The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-06
HISTORY OF STATE SEAL NARRATED
 BY JUDGE BALDWIN
WARWICK PATENT NOT A FAKE, BUT PROBABLY GRANTED BY
 EARL WARWICK TO HIMSELF.

WARWICK PATIENT NOT A FAhE,
 BUT PROBABLY GRANTED BY
 EARL WARWICK TO HIMSELF. Origin of Grape Vines in Fact That
 Early Settlers Found Them Num-
 erous-Biblical Origin of Motto
 Suggested.
 "The Seal of Connecticut was the Tuesday night by Chief Justice Simeon N. Baldwin at the monthly meeting of the Connecticut Historical Society. The tracing of the State seal back to its origin took Judge Baldwin into the subject of the Warwick Patent, which was treated by Forrest Morgan, as- sistant librarian in the Watkinson Ll- brary, in a paper recently read before the same society in Hartford.
 The only direct evidence of the war wick Patent under which the Say brook patentees got their right to the domain now the State of Connecticut is a copy of the patent. MT. Morgan in his paper took the stand that the whole matter of the patent was hoax and that it never existed. Judge Bald win upheld the existence of the patent His theory of the history of the pat ent, which was supported by numer- ous references to it's existence made py early writers, was an original one. It was his theory that the Earl of War wick got the patent about l63o Tne Earl was powerful member Of the council in England at the time and as late as 1882 succeeded in keeping to himself the necessary power by seal to convey the rights to himself which were conveyed in the patent. It was shown by Judge Baldwin that the re- cIpients of the benefits of the patent were relatives of the Earl and he be- 1ieved that the Earl had the rights given to him by the council in order that he might convey them to his reia- tives. One reason why it was readily possible for him to effect the transfer to himself was the nature of the coun- ell. It was not always well attenoeo and it is known that sometimes not more than two members attended. It ls likely that meetings might have been held at which the Earl himself was the only one present. One member in the lack of others would constitute a quorum. The family of the Earl soon became extinct and that reason may explain why there now exists only copy of the copy of the patent.
 One thing Is certain and that is that ft was out of the rights belonging to the Saybrook patentees that the State of Connecticut had its seal. 1t was given to the colony in 1644 by Colonel Fenwick of Saybrook, whose rights came from the Warwick patent. The mere fact that the Saybrook patentees made the seal showed that they had the right to have one. for the right was not denied by Charles I. There was not much ado made by the colonists when the seal was received but they held on to 1t and the seal was first used by Governor Hopkins in 1647. When the colony's chatter was obtained fn 1862. the seal was kept in use.
 There were three periods in the seals history, 1644, I'll. and 17S4. In 1644 it was receved from the Saybrook patentee. It then bore fifteen grape vines and above was a hand reaching from above, and below the hand was the motto. ~Qui Transtulit Sustinet." The use of the grape vine was ac- counted for by the great impression made upon early settlers by the wild 9s B1 sfs xfn5aS of America No entirely satisfactory reason for the number f1f- a symbolical meaning and it may have had no meaning. When Governor Andrus came to rule over Connecticut the seal was probably destroyed but the design was continued and no great change was made although the new seal contained an error in the use of the Latin
 Tn I'll the number of vines was re- duced to three. This number was be- lieved by Judge Baldwin to signify the three communities of which the colony was formed. the Connecticut River community with Hartford as center. the region, Of the Warwick patentees with Saybrook as a center. and New Haven. The die which was made was inferior to that made by the Saybrook patentees. who had theirs made in London The hand was placed in a sti1 attitude.
 In 17s4 the seal took the form sub- stautfally the same as that now in use. The hand was removed. The seal it. self, which was made in 1784. staid without change in the secretary's of flee until 1s42. The General Assembly voted in 1S40 to have the secretary look into the matter of making alterations on the seal. but the secretary made no report. The new seal procured in 1842 lasted until 1892 A law of 1889 stated that official envelopes should be stamp ed with the seal and the seal itself was used with the result that it was worn remained the same since the days of the Saybrook patentees and that is the motto.
 Tn the discussion which followed President Samuel Hart of the society spoke of the sign Of the hand being idea which was prevalent that the ori- gin of motto was in the eightieth psalm which was a psalm of the de- lfve-ance from Egypt in which refer ence was made to the transplanting of a vine from Egypt.
 
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