George Fenwick

George Fenwick (1603?–1657), was an English Parliamentarian, and a leading colonist in the short-lived Saybrook Colony. Early life Fenwick was the son of George Fenwick of Brinkburn, Northumberland, and Dorothy, daughter of John Forster of Newham, was born about 1603. Fenwick was called to the bar at Gray's Inn on 21 November 1631, and admitted ancient on 24 May 1650. Settlement in America He took an active part in the scheme for colonising Connecticut, signed the agreement of the patentees with John Winthrop the Younger in 1635, and visited Boston in 1636. In 1639 he settled with his wife and family in the Saybrook Colony at the mouth of the Connecticut River, as agent for the patentees and governor of the fort of Saybrook. In 1642 upon the death of Native American leader, Wequash Cook, Fenwick took in Cook's son, Wenamoag, to raise, but it is unknown what happened to Wenamoag after Fenwick's wife died and Fenwick returned to England in 1645. Letters written by him during his residence in America are printed in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, iv. 6, 365, v. 1, 223, and in the publications of the Prince Society, Hutchinson Papers, i. 120. At the meeting of the commissioners of the united colonies in 1643, Fenwick, as agent of the patentees, was one of the two representatives of Connecticut. On 5 December 1644 he sold the fort at Saybrook and its appurtenances to the Colony of Connecticut, pledging himself at the same time that all the lands mentioned in the patent should fall under the jurisdiction of Connecticut if it came into his power. The non-fulfilment of this promise led to numerous disputes, and in 1657 the colony refused to give his heirs possession of his estate until they paid 500£ for non-fulfilment of the agreement and gave an acquittance of all claims. Fenwick returned to England in 1645. While living at Saybrook he lost his first wife; her monument is said to be still extant there.