Jump to content

Saybrook Colony: Difference between revisions

Coordinates: 41°17′06″N 72°21′29″W / 41.285°N 72.358°W / 41.285; -72.358
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
 
(15 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|English colony in North America (1635–1644)}}
{{Short description|English colony in North America (1635–1644)}}
{{good article}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2023}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2023}}
Line 5: Line 6:
|conventional_long_name = Saybrook Colony
|conventional_long_name = Saybrook Colony
|common_name = Saybrook
|common_name = Saybrook
|status = Colony of England
|status = [[Self-governing colony]] of England
|government_type = [[Self-governing colony]]
|event_start =
|event_start =
|year_start = 1635
|year_start = 1635
Line 41: Line 41:


==History==
==History==
The area that would become the site of the colony was originally inhabited by the [[Niantic people]], however, early in the 17th century the Niantic were pushed out of the land by the neighboring [[Pequot]].<ref name=SCW>{{citeweb | title=1635 — Saybrook |url=https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1635.htm |publisher=[[General Society of Colonial Wars]] |website=colonialwarsct.org}}</ref>
The area that would become the site of the colony was originally inhabited by the [[Niantic people]], however, early in the 17th century the Niantic were pushed out of the land by the neighboring [[Pequot]].<ref name=SCW>{{cite web | title=1635 — Saybrook |url=https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1635.htm |publisher=[[General Society of Colonial Wars]] |website=colonialwarsct.org}}</ref>


In 1614 Dutch explorer [[Adriaen Block]] was sent to explore eastern New Netherland, in the process becoming the first European to sail up the Connecticut River. The Dutch, fearing English expansion in the region, sent a group of settlers from [[New Amsterdam]] in 1623. This effort would be unsuccessful and the settlers would return after a few months.<ref>{{citeweb |title=Our History |url=https://www.oldsaybrookct.gov/welcome-old-saybrook/pages/our-history|website= Old Saybrook |publisher=Town of Old Saybrook}}</ref> Dutch efforts to colonize the area were revived in 1632 when [[New Netherland]] director [[Wouter van Twiller]] sent Hans Eechyus to purchase land at the mouth of the Connecticut River from the local Indians. Eechyus subsequently built a fur trading post there and named it Kievet's Hook.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://saybrookhistory.org/history-of-old-saybrook/ |title=History of Old Saybrook |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website=Saybrook History |publisher=Old Saybrook Historical Society |access-date= |quote=}}</ref>
In 1614 Dutch explorer [[Adriaen Block]] was sent to explore eastern New Netherland, in the process becoming the first European to sail up the Connecticut River. The Dutch, fearing English expansion in the region, sent a group of settlers from [[New Amsterdam]] in 1623. This effort would be unsuccessful and the settlers would return after a few months.<ref>{{cite web |title=Our History |url=https://www.oldsaybrookct.gov/welcome-old-saybrook/pages/our-history|website= Old Saybrook |publisher=Town of Old Saybrook}}</ref> Dutch efforts to colonize the area were revived in 1632 when [[New Netherland]] director [[Wouter van Twiller]] sent Hans Eechyus to purchase land at the mouth of the Connecticut River from the local Indians. Eechyus subsequently built a fur trading post there and named it Kievet's Hook.<ref>{{cite book |title=History of New Netherland |last=O'Callaghan |first=Edmund Bailey |date=1848 |volume=1 |series=New York Heritage Series |page=149}}</ref>


In 1631 [[Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick]], president of the [[Council for New England]], granted a patent to a group of Puritan noblemen giving them the right to all the land from the [[Narragansett Bay]] to the [[Pacific Ocean]].<ref name=statelib></ref><ref name=andrews>{{Cite book|last=Andrews|first=Charles McLean|title=The Colonial Period of American History – The Beginnings of Connecticut 1632–1662|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1934|volume=II}}</ref> Warwick lacked the authority to grant this patent without the rest of the Council's approval, but plans for colonization proceeded anyway.<ref>{{citeweb |title =Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick (5 June 1587 – 19 April 1658) |url=https://www.warwickhistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=275:robert-rich-2nd-earl-of-warwick-5-june-1587-19-april-1658&catid=57&Itemid=130 |website=WarwickHistory.com |publisher= Warwick Digital History Project}}</ref><ref name=statelib>{{citeweb |url=https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/hg/colonialresearch/warwickpatent |publisher=[[Connecticut State Library]] |title=What is the Warwick Patent?}}</ref><ref name="hands">{{Cite journal |last=Hugh R. Engstrom |first=Jr. |date=1973 |title=Sir Arthur Hesilrige and the Saybrook Colony |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4048260 |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies |publisher=Albion |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=157–168 |doi=10.2307/4048260 |issn=0095-1390}}</ref>The founders of the English colony were ardent [[Puritans]] and Parliamentarians, with the colony's founders hoping it would serve as a possible political refuge from [[Charles I of England|Charles I]]. Besides the eponymous Viscount Saye and Sele and Baron Brooke, the group of investors included future Lord Protector [[Oliver Cromwell]], [[John Hampden]], [[Arthur Hesilrige]], and [[John Pym]].<ref name=dunn></ref><ref>{{citebook |title=The Story of the Embarkation of Cromwell and His Friends for New England |last=Dean |first=John Ward |date=1866}}</ref> The investment group had previously funded the failed colonies of [[Providence Island colony|Providence Island]] and [[Cocheco]].<ref name=hands></ref><ref name=pdfoshs>{{citeweb |title=Why did an English “investment club” establish the Saybrook Colony? (Part II) |url=https://saybrookhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/English-Investment-Club-part-II-Jan-22.pdf|author=Lamar LeMonte |website=Saybrook History |publisher= Old Saybrook Historical Society |date=2022-01-22}}</ref> The Puritan gentlemen, however, were not allowed to leave England and found it difficult to discretely sell their English estates. By September of 1635, reports of the gentlemen's intentions had spread and they dared not attempt to emigrate. The investors instead offered to join the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] on the condition that they be established in the Massachusetts government as a hereditary nobility, a condition rejected by the colony due to its lack of a requirement that [[Freeman (Thirteen Colonies)|freemen]] be church members.<ref name=dunn></ref><ref name=hands></ref>
In 1631 [[Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick]], president of the [[Council for New England]], granted a patent to a group of Puritan noblemen giving them the right to all the land from the [[Narragansett Bay]] to the [[Pacific Ocean]].<ref name=statelib></ref><ref name=andrews>{{Cite book|last=Andrews|first=Charles McLean|title=The Colonial Period of American History – The Beginnings of Connecticut 1632–1662|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1934|volume=II}}</ref> Warwick lacked the authority to grant this patent without the rest of the Council's approval, but plans for colonization proceeded anyway.<ref name=statelib>{{cite web |url=https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/hg/colonialresearch/warwickpatent |publisher=[[Connecticut State Library]] |title=What is the Warwick Patent?}}</ref><ref name="hands">{{Cite journal |last=Hugh R. Engstrom |first=Jr. |date=1973 |title=Sir Arthur Hesilrige and the Saybrook Colony |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4048260 |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies |publisher=Albion |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=157–168 |doi=10.2307/4048260 |jstor=4048260 |issn=0095-1390}}</ref>The founders of the English colony were ardent [[Puritans]] and Parliamentarians, with the colony's founders hoping it would serve as a possible political refuge from [[Charles I of England|Charles I]]. Besides the eponymous Viscount Saye and Sele and Baron Brooke, the group of investors included future Lord Protector [[Oliver Cromwell]], [[John Hampden]], [[Arthur Hesilrige]], and [[John Pym]].<ref name=dunn></ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Story of the Embarkation of Cromwell and His Friends for New England |last=Dean |first=John Ward |date=1866}}</ref> The investment group had previously funded the failed colonies of [[Providence Island colony|Providence Island]] and [[Cocheco]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uD8OAAAAIAAJ |title=The History of New Hampshire |last=Belknap |first=Jeremy |date=1812 |page=5}}</ref><ref name=hands></ref> The Puritan gentlemen, however, were not allowed to leave England and found it difficult to discretely sell their English estates. By September of 1635, reports of the gentlemen's intentions had spread and they dared not attempt to emigrate. The investors instead offered to join the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] on the condition that they be established in the Massachusetts government as a hereditary nobility, a condition rejected by the colony due to its lack of a requirement that [[Freeman (Thirteen Colonies)|freemen]] be church members.<ref name=dunn></ref><ref name=hands></ref>


John Winthrop Jr. of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was hired to remove the Dutch from the area and did so with a group of twenty men and two cannons. When his men found the coat of arms of the [[Dutch West India Company]] nailed to a tree, they took it down and replaced it with a shield with a smiling face. Shortly after the seizure a Dutch ship came to the rivers mouth but was intimidated by the English cannons, surrendering the fort to English control.<ref name=masterplan>{{citeweb |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112089680935 |title=Fort Saybrook, a historical monument, Old Saybrook, Connecticut : master plan report |publisher=Connecticut State Park and Forest Commission}}</ref> After establishing the colony, Winthrop named it in honor of [[William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele]] and [[Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke]], prominent [[Roundhead|Parliamentarians]] and the principal investors in the colony.<ref name=MCH></ref>
John Winthrop Jr. of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was hired to remove the Dutch from the area and did so with a group of twenty men and two cannons. When his men found the coat of arms of the [[Dutch West India Company]] nailed to a tree, they took it down and replaced it with a shield with a smiling face. Shortly after the seizure a Dutch ship came to the rivers mouth but was intimidated by the English cannons, surrendering the fort to English control.<ref name=masterplan>{{cite web |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112089680935 |title=Fort Saybrook, a historical monument, Old Saybrook, Connecticut : master plan report |publisher=Connecticut State Park and Forest Commission|hdl=2027/uiug.30112089680935 }}</ref><ref name=olde></ref> After establishing the colony, Winthrop named it in honor of [[William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele]] and [[Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke]], prominent [[Roundhead|Parliamentarians]] and the principal investors in the colony.<ref name=MCH></ref>


After securing the area from the Dutch, Winthrop, along with [[Hugh Peter]] and [[Henry Vane the Younger]] spent the winter of 1635-36 attempting to convince the settlers of the [[Connecticut Valley]], who had occupied much of the best land under the colony's charter, to respect the authority of the new colony. Unfortunately, Winthrop was given no instructions on incorporating these settlers into the colonial government and Winthrop was unwilling to acquiesce to the gentlemen investors demands of securing large plots of lands for themselves. Winthrop finally arrived in the colony in April of 1636, but seeing a lack of funding, settlers unwilling to accept the colony's authority, and hostile Indians, returned to Boston just a few months into his year long contract as governor, leaving [[Lion Gardiner]] in charge of the fort.<ref name=MCH>{{citeweb |url=https://museumofcthistory.org/2015/08/john-winthrop-jr/ |title=John Winthrop, Jr. |publisher=Museum of Connecticut History}}</ref><ref name=dunn>{{Cite book|last=Dunn|first=Richard S.|url=https://archive.org/details/puritansyankeesw0000dunn_o7u0/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater|title=Puritans and Yankees: The Winthrop Dynasty of New England|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1962|location=Princeton, NJ|jstor=j.ctt183q261|isbn=9780691045610 |lccn=62007400|access-date=December 8, 2021|url-access=registration |pages=66-69}}</ref>
After securing the area from the Dutch, Winthrop, along with [[Hugh Peter]] and [[Henry Vane the Younger]] spent the winter of 1635-36 attempting to convince the settlers of the [[Connecticut Valley]], who had occupied much of the best land under the colony's charter, to respect the authority of the new colony. Unfortunately, Winthrop was given no instructions on incorporating these settlers into the colonial government and Winthrop was unwilling to acquiesce to the gentlemen investors demands of securing large plots of lands for themselves. Winthrop finally arrived in the colony in April of 1636, but seeing a lack of funding, settlers unwilling to accept the colony's authority, and hostile Indians, returned to Boston just a few months into his year long contract as governor, leaving [[Lion Gardiner]] in charge of the fort.<ref name=MCH>{{cite web |url=https://museumofcthistory.org/2015/08/john-winthrop-jr/ |title=John Winthrop, Jr. |date=August 14, 2015 |publisher=Museum of Connecticut History}}</ref><ref name=dunn>{{Cite book|last=Dunn|first=Richard S.|url=https://archive.org/details/puritansyankeesw0000dunn_o7u0/page/n7/mode/2up?view=theater|title=Puritans and Yankees: The Winthrop Dynasty of New England|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1962|location=Princeton, NJ|jstor=j.ctt183q261|isbn=9780691045610 |lccn=62007400|access-date=December 8, 2021|url-access=registration |pages=66–69}}</ref>
[[File:Saybrook Fort in 1636 (NYPL Hades-265476-478603).jpg|thumb|Illustration of Saybrook Fort in 1636|left]]
[[File:Saybrook Fort in 1636 (NYPL Hades-265476-478603).jpg|thumb|Illustration of Saybrook Fort in 1636|left]]
The three doors of Fort Saybrook were ten feet high and four feet wide, encircling an area of two hundred square feet.<ref>{{citebook |title=The Papers and Biography of Lion Gardiner |page=34 |last=Gardiner |first=Lion |author-link=Lion Gardiner |editor=Curtiss C. Gardiner |url=https:/upwiki/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/The_papers_and_biography_of_Lion_Gardiner%2C_1599-1663_%28IA_papersbiographyo01gard%29.pdf}}</ref><ref name=geo>{{citebook |title=Connecticut, A Geography |last1=Lewis |first1=Thomas R. |last2=Harmon |first2=John E. |publisher=Westview Press |page=52}}</ref> Several of the colony's settlers were veterans of the [[Thirty Years' War]].<ref name=pequot>{{citeweb |title=The Siege and Battle of Saybrook Fort |url=http://pequotwar.org/archaeology/overview-siege-and-battle-of-saybrook-fort/ |website=PequotWar.org |publisher=Battlefields of the Pequot War}}</ref> Among these settlers was Lion Gardiner, who was in charge of constructing the fort and planning the town.<ref name=gardinerad>{{cite journal |last=Games |first=Alison |date=2011 |title=Anglo-Dutch Connections and Overseas Enterprises: A Global Perspective on Lion Gardiner's World |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23547655 |journal=Early American Studies |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=435-461}}</ref> As the fort was being constructed, Gardiner's wife Mary gave birth to a son, David, the first European child born in Connecticut.<ref name=SCW></ref> The defensive precautions would prove useful when during the Pequot War the colony withstood a siege from September 1636 to April 1637, the longest engagement of the war.<ref name=Britannica>{{citeweb |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pequot-War |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Britannica |title=Pequot War}}</ref> The fort lasted from 1635 to the winter of 1647/48 when it burned down, though it was quickly replaced with another fort closer to the river.<ref name=pequot></ref><ref>{{citeweb |title=Why did George Fenwick come back to Saybrook? Why did he not stay? |last=LeMonte |first=Lamar |date=2022 |publisher=Old Saybrook Historical Society |url=https://saybrookhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/16.-George-Fenwick-Jun-22.pdf}}</ref>
The three doors of Fort Saybrook were ten feet high and four feet wide, encircling an area of two hundred square feet.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Papers and Biography of Lion Gardiner |page=34 |last=Gardiner |first=Lion |author-link=Lion Gardiner |editor=Curtiss C. Gardiner |url=https:/upwiki/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/The_papers_and_biography_of_Lion_Gardiner%2C_1599-1663_%28IA_papersbiographyo01gard%29.pdf}}</ref><ref name=geo>{{cite book |title=Connecticut, A Geography |last1=Lewis |first1=Thomas R. |last2=Harmon |first2=John E. |publisher=Westview Press |page=52}}</ref> Several of the colony's settlers were veterans of the [[Thirty Years' War]].<ref name=pequot>{{cite web |title=The Siege and Battle of Saybrook Fort |url=http://pequotwar.org/archaeology/overview-siege-and-battle-of-saybrook-fort/ |website=PequotWar.org |publisher=Battlefields of the Pequot War}}</ref> Among these settlers was Lion Gardiner, who was in charge of constructing the fort and planning the town.<ref name=gardinerad>{{cite journal |last=Games |first=Alison |date=2011 |title=Anglo-Dutch Connections and Overseas Enterprises: A Global Perspective on Lion Gardiner's World |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/23547655 |journal=Early American Studies |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=435–461|doi=10.1353/eam.2011.0012 |jstor=23547655 }}</ref> As the fort was being constructed, Gardiner's wife Mary gave birth to a son, David, the first European child born in Connecticut.<ref name=SCW></ref> The defensive precautions would prove useful when during the Pequot War the colony withstood a siege from September 1636 to April 1637, the longest engagement of the war.<ref name=Britannica>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pequot-War |website=Britannica.com |publisher=Britannica |title=Pequot War|date=September 17, 2024 }}</ref> The fort lasted from 1635 to the winter of 1647/48 when it burned down, though it was quickly replaced with another fort closer to the river.<ref name=pequot></ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Why did George Fenwick come back to Saybrook? Why did he not stay? |last=LeMonte |first=Lamar |date=2022 |publisher=Old Saybrook Historical Society |url=https://saybrookhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/16.-George-Fenwick-Jun-22.pdf}}</ref>


In 1639 George Fenwick arrived in the colony to replace Winthrop as governor.<ref name=natbio></ref> The colony would soon struggle with the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, with the colony's backers canceling plans to settle in Saybrook, instead deciding to fight for the Parliamentarian cause.<ref name=bigbook>{{citebook |title=Connecticut |last=Van Dusen |first=Albert E. |publisher=Random House New York}}</ref> With English support lost, Fenwick negotiated to sell the colony to the neighboring Connecticut Colony for an annual payment of 130 pounds, one third wheat, one third peas, and one third rye or barley.<ref>{{citeweb |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/main-stream-new-england |title=The Main Stream Of New England |last=Grant |first=Ellsworth S. |publisher=[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]]}}</ref> After selling the colony, Fenwick returned to England where he served as a colonel in the Civil War and became [[Long Parliament|Member of Parliament]] for [[Morpeth (UK Parliament constituency)|Morpeth]] and later governor of [[Berwick-upon-Tweed]].<ref name=natbio>
In 1639 George Fenwick arrived in the colony to replace Winthrop as governor.<ref name=natbio></ref> The colony would soon struggle with the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, with the colony's backers canceling plans to settle in Saybrook, instead deciding to fight for the Parliamentarian cause.<ref name=bigbook>{{cite book |title=Connecticut |last=Van Dusen |first=Albert E. |publisher=Random House New York}}</ref> With English support lost, Fenwick negotiated to sell the colony to the neighboring Connecticut Colony for an annual payment of 180 pounds, one third wheat, one third peas, and one third rye or barley.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/main-stream-new-england |title=The Main Stream Of New England |last=Grant |first=Ellsworth S. |publisher=[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]]}}</ref> After selling the colony, Fenwick returned to England where he served as a colonel in the Civil War and became [[Long Parliament|Member of Parliament]] for [[Morpeth (UK Parliament constituency)|Morpeth]] and later governor of [[Berwick-upon-Tweed]].<ref name=natbio>
{{citebook |first=Charles Harding |last=Firth|title=Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900 |volume=18 |page=328}}</ref>
{{cite book |first=Charles Harding |last=Firth|title=Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900 |volume=18 |page=328}}</ref>


==Legacy==
==Legacy==
Though he ultimately decided not to settle in Saybrook, Cromwell was long warmly regarded by the Puritan New Englanders. He was often referred to by his first name Oliver, including by [[John Adams]].<ref>{{citeweb |title=From John Adams to Unknown, 27 April 1777 |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-05-02-0096 |publisher=[[University of Virginia Press]] |website=Founders Online}}</ref> The name Oliver remained popular in New England well after his death, despite waning in popularity in England. The town of [[Cromwell, Connecticut]] was also named in his honor. As late as 1864, town residents could still recall the plots of land that were to be assigned to the Puritan lords.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Young|first=Alfred A.|title=The Origins of Anglo American Radicalism|publisher=Humanities Press International|year=1991|isbn=978-1-57392-289-0|editor-last=Jacob|editor-first=Margret C.|location=New Jersey|pages=195-197|chapter=English Plebeian Culture and 18th Century American Radicalism|lccn=90023163|editor-last2=Jacob|editor-first2=James R.}}</ref>
Though he ultimately decided not to settle in Saybrook, Cromwell was long warmly regarded by the Puritan New Englanders. He was often referred to by his first name Oliver, including by [[John Adams]].<ref>{{cite web |title=From John Adams to Unknown, 27 April 1777 |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-05-02-0096 |publisher=[[University of Virginia Press]] |website=Founders Online}}</ref> The name Oliver remained popular in New England well after his death, despite waning in popularity in England. The town of [[Cromwell, Connecticut]] was also named in his honor. As late as 1864, town residents could still recall the plots of land that were to be assigned to the Puritan lords.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Young|first=Alfred A.|title=The Origins of Anglo American Radicalism|publisher=Humanities Press International|year=1991|isbn=978-1-57392-289-0|editor-last=Jacob|editor-first=Margret C.|location=New Jersey|pages=195–197|chapter=English Plebeian Culture and 18th Century American Radicalism|lccn=90023163|editor-last2=Jacob|editor-first2=James R.}}</ref>


The badge of [[Yale]]'s [[Saybrook College]] is derived from the seal of the colony.<ref>{{citeweb |url=https://saybrook.yalecollege.yale.edu/about-saybrook/college-arms-and-badge |publisher=Yale University |title=The College Arms and Badge}}</ref> The seal also established grapevines as a symbol of Connecticut.<ref name=ctinsider></ref>
The badge of [[Yale]]'s [[Saybrook College]] is derived from the seal of the colony.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://saybrook.yalecollege.yale.edu/about-saybrook/college-arms-and-badge |publisher=Yale University |title=The College Arms and Badge}}</ref> The seal also established grapevines as a symbol of Connecticut.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.estuarymagazine.com/2020/06/lady-fenwick/ |title=Lady Fenwick |last=Griswold |first=Wick |publisher=Estuary Magazine}}</ref>


The colony's motto ''Qui Transtulit Sustinet'' "He Who Transplanted Still Sustains" remains the motto of Connecticut today.<ref name=ctinsider></ref>
The colony's motto ''Qui Transtulit Sustinet'' "He Who Transplanted Still Sustains" remains the motto of Connecticut today.<ref name=government>{{cite web |url=https://portal.ct.gov/about/state-symbols/the-state-motto |title=The State Motto |website=CT.gov}}</ref>


Fenwick's wife, Lady Alice Fenwick, was the first white woman with a tombstone in Connecticut. She would end up becoming a subject of local lore.<ref name=ctinsider>{{citeweb |url=https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticutmagazine/history/article/lady-fenwick-old-saybrook-ct-18552047.php |title=Who was Old Saybrook's Lady Fenwick? Exploring the truth about the Colonial legend |last=Ofgang |first=Erik}}</ref>
Fenwick's wife, Lady Anne Butler, was the first white woman in Connecticut. She would end up becoming a subject of local lore after her tombstone was removed to make room for a railroad.<ref name=olde>{{cite book |title=In Olde Connecticut|date=1906 |last=Todd |first=Charles Burr |publisher=Grafton Press |pages=52–60}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==

Latest revision as of 17:49, 21 November 2024

Saybrook Colony
1635–1644
Seal of Saybrook
Seal
Map of Connecticut annotated to show its colonial history and the establishment of its modern borders
Map of Connecticut annotated to show its colonial history and the establishment of its modern borders
StatusSelf-governing colony of England
CapitalSaybrook
Common languagesEnglish
Religion
Puritanism
Governor 
• 1635-1637
John Winthrop the Younger
• 1637-1639
Lion Gardiner (de facto)
• 1639-1644
George Fenwick
History 
• Established
1635
• Merged with Connecticut Colony
1644
CurrencyPound sterling
 Succeeded by
Connecticut Colony

The Saybrook Colony was a short-lived English colony established in New England in 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in what is today Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Saybrook was founded by a group of Puritan noblemen as a potential political refuge from the personal rule of Charles I. They claimed possession of the land via a deed of conveyance from Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, which granted the colony the land from the Narragansett Bay to the Pacific Ocean. Saybrook was named in honor of two of its primary investors, the Lords Saye and Sele and Brooke. John Winthrop the Younger was contracted as the colony's first governor, but quickly left Saybrook after failing to enforce its authority over Connecticut's settlers. With Winthrop gone, Lion Gardiner was left in charge of Saybrook's considerable fort, defending it when it was besieged during the Pequot War. Governor George Fenwick arrived in the colony in 1639, but quickly saw it as a lost cause. Fenwick negotiated the colony's sale to Connecticut in 1644 after interest in colonization dried up due to the investors' involvement in the English Civil War.

History

[edit]

The area that would become the site of the colony was originally inhabited by the Niantic people, however, early in the 17th century the Niantic were pushed out of the land by the neighboring Pequot.[1]

In 1614 Dutch explorer Adriaen Block was sent to explore eastern New Netherland, in the process becoming the first European to sail up the Connecticut River. The Dutch, fearing English expansion in the region, sent a group of settlers from New Amsterdam in 1623. This effort would be unsuccessful and the settlers would return after a few months.[2] Dutch efforts to colonize the area were revived in 1632 when New Netherland director Wouter van Twiller sent Hans Eechyus to purchase land at the mouth of the Connecticut River from the local Indians. Eechyus subsequently built a fur trading post there and named it Kievet's Hook.[3]

In 1631 Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, president of the Council for New England, granted a patent to a group of Puritan noblemen giving them the right to all the land from the Narragansett Bay to the Pacific Ocean.[4][5] Warwick lacked the authority to grant this patent without the rest of the Council's approval, but plans for colonization proceeded anyway.[4][6]The founders of the English colony were ardent Puritans and Parliamentarians, with the colony's founders hoping it would serve as a possible political refuge from Charles I. Besides the eponymous Viscount Saye and Sele and Baron Brooke, the group of investors included future Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, John Hampden, Arthur Hesilrige, and John Pym.[7][8] The investment group had previously funded the failed colonies of Providence Island and Cocheco.[9][6] The Puritan gentlemen, however, were not allowed to leave England and found it difficult to discretely sell their English estates. By September of 1635, reports of the gentlemen's intentions had spread and they dared not attempt to emigrate. The investors instead offered to join the Massachusetts Bay Colony on the condition that they be established in the Massachusetts government as a hereditary nobility, a condition rejected by the colony due to its lack of a requirement that freemen be church members.[7][6]

John Winthrop Jr. of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was hired to remove the Dutch from the area and did so with a group of twenty men and two cannons. When his men found the coat of arms of the Dutch West India Company nailed to a tree, they took it down and replaced it with a shield with a smiling face. Shortly after the seizure a Dutch ship came to the rivers mouth but was intimidated by the English cannons, surrendering the fort to English control.[10][11] After establishing the colony, Winthrop named it in honor of William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele and Robert Greville, 2nd Baron Brooke, prominent Parliamentarians and the principal investors in the colony.[12]

After securing the area from the Dutch, Winthrop, along with Hugh Peter and Henry Vane the Younger spent the winter of 1635-36 attempting to convince the settlers of the Connecticut Valley, who had occupied much of the best land under the colony's charter, to respect the authority of the new colony. Unfortunately, Winthrop was given no instructions on incorporating these settlers into the colonial government and Winthrop was unwilling to acquiesce to the gentlemen investors demands of securing large plots of lands for themselves. Winthrop finally arrived in the colony in April of 1636, but seeing a lack of funding, settlers unwilling to accept the colony's authority, and hostile Indians, returned to Boston just a few months into his year long contract as governor, leaving Lion Gardiner in charge of the fort.[12][7]

Illustration of Saybrook Fort in 1636

The three doors of Fort Saybrook were ten feet high and four feet wide, encircling an area of two hundred square feet.[13][14] Several of the colony's settlers were veterans of the Thirty Years' War.[15] Among these settlers was Lion Gardiner, who was in charge of constructing the fort and planning the town.[16] As the fort was being constructed, Gardiner's wife Mary gave birth to a son, David, the first European child born in Connecticut.[1] The defensive precautions would prove useful when during the Pequot War the colony withstood a siege from September 1636 to April 1637, the longest engagement of the war.[17] The fort lasted from 1635 to the winter of 1647/48 when it burned down, though it was quickly replaced with another fort closer to the river.[15][18]

In 1639 George Fenwick arrived in the colony to replace Winthrop as governor.[19] The colony would soon struggle with the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, with the colony's backers canceling plans to settle in Saybrook, instead deciding to fight for the Parliamentarian cause.[20] With English support lost, Fenwick negotiated to sell the colony to the neighboring Connecticut Colony for an annual payment of 180 pounds, one third wheat, one third peas, and one third rye or barley.[21] After selling the colony, Fenwick returned to England where he served as a colonel in the Civil War and became Member of Parliament for Morpeth and later governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed.[19]

Legacy

[edit]

Though he ultimately decided not to settle in Saybrook, Cromwell was long warmly regarded by the Puritan New Englanders. He was often referred to by his first name Oliver, including by John Adams.[22] The name Oliver remained popular in New England well after his death, despite waning in popularity in England. The town of Cromwell, Connecticut was also named in his honor. As late as 1864, town residents could still recall the plots of land that were to be assigned to the Puritan lords.[23]

The badge of Yale's Saybrook College is derived from the seal of the colony.[24] The seal also established grapevines as a symbol of Connecticut.[25]

The colony's motto Qui Transtulit Sustinet "He Who Transplanted Still Sustains" remains the motto of Connecticut today.[26]

Fenwick's wife, Lady Anne Butler, was the first white woman in Connecticut. She would end up becoming a subject of local lore after her tombstone was removed to make room for a railroad.[11]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "1635 — Saybrook". colonialwarsct.org. General Society of Colonial Wars.
  2. ^ "Our History". Old Saybrook. Town of Old Saybrook.
  3. ^ O'Callaghan, Edmund Bailey (1848). History of New Netherland. New York Heritage Series. Vol. 1. p. 149.
  4. ^ a b "What is the Warwick Patent?". Connecticut State Library.
  5. ^ Andrews, Charles McLean (1934). The Colonial Period of American History – The Beginnings of Connecticut 1632–1662. Vol. II. Yale University Press.
  6. ^ a b c Hugh R. Engstrom, Jr. (1973). "Sir Arthur Hesilrige and the Saybrook Colony". Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies. 5 (3). Albion: 157–168. doi:10.2307/4048260. ISSN 0095-1390. JSTOR 4048260.
  7. ^ a b c Dunn, Richard S. (1962). Puritans and Yankees: The Winthrop Dynasty of New England. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 66–69. ISBN 9780691045610. JSTOR j.ctt183q261. LCCN 62007400. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  8. ^ Dean, John Ward (1866). The Story of the Embarkation of Cromwell and His Friends for New England.
  9. ^ Belknap, Jeremy (1812). The History of New Hampshire. p. 5.
  10. ^ "Fort Saybrook, a historical monument, Old Saybrook, Connecticut : master plan report". Connecticut State Park and Forest Commission. hdl:2027/uiug.30112089680935.
  11. ^ a b Todd, Charles Burr (1906). In Olde Connecticut. Grafton Press. pp. 52–60.
  12. ^ a b "John Winthrop, Jr". Museum of Connecticut History. August 14, 2015.
  13. ^ Gardiner, Lion. Curtiss C. Gardiner (ed.). The Papers and Biography of Lion Gardiner (PDF). p. 34.
  14. ^ Lewis, Thomas R.; Harmon, John E. Connecticut, A Geography. Westview Press. p. 52.
  15. ^ a b "The Siege and Battle of Saybrook Fort". PequotWar.org. Battlefields of the Pequot War.
  16. ^ Games, Alison (2011). "Anglo-Dutch Connections and Overseas Enterprises: A Global Perspective on Lion Gardiner's World". Early American Studies. 9 (2): 435–461. doi:10.1353/eam.2011.0012. JSTOR 23547655.
  17. ^ "Pequot War". Britannica.com. Britannica. September 17, 2024.
  18. ^ LeMonte, Lamar (2022). "Why did George Fenwick come back to Saybrook? Why did he not stay?" (PDF). Old Saybrook Historical Society.
  19. ^ a b Firth, Charles Harding. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900. Vol. 18. p. 328.
  20. ^ Van Dusen, Albert E. Connecticut. Random House New York.
  21. ^ Grant, Ellsworth S. "The Main Stream Of New England". American Heritage.
  22. ^ "From John Adams to Unknown, 27 April 1777". Founders Online. University of Virginia Press.
  23. ^ Young, Alfred A. (1991). "English Plebeian Culture and 18th Century American Radicalism". In Jacob, Margret C.; Jacob, James R. (eds.). The Origins of Anglo American Radicalism. New Jersey: Humanities Press International. pp. 195–197. ISBN 978-1-57392-289-0. LCCN 90023163.
  24. ^ "The College Arms and Badge". Yale University.
  25. ^ Griswold, Wick. "Lady Fenwick". Estuary Magazine.
  26. ^ "The State Motto". CT.gov.
[edit]

41°17′06″N 72°21′29″W / 41.285°N 72.358°W / 41.285; -72.358

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Saybrook_Colony&oldid=1258794233"