Timothy Boardman

“ He certainly could not on one hundred and fifty acres of land, which he found wild, and not all of it very good, have reared a large family, and supported public institutions as he did; have given each of his sons at settlement in life, six hundred dollars, and left to each at his death, eight hundred, if he had not practiced through life, a resolute industry, and a somewhat rigid economy.
It is worthy of notice that like his grandfather, Timothy Boardman of Wethersfield, he owned, what by a little change of circumstances, might have brought, not a competence merely but wealth to his heirs. ”

“ Samuel Ward of Middletown, who had twelve children. The Ward family were of equal standing with his own. The newly married couple were each a helpmeet unto the other, and had probably known each other from early life in the same church and perhaps in the same public school. They were both always strongly attached to Middletown, their native place; it cost something to tear themselves away and betake themselves to a new settlement, which they knew must long want many of the advantages which they were leaving. ”

“ Timothy, the ninth child of Daniel, only twelve years old when his brother became pastor at New Milford, died only a few days before the birth of his namesake, and first grandchild, the author of the Log-Book. He lived and died in Wethersfield. His enterprise however, like that of his grandfather who emigrated from England, and that of his father who acquired lands in Litchfield and New Milford, went out, as that of many of their descendants does to-day, in the west, for “more land.” ”

“ Dragged from the Place of their Nativity, brought into a Country not to be taught the Principles of Religion & the Rights of Freeman, but to Be Slaves to Masters, who having Nothing but Interest in View without ever Weting their own Shoes, Drive these fellows to the Most Severe Services, I say I cannot behold these things without Pain. And Expressing my Sorrow that are Enlightend People, a People Professing Christianity Should treat any of God’s creatures in Such a Manner as I have Seen them treated Since my arrival at this Place. ”

“ Amid the quiet hills of Vermont, the minds of both were affected for a time, with at least partial derangement. Dea. Boardman labored temporarily under the hallucination, that he was somehow liable to arrest, and prepared a chamber for his defence. He was obliged, for a time to be watched, though he was never confined. A journey to Connecticut, on horseback, with his son Samuel, when he was perhaps sixty years old, effected an entire cure. Dea. Chatterton in his extreme old age, after a life of remarkable piety, became a maniac and was obliged to be confined. ”

“ Many of the habits and feelings brought by the Puritans from England still prevailed. To the day of his death he retained much of the spirit of those early associations. He left a double portion to his oldest son. He inherited the traits of the Puritans; intelligence; appreciation of education; deference for different ages and relations in society; piety, industry, economy and thrift. His advantages at school in the flourishing village of Middletown must have been exceptionally good ”

“ Chatterton, who was a rigid Democrat. This eminently devout and useful man, was so burdened with Dea. Boardman’s [Pg 37] lukewarmness in promoting the second war with Great Britain, against whose armies both had fought in the Revolution, that he felt constrained to take up a labor with him, hoping to correct his political errors by wholesome church discipline. It must have been a scene for a painter.
Perhaps no better man or one more effective for good, ever lived in West Rutland than Dea. Chatterton. In both politics and religion he was practical and fervid. The church meeting was crowded. ”

“ Indeed, like most New England Puritans, of resolute and conscientious industry, and of moderate expenditures, he was always independent after he was of age.
A man of such character, and of so fair an education would, of course, soon be valued in any community, and be especially useful in a new settlement where skill with the pen and the compass are rarer than in older places.
He was appreciated and was soon made town clerk of Rutland, and county surveyor for Rutland county. ”

“ One ship of four hundred tons brought one hundred and forty passengers, others perhaps a larger number. Among them were Matthew and Priscilla Grant, from whom Gen. Grant was of the eighth generation in descent. Bancroft says, “Many of them had been accustomed to ease and affluence; an unusual proportion were graduates of Cambridge and Oxford. The same rising tide of strong English sense and piety, which soon overthrew tyranny forever in the British Isles, under Cromwell, was forcing the best blood in England to these shores.” ”

“ The Puritans were an intelligent people, reading and writing; this letter is a specimen of the correspondence carried on between the earliest settlers and their kindred whom they had left in England. They were an affectionate people, “remembering their loves” to one another; and praying, for one another, as this mother did for her son and his wife. This short letter has the word “love” four times.
They were a persistent people, those who came hither did not shrink from the hardships around them. They came to stay, and sent back for their friends. Samuel desired Christopher to follow him. ”

“ Richard Denton, whom Cotton Mather describes, as “a little man with a great soul, an accomplished mind in a lesser body, an Iliad in a nutshell; blind of an eye, but a great seer; seeing much of what eye hath not seen.” ”

“ Vermont was then the open field for emigration. It was rapidly receiving settlers from Connecticut. I have no knowledge that he ever made any account of the immense tract in Maine, purchased and held by deeds, still on record at York, Me., by his grandfather, and in which he, as the oldest grandson, born a few days after his grandfather’s death and named for him, might have been expected to be interested. ”

“ After completing this service the author of the Log-Book, started to walk home to Connecticut. He proceeded on foot to North Carolina, where Andrew Jackson was, then a poor boy of twelve years. Jackson’s father, a young Irish emigrant died within two years after entering those forests, and his widow soon to become the mother of a President, was “hauled” through their clearing, from their deserted shanty, to his grave, among the stumps, in the same lumber wagon with the corpse of her husband. He had been dead twelve years when the pilgrim from Connecticut passed that way. ”

“ America my Earnest Prayer is that thou mayst preserve thy Own Freedom from any Insolvent Invaders who may attempt to Rob the of the Same—but be Sure to let Slavery of all kinds ever be Banishd from thy habbittations. ”

“ At eighty-three he was alone, and he deeply felt, as was natural, that loneliness. Yet he had affectionate children, and with his youngest son, who had four daughters, to him kind and pleasant granddaughters, he made his home for the remainder of his life. ”

“ There are Gentlemen of Charracter & who Ritchly Deserve the Name—but as there are Near Seven Blacks to one White Man, the Austerities used to the Slaves in their Possessions, is the Reason as I immagion of their looking on & Behaving to a White Man who Differs from them in their Manners and not bred in their Country in a Way Not much Different from which they treats their Blacks. ”

“ The feeble hand, whose lines had been so fair and even for nearly three-quarters of a century, wanders unsteadily across the pages, expressive of a mind perhaps already wandering with disease. And so the fingers that had traced the neat lines of the Log-Book, on board the Oliver Cromwell, in 1778, “forgot” sixty years afterwards “their [Pg 44] cunning,” and wrote no more. He was buried beside his wife, in the cemetery at West Rutland, near the church where he had worshipped nearly sixty years. ”

“ He was a man of deep piety, and of great force of character. It is related that an Indian medicine man, and this Puritan pastor met by the sick-bed of the same poor savage. The Indian raised his horrid clamor and din, which was intended to exorcise according to their customs the evil spirit of the disease. At the same time Mr. Boardman lifted up his voice in prayer to [Pg 20] Him who alone can heal the sick. The conflict of rival voices waxed long and loud to see which should drown out the other. ”

“ The very atmosphere of New Haven is still full of the Divine favor distilled from the honor thus put upon God’s word in the foundation of its institutions. There were five capital qualities which greatly distinguished the early New England Puritans. I. Good intellectual endowments; they were of the party of Milton and Cromwell. II. Intense religiousness; the names Pilgrim and Puritan, are synonymous with zealous piety. III. Education; many were graduates of colleges; they founded Harvard in 1636. IV. Business thrift ”

“ The fourth generation, the great-grandsons of Samuel included several men of prominence, some of whom have been already noticed. Hon. Sherman Boardman of New Milford; Rev. Benjamin Boardman, the army chaplain, of Hartford, and others. The majority of the family, however, were plain and undistinguished men of sterling Puritan qualities, and of great usefulness in their several spheres, in the church and in society. ”

“ I have heard it Allegd as a Pretext for keeping so many Slaves that white People cannot Endure the heat of the Climate & that there can be but verry little done without these Slaves, that there could be but a verry little done is to me a Matter of Doubt, but that there would be but Verry little If the People Retain their Luxury & Love of all kinds of Sport is to me Beyond all doubt. I have Seen more Persons than a few worry themselves at Gaming In an Excessive hot Day in Such a Manner that a Moderate Days work would be a Pleasure to it. ”

“ Ipswich had been organized in 1635 with some of the most intelligent and wealthy colonists. His father died after Samuel’s emigration to America, in 1639. His wife’s name was Mary; their oldest child, so far as we have record, was Isaac, born at Wethersfield, Ct., Feb. 3, 1642. He probably journeyed through the wilderness from Ipswich, Mass., which is twenty-six miles north of Boston, to Wethersfield, Ct., about one hundred and fifty miles, in 1639 or 1640.
[Pg 9] Between 1630 and 1640 many of the best families in England sent representatives to America. ”

“ Appointed chairman of committee to lay out the bounds of Middletown.
He died just two hundred and twelve years ago in April, 1673. His estate was appraised by the selectmen of Wethersfield, May 2, 1673 at £742, 15s, about $4,000. His son Isaac then 31 years old is not named in the settlement of the estate, and had perhaps received his patrimony. He had ten children, seven sons and three daughters, of whom the youngest was six years old; he had three grandchildren, the children of his oldest son, Isaac. All his children received scriptural names, as was common in Puritan families. ”

“ Strong Asser Couching Down between two Burthens and have not Got the means of Preserving their Liberty were they Ever So Desirous of it and are kept in Such a miserable manner as never to know the Blessings of it. ”

“ But the later descendants of the other sons, except Samuel, Daniel and Nathaniel, and of the daughters, I have no means of tracing. They are scattered in Connecticut and widely in other states. During the lives of this second generation occurred King Phillip’s war, which decimated the New England Colonies, and doubtless affected this family with others. Within their time also, Yale College was founded, and went into operation first at Wethersfield, close by the original Borman homestead. ”

“ If the White People would be so Industrous as to till the Land themselves and see every thing Done so as to have less of those Miserable Slaves in the Country the Place to me would have a verry Different Appearance. ”

“ I think no Person that Comes to Carolina will find any Scarcity, Provided they have such articles as Suits such a Market. I cannot from my hart Approve of their Method of Living—not but that their Provision is Wholesome but In Genral they Dont Coock it well. ”

“ It is said that some imagined his land would soon be in the market, and sold cheap; that the city bred farmer, better taught in navigation and surveying, than in clearing forests and in agriculture, would become tired and discouraged and abandon his undertaking. ”

“ To see Men Approach the Room where those Angelick Creatures meet & View those Beautifull Countenances & Sparkling Eyes, which would almost tell You that they abhor,d the Cruel imposition of their Parents, who Perhaps Loaded with a Plentifull fortune, would not afford a decent Dress to their Servants to hide their Shame from such Sight I have turnd my Eyes. ”

“ But money getting being Mankinds Universal harvest I find as [Pg 76] many Reapers as one would wish to see in Such an Open Field for every one to have a fare Sweep with the Sickle which as frequently cuts your purse Strings as anything Else, their Rakes are Most Excellent nothing is lost for want of geathering & you may depend on it their Bins are so Close that But a trifle of what they Put in ever Comes out of the Cracks. ”

“ Shall write a few more Simple facts I have seen Gamblers, Men Pretended Friends to you that would hug you in their Bosoms till they were Certain they had Gotten what they could from you, & then for a Shilling would Cut Your Throat. ”

“ Several other Boremans came to New England very early, some of whom may have been his kindred. He accumulated and left a considerable estate for that day, derived in part undoubtedly, from the increase in the value of the new lands, which he had at first occupied, and which he afterward sold at an advanced price. Some in every generation, of his descendants have done likewise; going first north, and east, and then further and further west. One of the descendants of his youngest son Nathaniel, now living, a man of distinguished ability, Hon. ”

“ Yet these can represent but a few of his descendants who have [Pg 15] been equally useful. Probably a larger number of them are still to be found in Connecticut than in any other state. Among them is the family of Rev. Noah Porter, D. D., LL. D., the President of Yale College, who married a daughter of Rev. Dr. N. W. Taylor. The prayers of Julian Borman for “her good sonne”—“her very loving sonne, Samuel Boreman” already reach, under the covenant promise of Him who remembers mercy to a thousand generations, a widely scattered family. ”