The Regicides and Captain Kidd

In 1660, when Charles II ascended the English throne at the Restoration, members of the High Court of Justice who had condemned his father in 1649 were denied amnesty. Three of them fled to New England and spent much time hiding here and there in caves and huts in Connecticut. The story of these regicides, two major generals and a colonel-William Goffe, Edward Whalley, and John Dixwell-- is told most fully in Lemuel Aiken Welles' History of the Regicides in New England (New York: The Grafton Press, 1921), which includes a full bibliography. Welles wrote a condensed version for the Tercentenary Commission, published as pamphlet XXXV, The Regicides in Connecticut (1935). See also

Dexter, Franklin B. "Dixwell Papers." Papers of the NHCHS 6(1900):337-74. Prints some interesting papers of Dixwell, 1677-90.

-"Memoranda Respecting Edward Whalley and Goffe." Papers of the NHCHS 2(1871):117-46. This deals with manuscripts which were made available after the publication of Stiles' work (see below), and which cast doubt on much of the New Haven aspects of that story.

Stiles, Ezra. History of Three of the Judges of King Charles I. New Haven: Elisha Babcock, 1795. An early but exhaustive account by the president of Yale. Welles says that Stiles "collected many traditions and anecdotes about the regicides in Connecticut. Some of these could not have happened and some are stock stories of fugitives....That the regicides were at one time in Guilford rests only on traditions recorded by President Stiles over a century after their deaths." (Tercen. pam., p. 31) For a contemporaneous appraisal of Stiles' work which begins "A work more eccentric I never saw. A variety of subjects ... are there jumbled together, interspersed with old women's tales, in the most trite and barren language; and spun out by an insufferable tautology to three hundred and fifty-seven pages," see Charles William Janson, Stranger in America 1793-1806 (Carl S. Driver, ed.). New York, Press of the Pointers, 1935. (p. 55)

Trowbridge, Thomas R "Remarks on Mr. Dexter's Paper Respecting Whalley and Goffe." Papers of the NHCHS 2(1877):147 56. Trowbridge insists on the original Stiles version. But Rolin Osterweis, in Three Centuries of New Haven is convinced by Dexter's work as is Welles, above.

Woodward, P. Henry. "The True Story of the Regicides." Connecticut Magazine 9(1905)3:539-48. A short popular article, but not accurate, since it is based on Stiles' work

Another renegade who visited the Connecticut area was William Kidd (1645?-1701). There are biographies of him by W. H. Bonner (New Brunswick N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1947) and D. M. Hinrichs (New York: Bookman Associates, 1955). The stories of his Long Island Sound escapades and treasure buried on the Connecticut shore may be apocryphal; the best authorities don't know, but report that the stories are as likely true as not. So says William Hallam Bonner in his biography, and more succinctly in "’Clamors and False Stores' The Reputation of Captain Kidd," New England Quarterly 18(June, 1944)2:179-208. For those who wish to believe in the legend there is a lovely photo essay by Margaret Seoville Dorman, "Legend and Literature" in Connecticut Magazine 9(1905)2:269-78.