USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Greenwich > A history of the town of Greenwich, Fairfield County, Conn., with many important statistics > Part 15
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He continued to discharge his official duties at Saybrook until sometime in 1665, when he removed with his family to Guilford, being succeeded at Saybrook early in 1666 by Rev. Thomas Bucking- ham. No reliable account is found of the time and place of his ordination. Trumbull and Farmer both state it to have taken place, August 26, 1669, at Waterbury, Connecticut ; but that town was not then settled, nor was he then a resident of Connec- ticut. He was probably ordained at Saybrook dur-
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ing his ministry there; of which, however, there is no direct evidence, but much incidental evidence of his having been ordained prior to his removal from Saybrook to Guilford, in 1665.
By the union of church and state in the colonies, up to about this period, Congregationalism had be- come the established religion. All civil as well as ecclesiastical power was vested in the church; and, especially in the New Haven colony, none could be freemen, hold office, or vote, but members of the church in full communion. The New Haven colony had been included in the charter granted to Con- necticut by Charles II. in 1662. By this charter the right of voting, holding office, and other civil immunities were not restricted to church members ; and many of the leading ministers and inhabitants of the New Haven colony were violently opposed to any union with Connecticut under the charter, believing that it would mar the purity and order of their churches, and have a bad influence on their civil government. After a powerful but unsuccess- ful resistance of about three years, the union of the two colonies was finally effected in 1665; but many were so irreconcilably hostile to the union that they resolved to emigrate from the colony. Among them was Rev. Jeremiah Peck, who, with his father-in- law, Robert Kitchell, and others of Guilford, Rev. Abraham Pierson (afterwards minister at Green- wich, &c.), and most of his church and congrega- tion of Branford, and many other prominent indi-
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viduals of Milford and New Haven, in 1666 entered into a "Plantation Covenant" preparatory to a re- moval to Newark, N. J., providing " for the main- tenance of the purity of religion professed by the Congregational Churches," and also that their civil affairs should " be carried on according to God and godly government," and as they had heretofore been in the New Haven colony. Rev. Jeremiah Peck probably did this the more readily from his then owning lands at Elizabethtown, in the imme- diate neighborhood of the intended settlement. He removed to Newark, N. J., in the spring of 1666, and resided there and at Elizabethtown until 1678. No evidence is found of his having been a settled minister in New Jersey. In 1670 he was invited by the people of Woodbridge, N. J., to become their pastor ; but he did not accept their call.
The first settlement of the town of Greenwich, Conn., was made in 1640, on lands purchased of the Indians lying east of the Myanos river, a navigable stream, running southerly through the center of the town into Long Island Sound, the Indians still re- taining the title to that part of the town lying west of the Myanos, and between it and the Byram. In 1672 this tract was purchased of the Indians by twenty-seven proprietors, of whom was Rev. Jere- miah Peck, the title to which was confirmed to them by Governor Treat in 1697. At the time of this purchase he resided in New Jersey, and during the whole period of his residence there, serious con-
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flicts and violent civil commotions often occurred from the demand of quitrent from the associates in the Elizabethtown purchase, of whom he was one, in behalf of the proprietors, Lord Berkely and Sir George Cartaret, against which the associates set up their title derived from the Indians. In this dis- turbed state of affairs, in connection with his pur- chase at Greenwich in 1672, he had a sufficient mo- tive for a removal from Elizabethtown. His visits to Greenwich to look after his land there led to a call, in 1676, by the people of that town to settle with them in the ministry, which, however, was not accepted by him ; but in 1678 he had another call from them, which he accepted; and removing late in the fall of that year from Elizabethtown to Greenwich, he became the first settled minister of that town.
Previous to this time the town had only had oc- casional supplies. His pastorate there was a very useful one, continuing until 1689; but he did not escape the agitation and disturbance, then not un- common in other churches, occasioned by the intro- duction of what was called " Half-way Covenant," allowing of the baptism of children of non-commu- nicants. Agreeing with the Rev. Mr. Davenport, President Chauncey, and many other leading minis- ters of that day, he was decidedly opposed to the decree of the synods of 1657 and 1662 to that effect. His refusal to conform to it was the cause of considerable dissatisfaction in the minds of a
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minority of his church and congregation, which (? ) induced him, in 1689, to accept the unanimous in- vitation of the residents of Waterbury, Conn., to settle with them in the ministry. He removed from Greenwich to Waterbury the same year, and became the settled minister of the church at Water- bury on its organization in 1691, and continued his official duties there until a short period before his death, which occurred June 7, 1699 .*
He appeared to have had considerable talents, energy, and enterprise, and though largely interested in lands in New Jersey and Connecticut, was a man of great usefulness, both as a teacher and clergy- man, in his day and generation.
BRUNDIG FAMILY.
The inhabitants of Greenwich bearing this name are descended from one John Brondish or Brondig, who was one of the first proprietors of Manursing Island and Rye Neck, in 1662. His sons were John, Joseph, Daniel, and Joshua.
BUSH FAMILY.
.
Justus Bush in 1737 was one of the proprietors of Rye. His wife was named Anne. His sons were named Bernardus, Henry, and Abraham.
* He came to Boston in the ship Hector, June 26, 1637.
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Though Henry's descendants, many of them, live in Greenwich, the author has been unable, in the haste with which this was collected, to fully trace them. Abraham married Ruth daughter of Gilbert Lyon, and had-1. Abraham, who left William, of King street, the father of William S., Andrew L., Hobart, and Newberry. 2. Gilbert. 3. Anne, married Jon- athan Fisher. 4. Sarah, married Thomas Theall. 5. Elizabeth, married Ezra Wetmore. 6. Rebecca, married Daniel Merritt.
CLOSE FAMILY.
This family are quite numerous at the present day. They were settled (Bolton's Hist. Westches- ter Co., vol. ii.) formerly at Langsley, near Mac- clesfield, England, A. D. 1486. The word Cloughes, now contracted into Clowes and Close, is an old Saxon word, and signifies a cliff or cleft in a valley between high hills. Thomas Close removed to Greenwich in or about 1661. He had four sons, Thomas, Joseph, Benjamin, and John.
From the second of these, viz., Joseph, the family at North Salem claim their descent. He was born in 1674, removed to North Salem in 1749 and died in 1786. Before he removed from' Green- wich, he lived near the present residence of Jona- than A. Close. He married Rebecca Tompkins, who died in 1761. Their children were-1. Joseph, 2. Elizabeth, 3. Solomon, 4. Sarah, 5. Rachel, 6. Thomas, 7. Benjamin, and 8.Rebecca.
Solomon, the second son of this Joseph, was born
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June 23d, 1706, and died 1788, aged 82. He mar- ried Deborah Brush and had ten children, viz .: I. Solomon, of North Salem, who left-1. Mrs. Pad- dock, 2. Phebe, married Epenetus Wallace, a phy- sician of North Salem. II. Nathaniel, of North Salem, born 1732, and died in 1773 and left- 1. Nathaniel. 2. Jesse. 3. Isaac. 4. Deborah, who married Thomas Chapman. 5. Rachel. 6. Sarah. 7. Matilda. III. Deborah. IV. Hannah. V. Rev. John Close, of North Salem, a graduate of Princeton, and born in 1737, and died in 1813. He was preaching at New Windsor in
1792.
He married a Miss Weeks, from Long Island, and left two daughters, who live at Water- ford, New York, where their father died. VI. Sa- rah. VII. Jesse, who died at Half Moon Point, on the 29th of June, 1758, aged 17, while in the military service of the colony. VIII. Rev. Da- vid Close, a Presbyterian minister of Pate on, N. J. He suffered much in the Revolutionary war. He was a graduate of Yale, and died in the town of Paterson, in Putnam county, in 1783, aged 41. IX. Rev. Tompkins Close was a Presbyterian min- ister, and died, aged 27, at Fishkill, on the 26th of September, 1770. X. Mindwell, who married Elizabeth Mead, and died on October 22d, 1762.
Benjamin, the third son of the Thomas who emi- grated to Greenwich, had nine children-to wit : Benjamin, Martha, Elizabeth, Reuben, Jonathan, Nathaniel, Samuel married Miss Mead, Mary, and Nathaniel.
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Samuel, the seventh son of Benjamin, married Miss Mead and had eight children-to wit: Samuel, who died while engaged in the Revolutionary war, Elnathan, an active partisan in the war, Henry M. Close married Rosina Brundage, Benjamin, Jona- than, Daniel, Hannah married Peter Mead, and Deborah married Zaccheus Mead.
Henry M Close, the third son of Samuel, married Rosina Brundage, and had Samuel, an only son.
Samuel, son of Henry M. Close, for more than twenty years the Town Clerk of the town of Green- wich, married Eliza Hobbie, and left-1. George W. Close, who married Miss Esther Smith, daugh- ter of Col. Smith, of Long Island, and has Samuel, George W., Esther, Caroline, and one other. 2. Re- becca is the daughter of Samuel.
THE CURTIS FAMILY.
BY J. B. CURTIS, ESQ.
William Curtis embarked in the ship Lion, June 22d, 1632, and landed December 16th of the same year, in the eighth year of the reign of Charles I., at Scituate, Massachusetts. He brought with him four children, Thomas, Mary, John, and Philip, and shortly afterwards another son, named William, was born. William the first removed from Scituate to Roxbury, with his family, from whence John, Wil- liam, and their mother removed to Stratford, Conn., where the mother died in 1655.
2d. Capt. William Curtis (his name is spelled
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Curtice), was a man of high standing in Connecti- cut. He was a member of the General Court ten or twelve years, from Stratford, often a Commis- sioner or Justice of the Peace, and from year to year appointed on committees of importance, in various parts of the colony. He was appointed Nov. 23d, 1673, Captain of the forces raised in Fairfield to serve against the Dutch at New Am- sterdam, now New York. In October, 1675, he was appointed by the General Court, Captain of the sixty men to be raised in Fairfield County, to serve in King Philip's war, with power to appoint his inferior officers. In May, 1676, he was appointed with Mr. Samuel Sherman, Commissioner for Strat- ford and Woodbury. He died at Stratford, Dec. 21st, 1702. His will bears date Dec. 15th, 1702, by which it appears he had eight children, Daniel, Ebenezer, Zachariah, Josiah, Joshua, Sarah, Eliza- beth, and Jonathan.
3d. Capt. Josiah Curtis, lived and died at Strat- ford, 1745. His children were William, Josiah, Abraham, Benjamin, Peter, Matthew, Charles, Abigail, Eunice, Mary, and Mehitable.
4th. Benjamin was born Dec. 25th, 1704, and died July 28th, 1783. He, with his brothers Josiah and Matthew, settled at Newtown, and Benjamin there had sons Nehemiah and Benjamin.
5th. Benjamin, had sons by his 1st wife, Philo and Benjamin. By his 2d wife he had Epenetus and Divine.
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6th. Philo, had sons Nichols, Carlos and Philo. and daughters Fatima, Huldah, Polly, and Betsey. 7th. Nichols Curtis was born in 1784, and died in April, 1852. His children were, Charlotte N., born June 1820, and Julius B. Curtis, born Dec. 10th, 1826. The latter removed to Greenwich, Conn., where he now resides, having married Miss Mary Acker.
Arms. Az. a chev. dancettée btw. three mural coronets, or. crest a lion sejant ppr. supporting with his dexter foot a shield of the arms. Motto-Sepere et aude.
DAYTON FAMILY.
David Dayton came to Greenwich from Long Island in the latter part of the eighteenth century. A brother came with him named Jacob, who never married. David, married Elizabeth Osborne, and had, 1. Betsey, married Jonah Brundage. 2. Jacob, married Sarah Brown, and had Samuel B. Dayton (who married Mary E. Husted, and has Mary E. Day- ton). 3. Sarah Dayton, married William E. Wood. 4. David Dayton, married Elizabeth Brush, and had John Dayton (who married Matilda Selleck, and has Mary Francis). Sarah Dayton (married George Selleck), Charles, Henry, Mary, Elizabeth (mar- ried Solomon Mead), David, and George. 5. Amy, married Benonah Rundle. 6. Mehitable. These Daytons now all reside in Greenwich.
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APPENDIX.
FIELD FAMILY.
Bolton, in his history of Westchester county, says, that the name of Field is frequent in Doomsday Book, and is there often interchanged with Lea, which is a word having the same signification.
John Field, of Ardsley, county of York, England, was a distinguished mathematician and astronomer. He married Jane Amyas, of Kent, and left Richard, Christopher, John, Mathew, Thomas, James, Mar- tin, William.
Robert, the oldest son of James, who was the oldest son of Mathew, the fourth son of John Field, emigrated from England and settled in Flushing, L. I., in 1645. He left Anthony, Benjamin, and Robert, who were the ancestors of the family in this country.
FERRIS FAMILY.
This family is plainly of Norman origin. Henry de Ferriers, a Norman, obtained from William the Conqueror large grants of land in the counties of Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Leicestershire. John Ferris and Jeffery Ferris appear to have been ac- tive pioneers in the settlement of many new places in this country. It is probable, though not certain, that they were brothers.
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HOLMES FAMILY.
John Holmes emigrated from Beverly, York- shire county, in 1660. He first settled in Bedford, N. Y. A full account of this family may be found in the Appendix to Bolton's history of Westchester county.
LYON FAMILY.
This family claims to be of Scottish origin. The name of John Lyon occurs in the history of Massachusetts as early as 1648. John Lyon, a de- scendant of the above, removed to the town of Rye, in Westchester county, and was a large landholder there. His son, John's fourth son, was named James, who was the proprietor of Byram Point, and left five children. 1. Daniel. 2. David. 3. Benjamin. 4. Wolsey. 5. James.
LOCKWOOD FAMILY.
The name of Lockwood is traced back as far as 1470, when Annie, only daughter of Richard Lock- wood, married Thomas Henshaw, who thereby be- came possessed of a large estate in Staffordshire, England. Those of the name in Greenwich, Stam- ford, and Brundridge are probably descended from " Edmund Lockwood, freeman, 18th May, 1631, was of Cambridge, Mass., in 1632, and probably
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removed to Connecticut with Messrs. Hooker and Stone." Lieut. Jonathan Lockwood and Lieut. Gershom Lockwood were in their day prominent and influential men in the town.
Arms .- Arg. a fesse btw. three martletts, sa. Crest. On the stump of an oak erased, ppr., a martlett, sa.
PALMER FAMILY.
William Palmer, of Westchester, died about 1670, and left Joseph, Benjamin, Samuel, Obediah, and Thomas.
PURDY FAMILY.
This family are descended from Francis Purdy, an early settler of Fairfield, who died there, in 1658. His sons were Francis, John, and Samuel.
All these families and many others, if so disposed, may easily trace out their complete genealogies by reference to the town records and good standard histories of the present day.
,
(The following were handed in just in time to go to press).
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BRUSH FAMILY.
BY MISS EMILY C. BRUSH.
Two brothers of this name came from Long Is- land to Greenwich soon after the year 1700, though the exact time appears uncertain. Of these, Ed- ward had a son named Benjamin, who married Sumantha Reynolds, and had I. Fanny, married William Rundle. II. Edward, the father of 1 Re- becca, who married John Hoyt, Esq. 2. Elma C., who married Job Husted, Esq. 3. Joseph E. who married Miss Mary C. Wright, and has Edward. 4. Shadrach M., who married Emmeline Ingersoll, and has Sumantha, William P., and Shadrach A., 5. Mary A., who married Mills Hobby Husted. 6. Sumantha. II. Joseph, who married Sarah Mead, daughter of Richard Mead, Esq., and has 1. Amos M., who married Sarah P. Mead, and had Joseph B., Richard M., Amos E., and Augustus. 2. Rich- ard E., who married Miss Mary Kelly, and lives at Stanwich. 3. Elizabeth S., who married Dr. James M. Hoyt, a physician, of Greenwich. 4. Mary Louisa, who married Lewis Howe, A. M., Principal of the Collegiate Institution of Greenwich. 5. Jo- seph E. B. 6. Emily C. 7. Benjamin P. 8. Stella P. 9. George W. 10. Catherine. 11. Julia, and some others, who died young. IV. Benjamin, who married Clarissa Sackett. V. Sarah, who married Deacon Joel Wright. VI. Sumantha, who married David Hobby, Esq. VII. Deborah, who married Mr. Fitch, of Peekskill. VIII. Platt, who married Maria Close. IX. Edmund Burke.
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THE LEWIS FAMILY.
BY
MISS SARAH LEWIS.
The great-grandfather of the Rev. Dr. Isaac Lewis, came from England about the year 1675. Two of his brothers accompanied him to America, one of whom settled on Long Island, and the other at or near Cape Cod.
The first-mentioned had four sons, viz. : James, Edmund, Benjamin, and Joseph. Of these Ed- mund, the grandfather of Dr. Lewis, was born in 1683. He married a lady by the name of Beach, and settled in Stratford, Conn. He was Counselor of the State, and first Judge of the County Court. He died in 1758. He had four sons and several daughters. The sons were Sevignor, Edmund, Nathaniel, and Ichabod. Nathaniel was born in 1717, married the daughter of Mr. Zechariah Beardsley, of Ripton Parish (now the town of Huntington), where he went to reside. He had four sons and three daughters. One of the sons died in infancy. Zachariah, the eldest, died at Huntington in early life, leaving a widow and one daughter, whose descendants (it is supposed) are still residing in that place. Nathaniel, the youngest, married a Miss Worcester. Their children were five in number, three sons and two daughters, all
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of whom subsequently removed to the State of New York, a large proportion of them to Augusta in the vicinity of Utica, where their families still reside. Two of the sisters, Mrs. Bennet and Mrs. Hawley, died in the vicinity of Huntington, leaving children and grandchildren, most of whom continue to re- side in that part of the State. The family of the third sister removed to Ballston, N. Y., where some of them, it is supposed, are still located.
Dr. Isaac Lewis, the second son of his parents, (who lived to grow up to manhood), was born Feb. 1st, 1746. Graduated at Yale College in 1765. Was ordained to the work of the ministry and pastor of the church in Wilton, toward the close of the year 1768, and shortly after in December of the same year married Miss Hannah Beale, daughter of Matthew Beale, Esq., of New Preston, a native of England. They had six sons (of whom one died in infancy), and three daughters.
Further particulars respecting this family may be obtained of Miss Sarah Lewis, or Rev. John N. Lewis, both of Greenwich, Conn.
THE HOWE FAMILY.
About the year 1696, Isaac Howe removed from Darien, where several of the name were then set- tled, to Coscob in Greenwich. He was the father of several children, some twelve or fifteen. Of these, one, named Isaac, had also a very large family, of
15
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whom Isaac, the third, settled in Pecksland, and married Elizabeth , and had four sons and nine daughters. The sons were named Jonas, Isaac (who died young), Nehemiah, and Rev. Samuel. The daughters were (here given without regard to the order of their ages) Laura, Lucy, Cornelia, Betsey, who married Rufus Knapp, of Stamford, Sally, who married Gilbert Close, one who died young, Keziah, Esther, Rachel.
Of the sons, I. Jonas, married Anna Mead, and had 1. Allen, who married a daughter of Daniel Lyon, of North Coscob. 2. Isaac, who married Miss Finch, and removed to the State of Ohio, where he has George, Anna, and one other. 3. Deborah, who married Mark Mead, jun. 4. Lewis, who married Miss Mary L. Brush, and has Anna M., Joseph B., and one other. II. Nehemiah, married a daughter of Isaac Holly, Esq., and has a son, William A. Howe. III. Samuel, who married a daughter of Rev. Platt Buffet, and lives at New Haven, having two children, named Theodore L. B. Howe and Charlotte E. Howe.
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