USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 11 > Part 8
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SPARROW.
Arms-Argent, three roses gules, a chief of the last. Crest-A yew tree proper.
HONEYWOOD ( HONYWOOD).
Arms-Argent, a chevron between three falcons' heads erased azure, beaked or. Crest-A wolf's head couped ermine.
STEELE.
Arms-Argent, a bend chequy sable and ermine, between two lions' heads erased gules, a chief azure.
Crest-Out of a ducal coronet or a demi-ostrich with wings endorsed gules.
WOODFORD.
Arms-Sable. three leopards' heads reversed jessant de lis argent. Crest-A naked savage wreathed about the head and waist, in the dexter hand a club, and in the sinister a palm branch in bend, all proper.
Motto-Libertate quietem. ( Ease in liberty.)
NORTON.
Arms-Gules, a fret argent, over all a bend vaire. Crest-A griffin sejant proper, winged gules, beak and forelegs or.
SKINNER.
Arms-Sable, a chevron or between three griffins' heads erased argent.
Crest-A griffin's head erased argent, holding in its mouth (beak) a dexter gauntlet.
Motto-Nunquam non paratus. (Never unprepared.)
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
persons of high social station, and was a position of much consequence, as it in- volved the supplying of relay of horses and the entertainment of travelers. The Scrooby Manor was a residence of im- portance; royalty had often been enter- tained there, and Cardinal Wolsey was its inmate for several weeks after his downfall. The paternal Brewster died at Scrooby in 1590. The birth, marriage, and death records of the parish of Scrooby are intact only since 1595, and there is no authentic testimony of the date of birth or the birthplace of Elder Brewster. In accordance with an affidavit made by him at Leyden on June 25, 1609, in which he declares himself as being forty-two years of age, the date of his birth must have been in the last half of 1566 or the first half of 1567. That Scrooby was his birth- place is a matter of question, as there is no evidence that his father was a resident of that parish prior to his appointment as receiver. Young Brewster's education fol- lowed the lines given to the sons of no- bility and gentry. He matriculated De- cember 3, 1580, at Peterhouse, which was the oldest of the fourteen colleges, which afterward became the University of Cam- bridge, but he did not remain long enough at that institution to receive his degree. We find him after leaving Peterhouse in the service of William Davidson, Queen Elizabeth's Secretary of State ; he accom- panied him in August, 1585, to the Court of The Netherlands on a diplomatic mis- sion. The downfall of William Davidson occurred in 1587, and William Brewster, leaving court circles, returned to Scrooby. At the time of his father's death he ad- ministered his estate, and succeeded him as postmaster. For his services he re- ceived the munificent salary of twenty pence a day, which was increased in July, 1603, to two shillings. He resided at the
Manor House, and was held in high es- teem among the people, associating with the gentlemen of the surrounding country, and was prominent in promoting and fur- thering religion. Of a serious and re- ligious mind, the forms and customs of the Established Church became abhorrent to him, and he became interested and act- ive in the cause of the dissenters. Always loyal to the home government, he re- luctantly accepted the fact that his con- scientious scruples required his separa- tion from the Established Church. He helped to form a dissenting society which met at his residence, thus forming the nucleus which constituted the Plymouth Pilgrims. The meetings were interrupted by persecutions, continuance of which caused a number of the Separatists (by which they became known), to agitate in 1607 an emigration to Holland. William Brewster being under the ban of the church, became a member of a party which unsuccessfully tried to sail from Boston to Lincolnshire, England, and was arrested and imprisoned. He was in pos- session of considerable property at this time, a large part of which was spent to regain his liberty and in assisting the poorer members of the party to escape to Holland. His release from imprisonment having been obtained, a successful at- tempt of emigration was made and Hol- land was reached. After a short stay at Amsterdam he proceeded to Leyden, where the Rev. Mr. Robinson had estab- lished a church of which he was made rul- ing elder. He now found himself deprived of most of his wealth, and not fitted, like the other Pilgrims, to unaccustomed hard- ships and hard labor. His means had been spent in providing for his family, also by the treachery of a certain ship captain on his voyage to Leyden, who ap- propriated to himself most of his worldly
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
possessions, including valuable and choice books. He was not, however, disheart- ened; his collegiate education became available in this his hour of need. He established at Leyden a school ; his knowl- edge of Latin brought him many students, both Danes and Germans, who desired to acquire education in the English language. This, supplemented by his cheerfulness and contentment, enabled him to bear the burden of straitened finances, and the hardships incidental to emigration were overcome. He could not look for any financial assistance from his children, who had been bred to refinement and culture and were not fitted for toilsome and la- borious duties. He was materially bene- fited financially by the establishment of a printing office; religious books were printed that were contrabanded by the English Government, and the operation was closely watched by the English Am- bassador, Sir Dudley Carleton. Elder Brewster was sent to England in 1619 to arrange for the emigration of the Pil- grims to America. The English Ambas- sador forwarded information of his de- parture for England, and recommended that he be apprehended and examined. His efforts were futile, and Elder Brew- ster returned to Leyden without being molested.
At the time of the departure of the Pil- grims for their future home in a new land, on account of his popularity, he was cho- sen their spiritual guide. He embarked on the "Mayflower" with his wife, whose maiden name was Mary Love, and the two youngest members of his family, Wrestling and Love, sons, the latter be- ing an infant in arms. On the arrival of the voyagers on the bleak coast of Mas- sachusetts, the famous Covenant estab- lishing the Pilgrim Republic was drafted, and William Brewster is credited as being its author. For the first nine years of
the Plymouth settlement he supplied the vacant pulpit, preaching impressive ser- mons; though often urged, he never ad- ministered the sacrament. Elder Brew- ster died at Plymouth, Massachusetts, April 16, 1644. His wife's death had pre- ceded his, she passing away April 17, 1627. The late years of his life were spent in Duxbury, Massachusetts, with his son, Love, who was apparently the wealthiest man in that town, and was engaged in the cultivation of the paternal acres and estab- lishing a family home. Jonathan, his eldest son, was living at the time of his father's death. He remained in Leyden at the time of the first emigration of the Pilgrims, but joined his father soon after- ward at Plymouth. He removed to Con- *ecticut, and died at Brewster's Neck, in tnat province.
(III) John Sparrow, son of Captain Jonathan and Rebecca (Bangs) Sparrow, was born in Eastham, Massachusetts, No- vember 2, 1656, and died there, his will being proved March 19, 1734-35. He lived at Eastham, and served in the early In- dian wars. He married, December 5, 1683, Apphia Tracy, daughter of John and Mary (Prence) Tracy. Mary (Prence) Tracy was the daughter of Governor Thomas Prence by his second wife, Mary (Collier) Prence. (His first wife was the daughter of William Brewster.) Chil- dren: I. Rebecca, born December 23, 1684. 2. John, born August 24, 1687, died young. 3. Elizabeth, born January 19, 1689. 4. Stephen, of whom further.
(IV) Stephen Sparrow, son of John and Apphia (Tracy) Sparrow, was born September 6, 1694, and died in East Had- dam, Connecticut, September 9, 1785. He lived at Eastham, Massachusetts, and re- moved with his sons to East Haddam, Connecticut, and served in the expedi- tion to Louisburg in 1745. He married, at Eastham, Massachusetts, November 7,
52
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
1717, Annah Mulford, daughter of Thomas Jr., and Mary (Bassett) Mulford. She was born July 28, 1691, and died at East Haddam, Connecticut, June 26, 1772. Chil- dren: I. John, of whom further. 2. Thomas, born February 5, 1720-21. 3 Stephen, born March 18, 1723; married, in 1746, Apphia Pepper. 4. Elizabeth, twin with Stephen. 5. Nathaniel, born in 1725, died at East Haddam, Connecticut, in 1804. 6. Richard, born July 16, 1727; married (second), in 1763, Deborah How- land; he died before 1790, and his widow remained in East Haddam. 7. Joshua, born May 28, 1730. 8. Apphia, born July 18, 1731 ; married Abner Beebe. 9. James, born October 22, 1735.
(V) John (2) Sparrow, son of Stephen and Annah (Mulford) Sparrow, was born in Eastham, Massachusetts, July 6, 1719, and died in East Haddam, Connecticut, July 25, 1764, aged forty-five years. He removed from Eastham, Massachusetts, to East Haddam, Connecticut, before 1749. He married Elizabeth, who was born in 1723, and died in East Haddam, October II, 1774, in her fifty-second year. Children : I. Mary, born December 14, 1749. 2. An- nah, of whom further. 3. Elizabeth, born December 13, 1753. 4. John, born Febru- ary 22, 1756. 5. Apphia, born May 2, 1758. 6. Stephen, born November 8, 1760. 7. Benjamin, born November 9, 1762.
(VI) Annah Sparrow, daughter of John (2) and Elizabeth Sparrow, was born April 19, 1751. She married, April 2, 1777, Abner Banning (see Banning III).
BISHOP, Rev. Ethan Ferris, Rector.
It seems that the House of Bishop, particularly those branches of that great house whose foundations were laid in Stamford, Bridgeport, and other towns
and cities of Connecticut, was second to none in the versatility by which its mem- bers have been able to do many things so well that they have stood out as lights along the pathway of progress, and with their lamp of leadership in one line of en- deavor or another, or in more than one line simultaneously, have illuminated the highway cast up by them and on which others of their kin or of their fellows have trod to the goal of successful achieve- ment. With individuals of the Bishop family the light of genius has attended their way and by it they have been se- curely and brilliantly led to accomplish great things, not only for themselves but also for the lasting benefit of their fellow- men. While to a greater or less degree this endowment of life with the high re- ward of one's applied skill was a birth- right of most members of the Bishop family who have shed luster on the his- tory of the State of Connecticut, it ap- pears to have bestowed its most prodigal of attainments and successes upon the principles of this memoir. They were acknowledged to be without their peers in the realm of transportation-railway and steamboat-and several members of the Bishop family contributed not a few pages to the annals of railroading in New England and of steamboat navigation in the coastal waters of Massachusetts, Con- necticut, and New York. The Bishop transportation genii did more, perhaps, than any others to develop railroad prop- erties in the theaters of their operation during their day and generation. They were, indeed, "men of the hour."
Born in Madison, New Jersey, March 27, 1825, died in Bridgeport December 7, 1883, Ethan Ferris Bishop was a son of Alfred F. and Mary (Ferris) Bishop. His father was the captain of railroad con- struction who did more than any man of
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
his day in opening up the State of Con- necticut and contiguous territory to mod- ern transportation methods. He made one of the greatest careers of his generation as railroad, bridge, and canal builder. He was the builder of the New York & New Haven Railroad (now the New York, New Haven & Hartford), the Housatonic Valley Railroad, the old Berkshire, Wash- ington & Saratoga Railroad, and the Nau- gatuck Railroad (now a subsidiary of the New Haven system).
On the paternal side, the founder of the Bishop family name in America was Rev. John Bishop. He was a Puritan minister at Stamford in 1643, accepting the call by journeying on foot, Bible under arm, from Boston to Stamford. His Bible is said to be carefully preserved by descendants. He married (first) Rebecca. He married (second) Joanna Royce, widow of Rev. Peter Prudden and of Captain Thomas Willet. Stephen Bishop, eldest child of Rev. John and Rebecca Bishop, was born in Stamford about 1660. He married Mercy. John (2) Bishop, eldest child of Stephen and Mercy Bishop, was born in Stamford about 1680. He married Mary Talmadge. (I) Pierson Bishop, who was a descendant of Rev. John Bishop, was living in Stamford in 1790. He married Hannah Finch. (II) William Bishop, son of Pierson and Hannah (Finch) Bishop, was born June 23, 1769, at Stamford, died February 24, 1844. He married Susanna, daughter of John and Sarah (Nichols) Scofield. (III) Alfred F., son of William and Susanna (Scofield) Bishop, was born in Stamford December 21, 1798, died June 12, 1849. He removed to New Jersey when he was a young man and there he entered upon his remarkable career as a railroad contractor. He built the Morris Canal and also constructed the bridge over the Raritan River at New Bruns-
wick, New Jersey. Having come to Bridgeport in 1836, he took upon himself the financial burden and executed the plans for building the Housatonic Val- ley Railroad. His next successful enter- prise was the construction of the Berk- shire, Washington & Saratoga Railroad. In 1845, he, having gathered together a number of highly influential men of Con- necticut as fellow-incorporators, attempt- ed the construction of the Naugatuck Rail- road. The first president of this railroad was the celebrated Timothy Dwight.
In 1849 Mr. Bishop began the construc- tion of the New York & New Haven Rail- road. While these two great pieces of railroad building were nearing completion Mr. Bishop died at Saratoga, New York. The New Haven Railroad's directors said of him in 1849: "The work which owes its execution to him will be a monument to carry down his name with honor to the future." Mr. Bishop married, October II, 1821, at Greenwich, Connecticut, Mary, daughter of Ethan Ferris. Their children : I. Ethan Ferris, of this review. 2. Wil- liam D., who became one of the greatest executives that the New Haven system has ever had. 3. Henry Bishop, born at Madison August 26, 1839, died January 17, 1895 ; married Maggie Mallory, whose father had been Secretary of War in the Confederate government.
(IV) Ethan Ferris Bishop received his preliminary education in the schools of his native Madison, New Jersey, and in 1838, when he was thirteen years of age, he removed to Bridgeport, where he con- tinued his schooling. He matriculated at Yale College in 1845, but an accident in his youth having impaired his eyesight, he was obliged to relinquish his studies. He became a clerk in his father's office and also pursued his studies in theology, and became rector of the Church of the Na-
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
tivity at Bridgeport. He continued to serve in his father's office until the latter's death in 1849. He was made executor of his father's estate and in that capacity closed up the accounts that had been left open when death interrupted his fa- ther's career as builder of railroads. In 1850 he was elected a director of the Nau- gatuck Railroad, and in 1851 he was cho- sen president of that road. He served that road as its executive until 1855, when he resigned and engaged in railroading in the Middle West. Principal among the railroads he operated were the Milwaukee & Watertown, the Milwaukee & Chicago, and the Dubuque & Sioux City. Upon his return to Bridgeport he was reelected president of the Naugatuck Railroad, and held that office from 1873 until his death. With the organization of the Bridgeport Steamboat Company in 1865, Mr. Bishop was made its president. This office he afterward relinquished in favor of his son, Dr. Sydney Bishop. In 1859 he yielded to the desire and ambition of his youth, and he entered the priesthood of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church, and he with some outside assistance built the Church of the Nativity, which he served as rector. Five years later, 1864, the college adjoin- ing the church was finished, and within its walls orphans and needy boys received a thorough preparation for college or a business life.
Mr. Bishop held a large place in the social and fraternal life of Bridgeport and the State of Connecticut. He was affiliated with Hamilton Commandery, Knights Templar ; St. John's Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; Jerusalem Council, Royal and Select Masters; Jerusalem Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; and the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In the Masonic fraternity as well as in his church
connections Mr. Bishop was extremely active for the major part of his life.
Mr. Bishop married, March 22, 1847, at Brooklyn, New York, Georgianna Moody, born in England, daughter of John and Elizabeth Frances Moody. Her father was born in England, and came to Bridge- port, where he took up his home on North Avenue, near the present Mountain Grove Cemetery. He developed that section, and became a dealer in real estate, carry- ing on this line of business to a consider- able extent. He died at the age of sev- enty-eight years, and his wife, who also was born in England, died at the age of sixty. They were the parents of eleven children. To Mr. and Mrs. Ethan Ferris Bishop there were born three children: I. Sydney, who was the successor of his father in the presidency of the New York and Bridgeport Steamboat Company and for a number of years practiced medicine. 2. Alfred, born June 18, 1855, died in in- fancy. 3. Elizabeth Frances, born March 19, 1863. Mrs. Georgianna (Moody) Bish- op, widow of Rev. Ethan Ferris Bishop, died January 17, 1898.
The father, Alfred F., and the son, Ethan Ferris Bishop, it will be readily gathered from this memoir, were true to the best traditions of the Bishop family. By their lives and deeds they gave to the gen- erations in which they moved and to their successors the incalculable benefits of their skill and industry. Who shall be able to compute the blessings that have come to their fellow-men from the majes- tic sweep of those transportation lines, rail and water, which they promoted, builded and developed and maintained! They were honorable, clean-living men; they occupied a high plane of moral and spiritual endeavor; and their well-nigh marvelous successes in material things they shared with a lavish hand with those
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
with whom they had contact-in business, in social, and in community life. The in- fluence of their lives upon their immediate and upon their remote beneficiaries glows like a perpetual fire upon the altars of hal- lowed memory.
FRISBIE, Edward Laurens, Manufacturer, Legislator.
Arms-Argent, three fleurs-de-lis gules.
By the middle of the thirteenth century the surname Frisbie was well established in several counties in England, and we find numerous entries in the Hundred Rolls, 1273. The name is of local origin, signifying that those who first adopted it were residents of Frisby, a chapelry in County Leicester, whence families of the name spread into all parts of England. Early entries preserve the particle "de," which disappears toward the close of the fifteenth century.
The Connecticut Frisbies are the de- scendants of Edward and John Frisbie, for whom long established tradition claims a Welsh origin. Both were signers of the Plantation and Church Covenant of the town of Branford, Connecticut, in Janu- ary, 1668, and both became the progeni- tors of families which have wielded power- ful influences in the life of Connecticut since the earliest days of the Colony. The late Edward Laurens Frisbie, well known manufacturer and public man of Water- bury, was a lineal descendant of Edward Frisbie, who came from Wales and settled in the Hartford Colony soon after its establishment, and who, in 1644, was one of a party that purchased Totoket (now Branford) and organized a town govern- ment there. The line descends through Elijah Frisbie, the first of the name to settle in Waterbury.
(I) John Frisbie, the first of the direct
line to whom it has been possible to trace, was a resident of the town of Branford. He married Abigail Culpepper, and among their children was Elijah, mentioned be- low.
(II) Elijah Frisbie, son of John and Abigail (Culpepper) Frisbie, was born in Branford, and resided there until 1759, when he removed to Wolcott. Here he lived on the Waterbury Road until his death on February 15, 1800, at the age of eighty-one years. Elijah Frisbie's house stood in the historic Bronson's Meadow until 1801. A stone was set in the bound- ary line between Waterbury and Wolcott at that date, "where the center of the house was." Elijah Frisbie married (first) Abigail Culver (see Culver IV), who died April 19, 1771; (second) Elizabeth Ives, who died October 11, 1776; (third) Lydia Redfield.
(III) Reuben Frisbie, son of Elijah and Abigail (Culver) Frisbie, was born in Branford, Connecticut, and removed to Waterbury with his father, settling on Bronson's Meadow, where he resided un- til his death. He married (first) Eliza- beth Wakelee, May 25, 1769. She was the daughter of Ebenezer Wakelee, and died in Waterbury, November 22, 1778. (See Wakelee IV.) He married (second) Ruth Seward, daughter of Amos Seward, on June 3, 1779. Reuben Frisbie died September 10, 1824, aged seventy-eight years.
(IV) Daniel Frisbie, son of Reuben and Elizabeth (Wakelee) Frisbie, was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, January 16, 1771. He was a prosperous farmer and prominent resident of Waterbury. He married, September 29, 1794, Eunice Hill, daughter of Lieutenant Jared Hill (see Hill V). Daniel Frisbie died November 15, 1850.
(V) Laurens Frisbie, son of Daniel and
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Eunice (Hill) Frisbie, was born in Water- bury, Connecticut, August 2, 1800. He married, in 1821, Artimesia Welton, who was born April 15, 1798, daughter of Rich- ard, Jr., and Sarah (Gunn) Welton; she was a descendant of John Welton, the founder, through Richard, Eliakim, Rich- ard, and Richard. Their children were: I. Sarah Mariend, born September 22, 1822. 2. Edward Laurens, of further men- tion. 3. Felicia Ann, born July 31, 1827.
(VI) Edward Laurens Frisbie, son of Laurens and Artimesia (Welton) Fris- bie, was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, August 22, 1824. He spent his childhood on his father's farm, was educated in the local schools, and on completing his stud- ies returned to farming. In 1847, at the age of twenty-three years, he entered the kettle department of the Waterbury Brass Company, where he remained until the summer of 1848, when the old method of manufacturing kettles by stamping was superceded by a machine for spinning them. In the spring of 1849 he entered the employ of Brown & Elton, and was engaged in casting brass and German silver with this firm until it was dissolved and the new firm of Brown Brothers formed. Under the new organization he was made foreman of the casting depart- ment. His connection with Brown Broth- ers covered a period of thirty years, dur- ing which time he rose rapidly to a posi- tion of influence in the firm, eventually taking a leading part in its management. In 1854 he purchased an interest in the business, and thenceforward until his re- tirement from active business life in 1883, he directed the policies of the firm. During the greater part of this period he was act- ively and prominently identified with nu- merous industrial and financial enterprises in Waterbury. Mr. Frisbie was a member of the board of trustees of the Waterbury Savings Bank, and for several years was
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