Horse Raising in Colonial New England 897 ' 



kind belonging" to Rhode Island are found <i'oeing within our libertys. . . . 

 to the great annoyance of Indians and English," ordered that such 

 animals should be treated as common strays and sold (47). 



increase in number of horses 



In the two or three decades following the first importations there was 

 a rapid increase in the number of horses in New England, and they 

 became abundant not only in the region about Massachusetts Bay but 

 also in the newer settlements in Connecticut and Rhode Island. As the 

 colonists pushed into these latter areas they took horses and cattle with 

 them from the earlier settlements, and, finding the new regions in some 

 places especially suitable for the raising of livestock, they began to 

 engage in it on a considerable scale, so that by 1650 or soon afterward 

 there. had come about an abundance of both horses and cattle throiigh 

 the whole New England territory. 



The increase which thus took place is brought out clearly by the course 

 of prices during the period. In the years of the great immigration that 

 followed the first settlements on Massachusetts Bay, these prices were 

 rather high. Winthrop, in 1633, rates mares as being worth £35, and 

 cow^s from £20 to £26 (48). Two years later the Flanders mares, the 

 importation of which has already been noted, sold for £34, and heifers 

 brought in by the same ship sold for £12 each (49). During the next 

 few years the great number of settlers arriving caused prices to rise 

 even higher, and, as Bradford records, " ye anciente planters whicl"; 

 had any stock begane to grow in their estats and spread out on farmes 

 to raise more " (50). 



By 1640, however, the supply had apparently overtaken the demand 

 and prices began to fall (51). By 1645 this decrease had gone so far 

 that Winthrop speaks of a horse the price of which he gives as £10 as 

 a '^ costlie horse " (52). In 1653, however, horses were still rated by 

 the Massachusetts Bay court at £16 (53), but thirteen years later, in 

 Connecticut, they had fallen to half that amount (54), and in 1668 the 

 Massachusetts Bay court reduced the rate from £10 to £5 (55). Finally, 

 in 1677, the rate was still further reduced in Massachusetts Bay, and 

 horses were ordered to be received at a rate of £3 for each horse or 

 mare above three years old and 40 shillings for two-year-olds (56). In 



