By Andrew R. Melillo
During a warm summer day on July 18, 1640, a London goldsmith turned Lieutenant of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and newly made agent for the New Haven Colony, Robert Feake, and his counterpart, Captain Daniel Patrick, reached the virgin shores of Totamuck Creek and stepped out upon the ancient soil of Monakewego.
These shores were changed forever with the determined marching of the British boot and a few faithful hands holding quill and parchment.
Robert Feake and his company had negotiated a purchase from the Indians that conveyed the English party title to land between Asamuck Creek and Totamuck Creek to a point some fourteen miles to the north where Totamuck Road meets Old Corner Road in today’s Pound Ridge, New York, making sure not to encumber the already conveyed lands in the area by local sachems to Jeffrey Ferris.
The settled price was twenty-five red coats. Robert was with his wife, Elizabeth Fones, previously married to the ill-fated Henry Winthrop, son of Governor Winthrop. The newly acquired territory was conveyed to her and in her name – resulting in the ancient Indian name of Monakewego evolving into Elizabeth Neck by the English and the earliest sons and daughters of town. Today’s Greenwich Point.
The scene was not perfect. It was not totally idyllic, virgin soil and new beginnings. Things were afoot. Nations were on the move. The Dutch made claims to coveted English territory as far east as the Connecticut River, and recently transplanted English agents, the Reverends John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton, were setting up the New Haven Colony to establish a true Christian American Commonwealth, believing Governor Winthrop had entirely missed the mark in Boston and Cambridge.
All the while the British Monarchy three-thousand miles away was maneuvering to act upon the perceived illegality of its subjects’ activity in North America which they believed lacked title in fee simple to any land whatsoever, just a license to conduct business in said territory. And while many families were pouring into Boston and Cambridge from England, just as many dissatisfied men from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Connecticut Colony were more than happy to leave in droves for better prospects in the frontier lands between New Amsterdam and New Haven. The Dutch were forcing
pressure on the British to their east and north, the English were amassing pressure on the Dutch to their
west and south, the French were quietly fostering relations to the Indians in the north, the British Crown wanted to regain direct control over the whole North American venture, while everyone actually in New England was making their own opportunistic way, fearing God, and taking their own part. This was the state of affairs when Robert Feake acquired title to the first tracts of land of what would become Greenwich.
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His legend persists – not too long after acquiring these first tracts of Monakewego, Robert leaves town back for Boston and rumors are reported that he is not of sound mind, that there is trouble in the home.
What happened? Testimony that was later given in a court proceeding offers a glimpse: a Mr. John Bishop, Richard Law, and Lt. Francis Bell of Stamford were quoted in extenso by a Mr. Latting that Robert Feake,
“…was a man whose God-fearing heart was so absorbed with spiritual and heavenly things that he little thought of the things of this life, and took neither heed nor care of what was tendered to his external property…”
And as some historians have concluded: “…and so Robert allowed his wife to dominate him.” Domestic
bliss was amiss and all eyes were on the wife. Why? What was Elizabeth’s part in all of this? Elizabeth’s daughter from her first marriage, Martha Johanna Winthrop, had by this time grown into a young adult and had married the Scottish immigrant, Thomas Lyon, Sr., who had steadily acquired title to large tracts of land on Byram Neck and on the western frontier with the Province of New York along with John Banks. Since Thomas’ wife was the granddaughter of the powerful Governor, John Winthrop, many of his letters survive and offer insight into what might have happened.
On April 14, 1648, Thomas Lyon wrote to the Governor from his home (which at this time was still in Stamford). His letter refers to “my father being distracted…my father Feake going away sodingly…” Thomas goes as far as to directly accuse Elizabeth of adultery. In the letter he writes, “she openly confesses that she is married to him [William Hallett] and is with child.” How did Robert and Elizabeth reach this juncture? Why was everyone complaining that Robert had lost his mind and that Elizabeth Fones was an adulteress? Soon after Robert Feake reportedly lost his mind and left Greenwich, his wife was with another man, William Hallett. The descendants of William Hallett have since contended that Elizabeth was legally divorced from Robert Feake and thus could not be accused of adultery. Yet, as the record from New Amsterdam demonstrates, both on March 9, 1649 and May 17, 1649 there is nothing showing that Elizabeth and William had been legally married, and the couple were being pursued by both the Dutch and Connecticut authorities to answer the accusations. Were Robert and Elizabeth divorced? The record from New Amsterdam demonstrates that they were wettelyck gescheyden. When referencing a Dutch-English dictionary one finds that the word for “divorce” is scheiden and that gescheyden is “to separate.” This simple wording of the legal record may prove to be the biggest crux of the issue and would define the rest of Elizabeth and Robert’s natural lives, as well as their grandchildren’s. It appears that neither the Dutch or the English legal jurisdictions considered the couple legally divorced and as the records states by the account of the Dutch Governor himself,
“…Whereas Elizabeth Feax has for adultery been legally separated from her former husband Robbert Feax, before our arrival, by the preceding Director General and Council, and since that time continued to live, cohabit and keep company with her pal and adulterer in a carnal manner, as the witnesses declare, contrary to all good laws and our published order, and endeavored with him to alienate, sell, and to transfer the lands, cattle, furniture, and other property of her former husband Robbert Feex, left to his four children, even to others who reside beyond our government, whereby the children finally impoverished, would become a charge either on the Company, or on this Commonalty. This cannot be either suffered or tolerated, in a good and well-regulated government. Therefore we do hereby, as well as for the maintenance of justice as for the protection of the still minor children, and fatherless orphans, declare the above named Elizabath Feax unqualified and in capable of disposing, alienating, transferring, or selling any property whether of her former husband, or belonging to the children; and although deserving of much severer castigation and punishment, yet through special favor and for private reasons us thereunto moving, we consent to her living and residing at Greenwich, within our government with the children, under such Curators as we have already appointed, or hereafter for the future may appoint, to be supported out of the funds that have been left and yet on the condition that she remain herself apart from him on pain of bodily punishment as we do hereby sentence and condemn William Hallet, the adulterer, to remain banished out of this our jurisdiction and entrusted government, and do depart therefrom within one month from date, and not to molest or trouble anyone within our government on pain of corporal punishment; furthermore condemning his pretended property to be forfeit for the benefit and advantage of the child begotten on her, on condition that travelling expences be allowed him at discretion of the director and council, and that he, moreover, pay the costs of this suit. Thus done in Council in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, the 9th March 1649.”
And if the record provided is sufficient, it only suggests that they were legally separated and therefore Elizabeth would not have been legally entitled to re-marry nor would that allow William Hallett to inherit her property, which in this case involves the original purchase of Greenwich. During certain years Elizabeth and William were found living on Nassau Island (Long Island), and other times in Connecticut, yet they never stayed peacefully put for long and were constantly on the move to keep out of the direct, physical reach of authorities. How did Elizabeth and William respond to the Dutch order of March 9, 1649? They fled to New London. It was a very transient, restless, disturbed life for the two of them. Yet what about the peace of mind of Robert Feake? Where was he during all this? Why had he supposedly gone mad?
There are only a few instances in the record that show his whereabouts. Shortly after purchasing Greenwich, the Dutch received word that English agents were making purchases and claims further and further into their coveted territory and ever closer to New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. This was a problem for the Dutch who guarded their northern claims with great jealousy. And like all things in life, power and persuasion are usually ruled by the greatest contributing factor: proximity. One of the first things the settlers of Greenwich had done was to pledge allegiance to the Dutch in New York and become a hamlet within their greater jurisdiction. As Englishmen, this created an awkward situation – for they were subjects to the British Crown submitting to a sovereign foreign power. By the time Greenwich had submitted to New Netherland, Robert Feake had been reported as unwell. The next six years proved difficult for Robert. In that time, he had purchased Greenwich from the Indians, become mentally unstable, reclusive, and disassociated from normal society; he discovered that his wife was having extra marital affairs with William Hallett; his purchase, having been made in Elizabeth’s name was now jeopardized in part, and it was freely given over unto Dutch governance – Elizabeth having signed Robert’s name to the compact with New Netherland on his behalf due to his condition. Robert was not having an easy go of things. By 1647, he is back in Boston waiting to board a ship to England.
The exact reason why Robert was waiting for a boat back to England is not made clear, but he next appears in the record on March 4, 1650 in England. He pops up in the records of the British Parliament as having been pardoned by the House of Commons for an unstated offense. He was initially having to get over the fact that his purchase was made in his wife’s name, who was sleeping with another man, setting his property in question, his dignity destroyed, and his reputation tarnished by no act of his own. What is more, guilt piled up in his mind for having, in no accordance with his own conscience or his own action, been pledged to ally and serve the Dutch Republic, a sovereign power who in these times was a constant economic and military rival to the British Crown. Having suffered plenty in Greenwich, he made the long journey up to Boston, sailed to England, and begged the House of Commons to pardon him for having been a part, whether directly or indirectly, to submitting to a rival foreign power and the House showed mercy upon his difficult and delicate position. Does this sum up totally what was happening to Robert at this time? All these events happening together in such a short span of time was enough to make any man unhappy: the loss of property, an unfaithful wife, and rumors of his treason against his people – but is that enough to make a man so distraught that he gives up all efforts to fight and protect what is rightfully his? Maybe he lacked a strong mind and will, or perhaps he was indeed really more concerned with the heavenly world hereafter and not with the temporal affairs here and now. There is another missing piece to the mental instability of Mr. Robert Feake – he was a goldsmith by trade from a family with a history of recorded mental illness.
How is this detail of any importance to his situation? It could have contributed quite a bit. Robert Feake came from a line of moderately wealthy goldsmiths from the City of London. The family had acquired a considerable amount of property and cash for the middling sorts and had done well after Robert’s grandfather, William Feake, successfully moved his family from their native home of Wighton in Norfolk, England to the City of London. This was a common occurrence during the 16 th -century as Tudor and Elizabethan England was evolving from a completely agrarian and rural-based society of subjects, to a burgeoning scene of crafts and trades brought about by the late Renaissance period. England had been made relatively wealthy by its successful wool trade for centuries, but after the Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588, England burst onto the scene as a growing and formidable naval power. Whoever controls the seas and oceans, controls the trade, and thus England began to open up to the world like never before. This contrast is visible in the family fortunes of various generations of the Feake Family. When Robert’s great-great-Grandfather, William Feake, died in Wighton in 1496 his burial was directed to take place at the Church of Wighton, a sure sign of some local importance, yet his will left “household
goods to unnamed sons and daughters, to his sister in-law he left 6 shillings and 8 pence, to his son James, two horses; and to his son William, five marks.” Some small land holdings were also conveyed to various relations as well. Fast forward some one hundred years later and the family is in the City of London and prospering as evidenced by Robert’s grandfather’s estate. In William Feake’s will he is directed to be buried in the Church of St. Edmund the King (which did not survive the Fire of London). To twenty poor men of the poorest of his Company of Goldsmiths, he left 20 gowns of 20 shillings each and twelve pence each for their dinner, as well as the same for ten other men. To every child of his brothers living in London, as well as to his servants, he left a cloak or gown. He donated money to the poor prisons, hospitals, poor scholars at Cambridge, and poor members of the Goldsmiths Company of London. He also donated a house for six poor men or women at his native Wighton. The list continues at great length, such as £300 to his son James, (Robert’s father), and another £200 to his son-in-law Thomas Barneham. It also showed that the family had active leases generating income with the Goldsmith Company of London, and a grocer named, Mr. Younge, as well as dwelling houses on Lumbard Street and three tenements on Birchen Lane. All interest and remainder in William Feake’s estate went to Robert’s father, James Feake. Yet, by the time James Feake had died, the estate was even larger on account of James’ marriage to, Judith Thomas, daughter to a very wealthy London linen merchant, Robert Thomas. Upon Robert Feake’s maternal grandfather’s death (and probably his namesake), he bequeathed Robert Feake’s mother £1,000 and to each other her children an additional £100 – even one of Robert’s aunts, Sara Thomas, was married to Sir George Southcott, thus establishing the family in the ranks of genteel society.
And while the new family trade of goldsmithing established the Feake Family in the middling classes of London society, it also had its inherent risks: exposure to toxic substances. Metallurgy of this kind constantly exposed a person to nano-shavings, dust, particles, and poisonous fumes – just like the story of Alice in Wonderland, Robert Feake may have become the Mad Hatter – through his trade, he would have been consistently and unduly exposed to toxic fumes and particles which when ingested or inhaled could cause severe health issues such as those the Mad Hatter exhibited in the classic children’s novel. What is more, the Feake Family had a history of mental illness, such as with Robert’s aunt, Mary Feake. His aunt Mary was born circa 1565 and was married to Thomas Barneham on May 7, 1595 who was the grandson of the Sherriff of London, Francis Barneham. The record provides a bit of insight into her condition. At an inquest post mortem held at Stratford Langthorne before a William Smyth who may have been her brother-in-law, it stated,
“Mary Barnham, widow, lunatic, enjoys lucid intervals, say Geoffrey Thurgad(?), William Pullyn, Tobias Dixon (later her niece’s husband), John Silvester, William Feake, etc. She is incapable of managing her lands. Fifteen years ago she was capax eruditionis. William Feake is her brother and next heir, and she is aged 49 years and more.”
Mary Feake Barneham was still living by 1619 when her mother made her will, and in her mother’s will
Mary is referenced as still suffering as a lunatic. Was Mary somehow exposed as a child to the poisonous fumes of her father’s craft? Or did mental illness run in the genetic line of the Feake family? The only cases recorded in the Feake bloodline are Mary Feake Barneham and Lt. Robert Feake of Greenwich.
In the end, the happy ending of the life of Robert Feake never came. He was one of the few of his family
that left London and arrived on the shores of New England looking to take the moderate wealth he
inherited and invest that in the seemingly limitless opportunities for land and wealth in the New World.
Perhaps he left for New England as he was already experiencing signs of uneasiness with his mental
state and that the fresh air of the New World was considered a possible remedy – or that his family was
all the happier to just see him out of the way. He arrived to New England in the 1630’s and successfully
defended the Massachusetts Bay Colony from the Indians in the Pequot War with Captain Daniel Patrick. Governor Winthrop, after many attempts to marry off his widowed daughter-in-law, known to have a temperament and independent spirit, found a generally satisfactory compromise with the aloof Robert Feake of reasonable wealth and status. He had money, he was a bachelor, and he showed no signs of any successful prospects of marriage to anyone else. It also freed the governor from any continued financial burden that his daughter-in-law presented to him. After a quick marriage, and a brief habitation in Dedham, Robert and Elizabeth left Massachusetts and partnered once again with Captain Patrick. They worked as agents of the New Haven Colony to set up an entirely new venture altogether. Daniel Patrick had just bought the first tracts of land of Norwalk with the Reverend Theophilus Eaton and soon abandoned that purchase when he and Robert had acquired Monakewego. Patrick did not survive long in Greenwich for he was a fighter, a loud-mouth, and a womanizer and after a literal spat with a Dutch soldier in Greenwich or Stamford, was shot in the back and died – the rumors that Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake being one of the women he committed adultery with, dying with him. Robert, without Patrick, alone, suffering from rumors of his wife’s infidelity, which then turned into the reality of her infidelity by her pregnancy from William Hallet, separated from her and he became further reclusive and mentally unwell. Learning that he had, without his consent, been pledge to the Dutch Republic, he hastened to England and begged pardon of His Majesty’s government, which was granted. Upon his return from England, he may have returned to Greenwich, yet there is no proof that he ever did. What is for certain was that on February 1, 1661 he was living in Watertown, Massachusetts and was penniless and unwell. It is known that at the time of his death, he had been living in Watertown for at least five years, if not longer – suggesting that upon his return from England – he had no desire to see his purchase of Greenwich ever again. Too many bitter memories in that place. It is known that his life in Watertown was not a happy or easy one. For on January 9, 1659, the selectmen of Watertown were weary of paying for the care of their once distinguished guest, whom the clerk still recorded with respect as Mr. Feak, despite his entirely destitute state. While living in Watertown he apparently had trouble taking care of his own affairs, because the records shows that the town appointed Captain Mason and Ephraim Child to “get him to moderate his disorder.” A Samuel Thacher was paid for the caring of Robert Feake, and on several occasions, he was reimbursed £4/10s on October 31, 1655, £7/16s on March 10, 1658, and again on January 8, 1661 the same sum of £7/16s, the final insult in being Thacher’s appraisal of Mr. Feake’s estate which consisted of a total value of £1/1s, consisting of a
Bible.
The man who had high hopes for his future in the New World – a man who inherited a comfortable level of wealth for his time, who bought large tracts of land that would become the Town of Greenwich, and who married within the New England elite, ended his life in mental misery and confusion, reclused, destitute, filled with nothing but pain, regret, sorrow, and grief, clutching to a Bible.
Andrew R. Melillo is a local native and resident of Greenwich, a direct lineal descendant of the Feake Family, and currently serves as the Secretary of the Historic District Commission of the Town of Greenwich.