USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 7 > Part 30
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One of the Connecticut religious papers, published in 1868, refers to John Brockett as follows :
John Brockett, the eldest son of Sir John Brockett, of the County of Herts, England, who was a well known loyalist of the time of Charles I., becoming convinced of the truth of the Gospel as preached by the Puritans, relinquished his birthright and all his prospects of honor and fame, joined himself to the little company of Rev. John Davenport, emigrated to New England and settled at New Haven in 1637. Of him, as of Moses, it could be said that he preferred to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season.
There is no record of his marriage. However, a seat was assigned in the church to "Sister Brockett" in 1646. It is supposed that John Brockett married in England, in 1640 or 1641, during which time he returned to England for a visit. He did not, however, bring his wife to America until 1644 or 1645. He was ap- pointed surgeon in King Philip's War, and was deputy to the General Court of
Connecticut during the years 1671, 1678 1680, 1682, and 1685.
In the autumn of 1669, John Brockett was one of the men appointed by the one hundred settlers of Wallingford, an off- shoot of the New Haven colony, "to man- age all plantation affairs in ye said vil- lage." In the first allotment of land in Wallingford, John Brockett received twelve acres, and his son John, eight acres. His house lot was "No. I at the extreme south end of the village 40 rods long and 20 rods wide, subsequently ex- tended to Wharton's Brook." He was one of the thirteen men who founded the Congregational church at Wallingford, deciding "that there be a church of Christ gathered to walk according to the Con- gregational way."
John Brockett died in Wallingford, Connecticut, on March 12, 1690, at the age of eighty years. His children were: I. John, of further mention. 2. Benjamin, born February 23, 1645, died the same year. 3. Be Fruitful, twin of Benjamin. 4. Mary, born September 25, 1646; mar- ried Ephraim Pennington. 5. Silence, born January 4, 1648; married, at Mil- ford, October 25, 1667, Joseph Bradley. 6. Benjamin, born December, 1648; mar- ried Elizabeth Barnes. 7: Abigail, born March 10, 1650; married John Payne, Jan- uary 22, 1673; died July 4, 1729. 8. Sam- uel, born January 14, 1652 ; married Sarah Bradley. 9. Jabez, born and died in 1654. IO. Jabez, born October 24, 1656; mar- ried Dorothy Lyman.
(II) John (2) Brockett, son of John (1) Brockett, the progenitor, was born in New Haven in 1642, and baptized Jan- uary 31, 1643. He was educated at Ox- ford University, in England, for the med- ical profession. Upon returning to Amer- ica he began to practice in New Haven. but soon located at Muddy River, near
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North Haven, between New Haven and Wallingford, where he remained during his lifetime. He owned a large and care- fully selected library of valuable medical works, which he gave to Yale College at his death. In the first allotment of land in Wallingford he received eight acres, as has already been mentioned. In 1689 he was given forty-four acres. He was the first physician to permanently reside in the New Haven Colony, and as such was a man of importance. Under his father's will Dr. John Brockett received large quantities of land, and in addition to his practice lie carried on extensive farming.
Dr. Brockett married Elizabeth Doo- little, daughter of Abraham Doolittle, one of the men elected with John Brockett, Sr., to manage the affairs of Wallingford. She was born April 12, 1652, and died March, 1731. Dr. John Brockett died in November, 1720, and his will, dated New Haven, August 31, 1720, gives all his property to his widow, who was his sole executrix. Their children were: I. Mary, born May 6, 1673, died in 1673. 2. Mary, born February 18, 1674; married Law- rence Clinton. 3. John, born October 23, 1676, died November 29, 1676. 4. Eliza- beth, born November 26, 1677, married John Granis, October 12, 1710, at Wal- lingford, Connecticut. 5. Benjamin, born and died in 1679. 6. Moses, of further mention. 7. Abigail, born March 31, 1683; married John Pardee, July 9, 1712; died August 2, 1752. 8. John, born Sep- tember 13. 1686, died November 17, 1709. 9. Samuel, born November 8, 1691 ; mar- ried Mehitable Hill, daughter of John Hill, August 5, 1712.
(III) Moses Brockett, son of John (2) and Elizabeth (Doolittle) Brockett, was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, April 23, 1680. He married Lydia Ann Granis,
on January 8, 1706, and was among the earliest settlers at Muddy River. He was a wealthy farmer and land owner, one single piece of his land being one mile in width and two miles long. He was an active member of the First Ecclesiastical Society, and his name is recorded in the manuscript notes of President Ezra Stiles, of Yale College.
His wife died April 6, 1742. He died November 5, 1764. Their children were: I. Anne, born September 27, 1707; mar- ried Daniel Barnes, March 25, 1728. 2. Silence, born November 3, 1709; married a Mr. Frisbie. 3. Lydia, born August 28, 1712; married Henry Barnes, November 29, 1744. 4. Moses, born January 17, 1714; married Priscilla Granis. 5. Sam- uel, born March, 1715. 6. Benjamin, born December, 1716. 7. Elizabeth, born May 9, 1718 ; married Jared Robinson, July 14, 1747. 8. Mary, born June 26, 1719; mar- ried John Jacobs, July 18, 1749. 9. Abra- ham, born May 19, 1721, died April 7, 1774. 10. Abigail, twin of Abraham, mar- ried a Mr. Barnes. 11. John, born Decem- ber 31, 1722; married (first) Thankful Frost; (second) M. Cooper. 12. Eben- ezer, born July, 1724; married Esther Hoadley. 13. Abel, born August 11, 1725; married Hannah Pierpont, July 24, 1755. 14. Richard, of further mention. 15. Stephen, born March 20, 1729; married Mabel M. Barnes, March 27, 1771. 16. Sarah, born May 29, 1731; married Ste- phen Hitchcock, September 16, 1771. 17. Ichabod, born November, 1733. 18. Keziah, born June 13, 1735; married a Mr. Sanford.
(IV) Richard Brockett, son of Moses and Lydia Ann (Granis) Brockett, was born September II, 1727. On March 13, 1756, he married Mary Pierpont, daugh- ter of Joseph and Hannah (Russell) Pier- pont. She was a granddaughter of Rev.
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James Pierpont, one of the founders of Yale College, and for thirty years pastor of the First Church in New Haven, Con- necticut. She was also a granddaughter of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, one of the founders of the Connecticut Colony at Hartford. She was born October 20, 1738, and died June 21, 1773. In 1760 Richard Brockett and Mary, his wife, were members of the Congregational church in New Haven. On December 14, 1790, seventeen years after the death of his first wife, he married a widow, Jemima Jacobs, who survived him and died on September 7, 1830.
The children of Richard and Mary (Pierpont) Brockett were: I. Joseph, born January 17, 1757 ; married Rebecca Tuttle. 2. Mary, born March 13, 1759; married James Ives, of Great Barrington, June 16, 1779. 3. Giles, of further men- tion. 4. Lydia, born November 29, 1763; married Philemon Blakeslee, February 22, 1787. 5. Richard, born January, 1768. 6. Jesse, born January 16, 1770, died January 17, 1770. 7. Jesse, born February 10, 1772, died February 13, 1772.
(V) Giles Brockett, son of Richard and Mary (Pierpont) Brockett, was born in North Haven, Connecticut, April 30, 1761. During the Revolutionary War he enlisted in 1778 with the Connecticut troops under Colonel Mead. His name is on the pension list in 1832. At the close of the war he decided to become a sailor, but after one or two voyages to the West Indies, returned to North Haven and be- came a farmer. He was a public man, and quite prominent in his community. He was deputy to the General Court in 1804, and Representative in the Connec- ticut State Legislature in 1809.
Mr. Brockett married, November 17, 1785, Sarah Smith, daughter of Captain Stephen Smith, of New Haven. She was
born on July 10, 1768, and died November 27, 1841. Giles Brockett was a Mason, and he and his wife were members of the First Congregational Church in Wa- terbury, where they removed in 1803. He died there June 2, 1842. Their chil- dren were: I. Polly, of further mention. 2. Sarah, born January 20, 1789; married Samuel D. Castle. 3. Patty, born April 29, 1791 ; married A. H. Johnson. 4. Har- riet, born March 28, 1794; married Col- onel Samuel Peck. 5. Roswell, born July 17, 1796, died, unmarried, in Greenville, Michigan, on April 1, 1853. 6. I.ydia, born July 17, 1798; married Smith Miller.
(VI) Polly Brockett, daughter of Giles and Sarah (Smith) Brockett, was born December 21, 1786. She married Samuel Hill, of Waterbury (see Hill), on October 14, 1807. He was born September 4. 1784, and died April 26, 1834.
REICHE, Karl Augustus,
Educator.
A concentration of purpose is one of the first requisites for the man who would succeed, and when this is backed by force of character the best possible combination of aims and characteristics is formed. The possessor of these qualities is a man of achievement, and these are the qual- ities which have been important factors in the rise of Karl Augustus Reiche to the office he now holds, Superintendent of Schools of the city of Bristol, Connec- ticut.
Mr. Reiche was born July 26, 1885, in Hartford, Connecticut, son of Charles E. and Marie Antoinette (Ellenberger) Reiche. Charles E. Reiche was born in 1857, in Germany, coming to America when but a lad, and was living in Hart- ford when he was fifteen years of age. After he had reached manhood's estate,
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he engaged in business in that city and for many years was among the most re- spected citizens there, engaged in the manufacture of pool and billiard tables. He married (first) Marie Antoinette El- lenberger, who was born in New Ro- chelle, New York, and they were the par- ents of two sons: Walter Frederick, born January 21, 1880, now a resident of Peta- luma, California ; Karl Augustus, of ex- tended mention below. The mother of this family died February 6, 1896, and Charles E. Reiche married (second) in 1908, Marion Bailey. He is now retired from active business, and makes his home in Hartford.
The elementary education of Karl A. Reiche was obtained in the "Old South" School of Hartford, and at the Hartford Public High School, from which he grad- uated in 1904. Subsequently he pursued a course at Trinity College in the same city, graduating with the degree of D. L. in 1908. The same year he engaged in substitute teaching at the South School, and it was soon apparent that he had chosen his life's work wisely, being es- pecially fitted by training and natural talent for that profession. In 1910 he was an instructor in the Henry Dwight School of Hartford, teaching the seventh grade, and the following year was associated with the staff of the New Park Avenue School, instructor in the ninth grade. Again he was a member of the teaching force of the South School in 1911-12, hav- ing charge of one of the ninth grades of that school, and the same year, in recogni- tion of his ability, Mr. Reiche was ap- pointed assistant to the superintendent of the district, and he continued to hold this position for one year.
The city of Bristol had never had a trained superintendent in charge of their school work previous to 1913, and in that
year Mr. Reiche was appointed to the of- fice, continuing to the present time, being now ( 1919) in his seventh year of service. During these years many new and im- portant changes have been brought about under his management, and he has been the means of furthering many improve- ments which have been of benefit to the school children and to the general com- munity. It is the children of to-day who are the men of to-morrow, and many a successful man can attribute a large meas- ure of his success to the right training he received in his youth. A recognized au- thority on many phases of school work, Mr. Reiche is connected with several organizations, in the work of which he takes a leading part. He is a member of the National Educational Association ; the New England Superintendents' Associa- tion; is a member of the Connecticut State School Superintendents' Associa- tion, serving as its acting secretary ; a member of the Connecticut School Mas- ters' Club, of which he is secretary and treasurer. He possesses a rare tact for organizing and the ability to execute his plans, and as scout commissioner of the Boy Scouts of Hartford, he succeeded in interesting many of the youths and young boys of that city. He held a similar posi- tion with the Boy Scouts of Bristol and is now director of the Bristol Boys' Scout Council ; is vice-president and a director of the Bristol Boys' Club. During the organization of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Reiche served as its initial acting secretary.
His social affiliations are with the Ma- sonic order, he being a thirty-second de- gree Mason, senior warden of Franklin Lodge, No. 56, Free and Accepted Ma- sons ; member of Lodge No. 1010, Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks; mem- ber of the University Club of Hartford ;
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Connecticut Society of Hygiene ; and the Connecticut Historical Society. During his past seven years in Bristol he has been actively engaged in numerous com- mittee conferences on many community and civic interests.
Mr. Reiche married, June 26, 1912, Anne Emily Fairbrother, daughter of Lorenzo D. and Mary (Miller) Fairbrother. Mrs. Reiche died December 29, 1918. They have one son, Charles E. (2) Reiche, born October 13, 1913.
One of the secrets of Mr. Reiche's suc- cess in his chosen field of work is his grasp of the personal side, his sympathy, and his realization of the value of the encouraging word spoken at the right moment. The best years of his life are before him, and with his vigor and mental acquirements he is richly endowed to make an honored name for himself.
BRADLEY, George Lothrop, Man of Affairs.
Arms-Gules a fesse argent between three boars' heads couped or.
Crest-A boar sable bristled and hoofed or, gorged with a garland vert.
The name Bradley is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a compound of Brad (broad) and lea (a field or meadow). It is local in derivation, and it can be readily seen that William of the broad lea would in the evolution of surnames become Wil- liam Bradley. The earliest mention of the name in England occurs in the year 1183, when the Lord High Bishop of Dur- ham mentions an estate in Wollsingham which contained three hundred acres, and another at Bradley of forty acres, held by Roger de Bradley.
There are numerous townships bearing the name located in Cheshire, Lincoln- shire, Derbyshire, Southampton and Staf-
fordshire, the latter of which counties contains Bradley estates and townships of very great extent. In 1437 there is mention of the Bradleys of Bradley. Again in 1475 the will of Sir John Pil- kington, Knight, of Yorkshire, bequeathed to his brother Charles a place named Bradley. There are great and small Brad- ley parishes in Suffolk, and Lower and Upper Bradley in Kildwick, Yorkshire. John Bradley was Bishop of Shaftsbury in 1539. In 1578 Alexander Bradley re- sided in the See of Durham, and about the same time Cuthbertus Bradley was curate of Barnarde Castle. Thomas Bradley was Doctor of Divinity and chaplain to King Charles I., and afterward prebend of the Cathedral Church of York and rector of Ackworth. His son, Savile, was fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and another son, Thomas, was a merchant in Virginia.
During this period the persecutions and religious intolerance in England led many to emigrate to America; emigration in- creased to such an extent that a tax aimed at curtailing it was levied on all who left the country. This led many to slip away by stealth, leaving no record of their departure. Among the original lists of emigrants, religious exiles, etc., a num- ber of Bradleys are mentioned. There are several distinct branches of the fam- ily in America tracing their lineage to the several founders who came to the New World in the seventeenth century. Few branches have produced as distinguished a progeny as the Massachusetts Brad- leys, of which family the Hon. Charles Smith Bradley, Chief Justice of the Su- preme Court of Rhode Island, was a member.
(I) Joseph Bradley, the immigrant an- cestor and founder, was born in London, England, in 1649, and settled in Haver- hill, Massachusetts, in 1659. He married,
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April 4, 1691, Hannah Ileath, of Haver- hill, and rose to prominence in the life and affairs of the town toward the close of the seventeenth century. The fifth garrison was in his house and under his command. The Bradley family was among those of early Haverhill who suf- fered severely from the Indian raids. In 1697 Joseph, Martha and Sarah Bradley were captured by the Indians. On April 17, 1701, Daniel Bradley was reported missing. The wife of Joseph Bradley was captured twice. The garrison at his house was surprised, February 8, 1704, and his wife taken for the second time and carried away. An infant child, born to her soon afterward, died of exposure and want, or was killed, as the following an- cient tradition states. Hannah Bradley received no kindness from her captors, subsisting on bits of skin, ground nuts, bark of trees, wild onions and lily roots, on the terrible journey to Canada, after the birth of her child. The child was sickly and annoyed the Indians with its crying. They thrust embers from the fire in its mouth, gashed its forehead with their knives, and finally, during her tem- porary absence from it, ended its life by impaling it on a pike. She managed to live through the journey and was sold to the French in Canada for eighty livres. She was kindly treated by her owners. In March, 1705, her husband started for Canada on foot, with a dog and small sled, taking with him a bag of snuff to the Gov- ernor of Canada from the Governor of Massachusetts. He redeemed his wife and set sail for Boston. We are told that during one attack on the Bradley house she poured hot soft soap on an Indian and killed him, and that the torture of her child was in retaliation. Joseph Bradley died October 3, 1729; his widow Hannah, November 2, 1761.
(II) Isaac Bradley, son of Joseph and Hannah (Heath) Bradley, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1680. Dur- ing an Indian raid, Isaac Bradley, aged fifteen, and Joseph Whitaker, aged eleven, were taken captive while in the open fields near Joseph Bradley's house on Parson- age road, near the north brook. Joseph was, tradition tells us, a large, overgrown, and an exceedingly clumsy boy. On their arrival at the Indan camp at the lake, the boys were placed in an Indian family until the spring, when the Indians in- tended to take them to Canada. Isaac contracted a fever, and the kindness and care of the squaw alone saved his life. On his recovery he planned to escape, managed to get away with his companion, and continued to the southward all night. The Indians pursued them the following day, and their dogs found the boys. They gave the meat they had taken for food to the dogs, who knew them, and were saved by concealing themselves with the ani- mals in a hollow log. Some days later they came upon an Indian camp, but es- caped without detection. They continued almost without food or clothing for eight days. On the morning of the eighth day, Joseph sank down exhausted and Isaac Bradley went on alone, shortly afterward reaching a settler's camp, and returning for young Whitaker, whom he left at Saco, continuing on to Haverhill alone.
Isaac Bradley married, at Haverhill, Massachusetts, intentions dated May 16, 1706, Elizabeth Clement.
(III) John Bradley, son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Clement) Bradley, was born at Haverhill, Massachusetts, April 10, 1709. He married, and resided in Haver- hill all his life, a prosperous and well known member of the community.
(IV) Lieutenant Jonathan Bradley, son of John Bradley, was born at Haverhill,
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Massachusetts, and baptized there, Feb- ruary 22, 1746-47. He served with valor during the American Revolution, and held the rank of second lieutenant in Captain Stephen Webster's company, Fourth Es- sex County Regiment, in 1778. He married (first) (intentions dated February II, 1773), Sarah Osgood, of Andover, where she died September 14, 1790, aged forty ; he married (second) April 14, 1791, Sarah Ayer, who died October 20, 1820, aged sixty-five, at Andover. Lieutenant Jon- athan Bradley was a resident of Andover for the greater part of his life, and was one of the leading men of the town in his day. He died there, February 23, 1818. aged seventy-three years.
(V) Charles Bradley, son of Lieutenant Jonathan and Sarah (Ayer) Bradley, was born at Andover, Massachusetts, Decem- ber 17, 1792. He married (intentions dated at Newburyport, November 14, 1817) Sarah Smith, of Haverhill. She was a daughter of Jonathan K. Smith, and a granddaughter of Rev. Hezekiah Smith, a famous chaplain of the Massachusetts troops in the Revolution, and for more than forty years one of the fellows of Brown University. Charles Bradley was a prominent merchant of Boston, and af- terward a manufacturer in Portland, Maine.
(VI) Hon. Charles Smith Bradley, son of Charles and Sarah (Smith) Bradley, was born in Newburyport, Massachu- setts, July 18, 1819. He enjoyed excel- lent educational advantages, and prepared for college in the Boston Latin School. He entered Brown University, drawn to it by the regard he had for his great- grandfather, and in 1838 was graduated with the highest honors in his class, which contained an unusual number of brilliant men. Several years following were spent in post-graduate study in the
University, and after taking the degree of Master of Arts he chose the legal pro- fession for his work in life, and entered the Harvard Law School. Completing his studies for the bar in the law office of Charles F. Tillinghast, of Providence, he was admitted to the bar in 1841. In the same year he formed a partnership with Mr. Tillinghast.
He sprang rapidly into prominence through his eloquence as a speaker. His public utterances were all characterized by a masterly power of reasoning, com- prehensive knowledge, and a polished dic- tion which led to his appointment often to speak on political and literary occa- sions. In 1854 he was elected by the town of North Providence to the Senate of the State, where he was influential in secur- ing the Act of Amnesty to all who had taken part in the Dorr Rebellion of 1842. At a public meeting in Providence, June 9, 1856, relative to the assault of Brooks 011 Sumner in the United States Senate, he said :
Is it not well that the second city in New Eng- land, the first which is not connected by any per- sonal ties with Mr. Sumner, should speak of this outrage, not in the first flush of our indignation, but in the tones of deliberate condemnation? * * * We know that brutality and cowardice go hand in hand, because brutal passions and true moral courage cannot harmonize in the same .character. * * If the South upholds this * act, the antagonism of their civilization and ours will mount higher and come closer and closer ; and it requires no horoscope to show the future.
Judge Bradley was a conscientious member of the Democratic party through- out his life, but had the support and con- fidence of men of all parties in the city and State. He represented Rhode Island repeatedly in the National Democratic Conventions, notably that of 1860, when the party was divided, and he adhered to the Unionists, casting his vote for Ste-
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phen A. Douglas. In 1863 he was the Democratic nominee for Congress. In February, 1866, he was elected Chief Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Is- land, as successor to Hon. Samuel Ames, receiving the honor at the hands of a Republican Legislature. After two years on the bench, years in which he dis- charged the duties of his office with con- summate ability and with the greatest honor to himself and to the State, he re- signed to give his entire attention to his private practice. On the occasion of his retirement from the bench the "Provi- dence Journal" observed :
He has discharged the duties belonging to that high position with a success, and, we may add, a judicial distinction, in which the people of the State feel both a satisfaction and pride, and which they had hoped he would long continue to illus- trate in a sphere so honorable and important.
On the occasion of the opening of the Rhode Island Hospital, Judge Bradley, a generous donor to the fund of $80,000 which was raised at the time, remarked in his address :
Every human being is united, by mysterious ties, with all the past and all of the future. Those who most fully realize the greatness of our being have the strongest desire to live after death, even on earth. It is no personal ambition, but a diviner instinct, which leads such nature to found, or to ally themselves with, great institutions, whose perennial existence of beneficence shall outlast their names and their memories among
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