2

ter received its present name of Windsor,1 and a committee appointed for the purpose, by a previous court, brought in a report that the bounds thereof should "extend towards the Falls, on the same side the plantation stands, to a brook called Kettle Brook, and so over the Great River, 3 upon the same line that Newtown and Dorchester doth between them. And so it is ordered by the court." Also, "the bounds between Hartford and Windsor is agreed to be at the upper end of the great meadow of the said Hartford toward Windsor at the Pale [fence] that is now there set up by the said Hartford, which is abutting upon the Great River, upon a due east line, and into the county from the said Pale upon a due west line, as parallel to the said east line as far as they have now paled, and afterwards the bounds to go into the country upon the same west line. But it is to be so much shorter towards Windsor as the place where the Girte that comes along at the end of the said meadow, and falls into the said Great River is shorter than their pale; and over the said Great River the said plantation of Windsor is to come to the rivulets' mouth, that falls into the said Great River of Connecticut, and there the said Hartford is to run due east into the country, which is ordered accordingly." This spring the contentions and negotiations between the Plymouth Company and the Dorchester People, concerning the land at Matianuck, upon which the latter had so unceremoniously squatted, at their first coming, were brought to a close. It seems that in February, 1635-6, prior to the return of the emigrants to the Connecticut, whence they had been driven by the severity of the previous winter, Mr. Winslow of Plymouth, went up to the Bay, to adjust the matter in dispute. He demanded that the Plymouth People should be allowed a reservation of one-sixteenth part of the land, and £100 as damages, "which those of Dorchester not consenting unto, they

1Undoubtedly, although we know not with what particular reasons in honor of Windsor, the royal abode of England's sovereigns.

2 The west side of the River.

3 Connecticut river.

4Podunk River.

Winthrop's Journal.

break off [negotiations]; those of Plymouth expecting to have due recompense after [wards], by course of justice, if they went on." There seems to have been an evident intention, among some of the leaders of the Dorchester party, to maintain their position at any cost, and to force the Plymouth Company either to relinquish or sell out their claim to them. Yet we do not believe that these high-handed measures at coercion were sanctioned by the more thoughtful and conscientious among their number, for Winthrop distinctly says, that "divers resolved to quit the place, if they could not agree with those of Plymouth." Seeing this evident determination of their neighbors to force an issue, feeling that to offer forcible resistance would be useless, and "that to live in continual contention with their friends and neighbors would be uncomfortable, and too heavy a burden to bear. Therefore, for peace sake (though they conceived they suffered much in this thing)," the Plymouth People "thought it better to let them have it upon as good terms as they could get; and so they fell to treaty. The first thing that [because they had made so many and long disputes about it] they [the Plymouth People] would have them [of Dorchester] to grant was, that they [Plymouth] had right to it, or else they would never treat about it. The which being acknowledged and yielded unto by them, this was the conclusion they came unto in the end, after much ado:" 1st, that Plymouth should reserve a sixteenth of all the land they had purchased from the Indians, leaving the rest of the land excepting a small "moiety to those of Newtown" (or Hartford1) to the Dorchester settlers. This Plymouth Reservation "was to be taken in two places; one towards the [trading] house, the other towards Newtown's proportion [Hartford bds.]." 2d, The Plymouth Company were to receive equitable compensation for the land which they had purchased from the Indians.

Accordingly, on the 15th of May, 1637, Thomas Prince, in

1 The reason for this is thus given in Bradford's Journal: They of Newtown dealt more fairly, desiring only what they could conveniently spare, from a competency reserved for a plantation, for themselves, which made them [the Plymouth men] more careful to procure a moiety for them, in this agreement and distribution." An honorable testimony, truly.

behalf of the Colony of New Plymouth, formally transferred and sold to the inhabitants of Windsor, Conn., the lands owned by said Company, by a deed, of which this is a copy:

"An agreement made by Thomas Prince, for and in behalf of New Plymouth in America, and the inhabitants of Windsor, upon Connecticott, in the said America, the 15th day of May, 1637, as followeth, viz, Imprimis. In consideration of thirtyseven pounds ten shillings to be paid about three months hence, the said Thomas Prince doth sell unto the inhabitants of Windsor all the ground, meadow and upland, from a marked tree about a quarter of a mile above Mr. Stiles1 [on the] North, [to] the great swamp next the bounds of Hartford [on the] South, for length. And in breadth into the country towards Poquonack as far as Sequasson and Nattawanut, two sachems hath or had (as proprieties) all which hath been purchased of the said Sequasson and Nattawanut, for a valuable consideration, the particulars whereof do appear by a note now produced by the said Thomas Prince, always excepted and reserved to the House of the said New Plymouth, 43 acres of meadow, and three quarters, and in upland on the other side of the swamp, next their meadow 40 acres, viz, 40 rods in breadth and in length 160 rods into the country for the present, and afterwards as other lots are laid out they are to have their proportion within their bounds aforesaid. There is likewise excepted 70 rods in breadth towards the bounds of the said Hartford in an indifferent place, to be agreed upon, and to go in length to the ends of the bounds, aforesaid. In witness whereof the parties aforesaid, have set their hands and seals the day and year above written.

Signed, sealed and delivered. In presence of

JOSIAS WINSLOW.

THOS. MARSHfield.

The mark of WM. BUTLER.

ROGER LUDLOW.
WILLIAM PHELPS.

JOHN WHITfield.

The above deed or instrument is a true copy of the original being compared therewith Apl. 7, 1673 per us

TALCOTT

JOHN ALLVON, Sec'y} Asst.2

To the copy of this deed on the town records of Windsor, is appended the following note by Matthew Grant, the Recorder: "This Bargain as it is above exprest, and was written and

1 Mr. (Francis) Stiles's place was on the ground occupied by the ChiefJustice Ellsworth house, now owned by the widow of his son, Martin Ellsworth, deceased.

These signatures are affixed to the copy of the deed on the Colony Records, but omitted on that in the Windsor Records. The omission of Mr. Prince's signature is probably an error of transcription.

us.

assigned, I can certainly Testify does not mention or speak to every particular, of the bargain as it was issued with Mr. Prince, before it was put in writing. This should have been the frame of it. Dorchester men that came from the Mass. Bay up here to Connecticut to settle in the place now called Windsor; Plymouth men challenged propriety here, by a purchase of the land from the Indians, whereupon in the latter end of the '35 year, some of our Principal men meeting with some of the Plymouth men in Dorchester, labored to Drive a Bargain with them to buy out their [claim], which they challenged by purchase, & came to Terms, & then May '37 as it is above exprest, then our company being generally together (that intended to settle here) Mr. Prince being come up here, in the behalf of the Plymouth men, that were partners in their purchase, issued the bargain with We were to pay them £37 10s for their whole purchase, which Mr. Prince presented to us in writing, only they Reserved the 16 part off for themselves & their 16 part in meadow land came by measuring of ye meadow to 43 acres 3 quarters, which was bounded out to Mr. Prince, he being present, by myself appointed by our Company, in Plymouth meadow so called by that account. Their 16th part in upland they took up near the bounds of Hartford, 70 rods in breadth by the River & so to continue to the ends of the bounds. They were also to have one acre to build on, upon the Hill against their meadow. Also Mr. P. said he had purchased the land on the East side of the [Conn.] River that lies between Scantic and Namerick, & that we should have in lieu of 40 rods in breadth of upland & to run in length 160 rods, from the swamp, to be 40 acres, & afterward to have their proportion within their bounds, according to a 40 acre man, in the commons.

And "thus," says Gov. Bradford, "was the controversy ended, but the unkindness not so soon forgotten.""

These negotiations with the Plymouth People, however, were not the weightiest or most important matters which occupied the attention of the Windsor People. They, together with their neighbors of Hartford and Wethersfield, were now involved in

1 Probably Stony Hill.

2 Savage observes that although Bradford "was a patentee, the reader will find, with pleasure, that his pen was guided by truth, as well as interest.” The ex parte evidence of few men can be so fully relied upon, as that of the excellent Governor Bradford. In connection with this subject, honest Morton, the Plymouth chronicler, says that his people "deserved to have held it [the Connecticut country], and not by friends to have been thrust out, as in a sort, they afterwards were."

a contest, upon the event of which, their lives and welfare, and all that is most dear to the human heart, were staked. We refer to the breaking out of the Pequod War. Since the first approach of the white man to the valley of the Connecticut, that tribe, whose seat was on the Mystic River, seemed to have imbibed a bitter hostility toward the English. As early as 1634, they began the work of murder and pillage, and in 1636 they conceived a design of extirpating and driving the whites from New England. The murders of Stone, Noreton and Oldham, and the garrison at Saybrook Fort; the horrible cruelties inflicted on Butterfield, Tilly and others, had alarmed and exasperated the English Colonies; and the murderous attack on Wethersfield, on the 23d of April, 1637, aroused them to strike a blow, as sudden as it was successful and decisive. At the court convened on the 1st of May following, the deliberations were doubtless weighty and important. The first line of the record, of this Court, is sententious but energetic: "It is ordered that there shall be an offensive war against the Pequots." Mark well the words, "an offensive war." No longer would they stand on the defensive, they had now drawn the sword, and that sword could only "be sheathed in victory or death." And then follows in the same terse and energetic language, "There shall be 90 men levied out of the three plantations, Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor, in the following proportion Hartford, 42; Windsor, 30; Wethersfield, 18." Hartford was to furnish fourteen, and Windsor six suits of armor. Each soldier was to carry one pound of powder, four pounds of shot, twenty bullets, and a light musket "if they can." They were also directed to take a barrel of powder from the Saybrook Fort, and Capt. John Mason was entrusted with the command.

Supplies were also levied on the three towns as follows: Windsor was to furnish sixty bushels of corn, fifty pieces of pork, thirty pounds of rice, and four cheeses. Hartford was to furnish, eighty-four bushels of corn, three firkins of suet, two firkins of butter, four bushels of oat-meal, two bushels of peas, five hundred pounds of fish, two bushels of salt. Wethersfield, one bushel of Indian beans, and thirty-six bushels of corn.