New Haven Colony

“ It was not until 1649, after a persistent struggle, that the deputies won a decisive victory over the assistants and secured for Massachusetts a definite code of laws. In the New Haven colony similar theocratic notions led the settlers to dispense with trial by jury because they could find no precedent for it in the laws of Moses. Here, as in Massachusetts, the inquisitorial administration of justice combined with partial disfranchisement to awaken discontent, and it was partly for this reason that New Haven fell so easily under the sway of Connecticut. ”

“ The New Haven colony was settled in the spirit that influenced the comers to the other parts of New England, and eminently so. The establishment of the Church of God on its true basis, and the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, was the object of the emigrants ”

“ This was postponed until 1643 when considerations of safety demanded that the colony should become a member of the New Haven Jurisdiction, and then only to meet the requirements for admission to this union were the church and church state modelled after those of New Haven. ”

“ As a part of New Haven Colony they were entitled to one Magistrate, who was their head and invested with the whole executive and judicial power. The settlers were divided into two classes, freemen and planters. The freemen could consist only of those who were church members, and partook of the sacrament. They were all under oath agreeably to their form of government. ”

“ The disaffected element in New Haven, however, was large and important; and when Connecticut’s imperialistic ambitions were gratified, and she obtained a charter which gave her all her neighbor’s territory, a very large proportion of New Haven’s inhabitants indicated that they preferred the “Christless rule” of Connecticut, with its property qualification for the franchise, to that of the New Haven churches. Throughout the whole process of absorption of the smaller colony by its now aggrandized neighbor, both the action and the manner of Connecticut are difficult to defend. ”

“ New Haven.—The successful issue of the Pequot War opened the Connecticut Valley to another important migration. This was led by Rev. John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton, who had come to New England to plant a colony on purely theocratic lines. In 1638 they founded New Haven, and the following year drew up a form of government. Citizenship was restricted to church membership and an annual general court of freemen was to elect a governor and assistants, who were to conduct all governmental affairs, the only restriction on their authority being the law of Moses. ”

“ A party of Indians, hunting in the woods, discovered its lurking occupants. Fearing that the savages might betray them, to obtain the large reward offered, the fugitives felt it necessary to seek a new place of shelter. A promising plan was devised by their friends, who included all the pious Puritans of the colony. Leaving the vicinity of New Haven, and travelling by night only, the aged regicides made their way, through many miles of forest, to Hadley, then an outpost in the wilderness. ”

“ The vessel sailed past Rhode Island in a fog, and disembarked its precious freight at New Haven, in the Colony of Connecticut. In the pleasant summer weather, the distinguished foreigners travelled northward as far as Litchfield Hill, and thence to Hartford, on the banks of the beautiful river. They found the land well wooded and well watered; the natives good-natured, industrious, and intelligent: but the scenery was monotonous to the Pierian colonists, and the people distasteful. The clipped hair and penitential scowl of the men made heavy the hearts of the Muses ”

“ The planting of New Haven Colony.
"In the height of the Hutchinson controversy [see MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1636-1638] , John Davenport, an eminent nonconformist minister from London, had arrived at Boston, and with him a wealthy company, led by two merchants, Theophilus Eaton and Edward Hopkins. Alarmed at the new opinions and religious agitations of which Massachusetts was the seat, notwithstanding very advantageous offers of settlement there, they preferred to establish a separate community of their own, to be forever free from the innovations of error and licentiousness. ”

“ The name "Bishop's palace," still applied to a house in Cambridge which was supposed when built to have been intended for an imported bishop, bears testimony to the popular feeling against the system. It had no success except among the Tory element in Boston and Portsmouth,—and later (1736-1750) in New Haven. In Rhode Island perfect tolerance made the [Pg 190] colony a harboring place for all manner of despised sects and factious disturbers driven out of other communities, and the spirit of turbulence long reigned there. ”

“ They went to church on Sundays, and no doubt on “training-days” they watched the train-bands practice, for they were famous fighters themselves. But meantime the news of their being in the colonies was carried to England by a royalist named Captain Breedon, and the governor debated with his council what to do about it. He wanted to protect them, but he feared the king’s displeasure might bring trouble on the colony. Before he decided, the two judges, or “the two Colonels” as they were called, finding they were not safe in Boston, left for New Haven. ”

“ Business will soon be transacted as usual in this loyal colony. In short, every thing in nature seems to wear a more cheerful aspect than usual—to a great majority."
In all subsequent proceedings, in opposition to the unjust acts of the British government toward the colonies, New Haven was famed for its zeal and firmness; and the people of Boston received its warmest sympathies and support in all the trials through which they had to pass, under the royal displeasure, from 1768 until 1776, when that city was purged of the enemies of freedom by the Continental army, under Washington. ”

“ By them "The United Colonies of New England"—Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven—entered into a firm and perpetual league, offensive and defensive.
Each colony retained a distinct and separate jurisdiction; no two colonies could join in one jurisdiction without the consent of the whole; and no other colony could be received into the confederacy without the like consent.
The charge of all wars was to be borne by the colonies respectively, in proportion to the male inhabitants of each between sixteen and sixty years of age. ”

“ It is difficult to see more than two points in which it [the charter] altered the constitution adopted by the towns in 1639. There were now to be two deputies from each town; and the boundaries of the Commonwealth now embraced the rival colony of New Haven. ... New Haven did not submit without a struggle, for not only her pride of separate existence but the supremacy of her ecclesiastical system was at stake. For three years a succession of diplomatic notes passed between the General Court of Connecticut and 'our honored friends of New Haven, Milford, Branford, and Guilford.' ... ”

“ There had been a growing element in the colony, as in Massachusetts, which was opposed to its theocratical government, and about the time of the Restoration, this opposition was giving Davenport and his followers much trouble. To the demand of sundry non-freemen that the franchise be extended, the New Haven Court had replied that they could not commit “weighty civill or military trusts into the hands of either a crafty Achitophell or a bloody Joab,” and that any one who should make such suggestions would be considered “troublers of our peace and disturbers of our Israell.” ”

“ Between the years 1630 and 1640 about twenty thousand persons arrived in the colony, after which, for many years, it is supposed that more went back to England than came thence hither. Previous to the year last named the colony had furnished emigrants to settle the colonies of Connecticut, New Haven, and Rhode Island.
The charter gave power to the freemen to elect annually a governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, who should make laws for their own benefit and for the government of the colony ”

“ New Haven paid dearly for loyalty to its principles. In 1661 the younger John Winthrop, governor of Connecticut, went to England to obtain a charter for his colony. He had little of his father’s definiteness or force of character, but he was genial and attractive, a man of varied interests, able to commend himself to those who differed widely from him in religious and political views. He succeeded in obtaining for his colony a charter of singular liberality, which confirmed the existing system of government by governor, assistants and deputies. ”

“ Their seafaring habits and the pursuit of whales led them along the coast and into Delaware Bay. The Puritans of New Haven made persistent efforts to settle the southern part of Jersey, on the Delaware near Salem. They thought, as their quaint old records show, that if they could once start a branch colony in Jersey it might become more populous and powerful than the New Haven settlement and in that case they intended to move their seat of government to the new colony. ”

“ The people of New Haven had been especially zealous in shielding the fugitives. Mr. Davenport had not only harboured them in his own house, but on the Sabbath before their expected arrival he had preached a very bold sermon, openly advising his people to aid and comfort them as far as possible. 28 The colony, moreover, did not officially recognize the restoration of Charles II. to the throne until that event had been commonly known in New England for more than a year. ”

“ RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATION; NEW HAVEN; MAINE; NEW HAMPSHIRE
The early history of the group of colonies which is now to engage the attention is less interesting than that of either Virginia or Massachusetts. There is not the glamour of a first colony as in the case of Virginia; the men were not Pilgrim Fathers in the true sense as in Plymouth; the prosperity of Massachusetts, the rivalries of Maryland, and the Spanish danger in the Carolinas, are all wanting in this portion of New England. ”

“ Amsterdam and in Nova Scotia, and made it imperative, should any one colony—Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, or New Haven—attempt to pursue its plans alone, for all to band together in its support. The troubles already encountered with the Dutch on the Delaware and the Connecticut and with the French in Maine, in the competition for the fur trade of the interior, had rendered the situation acute and led, very early, to the proposal that a combination be effected. ”

“ The colony which he was ordered to attack contained a population of about 1500 souls, 600 of whom were of English stock, dwelling for the most part on Long Island, which was partially Anglicised by an influx of settlers from Connecticut and New Haven. ”

“ The few remaining Pequots either became slaves or fled to the Hudson River. This was the first real Indian war in New England (1636-1638) . After it was all over the colonists along the Connecticut were left in peace, and for nearly forty years there was no more trouble with the red men.
The Pequot war was scarcely finished when three hundred English settlers came to found New Haven. They were mostly rich trading people, and they wanted to have a colony which would be governed only by the laws of the Bible. ”

“ John Davenport had fled from persecution in England, and, followed by his congregation, including many wealthy people, had sought,—like so many other Puritans,—a refuge in New England. The newcomers however, would not join the other Puritans, but decided to found a colony all to themselves which should be ruled only by laws found in the Bible. They called their settlement New Haven, and here the law that none but church members should vote was very strictly enforced. ”

“ The Agents of the Colonies have had several Meetings, at one of which they were pleased to desire Mr. Franklin & myself as having lately Come from America & knowing more Intimately the Sentiments of the people, to wait on Mr. Grenville, together with Mr. Jackson & Mr. Garth [2] who being Agents are also Members of Parliament, to remonstrate against the Stamp Bill, & to propose in Case any Tax must be laid upon America, that the several Colonies might be permitted to lay the Tax themselves. ”

“ On the following day Baker and Forest returned from New Haven, bearing with them the thanks of the colony to Col. Ethan Allen and Col. Benedict Arnold. The latter containing the thanks of the assembly, engrossed on parchment and sealed with the seal of the colony, placed Allen in the first place, and only mentioned Arnold as a coadjutor. ”

“ At Hartford Roger Williams was always welcome.
Meantime, in 1638, having touched at Boston the year before, Davenport,
Eaton, and others from London began planting at New Haven. The Bible was
adopted as their guide in both civil and religious affairs, and a
government organized in which only church members could vote or be
elected to the General Court. The colony flourished, branching out into
several towns. In 1643 it numbered twenty five hundred inhabitants.
As early as 1622, Mason and Gorges were granted land partly in what is
now Maine, partly in what is now New Hampshire ”

“ There are many sincere and religious people amongst them.... They have store of children and are well accommodated with servants; many hands make light work, many hands make a full fraught, but many mouths eat up all, as some old planters have experienced."
Approximately a century later the keen-eyed Sarah Knight visited New Haven, and commented in her Journal upon the growing laxity of rules and customs among the people of the quaint old town:
"They are governed by the same laws as we in Boston (or little differing) , throughout this whole colony of Connecticut ... ”