Saybrook Colony

Saybrook Colony
1635–1644
Seal
Map of Connecticut annotated to show its colonial history and the establishment of its modern borders
Status	Colony of England
Capital	Saybrook
Common languages	English
Religion	Puritanism
Government	Self-governing colony
Governor
• 1635-1637	John Winthrop the Younger
• 1639-1644	George Fenwick
History
• Established	1635
• Merged with Connecticut Colony	1644
Currency	Pound sterling
Succeeded by Connecticut Colony

Illustration of Saybrook Fort in 1636

The Saybrook Colony was an English colony established in New England in late 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in what is today Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Saybrook was founded by John Winthrop the Younger, son of John Winthrop the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Winthrop the Younger was designated titular Governor by the original settlers, including Colonel George Fenwick and Captain Lion Gardiner. ^{[1] [2]} 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 River in modern Rhode Island to the Pacific Ocean. ^{[3] [4]} Winthrop named the colony 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. ^[1]

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. ^[5]

Dutch explorer Adrian Block was the first European to sail up the Connecticut River and thus the area that would become Saybrook. In 1623 the Dutch, fearing English expansion in the region, sent a group of settlers from New Amsterdam. This effort would be unsuccessful and the settlers would return after a few months. ^[6] The Dutch revived the effort to colonize the area in 1632 when New Netherland director Wouter van Twiller sent Hans Eechyus to purchase the land from the local Indians. Eechyus subsequently built a fur trading post and named it Kievet's Hook. ^[7]

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. The group of investors, besides the eponymous Viscount Saye and Sele and Baron Brooke also included future Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, John Hampden, Sir Arthur Hesilrige, and John Pym. ^{[8] [9]} The investment group had previously funded the failed colonies of Providence Island and Cocheco. ^[10] The Puritan gentlemen, however, would not be allowed to leave England by Charles I 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. ^[8]

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. ^[11]

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 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. ^[8]

The walls of Fort Saybrook were twelve feet high and several of the colony's settlers were veterans of the Thirty Years' War. ^{[12] [13]} Among these settlers was Lion Gardiner, who was in charge of constructing the fort and planning the town. ^[4] As the fort was being constructed, Gardiner's wife Mary gave birth to a son, David, the first European child born in Connecticut. ^[5] 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. ^[14] The fort lasted from 1635 to the winter of 1647/48 when it burned down, though it was quickly replaced with a smaller fort closer to the river. ^{[12] [15]}

In 1639 George Fenwick arrived in the colony to replace Winthrop as governor. ^[16] 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. ^[10] 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. ^[15] 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. ^[17]

In 1647, Major John Mason assumed command of Saybrook Fort, which controlled the main trade and supply route to the upper river valley. He spent the next 12 years there and served as Commissioner of the United Colonies, its chief military officer, Magistrate, and peacekeeper. ^[18]

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. ^[19] 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. ^[20]

The badge of Yale's Saybrook College is derived from the seal of the colony. ^[21]

See also

• Lower Connecticut River Valley – Connecticut planning region covering the area

References

1. "John Winthrop, Jr". Museum of Connecticut History.
2. Hollister, Gideon Hiram (1855). The History of Connecticut, From the First Settlement of the Colony to the Adoption of the Present Constitution. Internet Archive. p. 508. ISBN   141814715X.
3. "Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick (5 June 1587 – 19 April 1658)". WarwickHistory.com. Warwick Digital History Project.
4. "Lion Gardiner Helps to Fortify Early Old Saybrook". ConnecticutHistory.org. CT Humanities.
5. "1635 — Saybrook". colonialwarsct.org. General Society of Colonial Wars.
6. "Our History". Old Saybrook. Town of Old Saybrook.
7. "History of Old Saybrook". Saybrook History. Old Saybrook Historical Society.
8. • 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.
9. Morill, John. "Oliver Cromwell". bbc.co.uk. British Broadcasting Company.
10. Lamar LeMonte (January 22, 2022). "Why did an English "investment club" establish the Saybrook Colony? (Part II)" (PDF). Saybrook History. Old Saybrook Historical Society.
11. "Adrian Block / Dutch Exploration". HMdb.org. Historical Marker Database.
12. "The Siege and Battle of Saybrook Fort". PequotWar.org. Battlefields of the Pequot War.
13. "Battlefields of the Pequot War". HMdb.org. Historical Marker Database.
14. "Pequot War". Britannica.com. Britannica.
15. "The Fenwicks". HMdb.org. Historical Marker Database.
16. Winthrop, John (1639). History of New England (PDF). Marblehead Museum. ISBN   1521207917.
17. Firth, Charles Harding. Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900. Vol. 18. p. 328.
18. "John Mason Statue". IndianandColonial.org. Indian & Colonial Research Center.
19. "From John Adams to Unknown, 27 April 1777". Founders Online. University of Virginia Press.
20. 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.
21. "The College Arms and Badge". Yale University.

Further reading

• Ward, Harry M. (1961). The United Colonies of New England: 1643–90. Vantage Press. LCCN   60015581.
• Andrews, Charles McLean (1934). The Colonial Period of American History – The Beginnings of Connecticut 1632–1662. Vol. II. Yale University Press.

External links

• History of Old Saybrook at the Old Saybrook Historical Society

41°17′06″N72°21′29″W / 41.285°N 72.358°W / 41.285; -72.358