Great Events in the History of North and South America

by Charles A. Goodrich

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; and they proceeded to secure the fair inheritance by the wisest counsels and the most efficient action. The company who first constituted the settlement, was a rare assemblage of choice spirits. Among them were John Davenport, a distinguished minister in London, and Theophilus Eaton and Edward Hopkins, wealthy merchants of the same city, and eminent for their abilities and integrity. They with their associates arrived at Boston in the summer of 1637, and would have been gladly retained in the Massachusetts colony, had they consented. Strong inducements were held out to them to fix their residence there, but they wanted more room than they could find in the vicinity of Boston for themselves and the large number of friends whom they expected to follow them. Their principal reason, however, for migrating elsewhere, as suggested by the historian of Connecticut, was probably "the desire of being at the head of a new government, modeled, both in civil and religious matters, agreeably to their own apprehensions. It had been an observation of Mr. Davenport, that whenever a reformation had been effected in the church, in any part of the world, it had rested where it had been left by the reformers: it could not be advanced another step. He was embarked in a design of forming a civil and religious constitution, as near as possible to scripture precept and example." Their strict views, it seems, could not be fully met elsewhere.

Mr. Davenport and his company, on the 30th of March, 1638, sailed from Boston to Quinnipiac (New Haven), and arrived at the desired spot at about the middle of April. A portion of their company, with Eaton at their head, had made a journey to Connecticut during the preceding autumn, to explore the lands and harbors on the sea-coast; and having fixed upon Quinnipiac as the best place for a settlement, erected a hut there, in which a few men passed the winter. The first Sabbath which Mr. Davenport spent in the wilderness, was on the 18th of April, 1638, when he preached a discourse on the Temptations of the Wilderness. In a short time, at the close of a day of fasting and prayer, they entered into what they called a plantation covenant, in which they solemnly engaged, in their civil ordinances as well as religion, they would be governed by the rules of scripture. At different times, and in separate contracts, they purchased their lands of the Indians, by the payment of such articles as were satisfactory to the latter. As the New Haven adventurers were the most opulent company which came into New England, they were disposed and able to lay the foundation of a first-rate colony—the proofs of which are visible, in part, in the elegant city which became its capital. The foundations of the civil and religious polity of the colony were laid on the 4th of June, 1639, with every due solemnity. The act was not consummated until the 25th of October of the same year, as a term of trial was required for the seven men who were to constitute the seven pillars of the church. The number of subscribers to the compact, on the 4th of June, was sixty-three; to which there were soon after added about fifty other names. This colony enjoyed great comparative order and tranquillity, as well from the extreme care with which it was constituted at the beginning, the superior wealth and character of its founders, and their wise and prudent intercourse with their neighbors, the Indians.

The New Haven colony was distinguished among the sister-colonies for its zeal in behalf of education, for its great strictness in the administration of the laws, for its scrupulous justice towards the Indians, and for the absence of a frivolous or extravagant legislation, which in some instances had been thought to characterize the other colonies.[12] The colony, however, was not exempt from occasional providential calamities, particularly in its commercial pursuits. For a period, the colonists did not succeed in their principal secular object. Their plans may not have been the most judicious; but their greatest misfortune in this concern was the loss of a large ship, which contained a valuable cargo of about five thousand pounds. The ship, with its precious burden, and more precious navigators, was never heard of more after it left the harbor. Several other settlements in the vicinity were nearly coëval with that of New Haven. Milford and Guilford were settled in 1639, as also Stratford and Fairfield the same year; Stamford in 1641, and soon after the town of Brandford.

Portsmouth founded.

A settlement, at an early period, was made in New Hampshire, but it did not, until some time afterwards, constitute a distinct colony. In the spring of the year 1623, two members of the council of Plymouth (Gorges and Mason) having obtained a grant of a tract of country, sent over a few persons for the purpose of establishing a colony and fishing at the river Piscataqua. This was the beginning of the town of Portsmouth; but, for several years, together with the town of Dover, which had a fish-house erected about the same time, it was a small and scarcely permanent settlement. In 1629, some of the settlers about the Massachusetts bay, purchased a tract of country of the Indians, with a view to unite with the settlement at Piscataqua. After this purchase, the latter settlement was favored with a small increase; but no other settlements were made till the year 1638, when the towns of Exeter and Hampton commenced. Exeter was settled by people chiefly from Boston, who had been regularly dismissed from their church relations, and were constituted at once into a church in their new locality. Like the settlers of the other New England colonies, those of New Hampshire were desirous of enjoying the ministrations and ordinances of the Gospel, and were able to obtain excellent ministers.

These several plantations continued, for many years, to live on good terms with the natives, and were generally well supplied with provisions, in consequence of their advantages for fishery. They constituted distinct civil communities, after the most perfect model of freedom, but were unable to preserve their peculiar organization, on account of the intrusion of disaffected individuals, from the colonies of Massachusetts and Plymouth, and the constant influx of other emigrants. They were too weak thus to stand alone, and, after suitable negociations on the subject, they came under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, in 1641, on the condition of enjoying equal privileges with the people of that colony, and having a court of justice maintained among themselves. This union continued nearly forty years, and was followed by the greater increase and security of the colony.[13]

The rise of the colony of Rhode Island commenced in the expulsion of Roger Williams from Massachusetts. He was a minister of the Gospel at Salem; but, holding tenets that were obnoxious to the people there, and being unwilling to renounce them, after friendly remonstrance and dealing, he was ordered to quit the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. He accordingly took his exile thence, and traveling, with his few followers, as far as the present town of Rehoboth, he sat down there; but, being within the jurisdiction of Plymouth, Governor Winslow, out of courtesy to the government of Massachusetts, desired Mr. Williams to leave that place. The latter, then crossing the Pawtucket river, came to the spot which, in acknowledgment of God's merciful providence to him in his distress, he called 'Providence.' He purchased the lands of his plantation of the Indian owners, became the father of the colony, and, for a period, appeared to have combined, in his person, the principal powers of government. Times of scarcity occurred in the Providence plantation, as in most of the other colonies in North America, and the followers of Mr. Williams were saved from famine only by the products of their forests and rivers. No personal resentment seems to have arisen between Mr. Williams and Governor Winthrop, from the proceedings which led to the founding of the new settlement. All the several colonies remained at peace, and cultivated friendship with each other.

The religious difficulties in Massachusetts, arising out of the case of the fanatical Mrs. Hutchinson, were the occasion of the origin of the Rhode Island plantation, south of Providence. Several gentlemen differed in principle from the prevailing belief of the churches, and chose to leave the colony. Among them were William Coddington, John Clark, and others, who came to Providence in search of a place where they might enjoy their own sentiments unmolested. Through the assistance of Mr. Williams, they purchased Aquetnec of the Indian sachems. The adventurers, eighteen in number, incorporated themselves into a body politic, and chose Mr. Coddington to be their judge, or chief magistrate. The character of the climate and soil, soon brought many adventurers to their settlement. The territory was Rhode Island, according to its subsequent name. The two settlements of Mr. Williams and Mr. Coddington, being destitute of any charter from the mother-country, the former went to England with a view to procure one. He succeeded in the object, and returned with a liberal charter of incorporation of Providence and Rhode Island plantations.