Genealogical Tapestry – History of Connecticut 1636-1800

I’ve written a number of blogs over the past two years that addressed pieces of the history of Connecticut – both relating to some of my ancestors and of the history of the town of Wolcott where I was born and raised. But I’d like to step back from all of these pieces and look at the overall picture of this early history.

As I did so, and looked at a few maps of Connecticut that show that time period (*1, *2), the larger picture has a shape that one might not expect. So I have titled this blog a genealogical tapestry, with the threads that hold the whole together being the stories of the individuals that shaped this history. Except as specifically noted, the individuals mentioned are various relatives of mine and their relationships to me appear at the end of the blog. I have also chosen to leave out references to any of my prior blogs (you can look them up if you desire). So the references are to various sources in Wikipedia and these are also collected at the end of the blog.

I’ve tried to make this as readable as possible and not get into too many of the individual details so that you may see the tapestry that is the history of Connecticut. Enjoy!

Colony of Connecticut – pre-1662

The Colony of Connecticut (*3) was founded in 1636 by a group of about 100 individuals who left the Massachusetts Bay Colony, led by John Haynes and Thomas Hooker. Haynes was the first governor and Hooker was the Puritan minister of the church. Hooker delivered a sermon in 1638 on the principals of government which heavily influenced those who later that year wrote the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. In the early years of the colony governors were not allowed to serve consecutive terms. Thus, for 20 years, the governorship rotated between Haynes and others, most of whom were part of the original group of 100. One of the others was Thomas Welles, the only man in Connecticut’s history to hold all four top offices – governor, deputy governor, treasurer and secretary.

In 1659, John Winthrop the Younger (*4) [not a relative] began a 16-year term as the governor and was instrumental at both merging the other colonies in Connecticut into a single colony and obtaining the colony’s official charter in 1662. He was also the governor during the extended dispute with New York (see more information below)

New Haven Colony 1638-1662

The New Haven Colony (*5) was begun in 1638 by John Davenport, a Puritan minister, and Theophilus Eaton (*6) [not a relative]. They did not have an official charter from the British crown, but instead purchased land from the local Quinnipiac tribe who agreed to sell the land in return for protection from the neighboring Pequots. Davenport’s dreams initially failed and it wasn’t until after his death and under the leadership of James Pierpont that the colony began to thrive and Davenport’s dream of a college was realized with the College of Connecticut (later Yale University).

However, during the initial days of the colony, there were others who settled additional “plantations” who united with New Haven in what was called the “United Colonies of New England”. These included Milford and Guilford (1639), as well as Stamford and Long Island (1640) and Branford (1643). The claims on Long Island were ceded in 1664.

In 1641, the colony claimed the area that is now South Jersey and Philadelphia after buying the area from the Lenape tribe. Just a year later, fifty families came by ship to establish a trading post at what is today Philadelphia. The Dutch and Swedes in the area burned their buildings. The settlers could not get any support from its New England patrons and the Governor reluctantly testified that the “Delaware Colony” was “dissolved”.

William Leete (*7) was the Deputy Governor and Chief Magistrate of the colony in 1661 when he helped prevent the capture of two former English judges who were being sought by King Charles II for signing the death warrant of his father, Charles I, several years earlier. When agents of the king came looking for them Leete cooperated enough to avoid being accused of obstruction of justice, but did not provide enough information for them to be captured. Leete later served as the Governor of the New Haven Colony from 1661-1665 and also served as the Governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1676 to 1683, the only man to serve in both those positions.

So, in addition to the New Haven Colony not having an official charter, it was this act of hiding those involved in this regicide that soured any chance of the colony from getting support in England. Thus, when the new charter for the Colony of Connecticut was granted in 1662, New Haven was forced to become part of it, although the actual merger did not happen until 1664.

Colony of Connecticut – post-1662

Beginning in 1670, the interior portion of the state, i.e. away from the cities which had access to either the ocean or the navigable rivers, began to be settled. Initially, this included such places as Wallingford (1670), Branford (1685), and Waterbury (1686). My hometown of Wolcott (then called Farmingbury) was first settled in 1731, although it did not become an official town until 1796. Some of the early settlers in Farmingbury were John Alcox from New Haven, Stephen Upson from Waterbury, Samuel Beecher from Cheshire, and John Frisbie from Branford.

James Pierpont came from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1685 to assume the pastorate of the Congregational Church in New Haven. Under his guidance, the colony began to thrive. Between 1701 and 1776, the capital of the colony was shared between Hartford and New Haven.

Western Claims

I mentioned above a few of the areas beyond the bounds of what we now know as the State of Connecticut (such as Long Island, South Jersey and Philadelphia). In addition, the original charter of 1662 gave the Colony of Connecticut control from sea-to-sea – a 120-mile wide stretch beginning at the Delaware River and running all the way to the Pacific Ocean (including portions of what is now PA, OH, MI, IN, IL, IA, NE, WY, UT, NV and CA). However, since the British had no control beyond the Mississippi River, the claim to areas beyond it were never very practical. Most of this area was never settled until after the Revolutionary War and was ceded in 1786 as part of the post-Revolutionary War national resolution of outstanding claims (when the states gave up these claims to the US in return for the US taking on the debts of the states). However there were a few areas that remained in contention after that.

Westmoreland County, Connecticut (*8) was located in the present-day area of the Wyoming Valley of PA (Wilkes-Barre and Scranton). Connecticut sent settlers to the area as early as 1754 and Wilkes-Barre was founded by several families from Connecticut in 1769 (*9). But since this area had been granted not only to CT in 1662, but to PA in 1681, armed bands of Pennsylvanians (Pennamites) tried without success to expel them in 1769-1770, again in 1775, and for a third time in 1784 – this extended conflict was called the Pennamite Wars (*10). The controversy continued until 1799 with the Yankee settlers becoming Pennsylvanians with legal claims to their land. A few of my relatives moved to this area toward the end of this period, but I have no records on whether they were part of the conflict.

Connecticut Western Reserve (*11) – while most of the area west of Pennsylvania had been ceded by Connecticut in 1786, they retained a portion south of Lake Erie. The State of Connecticut (now no longer a colony) sold much of this land to developers and a number of people from CT moved here during this period in an effort to solidify those claims. It was not until 1800 that the state ceded its final claims to the United States. The name “Western Reserve” is still referred to in various names from the period such as Case Western Reserve University. The area was surveyed by Moses Cleaveland (*12) [not a relative] from Connecticut who also founded Cleveland OH (an interesting history note is that that the “a” was dropped from the city name by an early printer in order to conserve space on the map). During the period from 1796 to 1800, several other towns such as Youngstown, Warren, Hudson, and Ravenna were settled by individuals coming from Connecticut and lured by the availability of land.

Connecticut-New York Border Dispute (*13) – in addition to the western lands, the border between Connecticut and New York was subject to a great many disputes. In 1664, King Charles II sent royal commissioners to “end unneighbourly and unbrotherly contentions” about the borders. As part of the agreement, the main land was divided with a north-northwest line at the mouth of the Mamaroneck River. This new line kept Westchester for NY, but cut through the Hudson River around West Point, making Albany a part of Connecticut. Although this was realized as a mistake the following year, the correction of this required a signed agreement from both sides, including the Duke of York in England, and neither approval was ever given. Additional attempts at settling the dispute were made in 1683 and 1700, but those also were never totally resolved due to a variety of circumstances. New York had a counter claim that their border extended east to the Connecticut River. It was not until 1731 that the final resolution was made, not only resolving the border that had run through the Hudson, but creating the notch in the border which still appears to this day.

Several of my relatives were impact by this shifting border. First, my wife’s Dutch relatives lived in this area. Dirk Dirksz (Dirksz being the Dutch patronymic) was born there in 1663 when the area was still under Dutch control. When the British took control, they required the local residents to begin using the English surname convention, so he was then called Dirk Dirksz Van der Karre. Thus his name change actually appears to have been while he was a young child in what was then claimed by Connecticut. Also, one my Russell ancestors, Robert Russell, moved to this area toward the end of this period, although it is uncertain if it was before or after the final treaty.

References

*1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Haven_Colony#/media/File:Ctcolony.png

*2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ctwestclaims.png

*3 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Colony

*4 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Winthrop

*5 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Haven_Colony

*6 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophilus_Eaton

*7 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leete

*8 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westmoreland_County,_Connecticut

*9 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_Valley

*10 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennamite%E2%80%93Yankee_War

*11 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Western_Reserve

*12 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Cleaveland

*13 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_disputes_between_New_York_and_Connecticut

Genealogical Connections

Alcott (Alcox), John – my great*6 grandfather

Beecher, Samuel – my great*7 grandfather

Davenport, John – his granddaughter was the 1^st wife of my great*7 grandfather, James Pierpont

Frisbie, John – my great*6 grandfather

Haynes, John – his granddaughter was the 2^nd wife of my great*7 grandfather, James Pierpont

Hooker, Thomas – my great*9 grandfather, the grandfather of Mary [Hooker] Pierpont

Lette, William – the great*8 grandfather of my aunt, Barbara Leete [Bishop] Pierpont

Pierpont, James – my great*7 grandfather

Russell, Robert – my great*6 grandfather

Upson, Stephen – my great*7 grandfather

Van der Karre, Dirk Dirksz – my wife’s great*7 grandfather

Welles, Thomas – my great*10 grandfather