William Phelps

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Immigration to New England

King Charles I of England had succeeded his father King James I of England in 1625, and continued his father's strong opposition to the Puritan movement, who opposed many of the Anglican Church's doctrines as retaining too much of its Roman Catholic roots. After the Puritans assumed control of Parliament, they began to pose a serious threat to the King's authority. In January 1629, in a move to neutralize his opponents, Charles dissolved Parliament entirely. The religious and political climate became so difficult for Puritans that many began to make arrangements to leave the country.

William Phelps was among them. Phelps had been a member of Reverend John Warham's church. Warham had been a minister since 1614, but was relieved of his ministerial duties in 1627 because of his "strong Puritan leanings." The group Phelps joined was organized by the Reverend John White, Vicar of Dorchester, England. White is generally regarded as the sponsor of the earliest Massachusetts settlement after Plymouth. At his urging, nearly 150 individuals gathered from the English West Country counties of Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. While many historians assumed that the emigrants were motivated by religious persecution like others in the Winthrop Fleet, the West Country was free from it.

Unlike many who fled England for Canada, Ireland, and the Caribbean during this time, the Puritans who migrated to the New World were on the whole better educated, emigrated with their entire family, and tended to leave relatively prosperous lives to establish a new society of pious family values. While the Pilgrims were non-conformists or separatists, the Puritans were reformers. They were not leaving England for economic reasons or for religious freedom, per se, because they believed their faith to be the only true religion. They disrespected all other faiths, especially Quakers.

The emigrants were organized by Rev. White on March 19, 1630, as the West Country Company at New Hospital, Plymouth, England, the day before leaving England. Although very few knew one another, they agreed to emigrate as a body to Massachusetts, where White had sent other groups over the prior six years. White has been called "the father of the Massachusetts Colony," despite remaining in England his entire life, because of his influence in establishing this settlement. From their first arrival aboard the Mayflower in 1620, until 1629, only about 300 Puritans had survived in New England, scattered in small and isolated settlements.

The group fasted, prayed and prepared themselves for their perilous long voyage. White preached sermons in the morning and afternoon; then, with his blessing, the group departed on March 20 for the New World aboard the Mary and John.

Founding of Windsor

In 1633, the Plymouth Trading Company established the first Connecticut settlement, a trading post at what would become Windsor, Connecticut, in territory the Dutch claimed and in which they maintained a fort and trading post, about seven miles downriver in what was later Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1635, Puritan and Congregationalist members of Reverends Warham's and Maverick's congregation, including William Phelps, John Mason, Roger Ludlow, Henry Wolcott, and others, all prominent settlers, were dissatisfied with the rate of Anglican reforms. They disagreed with Governor Winthrop's leadership, as he thought that the settlement should be run by only a few people. They believed they should have a voice in electing their leaders.

They sought permission from the Massachusetts General Court to establish a new ecclesiastical society in the Connecticut Valley subject to their own rules and regulations. In October 1635, about 60 individuals, totaling 23 heads of households, undertook a two-week journey about 100 miles (160 km) to the east. They took a route known as the Old Connecticut Path, which took them through a region of swamps, rivers, and over small mountains. They sent most of their belongings and provisions via water and ship.

Before they were established in their new homes, winter arrived. The river quickly froze over in mid-November, and the ship carrying their provisions could not reach them. Their few supplies were soon exhausted, and they faced starvation. A few struggled back to Dorchester and the rest

survived the winter with help from the original Plymouth settlers and the Native Americans. When spring arrived, the transplanted settlers moved to higher ground in the meadow north of the river and were finally able to receive their provisions.

They initially named their settlement Dorchester. Two years later in 1637, the colony's General Court changed the name of the settlement from Dorchester to Windsor, believed to be named after the town of Windsor, England, on the River Thames. The new town was the first English settlement in the state. Under pressure from continued English settlement, the Dutch abandoned their post in 1654.

First town government in the colonies

Windsor was supposed to be under the control of the Massachusetts Company. When Connecticut was set apart as a colony, the General Court of Massachusetts set the terms of the new colony's government in a commission granted by on March 3, 1636. It set out how differences were to be resolved, fines and imprisonment imposed, trading, planting, building, lots, military discipline, defense in war, and the people to be self-governed in their new town. William Phelps was one of eight commissioners appointed by the Colony of Massachusetts Bay to govern the Colony of Connecticut. All meetings were to meet in a legal and open manner. Eight men were given "full power and authority" to lead the new colony: "Roger Ludlowe, Esqr., William Pinchon, Esq., John Steele, William Swaine, Henry Smythe, William Phelpes, William Westwood & Andrew Warde."

A Commission granted to seuall Persons to govern the people att Conecticott, for the space of a year, now next coming, an Exemplificacon whereof ensueth:

... wee, in this present Court assembled, on the behalfe of o' said Members & John Winthrop, Jun', Esq. Goner appoynted by certain noble personages & men of qualitie, interested in the said ryvr web ... wee therefore thinke mee[te] & soe order that Roger Ludlowe, Esqr., William Pinchon, Esq., John Steele, William Swaine, Henry Smythe, William Phelpes, William Westwood & Andrew Warde, or the greater pte of them, shall have full power and aucthoritie to hear and determine in a judicial way, ... to make & decree such orders, for the present, that may be for the peaceable & quiett ordering the affaires of the said plantacon, bothe in tradeing, planting, building, lotts, militarie dissipline, defensiue in warr [if neede so require], as shall best conduce to the publique good of the same, & that the said Rodger Ludlow, William Pinchon, John Steele, Will- Swaine, Henry Smyth, Will- Phelpes, William Westwood, and Andrew Warner, or the greatr pte of them shall have power ... in a leagall and open manner, by way of Court to pleede in execute[ing] the power and authoritu ... and if soe be ther may be a mutuall, and settled govunt- condecended unto, by and with the good likeing and consent of the said noble psonages, or their agent, the inhabitants and the commomwealth ... (Original spelling and punctuation preserved.)

Roger Ludlow later wrote a book on the democratic procedures of Connecticut which furnished the outline for the Constitution of the United States.

Pequot war service

The Mashantucket Pequot had lived in Southeastern Connecticut for over 10,000 years. When the colonists occupied Windsor, Connecticut, they came into contact and later conflict with the Pequot who inhabited the area. The Pequot had recently conquered the area from another tribe. In 1637, the Pequot killed two British slave raiders who had been capturing Native Americans for the slave trade. The colonists demanded that the Indians who killed the slavers be turned over for punishment. The Pequot refused. Other skirmishes and confrontations ensued, including an attack on settlers working in fields near Wethersfield. This was retribution for the confiscation of land belonging to sachem Sowheag. The English, unlike the French, considered land more important than fur trade, and they enslaved or killed most of those who survived the periodic epidemics, like the smallpox epidemic among the Pequot during 1630–32. The newcomers wanted the land for themselves, and they believed God afflicted the Pequot with smallpox as a blessing to the settlers.

"At a General Court held May 1, 1637 in Hartford, Connecticut, William Phelps presiding, it was ordered that there shall be an offensive war against the Pequot Indians, in which war he served." On May 26, 1637, about 90 English militia combined forces with Indians who were also enemies of the Pequot, the Narragansetts and Mohegan. They attacked the Pequot palisade or fort at Mystic. Many of the Pequot men from that village, led by their sachem Sassacus, were largely absent from the village as they prepared another raid on Hartford, Connecticut.

The militia, commanded by Captain John Mason, surrounded the palisaded village at dawn and set it to fire, striving to kill any who escaped the flames. By their own estimate they killed 600 to 700 individuals, captured seven, and saw seven escape. most of whom where women and children. This was later referred to as the Mystic massacre. In the ensuring weeks the Pequot, already decimated by smallpox, were virtually eliminated as a tribe. The remaining individuals were enslaved by neighboring enemy tribes, sold into slavery to other colonies, or enslaved by the white settlers themselves.

Land purchases

His home in Windsor was "a short distance north of the Mill River Valley", and after the Connecticut River flooded during the breaking up of ice in the spring of 1639, he moved his home further north, "about three-quarters of a mile northwest of Broad Street on the road to Poquonock, the place owned, in 1859, by Deacon Roger Phelps."

Phelps purchased land from the Indians on more than one occasion. In a deed dated March 31, 1665, Phelps recorded that he had purchased a parcel of land about 30 years previously from Sehat, a Paquanick sachem. He was unable to provide title and prove his previous payment, forcing him to buy the land again. He paid to Sehat's descendant "Nassahegan, an Indian sachem" and his kinsmen "four trucking coats" and wampum. He had previously paid "two coats and 40 shillings in wampum for a third coat, and six bushels of Indian corn, and fifteen shillings in wampum for the fourth coat; and fifteen shillings in wampum is at six a penny."

The Massachusetts Colonial Records contain a report from February 1666, which reported that "whereas there are several men that have land within the limits of it (the purchase aforesaid) both meadow and up-land, besides Mr. Phelps and his sons, it was therefore concluded that each man according to his proportion of land, capable of plowing or mowing, shall pay 12 pence per acre to Mr. Phelps; and each man paying to Mr. Phelps should afterward have a clear title to their several shares of land." Historian Henry Reed Stiles noted, "In these early days the title of Mister or Mr. was only given to elderly persons of distinction, while all military titles were always used. William Phelps received this distinguished title of Mr."

Stiles further noted that William Phelps "was one of the most prominent and highly respected men in the colony. An excellent, pious, and upright man in his public and private life, and was truly a pillar in Church and State." The family historian Oliver Phelps cited William Phelps as "one of the fathers and founders of this now ocean-bound Republic."

William Phelps

William Phelps

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Origin of William Phelps

From Crewkerne

Family

Marriage to Mary

Marriage to Ann Dover

Immigration to New England

Arrival in the New World

Early colonial life

Foreman of first grand jury

Early service in government

Founding of Windsor

First town government in the colonies

Pequot war service

Later public service

Land purchases

Death and burial

Famous descendants of William Phelps

About William Phelps

About William Phelps

Article

Related journals

Live room · 1 here

Related journals

Article

Origin of William Phelps

From Crewkerne

Family

Marriage to Mary

Marriage to Ann Dover

Immigration to New England

Arrival in the New World

Early colonial life

Foreman of first grand jury

Early service in government

Founding of Windsor

First town government in the colonies

Pequot war service

Later public service

Land purchases

Death and burial

Famous descendants of William Phelps