USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 27
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James Redfield, probably the apprentice before-mentioned, is on the rate list of 1666, but his history from this point, is not clearly as- certained. A James Redfield married Elizabeth How, at New Ha- ven, in 1669, and had a daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1670. A per-
$1 This name, on the early records, is often strangely corrupted into Redfin.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
son of the same name, a weaver by trade, was a resident of Saybrook in 1676.1 One or both of these may be identical with James, son of William, of New London ; and as Redfield was not a very common name, it would not be strange if all the three might be reduced to one.
Sergeant Richard Hartley, died Aug. 7th, 1662.
The title of Sergeant, is derived from office held before he came to New London. He was an Englishman, and acted as agent to merchants in England, who consigned goods to him to sell. His will was written down from his mouth, Aug. 5th, " Witnesses, Gershom Bulkley, minister, Obadiah Bruen, Recorder, Lucresia Brewster, midwife, Wm. Hough, constable." His inventory amounted to £281, 6s. 9d .; one chest of his goods was afterward claimed by Thomas Reavell. He left his property to his wife and only child in England. In 1673, his house-lot, warehouse and wharf, were sold by James Avery, as attorney to Mary Wadsworth, formerly wife to Richard Hartley, and Martha Hartley, daughter of the same, both of Stanfield, in the county of York, England.
Isaac Willey, Jr., died in Aug., 1662.
He was a young man, probably not long married. His inventory, though slender, contains a few articles not very common, viz., "tynen pans ; a tynen quart pot ; cotton yarn," &c., together with one so common as to be almost universal-a dram cup, which appears in nearly every inventory for a century or more after the settlement.
Isaac Willey, Jr., left no children ; his relict, Frances, married Clement Minor.
John Tinker, died at Hartford, in Oct., 1662.
The General Court ordered that the expenses of his sickness and funeral, amounting to £8, 6s. 4d., should be paid out of the public treasury.
" Children of John and Alice Tinker.
" 1. Mary born 2 July 1653
4. Samuel born 1 April, 1659
" 2. John " 4 Aug 55 5. Rhoda 66 23 Feb. 1661-2."
" 3. Amos " 28 Oct. 57
1 Conn. Col. Rec., vol. 2, p. 468.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Alice, relict of John Tinker, married, in 1664, Wm. Measure, a scrivener or attorney, who subsequently removed with the family to Lyme. Mr. Measure died during the administration of Sir Edmund Andross, and his inventory, dated July 27th, 1688, is recorded in Boston. His relict, Alice, died Nov. 20th, 1714, aged eighty-five years to a day.
Thomas Hungerford, died 1663.
Estate, £100. Children, three-" Thomas, aged about fifteen ; Sarah, nine; Hannah, four years old, this first of May, 1663." The relict of Thomas Hungerford, married Samuel Spencer, of East Had- dam ; one of the daughters married Lewis Hughes, of Lyme.
On the road leading from New London to the Nahantick bar, (Rope Ferry) nearly in the parallel of Bruen's Neck, is a large sin- gle rock of granite, that in former times was popularly known as Hungerford's Fort. It is also mentioned on the proprietary records in describing the pathway to Bruen's Neck, as " the great rock called Hungerfort's Fort." We must refer to tradition for the origin of the name. It is said that a young daughter of the Hunger- ford family, (Hannah ?) being alone on this road, on her way to school, found herself watched and pursued by a hungry wolf. He made his approaches cautiously, and she had time to secure some weapon of defense, and to retreat to this rock before he actually made his attack. And here she succeeded in beating him off, though he made several leaps up the rock, and his fearful bark almost bewil- dered her senses, till assistance came.
We can not account for the name and the tradition, without allow- ing that some strange incident occurred in connection with the rock, and that a wolf and a member of the Hungerford family were involv- ed in it; but the above account may not be a correct version of the story.
Thomas Hungerford, 2d, had a grant of land in 1673, " four miles from town," and his name occurs, as an inhabitant, for ten or twelve years, though he was afterward of Lyme. The heroine of the rock is more likely to have been a member of his family, than of that of his father, whose residence was in the town plot, on the bank.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
+ Robert Parke,1 died 1665.
Mr. Parke was called an aged man, in 1662. His will is on the town book, dated May 14th, 1660; proved in March, 1664-5. He names only three children, William, Samuel and Thomas. Of the second son, Samuel, we have no information, except what may be inferred from the clause relating to him in the will. The oldest son, Deacon William Parke, of Roxbury, executor of the will, is directed to pay to Samuel, £50.
" Provided my said son Samuel, shall first come and demand the same in Roxbury within the time and space of seven years next and immediately after the date hereof."
Mr. Parke was of Wethersfield, in 1640, and made freeman of the colony in April, of that year. He was deputy to the General Court in Sept., 1641, and again in Sept., 1642 ;2 but removed to Pequot in 1649 ; was a resident in the town plot about six years, and then es- tablished himself on the banks of the Mystic.
Thomas Parke, son of Robert, was also of Wethersfield, and had two children born there-Martha, in 1646, and Thomas, in 1648. His wife, Dorothy, is supposed to have been sister to Mrs. Blinman ; the family name has not been recovered. Thomas Parke, after resi- ding a number of years at Mystic, within the bounds of Stonington, removed with his son, Thomas Parke, Jr., to lands belonging to them in the northern part of New London, and, in 1680, they were both reckoned as inhabitants of the latter place. They were afterward included in Preston, and Thomas Parke, Sen., was the first deacon of Mr. Treat's church, organized in that town in 1698. He died July 30th, 1709. Beside the children before mentioned, he had sons, Rob- ert, Nathaniel, William and John, and daughters, Alice and Dorothy, of whom no dates of birth have been found.3 Alice Parke became the wife of Greenfield Larrabee, (second of the name,) and Dorothy Parke, of Joseph Morgan.
1 Often written Parks.
2 Conn. Col. Rec., vol. 1, pp. 46, 66, 74.
8 The name of Alice Parke is found as a witness to deeds executed in 1658, which makes it probable that she was older than those born in Wethersfield, otherwise she could not have been more than eight or nine years of age. The law had not probably determined the age necessary to constitute a legal witness, but this was quite too young.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
James Bemas, died in July, 1665.
This date is obtained by inference. James Bemas had been cho- sen constable for the year 1665 ; but on the 24th of July, Joseph Coit was appointed in his place, and his wife was soon after mentioned as the widow Bemas. She married in 1672 or 1673, Edward Griswold, of Killingworth. Two daughters of the widow Bemas were baptized in 1671, Rebecca and Mary ; but of the last-named, nothing further is known. Rebecca, daughter of James Bemas, married, April 3d, 1672, Tobias Minter, an emigrant from Newfoundland, and had a son Tobias born Feb. 26th, 1673-4. Her husband soon died, probably at sea, and she married, June 17th, 1674, John Dymond, another seaman, and had children, John, born in 1675, Sarah, in 1676, and Jonathan, 1678. The period of Dymond's death is not ascertained; but the widow was united to a third sailor husband, as per record :
" Benedict Shatterly, son of William Shatterly of Devonshire, Old England, near Exon, was marryed unto Rebecca the widow of John Dymond, August 2, 1682."
Shatterly (or Satterly) is supposed to have died about 1689. He left two daughters, Sarah and Rebecca, and probably a son. Sarah Satterly married Joseph Wickham, of Killingworth. A late notice of Rebecca is obtained from Hempstead's Journal, under date of 1749- He is recording a visit that he had made to Long Island, and says :
" I called to see Joseph Sweezy and Rebekah his wife, formerly of Occubauk in Southold. She was a New London woman ; her maiden name was Sat- terly, born in an old house that belonged to her mother in old Mr. Coit's lot that joins to mine."
The Bemas house-lot, lying next to Robert Hempstead's, with a run of water between, was purchased of the heirs of John Coit, the deed of confirmation being signed by Tobias Minter, grandson of James Bemas, June 8th, 1694. It then comprised seven acres, and included the hollow lot, through which Cottage Street was opened in 1845, and a landing-place on the cove, where the old Bocage house now stands. Mr. Coit built a new house on the lot, which escaped the burning brand of the invader in 1781, and with the well-ordered grounds that surround it, still forms one of the choice homesteads of the town. The old Bemas house stood west of this, near the rivulet, with an orchard in the rear, upon the sloping land beneath the ledge of rocks. Of this orchard, one representative, an ancient apple-tree, is yet standing-a relic of a family that entirely passed away from the place, one hundred and sixty years ago. We can scarcely point
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
to any memorial of the founders of the town, more venerable than that apple-tree; and though it may not have been one of those nurs- ery plants, of which it is said, Winthrop obtained a large number, and distributed as a bonus to the first settlers, there can be little doubt but that it was a fruit-bearing tree before 1700.1
Ancient Apple Tree, on the ground of Jonathan Coit, Esq.
Andrew Longdon.
This person was an early settler in Wethersfield. He was on the jury of the Particular Court, at Hartford, in Sept., 1643.2 In 1649, came to Pequot Harbor. In 1660, was appointed prison-keeper, and his house to be used as the town-prison. In July, 1665, Margaret, widow of Andrew Longdon, conveys her land, cattle and goods, to
1 The trunk of this apple-tree, measured a little above the surface of the ground, is fourteen or fifteen feet in circumference; the hollow within, about nine feet. Three or four persons can stand together in the trunk, which is a mere shell, although the tree has yet several thrifty limbs, which have blossomed profusely the present year, (1852.) It is several years since it has produced any fruit.
2 Conn. Col. Rec., vol. 1, p. 92.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Wm. Douglas, on condition that he maintain her during life, give her a decent burial, and discharge her husband's debts. This is the only allusion to his death. The relict was living in 1667. No children are mentioned. The name is identical with Langdon.
William Chesebrough, died June 9th, 1667.
Though living at Pawkatuck, Mr. Chesebrough was chosen deputy from New London to the General Court, five times between 1653 and 1657. No fact shows more clearly the identity of the two settle- ments at that time. The name of Mr. Chesebrough's wife is said by family tradition to have been Deborah. No daughter is mentioned. He had five sons, Nathaniel, Elihu, Samuel, Elisha and Joseph. The last mentioned was born at Braintree, July 18th, 1640. This Joseph was probably the one that according to tradition died sud- denly, soon after the removal of the family to Pawkatuck. It is said that one of the sons, a young lad, while mowing on the marsh, cut himself with the scythe so severely that he bled to death. He was interred on the banks of Wicketequack Creek, which flowed past their lonely residence. The spot thus early consecrated by receiving the dead into its bosom, became the common burial-ground of the family and the neighborhood. Here, undoubtedly, Mr. Chesebrough and all his sons were buried. Here, probably, lies the first Walter Palmer, in the midst of an untold throng of descendants. Here we may suppose Thomas Stanton to have been garnered, near the stones bearing the names of his sons Robert and Thomas. Here, also, were laid to rest the remains of Thomas Minor, and of his son, Deacon Manasseh Minor, the first-born male of New London. The Rev. Mr. James Noyes, Hallam, Searle, Thomson, Breed, and other an- cients of Stonington, repose in this hallowed ground.
John Picket, died August 16th, 1667.
It is much to be regretted that a full record of the early marriages, which were undoubtedly by Mr. Winthrop, was not preserved. The marriage of John Picket and Ruth Brewster belongs to the unre- corded list. Their children were :
1. Mary, who married Benjamin Shapley.
2. Ruth, who married Mr. Moses Noyes, first minister of Lyme.
3. William, who died about 1690.
4. Jolın, born July 25th, 1656.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
5. Adam, born November 15th, 1658.
6. Mercy, born January 16th, 1660-1 ; married Samuel Fosdick.
Mr. Picket's estate was appraised at £1,140. This was sufficient to rank him, at that period, as one of the wealthiest merchants of the place.
Ruth, relict of John Picket, married, July 18th, 1668, Charles Hill.
The three sons of Mr. Picket died young, and at sea; two of them, and perhaps all, in the island of Barbadoes. John and William were unmarried.
Adam Picket married, May 16th, 1680, Hannah, daughter of Daniel Wetherell. He died in 1691, leaving two sons; Adam, born in 1681 ; John, in 1685. The former died in 1709, without issue, so that the family genealogy recommences with a unit.
The Picket house-lot, at the south-western extremity of the bank, descended nearly integral' to the fourth John Picket, among whose children it was divided, and sold by them in small house plots, between 1740 and 1750. Brewer Street was opened on the western border of this lot in 1745, and at first called Picket Street. John Picket, the fifth of the name, removed from New London, and with him, the male branch of the family passed away from the place. Descendants may be traced in the line of Peter Latimer, whose wife was Hannah Picket, and of Richard Christophers, who married Mary Picket, daughters of John Picket the fourth.
Andrew Lester died June 7th, 1669.
The births of four children of Andrew and Barbara Lester are re- corded at Gloucester, viz .:
1. Daniel, born April 15th, 1642.
3. Mary, born December 26th, 1647.
2. Andrew, born Dec. 26th, 1644. 4. Anne, born March 21st, 1651.
Andrew Lester was licensed to keep a house of entertainment at Gloucester, by the county court, 26th of second month, 1648. He removed to Pequot in 1651; was constable and collector in 1668.
1 One exception must be made; a portion of the lot had been given by the first John Picket to his daughter, Mercy, the wife of Samuel Fosdick, by whom it was sold to William Rogers, and by him to George Denison, ship-wright of Westerly, and by the latter, in 1734, to Capt. Nathaniel Shaw. Capt. Shaw blasted away the rocks to obtain a convenient site, and out of the materials erected the stone house, now the residence of one of his descendants, N. S. Perkins, M. D. It has been enlarged by the present possessor, in the same way that it was first built-with materials uprooted from the foundation on which it stands.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
His wife Barbara, died February 2d, 1653-4, the first death of a woman on record in the plantation. His second wife was Joanna, relict of Robert Hempstead, who died before 1660 ; no children men- tioned. By a third wife, Ann, he had :
5. Timothy, born July 4th, 1662 ; 6. Joseph, born June 15th, 1664; 7. Benjamin. His relict married Isaac Willey. "Widow Anna Willey, sometime wife to Andrew Lester, Sen., deceased," died in 1692.
Sergeant Daniel Lester, oldest son of Andrew, lived upon the Great Neck, where he died January 16th, 1716-17. He was brought into town and buried under arms. Joseph and Benjamin Lester also settled on farms in the vicinity of the town plot. The descendants of the latter are very numerous. By his first wife, Ann Stedman, he had nine sons and two daughters, and probably other children by a second wife. No descendants of Timothy, son of Andrew Lester have been traced.
Andrew Lester, Jr., settled east of the river ; was constable for that side in 1669, and is supposed to have been the first deacon of the Groton church. He died in 1708.
William Morton, died 1669,
A native of London and proud of his birthplace, it is probable that the influence of William Morton had something to do with the persevering determination of the inhabitants to call their plantation New London. He was the first proprietor of that sandy point over which Howard Street now runs to meet the new bridge to Mama- cock. This was at first called Morton's Point ; then Hog Neck, from the droves of swine that resorted thither to root up the clams at low tide ; and afterward Windmill Point, from the structure erected upon it. It has also at various times borne the names of its owners, Fosdick, Howard, &c., and is now a part of the larger point known as Shaw's Neck.
On this point, the latter years of Mr. Morton's life were spent in comparative silence and poverty. In 1668, it is noted in the modera- tor's book, " Mr. Morton's town rate is remitted," and at the June session of the county court in 1669, the appointment of Mr. Wether- ell to settle his estate, shows that he had deceased. The last remnant of this estate, consisting of a ten acre grant at Bachelor's Cove, in Groton, given to him by the town in 1650, was sold in 1695, to Waite Winthrop, Esq., and the deed confirmed by Morton's heirs :
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
" Nathaniel Randall, of Boston, baker, son and heir apparent to John Ran- dall, late of the parish of St. James, Clerkenwell, Co. of Middlesex, London, silk-throster, deceased, and Elizabeth his wife, also deceased, who was sister and heir of William Mourton, late of New London, gentleman, deceased."
Mr. Morton must be added to the list of childless and lonely men to be found among the planters of New London. The two Bartletts, Collins, Cotter, Longdon, Loveland, Merritt, Morton, Poole, Roberts, left no descendants here, and several of them appear to have been un- married.
Robert Latimer,1 died about 1671.
This is ascertained from the proceedings on the settlement of the estate in 1693, when his relict Ann presented the inventory, and re- quested a legal distribution of the property of her husband, " who de- ceased twenty-two years since." Mrs. Ann Latimer had two children by her first husband, Matthew Jones, of Boston. These were Matthew and Sarah. The children of Robert and Ann Latimer were also two :
Robert, born February 5th, 1663-4; Elizabeth, born November 14th, 1667. The two sisters married brothers. Sarah Jones became the wife of John Prentis; Elizabeth Latimer, of Jonathan Prentis. Mrs. Latimer died in 1693, and the estate was divided among the four children, in nearly equal proportion. Matthew Jones, the son of Mrs. Latimer, was a sea-captain, sailing from Boston, and at no time appears ás an inhabitant of New London. The Latimer homestead was on the Town Street and Winthrop's Cove, comprising the old Congregational parsonage, and the Edgar place opposite.
Capt. Robert Latimer, 2d, amassed a considerable estate in land. Beside the homestead in town, he purchased the Royce and Com- stock lots, on Williams and Vauxhall Streets, covering the ridge of Post Hill. Westward of the town plot, he inherited a considerable tract of swamp and cedar land, on one portion of which Cedar Grove Cemetery was laid out in 1851, the land having to that time remained in the possession of his descendants. He owned likewise a farm at Black Point, and an unmeasured quantity of wild land in the woods, in what is now Chesterfield Society, in Montville.
No connection between the Latimers of New London and the early planter of this name in Wethersfield has been traced. It is most
1 Usually in the earlier records written Lattemore.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
probable that Robert Latimer, of New London, was an emigrant direct from England.
Edward Codner,1 died 1671.
He appears to have been a mariner and trader ; was of New Lon- don, 1651, with wife Priscilla ; came from Saybrook ; returned thith- er again, and there died, leaving a widow Alice. His possessions in New London accrued to his son, Laurence or Laurent, who was ad- ministrator of the estate. He left also a daughter.
Laurence Codner was an inhabitant before 1664. By his wife Sarah, he had three children, two of them sons, who died in infancy. His daughter Sarah married Thomas Bennet, of Mystic. The Cod- ner homestead was on the Town Street, north of the present Hunt- ington lane, and extending to the old burial ground. It was the original home-lot of Jarvis Mudge.
George Codner, of New London, 1662 and 1664, has not been fur- ther traced.
William Nicholls, died September 4th, 1673.
A person of this name, and probably the same man, had land given him in Salem, 1638.2 He was an early and substantial settler at Pe- quot ; often on committees, and sustaining both town and church offi- ces. He married Ann, relict of Robert Isbell, but no allusion is made to children by this or any former wife. Widow Ann Nicholls died September 15th, 1689. Her two children, by her first husband, died before her, but she left four grandchildren, a son and daughter of Eleazer Isbell, and a son and daughter of Thomas Stedman.
George Tonge, died in 1674.
The early records have his name written Tongue, but the orthog- raphy used by himself is given above. In the will of Peter Collins, in 1655, Capt. James Tong is mentioned as a debtor to the estate. This person was not of New London, but he may have been brother of George, of whom nothing is known until he appears in New London about 1652. His marriage is not recorded.
1 Sometimes Codnall.
2 Felt, p. 169,
25
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Children of George and Margery Tonge :
1. Elizabeth, born October 20th, 1652; married Fitz-John Winthrop.
2. Hannah, born July 20th, 1654 ; married Joshua Baker.
3. 'Mary, born September 17th, 1656; married John Wickwire.
4. George, born May 8th, 1658. .
George Tonge was sixty-eight years of age in 1668. His wife was probably younger. Hempstead's diary mentions the death of " Goody Tongue," December 1st, 1713 ; this was undoubtedly his relict. No other family of the name appears among the inhabitants. The inn so long kept by George Tonge and his widow and heirs, stood on the bank between the present Pearl and Tilley Streets. Madam Winthrop inherited the house, and occupied it after the death of her husband. She sold portions of the lot to John Mayhew, Joseph Tal- man and others. A small, gray head-stone in the old burial ground bears the following inscription : ) :- :
" HERE LYETH THE BOOT OF MADAM ELIZABETE WINTHROP, WIFE OF THE HONOVRABLE GOVERNOVR WINTHROP, WHO DIED APRIL YE 25TH, 1731, IN HER 79TH YEAR."
George Tonge and his wife and children, as legatees of Richard Poole, inherited a considerable tract of land in the North Parish, which went into the Baker and Wickwire families. Pole's or Poole's Hill, which designates a reach of high forest land in Montville, is supposed to derive its name from Richard Poole. Of George Tonge the sec- ond, (born 1658,) no information whatever has been recovered; but we may assume with probability that he was the father of John Tongue, who married Anna Wheeler, November 21st, 1702, and had a nu- merous family of sons and daughters.
Thomas Bayley,1 died about 1675.
Thomas Bayley married, January 10th, 1655-6, Lydia, daughter of James Redfield. The same month a grant was made to him by the townsmen, " with the advice and consent of Mr. Winthrop," of a lot lying north of Mr. Winthrop's land, upon the east side of the river. Relinquishing his house in the town plot, he settled on this grant,
1 His descendants uniformly write the name Bailey.
.. ..
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
which by subsequent additions expanded into a farm. His children were:
1. Mary, born February 14th, 1656-7; married Andrew Davis.
2. Thomas, born March 5th, 1658-9.
3. John, born in April, 1661.
4. William, born April 17th, 1664.
5. James, born September 26th, 1666.
6. Joseph.
7. Lydia.
Lydia, relict of Thomas Bayley, married in 1676, William Thorne, of Dor- setshire, old England.
William Keeny, died 1675.
He was aged sixty-one in 1662, and his wife Agnes (or Annis,) sixty-three. His daughter Susannah, who married Ralph Parker, thirty-four; Mary, who married Samuel Beeby, twenty-two, and his son John, twenty-one. No other children are mentioned.
John Keeny, son of William, married in October, 1661, Sarah, daughter of William Douglas. They had daughter Susannah, born September 6th, 1662, who married Ezekiel Turner. No other child is recorded. The wife died August 4th, 1689. John Keeny was subsequently twice married, and had five daughters, and a son John ; the latter born February 13th, 1700-1.
John Keeny died February 3d, 1716, on the Keeny land, at Na- hantick, which has since been divided into three or four farms.
John Gallop.
He was the son of John Gallop, of Massachusetts, and both father and son were renowned as Indian fighters. Capt. John Gallop, of Stonington, was one of the six captains slain in the Narragansett fort fight, Dec. 19th, 1675. His wife was Hannah, daughter of Mrs. Margaret Lake. The division made of his estate by order of the county court, was, to the widow, £100 ; to the oldest son, John, £137 ; to Ben-Adam, £90 ; to William and Samuel, £89 each ; to the five daughters, £70 each. No record of the births of these children has been recovered. The sons are supposed to be mentioned above in the order of age. Ben-Adam was born in 1655; William in 1658. The order in which the daughters should be placed is not known.
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