Our first century . scontent in the Massachu-setts colonies because of the infertility of their lands,and especially because of the lack of pasturage for thecows, of which they now had considerablenumbers. In 1635, therefore, and after-wards, a considerable number of thesepeople, mostly from Dorchester and Wa-tertown, removed to what is now Connec-ticut and began little settlements at whatwe now know as Wethersfield and Wind-sor. In the early summer of the next year,1636, there was a very considerable mi-gration from Newtown, now known asCambridge, in Massachusetts, to the Connecticut Riverval
Our first century . scontent in the Massachu-setts colonies because of the infertility of their lands,and especially because of the lack of pasturage for thecows, of which they now had considerablenumbers. In 1635, therefore, and after-wards, a considerable number of thesepeople, mostly from Dorchester and Wa-tertown, removed to what is now Connec-ticut and began little settlements at whatwe now know as Wethersfield and Wind-sor. In the early summer of the next year,1636, there was a very considerable mi-gration from Newtown, now known asCambridge, in Massachusetts, to the Connecticut Rivervalley. There were new immigrants coming in all thetime from England and to these the people in Newtownsold their houses and lands and themselves set outunder the leadership of their pastor, Thomas Hooker,for the new and more. fruitful country. The distancewas small—not more than a hundred miles or so—butthe wilderness lay in the way, through which the peoplehad to cut a road for the passage of their cattle and the. Puritan of themiddle class. MIGRATIONS FROM MASSACHUSETTS 91 transportation of their goods by such means as they gain some idea of the difficulty of travel acrosscountry in those days from the fact that it took thesepeople more than two weeks to make this short trip. These people settled where Hartford now is and soonafterwards the greater part of the people who had beforeoccupied Dorchester removed to Windsor in Connecti-cut while those who had lived at Watertown removed toWhether sfi eld. All these changes of residence were prompted in part,of course, by considerations of material benefit; but instill larger part they were prompted by the conscientiousscruples of the people concerned in them as to themethod of government adopted by the church in INIassa-chusetts. Two or three years later—in 1639—these townsunited themselves into a single government under thefirst written constitution that was ever adopted inAmerica. This constitution expressed and form
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