Indians. In the winter following their arrival they made two successive purchases of land. The whole tract thus obtained extended eight miles northIndians. east of the Quinipiak river, and five miles southwest of it, and ran ten miles inland. Purchase from the of the colony during its first year. The settlers continued to act with the same deliberation which they had shown in their choice of a site. Condition For more than a year they remained without any formal legislative or judicial machinery, content to wait till fuller experience should suggest the pattern of their new constitution. Their only bond of union over and above such ecclesiastical organization as they might already possess was a socalled 'plantation covenant '-a declaration, that is, of their corporate civil existence, analogous to the church covenant which served as a basis of religious union, and possibly suggested by it. This agreement only pledged the settlers in general terms to accept the rule of Scripture, not merely as a religious system, but also as a civil code. There is no definite record of any ecclesiastical organization, but it is not unlikely that many of the settlers were already members of a church under the ministry of Davenport.2 Such union however, if it existed, was only regarded as temporary and provisional, since in the following year a church was formed afresh. Moreover some sort of civil authority must have been for the time vested in one or more of the leaders. Let the bond of spiritual brotherhood have been ever strong, no community would have trusted to that alone for the maintenance of law and order. We know, too, that when in the following year a civil constitution was established, all trusts for the management of public affairs were formally abolished,3 a clear proof that such existed, though unrecorded. 1 Newhaven Records, vol. i. pp. 1, 5. 2 It would not be safe to assume that when Winthrop spoke of Mr. Davenport's Company' he meant a congregational church, 3 Newhaven Records, vol. i. p. 20. 1639 tion framed.1 A CONSTITUTION FRAMED. 259 In June 1639 the whole body of settlers came together to frame a constitution. A tradition, seemingly A constitu- well founded, says that the meeting was held in a large barn. According to the same account, the purpose for which they had met and the principles on which they ought to proceed were set forth by Davenport in a sermon. 'Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out seven pillars,' was his text. There is an obvious connexion between this and the subsequent choice of seven of the chief men to lay the foundation of the constitution. But it does not follow that the seven men were chosen in obedience to the letter of the text. The Puritan often justified rational measures by fanciful analogies, nor is it impossible that the text was chosen as appropriate to a policy already in the preacher's mind. Davenport set forth the general system on which the constitution ought to be framed. The two main principles which he laid down were, that Scripture is a perfect and sufficient rule for the conduct of civil affairs, and that church-membership must be a condition of citizenship. In this the colonists were but imitating the example of Massachusetts. Yet the cases were not identical. In Massachusetts, the majority of the legislature framed a test which must have actually disfranchised some who had hitherto enjoyed the rights of citizenship, and which divided the community into a privileged and a non-privileged order, The founders of Newhaven may not improbably have believed that the church and the commonwealth would be identical. In any case all who, not being church members, came in the face of the disqualification, joined the 1 The proceedings of this meeting are described in a MS., apparently contemporary, published in the Newhaven Records, vol. i. pp. 11-17. It is thought by the editor to be in the handwriting of Thomas Fugill. He was in that year appointed notary to the Court. Trumbull gives a few details not mentioned in this, such as the place of meeting and the text of Davenport's sermon. colony with the full knowledge of what lay before them. After the sermon five resolutions, formally introducing Davenport's proposals, were carried. If a church already existed, it was not considered fit to form a basis for the state. Accordingly a fresh one was framed by a curiously complicated process. As a first step twelve men were elected. These twelve were instructed, after a due interval for consideration, to choose seven out of their own number, who should serve as a nucleus for the church. At the same time an oath was taken by the settlers, which may be looked on as a sort of preliminary and provisional test of citizenship, pledging them to accept the principles laid down by Davenport. Sixty-three of the inhabitants took the oath, and their example was soon followed by fifty more. By October, four months after the original meeting, the seven formally established the new commonwealth. They granted the rights of a freeman to all who joined them, and who were recognized members either of the church at Newhaven or of any other approved church. The freemen thus chosen entered into an agreement to the same effect as the oath already taken. They then elected a Governor and four Magistrates, or, as they were for the present called, a Magistrate and four Deputies. These officers were to be chosen yearly, but the claim of Eaton to the governorship was never disputed during the twenty years which passed before his death. The judicial system differed from that of the other New England colonies in that it rejected trial by jury, possibly because it could not be justified by any scriptural precedent. A Public Notary and a Marshal were appointed. The functions of the Governor and Magistrates were not defined. Indeed, but one formal resolution was passed as to the constitution of the colony, namely, that the Word of God shall be the only 6 1639 NEIGHBOURING SETTLEMENTS. 261 rule attended unto in ordering the affairs of government.'1 settlements in the hood of The principle on which the colony at Quinipiak was formed forbade any wide local extension. It was reOther stricted by the same limitations which the Greek philosopher recognized in his ideal state. neighbour- The citizens must have opportunities for acNewhaven. quiring familiarity one with the other.2 The whole community was a single congregation, and from the preacher even less than from the herald could the voice of Stentor be required. Thus the colony did not extend its own boundaries; it served as a model for other independent communities. In 1639 two other parties of emigrants, each numbering about forty, and, like those who founded Newhaven, joined together as an independent church, formed settlements, one, afterwards Guildford, seventeen miles north, the other, afterwards Milford, eleven miles south, of Quinipiak. Both settlements were placed on lands purchased from the Indians. Though politically independent of the colony at Quinipiak, they apparently copied the constitution of it, since each appointed seven men as magistrates and legislators. In this respect for the number seven they were not only imitating the orthodox church at Newhaven, but, undesignedly, no doubt, the Antinomian communities in Aquednek. Besides Guildford and Milford, other settle 1 These proceedings are all entered in the Records (vol. i. p. 20). The appointment of a Governor and Magistrates is also shortly but clearly described in a letter from Coddington to Winthrop, December 9, 1639 (Mass. Hist. Coll., 4th series, vol. vii. p. 278). 2 Αναγκαῖον γνωρίζειν ἀλλήλους, ποιοί τινές εἰσι, τοὺς πολίτας (Arist. Pol. b. vii. ch. iv. 13). 3 Τίς γὰρ στρατηγὸς ἔσται τοῦ λίαν ὑπερβάλλοντος πλήθους; ἢ τίς κῆρυξ μὴ Στεντόρειος ; (ib. 11). 4 The Newhaven records tell us nothing of the settlement of Guildford and Milford. The process is fully described by Trumbull (vol. i. p. 107). His account is apparently taken from the records of the townships. There is in the Massachusetts Historical Collection (1st series, vol. i. pp. 182-8) an account of the first settlement of Guildford. It is taken from a manuscript by Thomas ments soon came into existence in the neighbourhood of Quinipiak, or, to give it the name which had now been formally conferred upon it, Newhaven. These were the plantations at Rippowams and Yennycock, afterwards known as Stamford and Southold. Stamford was on the mainland, Southold opposite, on the western shore of Long Island. This settlement was of no small importance as an encroachment on Dutch territory. As such it will come before us again. The records now in existence fail to explain the exact relations between these plantations and the government of Newhaven. But it is clear that their position was not like that of Milford and Guildford, one of complete independence. Thus, in 1642 we find in the Newhaven records reference to the deputies for Stamford, while at the same time the court of Newhaven formally substitutes that name for the Indian one of Rippowams.1 So, too, the same Court appoints a constable for Yennycock pending the appointment of a magistrate. And we can hardly err in applying to Southold and Stamford an entry in the records that Courts should be held at Newhaven every April and October for the plantations in combination with this town.3 tion of the Whatever may have been the exact constitutional position of these settlements, it is at least clear that Consolida- Newhaven had abandoned the principle on colony. which she set out, that of making each church an independent community for civil purposes. The principle of union once adopted was soon carried further. In 1643 Guildford and Milford gave up the position of independence, and came within the jurisdiction of Newhaven. One incident of this union illustrates the Ruggles, who was pastor of the church of Guildford from 1695 to 1728. The account is in all likelihood taken from the town records. 3 Ib. 1 Records, vol. i. p. 69. 2 Ib. p. 70. The incorporation of Guildford is not stated in the records, but is referred to (p. 110). The case of Milford and the compromise as formally |