In April, 1643, apprehension from the Indians, the Dutch, and their neighbor Connecticut caused a union of these towns with New Haven.  The new commonwealth was organized just in time to become a member of the greater confederation of the colonies founded in May, 1643.  It was not, however, till October 27, 1643, that a general constitution was agreed upon.[26] It confined the suffrage to church-members and established three courts—­the plantation court for small cases, consisting of “fitt and able” men in each town; the court of magistrates, consisting of the governor, deputy governor, and three assistants for weighty cases; and the general court, consisting of the magistrates and two deputies for each of the four towns which were to sit at New Haven twice a year, make the necessary laws for the confederation, and annually elect the magistrates.  Trial by jury was dispensed with, because no such institution was found in the Mosaic law.

In 1649 Southold, on Long Island, and in 1651 Branford, on the main-land, were admitted as members of the New Haven confederacy; and in 1656 Greenwich was added.  And the seven towns thus comprehended gave the colony of New Haven the utmost extent it ever obtained.

[Footnote 1:  Winthrop, New England, I., 146.]

[Footnote 2:  Winthrop, New England, I., 176, 177.]

[Footnote 3:  Ibid., 225, 226; Gardiner, Pequot Warres (Mass.  Hist.  Soc., Collections, 3d series, III.), 131-160.]

[Footnote 4:  Gardiner, Pequot Warres; Winthrop, New England, I., 231-233, 238, 259.]

[Footnote 5:  Mass.  Hist.  Soc., Collections, 1st series, I., 175.]

[Footnote 6:  Winthrop, New England, I., 234-236.]

[Footnote 7:  Ibid., 267, 312; Mason, Pequot War (Mass.  Hist.  Soc., Collections, 2d series, VIII.), 132.]

[Footnote 8:  Conn.  Col.  Records, I., 9.]

[Footnote 9:  Mason, Pequot War (Mass.  Hist.  Soc., Collections, 2d. series, VIII.), 134-136.]

[Footnote 10:  Ibid.; Underhill, Pequot War (Mass.  Hist.  Soc., Collections, 3d series, VI.), 25.]

[Footnote 11:  Mason, Pequot War (Mass.  Hist.  Soc., Collections, 2d series, III.), 144.]

[Footnote 12:  Ibid.; Winthrop, New England, I., 268, 278-281.]

[Footnote 13:  Trumbull, Connecticut, I., 92.]

[Footnote 14:  Mason, Pequot War (Mass.  Hist.  Soc., Collections, 2d series, VIII.), 148.]

[Footnote 15:  Conn.  Col.  Records, I., 20-25, 119.]

[Footnote 16:  The same rule prevailed in Massachusetts.  For the result, see Baldwin, Early History of the Ballot in Connecticut (Amer.  Hist.  Assoc. Papers, IV.), 81; Perry, Historical Collections of the American Colonial Church, 21; Palfrey, New England, II., 10.]