History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 38

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 38

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Steer, Richard ; 1690.

Strickland, Peter; probably about 1670.

Swaddel, William; east of the river; cattle-mark 1689.

Thorne, William ; from Dorsetshire, England. He married, in 1676, Lydia, relict of Thomas Bayley. East of the river.

Turner, Ezekiel ; son of John, of Scituate, 1678. Walker, Richard ; 1695.

Walworth, William ; east of the river, about 1690. Way, Thomas ; about 1687.

Weeks, John ; east of the river, before 1700; prob- ably from Portsmouth, N. H.

Wickwire, John ; 1676.

Willett, James; accepted inhabitant, 1681. He was from Swanzea, and bought the farm of William Meades, east of the river.

Willett, John ; 1682.

Williams, Thomas; 1670.

Williams, John; east of the river ; his name is on the ministry subscription list of 1688.

Willoughby, William; about 1697.

Young, Thomas ; from Southold, 1693; married Mary, relict of Peter Bradley, 2d.

Of the first comers, 1650, or before, John Stebbins, George Chappel, Thomas Parke, Thomas Roach, and three of the Beeby brothers lived into the eighteenth century ; Thomas Beeby, the other brother, died but a short time previous. John Gager was living, but in another settlement. Alexander Pygan, Oliver Man- waring, and some others who had settled in the town before 1660 were yet upon the stage of life. The deaths that strew the way are thinly scattered, show- ing that life and health were here as secure from dis- ease, excepting only one or two seasons of epidemic sickness, as in the most favored portions of New Eng- land.

Jarvis Mudge and Thomas Doxey. Mention has already been made of the decease of these two persons in the year 1652, the first deaths in the plantation. Jarvis Mudge had married at Wethersfield, in 1649, the relict of Abraham Elsing.

Walter Harris died Nov. 6, 1654. A vessel called the "William and Francis" came to America in 1632, bringing among its passengers Walter Harris,1 who settled in Weymouth, where he remained about twenty years, and then came to Pequot Harbor. On his first application for a house-lot he is styled of Dorchester, which makes it probable that his last temporary abiding-place had been in that town. He had two sons, Gabriel and Thomas. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Fry,2 survived him less than three

months ; one inventory and settlement of estate suf- ficed for both.

The nuncupative will of Mrs. Harris will be given at large, omitting only the customary formula at the commencement. It is one of the oldest wills extant in the county, and is rich in allusions to costume and furniture. From a clause in this will it may be in- ferred that Thomas Harris had been betrothed to Rebecca, daughter of Obadiah Bruen. This young man, according to tradition, had been sent to Eng- land to recover some property that had fallen to the family, and was supposed to have been lost at sea, as he was never heard of afterwards:

" The last Will and Testament of Mary Harries, taken from her owne mouth this 19th of Jan., 1655.

" I give to my eldest daughter, Sarah Lane, the bigest brass pan, and to her daughter Mary, a silver spoone. And to her daughter Sarah, the bigest pewter dish and one silken riben. Likewise I give to her daughter Mary, a pewter candlesticke.

"I give to my daughter, Mary Lawrence, my blew mohere peticote and my straw hatt and a fether boulster. And to her eldest sonne I give a silver spoone. To her second sonne a silver whissle. I give more to my daughter Mary, my next brasst pann and a thrum cushion. And to her youngest sonne I give a pewter bassen.

" I give to my youngest daughter, Elizabeth Weekes, a peece of red broad cloth, being about two yards, alsoe a damask livery cloth, a gold ring, a silver spoone, a fether bed and a boulster. Alsoe, I give to my daughter, Elizabeth, my best hatt, my gowne, a brass kettle, and a woolen jacket for her husband. Alsoe, I give to my daughter Eliza- betli, thirty shillings, alsoe a red whittle,3 a white apron, and a new white neck-cloth. Alsoe, I give to my three daughters aforesaid, a quarter part to each of them, of the dyaper table-cloth and tenn shillings apeece.

" I give to my sister Migges, a red peticoat, a cloth jacket, a silke hud, a quoife,4 a cross-cloth, and a neck-cloth.

"I give to my cosen Calib Rawlyns ten shillinges.

"I give to my two cosens, Mary and Elizabeth ffry, each of them five shillinges.

" I give to Mary Barnet a red stuff wascote.

" I give to my daughter, Elizabeth, my great chest. To my daughter, Mary, a ciffer5 and a white neck-cloth. To my sister, Hannah Rawlin, my best cross-cloth. To my brother, Rawlin, a lased band. To my two kinswomen, Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Steevens, five shillinges apeece.

" I give to my brother, Migges, his three youngest children, two shil- linges sixe pence apecce.

" I give to my sonne Thomas, ten shillinges, if he doe come home or be alive.

" I give to Rebekah Bruen, a pynt pott of pewter, a new petticoate, and wascote wch she is to spin herselfe ; alsoe an old byble, and a hatt wch was my sonn Thomas his hatt.

"I give to my sonne Gabriell, my house, land, cattle, and swine, with all other goodes reall and psonall in Pequet or any other place, and doe make him my sole executor to this my will. Witness my hand,

" Witness hearunto,

" John Winthrop,

" Obadiah Bruen,

The mark of } MARY HARRIES.

" Willm Nyccolls." 6

The Harris family ranked in point of comfort and accommodations with the well-to-do portion of the community. They had a better supply of pewter than is found in many early inventories, and such articles of convenience as a gridiron, chopping-knife, brewing tub, smoothing-iron, "four silver spoons, and two

1 Savage (MS).

2 See will of William Fry, in Hist. and Gen. Reg., vol. ii. p. 385.

3 A kind of short cloak.

4 A cap.

5 Some kind of capor head-dress. Quoif and ciffer are from the French coiffe and coiffure.

6 New London Records, lib. 3.

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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

cushions." The house consisted of a front room, lean-to, shop-room, and two chambers.

Gabriel Harris died in 1684; Elizabeth, his relict, Aug. 17, 1702.

The inventory of Gabriel Harris, compared with that of his father, illustrates the rapid march of im- provement in the plantation. The homestead, con- sisting of a new house, orchard, cider-mill, and smith's shop, valued together at £200, was assigned to Thomas, the eldest son, for his double portion. The inherit- ance of the other children, six in number, was £100 each. Among the wearing apparel are:

" A broad-cloth coat with red lining.

" Two Castors [beaver hats ].

" A white serge coat : a Kersey coat.

" A serge coat and doublet ; a wash-leather doublet.

"Two red wescotes-a stuff coat and breeches.

" Four looms and tackling; a silk loom.

" An Indian maid-servant, valued at £15.

" Three Canoes, etc.

Thomas Harris, oldest son of Gabriel, died in Bar- badoes, June 9, 1691, leaving an estate estimated at £927. His relict, Mary (a daughter of Daniel Weth - erell), married George Denison, grandson of George the first, of Stonington. His only child, Mary, born Nov. 4, 1690, was regarded as the richest heiress in the settlement. About 1712 she became the wife of Walter Butler.

Peter Collins died in May or June, 1655. He is generally styled Mr. Collins. His will and inventory are almost all that is known of him. Apparently he had no family and lived alone. He distributes his effects, appraised at £57, among his neighbors and friends, the house and land to Richard Poole.

Robert Isbell died about 1655. He may have been the Robert Isabell who had land granted him in Salem in 1637. He left relict Ann (who married William Nicholls) and two children, Eleazar and Hannah. Eleazar married, Nov. 1, 1668, Elizabeth French, and removed to Killingworth, where he died in 1677.

Hannah Isbell married, first, Thomas Stedman, Aug. 6, 1668, and, second, John Fox, both of New London.

Robert Hempstead died in June, 1655. The fol- lowing memorandum is appended to his will :

"The ages of my three children :

" Mary Hempsted was borne March 26, 1647.

"Joshua Hempsted my sonne was borne June 16, 1649.

" Hannah Hempsted was borne April 11, 1652.

" This I Robert Hempsted testifie under my hand."

The name of Robert Hempstead has not been traced in New England previous to its appearance on our records. It is probable that when he came to Pequot with Winthrop, in 1645, he had recently arrived in the country, and was a young, unmarried man. A report has obtained currency that he was a knight, and entitled to the address of "Sir." This idea is not countenanced by anything that appears on record. It originated probably from the rude handwriting of

the recorder, in which an unskillful reader might easily mistake the title of "Mr." for that of "Sir."

In regard to Mary Hempstead, the first-born of New London, we may allow fancy, so long as she does not falsify history, to fill up the brief outline that we find on record with warm and vivid pictures. We may call her the first fair flower that sprang of the dreary wilderness, the blessed token that families would be multiplied on these desolate shores and homes made cheerful and happy with the presence of children ; we may think of her as beautiful and good, pure like the lily, fresh and blooming like the rose; yet not a creature of romance, too ethereal for earthly fellow- ship, floating a few years through bower and hall, and then exhaled to Eden, but a noble-hearted, much-enduring woman, prudent, cheerful, and re- ligious, working diligently with her hands, living to a goodly age, and rearing to maturity a family of ten children, two sons and eight daughters,-an apt and beautiful symbol for the young country.

Mary Hempstead was united in marriage with Robert Douglas, Sept. 28, 1665. She had eleven children, one of whom died in infancy. Having lived to see the other ten all settled in families of their own, she fell asleep Dec. 26, 1711. Her lius- band was gathered by her side Jan. 15, 1715-16.

Hannah Hempstead married, first, Abel Moore, and, second, Samuel Waller. Joanna, the relict of Robert Hempstead, married Andrew Lester. Joshua, the only son of Robert Hempstead, married Eliza- beth, daughter of Greenfield Larrabee. This couple had a family of eight daughters and an only son, Joshua, who was born Sept. 1, 1678, and with him the male line of the family again commences. This person-Joshua Hempstead (2)-took an active part in the affairs of the town for a period of fifty years, reckoning from 1708. The " Hempstead Diary," re- peatedly quoted in this history, was a private journal kept by him from the year 1711 to his death in 1758. A portion of the manuscript has been lost, but the larger part is still preserved. Its contents are chiefly of a personal and domestic character, but it contains brief notices of town affairs and references to the public transactions of the country.

Its author was a remarkable man, one that might serve to represent, or at least illustrate, the age, coun- try, and society in which he lived. The diversity of his occupations marks a custom of the day : he was at once farmer, surveyor, house and ship-carpenter, attorney, stone-cutter, sailor, and trader. He gener- ally held three or four town offices ; was justice of the peace, judge of probate, executor of various wills, overseer to widows, guardian to orphans, member of all committees, everybody's helper and adviser, and cousin to half of the community. Of the Winthrop family he was a friend and confidential agent, man- aging their business concerns whenever the head of the family was absent.

The house now standing on the original homestead

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NEW LONDON.

of Robert Hempstead is undoubtedly the most ancient building in New London. It is nevertheless a house of the second generation from the settlement. The first houses, rude and hastily built, passed away with the first generation. The age of the Hemp- stead house is determined by the "Hempstead Diary." The writer occupied the dwelling, and, writing in 1743, says it had been built sixty-five years.

Other items from the diary that may be interesting in this connection are the following :

" April 26, 1729, my aunt Waller died, aged 77, youngest daughter of my grandfather Hempstead, and born near this house, in the old one built by my grandfather."

"Mary, wife of Robert Douglas, was my father's eldest sister, and born in New London in Jan: 1646-7,-the first child of English parents born in this town." (Mistake in the month, compared with the date in her father's will.)

" 21 Jan: 1738-9-Cut down one-half of the great yellow apple-tree, east from the house, which was planted by my grandfather 90 years agone."

William Roberts died in April or May, 1657. Lit- tle is known of him. He had been in the service of Mr. Stanton, and had settled but recently in Pequot. He lived alone, in half a house owned in partnership with George Harwood, to whose wife and son he left his whole property, which was valued at only £26. A bear-skin and a chest are mentioned in the inven- tory, but no bed, table, or chair. He had two cows and some other stock, plenty of land, decent apparel, a razor, a pewter porringer, three spoons, and a glass bottle ; but nothing else except tubs, trays, bags, and Indian baskets. This may be regarded as the inven- tory of a hermit of the woods, a settler of the sim- plest class, who had built a lodge in the thicket, on the outskirts of the plantation.

William Bartlett died in 1658. This person is sometimes called a shipwright, and again a seaman. He was a lame man, engaged in the boating trade along the coast of the Sound. A deed is recorded, executed by him in March, 1658, but he soon after appears to us for the last time at Southold, L. I., in company with George Tongue, William Cooley, and his brother, Robert Bartlett. He there traded with a Dutchman named Sanders Lennison, of whom he purchased a quantity of rum, in value £7 10s., and paid for it in " wompum and inions."

John Coit died Aug. 29, 1659. Mrs. Mary Coit died Jan. 2, 1676, aged eighty. This may be regarded as almost a solitary instance of protracted widowhood for that day, our ancestors, at whatever age be- reaved, having been much addicted to second, and even third and fourth marriages. If the age of Mr. Coit equaled that of his wife they were more ad- vanced in years than most of the early settlers of the town,-a couple to be ranked with Jonathan Brew- ster and wife and Walter Harris and wife, for whose birth we look back into the shadow of the sixteenth century. The will of John Coit (Aug. 1, 1659) pro- vides for his son Joseph and two daughters, Mary and Martha ; but he refers to four other children, two

sons and two daughters, absent from him, and leaves them a trifling legacy " in case they be living."

Jonathan Brewster died in 1661. No probate papers relating to his estate have been found, but bills of sale are recorded, dated in 1658, conveying all his property in the town plot, and his house and land at Poquetannuck, with his movables, cattle, and swine, " to wit, 4 oxen, 12 cows, 8 yearlings, and 20 swine," to his son, Benjamin Brewster, and his son- in-law, John Picket. Feb. 14, 1661-62, Mr. Picket relinquishes his interest in the assignment to his brother-in-law, stipulating only

"that my mother-in-law, Mrs. Brewster, the late wife of my father, Mr. Jonathan Brewster, shall have a full and competent means out of his estate during her life from the said B. B., at her own dispose freely and fully to command at her own pleasure."

Richard Poole died April 26, 1662. No grant to this person is on record, nor does he appear on any list of inhabitants, but his name is often mentioned. He is sometimes called Mr. Poole, and after his death is referred to as Old Poole.

Peter Bradley died in June, 1662. The wife of Bradley was Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Brews- ter, but of the marriage no record has been found. He was a mariner, and after his settlement in New London plied a sloop or sail-boat through the Sound.

William Redfield died in 1662. The earliest notice of him is in a deed of gift from Jonathan Brewster, of "ten acres of arable land at Mohegan, whereon the said Redfyne hath built a house."

Sergt. Richard Hartley died Aug. 7, 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.

Isaac Willey, Jr., died in August, 1662. He was a young man, probably not long married. His inven- tory, though slender, contains a few articles not very common, viz .: " tynen pans, a tynen quart pot, cot- ton yarn," etc., 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.

John Tinker died at Hartford, in October, 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.

Thomas Hungerford died 1663. Estate, £100. Children, three,-" Thomas, aged about fifteen; Sarah, nine; Hannah, four years old this 1st of May, 1663." The relict of Thomas Hungerford married Samuel Spencer, of East Haddam; one of the daughters married Lewis Hughes, of Lyme.

Robert Parke died 1665. Mr. Parke was called an aged man in 1662. His will is on the town book, dated May 14, 1660; proved in March, 1664-65. He names only three children,-William, Samuel, and Thomas. Of the second son, Samuel, we have no in- forination, except what may be inferred from the clause

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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

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 immedi- ately after the date thereof."

James Bemas died in July, 1665. This date is ob- tained by inference. James Bemas had been chosen 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 Killing- worth.

Andrew Longdon. This person was an early settler in Wethersfield. He was on the jury of the Particu- lar Court, at Hartford, in September, 1643. In 1649 came to Pequot Harbor. In 1660 was appointed prison-keeper, and his house to be used as the town prison.

William Chesebrough died June 9, 1667. Though living at Pawcatuck, 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 settlements.

John Picket died Aug. 16, 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 unrecorded list. Their chil- dren 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. John, born July 25, 1656; 5. Adam, born Nov. 15, 1658; 6. Mercy, born Jan. 16, 1660-61, married Samuel Fosdick.

Andrew Lester died June 7, 1669. 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.

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 How- ard 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 after- wards Windmill Point, from the structure erected upon it. It has also at various times borne the names of its owners, Fosdick, Howard, etc., and is now a part of the larger point known as Shaw's Neck.

Robert Latimer died about 1671. This is ascer- tained from the proceedings on the settlement of the estate in 1693, when his relict Ann presented the in- ventory, and requested a legal distribution of the property of her husband, "who deceased 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.

Edward Codner died 1671. He appears to have been a mariner and trader; was of New London, 1651, with wife Priscilla; came from Saybrook ; returned thither again, and there died, leaving a widow Alice. His possessions in New London ac- crned 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.

George Codner, of New London, 1662 and 1664, has not been further traced.

William Nicholls died Sept. 4, 1673. A person of this name, and probably the same man, had land given him in Salem, 1638. He was an early and substantial settler at Pequot, often on committees, and sustain- ing both town and church offices.

George Tonge died in 1674. The early records have his name written Tongue, but the orthography 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.

Thomas Bayley died about 1675. Thomas Bayley married. Jan. 10, 1655-56, 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. Win- throp's land, upon the east side of the river. Re- linquishing his house in the town plot, he settled on this grant, which by subsequent additions expanded into a farm.

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 chil- dren are mentioned.

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 Stoning- ton, was one of the six captains slain in the Narra- gansett fort fight, Dec. 19, 1675. His wife was Han- nah, daughter of Mrs. Margaret Lake.

The Raymonds were also early settlers. Daniel married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Gabriel Harris, and had two daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah ; second, Rebecca, daughter of John Lay, by whom he had sons, Richard, Samuel, and perhaps others. He lived in Lyme; died 1696, and his widow married Samuel Gager, of Norwich.

Samuel married Mary, daughter of Nehemiah Smith, and settled in New London, where they both died after 1700, leaving a considerable estate, but no children.

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NEW LONDON.

Joshua married Elizabeth, daughter of Nehemiah Smith, Dec. 10, 1659. He purchased the Prentis home-lot, in New London, and left it to his children, together with a valuable farm in Mohegan.

Joshua Raymond (2) married Mercy, daughter of James Sands, of Block Island, April 29, 1683.

It is this Mercy Raymond whose name has been connected, by a mixture of truth and fable, with the story of the noted pirate, Capt. Kidd.1 Mr. Raymond died in 1704, " at the home-seat of the Sands family," which he had bought of his brother-in-law, Niles, on Block Island. It was a lonely and exposed situation by the sea-shore, with a landing-place near, where strange sea-craft, as well as neighboring coasters, often touched. Here the family dwelt, and Mr. Ray- mond being much of the time absent in New London, the care and management of the homestead devolved upon his wife, who is represented as a woman of great thrift and energy.

The legendary tale is that Capt. Kidd made her little harbor his anchorage-ground alternately with Gardiner's Bay; that she feasted him, supplied him with provisions, and boarded a strange lady whom he called his wife a considerable time ; and that when he was ready to depart he bade her hold out her apron, which she did, and he threw in handfuls of gold, jew- els, and other precious commodities until it was full, as the wages of her hospitality.

This fanciful story was doubtless the development of a simple fact that Kidd landed upon her farm, and she being solitary and unprotected, took the part of prudence, supplied him freely with what he would otherwise have taken by force, and received his money in payment for her accommodations. The Kidd story, however, became a source of pleasantry and gossip among the acquaintances of the family, and they were popularly said to have been enriched by the apron.

Robert Royce died in 1676. This name is identi- cal with Rice. The Robert Royce of New London is presumed to be the Robert Rice who was entered free- man in Massachusetts, 1634, and one of those dis- armed in Boston, 1637, for adherence to the opinions and party of Wheelright and Hutchinson. When he left Boston is not known, but he is found at Strat- ford, west of New Haven, before 1650, and was there in 1656. In 1657 he came to New London, and the town granted him the original Post lot, on Post Hill. He was by trade a shoemaker, was constable in 1660, one of the townsmen in 1663, in 1667 appointed to keep an ordinary, and the same year " freed from training," probably on account of age. He was again townsman in 1668.

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History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 38

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