The Great Ledger Records of the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut 1640-1742 Volume One

By Missy Wolfe

A Century of Ancient Town Records is Rediscovered and Revealed

An embarrassment of riches describes a vault filled with thousands of documents in seven thick volumes that were handwritten in homemade ink with quill pens and recorded the entire first century of a town's colonial beginnings. These records were so

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mary Lynne Wolfe
• Release date: Nov 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781737918110

Book preview

Understanding the Town of Greenwich Archives

WITH THE GRACIOUS consent of Greenwich Town Clerk Carmella Budkins, this work transcribes the first seven books of the oldest records for the Town of Greenwich, Connecticut. These papers report town and family proceedings for the first colonized century: 1640-1742. The original source documents were bound in haphazard order, losing their original ledger bindings perhaps centuries ago, but they were wonderfully cleaned and conserved in the 1970’s. Since 1640 these precious pages have survived Native American animosity, Dutch control, New Haven and Connecticut Colony jurisdiction, the American Revolution, other wars and skirmishes and the overall effects of four centuries of passing time and human contact.

They have now been photographed in high resolution and ordered chronologically through digital means. They have been categorized by document type and provided with page locators for use in citation by this editor. It is hoped this will allow easier information access to all. So as not to distract a reader with antique formatting, difficult and variable phonetic spelling and repetitive boilerplate in many of the land documents, transcriptions here are presented with consistent, modern spelling and line breaks. Original punctuation, word usage and sentence structure is maintained. Personal names are presented as written except in the indexes where the most frequent spelling of a last name has been chosen for use in all instances.

Each document has been photographed in high resolution so that the original document presentation may be viewed. These digitized photographs are housed with the Town Clerk of the Town of Greenwich and with the Greenwich Historical Society. The locating file name of the photograph contains the document’s year, month and day and for the earliest records with multiple entries per page, document numbers. A document locating path has been developed since many of the original documents lack any page numbering or they may have up to three different page numbers for one page from past efforts to organize this history. This most recent effort is to allow citation with accurate reference to the location of the original source document as bound in the 1970’s.

My research found that the town’s Grantor Grantee Index #1 created in the 1930s, had little ability to reference pages in the 1970’s binding and that only a minority of the records of the town’s first European century were represented. Therefore, I created a new Grantor Grantee Index for 1640-1752 with accurate page locators within Volume Two of this work.

LOCATOR TERMINOLOGY:

GLRB = Greenwich Land Records Book 1 / 2 = Volume one of two. 2 / 2 = Volume two of two CPB = Common Place Book

Example: [GLRB 1/ 2: 532 Doc. 78] = Greenwich Land Record Book volume one of two, page 532, document number 78]

LAND DIVIDENTS AND RIGHTS

The original population center of Greenwich in the mid 1600s was in Old Greenwich, near Long Island Sound. Natively, land comprising the founding European purchase was called Betuckquapock and it lay between the Tatomac or Tomac Creek which runs through Innis Arden Country Club grounds and the Asamuck or Longmeadow Creek running through Binney Park. Its northern boundary was near the 12 mile colony line by Tatomuck and Old Corner Roads in Poundridge, NY. Greenwich co-founder Elizabeth Winthrop Feake Hallett’s personal purchase was Greenwich Point, natively named Monakeywago and by her, Elizabeth Neck. Later it was called Tod’s Point, now Greenwich Point. The first Europeans here first called Old Greenwich the Greenwich Plantation, meaning a large farm, settlement or colony. Similarly Stamford was first called the Wethersfield Men’s Plantation.

The jurisdiction of Greenwich was unclear for three months after the July 1640 Feake-Patrick purchase from Native Americans, but after the Dutch on Manhattan sent armed soldiers to these settlers in October 1640, land west of the Tatomuck Creek was recognized as Dutch territory thus within New Netherland until 1656 when Greenwich with somewhat similar borders to what we have today came under the jurisdiction of the New Haven Colony. Though shifting three times during the 1650 Treaty of Hartford negotiations, the effective border between New England to the northeast and Dutch New Netherland to the south and west was the Tomac Creek running through the Innis Arden Club grounds northwards from Long Island Sound.

Greenwich town founders decamped from Greenwich to western Long Island very near to Manhattan in 1648, fearing that the 1650 Treaty of Hartford would change their jurisdiction to English which would endanger the lives of Elizabeth Feake Hallett and her family and cause land confiscation. The Feake-Halletts and Patricks sold their properties to other Greenwich and Stamford purchasers who verified their titles with Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Director of New Netherland on Manhattan.

As Greenwich town government grew more robust under the guidance of the Connecticut colony in the 1660s, selectmen began selling and granting land to expanding local families, sometimes in return for labor or building materials. A more equitable and agreed upon system to distribute Old Greenwich, North Mianus and Riverside outland was the land lottery. Sold or granted at 10 pounds an acre, this was Patrick’s Rate, presumably set by town co-founder Captain Daniel Patrick. The lottery number drawn determined the order in which you could choose your lot location in the area. A number one draught or draft, would for example, give you first choice. The participation in these lotteries remained small as the population by 1667 was only 25 qualified, land purchasing, family heads. By 1688 there were 54 family heads.

THE COMMON FIELDS OF THE GREENWICH PLANTATION

From 1664 to 1686 the town developed large communally farmed fields on the Greenwich peninsulas or necks of land reaching into Long Island Sound. The produce of these fields, in livestock or plant material, contributed to the town’s municipal success. Ultimately, one common fence line ran from Mianus River to the Byram River. Privately held lands here that were not used municipally benefited the revenues of individuals. For reasons unknown, common field land distributions were not called dividents.

1640s: private lots sold on Monakeywago / Elizabeth Neck / Tods Point / Greenwich Point.

1664: Mianus Neck Common Field / Riverside developed.

1668: Cos Cob Neck surrounding Sticlins (Sticklings / Strickland) Brook and the Mill Pond area developed.

1683: Horseneck Common Field / Belle Haven developed.

1686: Piping Point and Rockie Neck Common Fields developed. This area was southern Arch Street and the Steamboat Road peninsulas. Significant 20th century fill, the railroad and I-95 have obliterated much of the original lengths of these necks.

1708: 300 acres of Byram Neck were owned by Thomas Lyon and John Banks. Additional acreage was developed through town lottery in 1708.

EXPANSION WEST ACROSS THE MIANUS RIVER AND CREATING HORSENECK

By 1672 the town sought to expand west of the Mianus River and create a second town center. Natively, land west of the Mianus River was called Paihomsing. The Native name for the Mianus River was the Kechkawes, perhaps pronounced Kech-Kos, or Koch-Kos, which may have been the basis for the name Cos Cob. Old Greenwich Europeans called land west of the Mianus River Horseneck for reasons not documented, but many note that Cos Cob Neck resembles a horse’s head that has its head to the south and is facing west. To cross the Mianus River at this time, the Old Greenwich population would drive livestock up Sheephill Road to cross at the Palmer Hill Road bridge and drive them south down Valley Road to fields along the west bank of the Mianus River near the Post Road. The first of these fields was the Cos Cob Upper Field, and later the more southerly necks of Cos Cob, Rockie Neck, and Pipen Point. The Main Country Road ran westward from Darien and Stamford on modern Broad Street to Palmer Hill Road to Valley Road to the modern Post Road as it runs on the west side of the Mianus River. This was also called the Road from and to Boston. The modern crossing of the Mianus River at the Valley Road and the modern Post Road intersection was not built for over a century later. To access the interior of Horseneck, roads such as Cat Rock and Cognewaugh off Valley Road were cut as was Stanwich Road, then called Bedford Road, and these were laid prior to 1706.

In the first years of the 1700s there was desire to establish the second town near the mouth of the Horseneck Brook on Long Island Sound to access the Horseneck common Field (Belle Haven), and the Byram Common Field. Horseneck Brook is on the east side of Belle Haven, just north of Grass Island. By 1672 however, the Dutch regained control of Manhattan after the English had seized it 1664, and armed Dutch troopships were sighted ranging along all of Long Island Sound. Retreating inland and uphill one mile for greater safety, the Horseneck Town Plot was laid out at the top of a much safer plateau. The Town Plot lay on either side of the Country Road or Post Road from the brow of the Great Ridge, generally the Old Church Road area, to the Horseneck Brook as it meets the Post Road; an area populated currently with car dealerships. The Town Plot was homesteaded from the 1670s through the 1680s. The high plateau of the Town Plot now hosts Knap Tavern, also called the Putnam Cottage, Christ Episcopal Church, Temple Sholom, the Second Congregational Church, and Greenwich Library. To the immediate north of the Town Plot, between North Street and the Post Road was a 30 acre common field to benefit Town Plot residents. It likely incorporated a portion of the West Brothers Brook for a water source.

In 1685 the town sold land between Horseneck Brook and Byram River above the country road at the very low price of 20 shillings an acre to raise funds to pay off town debts. This raised about 150 pounds for the town and over 150 acres were sold. [There are 20 shillings to a pound]. The 21 individuals who participated selected land here wherever they chose.

The town began to hold land lotteries for Horseneck land for a large list of first, second and third generation of inhabitants whose families had frequently intermarried. For divident terminology, note that town divident numbers one through seven are not the same as an individual’s listing of his personal dividents. A landowner’s personal account of his dividents are the order in which he personally purchased land in various locations. Look for the word my, or my father’s, second divident, for example, which means the second parcel of land the landowner purchased. This has no bearing on Town numbered dividents 1-7. Most often, individuals did not purchase land in all seven dividents offered through time, but a great many did purchase multiple parcels in varied locations. Although distributed by lottery, lot sizes also varied, according to how much money was put forth by an individual to purchase. In the lottery, one’s draft or draught number determined the order in which one chose their land location within the development section. One could purchase multiple lots, but they were not guaranteed to be adjoining. When purchasing multiple lots, one would likely have land choices that were randomly located. After the lottery, one would horse trade with his neighbors to achieve a combined lot size, which created a randomly sized development. Most often, roads or hyeways to parcels did not exist before a lottery was held.

The development of central Greenwich also occurred in the early 1700s. It was sectioned into two northeasterly tiers called land above or below the mile and a half line above the Country Road.

LAND LOTTERY LOCATIONS OR DIVIDENTS

The First Divident: 1662: The upper and lower Hasseke meadows north of the Mianus Neck common field. The Lower Hasseke Meadow ran from the fenceline of the Mianus Neck Common Field, thought to be Lockwood Road to the Mianus River to Palmer Hill Road and west of modern Sound Beach / Laddins (Lattings) Rock / Havemeyer Roads. The Upper Hasseke meadows were north of Palmer Hill Road, bounded west by the Stamford border and east by Valley Road. Here, all participants received 2 acres and one rood of land in the land lottery.

The Second Divident: 1667: Land east of the Long Meadow Brook in Old Greenwich to the Stamford border.

The Third Divident: 1672: Old Greenwich south and east of the Long Meadow Brook to the Stamford border.

The Fourth Divident: priced at 4 pounds per acre, or an acre to four pounds estate, was land east of Stanwich Road/ Bedford Road, also called the Road to Bedford.

The Fifth Divident: 1705-1716: priced at 4 pounds per acre were The Quarrelling Ten Acre Lots were in central Greenwich west of the Mianus River, below the mile and a half line. This was land between the Brothers Brooks and Horseneck Brook generally, to the northern colony line.

The Sixth Divident: 1696: as the town acquired western Greenwich land from Wespahin /John Cauk and others, this became Cauks Purchase divident land.

The sixth divident was land west of the great branch of the Byram River. There was a divident for the first, or lower Dicks / Cauks Purchase and another for the second or upper Cauks Purchase.

The Seventh Divident, 1712 - 1733: Land above the Country Road on the west side of the Byram River. In 1733, the town was able to annex 50-60 rods of Rye to create the modern border between Greenwich and Rye.

PURCHASING RIGHTS

After purchasing land in multiple dividents throughout Greenwich, an owner would leave much of it undeveloped due to restrictions on capital, labor, materials and convenience. Land was held as a right to develop in the future, much like an investment. When rights were sold the price was based on the lottery price paid for the land or as otherwise negotiated since the sale of the right could often be many years after its lottery. Rights were most often far less expensive than purchasing developed land. Developed land had been surveyed, marked, fenced or bounded with stones, containing buildings, animal enclosures and maybe even had road access.

RECORDING DEEDS AND SURVEYS

Deeds and surveys, particularly in the earliest years were sometimes lost and sometimes recorded by the town years after transactions originated causing confusion, arguments, re-surveys and lawsuits. Indistinct boundary markers confused chain of title and the town required resurveying and re-recording a number of times. Distant and possibly dubious landowners were repeatedly reminded by townsmen to bring their documents in to the clerk promptly for recording. First and Second Dividents of 1662 and 1667 were so poorly recorded they required re-attestation in 1729.

ADDITIONAL DETAIL IN THESE PUBLICATIONS:

For further information and maps concerning the town’s history during this period based on these and other archives, see:

Missy Wolfe, Always A Wayward Daughter: The First Dutch Jurisdiction of Greenwich, Connecticut, Connecticut History Review 54, no. 2, (Fall 2015):193-216.

Missy Wolfe, Hidden History of Colonial Greenwich, (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2018). Contains additional maps, jurisdictional issues, and issue analysis of these archives.

Missy Wolfe, Insubordinate Spirit: A Story of Life and Loss in Earliest America 1610-1665, (Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2012). A detailed non-fiction narrative of the founders and founding of Greenwich, Connecticut.

INFORMATION UPDATES:

Due to additional information provided by these archives, there are some updates to previously published information.

The Road to Bedford or Bedford Road is Stanwich Road, not Lake Avenue. It was laid out approx. 1706.

The Stamford/Greenwich border angle change occurred at Havemeyer and Palmer Hill Road, not Stillwater and Palmer Hill road as cited in one instance of three referenced in Hidden History of Colonial Greenwich.

The original Feake & Patrick northern purchase border is accurately depicted in Hidden History of Colonial Greenwich.

Crotch Land: originally thought to be steep ravines in Byram, Crotch Land is now known to be land within the crotch of the Byram river and its eastern branch.

DUAL DATING

Year dating in this period is often written as Old Style / New Style, for example 1652/3. This was a mechanism to account for a transition from the Julien (old Style) calendar to the currently used Gregorian (new style) calendar which was widely adopted in 1752. Dual dating is pertinent for dates between January 1 to March 24. For dates in this three month time period that are not dual dated, one cannot be certain which calendar is referenced. When they are formatted with dual dating, the document in placed chronologically in the New Style year. For example a document dated January 10, 1710/11 would be placed within 1711. In Old Style the new year began on March 25. Eleven days should also be added to the Old Style day of the month when making the date conform to New Style. (Dates have not been changed that way in this text.) For months identified with numbers rather that names, this was a Quaker practice and the first month of the year was March. The 11th and 12th were January and February. Dates within brackets are presented as written in the original documents. Please see Place Names, Locations & Vocabulary for further information.

PLACE NAMES, LOCATIONS, VOCABULARY

MAPS

Discussion concerning the individual maps shown below is found in Missy Wolfe, Hidden History of Colonial Greenwich. (The History Press, Charleston, SC., 2018)

QUICK REFERENCE INDEX OF RELATIONSHIPS, OCCUPATIONS AND DUTIES

Information in this table is a quick check for family relationships, occupations and duties of individuals recorded in Greenwich, CT 1640-1742. Information here is found within The Great Ledger: Volume One, Volume Two, and some Vitals Statistics pages within the town’s first seven town record books which are not otherwise transcribed. Researchers should also consult the more comprehensive Personal Names index in this Volume One and in Volume Two for additional individuals and page numbers wherein far more information can be located. Also consult the Lists of Estates and Land Lotteries section in Volume One as page numbers are not fully indexed for that section.

Names in this and in the Personal Names Index may well be supplemental to those in the Barbour and Arnold collections of early Connecticut vital records. Information presented has been checked against the primary source documents.