verse.[1]Both Davenport and Eaton had been, for some years, members of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and that company's colony made great efforts to retain the new body of settlers within its own bounds. While the leaders took under consideration the various offers made to them, they either found them unsatisfactory, or had already determined to establish an independent colony of their own.[2] After Eaton had examined the country around Quinnipiack, it was decided to plant there, and seven men were left to guard the site during the winter, the whole company following in the spring. Not only were the resources of the colonists unusually ample, but their preparations seem to have been exceptionally complete, and the little town soon contained the most stately dwellings in all New England. Some idea of their scale may be gained from the reputed presence in Davenport's of thirteen fireplaces, and of nineteen in Eaton's.[3]The intention, apparently, was not only to found a Puritan state, but to have it become the chief mercantile centre of the New World, which accounts for their having built, as one of their Massachusetts critics wrote, "as if trade and merchandize had been as inseparably annexed to them as the shadow is to the body, in the shining of the sun."[4] One disaster followed another in their business ventures, however, and the dreams of the merchantfounders were never realized.
Davenport and most of his company were not only Puritans, but of the strictest sect, and the Bible Commonwealth which they proceeded to form was of the most extreme type. Like the Connecticut and Rhode Island people, they were without a charter, and were mere squatters upon the soil; but in June, 1639, a meeting was held of the "free planters," to discuss a frame of government to replace a previously signed plantation covenant, now lost. We have no knowledge of what constituted a "free planter," but the term undoubtedly ex-
- ↑ C. H. Levermore, Republic of New Haven (J. H. U. S., 1886), p. 8; E. E. Atwater, History of Colony of New Haven (New Haven, 1 881), pp. 112 ff.
- ↑ J. Winthrop, History, vol. 1, p. 283; letter from Davenport and Eaton to Massachusetts, Bulletin New York Public Library, 1899, PP- 393 f.
- ↑ Atwater, New Haven, pp. 393 f
- ↑ Hubbard, History of New England, p. 334.
