LOOKING BACKWARD
this land for the rest of their friends. Accordingly, they left a group of seven to remain throughout the winter, to be sure of possession.
In April, 1638, the two groups, headed by Davenport and Prudden, sailed from Boston, headed for the Quinnipiac region. The Davenport group formed the New Haven Colony, and the Prudden contingent remained with them for over a year. A separate allotment, known as the Hertfordshire section, was granted to them. They cleared the land, planted crops, and built houses. During the summer of 1638, very soon after reaching New Haven, Rev. Mr. Prudden went to the town of Wethersfield to serve as preacher. He was a forceful man and won the devotion of his listeners, who wanted to join him in founding a new settlement, having him as its pastor. Thomas Tapping, Robert Treat, John Sherman, Thomas Tibbals. John Fletcher, George Hubbard, Richard Miles, and Andrew Benton came down from Wethersfield with him to join the Hertfordshire group in founding the Milford Colony.
In 1637, Sergeant Thomas Tibbals had been out on a scouting trip and was very favorably impressed by the looks of the land near the mouth of the river which the Indians called Wepowage. He thought it would be an excellent place for a settlement, and recommended it to the Prudden party. Accordingly, on February 12, 1639, with Serg. Tibbals as their guide, Edmund Tapp, William Fowler, Benjamin Fenn, Zachariah Whitman, and Alexander Bryan made a trip to the Wepawaug and purchased the land from Ansantawae, a sachem of the Paugusset Indians who had a village on the bunks of the river. The purchase price was ''six coats, ten blankets, one kettle, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen knives and a dozen small mirrors." In his History of Connecticut (1797) Dr. Benjamin Trumbull says, ''They first purchased of the Indians all the tract which lies between New Haven and Stratford river, and between the Sound on the south, and a stream called Two Mile Brook on the
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