[3] Young’s “Chronicles of Massachusetts,” p. 396.
[4] Winthrop’s “Journal,” by Savage, vol. i., p. 111.
[5] “Ordained over the First Church, Nov. 5, 1632.”—Eliot’s tomb in Roxbury.
[6] “Memorial History of Boston,” vol. i., p. 403.
[7] Though the Williamses did not settle permanently in Woodstock till some years after the first settlement, the family was most prominent in Roxbury, and one of its representatives visited the grant officially in 1686.
[8] Drake’s “Town of Roxbury” and “Memorial History of Boston,” vol. i., pp. 401-422.
[9] De Forest’s “Indians of Connecticut,” and Palfrey’s “History of New England,” and Miss Ellen D. Larned’s “History of Windham County.”
[10] Also “called the Wabbaquassett and Whetstone country; and sometimes the Mohegan conquered country, as Uncas had conquered and added it to his sachemdom.” Trumbull’s “History of Connecticut,” vol. i., 31.
[12] Winthrop’s “Journal,” by Savage, vol. i, 132. Palfrey’s “Hist. of New England,” vol. i., 369. The same year (Nov. 1633), “Samuel Hall and two other persons travelled westward into the country as far as this [Connecticut] river.” Holmes’ “Annals,” vol. i., 220.
[14] Possibly some of the Dorchester emigrants, including Henry Wolcott, William Phelps, and others, may have passed a little south of this line. Dr. McClure’s MSS., in the possession of the Connecticut Historical Society: “In a conversation with the late aged and respectable Capt. Sabin of Pomfret, Ct., he related to me the following discovery, viz.: About forty years ago he felled a large and ancient yoke about the north line of Pomfret adjoining Woodstock. On cutting within some inches of the heart of the tree it was seen to have been cut and chipped with some short tool like an axe. Rightly judging that at the time when it must have been done the Indians so far inland were destitute and ignorant of the use of iron tools, he counted the number of the annual circular rings from the said marks to the bark of the tree, and found that there were as many rings as the years which had intervened from the migration of the Dorchester party to that time. Hence ‘the probability that they had journeyed along the north border of Pomfret, and as they traveled by a compass, the conjecture is corroborated by that course being nearly in a direct line from Boston to the place of their settlement on the Connecticut River.’”—Stiles’ “History of Ancient Windsor,” p. 26.
[16] “Historical Collections of the Indians in New England. By Daniel Gookin, Gentleman, Printed from the original manuscript, 1792.” See “Collections Mass. Hist. Soc.,” vol. i., First Series, pp. 190-192.
[20] Black James was a distinguished Indian. He met Eliot again in Cambridge in June of 1681, where a meeting of the claimants of the Nipmuck country was held. The village and much of the land of the town of Dudley was known years after the settlement of Woodstock as “The Land of Black James and Company.”—Ammidown’s “Historical Collections,” vol. i., 406, 461.
[21] Named after “Wabbaquasset Hall,” built in the spring or summer of 1686.
[22] Palfrey’s “History of New England,” vol. iii., 159.
[25] Ellis’ “History of Roxbury Town”: “When the people of Roxbury came to take up lands, they selected their locations amongst the praying Indians or where Indians had been converted to Christianity.... This certainly is a sure indication of the steady adherence of his [John Eliot’s] fellow-townsmen and their belief in the actual benefits of his missionary labors.”
[32] “Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England,” vol. v., 468.
[33] Committee appointed May 14, 1686, and reported to Roxbury June 12th.
[34] Though the name of John Ruggles was on the list of “goers” and a house lot was drawn for him, he did not settle in Woodstock. The family of Ruggles is prominent among the first settlers in Pomfret.
[35] This Jonathan Peake was the father of Jonathan Peake, Jr., born in 1663, who came to Woodstock in April of 1687.
[36] Lot 43 was given to Clement Corbin soon after the drawing of home lots. The inscription of his rude gravestone reads: “Here lies buried the body of Clement Corbin, aged 70, deceast August ye 1st, 1696.”
[37] The inscription on this small gravestone in the burying-ground on Woodstock Hill is read with difficulty and is as follows: “Here lies buried ye body of Lieu. Edward Morris, deceas’d September 14, 1689.”
Many of the first settlers now have no stones to mark their graves, and perhaps never had.
[39] MSS. of Deacon Jedediah Morse, in the possession of Henry T. Child, of Woodstock.
[40] Windsor was first called Dorchester and Hartford was first called Newtown.
[41] Born in England, son of Henry Sewell of Rowley, Mass., and grandson of Henry Sewell, mayor of Coventry, England. In 1684, he became an Assistant.
[42] Memorial “History of Boston,” vol. i., 210, 540.
[43] Hildreth’s “History of the United States,” vol. ii., 130. Trumbull’s “History of Connecticut,” vol. i., 401, 402. Palfrey’s “Hist. of New England,” vol. iv., 46. Holmes’ “Annals of America,” vol. i., 430, 431. Bancroft’s “Hist. of the U. S.,” vol. iii., 183.
[44] “Collections of the Mass. Hist. Soc.,” vol. v., Fifth Series, p. 315, foot-note. Palfrey’s “Hist, of N. E.,” vol. iv., 48, foot-note, and appendix. The other six members of the Committee were Simon Bradstreet (Governor), Sir William Phips (Governor, 1692-95), Maj. Gen. Wait Winthrop, Maj. Elisha Hutchinson, Col. Samuel Shrimpton, and Maj. John Richards.
[45] Thomas Gilbert, D.D., of Oxford University, author of “Carmen Congratulatorum.” Judge Sewell visited him in England, and was shown by Dr. Gilbert the Bodleian Library, “a very magnificent Thing.” See Sewell papers: Fifth Series, Mass. Hist. Soc. Collection, vols, v., vi., vii. We may be allowed to suppose that Dr. Gilbert took Judge Sewell to Woodstock, only eight miles from Oxford University, where the latter perhaps was impressed for the first time with the name and historical associations of Woodstock.
[46] Capt. Ruggles of Roxbury, who died Aug. 15, 1692, of whom Sewell says, in his Diary, Aug. 16th: “Capt. Ruggles also buried this day, died last night, but could not be kept.”
[47] Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc. for Feb., 1873, p. 399.
[48] Rev. Mr. Dwight, of Woodstock, dined with him Aug. 24, 1718, and made a prayer at his court Nov. 7, 1718. Also see Diary, Jan. 2, 1724: “Paid Mr. Josiah Dwight of Woodstock in full, of his demands for boarding Madam Usher there about six or seven weeks in the year 1718, £2-11.” John Acquittimaug, of Woodstock, an Indian, who lived to be one hundred and fourteen years old, was entertained by Judge Sewell in 1723. Boston News-Letter, Aug. 29, 1723. The wills of Woodstock people were proved before “the Honorable Samuel Sewell, Judge of Probate.” MSS. of Martin Paine of South Woodstock.
[49] Paraclete Skinner, of Woodstock, who remembers the second meeting-house that was taken down in 1821, says that that structure never had a bell.
[50] While in custody at Woodstock, Queen Elizabeth, according to the chronicler, Raphael Holinshed, wrote with a diamond on a pane of glass in her room these words:
[52] The last time that the name of New Roxbury, as applied to the name of the whole town, appears in the Proprietors’ Records of Woodstock is March 18, 1689. The first time the name of Woodstock appears is May 26, 1690: Woodstock Records.
[56] Woodstock, at this time, was under the restrictions of frontier towns. It was called a “frontier town” in 1695.—Mass. Hist. Society Proceedings, 1871-1873, p. 395.
[75] He was the son of John Stiles, who belonged to one of the oldest families of Windsor, and was the brother of Rev. Isaac Stiles, a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1722, and was uncle of Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College. President Stiles often visited Woodstock after his uncle had settled at Muddy Brook, now called East Woodstock.
[85] Woodstock speaks of Massachusetts’ repeated claims in a memorial to Conn. Gen. Assembly, May 2, 1771.
[86] Gen. Putnam was much interested in this project. A meeting to promote the idea was held at his house in Pomfret, Feb. 11, 1771. The State again refused the application for a new county, when Pomfret applied in 1786 for a new county, “with Pomfret for shire-town.”
[87] Captain Johnson was the father of Nathaniel Johnson, and father-in-law of Lieutenant Henry Bowen, both first settlers of Woodstock.
[88] “The Chandler Family,” by Dr. George Chandler.
[89] England declared war against France March 31st.
[90] Seven hundred men from Massachusetts, of which Woodstock was then a part, were impressed for this service.
[91] Lieut.-Col. Thomas Chandler was the son of Col. John Chandler, and was Woodstock’s first representative to the General Assembly of Connecticut. Ante p. 44.
[92] The forces were furnished by New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and amounted to 4,070.
[97] Miss Ellen D. Larned’s “History of Windham County.”
[98] There is no evidence to prove the reiterated statement that one hundred and eighty-nine Woodstock men fought at the battle of Bunker Hill. This number was stationed at Cambridge, and some of them may have been at Bunker Hill.
[99] Oliver Wendell Holmes at Roseland Park, July 4, 1877.
[100] Rev. Abel Styles subscribed the largest sum, £30. He was fond of belles-lettres, and in a communication to his church, speaks of “his beloved studies.” Under his inspiration and instruction, Woodstock and Pomfret young men entered Yale College.
