King Charles II., on the 12th of March, 1664, gave a patent to his brother, the Duke of York and Albany, of several extensive tracts of land in North America, the boundaries of which are thus described:

“All that part of the main land of New-England, beginning at a certain place called and known by the name of St. Croix, next adjoining to New-England, in America, and from thence extending along the sea-coast into a certain place called Pemaquie, or Pemaquid, and so up the river thereof to the furthest head of the same, as it tendeth northward, and from thence extending to the river Hembequin, and so upward, by the shortest course, to the river Canada northward; and also all that island or islands commonly called by the general name or names of Meitowax, or Long-Island, situate and being toward the west of Cape Cod, and the narrow Highgansets abutting on the main land, between the two rivers, these called and known by the several names of Connecticut and Hudson’s Rivers; and all the land on the west side of Connecticut River, to the east side of the Delaware-Bay; and also all those several islands called or known by the names of Martin’s Vineyard, or Nantucks, otherwise Nantucket: together,” etc., etc.

The concern of the Duke of York for his property, and the aversion both he and his Majesty had for the Dutch, led them to dispatch an army and fleet to New England for the reduction of the Dutch settlement on the continent. Colonel Richard Nichols was chief commander of the fleet and army. Sir Robert Carr, George Cartwirth, and Samuel Maverick, Esq., were appointed commissioners with him, to determine all matters of complaint and controversy, and settling the country in peace.

Colonel Nichols arrived in Boston, with the fleet and troops under his command, on the 23d of July, 1664. He then sailed for the New Netherlands on the 20th of August, and made a demand of the town and forts upon the island of Manhadoes. Governor Winthrop, and several magistrates and principal gentlemen of Connecticut, joined him at the west end of Long Island, according to his request.

Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor, was an old soldier, and, had he been better prepared and the people united, doubtless could have made a brave defense. But he had no intimations of the design until the 8th of July, when he received intelligence that a fleet of three or four ships of war, with three hundred and fifty soldiers on board, were about to sail from England against the Dutch settlements. Upon this he immediately ordered that the forts should be put in a state of defense, and sent out spies into several parts of Connecticut for further information. It has been said that the Dutch Governor was negotiating a neutrality with Connecticut when he received the news of the fleet’s arrival in Boston. Stuyvesant was extremely opposed to a surrender of the fort and town. Instead of submitting to the summons at first sent him, he drew up a long statement of the Dutch claims, and their indubitable right to the country. He insisted that, had the king of England known the justice of their claims, he never would have adopted such measures against them. He concluded by assuring Colonel Nichols that he should not submit to his demands, nor fear any evils but such as God in his providence should inflict upon him.

Colonel Nichols, in his first summons, had in his Majesty’s name given assurance that the Dutch, upon their submission, should be safe as to life, liberty, and property. Governor Winthrop also wrote a letter to the Governor and Council, advising them to surrender. But they were careful to secrete the writings from the people, lest the easy terms proposed should induce them to surrender. The burgomasters and people desired to know of the Governor what was the import of the writings he had received, and especially of the letter from Governor Winthrop. The Dutch Governor and his Council giving them no intelligence, they solicited it the more earnestly. The Governor, irritated at this, in a paroxysm of anger tore the letters to pieces; upon which the people protested against his conduct and all its consequences.

While the Governor and Council were thus contending with the burgomasters and people, the English commissioners issued a proclamation to all the inhabitants who would become subject to his Majesty, “that they should be protected by his Majesty’s laws and justice, and enjoy whatever God’s blessing and their honest industry had furnished them with, and all the other privileges with his Majesty’s English subjects.”

The Dutch, therefore, on the 27th of August, submitted upon terms of capitulation. The articles secured them in the enjoyment of liberty of conscience in Divine worship, and their own mode of discipline. The Dutch Governor and people became English subjects, enjoyed their estates, and all the privileges of Englishmen. Upon the surrender of the town of New Amsterdam, it was named New York, in honor of the Duke of York.

Fort Orange, or Aurania, surrendered on the 24th of September, and was named Albany, after the Duke of York and Albany. Sir Robert Carr proceeded to the Delaware, and on the 1st of October compelled the Dutch and Swedes to capitulate. Upon this day the whole of the New Netherlands became subject to the crown of England.

Mr. Whiting, who was in Boston, and learned much of the temper of the commissioners, was sent back in haste to give information of the danger in which, it was apprehended, the colonies were, to advise New Haven to incorporate with Connecticut without delay, and to make a joint exertion for the preservation of their chartered rights. This was pressed not only as absolutely necessary for New Haven, but for the general safety of the country. In consequence of this intelligence a General Court was convened at New Haven on the 11th of August, 1664. Governor Leet communicated the intelligence he had received, and acquainted them that Mr. Whiting and Mr. Bull, in their own name, and in behalf of the magistrates of Connecticut, pressed their immediate subjection to their government. The Court was certified that, after some treaty with these gentlemen, their committee had given an answer, purporting that if Connecticut would, in his Majesty’s name, assert their claim to the colony of New Haven, and secure them in the full enjoyment of all the immunities which they had proposed, and engage to make a united exertion for the preservation of their chartered rights, they would make their submission. After a long debate the Court resolved that, if Connecticut should come and assist their claim, as had been agreed, they would submit until the meeting of the commissioners of the united colonies. The magistrates and principal gentlemen of the colony seem to have been sensible not only of the expediency, but of the necessity, of an incorporation with Connecticut. The opposition, however, was so general among the people that nothing further was effected. The Court of Commissioners was so near at hand that no further demands were made on New Haven until their advice could be known. The General Assembly met early in September, and passed a remonstrance against the sitting of Governor Leet and Deputy-Governor Jones with the commissioners. In the remonstrance they declared that New Haven was not a colony, but a part of Connecticut, and made claim to it as such. They insisted that owning that as a colony, distinct from Connecticut, after his Majesty had by his letters-patent incorporated it with that colony, was inconsistent with the king’s pleasure; would endanger the right of all the colonies, and especially the charter-rights of Connecticut. The Assembly, at the same time, declared that they would have a tender regard to their honored friends and brethren at New Haven, and exert themselves to accommodate them with all the immunities and privileges which they conveyed by their Charter.

On the 1st of September the Court of Commissioners met at Hartford. The commissioners from New Haven were allowed their seats with the other confederates. The case of New Haven and Connecticut was fully heard, and though the Court did not approve of the manner in which Connecticut had proceeded, yet they earnestly pressed a speedy and amicable union of the two colonies.

To remove all obstructions on their part, the commissioners recommended it to the General Courts of Massachusetts and Plymouth, that, in case the colony of New Haven should incorporate with Connecticut, they might then be owned as one colony, and send two commissioners to each meeting; and that the determinations of any four of the six should be equally binding on the confederates as the conclusions of six out of eight had been before. It was also proposed that the meeting, which had been at New Haven, should be at Hartford.

In compliance with the advice of the commissioners, Governor Leet convened a General Court in New Haven on the 14th of September, and communicated the advice which had been given them to unite. They considered whether, if the king’s commissioners should visit them, they would not be much better able to vindicate their liberty and just rights, in union with Connecticut under the royal patent, than in their present circumstances; and many insisted, notwithstanding, “that we stand; as God had kept them to that time, was their best way.” Others were intensely of the contrary opinion, and, after a full discussion of the subject, no vote for union or treaty could be obtained.

New Haven and Branford were more fixed and obstinate in their opposition to an incorporation with Connecticut than any of the other towns in that colony. Mr. Davenport and Mr. Pierson seem to have been among its chief supporters. They, with many of the inhabitants of the colony, were more rigid with respect to the terms of church-communion than the ministers and churches of Connecticut generally were. A considerable number of the churches in Connecticut were in favor of the propositions of the General Council, which met at Cambridge in 1662, relative to baptism of children whose parents were not in full communion. The ministers and churches of New Haven were universally and utterly against them. Mr. Davenport, and others in this colony, were also strong in the opinion that all government should be in the Church. No person in the colony could be a freeman unless he was a member in full communion. But, in Connecticut, all orderly persons possessing a freehold to a certain amount might be made free of the corporation. Those gentlemen who were so strong in their opposition were jealous that a union would mar the purity, order, and beauty of their churches, and have an influence on the civil administrations. Besides, it was a painful reflection that, after they had been at so much pains and expense to form and support themselves as a distinct government, and had been many years owned as one, their existence must cease and their name be obliterated. Milford at this time broke off from them, and would no more either send magistrates or deputies to the General Court. Mr. Richard Law, a principal gentleman in Stamford, also deserted them.

In this state of affairs the General Assembly of Connecticut convened on the 13th of October. This was an important crisis with the colony. Their liberties were not only in equal danger with those of the sister-colonies, from the extraordinary powers and arbitrary dispositions and measures of the king’s commissioners, but the Duke of York, a powerful antagonist, had received a patent covering Long Island and all that part of the colony west of Connecticut River. William and Anne, the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, had petitioned his Majesty to restore to them the tract of country granted to their father, James, Marquis of Hamilton, in the year 1635; and his Majesty had, on the 6th of May, 1664, referred the case to the determination of Colonel Nichols and the other commissioners. Besides, the state of affairs with New Haven was neither comfortable nor safe.

The Legislature, to conciliate the commissioners and obtain the good graces of his Majesty, ordered a present of five hundred bushels of corn to be made to the commissioners. A large committee was appointed to settle the boundaries between Connecticut and the Duke of York. A committee, consisting of Messrs. Allen, Wyllys, Talcott, and Newburg, was appointed to settle the boundary-line between this colony and Massachusetts, and between Connecticut and Rhode Island. They were instructed not to give away any part of the lands included within the limits of the Charter.

Mr. Sherman, Mr. Allen, and the Secretary, were authorized to proceed to New Haven, and, by order of the General Assembly, “in his Majesty’s name to require the inhabitants of New Haven, Milford, Branford, Guilford, and Stamford, to submit to the government established by his Majesty’s most gracious grant to this colony, and to receive their answer.” They were authorized to make declaration, that the Assembly did invest Messrs. Leet, Jones, Gilbert, Fenn, Crane, Treat, and Law, with the powers of magistracy, to govern their respective plantations agreeably to the laws of Connecticut, or such of their own laws as were not inconsistent with the Charter, until their session in May next.

The gentlemen appointed to this service on the 19th of November went to New Haven, and proceeded according to their instructions.

About this time Governor Winthrop, Mr. Allen, Mr. Gould, Mr. Richards, and John Winthrop, the committee appointed to settle the boundaries between Connecticut and New York, waited upon the commissioners on York Island. After they had been fully heard in behalf of Connecticut, the commissioners determined “that the southern boundary of his Majesty’s colony of Connecticut is the sea; and that Long Island is to be under the government of the Duke of York, as is expressed in plain words in the said patents respectively. We also order and declare, that the creek or river called Mamaroneck, which is reputed to be almost twelve miles to the east of West Chester, and a line drawn from the east point or side, where the fresh water falls into the salt, at high-water mark, north-northwest to the line of Massachusetts, be the western bounds of said colony of Connecticut; and the plantations lying westward of that creek, and a line so drawn, to be under his Royal Highness’s government; and all plantations lying eastward of the creek and line to be under the government of Connecticut.”

In consequence of the acts of Connecticut, and the determination of the commissioners relative to the boundaries of the colony, a General Court was called at New Haven on the 13th of December, 1664, and the following resolutions were unanimously passed:

I. “That by this act or vote we be not understood to justify Connecticut’s former actings, nor anything disorderly done by their own people, on such accounts.

II. “That by it we be not apprehended to have any hand in breaking and dissolving the confederation.

III. “Yet, in loyalty to the king’s Majesty, when an authentic copy of the determination of his Majesty’s commissioners is published, to be recorded with us, if thereby it shall appear to our committee that we are, by his Majesty’s authority, now put under Connecticut patent, we shall submit, by a necessity brought upon us by the means of Connecticut aforesaid, but with a solvo jure of our former rights and claims, as a people who have not yet been heard in point of plea.”—Ed. Note.

[25] While the churches were thus divided, they were alarmed by the appearance of the Quakers. A number of them arrived in Boston in July and August, and had been committed to the common gaol. A great number of their books had been seized with the view to burn them. In consequence of their arrival, and the disturbance they had made in Boston, the commissioners of the united colonies, at their court in September, recommended it to the several General Courts,

“That all Quakers, Ranters, and other notorious heretics, should be prohibited coming into the united colonies; and that, if they should come or arise among them, they should be forthwith secured and removed out of all the jurisdictions.”

In conformity with this recommendation, the General Court of Connecticut, in October, passed the following act:

“That no town within this jurisdiction shall entertain any Quakers, Ranters, Adamites, or such like notorious heretics, or suffer them to continue in them above the space of fourteen days, upon the penalty of 5l. per week for any town entertaining such persons. But the townsmen shall give notice to the two next magistrates or assistants, who shall have the power to send them to prison, for securing them until they can conveniently be sent out of the jurisdiction. It is also ordered that no master of a vessel shall land any such heretics; but if they do, they shall be compelled to transport them again out of the colony, by any two magistrates or assistants, at their first setting sail from the port where they landed them; during which time the assistant or magistrate shall see them secured, upon the penalty of 20l. for any master of any vessel that shall not transport them as aforesaid.”—Ed. Note.

[26] Mr. Dudley, while president of the commissioners, had written to the Governor and Company, advising them to resign the Charter into the hands of his Majesty, and promising to use his influence in favor of the colony. Mr. Dudley’s commission was suspended by a commission to Sir Edmund Andros to be Governor of New England. He arrived in Boston on the 19th of December, 1686. The next day his commission was published, and he took on him the administration of the government. Soon after his arrival he wrote to the Governor and Company that he had a commission from his Majesty to receive their Charter, if they would resign it; and he pressed them, in obedience to the king, and as they would give him an opportunity to serve them, to resign it to his pleasure. At this session of the Assembly the Governor received another letter from him, acquainting him that he was assured, by the advice he had received from England, that judgment was by that time entered upon the quo warranto against their Charter, and that he soon expected to receive his Majesty’s commands respecting them. He urged them, as he represented it, that he might not be wanting in serving their welfare, to accept his Majesty’s favor, so graciously offered them, in a present compliance and surrender. But the colony insisted upon their Charter rights, and on the promise of King James, as well as of his royal brother, to defend and secure them in the enjoyment of their privileges and estates, and would not surrender their Charter to either. However, in their petition to the king, in which they prayed for the continuance of their Charter rights, they desired, if this could not be obtained, but it should be resolved to put them under another government, that it might be under Sir Edmund’s, as the Massachusetts had been their former correspondents and confederates, and as they were acquainted with their principles and manners.

This was construed into a resignation, though nothing could be further from the designs of the colony.

The Assembly met, as usual, in October, and the government continued according to the Charter, until the last of the month.

About this time Sir Edmund and his suite, and more than sixty regular troops, came to Hartford, where the Assembly were sitting, and demanded the Charter, and declared the government under it dissolved. The Assembly were extremely reluctant and slow with respect to any resolve to surrender the Charter, or with respect to any motion to bring it forth. The tradition is, that Governor Treat represented the great expense and hardships of the colonists in planting the country; the blood and treasure which they had expended in defending it, both against the savages and foreigners; to what hardships and dangers he himself had been exposed for that purpose; and that it was like giving up his life now to surrender the patent and privileges so dearly bought and so long enjoyed. The important affair was debated and kept in suspense until the evening, when the Charter was brought and laid upon the table where the Assembly was sitting. By this time a great number of people were assembled, and men sufficiently bold to enterprise whatever might be necessary or expedient.

The lights were instantly extinguished, and one Captain Wadsworth, of Hartford, in the most silent and secret manner, carried off the Charter and secreted it in a large, hollow tree, fronting the house of the Hon. Samuel Wyllys, then one of the magistrates of the colony. The people appeared all peaceable and orderly. The candles were relighted, but the patent was gone, and no discovery could be made of it or of the person who had conveyed it away.

It was said that the Charter was delivered up, and that same evening the apartments of Sir Edmund were entered and the patent abstracted; but this does not appear to have been the case. Sir Edmund assumed the government, and the records of the colony were closed in the following words:

“At a General Court at Hertford, October 31, 1687, His Excellency Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, and Captain-General, and Governor, of his Majesty’s territories and dominions in New England, by order from his Majesty James II., King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, the 31st of October, 1687, took into his hands the government of the Colony of Connecticut, it being by his Majesty annexed to Massachusets and other colonies under his Excellency’s government.

“FINIS.”

Sir Edmund appointed officers civil and military. His Council at first consisted of forty persons, and afterward of nearly fifty. Four among the number—Governor Treat, John Fitz Winthrop, Wait Winthrop, and John Allen, Esquires—were of Connecticut.—Ed. Note.

[27] Scarcely anything could be more gloomy and distressful than the state of public affairs in New England at the beginning of this year. But in the midst of darkness light arose. While the people had prayed in vain to an earthly monarch, their petition had been more successfully presented to a higher throne. Providence wrought gloriously for them and the nation’s deliverance. On the 5th of November, 1688, the Prince of Orange landed at Torbay, in England. He immediately published a declaration of his design in visiting the kingdom. A copy of this was received at Boston by one Mr. Winslow, a gentleman from Virginia, in April, 1689.

Governor Andros and his Council were so much alarmed with the news, that they ordered Mr. Winslow to be arrested and committed to jail for bringing a false and traitorous libel in the country.

They also issued a proclamation commanding all the officers and people to be in readiness to prevent the landing of any forces which the Prince of Orange might send into that part of America. But the people, who sighed under their burdens, secretly wished and prayed for success to his glorious undertaking. The leaders in the country determined quietly to await the event; but the great body of the people had less patience. Stung with past injuries, and encouraged at the first intimations of relief, the fire of liberty rekindled, and the flame, which for a long time had been smothered in their bosoms, burst forth with irresistible violence.

On the 18th of April the inhabitants of Boston and the adjacent towns rose in arms, made themselves masters of the castle, seized Sir Edmund Andros and his Council, and persuaded the old Governor and Council at Boston to resume the government.

On the 9th of May, 1689, Governor Robert Treat, Deputy-Governor James Bishop, and the former magistrates, at the desire of the freemen, resumed the government of Connecticut. Major-General John Winthrop was at the same time chosen into the magistracy, to complete the number appointed by the Charter.

The freemen voted that, for the present safety of that part of New England called Connecticut, the necessity of its circumstances so requiring,

“They would reëstablish government as it was before and at the time Sir Edmund Andros took it, and so have it proceed, as it did before that time, according to charter, engaging themselves to submit to it accordingly, until there should be a legal establishment among them.”

The Assembly, having formed, came to the following resolutions:

“That, whereas this Court hath been interrupted in the management of its government, in this Colony of Connecticut, for nineteen months past, it is now enacted, ordered, and declared, that all the laws of this colony, made according to Charter, and courts constituted for the administration of government, as they were before the late interruption, shall be of full force and virtue for the future, and until this Court shall see cause to make further and other alterations, according to the Charter.”

The Assembly then confirmed all military officers in their respective posts, and proceeded to appoint their civil officers, as had been customary at the May session.—Ed. Note.

[28] “AN ADDRESS TO KING WILLIAM, JUNE 18, 1689.

“To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty: The humble address of your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the Governor and Company of your Majesty’s Colony of Connecticut, in New England.

“Great Sovereign: Great was that day when the Lord, who sitteth upon the floods, and sitteth King forever, did divide his and your adversaries from one another, like the waters of Jordan forced to stand upon an heap, and did begin to magnify you, like Joshua in the sight of all Israel, by those great actions that were so much for the honour of God and the deliverance of the English dominions from popery and slavery; and all this, separated from those sorrows that usually attend the introduction of a peaceable settlement in any troubled state: all which doth affect us with the sense of our duty to return the highest praise unto the King of Kings and Lord of Hosts, and bless him who hath delighted in you, to set you upon the throne of his Israel, and to say, Because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore has he made you king, to do justice and judgment, &c.; also humble and hearty acknowledgement for the great zeal that by your Majesty has been expressed in those hazards you have put your royal person to, and in the expense of so great a treasure in the defense of the Protestant interest. In the consideration of all which, we, your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects of your said colony, are encouraged humbly to intimate that we, with much favour, obtained a Charter from Charles II., of happy memory, bearing date April 23, 1662, in the fourteenth year of his reign, granted to the Governor and Company of his Majesty’s Colony of Connecticut, the advantages and privileges whereof made us indeed a very happy people; and, by the blessing of God upon our endeavours, we have made a considerable improvement of your dominions here, which, with the defense of ourselves from the force of both foreign and intestine enemies, has cost us much expense of treasure and blood; yet in the second year of the reign of his late Majesty, King James II., we had a quo warranto served upon us by Edward Randolph, requiring our appearance before his Majesty’s court in England; and although the time of our appearance was elapsed before the serving the said quo warranto, yet we humbly petitioned his Majesty for his favour and the continuance of our Charter, with the privileges thereof; but we received no other favour but a second quo warranto: and we well observed that the Charter of London, and of other considerable cities in England, were condemned, and that the Charter of Massachusets had undergone the like fate, plainly saw what we might expect; yet as we not judged it good or lawful to be active in surrendering what had cost us so dear, nor to be altogether silent, we employed an attorney to appear in our behalf, and to prefer our humble address to his Majesty, to entreat his favour quickly upon it; but as Sir Edmund Andros informed us he was empowered by his Majesty to regain the surrender of our Charter, if we saw meet to do so, and to take ourselves under his government, we withstood all these motions, and in our reiterated addresses we petitioned his Majesty to continue us in the full and free enjoyment of our liberties and property, civil and sacred, according to our Charter. We also petitioned that if his Majesty should not see meet to continue us as we were, but was resolved to annex us to some other government, we then desired that (inasmuch as Boston had been our old correspondents, and people whose principles and manners we had been acquainted with) we might be annexed rather to Sir Edmund Andros his government than to Colonel Dungan’s, which choice of ours was taken for a resignation of our government; though that was never intended by us for such, nor had it the formalities in law to make it a resignation, as we humbly conceive; yet Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned by his Majesty to take us under his government: pursuant to which, about the end of October, 1687, he, with a company of gentlemen and grenadiers to the number of sixty or upward, came to Hertford (the chief seat of this government), caused his commission to be read, and declared our government to be dissolved, and put into commission both civil and military officers through our colony, as he pleased, when he passed through the principal parts thereof.

“The good people of the colony, though they were under a great sense of injuries they sustained hereby, yet chose rather to be silent and patient than oppose, being, indeed, surprised into an involuntary submission to an arbitrary power; but when the government we were thus put under seemed to us to be determined, and we being in daily fear and hazard of those many inconveniences that will arise from a people in want of a government; being also in continual danger of our lives by reason of the natives being at war with us, with whom we had just fears of our neighbouring French to join, not receiving any order or directions what method to take for our security, we were necessitated to put ourselves into some form of government; and there being none so familiar to us as that of our Charter, nor what we could make so effectual for the gaining the universal compliance of the people, and having never received any intimation of an enrolment of that which was interpreted a resignation of our Charter, we have presumed, by the consent of the major part of the freemen assembled for that end, May 9, 1689, to resume our government according to the rules of our Charter, and this to continue till further order; yet, as we have thus presumed to dispose ourselves, not waiting orders from your Majesty, we humbly submit ourselves herein, entreating your Majesty’s most gracious pardon; and that what our urgent necessity hath put upon us may no ways interrupt your Majesty’s grace and favour toward us, your most humble and dutiful subjects, but that in your clemency you would be pleased to grant us such directions as to your princely wisdom may seem meet, with such ratifications and confirmations of our Charter, in the full and free enjoyment of all our properties, privileges, and liberties, both civil and sacred, as therein granted to us by your royal predecessor, King Charles II., which may yet further insure it an inheritance to us and our posterities after us, with what further grace and favour your royal and enlarged heart may be moved to confer upon us; which, we trust, we shall not forget nor be unprofitable under; but as we have this day, with the greatest expressions of joy, proclaimed your Majesty and Royal Consort King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, with the dominions hereto belonging, so we shall ever pray that God would grant your Majesties long life, and prosperously to reign over all your dominions, and that the great and happy work you have begun may be prospered here, and graciously rewarded with a crown of glory hereafter.

“ROBERT TREAT, Governor.

“Per order of the General Court of Connecticut.

“[Signed]JOHN ALLEN, Secretary.”

[29] Dr. Douglas was a naturalist, and a physician of considerable eminence in Boston, where he never attended any religious worship, having been educated in Scotland with such rancorous hatred against episcopacy, that, with his age, it ripened into open scepticism and deism. However, his many severities against the Episcopalians, New Lights, and Quakers, procured him a good name among the Old Lights, and the mongrel christians of New-York, whose policy and self-interest have always domineered over conscience and morality. For these reasons, his brother Smith, in his History of New-York, frequently quotes him, to prove his futile assertions against New-England, New-Jersey, and Pensylvania.

[30] Perhaps their success was facilitated by the consideration, that the quit-rent payable to the Crown in New-York is 2s. 6d. per 100 acres, but only 9d. in Newhampshire. The same may be said, with still more reason, in regard to the lands acquired by New-York from Massachusets-Bay and Connecticut, where the quit-rent is—nothing.

[31] In 1680, the number of Indians, or aborigines, in the whole Province of Connecticut was 4000. This was allowed by the General Assembly. How much greater their number was in 1637, may be estimated from the accounts given by Dr. Mather, Mr. Neal, Mr. Penhallow, and Mr. Hutchinson, of the deaths of Englishmen in the Indian wars, for the space of forty-three years. It has been computed, that from 1637 to 1680, upon an average, one hundred Englishmen were killed yearly in those wars, and that there were killed, with sword and gun, and smallpox, twenty Indians for every one Englishman. If this calculation is just, it appears that the English killed of the Indians, during the above-mentioned period, 86,000, to which number the 4000 Indians remaining in 1680 being added, it is clear that there were 90,000 Indians in Connecticut when Hooker began his holy war upon them; not to form conjectures upon those who probably afterwards abandoned the country. This evinces the weakness of the Indian mode of fighting with bows and arrows against guns, and the impropriety of calling Connecticut an howling wilderness in 1636, when Hooker arrived in Hertford. The English in one hundred and thirty-six years have not much more than doubled the number of Indians they killed in forty-three years. In 1770 the number of Indians in Connecticut amounted not to 400 souls.

[32] Many years afterward the author’s attention was called to this statement; he replied, as to the expression above, by saying, he meant that the pressure of the stream was so great that a crowbar, not having sufficient specific gravity to sink, would actually be carried down the stream upon its surface. As incredulous as this may appear, we have it substantiated by no less a person than the late eminent engineer, John A. Roebling, who built the suspension-bridge over the river at the Niagara Falls, in the following letter:

“Suspension Bridge, April 28, 1855.

“Samuel Wilkeson, Esq.

“Dear Sir: I received a copy of The Democrat, with your account of my attempting to sound the river. After you left, another attempt was made, with a similar iron, of about forty pounds’ weight, attached to a No. 11 wire, all freely suspended, so as not to impede the fall of the weight. I then let the weight fall from the bridge, a height of 225 feet. It struck the surface fairly, with the point down—must have sunk to some depth, but was not longer out of sight than one second, when it made its appearance again upon the surface, about 100 feet down stream, and skipped along like a chip, until it was checked by the wire. We then commenced hauling in slowly, which made the iron bounce like a ball, when a cake of ice struck it, and ended the sport.

“I am satisfied that no metal has sufficient gravity to pierce that current, even with the momentum acquired by a fall of 226 feet. The velocity of the iron, when striking, must have been about equal to 124 feet per second, and, consequently, its momentum near 5,000 pounds. Its surface, opposed to the current, was about fifty superficial inches. This will give an idea of the strength of that current, and, at the same time, hint at the Titan forces that have been at work to scoop out the bed of the Niagara River.

“I am now satisfied that our friend, the English captain, was sounding in vain.

“Yours respectfully and truly,

“JOHN A. ROEBLING.”

—Ed. Note.

[33] Of the separation from the standing churches an account has been given, and of the disorders and oppressions of those times when they commenced. Churches of this character were formed in New London, Stonington, Preston, Norwich, Lyme, Canterbury, Plainfield, Windsor, Suffield, and Middletown. Some of these churches and congregations were nearly as large as some of the standing churches. There were ten or twelve churches and congregations of this denomination, first and last, in the colony. Some of them carried their enthusiasm to a greater extent than others. In New London they carried it to such a degree that they made a large fire to burn their books, clothes, and ornaments, which they called their idols, and which they now determined to forsake, and utterly to put away.

This imaginary work of piety and self-denial they undertook on the Lord’s-day, and brought their books, necklaces, and jewels, together in the main street.

They began by burning their erroneous books, dropping them, one after another, into the fire, pronouncing these 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 his wife and children, and that he could not burn them; it would be contrary to the laws of God and man; that it was impossible to destroy idolatry without a change of heart and of the affections.—Ed. Note.

[34] Mr. Hooker died while this work was in course of publication.—Ed. Note.

[35] The Rev. Mr. Dean went to England and took orders for the church at Hebron, but died at sea on his return, about the year 1745. The Rev. Mr. Punderson, of Groton, then preached to them, and administered the sacrament, from 1746 to 1752. The people of Hebron were very unfortunate with respect to the gentlemen who went to England for orders in their behalf. A Mr. Cotton, in 1752, received orders for them, but he died, on his passage for New-England, with the small-pox. Mr. Graves, of New-London, served them from 1752 to 1757. In 1757 one Mr. Usher went for orders in their behalf; he was taken by the French, on his passage to England, and died in captivity.

The Rev. Samuel Peters was ordained their priest in August, 1759, and the next year returned to New-England. He continued priest at Hebron until the commencement of the Revolutionary War, when he was driven from his country by the mobs of Windham, instigated by Governor Trumbull.—Ed. Note.

[36] The following is a portion of a communication to some paper in Connecticut, part of which has been destroyed:

“Mr. Printer: You have shewn no partiality in your paper among contending parties, but have given all rational systems, at least all popular plans, a chance in the world by your medeocritical channel. What I am desirous of communicating to the public is very popular: It is, to put the Quacks Club in the East upon a reputible footing, as the licensed Physiognomers in the West.

“At a meeting held in Connecticut, October, 1767, it was resolved:

“First: We Etiologists, viz. John Whiggot, Esq. President, Adam Kuncnow, Michel Nugnug, Shazael Bulldunce, Committee for said Club of Quackism. That we may serve each other in our Occupation, we have appointed a meeting to be upon the first Tuesday of every month, for the year ensueing, at the house of Mr. Abram Bruntick, in Green Lane, nigh the Crow Market, straight forward from the sign of the Goose, at the sign of the Looking Glass.

“Second: To lay some plan to support Dr. Leaffolds Latina Anatomy.

“Third: To choose a Proluctor, able to defend the high pretensions made by these mercurial sons in the West against your art in Pharmacy, Chemistry, and Physic, in the East.

“Fourth: To make some Laws for admission of young Quacks into this most popular Club.”

No doubt the above was a burlesque upon the law that had passed the year before, or rather upon the one the General Assembly refused to pass.—Ed. Note.

[37] The episcopal church in Stratford is the oldest of that denomination in the State. But episcopacy made very little progress in Connecticut, until after the declaration of Rector Cutler, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Whitemore, and Mr. Brown, for episcopacy, in 1722. Numbers of Mr. Johnson’s and Mr. Whitemore’s hearers professed episcopacy with them, and set up the worship of God, according to the manner of the Church of England, in the West and North-Haven. Mr. (afterward Dr.) Johnson was a gentleman distinguished for literature, of popular talents and engaging manners. In 1724, after receiving episcopal ordination in England, he returned to Stratford, and, under his ministry to that and the neighboring churches of that denomination, they were increased.—Ed. Note.

[38] An early provision was therefore made by law in Massachusetts and Connecticut for the support of the ministry. In Connecticut all persons were obliged by law to contribute to the support of the Church as well as of the Commonwealth.

All rates respecting the support of ministers, or any ecclesiastical affairs, were to be made and collected in the same manner as the rates of the respective towns.

Special care was taken that all persons should attend the means of public instruction. The law obliged them to be present at public worship on the Lord’s-day, and upon all days of public fasting and praying, and of thanksgivings appointed by civil authority, on penalty of a fine of five shillings for every instance of neglect. The Congregational churches were adopted and established by law; but provision was made that all sober, orthodox persons dissenting from them should, upon the manifestation of it to the General Court, be allowed peaceably to worship in their own way.

It was enacted, “That no person within this Colony shall in any wise embody themselves into Church estate without consent of the General Court and approbation of neighbouring elders.”

The law also prohibited that any ministry or Church administration should be entertained or attended by the inhabitants of any plantation in the Colony, distinct and separate from, and in opposition to, that which was openly and publicly observed and dispensed by the approved minister of the place; except it was by the approbation of the Court and neighboring churches. The penalty for every breach of this act was 5l.--Ed. Note.

[39] The following will show that a Connecticut mob of Sober Dissenters is not inferior to a London mob of drunken Conformists, either in point of ingenuity, low humour, or religious mockery. The stamp-master was declared by the mob at Hertford to be dead. The mob at Lebanon undertook to send Ingersoll to his own place. They made their effigies, one to represent Mr. Grenville, another Ingersoll, and a third the devil. The last was dressed with a wig, hat, and black coat, given by parson Solomon Williams, of Lebanon. Mr. Grenville was honoured with a hat, wig, and coat, a present from Mr. Jonathan Trumbull, who was afterwards chosen Governor, (and who afterwards wrote the letter to General Gage, as appears in a preceding note.) Mr. Ingersoll was dressed in red, with a lawyer’s wig, a wooden sword, and his hat under his arm, by the generosity of Joseph Trumbull. Thus equipped, the effigies were put into a cart, with ropes about their necks, and drawn towards the gallows. A dialogue ensued between the criminals. Some friendship seemed to subsist between Mr. Grenville and the devil, while nothing but sneers and frowns passed the devil to Ingersoll; and the fawning reverence of the latter gave his infernal Highness such offence, that he turned up his breech and discharged fire, brimstone, and tar in Ingersoll’s face, setting him all in a blaze; which, however, Mr. Grenville generously extinguished with a squirt. This was many times repeated. As the procession advanced, the mob exclaimed, “Behold the just reward of our agent, who sold himself to Grenville, like Judas, at a price!” In this manner the farce was continued till midnight, at which time they arrived at the gallows; where a person in a long shirt, in derision of the surplice of a Church clergyman, addressed the criminals with republican Atticisms, railleries, &c., concluding thus: “May your deaths be tedious and intolerable, and may your souls sink quick down to hell, the residence of tyrants, traitors, and devils!” The effigies were then turned off, and, after hanging some time, were hoisted upon a huge pile of wood and burnt, that their bodies might share a similar fate with their souls. This pious transaction exalted the character of Mr. Trumbull, and facilitated his election to the office of Governor; and, what was of further advantage to him, his mob judged that the bones of Ingersoll’s effigy merited christian burial according to the rites of the Church of England, though he had been brought up a Sober Dissenter, and resolved, therefore, to bury his bones in Hebron. Accordingly, thither they repaired, and, after having made a coffin, dug a grave in a cross-street, and made every other preparation for the interment, they sent for the episcopal clergyman there to attend the funeral of the bones of Ingersoll the traitor.

The clergyman[40] told the messengers that neither his office nor his person were to be sported with, nor was it his business to bury Sober Dissenters who abuse the Church while living. The mob, enraged at this answer, ordered a party to bring the clergyman by force, or send him to hell after Ingersoll. This alarmed the people of the town, who instantly loaded their muskets in defence of the clergyman. Thus checked in their mad career, the mob contented themselves with a solemn funeral procession, drums beating and horns blowing, and buried the coffin in the cross-street, one of the pantomimes bawling out, “We commit this traitor’s bones to the earth—ashes to dust and dust to ashes—in sure and certain hope that his soul is in hell with all tories and enemies in Zion.” Then, having driven a stake through the coffin, and each cast a stone upon the grave, they broke a few windows, cursed such clergymen as rode in chaises and were above the control of God’s people, and went off with a witless saying, viz. “It is better to live with the Church militant than with the Church triumphant.”

[40] The Episcopal clergyman was the Rev. Samuel Peters.—Ed. Note.

[41] This Mr. Dyer had been in England, had petitioned for, and, through Dr. Franklin’s interest, obtained a new office at the port of New-London, viz. that of Comptroller, but afterwards had thought proper to resign that office, in order to be made a Judge of the Superior Court and one of the Council; and, forsooth, that a stranger only might serve the King of Great Britain in the character of a publican in Connecticut.