UNWELCOME NEIGHBORS.

39

May it please your Honor, with the gentlemen of the General Courte, to understand that about four years since, that John Budd did present a paper with several names to it, of inhabitants on his neck or island, so called and patented. It was for the settling of himself and children; on which we conceived had it been performed it had done noe great injury to the towne; but he noe ways pretended it, as doth agree, but hath and doth dayley let it and settle people upon it, extreamely prejuditial to the towne, without the towne's approbation, which wee humbly conceive may be our injury if not speedily prevented; Doe humbly request that neck of land may be delivered up to the town, we paying him by Indian purchases with interest, he abating for what land he hath sold, if not prejuditial to the towne. And them that are prejuditiall, may be removed, and that you would be pleased to depute two or three persones whom you shall think meet, to come and settell amongst us with what speed may be. Soe we rest your humble petitioners.1

The origin of this

difficulty with Mr. Budd has been related in a previous chapter. About the time when he engaged with Disbrow, Coe, and Studwell in the purchase of Peningo Neck, he bought from the Indians a tract of land on the opposite side of Blind Brook, which was subsequently known as Budd's Neck. This transaction seems to have been not altogether pleasing to his companions. Perhaps they were somewhat disappointed to find that he proposed to hold these lands in his own right. The other purchases had been made by the associates in common; or when effected by one alone, had been transferred to the body of proprietors. Perhaps it was expected that like Disbrow, Mr. Budd would regard himself as an agent simply, and retain only his share of the purchase.

6

No breach, however, occurred for a few years. In 1663, the inhabitants of Hastings made choice of their nayghbar John Bud' to go up to Hartford and urge their claim to be taken under the colony's care. In 1664, he was chosen as their deputy to the General Court. But a new grievance arose when this neighbor began to dispose of portions of his land without the consent of the The planters were exceedingly jealous of their right to

town.

1 This document is given as above by Mr. Bolton. History of Westchester County, vol. ii. p. 38. I have not learned where the original is to be found.

2 Richard Coules, in Bolton, an evident misprint.

3 One of the variations of the name Odell.

admit or reject strangers who came among them. The new settlers on Budd's Neck were in close proximity to the village, and indeed they seem to have nonsidered themselves as within the limits of the town of Rye. Yet they had never been formally admitted to the privileges of freeholders.1

6

We are not told how the visit of Messrs. Law and Olmstead resulted, nor what success they met with in the endeavor to compose these differences. But either their efforts were ineffectual, or a new controversy arose; for in May, 1671, a large committee Capt Nathan Gold, Mr. Tho: Fitch, Mr. Holly, Lnt Richard Olmstead, and Mr. John Burr-are appointed. They, or any three of them, are desired to repayre to the sayd Rye as soone as may be, and to endeavoure a comfortable composure and issue of such differences as are among the people there,' and also to aid them in procuring a minister to settle among them.2 And finally, all these efforts failing apparently, more stringent measures are adopted. October 14th, 1672, the Court order that Mr. Bird [Budd] and those of Rye that have impropriated the lands of Rye to themselves shall appeare at the Generall Court in May next, to make appeare their right, for then the Court intends to setle those lands according to righteousness, that so a plantation may be encouraged, and plantation worke may go forward to better sattisfaction than formerly.' 3

6

The person thus summoned to Hartford was John Budd, junior; his father having died in 1670. We do not learn how the controversy was ended, for the minutes of the next General Court contain no mention of the case. The following order, however, seems to bear upon it, and implies that the matter was considered and determined at that meeting:

This Court orders that all grants of land made to any perticuler

1 Some of these transfers of land, complained of by the people of Rye, are on record.

In 1665, John Budd of Rye in the jurisdiction of Connecticut in New England,' sells to John Morgan and John Concklin of Flushing in the county of Yorkshire, Long Island, a certain tract of land in Rye. (County Records, vol. B. p. 101.) Samuel Linds was another purchaser. In 1670,shortly before his death,' Mr. Budd sold another tract to one Jonathan Selleck: and in the same year another to John Thomas. (Rye Records, vol. B. pp. 9, 34, 150.)

These are all transient names.

On the other hand most of the lands conveyed by Mr. Budd to his family appear to have been held permanently. John Ogden, Joseph Horton, and Christopher Youngs, his sons-in-law, with John Budd, junior, each had a tract of land on Budd's Neck. 2 Public Records of Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 150.

3 Ibid. p. 187.

DIFFERENCES COMPOSED.

41

person, not yet taken up and layd out, shall be taken up in one intire peice, in a comely form, except by speciall liberty from this Court; and that all former grants that are or shall be layd out by order shall be sufficiently bownded, and so mayntayned as to preuent all future trouble.' 1

The decision of the Court, whatever it may have been, seems to have terminated the dispute relative to Budd's Neck. That territory was incorporated into the town of Rye, while the claims of Mr. Budd as proprietor were allowed. There is no evidence. that a distinct patent for the tract was obtained from Connecticut. And it was not until the year 1720 that Joseph Budd, grandson of the first purchaser, obtained a patent for his lands from the government of the province of New York.

After the settlement of the dispute concerning Budd's Neck, the jurisdiction of the town appears to have been unquestioned. Local officers were sometimes appointed specifically for the east side of Blind Brook,' and the west side.' And in the year 1700 we meet with the following record:

'At a towne meeting held in rye august the 2, the towne in ienerall doth grant unto the inhabitaince of the neck of appoquamas the Liberty to bane a pound and pounders and fence viewers.'

1 Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 200.

UR little town was founded in troublous times. It is not easy

OUR

for us to realize now the anxieties and fears that must have occupied the minds of its early settlers; nor to credit them with the degree of courage and resolution which they showed in establishing themselves here amid such discouragements. Let us briefly notice the events that, within the first thirty years of the settlement, brought alarm and even suffering to the firesides of these pioneers.

The Indians dwelling along the shores of the Sound proved from the first to be pacific and friendly toward the settler; and our inhabitants probably felt little apprehension from them until the outbreak of war, in the year 1675. But in that year, King Philip, of Mount Hope, a chief of the Pokanokets, succeeded in uniting the tribes of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in a desperate effort to exterminate the English. The conflict lasted about two years, and it did not actually spread into the territory of Connecticut, yet every town in that colony shared in the anxieties and sorrows produced by the fearful struggle.

The news of the outbreak reached our town early in July, 1675. On the third or fourth of that month, we may suppose, the townsmen Joseph Horton, Thomas Brown, and John Brondigecalled the inhabitants together, and read to them the following letter, just received from the Governor and Council of the colony:

'Hartford, July 1, 1675.

HOND SIRS: We have received intelligence by letters post from Stonington and New London that the Indians are up in arms in Plimoth and in the Narrogancett Country, that they have assaulted the English, slayn about thirty, burnt some houses, and still are engaging the Indians rownd about by sending locks of some English they have slayn, from one place to another. The people of Stonington and New London send for ayd; and accordingly we purpose to send them forty-two men to-morrow; and have given order to the several plantations here to put them in a posture of defence speedily; and these lines are to move yourselves forthwith to see that the same care be taken in your parts for your security; and that all plantations have notice hereof, both Guilford and so on to Rye, that they also be compleat in their arms, with ammunition according to law. Here is inclosed coppys of some letters we have received from Stonington, &c. Please to peruse them, and hasten the posting of the letter to Governor Andross.'1

The scene of the conflict soon removed from Rhode Island and Plymouth to the central and western parts of Massachusetts. By the first of September, all the towns along the Connecticut River were in danger. Deerfield and Hadley had been attacked, and Northfield, the uppermost settlement on the river, was abandoned by its inhabitants. On the ninth of that month, the commissioners of the three colonies now united met at Boston for the first time after the formation of the confederacy. They agreed to prosecute the war vigorously, and ordered that there be forthwith raised a thousand soldiers, whereof five hundred to be dragoons or troopers with long arms.' Of this force, Connecticut was to supply three hundred and fifteen men. Rye probably furnished its quota of seven or eight, who joined the Connecticut corps under brave Major Treat.

In the latter part of this month, tidings came from the army of the sad affair of September 18th, between Deerfield and Hadley. A party sent to convey provisions to the latter place had been sur

1 Public Records of Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 332.

2 The militia of Connecticut, in 1675, amounted to 2,250 men, according to Trumbull, who reckons the population of the colony from these figures, supposing every fifth man to have been a soldier. In 1677, Rye contained thirty-eight persons owning real estate, or about two hundred inhabitants in all.