History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 63

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 63

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The second Elijah Backus, an older brother of James, graduated at Yale College in 1777, and for several years held the office of collector of customs of New London. His first wife was Lucretia, daughter of Russell Hubbard, who died at New London in 1787. He afterwards married Hannah, daughter of Guy Richards, and removed with his family to Marietta, Ohio, where he died in 1811. His daughter Lucretia, born at New London in 1787, married Nathaniel Pope, of Kaskaskia, Ill., delegate in Congress from Illinois in 1816, and judge of the United States District Court. Maj .- Gen. John Pope, U.S.A., is their son, born March 12, 1823. His mother, Mrs. Lucretia Pope, in remembrance of the place of her father's nativity, and of her own early associations, came from her Western home to attend the bi-centen- niał jubilee at Norwich in September, 1859.

Among the descendants of William Backus who were natives of the old town of Norwich the follow- ing clergymen are of note :

1. Simon Backus, son of Joseph, born at Norwich, Feb. 11, 1701, graduated at Yale College in 1724, and was ordained pastor of the church at Newington in 1727. He attended the expedition to Cape Breton as chaplain of the Connecticut troops, and died while on duty at that place, in May, 1746. His wife was a sis- ter of President Edwards of the New Jersey College.

2. Rev. Simon Backus, son of the above, was pastor in Granby, Mass., and died in 1828, aged eighty- seven.

3. Rev. Charles Backus, D.D., of Somers, born in that part of Norwich which is now Franklin, Nov. 9, 1749, died in 1803. He had a high reputation as an acute and able theologian, and prepared between forty and fifty young men for the sacred office. Dr. Dwight said of him, "I have not known a wiser man."

4. Rev. Isaac Backus, A.M., of Middleborough, Mass., was born at Norwich, within the limits of the

old town plot, Jan. 9, 1724, and died Nov. 20, 1806. He was first a Separatist, and afterwards embracing Baptist principles, became eminent in that denomina- tion as a preacher, and the author of several histori- cal works relating to the diffusion of the Baptist faith in New England.

5. Rev. Azel Backus, D.D., born in Franklin, Oct. 13, 1765, was a nephew of Rev. Charles Backus, of Somers. His father died when he was a youth, and left him a farm, which, he said, " I wisely exchanged foran education in college." He settled at Bethlehem, Conn., as the successor of Dr. Bellamy, but in 1812 was chosen the first president of Hamilton College. The most noted of his writings is an election sermon preached at Hartford in 1798, on the character of Absalom,-a political discourse of strong partisan ten- dency.

JOHN BALDWIN. A family tradition has been current that he came to this country in his youth with a relative, but had no brothers. His first ap- pearance on record is at Guilford, where he married, April 25, 1653, Hannah Burchet.

Of the decease of the proprietor there is no account. His oldest son, John, removed to Lebanon. He was one of the grantees of that plantation in 1695, one of the selectmen of the newly-organized township in 1699, and at the time of his decease, in January, 1705, was a deacon of the church.

Capt. Ebenezer Baldwin, the third son of Thomas and Sarah Baldwin, was born May 7, 1710, and mar- ried Bethiah Barker, the nuptial contract being made sure "per Jacob Elliot."

Ebenezer, the oldest son of Ebenezer and Bethiah Baldwin, born July 3, 1745, was a graduate and tutor of Yale College; ordained pastor at Danbury in 1770, entered the army as chaplain in 1776, and died in Oc- tober, 1777, aged thirty-one.

Hon. Simeon Baldwin, so long known as Judge Baldwin, of New Haven, one of the sterling men of Connecticut, was also a son of Capt. Ebenezer and his wife Bethiah. He was born at Norwich, Dec. 14, 1761, graduated at Yale College in 1781, was member of Congress from Connecticut from 1803 to 1805, as- sociate judge of the Superior Court and Supreme Court of Errors, and mayor of the city of New Haven, where he died, May 26, 1851, in his ninetieth year.

His son, the Hon. Roger S. Baldwin, held the offices of Governor of Connecticut and United States sena- tor, serving his native State in her highest executive and confederated capacity. He died at New Haven, Feb. 19, 1863.

Jabez Baldwin, the fourth son of the first Thomas, died in his twenty-fifth year without issue.

THOMAS BINGHAM. The house-lot of Thomas Bingham bears the date of April, 1660, though at that time he could not have been over eighteen years of age. He married, Dec. 12, 1666, Mary Rudd, who is supposed to have been the daughter of Lieut. Jon- athan Rudd, of Saybrook. Her image rises before

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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

us enveloped in a haze of romance, on account of her probable connection with the story of Bride Brook.

THOMAS BURCHARD, aged forty, embarked for New England in a vessel called the "True Love," Sept. 20, 1635, with his wife, Mary, and six children, one of them a son named John, aged seven, and the others daughters. Thomas Bircher, made free at Boston, May 17, 1637, and Thomas Birchwood, or Birchard, of Hartford, in 1639, were probably the same person. He is subsequently found at Saybrook, and was deputy from that township to the General Court in 1650 and 1651. After this there seems to be no trace of him at Saybrook, except in a land sale made in 1656 by Thomas Birchard, "of Martin's Vineyard," to Wil- liam Pratt, wherein he quits claim for himself and in. behalf of his son, John Birchard.

There can be little hesitation in assuming that John, son of the above Thomas (aged seven in 1635), was the John Birchard that became a proprietor of Nor- wich. He appears to have been a man of considera- ble note in the company, particularly as a scribe, serving for several years as town clerk and recorder.

John Birchard was one of the ten inhabitants of Norwich accepted as freemen at Hartford in October, 1663, clerk of the County Court in 1673, a commis- sioner or justice of the peace in 1676, and deputy to the General Court in October, 1691.

THOMAS BLISS, SR. and JR., had house-lots and divisions of land in Hartford as early as 1640.

The allotments of Thomas Bliss in Saybrook were eastward of the river, in what is now Lyme. His house-lot of thirty acres lay between Jolm Ompsted (Olmstead) on the north and John Lay south. He sold it, July 23, 1662, to Jolm Comstock. His home- lot in Norwich was also near to that of John Olm- stead, extending originally at the northwest to the pent highway. That part where the house stands has never been alienated. Seven generations have dwelt on the same spot, and the house is supposed not to have been entirely rebuilt since it was erected by the first proprietor.

Thomas Bliss died April 15, 1688.

In the inventory of Thomas Bliss his estate is esti- mated at £182 178. 7d. He had land besides his home- lot over the river,-on the Little Plain, at the Great Plain, at the Falls, in Yantic meadow, in meadow at Beaver Brook, in pasture east of the town, and on Westward Hill.

MORGAN BOWERS came from that part of Saybrook which lay cast of the river and is now Lyme. His home-lot in these Lyme grants was on or near Black Point, and had been in his possession about five years. Little is known of him. He was on the jury of the County Court in 1667, and again in 1680. No trace is found of wife or children, but probably he had both. It was disreputable at that period for a man without a family to live as a householder by himself. In his old age, however, he seems to have been both lonely and infirm.

JOHN BRADFORD was the son of William Bradford, the Pilgrim Governor of Plymouth colony. His mother was Dorothy May, the carliest of our May- flowers, the herald of those that give fragrance to the airs of spring, and the graceful prototype of the white-winged bark that bore her and the pioneers of freedom over the ocean.

Dorothy May was the first wife of Governor Brad- ford. She embarked with her husband for the Promised Land, but, like Moses, only saw it at a distance. After the vessel had anchored in Cape Cod Harbor, she fell overboard and was drowned, Dec. 7, 1620, her husband being absent at the time in a boat or shallop exploring the coast and selecting a place for a settle- ment.

John Bradford was not the companion of his parents in this voyage, and it is not ascertained when he came to this country. Very little is known of his early history, for neither Morton nor Prince, the carliest authorities respecting Plymouth Colony, give any hint of the existence of this son of Governor Brad- ford.

He was of Duxbury in 1645, afterwards of Marsh- field, and deputy to the General Court of both places. He married Martha, daughter of Thomas Bourne, of Marshfield, but had no children.

The home-lot of Mr. Bradford, in Norwich, bears the date of the oldest proprietors, 1659, and it is probable that he soon removed to the spot. His farm in Duxbury was sold by " John Bradford, gentleman," to Christoper Wadsworth in 1664.

Mr. Bradford was one of the townsmen of Norwich in 1671, but his name seldom occurs on the records. His will was exhibited at the County Court in Sep- tember, 1676. His widow married, after a short in- terval, her opposite neighbor, Lieut. Thomas Tracy. The period of her death is not ascertained, but the lieutenant was living with a third wife in 1683.

HUGH CALKINS (or Caulkins1) was one of a body of emigrants, called the Welsh Company, that came to New England in 1640 from Chepstow, in Mon- mouthshire, on the border of Wales, with their minis- ter, the Rev. Mr. Blinman. The larger portion of this company settled first at Marshfield, but soon transferred their residence to Gloucester, upon the rough promonotory of Cape Ann. From thence, after eight years of experiment, most of them removed to New London, hoping probably to find lands more arable and productive, and allured also by affection- ate attachment to Mr. Blinman, whom Mr. Winthrop had invited to his plantation.

Hugh Calkins was in 1660 deputy from Gloucester to the General Court of Massachusetts, and chosen again in 1651, but removing early in that year to New London, the vacancy was filled by another election.

While living at New London he was chosen twelve

) The name appears on the early records, written indifferently, with or without the u, and with or without the final 8.

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NORWICH.

times deputy to the Connecticut Assembly (the elec- tions being semi-annual), and was one of the towns- men or selectmen invariably from 1652 till he removed to Norwich.

From Norwich he was deputy at ten sessions of the Legislature, between March, 1653, and October, 1671, and was one of the first deacons of Norwich Church. At each of the three towns in which he was an early settler and proprietor he was largely employed in public business, being usually appointed one of com- mittees for consultation, for fortifying, drafting sol- diers, settling difficulties, and particularly for survey. ing and determining boundaries. These offices imply a considerable range of information, as well as ac- tivity and executive talent, yet he seems to have had no early education, uniformly making a bold H for his signature.

JOHN CALKINS, the oldest son of Hugh, was prob- ably born about 1634. He was old enough to be sum- moned to work with other settlers on the mill-dam at New London in 1652. He married, at New London, Sarah, daughter of Robert Royce, and his oldest child, Hugh, was born at that place before the re- moval to Norwich.

John Calkins was one of the selectmen of Nor- wich in 1671, and on the jury of the County Court so late as 1691. He died Jan. 8, 1702-3. Sarah, his relict, died May 1, 1711, aged seventy-seven years.

RICHARD EDGERTON and Mary Sylvester were married April 7, 1653. The birth of three daughters is registered at Saybrook, reaching to September, 1659, and in November of that year we have the date of his house-lot at Norwich.

WILLIAM GAGER came to America in 1630 with Governor Winthrop, but died the same year from a disease contracted by ill diet at sea, which swept off many of the emigrants .. He is characterized by con- temporary journalists as "a skillful surgeon, a right godly man, and one of the deacons of our congrega- tion." His son John, the only child that has been traced, was one of the company that settled at New London with John Winthrop the younger. His name is there found on the earliest extant list of inhabitants.

He had a grant from the town of New London of a farm of two hundred acres east of the river, near the straits (now in Ledyard), to which he removed soon after 1650, and there dwelt until he joined in the settlement of Norwich and removed thither. His house-lot in the new town bears the date of the oldest surveys, viz., November, 1659. He was constable of Norwich in 1674 and 1688.

His oldest son, born in September, 1647, who in 1688 is styled " John Gager, of New London, son to John, Sr., of Norwich," died in 1691 without issue.

The will of John Gager, the proprietor, dated Dec. 21, 1695, has the descriptive passage, " being now aged and full of days ;" but he lived eight years longer, dying Dec. 10, 1703. His will provides for wife Eliza- beth, bequeaths all real estate to " only son Samuel,"

and adds, "to my six sons that married my daughters, viz., John Allyn, Daniel Brewster, Jeremiah Ripley, Simon Huntington, Joshua Abel, and Caleb Forbes, twenty shillings each, having already given their wives considerable portions in movables and lands."

It was much the custom in those days for men who had children arrived at maturity to become in great part their own executors, distributing their estates by deed and assignment before death, reserving only a needful portion for themselves, to be disposed of after- wards. This accounts for the slenderness of many ancient inventories. That of John Gager in 1703 amounted to £49 16s.

Among the items enumerated are one great Bibell, one white-faced stag.

This last we may imagine to have been a domestic pet of the old people. Several articles are mentioned belonging to the old-fashioned fireplace, which the modern use of stove, furnace, and range has rendered almost obsolete, such as two tramills, a peal and tongs, a snit, warming pan, and andirons.

A peal (or peel) was a large flat shovel used to draw bread from the oven. A common shovel was often termed a slice, and snit was probably used for snuffers.

Other articles that seem antique and homely to the present generation were porringers, wooden trenchers, and syllabub pots.

Many curious things are found in these old inven- tories; very common articles are canns, of pewter or silver, piggins, keelers, pewter basins, and a cow-bell.

Samuel Gager, only surviving son of John, born February, 1654, married Rebecca (Lay), relict of Daniel Raymond, of New London, in 1695. He was a man of good repute and considerable estate, a resi- dent in the parish of New Concord, but interred at his own request, as heretofore stated, in the old neg- lected graveyard of the first-comers in the town plot, where some fragments of the stone may yet re- main.

William Gager, one of the sons of Samuel, born in 1704, graduated at Yale College in 1721, and in 1725 was settled in the pastoral office at Lebanon. He died in 1739.

Othniel Gager, who has held the office of town clerk in Norwich for over forty years, is of the sixth generation in descent from the first proprietor in the line of John, oldest son of Samuel.

STEPHEN GIFFORD'S first marriage was with Han- nah Grove, in May, 1667. She died Jan. 24, 1670-71, leaving two children, Samuel and Hannah. He mar- ried, second, Hannah, daughter of John Gallop, of Stonington, May 12, 1672. Four children are subse- quently recorded to him,-John, Ruth, Stephen, and Aquilla.

The proprietor and his second wife lived together more than half a century, and died the same year.

Samuel Gifford removed to Lebanon in 1692, and there died, Aug. 26, 1714. The two daughters of Stephen, the proprietor, also settled in Lebanon, as

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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

the wives of Samuel Calkins and Jeremiah Fitch. John, Stephen, and Aquilla Gifford, sons of the first proprietor, were inhabitants of Norwich in 1736.

LIEUT. FRANCIS GRISWOLD was a son of Edward and Margaret Griswold, born about 1632. He ap- pears to have been a man of capacity and enterprise, and took an active part in the affairs of the plantation, serving as representative to the General Court for eleven sessions, beginning October, 1664, and ending May, 1671. It is not known when he was married, or to whom. Not even the household name of his wife is found in the records at Saybrook or Norwich.

RICHARD HENDY. This name is identical with Hende, Hendys, and Handy. Richard Hendy seems to have been one of the first purchasers of Norwich, and to have had an early allotment in the neighborhood of the town plot. He also shared in the first divisions of land, but there is no evidence of his actual resi- dence at any time in the settlement.

THOMAS HOWARD. The house-lot of Thomas Howard has the same date as those of Fitch and Mason. Of his antecedent history no information has been obtained. His family registry at Norwich is as follows :

"Thomas Howard and Mary Wellman were married in January, 1666. Children : Mary born in Dec. 1667. Sarah in Feb. 1669. Martha in Feb. 1672, and died one month after. Thomas born in March 1673, and Benjamin in June 1675."

Thomas Howard was slain at the Narragansett fort fight, Dec. 17, 1675.

"CHRISTOPHER AND SIMON HUNTINGTON prob- ably settled at Saybrook as soon as they attained their majority. Christopher was there in 1649, apparently engaged in trade, and had written to his Uncle Baret, in England, for consignments of cloth and shot. In 1651 he was one of five persons who seized a Dutch vessel that was on the coast trading illegally with the Indians. He married Ruth, daughter of William Rockwell, of Windsor, Oct. 7, 1652. They lost' one child, and perhaps more than one, in infancy, and when the removal to Norwich took place the parents had only their little daughter Ruth to carry through the wilderness. But a blessing soon descended upon their new home, a son was born, a second Christo- pher, Nov. 1, 1660,-the first-born male in Nor- wich.

" The children of Christopher Huntington were subsequently increased to seven in number, while Simon had a family of ten. They both lived to em- brace their children's children, and to see the family hives swarm, and emigrants pass off to alight in the woods and wastes of Windham, Mansfield, and Leb- anon.

" Thomas, the second son, born in 1664, was one of the early settlers of Windham.

"Christopher Huntington, Ist, died in 1691, as is indicated by the probate of his estate that year. No other record gives the date. He was probably buried in the Gager and Post burial-ground, and no stone marks his grave.

"The second Christopher Huntington, the first- born son of Norwich, executed the office of town clerk and recorder for twenty years, and was deacon of the church from 1696 to 1735.

" The two wives of Deacon Christopher were Sarah Adgate and Judith, widow of Jonathan Brewster. He had a family of twelve children ; seven sons and four daughters survived him. His oldest child, Ruth, was the mother of Dr. Eleazer Wheelock, the founder of the first Indian school at Lebanon, and the first president of Dartmouth College.

" Christopher Huntington, 3d, was born in 1686. Christopher Huntington, 4th, born in 1719, was a physician in the parish of New Concord. These four Christophers were in the direct line, each the oldest son of his father, but the fifth Christopher was the youngest son of the fourth. He succeeded his father as a physician in New Concord, or Bozrah, where he died in 1821. His oldest son, the sixth Christopher, settled in Hartford, where he died in 1834, and with him the direct line of the Christophers ends, other names in the family of the last-mentioned Christo- pher taking the place of the old heirloom.

SIMON HUNTINGTON. The title of deacon became very early a familiar appendage to the name of Hunt- ington. Out of twenty deacons of the first church, seven have been Huntingtons,1 six of whom held the office over thirty years each. In the line of Simon the deaconship descended from father to son through four successive generations, Simon 1st, Simon 2d, Ebenezer, and Simon 3d, covering a period of one hundred and twenty years. Deacon Barnabas Hunt- ington, of Franklin, was also a progenitor of deacons.2 Other churches in the vicinity have been prone to select their ministering servants from the same cog- nomen. Near the close of the last century there were six Deacon Huntingtons officiating at one period in as many different parishes of Norwich and the neighboring towns.

"Simon Huntington, the proprietor, was united to Sarah, daughter of Joseph Clarke, of Saybrook, in October, 1653. They lived together fifty-three years, and she survived him fifteen, dying in 1721, at the age of eighty-eight. 'This was probably the earliest, but not the only one of the first thirty-five wedded pairs that could have celebrated the golden period of their connubial life, if at that day such festivals had been in vogue.

" Deacon Simon left an estate appraised at £275.

1 Eight if we include the first Christopher Huntington, who is usually placed on the list, but there does not appear to be any contemporary evidence that he held the office. The statement is derived from minutes made by Dr. Lord, in which the first Christopher was probably con- founded with the second.

2" The old Franklin homestead was for a long period in the possession of deacons, and what is not a little remarkable, these deacons, each in his day and generation, kept tavern under the sign of the Seven Stars, which shone with steady Instre for the benefit and bountiful cheer of wayfarers on the old Lebanon road." -- Speech of Hon. Asahel Hunting- ton, of Salem, Mass., at the Huntington gathering at Norwich, Sept. 3, 1857.

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NORWICH.

The inventory of his books may be worth quoting as a specimen of what was doubtless a fair library for a layman in 1706:

"' A great Bible IOs. Another great bible 88. Rogers his seven treat- ises, 5s. A practical Catecise 1s. 6d. William Dyer, Is. Mr. Moody's Book 8d. Thomas Hooker's Doubting Christian, 9d. New England Psalm Book, 1s. Mr. Adams' Sarmon. The bound book of Mr. Fitch and John Rogers 2s. The samo unbound 8d. The day of doom 10d.'

" At the time of Deacon Simon's death his six sons and three daughters were all heads of families. His sons-in-law were Solomon Tracy, Deacon Caleb Forbes, of Preston, and Joseph Backus. Four of his sons-Simon, Nathaniel, Daniel, and James- settled near their parents in Norwich, though not all in one parish. Joseph went to Windham, and Samuel to Lebanon.

"The oldest son, Simon, born in Saybrook before the removal to Norwich, married Lydia Gager, Oct. 8, 1683, and had four children. The oldest of these, bearing his own name, the third Simon in direct de- scent, was the person killed by the bite of a rattle- snake just after he became of age.

"This second Deacon Simon Huntington had two other sons besides the one so suddenly removed, viz., Ebenezer and Joshua, and in the series descending from these are found several names of more than common distinction. The last-named son was born Dec. 30, 1698, and is known in local tradition as Capt. Joshua. He was a noted merchant, beginning business at nineteen, and pursuing it for twenty-seven years, du- ring which time it is said that he traded more by sea and land than any other man in Norwich. In the prime of life, activity, and usefulness he took the yellow fever in New York, came home sick, and died the 27th of August, 1745, aged forty-seven.1 He was the father of Gen. Jabez Huntington, of whom more will be said hereafter.

" Among the Huntingtons of note in this and the neighboring towns, besides the clerks and deacons already mentioned, we might enumerate five or six judges of the common courts, five members of Con- gress, one of them president of the Continental Con- gress and Governor of the State, and six or seven who acquired the military rank of colonels and generals, one of them a brigadier-general in the army of the Revolution. Of the clergy, also, a considerable list of Huntingtons might be made without going out of New London County for their nativity.2

"The name has also been widely disseminated in other States besides Connecticut, and rendered honor- able by the talents and virtues of those who have borne it. But it is not on this account wholly that we give it special prominence in these details, but rather for this reason, that the Huntingtons are the only family among the proprietors with whom any

connection has hitherto been traced with Norwich in England. As we have seen, Margaret Baret, the mother of Christopher and Simon Huntington, ap- pears to have been a native of Norwich, and it is not improbable that her children were also born there."

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History of New London county, Connecticut : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 63

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