The public records of the Colony of Connecticut ..

1850·22.6 MB·English

by  Connecticut

»*»"»» » »'^ » 9 o
Please
handle this volume
with care.
TheUniversityofConnecticut
Libraries, Storrs
DOtb NOTCiRCULATE
3 1153 DD2M1MMD 1
DOES NOT CIRCULATE
>-;-.
L/UNoJLATE
DOLc::) iNUi

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive
in 2009 witii funding from
Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries
Iittp://www.arcliive.org/details/publicrecordsofc001conn

F
VjOV\AP--^^-''^-''^*-*^'' '
THE
PUBLIC EECORDS
.V.I
COLONY OF CONNECTICUT,
PRIOR TO THE UNION WITH NEW HAVEN COLONY,
MAY, 16C5;
TRANSCRIBED AND PUBLISHED, (iN ACCORDANCE WITH A RESOLUTION
OF THE GENERAL ASSEBIBLY,) UNDER THE SUPERVISION
OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE,
WITH OCCASIONAL NOTES, AND AN APPENDIX
;
'^•^k-x-y.^^.^^^
By J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL,
COR. EEC. CONX. HIST. SOCIETY; COR. AI£MB. JT.YORKHIST,SOCIETY, ETC
HARTFORD:
BROWN & PARSONS.
1850.
DOEsS NOT CIRCULATE
Ata GeneralAssemblyofthe Stateof Connecticut, holdenat Hartford,in
said State, on thefirst WednesdayofMay, intheyearofourLord, one
thousandeighthundredandforty-nine:
Resolved, ThattheSecretaryofStatebeauthorizedtopurchasefortheuse oftheState,two
hundredandfiftycopiesof apublicationof the Public RecordsoftheColonyofConnecticut,
priortotheunionwith NewHavencolony, under the Charterof 1662. Provided,thatsuch
publicationshallbemade withtheapproval,and under the supervisionof theSecretary,and
shallbeauthenticatedbyhisofficialcertificateasatrueandliteralcopyoftheoriginalrecord
;
andprovidedalso,thattheexpenseofthe sameshallnotexceedtwodollars percopy;andthat
theliteralcopyoftheoriginalrecord, abovespecified,bedepositedwiththeSecretaryofState,
fortheuseoftheState.
Resolved, TliatthecopiessopurchasedbedistributedbytheSecretary,asfollows; onecopy
tothetownclerkofeachtowninthisState,tobepreservedinhisoffice,fortheuseofthetown
;
onecopytotheGovernorandtoeachoftheStateOfficersofthisState; onecopytotheGov-
ernorofeachofthe severalstates andterritories, oftheUnitedStates; onecopytothelibrary
ofCongress; andtheremainderofsaidtwohundredandfifiycopies,tobedepositedintheoffice
oftheSecretaryofState,subjecttothedisposaloftheGeneralAssembly.
PRESS OF
CASE, TIFFANY & CO.,
HARTFORD, CONN.
PREFACE.
The early annals of a State require no formal introduction to
the descendantsofits founders. Ifthetranscriberhavewell accom-
plished the task which a love of the olden time impelled him to
undertake, and which the liberality of the Legislature supplied, in
part, the meansofprosecuting, no doubtcan exist as tothe favorable
reception ofthe volumenow presented to the citizensofConnecticut.
The value which may attach to it must, of course, mainly depend
upon the degree ofconfidenceentertained inits accuracyas a ' true,
full and literal copy of the original Record.' The professions or
assurances of the transcriber, could do little to impart such confi-
dence nor could they give additional weight to the certificate of
;
official authentication, or to such internalevidence of reliability as,
it is hoped, a careful perusal ofthevolume may supply.
A notice ofthe condition and arrangement ofthe original records,
and ofthe plan adopted by the transcriber in the construction ofthis
work, may not, however, be deemed inappropriate.
Thefirst volume of the Colony Records is in three parts, origin-
ally bound in as manyseparate volumes. Thefirstofthese consists
ofthe records of the General and Particular Courts, commencing
with the session held at Newtown, (Hartford,) April 26th, 1636,
(by the magistrates commissioned by Massachusetts, to ' govern the
people at Connecticut,'*) and closing with the December session of
the Court of Magistrates, 1649. Next following, (separated by a
few blank pages from the Court Records,) are the records of Wills
*Thecommission "toseveral!persons, togovernthepeople at Connecticuttforthe space
ofayear[then]nextcoming,"wasgranted bytlieGeneralCourt of Massachusetts,March3d,
—
1635(6,) afterconsultation withJohnWinthrop, then lately "appointedgovernor bycertain
noblepersonagesand menofquality,interestedinthe saidRiver,whichareyet inEngland."
Thecommissioners namedwereRogerLudlowEsq.,WilliamPincheonEsq.,JohnSteele, Wil-
liam Swaine,HenrySmith, WilliamPhelps,William Westwood andAndrewWard. Seethe
commission,atlength,inHazard'sStatePapers,Vol. 1,p. 321.
—
PREFACE.
IV
and Inventories. The remainderofthe volume contains Grants and
Conveyances ofLands,by towns and individuals, some ofwhich are
ofas recent date as 1702 ; the greater part, however, having been
transcribed from the several town records, between 1662 and 1690.
These have not been included in the present publication, the propo-
sed limits of which would not admit of their insertion, and the
omissionbeing regarded ofthe less importance, as copies of most of
them are to be found elsewhere, and as the interest which attaches
to them is mainly local or personal. Six pages of recognizances
and bonds for prosecution, of various years, entered at the begin-
ning of the volume, preceding the first page of the Court records,
have likewise been omitted, in publication.
The second volume containsthe records ofthe General Courtfrom
—
February, 1650, to October, 1669; and at the other end ofthe
book, separately paged, is recorded the Code of1650, with such ad-
ditional orders 'ofgeneral concernment,' as were,fromtime to time,
passed by the General Court.
The second volume of the records of the Particular Court, or
Court of Magistrates, comprising a period of about thirteen years,
(from January, 1650, to June, 1663,) and including the Probate
Records, long since disappeared from the Secretary's Office, and is
supposed to be irrecoverably lost. The third volume, commencing
June, 1663, and containing, at one end, such Wills and Inventories
as were brought for record between that date and Sept. 1677, was,
some years since, rebound, and lettered, " Probate Records, Vol.
III. County Court."
In transcribing the first volume for the press, occasional changes
of its arrangement have been deemed advisable, for the purpose of
facilitatingreference, and to preserve chronological sequence. Thus,
the Constitution of 1639, has been transposed from the end of the
volume,to its properplace, precedingthe record ofthe AprilCourt:*
the wills and inventories recorded prior to 1644, have been brought
together, at the end of the Court Records, and placed with others
subsequently recorded the records of such sessions of the Court
:f
as were entered by the Secretary after others of subsequent date,
have been restoredto their proper order. These, with other similar
changes, have been made with less hesitation, fromthe fact that the
paging ofthe original hasbeen carefully retained, at the sideofeach
printed page.
Pages20-26. tSeenote,onpage442.