USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 11 > Part 3
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Noah Porter, D. D., LL.D., died at his home in New Haven, Connecticut, at the venerable age of eighty years, to the close of his career a revered and vital figure in the life of the university and city. He left to his State a priceless legacy in his
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contribution to the literature of the world, and the effective work which he had done in the upbuilding of one of America's most famous educational institutions- Yale University. His name is graven indelibly on the annals of literature and education in America, and his influence is to be traced and clearly recognized in the careers of hundreds of men who sat under him at Yale.
(The Taylor Line).
Arms-Ermine on a chief dancette sable a ducal coronet or, between two escallops argent.
Crest-A demi-lion rampant sable holding be- tween the paws a ducal coronet or.
Motto-Optissima quaeque Deus dabit. (What- ever God gives is best).
This surname is of the occupative class, and had its rise originally in the trade name "taylor," a cutter of cloth, or maker of garments. The Old French tailleur, a cutter, gave to Medieval English the forms tailor and taylor, the former of which survives and by a well established custom is now understood to be the trade name, and the latter of which with many variations became the surname. Ancient English rolls and registers abound with the name, and as a result Taylor is the fourth commonest patronymic in Eng- land, giving precedence only to Smith, Jones and Williams. The Hundred Rolls, 1273, give the following variations : Taillar, Taillour, Taillur, Tailur, Taliur, Tayllour, Tallur, Talur, Talyur, Tayler, Taylur, and Taylour. The name is found among all classes in England. Numerous branches of the family are entitled to bear arms, and in former generations were extensive land owners.
The New England Taylors comprise the progeny of several progenitors, and although not numerous have figured prominently in the history of several colonies and States for two and a half centuries. The Connecticut family of the
name is composed largely of the descend- ants of John Taylor, of Windsor, and in successive generations has produced a superior stock which has left its mark upon professional, public and religious life in the State. The late Rev. Nathaniel W. Taylor, professor of theology at Yale College, and perhaps the foremost and most influential divine of his day in New England, was a lineal descendant in the six generation of John Taylor, founder of the family in America.
(I) John Taylor, immigrant ancestor and progenitor, was born in England. He came to America with Rev. Ephraim Hewitt in 1639, and in the following year was among the pioneer settlers of Wind- sor, Connecticut. John Taylor was one of the ill-fated company that sailed from New Haven in the first ship built by the colony, called the "Phantom Ship," and was never heard of thereafter. He was survived by a widow and two sons; the elder, James, went to Northampton, Massachusetts, and was the founder of a large family there.
(II) Thomas Taylor, son of John Tay- lor, removed to Norwalk, Connecticut. His was one of the eight families which in the spring of 1685 made the first perma- nent settlement in Danbury. He was a prominent and useful citizen there all his life. Thomas Taylor died in Danbury, in January, 1735, at the venerable age of ninety-two years. He married, in Nor- walk, Rebecca Ketcham, daughter of Edward Ketcham, of Stratford.
(III) Daniel Taylor, son of Thomas and Rebecca (Ketcham) Taylor, was born in 1676. The following record appears in a Connecticut journal at the time of his death, August 17, 1770, and is now preserved in the Yale College Library :
On Lord's Day morning, 12th instant, departed this life Mr. Daniel Taylor of Danbury in Con- necticut, aged 94, wanting about two months. He
Conn. 11-2
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was a respected farmer, and an unblemished char- acter, and much esteemed for integrity and piety. He was father to Captain Daniel Taylor of Dan- bury and the Rev. Nathaniel Taylor of New Mil- ford.
Daniel Taylor married (first)
Benedict ; (second) - - Starr.
(IV) Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, son of Daniel and - - (Starr) Taylor, was born in Danbury, Connecticut. He was graduated from Yale with class of 1745, and shortly afterward began his prepara- tion for the ministry. On June 29, 1748, he was ordained pastor of the Congrega- tional church in New Milford, and filled this post until his death on December 9, 1800, at the age of seventy-eight years. Rev. Nathaniel Taylor was one of the leading divines of his day in Connecticut. Portraits of himself and his wife, painted by the English artist Earl are in the pos- session of his descendants. One repre- sents him in the pulpit, holding in his hand his Bible, which he was never with- out when preaching. Some of his ser- mons have been preserved as originally written, in a perfectly formed yet minute hand on sheets of paper small enough to fit within the covers of his Bible. Rev. Nathaniel Taylor married (first) Tamar Boardman, daughter of Rev. Daniel Boardman, who died June 27, 1795, aged seventy-two years. He married (second) Zippora (Strong) Bennett, member of a prominent Long Island family.
(V) Colonel Nathaniel (2) Taylor, son of Rev. Nathaniel (1) and Tamar (Board- man) Taylor, was born in New Milford, Connecticut, in 1753. He married (first) Anne Northrop, August 31, 1774. She was born April 14, 1751, and died April 10, 1810, aged fifty-nine years. He mar- ried (second) Susanna Gunn, widow of Abner Gunn. He was the only son who was not educated at Yale, preferring to engage in business as an apothecary and
druggist, which business he followed dur- ing the greater part of his life. He was often called Dr. Taylor, and was an hon- ored and respected figure in the life of New Milford. His granddaughter, wife of President Porter, of Yale, wrote of him :
He died when I was too young to remember him, and not residing in the same place my knowl- edge of his life and character are limited. I only know that he was respected and loved, and was a kind and indulgent husband and father; and judg- ing from his letters found among my father's papers, he must have been a person of religious principle, if not a professing Christian.
Large portraits of Colonel Nathaniel Taylor and his wife, painted by Earl, are in the possession of the family.
(VI) Rev. Nathaniel Williams Taylor, D. D., son of Colonel Nathaniel (2) and Anne (Northrop) Taylor, was born in New Milford, Connecticut, June 23, 1786. After graduating from Yale College in the class of 1807, he lived for several years with Dr. Dwight, acting as his secretary and reading divinity under his directions. As pastor of the First Church of New Haven, 1812-22, he gained a great reputa- tion as a preacher, and actively favored revivals. Dr. Bacon described his ser- mons as "solid and massive, full of linked and twisted logic, yet giving out at every point sharp flashes of electric fire." From November, 1822, he was Dwight Pro- fessor of Didactic Theology at Yale College. He was the father and chief apostle of "the New Haven theology" which was the liberalism of his time and communion-a modified Calvinism, devel- oped from Edward, harmonizing the "exercise scheme" of Buxton, and insist- ing on the freedom of the will. These views as set forth in the "Christian Spec- tator," (1819-39), in his class lectures, and especially in an address to the clergy in 1828, were strenuously opposed by Nen-
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net Tyler, Leonard Woods, and others. Despite these contraditions, Dr. Taylor was perhaps the leading and most influ- ential divine of New England in his day, though his modesty, which had delayed his entrance into the ministry, also pre- vented him from publishing. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Union College in 1823. His works, edited in 1858-59, by his son-in-law, Dr. Noah Porter, include "Practical Sermons ;" "Lectures on the Moral Government of God," two volumes and "Essays and Lectures." A memorial by Drs. Bacon, Fisher and Dutton was printed in 1858, and Kingsley's "Yale College" (1878), contains a sketch of him by Professor B. N. Martin.
Rev. Nathaniel W. Taylor married Rebecca Maria Hine. Their daughter, Mary Taylor, became the wife of Dr. Noah Porter, in 1836. (See Porter VI). Rev. Nathaniel W. Taylor died in New Haven, Connecticut, March 10, 1853.
(The Whiting Line).
Arms-Per saltire ermine and azure, in the fesse-point a leopard's head or, in chief three plates.
Crest-A bear's head.
There is no family in America to-day of Anglo-Saxon stock which traces a more notable or distinguished lineage than the Whitings. The family comprises the descendants of the Rev. Samuel Whiting, D. D., the famous Puritan divine, and his wife, Elizabeth (St. John) Whiting, only daughter of the Rt. Hon. Sir Oliver St. John, of Cayshoe, Knight, Devonshire, England. Elizabeth St. John was of the blood of kings, tracing descent in an illustrious line from Charlemagne, Alfred the Great of England, Henry I of France, and William the Conqueror ; she was paternally descended from Hugh de Port, who possessed fifty-five lordships
in the County of Hants in the time of William the Conqueror, and was a kins- woman of Oliver Cromwell, John Hamp- den, of ship-money fame, Edmund Waller, the poct, and Colonel Edward Whalley, one of the regicide judges.
Rev. Samuel Whiting presents to us one of the finest, most benignant and lovable figures in the early history of New England. He was an English gentleman of culture and assured position. Finding the religious persecution in the mother country odious, he left a home and posi- tion in every respect enviable, to seek freedom of conscience in the New World. The story of his ministry in Lynn, Massa- chusetts, exceptionally well preserved through public record and the journals of his contemporaries, proves him to have been one of the few of the early Puritan divines who came to America for freedom of worship, who did not ally themselves with the ecclesiastical tyranny which sprang up in the Bay Colony. He was an influence throughout his life for the broadening of Puritan beliefs, an advo- cate of tolerance in a day when tolerance was deemed a crime, and his career shed a stream of light and injected a bit of sweetness and joy into the grim religion whose principal devotees found diversion in holding up before the people pictures of eternal damnation.
Rev. Samuel Whiting came of a family which was established in Linconshire, England, in the middle of the fourteenth century, and was prominent in life and affairs there up to the period of American emigration. The surname Whiting, with numerous variations, appears in English rolls and registers of as early date as 1085.
(I) Rev. Samuel Whiting, the founder, was born on November 20, 1597, in the city of Boston, Lincolnshire, England, which had been the chief place of resi-
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dence of his family since the sixth year of the reign of Edward III (1333), and probably earlier. Early in April, 1636, accompanied by his wife and two chil- dren, he left England. They arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, May 26, 1636. In the following November, Mr. Whiting was established as minister of the church in Saugust, which was soon afterward called Lynn in his honor. In December, 1636, he was admitted a freeman and soon after established his permanent residence opposite the meeting house in Shepard street. For forty-three years he minis- tered to the spiritual wants of Lynn, and throughout this period was the best be- loved figure in its life and affairs. We get some of our finest pictures of Rev. Samuel Whiting both as man and min- ister from the invaluable journal of one of his parishioners, Mr. Turner: The fol- lowing entry was made shortly after Mr. Whiting's death :
Decemr ye 12: Yester even died ye dear & reverend Mr. Whiting. He hath laboured among us this fortie yeare and upwards, and mch beloved both here and abroad. Hjs godlie temper was seen in ye sweet smile yt he alwaies wore. Hjs learn- ing was great. In ye Hebrewe jt hath been said none on this side of ye water could come up to him. He greatlie labored for ye children, and for manie yeares would haue as manie as he could come to hjs house on everie Lord his day after ye publique worship was over, and be catechized and instructed by him in Bible truths. And on week daics he also instructed ye children, such as would, in Latin and other learning of ye schooles. He was not fond of disputations and wordie wran- glings about doctrine, but laid down hjs poynts plainlie and then firmlie defended them by ye Scriptures, not taking ye time, as ye manner of some is, to tell how others look upon ye same and then to tell how false was ye eye with wch they looked. He writ some things yt come out in print, and all testified to their being sound in doc- trine, liberal in sentiment, and plain and practicall.
Mr. Whiting was of a quiet temper and not mch given to extasies, but yet he would sometimes take a merric part in pleasant companic. Once coming among a gay partie of young people he kist all ye
maides and said yt he felt all ye better for it. And I think they too felt all ye better for it, for they did hug their armes around his neck and kiss him back again right warmlie; they all soe loved him.
He was a man of middle size, dark skin and straight fine hair. His hands were white and soft, mch like some fine ladys. In preaching he did not mch exercise his bodie. But hjs clear voice and pleasant way were as potent to hold fast ye thought of old and young. He had great care in his dress while preaching, saying yt his hearers should not be made to haue their eyes upon an unseemlie ob- ject, lest ye good instruction might be swallowed up in disgust. And for a reason like unto yt he would also have his discources in mild and win- ning wordes. In generall ye sermon would be an hoour and a half long and ye long praier another half houre, wch wyt ye reading of ye scriptures and ye singing would made ye whole above two hours; ye hour-glass upon ye pulpitt tellint ye time.
Ye towne was called Lin in compliment to Mr. Whiting, who came here from Lin in old Norfolke.
Dr. Mather, in his "Magnalia," first published in 1702, pays tribute to Mr. Whiting, as follows:
And he (Mr. Whiting was no less a man of temper than a learning : the peculiar sweetness and goodness of his temper must be deemed an essen- tial stroke in his character: he was wonderfully happy in his meek, his composed, his peacable dis- position : and his meekness of wisdom outshone all his other attainments in learning; for there is no humane literature so hardly attained as the dis- cretion of man to regulate his anger. His very countenance had an amiable smile continually sweetening of it; and his face herein was but the true image of his mind, which, like the upper regions, was marvellously free from the storms of passions.
William Whiting, one of his lineal de- scendants, president of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, in his "Memoir of Rev. Samuel Whiting, D. D., and of his wife, Elizabeth St. John," closes his masterly work with the follow- ing tribute :
A man of God, and an honorable man,
Of whom both Englands may with reason boast.
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Elizabeth (St. John) Whiting, to whom Rev. Samuel Whiting was married in Boston, England, August 6, 1629, was born in Cayshoe, Bedfordshire, England, the daughter of the Rt. Hon. Sir Oliver St. John, Knight, A. D., 1605. Remark- able for her beauty, her dignity and her commanding presence, Elizabeth St. John received in her youth an education which in those days was rare among women. Brought up in affluence, with all the refine- ments of cultured society, she was the fit companion of scholars and statesmen, to many of whom she was connected by ties of relationship. Even in her old age she did not lose her youthful fondness for the great poets of England-Chaucer, Spen- cer, and Shakespeare, and others of lesser fame-with whose works her husband's library in Lynn was stored. Discussion was not wanting in this branch of the St. John family, whereby to educate a high- spirited woman. The mother of Eliza- beth was the daughter of a learned and eminent Doctor of Divinity of Bedford- shire, whose sympathies were in favor of moderate reform. Her uncle was a no less thorough radical than Cromwell him- self. On the mind of a lady whose house could claim the same ancestry was that of the Tudors, and embraced in its genea- logical tree, not only ten of the sover- eigns of Europe, but many of the most renowned nobility of ancient England, it would have been excusable if the influence of family pride and of historical associa- tions had been strong in favor of the royal cause; but in the heart of a woman who had the power of comprehending the principles of religious truth and political science, of a high-born lady, who had the good sense to recognize the trifling value of worldly distinctions when compared with the higher nobility stamped by God himself upon every truly Christian soul, the grandeur of the Puritan faith, the
earnest, passionate cry for religious liberty with which its heroic apostles willingly gave up the comforts, advantages, and honors of their native land, and plunged bravely into a storm of troubles, "for conscience sake,"-the touching eloquence with which they plead for an honest gov- ernment and a tolerant Church, perhaps, also, a feeling of sympathy with the per- secuted but courageous clergymen, whose chivalric spirit she knew full well, com- bined to overmaster her ancestral pride, to quench her ambition, and to break the charm of her English home. Her alle- giance may have been divided, but her heart went with the Puritans.
In "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register," vol. xiv., p. 61, it is stated that Elizabeth St. John was a sixth cousin to King Henry VII. Through the Beauchamps she descended from the Earls of Warren and Surrey from the Earls of Warwick, from William the Conqueror, and from King Henry I of France. Indeed, her pedigree is traced to William the Conqueror in two distinct lines ; and in her were united the lineage of ten of the sovereigns of Europe-a con- fluence of noble blood not often witnessed. And yet she appears to have passed her days here at Lynn, undisturbed by am- bitious yearnings, cleaving lovingly to her worthy husband, and sedulously per- forming the duties of a laborious pastor's wife. Surely, here is an example of humility for some of the worldlings who now traverse our streets, swelling with pride if they can trace their lineage to an ancestor, who bore, however ignobly, some small title, or who happened to possess however unworthily, a few more acres or a few more dollars than the multi- tude around them.
William Whiting concludes his remarks upon his worthy ancestress as follows:
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Beautiful in person, and of cultivated mind, heroic but gentle, respected and "beloved by all as she were a tender mother," fearless of personal danger but of sensitive delicacy towards others too high-spirited to submit to the dictation of British prelates but too sincere a believer in the Prince of Peace to provoke or endure controversy which could be honorably avoided, this noble woman gave her heart to her "godly husband" and her life to aid him in the ministry of the Gospel. To that work she brought a clear head, a strong hand, a Christian soul. By her disinterested devotion to the welfare of others, she was justly entitled to the reverence of posterity, and was worthy of be- ing one of the founders of a free commonwealth. No lady ever came to these colonies, of higher lineage, of more elegant culture, or of more lovely and Christian character. For the royal and noble blood which flowed in her veins, for the good for- tune which surrounded her with the attractions of aristocratic luxury, and gave the advantage of liberal culture, she has no especial claim to honor ; but for that serious and religious disposition which led her to improve these advantages, to store her mind with learning, and to give her thoughts to subjects far above the ordinary pursuits or the frivolous pleasures of youth, and for that moral heroism which led her, the only daughter of an illustrious family, at the age of twenty-four years, to turn away from her ancestral halls that she might share the fortunes of a God-serving Puritan minister of the gospel, whose contest with the bishops had already begun, when she chose to face the grim uncertainties of the future, and to cast her lot with his,-we cannot withhold from her the just tribute of our respect and admiration.
(II) Rev. Samuel (2) Whiting, son of Rev. Samuel (1) and Elizabeth (St. John) Whiting, was born in Shirbeck, England, March 25, 1633; he studied with his father in Lynn, and was graduated from Cambridge in 1653, taking the degree of Master of Arts in 1656. He was ordained minister of Billerica, November 1I, 1663. The same year he was admitted a freeman in the Massachusetts Colony. He went to Billerica in 1658, and was employed as preacher there until his ordination on the date named above. Here he remained almost fifty years after 1663, and was esteemed, as Dr. Cotton Mather says, "a
reverend, holy, and faithful minister of the gospel." He preached the Artillery Election sermon in 1682. Mr. Whiting died February 28, 1713, at the age of almost eighty years. On November 12, 1656, he married Dorcas Chester, of Charlestown, Massachusetts. They were the parents of ten children, among whom was Elizabeth, mentioned below.
(III) Elizabeth Whiting, daughter of Rev. Samuel (2) and Dorcas (Chester) Whiting, was born October 6, 1660. In 1702, she married Rev. Thomas Clark, of Chelmsford. Among their descendants were Rev. Dr. Porter, president of Yale College; George B. Butler, Esq., coun- sellor-at-law, of New York, and Charles E. Butler, Esq., of New York, law partner of William M. Evarts.
(The St. John Line).
Arms-Argent, on a chief gules two mullets or. Crest-On a mount vert a falcon rising or, belled of the last, ducally gorged gules.
Supporters-Two monkeys proper.
Motto-Data fata secutus. (Following his pre- scribed fate).
This famous English family, one of the oldest and most distinguished in the kingdom, descends paternally from Hugh de Port, who held fifty-five lordships in County Hants in the time of William the Conqueror. Hugh de Port's vast estates are tabulated in the Domesday Book, under the article of terra Hugonis de Port, which is the more singular as he was evidently a native Englishman since he held at least two manors, Cerdeford and Eschetune, in Hants, from his ances- tors before the Norman invasion. Hugh de Port was survived by a son Henry, who was the father of John de Port, whose son, Adam de Port, was a powerful feudal baron seated at Basing in Hants. Adam de Port married Mabel, the daugh- ter and sole heiress of Reginald de Aure- val, by Muriel, the only daughter and heir-
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ess of Roger St. John. William de Port, the eldest son of Adam de Port, the repre- sentative of so many great families, one of which was allied to the Norman kings, assumed the surname of his maternal grandmother, viz., St. John, writing him- self Willielmus de Sancto Johanne, filius ethaeres Adoe de Port. The St. Johns were inferior to no family in descent or power. William de Saint John accom- panied King William when he came to seize the crown of Harold, and then en- joyed the very honorable place of grand master of the cavalry, for which reason he took for his cognizance the horse hames or collars. His name appears on the roll of Battle Abbey with others that attended their sovereign at the battle of Hastings, which decided the fate of the kingdom and placed the crown of the English king upon the head of the Norman duke. The Ports, or St. Johns, kept up their posi- tion, continuing to increase their riches and greatness by the noblest alliances, and became relations of the royal house of Tudor, through the marriage of Sir Oliver St. John with Margaret De Beau- champ, daughter of the Duke of Somerset and great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt.
At the time of Colonial emigration, the St. John family occupied a position of prominence and influence in English af- fairs. Sir Oliver St. John, brother of Elizabeth (St. John) Whiting, was Chief Justice of England during the Common- wealth, and argued the famous ship- money case against King Charles.
The surname St. John is derived from St. John in Normandy, the seat of Wil- liam de St. John, founder of the family in England. The St. John pedigree here attached covers twenty generations, from the progenitor to Elizabeth (St. John) Whiting, ancestress of the Whitings of America :
(I) William De St. John, the founder, was one of the Barons who accompanied William the Conqueror to England. He held the honorable post of Grand Master of the Artillery of the invading army. He married Olivia de Fiegiers.
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