250 CONDITION OF THE COLONY. [1713. Winthrop and Clark's agreement, and close the controversy, appointed a committee to settle it. In 1703 it was agreed, with the commissioners of Rhode Island, that the line should run along the middle of Pawcatuck River to the Ashaway, thence in a straight line to the southwest corner of Warwick grand purchase, and thence north to Massachusetts. Grants before made in Westerly were to be preserved, and property to be maintained. This agreement, however, was disowned by Rhode Island about the year 1713, confirmed some years after by the king, and finally marked out in 1728. Great joy was diffused in the colonies by the news of the peace of Utrecht, which was formally proclaimed by the governor and council on the 26th of August, 1713; and the people began to enjoy another respite from the sufferings and fears of war. Danger being now removed, the soldiers might return to their homes, and support themselves by cultivating their land in security, while the colony might begin to relieve itself from debt. New settlements might be made, and persons who had fled from the frontiers might safely return. Providence had again mercifully protected Connecticut from the enemy, as in the two preceding wars of William and Anne. Only one town had been destroyed in all the wars; and that was Simsbury, which was burned after it had been deserted by the inhabitants, who had buried their furniture and goods. This was probably in Philip's War. The colony, in Queen Anne's War, had paid 7d. and 8d. on the pound on the whole list, and issued bills of credit to the amount of £33,500 since June, 1709, which was to be called in within seven years. The population of the colony was now about 17,000; the army nearly 4000; the grand list, £281,083; the taxable towns, 38; those sending deputies, 40; and the whole number of representatives, 80. The colony owned 2 brigantines, about 20 sloops, &c., and not above 120 seamen. Some tar, pitch, turpentine, and fur were sent to England: but most of the produce to Boston, NewYork, and the West Indies. Suffield, Enfield, and Woodstock were within the territory, but governed by Massachusetts. The two former at first belonged to Springfield, all of which town would have been in Connecticut if the line had been run accord. ing to the expectation of the planters. Economy in government has always been a remarkable feature in Connecticut. The governor's salary was then £400, the deputy-governor's £50, and the whole expenses of government, including these, probably not over £500, or less than the common salary paid to a king's governor. The first permanent printer came to Connecticut in 1713. He was Timothy Green, a descendant of Samuel Green, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was induced to remove to New-London by an offer from the Assembly of £50 annually for doing the public printing. His descendants long held the same office in that town. 252 COMMON SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED. [1714. CHAPTER XXXI. 1714. The Origin of Yale College.-Sketch of its History.-Common Schools.-A College and Grammar School provided for in New-Haven.-Yale College first placed at Killingworth.--Removed to Saybrook.-Controversy arising out of a Proposal to remove it from Saybrook to New-Haven.-Established there.-Rector Cutler dismissed, and the Saybrook Confession introduced.-Law of the Colony to prevent irregular Meetings on the Sabbath, and the Abuse of the Sacraments. -Mining Privileges granted to Mr. Winthrop.-Mines opened at Simsbury and Wallingford.-Newgate Prison.-First Counterfeiting in the Colony. THE founders of Connecticut were among the most devoted friends of general education the world ever saw. They believed that the cultivation of the mind was a duty incumbent on all, and required by the Word of God, whose book of revelation not only demands, but presupposes the instruction of the intellect. They considered it a public benefit to educate every member of society, and required their magistrates to provide for this important object. As early as the year 1648, twelve years after the first settlement of the colony, the Assembly passed a law providing for common education. It has been affirmed that this was the first common school law ever made in the world. It required the establishment of a good school in every town containing 50 families, in which reading and writing should be not only taught, but "well taught." It also required that every county-town should have a good grammarschool. Not content with adopting the law, the Assembly, with their characteristic practical good sense, appropriated large tracts of land for the permanent support of the schools through generations to come. But even here was not the limit of the foresight of the government, and their wise provisions for the dissemination of learning. They gave the great and almost solitary example of family instruction required by law. They directed the selectmen to see that the heads of families should teach their children and servants to read well, and to catechise them on religion once every week; and on this point showed that they were in earnest, by fining every family 20 shillings which should neglect these duties. That there might be no excuse for neglect, the selectmen were authorized to furnish Bibles and books to the destitute. The law farther required that the capital laws should be taught once a week in every family. We have seen how annual contributions were made for a course of years towards the support of Cambridge College. Connecticut was all this time delaying to establish a college of her own, only until her resources should be adequate to the task. As early as 1654 an application was made to the New Haven Assembly for a college; and the next year New Haven offered £300, and Milford £100 for its endowment. Mr. Davenport wrote to Mr. Hopkins, in London, in favour of the enterprise ; and New-Haven gave a considerable amount of land. In 1659 that Assembly took a preparatory step, and founded a grammar-school in New-Haven, appropriating £100 for the purchase of books, and Y 254 YALE COLLEGE FOUNDED. [1713. £40 a year. In 1660 Mr. Davenport presented Mr. Hopkins's donation; and the elders of the churches in that colony were appointed trustees. Both the college and the school, however, failed, in consequence of the insufficiency of funds, the dissensions with Connecticut, and the union of the colonies. At a later period the school was re-established, and endowed with all the funds. In 1698 it was proposed by several ministers that a college should be founded in Connecticut, as it had long been found inconvenient to send young men to Massachusetts for their education. They considered the apostles and their successors as having set the example, by founding institutions for the education of ministers wherever the Gospel was introduced. Messrs. Pierpont, of New-Ha. ven, Andrew, of Milford, and Russell, of Branford, were leaders in the plan: so that Yale College, which was the result of it, appears to have owed its origin chiefly to the old New-Haven colony. In 1699 ten ministers were nominated as trustees, who met at New-Haven in 1700, and formed a society, with the addition of a rector to their number. They met afterward at Branford, where they founded the college, by a contribution of about 40 folio volumes each saying, as he presented his books, "I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony." : The trustees were Messrs. Noyes, of Stoning. ton, Chauncey, of Stratford, Buckingham, of Saybrook, Pierson, of Killingworth, Mather, of Windsor, Andrew, of Milford, Woodbridge, of Hartford, Pierpont, of New-Haven,, Russell, of Middletown, and Webb, of Fairfield. Mr. Russell was appoint |