Chapter VII: Preface (7)

This revolt of a part of the people was encouraged and strengthened by the adherents of Governor Fitch, the five discarded councillors, and the loyalists; so that very formidable bodies soon appeared in divers towns, threatening destruction to the General Assembly, Consociation, Associations, executive courts, &c. &c. Colonel Street Hall, of Wallingford, a loyalist, was appointed governor over these supreme multitudes. They soon acquainted the General Assembly and Consociation that, by the authority that England had been reformed, by the same authority should Connecticut be reformed; and Mr. Hall sent a letter to the Judges of the County Court, then sitting at Newhaven, purporting that it was not agreeable to the people for them to continue their proceedings, or that any executions should be granted, and concluding thus: “Ye that have ears to hear, hear what is said unto you; for we shall quickly come.” The judges, without hesitation or adjournment, ran out of court and went home as privately as possible. The merchants, the Gospel ministers, the lawyers, and judges, who had with great zeal inculcated the divine right of the people to resist kings, found themselves in a starving condition under the exercise of their boasted right. The General Assembly and Association, however, again convened, and, after much fasting and prayer, resolved that the conduct of Street Hall, Esq. and his associates, was seditious and treasonable; and ordered the Attorney-General, Colonel Elihu Hall, to indict his nephew, Street Hall, for treasonable practices. The Attorney-General refused to comply with this mandate, whereupon he was dismissed, and James Hillhouse, Esq. appointed in his place, who indicted Street Hall; but no sheriff dared serve the warrant. Street Hall ordered his people to prepare for battle and to be ready at a minute’s warning, and rode about with one servant, in defiance of the General Assembly, who likewise prepared to support their power. It is most likely that Street Hall would have prevailed had an engagement taken place; for the episcopalians, and all the friends of Mr. Fitch and the five dismissed councillors, would have supported Mr. Hall. But a battle was prevented by the interposition of the Consociation, with this curious Gospel axiom, viz. that it was legal and politic in the people to oppose and resist the foreign power which was unjustly claimed by the King of Great Britain; but it was neither politic nor right to oppose the magistrates and laws made by themselves. They prevailed on Street Hall to condescend to write to the General Assembly to this effect: “That he was a friend to the laws and constitution of the colony, and wished to support both; and should do it, on condition that they would rescind their vote, and that no one should be prosecuted for what had been done by him and his associates.” The Assembly very gladly voted this overture of Street Hall to be satisfactory; and thus peace was re-established between the Assembly and Street Hall. Nevertheless, Mr. Hall was greatly censured by his partisans for this compromise; and he lived in constant expectation of their hanging him, till he softened them by this remarkable address in vindication of his conduct: “We have done,” said he, “everything in our power to support the authority of the British Parliament over the colonies. We have lost our property, local reputations, and all colonial offices and respect among our countrymen, in defence of that King and Parliament who have not shed a tear for our sufferings, nor failed to sacrifice their own dignities and their best friends to please a party that never will be easy until another Oliver arise and extirpate kings, lords, and bishops. By heavens!” added Street Hall, with great energy, “I will rest my life upon this single question, Who would stand up in defence of a king who prefers his enemies to his friends? If you acquit me, I shall more fully declare my principles.”

The mob, after much consideration, declared their approbation of Mr. Hall’s conduct; upon which he resumed his address nearly as follows:

“Gentlemen, we have once been betrayed and forsaken by the King and Parliament of Great Britain; no dependence, then, ought henceforth to be placed upon either. It is plain to me, that if we had extirpated the General Assembly and all the avowed enemies of the constitution of Great Britain, yet that very Parliament would have been the first of all the creation to honour us with a gallows for our reward. I therefore swear by Him who controls the wheels of time, that in future I will support the laws and dignity of the colony, and never more put any confidence in princes or British Parliament. The Saviour of the world trusted Judas but once; and it is my opinion that those who betray and forsake their friends ought to experience the wrath and indignation of friends turned enemies. In this case, baseness is policy, ingratitude loyalty, and revenge heroic virtue!”

Colonel Street Hall spoke with great vehemence, and might be censured for rashness by people who were not in America at the time; but his sentiments reached the hearts of half of the King’s friends there; for the repeal of the Stamp Act had fixed in their breasts an everlasting hatred to the fickle temper of Britons.

Few people, hereafter, will advance a sixpence in support of any acts of the Parliament of Great Britain over her colonies. Prior to the year 1766 such a public spirit prevailed in America over private interest as would naturally have led the people to conform to any acts of the British Parliament, from a deep-rooted confidence that the requisitions of Britain would be no other than the requisitions of wisdom and necessity. Two-thirds, I may say with safety, of all the people in America thought there was wisdom and justice in the Stamp Act, and wished to have it continued: first, because they were sensible of being greatly indebted to the generosity and protection of Britain; secondly, because they had rather be subject to the control of Parliament in regard to a revenue, than have it raised by the authority of their own Assemblies, who favour the rich and oppress the poor; and thirdly, because the Stamp Act would have prevented innumerable suits at law, the costs of which, in Connecticut, have during the last forty years amounted to ten times as much as all others for war, gospel, physic, the poor, &c. &c. It is impossible to describe the disappointment and mortification they suffered by the repeal of that act; it exposed them to calumny, derision, and oppression; it disheartened all, and occasioned the defection of many, while their adversaries triumphed in the encouragement it had given them to prosecute their malicious schemes against the Church, King, laws, and commerce of England. However, in regard to the question of raising a revenue in America, I have never met with one American who would not allow (though unwillingly) the reasonableness of it, with certain conditions and provisos.

Thus: 1. The judges and lawyers required the tax to be imposed by the General Assembly of each province. 2. The merchants, whose conscience is gain, and who commonly constitute more than half of the Assembly, declared that, before any revenue was raised, the Navigation Act should be repealed, and the East India Company, and all the monopolies, dissolved. 3. The Gospel ministers, whose power in New-England is terrible to flesh and spirit, would contribute to a revenue after the King and Parliament had dropped their claim to supreme authority over America, and secured the American Vine against the domination and usurpations of bishops. To these sources may be traced all the objections made against a revenue in America, which sprung from three orders of men of the least real benefit to the country, and whose proportion to all others there is not one to a hundred; though they have had the art and address, by imposition and delusion, to involve them in their tumultuous contentions and ruinous projects and undertakings. Indeed, the clergy, lawyers, and merchants of European countries have been represented as the worst enemies of society--the great promoters of discord, war, insurrections, and rebellions; but the heathen have not yet given us an example how depraved mankind would be without them. However, supposing the crimination to have foundation, there is one good reason to be offered in palliation of it. Most governments are too apt to adopt the maxim of rewarding prosperous opposing zealots, whilst the exertions of oppressed friends are passed over, if not with contempt at least with silent neglect. Hence, men will naturally be induced, in defiance of law and gospel, to head parties, to become consequential in the world.

[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 30_l._ 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.