USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 33
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" Wee the Subscribers being impaneld and sworne on a jury of inquest to view the body of Edward Stallion-have accordingly viewed the corpse and according to the best of our judgments and by what information wee have had doe judge that he was drowned by falling out of his Canno the 14th day of this instant and that hee had noe harm from any person by force or violence. New London May ye 31, 1703.
Joseph Latham
Wm. Potts
Wm Thorne (his mark. T.)
John Bayley
Andrew Lester
Joshua Bill
Jonathan Lester
Phillip Bill
James Morgan
Gershom Rice
Wm Swadle
John Williams."
Though dated at New London, this jury was impanneled in that part of the township which is now Ledyard, and the names belong to that place and Groton. The town had not then been divided.
Ezekiel Turner, died January 16th, 1703-4.
He was a son of John Turner of Scituate, and grandson of Hum- phrey Turner, an emigrant of 1628. His mother was Mary, daughter of Jonathan Brewster. At New London we have no account of him earlier than his marriage with Susannah, daughter of John Keeny, Dec. 26th, 1678. He left one son Ezekiel, and a band of ten daugh- ters, the youngest an infant at the time of his decease. His neighbor,
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Oliver Manwaring, had two sons and eight daughters of nearly coin- cident ages, and it was a common saying, that these two families had daughters enough to stock the town.
Ezekiel Turner, second, married Borradil Denison and settled in Groton. Elisha and Thomas Turner, supposed also to come from the Scituate family, settled in the town after 1720. From Thomas, who married Patience, daughter of John Bolles, (Nov. 23d, 1727,) most of the Turner families of New London and Montville are de- scended.
Jonathan Turner from South Kingston purchased in 1735, a farm upon the Great Neck (Waterford) and has also descendants in New London and its neighborhood.
Sergeant George Darrow, died in 1704.
From inferential testimony it is ascertained that George Darrow married Mary, relict of George Sharswood. The baptisms but not the births of their children are recorded :
1. Christopher, bap. Dec. 1st, 1678. 3. Nicholas, May 20th, 1683.
2. George, " Oct. 17th, 1680. 4. Jane, April 17th, 1692. Mary, wife of George Darrow, died in 1698.
George Darrow and Elizabeth Marshall of Hartford were married Aug. 10th, 1702.
The above list comprises all the children recorded, but there may have been others. Christopher Darrow married Elizabeth Packer, a granddaughter of Cary Latham. In a corner of a field upon the Great Neck, on what was formerly a Darrow farm, is a group of four gravestones; one of them bears the following inscription :
" In memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Darrow, wife of Mr. Christopher Darrow, who died in February 1758, aged 78 years. She was mother to 8 children, 43 grand-children, 30 great grand-children. Has had 100" (descendants ?)
Major Christopher Darrow, a brave soldier of the French and Revolutionary Wars, who lived in the North Parish, and Elder Zadok Darrow, a venerable Baptist minister of Waterford, were descendants of Christopher and Elizabeth Darrow.
George Sharswood.
Only flitting gleams are obtained of this person and his family. They come and go like figures exhibited for scenic effect. George Sharswood appears before us in 1666; is inserted in the rate list of
348
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
1667 ; the next year builds a house, and apparently about the same time becomes a married man, though of this event we can find no record. His children presented for baptism were, George and Wil- liam, April 2d, 1671; Mary in 1672, and Katherine in 1674. Of his death there is no account; but before 1678, the relict had mar- ried George Darrow. The children being young, the estate was left unsettled, and in a few years, only William and Mary were living.
June 24th, 1700, William Sharswood " sometime of Cape May but now of New London," has the house and land of his father made over to him by a quitclaim deed from Sergt. George Darrow. The September following he has three children, Jonathan, George and Abigail, baptized by the Rev. Mr. Saltonstall. He then disappears from our sight.
In September, 1704, measures were instituted to settle the estate of the elder Sharswood, and in the course of the proceedings we learn that the daughter, Mary, was the wife of Jonathan Hill, and that William Sharswood, the son, had recently deceased in New Cas- tle county Delaware.
In 1705, Abigail, relict of William Sharswood, was the wife of George Polly of Philadelphia. The estate in New London was not fully settled till 1724, nearly fifty years after the decease of George Sharswood. Jonathan Hill was the administrator, and the acquit- tances were signed by Abigail Polly and the surviving sons of Wil- liam Sharswood-William, of Newcastle, and George and James, of Philadelphia.1
John Harvey, died in January, 1705.
The name of John Harvey is first noticed about 1682. He was then living near the head of Niantic River, and perhaps within the bounds of Lyme. He left sons John and Thomas, and daughter Elizabeth Willey.
Williams.
No genealogy in New London county is more extensive and per- plexing than that of Williams. The families of that name are de- rived from several distinct ancestors. Among them John Williams and Thomas Williams appear to stand disconnected; at least, no
1 The present George Sharswood, Esq., of Philadelphia, is a descendant of George of New London.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
relationship with their contemporaries has been traced, or with each other. They are entirely distinct from the Stonington family of Williams, although the names are in many cases identical.
The first Williams in New London was William, who is in the rate list of 1664. He lived on the east, or Groton side of the river, and died in 1704, leaving four sons, Richard, William, Henry and Stephen, all of full age, and a daughter Mary, wife of Samuel Packer.
Thomas Williams appears in the plantation, about 1670. His cattle mark was enrolled in 1680. He lived west of the river at or near Mohegan, and died Sept. 24th, 1705, about sixty-one years of age. He left a widow Joanna and eleven children, between the ages of twelve and thirty-three years, and a grandchild who was heir of a deceased daughter. The sons were John, Thomas, Jonathan, Wil- liam, Samuel and Ebenezer.
John Williams, another independent branch of this extended name, married in 1685 or 1686, Jane, relict of Hugh Hubbard and daugh- ter of Cary Latham. No trace of him earlier than this has been noticed. He succeeded to the lease of the ferry, (granted for fifty years to Cary Latham,) and lived, as did also his wife, to advanced age. " He kept the ferry," says Hempstead's diary, "when Groton and New London were one town, and had but one minister, and one captain's company." When he died, Dec. 3d, 1741, within the same bounds were eight religious societies, and nine military companies, five on the west side and four in Groton. He left an only son, Peter, of whom Capt. John Williams who perished in the massacre at Groton fort in 1781, was a descendant.
John and Eleazar Williams, brother and son of Isaac Williams, of Roxbury, Mass., settled in Stonington about the year 1687, and are the ancestors of another distinct line, branches of which have been many years resident in New London and Norwich. The gen- ealogy of this family belongs more particularly to Stonington.
Ebenezer Williams, son of Samuel of Roxbury, and cousin of John and Eleazar, settled also in Stonington, and left descendants there. He was brother of the Rev. John Williams, first minister of Deerfield, who was taken captive with his family by the French and Indians in 1701. A passage from Hempstead's diary avouches this relationship:
" Sept. 9, 1733. Mr. Ebenezer Williams of Stonington is come to see a French woman in town that says she is daughter to his brother the late Rev. Mr. Williams of Deerfield taken by the French and Indians thirty years ago."
30
350
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
This passage refers to a young daughter of the Deerfield family that was never redeemed from captivity, but lived and died among the Indians. She was probably often personated for sinister ends. The French woman mentioned above was unquestionably an impostor.
Capt. John Williams, of Poquetannock, (Ledyard,) was yet another original settler of the name. He is said to have come directly from Wales and to have had no relationship with other families in the country. We quote a cotemporary notice of his death :
"Jan. 12, 1741-2. Capt, John Williams died at Pockatonnock of pleurisy, after 7 days' illness. He was a good commonwealth's man, traded much by sea and land with good success for many years, and acquired wholly by lis own industry a great estate. He was a very just dealer, aged about 60 years."1
Brigadier-General Joseph Williams of Norwich, one of the West- ern Reserve purchasers, was a son of Capt. John Williams.
Benjamin Shapley, died August 3d, 1706.
Benjamin, son of Nicholas Shapleigh of Boston, was born, accord- ing to Farmer's Register, in 1645. We find no difficulty in appro- priating this birth to Benjamin Shapley, mariner, who about 1670 became an inhabitant of New London. The facts which have been gathered respecting his family are as follows :
" Benjamin, son of Nicholas Shapley of Charlestown, married Mary, daugh- ter of John Picket, April 1 0th, 1672."
Children.
1. Ruth, b. Dec. 24th, 1672-married John Morgan of Groton.
2. Benjamin, b. Mar. 20th, 1675 -- m. Ruth, daughter of Thomas Dymond.
3. Mary, b. Mar. 26th, 1677 -- married Joseph Truman.
4. Joseph, b. Aug. 15th, 1681 -- died young.
5. Ann, b. Aug. 31st, 1685 -- married Thomas Avery of Groton.
6. Daniel, b. Feb. 14th, 1689-90-m. Abigail Pierson of Killingworth.
7. Jane, b. - 1696 -- married Joshua Appleton.
S. Adam, b. 1698 -- died young.
Mary, relict of Benjamin Shapley, died Jan. 15th, 1734-5. The Shapley house-lot was on Main Street, next north of the Christo- phers lot, and was originally laid out to Kempo Sybada, a Dutch captain. Shapley Street was opened through it in 1746. Captain Adam Shapley, who received his death wound at Fort Griswold, in 1781, was a descendant of Daniel Shapley.
1 Hempstead, (MS.)
351
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Anthony Ashby.
A person of this name kept a house of entertainment at Salem in 1670.1 It was probably the same man that afterward came to New London, and settled east of the river. He was on the jury of the county court in 1690. His two daughters Mary and Hannah, united with the church in New London in 1694. His decease took place before 1708. Anthony Ashby, Jr., collector for the east side in 1696, died in 1712.
George Dennis.
The period of his death is uncertain, but it was previous to 1708. He came to New London from Long Island, and married Elizabeth, relict of Joshua Raymond. They had but one child, Ebenezer, who was born Oct. 23d, 1682. Ebenezer Dennis inherited from his mother a dwelling-house, choicely situated near the water, and com- manding a fine prospect of the harbor, where about the year 1710 he opened a house of entertainment. His first wife was Sarah, daugh- ter of Capt. John Hough, and his second, Deborah Ely of Lyme. He died in 1726; his relict the next year married Lieut. Walter Butler, and removed with him to the Indian frontier in the western part of New York. The family mansion was sold in 1728 to Mat- thew Stewart; it was where the Frink house now stands in Bank Street.
Mr. Dennis by his will left £25 to be distributed to the poor of the town. Among his effects 139 books are enumerated, which, though most of them were of small value, formed a considerable library for the time, probably the largest in the town.
Peter Crary, of Groton, died in 1708.
He married in December, 1677, Christobel, daughter of John Gal- lop. His oldest child, Christobel, was born "the latter end of Feb., 1678-9." Other children mentioned in his will were Peter, John, William, Robert, Margaret and Ann.
John Daniel, died about 1709.
This date is obtained by approximation : he was living in the early part of 1709, and in July, 1710, Mary, widow of John Daniels, is mentioned. His earliest date at New London is in April, 1663, when his name is given without the s, John Daniel.
1 Felt.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
John Daniel married Mary, daughter of George Chappell, Jan. 19th, 1664-5.
Children.
1. John, born Jan. 19th, 1665-6. 6. Rachel, born Feb. 27th, 1676.
2. Mary, " Oct. 12th, 1667.
3. Thomas, " Dec. 31st, 1669.
4. Christian, " Mar. 3d, 1671.
5. Hannah, " Ap. 20th, 1674.
7. Sarah, " Feb. 10th, 1679.
S. Jonathan," Oct. 15th, 1652.
9. Clement, (not recorded.)
Before his decease John Daniel divided his lands among his four sons, giving the homestead, adjoining the farms of John Keeny and Samuel Manwaring, to Thomas.
John Daniels, 2d, married Agnes Beeby, Dec. 3d, 1685. He died Jan. 15th, 1756, " wanting 15 days of 90 years old."" Thomas Daniels, the second son, died Oct. 12th, 1725. All the sons left de- scendants.2
George Chappell, died in 1709.
Among the emigrants for New England, in "the Christian," from London, 1635, was George Chappell, aged twenty.3 He was at Wethersfield, in 1637, and can be traced there as a resident until 1649,4 which was probably about the time that he came to Pequot, bringing with him a wife, Margaret, and some three or four children. Of his marriage, or of the births of these children, no account is pre- served at Wethersfield. The whole list of his family, as gathered from various sources, is as follows :
1. Mary, married John Daniels. 6. Hester, born April 15th, 1662.
2. Rachel, married Thomas Crocker. 7. Sarah, " Feb. 14th, 1665-6.
3. John, removed to Flushing, L. I. 8. Nathaniel, " May 21st, 1668.
4. George, born March 5th, 1653-4. 9. Caleb, " Oct. 7th, 1671.
5. Elizabeth, born Aug. 30th, 1656.
At the time of George Chappell's decease, these nine children were all living, as was also his aged wife, whom he committed to the special care of his son Caleb and grandson Comfort. Caleb Chap-
1 By comparing this estimate with the date of his birth it will be seen that allow- ance is made for the change that had taken place in the style. His birth is given in O. S. and his death in N. S. According to the current date, only four days were wanting of ninety years.
2 C. F. Daniels, the present editor of the New London Daily and Weekly Chronicle, is a descendant in the line of Thomas Daniels.
3 Savage's Gleanings in Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d series, vol. 8, p. 252.
4 Conn. Col. Rec., vol. 1, p. 194.
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON. 353
pell had previously removed to Lebanon, from whence his son Amos went to Sharon, and settled in that part of the township which is now Ellsworth.1 The second George Chappell married, first, Alice Way, and second, Mary Douglas. He had two sons, George and Comfort ; from the latter, the late Capt. Edward Chappell, of New London, descended. Families of this name in New London and the neigh- boring towns, are numerous, all tracing back to George, for their an- cestor. Branches from this stock are also disseminated in various parts of the Union.
Capt. Samuel Chester, died in 1710.
A sea-captain in the West India line, he receives his first grant of land in New London, for a warehouse, in 1664, in company with William Condy, of Boston, who was styled his nephew.2 He subse- quently removed to the east side of the river, where he dwelt at the time of his death. He was much employed in land surveys, and in 1693, was one of the agents appointed by the General Court to meet with a committee from Massachusetts, to renew and settle the boundaries between the two colonies. His children, baptized in New London, but births not recorded, were, John, Susannah and Samuel, in 1670; Mercy, 1673 ; Hannah, 1694, and Jonathan, 1697. His will, dated in 1708, mentions only Abraham, John, Jonathan and Mercy Burrows.
Mr. Chester had a large tract of land in the North Parish, bought of Owaneco and Josiah, Mohegan sachems. It is probable that one of his sons settled upon it, and that the Chester family, of Montville, are his descendants.
William Condy.
In connection with Capt. Chester, a brief notice is due to William Condy. His wife was Mary, daughter of Ralph Parker. He had four children presented together for baptism, March 23d, 1672-3- Richard, William, Ebenezer and Ralph. The family removed to Boston about 1680. A letter from Mr. Condy, dated June 14th, 1688, to Capt. Chester, is recorded at New London, requesting him to make
1 Sedgwick's Hist. of Sharon, p. 72.
2 This term like that of brother and cousin has a considerable range of application. Hugh Caulkins in a deed of gift to William Douglas who had married his grand- daughter, and was no otherwise related to him, calls him his nephew.
30*
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
sale of one hundred and fifty acres of land that had been given him by the town. He says :
" Loving uncle,
" I would desire if you can sell the land that lyeth on your side of the river to do me that kindness as to sell it for me at the best advantage, and send it down to me the next spring, and give a bill of sale for the same, and this shall be your discharge. If you sell it take it in pork if you can for that will be the best commodity here. I am now ready to sail for Barbadoes," &c.
The Condy family long retained a house-lot in town, which came to them from Ralph Parker. This estate was presented in the in- ventory of the second William Condy, in 1710, " late of Boston, but formerly of New London, where he was born," and was sold by a third William Condy, of Boston, in 1717.
Thomas Mortimer, died March 11th, 1709-10.
This name was often written Maltimore and Mortimore. We have little information concerning the person who bore it, and with whom, apparently, it became extinct. He was a constable in 1680. His wife, Elizabeth, survived him but a few months. The only persons mentioned as devisees or heirs, were two daughters-Mary, wife of Robert Stoddard, and Elizabeth, wife of Abraham Willey, and their children.
William Mynard, died in 1711.
This person was an original emigrant from Great Britain ; he had a brother George, who died at Fording Bridge, in Hampshire, Eng- land, to whose estate he was an heir. The name appears to have been originally identical with Maynard, and is often also confounded with Minor. William Mynard married Lydia Richards, Nov. 15th, 1678. They had a son, William, born Nov. 16th, 1680, but no oth- er recorded. At his death, he is said to have wife, Lydia, and nine children, three of them under age. The names are not given, but the four brothers, William, George, David and Ionathan, (Mynard, Maynard, Mainer,) who were all householders about 1730, were prob- ably sons of William and Lydia ; but the genealogy is obscured by the uncertainty of the name.
Zacharias Maynard, or Mayner, purchased a farm in 1697, near Robert Allyn and Thomas Rose, (in Ledyard.) His wife was a daughter of Robert Geer.
355
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Thomas Pember,
Drowned, Sept. 27th, 1711, in Nahantic River, on whose banks he dwelt. He had three children baptized in 1692, viz., Mercy, Thomas and Elizabeth ; also, Ann, baptized 1694, and John, 1696. At the period of his death, only four children were living. He left a wife, Agnes, who was for many years famous as a nurse and doc- tress. Of this kind of character, the changing customs of the age have scarcely left us a type. But tradition relates many vivid anec- dotes respecting this energetic and experienced race of female prac- titioners. No medical man of the present day, can be more ready to answer a night-call-to start from sleep, mount a horse, and ride off six or seven miles in darkness or tempest, sustained by the hope of alleviating misery, than were these able nursing mothers of former times. A seventh daughter was particularly marked and set aside for the office, and unbounded confidence was placed in her skill to stroke for the king's evil, to cure cancers, alleviate asthma, and set bones.
Richard Singleton, died Oct. 16th, 1711.
The record of his death styles him ferryman of Groton. Origin- ally he was a mariner, and probably took the ferry when the fifty years' lease of Latham expired, in 1705, in company with John Wil- liams, or perhaps alternating with him. Both lived on Groton Bank and were lessees of the ferry about the same time. Mr. Singleton left nine children, of whom only Richard, William, Wait-Still and the wife of Samuel Latham are mentioned. His will directs that his children in Carolina and his children in Groton, should share equally in his estate, which however was small. Among the special bequests are, to his wife a negro man valued at £40; to son Richard the Church History of New England, £1; to William a large church Bible, "old England print," £1, 15s .; to Wait-Still two rods of land and a buccaneer gun.
Wells.
Thomas Wells was one of the early band of planters at Pequot Harbor ; probably on the ground in 1648, and certainly in 1649. He was a carpenter, and worked with Elderkin, on mills and meet- ing-houses. The last notice of him on the town record is in 1661, when Wells and Elderkin were employed to repair the turret of the meeting-house. No account can be found of the sale of his house or
356
HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
land. He may have left the settlement, or he may be concealed from our view by dwelling on a farm remote from the center of business.
A Thomas Wells-whether another or the same has not been as- certained-is found at Stonington or Westerly, about the year 1677, engaged in constructing vessels at a ship-yard on the Pawkatuck River. He is styled, " of Ipswich, shipwright." In 1680, having a lawsuit with Amos Richardson, respecting a vessel of forty-eight tuns burden, which he had contracted to build for him, two of his sons appeared as witnesses, viz., Joseph, aged twenty-two, and Thomas, seventeen.1 Of Thomas Wells, we have no later information, but his fraternity to Joseph is thus established.
" Joseph Wells, of Groton, died October 26th, 1711." We sup- pose this person to have been the noted ship-builder of Pawkatuck River, and that he is styled of Groton, from the circumstance of his having a farm and family residence near the head of Mystic, on the Groton side of the river. It is certain that a farm in this position, was occupied, at a very early period, by a Wells family. Descend- ants of the ancient owners, whom we suppose to have been first Thomas Wells, and then his son Joseph, are at this day (1850) liv- ing in the same place, and in the same low-browed, unaltered house, in the shadow of Porter's Rocks, where Joseph Wells died. It is near a gap in the ledge where Mason and Underhill rested with their company a few hours, before making their terrible onslaught upon the Pequots, in the expedition of May, 1637. The will of Joseph Wells, executed five days before his decease, mentions wife Hannah, and children Joseph, John, Thomas and Anne.
Jacob Holloway, died Nov. 9th, 1711.
He appears in the plantation a little before 1700. Left a son, John, and daughters, Rose and Ann. His wife died four days after the decease of her husband.
Joseph Nest, died Dec. 8th, 1711.
Mr. Nest's wife deceased before him, and he lived apparently alone, in a small tenement in the angle of the Lyme and Great Neck roads. Susannah, wife of George Way, appears to have been his daughter. No other relatives have been traced.
1 Judd, of Northampton, (MS.)
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
John Terrall, died Feb. 27th, 1712.
His wife, Mrs. Sarah Terrall, died March 7th, succeeding. No children are mentioned in the will of the latter, but she was probably a second wife.
Terrall should undoubtedly be written Tyrrel. Two persons of the name appear in New London, in the year 1662, William, a tailor, and John, a seaman. The former, probably, soon left the place. John Terrall is in the rate list of 1664. Of his family, there is no account, except a single entry upon the church record : " Goodman Tyrrell's two children, William and Mary, baptized May 7th, 1671.
John Wickwire, died in March or April, 1712.
This person was an early settler in Mohegan, or the North Parish, (now Montville.) Col. John Livingston was one of the executors named in his will. Madam Winthrop, (relict of Governor Fitz-John,) at her death, left legacies to " sister Wickwire's children."
John Wickwire married Mary, daughter of George and Margery Tongue, Nov. 6th, 1676.
Children.
1. George, born Oct. 4th, 1677. 5. Jonathan, born Feb. 19th, 1691.
2. Christopher, " Jan. Sth, 1679-80.
6. Peter, " Mar. 2d, 1694.
3. John, Dec. 2d, 1685. 7. Ann, " Sept. 25th, 1697.
4. Elizabeth, Mar. 23d, 1688-9.
Thomas Short.
" Here lyeth the body of Thomas Short, who deceased Sept. 27th, 1712, aged thirty years." The small head-stone in the old burial- ground, which bears this inscription, shows where the remains of the first printer in the colony of Connecticut are deposited. He had been instructed in his art by Bartholomew Green, of Boston, who recom- mended him to the authorities of Connecticut, for a colony printer, in which office he established himself at New London, in 1709. In 1710, he issued "The Saybrook Platform of Church Discipline," the first book printed in the colony.1 After this he printed sermons and pamphlets, and performed what public work the governor and company required, till death put an early stop to his labors. Two children of Thomas and Elizabeth Short, are recorded at New Lon-
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