Global Encounters and the Archives: Britain’s Empire in the Age of Horace Walpole
Item
Farmington, Connecticut Land Deed, March 11, 1785
Title
Farmington, Connecticut Land Deed, March 11, 1785
Description
By this deed, a Native Tunxis man by the name of Thomas Curricomp along with "Abigail his wife" sold to "Timothy Root and his Heirs and Assigns forever" the parcel of land on which the Lewis Walpole Library now sits. The land deed arising from this 1785 transaction serves as both a material artifact of contractual Euro-Indigenous relationships in the eighteenth century, and a reminder that the land that this exhibition itself stands on was formerly inhabited by indigenous people.Tunxis Sepos, what is now Farmington, Connecticut, had been inhabited by the indigenous Tunxis groups prior to English settlement. By the mid-17th Century, however, as English settlement encroached upon Native space around the nearby town of Hartford, the Tunxis actively assimilated their displaced Indian neighbors, a strategy that expanded their numbers, strengthened their political influence in Central Connecticut Indian Country, and, most likely, insured their continued presence on the land. Living among English neighbors burdened the Tunxis with continuous anxiety over land loss and violence, but such close proximity also offered tribal members access to English schooling and military training. These encounters, together with exposure to the ideas of George Whitefield during the First Great Awakening, fostered an 18th Century Indian cultural and intellectual renaissance in Southern New England, in which Farmington became one of the more important tribal hubs. While the political organization of the Tunxis may not have survived, descendants of the men and women who once occupied Tunxis Sepos surely have. Please visit the Yale Indian Papers Project for more information about indigenous groups native to Connecticut. Catalog Record
By this deed, a Native Tunxis man by the name of Thomas Curricomp along with "Abigail his wife" sold to "Timothy Root and his Heirs and Assigns forever" the parcel of land on which the Lewis Walpole Library now sits. The land deed arising from this 1785 transaction serves as both a material artifact of contractual Euro-Indigenous relationships in the eighteenth century, and a reminder that the land that this exhibition itself stands on was formerly inhabited by indigenous people.
Tunxis Sepos, what is now Farmington, Connecticut, had been inhabited by the indigenous Tunxis groups prior to English settlement. By the mid-17th Century, however, as English settlement encroached upon Native space around the nearby town of Hartford, the Tunxis actively assimilated their displaced Indian neighbors, a strategy that expanded their numbers, strengthened their political influence in Central Connecticut Indian Country, and, most likely, insured their continued presence on the land. Living among English neighbors burdened the Tunxis with continuous anxiety over land loss and violence, but such close proximity also offered tribal members access to English schooling and military training. These encounters, together with exposure to the ideas of George Whitefield during the First Great Awakening, fostered an 18th Century Indian cultural and intellectual renaissance in Southern New England, in which Farmington became one of the more important tribal hubs. While the political organization of the Tunxis may not have survived, descendants of the men and women who once occupied Tunxis Sepos surely have. Please visit the Yale Indian Papers Project for more information about indigenous groups native to Connecticut. Catalog Record
Tunxis Sepos, what is now Farmington, Connecticut, had been inhabited by the indigenous Tunxis groups prior to English settlement. By the mid-17th Century, however, as English settlement encroached upon Native space around the nearby town of Hartford, the Tunxis actively assimilated their displaced Indian neighbors, a strategy that expanded their numbers, strengthened their political influence in Central Connecticut Indian Country, and, most likely, insured their continued presence on the land. Living among English neighbors burdened the Tunxis with continuous anxiety over land loss and violence, but such close proximity also offered tribal members access to English schooling and military training. These encounters, together with exposure to the ideas of George Whitefield during the First Great Awakening, fostered an 18th Century Indian cultural and intellectual renaissance in Southern New England, in which Farmington became one of the more important tribal hubs. While the political organization of the Tunxis may not have survived, descendants of the men and women who once occupied Tunxis Sepos surely have. Please visit the Yale Indian Papers Project for more information about indigenous groups native to Connecticut. Catalog Record
Contributor
Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library
Creator
Anonymous
