First Lady of Connecticut

AN HISTORIAN ASKED to nominate a "first lady of Connecticut" might well come up with the name of Lady Alice Boteler Fenwick. Bride of Colonel George Fenwick, governor of the infant Saybrook colony from 1639 to 1644, Lady Alice was not only the first English noblewoman to risk the rigors of life in primitive Connecticut, but also the first white woman to alter the course of the state's history. For after her untimely death in 1648, Colonel Fenwick lost all interest in developing Saybrook as a baronial refugee center for Oliver Cromwell and his aristocratic Puritan cronies, and went back to England, never to return to the place where his young wife lay buried. Cromwell never made it to Saybrook.
On the other hand, almost any resident of contemporary Connecticut asked the same question about a female "first" would probably name Ella T. Grasso -- and rightly so. As Connecticut's first female governor and the first woman in the nation ever elected a state's chief executive in her own right, Governor Grasso won for herself a notably high place in the history of Connecticut and in the hearts of her fellow citizens.
However, anyone familiar with the legends of the Nutmeg State might be inclined to pick as Connecticut's "first lady" one "Goody" Barber, a woman virtually unknown to history. Heroine of a traditional story which was recalled for more than two hundred years, the remarkable Barber stands as a prototype, a fitting symbol for the many extraordinary women whose varied feats have inspired and enlivened our folk narratives from the first settlement right down to the present day. Indeed, it might be concluded from her story -- and the evidence of a large body of Connecticut legend -- that the role of women in the state's lore has been such that had Ella Grasso not finally emerged historically, the folk would ultimately have invented her anyway.
Be that as it may, the legend of Connecticut's first lady of folk tradition bears retelling here, both for its characteristic flavor and its claim on history, since several historians have cited it as proof that Wethersfield was Connecticut's first truly settled town.
It all happened back in the spring of 1635, when a small group of Puritans from Watertown, Massachusetts, set out in a small pinnace to sail around Cape Cod, into Long Island Sound and then up the Connecticut River, to establish a settlement at a great bend in the river known to the Indians as Pyquag ("the dancing place"). The previous fall, nine Watertown men had come to Pyquag -- probably at the urging of rogue Puritan, John Oldham -- to set up a few huts and try to make it through the winter. They were to pave the way for the 1635 settlers.
Traditions (and their later activities) tell us that the men of the 1635 company were a pretty quarrelsome bunch. As a matter of fact, members of this second Watertown group were little more than itchy-footed squatters who lacked the religious leadership so important to the success of other early Connecticut settlements. Right from the beginning of the voyage to Connecticut, so the story goes, the males squabbled among themselves about one thing or another, making the trip uncomfortable for everyone aboard.
Finally, after many days at sea and several more on the long, tidal river, the little ship arrived at Pyquag. Excitement grew as the captain laid the bow up on the shore in an area which today is Wethersfield Cove. Then, true to form, a great argument broke out among the men in the company about which of them would have the honor of being the first one ashore. Just as several of the angry males were about to come to blows, out sprang Ms. Barber. Nimbly, she vaulted over the ship's rail into the shallow water and, petticoats billowing, waded ashore. When the first white woman who ever set foot on Connecticut soil clambered onto dry land, she turned to the now silent men lining the ship's rail above her and gave them an unmistakable gesture of triumph. There, on the Indians' "dancing place," "Goody" Barber had cut a caper for sisterhood which would echo down through Connecticut legendry for generations to come.

from Legendary Connecticut by David E. Philips / ISBN 1-880684-05-5 / $17.95

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