Though their title was defective, the towns of Hartford and Windsor did not propose to give up their claims to the tract of land hastily granted to them in the emergency and twenty-two years after the grant was made a committee was appointed to make a survey.

In order to more fully establish their rights, steps were taken by the towns in 1715 to lay out a town in the tract and the town of Litchfield was laid out about 1717. Upon its being found that residents of Farmington had secured Indian titles to a portion of the tract, a compromise was made with them. After the land within the new town of Litchfield had been disposed of to settlers, a committee was appointed to lay out a new township north of that. The committee's report was accepted in 1723, the new town embracing the east side of Cornwall, the whole of Goshen, the west half of Torrington and the southwest corner of Winchester.

The general assembly seems to have awakened to the situation at this time, for at the spring session in that year the king's attorney for New Haven county was directed to prosecute the trespassers in the name of the governor, and the company and five members of the committee appointed to dispose of the land were arrested and prosecuted.

As a result of the controversy, the general assembly in the October session, 1724, appointed a committee to investigate the claims of Hartford and Windsor and upon the committee's report, wishing to preserve the peace and to have the lands settled as expeditiously as possible, the general assembly at the May session, 1726, decided that the lands in controversy should be divided between the colony and the towns. The line of division coincided with the dividing line between Colebrook, Winchester and Torrington on the east, and Goshen and Norfolk on the west, and the colony took the western section and the towns the eastern. The territory conceded to Hartford and Windsor embraced the towns of Colebrook, Hartland, Winchester, Barkhamsted, Torrington, New Hartford, Harwinton and Litchfield, making an area of about 326,806 acres, while there was reserved in the colony the land embraced in the towns of Canaan, North Canaan, Norfolk, Cornwall, Goshen, Warren and about two-thirds of Kent, making an area of about 120,000 acres.

The lands were next surveyed and divided into townships and on February ii, 1732, the towns of Hartford and Windsor executed deeds of partition by which the inhabitants of Hartford became the owners of Hartland, Winchester, New Hartford and the eastern half of Harwinton and the inhabitants of Windsor had Colebrook, Barkhamsted, Torrington and the western half of Harwinton. A law was passed by the legislature providing for the subdivision of each of the towns among the taxable inhabitants, by assigning to each his whole interest in one or another of the townships. The land-owners of each township were incorporated as proprietors, with the power to allot to each his pro rata share according to the taxable lists of 1720.

The oldest conveyance of lands recorded in this town is dated November 28, 1729, by which John Kilbourn of Hartford conveyed to Jonathan and David Hills of Hartford all his rights, title share and interest in and to a large tract of land commonly known as the "western lands" belonging to the towns of Hartford and Windsor.

On May 14, 1744, the 106 proprietors of Winchester were called together and organized, William Pitkin being chosen moderator and Thomas Seymour clerk and register of deeds. Other meetings were held relative to the division of the township in 1750, 1751, 1753, 1756, 1757 and 1758. During the twenty- nine years that the Hartford proprietors took to consummate a plan of division, many of the owners sold their undivided rights, giving deeds for the same. Caleb Beach of Goshen secured one of these undivided rights by deed of May 21, 1750, and a short time afterwards, believing, evidently, that a division of the land would not take place for some time, he appropriated a small tract on the east side of the Hall Meadow road about forty rods east of the Goshen line and a half mile north of the Torrington line and erected there the first dwelling house in the town.

Settlements were made in Goshen, Norfolk and Canaan before the allotments were made in Winchester, and a trail was used to reach them passing through New Hartford across the northeast corner of Winchester and the southwestern part of Colebrook to Norfolk Center. It is not definitely known just where it was located. It is believed to have been the first to have pierced the town and to have been traveled for twenty years. Because of a demand for a better road both for settlers and for the "accommodation and benefit of his Majesty's subjects and especially in time of war, for travelling or marching either from the central or eastern parts of the colony" towards Albany, the general assembly in 1758 appointed a committee to explore and find out a better way. As a result a new road known as the "old north road" was built within the next three or four years. Up to 1800 this was the principal thoroughfare of the colony in the direction of Albany. It passed over Wallins hill by the schoolhouse down to Still river by Rollin Wilson's, then up Smith hill and by the Rowley pond to Colebrook. It is said that "continental troops passed over it for frontier service." among the number being Col. Ethan Allen, and that "detachments of Burgoyne's army, as prisoners of war, marched over it to the quarters assigned them." Another trail through the township was the "old south road," passing from Burrville up by Landlord Matt's tavern on to the south part of Norfolk.

At the meeting of the proprietors January, 1758, a committee was appointed to draw lots to determine the order in which the land should be set off to them.

The first census of the colony taken in 1756 gives the population of Winchester as 24. The largest town in the county was Woodbury, with 2,911, more than twice that of any other town. The next census was taken in 1774, and gave Winchester 327 whites and 12 blacks. Woodbury then had 5,224 whites and 89 blacks. Westmoreland had 1,922. This was one of the towns of Litchfield county and comprised the whole of the valley of Wyoming, Pennsylvania.

Under an act of incorporation, the first Ecclesiastical society meeting was held June 291!!, 1768, and organization was perfected.

The early records of the society are extremely interesting. Services were held at John Hill's house, near the Hurlbut cemetery. Some time during the year 1/69 the first meeting house was erected on the west side of a road which was discontinued long ago, near the Luther Bronson place. It was 24x30 feet, with nine- foot posts supported by log piers and was unfinished inside. The steps were hewn out of a log and an outside stairway led to the second floor, which was used as a gallery. Services were held there for twenty years. There was no heating apparatus except the "foot stoves of the women, and the sound doctrine of the minister."

The first town meeting (Winchester) under an act of incorporation was held July 22nd, 1771. The record of it is as follows:

"At a town meeting of the Inhabitants of Winchester, lawfully assembled on Monday, the 22nd day of July, 1771.

"Wrarren Gibbs chosen Moderator of sd. meeting.

"Eliphaz Alvord chosen Town Clerk and sworn.

"Jonathan Alvord and Seth Hills, and Samuel Wetmore, Jr., chosen Townsmen.

Joseph Platt built the first clothing shop and fulling mill in Danbury quarter between 1783 and 1787. Daniel Marshall was the first clothmaker in Winsted. He had a shop and fulling mill on Lake Street before 1794. A carding machine was added later.

In 1813 Rockwell Bros, began the manufacture of broadcloths and satinets there. Three other factories of a similar nature were established in town.

Samuel and Luther Hoadley and Riley Whiting began the manufacture of wooden clocks about 1807.

Two firms began to make hand and machine cards at the beginning of the war of 1812.

There were four or five shops for making wagons in the early part of the last century and others were built later on.

A distiller)' was in operation on Wallins Street soon after the close of the war of 1812.

An oil mill was erected on Mad River, west of Clifton mill, by Bissell Hins- dale about 1816 and was operated for a number of years.

Iron clock bells were manufactured by Hoadley Bros, about 1810.

A foundry for casting stoves, plows and gears was operated by Nathaniel Gaylord from 1834 for twelve years. Four or five other iron foundries have since been established. There have also been several machine shops. As the middle of the last century was approached, many other industries sprang up, some of which are in operation today.

One concern was in operation which it is to be regretted could not have been retained, as it is now of immense proportions. Boyd says of it: "The Borden Condensed Milk Co., consisting of Gail Borden, Theron Bronson and Elhanan W. Fyler, was organized in 1863 and purchased the factory building near the Naugatuck Depot, now occupied by the Winsted Printing Co., in which they condensed milk until 1866, when, not finding the location favorable for the business, the concern was wound up."

A petition was made to the general assembly in 1786 for the incorporation of the easterly part of Winchester and the part of Barkhamsted west.of the Farmington River into the town of Winsted. The west boundary was to be Highland Lake and the second tier line which extended just easterly of Coe Street. The petition was continued to the sessions of 1787 and 1788 and finally rejected. The last attempt to divide the town was made in 1790 and proved unsuccessful as before and the project was finally given up.

In the Annals of Winchester, Mr. Boyd describes a visit he made to Winchester center at a Fourth of July celebration in 1810 or 1811. He wrote in part as follows: "The whipping post and stocks, those indispensable pillars of New England law and order, stood on the green near the meeting house. The post did extra duty as a sign-post on which public notices were fastened and to which when occasion required the petty thief was tied to receive from the constable his five or ten lashes 'well laid on to his naked back.' The 'stocks' were an upper and lower plank, say six feet long, eight inches wide and two inches thick, the lower one lying edgewise near the ground, mortised at one end into the post and firmly fastened to the ground at the other. The upper plank was attached to the post at one end by a heavy hinge so that its lower edge came in contact with the upper edge of the other, and they were held together by a hasp and padlock at their outer ends. At the line of junction of the two planks were four holes, half in the upper and half in the lower plank, about three inches in diameter, ranged at suitable distances for receiving the ankles of two culprits."

Winchester's part in the civil war requires a volume to tell the story of the bravery, the sufferings, the sacrifices, the successes and victories of the honored men who risked their lives in the great struggle to preserve the union. Three soldiers' monuments in the borough attest in a degree the reverence which posterity has for those noble heroes.