The Higleys and their Ancestry, an Old Colonial Family, by Mary Coffin Johnson 1896
CHAPTER II.
A BIT OF HISTORY.
‘Tis like a dream when one awakes--
This vision
of the scenes of old;
‘Tis
like the moon when morning
breaks;
‘Tis like a tale round watch fires told.
—John Peirpont's Hymn.
WINDSOR,5-1 Conn., was the first trading post in the colony. It was established October 16, 1633. The attention of the English colonists and Puritans on the Massachusetts coast was called to the rich broad valley of the Quonektacut,5-2 by an Indian chief,5-3 who, escaping the savage cruelty of overpowering neighboring tribes, made his way from Matianuck (now Windsor), through the wilderness to Boston, and solicited Governor Winthrop “to come to plant in his country”; extolling its richness and its advantages for trade, and offering “a full supply of corn, and an annual present of eighty beaver skins.”
The Indians, who were numerous upon the river, belonged to several different tribes which were located forty-five miles from its mouth, and thickly settled in the region above, who were constantly in warlike relations, driving each other here and there. This sagacious chief no doubt desired the favor and presence of the white man to regain for him his hunting grounds and to protect his people with his firearms. Governor Winthrop saw nothing in the proposition to merit his attention.
Through similar sources knowledge came to Governor Winslow of the Plymouth Colony of these valuable lands, which were described as lying at the juncture of the two beautiful rivers, the Connecticut and its picturesque tributary the Farmington; lands rich in timber and furs, and abounding with beaver, whose future under the busy hand of trade and civilization promised to “flow with milk and honey.”
An adventurer, John Oldham, who with two companions were the first white men who made the journey overland to Matianuck, risking his life among the dense forests and deep rivers, returned with glowing representations of the western valley. Governor Winslow looked with approval upon a movement in this direction. The result was that the Plymouth Colony took the project in hand.
The Dutch had for the last ten years been visiting the river as traders. In 1614, a Hollander, Captain Adrian Block, in the Dutch merchant service, while cruising about in a small yacht of sixteen tons exploring the unknown and rugged shores of Long island Sound, discovered the Connecticut River, up which he sailed to near the head of navigation (now Windsor Locks). The Dutch West India Company had since the year 1621 a monopoly of trade on its banks, and had sometimes bartered with the savages for as many as ten thousand beaver skins in a single year, but had made no attempt at a settlement. However, when the attention of the English on the Massachusetts coast was being turned in this direction, the Dutch, to make their claim to the right of possession secure, and prevent usurpation of their rights, purchased in June, 1633, of the Indians, a tract of meadow land at Matianuck, and built a small fort, manning it with two small cannon.
To ignore the claim of the Dutch, and get possession of the desirable lands above their rude defense, it was necessary for the English to choose a man of courage and determination, together with a crew of equal metal. Captain William Holmes, with “a large bark” belonging to the Plymouth Company, sailed from Boston in October, 1633. He had on board the frame of a house which was prepared in Plymouth with all the materials requisite for its erection. He also carried with him Nattawanut and other Indian sachems, the original proprietors of the soil, who had been driven thence by the warlike Pequots, and of whom the Plymouth people afterward purchased the land.
Passing under the guns of the Dutch fort at Hartford, and up the river a few miles above, he arrived at a location chosen just below the mouth of the Tunxis or Farmington River in the present town of Windsor. Here he erected his house on a lot of 43-3/4 acres, and proceeded to fortify it with palisades.
The Dutch, after emphatic protests, finally withdrew, and in 1653, twenty years afterward, when England and Holland were at war, their little fort at Hartford was taken. In 1655 the last vestige of Dutch claim on the Connecticut River Was yielded.
The original limits of the town of Windsor were about forty-six miles in circumference lying on both sides of the Connecticut River. It was >first called Dorchester. At the Commissioner’s Court held February 21, 1637, it was “Ordered, yt the Plantacon called Dorchester shall bee called Windsor; “7-1 and the ancient town has since borne that name.
Here we shall find, in this old town which has pleasantly stood for more than two hundred and fifty years, the early scenes of the ancestry of the Higleys.
Footnotes
5-1. The main facts in this historical narrative of the early settlement of Windsor, Conn., are extracts taken from Dr. David McClure’s paper In the “Massachusetts Historical Collection,” vol. v.; Dr. H. R. Stiles’ “History of Ancient Windsor”; and the “History of Hanford County, Coon.,” by J. Hammond Trumbull.
5-2. The Indian name for Connecticut.
5-3. Wahginmacut.