the seven
the government continued until October, when they resigned and a
gathering of the church members elected Theophilus Eaton as their
magistrate and four others to act as assistants, with a secretary and a
treasurer. Thus was begun a form of government which when perfected was
very similar to that of the other New England colonies.

While New Haven as a town-colony was taking on form, other plantations
were arising near by. Milford was settled partly from New Haven and
partly from Wethersfield, where an overplus of clergy was leading to
disputes and many withdrawals to other parts. Guilford was settled
directly from England. Southold on Long Island was settled also from
England, by way of New Haven. Stamford had its origin in a Wethersfield
quarrel, when the Reverend Richard Denton, "blind of one eye but not the
least among the seers of Israel," departed with his flock. Branford also
was born of a Wethersfield controversy and later received accessions
from Long Island. In 1643, Milford, Guilford, and Stamford combined
under the common jurisdiction of New Haven, to which Southold and
Branford acceded later with a form of government copied after that of
Massachusetts, though the colony was distinctly federal in character,
consisting of "the government of New Haven with the plantations in
combination therewith." Though there was no special reservation of town
rights in the fundamental articles which defined the government, yet
the towns, five in number, considered themselves free to withdraw at any
time if they so desired.

We have thus reviewed the conditions under which some forty towns,
grouped under five jurisdictions, were founded in New England. They were
destined to treble their number in the next generation and to suffer
such regrouping as to reduce the jurisdictions to four before the end of
the century--New Hampshire separating from Massachusetts, New Haven
being absorbed by Connecticut, and Plymouth submitting to the authority
of Massachusetts under the charter of 1691. In this readjustment we have
the origin of four of the six New England States of the present day.

CHAPTER IV

EARLY NEW ENGLAND LIFE

The people who inhabited these little New England towns were from nearly
every grade of English society, but the greater number were men and
women of humble birth--laborers, artisans, and petty farmers--drawn from
town and country, possessed of scanty education, little or no financial
capital,