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Bride's Brook |
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THROUGH THE NIANTIC.section of what is now the town
of East Lyme flows Bride's Brook, a small stream which took its name from an unusual, romantic episode that occurred sometime
in the winter of 1646-1647. At that time, according to tradition, a young man named Jonathan (sometimes Thomas) Rudd was in great haste to marry his sweetheart of long standing. For one reason or another -- some say a blizzard came up, others that the magistrate was away on business -- the official who was scheduled to perform the wedding service was not available when Rudd needed him. Since the law then required that one must wed in his home parish, the eager bridegroom searched the jurisdiction high and low for a minister or magistrate, but could find none. Hearing that John Winthrop, later Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was visiting in nearby New London, Rudd appealed to the man from Massachusetts for resolution of his problem. But since New London was then under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop had no authority to marry the couple outside his zone of authority. Finally, however, the wise Winthrop saw a way out of the dilemma. While the bridal party stood on the west bank of the brook known by the Indians as Sunkapung ("cold water"), in the couple's own parish, Winthrop stood on the east bank, within his New London jurisdiction, and there, across the babbling brook he united the happy pair in holy-and legal-matrimony. From that day forward the stream was called Bride's Brook. Interestingly enough, Bride's Brook later figured in a dispute that inspired some fanciful stories. It all began when the people of Lyme questioned the legality of the brook as a boundary with New London. In order to save the expense of an appeal to the courts in Hartford, it was agreed by both towns that they would abide by the results of a bare-knuckle fight between two representatives from each town. Since the boys from Lyme proved more accomplished free-style brawlers than the New Londoners, the boundary was moved east to the Niantic River.
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