| Notes |
- Atwater's History of the Colony of New Haven contains a map of New Haven in 1641, on which Capt. Lamberton's residence is shown on the north side of State Street, next to the lot on the north east corner of State and George Streets. The eight squares were distinguished by the name of some prominent person who lived in the quarter to which their names were respectively applied, and the southeast quarter was thus designated by the name of Capt. Lamberton. His quarter of outlands covered all the land between Washington Street and the harbor. In 1644, in conjunction with Mr. Malbon and Mr. Evance, he contracted with the town to dig a channel "for bringing boats, at least to the end of the Street beside William Preston's house."
The following accounts of him and his expedition to Delaware Bay and of the Phantom ship are from Atwater's History of the Colony of New Haven:
George Lamberton, who lived next south of Sergeant Jeffrey, was one of the nine proprietors, who, in the schedule of 1641, are rated at one thousand pounds. Of these nine, however, five were non-resident, and soon ceased to pay rates. So that Lamberton was one of four planters who were excelled only by Theophilus Eaton in the amount of their estates. He was from his first appearance in the plantation a mariner, and lost his life in the ship which, under his command, left the harbor of New Haven in January, 1646, and was never afterward heard from. He is mentioned by Ezekiel Rogers in a letter to Gov. Winthrop, in a manner which suggests that he had been one of Rogers' flock. His influence as a man of mind and of substance may have principally occasioned the large secession of Yorkshiremen who refused to return to the Bay when sent for by Rogers. at New Haven, "there was a purchase made by some particular persons of sundry plantations in Delaware Bay, at their own charge, for the advancement of public good, as in a way of trade, so also for the settling of churches and plantations in those parts in combination with this. And thereupon it was propounded to the general court, whether plantations should be settled in Delaware Bay in combination with this town, -- yea or nay; and, upon consideration and debate, it was assented unto by the Court, and expressed by holding up of hands." This attempt to establish an English settlement in Delaware Bay encountered opposition from the Dutch and from the Swedes, both of whom claimed exclusive jurisdiction in those waters, and, though contending one with the other, united in resisting the English. In 1642 the governor of New Amsterdam "despatched an armed force, and with great hostility burned the English trading houses, violently seized and for a time detained their goods, and would not give them time to take an inventory of them. The Dutch also took the company's boat, and a number of the English planters whom they kept as prisoners. The damages done to the English at Delaware were estimated at a thousand pound sterling."
The same year the Swedish governor seized and imprisoned George Lamberton, "master of the pinnace called the Cock," and some of his seamen, on a false charge of inciting the Indians to rise against the Swedes. Finding himself unable to support the charge, he improved the opportunity to impose a fine for trading at Delaware, though within the limits of the New Haven purchase. Not long after, Mr. Lamberton, happening to be at New Amsterdam, was compelled by the Dutch governor to give an account of all the beaver he had purchased at the New Haven trading post in Delaware Bay, and to pay an impost upon the whole.
The next year, New Haven becoming confederate with the other New England colonies, the commissioners of the United Colonies sent letters of remonstrance to the Dutch and the Swedes, and gave Lamberton a commission to treat with the Swedish governor in their name about satisfaction for the injuries done him, and about the settlement of an English plantation in Delaware Bay.
Commerce between New Haven and the mother-country was chiefly carried on by way of Boston and Barbados. Bills of exchange on London were purchased with beaver-skins and other products of New England exported from Boston, or with sugar procured by barter in Barbados. The funds thus obtained were invested in English goods, sometimes by the New Haven merchants in person when visiting their native land, but usually by their correspondents residing in London. These English goods were sent out in the ships which sailed every spring for Massachusetts Bay, and at Boston were re-shipped to New Haven.
Allusion has been made to three vessels, which in 1639 came to New Haven direct from England. We have now to speak of an attempt made at New Haven to establish at a later date a direct trade with the mother-country. Such an achievement was regarded as beyond the ability of any individual, and yet so desirable as to demand a general combination of effort. A company was formed, in which apparently all who were able to help, took more or less stock. This company, called "The Ship Fellowship," bought or built a ship which they made ready for sea in January, 1646. She was chartered for a voyage to London, by another association called "The Company of Merchants of New Haven." The members of the ship-fellowship were "Mr. Wakeman, Mr. Atwater, Mr. Crane, and Goodman Miles." The company of merchants consisted of "Mr. Theophilus Eaton (now Governor), Mr. Stephen Goodyear, Mr. Richard Malbon, and Mr. Thomas Gregson." Winthrop says, "She was laden with pease and some wheat, all in bulk, with about two hundred West India hides, and store of beaver and plate, so as it was estimated in all at five thousand pounds." Seventy persons embarked in her, some of whom were counted among the most valued inhabitants of New Haven. Dr. Bacon has graphically depicted the departure of the vessel, and the solicitude felt for her safety by those whom she left behind.:--"In the month of January, 1646, the harbor being frozen over, a passage is cut through the ice, with saws, for three miles; and the 'great ship' on which so much depends is out upon the waters and ready to begin her voyage. Mr. Davenport and a great company of the people go out upon the ice, to give the last farewell to their friends. The pastor in solemn prayer commends them to the protection of God, and they depart. The winter passes away; the ice-bound harbor breaks into ripples before the soft breezes of the spring. Vessels from England arrive on the coast; but they bring no tidings of the New Haven ship. Vain is the solicitude of wives and children, of kindred and friends. Vain are all inquiries.
'They ask the waves, and ask the felon winds,
And question every gust of rugged winds
That blows from off each beaked premonitory'
"Month after month, hope waits for tidings. Affection, unwilling to believe the worst, frames one conjecture and another to account for the delay. Perhaps they have been blown out of their track upon some undiscovered shore, from which they will by and by return, to surprise us with their safety; perhaps they have been captured, and are now in confinement. How many prayers are offered for the return of that ship, with its priceless treasures of life and affection! At last anxiety gradually settles down into despair. Gradually they learn to speak of the wise and public-spirited Gregson, the brave and soldier-like Turner, the adventurous Lamberton, that 'right godly woman' the wife of Mr. Goodyear, and the others, as friends whose faces are never more to be seen among the living. In November, 1647, their estates are settled, and they are put upon record as deceased."
So much interest is felt in Lamberton's ship that I have felt inclined to bring together what the early writers have recorded concerning the vessel herself and concerning the atmospheric phenomenon which the superstition of the times connected with her loss.
Winthrop mentions her thrice. When the news of her departure had reached Boston, he records that "this was the earliest and sharpest winter we had since we arrived in the country, and it was as vehement cold to the southwards here," adding, as one illustration, "At New Haven, a ship bound for England was forced to be cut out of the ice three miles." In the following June, when solicitude had nearly or quite given place to despair, he writes, "There fell a sad affliction upon the country this year, though it more particularly concerned New Haven and those parts. A small ship of about one hundred tons set out from New Haven in the middle of the eleventh month last, (the harbor being then so frozen as they were forced to hew her through the ice near three miles). She was laden with pease and some wheat, all in bulk, with about two hundred West India hides, and store of beaver and plate, so as it was estimated in all at five thousand pounds. There were in her about seventy persons, whereof divers were of very precious account, as Mr. Gregson, one of their magistrates, the wife of Mr. Goodyear, another of their magistrates (a right godly woman), Captain Turner, Mr. Lamberton, master of the ship, and some seven or eight others; members of the church there. The ship never went voyage before, and was very crank-sided, so as it was conceived she was overset in a great tempest which happened soon after she put to sea, for she was never heard of after." Two years afterward, that is, in June, 1648, he writes, as if the news had just reached him, "There appeared over the harbor at New Haven, in the evening, the form of the keel of a ship with three masts, to which were suddenly added the tackling and sails, and presently after, upon the top of the poop, a man standing with one hand akimbo under his left side, and in his right hand a sword stretched out toward the sea. Then from the side of the ship which was from the town arose a great smoke which covered all the ship and in that smoke she vanished away; but some saw her keel sink into the water. This was seen by many, men and women, and it continued about a quarter of an hour."
Capt. George Lamberton died at sea in 1646/47 and was immortalized by Longfellow in his poem "The Phantom Ship".
The Phantom Ship
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In Mather's Magnalia Christi,
Of the old colonial time,
May be found in prose the legend
That is here set down in ryhme.
A ship sailed from New Haven,
And the keen and frosty airs,
That filled her sails at parting,
were heavy with good men's prayer.
"O Lord if it be thy pleasure"--
Thus prayed the old divine--
"To bury our friends in the ocean,
Take them, for they are thine!"
But Master Lamberton muttered,
And under his breath said he,
"This ship is so crank and walty,
I fear our grave she will be!"
And the ships that came from England,
When the winter months were gone,
Brought no tidings of this vessel
Nor of Master Lamberton.
This put the people to praying
that the Lord would let them hear
What in his greater wisdom
He had done with friends so dear.
And at last their prayers were answered:
It was in the month of June,
An hour before the sunset
Of a windy afternoon,
When, steadily steering landward,
A ship was seen below,
And they knew it was Lamberton, Master,
Who sailed long ago.
On she came, with a cloud of canvas,
Right against the wind that blew
Until the eye could distinguish
The faces of the crew.
Then fell her straining topmasts,
Hanging tangled in the shrouds,
And her sails were loosened and lifted,
And blown away like the clouds.
And the masts, with all their rigging,
Fell slowly, one by one,
And the hulk dilated and vanished,
As sea-mist in the sun!
And the people who saw this marvel
Each said unto his friend,
That this was the mould of their vessel,
And thus her tragic end.
And the pastor of the village
Gave thanks to God in prayer,
That, to quiet their troubled spirits,
He had sent this Ship of Air.
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Abt 1604 - Abt 1645 (41 years)