stevemanuel – Page 11 – New London County Historical Society

State Historian Walter Woodward to Speak at April Second Sunday

Posted on April 2, 2010November 16, 2014 by stevemanuel

“New England’s Other Witch Hunt: The Hartford Witch Hunt of the 1660s and the Changing Patterns of Prosecution.”
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Walter Woodward, Connecticut’s State Historian, will be making a presentation based on his just published book, Prospero’s America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture, 1606-1676. The presentation will take place on the Connecticut College Campus in Blaustein 210, on 11 April at 2pm, in a program co-sponsored by the Connecticut College history department and the New London County Historical Society.

The book is full of provocative insights. While some are familiar with alchemy, the common knowledge is usually limited to the idea that alchemy was a magical quest to turn lead into gold. Woodward leads us to understand how alchemy was much more than that, “an important contributing factor in the development of modern chemistry and experimental science.” In this work Woodward shows how Winthrop’s alchemical knowledge, and connections emanating from his participation in the Royal Society, empowered him locally, as a favored Connecticut governor, and at the Royal Court in England.

Combining religion, metallurgy, healing, an entrepreneurial spirit and political will, Woodward is able to enlighten the reader with how those elements intertwine. Winthrop’s efforts to found a NEW London was an attempt to create an outpost of scientific research in the wilderness.

Winthrop’s knowledge and authority as a political leader gave him the power to put a brake on witchcraft trials in Connecticut — while he was in the colony.

Too frequently our view of colonial New England culture is limited to puritans as religious zealots locked in a battle with the wilderness. This book jostles that outlook placing a proto-scientific lens on that world and placing Connecticut’s early history within the framework of an Atlantic World Economy. All too often, historians have assumed Connecticut was just like Massachusetts; this work challenges that concept giving us new insight to the past, our local past. This book shines a bright light on southeastern Connecticut.

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wee Run the Line & marked Trees

Posted on February 8, 2010April 26, 2019 by stevemanuel

[February 1738] Tuesd 6 fair. I went with Josh to Mr Wm Wheelers & he went with us & wee Run the Line & marked Trees & put heaps of Stones in Every 20 Rod from the Wallnut Tree by Stantons fence the N E Cornner of Fannings 100 Acres & a Side Line of Mr Wheelers (that was Robert Fannings 30 acres.) unto the great White oak on the Hill the S E. Cornner of fannings 100 acres. I sold my old ox to Mr Wheelar for £12 10s 0d & ye other to Stephen Bennet for £11 10s 0d. Wee Lodged at Stephen Bennets. I hear that my old uncle Greenfield Larabee aged 90 Last april Died on Saturday Night last & was buried a Monday.

Winter, of course, was the ideal time to do survey work in the field. With the leaves off the trees, one’s sight line could be much improved. How Hempstead learned the art of surveying is not mentioned in the diary, but he does make reference in 1722 to buying a needle for the compass and the wire to make the surveyor’s chain, these being the two most important pieces of equipment necessary for the task. The chain is made up of 100 links and is equal to 4 rods of 16 ½ feet, for a total of 66 feet. Thus 80 chains would equal one mile.

Of course there are other tools to measure lines and angles in the field, including stakes to mark the end of one chain and the beginning of the next as one surveys a line more the 66 feet in length, and poles to help provide a clear sight line where things are obscured by changes in elevation. People too were necessary, as this is a task which could not be performed alone; there need to be at least two other people to carry the chain while the surveyor stands at the compass to sight down the line. Hempstead usually notes in his diary the assistance of Joshua, his grandson, and sometimes Adam, his slave.

The piece of land being surveyed mentioned in this diary entry is one that Hempstead is familiar with. This is land in Stonington adjacent to Hempstead’s property which boundaries he needed to renegotiate and reestablish in 1720. Being able to measure land is not the only skill required in this process. As Pat Schaefer points out, “All of this activity needed judgment and negotiating ability as well as surveying skills. … there was much back and forth about the terms of ownership and the exact amounts of land involved.”

We have a copy of Geodaesia, the Art of Surveying, printed in London in 1783 in our collection. A researcher trained in surveying read it recently to see if she could identify some practices common to 18^th century surveyors. “Not much has changed,” was her judgment, well, that is before GPS.

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