Petition by Guilford Selectmen about Ann Tantapan
To the Honorable General Assembly of the State of Connecticut to be Holden at Hartford on the Second Thursday of May 17891
The memorial of the subscribers being the major part of the selectmen of the Town of Guilford humbly sheweth, that whereas one certain Indian squaw named Ann Tantapan, late deceased, through age and infirmity2 has for some years past been unable to support herself and has been supported at the expense of said town to the amount of upward of thirty pounds lawful money, and whereas said Ann was possessed of a small tract of land containing about two acres lying on an island in Connecticut River known by the name of Thirty Miles Island3 lying abreast of the Town of Haddam, said land estimated at eight pounds lawful money.
We, your memorialists, pray4 Your Honors to grant us liberty to sell said land to defray the expenses of said Ann's support.
And your memorialists as in duty bound will ever pray,
Selectmen
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Legislative Action: |
In the Lower House, the prayer of this memorial is granted with liberty for a bill, etc. Test, James Davenport, Clerk. Concurred in the Upper House. Test, George Wyllys, Secretary / Petition of Selectmen of Guilford / May 1789 / Passed Lower House / Passed Upper House / Bill / Passed Lower House / Passed Upper House / x / Entered |
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Cataloguing: |
142 a, 142 b, 169 |
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Miscellaneous: |
Town |
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- 1. The second Thursday of May in 1789 was the 14th.
- 2. Deleted Text: of Body
- 3. The deed for Haddam (1662) reserved the island for the use of the local Wangunk community. By the early 18th century, ownership settled into the hands of the family of Cyrus Cobb. A Western Niantic himself, Cobb gained his stake through his wife, a Wangunk, and shared it with his son Daniel Cyrus and Ann Cyrus Tantapan.
- 4. Deleted Text: for