American History Prints

Southern New England, 1639-45, image 2 of 19
John Davenport and His Church
“And the vigilance was unceasing. The records of the proceedings of the General Court that chose the first chief magistrate of the new Commonwealth, also show that by the decree of that fountain of law one Edmunds was to be whipped at a cart’s tail on a lecture day at Hartford; that one Williams was to stand upon the pillory from the ringing of the first bell to the end of the lecture, and to be whipped at the cart’s tail, both in Hartford and Windsor; and that one Starke was to be punished in the same way, to pay a heavy fine, and to have besides the letter R branded upon his cheek. The crime of each and all was wrong done one Mary Holt, - such wrong that Starke was also condemned to marry her; which, however, he probably never did. At the Next General Court, four months afterwards, it was ordered that Mary Holt herself be whipped for misconduct with a fourth paramour, and be banished from the jurisdiction’ not that she was good enough for Boston, but that Boston, perhaps, could better manage her.”

“But offenses of this kind – of the frequency and often most revolting character of which, notwithstanding the severity of the laws of the Puritans, there is abundant evidence in the early records of all the colonies – were by no means the only ones which the magistrates undertook at once to expose and to punish. Unseasonable and immoderate drinking, or even the suspicion of it; any violence of language or of conduct; reflections upon the actions of the General Court; ‘the sin of lying which,’ says the record (1640), ‘begins to be practiced by many persons in this Commonwealth;’ extravagance in the fashion of apparel, ‘that divers persons of several ranks are observed to exceed in;’ the selling of goods beyond reasonable prices; ‘a stubborn or rebellious carriage against parents or governors;’ - these and other offences of a like character, which in older societies are usually left to the control of private conscience, or judgment, or influence, were subjects of legislation, and brought upon the perpetrators prompt and sever penalties.”

Southern New England, 1638-45, image 6 of 19
Site of Newman’s Barn New Haven, Connecticut
“But in June of the next year preliminary measures were taken for a permanent political organization. These were of a remarkable character, whether looked upon as an instance of the intense earnestness of the religious convictions of the Puritans, or of the submissive deference they were accustomed to yield to their spiritual guides. The whole community gathered together in a barn – for want of any other building large enough to hold them – and the first business of the assembly was to listen to a sermon of instruction and exhortation from Mr. Davenport. (The tradition is that the barn belonged to Robert Newman, and it is supposed to have stood at the corner of Grove and Temple Streets, on land afterwards occupied by the house of Noah Webster, the lexicographer.) His text was from Proverbs ix. 1: ‘Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars.’ Herein he found warrant and direction for the gathering of a Church and the formation of a State.”

“The Church was to rest upon seven pillars and the foundation of the State was the Church. The right and the duty to gather the one and create the other were inherent, no derivative. There was no recognition of either hierarch or king. The assembled people were to choose from among themselves twelve men the most esteemed for their virtue and their wisdom, and these twelve were to elect seven others who were to be the seven pillars. On the pillars the Church was to be built; the seven men, that is, were to call about them such persons as they deemed fit to be members of the Church, and these members were to form the state. For in the Scriptures was to be found a perfect rule for the guidance and government of men in all human affairs, in the family, in the commonwealth, in the church. Church-membership was citizenship; he who was not fit for that, was unfit for this, for the state must be ‘according to God.’”

Southern New England, 1638-45, image 8 of 19
Old House in Guilford, CT
“On this model established at New Haven other churches were soon gathered in other places, and each church was a town. Some were within the boundaries of Connecticut, and sent their representatives to the General Court at Hartford; others were for some years entirely independent, recognizing no civil rule outside of their own organization. Among these last was Saybrook, to which a colony under George Fenwick was sent by lords Say and Brook, and which was already known by their combined names. Places like Guilford, Milford, Stratford, perpetuating in their names the tender memories of old English homes, were planted on commodious havens, or at the mouths of navigable streams, along the inner coast of Long Island Sound. Thither fresh emigrants flocked from Connecticut, from Massachusetts Bay, sometimes directly from England. The country, as it was gradually occupied, was fairly purchased from the natives – purchased at insignificant prices, indeed, but large enough to create a title in fee-simple, while they were satisfactory to the original owners, who set small value upon limited tracts of that wide wilderness which they claimed as their own. It was the avowed policy of the State to deal justly with the savages, that offences might be avoided; and, on the whole, the rule was no doubt carefully observed, from choice as well as from necessity. On the other hand, if the savages, were sometimes insensible to kindness, and incapable of understanding principles of justice incompatible with their wild notions of individual right, the lesson of the late war was not lost upon them. If not always peaceable, and if often annoying, they were rarely at this period dangerous neighbors. So these English villages were left to take root and grow in strength and thrift when the storm of savage warfare swept over and almost desolated the settlements of their jealous rivals, the Dutch, throughout the boundaries of New Neatherland.”