Colchester, Connecticut

Note from the Memoirs of Ebenezer Foote:

There is no record of the Foote Family emigrating from Durham, England, however the ancestors of Daniel and Nathaniel are recorded in Shalford, County of Essex, located near Colchester England. Colchester, Connecticut, home of the Footes was, I surmise, named for the same town in England. The English city was named Camulodunum and at one time was the capital of Roman Britain.

Town History

The Town of Colchester, Connecticut was founded in 1698 at a point just north of the present Town Green at Jeremiah's Farm on land purchased by Nathaniel Foote from the Sachem of the Mohegan Indians. Nathaniel Foote's grandfather had emigrated from Colchester, England, early in the 17th century and Colchester in America was the vision of a group of early English settlers who sought to lay out a new plantation in a large tract of virgin wilderness.

Colchester's early history, like many towns in New England, centered around the church parish. In 1703, the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut ruled that the settlement could organize a church body here known as Colchester. Within a few years, several grist mills and saw mills were built to provide grain and lumber. In 1706, the first street was laid out and called Town Street. This street was nearly 200 feet wide and is now the southern end of Old Hebron Road. By 1714, there were nearly 50 families in town.

By 1756 Colchester was one of the thriving rural towns in the Colony. Its population was recorded as 2,300 inhabitants and by 1782 grew to be 3,300.

Settlers were mostly self-sufficient. One of the first textile mills in America began operation in 1780 in Westchester. Other early industries were iron works, clothier shops, potash works and brick kilns. Industrial expansion in America was evident in Colchester by the 19th Century. There were three tanneries and a woolen mill in 1819, a hatter in 1828, a wheel and carriage factory in 1858, a paper mill in 1869, a creamery in 1886 and a canning company in 1893.

During this industrial heyday, the Hayward Rubber Company was established in 1847. Nathaniel Hayward along with Charles Goodyear had discovered the process of vulcanized rubber. It is said the Hayward was the true inventor and that Goodyear provided the cash to fund his experiments. Hayward founded his new company in Colchester and from here rubber products, boots, and shoes were shipped all over the country. The company thrived until 1893 when it was closed and later the building burned to the ground.

With industrial growth came demand for labor and population growth. The town prospered. New homes and sidewalks were built, a park was laid out and the streets were lighted with lamps.

Transportation during this period included the railroad. In 1875 the link between Willimantic and Middletown on the Boston to New York line was completed. The section ran through North Westchester and over the Lyman Viaduct to the west. In 1876, the town appropriated $25,000 to lay track between Colchester and Amston. Both freight and passengers were carried over this track for nearly 80 years.

By 1900 farming had diminished and the rubber mill had closed, but this was a time for another new beginning for Colchester. The Hirsch Foundation of New York had discovered that Colchester was an excellent place for the settlement of European Jewish immigrants. By 1923, there were about 750 children recorded in the school census out of a total town population of 2,100. Since farming was no longer prosperous, many began to supplement their livelihoods in the summer by taking on boarders from nearby cities and New York.

Within the span of a few years, Colchester became the 20th Century's "Catskills of Connecticut". At least seven major hotels thrived including the Broadway House, owned by Abraham and Rose Jaffe, Harris Cohen's Fairview House, Julius Sultan's Hilltop Lodge, Schwartz's Kessler's Horowitz's and Barnett Dember's. The tourist industry boomed throughout the 1930s.

Postwar growth in neighboring towns led to a new era for Colchester. A new generation of suburban dwellers found Colchester to be an excellent bedroom community due to an improved highway system and its proximity to Hartford, Middletown and the Norwich/New London areas. During the 1950s the beach traffic brought many through Colchester to their favorite stops including Harry's, the Colchester Bakery and Levine's Coat Shop. The Route 2 by-pass of the town was completed in the 1960s. But for those who did not just pass through, Colchester's dedication to the public school system, its acceptance of all peoples and its quality of life increased its population to 7,761 by 1980. Today, over 300 years after the settling of Colchester, the population has grown to over 16,000.

COMULODUNUM OR COLCHESTER Somewhat back from the North Sea, on the Essex border of England, stands the old, old city of Colchester. It is conceded that it is the oldest Roman Colony of England, but Wm. Andrews (British) takes it back to —5 B. C. However that may be, 43 A.D. we are sure of, and the great wall built by the Romans still stands today. He says also, “In the Civil War, Colchester stood for the King. In 1645 it was besieged by Lord Fairfax, but its thick old Roman walls made it a sort of fortress, and it was able to resist for three months.” Near this big city there was, and is, a small place called Shalford. On January 27, 1608, a man lay dying there. He was Robert Foote, our earliest known ancestor. Conscious of his approaching end he dictated the will following. [211]

”Robert, Jr., was made Executor, and on February 15, 1608, he proved and probated the document, showing that Robert, Sr., lived scarcely three weeks after it was written. From its provisions Robert must have been what was then called “a man of large substance.” I have had to omit a good deal that seemed unnecessary, but all that follows is verbatim.

Will of Robert Foote. 1608 Being sick in body, and commending my soule to the mercy of God in Christe, I do hereby dispose ordayne and make this my last will and testament.

1st—a sum of money to be distributed to the poor of Shalford and Wethersfield, at the discretion of the Church-wardens and Over of the poor.

2d.—To my beloved wife Joan,—the rent during life of a certain tenement which I hold through the grant of Sir Chester Knight, also a yearly annuity of lawfull money--also to my beloved wife, such part of my movable goods, and household stuff as hereinafter recited, viz. –my best bedstead, best featherbed and bolster, four paires of my best sheets and pillowberes,--two tablecloths and a dozen napkins.

Seerers Note—I have been taught that as earl sreat nobles had few table cloths and no napkins. I have not time to follow it up, but in the Cannon Library I get: “History of Table Setting.” by C. Q. Murphy, page 8—“Hands were usually wiped on the sides of the tablecloth, for napkins were not in general use.” Relative to Spoons—“Guests in the very old times were obliged to Carry their own Spoons, whether they staid for one meal or many." Poor folks as well as rich must These were of tinned iron, and wer but their owners were placed near y as 1608 even the carry their own Spoons. were placed at the fartherest end. brass spoons, but silver, so that they the salt when they went abroad. Joan is given not only must have sat far above Next, Joan is given: . . . My next best table but o and six greate cushions, towel platters, three stooles and si ne,—three stooles, *~many sortes of X great cushions, 212 HSBENEZER FOOTE–THE FOUNDER towels—many sorts of dishes, platters and bowls, also a yearly amount of wood, as long as she resides in my house, Looks as if Joan was not to marry again. There are nine children named in the will, five of the names are constantly repeated in the Foote genealogy down to my great-great-grandfather, Daniel (b. 1717). They are Robert, Daniel, Mary, Elizabeth, and Nathaniel, especially Nathaniel, which came straight down for eleven consecutive generations, and is still extant in our Hon. Judge of Rochester, who rescued this precious will. And there may be many others I know not of. To return to the paper. Each child is given a sum of “lawfull money" and several servants and friends are left varying amounts of money. Next—To Joseph my son, I bequeath my hop ground of Plomley, with all the hop poles thereon, beside 250 hop poles, which I have at home. Next—To my son Robert, I leave my Mansion wherein I now reside, with all the appurtenances thereof, together with all the lands belonging to the same, as the same is now in my occupation, with all my stock of hop poles, being upon any of the hop grounds of the premises, as well new poles as ould. Lastly—My legacies paid and my body decently brought to earth, the residue is to be equally divided among all my children. As Robert was the father of nine children, he must have been born rather early in the 1500's and lived in the days of Good Queen Bess, as well as have been a contemporary of Shakespeare, who did not die until 1616, eight years later, and who, instead of leaving Anne Hathaway his best bed and sheets, etcetera, left her only his second best. A little low of Shakespeare, it seems to me, especially as he had only three children to Robert's nine, and they were married, or dead like Hamlet. Perhaps this would be the place to put down the fact that Robert had a brother living in London, whose son, Sir Thomas Foote, was Lord Mayor of London in 1649-1650, who would have been the first cousin of our settler, Nathaniel.

Sources

• https://www.colchesterct.gov/our-community/pages/town-history