Page 39 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 53 Early Spring 2025

enport, both of whom arrived in Boston cut very generous territorial boundar- on May 12, 1670, the boundaries of the
in the early 1630s. Dissatisfied with ies, it eliminated the New Haven col- town were spelled out just as New Hav-
his situation after a few years in the ony, which in 1664, ended up being en leaders had done previously. At the
Chelmsford area, Hooker left and, trav- absorbed by the Connecticut colony.” same meeting, the “Court ordered that
eling overland with a group of follow- (https://connecticuthistory.org/a-separate-place-the- the plantation on the playne in the road
ers, ended up founding the Connecticut new-haven-colony-1638-1665/) to New Haven, be called Wallingford.”
River Colony (soon shortened into the (Davis, History of Wallingford, p. 73). The general
Connecticut Colony) in 1636. Also seek- layout of the town had been previously
ing a more satisfactory arrangement, completed by John Moss, John Brock-
Davenport left Boston by ship with his ett and Abraham Doolittle, who were
followers and ended up sailing into the the managers of the town appointed by
harbor of New Haven in 1638 where he New Haven.
founded a colony.
“Six years after the union of the colo-
In 1638, Davenport entered into two nies [i.e., 1670], about one hundred
separate treaties to purchase land from persons, men, women and children,
Indian sachems. The first was with commenced the settlement of Walling-
Momauguin of the Quinopiocke, and ford. Instead of scattering themselves
included the land where New Haven on farms, as is now usual in new set-
now sits, and extended several miles tlements, they erected their humble
northward. In December, the second dwellings in a compact village. This ar-
purchase was made with “Mantowese, rangement, though inconvenient for an
son of the great sachem at Mattabe- agricultural population, was necessary
sitt. This tract was ten miles in length, for defence and safety in these perilous
north and south, and thirteen miles in times, when savage wars, and the irreg-
breadth. It extended eight miles east of ular incursions of the Indians were so
the river Quinnipiac, and five miles west frequent. On the 6th of April, the first
of it …” (Davis, Charles: History of Wallingford, 1870) Wallingford Becomes a Reality: The town meeting was held in Wallingford.”
The latter includes the territory in which growing population of New Haven (Davis, History of Wallingford, p. 90)
Wallingford is located. made it necessary for the leaders to
consider settling in the territory ac- Religious Life in Wallingford: “From the
Soon, political upheaval would affect quired from Indian sachem Mantowese earliest formation of the puritan colo-
both the Connecticut and New Haven back in 1638. But they were to do so in a nies, everyone was compelled to sup-
colonies. The King of England, Charles I, most orderly manner. First, in a vote at a port the Congregational order, which
was deposed and executed in January of public meeting, it was agreed to set off was the order of religion established by
1649, and Oliver Cromwell established a certain portion of their territory for a the civil government. Thus, no one had
a Puritan government in his place. New “village” or plantation. any liberty to worship publicly in any
world Puritans were delighted, but that other way. The entire community made
was to be short-lived. The British mon- At the urging of New Haven leadership, up the ‘congregation’ … Each church
archy under Charles II was restored in the General Assembly in Hartford on was autonomous and stood alone in its
May of 1660. October 10, 1667 passed this motion: community. It was not part of a great-
“Upon the motion of the deputies of er hierarchy, but the church and state
With a new monarch, the fact that nei- New Haven, this Court grants the towne regarded themselves as coordinate en-
ther Hooker nor Davenport had estab- of New Haven liberty to make a village tities. Both supported each other for
lished their colonies under royal char- on the east River, if they see it capable their mutual welfare. The state upheld
ters put the existence of both colonies for such a thing, provided they setle a the church’s spiritual decrees, and the
in jeopardy. To remedy the problem, village there within fower years from church enforced the state’s civil laws.”
“in 1661, John Winthrop Jr, governor of May next.”
the Connecticut Colony, was chosen to And so it was in Wallingford. “The first
represent both Connecticut and New “In [April of] 1670, with the blessing and settlers blended civil and ecclesiastical
Haven, and to petition Charles II for a sanction of the church and lay leaders affairs in the same town meeting. All
charter authorizing the two separate of New Haven, thirty-one men, thirty voters had to be church members …
colonial governments. From the Con- women, and forty young children struck and religion was the dominant factor
necticut point of view, Winthrop’s mis- out into the howling wilderness, leaving that bound the settlement together. (FCC
sion was an overwhelming success. The the comfort and security of their homes of Wlfd 300th Anniversary Booklet, p.13.)
charter he obtained in 1662 essentially behind them. … they finally arrived at a
confirmed Connecticut’s Fundamental point in the wilderness along the brow “Because everyone was engaged in
Orders and established very broad terri- of a hill [probably near the present junc- building their own houses, clearing
torial boundaries for the colony.” tion of South Main and Parsons Streets, away the heavy forest to procure land
some fifteen miles north of New Hav- for cultivation, the building of a church
Unfortunately for New Haven, Win- en.” (from page 13 of the FCC of Wallingford 300th was postponed. Worship was conduct-
throp returned in 1662 with only a char- Anniversary booklet). ed in a private home, and, for the first
ter for the Connecticut colony. To make two years, a man named John Harri-
matters worse, besides giving Connecti- At a Court of Election held in Hartford man preached on the Sabbath.” While

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