in the author's possession, was in 1833. No spot in South Windsor is so full of interest as this ancient "God's acre," thick set with the quaint tombstones which mark the last resting places of the fathers and mothers of the town. No one who has spent a leisure moment in bending over these crumbling memorials of departed worth, or who has surveyed the beautiful expanse of scenery which it commands, will ever forget the Old Burial Ground of South Windsor.

The new burying ground, near the present South Windsor Church, was purchased in 1803. And a committee to superintend funerals was first appointed in 1820.

CHAPTER XIV.

WINDSOR, EAST OF THE CONNECTICUT RIVER.-CONTINUED.

The Parish (now the Town) of Ellington.

1717-1768.

The earliest purchase of land in the present town of Ellington, was made in September 1671, by Thomas and Nathaniel Bissell, of one Nearowanocke, a Namerick Indian. It is then described as "without the bounds of Windsor." Shortly after, the town itself became the purchaser of a larger tract, including that bought by the Bissells. And the court at its October session, 1672, upon the application of Messrs. Joseph Fitch, Samuel Marshall and Jacob Drake, in behalf of Windsor, granted that the limits of said town should be extended five miles to the eastward. The bounds of Ancient Windsor, as thus enlarged,

1 See chapter on Indian purchases.

2" Voted, that Nathaniel Bissell's and Thomas Bissell's heirs have 200 acres of land on the north side of the land formerly purchased by the town, and within the purchase of said Bissells of Arowonuck the Indian, provided the said Bissells make over to the town all the right to the purchase made of Arowanuck or Will." Town Acts of Windsor, 1, 102. Time, Dec., 1708.

3" Whereas, Mr. Joseph Fitch, Corporal Samuel Marshall and Jacob Drake, by the appointment of the town of Windsor, September 9th, 1672, moved this Court to grant them some enlargement on the East side the River of Connecticut, by reason of a purchase they have made of the Indians, they having an eye that in convenient time it will be fit for a plantation: This court upon the said motion, for the encouragement of such as shall plant

extended east to the road as it now runs from Jesse Meacham's by Mr. Oliver W. Steel's. South of the latter it passed on the side-hill east of that road as it now runs to Vernon. That part of Ellington east of this, known as "the Equivalent," was subsequently granted to the town of Windsor, as indemnity for certain lands of which they had been deprived in the settlement of the boundaries between Connecticut and Massachusetts. The following summary of its history is gleaned from papers in the State Archives.

1715, Sept. The petition of Windsor, by their selectmen, stated that, by a recent arrangement of the bounding line with Massachusetts, several thousand acres had been taken from that town and annexed to the other colony; that the assembly had agreed that a suitable equivalent, in public lands elsewhere, should be rendered to Windsor; they therefore requested the assembly forthwith to assign them an equivalent in some place convenient for the town and with due allowance for the distance. They feelingly reminded the assembly of the extra hardships and expenses they had borne by being a frontier town; followed by the grievance of having such a quantity of land, purchased many years previously by that "ancient town," "taken out of the bosom of the Town, and forced" to receive an indemnity" in a remote place." The petition was signed by John Elliot, Israel Stoughton, Nathaniel Loomis, Jonathan Ellsworth and Henry Wolcott. It was granted in the upper house and negatived in the lower. A committee of conference was appointed, but no result appears on the record.

1716, May. Matthew Allyn and Roger Wolcott, agents for Windsor, in a petition reminded the assembly of the loss to that town of seven thousand two hundred and fifty-nine acres of land by the settlement of the north line of the colony, and requested the appointment of a committee to lay out an equivalent from the public lands. "We beg leave to express our concernment to see this ancient town, which has cheerfully borne her part in the charge of this colony from the infancy thereof, a particular instance in thus suffering so great a loss which we could not have expected from this assembly."

there, grant the bounds of Windsor shall extend eastward 5 miles from their former bounds, provided all former grants made of any parts of those lands, are excepted in this Grant." Trumbull's Col. Rec., 11, 185. A copy of this record among the papers in the State Archives, was endorsed by the person who arranged them, a few years ago, as relative to Tolland. It undoubtedly, however, refers to Ellington, and the north part of Vernon, which last was also a part of the ancient town of Windsor.

This memorial was accompanied with the affidavit of Thomas Stoughton, who testified that in about 1702, Caleb Stanley, county surveyor, was employed by Windsor to ascertain the east bounds of the town; "who began at the Great River and measured eastwardly eight miles, which eight miles extended half a mile east of the marsh known by the name of the Great Marsh;" also a statement from Wm. Thompson, New Haven county surveyor, who, under the employment of Mathew Allyn and Roger Wolcott, had ascertained that six thousand two hundred and forty acres from Windsor had been assigned to Enfield; and one thousand and nineteen to Suffield-in all seven thousand two hundred and fifty-nine.

Upon this application the assembly appointed Joseph Talcott, Esq., and Mr. Thomas Kimberly, to survey and set to Windsor, as an equivalent to the lands taken from that, a tract "lying between the towns of Windsor and Tolland, north of the claim of Joshua's legatees; and if in that place there shall not be found land sufficient to make the equivalent (consideration being had to the distance of the place and the quality of the land) the remainder shall be laid out to the town of Windsor, in the ungranted lands of this colony, above Tolland."

1722, May. Mr. Israel Stoughton, select man of Windsor, in the name of the town reminded the assembly of the above resolution, and stated that the committee, though often requested, "have hitherto refused to lay out said equivalent lands to the town of Windsor," and petitions for the appointment of a new committee or the addition of one to the former, and to give full power to any two of them. The assembly, upon the motion of the representatives of Windsor, appointed Capt. James Wadworth and John Hall, Esq's, with the assistance of Mr. Thomas Kimberly, country surveyor, to lay out to said town their equivalent lands."

1723, May. James Wadsworth and John Hall made report, that, in April previous, they had laid out to Windsor, on the east side of the town, about eight thousand acres of land as an equivalent for the lands taken from that town; which report was adopted, ordered to be put on record and that a patent be issued, "under the seal of the colony, and signed by the governor to the inhabitants, 'proprietors of said town'" of Windsor. In this patent, signed by Gov. Saltonstall, the bounds of the tracts are described as follows: "Bounded west upon a right line down from the northeast to the southeast corner bound walks of said town; and east partly by Willamantick River, partly by Stafford bounds, and partly by Tolland township; northwardly partly by Enfield bounds, and partly by Stafford bounds; and southwardly partly by said Tolland bounds, and, in part, by Bolton bounds, which is a line drawn from the south end of Meshenups pond to the afore-mentioned line from Windsor northeast to the southeast corner,"

Twenty years, however, passed away before any division of this tract was made among the proprietors. During this interval, yearly meetings were held, at which the division of these and other common lands was the principal subject of discussion; but the lapse of time had so complicated the claims of proprietors, and intensified their differences of opinion, as to embarrass their proceedings and prevent them from coming to any mutual agreement. Finally in 1743, as a desperate attempt to extricate themselves, they accepted the report of a committee appointed many years before, and under their direction, the allotments were made. Beginning east of where the present road from Rockville to Ellington Centre, leaves Vernon or Rockville, they laid out the lots in half mile ranges, to Somers and then back again. Beyoud this second tier, the lots were laid north and south in two tiers; all the south range bounded south by Tolland, and all the north on the north by Stafford. Beyond this a number of lots were laid out the whole breadth from Tolland to Stafford, and thus till the last lot was bounded by the Willimantic. In all these surveys and allotments, the pond between Ellington and Tolland was uniformly written Messhanips-for the north pond bordering upon Stafford no other name is known than Square Pond.1

Yet for nearly fifty years after the settlements began on the east side of the Connecticut River, this fine tract remained unsettled and unimproved. The traveler of the present day, who passes through the town of Ellington, and witnesses the high degree of cultivation and the pleasing scenery for which it is now distinguished, will wonder that it was ever undervalued or neglected. Still more will he be surprised to learn, that in the olden time, a very general opinion prevailed, that "the soil on the plain, near the present centre of the town, and all the western section of it, was far inferior to the elevated tracts in the towns east."

So the wave of emigration, scorning to remain upon the plains, rolled onward over the crest of the eastern hills, and boldly courted toil in the more mountainous districts beyond. Willington, Bolton and Stafford were surveyed earlier than any

1 Barber's Hist. Coll. of Conn.