OF THE

COLONY OR JURISDICTION

OF

NEW HAVEN,

FROM MAY, 1653, TO THE UNION.

TOGETHER WITH THE

NEW HAVEN CODE OF 1656.

TRANSCRIBED AND EDITED IN ACCORDANCE WITH A RESOLUTION

OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF CONNECTICUT.

By CHARLES J. HOADLY, M. A.

State Librarian, Member of the Conn. Hist. Soc.

At a General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, holden at New Haven in said State, on the first Wednesday of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six:

Resolved, That the secretary be authorized to purchase for the use of the state, two hundred and fifty copies of the proposed publication of the Records of the Colony of New Haven, prior to the union with Connecticut, transcribed and edited by Charles J. Hoadly, Esq. Provided, that such publication shall be authenticated by the official certificate of the secretary, as a true copy of the original record; and provided also, that the expense of the same shall not exceed two dollars and fifty cents per volume.

Resolved, That the copies so purchased be distributed as follows; one copy to the town clerk of each town in this state, to be preserved in his office for the use of the town; one copy to the governor, and to each of the state officers of this State; one copy to the governor of each of the several states and territories of the United States, to be deposited in their several state libraries; one copy to the library of congress; one copy to the Smithsonian Institute; one copy to each of the colleges of this state; twenty-five copies to Mr. Alexander Vattemare for international exchange; and the remainder of the said two hundred and fifty copies to be deposited in the office of the secretary, subject to the disposal of the general assembly.

PREFACE.

THE present volume comprises all the Records of the Jurisdiction of New Haven now known to exist, except the few entries in the 'Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven,' printed in 1857.

In the Introduction to the work just mentioned, it was stated that the volume of Records of which this is in immediate continuation, had many years ago disappeared; so long since, indeed, that no writer on Connecticut or New England history seems to have had an opportunity to consult it. Reference is made in this book to two places in the missing volume, one as fo: 176, said to contain records of the date of May 30th, 1649, the other, fo: 303, containing some of the date of May 29th, 1651. The Records of the Town of New Haven, prior to the Union, are unbroken in their series, and it is from them, together with those of the other towns in combination, that the history of New Haven Jurisdiction from 1644 to 1653 is mainly to be gleaned.

The same care has been used to render the text strictly correct and reliable as in the previous volume.

The editor has taken the liberty to omit a few passages, indicated in notes, containing details of evidence in some criminal cases, for which he trusts no apology is needed.

Several documents from the Files of the State have been inserted in their chronological order in the text. This seemed to the editor better than to throw them into an appendix. They are printed in a smaller type, and the places noted where the originals may be found.

The New Haven Laws are here given from the original printed copy belonging to the Library of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, Massachusetts, which has been very kindly loaned for that purpose. That copy is in excellent preservation, and, having hist name written upon the title page, with the date 1656, is supposed to have belonged to John Davenport himself. As the book is of great rarity, and perhaps unique, a more particular description is added: it is a small quarto of eighty pages, though at signature G there is a break in the paging, none being numbered 47 or 48-it is printed with type of about the size generally used in the body of this volume,it has no running title, the breadth of the page, exclusive of the

marginal notes, is the same with that of this work, and its length six inches.

A fair transcript of these laws is now in the Secretary's office, which was made by Mr. Baldwin, then librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, at the request of the General Assembly in 1834.

The laws contained in this code were passed at various times, and perhaps collected and digested about 1648 or 1649, though revised and in some degree altered in 1655, upon the perusal by Governor Eaton of the 'New booke of lawes in y Massachusets colony,' and the 'Small booke of lawes newly come from England, wch is said to be Mr. Cottons.' Of the latter the full title is given in the note,* and an idea of its contents may be obtained by consulting Hutchinson's Coll. 161, and 1, Mass. Hist. Coll. v. 173. Dr. Trumbull, Hist. Conn. p. 235, edit. 1797, appears to have confounded it with another work attributed to Cotton,† but with reason thought to be by Davenport.

The editor acknowledges renewed obligations to those gentlemen who have rendered him assistance in various ways, in particular to Hon. Francis DeWitt, late Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and to Mr. David Pulsifer, of Boston, for copies of documents from the files of that State, to Samuel F. Haven, Esq. of Worcester, Mass., to Henry White, Esq. and others of New Haven, Ralph D. Smith, Esq. of Guilford, and to several friends in this city.

Grateful for the favor with which his former volume was received, the editor believes that the one now given to the public will be found of much greater interest and importance. If it shall contribute to foster a taste for the study of the original materials for our history, he will feel that his labor has not been lost.

STATE LIBRARY, HARTFORD,

May 3, 1858.

C. J. H.

*AN ABSTRACT OF Laws and Government. Wherein as in a Mirrour may be seen the wisdome & perfection of the Government of Christs Kingdome. Accomodable to any State or form of Government in the world, that is not Antichristian or Tyrannicall. Collected and digested into the ensuing Method, by that Godly, Grave, and Judicious Divine, Mr. JOHN COTTON, of Boston, in New-England, in his Life-time, and presented to the generall Court of the Massachusets. And now published after his death, by William Aspinwall. Isa. 33. 22. Jehovah is our Judge, Jehovah is our Lawgiver, Jehovah is our King, he will save us. LONDON, printed by M. S. for Livewel Chapman, and are to be sold at the Crown in Popes-head Alley, 1655.-Small 4to. pp. 35, with title and preface 8, and analysis and errata 2.

† A Discourse about civil government in a new plantation whose design is religion. Written many years since by that Reverend and worthy minister of the gospel, John Cotton, B. D. And now published by some undertakers of a new plantation, for general direction and information. Cambridge, printed by Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson, 1673,-Small 4to. pp. 24. Bacon's Hist. Disc. 289.