Founded in controversy

I tend to think of the events that lead to the American Revolution as having roots fairly close to those events. But the reality is that the roots probably go all the way back to the colonization of what would become the nation.

After all, many of those who boarded ships to come here came from a motivation of religious freedom, a desire to shake off the established religion in England, which like its predecessor, the Roman Catholic Church, fancied itself to be the true church, a failing of many reform movements in church history. They felt forced to leave their homeland for a place where they could practice their religion without interference from the English church and its king.

Others sought new opportunities in a new land, free from a class system that placed control in the hands of people who often had no other qualification for wielding it than the privilege granted them by their name and title. 

So we were founded by a bunch of folks with a fierce independence streak. And well in advance of the decision to throw off the shackles of the English king and establish themselves as independent, the colonies saw division and strife that lead to new settlements and their desire for a certain autonomy. 

Take Stamford, Connecticut, for example. The town has its roots in religious division, though what the exact details of the fight are unknown. The settlement of Wethersfield, just south of Hartford, was established in 1633-34 and is known as being the "Most Ancient Towne" in the state. 

But just seven years later some sort of dispute arose within The Church of Christ, also known as the Congregational Church, the church of the Puritans in America. Some 28 men and their families in the congregation organized a company and decided to move about 75 miles southwest tp a tract of land that had been purchased from Native American  tribes by an agent of the town of New Haven. New Haven being Puritan as well was happy to sell. A year later, the number of settlers had grown to at least 59 men and their families. Among them was William Newman, who appears in my family tree 11 branches up.

Though they had left a Congregational church, when they established the town it was established as a Puritan, Congregationalist settlement. And, as happened many times in the early colonial days, they outlawed any other church. We want religious freedom, but not too much religious freedom. 

I found an old history of the founding of the town, History of Stamford, Connecticut, From Its Settlement in 1641 to the Present Time (1868). William appears a number of times, but the one that caught my eye had to do with a conflict that arose between New Haven and Stamford.

Because the property had originally belonged to New Haven, the newly established settlement fell under the jurisdiction of the New Haven Court, which was responsible for establishing a local court at Stamford. This court have jurisdiction over most judicial questions in the settlement, except for those reserved to the New Haven court. 

Conflicts began to arise almost immediately. An early dispute was a request from the Stamford settlers for protection from Native American attacks from New Haven. Although New Haven agreed to help, the settlers often found themselves handling matters themselves without the promised support. A few years after Stamford's founding, some settlers decided they didn't like the arrangement with New Haven and split from the town. Then the neighboring Dutch decided they'd like to annex the territory. The settlers rebuffed their attempt.

Even though they stayed, the settlers continued to chafe under New Haven's administration. A dispute arose over the arrest of a criminal, which was challenged by a Robert Basset, who would be charged with seditious conduct. His trial would wind up involving my great-great-to-the x grandfather. We'll look at that next time.