[1] Commonly denominated the London and Plymouth Companies.

[2] About two years after, he made a second voyage to the river, in the service of a number of Dutch merchants; and, some time after, made sale of his right to the Dutch. The right to the country, however, was antecedently in King James, by virtue of discovery which Hudson had made under his commission. The English protested against this sale; but the Dutch, in 1614, under the Amsterdam West India Company, built a fort, nearly on the same grounds where the city of Albany now is, which they called Fort Aurania. Sir Thomas Dale, Governor of Virginia, directly after dispatched Captain Argall to dispossess the Dutch, and they submitted to the King of England, and under him to the Governor of Virginia.

[3] November 3, 1620, just before the arrival of Mr. Robinson’s people in New England, King James I., by letters-patent, under the great seal of England, incorporated the Duke of Lenox, the Marquises of Rockingham and Hamilton, the Earls of Arundel and Warwick, and others, to the number of forty noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, by the name of “the Council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, and governing of New England in America … and granting unto them, and their successors and assigns, all that part of America lying and being in breadth from forty degrees of north latitude, from the equinoctial line, to the forty-eighth degree of said north latitude inclusively, and in length of and within all the breadth aforesaid, through the mainland from sea to sea.”

The patent ordained that this tract of country should be called New England in America, and by that name have continuance forever.

[4] The same year in which the patent of Massachusetts received the royal confirmation, Mr. John Endicott was sent over with about three hundred people by the patentees, to prepare the way for the settlement of a permanent colony in that part of New England.

They arrived at Naumkeak in June, and began a settlement, which they named “Salem.” This was the first town in Massachusetts, and the second in New England.

[5] Mather, Neal, Hutchinson, and other writers of New England history, have uniformly deviated from the truth in representing Connecticut as having been first settled by emigrants from their darling Massachusetts Bay.

[6] Nearly at the same time, October 8, 1635, Mr. John Winthrop, son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, arrived at Boston with a commission from Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook, and other noblemen and gentlemen interested in the Connecticut patent, to erect a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River. Their lordships sent over men, ordnance, ammunition, and two thousand pounds sterling, for the accomplishment of their design.

Mr. Winthrop was directed by his commission, immediately on his arrival, to repair to Connecticut with fifty able men, and to erect the fortifications and to build houses for the garrison, and for gentlemen who might come over into Connecticut. They were first to build houses for their own present accommodation, and after that such as should be suitable for the reception of men of quality. The latter were to be erected within the fort.

It was required that the planters at the beginning should settle themselves near the mouth of the river, and set down in bodies, that they might be in a situation for intrenching and defending themselves. The commission made provision for the reservation of a thousand or fifteen hundred acres of good land for the maintenance of the fort, as nearly adjoining it as might be with convenience.

Mr. Winthrop, having intelligence that the Dutch were preparing to take possession of the mouth of the river, as soon as he could engage twenty men and furnish them with provisions, dispatched them in a small vessel of about thirty tons, to prevent their getting command of the river, and to accomplish the service to which he had been appointed.

But a few days after the party sent by Mr. Winthrop arrived at the mouth of the river, a Dutch vessel appeared off the harbor from New Netherlands, sent on purpose to take possession of the mouth of the river and to erect fortifications. The English had by this time mounted two pieces of cannon and prevented their landing; thus, providentially, was this fine tract of country preserved for our venerable ancestors and their posterity.

Mr. Winthrop was appointed Governor of the Connecticut River and the ports adjacent for the term of one year. He erected a fort, built houses, and made a settlement, according to his instructions. One David Gardiner, an expert engineer, assisted in the work, planned the fortifications, and was appointed lieutenant of the fort.

Mr. Davenport and others, who afterward settled New Haven, were active in this affair, and hired Gardiner, in behalf of their lordships, to come to New England and assist in this business.

As the settlement of the three towns on Connecticut River was begun before the arrival of Mr. Winthrop, and the design of their lordships to make plantations upon it was known, it was agreed that the settlers on the river should either remove upon full satisfaction being made by their lordships, or else sufficient room should be found for them and their companions at some other place.

While these plantations were forming in the southwestern part of Connecticut, another commenced on the west side of the mouth of the Connecticut River. A fort had been built here in 1635-’36, and preparations had been made for the reception of gentlemen of quality; but the war with the Pequots, the uncultivated state of the country, and the low condition of the colony, prevented the coming of any principal character from England to take possession of a township and make settlement in this tract.

Until this time there had been only a garrison of about twenty men in the place. They had made some small improvements in the lands, and erected a few buildings in the vicinity of the fort; but there had been no settlement of a plantation with civil privileges. But about midsummer Mr. George Fenwick, with his lady and family, arrived in a ship of two hundred and fifty tons; another ship came in company with him. They were both for Qunnipiack.

Mr. Fenwick and others came over with the view to take possession of a large tract upon the river in behalf of their lordships, the original patentees, and to plant a town at the mouth of the river. A settlement was soon made, and named Saybrook, in honor of their lordships, Say and Seal, and Brook.

Mr. Fenwick, Mr. Thomas Peters, who was the first minister in the plantation, Captain Gardiner, Thomas Leffingwell, Thomas Tracy, and Captain John Mason, were some of the principal planters.

[7] In July, 1638, Mr. Winslow and Mr. Bradford, therefore, made a journey to Boston to confer with Governor Winthrop and his Council on the subject. Governor Winslow and Mr. Bradford proposed to them to join with Plymouth in a trade to Connecticut for hemp and beaver, and to erect a house for the purpose of commerce. It was represented as necessary to prevent the Dutch from taking possession of that fine country, who, it was reported, were about to build upon the river. But Governor Winthrop declined the motion; he considered it was not proper to make a plantation there, because there were three or four thousand warlike Indians upon the river, and small pinnaces only could enter at high water; also, because that seven months in the year no vessels could go into it, by reason of the ice and the violence of the stream.

The Plymouth people, therefore, determined to undertake the enterprise at their own risk. Preparations were made for erecting a trading-house and establishing a small company on the river. In the mean time, the master of a vessel from Massachusetts, who was trading at New Netherlands, showed to Walter Van Twiller, the Dutch Governor, the commission which the English had to trade and settle in New England, and that his Majesty the King of England had granted all these parts to his own subjects. He, therefore, desired that the Dutch would not build at Connecticut.

This appears to have been done at the direction of Governor Winthrop, for, in consequence of it, the Dutch Governor wrote a very complaisant letter to him, in which he represented that the lords, the States-General, had granted the same country to the West India Company. He requested, therefore that the English would make no settlements in Connecticut until the affair should be determined between the court of England and the States-General.

This appears to have been a piece of policy in the Dutch Governor to keep the English still until the Dutch had got a firm footing upon the river.

Several vessels this year went to Connecticut River to trade. John Oldham, from Dorchester, and three men with him, also traveled through the wilderness to Connecticut, to view the country and trade with the Indians. The sachem upon the river made him most welcome, and gave him a present in beaver. He found that the Indian hemp grew spontaneously in the meadows in great abundance. He purchased a quantity of it, and upon trial it appeared much to exceed the hemp which was grown in England.

William Holmes, of Portsmouth, with his company, having prepared the frame of a house, with boards, and materials for covering it immediately, put them on board of a vessel and sailed for Connecticut. Holmes had a commission from the Governor of Plymouth and a chosen company to accomplish his design.

When he came into the river he found that the Dutch had got in before him, made a light fort, and planted two pieces of cannon: this was erected at the place called Hartford.

The Dutch forbade Holmes going up the river, stood by their cannon, and ordered him to strike his colors or they would fire upon him; but he was a man of spirit, assured them that he had a commission from the Governor of Plymouth to go up the river, and that he must obey his orders. They poured out their threats, but he proceeded, and, landing on the west side of the river, erected his house a little below the mouth of the small river in Windsor. The house was covered with the utmost dispatch, and fortified with palisadoes. The sachems who were the original owners of the soil had been driven from this part of the country by the Pequots, and were now carried home on board of Holmes’s vessel. Of them the Plymouth people purchased the land on which they erected their house. “This,” Governor Wolcott says, “was the first house erected in Connecticut.” The Dutch about the same time erected a trading-house at Hartford, which they called the “Hirse of Good Hope.”

It was with great difficulty that Holmes and his company erected and fortified their house, and kept it afterward. The Indians were offended at their bringing home the original proprietors and lords of the country, and the Dutch that they had settled there, and were about to rival them in trade and in possession of these excellent lands upon the river. They were obliged, therefore, to combat both, and to keep a constant watch upon them.

The Dutch, before the Plymouth people took possession of the river, had invited them in an amicable manner to trade in Connecticut; but, when they were apprised that they were making preparations for a settlement there, they repented the invitation, and spared no exertion to prevent them.

On the 8th of June the Dutch had sent Jacob Van Curter to purchase lands upon the Connecticut. He made a purchase of about twenty acres at Hartford, of Nepuquash, a Pequot captain. Of this the Dutch took possession in October, and on the 25th of the month Curter protested against William Holmes, the builder of the Plymouth house. Some time afterward the Dutch Governor, Walter Van Twiller, of Fort Amsterdam, dispatched a reënforcement to Connecticut, designing to drive Holmes and his company from the river. A band of seventy men, under arms, with banners displayed, assaulted the Plymouth house, but they found it so well fortified, and the men who kept it so vigilant and determined, that it could not be taken without bloodshed; they therefore came to a parley, and finally returned in peace.

About the beginning of June, 1636, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Stone, and about one hundred men, women, and children, took their departure from Cambridge, and traveled more than one hundred miles through a hideous and trackless wilderness to Hartford. They had no guide but their compass; made their way over mountains, through swamps, thickets, and rivers, which were not passable but with difficulty. They had no cover but the heavens, nor any lodgings but what simple Nature afforded them. They drove with them one hundred and sixty head of cattle, and by the way subsisted upon the milk of their cows. Mrs. Hooker was borne through the wilderness upon a litter. The people generally carried their packs, arms, and utensils. They were nearly a fortnight on their journey.

[8] While the planters of Connecticut were thus exerting themselves in prosecuting and regulating the affairs of that colony, another was projected and settled at Quinnipiack, and afterward called New Haven. On the 26th of July, 1637, Mr. John Davenport, Mr. Samuel Eaton, Theophilus Eaton, and Edward Hopkins, Esquires, Mr. Thomas Gregson, and many others of good character and fortune, arrived in Boston.

Mr. Davenport had been a famous minister in the city of London, and was a distinguished character for piety, learning, and good conduct. Many of his congregation, on account of the esteem which they had for his person and ministry, followed him to New England.

Mr. Eaton and Mr. Hopkins had been merchants in London, possessed great estates, and were men of eminence for their abilities and integrity.

The fame of Davenport, and the reputation and good estates of the principal gentlemen of his company, made the people of Massachusetts exceedingly desirous of their settlement in that Commonwealth.

Great pains were taken not only by particular persons and towns, but by the General Court, to fix them in the colony.

Charlestown made them large offers, and Newbury proposed to give up the whole town to them. The General Court offered them any place which they should select. But they were determined to plant a distant colony. By the pursuit of the Pequots to the westward, the English became acquainted with that fine tract along the shore from Saybrook to Fairfield, and with its several harbors. It was represented as fruitful, and happily situated for navigation and commerce.

The company, therefore, projected a settlement in that part of the country.

In the fall of 1637 Mr. Eaton and others who were of the company made a journey to Connecticut to explore the lands and harbors on the sea-coast. They pitched upon Quinnipiack for the place of their settlement. They erected a poor hut, in which a few men subsisted through the winter.

On the 30th of March, 1638, Mr. Davenport, Mr. Prudden, Mr. Samuel Eaton, and Theophilus Eaton, Esquire, with the people of their company, sailed from Boston to Quinnipiack. In about a fortnight they arrived at their desired port.

On the 14th of April they kept their first Sabbath in the place.

The people assembled under a large, spreading oak, and Mr. Davenport preached to them from Matthew v. 1. He discoursed on the temptations of man, and made such observations as were pertinent to the then present state of his hearers. He left this remark, that he enjoyed a good day.

[9] “New England Records,” A., p. 201.

[10] While the colonists were thus prosecuting the business of settlement in New England, the Right Honorable James, Marquis of Hamilton, obtained a grant from the Council of Plymouth April 20, 1635, of all that tract of country which lies between Connecticut River and Narraganset River and harbor, from the mouth of each of said rivers northward sixty miles into the country.

However, by reason of its interference with the grant to Lords Say and Brook, and others, or for some other reason, the deed was never executed.

The marquis made no settlement on the land, and the claim became obsolete.

[11] Such numbers were constantly emigrating to New England, in consequence of the persecution of the Puritans, that the people of Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown, began to be much straitened by the accession of new planters.

By those who had been in Connecticut they had received intelligence of the excellent meadows on the river; they therefore determined to remove, and once more brave the dangers and hardships of making settlements in a dreary wilderness.

Upon application to the General Court for the enlargement of their boundaries, or for liberty to remove, they at first obtained consent for the latter. However, when it was afterward discovered that their determination was to plant a new colony in Connecticut, there arose a strong opposition; so that, when the Court convened, in September, there was a warm debate on the subject, and a great division between the Houses. Indeed, the whole colony was affected with the dispute.

Mr. Hooker, who was more engaged in the enterprise than the other ministers, took up the affair and pleaded for the people. He urged that they were so straitened for accommodations for their cattle, that they could not support the ministry, neither receive nor assist any more of their friends who might come over to them. He insisted that the planting of towns so near together was a fundamental error in their policy. He pleaded the fertility and happy accommodations of Connecticut; that settlements upon the river were necessary to prevent the Dutch, and others, from possessing themselves of so fruitful and important a part of the country; and that the minds of the people were strongly inclined to plant themselves there, in preference to every other place which had come to their knowledge.

On the other side, it was insisted that, in point of conscience, they ought not to depart, as they were united to Massachusetts as one body, and bound by oath to seek the good of the Commonwealth; and that, on principles of policy, it could not by any means be granted. It was pleaded that the settlement in Massachusetts was new and weak; they were in danger from an assault from their enemies; that the departure of Mr. Hooker, and the people of those towns, would not only draw off many from Massachusetts, but prevent others from settling in the colony. Besides, it was said that the removing of a candlestick was a great judgment; that, by suffering it, they should expose their brethren to great danger, both from the Dutch and the Indians. Indeed, it was affirmed that they might be accommodated by the enlargements offered them by other towns.

After a long and warm debate, the Governor, two assistants, and a majority of the representatives, were for granting liberty for Mr. Hooker and the people to transport themselves to Connecticut. The Deputy-Governor, however, and six of the assistants, were in the negative, and so no vote was obtained.

The next May the Newtown people determined to settle at Connecticut, renewed their application to the General Court, and obtained liberty to remove to any place which they should select, with the proviso that they should continue under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.—Ed. Note.

[12] Dominion, in New England, signifies a sovereign, independent state, uncontrollable by any other earthly power.

[13] The Indian mode of counting is from one to twenty. Every year they cut a notch in a stick, and when the stick is full, or has twenty notches on it, they lay it up and take another. When they have thus cut twenty sticks, they reckon no more; the number of twenty times twenty with them becomes infinite, or incomprehensible.—Ed. Note.

[14] It was the opinion of the principal divines who settled in New England and Connecticut that in every church completely organized there was a pastor, teacher, ruling elder, and deacons.

Three distinct offices, they said, were clearly taught in those passages.—Romans xii. 7: “Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth on teaching.” 1 Timothy v. 17: “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.” 1 Corinthians xii. 28: “And God has set some in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” And Ephesians iv. 11: “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” From these they argued the duty of all churches which were able to be thus furnished. In this manner were the churches of Hartford, Windsor, New Haven, and other towns, organized.

The churches which were not able to support a pastor and teacher had the ruling elders and deacons.

The ruling elders were ordained with no less solemnity than their pastors and teachers. When no teacher could be obtained, the pastor performed the duty of both pastor and teacher.

It was the general opinion that the pastor’s work consisted principally in exhortation, in working upon the will and affections of the people. To this the whole force of his study was to be directed, that by his judicious, powerful, and affectionate addresses he might win his hearers to the love and practice of the truth. But the teacher was Doctor in Ecclesia, whose business was to teach, and explain, and defend the doctrines of Christianity. He was to inform the judgment, and advance the work of illumination.

The business of the ruling elder was to assist the pastor in the government of the church. He was particularly set apart to watch over all its members; to prepare and bring forward all cases of discipline; to visit and pray with the sick; and, in absence of the pastor and teacher, to pray with the congregation and expound the Scriptures.

The pastors and churches of New England maintained with the reformed churches in general that bishops and presbyters were only different names for the same office; and that all pastors regularly elected to the gospel ministry were Scripture bishops. They also insisted, agreeably to the primitive practice, that the work of every pastor was confined principally to one particular church and congregation, who could all assemble in one place, whom he could inspect, and who could all unite together in acts of worship and discipline. Indeed, the first ministers of Connecticut and New England at first maintained that all the pastor’s office power was confined to his own church and congregation, and that the administering of baptism and the Lord’s Supper in other churches was irregular.

With respect to ordination, they held that it did not constitute the essentials of ministerial office; but the qualifications for office were the election of the church, guided by the rule of Christ, and the acceptance of the pastor-elect. Says Mr. Hooker, “Ordination is an approbation of the officer, and solemn setting and confirmation of him in his office by prayer and laying on of hands.”

It was viewed by the ministers of New England as no more than putting the pastor-elect in office, or a solemn recommending of him and his labors to the blessing of God. It was the general opinion that elders ought to lay on hands in ordination if there were a presbytery in the church, but, if there were not, the church might appoint some other elders, or a number of the brethren, to perform that service.—Ed. Note.

[15] On the 4th of June, 1689, all the free planters at Quinnipiack convened in a large barn of Mr. Newman’s, and, in a very formal and solemn manner, proceeded to lay the foundations of their civil and religious polity.

Mr. Davenport introduced the business by a sermon from the words of the royal preacher, “Wisdom has builded her house, she has hewn out seven pillars.”

His design was to show that the church, the house of God, should be formed of seven pillars, or principal brethren, to whom all the other members of the church should be added. After a solemn invocation of the Divine Majesty, he proceeded to represent to the planters that they were met to consult respecting the settlement of civil government, according to the will of God, and for the nomination of persons who, by universal consent, were in all respects the best qualified for the foundation-work of a church. He enlarged on the great importance of the transactions before them, and desired that no man would give his voice in any matter until he fully understood it, and that all would act without respect to any man, but give their vote in the fear of God.

He then proposed a number of questions, in consequence of which the following resolutions were passed:

1. That the Scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and man, as well in families and commonwealth as in matters of church.

2. That as in matters which concerned the gathering and ordering of a church, so likewise in all public offices which concern civil order, as the choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature, they would all be governed by those rules which the Scripture held forth to them.

3. That all those who had desired to be received as free planters had settled in the plantation with a purpose, resolution, and desire, that they might be admitted into church-fellowship, according to Christ.

4. That all free planters held themselves bound to establish such civil order as might best conduce to the securing of the purity and peace of the ordinance to themselves and their posterity, according to God.

When these resolutions had been passed, and the people had bound themselves to settle civil government according to the divine word, Mr. Davenport proceeded to represent to them what men they must choose according to the divine word, that they might most effectually secure to themselves and their posterity a just, free, and peaceable government.

Time was then given to discuss and deliberate upon what had been proposed. After full discussion and deliberation, it was determined:

5. That the church-members only should be free burgesses, and that they should choose magistrates, among themselves, to have power of transacting all the public civil affairs of the plantation, of making and repealing laws, dividing inheritances, deciding of differences that may arise, and doing all things and business of a like nature.

That civil officers might be chosen and government proceed according to these resolutions, it was necessary that a church should be formed. Without this there could be neither freedmen nor magistrates. Mr. Davenport thereupon proceeded to make proposals relative to forming it, in such a manner that no blemish might be left on the “beginnings of church work.” It was then resolved to this effect—

6. That twelve men should be chosen, that their fitness for the foundation-work might be tried, and that it should be in the power of those twelve men to choose seven to begin the church.

It was agreed that if seven men could not be found among the twelve qualified for the foundation-work, that such other persons should be taken into the number, upon trial, as should be judged more suitable. The form of a solemn charge, or oath, was drawn up and agreed upon at this meeting, to be given to all the freemen.

Further, it was ordered that all persons who should be received as free planters of that corporation, should submit to the fundamental agreement above related, and, in testimony of their submission, should subscribe their names among the freemen. Sixty-three subscribed on the 4th of June, and soon after fifty other names were added.

After a proper term of trial, Theophilus Eaton, Mr. John Davenport, Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, and Jeremiah Dixon, were chosen for the seven pillars of the church.

October 25, 1639, the Court, as it is termed, consisting of these seven persons only, convened, and after a solemn address to the Supreme Majesty, they proceeded to form a body of freemen, and to elect civil officers. The manner was, indeed, singular and curious.

In the first place, all former trust for managing the public affairs of the plantation was declared to cease, and be utterly abrogated. Then all those who had been admitted to the church after the gathering of it in the choice of the seven pillars, and all the members of other approved churches who desired it, and offered themselves, were admitted members of the Court.

A solemn charge was then publicly given them, to the same effect as the freemen’s charge, or oath, which they had previously adopted. The purport of this was nearly the same with the oath of fidelity at the present time.

Mr. Davenport expounded several scriptural texts to them, describing the character of civil magistrates given in the sacred oracles. Theophilus Eaton, Esq., was chosen Governor; Mr. Robert Newman, Matthew Gilbert, Nathaniel Turner, and Thomas Fugill, were chosen magistrates; Mr. Fugill was also chosen secretary, and Robert Seeley, marshal.

Mr. Davenport gave Governor Eaton a charge, in open Court, from Deuteronomy i. 16, 17.

It was decreed by the freemen that there should be a General Court annually in the plantation, on the first week in October. This was ordained a court of election in which all the officers of the colony were to be chosen. This Court determined that the word of God should be the only rule for ordering affairs of government in that Commonwealth.

This was the original fundamental Constitution of the government of New Haven. All government was originally in the church, and the members of the church elected the Governor, magistrates, and other officers. The magistrates at first were no more than assistants of the Governor; they might not act in any sentence or determination of the Court.

No Deputy-Governor was chosen, nor were any laws enacted, except the general resolutions which have been noticed; but as the plantation enlarged, and new towns were settled, new orders were given; the General Court received a new form, laws were enacted, and the civil polity of this jurisdiction gradually advanced, in its essential parts, to a near resemblance of the government of Connecticut.

Upon these resolutions were based the “Blue Laws” which will appear in the work.—Ed. Note.

[16] William, Thomas, and Hugh Peters were brothers, and born in Fowery, in Cornwall, in Old England. Their father was a merchant of great property, and their mother was Elizabeth Treffry, daughter of John Treffry, Esq., of a very ancient and opulent family in Fowery. William was educated at Leyden, Thomas at Oxford, and Hugh at Cambridge Universities. About the year 1610 and 1620, Thomas and Hugh were clergymen in London, and William was a private gentleman. About 1628 Thomas and Hugh, rendered obnoxious by their popularity and Puritanism, were silenced by the Bishop of London. They then went to Holland, and remained there till 1633, when they returned to London. The three brothers sold their landed property, and went to New-England in 1634. Hugh settled at Salem, and became too popular for Mather and Cotton. He was soon appointed one of the Trustees of the College at New-Cambridge. He built a grand house, and purchased a large tract of land.—The yard before his house he paved with flint-stones from England; and, having dug a well, he paved that round with flint-stones also, for the accommodation of every inhabitant in want of water. It bears the name of Peters’s Spring to this day.—He married a second wife, by whom he had one daughter named Elizabeth. The renown of this zealot increasing, he received an invitation to remove from Salem to Boston, and, complying with it, he there laid the foundation-stone of the great Meeting-House, of which the Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper, one of the most learned of the Literati in America, is the present minister. Mather and Cotton ill brooked being out-rivalled by Hugh; yet, finding him an orthodox fanatic, and more perfect than themselves, they seemingly bowed to his superiority, at the same time that they laid a snare for his destruction. In 1641 those envious pastors conspired with the Court at Boston to convert their Bishop Hugh into a Politician, and appoint him agent to Great Britain.—The Plot succeeded; and Hugh assumed his agency under colour of petitioning for some abatement of customs and excise; but his real commission was to foment the civil discontents, jars, and wars, then prevailing between the King and Parliament.—Hugh did not see into the policy of Mather and Cotton; and he had a strong inclination to chastise the Bishops and Court, who had turned him out of the Church for his fanatical conduct. On his arrival in London, the Parliament took him into their service.—The Earls of Warwick and Essex were also his patrons.—In 1644, the Parliament gave him Archbishop Laud’s library; and soon after made him Head of the Archbishop’s Court, and gave him his estate and palace at Lambeth:—all of which Hugh kept till the Restoration, when he paid for his zeal, his puritanism, and rebellion, on a gibbet at Charing-Cross.—His daughter married a merchant in Newport, Rhode-Island, and lived and died with an excellent character.—Her Father having met with so tragical an end, I omit to mention her Husband’s name, whose Posterity live in good reputation.—Governor Hutchinson reports, that the widow of Hugh Peters was supported, till 1671, by a collection at Salem, of 30l. per ann. Were this report true, it would be much to the reputation of Salem for having once relieved the unfortunate. Mr. Hutchinson might have pointed out the cause of the unhappy widow’s necessity; but he has left that part to me, and here it follows:—After Hugh’s Death, the selectmen of Salem were afraid that the King [Charles II.] would seize on his estate in Salem, as had been the case in regard to what the Parliament had given him in England. They therefore trumped up a debt, and seized and sold the said estate to the families of Lyndes and Curwin, who possess it to the present time;—and the selectmen of Salem allowed the widow 30l. per ann. for the wrong they had done her and her daughter. It is not likely that the widow was supported by any charitable collection; for William Peters was a man of great property, and had a deed of the whole peninsula whereon Boston stands, which he purchased of Mr. Blaxton, who bought it of the Plymouth Company; though Mr. Hutchinson says Blaxton’s title arose merely from his sleeping on it the first of any Englishman.[17]—This was well said by Mr. Hutchinson, who wanted to justify the people of Salem in seizing the land and expelling Mr. Blaxton from his settlement in 1630, because he said he liked Lords-Brethren less than Lords-Bishops.—Moreover, Thomas Peters, at the same time, was living at Saybrook, and was not poor.—Those two Gentlemen were able and willing to support the widow of an unfortunate brother whom they loved very tenderly.—They took great care of his daughter, and left her handsome legacies.—From these considerations, I am induced to believe, that the widow of Hugh Peters never subsisted on any contributions, except what she received from her brothers William and Thomas Peters.—Mr. Hutchinson makes a curious remark, viz., If Hugh Peters had returned to his parish, he would not have suffered as he did.—He might have said, with greater propriety, that, if Hugh Peters had not been a fanatic and a rebel more zealous than wise, he never would have left his Parish for the agency of the people of New-England, who never paid him the stipulated allowance for his support in England, tho’ he gave them thanksgiving-days, instead of fasting, for the space of twenty years, and procured, in 1649, from Oliver Cromwell, a charter for the Company for propagating the Gospel in New-England, which, by contributions raised in England, have supported all the missionaries among the Indians to the present time;—yet Mr. Hutchinson and Neal write largely about the vast expense the Massachusets-Bay have been at in spreading the Gospel among the poor savages!

I cannot forbear here to notice an abuse of this charter. Notwithstanding it confines the views of the Company to New-England, yet they, and their Committee of Correspondence in Boston, have of late years vouchsafed to send most of their Missionaries out of New-England, among the Six Nations, and the unsanctified episcopalians in the Southern Colonies, where was a competent number of church clergymen. Whenever this work of supererogation has met with its deserved animadversion, their answer has been, that, though Cromwell limited them to New-England, yet Christ had extended their bounds from sea to sea! With what little reason do they complain of King William’s charter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts? This Society have sent Missionaries to New-England, where they have an undoubted right to send them, to supply episcopal Churches already established there; whereas the other Society send Missionaries beyond the limits of their charter, to alienate the minds of the episcopal Indians of the Six Nations, against the episcopal Missionaries and the Government of the Mother-Country.—And they have been too successful; especially since the Rev. Dr. Eleazer Wheelock, Dr. Whitaker, and the Rev. Mr. Sampson Occom, by the Charity of England, have joined in the same work.—To the General Assembly, and the Consociation of Connecticut, Dr. Wheelock and his associates are much beholden for their success in converting the poor benighted savages in the howling wilderness. Their merits are great, and their reward is pending.—Ed. Note.

[17] “The Rev. Mr. Blaxton had lived on Shawmut, or the peninsula on which Boston is built, above nine years before June, 1630, when he was driven away from his possessions by the pious people of Salem, because he was not pleased with the religious system of those new-comers.—They were so generous as to vote a small lot to Mr. Blaxton, near Boston-Neck, as a compensation for the whole peninsula, and for his banishment on pain of death not to return.—Blaxton afterwards sold his right to William Peters, Esq. but who was kept out of possession of it by the supreme power of the People.—”

[18] As tobacco about this time was coming into use in the colony, a very curious law was made for its regulation or suppression. It was ordered that no person under twenty years of age, nor any other who had not already accustomed himself to the use of it, should take any tobacco until he had obtained a certificate, from under the hand of an approved physician, that it was useful for him, and until he had also obtained a license from the Court. All others who had addicted themselves to the use of it were prohibited from taking it in any company, or at their labors, or in traveling, unless ten miles at least from any company; and, though not in company, not more than once a day, upon pain of a fine of a sixpence for every offense. One substantial witness was to be sufficient proof of the crime.

The constables of the several towns were to make presentment to the particular Courts, and it was ordered that the fine should be paid without gainsaying.—Ed. Note.

[19] The Savage Pawawwers, or Priests, never concern themselves with marriages, but leave them to the Paniesh, or Magistrates.

[20] The Levitical law forbids cutting the hair, or rounding the head.

[21] Dixwell died and lies buried in Newhaven. His grave is visited by the Sober Dissenters with great reverence and veneration; nay, even held sacred as the tomb at Mecca. Here are buried also the children of Colonel Jones, and many other rebels.

[22] An affair had happened at New Haven, a few months before this, which now began to alarm the country, and soon gave great anxiety and trouble to the colony.

Very soon after the restoration, a large number of judges of King Charles I., commonly termed regicides, were apprehended and brought upon their trials in the Old Bailey. Thirty-nine were condemned, and ten executed as traitors. Some others, apprehensive of danger, fled out of the kingdom before King Charles II. was proclaimed. Colonels Whalley and Goffe made their escape to New England.

They were brought over by one Captain Gooking, and arrived in Boston in July, 1660. Governor Endicott, and gentlemen of character in Boston and its vicinity, treated them with peculiar respect and kindness. They were gentlemen of singular abilities, and had moved in an exalted sphere. Whalley had been a lieutenant-general, and Goffe a major-general, in Cromwell’s army. Their manners and appearance commanded universal respect. They soon went from Boston to Cambridge, where they resided until February. They resorted openly to places of public worship on the Lord’s-day, and at other times of public devotion. They were universally esteemed by all men of character, both civil and religious. But no sooner was it known that the judges had been condemned as traitors, and that these gentlemen were excepted from the act of pardon, than the principal gentlemen in the Massachusetts began to be alarmed.

Governor Endicott called a court of magistrates to consult measures for apprehending them. However, their friends were so numerous that a vote could not at that time be obtained to arrest them. Some of the court declared that they would stand by them; others advised them to move out of the colony.

Finding themselves unsafe at Cambridge, they came, by the assistance of their friends, to Connecticut. They made their route by Hartford, and went directly to New Haven. They arrived about the 27th of March, and made Mr. Davenport’s house the place of their residence.

They were treated with the same marks of esteem and generous friendship at New Haven which they had received in Massachusetts. The more the people became acquainted with them the more they esteemed them, not only as men of great minds, but of unfeigned piety and religion. For some time they appeared to apprehend themselves as out of danger, and happily situated among a number of pious and agreeable friends. But it was not long before the news of the king’s proclamation against the regicides arrived, requiring that, wherever they might be found, they should be immediately apprehended. The Governor of Massachusetts, in consequence of the royal proclamation, issued his warrant to arrest them. As they were informed by their friends of all measures adopted respecting them, they removed to Milford. There they appeared openly in daytime, but at night often returned privately to New Haven, and were generally secreted at Mr. Davenport’s, until about the last of April.

In the mean time, the Governor of Massachusetts received a royal mandate requiring him to apprehend them; and a more full circumstantial account of the condemnation and the execution of the ten regicides, and of the disposition of the Court toward them, and the republicans and Puritans in general, arrived in New England.

This gave a more general and thorough alarm to the whole country.

A feigned search had been made in the Massachusetts, in consequence of the former warrant, for the Colonels Whalley and Goffe; but now the Governor and magistrates began to view the affair in a more serious point of light, and appear to have been in earnest to secure them. They perceived that their own personal safety and the liberties and peace of the country were concerned in the manner of their conduct toward these unhappy men. They therefore immediately gave a commission to Thomas Kellond and Thomas Kirk, two zealous young royalists, to go through the colonies as far as Manhadoes, and make a careful and universal search for them. They pursued the judges to Hartford, and, repairing to Governor Winthrop’s, were nobly entertained.

He assured them that the colonels had made no stay in Connecticut, but went directly to New Haven. He gave them a warrant, and instructions similar to those which they had received from the Governor of Massachusetts, and transacted everything relative to the affair with dispatch. The next day they arrived at Guilford, and opened their business to Deputy-Governor Leet. They acquainted him that, according to the intelligence which they had received, the regicides were at New Haven. They desired immediately to be furnished with powers, horses, and assistance, to arrest them.

But here they were very unwelcome messengers. Governor Leet and the principal gentlemen in Guilford and New Haven had no ill opinion of the judges. If they had done wrong in the part they had acted, they viewed it as an error in judgment, and as the fault of great and good men, under peculiar and extraordinary circumstances. They were touched with compassion and sympathy, and had real scruples of conscience with respect to delivering up such men to death. They viewed them as the “excellent of the earth,” and were afraid to betray them, lest they should be instrumental in shedding innocent blood. They saw no advantage in putting them to death.

They were not zealous, therefore, to assist in apprehending them. Governor Leet said he had not seen them in nine weeks, and that he did not believe they were at New Haven. He read some of the papers relative to the affair with an audible voice.

The pursuivants observed to him that their business required more secrecy than was consistent with such a reading of their instructions. He delayed furnishing them with horses until the next morning, and utterly declined giving them any powers until he had consulted his Council at New Haven.

They complained that an Indian went off from Guilford to New Haven in the night, and that the Governor was so dilatory the next morning that a messenger went on to New Haven before they could obtain horses for their assistance. The judges were apprized of every transaction respecting them, and they and their friends took their measures accordingly. They changed their quarters from one place to another in the town as circumstances required, and had faithful friends to give them information, and to conceal them from their enemies.

On the 13th of March the pursuers came to New Haven, and Governor Leet arrived in town soon after them to consult his Council. They acquainted him that, from the information they had received, they were persuaded that the judges were yet in town, and pressed him and the magistrates to give them a warrant and assistance to arrest them without any further delay.

But, after the Governor and his Council had been together five or six hours, they dispersed without doing anything relative to the affair. The Governor declared that he could not act without calling a general assembly of the freedmen.

Kellond and Kirk observed to him that the other governors had not stood upon such niceties; that the honor and justice of his Majesty were concerned, and that he would highly resent the concealment and abetting of such traitors and regicides.

They demanded whether he and his Council would own and honor his Majesty? The Governor replied: “We do honor his Majesty, but have tender consciences, and wish first to know whether he will own us.”—(Report of Kellond and Kirk to Governor Endicott, to which they gave oath in the presence of the Governor and Council.)

The tradition is, that the pursuers searched Mr. Davenport’s house, and used him very ill. They also searched other houses where they suspected that the regicides were concealed. The report is that they went into the house of one Mrs. Eyers, where they actually were concealed, but she conducted the affair with such composure and address that they imagined that the judges had just made their escape from the house, and they went off without making any search. It is said that once, when the pursuers passed a bridge, the judges were concealed under it. Several times they narrowly escaped, but never could be taken.

The zealous royalists, not finding the judges in New Haven, prosecuted their journey to the Dutch settlement, and made interest with Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor, against them. He promised them that, if the judges should be found within his jurisdiction, he would give them immediate intelligence, and that he would prohibit all ships and vessels from transporting them.

Having thus zealously prosecuted the business of their commission, they returned to Boston, and reported the reception which they had met with at Guilford and New Haven.

Upon this report, a letter was written by Secretary Rawson, in the name of the General Court of Massachusetts, to Governor Leet and his Council, on the subject. It represented that many complaints had been exhibited in England against the colonies, and that they were in great danger. It was observed that one great source of complaint was their giving such entertainment to the regicides, and their inattention to his Majesty’s warrant for their arrest. This was represented as an affair which hazarded the liberties of all the colonies, and especially those of New Haven. It was intimated that the safety of particular persons, no less than that of the colony, was in danger. It insisted that the only way to expiate their offense, and save themselves harmless, was without delay to apprehend the delinquents. Indeed, the Court urged that not only their own safety and welfare, but the essential interests of their neighbors, demanded their indefatigable exertions to exculpate themselves.

Colonels Whalley and Goffe, after the search which had been made for them at New Haven, left Mr. Davenport’s, and took up their quarters at Mr. William Jones’s, son-in-law to Governor Eaton, and afterward Deputy-Governor of New Haven and Connecticut. There they secreted themselves until the 11th of May.

Thence they removed to a mill in the environs of the town. For a short time they made their quarters in the woods, and then fixed them in a cave in the side of a hill, which they named Providence Hill. They had some other places of resort, to which they retired as occasion made necessary, but this was generally the place of their residence until the 19th of August. When the weather was bad, they lodged at night in a neighboring house. It is not improbable that sometimes, when it could be done with safety, they made visits to their friends at New Haven.

In fact, to prevent any damage to Mr. Davenport or the colony, they once or more came into the town openly and offered to deliver up themselves to save their friends. It seems it was fully expected at that time that they would have done it voluntarily, but their friends neither desired nor advised them by any means to adopt so dangerous a measure. They hoped to save themselves and the colony harmless without such a sacrifice.

The magistrates were greatly blamed for not apprehending them at this time in particular. Secretary Rawson, in a letter of his to Governor Leet, writes: “How ill this will be taken, is not difficult to imagine—to be sure, not well. Nay, will not all men condemn you as wanting to yourselves?”

The General Court of Massachusetts further acquainted Governor Leet that the colonies were criminated by making no application to the king since his restoration, and for not proclaiming him as their king. The Court, in their letter, observed that it was highly necessary that they should send an agent to answer for them at the Court of England.—Ed. Note.]

[23] About this time, it seems, Governor Winthrop took passage for England. Upon his arrival he made application to Lord Say and Seal, and other friends of the colony, for their countenance and assistance. Lord Say and Seal appear to have been the only nobleman living who was one of the original patentees of Connecticut. He held the patent in trust, originally, for the puritanic exiles. He received the address from the colony most favorably, and gave Governor Winthrop all the assistance in his power. The Governor was a man of address, and he arrived in England at a happy time for Connecticut.

Lord Say and Seal, the great friend of the colony, had been particularly instrumental in the restoration. This had so brought him into the king’s favor, that he had been made Privy Seal.

The Earl of Manchester, another friend of the Puritans and of the rights of the colonies, was chamberlain of his Majesty’s household; he was an intimate friend of Lord Say and Seal, and had been united with him in defending the colonies, and pleading for their establishment and liberties. Lord Say and Seal engaged him to give Mr. Winthrop his utmost assistance.

Mr. Winthrop had an extraordinary ring, which had been given to his grandfather by King Charles I., which he presented to the king. This, it is said, exceedingly pleased his Majesty, as it had been once the property of a father most dear to him. Under these circumstances the petition for Connecticut was presented and received with uncommon grace and favor.

Upon the 20th of April, 1662, his Majesty granted the colony his letters patent, conveying the most ample privileges, under the great seal of England. It confirmed unto it the whole tract of country granted by King Charles I. to the Earl of Warwick, and which was the next year by him consigned to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook, and others.

The patent granted the lands in fee and common socage. The facts stated and pleaded in the petition were recognized in the Charter, nearly in the same form of words, as reasons for the royal grant, and of the ample privileges it conveyed.

It ordained that John Winthrop, John Mason, Samuel Wyllys, Henry Clark, Matthew Allen, John Tapping, Nathan Gould, Richard Treat, Richard Lord, Henry Wolcott, John Talcott, Daniel Clark, John Ogden, Thomas Welles, Obadiah Brune, John Clark, Anthony Hawkins, John Deming, and Matthew Camfield, and all such others as there were, or should afterward be, admitted and made free of the corporation, should forever after be one body corporate and politic, in fact and name, by the name of the Governor and Company of the English Colony of Connecticut, in New England, in America; and that, by the same name, they and their successors should have perpetual succession. They were capacitated, as persons in law, to plead and be impleaded, to defend and be defended, in all suits whatsoever; to purchase, possess, lease, grant, demise, and sell lands, tenements, and goods, in as ample a manner as any of his Majesty’s subjects or corporations in England. The Charter ordained that there should be, annually, two General Assemblies; one holden on the second Thursday in May, and the other on the second Thursday in October. This was to consist of the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and twelve assistants, with two deputies from every town or city. John Winthrop was appointed Governor, and John Mason Deputy-Governor, and the gentlemen named above, magistrates, until a new election should be made.—Ed. Note.

[24] Before the session of the General Assembly of Connecticut, in October, the Charter was brought over; and, as the Governors and magistrates appointed by his Majesty were not authorized to serve after this time, a general election was appointed on the 9th of October. John Winthrop, Esq., was chosen Governor, and John Mason, Esq., Deputy-Governor; the magistrates were those mentioned in the patent, and were appointed by his Majesty, with Mr. Baker and Mr. Sherman; and John Talcott, Esq., was Treasurer, and Daniel Clark, Esq., Secretary.

Upon the day of the election the Charter was publicly read to the freemen, and declared to belong to them and their successors. They then proceeded to make choice of Mr. Wyllys, Mr. Talcott, and Mr. Allen, to receive the Charter into their custody, and keep it in behalf of the colony. It was ordered that an oath should be administered by the court to the freemen, binding them to a faithful discharge of the trust committed to them.

The General Assembly established all former officers, civil and military, in their respective places of trust, and enacted that all the laws of the colony should be continued in full force, except such as should be found contrary to the tenor of the Charter. It was also enacted that the same colony seal should be continued.

The major part of the inhabitants of Southhold, several of the people of Guilford, and of the towns of Stamford and Greenwich, tendered their persons and estates to Connecticut, and, petitioning to enjoy the protection and privileges of the Commonwealth, were accepted by the Assembly, and promised the same protection and freedom which was common to the inhabitants of the colony in general. At the same time, it was enjoined on them to conduct themselves peaceably, as became Christians, toward their neighbors, who did not submit to the jurisdiction of Connecticut; and that they should pay all taxes due the ministers, with all the other public charges then due. A message was sent to the Dutch Governor, certifying him of the Charter granted to Connecticut, and desiring him by no means to trouble any of his Majesty’s subjects, within its limits, with impositions or prosecutions from that jurisdiction.

The Assembly gave notice to the inhabitants of Winchester that they were comprehended within the limits of Connecticut, and ordered that, as his Majesty had thus disposed of them, they should conduct themselves as peaceable subjects.

Huntington, Setauket, Oyster Bay, and all the towns on Long Island, were obliged to submit to the authority and govern themselves agreeably to the laws of Connecticut. A court was instituted at Southhold, consisting of Captain James Youngs, and the justices of South and East Hampton. The Assembly resolved that all the towns which should be received under their jurisdiction should bear their equal proportion of the charge of the colony in procuring the patent.

As the Charter included the colony of New Haven, Matthew Allen, Samuel Wyllys, and the Rev. Messrs. Stone and Hooker, were appointed a committee to proceed to New Haven, and treat with their friends there respecting an amicable union of the two colonies.

The committee proceeded to New Haven, and, after a conference with the Governor, magistrates, and principal gentlemen in the colony, left the following declaration to be communicated to the freemen:

“We declare that, through the providence of the Most High, a large and ample patent, and therein desirable privileges and immunities from his Majesty, being come to our hands, a copy whereof we have left with you to be considered, and yourselves, upon the sea-coast, being included and interested therein, the king having united us in one body politic, we, according to the commission wherewith we are intrusted by the General Assembly of Connecticut, do declare, in their name, that it is both their and our earnest desire, that there may be a happy and comfortable union between us and yourselves, according to the tenor of the Charter; that inconveniences and dangers may be prevented, peace and truth strengthened and established through our suitable subjection of the terms of the patent, and the blessing of God on us therein.”

The authority of New Haven made the following reply:

“We have received and perused your writings, and heard the copy read of his Majesty’s letters patent to the Connecticut colony; wherein, though we do not find the colony of New Haven expressly included, yet, to show our desire that matters may be issued in the conserving of peace and amity, with righteousness between them and us, we shall communicate your writings, and a copy of the patent, to the freemen, and afterward with convenient speed return their answer. Only we desire that the issuing of matters may be respited until we may receive fuller information from Mr. Winthrop, or satisfaction otherwise; and that, in the meantime, this colony may remain distinct, entire, and uninterrupted, as heretofore; which we hope you will see cause lovingly to assent unto, and signify the same to us with convenient speed.”

On the 4th of November the freemen of the colony of New Haven convened in General Court. The Governor communicated the writings to the court, and ordered a copy of the patent to be read. After a short adjournment for consideration in an affair of so much importance, the freemen met again, and proceeded to discuss the subject.

The Rev. Mr. Davenport was entirely opposed to a union with Connecticut. He proceeded, therefore, to offer a number of reasons why the inhabitants of New Haven could not be included in the patent of that colony, and for which they ought, by no means voluntary, to form a union. He left his reasons in writing, for the consideration of the freemen. He observed that he should leave others to act, according to the light which they should receive.

It was insisted that New Haven had been owned as a distinct government, not only by her sister colonies, by Parliament, and the Protector, during their administration, but by his Majesty, King Charles II.; that it was against the express articles of confederation, by which Connecticut was no less bound than the other colonies; that New Haven had never been notified of any design as to their incorporation with Connecticut, and that they had never been heard on the subject. It was further urged that, had it been designed to unite them with Connecticut, some of their names, at least, would have been put into the patent, with the other patentees; but none of them were there. Hence it was maintained that it never could have been the design of his Majesty to comprehend them within the limits of the Charter.

It was argued, that for them to consent to a union would be inconsistent with their oath to maintain that Commonwealth, with all its privileges, civil and religious. It was also urged that it would be incompatible both with their honor and most essential interests.

After the affair had been fully debated, the freemen resolved that an answer to Connecticut should be drawn up under the following heads:

I. “Bearing a proper testimony against the great sin of Connecticut in acting so contrary to righteousness, amity, and peace.

II. “Desiring that all future proceedings relative to the affair might be suspended until Mr. Winthrop should return, or they might otherwise obtain further information and satisfaction.

III. “To represent that they could do nothing in the affair until they had consulted the other confederates.”

The magistrates and elders, with Mr. Law, of Stamford, were appointed a committee, and drew up a long letter in reply to the General Assembly of Connecticut, stating that they did not find any command in the patent to dissolve covenants and alter orderly settlements of New England, nor a prohibition against their continuance as a distinct government. They represented that the conduct of Connecticut, in acting at first without them, confirmed them in those sentiments; and that the way was still open for them to petition his Majesty, and obtain immunities similar to those of Connecticut. They declared that they must enter their appeal from the construction which Connecticut put upon the patent, and desired that they might not be interrupted in the enjoyment of their distinct privileges.

The committee also represented that these transactions were entirely inconsistent with the engagement of Governor Winthrop, contrary to his advice to Connecticut, and tended to bring injurious reflections and reproach upon him. They earnestly prayed for a copy of all which he had written to the Deputy-Governor and the Company on the subject. On the whole, they professed themselves exceedingly injured and grieved, and entreated the General Assembly of Connecticut to adopt speedy and effectual measures to repair the breaches which they had made, and to restore them to their former state, as a confederate and sister colony.

Connecticut made no reply to this letter, but, at a General Assembly held March 11, 1663, the Deputy-Governor, Matthew and John Allen, and John Talcott, were appointed a committee to treat with their friends in New Haven on the subject of a union. But the hasty measures of the General Assembly in admitting the disaffected members of the several towns under the jurisdiction of New Haven, before they had invited them to incorporate with them, had so soured their minds and prejudiced them, that this committee had no better success than the former.

While these affairs were transacted in the colonies, the petition and address of New Haven to his Majesty arrived in England; upon which, Governor Winthrop, who was yet there, by advice of friends of both colonies, agreed that no injury should be done to New Haven, and that the union and incorporation of the two colonies should be voluntary. Therefore, on the 3d day of March, 1663, he wrote to the Deputy-Governor and Company of Connecticut, certifying them of his engagements to the agent of New Haven, and that, before he took out the Charter, he had given assurance to their friends that their interest and privileges should not be injured by the patent. He represented that they were bound by the assurance he had given, and therefore wished them to abstain from all further injury and trouble to that colony. He imputed what they had done to their ignorance of the engagements which he had made. At the same time, he intimated his assurance that, on his return, he should be able to effect an amicable union of the colonies.

Connecticut now laid claim to Westchester, and sent one of her magistrates to lead the inhabitants to a choice of their officers, and to administer the proper oaths to such as they should elect.

The colony also extended their claim to the Narragansett country, and appointed officers for the government of the inhabitants of Wickford.

Notwithstanding the remonstrance of the court at New Haven, their appeal to King Charles II., and the engagements of Governor Winthrop, Connecticut pursued the affair of a union in the same manner in which it was begun. At a session of the General Assembly, August 19, 1663, a committee was again appointed to treat with their friends at New Haven, Milford, Guilford, and Branford, relative to their incorporation with Connecticut. Provided they could not effect a union by treaty, they were authorized to read the Charter publicly at New Haven, and to make declaration to the people there that the Assembly could not but resent their proceedings as a distinct jurisdiction, since they were evidently included within the limits of the Charter granted to the corporation of Connecticut. They were instructed to proclaim that the Assembly did desire, and could not but expect, that the inhabitants of the above towns would yield subjection to the government of Connecticut.

At a meeting of the commissioners in September in the same year, New Haven was owned by the colonies as a distinct confederation. Governor Leet and Mr. Fenn, who had been sent from that jurisdiction, exhibited a complaint against Connecticut for the injuries they had done, by encroaching upon their rights, receiving their members under their government, and encouraging them to disown their authority, to disregard their oath of allegiance, and to refuse all attendance on their courts. They further complained that Connecticut had appointed constables in several of their towns, to the great disquiet and injury of the colony. They prayed that effectual measures might be taken to redress their grievances, to prevent further injuries, and secure their rights as a distinct confederation.

Governor Winthrop and Mr. John Talcott, commissioners from Connecticut, replied that, in their opinion, New Haven had no just grounds of complaint; that Connecticut had never designed them any injury, but had made to them the most friendly propositions, inviting them to share with them freely in all the important and distinguishing privileges which they had obtained for themselves; that they had sent committees amicably to treat with them; that they were still treating, and would attend all just and friendly means of accommodation.

The commissioners of the other colonies, having fully heard the parties, determined that “where any act of power had been exerted against the authority of New Haven, the same ought to be recalled, and their power reserved to them entire, until such time as, in an orderly way, it shall be otherwise disposed.” With respect to the particular grievances mentioned by the commissioners of New Haven, the consideration of them was referred to the next meeting of the commissioners at Hartford.

In this situation of affairs an event took place which alarmed all the New England colonies, and at once changed the opinion of the commissioners, and of New Haven, with respect to their incorporation with Connecticut.