USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 15
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field, would all knowledge of the fact have been completely obliterated from history, memory, and tradition ? Would his sons have sold their inheritance without recording the fact that it contained their father's sep- ulchre, and stipulating that his remains should be respected ? We may take it for granted therefore that Mason was buried in the common place of sepulture with his friends and neighbors .*
In that primitive cemetery, the only memorials erected in honor of the dead were a grassy hillock, and a block of unhewn granite at the head and foot of the grave. No squared pillars or chiseled inscriptions decorated this humble spot. The stones gradually sunk into the earth, or were removed by those that knew not they had any watch to keep; the graves wore away to a level with the field, and then a little below it, and long before the end of another century, the ploughshare and the seedsman passed over and obliterated every vestige of grave and monument from the place.
Mason is one of the prominent figures in our early history. He shines forth as a valiant soldier and a wise counselor. He was prudent, and yet enterprising ; fertile in resources ; prompt and heroic in the field of action. The natural ardor of his mind, fostered by early military adventures, and continually called into exercise by great emergencies, made him a fearless leader in war. Sturdy in frame, and hardy in constitution ; regardless of danger, fatigue, or exposure ; he was invaluable as a pioneer in difficult enterprises, and a founder of new plantations. He was also a religious man and a patriot ; of virtuous habits, and moderate ambition. Though he sustained many high and honorable offices in the infant colony, he is best known by the simple title of Captain. Trumbull comprises his peculiar traits in these few words : "He was tall and portly, full of martial fire, and shunned no hardships or dangers in the defence and service of the colony."
His sign manual seems expressive of his massive person and bold de- cision of purpose.
1651 In : Majon
* This argument, seemingly unnecessary, is prompted by the doubts and surmises that have been broached respecting the place of Mason's burial. Such doubts appear to the author entirely baseless. They have originated, doubtless, from the absence of grave-stones and the obliteration of hillocks in this old burial-place. The meditative
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Yet viewing the character of Mason at this distance of time, we become aware of some rigid and imperious features. Though faithful to his con- victions of duty, he was stern and unrelenting in the execution of justice, and as a magistrate and commander, dictatorial and self-reliant.
Roger Williams, in his correspondence with Winthrop of New London,* refers to Mason in terms which lead us to infer that the latter, as a neigh- bor, was not particularly acceptable to other plantations :
"Since I mention Capt. Mason, worthy sir, I humbly beg of the Father of Lights to guide you in youre converse and neighbourhood with him."
" Sir, heape coales of fire on Capt. Mason's head, conquer evil with good but be not cowardly and overcome with any evill."
Again, alluding to dispatches that he had received from Capt. Mason, he says :
" The letters are kind to myself but terrible to all these natives, especially to the. sachims."
Uncas and his tribe were peculiarly the wards and adherents of Mason,, and he seemed pledged to defend them against all complaints. Several. times he interfered to screen his favorite sachem from punishment, for his insolent bearing towards the neighboring settlements, or for his depreda -. tions upon private property ; but towards other native clans, Mason was often a severe and exacting ruler. In September, 1639, he broke up with ruthless determination a small settlement of the Pequots, whose only offence was, that they had huddled together at Pawcatuck, upon the skirt of their former domain, and were endeavoring to obtain a comfortable. subsistence. With about forty of his own men, and a horde of Mohegans under the command of Uncas, he made a sudden descent upon the village, dispersed the terrified inhabitants, or took them prisoners, plundered and burnt the wigwams, destroyed all the goods and provisions that could not be removed, and returned with thirty canoes, taken from the natives and filled with their plunder. They found a harmless people, prospering by means of their corn-fields and fishing-boats ; they swept over the scene, and left nothing but flight, terror, and desolation.
It was probably an act of sagacious foresight, but not of true heroism. We would willingly blot it out of the history of our gallant captain. Yet it must be conceded that undue severity to the aborigines was then a part of the law of the land, and not a peculiarity in the character of Mason ..
mind very naturally asks itself,-Can it be that this bold Connecticut pioncer has been left in this unnoticed spot for nearly 200 years, without a stone to mark his grave ?" After wonder at this forgetfulness, comes a doubt of the fact. Yet there is but this one place pointed out by tradition, and this is sustained by all the attendant circumstances.
* Winthrop Papers in Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d series, 9, 278. Letters of 1648-9.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
We may be disposed to charge him with cruelty to a vanquished foe ; but the same taint lies on most of the early colonists. He only shared in the ferocious character of the age, and we may add, in that misconstruction of the spirit of Christianity, which devoted its enemies to immediate and vin- dictive destruction.
Of the first marriage of Capt. Mason, no date or specification has been recovered. A memorandum in the old Church Book at Windsor gives the number of those who had died in the plantation before the year 1639, and mentions as one of them, the Captain's wife. No other inhabitant is known to have had at that time the title of Captain, and therefore this may be pronounced, without hesitation, the wife of Mason. In July, 1639, he was married to Anne Peck, who was the mother of the seven children recorded at Norwich, which list is supposed to comprise his whole off- spring.
Mrs. Anne Mason died at Norwich, before her husband. A memorial sermon, preached by Mr. Fitch, represents her as a woman of eminent piety, and "gifted with a measure of knowledge above what is usual in her sex."
"I need not tell you, (says the preacher,) what a Dorcas you have lost; men, women and children are ready with weeping to acknowledge what works of mercy she hath done for them."*
The family is registered at Norwich, with this heading: "The names and ages of the children of Major Mason." The day of the month is not given, nor the place of birth. The list is as follows :
Priseilla, born in October, 1641.
Samnel, July, 1644.
John, ¥ August, 1646.
Rachel, " October, 1648.
Anne, June, 1650.
Daniel, " April, 1652.
Elizabeth, « August, 1654.
The first three were probably born in Windsor, the others at Saybrook. Of this group, three were ingrafted into the Fitch family. Rev. James Fitch married for his second wife, in October, 1664, Priscilla Mason; John Mason, 2d, married Abigail Fitch ; and James Fitch, 2d, married Eliza- beth Mason, Jan. 1, 1676.
* Printed at Cambridge by Samuel Green in 1672. But neither the date of Mrs. Mason's death, nor the time when the sermon was preached, is stated. The title page simply refers to her death as preceding that of her husband.
" A Sermon preached upon the occasion of the Death and Decease of that piously affected and truly religious Matron, Mrs. Anne Mason, sometime wife to Major Mason who not long after finished his course and is now at rest. By Mr. James Fitch, Pastor of the Church at Norwich."
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Rachel Mason became the second wife of Charles Hill of New London. They were married June 12, 1678, and she died in less than a year after- ward.
Anne Mason married, Nov. 8, 1672, Capt. John Brown of Swanzey.
John Mason, second son of the Major, succeeded to his father's accom- modations in Norwich.
This gallant young Captain was severely, and as it proved, fatally wounded in the great swamp fight at Narragansett, Dec. 19, 1675. It is probable that he was brought home from that sanguinary field by his Mo- hegan warriors on an Indian bier. His wounds never healed. After lin- gering several months, he died, as is supposed, in the same house where his father expired, and was doubtless laid by his side in the old obliterated grave-yard of the first-comers. Though scarcely thirty years of age at the time of his death, he stood high in public esteem both in a civil and military capacity. He had represented the town at three sessions of the Legislature, and was chosen an Assistant the year of his decease. In the probate of his estate before the County Court, he is called "the worshipful John Mason." The Rev. Mr. Bradstreet of New London records his death in these terms :
" My hon'd and dear Friend Capt. Jno. Mason one of ye magistrates of this Colony, and second son of Major Jno. Mason, dyed,"* Sept. 18, 1676.
He left two young children : Anne, who married John Denison ; and John, born at Norwich in 1673, afterward known as Capt. John Mason, being the third in lineal succession who had borne the name and title. He is best known as an Indian claimant, visiting England to assert the rights of the heirs of Major Mason to those lands which the latter. pur- chased as agent of the colony. His connection with this long Mohegan controversy, will bring him at another period within the range of our history.
The other sons of Major Mason, Samuel and Daniel, settled in Stoning- ton, on an ample domain given by the colony to their father, near the border of Long Island Sound. Samuel was chosen an Assistant in 1683, and acquired the same military rank as his father, being known also as Major Mason. He was one of the four purchasers of Lebanon, but never removed thither. He died at Stonington, March 30, 1705, leaving four children, all daughters. His only son, John, died ten days before him, aged twenty-eight, and unmarried. The male branch in this line here became extinct, but the name was continued in the line of the oldest daughter, Anne, who married her cousin, the third John Mason, before mentioned.
* Hist. and Gen. Reg., 9, 46.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Lieut. Daniel Mason, the early schoolmaster of Norwich, died at Ston- ington, Jan. 28, 1736-7, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. His first wife was Margaret Denison of Roxbury, and his second Rebecca Hobart of Hingham. His oldest son, Daniel, married Dorothy Hobart, and settled in Lebanon, where he died, July 4, 1706, thirty years before the decease of his father, leaving only one child, an infant son, named Jeremiah, after his grandfather, Rev. Jeremiah Hobart .*
II. REV. JAMES FITCH.
This venerated man died at Lebanon ; a plantation in which he had taken great interest, and where several of his children had established their homes. In the quiet cemetery of that place, where almost a congre- gation of good and great men have since been gathered, he was laid to rest. The monumental tablet that marks his grave, has an elaborate Latin inscription, said to have been written by his son, the Rev. Jabez Fitch,* that furnishes a judicious and comprehensive summary of his life and character.
[TRANSLATION.]
In this tomb are deposited the remains of the truly Reverend Mr. James Fitch : born at Boeking, in the county of Essex, England, December 24, 1632 : who, after he had been well instructed in the learned languages, came to New England at the age of 16, and passed seven years under the instruction of those eminent divines, Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone. Afterward he discharged the pastoral office at Saybrook for 14 years, from whence, with the greater part of his church, he removed to Norwich, and there spent the succeeding years of his life, engaged in the work of the Gospel, till age and infirmity obliged him to withdraw from public labor. At length he retired to his children at Leb- anon, where scarcely half a year had passed, when he fell asleep in Jesus, Nov. 18,; 1702, in the 80th year of his age. He was a man, for penetration of mind, solidity of judgment, devotion to the sacred duties of his office, and entire holiness of life, as also for skill and energy in preaching, inferior to none.
Mr. Fitch is placed by Mather in his second classis of New England ministers,-consisting of "young scholars, whose education for their
* Mrs. Dorothy Mason subsequently married Hezekiah Brainerd of Haddam. The devoted missionary to the Delaware Indians (David Brainerd) was one of the children of this connection.
+ Mass. Hist. Coll., 10, 68.
# In the town book at Lebanon, Nov. 19 is the recorded day of Mr. Fitch's death. Slight discrepancies in the cotemporaneous records of deaths frequently occur, and may sometimes result from one giving the diy of death, and another that of interment.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
designed ministry not being finished, came over from England with their friends, and had their education perfected in this country before the Col- lege was come into maturity enough to bestow its laurels."*
It appears that the father of the family had deceased, and that the mother with several sons emigrated to this country in 1638. The exact number of the brothers that came over has not been definitely ascertained. Thomas, Joseph and James can be clearly traced. But there was a coeval Samuel Fitch, schoolmaster at Hartford, that married, in 1650, the widow of the first William Whiting, and subsequently removed to Milford, who may have been another brother.t
Thomas Fitch settled in Norwalk, where, in the valuation of estates in 1665, he was the highest upon the list .; He is also the first person men- tioned in the Patent of that town, granted in 1685, and from him in a line of three generations, each bearing the same name, Gov. Thomas Fitch, who occupied the chair of state in Connecticut from 1754 to 1766, was descended.
Joseph Fitch can be traced as a landholder, or as a temporary inhabit- ant, at Norwalk, Hartford, and Northampton ; but he ultimately settled at Windsor, upon a valuable farm near the boundary line of the present towns of East Hartford and East Windsor. John Fitch, whose name is honorably connected with the invention of steam navigation, was a de- scendant of Joseph, and born Jan. 21, 1743, near the place where his ancestor settled, on the Windsor part of the farm.
Of Mr. James Fitch, our immediate subject, we have a statement of his birth, emigration at the age of sixteen, and seven years of theological instruction at Hartford, and this is all that is known of him previous to his ordination at Saybrook in 1646. At this ceremony, Mr. Hooker of Hartford was present, but the imposition of hands was by two of the brethren appointed by the church to that office. The same form was also used at the same place, at the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Thomas Buck- ingham in 1670.§ Mr. Hooker had himself been ordained in the same manner at Cambridge. This was a Congregational ordination in the strictest sense of the term.
The element of independence thus wrought into the original structure of Mr. Fitch's church, was brought with it to Norwich, and has never died out. Though not subsequently asserting its rights in the special form of ordination, the congregational principle struck its roots deep, and has ever
* Magnalia, 1, 215. Hart. Edition.
t In Westcott's Life of John Fitch, it is said that five brothers emigrated, but the authority seems only traditionary.
# Hall's History of Norwalk.
§ Trumbull's Conn., 1, 299.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
sinoe maintained its ground, giving something of a distinctive character to the church in its whole course .*
When a part of Mr. Fitch's church decided, in 1660, to remove to Norwich, it was a subject of some contention between the two parties whether he should stay with those who were to remain, or go with those who should remove. He was greatly beloved by all, and each side claimed him. After solemn prayer and long deliberation, Mr. Fitch decided that it was his duty to keep with the majority, and this brought him to Nor- wich. Soon after his removal thither, the people of Hartford invited him to become their minister, thinking, probably, that the hardships of a new settlement, and the prospect of extensive usefulness in a wider and more elevated sphere, might induce him to leave his flock. The only reply he sent to their invitation was this: "With whom then shall I leave these few poor sheep in the wilderness ?"
The oldest Election Sermon in Connecticut, of which any record has been discovered, was preached by Mr. Fitch, in 1674, from this text: "For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her."t
Other products of his pen, yet extant, are: a sermon on the death of Anne, wife of Major Mason, 1672, and a small volume printed at Boston in 1683, with an Introduction by Rev. Increase Mather, and comprising three distinct tracts, viz .:
A Treatise on the reformation of those evils which have been the procuring cause of the late judgments upon New England.
The Norwich Covenant, which was solemnly renewed March 22, 1675.
A brief Discourse proving that the First Day of the week is the Christian Sabbath.
The multiplied labors of Mr. Fitch in behalf of the Indians, to civilize, Christianize, and render them comfortable, have been heretofore noticed. His correspondence with the Governor and Assistants was voluminous. Among the documents of the State, letters concerning the wayward natives are yet extant, bearing his signature.
James glitch.
* Rev. H. P. Arms, the successor of Mr. Fitch at the present day,-the sixth incum- bent of the pastoral office in the old town of Norwich, -- in reference to the ordination of Mr. Fitch, observes :
" We retain the same principles, and hold that all ecclesiastical authority is vested in the individual churches, and that while, as a matter of Christian courtesy, we ask the aid of a council in ordaining or deposing ministers, we accede to that council no authority beyond what the church delegates to it for the occasion." Norwich Jubilee, p. 252.
t. Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 222 ..
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
As a pastor, Mr. Fitch was zealous and indefatigable. In addition to his other labors, he trained several young men for the ministry, as he him- self had been trained by Mr. Hooker. Rev. Samuel Whiting of Wind- ham, Taylor of Westfield, and Adams of New London, received a part at least of their theological instruction from him. Before colleges and academies were established in the land, a course of study in the family of some experienced divine was the customary method of preparing young men for the ministry.
Lebanon, we have said, was an offshoot of Norwich. In 1663, Major Mason had a legislative grant of 500 acres of land, with his choice of location in the unappropriated territory of the colony. It was taken up "at a place called by the Indians Pomakuck near Norwich."
The registry is found on the records of the New London County Court :
Wee whose names are under writen according to the order from the Generall Court wce have laid out five hundred ackers of upland and meadow for Maior Mason at po- macook.
THOMAS TRACY. FRANCIS GRISWOLD.
from Norwig 1665, the 6th [month left blank.]
Acknowledged by Uncas sachem of Mohegan in Court at New London Nov. 14, 1665.
Pomakuck, or Pomakook, was a tract of land upon Deep River brook, near the borders of Lebanon and Franklin, the latter being then a part of Norwich. In October, 1666, a grant was made to Mr. Fitch of 120 acres adjoining Major Mason's land at Pomakook .* To this grant, Owaneco, the son and successor of Uncas, at a subsequent period, in acknowledg- ment of favors received from Mr. Fitch, added a tract five miles in length and one in breadth. This munificent gift was familiarly called the Mile, or Mr. Fitch's Mile.t
Afterward the same chief, who claimed all the unsettled lands in this quarter, sold to four proprietors, viz., Capt. Samuel Mason and Capt. John Stanton of Stonington, Capt. Benjamin Brewster and Mr. John Birchard of Norwich, a tract five miles square, "at a place called by the Indians Poque-chan-neeg adjoining to the Mile, so called of the Rev. Mr. Fitch." This deed bears date, Sept. 6, 1692, and was probably executed at Nor- wich, the witnesses being Richard Bushnell and Thomas Adgate.#
* Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 49.
t L. Hebard, Esq., of Lebanon, estimates the Mile to have been a mile in width, lib -. eral measure, and about seven miles in length instead of five. It was bounded north by Shetucket river, and east by Norwich.
# Acknowledged before Samuel Mason, at Norwich, Jan. 5, 1698-9. Recorded at: Lebanon, Book 1, Article 1. Endorsed, confirmed by Gen. Ass., May, 1705.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
These various grants, with certain strips and gores purchased at a later date, make up the town of Lebanon. Major Mason was undoubtedly the first English proprietor, but not a resident.
The distribution into lots, the occupation and actual settlement of the town, began in 1695 .* The number of grants and allotments bearing date in November of that year is about fifty. In the earliest roll of inhab- itants, made soon after 1700, are the names of four sons of the Rev. Mr. Fitch,-Jeremiah, Nathaniel, Joseph, and Eleazer.
According to tradition, the township was named by Mr. Fiteh before a house had been built, or a tree felled by a white man upon the tract. Within the bounds of the Mile, was an extensive cedar forest, which, by the principle of association, assisted also by the height of the land, sug- gesting to the mind of its accomplished owner the Cedars of Lebanon, led him to bestow the name of Lebanon upon the whole traet.
The town and its patron have reason to be satisfied with each other. Quiet, beautiful, dignified Lebanon ! with its broad street like a continued park, and its fertile farms,-the birth-place and resting-place of the two Trumbulls, and of Williams, equally true-hearted and patriotie,-let pil- grimages be made to its bounds, and wreaths, often renewed, laid upon the graves of the fathers and patriots that rest in its bosom.t
To this new and interesting plantation Mr. Fitch, in the year 1701, retired to die. A brief summer passed in its quiet, secluded shades, led him gently forward to the tomb. His three youngest sons, Nathaniel, Joseph, and Eleazer, early settlers of Lebanon, repose near him, with head-stones to point out their graves.
Mr. Fitch was twice married, and had fourteen children, whose births are all recorded at Norwich, though the first six were born in Saybrook, and are also recorded there, with the death of the first wife. All the children except Elizabeth are referred to as among the living, in the will of their father, February, 1696, and it is not improbable that twelve fol- lowed his remains to the grave. His first wife was Abigail, daughter of the Rev. Henry Whitefield, whom he married in October, 1648. She died at Saybrook, Sept. 9, 1659, and in October, 1664, he was united to Priscilla Mason, who survived him. The date of her death has not been ascertained. Her signature (Priscilla Fitch) is attached, with the names
* The name, Lebanon, was current in the neighborhood of Norwich, before it was given to the town. Grants at Lebanon, referring to certain parts of what is now Frank- lin, were recorded in 1687. The farms of John Johnson and Thomas Baldwin were described as "near to Lebanon," and Johnson had ten acres in Lebanon Valley. Little Lebanon and Lebanon Hill were terms used at that period in reference to places in Franklin.
t In 1850, there was no lawyer and no tavern in Lebanon. The population had .somewhat decreased, and was then only 1,901.
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of other Mason heirs, to a quit-claim deed to rights in Mohegan lands derived from their ancestor Major Mason, March 20, 1710, probably N. S. 1711.
The Fitch family soon became numerous, and the name widely spread, owing to the preponderance of sons in the early branches. Mr. Fitch had himself nine sons, and his oldest son James the same number. Joseph had seven sons, and Nathaniel fifteen children, of whom eleven were sons. Eleazer, the youngest of the original family, was the only one who left no posterity.
It is a little singular that not one of the sons of Mr. Fitch established his permanent home in Norwich. James went to Canterbury. Samuel settled on a farm in Preston as early as 1687 .* Daniel became an inhab- itant of the North Parish of New London, in the immediate neighborhood of Norwich, but not within its bounds. John went to Windham. Jabez pursued his ministerial calling at Ipswich and Portsmouth, and the four others took up farms in Lebanon.
Capt. Daniel Fitch above named, of the North Parish (now Montville), was born at Norwich in the fifth year after the settlement, and died June 3, 1711. His inventory shows that he owned three farms, one at Trading Cove, one at Dry Brook, and one lying on both sides of Connecticut path, that is, the road to Hartford, through Colchester. The homestead farm at Trading Cove was a town grant to his father, and has never been either bought or sold, but has descended by inheritance to the present day, (1865.)
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