At the meeting of the Brookline Historical Society, held in the Edward Devotion House in December, 1913, Rev. Theodore P. Prudden of Brookline read the following paper:-

The colony which founded New Haven was the fourth and youngest of the settlements forming The United Colonies of New England, and was born when Plymouth was eighteen years old, Salem ten, Boston eight, and Hartford and Saybrook three, and it died in its 26th year. Unlike Plymouth it was composed of Nonconformists of the Established Church, rather than Separatists, and was not a church; unlike Massachusetts it never sought, nor had, a charter, nor received grants from the crown; unlike all the other colonies it never recognized allegiance to the king, nor adopted English laws, nor had trials by jury.

Its inception and character were due to two leaders, first and chiefly to Rev. John Davenport - a brilliant member of a distinguished Coventry family (another member of which was professor of theology at Douay, and court chaplain to two Stuart queens, and a close friend of Archbishop Laud). Entering anti-Puritan Oxford at fourteen (while Laud was President of St. Johns), ordained at nineteen and acquiring a wide reputation as a preacher in London while curate in the now most ritualistic church of St. Lawrence in Jewry, Davenport when twenty-seven became Vicar of St. Stephens, a church near the Guildhall, with 1400 communicants, among people strongly opposed to the Stuarts, and held a position of commanding influence.

Together with other London ministers he sought to reclaim Hooker, Cotton and Stone to conformity, just before they sailed, but was himself "more won by their arguments than by all his private investigations." And we find him contributing his money and influence to obtain the Massachusetts charter, soliciting aid for persecuted Protestants in Germany, and gathering a great congregation of "common and meane people," for which, and similar crimes, he awoke the enmity of Laud and the High Commission, and had to escape to Holland. After three years as preacher in Amsterdam he returned to England disguised, to gather his party of emigrants, being at that time a man of eminent distinction and achievement, though but thirty-seven years old.

The other leader was Theophilus Eaton, a boyhood and school friend and later a parishioner of Davenport's, a rich business man, once Deputy Governor of the East India Company. His and Mr. Davenport's influence collected a large company of merchants and well-to-do people from London, Kent, Norfolk and Hereford, including five clergymen, who had been imprisoned by the High Commission, and their followers. And these organized a joint stock enterprise (of which Eaton is said to have owned one-third) to form a commercial as well as religious settlement (as they called it "A plantation whose end was religion") in America.

With difficulty eluding the authorities, and leaving behind many who followed later, they sailed in the "Hector," arrived in Boston in June, 1637, and were most cordially welcomed, perhaps because of their reputed wealth, or Davenport's reputation and the aid he might give in confounding the Antinomonians and Mrs. Hutchinson. Pulpits were open to the preachers; the business opportunities of Boston were exploited; Charlestown, Watertown, Dedham and Newbury assigned them land, and Mr. Davenport was one of the committee which established Harvard college.

Conscious, however, of boundless freedom and opportunity and having a large capital, they wished to rear their ideal civil and religious structure on their own foundation. Therefore, during the summer and autumn Eaton inspected the coast to the Housatonic river, and found in Quinnipiac (the name of the Indians and region about New Haven) the sheltered river, the attractive harbor and the rich land he sought, and left men in camp there during the winter. His report being accepted by his company, and attracting also a few residents of Boston, a colony of 250 persons, one-fifth of which were men, in early spring bade farewell to the Massachusetts General Court, in a letter which expressed the hope that "Massachusetts and Quinnipiac shall be as Joab and Abishai were, whose several armies did mutually strengthen them both against their several enemies, or like Hippocrates, his twins, to stand or fall, to grow or decay, to flourish and wither, to live and dye together," and departed, some by sea and some on land, for their new home, which they reached April 1st, 1638, and christened Quinnipiac.

Land having been purchased from the forty-seven male Indians for 12 coats, 12 spoons, 12 hatchets, 12 hoes, 12 porringers, 24 knives, and 4 cases of French knives, they made their first dwelling of tents, wigwams, and sod or dirt roofed cellars dug in the dry banks of the creek, and at once laid out a rectangular town, the first in America, half a mile in each direction, divided it into nine squares, the central one (the present green) being reserved for public purposes, and the other squares assigned to groups of families, or individuals according to the amount of their investment.

No record exists of laws, courts, trials, or magistrates for eighteen months. Only a single provisional compact was made that "In all matters concerning the governing, gathering and ordering a church, and all public offices which concern civil order, the choice of magistrates and officers, the making and repealing laws, dividing allotments, inheritance and all things of like nature, should be ordered by rules which the Scriptures set forth."

Abundant harvests followed the first hard winter, and during the second summer the colonists, among whom twenty-five trades were represented, became well housed, some in log cabins, and some in "fair and stately" dwellings, in which, Hibbard says, "they at first laid out too much, and outdid the rest of the country." And this may well be, for Eaton's house when finished contained thirty-two rooms and twenty-two fire places, and four other houses were of such superiority that a visitor from Plymouth said, "Boston made a poor show in comparison."

After apportioning the first eight squares, the meadows and more remote upland were divided, each man receiving five acres of meadow and twenty of upland for every one hundred pounds invested, and half an acre of meadow and two and a half of upland for each child. Even indigent settlers like "Eliza the washer" and "Bro. Kimberley's brother" had a share, and differences were decided by Scriptural casting of lots. The pastor, however, received "above his portion according to his desire," and Mr. Eaton and the deacons had the first choice, the latter that they might be near the town, and better attend to the duties of their office.

The first established institution was a school, which in four years became free, the town paying the teacher a salary of thirty pounds, besides his "chamber and dyet," extra for traveling, and a yearly vacation. And the adopted educational scheme embraced absolute freedom in elementary education, compulsory education for all children, and higher education to be partially supported at public expense. "No such school system," says Livermore, "existed at that time in old or new England. Not till the latter half of the 19th century did New Haven reach once more the standard of 1639."

For sixteen months the colony was without a church, though meetings and sermons were abundant, and for eighteen months without a settled government, while Davenport, who "distrusted human nature, and thought a church the only safeguard of a state," argued and planned like the statesman he was, and at length, at a meeting of the stockholders held in a barn, presented his famous FUNDAMENTAL (by which he meant unalterable) AGREEMENT in six resolutions, that in substance were two. First, that all matters of government and dividing inheritance should be conducted according to the rules of Scripture; and second, that the franchise, and so all authority, be confined to church members - not, as he explained, that the church should rule the state, or the state support the church, or the colony's business be transacted in a church meeting, still less to offer a reward for church membership (though all of these things resulted), but that those wielding civil power (in distinction from those enjoying civil privileges) should give some proof of trustworthiness, and church membership was considered the best. And this, which was Davenport's hobby, and the sole statement of principles or constitution that the colony ever had, and which it imposed on all of its dependent towns, being voted on twice by upholding hands, was signed by every one present, and by all planters entering the colony thereafter.

Two months later a church was created in the following unique manner. The signers of the Fundamental Agreement chose twelve men "of approved piety" who were to choose seven from their number called "pillars" to constitute a church. Only eleven of the twelve served, however, for one, being charged with taking an excessive rate for meal which he sold to one in his need, though he confessed his sin and restored the extra price, was cast out as unworthy, on the ground that the report of his sin would probably be heard further than the report of his satisfaction.

Then the seven chosen pillars, without adopting any creed, organized themselves into a church, elected, re-ordained, and installed Mr. Davenport, the pastor (nine ministers, including Messrs. Hooker and Stone from Hartford, being present).

On the same day, in the same barn, and in the same manner was organized the church of Milford, whose members had followed their pastor, Rev. Peter Prudden, from Herefordshire, England.

Two months later the New Haven church of seven organized themselves into a state or general court, received a few others into their body, abrogated all former power for managing public affairs, reaffirmed that the word of God was their only law, stipulated that deacons would not be at the same time magistrates, and listened while Mr. Davenport expounded Deut. i, 13 and Exodus xviii, 21: "Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you." "Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens." Then, having elected Mr. Eaton magistrate or Governor, and other officers, they listened to the election sermon, or charge to the Governor, from the text: "Judge righteously between man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him; ye shall not respect persons in judgment; ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgement is of God." Thus the New Haven ship of state was launched, the sole instance of an independent civil government by general compact signed by all parties, seven years before John Locke suggested it, and one hundred years before Rousseau was born.

It was an experiment; it was not a republic or government by the people; it was not a free state; most of the governed had nothing to do with it but to obey; its laws were Jewish rather than English. It was an unlimited aristocracy, an oligarchy from which there was no appeal, and a machine fitted for tyranny, under Davenport's domination, had he been a tyrant. Like Massachusetts it had a church membership test, but it was in strong contrast with Connecticut whose leader taught that the foundation of government was the free consent of the governed, which adopted English laws, and had a constitution on which so much of the United States Constitution is modeled.

It marked, however, a step in the evolution of self-government. It was a great advance on English contemporary government. Davenport was a progressive rather than a bigot. It was manned by well-meaning, and, for their time, broadminded men, and it was strong. Its first recorded act was the putting to death according to Jewish law of an Indian murderer of a white man, and then placing his head on a pole in the market place, according to English custom. It dared to hide and protect the regicides when no other colony did. If the laws of Moses seem to us antiquated, yet where we except (as the New Haven fathers did) "things typical, ceremonial and having reference to Canaan" they are probably as wise as most of those originating in state houses and council chambers. They were followed in Massachusetts and are still - for the Ten Commandments are not quite obsolete. And bad as a church membership test is, it is probably as good an evidence of trustworthiness as being twenty-one years old, or taking out naturalization papers. Until recent years English office holders were limited to members of the English church. Cotton Mather observes that Davenport used "the golden snuffers of the sanctuary over much." But his snuffing prevented ills from which other colonies suffered, like English domination, the oppression of great land owners, and the intolerance, complaints, persecutions and execution at Salem under Endicott and at Boston under Winthrop. English laws were unobtainable and cruel; Biblical laws were familiar and incomparably more lenient. By them only twelve crimes deserved death; by English law of the time one hundred and fifty did.

After two years the name was changed to New Haven, though many preferred New London, and the colony began to swarm into the villages of Milford, Guilford, Branford, Stratford and Southold, L. I., thus beginning its ambitious policy of extensive settlements under the hegemony of New Haven. Therefore three courts were created, all held in New Haven, "the capital," as it began to be called. First the General Court or town-meeting of enfranchised church members, sitting bi-monthly, making and interpreting laws, levying taxes, choosing magistrates even over adjoining towns and from its decrees no appeal could be made. Second, there was the monthly court of the magistrate and his four advisory assistants, to consider pressing cases that did not need to go before the General Court. Still another was the Particular Court (like a police court) for minor offences, over which the benign Eaton presided, preaching and interpreting the Scriptures to numberless profligates in a most fatherly manner.

When, later, town-meetings were poorly attended, there was an evolution of the townsmen, or select-men, who first were simply a committee reporting to the town-meeting and seeking its advice, but gradually became independent and acted for the town, so that their records are later the town records; and the Court referred business to them for disposal. Evidently they felt their freedom, for, meeting as they did at the tavern, and being accused of extravagant indulgence in liquors at the town's expense, they owned up to "spending thirty shilling last year, said they would probably spend more this year, but if the town disapproved, they would pay the bill themselves."

Before three years a meeting house in the centre of the Common, fifty feet square, with a peaked roof and turret, was erected of green plank, and without stone foundations, at a cost of 500 pounds. It served not only for worship, but as court house, magistrates office, town armory and general news centre through the notices posted on its doors, but it was so poorly built that its brief life was only eked out by unsightly props, and the windows had to be boarded up in winter to keep out the cold.

Wide galleries filled three sides of its interior, and on the other side was the tall pulpit with the teaching elder seat above and behind it, the ruling elder's below, and the deacons lower still, all facing the congregation, which, classed and ranked, sat on rude benches, men and women on different sides. The Governor before all, then "Mistress first, and good wife after, clerkly squire before the clown. From the brave coat lace embroidered to the grey frock shading down." Thither all persons MUST come when the drum beat each Sunday or be fined, and reverently stand during the prayer, rise and stand while the text was announced to show respect for the Scriptures, and stand too after the sermon till the pastor retired, to show respect for him. When the deacons called for a contribution, first the magistrates and leading citizens, next the married men, and third all single persons, widows, and women with absent husbands, walked to the deacons' seat, and deposited their money in a box, or their chattels on the floor. Another long service came at two o'clock. Though the Jewish Sabbath ended at sunset, the New Haven Sabbath stillness was maintained all the evening, lest Satan should steal the Word out of young people's hearts, and Sam Clark was brought before the Court for hankering about Roger Allings gate to draw out company to him, but was dismissed with the warning to remember that "he who being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be cut off and that without remedy."

Voluntary pledges paid church expenses, but the church as a state easily assessed the unwilling and delinquint. and collected their dues as a tax.

Public safety was secured by the militia in which every man between sixteen and sixty save officials was enrolled, and must appear periodically in the market place with musket, sword, bandoleen, a rest, a pound of powder, 20 bullets fitted to his musket and four pounds of shot; second by a night watch also in the market place; third by a guard for Sunday, when all men save clergymen wore swords. One soldier was placed on the meeting house roof, others tramped beats outside, and still others occupied privileged rear seats within.

The greatest need was a physician, whom an offer of house, land, furniture, provisions and a salary failed to procure. As the only laws were the Bible, and the court's enactments, and the magistrate was judge, jury, interpreter of Scripture, and prosecuting officer combined, lawyers were neither needed nor permitted, and the court forbade any one to speak for a person on examination or trial, excepting with regard to the law, under penalty of a fine of ten shillings or an hour in the stocks. Before ten years a college was proposed, and five hundred and forty pounds were subscribed, but during the sixty-two years before Yale was founded, New Haven sent on a two weeks journey through the woods to Harvard sixty students, or one eighth of all the graduates. After 1644 she sent an annual contribution of a peck of corn from every one whose heart was willing, but later collected it as a tax. And this zeal for learning is not strange, if we consider the personnel of the colony, which Mather said was "constellated with many stars of the first magnitude, and as genteel persons as most that ever visited these nooks of America." Aside from the pastor, a scholar, statesman, preacher, and Eaton, a scholar, traveler, business man, eighteen times elected Governor, there were several university bred clergymen. There was Mr. Hood who was Mr. Davenport's assistant, an Oxford graduate, a brother-in-law of Whalley the Regicide, and a man who on his return to England became domestic chaplain of Cromwell. There were Edward Hopkins, son-in-law of Eaton, nineteen years Governor of Connecticut, founder of the Hopkins Grammar schools of New Haven and Hartford; and William Tuttle, great-grandfather of Jonathan Edwards and his ten sisters, all six feet tall, "making their father sixty feet of daughters, all of sound mind"; and the Younger Winthrop, son of the Massachusetts Governor, and himself Governor of Connecticut; and David Yale step-son of Eaton, and father of Elihu Yale; and Captain Turner, famous in the Pequot war; and rich men like Eaton with 3,000 pounds, ten others with 1,000, and nineteen with 500 pounds, when 850 pounds sufficed for John Harvard to endow his college, and 550 for Elihu Yale to establish his. There were also Mrs. Higginson, widow of the Salem minister, and young Michael Wigglesworth, "the lurid morning star of American Literature" and Ezekiel Cheever, the first School Master, and author of "The Accident," or "An Introduction to the Latin Tongue," which was a New England text book for 150 years (the last edition being issued in 1838), who being censured by the church for disrespect for the minister, shook the dust of New Haven from his feet, and became master of the Roxbury Latin school, and tutor of both the Mathers, and about whom, when he died at the age of 90, Cotton Mather wrote:

From people like these, bearing the title "Mr.," the colony graded down through householders, farmers (called Goodman) and their wives (called "goodwifeor Goodie") to day laborers, apprenticed servants and an occasional negro or Indian slave.

Regardless of the laws of Political Economy, the Magistrates legislated on all manner of subjects, on wages, for example, "limiting a master workman to two shillings daily in summer, and twenty pence in winter, and if larger sums were paid, both giver and taker were fined a day's work, fixing the hyre of a steer at nine pence, a grown ox or bull at twelve pence, a horse at sixteen pence, a cart and furniture at six pence, and a day's work at seven hours, if the whole time was diligently employed." They prescribed how fences should be made to keep out pigs and goats and the price thereof; ordained that fat venison must be sold at two and a half pence a pound, that a laboring man's board, lodging and washing be estimated at four shillings and six pence a week, and that boards made by rolling a log over a hole, and sawed by a topman above and a pitman beneath be four and six pence an hundred feet, and planks five shillings. With an eye to both business and morals they fined Goodman Meigs for tanning poor leather, and Goodman Gregory for flapping poor shoes together, and told them that since "leather was now as cheap as in England, shoes should be more reasonable." Regardless of supply and demand they forbade a profit of more than three pence in a shilling on retailed English goods, or more than one and a half on goods bought on board a ship, and indicted the thrifty widow Stolyon for selling wheat for five shillings which she bought for three and six pence, and thread at twelve shillings which cost but two in England, and needles at a penny a piece which one could buy at Cheapside for twelve or eighteen pence a hundred, and worst of all, for demanding seven wampum for a penny when others paid her, but giving only six for a penny when she paid others. They also appointed and oversaw the Marshal, the public crier, the fence viewer, the viewer of weights, drugs and liquors, the cattle brander, and the public chimney sweep, who had a monopoly of cleaning all constantly used chimneys monthly in winter and bi-monthly in summer, and who, should a frugal citizen clean his own chimney, might inspect it, and were it not well done, sweep it over again with double pay.

Of all duties to God and to man they took cognizance - of Sabbath breaking, which was "a proud act of defiance of God," and made a theft on that day especially heinous; of irreverence which included absence from church, improper conduct when there, disrespect for the minister, and any secular employment, and punished as seemed to them wise, even whipping one man for declaring that he received no profit from the minister's sermons; of courtship, forbidding any man to inveigle or draw the affections of any maid without the consent of her father, master or guardian, or (in their absence) of the nearest magistrate, whether by written messages, company keeping, unnecessary familiarity, sinful dalliance, or gifts.

They watched over the amusements of young people, prohibiting mixed dancing, and shovel-board at the inn, but only discountenancing other dancing and card-playing; over a master's treatment of his apprentices, and that the latter should have proper education; and over widows matrimonially inclined that their property be secured for their children. They legislated about the use of tobacco, which, prohibited in Massachusetts and allowed once a day in Hartford if one went on a journey of ten miles, was grown for trade in New Haven, but its use was prohibited on the Sabbath within two miles of the meeting house, in door-yards, on the streets, and among soldiers on duty, the fine being six pence a pipe, which, however, a poor servant might pay by sitting one hour in the stocks. The magistrates also felt responsible for marital relations, and ordered an absent husband to return to his wife at once or pay twenty pounds; for unchastity, and compelled the marriage of a betrayed but uncomplaining girl to her betrayer, the marriage ceremony to be accompanied by a sound whipping to both parties unless physical weakness, attested by some worthy matron, exempted the girl; and they ordered the whipping of the daughter of one of the magistrates for stealing, and filthy dalliance with Will Harding. They moreover interviewed the doctor (when one had been secured) about taking more moderate fees, wrestled with Dutch merchants about not attending worship, lectured sailors from the Barbadoes for hauling their vessel into security on the Sabbath, officiated at all marriages, which if done by a minister might be thought to be a sacrament, established the value of corn, cattle, work, beaver skins and wampum with which trade was conducted, and withal they must study the Bible so as to back each law or punishment with a proper text - the law about the size of beer-casks being supported by Deuteronomy xxv, 15: "A perfect and just measure shalt thou have," and the law that militia men be armed supported by 1 Samuel xiii, 20: "All the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every one his share and his coulter, and his ax." Cruel laws were passed here as elsewhere, but they were mildly enforced. There were laws against heresy, but they were rather against the proclaiming than the holding the heresy, and against Baptist teachings but not against Baptists residing in New Haven. There were laws against "that accursed sect called Quakers," and one man was fined, whipped, branded and banished, but in Massachusetts three Quakers were hung. And yet when the Baptists of those days stood, men and women, under open church windows during service crying "woe, woe," or entering, covered with ashes, cursed and contradicted the minister, calling him "traitor," "liar," "fool," bidding him "sit down," and shouting: "Thy sermon is too long," and when sometimes, as in Salem, women went about in the costume of Eden to show the nakedness of other people's sins, then the problem of toleration became complex. There were laws in New Haven as elsewhere against witchcraft, but only one person was tried and she was acquitted, while one was executed in Hartford and several in Massachusetts.

Church trials, however, were vigorously conducted and their penalty of expulsion given irrespective of person, the first victim being the Governor's wife, and the second the town clerk and one of the seven pillars, for stealing land and altering the records, and he was forced to leave the colony.

The Market Place of New Haven was not only its geographical center but the center of its life. It was never called a "common," but the "market place," never used for pasture, nor designed for a park, but was set aside, like the Forum at Rome, or the Agora at Athens, for public uses and buildings, military parades and exercises, a meeting place for traders, and popular gatherings in the future great city. Therefore it was a novelty (and has continued to be) in old and new England, and was owned by the "Proprietors of the Colony," as it is now by the still existing "Proprietors' Committee."

Though at first only sixteen acres of forest, not wholly cleared for twenty-five years, and, for much longer, uneven, unfenced, cut up with roads and covered with stumps, yet the Market Place early became an object of pride and injury to it was strictly forbidden.

Having in its centre the Meeting House, on the site still occupied by the church after 274 years, in one corner the place for trade, on one side the school where six generations went for instruction, on another side the watch house with a fireplace for the guard, and a prison house with no fire, and nearby the stocks and whipping-post, it was the resort for worship, business, education, news-gathering, legislation, seeking and administering justice, military training and sports, when young men played with cudgels, and broadswords, leaped, "wrastled," bowled pitched "quaites," ran races, or shot at a mark for a five shilling prize. To it young women strolled to read matrimonial and other notices on the church doors, and business men went to meet customers, or hire laborers, and ship captains to meet buyers for their cargoes. Over it thronged the whole settlement on Sunday, and the planters, on other days, to town-meeting, with the ballots of corn which meant "Yes," or beans which meant "No" in their pockets, and good wives to buy and lug home whatever they needed at the market. Across it bridal couples walked to the Magistrate's office, and the Governor to his arbitrary throne, and culprits were led to trial and thence to the stocks or whipping post, about which a crowd gathered seldom to pity, but often to jeer. There too proclamations were made; Cromwell's victories were celebrated, and the final merging of the colony in Connecticut announced. Over it doubtless the regicides Goff and Whaley fled from Davenport's house to the cave on West Rock, and there the pursuing officers questioned and were misled by the people. There also the town drummer, whose drum served as church bell, town clock, early morning rooster, caller and dispenser of the watch and warner of danger, earned his five pounds a year. And there, to the scattered graves about the rear of the church, passed slowly (and sometimes staggered, if the previous potations were too large) the funeral processions, each new grave being dug and filled by the relatives of the deceased, and the bier left bottom up on the new mound till it was needed again. For several years the colony prospered. New settlers came constantly (one hundred and eleven in one year). Coasting trade was opened with Boston, England, Virginia and the Barbadoes. Leather was made, shoes were imported, iron works were established, and the prospects of the expected mart and state seemed bright. But when the Puritan immigration ceased, growth fell off. The deflection of Winthrop and Hopkins to Hartford and the death of Eaton were discouraging. As commercial ventures were unsuccessful, impoverished capitalists turned farmers and small tradesmen. Repeatedly new enterprises of enlargement ended in disaster. After purchasing land for a trading post on the site of Philadelphia, the settlers from New Haven were on their arrival driven back by the Dutch, Swedes and a pestilence. When the attempt was repeated it was blocked by the Governor of New Amsterdam, with whom for three years a war was threatened and prepared for. And when aid for this war was asked of the New England Confederacy, which was formed for such an emergency, Plymouth and Hartford bluntly refused, and Massachusetts, after promising help and preparing an army of 800, did likewise, which was called, "A provoaking sinn against God, and of a scandalous nature towards man," for it prevented New Haven from annexing unprotected New York and Philadelphia to its suburbs, and destroyed its last dream of greatness. When, later, a "new Ark" was sent forth to New Jersey, and established the Newark settlement, New Haven's opportunity had gone. The last overwhelming misfortune was the loss of a great ship, fitted out at 5000 pounds expense and with many prominent citizens on board, towed to sea through a channel cut three miles in the ice, but never seen again. And so deep was the discouragement that Cromwell's offer of a location in Jamaica was eagerly discussed.

Meantime, discontent with the franchise became almost a rebellion in the colony's outlying towns, in which the enticements of the freer government at Hartford were abundantly presented, and trials for sedition, non-payment of taxes, and contempt of authority could not allay it. Even in New Haven itself the few ruling saints were almost beleaguered by a strong and respectable party who would not be pacified by invitations to church membership or a few forced concessions.

When, therefore, in 1662, Charles II, angry with New Haven for its protection of the regicides, ignored its existence, and by a new charter merged it in Connecticut, further resistance seemed useless. Nevertheless, for three years longer the plucky Davenport preached and protested against the ever-rising tide, and the government creaked on with increasing feebleness until finally, when all of her dependent towns (Southold, L. I., being the first) had revolted and sworn allegiance to Connecticut, and a forced union with New Amsterdam under the Duke of York seemed imminent, the New Haven government yielded to the inevitable, and the colony ceased. And John Davenport, declaring that "The cause of Christ in New Haven was miserably lost," departed to Boston to succeed John Cotton as pastor of the First Church, and fight an extended suffrage till his death a year later.