Cambridge as Village and City 293 



conceptions of Jefferson and Hamilton in later 

 days. But of controversy between the two eminent 

 Puritans only slight traces are left. One act of 

 omission on the part of the friendly seceders is 

 more forcible than reams of argument : the found- 

 ers of Connecticut did not see fit to limit the suf- 

 frage by the qualification of church membership. 



The removal of so many people to the banks of 

 the Connecticut left in the New Town only eleven 

 families of those who had settled here before 1635. 

 But depopulation was prevented by the arrival of 

 a new congregation from England. There stands 

 on our common a monument in commemoration of 

 John Bridge, who was for many years a selectman 

 of Cambridge, and dwelt beyond the western limits 

 of the town, on or near the site since famous as 

 the headquarters of Washington and the home of 

 Longfellow. This John Bridge, deacon of the 

 First Church, was one of the earliest settlers of 

 the New Town, and one of the eleven householders 

 that stayed behind, a connecting link between the 

 old congregation of Thomas Hooker and the new 

 congregation of Thomas Shepard. The coming 

 of this eminent divine was undoubtedly an event 

 of cardinal importance in the history of our com- 

 munity, for in the Hutchinson controversy, which 

 shook the little colony to its foundations, his zeal 



