|
|
|
The Life & Death of the New Haven Colony
|
Business New Haven
6/12/2000
By:
Priscilla Searles
|
On April 24, 1638 a group approximately 500 men, women and children headed up West Creek in several small boats. They had come to set up a permanent settlement on the banks of the harbor, to establish Quinnipiack, later to be called New Haven. Two men, Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport, had outlined the principles - both religious and economic - that would shape this new community.
Who were Eaton and Davenport, and what brought them to New Haven?
It is impossible to look at New Haven's economic prospects in 1638 without having some understanding of Puritan beliefs. To them the Bible contained all God had to say to man, the rules were spelled out and they were to fashion their community based on these rules which they interpreted as absolute and immutable.
The Church of England was less than tolerant of the Puritan approach to religion and Davenport, vicar of St. Stephen's in London, had gotten himself into trouble with the High Church Party. Leaving England under some pressure, Davenport ended up in the Netherlands, where he heard about New England and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. If God was going to punish England for its wickedness, as Davenport believed, the New World offered a refuge.
Eaton, a practical businessman and childhood friend of Davenport, had become deputy governor of the Eastland Company, the commercial agent of James 1 to Denmark and the agent of Christian IV of Denmark in London. He was wealthy, an administrator and a staunch Puritan. A partnership was formed and a company established. They set off to Boston with 250 people sailing on two ships.
In 1637 the group arrived in Boston, but it was a disappointment to Eaton and Davenport. Religious quarrels among the Puritans made things uncomfortable but a more compelling reason to find a new location was more fundamental. A colony of their own would allow them to govern themselves, to establish a commercial city on a harbor that would permit flourishing trade.
Eaton and a small group served as an advance party, spending the winter months building a few primitive shelters. It is unknown if Eaton stayed for the winter but we do know that in April a large group arrived from Boston, double the size that had left England.
The people that came to New Haven were the wealthiest group of merchants to come to any New England settlement before 1660. For the most part they didn't come to farm; they planned to establish a commercial empire. The key to this plan was the harbor with its three tributary rivers (today known as the Quinnipiac, Mill and West rivers). In addition, there were no other settlements in the area to offer competition.
It would appear that the new residents of New Haven had taken quite a gamble, since they didn't have title to the land. But because the area fell within a grant made by Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick and friends of Davenport and Easton, the two men believed the problem could be overcome.
They negotiated a series of treaties with the Quinnipiac Indians. The treaties, dated November and December 1638 and May 1645, gave the settlement what we now know as New Haven, East Haven, Branford, North Branford, North Haven, Wallingford, Cheshire and parts of Orange, Woodbridge, Bethany, Prospect and Meriden. Payment was “twelve coats of English trucking cloath, twelve alcumy spoons, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen of knives” and a promise of protection against the more warlike Indians elsewhere in Connecticut.
No one knows who designed the new settlement, which comprised 11 squares, nine divided from a half-mile square rectangle and two, called “suburbs,” extending to the waterfront. At the center of the nine squares was the marketplace.
Then as now, money talked, and those who had it - or, more specifically, had invested in the company - were allotted plots in the remaining eight squares. Those households who were not shareholders received grants in the suburbs.
It was Eaton who dictated the affairs of what was first a plantation and later the colony. He was elected chief magistrate in October 1639, became governor of the colony when the jurisdiction was organized in 1643 and held that title until his death in 1658. From April 1638 to October 1639 the settlement operated under a provisional government at which time they adopted the rules for a Bible-based state. The colony developed quickly in the early years: In addition to Milford, Guilford and Branford, it also grew to include Stamford and Southold, Long Island.
Expansion was a practical option if the colony was going to succeed. New Haven alone could not provide enough goods to trade. An attempt was made to expand into the Delaware Bay, an area that had great appeal because of the fur trade carried on by the Dutch and Swedes with the Indians along the Delaware River.
George Lamberton, a merchant and sea captain, urged the formation of a Delaware Company and in 1741 a tract was purchased from the Indians that included nearly the whole southwestern coast of New Jersey and a tract on the present site of Philadelphia. Some 50 families left New Haven to colonize the trading post.
New Haven as a major trade center was already having its problems and the expansion into the Delaware territory can be considered one of the major reasons the Colony failed financially. The Dutch didn't want the Puritans as independent competitors and joined with their neighbors at New Sweden, burning blockhouses and destroying the New Haveners' fur trade. Appeals to the recently formed New England Confederation for assistance in dealing with the problem went unanswered. No one wanted to go to war over the new settlement. The grand scheme had failed, having been dealt a blow that the Colony never recovered from. Economic depression and discouragement followed. New Haven's wealthiest leaders had invested their fortunes in the Delaware venture.
New Haven continued to maintain its claim to the Delaware area until it became an independent colony in 1664. At its peak the New Haven Colony ran from the Hammonassett River on the east to the western boundary of Milford, jumping over Stratford, Fairfield and Norwalk to include the Stamford-Greenwich area as well as territory on the eastern arm of Long Island. In 1665 Stamford and Southold merged with the Connecticut Colony. The New Haven Colony hadn't worked; it was a financial failure. With no options left, on January 7, 1665 New Haven itself joined the Connecticut Colony.
As for Davenport, his life's work had been lost. He left New Haven for Boston in 1667 and in 1670 he left “a troublesome unthankfull evill world” and returned to England.
The story of the New Haven Colony's failure to become a financial success would be incomplete without mention of the “Great Shippe.” In January 1646 a ship set sail, loaded with local cargo in an attempt to open direct trade with England. The ship, its valuable cargo and some of New Haven's wealthiest residents were never to be seen again. In 1648 New Haven residents reported seeing a vision of the “Great Shippe” in the clouds over the harbor, lasting for approximately one hour. The vision was interpreted by those who claimed to see it as a harbinger that the ship was gone forever.
Many of the first settlers who came to New Haven to found the Colony were wealthy merchants. What they lacked was the ability to farm, to produce the trade goods the settlement needed to survive. They were unaccustomed to building their own houses or producing the practical items needed for their homes, and they underestimated the difficulties in establishing a furnishing trade business. Some would say they strived for something beyond their reach, often using poor judgment. Only 27 years had passed since these first settlers landed at Quinnipiack. BNH
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
