CHAPTER XL

 

PUBLIC LIFE OF CAPTAIN JOHN HIGLEY.

 

Man’s true fame must strflte from hs own deeds._MID01~^T~

 

 

IN political affairs the colonies were in disturbed relations with the transatlaflt~~ power. In i68S Charles IL died and James II. came to the throne of England. James followed in the wake of Charles as a tyrant. He soon began measures to have the Ameri­can colonies surrender their patents, and to unite them into prove inces under a goverflorge~at appointed by the Crown. In i686 the Connecticut General Assembly sent a petition to the king by a special representati~~, praying for the privilege’ to contiflUC its charter. The royal government turned a deaf ear to the request.

Sir Edmund AndrOS arrived in Boston in December of the same year, to assume the position of goverI1orgend1~ over New Eng­land. On the ₃ist of October, i687, AndroS, with a company of soldiers, came to Hartford while the General Assembly was in sessiofi, to which body he was courteoUSlY escorted by the train-bands. Ensign John Higley was present. Andros demanded the Connecticut charter, which, after a heated debate, prolonged until nightfall, was brought into the Assembly èhamber and laid upon the table.^t Suddenly the lights were extinguished, “leaving the chamber in complete darkness,” during whtch the charter was spirited away.

‘°Fhe tradition is that Captain Joseph Wadsworth was the bhief actor in this episode. The act has given his name a worthy place among those honored by Connecticut as patriots and heroes.” But that Captt~in Wadsworth had his helpers in the “irregular proceeding, who were at hand to assist in this shrewdly managed action, is plain to be seen.

Old prIvate MS. in the hands of the Higley descendants state positively that the document was given to their honored ances­tor, John Higley, that he mounted his horse and galloped off with it to Higley-tOWfl, where he kept it secreted six weeks, before it finally found its hiding~PIaCe in the hollow othe since famous oak tree in Hartford.

That there was a duplicate copy of the charter is well known, and whether this may have been the prize preserved by our worthy hero cannot be stated; indeed, it is not known how authentic is the story, which comes down to us direct, of his fast horseback ride through the forests bearing the valuable parchment to Higley­town; but since it is both possible and creditable, true to the old tradition we record it here, knowing that John Higley was a man equal to any great emergency, possessing bouyancY and great tact, full of clear grit and defiant courage.’

The tins were stirring, and the prominent men were on the keen alert during the critical situation, more especially that “it had been declared that the titles of the colonists to their lands were of no value, and Andros had said that Indian deeds were no better than ‘(he scraith of a bear’: ~au’.” Indeed many proprietors of lands “were obliged in many instances to take out new patents for their estates, for which a heavy fee was de­manded” It would seem a matter of course that, as a public’ spirited man, Ensign John Higley would be in Hartford watching with eager interest the proceedings. His fortune and his prop­erty were at stake. Besides, his military duties demanded his presence in Hartford with the train-band, of which he was a mem­ber, these having been ordered to the town on the day in question. He was also a member of the General Assembly.

Whether or not we may receive It as a quiet reward, or recogni­tion of his gallant deed, we find John Higley soon after coinmis­sioned by Governor Robert Treat as an officer of the militia, and bearing the distinction of ensign.^t This was, at that time, the highest military official in the town.

If a man played a distinguishing part in administrative affairs in those old days, it was a guarantee that he was of good character and good habits, and possessed well-balanced abilities, directed to ends valuable to the Commonwealth. Repeated and successive promotions signalized John Higley as having qualities of good fel­lowship which commanded the admiration and confidence of his townspeople and political associates.

On May 21, i688, he was chosen “commissioner for Sims-bury.” This invested him with the power of a public civil officer for his town, whose duty was “the dispensation of justice.” In August, 1687, he was chosen deputy to the General Assembly,’ and was elected to a seat in that body as a representative for thirty-seven terms, held during the twenty-two years following. During this long period of legislative service he received various appointments on committees of importance.

In May, 1690, the number of Simsbury soldiers having been in­creased, he~was promoted by the General Court to the grade of lieu. tenart,’ and in 1691 he was again recorded by act of the General Assembly a “commissioner,” which office he held by successive annual elections until the colonial legislature at the May term in 1693 “provided by law “a “Commission for Justices,” replacing the office formerly known as commissioner. To this office he received the first appointment for Hartford County, and filled it by annual election for twelve successive years. In i7iO he was appointed a “Justice of the Quorum,” an office akin to the county court. “Thus,” says Dr. L. I. Barber, “he was the first citizen of Sim~bury to hold the several offices of ‘Commissioner,’ ‘Justice of the County Court,’ and ‘Captain of the Malitia.’”

During these busy years In public affairs his comprehensive grasp and persistent industry caused his vocations tQ be diverse and numerous. In addition to serving upon important cornmittecs of the General Assembly, he was constantly engaged in the detail of town government. The town records abound in the use of his name associated with its various interests. Among other appointments it may be noted that he was again made chairman of a committee early in August, 1691, “to be active in ye procur­ing of a minister,” the Rev~ Edward Thompson’ declining longer to serve as pastor of the ~hurch.

Among other town improvements he was granted liberty at a town meeting held in February, 1697, “to set up a saw mill north on ]3issell’s Brook,” and the following year, in partnership with Daniel Adams, “to set up a Dam and Grist Mill in any streatil in town that they may choose.” By papers recorded at the settlement of his estate it is shown that he had beeii engaged in obtaining tar and turpentine from his “Pine plains.” Draft was made upon his time by frequent appointments to “lay out” lands. Among many appointments of like character, he “was empowered” by the General Assembly in 1698 to “lay out” a grant of two hundred acres to the Rev. Dudley Woodbridge, pas. tor of the church at Simsbury, and the next year he was chosen to “lay out to Mr. Henry Wolcott land formerly granted him.”

It must be remembered also, that he had a young and constantly increasing family to provide and care for, and the wilderness was in process of being turned into grain-bearing fields, while the scanty of laborers was severely felt.

He was all the while doing conspicuous and honorable service in the military line. In j6₉8,” there now being nine files of soldiers,” the number required to make up a full company, Lieutenant John Higley was advanced, by act of the General Assembly, to the rank of captain: “an office of great dignity in those days, and, with a single exception, the highest then known in the colony—each county having, as chief military officer, a sergeant-major.”

Training-day was usually a great public day. “It was in thesó days, when the people were assembled, that the town business was generally transacted. The train-bands contained sixty-four men, and some had morà than one hundred. No distinctive uniform was required before the Revolution. The men were armed with fire-locks [later called fiint.locksj and pikes, swords and cutlasses.”’

As a matter of course, they carried the British flag. Our fore­fathers were born and reared under the mother government, and they at this time had not a thought of breaking away from her. There was as yet no sight of “star and stripe “; our honored spangled banner that to-day floats forty-four stars was not then dreamed of.

“Those were the times when everything associated with the community revolved more or less around the Church,” says Senator Hawley, in a recent speech. “There were four great men in these towns, the first selectman, the captain of the militia, the preacher, and the schoolteacher. It was a military, if not a warlike, people. They were up to every demand of the king.”

“To the military organizations the meetinghouse was in some sense the center. The minister was summoned yearly to offer prayer upon the Green amid the assembled companies, and invited to dii~ with the officers. Should it rain beyond endur­ance on training-day, the meetinghouse was opened to protect the soldiers from drenching. Its sacred walls have many a time re’,erberated to drum and fife, and the tramp of files along the aisles, whik excited boys looked down from the gallery with won­der at so strange a spectacle.”

The mor&ng of th~ 4th of August, 1694, dawned with a cloud of heavy bereavement in the home of Captain John Higley; for it was on this day that the death of his estimable wife, Hannah Drake Higley, the beloved mother of his nine children, took place. She became his wife at the age of eighteen, and during the twenty-three years of their married life they had together divided many toilsome days. It is safe to say that few, if any, shadows had cast themselves over the domestic fireside. They had had much sunshine both outside and inside their home, and in material prosperity their feet had been on the continual ascent.

Hannah Drake witnessed the early struggles of her husband while seeking to get a start in life, and shared in the great battle of civilization, the dangers of a frontier home, the hard work, and the cares and solicitude of a growing family; and had stood strong while the husband and father had been occupied for several years in public and political engagements. Every day of her whole existence had been passed in the wilderness. She was born and bred within the nightly sounds of howling wolves, and was familiar with the prowling habits of the bear and the native wild animals of the forests. She had no practical knowledge of life away from the privations and inconveniences attendant upon the pioneer. She knew what it was to singe her hair, blister her hands, and scorch her clothing while cooking over an open fireplace, a method now growing to be. known only in the hunter’s camp and in history. The tread of her foot and the spinning~ wheel performed accompanying parts in the round of her daily duties, and her busy hands managed the loom. The minister, the teacher,* and the meetinghouse had been almost her only instructors. Yet she had a long lineage back of her, gifted with superior intellectual abilities, and with such antecedents and home-training, it is not surprising that her mind was cultivated to a considerable degree. Her parents and grandparents knew on coming to the wilderness that no greater stigma could rest upon them than that of leaving their children without the opportunity of an ordinary education, but for the most part it was the boys of the Puritan households, and not the girls, who received these advantages. The schoolhouse was planted simultaneously with the church,’ The course of education was limited to elementary groundwork. These were thoroughly taught; though it may be doubted whether Hannah Drake was ever a schoolgirl.’

The original old Puritans with whom her girlhood was spent, and their Sons and daughters who emigrated with them, brought to the new country habits of Intelligent observation and discussion, and shared with their children around the table the results of their acquaintance with the world; these children were taught to listen Intelligently, From these Hannah would naturally imbibe the knowledge that there was in the somewhere, a moving, restless, and busy world; but she had never seen it—her only glimpse of it had been at the stately ships which came to and fro ipto the Windsor port.

And yet, though she knew no people but a community “cradled in Christian faith,” and swarms of dusky Indians, she was familiar with the sea and its wonders, through voyages made by her kindred and those made by her husband. She must have been intelligently acquainted with social and political affairs, both in Great Britain and the Colonies, which were much talked of themes in every home circle, and in her father’s house she had always had the rare advantage of the constant association and instructive conversation of the Rev. Mr. Wareham,’ a man of high culture and superior attainments. And she shared too in the friendship and everyday interests of life with the Griswolds, the Wolcotts, and other notable families who were originally from the cultivated homes of England.

Such a life, trained in an industrial education, quickened the faculties, heightened the abilities, and gave that firmness of character which adorned the women of those times. As he~ children came into her arms one by one, no doubt her aspirations for them reached above the tree tops that swung over the roof of her home in the forests, and beyond the thickets and briers and brush that belted their domain.

And now that she had folded her arms and laid her down, and the grave closed over her while they were all yet young, she had done well her work. Every one of her children, as time brought them to mature years, took an honorable, and most of them a prominent position in interests connected with Church and com­munity, and were living evidences of the united care and training of their parents, as well as of the worthy example they set before them in right living.

Her grave, if it ever had a memorial stone, cannot be found— every vestige of it has been swept away by Time, that

“Old ruin-maker, gnawer of tombstones,

Father of buried centuries:

Who dost not hesitate to lay thine

Envious tooth upon the hardest monuments

That man bath reared.”

 

The following entry 18 preserved in the ancient Records at Simsbury:’

 

“Mrs. Hannah Higley, whose maiden name was Drake, departed this life In ye year of our Lord God i6~, August 4 day,”

 

 

$ The following entry In the Colonial RCCOrdC doubtless has reference to this scene:

“Sundry of the Court desIring the Patent or Charter might be brought lnto.thC Court, the Secretary sent for It and informed the Governor and Court that he had the Charter, and showed It to the Court, and the Governor bid him put It in The box again, and lay It on the table, and leave the key In the box, which he did forthw1th.”.Th~UUt~” /ll:4’ry

‘ “The Story of the Charter Oak,” by ~V. I. Fletcher, I.~brariafl, Connecticut flustoric*¹ SodetY.

‘“The extinguishment of the lights,” says Fletcher. “and the rcmoval of the Charter had been the act of a few private individuals, whose desire so save the precious document ex­ceeded their fear of the consequences to themselves of a rash and dangerous attempt. It was long before it was prudent so have the names of these men known, and the necessIty goes far to cx-plain the haziness of the history which has come down to us.”

“To complete the chapter Ii only remains to add that government under the Charter WM resumed In 1689, when, on the news of the revolution in England reaching Boston, Andros bad been arrested and 1mprIsoned,”F1e/~~4”* Sh’ry ii 1h~ CharI~t Oak.

“Connecticut obtained from the most able lawyers in England art opinion that the colony, not having surrsndered the Charter under seal, and no judgment being entered on record, the Charter was not ~ iii,io~kal C~!lecIIOMt. j). 23.

~ “Connecticut Historial ColIeCiiOfl5,” 1y John ~Yarner Barber.

­“Connecticut Colonial Records.”

~“M*y a,, *688.—At a General Town Meeting of the Inhabitants of Simabury Mr. John Higley was chosen Commissioner for the Town of Simabury, to attend to those Offices as by Law required of auth Commissioner,, and he ii to servo in ye place till ye next May come Twelve Month.”— Sirndury Ruard:, book 1. p 6~.

‘“General Court held at Hartford₈ Conn., October zo, 1687; Ensign John Higley, Deputy for Simsbury.”—Conieclicwl Colonial Record:.

‘“May Iran *690.—John Higley is allowed Lieutenant, and Thomna Barber Ensign of S1ms~ bury Train-band, and are to be Commlssloned,”—CQnCCIkNI Colon (a! Record:, vol. iv.

‘“ Connecticut Colonial Records,” vol. iv.

I For further particulars concerning Rev. Edward Thompsoai, see chapter xxi.

 

‘Phelps’ “History of Simibuty,” p. 8j. Also “nec Coion~al Records,” vol. v. “Lleut. John Higley was contirmed Captu of the Tra!n~band in the Town of Siinsbury, and

 

to be Commissioned Accordingly.”

$ Extracts from “History of Hartford County,” by J. Hammond Trumbull.

tUon. Joseph R. Hawley of Connecticut, at annual dinner₁ In New York City, of the New Eng­land Society.

‘“History of Hartford County,” by J. Hammond Trumbull.

Training..day was a holiday observel so essentially the same In each town that bad its military company, that the description given of one will belong to all.— ED.

installed teacher was connected with many New En~and churches in the early times. “It was the general opinion that the pastor’s work consisted principally In exhortation but the teacher’s business was ~o teach, explain, and defend the doctrines of Christiau1ty.”—~sar~(r’, Ni:i’orlcal Colledi,,a, p. 128.

I~h~tj were ~ once established, fly ai~ early statute it was ordered that ^4tevery town con­taining thirty families shall maintain a school to teach reading and writing, and that every county town should have a Latin school. Tt~e pupils were grounded in reading, writing, and the cate­chlsm.”—/Iislary ofilarl/ord C~srn.~p, ⁴y/. !Iam,op,€j Tr,~,,,.4wg, )1. 3S4.

‘Old busines, accounts and receipts c~lde~ce that Captain Higicy’s daughters were taught the elementary branches of education.

‘See chapier Hi.                                                        

‘Book 1. leaf ~.