History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 173

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572

USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 173

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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

DEED OF 1645.

The deed of the eastern part of the town, given in 1645, is as follows :

"These presents testify that I, Piamikin, Sagamore of Roatan and owner of all the land lieing between Fivemile river and Pinebrook so called by the English, for diverse reasons and considerations have given and granted unto Andrew Ward and Richard Law of Stamford for the use and property of sayd town, from me and myne to them and theirs forever, all the above sayd lands lying between the sd Fivemile river and Pinebrook, quietly to possess and enjoye in a full and free manner with all the privileges thereto belonging or apertaining, as witness my hand in Stamford this twenty-fourth day of March, auno one thousand six hundred forty and five.

" PIAMIKIN,

hís mark.

" Witness

"JEREMY JAGGER.

"GEORGE SLASON.

" WASASARY

his mark.

" PEMGATON

his mark.

"MAMAIUMA

his maik.

" TOQUATUS

his mark."

REPORT TO GENERAL COURT OF DEED OF 1645.

"Ata general court held at New Haven for ye jurisdiction June 9, 1654 -Several writings recorded concerning lands in question betwixt Stam- ford and Norwalk, which upon the desire of Stamford is ordered to be recorded-this may certify that Piamikee, Sagamore did upon ye twenty- fourth of March in ye year 1645 make a deed of gift of all ye land from that which is comonly called ye Pine brook by ye English and that which is called Five mile river or Rowayton, where their planting laud doth come very near unto ye said land, was by a deed of gift made over unto Andrew Ward and Richard Law; which they did receive for ye town of Stamford and at the same time did give unto the said Sagamore one coat in ye presence of George Slason and after yt three more with some quan- tity of tobaca, aud ye said Sagamore did confirm ye same by setting his hand to a writing then made, ye said Sagamore upon ye gift did except against setting houses because ye English hoggs would be ready to spoil" their corn, and yt ye cattle in case they come over ye said Five mile liver, to which it was granted, yt to inhabit we did not intend, and our cattle we intended they should have a keeper, and in case any hurts was done they should have satisfaction, yt this land as aforesaid was by the said Piamikee in ye presence of other four or five Indians resigned for ever to ye English, in witness wbereof we have set to our hands, Stam- ford, first month 4, 1654.

" ANDREW WARn.

" RICHARD LAW."

AGREEMENT WITH PONUS AND ONAX, 1655.

"Our agreement made with Ponus, Sagamore of Toquamske and with Onax his eldest son : Altho' there was an agreement made before with the said Indians and Capt. Turner and the purchase paid for, yet the things not being clear, and being very unsatisfied, we came to another agreement with Onax and Ponus for their land from the town plot of Stamford north about 16 miles and there we marked a white oak tree with S. T. and going toward the Mill River side we marked another white oak tree with S. T. and from that tree west we were to run four miles, and from the first marked tree to run four miles castward, and from this east and west line we are to have further to the north for our cattle to feed, full two miles further, the full breadth-only the said Indians reserve for themselves liberty of their plauting ground; and the above said Indians, Ponus and Onax, with all other Iudians that be concerned in it have surrendered all

the said land to the town of Stamford, as their proper right, forever, and the aforesaid Indians have set their hands as witnessing the truth hereof, and for and in consideration hereof, the said town of Stamford is to give the said Indians 4 eoats, which the Indians did accept of for full satisfac- tion for the aforesaid lands, altho' it was paid before, hereby Ponus' pos- terity is cut off from making any claim or having any right to any part of the aforesaid land, and do hereby surrender and make over, for us or auy of ours forever, unto the Englishmen of the town of Stamford, and their posterity forever, the land as it is butted and bounded the bounds above mentioned. The said Ponus and Onax his son having this day re- ceived of Richard Law 4 coats acknowledging themselves fully satisfied for the aforesaid land .- Witness the sald Indians the day and date hereof, Stamford, August 15, 1655.

" Witnesses

" WM NEWMAN

" RICHARD LAWS

" PONUS. XAX.

ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT WITH TAPHANCE AND PENAHIAY, JAN. 7, 1667.

" An agreement made this 7th of January Anno 1667 between the in- habitants of the town of Stamford, the one party, and Taphance sou of Ponns and Powahay son of Onax, son of Ponus, the other party, for a full and final esew of all questions about all and any rights of lands formerly belouging unto Ponus Sagamore of Toquams and any of his race or line- age 'surviving, and for a more full confirmation of the sales of lands, meadows, rights, privileges formerly made by the foresaid Pouus and Onax uuto the inhabitants of the town of Stamford, the contents of this agree- ment as followeth. That, whereas Ponus Sagamore of Toquams, and Wescus, Sagamore of Shippan, sold unto Capt. Nath'l Turner of Quenni- piocke, all their lands belonging to either of the forementioned Ponus and Wescus-the said sale expressing all uplands, meadows, grass, with the rivers and trees belonging to the foresaid Sagamores, except a pieee of ground which the foresaid Sagamore of Toqnams reserved to plant on -the said sale specified by a deed under their hands; dated the 1st of July anno 1640. Also the payment according to the agreement was made to satisfaction of the foresaid Ponus and Wescus-these forementioned in the deud are sold and alienated from the aforesaid Ponus and Wescus and their heirs, executors, administrators and assigns unto the foresaid Capt. Nath'l Turner, and his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns for- ever-moreover, after this former agreement in the year Anno 1655, the Inhabitants of Stamford and Ponus Sagamore, and Onax, Sagamore came to an agreement, for the convenient settlement of their planting ground at Shehauge, as also how far the bounds of the inhabitants of Stamford should go, which joint agreement was to extend sixteen miles north from the sea side at Stamford; and two miles short of that the said parties marked two trees with S T; tbe aforesaid Ponus and Onax agreeing and granted the inhabitants of Stamford that their bounds should run from the aforesaid marked trees four miles east, and from the foresaid marked trees four miles west; their whole breadth to be eight miles and for full satisfaction of the foresaid Ponus and Onax for all and every part of the lands with the Demensions thereof forementioned and the Indian's planting Land excepted, four coats was paid and accepted by the said Indians viz: Ponos and Onax, upon which receipt the said Ponus and Onax gave a full surrender of all the land forementioned from them and their heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, and in the behalf of all the Indians unto the English Inhabitants of Stamford and their heirs, executors, and administrators, and assigns for ever, quietly to possess and enjoy in free and full manner. Unto this agreement the Indians fore- mentioned viz: Ponas and Onax subscribed their mark for full confirma- tion, witnessed by Richard Law and William Newman. Now these pres- ents witnesseth, that we Taphance, son of Ponus and Powahay son of Onax as abovementioned, do hereby acknowledge the several grants and sales of lands and the several agreements thereabonts as above specified with the payment for satisfaction given for the same, and do hereby for us and ours fully confirm the said grants and sales with the dimensions thereof as above specified-furthermore we the foresaid Taphance and Powahay do hereby bothi for us and our heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, grant and surrender up unto the inhabitants of the town of Stamford their heirs, executors administrators and assigns forever all our land or lands formerly reserved to us for planting at Shehauge and Ho- quetchi with all other lands of any sort and privileges of any kind to us and our predecessors formerly belonging; the said lands and privileges lying between Tatomock near Greenwich on the west and the land for- merly granted by Piamikin to the men of Stamford on the cast with the forementioned dimensions of length and breadth : Quietly to. possess and

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STAMFORD.

enjoy without future molestation by us and ours-In consideration hereof the inhabitants of Stamford do both for themselves and theirs give and grant unto the foresaid Taphance and Powahay and their male issne and posterity twenty acres planting ground in convenient place or places- with these conditions following agreed unto-first, that the said Indians fence their ground with a sufficient fence-secondly, that they shall not at any time take in other Indians or Indian to reside with them-thirdly -only Taphance with his wife and chillren and Penahay and Paharron and an old woman called Nowattonnamanssqua are allowed-thirdly that neither Taphance nor Penabay, nor any of theirs shall at any time sell, or any way directly or indirectly make over or transfer the said twenty acres of land or any part thereof to any ; but if the said Taphance and they shall desert and leave the said land, or if in case the said Taphance and Penahay their male issue and posterity shall cease and extinguish, then the forementioned 20 acres of land shall fall to the inhabitants of Stamford, emediately without any further consideration, as their proper right; fourthly, the foresaid Taphance and Penahay both for themselves and theirs do hereby bind and engage themselves unto a dew and orderly subjection to all town orders of Stamford and the laws of the jurisdiction that are or shall bo made from time to time and for the true performance of the foresaid covenants and agreements respectively the parties above- mentioned do hereby bind themselves and theirs firmly. In witness of truth they have hereto set their hands the day and date above written. "Signed and delivered

in presence of

TAPHANCE

In behalf of Stamford. Richard Law Francis Bell

Richard Beach

PENSHAY

John Embrey

George Slason

Samuel Mills -

Jonathan Selleck John IJolly."

In about the year 1700 a confirmation was made by Catoona and Coee of all the previous grants to the English. Especial mention is made of deeds granted to the English by Taphassee, Ponus, Penehays, old Onax, young Onax, a deed to Capt. Turner, and also a deed by Hawatonaman. The article is signed by the following witnesses: John Eye alias Jolin Caukee, Pohornes, Renohoctam, Ramhorne, Smingo, Amtaugh, Awaricus, Mockea, Papakuma, Simorn, Catona, Capt. Manin, Wequacumak, Aquamana, Pupiamak.

THE STAMFORD PATENT.

The following is a copy of the patent granted to the Stamford inhabitants by the Connecticut colony under date May 26, 1685 :

" Whereas the generall court of Connecticutt hath formerly Granted unto the proprietors Inhabitants of the town of Standford all those lands beth meadow and upland within these abutments upon the sca at tho south, east on the five Mile Brooke between Standford aforcsaid & Nor- walke from the month of the sayd Brook till it meet with tho cross pass that now is where tho country roado crosseth the sayd path, and from theuee to run up into the conntry till Twelvo miles be run out upon tho same lyne that is between Stratford and fayrefield; and upon tho west Tatomak Brooke, where tho lowermost path or road that now is to Green- wich cutts the sayd brooke & from thence to run on a straight lyno to the west end of a lyne drawne, from the falls of Standford Mill river which sayd lyne is to run a due west poynt towards Greenwich hounds a meat mile & from tho west end of sayd line to run duo north to the present county roade towards Rye and from thence to run up into the eonntry the same line that it is between Norwalk and Standford to the end of the bownds, the sayd lands having been by purchas or otherwise law- fully obtayned of the Indian native proprietors, and whereas the proprie- tors, the aforesaid Inhabitants of Standford in the colony of Connecticutt have made application to the Governor and company of tho sayd colony of Connecticutt assembled In court May 25, 1685, that they have a patent for confirmation of the aforesayd lands so purchased and granted to them as aforesayd & which they have stood seized and quietly possessed of for many years last past without Interruption now for a more full confirma tion of the aforesaid tract of land as it is butted and bounded aforesayd unto the present proprietors of the sayd township of Stanford, in their possession and enjoyment of the premises; KNOW ye that tho said Goner- nor & company assembled in GENERAL COURT according to the eommis-

sion granted to them by bis Ma'tle in his charter have given & grauted & by these presents do give, grant, ratify and confirm unto Mr. Johu Bishop, Mr. Richard law, Capt. Jonathan Filleck, Capt. John Sieck, Lient. Francis Bell, Lient, Jonathan Bell, ensign John Bates, Mr. Abra- ham Ambler, Mr. peter ferris, Mr. Joshua Iloyte, and the rest of the said present proprietors of the township of Standford their helps, succes- sors and assigns forever, the aforerayd parcell of land as it Is Butted and Bounded together with all the meadows, pastures, ponds, waters, rivers, islands, fishings, Huntings, fowlings, mines, minerals, Quarries and precions stones upon or within the said tract of land and all other prof- fits comodities therennto belonging or In any wayes appertaining and do grant unto the aforesayd Mr. John Bishop, Mr. Richard lawe, Capt. Jonathan Silleck, Capt, John Silleck, Int. francis Bell, Lut. Jonathan Bell, ens. John Bates, Mr. Abraham Ambler, Mr. peter ferris & MIr. Joshna Hoyt & the rest of the proprictors Inhabitants of Standford their beirs successors and assigns forever that the aforerald tract of land +hall be forever after deemed, reputed & Le an Intire Township of it selfe, to have and to hold the sayd Tract of land and premises with all and singu- lar their appurtenances together, with the priviledges and Immunities and franchises herein given and granted unto the Fayd John Bishop, Richard law, Capt, Jonathan Silleck, Copt. John Silleck, Lut. francis Bell, Int. Jonathan Bell, Ens. John Bates, Mr. Abraham Ambler, Mr. peter ferris, & Mr. Joshua Hoyte and other the present proprietors In- habitants of Standford their heirs successors and assigns forever and to the only proper use & behoofe of the sayd Mr. John Bishop, Richard law, Capt. Jonathan Silleck, Capt. John Silleck, Int. Franci- Bell, Lut. Jona- than Bell, Ens. John Bates, Mr. Abraham Ambler, Mr. peter ferris & Mr. Joshua Hoyte.

" And other proprietors Inhabitants of Standford their heirs, sueces- sors and assigns forever, according to the tenor of East Greenwich in Kent in free & comon soccage & not in capitee nor by knight service-

" They to make improvment of the same as they are capable according to the customs of the country, yielding, rendering and paying therefore to our sovereign lord the king his heirs and successors his dues accord- ing to charter : In WITNESS whereof we have cause the scale of the col- ony to be here unto affixed this Twenty sixth of May One Thousand Six Hundred cighty-five in the first year of the reign of our sonereign lord king James the second of England, scotland france & Ircland, defender of the fayth.

" per order of the General Court, signed per me, Jolin Allyn Sec'y."

CHAPTER LXIX.

STAMFORD (Continued).

THIE SOLDIERY OF STAMFORD-THIE HEROES OF FOUR WARS.

The French and Indian Wars-List of Soldiers-Stamford in the Revo- lution-List of Revolutionary Soldiers-List of Stamford Loyalists- War of 1812-List of Volunteers.

THE record of Stamford's soldiery from the period of the French and Indian wars, in the second quarter of the eighteenth century, through the various cor .- flicts which our country has passed, to the close of the great Rebellion, 1861-65, is one in which the citizens of this old town may justly feel a patriotic pride.

THE FRENCHII AND INDIAN WARS.

From the town records of this period we find that Stamford was blive to the emergency, and in 1757 it was voted that if the "Lord of London shall send regulars into this town, the town will bear the charge of accommodating them with what shall be necessary for them."

In December, 1758, it was voted that Col. Hoyt. Mr. Abraham Davenport, and Ensign Holly be ap- pointed a committee to supply His Majesty's regular

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HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

forces, now quartered in this town, with firewood for their guard-room and hospital, and what bedding they should think proper to provide them with, to be paid for out of the town treasury." In October of the same year the government ordered paid to the town of Stamford the sum of three hundred and sixty-nine pounds and thirteen shillings and four pence halfpenny as compensation for keeping a part of Col. Frazer's Highland battalion the last winter.

The following record also appears :

"These may certify your Honors, that the Highland soldiers ordered to be quartered in the town of Stamford, arrived at said town, Nov. 30, 1757, and were quartered there until March 30, '58. The number of soldiers, officers included, was 250. There were also belonging to them, seventeen women and nine children. They were at the cost of the town provided with house-room, bedding, firewood, candles, &c., &c. Their officers insisted upon their being kept within a small compass, which ex- posed us to much more trouble and cost than otherwise would have been necessary.

"STAMFORD, April 28, 1758.

ABR. DAVENPORT, JNO. HOLLY,

JONA HOYT, ? Committee to take care of the High- landers."

Among the Stamford citizens who participated in these wars were the following: Maj. David Water- bury, Peter Scofield, Reuben Scofield, Abijah Weed, Benjamin Webb, Charles Webb, Jonathan, Sylvanus, and Deliverance Slason, and Ebenezer and Walter Weed. The records in the State library also show that the following Stamford men were in these wars:

In 1754, Charles Knap, ensign, was discharged and Joseph Husted chosen in his place. In November of this year Joseph Wood was chosen lieutenant of Capt. White's company.

In 1755, Company Fifth of Fourth Regiment was officered by Samuel Hanford, captain ; Joseph Hoyt, lieutenant ; and Isaiah Starr, second lieutenant, to go against Crown Point.

March 10, 1757, Col. Jonathan Hait notifies Capt. David Waterbury that his ensign, John Waterbury, had asked for discharge from having fallen from his horse and broken his leg. Samuel Hutton was chosen in his place.

Jonathan Maltby was captain of Company Two, and on his resignation Ebenezer Weed was chosen captain; Ezra Smith, lieutenant; and Charles Knapp, cnsign.

In the east part of the town the company called out in 1747 had for its officers Jonathan Bates, captain ; Jonathan Selleck, lieutenant; and Thomas Hanford and Nathan Reed, ensigns.

In the first registry of births, marriages, and deaths is the following entry :

"Joseph Bishop, a Sholger, son of Joseph Bishop of Stamford, died with sickness at Lake George, Nov. 25, at night in the year 1755."

"Stephen Ambler, a soldier in the expedition at Lake George in 1754, son to Sergeant Steplien Ambler, died on his return at Sharon, Oct. 19, 1756."

"Ezra Hait, of Stamford a sholger, dyed at Albyny Dec. 28, 1755."

"Joseph Ferris, a Shoulger from Stamford in ye expedition towards Crown point in ye year 1756, in his return from the expedition dyed with sickness at Newfilford, on December ye 18, 1756."

THE REVOLUTION.

The following history of Stamford in the Revolu- tion and incidents of that period are compiled from Huntington's historical work :

" At the commencement of the Revolutionary war Connecticut numbered but sixty-seven towns, and Stamford ranked in population the sixteenth. Her grand list was £34,078 8s., which evidenced a still higher rank in means than in population. The year 1775 found her represented in the State Assembly by David Waterbury and Charles Webb, both of whom liad seen service in the old French war, and were therefore competent to advise in the present emer- gencies of the State; and, by an unusual stroke of good fortune, she was also honored in the Senate of the State by the first name among her civilians, the Hon. Abraham Davenport, who also had been active and influential during the long struggles of the French and Indian wars. The long-expected crisis had now come. Everything indicated war. Yet though there were many reasons why our townsmen would be likely to shrink from an earnest contest with the mother-country, they were not altogether unpre- pared for it. They had both the men and the means to begin and prosecute the struggle.

" At the head of our ministers, of which the town then counted only five, was that patriot and scholar, Dr. Noah Welles, who, since his sermon preached Dec. 19, 1765, to arouse the people over the great out- rage attempted against them by the Stamp Act, had missed no opportunity of encouraging his townsmen to a manly resistance against all such oppression, and who, though called to lay down his useful life even at the beginning of the struggle, yet lived long enough to preach his annual thanksgiving sermon, Nov. 16, 1775. In that sermon, a manuscript copy of which is in my possession, he moved his people to a grateful commemoration of the goodness of their fathers' God, as shown them in 'frustrating the plans of our ene- mies,' especially in their attempts to secure the aid of the Canadians and Indians and negroes, in so signally preserving the lives of our exposed people, in grant- ing the remarkable success attending our military en- terprises at Lexington, Charleston, and more lately to the north, in which, though 'engaged with the best British troops,' he assures thiem we were 'yet never worsted,' and in inspiring the remarkable union and harmony through the colonies in the present struggle for liberty.

"Nor behind him, in his fervent patriotism, was that faithful coadjutor, Rev. Dr. Moses Mather, then the patriot minister of the Middlesex ( Darien) Church, and so soon to test his patriotism amid the insulting jeers of the ruthless soldiery who were to drag him from his own consecrated sanctuary, and still more triumphantly amid the cruel hardships and threat- ened horrors of the execrable Provost prison to which he was doomed.

" At the head of our civilians stood the honorable

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STAMFORD.

Abraham Davenport, a man of college education, long familiar with the public service in civil life, well grounded in such legal learning as enabled him, with no misgivings, to rely upon the essential justice of the Revolutionary cause, endowed, more than most men, with an instinctive reverenee for what was right and an inflexible purpose to insist upon it, and, what was of scarcely less value to him for the part he was called to aet, the inheritor of a large estate, and the father of an educated and now influential family, who thoroughly sympathized with him in his espousal of the patriot cause.

"Side by side with him, ready to the utmost of their means to sustain any measures which mnight promise to aid them in asserting the rights of the colonies against the unjust demands of the crown, stood the substantial citizens of the town,-the Hoyts, and Hollys, and Lockwoods, and Knapps, and Sco- fields, and Smiths, and Seelyes, and Warings, and Wa- terburys, and Webbs, and Weeds.

"Nor were we without military men for the emer- gency. There were the Waterburys, then known as senior and junior, the former long a colonel in the Continental service who had earned some reputation for good judgment and military ability in the field, and the latter soon to earn, by his personal fitness for it, the rank of general of brigade; and also the two Webbs, father and son, the one now a colonel, to test and prove his claim still more fully in several well- fought battles of the pending strife, and the other to pay the forfeit of his active and not unmeritorious service with his own imprisonment and death. Then there was the spirited Joseph Hoyt, the leader of our minute-men, who only needed to hear that patriot blood had been shed at Lexington to fly to our ex- posed metropolis for its defense, and who was so soon to become the fighting colonel of our fighting Sev- enth ; and then our captains and lieutenants and en- signs, and, still more needed and helpful than they, our long list of resolute privates, honoring the name of all our principal Stamford families and cheerfully girding themselves for manliest defense of their homes. Thus with one brigadier, two or more colo- nels, a half-dozen captains, a full dozen lieutenants, with a number of commissaries and agents of the mil- itary power, sustained by a gallant band of the rank and file of the army for independence, Stamford, in spite of the special temptations to the opposite course, maintained her honor in that great struggle whichi made these British colonies forever free from the dic- tation and greed of an unscrupulous foreign power.

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History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 173

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1572

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572