Genealogical and family history of the state of Connecticut, a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume IV, Part 32

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Clement, E. H. (Edward Henry), 1843- joint ed. cn; Hart, Samuel, 1845-1917, joint ed; Talcott, Mary Kingsbury, 1847-1917, joint ed; Bostwick, Frederick, 1852- , joint ed; Stearns, Ezra Scollay, 1838-1915, joint ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 1178

USA > Connecticut > Genealogical and family history of the state of Connecticut, a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume IV > Part 32

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August 26, 1837 : Epaphroditus, July 8, 1783. died 1856.

(VI) Ozias, son of Moses (2) Seymour, was born in Litchfield, July 8. 1776, died there June, 1851. He was educated in the district schools, and was a pioneer manufacturer of hats. He also conducted a farm. He was prominent in public life and was sheriff of Litchfield county for several terms, in 1825-34. The house that he built in Litchfield in 1807 is now occupied by Morris Seymour. He mar- ried Selima Storrs. Children, born at Litch- field: Origen Storrs, mentioned below : Hen- rietta Soplironia, born October 25, 1800. died June 22, 1892, married George C. Woodruff ( see Woodruff VII) ; Amelia Selima. March 6, 1809. died July 15, 1833, married David C. Sanford ; Maria, March 8. 1813, married Rol- lin Sanford, and died April 5. 1836.

(VII) Origen Storrs, son of Ozias Sey- mour, was born at Litchfield, February 0. 1804. died August 12, 18SI. He graduated from Yale College in 1824 and was admitted to the bar in 1826. He began immediately to prac- tice in Litchfield and continued for more than half a century. He was a Democrat in poli- tics and active in public affairs. He was elected to various town offices and often rep- resented the town in the general assembly, of which he was speaker in 1850. He was elected to congress in 1851 and re-elected in 1853. In 1855 he was elected one of the judges of the superior court and was on the bench for eight years. In 1864-65 he was the Demo- cratic nominee for governor of the state. In 1870 he was elected judge of the supreme court of errors of the state of Connecticut. and in 1873 became chief justice, an office he filled until he retired in 1874, upon reaching the constitutional age limit. Much of the time after his retirement he was employed as ref- eree in important cases. The new code prac- tice, adopted by the legislature in I8;9, was prepared by a commission over which he pre- sided. In the last year of his life he was elected unanimously to the legislature from his native town. a significant tribute of the respect and honor in which he was held in his towns by citizen- of different political belief. He received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Trinity College in 1866 and from Yale in 1873. One of the important commissions upon which he served late in life was that to settle the disputed boundary between New York state and Connecticut. The series of brilliant lectures delivered by him before the Yale Law School and members of the New Haven bar in advocacy of the adoption of the revised civil practice had much to do with its final adoption.

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"Born of a family distinguished both in law and politics, Judge Seymour was one of its most bril- liant scions, In religion he was an Episcopalian, being a devout and devoted churchman. While Judge Seymour was prominent in all the walks of life, whether in church affairs, politically or socially, he will be chiefly remembered as a great lawyer and a good man. By Is qualities of mind and training he was specially fitted to ornament the bar. His intellect was clear and cloudless: he grasped the salient points of a controversy with remarkable ease and quickness : in statement he was luminous, per- spieacious and strong. His style of oratory was simple, unornamental, but pellucid and most con- vincing. Those who heard him argue a case were convinced. in spite of themselves, that Judge Sey- mour reasoned from internal conviction of the truth of his cause and they felt that the argument flowed from his intellect as a logical sequence of estab- lished facts. Hence he was, while unrhetorical, a most persuasive speaker. By his death the Bar of the State loses its brightest luminary, his party an able and effective advocate, the church a pious and noble member, and society one who was amiable, gentle and affectionate, and who loved mankind because he recognized in them something akin to divinity. Viewed in every aspect his death must be regarded as a public calamity. That he will rest in peace needs no assurance. With such a noble life, such lofty aspirations. such a pure purpose and with such noble fulfillments of the promises of his early manhood, he leaves behind him a record which, while it is to the honor and glory of his family, is also a delight and blessing to the pub- lic. Judge Seymour was a good and great man. He needs no further eulogy."

He married Lucy MI., born July 1, 1804, daughter of Morris and Candace (Catlin) Woodruff, of Litchfield. Children: 1. Ed- ward Woodruff, mentioned below. 2. Storrs Ozias, born January 24, 1836, an Episcopal clergyman of Litchfield; married. June 20, 1861, Mary Harrison Browne and had Edward Woodruff, born April 11. 1874. 3. Maria, October 27, 1838. died September 11, 1878. 4. Morris Woodruff. October 6, 1842, member of the class of 1866 at Yale, graduate of Col- umbia Law School in 1868, and began to prac- tice in Bridgeport, Connecticut : was elected city clerk, city attorney and corporation coun- sel; in 1881-82 was state senator and was chiefly instrumental in establishing the state board of pardons of which he has been for many years a valued member : has been a lec- turer on law in Yale University and has given especial attention to admiralty and patent cases in the highest courts; has a summer home at Litchfield; married. September 15, 1865. Charlotte Tyler Sanford ; child. Origen Storrs, born April 19. 1872. married. October 25, 1899, Frances Bolton Lord.

(VIII) Hon. Edward Woodruff Seymour. son of Hon. Origen S. Seymour, was born at Litchfield. August 30, 1832. died October 16. 1892. He was prepared for college in the Classical School of Simeon and Edward L. Hart, Farmington, Connecticut, and entered

Yale College from which he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in the class of 1853. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in Litchfield county in 1856 and practiced in his native town until 1875 when he removed to Bridgeport,, Connecticut, and associated him- self in partnership with his younger brother, Morris W. Seymour, continuing thus until he was appointed a judge of the supreme court of errors of the state. He was for several years judge of probate in the Litchfield district. He represented Litchfield in the general as- sembly of Connecticut in 1859-60-70-71, and was a state senator from 1882 to 1886. He was a lay delegate from the diocese of Con- necticut in the general convention of the Prot- estant Episcopal church.

"As a lawyer he was thorough, quick in percep- tion, sound in reflection, pleasing and effective in speech. He prepared his cases conscientiously. His knowledge of men, his quick wit, his rare appre- hension of humor and humorous things, his abound- ing good judgment, his intellectual alacrity in emer- gencies, and his courage in a crisis gave him a fine outfit for practice. He cross-examined a witness always with skill, and sometimes with genius. But no temptation to score a point ever led him into the petty tyranny of abusing a witness. He wore the golden rule on his heart and remembered that the man in the witness box was a brother. As a Judge. without being hortatory, he warmed his opinions with wholesome morals. Such ethics, for instance, as we find in the opinion of Coupland vs. Housa- tonic Railroad Company, in the Sixty-first Connecti- cnt, make good reading. His career as a lawyer und judge strengthens our attachment to our profession which he adorned. Judge Seymour is mourned by the Bar and by the bench of the state with a common and tender grief. Years of closest inti- macy bound many manly heart, to him with a love which may not be told, but which must be undying. His grave is the tomb of hope and promise and of a life broken when it was strongest. He was buried in the afternoon of a gentle October day. when the sun shone through the clouds and brightened the gold and scarlet and crimson of fading nature, and he was buried in love.

The foregoing extract is from the pen of Henry C. Robinson. Judge Augustus H. Fenn said of Judge Seymour at the time of his death :

"Yesterday morning, at Litchfield, there passed from week-day toil into Sunday rest, from work -0 consecrated that it was worship, into eterral peace -a> pure a soul, and as gentle, as ever parted from earth to enter heaven. One who speaks from a torn heart because he loved him living and loves him dead; one who met him in delightful social inter- course four days last week ( the last time on Fri- day) in seeming health, full of life and its inter- est., and to whom the telegram announcing his sud- den death came with shocking agony. can neither lic silent nor speak with a calm. dispassionate itterance in such an hour. Edward W. Seymour lies dead at the age of sixty, in the town in which he was born and on the Street where he has always lived. The oldest son of the late Chief Justice, Ougen S Seymour. he inherited the rare judicial tempera-

Ew. Supreme

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ment, the calm, candid, impartial judgment. the love of mercy-tempered justice, so essentially char- acteristic of his father. Educated at Yale College, graduate of the famous class of 1853, studying law in his father's office, entering into partnership with him, early and frequently called to represent his town, and later his senatorial district in the general assembly. a useful member of congress for four years, having in the meantime, by devotion to his profession, as well as by natural ability, become the acknowledged leader of the bar in the two counties of Litchfield and Fairfield; certainly it was the principle of natural selection which three years ago led to his choice as a member of our highest judicial tribunal-the Supreme Court of Errors of this state. While of his services upon that court. this is neither the time nor place to speak with fulness, it has been the privilege of the writer to know them somewhat thoroughly, and because of such knowledge he can the more traly bear witness to the rare spirit of fidelity to duty, to justice, to law. as a living. pervading and beneficent rule of action, with which, whether upon the bench listening to and weighing the argument- and contentions of counsel. in private study. in the consultation room. or in the written opinions of the court, which bear his name. the high duties of that great office have been sacredly discharged."

When Chief Justice Seymour died, Gover- nor Richard D. Hubbard, in a public address. declared :

"I think we can all say in very truth, and sober- ness and with nothing of extravagance in eulogy, that we have just lost the foremost, undeniably the foremost lawyer, and take him for all in all, the noblest citizen of our state. If it be too much to say of a son, whose years were almost a score less than those of the father. surely it is not too much to afirm that never did son tread more worthily in the footsteps of an honored parent. and never did untimely death break truer promise than this which has deprived our state of those years of ripened use- fulness. which would have made the career of the son as fruitful in honor. and all good, and good to all. as'that of the sire. But God knows best, and doubtless what is, is for the best. Certainly to him who lies crowned with the beatitude of Christ, upon the pure in heart. it is well."

Judge Seymour married, May 12. 186 ;. Mary Floyd Talmadge, born in New York. May 26, 1831, daughter of Frederick Augus- tus and Elizabeth ( Canfield ) Talmadge. the former of Litchfield the latter of Sharon, Con- necticut. They had no children (see Tal- madge VII ).

( The Talmadge Line ).

( I ) Thomas Tallmadge came from England. in 1631, in the ship "Plough," which carried ten pas-engers Another report says that he came in the fleet with Governor Winthrop in 1630. He landed at Charlestown, and later moved to Postoni, and then to Lymm. Omn May 4. 1934, the general court made him a free- man, and in 1637 he was allotted two hundred acres, and twenty acres was granted to his son Thomas. He moved to Southampton, Long Island, which was founded in 1640. Most of

the people came from Lynn, Massachusetts. and Thomas arrived soon after the town was settled. In 1642 he was granted a home lot. Fle was a freeman, March 8. foto, and was on the list of townsmen, May 10, 1649. He must have left about 1650 and gone to East- hampton, of which his son Thomas was one of the founders. On May 24, 1651. he was fined for absence from town meeting at East- hampton. Ele probably died in 1653, for on December 9. 1053, the town records show that it was ordered "that the share of whale in controversy between Widowe Talmage shall be divided even as the lott is," and in February 1654. Thomas (no Sr. or Jr. signed to the name) was given five acres of land. Also there is a record of Thomas Tallmage Sr .. deceased, and a Thomas is mentioned on the same page as living, though no Junior is at- tached to the name. Children, as far as known: Simon, William, Christian. Jane. Thomas, Robert, mentioned below, Davis. born 1630.

( II) Robert, son of Thomas Tallmadge, was born in England, and came to America when a young man. In 1638 his uncle, John Tallmadge, of Newton Stacey, Hants, Eng- land. left Robert a legacy. On September 3. 1640, at Boston, he. with his brothers and brothers-in-law, signed a letter of attorney to kalph King, of Watford, to get the money for them from the overseers. On March 7, 1644. he was at Southampton, and he next appears at New Haven, where he was made a freeman, July 1, 1644. He was a married man in 1649, and very likely married in 1648. He married Sarah Nash, who was born in England. doubt- less the third child of Thomas and Margery ( Baker ) Nash. She was living in 1687 when Major John Nash left her, "the widow Tal- miage," a legacy. Robert Tallmadge was said to have been one of the original purchasers of New Haven colony in 1639, and his brother or father Thomas was also living there for a while at least. An inventory of his estate was filed in 1662 by the administrators. Children. born at New Haven: Abigail, May 3. 1049: Thomas. October 17, 1650; Sarah. September 10, 1652: John, September 11. 1654, mentioned below: Encs, October 4, 1656; Mary. Sep- temiber 2. 1059.

( IH : John, son of Robert Tallmadge, was bern at New Haven, September 11. 1051. He is in Bradley's list of New Haven proprietors in 1683. He died in April, 1600. He married. November IS, In80, Abigail. born October 30. 1058. daughter of James and Mary ( Lamber- ton , Bishop. She was granddaughter of Can- tain George Lamberton, of the famous phan- tom ship. James Bishop. her father, was a

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distinguished man, and held many public of- fices as magistrate, commissioner on the union of the New Haven and Connecticut colonies, deputy governor of New Haven, 1662-63, and of Connecticut, 1683-87, etc. Children : Anne, born August 15, 1088; James, June 11, 1689, mentioned below.

(IV) James Talmadge,* son of John Tall- madge, was born at Branford, Connecticut, June 11, 1680, died 1748. He was commis- sioned cornet in 1731, lieutenant in 1734, and captain in 1735, and commanded the only troop of cavalry in the colony of Connecticut. He often held important offices, and was several times appointed on important missions by the colonial legislature. His home was in New Haven.

He married (first), July 1, 1713. Han- nah, born July 28, 1690, died February 16, 1744, daughter of Nathaniel and Hannah (Frisbie ) Harrison. Her father was a wealthy man in Branford, and for thirteen years was representative in the colonial legislature. The two presidents of the United States bearing that name were descended from this family. On June 22, 1747, Captain James Talmadge married (second) Mrs. Marcy Alling. Chil- dren : Abigail, born August 14, 1714; James, February 10, 1716; John, May 25, 1718; Han- nah, February 7, 1720; Ann, June 12, 1722; Dorothy, January 23, 1724; Benjamin, Decem- ber 31, 1725. mentioned below ; Timothy, Feb- ruary 2, 1730.

(V) Rev. Benjamin Talmadge, son of James Talmadge, was born at New Haven, December 31, 1725, died February 5. 1786. He graduated from Yale College in 1747 and studied theology while he was teaching school at the Hopkins Grammar School. In 1752 he was invited to fill a vacant pulpit at Se- tauket, near Brookhaven, Long Island. and he remained with the church for over thirty years, until June 15, 1785. He married ( first), May 16, 1750, Susannah, daughter of John Smith, of White Plains, New York, and Mehitable (Hooker) Smith. Susannah was great-grand- daughter of William Leete, governor of New Haven colony, 1661-65. and of Connecticut colony, 1670-76; she was also a great-grand- daughter of the Rev. Thomas Hooker. "foun- der of the State of Connecticut and father of its Constitution"; she was also a great-grand- 'daughter of Captain Thomas Willett. the first mayor of New York, and her grandfather, Thomas Smith, was one of the founders of the First Presbyterian Church in New York : her uncle, William Smith, was justice of the supreme court of New York province and

* From the fourth generation the name is spelled Talmadge in place of Tallmadge.

one of the incorporators of Princeton College and the New York Society Library. Susan- nah Smith's mother, Mehitable Hooker, was daughter of Jamies Hooker, son of Rev. Sam- nel Hooker, son of Rev. Thomas Hooker, founder of Connecticut. Rev. Benjamin Tal- madge married ( second ) January 3, 1770, Zipporah, daughter of Thomas Strong, of Brookhaven, and Susanna ( Thompson ) Strong. He had no children by her, and she married ( second ) after his death, and lived until June 13. 1835.

His children by first wife: William, born June 9. 1752: Benjamin, February 25, 1754, mentioned below ; Samuel, November 23, 1755: John, September 19, 1757; Isaac, Feb- ruary 25, 1762.

(VI) Colonel Benjamin (2) Talmadge, son of Rev. Benjamin (I) Talmadge, was born at Brookhaven, February 25, 1754. died at Litchfield. March 7, 1835. He graduated from Yale College in 1773, and taught school. It is said that President Dagget, of Yale College, examined him when he was twelve years oid, and found him advanced enough in learning to enter Yale, although he did not do so for several years. He was an officer on the staff of General Washington during the greater part of the revolution, and his prowess as a soldier is recognized by the leading histories of the war.

One of the most notable feat, was his attack on Fort George, Long Island, in No- vember, 1780, which he captured, including the ships under its guns, and he returned to Connecticut without the loss of a man. Con- gress passed a resolution of thanks to Major Talmadge and his men, and General Washing- ton sent him a letter of congratulation. His achievements are many of thein given in his official correspondence with Washington, and in his autobiography. Major Andre was cap- tured by men in his command and he was in his custody until his death. Even Andre spoke of the kind and thoughtful conduct of this true gentleman. After the war he made his home in Litchfield where he became a successful merchant and bank president, and for many years was a representative in the United States congress, from 1801 to 1817, after which he refused re-election. One of Colonel Benja- min's most prized souvenirs of the revolution was a portrait of General Washington with which he presented him shortly before his death. Colonel Talmadge posed for the lower part of the famous portrait of Washington by Trumbull, at the request of Washington who was too occupied with public affairs, as Trum- bull had declared that Colonel Talmadge's legs were an exact pattern of General Wash-

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ington's. "Col. William Smith Livingston pos- sessed great physical strength, and with Col. Benjamin Talmadge, had the reputation of being the handsomest men in the Revolution- ary Army." They were second cousins. He married ( first ) March 18, 1784, Mary, daugh- ter of General William Floyd, a New York representative in the continental congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and later a governor of New York. She died June 3, 1805, aged forty-two, and he married ( sec- ond) Maria, daughter of his old friend, Jo- sephi Hallett, of New York, May 3, 1808. She died September IS. 1838. Children by first wife: William Smith, born October 20, 1785 ; Henry Floyd, January 11, 1787 ; Maria Jones, March 25, 1790; Benjamin, August 29, 1792; Frederick Augustus, September 10, 1794, men- tioned below: Harriet Wadsworth, April 3, 1797; George Washington, September 13, 1803.

(VII) Frederick Augustus, son of Colonel Benjamin (2) Talmadge, was born at Litch- field, September 10, 1794, died there Septem- ber 17, 1869. He graduated from Yale Col- lege in the class of ISII and became an at- torney at law, practicing in New York City. He was elected recorder of the city of New York and sat on the bench for many years. He was a member of congress from New York City in 1846-47. He served in the war of 1812 in Captain Craig's company of Inde- pendent Hussars, New York militia, and subse- quently received a land warrant. He mar- ried, May 22, 1815, Elizabeth Canfield, born at Sharon, Connecticut, August 19, 1793, died in New York City. December 1, 1878. Chil- dren: I. Elizabeth Canfield, born August I, 1816, died April 25, 1807 : married J. P. White. born October 8, 1808. son of Dr. John White, of Lewes, Delaware ; children : Caroline Mac- kay, Julia Flewwelling, Frederick, Floyd. Cora Elizabeth, Annie Louise, Elizabeth, Augusta Tallmadge. 2. Julia Flewwelling, July 5. 1818: married, in 1841. William Curtis Noves, a prominent New York lawyer ; children : Em- ily Caroline. William Tracy and Mary Noves. 3. William Floyd, born in New York City, November 28. 1820, lived at Tolono, Illinois. 4. Frederick Samuel, January 24, 1822, grad- uated at Columbia in 1845 (A. M. in 1849), a lawyer in New York: married. April 16, 1859. Julia Belden ; he died June 20, 1904. leaving a large bequest to the Society of the Sons of the Revolution. 5. Mary Floyd, May 26, 1831, regent of the Mary Floyd Talmadge Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolu- tion, of Litchfield, named for her grandmother. wife of Colonel Benjamin Talmadge ; married Edward W. Seymour ( see Seymour VIII).

(II) Daniel Hubbard, son of HUBBARD George Hubbard (q. v.), was baptized December 7, 1645, at Hartford. He was a soldier in the French and Indian war in 1675. He removed to Had- dam, Ponset distriet, in 1700. He married ( first) February 24, 1670, Mary, daughter of William Clark, of Haddam, and sister of John Clark, of Middletown Upper House. She died December 24, 1675, and he married ( second) Sarah, born October, 1647, daughter of Ser- geant Willian Cornwell, of Middletown. Chil- dren: Daniel, mentioned below; Margaret, born July 20, 1676, died April 10, 1769; Mary, born January 16, 1678; Jacob; Sarah, Mareli IO, 1680-81; Mehitable, August 18, 1683; Mary, March 23, 1686.

(III) Daniel (2), son of Daniel (1) Hub- bard, was born at Hartford, Connecticut, De- cember 16, 1673. He removed to Haddam, where he became a wealthy and prominent citi- zen. He owned grist mills and much land, and here he died November 24, 1758. His will was dated January 14, 1756-57, his son Daniel being executor. He married ( first) December 8, 1697, Susanna Bailey ; ( second) Bathsheba Children, born at Haddam: Mary, Daniel; Susanna, 1703; Elizabeth, 1706; Han- nah, 1708; Martha, 1710, married Abraham Stowe; Thomas, 1714, soldier in revolution ; Jeremiah, mentioned below.

(IV) Jeremiah, son of Daniel (2) Hub- bard, was born at Haddam, February 1, 1716. Here he spent his life. and died November 30, 1803. He married ( first) November 11, 1736, Alice, born March II, 1713, died December 2. 1760, daughter of Captain Thomas and Katherine Shailer: ( second) Mary Wells, or Shailer, born 1715, died July 21, 1810 at Had- dam. Children, born at Haddam: Susanna, July 31, 1737 : Asa. November 22, 1738; Mary, May 19, 1740; Catherine, December 1, 1743; Jeremiah, mentioned below ; David, August 20. 1749, soldier in revolution ; Dorothy. Feb- ruary 17, 1751, died young; Dorothy, April 26, 1754.

(V) Jeremiah (2), son of Jeremiah (1) Hubbard, was born at Haddam, January 29, 1746; settled in Middletown Upper House, now Cromwell. in 1793-94, and here he spent his life. He joined the First Congregational Church in 1794, and was elected deacon De- cember 14. 1807, shortly before his death, which occurred August 23, 1808. He mar- ried ( first) February II, 1,68, Flora Hazle- ton, born November 16. 1747, daughter of James and Hannah Hazleton, who were mar- fied January 22, 1747. Her father Jamies was born October 16, 1723. son of James and Susanna ( Arnold) Hazleton, who were mar-

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ried, November 9. 1720. He was a soldier from Haddam, in the revolution. Children, born at Middletown Upper House: Rufus, November 27. 1708: Jeremiah. November 16. 1770, died July 4, 1790: Simon, mentioned be- low; Alice, March 30, 1776; Susan, August 28. 1778; George; Flora, February 6, 1783; Catherine, April 15, 1785: Asa E. (twin), April 28, 1788: Bathsheba ( twin of Asa ), mar- ried Joseph Beaumont, and had Edmund. John and Flora A. Beaumont.

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