Of The New Haven Company and Ship Martin

In my previous post I referred to the "New Haven Company", whose members included Sylvester and Sarah. If I am correct in my conclusions and assumptions, then this should be a reference not to a company, or corporate business entity, but a colony, a company of people, and much is known historically of the ultimately failed New Haven Colony. This attempted colony based its legal system on the Plymouth colony, but later merged with the Connecticut Colony, and history goes from there. One of the thirteen original colonies, and all of that.


Here is the flag of New Haven Colony:

Their flag seems like a knockoff of some other flags. Boo.

If this colony is what was being referred to in the Historical Documents, then a probable reason for Sylvester and Sarah's emigration would be religious in nature. The members of the New Haven Colony were puritans and according to Charles M. Andrews, "The Colonial Period of American History: The Settlements II" (1936) pp 187-94", as retrieved by Wikipedia (apologies to those who loathe Wikipedia), the puritans would not allow any other churches to exist. This contrasted with the Connecticut colony, which, of course, did.

These facts do correlate with my memory of Sylvester's intention of starting a religious colony in the new world, though, as mentioned, I do not recall where I read this. I seem to remember it being on a printout somewhere around the house in family records.

The ship 'Martin' itself is known "only through the death of one of its passengers". That passenger was, as mentioned, Sylvester Baldwin himself, who died about three weeks before the ship landed in Boston. It is assumed, then, that he was buried at sea, and the memorial that stands to him in England is just that - a memorial stone.

The passenger list for the Martin is as follows:

Sylvester Baldwin, Sarah Baldwin, Richard Baldwin, Sarah Baldwin
James Weeden, Phillippa Weeden, John Weeden
William Weeden, Anna Weeden, Martha Weeden
Chad Brown, Elizabeth Brown, John Brown.

As Sylvester and Sarah's children were baptized in England and Sylvester died en route, I think it is safe to assume that in addition to the Baldwins listed above, children Mary, Martha, Ruth and John were also present on the ship. Documents list six children with Sarah Bryant Baldwin shortly after, living together in the same area. A John Baldwin was a witness in court to the will of Sylvester, so he should have been on the boat as well. ALSO, I've read here and there that the three brothers Joseph, Nathaniel, and Timothy sailed over with their cousins John and Sylvester. It is said that there were 13 Baldwins on the ship, total, though a complete list I could not find.

Interestingly, the New Haven Colony lasted only from 1637-8 to 1664. It appears then that Sylvester had intended to actually start the colony with the group of people. So I don't know if there were other ships involved at the same time, or if they arrived throughout the year. The logistics and organization of the entire project are beyond the scope of this blog. But if anyone has any information to add, please comment below.

Regarding New Haven, it seems that it went from a bastion of good, clean, Puritan ideals, to one of the most dangerous, crime-riddled cities in America today.

Oh well.

Womp-womp-womp.

For further reading, look here!

https://connecticuthistory.org/a-separate-place-the-new-haven-colony-1638-1665/

I haven't read it all myself yet. So maybe some of my questions are answered there.