The Ten Tribes of David Stiles
Her group moved into the clearing and sat down to think things over. her John, ever the calm one of the brothers, suggested that since Lord Saltenstall was not here, and since they were vastly outnumbered by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, that they send a messenger back to England on their ship which was still anchored in the Connecticut River to explain to Lord Saltenstall what was going on. In the meantime, John suggested that they explain to the Puritans that they were carpenters and were not the patent holders. This was not their fight. Everyone agreed. Rachel was proud of the fact that John was so level headed, but what impressed her the most was that she and Francis' wife had been included in the decision. Already, she was beginning to taste freedom. Maybe here in the American colonies women would be more equal partners with the men than they had ever had the change to be back in England!
The Puritans tried to pretend as if they were irritated to have to put up with the Stiles Brother's party, but you could tell that they were glad to have carpenters for their use, so they agreed to share this Windsor settlement. Each of the Stiles brothers could have their land, a lot for each where they had unloaded their ship. In return, the Stiles brothers would build a palisade around the settlement and build the necessary buildings for the emigrants that would be coming shortly. They knew that it would take at least three months for their message to get back to Lord Saltenstall, enough time for him to take some kind of legal action (and with the king having declared himself absolute ruler, who knew what kind of mess the courts were in?) and three months for the message to get back to them. They were here to build a town, and build a town they would! Let Lord Satenstall worry about who owned the town! Little did they know that it would be 26 years or 1662 before all this was settled.
The next month was so busy. John made sure their house was built first. It was Rachel's dream home! It was made of sturdy logs, had a large fireplace with an oven. They had their own bedroom and there was plenty of room for kids in the loft. Rachel planted her garden and she found that the soil was much more fertile than that in England. She knew she would have enough vegetables to see them through the winter. It did not take her long to realize that they were much better off than they had been back home. No one was looking over their shoulder and no one was looking for taxes. In fact, there wasn't much need for money. The Plymouth traders wanted to barter. When she needed needles, they traded for eggs.
Just when she was beginning to get comfortable, she was introduced to the next shock in her life. A group of the worse looking barbarians she had ever seen rode into their settlement on ponies. She had played "Indians" so much as a child that she knew that these barbarians had to be Indians, but John was gone and she was terrified. She couldn't understand a word they said. She was working in her garden and the children were playing around the house. She had no weapon. Fortunately, some of the Plymouth traders happened to walk up at the time. They introduced her to the group of Indians and explained that they were Mohicans, a branch of the Pequot Indians that lived in the Connecticut River Valley. He explained that this particular group was friendly and that she had nothing to fear from them. However, he pointed out, the remainder of the Pequot tribe were not friendly. He suggested that she carry a weapon when she was alone with the children. Rachel had never fired a gun in her life. She had no idea how they worked, and if truth be told, she was even afraid of them. In spite of that, that very evening, when John came home he gave her shooting lessons.
Maybe it was the shock of meeting Indians for the first time, or maybe it was having worked in the garden so hard all day, or maybe it was learning to fire a gun, or maybe - it was just time, but that very evening, she became aware that her baby was going to make his appearance soon. Back in England, John would have gone for a midwife, but they were not in England, so John asked Francis' wife to help him, and between Rachel, John and Francis' wife, before the sun came up in their beautiful new world, John and Rachel's third child, a son, was born. He was the very first child born in the Connecticut Colony to a white family. They named him Isaac, because the birth-right of the promised land was given to Abraham's child, Isaac, and they decided that this child was a child of their promised land, America. (Isaac is our ancestor).
Isaac grew and the family of John and Rachel settled in so that life in their new home became more normal. They worked hard but the work was rewarding. The winters were easy and they stayed warm and well fed. The Dorchester emigrants moved in, but the Stiles' and their group, while friendly to their neighbors, did not get involved in their religion and were not pressured by the Puritans. Rachel realized that life in the American colonies was not the same as life in England. They were isolated from politics, indeed, they hardly ever thought of the King or what was going on in Parliament. Religion wasn't even the big issue it had been at home. The Puritans worshipped in their own way and Rachel taught her children to read using her King James Bible. It had been so long since they had attended church services in Milbrooke that they could hardly remember what the Church of England represented. Their religion came from the words they studied in their Bible.
Henry and Thomas, being bachelors, took their meals first with John and Rachel, then with Francis and his wife. Rachel kept up with the news through those two. One evening they were explaining how much work they had to do in the next month or so because a whole shipload of new colonists had just arrived. The news from England was not good. They believed that a civil war was inevitable. Most of the problems were related to religion. Rachel remembered how bad the religion problem was when they were living in England and became aware that she was living in a whole community of Puritans. They were her friends and neighbors and there was no problem here in this wonderful country. In fact, many of her family's problems had dissipated since their move. In England, the livestock belonged to the feudal Lord. She could not kill a chicken for her family's dinner without an OK from him, even though she was responsible for the care and feeding of the chickens. Maybe they would be allowed to slaughter one spring lamb. The wild animals belonged to the King, so killing them was a crime. Even the produce from her garden had to have the first share given to the Lord. Francis's wife said that things were even worse in London. She had to purchase every bite of food they ate and sometimes they just did not have enough money. Her family had gone hungry many times. Worse even than the hunger was the cold. The price of coal had become astronomical and she had tried to conserve coal by keeping their house just warm enough for them to survive. Here, the tables were loaded with food. The livestock belonged to them, so if Rachel wanted to cook fried chicken for dinner, she had to ask no one. Of course, she had to have enough initiative to understand that if she wanted fried chicken, she would have to care for the chickens and if she wanted to be warm in winter, she and John would have to have a supply of firewood. There was no one to tell her what she could or could not have for her family, but also, there was no one telling her to get out of bed and feed the chickens! She liked this new life. She liked being responsible and being able to reap the products of her industry. She realized that her family had made a wonderful move when they moved here. The dinner conversation was unusual. It was a shock to realize that talking about politics in England, which had taken up most of their conversation at home, was really rare here. They hardly ever thought about the King or his politics. It had become unimportant.
The colonies were growing fast, and when you begin to have a large population, then a form of government must also develop. With that government comes laws and a court. Guess who the first person was to be tried in that court. Would you believe it was the same person who always stumbled into trouble as a child? On April 26, 1636 there was a complaint made "that Henry Stiles of Windsor has traded a piece with the Indians for corn." Situated as they were in a new country, and surrounded by Indians, this act was justly deemed a grave offense and one that imperiled the public safety. It was therefore "ordered that the said Henry Stiles shall between this and the next Court regain the piece from the Indians in a fair and legal way, or else this Court will take it into further consideration." An order was issued that no one shall trade with the natives, "any piece, or pistol, or gun".
Poor old Henry, but attacks from the Pequot Indians were becoming more and more common. Although the Stiles family was never attacked personally due to their friendship with the Mohicans, their neighbors were, and the entire settlement was worried. They heard that a Pequot had murdered a colonist in Massachusetts. In retaliation the colonists burned a Pequot village in what would become Rhode Island. The Pequot chief, Sassacus, was gathering his warriors together to go to war against the colonists.
When little Isaac was three years old, the Indian problem came to a head. Soldiers came to Winthrop and announced that along with the Mohicans, they had declared war against the Pequots and that they were drafting 30 men from the town. Included in the 30 men was Thomas Stiles and another of Francis' servants, John Dyer.
On June 5, 1637, at sunrise, the colonists and their Indian allies attacked a Pequot village at West Mystic, Connecticut. They burned alive between 600 and 700 Indians. Later that month, the colonists captured most of the remaining Pequot Indians and sold them into slavery in Bermuda.
Today, we have a different attitude from that of our ancestors. Do you remember the court martial against the soldiers who were charged with destroying the village in Viet Nam? In our ancestor's time, Cotton Mather, the Puritan Scholar, wrote that the colonists thought this "a sweet sacrifice . . . gave the praises thereof to God."
When Thomas came home, the family found that he had narrowly escaped death. He had been shot in the neck, but the shot landed in the knot of the kerchief he had around his neck, thus saving his life. Thomas was upset at the brutality and bloodiness of the battle in which he had been a part. The talk around the dinner table was about how their neighbors, the pacifists, could justify this brutality.
Rachel joked that since the Puritans thought that the Indians were possessed of the Devil, thus justifying the brutality shown them, she had better watch her p's and q's. Next thing you know, they will be calling ordinary housewives "witches" and burning them at the stake!
Thomas hadn't been home from the Pequot War any time when the General Court enacted a law that "no young man that is not married, nor hath any servants, and be no public officer, shall keep by himself without consent of the town where he lives, under penalty of 20 shillings per week." Thomas was irate. He owned his own house and lands where he had some privacy. Through his efforts all this stupid town had houses for people to live in, and he had even taken a chance with his life by fighting their war for them. Now he was being forced to move in with one of his brothers who already had houses full of kids. He decided to leave. This was getting worse than England. So, Thomas packed up his bags and baggages and moved out of the life of the Stiles family.
Francis was getting to be an unusual sight also. Since so many colonists had moved in and since the courts were so busy and since Francis was the individual who was the leader of their group, he was always in court or in meetings with the representatives of the Saltenstall group. In fact, he made the trip back and forth to England several times.
Henry decided that he was imposing too much on his brother's wives by showing up for three meals a day at their houses. Besides that, he was becoming a grumpy old bachelor and those kids were driving him crazy! His next door neighbor, Mr. Gilburt and his sister, Lydia, had offered to make his meals for Henry for three shillings a week. Henry took them up on their offer. Rachel thought that maybe something was "going on" between Henry and Lydia, but she had no proof. She thought it was funny, though - after all Henry was getting on in age. he was almost 50, and just now looking for a lady friend. She and John wondered what kind of trouble this was going to get poor old Henry into.
John and Rachel and their children (they now had four, since the baby, Sarah, had been born) settled into their life at Windsor. John was extremely busy. America was growing by leaps and bounds and settlements were springing up all over. What had been wilderness just a few years ago had roads between settlements, places to trade, taverns, doctors and lawyers. This was becoming a civilized country and news traveled back and forth between settlements. John told Rachel that he had heard that Thomas was one of twenty-one men who had settled, applied for and been granted a patent for a town they called "Flushing" on Long Island. They wanted liberty. They resisted any encroachments of the Dutch Governor or his Council on what they considered their vested rights. The Governor had different ideas. He decided that they needed a Reformed Dutch church in the town of Flushing. In order to get the money to build the church and to provide a salary for the minister of the church, he was going to tax the people of Flushing. He also said that they had to elect a Sheriff to make sure every one paid their taxes and supported this church that they did not want. Knowing Thomas' independent nature, John and Rachel figured that this was trouble in the making.
They were right. On April 8, 1648, we find that: "Thomas Stiles, being heard on the written complaint of the Director General acknowledges that he threw the Sheriff Horck on the ground, and confesses that he did wrong, and never before so much; and promises to conduct himself in the future as a good citizen ought, and, therefore, begs that the Director and Council will take this into consideration". "The confession and petition of Thomas Stiles, together with his promise to conduct himself better in the future, having been heard by the Council, he is therefore, this time graciously pardoned, provided he pays here in the office of the West India Company, the 50 stivers he promised at Flushing. . ."
What made this situation funnier, was that along with the arrest of Thomas, his friend, Thomas Hall, was also involved and charged with "aiding Stiles' resistance to the Sheriff" by "he kept the door shut, so that no one might assist the sheriff."
Life in Winthrop so involved our family that they hardly thought that they were English citizens and subjects of King Charles. They got enough news to know that Civil War was still going on at home and somehow Scotland was involved, but that was so far away from them and so out of their thoughts, that they didn't give the events enough time to study or understand the politics. In fact, because of all that was going on there, England didn't pay much attention to the colonies either. The only Englishmen who seemed to be involved with them were the merchants who traded with them and the new settlers who came in. It came as a great shock then, to find out that Oliver Cromwell and the Parliament had taken over the government. They had tried and convicted King Charles and on January 30, 1650, the king was beheaded. England and it's colonies were without a sovereign. This was really scary. What was going to become of them? There was much weeping and wailing and wringing of hands, but after a few months, the colonists became aware that nothing had changed for them. They quit worrying about England and went back to the busy life of giving birth to a brand new country.
On October 3, 1651, life in Windsor was exciting. Governor Winthrop was coming through town with a military train. There would be music and food and a grand party. The ladies cooked and the men stayed busy decorating the streets through town. The kids helped everyone get ready. When the time came for the Governor and his soldiers to come through town, the townspeople lined up along the streets.
Finally, along came the parade. The Governor led the parade and he was followed by his soldiers marching in formation. Each was carrying a gun. There was a lot of noise. People were yelling and clapping, but suddenly, over all the noise was the sound of a gun firing. Henry was standing slightly in the street watching the back of the Governor. His back was turned toward the soldiers. When the shot rang out, Henry fell to the ground. He died instantly. The shot had come from a gun that one of the soldiers, Thomas Allyn, was carrying and it had gone off accidentally. Allyn was arrested. The following is the Indictment of Thomas Allyn: "Thomas Allyn, thou art indicted not having that due fear of God before thine eyes for the preservation of the life of thy neighbor, didst suddenly, negligently, carelessly cock thy piece and carry the piece just behind thy neighbor which piece being charged and going off in thine hand, slew thy neighbor to the great dishonor of God, breach of the peace, and loss of a member of this Commonwealth, what saist thou, are thou guilty or not guilty?"
The jury found Allyn guilty of "Homicide by misadventure."
Henry was 58 years old when he died. He was the first death in the family that the Stileses had to deal with since they had been in the New World. Henry died intestate and stable John was made the Executor of his estate.
But Henry, even in death, had problems. You see, Thomas Allyn decided not to take his guilty verdict lightly. He decided to lay the blame on witchcraft. A person's gun doesn't just fire accidentally. There has to be some malicious plan behind accidents, so on March, 1653, the following indictment was entered:
"Lydia Gilburt, you are herein indicted that, not having the fear of God before thine eyes, thou hast of late year, or still dost give entertainment to Satan, that great enemy of God, and mankind, and by his help hast killed the body of Henry Stiles, besides other witchcrafts for which according to the law of God, and the established law of this Commonwealth, thou deservest to die." The record further says, "Ye party above mentioned is found guilty of witchcraft by ye Jury." The record does not tell us how Lydia was punished.
Rachel had chills up and down her spine. She remembered how years before she had joked about ordinary housewives being tried and convicted of witchcraft. Lydia had cooked for Henry for years. The family had joked about their relationship. This time, Rachel was beginning to believe that the English crown had been right in their attitude toward the religion of the Puritans.
Time softens wounds and heals grief. Life starts flowing normally. This happened with John and Rachel. Their children were grown and they had become leaders in the community of Winthrop. Rachel was a respected matron and she enjoyed her status and her social position in town. You can't imagine how embarrassed she was when the news came from New York. She couldn't face her neighbors, she could just die! John thought the news was hilarious. Not only was she embarrassed she was so angry with John, who was rolling on the floor with laughter.
This is what she read: "Warrant to the Magistrates of Flushing, for ye restoring of the wife of John Wood: Whereas, I am informed that Ann, the wife of John Wood, of Rhode Island, is and hath been for ye space of about two years past, harbored by Thomas Stiles of the town of Flushing, who in her absence from her husband hath had two children. These are to require you to make inquiry into the business, and to prevent further scandal, that you cause the said Ann to be restored to her husband, with what goods are in the custody of Thomas Stiles, belonging to the said John Wood, or his wife, and for so doing this shall be your warrant." It was signed by Richard Nicholls, Governor of New York.
Rachel was indignant. It is one thing to beat up a sheriff when you are 34, but to steal a man's wife and have two children by her when you are 52 years old is too embarrassing for me to stand! John just laughed and laughed.
John died at Windsor June 4, 1663. He was 67 years old. Rachel followed the next year, dying on Sept. 3, 1674. John and Rachel provided a good life for themselves and their children by moving from England to Windsor. They were the beginning of what would become our democracy and our freedom. John and Rachel were simple folks. They were not exalted leaders, nor were they born into royalty. The Johns and Rachels who settled here gave us the United States of America.
They also gave us our ancestor, their son, Isaac. Following a family's history is a bit like skipping rocks on water. Occasionally the rock contacts the water and you know a lot about the history when that happens. More often than not, the rock is above the surface and then there is not much information. That is true of Isaac. We know he grew up in Winthrop and we know that he moved some time in his life to Stratford, Conn. We know that John and Rachel must not have spent much time in church, in spite of being surrounded with religion their entire life, because Isaac was not baptized until he was 80 years old, and then into an Episcopal Church in Stratford. The other important thing that we know about him is that he was the father of eight children, the most interesting of them being Jonathan. Jonathan is the most interesting because he became the father of the New Jersey branch of the Stiles family, and that his grandson was David who came to Kentucky.
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