USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 18
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Richard, the proprietor, served at different periods as townsman and constable. He died in March, 1692.
John Edgerton, one of the earliest-born sons of Norwich, (b. June 12, 1662,) married Mary Reynolds, and died soon afterward, leaving an infant son John, afterward known as Lieut. John Edgerton, the father of Capt. Elisha Edgerton of the Revolutionary period.
Richard Edgerton, 2d, married Elizabeth Scudder, Jan. 4, 1692. He died in 1729, and his aged relict in 1762.
Samuel Edgerton married Alice Ripley, and died in 1748. Captain James Edgerton, a noted ship-master of New London, who died in 1842, was a descendant of this couple.
Joseph, the youngest son of the proprietor, was one of the original planters of Lebanon.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
XVI. GAGER.
William Gager came to America in 1630, with Gov. 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 cotemporary journalists as " a skilful surgeon, a right godly man, and one of the dea- cons of our congregation."* His son John, the only child that has been traced,i 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 liund- red 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 settle- ment of Norwich and removed thither. His house-lot in the new town bears the date of the oldest surveys, viz., November, 1659. He was con- stable 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, Sen. 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 Elizabeth, bequeathes 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 shil- lings each, having already given their wives considerable portions in move- ables 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 afterwards. This accounts for
* See Prince's Chronology, 1630; also, Life and Letters of John Winthrop.
t Gov. Winthrop, in a letter of Nov. 29, 1630, says : "I have lost twelve of my family,"-and among them enumerates Mr. Gager and his wife and two children.
Savage's Winthrop, App. Vol. I.
+ # The elder Gov. Winthrop remembered him in the following item of his last will and testament :
" I will that Jolin Gager shall have a cow, one of the best I shall have, in recom- pense of a heifer his father bought of me, and two ewe goats, and ten bushels of indian corn." Sav. Winth., App. Vol. II.
§ Sold in 1696 to Ralph Stoddard.
I Had he mentioned the names of the wives in the order of their age, they would have been, Elizabeth Allyn, Sarah Forbes, Bethiah Abel, Lydia Huntington, Hannah Brewster, and Mary Ripley.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
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 peo- ple. Several articles are mentioned belonging to the old-fashioned fire- place, 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 fiat 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 inventories,-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 Feb., 1654, married Re- becca (Lay), relict of Daniel Raymond of New London, in 1695. He was a man of good repute and considerable estate, a resident in the parish of New Concord, but interred at his own request, as heretofore stated, in the old neglected grave-yard of the first-comers, in the town-plot, where some fragments of the stone may yet remain.
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 the last quarter of a century, is of the sixth generation in descent from the first proprietor, in the line of John, oldest son of Samuel.
XVII. GIFFORD.
Stephen Gifford's first marriage was with Hannah Gove, in May, 1667. She died Jan. 24, 1670-1, leaving two children, Samuel and Hannah. He married, second, Hannah, daughter of John Gallop of Stonington, May 12, 1672. Four children are subsequently recorded to him,-John, Ruth, Stephen, and Aquilla.
* See snite in Webster.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The proprietor and his second wife lived together more than half a century, and died the same year. Twin head-stones of rough granite record their decease.
MR
MRS
STEPHEN GIFF HANNAH GIF ORD DYED NOVR FORD DYED JANY 27. 1724. AGED 83 YERS.
20. 1724. AGED 79 YERS.
Samuel Gifford removed to Lebanon in 1692, and there died, Aug. 26, 1714. The two daughters of Stephen, the proprietor, also settled in Leb- anon, as the wives of Samuel Calkins and Jeremiah Fitch. John, Ste- phen and Aquilla Gifford, sons of the first proprietor, were inhabitants of Norwich in 1736. They left descendants, and the name has continued on the rolls of freemen and among the substantial farmers of the neigh- borhood to the present day.
XVIII. GRISWOLD.
The brothers Matthew and Edward Griswold were natives of Kenil- worth, in Warwickshire, England .* The latter, according to a deposition in the State Records at Hartford, was born in 1607. The date of their emigration to this country has not been ascertained. Edward is found at Windsor not long after 1640, and is supposed to have brought with him from England a wife, Margaret, and several children, others being added to the group in this country. In 1664 he removed to Killingworth, as one of the leaders in the settlement of that place, and was its first magis- trate. It may be inferred also that he stood sponsor when the name was given, Killingworth, or Killinsworth, answering to the popular pronuncia- tion of his native place in England.
Lieut. Francis Griswold, the Norwich proprietor, was a son of Edward
* Copy of a deposition made by George Griswold of Killingworth :
" George Griswold, about 61, testifieth-
" That in his youthful years he lived with his father in England, in a town called Killinsworth in Warwickshire-he did several times since heare his father Edward Griswould say that the house he then lived in and lands belonging thereto was his brother Matthew Griswoulds and have lately seen and read a letter under the hand of Thomas Griswould of Killinsworth abovesd, directed to his brother Matthew Griswould afores'd, wherein the said Thomas Griswould intimated that he did then live in the abovesd house, belonging to his said brother Matthew aforesd.
Sworn before Joseph Curtiss, Assistant. May 9, 1700."
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
and Margaret, born about 1632. He appears to have been a man of capacity and enterprise, and took an active part in the affairs of the plant- ation, 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 Nor- wich. At the former place is the following registry :
" Children of Francis Grisell. Saraw b. 28 March, 1653. Joseph, b. 4 June 1655, d. the latter end of July, the same year. Mary, b. 26 August 1656 : Hanna, b. 11 December, 1658."
From Norwich records:
" Some of the children of Lieut. Griswold dec'd. Deborah born in May 1661. Lydia in June 1663 and died in 1664. Samuel in Sept. 1665. Margaret in October 1668. Lydia in October 1671."
Lieut. Griswold died the same month, October, 1671,-cut down appa- rently by some sudden attack of disease, leaving seven of the above-named children, varying in age from an infant of days to eighteen years.
Thomas Adgate and John Post, Sen., acted as guardians to the younger children. The daughters were very early provided with eligible part- ners.
Sarah was married to Robert Chapman of Saybrook, June 27, 1671.
Mary to Jonathan Tracy, July 11, 1672; second marriage to Eleazer Jewett, Sept. 3, 1717.
Hannah to William Clark of Saybrook, March 7, 1678.
Deborah to Jonathan Crane, Dec. 19, 1678.
Margaret to Thomas Buckingham, oldest son of the Rev. Thomas Buckingham of Saybrook, Dec. 16, 1691.
Samuel Griswold became a married man at the age of twenty, follow- ing his sisters in the flowing stream of youthful connections. Young people in those days, scarcely waiting to reach maturity, chose their part- ners and marched on with rapid and joyous steps to the temple of Hymen. The companion of Samuel Griswold was Susannah, daughter of Christo- pher Huntington, and the wedding took place on her 17th birth-day, Dec. 10, 1685.
About the middle of the 18th century, a branch of the Griswold family of Norwich removed to Sharon, Ct. It consisted of three brothers, Fran- cis, Daniel, and Adonijah, grandsons of Capt. Samuel Griswold. Capt. Adonijah Griswold was in the army of the Revolution.
12
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The grave-stone of Capt. Samuel Griswold has the following epitaph :
Here lies interred ye
Remains of Capt. Sam uel Griswold the first Captain of the 2d Company of train bands in Norwich. He was born in Norwich Septr 1665 and died on ye 9th day of Decembr 1740 in the 76th year of his age.
XIX. 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 residence at any time in the settlement. In 1660 and '61 a person of this name was at work upon vessels at New London and Newport. A Richard Handy, four or five years later, was proprietor of a mill built by John Elderkin on the Menunkatesuck river at Killingworth, and died at that place, Aug. 4, 1670. This mill at Killingworth, and fifty acres of land on Westward Hill in Norwich, were among his assets .* The same year the townsmen of Norwich directed that the children of Richard Hendy, deceased, should have a share in the divisions of common land equal with other proprietors. From these and other concurrent facts, it is evident that Richard Hendy, the Norwich proprietor, and Richard Handy, of Killingworth, were one and the same person.
Hannah, the wife of Richard Handy, was a daughter of John Elder- kin. Only three children appear as heirs, Jonathan, Richard, and Han- nah. Elderkin was their guardian, and settled the estate. Richard lived in the family of Elderkin, and became an inhabitant of Norwich. Han- nah married Samuel Belding of Wethersfield, Jan. 14, 1685.
* Conn. Col. Rec., 2, 191.
t The author is indebted for this fact and other information concerning Richard Handy of Killingworth, to R. D. Smith, Esq., of Guilford. Miss Sally Handy, the last of the name in Guilford, died Feb. 28, 1849, almost a centenarian. She was born March 20, 1750.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
XX. 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. The County Court settled the estate in the following manner : to the relict twenty-four pounds, with a third of the profits of the lands dur- ing life; to Thomas, sixty pounds; to Benjamin, thirty-two ; to Mary, thirty-two; to Sarah, thirty. John Calkins and John Birchard. to be overseers.
In August, 1677, Mrs. Howard became the wife of William Moore, and removed with him to Windham, where Mr. Moore died, April 28, 1728, aged 87.
HUNTINGTON.
The Huntington pedigree offers a good illustration of the uncertainty- of tradition, even when the details appear to have been carefully pre- served, and the lapse of time is not more than a century. The Rev. Joseph Huntington, of Coventry, Ct., of the fourth generation from the first emigrant, collected and embodied the reminiscences that had been preserved in the family concerning their progenitor, which were in sub -- stance these :
That the ancestor of the family, Simon Huntington, was a citizen of Norwich in England, who, during the reign of Charles the First, (about 1640,) embarked with his wife and three sons for America; that he was a Puritan, suffering from persecution, but had a brother Samuel who was captain of the king's life-guard, and high in the royal favor ; that the said Simon Huntington was nearly fifty years of age, his wife some years younger, and their three sons, Christopher, Simon, and Samuel, in the bloom of youth ; and that they made their course for the mouth of Con -. necticut river. "But our progenitor, (says the MS.,) being seized with a. violent fever and dysentery, died within sight of the shore; whither he was brought, and now lies buried, either in Saybrook or Lyme, as both, towns were but one at first."
The above statement was long unquestioned, and has been repeated and perpetuated in various narratives and historical annals. It is, how-
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
ever, ascertained from authentic documents that the family arrived at an earlier date and upon a different part of the coast, and the other incidents mentioned have not been substantiated by later inquiries.
The church record at Roxbury, Mass., contains the following entry, in the hand-writing of the Rev. John Eliot, who was then the minister of that place :
" Margaret Huntington, widow, came in 1633. Her husband dicd by the way, of the small pox. She brought -- children with her."
The rest is left blank. The name of the husband is not mentioned, nor the names or number of the children, but the record makes it evident that this emigrant family landed in Massachusetts and not at Saybrook, and if the husband was buried on the coast, it was more likely to be on Nantas- ket beach than on the banks of the Connecticut.
The widow Margaret Huntington united with Roxbury church, and is afterward found at Windsor, Ct., as the wife of Thomas Stoughton, the family having removed thither in 1635 or '36.
Tradition is uniform in naming the husband who died on the voyage, Simon, and a letter registered in an ancient volume of Connecticut Records that has been recently brought to light,* enables us to settle some points respecting this Huntington family, that were formerly left doubtful; viz., the number of the children, the order of seniority of the sons, and the maiden name of the mother.
This letter, written from Norwich, England, April 20, 1650, and ad- dressed to "Cozen Christopher Huntington," acknowledges a letter from him dated at Seabrook, Sept. 20, 1649, and is signed,
" Your loving uncle,
PETER BARET."
It relates principally to the disposition to be made of certain remittances that had been forwarded by the writer to his brother Stawton, [Stoughton,] amounting to £140, which he directs to be divided in certain proportions, as his gift, between the three brothers and their sister Ann.t
We learn from this letter that the children of Margaret Huntington were four in number : three sons, Christopher, Simon, and Thomas, appa- rently in this order of seniority, and a daughter Ann, whose position in
* C. J. Hoadly, Esq., State Librarian, has recovered a long-missing volume of the 'Records of the Particular and Probate Court from 1650 to 1663, and two volumes of Land and Miscellaneous Records, 1640 to 1656, whose existence was not known. In one of these latter volumes, the letter referred to is found.
¡ William Huntington, who settled at Salisbury, Mass., is the ancestor of a distinct line of Huntingtons. His relationship, if there was any, with the family of the widow Margaret, has not been ascertained.
-
181
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
the line is uncertain. The whole group, at the time of their emigration, were probably under eight years of age.
The letter shows also that the mother of the family was originally Margaret Baret, of Norwich, Eng. From Bloomfield's History of that ancient town, we learn that Christopher Baret was Mayor of Norwich in 1634, and again in 1648. It is not unlikely that this Mayor was the father or a near relative of Margaret, and that from him the oft-repeated name of Christopher first crept into the Huntington nomenclature.
Of the daughter, Ann, nothing further is known. We may presume that her uncle's marriage dowry of £27 would assist in settling her eligi- bly in life, and we may yet obtain some fortunate hint that will show into what family she was ingrafted.
Thomas Huntington, though apparently the youngest of the brothers,* was the first admitted to political privileges. He was made a freeman by the General Court at Hartford in May, 1657 ; Christopher in May, 1658; Simon, not till after his settlement in Norwich, 1663.
Thomas Huntington was one of the company that first purchased and settled Newark in New Jersey. This company was gathered from the towns on the southern coast of Connecticut, from Milford to New London inclusive, and had the Rev. Abraham Pierson for their spiritual guide. Previous to their departure from Connecticut, a body of the planters met at Branford, and adopted, Oct. 30, 1660, certain "fundamental agreements touching their intended design." This was signed by twenty-three "heads of families," of whom Thomas Huntington was one.
He is subsequently traced at Newark, as sergeant of the train-band in 1675 ; afterward, as one of the seven townsmen to whom the municipal affairs of the plantation were intrusted, and finally as deputy to the As- sembly in 1658 .; He had a son, Samuel, who continued the line in New Jersey.
XXI. CHRISTOPHER HUNTINGTON.
Christopher and Simon Huntington probably 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 Eng- land, 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
* From the letter of his uncle, Peter Baret, in 1650, Thomas seems to have been the only one of the children then under age. He directs that the bonus of Thomas shall " be put into some good hand and security taken for it, till he become able to employ it," while the others receive their shares at once. Thomas was probably 16 or 17 years of age.
t Gen. Hist. Reg., 8, 186.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
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 Christopher, Nov. 1st, 1660 .*
The first born male in Norwich.
The children of Christopher Huntington were subsequently increased to seven in number, while Simon had a family of ten. They both lived to embrace 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 Lebanon.
Thomas, the second son, born in 1664, was one of the early settlers of .
Windham.
Christopher Huntington, 1st, died in 1691, as is indicated by the pro- bate 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.
* What a pleasant excitement this event must have caused in the young plantation ! The inhabitants, well housed, with plenty of corn, beans and pumpkins in store, (not to mention acorns, for coffee,) were reposing after the toils of the first arduous season, and had leisure to engage in huskings, nuttings, oyster-parties, neighborly visits, aud conference-meetings. And lo ! a child of promise appears, the herald of a numerous race. Norwich has not only daughters, but a son, to whom the right of primogeniture belongs. How swiftly the news passes from house to house ! What congratulations and kindly inquiries are dropped at the door. What lively sallies are indulged, and adventurous calculations made respecting future rates of inerease, and conjectures how the population will stand ten, twenty, or a hundred years hence ! What a thronging to the baptism of the little Christopher. He is wrapped perhaps in some sacred child- blanket brought from England, which is kept as a venerated relie of aneestral drapery. The blessed Mr. Fitch performs the ceremony with so much unetion, that the audience is moved, and the women in little mob caps wipe their eyes. As they go out of meet- ing, one says to another, "A precious sarmont!" or, perhaps, " A solemn sareum- stanee !"-while a young damsel whispers to her companion, " Didn't he look peert for such a young one ? I wish Christenings would come every Sunday !"
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Slabs of gray stone, broad, low, and quaintly carved, point out the spot where this worthy deacon, the son of the wilderness, was laid.
1
HERE LYES INTER'D Y REMAINS OF DEACE CHRISTOPHER HUNTING TON OF NORWICH . BORN NOV'ME BER YO12 166028Y FIRST BORN OF MALES IN E TOWN HE SERVED NEAR 40 YEARS IN Y OFFICE OF A DEACONY DIED APRIL Y 24=1735=IN $75 YH OF HIS AGE MEMENTO MORI.
G
HERE LIES Ye BODY OF DEACON CHRISTOPHER HUNTINGTON.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Christopher Huntington, 3d, was born in 1686. Christopher Hunting- ton, 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 Christopher taking the place of the old heir loom.
XXII. SIMON HUNTINGTON.
The title of Deacon became very early a familiar appendage to the name of Huntington. Out of twenty deacons of the first church, seven have been Huntingtons,* 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 120 years. Deacon Barnabas Hunting- ton of Franklin was also a progenitor of deacons .; Other churches in the vicinity have been prone to select their ministering servants from the same cognomen. 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 88. 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 con- nubial life, if at that day such festivals had been in vogue.
Deacon Simon left an estate appraised at £275. The inventory of his books may be worth quoting as a specimen of what was doubtless a fair library for a layman in 1706.
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