USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 11 > Part 5
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(XIV) Aelthryth, daughter of Alfred the Great, married Baldwin II, of Flanders. (See Pedigree C, X). She died June 7, 929.
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BUCKINGHAM, William A.,
Civil War Governor of Connecticut.
William Alfred Buckingham was born at Lebanon, New London county, Con- necticut, May 28, 1804, eldest son of Sam- uel Buckingham and Joanna Matson, of Lyme, Connecticut. His father was a prosperous farmer in Lebanon, and owned a shad fishery at the mouth of the Con- necticut river.
Young Buckingham attended the local schools and Bacon Academy, Colchester, Connecticut. He taught in a district school for one winter, and worked on his father's farm three years, and at the age of eighteen took a clerkship in a store in Norwich, followed by a short service as clerk in New York, then returning and engaging in dry goods business on his own account. In 1830 he added the man- ufacture of ingrain carpets, and carried his business successfully through the great crisis of 1837. In 1848 with two or three associates he began the manufacture of rubber shoes and was connected with that industry the remainder of his life.
His public career began in 1849, when he was elected mayor of Norwich, to which office he was reelected in 1850, 1856 and 1857. He was a Republican presi- dential elector in 1856. In 1858 he was elected Governor, to which office he was chosen for eight consecutive terms, re- ceiving in the last a majority unprece- dented in the history of the State, and no one in Connecticut since Oliver Wolcott (1818-27) having held the office so long.
At the outset of the Civil War, his lofty character and large credit was a potent aid toward the promptness of Connecti- cut in forwarding the first completely equipped regiment furnished by any State. The Legislature not being in session at the opening of the war, he pledged his pri-
vate means at the banks to provide funds for the equipment of his troops, and the banks showed their patriotism and con- fidence in him by prompt and full re- sponse. The successive quotas of Con- necticut, under calls of the President for volunteers, were always more than filled, and her troops equipped with wonderful promptness. Directed by the "War Gov- ernor," as he was and is still called, fifty- three thousand sons of Connecticut went to the field-almost one-half of her able- bodied men fit to bear arms-and in a state of such complete preparedness as to elicit the repeated commendation of the national authorities. President Lincoln said of him : "We always like to see Gov- ernor Buckingham in Washington. He takes up no superfluous time. He knows exactly what he needs, and makes no un- reasonable demands." Such remarks were frequently emphasized by Secretary Stan- ton, of the War Department. The corre- spondence of Governor Buckingham with the President and Secretary further dem- onstrates the source of his influence through the affectionate respect in which they held him. In response to a letter sent him during one of the darkest periods of the war Secretary Stanton wrote: "In the midst of toil and care that wearies my spirit and exhausts my strength, such words of comfort revive and strengthen me greatly." During those fateful four years Governor Buckingham never for a moment wavered in his belief that the government must and would succeed.
The war ended and the affairs of Con- necticut with the general government well adjusted, Governor Buckingham de- clined further reelection. In 1868 he was elected to the United States Senate, and although never before in Congress, his record as "War Governor" insured at once a flattering recognition by his col-
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leagues, and a wide influence. He was made chairman of the committee on Indian affairs during a period when pub- lic attention was earnestly fixed upon the responsibilities of our government toward its wards, and threw himself with great intensity into the work. Those who would make the necessities of the Indian their own greedy opportunity found in him no friend. As a member of the com- mittee on commerce his extensive and practical experience gave weight and au- thority to his opinions. He was not an orator ; but his speeches were marked by clearness, force and great earnestness.
He was a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ; president of the Amer- ican Missionary Association, the Western College and Education Society, and mod- erator of the first national council of Con- gregational churches, at Boston, in 1865. He was a prominent member of the Sec- ond Congregational Church, and one of the founders of the Broadway Church of Norwich, in which he was an officer until his death.
He was also one of the founders of the Norwich Free Academy and president of its board of trustees. He gave gener- ously to Yale College and a chair was named in his honor in the Divinity School of that institution. The secret of Gov- ernor Buckingham's influence lay in the wonderful balance of his powers, physi- cal, intellectual and moral. He was every- where and always the impersonation of courtesy. His power of reaching the core of a difficult question was almost intui- tive; and his tact in dealing with men under trying circumstances was extraor- dinary. His love for children was very strong; he would sometimes leave the writing of an important state paper to frolic in his library with an interrupting
grandchild. The gentleness of his man- ner would have led a superficial observer to underrate his strength of character. It was in the fervid expression of his intens- est convictions that the full man was revealed.
Governor Buckingham was married, at Norwich, September 27, 1830, to Eliza, daughter of Dr. Dwight and Eliza (Coit) Ripley, by whom he had two children: William, born October, 1836, and died in December, 1838; Eliza Coit, born Decem- ber 8, 1838. She married General Wil- liam A. Aiken, one of Governor Bucking- ham's staff during the Civil War, and who was the first to reach the seat of gov- ernment with dispatches from the North, when Washington was beset with ene- mies, and the approaches to the capital were obstructed. He delivered these dis- patches in person to President Lincoln. Mrs. Buckingham died April 19, 1868. The family life of Governor Buckingham was most attractive, the spirit of the household being one of cheerfulness, kind- ness and boundless hospitality. He died at his home in Norwich, Connecticut, February 5, 1857, a short time before his senatorial term was completed. The day of his funeral was observed throughout the State, and was of general mourning in the city of his residence. His hospitable home, which had included among its guests Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, and many other notable men, was thronged for hours by a ceaseless procession of the high and the lowly, to take a last look at the face they had loved and reverenced. Upon his monument in Yantic Cemetery in Norwich is this inscription: "William Alfred Buckingham, Governor of Connec- ticut (1858-1866), United States Senator (1869-1875). His courage was dauntless. His will inflexible. His devotion to duty supreme. His faith in God absolute."
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4
David Banning
Arenath 6. Banning
Banning
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
BANNING, David,
Man of Varied Activities.
Arms-Argent, two bars sable, each charged with as many escallops or.
Crest-On a mount vert, an ostrich argent, hold- ing in the mouth a key or.
The Banning coat-of-arms without the supporters were granted to Pawle Bayn- ·inge, of London, in 1588, by Cooke, ac- cording to the publications of the Harle- ian Society, although there is doubt as to Cooke having filled the office of herald at that time. This latter point is immate- rial, as the arms are properly registered and recorded.
The Banning chart, of which the author is not given, but who apparently did the work for Pierson W. Banning, of Los Angeles, California, gives John Banning as a brother of James and Richard Ban- ning and names him as of Talbot County, Maryland. He is a son of "John Doe" Banning (Stephen was grandfather of John Banning, of Talbot County, Mary- land). "John Doe" Banning was a son of Stephen Banning (of England in 1714). He was a son of Stephen Banning, who died in England in 1688. His wife, Mary Banning, was of England. He was a son of John Banning (received the degree of B. A. from Oxford in 1620) (Subsidiary Rolls, 1642). He was a son of John Ban- ning, of Burbage, England, in 1613. He was a son of John Banning of Burbage, England, in 1565. He was a son of Robert Banning, of Burbage, England, in 1539, who was named as an old man in 1565.
The name Banning is one of greatest antiquity. It is of Danish origin, apply- ing in early times to a class called hero worshippers, and signifying a home or dwelling. Reference to it is found in the "Scot and Bard Songs," the earliest bal- lads on record, where it says "Becca ruled the Banning." This Becca was, no doubt,
the hero or ruler of the Banning clan of Vikings.
The distinctive Anglo-Saxon termina- tion "ing" has always marked the name, and in general it has suffered very slight changes throughout its many hundred years of existence and travel into differ- ent countries. Whatever changes have occurred are due to misspelling or to the natural accommodation to the languages. In Holland there appears Banningh, Ban- ningk, Bannick, and earlier, Benningh, Benningk, and Bennick. In Denmark many Bannings live to this day, no doubt descendants of the first Bannings known, and in England there are found Bayninge, Banninge, and Baninge. Germany shows Bonning, Banninger, Baninger, Behning, Benning, while in this country is Bran- ning, formerly De Branning, a French variety, and from Iceland come Bannon, Bannin, Branigan, and others of similar sound.
It is supposed that about the fourth or fifth century some of the Bannings mi- grated from their native place, now known as Denmark, to what is at present called Holland, which was but a few miles dis- tant. Here they must have lived for nearly a thousand years before coming into prominence; at least no trace of the name has been found in history until about 1386, when Gerrit Banningh, a cloth merchant of Nienwendyk, who came from a hamlet named Banningh by the Stadt of De Venter, and finally located in Amster- dam, is mentioned as being the progenitor of the Banning families in Holland, who governed that country to a greater or less extent for nearly three hundred years. (De Vroedschatap Van Amsterdam, by Herr Elias, director of the State Archives of Amsterdam, Pub. by Vincent Loosjes, about 1895, in Haarlam, Holland, 2 vols.)
Rembrandt's famous painting, the
Conn. 11-3
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"Night Watch," shows as the central figure Captain Franz Banning-Coq, who, although dying at an early age, made his power and influence felt in a most won- derful way. This picture is generally sup- posed to represent a rally of the guard at night from the guard house, which a name on the picture states, but in fact represents the members of a gun club as they are about to leave their old quarters just prior to moving into their new quarters on Sin- gel Street. This picture was painted in 1642. The name was given it when the picture was discovered many years after it had been painted, in an old attic, and the real purport of the picture was un- known, but recent discoveries establish the above statement as to its meaning. At that time it was customary for prom- inent organizations to have paintings made of their members in groups. Franz Banning's mother was a Banning of the noble families, and married an apothecary named Coq, from Bremen, against the wishes of her parents. Their son Franz, of his own accord, prefixed his last name by his mother's name, Banning, making it a hyphenated name.
From Holland, Franz Banning-Coq went to Basel, where he studied law. Re- turning to Amsterdam he soon became an alderman, then a magistrate, and in a short time burgomaster. The King of Frankreich raised him to the nobility. He built the building now used as the King's Palace, but which at that time was the City Hall or Governor's headquarters. He died at an early age, childless, in the midst of an already wonderful career.
Another famous painting by Van der Helst, entitled "Celebrating the Peace of Munster, or Conclusion of the 30 Year War," which hangs alongside of the "Night Watch" in the Royal Museum at Amsterdam, has as its central figure Jacob
Banning, the Standard Bearer, which pic- tures the members of a gun club gathered at a banquet to celebrate the Westphalian Peace in 1648.
The Banning coat-of-arms may be seen on the ceiling of the throne room in the King's palace in Amsterdam to this day, as well as in church windows, on grave- stones, and in many other places. At some unknown date, probably about 1500, the Bannings went to England and settled at what is now called Banningham in Norfolk. At the present time no traces of the Bannings can be found there, but are clearly traceable to Midland and Lon- don, from which places the different branches now in existence seem to have · come.
The Bannings in England became prom- inent in military and social life during the sixteenth century, taking an active part in the Crusade to the Holy Land, for which a coat-of-arms was granted in Lon- don in 1588. Two Peerages also were created, both becoming extinct in the seventeenth century. The first Peerage was conferred on Sir Paul Bayning, Lord Mayor of London, who, in his Patent of Nobility, reverted to the original spelling Banning, and became Viscount Banning. His country seat was near Banningham, in Norfolk.
One branch of the family in England is about extinct, there being but one male member now living, and it is thought his only son is dead. Another branch has for many years been of local importance, having for several generations held in the family the highly coveted office of post- master of Liverpool, besides other posi- tions of importance in the governmental service.
Sometime in the seventeenth century Bannings came, supposedly from Eng- land, Ireland, Scotland, and elsewhere, to
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America. As to the places from which they came nothing is definitely known with one exception, but some of them are thought to have come from Midland or London. It seems almost certain that the first Bannings in America came from England, Ireland, Scotland, as the given names are English, or at least more com- mon in England than elsewhere, e. g., Edward, James, John, and Samnel. Some- time prior to 1678 an Edward Banning settled in Talbot County, Maryland, which was but a few years after Lord Baltimore was granted a charter for col- onization purposes by the King of Eng- land. About 1700 there is a record of a James Banning being in the same county that Edward Banning came to. About this same time two other Bannings are known of in or near Lyme, Connecticut, by name Samuel and John Banning. These last three, by tradition, are sup- posed to have been brothers, which, if a fact, makes it more than likely that they were sons of Edward Banning, of Talbot County, Maryland. Some forty odd years later a Benoni Banning settled in Talbot County, Maryland. He came from Dub- lin, Ireland, to which place his father is thought to have come from Scotland or England, but about 1790 John Banning, who was born August 15, 1760, in Staf- ford, England, came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His son Daniel lived in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, but of his descendants nothing is known. There is in Los Angeles County, California, and in Pennsylvania, a town named Banning, and in California a military camp by that name.
Some years after James Banning, and about the time Benoni Banning was known of in Maryland, there appeared Bannings in Delaware. It is not unlikely that they may have come from those in
Maryland, as these two states are geo- graphically one, but if they did not, it is possible that they migrated from Holland, where there were so many Bannings. From the names of some of their descend- ants, it is contended that they are of Dutch origin, and as Delaware was early settled by the Dutch, this may be the case. From the Delaware Bannings there have come two branches, one a branch in California, and a branch now in Delaware and Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania. There is a strong likelihood that Phineas Banning was a brother of Benoni Banning, and his bro- ther, James Banning, who came to Talbot County, Maryland.
This family was originally of Neyland in Suffolk. Richard Bannyng, or Bayn- ing, dwelt at Dedham about the end of the fifteenth century. His son, Richard, mar- ried Anne Raven, daughter and co-heir of Robert Raven, of Creting St. Mary's in Suffolk, and had Richard of Dedham, who married Anne Barker, daughter of John Barker, of Ipswich, by whom he had Paul (Andrew, a very eminent merchant in Mincing Lane, who died without issue December 21, 1610, aged sixty-seven. See under Powers in Little Waltham).
Paul Bayning was a citizen and Alder- man of London, and one of the Sheriffs of that city in 1593. He accumulated a very great fortune by merchandising, so ad- vantageous was trade even in its infancy, that Sir Thomas Gresham, Sir Andrew Judde, Thomas Sutton, founder of the Charter-house, and our two brothers, Paul and Andrew, laid immense and incredible riches by. These two have a monument erected to their memory in the chancel of the Church of St. Olave, Hart Street, by which it appears that Paul died Sep- tember 3, 1616, aged seventy-seven. He had two wives. The first was a daughter of a Mowfe, of Needham, or Creting, in
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Suffolk, by whom no issue is recorded. His second wife was Susan Norden, daughter and heir of Richard Norden, of Miftley (remarried after his decease to Sir Francis Leigh, Knight and Bart). He died October 1, 1616, and was buried in St. Olave's Church, above mentioned, leaving his only son and heir, Sir Paul Bayning, Knight, then aged upwards of thirty.
Sir Paul Bayning was created a Baronet November 25, 1612, constituted Sheriff of Essex in 1617, advanced to the title of Baron Bayning, of Horksley, in Essex, February 27, 1627-28, and to the further dignity of Viscount Sudbury, in Suffolk, March 8, 1627-28. He married Anne Glemham, daughter of Sir Henry Glem- ham, Knight, by Anne (Sackville) Glem- ham, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Dor- set, by whom he had five children: I. Paul, his son and heir. 2. Cecily, married Henry Pierpont, Viscount Newalk, eldest son of Robert, Earl of Kingston. 3. Anne, married Henry Murray, Esq., one of the grooms of the bed-chamber to King Charles I, afterwards created, March 17, 1673, Viscountess Banning, of Foxley. 4. Mary, married (first) William Villers, Viscount of Grandison, second to Chris- topher Villiers, Earl of Anglesea, third to Arthur Gorge, Esq. 5. Elizabeth, married Francis, Lord Dacre ; created, September 6, 1680, Countess of Shepey.
Sir Paul Bayning died at his house on Mark Lane, July 29, 1629, possessed of a very large real estate, as appears by the following particulars :
The manor and almost the whole parish of Lit- tle Bentley: Dikeley hall, Stones, Sheddinghow, Old hall, New hall, Abbots, etc., in Maningtree, and parishes adjoining: The manor of Hamp- stalls, in Weeks: The manors of Great Horkes- ley, Boxsted, River-hall, etc .: The manor of Small- land-hall, alias Marshes, in Hatfield Peverell: The manor of Powers, and Shepcote, in Little Waltham: The manor of Great Lees with Lyon-
hall, and other great estates there: in Woodham Ferrers, the manor of Champions, and estates called Burrs, Illgars, and Latchleys: The manor of Gingjoyberd-laundry, alias Blunts in Butsbury, and Stock: half the manor of Farnham. And other estates and woods in Tendering, Thorpe, Roding-Beauchamp, Willingale Doe, Fifield. The rectories of Bradfield. And the advowsons of the Churches of Little Bentley, Great Lees, Stock, Mistley, Bradfield, in Suffolk. The manor and rectory appropriate of Laxfield: The manor of Rumborough : Divers lands, tenements, etc., in Laxfield aforesaid, Creting, Needham, Barking, Afpall, Thorndon, Thwaight, Houlton, Aldring- ham, Wiffet, Rumborough, Speckhall, Credeston, Westhall, Hallesworth, Leiston, Knoddishill, Thev- erton, Kellishall. In Hertfordshire: Tenements and lands at Huxworth, with the advowson of the church. Inquis. 6 Caroli, September 4, nº 158. He also had an immediate personal estate of £153 15s., viz. in debts £136,751 15s., and in ready money £ 17,000, without the jewels, plate, and household stuff.
His widow was remarried to Dudley Carleton, Viscount Dorchester. His son and heir, Paul, Viscount Bayning, was born in 1616, paid the king £ 18,000 for the fine of his wardship, and for charges about the same, £ 185. He died at Bentley Hall, June II, 1638, and was buried in a vault in this church. By his Lady Penelope, only daughter and heir of Sir Robert Naunton, Knight, Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries, and once Secretary of State (remarried afterwards to Philip, Earl of Pembrook) he had two daughters, Anne, and Penelope, born in November, after his decease. Anne, the eldest, was married to Aubrey de Vere, the twentieth and last Earl of Oxford, of that most noble and ancient family. Her large for- tune was a reasonable and necessary sup- ply and recruit to the estate of that fam- ily, which had been greatly impaired and almost ruined by the passionate extrav- agance of his ancestor, Edward, Earl of Oxford, in Queen Elizabeth's reign. But by this Lady, who died in September, 1659, he had no surviving issue. Pene-
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lope, the youngest daughter, was married to John Herbert, Esq., youngest son of Philip, Earl of Pembrook and Montgom- ery ; remarried to John Wentworth, Esq. She died in 1657, without issue.
This estate became the property of the Earl of Oxford and his Lady (Newcourt, Vol. II, p. 52). They caused to be pulled down the stately and magnificent seat of Bentley Hall, which had been erected by Paul Bayning, Esq., in the reign of King James I, and sold the materials, where- with many houses in Colchester and else- where are still adorned.
Phineas Banning came from England and settled in Dover, Delaware, where his son, John Banning, was born in 1740, and there died February 15, 1791. John Ban- ning was a member of the Council of the State of Delaware from 1777 until his death ; treasurer of Kent County ; military treasurer ; town commissioner; member of the Council of Safety, and member of the first Electorial College, casting Dela- ware's vote for George Washington as President of the United States. In the Revolution he was one of the foremost patriots, "Contributing liberally both in money and services to organizing and establishing the State government of Del- aware, and is said to have been considered the 'banker of the State.' When the Con- tinental Army was disbanded, and the soldiers had nothing but the depreciated script, it is said that he stood on the steps of the old Academy of Dover and gave them hard money for their notes, thus try- ing to redeem his nation's credit." He married, in 1766, Mrs. Elizabeth (Alford) Cassius, daughter of Philip and Charity Alford. She was a woman of great beauty ; "indeed," a gentleman of note said "she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in Europe or America. . Sarah Banning, her daughter by
her second husband, who married Hon. Henry Moore Ridgely, was highly edu- cated and accomplished, and inherited much of her mother's beauty. When Mr. Ridgely was in the United States Senate they were spoken of as the handsomest couple in Washington society." Mrs. Banning married (third) Dr. William Mc- Kee, many persons and families of prom- inence being represented among their de- scendants.
For examples of the sheer power of in- domitable wills, fierce courage, and un- conquerable persistence in the moulding of careers out of the untried resources of virgin fields we must turn to the Great West and Middle West. No other section of the country has given us such shining examples of work of strong men, true in coping with the almost overwhelming forces of nature and circumstance. The history of the Western Reserve is one of romance and achievement incomparable with that of any other part of the country. "Self-made, self-reliant, sturdy and rug- ged men have been its product, and it is to these men that the upbuilding and de- velopment of the West into the important factor in the world's work which it is to- day is due." To every man who has con- tributed a share toward the great task of bringing the West out of a vast wilder- ness, teeming with opportunity, yet offer- ing untold resistance before it was har- nessed to the uses of man, is due a deep gratitude and thankfulness, which can be no more adequately expressed than in preserving for later generations the story of his work and achievement.
Since the opening of the Western Re- serve to settlers, the family of Banning has been prominent. The late David Banning, one of the prominent business men and financiers of the city of Cin- cinnati, Ohio, during the latter and mid-
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