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Table of Contents > Autographs > Lot 12 |
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Lot Number: 12
Click for a Printable PageSign-in to Bid or Register to Bid Estimate Range: $1,800 - $2,400 |
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1754 Colonial Connecticut Governor Thomas Fitch Signed Document Urgently Ordering the General Assembly to Meet |
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THOMAS FITCH (c.1699-1774). Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, he graduated from Yale College in 1721. Served in the Connecticut General Assembly and was Governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1754 to 1766, leading the Colony through the tumultuous years of the French and Indian War. December 23, 1754-Dated Colonial French & Indian War Period, Rare Manuscript Document Signed, "Thos. Fitch", at Norwalk, Ct., 1 page, measures 12.5" x 7.75", Very Fine. In this document, Governor Fitch, orders the General Assembly to meet at New Haven in January "to consult and advise in Diverse important affairs". There are a couple minor partial fold splits, scattered ink smudges and a paper repair at upper left where opened, overall quite attractive. This Document reads in full and headed: "The Honourable Thomas Fitch, Esqr. Governor of his Majesty's Colony of Connecticut in New England in America.” “To the Members of the General Assembly of Said Colony. - Gentlemen, --- Whereas the said General Assembly stands adjourned till the Govr. Or in his absence the Dep: Govr. Shall see Cause to call it to meet again and there being at this time Special Occasion for calling the same to consult and advise in Diverse important affairs I have thought fit to order and Do hereby order the said General Assembly to meet at New Haven on Wednesday the Eighth Day of January next. -- These are therefore to give you Notice thereof and to Desire Each of you to give attendance accordingly. Given under my hand and seal at Norwalk in said Colony this 23d Day of December in the 28th Year of his Majesty's Reign Anno que Domini 1754: -- Nehemiah Rogers Jonathan Fitch William Davis and each of them are impowered and Directed to Notify the above Order and make Return. -- (Signed) Thos. Fitch" On the back is the "return" of William Davis, dated at Milford, CT, Dec. 29, 1754, certifying that he served the document on 3 named Members of the General Assembly "by reading the law to them in each of their hearing". Accompanied by a full typed transcript of this document. Governor Thomas Fitch guided the Colony of Connecticut through the turbulent economic and political times before the Revolutionary War but never lived to see the colonies become an independent nation. Born in Norwalk, Connecticut about 16961, Thomas Fitch was the oldest son and the first child of Thomas Fitch and his first wife, Sarah (Boardman) Fitch. He was the fourth-generation “Thomas” in Connecticut, and is sometimes called “Thomas IV”. The Fitches were a wealthy and noble family of Bocking, Essex, England, from which Thomas IV’s great-grandfather, Thomas I, emigrated to Connecticut with his mother and two brothers in the 1600’s; Thomas I and his brother Joseph were among the founders of Norwalk. After early schooling in Norwalk, Thomas IV went to Yale to study law. He was there during a period when some Yale professors left the Congregational Church (the established church) for the Episcopalian Church, shocking the Congregational-based society of Connecticut. Even Thomas admitted to sympathizing with some Episcopalian teachings. After graduation he went on to obtain a Master’s degree. Thomas Fitch’s political career began shortly thereafter, in May of 1726, with his election as a Deputy (representative) from Norwalk to the General Assembly; he was re-elected for the Assembly sessions through 1728 and in 1729-1731. He served as an Assistant from 1734-1736 and from 1740-1750. From 1727-1733 and 1736-1737 he also served as a Justice of the Peace. Several projects during the late 1730’s and in the 1740’s earned Fitch the increased regard of his colleagues. He was part of a group that tried to set up a much-needed steel factory in Connecticut. He represented Connecticut in various crucial legal cases, arguing for Connecticut in 1738 in the long-running (1671-1771) Mohegan land case, a dispute between the Mohegans, the heirs of John Mason, and the Connecticut colony. His impressive legal skills prompted Timothy Dwight, an early president of Yale, to call him “probably the most learned lawyer who had ever been an inhabitant of the Colony.” He was on military committees and other committees of importance, such as that petitioning the British Crown to reimburse Connecticut troops in the victory of Louisburg (Nova Scotia, 1745), and the committee to represent Connecticut in the Massachusetts-Connecticut border controversy (1750). Fitch’s greatest accomplishment before becoming governor was his 1749 revision of the laws of Connecticut. Revisions had been done in 1702 and in 1715, but by 1742 there were many new laws, and another update was badly needed. The French and Indian War marked the first years of Fitch’s administration. This struggle between Britain and France for American lands lasted until the French and their Native Americn allies surrendered to the British in 1760. Connecticut gave large amounts of money, manpower, and supplies to the conflict, sometimes beyond what it could afford. Tradition states that in 1755 Col. Thomas Fitch V, the governor’s son, received the present of a song as a joke from a British surgeon, Dr. Richard Shuckburgh. Using a popular old marching tune, Shuckburgh is said to have written lyrics making fun of Col. Fitch’s troops: “Yankee Doodle went to town, a-riding on a pony....” According to tradition, Col. Fitch is the original “Yankee Doodle”. Years later, during the Revolutionary War, colonial troops turned the tables by adopting it as one of their favorite marching songs and playing it in front of the English troops after Burgoyne’s defeat at Saratoga. The conclusion of the war ended the money and manpower drain on Connecticut but found the state greatly in debt, and a depression arose that lasted for several years. King George III came to the throne in 1760, and, with timing that was very bad for the American colonies, decided to recoup the costs of the French and Indian War by increasing taxes. The Sugar Act of 1764 was the first step and was very unpopular in the colonies in general. This act required colonists to buy sugar only from British Caribbean sugar producers, excluding French planters. This allowed British planters to raise their prices, with the Crown getting a share of the increased profits. Connecticut and the other colonies protested, but the Crown held firm, assuming the complaints would pass. They did not, and the announcement of the Stamp Act in March 1765 only made things worse. It required that anyone buying any type of legal paper, or even paper for printing newspapers and books, had to also buy a certifying stamp from the British, with the money going to the Crown. Since the Crown had limited the number of paper mills that could be built in the colonies, paper was sometimes difficult to get, and people often had to import it from England. The act raised the price of paper and made it even harder to obtain. News of the forthcoming Stamp Act set off violent protests throughout New England and widened existing political divisions in Connecticut. Western Connecticut had more people and more money, traded easily with New York, and also had more representatives in the General Assembly. It favored the “Old Lights” in the religious controversy of the Great Awakening. It did not favor the Stamp Act but felt that it was best to comply with it for the time being, and Governor Fitch, a Norwalk resident, agreed. Eliphalet Dyer and Jonathan Trumbull led a militant group of men from the Norwich area, the “Sons of Liberty”, in discrediting advocates of the Stamp Act and working to place eastern Connecticut men in power. They staged protests and attacked supporters of the Stamp Act, including Governor Fitch, in the newspapers; they hung effigies of key politicians in trees and then burned the effigies. In their determination to prevent the Stamp Act from becoming law, the Sons of Liberty continued their agitation by leading a mob of over 400 men and capturing Jared Ingersoll, the Royal Stamp Distributor, as he was on his way to Hartford to speak to the General Assembly about resigning. The Sons of Liberty forced him to sign a resignation then and there, took him to Hartford, and made him read the resignation to the General Assembly. At that point, Governor Fitch placed Ingersoll under his personal protection and issued a general proclamation against “turbulent” behavior. The Sons of Liberty responded by visiting Fitch at his home and declaring that he would either let them in to seize and burn the stamped paper there or his house would be burned down. The Stamp Act was to become law on November 1, 1765. As that day approached, Great Britain took extra measures to ensure compliance, requiring all colonial governors to take an oath to enforce the act or pay a fine of five thousand pounds and be dismissed from office. Governor Fitch delayed taking the oath until two days before the deadline, in a vain hope that the act would be recalled. It was not, and in the presence of witnesses, he signed the Stamp Act on behalf of Connecticut. Jonathan Trumbull, William Pitkin, and a few others were so upset at this that they left the room in disgust just before the act was signed. The unpopular Stamp Act lasted only a few months, as King George II officially withdrew it on March 19, 1766. An unintended benefit of the act was that eastern Connecticut did something about the paper situation. By December 1766, Christopher Leffingwell of Norwich had started the first paper mill in Connecticut and theConnecticut Gazette (New Haven) was being printed on paper from that mill. Eastern Connecticut had control of one Connecticut industry, at least. Then, on the one-year anniversary of the repeal, the feisty Sons of Liberty celebrated by putting up a special “Liberty Pole” and placing a commemorative announcement in theConnecticut Courant (Hartford), asking the blessings of heaven on His Royal Majesty for that repeal. The times were changing, and Fitch was on the wrong side of the emerging political scene. Just before the election of 1766, he published an anonymous pamphlet defending his signing of the Stamp Act, but it was too late. William Pitkin was elected Governor in 1766, with Jonathan Trumbull as Deputy Governor. Trumbull, sympathetic to the views of the Sons of Liberty, assumed the governorship in 1769 and remained in office throughout the Revolutionary War. Following his 1766 defeat, Thomas Fitch served in the General Assembly. His supporters attempted to have him re-elected as governor in the 1770’s but were unsuccessful. In 1769, he served on a committee, and in 1772, was the Deputy from Norwalk to the General Assembly. He retired after that and spent much time reading under an elm tree he had planted in 1749. The tree, which came to be called “King Elm”, lasted until about 1900 when it was destroyed by beetles. Governor Thomas Fitch died on July 18, 1774 and was buried in East Norwalk Historical Cemetery, now the oldest cemetery in Norwalk. The Fitch house was partially burned in the July 11 and 12, 1779 British invasion of Norwalk, so only one wing remained. Fitch’s wife, Hannah, having been evacuated from Norwalk at the time of the British raid, probably returned to Norwalk before she died in August 17792, at the age of 78. Fitch descendants lived in the reconstructed house until 1945. In 1956, the structure lay in the path of the Connecticut Turnpike (Interstate 95). Through community efforts the small wing that had survived the British raid was saved and moved out of the path of the road. It is today part of the Mill Hill Historic Park in Norwalk. Thomas Fitch’s family received some of the “Firelands” in the Connecticut Western Reserve in Ohio, lands reserved especially for those who had been burned out by the British in the Revolutionary War. The town of Fitchville, in Huron County, Ohio, was partly built on land that was given to the family of Governor Fitch and so was named for him. Mill Hill Historic Park, Wall Street and East Avenue, Norwalk, includes the Governor Fitch law office (set on rocks from the original Fitch home’s foundation), the earliest Norwalk cemetery, a schoolhouse, and the Townhouse Museum. |
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Lot Number: 12
Click for a Printable Page Sign-in to Bid or Register to Bid |
Estimate Range: $1,800 - $2,400 |
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