For a year the towns on the Connecticut, including Springfield, were governed by a commission issued by the general court of Massachusetts, in concert with John Winthrop, Jr., as a representative of the patentees.[59] When the year expired the commission was not renewed, but a general court representing the three towns of Massachusetts and consisting of six assistants and nine delegates, three for each town, was held at Hartford in May, 1637.  They became from this time a self-governing community under the name of Connecticut, and the union happened just in time to be of much service in repelling a great danger.

[Footnote 1:  Clarke, Ill Newes from New England (Mass.  Hist.  Soc., Collections, 4th series, II., 1-113).]

[Footnote 2:  R.I.  Col.  Records, I., 52.]

[Footnote 3:  R.I.  Col.  Records, I., 87, 100, 108.]

[Footnote 4:  Ibid., 127.  In 1614 the Dutch navigator Adrian Block gave to the country of Narragansett Bay the name of Rhode Island—­the Red Island—­because of the red clay in some portions of its shores.]

[Footnote 5:  R.I.  Col.  Records, I., 27.]

[Footnote 6:  Winthrop, New England, II., 24; Mass.  Col.  Records, I., 305.]

[Footnote 7:  Plymouth Col.  Records, IX., 23, 110.]

[Footnote 8:  Sparks, American Biographies, VI., 333, 352; Arnold, Rhode Island, I., 66, n.]

[Footnote 9:  Sparks, American Biographies, V., 326-340.]

[Footnote 10:  Winthrop, New England, II., 71.]

[Footnote 11:  Ibid., 102; Mass.  Col.  Records, II., 22.]

[Footnote 12:  Simplicities Defence Against Seven-Headed Policy (Force, Tracts, IV., No. vi.), 24.]

[Footnote 13:  Mass.  Col.  Records, II., 40, 41.]

[Footnote 14:  Simplicities Defence.]

[Footnote 15:  Winthrop, New England, II., 157-162; Acts of the Federal Commissioners, I., 10-12.]

[Footnote 16:  Fiske, Beginnings of New England, 171.]

[Footnote 17:  Simplicities Defence (Force, Tracts, IV., No. vi.), 86; Winthrop, New England, II., 165, 188.]

[Footnote 18:  Winthrop, New England, II., 387-390.]

[Footnote 19:  R.I.  Col.  Records, I., 241.]

[Footnote 20:  Cal. of State Pap., Col., 1574-1660, p. 325.]

[Footnote 21:  Winthrop, New England, II., 236.]

[Footnote 22:  Richard Scott’s letter, in Fox, New England Fire Brand Quenched, App.]

[Footnote 23:  Cal. of State Pap., Col., 1574-1660, p. 354.]

[Footnote 24:  Winthrop, New England, I., 352.]

[Footnote 25:  Palfrey, New England, II., 346.]

[Footnote 26:  Mass.  Col.  Records, II., 85.]

[Footnote 27:  Clarke, Ill Newes from New England (Mass.  Hist.  Soc., Collections, 4th series, II., 1-113).]