USA > Connecticut > New London County > Lebanon > Early Lebanon. An historical address delivered in Lebanon, Conn. > Part 6
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The taking down of the church, solely for the pur- pose of using its materials in the construction of a new one, unfortunately gave rise abroad, where none of the circumstances here related, were known, to the wild stories that were widely circulated regarding it. These stories, represented the transaction, merely as the lawless work of a ruthless and infuriated mob ; bent only on the wanton destruction, in broad daylight, of their own sacred house of worship. It was called an infidel,-a sacrilegious mob! Such was the bald version of the story abroad, without any explanation, palliation, or even knowledge, of its real character. It was surely too improbable, too absurd, too monstrous, for rational belief, or public credence The high re- nown which this town had ever maintained, and the world-wide fame of its eminently distinguished men, should have been sufficient, at once, to have stamped such a story everywhere, as a manifest misrepresenta- tion, perversion, and calumny. It nevertheless gained
#See TILDEN VS. METCALF, 2d of Day, p. 251-79, Conn. Rep., for a full report of this case.
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a lodgment in the public mind, was published abroad in the newspapers of the day, and has even crept into sober history ; and thus brought undeserved reproach upon the fair fame of the town.
It is time this calumny was swept away ; and its true character shown, by the still preserved and incontest- able records of the society itself; and by the records also, of the high court which adjudicated, in the day of it, the whole transaction. And this, first publication of any attempted sketch of the history of the town, fur- nishes an opportune occasion, though late, to vindicate the real truth of this portion of our local history.
NOTE-H.
TRUMBULL-TURNBULL.
As generally understood, the name Trumbull was originally Turnbull, and is said to have been derived from the following circumstance. One of the early kings of Scotland, while hunting in the forest, was closely pursued by an enraged bull. A young Scot, seeing the peril of his sovereign, dashed in before the infuriated animal, seized him by the horn, adroitly turned him aside, and the king escaped. The grate- ful monarch sent at once for the daring young Scot ;
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knighted him by the name of Turn-Bull; granted him an estate near Peebles, and a coat of arms bearing the device of three bulls' heads, with the motto "Fortuna facet audaci." This coat of arms is still perpetuated in the American branch of the Trumbull family : and in the war of American Independence it was demonstrated to the English "John Bull," that the Lebanon branch, at least, had fair title to the " Turn-Bull" name and coat of arms.
John Trumbull, the ancestor of the Connecticut Trumbull family, came from Cumberland county, Eng- land, and settled in Rowley, Essex county, Mass. John, Jr., his second son, was made a freeman there in 1640 ; a deacon of the church in 1686; a lieutenant of the militia in 1689: and soon after removed with his family to Suffield, now in this State, but then claimed by Massachusetts. He, John, Jr. of Suffield, had four sons, viz. , John. Joseph, Ammi, and Benoni.
John, the eldest son of John, Jr. of Suffield, was a distinguished clergyman, settled in Watertown, Conn., and was the father of John the poet and celebrated author of " McFingal" and other works.
Capt. Joseph, the second son of John, Jr. of Suf- field, went from Suffield to Simsbury, Conn., about 1703, when twenty-four years of age, and soon after married Hannah, the daughter of John Higley, Esq., of Simsbury, and thence in 1704 came to Lebanon and settled as a farmer and merchant on the corner near the church, on the spot where the house of Asher 1 8
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P. Smith now stands. He was distinguished for high integrity and great enterprise as a merchant: active in all the local affairs of the church and the town, and for many years captain of the trainband. He was the father of Jonathan, the " war Governor" and was the founder of the Lebanon branch of the family. He was born in Rowley, Mass., 1679, and died in Lebanon, 16th June, 1755, in the 77th year of his age ; and his wife Hannah, born in Windsor, Conn., 22d April, 1683, died at Lebanon, 8th of Nov., 1768 in the 86th year of her age. They had eight children, four sons and four daughters, viz .: Joseph, born 27th March, 1705, married Sarah Bulkley. 20th Nov., 1727 -- (lost at sea June, 1733 ; leaving two children. Sarah and Kate)-John -; Jonathan, 12th Oct., 1710, the " war Governor"; Mary, 21st Aug., 1713; Hannah, 1715, died infant ; Hannah, again, 18th Sept., 1717; Abi- gail, 6th March, 1719; and David, 8th Sept .. 1723, drowned in a mill-pond in Lebanon, 9th July, 1740, age seventeen, while home, on his college vacation.
Ammi, the third son of John of Suffield, settled, a substantial farmer, in East Windsor, Conn.
Benoni, the youngest son of John of Suffield, set- tled in Hebron, Conn., a farmer and merchant, and was the father of Benjamin Trumbull, D.D., the well-known historian to whom this State is so much indebted for his able early history of Connecticut. Dr. Trumbull was settled over the church in North Haven, Conn. The birth of two children of Benoni Trumbull and wife Sarah are recorded in Lebanon, viz. : Sarah, born 26th Aug., 1710, and Benjamin, 11th May, 1712.
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THE WAR GOVERNOR AND HIS FAMILY.
Jonathan Trumbull, the war governor, and third son of Capt. Joseph, was born in Lebanon, on the 12th day of October, 1710, O. S., in the house which then stood on the south corner, near the church, where the A. P. Smith house now stands.
In addition to the village school, he was probably a a pupil of the Rev. Samuel Welles, then pastor of the First church, and in 1723, at the early age of thirteen years, he entered Harvard College, whence, in 1727, he graduated with honorable distinction, es- pecially in mathematics and the classics, although then only seventeen years old. On leaving college he entered upon the study of divinity and theology with the Rev. Solomon Williams, D.D., of Lebanon, who had succeeded Mr. Welles as pastor of the First Church ; was soon licensed to preach, though yet a minor; and after preaching for a short time at Col- chester, was invited by that town to become their set- tled pastor. But while he was considering this call, an event occurred which changed entirely his whole career and the purpose of his life.
In June, 1733, his elder brother Joseph, then the partner in business with his father, sailed for London on a commercial adventure in a ship which, with its entire lading, was owned by the firm; but no tidings of that brother, ship, or cargo, reached the family ever- more. For a time, there was a forlorn hope that the ship might have been captured by the Algerine pirates which then infested the seas, and held for ransom ;
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but even this hope soon withered and died. The stricken father, doubly bereaved by the loss of his first-born son, and of his property, by a single blow, appealed to his next son, Jonathan, to come to his aid and rescue. Nor was that appeal in vain. His call to settle in the ministry at Colchester was de- clined, and he entered at once upon the task of set- tling the estate of his lost brother, and of relieving the embarrassments of his father ; and thus commenced his career as a merchant, which he ever after continued with eminence and success.
This change in his calling, rendered his already strongly marked abilities more available in the civil service of the public ; and, as if conscious of the pro- phetic shadow of that future destiny for which Provi- dence was preparing him, he applied himself every spare hour he could gain from his other great labors, to the study of law, and civil jurisprudence. In 1733, when less than twenty-three years of age, he was chosen by his native town one of the deputies to the General Court at its May session, and from this on- ward to May, 1754, the town repeated that choice for fourteen sessions. May session, 1739, when under twenty-nine years of age, he was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives, and again filled the same office in 1752 and 1754. In 1740 he was chosen by the freemen of the Colony, to the post of Assistant, and Member of the Council of the Colony, and re-elected to the same important office until he was chosen Lieuten- ant-Governor in 1766 (except four years while Judge of the Superior Court) ; serving as Assistant twenty-two years. In 1745 he was chosen Assistant Judge of
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Windham County Court : Lebanon then belonging to Windham county ; and in 1746, Chief Judge of that court, which office he held, by annual elections, for seventeen years. In 1749 he was chosen Judge of Probate for Windham district, and continued in that . office nineteen years. In 1765 he was chosen As- sistant Judge of the Superior Court of the Colony, and in 1766 was elected Deputy Governor, and re- elected annually until 1770 ; and during this period of four years, he held also the office of Chief Justice of the Superior and Supreme Courts, and as such, dis- charged with ability the high functions of that office.
In 1770 he was elected Governor, which office he thereafter continued to hold by annual re-elections, until he declined, in 1783, any further election after that year-a period of fourteen more eventful and important years than any other in the history of this country.
In addition to the vast and incessant duties which the war of the Revolution heaped upon him as chief commander of all the military forces of the State, he was also, by a special Act of the General Assembly in 1775, made chief officer of all the naval forces of the State; and the whole power of raising volunteers, granting letters of marque and reprizal to privateers, and commissions to regular officers ; of furnishing sup- plies and equipments, and of establishing prize courts, and settling prize claims, devolved on him; and was most ably and efficiently exercised during the whole war. Among the very large number of war vessels fitted out by this State, two notedly successful ones bore his own honored name, viz: the frigate " Trum-
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bull," and the audacious privateer " Governor Trum- bull;" the latter bearing aloft on her pennant the Trum- bull motto. " Fortuna Facet Audaci." Two frigates were also built and equipped under his special direc- tion, at the request of Congress, for the national ser- vice ; one of them, of thirty-six guns, was built on the Thames, and the other, of twenty-eight guns, at Chat- ham, on the Connecticut. His eminent fitness and aptitude in marine affairs, were the providential fruits of his long familiarity, as a merchant, and foreign trader, with every detail of the building and equipment of ships and vessels, and now the ripened fruits of this long experience were, happily, available to his country in its hour of impending peril.
His business career in merchandizing, commenced as we have seen, in 1733, as the partner of his father ; afterwards, for several years alone ; then from 1755 to 1764, the firm was Williams, Trumbull & Pitkin, with branches at Norwich, East Haddam, and Weth- ersfield, then from 1764 the firm was Trumbull, Fitch & Trumbull, the partners being himself, his son Joseph, and Eleazur Fitch of Lebanon, which continued until he retired from active mercantile pursuits, but a few years before his death. His commercial transactions extended to the West Indies, England, and Holland, exporting home produce, and importing foreign com- modities, in exchange ; chiefly in ships and vessels owned wholly or in part by his firm, and having agen- cies and correspondents in the marts of each of these countries.
To facilitate the home exchange of these commodi- ties, he, at one time, by permission of the General As-
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sembly, established in Lebanon, a county fair or mart, which for many years was held at stated times, on the village green, and was attended by distant merchants, and country traders, and by the farmers from this and neighboring towns ; at which large crowds were gathered, and large purchases and sales were made.
In all the transactions of his eventful life, Gov. ernor Trumbull was a remarkable man : and in the public service of his State and his country, became one of the most distinguished, reliable, and efficient of her great leaders and wise counsellors. Washington himself, leaned upon, and confided in him, as one of his wisest and truest supporters throughout the whole try- ing scenes of our Revolutionary struggle. It was to the zeal and fertile resources of " Brother Jonathan " that he ever turned for supplies to the army, and for "the sinews of war," in every dark and trying emer- gency. The phrase " we must consult Brother Jona- than," used by Gen. Washington when he first took command of the army at Cambridge, was so often uttered by him afterwards, that it became a by-word anong his staff, and spread through the army and the country. " Brother Jonathan " thus became a na- tional, generic name for an American everywhere, as is that of " John Bull " for an Englishman, and thus it will live, to forever perpetuate his honored name.
In the earliest part of the controversy between Great Britain and the American Colonies, Gov. Trum- bull had ever been conspicuous for his steadfast zeal and patriotism in the cause of American liberty, and when the war broke out, this son of Lebanon, among all the Governors of the then thirteen Colonies, was )
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the only one who stood staunch to the American cause. Gov. Thos. Hutchinson of Mass., his old friend and class mate in college, proved shamefully recreant. Governors John Wentworth of New Hampshire,-Jo- seph Wanton of Rhode Island,-Wm. Tryon of New York,-Wm. Franklin of New Jersey,-John Penn, Governor both of Pennsylvania and Delaware .- Robert Eden of Maryland,-Lord Dunmore of Virginia,-Jo- seph Martin of North Carolina,-Lord Wm. Campbell of South Carolina, and Jas. Wright of Georgia, all favored, more or less openly and actively, the British cause. But their Tory councils and their authority were spurned by an indignant people, and many of them were forced to seek safety under British protec- tion. The bold and firm position of Gov. Trumbull brought down upon him the especial wrath of the British government. He was denounced as "the Rebel Governor," and a price set upon his head.
All the family of Gov. Trumbull were distinguished for remarkable ability, and all destined to a remark- able career. Each of his four sons was conspicuous in the Revolutionary war for patriotic zeal and devotion, and the husbands of his two daughters were equally conspicuous. His wife, Faith, the daughter of the Rev. John Robinson of Duxbury, Mass., whom he married on the 9th day of December, 1735, when she was but 17 years old, was, in moral and mental endow- ments and greatness of soul, a fitting mate for her illustrious husband. She was born in Duxbury, 11 Dec., 1718, O.S., and died in Lebanon, 29 May, 1780, aged 61. The Governor, born in Lebanon, 12 Oct., 1710, died there " full of years and honors," on the
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17th day of Aug, 1785, at 5 o'clock p. M., age 75. Their children were :
Joseph, born 11 Meh., 1737, was Commissary-General of Washington's army.
Jonathan, Jr., born 26 Mch., 1740, was Paymaster in Washington's army, and afterwards Governor of this State.
Faith, born 25 Jan., 1743, married Gen. Jedediah Huntington, of Revolutionary army.
Mary, born 16 July, 1745, married Wm. Williams, " Signer of Declaration of Independence."
David, born 5 Feb., 1751, was Asst. Commissary, etc., and father of Gov. Joseph.
John, born 6 June, 1756, was Aid-de-camp to Wash- ington, and the renowned Painter.
The following further brief notice of the remarkable career of each of these six children, will be found in- teresting.
Joseph, eldest son of the war Governor, had, at the breaking out of the war, been for several years chiefly residing in Norwich, in the business branch there of his father's firm. His native town still continued, however, to send him to the General Assembly as her representative. In his own town, and also in Nor- wich, he was prominent in all measures of opposition to British oppression. In April, 1775, the General Assembly appointed him State commissary-general, and soon after, in the same year, he was appointed by Congress, the first commissary-general of the Amer- ican army : an office then of the highest importance to the cause, and bringing with it a crushing weight of
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perplexing labor and responsibility. For these duties he was eminently fitted by his great natural fertility in resources, and his thorough training in the school of his father's wide commercial transactions. He continued in this office until July 1778, when, broken down with his unremitted ardor in these duties, he returned home for a short rest: but it was too late. His vigorous constitution and vital powers had been fatally overstrained. On arriving at Norwich, his anxious friends carefully conveyed him to the house of his father, in Lebanon, where, on the 23d day of July, 1778, at the age of 41 years, he sank into his . final rest : a martyr to the cause of his country.
He married Amelia Dyer, but left no children.
Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., second son of the Gov- ernor, married Eunice Backus, daughter of Ebenezer of Norwich, 26th March, 1767, and has on the records of Lebanon the births of the following children : Jon- athan, born 24th Dec., 1767, died young; Faith, 1st Feb., 1769, married Daniel Wadsworth, of Hartford, left no children ; Mary, 27th Dec., 1777, died in in- fancy ; Harriet, 2d Sept., 1783, married Prof. Benj. Silliman, Yale College, Sept. 17, 1809 ; and Maria, 14th Feb., 1785, married Henry Hudson, Esq., of Hartford. He graduated at Harvard in 1759 with unusual reputation, and gave early assurance of a use- ful and patriotic career. At the opening of the Revo- lutionary war, in 1775, he was appointed by the Continental Congress paymaster-general of the north- ern department of the army under Washington, and in April, 1781, succeeded Hamilton as private secretary
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and first aid to Gen. Washington, serving in this post until near the close of the war. He had been before. and was for several years later, a member of the State legislature, and was twice Speaker of the House ; and from 1796 to 1809-fourteen years-he was annually elected one of the twelve of the Council of Assistants of the State under the charter, and as such, a member of the Senate or "Upper House." In 1790, he was chosen a representative in Congress from this State. and in 1791, was Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and continued in that office until 1794, when he was elected to the United States Senate. In 1796 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor, and in 1798, Governor of the State ; and was annually re-elect- ed to this office for eleven years, and until his death in 1809. While holding this office he was, also, Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of Errors of the State, as the records of that court show. The many and highly honorable and responsible public positions to which he was called, and the confidence of his fellow-citizens which he so long enjoyed, afford the best and most satisfying evidence of his great abilities and integrity of character. He died in Lebanon the 7th of Aug., 1809, aged 69 years.
Faith Trumbull, eldest daughter of the Governor, married, May, 1766, Jedediah Huntington, of Norwich, as before stated. " She, too," says Stuart, "had a Revolutionary destiny to fulfill-one of singular and startling import. She was to become the wife of Col. Huntington, afterwards a general in the army under Washington ; was to follow her husband and a
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favorite brother [John] to the 'camp around Bos- ton,' and reach there, not to see a formidable army, as she expected, in quiet though watchful quarters. but just as the thunders of Bunker Hill broke over a scene of horrible carnage, which. alarming her deep and affectionate nature for the safety of those most dear to her, drove her into madness and to a speedy death." This terrible battle of June 17, 1775, the first shock of war, was in full view from the camp at Cambridge, from whence it was witnessed by this young wife ; the smoke and roar of the conflict envel- oping with its frightful pall the whole camp. As soon after as possible she was tenderly removed to Leba- non; but the shock proved fatal, and she died at Dedham on the 24th day of November following, aged 32 years and 10 months. She left one child only, Jabez, born Sept., 1767, who was afterwards president of the Norwich Bank.
Gen. Huntington, her husband, born in Norwich 4th Aug., 1743, a graduate of Cambridge 1763, was in July, 1775, appointed colonel of the famous 8th Reg- iment of Connecticut troops raised for the war. This regiment was finely equipped in scarlet uniforms, and, in the battle of Long Island, Aug. 27, 1776, fought with such desperate bravery, that 6 captains, 6 lieuteu- ants, 21 sergants, 2 drummers, and 126 rank and file were among the dead or missing after the battle .*
In 1777, Col. Huntington rose to the rank of Brig .- Gen., which rank he held till near the close of the war, when he became a Major-General. He was afterwards Vice-President of the Order of Cincinnati ; High Sheriff
* Hinman's War of the Revolution, p. 89.
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of New London county, judge of probate for the district of Norwich, first alderman of the city, and representa- tive of the town of Norwich, State treasurer in 1788 ; in 1789 was appointed United States revenue collector for the district of Eastern Connecticut, and August 11th of that year he removed to New London, and entered upon the duties of his office, in which he con- tinued until his death, 25th Sept., 1818, nearly thirty years.
Mary Trumbull, second daughter of the Governor, married Hon. William Williams, of Lebanon, Feb. 14, 1771, afterwards one of the signers of the immor- tal " Declaration of Independence," July 4, 1776, and the last survivor of the four signers from this State. He was born in Lebanon 8th April, 1731; one of the five sons of Rev. Solomon Williams, who for fifty- four years was pastor of the First society in this town.
One of these sons, Eliphalet, was the settled pastor in East Hartford for about the same number of years. Another son, Ezekiel, was high sheriff of Hartford county for more than thirty years. He himself was the town clerk of Lebanon forty-five years, being first chosen in 1752, at the age of 21 years, and the next year, 1757, was chosen to represent the town in the General Assembly, and, (with a few rare exceptions, when holding other and higher offices, and when he was a member of the Continental Congress,) was con- tinued in this office until 1784. He was a valuable and leading member of the House, often chosen its clerk, and nine times its Speaker, filling the chair always with dignity and high ability. In 1776, he 1 .9
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was chosen by the electors of the State at large, one of the Assistants, and transferred to the "Upper House," to which office he was twenty-four times annually re-elected. It was recorded of him what, probably, can be said of no other man, that for more than ninety sessions, regular and special, he was scarcely absent from his seat in the General Assembly, excepting when he was a member of the Continental Congress in 1776 and 1777. He was a member of the " Council of Safety," which annually met at Lebanon during the war, and an active, efficient, and patriotic selectman of the town during that period, in promoting war measures.
At the age of sixteen, he entered Harvard College, and, after graduating, studied theology with his father a few years, but joined the English and Continental forces in the old French war on the staff of his cousin, Col. Ephraim Williams, who commanded a regiment. In the fierce battle at the head of Lake George, in September, 1755, Col. Williams was shot through the head by an Indian and killed ; but the French forces were defeated, and their commander, the Baron Dieskau, wounded and taken prisoner. Soon after, young Williams returned to Lebanon and continued his residence here ever after, until his death on the 2d day of August, 1811, in the 81st year of his age. They had three children, two sons and a daughter, who, with his widow, were all living at his death. His widow, Mary, died in Lebanon the 9th of Feb., 1831, aged 85 years and 8 months. Their children were Solomon, born 6th Jan., 1772; Faith, 29th Sept., 1774, and William T., 2d March, 1779.
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The following anecdote is related of him: At a meeting of the Council of Safety in Lebanon, near the close of 1776, when the prospects of our success looked dark, two members of the Council, William Hillhouse and Benjamin Huntington, were quartered at the house of Mr. Williams. One evening the con- versation of the three gentlemen turned upon the gloomy out-look. Mr. Hillhouse expressed his hope that America would yet be successful, and his confi- dence that this, in the end, would be her happy fate. " If we fail," said Williams, "I know what my fate will be. I have done much to prosecute the war ; and one thing I have done which the British will never pardon-I have signed the Declaration of Independ- ence ; I shall be hung." " Well," said Mr. Hunting- ton, "if we fail, I shall be exempt from the gallows, for my name is not attached to the Declaration, nor have I ever written anything against the British gov- ernment." "Then sir," said Williams, turning his kindling eye upon him, " you deserve to be hung for. not doing your duty."
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