Friday, April 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Intermarriages Among Harlem Pioneer Families
At the beginning of the 18th century, the little isolated community of Harlem consisted of half a hundred homes. The small two-story Dutch homes generally sheltered each a half-score or more of sturdy youngsters. "Intermarriage," says Riker, "among the resident families was the rule, and he was thought a bold swain truly who ventured beyond the pale of the community to woo a mate."
This simple, natural practice of marrying among neighbors was fraught with consequences not to be foreseen by the 30 families who constituted the village of Harlem two centuries ago. As a matter of fact, all--or very nearly all--of those who today bear the names of the 23 original patentees of Harlem and the 700-800 hundred others of different surnames who later married into these families are knit together by ties of kinship of which few are aware.
The children and grandchildren of the patentees were nearly all cousins. Some 250-300 children and grandchildren of the original settlers were all closely bound by ties of blood relationship. Fifty years after the village was settled, or about the end of the first quarter of the 18th century, there was scarcely one of the families of the patentees who was not related to every other of the 25 or 30 families who first settled the village and they were not further removed than the fourth degree.
The following list of intermarriages of the children of the patentees may interest some of their descendants:
Of the Waldron family, Resolved Waldron had four daughters. Aeltje married Johannes Vermilye; Rebecca married first Jan Nagel and afterwards Jan Dyckman; Ruth married first Jan Delamater and afterwards Hendrick Bogert; Cornelia married Peter Oblinus. Their brother Johannes married Anna Van Dalsen. These marriages resulted in ties of close kinship between the seven families of Waldron, Nagel, Dyckman, Vermilye, Oblinus, Delamater and Bogert.
Of the Bussing family, Arent Harmanse Bussing, the patentee, married Susan, the daughter of Jan Delamater. His son Peter married Rebecca, daughter of Johannes and Aeltje Waldron Vermilye. John and Margaret Bussing married, respectively, a daughter and son of Cornelis Jansen Kortright. Elizabeth Bussing married Matthew Benson and Engeltje married Abraham Meyer. Of Peter Bussing and Rebecca Vermilye's four children, two married Bensons and two Meyers/Myers.
Of the Dyckman family, Jan Dyckman married first, Madeleine, the daughter of Daniel Tourneur, and after her death, as already mentioned, Rebecca Waldron, who was at the time of her second marriage the widow of Jan Nagel. Jan Dyckman's son Jan married his cousin Deborah Nagel, while his sister Magdalena married Deborah Nagel's brother, Jan Nagel II. Jacob Dyckman married Jannetje Kiersen; Sarah married {text missing here}; sister Rebecca married Joseph Hadley, and their daughter Mehitabel Hadley married her cousin Isaac Vermilye.
Of the Meyer/Myer family, Adolph Myer married Maria, the daughter of Johannes Verveelen, and their children married respectively into the Van Dalsen, Benson, Bussing, Waldron, Lent and Haringh/Haring families; while their grandchildren married into the Dyckman, Waldron, Bussing, Delamater and Kortright families.
Of the Vermilye family, Johannes Vermilye's daughters--besides Rebecca, who married Peter Bussing--Maria married Peter Kiersen; Sarah married Teunis Van Dalsen; and Hannah married Jonathan Odell, the great-great-grandfather of one of New York's governors. And in the two following generations of the Odell and Vermilye families and the Dyckman family, there were no less than ten intermarriages of cousins belonging to the three families. Aeltje Vermilye, a granddaughter of Johannes and Aeltje Waldron, married John Kortright.
Maria Vermilye, sister of Capt. Johannes, the patentee, became the second wife of Jean de la Montagne and her children married into the Bogert, Bussing and Kortright families. Nicasius de la Montagne, the son of Jean de la Montagne by his first wife Rachel De Forest, married Christina Roosevelt.
Of the Tourneur family, Daniel Tourneur's children married into the Kortright, Oblinus, Dyckman and DeVoe families, while his grandson Jacobus married a granddaughter of Laurens Jansen Low.
Of the Verveleen family, in addition to the connection by marriage between the Verveelen and Meyer families, already noted, there is that established by the two grandchildren of the old ferryman, Johannes Verveelen. Bernardus and Jacobus married, the one a Delamater and the other a Nagel.
Of the Bogert family, Jan Louwe Bogert's two daughters, Margaret and Cornelia, married a Haring and a Quackenbos {Quackenbush} respectively, while his granddaughter Jannetje became a Waldron and his great-grand-daughter Anna married Jacobus Roosevelt.
Of the Nagel family, Jan Nagel and Rebecca Waldron had a son Jan, who married his cousin, Magdalena Dyckman. Another son, Barent, married Jannetje Kiersen and a daughter, Johannes {sic: Johanna} became the wife of William Waldron. Sarah, their granddaughter, married Peter Oblinus, and her sister Deborah married Benjamin Waldron.
Of the Brevoort family, Jan Hendricus Brevoort's grandson Hendricus married a Delamater; William Haldron's grandson Cornells married Anetje Meyer and Jan Kiersen's daughter Jannetje married Jacob Dyckman.
Of the Oblinus family, Joost Oblinus' daughter married Isaac Vermilye and his grandchildren married respectively into the Nagel, Tourneur and DeVoe families. The children and grandchildren of Laurens Jansen Low intermarried with the Bogert, Delamater, Tourneur, Oblinus and Meyer families; and those of Cornelis Jan Kortright into the Dyckman, Benson, Bussing, Quackenbos {Quackenbush}, Delamater, Meyer and Vermilye families.
----------
Source:
{edited slightly by Madehlinne}
Pierce, Carl Horton, William Pennington Toler and Harmon De Pau Nutting, New Harlem past and present: the story of an amazing civic wrong, now at last to be righted (New Harlem Printing Co., 1903)
This simple, natural practice of marrying among neighbors was fraught with consequences not to be foreseen by the 30 families who constituted the village of Harlem two centuries ago. As a matter of fact, all--or very nearly all--of those who today bear the names of the 23 original patentees of Harlem and the 700-800 hundred others of different surnames who later married into these families are knit together by ties of kinship of which few are aware.
 |
| The wish tree is originally a Dutch wedding tradition. Guests wrote a message or wish on a note and hung it on the tree, which was then to bring the wishes to life. |
The children and grandchildren of the patentees were nearly all cousins. Some 250-300 children and grandchildren of the original settlers were all closely bound by ties of blood relationship. Fifty years after the village was settled, or about the end of the first quarter of the 18th century, there was scarcely one of the families of the patentees who was not related to every other of the 25 or 30 families who first settled the village and they were not further removed than the fourth degree.
The following list of intermarriages of the children of the patentees may interest some of their descendants:
Of the Waldron family, Resolved Waldron had four daughters. Aeltje married Johannes Vermilye; Rebecca married first Jan Nagel and afterwards Jan Dyckman; Ruth married first Jan Delamater and afterwards Hendrick Bogert; Cornelia married Peter Oblinus. Their brother Johannes married Anna Van Dalsen. These marriages resulted in ties of close kinship between the seven families of Waldron, Nagel, Dyckman, Vermilye, Oblinus, Delamater and Bogert.
Of the Bussing family, Arent Harmanse Bussing, the patentee, married Susan, the daughter of Jan Delamater. His son Peter married Rebecca, daughter of Johannes and Aeltje Waldron Vermilye. John and Margaret Bussing married, respectively, a daughter and son of Cornelis Jansen Kortright. Elizabeth Bussing married Matthew Benson and Engeltje married Abraham Meyer. Of Peter Bussing and Rebecca Vermilye's four children, two married Bensons and two Meyers/Myers.
Of the Dyckman family, Jan Dyckman married first, Madeleine, the daughter of Daniel Tourneur, and after her death, as already mentioned, Rebecca Waldron, who was at the time of her second marriage the widow of Jan Nagel. Jan Dyckman's son Jan married his cousin Deborah Nagel, while his sister Magdalena married Deborah Nagel's brother, Jan Nagel II. Jacob Dyckman married Jannetje Kiersen; Sarah married {text missing here}; sister Rebecca married Joseph Hadley, and their daughter Mehitabel Hadley married her cousin Isaac Vermilye.
Of the Meyer/Myer family, Adolph Myer married Maria, the daughter of Johannes Verveelen, and their children married respectively into the Van Dalsen, Benson, Bussing, Waldron, Lent and Haringh/Haring families; while their grandchildren married into the Dyckman, Waldron, Bussing, Delamater and Kortright families.
Of the Vermilye family, Johannes Vermilye's daughters--besides Rebecca, who married Peter Bussing--Maria married Peter Kiersen; Sarah married Teunis Van Dalsen; and Hannah married Jonathan Odell, the great-great-grandfather of one of New York's governors. And in the two following generations of the Odell and Vermilye families and the Dyckman family, there were no less than ten intermarriages of cousins belonging to the three families. Aeltje Vermilye, a granddaughter of Johannes and Aeltje Waldron, married John Kortright.
Maria Vermilye, sister of Capt. Johannes, the patentee, became the second wife of Jean de la Montagne and her children married into the Bogert, Bussing and Kortright families. Nicasius de la Montagne, the son of Jean de la Montagne by his first wife Rachel De Forest, married Christina Roosevelt.
 |
| A Dutch trouwbeker, or wedding cup, from which the bride and groom drank |
Of the Tourneur family, Daniel Tourneur's children married into the Kortright, Oblinus, Dyckman and DeVoe families, while his grandson Jacobus married a granddaughter of Laurens Jansen Low.
Of the Verveleen family, in addition to the connection by marriage between the Verveelen and Meyer families, already noted, there is that established by the two grandchildren of the old ferryman, Johannes Verveelen. Bernardus and Jacobus married, the one a Delamater and the other a Nagel.
Of the Bogert family, Jan Louwe Bogert's two daughters, Margaret and Cornelia, married a Haring and a Quackenbos {Quackenbush} respectively, while his granddaughter Jannetje became a Waldron and his great-grand-daughter Anna married Jacobus Roosevelt.
Of the Nagel family, Jan Nagel and Rebecca Waldron had a son Jan, who married his cousin, Magdalena Dyckman. Another son, Barent, married Jannetje Kiersen and a daughter, Johannes {sic: Johanna} became the wife of William Waldron. Sarah, their granddaughter, married Peter Oblinus, and her sister Deborah married Benjamin Waldron.
Of the Brevoort family, Jan Hendricus Brevoort's grandson Hendricus married a Delamater; William Haldron's grandson Cornells married Anetje Meyer and Jan Kiersen's daughter Jannetje married Jacob Dyckman.
Of the Oblinus family, Joost Oblinus' daughter married Isaac Vermilye and his grandchildren married respectively into the Nagel, Tourneur and DeVoe families. The children and grandchildren of Laurens Jansen Low intermarried with the Bogert, Delamater, Tourneur, Oblinus and Meyer families; and those of Cornelis Jan Kortright into the Dyckman, Benson, Bussing, Quackenbos {Quackenbush}, Delamater, Meyer and Vermilye families.
 |
| Dutch wedding wooden shoes |
----------
Source:
{edited slightly by Madehlinne}
Pierce, Carl Horton, William Pennington Toler and Harmon De Pau Nutting, New Harlem past and present: the story of an amazing civic wrong, now at last to be righted (New Harlem Printing Co., 1903)
Monday, February 13, 2012
List of Original Patentees of Harlem
The following is a list of the names of the original Harlem Patentees and Associates:
John Delavall,
Resolved Waldron,
Joost Van Oblinus [Oblienus],
Daniel Tourneur,
Adolph Meyer [Myer],
John Spragge,
Jan Hendricks Brevoort,
Jan Delamater,
Isaac Delamater,
Barent Waldron,
Johannes Vermilje [Vermilye],
Lawrence Jansen [Low],
Peter Van Oblinis [Oblenus],
Jan Dykeman [Dyckman],
Jan Nagel,
Arent Harmanse [Bussing],
Cornelis Jansen [Kortright],
Jacqueline Tourneur,
Hester Delamater,
Johannes Verveelen [Van Valen],
William Haldron [Holdrum],
Abraham Montanie [De La Montanye],
Peter Parmentier,
Jan Louwe Bogert,
Johannes Benson,
Charles Congreve,
Zacharias Sickels,
Marcus Tiebout,
John Kiersen,
William Holmes.
John Delavall,
Resolved Waldron,
Joost Van Oblinus [Oblienus],
Daniel Tourneur,
Adolph Meyer [Myer],
John Spragge,
Jan Hendricks Brevoort,
Jan Delamater,
Isaac Delamater,
Barent Waldron,
Johannes Vermilje [Vermilye],
Lawrence Jansen [Low],
Peter Van Oblinis [Oblenus],
Jan Dykeman [Dyckman],
Jan Nagel,
Arent Harmanse [Bussing],
Cornelis Jansen [Kortright],
Jacqueline Tourneur,
Hester Delamater,
Johannes Verveelen [Van Valen],
William Haldron [Holdrum],
Abraham Montanie [De La Montanye],
Peter Parmentier,
Jan Louwe Bogert,
Johannes Benson,
Charles Congreve,
Zacharias Sickels,
Marcus Tiebout,
John Kiersen,
William Holmes.
Settling Harlem, New York
Harlem, named after the original Harlem in the Netherlands, was founded by the Dutch on a site which is now almost the geographical heart of New York City. Patterned after similar villages in France and England, this little settlement of about 20 families received power to own, buy, sell, or distribute property, elect officers, assess members, build churches, hold court and govern itself in the exercise of an authority common to corporate towns of the day.
Attempts at earlier settlement on the northern end of Manhattan Island had proved futile but began in earnest with the arrival of Hendrick (Henry) de Forest, his brother Isaac de Forest and their sister and brother-in-law, Rachel and Dr. Jean Mousnier De La Montagne, Franco-Dutch immigrants in 1636.
Hendrick and Isaack lost no time in seeking a favorable situation for a plantation. They came prepared to earn their living by raising tobacco, for which it was said the New Netherland soil of Manhattan Island "on account of its great fertility was considered well adapted." A stretch of rich bottom land in the northern part of the island was soon selected. This tract was called Muscoota (the flat land) by the Indians, who had doubtless already cleared and cultivated a considerable part of it. The Muscoota included all the Harlem River lowlands from Hellgate to High Bridge.
Hendrick promptly secured from Director Wouter van Twiller a grant of 100 morgens of land (about two hundred acres) on this fertile plain, extending "between the hills and the kill," that is, from the high land known today as Morningside Heights to a little stream now called Harlem Creek, which ran in a southerly and easterly direction until it emptied into the Harlem River. The northern boundary of the tract was at about 124th Street, while on the south it included the high land in Central Park at about 109th Street. Near this latter boundary was a copious spring or, as the Dutch called it, a fonteyn, which still flows almost as it did then, a rippling brook with little waterfalls, until it empties into Harlem Mere in the northern part of the park.
Roughly speaking, between 3,000-4,000 acres, every foot of which is now extremely valuable, was granted to the Corporation—the Town of New Harlem—whose first settlers broke ground near the foot of 125th Street and the Harlem River on 14 Aug. 1658. Erf (plural erven) was the Dutch name for a house-lot and morgen (two acres) meaning farm-lots. An owner of erf and morgen-rights was entitled to draw as many acres of the undivided common lands as he held of these rights.
Dr. Montagne, whose name has been variously misspelled, a descendant of French Huguenots who--like many other Nieuw Netherlands settlers--had fled persecution to settle in Holland. Jean Mousnier de la Montagne from the time of his arrival in Nieuw Netherland signed himself simply La Montagne, though he was often called Johannes La Montagne or Montanye, and the name was frequently pronounced according to the latter spelling.
From Gov. William Kieft, Dr. Montagne obtained a grant of the land on which he had settled and expressed a sense of gratitude for the contrasting peace of his new home in calling it Quiet Dale or Vredendal. The land which Montagne occupied soon became known as Montagne's Flat. The tract, divided by the present line of St. Nicholas Avenue, ran from 109th Street to 124th Street and contained about 200 acres.
Shortly afterward, former director Wouter Van Twiller became interested in the Harlem district and settled on Ward's Island. His friend Jacobus Van Curler pre-empted the flat opposite Ward's Island known as the Otterspoor, a name signifying "otter tracks." This was afterwards sold to Coenraet Van Keulen, a New York merchant, and hence the name Van Keulen's Hook, which clung to this part of the district for more than 100 years after Harlem's founding.
With the ushering-in of spring, Van Curler finished his primitive dwelling and out-buildings on the northern bank of Montagne's Creek and secured a stock of all things necessary for a well-regulated plantation of the day—domestic animals, farming tools, and a canoe for passing to and from New York. At that time, and for a considerable time thereafter, there was no thought of reaching Nieuw Amsterdam except by water.
The success attending these early efforts in the rich soil of Muscoota had by this time spread abroad and had attracted the attention of a Danish capitalist, Capt. Jochem Pieter, who finally settled on the land above 125th Street. His farm, which reached approximately to 150th Street along the Harlem River, was forever afterward known to the patentees as Jochem Pieter's lots. Jochem Pieter's full name was Jochem Pietersen Kuyter. The Dutch, not unlike their American descendants, were quick to abbreviate names. Kuyter, therefore, was always known as Jochem Pieter.
When Jochem Pieter first made known his intention of coming to Manhattan, the authorities offered him the farm he subsequently occupied. Pleased with their generosity, Jochem Pieter hired a ship, invited his friend Jonas Bronck to accompany him, stocked the vessel with fine Holstein cattle and, with the Pieter and Bronck families and numerous herdsmen, arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam in July 1639 and at once took up his residence on the banks of the Harlem.
Bronck, his associate, settled opposite in what is now Bronx Borough--to which he lent his name--and at once started to erect a stone house, covered with Dutch tiles, a barn, tobacco houses and barracks.
When Hendrick De Forest died in July 1637, Dr. Montagne took charge of the widow's plantation. He also saw to the proper harvesting of her crops and boarded with Van Curler while finishing the house and barn which his brother-in-law had started in the rough.
Dr. Montagne continued to look after the estate of his sister-in-law until the year following, when a former member of Van Twiller's council, Andries Hudde, married the young widow De Forest. Particularly noteworthy was this event, leading up to the first ground-brief, or land patent, which was issued relative to Harlem lands, "granting, transporting, ceding, giving over, and conveying, to Andries Hudde, his heirs and successors, now and forever" a site owned less than a generation later by the town of Harlem.
After his marriage, Hudde, wishing to visit Holland with his bride, engaged an overseer for the farm and applied to Director Kieft for a patent to avoid all question of title to the property during his absence. Hitherto no similar action had been taken, but Kieft, recognizing the value of the Harlem settlement as a protection against the Indians and recognizing also that settlers would not continue to dwell on and improve property where titles were insecure, inaugurated the custom of giving ground-briefs for Harlem farms, in course of improvement, by issuing the Hudde Patent, dated 20 July 1638.
By the time the newly-wedded pair reached Holland, however, their affairs on this side of the water were complicated by Dr. Montagne's demand for the settlement of a debt of $400 due him for the management of the estate during the widowhood of Mrs. De Forest, now Mrs. Hudde.
The claim remaining unpaid, the farm was offered for sale for the benefit of the widow. At the auction which followed, Dr. Montagne bid for the property at 1,700 guilders, or about $680, which sum purchased not only the farm, but also the fixtures, house, barn, fences, farming tools and wey schuyt (as the Dutch called the canoe), "domestic fowls, two goats, two milch cows and other cattle, and portions of the recent crops of tobacco and grain." Thus the claim to New Harlem's land called Montagne's Point and Montagne's Flat became merged under one ownership, where it remained until the formation of the New Harlem Corporation.
Claes Cornelissen Swits, a New Yorker, leased the farm which Van Kuelen purchased from Van Curler. The terms of his lease were interesting, showing the progress made by the little Harlem colony in the three years of its existence. The lease, which was executed on 25 Jan. 1639, included two span of horses, three cows, farming utensils and 12 schepels of grain in the ground, for which Swits was to pay rent in livestock and butter and one-eighth of all the grain "with which God shall bless the field."'
Dr. Montagne was yet to find, as did his neighbors, that this retreat was not so peaceful as it first seemed. The Native Americans lurked too near at hand. Instead of the former quiet of the forest, the squeak of the ox-cart's wheels and the swish of the scythes in the meadow now warned the Manahattans and Wickquaskeeks, the Indian tribes of the region, that civilization was soon to rob them of their beloved hunting grounds.
Despite Pieter Minuit's purchase of the island and subsequent purchases of the Bronx and Westchester lowlands, the Native Americans became aggressive, declaring that $24 was an inadequate price for the whole of the island, and their tone became threatening.
Gov. Kieft added fuel to the smoldering fire of the Indians' anger by attempting to levy a tax on the surrounding tribes. In vain did Dr. Montagne protest, but Kieft was vindictive. His demands being refused, he ordered an attack on the Raritan Indians. Several were killed, and, in the words of Dr. Montagne, "a bridge had been built over which war was soon to stalk through the land."
Swits was the first to fall in the trail of death which ensued. Kieft unwisely demanded the head of the assassin. New York's Council not supporting him, however, no active measures were taken to capture the culprit. Doubling their precautions, now that one of their number had been killed, the settlers along the Harlem returned to their crops and renewed their labors in the shadow of a constant danger.
Kieft again contrived to blunder in his relations with the Indians and his blunders were always particularly costly to the little Harlem colony. In the fall of the year he ordered the slaughter of some harmless, unarmed Indians who had sought, at the fort, a refuge from their enemies, the Mohicans.
Immediately the Indians rose, thirsting for revenge and swarming like angry hornets from the forests, boldly attacked the Harlem outpost of Manhattan Island civilization, killed some of the settlers and drove the remainder southward to New York. Such attacks were repeated again and again in the next five years until Montagne and his neighbors were ruined, their cattle killed, their well-filled barns burned, their gardens and fences uprooted, their fields laid waste; and again the forest's silence was broken only by the cry of birds or the twang of the bow.
Attempts at earlier settlement on the northern end of Manhattan Island had proved futile but began in earnest with the arrival of Hendrick (Henry) de Forest, his brother Isaac de Forest and their sister and brother-in-law, Rachel and Dr. Jean Mousnier De La Montagne, Franco-Dutch immigrants in 1636.
Hendrick and Isaack lost no time in seeking a favorable situation for a plantation. They came prepared to earn their living by raising tobacco, for which it was said the New Netherland soil of Manhattan Island "on account of its great fertility was considered well adapted." A stretch of rich bottom land in the northern part of the island was soon selected. This tract was called Muscoota (the flat land) by the Indians, who had doubtless already cleared and cultivated a considerable part of it. The Muscoota included all the Harlem River lowlands from Hellgate to High Bridge.
 |
| Early Manhattan Island Native American village |
Hendrick promptly secured from Director Wouter van Twiller a grant of 100 morgens of land (about two hundred acres) on this fertile plain, extending "between the hills and the kill," that is, from the high land known today as Morningside Heights to a little stream now called Harlem Creek, which ran in a southerly and easterly direction until it emptied into the Harlem River. The northern boundary of the tract was at about 124th Street, while on the south it included the high land in Central Park at about 109th Street. Near this latter boundary was a copious spring or, as the Dutch called it, a fonteyn, which still flows almost as it did then, a rippling brook with little waterfalls, until it empties into Harlem Mere in the northern part of the park.
 |
| Montanye's Fonteyn in the early 20th century |
Roughly speaking, between 3,000-4,000 acres, every foot of which is now extremely valuable, was granted to the Corporation—the Town of New Harlem—whose first settlers broke ground near the foot of 125th Street and the Harlem River on 14 Aug. 1658. Erf (plural erven) was the Dutch name for a house-lot and morgen (two acres) meaning farm-lots. An owner of erf and morgen-rights was entitled to draw as many acres of the undivided common lands as he held of these rights.
 |
| Harlem Original Plot Map, 1670; map drawn by James Riker |
Dr. Montagne, whose name has been variously misspelled, a descendant of French Huguenots who--like many other Nieuw Netherlands settlers--had fled persecution to settle in Holland. Jean Mousnier de la Montagne from the time of his arrival in Nieuw Netherland signed himself simply La Montagne, though he was often called Johannes La Montagne or Montanye, and the name was frequently pronounced according to the latter spelling.
 |
| Riker's Map of Original Farms and Lots of Nieuw Haarlem |
From Gov. William Kieft, Dr. Montagne obtained a grant of the land on which he had settled and expressed a sense of gratitude for the contrasting peace of his new home in calling it Quiet Dale or Vredendal. The land which Montagne occupied soon became known as Montagne's Flat. The tract, divided by the present line of St. Nicholas Avenue, ran from 109th Street to 124th Street and contained about 200 acres.
Shortly afterward, former director Wouter Van Twiller became interested in the Harlem district and settled on Ward's Island. His friend Jacobus Van Curler pre-empted the flat opposite Ward's Island known as the Otterspoor, a name signifying "otter tracks." This was afterwards sold to Coenraet Van Keulen, a New York merchant, and hence the name Van Keulen's Hook, which clung to this part of the district for more than 100 years after Harlem's founding.
With the ushering-in of spring, Van Curler finished his primitive dwelling and out-buildings on the northern bank of Montagne's Creek and secured a stock of all things necessary for a well-regulated plantation of the day—domestic animals, farming tools, and a canoe for passing to and from New York. At that time, and for a considerable time thereafter, there was no thought of reaching Nieuw Amsterdam except by water.
The success attending these early efforts in the rich soil of Muscoota had by this time spread abroad and had attracted the attention of a Danish capitalist, Capt. Jochem Pieter, who finally settled on the land above 125th Street. His farm, which reached approximately to 150th Street along the Harlem River, was forever afterward known to the patentees as Jochem Pieter's lots. Jochem Pieter's full name was Jochem Pietersen Kuyter. The Dutch, not unlike their American descendants, were quick to abbreviate names. Kuyter, therefore, was always known as Jochem Pieter.
When Jochem Pieter first made known his intention of coming to Manhattan, the authorities offered him the farm he subsequently occupied. Pleased with their generosity, Jochem Pieter hired a ship, invited his friend Jonas Bronck to accompany him, stocked the vessel with fine Holstein cattle and, with the Pieter and Bronck families and numerous herdsmen, arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam in July 1639 and at once took up his residence on the banks of the Harlem.
Bronck, his associate, settled opposite in what is now Bronx Borough--to which he lent his name--and at once started to erect a stone house, covered with Dutch tiles, a barn, tobacco houses and barracks.
 |
| A Dutch farm in Drenthe, Netherlands, resembles those that would have been built in Nieuw Amsterdam. |
When Hendrick De Forest died in July 1637, Dr. Montagne took charge of the widow's plantation. He also saw to the proper harvesting of her crops and boarded with Van Curler while finishing the house and barn which his brother-in-law had started in the rough.
Dr. Montagne continued to look after the estate of his sister-in-law until the year following, when a former member of Van Twiller's council, Andries Hudde, married the young widow De Forest. Particularly noteworthy was this event, leading up to the first ground-brief, or land patent, which was issued relative to Harlem lands, "granting, transporting, ceding, giving over, and conveying, to Andries Hudde, his heirs and successors, now and forever" a site owned less than a generation later by the town of Harlem.
After his marriage, Hudde, wishing to visit Holland with his bride, engaged an overseer for the farm and applied to Director Kieft for a patent to avoid all question of title to the property during his absence. Hitherto no similar action had been taken, but Kieft, recognizing the value of the Harlem settlement as a protection against the Indians and recognizing also that settlers would not continue to dwell on and improve property where titles were insecure, inaugurated the custom of giving ground-briefs for Harlem farms, in course of improvement, by issuing the Hudde Patent, dated 20 July 1638.
By the time the newly-wedded pair reached Holland, however, their affairs on this side of the water were complicated by Dr. Montagne's demand for the settlement of a debt of $400 due him for the management of the estate during the widowhood of Mrs. De Forest, now Mrs. Hudde.
 |
| View of the Herengracht, Amsterdam |
The claim remaining unpaid, the farm was offered for sale for the benefit of the widow. At the auction which followed, Dr. Montagne bid for the property at 1,700 guilders, or about $680, which sum purchased not only the farm, but also the fixtures, house, barn, fences, farming tools and wey schuyt (as the Dutch called the canoe), "domestic fowls, two goats, two milch cows and other cattle, and portions of the recent crops of tobacco and grain." Thus the claim to New Harlem's land called Montagne's Point and Montagne's Flat became merged under one ownership, where it remained until the formation of the New Harlem Corporation.
Claes Cornelissen Swits, a New Yorker, leased the farm which Van Kuelen purchased from Van Curler. The terms of his lease were interesting, showing the progress made by the little Harlem colony in the three years of its existence. The lease, which was executed on 25 Jan. 1639, included two span of horses, three cows, farming utensils and 12 schepels of grain in the ground, for which Swits was to pay rent in livestock and butter and one-eighth of all the grain "with which God shall bless the field."'
Dr. Montagne was yet to find, as did his neighbors, that this retreat was not so peaceful as it first seemed. The Native Americans lurked too near at hand. Instead of the former quiet of the forest, the squeak of the ox-cart's wheels and the swish of the scythes in the meadow now warned the Manahattans and Wickquaskeeks, the Indian tribes of the region, that civilization was soon to rob them of their beloved hunting grounds.
 |
| Pieter Minuit trades for Manhattan Island. The Natives thought they only sold the hunting rights. |
Despite Pieter Minuit's purchase of the island and subsequent purchases of the Bronx and Westchester lowlands, the Native Americans became aggressive, declaring that $24 was an inadequate price for the whole of the island, and their tone became threatening.
Gov. Kieft added fuel to the smoldering fire of the Indians' anger by attempting to levy a tax on the surrounding tribes. In vain did Dr. Montagne protest, but Kieft was vindictive. His demands being refused, he ordered an attack on the Raritan Indians. Several were killed, and, in the words of Dr. Montagne, "a bridge had been built over which war was soon to stalk through the land."
Swits was the first to fall in the trail of death which ensued. Kieft unwisely demanded the head of the assassin. New York's Council not supporting him, however, no active measures were taken to capture the culprit. Doubling their precautions, now that one of their number had been killed, the settlers along the Harlem returned to their crops and renewed their labors in the shadow of a constant danger.
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| Dutch troops prepare to attack Native Americans in retaliation. |
Kieft again contrived to blunder in his relations with the Indians and his blunders were always particularly costly to the little Harlem colony. In the fall of the year he ordered the slaughter of some harmless, unarmed Indians who had sought, at the fort, a refuge from their enemies, the Mohicans.
Immediately the Indians rose, thirsting for revenge and swarming like angry hornets from the forests, boldly attacked the Harlem outpost of Manhattan Island civilization, killed some of the settlers and drove the remainder southward to New York. Such attacks were repeated again and again in the next five years until Montagne and his neighbors were ruined, their cattle killed, their well-filled barns burned, their gardens and fences uprooted, their fields laid waste; and again the forest's silence was broken only by the cry of birds or the twang of the bow.
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Sources:
De Forest, Emily Johnston and Jesse De Forest, A Walloon Family in America (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1904)
Pierce, Carl Horton, William Pennington Toler and Harmon De Pau Nutting, New Harlem past and present: the story of an amazing civic wrong, now at last to be righted (New Harlem Printing Co., 1903)
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Great Swamp Fight
King Philip's War {see separate entry} was an armed conflict between Native Americans of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. In little over a year, 12 of the region's towns were destroyed and many more damaged, its economy was all but ruined, and much of its population was killed, including one-tenth of all men available for military service.
After their somewhat disastrous campaign of the autumn of 1675 in the western parts of Massachusetts, the Commissioners of the United Colonies were determined to carry the war against the Narrangansetts whom they accused of sheltering the warring Wapanoags led by King Philip. The veteran troops were recalled and reorganized; small towns in various parts of the colonies were garrisoned; and an army of 1,000 men was equipped for a winter campaign.
Gen. Josiah Winslow, Governor of Plymouth Colony, was appointed commander-in-chief of this army; Maj. Samuel Appleton to command the Massachusetts regiment, Maj. William Bradford that of Plymouth, and Maj. Robert Treat that of Connecticut. The full quota of Massachusetts was 527 soldiers, but there were doubtless many others along as servants to the officers, scouts, camp-followers, etc.
To the soldiers, a proclamation was read, on the part of the Massachusetts Council, "that if they played the man, took the Fort, & Drove the Enemy out of the Narragansett Country, which was their great Seat, that they should have a gratuity in land besides their wages." The pay of soldiers, according to Mr. Judd, in his History of Hadley, was 6s. per week, and 5s. was paid for their "dyet." There is no way of determining the rate of pay, as all payments are "on acct" and do not specify time of service. Plymouth colony paid the private soldiers 2s{hillings}. per day, drummers 2s. b'd., Sergeant 3s., Ensign 4s., "Lieftenant " 5s., Captain 6s. A "chyrurgion" or doctor was attached to the expedition companies.
In the evening of Sunday, December 12th, the whole body advanced "from Mr. Carpenter's," crossed the Pautuxet River and marched a long way into "Pomham's Country," now Warwick, RI. But from the unskillfulness of their Warwick scouts (who were probably Englishmen), their purpose of capturing Pomham and his people was defeated and, after a whole night spent in weary marching about, they arrived at {Richard} Smith's garrison-house at Wickford.
Richard Smith of Smith’s Castle, Cocumcossoc, was the Indian trader of the area whose fortress blockhouse trading post housed the United Colonies combined troops who came through to fight the battle. Smith had bought the trading post and surrounding lands and had constructed a large house which was fortified, giving the house its nickname as a "castle."
Jeriah Bull’s blockhouse on Tower Hill to the east, where Quaker George Fox had preached, was burned to the ground a scant day or two before the battle. Smith's son Richard Jr. inherited the plantation in 1666 and invited the militias from Massachusetts and Connecticut to use the property during King Philip's War. In retaliation for the Great Swamp Fight, the house was burned in 1676.
There, they were met with troops who had arrived by water and also by Capt. Samuel Mosely's company, which had captured 36 Indians that day, including the Native American called Peter, who proved afterwards to be an indispensable guide.
While the troops waited as other soldiers from nearby areas joined them, small raiding companies of Native Americans took turns sniping at, wounding or killing the soldiers. A commander of one Boston regiment, Capt. James Oliver wrote, "I sent out 30 of my men to scout abroad, who killed two Indians and brought in 4 prisoners, one of which was beheaded. Our Army came home at night, killed 7 and brought in 9 more, young and old. Dec. 15th, came in John, a rogue, with pretence of peace, and was dismissed with this errand, that we might speak with Sachems. That evening, he not being gone a quarter of an hour, his company that lay hid behind a hill killed two Salem men within a mile of our quarters, and wounded a third that he is dead. And at a house three miles off where I had 10 men, they killed 2 of them."
The little army marched from the vicinity of Bull's Fort on Narragansett Bay. The English forces under command of Gen. Winslow of Plymouth had been gathered at Wickford. Capt. Oliver wrote: "Dec. 18th, we marched to Petaquamscot with all our forces, only a garrison left; that night was very stormy; we lay, one thousand, in the open field that long night. In the morning, Dec. 19th, Lord's day, at 5 o'clock we marched. Between 12 and 1, we came up with the enemy," after having marched some 20 miles through intense cold and a heavy snow-storm to the swamp.
This Native American fort on the north side of Worden’s Pond was situated upon an island of some five or six acres in the midst of a cedar swamp, which was impassable except to the Indians by their accustomed paths. It is probable that the Indians depended chiefly upon the swamp to protect them, though their defenses were described as having been of considerable strength. A portion of the high ground had been enclosed, and from a careful comparison of the most reliable accounts, it seemed that the fortifications were well planned.
"The Fort was raised upon a Kind of Island of five or six acres of rising Land in the midst of a swamp; the sides of it were made of Palisadoes set upright, the which was compassed about with a Hedg [sic] of almost a rod Thickness." A contemporary writer (whose account was published at the time in London, and was reprinted in Drake's publication called the "Old Indian Chronicle") says: "In the midst of the Swamp was a Piece of firm Land, of about three or four Acres, whereon the Indians had built a kind of Fort, being palisadoed round, and within that a clay 'Wall,' as also felled down abundance of Trees to lay quite round the said Fort, but they had not quite finished the said Work." It is evident from these, the only detailed accounts and from some casual references, that the works were rude and incomplete. At the corners and exposed portions, rude block-houses and flankers had been built, from which a raking fire could be poured upon any attacking force."
Either by chance or by the skill of Peter, their captured Indian guide, the English seemed to have come upon a point of the fort where the Indians did not expect them. But the crude fort would have been almost impregnable to the troops had not the swamp been frozen by the extreme cold of the previous days.
Without waiting for any organized attack, the Massachusetts troops at the front of the march rushed forward across the ice in an impetuous charge and into the entrance of the Indian fort. So the first colonists to enter were met with a terrible enfilading fire from front and flanks and were forced back for a time. "But others coming on pressed into the breach, and, though suffering severe losses, at last stormed all the fortifications, drove the enemy from every line of entrenchments within the fort, and out into the woods and swamps beyond. They set fire to the wigwams and store-houses of the savages, in which were burned many of the aged, and women and children," states Bodge.
"We lost, that are now dead, about 68, and had 150 wounded, many of which are recovered. That long snowy cold night we had about 18 miles to {go to} our quarters, with about 210 dead and wounded. We left 8 dead in the fort. We had but 12 dead when we came from the swamp, besides the 8 we left. Many died by the way, and as soon as they were brought in, so that Dec. 20th we buried in a grave 34, next day 4, next day 2, and none since here. Eight died at Rhode Island, 1 at Petaquamscot, 2 lost in the woods and killed, Dec. 20, as we heard since ; some say two more died. By the best intelligence, we killed 300 fighting men ; prisoners we took, say 350, and above 300 women and children. We burnt above 500 houses, left but 9, burnt all their corn, that was in baskets, great store. One signal mercy that night, not to be forgotten, viz. that when we drew off, with so many dead and wounded, they did not pursue us...," wrote Capt. Oliver.
Of the officers, Capts. {Nathaniel} Davenport, {Isaac} Johnson and {Joseph} Gardiner were killed, and Lieutenants {Phineas} Upham, {Perez} Savage, {Jeremiah} Swain, and {Edward} Ting/Tyng were wounded. Of the Connecticut troops, 71 were killed and wounded; and according to the eminent historian of Connecticut, Dr. Benjamin Trumbull, only 70.
Maj. Treat, by tradition, is said to have been the last man to have left the fort, commanding the rear guard of the army; and of his captains, {John} Gallop, {Samuel} Marshall and {Nathaniel} Seely were killed and Capt. {John} Mason mortally wounded. By a contemporary account, Connecticut lost:
Of New Haven Company, 20
Of Capt. {Nathaniel} Siely [sic] his Company, 20
Of Capt. {Thomas} Watts his Company, 17
Of Capt. {Samuel} Marshal his Company, 14 — 71
Of the Plymouth forces, Maj. Bradford, the commander, and Capt. Benjamin Church of the General's staff were severely wounded and, of the soldiers, the killed and wounded in both companies were 20, by best accounts.
Ninigret, sachem of the English-allied Niantick tribe, sent to Gen. Winslow word that his people had buried the dead English who had been left at the fort and that the number was 24 and he asked for a charge of powder for each. This information was given in a letter from Maj. Bradford to Rev. Mr. Cotton of Plymouth.
The only vestiges of the Native American fortification found in latter days were here and there a grain of Indian corn burned black in the destruction.
The full loss of the army was 31 killed and 67 wounded. Such, at least, was the "official" return at the time.
The only incident of an individual being hanged, drawn and quartered for treason on American soil took place at Smith's Castle in 1676. Joshua Tefft, an English colonist accused of having fought on the side of the Narragansett during the Great Swamp Fight, was executed by this method.
Sources:
Bodge, George M., Soldiers in King Philip's war; being a critical account of that war, with a concise history of the Indian wars of New England from 1620-1677, official lists of the soldiers of Massachusetts colony serving in Philip's war, and sketches of the principal officers, copies of ancient documents and records relating to the war, also lists of the Narragansett grantees of the United colonies, Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut; with an appendix. (Leominster, Mass., Printed for the author, 1891)
Drake, Samuel G., History and Antiquities of Boston, the Capitol of Massachusetts and the Metropolis of New England, From Its Settlement in 1630, to the Year 1770. Also, An Introductory History to the Discovery and Settlement of New England. (Boston: Luther Stevens, 1856)
Smith's Castle information taken from the website; accessed 22 Jan. 2012 at http://www.smithscastle.org/.
After their somewhat disastrous campaign of the autumn of 1675 in the western parts of Massachusetts, the Commissioners of the United Colonies were determined to carry the war against the Narrangansetts whom they accused of sheltering the warring Wapanoags led by King Philip. The veteran troops were recalled and reorganized; small towns in various parts of the colonies were garrisoned; and an army of 1,000 men was equipped for a winter campaign.
Gen. Josiah Winslow, Governor of Plymouth Colony, was appointed commander-in-chief of this army; Maj. Samuel Appleton to command the Massachusetts regiment, Maj. William Bradford that of Plymouth, and Maj. Robert Treat that of Connecticut. The full quota of Massachusetts was 527 soldiers, but there were doubtless many others along as servants to the officers, scouts, camp-followers, etc.
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| Colonial soldiers at muster {Painting by Don Troiani} |
To the soldiers, a proclamation was read, on the part of the Massachusetts Council, "that if they played the man, took the Fort, & Drove the Enemy out of the Narragansett Country, which was their great Seat, that they should have a gratuity in land besides their wages." The pay of soldiers, according to Mr. Judd, in his History of Hadley, was 6s. per week, and 5s. was paid for their "dyet." There is no way of determining the rate of pay, as all payments are "on acct" and do not specify time of service. Plymouth colony paid the private soldiers 2s{hillings}. per day, drummers 2s. b'd., Sergeant 3s., Ensign 4s., "Lieftenant " 5s., Captain 6s. A "chyrurgion" or doctor was attached to the expedition companies.
In the evening of Sunday, December 12th, the whole body advanced "from Mr. Carpenter's," crossed the Pautuxet River and marched a long way into "Pomham's Country," now Warwick, RI. But from the unskillfulness of their Warwick scouts (who were probably Englishmen), their purpose of capturing Pomham and his people was defeated and, after a whole night spent in weary marching about, they arrived at {Richard} Smith's garrison-house at Wickford.
Richard Smith of Smith’s Castle, Cocumcossoc, was the Indian trader of the area whose fortress blockhouse trading post housed the United Colonies combined troops who came through to fight the battle. Smith had bought the trading post and surrounding lands and had constructed a large house which was fortified, giving the house its nickname as a "castle."
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| The original Smith's Castle |
Jeriah Bull’s blockhouse on Tower Hill to the east, where Quaker George Fox had preached, was burned to the ground a scant day or two before the battle. Smith's son Richard Jr. inherited the plantation in 1666 and invited the militias from Massachusetts and Connecticut to use the property during King Philip's War. In retaliation for the Great Swamp Fight, the house was burned in 1676.
There, they were met with troops who had arrived by water and also by Capt. Samuel Mosely's company, which had captured 36 Indians that day, including the Native American called Peter, who proved afterwards to be an indispensable guide.
While the troops waited as other soldiers from nearby areas joined them, small raiding companies of Native Americans took turns sniping at, wounding or killing the soldiers. A commander of one Boston regiment, Capt. James Oliver wrote, "I sent out 30 of my men to scout abroad, who killed two Indians and brought in 4 prisoners, one of which was beheaded. Our Army came home at night, killed 7 and brought in 9 more, young and old. Dec. 15th, came in John, a rogue, with pretence of peace, and was dismissed with this errand, that we might speak with Sachems. That evening, he not being gone a quarter of an hour, his company that lay hid behind a hill killed two Salem men within a mile of our quarters, and wounded a third that he is dead. And at a house three miles off where I had 10 men, they killed 2 of them."
The little army marched from the vicinity of Bull's Fort on Narragansett Bay. The English forces under command of Gen. Winslow of Plymouth had been gathered at Wickford. Capt. Oliver wrote: "Dec. 18th, we marched to Petaquamscot with all our forces, only a garrison left; that night was very stormy; we lay, one thousand, in the open field that long night. In the morning, Dec. 19th, Lord's day, at 5 o'clock we marched. Between 12 and 1, we came up with the enemy," after having marched some 20 miles through intense cold and a heavy snow-storm to the swamp.
This Native American fort on the north side of Worden’s Pond was situated upon an island of some five or six acres in the midst of a cedar swamp, which was impassable except to the Indians by their accustomed paths. It is probable that the Indians depended chiefly upon the swamp to protect them, though their defenses were described as having been of considerable strength. A portion of the high ground had been enclosed, and from a careful comparison of the most reliable accounts, it seemed that the fortifications were well planned.
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| Map of the location of the Native American fort |
"The Fort was raised upon a Kind of Island of five or six acres of rising Land in the midst of a swamp; the sides of it were made of Palisadoes set upright, the which was compassed about with a Hedg [sic] of almost a rod Thickness." A contemporary writer (whose account was published at the time in London, and was reprinted in Drake's publication called the "Old Indian Chronicle") says: "In the midst of the Swamp was a Piece of firm Land, of about three or four Acres, whereon the Indians had built a kind of Fort, being palisadoed round, and within that a clay 'Wall,' as also felled down abundance of Trees to lay quite round the said Fort, but they had not quite finished the said Work." It is evident from these, the only detailed accounts and from some casual references, that the works were rude and incomplete. At the corners and exposed portions, rude block-houses and flankers had been built, from which a raking fire could be poured upon any attacking force."
Either by chance or by the skill of Peter, their captured Indian guide, the English seemed to have come upon a point of the fort where the Indians did not expect them. But the crude fort would have been almost impregnable to the troops had not the swamp been frozen by the extreme cold of the previous days.
Without waiting for any organized attack, the Massachusetts troops at the front of the march rushed forward across the ice in an impetuous charge and into the entrance of the Indian fort. So the first colonists to enter were met with a terrible enfilading fire from front and flanks and were forced back for a time. "But others coming on pressed into the breach, and, though suffering severe losses, at last stormed all the fortifications, drove the enemy from every line of entrenchments within the fort, and out into the woods and swamps beyond. They set fire to the wigwams and store-houses of the savages, in which were burned many of the aged, and women and children," states Bodge.
"We lost, that are now dead, about 68, and had 150 wounded, many of which are recovered. That long snowy cold night we had about 18 miles to {go to} our quarters, with about 210 dead and wounded. We left 8 dead in the fort. We had but 12 dead when we came from the swamp, besides the 8 we left. Many died by the way, and as soon as they were brought in, so that Dec. 20th we buried in a grave 34, next day 4, next day 2, and none since here. Eight died at Rhode Island, 1 at Petaquamscot, 2 lost in the woods and killed, Dec. 20, as we heard since ; some say two more died. By the best intelligence, we killed 300 fighting men ; prisoners we took, say 350, and above 300 women and children. We burnt above 500 houses, left but 9, burnt all their corn, that was in baskets, great store. One signal mercy that night, not to be forgotten, viz. that when we drew off, with so many dead and wounded, they did not pursue us...," wrote Capt. Oliver.
Of the officers, Capts. {Nathaniel} Davenport, {Isaac} Johnson and {Joseph} Gardiner were killed, and Lieutenants {Phineas} Upham, {Perez} Savage, {Jeremiah} Swain, and {Edward} Ting/Tyng were wounded. Of the Connecticut troops, 71 were killed and wounded; and according to the eminent historian of Connecticut, Dr. Benjamin Trumbull, only 70.
Maj. Treat, by tradition, is said to have been the last man to have left the fort, commanding the rear guard of the army; and of his captains, {John} Gallop, {Samuel} Marshall and {Nathaniel} Seely were killed and Capt. {John} Mason mortally wounded. By a contemporary account, Connecticut lost:
Of New Haven Company, 20
Of Capt. {Nathaniel} Siely [sic] his Company, 20
Of Capt. {Thomas} Watts his Company, 17
Of Capt. {Samuel} Marshal his Company, 14 — 71
Of the Plymouth forces, Maj. Bradford, the commander, and Capt. Benjamin Church of the General's staff were severely wounded and, of the soldiers, the killed and wounded in both companies were 20, by best accounts.
Ninigret, sachem of the English-allied Niantick tribe, sent to Gen. Winslow word that his people had buried the dead English who had been left at the fort and that the number was 24 and he asked for a charge of powder for each. This information was given in a letter from Maj. Bradford to Rev. Mr. Cotton of Plymouth.
The only vestiges of the Native American fortification found in latter days were here and there a grain of Indian corn burned black in the destruction.
The full loss of the army was 31 killed and 67 wounded. Such, at least, was the "official" return at the time.
The only incident of an individual being hanged, drawn and quartered for treason on American soil took place at Smith's Castle in 1676. Joshua Tefft, an English colonist accused of having fought on the side of the Narragansett during the Great Swamp Fight, was executed by this method.
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| Architect Clifford A. Renshaw's drawing (2000) of how the c. 1678 house built by Richard Smith Jr. may have appeared. According to tradition, many timbers salvaged from the burned blockhouse were reused in the construction of the new house. Upper beams in the current house provide evidence of the two garret gables and stone rubble found in front of the current entrance may be the foundation of the projecting central "porch." Framing for a door, which can be seen today through the view-port to the right of the front door, suggests the main entry was to the right of the porch. The May 1692 inventory of the estate of Richard Smith Jr. describes a kitchen, hall and dairy (first floor); a porch chamber, kitchen chamber, hall chamber and lean-to chamber (second floor); and a porch, kitchen and hall garrets (third floor). {Drawing from Smith's Castle website} |
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Sources:
Bodge, George M., Soldiers in King Philip's war; being a critical account of that war, with a concise history of the Indian wars of New England from 1620-1677, official lists of the soldiers of Massachusetts colony serving in Philip's war, and sketches of the principal officers, copies of ancient documents and records relating to the war, also lists of the Narragansett grantees of the United colonies, Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut; with an appendix. (Leominster, Mass., Printed for the author, 1891)
Drake, Samuel G., History and Antiquities of Boston, the Capitol of Massachusetts and the Metropolis of New England, From Its Settlement in 1630, to the Year 1770. Also, An Introductory History to the Discovery and Settlement of New England. (Boston: Luther Stevens, 1856)
Smith's Castle information taken from the website; accessed 22 Jan. 2012 at http://www.smithscastle.org/.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
King Philip's War
King Philip's War--sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War or Metacom's Rebellion--was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war continued in northern New England (primarily on the Maine frontier) after King Philip was killed until a treaty was signed at Casco Bay {ME} in April 1678. The war was named after the main leader of the Native American side, Metacom or Metacomet, known to the English as King Philip.
The war was the single greatest calamity to occur in 17th-century Puritan New England. In little over a year, 12 of the region's towns were destroyed and many more damaged, its economy was all but ruined, and much of its population was killed, including one-tenth of all men available for military service. Proportionately, it was one of the bloodiest and costliest wars in the history of North America. More than half of New England's towns were assaulted by Native American warriors.
Prior to King Philip's War, tensions fluctuated between different groups of Native Americans and the colonists, but relations were generally peaceful. As the colonists' small population of a few thousand grew larger over time and the number of their towns increased, the Wampanoag, Nipmuck, Narragansett, Mohegan, Pequot and other small tribes were each treated individually (many were traditional enemies of each other) by the English colonial officials of Rhode Island, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and the New Haven colony. As their population increased, the New Englanders continued to expand their settlements along the region's coastal plain and up the Connecticut River valley. By 1675, they had even established a few small towns in the interior between Boston and the Connecticut River settlements.
Metacom became Sachem of the Pokanoket and Grand Sachem of the Wampanoag Confederacy after the death in 1662 of his older brother, the Grand Sachem Wamsutta. Well known to the English before becoming the Wampanoags' paramount chief, Metacom distrusted the colonists. Wamsutta had been visiting the Marshfield home of Josiah Winslow, the then governor of Plymouth Colony, for peaceful negotiations when he suddenly collapsed and died just after leaving the town.
Metacom had begun negotiating with other Native American tribes against the interests of the Plymouth Colony soon after the deaths of his father Massasoit, the Plymouth colony's greatest ally, and his brother Wamsutta. For almost half a century after the colonists' arrival, Massasoit had maintained an uneasy alliance with the English as a source of desired trade goods and a counter-weight to traditional enemies.
Massasoit's price was colonial incursion into Wampanoag territory as well as English political interference. Maintaining good relations with the English became increasingly difficult, as the English colonists continued pressuring the Indians for permission to buy land for new towns.
The death of John Sassamon--a Native American Christian convert (a so-called Praying Indian) and early Harvard graduate, translator and adviser to Metacom--contributed to the outbreak of the war. Sassamon had spread a rumor to Plymouth Colony officials alleging King Philip's attempts to arrange Native American attacks on widely dispersed colonial settlements.
King Philip was brought before a public court to answer to the rumors but was released after the court admitted it had no proof. However, the court warned him that any other rumors—baseless or otherwise—would be rewarded with further confiscations of Wampanoag land and guns. Not long after, Sassamon was murdered; his body was found in an ice-covered pond, allegedly killed by a few Wampanoag, angry at his betrayal.
On the testimony of a Native American witness, the Plymouth Colony officials arrested three Wampanoag, including one of Metacom's counselors. A jury, among whom were some Indian members, convicted the men of Sassamon's murder; they were hanged on 18 June 1675 at Plymouth. Some Wampanoag believed that both the trial and the court's sentence infringed on their sovereignty.
On 30 June 1675, a band of Pokanoket, possibly without Philip's approval, attacked several isolated homesteads in the small Plymouth colony settlement of Swansea. Laying siege to the town, they destroyed it five days later and killed several inhabitants and others coming to their aid. Officials from Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony responded quickly to the attacks on Swansea; they sent a punitive military expedition that destroyed the Wampanoag town at Mount Hope (modern Bristol, RI). On 7 July 1675, there was a full eclipse of the moon in the New England area that various Native American tribes viewed as a good omen for attacking the colonists.
After that, the war quickly spread. During the summer of 1675, the Native Americans attacked at Middleborough and Dartmouth (8 July), Mendon (14 July), Brookfield (2 Aug.), and Lancaster (9 Aug.). In early September, they attacked Deerfield, Hadley and Northfield.
The New England Confederation--comprising the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, New Haven Colony and Connecticut Colony--declared war on the Native Americans on 9 Sept. 1675. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations tried to remain mostly neutral, but they were dragged inexorably into the conflict. The next colonial expedition was to recover crops from abandoned fields along the Connecticut River for the coming winter and included almost 100 farmers/militia plus teamsters to drive the wagons. They were ambushed, with about 50 colonists being killed, in the Battle of Bloody Brook (near Hadley) on 8 Sept. 1675.
The next attack was organized 5 Oct. 1675 on the Connecticut River's largest settlement at the time, Springfield, MA. During the attack, nearly all of Springfield's buildings were burned to the ground, including the town's grist mill. Most of the Springfielders who escaped unharmed took cover at Capt. Miles Morgan's house, a resident who had constructed one of Springfield's only fortified blockhouses. An Indian servant who worked for Morgan managed to escape and later alerted the Massachusetts Bay troops under the command of Maj. Samuel Appleton, who broke through to Springfield and drove off the attackers. Morgan's sons were famous Indian fighters in the territory, but the Indians had killed his son Peletiah in a battle during that same year.
On 2 Nov. 1675, Plymouth Colony Gov. Josiah Winslow led a combined force of colonial militia against the Narragansett tribe. While the Narragansett had not been directly involved in the war, they had sheltered many of the Wampanoag women and children. Several of their warriors were reported in several Indian raiding parties. The colonists distrusted the tribe and did not understand the various alliances. As the colonial forces went through Rhode Island, they found and burned several Indian towns which had been abandoned by the Narragansett, who had retreated to a massive fort in a frozen swamp.
The cold weather in December had frozen the swamp so it was relatively easy to traverse. Led by an Indian guide, on a very cold Sunday, 19 Dec. 1675, the colonial force found the Narragansett fort near present-day South Kingston, RI. A combined force of Plymouth, Massachusetts and Connecticut militia numbering about 1,000 men--including about 150 Pequots and Mohegan Indian allies--attacked the Indian fort. The fierce battle that followed is known as the Great Swamp Fight. It is believed that the militia killed about 300 Narragansett (exact figures are unavailable). The militia then burned the fort (which occupied over five acres of land), destroying most of the tribe's winter stores.
Most of the Narragansett warriors and their families escaped into the frozen swamp. Facing a winter with little food and shelter, the entire surviving Narragansett tribe was forced out of quasi-neutrality and joined the fight. The colonists lost many of their officers in this assault: about 70 of their men were killed and nearly 150 more wounded. Lacking supplies for an extended campaign, the rest of the colonial assembled forces returned to their homes. The nearby towns in Rhode Island provided care for the wounded until they could return to their homes.
Throughout the winter of 1675–76, Native Americans attacked and destroyed more frontier settlements in their effort to expel the English colonists. Attacks were made at Andover, Bridgewater, Chelmsford, Groton, Lancaster, Marlborough, Medfield, Medford, Millis, Portland, Providence, Rehoboth, Scituate, Seekonk, Simsbury, Sudbury, Suffield, Warwick, Weymouth and Wrentham, including what is modern-day Plainville.
The spring of 1676 marked the high point for the combined tribes when, on March 12, they attacked Plymouth Plantation. Though the town withstood the assault, the natives had demonstrated their ability to penetrate deep into colonial territory. The natives burned the abandoned capital of Providence to the ground on 29 March. At the same time, a small band of Native Americans infiltrated and burned part of Springfield while the militia was away.
However, the tide of war slowly began to turn in the colonists' favor later in the spring of 1676, as it became a war of attrition; both sides were determined to eliminate the other. The Native Americans had succeeded in driving the colonists back into their larger towns, but the Indians' supplies, particularly in powder and lead, nearly always sufficient for only a season or so, were running out. On the other hand, the New England colonists used their own or adjacent towns' supplies and were re-supplied by sea from wherever they could buy additional supplies. The Indians had no such resources.
By April 1676, the Narragansett were defeated and their chief Canonchet was killed. On 18 May 1676, Capt. William Turner of the Massachusetts Militia and a group of about 150 militia volunteers (mostly minimally trained farmers) attacked a large fishing camp of Native Americans at Peskeompscut on the Connecticut River (now called Turners Falls, MA). The colonists claimed they killed 100–200 Native Americans in retaliation for earlier Indian attacks against Deerfield and other settlements and the colonial losses in the Battle of Bloody Brook. Turner and nearly 40 of the militia were killed during the return from the falls.
With the help of their long-time allies the Mohegans, the colonists defeated an attack at Hadley on 12 June 1676 and scattered most of the Indian survivors into New Hampshire and points farther north. Later that month, a force of 250 Native Americans was routed near Marlborough, MA. Other forces, often a combined force of colonial volunteers and their Indian allies, continued to attack, kill, capture or disperse various Native American bands as they tried to plant crops or return to their traditional locations. The colonists granted amnesty to Native Americans from the tribes who surrendered or were captured and showed they had not participated in the conflict. The captured Indian participants whom they knew had participated in attacks on the many settlements were either hanged or shipped off to slavery in Bermuda.
Philip's allies began to desert him. By early July, over 400 had surrendered to the colonists and Philip himself took refuge in the Assowamset Swamp, close to where the war had started. Often a combined force of colonial volunteers and their Indian allies, the settlers formed raiding parties. They were allowed to keep the possessions of warring Indians and received a bounty on all captives.
Philip was ultimately killed by one of these teams when he was tracked down by colony-allied Native Americans. Led by Capt. Benjamin Church--considered to be the father of the American Rangers--and Capt. Josiah Standish of the Plymouth Colony militia at Mt. Hope, RI, they found the war leader. Philip was shot and killed by an Indian named John Alderman on 12 Aug. 1676. Philip was beheaded, then drawn and quartered (a traditional treatment of criminals in this era). His head was displayed in Plymouth for 20 years.
Sources:
America’s Guardian Myths, op-ed by Susan Faludi, 7 Sept. 2007. New York Times. Accessed 7 Sept. 2007.
"Battle of Bloody Brook", Connecticut River Homepage, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1997
Gould, Philip, "Reinventing Benjamin Church: Virtue, Citizenship and the History of King Philip's War in Early National America." Journal of the Early Republic, No. 16, Winter 1996. p. 647.
Leach, Douglas Edward, Flintlock and Tomahawk, (East Orleans, MA: Parnassus Imprints; 1954) p. 46.
Moon Eclipse calculation. Accessed 22 Dec. 2011
Norton, Mary Beth, In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 (New York: Vintage Books, 2003)
Osgood, Herbert L. Herbert L., The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century (1904) 1: 543
Phelps, Noah Amherst (1845). History of Simsbury, Granby, and Canton; from 1642 To 1845. (Hartford: Press of Case, Tiffany and Burnham.)
Schultz, Eric B.; Michael J. Touglas, King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict. (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2000) p. 5.
The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut – 1675 King Philip's War
 |
| Sketch of King Philip by Paul Revere in 1772 |
The war was the single greatest calamity to occur in 17th-century Puritan New England. In little over a year, 12 of the region's towns were destroyed and many more damaged, its economy was all but ruined, and much of its population was killed, including one-tenth of all men available for military service. Proportionately, it was one of the bloodiest and costliest wars in the history of North America. More than half of New England's towns were assaulted by Native American warriors.
Prior to King Philip's War, tensions fluctuated between different groups of Native Americans and the colonists, but relations were generally peaceful. As the colonists' small population of a few thousand grew larger over time and the number of their towns increased, the Wampanoag, Nipmuck, Narragansett, Mohegan, Pequot and other small tribes were each treated individually (many were traditional enemies of each other) by the English colonial officials of Rhode Island, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and the New Haven colony. As their population increased, the New Englanders continued to expand their settlements along the region's coastal plain and up the Connecticut River valley. By 1675, they had even established a few small towns in the interior between Boston and the Connecticut River settlements.
 |
| Colonists--always wanting for more land--expanded into the Native American tribes' territory. |
Metacom became Sachem of the Pokanoket and Grand Sachem of the Wampanoag Confederacy after the death in 1662 of his older brother, the Grand Sachem Wamsutta. Well known to the English before becoming the Wampanoags' paramount chief, Metacom distrusted the colonists. Wamsutta had been visiting the Marshfield home of Josiah Winslow, the then governor of Plymouth Colony, for peaceful negotiations when he suddenly collapsed and died just after leaving the town.
Metacom had begun negotiating with other Native American tribes against the interests of the Plymouth Colony soon after the deaths of his father Massasoit, the Plymouth colony's greatest ally, and his brother Wamsutta. For almost half a century after the colonists' arrival, Massasoit had maintained an uneasy alliance with the English as a source of desired trade goods and a counter-weight to traditional enemies.
Massasoit's price was colonial incursion into Wampanoag territory as well as English political interference. Maintaining good relations with the English became increasingly difficult, as the English colonists continued pressuring the Indians for permission to buy land for new towns.
The death of John Sassamon--a Native American Christian convert (a so-called Praying Indian) and early Harvard graduate, translator and adviser to Metacom--contributed to the outbreak of the war. Sassamon had spread a rumor to Plymouth Colony officials alleging King Philip's attempts to arrange Native American attacks on widely dispersed colonial settlements.
King Philip was brought before a public court to answer to the rumors but was released after the court admitted it had no proof. However, the court warned him that any other rumors—baseless or otherwise—would be rewarded with further confiscations of Wampanoag land and guns. Not long after, Sassamon was murdered; his body was found in an ice-covered pond, allegedly killed by a few Wampanoag, angry at his betrayal.
On the testimony of a Native American witness, the Plymouth Colony officials arrested three Wampanoag, including one of Metacom's counselors. A jury, among whom were some Indian members, convicted the men of Sassamon's murder; they were hanged on 18 June 1675 at Plymouth. Some Wampanoag believed that both the trial and the court's sentence infringed on their sovereignty.
On 30 June 1675, a band of Pokanoket, possibly without Philip's approval, attacked several isolated homesteads in the small Plymouth colony settlement of Swansea. Laying siege to the town, they destroyed it five days later and killed several inhabitants and others coming to their aid. Officials from Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony responded quickly to the attacks on Swansea; they sent a punitive military expedition that destroyed the Wampanoag town at Mount Hope (modern Bristol, RI). On 7 July 1675, there was a full eclipse of the moon in the New England area that various Native American tribes viewed as a good omen for attacking the colonists.
 |
| Indians attacking a Garrison |
After that, the war quickly spread. During the summer of 1675, the Native Americans attacked at Middleborough and Dartmouth (8 July), Mendon (14 July), Brookfield (2 Aug.), and Lancaster (9 Aug.). In early September, they attacked Deerfield, Hadley and Northfield.
The New England Confederation--comprising the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, New Haven Colony and Connecticut Colony--declared war on the Native Americans on 9 Sept. 1675. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations tried to remain mostly neutral, but they were dragged inexorably into the conflict. The next colonial expedition was to recover crops from abandoned fields along the Connecticut River for the coming winter and included almost 100 farmers/militia plus teamsters to drive the wagons. They were ambushed, with about 50 colonists being killed, in the Battle of Bloody Brook (near Hadley) on 8 Sept. 1675.
 |
| Battle of Bloody Brook |
The next attack was organized 5 Oct. 1675 on the Connecticut River's largest settlement at the time, Springfield, MA. During the attack, nearly all of Springfield's buildings were burned to the ground, including the town's grist mill. Most of the Springfielders who escaped unharmed took cover at Capt. Miles Morgan's house, a resident who had constructed one of Springfield's only fortified blockhouses. An Indian servant who worked for Morgan managed to escape and later alerted the Massachusetts Bay troops under the command of Maj. Samuel Appleton, who broke through to Springfield and drove off the attackers. Morgan's sons were famous Indian fighters in the territory, but the Indians had killed his son Peletiah in a battle during that same year.
On 2 Nov. 1675, Plymouth Colony Gov. Josiah Winslow led a combined force of colonial militia against the Narragansett tribe. While the Narragansett had not been directly involved in the war, they had sheltered many of the Wampanoag women and children. Several of their warriors were reported in several Indian raiding parties. The colonists distrusted the tribe and did not understand the various alliances. As the colonial forces went through Rhode Island, they found and burned several Indian towns which had been abandoned by the Narragansett, who had retreated to a massive fort in a frozen swamp.
The cold weather in December had frozen the swamp so it was relatively easy to traverse. Led by an Indian guide, on a very cold Sunday, 19 Dec. 1675, the colonial force found the Narragansett fort near present-day South Kingston, RI. A combined force of Plymouth, Massachusetts and Connecticut militia numbering about 1,000 men--including about 150 Pequots and Mohegan Indian allies--attacked the Indian fort. The fierce battle that followed is known as the Great Swamp Fight. It is believed that the militia killed about 300 Narragansett (exact figures are unavailable). The militia then burned the fort (which occupied over five acres of land), destroying most of the tribe's winter stores.
 |
| Great Swamp Fight, December 1675 |
Most of the Narragansett warriors and their families escaped into the frozen swamp. Facing a winter with little food and shelter, the entire surviving Narragansett tribe was forced out of quasi-neutrality and joined the fight. The colonists lost many of their officers in this assault: about 70 of their men were killed and nearly 150 more wounded. Lacking supplies for an extended campaign, the rest of the colonial assembled forces returned to their homes. The nearby towns in Rhode Island provided care for the wounded until they could return to their homes.
Throughout the winter of 1675–76, Native Americans attacked and destroyed more frontier settlements in their effort to expel the English colonists. Attacks were made at Andover, Bridgewater, Chelmsford, Groton, Lancaster, Marlborough, Medfield, Medford, Millis, Portland, Providence, Rehoboth, Scituate, Seekonk, Simsbury, Sudbury, Suffield, Warwick, Weymouth and Wrentham, including what is modern-day Plainville.
The spring of 1676 marked the high point for the combined tribes when, on March 12, they attacked Plymouth Plantation. Though the town withstood the assault, the natives had demonstrated their ability to penetrate deep into colonial territory. The natives burned the abandoned capital of Providence to the ground on 29 March. At the same time, a small band of Native Americans infiltrated and burned part of Springfield while the militia was away.
 |
| Reprisals followed swiftly after Native Americans attacked Massachusetts towns. |
However, the tide of war slowly began to turn in the colonists' favor later in the spring of 1676, as it became a war of attrition; both sides were determined to eliminate the other. The Native Americans had succeeded in driving the colonists back into their larger towns, but the Indians' supplies, particularly in powder and lead, nearly always sufficient for only a season or so, were running out. On the other hand, the New England colonists used their own or adjacent towns' supplies and were re-supplied by sea from wherever they could buy additional supplies. The Indians had no such resources.
By April 1676, the Narragansett were defeated and their chief Canonchet was killed. On 18 May 1676, Capt. William Turner of the Massachusetts Militia and a group of about 150 militia volunteers (mostly minimally trained farmers) attacked a large fishing camp of Native Americans at Peskeompscut on the Connecticut River (now called Turners Falls, MA). The colonists claimed they killed 100–200 Native Americans in retaliation for earlier Indian attacks against Deerfield and other settlements and the colonial losses in the Battle of Bloody Brook. Turner and nearly 40 of the militia were killed during the return from the falls.
 |
| The actual battle site of Turners Falls is submerged today under an impoundment lake. |
With the help of their long-time allies the Mohegans, the colonists defeated an attack at Hadley on 12 June 1676 and scattered most of the Indian survivors into New Hampshire and points farther north. Later that month, a force of 250 Native Americans was routed near Marlborough, MA. Other forces, often a combined force of colonial volunteers and their Indian allies, continued to attack, kill, capture or disperse various Native American bands as they tried to plant crops or return to their traditional locations. The colonists granted amnesty to Native Americans from the tribes who surrendered or were captured and showed they had not participated in the conflict. The captured Indian participants whom they knew had participated in attacks on the many settlements were either hanged or shipped off to slavery in Bermuda.
 |
| Called the Father of American Rangers, Capt. Benjamin Church pioneered techniques learned from the Indians to hunt the Indians. |
Philip's allies began to desert him. By early July, over 400 had surrendered to the colonists and Philip himself took refuge in the Assowamset Swamp, close to where the war had started. Often a combined force of colonial volunteers and their Indian allies, the settlers formed raiding parties. They were allowed to keep the possessions of warring Indians and received a bounty on all captives.
Philip was ultimately killed by one of these teams when he was tracked down by colony-allied Native Americans. Led by Capt. Benjamin Church--considered to be the father of the American Rangers--and Capt. Josiah Standish of the Plymouth Colony militia at Mt. Hope, RI, they found the war leader. Philip was shot and killed by an Indian named John Alderman on 12 Aug. 1676. Philip was beheaded, then drawn and quartered (a traditional treatment of criminals in this era). His head was displayed in Plymouth for 20 years.
 |
| Death of Metacomet, King Philip |
-----
Sources:
America’s Guardian Myths, op-ed by Susan Faludi, 7 Sept. 2007. New York Times. Accessed 7 Sept. 2007.
"Battle of Bloody Brook", Connecticut River Homepage, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1997
Gould, Philip, "Reinventing Benjamin Church: Virtue, Citizenship and the History of King Philip's War in Early National America." Journal of the Early Republic, No. 16, Winter 1996. p. 647.
Leach, Douglas Edward, Flintlock and Tomahawk, (East Orleans, MA: Parnassus Imprints; 1954) p. 46.
Moon Eclipse calculation. Accessed 22 Dec. 2011
Norton, Mary Beth, In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 (New York: Vintage Books, 2003)
Osgood, Herbert L. Herbert L., The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century (1904) 1: 543
Phelps, Noah Amherst (1845). History of Simsbury, Granby, and Canton; from 1642 To 1845. (Hartford: Press of Case, Tiffany and Burnham.)
Schultz, Eric B.; Michael J. Touglas, King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict. (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2000) p. 5.
The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut – 1675 King Philip's War
Friday, December 2, 2011
Some Early Connecticut Marriages
The following list is taken from Early Connecticut Marriages: Third Book, recorded at Lyme, CT, of marriages at the New Haven Second Church.
[p. 132]
(By Mr. G. Beckwith)
Jasper Peck & Sarah Clark, Nov. 25, 1731
William Clark & Hannah Peck, Nov. 30, 1731
Rev. Jonathan Parsons & Phebe Griswold, Dec. 14, 1731
(By Rev. George Griswold)
(By Mr. G. Beckwith)
Jasper Peck & Sarah Clark, Nov. 25, 1731
William Clark & Hannah Peck, Nov. 30, 1731
Rev. Jonathan Parsons & Phebe Griswold, Dec. 14, 1731
(By Rev. George Griswold)
Abithai Bingham of Windham & Mary Tubbs, Dec. 28, 1731
Philip Beckwith & Abigail Harvey, Feb. 17, 1732
Soloman Gee & Deborah Huntley, March 29, 1732
Reynold Beckwith & Martha Marvin, April 4, 1732
Matthew Marvin & Mary Beckwith, April 20, 1732
Benjamin Huntly & Lydia Beckwith, April 28, 1732
[p.133]
Joseph Alger & Mary Huntly, April 28, 1732
John Robbins & Ruth Alger, Nov. 2, 1732
John Robbins & Ruth Alger, Nov. 2, 1732
John Noyes & Mary Hudson, Dec. 14, 1732
Elisha Wright of New London & Elizabeth Lester, April 3, 1733
Richard Waite & Elizabeth Marvin, Nov. 8, 1733
Jonathan Reid & Elizabeth Smith, March 14, 1734
John Sears & Elizabeth Watrous, Jane 13, 1734
Samuel Court & Abigail Marven, Nov. 7, 1734
Joseph Harvard of Branford & Elizabeth Pinnuck, Dec. 10, 1734
Isaac Dunham of Hebron & Elizabeth Watrous, Feb. 9, 1735
Joseph Lay & Mercy Deming, Feb. 6, 1735
Thomas Baker & widow Hannah Huntley, March 6, 1735
Jonathan Beebe of New London & Hannah Lewis, March 18, 1735
John Petty & Martha Cogsel, April 24, 1735
Robert Ames of New London & Deborah Brockway, May 15, 1735
Samuel Lord & Catharine Ransom, June 26, 1735
Nathaniel Clark, Jr., & Lydia Peck, July 10, 1735
Joseph Tubbs & Luce Robbins, Jan. 14, 1736
Timothy Mather & Sarah Lay, Feb. 12, 1736
William Ely & widow Mary Noyes, Feb. 19, 1736
John Peck & Catharine Lay, March 4, 1736
Robert Miller Martha April 29, 1736
Rev. George Griswold & Elizabeth Lee, July 20, 1736
Simon Tubbs & Sarah Wait, Dec. 7, 1736
John Lay, 3d, & Hannah Lee, Jan. 27, 1737
John Hazen & Deborah Peck, March 10, 1737
James Marvin & Ruth Mather, May 25, 1737
Thomas Taylor of Maryland & Esther Robbins, Oct. 6, 1737
Uriah Roland & Lydia Lee, Oct. 14, 1737
Jesse Minor of New London & Jane Watrous, Nov. 3, 1737
Nathaniel Beckwith & Jane Brockway, Oct. 26, 1738
Nathan Grisbie of Branford & Elizabeth Wade, Dec. 12, 1738
John Adget & Abigail Graves, Jan. 18, 1739
Robert Lay & Lydia Tinker, Feb. 1, 1739
Samuel Beckwith of Norwich & Miriam Marvin, Feb. 1, 1739
Elisha Marvin & Catharine Mather, May 17, 1739
[p.134]
Benjamin Hyde & Abigail Lee, May 1, 1740
Benoni Hillard & Martha Lord, July 6, 1740
Ezra Lee & Rebekah Southworth, Oct. 9, 1740
Benaiah Bushhal of Norwich & Hannah Griswold, Nov. 5, 1740
Ensign Isaac Watrous & widow Mary Lee, Dec. 23, 1740
Samuel Waller & Elizabeth Brockway, Nov. 5, 1740
John Anderson & Elizabeth Minor, Feb. 12, 1741
Eleazar Clarke of Lyme & Sarah Clarke of Nantucket, Oct. 10, 1741
Eleazar Mather & Ann Watrous, Nov. 5, 1741
Jonathan Smith & Jane Lewis, Nov. 10, 1741
Gershom Gardner & Susannah Smith, Dec. 10, 1741
Amos Tinker & Hannah Minor, June 6, 1742
George Dorr & Sarah Marvin, March 16, 1742
John Scovill & Sarah Alger, Nov. 3, 1742
Benjamin Marvin & Deborah Mather, Nov. 11, 1742
David Huntley & Mary Tinker, Dec. 2, 1742
Stephen Beckwith & Jerusha Watrous, Dec. 16, 1742
David Peck & Abigail Southworth, June 16, 1743
Benjamin Niles & Lure Sill, June 30, 1743
Stephen Champion & Abigail Broos (?), July 11, 1743
Joseph Waite & Margaret Beckwith, Aug. 10, 1743
Nathaniel Peck & Lure Mather, May 24, 1744
Andrew Sill & Phebe Mather, June 29, 1744
Stephen Lee, Jr, & Mehetable Marvin, Sept. 25, 1744
Elijah Lothrop of Norwich & Susannah Lord, Jan. 23, 1745
Simon & -----, Jan. 31, 1745
John Mather & Mercy Higgins, June 13, 1745
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