History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 133

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317

USA > Connecticut > New London County > History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 133

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"The last-named gentleman deserves honorable mention, not only because he gave direction to and helped to mould the mind which now defines for us the limits of even authority itself, but on account of his own personal excellence and valuable public ser- vices in his native State. His career was specially interesting. He graduated from Yale in 1809. The following summer he taught a small select school in New Rochelle, and one of his pupils was William Heathcote De Lancey, afterwards Bishop of Western New York. He studied law with Judge Matthew Griswold, of Lyme, assisted by his brother, the ac- complished Governor Roger Griswold. One of his classmates was Chief Justice Ebenezer Lane, of Ohio. As soon as he was admitted to the bar he grew steadily in importance. Prior to 1854 he had served several terms in the State Legislature, and had been for twenty years judge of the Supreme and Superior Courts. He was then elected by the unanimous vote of both branches of the Legislature to the highest seat on the State bench. A well-known jurist says of him, 'He contributed his full share to the character of a court whose decisions are quoted and opinions respected in all the courts of the United States, and in the highest courts of England.' He was of stately presence, tall, and yet not tall, with a fair, serious face, keen blue eyes, and light hair. He was highly cultivated by study, chose to use his means for educa- tional and religious purposes, and to help others, rather than in a pretentious mode of living, was social in his tastes, and enjoyed the perfect confidence of the entire community. His wife was of the first order of intellect, and, sympathizing in his pursuits, contrib- uted largely to his professional successes. A fit mother was she, indeed, for her distinguished son.1

1 Chief Justice Waite is not the only lawyer-son of Hon. Henry M. Waite. Richard Waite has been in active and prosperous law practice in Toledo, Ohio, for some nineteen years. Another son, George C. Waite, who died in his twenty-ninth year, was a promising lawyer in Troy, N. Y., and an efficient member of the Troy Board of Education. To him that city is mainly indebted for its present free-school system. Hon. Horace F. Waite, of Chicago, a prominent lawyer, member of the Illinois Legislature, etc., is a nephew of the late Hon. Henry M. Waite, and a native of Lyme. Mr. Daniel Chadwick, a leading lawyer, State's

547

OLD LYME.

She was Maria Selden, the daughter of Col. Richard Ely Selden, and granddaughter of Col. Samuel Selden, a notable officer in the Revolution, who was himself the grandson of Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, which carries us again into lordly halls across the water, only that we are too intensely republican to need any such background and perspective. We all began on this side.

"Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite married his second cousin, Amelia Warner, of Lyme, the great- granddaughter of the distinguished Col. Selden, of Revolutionary memory. She was a beauty and a belle, a leader in fashion and society, and now, with the added grace of years, no lady in the land is better fitted by education, culture, and travel for the posi- tion in Washington circles which destiny has thrust upon her. She carries good sense, refined taste, and a quiet independence of character to the front which will prove an invaluable balance-wheel to the great social structure.

"Turning north from the Waite mansion, you are confronted by a quaint homestead which seems to be taking life comfortably right in the middle of 'The Street.' Venerable trees rise above it, and their branches droop over its small-paned windows, Its doorstep is foot-worn, its hall of entrance of a pre- Revolutionary pattern, and its whole architecture one-sided, but it has an unmistakable air of gen- tility. If you enter, you are plunged headlong into an antiquarian mine ; paneled walls, curious cornices, enormous fireplaces, high mantels, and round tables bring all your forefathers and foremothers round you in their powdered wigs and high-heeled shoes. The chairs and pictures are many of them two hundred years old. You may presume before you get to it that 'The Street' ends plump against the little door- yard fence. No; 'The Street' is guilty of no such impertinence. It dodges politely around the edifice, and pursues its otherwise unbending course as if ac- customed to trifling obstructions.

"To the south another mansion has spread itself squarely across the way. It does not, like its vis-à-vis, offer the apology of antiquity, but is evidently a freak of modern independence. It is high and broad, the front-door swings in the centre, and it has wings on the side and rear. It is embedded in shrubbery, and gay-colored flowers brighten its pretty grounds. The effect of the two houses facing each other, half a mile apart, is novel in the extreme. They impress you as being active participants in human affairs. They both belong to representatives of the Lord family, who were among the first settlers of Lyme, and who have in all the generations since been lavish in their distribution of doctors, judges, and divines throughout the country.

" The Congregational church towers above you like an anciently bound and well-preserved chapter of ecclesiastical history, on the corner where the ferry road enters 'The Street' at right angles. It is an im- posing edifice of the Ionic order of architecture and strikingly ornate. At its right, and under its very droppings, as it were, is a large, square, old-fashioned house, half hidden among stately trees, which is the home of a lady of elegant scholarship and rare ac- complishments, who has for almost half a century been the educator of the ladies of Lyme, and to whom is due in large measure the credit of having developed the artistic and musical talent for which they are .celebrated. Nearly opposite the church is the Mather homestead. It is gambrel-roofed, and was clapboarded. before the time of sawing clapboards, when they were rived as staves are split. It has been the home of the Mathers-the ancient and learned family to which Increase and John Cotton Mather belonged-for more than a century. In the palmy days before the Revo- lution, when Governors drove six horses, and all the consequential families in Lyme owned negro slaves, this house was almost without a rival in the elegance of its appointments.

"Side by side with it stands the oldest house in Lyme, a landmark which has been protected with generous care. Like Sydney Smith's ancient green chariot with its new wheels and new springs, it seems to grow younger each year. It is the residence of Hon. Charles Johnson McCurdy, LL.D., an eminent jurist, who was for many years in the Connecticut Legislature, was Speaker of the House, Lieutenant- Governor of the State, 'United States minister to Austria, and for a long period judge of the Supreme Court. It was he who, when Lieutenant-Governor of Connecticut, in 1848, originated and carried into effect through the Legislature that great change in the common law by which parties may become witnesses in their own cases, a change which has since been adopted throughout this country and in England.

"This antique dwelling has the low ceilings and the bare, polished beams of the early part of the last century. Its doors and walls are elaborately carved and paneled. In the south parlor is a curious buffet, built with the house, containing a rare collection of china from ancestral families.1 Between the front windows stands an elegant round table, which de- scended from Governor Matthew and Ursula Wol- cott Griswold, and around which have sat from time to time the six Governors of the family, of whom more presently. The whole house is a museum of souvenirs of preceding generations. In the north chamber is a rich and unique chest of drawers, which

attorney, etc., residing in Lyme, is another nephew; and a niece mar- ried the accomplished scholar, Rev. Davis Clark Brainard (recently de- ceased), who for more than a third of a century had been the pastor of the Lyme Church.

1 The ancestral families connected with the McCurdy household are the Wolcotts, Griswolds, Lords, Lyndes, Digbys, Willoughbys, Pitkins, Ogdens, Mitchells (the Scotch family of Mitchells, the same as that of "Ik Marvel"), and the Diodatis. The descent is direct, through the wife of Rev. Stephen Johnson, from Rev. John Diodati (the famous divine and learned writer of Geneva in the time of John of Barneveld), who was from the Italian nobility.

548

HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

belonged to the Diodati wife of Rev. Stephen John- son ; also mirrors, tables, pictures, and other relics of great antiquity. This apartment was occupied by Lafayette at two distinct eras in our national history, -for several days during the Revolution, when he was entertained by John McCurdy, while resting his troops in the vicinity, and in 1825, as the guest of Richard McCurdy and his daughter Sarah, while on his memorable journey to Boston.

" The house has historical significance through cer- tain Revolutionary events. It was purchased by John MeCurdy in 1750, a Scotch-Irish gentleman of educa- tion and wealth, who was a large shipping merchant. He had no sympathy with the arbitrary measures of the English government, and gloried in the spirit of resistance as it developed in the colonies. (He was the "Irish gentleman" mentioned by Gordon and Hol- lister as 'friendly to the cause of liberty.') He was an intimate personal friend of Rev. Stephen Johnson, who was then the pastor of the Lyme Church. The two had many conferences upon the subject of a pos- sible independence of the colonics. They grew in- dignant with the serene composure of Governor Fitch and his associates. The first published article point- ing towards unqualified rebellion in case an attempt was made to enforce the Stamp Act was from the pen of Rev. Stephen Johnson, and it was written under this roof. McCurdy privately secured its insertion in the Connecticut Gazette. It was a fiery article, de- signed to rouse the community to a sense of the public danger. Others of a similar character soon followed ; while pamphlets, from no one knew whence, fell, no one knew how, into conspicuous places. Could these walls speak what tales they might reveal ! two saga- cious and audacious men trying to kindle a fire, one feeding it with the chips of genius and strong nervous magnetism, the other fanning it with the contents of his broad purse. The alarm was sounded; organiza- tions of the 'Sons of Liberty' were formed in the various colonies ; treasonable resolves were handed about with great privacy in New York, but no one had the courage to print them. John McCurdy, being in the city, asked for them, and with much precaution was permitted to take a copy. He carried them to New England, where they were published and spread far and wide without reserve. This was in Septem- ber, 1765, and before the end of the same month the famous crusade (which embraced nearly every man in the town of Lyme) moved from New London and Windham Counties against Mr. Ingersoll, the stamp commissioner. It was then and thus that the egg of the Revolution may be said to have been hatched.

" When Governor Fitch proposed that he and his councilors should be sworn, agreeably to the Stamp Act, Col. Trumbull (afterwards Governor) refused to witness the transaction and left the hall. Others fol- lowed his spirited example, until only four remained. Ingersoll, as the agent of Connecticut in England, had ably and earnestly opposed the passage of the

odious bill, but when all was over he had been duly qualified to officiate as stampmaster .. He had scarcely landed in New Haven on his return when a rumor reached him that all was not quiet beyond the Con- necticut, and he started at once for Hartford. The same morning five hundred mounted men, carrying eight days' provisions, crossed the Connecticut from the cast in two divisions, one at Lyme and the other farther north. Ingersoll and his guard were riding leisurely through the woods near Wethersfield, when they were suddenly met by five horsemen, who turned and joined their party. Ten minutes later they were met by thirty horsemen, who wheeled in like manner. No violence was offered and not a word spoken. All rode on together with the solemnity and decorum of a funeral procession. Reaching a fork in the road they were met by the whole five hundred, armed with ponderous white clubs and led by Capt. Durkee in full uniform. The line opened from right to left, and Ingersoll was received with profoundest courtesy. Martial music broke the sombre stillness, and they marched into Wethersfield, halting in the wide street. Capt. Durkee then ordered Ingersoll to resign.

"The latter expostulated. 'Is it fair,' he asked, ' for two counties to dictate to the rest of the colonies?'

"' It don't signify to parley,' was the prompt reply. 'A great many people are waiting, and you must resign.'

"' I must wait to learn the sense of the government,' said Ingersoll.

""' Here is the sense of the government, and no man shall exercise your office.'

"'If I refuse to resign, what will follow ?'

"' Your fate.'

"""The cause is not worth dying for,' said the prisoner.

" A few moments later Ingersoll wrote his name to the formal resignation prepared for him. That was well, but it was not enough. He was required to swear to it in a loud voice, and then shout 'Liberty and Property !' three times. This last ceremony he performed swinging his hat about his head. He was then escorted to Hartford. He rode a white horse. Some one asked him what he was thinking of. 'Death on a pale horse and hell following,' was his retort.

"They entered the capital four abreast, and formed in a semicircle about the court-house, with Ingersoll in a conspicuous position. He was ordered to read his recantation in the hearing of the General Court. He went through the ordeal to the satisfaction of his cap- tors, even to the shouting of 'Liberty and Property !' three times again. After which the sovereigns of the soil departed in peace.

" Col. Putnam, who had been one of the instigators of the movement, was prevented by illness from being present. He was shortly summoned before Governor Fitch. In the course of the conversation which fol- lowed the Governor asked, ' What shall I do if the stamped paper is sent to me by the king's order ?'

549

OLD LYME.

"' Lock it up until we shall visit you.'

"' What will you do ?'

" ' Demand the key of the room where it is deposited. You may, if you choose, forewarn us upon our peril not to enter the room, and thus screen yourself from blame.'

"' And then what will you do ?'

"'Send the key safely back to you.'

""' But if I refuse admission ?'

"'Your house will be leveled with the dust in five minutes.'

"Thus the remarkable interview. ended.

"Lyme was not without a Tea Party any more than some of the seaport towns of larger pretensions. On the 16th of March, 1774, a peddler from Martha's Vineyard came into the place on horseback with one hundred pounds of tea in his saddle-bags. He was arrested and examined, and in the evening the 'Sons of Liberty' assembled, built a bright fire on 'The Street,' just above the Congregational church, and committed the peddler's whole stock in trade to the flames, and buried the ashes on the spot.

" There are several Noyes houses which it would be pleasant to visit. The first minister of Lyme was the Rev. Moses Noyes, who preached sixty-three years. He was one of the first graduates of Harvard and one of the founders of Yale. He was from a clerical family,-his brother was the first minister of Stoning- ton, his father was an eminent divine of Newbury, Mass., and his father's father was a still more eminent divine of England. His wife was the granddaughter of the learned Puritan Elder William Brewster. He was a large landholder, and owned a number of slaves. His house stood for more than a century on the site of the present residence of Richard Noyes, one of his descendants. Its windows were few, and they were located nearly as high as the top of the door. They were small and square, and leaded over the sash. They must have been painfully inconvenient to the poor Indian when he was seeking a bit of useful informa- tion concerning the domestic fireside. The doors were driven full of nails. Ugh ! one can almost catch the glitter of the tomahawk and scalping-knife.

" Judge William Noyes, the grandson of the Rev. Moses, flourished a hundred years later. He was a tall, grave man, the terror of Sabbath-breakers. He never allowed a traveler to pass through Lyme on the Lord's Day without some extraordinary excuse. He was strictly conventional. When on horseback with his four grown-up sons, the latter never presumed to ride on a line with him, but always at a respectful distance behind. He inherited the large classical li- brary of the Rev. Moses, also a writing-desk which Elder Brewster brought to this country in the 'May- flower,' and which is now in the possession of his grand- daughter, Mrs. Daniel Chadwick, of Lyme. Judge Noyes built the handsome old house in the northern part of 'The Street,' now owned by Mr. Schieffelin, of New York, the father-in-law of Rev. Mr. Sabine. By

the side of one of the chimneys is a curious hole sev- eral feet deep, supposed to have been an invention of the judge to hide liquor from his negroes. Just south of this mansion, in the midst of English-look- ing grounds, is a great old-fashioned house, with pil- lars in front, the residence of Capt. Robert, the young- est son of Governor Roger Griswold; and a little farther on is the pleasant home of the Huntingtons.

"Black Hall is a pleasant drive of three miles from 'The Street.' You pass the Lyme Cemetery, with its kindly shade and its ancient and modern headstones, itself a history. You pass also a quarry of what seems to be the genuine porphyritic granite, with compact base, spotted with reddish crystals of feldspar; it is hard, and susceptible of a fine polish. The Swedes and Russians have worked a similar variety with suc- cess, and pronounce it more durable than any other material for building purposes. A polished specimen, beside one of the Scotch granite of which Prince Al- bert's monument in Hyde Park is made, shows that it is of the same general character, only that the Lyme granite is the handsomer of the two. There is enough here to build a city, and it is significantly within a stone's-throw of the railroad track. Two roads diverge at the foot of Meeting-house Hill, one of which as- cends that blustering height (the former site of three successive churches, two of which were burned by lightning), and passes an old burial-ground inclosed by a tumbling stone wall and overgrown by rank weeds, also the original milestone which, according to tradition, Franklin planted with his own hands when he was Postmaster-General of the colonies. It was the old stage-route from New York to Boston, and most of the illustrious men of the olden time have traveled over it. The lower road passes the Champlin house, which was the scene of the marriage of the fa- mous Gen. Buckner to a daughter of Col. Kingsbury. He was then a young West Pointer, and was married in his uniform. Just at the close of the ceremony there was an alarm of fire-a neighbor's house was burning. The bridegroom threw off his coat, and, with the minister and others, ran to extinguish the flames ; then returned, recoated, kissed his bride, and received the congratulations of his friends.

" Black Hall, the seat of the Griswolds, is a cluster of half a dozen houses in the midst of a thick grove of trees, on the fine segment of land which slopes into the Sound so far that in winter the sun rises and sets over the water. This large property was a fief or feudal grant to the first Matthew Griswold in 1645. He built a log house-the first house in Lyme-upon the site of the mansion which you see at the end of the private entrance, and dug a well, which is still in existence. He sent a negro slave to occupy the prem- ises, as the Indians were too hostile for him to venture to remove his family so far from the fort at Saybrook. Tradition says that the log house was called the 'blacks' hall,' which is supposed to have been the origin of the pleasant-sounding name which the place now bears.

550

HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

" The old gubernatorial mansion of Governor Roger Griswold commands a magnificent view of the Sound and its shipping. It is the home of Mr. Matthew Griswold, one of the Governor's sons. It is a well- preserved specimen of antiquity, and one. of those dwellings the geography of which cannot be read upon the face of it. The rooms seem numberless, and vary in size and shape until the explorer is hopelessly confused. It is full of suggestion, for Governor Roger Griswold was one of our country's ablest statesmen. He was called, at the age of thirty-two, from a valu- able law practice into the councils of the nation, and was pronounced one of the most finished scholars in Congress, where he served ten years, during a part of the administration of Washington, the whole of that of Adams, and a portion of that of Jefferson. He was a brilliant talker and profoundly versed in law. He was the first cousin of Oliver Wolcott, who was at the same time Secretary of the Treasury. He was nominated Secretary of State in 1801, but saw fit to decline. He was subsequently appointed judge of the Superior Court, elected Lieutenant-Governor, and finally Governor of Connecticut, in which office he died, in 1812. Hesleeps in the Griswold graveyard, and his tomb, rising against a background of green, may be seen as you cross Black Hall River. He was the son of Governor Matthew Griswold, who was conspicuous for the energy of his counsels and active measures during the Revolution. Governor Matthew, when a young man, was grave, shy, tall, and somewhat awk- ward. He courted a young lady in Durham, who put him off, delaying to give an answer in the hope that a doctor, whom she preferred, would propose. He finally tired of his long rides on horseback, and sus- pecting the state of her mind, pressed for an imme- diate decision.

""' I should like a little more time,' reiterated the fair one.

"' Madame, I will give you a lifetime,' was the lover's response ; and rising with dignity, he took his leave.

" The lady took her lifetime, and died single, as the doctor never came forward. Young Griswold returned to Lyme so deeply mortified with the failure of his snit that he was little disposed to repeat the process of love-making. In course of events his second cousin, Ursula Wolcott, came on a visit to Black Hall. She was a modern edition of her grandmother, the histor- ical Martha Pitkin, bright, beautiful, accomplished, and self-reliant. She was a little older than Matthew. She became assured that his affections were centred upon herself, but he was provokingly reticent. Meet- ing him on the stairs one day, she asked,-

"' What did you say, Cousin Matthew ?'

"' I did not say anything,' he replied.

" A few days later, meeting him, she asked, in the same tone,-

"' What did you say, Cousin Matthew ?'

"' I did not say anything,' he replied, as before.

" Finally, meeting him upon the beach one morn- ing, she again asked,-

"' What did you say, Cousin Matthew ?'

"' I did not say anything,' he still replied.

"'It is time you did!' she remarked, with em- phasis.

" Whereupon something was said, the result of which was a wedding, and the brilliant bride had a queenly reign at Black Hall. No lady in American history could introduce you to more Governors among her immediate relations. Her father was Governor Roger Wolcott; her brother was Governor Oliver Wolcott ; her nephew was the second Governor Oliver Wolcott; her cousin was Governor Pitkin ; her husband was Governor Matthew Griswold; and her son was Gov- ernor Roger Griswold.

" Black Hall has always been famous for the beauty and spirit of its women. Governor Matthew Griswold had eight dashing sisters, who were known as the 'Black Hall boys,' from being given to all manner of out-of-door sports; they could ride, leap, row, and swim, and they had withal the gifts and graces which won them distinguished husbands. Phebe married Rev. Jonathan Parsons, the Lyme minister, whose clerical career did not run smoothly, in consequence of his admiration for Rev. George Whitefield. He was a protégé of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, and a man of excellent parts. A fair, frank, manly, good-humored face looks down from his portrait. He had a passion for fine clothes, for gold and silver lace and ruffled shirt fronts, which distressed some of the good Puri- tans in his church. His wife was given to practical jokes. One evening, as he was about to leave the house for the weekly prayer-meeting, after taking a last look in the mirror to satisfy himself that every particular hair was stroked the right way, she play- fully threw her arms around his neck, passed one hand over his face and kissed him. As he entered the church he was nettled by a ripple of smiles which ran through the congregation, and he noticed that some of the brethren were cying him suspiciously. Presently it was whispered in his ear that his face was blackened. On another occasion his fun-loving wife wickedly clipped a leaf from his sermon, and sat in the little square pew before him, quietly fanning her- self, and enjoying his embarrassment when he reached the chasm. She was remarkably clever with her pen, and it is said often wrote sermons herself. She was the mother of the celebrated Maj. Samuel Holden Parsons, and grandmother of Simon Greenleaf, Pro- fessor of Law at Cambridge, anther of valuable legal works, etc.1

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History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 133

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1317

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1317