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Some related marriages:The following pages contain a resume of the beginning and progress of the original plantations, or colonies, in this country, from their first settlement to the year 1699. The exact population of the colonies before 1699 probably will never be known. The first Government census was not taken until a century later, in 1790. There had been attempts at a partial census, especially in Maryland, but in this volume the attempt is made to make a first directory of the colonists, and broadly speaking, this is the first census of the American people.
CONNECTICUT, at the time of the first arrival of the English, was possessed by the Pequot, the Mohegan, the Podunk, and other smaller tribes of Indians. The first grant of Connecticut was made by the Plymouth council in England to the Earl of Warwick in 1630. Attracted by the trade with the Indians, some of the settlers of Plymouth had explored the Connecticut River and fixed upon Windsor for the establishment of a trading house. A company from Dorchester settled at Mattaneaug, which they called Windsor; several people from Watertown commenced a plantation at Pauquiaug, which they called Wethersfield, and others from Newtown established themselves at Hartford.
The planters in Connecticut at first settled under the general government of Massachusetts, but the administration of their affairs was entirely in their own hands. The first court, which exercised all the powers of government, was held April 26, 1686, at Hartford, the plantation between Windsor and Wethersfield.
In the year 1636 a large accession was made to the inhabitants on the Connecticut River. Messrs. Hooker and Stone, the ministers of Newtown, near Boston, with their whole church and congregation, travelled in June through a trackless wilderness, driving 160 cattle and subsisting during the journey on the milk of the cows. They settled at Hartford, having purchased the land of an Indian sachem. At the close of the year there were about 800 persons in the colony. The year 1637 is distinguished by the war with the Pequots. A body of troops was sent out under the command of John Mason, and on May 26 they attacked the enemy in one of their forts near New London and killed 600 of the Indians. Only two of the English were killed and sixteen wounded. The Pequots were entirely subdued, and the other Indians of New England were inspired with such terror as to restrain them from open hostilities for nearly forty years.
In 1637 a new colony was commenced in Connecticut. John Davenport, accompanied by Theophilus Eaton and Edward Hopkins, and other persons from London, arrived in the summer at Boston, seeking the unmolested enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. Not finding a convenient place in Massachusetts, and being informed of a large bay to the southwest of the Connecticut River, commodious for trade, they applied to their friends in Connecticut to purchase for them of the native proprietors all the lands lying between the rivers of Connecticut and Hudson. This purchase was in part effected. In the autumn Mr. Eaton and some others of the company made a journey to Connecticut to explore the lands and harbors on the sea coast and pitched upon Quinnipiack, afterwards called New Haven, for the place of their settlement.
The foundation of two colonies was now laid, which were called the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven {map}. The original constitution of the former was established by a convention of all the free planters of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, which met at Hartford January 14, 1639. It was ordained that there should be annually two general courts or assemblies.
These two colonies remained distinct until the year 1665, when they were united into one; but though distinct in government yet a union, rendered necessary by common danger, subsisted between them. The apprehension of hostilities from the Indians, and the actual encroachments and violence of the Dutch, induced the colonies of New Haven, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Plymouth to adopt articles of confederation, which were signed at Boston May 19, 1643. This union was of the highest importance to the colonies, particularly to Connecticut and New Haven, which were peculiarly exposed to hostilities from the Dutch. It subsisted more than forty years until the abrogation of the charters of the New England colonies by King James II.
The colonies continued to increase, and new towns, purchased of the Indians, were constantly settled. In 1661 Major John Mason bought of the natives all lands which had not before been purchased by particular towns and made a public surrender of them to the colony in the presence of the general assembly. A petition was now prepared to King Charles II for a charter and John Winthrop, who had been chosen governor of Connecticut, was employed to present it. His majesty issued his letters under the great seal, April 2.5, 1662, ordaining that there should be annually two general assemblies, consisting of the governor, the deputy governor, and twelve assistants, with two deputies from every town or city. This charter remained the basis of the government of Connecticut until 1818.
The number of men in Connecticut in 1671 was 2,050. In 1672 the union of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Plymouth was renewed and the first code of Connecticut laws-was published. The Indian wars in 1675 and 1676 occasioned much suffering in the colony. In 1687 an attempt was made to wrest the charter from Connecticut. A quo warranto against the governor and company had been issued two years before, and in October of this year, when the assembly was sitting, Governor Edmond Andros went to Hartford with sixty regular troops, demanded the charter, and declared the government to be dissolved. The subject was debated in the assembly until evening, when the charter was brought and laid upon the table; but the lights being instantly extinguished, Captain Wadsworth of Hartford seized it and secreted it in the cavity of a large oak tree in front of the house of Samuel Wyllys. Andros assumed the government and the records of the colony were closed. He appointed all officers, civil and military. Notwithstanding the professions of regard to the public good, made by the tyrant, he soon began to infringe the rights of the people. After the seizure of Andros by the daring friends of liberty in Massachusetts the old magistrates of Connecticut were induced again to accept the government, at the request of the freemen, May 9, 1689. In 1691 the old charter was resumed, being acknowledged to be valid.
NEW JERSEY, was first settled by the Swedes, and was formerly a part of New Netherlands, which was divided into Nova Caesarea, or New Jersey, and New York in 1664, when it was conquered by the English. It has its name from the Island of Jersey, the residence of the family of Sir George Carteret, to whom this territory was granted. Philip Carteret was appointed governor in 1665 and took possession of Elizabethtown, the capital, then consisting of four families, just settled in the wilderness. In 1672 he was driven from his government by insurgents who refused the payment of rents under the pretence that they held their possessions by Indian grants and not from the proprietors. In 1673 the Dutch retook New Netherlands, but in the following year it was restored by treaty to the English. In 1676 New Jersey was divided into East and West Jersey. The government of the latter was retained as a dependency of New York, and a confusion of jurisdiction commenced, which long distracted the people, and which at length terminated in the annihilation of the authority of the proprietors. West Jersey was reinstated in its former privileges in 1680. Sir George Carteret, in 1682, transferred his rights in East Jersey {could be West Jersey} to William Penn. At this time there were supposed to be in the province about seven hundred families. In 1688 the Jerseys were added to the jurisdiction of New England. They were united under one government in 1702 and received the single name of New Jersey.
NEW YORK, was discovered in 1608 by Henry Hudson, who passed up the river which bears his name. His right to the country which he had discovered under a commission from King James I he sold to the Dutch. In 1614 the States General granted a patent for an exclusive trade on Hudson's River to a number of merchants, who built a fort near Albany. In the same year the Dutch were visited by Captain Argal from Virginia, and being unable to resist him they submitted for the time to the King of England. The country was granted by the States General to the West India Company in 1621. In June, 1629, Wouter Van Twiller arrived at Fort Amsterdam, now New York {maps}, and took upon himself the government. The extension of the English settlements naturally occasioned some disputes respecting the boundaries of the Dutch possessions.
The last Dutch governor was Peter Stuyvesant, who began his administration in 1647. The inroads upon his territory kept him constantly employed. In 1655 he subdued the few Swedes on the west side of Delaware Bay and placed the country under the command of lieutenant governor. But he was himself obliged at last to submit to the English. The country in the possession of the Dutch was given by the King of England to the Duke of York and Albany. An expedition was fitted out and August 27, 1664, Governor Stuyvesant was reduced to the necessity of capitulating to Colonel Nicolls, and the whole of the New Netherlands soon became subject to the English crown. The country was retaken by the Dutch in 1673, but it was restored in the following year. In 1683 the inhabitants of New York first participated in the legislative power. Previously to this period they had been completely subjected to the governor, but in this year they were summoned to choose representatives to meet in an assembly. In 1688 New York was annexed to the jurisdiction of New England. In 1691 a governor arrived from England and the first assembly was held. The population in 1699 was about 18,000.
ALLING, Abigail and John Punderson, August 1699, New Haven, Conn. ALLING, Lydia and Benjamin Todd, 23 January 1699, New Haven, Conn. BALDWIN, Daniel and Elizabeth Botsford, 27 June 1665, Milford, Conn. BALDWIN, John and Mary Bruen, 1658, Milford, Conn. BALDWIN, John, Sr., and Hannah Bruen, 30 October 1663, Morris Co., N.J. BALDWIN, John and Catherine Turner, 31 March 1689, Philadelphia, Penn. BALDWIN, John and Sarah Allen, 19 October 1689, Middletown, Penn. BALDWIN, Joseph and Elizabeth Grover, 20 June 1691, Malden, Mass. BALDWIN, Martha and William Parsons, 15 September 1697, Boston, Mass. BALDWIN, Phoebe and Samuel Richardson, 7 November 1676, Woburn, Mass. BALDWIN, Sarah and Samuel Royce, 5 June 1690, Wallingford, Conn. BALDWIN, William and Ruth Brooks, 2 July 1688, Wallingford, Conn. BALL, Adam and Elizabeth Collins, 31 August 1699, New York. BALL, Elizabeth and John Smith, 13 August 1685, Burlington, N.J. BALL, Francis and Abigail Salter, 27 November 1663, Dorchester, Mass. BALL, John and Elizabeth Fox, 3 October 1665, Concord, Mass. BALL, John and Sarah Bullard, 17 October 1665, Watertown, Mass. BALL, Mercy and George Pardee, 10 February 1675, New Haven, Conn. BALL, Ruth and David Walsbee, 24 July 1656, Braintree, Mass. POND, Samuel and Miriam Blatchley, 3 February 1669, Branford, Conn. BRUEN, Mary and John Baldwin, St., 1653, Milford, Conn. BRUEN, Hannah and John Baldwin, 80 October 1663, Morris Co., N.J. MONTGOMERY, William and Isabel Burnet, 8 January 1684, Eglinton, N.J. BURNET, Lot and Phoebe Mills, 20 October 1675, Elizabethtown, N.J. CONGER, Hannah and Joseph Fitzrandolph, 16 January 1688, Woodbridge, N.J. CRANE, Ebenezer and Mary Tolman, 13 December 1689, Milton, Mass. CRANE, Jonathan and Deborah Griswold, 7 March 1678, Saybrook, Conn. CRANE, Martha and (Capt.) Samuel Terry, 4 January 1698, Wethersfield, Conn. CRANE, Stephen and Mary Denison, 2 July 1676, Milton, Mass. DAVENPORT, Francis and Rebecca Destow, 1 July 1692, Chesterfield, N.J. DAVENPORT, Jonathan and Hannah Maner, 1 December 1680, Dorchester, Mass. DAVENPORT, John and Abigail Pierson, 27 November 1662, Cranford, Conn. DAVENPORT, John and Bridget Watkins, 1 September 1667, Dorchester, Mass. DAVENPORT, Margaret and James Gooding, Jr., 23 January 1695, Boston, Mass. DAVENPORT, Rebecca and George Walker, 5 October 1699, Boston, Mass.
