4. Ecclesiastical Society’s Treasurer’s books from 1802.
5. Church Records from December 27th, 1727. These are not complete; the book kept by Mr. Rood is missing.
6. MSS. Notes of Rev. W. H. Moore.
7. Records of Baptist and Methodist Churches.
8. Memoir of Mrs. Mary A. Boardman, by Rev. Dr. Schroeder.
9. And the memory of persons still living.
In 1703, Col. Robert Treat and others representing 111 persons, all of Milford, obtained a patent to a certain tract of land in New Haven County, formerly called Weantinogue. This tract contained 84 square miles, embracing what is now known as the towns of New Milford, and Bridgewater, with parts of Brookfield and New Preston. It cost the Proprietors about 8 mills an acre. The first settler, though not a Proprietor, was John Noble, who came here from Massachusetts, in 1707. The Indians were then and long afterwards numerous, but seem always to have been on friendly terms with the settlers. The Proprietors held their meetings at Milford until 1715. The first Town Meeting seems to have been held in 1713. The town was first represented in the Legislature in 1725. The first record of freemen was made in 1744. The town belonged to New Haven Colony until the incorporation of Litchfield County, in 1751. The first bridge over the Housatonic, between the sea and its source, was built here in 1737. The first school in the town was opened in 1721, and was taught 4 months in the year, the town paying half the expense.
In 1707 two persons came into New Milford.
In 1712 there were here 12 families or between 60 and 70 persons. A census, taken in 1756, reports 1137 in the town; another taken in 1774, reported 2776, while in 1800, after parts of the town had been ceded to Brookfield and Washington, the population was 3198. The census of 1870, gives the population of the present New Milford, as 3586, while Bridgewater, formerly a part of this town, has 877 inhabitants.
New Milford has always been loyal to the cause of freedom. In 1779 the town voted 4 bushels of wheat a month to every man who volunteered for six months, and three bushels a month to the militia men who marched when ordered; but, if they failed to report within eight days after marching orders, they forfeited this premium. The town also supported the families of men while absent in the Continental army. In 1778 the Articles of Confederacy proposed by Congress, styled “The United States of North America,” were adopted in town meeting, except part of the 5th article, which respects the mode of choosing Delegates to Congress. It was “Voted that the Freemen will always hold the prerogative and sole power of choosing our Delegates in Congress by vote.” Subsequently, “said Articles of Confederacy were adopted in full by the meeting without a dissenting voice.” In 1783 it was voted, and a Committee was appointed to enforce the resolution, that all refugees, or “skedaddlers,” as they would now be termed, as well as all who had voluntarily gone over to the enemy during the war, should be prohibited from returning and settling in the town. The Adjutant-General of Connecticut, reports the names of 222 men from the town of New Milford as having served in the armies of the United States during the Civil War of 1861-65. This does not include the 37 who deserted nor the one who was dishonorably discharged.