USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 16
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As a general rule, the early Fitches were men of capacity, and pros- perous in their worldly concerns. It was formerly a current saying among the farmers of the neighborhood, that the Fitches always settled by a stream of water, which was equivalent to saying that they were thriving men possessed of valuable farms.
The five daughters of the Rev. James Fitch were connected in mar- riage as follows :
Abigail with Capt. John Mason, 2d.
Elizabeth with Rev. Edward Taylor of Westfield, Mass.
Hannah with Thomas Meeks, or Mix.
Dorothy with Nathaniel Bissell.
Anna, the only daughter of the second marriage, became the wife of Joseph Bradford.
Two of these daughters, viz., Abigail and Hannah, remained at Nor- wich. Thomas Meeks married Hannah Fitch June 30, 1677. They settled on the east of the Shetucket, but within the bounds of the Nine- miles-square.
* Mr. Samuel Fitch died in 1725. He was the ancestor on the maternal side of Asa- Fitch, Esq., of Fitchville.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
By means also of intermarriages with other families of the town, Nor- wich still retains a large interest in the family of her first revered minis- ter. Not only his influence, memory, and example, but the vital current that quickened his frame, flows in the veins of many of her children.
Mr. Taylor, who settled in the ministry at Westfield, Mass., had been a theological student in the family of Mr. Fitch. His attachment to the daughter probably commenced at that time. A love-letter that she re- ceived from him before their marriage, has been preserved,* which dis- plays in a striking manner the quaint and metaphorical taste of the age,- a taste, the decline of which can not be lamented, since it seems better adapted to the display of an elaborate fancy, than to express genuine feeling.
The address was accompanied with a crude sketch of a carrier dove with an olive-branch in his mouth.
.
this Dove and Olive branch to you is both a post
and Emblem too
This for my friend and only beloved
MISS ELIZABETH FITCHI,
at her father's house in Norwich.
My Dove,
WESTFIELD, 8 day of 7th month, 1674.
I send you not my heart, for that I trust is sent to Heaven long since, and unless it hath wofully deceived me, it hath not taken up its lodgings in any one's bosom on this side of the Royal City of the Great King, but yet the most of it that is allowed to be layed out upon any creature doth safely and singly fall to your share.
So much my post pigeon presents you with here in these lines. Look not, I entreat you, upon it as one of Love's hyperboles, if I borrow the beams of some sparkling metaphor to illustrate my respeets unto thyself by, for you having made my breast the cabinet of your affections, as I yours mine, I know not how to offer a fitter compari- son to set out my love by than to compare it unto a golden ball of pure fire, rolling up and down my breast, from which there flies now and then a spark like a glorious beam from the body of the flaming sun. But alas ! striving to catch these sparks into a love- letter unto yourself, and to gild it with them as with a sunbeam, I find that by what time they have fallen through my pen upon my paper they have lost their shine, and fall only like a little smoke thereon instead of gilding them, wherefore, finding myself so much deceived, I am ready to begrudge my instruments, for though my love within my breast is so large that my heart is not sufficient to contain it, yet they can make it no more room to ride into, than to squeeze it up betwixt my black ink and white paper. But know that it is the coarsest part that is couchant there, for the purest is too fine to clothe in any linguish huswifry, or to be expressed in words.
* If not the original, at least a careful copy.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH ..
The writer then proceeds to show "that conjugal love should exceed all other love," but in illustrating this point he runs into the style of a sermon, and the lover is almost lost in the theologian.
Mr. Taylor was a man of great erudition, and left a large number of MSS. behind him. One of his daughters by his second wife, Ruth Wyllis of Hartford, was the wife of Rev. Dr. Lord of Norwich. Another daugh- ter was mother of President Styles of Yale College.
III. ADGATE.
No other Adgate except Thomas is found among the original settlers of New England, and his name has not been traced until it appears at Say- brook. From whence he came, or when, and whether alone or with wife and children, are alike unknown. It is seldom that any name appears so isolated and untraceable. The following record, with a registry of lands, and his name, as present at a town meeting in 1655, are the chief memo- rials of him at Saybrook.
CHILDREN OF THOMAS ADGAT.
Elizabeth born the 10th of October, Anno 1651.
Hanna born the 6th of October, Anno 1653.
At Norwich the same children are recorded with those of subsequent birth, as follows :
Elizabeth, born in October, 1651; Hannah in October, 1653; Abigail in August, 1661; Sarah in January, 1663; Rebecca in June, 1666; Thomas in March, 1669-70.
No day of the month is given. The death of the first wife, and his marriage with the second, are not registered. From incidental circum- stances it is evident that the second wife was Mary, daughter of Matthew Marvin and widow of Richard Bushnell, and it is probable that the mar- riage took place about the time of the removal to Norwich.
The five daughters married respectively, Richard Bushnell, Samuel Lothrop, Daniel Tracy, Christopher Huntington, and Joseph Huntington, all proprietors of Norwich, of the first or second generation.
Thomas Adgate was a deacon of Mr. Fitch's church, but at what period chosen to that office is not known. He was older than his pastor, and per- haps his coeval in office. It is probable that he exercised the functions for at least half a century. His will, dated May 22, 1704, commences, "I Thomas Adgit, being in the 84th year of my age," &c. He died July 21, 1707. Mrs. Mary Adgate, his relict, died March 29, 1713.
The second Thomas Adgate was also deacon of the church, holding the office for forty-two years. He died Dec. 10, 1760, aged 91. He had two
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
sons, Thomas and Matthew, both of whom had families. The former died in the 34th and the latter in the 81st year of his age. Most of the descendants emigrated to other states, and the name is now rare in this vicinity. Matthew, the son of Matthew, removed in middle life to a place called from him Adgate's Falls, in Chesterfield, New York. He was a member of the Convention that formed the Constitution of New York in 1777. Asa Adgate, M. C. from Essex County, N. Y., from 1815 to 1817, was his son.
William Adgate, brother of the last-named Matthew, occupied the family homestead at Norwich, where he died in 1779, in the 35th year of his age. His reliet survived him thirty-three years. Their sons Daniel and William had previously settled in Philadelphia, and the old residence of the family went into other hands .*
IV. ALLYN.
Robert Allyn was of Salem in 1637, and enrolled as a member of the church, May 15, 1642. He removed to New London in 1651, where he obtained a grant of a large farm on the east side of the river, at a place still known as Allyn's Point, but now in the town of Ledyard. He was one of the first company of purchasers of Norwich, and resided for sev- eral years in the western part of the town-plot. In 1661, he styles him- self of "New-Norridge," and held the office of constable in 1669, but in a deed of 1681 uses the formula, "I Robert Allyn of New London."
Among the early settlers of the country, we often meet with persons whom it is difficult to locate. They possess lands that lap over the bounds of adjoining settlements, and sometimes appear to belong to different town- ships at one and the same time.
Robert Allyn had doubtless relinquished his house in Norwich to his son John, and retired to his farm on the river, within the bounds of New London, where he died in 1683. His age is unknown ; but he was freed from training in 1669, probably upon attaining the age of 60, the custom- ary limit of military service : this would make him about 75 at death.
The heirs to his estate were his son John, and four daughters,-Sarah, wife of George Geares; Mary, wife of Thomas Parke; Hannah, wife of Thomas Rose; and Deborah, who afterwards married John Gager, Jun. The son received £133, and each of the daughters £66 6s.
John Allyn, the son, married Dec. 24, 1668, "Elizabeth, daughter of John Gager of New Norwich." In 1691, he exchanged his homestead
* Origin of the name: The prefix At was used to denote the residence of a person, as James At Well, at the well; Tom At Wood, at the wood; Will At Gate, at the gate ; now Atwell, Atwood, and Adgate. See Arthur's Family Names.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
and other privileges in Norwich with Joshua Abell and Simon Hunting- ton, Jr., for lands east of the river, and transferred his residence to the former seat of the family at Allyn's Point. This brought him again within the bounds of New London, and his name appears in 1704 as one of the patentees of that town. He died in 1709, leaving an estate of £1278, to be divided between his son Robert and his daughter Elizabeth, the wife of Thomas Waterman. His inventory enumerates three farms and a trading establishment upon the river. Among the moveables are such articles of cost and comfort as a silver tankard, cup and tumbler, a silver whistle, a gold ring, a wrought cushion, and a lignum-vitæ mortar and pestle. This was about the period when such small luxuries were beginning to be diffused among prosperous farmers and traders.
With Robert Allyn of the third generation, the male line was still a unit. He married Deborah Avery, and died in 1730, leaving nine child- ren. Robert Allyn, of the fourth generation, occupied the same home- stead at Allyn's Point, and dying in 1760, left an estate of more than £3,000. His inventory of wearing apparel comprised : a blue coat with brass buttons ; silk jacket and breeches; laced jacket; boots and spurs ; gold sleeve-buttons and ring ; silver snuff-box ; silver buckles for shoes, knees and neck-bands.
These successive inventories vividly illustrate the advance of the coun- try in wealth, comfort, and elegance.
Allyn's Point, where stood the old homestead of the family, is about six miles below Norwich, on the opposite side of the river from the Mohegan fields. The ancient fort of Uncas was in full view from the house. South of the pond and cove is a conspicuous elevation known as Allyn's Mount- ain, from whence the prospect is wide and far-reaching. To this height the neighbors were accustomed to resort as a look-out post, when the river was visited by any unusual craft, or the Indians on the other side were gathered for council or sport. From this place on the memorable 6th of September, 1781, the conflagration of New London was witnessed by women and children whose husbands and fathers had hastened to the scene of action. In the war of 1812, the three blockaded vessels forming the squadron of Commodore Decatur were laid up in the river near by, and on this hill his men threw up a redoubt and kept a sentry to watch the movements in and near New London Harbor.
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BACKUS.
Little is known of the history of William Backus, Sen. He is sup- posed to have been living at Saybrook as early as 1637. In the settle- ment of the estate of John Charles, who died at Branford in 1673, the
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
children of William Backus received a share, in right of their deceased mother, who was his daughter. From this fact it is ascertained that the first wife of William Backus was Sarah, daughter of John Charles.
Before removing to Norwich, he married Mrs. Anne Bingham, and brought with him to the new settlement three daughters, two sons, and his wife's son, Thomas Bingham. The three young men were of mature age, or near maturity, and are all usually reckoned as first proprietors. The daughters were subsequently united in marriage to John Reynolds, Ben- jamin Crane, and John Bayley.
The house-lots of the younger William and of Stephen Backus are both recorded as laid out in 1659 ; but the latter was the allotment of his father, who dying at an early period after the settlement, and the land-records being made at a later date, it was registered in Stephen's name, who had received it by bequest from his father. Hence, William Backus, Senior, does not appear on the town record as a land-holder.
His will, dated June 12, 1661, and witnessed by Thomas Tracy and John Post, is recorded at New London, and endorsed as allowed by a court held in that place, June 21, 1665. The inventory of his effects is found among ancient court documents at Hartford, dated June, 1664. The date of his death has not been recovered. It is probable that it took place soon after the signing of the will. The slender legacies mentioned are suggestive of the limited resources of the settlement in its earliest days, and we may fairly infer from the rapid growth of the town after- ward, that they would have been enlarged by a subsequent addition, or that a fresh instrument would have been executed, had the testator sur- vived until 1664. That three or four years intervened before the settle- ment of the estate, scarcely militates against this supposition, when the circumstances of the case are considered; the land almost a wilderness, the inhabitants engaged in arduous labors, the town but just organized, and no justices, no law offices or courts within their own bounds.
The provisions of the will are few and simple. He has nothing to bequeath but his house and land, cows, corn, household stuff, and "the tools belonging to the trade of a smith or cutler ;" and he confirms it with the signature W. B., instead of writing his name.
It is interesting to observe how rapidly the settlement advanced in pros- perity and comfort. This family and others in the course of a single gen- eration grew strong and luxuriant, throwing out buds and branches of rich and noble growth.
The death of Mrs. Backus is registered with the Bingham family.
" Mrs. Anne Backus, mother of Thomas Bingham Sen. died in May 1670."
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
V. STEPHEN BACKUS.
The rights and privileges of William Backus, Senior, were transferred so soon after the settlement to his son Stephen, that the latter is accounted the original proprietor. The house-lot was entered in his name, as to a first purchaser. It lay upon the pent highway by the Yantic, between the Town Green and the allotment of Thomas Bliss.
Stephen Backus was married in December, 1666, to Sarah Spencer. After a residence of over thirty years in Norwich, he removed with his family about the year 1692 to Canterbury, and there died in 1695. His sons Stephen and Timothy are counted among the carly settlers of that town. Stephen, 2d, died May 1, 1707. An agreement subsequently made by the heirs of the elder Stephen, has the signatures of the widow Sarah Backus and her daughter Elizabeth, of Timothy Backus, and of David Knight, Robert Green, and William Baker, who signed in behalf of their wives, Sarah, Ruth, and Rebecca, daughters of the deceased.
VI. WILLIAM BACKUS, JR. -
The second William Backus, married Elizabeth, daughter of Lieut. William Pratt of Saybrook. She was born Feb. 1, 1641. The date of the marriage is not registered at Norwich, and it is probable that the young couple did not remove to the new settlement till after the birth of their first son, William, May 11, 1660. John, the second son, born Feb. 9, 1661-2, married Mary, daugliter of Thomas Bingham. Hannah Backus, one of the daughters of the family, found a partner in the second Thomas Bingham. Both marriages have the same date, Feb. 17, 1691-2. It was not uncommon in that day for families to be linked and interlinked and the knots doubled and twisted as in the case of the Backuses and Binghams. William Backus, 2d, is found on record with the successive titles of Sergeant, Ensign, and Lieutenant, though he styles himself, in deeds, simply yeoman. His will and inventory were presented for pro- bate in April, 1721.
William Backus, 3d, son of the above, sold his accommodations in Nor- wich to his father, in 1692, and removed to "the nameless new town lying about ten miles N. W. of Norwich." His brother John also emigrated to the same place, afterward named Windham, and both are reckoned among the early proprietors of that town. The present Windham Green was part of the original home-lot of William Backus.
Joseph and Nathaniel, the younger sons of William Backus, 2d, re- mained in Norwich. Joseph married Elizabeth Huntington, and Nathan- iel, Elizabeth Tracy, daughters of the proprietors Simon Huntington and
160
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
John Tracy. Joseph and Simon Backus, the first two graduates of Yale College of the name of Backus, were sons of Joseph. The former grad- uated in 1718, and some eight or ten years later was styled by his cotem- poraries, Lawyer Backus of Norwich.
A large number of the Backus family have acquired distinction in the various walks of life. Elijah Backus, whose iron works at Yantic were so serviceable to the country in the Revolutionary war, was a grandson of Joseph. He married Lucy, daughter of John Griswold of Lyme. His sons, and his son-in-law, Dudley Woodbridge, were among the first emi- grants to the banks of the Ohio. James Backus, one of the sons, as agent of the Ohio Company, made the first surveys of Marietta, and is said to have built the first regular house in that town. He afterward returned to Norwich, and died at the family residence, Sept. 29, 1816.
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 at New London. His first wife was Lucretia, daughter of Rus- sell Hubbard, who died at New London in 1787 .* He afterward 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, Illinois, delegate in Congress from Illinois in 1816, and Judge of the U. S. Dis- trict Court. Major-General 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-centennial Jubilee at Norwich, in Septem- ber, 1859.
Among the descendants of William Backus, who were natives of the old town of Norwich, the following clergymen are of note :
1. Simon Backus, son of Joseph, born at Norwich, Feb. 11, 1701, grad- uated 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 sister of President Edwards of the New Jersey College.
* Her grave-stone has the following inscription :
Hic jac : reliq : Lucretia uxor E. Backus Armig : qnæ ob. Jan. 30. An. Christ. 1787 Etat. 25.
Quæ latet veritas sub umbra,
Nocte præterita tenebrarum patebit.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
2. Rev. Simon Backus, son of the above, was pastor in Granby, Mass., and died in 1828, aged 87.
3. Rev. Charles Backus, D. D., of Somers, born in that part of Nor- wich 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 denomination as a preacher, and the author of several historical 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 for an education in College." He settled at Bethlem, 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 partizan tendency. -
VII. BALDWIN .*
John Baldwin is a name often repeated among the early emigrants to the New World. Two or three John Baldwins settled in Massachusetts. John, the son of Sylvester, was at New Haven before 1640, and is sup- posed to have removed to Stonington.t A person of the same name, with several other Baldwins, is found among the planters at Milford in 1639, from whence he removed with his son John to Newark in 1667.
Jolın Baldwin of Norwich stands apart from all these, no connection between him and any other Baldwin family having been hitherto ascer -. tained. A family tradition has been current that he came to this country in his youth with a relative, but had no brothers. His first appearance on record is at Guilford, where he married, April 25, 1653, Hannah Burchet, [probably Birchard.] The children recorded at Guilford are :
John, born Dec. 5, 1654. Hannah, born Oct. 6, 1656. Sarah, born Nov. 25, 1658.
* The name, Baldwin, is said to be a contraction of Bold-winner.
John Baldwin, first of New London and afterward of Stonington, married widow Rebecca Chesebrough, July 24, 1672. He died in 1683.
11
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The registry is not continued in Norwich, but we know that he had a second son, Thomas, who was born in 1661 or 62.
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 planta- tion 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.
"Thomas Baldwin, Husbandman," the second son of John the proprie- tor, married Sarah, daughter of John Calkins. He died Sept. 16, 1741, in the 80th year of his age. His farm was three miles distant from the town-plot, and now forms a part of the large domain of Asa Fitch, Esq., of Fitchville, Bozrah. Though he himself made a cross for his signature, in the course of three or four generations we find among his descendants, divines, lawyers, physicians, scholars, and statesmen. He had four daugh- ters, who passed in due time into other families,-Baldwin of Lebanon, Birchard, Backus, and Post ; and four sons, viz., John, who married Lucy Metcalf of Lebanon, and his family removing to the Cohos country, as- sisted in peopling the New Hampshire grants ; Thomas, Ebenezer, and Jabez.
The second Thomas, son of Thomas and Sarah, baptized by Rev. Mr. Woodward, July 22, 1701, married Ann Bingham, 1730. They had eight children. Their oldest son, the third Thomas Baldwin, born in 1734, studied medicine, and after a short term of practice, entered the army as surgeon, and served in that capacity on the frontier, in the wars against the French. He died in the prime of life, and probably while in the service, before he had attained his 30th year.
He had married at a very early age, and left a widow, and an only son, who continued the paternal name, and gave to it a distinguished reputa- tion. This fourth Thomas Baldwin, in regular succession, was born in the Bozrah district of Norwich, Dec. 23, 1753, and considered in the light of a self-taught man, deriving but little aid from schools or books, and gathering mental treasures slowly, in the intervals of a laborious farming life, was one of the most noted characters that the Nine-miles-square has produced.
His mother married a second husband of the name of Eames, and when he was about sixteen years of age the family removed to Canaan, N. H., where they breasted the hardships of a frontier life. In that mountainous, half-opened, sparsely-inhabited district, the ministerial labors of Thomas Baldwin commenced. He married, in September, 1775, Ruth Hunting- ton of Norwich, (one of the Ruth Huntingtons, it might be said, for that has been a name often duplicated in Norwich,) and spent several years, farming and studying, traveling and preaching,-a pains-taking, hard- working, unpaid evangelist of the Baptist denomination.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
From these useful but obscure scenes, he was suddenly transferred, in the year 1790, to the pastorate of a large, intelligent and wealthy society in Boston. Yet he rose naturally to the requisite standard, and filled this new sphere as successfully as the former. The native vigor of his intel- lect was equal to all demands made upon it. He became known as an author, editor, and theologian, and exerted a powerful influence in favor of the denomination to which he belonged, concentrating its energies and greatly enlarging the sphere of its operations.
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