Thomas Hooker

Settlers continued to arrive from Massachusetts either by land or by water, actuated by land hunger and stirred to movement westward by the same driving impulse that for years to come was to populate the frontier wherever it stretched.

the territory thus possessed was claimed at first by massachusetts on the theory that the southern line of the colony if extended westward would include this portion of the connecticut river it was also claimed by the group of english lords and gentlemen say and seal brooke and other puritans who as they supposed had obtained through the earl of warwick from the new england council a grant of land extending west and southwest from narragansett bay forty leagues these claims were of course irreconcilable but the english lords in order to assert their title sent over in twenty servants known as the stiles party who reached connecticut in the summer of that year thus by autumn there were on the ground four sets of rival claimants the dutch the plymouth traders various emigrants from massachusetts chiefly from the town of dorchester and the stiles party representing the english lords and gentlemen their relations were not harmonious for the dutch tried to drive out the plymouth traders and the latter resented in their turn the attempt of the dorchester men to occupy their lands the matter was to be settled not by force but by weight of numbers and soundness of title in sixteen thirty five a new and larger migration was under consideration in massachusetts prompted by various motives partly personal as shown in the rivalries of strong men in a colony already overstocked with leaders partly material as indicated by the desire for whiter fields for cultivation and especially good pasture and partly political as evidenced by the dislike on the part of many for the power of the elders and magistrates in massachusetts and by the strong inclination of masterful men toward a government of their own thomas hooker the pastor of the newtown church john haines the governor of massachusetts in sixteen thirty five and roger ludlow a former magistrate and deputy governor who had failed of election to the magistracy in the same year were the leaders of the movement and if we may judge from later events were believers in certain political ideas that were not finding application in the bay colony disappointed because of the rigidity of the massachusetts system they seemed to have waited for an opportunity to put into practice the principles which they believed essential to the true government of a people when the decision was finally reached and certain of the inhabitants of newtown watertown and roxbury were ready to enter on their removal the question naturally arose as to the title to the territory in june sixteen thirty five massachusetts had asserted her claim by exercising a sort of supervision over those who had already gone to connecticut but in october john winthrop jr the rev hugh peters and henry vane arrived from england with authority from the lords and gentlemen to push their claim and winthrop actually bore a commission as governor of the entire territory which included connecticut it is hardly possible that hooker and haynes would have ignored the demands of these agents and yet to acknowledge winthrop as their governor would have been to accept a head who was not of their own choosing in all probability some arrangement was made with winthrop according to which the englishman's title to the lands was recognized but at the same time the connecticut settlers were to have full powers of self-government and the question of a governor was left for the moment undecided winthrop confining his jurisdiction to saybrook the settlement which he was to promote at the mouth of the river this agreement was embodied in a commission which was drawn up by the massachusetts general court and issued in march sixteen thirty six on behalf of our said members and john winthrop jr and was to last for one year who actually wrote this commission we do not know but the connecticut men said afterwards that it arose from the desire of the people who removed because they did not want to go away without a frame of government agreed on beforehand and did not want to recognize any claims of the massachusetts jurisdiction over them by virtue of patents apparently the people going to connecticut wanted to get as far away from massachusetts as possible Armed with their commission in the summer of 1636, members of the Newtown Church, to the number of about 100 persons, led by Thomas Hooker, their pastor, and Samuel Stone, his assistant, made a famous pilgrimage under summer skies through the woods that lay between Massachusetts and the Connecticut River, burying Mrs. Hooker in a litter and driving their cattle before them.

these courageous pioneers men women and children after a fortnight's journeying reached hartford the site of their future home already occupied by those who had foregathered there in number larger even than those who had newly arrived at about the same time william pinchin and others of roxbury acting from similar motives took the same course westward but instead of continuing down the connecticut river as the others had done stopped at its banks and made their settlement at agawam springfield where they built a warehouse and a wharf for use in trade with the indians the lower settlements hartford weathersfield and windsor became agricultural communities but springfield standing at the junction of indian trails and river communication was destined to become the center of the beaver trade of the region shipping furs and receiving commodities through boston either in shallops around the cape or on pack horses overland by the path the emigrants had trod pension settlement was one of the towns named in the commission and for the first year after it was founded joined with the others in maintaining order in the colony the commission government came to an end in march sixteen thirty seven and there is reason to think that during the last month an election of committees took place in hartford wethersfield and windsor which would show that the connecticut settlers were exercising the privilege of the franchise more than a year before hooker preached his famous sermon declaring that the right of government lay in the people

This is Troy Millings from Earn Your Leisure.

rhode island connecticut and new hampshire mainly offshoots from massachusetts they were founded by small bodies of men and women united in solemn covenants with the lord who planted their settlements in the wilderness Not until many a year after Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson conducted their followers to the Narragansett country was Rhode Island granted a charter of incorporation, 1663, by the Crown.

Not until long after the congregation of Thomas Hooker from Newtown blazed the way into the Connecticut River Valley did the King of England give Connecticut a charter of its own, 1662, and a place among the colonies.

Half a century elapsed before the towns laid out beyond the Merrimack River by immigrants from Massachusetts were formed into the Royal Province of New Hampshire in 1679.

This

Colonel William Whiting, who brought the name to America, belonged to the Suffolk branch of the family, and came with his wife Susanna from Yarmouth on the east coast.

With about a hundred others they founded the city of Hartford, Connecticut, and became members of the first church established there under the animated and able ministry of the Reverend Thomas Hooker.

Footnote.

The old records show that Colonel William Whiting was one of the civil and religious fathers of Connecticut, magistrate of the colony and treasurer until his death.