Cover title
Genealogies of the families in Haddam and East-Haddam: p. [43]-48
In 1660 the Connecticut Colonial Legislature sent Matthew Allyn and Samuel Willys down the Connecticut River from Hartford to purchase land from the Wangunk Indian Tribe. In1662, the Englishmen finally purchased land comprising approximately 104 square miles and extending in six miles on each side of the Connecticut River from the straits at "Pattyquonck" (now Chester) to the Mattabeseck-Mill River (now Middletown) across to the line of Chatham (now East Hampton). In October 1668 town was incorporated and given the name Haddam after Much Hadham in England. Haddam had very little tillable agricultural land and the best farming land was located along the river. Early residents utilized all of the natural resources available to them including water, fish, timber and granite in order to survive. The Connecticut River was a major source of income and transportation for the first 200 years of the town existence.
In 1685 a group of residents moved across the river to settle East Haddam including the Gates, Ackley and Bates families. In 1700 East Haddam formed their own ecclesiastical society and became a separate town in 1734.
http://www.haddamhistory.org/history_haddam.htm
The author, David Dudley Field (1781 – 1867) was an American Congregational clergyman and historical writer. He was born in East Guilford, now Madison, Connecticut on May 20, 1781, the son of Timothy Field, an officer during the American Revolution. He graduated from Yale in 1802, and held pastorates at Haddam, Connecticut, and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In addition to this work, he also wrote A History of the Town of Pittsfield, in Berkshire County, Massachusetts (1844).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dudley_Field_I
