The Higleys and their Ancestry, an Old Colonial Family, by Mary Coffin Johnson 1896
CHAPTER IV.
ONE OF THE FOREFATHERS.
“Love,
Truth, and Justice stamp the man of worth
And yield the homage of enduring fame.”
THE Moores and Drakes were participators in all the changes and experiences of the migrating Puritan Church which gathered itself together in the dark days of Protestantism at the seaport of Plymouth, England. John Moore appears to have been active in the notable Day of Prayer held just before the embarkation at Plymouth, since he received the appointment and “came as Deacon,” and ever after was closely allied in friendship with the Rev. Mr. Wareham, who found in him a stanch supporter during the remainder of his life. He was made freeman14-1 at Dorchester, Mass., May 18, 1631.
In Matthew Grant’s MSS. ancient Records of the Church at Windsor, Conn.,14-2 the following interesting entry is found: “List of Members of the Church that were so at Dorchester, and came up here with Mr. Wareham, and are still with us.” Among other names in the “List” is that of “Deacon John Moore,” and “of women, Deacon Moore’s wife.”
Thomas Moore, the father of John, appears to have come to America, and to have finally settled in Connecticut with his son. In the earliest grants given of lands in Windsor was a “lot ten rods wide“14-3 which was “set off” to him, adjoining on the north one of like measurement “set off” to Deacon Moore. “The two lots correspond very nearly with the grounds now held by the present resident, the Hon. H. S. Hayden.”
There is little recorded of Thomas Moore except that he served as juror from the year 1639 to 1642, and died in 1645. He was probably advanced in years.
Deacon John Moore became possessed of large landed estates, and in later years built one of the most costly houses of the times. By special courtesy of Henry R. Stiles, M, D., a drawing of the residence is presented.
“It was in its day a fine house. Some of Its ornaments remain, sufficient to hint of its former glory.” . . “I have pointed out [says the writer] the door for the cat, for at that early day it was considered a very necessary accommodation to so important and privileged a member of the household. The old elm which overshadows the house always possessed as much interest as the dwelling in the hearts of the descendants, being one of the oldest and most beautiful trees in the town.”15-1
A portion of the venerable house—the gable end, was still to be seen in the year 1888.
Deacon John Moore enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his townspeople in matters of local and public trust, and held a conspicuous place in the town proceedings.
In those days the town meeting served all the local purposes of the community. By it almost every concern was regulated. None but men of stanch integrity and upright life held the affairs of these meetings in their hands.
We find Deacon John Moore’s name at the General Court serving as member of the jury as early as 1642, and in 1643 he was a deputy. The General Court, which consisted of the governor, the magistrates, and deputies, afterward became the General Assembly. To this body he was repeatedly re-elected representative until 1677, the year of his decease. In those times the civil officers served for the honor of the office and the good of the community without compensation.
In his public career he was closely associated with Governor Winthrop, Mr. Henry Wolcott, Benjamin Newberry, and other distinguished Connecticut men of the times, in perfecting the foundation system upon which the structure of the State and our National existence was afterward reared.15-2
Deacon Moore was a Puritan after the straitest of his sect. We may imagine his supernatural look of grave dignity as he sat in the General Court, confirming various enactments of stringent law and rule, and voting strictly against any measure which tended toward loosening in any wise the bands of their rigid high beliefs. The old Puritan commanded reverence, not by words more than by his awe-inspiring, somber dignity, so that even at middle age his appearance was venerable.
Many of the Acts of the “General Court,” during the period that this honorable grandsire was a member, are to be noticed with special interest. In December, 1642, he was among the number who framed and established the Capital Laws.16-1 The Code contained twelve different offences for which the penalty of death was imposed.
Neither did these eminent religionists spare the gossips and slanderers, who were made to feel the keen punishment and disgrace of the stocks and pillory; and in some cases the whipping-post, which “we have it as a tradition,” says Trumbull, “was placed on Broad Street Green, the most conspicuous part of the town.” It was not entirely abolished until 1714. For defamation, “one Bartlett, in 1646, was sentenced to stand in the pillory during the weekly church lecture, then to be whipped, pay a fine of five pounds, and suffer six months imprisonment.”
“For the preventing and avoiding of that foul and gross sin of lying,” an ordinance was passed “that when any person or persons shall be accused and found guilty of that vice, it shall be lawful for the particular Court to adjudge and censure any such party either by fine or bodily correction.”17-1 “Branding with the letter B for burglary, and whipping at the cart’s tail for crimes against morality, were also methods of punishment.”17-2
In the year 1648, one Peter Bussaker was sentenced by the Court to “bee committed to prison, and there bee kept in safe custody till the sermon, and then to stand in the time thereof in the pillory, and after the sermon be severely whipt, for saying: that he hoped to meet some of the members of the Church in hell ere long, and hee did not question but hee should.”17-3
On the 6th of December of the same year, with dignified solemnity the Court considered the state of their Zion, and decided that Heaven should be besieged by prayer for her prosperity. The following was passed:
“Ordered, that there bee a day of Humiliation kept by all the churches in this Jurisdiction, to seeke ye face of ye Lord in behalfe of his Churches upon this day fortnight.”17-4
The next morning, upon resuming their seats in council, the jury presented a bill of indictment against one Mary Johnson, declaring that “By her own confession shee is guilty of famillyarity with the Ddvill.”17-5
In the days of Deacon Moore they wrestled with witches. Superstition still had a hold upon them. It must be remembered that their new religious principles were engrafted upon an old system, which was environed by superstitions from which they were not yet emancipated, and says Green: “With all the strength and manliness of Puritanism, its bigotry and narrowness had crossed the Atlantic too.18-1
Mary Johnson had tried the forbearance of our ponderous and solemn heroes before this frank confession which she now made. The records show that their executive power had been called into exercise concerning her in 1646, when she was found “guilty of theury,” and was “Ordered, to be presently whipped, and to be brought forth a month hence at Wethersfield and there whipped.”18-2 Upon this second consideration of her case they appear to have been roused into a spirit quite the contrary to that religious “charity which never faileth.” Mary was tound guilty of witchery and was probably executed early in 1649. “There seems but little doubt,” says J. H. Trumbull, “that a woman was hung in Windsor for witchcraft (and perhaps other crimes) about this time, and there were in the Commonwealth several accusations and trials for witchcraft, and a few executions.”18-3
Deacon John Moore continued to fill the office of deacon of the church until his death. The latest record in connection with his official duties in this station, is a bill for bread furnished for sacraments from June, 1666, to February, 1673, amounting to £4 2s. 0d. He also filled his seat as representative to the General Assembly at the May session previous to his decease.
Among his children was a daughter, Hannah, one of the ancestral grandmothers of our story, who was probably born in England, or soon after the arrival of her parents In America. In Windsor Records are found the dates of the births of other children, one of whom was John Moore, Jr., who was also for many years a deacon.
John Moore, Sr., died September 18, 1677. The interment was in Windsor burying ground on the following day.
Footnotes
14-1. One who is entitled to franchise. “The principal part of the first settlers having no political rights under the charter, the court immediately made arrangements for extending the privileges of freemanship to all suitable persons, and on the first application of this right, October 19th, 1630 among 108 persons, twenty-four belonged to Dorchester.
“Besides the right of suffrage, freemen enjoyed advantages In the division of lands. The principal qualification for this privilege was church membership.”—History of Dorchester, p. 27.
14-2. In possession of the Connecticut Historical Society.
14-3. The Court of London, held May 21, 1629, had ordered: “For the purpose of mutual defence settlements must be very compact, and that within a certain plot, or pale, every one should build his house. A half-acre is named as the size of a house lot within this pale.”
Says Eggleston: “No man might live far away from the meeting house. The Church was a powerful force from within holding the town compacted, and the almost unflagging hostility of the savages for nearly one hundred years, gave a pressure from without, making it convudent to live, not upon farms, but upon homa-lots.”—The Century, 1884, p. 851.
15-1. “History of Ancient Windsor,” by H. R. Stiles.
15-2. “Connecticut’s Town Government had a peculiar character. The town was the original unit, the State a confederation of the towns. Each town was a miniature republic and sent its representatives to the General Court. It was by Connecticut ideas, historians agree, the troubles of forming the United States Government were solved.”—From Speech of Senator Joseph R. Hawley.
16-1. Capitall Lawes, Established by the General Court, the First of December, 1642:
“1. If any man after legall conviction shall have or worship any other God but the Lord God, hee shall bee put to death.—Deut. 13:6, and 17:2. Ex. 22:20.
“2. If any man or woman bee a Witch (that is, hath or consulted with a familiar spirit), they shall bee put to death.—Ex. 22:18. Lev. 20:27.Deut. 18:10.
“3. If any person shall blaspheme the name of God the ffather, Sonne, or holy Ghost, with direct, express, presumptuous, or high-handed blasphemy, or shall curse God in the like manner, hee shall bee put to death.—Lev. 24:15, 16.
“4. If any person shall committ any willfull murder, which is manslaughter committed uppon malice, hatred, or cruelty, not in a man’S necessary and just defence, nor by mere casualty against his will, hee shall be put to death.—Ex. 21:12, 13, 14. Numb. 35:30, 31.
“5. If any person shall slay another through guile, either by poisonings or other such Devillish practice, bee shall bee put to death.—Ex. 21:14.”
The 6th, 7tb, 8th, and 9th laws relate to unchastity and were punishable by death.—Lev. 20:10, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20. Deut. 22:23, 24, 25.
“10. If any man stealeth a man or manikinde, hee shall bee put to death.—Exodus 22:16.
“11. If any man rise up a false wittness, wittingly and of purpose to take away any man’s life, hee shall bee put to death.—Deut. 19:16, 18, 19.
“12. If any man shall conspire, or attempt any invasion, insurrection, or rebellion against the Commonwealth, hee shall bee put to death.”
The following Laws were adopted in 1650:
“13. If any Childe or Children, above sixteene years old, of suffitient understanding, shall Curse or smite their naturall father or mother, hee or they shall bee put to death; unless it can bee sufficiently testified that the parents have been very unchristianly negligent in the education of such children, or so provoke them by extreme and cruell correction that they have been forced thereunto to preserve themselves from death, maiming.—Ex. 21:17. Levit. 20.
“14. If any man have a stubborna and rebellious sonne of sufficient years and understanding, viz., Sixteen yeares of age, which will not obey the voice of his ffather, or the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastised him will not hearken unto them; then may his ffather and mother, being his naturall parents, lay hold on him and bring him to the Magistrates assembled in Courte and testifie unto them, that their sonne is stubborn and rebellious and will not obey theire voice and Chastisement, but lives in sundry notorious Crimes, such a sonne shall be put to death.—Deut. 21:20, 21.”
17-1. “Connecticut Colonial Records.”
17-2. “History of Hartford County,” by J. Hammond Trumbull, p. 508.
17-3. “Connecticut Colonial Records,” The sermon was anywhere from one and a half to two hours long.
17-4. “Connecticut Colonial Records.”
17-5. “Connecticut Colonial Records.”
18-1. “History of the English People,” by J. R. Green.
18-2. “Connecticut Colonial Records.”
18-3. “History of Hartford County,” by J. Hammond Trumbull, vol. i. p. 352.