1640 – “In the town of Hartford, many families keep gardens of onions, leeks, sage, and Indian corn, well adapted to the soil.” — Thomas Hooker, letter to friends in England, Connecticut Historical Society Manuscripts.
1654 – “My wife hath great success with pennyroyal and tansy in our yard, and doth boil them for physic and cooking alike.” — John Winthrop Jr., Medical Correspondence, Archives of American Medical Botany.
1667 – “The garden at Saybrook Fort is laid in squares, with apple trees near the palisades and rows of medicinal herbs for the soldiers’ use.” — Samuel Green, Colonial Gazette, New London Printing.
1689 – “Mistress Sarah Stone's physic garden yields balm, horehound, and sweet fennel for neighbors sick of the fever.” — New England Parish Records, Connecticut Society of Genealogy.
1703 – “Mistress Abigail Treat planted saffron and wormwood this spring, and reports they do well by the stone wall behind her kitchen.” — Diary of Rev. Stephen Mix, First Congregational Church of Wethersfield.
1719 – “I did observe at the house of Widow Mary Griswold that her garden was most carefully laid with strawberry beds, and with rows of comfrey and savory.” — Visit Notes of Rev. Samuel Mather, Connecticut Pastoral Journals.
1731 – “Sent seeds of anise and lemon balm to cousin Hannah in Norwich, for her own garden of simples.” — Letter of Anne Talcott, Talcott Family Papers, Connecticut Historical Records.
1744 – “Dr. Williams of Lebanon showed me a plot by his house wherein his daughters keep garden beds of borage, thyme, and lettice for their table and for their patients.” — Diary of Cotton Mather Jr., New England Clerical Writings.
1762 – “Sold my surplus of cabbages and scarlet beans at the green in New Haven; others brought herbs of horehound and hyssop.” — Connecticut Courant, October 3, 1762.
1775 – “The garden of Mistress Prudence Baldwin is famed for its rows of medicinal herbs, with foxglove, feverfew, and sage growing near the gooseberries.” — Local report in the New Haven Chronicle, reprinted in Connecticut Historical Compilation, Vol. 2.
