The Peters Connection Research information compiled by John D. Baron

1
The Peters ConnectionResearch information
compiled by John D. Baron
2
Today the Fate of the Peters House hangs by a
thread

• The Town of Hebron owns the property
• The Town wishes to sell the house to save money
• Concerned citizens have offered sweat equity to
  preserve this important landmark.
• They need you help to convince local government
  to let them.

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What is the significance of the Peters family in
Hebron History?

• Connecticut hill towns went through several
  stages of development in the 18th century.
• Private ownership
• First Settlement (families and town government)
• Established settlement
• Influence of French wars and gentrification
• Revolutionary War period
• Readjustment of the status quo after the war

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Is the House worth Preserving?

• Yes, even without firm documentation
• The house is an EXTRAORDINARY example of late
  Georgian (Neo Palladian) Architecture indicating
  the hand of a skilled architect / builder
• Whether owned by the Rev. Samuel Peters or not,
  the Peters clan is inseparably linked with the
  history of Hebron, the state of Connecticut, and
  with their loyalist connections to the history of
  the United States and Canada.
• This house is one of two buildings in town that
  can be firmly linked to the Peters family and the
  only one in public ownership.

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The Peters family arrived after the towns first
establishment

• They purchased an established farm one of the
  proprietor lots.
• Although the farming operation had already
  existed for about a quarter of a century, the
  location on the western slope of Burnt Hill meant
  contact with Native Americans still using Burnt
  Hill for seasonal agriculture.
• The property at 150 East Street is located on
  land that has been used by Native Americans for
  almost 10 millennia.
• It is one of the few large tracts of land which
  still retains boundaries of private property
  established before the town was incorporated.

6
New Comers in a New Town

• John Peters from Andover, Massachusetts married
  Mary Marks of North Brookfield, Massachusetts in
  April of 1717.
• They had 10 children.
• Rather than establish themselves in a frontier
  settlement susceptible to Native American attack
  such as during King Phillips War in 1675, they
  chose land in an already established community.
• This led to inevitable friction

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Hebron in the 1730s

• Hebron was on its second stage of settlement in
  the 1730s about 25 years after first settlement.
• Town services including roads, maintenance of the
  meetinghouse, taxes, town office, and obligations
  like serving in the militia were made increasing
  difficult by the large size of the town.
• Geographic discontent started to be heard in this
  decade of the towns history as outlying
  residents felt the town did not equally apportion
  town benefits, particularly improved road to get
  goods to market.
• By 1747 the town would split into 5 parishes
• The Green or 1st Congregational Society
• Gilead Congregational Society
• Andover Congregational Society
• Marlborough Congregational Society
• St. Peters Anglican (Episcopal) Church

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The Peters Side with the Church of England

• Acrimonious fighting characterized the period
  from 1730-1747.
• John Bliss who lived north of the town center was
  the established Congregational minister before
  the issue of parishes arose.
• Vilified by his former parishioners, he and a
  number of families north of the Green declared
  themselves in 1735 as members of the Church of
  England and established the forerunner of St.
  Peters Church on Godfrey Hill (Route 85).
• Hebrons Anglican community is one of the
  earliest in Connecticut and predates the
  establishment of other Anglican churches founded
  during the Great Awakening in the 1740s.
• The Peters family was one of the founding
  families of the fledgling Anglican Society

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Benefits of Anglican Membership

• Membership in the newly formed Church of England
  congregation provided the Peters clan with a
  chance to assume a leadership role previously
  closed to them.
• It provided contact with other families to
  solidify business and marriage arrangements.
• John Peters sixth son, Samuel would benefit from
  these advantages.

10
Early years of the Rev. Samuel Peters

• Hebron history and the Peters clan are
  inseparable in large measure due to the career of
  the Rev. Samuel Peters.
• Born in the same year (1735) St.Peters was
  founded. He was John and Mary Peters sixth son
• At age 19, he inherited 1000 pounds from his
  fathers estate a huge sum of money.

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• Rather than invest in farmland, Samuel Peters
  used the money to pursue a ministers career
• Yale College one of Hebrons first graduates
• Kings College (now Columbia University) in New
  York City, already one of the colonies leading
  cities.
• In 1758, the same year Hebron fired off the
  pump to celebrate victory over the French,
  Samuel Peters left for England.
• Here he was ordained as an Anglican minister.
• He returned at age 25 in 1760 to become rector
  of the Anglican communities in Hebron and
  Hartford (Christ Church)
• With his travels, the Rev. Samuel Peters had
  contact with the changing styles of fashion and
  architecture current not only New York City, but
  in London, the capital of the British Empire.
• This may explain the elaborate detail of 150 East
  Street.

12
The three Wives of Samuel Peters

• Rev. Peters married on three separate occasions.
• Each time to women from prosperous backgrounds
• Hannah Owen in 1760. A daughter Hannah was born
  in 1762. Her mother died in 1765.
• Abigail Gilbert in 1769. She died 12 days later
  at age 18.
• Mary Birdseye of Stratford who gave birth to a
  son William Birdseye and died at age 24 in 1774.
• A wedding was a logical time to build a new
  house. It is known that Samuel Peters built a new
  house in 1774 valued costing 700 pounds-- a very
  large sum which may represent the work of an
  urban architect or design from New York or even
  London and be the Peters house at 150 East
  Street!

13
Events of 1774 in New England

• The Sons of Liberty had taken over the government
  of Connecticut as early as 1765 with the Stamp
  Act.
• The Boston Tea Party resulted from Parliament
  giving the East India Company a monopoly on tea
  enabling them to undersell Boston merchants like
  John Hancock.
• The Boston Tea Party destroyed the private
  property of the East India Company and eliminated
  the competition for Boston merchants.
• Parliament closed Boston with the Intolerable
  Acts until the tea was paid for.
• Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull urged
  Connecticut citizens to show their support for
  Boston by sending food supplies.

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1774 in Hebron

• Hebron had the first town meeting.
• Samuel Peters spoke so eloquently about the need
  to respect private property that no aid was sent.

• Hartford held the next meeting.
• Again the Rev. Samuel peters convinced citizens
  no supplies should be sent to Boston

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Gov. Trumbulls Reaction

• Gov. Trumbull sent his son David on two occasions
  to visit Rev. Peters.
• A wide range of reports exist of what happened
  from a friendly meeting to a terrorist action
  that nearly destroyed Rev. Peters household
  furnishing, large library, house and nearly ended
  with tarring and feathering.

16
Rev. Samuel Peters Flees for his Life

• At age 39, Samuel Peters abandoned Hebron
  recording in March 7, 1775 the following
• Account of property in Hebron
• 600 acres improved land
• Sufficiency woodland
• 5 dwelling houses, one cost 700 pounds, 4 not so
  valuable
• 7 barns, 2 cow houses
• Nigh 100 head horned cattle
• 80-100 sheep, 10 horses
• Nigh 70 swine
• 1 double chaise, 1 sing chaise
• Many farming utensils, house furniture
• 6 negroes
• Nigh 4000 fruit trees, apple, pear, etc
• On said land is annually produced nigh 2000
  bushels of grain
• Wheat, rye, barley, oats, Indian corn, etc
• Nigh 120 tons of hay, and grazing for above stock
• I add one daughter eleven years old (HannaH)
• One son about 2 months old (William Birdseye)
• His wife Hannah had died just weeks before.

17
Peters Plantation

• Recent work by Central Connecticut Universitys
  Archaeology Department has disclosed the fact
  that before the Revolutionary War much of Eastern
  Connecticut was divided up into northern
  plantations producing goods for the West Indian
  trade.
• The town of Salem, Connecticut was one such
  plantation with over 100 slaves.
• Samuel Peters account would indicate he, too, was
  running a plantation.
• Plantation buildings surviving from this time are
• EXTREMELY RARE.

18
Life in England

• Rev. Peters spent the balance of the
  Revolutionary War in England.
• In correspondence he refers several times to the
  property he left behind.

19
Feb. 14, 1785

• It seems to me, that he (his slave Pomp Mendo)
  and Cesar might be better tenants than Mr. Brown
  who used my house and land not as my tenant but
  as Tenant of the State of Connecticut who had
  seized it out of my hands and then demanded 30
  pounds of me because the taxes were more than he
  expected

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October 28, 1786 Nathaniel Mann to Peters

• The houses, fences, gardens, orchards, timber,
  and Buildings are all horribly destroyed and out
  of order, so that you have not a house that is
  fit to live in
• The house next to the church has been burnt and
  the Church was threatened to be burnt, your new
  house has been broke to pieces and filled with
  the worst of people and is not so clean and neat
  or in so good order as you kept your pig houses.

21
State of Connecticut vs. Saml Peters

• With his property seized by the state of
  Connecticut, Peters was asked to pay back taxes.
• Unfortunately, with no fluid assets, Samuel
  Peters was in a bind and could not pay his bills.

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Aug 13, 1787 Saml Peters to Nathaniel Mann

• Cesar you say cannot support himself and family
  and My Estates are not worth much at present
  cannot you and your family put things in order
  and make them all usefull how do you all live?
• By law a slaves owner was responsible for the
  welfare of his slaves. Peters was in a real
  bind. He could not support himself or his slaves.

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The only Solution to Supporting Caesar Peters

• Letter from Jedidiah P. Buckingham a student
  studying law with Sylvester Gilbert of Hebron
  October 15, 1787
• a singular circumstance happened last week.
  Morris, John, and Nathaniel Mann sold ten
  negroes, said to be the property of the Rev.
  Doct. Peters, to a man who belonged to Carolina,
  who carried them as far as Norwich. They were
  stopped by a company of people belonging to
  Hebron and they brought all the negroes back

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Buckingham letter

• I am told 200 pounds was the price. Small
  indeed! In Carolina they are worth 1000 pounds.
  The people universally believe you (Samuel
  Peters) never would be the author of so much
  distress. Both Caesar and wife have cried for
  joy ever since to know they are released from
  slavery, nay snatched from the jaws of deathThe
  negro trade is a miserable profession in this
  country.
• Unfortunately Connecticut did not abolish slavery
  until 12 years before the Civil War!

25
Rescue of Caesar Peters

• The rescue of Caesar Peters and his family is as
  important a story as that as the Amistad, and
  Prudance Crandall.
• It is relevant to the Town of Hebron, the State
  of Connecticut, and United States History.
• It is also a story that may be intricately
  connected with the property at 150 East Street.

26
January 5, 1789 Court Testimony of David Sutton
concerning Caesar Peters

• after S. Peters left hebron which was Sept.
  1774, sd Cesar Lived in his House untill sd.
  Peters Lands were taken leased out by the State
  of Connecticut at which time sd. Cesar and his
  family were turned offAfter the National Peace
  sd. Cesar returned to one of his Masters Houses
  and cultivated the Farm which was much damaged by
  Tenants.

27
Cesar and 150 East Street

• The Colonial Dames title search and WPA
  documentation suggest that the house at 150 East
  Street was owned by Rev. Samuel Peters. If so,
  Caesar lived for part of his life here.

• The WPA documentation suggest the ell and main
  house date from two different times.
• The ell could have been one of Peters 4 other
  houses relocated later as a kitchen addition.
  Caesar did live at various Peters farms. This
  could have been one.

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What should be done about 150 East Street

• This is one of Hebron most outstanding historical
  and architecturally significant properties.
• It is in the custody of public ownership through
  the Town of Hebron.
• IT MUST BE PRESERVED

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What can you do to help

• Contact the Town Manager, Jared Clark
• Contact the Chairperson of the Board of
  Selectmen, Karen Strid
• Voice your opinion that this important property
  not be sold off like Caesar Peters. Help
  Preserve Hebron History for the future.