CHAPTER X.

 

SIMSBURY, CONN.

 

And from this anCient town, went kr*h men

Whose deeds, recorded by the pen— Became historic. Their unflinching faith,

~nc!ursnce, and amazing hardihood,

Set the great seal of deathless Industry

Upon their labors; carving for themselves,

With cumbrous ploughahare.

-                     — Thr Titles 0/a Ti’e M,öllj/y.—A. E. J*NICS.

 

IT was about the year 1683 that John Higley’s attention was turned toward the settlement at Massacoe,’ nine miles distant, for his future home. The rich meadows upon the banks of the noble stream—the Tunxus, now the Farmington, which was swarming with myriads of fish, and the rich wooded upland slopes, gave to his far-seeing eye future promise of prosperity.

As early as March ii, 1663, the grandfather, Deacon John Moore, with Captain Benjamin Newberry and Edward Griswold, all residents of Windsor, were appointed by the General Assembly a committee “to lay out the undivided lands at Massacoe, to such inhabitants of Windsor as desire and need it,” and “in i66~ the first grants given by this committee, of which any record exsi~ts, were made.”¹

A~nong those who secured estates thus granted, was John Drake, the father-in-law of John Higley. The following year, October i668, the General Court ordered, “that Massacoe, which hitherto hath been an appendix to the towne of Windsor, may be improved for the making of a plantation; and Capt. Benjamin Newberry, Deacon John Moore, and Mr. Simon Woolcott, the present Com­mittee for the grant of those lands, are desired and empowered by the Court to the further planting’of the same, and to make such just orders as they shall judge requisite for the well ordering of the sayd Plantation, so they be not repugnant to the publique orders of this Colony. “

The first acknowledged deed given formally by the Indians, and having the sanction of the General Assembly, was not executed until twelve years later—i68c, though “the Inhabitants had held quiet possession without interruption for some years previous.”

The year before his removal to Simsbury, John Higley’s name was “propownded” to the General Assembly, May 10, 1683,1 for admission as freeman. There is no explanation given why he deferred his application until he was near thirty-four years of age. He was “accepted “at the following term of’ the Court in October.

The act of the Assembly under which the Connecticut colonial residents were given this franchise at this time required, “that they present themselves with a certificate under the bands of y° major, and of the Townsman where they live, that they are per­sons of civil, peaceable, and honest conversation, and that they attain the age of 2! years, and have £20, estate beside their person, in the List of estate, and that such persons so qualified to the Court’s approbation shall be presented at the October Court and admitted after y° election at the Assembly in May. And in case any freeman shall walk scandalously or commit any scandalous offence, and be legally convicted the:eof, he shall be disfranchised by any Civill Courts.”

On the 22d of August the same year (1683) occurred the happy birth of his daughter, Hannah, who was destined, years later, to become the mother of Connecticut’s first governor, America’s distinguished “Brother Jonathan” of Revolutionary fame,~ and grandmother and great-grandmother to others of Connecticut’s chiefest and most notable citizens, including two governors, and one signer of the Declaration of Independence.

About this time John Higley became involved in a lawsuit, evi­dently in connection with his warehouse transactions. In Septem­ber, i68i, Joseph Trueman recovered judgment against him for twenty-six gallons of “Rume,” and cost of court, amounting to £ x zos. 6d. The execution was levied upon two hundred and seventy-one yards of “old statute lace.” The General Assembly repealed this judgment at the May session, 1683, because Trueman thought the value of the lace was not equal to the amount of the judgment, and Trueman was given liberty to apply to the Court of Assistants. The litigation in this case continued through a period of several years.’

The precise date in 1684 of John Higley’s removal with his family to Simsbury cannot be ascertained, Legal documents upon record, concerning purchases of land with which he was con­nected, clearly state that he was a “resident of Windsor” on the 4th of March in that year (1684). His homestead farm at Simsbury was secured at two purchases, the first from Samuel Brooke in March, 1684, and the remainder on the 2d of Sep.. tember of the same year from Gecrge Griswold. Since the deed to thit purchased from Griswold includes the dwelling, barns, and other buildings, and in the December following he is found to have become a permanent resident of Simsbury, it is conclusive that he removed from Windsor and took possession of his new abode early in the autumn of 1684. The property was known as the “Wolcott-farm.”

A very old record shows that this was a part of the original tract of land “laid out” to Simon Wolcott, January 28, 1675. It gives to Wolcott “land which lyetb adjacent to his house-lott (which house lott, by a previous grant contayned ~ acres and 64 rods) and Contayned by estimate Twenty Accres, one Roode, and two perchase.”’

Mr. Simon Wolcott afterward added lands to this tract. He occupied the property until about the year z68o, and one of its chief glories has been that it is claimed to have been the birth­place of Governer Roger Wolcott.’ The house also bears the distinction of having been the first licensed place at Simsbury for the sale of liquors. Wolcott, while he was its owner, having been “granted liberty to retayle spirits.”

John Higley finally became the purchaser of the entire farm, which contained ninety-four acres, and additional adjacent lands.

For some reason Simon Wolcott had divided the property and sold a part to Christopher Saunders of Rehobeth, Mass., and the remainder to George Griswold of Windsor.

The early Land Records of Simsbury were accidentally burned about the year 1684—85, and in many cases a second deed of property, which had been previously placed upon record, is found in the ancient Records as though given at a later date.’

The estate was situated in the extreme northern part of the present limits of Simsbury township, upon the direct road lead­ing from the town to the old Newgate prison and copper-mines, and half a mile above the spot. where the road to the village of Salmon Brook branches off. The property, which included this farm, was purchased and presented to the town, in 1883, by Amos R. Eno, Esq., for a “home for the poor of the town,” and is now known as the “Town Farm.”

When owned by John Higley, it comprised rich bottom lands of the Farmington River, including a sloping ridge, or uplands, that bound the valley, which are said to have been covered by stately pines. Pickeral Cove, which formed one of the boundaries, is to this day a beautiful and romantic spot, and the “little brook” mentioned in the deed is still a lively, dancing stream, whose waters flow by in forgetfulness of its owner of two centuries ago.

The house and buildings were placed on the slope of the rising land, looking across the valley, and stood upon the east side of the road. Its quaint, old-fashioned exterior was distinctly remem­bered by Dr. Lucius I. Barber and Mr. Newall Goddard of Sims-bury, who were born and brought up near the site where it stood, both of whom described it to the writer.

It was a good specimen of thebetter class of colonial home­steads, and was far above the primitive dwelling-houses of those early times. This one is described as a substantial frame struc­ture, commodious in size, two stories in front, the rafters of whose roof slanted downward in the rear to within eight or ten feet of the ground. This rear part of the building was called “the lean-to.”

There was one massive chimney, which it is stated was full twelve feet square, and stood like a great tower directly in the center of the roof~ The fireplace was eight feet wide, and several feet deep, built of stone laid in clay. The chimney was topped with brick brought from England. The windows were small, after the style of the times, containing window-panes 6”X8”, and were three panes wide.

“These homes,” says Eggleston, “had an air of domesticity— of large and elegant domesticity, but still they looked like home’s, the homes of people of sense, and taste, and character.”’

A few venerable apple trees, which have leaved and budded at the springtime of years numbering almost a century, which were probably planted by John Higley’s grandchildren, are all that is now left to mark the spot where stood the old homestead which has long since disappeared. It was torn down in the year 1827 by Alexander Holcoznbe, who was at that time the owner of the farm.

It was here that Captain Higley’s son Joseph was born, and this was also the birthplace of his son Samuel, who has become a char­acter of national interest, as the designer and manufacturer of the earliest American copper coin put into circulation. It was also within its walls that his daughter Mindwell was born.

John Higley afterward purchased adjoining tracts and addi­tional lands, until his estates in the northern part of Simsbury township extended from the town of Simsbury to the village of Salmon Brook, and thence running east across the Farmington river, incLuded some of the best meadow lands in the township, and the present site of Tariffville.

This region of country, extending full four miles along the river north and south, and from the river to the West Mountain,

* a distance of at least 3$ miles in another direction, was after­ward called Higley-town, and was so known for more than ISO years. He was also the possessor of lands at a settlement a few miles away, called Scotland, and at Turkey Hills, and Windsor. An excellent map of Simsbury, made by order of the Connecticut General Assembly lfl 1730, the original of which is still in existence₂ shows Higley-town marked with beautiful clearness, and indicates the dwellings contained in the entire township, with the names of the land-owners, among whom are a large number of the Higleys of the second and third generations.

Upon his removal to Simsbury, John Higley’s usefulness in his new sphere of life is soon apparent.

On the 24th of December, 1684, a committee was appointed by the town meeting to provide for and superintend “Y° finishing of ye Meeting House, with full power,” etc. This committee consisted of the townsmen, and John Higley. The following summer a committee was chosen “for y° procuring of a minister,” the Rev. Mr. Stow declining “to stay no longer than to mak up his four Years which will terminate said he in the middle of October.” The record reads as follows:

 

“August 14, i68~.—At a Town-Meeting of the Inhabitants of Simsbury there was a Committee chosen by the Inhabitants thereof who have full power by virtue of this vote to choose and look after and procure a Minister for the s” town of Simsbury and give him suitable Incouragement according to our capacity

 

This committee consisted of nine persons, one of whom was John Higley.

By a subsequent vote of the town the committee was con­tinued, and John Higley was delegated by this committee, as its messenger, “to treat with Rev. Mr. Emmerson or Other suitable person for the right discharge of the ministeriall function,” and authorized unanimously by vote, “to tender fifty pounds annually,” and if he could not be prevailed upon to come on these terms, “then sixty pounds” were to be offered. He was also invested with considerable latitude in the offer of certain lands to anyone whom he might consider a “suitable man for the place,” in case Mr. Emmerson did not accept.

In December, x685, he was chosen “townsman,” and was re-elected to the position after this almost every year until 1692. Upon the 31st of the same month he was made one of a com­mittee to “lay out, state, and settle” matters concerning fenc­ing, “in some just and equitable way.”

There was no end to the vexations and annoyances incident to name appears upon the records in connection with nearly all of the important interests of his time.

While his career was one marked by stanch integrity, justice, and truth, and the utmost fidelity to any cause that he espoused, his religious communion appears to have been in the invisible world, and not as a member of the Puritan church organizaUon. His name, as thus connected, is not to be found upon any church records or in private papers, and even tradition is silent.’ There is, however, no proof that there was infidelity in his mind. He lived in the Christian faith. But his religion was more a matter of life than of creed, of deeds than of outward profession.

The town meeting in those days managed all ecclesiastical affairs, and through this chann~l he was active in means pertain­ing to public worship. He contributed faithfully to the support of the Church—the law requiring the minister’s rates to be col­lected by the same methods as the rates for the town. In the Windsor meetinghouse he was assigned a seat, by the “Seating­Committee,” April i3, i68i, In the “first gallerie,” for which he appears to have paid four shillings.

Unhappily there was a bitter contention in the old Windsor Society, and a lack of unanimity, covering a period of several years during John Higley’s residence there, and he was probably never attracted, in this state of things, to become personally iden­tified in membership with the church.

The tranquillity and peace of the churches in the colonies were disturbed by controversies about the grounds for admission to church membership, baptism, and other doctrinal issues, and at Windsor there had been a long period of seething discontent and Inharmony upon the question of repairs of the meetinghouse, which resulted in contention and bitterness. The participators in the contending parties upon one side were Jacob and Job Drake, and John Moore, Jr., the uncles of Hannah Drake Higley, who took their prominent part, as did other influential families with whom John Higley was in daily association—among whom were the Wolcotts, Captain Newberry, the Loomises, Gris. wolds, Bissells, and Pheipses.

At Simsbury there was a prolonged contention, lasting several years, concerning the location of a needed house for worship. The unhappy differences were finally settled “at a solemn meeting on ye 2₄th of May 1683,” by “too PaPers put into ~ hatt,” which were “Drawne by ye lott,”’ and at the time of John Higley’s removal to the place the following year, the meeting-house, a building 28X24 feet, was erected, but stood unfinj~hCd. It was located upon the west side of the river just across the road, or street, which now runs by the ancient Hop-Meadow burying-ground. As has been before stated, his first appoint­ment by the town meeting, after coming to Simsbury, was to serve with “the Selek-men for the finishing of the house,” which was accomplished in i68~.

In due time “a floor was laid, seats or benches furnished, and a pulpit built.” It was eleven years after this before the building was celled, and supplied, for the first time, with windows and a gallery. “It was never painted_though the town once voted ‘to daub it.’ This house was used for public worship and town meetings nearly sixty years.”’

At the tithe that John and Hannah Drake Higley became residents in Simsbury, “Rev. Mr. Samuel Stow” was preaching in the place. His salary was fifty-six pounds a year. “The town agreed with Samuel Adams for to get Mr. Stow’s firewood for a whole year compleat, and for his reward he is to have £s~ 12’.” Thomas Barber received ten shillings yearly “for the beating of the Drumine on the Sabboth Dayes.” $

The Rev. Samuel Stow remained but a brief period, and in i68~ John Higley was again active in behalf of the town meeting in securing the services of the Rev Edward Thompson. In June of that year Mr. ThompsOn “was employed to preach, though not as a Settled Pastor.”⁴ He came with his family, from Cape Ann, Mass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I The Indian name for Simstury. ‘Phelps’ “History of Simsbury.”

  *“ Connecticut Colonial Records,” vol. 1. p. 3c7.       4 “Connecticut Colonial Records.”

I “Connectcut Colonial Record,.”

$ “ Connecticut Colonial Records,” s^66~—~.

$ See sketches of Hannah Higley Trumbull, p. zo~, and Governor Jonathan Trumbull, chapter

lviii.

 

‘Prom Book 1. “Records of Simsbury.”

 

• The Rev. Increase Taibox, in the “History of Hnnford County” by J. Hammond Trumbull, States that Simon Wolcott removed to East Windsor in z68o, and that his son, Roger Wolcott, was then an infant, one year old. Family tradition his long had it that about three years intervened between Shnon Wolcott’s sale of the estate and John Higley’s purchase of the same.

•The following is taken from a itat~ment in Book 1. “Simibury Land Record,,” p. a6, dated )Iayt,z688~

“On March ₄eh 1683-4 John Higley of ~VInds~,r bought of Samuel Brooke, son of John Brookes, late of Simsbury, Deed., land distributed to said Samuel llrookea from the estate of his father, as by the s honored Court Records may appear,’ a certain portion of land, which was the osie-haif Interest of the property known as the Wolcott farm,’ for and in Consideration of a Valuable suinme to him payd and Secured.’

“The Deed from Christopher Sanders of Rehobeth, Mass., to John Rrookes of Windsor, of said farm reads thus’ ‘Which sayd Farme was bought by me the said Christopher Sanders, of Simon ~%‘olcott of Winjsor₁ the Whole farm being by estimation ~Ninety.four Accres.’”

From Book I. “Simsbury Records”:

I, George Griswold. . . of Windsor, in consideration of the sum of one hundred and twenty pounds, paid by John Higley of Windsor, have sold. . . the moiety of one half of a certain ffarmme which was formerly bought of Mr. Simon Wolcott of Windsor, the whole farm being by estimation ninety-four acres more or less, situated on the westerly side of the river above the falls, and begins at a little brook by the river side, which brook bouma ft next to land I bought of John GrHTeo iz6 rods in breadth by the river, and runs from the river towards the uptani zo rods; the iand which was anyways granted or given to Simon Wolcott by the Inhabitants of the said town of Sims-bury, together with all buildings, edifices, fence,, orchards, gardens, and all other parts and appur. tences, as also; And moreover the moiety of one half of that parcel of land which Samuel Phelps and I, the aforesaid George Griswold bought of John Griffen the whole being about twenty acres lying on the same side of y river and abutting S. W. on the Aforementioned farm, easterly by the river, and north N. E. on Pickerall Cove.

Dated; This Second day of September, one thousand six hundred and eighty-four.

                                                                 “(Signed) Qxt:.oa OaiswoLo.”

An adjoining tract of land Is recorded as follows:

At a town meeting held “March ye 54 ,6~o, ~lven to Lleut. John Iligley a certain parcell of land lying without the tine that was laid out to Mr. Samuel Wolcott ft Is a kind of frog Pond; akoe there is thirty acres of land joins sd Ucut. John Higley’s on liii Jirook between his land and Salmon Brook path,” etc.

NOTa. —Many of the earliest papers concerning lands at Simabury were burned In 1676. Dr. Lucius I. Barber is authority for stating that there were also a number burned In an accidental fire which occurred about 1684.8$.

‘The present buildings on the” Town Farm” are upon the west side of the road, nearly opposite to the spot where John Hlgley’s house stood.

I Edward Egglelton, In Th~ CVNINYy, 1883.

“Smsbury Record* of Town Mcet1ng~,” book I. p. 34.

$ “ Simibury Records of Town Meetings,” book 1. p. 42.

­1 “Church membershIp, as In Massachuietis, was not a requWte quaUficatlon In she Connect I.

cut colony, for a fre~rnan,”—Pithifl’8 I1I:%*y, p.m.

‘Old Slm~bury Records.

‘Phelps’ “History of SlmsbUry,” p. 47. ‘Sim~buty Public Records.

401d 4~ecords of Congregadoflal Church Society, Slmsbuiy.