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Wadsworth; Or, the Charter

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Wadsworth; Or, the Charter THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF WADSWORTH OR The Charter Oak BY W. H. GOCHER 'The traditions of a nation are part of its existence." 'Disraeli HARTFORD, CONN. Published by W. H. GOCHER 1904 Copyright, 1904 by William Henry Gocher. PRESS OF WINN k JUDSON CLEVELAND F ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Wyllys Mansion and The Charter Oak. Frontispiece The Wadsworth Inn 41 Wadsworths from 1595 to 1904 53 Oliver Cromwell 75 The Charter Oak in 1830 109 Hugh Peters 187 William Pendrell 143 The Royal Oak of Boscobel 151 Jane Lane 159 Charles II 171 John Winthrop 205 Charles II (From the Charter) 217 First . Edward Montague, Earl of Sandwich . 237 Connecticut Governors 259 Sir Edmund Andros 275 The Charter Oak in 1847 291 James II 299 Moses Butler's Tavern 311 The Wadsworth Arms 829 The Charter Oak in 1856 385 Weatogue Brook Falls 845 Imlay's Bridge 361 Imlay's Mill 373 The Last Scene . 387 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION HARTFORD Hartford is an old town as dates run in Amer- ica. The first sod was turned in 1636, sixteen years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth and six years after the Puritans located in the vicinity of what is now known as Boston. On May 31 of that year the members of the Rev. Thomas Hooker's church at Newtown, now known as Cambridge, having disposed of their homes in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, turned their faces towards the Connecticut valley. After a journey of two weeks, which can now be made almost in as many hours, this band of pioneers crossed the Connecticut River and located on the land that was subsequently known as Hartford. So far as can be learned, all of the original pro- prietors of Hartford, as well as those of Windsor and Wethersfield, were born in England and had emigrated on account of their religious views differing from those which were being forced on the people by Charles I. through Laud. Thomas Hooker, the leader of the company, had felt the 12 Wadsworth weight of the latter's displeasure. Being marked as a Non-Conformist, he was in 1629 silenced at Chelmsford and in 1630 forced to sail for Holland to escape a summons to appear before the High Commission Court. The ill-fated Charles Stuart was at the time carrying out the threat which his father made at Hampton Court when he told the Puritan divines that he would make them con- form or he would harry them out of the land, or worse. At the time it sounded like an idle boast, but when they found that King James was de- termined to enforce "one doctrine, one discipline, one religion, in substance and ceremony," many well to do people, as well as artisans and agri- culturalists, who considered their spiritual wel- fare of more moment than their physical com- forts, fled to Holland and later to America. There were no drones among those who gave up home comforts for faith. All of them were workers and thinkers whose minds had absorbed what could be gathered from the few books within the reach of the people at that period and the lectures which the Puritans had established in all of their churches. The Bible, being the most accessible, was read and discussed in every home, and with the awakening of religious lib- erty there came in turn that germ of civil liberty which was destined to blaze forth on the virgin Introduction 13 soil of America. Over a century and a half was to roll by, however, before anyone was bold enough to declare that "all men are created equal," and that mind, not birth, is the foundation of greatness, but the hour was at hand for it to be announced "that the foundation of authority was based upon the consent of the people." That declaration was made in 1638 in Hartford, the cradle of democracy, by Thomas Hooker, and from it and other thoughts leading up to it came the spirit of opposition which eventually led to the severing of the ties that bound the colonies to 1 the mother country. The first settlement in Hartford extended from what is now known as the South Green to Sen- tinel Hill, where Morgan Street leaves Main Street, the majority of the houses being along what is now known as Front, Main and Trumbull Streets, while others followed the banks of the Little River to the foot of Lord's, now known as Asylum Hill. Cut off from communication with the outside world except by trails through the forest or by the river, these English subjects on American soil began to think and act for them- 1 The birthplace of American democracy is Hartford. Government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" first took shape in Connecticut. The American form of commonwealth originated here. Johnson's Connecticut. 14 Wadsworth selves. Untrammeled by the restraints of feudal tenure which still oppressed all of the working plasses in the old country, the founders of Hart- ford, Windsor and Wethersfield devised a system of their own and began to make history, in a humble manner it is true, but on a plan which in time attracted the attention of the world. Without a charter to establish their rights to the land upon which they built their homes or a basis for civil authority, they went to the other extreme and placed the foundation of authority in the people and upon that cornerstone adopted a con- stitution which created a government. 1 Firm in their faith, these men and those who were at a later date associated with them, made self-reliant and assertive by adversity and contentions with the neighboring colonies, at a later date drafted a charter which received royal sanction and under which Connecticut conducted its government 1 It was the first written constitution known to his- tory that created a government. Fiske. The whole constitution was that of an independent state. It continued in force, with very little alteration, a hundred and eight years. Palfry's History of New England. Alone of the thirteen colonies, Connecticut entered into the War of the Revolution with her governor and council at her head under the constitution of her royal charter. Leonard Wolsey Bacon. Introduction 15 until 1818, and many features of which are still reflected in its constitution. 1 Hinman states that there never was any com- munication between the Connecticut colony and the English government from the date of settle- ment until after John Winthrop, Jr., appeared at Whitehall in 1662 and procured the Charter from Charles II. Prior to that time the founders of the three river towns and the others which were established under orders from the General Court based their claims to the soil by purchase from the Indians and an agreement with George Fen- wick, who sold them the Saybrook fort and the land on the river. A promise that Fenwick failed to keep also went with the transfer, but in time it was used not only as a means of recovering a portion of the money spent in the river purchase, but also in pressing the colony's claim for a char- ter at Whitehall, the petition or one of the peti- tions presented by Winthrop to King Charles II being not for a new charter, which might have been weakened by rights already granted by the crown, but for a renewal of the Warwick patent, 1 From this seed sprang the constitution of Connec- ticut, first in the series of written American constitu- * * * tions framed by the people for the people. Nearly two centuries have elapsed * * * but the people of Connecticut have found no reason to deviate from the government established by their fathers. Bancroft's History of United States. 16 Wadsworth then held by Lord Say and Seal, the sole surviv- ing patentee, and who was heartily in sympathy with the proposed measure, although he did not live to see the charter pass the seals. All of this is, or in time will be, set forth in the pages of State histories, a number of changes being made necessary on account of recent discoveries in cor- respondence preserved in the Bodleian library, while considerable space is devoted to the claims of the Dutch and the House of Hope, a trading post which was, according to Smith's History of New York, established in 1623, possibly a typo- graphical error on what is now known as Dutch Point. The members of Hooker's colony ignored the claims of the New Amsterdam traders and sur- rounded their low lying acres on the river front with a thriving colony. The feeling between them was not very friendly and on one or two occasions they came to blows, while Peter Stuy- vesant at a later date travelled from New Am- sterdam (New York) to Hartford to assist his countrymen in retaining their foothold on the Connecticut. Finding that none of his claims would be allowed, the peppery governor returned to Manhattan, leaving the disposal of his coun- trymen's affairs in the hands of two Englishmen. They did not make a very favorable report. The Introduction 17 Dutch were, however, permitted to remain with- in bounds until 1653, when England and Holland were at war. In that year Captain John Under- hill, a soldier of fortune, bearing a commission from the Providence Plantations, marched to Hartford and seized the House of Hope for Eng- land. The General Court of Connecticut then sequestered the Dutch property in Hartford and when peace was declared the traders abandoned the place and returned to New Amsterdam.
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