GenConnecticut-L Archives

From: "Joy Wheeler" <>
Subject: [GenConnecticut-L] The Rationale behind the emigration from New Haven, CT. to Newark, N.J.
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 14:52:14 -0500

Someone named Laurie had asked a question a few weeks back about why people left New Haven when the King granted land already possessed by the New Haven colony to the other colony which called itself "Connecticut." In reviewing my mail, I realized I had never sent my answer to Laurie at all, but only to someone else who had responded to Laurie. I do not have Laurie's e-mail address handy, however, so I'm hoping the list will put up with a more public answer. Thanks.
Read Cotton Mather's book Magnalia Christi Americana (The Great Works of
Christ in America, is the name of the English version). The northern area
centered around Hartford was known as "Connecticut." The southern part was
known as "New Haven." There was a marked difference from the very beginning
between the two colonies. New Haven tended to be very theocratic, or that
is our impression. Connecticut was more democratic. This had to do with
how Biblical law was applied to society. Connecticut drafted one of the
first written constitutions in the colonies called something like The
Fundamental Order of Connecticut. New Haven was known as being even more
strict than Massachussetts Bay in terms of applying what had been written
for Israel in Scripture. Thomas Hooker was concerned with preserving
individual rights. Shepard was interested in maintaining a theocracy. They
eventually got merged after the 1660 restoration in England, the Connecticut
colony got a charter from the king which included New Haven's area, so the
people in New Haven got merged with them without desiring to have this
happen. The disgruntled persons from New Haven migrated to the "New Ark" in
New Jersey (known to us as Newark). Most of the information above is from
remembered impressions from a book written by a secular (unbelieving)
author. To get the colonists' own believing standpoint, Cotton Mather (late
17th-early 18th cent), would be a better historian to trust.

-Joy
Daily signature file:
On Nov. 14th, the House of Representatives
and the United States Senate
passed a concurrent resolution that
December 4, 2001,
is a day for Americans to reconcile themselves to God
and to their fellowcitizens, persuant to seeking God's blessings.

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• [GenConnecticut-L] The Rationale behind the emigration from New Haven, CT. to Newark, N.J. by "Joy Wheeler" <>