p.85-86
Oct. 15,
1635
About 60 men,
women and little children went by land
towards Connecticut with
their cows, horses, swine, and
after a tedious and difficult
journey arrived safe there.
This was a party from Newtown who
went to lay out the
first homesteads at Hartford.
Migrants from
Newtown (MA) were beginning to
settle Hartford, Conn.
Migrants from
Dorchester (MA) were beginning to settle
Windsor,
Conn.
Migrants from
Watertown (MA) were beginning to settle
Wethersfield,
Conn
Nov. 3,
1635
Mr. Winthrop Jr.
(son of Gov. John Winthrop) the govern-
or appointed by the Lords
of Connecticut (Lord Say and
Lord Brooke) sent a bark of 30 ton
and about 20 men with
all needful provisions to take posession of
the mouth of
Connecticut and to begin some building.
Nov. 26,
1635
There came 13 men from Connecticut. They had been
10
days upon their journey and had lost one of their
comp-
any, drowned in the ice by the way, and had been
all
starved but that by God's providence they lighted upon
an
Indian wigwam. Connecticut River was frozen up the
15 of
this month.
May 31,
1636
Mr.
Hooker, pastor of the Church of Newtown and the most
of his
congregation went to Connecticut. His wife was
carried in a
horse litter and they drove 160 cattle and
fed of their milk by
the way.
December,
1638
Another plot the
old serpent had against us, by sowing
jealousies and differences
between us and our friends
at Connecticut...The ground of all was
their shyness of
coming under our government, which though we
never in-
tended to make them subordinate to us, yet they
were
very jealous, and therefore in the articles of
confedera-
tion which we propounded to them, they did so alter
the
chief article as all would have come to nothing.
For
whereas the article was, that upon any matter of
differ-
ence, two, three, or more commissioners of every of
the
confederate colonies should assemble and have
absolute
power (the greater number of them) to determine
the
matter, they would have them only to meet and if
they
could agree, so; if not, then to report to their
several
colonies and to return with their advice and so to
go
on till the matter might be agreed; which, beside that
it
would have been infinitely tedious and extreme charge-
able, it
would never have attained the end; for it was
very unlikely that
all the churches in all the plantat-
ions would ever have
accorded upon the same propositions.
Around May, 1638,
representatives from the four Conn-
ecticut River towns of
Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield
and Springfield had met to
discuss the need for an inde-
pendent civil government and an
alliance with Massachus-
etts on issues of mutual concern
such as Indian relat-
ions. They then sent agents to
Massachusetts proposing
articles of confederation.
The records of this meeting
are lost, but it is plain that
Connecticut wanted a
loose alliance, whereas Massachusetts wanted
a tighter
union, with some sort of "preeminence" accorded
to
Massachusetts as the senior partner. By mid
December
when John Winthrop seems to have written this
account,
the Connecticut leaders were drafting their new
constitu-
tion, The Fundamental Orders, which was adopted
by
Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield in Jan. 1639.
Agawam (now
Springfield, CT) on the Connecticut River,
30 miles north of
Hartford had been founded in 1636
by a group from Roxbury, (MA)
lead by William Pynchon
For two years Agawam had joined
with the three lower
Connecticut River towns, but in March, 1638
Pynchon
quarreled with Hooker and in January 1639 the
people of
Agawam declared their acceptance of the MBC
government
with Pynchon as their chief magistrate.
The town's
name was changed in 1640 to honor Pynchon's
village in
Essex
p.151
December 1638
Though we were
formerly willing that Agawam (now Spring-
field) should have
fallen into their government, yet
seeing they would not be
beholden to us for any thing,
we intended to keep it; and
accordingly we put it in as
an article that the line between us
should be, one way,
the Pequot River (viz, south and north) and
the other
way, (viz, east and west) the limits of our
grant. And
this article we added: That we, etc, should have
liberty
to pass to and fro upon Connecticut, and they
likewise.
To these articles all their commissioners offered
to
consent, but it was thought by our court (because of
the
new articles) that they should first acquaint their
own
court with it. And so their commissioners
departed.
After this, we
understood that they went on to excercise
their authority at
Agawam. Whereupon the governor wrote
to them to desire them
to forbear until the line was
laid out. After a long time,
Mr. Ludlow (in the name of
the court) returned answer,
which was very harsh; and
in fine declared, that they
thought it not fit to treat
any further before they had
advice from the gentlemen of
Saybrook, etc. The governor
acquainted the council and
magistrates with this
letter; and, because they had tied
our hands (in a manner) from
replying, he wrote a private
letter to Mr. Haynes wherein he lays
open their mistakes
(as he called them) and the apparent causes
of offence,
which they had given us; as by making a treaty of
agree-
ment with the Narragansetts and Mohegans without
joining
us or mentioning us to that end (though we had by
letter
given them liberty to take us in), and by binding all
the Indians (who had
received any Pequots) to pay tribute
for them all to them at
Connecticut, etc (these and the
miscarriages in point of
correspondence were conceived
to arise from these two errors in
their government:
1. They chose divers scores of men who had no
learning
nor judgement which might fit them for those
affairs,
though otherwise men holy and religious. 2. By
occasion
hereof, the main burden for managing of state
business
fell upon some one or other of their ministers (as
the
phrase and style of these letters will clearly
discover)
who, though they were men of singular wisdom and
godli-
ness, yet stepping out of their course, their
actions
wanted that blessing which otherwise might have been
expected.
In this cancelled
passage John Winthrop exhibits
considerable animosity toward
Thomas Hooker. He eradic-
ated these lines so thoroughly that
James Savage had
much difficulty in deciphering them; (see Savage
l:344.)
Sept.
1642
There came
letters from the court at Connecticut,
certifying us that the
Indians all over the country had
combined themselves to cut off
all the English, that
the timewas appointed after harvest, the
manner also,
they should go by small companies to the chief
men's
houses by way of trading, etc., and should kill them
in
the houses and seize their weapons, and then others
should
be at hand to prosecute the massacre; and that
this was discovered by
three Indians, near about the time
and in the same manner, one to
Mr. Eaton of New Haven,
another to Mr. Ludlow and the third to
Mr. Haynes.
(Theophilus Eaton was governor of New Haven; Roger
Lud-
low and John Haynes were deputy governor and governor
of
Connecticut.) Their advice to us was, that it was
better
to enter into war presently (immediately) and if
we
would send 100 men to the river's mouth of Connecticut
they
would meet us with a proportional number.
Upon these
letters, the governor called so many of the
magistrates as were
near, and being met they sent out
summons for a general court, to
be kept six days after,
and in the mean time, it was thought fit,
for our safety
and to strike some terror into the Indians, to
disarm
such as were within our jurisdiction.
Accordingly we
sent men to Cutshamekin at Braintree to
fetch him and
his guns, bows, etc. which was done, and to disarm
Passa-
conamy who lived by Merrimack...(Passaconamy was
sachem
to the Pennacooks, who lived by the Merrimack River
in
New Hampshire.
September 8,
1642
The general
court being assembled, we considered of the
letters and other
intelligence from Connecticut, and al-
though the thing seemed
very probable, yet we thought
it not sufficient ground for us to
begin a war, for it
was possibleit might be otherwise and that all
this
might come out of the enmity which had been
between
Miantomoni and Onkus, (Uncas was sachem of the
Mohegan
Indians and lived on the Pequot River near Norwich,
CT)
who continuously sought to discredit each other with
the
English. (to be continued)
(Vane
was trying to negotiate with these three groups
on behalf of the
Saybrook
proprietors.
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