In the summer of 1639 George Fenwick, who was interested in the patent, and his family came over in behalf of the patentees, and took possession of the place, intending to build a town near the mouth of the river. A settlement was made, and named Saybrook, in honor of the two principal patentees. The government of the town was entirely independent of Connecticut till 1644/45, when Fenwick, as agent of the proprietors, transferred by contract to that government the fort at Saybrook and its appurtenances, and the land upon the river, with a pledge to convey all the land thence to Narragansett River, if it came into his power to convey it.
[The editor is indebted to Professor F. B. Dexter, of Yale College, for a photograph of the original picture, which is in New Haven, painted on panel, and bears the inscription, “J. D. obiit, 1670.” Davenport left Connecticut in 1668 to become the successor of John Wilson in Boston, and died as the pastor of the First Church in Boston, March 11, 1670. Cf. Memorial History of Boston, i. 193, and the important paper on Davenport by Professor Dexter, printed in the New Haven Historical Society’s Papers, vol. ii.—Ed.]
In 1638 a settlement was made at Quinnipiack, afterward called New Haven, under the lead of John Davenport. The emigrants, principally from Massachusetts,—like those of the river towns,—had no patent or title to the land on which they planted, but made a number of purchases from the Indians. Here, in April, under the shelter of an oak, they listened to a sermon by Davenport, and a few days afterward formed a “plantation covenant,” as preliminary to a more formal engagement,—all agreeing to be ordered by the rule of Scripture. This colony, as well as that just described, sympathized substantially in religious views with Massachusetts.
On the 4th of June, 1639, all the free planters met in a barn “to consult about settling civil government according to God.” Mr. Davenport prayed and preached, and they then proceeded, by his advice, to form a government. They first decided that none but church members should be free burgesses. Twelve men were then chosen, who out of their own number chose seven to constitute a church and on the “seven pillars” thus chosen rested also the responsibility of forming the civil government. On October 29 these seven persons met, and, after a solemn address to the Supreme Being, proceeded to form the body of freemen, and to elect their civil officers. Theophilus Eaton was chosen to be governor for that year; indeed, he continued to be rechosen to the office for nearly twenty years, till his death. This was the original, fundamental constitution of New Haven. A few general rules were adopted, but no code of laws established. The Word of God was to be taken as the rule in all things.
CONNECTICUT RIVER, 1661.
[This is taken from a Dutch map which appeared at Middleburgh and the Hague in 1666, in a tract belonging to the controversy between Sir George Downing and the States General. It follows the fac-simile given in the Lenox edition of Mr. H. C. Murphy’s translation of the Vertoogh van Nieu Nederland. It also is found as a marginal map in the Pas Kaart van de Zee Kusten van Nieu Nederland, published at Amsterdam by Van Keulen, which shows the coast from Narragansett Bay to Sandy Hook, where is also a portion of the map of the Hudson given in the notes following Mr. Fernow’s chapter in Vol. IV. The Pas Kaart is in Harvard College Library (Atlas 700, No. 9). No. 10 of the same atlas is Pas Kaart van de Zee Kusten inde Boght van Nieu Engeland, which shows the coast from Nantucket to Nova Scotia.—Ed.]
This year settlements were made at Milford and at Guilford, each for a time being independent of any other plantation. Connecticut had also interposed two new settlements between New Haven and the Dutch, at Fairfield and at Stratford.