There were several St. Stephens church members who joined Davenport in New Haven including, William Andrews, William Ives, George Smith, Jeremy Dixon, James Clark, George Ward, Nicholas Elsey, Jasper Crane, Henry Browning, Frances Hall, and Robert Hall. Other who lived in the neighborhood who also joined Davenport as founders of New Haven include: John Cooper, Francis Newman, Robert Newman, William Thorp, Richard Beach, Ezekiel Cheever, Edward Bannister, and others (Calder, 1936).
The parish met in general meetings of most householders to conduct both civil and church affairs as became the case in early New Haven. There were also subgroups or committees for specific functions. Various roles were appointed, including collectors for the poor, auditors of the accounts of the church wardens and the collectors. The general vestry met once a year in December to appoint two common councilmen, two constables, seven members of the ward, and two scavengers. They often had difficulties filling these roles and people paid fines if they refused service. The wealthy paid a general fine of 10 pds. to avoid all service. In contrast, 11 pounds was the annual base salary for the vicar, if appointed by the Bishop of London, but if the parish choose their own candidate, the sum was higher: 39 pounds, salary and a gratuity. Special meetings of the vestry appointed vacant church positions, audited church wardens’ accounts, and levied tithes.
Davenport’s views soon became known to the repressive head of the English Church, Archbishop Laud, and when Laud got the support of the king in 1633, Davenport hid for three months and then fled the city under disguise and went to Holland where he was made assistant Pastor of the English Puritan Church there. Not happy in exile, he came back to London in 1636 with the idea of emigrating to New England. He and his Oxford schoolmate, Theophilus Eaton, a wealthy merchant born in Buckinghamshire, were both members of the Massachusetts Bay Company but Davenport’s name was kept secret for fear of repression, even thought there many known Puritans in the company.
They assembled a group of supporters, including Thomas Yale, David Atwater, John Cooper, William Peck and their families and sailed from England for Boston in 1637 on the Hector. The exact composition and goals of the group was kept secret because if the powers in London had known that a group of Non-Conformists merchants were taking their whole estates to settle in New England, they might have been prevented. The Hector had already gone to New England once. The owners of the Hector did partition in January 19, 1637 to release the ship from the King’s Service. It had been pressed into this service just as it was ready to sail (Coldham, p. 181, Calder, 1936, p. 31). That action must have been in the Fall of 1636 as ships did not depart in the winter. It was released early in May. Its arrival to Boston was recorded on June 26, 1637.
Shortly after they left, the king issued a proclamation as quoted in Atwater (1902) “that the king – being informed that great numbers of his subjects are yearly transported into these parts of America…whose only or principal end is to live without the reach of authority – doth command his officers not to suffer any persons…to pass to any of those plantations without a license…and a testimony from the minister of the parish of their conformity to the orders and discipline of the Church of England.” This notice and other related actions did not stop the large wave of Puritans leaving England in the 1600s. Unlike many of those who came to the New World from England and other part of Europe in the early days, these English Puritans came more to escape the persecutions in their own country than a sense of adventure. Once the Puritans under Cromwell defeated the Royalists and gained control of the country, the migration stopped and did not pick up again after the Restoration. (Continued)
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