The Gradual Beginnings of North Haven and Hamden Part One

Unlike Wallingford, North Haven and Hamden were closer to New Haven and most likely settled gradually and remained a part of New Haven until the 1780s. Joseph Ives returned to North Haven in 1673 to be near his wife’s family (Thomas & Mary Yale). His son, Samuel, lived in North Haven and his grandson, Jonathan, moved from North Haven to Hamden in 1735 and lived there until his death in 1792, so the next Ives generations are linked to these towns rather than New Haven proper. Ives (1928, p. 76) notes that the minutes of the New Haven town meetings in 1650 indicated that there were “more in towne then can well subsist together,” and there was a “neccessitie that some should remove.” The first settler was likely, William Bradley who was an officer in Cromwell’s army.

Hamden was named after John Hampden, the English statesman and cousin of Oliver Cromwell, who was killed in a battle of the civil war. He was a popular hero of the Puritan founders of the New Haven Colony, the forebears of the majority of Hamden residents in 1786. See the Hamden Historical Society site.

The next inhabitants included Issac Thrope, Ebenezer Blakeslee, and Joseph Ives. Until a meeting house was built in North Haven, people met at the house of Joseph and Mary Ives for Sabbath worship. Mr. Ives was also captain of the first train-band in the place. His sons, Joseph and Samuel, would go on to play important roles as the town began to become more formal.

The settlers in the New Haven area had hoped to make a living as merchants as that was their background. However, they were generally forced to depend on agriculture to survive. This was especially true in the more inland settlements of North Haven and Hamden. They had to protect their crops from their animals and, in turn, protect their animals from the wolves.

There were few domestic animals and a good cow was worth between twenty five and thirty pounds, the amount required to be a freeman. Coffee and tea were available and beer was first used until the apple trees matured and cider became the principal drink. There was little sugar or molasses, and what molasses was available was distilled into rum as soon as it was available. Corn was the main staple and Thorpe (1892) writes that “bean porridge, hasty pudding, Johnny cake, and samp were articles of daily consumption.” Most bread was made from rye flour.

Comments

[Mary Dunbar Erickson]

I am descended from the Dunbars of Connecticut; however, I do not see any connections to the Dunbars of Massachusetts and those of Connecticut. You did not even mention the surname Dunbar when discussing the early history of Wallingford. Do you know anything about the Connecticut Dunbars?

Mary Dunbar Erickson

P.S. I have several names in common with your histories. Goodyear is one of them, Ives another.

[Bill Ives]

Thanks for your comment. If you look under the Dunbar tab you will see references to a Massachusetts branch of the Dunbars who then migrated to Maine where my great grandfather married Alice Dunbar. I do not know of any CT Dunbars.