ion, that the pastor's work consisted principally in exhortations; but the teacher's business was to teach, explain and defend the doctrines of Christianity.

Roger Wolcott, governor of Connecticut, was born in this town, January 4th, 1679. "His parents lived in a part of the country which suffered much from the Indians, and in the town there was neither a schoolmaster nor minister, so that Mr. Wolcott was not a member of a common school for a single day in his life. When he was twelve years of age, he was bound as an apprentice to a mechanic. At the age of twenty-one, when the laws permitted him to enjoy the fruits of his labors, he established himself on the east side of Connecticut river, in the same town in which he was born, where, by the blessings of God upon his industry and frugality, he acquired what was considered as a plentiful fortune. He is an eminent proof of the power of talents and integrity, in a free country, in raising one to distinction, notwithstanding the disadvantages of education and of birth. He rose by degrees to the highest military and civil honors. In the expedition against Canada, in 1711, he was commissary of the Connecticut forces, and at the capture of Louisbourg, in 1745, he bore the commission of major-general. He was successively a member of the assembly and of the council, judge of the county court, deputy governor, chief judge of the superior court, and from 1751 to 1754, governor. He died May 17th, 1767, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. In all his exaltation above his neighbors, he exhibited no haughtiness of deportment, but was easy of access, free and affable, of ready wit and great humor. His literary attainments were such, that in conversation with the learned upon most subjects he secured respect. He was much attached to the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, and was for many years a member of a Christian church. From the year 1754, when his life was more retired, he devoted himself particularly to reading, meditation and prayer. He was very careful in searching into himself, that he might perceive his own character, and know whether he was rescued from that depravity, to which previously to the renewing agency of the divine Spirit the human mind is subjected, and whether he was interested in the salvation of the gospel. In his last moments he was supported by the hopes of the Christian, and he entered into his rest. He published poetical meditations, with a preface by Mr. Bulkley of Colchester, in 1725; and a letter to Mr. Hobart in 1761, entitled the New England Congregational churches are and always have been consociated churches, and their liberties greater and better founded in their platform, agreed upon at Cambridge in 1648, than in the agreement at Saybrook in 1708. A long poem, written by Governor Wolcott, entitled A brief Account of the Agency of John Winthrop in the court of Charles II. in 1662, in procuring the Charter of Connecticut, is preserved in the Collections of the Historical Society. It describes with considerable minuteness the Pequot war."*

* Allen's American Biographical and Historical Dictionary.

The above is a southwestern view of Judge Ellsworth's house near the spot where he was born, about a mile north of the Congregational church. The elms appearing in front of the house were set out by his hand. An ancient cedar, about seven feet in girth, which was standing in the forest at the time Windsor was first settled, is still standing a few feet north of the house.

Oliver Ellsworth, LL. D., Chief Justice of the United States, was born 29th of April, 1745, and was graduated at New Jersey college in 1766. Devoting himself to the practice of law, he soon rose by the extraordinary energy of his mind and force of his eloquence, to distinguished eminence. In 1777 he was elected a delegate to the continental congress, and in 1784 appointed a judge of the superior court of Connecticut. He held a seat in the convention which formed the constitution of the United States, and was one of the most conspicuous and useful in that assembly, illustrious for learning, talents, and patriotism. On the organization of the federal government in 1789, he was elected a member of the senate, and continued in the office till he was appointed, in 1796, chief judge of the supreme court of the United States. After discharging the duties of that station with great credit to his legal science, integrity, and eloquence, for near four years, he was appointed, towards the close of 1799, envoy extraordinary to France. The decline of his health disqualifying him for the duties of his office as judge, he resigned it toward the end of the year 1800. After his return to Connecticut, he was again elected into the council of that state, and appointed chief justice of the supreme court. He however declined the latter office, and soon after died, November 26th, 1807, greatly regretted, as in his life he had been admired for his extraordinary endowments, his accomplishments as an advocate, his integrity

as a judge, his patriotism as a legislator and ambassador, and his exemplariness as a Christian."*

The above plan was copied from a larger one in the ancient records of the town of Windsor. The book from which it is taken, entitled "A book of Towne Wayes in Windsor," appears to have been first written in 1654. The present first Congregational church in Windsor, (a view of which is given at page 124,) is situated, it is believed, near the southeast corner of the lot marked D. Wilson. Some remains of the ditch, which, it is believed, was excavated outside of the palisadoes, are still visible, running along near the summit of the hill which forms the north bank of the Windsor or Farmington river, and passing within a few feet of the church. The following is extracted from the record mentioned above.

"26th. To return again to the Common ways from the ferry at the rivulet, it ascends up upon the side of the bank to the house that was Capt. Mason's, and bounds west by the fence that was John Strong's -on the top of the bank, and east by Samuel Marshall's at the foot of the bank, and then turns to the gate, and is to be three rods in breadth betwixts John Strong's garden on the south, and Henry Clark's on the north. And seeing I am intered into the pallasadow, I will speak a little of the original of it: about 1637 years, when the English had war with the Pequot Indians; our inhabitants on Sandy bank gathered themselves nearer together from their remote dwellings, to provide for

* Lord's Lempriere's Universal Biography.

their safety, set upon fortyfying, and with palazado, which some particular men resigned up out of their properties for that end, and was laid out into small parcells, to build upon; some 4 rods in breadth, some five, six, seven, some eight-it was set out after this manner: (Here in the record the foregoing plan is inserted.) These building places were at first laid out of one length, that was sixteen rods, but differ as afores! Also on all sides within the outmost fence, there was left two rods in breadth for a common way, to go round within side the Palazado, and when divers men left their places and returned to their lotts for their conveniences, some that staid, (by consent of the town,) enlarged their gardens. Some had 2, some 3, some 4, plats to their propriety, with the use of the two rods in breadth round the outside, every one according to his breadth, only with this reserve concerning the two rods, that if in future time there be need of former fortification, to be repaired, that then each man should resign up the two afores two Rods for a way onley for common use.-Note, that in the west corner of the afores! plott there is reserved for a common Burying Ground, one particular parcel that is six rods in breadth, all the length on one side, and one end take it together, it is eight rod in breadth, and eighteen in length." "There goeth out of the palazado towards northwest a highway two rods wide; when past the house plotts it is larger. Also from the Palazado, runs a way north easterly, called the common street, and is to be four rods wide.

The following are extracts from ancient newspapers..

We hear from Poquonnuck, a parish in the western part of Windsor, that about half an acre of the surface of the ground there has lately sunk or fallen to a considerable depth below the common surface or level; not unlike to what is frequently occasioned by earthquakes, though attended with no eruptions, either of water or fire; for which event no natural cause has as yet been assigned. And it is more unaccountable, as the ground that is sunk was not contiguous to, or bordering upon any precipice or declivity, nor adjacent to any collection of water that should occasion it to sink.-Connecticut Journal, June 22d, 1770.

Hartford, Feb. 27th, 1767.

ONE night last week, a panther having killed nine sheep in a yard at Windsor, the owner of the sheep, one Mr. Phelps, the next morning followed the panther by his track into a thicket about half a mile from his house, and shot him. He was brought to this town, and the bounty of five pounds allowed by law, was paid for his head.-New London Gazette, No. 172.

The following singular entry appears in the ancient records of the town of Windsor.

Aug. 17th, 1659.-Mr. John Drake, Senr. dyed accidentally, as he was driving a cart loaded with corn to carry from his house to his son Jacob's. The cattle being two oxen and his mare, in the highway against John Griffin's, something scared the cattle, and they set a running, and he laboring to stop them, by taking hold on the mare, was thrown upon his face, and the cart wheele went over him, and broke one of his legs, and bruised his body so that he was taken up dead; being carried into his daughter's house, had life come again, but dyed in a short time, and was buried on the 18th day of August; 59.

The following inscriptions are from monuments in the buryingground back of the first Congregational church, the first of which is believed to be the oldest inscription on any monument in this state.

HEERE LYETH EPHRAIM HVIT, SOMETIMES TEACHER TO YE CHVRCH OF WINDSOR, WHO DYED SEPTEMBER 4TH, 1644.

WHO WHEN HEE LIVED WEE DREW OVR VITALL BREATH,

WHO WHEN HEE DYED HIS DYING WAS OVR DEATH,
WHO WAS YE STAY OF STATE, YE CHVRCHES STAFF,
ALAS, THE TIMES FORBID AN EPITAPH.

HERE UNDER LYETH THE BODY OF HENRY WOLCOT, SOMETIMES A MAIESTRATE OF THIS IVRISDICTION, WHO DYED Y 30TH DAY OF MAY,

Anno

Salvtis 1655,
Aetatis 77.

The above is a representation of the monument of the first Henry Wolcott, and a copy of the inscription on its side. The monument was made by his son-in-law, Matthew Griswold, ancestor of the Griswold family in Lyme. He was a stone-cutter by trade, previous to his leaving England.*

Here lyeth the body of the Hon. Roger Wolcott, Esq., of Windsor, who for several years was Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, died May 17th, Anno

Etatis 89,
Salutis 1767.

Earth's highest station ends in "Here he lies,"
And "dust to dust" concludes her noblest song.

To the memory of Oliver Ellsworth, LL. D., an assistant in the Council, and a judge of the Superior Court of the State of Connecticut. A member of the Convention which formed, and of the State Convention of Connecticut which adopted, the Constitution of the United States.-Senator and Chief Justice of the United States; one of the Envoys extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary, who made the convention of 1800, between the United States and the French Republic. Amiable and exemplary in all the relations of the domestic, social and christian character. Pre-eminently useful in all the offices he sustained, whose great talents under the guidance of inflexible integrity, consummate wisdom, and enlightened zeal, placed him among the first of the illustrious statesmen who achieved the independence, and established the independence of the American Republic.-Born at Windsor April 29th, 1745, and died Nov. 26, 1807.

* MSS. in possession of Judge Griswold, of Lyme.