs :  at  the  worst  the  king  would  have  to 
pay  for  it ;  it  was  but  cheating  the  king,  that  is  to  say,  the  revenue, 
which  was  no  worse  than  smuggling,  and  many  were  guilty  of  that, 
who  passed  for  honest  men.  By  this  delusive  mode  of  arguing,  the 
culprits  who  had  carried  off  the  ingots  of  the  Spanish  sovereign,  were 
shielded  from  the  obloquy  and  punishment  they  merited. 

The  Spanish  commander  had  not  failed  to  transmit  to  his  sovereign 
an  account  of  the  difficulties  in  which  he  was  involved  ;  and  in  con- 
sequence, a  complaint  was  carried  from  the  court  of  Madrid  to  that 
of  St  James,  against  the  colony  of  Connecticut  and  the  king's  officers 
at  New  London^  A  ship  of  war,  the  Triton,  of  forty  guns,  was  imme- 
diately sent  by  the  British  ministry,  with  dispatches  to  the  province, 
and  orders  to  remain  in  or  near  the  harbor,  and  render  assistance  if 
necessary.  The  Triton  arrived  in  port  early  in  November ;  a  Span- 
ish merchant  came  also  as  agent  from  his  court  with  full  power  to 
act  in  the  premises.  The  General  Assembly  likewise  issued  a  com- 
mission to  Jonathan  Trumbull  and  Roger  Wolcott,  to  repair  to  New 
London,  invebtigate  the  whole  affair  and  bring  it  to  a  just  issue.  By 
the  united  endeavors  of  all  these  parties,  the  matter  was  somehow  ac- 
commodated, but  the  result  is  all  that  is  known  of  their  action.  The 
remaining  cargo  of  the  St  Joseph  was  stowed  on  board  of  a  vessel 
provided  by  the  Spaniards,  in  charge  of  Don  Miguel  de  St.  Juan, 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  467 

wluch  left  New  Loodon  doring  the  first  week  in  January,  1755.^ 
The  commissioners  having  seen  all  accounts  settled,  left  New  Lon- 
don on  the  9th  ;  the  Spanish  agent  took  passage  in  the  Triton,  Capt. 
Whitford,  which  left  the  harbor  on  the  25th  of  the  same  month.  It 
was  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  this  affedr  would  here  terminate. 
Future  trouble  to  the  colony,  arising  out  of  it,  was  apprehended. 
Nations  have,  sometimes  plunged  into  war  on  slighter  grounds ;  yet  it 
seems  to  have  been  overlooked  and  forgotten  by  the  powers  on  the 
other  side  of  the  ocean.  New  London  as  a  town  had  nothing  to  do 
with  this  affair,  and  its  records  do  not  contain  a  single  reference  to  it. 
It  was  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  admiralty,  and  business  of  that 
description,  being  usually  contested  between  the  colony  and  the  cus- 
tom-house^  there  was  but  a  slight  chance  of  its  being  well  managed. 

The  specie  thus  fraudulently  obtained  from  the  Spaniards,  came 
forth  very  gradually  from  its  hiding-places,  and  crept  into  circulation. 
Some  of  it  buried  in  swamps  and  outlands,  may  have  been  irrecover- 
ably lost.  Some  Spanish  dollars  were  at  one  time  dug  up  at  low 
water  mark  in  Water  Street,  that  were  supposed  to  have  belonged  to 
the  St.  Joseph.  A  stone  pitcher  filled  with  doubloons,  was  found 
several  years  afterward,  by  two  negro  lads,  in  Cape  Ann  Lane. 
While  engaged  in  ferreting  out  a  rabbit,  they  threw  down  a  part  of 
the  wall,  and  found  the  golden  prize  secreted  below.  This  had  prob- 
ably been  the  portion  of' one  of  the  four  young  men  who  had  gone 
into  exile.  The  two  lads  very  judiciously  lodged  their  treasure  in 
the  hands  of  a  friend,  who  purchased  their  freedom  with  a  portion  of 
it,  and  divided  the  remainder  with  exact  justice  between  them.  It 
did  them  no  good,  however ;  they  spent  it  in  dissipation,  and  acquired 
by  it  habits  of  idleness  and  improvidence.  Such  chance  treascDres 
are  seldom  beneficial  to  the  finder. 

Other  deposits  of  the  Spanish  money  are  said  to  have  been  found, 
by  one  and  another,  who,  however,  kept  their  good  luck  as  secret  as 
possible.  It  was  only  discovered,  or  inferred  from  circumstances. 
If  a  poor  man  rather  suddenly  became  possessed  of  funds  for  which 
his  neighbors  could  not  account,  was  able  to  purchase  land  or  build  a 
house,  the  readiest  supposition  was  that  he  had  found  a  box  of  Span- 
ish dollars  or  a  bag  of  doubloons.  * 


1  The  whole  history  of  this  affair  is  placed  by  Trumbull  under  the  numiug  date  of 
1758.  As  above  stated  the  Spaniards  came  into  the  harbor  in  November,  1752,  and  the 
town  and  colony  were  kept  in  a  state  of  tumultuous  agitation,  until  they  departed  in 
January,  1755. 


468  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

The  indigo  of  the  St.  Joseph  id  said  to  have  been  carried  into  the 
country  and  Bold  by  peddlers.  Stories  were  circulated  of  a  white 
mare  that  was  led  about  from  place  to  place  far  into  the  interior, 
with  its  sides  blue  with  the  indigo  that  had  sifted  through  the  pan- 
niers. The  burlesque  and  romantic  incidents  growing  out  of  this 
affair,  ought  not  to  blunt  our  conviction  of  the  turpitude  of  the  rob- 
bery. Every  generous  mind  must  regret  that  a  company  of  foreign- 
ers, coming  hither  in  distress,  and  throwing  themselves  upon  our 
hospitality  for  aid  and  protection,  should  have  been  thus  wantonly 
plundered. 


November  21st,  1753,  Sarah  Bramble  was  executed  in  a  cross 
highway  Uiat  leads  out  of  the  nCiain  road  to  Norwich,  about  two  miles 
north  of  the  town  plot.  This  path  has  ever  since  been  known  as 
Grallows  Lane.  It  is  a  rugged,  wild  and  dreary  road,  even  at  the 
present  day.  The  fearful  machine  was  erected  in  the  highest  part  of 
the  road,  and  all  the  hills  and  ledges  around  must  have  been  covered 
with  the  spectators.  It  was  computed  that  10,000  assembled  on  this 
occasion ;  some  of  them  probably  came  twenty  or  thirty  miles  to 
witness  this  repulsive  exhibition.  The  gloom  of  the  weather  added 
another  dismal  feature  to  the  scene,  a  drizzly  rain  continuing  most  of 
the  day. 

This  is  the  only  public  execution  of  any  white  person  that  ever 
took  place  in  New  London.  The  crime  of  the  unhappy  woman  was 
the  murder  of  her  infant  illegitimate  child,  on  the  day  of  its  birth.  It 
was  committed  in  April,  1752,  and  she  was  tried  by  the  superior 
court  the  next  Septen^ber.  But  the  jury  disagreeing  in  their  ver- 
dict, she  was  kept  imprisoned  another  year,  and  sentenced  October 
dd,  1753.  She  declined  hearing  the  sermon  intended  for  her  benefit, 
which  was  preached  by  Rev.  Mr.  Jewett,  before  the  execution. 


The  year  1755  was  marked  by  another  rupture  between  England 
and  France.  The  Hempstead  diary  mentions  (April  Ist)  the  arri- 
val of  Governor  Shirley  and  suite,  on  their  way  to  Virginia,  to  meet 
Greneral  Braddock.  Recruiting  oflBlcers  were  about  that  time  busy 
in  the  place,  and  soldiers  were  sent  off  under  Capt  Henry  Babcock, 
to  join  the  army  of  the  frontier.  The  news  of  Braddock's  defeat  was 
brought  by  a  special  post,  bound  to  the  eastward,  July  22d,  and  ac- 
counts of  the  battle  at  Lake  St.  Sacrament,  (now  called  Lake 
Greorge,)  arrived  September  16th.    In  March,  1756,  Colonel  Wash- 


HlflTORT    OP    NEW    LONDON.  469 

ington  was  twice  in  town,  tanying  a  night,  both  in  going  and  return* 
ing  from  Boston. 

'*  March  8th.  Colonel  Washington  is  returned  from  Boston  and  gone  to 
Long  Island,  in  Powers'  sloop ;  he  had  also  two  boats  to  carry  six  horses  and 
his  retinue»  all  bound  to  Virginia  He  hath  been  to  advise  with  Governor 
Shirley,  or  to  be  directed  by  hira,  as  he  is  chief  general  of  the  American  forces." 
[Hempstead.] 

Tjeo  days  after  the  transient  visit  of  Washington,  we  find  the  in- 
habitants assembled  in  town  meeting  to  discuss  the  oft-recurring 
question  of  fortifying  the  harbor.  It  was  resolved  to  present  a  me- 
morial on  the  subject  to  the  General  Assembly.  The  colonial  treas- 
ury, however,  was  not  sufficiently  replenished  to  allow  of  the  neces- 
sary disbursements,  and  no  aid  was  obtained  from  this  source.  The 
next  spHng,  (March  8th,  1757,)  a  vote  was  passed  to  apply  to  the 
Right  Honorable  John,  Earl  of  Loudon,  who  had  been  appointed 
commander-in-chief  of  his  majesty's  forces  in  America.  A  memo- 
rial was  accordingly  drafted,  representing  the  defenseless  state  of  the 
town  and  harbor,  entreating  him  to  afford  such  aid  as  he  should  judge 
meet,  and  soliciting  his  kind  offices  in  stating  their  case  to  his  ma- 
jesty.    It  is  probable  that  this  memorial  was  not  presented. 

It  may  be  thought  that  these  applications  to  powers  abroad ;  the 
high-toned  remonstrances  and  threatened  appeals  to  the  king,  which 
occur  in  the  course  of  our  history,  display  an  overweening  self-im- 
portance on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants.  But  some  apology  may  be 
found  in  the  imminence  of  their  danger,  and  what  appeared  to  them 
the  apathy  of  the  home  administration,  in  regard  to  their  case.  The 
town  was  not,  perhaps,  a  favorite  in  the  colony :  unlike  others,  it 
always  had  a  populace;  it  frequently  voted  wrong ;  harbored  foreign- 
ers ;  was  often  boisterous  and  contentious ;  manners  were  too  free ; 
actions  too  impulsive  :  in  short,  it  had  less  of  the  Puritan  stamp  than 
any  other  place  in  Connecticut 

Coincident  with  the  action  respecting  the  memorial  to  Lord  Lou- 
don, the  case  of  "  the  French  people,^'  was  discussed.  The  selectmen 
were  desired  to  find  accommodations  for  them  at  some  distance  from 
town,  and  to  see  that  they  were  kept  at  some  suitable  employment. 
These  persons  were  the  French  neutrals,  that  had  been  dispossessed 
of  their  homes  in  Nova  Scotia,  and  were  scattered  in  small  and  lonely 
bands  all  over  New  England.  A  vessel  with  300  on  board  came  into 
New  London  harbor,  January  21st,  1756.  Another  vessel,  thronged 
with  these  unhappy  exiles,  that  had  sailed  from  Halifax  early  in  the 

40 


4T0  HISTORY    OP    NBW    LONDON. 

year,  and  being  blown  off  the  coast,  took  shelter  in  Antigua,  came 
from  thence  under  convoy  of  a  man-of-war,  and  arrived  in  port  May 
22d.     Many  in  this  last  vessel  were  sick  and  dying  of  the  small-pox. 

Probably  more  of  these  neutrals  were  disembarked  at  New  Lon- 
don than  at  any  other  port  in  New  England..  A  special  Assembly 
convened  by  the  governor,  January  21st,  1756,  to  dispose  of  these 
foreigners,  distributed  the  400,  then  on  hand,  among  aU  the  towns 
in  the  ookmy,  according  to  their  list.  The  regular  proportion  of  l^ew 
London  was  but  twelve,  yet  many  others  afterward  gathered  here. 
Some  of  the  neutrals  were  subsequently  returned  to  their  former 
homes.  Li  1767,  Capt,  Richard  Lefiingwell  sailed  from  New  Lon- 
don with  240,  to  be  reconveyed  to  their  country. 

The  clearing  of  Nova  Scotia  from  the  French,  opened  the  way  for 
the  introduction  of  English  colonists.  Between  this  period  and  the 
Revolution,  the  tide  of  emigration  set  thitherward  from  New  Eng- 
land, and  particularly  from  Connecticut.  Menis,  Amherst,  Dublin 
and  other  towns  in  that  province,  received  a  large  proportion  of  their 
first  planters  from  New  London  county. 

The  campaigns  of  1756  and  1757  demanded  yet  more  and  more 
soldiers  from  New  England.  The  diary  so  often  quoted  contains 
some  allusions  to  the  war,  which  will  serve  to  show  how  far  New 
London  was  interested  in  the  enlistments  and  in  the  privateering 
business  to  which  the  war  gave  life. 

May  lOth,  175(5.  **  I  was  at  Col.  LeeV  to  take  leare  of  some  of  my  neigh- 
bors who  are  going  in  the  expedition  to  Crowu  Point ;  only  thirty  marched  off; 
they  are  waiting  for  arms  from  Boston.'* 

May  10th.     •*  Two  sloops  are  transporting  Boston  soldiers  to  Albany.** 

May  30th.     "  It  is  sickly  at  the  camj)  at  Fort  Edward." 

November  1st.  **  Training  of  the  first  and  second  companies,  to  enlist  ten 
men,  five  out  of  each  company,  and  a  large  subscription  made,  to  be  equally 
divided  between  them." 

May  15th,  1757.  "  Capt.  Leet'  came  in  from  a  six  months*  cruise;  no 
prize." 

June  12th.  '*  Capt.  David  Mumford,  in  a  New  London  privateer,  fell  down 
to  Harbor's  Mouth.** 

June  17th.  "  A  prize  schooner  taken  by  David  Mumford',  from  the  French, 
in  latitude  33®  arrived." 

1  This  was  Col.  Stephen  Lee,  of  Lyme,  but  at  that  time  resident  in  New  London, 
where  he  had  married  Mary,  relict  of  John  Picket. 

2  Capt.  Daniel  Leet,  originally  from  Guilford.  He  married  Mehitabel  Savell,  of 
New  London.  Miss  Sally  Leet,  the  venerable  daughter  of  this  couple,  is  yet  living, 
and  though  nearly  100  years  of  age,  appears  still  to  enjoy  life. 

8  From  the  newspapers  of  that  day  it  is  ascertained  that  Capt  Mumford  was  after- 
ward taken  by  the  French,  and  carried  in  to  Martinico. 


HI8TORT    OF    NBW     LONDON.  471 

August  Sth.  «  This  morning  before  sunnse,  a  post  came  in  from  the  Gov- 
ernor and  informs  that  Fort  William  Henry  was  invaded  on  Wednesdaf  last, 
with  11,000  French  and  Indians,  thirty  cannon  and  some  mortars,  4,500  Cana- 
dians, as  many  Indians,  and  2,000  regulars.**! 

August  11th.  *'  One  quarter  of  the  whole  militia  of  the  town  marched  for 
Albany,  to  defend  the  country ;  Jonathan  Latimer,  captain ;  John  Rogers, 
lieutenant.** 

August  14th.  *'  The  melancholy  news  is  confirmed  of  the  loss  of  our  upper 
fort  at  the- Lake  George  or  Sacrament.** 

April  5th,  1759.  **  The  first  and  second  companies  in  arms  to  enlist  soldiers 
for  the  expedition  against  Canada.** 

June  10th.  "  Jonathan  Latimer,  Jr.,  and  his  company  of  soldiers  entered  on 
board  a  sloop  at  Gardiner's  wharf,  (to  sail  for  Albany.)  A  French  prize 
schooner  is  brought  in  by  two  privateers  of  Providence ;  seventy-five  tons,  ten 
guns  and  seventy-five  men.** 

The  18tli  of  August,  1758,  was  distinguished  in  New  London  hj  a 
great  and  general  rejoicing,  on  account  of  the  surrender  of  Cape  Bre« 
ton  to  the  English.  More  than  200  guns  were  fired  from  the  fort, 
and  the  vessels  in  the  harbor.  The  next  daj  the  festivities  were 
continued,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  general  joy,  Capt  James  Gardiner, 
was  accidentally  killed.'  He  was  loading  a  cannon  at  the  Harbor's 
Mouth  battery,  and  while  putting  ii^  a  second  charge,  the  piece  went 
off,  and  laid  him  dead  upon  the  spot. 

We  have  already  adverted  to  the  first  printer  in  the  colony  of  Con- 
necticut, Thomas  Short,  who  died  in  1712.  The  governor  and  com- 
pany invited  Timothy  Green,  of  Cambridge,  to  take  his  place.  He 
accepted  the  ofier  and  came  with  his  family  to  New  London  about 
the  year  1714.  This  was  a  valuable  accession  to  the  society  of  the 
town.  Green  was  a  benevolent  and  religious  man,  and  was  soon 
chosen  deacon  in  the  church.  He  was  abo  a  most  agreeable  com- 
panion, on  account  of  a  native  fund  of  humor  and  pleasantry  always 
at  his  command.  This  is  said  to  be  a  prevailing  trait  in  the  Green 
family.  The  house  and  printing-office  of  Deacon  Green  were  in  the 
upper  part  of  Main  Street.^  He  died  May  5th,  1757,  aged  seventy- 
eight 

Deacon  Green  had  five  sons.  JoruUy  one  of  the  oldest,  and  bom 
before  the  family  came  to  New  London,  settled  in  Maryland,  and 

1  An  instance  of  the  exaggeration  of  rumor.  Montcalm^s  army  is  estimated  by  his- 
torians at  8,000  or  9,000. 

2  Capt  Chirdiner  had  been  out  during  the  war  'cruising  against  the  French,  in  ft 
snow  called  the  Lark.  He  was  of  the  Newport  &mily  of  Gardineis,  and  his  wife 
Anne  Bobinson,  of  New  London. 

8  On  or  near  the  spot  where  is  now  the  dwelling-house  of  Nathaniel  SaltonstaU. 


472  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

was  the  second  printer  of  that  colony,  reviving,  in  1745,  the  J/oiy- 
land  Gazette,  which  had  been  first  printed  by  William  Parke.  2Vm- 
oih^  settled  first  as  a  printer  in  Boston,  in  partnership  with  Knee- 
land.  Nathaniel  and  John^  lived  and  died  in  New  London,  leaving 
no  male  posterity.  Samitel,  on  arriving  at  maturity,  was  associated 
with  his  father  in  the  printing  business,  but  died  before  him,  in  May, 
1752,  leaving  a  family  of  nine  children,  three  of  them  sons.  Imme- 
diately after  this  event,  Timothy  Green,  from  Boston,  removed  to 
New  London  and  took  charge  of  the  business,  instructing  the  sons  of 
his  deceased  brother  Samuel  in  his  art  These  three  sons  fdl  became 
printers.  Timothy,  the  second,  settled  in  New  London,  and  estab- 
lished the  second  newspaper  in  the  colony,*  the  New  London  Sum- 
mary,  a  small  weekly  half-sheet,  first  issued  August  8th,  1758,  and 
continued  for  ^\e  years  and  two  months. 

The  publication  of  the  Summary  covers  a  period,  which  those  his- 
torians who  are  admirers  of  military  glory  would  call  a  shining  page 
in  the  annals  of  the  English  colonier.  Louisburg,  Quebec,  Montreal, 
taken ;  all  the  French  dominion  on  the  northern  frontier  reduced, 
and  a  series  of  brilliant  successes  in  the  West  Indies,  in  which  the 
colonial  troops  had  an  honorable  participation,  mark  this  era.  Enlist- 
ments were  the  order  of  the  day ;  a  band  of  volunteers  from  New 
London  coimty  were  with  the  armament  that  effected  the  conquest  of 
Martinico ;  a  still  larger  number  joined  in  the  expedition  against 
Havanna.  But  the  colonies  were  exhausted  by  efforts  of  this  nature, 
and  were  still  further  perplexed  and  impoverished  by  the  illiberal 
restrictions  laid  by  the  mother  country  upon  their  trade. 

New  London  suffered  largely  in  this  line  of  calamity.  Her  ves- 
sels, bound  to  the  West  Indies,  before  they  could  arrive  at  their  port, 
were  seized  by  British  cruisers  lying  in  wait,  and  sent  into  Jamaica, 
New  Providence,  or  some  other  port  for  trial.  Under  pretense  that 
they  were  engaged  in  what  was  called  the  flag  of  truce  trade,  mean- 
ing an  unlawful  commerce  with  the  king's  enemies,  many  vessels  and 
their  cargoes  were  condemned  and  confiscated.  Bankruptcies  were 
the  consequence.  With  New  London,  it  was  one  of  those  stagnant 
and  depressed  periods  to  which  all  seaports  are  liable,  and   which 


1  The  first  newspaper  in  Connecticnt  was  the  Cawnecticvt  Gaxette^  commenced  in 
New  Haven  Jan.  Ist,  1756,  by  Paricer  and  Holt — discontinued  in  1767,  and  sncceeded 
by  the  QmnecticMi  JourmUy  established  by  Thomas  and  Samnel  Qreen,  the  other  sons 
of  Samnel,  of  New  London,  deceased.  Thomas  had  previously  established  the  third 
newspaper  of  the  colony,  the  OmnecUaU  OmratU^  in  Hartford,  1764.  See  Thomas* 
ffittory  of  Printing. 


HISTOBT    OF    NEW     LONDOIfi  479 

they  will  contmnB  to  experience  while  the  maby  and  wars  of  nA* 
tions  exist.  Not  only  fortunes  were  cut  down,  but  families  were 
thinned.  In  tracing  the  lines  of  genealogy,  we  find  groups  of  names 
that  can  be  traced  no  further  than  maturity.  The  records  do  not 
tell  of  their  children ;  their  graves  are  not  found  in  our  burial-places. 
All  we  know  is  that  they  disappear  from  their  places,  and  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  history  of  the  times  leads  us  to  suppose  that  they  fell 
miserable  victims  to  those  terrific  expeditions,  to  the  north  or  the 
south,  which  often  came  for  their  deadly  tribute,  drawing  life-blood 
from  the  heart  of  the  country. 

September  8th,  1760,  Montreal  surrendered  to  Gren.  Amherst ; 
the  entire  reduction  of  Canada  was  involved  in  the  capitulation. 
This  event  was  celebrated  at  New  London,  September  22d.  The 
bells  were  rung ;  the  guns  of  the  battery,  and  smaller  pieces  in  other 
parts  of  the  town,  thundered  forth  their  joy,  and  in  the  evening  there 
was  a  general  illumination  of  the  houses.  Oct.  30th  was  celebrated 
as  a  day  of  public  thanksgiving,  in  honor  of  this  event,  both  in  Mas- 
sashusetts  and  Connecticut.  The  sermon  at  New  London,  preached 
by  Rev.  Wm.  Adams,  was  published.  * 

The  interests  of  America  were  then  more  intimately  connected  with 
European  politics  than  at  the  present  time.  The  successes  of  the 
Prussian  monarch  gave  general  satisfaction.  The  victory  over  Mar- 
shal Daun,  November  dd,  was  celebrated  by  a  public  rejoicing  in 
New  London,  in  the  early  part  of  January,  when  the  news  of  the 
event  was  received. 

Feb.  2d,  1761,  George  IIL  was  proclauned.  No.  182  of  the  Sum-^ 
mary,  contains  an  account  of  the  festivities  of  the  day.  '^  The  civil 
officers,  officers  of  the  customs  and  admiralty,  ministers  of  the  gospel 
and  every  gentleman  in  town  whose  health  would  allow  of  his  being 
abroad,"  assembled.  The  proclamation  was  read  by  the  high  sherifi*, 
and  assented  to,  "with  sincerity  of  heart  and  voice,  by  every  one 
present."  The  whole  company  dined  together.  "  The  health  Qf  his 
majesty,  and  may  he  live  long  and  reign  happily  over  us,"  was  drw^ 
with  a  royal  salute  of  twenty-one  guns.  Other  toasts,  heartily  echoed, 
^ere — ^the  glorious  king  of  Prussia ;  Mr.  Pitt ;  General  Amherst ; 
and  success  to  the  grand  expedition.  At  night,  sky-rockets  went  up, 
and  bonfires  illumined  the  town. 

The  king's  birth-day  appears  to  have  been,  for  seyeraj  years  after 
this  period,  duly  and  heartily  celebrated,  sometimes  by  a  public  din- 
ner, and  at  others,  by  private  entertainments.  Perhaps  the  last  time 
that  the  waning  popularity  of  the  sovereign  elicited  this  demonstra- 
40* 


474  talSTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

tkm  of  teyidty,  was  June  4th,  1767.  On  that  day,  CoL  Hairy  Bab- 
cock,  of  Westerly,  gave  a  great  dinner  at  his  residence  to  variotis 
gentlemen  from  the  neighboring  towns.  A  field-piece,  planted  in  his 
garden,  responded  to  the  toasts  as  they  were  drank. 


A  very  popular  mode  of  raising  money  at  this  period,  was  by  lotte- 
ries. Churches  and  bridges  were  erected,  streets  repaired,  and  other 
public  works  were  carried  on  by  lottery ;  and  sometimes  individuals 
largely  indebted,  were  authorized  to  satisfy  their  creditors  in  the  same 
way.  Conspicuous  instances  of  this  mode  of  settling  an  involved  es- 
tate, occurred  in  New  London,  in  the  cases  of  Robert  Sloan  and 
Matthew  Stewart,  merchants,  who  had  suffered  severely  frwn  the 
war,  their  vessels  being  cut  off  by  French  privateers.  The  Legisla- 
ture granted  a  lottery  to  the  trustees  of  Mr.  Sloan's  estate  in  1758, 
and  to  those  of  Mr.  Stewart  in  1759.  Four  extensive  farms  belong- 
ing to  the  latter,  were  thus  converted  into  money.  They  were  sur- 
veyed into  fifty-four  lots,  and  appraised  at  £9,698.  The  lottery  con- 
sisted of  these  fifty-four  land  prizes,  and  two  thousand  money  prizes 
of»forty-eight  shillings  each.     Tickets  twenty-four  shillings. 

Li  1760,  a  lottery  was  granted  to  build  a  light-house  at  the  en- 
trance of  New  London  Harbor.*  This  was  the  first  light-house  upon 
the  Connecticut  coast  Near  the  rocky  ledge  chosen  for  its  site, 
members  of  the  Harris  family  have  dwelt  since  the  first  generation 
from  the  settlement.  The  particular  spot  on  which  the  house  was 
erected,  was  sold  to  the  governor  and  company  by  Nathaniel  Shaw, 
Jr.  It  was  part  of  the  inheritance  of  his  wife,  Lucretia,  only  child 
of  Daniel  Harris.  Li  1801,  this  structure  was  superseded  by  anoth- 
er, built  by  the  general  government,  which  had  assumed  the  cluunge 
of  the  light-houses  of  the  country. 

.  The  beautiful  beach  along  the  mouth  of  the  river,  north  of  the 
light-house,  was  for  many  years  used  as  a  kind  of  quarantine  ground. 
At  various  periods,  the  small-pox  has  been  a  scourge  to  the  town. 
Between  1750  and  1760,  vessels  were  continually  arriving  with  this 
disease  on  board.  The  selectmen  were  the  only  health  ofilcers,  and 
it  fell  to  them  to  dispose  of  the  sick,  and  to  the  town  to  defray  most 
of  the  charges.     At  the  White  Beach  and  Powder  Island,  such«ves- 


1  A  light-house  of  some  sort  had  previously  been  erected  at  the  mouth  of  the  har 
bor.  Allusions  to  it  are  fomid  after  1760,  but  nothing  that  shows  when  it  was  bnilt, 
or  how  maiutahied. 


AI8TOBT   OF   NBW    LONDON.  475 

fiels  were  usuallj  stayed,  and  there  many  a  yictim  to  tlie  perilous  in- 
fection, was  cast  into  the  earth  as  a  thing  utterly  abhorred* 


In  1761,  the  first  alms  and  workhouse  was  established.  A  house 
and  land  was  purchased,  on  what  is  now  known  as  Truman  Street, 
(comer  of  Blinman,)  and  the  expense  covered  by  a  penny  tax  on  polls 
and  assessments  on  persons  who  had  encroached  upon  the  highway. 
Some  eight  or  ten  conspicuous  encroachments  were  thus  compounded 
for  and  legalized,  to  the  manifest  detriment  of  the  streets.  This 
house  was  occupied  by  the  town's  poor  till  1782,  when  it  was  discon- 
tinued, and  for  several  years  paupers  were  provided  for  by  contract. 


1763.  A  town  vote  granted  liberty  to  Wm.  Potter,  to  build  a 
wharf  on  the  highway  next  north  of  the  fort,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
ferry,  during  the  town's  pleasure.     This  is  now  Ferry  Wharf. 


Dec.  1765.  "  Voted,  that  the  thanks  of  the  town  be  returned  to 
Capt.  Stephen  Chappell,  for  extraordinary  care  and  pains  as  sur- 
veyor of  highways,  in  discharging  that  ofiice  to  so  good  satisfaction 
and  applause,  and  that  the  vote  be  recorded  in  the  town-book  as  a 
memorial  to  his  honor." 


1766.  The  first  cart-bridge  over  Bream  Cove  was  built  this  year ; 
the  contractor  was  Lieut.  Christopher  Reed.  On  the  19th  of  Novem- 
ber, a  bear  was  killed  on  the  Norwich  road,  three  miles  from  town, 
near  Wheeler's.  It  weighed  two  hundred  and  forty  pounds — was 
dressed  and  brought  into  town  to  market  Hundreds,  for  the  first 
time,  tasted  of  bear's  meat. 


1767.  This  year  the  first  fire-engine  appeared  in  town.  It  was 
presented  to  the  inhabitants  by  Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jr.,  who  had  pro- 
cured it  from  Philadelphia.'     A  house  was  built  for  it  upon  the 


1  In  a  letter  from  Shaw  to  his  correspondent,  Thomas  Wharton  of  Philadelphia,  is 
the  following  passage  relating  to  tliis  engine: 

"In  Mr.  Goddard*8  paper  No.  9,  I  see  that  a  ¥\re  Engine  is  advertized  for  sale  by 
Daniel  Elly  Esq.  I  should  be  obliged  to  you  to  engage  it  for  me,  if  it  be  a  good  one, 
and  ship  by  Capt.  Harris."    (Shaw's  Letter  Book.) 


476  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

Qinrch  land  on  the  Parade,  bj  permission  of  the  wardens  and  vestry 
of  the  church.  How  this  engine  escaped  the  conflagration  that  de- 
stroyed the  church  and  a  great  part  of  the  town,  at  the  time  of  the 
British  invasion  in  1781,  is  not  known.  Perhaps  it  had  been  pre- 
viously removed  elsewhere.  In  June,  1785,  after  the  incorporation 
of  the  city,  thfa  old  engine,  being  inspected  and  found  worthy  of  re- 
pairs, was  foi-warded  to  New  York  for  that  end,  and  on  its  return  in 
1786,  a  regular  fire-company  was  established,  to  take  charge  of  it. 
This  was  the  first  fire-company  in  town.  Ebenezer  Douglas  was 
appointed  captain,  with  authority  to  enlist  twelve  men,  whom  he  was 
to  exercise  once  a  month.  The  city  engaged  to  pay  the  personal 
highway-tax  of  those  who  enlisted. 

The  New  London  Summary  was  discontinued  in  October,  1763, 
three  weeks  after  the  death  of  its  publisher.  Probably  no  entire 
copy  of  it  is  now  extant.  A  glance  at  its  advertisements  will  furnish 
us  with  hints  from  which,  by  comparison,  we  may  estimate  the  ad- 
vances made  since  that  period.  A  trip  to  New  York,  in  a  packet 
schooner,  was  then  an  undertaking  of  some  moment.  "  Sept.  26th, 
1760,  John  Braddick  will  sail  for  New  York  in  about  six  days.  For 
freight  or  passage,  agree  with  him  at  his  house."  In  the  next  issue 
of  the  paper,  (October  3d,)  the  same  advertisement  is  continued,  and, 
October  10th,  under  head  of  "  Custom-house  cleared  out,"  is  "  Brad- 
dick for  New  York." 

"  Jan.  30th,  1761.     No  Boston  mail  this  week." 

The  most  conspicuous  stands  for  merchandise,  were  those  of  Jo- 
seph Coit  and  Russell  Hubbard,  on  the  Bank,  and  William  Stewart, 
on  the  Parade.  Roger  Gibson,  recently  from  Edinburgh,  and  Pat- 
rick Thompson  and  Son  were  on  Main  Street,  and  Thomas  Allen 
near  the  Ferry  Wharf.  Goods  were  curiously  intermixed  in  the  as- 
sortments: "London  babes"  (dolls)  and  Kilmarnock  caps  stood 
side  by  side  with  Cheshire  cheese.  Amos  Hallam  kept  a  house  of 
entertainment  for  gentlemen  travelers,  near  the  Ferry  Wharf,  sign 
of  the  Sun.  Capt.  Nathaniel  Coit  another,  on  Main  Street,  at  the 
sign  of  the  Red  Lion. 

Dr.  Thomas  Coit  was  the  principal  physician.  He  had  nearly  the 
whole  medical  practice  of  the  town  for  forty  years,  commencing  soon 
after  1750. 

Richard  Law  was  the  most  prominent  attorney.  He  was  a 
younger  son  of  Governor  Jonathan  Law,  of  Milford ;  graduated  at 
Yale  College,  1751 ;  practiced  law  a  short  time  in  Milford,  and  settled 
in  New  London  about  1757. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  477 

A  retufn  of  the  shipping  of  the  district  of  New  London,  (which  it 
mtist  he  remembered  included  at  this  time  the  whole  colony,)  for  the 
year  1761,  gives  the  following  result: 

Forty-Jive  vessehj  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty-eight  tunsy 
forty  guns,  three  hundred  and  eighty-seven  men} 

In  this  list  were  eight  brigs  and  brigantines,  forty-five  to  sixty- 
eight  tuns,  seven  schooners  and  thirty  sloops.  The  guns  belonged  to 
two  brigantines,  King  George  and  Britannia,  (each  fourteen,)  and  the 
schooner  Fox,  (twelve.)  The  Britannia  had  a  crew  of  fifty  men. 
Coasters  and  packets  were  not  included — adding  these,  the  whole 
Connecticut  fleet  amounted  to  about  eighty  saiL 

The  above  list  is  certified  by  Joseph  Hull,  collector,  Jeremiah 
Miller,  naval  officer,  and  Joseph  Chew,  surveyor.  Hull  is  supposed 
to  have  come  into  office  as  successor  to  John  Shackmaple,  who  died 
in  1743.'  Nicholas  Lechmere  was  one  of  the  naval  officers  of  the 
port  in  1750 ;  but  was  afterward  transferred  to  Newport,  and  made 
controller  of  the  customs  there.  Jeremiah  Miller  was  a  grandson  of 
Governor  Saltonstall,  and  the  only  native  of  the  town  that  is  known 
to  have  held  an  office  in  the  king's  customs.  Joseph  Chew  was  an 
emigrant  from  Virginia,  who  settled  in  the  place  before  1750.' 

In  1762,  Thomas  Oliver  was  appointed  collector  of  the  district 
He  was  an  Englishman,  who  had  been  a  resident  of  New  London  at 
intervals  since  1747,  and  perhaps  held  some  previous  office  under  the 
king.* 

In  1764,  he  was  superseded  by  the  appointment  of  Duncan  Stew- 


1  The  original  is  among  the  TrurabuU  papers  in  the  library  of  the  Mast.  Hist.  Soc., 
Boston. 

2  This  was  the  second  John  Shackmaple.  His  wife  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Richard 
Christophers,  married  in  1764,  Thomas  Allen.  Capt.  John  Shackmaple,  of  the  third 
generation,  died  in  1767,  and  with  him  the  male  line  in  New  London  became  extinct. 

8  His  father  was  Thomas  Chew,  of  Virginia,  and  his  mother  a  daughter  of  Col. 
James  Taylor,  a  gentleman  who  stands  as  progenitor  to  two  of  the  Presidents  of  the 
United  States — James  Madison  and  Zachaiy  Taylor.  Mr.  Chew,  after  his  removal  to 
New  England,  corresponded  with  his  cousin,  the  elder  James  Madison,  Bishop  of  Vir- 
ginia, who  was  hb  coeval  in  birth,  almost  to  precision,  the  two  cousins  having  been 
bom  reapectiTely  on  the  seventh  and  eighth  of  April,  1720. 

4  He  is  called  Captain  Oliver,  and  had  probably  been  a  sea  captain  in  the  West  In- 
dia trade.  His  will  was  executed  in  New  London,  December  22d,  1770,  but  not 
proved  till  1790.  It  bequeathed  all  his  property,  whether  in  New  London  or  Antigua, 
to  his  nephew,  Richard  Oliver,  of  London,  appointing  another  nephew,  Thomas 
Oliver,  of  Cambridge,  his  executor.  This  last  mentioned  gentleman  was  lieutenant 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  in  1774. 


478  HIBTORT   OP   NBW   LONDON. 

art,  who  sailed  from  Portdmoatb  in  June,  in  the  Essex  fixate ;  bnt 
the  vessel  being  ^nrced  by  tempestuous  weather  to  go  into  Lisbon, 
he  took  passage  in  a  brig  to  New  York,  from  whence  he  came  to 
New  London,  September  21st  Mr.  Stewart  was  the  last  collector 
of  his  majesty's  customs  in  this  port,  and  continued  nominally  in  office 
till  the  decluution  of  American  independence.  Dr.  Thomas  Mofiatt 
was  controller  of  the  customs,  and  esteemed  also  as  a  skillfnl  physi- 
cian, in  which  line  he  had  some  practice.  Neither  he  nor  Stewart, 
though  both  were  subsequently  driven  from  their  places  by  the  on- 
ward sweep  of  revolution,  were  otherwise  unpopular,  than  as  Eng- 
lishmen commissioned  by  rulers  far  away,  and  having  no  interest  in 
common  with  the  country.' 


/ 


After  the  peace  of  Paris,  in  1768,  the  trade  of  New  London  revi- 
ved, and  prosperity  returned  in  its  tirain.  The  weekly  herald  of  the 
town,  ''the  Summary^**  now  arose  like  a  phoenix  fVom  its  ashes^ 
''  another  and  yet  the  same."  It  was  issued  November  8d,  1763, 
under  the  auspices  of  Timothy  Green,  third  of  that  name  in  New 
London,  and  bore  the  title  of  ^  New  London  Gazette*** 

An  early  number  of  the  Gazette  gives  information  that  a  British 
squadron  had  been  ordered  to  cruise  on  the  New  England  coast,  and 
r^ulate  the  colonial  trade :  the  Jamaica  was  to  be  stationed  neat 
Marblehead  ;  the  Squirrel  at  Newport,  and  the  Cygnet  at  New  Lon- 
don. The  Cygnet  thus  announced,  arrived  January  11th,  1764,  and 
wintered  in  the  harbor  for  three  successive  years.  Her  commander 
was  Capt^  Charles  Leslie/  and  her  officers  soon  made  themselves  at 
home  in  the  town,  adding,  however,  more  to  the  festivity  than  to  the 
quiet  and  good  order  of  the  place.  They  attended  parties,  gave  en- 
tertainments on  ship-board,  frequented  the  taverns,  scoured  the  coun- 


1  It  has  been  stated  that  when  Ck>I.  Eliphalet  Djer,  of  Windham,  was  in  England^ 
in  1769,  as  agent  of  the  Sasqoehannnh  and  Delaware  Company,  he  was  appointed 
controller  of  the  customs  for  New  London.  This  was  probably  a  commission  to 
supersede  Dr.  Moffatt  On  his  return,  the  offloe  had  become  so  unpopular  that  he 
resigned. 

2  Gazette;  Capt.  Philip  Dnrell,  appeart  to  have  had  the  command  before  the  ship 
left  the  coast,  and  to  have  been  the  officer  best  knovm  to  the  inhabitants.  He  is  said 
to  have  erected  a  flag-staff  on  Town  Hill,  where  his  ensign  was  always  displayed 
while  he  was  on  land.  At  one  time  he  made  an  excursion  into  the  country  to  visit 
the  Mohegans,  and  presented  the  sachem,  Ben-Uncas,  with  a  flag,  which  floating  <m 
Indian  fort  hill,  could  be  seen  fh)m  his  ship  at  the  mouth  of  the  river. 


dIBTQKT    OF    MEW     LOKDON.  479 

try  as  sportomen,  caught  all  the  troot,  and  killed  all  the  woodcock 
within  ten  miles  of  the  port,  and  in  winter  spent  much  of  their  time 
on  land,  sleighing  and  merry-making.  The  attentions  paid  hy  the 
offieers  to  the  young  females  of  the  place,  were  .not  always  agreeable 
to  their  relatives  of  the  other  sex.  The  more  grave  and  religious 
citizens  would  not  allow  their  daughters  to  attend  parties  where  the 
brilliant  Englishmen  were  received  as  guests.  Romances  have  been 
written,  and  more  might  be  founded  on  these  scenes,  but  the  moralist 
frowns  upon  this  period  as  one  in  which  the  early  decorum  of  society 
and  the  strict  supervision  of  the  laws,  had  given  way  to  codes  of  less 
energy  a^id  purity. 

One  of  the  officers  of  the  Cygnet  married  in  New  London,'  and  in 
various  ways  this  vessel  became  associated  with  the  fire-side  stories  of 
the  imhabitants.  A  number  of  the  crew  deserted,  and  the  quiet 
woodlands  and  farm-houses  were  often  searched  for  the  fugitives.  It 
was  reported  that  six  of  these  deserters  escaped  into  the  backwoods, 
and  were  never  recovered.  Another  is  said  to  have  been  concealed 
for  a  considerable  period,  or  until  the  rigor  of  the  search  was  over,  in 
a  cave,  or  rock-cleft  of  Cedar  Swamp.  If  we  may  credit  tradition, 
still  another  of  these  fugitives  lived  concealed  for  many  months,  and 
through  one  long  severe  winter,  in  the  woods,  having  for  his  home 
and  hiding-place,  a  natural  chamber  in  the  rock,  something  like  a 
cavern,  that  is  found  among  the  cliffs  on  the  western  bank  of  the 
river,  a  little  south  of  what  is  now  called  the  Oneco  farm-house. 
Fearful  of  being  betrayed,  he  held  no  communication  with  any  hu- 
man being  until  after  the  departure  of  the  ship ;  sustaining  liimself 
on  berries,  roots,  shell-fish,  and  what  he  could  furtively  obtain  by 
prowling  around  corn-fields  and  fruit-trees  in  the  night.  When  at 
length  he  ventured  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  his  kind,  his  clothes 
being  nearly  worn  from  his  body,  and  his  meager  frame  exhibiting 
the  likeness  of  a  walking  skeleton,  people  fled  from  him  in  supersti- 
tious terror. 

There  is  yet  another  deserter  from  the  Cygnet  to  be  mentioned." 


1  John  SolKvan,  purser  of  the  Cygnet,  married,  February  2l9t,  1768,  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Gideon  Chapman.  Their  children,  Jeremiah  C,  bom  August  27th,  1768, 
at  Charleston,  S.  C,  died  young;  Mary,  bom  November  9th,  1772,  m  Philadelphia, 
married  Enoch  Parsons;  Elizabeth,  bom  December  1st,  1778,  m  Philadelphia,  mar- 
ried Dr.  S.  H.  P.  Lee. 

2  These  traditionary  tales  may  be  true  in  the  main  pohits,  but  it  is  probable  that 
they  ought  to  be  distributed  among  several  war  vessels,  and  not  all  assigned  to  the 
Cygnet  Where  tradition  is  the  leader,  and  there  are  no  dates  for  landmarks,  accu- 
racy can  not  be  expected. 


480  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LOlfDONi 

Capt  William  WeaVer,  subsequently  a  respectable  ship-master  cf 
New  London,  is  said  to  have  left  the  Cjgnet,  the  night  before  she 
sailed  for  £urope.'  The  weather  was  extremely  cold,  and  the  ship 
was  anchored  three  miles  from  land,  but  he  had  resolved  to  escape 
from  the  service  or  perish  in  the  attempt  After  night  closed  in,  he 
seized  an  opportunity  when  he  was  unobserved,  put  on  a  cork  jacket, 
slipped  over  the  side  of  the  ship  and  made  for  the  shore.  He  was  a 
good  swinmier,  but  the  water  was  so  cold  that  when  he  came  near  to 
limd,  and  saw  a  skiff  before  him  fastened  to  the  shore,  his  benumbed 
hands  refused  to  grasp  the  side.  He  would  have  perished  but  for  one 
of  those  rare  coincidences  which  are  sometimes  found  interwoven 
with  the  providential  arrangements  of  the  Creator.  The  owner  of 
the  craft,  hearing  the  wind  breeze  up  rather  freshly,  concluded  to  go 
out  before  retiring  for  the  night,  and  see  if  the  fastening  of  his  skiff 
was  secure.  While  examining  it  he  heard  a  splash  in  the  water,  and 
soon  discovered  a  man  making  repeated  attempts  to  get  hdd  of  the 
boat,  but  each  time  falling  back  without  success.  With  instinctive 
humanity  he  plunged  into  the  water  and  brought  him  to  the  shore. 


In  town  meeting  December  27th,  1768,  the  inhabitants  exhibited  a 
commendable  zeal  to  eradicate  two  distinct  evils  from  their  bounds. 
They  first  issued  an  edict  against  barberry  bushes,  imposing  a  fine  of 
fifteen  shillings  lawful  money,  upon  "  every  person  who  finds  them 
growing  on  their  own  lands  and  does  not  attempt  to  destroy  them."* 
Either  this  law  was  but  imperfectly  enforced,  or  the  barberry  per- 
versely resisted  the  attacks  made  upon  it,  for  it  still  continues  to  be 
proverbially  common  in  the  fields  and  pastures  of  the  vicinity.  Its 
reputation,  however,  has  brightened  by  time  ;  the  blighting  influence 
attributed  to  it  by  our  ancestors  is  now  doubted,  while  its  delicate 
blossoms  and  bright  crimson  fruit  have  won  for  it  a  place  in  ornamen- 
tal shrubbery. 

The  second  denunciatory  vote  was  directed  against  an  evil  of  a  dif- 
ferent kind  and  less  doubtfully  pernicious,  though  it  was  to  be  visited 
with  only  an  equal  penalty. .  This  was  the  mock  celebration  of  Pope- 
day,  which  had  been  for  some  time  annually  celebrated  on  the  5th  of 


1  The  Cygnet  left  Long  Island  Sound  late  in  the  autumn  of  1767. 

2  There  was  also  a  law  of  the  colony  against  barberry  bushes,  allowing  persons  at 
certain  seasons  of  tlie  year,  to  destroy  them,  wherever  they  were  found.  These  acts 
were  founded  on  the  prevalent  notion  that  poUen  wafted  from  the  flower  of  the  bar^ 
berry,  caused  wheat  to  blast.    This  idea  b  now  discarded. 


V 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON.  481 

November,  the  anniversary  of  the  Gunpowder  plot.    The  edict  was 
as  follows : 

**  Whereas  the  custom  that  has  late  years  prevailed  in  tfus  toMm  of  carrying 
about  the  Pope,  in  celebration  of  the  5th  of  Nov^ml>er,  has  been  attended  with 
▼ery  bad  consequences,  and  pregnant  mischief  and  much  disorder,  which 
therefore  to  prevent  for  the  future,  voted  that  every  person  or  persons  that  shall 
be  any  way  concerned  in  making  or  carrying  about  the  same,  or  shall  know- 
ingly suffer  the  same  to  be  made  in  their  possessions,  shall  forfeit  fifleen  shil- 
lings to  the  town  treasury  of  New  London,  to  be  recovered  by  the  selectmen  of 
said  town,  for  the  use  aforesaid.*' 

Descriptions  of  this  obsolete  custom  may  stUl  be  obtained  from 
persons  whose  memories  reach  back  to  a  participation  in  the  ceremo- 
nies. The  boys  of  the  town,  apprentices,  sailors,  and  that  portion  of 
the  inhabitants  which  come  under  the  denomination  of  the  populace, 
were  the  actors*  The  effigies  exhibited  were  two,  one  representing 
the  pope  and  the  other  the  devil ;  each  with  a  head  of  hollow  pump- 
kin, cut  to  represent  a  frightful  visage,  with  a  candle  inside  to  make 
it  "grin  horribly  a  ghastly  smile,"  and  the  only  difference  between 
the  two,  consisting  in  a  paper  crown  upon  the  head  of  the  pope,  and 
a  monstrous  pair  of  horns  to  designate  the  other  personage.  These 
were  fixed  upon  a  platform,  and  lifted  high  on  the  shoulders  of  a  set 
of  bearers,  who  in  the  dusk  of  evening,  with  boisterous  shouts  and  out- 
cries, marched  in  procession  through  the  principal  streets,  stopping  at 
every  considerable  house  to  levy  pennies  and  six-pences,  or  cakea. 
and  comfits,  upon  the  occupants.  When  arrived  opposite  a  door, 
where  they  expected  largesses,  the  cavalcade  halted,  the  shouts 
ceased,  and  a  small  bell  was  rung,  while  some  one  of  the  party 
mounted  the  door-step,  and  sung  or  recited  the  customary  doggerels, 
of  which  the  refrain  was, 

**  Guy  Fawkes  and  the  5th  of  November, 
The  Pope  and  the  Gun- powder  plot. 
Shall  never  be  forgot." 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  orgies,  the  two  images  were  thrown  into 
a  bonfire  and  consumed,  while  the  throng  danced  around  with  tumult- 
uous shouts. 

The  ban  of  authority  issued  as  above  related,  in  December,  1768, 
against  this  celebration,  had  no  effect.  In  defiance  of  the  law,  Guy 
Fawkes  and  the  Pope  made  their  annual  procession  through  the 
streets,  until  after  the  destruction  of  the  town  by  the  British,  saving 
only  two  or  three  years  in  which  it  was  interrupted  or  greatly  modi- 
41 


482  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

fiedy  through  an  unwillingness  to  give  offence  to  our  French  allies, 
who  were  loyal  subjects  of  the  Pope.  Washington,  in  one  of  hia 
general  orders,  prohibited  the  army  from  making  their  usual  demon- 
strations on  this  day,  out  of  respect  to  the  generous  power  that  had 
come  to  our  aid  in  the  great  contest,  and  the  New  London  boys  were 
too  magnanimous  in  their  patriotism  not  to  follow  such  an  example. 

After  the  Revolution,  Pope-day  or  rather  Pope-night,  revived  in 
all  its  details,  and  the  restrictive  acts  of  the  town  being  entirely  dis- 
regarded, Messrs.  Shaw  and  Miller,  and  other  magistrates,  deter- 
mined to  try  what  could  be  done  by  indirect  measures.  Judging  that 
the  most  effectual  method  of  destroying  a  custom  so  ancient  and  deep-* 
rooted,  would  be  to  supersede  it  with  a  new  one,  which  not  being  so 
firmly  established  in  usage,  might  be  assailed  at  any  time,  they  sug- 
gested to  the  populace  the  substitution  of  Arnold  for  the  Pope,  and 
the  6th  of  September  for  the  5th  of  November.  This  was  eagerly 
adopted,  and  the  ditty  now  sung  at  the  doors,  ran  in  this  manner : 

**  Don't  you  remember,  the  6th  of  September, 

When  Arnold  burnt  the  town, 
He  took  the  buildings  one  by  one, 

And  burnt  them  to  the  ground. 

And  burnt  them  to  the  ground. 

And  here  you  see  the«e  crooked  sticks. 

For  him  to  stand  upon, 
And  when  we  take  him  down  from  them. 

We'll  burn  him  to  the  ground. 

We'll  bum  him  to  the  ground. 

*^ 

Hark !  my  little  bell  goes  chink !  chink  !  chink  ! 
Give  me  some  money  to  buy  me  some  drink. 
We'll  take  him  down  and  cut  otf  his  head, 
And  then  we'll  say  the  traitor  is  dead, 
And  burn  him  to  the  ground. 
And  bum  him  to  the  ground.^ 

After  a  few  annual  jollifications  in  this  form,  the  whole  custom  fell 
into  desuetude. 


The  commercial  prosperity  which  visited  the  country  after  the 
peace  of  1763,  was  suddenly  mterrupted  by  the  Stamp  Act.  As 
public  opinion  in  Connecticut  would  not  allow  the  use  of  stamps, 
there  was  a  temporary  cessation  of  all  kinds  of  business.  The  courts 
were  closed,  and  no  clearances  could  be  given  at  the  custom  house. 
The  repeal  of  that  odious  act  caused  a  general  rejoicing,  and  opened 


HISTORY     OP     NBW     LONDON.  483 

again  the  sluices  of  commerce.  But  in  New  London,  the  privilege  ot 
free  trade  was  of  short  duration.  Early  in  1769,  the  revenue  sloop, 
Lihertyy  was  stationed,  by  the  commissioners  of  customs,  in  the  har^ 
bor,  and  every  sail  that  passed  out  or  in,  was  subjected  to  a  rigorous 
inspection.  Nathaniel  Shaw,  merchant  of  New  London,  writes  to 
one  of  his  correspondents,  May  15th,  1769,  "The  sloop  Liberty  is 
now  stationed  here,  and  searches  every  vessel  in  the  strictest  man- 
ner." Again,  "  Our  cruising  Pirate  sailed  yesterday  for  Newport.'* 
This  vessel  was  kept  for  some  time  plying  between  Newport  and 
•  New  London,  and  overhauling  every  vessel  that  she  found  upon  the 
coast.  Before  the  close  of  the  summer  she  was  destroyed  near  New- 
port, in  a  burst  of  popular  frenzy.  The  oppression  of  the  laws  at  this 
time  inevitably  led  to  a  laxity  of  commercial  honor.  Espionage  and 
imposts  on  one  side  were  met  with  secrecy  and  deception  on  the  other. 
Goods  that  could  not  be  cleared  might  be  run,  and  if  sugars  and  in- 
digo could  not  afford  to  pay  the  customs,  they  might,  be  shipped  as 
flaxseed,  or  landed  in  the  silence  and  shade  of  midnight,  and  the  duty 
wholly  avoided.' 

The  West  Ilidia  trade  was  accomplished  principally  in  single-deck- 
ed vessels.  It  was  a  cheap  and  lucrative  navigation ;  lumber,  pro- 
vision and  horses  were  sent  away — sugar,  rum,  molassess  and  coffee 
brought  back.  These  statements  will  apply  to  other  ports  in  New 
England,  as  well  as  to  New  London. 

The  departing  vessels  carried  horses  and  oxen  on  deck ;  staves, 
boards,  shingles  and  hoops  in  the  hold,  and  occasionally,  but  not 
always,  fish,  beef,  pork  and  corn.  The  balance  was  generally  in 
favour  of  the  American  merchant,  which  being  paid  in  dollars,  and 
bills  of  exchange  furnished  him  with  remittances  for  England.  And 
this  was  necessary,  for  in  that  quarter  the  balance  was  against  him ; 
the  consumption  of  British  manufactures  being  double  the  amount  of 
exports.  To  Gibraltar,  the  Spanish  port3  on  the  Mediterranean  and 
Barbary — ^flour,  lumber  and  provender  were  exported,  and  mules 
taken  in  exchange  which  were  carried  to  the  West  Indies  and  a  car- 
go of  the  produce  of  those  islands  obtained.*     The  home  market 

1  "  Mftttere  of  this  kind  are  daily  practised  In  New  York  and  Boston,  for  in  short, 
brown  sugars  will  not  bear  to  pay  duty  on."     Sliaw's  Letter  Book,  (MS.) 

2  Capt  Gabriel  Sistera,  or  Sistare,  of  Barcelona,  Old  Spain,  was  engaged  in  this 
Une  of  trade.  He  came  to  this  country  in  1771,  bringing  his  son  Gabriel  with  him, 
and  fixed  his  residence  in  New  London. 


484  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

being  thus  overburdened  with  the  island  prodacts,  a  vent  was  sought 
in  England.  Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jun.,  then  the  most  distinguished  mer- 
chant in  New  London,  entered  with  spirit  into  this  circle  of  trade. 
In  Maj,  1772,  he  sent  the  sloop  Ihve^  to  Great  Britain,  ?rith  brown 
sugar,  molasses,  coffee,  and  one  hag  of  cotton  wool.  These  were 
articles,  of  which  more  than  enough  for  home  consumption  was  ob- 
tained from  the  West  Indies.  In  the  letter  to  his  correspondents, 
"  Messrs.  Lane,  Son,  and  Frazier,  merchants  in  London,"  respectiog 
this  consignment,  he  says  in  substance : 

• 
*♦  Our  trade  to  the  foreign  islands,  (French  and  Dutch)  has  of  late  increased 
so  much  that  those  articles  are  not  in  demand  here,  which  is  the  occasion  of 
my  shipping  to  your  market,  and  in  case  it  turns  to  advantage  we  shall  send 
three  or  four  vessels  annually.  Send  mo  by  return,  sheathing,  nails,  Russia 
duck,  hemp ;  a  large  scale  beam  for  weighing  hhd.  sugar ;  a  good  silver  watch ; 
a  good  spy-glass ;  two  dozen  white  knit  thread  hose ;  a  piece  of  kersey  and 
four  yards  of  scarlet  cloth,  iSs.  per  yard.  I  imagine  it  will  be  difficult  to  get 
a  freight  back  to'  America  in  a  single  deck  vessel,  and  if  that  should  be  the  case, 
send  a  load  of  salt." 

The  above  is  from  Shaw's  manuscript  letter-book.*  From  the 
same  source  we  gather  a  few  hints  respecting  the  trade  with  the 
Spanish  ports. 

To  Peter  Vandervoart,  New  York,  Jan,  29th,  1773. 

<*Get  six  hundred  pounds  insurance  on  the  Schooner  Thames  from  this  port 
to  the  Mediterranean  to  take  mules  and  go  to  the  West  Indies  and  return  to  New 
London,  on  account  of  Gabriel  Sistera  &  Co.,  at  6  per  cent." 

To  Messrt,  Wharton,  Philadelphia,  Aug  20th,  1773. 

'*  What  premium  must  I  pay  on  a  vessel  that  sails  next  week  for  Gibraltar 
(with  flour)  and  so  to  try  the  markets  in  the  West  Indies,  and  return  to  New 
London?" 

To  Vandervoort,  New  York,  Nov.  9th,  1774. 

"  What  premium  must  I  pay  on  the  Ship  America,  from  this  to  Gibraltar, 
or  (through)  the  Streights  to  continue  until  they  find  a  suitable  market.'*' 

To  Me$tri.  Lane,  Son  ^  Frazier,  London,  De$,  29ih,  1774. 

"  I  sent  out  Capt.  Deshon  to  the  Mediterranean  with  cargo,  who  was  to 
purchase  mules  and  proceed  to  the  West  Indies,  there  sell  for  Bills  and  remit 


1  In  the  possession  of  N.  S.  Perkhis,  M.  D. 


BISTOE7    OP    NSW    LONDON.  485 

:^Oii»  but  hd  VM  detained  so  long  at  Gibraltar  that  when  he  arriyed  in  the  West 
Indies,  mules  would  not  sell  for  cash"^  dec. 

<«  John  Lamb  sailed  last  week  in  the  Ship  America  for  Gibraltar.** 

Soon  after  these  dates^  the  onward  sweep  of  the  reyolntion  put  an  / 

end  to  all  traffic  with  European  ports.  ' 


1  About  this  period  Shaw  writes  to  Vandervoort  in  New  York;  **  Take  no  more 
OMks  from  the  distillers  for  tmless  the  times  alter  we  had  better  do  wjQimg  than  im- 
port molasses.**  Can  the  distressing  state  of  the  times  be  more  foroiblj  illustrated— 
MuIm  would  not  sell  in  the  West  Indiesi  nor  molasses  in  New  England  1 

4r 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Death  of  Rev.  EUphalet  Adams.— His  famil/  and  church  record.  —First  Society 
organized. — Meeting-house  struck  by  lightning. — Settlement  of  Rey.  Mather 
Byles. — The  Rogerene  visitation. — Mr.  Byles  becomes  an  Episcopalian. — 
Ministry  of  Rev.  Ephraim  Woodbridge. 

The  ministry  of  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams  continued  forty-three  years 
and  eight  months.  His  last  Sabhath  service  was  held  Sept  9th, 
1753.  Immediately  after  this  he  was  seixed  with  an  epidemic  disor- 
der which  then  prevailed  in  the  town,  and  expired  Oct.  4th.  He 
was  interred  the  next  day ;  the  pall-bearers  being  the  two  Lyme 
ministers,  (Messrs.  Griswold  and  Johnson,)  Rev.  Matthew  Graves 
of  the  Episcopal  church,  Col.  Saltonstall,  deacon  Timothy  Green 
&nd  Mr.  Joshua  Hempstead. 

<*  Eliphalet,  son  of  Rev.  William  Adams  of  Dedham,  Mass.  was  born  March 
26th,  1677 ;  graduated  at  Harvard,  1694 ;  ordained  in  New  London  Feb.  &th, 
1708-9 ;  married  Dec.  15th,  1709,  Lydia  daughter  of  Alexander  Pygan. 
Children  of  Rev.  Eliphalet  and  Lydia  Adamt, 

1.  William,  bom  Oct.  7th,  1710.  4.  Thomas,  bap.  Jan.  4th,  1715-10. 

2.  Pygan,        ««     Mar.  27th,  1712.  6.  Samuel,  born  Aug.  11th,  1717. 

3.  Mary,         ♦•    Mar.  5th,  1713-14.     6.  Lydia,       ♦*     Feb.  20th,  1720. 

"  Mrs.  Lydia  Adams  died  Sept.  6th,  1749.  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams  married 
Elizabeth  Wass,  of  Boston,  Sept.  21st,  1751.  This  second  wife  survived  him. 
The  two  youngest  children  of  Mr.  Adams  died  in  infancy.  William,  became 
a  minister ;  Pygan,  a  merchant  in  New  London ;  Mary,  married  first,  Jonathan 
Gardiner ;  second,  John  Bulkley  of  Colchester ;  Thomas,  became  a  physician, 
and  settled  in  East  Haddam,  but  died  about  a  month  before  his  father.  The 
descndants  of  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams  in  the  male  line  are  extinct." 

Between  March  17th,  1708-9  and  Sept.  9th,  1753,  Mr.  Adams 
recorded  the  baptism  of  1,817  children,  and  199  adults.  Marriages 
in  the  same  term,  526. 

Admissions  to  the  church  about  430,  of  whom  not  more  than  a 
dozen  were  bj  letter  from  other  churches.    William,  the  oldest  son 


HI8TOET    OF    NSW   LONDON.  487 

of  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams,  graduated  at  Tale  College  in  1780,  and 
was  two  years  Tutor  in  that  Institution.  He  was  then  Mcensed  to 
preach  and  exercised  the  ministerial  office  in  various  parishes*  for 
more  than  sixtj  years,  but  was  never  ordained,  and  never  married. 
His  longest  pastoral  term,  was  on  Shelter  Island.  His  old  age  was 
spent  in  New  London  where  he.  died  Sept.  25th,  1798,  in  the  eightj-^ 
eighth  year  of  his  age.  It  js  said  that  he  often  congratulated  him- 
self on  never  having  been  incumbered  with  wife  or  parish. 

Mr.  Adams  was  the  last  minister  settled  by  the  town.  Until  the 
year  1704  one  great  ecclesiastical  Parish  extended  from  Nahantick 
Bay  to  Pawkatuck  River.  People  came  from  Poquetanbock  on  the 
north-east  and  from  the  borders  of  Colchester  on  the  north-west,  to 
the  meeting  at  New  London. 

Groton  was  made  a  distinct  town  in  1704.  A  second  ecclesiasti- 
cal society  was  formed  in  the  North  Parish  in  1722,  and  Baptist  and 
Episcopcd  Societies  about  the  year  1726.  It  was  then  no  longer 
practicable  to  transact  ecclesiastical  business  town-wise,  and  a  society 
was  organized  which  took  the  denomination  of  the  First  Ecclesiasti- 
cal Society  of  New  London,  as  belonging  to  the  oldest  church.  It 
met  Jan.  28d,  1726-7  and  chose  the  following  officers : 

Christopher  Christophers,  Moderator. 

Christopher  Christophers,  Jonathan  Prentis  nnH/ToVin  w^g^pi««o^d]  Commit- 
tee.    John  Richards,  Clerk*     " 

The  first  acts  of  this  society  advert  to  the  different  persuasions 
that  had  arisen  in  the  town,  which  made  it  inconvenient  to  collect 
the  parish  rates,  and  express  a  determination  to  pay  the  salary  of 
Mr.  Adams  by  free  contributions  if  possible. 

In  1738  the  subject  of  a  new  meeting-house  was  brought  up ;  and 
kept  under  discussion  and  in  suspense  for  thirteen  years.  The  old 
edifice,  which  we  have  called  the  SaltonstaU  meeting-house,  was  shat- 
tered and  almost  riven  asunder  by  a  terrific  thunder-bolt  which  de- 
scended upon  it  August  31st,  1735.  Of  this  awful  event  particular 
accounts  may  be  gathered  from  tradition,  from  MSS.  and  from  the 
New  England  Weekly  Journal. 

It  was  Sunday.  The  morning  was  fair,  and  Mr.  Adams  had  his 
usual  service  in  the  meeting-house.  In  the  afternoon,  just  as  the 
congregation  had  collected  for  the  second  service,  a  thunder  cloud 
began  to  gather  and  soon  spread  over  the  heaven.  Suddenly  it  grew 
dark  and  as  the  minister  commenced  his  first  prayer,  the  house  was 
struck  with  a  bolt  that  shook  its  foundations,  split  up  several  timbers, 
rafters  and  posts,  scattering  them  in  fragments  on  every  side,  and 


488  HUfOttY    OP    NBW    LONDON* 

threw  about  ibr^  penons  senseless  on  the  floor.  The  tenor  of  the 
scene  cannot  be  portrayed.  The  house  was  filled  with  the  shrieks 
and*  cries  of  those  who  esci4>ed  injury  or  were  but  slightly  hurt.  . 
Many  were  confused  and  woonded,  and  quite  a  number  ber^  of 
sense,  but  by  proper  medical  aid  and  great  care,  all  reoorered  except 
one.  ^  It  pleased  God,"  says  Hempstead,  ^  to  spare  all  our  lires  UA 
Edward  Burch  a  young  man,  newly  for  himself,  who  was  struck 
fatally  and  died."  Among  those  taken  up  i^parently  lifeless  were 
John  Prentis,  John  Plumb,  Samuel  Green  and  Jeremiah  Chapman, 
who  were  in  different  pews,  on  the  four  sides  of  the  houae. 

The  sermon  preached  by  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams  in  re^srence  to 
this  event,  the  next  Lord's  Day,  Sept.  7th,  was  printed  by  Timo^y 
Green. 

The  meeting-house  was  left  by  the  thunder-boH  almost  a  wreck. 
It  was  repaired  for  temporary  use,  but  the  society  determined  to 
build  a  new  edifice,  of  larger  dimensions  and  greater  elegance,  and 
this  might  have  been  soon  accomplished  had  no  difficulty  arisen  in 
regard  to  the  site.  A  struggle,  or  disagreement  in  regard  to  position 
is  the  usual  preliminary  to  the  erection  of  a  church.  Was  ever  a 
new  site  chosen  without  giving  rise  to  controversy  and  ill  feeling? 
The  society  not  being  able  to  determine  the  place  where  a  new  house 
of  worship  should  stand,  referred  the  matter  to  the  legislature ;  who 
appointed  Messrs.  Samuel  Lynde,  John  Griswold  and  Christopher 
Avery,  a  committee  to  repair  to  New  London,  hear  all  parties,  and 
determine  the  point  These  persons  met  accordingly,  and  July  4th, 
1739,  set  up  a  stake  on  the  spot  selected  by  them,  viz,  ^  at  the  south- 
east comer  of  the  meeting-house  green,  within  thirty  rods  of  the  old 
meeting-house."  This  appears  to  have  been  satisfactory ;  but  the 
Spanish  and  French  war  soon  broke  forth,  and  the  exposed  situation 
of  the  town  rendered  it  inexpedient  to  begin  at  that  time  a  new  and 
costly  edifice.  The  old  house  was  therefore  thoroughly  repaired,  and 
ten  feet  added  to  each  end.  The  vote  was  ^  to  cover  the  whole  with 
cedar  clap-boards  and  cedar  shingles ;  take  down  tiie  dormends,  re- 
pair the  belfry ;  make  new  window  frames  and  glass  the  house.**  A 
new  bell  was  also  procured  and  hung  in  1746.  The  Saltonstall 
meeting-house  which  had  been  built  about  forty-five  years,  with  this 
Adams  addition,  and  its  new  trimmings,  lasted  for  another  term  of 
forty-five  years. 

Several  years  elapsed  before  a  successor  to  Mr.  Adams  was  chosen* 
The  pulpit  was  occasionally  supplied  by  neighboring  ministers  and 
by  Mr.  William  Adams,  the  son  of  the  last  incumbent,  but  oftener 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  489 

f 

vacant  We  have  notices  in  the  Hempstead  diary  that  ^^  Deacon 
Green  carried  •n" — "many  went  to  the  North  Parish  meeting." 
"  Some  went  to  Lyme" — "  No  minister  provided" — ^**  no  minister." 
^^  I  went  to  hear  the  church  minister." 

Feb.  ISth:  (1756.)  •*  A  society  fast  on  account  of  our  unhappy  circum- 
stances I  our  want  of  a  settled  minister." 

Feb.  23d.  ••  A  society  meeting.  Mr.  (William)  Adams  negatived,  forty-five 
against  forty- two." 

May  16th,  "  Mr.  Burr,*  Rector  of  the  College  in  the  East  Jerseys  preached 
aU  day." 

April  10th,  (1757.)  *<Mr.  Mather  Boiles  from  Boston  preached.  A  great 
assembly,  three  or  four  times  as  big  as  it  hath  been  of  late.  He  stays  at  Mr. 
Shaw's." 

Bev.  Mather  Byles,  Jr.^  the  person  introduced  in  the  last  extract, 
was- a  son  of  Rev.  Mather  Byles,  D.  D.,  of  Boston,  whose  mother 
was  a  daughter  of  Increase  Mather.  His  puritan  descent,  the  repu- 
tation of  his  father,  and  his  own  brilliant  promise  secured  him  popu- 
larity in  New  London  before  he  had  earned  it.  His  pulpit  services 
proved  to  be  showy  and  attractive.  He  was  animated,  pertinent, 
fluent,  and  interesting.  He  preached  as  a  candidate  for  three  months, 
and  the  people  were  charmed  almost  to  fascination  with  his  eloquence. 
July  2dth,  at  a  very  full  meeting,  a  vote  entirely  unanimous,  invited 
him  to  settle :  salary  £100  per  annum,  and  a  gratuity  of  ,£240  to  be 
paid  in  four  years.  He  accepted  the  call  without  hesitancy  or  reser- 
vation, and  was  ordained  Nov.  18th,  1757,  being  then  about  twenty- 
three  years  of  age.  The  sermon  on  the  occasion  was  preached  by 
Dr.  Byles  of  Boston,  father  of  the  candidate,  from  II.  Timothy  iii, 
17.     The  charge  was  given  by  the  same. 

Previous  to  the  ordination  of  Mr.  Byles,  the  following  action  took 
j^ace. 

"  The  brethren  of  the  Church  met  at  the  Meeting-House  Oct.  17th,  1757  and 
the  question  being  put  whether  this  church  would  henceforth  admit  of  the 
Saybrook  Platform  as  a  rule  of  discipline,  it  was  voted  in  the  negative  :  nemine 
contradicente."     (Ch.  Record.) 

May  5th,  1758,  Captain  Pygan  Adams,  second  son  of  the  former 
minister,  was  chosen  deacon  of  the  church  as  successor  to  Timothy 
Green,  who  deceased  that  day ;  twenty-eight  votes  were  given,  of 
which  he  received  twenty-five.     Hempstead  writes,  Oct.  22d,  "  Mr. 

1  Father  of  the  celebrated  Aaron  Burr. 


490  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

Byles  preached  in  a  new  pulpit  and  Capt.  Adams  officiated  as  deacon 
for  the  first  time." 


A  great  source  of  annoyance  during  the  ministry  of  the  Rev. 
Mather  Byles,  was  the  frequent  interruption  of  the  Sabbath  service 
by  the  Quakers.  By  this  term  is  understood  the  followers  of  John 
Rogers,*  of  whom  for  about  thirty  years  after  the  death  of  their 
founder,  very  little  is  known.  "  We  were  not  molested  as  at  first,'* 
observes  one  of  their  writers,  and  the  reason  of  this  is  evident  they 
had  refrained  ftx)m  molesting  the  worship  of  others.  In  the  year 
1764  their  former  spirit  revived,  and  they  began  to  issue  forth,  as  of 
old  on  the  Sundays  to  testify  against  what  they  called  idolatry.  And 
here  commenced  a  series  of  provocations  on  one  side  and  of  retalia- 
tory punishment  on  the  other,  over  which  mercy  weeps  and  would 
fain  blot  the  whole  from  history,  This  out-break  lasted  in  its  vehe- 
mence only  a  year  and  a  half.  John  Rogers  third,  grandson  of  the 
founder  of  the  sect,  has  left  a  minute  account  of  it  in  the  form  of  a 
diary,  which  was  printed  with  the  following  title. 

*♦  A  Looking  Glass  for  the  Presbyterians  of  New  London ;  to  see  their  wor- 
ship and  worshippers  weighed  in  the  balance  and  found  wanting.  With  a 
true  account  of  what  thcpeople  called  Rogerenes  have  suffered  in  that  town, 
from  the  10th  of  June,  1764,  to  the  13th  of  December,  1766, 

«•  Who  suffered  for  testifying — 

"  That  it  was  contrary  to  Scripture  for  ministers  to  preach  the  Gospel  for 
hire. 

"  That  the  first  day  of  the  week  was  no  Sabbath  by  God's  appointment— 

'*  That  sprinkling  iniknts  is  no  baptism  and  nothing  short  of  blasphemy, be* 
ing  contrary  to  the  example  set  us  by  Christ  and  his  holy  apostles'-^ 

**  That  long  public  prayers  in  synagogues  is  forbidden  by  Christ. 

**  Al»iO  for  reproving  tbeir  Church  and  minister  for  their  great  pride,  vain- 
glory, and  friendship  of  the  world  which  they  lived  in. 

**  With  a  brief  discourse  in  favor  of  Women*s  prophecying  or  teaching  in 
the  Church. 

**  Written  by  John  Rogers  of  New  London. 

♦*  Providence,  N.  E.     Printed  for  the  Author.     1767." 

From  this  work  extracts  will  be  made  and  the  substance  of  the 
narrative  given.  From  no  other  source  can  we  obtain  a  statement 
so  full  and  apparently  so  accurate,  of  this  remarkable  outbreak  of 
enthusiasm  and  the  resistance  it  encountered. 


1  Benedict  gives  them  the  designation  of  "  Rogerene  Baptists/*  as  coinciding  in 
thehr  mode  of  baptism  with  the  Baptist  denomination.  He  calls  Rogers  '*  the  fantas- 
tic leader  of  a  deluded  community."    ffiit  of  Bap.  Vol  2,  p.  422. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  491 

'*  June  10,  1794.  We  went  to  the  meeting-house  and  some  of  our  people 
went  in  and  sat  down  ;■  others  tarried  without  and  sat  upon  the  ground  some 
distance  from  .the  house.  And  when  Mather  Byles  their  priest  began  to  say 
over  his  formal  synagogue  prayer,  forbidden  by  Christ,  Mat.  G-5,  some  of  our 
women  began  to  knit,  others  to  sew,  that  it  might  be  made  manifest  they  had 
no  fellowship  with  such  unfruitful  works  of  darkness.  But  Justice  Coit  and 
the  congregation  were  roiich  offended  at  this  testimony  and  fell  upon  them  in 
the  very  time  of  their  prayer  and  pretended  divine  worship ;  also  they  fell  upon 
the  rest  of  our  people  that  were  sitting  quietly  in  the  house,  making  no  differ- 
ence between  them  that  transgressed  this  law  and  them  that  transgressed  it  not; 
for  they  drove  us  all  out  of  the  house  in  a  most  furious  manner;  pushing,  strik- 
ing, kicking,  &c.,  so  that  the  meeting  was  broken  up  for  some  time,  and  the 
house  in  great  confusion.  Moreover  they  fell  upon  our  friends  that  were  sitting 
abroad,  striking  and  kicking  both  men  and  women,  old  and  young,  driving  us 
all  to  prison  in  a  furious  and  tumultuous  manner,  stopping  oux  mouths  when 
we  went  to  speak,  clioaking  us,"  &c. 

Very  nearly  the  same  scene  was  acted  over  every  successive  Sun. 
day  during  that  summer.  The  Quakers  were  committed  to  prison, 
sometimes  twenty,  sometimes  thirty  in  a  day ;  and  if  after  being  re- 
leased the  same  person  was  again  committed,  his  term  of  imprison- 
ment  was  doubled.  The  authorities  vainly  hoped  to  weary  them 
out.  "  But  this  method,"  observes  John  Rogers,  "  added  no  peace 
to  them,  for  some  of  our  fnends  were  always  coming  out  as  well  as 
going  in,  and  so  always  ready  to  oppose  their  false  worship  every 
first  day  of  the  week." 

On  the  12th  of  August,  the  term  of  commitment  by  this  doubling 
p]X>cess  had  become /our  months  i  when  those  within  determined  to 
prevent  if  they  could,  any  farther  commitments.  Finding  that  a 
fresh  party  of  their  friends  were  approaching  in  charge  of  the  offi 
cere,  they  barred  the  doors  inside  and  kept  the  constables  at  bay. 

«*  Also,  we  blew  a  shell  in  the  prison,  in  defiance  of  their  idol  Sabbath,  and      )( 
to  mock  their  false  worship,  as  Elijah  mocked  the  worshippers  of  Baal.     The 
authority  gave  orders  to  break  open  the  prison  door,  so  they  went  to  work 
and  labored  exceeding  hard  on  their  Sabbath  cutting  with  axes  and  heaving  at 
the  door  with  iron  bars  for  a  considerable  time  till  they  were  wearied,  but  could    ■ 
not  break  open  the  door  " 

An  entrance  into  the  prison  was  finally  effected  from  above,  and 
the  fresh  prisoners  let  down  into  the  room.  Those  who  had  fasten- 
ed the  doors  were  kept  immured  till  the  next  November,  when  they 
were  taken  before  the  county  court  and  fined  40«.  and  tRe  cost. 

These  disturbances  continued,  with  some  intervals  during  the  se- 
verity of  winter,  until  October,  1765,  when  the  magistrates  having 


493  HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON* 

{HTOved  tlie  inefficacj  of  detentions  and  imprisonments,  came  to  the 
unfortunate  determination  of  having  recourse  to  whippings. 

Oct.  15,  five  were  publicly  whipped  ten  stripes  each,  "  at  beat  of 
drum."  Oct  28,  nine  were  whipped  "at  beat  of  drum.'*  Nov,  4, 
nine  more.  Nov.  14,  Thanksgiving  day,  a  Rogerene  was  driven 
from  the  meeting  house  by  some  young  men,  ducked  in  nuiddy  wa- 
ter and  then  imprisoned. 

Nov.  17.  •♦  Some  of  our  friends  went  to  town,  and  an  old  man  aged  73  yean 
cried  Repentance  !  through  the  streets  and  as  he  went,  he  stopt  at  the  author- 
ities houses  and  warned  them  of  the  danger  they  were  in,  if  they  did  not  repent 
of  their  persecuting  God*s  people.** 

This  party  was  taken  up  and  confined  in  the  school  house  till 
evening,  when  they  were  taken  out  by  the  populace — ^and  now,  for 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  town,  we  find  mention  made  of 
tar  as  a  mode  of  punishment.  This  company  were  tarred,  men  and 
women,  but  not  feathered — warm  tar  was  poured  upon  their  heads 
and  suffered  to  run  down  on  their  clothes  and  their  hats  were  glued 
on  in  this  condition.  They  were  otherwise  treated  with  great  cruel- 
ty by  an  infuriated  mob. 

All  these  sufferings  had  no  influence  whatever  in  putting  an  end 
to  their  testimony,  which  the  next  Sunday  was  renewed  with  as 
much  spirit  as  ever,  and  so  continued  from  week  to  week.  Feb.  2d, 
1766,  the  disturbance  was  attended  by  this  aggravating  circum- 
stance— a  woman  being  turned  out  of  meeting  for  keeping  at  her 
needle  work  during  the  prayer,  struck  several  blows  against  the 
house,  to  testify  in  that  way  against  the  mode  of  worship.  Feb 
16th.  Another  heart-rending  scene  of  whipping,  tarring,  and 
throwing  into  the  river  of  men  and  women,  took  place.  The  next 
Sunday  they  came  again  and  a  great  uproar  was  the  consequence, 
the  service  being  for  a  considerable  time  interrupted.  They  were 
nineteen  in  number ;  ten  women  and  nine  men.  The  women  were 
committed  to  prison,  but  the  men  after  being  kept  in  the  loft  of  the 
court-house  till  evening,  were  delivered  up  to  an  excited  populace, 
cruelly  scourged,  and  treated  with  every  species  of  indignity  and 
abuse  that  the  victims  of  a  street  mob  generally  undergo.  The  wo- 
men were  kept  in  prison,  till  the  next  June  ''  leaving  near  twenty 
small  children  motherless  at  their  homes." 

We  have  now  reached  the  climax  of  offence  and  punishment.  Both 
sides  from  this  period  relented.  The  testifiers  were  less  boisterous 
and  aggressive,  and  they  were  less  severely  handled.    At  times  they 


HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON.  493 

would  come  to  the  house  of  worship  and  commit  no  other  offense  than 
wearing  their  hats,  and  this  the  community  at  large  were  disposed  to 
endure,  rather  than  create  a  disturbance  bj  removing  them.  But 
Mr.  Byles  would  never  suffer  the  offensive  covering  to  remain.  See- 
ing the  justices  at  one  time  unwilling  to  meddle  with  the  hats  and  in- 
clined to  let  them  alone  as  long  as  the  wearers  were  quiet,  he  ex- 
claimed with  great  vehemence. 

'*  I  solemnly  declare  before  God  and  this  assembly  that  as  long  as 
I  officiate  in  the  priest's  office  in  this  house,  no  man  shall  sit  here  with 
his  head  covered." 

*'  Now  our  bats,'*  says  the  Rogerene,'  '*  is  such  an  offense  to  this  proud  priest 
that  he  will  neither  preach  nor  pray  when  they  are  in  sight.** 

•*  The  hat  he  cannot  endure,  pretending  it  is  contrary  to  1  Cor.  11,4.  « Every 
man  praying  or  prophecying  having  his  head  covered,  dishonoreth  his  head.* 
Now  if  this  priest  would  but  read  the  next  words,  he  might  see  it  to  be  as  con- 
trary to  scripture  for  women  to  pray  or  prophecy  uncovered,  yet  his  meeting 
is  full  of  young  women,  with  their  heads  naked,  but  that  gives  him  no  offense 
at  all,  it  is  the  fashion  so  to  dress." 

Mr.  Byles  was  peculiarly  sensitive  on  the  subject  of  the  weekly 
Rogerene  visitation.  Other  ministers  in  the  neighboring  towns  took 
it  more  quietly,  and  were  therefore  less  frequently  invaded  by  them. 
But  he  would  never  argue  nor  hold  any  conversation  with  them,  or 
even  answer  when  they  addressed  him,  either  in  street  or  pulpit.  If 
they  appeared  on  the  steps  of  the  meeting-house,  he  would  pause  in 
the  services  till  they  were  removed,  nor  would  he  come  out  of  his 
house  to  go  to  meeting  if  any  of  them  were  in  sight.  The  conse- 
quence was  that  these  persevering,  cunning  people  contrived  to  be 
ever  before  him  when  the  hour  for  worship  arrived.  Duly  as  the 
Sabbath  morn  returned,  they  entered  the  town,  and  when  the  bell 
struck  they  might  be  seen,  often  silent  as  death,  with  perchance  a 
quiet  smile  lurking  upon  the  countenance,  two  or  three  sitting  by  his 
threshold,  a  group  farther  on  by  the  side  of  the  road,  waiting'  to 
escort  him  on  the  way,  and  others  on  the  door-stone  of  the  meeting- 
house, or  on  the  horse-block  near  by,  to  greet  his  arrival.  Often 
during  his  ministry,  the  people  assembled  and  the  bell  was  kept  toll- 
ing nearly  an  hour  waiting  for  the  preacher,  who  was  himself  wait- 
ing for  a  justice  or  constable  to  come  and  drive  away  the  Quakers, 
and  allow  him  to  go  undisturbed  to  the  service.  There  is  no  doubt 
but  that  his  imperial  mode  of  treating  the  subject  aggravated  the  evil. 
It  was  meat  and  drink  to  the  Quakers  to  observe  how  an  eye  turned 
upon  him,  or  simply  a  hat  looming  up  from  a  church  pew,  would  an- 
42 


494  HISTORY     OF    NEW    LONDON. 

noy  him.    They  Tisited  the  lion  on  purpose  to  see  him  chafe  at  their 
presence. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  here  expressly  to  deny  the  tmth  of  a  states 
ment  made  by  Rev.  S.  Peters,  in  his  pretended  Hiitory  of  Omneel' 
icut — a  statement,  which  though  manifestly  absurd,  is  occasionally 
quoted  and  obtains  a  limited  currency.  In  his  description  of  New 
London,  he  remarks : 

**  The  people  of  this  town  have  the  credit  of  inventing  tar  and  feathers  as  a 
proper  punishment  for  heresy.  They  first  inflicted  it  on  Quakers  and  Ana* 
baptists.** 

The  invention  here  ascribed  to  New  London  is  older  than  America. 
It  was  an  ancient  English  punishment  for  stealing  and  other  petty 
felonies,  used  in  the  time  of  the  crusades,  and  probably  much  earlier. 
During  the  Revolution  it  was  in  vogue  in  various  parts  of  New  Eng- 
land as  a  punishment  for  tories  that  were  particularly  obnoxious  to 
the  multitude.  The  two  instances  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  in 
which  it  was  inflicted  upon  the  Rogerenes,  are  the  only  cases  that 
have  been  found  of  its  use  in  New  London  previous  to  the  Revolu- 
tion. In  neither  of  these  instances  were  feathers  used.  It  was  cer- 
tainly never  inflicted  here  upon  the  Baptists.  The  use  of  tar  seems 
rather  to  have  been  suggested  as  a  mode  of  forcing  the  offenders  to 
keep  on  their  hats,  since  they  so  obstinately  persisted  in  wearing 
them.  It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  a  penalty  so  revolting  was 
ever  copied  from  the  code  of  the  mother  country. 

The  visits  of  the  Rogerenes  to  the  churches  gradually  became  less 
frequent,  and  less  notice  was  taken  of  them  when  they  occurred.  If 
they  interrupted  the  worship,  or  attempted  to  work  in  the  house, 
they  were  usually  removed  and  kept  under  ward  till  the  service  was 
over,  and  then  dismissed,  without  fine  or  punishment.  There  was 
nothing  stimulating  in  this  course,  and  they  soon  relinquished  the 
itinerant  mode  of  testifying.  But  as  a  sect  they  retain  their  individ- 
uality to  the  present  day.  They  are  now  to  be  found  in  the  south- 
eastern part  of  Ledyard,*  and  though  reduced  to  a  few  families,  vary 
but  little  in  observances  or  doctrine,  from  those  inculcated  by  their 
founder.     In  one  point  of  practice,  however,  there  is  a  remarkable 


1  In  1784  a  colony  from  the  Rogerenes  of  New  London,  consistmg  of  John  Culver 
and  his  wife,  and  ten  children  with  their  families,  making  twenty-one  in  all,  removed 
to  New  Jersey,  and  settled  on  the  west  side  of  Schooley*s  Moimtain  in  Morris 
county.  It  is  supposed  that  the  Kogerenc  principles  have  become  extinct  among  the 
descendants  of  this  party.    See  Benedict,  voL  2,  p.  42&. 


HISTORY    OP    NBW    LONDON.  495 

difference :  they  never  interfere  with  the  worship  of  their  neighbors, 
and  are  themselves  never  molested. 


In  April,  1768,  the  ministry  of  the  Rev.  Mather  Byles  came  to  an 
abrnpt  termination.  "Without  any  previous  warning,  he  assembled  a 
church  meeting,  declared  himself  a  convert  to  the  ritual  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  requested  an  immediate  dismission  from  them,  that 
he  might  accept  an  invitation  he  had  received  to  become  the  pastor 
of  an  Episcopal  church  in  Boston.  This  information  was  received 
with  unqualified  amazement,  as  no  rumor  or  suspicion  of  any 
change  of  sentiment  in  their  minister  respecting  forms  or  doc- 
trines, had  crept  abroad.  Mr.  Byles  laid  before  them,  what  he  said 
comprehended  the  whole  statement  of  the  case.  First,  a  letter  from 
the  wardens  and  vestry  of  the  North  Church  in  Boston,  dated  March 
8th,  1768,  stating  that  they  had  been  informed  be  was  inclined  to 
think  favorably  of  their  communion,  and  if  such  were  the  case,  they 
wished  to  engage  him  for  their  minister.  Second,  the  reply  of  Mr. 
Byles,  in  which  he  says, 

'*  Gentlemen,  Nothing  could  give  me  more  surprise  than  yours  of  the  8th  insC 
How  you  became  acquainted  with  my  particular  sentiments  with  regard  to  the 
Church  of  England  I  am  at  a  loss  to  determine.  But  upon  the  closest  and  roost 
critical  examination,  1  frankly  confess  that  for  several  years  past  I  have  had, 
and  still  have  the  highest  esteem  for  that  venerable  church." 

In  conclusion,  he  requests  them  to  make  their  proposals  explicit, 
and  they  may  be  assured  of  a  speedy  and  decisive  answer.  This 
was  followed,  third,  by  a  formal  invitation  from  the  wardens  and 
vestry  to  the  rectorship  of  their  church,  engaging  to  give  him  a  sala- 
ry of  £200  per  annum^  to  provide  him  a  house  and  to  be  at  the 
charge  of  his  removal  to  Boston  and  his  visit  to  England  to  be  re- 
ordained.  This  last  letter  had  been  received  that  very  day.  After 
the  reading  of  these  documents,  Mr.  Byles  observed  that  this  sum- 
mons to  Boston  was  not  a  thing  of  his  own  seeking,  or  brought  about 
by  the  influence  of  his  friends,  but  manifestly  a  call  of  Providence 
inviting  him  to  a  greater  sphere  of  usefulness,  and  plainly  pointing 
out  to  him  the  path  of  duty.  The  brethren  of  the  church,  howeverf 
did  not  view  the  matter  in  this  light,  and  a  discussion  somewhat  re- 
criminative followed.*  In  the  course  of  the  debate,  Mr.  Byles  de- 
clared that  he  had  no  objection  to  make  to  their  church ;  he  believed 


1  A  sketch  of  this  debate  was  taken  down  the  same  evening  by  a  person  present, 
and  afterward  published. 


496  HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDOfC. 

it  to  be  a  true  church  of  our  Lord ;  the  churches  of  Old  and  Netr 
England  were  equally  churches  in  his  yiew,  and  he  was  in  perfect 
charity  with  aU  the  New  England  churches,  but  that  he  preferred 
the  government,  the  discipline  and  the  unity  of  the  Church  of  Eng* 
land.  In  doctrine  he  was  unchanged,  and  had  not  preached  a  ser- 
mon in  that  house  which  he  should  hesitate  to  preach  in  the  Episcopal 
church,  but  his  views  in  regard  to  the  church  ritual  had  changed. 
He  had  read  many  volumes  of  controversy  and  had  been  for  three 
years  an  Episcopalian  in  heart 

Upon  being  further  questioned  Mr.  Byles  frankly  acknowledged 
that  he  had  other  reasons  for  leaving,  and  he  even  urged  that  his 
dismissal  was  desirable  on  their  own  account.  Another  minister 
might  do  much  better  for  them  than  he  had  done  or  could  do,  for  his 
health  was.  infirm,  the  position  of  the  church  very  bleak,  the  hiU 
wearisome ;  moreover  they  desired  a  minister  who  would  often  viat 
his  parishioners  and  hold  lectures  here  and  there,  which  he  could  not 
do— he  was  not  made  for  a  country  minister,  and  his  home  and 
friends  were  all  in  Boston.  He  also  complained  bitterly  of  the  per- 
secutions he  had  suffered  from  the  Quakers,  and  the  negligence  of 
the  authorities  in  executing  the  laws  against  them.  They  surround- 
ed his  house  on  the  Sabbath  and  insulted  him  continually,  both  in 
and  out  of  the  pulpit. 

In  reply  the  brethren  adverted  to  his  great  popularity,  the  love 
they  had  cherished  for  him,  the  harmony  that  had  always  subsisted 
between  him  and  his  people,  and  the  suddenness  and  indifference 
with  which  he  was  about  to  dissolve  these  ties.  Why  had  not  these 
grievances  been  mentioned  before  ?  When  he  settled,  he  was  aware 
of  the  bleak  and  tedious  hill,  he  knew  that  the  Quakers  were  trouble- 
some, that  his  salary  was  small,  that  his  friends  lived  in  Boston,  yet 
he  had  accepted  their  call  and  voluntarily  brought  himself  under  ob- 
ligation to  walk  with  them  and  watch  over  them. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  in  the  course  of  this  debate  some  pointed 
and  harsh  remarks  should  have  been  made  on  both  sides.  The  breth- 
ren ridiculed  their  pastor's  fear  of  the  Quakers,  whom  they  called  a 
few  harmless  old  women  sitting  at  his  gate ;  alluding  to  the  volumes 
of  controversy  which  he  had  read,  they  observed  that  they  could 
never  before  understand  how  he  spent  his  time,  since  he  so  seldom 
visited  his  parishoners  and  preached  so  many  old  sermons,  and  they 
rather  bitterly  reminded  him  of  a  passage  in  his  father's  charge  at 
ordination,  relative  to  studying  and  watching  to  promote  the  welfare 
of  his  flock,  "  that  his  candle  must  bum  when  midnight   darkness 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  497 

covered  the  windows  of  the  neighborhood" — ^but  now  it  appeared 
that  instead  of  watehing  for  the  good  of  soals,  he  had  been  studying 
rites  and  ceremonies. 

This  debate  was  productive  of  no  good ;  the  next  day,  April  2d, 
Mr.  Byles  made  hb  application  in  due  form,  requesting  *''  an  immedi- 
ate and  honorable  dismission,"  and  engaging  on  his  part  to  refund 
the  £240  which  had  been  given  him  at  settlement — "  in  case  you 
give  me  this  day  such  a  generous  discharge  as  I  have  now  desired, 
and  put  me  to  no  further  difficulty."  The  society  record  preserves 
DO  comments  made  on  the  occasion,  but  simply  records  that  Mr. 
Byles  having  requested  an  immediate  dismissicm  and  discharge  from 
his  contract  as  their  minister — 

"  Voted,  that  this  Society  do  fully  comply  with  his  request."  The 
church  record  is  equally  brief  and  explicit.   • 

April  12th,  1768.  "  The  Rev.  Mr.  Mather  Byles  dismissed  himself 
from'  the  church  and  congregation." 

Mr.  Byles  hastened  his  departure  from  town  with  a  rapidity  that 
almost  made  it  a  flight  He  conveyed  his  house*  to  his  friend  Dr. 
Mofiatt,  the  English  controller  of  the  customs,  in  pledge  for  the  re- 
payment of  the  £240  to  the  society,  and  ere  a  Sabbath  had  returned 
since  his  first  tender  of  resignation,  he  had  embarked  with  his  family 
and  all  his  movables  on  board  of  a  packet  for  Newport.  He  was  to 
have  sailed  on  Saturday,  but  the  vessel  was  wind-bound  and  he  was 
obliged  to  remain  over  Sunday.  He  offered  to  preach  a  last  sermon 
but  his  services  were  declined.  He  however  ascended  the  wearisome 
hill,  once  more,  entered  the  bleak  church,  and  sate  silent  and  de- 
jected, as  a  listener,  In  one  week  a  great  revulsion  of  feeling  had 
taken  place,  and  a  gulf  was  opened  between  him  and  a  people  by 
whom  he  had  been  greatly  admired  and  affectionately  caressed.  He 
had  never  been  more  popular  with  his  congregation  than  at  that 
moment  when  his  request  for  a  dismission  came  upon  them  with  the 
suddenness  of  an  electric  shock. 

The  duration  of  Mr.  Byles'  ministry  in  New  London  was  ten 
years  and  a  half.  During  that  period  he  recorded  362  baptisms ; 
198  marriages,  and  sixty  admissions  to  the  church,  of  whom  eight 
were  by  letter. 

The  change  of  sentiment  in  Mr.  Byles  was  soon  an  affair  of  noto- 
riety all  over  New  England,  and  explanations  and  remarks  were 

1  Bmlt  by  Mr.  Byles  in  1768  on  Main  Street  at  the  north  comer  of  Donglas,  and 
Aow  Dr.  Bartholomew  Baxter's. 

42* 


498  tttdTORV    OF    NEW    LONBON. 

published  oft  both  sides.  At  New  London,  the  forsaken  congrega^ 
tion  displayed  the  usual  buoyant  and  versatile  character  of  the  place ; 
instead  of  brooding  over  the  matter,  they  set  it  up  as  a  mark  for  the 
shafts  of  wit  and  ridicule.  A  song  was  made,  embodying  the  facts, 
called  "  The  Proselyte,"  and  sung  about  the  town  to  the  tune  of  the 
«  Thief  and  Cordelier."  They  published  also  a  "  Wtmderfid  Drtam,'* 
in  which  the  spirit  of  the  venerable  Mather  was  introduced  to  rebuke 
his  descendant  for  his  apostasy  from  Puritanism. 

Mr.  Byles  went  to  England  to  receive  Episcopal  ordination  and  after- 
ward exercised  the  ministerial  function  in  Boston,  till  the  Revolution. 
In  that  trying  time  he  was  a  royalist  and  refugee,  and  one  of  those 
prohibited  from  returning  to  the  state  by  act  of  the  Massachusetts 
legislature  in  September,  1788.  He  died  in  St.  John's,  New  Bruns- 
wick, where  he  was  rector  in  March,  1814.  The  children  of  Mather 
and  Rebecca  Byles,  on  the  record  of  baptisms,  at  New  London  are — 
Rebecca,  Jeremiah  and  Elizabeth,  baptized  together  in  1762 ;  Mather 
in  1764;  Walter  in  1765;  Anna  and  Elizabeth,  1767.  The  births 
are  not  registered. 

The  successor  of  Mr.  Byles,  and  seventh  minister  of  the  church, 
was  Rev.  Ephraim  Woodbridge,  grandson  of  the  first  minister  of 
Groton.  The  Woodbridge  family  can  boast  of  a  succession  of  wor- 
thy ministers  reaching  lineally  backward  to  the  mother  country. 
First,  Rev.  John  Woodbridge,  minister  of  Stanton  in  Wiltshire, 
England.  Second,  his  son  Rev.  John  Woodbridge,  first  minister  of 
Andover,  Mass ;  ordained  1645,  married  Mercy,  daughter  of  Giover- 
nor  Dudley,  and  died  at  Newbury,  1695.  Third,  Rev.  John  Wood- 
bridge,  (son  of  the  preceding,)  of  Killingworth  and  Wethersfield, 
Conn. ;  dying  at  the  latter  place  in  1690.  Fourth,  Rev.  John  Wood- 
bridge,  son  of  the  preceding,  first  minister  of  West  Springfield, 
ordained  1698.  Fifth,  Rev.  Ephraim  Woodbridge,  brother  of  the 
last  named  and  first  minister  of  Groton,  Connecticut. 

In  this  line  the  ministerial  vocation  passes  over  one  generaticm, 
and  falls  upon  Ephraim,  oldest  son  of  Paul  Woodbridge,  which  Paul 
was  second  son  of  the  minister  of  Groton.  This  second  Ephraim 
Woodbridge  was  bom  in  Groton,  in  1746,  graduated  at  Yale  College 
1765,  and  was  ordained  in  New  London,  Oct.  11th,  1769.  His  mar- 
riage, with  Mary,  only  surviving  daughter  of  Capt.  Nathaniel  Shaw, 
took  place,  Oct  26th,  fifteen  days  after  his  ordination.  Seldom  have 
a  youthful  couple  commenced  a  household  under  happier  auspices. 
Their  residence  was  on  Main  Street,  in  a  house  built  by  Capt.  Shaw, 
expressly  for  his  daughter,  upon  the  south  end  of  the  Shapley  house- 


.BISTORT     OF     NEW    LONDON.  499 

lot,  which  he  had  purchased  for  that  purpose.^  It  is  probable  that 
the  married  life  and  the  house-keeping  commenced  on  the  same  day 
and  that  the  following  inscription  still  remaining  on  one  of  the  win- 
dow panes,  was  engraved  by  Mr.  Woodbridge  on  that  auspicious  mom : 

«*  Ephraim  fVoodbridge 

Hie  Vixit. 

Hail  happp  daf  !  thtfairut  mn  that  ever  rottf 

1769." 

These  fair  promises  of  Hfe  and  usefulness  were  soon  overshadowed. 
Mrs.  Mary  Woodbridge  died  of  consumption  June  10th,  1775,  in  the 
twenty-fourth  year  of  her  age.  Rev.  Ephraim  Woodbridge  died  of 
the  same  disease,  Sept.  6th,  1776,  aged  thirty  years. 

**  Zion  may  in  his  fall  bemoan 
A  Beauty  and  a  Pillar  gone."8 

They  left  two  young  children,  a  son  and  a  daughter ;  precious 
legacies  to  the  brothers  of  Mrs.  Woodbridge,  who  had  no  children  of 
their  own. 

The  ministry  of  Mr.  Woodbridge  was  less  than  seven  years  in 
duration ;  the  admissions  to  his  church  were  only  twenty-three,  of 
whom  six  were  by  letter.  In  the  first  four  and  a  half  years  he  re- 
ceived twelve,  and  baptized  seventy-nine.  This  was  in  a  ratio  of 
not  more  than  one  to  four,  compared  with  the  statistics  of  Mr.  Byles' 
ministry.  But  it  must  here  be  noticed,  that  Mr.  Woodbridge  was 
the  first  of  the  New  London  ministers  who  refused  to  admit  persons 
to  the  church,  upon  owning  or  renewing  of  their  baptismal  covenant, 
nor  would  he  baptize  the  children  of  such  half-way  members.  He 
required  a  profession  of  faith ;  and  would  allow  of  no  church  mem- 
bership not  founded  on  a  change  of  heart.  His  congregation  soon 
became  divided  on  these  points ;  very  few  thoroughly  sympathized 
with  the  views  of  their  pastor,  and  he  was  sustained  in  his  position 

1  Now  owned  by  William  D.  Pratt,  in  whom  it  reverts  to  the  Shapley  line,  he  be- 
ing descended  from  that  family.  After  the  death  of  Mr.  Woodbridge  it  was  purchased 
by  Edward  Hallam  and  has  been  known  as  a  Hallam  house,  or  the  Long  Piazza  house, 
but  the  Piazza  having  been  removed  as  an  encroachment  on  the  street,  it  has  lost  this 
distinctive  mark. 

2  From  the  monumental  tablet  to  his  memory,  where  he  is  called  "  sixth  pastor  of 
the  First  Congregational  Church  in  New  London."  He  was  more  accurately  the 
seventh  pastor,  and  fifth  ordained  minister.  The  order  of  succession  is  Blinman, 
Bulkley,  Bradstreet,  Saltonstall,  Adams,  Byles,  Woodbridge.  Bradstreet  was  the 
first  ordained  in  the  town. 


500  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONBON. 

barely  by  personal  popularity  and  a  general  indifference  in  regard  to 
doctrines.  Religion  was  at  a  low  ebb ;  there  had  been  no  reyival  in 
the  church  since  1741.  At  the  time  of  Mr.  Woodbridge's  decease, 
there  were  but  five  male  members  in  his  church.  After  his  death  the 
decline  was  still  greater.  Posterity  will  scarcely  believe  that  whilst 
the  old  perambulating  revivalists  were  still  warm  in  their  graves, 
their  forefathers  were  reduced  to  such  deadness  and  ignorance  on 
scriptural  subjects.  The  preaching  was  formal  and  infrequent,  and 
conference  meetings,  prayer  meetings  and  family  worship  almost 
wholly  unknown.  The  Episcopal  church  had  very  much  dwindled ; 
the  Baptist  was  extinct.  And  over  this  sad  state  of  things  came  the 
sweeping  flood  of  the  Revolution. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

The  measures  of  the  town  relating  to  the  Revolution,  sketched  In  chronological 
order,  from  1767  to  1780. — Early  supporters  of  the  Revolution. — Extracts 
from  Sha.w*s  Mercantile  Letter  Book. — Expedition  of  Commodore  Hopkins. — 
Departure  of  the  English  Collector. 

Connecticut,  in  1774,  contained  seventy-two  townships,  twenty- 
eight  of  which  were  east  of  Connecticut  River,  in  the  counties  of 
New  London  and  Windham.  The  commerce  of  the  district  shows 
an  increase  since  1761.  It  was  estimated  at  seventy-two  vessels, 
three  thousand,  two  hundred  and  forty-seven  tuns,  four  hundred  and 
six  seamen,  and  twenty  sail  of  coasters,  with  ninety  men.*  New 
London  had  nothing  but  her  commerce ;  this  was  her  life,  her  all. 
In  the  grand  list  of  1775,  she  was  rated  at  £35,528, 17s.  Qd.,  which 
was  less  than  half  the  rate  of  New  Haven,  and  little  more  than  half 
that  of  Norwich.  Stonington  was  ahead  of  her  in  the  value  of  prop- 
erty.    Groton  returned  a  list  of  £26,902,  6«.  3d. 


So  copious  are  the  details  connected  with  the  Revolution,  that  may 
be  collected  from  one  source  and  another,  that  even  after  the  lapse  of 
more  than  seventy  years,  the  historian  is  embarrassed  by  the  ajBBu- 
ence  of  materials.  He  is  in  danger  of  losing  the  thread  of  his  nar- 
.  rative  in  the  labyrinth  of  interesting  incidents  presented  to  him.  In 
the  present  case,  however,  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  it  will  be 
proper  to  notice  first  what  was  done  by  the  town  in  its  corporate  ca- 
pacity. This  will  not  require  a  long  article.  The  records  are  mea- 
ger.    The  Revolution,  as  it  regards  New  London,  was  achieved  by 


1  Jeremiah  Miller,  of  New  London.    Answer  to  queries,  Mass.  Hist  Coll.,  2d  series, 
ToL  2,  p.  219. 


502  HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON. 

public  spirit  and  voluntary  action,  rather  than  bj  organization  and 
law.  From  the  town  records  we  learn  but  little  of  the  contest  in 
which  the  inhabitants  were  such  great  sufferers. 

A  letter  from  the  selectmen  of  Boston  inclosing  the  famous  resolu- 
tions of  October  23d,  1767,  was  laid  before  the  town  Dec  28th,  and 
the  subject  referred  to  a  committee  of  fifteen  of  the  inhabitants, 


Gurdon  Saltonstall,  Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jun., 

Daniel  Coit,  Ezekiel  Fox, 

William  Hillhoaae,  Samuel  Belden, 

Richard  Law,  Winthrop  Saltonstall, 

Jeremiah  Miller,  Guy  Richards, 

Joseph  Coit,  Russell  Hubbard, 

James  Mum  ford,  Titus  Uurlbut. 
Nathaniel  Shaw, 

This  committee  entered  fully  into  the  spirit  of  the  Boston  resolu- 
tions, and  drew  up  a  form  of  subscription  to  circulate  among  the  in- 
habitants, by  which  the  use  of  certain  enumerated  articles  of  Europe- 
an merchandise  was  condemned  and  relinquished.  These  articles 
appear  to  have  been  generally  adopted,  and  faithfully  kept. 

In  December,  1770,  the  town  appointed  four  delegates  to  the 
grand  convention  of  the  colony,  held  at  New  Haven  : 

Gurdon  Saltonstall,  Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jun., 

William  Hillhouse,  William  Manwaring. 

We  find  no  further  record  of  any  action  of  the  town  relative  to  the 
political  discontent  of  the  country,  until  the  memorable  month  of  June, 
1774,  when  the  edict  of  Parliament,  shutting  up  the  port  of  Boston, 
took  effect,  and  roused  the  colonies  at  once  to  activity.  Votes  and 
resolutions  expressive  of  indignation,  remonstrance  and  sympathy^ 
were  echoed  from  town  to  town,  and  pledges  exchanged  to  stand  by 
each  other,  and  to  adhere  with  constancy  to  the  cause  of  liberty. 
The  town  meeting  at  Groton,  was  on  the  20th  of  June,  William  Wil- 
liams, moderator.  The  committee  of  correspondence  chosen,  con- 
sisted of  seven  prominent  inhabitants: 

William  Ledyard,  Charles  Eldridge,  Jun., 

Thomas  Mum  ford,  Deacon  John  Hurlbut, 

Benadam  Gallup,  Amos  Geer. 
Amos  Prentice, 

The  meeting  at  New  London  was  on  the  27th ;  Richard  Law, 
moderator,  and  the  committee  five  in  number: 


HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON.  503 

Ric)iard  Law,  Samuel  H.  Parsons, 

Gurdon  Saltonstall,  Guy  Richards. 

Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jun., 

The  declarations  and  resolves  issued  by  these  meetings  were  simi- 
lar to  those  of  hundreds  of  towns  at  that  juncture.  In  December,  the 
town  added  two  other  members  to  the  committee  of  correspondence, 
yiz.,  John  Deshon  and  William  Coit.  At  this  time  also,  a  committee 
of  inspection  was  appointed,  consisting  of  thirty  persons,  who  had  in- 
structions "  to  take  effectual  care  that  the  acts  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  held  at  Philadelphia,  September  5th,  1774,  be  absolutely 
and  bona  fide  adhered  to*"  Any  seven  of  the  members  were  to  form 
a  quorum,  and  in  cases  of  emergency  the  whole  were  to  be  called  to- 
gether at  the  court-house.  From  this  period  almost  all  action  rela- 
ting to  the  contest  with  England  was  performed  by  committees,  or  by 
spontaneous  combination  among  the  citizens,  or  by  colonial  and  mili- 
tary authority,  and  the  results  were  not  recorded.  • 

Committee  of  Correspondence  for  the  year  1776.  ^ 
Gurdon  Saltonstall,  John  Deshon, 

Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jun.,  John  Hertell, 

Marvin  Wait,  "William  Hillhouse. 

January  15th,  1776.  "Voted,  that  if  any  person  within  the  limits  of  this 
town  shall  at  any  time  between  now  and  the  1st  of  January  next,  unnecessarily 
expend  any  gunpowder  by  firing  at  game  or  otherwise,  shall  for  every  musket 
charge  forfeit  and  pay  the  sum  of  twenty  shillings  lawful  money  into  the  town 
treasury." 

March  81st,  1777.  A  committee  of  supply  was  appointed  to  pro- 
-  vide  necessaries  for  the  families  of  such  soldiers  as  should  enlist  in 
the  continental  battalions  then  raising  in  the  state.  This  was  in  com- 
pliance with  the  orders  of  the  governor  and  council  of  safety,  and  a 
committee  for  this  purpose  was  annually  chosen  till  the  conclusion  of 
the  war.  The  selectmen  and  informing  officers  were  enjoined  to 
search  out  and  punish  all  violations  of  the  law  regulatmg  the  prices 
of  the  necessaries  of  life. 

At  the  same  meeting  the  town-clerk  was  directed  to  remove  the 
books  and  files  of  the  town  to  some  place  of  safety,  reserving  only  in 
his  own  custody  those  required  for  immediate  use. 

In  conformity  with  this  vote  the  town  records  were  removed  into 
the  western  part  of  the  township,  now  Waterford,  and  committed  to 
the  charge  of  Mr.  George  Douglass,  by  whom  they  were  kept  at  his 
homestead  until  after  the  termination  of  the  war.  By  this  wise  pre- 
caution, they  escaped  the  destruction  which  swept  away  a  portion  of 


504  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

the  probate  records,  and  probably  all  those  of  the  custom-house,  on 
the  6th  of  September,  1781. 

June  23d,  1777.  "Voted  almost  unanimously  to  admit  of  inoculation  for 
small  pox,  agreeably  to  a  resolve  of  the  General  Assembly  in  May  last.** 

The  committee  of  correspondence  for  the  years  1777  and  1778, 
consisted  of  three  persons  only,  the  first  three  named  on  the  list  of  177  6# 
The  committee  of  inspection  was  reduced  to  nineteen,  and  in  Janua- 
ry, 1779,  it  was  entirely  dropped. 

The  articles  of  confederation  agreed  upon  by  Congress  in  1777,  and 
referred  to  the  several  states  for  consideration,  were  in  Connecticut 
ultimately  presented  to  the  inhabitants  in  their  town  meetings,  for 
decibion.     The  vote  of  New  London  was  as  follows : 

December  29th,  1777.  "  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  moderator.  Voted  in  a  very 
full  town  meeting,  nem  con,  that  this  town  do  approve  of  and  acquiesce  in  the 
late  proposal!  of  the  honorable  Continental  Congress,  entitled  *  Articles  of  Con- 
federation and  perpetual  union  between  the  United  States  of  America,*  as 
being  the  most  effectual  measures  whereby  the  freedom  of  said  states  may  bo 
secured  and  their  independency  established  on  a  solid  and  permanent  basis." 

In  October,  1779,  a  state  convention  was  held  at  Hartford;  the 
deputies  fram  New  London,  were  Gurdon  Saltonstall  and  Jonathan 
Latimer. 

From  year  to  year  as  the  war  continued,  the  population  decreased, 
estates  diminished,  and  the  burdens  of  the  town  grew  heavier.  The 
difficulty  of  furnishing  the  proper  quota  of  men  and  provisions  for  the 
army,  annually  increased.  Large  taxes  were  laid,  large  bounties 
offered  for  soldiers  to  serve  during  the  war,  and  various  ways  and 
means  suggested  and  tried  to  obtain  men,  money,  clothing,  provisions, 
and  fire-arms,  to  keep  the  town  up  to  the  proportion  required  by  the 
legislature.  Much  of  the  town  action  was  absorbed  by  this  necessary 
but  most  laborious  duty. 

June  27th,  1780.  A  bounty  of  £12  per  annum,  over  and  above 
the  public  bounty,  was  offered  in  hard  money,  to  each  soldier  that 
would  enlist  to  serve  duHpg  the  war ;  £9  to  each  that  would  enlist 
for  three  years  ;  and  £6  to  each  that  would  enlist  to  serve  till  the  Ist 
day  of  January  next. 

In  December,  1780,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  collect  all  the 
fire-arms  belonging  to  the  inhabitants,  and  deposit  them  in  a  safe 
place,  for  the  benefit  of  the  town.  Only  extreme  necessity  could 
justify  an  act  so  arbitrary. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  505 

So  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  London  had  been  trained  as 
fishermen,  coasters  and  mariners,  that  no  one  is  surprised  to  find  them, 
when  the  trying  time  came,  bold,  hardy  and  daring  in  the  cause  of 
freedom.  In  all  the  southern  towns  of  the  county,  Stonington,  Gro- 
ton,  New  London,  Lyme,  the  common  mass  of  the  people  were  an 
adventurous  class,  and  exploits  of  stratagem,  strength  and  valor  by 
land  and  sea,  performed  during  the  war  of  independence,  by  persons 
nurtured  on  this  coast,  might  still  be  recovered,  sufficient  to  form  a 
volume  of  picturesque  adventure  and  exciting  interest.  At  the  same 
time,  many  individuals  in  this  part  of  the  country,  and  some  too  of 
high  respectability,  took  a  different  view  of  the  great  political  ques- 
tion, and  sided  with  the  parliament  and  the  king.  In  various  instan- 
ces, families  were  divided ;  members  of  the  same  fireside  adopted 
opposite  opinions,  and  became  as  strangers  to  each  other ;  nor  was  it 
an  unknown  misery  for  parents  to  have  children  ranged  on  different 
sides  on  the  battle  field.  At  one  time  a  gallant  young  officer  of  the 
army,  on  his  return  from  the  camp,  where  he  had  signalized  himself 
by  his  bravery,  was  escorted  to  his  home  by  a  grateful  populace,  that 
surrounded  the  house  and  filled  the  air  with  their  applausive  huzzas ; 
while  at  the  same  time,  his  half-brother,  the  son  of  the  mother  who 
clasped  him  to  her  bosom,  stigmatized  as  a  tory,  convicted  of  trade 
with  the  enemy,  and  threatened  with  the  wooden  horse,  lay  concealed 
amid  the  hay  of  the  bam,  where  he  was  fed  by  stealth  for  many  days. 
This  anecdote  is  but  an  example  of  many  that  might  be  told,  of  a  sim- 
ilar character. 

It  would  be  of  no  service  now  to  draw  out  of  oblivion  the  names 
of  individuals  who  at  various  times  during  the  eight  years  of  dark- 
ness and  conflict,  were  suspected  of  being  inimical  to  the  liberties  of 
their  country.  Many  of  these  changed  their  sentiments  and  came 
over  to  the  side  of  independence,  and  all  at  last  acquiesced  in  their 
own  happiness  and  good  fortune,  growing  out  of  the  emancipation  of 
their  country  from  a  foreign  scepter.  It  is  an  easier  as  well  as  more 
pleasing  task  to  mention  names  that  on  account  of  voluntary  activity, 
sacrifice  of  personal  interest,  and  deeds  of  valorous  enterprise,  ex- 
erted for  the  rights  of  man,  lie  prominent  upon  the  surface,  illumina- 
ting the  whole  period  by  their  brightness. 

Those  who  came  earliest  forth  in  the  cause  demand  our  especial 
admiration,  since  it  is  emphatically  true  that  they  set  their  lives  at 
stake.  In  a  civil  capacity  the  early  names  of  note  and  influence  were 
those  of  Deshon,  Law,  Hillhouse,  Mumford  and  Shaw. 

Capt.  John  Deshon  served  as  an  agent  in  erecting  the  fortifications 
43 


506  HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON. 

at  New  London,  and  as  commissary  in  Tarious  enlistments  of  troops. 
This  was  under  the  authority  of  the  governor.  In  July,  1777,  Cmi- 
gress  appointed  him  one  of  the  naval  board  of  the  eastern  depart- 
ment.' 

Richard  Law'  and  William  Hillhouse  were  members  of  the  govern- 
or's council,  and  each  carried  a  whole  heart  into  the  Revolution.  Hill- 
house  was  also  major  of  the  second  regiment  of  horse  raised  in  the 
state.^  Law  had  been  nominated  as  a  member  of  Congress,  but  in 
June,  1776,  just  at  the  critical  period  of  appointment,  he  was  confined 
in  a  hospital  with  the  small-pox.  His  name  was  thus  deprived  of  the 
honor  of  being  affixed  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  In  Octo- 
ber, 1776,  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  and  excused  from  further  ser- 
vice in  the  council. 

Thomas  Mumford,  of  Groton,  belonged  to  that  company  of  gentle- 
men, eleven  in  number,  who  in  April,  1775,  formed  the  project  of 
taking  Ticonderoga.  This  undertaking,  so  eminently  successful,  was 
wholly  concerted  in  Connecticut,  without  any  authority  from  Con- 
gress. The  company  obtained  the  money  requisite  (£810,)  from  the 
colonial  treasury,  but  gave  their  individual  notes  and  receipts  for  it. 
The  Assembly,  in  May,  1777,  canceled  the  notes  and  charged  the 
amount  to  the  general  government*  In  1778,  Mumford  was  one  of 
a  committee  appointed  to  receive  and  sign  emissions  of  bills,  and  also 
an  agent  of  the  secret  committee  of  Congress.* 


1  Council  records  in  Hinman's  War  of  the  Revolntion,  p.  466.  Jdin  Deshon  was  of 
Prenoh  Huguenot  extraction.  His  father,  Daniel  Deshon,  was  a  youth  in  the  family 
of  Capt.  Ren6  Grignon,  at  the  time  of  the  decease  of  the  latter,  at  Norwich,  in  1716, 
and  is  mentioned  in  his  will.  Atler  the  death  of  his  patron,  he  settled  in  New  Lon- 
don, where  he  married  Ruth  Ctiristophers,  nnd  had  several  sons,  and  one  daughter  who 
married  Joseph  Chew.  He  died  in  1781,  at  the  age  of  elghtr-four,  which  cairies  his 
birth  back  to  1697.  Three  of  his  sonn  were  conspicuous  in  the  Revolutionary  War. 
Capt  Daniel  Deshon  was  appointed  in  1777,  to  the  command  of  the  armed  brig  "  Old 
Defence,*'  owned  by  the  state,  which  was  unfortunately  taken  by  the  British,  in  Jan- 
uary, 1776.  John,  mentioned  in  the  text,  was  the  second  son,  and  bom  December 
26th,  1727.  Richard,  another  son,  served  in  the  army.  The  name  is  supposed  to  have 
been  originally  Deschamps. 

2  Son  of  Governor  Jonathan  Law,  and  bom  in  Milford,  March  17th,  1782-^  He 
was,  after  the  Revolution,  judge  of  the  district  of  Connecticut,  and  chief  justice  of  the 
superior  court.  The  late  Capt.  Richard  Law,  and  Hon.  Lyman  Law,  M.  C,  were  his 
tons. 

8  Mi^or  Hillhouse  was  subsequently  for  many  years  chief  judge  of  the  county  court. 
Tradition  confirms  the  truth  of  the  character  engraved  upon  his  monument: 
"  A  judge  and  statesman ;  honest,  just  and  wise." 
4  State  Records,  Hinman,  p.  31.  6  Ibid,  p.  497. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  607 

Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jun.,  has  been  mentioned  in  a  former  chapter,  as 
an  enterprising  merchant ;  we  may  add  that  he  performed  important 
service  to  the  country  during  the  Revolution,  particularly  in  naval 
affairs.  His  judgment  in  that  department  was  esteemed  paramount 
to  all  others  in  the  colony.  He  also  acted  as  a  general  agent,  or 
friend  of  the  country,  in  various  concerns,  military  and  fiscal,  as  well 
as  naval.  His  mercantile  letters,  though  brief,  and  devoted  to  mat- 
ters of  business,  contain  allusions  to  passing  events  that  are  valuable 
as  cotemporaneous  authority.  They  have  been  already  quoted,  and 
further  extracts  will  occasionally  be  made. 

To  P.  Vandervoort,  October  22/^,  1773. 
•*  In  regard  to  the  tea  that  is  expected  from  England,  I  pray  heartily  that  the 
colonies  may  not  suffer  any  to  be  landed.     The  people  with  us  are  determined 
not  to  purehEise  any  that  comes  in  that  way." 

We  have  here  a  hint  that  apprises  us  of  the  spirit  of  the  inhabitants 
of  New  London,  in  regard  to  the  duty  on  tea.  Aged  people  have 
related  that  some  salesmen  who  had  no  scruples  on  the  subject,  hav- 
ing received  small  consignments  of  custom-house  tea,  as  experiments 
to  try  the  market  and  tempt  the  people  to  become  purchasers,  were 
either  persuaded  or  compelled  to  make  a  bonfire  of  it  upon  the 
Parade ;  and  that  not  only  the  tea-chests  from  the  shops  were  emp- 
tied, but  some  enthusiastic  housekeepers  added  to  the  blaze  by 
throwing  in  their  private  stores.  It  is  further  related  that  parties 
were  made,  and  weddings  celebrated,  at  which  all  ribbons,  artificial 
flowers,  and  other  fabrics  of  British  manufacture,  were  discarded, 
and  Labrador  tea^  introduced. 

Shaw  to  Vandevoort,  April  Ist,  1775. 
"  Matters  seem  to  draw  near  where  the  longest  sword  must  decide  the  con- 
troversy.   Our  Gen.  Assembly  sets  to-morrow  and  I  pray  God  Almighty  to  direct 
them  to  adopt  such  measures  as  will  be  ibr  the  interest  of  America." 

To  Me$$rs.  Whai-ton,  Philadelphia,  May  6lh. 
**  I  wrote  to  you  by  Col.   Dyer  and  Mr.  Dean,  our  colony  delegates  to  con- 
gress* desiring  you  to  let  them  have  what  money  they  should  have  occasion  for 
to  the  amount  of  4  or  50«J  pounds.     I  really  do  not  know  what  plan  to  follow  or 
what  to  do  with  my  vessel*  " 

To  the  Selectmen  of  Boston,  May  Sth. 
"  I  have  received  from  Peter  Curtenius,  treas'  of  the  com**  in  New  York, 


1  This  was  probably  the  Ceanothtu  Americanus^  a  plant  sometimes  used  daring  the 
Bevolution  as  a  substitute  for  tea,  and  usually  called  Jersey  tea. 


508  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

100  bbls.  of  flour  for  the  poor  in  Boston.     He  writes  me  he  shall  forward  £350 
in  cash  for  the  same  use." 

To  Capt,  Handy,  May3\st, 
**  I  never  met  with  so  much  difficulty  to  get  hard  money  ainee  I  was  in 
trade,  as  within  these  two  months  past.     I  have  large  quantities  of  West  India 
goods  in  store*  in  Boston,  in  New  York,  and  in  Phil*,  but  cannot  raise  a  shil- 
ling." 

If  such  difficulties  as  are  here  described,  were  experienced  by  men 
of  large  resources,  it  may  easily  be  ima^ned  that  all  the  smaller  mer- 
cantile concerns  must  have  been  harassed  and  impoverished  to  the 
last  extremity.  The  stagnation  of  business  was  generaL  Neither 
cash  nor  merchantable  bills  could  be  obtained.  The  most  lamentable 
destitution  prevailed ;  every  thing  was  wanted,  yet  no  one  had  the 
means  to  buy. 

To  Mettrs,  Thomas  and  Isaac  Wharton,  September  ISth,  1775. 

**  I  shall  set  out  to-morrow  for  the  camp  at  Roxbnry,  and  it  is  more  than 
probable  that  I  may  come  to  Philadelphia  on  my  return,  and  hope  I  shall  be 
able  to  procure  Adams'  Letters,  which  I  have  never  seen.** 

To  an  agent  in  Dominica,  January  16th,  1776. 
***  All  our  trade  is  now  at  an  end  and  God  knows  whether  we  shall  ever  be  in 
a  situation  to  carry  it  on  again.     No  business  now  but  preparatioits  for  war, 
ravaging  villages,  burning  towns,"  &c. 

At  a  very  early  period  of  the  contest,  Mr.  Shaw  took  the  precau- 
tion to  secure  supplies  of  powder  from  the  French  islwids.  In  De- 
cember, 1774,  he  had  represented  to  the  government  of  the  colony, 
the  great  destitution  of  New  London,  and  other  exposed  places  in 
this  respect,  and  urged  them  to  send  without  delay  to  the  West  In- 
dies for  a  considerable  stock,  offering  a  fast  sailing  vessel  of  his  own, 
to  be  used  for  this  end.  The  Assembly  acted  on  this  advice,  sending 
him  an  order  to  obtain  six  hundred  half  barrels,  with  all  possible 
speed.  In  July,  1775,  to  the  commander  of  a  sloop  fitted  out  with 
flour  and  pipe-staves  for  Hispaniola,  he  gave  the  brief  direction : 
"  Purchase  gunpowder  and  return  soon."  Again,  in  January,  1776, 
he  writes  to  William  Constant,  his  agent  in  Guadaloupe,  requesting 
him  to  purchase  powder  "  to  tlie  amount  of  all  the  interest  you  have 
of  mine  in  your  hands."  And  adds,  ^'  make  all  the  despatch  yon 
can ;  we  shall  want  it  very  soon."  We  learn  fi*om  his  accounts,  that 
in  1775,  he  furnished  the  regiment  of  Col.  Parsons  with  powder,  ball 
and  flints,  and  that  in  June,  1776,  at  the  order  of  the  governor,  he 
forwarded  an  opportune  supply  of  powder  to  Greneral  Washington. 


HISTORY     OF    NBW     LONDON.  509 

Julj  22d,  he  wrote  himself  to  the  commander-m-ehief,  stating  that 
he  had  recentlj  forwarded  to  him  three  cases  of  arms  and  a  quantity 
of  flints,  adding,  ''  and  now,  by  the  bearer,  John  Keeny,  I  have  sent 
two  cases  of  arms,  and  one  chest  and  bar  of  continental  arms  and 
cutlasses,  as  per  invoice/'  July  81st,  he  advises  Robert  Morris, 
chairman  of  the  secret  committee  of  Congress,  that  he  has  received 
another  supply  of  powder,  ^  13,500  cwt.,  arrived  from  Port4Hi«> 
Prince  and  safe  landed." 

The  first  naval  expedition  under  the  authority  of  Congress  was 
fitted  out  at  New  London  in  January,  1776.  The  command  was 
given  to  Commodore  Hopkins — sometimes  styled  admiral  The 
fieet  consisted  of  four  vessels,  the  Alfred,  Columbus,  Andrea  Doria 
and  Cabot,  varying  in  armament  from  fourteen  to  thirty-six  guns.* 
The  preparations  were  made  with  great  expedition  and  secrecy,  no 
notice  being  given  respecting  it  in  any  of  the  newspapers.  It  was 
destined  to  cruise  at  the  south,  and  annoy  the  British  fleet  in  that 
quarter.  Dudley  Saltonstall,  previously  in  command  of  the  fort,  or 
battery,  on  the  Parade,  was  appointed  senior  captain ;  filisha  Hin* 
man  a  lieutenant ;  Peter  Richards  and  Charles  Bulkley,  enterprising 
young  seamen  of  the  place,  were  among  the  midshipmen— eighty  of 
the  crew  were  from  the  town  and  neighborhood.  The  fleet  sailed 
about  the  first  of  February  to  its  rendezvous  in  Delaware  Bay — less 
than  a  month  from  the  time  in  which  the  first  preparations  were 
commenced.  The  only  results  of  this  expedition,  from  which  appar- 
ently some  great  but  indefinite  advantage  was  expected,  were  the 
plunder  of  the  British  post  of  New  Providence,  and  a  fruitless  com- 
bat with  the  British  ship  Glasgow,  on  their  homeward  voyage,  near 
the  eastern  end  of  Long  Island. 

The  commodore  re-entered  New  London  harbor  on  the  8th  of 
April  ;*  he  had  taken  seventy  prisoners,  eighty-eight  pieces  of  can- 
non, and  a  large  quantity  of  military  and  naval  stores.  Many  of  the 
heavy  pieces  of  ordnance  had  arrived  previously,  in  a  sloop  com- 
manded by  Capt  Hinman. 

Just  at  Ihe  period  of  the  return  of  this  fleet,  the  Ameriqm  army 
was  on  its  way  from  Boston  to  New  York.^  Gen.  Washington  met 
Commodore  Hopkins  at  New  London,  April  9th.     The  brigade  under 

1  Cooper's  Naval  History.  2  New  London  Gazette. 

8  Sparks'  Life  of  Washington. 

43' 


510  filSTORT     OF   NBW     LONDON. 

Gen.  Greene  was  then  here,  readj  to  embark  in  transports.  Wash- 
ington slept  that  night  at  the  house  of  Nathaniel  Shaw.' 

Commodore  Hopkins,  immediately  after  his  return,  formed  a  plan 
for  the  capture  of  the  Rose  man-of-war,  commanded  by  Sir  James 
Wallace,  then  cruising  upon  the  coast.*  Gen.  Washington  consented 
to  furnish  two  hundred  men  to  assist  the  enterprise,  and  the  governor 
and  council  ordered  the  Defence  and  the  Spy  to  join  the  squadron 
for  the  cruise.*  Thus  reinforced,  the  commodore  eailed  to  the  east^ 
ward ;  but  his  plans  were  not  accomplished.  Neither  the  details  of 
the  project,  nor  the  cause  of  its  failure,  are  now  understood.  The 
disappointed  fleet  went  into  port  at  Providence. 

A  large  number  of  seamen  belonging  to  the  fleet,  was  left  behind 
in  New  London,  sick,  and  in  the  charge  of  Mr.  Shaw.  To  him  also 
was  confided  the  care  of  the  stores  that  had  been  disembarked. 

Mr,  Shaw  to  Governor  TVumbull^  April  25th, 
"  Inclosed  is  an  invoice  of  the  weight  and  size  of  thirty-four  cannon  received 
from  Admiral  Hopkins,  ten  of  which  are  landed  at  Groton,  viz.  three  twentf- 
four-poimders,  two  eighteen,  and  five  twelve.  The  remainder  are  at  New  Lon- 
don. He  has  landed  a  great  qnnntity  of  cannon  ball.  The  mortars  and  shells 
General  Washington  desired  might  be  sent  to  New  York,  and  the  Admiral  hat 
sent  them.  The  remainder  of  the  cannon  are  part  sent  to  Newport,  and  part 
are  on  board  the  fleet,  which  he  wants  to  carry  to  Newport.  The  nine-pound- 
ers are  but  ordinary  guns,  the  others  are  all  very  good." 

To  Francis  Lewist  E$q.,  at  Philadelphia,  June  19th. 
**  I  have  received  a  letter  from  Commodore  Hopkins,  wherein  he  says  that  I 
was  apffCTnted  by  Congress  as  their  agent  for  this  port.  (  should  be  glad  to  have 
directions  how  to  proceed.  I  am  m  advance  at  least  a  thousand  pounds  for 
supplies  to  the  fleet  and  hospital  in  this  town  ;  one  hundred  and  twenty  men 
were  landed  sick  and  wounded,  twenty  of  which  are  since  dead ;  the  remain- 
der have  all  since  joined  the  fleet  at  Providence." 

To  Hon.  John  Hancock,  Pre$ident  of  Congress,  July  31st. 

**  The  cannon  and  btores  delivered  me  by  Commodore  Hopkins,  amount  to 
je4,765,  4t,  lOd.  L.  M. 

Last  Sunday,  a  ship  sent  in  as  a  prize  by  Capt.  Biddle,  in  the  Andrew  Doria, 
ran  on  the  rocks  near  Fisher's  Island,  being  chased  by  a  British  ship-of-war, 
and  immediately  a  number  of  armed  men  from  Stonington  went  on  board,  and 
as  they  say,  prevented  the  man-of-war  from  destroying  her.     The  next  day, 

1  The  chamber  in  which  he  reposed,  has  been  retained  of  the  same  size  and  finish, 
and  even  the  furniture  has  been  but  little  varied  since.  When  La  Fayette  visited 
New  London,  in  1824,  being  shown  into  this  room,  he  knelt  reverently  by  the  side  of 
the  bed,  and  remabied  a  few  minutes  in  silent  prayer. 

8  Himnan,  p.  866. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  511 

Capt.  Hinman»  in  the  Cabot,  went  to  their  assistant,  and  has  saved  and 
brought  into  port  ninety  hogsheads  of  rum,  and  seven  of  sugar ;  remainder  of 
the  cargo  is  lost.  The  Cabot  has  been  lying  here  ever  since  Commodore  Hop- 
kins set  out  for  Philadelphia,  with  a  fine  brave  crew,  waiting  for  orders." 

July  lOtb,  1776,  Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jr.,  was  appointed  by  the  gov- 
ernor and  council  of  safety, ''  agent  of  the  colony  for  naval  supplies 
and  taking  care  of  sick  seamen."  From  this  period  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  struggle,  as  an  accredited  agent  of  Congress  and  the 
colony,  he  furnished  stores,  negotiated  the  exchange  of  prisoners, 
provided  for  sick  seamen,  and  exercised  a  general  care  for  the  public 
service  in  his  native  town.  He  was  also  engaged  on  his  own  account, 
as  were  also  other  prominent  citizens  of  the  place,  in  sending  out  pri- 
vate armed  vessels  to  cruise  against  the  enemy.  These  for  a  time 
met  with  a  success  which  stimulated  the  owners  to  larger  adventures, 
but  in  the  end,  three-fourths,  and  perhaps  a  larger  proportion  of  all 
the  private  cruisers  owned  in  New  London  were  captured  and  lost. 

At  the  May  session  of  the  Legislature  in  1776,  the  governor  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  naval  and  custom-house  business  of  the  col- 
ony, with  power  to  appoint  subordinate  naval  officers  for  the  ports  of 
New  Haven,  New  London,  Middletown  and  Norwalk.  Duncan 
Stewart,  the  English  collector,  was  still  in  New  London,  where 
he  dwelt  without  other  restraint  than  being  forbidden  to  leave  town, 
except  by  permission  from  the  governor.  That  permission  appears 
to  have  been  granted  whenever  solicited.  In  1776,  he  spent  three 
months  in  New  York  upon  parole,  and  in  June,  1777,  obtained  leave 
to  remove  thither  with  his  family  and  effects,  preparatory  to  taking 
passage  for  England,  to  which  country  the  governor  granted  him  a 
passport.  Pehnission  was  also  given  him  at  first  to  take  with  him 
the  goods  of  Dr.  Mofiatt,  late  his  majesty's  controller  of  customs,  but 
this  was  countermanded,  representations  having  been  made  to  the 
governor,  that  Dr.  Mofiatt  had  withdrawn  from  America  in  a  hostile 
spirit,  and  had  since  been  in  arms  against  her.  His  goods,  which 
consisted  only  of  some  household  stuff  of  trifling  value,  were  there- 
fore confiscated. 

The  populace  took  umbrage  at  the  courtesies  extended  to  the  En- 
glish collector.  At  one  time,  when  some  English  goods  were  brought 
from  New  York  for  the  use  of  his  family,  the  mob  at  first  would  not 
permit  them  to  be  landed,  and  afterward  seized  and  made  a  bonfire 
of  them.  The  ringleaders  in  this  outrage,  were  arrested  and  lodged 
in  jail ;  the  jail-doors  were  broken  down  and  they  were  released ; 
nor  were  the  authorities  in  sufficient  force  to  attempt  a  re-commit- 


513  HISTORY    OP    NBW    LONBON^ 

ment.  It  was  indeed  a  stirrifig  season,  and  the  restraints  of  law  and 
order  were  weak  as  flax.  It  is  however  gratifying  to  know  that  Mr. 
Stewart  was  allowed  to  leave  the  place  with  his  family,  without  any 
demonstration  of  personal  disrespect^     He  departed  in  July,  1777. 

INott  on  the  Shaw  Family,  The  elder  Nathaniel  Shaw  was  not  a  native  of 
New  London,  but  born  in  Fairfield,  Ct.,  in  1703,  to  which  place  it  is  said,  his 
father  had  removed  from  Boston.  He  came  to  New  London  before  1730,  and 
was  for  many  years  a  sea-captain  in  the  Irish  trade,  which  was  then  pursued 
to  advantage.  He  had  a  brother,  who  sailed  with  him  in  his  early  voyages, 
but  died  on  a  return  passage  from  Ireland,  in  173*2.  Capt.  Shaw  married  in 
1730,  Temperance  Harris,  a  granddaughter  of  the  first  Gabriel  Harris  of  New 
London,  and  had  a  family  of  six  sons  and  two  daughters.  Three  of  the  sons 
perished  at  sea,  at  different  periods,  aged  twenty,  twenty-one  and  twenty-two ; 
a  degree  of  calamity  beyond  the  common  share  of  disaster,  even  in  this  com- 
munity, where  so  many  families  have  been  bereaved  by  the  sea.  The  other 
sons  lived  to  middle  age.  Sarah,  the  oldest  child,  married  David  Allen,  and 
died  at  the  age  of  twenty-five.  Mary,  the  youngest,  has  already  been  mention- 
ed as  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Ephraim  Woodbridge ;  though  dying  at  the  age  of 
twenty-four,  she  was  the  only  one  of  Capt.  Shaw's  family  who  left  descend- 
ants. The  parents  lived  to  old  age.  Capt.  Shaw  died  in  1778 ;  his  relict  in 
1796. 

Nathaniel  Shaw,  2d,  was  the  oldest  son,  and  bom  Dec.  5th,  1735.  He  lived 
through  the  dark  days  of  the  Revolution,  always  active  and  enterprising,  but 
was  suddenly  cut  off  by  the  accidental  discharge  of  his  own  fowling-piece,  be- 
fore the  nation  had  received  the  seal  of  peace,  April  15th,  1782.  His  wife  pre- 
ceded him  to  the  grave  ;  she  died  Dec.  11th,  1781,  of  a  malignant  fever  taken 
from  some  released  prisoners,  to  whose  necessities  she  ministered.] 

1  Duncan  Stewart,  Esq.,  married  in  Boston,  Jan.  6th,  1767,  Nancy,  youngest  dan^- 
ter  of  John  Erving,  Esq.  They  had  three  children  bom  m  New  London — a  daughter 
that  died  in  infancy,  as  we  learn  from  a  small  gravestone  in  the  old  burial-ground, 
and  two  sons  that  went  to  England  with  their  parents  in  1777.  Mr.  Stewart's  resi- 
dence, with  the  adjoining  custom-house,  stood  near  the  Cove,  on  Main  Street;  both 
were  destroyed  Sept  6th,  1781.  The  site  is  now  covered  by  the  manufacturing  estab- 
lishment of  Messrs.  Albertson  and  Douglas. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

MILITARY   AFFAIRS. 

The  Mililia. — Two  compRnies  from  New  London  at  Bunker  Hill. — Nathan 
Hale. — Tories. — Cannonade  of  Stonington. — Fortification.— Build in^  of  Fort 
Trumbull. — Officers  on  duty. — Enlistments. — Marauders. — Smugglers.— 
Shaving-mills. — Various  alarms. — British  fleets  in  the  Sound. — Exchange  of 
prisoners. — Rumors  and  alarms  of  1779  and  17S0. — Notices  of  individual 
soldiers. 

Early  in  the  year*  1775,  an  independent  military  company  was 
formed  in  New  London,  under  Capt.  William  Coit.  It  was  well- 
trained  and  equipped,  and  held  itself  ready  for  any  emergency.  Im- 
mediately after  the  news  of  the  skirmish  at  Lexington  was  received, 
this  gallant  hand  started  for  the  scene  of  conflict.  They  encamped  • 
the  first  night  on  Norwich  Green;  the  second,  on  Sterling  Hill,  and 
the  third  in  Providence.  Another  militia  company  went  from  those 
parts  of  the  town  which  are  now  Waterford  and  Montville,  under 
Major  Jonathan  Latimer ;  Capt.  Abel  Spicer  with  another  from  Gro- 
ton.  Fifty  towns  in  Connecticut  sent  troops  to  Boston  on  this  occa- 
sion. In  May,  the  General  Assembly  ordered  remuneration  to  be 
made  from  the  colonial  treasury  for  expenses  incurred  in  the  Lexing- 
ton alarm,  and  the  quota  of  New  London  was  £251,  18s.  6rf.  This 
amount  is  the  fifth  highest  on  the  list.  Windham  stands  first ;  Wood- 
stock, from  whence  Capt.  Samuel  McLellan  turned  out  with  forty - 
five  mounted  men  is  next ;  then  Lebanon,  Suflield,  New  London.' 

Under  the  old  organization,  the  militia  of  New  London  belonged 
to  the  third  Connecticut  regiment,  and  in  1774,  the  field-ofiicers  of 
this  regiment  were  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  of  New  London,  colonel; 
Jabez  Huntington,  of  Norwich,  lieut.  colonel,  and  Samuel  H.  Par- 
sons, major.     Major  Parsons  was  of  Lyme,  but  at  that  time  residing 

1  State  Records,  (Hinman,)  p.  28. 


614  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

• 

in  New  London,  in  the  practice  of  the  law,  being  king*s  attorney  for 
New  London  county.  In  April,  1775,  six  new  regiments  were 
formed,  and  the  promotions  after  this  period  were  so  rapid,  that  it  is 
difficult  to  keep  pace  with  the  grade  of  the  officers.  Every  new  re- 
quisition for  volunteers,  was  followed  by  changes  among  the  commis- 
sioned officers,  and  generally  by  an  advance  in  rank. 

In  June,  one  of  the  six  newly  raised  regiments,  under  the  command 
of  Col.  Parsons,  was  reviewed  in  New  London.  This  is  believed  to 
have  been  the  first  regimental  training  in  this  state,  east  of  Connecti- 
cut River.  Two  companies  of  this  regiment,  the  fourth  and  fifth, 
were  raised  in  New  London,  and  of  these  William  Coit  and  James 
Chapman — names  which  by  their  townsmen  were  considered  synon- 
ymous with  patriotism  and  hardy  gallantry,  were  captains.' 

These  two  companies  marched  immediately  to  Boston,  and  took 
part  in  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.*  Of  Capt.  Qtit's  company,  Jede- 
diah  Hide  was  first  lieutenant,  James  Day  second  lieutenant,  William 
Adams  ensign.  Of  Capt.  Chapman's  company,  the  corresponding 
officers  were  Christopher  Darrow,  John  Raymond  and  Greorge  Lati- 
mer. Capt.  Coit,  soon  after  the  battle,  entered  into  the  navy,  and 
was  appointed,  by  Congress,  to  the  command  of  the  schooner  Harrison, 
fitted  out  in  Boston  Bay,  to  cruise  against  the  enemy.^ 


1  State  Records,  (Hinman,)  p.  169. 

2  The  following  minutes  of  the  day  before  the  battle,  were  copied  fh)m  the  origin- 
als preserved  in  the  sergeant's  family,  by  the  late  Thomas  Shaw  Perkins.  They  are 
inserted  here  as  memorials  of  one  of  the  New  London  companies  that  fought  at  Bun 
ker's  Hill. 

"  Sergeant  Fargo's  report  to  the  Sergeant  Major  of  Capt.  Coit's  company— '4th 
company,  in  6th  regiment,  under  Col.  Parsons  of  the  Connecticut  line. 

"June  16,  1776.    Morning  Report 

"  Main  guard  18.  Barrack  Guard  7.  Sick  9.  Servants  4.  Present  68.  Total  106. 
Signed,  Moses  Fargo.  Orderly  Sergeant 

"  General  Orders,  June  16, 1776. 

"  Parole,  Ltbawm;  Countersign,  Coventry. 

"  Field  Offlc.T  of  the  day,  Col.  Nixon. 

"  Field  Officer  of  the  Picquet,  M^jor  Brooks. 

"•  Field  Officer  of  the  Main-Guard,  Lt  Col.  Hutchinson. 

"  Adjutant  to-morrow,  Holden. 

"  Draft  Capt  Coit's  company— one  subaltern,  nine  privates  for  the  picquet  guard : 
one  sergeant  and  seven  privates  for  the  advance  giuird  to-night  Sergeant  £dward 
Hallam  is  detailed  to  this  service." 

8  Frothingham's  Siege  of  Boston,  p.  260.  Capt  Coit,  claimed  to  be  "the  first  man  in 
the  states  who  turned  his  majesty's  bunting  upside  down."  This  was  a  current  be- 
lief at  the  thne,  and  has  been  preserved  by  tradition,  but  its  correctness  at  this  dis- 
tance of  time  can  not  be  determined.  The  Harrison  was  certainly  one  of  the  first  ves- 
sels commissioned  by  Congress,  and  may  have  been  the  first  to  take  a  prize. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  515 

In  July,  two  more  regiments  were  raised  in  Connecticut,  under  Col. 
Charles  Webb,  and  Col.  Jedediah  Huntington.  Of  Webb's  regiment, 
Jonathan  Latimer,  Jr.,  was  major  and  captain  of  the  third  company, 
having  for  his  first  lieutenant,  Nathan  Hale,'  who  at  the  time  of  re- 
ceiving his  commission,  sustained  the  office  of  preceptor  of  the  Union 
Grammar  School,  in  New  London. 

It  has  been  frequently  asserted  that  when  the  news  of  the  battle  at 
Lexington  arrived  in  town,  Nathan  Hale  immediately  dismissed  his 
scholars,  harangued  the  citizens,  and  marching  for  Boston  with  the 
company  of  Capt.  Coit,  took  part  in  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  This 
statement  is  not  entirely  accurate ;  his  proceedings  were  marked  with 
more  calmness  and  maturity  of  judgment.  He  had  taken  an  active 
part  in  all  the  patriotic  measures  of  the  inhabitants,  but  not  till  he 
had  been  tendered  a  commission  in  the  army,  which  was  subsequent 
to  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  did  he  decide  to  relinquish  his  offitfe  of 
preceptor  before  the  expiration  of  the  time  for  which  he  was  engaged. 
His  letter  to  the  proprietors  of  the  school,  announcing  his  purpose 
was  dated  Friday,  July  17th,  1775.  In  this  communication,  he  ob- 
serves, that  the  year  for  which  he  had  engaged  would  expire  in  a 
fortnight ;  but  as  he  had  received  information  that  a  place  was  allot' 
ted  to  htm  in  the  armyy  he  asked  as  a  favor  to  be  excused  immedi- 
ately. Before  the  close  of  July,  the  regiments  of  Webb  and  Hunt- 
ington were  ordered  to  Boston,  where  they  were  placed  under  the 
commander-in-chief.  Lieutenant  Hale  shortly  afterward  received  a 
captain's  commission. 

Those  who  knew  Capt  Hale  in  New  London,  have  described  him 
as  a  man  of  many  agreeable  qualities ;  frank  and  independent  in  his 
bearing;  social, 'animated,  ardent;  a  lover  of  the  society  of  ladies, 
and  a  favorite  among  them.  Many  a  fair  cheek  was  wet  with  bitter 
tears,  and  gentle  voices  uttered  deep  execrations  on  his  barbarous 
foes,  when  tidings  of  his  untimely  fate  were  received. 

As  a  teacher,  Capt.  Hale  is  said  to  have  been  a  firm  disciplinarian, 
but  happy  in  his  mode  of  conveying  instruction,  and  highly  respected 
by  hid  pupils.  The  parting  scene  made  a  strong  impression  on  their 
minds.  He  addressed  them  in  a  style  almost  parental ;  gave  them 
earnest  counsel,  prayed  with  them,  and  shaking  each  by  the  hand, 
bade  them  individually  farewell. 

The  sunmier  of  1776  was  noted  for  the  lai^e  number  of  arrests  of 
persons  charged  with  toryism.     Many  of  these  were  brought  to  New 

1  State  Becords,  (Himnoo,)  p.  186. 


616  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

London,  and  from  thence  sent  into  the  interior  of  the  state,  to.  keep 
them  from  intercourse  with  the  enemy.  In  August,  three  vessels 
arrived  in  one  week,  with  persons  arrested  on  Long  Ishind  and  in 
New  York  city.  After  a  short  confinement  in  the  jail,  they  were 
forwarded  to  Norwich  and  Windham,  for  safe .  keeping.  Green's 
newspaper  sometimes  announced  them  as  "  gangs  of  miscreants,"  and 
again  as  "gentlemen  tories."  In  the  interior  towns,  they  were 
allowed  to  go  at  large,  within  certain  limits,  and  most  of  them  afler  a 
few  months  were  permitted  to  return  to  their  homes. 

On  the  25th  of  July,  three  British  ships  of  war  came  athwart  New 
London  harbor  and  anchored  :  these  were  the  Rose^  commanded  by 
Capt.  Wallace  ;  the  Swan,  and  the  King-fisher,  This  was  a  virtual 
blockade,  and  created  much  alarm.  The  town  had  no  defense  ex- 
cept the  spirit  of  her  inhabitants.  The  sole  strength  of  the  fort  was 
its  garrison,  which  consisted  mostly  of  captains  and  mates  of  vessels 
that  lay  unemployed  at  the  wharves.  No  other  commander  on  this 
coast  acquired  a  renown  so  odious  as  Capt.  Wallace.  He  was  the 
terror  of  the  small  ports  and  small  vessels,  capturing  and  plundering 
without  discrimination,  and  threatening  various  points  with  attack. 
On  the  30th  of  August,  he  verified  his  threats  hy  a  cannonade  of  the 
thriving  village  of  Stonington,  Long-point.  On  this  exposed  penin- 
sula, about  half  a  mile  in  length,  formerly  a  moiety  of  the  Chese- 
brough  farm,  a  hardy  company  of  mariners  and  artisans  had  clustered 
together,  and  acquired  a  creditable  share  of  the  trade  of  the  Sound* 
The  tender  of  the  Rose,  whose  business  it  was  to  destroy  every  thing 
in  the  shape  of  keel  or  sail  that  came  in  its  way,  pursued  one  of  its 
victims  to  the  wharf  of  the  village.  The  citizens  eagerly  collected 
for  its  defense.  Capt.  Benjamin  Pendleton,  and  ^ther  brave  and 
true  men  were  there,  and  the  tender  was  soon  driven  from  its  prey. 
But  the  Rose  came  up,  and  without  summons  or  communication  of 
any  kind,  opened  her  broadside  upon  the  village.  She  continued 
firing  at  intervals  for  several  hours,  until  the  pursued  vessel  was  cut 
out  and  conveyed  away.  Only  sound  shot  were  used,  and  therefore 
no  houses  took  fire,  though  several  were  much  shattered  by  the  balls. 
One  man  was  wounded  but  none  killed.^ 


1  At  the^October  session  of  the  legislature,  1776,  the  sum  of  £12,  A$.  4dl  was  allowed 
to  Jonathan  Weaver,  Jan.,  a  music  man  in  the  company  of  Capt.  Oliver  Smith,  Vho 
was  dangerously  wotmded  at  Stonington,  Long-point.    Hinman,  p.  192. 

It  is  singular  that  when  Stonington  was  again  cannonaded  by  the  British,  August 
9th,  1814,  the  result  should  have  been  so  nearly  the  same;  buildings  damaged,  one 
man  severely  wounded,  no  one  killed. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  517 

On  the  5th  and  6th  of  August,  1775,  a  fleet  of  nine  ships  and  sev- 
eral smaller  vessels,  gathered  around  New  London  Harbor,  and  ap- 
peared as  if  about  to  enter.  Expresses  were  sent  forth  to  alarm  the 
country,  but  it  was  soon  ascertained  that  the  object  of  the  fleet  was 
to  secure  the  stock  that  was  owned  upon  the  fertile  islands  of  the 
Sound.  From  Fisher's  Island  alone  thej  took  1,100  sheep,  beside 
cattle  and  other  provisions ;  for  which  they  made  a  reasonable  com- 
pensation to  Mr.  Brown,  the  lessee  of  the  island  ;  but  from  Gardiner's 
and  Plum  Islands,  they  took  what  they  wanted  without  payment. 

This  incident  probably  operated  as  a  spur  upon  the  higher  powers 
of  the  colony,  in  regard  to  a  subject  much  discussed  in  their  councils, 
viz.,  the  fortification  of  New  London. 

Among  the  heads  of  inquiry*  proposed  by  his  majesty's  secretary  of 
state  to  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  in  1773,  was  this : 

**  What  forts  and  places  of  defense  arc  there  within  your  government,  and  in 
what  condition  ?" 

To  which  Governor  Trumbull  replied,  October,  1774 : 

•*  A  small  battery  at  New  London,  consisting  of  nine  guns,  built  and  sup- 
ported at  the  colony's  expense.'* 

This  was  then  the  only  fortification  in  Connecticut  when  the  war 
commenced.  But  the  defense  of  the  coast  was  a  subject  to  which 
the  attention  of  the  legislature  was  soon  called. 

April,  1775,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  examine  the  points  of 
defense,  and  report  on  the  best  means  of  securing  the  country  from 
invasion.  Of  this  committee,  Messrs.  G.  Saltonstall,  D.  Deshon  and 
T.  Mumford,  reported  in  regard  to  New  London,  that  the  battery  was 
in  a  ruinous  condition,  and  that  the  only  effective  cannon  in  the  place 
consisted  of  six  new  pieces ;  (four  eighteens  and  two  twelves.)  They 
proposed  that  three  positions,  Mamacock,  Winthrop's  Neck  and  Gro- 
ton  Height,  should  be  fortified,  and  that  fourteen  new  cannon  (twenty- 
fours)  should  be  procured.'  This  judicious  advice  was  not  adopted, 
probably  on  account  of  a  void  in  the  treasury.  All  that  was  obtained 
at  this  time,  was  an  order  to  repair  and  complete  the  old  fort.  This 
was  done  during  the  summer,  under  the  direction  of  CoL  Saltonstall, 
who  in  effect  rebuilt  the  works  and  mounted  upon  them  all  the  can- 


1  Heads  of  Inquiry,  printed  by  order  of  the  Governor  and  Company;  T.  Green, 
1776. 

3  Council  Becords,  (Hinman,  App.,)  p.  545. 

44  , 


S18  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

Ron  in  the  town.  It  will  be  recollected  that  this  fortification  stood 
near  the  water's  edge,  where  is  now  the  ferry  wharf.  Here  was  the 
battlement,  the  platform,  the  cannon  and  the  flag-staff;  the  magazine 
stood  a  little  to  the  west.  The  garrison,  from  twelve  to  twenty  men, 
bad  their  meals  at  Potter's,  near  Bradley  Street.  Nathaniel  Salton- 
stall,  captain  ;  Stephen  Hempstead,  lieutenant 

On  the  Groton  side  of  the  river,  with  a  spirit  of  enthusiasm  that  did 
not  wait  for  legislative  aid,  the  inhabitants  voluntarily  threw  up  in- 
trenchments,  excavated  ditches  and  erected  breastworks,  at  sundry 
exposed  places,  which,  though  they  had  no  ordnance  except  a  few 
pieces  at  the  principal  battery  on  the  heights,  obtained  from  the  supr 
ply  brought  in  by  Commodore  Hopkins,  they  resolved  to  defend  to 
the  last  extremity. 

On  the  river  below  Norwich,  (at  Waterman's  Point,)  a  battery 
was  erected  under  the  superintendence  of  Benjamin  Huntington  and 
Ephraim  Bill,  and  funiished  with  four  six-pounders.  Such  were  the 
preparations  made  to  receive  the  enemy  in  1775.' 

Two  enlisted  companies  were  stationed  at  New  London,  during  the 
summer,  under  Major  Latimer  and  Capt.  Edward  Shipman,  of  Say- 
brook."  These  were  ordered  to  Boston  the  last  of  September,  on  the 
requisition  of  General  Washington.  Their  place  was  supplied  by  a 
new  enlistment  of  seventy  men,  of  whom  Col.  Saltonstall  took  the 
command.' 

The  governor  and  council  of  safety,  acceding  to  the  oft-repeated 
request  of  the  inhabitants  that  something  further  might  be  done  for 
them  in  the  way  of  fortification,  sent  Col.  Jedediah  Elderkin  to  New 
London,  in  November,  to  view  the  premises  and  report  what  fortifi- 
cation was  necessary.  After  a  general  survey  and  consultation  with 
the  principal  men  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  he  confirmed  the  judg- 
ment heretofore  given  by  the  committee,  and  recommended  the  im- 
mediate fortification  of  the  three  points  designated  by  them. 

The  neck  of  land  bounding  New  London  Harbor  on  the  south,  now 
called  Fort  Neck,  but  then  generally  known  by  its  Indian  name  of 
Mamakuk,  (or  Mamacock,)  presented  near  the  point  a  broad,  irreg- 
ular platform  of  rocks,  rising  twenty  feet  above  the  water,  and  con- 

1  Council  Records  in  Hinmao,  pp.  828,  881. 

2  Ibid,  p.  828. 

8  At  the  same  time  thirty  were  ordered  for  New  Haveo,  forty  for  Stomngton,  and 
fifteen  for  Lyme.  The  pay  was  the  same  as  to  continental  soldiers,  which  in  1775,  was 
j£2  per  month  for  a  private,  and  £6  for  a  (iaptain;  five  shiUings  and  three  penc«  pa* 
week  for  billeting.    Ibid,  p.  191. 


HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON.  619 

nected  with  the  main  land  on  the  east  bj  meadows,  and  marshes. 
This  rockj  point  seems  to  have  been  projected  into  its  position  par« 
posely  to  protect  the  harbor«  A  more  advantageous  site  for  a  forti- 
fication is  scarcely  to  be  desired.  Could  we  allow  that  the  beneyo- 
lence  of  nature  would  concur  in  any  of  the  plans  of  war,  we  mighl 
suppose  that  this  use  of  it  had  entered  into  her  design  ;  for  it  is  net 
only  well  adapted  to  this  end,  but  seems  nearly  useless  for  any  other 
purpose.  On  this  point,  Col.  Elderkin  proposed  the  erection  of  a 
rampart  fronting  east,  eighty  feet ;  south,  eighty  feet ;  north,  eighty 
feet,  but  not  at  right  angles  ;  with  five  embrasures  in  each  bank,  to 
be  defended  by  five  cannon,  eighteen  or  twenty-four-pounders. 

The  point  selected  on  the  Groton  side  was  nearly  opposite  the 
center  of  the  harbor.  The  ascent,  within  fifty  rods  of  the  water's 
edge,  was  120  feet.  The  summit  was  tolerably  level.  Here  it  was 
supposed  that  a  breastwork  of  turf  and  gravel,  with  some  ten  pieces 
of  cannon,  would  be  all  that  was  necessary. 

Winthrop's  Neck  lies  north-east  of  the  town,  and  projects  more 
than  half-way  across  the  harbor ;  the  southern  extremity,  facing  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  presents  a  level,  bold  bluff,  twenty  feet  above  the 
water.  Here,  also,  it  was  recommended  that  a  breastwork  should  be 
raised,  and  planted  with  ten  cannon.  These  various  positions  would 
expose  an  invading  fleet  to  be  raked  at  so  many  angles,  that  it  was 
thought  the  inhabitants  might  thus  be  rendered  secure  from  all  annoy- 
ance by  sea. 

The  report  of  Col.  Elderkin  was  made  to  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil, November  15th,*  and  on  the  22d,  orders  were  issued  for  the  works 
to  be  commenced,  under  the  direction  of  a  committee  of  six  personsi 
Col.  Sahonstall,  Ebenezer  Ledyard,  John  Deshon,  Nathaniel  Shaw, 
Jun.,  Peter  Avery  and  Josiali  Watrous  (or  Waters.)'  Yet  notwith- 
standing this  early  and  earnest  action  of  the  government,  more  than  a 
year  elapsed  before  either  of  the  posts  could  take  rank  as  a  fortifica- 
tion, and  merit  a  name.  Even  in  December,  1776,  when  .the  two 
principal  works  were  honored  with  the  names  of  the  governor  and 
deputy-governor,  Trumbull  and  Griswold,  they  were  imperfect  and 
unfinished. 

Nor  is  this  a  matter  of  surprise  when  it  is  considered  that  the  labor 


1  Elderkin*8  report,  in  Hinman's  App.,  p.  661.  The  land  at  Mamacock  was  pur- 
chased of  Nathaniel  Shaw;  an  acre  and  a  quarter  for  the  works  at  Groton^  of  Joni^ 
than  Chester  and  Elisha  Prior.    Qroton  fort  was  commenced  December  6th,  1776. 

2  Hinman,  p.  887. 


620  HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON. 

was  performed  by  relays  of  fresh  recruits,  changed  every  few  weeks, 
who  wrought  under  the  direction  of  the  civil  authority  and  field-offi- 
cers. These  enlistments  consisted  in  part  of  mere  boys,  with  the 
spirit  indeed,  but  not  the  experience  of  men,  and  in  part  of  aged  per- 
sons, who  had  perhaps  the  judgment,  but  not  the  physical  energy  of 
maturity. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  difficulties  which  in  those  revolutionary 
times  stood  in  the  way  of  public  works.  In  the  case  of  these  small 
fortifications,  the  legislature  must  first  discuss  the  matter  and  pass  the 
resolves ;  the  governor  and  council  of  safety  must  take  it  up ;  Col. 
Saltonstall  must  be  consulted ;  Mr.  Shaw  must  be  summoned  to  Hart- 
ford, to  give  advice  ;  Col.  Mott  must  be  sent  to  New  London,  to  sur- 
vey ;  Col.  Dyer  and  Mr.  Wales  must  examine  and  report.  The 
works  begin,  stop,  go  on.  The  governor  and  council  are  at  the  trou- 
ble of  directing  just  the  number  of  sledges,  hammers,  shovels,  spades, 
crow-bars,  pickaxes,  chains,  &c.,  that  are  to  be  provided  for  the 
work.  Timber,  teams,  tools,  and  other  necessary  materials  are  to  be 
procured  by  Col.  Saltonstall,  for  Winthrop's  Neck;  by  Ebenezer 
Ledyard,  for  Groton ;  and  Nathaniel  Shaw,  for  Mamacock.  The  tim- 
ber was  in  the  forests,  and  must  be  selected  growing. 

The  assembly  must  now  apply  to  Congress  for  cannon  to  furnish 
their  works,  asking  for  some  of  the  brass  pieces  taken  at  St.  John's. 
Again  they  apply  to  Admiral  Hopkins  for  some  of  the  New  Provi- 
dence ordnance.*  They  can  not  obtain  the  necessary  complement^ 
and  it  is  decided  that  the  heavy  cannon  must  be  cast  in  Smith's  fur- 
nace at  Salisbury.  In  order  to  accomplish  this,  the  furnace  must  be 
enlarged,  new  workmen  obtained,  higher  wages  given ;  wood-land 
must  be  bought  to  obtain  fuel  for  the  furnace ;  and  all  these  details 
must  be  performed  by  the  executive  officers  of  the  state ;  Col.  Elder- 
kin  and  others  must  make  journeys  to  and  forth  from  Salisbury  to 
Hartford,  to  manage  the  business. 

In  the  summer  of  1777,  the  works  were  regarded  as  finished, 
though  probably  then  very  far  from  what  military  men,  at  the  pres- 
ent day,  would  call  complete. 

The  engineer  of  Fort  Trumbull  was  Col.  Josiah  Waters  ;  of  Fort 
Griswold,  Col.  Samuel  Mott.'     The  first  commanders  o£  these  forts 


1  Council  Beoords,  p.  856,  Hinman,  where  will  be  found  nuthoritj  for  moAt  of  tiie 
particulars  in  this  sketch. 

2  Their  appointment  as  engineers  was  in  February,  1776,  but  Col.  Waters  had  beea 
previously  on  duty.  His  services  commenced  November  28d,  1776,  and  he  was  still  at 
his  post  in  April,  1777,  as  was  also  his  assistant,  Josiah  Waters,  Jun.    Hinman,  p.  430. 


HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON*  521 

were  appointed  in  February,  1776,  and  were  captains  of  companies 
stationed  at  each  place ;  John  EI7,  of  Lyme,  at  Mamacock,  and  Ed- 
ward Mott^  at  Groton,'  but  in  July,  before  the  forts  were  half  com- 
]^ted,  they  were  both  promoted  to  the  rank  of  major.  Their  suc- 
cessors were  Martin  Kirtland,  of  Saybrook,  for  Mamacock,  and  Oliver 
Coit,  for  Groton.  Two  artillery  companies,  one  for  each  fortress, 
were  afterward  raised,  and  of  these  Nathaniel  Saltonstall  and  Wil- 
liam Ledyard  were  the  first  captains.  These  must  be  regarded  as 
the  first  actual  commanders  of  Forts  Trumbull  and  Griswold.  They 
were  appointed  July  8d,  1776."  At  the  same  date,  Adam  Shapley 
was  ordered  to  take  command  of  the  old  fort  at  New  London,  in  the 
place  of  Dudley  Saltonstall,  resigned. 

August  2d,  1777,  orders  were  issued  by  the  governor  and  council 
to  remove  the  platform  from  the  old  fort  to  Fort  Trumbull.  The  bar- 
rack, also,  was  soon  transferred  to  the  lower  part  of  the  town,  and 
being  subsequently  used  for  a  brewery,  gave  the  name  of  Brewery, 
(now  Brewer,)  to  the  street  in  which  it  was  placed.  The  old  battery 
was  left  to  decay,  and  its  site  afterward  appropriated  to  the  market 
and  the  ferry  wharf. 

A  redoubt  on  Winthrop's  Neck  was  erected  by  Col.  Saltonstall* 
The  importance  of  the  site  was  overrated,  and  in  the  course  of  a  year 
or  two  the  post  was  abandoned. 

For  the  garrisoning  of  the  various  posts  at  New  London  and  Groton, 
a  regiment  of  foot  was  employed  during  a  part  of  the  year  1776,  of 
which  Col.  Frastus  Wolcott  had  the  command.  He  was  the  superior 
military  commander  of  the  district  which  included  Stonington,  for 
that  year.  Dr.  John  Ely  of  Lyme  performed  a  tour  of  duty  here^ 
as  captain  and  major,  and  also  as  physician  and  surgeon.  In  July 
he  was  sent  to  visit  the  northern  army  and  employ  his  skill  in  arrest- 
ing the  smaU-pox,  which  was  then  raging  in  the  camp  with  great 
virulence. 

In  the  various  battalions  raised  for  continental  service.  New  Lon- 
don was  expected  to  furnish  her  full  quota ;  though,  as  we  Idbk  back 
upon  her  exposed  situation,  we  might  deem  that  the  ser\'ices  of  her 
sons  were  of  pressing  necessity  at  home.  Mr.  Shaw,  in  writing  to 
Governor  Trumbull,  Aug.  7th,  1776,  when  new  enlistments  were  de- 
manded, observes : 


1  Hinman,  ^p.  846, 864.  2  Ibid,  pp.  865,  866. 

44* 


5S2  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

**  This  town  has  been  drained  of  men  already,  so  that  there  is  scarcely  a  sof- 
ficiency  of  hands  left  to  get  in  the  harvest." 

In  addition  to  the  regular  militia  then  in  service,  in  June  a  large 
volunteer  company  was  recruited  in  the  town  under  Capt.  Richard 
Deshon,  and  another  in  November,  under  Capt.  Jonathan  Caulkins. 
Groton  was  in  a  similar  condition,  nearly  all  its  able-bodied  men  were  in 
the  army.  In  October,  1775,  she  had  memorialized  the  assembly, 
praying  that  her  soldiers  might  be  allowed  to  return  and  defend  their 
own  homes,  for  the  British  fleet  was  hovering  near  them,  and  the 
coast  had  been  stripped  of  its  men  to  recruit  the  army  and  navy. 
This  was  the  sad  truth,  which  mi^t  have  been  repeated  every  year 
of  the  war. 

How  shall  we  describe  the  shifting  scenes  of  plunder,  stratagem 
and  atrocity,  exhibited  on  the  bosom  of  Long  Island  Sound,  during 
the  years  1776  and  1777  ?  What  fury  possessed  the  minds  of  men, 
that  the  inhabitants  of  the  two  shores,  old  neighbors  and  friendly 
associates,  should  thus  become  assassins  and  wolves,  prowling  for 
each  other's  destruction ! 

Long  Island,  having  passed  in  a  great  measure  into  the  occupation 
of  the  British,  those  inhabitants  who  had  embraced  the  cause  of  lib- 
erty, were  obliged  to  seek  safety  by  flight.  The  troops  stationed  at 
New  London,  with  all  the  armament  that  the  governor  could  command, 
were  ordered  to  cross  the  Sound  and  assist  in  removing  them  and 
their  effects  to  the  Connecticut  coast.  Many  of  these  unfortunate 
patriots,  left  all  behind  them,  and  homeless  and  destitute  were  thrown 
upon  the  mercy  of  the  charitable.  Long  Island  was  abandoned  by 
the  Genius  of  Liberty,  and  the  British  rule  was  spread  over  it,  far 
and  wide.  From  that  moment  the  two  coasts  were  hostile,  and  an 
inveterate  system  of  smuggling,  marauding,  plundering  and  kidni^ 
ping  took  place  on  both  sides,  in  comparison  with  which  a  common 
state  of  honorable  warfare  might  be  taken  for  peace  and  good  neigh- 
borhood. Sheep,  cattle,  effects  and  people,  were  seized  and  carried 
off  by  either  party.  On  the  Connecticut  side  this  was  done  under 
the  covert  of  secrecy,  Groods  stolen  from  the  island  were  carefully 
secreted ;  and  if  discovered  by  honest  persons  were  advertised,  and 
the  owners  desired  to  come  and  take  possession.  This  condition  of 
affairs  was  fraught  with  mischief,  misrule  and  villainy.  There  was 
no  end  to  the  stratfs  and  the  thieves.  Akin  to  this  marauding  system 
was  the  contraband  trade — an  illicit  dealing  with  the  enemy,  and  fur- 
nishing them  with  supplies  for  the  sake  of  their  gold,  and  their 
goods.     This  was  not  oflen  oAtried  on  by  the  tones,  the  professed 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  623 

friends  of  the  British,  for  they  were  too  narrowly  watched  to  allow 
of  the  risk,  but  by  men  who  were  patriots  in  pretension,  but  yet  lovers 
of  money,  rather  than  lovers  of  their  country.  This  trade  was  en- 
tered into  by  many  people  who  were  otherwise  considered  fair  and 
honorable  in  all  their  dealings ;  but  if  discovered  by  their  country- 
men, they  were  marked  for  opprobrium  and  insult  A  more  odious 
occupation  could  not  be  mentioned,  nor  could  any  thing  be  said  of  a 
man  better  calculated  to  hold  him  up  to  public  indignation  than  to 
call  him  a  Long  Island  trader.  The  republican  authorities  were 
rigorous  in  their  watch  upon  this  trade.*  Many  houses  were  search- 
ed and  men  imprisoned ;  yet  the  contraband  trade  flourished.  Goods 
that  were  bought  for  country  produce,  might  be  sold  cheap,  and  the 
temptation  to  buy  was  great.  Fine  Holland  shirts  ready-made  could 
be  procured  for  half  a  Spanish  dollar.  Sloops  and  boats  laden  with 
provisions  for  the  New  York  market  were  occasionally  intercepted 
by  the  state  cruisers,  and  the  sad  history  of  the  day  was  often  enliv- 
ened by  ludicrous  anecdotes  that  would  gain  currency  respecting 
these  night-traders.  Thus,  a  story  was  told  of  two  men  from  the 
Great  Neck  shore  of  New  London,  who  put  off  one  night  in  a  whale- 
boat,  with  a  large  fat  ox  on  board.  The  animal  got  loose  from  its 
fastenings  and  became  so  unmanageable  that  the  men,  in  danger  of 
sinking,  were  glad  to  make  toward  a  country  sloop  near  by,  and 
meekly  surrender  their  ox  to  confiscation  and  themselves  to  impris- 
onment. 

On  the  Long  Island  side  the  harbors  were  infested  with  bands  of 
the  lowest  and  vilest  refugees,  from  whence  many  a  plundering  de- 
scent was  made  on  the  Connecticut  coast  and  robbery  and  extortion 
of  every  kind  committed.  The  small  sloops  and  boats  in  which 
these  piratical  excursions  were  made  had  the  familiar  name  of  Shav- 
ing-Mills. They  were  the  terror  of  the  coast,  often  committing  atro- 
cious robberies. 

The  present  generation,  living  in  peace  and  quiet,  and  looking 
round  upon  the  goodly  heritage  that  has  fallen  to  their  lot,  think  but 
little  of  those  years  of  suffering,  through  which  these  blessings  were 
attained.  They  have  no  adequate  conception  of  the  scenes  of  alarm, 
panic,  flight,  destitution,  poverty,  bereavement,  loneliness  and  even 
famine,  through  which  their  forefathers  passed  in  the  fierce  struggle 


1  Shaw  to  Governor  Trumbull,  Feb.,  1777 ;  "  I  suppose  Gen.  Parsons  has  given  you 
a  history  of  the  discovery  we  made  of  the  correspondence  carried  on  fh>m  our  Neck 
on  board  the  man-of-war.'*    Shaw's  Letter  Book.    (MS.) 


534  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

for  liberty.  During  the  whole  war,  the  inhabitants  of  New  liondon 
could  never  lie  down  with  any  feeling  of  security  that  they  might  not 
be  roused  from  their  beds  by  the  alarm  bell  and  the  signal  fire,  pro- 
claiming the  invader  at  hand.  There  was  indeed,  in  the  early  part 
of  the  war,  no  spoil  to  allure  an  enemy ;  but  the  harbor,  capacious, 
accessible  and  secure,  would  furnish  a  fine  winter  refuge  for  their 
ships,  and  it  would  be  a  vast  benefit  to  their  cause  to  seal  up  the  state 
and  have  the  whole  Sound  to  themselves. 

During  the  winter  of  1776-7,  the  frigates  Amazon  and  Niger 
were  stationed  most  of  the  time  near  the  west  end  of  Fisher's  Island, 
so  as  effectually  to  blockade  the  mouth  of  the  river.  Several  Brit 
ish  vessels  also  wintered  in  Gardiner's  Bay,  and  the  Sound  was  the 
common  haunt  of  the  enemy.  On  the  3d  of  December,  1776,  eleven 
ships  passed  Montauk  Point  and  anchored  within  sight  of  the  town. 
The  next  morning  they  were  joined  by  a  fleet  of  transports  and  war- 
like vessels  approaching  eastward  from  New  York,  which  gradually 
increased  to  100  in  number.  This  fleet,  which  was  under  the  com- 
mand of  Sir  Peter  Parker,  while  maneuvering  in  the  Sound  made  a 
truly  formidable  appearance.  They  remained  nearly  three  weeks^ 
recruiting  where  they  could  on  the  shores  and  islands — often  secretly 
supplied  by  faithless  men  from  the  coast — and  stretching  their  wings 
from  Gardiner's  Bay  to  Fairfield.  New  London  was  in  daily  appre- 
hension of  a  bombardment.  The  women  and  children  and  all  valua- 
ble goods  were  removed.  On  Friday,  Dec  20th,  the  admiral  hav- 
ing collected  together  his  transports  and  made  his  preparations,  began 
to  weigh  anchor.  At  that  moment  the  public  consternation  was 
greater  perhaps  than  has  ever  been  experienced,  before  or  since,  on 
this  coast.  When  this  magnificent  fleet  came  abreast  the  mouth  of 
the  river  it  seemed  sufficient  to  sweep  the  foundation  of  the  town 
from  its  moorings.  Astonishment  and  dismay  filled  the  minds  of  the 
inhabitants  as  from  hill-tops  and  house-tops,  they  gazed  on  the  dis- 
tant spectacle.  After  a  short  period  of  intense  anxiety,  a  sudden 
relief  was  experienced,  as  the  leading  ships  passed  off  to  the  south 
and  east  of  Fisher's  Island,  and  it  became  apparent  that  Newport 
was  to  be  the  point  of  attack.  The  governor  had  ordered  out  all 
the  militia  east  of  the  river  and  three  regiments  from  the  west  side ; 
but  the  orders  were  countermanded  when  the  destination  of  the  fleet 
was  ascertained.' 

1  Col.  John  Douglas  was  encamped  here  with  his  regiment  In  Jannary,  1777, 
Col.  John  Elj's  regiment  on  duty  at  New  London  was  ordered  to  Providence.  He 
was  remanded  with  fovar  companies  in  March. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  625 

The  14th  of  March,  1777,  brought  another  breeze  of  alarm  along 
the  coast.  A  fleet  of  eleyen  sail — the  Amazon,  Greyhonnd,  Lark 
and  seven  transports-^came  round  the  western  point  of  Fisher's  Isl- 
and, and  anchored  near  the  Groton  shore.  An  immediate  descent 
was  expected,  and  tumult  and  terror  reigned  for  a  time  in  the  town. 
The  object  of  the  squadron,  however,  was  to  obtain,  as  they  had  the 
jear  before,  the  stock  of  Fisher's  Island,  and  this  business  they  ex- 
ecuted so  thoroughly,  as  almost  to  sweep  the  island  clean  of  produce. 
They  took  not  only  sheep,  cattle,  swine,  poultry,  com,  potatoes,  wood 
and  hay,  but  blankets,  woolen  cloth,  sheeting  and  other  necessaries, 
for  all  which  they  made  a  reasonable  compensation  to  Mr.  Brown,  in 
British  gold. 

While  the  enemy  thus  kept  possession  of  the  Sound,  the  sloops 
and  boats  belonging  to  the  coast,  melted  away  like  summer  snow. 
The  Amazon  frigate  kept  a  continual  watch  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  capturing  and  destroying  coasters  and  fishing  vessels  without 
mercy.  Through  the  whole  year  1777,  New  London  was  blockaded 
almost  with  the  strictness  of  a  siege. 

April  12th,  about  thirty  sail  of  armed  vessels  and  transports  pass- 
ed along  the  mouth  of  the  river :  in  fact,  during  the  whole  of  this 
momentous  summer  the  threatening  aspect  of  a  man-of-war,  was 
scarcely  absent  from  the  vision  of  the  inhabitants ;  and  from  the  high 
grounds'twenty  were  frequently  in  view  at  one  time,  either  at  anchor,  or 
flying  east  and  west  where,  at  the  two  extremities  of  the  Sound,  the 
strong  forces  of  the  enemy  held  undisputed  possession  of  Newport 
and  New  York.  May  and  June  were  months  of  almost  continual 
alarm. 

On  the  20th  of  July  a  squadron  appeared  on  the  coast  bending  its 
course  as  if  about  to  enter  the  mouth  of  the  river.  The  alarm  guns 
were  fired  and  the  militia  set  in  motion ;  but  it  proved  to  be  a  fleet 
of  transports  and  provision  vessels  bound  to  England  under  convoy 
of  the  Niger  frigate.  They  passed  by  without  any  hostile  demon- 
stration but  that  of  firing  several  shot  at  the  armed  schooner 
Spy,  which  they  chased  into  the  harbor.  The  next  day,  the  Spy 
slipped  out  of  the  river,  and  cut  off  from  the  fleet  two  vessels  that 
had  lingered  to  take  in  wood. 

In  August,  the  Cerberus  frigate  lay  for  some  time  at  anchor,  off 
Niantic  Bay,  west  of  New  London.  A  line  was  one  day  seen  from 
the  ship  floating  upon  the  water  at  a  little  distance,  which  the  tender 
of  the  ship  was  ordered  to  examine.  It  was  drawn  up  with  great 
caution,  and  found  to  be  150  fathoms  in  length,  and  to  have  a  ma- 


526  HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON. 

chine  attached  to  the  end  of  it,  weighing  about  400  pounds.  T^is, 
upon  being  hauled  into  the  schooner,  expk>ded  on  the  deck,  and  as 
was  currently  reported  at  the  time,  killed  seyeral  men.'  The 
machine  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  marine  torpedoes  invented  hj 
Mr.  Bushnell,  to  blow  up  ships.  This  ingenious  gentleman  and  pa- 
ttriotic  soldier  made  other  attempts  to  destroy  a  British  vessel  with 
his  machine,  but  failed. 

In  September,  thirty  or  forty  sail  of  English  vessels  were  at  one 
time  in  the  Sound ;  many  of  them  taking  in  wood  from  the  Long 
Island  shore. 

In  November,  about  the  14th,  a  fleet  of  vessels  of  all  descriptions 
passing  from  Newport  to  Gardiner's  Bay,  encountered  a  gale  of  wind, 
by  which  the  Sjrren  frigate  of  twenty-eight  guns  was  driven  ashore  at 
Point  Judith  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Americans  with  her  crew 
(200  men)  and  equipments.  She  was  stripped  of  her  guns,  stores, 
and  every  thing  movable,  and  burnt ;  Sunday  Nov.  15th. 

The  military  organization  for  the  coast  defense  was  arranged  anew 
for  the  year  1777.  The  three  posts  of  New  London,  Groton  and 
Stonington  were  placed  under  the  command  of  Major  Jonathan  Wells 
of  Hartford.  Two  companies  were  raised  and  stationed  at  New 
London ;  one  of  artillery  consisting  of  fifty  men,  of  which  Nathaniel 
Saltonstall  was  captain ;  the  other  of  musketry,  (seventy  men,)  of 
which  Adam  Shapley  was  captain.  Two  corresponding  companies 
stationed  at  Groton  were  commanded  by  Wm.  Ledyard  and  Oliver 
Coit ;  and  a  company  of  musket  men  was  stationed  at  Stonington 
under  Capt.  Nathan  Palmer.  This  was  the  stationary  force  for  the 
year ;  but  being  totally  inadequate  to  the  necessity,  a  regiment  was 
raised  expressly  to  defend  the  coast  of  New  London  county.  Before 
this  could  be  enlisted.  Colonels  Latimer,  Ely  and  Throop,  and  Majors 
Buel  and  Gallop,  performed  tours  of  duty  at  New  London  and  Gro- 
ton, with  parts  of  their  respective  regiments. 

In  March,  1778,  Capt.  William  Ledyard  was  appointed  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  posts  of  New  London,  Groton  and  Stonington,  with  the 
rank  and  pay  of  major.  Under  his  direction  the  works  were  repair- 
ed and  strengthened  and  additional  batteries  erected.  William 
Latham  was  captain  of  artillery  at  Groton,  and  Adam  Shapley  at 
New  London.  These  appointments,  it  must  be  remembered,  were 
not  made  by  Congress  or  the  commander-in-chief,  but  emanated  from 
the  governor  and  council  of  safety. 

1  This  incident  is  more  minnteljr  related  in  Thatcher*8  Military  Journal,  p.  128. 


HISTORY    aF    NEW    LONDON.  627 

Early  in  this  year,  a  French  ship  called  the  Lyon,  Capt  Michel, 
eame  into  port  with  a  valuable  assortment  of  West  India  goods. 
This  cargo  was  very  opportune,  being  mostly  purchased  by  the  naval 
agent  for  the  state  and  continental  service.  She  had  salt  on  board, 
which  was  then  of  pressing  importance  to  the  army  ;  and  linen  and 
other  articles  useful  for  the  clothing  of  soldiers.  The  Lyon  lay  about 
three  months  in  the  harbor.*  Several  privateers  were  in  at  the  same 
time  recruiting,  and  the  collisions  that  took  place  among  the  seamen, 
soldiery  and  populace,  kept  the  town  in  a  state  of  riot  and  disorder. 
The  jail  was  forced,  prisoners  released  and  recaptured,  and  mobs  oc- 
casionally triumphant  over  the  law.  When  a  maritime  war  is  ris- 
ing, what  can  be  expected  in  a  seaport  but  misrule  and  demoraliza« 
tion? 

Flags  of  truce  engaged  in  the  exchange  of  prisoners  were  often 
arriving  and  departing  from  New  London.  The  return  home  of 
American  prisoners  excited  very  naturally  a  deep  interest.  Their 
appearance  alone  without  a  word  spoken,  was  sufficient  evidence  that 
they  had  borne  a  rigorous  confinement  under  merciless  keepers.  In 
July,  1777,  a  flag  that  had  been  sent  to  Newport  with  a  band  of  well- 
fed,  healthy  English  prisoners  to  be  exchanged,  returned  with  a  com- 
pany of  Americans  who  were  actually  dying  from  starvation  and 
close  confinement  "  They  had  but  just  life  enough  remaining,"  said 
the  Oazette,  "  to  answer  the  purpose  of  an  exchange."  Some  were 
wasted  to  skeletons,  others  covered  with  vermin,  or  disfigured  with 
eruptions,  or  dying  of  fever.  Early  in  August,  two  other  exchanges 
were  negotiated  and  some  fifty  more  arrived  in  the  same  condition. 
Unwholesome  and  scanty  fare,  crowded  quarters,  the  want  of 
fresh  air  and  uncleanliness,  had  brought  them  to  the  verge  of  the 
grave.  Some  indeed  died  in  the  cartel  before  they  reached  the  har- 
bor, and  some  soon  after  their  arrival.  The  few  that  remained  qieager, 
pale  and  tottering,  crept  slowly  along  the  highways  begging  their 
way  to  their  homes. 

In  the  month  of  December,  1778,  by  flags  and  cartels  from  New 
York  about  500  prisoners  arrived,  released  said  the  Gazette  ^  from 
the  horrible  prison  ships."  They  were  sick  with  various  diseases — 
they  had  frozen  limbs — and  many  were  infected  with  the  small-pox. 


1  The  Lyon  took  in  a  cargo  for  Vir^ia  and  saUed  June  14th.  A  little  Bouth  of 
Long  Island  she  had  an  engagement  of  four  hours*  duration  with  a  British  frigate  and 
then  escaped.  On  her  voyage  from  Virgmia  to  France,  laden  with  tobacco,  she  wa« 
captured  by  an  English  vessel  of  forty  gims. 


628  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

Thej  died  all  along  the  way  through  the  Sound,  and  eyery  day  aAer 
their  arrival  for  three  weeks ;  sixteen  the  first  week,  seventeen  the 
next,  and  so  on.  About  200  were  Frenchmen,  and  of  these  fifteen 
died  on  the  passage  from  New  York.  These  poor  foreigners  were 
destitute  of  money  and  suitable  clothing ;  and  the  high  price  of  the 
necessaries  of  life,  the  gloom  of  the  winter  season,  and  the  loath- 
some diseases  among  them,  made  it  no  light  task  to  render  them 
comfortable.  The  small-pox  and  malignant  fevers  brought  in  by  the 
prisoners,  were  communicated  to  those  whose  benevolent  ministra- 
tions afforded  them  relief,  and  in  this  way  were  spread  through  the 
town.  The  prejudices  against  inoculation  were  so  strong  that  not- 
withstanding it  had  a  resolve  of  the  General  Assembly  and  a  previ- 
ous vote  of  the  town  in  its  favor,  it  had  never  been  allowed.  Infected 
persons  were  carried  apart,  and  shut  up  by  themselves,  with  the 
while  cloth  floating  over  them  to  betoken  pestilence. 

With  respect  to  the  American  prisoners,  historic  justice  calls  upon 
us  to  state,  that  those  who  were  exchanged  in  later  periods  of  the  war, 
gave  evidence  of  a  beneficial  change  in  the  mode  of  treatment  The 
British  had  learned  a  lesson  of  humanity.  In  August,  1779,  when 
the  crew  of  the  Oliver  Cromwell  were  released,  they  came  home  in 
good  health,  and  frankly  acknowledged  that  though  they  had  been 
confined  in  those  odious  prison  ships,  the  Jersey  and  Grood-hope,  they 
had  been  kindly  treated,  provided  with  good  food,  the  sick  attended 
by  physicians,  and  nothing  plundered  from  them. 

In  the  year  1778,  a  prison  ship  was  fitted  up  at  New  London,  by 
order  of  Congress,  for  the  reception  of  British  prisoners,  with  a  guard 
attached  to  it,  consisting  of  a  lieutenant,  sergeant,  corporal,  and  twenty 
privates.'     It  was  used  only  a  short  time. 

The  events  of  the  year  1779  seem  like  those  of  previous  years,  re- 
hearsed over  as  in  a  scenic  exhibition,  with  only  slight  changes  of 
names  and  drapery.  In  February,  a  detachment  of  continental 
troops,  under  the  command  of  CoL  Dearborn,  was  sent  to  aid  the 
militia  in  the  defense  of  New  London.  Brigadier-Greneral  Parsons 
had  the  superior  military  command  of  the  district. 

N.  Shaw,  to  tlu  Marint  Committee  of  the  Ea$tem  Department ,  March  14tJi, 

1779. 
<*  We  are  in  such  a  wretched  state  in  this  town  by  reason  of  the  smaU-poz» 
fever  and  famine,  that  I  can  not  carry  on  my  business,  and  am  laying  up  my 
vessels  as  fast  as  they  come  in,  for  every  necessary  of  life  is  at  such  an  extrav- 

1  Council  Becords,  (Hinman,)  p.  581. 


HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON.  529 

ligant  price  that  whenever  I  employ  persons  to  do  any  thing,  they  insist  upon 
provisions,  which  it  is  not  in  ray  power  to  give  them." 

On  the  23d  of  March,  several  scouting  vessels  came  in,  with  the 
startling  intelligence  that  a  fleet  of  twenty  sail  had  passed  Hurlgate, 
and  were  coming  east,  with  flat-bottomed  boats,  row-gfUleys  and 
sloops  of  war  in  train  ;  that  a  sixty-four  and  a  fifty  gun  ship  had  left 
Sandy  Hook,  to  come  south  of  Long  Island,  around  Montauk  into  the 
Sound ;  that  twenty-six  sail  of  vessels  had  previously  congregated  at 
Sagharbor,  and  that  General  Clinton  had  left  New  York,  and  was 
mustering  a  large  body  of  troops  at  Southampton.  The  same  day  a 
considerable  force  was  seen  to  go  into  Gardiner's  Bay,  and  about  sun- 
set the  frigate  Renown  appeared  off  the  mouth  of  the  river  and  an- 
chored. To  what  could  all  these  preparations  tend  but  an  attack 
upon  New  London  ? 

And  now  as  on  similar  occasions,  the  alarm-bells  were  rung,  and 
the  bale-fires  lighted.  Families  were  broken  up,  effects  removed, 
and  the  neighboring  militia  came  straggling  in  to  the  defense.  But 
no  attack  was  made.  It  was  expected  the  next  day,  and  the  next ; 
and  a  whole  week  passed  of  agitation  and  uncertainty.  It  was  then 
ascertained  that  the  transports  from  New  York  had  gone  to  New- 
port ;  that  the  fleet  under  convoy,  which  had  halted  in  Gardiner's 
Bay,  was  bound  to  New  York ;  that  a  part  of  the  other  fleet  had 
gone  on  a  plundering  expedition  to  the  Vineyard  Sound  and  Fal- 
mouth, (now  Portland,  in  Maine,)  and  that  on  the  opposite  coast  of 
Long  lif^land,  from  whence  the  invading  army  was  expected  to  em- 
bark, all  was  quiet  and  peaceful.  No  flat-bottomed  boats  were  there, 
nor  had  been.  The  only  force  collected  on  that  side  of  the  island, 
consisted  of  500  foot  and  fifty  horse  at  Southold,  and  100  men  with 
two  field-pieces  at  Sagharbor,  which  was  a  stationary  arrangement 
to  guard  and  assist  the  English  vessels  in  taking  off  wood  and  hay. 
It  is  a  little  singular  that  the  troops  at  Southampton  had  been  assem- 
bled in  consequence  of  unfounded  reports  of  a  similar  nature,  that 
had  been  flying  through  the  British  lines.  It  was  coufldently  affirmed 
in  New  York  that  General  Parsons  was  at  New  London,  with  a  body 
of  4,000  men,  making  hasty  but  secret  preparations  for  a  descent 
upon  Long  Island.  In  consequence  of  this  report,  General  Clinton 
had  hastened  from  New  York,  with  a  flying  force,  to  prepare  a  re- 
ception for  the  expected  invader.  In  this  manner,  rumor  flew  from 
side  to  side,  ima^ning  evil,  asserting  its  existence,  and  actually  caus- 

45 


530  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

ing  it  to  exist  False  report^  though  but  a  breath  of  air,  has  a  migh^ 
ageocy  in  aggravating  the  calamities  of  war. 

The  militia  on  duty  at  this  time  in  New  London,  were  employed 
in  erecting  a  fortification  of  timber,  sods,  Sec,  on  Town  Hill,  which  it 
was  supposed  would  be  of  use  in  checking  the  advance  of  an  enemy 
that  might  land  below  the  harbor,  and  march  to  attack  the  town  in 
the  rear.  Near  this  spot  the  gallows  had  stood  on  which  Kate  Gar- 
rett, the  Pequot  woman,  had  perished ;  it  had  likewise  been  noted 
for  a  large  wind-mill.  A  breastwork  was  here  thrown  up,  and  sev- 
eral fidd-pieces  mounted.  The  inhabitants  showed  their  apprecia- 
tion of  the  work,  by  the  name  which  they  bestowed  on  it,  Fort  Non- 
sense, the  only  name  it  ever  received. 

The  next  alarm  was  on  the  25th  of  June,  when  warning  guns  from 
Stonington  gave  notice  of  an  approaching  fleet.  Forts  Trumbull  and 
Griswold  took  up  the  notes,  and  echoed  them  into  the  country.  In 
the  afternoon  a  squadron  of  about  Mty  sail,  of  which  seven  were  ships, 
and  the  others  of  various  size  and  armament,  down  to  row-galleys, 
came  within  sight  of  the  town.  They  anchored  near  Plum  Island, 
for  the  night,  and  the  next  morning,  instead  of  turning  toward  the 
town,  as  ha4  been  feared,  they  made  sail  to  the  westward.  The 
militia  had  come  in,  as  was  observed, "  with  even  greater  cheerfulness 
and  alacrity"  than  on  former  occasions.  The  brigade  of  General 
Tyler  was  on  the  ground,  and  being  paraded,  was  dismissed  with  ad- 
dresses and  thanks. 

Only  ten  days  later,  (July  5th,)  a  similar  alarm  agitated  the  coast 
Expresses  from  the  westward  to  Major  Ledyard,  brought  informa- 
tion that  a  fleet  had  left  New  York,  with  preparations  for  a  descent 
on  the  coast,  and  was  on  its  way  through  the  Sound.  The  point  of 
Attack  at  this  time  proved  to  be  New  Haven,  but  New  London  was 
closely  watched.  The  frigates  Renown  and  Thames,  and  the  sloop 
of  war  Otter,  were  plying  in  the  neighborhood,  and  it  was  thought 
an  attack  would  soon  be  made.  A  large  body  of  militia  remained 
three  weeks,  encamped  near  the  town,  or  in  Groton.  Greneral  Ty- 
ler's brigade,  from  Preston  and  Norwich,  was  again  noted  for  its 
promptness  and  martial  spirit  The  counties  of  Berkshire  and  Hamp- 
shire, in  Massachusetts,  sent  their  militia  to  aid  in  thcT  defense  of  the 
coast.  No  attempt  was,  however,  made  by  the  enemy  to  land,  ex- 
cept upon  Plum  and  Fisher's  Islands,  which  the  crews  of  the  Brit- 
ish ships  plundered  of  every  thing  valuable  to  them,  and  then  wan- 
tonly set  fire  to  the  hay  and  buildings,  which  they  could  not  remove. 
The  year  1780  shows  but  little  variation  of  picture  from  the  three 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  531 

preceding  years.  The  cold  months  were  seasons  of  pinching  poyerty 
and  distress ;  sudden  outbreaks  of  alarm  and  confusion  were  thickly 
scattered  over  the  summer.  Frigates  and  other  vessels  were  contin- 
ually passing  up  and  down  the  Sound,  and  ships  of  the  line  were  now 
hovering  near  Block  Island,  now  anchoring  at  Point  Judith,  now 
mnning  into  Gktrdiner's  Bay.  On  the  29th  of  July,  the  governor 
having  received  information  that  twenty  sail  of  shipping,  with  8,000 
troops  on  board,  were  in  Huntington  Harbor,  Long  Island,  immediately 
ordered  out  a  body  of  militia  to  the  defense  of  New  London,  but  on 
the  31st,  the  much  dreaded  fleet  made  sail  for  New  York.  On  the 
5th  of  August,  a  fleet  of  fifteen  vessels,  under  the  command  of  Admi- 
ral Graves,  anchored  off  the  harbor,  and  there  lay  about  twenty-four 
hours,  before  running  into  Gardiner's  Bay.  This  fleet  had  been  on 
watch  over  the  French,  at  Newport,  and  came  into  the  Sound  to  col- 
lect stock  and  recruit  In  September,  another  British  fleet,  said  to 
be  Admiral  Arbuthnot*s,  came  into  Gardiner's  Bay,  and  there  re- 
mained through  the  months  of  October  and  November. 

It  would  be  a  laborious  but  pleasing  task  to  go  around  among  fam- 
ilies, with  a  talisman  to  gain  their  confidence,  read  private  letters, 
inspect  documents,  converse  with  the  aged,  take  notes  of  tradition, 
and  thus  gather  up  and  revive  the  fading  names  of  patriots  and  he- 
roes who  assisted  in  the  achievement  of  American  independence.  It. 
was  an  era  of  brave  and  self-denying  men,  and  even  confining  our 
attention  to  the  limited  sphere  embraced  in  this  history,  the  number 
is  not  small  of  those  who  performed  deeds  worthy  of  remembrance* 
If  only  a  few  are  here  introduced,  let  it  not  be  deemed  that  injustice 
is  thereby  shown  to  others,  who  may  be  equally  worthy,  but  less  gen- 
erally known. 

Greneral  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  and  three  of  his  sons,  were  employed 
in  various  grades  of  service,  during  the  whole  war.  The  elder  Sal- 
tonstall, before  the  close  of  1776,  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  brigadier- 
general,  and  sent  with  nine  regiments  of  CJonnecticut  militia,  to  take 
post  in  Westchester  county.  New  York.  He  was  then  sixty-eight 
^ears  of  age.  Winthrop  Saltonstall,  the  oldest  of  the  brothers,  held 
the  office  of  register  of  the  court  of  admiralty.  Dudley  was  a  cap- 
tain, and  then  commodore  in  the  navy.  Gilbert,  the  youngest,  was  a 
captain  of  marines,  on  board  the  ship  Trumbull,  in  her  desperate  com- 
bat with  the  Watt. 

Nathaniel  Saltonstall,  of  another  family,  served  in  the  war,  both  as 
seaman  and  soldier.  He  was  captain  of  the  old  fort,  on  the  Parade, 
and  commander  of  the  ship  Putnam. 


532  HISTORY    OF   NEW    LONDON. 

Major  James  Chapman,  of  Selden's  regiment,  Wadsworth's  brigade^ 
was  a  man  of  strength  and  stature  beyond  the  common  standard,  and 
as  a  soldier  steady  and  brave.  But  what  avail  these  qualities  against 
the  aim  of  the  marksman,  or  the  force  of  a  cannon  ball !  He  was 
slain  in  what  was  called  the  orchard  fight^  near  Harlem,  when  the 
army  was  retreating  from  New  York,  September  15th,  1776.  His 
son  James,  a  youth  of  only  fifteen  years  of  age,  was  with  him  when 
he  fell  His  brother,  Lieut.  Richard  Chapman,  was  slain  in  Groton 
fort.  John  Chapman,  a  third  brother,  was  first  lieutenant  of  the  ship 
Oliver  Cromwell,  and  after  that  was  taken,  of  the  Putnam.  Joseph 
Chapman,  a  still  younger  brother,  was  an  officer  of  the  army. 

CoL  Jonathan  Latimer,  (of  Chesterfield  society,)  had  served  in 
several  campaigns  against  the  French  upon  the  northern  frontier, 
and  during  the  war  for  independence,  was  much  of  the  time  in  the 
field.'  Two  of  his  sons,  Greorge  and  Jonathan,  were  also  in  the  ser- 
vice.' Major  Christopher  Darrow  (of  the  North  Parish)  fought 
bravely  at  Monmouth,  and  on  other  battle-fields  during  the  war. 
The  Gallops,  of  Groton,  Ben-Adam  and  Nathan,  were  engaged  in 
some  of  the  earliest  struggles,  and  both  field-officers  in- 1777. 

William  and  Alexander  P.  Adams,  grandsons  of  the  former  minis- 
ter Adams,  Richard  Douglas,  Thomas  U.  Fosdick,  Edward  and 
George  Hallam,  Stephen  Hempstead,  George  Hurlbut,  John  and 
William  Raymond,  William  Richards — these  were  all  young  men, 
starting  forth  impulsively  at  the  commencement  of  the  struggle,  with 
high  heroic  purpose  to  serve  their  country,  ana  if  the  sacrifice  should 
be  demanded,  to  sufier  and  die  in  the  cause  of  liberty.  William 
Adams  served  in  the  army  during  the  siege  of  Boston,  but  afterward 
enlisting  in  a  private  armed  vessel,  he  died  at  Martinique,  April  4th, 
1778.  His  brother,  purser  of  the  ship  Trumbull,  was  cut  off  at  sea, 
before  the  close  of  the  war.  Douglas,  Fosdick,  Hempstead,  Rich- 
ards, were  in  the  service  from  1776  to  the  disbanding  of  the  army. 
The  last  named,  Capt.  William  Richards,  was  stationed  in  1780,  at 
Fairfield,  and  while  there  was  engaged  in  the  expedition  against  Fort 
Slongo,  on  the  opposite  shore  of  Long  Island.  They  crossed  by* 
night  with  muffled  oars,  took  the  works  by  surprise,  and  demolished 
them.  Major  Tallmage  was  the  commander  of  the  party.  Captain 
Richards  led  the  attack  upon  the  battery.     Edward  HaUam,  after  a 

1  CoL  I^atiiDer  was  the  father  often  sons;  himself  and  six  of  them,  measnred  forty- 
two  feet.  An  ancient  Mumford  family,  of  Groton,  approached  the  same  mark,  having 
six  members  of  the  average  height  of  six  feet ;  according  to  familiar  report, "  thirty-six 
feet  of  Momford  in  one  family." 


HiSf  ORT   OP   NEW   LONDON.  533 

tour  of  duty  at  Boston,  and  another  at  New  York,  was  appointed 
commissary  of  troops  at  New  London.  William  Raymond,  taken 
prisoner  in  an  early  part  of  the  contest,  was  carried  to  Halifax,  and 
died,  while  immured  in  Mill-island  prison. 

George  Hurlbut  and  Robert  Hallam,  with  a  multitude  of  others, 
shouldered  musket  and  knapsack,  and  started  for  Boston,  immediately 
a^r  inteUigence  was  received  of  the  skirmish  at  Lexington.  They 
Bubsequently  joined  Capt.  Coit's  company,  and  fought  at  Bunker 
Hill,  one  nineteen  years  of  age,  and  the  other  twenty-one.  Hallam's 
commission  from  Congress,  giving  him  the  rank  of  captain  in  Colonel 
Durkee's  regiment,  was  dated  July  3d,  1777,  the  very  month  that  he 
Was  twenty  years  of  age.  He  fought  at  Trenton,  Princeton,  Ger- 
mantown  and  Monmouth,  but  withdrew  from  the  army  at  the  close  of 
the  campaign  of  1779. 

Captain  Hurlbut  remained  in  the  sei'vice  till  disabled  by  a  mortal 
wound,  at  Tarrytown,  in  the  summer  of  1781.  For  the  exploit  that 
cost  him,  in  the  end,  his  life,  he  received  the  thanks  of  Washington, 
in  the  public  orders  of  the  army.     It  merits  a  particular  relation. 

A  vessel  in  the  river  containing  a  considerable  quantity  of  stores 
for  the  American  army,  had  been  set  on  fire  by  the  guns  of  the  enemy. 
Capt  Hurlbut  being  an  excellent  swimmer,  volunteered  his  service, 
swam  to  the  vessel,  and  amidst  a  severe  fire  from  the  British  ships, 
extinguished  the  fiames,  cut  the  cable,  that  the  wind  might  drift  her 
to  the  side  where  the  Americans  were  encamped,  and  then  took  to 
the  water  again.  Before  reaching  the  shore,  being  much  fatigued, 
he  threw  himself  on  his  back,  as  swimmers  often  do  for  repose,  and 
just  then  was  struck  in  the  groin  by  a  grape  shot.  The  ball  was 
successfully  extracted,  and  after  a  long  confinement,  he  so  far  recov- 
ered as  to  appear  abroad.  He  belonged  to  the  second  regiment  of 
light  dragoons,  and  the  first  time  that  he  was  able  to  resume  his  post, 
the  troops  honored  him  with  a  salute.  Unfortunately  his  horse  be- 
came restive,  reared  and  threw  him.  The  old  wound  was  broken  up^ 
he  languished  many  months  in  severe  pain,  and  at  last  was  brought 
home  to  die.  The  commander-in-chief  himself  gave  orders  that  every 
requisite  care  and  attention  should  be  used  in  his  removal.  His 
friend,  Mr.  Colfax,  and  the  surgeon.  Dr.  Eustis,  (afterward  governor 
of  Massachusetts,)  accompanied  him  to  New  London,  where  he  ex- 
pired 8th  of  May,  1783.' 

1  Many  of  these  particulars  are  taken  from  a  certificate  given  in  December,  1788,  by 
General  Washington,  to  Mrs.  Welsh,  a  widowed  sister  of  Capt  Hurlbut 

45* 


534  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

In  this  connection  another  armj  incident  may  be  mentioned,  which, 
though  in  result  a  failure,  illustrates  the  daring  spirit  of  adventure 
for  which  the  New  London  men  of  that  daj,  whether  sailors  or  sol- 
diers, were  remarkable. 

On  the  16th  of  August,  1776,  Commodore  Tupper,  lying  at  New 
Tork,  sent  two  fire-vessels,  a  sloop  and  a  schooner,  up  the  river  to 
make  an  attempt  to  bum  the  British  frigate,  Phenix,  in  the  night 
Of  the  eighteen  men  detached  on  this  expedition,  a  large  proportion 
were  fnun  New  London.  Stephen  Hempstead  and  Thomas  Updike 
Fosdick  were  two  of  the  number.  Fosdick,  who  was  then  an  ensign 
in  the  company  of  Captain  Nathan  Hale,  had  command  of  the  sloop. 
Owing  to  accidental  circumstances,  the  enterprise  failed  ;  but  it  was 
well  conceived,  and  as  far  as  it  went,  executed  with  boldness  and 
skill. 


chapte;^  XXXI. 

Letters  of  marque  and  reprisal. — Capt.  Elisha  Hinman.-^Otber  sea-captains.— 
The  Schooner  Spy. — Brig   Defence. — Ship   Oliver  Cromwell. — Brig  Resisl- 

*  ance. — Private  ship  Trumbull. — Ship  Confederacy. — Privateering. — Private 
ship  Deane. — Winter  of  1779-80. — Ship  Putnam. — Continental  Ship  Trum- 
bull. 

While  humanity,  reason  and  religion,  concur  in  deprecating  the 
whole  practice  of'  war,  and  look  forward  with  ardent  aspiration  to 
the  time  when  other  modes  of  accommodating  the  difficulties  of  na- 
tions shall  prevail,  we  must  not  withhold  from  the  brave  soldier  and 
adventurous  seaman,  that  species  of  fame  and  merit,  which  is  their 
due.  If  we  would  write  history  faithfully,  we  must  go  back  to  the 
era,  and  live  and  breathe  in  the  scenes  described.  "We  must  not  look 
at  the  war  of  the  Revolution  by  that  light  which  has  but  just  began  to 
dawn  on  the  Christian  world  in  regard  to  the  folly  and  iniquity  of 
war.  Men  fought  under  an  exalted  impulse  for  their  homes  and 
firesides,  their  Hberties  and  their  altars.  It  was  the  way  in  which 
the  age  manifested  its  devotion  to  truth,  freedom,  law  and  religion. 
Yet  blessed  will  be  the  period  when  these  sacred  principles  shall  find 
a  holier  expression. 

It  has  been  customary  to  make  a  distinction  between  the  regular 
navy  of  the  country  and  those  private  armed  vessels,  called  letters  of 
marque,  or  privateers,  as  if  the  former  were  an  honorable  service, 
and  the  latter  but  little  removed  from  piracy.  The  distinction  is 
xmjust ;  one  was  as  fair  and  lawful  as  the  other.  Both  were  sanc- 
tioned by  the  custom  of  nations ;  the  object  of  each  was  the[0ame. 
The  continental  vessels  no  less  than  the  privateers  seized  up<Mi 
peaceful  merchantmen ;  and  as  much'  historical  credit  should  be 
awarded  to  the  brave  privateersman,  as  to  the  commissioned  officer. 

It  is  a  fact  also,  that  has  not  been  sufficiently  noticed  in  respect  to 


536  HISTORY    OF   NEW    LONDON. 

the  seamen  of  the  Revolution,  that,  often  with  undaunted  spirit  they 
went  into  battle  against  fearful  odds,  and  in  these  unequal  combats 
were  not  unfrequently  successful — such  power  has  Providence  given 
to  those  who  manfully  contend  for  the  righU 

The  British  after  gaining  possession  of  New  York,  fitted  out  a 
host  of  privateers  from  that  port  and  from  Long  Island,  that  infested 
the  Sound  and  the  whole  New  England  coast,  and  in  the  course  of  a 
few  months  nearly  every  packet,  coaster  and  fishing  smack  belonging 
to  New  London  was  captured  or  destroyed.  The  inhabitants  were 
driven  in  self-defense  to  build  privateers  and  to  arm  as  cruisers  what- 
ever craft  they  had  left,  or  could  seize  in  their  turn  from  the  enemy, 
and  set  them  afloat  to  defend  their  property. 

Aggression,  leading  to  retaliation,  and  swaying  back  and  forth  over 
an  increasing  space  with  accelerated  fury  is  the  diagram  of  war. 

A  place,  whose  great  and  almost  sole  advantage  consists  in  com- 
mercial aptitude,  is  necessarily  dependant  upon  peace  for  prosperity. 
From  the  beginning  to  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  contest  a  cloud 
of  depressing  gloom  hung  over  New  London.  Her  mariners  and 
artisans  were  deprived  of  employment ;  her  shopmen  and  merchants 
were  impoverished  or  bankrupt ;  religion,  education  and  morals  were 
at  a  low  ebb,  and  the  shadows  grew  deeper  from  year  to  year. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  two  places  in  New  England,  ex- 
hibited a  greater  contrast  in  these  respects,  than  those  near  neigh- 
bors, but  by  no  means  intimate  friends,  Norwich  and  New  London. 
Norwich  suffered  in  her  commerce  as  well  as  New  London ;  but  she 
was  not  kept  in  continual  jeopardy :  extraordinary  inroads  excepted, 
she  was  safe  from  invasion.  Her  growth  was  scarcely  checked  by 
the  war,  and  setting  aside  the  suffering  from  scarcity  in  the  first  years 
of  the  conflict,  and  the  family  privations  resulting  from  the  drain  on 
the  male  population  for  the  army,  her  prosperity  was  but  little  dimin- 
ished. It  was  a  place  of  refuge  for  many  families  from  Boston, 
Newport  and  other  exposed  situations  on  the  coast,  and  this  influx 
of  residents,  kept  her  currency  easy.  With  a  wise  foresight  and  a 
prompt  enterprise,  favored  by  her  situation  and  natural  advantages, 
she  early  turned  her  attention  to  manufactures.  These  came  in  to 
fill  the  vacuum  occasioned  by  her  lost  commerce. 

New  London  had  no  such  wholesome  resource.  The  privateering 
business  very  naturally  stepped  in,  and  as  far  as  bustle  and  excite- 
ment went,  filled  the  void ;  but  as  a  path  to  gain,  it  was  fraught  with 
hazard  and  uncertainty.  Neither  merchants  nor  adventurers  acquir- 
ed wealth  by  privateering.      Even  jthe  most  fortunate  commanders 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON*  537 

barely  obtained  a  competent  livelihood,  for  the  time  being,  for  their 
families.  The  history  of  the  most  successful  is  comprehended  in  two 
or  three  profitable  voyages,  a  few  brilliant  exploits,  and  then  capture 
and  imprisonment. 

The  alternations  in  this  warfare  succeeded  each  other  like  cloud 
and  sunshine  in  an  April  day.  The  excitement  of  hazardous  under- 
takings, and  the  sudden  changes  continually  taking  place,  gave  to  life 
a  romantic  and  vivid  interest.  Often  when  the  Sound  was  apparent- 
ly pervaded  by  British  vessels,  a  letter-of-marque  would  seize  a  fa- 
vorable opportunity,  push  out  of  port,  and  return  with  a  prize.  As 
connected  with  New  London,  sea  skirmishes  and  naval  disasters 
were  prominent  features  of  the  war.  A  band  of  sea-captains,  prompt, 
valiant,  experienced  and  danger-loving,  had  their  rendezvous  in  this 
port.  Some  were  natives  of  the  town  ;  others  belonged  in  Groton, 
Norwich,  Middle  town  and  Say  brook. 

Capt.  Elisha  Hinman  was  the  youngest  of  three  brothers  who 
came  from  Woodbury,  Conn.,  before  or  about  1760,  and  established 
themselves  in  New  London.  He  was  a  veteran  of  the  sea,  before 
the  commencement  of  the  Revolution,  and  took  an  early  part  in  the 
contest  He  commanded  the  Cabot ,  a  continental  brig  in  the  squad- 
ron of  Commodore  Hopkins,  and  afterward  succeeded  Paul  Jones  in 
the  ship  Alfred,  which  he  was  unfortunately  obliged  to  surrender  to 
the  Ariadne  and  Ceres,  on  a  return  voyage  frqm  France,  March  9th, 

1778.  Being  cairied  a  prisoner  to  England,  after  a  short  confine- 
ment he  found  friends  who  aided  his  escape  to  France,  from  whence 
he  returned  home,  and  engaged  for  a  time  in  private  adventures.     In 

1779,  he  went  out  in  the  privateer  sloop  Hancock,  owned  by  Thomas 
Mumford,  and  had  a  run  of  brilliant,  dashing  success.  In  1780,  he 
took  command  of  the  armed  ship  Deane. 

y^  Peter  Richards,  Charles  Bulkley,  and  John  Welsh,  the  lieuten- 
ants of  Capt.  Hinman  in  the  Alfred,  were  confined  in  England  for 
several  months  in  Fortune  Prison,  near  Portsmouth,  from  whence 
they  escaped  by  digging  under  the  outward  wall,  and  reaching  the 
coast  of  France  in  safety,  returned  home  in  the  spring  of  1779. 
These  all  went  out  subsequently  in  private  armed  vessels. 

William  Havens,  NicoU  Fosdick,  Samuel  and  Lodowick  Champlin, 
William  Leeds,  Daniel  Deshon,  Nathaniel  Saltonstall — seamen  more 
brave  and  skillful  than  these  to  harass  an  enemy  or  defend  a  coast,  can 
not  be  found  at  any  period  of  our  country's  history.  The  merchant 
service  was  not  wholly  abandoned  during  the  war.  Several  of  the 
commanders  that  have  been  named^  and  others,  made  occasional  voy- 


538  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

ages  to  Freneb  ports,  thougli  in  general  with  some  armature.  Capt 
William  Rogers  made  a  safe  vojage  to  France  and  back  again  in 
1779.  Several  cases  occurred  in  wbicb  vessels  tbat  sailed  before 
the  war,  unarmed,  were  long  detained  in  foreign  ports,  and  even  laid 
up  till  the  return  of  peace.  Capt,  John  Lamb,  "sent  by  Nathaniel 
Shaw,  in  the  ship  America  to  Gibraltar,  in  1774,  was  absent  three 
years,  the  owner  in  the  mean  time  receiving  no  remittances.'  Capt 
James  Rogers,  arrested  by  the  war  in  a  foreign  port,  suffered  a  deten- 
tion of  six  years,  but  arrived  in  safety  with  his  vessel,  in  September, 
1781. 

New  London  Harbor  was  the  recruiting  ground  of  the  state  schoon- 
er Spy^  Capt.  Robert  Niles — a  fortunate  vessel  with  a  skillful  com- 
mander, which  performed  good  service  during  the  whole  war,  and 
closed  her  accounts  in  neat  and  beautiful  style,  by  carrying  safely  to 
France  the  first  copy  of  the  ratified  treaty  of  peace.  This  vessel  was 
of  fi^y  tuns  burden,  carried  six  guns,  (four-pounders,)  and  from 
twenty  to  thirty  men.  Her  cruises  were  short,  but  she  was  contin- 
ually upon  the  look-out ;  ever  ready,  ever  serviceable ;  alert  in  dis- 
covering smugglers,  intercepting  unlawful  communications,  taking, 
prizes,  and  giving  notice  of  the  movements  of  the  enemy.  She  sailed 
from  Stonington  with  a  copy  of  the  ratified  tre..ty,  and  arrived  at 
Brest  in  twenty-one  days,  having  passed  undiscovered  through  a 
British  fleet  that  lay  off  that  port ;  owing  her  safety,  probably,  to  her 
diminutive  size,  which  prevented  her  character  from  being  suspected. 

The  brig  Defence^  fourteen  guns,  built  by  the  state  in  1775,  at  the 
ship-yard  of  Capt.  Uriah  Hayden,  in  Connecticut  River,  was  brought 
round  to  New  London  to  be  equipped,  and  to  enlist  her  crew  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  men.  She  sailed  on  her  first  cruise  in  May, 
1776,  under  Capt,  Seth  Harding,  and  in  the  course  of  it  took  two 
transport  ships  and  a  brig,  all  bringing  Highland  recruits  to  the  Brit- 
ish army.  The  Defence  enjoyed  a  couple  of  years  of  prosperity, 
often  dropping  into  New  London  Harbor  to  recruit.  Three  of  her 
lieutenants,  Leeds,  Angel  and  Billings,  had  been  sea-captains,  sailing 
from  the  Thames.  In  1778,  this  vessel  was  altered  into  a  ship  at 
Boston,  and  the  command  given  to  Capt.  Samuel  Smedley ;  but  her 
career  was  closed  March  10th,  1779,  on  Goshen  Reef,  within  sight 
of  New  London.     She  struck,  bilged,  overset  and  went  to  pieces,  as 


1  Lamb  arrived  at  Boston,  flpom  Martinico,  in  Doc.,  1777,  in  a  brig  called  the  Irish 
Gimblet.  Among  his  lading  were  seventeen  brass  cannon,  with  other  warlike  stores, 
for  Congress,  shipped  by  William  Bingham,  of  St.  Peters,  Martinico. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  539 

she  was  about  to  enter  the  harbor  from  a  successful  cruise.  Several 
of  her  crew  perished  in  the  hold. 

Another  state  brig,  called  the  Old  Defence^  under  the  command  of 
Caft.  Daniel  Deshon,  was  taken  in  January,  1778,  by  the  enemy, 
and  carried  into  Jamaica. 

The  Oliver  Cromwell^  a  twenty  gun  ship,  built  at  Saybrook  in 
1776  by  the  state,  was  also  fitted  out  from  New  London.  Her  first 
conunander  was  Capt.  William  Ck>it,  and  she  was  expected  to  sail  in 
October,  but  difficulties  existed  among  her  people,  and  the  British 
kept  a  constant  watch  over  the  harbor,  so  that  she  was  detained 
through  the  winter*  The  next  spring,  Capt.  Harding  was  transfer- 
red to  her  from  the  Defence,  and  she  succeeded  in  getting  out  in 
May,  1777.'  In  June,  she  took  a  merchant  brig,  called  the  Med- 
way,  and  in  July  the  brigantine  Honor,  which  sold,  with  her  cargo, 
for  £10,692.  In  September,  she  captured  the  Weymouth  Packet,  a 
brig  of  fifteen  guns,  which  was  fitted  up  for  a  cruiser,  and  called  the 
Hancock,  The  Cromwell,  after  two  and  a  half  yeai*s  of  faithful  re- 
publican service,  was  destined  to  pass  into  the  ranks  of  royalty.  She 
sailed  from  New  London  in  May,  1779,  in  command  of  Capt.  Timc^ 
thy  Parker  of  Norwich,  a  seaman  of  tried  gallantry  and  experience, 
She  was  absent  twelve  days — sent  in  four  prizes,  two  of  them  armed 
vessels,  and  touched  in  herself  to  land  her  prisoners.  She  sailed 
again  the  first  of  June,  and  on  the  fifth,  off  Sandy  Hook,  had  a  sharp 
engagement  with  the  British  frigate  Daphne.  Her  mainmast  being 
shot  away,  three  men  killed,  and  another  ship  coming  up  to  the  aid 
of  the  Daphne,  Capt,  Parker  surrendered  his  ship.  She  was  soon 
cruising  again  under  the  royal  ensign,  and  bearing  the  new  name  of 
Restoration.^ 

The  Continental  armed  brig  Besistance,  ten  guns,  (fours,)  Capt. 
Samuel  Chew,  was  fitted  out  at  New  London  at  the  jsuggestion,  and 
under  the  orders  of  Nathaniel  Shaw.^     The  officers  were  mostly  New 

1  In  March,  1777,  on  the  day  of  the  marriage  of  Gapt  Elisha  Hinraan,  the  officers 
of  the  Oliver  Cromwell  ordered  a  complimentary  salute  to  be  fired  ftx)m  the  ship. 
Some  mischief-lover  among  the  crew,  charged  the  cannon  with  a  hand  grenade,  which 
"  whistled  through  the  town  the  like  was  never  known.'*  The  terrified  inhabitants 
caused  the  offender  to  be  arrested  and  put  in  irons. 

2  From  a  New  York  (royalist)  paper  of  Jnly  24th,  1779.  "  The  frigate  Restoration 
(formerly  the  Oliver  Cromwell)  is  now  fitting  for  sea,  and  will  be  ready  in  six  days  to 
join  the  associated  refugee  fieet,  lying  in  Huntington  Harbor,  and  intending  soon  to 
pay  a  "xisit  to  the  rebel  coast'* 

8  "  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  hear  of  Capt  CJhew's  success,  as  the  fittmg  him  out  was 
a  phm  of  my  own."    Letter  to  the  marine  committee  of  Congress,  Feb.  2d,  1778.  (MS. ) 


640  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

London  meti.  On  the  fourth  of  March,  1778,  in  a  desperate  conflict 
in  the  West  India  seas,  with  a  letter-of-marque,  carrying  twenty 
guns,  Capt.  Chew  and  Lieut.  George  Champlin,  of  New  London, 
were  killed.*  The  two  vessels  parted,  and  the  brig  was  carried  into 
Boston  by  Lieut.  Leeds.  She  was  taken  by  the  British  in  Novem- 
ber, and  burnt. 

The  Governor  TVumbull,  a  privateer  ship  of  twenty  guns,  built  in 
Norwich  by  Howland  and  Coit,  was  considered  a  very  fine  vesseL 
She  went  to  sea,  on  her  first  cruise,  in  March,  1778,  Capt.  Henry 
Billings  commander,  and  left  the  harbor  for  the  last  time  in  Decem- 
ber of  the  same  year.  In  March,  1779,  while  cruising  in  the  "West 
Indies,  she  was  captured  by  the  Venus  frigate,  which  had  formerly 
belonged  to  Massachusetts,  and  was  originally  called  the  Bunker 
Hill. 

Early  in  1779,  three  privateers  lying  in  New  London  Harbor,  de- 
termined to  attempt  the  capture  of  the  brig  Ranger^  a  refugee  priva- 
teer of  twelve  guns,  that  infested  the  Sound,  and  had  taken  many 
prizes,  and  plundered  the  coast  in  some  instances.  The  brig  Middle- 
town,  and  sloops  Beaver  and  Eagle,  under  Captains  Sage,  Havens 
and  Conkling,  fell  upon  her  as  she  lay  by  the  wharf  at  Sagharbor, 
cut  her  out  and  came  back  with  her  in  triumph.  This  was  on  the 
thiity-first  of  January.  The  next  day,  the  same  associated  trio  made 
a  bold  but  unsuccessful  attack  on  seven  vessels  which  had  put  into 
Sagharbor.  In  this  afihir,  the  Middletown  grounded  and  was  aban- 
doned to  the  enemy. 

May  27th,  1779,  Capt,  Richard  McCarty,  of  New  London,  in  a 
sloop  bound  for  the  West  Indies,  was  wrecked  in  a  snow-storm,  on 
Plum  Island,  and  himself  and  crew,  six  persons,  all  lost. 

The  Confederacy^  a  continental  ship  of  thirty-two  guns,  built  in  the 
Thames,  near  Norwich,  and  equipped  at  New  London,  sailed  on  her 
first  cruise.  May  Ist,  1779,  under  Capt.  Seth  Harding.  This  ship 
was  popularly  said  to  have  been  built  of  tory  timber.  Most  of  the 
wood  for  her  hull  was  cut  in  Salem,  Conn.,  on  the  confiscated  estate 
of  Mr.  Brown,  a  royalist ;  and  the  trunnels  of  the  ship  were  from 
locust  trees  that  grew  on  land  near  the  harbor's  mouth,  New  Lon- 
don, which  had  belonged  to  Capt.  Oliver,  a  former  officer  of  the  king's 

1  Capt.  Chew  was  a  brave  and  skillful  officer,  an  emigrant  from  Virginia  to  New 
London,  and  brother  of  Joseph  Chew,  heretofore  mentioned.  The  two  brothers,  like 
many  others  in  that  day  of  divisions,  took  opposite  sides  in  the  contest.  Joseph  Chew 
had  been  obliged  to  leave  the  place  on  account  of  his  adherence  to  the  royal  cause. 


HI4STORT    OF    NEW    LONDON.  641 

customs.  To  make  up  the  complement  of  men  for  her  crew,  it  was 
necessary  to  have  recourse  to  the  odious  practice  of  impressment.^ 
Able-bodied  men  were  becoming  scarce  upon  the  coast,  through  the 
constant  drain  for  army  and  navy.  The  call  for  '*  gentlemen  volun- 
teers," which  was  the  customary  soothing  address  of  the  recruiting 
officer,  had  been  so  frequently  reiterated,  that  it  had  ceased  to  be 
answered  with  alacrity.^ 

The  privateering  business  was  at  no  time  so  active,  so  daring  in 
exploit,  and  brilliant  in  success,  as  in  1779.  Both  parties,  the  pat- 
riots and  the  refugees,  pursued  it  with  eager  rivalry.  Between  the 
1st  of  March  and  13th  of  June,  nine  New  York  or  tory  privateers, 
were  captured  and  brought  into  New  London.  One  of  them,  the 
Lady  Erskine,  a  brig  of  ten  guns,  was  taken  within  sight  of  the  har- 
,bor,  by  the  sloops  Hancock  and  Beaver,  Captains  Hinman  and  Ha- 
vens, who  cut  her  off  from  a  fleet  of  twenty-one  sail,  which  was  pass- 
ing toward  Rhode  Island,  under  convoy  of  the  Thames  frigate  of 
thirty-six  guns. 

A  vivid  illustration  of  the  life  and  bustle  which  this  fitful  business 
created  at  intervals  in  the  town,  is  furnished  by  Green's  GazettCy  of 
June  8d.  In  that  paper  were  advertised  for  sale  at  auction  on  the 
8th  instant,  the  following  prizes :  brig  Bellona,  one  hundred  and 
sixty  tuns,  sixteen  guns  ;  schooner  Mulberry,  seventy  tuns  ;  sloop 
Hunter,  ninety ;  sloop  Charlotte,  sixty ;  sloop  Lady  Erskine,  sixty, 
ten  guns — ^all  prizes  to  the  Beaver  and  Hancock  :  schooner  Sally, 
fifty  tuns,  ten  guns :  sloop  Despatch,  fifty,  eight  swivels ;  schooner 
Polly,  forty — prizes  to  the  American  Revenue :  also,  three  other  prize 
sloops,  with  all  their  cargoes  and  tackle. 

In  the  court  of  admiralty,  held  at  New  London  a  week  later  than 
the  above,  (June  10th,)  eighteen  prizes  were  libeled,  all  taken  in  the 
month  of  May. 

The  refugee  adventurers  from  New  York  and  Long  Island,  if  less 
enterprising,  were  far  superior  to  the  Americans  in  number  and  re- 


1  "  Monday  ni^^ht  last,  about  fifty  seamen  and  landsmen  were  pressed  by  a  gang 
from  the  ship  Confederacy,  now  lying  in  the  harbor,  and  carried  on  board — a  part  of 
them  have  been  since  released."    Green's  Gazette^  of  April  29th. 

2  The  last  advertisement  of  the  Oliver  OromweU,  will  serve  as  a  specimen  of  this 
alluring  style: 

^  The  ship  Oliver  Cromwell,  Timothy  Parker,  commander,  ready  for  a  cmise 
against  the  enemies  of  the  United  Independent  States.  All  gentlemen  volonteers  that 
have  a  mind  to  make  their  fortunes,  are  desired  to  repair  immediately  on  board  said 
chip  in  the  port  of  New  London,  where  they  will  meet  good  encouragement** 

46 


642 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 


sources.  If  unsuccessful  in  one  undertaking,  they  had  means  to  urge 
forward  another.  Capt  Samuel  Rogers,  the  most  noted  privateers- 
man  on  that  side  of  the  Sound,  was  three  times  captured,  brought  to 
New  London,  and  confined  in  jail,  between  March  and  October,  1779. 
It  was  said  that  during  this  summer,  forty  refugee  priyateers  had 
their  rendezvous  in  Huntington  Bay.  In  the  end,  they  swept  the 
Sound  as  with  a  besom,  of  every  thing  American  ;  at  the  close  of  the 
year  scarcely  a  sail  was  left  on  the  Connecticut  coast  Everything 
in  this  line  was  to  begin  anew  at  the  keel. 

The  fate  of  Capt.  Edward  Conkling  was  peculiarly  heart-rending. 
Cruising  off  Point  Judith,  in  the  sloop  Eagle,  he  captured  and  man- 
ned six  prizes  in  succession,  which  left  the  number  of  his  crew  less 
than  that  of  the  prisoners  on  board.  The  latter,  seizing  a  favorable 
opportunity,  rose  upon  their  captors,  and  obtaining  command  of  the 
vessel,  exhibited  the  most  savage  ferocity.  The  brave  captain  and 
several  of  his  men  were  cut  down  after  they  had  surrendered,  and 
their  bodies  brutally  mangled.  Only  two  boys  were  spared.  This 
was  on  the  9th  of  May.  The  Eagle,  before  the  close  of  the  month, 
while  preparing  for  a  cruise  against  her  former  flag,  was  destroyed 
by  an  accidental  explosion  in  the  harbor  of  New  York.  "  Several 
persons  on  board  at  the  time,"  says  the  newspaper  notice  of  the  event, 
'<  lost  their  lives,  and  among  them  the  infamous  Murphy,  who  mur- 
dered Capt.  Conkling." 

In  October,  1779,  three  large  French  ships,  the  Jonatas,  Comte 
d'Artois,  and  Negresse,  came  into  the  harbor,  under  jury-masts,  with 
valuable  cargoes  of  West  India  produce.  They  had  sailed  with  the 
usual  autumnal  fleet  of  merchantmen  from  Cape  Franqois,  for  Eu- 
rope, but  on  the  15th  of  September,  were  dismasted  in  a  violent  hur- 
ricane, and  so  much  damaged  that  they  bore  away  for  the  American 
coast.  By  singular  good  fortune,  they  escaped  the  British  cruisers, 
but  were  obliged  to  sell  their  damaged  cargoes  at  a  low  rate,  and  to 
winter  at  New  London.  In  the  Negresse,  which  sailed  for  France 
early  in  May,  went  passenger  Col.  John  Trumbull,  the  son  of  the 
governor,  and  since  well  known  as  an  historical  painter.  The  Jona- 
tas was  purchased  of  the  French  owners,  and  fitted  out  by  individual 
enterprise  as  a  private  cruiser.  She  carried  twenty-nine  guns — 
twenty-four  nines  and  five  fours — and  sailed  on  a  cruise  June  1st, 
1780,  under  the  command  of  Capt.  Hinman.^ 

1  She  was  called  the  Dtant^  but  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  continental  fA^ 
ate  Deane,  which  had  previously  taken  the  name  of  the  Hague,  Cooper's  Naval  Hist, 
ToL  2,  p.  100. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  543 

The  extreme  severity  of  the  winter  of  1779-80,  is  well  known. 
On  the  2d  of  January,  a  violent  storm  commenced ;  the  tide  and 
wind  together  raised  the  waves,  till  they  dashed  over  Beach  or 
Water  Street  like  a  flood,  filling  the  lower  stories  of  the  houses,  and 
damaging  the  shipping  and  goods.  To  this  succeeded  about  five 
weeks  of  extreme  cold.  The  Thames  was  closed  up  as  far  down  as 
the  light-house-^a  sight  which  the  oldest  natives  do  not  see  more 
than  twice,  and  seldom  but  once  in  their  lives.  A  storm  on  the  7th 
of  February  opened  the  harbor  at  the  mouth,  but  opposite  the  town 
it  remained  shut  till  the  second  week  in  March.  The  day  previous, 
a  barbecue  had  been  served  upon  the  Isle  of  Rocks,  midway  between 
New  London  and  Groton ;  but  at  night  a  furious  south-east  storm 
broke  up  the  ice,  and  the  next  morning  a  dashing  current  was  run- 
sing  where  sleighs  had  crossed  and  people  had  feasted,  the  day 
before.' 

The  Putnam  was  built  on  Winthrop's  Neck,  by  Nathaniel  Shaw, 
in  1778.  Her  armament  consisted  of  twenty  nines;  Capt.  John 
Harman  was  her  first  commander.  In  the  spring  of  1779,  she  was 
fitted  for  a  six  months'  cruise  under  Capt.  Nathaniel  SaltonstalL 
After  being  out  three  months,  and  sending  in  six  prizes,  she  went  into 
Boston  Harbor,  and  was  there  impressed  into  the  continental  service, 
with  her  crew  and  equipments,  and  sent  with  the  fleet  under  Com- 
modore Dudley  Saltonstall,  of  the  ship  Warren,  against  the  British 
post  at  Penobscot.  The  issue  of  that  expedition  was  extremely  dis- 
astrous. The  Putnam  was  one  of  the  vessels  driven  ashore  and 
burnt  to  prevent  them  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The 
officers  and  crew  fled  to  the  woods  and  escaped  capture. 

The  frigate  Trumhull,  twenty-eight  guns,  built  by  order  of  Con- 
gress at. Chatham,  in  Connecticut  River,  during  the  winter  of  1779- 
80,  was  brought  into  the  Thames  to  be  equipped  and  to  enlist  her 
crew.  Capt.  James  Nicholson  was  her  commander.  On  the  2d  of 
June,  1780,  she  had  an  action  with  the  letter-of-marque  Watt^  thirty- 
four  guns  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  which  is  judged,  all  things 
considered,  to  have  been  the  best  contested,  the  most  equally  matched, 


1  Thomas  Momford,  of  Groton,  was  then  recently  married,  and  the  night  before  the 
thaw  gave  an  entertainment,  which  many  gaests  from  New  London  attended,  cross- 
hig  the  river  in  sleighs.  The  banquet  and  dance  continuing  late,  and  the  storm  com- 
ing on  suddenly  and  fhriously,  the  party  were  not  able  to  return  as  they  went;  and 
the  next  morning  the  swollen  river,  fall  of  floating  ice,  rendered  crossing  in  any  way 
a  hazardous  attempt  Some  of  the  guests  were  detained  two  or  three  days  on  that 
tide  of  the  river. 


544  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

equally  well  fought,  and  equally  destructive  battle  during  the  war. 
In  this  engagement,  several  from  New  London  and  its  vicinity  were 
among  the  killed  and  wounded.  Daniel  Starr,  second  lieutenant, 
Jabez  Smith,  (of  Groton,)  lieutenant  of  marines,  died  of  their  wounds. 
Gideon  Chapman  went  overboard  on  the  maintop  and  was  drowned. 
Gilbert  Saltonstall,  captain  of  marines,  Pygan  Adams,  purser,  David 
Pool  and  Samuel  Heam,  boatswains,  were  wounded.  Three  of  the 
midshipmen  were  of  New  London— one  of  these,  Capt  Richard  Law, 
who  died  Dec.  19th,  1845,  was  the  last  survivor  of  the  crew. 

In  concluding  this  account  of  naval  affairs,  it  may  be  observed  in 
general  terms,  that  during  the  whole  war,  New  London  was  as  a  den 
of  serpents  to  the  British — constantly  sending  out  its  sloops  and 
schooners,  well  manned  by  skillful  and  daring  seamen,  to  harass  the 
boats  and  tenders  along  the  shore,  or  to  cut  off  merchant  vessels  on 
the  high  seas.  Rich  prizes,  in  spite  of  their  vigilance,  would  run 
into  this  open  port,  and  if  pursuit  was  apprehended,  they  might  be 
hurried  up  to  Norwich,  entirely  out  of  reach. 

The  year  1777  forms,  indeed,  an  exception  to  the  universality  of 
this  assertion.  So  great  was  the  vigilance  of  the  British  squadron  on 
the  coast,  that  between  the  summer  of  1776  and  that  of  1778,  not  a 
single  prize  was  brought  into  the  harbor  of  New  London. 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 

Expedition  of  Arnold  against  New  London. — Flight  of  the  inhabitants. — A 
large  portion  of  the  town  burnt. — Groton  fort  taken  by  storm. — Massacre  of 
Col.  Ledjard  and  the  garrison. — Incidents  afler  the  departure  of  the  enemy.'- 
Estimate  of  the  loss.— The  anniversary  celebration  .-Proton  Monument 
erected. 

Although  New  London  had  been  repeatedly  threatened,  no  di- 
rect attack  was  made  upon  the  town  till  near  the  close  of  the  war  in 
1781.  Gren.  Arnold,  on  his  return  from  a  predatory  descent  upon 
the  coasts  of  Virginia,  was  ordered  to  conduct  a  similar  expedition 
against  his  native  state.  A  large  quantity  of  West  India  goods  and 
European  merchandise  brought  in  by  various  privateers,  was  at  this 
time  collected  in  New  London  ;  the  quantity  of  shipping  in  port  was 
also  very  considerable,  and  among  the  prizes  recently  taken,  was  the 
Hannah,  (Capt.  Watson,)  a  rich  merchant  ship  from  London  bound 
to  New  York,  which  had  been  captured  a  little  south  of  Long  Island, 
by  Capt.  Dudley  Saltonstall,  of  the  Minerva  privateer.  The  loss  of 
this  ship,  whose  cargo  was  said  to  be  the  most  valuable  brought  into 
America  during  the  war,  had  exasperated  the  British,  and  more  than 
any  other  single  circumstance  is  thought  to  have  led  to  the  expedi- 
tion. At  no  other  period  of  the  war  could  they  have  done  so  much 
mischief — at  no  other  had  the  inhabitants  so  much  to  lose. 

The  expedition  was  fitted  out  from  New  York,  the  head-quarters 
of  Sir  Henry  Clinton  and  the  British  army.  The  plan  was  well 
conceived.  Arnold  designed  to  enter  the  harbor  secretly,  in  the 
night,  and  to  destroy  the  shipping,  public  offices,  stores,  merchandise, 
and  the  fortifications  on  both  sides  of  the  river,  with  such  expedition 
as  to  be  able  to  depart  before  any  considerable  force  could  be  col- 
lected against  him.  Candor  in  judging  forbids  the  supposition  that 
the  burning  of  the  town  and  the  massacre  at  Groton  fort,  entered 
into  his  original  design,  though  at  the  time,  such  cruelty  of  purpose 
46* 


546  BISTORT     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

was  charged  upon  him,  and  currently  helieved.  As  flowing  from  his 
measures  and  taking  place  under  his  command,  they  stand  to  his  ac- 
count; and  this  responsibility  is. heavy  enough,  without  adding  to  it 
the  criminal  forethought 

Late  in  the  evening  of  the  5th  of  September,  information  was  re- 
ceived in  town  that  a  British  fleet  was  lurking  under  the  shore  of 
Long  Island,  nearly  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  river.  So  many  false 
demonstrations  of  attack  had  been  made  during  the  war,  that  this  in- 
telligence caused  but  little  alarm.  No  public  notice  was  given  of  it, 
and  no  unusual  precautions  were  taken  against  surprise ;  soldiers  and 
citizens  alike  retired  to  rest.  As  soon  as  it  was  dark,  the  hostile 
fleet  got  under  way,  and  arriving  on  the  coast  at  one  o'clock,  would 
undoubtedly  have  accomplished  their  design  and  made  themselves 
masters  of  the  town  and  forts,  without  opposition,  had  they  not  been 
counteracted  by  Providence.  The  wind  suddenly  shifted  to  the 
northward,  blowing  directly  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  river,  so  that  the 
larger  vessels  were  obliged  to  stand  off,  and  the  transports  to  beat  in. 

According  to  the  uniform  testimony  of  eye-witnesses,  the  British 
fleet  consisted  of  thirty-two  sail  of  all  classes  of  vessels ;  and  the 
troops  were  landed  from  twenty-four  transports— eight  hundred  on 
the  Groton  side,  and  nine  hundred  or  a  thousand  on  the  New  Lon- 
don side.     Arnold,  in  his  report  of  the  expedition,  says : 

"  At  ten  o*clock,  the  troops  in  two  divisions  and  in  four  debarkations,  were 
landed,  one  on  each  side  the  harbor,  about  three  miles  from  New  London ;  that 
on  the  Groton  side  consisting  of  the  40th  and  54th  regiments,  and  the  third  bat^ 
talion  of  New  Jersey  volunteers,  with  a  detachment  of  yagers  and  artillery, 
were  under  the  command  of  Lieut.  Col.  Eyre.  The  division  on  the  New  Lon- 
don side,  consisted  of  the  38th  regiment,  the  loyal  Americans,  the  American 
Legion,  refugees,  and  a  detachment  of  sixty  yagers,  who  were  immediately  on 
their  landing,  put  in  motion." 

In  the  mean  time,  confused  and  hasty  preparations  had  been  made 
to  receive  them.  At  early  dawn  the  fleet  had  been  discovered,  lying 
off  becalmed,  but  the  transports  making  preparations  to  beat  in  to  the 
mouth  of  the  river.  Col.  Wm.  Ledyard  was  the  military  command- 
er of  the  district  which  comprised  the  two  forts,  the  harbor,  and  the 
towns  of  New  London  and  Groton.  Capt.  Adam  Shapley  com- 
manded at  Fort  Trumbull  and  the  Town  Hill  Battery ;  Capt  Wil- 
liam Latham  at  Fort  Griswold.  An  alarm  was  immediately  flred 
from  Fort  Griswold ;  it  consisted  of  two  regular  guns  at  fixed  inter- 
vals— this  was  the  signal  to  call  in  assistance  from  the  neighboring 
country,  while  three  guns  was  the  signal  of  rejoicing,  to  give  notice 


HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON.  547 

of  a  victory  or  a  prize.  It  was  evident  that  these  signals  had  been 
communicated  to  the  enemj,  for  when  the  two  distress  gnns  were 
fired,  one  of  the  large  ships  in  the  fleet  added  a  third,  so  as  to  alter 
the  import  This  stratagem  had  some  influence  in  retarding  the  ar- 
rival of  militia. 

In  the  town,  consternation  and  fright  were  suddenly  let  loose.  No 
sooner  were  the  terrible  alarm  guns  heard,  than  the  startled  citizens, 
leaping  from  their  beds,  made  haste  to  send  away  their  families  and 
their  portable  and  most  valuable  goods.  Throngs  of  women  and 
children  were  dismissed  into  the  fields  and  woods,  some  without  food, 
and  others  with  a  piece  of  bread  or  a  biscuit  in  their  hands.  Women 
laden  with  bags  and  pillow-cases,  or  driving  a  cow  before  them, -with 
an  infant  in  their  arms,  or  perjiaps  on  horseback  with  a  bed  under 
them,  and  various  utensils  dangling  at  the  side  ;  boys  with  stockings 
slung  like  wallets  over  their  shoulders,  containing  the  money,  the  pa- 
pers, and  other  small  valuables  of  the  family ;  carts  laden  with  fur- 
niture ;  dogs  and  other  household  animals,  looking  strange  and  panic- 
struck  ;  pallid  faces  and  trembling  limbs — such  were  the  scenes 
presented  on  all  the  roads  leading  into  the  country.  Many  of  these 
groups  wandered  all  day  in  the  woods,  and  at  night  found  shelter  in 
the  scattered  farm-houses  and  bams. 

Amid  the  bustle  of  these  scenes,  when  each  one  was  laden  with 
what  was  nearest  at  hand,  or  dearest  to  his  heart,  one  man  was  seen 
hastening  alone  to  the  burial-ground,  with  a  small  coflm  under  his 
arm.  His  child  had  died  the  day  before,  and  he  could  not  leave  it 
unburied.  In  haste  and  trepidation  he  threw  up  the  mold,  and  de- 
posited his  precious  burden ;  then  covering  it  quickly,  and  setting  up 
a  stone  to  mark  the  place,  he  hurried  away,  to  secure  other  beloved 
ones  from  a  more  cruel  spoiler. 

Such  was  the  confusion  of  the  scene,  that  families,  in  many  cases, 
were  scattered  upon  difierent  roads  ;  and  children,  eight  or  ten  years 
of  age,  were  sent  off  alone  into  the  country,  their  parents  lingering 
perhaps  to  bury  or  conceal  some  of  their  effects.  Yet  no  one  was 
lost,  no  one  was  hurt.  The  farm-houses  were  full,  and  unbounded 
hospitality  was  shown  by  their  occupanU.  At  Gen.  Miller's,  a  little 
off  from  the  Norwich  road,  orders  were  given  to  open  the  dairy  and 
the  larder,  to  prepare  food  constantly,  and  to  feed  every  body  that 
came.  When  the  house  was  ovei-flowing,  the  servants  carried  out 
milk,  cheese  and  bread,  or  porringers  of  corn-beans  to  the  children, 
who  sat  under  the  trees  and  ate.  This  will  serve  as  an  example  of 
the  general  hospitality.    A  number  of  families  found  shelter  among 


548  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

friends  and  relatives  in  the  North  Parish.  Groups  of  fxtgitives  ga^ 
ered  on  the  high  hills  afar  off,  watching  with  intense  interest  the 
movements  of  the  enemj,  whose  course  might  be  traced  by  their 
gleaming  arms  and  scarlet  coats,  until  clouds  of  smoke  hid  them  tnjm 
their  view. 

Some  sick  persons  were  removed  from  town  with  great  difficulty^ 
and  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives ;  others  who  could  not  be  removed, 
were  guarded  with  solicitous  care  by  wife,  daughter  or  mother,  who 
resolved  to  remain  with  them,  and  depend  on  Providence  to  soften 
the  heart  of  the  foe,  and  protect  them  from  danger. 

Col.  Ledyard,  having  visited  the  town  and  Fort  Trumbull,  and 
made  the  best  disposition  of  what  force  he  could  find,  fmd  having 
dispatched  expresses  to  Governor  Trumbull  at  Lebanon,  and  to  com- 
mmiders  of  militia  in  the  neighborhood,  returned  to  Fort  Griswold. 

As  he  stepped  into  the  boat  to  cross  the  ferry,  he  said  to  some 
friends  whose  hands  he  pressed  at  parting,  in  a  firm  tone : 

**  If  I  must  lose  to-day,  honor  or  life,  you  who  know  me,  can  tell  which  it 
will  be." 

The  garrisons  under  CoL  Ledyard  were  small ;  barely  sufficient  to 
keep  the  posts  in  order ;  and  in  cases  of  emergency  they  depended 
on  volunteers  from  the  neighborhood,  or  details  of  militia.  These 
were  now  coming  in,  and  the  commander  confidently  anticipated  the 
arrival  of  sufficient  aid  to  warrant  a  defense. 

Li  the  mean  time  great  efforts  were  made  to  secure  the  shipping  in 
the  harbor,  by  getting  it  up  the  river,  but  at  first  neither  wind  nor 
tide  favored  the  attempt  Toward  noon,  however,  before  the  enemy 
had  got  possession  of  the  town,  a  favorable  breeze  came  in  from  the 
water,  and  a  considerable  number  of  vessels  escaped.  The  ware* 
houses  were  full  of  merchandise,  only  a  small  proportion  of  which 
could  be  sent  off.  Shaw's  warehouse  on  Water  Street,  in  particuliyr, 
was  packed  with  goods,  and  among  them  was  the  rich  cargo  of  the 
Hannah.     A  sloop  load  of  these  were  saved.* 

Such  confusion  reigned  in  the  town— every  householder  being  en- 
gaged in  the  care  of  his  family  and  effects — that  it  was  difficult  to 


1  Mr.  Shaw  was  himself  absent  from  town  at  the  time  of  the  invasion.  This  was 
very  much  deplored  at  the  time.  He  had  gone  out  on  a  fishing  excursion  toward 
Montauk  Point,  and  after  discovering  the  fleet  and  its  destinadon,  could  not  get  in  be- 
fore them,  but  was  obliged  to  run  into  Pequonnuck  Creek  to  escape  capture.  Dr. 
Simon  Wolcott  was  with  him. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  649 

form  any  concerted  plan  of  action.  But  when  the  women  and  ^il- 
dren  had  departed,  the  men  began  to  gather  in  groups,  and  consult 
respecting  the  course  to  be  pursued.  They  could  muster  but  few  ef- 
fective men,  and  flight  and  concealment  seemed  the  only  prudent 
course  for  them  to  adopt.  But  about  one  hundred,  hastily  armed, 
and  indignant  at  the  thought  of  abandoning  their  homesteads  with- 
out a  blow,  collected  on  Town  Hill,  with  a  view  of  obstructing  the 
course  of  the  enemy.  They  were  without  a  commander,  and  as  the 
advancing  files  of  regular  soldiers,  in  firm  array,  with  glistening  steel, 
appeared  in  sight,  they  saw  the  rashness  of  their  design,  and  scatter- 
ing into  the  fields,  concealed  themselves  behind  rocks  and  fences, 
and  annoyed  the  troops  whenever  they  could  find  a  chance. 

Arnold  had  debarked  his  forces  a  little  west  of  the  light-house, 
and  came  up  in  a  straight  course,  through  what  is  called  Brown's 
Gate,  into  the  Town  Hill  road.  The  division  under  his  command, 
as  already  stated,  consisted  of  the  thirty-eighth  British  regiment,^ 
and  the  regiment  of  loyal  Americans,  (Col.  Beverly  Robinson's,) 
with  several  companies  from  other  refugee  regiments,  among  whom 
were  one  hundred  and  twenty  New  Jersey  loyalists,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Lieut  Col.  Upham,  and  a  band  of  sixty  yagers,  (Hessian 
light-infantry.) 

**  The  armed  vessels  A9»)ciation  and  Colonel  Martin »  went  close  into  the 
shore,  and  covered  the  landing  on  the  New  London  side.'*     (Uphanrs  Report.) 

When  the  troops  arrived  at  the  cross-road,  leading  down  to  the 
shore,  which  Arnold  says  was  at  11  o'clock,  Capt.  Millett,  of  the 
thirty-eighth,  with  four  companies,  was  detached  to  march  that  way 
and  attack  the  fort,  and  at  the  foot  of  this  cross-road,  he  was  joined 
by  Capt.  Frink  with  a  company  of  refugees,  who  had  marched  up  by 
a  different  route,  nearer  the  shore. 

Fort  Trumbull  was  a  work  of  very  little  strength ;  a  mere  block 
of  batteries  facing  the  water  on  three  sides  ;  open  behind,  and  only 
designed  to  act  against  a  naval  force.  Capt.  Shapley  had  with  him 
twenty-three  men ;  and  his  orders  were  in  case  of  a  direct  attack,  to 
retreat  to  Fort  Griswold.  He  saluted  the  invaders  with  one  volley, 
well  discharged,  and  then,  having  spiked  the  guns,  retreated  to  the 
shore,  where  he  embarked  his  men  in  three  boats  to  cross  the  river. 


1  This  was  Sir  Robert  Pigot^s  regiment,  but  it  is  not  known  whether  he  was  ^th 
the  expedition.    The  uniform  was  red,  faced  with  yellow. 

2  These  wore  a  dark  uniform,  with  bright  red  trimmings. 


550  HISTORY    OP    NBW    LONDON. 

The  enemj's  fleet  was  so  near,  that  thej  reached  and  over-shot  them 
with  their  muskets  ;  seven  men  were  wounded,  and  one  of  the  boats 
captured. 

In  the  mean  time,  Gen.  Ariiold,  pressing  forward  with  the  main 
hody  of  troops,  arrived  at  the  breastwork  of  earth  and  sods,  whose 
insignificance  had  obtained  for  it  the  name  of  Fort  Nonsense,  but  of 
which  in  his  dispatch,  he  speaks  with  great  exaggeration,  as  a  redoubt 
that  kept  up  a  brisk  fire  upon  them  for  some  time,  but  was  evacuated 
at  their  approach.  **  In  it,"  he  says,  "  we  found  six  pieces  of  can- 
non mounted,  and  two  dismounted."*  On  this  commanding  height 
Arnold  paused  to  survey  the  scene  on  which  he  was  about  to  oper- 
ate— a  scene  familiar  to  his  eyes  in  early  life — ^with  houses  and  shops 
compact,  and  sails  spread  in  the  offing,  all  indicative  of  thrifl,  enter- 
prise and  comfort ;  but  which  he  was  now,  with  sword  and  fire-brand, 
about  to  scathe  and  blacken.  His  thoughts,  however,  were  intent  on 
the  present  object,  and  not  discoursing  with  the  past  or  future.  He 
observes  in  his  report : 

"  I  had  the  pleasure  to  s^e  Capt.  MiUett  march  into  Fort  TrumhuU,  under  a 
shower  of  grape-shot  from  a  number  of  cannon  which  the  enemy  had  turned 
upon  him*  and  by  tho  ^uddt;n  attack  and  determined  bravery  of  the  troops,  the 
fort  vC^as  carried  with  only  the  loss  of  four  or  five  men  killed  and  wounded." 

So  well  it  sounds  in  official  language,  for  five  companies  of  fresh, 
well-armed  British  soldiers,  to  drive  twenty-three  Americans  frwn 
an  open,  defenseless  fortress  ! 

It  was  from  this  point  that  Arnold  despatched  an  order  to  Lieut. 
Col.  Eyre,  who  had  landed  on  the  Groton  side,  to  attack  the  fort  as 
soon  as  possible,  in  order  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the  shipping  up 
the  river.     The  general  continues : 

••  No  time  on  my  part  was  lost  in  gaining  the  town  of  New  London.  We 
were  opposed  by  a  small  body  of  the  enemy  with  one  field-piece,  who  were  so 
hard  pressed,  that  they  were  obliged  to  leave  the  piece,  which  being  iron,  was 
spiked  and  loft." 

This  field-piece,  which  figures  thus  largely  in  the  report,  was  a  four 
or  six-pounder,  which  stood  on  the  common,  upon  Manwaring's  Hill, 
where  it  had  been  used  for  rejoicings,  trainings  and  alarms.  It  was 
not  at  this  time  manned,  but  some  three  or  four  resolute  persons  dis- 
charged it  several  tunes  upon  the  advancing  foe,  as  they  came  down 


1  Iron  pieces,  four  and  six-potmders. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  551 

Town  Hill,  and  then  fled.  A  detachment  of  the  British  was  sent  up 
Blaekhall  Street,  to  silence  this  solitary  gun^  which  in  truth  they  ef- 
fected, but  were  much  annoyed  by  random  shot  from  behind  the  rocks 
and  fences.  Manwaring's  house  was  then  the  only  dwelling  in  that 
quarter.  This  they  ransacked,  and  having  wantonly  destroyed  some 
of  the  furniture,  set  fire  to  it,  by  leaving  heaps  of  burning  brands  and 
combustibles  upon  the  floor.  One  of  the  town's  people  entering  the 
house  soon  afler  they  left  it,  extinguished  the  flames  with  a  ban*el  of 
soap.  When  the  owner  returned  to  his  house  that  night,  he  found 
lying  on  one  of  the  beds  a  dying  British  soldier,  piteously  calling  for 
water.  He  had  been  left  for  dead  by  his  comrades  on  the  road-side, 
and  being  found  by  some  of  the  returning  citizens,  weltering  in  his 
blood,  they  had  carried  him  into  the  house.  He  lived  several  hours, 
and  was  able  to  give  his  name,  and  to  request  that  intelligence  might 
be  sent  to  his  parents  of  his  death.  He  was  about  eighteen  years  of 
age,  a  refugee,  and  the  son  of  refugees  then  in  Nova  Scotia.  He 
was  interred  in  a  comer  of  the  lot  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street : 
two  or  three  other  soldiers  found  dead  on  the  hill,  were  buried  on  the 
side  of  the  road  in  Williams  Street 

Lieut.  Col.  Upham,  who  commanded  the  New  Jersey  loyalists^ 
says  in  his  report  to  Gov.  Franklin : 

**  We  proceeded  to  the  town  of  New  London,  constantly-  skirmishing  with 
rebels,  who  fled  from  hill  to  hill,  and  stone- fences  which  intersected  the  coun- 
try at  small  distances.  Having  reached  the  southerly  part  of  the  town,  the 
general  requested  me  to  take  possession  of  the  hill  north  of  the  meeting-house, 
where  the  rebels  had  collected,  and  which  they  seemed  resolved  to  hold.  We 
made  a  circle  to  the  left,  and  soon'  gained  the  ground  in  contest.  Here  we  had 
one  man  killed  and  one  wounded.  This  height  being  the  outpost,  was  left  to 
us  and  the  yagers.  Here  we  remained  exposed  to  a  constant  fire  from  the  reb- 
els on  the  neighboring  hills,  and  from  the  fort  on  the  Groton  side,  until  the  last 
was  carried  by  the  British  troops." 

Col.  Upham*s  party  defiled  through  Cape  Ann  Street  and  Lewis 
Lane,  and  a  flanking-guard  set  fire  to  the  house  of  Pickett  Latimer,^ 
pn  the  old  Colchester  road,  now  Vauxhall  Street.  This  house  was 
full  of  goods,  hastily  deposited  there  by  the  inhabitants  for  safe-keep- 
ing ;  the  distance  from  the  town  leading  them  to  suppose  that  it 
would  not  be  visited.  It  was,  however,  the  first  building  consumed. 
The  main  body  came  on  through  Yauxhall  Street,  and  at  their  ap- 
proach the  group  of  half-armed  citizens  that  had  collected  on  the 


1  Nearly  opposite  the  residence  of  Thomas  Fitch. 


662  HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON* 

beautiful  height  above  the  old  burial^grouncl,  after  a  few  discharges 
retired,  scattering  to  other  hills  and  wood-lands,  where  unseen  thejr 
could  watch  the  motions  of  the  enemy.  It  was  about  noon,  when 
CoL  Upham,  with  the  refugees  and  Hessians,  took  possession  of  the 
hill,  and  planted  the  field-piece  which  they  had  brought  from  Fort 
Nonsense,  directing  its  fire  against  the  shipping,  which  had  been 
obliged  to  anchor  above  the  town.  But  a  change  of  wind  and  tide 
operating  in  favor  of  the  vessels,  they  spread  their  sails  and  escaped 
up  the  river.  One  of  the  cannon-balls  sent  after  them,  went  through 
the  front  door  of  a  house  on  the  ^Norwich  road,  just  above  the  mill, 
since  known  as  Capt.  Robert  Hallam's. 

Arnold  made  his  arrangements  to  enter  at  both  ends  of  the  town, 
to  follow  the  line  of  the  water-side,  and  complete  the  work  of  des- 
truction at  the  center.  He  appears  himself  to  have  accompanied  the 
party  that  gained  the  north  end  of  the  town,  (probably  through 
Hempstead  Street,)  under  cover  of  CoU  Upham's  advanced  post  He 
mentions  in  his  report  that  he  ascended  a  height  of  ground  in  the  rear 
of  the  town,  from  whence  he  had  a  good  prospect  of  Fort  Griswold, 
and  of  the  shipping  that  was  endeavoring  to  escape  up  the  river. 
Two  or  three  persons,  inhabitants  of  the  town,  who  were  secreted  in 
the  vicinity  and  who  were  well  acquainted  with  the  person  of  Arnold, 
saw  him  as  he  sat  on  horseback,  above  the  meeting-house,  with  a 
small  spy-glass  in  his  hand  surveying  the  scene,  and  pointing  out 
objects  to  an  officer  by  his  side,  probably  Lord  Dalrymple,  who  acted 
as  his  aid  in  this  expedition.  They  turned  their  horses  down  Rich- 
ards Street,  through  which  a  part  of  their  force  had  preceded  tliem. 
At  the  north  end  of  the  town  the  torch  of  destruction  was  first 
lighted  at  the  printing-office,  and  the  town  mill.  From  thence  a 
detachment  of  the  enemy  went  on  to  Winthrop's  Neck,  and  set  fire  to 
the  Plumb  house,  scouring  the  whole  point,  destroying  the  battery, 
shipping,  warehouses,  and  every  species  of  combustible  property  on 
that  side,  except  the  Merrill  house,  which  escaped.  On  Main  Street 
south  of  the  printing-office,  a  considerable  number  of  old  family 
homesteads  were  consumed.  The  most  valuable  was  that  of  Gen. 
Gurdon  Saltonstall.  The  house  of  Capt  Guy  Richards  at  the  foot 
of  Richards  Street  was  marked  out  for  destruction,  but  a  daughter  of 
Capt  Richards  lying  ill  at  the  time,  the  English  officer  listened  to 
the  supplications  of  those  who  attended  upon  her,  and  spared  the 
house.  It  was  an  act  too  barbarous,  even  for  incursive  hostility,  the 
most  barbarous  kind  of  war,  to  set  fire  to  a  house  over  the  heads  of 
sick  and  helpless  females. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON.  563 

On  the  east  side  of  the  street  several  private  houses,  with  the  cus- 
tom-house and  collector's  dwelling  near  it,  various  shops  of  merchandise^ 
mechanic  shops  and  warehouses,  with  all  the  wharfing,  boating  and 
lumber,  were  involved  in  a  long  line  of  destruction.  Below  Hallam's 
comer  in  this  street  no  buildings  were  burnt  At  this  point  the  main 
body  of  the  enemy  turned  toward  Beach  or  Water  Street,  where 
several  noted  warehouses  and  shops  were  situated,  and  a  part  of  the 
shipping  lay.  It  is  said  that  Arnold  himself  with  extended  sword, 
pointed  out  the  way  to  the  troops  with  this  emphatic  command — 
"  Soldiers !  do  your  duty." 

Of  course  vengeance  and  destruction  had  no  check :  shops,  stores, 
dwellings,  piles  of  lumber,  wharves,  boats,  rigging,  and  vessels,  were 
soon  enveloped  in  smoke  and  flame.  Hogsheads  were  knocked  in ; 
sugar  and  coffee  lay  in  heaps,  and  rum  and  Irish  butter  melted  in  the 
fire,  trickled  along  the  street,  and  filled  the  gutters.  The  prize  ship 
Hannah,  partly  unladen,  lay  at  Shaw*s  wharf.  When  burnt  nearly 
to  the  water's  edge  she  drifted  away  and  sunk  near  the  end  of  Win- 
throp's  Neck.' 

Bradley  Street  containing  eight  or  ten  houses,  was  left  un- 
harmed. When  the  regulars  came  to  this  street,  their  guide,  one  of 
those  "  friends  to  government  in  the  town,"  whom  Arnold  mentions 
as  aiding  and  furnishing  information,  said  to  the  leader  of  the 
party — "  In  this  street  there  are  no  shops,  no  stores — it  is  the  Wid- 
ow's Row."  The  words  were  literally  true,  and  the  humane  officer 
commanded  Ids  men  not  to  enter  the  street. 

On  the  Parade  all  was  destroyed.  The  market  wharf,  the  old 
magazine  and  battery,  the  court-house,  jail  and  jail-house,  the 
Episcopal  church,  and  several  contiguous  shops  and  dwelling-houses, 
were  soon  a  heap  of  ashes.  The  western  part  of  this  street  was 
left  unhurt.  The  ancient,  dilapidated  building  still  extant  near  the 
comer  of  Green  Street  was  then,  as  it  since  has  been,  a  well-known 
tavem  stand.  The  landlady,  like  mriny  other  American  women  in 
those  disastrous  times,  had  her  nearest  friends  arrayed  on  opposite 
sides.  Her  husband  as  sergeant  in  the  militia,  was  at  his  post  in 
the  field  annoying  the  invaders,  and  her  brother  was  one  of  those  in- 
vaders— an  officer  under  Arnold's  command.  Before  mounting  her 
horee  to  escape,  she  had  her  table  spread,  and  furnished  bountifully 
with  provisions.     Though  fleeing  with  her  patriot  husband  she  could 


1  The  old  hull  of  the  Hannah  was  dragged  out  in  1815,  by  Amasa  Miller,  to  whose 
ship-yard  it  was  an  obstrucdon. 

47 


554  UIBTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

not  refrain  from  leaving  a  dinner  for  her  toiy  brother.  That  officer 
eagerlj  sought  the  threshold  of  his  relative,  and  though  he  found  h^ 
not,  refreshed  himself  and  his  brother  officers  with  the  collation. 
After  the  close  of  the  war,  this  refugee  captain^  being  in  declining 
health,  obtained  leave  to  return  home,  and  died  in  the  same  house. 

The  enemy,  however,  did  not  in  general  spare  the  dwellings  of 
their  reputed  friends.  This,  instead  of  being  a  favor,  would  have 
marked  them  out  for  patriot  vengeance.  Arnold  himself  took  some 
refreshment  that  daj  at  the  house  of  an  old  acquaintance  in  Bank 
Street,  but  even  before  they  rose  from  the  table  the  building  was  in 
flames  over  them.  It  has  been  often  stated  that  some  whose  proper- 
ty was  destroyed,  received  in  the  end  double  compensation ;  that  is, 
from  the  British  on  account  of  their  loyalty,  and  from  Congress,  in 
the  grant  of  fire  lands  by  which  reparation  was  made  to  the  snffer- 
ei*s.  Arnold  was  bom  within  fourteen  miles  of  New  London,  and 
had  lived  so  long  in  the  vicinity  that  he  had  many  old  acquaintances 
in  town ;  some  of  these  it  was  well  known  had  held  secret  inter- 
course with  him,  and  officiated  as  counselors  and  guides  in  this  ex- 
pedition. 

At  the  south  end  of  the  town  the  ravage  was  coincident  with  the 
destruction  at  the  north.  All  the  boats  and  fishing  craft  around  the 
'  coves  were  burnt  A  house  and  shop  belonging  to  a  person  who 
held  a  commission  in  the  garrison  of  the  fort,  were  singled  out  and 
burnt,  showing  that  the  guides  of  the  enemy  were  familiar  with  the 
locality.  An  old  fisherman  ventured  from  his  hiding-place  and 
pathetically  entreated  them  to  leave  him  his  boat ;  but  he  was  told 
that  their  orders  allowed  of  no  exceptions  and  must  be  obeyed.  A 
woman  living  near  the  water  on  the  point,  (Shaw's  Neck,)  seeing  a 
company  of  the  red  coats  approaching,  concealed  her  well-grown 
boys  in  the  cellar,  and  gathering  her  little  children  around  her  went 
out  to  meet  them.  Dropping  on  her  knees  before  the  captain,  she 
told  him  that  her  husband  had  been  gone  several  long  years,  and  she 
knew  not  what  had  become  of  him ;  she  had  nothing  left  but  a  group 
of  helpless  children  and  yonder  house  with  its  simple  furniture, 
which  she  entreated  him  not  to  destroy.  The  officer  raised  her  from 
the  ground,  and  brushing  a  tear  from  his  eye,  said,  "  Go  in,  good 
woman  !  you  and  your  property  are  safe  ;  none  of  my  men  shall  dis- 
turb you."* 


1  The  story  of  this  woman  was  literally  true :  we  are  tempted  to  continue  the  tale. 
Her  husband  was  a  sea-captain  and  trader,  who  being  in  Europe  when  the  war  brok« 


HISTORY    OP    NBW   LONDON.  555 

Very  little  havoc  was  made  in  this  part  of  the  town  until  the 
enemy  came  to  Bank  Street.  Here  the  work  of  destruction  was 
commenced  at  the  stone  dwelling-house  of  the  Shaw  family,  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  which  ignited  combustibles  were  placed,  and  left  to 
do  their  work ;  but  after  the  troops  had  passed  on,  a  near  neighbor 
who  had  remained  concealed  in  the  ricinity,  entered  the  house  and 
extinguished  the  fires.  An  ancient  dwelling-house  of  wood,  adjoin- 
ing the  stone  mansion,  and  used  by  Shaw  as  an  office  and  store-house, 
was  burnt  to  the  ground,  and  in  it  a  chest  of  valuable  papers  wad 
consumed.  The  flame  from  this  building  caught  the  roof  of  the  stone 
house,  but  was  extinguished  by  the  same  adventurous  neighbor  that 
quenched  the  fires  within  the  house.  Finding  a  pipe  of  vinegar  in 
the  garret,  he  knocked  in  the  head  and  dipping  from  this  fountain 
poured  the  convenient  liquid  from  the  scuttle,  down  the  roof,  till  the 
fire  was  subdued.  By  this  timely  exertion,  not  only  this  house  but 
the  houses  below  it,  which  would  probably  have  been  involved  in  its 
destruction,  escaped. 

In  this  part  of  the  harbor  were  the  spar  and  ship-yards  and  a  con- 
siderable mnnber  of  unemployed  vessels,  which  were  all  given  to  the 
flames.  Old  hulls  half  sunk  in  the  water,  or  grounded  on  the  fiats 
here  and  there,  are  remembered  by  persons  who  were  then  children, 
as  having  been  left  for  years  afterward  lying  about  the  shores.  A 
privateer  sloop,  fitted  for  a  cruise  and  in  fine  order,  that  lay  swinging 
from  a  cable  fastened  to  a  ring  in  the  projecting  rock  where  is  now 
Brown's  wharf,  was  set  on  fire,  and  her  cable  burning  off,  she  drifted 
across  the  harbor,  a  mass  of  fiame.  Through  the  whole  of  Bank 
Street,  where  were  some  of  the  best  mercantile  stands  and  the  most 
valuable  dwelling-houses  in  the  town,  the  torch  of  vengeance  made  a 
clean  sweep.  No  building  of  any  importance  was  left  on  either  side 
of  the  street ;  all  combustible  property  of  every  description  was  con- 
sumed. This  entire  devastation  was  in  part  owing  to  circumstances 
not  entering  into  the  plans  of  the  enemy,  though  it  might  have  been 


out,  fmd  meeting  with  rerenes  and  difficulties,  had  continued  there,  trading  and  waifr* 
ing  for  an  opportunity  to  return  home.  The  very  day  Arnold  was  burning  New  Lon- 
don he  arrived  with  his  vessel  in  the  Sound,  and  discovering  the  hostile  fleet  in  season 
put  back  and  lay  close,  till  the  next  day.  When  the  enemy  had  departed,  he  slipped 
into  the  harbor  m  the  dusk  of  evening,  and  landing  made  his  way  through  the  smol- 
dering streets  to  his  own  threshold ;  where  lilting  the  latch,  he  paused,  and  before  speak- 
ing to  wife  or  children,  fixed  his  eyes  on  two  ancient  portraits  of  his  ancestors,  hang- 
ing upon  the  wall,  and  with  a  humor  peculiar  to  his  character,  saluted  them  and  ex- 
pressed his  satisfiustion  at  finding  them  still  on  duty,  at  their  post. 


666  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

anticipated,  as  a  natural  consequence  of  their  measures.  Several  of 
the  stores  in  this  and  other  parts  of  the  town  contained  gunpowder 
in  large  quantities,  which  exploding,  shook  the  whole  country  round, 
and  scattered  the  flames  in  every  direction. 

The  general  says  in  his  report :  "  The  explosion  of  the  powder 
and  the  change  of  wind,  soon  after  the  stores  were  fired,  communica- 
ted the  flames  to  part  of  the  town,  which  was,  notwithstanding  every 
effort  to  prevent  it,  unfortunately  destroyed."  Sir  Henry  Clinton 
also,  in  his  official  letter  to  England,  expresses  his  concern  that  the 
town  was  burnt,  but  says  it  was  unavoidable,  and  occasioned  by  the 
explosion  of  gunpowder. 

It  ought  to  be  stated  as  a  general  fact  that  Arnold's  orders  appear 
to  have  been  given  with  some  reference  to  humanity  and  the  laws  of 
civilized  warfare.  Private  houses  were  to  be  spared,  unless  in  some 
few  instances  where  the  owners  were  particularly  obnoxious.  It  was 
afterward  well  understood  that  most  of  the  spoil  and  havoc  in  private 
houses  was  the  work  of  a  few  worthless  vagrants  of  the  town, 
who  prowled  in  the  wake  of  the  invaders,  hoping  in  the  general  con- 
fusion not  to  be  detected.  The  English  soldiers  were  expressly  for- 
bidden to  plunder,  or  to  molest  the  helpless."  In  several  cases  where 
females  courageously  remained  to  protect  their  dwellings,  they  were 
treated  with  marked  civility  and  respect.  In  one  instance  a  soldier 
having  entered  a  house  and  forcibly  seized  some  clothing,  the  woman 
went  to  the  door  and  complained  to  an  officer  on  guard  in  the  street, 
who  not  only  restored  the  articles,  but  chastised  the  culprit  on  the 
spot,  for  disobeying  his  orders. 

Instances  of  tender  commiseration  for  the  sufferers  were  also  ex- 
hibited in  various  parts  of  the  town.  In  one  house  a  female  had  re- 
mained with  an  aged,  decrepit  father,  too  infirm  to  be  removed. 
Seeing  so  many  buildings  in  fiames  and  expecting  her  own  soon  to 
be  kindled,  she  dragged  her  parent  in  his  arm-chair  to  the  extremity 
of  the  garden,  and  there  stood  over  him  awaiting  the  result.  The 
officer  on  gpiard  observing  her  situation,  went  up  and  conversed  with 
her,  bidding  her  banish  fear,  for  her  house  should  not  be  entered ; 
he  would  himself  watch  over  its  safety. 

Yet  no  one  can  be  certain  that  an  excited  soldiery  will  not  trans- 
cend their  orders,  and  scenes  of  distress  must  be  expected  in  the  train 


1  Arnold  warmly  commends  the  conduct  of  Capt  Staple  ton  who  acted  as  mj^or  of 
brigade,  "  for  his  endeavors  to  prevent  plundering  and  the  destruction  of  private 
buildings." 


HISTORY    OF    NBW     LONDON.  557 

of  a  reckless  invasion.  An  aged  and  infirm  man,  living  abne,  with 
no  one  to  care  for  him  and  convey  him  to  a  place  of  saletj,  had 
crept  to  the  back  part  of  his  little  inclosure,  and  when  the  soldiers 
were  marching  bj,  he  stood  among  the  bushes,  leaning  upon  his  ataff^ 
a  peaceable  looker-on.  One  of  the  party,  seeing  perhaps  only  a  hat 
and  head,  and  supposing  it  might  be  an  armed  man  lurking  there  to 
get  a  favorable  aim,  raised  his  musket  and  shot  the  old  man  dead  in 
his  garden. 

But  the  work  of  destruction  in  New  London  was  a  mere  sportive 
sally  in  comparison  with  the  tragic  events  that  were  passing  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river.  The  division  of  Lieut.  Col.  Eyre  which 
landed  on  that  side,  consisted  of  two  British  regiments  and  a  battal- 
ion of  New  Jersey  volunteers,  with  a  detachment  of  yagers  and 
artillery.  The  British  regiments,  however,  were  the  actors  in  the 
scenes  that  followed,  for  the  Jersey  troops  and  artillery,  who  were 
nnder  the  command  of  Lieut.  Ck)l.  Buskirk,  being  the  second  debark- 
ation, and  getting,  entangled  among  the  ledges,  copses  and  ravines,  did 
not  reach  the  fort  until  after  the  conflict  had  ceased.^ 

The  object  of  Arnold  in  directing  an  attack  upon  Groton  fort  was 
to  prevent  the  escape  of  the  shipping  up  the  river,  and  he  imagined 
it  could  be  very  easily  taken. 

"  I  had  reason  to  believe  (he  says)  that  Fort  Griswold  was  very  incomplete, 
and  I  was  assured  by  friends  to  government  aAer  my  landing  that  there  were 
only  twenty  or  thirty  men  in  the  fort." 

When,  however,  he  gained  a  height  of  ground  irom  whence  he 
could  survey  the  scene,  he  found  that  the  works  were  much  more 
formidable  than  he  expected,  that  the  garrison  had  been  recruited 
and  that  the  vessels  were  already  too  far  up  the  river  to  be  checked 
by  the  guns  of  the  fort.     The  general  proceeds : 

"  I  immediately  dispatched  a  boat  with  an  officer  to  Lieut.  Col.  Eyre,  to 
countermand  my  first  order  to  attack  the  fort,  but  the  officer  arrived  a  few  min- 
utes too  late.  Lieut.  Col.  Eyre  had  sent  Capt.  Beckwith  with  a  flag,  to  de- 
mand a  surrender  of  the  fort,  which  was  peremptorily  refused,  and  the  attack 
had  commenced." 

What  momentous  import  in  those  few  mimUes  too  late  !  Could 
those  few  minutes  have  been  recalled,  how  much  human  crime  and 
human  suffering  would  have  been  spared !  One  of  the  saddest  pages 
of  American  history  would  never  have  been  written ! 

1  Arnold's  report 

47. 


558  tltSTORY    OF    NEMT    LOXDOI^. 

**  The  fbrt  was  an  oblong  square,  with  bastions  at  opposite  angles,  its  long- 
est side  fronting  the  river  in  a  north-west  and  south-east  direction.  Its  walls 
were  of  stone,  and  were  ten  or  twelve  feet  high  on  the  lower  side,  and  sur- 
rounded by  a  ditch.  On  the  wall  were  pickets,  projecting  over  twelve  feet ; 
above  this  was  a  parapet  with  embrasures,  and  within  a  platform  for  cannon, 
and  a  step  to  mount  upon,  to  shoot  over  the  parapet  with  small  arms.  In  the 
touth-we^t  bastion  was  a  flag-staif,  and  in  the  side  near  the  opposite  angle,  was 
tlie  gate,  in  front  of  which  was  a  triangular  breast- work  to  protect  the  gate; 
and  to  the  right  of  this  was  a  redoubt,  with  a  three-pouoder  in  it,  which  was 
about  1*20  yards  from  the  gate.  Between  the  fort  and  the  river  was  another 
battery,  with  a  covered  way,  but  which  could  not  be  used  in  this  attack,  as  the 
enemy  nppoared  in  a  diflerent  quarter." » 

The  number  of  men  in  the  fort  was  about  150;^  two-thirds  of  them 
farmers,  artisans,  and  other  inhabitants  of  the  vicinity,  that  had  just 
come  in  with  what  arms  they  could  seize,  to  aid  the  garrison.  The 
British  troops  were  first  discovered  from  the  fort  as  they  emerged 
from  the  forest,  half  a  mile  distant,  with  ranks  broken,  and  nmning 
half  bent  till  they  obtained  shelter  behind  the  hills  and  ledges  of  rock. 
CoL  Eyre  formed  his  men  under  the  lee  of  a  rocky  height,  130  yards 
south-east  from  the  fort,  near  the  present  burial-ground.  Major 
Montgomery,  with  the  fortieth  regiment,  took  post  a  little  farther  oflf, 
protected  also  by  a  hilL 

It  was  about  noon,  just  at  the  time  when  Arnold,  from  the  hill  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  was  taking  a  survey  of  the  scene^  that 
CoL  Eyre  sent  a  fiag  to  demand  the  immediate  and  unconditional 
surrender  of  the  fort  Such  a  demand  on  their  first  taking  a  position 
of  attack  was  an  inauspicious  and  barbarous  commencement  of  the 
siege.  Col.  Ledyard  summoned  a  council  of  war,  in  which  it  was 
decided  at  once  and  unanimously,  not  to  surrender.  Captains  Elijah 
Avery,  Amos  Stanton,  and  John  Williivms,  three  brave  volunteers 
from  the  neighborhood,  all  unconsciously  wrapped  in  the  awful 
shadow  of  coming  slaughter,  were  sent  to  meet  the  flag  and  deliver 
the  reply.  A  second  summons  from  ttie  British,  accompanied  with 
the  .assurance,  that  if  obliged  to  storm  the  works,  martial  law  should 
he  put  in  force,  was  answered  in  the  same  decided  manner,  "  We  shall 
not  surrender,  let  the  consequences  be  what  they  may."  This  answer 
was  delivered  by  Capt  Shapley.^ 

1  Narrative  of  Stephen  Hempstead. 

2  Uerapstead  says  160.  Bufus  Avery,  In  his  narrative,  166.  The  Connecticiit  Ga- 
zette, the  ]Kfiek  after  the  battle,  120. 

8  Stephen  Hempstead- 


HISTORY     OP     NBW     LONDON.  659 

The  officers  of  the  fort  were  not  unconscious  of  the  weakness  ai 
their  works,  nor  of  the  surpassing  skill  and  discipline,  as  well  as  the 
great  superiority  of  numbers,  about  to  be  brought  against  them.     But 
they  expected  reenforcements,  and  were  confident  if  they  could  hold 
out  for  a  few  hours,  the  country  would  pour  out  its  thousands  to  their 
rescue.     CoL  Nathan  Gallup,  of  the  Groton  militia,  had  yisited  the 
fort  at  an  early  hour  of  the  day,  and  left  it,  fully  intending  to  return 
with  what  force  he  could  assemble  to  aid  the  garrison.     At  the  mo- 
ment the  attack  commenced,  the  gleam  of  arms  might  be  seen  on  the 
distant  hills,  from  men  gathering  for  the  fight     But  it  was  not  easy 
to  persuade  the  militia  to  coop  themselves  up  in  stone  walls,  where 
they  might  be  hemmed  in  and  butchered  by  an  overwhelming  force. 
Many  valiant  men,  who  had  shouldered  their  muskets  and  hastened 
forward  with  full  intent  to  join  issue  with  the  enemy,  hesitated  when 
they  saw  the  situation  of  affairs.     Capt.  Stanton,  who  was  sent  out  to 
draw  in  volunteers,  just  before  the  attack  commenced,  was  met  on 
every  side  with  an  urgent  appeal  for  the  garrison  to  quit  the  fort,  one 
and  all,  and  come  out  and  meet  the  enemy  on  the  open  ground.     "  We 
will  fight,"  they  said, "  to  the  last  gasp  if  we  can  have  fair  play,  but  we 
will  not  throw  away  our  lives,  by  fighting  against  such  odds,  with  no 
chance  to  escape."     Col.  Gallup  was  afterward  severely  censured  for 
not  attempting  to  relieve  the  garrison,  but  a  court-martial  having  in- 
vestigated the  charges,  exonerated  him  from  blame,  and  it  is  there- 
fore manifestly  unjust  that  dishonorable  imputations  should  sully  the 
name  of  an  otherwise  estimable  officer. 

No  sooner  was  tlie  second  defiance  returned  to  the  summons  than 
both  divisions  of  the  enemy's  force  were  put  in  motion,  and  advanced 
with  a  quick  step  in  solid  columns.  A  party  of  Americans  posted  in 
the  eastern  batteiy,  gave  them  one  discharge,  and  then  retired  within 
the  fort.  CoL  Ledyard  ordered  his  men  to  reserve  their  fire  until 
the  detachment  which  came  up  first  had  reached  the  proper  distance. 
When  the  word  was  given,  an  eighteen-pounder,  loaded  with  two 
bags  of  grape  shot,  and  directed  by  Capt.  Elias  II.  Halsey,  an  expe- 
rienced naval  officer,  was  opened  upon  tliem,  and  it  was  supposed 
that  twenty  men  fell  to  the  ground,  killed  or  wounded  by  that  first 
discharge.  "It  cleared,"  said  an  eye-witness,  "a  wide  space  in  their 
column."'  Their  line  being  broken,  they  divided  and  scattered  ;  and 
now  all  the  fields  were  covered  with  scarlet-coated  soldiers,  with 
trailed  arms,  and  in  every  variety  of  posture,  bending,   prostrate, 

1  Capt.  Bufus  Avery. 


660  HISTORY     OP    NBW    LONDON. 

dropping,  half-up,  rosbhig  forwat^,  and  still  keeping  a  kind  of  order, 
as  goaded  on  by  their  officers,  in  the  face  of  a  deadly  fire,  they  came 
up  against  the  south-west  bastion,  and  the  south  and  west  sides  of  the 
fort.  They  were  met  with  a  steady,  quick,  obstinate  fire ;  CoL  Eyre, 
mortally  wounded,  was  borne  from  the  field ;  three  other  officers  of 
the  fifly-fourth  regiment  fell.^  Major  Montgomery,  in  the  mean  time» 
came  up  in  solid  column,  bearing  round  toward  the  north  with  his 
division,  and  threw  himself  into  the  redoubt,  east  of  the  fort,  which 
had  been  abandoned.'  From  thence  rushing  down  with  great  fury, 
he  effected  a  lodgment  in  the  ditch,  and  a  second  lodgment  upon  the 
rampart,  or  fraising,  which  was  defended  by  strong  inclined  pickets, 
that  could  with  difficulty  be  forced  out  or  broken,  and  was  so  hig^ 
that  the  soldiers  could  not  ascend  without  assisting  each  other.'  The 
vigor  of  the  attack,  and  the  firmness  of  the  defense,  were  both  admi- 
rable. The  Americans,  having  no  better  method  of  opposing  them, 
poured  down  cold  shot,  nine-pounders,  and  every  variety  of  missile, 
that  could  be  seized,  upon  the  heads  of  the  assailants.^  Many  a  bold 
man  was  cut  down  as  he  was  hoisted  up  through  the  pickets,  but  his 
place  was  instantly  supplied  by  another  as  desperate  and  determined. 
The  assailants  conquered  by  numbers.  Arnold,'  in  his  report,  notices 
this  obstinate  contest : 

**  Here  the  coolness  and  bravery  of  the  troops  were  very  conspicuous,  as  th« 
first  who  ascended  the  fraisc  were  obliged  to  silence  a  nine-pounder  which  en- 
filaded the  place  on  which  they  stood,  until  a  sufiicient  body  had  collected  to 
enter  the  works,  which  was  done  with  fixed  bayonets,  through  the  embrasures, 
where  they  were  opposed  with  great  obstinacy  by  the  garrison,  with  long"  spears. 
On  this  occasion  I  have  to  regret  the  loss  of  Major  Montgomery,  who  was  lulled 
by  a  spear  in  entering  the  enemy's  works ;  also  of  Ensign  Whitlock,  of  the 
fortieth  regiment,  who  was  killed  in  the  attack.  Three  other  officers  of  the 
same  regiment  were  wounded." 

When  Major  Montgomery  fell,*  his  followers,  with  terrific  cries, 
rushed  in  to  avenge  him.     One  after  another  they  poured  in  through 

1  Arnold.  2  Avery.  8  Arnold. 

4  Samuel  Edgecombe,  a  stout,  lion-hearted  man,  who  survived  the  battle,  stated 
that  they  threw  down  cold  shot  like  a  shower  of  hail,  upon  the  assailants,  but  it 
scarcely  checked  them  a  moment,  so  ilirious  was  their  onset.  Joseph^  Woodmancy, 
another  of  the  garrison,  stood  at  his  post  with  such  cool  concentration  of  purpose  that 
he  kept  count  while  he  loaded  and  fired  eighteen  times. 

5  It  has  been  stated  that  Jordan  Freeman,  a  colored  man,  was  the  person  who  con- 
fronted and  killed  Montgomery.  Hempstead's  account  gives  the  credit  to  Capt.  Shap- 
ley ,  but  the  latter  was  engaged  on  the  other  side  of  the  fort 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  661 

the  embrasures,  and  clearing  the  path  before  them,  made  a  desperate 
attempt  to  force  open  the  nearest  gate.  This  was  not  accomplished 
without  a  struggle.  The  first  man  who  attempted  it,  lost  his  life  in  a 
moment.*  But  the  garrison  was  soon  overpowered,  the  gate  opened^ 
and  the  troops  from  without  rushed  in,  swinging  their  caps  and  shout- 
ing like  madmen. 

All  the  accounts  of  the  battle  given  hy  Americans  who  were  in  the 
fort,  agree,  that  at  this  point,  the  north-east  bastion  being  carried,  the 
enemy  within  the  fort,  and  the  gate  forced.  Col.  Ledyard  ordered  all 
resistance  to  cease,  and  the  garrison  to  throw  down  their  arms.  This 
was  immediately  done,  but  it  had  no  influence  in  checking  the  rage 
of  the  enemy.  They  continued  to  fire  from  the  parapets  upon  the 
disarmed  men,  and  to  hew  down  all  they  met,  as  they  crossed  the  in- 
closure,  to  unbolt  the  southern  gate. 

In  the  mean  time  the  resistance  was  still  continued  at  the  south- 
west bastion,  by  a  few  brave  men  who  knew  not  what  had  taken 
place  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  fort.  Against  these  the  enemy 
turned  the  cannon  of  the  north  bastion,  and  giving  them  two  volleys 
in  quick  succession,  mowed  them  down  like  grass.  Capt.  Shapley 
and  Lieut.  Richard  Chapman  fell  at  this  point  Those  who  sur- 
vived retreated  within  the  fort  and  threw  down  their  arms. 

The  resistance  being  thus  continued  in  one  quarter  afler  the  actual 
surrender  of  the  fort,  gives  some  color  to  the  excuse  which  has  been 
offered  in  palliation  of  the  excesses  of  the  British,  that  the  garrison 
obstinately  persisted  in  fighting  after  the  surrender.  It  is  said  also, 
that  during  the  attack,  an  unlucky  shot  at  the  fiag-staff  brought  the 
colors  down,  and  though  the  fiag  was  instantly  remounted  on  a  pike 
pole,  the  enemy  regarding  it  as  a  token  of  surrender,  rushed  unguard- 
edly to  the  gates,  expecting  them  to  be  opened,  and  were  saluted 
with  a  heavy  fire.  This  seeming  deception,  it  is  alleged,  exaspera- 
ted the  troops,  and  led  to  the  barbarous  massacre  that  followed  the 
reduction  of  the  fort.  No  allusion  to  any  such  mitigating  circum- 
stances is  made  in  the  British  official  accounts  of  the  affair ;  nor  were 
they  pleaded  by  them  in  that  day.  These  excuses  seem  to  be  after- 
thoughts, suggested  by  the  difficulty  of  accounting  for  that  almost  in- 
sane thirst  of  blood  displayed  by  the  conquerors. 

When  the  south  gate  was  opened,  the  enemy  marched  in,  firing  in 
platoons  upon  those  who  were  retreating  to  the  magazine  and  barrack 
rooms  for  safety.'     The  officer  at  the  head  of  this  division,  supposed 

1  Avery.  2  Avery,  Hempstead  and  others. 


562  HISTORY     OP    NEW    LONDON. 

bj  some  to  have  been  Major  Bromfield,^  as  the  superior  command 
had  devolved  upon  him,  cried  out,  as  he  entered,  **  Who  commands 
this  fort  P'  "  I  did,  sir,  bat  you  do  now,"  replied  CoL  Ledjard,  rais- 
ing and  lowering  his  sword,  in  token  of  submission,  and  advancing  to 
present  it  to  him.  The  ferocious  officer  received  the  sword,  and 
plunged  it  up  to  the  hilt  in  the  owner's  bosom ;  while  his  attendants 
rushing  upon  the  falling  hero,  dispatched  him  with  their  bayonets. 
CapU  Peter  Richards,  a  young  man  of  noble  disposition  and  gallant 
bearing,  who  though  severely  wounded,  was  standing  by  Col.  Led- 
yard,  leaning  on  his  espontoon,  Capt.  Youngs  Ledywrd,  the  nephew  of 
the  commander,  and  several  other  brave  men,  enraged  at  this  barbar- 
ous act,  and  perceiving  that  no  quarter  was  to  be  expected  from  such 
savage  foes,  rushed  forward  to  avenge  their  murdered  friend  and  sell 
their  lives  as  dearly  as  possible.  They  were  all  cut  down ;  some  of 
them  were  found  afterward  pierced  with  twenty  or  thirty  wounds. 

There  was  no  block-house  to  this  fort ;  the  parade  was  open,  and 
as  the  British  marched  in,  company  after  company,  they  shot  or  bay- 
oneted every  American  they  saw  standing.  Three  {^atoons,  each  of 
ten  or  twelve  men,  fired  in  succession,  into  the  magazine,  amid  the 
confused  mass  of  living  men  that  had  fied  thither  for  shelter,  the 
dying  and  the  dead.  This  fiend-like  sport  was  terminated  by  the 
British  commander,  as  soon  as  be  observed  it,  not  on  the  plea  of  hu- 
manity, but  from  fear  for  their  own  safety,  lest  the  powder  deposited 
in  the  magazine,  or  scattered  near,  might  be  fired,  and  they  should 
all  be  blown  up  together.  An  explosion,  it  was  thought,  might  have 
taken  place  even  earlier  than  this,  had  not  the  scattered  powder  and 
every  thing  around  been  saturated  with  human  blood. 

In  the  barrack  rooms,  and  other  parts  of  the  fort,  the  butchery  still 
went  on.  Those  who  were  killed,  seemed  to  have  been  killed  three 
or  four  times  over,  by  the  havoc  made  of  them.  A  few  of  the  garri- 
son crept  under  the  platforms  to  conceal  themselves,  but  were  ferreted 
out  with  bayonets  thrust  into  them  ;  several  had  their  hands  mangled 
by  endeavoring  to  ward  off  the  steel  from  their  faces  or  bosoms. 
Some  attempted  to  leap  over  the  parapets,  but  were  mostly  arrested 
and^lain.  One  man,  by  the  name  of  Mallison,  escaped  in  this  way ; 
being  tall,  stout  and  active,  he  leaped  from  the  platform  over  the  par- 
apet, and  with  another  bound  cleared  the  pickets  and  came  down  in 


1  Hiyor  Bromfleld,  or  Bloomfield,  as  he  is  generally  called  by  the  Americans,  was 
afterward  promoted  in  the  East  India  service. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  663 

the  ditch,  and  though  half  a  dozen  muskets  were  discharged  at  him, 
he  escaped  unhurt. 

William  Seymour,  of  Hartford,  a  nephew  of  Col.  Ledyard,  who 
being  in  Groton  at  the  time,  had  gone  into  the  fort  as  a  volunteer, 
received  thirteen  bayonet  wounds,  after  his  knee  had  been  shattered 
by  a  ball.^  Ensign  Woodmancy  was  gashed  in  his  arms  and  hands 
with  strokes  of  a  cutlass,  as  he  lay  wounded  and  partly  sheltered  by 
a  platform.  Lieut.  Parke  Avery,  afler  having  lost  an  eye,  and  had 
his  skull  broken,  and  some  of  the  brains  shot  out,  was  bayoneted  in 
the  side,  as  he  lay  faint  and  bleeding  on  the  ground.  What  is  very 
surprising,  he  recovered  and  lived  forty  years  afterward.  Lieut.  Ste- 
phen Hempstead  had  his  lefl  arm  and  several  of  his  ribs  broken,  and 
a  severe  bayonet  wound  in  his  side.  It  was  eleven  months  before  he 
recovered. 

Some  of  the  British  officei*3  at  length  exerted  themselves  to  restrain 
the  excited  soldiei*y,  and  stop  the  massacre.  The  surviving  Ameri- 
cans used  to  relate  that  an  officer  ran  from  place  to  place  with  a 
drawn  sword  in  his  hand,  exclaiming  with  agony  in  his  countenance, 
"  Stop !  stop !  in  the  name  of  heaven,  I  say,  stop !  my  soul  can't  bear 
it."  Some  have  supposed  this  to  have  been  Capt.  Beckwith,  while 
others  have  branded  that  officer  as  the  murderer  of  Ledyard.^  It  is 
well,  perhaps,  that  the  person  who  committed  that  barbarous  deed 
has  not  been  ascertained  with  certainty.  Let  him  forever  remain 
unknown  and  unnamed. 

Light  and  darkness  are  not  more  opposed  to  each  other  than  the 
views  taken  by  the  conquerors  and  the  conquered,  of  the  storming  of 
Fort  Griswold.     Arnold  observes: 

**  After  a  most  obstinate  defense  of  near  forty  minutes  the  fort  was  carried  by 
the  superior  bravery  and  perseverance  of  the  assailants." 

He  says  also  that  eighty-five  men  were  found  dead  in  the  fort,  and 
sixty  wounded,  most  of  them  mortally;  intimating  by  this  wordybw/i<f, 
that  they  were  killed  in  the  attack,  and  not  after  the  surrender.     Sir 


1  This  is  stated  in  Hempstead's  narrative. 

2  Capt.  Beckwith  acted  as  aid  to  Lieut.-Col.  Eyre,  and  after  the  death  of  the  hitter, 
led  on  his  men  to  a  bold  charge  upon  the  fort,  being  one  of  the  first  officers  that  entered 
the  works.  He  was  afterward  promoted  in  the  king's  service,  and  was  at  one  time 
appointed  governor  of  Barbndoes.  On  his  way  to  tliis  government,  he  landed  in  New 
York,  and  while  there  was  announced  in  the  public  papers  as  the  murderer  of  Led- 
yard.  Capt.  Beckwith  indignantly  denied  the  charge,  and  a  relative  of  Ledyard 
having  opened  a  correspondence  with  him,  he  submitted  to  him  certain  documents  and 
proo&  that  enthrely  exculpated  him  from  any  share  in  the  massacre. 


564  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

Henrj  Clinton,  in  his  dispatch  to  England,  indosiag  Arnold's  report, 
remarks : 

**  The  assault  of  Fort  Griswold,  which  is  represented  as  a  work  of  very  great 
strength,  and  the  carrying  it  by  coap  de  mnin,  notwithstanding  the  very  obsti- 
nate resistance  of  the  garrison,  will  impress  the  enemy  with  every  apprehen- 
sion of  the  ardor  of  British  troops,  and  will  hereafter  be  remembered  with  the 
greatest  honor  to  the  fortieth  and  fifty-fourth  regiments,  and  their  leaders,  to 
whose  share  the  attack  fell." 

The  closing  scenes  of  the  tragedy  were  in  keeping  with  the  other 
acts.  The  prisoners,  the  wounded  and  the  dead,  were  all  alike  plun- 
dered by  the  soldiers,  till  they  were  left  nearly  naked.  The  wounded 
lay  in  the  hot  sun  without  water,  without  medical  care,  without  cov- 
ering, for  two  or  three  haurs.  The  British  were  busily  engaged  in 
taking  care  of  their  own  dead  and  wounded,  and  disposing  of  the 
plunder.*  Col.  Eyre,  and  all  the  other  wounded  men,  were  carried 
on  board  the  transports.  Major  Montgomery  was  interred  in  the 
space  fronting  the  gate,  not  very  far  from  the  spot  where  he  felL 
Several  other  officers  were  buried  near  him.  About  forty  of  their 
common  soldiery  were  hastily  thrown  into  pits,  several  together,  and 
scarcely  covered  with  earth.  • 

Of  the  garrison,  eighty-five,  who  were  entirely  dead,  were  stripped 
and  left  in  the  fort  Those  who  were  regarded  as  mortally  or  very 
dangerously  wounded,  about  thirty-five  in  number,  were  paroled,  to 
be  left  behind  ;  thirty  others,  most  of  them  wounded,  were  marched 
down  to  the  landing  to  be  carried  away  as  prisoners." 

The  last  thing  to  be  done  by  the  enemy  was  to  set  fire  to  the  mag- 
azine and  blow  up  the  fort  Preparatory  to  this,  the  helpless  Amer^ 
icans  must  be  removed.  Every  thing  was  done  in  the  greatest  pos- 
sible haste — the  movements  of  the  enemy  show  fear  and  trepidation, 
as  if  afraid  the  hills  would  fall  on  them  before  they  could  finish  their 
task  and  get  away.     The  soldiers  ran,  rather  than  walked,  hundreds 


1  William  Seymour  was  the  only  one  of  the  garrison  whose  wounds  were  dressed 
by  a  British  surgeon.  He  owed  this  courtesy  to  Capt.  Beckwith,  with  whom  he  had 
previously  some  acquaintance,  having  met  him  in  New  York,  when  sent  thither  to 
negotiate  an  exchange  of  prisoners.  Seymour  was  a  son  of  Col.  Thomas  Se}nnour, 
of  Hartford,  and  uncle  of  T.  H.  Seymour,  the  present  governor  of  Connecticut. 

2  Of  this  number  was  Capt  Rufus  Avery,  then  orderly  sergeant  of  the  garrison, 
who  wrote  the  narrative  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in  the  foregoing  account 
Capt.  £l\}ah  Bailey  was  another  of  the  prisoners,  and  probably  the  latest  survivor  of 
the  garrison.  He  died  August  24th,  1848,  aged  ninety,  having  been  for  the  last  forty 
years  of  his  life,  postmaster  at  Groton. 


HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON*  565 

q(  times  up  and  down  that  st^ep  declivity,  removing  their  wounded, 
dragging  their  plunder,  driving  their  prisoners ;  and  now  the  heaps  of 
fainting,  neglected  men,  lying  upon  the  ground,  are  roughly  rolled  upon 
boards  and  tossed  into  a  large  ammunition  wagon,  one  upon  another, 
groaning  and  bleeding,  those  below  nearly  &tifled  with  the  weight  of 
those  above.  About  twenty  soldiers  were  then  employed  to  drag  this 
wagon  down  the  hill,  to  a  safe  distance  from  the  expected  explosion. 
From  the  brow  of  the  ridge  on  which  the  fort  stood,  to  the  brink  of 
the  river,  was  a  rapid  descent  of  one  hundred  rods,  uninterrupted 
except  by  the  roughness  of  the  surface,  and  by  scattered  rocks, 
bushes,  and  stumps  of  trees.  The  weight  of  the  wagon  after  it  had 
begun  to  move,  pressing  heavily  upon  the  soldiers,  they  let  go  their 
hold,  and  darting  aside,  left  it  to  its  own  impetus.  On  it  went,  with 
accelerated  velocity,  surmounting  every  impediment,  till  near  the  foot 
of  the  hill,  when  it  came  against  the  trunk  of  a  large  apple-tree,  with 
a  force  that  caused  it  to  recoil  and  sway  round.  This  arrested  its 
course,  but  gave  a  sudden  access  of  torture  to  the  sufferers.  The 
violence  of  the  shock  is  said  to  have  caused  instant  death  to  some  of 
them;  others  fainted,  and  two  or  three  were  thrown  out  to  the 
ground.*  The  enemy,  after  a  time,  gathered  up  the  bleeding  men, 
and  carried  them  into  a  house  near  by,  belonging  to  Ensign  Avery, 
who  was  himself  one  of  the  party  in  the  wagon.  The  house  had 
been  previously  set  on  fire,  but  they  extinguished  the  flames,  and  left 
the  wounded  men  there  on  parole,  taking  as  hostage  for  them,  £ben- 
ezer  Ledyard,  brother  of  the  commander  of  the  fort. 

The  village  of  Groton  consisted  of  a  single  street  on  the  bank  of 
the  river.  The  house  of  Thomas  Mumford  was  singled  out  and  burnt. 
The  enemy  plundered  and  burnt  several  other  dwelling-houses  and 
shops,  leaving  but  a  few  buildings  of  any  kind  standing.  About  sun-  » 
set  they  began  to  embark  on  both  sides  of  the  river ;  a  delay  of  two 
hours  would  probably  have  changed  the  evacuation  into  a  flight,  for 
the  militia  were  gathering  under  their  officers,  and  all  the  roads  to 
the  town  were  full  of  men  and  boys,  with  every  kind  of  armor,  from 
club  and  pitchfork  to  musket  and  spontoon,  hurrying  to  the  onset. 

A  rear-guard  was  left  at  Groton  fort,  with  orders  after  all  had 


1  Lieut  Stephen  Hempstead,  who  wrote  a  brief  but  interesting  narrative  of  these 
events,  and  was  himself  one  of  the  woimded  men  in  the  wagon,  says  that  the  shrieks 
drawn  from  them  by  agony,  when  they  rebounded  from  the  tree,  were  distinctly 
heard  and  noticed  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  amid  all  the  confusion  produced  by 
the  sacking  and  burning  of  the  town. 

48 


566  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

decamped,  to  take  the  necessary  measures  to  blow  up  the  magazine, 
burn  the  barracks,  and  entirely  destroy  the  works,  from  which  all  but 
the  mournful  heaps  of  dead  had  been  removed. 
Gen.  Arnold's  report  states : 

f>  A  very  considerable  magazine  of  powder,  and  barracks  to  contain  300 
men,  were  found  In  Fort  Griswold,  which  Capt,  Lemoine,  of  the  Koyal  Artille- 
ry, had  my  positive  directions  to  destroy ;  an  attempt  was  made  by  him,  but 
unfortunately  failed.  He  had  my  orders  to  make  a  second  attempt ;  the  reasons 
why  it  was  not  done,  Capt.  Lemoine  will  have  the  honor  to  explain  to  your 
Excellency.** 

It  is  supposed  to  have  been  late  in  the  evening  when  Capt.  Le- 
moine and  hik  men,  having  laid  a  train  of  powder  from  the  barracks 
to  the  magazine,  kindled  a  fire  in  the  barracks,  and  retreated  to  the 
ships.  Without  doubt  Arnold  and  his  officers  gazed  intently  on  the 
fort,  as  they  slowly  sailed  down  the  river,  expecting  every  moment 
the  fatal  explosion,  and  were  keenly  disappointed  at  the  result.  No 
explosion  followed,  but  the  failure  was  not  owing  to  remissness  or 
want  of  skill  in  the  royal  artillerist. 

Under  cover  of  the  night,  a  number  of  Americans  had  cautiously 
approached  the  fort,  even  before  it  was  evacuated  by  the  conquerors ; 
and  as  soon  as  the  rear-guard  of  the  enemy  had  retreated  down  the. 
hill,  and  the  dip  of  their  oars  was  heard  in  the  water,  they  hastened 
to  the  gate  of  the  fort.  Major  Peters,  of  Norwich,  is  understood  to 
have  first  reached  the  spot.  Perceiving  the  barracks  on  fire  and  the 
train  laid,  without  a  moment's  hesitation  he  periled  life  by  entering 
the  gate,  and  being  well  acquainted  with  the  interior  arrangements, 
rushed  to  the  pump  for  water  to  extinguish  the  fire.  Here  he  found 
nothing  that  would  hold  water  but  an  old  cartridge-box ;  the  spout 
of  the  pump  likewise  had  been  removed  ;  but  notwithstanding  these 
disadvantages,  he  succeeded  in  interrupting  the  communication  be- 
tween the  burning  barracks  and  the  powder.  The  heroism  of  this 
act  can  not  be  too  highly  applauded.^  Others  were  soon  on  the  spot, 
and  the  fire  was  entirely  subdued.  These  adventurous  men  suppo- 
sed that  the  wounded  as  well  as  the  dead  had  been  left  by  the  enemy 


1  Miyor  Peters  held  a  captain's  commission  at  Roxbuiy  m  1776,  and  in  1778  was 
appointed  a  major  m  Gen.  Tyler's  brigade.  He  served  in  several  campaigns  during 
the  war.  The  exploit  noticed  in  the  text,  has  been  attributed  to  others,  but  docu- 
mentary evidence  afterward  exhibited  at  the  pension  office,  gives  to  him  the  honor  of 
having  been  the  first  man  who  entered  the  fort  after  its  evacuation  by  the  enemy,  ani 
of  having  had  the  chief  agency  in  extinguishing  the  fire. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  567 

to  be  blown  into  the  air,  and  it  was  to  preserve  them  from  this  awful 
fate  that  they  hazarded  their  lives  by  entering  the  fort.  The  fire 
being  quenched,  they  hastened  to  examine  the  heaps  of  human  forms 
that  lay  around,  but  found  no  lingering  warmth,  no  sign  to  indicate 
that  life  yet  hovered  in  the  frame,  and  might  be  recalled  to  conscious- 
ness. Major  Peters  easily  selected  the  lifeless  remains  of  his  friend 
CoL  Ledyard.  His  strongly  marked  features,  calm  and  serene  in 
death,  could  not  be  mistaken. 

As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  the  British  had  re-embarked,  all 
Groton  was  moved,  inquiring  for  her  sons.  Women  and  children  as- 
sen^led  before  the  morning  dawn,  with  tor^^hes  in  their  hands,  exam- 
ining the  dead  and  wounded  in  search  of  their  friends.  They  passed 
the  light  from  &Lce  to  face,  but  so  bloody  and  mangled  were  they — 
their  features  so  distorted  with  the  energy  of  resistance,  or  the  con- 
vulsion, of  pain,  that  in  many  cases  the  wife  could  not  identify  her 
husband  or  the  mother  her  son.  Wh^n  a  mournful  recognition  did 
take  place,  piteous  were  the  groans  and  lamentations  that  succeeded. 
Forty  widows  had  been  made  that  day,  all  residing  near  the  scene  of 
action.  A  woman,  searching  for  her  husband  among  the  slain, 
cleansed  the  gore  from  more  than  thirty  faces  before  she  found  the 
remains  she  sought 

The  wounded  men,  left  in  that  lonely  house  at  the  foot  of  the  hill, 
passed  a  night  of  inexpressible  pain  and  anguish.  Morning  at  last 
came,  and  gentle  forms  began  to  flit  before  their  eyes.  To  these 
poor,  exhausted  men,  the  females  who  raised  their  heads  from  the 
bare  floor,  and  held  cordiab  and  warm  chocolate  to  their  lips,  seemed 
ministering  angels  sent  from  another  world  to  their  relief. 

Dr.  Joshua  Downer,  of  Preston,  surgeon  of  the  regiment  on  that 
side  of  the  river,  with  his  son,  came  early  to  the  relief  of  the  suffer- 
ers, dressing  their  wounds  with  skill  and  tenderness.  Two  had  died 
during  the  night,  but  most  of  the  others  finally  recovered.  Capt. 
Adam  Shapley  was  an  exception  ;  he  languished  for  five  months,  en- 
during great  pain  from  his  wounds,  and  died  Feb.  14th,  1782. 

Fourteen  among  the  dead,  and  three  among  the  wounded,  bore  the 
title  of  captain.  Captains  Elisha  Avery  and  Henry  Williams  had 
served  in  the  continental  army ;  the  others  bore  that  rank  in  the 
militia,  or  were  commanders  of  vessels.  Of  the  killed,  sixty  belonged 
to  Groton  and  twelve  to  New  London.  Eleven  bore  the  name  of 
Avery,  six  that  of  Perkins.  When  Ledyard  gave  up  his  sword,  few 
of  the  garrison  had  fallen  ;  at  least  three-fourths  of  the  killed  were 
sacrificed  after  the  surrender.    Among  them  were  several  of  such 


568  HISTORY     OF     NEW    LONDON. 

tender  age,  that  they  could  not  be  called  men.  Daniel  Williams,  of 
Sajbrook,  was  perhaps  the  youngest ;  his  grayestone  bears  an  in- 
scription which,  though  brief  and  simple,  is  full  of  pathetic  meaning. 

**  Fell  in  the  action  at  Fort  Griswolcl,  on  Groton  Hill,  in  the  fifteenth  year  of 
his  age." 

One  boy  of  sixteen,  escaped  unhurt  Thomas,  son  of  Lieut.  Pari^e 
Avery,  aged  seventeen,  was  killed  fighting  by  the  side  of  his  father. 
Just  before  he  fell,  his  i^ther,  finding  the  battle  growing  hot,  turned 
and  said,  "  Tom,  my  son,  do  your  duty."  "  Never  fear,  father,"  was 
the  reply,  and  the  next  minute  he  was  stretched  upon  the  groiyMl. 
^  'Us  in  a  good  cause,"  said  the  father,  and  remained  firm  at  his  post. 

The  loss  of  the  British,  according  to  Arnold's  report,  was  forty- 
eight  killed  and  one  hundred  and  forty-five  .wounded.  Many  of  the 
latter  died  before  they  returned  to  New  Yo A,  and  were  buried  in 
the  sea,  or  on  the  shores  of  Plum  and  Gardiner's  Islands,  near  which 
the  fleet  anchored.^  They  were  eight  days  absent  on  the  expedition. 
Some  of  the  British  officers  estimated  that  the  number  of  sound  men 
with  which  they  returned,  was  two  hundred  and  twenty  less  than 
that  with  which  they  started.  On  the  New  London  side  <rf  the  river, 
the  havoc  of  human  life  was  nearly  equal  in  the  British  and  Ameri- 
can  ranks ;  about  half  a  dozen  killed  and  a  dozen  wounded  on  each 
side.  A  Hessian  officer  and  seven  men  were  taken  prisoners  by  the 
Americans.  A  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  New  London  and  Gro- 
ton were  taken  and  carried  away  by  the  British.  They  had  remain- 
ed too  adventurously  to  take  care  ctf  their  property,  or  lingered  too 
long  in  removing  effects,  or  were  suddenly  seized  by  some  flanking 
party.  These,  together  with  the  captives  from  Fort  Griswold,  were 
treated  with  great  severity ;  more  like  cattle  than  men.  On  the  way 
to  New  York,  they  suffered  every  indignity  that  language  could  im- 
pose in  the  way  of  scorn,  contempt  and  execration ;  and  being  driven 
into  the  city  with  their  hands  bopnd,  were  confined  in  the  noted 
Sugar-house. 

The  next  morning,  at  daylight,  the  fleet  of  the  enemy  was  seen  at 


1  Gapt  William  Coit,  one  of  the  prisoners  carried  from  New  London,  stated  that 
tiiirteen  died  the  first  night  on  hoard  the  transport  he  was  in,  and  were  let  down  into 
the  sea  while  they  lay  at  anchor  in  Gardiner*s  Bay.  As  the  nnmher  was  called  ont, 
when  they  came  to  thirteen,  Capt.  Colt,  who. was  on  deck,  exclaimed,  imprompto, 
"  Jutt  one  for  every  state!"  The  words  were  scarcely  uttered,  before  the  officer  on 
dnty,  flonrishing  a  weapon  over  his  head,  knocked  his  hat  overboard — ^he  was  conse- 
quently driven  into  New  York  bareheaded. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON*  669 

anchor  off  the  mouth  of  the  harbor.  They  made  sail  at  8  o'clock, 
)i)ut  were  in  sight  an  hour  or  two  longer.  By  this  time,  the  whole 
surrounding  country  was  in  motion.^  All  the  militia,  all  who 
had  friends  on  the  sea-board,  all  who  hated  the  British,  all  who  were 
impelled  by  curiosity,  came  rushing  to  the  scene  of  desolation,  min- 
gled with  the  fugitives  returning  after  a  dismal  night  of  terror  and 
anxiety,  to  their  forlorn  homes.  On  the  heights  in  view  of  the  town, 
they  paused  and  gave  vent  to  lamentations  and  cries  of  anguish  over 
the  smoking  ruins. 

That  the  enemy  suffered  so  little  annoyance  on  the  New  London 
side,  and  were  allowed  to  retire  unmolested  to  their  ships,  has  been 
attributed  to  the  want  of  an  efficient  leader  to  concentrate  and  direct 
their  force.  But  even  under  the  ablest  commander,  no  position  of 
attack  or  defense  could  have  been  sustained.  What  could  be  effected 
by  a  motley  assemblage  of  two  hundred  citizens,  against  a  compact 
army  of  one  thousand  disciplined  soldiers !  It  was  well  that  no  dar- 
ing leader  came  forward  to  germinate  and  encourage  rash  attempts, 
whose  only  result  must  have  been  a  duplicate  of  the  slaughter  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river.  A  single  spark  more,  to  kindle  indignation 
to  a  flame,  and  the  inhabitants  had  come  rushing  down  on  the  enemy 
to  pour  out  their  blood  like  water. 

A  single  anecdote  will  suffice  to  show  the  spirit  of  the  inhabitants, 
male  and  female.  A  farmer,  whose  residence  was  a  couple  of  miles 
from  the  town-plot,  on  hearing  the  alarm-guns  in  the  morning,  started 
from  his  bed  and  made  instant  preparations  to  hasten  to  the  scene  of 
action.  He  secreted  his  papers,  took  gun  and  cartridge-box,  bade 
farewell  to  his  family,  and  mounted  and  put  spurs  to  his  horse. 
When  about  four  or  five  rods  from  the  door,  his  wife  called  after 
liiin — he  turned  to  receive  her  last  commands — "  John  !  John  I "  she 
exclaimed,  "  dofCt  get  shot  in  the  hack  I " 

The  loss  of  New  London  from  this  predatory  visit,  can  only  be 
given  in  its  main  items :  sixty-five  dwelling-houses  were  burnt,  occu- 
pied by  ninety-seven  families  ;  thirty-one  mercantile  stores  and  ware- 
houses, eighteen  mechanic's  shops,  twenty  bams,  and  nine  other 
buildings^  for  public  use,  including  the  Episcopal  church,  court-house, 
jwl,  market,  custom-house,  &c.     Nearly  all  the  wharfing  of  the  town 


•  1  The  regiment  ftx)m  Norwich,  tmder  Col.  Zabdiel  Bogere,  was  the  first  upon  the 
ground.  It  arrived  early  in  the  evening.  Wm.  Williams,  Esq.,  of  Lebanon,  rode  finon^ 
Lebanon  to  New  London  in  three  hours,  (twenty-three  miles,)  on  horseback.  The 
enamj  were  just  preparing  to  embark  when  he  arrived. 

48« 


870  HIBTORY     OF     NEW    LONDO^f, 

was  destroyed,  and  all  the  sshiptjing  in  port,  except  sixteen  sloops  aod 
sehiX)ners  which  escaped  up  the  river* 

"  Ted  or  twelve  ahipswore  burned,  among  Ehera  ikrae  ot  four  ^rmed  veMfeU* 
and  otio  loadod  witb  naval  stores ;  an  immens&  quantity  of  European  and  Weat 
India  goods  M'ere  found  in  tlie  storea^ — atnong  dm  Joriner  tlie  cargo  of  the  Han- 
nali,  Csxpt,  Waison,  from  London,  latHy  captured  hy  the  ttnerayj  the  whole  af 
which  wna  hurnl  with  the  stori?*.  Upward  of  fifty  pieee^  of  iron  cannon  were 
destfoyod  in  the  dLSiereal  work^,  ezcluilTe  of  the  guns  of  the  Bhip«."  (Arnold** 
r<?pori.) 

The  General  Assemblj  of  the  state,  in  1793,  compensated  the  suf- 
ferers in  part,  by  grants  of  land  in  the  western  reservation,  lieltJtigmg 
to  the  :^tate,  on  Lake  Erie,  winch  were  called,  from  this  eircum^tauec, 
the  fire  landR.  But  this  late  attempt  at  i-eeompense,  was  in  ntost  in- 
stanees  nugntorv ;  very  few  of  the  real  sufferers  ever  received  any 
benefit  frrun  it.  The  losses  of  individuals  cannot  be  estimated,  Ka- 
thanlel  Shaw  stated  hi^  personal  los;?  at  more  than  £  1 2fiO0  sterling. 

On  the  15th  of  May,  1782,  Mr.  Greene  Plumbe,  rate-collector, 
came  into  the  toWD-meeting,  and  a.5?ked  and  obtained  an  abatement 
on  the  rate-btll  of  1780,  totaling  that  a  i^nm  of  money  which  he  had 
collected  on  said  bill^  was  plundered  from  his  house  when  the  Brtti.*!i 
invaded  the  town,  Augtist  Cth,  1781,  This  is  the  only  aUusiion  to  the 
great  event  oti  the  toi^'n  reconls,  of  a  date  any  where  near  the  time, 
and  in  this  there  is  a-  mis-statement  of  the  month,  whieli  was  stii^i 
of  September,  not  sixth  of  Angui^t. 

Ten  yeat*s  after  the  eouflagrationj  it  is  referred  to  again : 

^*  April  ISih,  17tll. 

*'  Yott'd,  ihsit  John  Dcshoa,  E9i|,,  is  chosen  agi^nt  for  this  town*  to  attend  the 
Cortitniitee  appoinlod  by  the  Gcm-ral  A5-K*nibly  to  necortatu  the  losstas  «f  Uie 
BQ tTe reta  at  the  firt*  in  this  lawn  in  the  year  1781/* 

The  probate  records  are  not  thus  silent.  A  portion  of  the^  fi- 
ords was  destroyed,  and  in  conset|uence,  some  estates  were  obliged 
to  be  settled  anew,  and  sevi-ral  wills  were  legalized  by  the  legi^lnluro 
h'Qui  copies  of  them  which  had  been  made.  It  is  not  known  wlwiro 
the  prabate  records  w*ere  lodged,  either  the  part  de^ti'oyed,,  tir  til© 
part  saved.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  those  pres en-ed  wens  wilk 
the  town  records  in  Water  ford,  A  note  made  a  few  years  ktor  by 
the  clerk  speeides  the  particular  portion  lost : 

"  On  the  6th  of  Sept,,  17 Si,  were  humt  tiie  records  ol'  wlU*,  &q*,  tram  ihe  he* 
ginnlag — flle^  s^inee  the  year  1777,  and  journab  from  April  I7(K3 ;  50  thot  thutc 
are  remaining  bft6*e  Sept.  Gtli,  ITSI,  the  JournaU  from  ih*  flnst  to  the  B2d  o£ 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON.  571 

April,  1763,  and  files  from  the  b«ginning  to  the  jear  1777  inolosive — ^unless  scat- 
tering ones  missing. 

"  Certified  Jan.  28th,  1788,  Joshua  Coit,'  Clerk  of  the  Probate  District  of  New 
London." 

The  anniversary  of  the  massacre  at  Groton  fort  was  celebrated  for 
manj  years  with  sad  solemnity.  Within  the  inclosure  of  the  old 
wall  of  the  fortress,  where  the  victims  had  been  heaped  up  and  the 
blood  flowed  around  in  rivulets,  sermons  were  annually  preached  and 
all  the  details  of  the  terrible  event  rehearsed.  In  1784  the  preacher 
was  Eev.  Solomon  Morgan  of  Canterbury;  in  1785,  Rev.  Samuel 
Nott  of  Norwich ;  (that  part  of  Norwich  which  is  now  Franklin, 
where  the  preacher  died  May  26th,  1852,  aged  ninety-eight  years 
and  four  months  ;)  and  in  1786,  Rev.  Paul  Parke  of  Preston. 

In  the  year  1789,  Rev.  Henry  Channing  of  New  London  deliver- 
ed the  annual  sermon.  His  text  was — "If  thine  enemy  hunger,  give 
him  bread  to  eat ;  if  he  thirst,  give  him  drink."  Unlike  the  usual  tone 
of  such  discourses,  which  had  served  to  keep  alive  the  remembrance 
of  the  country's  wrongs,  the  speaker  recommended  forgiveness,  peace 
and  reconciliation.  The  British  were  no  longer  our  declared  ene- 
mies :  why  cherish  this  envenomed  spirit  ?  The  actors  in  that  awful 
tragedy  were  passing  away  to  their  final  award:  does  it  become 
Christians  to  follow  them  with  their  reproaches  to  another  world  ? 
Should  they  nourish  the  bitter  root  of  hatred  in  the  heart,  and  attrib- 
ute to  a  whole  nation,  the  crimes  of  a  few  exasperated  soldiers  ? 

Through  the  effect  of  this  sermon,  or  the  diversion  of  public  sen- 
timent from  some  otjier  cause,  the  celebrations  were  discontinued  for 
many  years.  In  the  course  of  time,  however,  a  desire  became  prev- 
alent— not  to  revive  the  embittered  feeling  of  Revolutionary  days — 
but  to  erect  some  enduring  memorial  of  the  heroism  and  unfortunate 
end  of  the  Groton  victims.  A  general  spontaneous  utterance  of  this 
wish  led  to  a  celebration  of  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  day  in  the 
year  1825.  The  orator  was  Wm.  F.  Brainerd.  A  grand  military 
parade  and  a  large  assemblage  of  citizens  gave  effect  to  the  unani- 
mous sentiment  then  expressed,  that  a  monument  to  the  memory  of 
the  slain  should  be  erected  near  the  scene  of  the  fatal  assault.  A 
lottery  for  the  purpose  of  raising  funds  was  granted  by  the  legisla- 
ture ;  the  comer-stone  laid  Sept  6th,  1826,  and  the  monument  com- 
pleted in  1830.  It  is  built  of  native  rock,  quarried  not  far  from 
the  place  where  it  stands ;  is  twenty-six  feet  square  at  the  base, 
twelve  at  the  top  and  127  feet  in  height.  In  the  interior  a  circular 
flight  of  168  steps  leads  to  the  platform,  from  whence  a  fine  view  is 


572  HISTOHY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

obtitined,  particularly  toward  the  west  and  south,  where  lie  New 
London  and  the  river  Thames,  the  Sound  and  its  islands. 

On  the  west  side  of  the  monument  is  engraved  a  list  of  the  names 
of  the  victims,  eighty-three  in  number,  and  on  the  south  side  is  the 
following  inscription : 

*«  This  Monument  was  erected  under  the  patronage  of  the  State  of  Connect- 
icut, A.  D.  1830,  and  in  the  55th  year  of  the  Independence  of  the  U.  S.  A.,  in 
memory  of  the  patriots  who  fell  in  the  massacre  at  Fort  Oriswold,  near  this 
spot,  on  the  6th  of  September,  A.  D.  1731,  when  the  British  under  the  command 
of  the  traitor  Benedict  Arnold,  burnt  the  towns  of  New  London  and  Groton, 
and  spread  desolation  and  woo  throughout  this  region. 

•*  *  Zebulon  and  Napthali  were  a  people  that  jeoparded  their  lives  unto  death 
in  the  high  places  of  the  field.    Judges,  5th  chap.,  18th  ver.*  ** 

Since  the  erection  of  the  monument,  the  anniversary  day  has 
been  usually  noticed  by  gatherings  on  the  spot  of  individuals,  and 
sometimes  by  prayers  and  addresses,  but  not  often  by  a  public  cele- 
bration. Mr.  Jonathan  Brooks  of  New  London,  who  died  in  1848, 
took  a  special  interest  in  this  anniversary.  For  many  years  before 
his  death,  he  resorted  annually  on  this  day  to  Groton  Height, 
and  whether  his  auditors  were  few  or  many,  delivered  an  address, 
which  was  always  rendered  interesting  by  graphic  pictures  and  re- 
miniscences connected  with  the  Bevolution.  On  one  occasion  when 
he  found  himself  almost  without  an  audience,  he  exclaimed  with  sud- 
den fervor  "  attention  f  universe .'" 


CHAPTER   XXXIII. 

FROM  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR  TO  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  CENTURY. 

Results  of  war.— Revival  of  commerce. — Various  commanders. — The  Lady 
Strange. — An  execution.— Commercial  items. — ^French  exiles. — ^Deaths  of 
seamen. — Yellow  fever  of  1798. 

It  is  needless  to  observe  that  the  moral  and  religious  character  of 
the  place  had  not  improved  during  the  long  period  of  conflict  and 
distress.  On  the  contrary,  the  tendency  had  been  continually  down- 
ward :  all  the  agencies  at  work  were  in  favor  of  misrule  and  disor- 
der. 

There  was  no  regular  minister  of  any  sect  remaining  in  New 
London;  the  schools  were  in  a  great  measure  broken  up;  wives 
were  without  husbands  to  provide  for  them ;  children  without  fathers 
to  guide  and  govern  them.  Want  was  in  many  instances  the  parent 
of  vice.  For  eight  years  the  town  had  been  like  a  great  militia 
garrison ;  a  resort  for  privateersmen  and  state  and  continental  vessels ; 
it  had  been  kept  in  continual  alarm,  scarcely  a  day  passing  in  which 
the  sails  of  the  enemy  were  not  in  sight,  either  hovering  like  birds  of 
prey,  ready  to  pounce  upon  the  property  of  the  inhabitants,  or  skirt- 
ing like  thunder-clouds  the  distant  horizon,  menacing  an  immediate 
attack ;  and  at  last  it  had  been  actually  plundered  and  burnt  by  the 
enemy.  As  a  natural  result,  ignorance,  discord,  profanity  and  row- 
dyism were  lamentably  prevalent. 

The  Congregational  church  on  the  hill,  near  where  the  alms-house 
now  stands,  had  not  been  destroyed  by  the  enemy.  A  clergyman 
from  a  neighboring  town  who  preached  in  it  shortly  afterward,  often 
reverted,  in  later  days,  to  the  scenes  he  then  witnessed.^ 

1  Rev.  Joseph  Strong,  D.  D.,  of  Norwich. 


574  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

Before  the  service  commenced,  there  was  loud  talking  and  laugh- 
ing around  the  house  and  in  the  porch^  and  even  in  the  pews.  The 
whispering  and  moving  about  during  the  service  were  so  annojing 
that  he  could  scarcely  proceed  with  his  duties,  and  the  instant  the 
blessing  was  pronounced,  uproar  commenced.  The  galleries  were  in 
a  tumult;  joung  people  calling  to  each  other  from  side  to  side, 
jesting  and  laughing ;  while  the  hojs  and  girls  were  pushing,  stamp- 
ing and  rushing  out  vrith  violence.  Before  he  could  reach  his  lodg- 
ings, the  young  lads,  and  even  some  men,  had  gathered  into  parties 
and  were  playing  ball  or  pitching  quoits. 

The  war  left  the  inhabitants  poor  and  exhausted.  Some  were  not 
able  to  rebuild  their  dwellings.  Ten  or  twelve  years  afterward  many 
an  old  chimney  might  be  seen,  standing  amid  heaps  of  rubbish,  ruin- 
ous and  forlorn,  mementos.of  strife  and  desolation.  But  peace  works 
rapidly,  and  is  a  near  ally  to  prosperity.  Trade  revived,  prospects 
brightened  and  the  town  was  soon,  in  part  revivified.  The  unem- 
ployed officers  and  crews  that  had  manned  the  state  vessels  were 
eager  for  employment,  the  privateersmen,  became  peaceful  traders,  and 
by  the  year  1784,  a  flourishing  commerce  was  again  the  characteristic 
of  the  place. 

Vessels  cleared  that  year,  not  only  for  the  West  India  market,  but 
for  London,  Liverpool,  Cadiz  and  Lreland.  The  clearances  included, 
however,  all  vessels  from  the  Connecticut  and  Thames  Rivers.  Nor- 
wich at  that  period  having  suffered  less,  took  the  lead  of  New  Lon- 
don in  her  shipping  list  The  ship  Centurion,  the  brig  Littlejoe, 
(Capt.  Gurdon  Bill,)  and  the  Ranger,  (Capt.  McEwen,)  all  sailing 
in  1784  for  London,  were  owned  in  Norwich. 

As  incidents  worthy  of  being  recorded,  it  may  be  stated  that  Capt 
White  from  this  port,  made  a  voyage  to  Jamaica  in  1784,  in  the  brig 
Zephyr  and  back  again  in  thirty-seven  days  ;  and  Capt  Samuel  Still- 
man,  in  the  brig  Milley,  made  three  voyages  to  Jamaica  during  the 
year,  in  which  he  carried  out  122  horses.  He  came  in  from  the 
third  voyage,  Nov.  3d.  It  was  very  unusual  for  a  vessel  to  accom- 
plish more  than  two  West  India  voyages  in  a  yejir. 

Captains  Hinman,  Bulkley,  Fosdick,  and  other  commanders  of 
armed  vessels,  casting  aside  the  apparel  of  war,  entered  into  the  mer- 
cantile line.  Hinman  was  afterward  in  the  revenue  service.  He 
died  in  1807,  aged  seventy-three.  Bulkley  was  in  actual  sea  service, 
"  afloat  and  ashore,"  for  nearly  sixty  successive  years.  He  died  in 
1848,  at  the  age  of  ninety-five,  the  oldest  seaman  of  New  London — 
perhaps  of  any  generation.     Fosdick,  though  a  seaman,  had  served 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  575 

in  the  army  at  the  siege  of  Boston  in  1775.  He  was  of  nearly 
equal  age  with  John  Ledjard  of  Groton,  the  noted  traveler,  and  in 
boyhood  they  made  their  first  voyage  together.  Capt.  Fosdick  died 
in  1821,  aged  seventy-one. 

Robert  Winthrop  made  voyages  from  New  London  to  Ireland  in 
1787  and  1788.  He  was  a  son  of  John  Still  Winthrop,  and  bom 
at  New  London  in  1764,  but  having  been  placed  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  under  the  guardianship  of  English  relatives,  at  the  age 
of  fifteen  or  sixteen  he  entered  the  British  naval  service.  On  the 
conclusion  of  peace  he  returned,  for  a  few  years  to  his  native  place 
and  was  connected  in  business  with  his  brother  William,  but  in  1790 
went  back  to  the  British  service,  in  which  he  subsequently  rose  to 
the  rank  of  vice-admiral  of  the  blue.  He  died  in  Dover,  England, 
in  1882.  Richard  Law,  a  coeval  and  school-mate  of  Robert  Winthrop, 
entered  the  American  naval  service,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  and  was  a 
midshipman  on  board  the  ship  TrumhuU  in  her  desperate  combat 
with  the  British  letter  of  marque  WcUtj  June  2d,  1780.  .  Winthrop 
was  a  midshipman  on  board  the  Formidabley  which  bore  the  flag  of 
Sir  George  B.  Rodney  in  the  battle  of  April  12th,  1782.  Capt. 
Law  died  in  1845,  aged  nearly  eighty-three  years. 

We  may  add  the  names  of  Daniel  Deshon  and  Jared  Starr,  as 
belonging  to  the  list  of  those  who  were  seamen  before  and  after  the 
war,  and  continued  in  the  service  many  years-flying  at  an  advanced 
age — Deshon  in  1826  aged  seventy-two ;  Starr  in  1838  aged  ninety- 
one. 

On  the  revival  of  trade  a  host  of  younger  mariners  launched  at 
once  upon  the  sea,  and  promotion  being  rapid  when  business  is  brisk, 
many  of  them  soon  took  rank  as  commanders.  They  had  perhaps 
but  little  nautical  science :  they  had  just  learned  enough  of  naviga- 
tion to  be  able  to  ascertain  their  latitude.  At  a  very  early  age  and 
with  very  little  training,  except  familiarity  with  the  sea,  they  em- 
barked as  masters  of  vessels  with  life  and  property,  their  own  and 
others',  dependent  on  their  ability  and  'good  fortune.  Yet  in  general, 
prosperity  and  success  attended  them,  and  long  experience,  added  to 
their  native  sagacity,  made  them  at  last  veterans  and  princes  in  sea- 
manship. 

Ship-building  revived  with  trade.  The  ship  Jenny  built  for  the 
European  service  was  launched  at  Groton,  opposite  New  London, 
Oct.  80th,  1784.  Between  this  period  and  the  year  1800,  a  large 
number  of  sloops  and  schooners  were  set  afloat  from  the  various 


676  HISTORY     OP    NBW    LONDOlf. 

building  yards  of  the  place.    Vessels  of  a  larger  size  were  also  oc« 
casionally  built,  but  of  this  business  we  have  few  statistics. 

In  1786  a  very  singular  vessel  was  constructed  at  Poquetannuck 
on  the  river  Thames,  ten  miles  from  New  London,  by  Jeremiah  Hal- 
sey.  She  was  double-decked,  burden  about  150  tuns,  and  built 
almost  wholly  of  plank — several  courses  being  laid,  crossing  each 
other  at  right  angles.  The  only  timbers  in  her  were  the  keel,  stem 
and  stem-post.  She  was  firm,  well-molded,  graceful,  and  on  com- 
ing down  to  New  London  in  November,  excited  very  general  curios- 
ity. She  was  called  a  snow,  and  named  Lady  Stremge,  but  many 
people  from  her  lighUiess  called  her  the  Balloon.  Jn  a  storm  which 
occurred  Dec.  3d,  while  she  was  fitting  for  sea,  she  was  driven 
directly  over  the  sandy  point  of  Shaw's  Neck,  and  stranded  among 
the  trees  of  an  orchard  on  Close  Cove ;  but  was  got  off  without 
damage  and  sailed  for  L^land  Jan.  19th,  1787.  She  proved  to  be  a 
good  sea  vessel  and  a  fast  sailer,  and  made  several  voyages  from 
New  London,  but  was  afterward  owned  in  Philadelphia.  According 
to  a  statement  published  soon  after  the  death  of  Halsey,  the  ingenious 
architect  of  this  vessel,  she  was  examined  at  Philadelphia  when 
thirty-two  years  old,  and  was  at  that  time  staunch  and  sound. 


On  the  20th  of  December,  1786,  Hannah  OccuislLwas  executed  in 
New  London  for  the  willful  murder  of  Eunice,  daughter  of  James  Bolles. 
The  crime  was  committed  July  21st,  1786.  The  perpetrator  was  an 
Indian  girl  of  Pequot  parentage,  only  twelve  years  and  nine  months 
old ;  her  victim  was  six  years  and  six  months  old.  The  murdered 
child  was  found  a!)out  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  on  the  Norwich 
road  two  or  three  miles  from  town.  She  lay  under  the  wall,  from 
which  heavy  stones  had  been  thrown  down  upon  her  body.  On  ex- 
amination it  was  discovered  that  her  death  could  not  have  been  the 
result  of  accident,  and  after  a  day  or  two,  suspicion  having  rested  on 
Hannah  Occuish,  who  lived  with  a  widow  woman  near  by,  she  was 
examined  and  confessed  the  crime.  It  was  a  case  of  cruel  and  mali- 
cious murder,  growing  out' of  a  dispute  that  occurred  in  a  strawberry 
field  some  days  before.  The  fierce  young  savage,  nursing  her  wrath 
and  watching  for  an  opportunity  to  take  revenge,  at  length  came  up- 
on her  victim,  on  her  way  to  school  alone,  and  after  coaxing  and 
alluring  her  into  a  wood,  fell  upon  her  and  beat  her  to  death.  The 
only  alleviating  circumstances  in  this  case  were  the  extreme  igno- 
rance and  youth  of  the  criminal     These  were  forcible  arguments 


BISTORT    OP  MBW    LONDON.  577 

imi  not  at  that  day  of  safltcient  weight  to  reprieve  from  execution. 
The  gallows  was  erected  in  the  rear  of  the  old  meeting-house,  near 
the  comer  of  Granite  Street.  The  sermon  on  the  occasion  was  de* 
livered  by  the  Rey.  Henry  Channing,^  from  Yale  College,  who  was 
then  preaching  as  a  candidate  to  the  First  Congregational  Society. 


July  2d,  1788,  Capt.  John  Chi^man  and  nine  other  persons,  chiefly 
emigrants  from  Ireland,  were  drowned  within  twenty  rods  of  the 
shore  of  Fisher's  Island.  The  disaster  was  occasioned  by  the  up- 
setting of  two  boats ;  one  of  them  being  deeply  laden,  was  filling  with 
water,  and  her  people  all  seizing  hold  of  the  other,  that  also  filled 
and  sank.  Capt.  Chi^man  had  just  arrived  with  a  company  of  emi- 
grants, (probably  about  twenty,)  and  some  of  them  being  sick,  he  was 
attempting  to  land  them  on  the  island,  where  a  tent  was  to  be  erected, 
in  which  they  might  perform  the  necessary  period  of  quarantine. 
Capt.  Chapman  had  served  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  both  in  a  naval 
and  military  capacity.  He  was  a  brother  of  Major  James  Chi^man, 
who  fell  at  Harlem  Heights,  in  1776,  and  of  Lieut.  Richard  Chapman 
slain  in  Fort  Griswold,  in  1781. 


Under  the  state  authority,  Connecticut  was  arranged  into  two  cus- 
tom-house districts  ;  those  of  New  London  and  New  Haven.  The 
first  collector  appointed  for  New  London,  was  Gren.  Gurdon  Salton- 
stalL  In  October,  1784,  a  branch  of  the  office  wai»  established  in 
Norwich ;  Christopher  Leffingwell,  naval  officer.  In  October,  1785, 
the  same  arrangement  was  made  for  Stonington ;  Jonathan  Palmer, 
naval  officer.     Gren.  Saltonstall  died  September  19th,  1785.' 

Elijah  Backus,  of  Norwich,  was  the  next  collector.  He  removed 
to  New  London,  on  receiving  the  appointment,  which  he  held  until 
the  state  authority  over  the  customs  was  merged  in  that  of  the  gen- 
eral government. 

In  June  or  July,  1789,  Gren.  Jedidiah  Huntington  was  appointed 
collector  of  the  port,  by  Congress,  and  Nathaniel  Richards,  surveyor 
and  searcher.  These  were  the  first  appointments  under  the  federal 
constitution.     Previous  to  this  period,  no  custom-house  re^cords  are 

1  Printed  at  New  London  bj  Timothy  Green,  1786,  and  entitled,  **  God  admonishing 
his  people  of  their  duty,  as  parents  and  masters." 

2  In  Norwich,  at  the  hoose  of  his  son-in-law,  Thomas  Momford.  His  remains  were 
bronght  to  New  London  and  deposited  in  the  iamilj  tomb. 

49 


578  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

extant    The  following  estimates  are  taken  from  the  marine  list  kept 
by  Thomas  Allen,  and  published  in  the  New  London  Gazette: 

"  Shipping  employed  in  the  European  and  West  India  trade,  sailing  from 
the  port  of  New  London,  and  chiefly  owned  in  tliis  district,  from  January  1st, 
1785,  to  January  Ist,  1786. 

Ships,  3,  Schooners,  38, 

Brigantines,  84,  Sloops;  90. 

Total  export  of  horses  and  cattle  from  January  6th,  1785,  to  January  10th, 
1786—8,094. 

The  same  to  January  1st,  1787. 
Ships,  3,  Schooners,  32, 

Snow,  1,  Sloops,  62, 

Brigantines,  63,  Coasting  vessels  not  included. 

Export  of  horses  and  cattle  to  January  10th,  17S7 — 6,671. 

From  January  1st,  1788,  to  January  1st,  1789. 
Ships,  4,  Schooners,  38, 

Snow,  1,  Sloops,  71. 

Brigs,  53, 
Export  of  cattle,  horses  and  mules — 6,366. 

To  January  1st,  1790. 
Ships,  2,  Schooners,  35, 

Brigs,  43,  Sloops,  56. 

Export  of  horses  and  cattle — 6,678. 
Besides  a  number  that  slip  over  the  platform  with  stock,  unnoticed.**^ 

Allen's  n^arine  list  was  esteemed  a  valuable  appendage  to  Green's 
newspaper.  He  enlivened  the  dull  record  of  entries  and  clearances 
with  maxims,  witticisms  and  sudden  insertions  of  extraneous  matter 
which  were  often  grotesque  and  amusing.  This  list  commenced  in 
1770.  During  the  Revolutionary  War,  he  kept  a  public  house  in 
Main  Street,  which  was  reopened  as  the  City  Coffee  House,  and  the 
marine  list  renewed  January  1st,  1785.^  This  house  was  regarded  as 
the  center  of  good  living  and  convivial  brotherhood.  Here  was  to  be 
heard  the  latest  news,  the  freshest  anecdote,  the  keenest  repartee ; 
here  was  served  up  the  earliest  and  best  game  of  the  season,  the  Jan- 
uary salmon,  the  eighteen  pound  blackfish,  trout,  woodcock  and 
wild  duck,  in  advance  of  every  other  table.  It  was  then  much  in 
vogue  for  gentlemen  of  the  town  to  dine  together  in  clubs. 


1  This  means  out  of  Connecticnt  River. 

2  "  City  Coffee  Honse  reopened  hy  Thomas  Allen,  next  door  to  Capt.  Joseph  Pack- 
wood's,  where  can  he  had  drink  for  the  thirsty,  food  for  the  hungry,  lodging  for  the 
weary,  good  stabling  for  horses.  Said  Allen  has  also  a  supply  of  choice  Madeira,  Lis- 
bon and  Port  wines,  for  the  benefit  of  the  sick  and  weakly,  and  good  horses  to  let  to 
merciftd  riddrt."    Green's  Gazette. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  579 

August  27 th,  1788,  the  list  comes  out  with  a  cheering  announce- 
ment: 

"  Thomas  Allen's  marine  list,  commences  on  a  new  hope,  the  Fed- 
eral Constitution." 

Allen  died  November  19th,  1793.*  The  marine  list  was  next  kept 
by  Thomas  Pool  and  Thomas  Coit,  successively,  to  the  year  1805, 
when  it  was  taken  by  Nathaniel  Otis,  and  kept  by  him  to  June,  1813; 
that  is,  till  the  second  war  with  Great  Britain  had  deprived  the  town 
of  all  commerce  to  report. 


After  the  Revolution,  foreigners,  French  and  Spanish,  occasionally 
resorted  to  New  London,  and  a  few,  finding  congenial  occupation,  re- 
mained and  became  citizens.  Louis  Maniere,  a  French  Protestant, 
settled  in  the  town,  in  1785.  The  French  government,  in  1786,  sta- 
tioned Philip  de  Jean  at  the  port  as  a  naval  agent  He  was  a  gen- 
tleman of  mature  years  and  discretion,  and  had  been  long  in  the 
country,  having  dwelt  on  the  north-western  frontier.  After  remain- 
ing in  New  London  for  six  or  eight  years,  sometimes  receiving  a  sal- 
ary from  his  government,  and  occasionally  obliged  to  supply  its  place 
by  teachmg  the  French  language,  he  was  ordered  to  Hispaniola,  on 
some  business,  where  he  soon  fell  a  victim  to  tropical  pestilence. 

The  names  of  Badet,  Bocage,  Boureau,  Constant,  Dupignac,  La- 
borde,  La  Roche,  Laurence,  Pereau,  Poulain,  Renouf,  designate  for- 
eigners who  either  brought  families  to  the  place,  or  contracted  family 
relations  after  they  came.  Descendants  of  several  of  these  persons 
are  still  found  here,  and  others  are  scattered  in  various  parts  of  the 
Union.  Other  Frenchmen  were  found  for  a  few  years  on  the  roll  of 
inhabitants,  and  then  passed  away.  Among  these  were  the  names  of 
Durivage,  Girard,  Laboissiere,  Mallet,  Montenot,  Rigault  and  Rouget. 

Some  of  these  were  emigrants  or  exiles  from  France,  but  most  of 
them  came  from  the  French  islands.  After  the  struggle  between  the 
races  commenced  in  St.  Domingo,  New  London  became  a  noted  re- 
sort for  the  unfortunate,  who  were  driven  from  their  homes  by  the 
conflict  From  1794  to  1797,  inclusive,  almost  every  vessel  from  the 
islands  brought  passengers,  and  some  were  crowded  with  them.^  The 
hotels  and  all  the  small  boarding-houses  were  filled  for  a  season,  but 


1  He  was  born  in  Boston  about  the  year  1728,  and  married  at  New  London,  in  1764, 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Richard  Christophers,  and  relict  of  John  Shackmaple. 

2  Among  the  emigrants  who  arrived  in  1794,  was  the  abbess  of  a  nunnery  at  Capo 
St.  Francois,  who  was  brought  out  by  Capt.  Samuel  Hurlbut. 


$80  HI8T0BT    OP    HBW    LONDON. 

thej  soon  scattered,  seddng  in  other  parts  of  the  coontrj,  dieaperliT- 
ing,  or  friends  and  employment.  They  were  mostly  a  qniet,  chcer*^ 
fill  people,  with  habits  of  industry  and  morality. 

Many  of  these  emigrants  who  fled  from  their  homes  in  times  of  in- 
Tasion  and  insurrection^  took  no  property  hut  what  they  could  cany 
on  their  pers<His,  and  when  this  was  expended,  their  case  was  mel-« 
fmcholy  in  the  extreme.  One  of  these  unfortunate  exiles  boarded 
with  a  widow,  herself  with  small  means;  yet  she  exacted  from  her 
lodger  only  a  bare  sufficiency  to  save  herself  from  loss.  To  requite 
her  kindness,  he  kept  her  little  garden  in  order.  This  occupation,  as 
it  engaged  his  chief  attention,  and  diverted  his  mind,  served  him  for 
companion  and  friend.  He  paid  his  stipend  to  the  widow  as  long  as 
he  had  money,  or  any  thing  that  he  could  conrert  into  money.  He 
parted  with  every  pocket  article,  and  with  every  extra  garment, 
having  made  up  his  mind  apparently  to  live  as  long  as  he  had  any 
thing  left,  but  to  quit  life  when  all  was  exhausted.  That  time  at 
length  came;  he  was  still  cheerful,  and  paid  his  landlady  with  a 
smile  for  his  last  meal.  He  then  went  into  the  garden,  and  passed 
fVom  side  to  side,  gazing  upon  it  with  seeming  delight.  Just  as  the 
sun  went  down,  he  gathered  up  bis  implements,  saying  to  each  artide, 
Ae  shovel,  the  rake,  and  the  hoe,  as  he  laid  it  aside,  in  a  low,  sad 
tone,  farewell  I  farewell  I  Then  turning  round,  he  surveyed  the  little 
plot,  and  nosing  his  hat,  bowed  toward  it  a  respectful  leave,  and  en- 
tered the  house.  All  this  was  seen  and  overheard  by  a  fellow-h>dgery 
but  its  purport  was  not  understood  till  the  next  morning,  when  the 
unfortunate  exile  was  found  dead  in  his  bed,  with  an  empty  bot^e 
labeled  kntdanumy  by  his  side. 

Laboissiere,  a  name  before  mentioned,  was  an  exile  from  the 
islands,  who  brought  a  small  sum  of  money  with  him,  which  enabled 
him  to  set  up  a  small  shop.  After  aflbirs  at  home  were  in  some  de- 
gree quieted,  he  went  back,  and  it  was  reported  by  those  who  carried 
him  out,  that  on  meeting  his  wife  after  their  long  separation,  he  was 
so  overcome  with  emotion  that  he  fell  dead  upon  the  spot 

About  the  year  1795,  the  French  republic  commissioned  John 
Pinevert  to  be  their  vice-consul  at  the  port  of  New  London.  This 
was  an  acceptable  appointment.  Mr.  Pinevert  had  resided  in  the 
place  for  nearly  twenty  years,  and  was  esteemed  for  suavity  and  in- 
tegrity. He  was  a  native  of  Bochefort,  in  France,  and  died  in  New 
London,  in  1805. 


HISTORY     OP     NEW    LONDON.  ^        581 

The  advancement  of  morals  and  religion,  unhappily,  did  not  keep 
pace  with  the  public  prosperity.  People  seemed  to  think  of  little 
except  the  means  of  subsistence,  the  excitements  of  business  and  pol- 
itics, and  the  pungent  enjoyment  of  life. 

All  accounts  agree  in  speaking  of  the  manners  of  the  inhabitants  as 
belonging  to  the  free  and  easy  style.  Jovial  parties  of  all  kinds,  hot 
suppers,  tavern  dinners,  card-playing,  shooting  matches,  and  dancing 
assemblies  were  popular.  Merchants  and  other  citizens  congregated 
around  the  coffee-houses,  told  stories,  cracked  jokes,  made  the  air 
resonant  of  laughter,  smoked,  traded,  and  complimented  each  other 
with  brandy,  gin  sling  and  old  Jamaica,  as  matters  of  course  every 
day  in  the  week,  Sundays,  we  regret  to  say,  not  wholly  excepted. 
Such  were  the  general  characteristics  of  society,  until  we  pass  over 
the  threshold  of  another  century. 


Afler  ten  or  twelve  years  of  great  prosperity,  reckoning  from  the 
peace  of  1783,  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  was  checked  by 
the  depredations  of  belligerent  European  nations.  The  West  Indies 
had  various  claimants ;  they  were  the  resort  of  people  of  many 
tongues  and  hues,  of  royal  fleets,  of  legalized  privateers,  and  of  pirates 
and  buccaneers.  The  American  traders  were  the  prey  of  the  whole. 
Their  vessels  were  subject  to  all  the  degrees  of  molestation,  from 
simple  detention  and  abusive  words,  through  plundering,  capturing, 
libeling,  adjudication  and  condemnation,  to  entire  loss  of  vessel  and 
cargo,  and  often,  impressment  of  the  crew.  New  London  had  her 
portion  of  these  wrongs.  Her  seamen  also  suffered  greatly  from  the 
pestilential  fevers  of  the  tropics.  Capt.  George  Chapman,  in  one 
voyage,  lost  every  man  on  board,  but  one,  of  fever.  In  November, 
1795,  Capt.  Lathrop,  in  the  ship  Columbus,  fell  in  with  a  schooner, 
bound  to  Boston,  that  had  only  one  living  man  on  board ;  the  rest  of 
the  crew,  five  in  number,  had  died  after  leaving  port  He  put  a 
couple  of  his  own  men  on  board,  who  brought  her  into  the  Thames. 

The  Saltonstall  family,  of  New  London,  was  repeatedly  thinned  by 
deaths  in  the  West  Indies.  Capt.  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  (son  of  Wiu- 
throp,)  and  Thomas  B.  Saltonstall,  died  in  June,  1795.  Capt.  Dud- 
ley Saltonstall,  father  of  the  last  named,  who  had  attained  the  rank 
of  commodore  in  the  continental  service,  was  the  victim  of  the  next 
year.  Dr.  Winthrop  Saltonstall,  another  of  the  family,  died  on  the 
island  of  Trinidad,  m  1802. 

Of  the  same  diseases  and  in  the  same  clime,  died  also,  in  1795  and 
49* 


58S  HIBTOBT    OF   NEW     LONDON. 

1796,  Captains  Giles  Mumford,  Howland  Powers,  John  Bogera,  Bcra 
Caulkins,  James  Deshon,  and  Samuel  B.  Hempstead. 

In  1798,  the  ship  Sally,  Capt  Boswell,  of  Norwich,  lost  eight  m&x 
in  one  voyage,  of  yellow  fever. 

July  2d,  1802,  arrived  brig  Neptune,  Bulkley,  from  Grenada; 
Capt  Merrills,  of  Hartford,  went  out  master,  and  died,  with  both 
mates  and  five  hands. 

It  was  calculated  that  for  twenty  years,  reckoning  from  1790,  so 
many  from  New  London  went  to  sea  and  never  returned,  being  swal- 
lowed by  the  ocean,  or  cut  off  by  the  diseases  of  the  tropics,  as  sensi- 
bly to  diminish  the  population  of  the  place. 

Among  the  captains  who  perished  by  marine  disasters,  were  Peter 
Latimer,  in  1790  ;  Robert  Crannell,  1792  ;  James  Angel,  1794. 

The  brig  Nabby,  Capt  Norcott,  sailed  for  the  West  Indies,  July 
25th,  1795.  She  was  just  rounding  Montauk  Point,  when  she  began 
to  settle,  (probably  from  the  sudden  starting  of  a  plank,)  and  falling 
upon  her  larboard  side,  the  water  rushed  in  with  such  vehemence 
that  Joseph  Hurlbut,  a  young  man  only  twenty-two  years  of  age,  but 
the  principal  owner  of  the  vessel  and  cargo,  was  drowned  in  the  cabin. 
The  others  on  board  barely  escaped.  They  heard  the  voice  of  theu* 
friend,  uttering  exckunations  of  distress,  without  being  able  to  afford 
him  any  assistance.  It  was  supposed  that  in  the  lurch  of  the  vessel, 
he  was  disabled  by  a  blow,  or  so  entangled  by  the  freight,  that  he 
could  not  extricate  himself. 

Captains  John  Manwaring,  Oliver  Barker,  Thomas  Crandall,  Wil- 
liam Briggs,  John  McCarty,  Thomas  Rice,  Timothy  Spanx>w,  Wil- 
liam Weaver,  died  at  sea;  Briggs,  McCarty  and  Rice,  in  1804; 
William  Packwood,  in  1805 ;  William  Leeds,  in  1806 ;  James 
Rogers,  in  1807;  Edward  Merrill,  in  1809;  Charles  Hazard,  in 
1810.  Benjamin  Richards,  a  native  of  New  London,  but  engaged  in 
the  European  trade,  and  sailing  from  New  York,  died  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, Russia,  in  1809.  It  is  probable  that  no  port  in  the  Union,  leav- 
ing out  of  view  the  fishing  ports  on  the  eastern  coast,  has  buried  so 
large  a  proportion  of  its  population  in  the  sea. 

It  has  been  often  asserted,  and  is  probably  correct,  that  seamen 
who  are  not  cut  off  by  disasters,  and  are  not  given  to  excesses,  are 
usually  favored  with  a  vigorous  old  age.  A  few  instances  may  be 
given  of  commanders  in  the  old  West  India  trade,  who  attained  an 
age  beyond  the  appointed  span  of  life. 

Daniel  Chapman  died  in  1841,  aged  eighty ;  George  Chapman, 
1846,  aged  seventy-six ;  Edward  Chappell,  1824,  aged  eighty;  James 


HX8TORV    OP    NBW    LONDON.  583 

Edgerton,  1843,  aged  eighty-two ;  Samuel  P.  Fitcli,  1841,  aged 
seyenty-six;  Michael  Melally,  1812,  aged  seventj-Beven ;  William 
Skimier,  1803,  aged  seventj-foiir.  Capt.  Jos^h  Skiimer  was  re- 
garded as  a  skillful  and  accomplished  seaman ;  he. made  many  Eu- 
ropean Tojages,  sailing  often  fix>m  New  York,  but  sometimes  j&om 
New  London.     He  died  in  1836,  aged  seventy-two. 


1798.  This  was  the  year  in  which  that  fatal  epidemic,  the  ydlow 
fever,  committed  such  ravages  in  New  Lond<m. 

''  From  the  23th  of  July,  to  the  1st  of  September,  the  heat  was  intense ;  the 
mercury  in  a  northern  exposure  in  the  open  air,  stood  at  midday  from  86^  to 
93^,  with  the  exception  of  five  days,  in  which  it  stood  at  SS*',  and  one  day  at 
78^,  which  was  its  greatest  depression.  There  was  only  one  thunder- shower 
during  this  period.  The  earth  being  parched  under  excessive  drought,  vegeta- 
tion failed  early  in  August,  and  many  trees  shed  their  leaves.  It  was  noticed 
that  the  air  was  remarkably  unelastic,  especially  in  that  part  of  the  city  where 
the  desolating  sickness  prevailed.  Scarcely  a  day  occurred  for  seven  weeks,  in 
which  a  person  might  not  have  carried  a  lighted  candle  through  the  streets. 
The  nights,  in  gloomy  succession,  brought  a  deadly  calm,  attended  with  sultry 
heau^i 

"A  short  account  of  the  yellow  fever,  as  it  appeared  in  New  Lon- 
don, in  August,  September  and  October,  1798,  with  a  list  of  those 
who  died  by  the  disease,"  was  published  in  pamphlet  form,  by  Charles 
Holt,  of  the  Bee  newspaper.  From  that  account,  which  was  com- 
piled with  care  and  accuracy,  the  following  sketch  is  abridged. 

The  first  alarm  was  given  by  the  death  of  Capt.  Elijah  Bingham, 
keeper  of  the  Union  Coffee  House,  after  an  illness  of  two  or  three 
days.  The  funeral,  which  was  on  the  same  day,  (Sunday,)  was 
attended  by  a  concourse  of  people,  and  celebrated  with  masonic  pomp. 
The  heat  of  the  weather  was  extreme;  and  two  days  afterward,  three 
other  persons  in  the  neighborhood  died,  and  the  report  now  spread 
with  rapidity  that  the  yellow  fever  was  the  fatal  disease  that  had 
swept  them  away.  Many  persons  removed  from  the  town,  or  at  least 
from  the  inmiediate  neighborhood  of  the  disease,  and  a  health  com- 
mittee was  appointed,  with  directions  to  see  that  the  sick  had  proper 
care  and  attention,  that  the  indigent  were  relieved,  and  the  dead 
properly  buried.  For  several  days  afler  this,  four  or  ^ve  died  in  a 
day,  and  this  ratio  kept  increasing,  until  the  infected  district  was 
almost  entirely  abandoned.    It  was  most  virulent  in  the  northern 

1  Bev.  Henry  Channing,  in  a  newspaper  statement. 


684  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

part  of  Bank  Street,  where  it  first  commenced,  and  was  limited  in  its 
extent  to  100  rods  north  and  south  of  the  market.  The  fatal  day 
was  usually  the  fourth  or  fifth  from  the  first  attack.  The  patients  had 
the  various  symptoms  which  have  so  often  been  described  as  charac- 
teristic of  this  disease,  languor  and  restlessness,  chills  and  flushes' 
nausea,  extreme  pains  in  the  head  and  back,  a  scurfy,  pealing  tongue, 
a  yellow  skin,  delirium  or  stupidity,  the  black  vomit,  and  death.  By 
the  14th  of  October,  the  disease  had  greatly  abated,  and  by  the  28th 
had  nearly  disappeared.  In  about  eight  weeks,  350  had  been  at- 
tacked, of  whom  eighty-one  died.*  It  was  remarked  that  the  disease 
attacked  almost  indiscriminately  all  within  its  reach ;  no  description 
of  people,  no  particular  habit  or  constitution,  escaped ;  large  and  airy 
dwellings,  wealthy  and  respectable  citizens,  were  visited  with  as  much 
severity  as  the  poorest  and  more  crowded  families  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. Many  of  those  who  used  the  greatest  precaution,  caught  the 
disease  and  died ;  others  who  were  greatly  exposed,  escaped.  Be- 
tween the  market  and  Golden  Street,  on  the  bank,  only  two  persons 
over  twelve  years  of  age,  of  the  regular  inhabitants,  escaped  the  in- 
fection, except  those  who  removed  on  the  first  appearance  of  the 
fever.  Mr.  William  Stewart  died  at  Haughton's,  on  the  Norwich 
road,  seven  miles  from  New  London.  From  the  time  that  the  fever 
commenced,  he  had  used  the  precaution  of  sleeping  out  of  town,  leav- 
ing the  place  in  the  afternoon,  after  his  business  was  concluded. 
But  this  was  not  effectual ;  he  carried  the  infection  with  him,  and 
died  September  6th,  after  less  than  two  days*  illness. 

Dr.  Samuel  H.  P.  Lee  was  almost  the  only  physician  belonging 
to  the  town  who  attended  upon  the  sick.  Dr.  Rawson  was  one  of 
those  attacked  early  with  the  disease ;  another  of  the  faculty  was 
confined  by  sickness,  and  others  deserted  the  city.  "It  fell  to  the  lot 
of  Dr.  Lee,"  says  Mr.  Holt,  "  alone  and  unassisted  to  combat  the  fury 
of  this  dreadful  pestilence."  He  was  assisted,  however,  during  a 
part  of  the  time,  by  Dr.  James  Lee,  of  Lyme,  and  Dr.  Amos  Collins, 
from  "Westerly.  Mr.  Gurdon  J.  Miller,  also,  though  not  a  practicing 
physician,  administered  medical  aid  to  a  large  number  of  the  sick, 
and  refused  all  compensation  for  it.  The  health  committee  per- 
formed their  duties  in  the  most  satisfactory  and  noble  manner. 
Vigilant,  cheerful,  assiduous,  unwearied  and  impartial,  they  executed 


1  Several  names  not  in  Holt's  list  were  afterward  ascertained  to  have  been  victims 
of  the  fever,  making,  the  whole  number  about  ninety.  The  compact  portion  of  the 
town  then  comprised  about  2,800  hihabitants. 


HI8T0BT      OP    NEW    LONDON.  585 

their  difficult  and  hasardous  office  until  their  services  were  no  longer 
needed.  Their  names  will  be  found  honorablj  recorded  in  the  fol- 
lowing town  vote : 

"  In  town  meeting,  February  4th,  1799,  voted  that  thii  town  entertain  a  very 
high  tense  of  the  fidelity,  benevolence  and  unwearied  exertions  of  Messrs. 
John  Woodward,  John  Ingraham,  James  Baxter,  and  Ebenezer  Holt,  Jr.,  the 
committee  of  health  during  the  late  epidemic  in  this  town,  and  that  the  thanks 
of  this  town  are  cordially  tendered  to  them  for  their  meritorious  services.  Also* 
that  the  thanks  of  this  town  be  presented  to  Mr.  Gurdon  J.  Miller,  for  his  be- 
nevolent medical  exertions  in  behalf  of  the  sick,  during  the  above  mentioned 
period.'' 

A  few  cases  of  yellow  fever  i^peared  again  in  the  tow^i  in  1808, 
but  the  disease  came  from  abroad,  and  did  not  spread  among  the  cit- 
isens. 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

Death  by  lightning. — Meeting-house  built  on  Z ion's  Hill. — Ministry  of  Rev. 
Henry  Channing. — Of  Rev.  Abel  McEwen. — Granite  or  McEwen  Church 
built. — Second  Congregational  Church. — Seabury  Church. — Bishop  Seabury. 
Hallam  Church  built. — Origin  of  the  Methodist  Society. — Scenes  in  1808.— 
Division  in  the  Society. — Bethel  Church. — First  Baptist  Church. — Second 
Baptist. — Huntmgton  Street  or  Swan  Church. — Universalist. — Roman  Cath- 
olic. 

In  this  chapter  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  town  will  be  resumed 
at  the  period  succeeding  the  Revolution,  and  brought  down  to  the 
present  time. 

Congregatiancdisis. — After  the  death  of  Rev.  Ephraim  Wood- 
hridge,  pastor  of  the  first  Congregational  church,  in  1776,  eleven 
years  elapsed  before  a  successor  was  ordained.  Such  was  the  confu- 
sion of  affairs  consequent  upon,  the  war,  the  continual  apprehension 
of  an  attack,  and  the  ultimate  burning  of  the  town,  that  the  society 
only  engaged  preachers  by  the  year,  month  or  Sabbath,  as  oppoftu- 
nity  offered.  Rev.  William  Adams  preached  about  half  the  time, 
during  the  first  three  years.  Rev.  Emerson  Foster  occupied  the 
pulpit  for  fifty-eight  Sabbaths,  in  1780  and  1781.  Rev.  Solomon 
Wolcott,  twelve  Sabbaths  in  1782.  Rev.  Nathaniel  Patten,  the 
whole  of  1785,  and  the  first  part  of  1786.  These  were  the  last  stated 
services  in  the  old  Saltonstall  meeting-house,  on  the  hill.  A  few  oc- 
casional sermons  were  afterward  preached  on  it.  Rev.  John  Murray 
gave  one  of  his  popular  discourses  from  that  pulpit,  June  21st,  1786. 
But  it  is  believed  that  the  last  sermon  in  the  house,  the  last  on  old 
Meeting-house  Hill,  was  preached  by  Rev.  Rozel  Cook,  of  the  North 
Parish,  August  23d,  1786,  on  occasion  of  the  death  of  Sally,  daughter 
of  Thaddeus  Brooks. 

This  young  maiden  was  killed  by  lightning,  on  the  day  previous, 
during  a  tremendous  thunder-storm,  which  lasted  three  hours.  She 
was  in  the  act  of  closing  a  chamber  window,  in  her  father's  house,  in 
Bradley  Street,  when  the  bolt  descended  upon  the  chimney,  and 
glancing  in  various  directions,  injured  the  house  considerably,  threw 
down  Mr.  Brooks,  who  was  in  one  of  the  lower  rooms,  and  rendered 


HISTORY     OP    NEW    LONDON.  587 

him  for  a  time  insensible,  and  striking  his  daughter  upon  the  right 
temple,  ran  down  her  side  and  produced  instant  death.  Her  cheerful, 
ringing  voice,  sounding  from  above,  '^  I  am  not  afraid,  mother !"  had 
scarcely  ceased,  when  she  lay  upon  the  floor,  dead,  discolored,  deeply 
scarred  by  the  fire,  and  her  garments  half  consumed.  She  was  an 
only  daughter,  fifteen  years  of  age,  amiable  and  much  beloved.  The 
young  girls  of  the  town  attended  her  funeral,  wearing  mourning 
badges,  and  moving  in  sad  procession.  Mr.  Cook's  text  was  from 
Job,  XXX vii.  11-14.  A  tomb  was  excavated  in  the  old  burial-ground 
to  receive  the  remains  of  the  youthful  victim,  and  thither  for  several 
successive  years,  all  the  flowers  that  bloomed  in  her  flower-garden, 
were  brought  by  her  relatives  and  laid  on  her  coffin.* 

The  puljlit  and  pews  of  the  old  meeting-house  had  been  taken 
down  before  this  period  and  sold  to  the  inhabitants  of  Stonington 
Point,  who  were  then  building  their  first  house  of  worship,  but  tem- 
porary staging  and  seats  were  provided  for  occasional  use. 

In  the  year  1785,  two  houses  of  worship  were  projected  and  com- 
menced by  the  two  ecclesiastical  societies,  Congregational  and  Epis- 
copal. Both  were  opened  for  service  in  1787,  and  both  have  been 
recently  relinquished  by  their  respective  societies,  (in  1849  and 
1850,)  after  a  coincident  worship  in  each,  of  nearly  sixty-three 
years.  # 

The  Congregational  society  abandoning  the  old  site,  selected  a  po- 
sition more  accessible  and  central  for  their  new  church.  After  some 
preliminary  measures  had  been  taken,  they  passed  with  great  una- 
nimity the  following  votes : 

**  Ist.  That  the  meeting-house  shall  stand  on  Bolles*  Hill. 

'*  2d.  That  the  pews  shall  never  be  the  property  of  individhals,  but  rented 
annually,  and  the  proceeds  used  for  keeping  it  In  rcxmir,  and  supporting  a  min- 
ister.*' 

The  spot  selected  for  the  site  was  originally  included  in  the  Blatch- 
ford  or  Hill  lot,  but  had  been  sold  before  that  lot  went  into  the  pos- 
session of  the  Ervings,  and  was  then  the  property  of  Stephen  Holies.* 

1  It  is  not  ascertained  that  another  instance  of  death  by  lightning  occurred  in  New 
London  till  July  26th,  1847,  when  a  farm-house  near  the  harbor's  mouth  was  struck, 
and  a  son  of  Ezra  M.  Keeny,  four  years  of  age,  standing  near  the  window,  was  in- 
stantly killed. 

2  The  price  of  Mr.  Bolles  for  tiie  lot  was  jC76,  but  he  threw  in  £2$,  as  his  contribu- 
tion toward  the  church. 


S88  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

It  was  the  higiiest  elevatioii  of  a  granite  ledge,  offering  on  its  rounded 
summit  a  peerless  platform  fbr  a  chureh.* 

The  sum  raised  bj  subscription  for  building  the  sacred  edifice,  was 
£1,267,  12f.  M.  Of  this  sum,  Thomas  Shaw  gave  £400  in  labor 
and  lumber.  Yerj  few  of  the  subscriptions  were  in  cash ;  some  gave 
labor,  some  building  materials,  board  of  workmen,  drj  goods,  groce- 
ries. Sec.  Hie  house  was  built  in  1786,  and  the  pews  sold  at  auction 
January  19th,  1787,  for  £148, 1 6«.  That  part  of  Union  Street  which 
passes  by  this  edifice  was  opened  about  the  same  period.  The  first 
preaching  in  the  house  was  the  execution  sermon  of  the  Indian  girl, 
Hannah  Occuish,  December  20th,  1786. 

Bev.  Henry  Channing  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  church  May 
17th,  1787.  He  had  been  a  tutor  in  Yale  College,  and  was  recom- 
mended to  the  society  by  President  Stiles,  of  that  institution,  who 
preached  the  ordination  sermon.  His  salary  was  fixed  at  £140  per 
annum.  In  1788,  by  means  of  a  second  subscription  of  £500,  the 
meeting-house  was  painted  and  put  into  complete  oiUer.'  It  was 
then  considered  a  structure  of  more  than  ordinary  elegance;  the 
dimensions  were  seventy  feet  by  fifty,  with  twenty-eight  feet  posts. 
The  narrow,  high  pulpit,  was  overshadowed  by  a  sound-board  of  ap- 
parently terrific  weight,  which  was  sustained  by  an  iron  rod,  undoubt- 
edly of  great  strength,  but  not  8^  sufficient  size  to  dissipate  all  anxiety 
from  the  minds  of  beholders. 

A  parsonage  or  glebe-house  and  land,  with  house  and  land  for  the 
use  of  a  sexton,  were  presented  to  the  society  in  1787,  by  Thomas 
Shaw.  The  parsonage  was  on  Main  Street,  and  had  once  before 
been  ministerial  property,  being  originally  a  part  iji  the  Liveen  l^acy 
to  the  society,  but  afterward  a  Latimer  homestead.  The  house  was 
built  by  CoL  Jonathan  Latimer,  and  conveyed  by  him  to  his  son 
Capt.  Robert  Latimer,  in  1767.  The  latter  enlarged  it  to  double  its 
original  size,  but  removing  afterward  to  Middletown,  sold  the  place 
to  Shaw,  who  made  a  free  gift  of  it  to  the  society.  It  was  occupied 
for  a  parsonage  about  fifty  years,  but  the  distance  from  the  church 
rendering  it  incQUvenient  for  the  pastor,  it  was  relinquished.^ 

1  Thifldtaation  is  now  fiuniliariy  called  Zion's  Hill,  a  designatioii  iHiich  is  beKered 
to  have  originated  at  a  Sunday-school  celebration  in  1880. 

a  Two  of  the  subscribers  on  this  list  of  1788  are  living  in  1862,  vis.,  John  Ooit,  of 
Mew  London,  and  George  D.  Avery,  then  of  New  London,  but  since  of  Oxford,  Mew 
York.    They  were  both  pew-holders  in  1790. 

8  The  house  is  stiU  extant,  and  was  sold  by  the  society  hd  1860,  for  92,100. 


HISTORY     OF     NBW     LONDON.  589 

Rev.  Henry  Channing  was  a  native  of  Newport^  graduated  at 
Yale  College,  in  1781,  and  was  tutor  of  that  institution  from  1788  to 
1786,'  A  revival  of  religion  in  the  congregation,  followed  his  set- 
dement  at  New  London.  About  eighty  persons  became  members  of 
the  church  within  two  years  after  his  settlement.  His  ministry  con- 
tinued nearly  nineteen  years. 

On  the  21st  of  February,  1806,  Mr.  Channing  sent  a  letter  to  the 
society  committee,  asking  for  a  dismission  from  his  charge.  The 
reasons  he  assigned  were  the  insufficiency  of  his  salary  to  meet  the 
enhanced  prices  of  the  times,  the  indifference  and  neglect  with  which 
his  complaints  on  that  subject  had  been  treated,  forcing  upon  him  the 
conclusion  that  his  ministerial  services  were  no  longer  accej^ble,  and 
finally,  the  inefficiency  of  his  labors  during  the  last  seven  years,  to 
counteract  the  evidently  declining  state  of  religion  and  morals  in  the 
place. 

The  society  concurred  with  Mr.  Channing  in  calling  a  council, 
which  convened  May  20th,  1806,  at  the  house  of  Gen.  Jedidiah 
Huntington,  and  voted  a  dissolution  of  the  connection. 

This  measure  was  an  unexpected  one,  as  no  obstruction  to  the  reg- 
ular harmonious  intercourse  between  the  pastor  and  the  congregation 
had  taken  place.  Dignified  courtesy  on  his  side,  had  been  met  with 
respectful  reserve  on  theirs.  Nevertheless,  a  disagreement  in  faith 
and  doctrine  existed,  which  must  in  the  end  have  led  to  disruption. 
Mr.  Channing  was  a  Unitarian,  perhaps  had  always  been  one,  but 
this  was  not  known  or  suspected  at  the  time  of  his  settlement.  It 
was  now  no  longer  a  surmise  or  a  secret.  His  lips  had  been  for 
some  time  watched ;  no  admission  of  the  divinity  of  Christ  ever 
issued  from  them.  The  form  of  covenanting  and  profession  of  faith 
was  expressed  in  vague  and  general  tenns ;  he  avoided  the  customary 
doxologies,  and  dismissed  all  worshiping  assemblies  with  apostolic 
ascriptions  of  praise  and  glory,  as  in  I.  Timothy,  i.  17.  Most  of  his 
congregation  were  aware  of  his  sentiments,  though  little  was  said 
about  them.     A  general  indifference  in  respect  to  doctrines  prevailed. 

William  Ellery  Channing,  the  nephew  of  the  Rey.  Henry,  was  in 
the  family  of  his  uncle  at  New  London,  for  a  considerable  time,  pur- 
suing his  education  under  his  tuition,  and  it  is  probable  that  he  first 
imbibed  from  his  instructor  and  relative,  those  views  and  doctrines 


1  Mr.  Channing  married,  September  26th,  1787,  Sally  McCordy,  of  Lyme.    They 
had  nine  children,  four  of  whom  died  in  in^cy. 

50 


590  HISTORY    OF    NBW    LONDON. 

of  which  he  was  afterward  the  eloquent  champion.  After  being 
licensed  to  preach,  he  occasionally  occupied  the  pulpit  of  his  wide  ; 
I  &rt  ^  and  at  his  ordination  in  £>eftember,  1799,  over  the  church  in  Fed- 
eral Street,  Boston,  the  New  London  church  assisted,  bj  invitation, 
and  were  represented  by  their  pastor,  Rev.  Henry  Channing,  and 
delegate,  Gren.  Jedidiah  Huntington. 

During  the  nineteen  years  of  Mr.  Channing's  ministry,  the  admis- 
sions to  the  church  were  one  hundred  and  eighty-nine  ;  baptisms,  five 
hundred  and  seventy-five,  of  whom  fifty-six  were  adults,  and  several 
by  immersion :  marriages  by  him,  three  hundred  and  forty-six. 

Mr.  Channing's  services  closed  in  May :  on  the  14th  of  July,  Uie 
society  voted  to  call  the  Rev.  Abel  McEwen  to  the  pastoral  office. 
He  accepted  the  invitation,  and  was  ordained  October  22d,  1806 — ser- 
mon by  Rev.  Timothy  Dwight,  president  of  Yale  College. 

With  Mr.  McEwen's  ministry,  Dwight's  Psalms  and  Hymns  were 
introduced,  and  a  new  form  of  church  covenant  was  adopted,  express- 
ing the  doctrines  regarded  as  orthodox,  with  distinctness  and  perspi- 
cuity. A  session-house  was  also  very  soon  provided.  Before  this 
period  all  conference  meetings,  and  in  general,  religious  lectures,  had 
been  at  private  houses. 

Rev.  Abel  McEwen,  D.  D.,  is  a  native  of  Winchester,  Ct  He 
graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1804,  and  has  been  Socii  of  that  insti- 
tution since  1826.  At  the  close  of  this  history  in  1852,  he  has  nearly 
completed  the  forty-sixth  year  of  his  ministry.  Number  of  members 
in  his  church  about  two  hundred  and  Mij. 

In  1848,  the  society  came  to  the  determination  of  building  a  new 
house  of  worship,  on  the  site  then  occupied.  As  a  preparatory  meas- 
ure, therefore,  the  old  house  must  be  removed.  The  last  service  in 
this  venerated  building,  was  held  Sept.  30th,  1849 :  the  sermon  by 
the  pastor  from  Psahn  cii.  14. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 


591 


CONGBEGATIONAL   MEETING-HOUSE. 

1786—1850. 

This  edifice  was  taken  down,  and  in  the  course  of  the  year  1850, 
a  granite  church — ^the  stone  partly  quarried  from  the  foundation,  and 
partly  from  another  ledge  about  one  hundred  rods  distant — was  erect- 
ed on  the  spot,  at  a  cost  of  about  $43,000.  The  architect  was  Leo- 
pold Eidlitz,  of  New  York.  The  main  features  of  the  design  belong 
to  the  most  ancient  Grothic  style;  the  arches  are  semi-circular,  the 
recess  for  the  pulpit,  semi-octagonal,  and  the  side  windows  double, 
with  a  broad  column  in  the  center.  The  architectural  design  and 
proportions  of  the  building,  with  the  open,  airy  appearance  of  the 
campanile  or  bell-tower,  and  the  light  and  graceful  spire,  harmonize 
well  with  the  elevated  position  and  color  of  the  stone. 


A  second  Congregational  church  was  organized  by  a  colony  of 
nineteen  members  from  the  first  church,  April  28th,  1835.  A  church 
had  been  previously  built  and  dedicated  April  23d.  Rev.  Dr. 
Bald¥mi,  then  of  New  York,  but  afterward  president  of  Illinois  Col- 
^^S^  preached  the  dedication  sermon.  The  cost  of  the  edifice  w&en 
completed,  was  about  $13,000 ;  the  land  for  the  site  was  a  gift  from 
T.  W.  Williams. 


592  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

Rev.  Joseph  Hurlbut  supplied  the  pulpit  for  nearly  two  years. 

Rev.  James  McDonald  was  installed  Dec.  13th,  1837  ;  dismissed, 
Jan.  7th,  1840. 

Rev.  Artemas  Boies,  previously  of  the  Pine  Street  Church,  Boa- 
ton,  was  installed  March  10th,  1840.  lie  died,  af^er  a  short  illness, 
Sept  25th,  1844.  He  was  the  first  i^astor  of  any  denomination,  that 
had  deceased  in  the  place,  since  the  death  of  Bishop  Seabury,  in 
1796. 

Rev.  Tryon  Edwards,  previously  of  Rochester,  N.  1\,  was  in- 
stalled March  6th,  1845. 

This  church  numbers,  in  1851,  about  one  hundred  male  and  two 
hundred  female  members. 


EpxBcopalians.  The  Episcopal  society  assembled  for  the  first 
time  after  the  burning  of  the  town,  April  25th,  1783.  William  Stew- 
art and  Jonathan  Starr  were  chosen  church-wardens,  both  of  whom 
had  held  the  office  before  the  fire.  The  great  and  interesting  object 
before  them  was  the  erection  of  a  new  church ;  or,  as  it  is  expressed 
in  the  record,  "  the  re(^stablishment  of  our  sacred  dwelling." 

The  site  of  the  old  church  was  wanted  by  the  town  for  the  pur- 
pose of  widening  the  street  or  Parade,  but  the  society  hesitated  to  re- 
linquish it  on  account  of  the  interments  that  had  been  made  in  the 
ground.  All  traces  of  graves,  however,  had  been  obliterated  by  the 
fire  and  rubbish  of  the  ruins,  and  an  exchange  was  ultimately  effected 
with  the  town,  by  which  the  church-lot  was  thrown  into  the  highway, 
making  a  part  of  State  Street,  and  a  new  site  was  procured  by  the 
society,  on  a  portioo  of  the  old  Edgecomb  homestead  in  Main  Street, 
which  by  the  opening  of  Church  Street,  simultaneously  with  the 
erection  of  the  church,  became  a  comer  lot.  On  this  spot  the  second 
Church  of  St.  James,  which  may  be  called  the  Seabury  church,  in 
distinction  from  the  first,  or  McSparran  church,  was  erected.  Bishop 
Seabury  had  become  an  inhabitant  of  the  town,  and  the  church  w^as 
commenced  and  built  under  the  expectation  that  it  would  be  occupied 
by  him.  The  foundation  stone  was  laid  July  4th,  1785,  and  the 
house  dedicated  by  Bishop  Seabury,  Sept.  20th,  1787.  The  dome 
and  bell  were  not  added  till  1794. 

The  interments  in  the  old  church-yard  upon  the  Parade,  had  been 
very  few,  and  those  princijmlly  of  perwns  belonging  to  the  families 
of  English  residents,  or  recent  settlers  in  the  place.  Most  of  the  na- 
tive Episcopal  families  are  known  to  have  been  gathei'ed  to  their 


HI9T0RY  OP   NEW   |iONPON.  593 

fistthers  in  the  anoimt  burial-grounds  At  serertd  different  periods 
since  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  human  bones  have  been 
unearthed  by  workmen  employed  in  grading  State  Street ;  a  few  only 
at  a  time,  but  indicating  that  they  had  struck  into  one  of  the  graves 
in  the  cemetery  of  the  old  Church  of  St.  James. 

Samuel  Seabnry,  second  son  of  Kev.  Samuel  Seabury,  was  bom  in 
Groton,  Nov.  80th,  1729  ;  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1748,  and  in 
1750  went  to  Scotland  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  science  of  med- 
icine ;  but  changing  his  design  and  turning  his  attention  to  theology, 
he  was  ordained  in  1753,  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
returned  to  America  as  a  missionary  of  the  ''  Society  for  Propagating 
the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts."  He  preached  a  short  time  in  the  prov- 
ince of  New  Brunswick,  from  whence,  in  1756,  he  removed  to  Ja- 
maica, Long  Island,  and  in  1766  was  transferred  by  the  society  to 
Westchester,  N.  T.,  where  he  kept  a  classical  school  both  for  board- 
ers and  day  scholars,  and  officiated  as  rector  of  the  parishes  of  East 
and  Westchester.  He  had  at  the  same  time  considerable  practice 
as  a  physician.  In  the  Kevolutionary  contest  he  was  a  royalist ;  and 
in  November,  1775,  was  arrested  at  his  house  by  an  armed  force,  car- 
ried to  New  Haven,  and  kept  for  some  time  in  durance.  He  was 
subsequently  released  and  allowed  to  return  to  his  family.^  In  1777, 
he  was  appointed  chaplain  to  the  ^'  king's  American  regiment,"  which 
was  raised  in  Queen's  county,  N.  Y.,  by  enlistment  of  royalists.^ 

In  1784^  he  went  to  England,  bearing  therecommendation  and  re- 
quest of  a  number  of  Episcopal  clergymen  in  Connecticut  and  New 
York,  that  he  might  be  appointed  Bishop  of  Connecticut  He  ap- 
plied for  consecration  to  Dr.  Moore,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury ;  but 
that  prelate,  doubting  his  authority  to  consecrate  a  bishop  out  of  the 
bounds  of  the  British  empire,  and  requesting  time  for  deliberation, 
Dr.  Seabury,  impatient  of  delay,  proceeded  to  Aberdeen,  and  made 
a  similar  application  to  the  prelates  of  the  Scotch  church.  He  was 
successful  in  his  suit,  received  Episcopal  consecration,  Nov.  14thy 
1784,  and  returned  to  America  as  Bishop  of  Connecticut.  In  New 
London,  where  he  had  passed  his  early  days,  and  among  the  people 
of  St.  James'  Church,  the  ancient  flock  of  his  father,  he  found  a  pleas 
ant  and  congenial  home.  His  salary  was  ^'  £80  per  annuniy  half  the 
contribution,"  and  the  use  of  the  parsonage.^    His  diocese  aflbrded 

1  Hinman^s  War  of  the  Revolution,  p.  548. 

2  Onderdonk^s  Bevolutionary  Incidents  in  Queen's  Co.,  p.  427. 
8  Society  Bec(»d. 

50* 


594  tflStOftY    OP    NBW    LONDON. 

him  some  additicmal  income.  In  1790,  he  was  elected  Bishop  of 
Rhode  Island,  this  diocese  being  united  to  that  of  Connecticat. 

Bishop  Seaburydied  Feb.  25th,  1796,  and  was  interred  with  great 
ceremony  and  solemnity  in  the  second  borial-groond,  where  his  caM>- 
taph  is  still  to  be  found,  the  remains  from  beneath  having  been  since 
removed. '  He  was  succeeded  in  his  pastoral  office  by  his  son,  the 
Bev.  Charles  Seabury,  who  had  previously  been  preaching  in  Jamai- 
ca, L.  I.,  but  was  invited  to  New  London  immediately  after  the  death 
of  his  father.  His  ministry  commenced  in  March,  1796,  and  contin- 
ued eighteen  years.  In  1814,  he  was  invited  to  Setauket-,  L.  L,  and 
his  connection  with  the  parish  of  St.  James  being  ecclesiasticaUy 
dissolved,  he  removed  thither  in  June  of  that  year. 

Since  that  period  the  pastors  have  been : 

Rev.  Solomon  Blakeslee,  from  1815  to  1818 — three  years. 

Rev.  Bethel  Judd,  "     1819  to  1882— twelve  years. 

Rev.  Isaac  W.  Hallam,        "    1882  to  1884— two  years. 

Rev.  Robert  A.  Hallam,  previously  pastor  of  the  Episcopal  church 
in  Meriden,  Ct.,  was  caUed  to  the  rectorship  of  St.  James,  in  1884, 
and  assumed  the  charge  Jan.  Ist,  1885.  He  is  the  eighth  rector  of 
the  church. 

In  1846,  the  society  decided  that  the  interests  of  the  parish  re- 
quired larger  accommodations,  and  passed  a  vote  to  build  a  new 
church.  This  has  resulted  in  the  erection  of  a  beautiful  Gothic  edi- 
fice, of  New  Jersey  freestone,  at  the  comer  of  Huntington  and  Fed- 
eral Streets.  The  comer-stone  was  laid  Nov.  8d,  1847,  Bishop  Hen- 
shaw,  of  Rhode  Island,  officiating  on  the  occasion.  The  church  was 
consecrated  June  11th,  1850,  by  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Brownell,  Bishop 
of  Connecticut.  It  is  a  noble  and  massive  structure,  based  upon  a 
solid  pile  of  masonry,  and  if  assailed  by  no  enemy  but  time,  will 
probably  endure  for  ages.  The  style  is  craciform,  that  is,  having  a 
wing  or  recess  upon  each  side.  The  tower  is  in  the  comer.  The 
interior  length  is  one  hundred  and  eight  feet ;  width  of  the  nave, 
forty-four ;  across  the  transept,  eighty ;  heightof  the  tower  and  spire, 
one  hundred  and  fifty-six.     Architect,  Upjohn,  of  New  York. 

This  church,  in  completeness  of  design  and  architectural  elegance, 
holds  the  first  rank  among  the  ecclesiastical  edifices  of  the  state.  It 
is  also  a  gratifying  fact  that  the  society  is  unincumbered  with  any 
debt  for  its  erection ;  the  whole  cost,  which  was  upward  of  $60,000, 
being  entirely  covered  by  successive  subscriptions.^ 

1  The  contributions  for  the  first  Episcopal  chorch  in  New  London,  built  in  1780, 


HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON.  595 

A  monument  is  erected  in  this  church  to  the  memory  of  Bishop 
Seabury,  by  contributions  from  the  dioceses  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island.  His  remains  were  removed  from  the  burial-place,  and  de- 
posited in  the  tomb  underneath  this  monument. 


Methodists.  In  the  year  1789,  Jesse  Lee,  a  distinguished  preacher 
of  the  Methodist  denomination,  came  through  Connecticut,  and  laid 
the  foundation  of  Methodism,  not  only  for  this  state,  but  for  all  New 
England.  His  first  sermon  in  New  London,  was  preached  at  the 
court-house,  Sept.  2d,  1789  ;  he  was  here  again  in  June,  1790,  and 
both  times  was  cordially  received  by  members  of  the  Baptist  denom- 
ination. In  1791,  Bishop  Asbury  visited  the  city,  and  preached  also 
in  the  court-house.*  Class  meetings  were  commenced  at  the  house 
of  Richard  Douglas,  who,  together  with  his  wife  and  daughter,  were 
some  of  the  first  converts  to  Methodism  in  the  place.  The  New 
London  circuit  was  instituted  in  1793,  and  a  society  was  formed  con- 
sisting of  eleven  persons,  in  October  of  that  year.  The  next  spring, 
their  number  was  considerably  enlarged,  and  preparatory  measures 
were  taken  toward  the  erection  of  a  meeting-house  or  chapel.  An 
eligible  site  was  chosen,  on  what  was  then  called  Grolden  Hill,  where 
an  area  of  twenty-six  and  a  half  square  rods  was  purchased  for  £45. 

The  trustees  of  the  society  were  Richard  Douglas,  Daniel  Bur- 
rows, George  Potter,  Peter  Griffin,  Isaiah  Bolles,  Luther  Grale,  and 
John  Shepherd.  These  were  the  founders  of  the  Methodist  church 
in  New  London.  Most  of  them  were  previously  members  of  the 
Baptist  church.  Messrs.  Burrows  and  Griffin  were  subsequently 
ordained,  and  became  local  preachers. 

The  same  year  the  class  was  joined  by  Jacob  Stockman,  from  the 
Congregational  church.  These  with  their  wives,  and  a  few.  other 
zealous  and  discreet  females,  formed  the  base  and  central  portion  of 
the  society. 

In  July,  1795,  the  Methodist  conference  met  at  New  London,*  at 
the  house  of  Daniel  Burrows  ;  Bishop  Asbury  presided,  and  eighteen 
other  preachers  attended.    Amos  G.  Thompson  was  that  year  upon 

amonnted  to  £550,  and  this  was  the  whole  cost  of  the  building,  excepting  the  pews, 
which  were  built  by  individuals.  The  difference  of  expenditure  in  that  church,  and 
the  church  of  1860,  vividly  illustrates  the  progress  of  society. 

1  Kew  London  Gazette. 

2  Ibid. 


t/ 


596  HISTORY  OP   N£W   LONDON* 

the  New  London  circnit ;  an  engaged  and  engaging  preacher,  who, 
some  four  years  later,  embraced  Congregationalism,  and  was  ordained 
over  the  church  in  Montville, 

The  female  members  of  the  society  discarded  all  ornamental  attire, 
and  appeared  in  the  plain  cottage  bonnet  and  strict  simplicity  of  dress 
which  marked  the  Methodist  women  of  that  day.^  New  things  al- 
most invariably  meet  with  some  opposition,  and  many  abeard  reports 
were  circulated  respecting  the  Methodists.  The  class  meetings  were 
regarded  with  doubt  and  suspicion,  and  stigmatized  aa  dark  meetings 
or  $ecret  societies.  It  was  a  strange  thing  to  see  young  women  cast- 
ing aside  their  feathers,  their  ribbons,  and  their  high,  airy  looks,  and 
the  young  men  their  shoe-buckles,  hi^t-bands,  and  jolly  manners,  and 
both  classes  moving  about  in  such  demure  simplicity.  These  pecul- 
iarities marked  them  out  for  censure  or  ridicule. 

Their  house  of  worship  was  not  erected  without  many  struggles 
and  reverses.  Their  first  attempt  to  raise  the  necessary  funds  was 
made  in  1793,  but  their  chapel  was  not  built  till  179B.  It  is  stated 
in  the  journal  of  Asbury,^  that  the  frame  was  raised  on  Monday,  July 
16th,  and  the  house  dedicated  the  next  Sunday.  Asbury  and  Jesse 
Lee  were  both  present,  and  preached  on  the  occasion.  The  dedicar 
tion  sermon  was  by  Lee,  from  these  words :  ^^  This  day  is  sidvatioa 
come  to  this  house." 

The  chapel  was  occupied  for  two  years  in  an  unfinished  state,  un- 
plastered  and  unglazed.  It  was  completed  in  1800.  In  April,  1808, 
a  session  of  the  New  £ngland  Conference  was  held  in  it,  Bishop 
Asbury  presiding.  This  meeting  of  the  conference,  and  a  subsequent 
visit  from  Jesse  Lee,  in  July,  excited  much  interest,  and  a  remarka- 
ble revival  followed.  Many  persons  were  afiected  in  the  way  whidi 
has  been  called  losing  their  strength;  that  is,  falling  down  and  remain- 
ing for  a  longer  or  shorter  time,  apparently  lifeless.  This  was  not  a 
state  of  distress  caused  by  conviction  of  sin,  but  was  understood  to  be 
a  condition  of  indescribable  rapture,  in  which  the  physical  powers 
were  prostrated  by  an  excess  of  devout  emotioy.  At  one  meeting,  in 
New  London,  Elder  Washburn,  who  presided,  states  that  twen^ 
persons  fell  to  the  fioor,  and  lay  helpless  from  one  to  five  hours.  He 
adds  the  following  special  case  : 


1  During  the  week  before  the  sitting  of  the  conference,  seventeen  Methodist  bonnets 
were  made  by  one  miHinei^-ell  of  the  same  pattern,  a  diminntive  model  haTing  been 
brought  by  a  circuit  preacher  from  Middletown,  in  a  snuff-box. 

2  Quoted  in  Stevens*  Memorials  of  Methodism,  p.  870. 


v/ 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     L^ONDON.  597 

**  One  young  lady*  whose  reputation  stood  high  both  in  the  church,  and 
among  those  wlio  were  without,  was  insensible  fifty-two  hours ;  and  when  she 
recovered,  and  sal  down  at  a  table  to  take  some  refreshment,  declared  that  she 
felt  no  dilfercnoe  in  the  slate  of  her  appetite,  from  what  she  ordinarily  felt  when 
she  rose  in  the  morning  and  sat  down  to  breakfa5t.">^ 

At  Norwicli,  similar  effects  were  produced;  two  young  persons 
fell  to  the  floor  and  lay  there  seventy  hours,  the  meeting  being  kept 
up  the  whole  time,  and  persons  continually  coming  and  going.* 

TJiese  scenes  were  not  dissimilar  to  some  that  were  exhibited  at 
the  period  of  the  great  awakening,  in  1741  and  1742. 

The  meeting-house  or  chapel  of  the  society  proving  unserviceable, 
and  its  bounds  becoming  too  narrow,  it  was  sold  and  removed  in  1816. 
A  new  one,  on  the  same  site,  was  dedicated,  by  Bishop  George,  June 
18th,  1818.'  In  1819,  the  number  of  members  was  three  hundred 
and  twenty-one.*  This,  on  the  whole,  must  be  regarded  as  the  most 
flourishing  period  of  Methodism  in  New  London.  It  was  made  a 
station,  and  for  several  years  had  a  resident  minister.  Since  that 
time  its  fortunes  have  fluctuated :  it  has  had  periods  of  declension 
and  of  revival  and  increase  ;  it  has  been  a  station,  and  then  dropped ; 
reappointed  and  relinquished  again. 

In  1838,  three  hundred  and  seventy-seven  members  were  reported ; 
but  divisions  existed  among  them,  which,  in  1840,  led  to  an  open 
rapture.  The  church  was  rent  in  twain.  One  party,  including  the 
trustees,  withdrew  from  the  conference,  disclaimed  its  authority,  and 
called  themselves  Independent  Methodists.  This  party  kept  posses- 
sion of  the  chapel.  The  other  division  of  regular  Methodists,  held 
their  services  one  season  in  the  conference-room  of  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church  ;  and  the  next  in  the  court-house.  But  subsequently, 
under  the  leading  of  Rev.  Ralph  W.  Allen,  they  erected  a  church  in 
"Washington  Street,  which  was  dedicated  December  8th,  1842.  By 
a  decision  of  the  civil  court  in  1849,  this  society  has  also  obtained 
possession  of  the  old  church.  They  are  now  proprietors  of  two  chap- 
els or  houses  of  wor^ip,  though  they  have  but  one  congregation. 
The  number  of  members  reported  in  1851,  is  two  hundred  and 
nineteen.' 

1  Stevens*  Memorials  of  Methodism^  p.  416. 

2  Ibid. 

8  Gazette. 

4  Stevens,  p.  872. 

6  Minutes  of  Coufercnce. 


698  HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON. 

The  ninth  annual  session  of  the  Providence  Conference,  was  held 
in  New  London  in  April,  1849. 

The  seceding  or  independent  Methodists,  after  keeping  together  for 
a  few  years,  gradaallj  relinquished  their  public  services ;  but  in 
1850,  a  few  of  the  remaining  members  united  with  other  Christians, 
in  establishing  a  Bethel  meeting,  under  a  Methodist  preacher.  This 
society  having  purchased  the  Union  school-house  in  Huntington 
Street,  and  fitted  it  for  a  house  of  worship,  constitute  the  tenth  wor^ 
shiping  assembly  in  New  London  at  the  present  time,  1852. 


BaptitU.  The  church  which  now  bears  the  designation  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church  of  New  London,  was  constituted  in  February, 
1804,  by  a  colony  of  about  fifty  members  from  the  Waterford  Bap- 
tist church,  most  of  whom  resided  within  the  limits  of  New  London. 
Jonathan  Sizer  and  Henry  Harris  were  chosen  the  first  deacons. 

The  position  chosen  for  their  house  of  worship,  was  a  platform  of 
rock,  on  a  summit  of  the  ledge  that  runs  through  the  central  part  of 
the  city.  It  was  commenced  in  1805,  and  was  occupied  nearly  ten 
yciEurs  in  an  unfinished  state ;  the  beams  and  rafters  left  naked,  and 
with  loose,  rough  planks  for  seats.  The  interior  was  then  finished, 
and  the  whole  edifice  has  since  been  enlarged  and  improved. 

Rev.  Samuel  West,  the  associate  of  Elder  Darrow,  was  the  first 
pastor  of  the  church.  After  a  ministry  of  ten  years,  he  was  dismissed 
at  his  own  r^uest  in  January,  1814.* 

Rev.  Nehemiah  Dodge  officiated  from  1816  to  1821,  and  remained 
in  the  church  till  1823,  when  he  was  excluded,  on  the  ground  that  he 
had  embraced  Universalist  principles.  They  have  since  been  served 
by  ten  other  pastors,  making  twelve  in  all.  Rev.  Charles  Willett  is 
the  present  minister. 

Li  1847,  under  the  ministry  of  Rev.  Jabez  S.  Swan,^  the  members 
of  this  church  amounted  to  six  hundred  and  twenty-five,  probably  the 
largest  church  ever  known  in  New  London  county.  It  has  since 
colonized  and  formed  another  church.  The  number  of  members  re- 
ported in  1850,  is  four  hundred  and  five. 


1  He  removed  to  Say  brook,  where  he  died  in  1887.  He  spent  one  jear,  (1828,) 
after  his  removal,  with  his  former  flock  at  New  London.  Elder  West  was  bom  in 
Hopkinton,  R.  I.,  and  brought  up  in  the  Seventh-Day  principles.  The  small  brick 
house  in  Union  Street,  near  the  Baptist  church,  was  his  dwelling-house  in  New  Lon- 
don. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  599 

In  the  year  1840,  Rev.  C.  C.  Williams,  the  officiating  pastor  of  the 
church,  and  a  considerahle  number  of  the  members,  withdrew  and 
organized  the  second  Baptist  church  and  society  in  New  London. 
This  society  erected  a  house  of  worship  in  Union  Street,  on  another 
part  of  the  same  ledge  of  rock  upon  which  the  other  is  founded,* 
which  was  dedicated  Dec  16th,  1840,  and  the  church  recognized  by 
a  council  convened  for  the  occasion,  the  same  month.  The  with- 
drawal of  this  colony  was  in  the  first  instance  displeasing  to  the  main 
body  of  the  old  church,  and  they  excluded  Elder  Williams  and  six 
of  the  chief  supporters  of  the  enterprise,  from  their  fellowship  ;  but  in 
1842,  a  reconciliation  of  the  two  churches  was  effected  by  the  media- 
tion of  Elder  John  Peck. 

The  second  church  has  had  four  pastors  ;  the  present  one  is  Rev. 
Edwin  R.  Warren.  In  1850,  the  number  of  members  was  four  hun- 
dred and  eight. 

A  third  Baptist  church  was  constituted  March  14th,  1849,  by  a 
division  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  members  from  the  first  church. 
This  society  purchased  the  brick  church  in  Huntington  Street,  built 
six  years  previous  by  the  Universalist  society,  for  $12,000,  and  dedi- 
cated it  as  their  house  of  worship,  March  29th,  1849.  Sermon  by 
Rev.  J.  S.  Swan,  who  was  the  chief  mover  in  the  enterprise,  founder 
and  pastor  of  the  church.  In  1850,  the  number  of  members  was 
three  hundred  and  eleven. 


Universalists,  A  Universalist  society  was  formed  in  New  Lon- 
don in  the  year  1835,  and  occasional  services  held,  but  no  church  was 
erected  or  regular  ministry  established,  till  1843,  when  an  edifice  of 
brick  was  erected  on  Huntington  Street,  and  dedicated  March  20th, 
1844.  Rev.  T.  J.  Greenwood  was  its  pastor  for  four  years.  In 
1849,  it  was  sold  by  the  trustees,  in  order  to  liquidate  the  debts  of  the 
society,  and  was  purchased  by  the  Third  Baptist  Church.  In  August, 
of  the  same  year,  the  Universalist  society  purchased  the  former  Epis- 
copal church  on  Main  Street,  for  $3,500.     As  this  was  thoroughly 


1  Daring  the  year  1860,  when  the  city  authorities  were  lowering  Union  Street,  the 
Second  Baptist  Society  had  the  rock  in  front  of  their  church  cut  down,  and'an  excava- 
tion made  beneath  the  building,  where  a  neat  and  commodious  lecture-room  has  been 
finished.  In  accomplishing  this,  about  two  thousand  loads  of  solid  stone  were  re- 
moved. 


600  HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON. 

repaired  and  improved  in  1885,  it  is  still  a  valuable  and  commodious 
edifice. 

Rev.  James  W.  Dennis  is  their  second  and  present  pastor. 


Roman  Catholics,  A  small  Roman  Catholic  chapel  was  built  on 
Jay  Street,  in  1842,  and  dedicated  May  13th,  1850,  by  Rev.  Dr. 
Fitzpatrick,  of  Boston. 


Note. — It  has  been  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  chapter,  that  the  remains  of 
Bishop  Seabnry  hnd  been  removed  from  the  burial-ground  to  the  vault  of  St, 
James*  Church  The  tablet  which  covered  his  grave  still  remains.  The  epi- 
taph, which  has  been  much  admired  for  its  classic  purity  and  neatness  of  ex- 
pression, is  attributed  to  John  Bowdcn,  D.  D.,  Professor  in  Columbia  College. 
It  is  as  follows : 

Here  lieth  the  Body  of 

SAMUEL  SEABURY,  D.  D., 

Bishop  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island, 

"Who  departed  from  this  transitory  scene 

Feb.  25th,  171)6,  in  the  CSth  year  of  his  age. 

Ingenious  without  pride,  learned  without  pedantry. 

Good  without  severity,  he  was  duly  qualified 

To  discharge  the  duties  of  the  Christian  and  the  Bishop. 

In  the  pulpit  he  enforced  religion, 

In  his  conduct  he  exemplified  it. 

The  poor  he  assisted  with  his  charity. 

The  ignorant  he  blessed  with  his  instruction. 

The  friend  of  man,  he  ever  desired  their  good. 

The  enemy  of  vice,  he  ever  opposed  it. 

Christian  !  dost  thou  aspire  to  happiness, 

Seabury  has  shown  the  way  that  leads  to  it. 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

Eoolesiastical  noticea  of  Groton.— Villages  of  Groton. — Ledyard  made  a  town. 
Pine  Swamp. — Pequot  reservation. — Remains  of  the  tribe. — Montville  made 
a  town. — Succession  of  ministers. — Churches  struck  by  lightning. — Bap- 
tist churches. — Decline  of  Congregationalism. — The  Huckleberry  meeting- 
house.— Miner  meeting-house. — Waterford  made«a  town. — Niantic  Bay. — 
The  Darrow  church. — Jordan  church.= — Seventh-day  church. — East  Lyme 
made  a  town.— Niantic  Bar  or  Nahant.~-The  old  synagogue. — Black  Point. 

In  this  chapter,  the  ancient  town  will  be  resumed,  in  order  to  give 
a  brief  sketch  of  the  recent  history  of  those  offsets  which  are  now 
independent  towns. 

GROTON. 

Rev.  Aaron  Kinney  was  ordained  over  the  south  Congregational 
church  in  Groton,  as  successor  to  Mr.  Barber,  Oct.  19th,  1769.  He 
was  a  native  of  Lisbon,  Ct.,  and  graduated  at  Yale  College,  in  1765. 
The  circumstances  of  his  family  were  such  as  to  render  an  ample  in- 
come necessary,  while  his  actual  receipts  were  scanty.  The  total 
inadequacy  of  his  salary  to  his  support,  led  to  his  dismission,  I^oy. 
5th,  1798,  at  which  time  his  family  consisted  of  an  invalid  wife  and 
eleven  children  under  seventeen  years  of  age.  His  subsequent  life 
was  filled  with  wanderings,  trials  and  removals ;  he  died  in  Ohio,  in 
1824,  aged  seventy-nine.^ 

After  the  departure  of  Mr.  Kinney,  both  the  north  and  south  Con- 
gregational societies  were  left  without  a  minister,  and  the  Sacred  edi- 
fices in  both  places  falling  into  decay,  that  forlorn  aspect  was  pre- 
sented which  called  forth  the  animadversions  of  Dr.  Dwight,  who  in 
his  travels  written  at  that  period,  censures  the  inhabitants  of  Groton 


1  Allen's  Biographical  DictioDary. 

51 


602  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

for  their  indifference  to  religion,  and  their  negligence  in  the  support 
of  public  worship. 

North  Groton  remained  without  a  ministry  and  the  ordinances  of 
religion,  from  1772  to  1810.  When  at  length  the  spirit  of  other  and 
better  days  revived,  the  old  church  could  not  be  found — ^not  a  mem- 
ber remained.  A  reorganization  was  effected  Dec.  12th,  1810,  with 
^Ye  new  members,  one  male  and  four  females.  Perhaps  no  smaller 
number  was  ever  regularly  embodied  into  a  church.*  *  This  society, 
uniting  with  the  first  or  south  society,  called  the  Rev.  Timothy  Tut- 
tle  to  the  joint  charge  of  both  parishes.  He  was  ordained  in  the 
south  church,  August  14th,  1811. 

Mr.  Tuttle  continued  pastor  of  the  associated  churches  for  twenty- 
three  years ;  occupying  alternately  houses  of  worship  five  miles  apart. 
In  1834,  his  relation  to  the  south  society  was  dissolved,  and  he  be- 
came the  exclusive  pastor  of  the  northern  parish,  now  Ledyard.  The 
old  meeting-house  in  th)s  parish,  after  keeping  its  station  through  the 
storms  of  one  hundred  and  sixteen  years — a  period  which  in  our 
young  country  seems  like  a  great  antiquity — has  given  place  to  a 
neat  and  commodious  edifice,  which  was  dedicated  Dec  Gth,  1843. 
"  Beautiful  for  situation,"  on  the  central  height  of  the  town,  this  little 
church  stands  with  its  spire  "  a  pencil  in  the  sky,"  pointing  toward 
heaven,  and  its  bell  wafting  solemn  sounds  among  the  everlasting 
hills. 

The  south  church,  after  the  harmonious  separation  from  the  north, 
remained  destitute  of  a  settled  minister  ^ve  years.  Rev.  Jared  R. 
Avery,  a  native  of  Groton  and  graduate  of  Williams  College,  was 
installed  October  9th,  1839 ;  dismissed  at  his  own  request  in  April, 
1851.*    Rev.  George  H.  Woodward  was  installed  the  same  year. 


The  ancient  Baptist  church  of  Groton,  have  relinquished  their 
former  sacred  habitation  on  Wightman  Hill,  and  removed  to  a  new 
house  of  worship  at  the  Head  of  Mystic  Four  other  Baptist  churches 
have  been  established  within  the  bounds  of  Groton ;  two  of  them  at 
Noank  and  Groton  Bank,  in  1843.  The  house  of  worship  on  Gro- 
ton Bank  was  dedicated  June  4th,  1845.  The  present  pastor  is  Rev. 
N.  T.  Allen. 


1 "  We  had  iiol,  like  our  Puritan  fathers,  seven  pillars  to  begin  with.  We  had  but 
one  main  pillar,  and  even  tliat  one,  before  another  could  be  joined  with  it,  was  removed 
by  the  hand  of  death.'*  (Sermon  of  Bev.  T.  Tuttle  at  the  dedication  of  the  new  meet- 
ing-house, 1848.) 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  603 

A  Methodist  societj  was  established  at  the  village  of  Galetown, 
soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  present  century,  which  owed 
much  to  the  fostering  care  of  Rev.  Ralph  Ilurlbut,  a  native  of  the 
place,  and  a  local  preacher  of  the  Methodist  connection.  The  num- 
ber of  members  in  1851,  was  seventy-six.  There  is  also  a  church  of 
this  denomination  at  Mystic  Bridge,  of  about  one  hundred  members. 

Groton  Bank,  opposite  New  I^ndon,  is  noted  for  its  beautiful  and 
conspicuous  situation.  Owing  to  the  regular  and  rapid  slope  of  the 
ground,  the  whole  village,  and  almost  every  building  in  it,  can  be 
seen  at  one  view. 

Mystic  River,  the  eastern  boundary  of  Groton,  is  remarkable  for 
its  villages,  and  the  villages  for  the  enterprise  of  their  inhabitants. 
At  Lower  Mystic  and  Noank,  houses  are  perched  upon  cliffs,  and  in 
the  hollows  and  crevices  of  naked  rock ;  streets  seem  to  run  perpen- 
dicularly, and  the  churches  sit  like  eagles  upon  the  tops  of  the  rocks. 
The  choicest  gardens  and  the  richest  farms  of  this  energetic  people 
are  at  sea.  They  are  the  founders  of  Key  West,  and  the  skillful 
navigators  of  Floridian  reefs.  Their  enterprising  seamen  double 
Cape  Horn  in  fishing-smacks,  and  are  at  home  on  all  oceans  and  in 
all  latitudes. 

John  Ledyard,  the  noted  traveler ;  CoL  William  L^dyard,  of  Fort 
Griswold ;  Rev.  Samuel  Seabury,  Bishop  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island,  and  Silas  Dean,  envoy  to  France  during  the  Revolutionary 
War,  were  natives  of  Groton. 


LEDYARD. 

In  1836,  the  northern  part  of  Groton,  comprising  a  tract  about  six 
miles  square,  was  incorporated  as  a  separate  town,  by  the  name  of 
Ledyard.  In  this  township  there  is  but  one  village,  that  of  Gale- 
town,  or  Gale's  Ferry,  situated  on  the  Thames,  seven  miles  north  of 
New  London,  and  containing  about  twenty  houses.  It  received  its 
name  from  a  former  proprietor,  who  established  a  ferry  at  the  place, 
and  during  the  Revolutionary  War  had  a  ship-yard  on  the  point,  where 
vessels  were  built  to  cruise  against  the  British. 

Ledyard  is  in  general  a  hilly,  wood-land  township,  with  many  ledges 
of  rock  and  steep  declivities,  that  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  cul- 
tivate. But  the  farmers  are  a  race  of  true-hearted  men ;  their  houses 
and  bams  large  and  comfortable:  their  corn-fields,  their  pastures, 
and  their  herds  spreading  orderly  over  the  hills,  speak  of  intelligence, 
prosperity  and  independence. 


604  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

The  ancient  mast  or  pine  swamp,  belonging  equallj  to  the  towns 
of  New  London  and  Groton,  was  in  Ledyard.  It  was  divided  in 
1787,  by  a  line  running  due  north  "  from  Kennedy's  great  spring  to 
"Williams'  Island,"  and  both  parts  so<mi  afterward  sold  to  individuals. 
A  large  portion  of  it  has  since  been  reclamed  and  cultivated,  and 
there  is  nothing  left  to  recall  the  dark  and  dismal  ideas  that  were 
connected  with  the  Ohomowauk  ortOwl's  Nest  of  the  Indians.  The 
vicinity  is  known  as  a  favored  locality  of  the  rose-bay  laurel,  rhodO' 
dendran  maximum,  and  peofde  resort  thither  in  the  early  part  of 
July,  to  admire  this  beautiful  shrub  and  gather  its  flowers.  In  for- 
mer years  many  of  these  laurel  clumps  could  be  found,  with  the  cen- 
tral plants  twenty  feet  in  height,  and  when  these  were  crowned  with 
large  clusters  of  rose-colored  blossoms,  the  dense  and  miry  swamp 
was  transformed  into  a  magnificent  flower-garden. 

Mashantucket,  the  last  retk'eat  of  the  Pequot  Indians,  is  in  Led- 
yard. The  reservation  consists  of  about  900  acres,  and  is  for  the 
most  part,  a  region  of  craggy,  well-forested  hills,  with  valleys  so  deep 
as  to  give  rise  to  the  popular  exaggeration  that  in  winter  the  day  is 
but  an  hour  long,  from  sunrise  to  sunset.  That  portiim  o£  the  res- 
ervation which  has  been  cleared,  is  leased  to  white  tenants.  Only 
sixteen  of  the  tribe,  in  1850,  were  regarded  as  regular  Pequots,  that 
is,  inheriting  by  the  mother,  which  is  ihe  Indian  law  of  successioa, 
and  on  that  side  of  Ml  blood.  These  sixteen  belong  to  five  families ; 
eight  more,  (the  George  family,)  are  of  mixed  origin ;  two  families 
of  the  Stonington  tribe  are  residents  on  the  land,  making  in  all  seven 
families,  and  about  thirty  persons.^ 

In  1766,  the  whole  number  of  the  tribe  was  164,  of  whom  only 
thirty  were  men.  Of  the  forty-six  females  over  sixteen  years  of  age, 
thirteen  were  widows.  Several  of  these  had  undoubtedly  been  be- 
reaved by  the  French  War,  in  which  a  number  of  the  tribe  had  served 
as  soldiers. 

The  most  striking  fact  connected  with  this  remnant  of  the  red  race 
is,  that  they  do  not  advance.  They  are  just  what  they  were  two  cen- 
turies ago.  The  Pequot  of  the  present  day  is  just  the  Pequot  that 
Winthrop  found  at  Nameaug ;  he  has  perhaps  taken  a  step  down- 
ward, but  none  upward,  except  in  the  case  of  a  few  individuals  who 
have  become  thorough  Christians.      The  last  full-blooded  Pequot  of 


1  Most  of  this  information  respecting  the  present  state  of  the  tribe  was  gathered  on 
the  spot,  and  principally  from  Col.  William  Morgan,  the  present  overseer  of  the  In- 
dians. 


HISTORY    OF    NBW    I«ONDON.  605 

this  tribe,  pure  both  by  father  and  mother,  was  Frederick  Toby,  who 
died  in  1848. 

In  North  Stonington  only  three  families  are  left,  comprising  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  persons,  on  a  reservation  of  240  acres,  which  is 
leased  out  to  white  tenants.  Several  families  from  these  two  reser- 
vations have  at  different  times  removed  to  the  west,  and  settled  among 
Other  Indian  tribes.  In  1850,  certain  Indians  dwelling  in  Wisconsin, 
and  bearing  the  surnames  of  Charles,  Georffe,  Poquonup  and  Ske- 
sooch,  applied  to  the  Connecticut  legislature  for  a  share  of  the  rental 
of  the  Groton  lands  ;  but  they  were  not  able  to  prove  the  purity  of 
their  descent. 


MONTVILLE. 

In  1786,  those  portions  of  New  London  that  had  been  known  as 
the  North  Parish  and  Chesterfield  district,  were  incorporated  into  a 
separate  town,  called  Montville,  a  name  descriptive  of  its  elevated 
and  retired  situation.  The  first  town  meeting  in  this  new  organiza- 
tion was  held  in  November,  1786. 

Joshua  Raymond,  Moderator. 
John  Raymond,  Jr.,  Town-Clerk. 
Selectmen. 
Nathaniel  Comstock,  Stephen  Billings, 

Asa  Worthington,  Joseph  Davis, 

Peter  Comstock. 

Rev.  David  Jewett,  second  minister  of  the  North  Parish,  died  in 
1788,  aged  sixty-six,  after  a  ministry  of  forty-five  years'  duration. 
The  admissions  to  the  church  during  that  time  were  136  whites,  and 
twenty-one  Mohegan  Indians.  A  considerable  breach  occurred  in 
his  church  between  1742  and  1750  ;  from  eighteen  to  twenty  mem- 
bers withdrew,  and  ultimately  united  with  the  Baptist  denomination. 
Isaac  Hammond  and  wife  were  the  first  to  secede,  and  were  called 
Congregational  Separates ;  but  their  son  Noah  afterward  became  a 
Baptist  preacher. 

Rev.  Rozel  Cook,  previously  minister  in  Watertown,  Litchfield 
county,  succeeded  Mr.  Jewett,  and  was  ordained  June  80th,  1784. 
In  1789,  a  fund  was  raised  by  subscription  for  the  support  of  the 
minister,  and  the  system  of  taxation,  which  had  become  odious  and 
burdensome,  was  abandoned.  The  sum  raised  and  funded  was  £1,067 ; 
the  subscription  list  comprises  ninety-one  names,  which  wy  probably 

5V 


606  HISTORY   OP   NEW   LONDON. 

the  full  number  of  families  belonging  to  the  congregation.  Mr.  Cook 
died  April  18th,  1798,  in  the  forty-second  year  of  his  age. 

Bey.  Amos  G.  Thompson  iraa  installed  September  26th,  1799. 
He  had  previously  belonged  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  d^iomina^ 
tion,  uid  had  been  ordained  elder  by  Bishop  Asbury,  at  Leesburg, 
Virginia,  in  1790.  Withdrawing  from  that  connection  in  1798^  he 
offered  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  Congregational  ministry,  and 
was  examined  and  approved  by  the  association  of  Windham  county, 
Connecticut,  which  accepted  his  ordination  as  valid.  His  ministry  in 
Montville  was  short;  he  died  October  2dd,  1801,  in  the  thirty-eighth 
year  of  his  age. 

Rev.  Abishai  Alden,  installed  August  17th,  1803 ;  dismissed  in 
1826. 

Rev.  Rodolphus  Landfear,  installed  August  2l8t,  1827 ;  dismissed 
in  1832. 

Since  this  period  the  society  has  settled  no  minister,  but  has  been 
served  by  pastors  engaged  by  the  year,  or  for  a  series  of  years. 

The  first  meeting-house  built  for  Mr.  Hillhouse,  was  taken  down 
in  1770,  and  a  second,  which  we  may  call  the  Jewett  meeting-house, 
erected  in  a  more  central  position,  on  land  given  by  Joshua  Raymond, 
and  vested  in  the  society  by  deed  of  April  23d,  1772.  This  building 
stood  just  seventy-five  years.  It  was  much  shattered  by  a  thunder- 
bolt that  descended  and  struck  the  house,  during  the  afternoon  service, 
Sunday,  May  25th,  1823.  By  this  awful  stroke  two  persons  were 
killed,  Mrs.  Betsey  Bradford,  and  a  child  of  Capt.  John  R.  C(Hnstock, 
aged  nine  years;  the  former  perhaps  by  a  blow  from  the  shivered  tim- 
bers, but  the  latter  by  the  lightning.  Several  others  were  wounded 
and  stunned.  The  bolt  struck  the  steeple,  and  entered  the  house  at 
the  pew  where  the  persons  killed  were  sitting,  shivered  the  post  to 
splinters,  and  entirely  demolished  the  pew.  The  side  of  Uie  house 
was  riven,  and  windows  broken  in  all  parts  of  the  building. 

Several  churches  in  this  vicinity  have  at  various  times  suffered  by 
lightning.  The  Congregational  church  in  Lyme  town  was  consumed 
by  fire,  kindled  by  a  thunderbolt,  July  3d,  1815.  The  calamity 
which  befell  the  old  meeting-house  in  New  London,  that'  stood  on 
the  town  square,  has  been  noticed.  Its  successor,  on  Zion's  Hill,  has 
been  twice  struck  within  the  memory  of  the  present  generation. 
May  2d,  1804,  the  bolt  descended  upon  the  spire,  partly  melted  the 
vane,  tore  off  the  points  of  the  conductor,  and  passed  off  by  the  elec- 
tric rod,  tearing  up  the  ground  with  a  tremendous  force,  in  two  direc- 
tions.    July  13th,  1825,  the  fiuid  descended  along  the  rod  to  the 


&ISTORT    OP    NEW    LONDON.  607 

lower  floor,  then  entered  and  passed  off  at  the  doors  and  one  window, 
which  were  much  shattered.  It  struck  at  the  same  time  the  comer 
post  of  a  house  in  the  neighborhood,  passing  over  an  intermediate 
building,  (Masonic  Hall.)  May  27th,  1850,  the  Universalist  (for- 
merly Episcopal)  church,  in  Main  Street,  was  struck  by  lightning, 
an4  considerably  injured.  The  lightning  passed  off  by  the  stove-pipe, 
or  the  house  would  probably  have  been  burnt  These  are  but  a  few 
illustrations  of  the  danger  to  which  high  buildings  are  exposed  from 
the  electric  element  We  may  add  that  the  flag-staffs  of  Forts  Gris- 
wold  and  Trumbull,  have  both  been  shivered  by  lightning ;  the  latter 
on  the  dlst  of  July,  1821 ;  and  that  the  court-house  has  also  suffered 
in  the  same  way.^ 

The  Montville  church  was  taken  down  in  1847,  and  a  new  one 
built  on  the  same  site.  Under  the  old  church,  lying  flat  upon  its 
face,  was  found  the  gravestone  of  a  young  maiden  of  the  name  of 
Bliss,  who  died  in  1747,  just  one  century  before.  No  record  or  tra- 
dition could  give  any  account  of  it  It  was  replaced  in  the  same 
position,  and  left  under  the  new  church. 

A  small  society  of  Separates  was  gathered  in  the  North  Parish,  in 
1750,  and  Joshua  Morse  ordained  their  elder.  May  17th.  They  kept 
together  about  thirty  years;  but  Elder  Morse  removing  in  1799,  to 
Sandisfield,  Mass.,  the  society  became  extinct  They  were  Baptists 
but  it  is  understood  that  they  held  to  open  commiunion.  From  the 
seed  sown  by  Elder  Morse,  the  Palmer  Baptist  church  of  Montville  is 
supposed  to  have  sprung.  This  latter  church  began  with  twelve  per- 
sons, in  1787.  Elder  Reuben  Palmer  was  the  founder,  leader,  and 
in  fact,  the  sole  pastor  of  this  society,  as  after  his  death  in  1822,  they 
never  chose  a  successor.  It  gradually  declined,  and  was  soon  con- 
sidered extinct,  though  not  formally  dissolved  by  its  own  vote  till 
1842. 

The  fragment  that  remained  of  the  Palmer  church  was  merged  in 
a  new  one  gathered  in  1842,  under  the  name  of  the  Union  Baptist 
Church  of  Montville.  A  house  of  worship  about  a  mile  distant  from 
the  Palmer  church,  was  dedicated  October  4th,  1842.  Elder  Levi 
Meach  was  instrumental  in  the  formation  of  this  church  and  was  its 


1  Several  of  these  disasters  were  undoubtedly  owing  to  imperfections  in  the  lightning 
rods,  or  want  of  skill  in  setting  them.  Where  the  buildmgs  stood  on  a  substratum  of 
rock,  care  was  not  always  taken  to  lead  the  conductor  to  a  sufficient  stock  of  earth 
and  moisture.  In  the  case  of  the  court-house,  it  is  said  that  theJower  end  of  the  rod 
was  actually  fixed  in  a  hole  bored  in  solid  rock. 


608  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

first  pastor.  Nicholas  T.  Allen,  now  of  Groton  Bank,  was  ordained 
in  this  church  August  12th,  1846. 

The  Methodists  have  two  societies  within  the  bounds  of  MontriUey 
one  at  Uncasyille,  with  sixty-five  members,  and  one  near  Salem,  with 
seventy-nine  members.* 

In  a  large  part  of  the  ancient  North  Parish  of  New  London,  Bap- 
tist and  Methodist  societies  have  taken  the  place  of  Congregational- 
ism, which  in  the  early  age  of  the  town  was  the  sole  denomination. 
This  is  also  the  case  in  that  part  of  the  old  town  which  is  now  Water- 
ford.  An  aged  inhabitant  of  the  latter  place,  whose  memory  reached 
back  to  1750,  and  whose  residence  was  upward  of  four  miles  from 
the  New  London  church,  said  that  in  his  younger  days  he  had  fre- 
quently walked  into  town  to  meeting,  with  forty  persons  who  came 
from  beyond  him.  These  were  the  early  settlers  of  Chesterfield  dis- 
trict, and  consisted  in  great  part  of  Latimers,  a  tall  and  robust  race, 
to  whom  a  walk  of  eight  miles  was  but  an  agreeable  recreation.  As 
they  passed  along,  the  number  was  continually  increasing  by  streams 
that  flowed  in  from  either  side,  till  as  they  came  down  by  the  old 
pound  comer  to  the  meeting-house  green,  they  seemed  a  congregation 
of  themselves. 

In  those  days  the  ride-and-tie  system  prevailed  to  some  extent 
It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  farmer  who  had  a  good  family  horse, 
to  take  his  wife  behind  him  and  ride  about  half  the  distance  to  meet- 
ing ;  then  dismount  and  walk  the  remainder  of  the  way,  leaving  the 
horse  fastened  to  some  bar-post,  for  the  use  of  a  neighbor  and  his 
wife,  who  were  privileged  to  share  the  accommodation,  and  were  on 
the  road  behind. 

To  attend  Sabbath  worship  at  such  a  distance  was  a  heavy  bur- 
den, and  in  some  cases  too  grievous  to  be  borne.  Most  of  the  Ches- 
terfield people  afterward  went  to  Mr.  Jewett's  church,  but  this  also 
was  a  weary  distance  ;  and  in  1758,  the  following  persons  were  re- 
leased from  the  obligation  of  attending  meeting  and  paying  rates  in 
the  North  Parish,  ^^  in  consideration  that  they  heard  preaching  else- 
where:" Capt.  Jonathan  Latimer,  Samuel  Bishop,  Sen.  and  Jun., 
Bichard  Chapel,  Walter  Chappell,  and  James  Johnston. 

Soon  after  this  the  Chesterfield  people  made  an  attempt  to  found 
a  Congregational  church  in  their  own  neighborhood.  It  can  not  now 
be  determined  when  the  society  was  constituted ;  it  took  the  desig- 
nation of  **  The  Ecclesiastical  Presbyterian  establishment  of  Chester- 

1  Bfiuutes  of  Conference,  1861. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  609 

field  Society."  Land  for  the  site  of  a  meeting-house,  and  for  a 
burial-gi'ound  adjoining,  was  given  to  the  society  by  Jonathan  Lati- 
mer, in  1773,  at  which  time  it  is  probable  that  the  meeting-house  was 
built  and  opened  for  service.  Jesse  Beckwith  was  one  of  the  chief 
promoters  of  the  undertaking. 

Who  were  the  pastors  of  this  church,  how  long  it  held  together, 
when  embodied  or  when  dissolved,  or,  in  point  of  fact,  whether  any 
church  was  ever  regularly  constituted  by  the  society,  are  points  in- 
volved in  obscurity. 

The  meeting-house  stood  on  Latimer  Hill,  overlooking  the  fair 
Chesterfield  valley,  but  in  the  midst  of  fields  so  rugged  and  primitive 
in  their  aspect,  and  so  hedged  around  with  tree,  bush  and  briar,  that 
it  acquired  the  name  by  which  it  is  now  only  remembered,  the  old 
Huckleberry  meeting-house.  In  the  latter  years  of  its  existence,  the 
services  held  in  it  were  pnncipally  by  Baptists.  It  was  occupied  on 
the  whole,  for  occasional  meetings,  sometimes  by  preachers  and  some- 
times by  lay-brethren,  for  nearly  fifty  years.  The  house  of  worship 
has  entirely  disappeared,  but  the  graveyard  where  the  members  of 
the  congregation,  the  Beckwiths,  Bishops,  Chapells,  Deshons,  Holmes's, 
Latimers,  Moores,  Tinkers,  repose  in  their  silent  chambers,  points 
out  its  situation. 

About  the  year  182o,  another  attempt  was  made  to  found  a  Con- 
gregational church  in  Chesterfield  district.  A  new  house  of  worship 
was  built,  and  a  church  constituted,  of  which  the  Rev.  Nathaniel 
Miner  was  ordained  pastor,  in  1826.  Its  members  were  few  and 
widely  scattered;  at  the  end  of  five  years  it  was  completely  over- 
shlidowed  and  consumed  by  a  Baptist  church  that  rose  and  fiourished 
by  its  side.  Mr.  Miner  removed  to  Millington  society,  East  Haddam> 
in  1831,  and  the  church  became  extinct  The  sacred  edifice  still  re- 
mains, unglazed,  black  and  ruinous,  a  melancholy  witness,  and  the 
only  one  remaining,  to  testify  that  a  church  was  once  gathered  on 
the  spot. 


WATERPORD. 

In  the  year  1801,  New  London  was  restricted  to  such  narrow  di- 
mensions, as  to  render  her,  in  point  of  domain,  the  smallest  town  in 
the  state.  All  north  and  west  of  the  city  limits,  comprising  more 
than  two-thirds  of  the  whole  area,  was,  by  act  of  the. Legislature  at 
the  May  session,  constituted  a  distinct  town  by  the  name  of  Water- 
ford.    The  petition  upon  which  the  act  was  grounded,  was  presented 


610  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

by  Isaac  Rogers,  in  behalf  of  £he  inhabitants  of  the  withdrawing  por- 
tion of  the  town,  and  the  only  reason  assigned  was  the  inconvenience 
to  which  many  were  subjected,  by  their  distance  from  the  town-plot, 
where  the  public  meetings  were  held.  The  separation  was  amicable 
and  mutually  satisfactory. 

The  name,  WcUerford,  is  said  to  have  been  suggested  by  Isaac 
Rogers,  who  was  the  agent  of  the  town  in  procuring  the  separation. 
It  has  an  evident  reference  to  its  situation  on  the  Sound  and  Nian- 
tic  Ck)ve,  with  a  fordable  stream,  the  Jordan,  running  through  it 
from  north  to  south. 

The  first  town-meeting  was  summoned,  according  to  the  act  of  in- 
corporation, by  Griswold  Avery,  and  held  at  the  Darrow  meeting- 
house, second  Tuesday  in  November,  1801.  Mr.  Avery  was  the 
moderator  of  that,  and  all  subsequent  town-meetings,  until  1807, 
when  he  was  succeeded  by  George  Williams. 

First  Selectmen. — Griswold  Avery,  George  Williams,  Isaac  Rog- 
ers, Thomas  Douglas. 

First  Town- Clerk, — Stephen  Maynard. 

Niantic  Bay,  sometimes  called  Black  Bay,  lies  west  of  Waterford, 
and  is  noted  for  a  thriving  trade.  In  the  river  above  the  bar,  many 
vessels  were  formerly  built,  but  the  greater  cheapness  of  timber  on 
the  coast  of  Maine,  has  transferred  this  kind  W  business  to  Uiat  quar- 
ter. The  granite  quarry  at  Millstone  Point,  belonging  to  the  family 
of  the  late  Benajah  Gardiner,  was  not  wrought  to  any  extent  before 
the  year  1834 ;  but  it  now  turns  out  annually  about  30,000  tuns  of 
stone,'  which  is  shipped  principally  to  New  York,  Philadelphia  and 
Charleston,  S.  C.  Independent  of  the  quarry,  many  small  vessels 
are  owned  in  this  vicinity,^  and  have  their  home  in  the  bay. 

From  the  first  settlement  of  the  country,  this  expanse  of  water  has 
been  noted  for  fish.  In  some  seasons  the  bass  have  abounded  to  an 
almost  incredible  degree ;'  the  bluckfish  caught  here,  usually  com- 
pete with  the  first  and  best  in  the  market,  and  the  coast  is  supplied 
with  an  almost  inexhaustible  store  of  clams  and  lobsters.  It  was  this 
productiveness  of  the  waters  which  made  the  bay  a  favorite  resort  of 
the  aborigines.     In  summer,  the  simple  sons  of  the  forest  would  come 


1  Statistics  laid  before  the  harbor  and  river  convention  of  Chicago,  in  1847. 

2  The  number  stated  in  1847,  was  thirty-two. 

8  **  Four  men  in  one  night,  (Jan.  5th,  1811,)  caught  near  the  bridge  at  the  head  of 
Niantic  River,  with  a  small  seine,  9,900  pounds  of  bass.  They  were  sent  to  New  Yorii 
in  a  smack,  and  sold  for  upwards  of  $800."    New  London  Gazette, 


HISTORY     OF    NEW    LONDON.  611 

down  from  their  scattered  homes  in  the  interior,  to  recruit  and  feast 
on  the  sea-shore.  The  Mohegans  appear  to  have  had  a  prescriptive 
or  seigniorial  right,  not  only  to  fish,  but  to  build  on  the  shores.  They 
had  a  fort  at  the  head  of  Niantic  River,  to  which  they  retired  when 
their  fields  were  overrun  by  the  Narragansetts ;  and  thither  in  the 
year  1658,  their  enemies  pursued  and  besieged  them.  This  was  a 
critical  period  in  the  life  of  Uncas ;  he  might  have  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  his  enemies,  had  not  a  few  gallant  men  from  New  London 
hastened  to  his  assistance,  under  the  command  of  Lieut.  James 
Avery. 

The  early  white  settlers  of  the  interior,  following  the  example  of 
the  red  men,  were  accustomed  in  the  clam  and  blackfish  season,  to 
pour  down  in  companies,  on  horseback,  single,  double  and  even  treble, 
with  or  without  saddle  and  pillion,  to  bathe  in  the  sea,  and  feast  upon 
its  dainties.  Nor  has  this  custom  entirely  passed  away.  Pine  Neck 
and  other  portions  of  the  bay  are  still  in  the  summer  season,  favorite 
places  of  resort 

About  the  year  1748,  a  Baptist  church  was  organized  at  the  West 
Farms,  or  Nahantic  district  of  New  London,  now  Waterford.  Na- 
than Howard  was  ordained  elder,  and  John  Beckwith,  deacon.  At 
the  house  of  the  latter,  all  the  first  meetings  were  held.  The  original 
number  of  members  is  said  to  have  been  sixteen.  This  church  orig- 
inated from  a  society  of  Ck)ngregational  separates.  Elder  Howard 
was  one  of  the  converts  of  the  great  revival  of  1741,  and  had  united 
with  the  church  of  the  Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams  at  that  period,  but 
afterward  joined  a  party  that  seceded,  and  were  kept  together  a 
couple  of  years  under  the  teaching  of  Mr.  Timothy  Allen.  Most  of 
the  separates  ultimately  embraced  Baptist  principles.  Not  long 
after  the  Howard  church  was  gathered,  another  small  community 
of  Baptists,  originating  likewise  from  Congregational  separates,  was 
organized  in  or  near  the  town-plot  of  New  London.  Noah  Ham- 
mond, also  a  convert  of  the  great  revival,  and  a  former  attendant  on 
Mr.  Jewett*8  ministry,  was  ordained  elder,  and  Zadoc  Darrow,  dea- 
con. This  society  erected  the  frame  of  a  meeting-house,  about  a 
mile  from  the  town  plot,  but  were  unable  to  proceed  any  further  with 
the  building.  Elder  Hammond  was  invited  to  Long  Island,  and  his 
church  soon  afterward  coalesced  with  that  of  Nahantic,  under  Elder 
Howard.     Zadoc  Darrow  was  chosen  deacon  of  the  united  church. 

The  office  of  a  religious  teacher,  is  seldom  pursued  for  a  longer 
term  of  years  by  any  person,  than  it  was  by  Zadoc  Darrow.  He 
dated  his  conversion  from  the  New  Light  preaching  of  Joshua  Morse. 


&12  HISTORY    OF     NEW     J'ONDON. 

which  took  a  strong  hold  of  him  when  he  was  quite  a  young  mau ; 
and  from  that  time  to  an  old  age  verging  on  a  century  of  years,  he 
was  regarded  by  the  Baptists  as  a  zealous  and  faithful  advocate,  and 
a  special  blessing  to  their  church. 

He  was  ordained  in  1769,  by  Elder  Stephen  Babcock,*  but  without 
any  particular  charge,  Elder  Howard  continuing  the  pastor  of  the 
church.  Three  Baptist  elders,  all  earnest  men,  and  diligent  in  their 
calling,  were  then  living  at  the  West  Farms,  Howard,  Darrow  and 
Eliphalet  Lester,  and  all  natives  of  New  London,  where  they  were 
bom  respectively  in  the  years  1721,  1728,  and  1729. 

Elder  Lester  afterward  accepted  a  call  to  Saybrook,  and  Elder 
Howard  was  suddenly  removed,  March  2d,  1777,  by  the  ^mall-pox. 
He  had  previously  given  the  society  a  plot  of  land  for  a  burial-place,* 
and  was  himself  the  first  person  laid  to  rest  within  the  peaceful  inclo- 
sure.  Elder  Darrow  now  became  the  sole  pastor  of  the  church,  and 
made  great  exertions  to  have  a  house  of  worship  erected.  He  gave 
himself  the  ground  for  a  site,  opposite  the  Howard  burial-place,  and  as 
soon  as  the  land  had  rest  from  wir,  the  frame  of  the  old  Hammond 
meeting-house  was  removed  thither,  re^rected,  and  put  into  comforta- 
ble order  for  preaching  by  the  year  1788.  The  elder  and  his  peo- 
ple, laboring  together,  performed  with  their  own  hands  most  of  the 
work. 

A  notice  of  this  church,  written  about  1790,  says : 

•*  They  hold  to  close  communion,  and  do  not  enjoin  the  laying  on  of  hands  at 
baptism  :  every  member,  whether  male  or  female,  is  allowed  to  exhort  in  meet- 
ing, and  at  admission  into  the  church,  makes  a  public  declaration  of  experien- 
ces." 

The  most  flourishing  period  of  Elder  Darrow's  ministiy,  was  be- 
tween 1790  and  1800.  He  had  a  great  revival  in  1794,  the  baptisms 
that  year  amounting  to  ninety-one.  The  number  of  members  arose 
to  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty.  But  a  period  of  declension  and  dif- 
ficulty followed,  and  the  number  was  greatly  diminished.  Long  be- 
fore the  death  of  Elder  Darrow,  he  was  affected  with  palsy,  and  after 
that  event,  though  he  continued  to  preach,  he  always  had  an  asso- 


1  This  fact  has  not  been  found  in  print,  but  is  stated  on  manuscript  authority  sup- 
posed to  be  reliable. 

2  The  gift  was  confirmed  and  the  ground  enlarged  by  an  additional  purchase  fixjm 
Daniel  Howard,  hi  1786,  at  which  time  the  title  was  vested  in  "John  Beekwlth,  Lem- 
uel Darrow,  Constant  Crocker,  and  the  rest  of  the  members  of  the  Baptist  church  and 
society  in  New  London,  west  part,  or  Nihantick.*'    New  London  Deeds. 


HIStORT     OP    NEW    LONDON.  613 

ciate  with  him  in  the  pastoral  office.  He  died  Feb.  16th,  1827,  aged 
uinetj-eight  years  and  two  months. 

Samuel  West  was  associated  with  Elder  Darrow  from  1802  to 
1809.  Francis  Darrow,  the  grandson  of  the  aged  elder,  was  then 
ordained,  and  associated  with  hid  venerable  ancestor  till  the  death  of 
the  latter,  when  he  became  the  sole  pastor. 

A  new  house  of  worship  was  built  by  this  society  in  1848,  in  the 
Jordan  district,  two  or  three  miles  dbtant  &om  the  former.  The 
first  century  of  the  church  was  just  then  completed ;  the  Jordan 
church  took  the  place  of  the  Darrow  church,  and  upon  the  verge  of 
this  transition,  the  third  reverend  elder  passed  tfway.  Elder  Francis 
Darrow  died  Oct.  16th,  1860,  aged  seventy-one. 

The  life  of  one  of  the  members  of  this  church,  Stedman  Newbury, 
runs  like  a  parallel  line  by  the  side  of  it  He  was  bom  in  1752  and 
died  in  December,  1850,  wanting  but  four  months  of  ninety-nine 
years  of  age,  and  had  been  for  seventy  years  a  member  of  the  church. 

About  the  year  1812,  an  attempt  was  made  to  found  another  Bap- 
tist church  in  Waterford,  at  a  place  called  Great  Hill,  five  or  six 
miles  from  New  London.  A  church  was  constituted,  and  Rev.  Jon- 
athan Ames  ordained  their  minister,  June  12th,  1816.  They  had  no 
house  of  worship,  but  kept  together,  holding  their  meetings  in  a 
school-house,  till  the  death  of  Elder  Ames,  in  1830.  The  church 
that  had  originated  in  his  labors,  died  with  him.  The  members  dis- 
persed and  united  with  other  churches. 

A  Baptist  church  was  constituted  in  1835,  at  Quaker  Hill,  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  river  Thames,  which  takes  the  designation  of  Second 
Baptist  Church  in  Waterford.  Elder  Erastus  Doty  was  its  founder. 
In  1850,  it  reports  one  hundred  and  sixteen  members. 

A  third  church  of  this  denomination  was  constituted  in  1842,  at 
Sandy  Hill,  near  Lake's  Pond,  by  a  colony  of  forty  members  from 
the  Darrow  church,  and  Gurdon  T.  Chappell  ordained  their  pastor, 
Dec.  8th,  1842.  A  house  of  worship  was  erected  in  1844.  The 
number  of  members  reported  is  one  hundred  and  fifty. 

North-west  of  Lake's  Pond,  in  Chesterfield  society,  Montville,  is 
yet  another  Baptist  church,  originating  in  part  from  the  Darrow 
church.  It  was  organized  in  1824,  with  thirty-five  members;  in 
1860,  reported  one  hundred  and  fifty-two.  The  Darrow  church  has 
been  a  fruitful  seed-bed  of  Baptist  principles.  She  is  emphatically 
the  mother  church  of  the  New  London  association. 

The  society  of  Sabbatarians,  or  Seventh-day  Baptists,  of  the  Great 
Neck,  Waterford,  date  their  commencement  from  the  year  1674. 
52 


614  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

They  remained  for  the  space  of  a  century,  members  of  the  Westerly 
and  Hopkinton  church,  with  which  they  first  united,  but  were  consti- 
tuted a  distinct  church,  Nov.  2d,  1784.  The  number  of  members  was 
fourteen — seven  males  and  seven  females — all  of  the  former  except 
one,  and  of  the  latter  except  two,  bearing  the  nan^e  of  Rogers.  Da- 
vis Rogers  was  ordained  elder,  and  William  Wescote,  deacon.  Elder 
Rogers  removed,  in  1809,  with  others  of  the  society,  to  Preston,  Che- 
nango county,  N.  Y. 

Jabez  Beebe,  of  Lyme,  was  ordained  as  an  assistaht  to  Elder 
Rogers,  in  1796 ;  but  about  the  year  1815,  he  also  removed  to  Pres- 
ton. Lester  Rogers  was  ordained  elder.  Sept  24th,  1812 ;  died, 
April  Ist,  1822.  His  son,  Lester  T.  Rogers,  was  ordained  Jan.  1st, 
1824. 

In  1816,  this  society  erected  a  house  of  worship,  and  held  their 
first  service  in  it  Jan.  9th,  1817.  In  this  house,  Benedict  Wescote 
was  ordained  elder,  Feb.  9th,  1832.  He  removed  soon  afterward 
with  a  second  company  from  this  society,  to  Preston,  N.  Y.;  but  re- 
turning to  his  ancient  home  on  a  visit  in  1841,  he  died  Nov.  26th, 
aged  forty-four. 

Elder  Lester  T.  Rogers  died  in  1850. 


EAST  LYME. 

In  May,  1839,  Waterford  was  diminished  in  point  of  territory  by 
the  incorporation  of  East  Lyme.  This  new  town  consisted  of  the 
eastern  part  of  Lyme,  and  that  part  of  Waterford  which  lay  west  of 
Niantic  River.  The  town  at  first  opposed  the  separation,  on  the  sole 
ground,  as  appeared  by  their  vote,  "  that  Waterford  was  none  too 
large."  But  the  new  town  offering  to  assume  the  responsibility  of 
the  Niantic  Ferry  and  Bridge,  the  older  portion  accepted  the  com- 
promise, and  withdrew  their  opposition.  The  Niantic  Bridge  Com- 
pany had  long  been  an  annoyance  to  them,  and  the  town  had  re- 
peatedly petitioned  the  Assembly,  that  the  charter  of  the  company 
might  be  withdrawn,  and  their  privileges  abrogated.  They  regarded 
the  bridge  as  unsafe,  the  draw  vexatious,  and  the  whole  concern  a 
nuisance,  destroying  their  navigation  and  impeding  the  fisheries. 

The  bar  at  the  ferry  is  one  of  nature's  curiosities.  It  projects  from 
the  western  side,  forming  a  natural  bridge  of  sand  almost  across  the 
bay,  leaving  but  just  space  along  the  eastern  bank  for  the  compressed 
waters  to  struggle  through.  It  is  here  that  art  is  called  upon  to  pro- 
duce her  substitutions  and  complete  the  land  passage. 


HISTORY     OP    NEW     LONDON.  615 

The  bridge  company  was  incorporated  in  1796 ;  the  old  way  of 
crossing  by  ropes  and  boats — a  clumsy  and  hazardous  mode  of  con- 
veyance— had  continued  till  then.  Messrs.  Wm.  Stewart,  Ellas  Per- 
kins and  Jared  Starr,  the  conmiittee  of  the  company,  purchased  the 
ferry  privilege  of  the  Durfey  family,  and  erected  a  toll-bridge,^  with 
a  draw  to  accommodate  vessels.  The  New  Haven  railway  now  runs 
by  the  side  of  the  bridge  over  the  bar ;  it  has  also  a  draw  at  the 
water  gap. 

The  prospect  from  the  bar  is  of  a  pleasing  character;  on  one  side 
is  the  open  Sound,  closed  in  the  distance  by  Plum  Island,  which  is 
here  the  island,  by  way  of  eminence,  and  by  Black  Point,  running 
far  out  with  a  bold,  free  sweep.  Wigwam  Rock  is  on  the  south 
western  shore ;  conical  in  form  like  an  Indian  hut,  and  long  known 
as  a  township  boundary  mark.  On  the  north  side  of  the  bar,  the 
water  seems  a  lovely  inland  lake,  encircled  by  cultivated  farms  and 
villages.  At  the  head  of  it,  is  the  Straits'  Bridge.  The  banks  in 
their  native  state  were  covered  with  ferns  and  the  wild  rose. 

Sometimes  for  a  number  of  years  the  bar  is  annually  diminished 
by  encroaching  floods;'  then  again,  it  is  gradually  increased  by  suc- 
cessive deposits  of  sand  and  sea-weed.  The  cedar-stakes  which  have 
been  driven  into  its  banks,  form  a  kind  of  balustrade,  which  serves 
as  a  barrier  against  the  waves.  The  flood-tides  bring  a  sea-breeze, 
but  at  the  ebb  it  is  calm,  and  in  summer  oppressively  hot.  Lix  au- 
tumn it  is  a  fine  position  for  a  sportsman.  If  he  take  his  stand  about 
sunset,  numerous  wild  ducks  and  other  valued  game,  steering  by  the 
course  of  the  river,  may  easily  be  brought  down,  as  their  shadows  fall 
upon  the  sand. 

So  large  a  portion  of  East  Lyme  having  been  included  within  the 
first  bounds  laid  out  for  New  London,  it  must  not  be  dismissed  to  en- 
tire independency  without  a  descriptive  sketch  at  parting. 

An  ecclesiastical  society  was  organized  in  1724,  or  1725,  and 
known  as  the  East  Society  of  Lyme.  In  1726,  this  society  sent  a 
petition  to  the  town  of  New  London,  praying  for  assistance  to  sup- 

1  Dr.  Dwight  states  in  his  Travels,  vol.  2,  p.  261,  that  the  bridge  at  Kope  Ferry  was 
the  first  aathorized  toll-bridge  in  Ck>nnecticut  This  is  a  mistake.  Whiting's  bridge 
over  the  Sbetacket,  boilt  in  1787,  was  aathorized  bj  the  General  Court  to  collect  a 
toll ;  as  were  also  other  bridges  over  that  river.  In  1778,  when  a  lottery  was  granted 
for  erecting  a  bridge  in  Norwich,  it  is  stated  that  they  "had  been  hampered  with  a 
toll-bridge,  or  a  dangerous  ferry,  for  near  a  century  past** 

2  In  the  great  gale  of  September,  1816,  the  water  rose  ten  or  twelve  feet  over  this 
bar. 


616  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

port  the  gospel  among  them,  whereupon  it  was  ordered  that  the  estate 
and  persons  of  all  inhabitants  living  west  of  NahanUek  Rirer,  and 
south  of  the  countrjr  road,  should  be  exempted  from  paying  the  minr 
ister's  rates  in  New  London,  and  pay  them  to  said  society. 

Rey.  €reorge  Griswold  was  the  first  pastor  of  this  church  and  8od« 
ety.  The  meeting-house  erected  by  them  stood  at  least  a  century. 
In  its  advanced  age  it  was  colloquially  termed  the  Old  Syna^ogw. 
It  was  a  small,  square  building,  without  steeple,  bell  or  porch.  A 
pulpit  occupied  the  center  of  one  side ;  doors  opening  Erectly  upon 
earth,  air  and  sky,  were  on  the  other  three  sides.  The  gallery  was 
k>w,  projecting  gloomily  over  the  pews.  The  beams,  pillars  and 
pilasters  were  so  roughly  finished  as  to  show  every  where  the  marks 
of  the  hatchet.  No  varnish  or  piunt  in  any  part  overshadowed  the 
native  wood,  which  became  in  age  venerably  silver-gray.  Here,  as 
late  as  1820,  you  might  see  the  old  woman's  plain  linen  cap  and 
straight  border ;  the  small,  black,  mode  bonnet,  kept  on  by  long  bon- 
net pins  ;  the  short,  red  cloak,  with  the  hood  fallii^  back ;  and  men 
with  enormous  steel  shoe-buckles,  and  checkered  pocket  handker- 
chiefs. Old  Hundred,  Bray  and  Mear,  sung  in  the  pitch,  tone  and 
time  of  the  ancients,  harmonized  admirably  with  this  interesting  relic 
of  the  past. 

This  building  has  been  replaced  by  a  stone  diurch,  a  stroctoie  of 
simple  elegance,  neatly  fitted  up  and  furnished  with  a  marble  fioor. 
The  society  is  principally  indebted  for  this  church  to  the  liberality  of 
the  Griawolds  of  New  York,  emigrants  from  its  bosom,  who  in  thdir 
adopted  homes,  show  this  grateful  remembrance  of  the  place  of  their 
nativity. 

In  the  burial-i^aoe  near  lie  the  remains  of  the  first  pastor  of  the 
church,  Rev.  George  Griswold,  who  died  in  1761,  after  a  faithful 
ministry  of  thirty-six  years.  During  the  great  awakening  of  1740 
and  1741,  he  had  a  large  accession  to  his  church,  and  it  is  an  inter- 
esting &ot  that  among  the  new  members  were  thirteen  Niantic  In- 
dians. 

In  the  same  ground  is  interred  another  devoted  minister  of  Lyme, 
Elder  Jason  Lee,  a  pioneer  of  the  Baptist  cause,  who  died  in  1810, 
in  the  fortieth  year  of  his  ministry.  His  father  also  lies  near,  vie. 
Rev.  Joseph  Lee,  who  had  been  pastor  of  the  Congregational  church 
in  Southold,  Long  Island.  He  died  in  1779 ;  his  relict  in  1805,  in 
the  ninety-ninth  year  of  her  age. 

The  church  now  known  as  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  East  Lyme, 
had  its  origin  like  many  other  Baptist  societies,  in  a  small  company 


HI8T0RT    OP    NEW    LONDON'.  617 

of  Congregational  separates,  over  whom  Ebenezer  Mack  was  or- 
dained pastor,  January  12th,  1749.^  Thej  erected  a  meeting-house 
in  1755.  The  elder  and  a  majority  of  the  church  became  Baptists, 
and  were  received  into  fellowship  with  other  churches  of  that  denom- 
ination, though  thej  continued  in  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  open 
communion  until  1795.  Elder  Jason  Lee  was  ordained  in  1771. 
At  his  death  in  1810,  the  number  of  members  was  431. 

The  Second  Baptist  Church  of  East  Lyme  was  constituted  Decem- 
ber 20th,  1842,  by  united  colonies  from  the  Waterford  and  East 
Lyme  churches.* 

Black  Point,  for  which  New  London  and  Lyme  once  contended  so 
vehemently,  lies  on  the  west  side  of  the  bay.  The  Niantic  Lidians 
have  here  a  reservation  of  240  acres,  to  which  an  ancient  gateway 
and  a  green  lane  leads  from  the  side  of  the  public  road.  Here  we 
still  find  ancient  names  of  the  tribe.  Nonesuch,  Sobuck  and  Waw- 
queet,  although  the  whole  community  now  comprises  scarcely  a  dozen 
individuals.  On  the  ridge  of  land  near  the  Powers  farm-house,  about 
half-way  between  the  bay  and  Four  Mile  River,  the  tribe  had  once 
a  fort  By  that  term  must  be  understood  only  a  high  stone-wall,  or 
a  log  fence,  with  wigwams  inclosed :  no  trace  of  it  now  remains. 
The  burial-ground  of  the  tribe  is  on  an  elevated  bank,  near  the  river. 
Here  are  stones  to  the  memory  of  a  native  minister,  Philip  Occuish, 
(who  died  in  1789,)  and  his  family. 

Within  a  few  years,  hotels  have  been  erected  on  Niantic  Bay,  in 
situations  very  alluring  to  visitors  from  the  interior,  seeking  health 
and  pleasure  on  the  sea-board.  The  farm-house,  the  fisherman's  cot- 
tage, and  the  Indian  hut,  filled  to  overflowing  in  the  hot  se&son,  had 
probably  suggested  the  undertaking.  But  a  still  more  important  en- 
terprise has  recently  originated  in  this  vicinity. 

Nearly  opposite  Rope  Ferry,  about  600  yards  from  the  shore  of 
the  bay,  is  a  small  lake  of  pure  water.  This  has  been  made  a  source 
of  profit  in  the  way  of  ice.  Messrs.  A.  &  R.  Smith,  of  East  Lyme, 
were  the  projectors  of  the  undertaking,  which  commenced  in  1845. 
It  is  cut  out  in  smooth  blocks,  two  feet  wide,  and  three  in  length ; 
raised  by  elevators  to  a  platform  on  the  margin  of  the  lake ;  and  from 
thence  conveyed  in  cars  upon  a  railway  to  the  shore,  where  it  is  dis- 
charged on  shipboard,  or  packed  into  ice-houses,  waiting  for  ship- 
ment.   At  Williamsburgh,  near  New  York,  there  is  a  large  depot  to 


1  Hempstead's  Jotunal,  MS.  2  Backus'  Chorch  Hlstorj. 

62* 


618  HFSTORT    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

receive  it  A  large  number  of  fishing  smacks  resort  thither  for  ice. 
Abnost  every  fisherman  now  carries  out  ice  in  which  to  pack  his  fish, 
which  enables  him  to  bring  home  his  cargo  in  a  better  condition  than 
he  could  without  it  This  is  a  marked  advantage  of  modem  fishing 
over  that  of  former  days. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

Incorporation  of  the  city. — ^Mayors. — Court-house  built. — ^Free  grammar-schooL 
Union  school. — Female  academy. — Parade  or  public  square. — Second  burial 
ground. — ^Alms-house. — Streets. — ^Execution  of  Harry  Niles. — Second  war 
with  Great  Britain. 

New  London  was  incorporated  as  a  city  by  the  legislature,  in 
January,  1784,  being  one  of  five  towns  in  the  state  on  which  city 
privileges  were  conferred  at  the  same  time.  The  city  and  town  lim- 
its are  the  same,  comprising  about  2,200  acres,  or  three  and  a  half 
square  mQes.  By  the  charter,  all  the  officers  were  to  be  chosen  an- 
nually, except  the  mayor  and  treasurer,  who  when  elected  were  to 
remain  in  office  during  the  pleasure  of  the  General  Assembly.  The 
first  city  meeting  was  held  March  8th,  1784,  Winthrop  Saltonstall, 
Esq.,  moderator.  Richard  Law  was  chosen  mayor,  and  continued  in 
office  till  his  death,  in  January,  1806,  twenty-two  years,  less  six 
weeks.  Guy  Richards  was  chosen  treasurer,  and  continued  in  office 
till  his  resigpation  in  1820,  thirty-six  years.  John  Owen  was  the 
first  city  clerk,  and  continued  in  office  by  annual  choice  till  his  death  . 
in  March,  1801 ;  seventeen  years.  The  first  aldermen  were  John 
Deshon,  David  Mumford,  Winthrop  Saltonstall,  and  Thomas  Shaw. 
Saltonstall  served  twenty-two  years.  Col.  William  Richards  was 
chosen  first  city  sherifi*,  and  annually  chosen  to  the  same  office  till  his 
death  in  1812^  making  twenty-eight  years.  These  instances  show 
that  offices  in  general  were  more  permanent  than  at  the  present  day. 
In  the  common  council  for  nine  years,  from  1810  to  1819,  no  change 
was  made.  Thaddeus  Brooks,  Chester  Kimball  and  John  Way, 
served  together  for  sixteen  successive  years.  Way  was  in  the  com- 
mon council  from  1803  to  1830  inclusive.  Dr.  Simon  Wolcott  and 
Creorge  Colfax,  each  served  twenty-five  years,  between  1784  and 
1812,  either  in  the  common  council  or  as  aldermen. 

The  city  seal  is  a  f uU-rigged  ship,  with  sails  spread,  and  the  motto, 
Mare  Liberum* 


620  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

The  second  mayor,  Jeremiali  6.  Brainerd,  was  chosen  in  1806, 
and  resigned  in  1829.  After  this  period,  the  Assembly,  upon  peti- 
tion of  the  city,  limited  the  term  of  office  to  three  years. 

Succession  of  Mayors. 

Richard  Law,  chosen  1784,  to  1806,  twenty-two  years. 

Jeremiah  6.  Brainerd,  1806,  to  1829,  twenty-three  years. 

Elias  Perkins,  1829,  to  1832,  three  years. 

Coddington  Billings,  1832,  to  1835,  three  years. 

Noyes  Billings,  1835,  to  1837,  two  years,  resigned. 

Jirah  Isham,  1837,  one  year,  resigned. 

Francis  Allyn,  1838,  to  1841,  three  years. 

George  C.  Wilson,  1841,  died  July  20th,  1841. 

Caleb  J.  Allen,  August  12th,  1841,  resigned  June,  1843. 

Andrew  M.  Frink,  1843,  to  1845,  resigned. 

J.  P.  C.  Mather,  1845,  to  1850,  resigned  in  August. 

Andrew  C.  Lippitt^  1850. 

The  erection  of  a  court-house  was  one  of  the  first  objects  that  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  the  city  anUiorities.  The  old  one  bum^  by 
the  British,  had  stood  on  the  Parade,  but  objections  were  made  to 
this  site,  and  the  position  of  the  new  house  was  finally  settled  by  the 
following  vote : 

**  April  0th,  17S4,  voted  that  it  is  tho  opinion  of  this  meeting^  that  the  plaee 
where  tho  town  school-house  now  stands,  at  the  west  end  of  the  Broad  Street, 
[now  State  Street,]  is  the  fittest  place  of  any  in  the  city,  both  for  use  and  orna- 
ment, and  will  best  accommodate  the  city  and  the  public,  for  the  court-house 
to  be  erected  on," 

The  county  court  concurred  in  this  opinion,  and  the  present  edifice 
known  as  the  city  court-house,  was  immediately  after  erected,  the 
position  being  fixed  in  the  middle  of  the  street,  on  the  platibnn  of 
rock,  at  the  head  of  State  Street,  with  an  open  space  on  all  sides.  It 
has  since  been  removed  further  back,  so  as  to  leave  the  highway 
dear.  The  house  was  originally  furnished  with  a  gallery  around  the 
second  story,  which  gave  it  a  gay  and  dashing  i^pearance,  but  the 
lower  story  was  left  for  more  than  thirty  years  in  a  rough,  unfinished 
state. 

The  town  school  located  on  this  spot  was  the  free  grammar-eciiool, 
which  had  for  its  main  support  the  Bartlet  and  other^ublic  revenues, 
and  had  been  originally  established  furdier  up  the  hill,  on  Hempstead 
Street,  but  had  descended  from  thence  about  1750.  It  was  now  re- 
moved a  few  rods  to  the  north,  and  placed  in  the  Inghway  fronting 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  621 

the  Erving  lot,  (Charch  Street  in  that  part  not  having  been  opened,) 
with  no  wall  or  inclosure  around  it,  these  not  being  deemed  at  that 
time  necessary.  The  dwelling-houses  in  this  part  of  the  town  were 
few,  and  the  neighboring  hills  and  fields  were  the  play-ground  of  the 
boys.  In  the  rear  was  the  Hallam  lot,  extending  from  Broad  Street 
to  the  old  meeting-house  square,  with  but  one  building  upon  it,  and 
that  in  its  north-east  corner.  A  little  more  distant,  in  the  rear  of  the 
court-house,  was  the  Coit  ^  hollow-lot,"  shaded  by  large  trees,  and 
enriched  with  a  rivulet  of  pure  water,  (where  Cottage  Street  now 
runs.)  Still  further  back  was  a  vacant  upland  lot,  (known  as  Fos- 
dick's,  or  Melally's  lot,)  containing  here  and  there  a  choice  apple- 
tree,  well  known  to  school-boys :  this  is  now  the  second  burial  ground* 

We  have  heard  aged  people  revert  to  these  scenes,  the  days  when 
they  were  pupils  of  the  free  grammar-6chool,  under  the  sway  of 
^  Master  Owen ;"  when  a  house  of  worship  had  not  given  name  and 
beauty  to  Zion's  Hill,  and  only  a  cellar  and  a  garden,  tokens  of  the 
former  residence  of  one  of  the  early  settlers  a(  the  town,  were  to  be 
seen  on  the  spot  where  the  Trott  mansion  now  stands.^  Later  than 
thisy  (about  1796,)  General  Huntington  broke  ground  upon  the  hill- 
side and  erected  his  house,  (now  Hurlbut's,)  in  the  style  called  cot* 
tage  amSe,  Beyond  this,  on  the  present  Coit  property,  was  a  gush- 
ing spring,  where  the  eager  school-boy  slaked  his  thirst,  and  cooled 
his  heated  brow ;  and  not  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  elapsed  since 
the  space  now  occupied  by  the  Williams  mansion  and  grounds,  was 
an  open,  irregular  hill-side,  over  whose  rugged  surface  troops  of 
children,  as  they  issued  from  the  school-room,  were  seen  to  scatter  in 
their  various  sports,  like  flocks  of  sheep  spreading  over  the  hills. 

In  the  year  1795,  the  old  school-house,  a  low,  red  building  of  one 
room,  with  a  garret  above,  entered  by  a  flight  of  stairs  and  a  trap 
door,  where  refractory  pupils  were  committed  for  punishment ;  and 
with  desks  and  benches,  which,  though  made  of  solid  oak,  were  des- 
perately marred  by  ink  and  knife;  was  abandoned, and  the  school  re- 
moved to  a  larger  building  of  brick,  erected  for  its  accommodation  in 
the  highway,  south  of  the  court-house,  where  it  fulfilled  another  peri- 
od of  its  history,  of  nearly  forty  years.  Here  the  chair  of  instruction, 
or  more  properly  the  throne,  for  the  government  was  despotic,  was 


1  This  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  place  where  stood  the  house  of  Charies  Hilli 
fortified  in  the  time  of  the  Indian  war.  The  present  house  was  built  hj  Samuel  Fos- 
dick,  at  the  head  of  Niantic  River,  but  taken  apart,  brought  into  town,  and  erected  in 
1786.  It  has  been  occupied  by  J.  P.  Tzott,  its  preeeni  owner,  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury. 


622  HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON. 

occupied,  after  1800,  by  Dr.  Dow,  the  ntunber  of  whose  subjects 
usually  amounted  to  about  150,  though  sometimes  rising  to  200. 

In  1833,  a  new  and  much  superior  edifice  was  erected  for  the 
grammar-school,  on  a  lot  south  of  the  Second  Congregational  Church, 
chiefly  through  the  exertions  and  liberality  of  Joseph  Hurlbut,  to 
whom  a  vote  of  thanks  was  rendered  by  the  town,  October  9th,  1833. 
In  this  building  the  Bartlet,  or  grammarnschool  is  still  continued 
under  the  care  of  the  town,  but  the  fund  is  inadequate  to  its  support 
and  the  pupils  are  taxed  to  supply  the  deficiency. 

The  most  noted  teachers  of  this  school  since  1750,  those  whose 
office  covered  the  longest  term  of  years,  were  John  Owen'  and  Ulys- 
ses Dow  ;  both  were  peculiar  characters,  and  each  remained  in  office 
nearly  forty  years.  The  former  died  in  1801,  aged  sixty-^ve ;  the 
latter  in  1844,  aged  seventy-eight. 

The  Union  School  was  an  establishment  incorporated  by  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  in  October,  1774.  The  petition  for  the  act  was 
signed  by  twelve  proprietors,  who  state  that  they  had  ^  built  a  com- 
modious school-house,  and  for  several  years  past  hired  and  supported 
a  school-master."    The  original  proprietors  were, 

Richard  Law,  Robinson  Mumford, 

Jeremiah  Miller,  Joseph  Christophers, 

Duncan  Stewart,  Marvin  Wait, 

Silas  Church,  Thomas  Mumford, 

Thomas  Allen,  Nathaniel  Shaw,  Jr., 

John  Richards,  Roger  Gibson. 

This  school  was  intended  to  furnish  facilities  for  a  thorough  En- 
glish education  and  the  classical  preparation  necessary  for  entering 
college.  The  school-house  stood  on  State  Street,  and  by  the  subse- 
quent opening  of  Union  Street,  was  made  a  comer  lot.  This  was  a 
noted  school  in  its  early  days,  yielding  a  larger  income  than  ordinary 
schools,  and  the  station  of  preceptor  regarded  as  a  post  of  honor.  It 
has  been  heretofore  stated  that  Nathan  Hale  held  that  office  in  1775, 
and  that  he  left  the  school  to  enter  the  army.  He  was  the  first  pre- 
ceptor after  the  act  of  incorporation.  A  few  only  of  his  successors 
can  be  named.  Seth  Williston,  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth  College, 
and  since  known  as  a  divine  of  considerable  eminence,  was  in  charge 


1  The  remuns  of  "  Master  Owen,'*  were  laid  in  the  second  burial  gronnd,  bnt  no 
memorial  stone  marks  the  spot  If  a  sufficient  number  of  his  old  pupils  are  yet  upon 
the  stage  of  life,  to  undertake  the  charge,  it  would  be  a  creditable  enterprise  for  them 
to  unite  and  raise  some  simple  but  fitting  monument  to  his  memory.  He  was  for 
many  y eara  both  town  and  city  cleriL. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  623 

for  two  years.  Jacob  B.  Gurley  from  the  same  seminary,  succeeded 
Williston  in  May,  1794,  and  was  the  principal  for  three  years.*  Eb- 
enezer  Learned,  a  native  of  the  town,  and  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,' 
fiUed  the  chair  of  instruction  in  1799.  Knight,  of  the  Medical  Col- 
lege, of  New  Haven,  Olmsted,  of  Yale,  Mitchell,  of  the  University 
of  North  Carolina,  and  many  other  names  of  note,  are  among  the 
teachers  after  1800. 

The  school-house  was  taken  down  and  the  land  sold  after  1830, 
and  in  1833,  a  reorganization  took  place ;  a  new  charter  was  obtained, 
and  a  brick  school-house  or  academy  built  on  Huntington  Street. 
Here  the  school  flourished  for  a  few  years,  but  could  not  be  long  sus- 
tained. The  Bartlet  and  common  schools  gathered  in  the  great  mass 
of  pupils  ;  the  number  wishing  to  pursue  a  more  extensive  system  of 
education  was  small,  and  the  Union  School,  an  old  and  venerated 
establishment,  was  discontinued.  In  1851,  the  building  was  sold  to 
the  Bethel  Society,  by  whom  it  has  been  converted  into  a  commodi- 
ous house  of  worship. 

No  provision  seems  to  have  been  made  for  the  education  of  females 
in  any  thing  but  needle-work,  reading,  writing,  and  the  first  principles 
of  arithmetic,  until  the  year  1799.  A  female  academy  was  then 
built  by  a  company  of  proprietors,  in  Green  Street,  and  incorporated 
by  the  legislature.  It  continued  in  operation,  with  some  intervals  of 
recess,  about  thirty  years.  The  property  was  sold  and  the  company 
dissolved  in  1834.  A  new  female  academy  was  built  the  same  year 
on  Broad  Street,  and  the  system  of  instruction  commenced  by  Rev, 
Daniel  Huntington.  This  institution  has  hitherto  met  with  fair  en- 
couragement. Since  1841,  'it  has  been  in  charge  of  H.  P.  Fams- 
worth,  principaL  The  pupils  are  arranged  in  two  departments,  and 
for  a  few  years  past  the  average  number  has  been  about  eighty. 

In  December,  1849,  Leonard  Bulkley,  the  last  survivor  of  the  fam- 
ily of  Capt.  Charles  Bulkley,  and  a  descendant  of  Rev.  Grershom 
Bulkley,  second  minister  of  the  town,  left  the  bulk  of  his  estate,  to 
certain  trustees,  to  found  a  free  school  for  boys.  By  the  provisions 
of  the  will,  the  benefit  was  to  be  limited  to  residents  of  New  London, 
and  to  pupils  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  twenty-one  years,  and 
the  fund  was  not  to  be  used  until  it  should  amount  to  $50,000.  The 
actual  value  at  the  period  of  the  testator's  decease,  was  less  than  half 
this  sum. 

1  Mr.  Gnrley  i»  a  native  of  Mansfield,  Conn.,  but  since  1794,  a  resident  of  New  Lon- 
don, where  he  began  to  practice  as  an  attorney  in  1797. 

2  Mr.  Learned  was  then  but  nineteen  years  of  age. 


624  U18T0RT    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

The  fire  of  the  6Ui  of  September,  1781,  had  cleared  a  considerable 
space  near  the  central  border  of  the  town  plot,  where  the  public  build- 
ings h*ad  stood.  This  space  had  been  originallj  reserved  for  the  use 
of  a  fortification,  and  was  called  fort  land ;  but  not  onlj  the  old  fort, 
magazine  and  barracks  had  stood  thereon,  but  also  the  court-house, 
jail,  jail-house  and  town  pump.  The  jail  was  rebuilt  bj  the  water- 
side, in  1782  ;*  but  in  August,  1785,  a  city  vote  was  passed  to  lay 
out  the  remainder  as  highway,  that  is,  all  east  of  a  Hne  drawn  from 
the  c6mer  of  Bradley  to  the  comer  of  Bank  Street,  "  excepting  only 
the  land  within  said  limits  belonging  to  Harvey  Piriou  and  Bath- 
sheba  his  wife."^  This  space,  if  left  open,  would  form  a  public 
square  or  parade,  with  its  shortest  line  on  the  west,  twelve  rods  in 
length ;  and  the  subsequent  purchase  of  the  church  land  yet  further 
west,  narrowing  the  slope  on  that  side,  would  have  left  a  beautiful, 
open  ground,  spreading  like  a  fan  to  the  water. 

Unfortunately,  the  next  year  this  vote  was  reconsidered,  and  it 
was  decided  to  lease  out  certain  portions  of  this  old  fort  land,  for  the 
site  of  shops  ;  the  rent  to  be  applied  in  the  first  instance  to  the  build- 
ing of  a  sea-wall  on  the  eastern  border  of  the  land,  to  prevent  it  from 
washing  away.  The  ground  taken  up  by  these  leases  was  that  which 
had  been  occupied  by  the  ancient  prison  and  the  dwelling-house  €i 
the  keeper,  and  it  is  still  covered  by  buildings,  that  pay  a  ground-rent 
to  the  town.^  In  1785,  a  market-house  was  built  on  the  public  land, 
and  in  1794,  a  wharf  constructed  east  of  it  for  a  ferry  wharf.  In 
1816,  the  market  was  removed  and  built  over  the  water  between  the 
wharf  and  jail ;  it  was  burnt  down  in  1848,  and  has  not  been  rebuilt. 

'*  At  a  City  meeting  lioldcn  March  2l8t,  1793 — Voted,  that  the  committee  ap- 
pointed to  make  enquiry  relative  to  tlie  purchase  ofalot  for  a  burying-ground, 
viz.  Messrs,  Samuel  Wheat,  David  Manwaring,  and  Richard  W.  Parkin,  be 
empowered  and  directed  to  purchase  Capt.  Melally*8  lot  at  the  price  of  £120, 
and  to  take  a  deed  thereof  to  the  city.** 

This  is  now  the  second  burial-ground.  The  purchase-money  was 
partly  .raised  by  a  tax  of  four  pence  on  the  pound  on  the  list  of  polls 


1  The  jail  was  Femoved  hi  1846,  and  the  land  sold ;  now  covered  by  Holt^s  brick 
stores. 

2  The  Puriou  property  consisted  of  a  house,  and  the  land  of  the  breadth  of  the  house, 
directly  east  of  the  old  prison,  now  owned  by  John  Dennis. 

8  The  last  lease  was  to  John  Brandegee,  and  to  run  from  May  24th,  1886,  to  May 
24th,  1856. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON.  625 

and  ratable  estate  of  the  inhabitants,  and  the  deficiency  supplied  out 
of  the  ground  rents  of  the  city.  An  attempt  had  been  made  the  pre- 
vious year  to  pay  for  the  lot  by  individual  subscription,  but  the  sum 
raised  being  wholly  inadequate,  the  subscription  was  relinquished. 
The  first  person  interred  in  this  ground  was  Mary,  relict  of  Thomas 
Rice,  who  died  May  19th,  1793.  The  fact  is  recorded  upon  her 
gravestone. 

In  this  ground  were  originally  interred  the  remains  of  Bishop 
Seabury,  which  have  been  removed  to  the  vault  of  the  new  chtirch ; 
of  Gen.  Jedidiah  Huntington,  removed  afterward  to  the  family  tomb 
at  Norwich,  in  accordance  with  a  request  contained  in  his  will ;  of 
Hon.  Richard  Law,  district  judge  of  Connecticut,  and  his  sons,  Capt. 
Richard  Law,  and  Hon.  Lyman  Law,  member  of  Congress  ;  of  Brig.- 
Cren.  Burbeck  and  of  Captains  Elisha  Hinman  and  NicoU  Fosdick » 
all  which  have  been  removed  since  1851,  to  the  Cedar  Grove  Ceme- 
tery. 

Many  interesting  monuments,  bearing  honored  names,  still  remain 
in  the  ground,  and  a  throng  of  graves  with  names  less  known,  or 
nameless,  but  dear  as  life-blood  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  place.  >  The 
marble  monument  to  the  memory  of  Anthony  Thatcher — a  cubic  pe- 
destal, tastefully  decorated  and  surmounted  with  a  fiuted  circular 
shaft — ^is  a  beautiful  production  of  art  A  modest  stone  by  the  east- 
em  wall,  which  bears  the  name  of  Ruth  Pomham,  an  aged  Indian 
woman,  known  as  ^  the  Pequot  of  a  hundred  years,"  is  not  without  a 
peculiar  interest.  And  near  the  center  of  the  ground  is  the  hallowed 
grave  of  John  G.  C.  Brainard,  a  man  of  rich  poetic  intellect,  who  is 
ranked  among  the  undying  poets  of  America.  He  was  a  native  of 
New  London,  and  died  in  the  arms  of  his  brothers,  in  the  family 
homestead.  Sept  26th,  1828,  aged  thirty-two  years.  His  head-stone 
has  no  epitaph  but  the  record  of  his  death,  and  the  beautiful  quota- 
tion, "  John  xi.  83 — Thy  brother  shall  rise  again." 


The  public  ground  on  which  the  first  meeting-house  and  the  first 
court-house  had  stood,  was  in  1794  laid  out  for  a  highway,  and  was 
then  familiarly  called  "  the  old  meeting-house  green."  It  was  re- 
corded of  the  following  dimensions  :  south  line,  twenty-eight  rods  ; 
north,  twenty-three  rods  and  seventeen  links  ;  east,  thirty-three  rods 


1  In  this  ground  there  are  forty-two  gravestones  bearing  the  name  of  Qnt^  and  forty 
that  of  Bogers, 

53 


826  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

and  twelve  links ;  west,  thirteen  rods  and  eight  links.  On  this  greea 
in  the  year  1800,  the  present*  alms-house  was  built,  the  expense  of 
erection  being  liquidated  jointly  by  the  town  and  by  private  subscrip- 
tion. The  amount  raised  by  individuals  was  one  thousand  dollars, 
and  the  number  of  subscribers  one  hundred  and  sixteen,  comprising 
very  nearly  all  the  substantial  householders  of  the  place.  Thq  for- 
mer alms-house  (at  the  comer  of  Truman  and  Blinman  Streets)  was 
sold  in  1773,  and  the  poor  of  the  town  had  been  afterward  supported 
by  contract,  at  an  annual  expense  varying  from  £150  to  £200.'  It 
was  then  proposed  to  purchase  a  house  and  farm  in  the  countiy,  and 
place  the  poor  in  a  situation  where  they  might  contribute  to  their  own 
support.  This  project  was  kept  in  discussion  for  several  years,  bat 
ultimately  abandoned.  The  new  alms-hotise  was  erected  under  the 
direction  of  the  selectmen ;  the  material,  brick,  and  the  dimensions 
thirty-six  feet  by  forty-four.  It  was  at  first  denominated  a  "  Poor 
and  Bettering  House,"  to  be,  according  to  the  act  of  incorporation, 

**  A  home  for  the  poor,  and  also  a  work-house  and  place  of  detention  for 
rogues,  vagabonds,  sturdy  beggars,  idle,  dissolute  and  disorderly  persons,  runa- 
waysj  stubborn  children  and  servants,  common  drunkards,  night-walkers,  pQ- 
ierers,  and  all  persons  who  neglect  their  callings,  misspend  what  they  earn,  and 
do  not  provide  support  for  themselves  and  families;  also  all  persons  under  dis- 
traction whose  friends  or  relations  do  not  confine  them.*' 


In  the  year  1807,  a  survey  of  the  city  was  made,  and  a  map  of  it 
drawn  by  Moses  "Warren,  deputy  surveyor  of  the  county.  The 
streets  were  relaid,  and  all  those  that  were  without  names  in  common 
use,  had  names  affixed  to  them  by  the  city  authorities.  A  few  brirf 
facts  that  have  been  collected  in  regard  to  the  streets,  will  be  here 
introduced. 

State  Street  has  been  subjected  to  great  fluctuation  in  regard  to 
its  name.  The  eastern  part  was  first  known  as  Fort  Hill,  but  since 
the  Revolution,  has  generally  borne  the  name  of  the  Parade.  West 
of  this,  when  the  Episcopal  church  stood  here,  it  was  sometimes 
called  Church  Street,  and  sometimes  Broad  Street  In  some  deeds 
of  the  date  of  1777,  it  is  called  King  Street,  and  again  in  deeds  ten 
years  later  in  date,  Congress  Street.  After  the  court-house  was 
built  at  the  head  of  it,  the  common  appellation  was  Court  Street. 
The  city  government,  in  1807,  ordered  it  to  be  registered  as  State 
Street.  The  continuation  of  this  street  at  the  north-west,  (now 
Broad,)  waa  surveyed  in  1753,  and  was  then,  between  th^  Hallam 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  627 

» 

and  Fosdick  lots,  to  Hempstead  Street,  only  two  rods  and  a  half 
wide. 

Bank  Street,  was  in  former  times,  the  Bank.  An  attempt  was 
made  about  the  jear  1804,  to  change  its  name  to  Thames  Street,  bat 
it  failed. 

Water  Street  was  laid  out  in  1733,  **two  rods  wide  from  the  fort 
to  the  town  whairf,"  and  was  called  Beach  Street  till  1822,  when  the 
name  was  changed  bj  a  city  vote. 

Shapley  Street  was  opened  in  1747,  by  Daniel  Shapley,  throu^ 
his  homestead  lot,  which  was  then  divided  into  six  tenements. 

Hill  Street  was  opened  in  1752,  by  Joshua  Raymond  and  John 
Colfiox,  through  what  was  called  "  Hill's  north  lot ;"  that  is,  a  lot 
that  had  been  owned  by  Charles  Hill,  an  early  settler. 

Federal  Street  was  opened  in  1784,  and  called  Pleasant  Street 
for  the  first  six  years.  The  western  part,  from  Huntington  to  Hemp- 
stead, was  opened  in  1840,  by  Hezekiah  Goddard  and  Robert  Coit 

Church  Street  was  opened  in  1787  to  Union,  and  at  first  called 
Wait  Street,  in  compliment  to  Marvin  Wait.  In  1801  it  was  contin- 
oed  to  Huntington. 

Union  Street  was  opened  in  1786,  from  State  Street  north,  by  the 
side  of  the  Congregational  church,  through  the  land  of  Stephen 
Bolles  ;  who  opened  Masonic  Street  at  the  same  time.  It  must  be 
observed  that  most  of  the  present  names  of  the  streets  were  not  con- 
ferred till  1 807.  Masonic  Street  received  its  name  from  the  Mason's 
Hotel,  built  on  its  north-west  corner  in  1799,  by  the  trustees  of  Union 
Lodge,  No.  81,  and  sold  to  W.  P.  Cleveland  in  1808.*  Union  Street 
takes  its  name  frt>m  the  Union  school-house,  that  stood  at  the  comer, 
on  the  south  side  of  State  Street 

Gk)lden  Street,  opened  after  the  burning  of  the  town,  owes  its  name 
to  a  house  of  entertainment  built  by  Nathan  Douglas  at  the  head  of 
it,  and  known  by  the  sign  of  a  golden  ball.  The  ascent  at  this  place 
was  abrupt,  and  the  summit  called  Golden  Hill. 

Pearl  Street  was  laid  out  in  1784.  At  the  head  of  it  where  it 
joins  Union,  lay  an  irregular  mass  of  outlying  rocks,  where  people 
resorted  for  the  sake  of  the  prospect,  and  children  to  pursue  their 
sports,  or  to  look  for  the  prints  of  enormous  feet,  and  the  wonderftil 
stone  cradle,  which  were  said  to  exist  among  the  rocks.     Upon  this 

1  Now  Orrin  F.  Smith's. 


626  HISTORY    OF    NEW     LONDON. 

ledge  the  Baptist  church  is  built.*  Here  and  along  the  line  of  Union 
Street,  the  solid  rock  has  been  excavated,  deep  cuts  made,  the  hills 
split,  the  neighborhood  shaken  by  concussions,  and  innumerable  loads 
of  stone  removed,  until  the  Baptist  rocks  are  nameless,  and  GoMen 
Hill  almost  a  level. 

Methodist  Street  was  originally  very  precipitous  in  its  descent,  and 
was  appropriately  called  Valley  Street  It  was  extended  in  1804,  and 
the  present  name  applied  to  it ;  the  Methodist  chapel  having  been 
built  at  its  commencement  on  Golden  Hill. 

Coit  Street  was  formerly  Cove  Street. 

Tilley  Street  was  opened  by  James  Tilley,  forty-one  feet  wide,  in 
1804,  and  called  by  him  Union  Street,  but  when  accepted  by  the 
city,  it  received  its  present  name. 

Brewer  Street  was  opened  through  the  Picket  lot,  and  was  intended 
for  Picket  Street,  but  obtained  its  present  name  from  an  old  brewery 
at  one  comer  of  it* 

Blinman  Street  is  appropriately  named,  afler  the  first  mimster  of 
the  town. 

Green  Street,  to  Golden,  was  laid  out  in  1787,  principally  throu^ 
the  land  of  Timothy  Green. 

In  1800,  the  Erving  lot,  (owned  by  George  W.  Erving,)  was  divi- 
ded into  thirty  building-lots.  Two  streets  through  it  were  Imd  out, 
viz.,  a  continuation  of  Church  Street,  and  Winthrop,  now  called  Me- 
ridian Street,  a  name  derived  from  its  course,  which  is  due  north 
and  south. 

John  Street  was  originally  a  precipitous  hill,  known  at  different 
periods  by  the  names  prevalent  in  its  neighborhood,  Jeffrey's  Hill, 
Bailey's  Hill,  Sec.  Its  present  name  was  probably  derived  from 
John  Woodward  and  John  Wood.  The  former  built  a  brick  house 
in  this  street  in  1800,  which  in  1807  was  purchased  by  the  latter. 

Potter  Street  was  opened  in  1798,  principally  through  the  land  of 
Mrs.  Abigail  Potter. 

Washington  Street  was  laid  out  in  1829,  by  Hezekiah  Goddard 
and  Increase  Wilson. 

Jay  Street,  which  is  a  continuation  of  Truman  to  Huntington,  was 
opened  in  1838. 


1  We  may  bore  notice  a  fact  which  was  accidentally  omitted  in  treating  of  the  First 
Baptist  Chiirch.  The  bell  of  this  church  was  ODce  a  convent  bell  in  the  island  of  St 
Domingo,  and  was  obtained  on  the  breaking  np  of  a  nunnery  in  1794,  and  brought  to 
New  Loudon  by  Capt.  Samuel  Hurlbut,  when  it  was  first  purchased  by  the  Episcopal 
church.    It  is  small,  but  pleasmg  in  tone. 


HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON.  629 

Ashcraft  Street  derives  its  name  from  a  family  that  resided  near 
the  head  of  it  in  Cape  Ann  Street.  William  Ashcraft,  a  brave  revo- 
lutionary soldier,  died  here  in  1845,  at  the  age  of  ninety-four. 

Williams  Street  has  had  different  names  for  different  parts  of  it ; 
Post  Hill,  Pound  Street,  Manwaring's  Hill,  &c.  As  a  whole,  its 
name  is  recent,  and  bestowed  in  compliment  to  T.  W.  Williams. 

Vauxhall  Street  was  formerly  the  old  Colchester  road,  but  derives 
its  present  name  from  a  house  built  by  Thaddeus  Brooks,  and  used  as 
a  place  of  resort  for  refreshments,  suppers,  clubs  and  other  parties. 

The  first  marked  improvements  in  the  streets  of  the  city,  commen- 
ced with  Bank  Street  in  1844. 

State  Street  was  graded  in  1847,  under  the  limitation  of  cutting 
down  no  more  than  four  feet  at  the  intersection  of  Union  Street,  and 
filling  in  no  more  than  three  feet  at  any  one  point 

Main  Street  was  leveled  and  otherwise  repaired,  in  1848.  These 
were  great  and  manifest  improvements. 


November  4th,  1807,  Harry  Niles  was  hung  for  the  murder  of  his 
wife.  The  gallows  was  erected  in  the  highway,  at  the  head  of  Gran- 
ite Street,  and  it  was  calculated  that  ten  thousand  spectators  covered 
the  adjacent  fields  and  heights.  Sermon  by  Rev.  Abel  McEwen,  who 
took  the  opportunity  to  preach  on  the  subject  of  temperance ;  the 
crime  for  which  the  unhappy  man  suffered  having  been  the  result  of 
intoxication.  Harry  was  a  Narragansett  Indian,  with  a  quarter  cross 
of  African  blood — a  large,  fine  looking  fellow,  in  the  prime  of  life, 
belonging  to  the  Indian  reservation  in  North  Stonington.  In  his 
mind  and  character  there  was  something  noble  and  independent  in  its 
stamp.  He  had  been  well  taught  and  trained  in  the  family  from 
which  he  received  his  name,  but  unfortunately  was  not  proof  against 
the  temptation  of  the  white  man's  fire  water,  and  in  a  drunken  fight 
with  his  wife  on  their  way  home  from  the  market  where  he  had  ob- 
tained the  pernicious  draught,  he  inflicted  blows  upon  her  which 
caused  her  death.  In  his  religious  views  he  was  independent,  wild, 
and  speculative,  and  during  his  imprisonment  deemed  that  he  had 
various  inspired  dreams  and  revelations,  teaching  him  the  right  way, 
and  assuring  him  of  his  ultimate  safety. 

This  was  the  fourth  and  last  public  execution  in  the  town.     The 

avenging  stroke  of  justice  has  fallen  upon  one  other  criminal,  a  man 

by  the  name  of  Sherman,  who  in  a  state  of  intoxication  barbarously 

murdered  his  wife  and  infant  child.    The  crime  was  committed  in 

63* 


630  HISTORY     OT     NEW    LONDON. 

Norwich,  but  the  trial  took  place  in  New  London,  and  the  penalty 
was  inflicted  here,  but  without  notoriety,  in  the  shadow  of  the  walls 
of  the  old  prison  that  stood  by  the  waterniide,  south  <^  the  maricet 
wharf. 


Second  War  with  Great  Britain. 

The  second  war  with  Great  Britain,  occupying  the  space  between 
the  two  proclamations  of  President  Madison,  June  18th,  1812,  dedar- 
ing  war,  and  February  18th,  1815,  proclaiming  peace,  by  no  means 
indndes  the  whole  period  in  which  the  commerce  of  the  United  States 
was  interrupted.  Perplexity  and  distress  began  much  earlier.  In 
1805  and  1806,  the  belligerent  powers  of  Europe  preyed  upon  Amer- 
ican vessels.  New  London,  however,  6u£fered  less  from  this  source 
than  most  other  ports,  and  the  tide  of  a  prosperous  trade  came  up  to 
Uie  shores,  until  suddenly  stopped  by  the  embargo  act,  Dec  22d, 
1807. 

Jn.  1812,  it  was  noted  that  the  whole  civilized  world  was  in  a  state 
of  warfare.  This  had  not  been  the  case  before  for  many  generations. 
On  the  fourth  of  December,  Commodore  Decatur,  in  the  fiigate  Uni- 
ted States,  came  into  the  harbor,  followed  by  his  prize,  the  Macedo- 
nian, which  he  had  captured  Oct  25th,  in  latitude  30^,  longitude 
26*^.*  The  arrival  of  these  ships  was  like  the  lifting  of  a  curtain  that 
opened  New  London  to  the  scene  of  war.  It  was  her  first  act  of  par- 
ticipation in  the  conflict.  In  April,  1813,*  a  formidable  British  fleet 
made  its  appearance  in  the  Sound ;  a  pageant  once  familiar  to  the 
eyes  of  the  inhabitants,  but  which  for  more  than  thirty  years  they 
had  not  witnessed.  The  British  standard  was  erected  on  Block 
Island,  while  Sir  Thomas  Hardy,  in  the  flag-ship  Ramillies,  and  the 
Orpheus,^  (Sir  Hugh  Pigot,)  with  other  vessels,  cruised  along  the 
coast  Sir  Thomas  Hardy  soon  acquired  among  the  inhabitants  an 
enviable  reputation  for  courtesy  and  humanity.  He  released  some 
vessels,  allowed  others  to  be  ransomed,  paid  kind  attentions  to  pris- 
oners, and  pledged  his  word  that  fishermen  should  not  be  disturbed. 


1  The  action  lasted  seventeen  minutes.  Americans  killed  and  wounded,  twelve. 
British,  one  hundred  and  four. 

2  April  18th,  arrived  in  port,  the  ship  Superior,  H.  I.  Champlin,  in  the  short  passage 
of  twenty-two  days  (torn  Cadiz.  Off  Montauk,  was  boarded  by  the  Eolus,  thirty-two 
guns,  (Lord  Townsend,)  and  permitted  to  proceed.    Gazette. 

8  Gapt.  Hosmer,  of  Norwich,  was  taken  by  the  Orpheus,  as  he  was  returning  from 
Cuba,  after  an  absence  of  five  years,  but  was  exchanged  with  about  forty  othere,  and 
landed  Ifay  2d. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW     LONDON.  631 

Libieral  payment  was  made  for  supplies  taken  from  the  coast  or  isl* 
ands  of  the  Sound,  and  parties  landing  for  refreshment,  refrained  en* 
tirely  from  plunder.' 

On  the  1st  of  June,  an  American  squadron  consisting  of  the  frigates 
United  States  and  Macedonian,  and  the  sloop-of-war  Hornet,  came 
through  the  Sound  from  New  Tork,  hoping  to  slip  out  to  sea  hy 
Montauk,  the  passage  at  Sandy  Hook  being  narrowly  watched  by  the 
enemy,  but  were  arrested  near  the  entrance  of  the  Sound  by  two 
seventy-fours  and  a  firigate,  which  gave  chase  and  pursued  them  into 
New  London  harbor.  The  enemy  followed  as  far  as  Gull  Island, 
and  then  anchored  so  as  to  command  the  mouth  of  the  river.  This 
was  the  commencement  of  a  regular  blockade  of  the  port,  which  was 
unintermitted  during  the  remainder  of  the  war,  nearly  twenty-one 
months. 

In  a  few  days  the  squadron  of  the  enemy  was  augmented  to  a  con- 
siderable fleet,  consisting  of  two  ships  of  the  line,  two  frigates,  and  a 
number  of  smaller  vessels.  .  The  aged  inhabitants  who  remembered 
the  arrival  of  Arnold's  fleet,  on  the  morning  of  September  6th,  1781, 
shuddered  with  apprehension  lest  the  tragic  realities  of  that  day 
should  be  acted  over  again.  It  was  generally  expected  that  the  ene- 
my would  enter  the  river,  and  iittack  the  American  squadron.  The 
neighboring  militia  were  summoned  to  the  coast,  the  specie  of  the 
banks  was  conveyed  to  Norwich,  and  the  city  emptied  of  women, 
children,  and  the  more  valuable  portable  goods.  The  character  of 
Sir  Thomas  Hardy  was  relied  on  as  a  guarantee  that  no  wanton  de- 
struction of  life  or  property  would  be  allowed,  but  in  case  of  a  bom- 
bardment of  the  ships,  the  burning  of  the  town  would  almost  neces- 
sarily follow.  Major  Simeon  Smith,  of  New  London,  with  a  com- 
pany of  volunteers,  repaired  to  the  old  fort  in  Groton,  where  hasty 
but  vigorous  preparations  were  made  to  cannonade  the  enemy .^    The 


1  June  0th,  a  party  landed  at  Black  HaU,  and  amiued  themselves  awhile  on  the 
shore;  then  visited  Mrs.  Griswold,  asked  for  some  refreshments,  behaved  with  civility, 
and  soon  retired.  WhUe  the  fleet  lay  upon  the  coast,  it  was  ascertained  that  a  yonng 
American,  named  John  Carpenter,  was  an  impressed  seaman,  on  board  the  Ramillies, 
where  he  had  served  five  ^years.  He  belonged  to  Norwich,  and  contrived  to  let  his 
friends  know  of  his  situation.  His  &ther  went  off  to  the  vessel  with  a  flag,  and  the 
proper  testimonials,  hi  order  to  obtain,  if  possible,  his  release.  An  affecting  scene  took 
place,  when  the  father  and  son  met  on  the  deck  of  the  ship.  Commodore  Hardy  ex- 
pressed his  sympathy,  and  the  proper  formalities  having  passed,  he  discharged  the 
man. 

2  The  inhabitants  of  Groton  village  were  all  in  confusion,  removing  then:  eff^ts, 
when  a  messenger  from  the  fort  was  sent  among  them  to  collect  flannel  to  be  used  as 


632  HISTORY     OF    NBW     LONDON. 

town  was  kept  for  several  days  in  a  state  of  anxietj  and  confasiony 
but  the  hostile  ships,  after  several  times  (lisplajing  themselves  in  for- 
midable arraj,  as  if  bearing  toward  the  harbor,  ehose  ^eir  anchorage 
ground  about  five  miles  from  the  city.  It  was  soon  ascertained  that 
the  Valiant,  seventy-four,  and  the  Acasta,  frigate,  had  relieved  the 
Ramillies  and  the  Orpheus.  Commodore  Oliver  was  in  conmiand  of 
the  station,  and  he  executed  his  office  with  unsparing  energy. 

Alarms  were  now  frequent.  An  increase  of  force,  or  change  of 
position  in  the  blockading  squadron,  would  cause  immediate  appre- 
hension ;  a  signal  gun  from  the  fort  was  sufficient  to  set  every  living 
being  in  motion.  It  was  rumored  that  spies  were  often  in  town  un- 
der various  disguises,  and  that  suspicious  persons  appeared  and  dis- 
appeared strangely.  The  American  ships  had  in  the  mean  time  re- 
treated up  the  river,  and  being  lightened,  passed  the  bar  at  Grale's 
Ferry.  Commodore  Decatur  thpew  up  a  light  intrenchment  on  Al- 
lyn's  Mountain,  where  he  had  a  fine  view  of  the  Sound  and  harbor. 
His  people  called  the  place  Dragon  HilL. 

In  the  latter  part  of  June,  Commodore  Hardy,  in  the  Ramillies, 
again  took  command  of  the  station,  having  the  Acasta  and  Maidstone 
frigates  with  him.  A  descent  upon  the  coast,  preparatory  to  an 
attack  upon  the  ships,  was  seriously  apprehended,  and  various  prep- 
arations for  defense  were  made. 

About  this  time  an  affair  took  place  which  exasperated  the  officers 
of  the  blockading  squadron,  and  embittered  their  subsequent  inter- 
course with  the  people  on  the  coast,  although  the  latter  had  no  agen- 
cy in  the  offensive  act  A  schooner,  called  the  Eagle,  owned  in  New 
York,  was  prepared  as  a  kind  of  torpedo  vessel,  and  sent  into  the 
Sound  to  make  an  experiment  upon  the  enemy.  She  had  a  show  of 
naval  stores  on  board,  and  was  captured  by  the  British,  west  (^  New 
London  harbor,  near  Millstone  Point  The  crew  took  to  their  boats, 
and  reached  the  shore  in  safety.  The  British  officer,  after  taking 
possession  of  the  schooner,  attempted  to  tow  her  up  to  the  RamiUies, 
but  finding  that  she  fell  to  leeward,  he  anchored  at  the  distance  of 
three-fourths  of  a  mile  from  that  vessel     Suddenly,  in  less  than  three 


wadding  for  the  guns.  Most  of  the  portable  goods  having  been  sent  off,  he  was  un- 
successful in  his  search,  until  he  encountered  Mrs.  Anna  Bailej,  a  wann-hearted, 
prompt  and  impulsive  woman,  who  instantly  divested  herself  of  her  flannel  petticoat, 
and  heartilj  devoted  it  to  the  cause.  It  was  carried  to  the  fortress,  displayed  at  the 
end  of  a  pike,  and  the  story  told  to  the  garrison,  who  cheered  the  banner  with  great 
enthusiasm.  "  The  Martial  Petticoat**  and  its  partisan  donor  have  ever  since  been 
renowned  in  our  local  annals.  Mrs.  Anna  Bailey  died  January  10th,  1861,  aged  nine- 
ty-two years. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  633 

hours  after  the  desertion  of  her  crew,  and  her  seizure  by  the  British, 
the  Eagle  exploded  with  prodigious  force,  and  was  scattered  into 
fragments.  A  shower  of  pitch  and  tar  fell  upon  the  Ramillies ;  tim- 
ber and  stones  were  hurled  aloft,  and  the  waters  around  thrown  into 
great  commotion.  A  second  lieutenant  and  ten  men,  who  were  on 
board  the  schooner,  were  killed,  and  several  men  in  boats  were  badly 
wounded. 

This  was  wholly  a  private  undertaking ;  the  government  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  it.  The  owners  had  fitted  the  Eagle  as  a  fire-ship, 
with  a  secret  piece  of  mechanism  concealed  within,  which,  when  set 
in  motion,  would  cause  an  explosion  after  a  certain  intervaL  Her 
hold,  under  the  appearance  of  ballast,  contained  400  pounds  of  pow- 
der, and  various  other  combustibles,  with  ponderous  stones  and  de- 
structive implements,  sufficient  to  inflict  a  terrible  blow  upon  any 
ship  of  war,  along  side  of  which  she  might  be  brought,  a  blow  which 
the  Ramillies  barely  escaped. 

The  next  morning  Commodore  Hardy  sent  a  flag  of  truce  up  to  the 
town,  with  the  following  communication : 

**  To  Jirah  Isham,  Brig.-Gen.  commanding  at  New  London.    I  am  under 
the  necessity  of  requesting  you  to  make  it  publicly  known  that  I  can  not  per- 
mit vessels  or  boats  of  any  description,  (flags  of  truce  of  course  excepted,)  to 
approach  or  pass  the  British  squadron,  in  consequence  of  an  American  vessel  ■ 
having  exploded  yesterday,  three  hours  alter  she  was  in  our  possession." 

Toward  the  end  of  June,  Major- General  Henry  Burbeck  arrived 
in  town  from  Newport,  and  assumed  the  military  command  of  the 
district,  which  had  been  transferred  from  the  state  to  the  general 
government  The  troops  on  duty,  amounting  to  about  1 ,000,  belonged 
to  the  militia  of  the  state,  and  were  under  no  orders  but  of  the  gov- 
ernor. A  change  was  now  to  be  made,  and  on  the  12th  of  July, 
agreeably  to  an  order  from  the  secretary  of  war,  General  Burbeck 
dismissed  the  whole  force.  The  town  was  thus  left  suddenly  without 
a  soldier  on  duty.  Forts  Trumbull  and  Griswold  were  completely 
evacuated ;  the  latter  had  not  even  a  man  on  watch  from  noon  till  ten 
P.  M.  This,  of  itself,  was  sufficient  to  cause  a  panic  among  the  in- 
habitants, but  simultaneously  it  was  discovered  that  the  British  squad- 
ron had  been  augmented,  and  that  no  less  than  seven  ships  of  the  line 
and  frigates  lay  near  the  entrance  of  the  Sound,  inside  of  Block  Isl- 
and. The  same  day  also,  it  happened  that  the  Ramillies  and  her 
consort,  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  took  occasion  to  exercise  their 
guns,  and  kept  up  for  a  time  an  incessant  and  spirited  discharge  of 
cannon.    Never  were  the  citizens  more  completely  frantic  with  fear, 


634  HISTORY     OP     PTEW     LONDON. 

nor  ever  perhaps  more  exasperated.  The  misconception  was  even 
worse  than  the  tumult,  for  the  inhabitants  thought  themselves  be- 
terajed  by  the  government,  and  purposely  left  to  be  destroyed.  In 
order  to  calm  the  public  excitement,  General  Burbeck,  on  his  own 
responsibility,  applied  to  the  governor  for  a  temporary  force,  who 
authorieed  Brigadier-General  Williams  to  call  out  as  large  a  body  oi 
militia  as  exigencies  should  demand. 

The  blockade  was  henceforth  of  the  most  rigorous  character.  The 
enemy  resolved  to  leave  nothing  afloat.  '  The  Sound  was  alive  with 
petty  warfare.  Every  creek,  bay  and  river  were  searched,  and  noth- 
ing in  the  form  of  boat,  sloop  or  smack  suffered  to  live.  Yankee  en- 
terprise prolonged  the  task  of  the  invaders,  and  obliged  them  to  de- 
stroy by  inches,  and  to  multiply  and  repeat  the  blows,  before  they 
could  ruin  all  traffic,  and  clear  the  coast  of.  sails  and  oars.  Some- 
times a  sloop  or  schooner  would  be  chased  ashore  by  the  enemy,  and 
the  inhabitants  would  collect  to  defend  it  This  was  always  the  oc- 
casion of  great^  and  apparently  hilarious  excitement  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. In  Mystic  harbor,  a  spirited  affair  of  this  nature  occurred  on 
the  12th  of  June.  One  sloop  had  been  destroyed,  and  another,  the 
Victory,  was  attacked,  but  the  enemy  were  driven  off  after  a  warm 
action  of  fifteen  minutes,  by  a  party  of  about  twenty  Mystic  men,  un- 
der the  command  of  Jeremiah  Haley.  Another  shore  skirmish  took 
place  November  28th,  west  of  the  light-house,  New  London.  Hie 
sloop  Roxana  was  chased  aground  by  three  British  barges,  and  in 
half  an  hour  a  throng  of  people  assembled  to  the  rescue.  The  enemy 
set  fire  to  the  sloop  and  retreated,  but  the  Americans  determined  to 
extinguish  the  flames,  and  were  only  kept  from  accomplishing  their 
purpose  by  a  heavy  cannonade  from  the  ships.  The  Rogers  form 
was  ploughed  by  their  balls,  but  though  many  upon  the  shore  were 
much  exposed,  no  damage  was  done  to  life  or  limb. 

During  the  whole  war  not  a  man  was  killed  by  the  enemy  in  Con- 
necticut, and  only  one'  in  its  waters  upon  the  coast.  The  fact  is  a 
striking  one,  considering  the  long  period  that  the  blockading  squad- 
ron lay  in  the  Sound,  and  the  numerous  encounters  between  the 
parties. 

Commodore  Decatur  had  strong  hopes  that  during  the  winter  some 
opportunity  would  occur  of  getting  his  ships  to  sea.  He  determined 
to  be  ready  to  take  advantage  of  the  enemy's  unguarded  hour,  if  such 


1  That  one  was  Mr.  Dolph,  of  Saybrook,  who  was  killed  in  January,  1816,  while  en- 
gaged with  others  in  recovering  two  prizes  taken  by  the  Britisli,  off  Saybrook. 


HISTORY     OP    NEW    LONDON.  635 

an  hour  shotild  come.     He  began  therefore  in  October,  to  drop  down 
the  river,  and  by  the  last  of  November  was  anchored  in  the  harbor, 
opposite  Market  wharf.    Though  no  uncommon  movement  was  made 
and  great  care  was  taken  not  to  attract  notice,  every  thing  was  put 
in  complete  readiness  for  sailing.     As  far  as  possible,  silence  and  se- 
crecy were  to  be  observed.    Not  even  Mends  were  to  be  trusted,  ex- 
cept from  the  necessity  of  the  case.     The  night  of  the  12th  of  De- 
cember was  fixed  for  the  attempt.     The  day  came ;  it  was  Sunday'; 
the  night  proved  to  be  dark,  the  wind  favorable,  and  when  the  tide 
served  they  were  to  start.    Just  at  this  critical  time,  some  few  hours 
before  they  expected  to  weigh  anchor  and  mxike  sail,  at  different 
times  between  eight  and  ten  o'clock,  blue  lights  appeared  on   the 
shore,  both  sides  of  the  river,  upon  Groton  Height,  and  near  the  har- 
bor's mouth.     These  were  supposed  to  be  signals,  made  by  persona 
on  land ;  traitors^  who  had  by  some  means  become  acquaintefl  with 
the  design  of  the  American  squadron,  and  exhibited  these  lights  to 
apprise  the  enemy,  and  set  them  on  their  guard.     Commodore  Deca- 
tur, on  hearing  of  these  signals,  instantly  relinquished  his  plan  of 
sailing,  and  indignant  at  being  betrayed  by  his  countrymen,  made  no 
subsequent  attempt  to  escape. 

The  whole  affair  was  made  public,  the  design  and  the  cause  of  its 
failure ;  but  the  story  was  not  received  by  all  with  entire  confidence. 
Many  persons  gave  no  credence  to  what  was  said  of  the  blue  lights, 
and  averred  that  accidental  lights  kindled  by  fishermen,  or  the  gleams 
from  coimtry  windows,  or  reflections  from  the  heavens  upon  water, 
had  been  mistaken  for  treasonable  signals.  We  had  no  such  traitors 
cm  shore ;  the  American  officers  felt  that  the  causes  of  their  inaction 
had  been  misconstrued  by  the  citizens ;  they  had  been  reproached  for 
idleness,  and  accused  of  timidity  in  suffering  themselves  to  be  so  long 
shut  up  in  a  comer,  and  this  tale  was  either  fabricated  for  the  pur- 
pose, or  caught  up  eagerly,  as  it  dropped  from  the  idle  tongue  of  ru- 
mor, and  circulated  in  order  to  sustain  their  reputation  with  the  pub- 
lic    This  was  the  explanation  made  by  one  partjK. 

On  the  other  side  it  was  stated  that  the  blue  lights  were  distinctly 
seen  and  reported,  by  officers  and  men  stationed  on  the  look-out,  or 
belonging  to  the  row-guard  both  of  the  Macedonian  and  the  Hornet, 
people  who  were  familiar  with  signals,  and  would  not  have  mistaken 
the  common  lights  of  the  shore  for  blue  lights. 

At  this  distance  of  time  nothing  more  can  be  added ;  no  further 
light  has  been  thrown  upon  the  subject.  No  fact  has  ever  been  dis- 
closed which  would  fix  the  stigma  of  treason  upon  any  person  in  the 


636  BISTORT    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

vicinity ;  no  charge  of  bribery  or  of  secret  intercourse  with  the  enemy 
has  been  attached  to  the  name  of  any  individual  Yet  it  is  evident 
that  Commodore  Decatur  and  Captains  Jones  and  Biddle  believed 
that  signals  were  actually  made  to  the  British  by  traitorous  persons 
on  shore,  in  consequence  of  a  report  which  had  crept  abroad  that  the 
American  vessels  would  make  an  attempt  to  get  out  to  sea  before 
morning. 

Early  the  next  spring  the  American  squadron  again  withdrew  up 
the  Thames ;  the  two  larger  vessels  were  dismantled  and  laid  up 
about  three  and  a  half  miles  below  Norwich  Landing,  with  only  a 
gliard  left  on  board.  The  Hornet  remained  at  New  London,  and 
November  18th,  1814,  slipped  out  of  the  harbor  and  reached  New 
York  in  safety. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  packet  sloop  Juno,  Capt  John  How- 
ard, o#ntinued  to  ply  back  and  forth  between  New  London  and  New 
York,  during  the  whole  war.  Had  her  compass  and  helm  been 
charmed  to  guide  her  safely,  she  could  scarcely  have  performed  her 
trips  with  better  success.  Once  indeed  she  was  driven  into  Say- 
brook,  and  her  mast  shot  away,  but  this  was  her  only  serious  disaster. 
Her  enterprising  commander  generally  chose  a  dark  night  in  which 
to  leave  the  harbor  and  run  through  the  blockading  squadron,  and  as 
no  shore  lights  were  then  allowed,  he  steered  his  course  by  the  lantern 
lights  that  the  enemy  kept  at  the  stem  of  their  vessels.  Often  he 
went  out  or  came  in  under  cover  of  falling  rain,  or  driving  snow. 
He  had  four  pieces  of  cannon  on  deck,  and  kept  weU  supplied  with 
shot,  but  confined  himself  strictly  to  a  defensive  course,  pursuing 
steadily  his  way,  and  never  firing  a  gun  except  in  case  of  an  attack. 
He  was  narrowly  watched  by  the  British,  who  easily  obtained  all  the 
newspapers  published  on  the  coast,  and  could  ascertain  with  tolerable 
accuracy,  his  periods  of  departure  and  return.  Several  times  he 
was  waylaid  or  pursued  by  their  boats  and  bai*ges,  but  a  spirited  dis- 
charge of  his  guns. always  succeeded  in  driving  them  away,  and  in 
several  critical  periods,  when  he  found  himself  in  peril  £h)m  the 
larger  vessels  of  the  enemy,  a  favorable  wind  and  a  turn  of  the  tide 
assisted  his  escape.  This  very  fact,  that  the  Juno  continually  eluded 
their  grasp,  made  the  British  more  desirous  of  putting  an  end  to  her 
career,  and  rendered  her  ultimate  escape  the  more  remarkable. 

When  the  news  of  peace  arrived  in  Februai-y,  1815,  Admiral  Ho- 
tham,  of  the  Superb,  commanded  the  blockading  squadron  off  New 
London.  On  the  21st  February,  the  city  was  iUummated.  The  pa- 
role that  day  onboard  the  Superb,  was  America;  countersign,  Amity* 


HISTORY    OP   NEW    LONDON.  637 

The  British  officers  now  came  frequentlj  on  shore,  and  mingled  cc»:- 
dially  with  the  citizens.  Admiral  Hotham,  when  he  first  landed,  was 
received  with  great  courtesy  by  the  civil  authorities,  and  an  assem- 
blage of  citizens.  The  Pactolus  and  Narcissus  came  into  the  Sound, 
and  joining  the  Superb,  landed  Commodore  Decatur  and  Lieut  Shu- 
brick,  who  had  been  captured  in  the  frigate  President. 

A  public  reception,  partaking  of  the  nature  of  a  ball  and  festival, 
was  held  at  the  court-house,  in  celebration  of  the  peace,  to  which  all 
the  British  officers  on  the  coast  received  a  general  invitation.  Those 
present  were  Captains  Aylmer  of  the  Pactolus,  Grarland  of  the  Su- 
perb, Grordon  of  the  Narcissus,  and  Jayne  of  the  Arab ;  the  com- 
manders of  the  brigs  Tenedos  and  Despatch,  and  ten  or  twelve  offi- 
cers of  inferior  rank.  The  American  commodores  Decatur  and  Shaw 
assisted  in  receiving  these  guests. 

On  the  11th  of  March,  the  Superb  got  under  way,  followed  by 
the  remainder  of  the  fleet,  and  exchanging  salutes  with  Fort  Trum- 
bull, passed  off  toward  Montauk  and  put  out  to  sea.  In  April,  the 
frigates  United  States  and  Macedonian,  that  had  long  been  lying  in 
reluctant  idleness,  came  down  the  river,  and  sailed  for  New  York  in 
charge  of  Commodore  Shaw.  The  last  shadow  of  war  passed  away 
from  the  town. 

Brig.-Gren.  Henry  Burbeck,  the  military  commander  of  the  New 
London  dbtrict,  retired  from  the  army  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and 
fixing  his  residence  in  the  place,  passed  the  evening  of  his  days  in 
happy  tranquillity.  He  had  spent  thirty-eight  years  in  the  service, 
having  been  a  captain  of  artillery  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  He 
died  October  2d,  1848,  aged  ninety-four.  An  obelisk  has  been  erect- 
ed to  his  memory  in  the  new  Cedar  Grove  Cemetery,  near  New  Lon- 
don, by  the  Massachusetts  Society  of  Cincinnati,  of  which,  at  the 
period  of  his  decease,  he  was  the  president,  and  the  last  survivor  but 
one  of  the  original  members  of  that  society. 


54 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

Early  aUusions  to  whaling  in  Connecticut. — General  progress  of  whaling  from 
I  the  American  coast. — Enterprise  of  Sagbarbor. — Various  attempts  in  New 
'      London  between  1794  and  1803. — Progress  after  1819. — Fate  of  some  of  the 

earliest  ships. — Successful  captains  and  remarkable  voyages. — Statistics  of 

whaling. — Adventures  to  California. 

In  tracing  the  whale  fishery,  so  far  as  it  has  been  prosecuted  bj 
the  people  of  Connecticut,  back  to  its  rise,  we  come  to  the  following 
resolve  of  the  General  Court  at  Hartford,  May  25th,  1647 : 

•*  If  Mr.  Whiting  with  any  others  shall  make  trial  and  prosecute  a  design  for 
the  taking  of  whal6,  within  these  liberties,  and  if  upon  trial  within  the  term  of 
two  years,  they  shall  like  tb  go  on,  no  others  shall  be  suffered  to  interrupt  them 
for  the  term  of  seven  years.*** 

The  granting  of  monopolies  and  exclusive  privileges  was  the  cus- 
tomary mode  of  encouraging  trade  and  manufactures  in  that  day. 
Of  Mr.  Whiting's  project  nothing  further  is  known.  Whales,  in  the 
early  years  of  the  colony,  were  often  seen  in  the  Sound ;  and  if  one 
chanced  to  be  stranded  on  the  shore,  or  to  get  embayed  in  a  creek, 
the  news  was  soon  spread,  and  the  fishermen  and  farmers  from  the 
nearest  settlements  would  turn  out,  armed  with  such  implements  as 
they  possessed,  guns,  pikes,  pitchforks,  or  spears,  and  rush  to  the  en- 
counter. Such  adventures,  however,  belong  more  particularly  to  the 
south  side  of  Long  Island  than  to  the  Connecticut  shore. 

A  whale  hoot  is  mentioned  in  an  enumeration  of  goods  before  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  centuiy,  and  this  implies  that  excursions  were 
sometimes  made  in  pursuit  of  whales,^  but  probably  they  were  not  ex* 


1  Colonial  Records,  vol.  1,  p.  164.  * 

2  The  following  memorandum  implies  that  such  whalicg  flips  were  not  unu^iuul. 
January  18th,  1717-18.  "  Comfort  Davis  hath  hir«d  my  whole  boat  to  go  a  whaling 
to  Fisher's  Island,  till  the  20th  of  next  month,  to  pay  twenty  shillings  for  her  hire,  and 
if  he  stays  longer,  thirty  shillings.  If  she  be  lost,  and  thoy  get  nothing,  he  is  to  pay 
me  £8,  bnt  if  they  get  a  fish,  £3, 1Q<.?*    [Hempstead.] 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  639 

tended  much  beyond  Montauk.  Even  at  the  present  day  a  whale 
sometimes  makes  its  appearance  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Sound.* 

We  have  no  statistics  to  show  that  the  whale  fishery  was  carried 
on  except  in  this  small  way,  from  any  part  of  the  Connecticut  coast, 
before  the  Revolutionary  War.  At  Sagharbor,  on  the  opposite  coast 
of  the  Sound,  something  more  had  been  done.  It  is  said  that  as  far 
back  as  1760,  sloops  from  that  place  went  to  Disco  Island  in  pursuit 
of  whales ;  but  of  these  voyages  no  record  has  been  preserved. 

The  progress  of  whaling  from  the  American  coast  appears  to  have 
been  pursued  in  the  following  order :' 

1st.  Whales  were  killed  on  or  near  the  coast,  and  in  all  instances 
cut  up  and  dried  upon  land.     Boats  only  used. 

2d.  Small  sloops  were  fitted  out  for  a  cruise  of  five  or  six  weeks, 
and  went  as  far  as  the  Great  Bank  of  Newfoundland. 

3d.  Longer  voyages  of  a  few  months  were  made  to  the  Western 
Islands,  Cape  Verde,  West  Indies  and  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

4th:  After  1745,  voyages  were  made  to  Davis'  Straits,  Baffin's 
Bay,  and  as  far  south  as  the  coast  of  Guinea. 

5th.  After  1770,  voyages  were  made  to  the  Brazil  Banks,  and  be- 
fore 1775,  vessels  both  from  Nantucket  and  Newport  had  been  to  the 
Falkland  Islands.  Nantucket  alone  had  at  that  time  150  vessels, 
and  2,000  men,  employed  in  the  whaling  business.'  Some  of  the 
vessels  were  brigs  of  considerable  burden. 

The  war  totally  destroyed  the  whale  fishery,  and  the  depression  of 
business  after  the  war  prevented  it  from  being  immediately  resumed. 
In  Nantucket,  it  revived  in  1785,  under  legislative  encouragement. 
This  brings  us  to  the  period  when  the  first  whaling  expedition  into 
south  latitude  was  fitted  out  from  Long  Island  Sound. 

In  the  year  1784,  we  find  the  following  notice  in  the  New  London 
Gazette : 

**  May  20.  Sailed  from  this  port,  sloop  Rising  Sun,  Squire,  on  a  whaling 
voyage." 

Of  this  voyage  there  is  no  further  record  ;  it  was  probably  of  the 
short  description.     At  Sagharbor,*  a  more  extended  expedition  was 

1  In  Jane,  1850,  a  whale,  thirty-five  feet  long,  was  captured  in  Peconio  Bay,  near 
Greenport. 

8  See  History  of  Nantucket,  by  Obed  Macy. 

8  Ibid,  p.  71. 

4  Sagharbor  was  made  a  port  of  entry  in  1790 ;  until  that  period  it  appears  to  have 
been  included  in  the  custom-house  district  of  New  London.  History  of  Long  Island, 
by  K.  S.  Prime,  p.  210. 


640  HISTORY     OF     NBW     LONDON. 

undertaken  the  same  year.  Nathaniel  Grardiner  and  brother  fitted 
out  both  a  ship  and  a  brig  on  a  whaling  adventure.  They  were  both 
unsuccessful,'  but  this  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  first  expedition 
after  whales  from  Long  Island  Sound  into  $outh  latitudes.  In  1785, 
Messrs.  Stephen  Howell  and  Benjamin  Hunting,  of  Sagharbor,  pur- 
chased the  brig  Lucy^  of  Elijah  Hubbard,  of  Middletown,  Conn.,*  and 
sent  her  out  on  a  whaling  voyage,  Greorge  McKay,  master.  The 
same  season,  the  brig  America,  Daniel  Havens,  master,  was  fitted  out 
from  the  same  place.     Both  went  to  the  Brazil  Banks. 

1785.  The  Lucy  returned  May  15th,  with  860  barrels. 
^       The  America  returned  June  4th,  with  300  barrels. 

These  arrivals  were  announced  in  the  New  London  Grazette,  in  the 
marine  list  kept  by  Thomas  Allen,  who  thereupon  breaks  forth : 

"  Now,  my  horse  jockeys,  beat  your  horses  and  cattle  into  spears, 
lances,  harpoons  and  whaling  gear,  and  let  us  all  strike  out :  many 
spouts  ahead !     Whales  plenty,  you  have  them  for  catching." 

The  first  vessel  sailing  from  New  London  on  a  whaling  voyage  to 
a  southern  latitude,  was  the  ship  Commerce,  which  was  owned  and 
fitted  out  at  East  Haddam,  in  Connecticut  River,  but  cleared  firom 
New  London,  Feb.  6th,  1794.'  An  attempt  was  made  to  form  a  whal- 
ing company  in  New  London  in  1795,  and  a  meeting  called  at  li- 
ner's tavern  for  that  purpose,  but  it  led  to  no  result.  Norwich  next 
came  forward,  and  sent  out  on  a  whaling  voyage  a  small  new  ship 
built  in  the  Thames  River,  below  Norwich,  and  called  the  MiantinO- 
moh.  She  sailed  from  New  London,  Sept.  5th,  1800,  (Capt.  Swain,) 
and  passing  round  Cape  Horn,  was  reported  at  Massafuero,-  Aug.  9thy 
1801.  She  spent  another  year  on  the  South  American  coast,  but  in 
April,  1802,  was  seised  at  Valparaiso  by  the  Spanish  authorities,  and 
condemned — the  ship  Tryal,  Coffin,  of  Nantucket,  sharing  the  same 
fate. 

In  1802,  the  ship  Despatch,  Howard,  was  fitted  out  at  New  Lon- 
don, to  cruise  in  the  south  seas,  after  whales ;  but  the  voyage  was 
not  repeated.  The  year  1805,  may  therefore  be  considered  as  the 
period  when  the  whaling  business  actually  commenced  in  the  place, 

1  Prime,  in  the  History  of  Long  Island,  says  that  the  ship  sent  out  iras  Ui©  -flopf , 
Capt.  Ripley,  and  observes,  "  the  ship  returned  with  only  tliirty  barrels  of  oil,  and  the 
brig  with  still  less;"  but  Green's  Gatette,  of  June  6th,  1786,  has  the  following—"  Arr. 
at  Sagharbor,  brig ,  Ripley,  from  the  coast  of  Brazil,  with  140  barrels  of  oil." 

2  Letter  of  Luther  D.  Cook,  of  Sagharbor,  to  T.  W.  Williaim,  of  Now  London. 

8  The  ship  Commerce  was  afterward  in  the  West  India  trade,  and  was  lost  at  Capo 
Henry,  Dec.  26th,  1799. 


BISTORT     OF    NEW     LONDON*  641 

and  the  ship  Dauphin  the  pioneer  in  the  trade.  This  vessel  was 
built  by  Capt.  John  Barber,  at  Pawkatuck  Bridge,  with  express  ref- 
erence to  the  whale  fishery.  Her  burden  was  two  hundred  and  forty 
tuns,  and  when  completed,  she  was  filled  with  wood  and  sent  to  New 
York  for  sale.  Not  meeting  with  a  purjchaser,  she  returned  and 
came  into  New  London  Harbor  in  the  autumn  of  1804.  Here  a 
company  was  formed,  chiefly  through  the  exertions  of  Dr.  S.  H.  P. 
Lee,  the  first  mover  in  the  enterprise,  who  bought  the  ship  and  fitted 
her  for  whaling. 

The  Dauphin,  Capt.  Laban  Williams,  sailed  for  the  Brazil  Banks, 
Sept.  6th,  1805,  and  arrived  with  her  cai^,  June  14th,  1806.  Dr. 
Lee  then  bought  the  ship  Leonidas,  in  New  York,  and  fitted  her  also 
for  whaling.  Both  ships  sailed  in  August ;  Williams  in  the  Leoni- 
das, and  Alexander  Douglas  in  the  Dauphin.    ' 

The  Dauphin  arrived  in  April,  1807,  full. 

The  Leonidas  arrived  in  June,  1807,  1,050  barrels 

In  1807,  the  ship  Lydia  was  bought  in  New  York,  and  put  into 
the  business.     The  three  ships  went  to  the  coast  of  Patagonia. 

The  Lydia  (Douglas)  arrived  June  9th,  1808—1,000  barrels. 
•  The  Dauphin  (Sayre)  arrived  June  13th,  180S— 900  barrels. 

The  Leonidas  (Wm.  Barnes)  arrived  June  23d,  1808—1,200 
barrels. 

The  Leonidas  left  six  of  her  crew  on  the  uninhabited  island  of 
Trinidad ;  they  had  landed  for  refreshment,  and  the  weather  becom- 
ing very  boisterous,  the  wind  blowing  off  from  the  island,  and  so  con- 
tinuing for  many  days,  the  vessel  sailed  without  them.  In  July,  the 
schooner  Experiment  (S.  P.  Fitch)  was  sent  to  bring  them  away. 

The  Leonidas  (Douglas)  sailed  again  Aug.  31st,  1808. 

The  embargo,  non-intercourse  and  war,  following  close  upon  each 
other  from  this  period,  entirely  broke  up  this,  as  well  as  every  other 
species  of  commerce. 

The  West  India  trade,  which  in  former  times  had  been  the  source 
of  so  much  wealth  and  prosperity  to  the  town,  was  never  again  ex- 
tensively revived.  After  the  conclusion  of  peace,  only  a  few  vessels 
were  engaged  in  that  traffic,  and  every  year  diminished  the  number. 
The  whale  fishery  seemed  to  offer  itself  to  fill  the  void  of  this  declin- 
ing trade. 

In  1819,  the  whaling  business  was  commenced  anew  by  T.  W. 

Williams  and  Daniel  Deshon  ;  the  first  officers  employed  consisted 

principally  of  persons  who  had  gained  some  experience  in  the  former 

short  period  of  the  business  between  1805  and  1808.    The  brig 

54* 


^2 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 


Mary  (James  Davis)  was  sent  out  by  Williams  ;  the  brig  Mary  Ann 
(Ittglis)  and  the  ship  Carrier  (Alexander  Dongks)  by  Deshon. 
The  Mary  came  in  the  next  season,  June  7th,  and  brought  the  first 
results  of  the  new  enterprise.  She  was  out  ten  months  and  twenty 
days,  and  brought  in  seven  hundred  and  forty-four  barrels  of  whale-oil, 
and  seventy-eight  of  sperm.  The  Carrier  brought  nine  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  barrels  of  whale  ;  the  Mary  Ann  only  fifty-nine. 

In  1820,  the  brig  Pizarro  (Elias  L.  Coit)  was  added  to  the  fleet, 
and  in  1821,  the  brig  Thames  (Barnard)  and  the  ship  Commodore 
Perry  (Davis.)  The  last  named  vessel  was  built  in  1815,  at  East 
Greenwich,  R.  I.,  but  coppered  in  New  London,  after  she  was  enga- 
ged in  the  whaling  business.  It  was  the  first  time  that  this  open^ 
tion  was  performed  in  the  place ;  and  the  Commodore  Perry  was  the 
first  copper-bottomecl  whaling  vessel  sent  from  the  port.  On  her 
first  voyage,  she  was  out  eight  months  and  four  days,  and  brought  in 
1,544  of  whale,  and  eighty-one  of  sperm. 

The  Carrier,  (O.  Swain,)  340  tuns  burden,  was  the  first  vessel 
from  the  port  that  went  out  on  the  long  voyage  for  sperm  whale. 
She  sailed  for  the  Pacific  Ocean,  Feb.  20th,  1821,  and  arrived  July 
12th,  1828,  with  2,074  barrels.  In  November,  1821,  sailed  also  for 
the  Pacific,  the  new  ship  Stonington,  (Ray,)  built  at  Stonington,  but 
sent  from  New  London.  In  1822,  the  ships  Connecticut,  Ann  Maria 
and  Jones,  were  added  to  the  fleet,  and  in  1824,  the  Neptune.  The 
four  brigs  and  the  ship  Carrier,  after  making  three  and  four  voyages 
each,  were  withdrawn  from  the  business ;  and  as  no  other  vessels 
were  added  till  1827,  at  the  commencement  of  that  year,  the  whaling 
list  of  the  port  consisted  of  six  ships  only — three  of  them  right  whale 
and  three  sperm  cruisers.  Of  these,  five  were  fitted  out  by  T.  W. 
Williams ;  and  the  Commodore  Perry  by  N.  and  W.  W.  Billings, 
who  were  then  just  launching  into  the  business,  and  who  purchased, 
the  same  year,  the  Superior  and  the  Phenix. 

A  fine  ship,  that  has  for  many  years  braved  the  storms  of  ocean, 
can  not  be  regarded  with  indifference.  She  has  a  history,  which,  if  it 
could  be  written,  would  be  full  of  interest  A  few  brief  notes  respect- 
ing the  older  ships  belonging  to  the  port,  may  therefore  be  accept- 
able. 

The  Commodore  Perry  made  seventeen  voyages,  and  the  Stoning- 
ton thirteen.     They  both  gave  out,  and  were  broken  up  in  1848. 

The  Connecticut  was  condemned  in  a  foreign  port  in  1848;  was 
sold,  and  is  still  afloat  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  Ann  Maria  was 
run  down  by  a  French  whaler  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  in  1842. 


HISTORY     OF    NEW     LONDON.  643 

The  Jones  made  sixteen  vojages,  and  was  condemned  in  1842. 

The  Neptune  and  Superior,  two  ships  that  belong  to  the  whaling 
fleet  of  New  London  at  the  present  time,  (1852,)  were  both  built  in 
1808.  The  Superior  was  built  in  Philadelphia,  and  purchased  by 
N.  and  W.  W.  Billings  in  1827  ;  the  Neptune  in  New  Bedford,  ^cl 
purchased  by  T.  W.  Williams  in  1824,  for  $1,650.  She  had  just 
returned  from  an  unsuccessful  whaling  voyage  fitted  out  from  New 
York,  and  being  sixteen  years  old,  the  sum  paid  for  her  was  consid- 
ered fully  equal  to  her  value.  She  sailed  on  her  first  voyage  from 
New  London,  June  7th,  1824,  has  made  eighteen  voyages,  and  is  now 
absent,  (1852,)  on  her  nineteenth,  having  been  forty-four  years  afloat. 
She  has  been  more  than  once  during  that  period  rebuilt,  but  has  not 
lost  her  identity ;  her  keel,  stem-post  and  some  of  her  floor-timbers, 
belong  to  the  original  frame. 

No  other  service  admits  of  such  rapid  promotion  as  whaling.  Li 
1821,  Robert  B.  Smith  went  captain  of  the  Mary.  His  experience 
in  the  business  had  been  gained  in  two  voyages  only,  but  he  proved 
to  be  one  of  the  most  successful  and  enterprising  masters  in  the 
trade.  He  was  the  first  to  reach  the  amount  of  2,000  barrels  in  one 
voyage,  which  he  did  in  the  Ann  Maria  in  1823,  the  second  time 
that  he  went  out  commander.  He  was  absent  eight  months  and 
twenty-two  days,  and  brought  in  1,919  barrels  of  whale,  and  145  of 
sperm.  In  his  sixth  voyage,  he  was  unfortunately  drowned  in  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  being  drawn  overboard  by  a  whale,  to  which  he  had 
just  made  fast  with  his  harpoon  and  line,  Dec.  28th,  1828.  Capt. 
Smith's  four  brothers  pursued  the  same  line  of  enterprise. 

Capt.  James  Smith  has  made  ten  voyages  as  captain,  and  several 
of  them  have  been  eminently  successful.  Li  three  successive  voyages 
in  the  Columbia,  made  to  the  island  of  Desolation,  from  which  he 
returned  in  1840, 1842  and  1844,  he  brought  in,  each  time,  more  than 
4,000  barrels  of  oil. 

Capt.  Franklin  Smith,  another  of  the  brothers,  made  the  most  suc- 
cessful series  of  voyages,  to  be  found  in  the  whaling  annals  of  the 
port,  and  probably  of  the  world  I  In  seven  voyages  to  the  South 
Atlantic,  in  the  employ  of  N.  and  W.  W.  Billings,  and  accomplished 
in  seven  successive  years,  from  1831  to  1837,  inclusive — one  in  the 
Flora,  one  in  the  Julius  Cesar,  and  ^vq  in  the  Tuscarora — he  brought 
home  16,1 54  barrels  of  whale,  1,147  of  sperm.  This  may  be  regarded 
as  a  brilliant  exhibition  of  combined  good  fortune  and  skill.  Two  sub- 
sequent voyages  made  by  him  in  the  Chelsea,  were  also  crowned  with 


644  HISTORY    OF    NSW     LONDON. 

signal  success*     These  nine  Tojages  were  accomplished  between 
June,  1830,  and  August,  1841. 

Capt  John  Rice  was  one  of  the  crew  of  the  brig  Mary,  in  1819, 
and  sailed  commander  of  the  Pizarro,  June  9th,  1822.  He  is  still 
in  the  service,  (1852,)  in  date  of  commission  the  oldest  whaling  cap- 
tain of  the  port 

The  single  voyage,  that  perhaps  before  any  other  merits  special 
notice,  is  that  of  the  Clematis,  (Capt.  Bei\jamin,)  fitted  out  by  Wil- 
liams and  Barnes,  and  arriving  July  4th,  1841.  She  was  out  ten 
months  and  twenty-nine  days ;  went  round  the  world,  and  brought 
home  2,548  barrels  oiL  This  voyage,  when  the  time,  the  distance 
sailed,  and  the  quantity  of  oil  brought  home  are  considered  in  connec- 
tion, merits  to  be  ranked  among  remarkable  achievements. 

There  is  no  associated  line  of  business  in  which  the  profits  are 
more  equitably  divided  among  those  engaged  in  it,  than  in  the  whale 
fishery.  The  owners,  agents,  officers  and  crew  are  all  partners  in  the 
voyage,  and  each  has  his  proportionate  share. of  the  results.  Its  oper- 
ation, therefore,  is  to  enlarge  the  means  and  multiply  the  comforts 
of  the  many,  as  well  as  to  add  to  the  wealth  of  the  wealthy.  The 
old  West  India  trade,  which  preceded  it,  was  destructive  in  a  re- 
markable degree,  to  human  life  and  health,  and  engendered  habits  of 
dissipation,  turbulence,  and  reckless  extravagance.  The  whaling 
business  is  a  great  advance  upon  this,  not  only  as  it  regards  life,  but 
also  in  its  relation  to  order,  happiness  and  morality.  The  mass  of 
the  people,  the  public^  have  gained  by  the  exchange.  The  improve- 
ments in  the  aspect  of  the  city  during  the  last  twenty  years,  may  be 
traced  to  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  whale  fishery. 

In  1845,  the  whaling  business  reached  its  maximum :  seven  ves- 
sels were  added  that  year  to  the  fleet,  which  then  consisted  of  seventy- 
one  ships  and  barks,  one  brig,  and  five  schooners.  In  January,  1846, 
the  McLellan,  of  336  tuns,  was  purchased  by  Perkins  and  Smith, 
with  the  design  of  making  an  experiment  in  the  Greenland  fishery. 
This  made  the  seventy-eighth  vessel  sailing  from  New  London  in 
pursuit  of  whales ;  and  ranked  the  place  more  than  1,000  tuns  be- 
fore Nantucket  in  the  trade.  New  Bedford  was  still  far  ahead,  but 
no  other  port  in  the  world  stood  between. 

The  McLellan  has  made  six  voyages  to  Davis'  Straits ;  but  the  sea- 
sons have  been  peculiarly  unfavorable,  and  she  has  met  with  little 
success.     She  is  now  absent  (1852)  on  her  seventh  voyage. 

Employed  in  the  whale  fishery  from  New  London : 

1820,  one  ship,  three  brigs — 950  tuns. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW   LONDON. 


645 


1846,  seventy-one  ships  and  barks,  one  brig,  six  schooners — 26,200 
tuns ;  capital  embarked  nearly  two  millions  of  dollars. 

In  1847,  the  tide  began  to  ebb ;  the  trade  had  been  extended  be- 
yond what  it  would  bear,  and  was  followed  by  a  depression  of  the 
market  and  a  scarcity  of  whale.  The  fleet  was  that  year  reduced  to 
fifly-nine  ships  and  barks,  one  brig  and  six  schooners  :  total,  sixty- 
six  ;  tunnage,  22,625. 

In  1850,  about  fifty  vessels  were  employed,  or  17,000  tuns,  and 
the  capital  about  $1,200,000. 

In  1849  and  1850,  twenty-five  whaling  captains  abandoned  the 
business,  and  went  to  California. 

Value  of  imports  from  the  whale  fishery,  as  exhibited  by  the  cus- 
tom-house returns :    1850— $618,055.     1851— $1,109,410. 

A  Table  of  Imports  of  Wlude  and  Sperm  Oil  into  the  port  of  New  London, 
from  1820  to  1851,  inclusive  A 


Year. 

Ships  and 

Brigs. 

Schooners 

Barrels  of 

Barrels  of 

Barkfl. 

and  Sloops. 

Whale  Oil. 

Sperm  OIL 

1S20 

1 

2 

0 

1,731 

78 

1821 

0 

3 

0 

2,323 

105 

1822 

1 

4 

0 

4,528 

194 

1823 

4 

2 

0 

6,712 

2,318 

1824 

3 

2 

0 

4,996 

1,924 

1825 

4 

0 

0 

5,483 

2,276 

1826 

2 

0 

0 

2,804 

88 

1827 

5 

0 

0 

.  3,375 

6,166 

1828 

3 

0 

0 

5,435 

168 

1829 

9 

0 

0 

11,325 

2,205 

1830 

14 

0 

0 

15,248 

9,792 

1831 

14 

0 

0 

19,402 

5,487 

1832 

12 

0 

0 

21,375 

703 

1833 

17 

0 

0 

22,395 

8,503 

1834 

9 

1 

2 

12,930 

4,565 

1835 

13 

1 

0 

14,041 

11,866 

1830 

12 

1 

0 

18,663 

3,198 

1837 

17 

0 

1 

26,774 

8,469 

183S 

15 

0 

3 

25,523 

3,426 

1839 

•15 

1 

2 

26,273 

4,094 

1840 

17 

2 

1 

32,038 

4,110 

1841 

15 

1 

2 

26,893 

3,920  • 

1842 

10 

1 

3 

28,165 

4,055 

1843 

20 

0 

0 

34,677 

3,5J)8 

1844 

18  * 

1 

3 

39,816 

2.296 

1845 

21 

0 

0 

52,576 

1,411 

1840 

13 

1 

2 

27,441 

1,306 

1847 

35 

0 

2 

76,287 

4,765 

184S 

20 

1 

1 

54,115 

3,606 

1849 

17 

0 

3 

38,030 

1,949 

1850 

17 

0 

0 

36,545 

1,603 

1851 

26 

0 

2 

67,508 

2,914 

1  This  table,  and  most  of  the  statistics  of  the  whale  fishery  since  1820,  are  taken 
from  the  Whaling  Record  of  Henry  P.  Haven,  which  exhibits  the  date,  length,  and 
results  of  every  whaling  voyage  made  from  New  London  since  that  period. 


646  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

Shortest  voyage,  ship  Manchester  Packet,  1832 :  seven  months 
and  nineteen  dajrs — (not  including  voyages  of  the  McLellan  to  Da- 
vis* Straits.) 

Longest  voyage,  ship  William  C.  Nye,  arrived  Feb.  10th,  1861 
out  fijfty-seven  months  and  eleven  days. 

Largest  quantity  of  oil  in  one  voyage,  ship  Robert  Bowne,  1848 
4,850  barrels. 

Largest  quantity  of  whale-oil  in  one  voyage,  ship  Atlantic,  1848 
4,720  barrels. 

Largest  quantity  of  sperm-oil,  in  one  voyt^e,  ship  Phoenix,  1833 
2,971  barrels. 

Largest  quantity  of  oil  imported  in  any  one  ship,  ship  Neptune, 
27,845  whale,  2,710  sperm. 

Li  1847,  the  number  of  vessels  employed  from  New  London,  in 
freighting,  coasting  and  home  fisheries  was  171,  viz.,  nine  ships  and 
barks,  three  brigs,  fifty-six  schooners,  103  sloops  and  smacks ;  whole 
burden  12,300  tuns.^  The  number  of  seamen  employed  in  the  whale 
fishery  and  domestic  trade  was  about  3,000. 

The  year  1849  was  distinguished  by  the  general  rush  for  Califor- 
nia ;  nineteen  vessels  sailed  for  that  coast  from  New  London,  but  of 
these  one  schooner  was  fitted  in  Norwich,  and  two  or  three  others 
were  in  part  made  up  from  adjoining  towns. 

The  statistics  of  the  business  with  California  for  two  years  have 
been  estimated  as  follows :' 

Sent  in  1849,  four  ships,  three  barks,  twelve  schooners ;  3,745  tons. 

Passengers,  152  ;  seamen,  186. 

Value  of  goods ;  merchandise,  $3,228. 
«  «         domestic  products,  $70,418. 

"  "        domestic  manufactures,  $45,520. 

Sent  in  1 850,  one  ship,  one  brig,  three  schooners ;  .803  tuns. 

Passengers,  fifteen  ;  seamen,  fifty-three. 

Value  of  merchandise,  $1,905. 

"  domestic  products,  $19,598. 

'*  domestic  manufactures,  $10,524. 

About  fidy  persons  from  New  London  went  in  steamers  or  vessels 
from  other  ports.'    The  whole  number  that  went  from  the  place  to 


1  From  statistics  furnished  the  Harbor  and  River  ConYention,  at  Chicago,  in  De- 
cember, 1847,  by  T.  W.  Williams. 

2  New  London  Democrat 

8  Nine  or  ten  vessels  sailed  for  Califomia  firom  Mystic. 


HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 


647 


California  in  those  two  years,  as  Beamen  and  passengers,  could  not 
have  been  less  than  450. 

The  whole  value  of  vessels  and  cargoes,  was  supposed  to  be  about 
$280,000. 

Since  1850,  the  whaling  business  instead  of  continuing  to  retro- 
grade, has  revived,  and  is  again  on  the  advance.  Several  fine  ves- 
sels have  been  added  to  the  fleet  during  the  present  year,  (1852,) 
and  among  them  the  N.  S.  Perkins^  (309  tuns,)  a  clipper  ship,  built 
in  the  port,  and  designed  to  unite  the  essential  requisites  of  capacity, 
safety  and  speed.  The  whole  number  of  whaling  vessels  now  sailing 
from  New  London  is  fifty-five,  that  is,  forty-nine  ships  and  barks,  one 
brig,  and  five  schooners.  The  whaling  merchants,  with  the  number 
and  description  of  vessels  fitted  out  by  each,  are  as  follows : 


Ships  and  Barks. 

Brig.  Schooners. 

Lyman  AUyn,  ^' 

1 

Benjamin  Brown's  Sons, 

.       4 

1 

J.  Chester  &  F.  Harris, 

1 

Frink  &  Prentis,      . 

.       3 

Thomas  Fitch,  2d, 

3 

James  M.  Green,     . 

.       1 

Miner,  Lawrence  dc  Co., 

6 

Perkins  &  Smith,    . 

.       8 

2 

E.  V.  Stoddard, 

2 

3 

"Weaver,  Rogers  &  Co.,      • 

.       2 

Williams  &  Barnes, 

8 

Williams  &  Haven, 

.   le 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

Death  of  General  Huntington. — Custom-house  built, — SubseQuent  coUectore.— 
Commercial  memoranda. — Light-bouses. — Ledges. — Fort  Trumbull. — Steam 
navigation  in  the  Sound. — Account  of  the  steam-ship  Savannah. — Newspa- 
pers.— Fire  Companies. — Turnpike  Companies. — Groton  Ferry — Burial  of 
the  Walton  family. — Remains  of  Commodore  Rogers. — ^Banks. — Railroads 
and  other  associations.— -Cedar  Grove  Cemetery. — Population.— List  of  Town- 
Clerks. — Members  of  Congress. — College  graduates. 

General  Jedidiah  Huntington,  the  first  collector  of  the  port 
under  the  federal  government,  resigned  the  office  in  1815.  He  was 
an  officer  of  the  army  of  the  Revolution,  serving  through  the  whole 
war,  and  after  1777,  with  the  rank  of  Brigadier-general.  At  one 
period  he  was  attached  to  the  person  and  family  of  Washington  as 
his  aid,  and  was  always  regarded  by  the  latter  as  a  tried  friend. 
When  Gren.  Huntington  built  his  houde  in  New  London,  he  had  it 
modeled,  in  some  degree,  after  the  plan  of  Mount  Vernon,  establish- 
ing  a  resemblance  in  the  rooms,  the  portico,  and  the  roof,  in  affec- 
tionate remembrance  of  that  place. 

The  collector's  office,  during  a  portion  of  the  term  of  Gen.  Hun- 
tington, was  more  lucrative  and  involved  a  greater  amount  of  busi- 
ness than  at  any  other  period  since  the  foundation  of  the  town.  Be- 
fore the  difficulties  commenced  which  led  to  the  second  war  with 
Great  Britain,  we  are  told  that  at  least  eighty  coasters  were  owned 
in  the  river,  principally  at  Norwich  and  New  London,  and  that  one 
hundred  and  fifty  sail  of  merchant  vessels  cleared  and  entered  at  the 
port  of  New  London.  The  receipts  of  the  office  were  from  $50,000, 
to  $200,000,  annually,  of  which  the  collector  received  $6,000  for  his 
salary.  The  simplicity  of  Gen.  Huntington's  accommodations,  com- 
pared with  the  amount  of  business  and  the  value  of  the  customs,  is 
somewhat  remarkable.  He  accomplished  all  the  duties  of  his  office 
in  a  single  room  over  a  store,  at  the  comer  of  Bank  Street  and  the 


HISTORY     OF     NBW     LONDON*  649 

Parade,  yet  no  one  ever  heard  him  utter  a  complaint  respecting  want 
of  room,  or  inconvenience  of  situation.  His  immediate  successors 
were  "not  much  better  accommodated.  But  in  1833,  the  general 
government  decided  to  build  a  custom-house.  An  eligible  lot  was 
procured  in  Bank  Street,  and  an  appropriate  stone  structure  erected 
at  a  cost  of  nearly  $30,000.  This  includes  the  lot,  which  was  $3,400, 
and  all  subsequent  appropriations.  The  plan  was  prepared  by  Rob- 
ert Mills,  engineer  and  architect,  in  the  employ  of  the  government 
The  material  is  granite,  mostly  from  the  quarry  at  Millstone  Point, 
but  the  front  is  of  finer  grain,  and  was  quarried  a  few  miles  west  of  the 
dty.  The  door  has  a  peculiar  value  on  account  of  its  historical  asso- 
ciations. ■  It  was  once  a  part  of  the  old  frigate  Constitution.  When 
that  vessel  was  broken  up  in  New  York,  the  portions  that  remained 
sound  were  reserved  for  special  purposes  in  public  works,  and  a  plank 
was  obtained  to  be  used  for  the  door  of  this  custom-house. 

Greneral  Thomas  H.  Gushing,  the  second  collector,  received  the  ap- 
pointment in  1815,  and  held  it  till  his  death,  Oct.  19th,  1822.  He 
was  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  bom  in  December,  1755,  had  served 
in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  in  1790  was  in  the  army  of  St.  Clair, 
holding  at  that  time  a  captain's  commission.  In  1813,  during  the 
second  war  with  Great  Britain,  he  attained  the  rank  of  brigadier- 
general. 

Captain  Richard  Law,  a  native  of  the  town,  was  the  third  collector 
and  held  the  office  eight  years. 

4th.  Ingoldsby  W.  Crawford,  of  Union,  Ct.,  in  office  eight  years. 

5th.  Charles  F.  Lester,  of  Norwich,  in  office  four  years. 

6th.  Wolcott  Huntington,  appointed  in  1842,  and  held  the  office  a 
year  and  a  half,  when  C.  F.  Lester  was  reappointed,  and  continued 
in  office  till  his  decease,  in  March,  1846. 

7th.  Thomas  Mussey,  a  native  of  Exeter,  Maine,  but  a  resident  of 
New  London  since  1816 — ^in  office  two  years  and  a  half. 

8th.  NicoU  Fosdick,  a  native  of  the  town,  appointed  in  Septem- 
ber, 1849,  and  still  in  office. 

The  following  is  an  abstract  of  the  duties  received  at  the  custom- 
house, during  the  first  ten  years  of  the  present  century — Norwich, 
Stonington  and  Connecticut  River  included. 

1801,  $78,478.  1806,        $214,940. 

1802,  '      94,656.  1807,  201,888. 

1803,  63,222.  1808,  98,107. 

1804,  112,922.  1809,  58,417. 

1805,  156,644.  1810,  22,348. 

55 


650  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

The  district  is  now  restricted  to  the  river  Thames,  and  the  coast 
westward  to  Connecticut  River.  The  whale  ships  pay  but  trifling 
duties,  and  from  1840  to  1845  inclusive,  the  amount  of  duties  did  not 
exceed  $300.  In  1846,  it  was  upward  of  $800.  In  1849,  $38,658. 
In  1850,  $8,815. 


Foreign  Commerce, 

V<»teb  Entorad. 

Toiu.            Men. 

Cleued. 

Tniu. 

M«ib 

In  1849,     31 

9,091          646 

29 

7,917 

648 

In  1850,     23 

7,171          553 

80 

8,058 

635 

In  1851,     28 

9,610          806 

27 

9,134 

525 

Amount  of  Tannage  in  the  District  of  New  London^  iSoO. 

R^stered,        23,149.69.  EnroUed,      12,474.89. 

Temporary,         1,045.27.  Licensed,  992.92. 

Total,        37,662.77 

K  S.  Steam  Marine j  District  of  New  London,  for  1850. 
5,008  tuns,  at  2,219  horse-power,  employing  112  men.     Transport- 
ing 73,083  passengers,  at  an  average  distance  of  155  miles.' 

The  masters  of  the  light-boats  keep  lists  of  all  vessels  that  are  seen 
to  pass  their  stations.  A  statement  of  the  number  that  passed  Bart- 
lett's  Reef,  at  different  periods,  will  give  some  idea  of  the  commerce 
of  Long  Island  Sound. 

1841.  Ships,  162;  brigs,  459;  schooners,  4,906;  sloops,  11,418; 
steamers,  1,168  :  total,  18,113. 

1847.  Ships,  230 ;  brigs,  672 ;  schooners,  9,979 ;  sloops,  13,750  ; 
steamers,  2,087 :  total,  26,718. 

1850.  Ships,  142  ;  brigi,  510  ;  schooners,  9,124 ;  sloops,  8,075 ; 
steamers,  3,116 :  total,  20,967. 

Tlie  total  number  passing  £el-grass  Shoal,  in  1850,  was  17,697. 

The  collector  of  the  port  of  New  London,  until  within  a  few  years 
past,  was  superintendent  of  all  the  light-houses  of  the  state,  but  at 
present  those  west  of  Connecticut  River  are  ulider  the  charge  of  the 
New  Haven  collector. 

Those  belonging  to  New  London  district  are: 

1st.  West  side  of  the  harbor's  mouth  or  entrance  of  the  river 
Thames.  First  built  in  1760 ;  rebuilt  and  assumed  by  the  general 
government  in  1800.    The  height  of  the  tower  is  eighty  feet. 


1  These  statements  are  furnished  by  H.  T.  Deering,  deputy  coUector,  from  the  cns- 
tom-hoose  retains. 


HISTORY     OF     KRW     LONDON.  651 

2dL  Ljnde  Point,  west  side  of  the  entrance  to  Connecticiit  Riyer. 
First  lighted  August  17th,  1803;  rebuilt  1889. 

8d.  Stonington  Point ;  established  in  1828 ;  rebuilt  1840. 

4th.  Morgan's  Point,  near  Mystic,  in  Groton,  1881. 

5th.  Fisher's  Island  Hommock ;  1849.    This  light  has  red  shades. 

Floating  Lights. — 1st,  light-boat  on  Bartlett's  Beef;  established  . 
in  1835 ;  a  new  boat  of  145  tuns,  furnished  in  1848. 

2d.  Light-boat  on  Eel-gra6S  Shoal,  in  Fisher's  Island  Sound,  to 
which  the  former  boat  on  Bartlett's  Beef  was  transferred  in  1849. 

Formerly  the  collector  had  a  revenue  cutter  attached  to  his  office, 
having  the  eastern  part  of  the  Sound  to  Montauk  Point  for  its  cruis- 
ing ground,  and  keeping  a  watch  upon  Gardiner's  Bay  and  Fisher's 
Island  Sound.  Capt.  Elisha  Hinman  had  command  of  this  cutter  for 
a  number  of  years.  The  present  Capt.  Andrew  Mather,  of  New 
London,  was  another  of  its  commanders.  It  has  been  removed  from 
the  station  within  a  few  years  past. 

The  most  dangerous  points  in  entering  the  harbor  of  New  London, 
are  Black  Ledge  and  Race  Point.  Black  Ledge  has  one  foot  of 
water  at  low  tide  on  the  shoalest  part  Race  Point  is  a  long,  low 
beach  at  the  west  end  of  Fisher's  Island,  surrounded  with  dangerous 
rocks,  which  extend  into  the  water  at  some  distance  from  the  land* 
South-west  from  this  point,  with  a  ship  channel  between,  is  a  single 
bold  rock,  upon  which  a  spindle  is  erected,  called  Race  Rock.  This 
rock  is  a  great  impediment  in  the  path  of  navigation,  but  the  predic- 
tion may  be  uttered  with  confidence,  that  its  removal  will  hereafter 
be  accomplished.  Standing  alone,  with  deep  water  in  its  vicinity,  it 
might  be  blasted  away  with  less  apparent  difficulty  than  usually  at- 
tends such  operations. 

On  the  north  shore  of  Fisher's  Island,  east  of  Race  Point,  the 
steamer  Atlantic  was  wrecked  Nov.  27th,  1846.  In  this  dreadful 
catastrophe,  forty-two  persons  perished.  The  government  has  since 
purchased  one  of  the  Hommocks  or  islets  of  Fisher's  Island,  lying 
north-east  of  the  rocks  on  which  the  Atlantic  struck,  and  have  erected 
upon  it  a  light-house,  furnished  with  a  brilliant  flame-colored  light. 
Bartlett's  Reef  is  three  miles  south-west  of  the  harbor's  mouth,  in  the 
track  of  vessels  passing  to  and  from  New  York.  Here  a  light-boat 
is  stationed. 

Fort  Trumbull  is  situated  on  a  point  of  land  that  extends  into  the 
river  from  the  west  side,  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half  north  of  the  light- 
house, and  two-thirds  of  a  mile  in  a  straight  line  from  the  center  of 
the  town.    The  present  structure  is  the  third  that  has  stood  upon  the 


652  HISTORY    OP    NEW    LONDON. 

spot  The  old  revolutionarj  fortress,  built  in  1775,  was  an  irregular 
work,  of  comparatively  small  size ;  but  standing  high  on  its  muni- 
ment of  rock,  it  had  a  gallant  air  of  defiance,  that  concealed  in  a 
measure  its  defects.  The  old  inhabitants  of  the  town  regarded  this 
fort  with  a  kind  of  hallowed  affection.  It  was  allowed  to  fall  into 
decay,  but  this  very  neglect  softened  its  features,  and  gave  it  a  rural 
and  picturesque  appearance,  pleasing  to  the  eye  of  taste.  In  1812, 
the  old  walb  and  battlements  were  entirely  leveled,  and  the  work  re- 
constructed from  its  foundation.  The  portions  retained  of  the  former 
work  were  so  inconsiderable,  that  it  was  considered  a  new  fort.  In  a 
military  point  of  view,  it  was  far  superior  to  the  former  structure,  yet 
by  no  means  a  finished  work.  The  surface  had  been  imperfectly  pre- 
pared, and  the  disheveled  rocks  that  ran  straggling  about  the  i  sth- 
mus,  were  much  better  adapted  to  cover  and  protect  assailants  than 
to  defend  the  garrison. 

This  second  fortification  was  demolished  in  1839,  the  rugged  ledges 
blasted  away,  and  the  site  beautifully  graded  for  the  reception  of  the 
new  fortress.  The  old  original  block-house  of  1776,  has  however 
been  retained  through  all  changes,  standing  amid  the  magnificent 
walls  and  embankments  of  modem  art,  like  a  sepulcher  in  which  the 
old  forts  lie  entombed. 

The  present  fort  is  constructed  of  granite,  from  the  quarry  at  Mill- 
stone Point,  and  was  ten  years  in  building.  The  works  were  pknned 
and  executed  from  the  commencement  to  the  completion  in  1849,  by 
Capt  George  W.  CuUum  of  the  U.  S.  Engineers.  By  his  judicious 
management,  the  cost  of  construction  was  kept  within  the  first  esti- 
mate, viz.,  $250,000.  It  is  allowed  by  all  observers  to  be  a  beautiful 
structure ;  simple,  massive,  and  yet  elegant  in  form  and  finish,  a  mag- 
nificent outpost  to  the  town,  and  a  fine  object  in  the  landscape. 


The  first  regular  line  of  steamboats  from  New  York  to  New  Lon- 
dxm  was  established  in  1816.  On  the  28th  of  September,  in  that 
year,  the  Connecticut  (Bunker)  arrived  from  New  York  in  twenty- 
one  hours,  which  was  regarded  as  a  signal  triumph  of  steam,  the  wind 
and  a  swell  of  the  tide  being  against  her.  In  October,  the  regular 
line  commenced,  making  two  trips  per  week  to  New  Haven.  The 
Fulton  (Capt  Law)  was  running  at  the  same  time  between  New 
York  and  New  Haven.  The  price  of  passage  was  five  dollars  to 
New  Haven,  and  from  thence  to  New  York,  four  dollars. 

Steam  propellers,carrying  principally  freight,  but  some  passengers, 


HISTORY   OP   NEW   LONDON.  653 

commenced  nayigating  the  Sound  in  1844.    The  first  was  the  Quin- 
ebaug. 

In  one  respect  Nyw  J^ndnn  fitflnr'*'  ^"  ^^«^«ftMn  n/.»innA»;^m..«rifTi 
the  history  of  steam  navigation.  Capt.  Moses  Rogers,  the  command- 
^  ot  tne  steam-Abl)^  Savannah,  the  first  steam- vessel  that  ever  crossed 
the  Atlantic,  and  Capt.  Stevens  Rogers,  sailing-master  of  the  same, 
and  brother-in-law  of  the  captain,  were  both  natives  of  New  London. 
The  Savannah  was  built  in  New  York,  under  the  direction  of  Capt 
Rogers,  for  a  company  in  Savannah,  and  was  a  fiiU-rigged  ship  of 
about  350  tuns  burden,  and  furnished  with  an  engine  of  eighty  or 
ninety  horse-power,  by  which  she  made  about  eight  knots  to  the  hour* 
She  sailed  from  Savannah,  May  26th,  1819,  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
making  the  grand  experiment  of  ocean  steam-navigation.  Mr.  Scar- 
borough, of  Savannah,  one  of  the  company  that  owned  the  steamer, 
asserted  that  they  had  no  other  object  in  view ;  that  anticipating  the 
use  of  steam-enginery  in  that  line,  and  having  a  surplusage  of  profit 
on  hand  from  some  successful  operations  of  the  company,  instead  of 
dividing  it,  they  built  and  fitted  out  the  Savannah,  in  oi*der  to  give  to 
America  the  honor  of  making  the  first  attempt  to  navigate  the  Atlan- 
tic by  steam. 

The  passage  to  Liverpool  was  made  in  twenty-two  days ;  fourteen 
by  steam  and  eight  by  sails,  the  latter  being  used  solely  through  the 
prudence  of  the  captain  to  save  the  consumption  of  fuel,  lest  some 
emergency  might  occur,  and  the  supply  be  exhausted.  From  Liver- 
pool the  steamer  proceeded  to  Copenhagen,  and  from  thence  to  Stock- 
holm and  to  St  Petersburg.  At  these  ports  she  excited  universal 
admiration  and  interest  Lying  at  anchor  like  a  public  vessel,  with 
no  business  to  accomplish,  no  port  charges  to  defray,  no  cargo  to  take 
on  board,  her  stay  was  a  continued  reception  of  visitors,  and  her 
whole  passage  through  the  Baltic  might  be  likened  to  a  triumphant 
procession.  Bernadotte,  king  of  Sweden,  and  the  emperor  of  Rus- 
sia, with  their  nobles  and  public  officers,  not  only  came  on  board  to 
examine  the  wonderful  American  steamer,  but  tested  her  perform- 
ance by  short  excursions  in  the  neighboring  waters.  On  the  return 
home,  the  last  place  left  in  Europe  was  Arendel,  in  Norway,  from 
whence  the  passage  to  Savannah  was  made  in  twenty-five  days ;  nine- 
teen by  steam  and  six  by  sails. 

Capt.  Moses  Rogers  gained  his  experience  as  a  steam  engineer,  on 
the  Hudson  River,  where  he  had  been  engaged  in  some  of  the  earli- 
est experiments  in  propelling  vessels  by  steam.     After  his  return 
from  the  voyage  in  the  Savannah,  he  took  command  of  a  steamboat 
55* 


654  HISTORY    OF     NEW     LONDON. 

numing  on  the  Great  Pedee  River,  and  died  suddenlj  at  Cheraw, 
S.  C^  Sept,  15th,  1822,  at  the  age  of  forty-two  years. 

CapL  Stevens  Rogers  is  now  an  officer  of  the  customs  in  New  Lon- 
don, and  from  him  the  foregoing  account  of  the  first  voyage  by  steam 
across  the  Atlantic,  is  derived.^  He  has  in  his  possession  a  massive 
gold  snafi-box,  presented  to  him  by  Lord  Lyndock,  an  English  no- 
bleman, who  took  passage  in  the  steamer  from  Stockholm  to  St.  Pe- 
tersburg, through  an  arrangement  made  for  him  by  Mr.  Hughes,  the 
American  minister  at  the  Swedish  court  On  the  inside  of  the  lid  is 
the  following  inscription : 

«  Presented  by  Sir  Thomas  Grahanii  Lord  Lyndock,  to  Stevens  Rogers,  sail- 
ing-master of  the  steam-ship  Savannah,  at  St.  Petersburg,  October  10th,  1819." 

Capt.  Moses  Rogers,  among  other  costly  presents,  received  from 
the  emperor  of  Russia,  an  elegant  silver  tea-urn. 

The  log-book  kept  during  this  voyage,  is  deposited  in  the  National 
Institute  at  Washington. 


JTetaspapers. 

Thero  are  two  newspaper  establishments  in  the  town,  regularly 
issuing  a  daily  and  weekly  paper,  under  the  control  (^  a  single  editor 
and  proprietor. 

The  New  London  Daily  and  Weekly  Chronicle,  by  C.  F.  Daniels, 
formerly  proprietor  and  editor  of  the  Camden  Journal,  and  aflerwari 
connected  with  the  New  York  Courier  and  Enquiror,  and  the  New 
York  Gazette. 

The  Daily  Star  and  the  New  London  Democrat,  by  D.  S.  Rud- 
dock. 

The  first  newspaper  of  the  town  bore  the  following  title : 

THE  NEW  LONDON  SUMMARY, 

OB  THE 

Weekly  Advertiser, 

With  the  Freshest  Advices^  Foreign  and  Domestic. 


1  A  more  detailed  accoiint  of  the  Savannah  and  her  Toyage,  wai  published  in  the 
Iffew  York  Journal  of  Commercef  August  28d,  1860 ;  the  facts  being  obtained  fiom  the 
» lonrce  at  the  above,  viz.,  Capt  Steyeus  Bogers,  of  New  London. 


BISTORT    OF    NEW    LONDON. 


656 


At  the  close  of  the  paper  was  the  nodfication,  Printed  by  Timo- 
thy Green.  It  was  a  folio  sheet ;  the  size  of  the  page  about  twelve 
inches  by  eight,  with  two  columns  of  print.  The  heading  was  adorn- 
ed with  an  ornamented  cut  of  the  colony  seal,  with  the  escutcheon  of 
the  town  added  by  way  of  crest,  viz.,  a  ship  in  full  sail.  The  first 
number  was  issued  August  8th,  1758.  The  editor  died  August  3d, 
1763,  and  the  paper  was  discontinued. 

2.  "  The  New  London  Grazette,"  with  a  stamp  of  the  king's  arms, 
appeared  in  November,  1763.  The  size  was  considerably  increased, 
the  print  arranged  in  three  columns,  and  the  price  6«.  per  annum  ; 
one-half  to  be  paid  on  the  delivery  of  the  first  number.  This  was  in 
fact  the  same  paper  under  another  name,  being  a  continuation  by 
Timothy  Green,  nephew  and  assistant  of  the  former  publisher ;  but 
as  the  numerical  series  of  the  Summary  was  not  continued,  the  num- 
bers being  commenced  anew,  it  may  be  classed  as  another  paper.  It 
was  soon  enlarged  in  size,  and  the  name  changed  in  the  course  of  a 
few  years  to  "•  The  Connecticut  Gazette."  This  had  been  the  title 
of  the  first  newspaper  in  the  colony,  established  in  New  Haven,  1755, 
by  James  Parker  and  Co. ;  John  Holt,  editor ;  but  discontinued  in 
1767,  and  there  being  then  no  paper  in  the  colony  bearing  that  title, 
it  was  adopted  by  the  proprietor  of  the  New  London  paper.  In 
1789,  Mr.  Green  took  his  son  Samuel  into  partnership  with  him,  and 
the  Grazette  was  issued  by  Timothy  Green  and  Son,  to  1794,  when 
Samuel  Green  assumed  the  whole  business.  In  1805,  he  retired  a 
while  from  the  paper,  and  it  was  issued  by  '^  Cady  and  Eeils,"  (£b- 
enezer  P.  Cady,  and  Nathaniel  Eells.)  In  May,  1808,  it  was  re- 
sumed by  Green,  and  continued 'to  January,  1838,  when  it  passed 
for  two  years  into  the  hands  of  John  J.  Hyde,  who  was  both  editor 
and  publisher.  In  1840,  it  reverted  to  the  former  proprietor,  or  to 
his  son,  S.  H.  Green,  and  was  conducted  by  the  latter  to  July,  1841. 
The  next  editor  was  A.  G.  Seaman,  by  whom  it  was  continued  about 
three  years,  after  which  the  existence  of  the  Gazette  entirely  ceased. 
It  had  been  issued  regularly  under  the  name  of  the  Gazette,  for  more 
than  eighty  years. 

We  would  here  notice  that  the  /S^pooner  family,  which  is  connected 
with  the  history  of  newspi^rs  in  this  country,  was  linked  both  by 
marriage  and  occupation,  with  the  Greens.  Judah  P.  Spooner  and 
Alden  Spooner,  early  printers  in  Vermont,  were  sons  of  Thomas 

Spooner  (who  came  to  New  London  from  Newport  in  1753)  and 
brothers-in-law  of  Timothy  Green.  Alden  Spooner,  2d,  son  of  the 
first  named  of  the  brothers,  was  a  native  of  New  London.    He  is 


656  HISTORY    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

known  as  the  editor  of  '<  The  Suffolk  Grazette,"  published  at  Saghar- 
bor  from  1804  to  1811,  and  of  the  «  Long  Island  Star,"  which  he 
conducted  from  1811  to  his  death,  a  period  of  about  thirtj-five  years. 

Charles  Miner,  long  a  noted  printer  in  Wilkesbarre,  Penn.,  ob- 
tained his  knowledge  of  the  business  in  the  Gazette  office  at  New 
London.  lie  was  for  a  number  of  years  a  member  of  Congress,  and 
has  left  an  enduring  memorial  of  his  talents  and  research,  in  the 
History  of  Wyoming,  of  which  he  is  the  author. 

Green's  Connecticut  Register,  was  first  published  in  1785,  and 
again  in  1786  ;  it  was  then  intermitted  for  one  year,  but  has  regu- 
larly  appeared  every  year  since,  making,  inclusive  of  1852,  seventy- 
six  volumes.' 

Afler  the  year  1750,*  the  Greens,  annually  printed  an  Almanac  or 
Astronomical  Diary.  The  first  numbers  were  prepared  by  James 
Davis,  and  calculated  for  the  meridian  of  New  London.  Next  to 
the  series  of  Davis,  they  reprinted  the  Boston  Almanac  of  Nathaniel 
Ames,  until  1766,  when  Clark  Elliott,  a  mathematician  and  instru- 
ment maker,  who  had  settled  in  New  London,  commenced  an  inde- 
pendent series  of  almanacs,  which  were  at  first  published  with  his  own 
name,  but  afterward  with  the  assumed  one  of  Edmund  Freebetter. 
This  change  is  said  to  have  been  caused  by  a  mistake  which  Elliot 
made  in  one  of  his  astronomical  calculations,  which  so  much  discon- 
certed him  that  he  refused  ever  after  to  affix  his  name  to  the  alma- 
nac. He  died  in  1793,  and  Nathan  Daboll,  of  Groton,  began  his 
series  of  almanacs  with  that  year,  which  were  continued  by  him 
during  his  life,  and  have  been  prepared  by  successors  of  the  same 
name  and  family,  to  the  present  year,  1852. 

Nathan  Daboll  was  a  self-taught  mathematician.  He  compiled  an 
arithmetic,  which  was  extensively  used  in  the  schools  of  New  En- 
gland, and  a  system  of  practical  navigation,  that  was  also  highly  es- 
teemed. He  opened  a  school  in  New  London  for  the  common  and 
higher  branches  of  mathematics,  and  the  principles  of  navigation. 
He  died  in  Groton,  March  9th,  1818,  aged  sixty-eight. 

3.  "  The  Weekly  Oracle ;  printed  and  published  by  James  Springer, 
opposite  the  Market."  This  was  the  title  of  a  newspaper  commenced 
at  New  London  in  October,  1796,  and  continued  four  years. 


1  Col.  Samael  Green,  for  so  many  years  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Gazette,  though 
no  longer  a  resident  in  New  London,  is  still  living,  (1852,)  aged  eighty-four,  realizing 
that  happy  enjoyment  of  health,  cheerfulness  and  prosperity,  which  is  designated  as 
a  green  old  age. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON.  657 

4.  "The  Bee;  printed  and  publiahed  hj  Charles  Holt.'*  This 
paper  was  commenced  June  14th,  1797,  and  discontinued  June  dOth, 
1802.  The  editor  immediately  issued  proposals  for  publishing  a 
paper  with  the  same  title  at  Hudson,  N.  Y.  The  Bee  may  there- 
fore be  considered  as  transferred  to  that  place.  This  paper  was 
a  prominent  organ  of  the  democratic  party,  and  under  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  elder  Adams,  the  editor  was  arrested  for  a  libel,  tried 
by  the  United  States  court  then  sitting  at  New  Haven,  and  under 
the  provisions  of  the  sedition  law  condemned  to  six  months'  imprison- 
ment, and  to  pay  a  fine  of  $200.  Charles  Holt  was  a  native  of  New 
London ;  he  died  in  Jersey  City,  opposite  New  York,  in  August, 
1852,  aged  seventy-eight. 

•  5.  "  The  Republican  Advocate."  Established  in  February,  1818, 
and  continued  about  ten  years.  It  was  first  issued  by  Clapp  and 
Francis — Joshua  B.  Clapp  and  Simeon  Francis — but  after  four  or 
five  years  the  partnership  was  dissolved.  Francis  removed  to  the 
west,  and  has  for  a  number  of  years  published  a  newspaper  in  Spring- 
field, Illinois.  Clapp  continued  the  Advocate  alone,  until  about  the 
close  of  the  year  1828,  when  he  sold  the  establishment  to  John  Eld- 
ridge.  The  latter  changed  the  name  to  "The  Connecticut  Sentinel," 
but  the  publication  was  not  long  continued. 

6.  "  The  People's  Advocate,  and  New  London  County  Republic- 
an." This  paper  was  commenced  August  26th,  1840,  with  th^  im- 
mediate object  in  view  of  promoting  the  election  of  William  Henry 
Harrison  to  the  presidency.  The  proprietor  was  Benjamin  P.  Bis- 
sell.  The  editor  for  1840,  John  Jay  Hyde ;  for  1841,  Thomas  P. 
Trott.  Bissell  then  took  the  whole  charge  of  the  paper  till  his  death, 
Sept.  3d,  1842.  In  1843,  J.  G.  Dolbeare  and  W.  D.  Manning  ap- 
pearcd  as  associated  editors  and  proprietors,  but  the  next  year,  Dol- 
beare assumed  the  sole  editorship.  In  November,  1844,  he  com- 
menced the  first  daily  paper  published  in  New  London ;  it  was  a 
folio  sheet,  the  page  twelve  inches  by  nine,  and  called  "  The  Morning 
News."  In  April,  1848,  the  Advocate  and  the  News  were  merged 
in  the  Weekly  and  Daily  Chronicle,  which  commencing  a  new  series 
of  numbers,  and  bearing  a  different  name,  must  be  considered  as  alto- 
gether a  new  undertaking. 

7.  "  The  New  London  Democrat"  was  commenced  March  22d, 
1845,  by  J.  M.  Scofield  and  S.  D.  Macdonald ;  but  the  second  editor 
retired  with  the  publication  of  the  forty-fourth  number.  January  1st, 
1848,  Scofield,  in  connection  with  the  Democrat,  commenced  a  daily 
paper  entitled  "  The  Morning  Star."     He  has  since  emigrated  to 


658  HISTORY    OF   NEW     LONDON. 

California,  having  assigned  his  whole  printing  establishment,  January 
Ist,  1849,  to  D.  S.  Ruddock,  the  present  editor  and  proprietor  of  the 
Star  and  Democrat. 

8.  The  New  London  Weekly  and  Daily  Chronicle,  were  first  issu- 
ed in  May,  1848,  by  C.  F.  Daniels  and  F.  H.  Bacon,  an  association 
which  continued  for  three  years.  Smce  August,  1851,  C.  F.  Daniels 
has  been  sole  editor  and  proprietor. 

The  above  are  all  the  serial  publications  of  the  town  that  have 
been  continued  long  enough  to  count  their  existence  by  years.  Tran- 
sient undertakings  for  a  special  purpose,  and  «ome  occasional  pi^>era 
not  issued  at  regular  intervals,  have  been  omitted. 


Fire'  Companies. 
In  the  year  1805,  the  city  was  impowered  by  the  Leg^lature  to 
establish  fire-companies,  consisting  of  eighteen  men  each ;  a  privi- 
lege that  had  been  previously  granted  to  Hartford,  Middletown  and 
Norwich.  The  fire-department  was  thus  transferred  from  the  town 
to  the  city  authority.  Three  companies  were  soon  afterward  ac- 
knowledged, and  to  these  a  fourth  was  subsequently  added.  Two  of 
the  engines  were  new  in  1848.  In  1850,  the  Independent  Nameaug 
Fire  Company  was  formed,  which  purchased  by  subscription  a  superb 
engine,  at  the  cost  of  $1,200.  This  fifth  company  is  a  voluntary  un- 
dertaking, but  like  the  others,  under  the  control  of  the  city  fire-de- 
partment Their  discipline,  neat  equipments,  and  beautiful  engine^ 
rank  them  as  the  most  brilliant  fire-company  in  the  state. 


Thimpike  Companies. 

Three  turnpike  companies  have  been  established  at  difierent  peri- 
ods, having  one  of  the  termini  of  each  at  New  London.  The  commis- 
sioners of  the  road  leading  from  New  London  to  Norwich,  through 
the  Mohegan  reservation,  were  authorized  to  establish  a  gate  and 
collect  a  toll,  by  a  resolve  of  the  General  Assembly,  in  May,  1792. 
This  was  the  first  turnpike  of  the  state,  or  perhaps  coeval  with  a 
toll-gate  established  on  the  stage  road  in  the  town  of  Greenwich, 
Fairfield  County.  The  commissioners  on  the  Mohegan  road  were 
William  Stewart  and  Samuel  Wheat,  of  New  London,  Joseph  How- 
land  and  Ebenezer  Huntington,  of  Norwich.  The  railroad  con- 
structed in  1849,  along  the  bank  of  the  river,  in  the  same  direction 
with  thb  turnpike,  now  absorbs  nearly  the  whole  traveL    The  com- 


H^ISTORT    OF    NEW    LONDON.  659 

pany,  bj  consent  of  the  legislature,  have  relinquished  their  charter^ 
and  during  the  present  year,  1852,  ceased  to  exist  The  establish-^ 
ment  of  a  railway  is  generally  a  death-blow  to  the  nearest  turnpike. 

The  Hartford  and  New  London  Turnpike  Company  was  incorpo* 
rated  in  1800.  This  company  assumed  the  old  highway  of  the  town, 
leading  west  from  State  to  Hempstead  Street,  and  from  the  point 
where  this  ended,  (on  the  north  side  of  the  Edgecombe  house,)  they 
opened  an  entirely  new  road  to  Colchester,  further  to  the  south,  and 
less  hilly  and  circuitous  than  the  old  country  road  that  went  out  of 
the  city  by  the  present  Granite  and  Yauxhall  Streets.  In  1829 
that  part  of  the  road  lying  east  of  Huntington  Street,  was  discontin- 
ued by  the  company,  assumed  by  the  city,  and  in  1845,  the  city  ac- 
cepted another  portion,  lying  west  of  Huntington  Street,  which  has 
since  been  graded,  furnished  with  sidewalks  and  called  Broad  Street. 
The  turnpike  road  now  commences  at  Williams  Street. 

The  New  London  and  Lyme  Turnpike  Company  was  incorporated 
in  May,  1807,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  new  and  improved 
route  from  New  London  through  Lyme  to  Connecticut  River.  This 
company  commenced  their  road  at  the  end  of  Bank  Street,  con- 
structed a  bridge  over  Bream  Cove,  (the  town  assisting  them  with  a 
bonus  of  $500,  and  the  materials  of  the  old  bridge,)  and  opened  a  high- 
way over  the  neck  to  join  the  main  road,  forming  a  new  entrance  into 
the  town.  This  new  street  was  named  by  the  city  authorities  in 
1815,  Shaw's  Avenue.' 


The  ferry  to  Groton  has  been  one  of  the  standing  embarrassments 
of  the  town.  The  disposition  of  it  from  the  earliest  times  has  been 
by  leases,  varying  in  term  from  one  year  to  fifty  years,  and  in  rent 
from  two  or  three  pounds  to  two  hundred  dollars  per  annum.  The 
ancient  ferry  wharf  was  near  the  head  of  Water  Street,  a  position  of 
manifest  advantage  when  a  sail-boat  was  used,  as  the  high  ground  of 
Winthrop's  Neck  served  as  a  protection  from  the  winds  and  swell  of 
the  waves.  It  was  comparatively  easy,  even  in  rugged  weather,  to 
round  the  point  and  run  into  the  smooth  water  of  the  cove.  The 
width  of  the  river  from  this  old  wharf  to  the  ferry  wharf  in  Groton, 


1  Among  the  improvements  of  modem  times,  a  more  refined  taste  in  names  is  wor- 
thy of  note.  Sliaw*s  Avenue  was  at  first  "  the  highway  over  Hog  Nock.**  It  would 
have  been  a  disgrace  to  the  town  to  retain  such  a  name. 


660  HI8T0ET    OF    NEW    LONDON. 

as  measured  on  the  ice  with  a  chain  in  Febroarj,  1741,  was  one  hun* 
dred  and  fifty-four  rods. 

In  1794,  the  sum  of  $500  was  raised  hj  subscription,  and  a  wharf 
built  at  the  end  of  the  Parade,  which  was  accepted  by  the  town  as 
the  onli/  ferry  wharf.  The  width  of  the  river  from  this  point  to  the 
opposite  shore,  as  measured  on  the  ice  in  January,  1821,  was  one 
hundred  and  forty-four  rods,  sixteen  rods  short  of  half  a  mile.  The 
wharf  was  rebuilt  in  1815.  In  1821,  a  horse  or  team  ferry-boat 
commenced  running.  This  was  an  improvement  on  sculling,  rowing 
and  sails ;  but  it  was  oflen  out  of  repair,  and  in  some  respects  incon- 
venient and  offensive.  In  1849,  an  arrangement  was  made  by  the 
town  with  Maro  M.  Comstock,  by  which  he  was  to  have  a  lease  of 
the  ferry  for  ten  years,  (to  Feb.  1st,  1849,)  on  condition  of  his  run- 
ning a  ferry-boat  propelled  by  steam.  Under  this  lease  a  steamboat 
was  provided,  seventy  feet  long,  thirty-five  feet  wide,  and  of  twenty- 
five  horse-power,  which  furnishes  the  public  with  every  requisite 
accommodation. 

The  river  is  seldom  frozen  opposite  the  town,  or  much  below  the 
point  of  Winthrop's  Neck.  Such  an  event  occurs  however  once  in 
twelve,  fifteen,  or  twenty  years.  In  1821,  the  harbor  was  closed  for 
six  days,  commencing  January  24th,  and  the  ice  extended  below  the 
town,  nearly  to  the  mouth  of  the  river.  In  1836,  the  frost  was  yet 
more  intense  and  protracted.  January  30th,  the  river  was  crossed 
on  skates,  but  the  same  day  the  Bunker  Hill  steamer  came  up  to  the 
wharf,  breaking  through  the  ice,  and  landed  her  passengers.  Feb- 
ru^y  2d,  the  ship  Newark,  on  her  way  to  New  York,  came  into  the 
river  in  distress,  and  was  brought  up  to  the  wharf,  by  cutting  through 
ice  six  inches  in  thickness.  On  the  6th,  a  rare  spectacle  was  pre- 
sented ;  the  weather  being  fair,  and  the  ice  firm,  a  large  number  of 
people  went  out  upon  the  river.  Parties  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages, 
might  be  seen  scattered  over  the  harbor,  some  walking,  and  others 
on  skates,  while  sleighs  and  teams  were  crossing  back  and  forth  from 
Groton.  The  ice  was  perfectly  secure,  a  foot  thick  opposite  the  town, 
and  about  six  inches  at  the  light-house.  A  thaw  commenced  with  a 
storm  the  next  day. 

In  January,  1852,  there  was  again  a  bridge  of  ice  across  the  river 
which  continued  firm  from  the  21st  to  the  24th,  inclusive.  The 
steam  ferry-boat  kept  a  path  open  for  crossing,  but  people  crossed  on 
foot  by  its  side.  A  measurement  was  made  of  the  width  of  the  river 
from  Coit's  wharf  to  the  Groton  shore,  and  found  to  be  about  two- 
fifths  of  a  mile* 


HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON.  661 

In  1835,  a  lot  for  a  new  or  third  burial-ground,  was  purchased  by 
the  city  for  $1,200.  One-third  part  was  reserved  for  free  interments, 
and  the  remainder  laid  out  in  family  lots. 

Two  of  the  most  imposing  funerals  ever  witnessed  in  the  city,  are 
connected  with  interments  in  this  ground,  viz.,  the  burial  of  the  Wal- 
ton family,  and  the  re-interment  of  the  remains  of  Commodore  George 
"W.  Rodgers.  These  solemnities  demand  a  more  particular  descrip- 
tion. 

Among  the  passengers  of  the  Atlantic  wrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Fisher's  Island,  was  an  English  emigrant  family  of  the  name  of  Wal- 
ton. They  had  sojourned  a  short  time  in  West  Newbury,  Mass.  9 
and  were  then  on  their  way  to  the  far  west.  The  father,  mother, 
and  four  children  perished.  A  young  man,  recently  married  to  one 
of  the  daughters,  and  a  boy,  thirteen  years  of  age,  were  all  that  sur- 
vived of  a  family  of  eight  persons.  They  had  no  home  in  this  coun- 
try— no  departed  relatives  to  whom  they  might  be  gathered — no 
friends  to  claim  their  remains,  and  bestow  on  th«n  the  last  rites. 
This  fisunily  was  brought  to  New  London,  and  the  whole  city  sponta- 
neously pressed  forward  with  offers  of  aid  and  sympathy  to  the  be- 
reaved, and  of  an  honorable  sepulture  for  the  dead. 

A  granite  pillar,  twenty  feet  in  height  from  the  surface,  was  raised 
over  the  graves  of  the  family  in  the  third  burial-ground,  with  the  fol- 
lowing inscription : 

•*  Erected  by  citizens  of  New  London,  as  a  memorial  of  the  loss  of  the  steam- 
er Atlantic,  wrecked  on  Fisher's  Island,  Nov.  27th,  A.  D.,  18 1*}. 

*^  Near  this  spot  are  buried  John  Walton,  aged  51.  Jane  A.,  his  wife,  aged 
45,  and  their  children,  Mary-Ann,  aged  18,  (wife  of  llobert  Vine,)  John,  aged 
13,  Eleanor- Jane,  aged  11,  and  James,  aged  6,  natives  of  England,  who  vvitli 
more  than  thirty  others,  perished  In  the  wreck."^ 

Commodore  Rodgers  died  in  1 832,  while  in  command  of  the  U.  S. 
naval  force  on  the  coast  of  Brazil,  and  was  interred  at  Buenos  Ayres. 
He  had  resided  for  some  years  in  New  London,  and  his  family  have 
since  continued  here.  One  of  his  sons,  Lieut.  Alexander  P.  Rodgers, 
was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Chepultepec,  in  Mexico,  September  13th, 
1837,  and  his  remains  brought  to  New  London  for  interment.  Sub- 
sequently the  navy  department  made  arrangements  to  have  the  re- 
mains of  the  commodore  removed  to  this  country.     They  were  con- 


1  Bobert  Vme  and  Jacob  Walton,  the  sairivors  of  this  family,  returned  to  their 
former  reeidence  in  West  Newbury. 

56 


662  HISTORY    OP     NEW     LONDON. 

veyed  to  New  York  in  the  U.  S.  ship  Lexington,  and  brought  from 
thence  under  a  naval  escort  in  charge  of  Commodore  Kearney  and 
other  officers,  and  deposited  by  those  of  his  son,  June  6th,  1850.  A 
great  concourse  of  people,  from  this  and  the  neighboring  towns,  as- 
sembled on  the  occasion.  A  band  of  music,  lelonging  to  the  U.  S. 
service  was  in  attendance .  Gov.  Seymour,  from  Hartford,  and  his 
guards,  were  also  present.  The  large  number  of  persons  that  assem- 
bled on  this  occasion,  and  the  blending  of  military  pomp  with  relig- 
ious services  and  solemn  martial  music,  rendered  it  an  impressive 
scene. 


The  Union  Bank  of  New  London  was  incorporated  in  May,  1792. 
This  and  the  Hartford  Bank,  chartered  at  the  same  session,  are  the 
oldest  banking  institutions  in  Connecticut  The  New  Haven  Bank 
was  chartered  in  October  of  the  same  year.  The  capital  of  the 
Union  Bank  is  $100,000.  Jedidiah  Huntington  was  the  first  pres- 
ident; John.Hallam,  cashier. 

New  London  Bank,  incorporated  in  May,  1807.  Capital,  $1 50,000. 
Elias  Perkins,  first  president.     Anthony  Thatcher,  cashier. 

Savings  Bank;  May,  1827.  The  benefit  of  the  seafaring  popu- 
lation was  the  first  and  principal  object  that  led  to  the  formation  of 
this  institution.  The  members  of  the  corporation  enumerated  in  the 
act  were  the  following : 

William  P.  Cleavelwid,  Nathaniel  Saltonstall, 

Ebenezer  Learned,  Peter  Richards, 

Robert  Coit,  Ezra  Chappell, 

Edward  Learned,  Increase  Wilson, 

Isaac  Thompson,  William  P.  Cleaveland,  Jr. 

Ephraim  Chesebrough,  Thomas  West* 

Archibald  Mercer,  Chai'lcs  S.  Stockman, 

Jirah  Isham,  Guy  Turner, 

Nathaniel  S.  Perkins,  Thomas  W.  Williams, 

Jacob  B.  Gurley. 
The  first  president  was  Ezra  Chappell. 

Whaling  Bank,  May,  1 833.  Capital,  $1  G3,000.  Coddington  Bil- 
lings, first  president ;  Peter  C.  Turner,  cashier. 

Bank  of  Commerce.  This  company  is  recently  organized,  (Sept., 
1852,)  under  the  free  banking  law,  which  was  established  by  the 
legislature  at  their  May  session.  Capital,  $100,000.  Acors  Bams, 
president ;  Charles  Butler,  cashier. 


HISTORY     OF     NEW    LONDON.  663 

Several  insurance  companies  have  been  incorporated  during  the 
last  half-century,  but  some  have  made  no  use  of  their  charters,  and 
others  have  closed  their  accounts  and  ceased  to  exist.  The  oldest 
was  the  Union  Insurance j  chartered  in  1805.  The  Marine  and  Fire 
was  in  operation  from  1831  to  1842.  The  New  London  Marine 
was  organized  in  July,  1847,  but  discontinued  business  in  1849. 


The  New  London  Aqueduct  Company  obtained  a  charter  in  May, 
1800.  Capital,  $4,000 ;  increased  in  1802  to  $20,000.  The  earliest 
proprietors  were  George  Ilallam,  Benjamin  Butler,  Robert  Allyn, 
David  Frink  and  Isaac  Treby.  This  company  entered  with  zeal 
into  the  project  of  supplying  the  whole  city  with  water,  and  threaded 
all  the  principal  streets  with  subterranean  logs  and  pipes.  The 
spring  which  afforded  the  supply  of  water  is  situated  a  little  north  of 
the  town  limits,  on  the  west  side  of  the  road  to  Norwich.  The  un- 
dertaking was  not  sufficiently  patronized  to  render  it  remunerative 
and  afler  the  trial  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  century,  it  was  abandoned. 


The  Lewis  Female  Cent  Society  was  incorporated  in  May,  1819, 
upon  the  petition  of  Mary  Perkins,  Sarah  Brainard,  Elizabeth  Den- 
ison  and  their  associates,  for  the  purpose  of  affording  relief  to  indi- 
gent persons  in  New  London  and  its  vininity.  This  society  had  al- 
ready been  a  number  of  years  in  operation,  having  been  formed  in 
1810,  but  at  the  period  of  organization,  had  received  a  bequest  of 
$500,  made  by  Mrs.  Harriet  Lewis.  The  same  amount  has  since 
been  bequeathed  to  the  society  by  Miss  Matilda  Wright  It  is  still 
in  operation,  a  judicious  and  efficient  society. 


The  Young  Men's  Library  Association  was  organized  in  Decem- 
ber, 1840.  Dr.  Isaac  G.  Porter  was  the  first  president.  This  asso- 
ciation was  presented  with  a  complete  Encyclopedia,  and  an  entire 
set  of  Niles'  Register.  The  library  soon  amounted  to  several  thou- 
sand volumes,  and  was  lodged  in  a  new  brick  building  on  Bank  Street, 
owned  by  Joseph  Lawrence.  This  building,  in  January,  1848,  was 
entirely  consumed  by  fire,  and  the  library  of  the  young  men  was  in- 
volved in  its  destruction.  The  books  were  all  burnt,  but  the  society 
had  an  insurance  upon  them  of  $1,000,  and  having  since  resumed  its 
operations,  is  gradually  collecting  a  new  library. 


664  HISTORY     OP     NEW     LONDON. 

The  old  jail  and  the  land  belonging  to  it,  which  stood  by  the  water- 
side on  the  Parade,  were  sold  Maj  1st,  1845,  for  $4,900.  The  same 
year,  a  city  and  county  prison  was  built,  of  stone,  between  Hemp- 
stead and  Franklin  Streets,  with  a  keeper's  house  attached,  at  a  cost 
of  $7,500. 


Baxlroads, 

In  May,  1847,  the  legislature  incorporated  the  New  London, 
Willimantic  and  Springfield  Railroad  Company.  The  charter  was 
subsequently  altered,  to  enable  the  company  to  construct  the  road 
from  Willimantic  to  Palmer,  instead  of  Springfield.  Thomas  W. 
Williams  was  chosen  president  of  this  corporation,  and  continued  in 
office  till  the  completion  of  the  road.  The  first  ground  was  broken 
in  July,  1848,  a  little  north  of  Norwich  :  the  first  trip  to  Williman- 
tic in  the  cars,  was  made  Nov.  15th,  1849.  The  road  was  opened  to 
Stafford  Springs  in  March,  1850,  and  to  Palmer  in  September  of 
that  year. 

The  New  Haven  and  New  London  Railroad  Company  was  incor- 
porated in  1849.  Frederick  R.  Griffin,  of  Guilford,  president  The 
work  on  the  road  commenced  in  March,  1851,  and  the  route  was 
opened  through  the  whole  distance,  July  22d,  1852.  This  road  passes 
through  a  number  of  fine  country  towns,  and  pleasant  villages,  and 
has  Long  Island  Sound  in  sight  during  a  great  part  of  the  route. 
A  connection  has  been  formed  through  the  city  with  the  railroad 
running  north  to  Palmer,  which  completes  the  line  from  New  Tork 
to  Boston. 


A  telegraphic  company  was  formed  in  November,  1847,  by  an 
association  of  citizens  in  New  London  and  Norwich.  It  went  imme- 
diately into  operation. 


A  Cemetery  Association  was  formed  by  a  number  of  the  citizens 
in  1850,  Francis  AUyn,  president ;  having  for  its  object  the  purchase 
of  a  rural  cemetery,  at  such  convenient  distance  from  the  prospective 
growth  of  the  city,  as  might  furnish  security  that  the  remains  of  the 
dead  would  never  be  disturbed.  This  association  purchased  a  tract 
of  forty-five  acres  of  land,  about  a  mile  west  of  the  city,  mostly  cov- 
ered with  cedars,  but  with  considerable  variety  of  surface,  and  capa- 
ble of  being  improved  into  ornamental  grounds.     It  was  laid  out  with 


HISTORY     OP     NBW     LONDON.  665 

artistic  skill  and  taste  by  Dr.  Horatio  Stone ;  appropriately  named 
the  Cedar  Grove  Cemetery,  and  consecrated  to  its  sacred  use,  Oct. 
8th,  1851.  Some  removals  from  other  places  of  sepulture  were  made 
immediately  afterward;  but  the  first  remains  not  previously  interred, 
which  were  deposited  in  this  ground,  were  those  of  an  esteemed  citi- 
zen, Joseph  C.  Sistare,  who  was  here  laid  to  rest,  Nov.  23d,  1851. 

This  beautiful  resting-place  for  the  dead  has  already  become  a 
hallowed  retreat.  The  high  ground,  affording  a  noble  prospect  of  the 
harbor  and  surrounding  country,  the  gradual  slope  of  the  surface 
toward  the  east,  the  lakelet  and  the  solemn  grove  beneath,  are  fea- 
tures of  great  natural  beauty.  It  is  easy  of  access,  yet  seated  in 
deep  seclusion,  and  the  ideas  of  security  and  permanence  attached 
to  it — that  here  while  time  endures,  the  graves  and  monuments  of  the 
dead  will  be  secured  from  removal — are  pledges  that  this  cemetery 
will  take  a  strong  hold  upon  the  affections  of  the  inhabitants,  and 
henceforth  become  their  chosen  place  of  sepulture. 

"  I  would  not  bury  the  good,  the  beloved,  upon  the  bleak  and  desolate  sand- 
plain,  where  no  tree  can  cast  its  shade,  and  no  flower  blossom :  1  would  rather 
lay  them  beneath  the  boughs  of  the  goodly  cedar-trees,  which  of  old  were  dedi- 
cated to  a  sacred  use  in  building  a  temple  to  the  Lord,  and  which  speak  a 
prayer  for  perpetual  remembrance  in  their  foliage  of  unfading  green.  I  would 
rather  lay  them  here,  where  the  winged  songsters  make  their  nests  in  these  over- 
hanging boughs,  and  chant  a  requiem  to  the  dead  buried  beneath."' 


The  whole  number  of  freemen  qualified  to  vote  at  the  election  in 
April,  1848,  was  1,527;  the  number  of  votes  given,  957. 

In  1852,  the  whole  number  on  the  list  was  about  2,000,  and  the 
number  of  votes  deposited,  1,050.  The  list  includes  all  absent  free- 
men, whether  on  the  ocean,  in  California,  or  elsewhere,  and  about 
240  new  voters,  who  were  qualified  previous  to  the  election. 

The  present  number  of  inhabitants  is  estimated  at  10,000. 


Population  at  different  periods. 
In  1756,  3,171.     Montville  and  Waterford  then  included. 
In  1774,  5,366  whites,  316  negroes,  206  Indians. 
In  1800,  4,955  whites,  195  colored.    Males,  2,378 ;  females,  2,577. 
Waterford  was  not  then  separated. 


1  From  the  Address  at  the  Consecration  of  Cedar  Grove  Cemetery,  by  Hiram  Wil- 
ley,  Esq. 

56* 


666  HI8TORT    OF    NBW     LOIfDON. 

In  1810,  8,022  whites ;  f^  colored,  147 ;  slaves,  13 ;  total,  3,182. 
Another  enumeration  of  the  same  year,  made  the  total  number  3,238, 
probably  including  the  garrison  of  Fort  Trumbull. 

In  Waterford,  the  same  year,  2,191.     In  Montville,  2,187. 

In  1820,  3,330.  Males,  1,419 ;  females,  1,652 ;  free  colored,  168 ; 
slaves,  6 ;  garrison  of  Fort  Trumbull,  82. 

In  Waterford,  2,236.    In  Montville,  1,952. 

The  increase  from  1810  to  1820,  was  very  small;  it  may  be  ac^ 
counted  for  from  the  depression  of  business  caused  by  war,  the  loss 
of  many  persons  at  sea,  and  in  the  West  Indies,  and  emigration  to 
other  states. 

In  1830,  4,356. 

In  1840.  The  census  returns  made  June  1st,  furnished  the  fol- 
lowing statistics  in  regard  to  New  London : 

Population,  5,519. 

Engaged  in  agriculture,  229. 

Engaged  in  commerce,  44. 

Engaged  in  manufactures  and  trade,  784. 

Engaged  in  navigation  of  ocean,  848. 

Learned  professions  and  engineers,  48. 

Pensioners  for  military  service,  15. 

Deaf  and  dumb,  1.     Blind,  2.     Insane  and  idiots,  3. 

Scholars  in  academies  and  grammar-schools,  131. 

Scholars  in  private  and  common  schools,  787. 

No  persons  over  twenty,  who  could  not  read  and  write. 

A  city  census  was  taken  in  November,  1845,  which  showed  a  popu- 
lation of  8,850. 

In  1850, 1,000  houses,  1,525  families,  9,006  inhabitants. 

The  average  annual  proportion  of  deaths  since  1800,  has  been 
about  one  in  fifty. 


Town'  Clerks} 

1650,  Jonathan  Brewster.  1670,  Charies  HiU. 

1651,  Obadiah  Bruen.  1684,  Edward  Pahnes. 

1667,  William  Douglas.  1685,  Daniel  Wetherell. 

1668,  Daniel  Wetherell.  1701,  Richard  Christophers, 


1  In  this  list,  tlio  clerk  is  understood  to  serve  from  the  date  i^gainst  his  name  to  the 
next  It  is  probable  that  the  choice  wa^  always  annual,  but  in  manj  instances  of  an 
early  date,  it  is  not  recorded,  and  the  clerk  is  only  ascertained  by  &e  handwriting. 


.  HISTORY  OP    NEW    LONDON.                            667 

1707,  Daniel  "WetherelL  1777,  Edward  Hallam. 

1719,  George  Denlson.  1781,  John  Owen. 

1720,  None.*  IBOl,  Samuel  Belden. 

1721,  Edward  Hallam.  1811,  David  Coit 
1786,  Daniel  Coit  1817,  Ebenezer  Way. 

1757,  John  Coit.  1827,  Henry  Douglas. 

1758,  Daniel  Coit  1845,  Ephraim  H.  Douglas. 
1773,  Jas.  Mumford,  (3  weeks.)'  1850,  Henry  Douglas,  (in  oflEice, 
1773,  Gurdon  SaltonstaU.  1852. 


Members  of  Congt 

«w,  fT(ym  New  London. 

William  Hillhouse, 

from 

1788 

to 

1786. 

Richard  Law, 

from 

1777 

to 

1778. 

Bichard  Law, 

from 

1781 

to 

1784. 

Amasa  Learned, 

from 

1791 

to 

1795. 

Joshua  Coit, 

from 

1793 

to 

1798. 

Elias  Perkins, 

from 

1801 

to 

1803. 

Lyman  Law, 

from 

1811 

to 

1817. 

Thomas  W.  Williams, 

from 

1839 

to 

1848. 

Socii  of  Tale  College,  from  New  London. 

Rev.  Eliphalet  Adams,  from  1720  to  1738.  A  native  of  Dedham, 
Mass.,  but  minister  of  New  London  from  1709  to  1753.  He  died 
among  his  people,  and  still  has  descendants  here. 

Hon.  Elias  Perkins,  from  1818  to  1823.  He  was  born  in  Lisbon, 
Conn.,  April  5th,  1767  ;  but  was  from  early  life  a  resident  in  New 
London,  where  he  died,  Sept.  27th,  1845. 

Rev.  Abel  McEwen,  S.  T.  D.,  from  1826,  and  still  in  office, 
(1852.) 

Hon.  Noyes  Billings;  graduated  at  Yale  in  1819;  Lieut-Gov- 
ernor of  Connecticut  in  1846,  and  by  virtue  of  his  office,  fellow  of  the 
college.  He  is  a  native  of  Stonington,  Conn.,  but  has  been  from 
early  life  a  resident  of  New  London. 

1  Edward  Hallam  was  chosen  Feb.  1st,  1719-20,  but  the  authorities  refused  to  tender 
the  oath  to  him,  on  account  of  his  not  being  a  freeman.  April  11th,  1720,  another 
town  meeting  was  held,  and  Edward  Hallam  was  again  chosen  clerk,  the  inhabitants 
reftising  to  vote  for  any  other;  but  again  the  magistrates  objected  to  his  taking  the 
oath.    Dec.  26th,  he  was  chosen  the  third  time,  and  took  the  oath  of  office. 

2  Daniel  Coit  died  February  2d,  1778.  James  Mumford  was  chosen  to  supply  his 
place,  but  died  three  weeks  after  taking  the  oath  of  office. 


668 


HISTORY     OF     NBW     LONDON. 


Alumni  of  Tale  College, 

Joseph  Coit,  of  Harvard,  1697. 

Yale,  1702. 

John  Picket,  1705. 

Gurdon  Saltonstall,  1725. 

WiUiam  Adams,  (Tutor,)  1730. 

John  Picket,  1732. 

John  Still  Winthrop,  1737. 

Christopher  Christophers,  1737. 

Thomas  Adams,  1737. 

Nicholas  Hallam,  1737. 

Thomas  Fosdick,  1746. 
James  Abraham  Hillhouse, 

(Tutor,)'  1749. 

Roswell  Saltonstall,  1751. 

Russell  Hubbard,  1751. 

Gurdon  Saltonstall,  1752. 

Winthrop  Saltonstall,  1756. 

Amos  Hallam,  1756. 

John  Richards,  1757. 

George  Buttolph  Hurlbut,  1757. 

ictc^t^     Doiiiol  Manwaring,  1759. 

James  Hillhouse,  LL.  D.,  1773. 

William  Hillhouse,  1777. 

John  Caulkins,  1788. 

Thomas  Mumford,  1790. 

Lyman  Law,  1791. 

Dudley  Saltonstall,  1791. 
Wmthrop  Saltonstall,  (M. 

D.,  Columbia,)  1793. 

Prentice  Law,  1800. 

William  Law,  1801. 

William  Fowler  Bi-ainard,  1802. 


ncUives  of  New  Juondoiu 
Joshua  Huntington, 

(et  Harv.,)  1804. 

Francis  Bayard  Winthrop,  1804. 
John  Still  Winthrop,  1804. 

Henry  William  Channing,  1807. 
Daniel  Huntington,  1807. 

John  Still  W.  Parkin,  1809. 

William  Henry  Winthrop,  1809. 
DyerT.Brainard,  (M.D.,)«1810. 
Nathaniel  Shaw  Perkins, 

(M.  D.,)«  1812. 

Thomas  Shaw  Perkins,  1812. 
Richard  Pet'r  Christophers,  1814. 
John  Law,  1814. 

Frederick  Richards,  1814. 

John  Gardiner  Brainard,  1814* 
William  Pitt  Cleaveland,  1816. 
John  Caulkins  Coit,  1818. 

Joseph  Hurlbut,  1818. 

David  Gardiner  Coit,  1819. 

Francis  Bureau  Deshon,  1820. 
Thomas   Winthrop    Coit, 

S.  T.  D.,  1821. 

William  Henry  Law,  1822. 

Charles  Griswold  Gurley,  1827. 
Robert  Alexander  Hallam,  1827. 
Robert  McEwen,  (Tutor,)  1827. 
Gurdon  Saltonstall  Coit,  1827. 
John  Dickinson,  1827. 

Charles  Augustus  Lewis,  1829. 
George  Richards  Lewis,  1829. 
Ebenezer  Learned,  1831. 


1  James  A.  Hillhouse,  was  a  native  of  the  North  Parish  of  New  London,  now  Mont> 
viUe.  He  settled  in  New  Haven.  James  and  William  Hillhouse,  graduates  of  1778 
and  1777,  were  nephews  of  the  former,  and  sons  of  Judge  William  Hillhouse,  of  the 
North  Parish.  They  also  setded  in  New  Haven,  and  belong  only  in  their  birth  to 
New  London. 

2  Drs.  Brainard  and  Perkins  are  now  the  oldest  resident  physicians  in  New  London, 
having  been  in  practice  more  than  thirty  years. 


ir  ^ 


HISTORY    OF  NEW    LONDON.  669 

John  Crump,                        1833.  George  Richards,  (Tutor,)  1840. 

John  Calvin  Goddard,         1833.  WiUiam  Law  Learned,  1840. 

Billings  Peck  Learned,        1834.  Nathaniel  Shaw  Perkins,  1842. 

William  Cleaveland  Crump,  1 83  6.  John  Jacob  Brandegee,  1 843. 

Robert  Coit  Learned,          1837.  George  Willard  Goddard,  1845. 

John  Perkins  C.  Mather,     1837.  Augustus  Brandegee,  1849. 

William  Perkins  Williams,  1837.  Joseph  Hurlbut,  (Tutor,)  1849. 

Hamilton  Lanphere  Smith,  1839.  Robert  Coit,  1850. 
Giles  Henry  Deshon,           1840. 


Natives  of  New  London,  who  have  graduated  at  other  Colleges. 

Simon  Bradstreet,  son  of  Rev.  Simon  Bradstreet,  born  in  New 
London,  1671,  graduated  at  Harvard,  1693. 

Joseph  Coit,  Harvard,  1697;  Yale,  1702 ;  first  minister  of  Plain- 
field,  Conn. 

Christopher  Christophers,  Harvard,  1702. 

Andrew  Palmes,  Harvard,  1703. 

Rosewell  Saltonstall,  Harvard,  1720. 

Joshua  Coit,  Harvard,  1776.     M.  C. 

William  Green,  Dartmouth,  1791 ;  Yale  the  same  year.  Receiv- 
ed Episcopal  ordination ;  was  the  first  preceptor  of  the  female  acad- 
emy in  Green  Street,  1800 ;  died  Dec.  26th,  1801,  aged  thirty. 

Edward  E.  Law,  Harvard,  1819. 

Sabin  K.  Smith,  Harvard,  1842. 

Charles  Sistare,  Trinity  College,  Hartford,  1848. 


It  would  be  scarcely  possible  at  the  present  day,  to  prepare  a  cata- 
logue that  would  be  complete  and  accurate,  of  the  members  of  vari- 
ous collegiate  institutions,  that  have  made  New  London  their  home, 
but  were  not  natives  of  the  town.  The  following  list  comprises  all 
that  have  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  author,  who  became  inhabit- 
ants and  died  in  the  place. 

Simon  Bradstreet ;  Harvard,  1660;  ordained  at  New  London, 
1670  ;  died,  1688;  family  removed. 

Gurdon  Saltonstall;  Harvard,  1684;  ordained  at  New  London, 
1691 ;  chosen  governor  of  Connecticut  in  1708;  died,  1724. 

Miphalet  Adams;  Harvard,  1694;  ordained,  1709;  married 
Lydia,  daughter  of  Alexander  Pygan,  of  New  London. 

Jeremiah  Miller ;   Yale,  1709;    settled  in  New  London,  1711; 


▼   r 


670  HISTORY     OF     NEW    LONDON. 

married  Mary  Saltonstall,  second  daughter  of  the  governor ;  died, 
1761. 

Daniel  Euhhard;  Yale,  1727  ;  tutor  in  college  two  years ;  settled 
as  an  attorney  in  New  London,  1731 ;  married  Martha,  daughter  of 
John  Coit;  died  in  1741,  aged  thirty-five. 

David  Gardiner  ;  Yale,  1736  ;  native  of  Gardiner's  Island,  in  the 
Sound ;  merchant  in  New  London  for  many  years  ;  died,  1776. 

The  above  were  probably  all  interred  in  the  old  burial-ground. 
This  is  known  to  be  the  case  in  all  the  instances  except  the  first ; 
and  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  but  that  Mr.  Bradstreet's  re- 
mains were  also  deposited  in  that  inclosure,  but  there  is  no  record 
that  speaks  of  it,  and  no  inscribed  stone  to  mark  the  spot.* 

Samuel  Seahury  ;  Yale,  1748  ;  D.  D.  at  Oxford;  Bishop  of  Con- 
necticut and  Rhode  Island ;  died,  1796. 

Richard  Law  ;  Yale,  1751.  M.  C.  and  Judge  of  Connecticut 
District.  Bom  in  Milford,  and  youngest  son  of  Jonathan  Law,  gov- 
ernor of  Connecticut.  lie  married  Ann  Prentis,  of  New  London  ; 
died  January  26th,  1806. 

Stephen  Bahcock  ;  Yale,  1761 ;  attorney  in  New  London ;  died, 
1787. 

Ephraim  Woodhrtdge  ;  Yale,  1765;  ordained  over  the  Congrega- 
tional church  in  New  London,  1769;  died,  1776. 

Jedidiah  Huntington  ;  Harvard,  1763;  et  Yale,  1770.  Bom  in 
Norwich,  Aug.  15th,  1743 ;  died  in  New  London,  Sept  25th,  1818. 

Ama$a  Learned;  Yale,  1772.  Bom  in  Killingly,  Conn.,  Nov. 
15th,  1750.  He  came  to  New  London  soon  after  leaving  college, 
and  was  one  of  the  earliest  preceptors  of  the  Union  School.  In 
1773,  he  married  Grace  Hallam,  and  in  1780,  fixed  his  permanent 
residence  in  New  London,  where  he  died  May  4th,  1825.  His  re- 
mains were  deposited  in  the  Hallam  tomb,  in  the  old  burial-ground. 


1  There  are  two  large,  flat  granite  stones,  partly  imbedded  in  the  earth,  near  the 
center  of  the  ground,  which  are  supposed  to  have  been  laid  as  temporary  memorials 
over  the  remains  of  some  distinguished  persons.  The  author  is  of  opinion  that  one  of 
these  indicates  the  grave  of  Mr.  Bradstreet,  and  the  other  of  John  Still  Winthrop. 
The  former  died  in  1683,  at  a  time  when  engraved  stones  were  procured  with  difficulty; 
and  the  latter  in  1776,  just  at  the  opening  of  the  war,  which  made  New  London  the 
seat  of  desolation.  In  both  cases,  it  was  undoubtedly  the  intention  of  surviving  friends, 
to  replace,  the  rough  granite,  with  more  fitting  monuments,  as  soon  as  it  should  be- 
come practicable.  But  years  elapsed,  and  it  was  not  done :  until  it  has  become  a  sub- 
ject of  question,  where  these  persons  were  buried.  It  is,  however,  rendered  tolerably 
certain,  from  the  traces  of  letters  yet  remaming,  that  had  been  picked  in  the  granite, 
that  one  of  the  stones  covers  the  grave  of  a  Winthrop. 


•       HISTORY     OF     NEW   LONDON.  671 

David  Wright;  Yale,  1777 ;  a  native  of  Saybrook,  Conn.;  attor- 
ney of  New  London;  died  in  1798,  of  the  malignant  fever,  which 
then  prevailed.  His  wife  was  Martha,  daughter  of  Russell  Hub- 
bard, of  New  London. 

Jeremiah  Gates  Brainard;  Yale,  1779;  a  native  of  East  Had- 
dam,  Conn.;  came  to  New  London  soon  after  leaving  college,  and 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  the  law.  He  had  an  office  in  the  old 
court-house,  on  the  Parade,  at  the  time  it  was  burnt  by  the  British 
in  1781.  He  was  for  many  years  judge  of  the  superior  court ;  died 
Jan.  7th,  1830,  in  the  seventieth  year  of  his  age.  His  wife  was  Sa- 
rah Gardiner,  of  New  London. 

Elias  Perkins ;  Yale,  1786;  married,  in  1790,  Lucretia  Shaw, 
only  daughter  of  Rev.  Ephraim  "VYoodbridge,  deceased.  His  twin- 
brother,  Elijah,  (Yale,  1787,)  died  at  Philadelphia  in  1806. 

William  Pitt  Cleveland;  Yale,  1793;  a  native  of  Canterbury, 
Conn.;  settled  in  New  London  as  an  attorney,  before  1800 ;  died, 
Jan.  3d,  1844,  aged  seventy-four.  Hon.  Roger  M.  Sherman,  his  fel- 
low-student at  the  law-school  of  Judge  Reeve,  in  Litchfield,  and 
through  life  his  intimate,  friend,  died  four  days  before  him  at  Fair- 
field. 

Jirah  Isham  ;  Yale,  1797  ;  a  native  of  Colchester,  Conn.,  but  long 
in  the  practice  of  the  law  at  New  London ;  he  died  Oct.  6th,  1842, 
aged  sixty-four. 

Elisha  Norths  M.  />.,  a  native  of  Goshen,  Litchfield  Co.,  Conn. 
He  studied  with  Dr.  Lemuel  Hopkins,  of  Hartford,  and  afterward, 
under  Dr.  Rush,  at  the  medical  college  in  Philadelphia.  Settled  in 
New  London  in  1812  ;  died,  Dec.  29th,  1843. 

Archibald  Mercer  ;  bom  in  Newark,  N.  J.,  Dec.  1st,  1788  ;  grad- 
uated at  Princeton,  about  1807 ;  M.  D.  at  Philadelphia,  and  at  New 
Haven,  1827  ;  died,  Oct  3d,  1850. 

These  all  died  in  New  London,  and  most  of  them  left  their  fami- 
lies here.  We  may  add  to  the  list  a  few  living  residents,  who,  though 
not  natives  of  the  town,  belong  to  it  in  all  but  birth.  Thirty  years 
are  reckoned  a  generation,  and  wherever  thirty  years  of  active  life  have 
been  spent,  there  we  may  confidently  say,  the  per&on  belongs. 

Jacob  B.  Gurley ;  graduated  at  Dartmouth,  in  1793,  and  was  in- 
troduced at  New  London  the  next  year,  as  preceptor  of  the  Union 
School ;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1797,  and  is  now  one  of  the  old- 
est attorneys  in  the  county. 

Ebenezer  Learned  ;  Yale,  1798.  Bom  in  Killingly,  Conn.,  March 
27th,  1780,  but  from  early  infancy  a  resident  in  New  London. 


672  HISTORY     OF     NEW     LONDON. 

Ahel  MeEwen  ;  Yale,  1804 ;  a  native  of  Winchester,  Conn.;  or- 
dained over  the  Congregational  church  in  this  place,  Oct.  21st,  1806, 
and  now  in  the  forty-sixth  year  of  his  ministry. 

This  list  might  be  considerably  enlarged,  by  introducing  other  and 
younger  names  from  the  professional  ranks.  It  would  be  a  pleasare 
to  the  writer  to  gather  up  many  honored  names  from  all  the  depart- 
ments of  active  life  ;  but  the  pen  of  history  has  extended  its  details 
far  enough  into  the  bosom  of  the  present.  Let  the  names  of  the 
gifled  and  the  mature,  as  well  as  of  the  young  and  the  ardent  of  the 
present  generation,  be  left  for  the  future  to  record.  They  are  stamp- 
ing the  impress  of  their  genius  and  measures  on  the  character  of  the 
town  ;  they  have  it  in  their  power  to  mold  its  future  history,  and  jto 
win  for  themselves  an  honorable  distinction  among  its  sons  and  citi- 
zens. May  their  deeds  be  such,  that  later  generations  shall  enroll 
their  names  in  grateful  remembrance,  and  some  future  historian  find 
as  much  pleasure  in  recording  them,  as  the  writer  of  the  present  vol- 
ume has  experienced  in  reviewing  the  fortunes  of  their  ancestors. 


INDEI  OF  FAMILY  NAMES. 


Authors  quoted,  and  persons  to  whom  reference  is  made  at  the  foot  of  the  page,  art 
not  generally  included  in  this  index. 


AbeU,  169«  828,  840. 

Abbot,  86. 

Adams,  248,  ZiXf  82S-40, 
89f ,  ^,  410,  4^,  44<  ^ 
460^6,  4%i;  4S»-89,  U4, 
5^,  644, 686, 611, 667-69. 

Addis,  98,  118-116,  184, 
147,  8;  888. 

Adgate,  172. 

Aery,  (Aiey,)  77,  260,  297. 

Albertson,  108,  612. 

Alden,  448,  606. 

AUen,  482, 447,  8 ;  468, 466- 
68,  476,  7;  612,  678,9; 
697,  602,  608,  611,  620,  2, 
647. 

AUyn,  70, 1;  97,  104,  164, 
167-69,  166-7;  178,  269, 
864,  870,  8;  881,  416, 420, 
1;  620,  668,  4. 

Ames,  (Eams,)  264,  874, 
618,  666. 

Androes,  198,  9;  207,  228, 
281. 

Angel,  688,  682. 

Appleton,  860. 

Apsley,  172. 

Arnold,  844,  868,  884,  646- 
670. 

Asbury.  696,  6. 

Ash,  148,  888. 

Ashby,  264, 861. 

Ashcraft,  249,  629. 

Astwood,  804. 

AtweU,  146,  268,  260,  806, 
842,  428. 

Austin,  60,  61. 

Avery,  67,  71-74,  96-97, 
127, 180,  8;  l§7-89,  142, 
8;  162,  166,7;  174,180- 
82,  4;  186-88,  190,  2,  6, 
«;  211,247,  261,  9;  260, 
6;  280,881,846,860,416, 
427,  482,  488,  619,  668, 
668,4,7,8;  688,610,11; 
662. 

Ayhner,  687. 

57 


Babcock,  468, 474, 612, 670. 
Backus,  220,  871. 
Bacon,  668. 
Bailey,  (Bayley,)    68,  97, 

260,  6;  290,  846,  864,664, 

677. 
Baker,  66,  260,  4;  290,  6; 

846,862,4. 
Baldwin,  146, 166, 168, 808, 

691. 
Barber,  469,  460,  1;   601, 

641. 
Barker,  77,  682. 
Barnard,  416,  642. 
Barnes,  64,  641,  4,  7;  662. 
Bamet,  196,  270. 
Bartlet,  60,1,6;  76,  98,6; 

121, 186, 282, 274,  896-99. 
Bassett,  184. 
Batten,  178. 
Baxter,  497,  686. 
Beckwith,  70,  87,  94,  142, 

209,  217,281,  2;  248, 269, 

264,298,  667,  668,4;  609, 

611. 12. 
Bedell,  60, 1,  4. 
Beeby,  70,  1,  4;  91,  6,  8; 

148, 168, 188, 6;  190,6,6; 

202,  211,  218,  281,  248, 

262,269,262,  8;  291,  814, 

816,  888,  881,  411. 
Belden,  67,  602,  666. 
Bellamy,  462, 6. 
Bemas,  60,1;  74,  87,  186, 

166,  288. 
Bemont.  841. 
Benjamin,  644. 
Bennet,  96,  286,  289,  828. 
Betts,  899. 
Biddle,  610,  686. 
BiU,  146,  198,  260,9;  264, 

299,  820,  846,  817,  618, 

674. 
BilUngs,  260,  688,  40,  604, 

620,642,8;  662,7. 
Bingham,  688,  688. 
Birchard,  66,  261,  804. 
Bishop,  816,  608. 


I  Bissell,  667. 
Blackleach,  286. 
Blake,  264. 
Blakeslee,  694. 
Blatchford,  60,  6,  8;  74,  87, 

98,  110,  186,  7;  164,  6, 

810. 
BUnman,  66,  7,  9;  70,  1,  6, 

6;  81,7;  94,  6,  8;  108,4; 

111-117,128, 144,  8;  162, 

282  296. 
Bllss/l7o/2;828,  86L 
Block,  Adrian,  21-24. 
Bloomfield,  98. 
Bloyd,  448. 
Booington,  (Buddington,) 

198,  264,  824. 
Boies,  692. 
BoUes,  146,  216,  269,  298, 

847,866,8;  897,676,687, 

696,  627. 
Borden,  76, 144, 6 ;  172, 808. 
Bordman,  60. 1. 
Borrowdale,  (Borradil,)  888, 

884. 
Boswell,  682. 
Botler,  172, 8. 
Bowdoin,  898. 
Bowen,  98, 182,  8. 
Bowers,  172. 
Bowman,  161. 
Boyes,  841. 
Braddick,  240,   440,  1,  4{ 

476. 
Braddock,  468. 
Bradford,  171, 260, 828, 872, 

481,  2;  606. 
Bradley,  87,  282,  88;  261, 

266,  277-9;  817. 
Bradstreet,    188-144,    167, 

188,  191-197,    284,  896, 

669,  70. 
Brminiurd,  462,  671, 620,626, 

668.  8,  670. 
Bramble,  Sarah,  468. 
Brandegee,  624,  669. 
Breed,  286. 
Brenton,  281. 


674 


INDEX    OF    FAMILY   NAMES. 


Brewster,  66,  60-67,  76,  86, 
87,  8;  90, 127,  8;  138, 141, 
6;  160,  162,  6;  236,  276, 
278-80,  266;  817, 18;  881, 
846,  863,  666. 

Brigffs,  682. 

BrinTey,  286. 

Broadturst,  407. 

Brockway,  172,  248. 

Brooks,  67,  8;  98,  264,614, 
672,  686,  619,  629. 

Bromfield,  Major,  662. 

Brown,  184,  176,  288,  826, 
884,  617,  626,  647. 

Browne.  166,  408,  9. 

Browneil.  694. 

Bruen,  67,  71-76,  8;  84-88, 
92,8,6;  109,111,118,116, 
182,  6,  9;  140,7;  164-166, 
174,194,247,  9;  269,70; 
280,  804,  666. 

Bryan,  148. 

BucknaU,  (BncUand,)  264, 
821. 

Budd,  77. 

Buel,  466,  626. 

BulkJey,  117,  181-89,  140, 
161, 186,  6;  248,  252,264, 
279-80 ;  880, 486, 687, 674, 
628. 

Buor,  280,  402,  7 ;  440-42. 

Bull,  66. 171. 

Burbeck,  626,  683,  4,  7. 

Burch,  488. 

Burdick,  204. 

Bumham,  898. 

Bnrr,  891,2;489. 

Borrows,  (Burroughs,)  67, 
76,  96, 187,  162,  269,  801, 
9:818.868,409,428,696. 

Bushnell,  626. 

Buskirk,  667. 

Bussbraw,  60, 1. 

Butler,  264,  271,  299,  842, 
361,440, 1;  662,  8. 

Button,  264. 

Byles,  Mather,  489-498. 

Cady,  666. 

Camp.  264, 893,  868. 

Campbell,  481,  2. 

Cannon,  264. 

Carder,  Richard,  264. 

Carpenter,  264,  808,    841, 

Carr,  John,  248,9. 
Carter,813. 

Carwithy,  (Kerwithy.)  67. 
.Caulkins,  (Calkin,)  67,  71, 
'     74-76,  82,  6,  8;  99;  101, 
8, 10,  11,  16;  142,  164,8; 
269,  294,  808,  863,  861, 
V     622,  682,  668. 
^Chalker,  261. 
Chambers.  860. 
Chamberhn,  881. 
Champlin,  402,  7;  467,  687, 

640,  680. 
Champion,  176. 
Chandler,  264,  800^  1. 


Chanell,  281, 2. 
Channing,  671,  7;  688-90, 

668. 
Chapel(l,)146,262,  8;  260, 

826,  346,  608. 
Chapman,  98, 176, 197, 248, 

250, 8;  260, 2;  808, 891,  9; 

411,  479,  614,   682,  644, 

661,  677,  681,  2. 
Chappell,  60,  8;    74,  136, 

248,  268,  9;  268,  862,861, 

870,  476,  682,   608,  618, 

662. 
Charlet,  (Chelet.)  76,  299. 
Chauncev,  Soran,  132. 
Cherry,  264. 
Chesebrough,  44,  78, 86, 88, 

99-104,  194,  248, 804, 662. 
Chester,  146,  281,  6,  8,  9; 

248,  863,  426,  7,  486,  619, 

647. 
Chew,  468, 477, 606, 689, 40. 
Chitwood,  182. 
Christophers,  117, 146, 167, 

166,  170, 183, 195, 9;  286, 

8;  240, 1;  261-63,  260,1; 

277,  8;  286,  808,  7, 10, 16; 

886,867,878,882-84,897, 

8;  401,  462,  466-67,  487, 

606,  622,  666,  8,  9. 
Church,  891,  622. 
Churchwood,  Hannah,  294. 
Chynnery,  87,  98,  98. 
Clap,  884,  667. 
Clark(e,)  66,  206, 260,  872, 

881,  8. 
Clay,  88,248. 

Cleaveland,  627, 662, 8 ;  671. 
Clinton,  629,  546,  566,  664. 
Codner,  77,  146,  197,  269, 

289, 828. 
C<.rtin,  fi40. 
Ccnttf^,)  e2,  67,70,1;  84,97, 

134,  1*3,  4  i  ]94,Jj;2Sl,6, 

7,8;  240,  4;  260,  »,  2«8, 

3V&,  2<!>a,  36  Sj  39B,  BO,  04; 

407, 410, 47 C,  603,  3 ;  fil3- 

ifi,  521,  e?  saa,  o;  cu8, 

671,  9;6B8,  »27,  S43,  <J<i2, 

667-70. 
Cole,  77,  292,  899. 
Coles,  Sarah,  218. 
Colfax,  264,  89,  683,  619, 

Collins,  70,  87,  146,  228, 
271,  289,  684. 

Comstock,  66, 8 ;  74, 96,  111, 
116.  142,  3;  175,244,260, 
806;814, 16;606,  660. 

Condy,  146, 167,  806,  868. 

Conkling,  640,  2. 

Coastant,  608,  679. 

Cook,  686,  606,  6. 

Cooley,  146,  209,  274. 

Copp,  899,  482,  6. 

Corey,  816. 

Cotter,  144. 

CowdalL  98. 

Crandall,  682. 

CranneU,  682. 


Crary.260,4;292,861. 

Crawford,  649. 

Crocker,  98,  268,  8,  9;  889, 

862,  861,  874,  881,  612. 
Croghan,  Col.,  843. 
Crombe,  800. 
Cro8weU,420, 1;464. 
Crump,  669. 

CuIUck,  260. 
Cnllum,  662. 
Culver,  86,  96,  184,  6,  7; 

302,  309,  316,  328,  494. 
Curtiss,  243,  386,    6,   407, 

460, 2,  6,  7. 
Curtenius,  Peter,  607. 
Cushing,  649. 

DaboU,  656. 

Dalrymple,  (Lord.)  562. 
Damel(s,)  146,  258,  60;  888, 

861,2;408,  664,  658. 
Danforth,  841. 
Darrall,  William,  285. 
Darrow,  260,  4;  339,  847, 

439,  514, 582, 598, 611-18. 
Dart,  145. 269, 277, 826, 867. 
Dann,  (Manhal,)  478. 
Davenport,  116,  421,  450, 

464-67. 
Davie,  199,259,264,416-17. 
Davis,  77,  264, 291,  860,  4; 

605,  688,  642,  666. 
Davison,  289. 
Day,  614. 

Dayne,  (Deane?)  146,816. 
Dea,(Deane?)14S. 
Dean(e,)  507,  608. 
Decatur,  680-87. 
De  iLfin,  &70, 

DalLiTiJiirL,  (UlUEini^,)  366. 
Deiiiftoii,  77,  83,  B,  T,  8;  98^ 

IDU,  4,  «,  &;  115,190,156, 

185-1^8,  104,  34S,  9t  36a, 

s;a«4, 271, 2»e,  an,  3|a, 

^^  SS  ;  347,  3SD,  363,  «89, 

a5t;a;43a,  433,  3,66^,7. 
Dciinjs,  264,  aS2,  t^,  flOO, 

624. 
Denslow,  188. 
Deshon,  870,  447,  484,  608, 

6,  6;  617, 19;  628,687,9; 

670, 682, 619, 641, 2, 668, 9. 
Dewolf,  Edw.,  192. 
Dickinson,  668. 
Dixon,  431. 
Do(a)ne,  160,  899. 
Dodge,  264,  892,  488, 698. 
Dolbeare,  667. 
Dolph,  684. 
Don-ance,  418. 
Doty,  618. 
Donglws  98,  184-144,  188, 

6;  194,  269,  273,  4;  886, 

291,6;  800,8;  886,868,8; 

863,  7;  878,  401,  608,  618, 
624,  682,  695,  610,  687, 
641,  2;  666,  7. 

Dow,  Ulysses,  692. 
Downer,  Joehua,  667. 
Downing,  118. 


INDEX     OF    FAMILY    NAMES. 


675 


Doxer,  68.  76,  82, 167,  2S2, 

269. 
Dndley,  198,  804,  412,  18; 

498. 
Dunke,  261. 
Durfey,  239,  860,  886,  890, 

402,  8, 10;  462. 
Dnrkee,  688. 
Durell,  478. 
Dwight,171,4;878. 
Dyer,  280,  478,  607,  620.  ' 
Dymond,  146,  282,  6;  261, 

278,  9;  288,  811,  860. 

Katon,  811. 

Edgecombe,  188,  241,  269, 

264,  846,   8i6,   870,  444, 

6^. 
Edgerton,  688. 
Edwards,  06, 466,  692. 
Eells,  460, 1, 666. 
Eidlitz,  691. 
Elderkin,67,8;82,6,8;  96, 

108,8,9;  182,164,6,8,9; 

191,281,806,866,618,19. 
Eldridge,502,667. 
EUard,  402. 
EUiot,   188,   146,  197,  882, 

886,  429, 666. 
Ellis,  146,264. 
EUy,476. 
Elmore,  Edw.,  188. 
Elsing,  269. 
Elton,  240. 
Ely,  171,  218,  260,2;  861, 

621, 24, 26. 
Endicot,  29, 84, 118. 
Epes,  198. 
Erving,  612,  628. 
Eyre,  (Col.,)  646,  660,  7, 8; 

660,8,4. 

Fairbanks,  826,  481. 
Fanning,  96,  142,  6;  806. 
Fargo,  564, 878, 614. 
Famsworth,  628. 
Fenwick,  27, 8 ;  48, 6 ;  172-4, 

260. 
Fish,  96,  269,  810,  14,  16; 

416,  462. 
Fisk,  422. 
Fitch,  187, 162, 186, 211, 12; 

249,871,  8;  886,  892, 426- 

29;  488, 661, 688, 641, 647. 
Fltzpatrick,  600. 
Fones,  40. 

Foote,  264, 808,  846. 
Forbe?,  60, 169. 
Ford,  810. 
Fonter,  (Foster,)  146,  286, 

806,  812,  686. 
Forth,  89. 
Fosdick,  264,  286,  848,  868, 

879,  889,  397,  682,  4,  7; 

674-6;  626,  649,  668. 
Fosslker,  (Fossecar,)  60, 1; 

76. 
Fountain,  264,  889. 
Fowler,  409. 


Fox,  198, 202, 212, 269,  262, 
4;  272;  808,  822,  870,  7; 
486, 602. 

Francis,  667. 

Franklin,  416,  661. 

Freebetter,  666. 

Freeman,  448,  660. 

French,  272. 

Frink,  192,  829,  861,  649, 
620,  647,  668. 

Fry,  269,  70. 

Fryer,  118. 

Gager,  69, 66,  74, 98, 7;  164, 

8,  9;  268, 292. 
Gale,  696. 
GaUop,29,87,68,74,  9;87, 

98, 144, 164, 184,  291,  829, 

361, 602,  626,  632,  669. 
Gammon,  868. 
Gord,  146. 
Gardiner,  26,  84,  178,  241, 

801,  888,  4;  898,408,  8; 

416,  471,   486,  610,  640, 

670, 1. 
Garland,  687. 
Garlick,  77. 
Garmand,  146. 
Gory,  800. 
Gaylord,  169. 
Geer,  97, 167,  269,  864,  878, 

416, 420.  602, 699. 
George.  (Bishop,)  696. 
Gerrard,281,298. 
Gesbie,  77. 
Gibbons,  162. 
Gibbs,  283. 
Gibson,  261, 2;  262,  4;  467, 

476, 622. 
Gifford,292. 
GUbert,264,428,486. 
(}oddard,  244, 440, 1, 4 ;  627, 

8, 669. 
Gordon,  687. 
Gorges,  866. 
Gorton,  436-89. 
Gove,  248. 
Graham,  (Lord  Lyndock,) 

664. 
Grant,  146, 298. 
Graves,    380,  866,  446-47; 

486,  631. 
Gray,  189, 360. 
Green,  260, 4;  880, 841, 867, 

879,891,  2;  471,2,  8;  486, 

8,  9;  610, 628,  647,666,6, 

669. 
Greenslade,  331. 
Greenwood,  699. 
Griffin,  84,  388,  867,  696, 

664. 
Gridley,  440. 
Grignon,606. 
Griswold,  172,  208,  9;  261, 

288,386,486,8;  616,631. 
Griswold,    Matthew,    126, 

161-177;  208, 9;  248, 26L 
Grose,  244. 
GoUiyer,  869. 


Gordon,  Mariel,  883. 
Gurley,  628,  662,  9,  671. 

Hackbum,  (Hagbom,)  184, 
162. 

Hockley,  264,  404. 

Hadley ,  262. 

Hale,  Nathan,  616,  684,  622. 

Haley,  634. 

Hall,  136,268,  8;  266,481. 

Hallam,  182,  193,  222-28, 
236, 88;  244, 263, 262, 286, 
836,  341,  868,  899,  406, 
441,476,499,614,  682,3; 
662,694,  662,3,  7,  8;  670. 

Hallet,  WiUiam,  60,  4. 

Hallsall,  (HanseU,)  144, 281. 

Halsey,  200, 266, 669,  676. 

Hamlm,  GUes,  236,  240. 

Hammond,  606,  611. 

Hancock,  610. 

Handy,  608. 

Hanshut,  74,  6. 

Harding,  366, 688-40. 

Hardy,  630-33. 

Harman,  648. 

Harris,  84-88,148,240,268, 
9;  269,  276,  292,  320,836, 
8;  842, 896, 426,  8;  462, 8; 
474,6;  612,698.647. 

Harrison,  (Gen.,)  362. 

Hartley,  87,  137,  148, 162, 
280 

Harvey,  266,  348. 

Harwood,  70,  6;  96, 274, 368. 

Hatch,  262, 6. 

Haughton,  76, 102, 127,149, 
160,247,  8;  262,  299,  338, 
842,874,426. 

Haven,  647. 

Havens,  687, 640, 1;  640. 

Hawke,266,d39. 

Hayden,  296,  688. 

Haynes,  (Haines,)  88,  90, 
102, 146,  261,  262,  6,  308, 
9;814,  384,  487. 

Hazard,  682. 

Heom,  644. 

Hempstead,  44,  67,  8;  60, 
66-72,76,81,7;  96,  227, 
260,  272,288,  7;  301,  810, 
16;  821,  869,866,  400,1, 
9;486,618,  632,4,668,  6, 
682. 

Henshaw,  (^94. 

HerteU,  448,  603. 

Hewet,  807. 

Hicks,  409. 

Hide,  (Hyde,)  418, 614, 666, 
667. 

Higby,  60. 

Higgmson,  43. 

hCi26,143,6,8;167,166, 
188,  8;  190,  6;  236,  261, 
260,  286,  807,  817,  3^, 
427,  8;  348,  428,432,463, 
621,7;  666. 

Hillhouse,  418,  432-34,  608, 
8,  6;  606,  667,  8. 


676 


INDBX    OF     FAMILY    NAMES. 


Himnan,  509,  611,  687,  9; 

641,  2;  574, 626,  661. 
Hiscox,  204. 
Holloway,  265, 866. 
Holmes,  198. 266. 
Holmsted,  172. 
Holt.  265.  314,  889,  688,  6; 

Hooker,  481. 

Hooper,  412. 

Hope,  242. 

HoplunB,  609-11,   518,  20; 

587,  671. 
Hosmer,  380,  680. 
Hotham,  (Admiral,)  687. 
How,  279. 
Howard,  467,  611,  12;  686, 

640. 
HoweU,640. 
Howlaud,  668. 
Hubbard,  204,  7;  265,  70; 

812, 18;  849, 406, 427, 448, 

476,  602,  640,  668,  70. 
HnbbeU,  266,  888,  867. 
Hngfaes,  281,  664. 
HuB,  463,  477. 
Hungerford,  68,  9;  75,  86, 

162,  7;  281. 
Hunter,  219. 
Hunting,  640. 
Huntington,  159,  172,  826, 

618,  16, 18;  577,  589,  90; 

621,  8,  5,  648,  649,  658, 

662,  8,  670. 
Huntley,  296,  805. 
Hurd,  818. 
Hurlbut,  265,  868,  502,  682, 

8;579,  582,  592,  603,  622, 

8;  668,9. 
Hutchinson,  265,  514. 
Hutton,  240, 1. 

Ingaaon,77. 

In|lis.642. 

Ingranam,  585. 

Ireland,  801. 

IsbeU,  67,  71,  97,  272,  289, 

842. 
Mam,  620,  688,  662,  671. 

Jacklin,  882. 
Jackson,  218, 19;  409. 
Jarvis,  448. 
Javne,  637. 
Jeffers,  198. 
Jeffrey,  241, 2,  4. 
Jennings,  265,  860. 
Jewett,  484,  5;  461,  8;  468, 

606. 
Jiggles,  844,  879. 
J(£iBon,  265,  843,  859,  421, 

486. 
Johnston,  608. 
Jones,  70, 197,218,265,288, 

807,  811,  829,  368,  428, 

687,  686. 
Jordan,  202. 
Joyner,  Isabel,  821. 
Judd,  594. 


Kay,  440. 

Kearney,  661. 

Keith,  410. 

Keeny,67,  71,  6;94,143,4; 
231,  259,  291,  806,  389, 
846,  852,  861,  509,  587. 

KetcheU,  155. 

Kidd,  298. 

Kimball,  619. 

Kinoberly,  262. 

Kmg,  891,  8. 

Kinney,  (Kinne,)  601. 

Kirbv,  188. 

Kirtland,  419,  621. 

Knight,  864,  6;  871,  628. 

Laboissiere,  680. 
La  Fayette,  610. 
Lake,  44,  5,  7;  68,  77,  87, 

98, 154,  238,  291. 
Lamb.  327,  486,  588. 
Landfear,  606. 
Lane,  138, 154,  7;  161,  281, 

8;  269,  270. 
Larrabee,  278, 282. 
Latham,  44, 58,  9;  64, 70, 4 ; 

89,97,8;  103,  138,  6,6; 

163-67,269,306,  312,18; 

824,335,344,  9;  365,  401, 

526,  646. 
Lathrop,  See  Lothrop. 
Latimer,  (Lattemore,)  144, 

171,  193,  227,  8;  281,2; 

251,  9;  266, 8;  802, 825, 9; 

859,  882,   408,  471,  504, 

513, 15;  518, 526, 582, 551, 

582,  8;  602. 
Law,  218, 394, 476, 502-506, 

544,  575,  619-25, 649,  652, 

667,  8,  9;  670. 
Lawrence,  270,    816,    647, 

663. 
Lay,  162, 175,  7;  292, 884. 
Leach,  265,  299,  874. 
Leake,  (Lake,)  110,  288. 
Learned,  628,  662,  7,  8,  9; 

670, 1. 
Lechmere,  412,  441,  477. 
Ledyard,  244,  884,  407, 502, 

519,20;  521,  6;  530,546, 

8;  558,  9;  561,  2,  5,  7; 

575,  603. 
Lee,  170,  5,  6 ;  252, 891, 458, 

470,9;  684,  595,  6;  616, 

17,  64L 
Leeds,  236,  7;  244,265,  812, 

*835,  537,  8;540,  582. 
Leet,  470. 

Lefevre,  (Fevor,)  428. 
Leffingwell,  186,  470,  577. 
Leighton,  (Lawton,)  78. 
Lemoine,  (Capt.,)  566. 
Lenard,  93. 
Lennison,  274. 
Leslie,  (Capt.,)  478. 
Lester,  67,  71, 82, 96,7 ;  116, 

152;  198,  260,  278,  286, 

810,  821,  840,  2,6;  862, 

870,1;  411,612,649. 


Lewis,  60,  6;   74,  6;   144, 

201,250,  9;  295, 825,  448, 

663,8. 
Lippitt,  620. 
Liveen,  (Uving,)  223-2S8, 

286,7;  253,358. 
Livingston,  257,  867,  864, 

878,5;  881,404,412,428, 

9;  433. 
Lockwood,  87,  806,  812. 
Longdon,  58, 60, 1;  74,  111, 

284. 
Loomer,  265,  827,  840. 
Lord,  91,  188,  152-54,  286, 

317,  884,  456. 
Lothrop,  (Lathrop,)  67,  «0, 

4,6;  95,128,7;  182,154, 

9;  191,240,294,808,891. 

2;  581. 
Loudon,  (Earl  ot)  469. 
Lovelace,  Gov.,  887. 
Loveland,  Bob.,  98, 188, 161, 

288,4. 
Ludlow,  88.' 

Lynde,  189.  218,  860,  488. 
Lyndock,  (Lord,)  654. 

Mack,  617. 

Mackensie,  197,  286. 

McCarty,  265,  540,  58S. 

McCurtly,  Sally,  589. 

McDonald,  592,  657. 

McKwen,  574,  590,629,667, 
8;  672. 

McKay,  640. 

McLeUan,  518. 

McSparran,  440-42,  446. 

Madison,  477. 

Malbone,  300. 

Mallison,  562. 

Maniere,  579. 

Mannhig,  878,  657. 

Manwanng,  129,  146,  170\ 
240,1;  ^2,8,9;  268,292,\ 
817,  18;  847,  852,861,4,  I 
6;  403,  444,  502, 582, 624,/ 
668.  ^ 

Maples,  481. 

Maritt,  (Marret,)  141,  280, 
249,  259,  814. 

Marsey,  428. 

MarshaU,  70, 1,5;  145,  248, 
814,  847. 

MarUn,  67, 145,.549. 

Marvin,  175,  252. 

Mason,  85,  6,8;  48,  51,  5; 
64,78,  9;  81,  98,  104-6, 
120,6,7;  164,  6;  170,2,  4, 
7;  180, 2, 4;  227, 249,  808, 
881,410,12;  426,  8;  480,8. 

Masters,  60,  74,6;  812. 

Mather,  195,  7;  878,  416, 
489,  498,  620,  651,  669. 

Mattle,  800. 

Mayhew,  286,240, 265,  290, 
816,  886,  8S1. 

Maynaid,  265,  854,  610. 

Meach,  607. 

Meacham,456. 


INDEX     OP     FAMILY      NAMES. 


677 


Meades,  70, 1,  96,  144,  266, 

859,  415. 
Measure,  145, 249, 281, 884. 
MelaUy,  588,  624. 
Mercer,  662,  671. 
Merrick,  Stephen,  250. 
Merrill(8,)  859,  582. 
Merritt,400,482,8;  440,1. 
Messenger,  77,  89. 
Michel,  627. 
Migges,  270. 
Mighill,    (MitcheU?)    265, 

880. 
MUbnme,  222. 
Miller,  244,    827,  840,  46; 

884-86,  891,  8,  9;    477, 

482,   502,  547,  558,584, 

622,  669. 
MUls,  622,  649. 
MiUett,  649, 50. 
Milwood.118. 
Minor,  (Miner,)  44,  66-61, 

64,5;  72,74-76,80-85,98, 

101-4,  129,   186,   143,  4; 

162,8,6,8;  188,  195,   6; 

287,280,5;  802,826,874, 

459,  647,  656. 
Minter,  265,  288, 862. 
Mitchell,  265,  888,  628. 
Moffktt,478,497.511. 
Montgomery,  558,  660, 4. 
Moore,  98, 198,  8}  260,  278, 

810,14;  821. 
Morgan,  70,  71,  96,  98, 115, 

132,  3;     186-89,   142-44, 

152,161,2,  6;  198,9;  251, 

259-61,  265,282,2tf4,  811, 

12,19;  846,850,877,415, 

418-20,  604. 
Morris,  (Morrice,)  297,  409, 

509. 
Morse,  606,  611. 
Mortimer.  265, 854. 
Morton,  Wm.,  45,  58,  7;  60, 

6;  76,116,  188,149,150, 

2;  287. 
Mott,  520, 1. 
Mould,  188,  4;  281,  285-87; 

260,  275. 
Mudge,  60,  74,  82,  269,  289, 

822. 
Mulford,  817. 
Mumford,  244,  409,  441,  4, 

6;    470,  502,  5,  6:    617, 

582,7;  543,565,577,582, 

622,667,8. 
MnnseU,    (Munson?)   265, 

868. 
Murphy,  542. 
Murray,  586. 
Mussey,  649. 
Mynard,  (Maynard?)  268, 

265,  827,  854,  428. 

Kash,  251. 
Mest,  265,  824, 856. 
Nettleton,  818. 
Kewbury,  018. 
Newman,  96, 152. 


Newton,  891,  2. 

Nicholls,  60,6,6;    74,  121, 

188,   141,4;    198,  270,2; 

289,842.     Gov.,  40, 167. 
Nicholson,  James,  643. 
Niles,  688,  629. 
Nixon,  514. 
Norcott,  682. 
Norris,  442. 
North,  281,  671. 
Northrop,  299. 
Norton,  27,  30, 113,  441. 
Nott,  671. 
Noyes,  James,  106, 130, 286, 

297,  879.    Moses,  285. 

Cakes,  Edw.,  195. 

Oglesby,  844. 

Oldham,  28, 9. 

Oliver,  288,  477,  540,  682. 

Olmsted,  623. 

Otis,  432,8,5;  579. 

Owen,  418-20,  454,  619-22, 

667. 
Packer,  70,  6;  96. 188,  812, 

16;    824,7;    847,9;    417, 

440,1,4, 
Packwood,  578,  682. 
Paget,  402. 
Fame,  427. 
Palmer,  102,  4;    278,  285, 

297,  304,  826,  334,  526, 

677,  606. 
Pabnes,  90, 1,4, 6;  148,152, 

164-68,   170,   180,   83-89, 

195,  223-27,  239,  249-68, 

341,   360,1,4;    896,   402, 

444,  666,  9. 
Parke,  66, 66, 7, 9, 70, 73-76, 

95-98,   102-4,8,16;    188, 

162,   158,   192,  268,  282, 

811,16;  472,671. 
Parker,    67,    69-70,   78-76, 

186,144,161,6;  188,281, 

8;  291,306,812,829,353, 

4;  448,472,624,589;  541, 

665. 
Parkin,  624,  668. 
Parry,  289. 
Parsons,  450,3;  479,  503,8; 

513,14;  628,9. 
Patrick,  86. 
Patten,  686. 
Peake,(Pike,)142,6;  814, 

16;  325. 
Pease,  260. 
Peck,  699. 
Pell,  138. 
Pember,  265,  355. 
Pemberton,  266,  345. 
Pendall,  265. 
Pendleton,  516. 
Perkins,  286,  514,  615,  620, 

644,647,662,8,7,8;  671. 
Persey,  265. 
Peters,  28,  40,48-47,52,8; 

566,7. 
Peterson,  252. 
Phillips,  85, 146,  484. 


Phipps,  256. 

Picket,  76,  86,  97, 126, 152, 

171,   198,  286,8;    240,1; 

260,276,7;  286,308,818, 

344,  360,  868,  470,  668. 
Pickworth,  77. 
Pierce,  826,  436. 
Pierpont,  462. 
Pierson,  166,  350. 
Pigot,  649,  630. 
Pinevert.  680. 
Piriou,  (Perean,)  679,  622. 
Plaisted,  240. 
Plimpton,  265. 
Plurabe,  91, 238, 250, 2, 8, 9 ; 

266,  302,  886,  378,  898, 

401,  428,  488,  570. 
Polly,  348. 
Pomeroy,  456. 
Pool(e,)  70,  132,  278,  290, 

307,  544,  679. 
Porter,  663. 
Post,  60,2,  9;    76,  83,  141, 

156,  308. 
Potter,  475, 595,  628. 
Potts,  266,  346. 
Powell,  444. 
Powers,  159,  582. 
Pratt,  208, 9;  249,  298,  0% 

499. 
Prentis,  (Prentice,)  88,  87, 

94,185,6,9;  141,4;    152, 

167,  170,   196,  208,  218, 

286,8;    240,1;    2^2,8,9; 

288,  295,  818, 826,8;  860, 

1;  382,5,6;  85r9¥;  398, 

403,i;4^7,«;4§7,§;602, 

6^,  eifi. 
Prior,  619. 
Proctor,  318,  868. 
Prout,  286,  871,  8. 
Prowse,  808. 
Prudden,  201. 
Prychard,  111. 
Punderson,  420. 
Pygan,  142, 199, 223, 6 ;  284, 

7;  260,1;  262, 8;  279, 341, 

369.  486,  669. 
Pynchou,  96, 188,  4;  202. 

Quarry,  289. 

BandaU,  288. 

Ransford,  216-18. 

Rathbone,  437. 

Rawlins,  270. 

Rawson,  584. 

Ray,  240.  642. 

Raymond,  88,93,117,134, 

145,   166,   181,8,4;    268, 

262,292.301,317, 18;  323, 

361,367,896,400,426,6; 

432,8,6;  514, 582,8;  606, 

627. 
Read,  (Reed,)  40,  77,  145, 

475. 
Redfield,  (Redfyn,)  250, 279, 

290,  841. 
Reeve,  67L 


678 


INDEX     OF     FAMILY     NAMES. 


Bevell,  (Reavell,)    147,  8; 

162,  280. 
Reynolds,  172, 188,  860. 
Rice,  108, 265,  346, 682, 626, 

644. 
Richards,  152, 228, 2(^8, 886, 

864,  883,   404,6,8;    416, 

602,^;  6^,7;   652,  662, 

6^2,  619,  622.* 

John,  98, 268, 9;  268,818, 

864,7;   881,6;   898,  487, 

662,  8,  9. 
Richardson,  76,  86,  91,9; 

128,   162,  260,  802,  366, 

441,  622. 
Bipley,  169,  640. 
Roach,  77,8;  268,279. 
Roberts,  67, 71, 87, 142, 164, 

6;  163,274,9. 
Robinson,    67,  60,1;    188, 

146,890,466,471,649. 
RockweU,  188. 
Rodgers,  661. 
Rogers,  74,  84,  90-92,  96, 6, 

8;    108-110,  116,   183-38, 

148,4,7;  152,164,6;  183, 

199,  200-221,  (Ch.  xiv.,) 

227,  237,  240,4;    251,9; 

S86,  297,    322,   830,7,9; 
'    846,  365,  398,  400, 1, 8,  4, 

9;  426,  7,  8;  436, 471, 491, 

588,  542,  669,  582,   610, 

618,14;  647,663. 
Roee,  158, 261,  354. 
RoseweU,  Eliz.,  383. 
Rose-Morgan.  See  Morgan. 
Rosseter,  456. 
Rowland,  201. 
Rowe,  486, 7. 
Royce,  93,6;    139,140-44; 

152, 164, 160,  311. 
Rudd,  48. 
Ruddock,  664,  668. 
Rnssell,  266. 

Sadler,  lU^Ua. 

SagO|540. 

Saltmtall,  196-98,  218, 16, 
16;  824,244,262,8;  296, 
813,  876,9;  882-91,409, 
413,427,8;  430,  462-66, 
471,  486,  502-4,  609,  518, 
617-21,  626,  681,7;  648- 
46,652,677,681,619,662, 
667-70. 

Sanford,  236. 

Sands.  293. 

Satterly,  (Shatterly,)  265, 
283. 

Savage,  183, 162. 

SaveD,  470. 

Saxton,  Hannah,  834. 

Sayre,  313,  641. 

Scarborough,  668. 

Scarritt,  (Skarritt,)  265, 
428 

Scofield,  667. 

Scott,  69. 

Seaboiy,  265, 820,  419,  420, 


448-46,  592-96,  600,  608, 

626, 670. 
Seaman,  665. 
Searle,  286. 


Seymour,  568, 4 ;  661. 

Shackmaple,  289,  410,  441, 
4,  477,  679. 

Shaplev,  146,  236,9;  259, 
285,h7,  348,  466,  621,6; 
646,9;  658,661,7;  579. 

Sharswood,  146,  808,  847. 

Shaw,  98,  242,8;  286,888, 
844,  442,  8,  7;  474,  6;  482- 
85,  498,  602-12,  619-21, 
589,548,8;  570,688,619, 
622,  687. 

Sherman,  629,  671. 

Shipman,  518. 

Shirley,  468, 9. 

Shepherd,  (Shepard,)  838, 
595. 

Shore,  75. 

Short,  357,  471. 

Shrimpton,  139. 

Shubnck,  637. 

Singleton,  265,  366.'* 

Sistare,  488,4;  666,9. 

Sizer,  598. 

Skidmore,  60,1;  282. 

SkiUinger,  (StiUinger,)  188, 
6;  162,247. 

Skinner,  583. 

Skolinks,  240. 

Sloan,  463,  474. 

Smedley,  638. 

Smith,  60,61,88-86;  92,3, 
6;  109,  135,6,8;  142,4; 
160,1;  168, 171,2,6;  198, 
9;  202,6,9;  252,3;  259 
61,  294,9;  821,2;  368, 
362,  870,  404,  415,  437, 
440,1;  516,644,617,631, 
643,4;  047,669. 

Southmead,  (Southmayd,) 
148,  838. 

PpaimT?,  582. 

SjK^rseei",  167,  281. 

.Spicer,  146,  386,  618. 

.SjrtLrf^ier,  665. 

Spru^ie,  488. 

springer,  266,  666. 

s^[ijiii-,  oau. 

Stutlurd,  145. 

Bullion,  (Sterling?)  68,  76, 

84,133,  162,  282,7;  251, 

808,826,7;  346,866. 
Stanton,  28,  56,  66-68,  75, 

88,101,106,129,181,202, 

287,  249,  286,  296.   826, 

884,  428,  568,  9. 
Stapleton,  556. 
Starke,  96, 142,  818,  486, 7. 
Starr,  146,  241,  260, 1,  9; 

277,9;  312,18;  416,544, 

576,  692,  615. 
Stebbins,  44,  57,9;   60,6; 

78,4;    81,  96,   148,  259, 

268,  814,  821. 


Stedman,  68,9;    282,  272, 

287,9;  842,871. 
Steer,  213,  266,  380. 
Sterling,  242,  440, 1. 
Stevens,   113,  161,  281,9; 

250,270,6;  292,841. 
Stewart,  861,  408,  444,  474, 

476-78,511,12;  584,616, 

622,  658. 
Stillman,  674. 
Stinwick,  282. 
Stiles,  588. 
Stockman,  595, 662. 
Stoddard,  84, 159,  854,  419, 

420,  647. 
Stone,  27-80,  665. 
Stoughton,  86-88,  42,    98, 

106,  6. 
Strickland,  259,  266. 
Sulivan,  411. 
SuUaven,  146,  479. 
Sutton,  844. 
Swaddel,  266,  846. 
Swain,  640,  2. 
Swan,  698,  9. 
Sweezy,  288,  456. 
Sybada,  68,  850. 
Sylvester,  148. 

Taber,  70,4;  248,486,8; 

Tappin,  84. 

Talcott,  104,174,8;  186,6; 

886. 
Talman,  290. 
Talhnage,  632. 
Taylor,  66,7;    74,  228,4; 

416,  477. 
Teonont,  449. 
Terrall,  (Tyrrel,)  146,  269, 

310,  857. 
Thatcher,  462,  626,  662. 
Thomas,  112. 
Thomson,  ( Thompson,)  108, 

116, 128,  9;  182,  8,  6;  149, 

160,2;  286,813,882,412, 

476,  696,  606,  662. 
Thome,  266,  291,  846. 
Throop,  626. 

Tibbot,  (Tybbot,)  111,  118. 
Tilley,  440,  628. 
Tillinghast,  240. 
Tmker,  92,8,6;    116,  182, 

8,5;  147,  9;  150,  248,9; 

280,  834. 
Tompkins,  165. 
Tongue,  (Tonge,)  68,  88, 9; 

101,7;  184,162,288,250, 

274,8;  289,867,427,8. 
Townsend,  286. 
Towson,  146. 
Tozor,  889. 
Tracy,  161,2. 
Tit^t,  188,5;  228,262. 
Treby,  146,  668. 
Trott.  621,  667. 
Trowbridge,  871. 
Truman,  142, 146,  260, 887, 

350,9. 
Trumbull,  466,  617,  642, 8. 


INDEX     OF     FAMILY     NAMES. 


679 


Tubbft,  146,  810. 
Tudor,  240. 
Tapper,  684. 

Turner,  286,  248,  266,  277, 
8:  291,817,820,846,662. 
TuthiU,  279,  466. 
TutUe,  422,  602. 
Tyler,  448,  680,  666. 

Updike,  844. 
l^ham,  649^. 
Upjohn,  694. 
UnderfaiU,  29-86. 

Vandevoort,  607. 
Vernon,  887. 
Vibcrt,  (Vibber,)  482. 
Vincent,  77. 
Vine,  Mary,  811, 661. 

Wadsworth,  280,  409,  481. 
Wait,  608,  622, 7. 
Wales,  620. 
Walker,  266,  410. 
Wallace,  610, 16. 
Waller,  68,9;  76,111,182, 

162,8,7,8;  176,260,260, 

278,4;  821,870,404. 
Wallis,  172. 
Walton,  661. 
Walworth,   244.  266,  846, 

409. 
Wanton,  409. 
Ward,  891. 
Waring,  826. 
Warner,  288. 
Warren,  898,  699,  626. 
Washburn,  696. 
Washington,   468,  9:   482, 

609,10.18. 
Wass,  EUz.,  486. 
Waterfaouse,  44,  69,  60,1; 

74-76,  96, 177,  248,  296. 


Waters,  619, 20. 

Watson,  60, 824,  8;  428, 481, 
646,  670. 

Way,  211, 262,260, 266, 828, 
368,6;  862,619,667. 

Weaver,  480,  616,  682,  647. 

Webb,  616. 

Wedge,  Mary,  262. 

Weeks,  266,  270. 

Wells,  60,  74,  287,  812,  866, 
6;  626. 

Wehnan,  67, 71, 6 ;  146, 281, 
827. 

Welsh,  688, 87. 

Wescote,  486,  614. 

West,  826,  698,  618,  662. 

Wetherell,  98,  186-87, 140, 
160, 6, 6;  180, 1,4,6,9;  194, 
6;  198,  9;  206,  211,  18, 
16;  280,249,260,8;  268- 
62,  271,7,9;  286,  294,7; 
822,  884,  842,  868,  896, 

428,  666,  7. 
Wetmore,  878.' 
Wharton,  476,  607, 8. 
Wheat,  624,  668. 
Wheeler,  146,  288,  262,8; 

2^0,  290,  880,  476. 
White,  86,  674. 
Whitefield,  421,  468-60. 
Whitford,  467. 
Whiting,  866,  878-82,  891, 

429,  6i88. 
Whitiock,  660. 
Whittingham,  888. 
Wickham,  288. 
Wickwhre,  260, 6;  290,  867. 
Wightman,  422,  486, 9. 
Wifldns,  160. 

Willard,  196. 

WiUett,  266,  698. 

Willey,  44,^,7}  60,4;  72, 


4,6;  94,9;  148,167,260, 
287,810,821,7;  848,864. 

Williams,  24,  44, 66, 99, 107, 
128,146,169,248,260,6; 
277,  808,  818,  846,8,9; 
866,  420,  468,  466,  602, 
668,  667-69,  691,9;  610, 
629,684,641-44,647,662, 
4  7  9. 

Wiliiston,  622. 

Willoughby,  262,  266. 

Wilson,  86-88, 112, 188, 240, 
620.8;  662. 

Wincnester,  828. 

Wmslow,  112. 

Winthrop.  See,  generally, 
the  first  five  chapters; 
also,  116, 128, 6;  147, 162, 
4,9;  164-66,  169,180-88, 
188,  90,  194-96,  200,  1; 
216,228,226,27,289,260, 
1;  266-62,  270,  284,6,7, 
290,4;  800,887,846,867, 
860,6,9;  876,884,  402-4, 
408-16,  427,8;  676,  668, 
670. 

Woloott,  174,  891,2;  409, 
464,  621,  648,  686,  619. 

Wood,  60,  98,  808,  824,6; 
870  628 

Woodkridge,  197,  879,  416, 
18;  498-600,  612,  686, 
670, 1. 

Woodmancy,  146,  818, 660, 
668. 

Woodward,  686,  602,  628. 

Wooster,  891. 

Worthington,  606. 

Wright,  668,  670. 

Yorke,  888. 
Young,  266, 278. 


NAMES  OP  INDIANS. 


Ben-UDcas,  410,  429,  478. 

CanoDchet,  187. 

Canonicus,  32. 

Cashawasset,  62,  129, 180. 
(Same  as  Harmon  Gar- 
rett and  Wequashkook.) 

Cassasinamon,  62.  79, 128, 
129,180,184,6,7.  (Same 
as  Robin.) 

Cesar,  410,  429-481. 

Foxen,64,67,126,260. 

Garrett,  Harmon.  See  Cas- 

hawasset. 
Garrett,  Kate,  410,  680. 

Josiah,  868,  426. 
Jmnpe,  250. 

Kutshamokin,  81,  82. 


Maenns,  186. 
Manon 


Homet,  410. 
Mamaraka-gm'gana,   (the 
Giant,)  170,  262. 


Mejuames,  170. 
Menowniet,  188. 
Miantonomoh,  88,  48. 
Momoho  ( Mamaho,)  24, 180, 
184, 6, 7. 

Nanasquee,  184. 
NUes,  Harry.  629, 80. 
Kinigret,  (Innnicraft,)  99, 

184. 
Nowequa.     (See   Wawee- 

quaw.) 

Obed,  171. 

Occuish,   (Okknish,)   676, 

688,  617. 
Owaneco,  166, 186, 7 ;  261, 

868,  410,  426  80. 

Pa«^ran,  170. 

Pekoath.  21,  (same  as  Wo- 

pequoit.) 
Pessacus,  48. 
Philip,  181, 6. 
Pomham,  Buth,.626 
Puttaquonck-quame,  87. 


Robin.       (See   Ci 
mon.) 


Sassacns,  20,  21,  24,  27,  81, 

4,7;  66,120,428. 
Sassyons,  (Sashious,)  87. 

Tatobam,  21. 
Tatto-bitton,  170. 
Toby,  604. 
Tomquash,  184. 
Towtokhag,  260. 

Uncas,  20,21,86,8;  48,6; 
61-66;  64,  6;  79,101,120, 
126-29, 162-66, 181, 6, 260, 
2;  261,299,426-27,611. 

Waweeqoaw,  68, 64.  (Same 
as  Waweekns  and  No- 
wequa.) 

Wequashkook,  62.  (See 
Cashawasset) 

Wopequoit,  ( Wopequand.) 
(§ee  Pekoath.7 

Yotasb,  87. 


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