p.85-86
JOURNAL OF JOHN WINTHROP
Oct. 15,
1635
About 60 men, women and
little children went by land
towards Connecticut with their cows,
horses, swine, and
after a tedious and difficult journey arrived
safe there.
This was a party from Newtown who went to lay out
the
first homesteads at Hartford.
Migrants from Newtown (MA)
were beginning to
settle Hartford, Conn.
Migrants from Dorchester
(MA) were beginning to settle
Windsor, Conn.
Migrants from Watertown (MA)
were beginning to settle
Wethersfield, Conn
.
Nov. 3, 1635
Mr. Winthrop Jr. (son of
Gov. John Winthrop) the govern-
or appointed by the Lords of
Connecticut (Lord Say and
Lord Brooke) sent a bark of 30 ton and
about 20 men with
all needful provisions to take posession of the
mouth of
Connecticut and to begin some building.
Nov. 26, 1635
There came 13 men from
Connecticut. They had been 10
days upon their journey and
had lost one of their comp-
any, drowned in the ice by the way,
and had been all
starved but that by God's providence they
lighted upon
an Indian wigwam. Connecticut River was frozen
up the
15 of this month.
May 31, 1636
Mr. Hooker, pastor of the Church of Newtown and the most
of his
congregation went to Connecticut. His wife was
carried in a
horse litter and they drove 160 cattle and
fed of their milk by
the way.
December, 1638
Another plot the old
serpent had against us, by sowing
jealousies and differences
between us and our friends
at Connecticut...The ground of all was
their shyness of
coming under our government, which though we
never in-
tended to make them subordinate to us, yet they
were
very jealous, and therefore in the articles of
confedera-
tion which we propounded to them, they did so alter
the
chief article as all would have come to nothing.
For
whereas the article was, that upon any matter of
differ-
ence, two, three, or more commissioners of every of
the
confederate colonies should assemble and have
absolute
power (the greater number of them) to determine
the
matter, they would have them only to meet and if
they
could agree, so; if not, then to report to their
several
colonies and to return with their advice and so to
go
on till the matter might be agreed; which, beside that
it
would have been infinitely tedious and extreme charge-
able, it
would never have attained the end; for it was
very unlikely that
all the churches in all the plantat-
ions would ever have
accorded upon the same propositions.
Around May, 1638,
representatives from the four Conn-
ecticut River towns of
Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield
and Springfield had met to
discuss the need for an inde-
pendent civil government and an
alliance with Massachus-
etts on issues of mutual concern
such as Indian relat-
ions. They then sent agents to
Massachusetts proposing
articles of confederation.
The records of this meeting
are lost, but it is plain that
Connecticut wanted a
loose alliance, whereas Massachusetts wanted
a tighter
union, with some sort of "preeminence" accorded
to
Massachusetts as the senior partner. By mid
December
when John Winthrop seems to have written this
account,
the Connecticut leaders were drafting their new
constitu-
tion, The Fundamental Orders, which was adopted
by
Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield in Jan. 1639.
Agawam (now Springfield,
CT) on the Connecticut River,
30 miles north of Hartford had been
founded in 1636
by a group from Roxbury, (MA) lead by William
Pynchon
For two years Agawam had joined with the three
lower
Connecticut River towns, but in March, 1638
Pynchon
quarreled with Hooker and in January 1639 the
people of
Agawam declared their acceptance of the MBC
government
with Pynchon as their chief magistrate.
The town's
name was changed in 1640 to honor Pynchon's
village in
Essex
p.151
December 1638
Though we were formerly
willing that Agawam (now Spring-
field) should have fallen into
their government, yet
seeing they would not be beholden to us for
any thing,
we intended to keep it; and accordingly we put it in
as
an article that the line between us should be, one way,
the
Pequot River (viz, south and north) and the other
way, (viz, east
and west) the limits of our grant. And
this article we
added: That we, etc, should have liberty
to pass to and fro upon
Connecticut, and they likewise.
To these articles all their
commissioners offered to
consent, but it was thought by our court
(because of the
new articles) that they should first acquaint
their own
court with it. And so their commissioners
departed.
After this, we understood
that they went on to excercise
their authority at Agawam.
Whereupon the governor wrote
to them to desire them to forbear
until the line was
laid out. After a long time, Mr. Ludlow
(in the name of
the court) returned answer, which was very
harsh; and
in fine declared, that they thought it not fit
to treat
any further before they had advice from the gentlemen
of
Saybrook, etc. The governor acquainted the council
and
magistrates with this letter; and, because they had
tied
our hands (in a manner) from replying, he wrote a
private
letter to Mr. Haynes wherein he lays open their
mistakes
(as he called them) and the apparent causes of
offence,
which they had given us; as by making a treaty of
agree-
ment with the Narragansetts and Mohegans without
joining
us or mentioning us to that end (though we had by
letter
given them liberty to take us in), and by binding all
the Indians (who had received any Pequots) to pay tribute
for
them all to them at Connecticut, etc (these and the
miscarriages
in point of correspondence were conceived
to arise from these two
errors in their government:
1. They chose divers scores of men
who had no learning
nor judgement which might fit them for those
affairs,
though otherwise men holy and religious. 2. By
occasion
hereof, the main burden for managing of state
business
fell upon some one or other of their ministers (as
the
phrase and style of these letters will clearly
discover)
who, though they were men of singular wisdom and
godli-
ness, yet stepping out of their course, their
actions
wanted that blessing which otherwise might have been
expected.
In this cancelled passage
John Winthrop exhibits
considerable animosity toward Thomas
Hooker. He eradic-
ated these lines so thoroughly that James
Savage had
much difficulty in deciphering them; (see Savage
l:344.)
Sept. 1642
There came letters from
the court at Connecticut,
certifying us that the Indians all over
the country had
combined themselves to cut off all the English,
that
the timewas appointed after harvest, the manner
also,
they should go by small companies to the chief
men's
houses by way of trading, etc., and should kill them
in
the houses and seize their weapons, and then others
should
be at hand to prosecute the massacre; and that
this was
discovered by three Indians, near about the time
and in the same
manner, one to Mr. Eaton of New Haven,
another to Mr. Ludlow and
the third to Mr. Haynes.
(Theophilus Eaton was governor of New
Haven; Roger Lud-
low and John Haynes were deputy governor and
governor of
Connecticut.) Their advice to us was, that it
was better
to enter into war presently (immediately) and if
we
would send 100 men to the river's mouth of Connecticut
they
would meet us with a proportional number.
Upon these letters, the
governor called so many of the
magistrates as were near, and
being met they sent out
summons for a general court, to be kept
six days after,
and in the mean time, it was thought fit, for our
safety
and to strike some terror into the Indians, to
disarm
such as were within our jurisdiction.
Accordingly we
sent men to Cutshamekin at Braintree to
fetch him and
his guns, bows, etc. which was done, and to disarm
Passa-
conamy who lived by Merrimack...(Passaconamy was
sachem
to the Pennacooks, who lived by the Merrimack River
in
New Hampshire.
September 8, 1642
The general court being
assembled, we considered of the
letters and other intelligence
from Connecticut, and al-
though the thing seemed very probable,
yet we thought
it not sufficient ground for us to begin a war,
for it
was possibleit might be
otherwise and that all this
might come out of the enmity
which had been between
Miantomoni and Onkus, (Uncas was sachem of
the Mohegan
Indians and lived on the Pequot River near Norwich,
CT)
who continuously sought to discredit each other with
the
English.
(Vane was trying to negotiate
with these three groups
on behalf of the Saybrook
proprietors.
