cases” and the hearing of appeals from the ordinary judges of the towns. Its decisions were subject to appeal to the General Court.
The General Court was “the last and highest” for the jurisdiction. It consisted of the governor, the deputy governor, all of the magistrates in the jurisdiction, and two deputies for each town, chosen by the free burgesses of that town. The General Court convened twice a year, on the first Wednesday in April and the last Wednesday in October. Its charge was to “with all care and diligence provide for the maintenance of the purity of religion and suppress the contrary.” It also had the power to make and repeal laws and to execute such laws throughout the colony.23
The General Court was thus not simply a judicial court of highest jurisdiction. The modern notion, drawn from Montesquieu, of separate legislative, executive, and judicial authorities,24 had no application to the New Haven Colony. The General Court combined all three functions in the same governing body.
Theophilus Eaton was elected governor of the colony. He would hold that position until his death in 1658.
In 1645, the General Court pronounced that “it was agreed, concluded and settled as fundamental law, not to be disputed or questioned hereafter, that the judicial laws of God, as they were delivered by Moses, and expounded in other parts of scripture, so far as they are a fence to the moral law … shall be accounted of moral and binding equity and force, and as God shall help shall be a constant direction for all proceedings here and a general rule in all courts of Justice how to judge betwixt party and party and how to punish offenders, till the same may be branched out into particulars hereafter.”25 We shall see to what extent this official principle actually guided the colony’s jurisprudence.
Prior to 1656, the General Court’s 1645 statement of “fundamental law” provided the official standard by which the magistrates of the New Haven Colony were to be guided in their decisions. No printed compilation of statutes existed. While the biblical standard proved helpful (perhaps too helpful) in some cases—notably bestiality cases, which were governed by specific scriptural edict—it was of minimal practical assistance in the much wider array of cases to which no specific biblical rule applied. The absence of jurisprudential standards gave the magistrates great discretion in deciding cases of the latter description.
At some point in the mid-1650s, the General Court asked the governor to provide for a more detailed set of laws. The records of the General Court for May 30, 1655, state that
the governor being formerly desired by this Court to view over the laws of this jurisdiction and draw up those of them which he thinks will be most necessary to continue as laws here and compile them together fit to be printed, which being done, were now read, considered, and by vote confirmed, and ordered to be printed…. The Court further desired the governor to send for one of the new book of laws in the Massachusetts Colony, and to view over a small book of laws newly come from England, which is said to be Mr. Cotton’s, and to add what is already done as he shall think fit, and then the Court will meet again to confirm them, but in the meantime (when they are finished) they desire the elders of the jurisdiction may have the sight of them for their approbation also.26
The “new book of laws” referred to was the 1648 Code of the Massachusetts Colony.27 That work was enormously influential, inspiring both the Code of Laws published by the Connecticut Colony in 165028 and the 1656 New Haven Laws.
By October 19, 1655, the governor had completed his task. The records of the General Court for that day state that “the laws which at the Court’s desire have been drawn up by the Governor, viewed and considered by the elders of the Jurisdiction, were now read and seriously weighed by this Court, and by vote concluded and ordered to be sent to England to be printed, with such oaths, forms, and precedents as the Governor shall think meet to put in.”29
The laws of the New Haven Colony were printed in London in 1656.30 Their introductory statement of law, echoing that of the 1648 Massachusetts Code, sets forth their governing principle.
No man’s life shall be taken away, no man’s honor or good name shall be stained, no man shall be deprived of his wife or children, no man’s goods or estate shall be taken from him under Color or Countenance of Authority, unless it be by virtue or equity of some express Law of this Jurisdiction established by the General Court and sufficiently published, or for want of a Law in any particular case, by word of God, either in the Court of Magistrates or some Plantation Court, according to the weight and value of the cause, only all Capital causes, concerning life or banishment where there is no express Law, shall be judged according to the word and Law of God by the General Court.31
The 1656 Laws are thus not intended to provide an exclusive codification of legal rules. While printed laws are to govern when applicable, where there is a “want of a Law” the “word of God” will fill in the gaps.
On June 25, 1656, the governor informed the Court of Magistrates that five hundred “law books” had arrived by ship. The books were ordered to be divided among the constituent towns of the colony, for which each town was obliged to pay twelve pence a copy.32
The 1656 Laws proved to be of little practical consequence. While they may have been consulted behind the scenes, they were rarely cited as authority in the colony’s judicial rulings (see chapter 18, “The Disputed Will” and chapter 20, “The Stolen Silverware”). As far as the New Haven courts were concerned, both before and after 1656, the governing authority was that of the Bible.
THE UNION WITH THE CONNECTICUT COLONY
In 1662, Charles II issued a charter to the Connecticut Colony. Under the charter, the Connecticut Colony, which previously bordered the New Haven Colony to the north, was now bounded “on the South by the Sea.”33
The 1662 Charter proved to be a deathblow to the New Haven Colony, which no longer enjoyed official existence in the eyes of English officials. A month later, the inhabitants of Southold voted to join the Connecticut Colony. Stamford and Guilford soon followed. Milford left in 1664, leaving Branford and New Haven to hold out to the bitter end.34
The last recorded New Haven trial was conducted in 1663, as recounted in chapter 33, “The Burning Barn.” On December 14, 1664, the New Haven Colony gave up the ghost and sent a letter to the Connecticut Colony seeking “love and union between us.”35 On January 5, 1665, the colonies formally united.36 The New Haven Colony, its government, its laws, and its trials, were now consigned to the dust of history.
The Courts
The New Haven Colony had a three-tiered court system. The Plantation Courts, one for each of the colony’s six towns, formed the bottom tier. The Court of Magistrates occupied the middle rung. At the top of the judicial ladder was the General Court.
The records tell us little about the Plantation Courts. It is clear, however, that each town had one or more magistrates elected by the free burgesses of the town. In addition to their task of trying minor civil and criminal cases, the magistrates “examined” parties and witnesses involved in more serious cases and sent records of those examinations to the higher courts.
In contrast, the records tell us a great deal about the General Court and the Court of Magistrates. They don’t tell us everything we’d like to know, but many details can be reconstructed.
THE GENERAL COURT
The General Court, the
