USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 20
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Nothing further is certainly known of John Pease. No settlement of estate is found ; he is not mentioned in any subsequent division of propri- etary commons ; but allusions made in 1687 and later, seem to indicate that he was then living. A branch of the Yantic in the western part of the town, near the border of Lebanon, was called Pease's brook. At the mouth of Pease's brook was Pease's farm ; and here, about 1690, a corn- mill was established. It is not improbable that John Pease had retired to this tract of land, and originated these improvements. The spot, then so solitary, is now jubilant with machinery,-the seat of the manufacturing village of Bozrahville.
POST.
Stephen Post, who died at Saybrook Aug. 16, 1659, is supposed to have been the father of John, Thomas, and Abraham Post, and it is a plausible conjecture that Ellener Post, [Helener in county court records,] who died at that place Nov. 13, 1670, was the relict of Stephen and mother of his children
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
John and Thomas Post removed to Norwich. Abraham remained in Saybrook, where he was known by the title of Lieutenant, and died in 1690.
XXVIII. JOHN POST.
The marriage of Jolm Post and Hester Hyde, "in the last of March, '52," and the births of four children, are found on record at Saybrook. Four other children are recorded at Norwich, and they had likewise a daughter Mary, not registered at either place, born probably in 1662, --- comprising in all, a family of two sons and seven daughters.
Mrs. Hester Post died Nov. 13, 1703.
Mr. John Post died Nov. 27, 1710, aged 84 years.
The following inscription is still legible in the grave-yard at Norwich:
HEARE LIES THE BO DY OF MR JO HN POST WHO DYED NOVR 27. 1710. AGED 84 YEARS.
Two of the daughters of John Post were united to inhabitants of New London : Sarah married Capt. John Hough ; Lydia married, 1st, Abel Moore,-2d, Joseph Harris.
Two other daughters were married in Norwich: Margaret to Caleb Abel, and Mary to Nathaniel Rudd.
The sons were John and Samuel. John, born at Saybrook, April 12, 1657, married Sarah Reynolds, and died in 1690, leaving two young children, John and Sarah; but they died without issue, and no descend- ants in this line remain.
Samuel Post, born in Norwich, March 8, 1668, married Ruth Lothrop, and had two sons, Samuel and Nathaniel. Samuel Post, 2d, born Dec. 22, 1698, married Sarah Griswold of Guilford, and had an only son Sam- uel and several daughters. Samuel, 3d, born Feb. 12, 1736, was a gold -. smith in New London, but after the Revolutionary war went south and has been no further traced.
Nathaniel Post, son of Samuel, 1st, born in 1702, died in November,. 1799, almost a centenarian. His wife, Abigail Birchard, died in 1792,.
7
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
in her 89th year. They had two sons, John and Jabez. The latter, born in 1730, inherited the family homestead, and planted the stupendous elm by which it is now overshadowed. He married, 1st, Martha, daughter of the Rev. Jedidiah Hyde, the Separatist minister, and had two sons, Jabez and Jedidiah, who, after the Revolution, settled at Newtown, N. J. By a second wife, Lucy, daughter of Richard Hyde, he had two other sons, Andrew and George Washington, who settled at Lebanon, N. H. He had also two daughters : 1st, Anne, who married Henry Blake, (publisher of a newspaper at Keene, N. H.,) and after his death, Thomas L. Thomas of Norwich ; 2d, Lucretia, who married Eliphalet Carew, and died at the residence of her daughter, on a portion of the old Post home-lot, where she was born, July 6, 1858, aged 90.
Henrietta Blake, the only child of Henry and Anne Blake, married George D. Harris of Norwich. The late Hon. Thomas L. Harris, of Illinois, was their son. He was born at Norwich, Oct. 29, 1816; gradu- ated at Trinity College, Hartford, 1841; studied law with Gov. Toucey, and settled in Illinois. In 1846 he enlisted in the Mexican war, and was noted for his gallantry at the taking of Vera Cruz and the battle of Cerro Gordo. He was elected member of Congress in 1848, and continued in office till his death, which took place at Springfield, Ill., Nov. 24, 1858. His life, though short, was marked by varied and exciting events.
XXIX. THOMAS POST.
No reference to the family of this proprietor has been found at Say- brook. His existence seems not to be recognized any where but in Nor- wich. From the records of this place we learn that he married Mary Andrews in January, 1656, and that she died at Norwich in March, 1661, and was buried in a corner of her husband's home-lot, as heretofore related.
She left an infant daughter, Sarah, afterward the wife of Thomas Vin- cent. Mr. Post married, 2d, Rebecca Bruen, daughter of Obadiah Bruen of New London, Sept. 2, 1663. He died in 1701, leaving two sons, Oba- diah and Joseph, and two daughters, Mary and Hannah. Obadiah died in 1703, without issue. The daughters died at the age of 70 and upward, unmarried. Joseph, born in 1681, married Mary Post of Saybrook, and died in 1749, leaving an only son, Joseph, and seven daughters. Thus, at the end of a century, the male line in this branch of the Post family again commenced with a unit.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
XXX. READ, (OR REED.)
The marriage of Josiah Read to Grace, the daughter of William Hol- loway, took place at Marshfield in November, 1666. At this time he had probably cleared his home-lot and prepared his domicile in Norwich. About the year 1687, he removed from the town-plot to a farm "over Showtucket," and was probably the first permanent settler upon that gore of land which was then called the Crotch, but afterward Newent. He had a brother John, at that time living "near Pease's farm," within the present limits of Bozrah.
It is probable that the brothers Josiah and John Read married sisters. The farm of William Holloway in Marshfield fell to his two daughters. It was sold, one half in 1670, by "Josiah Reed of Norridge, in the Colony of Connecticut," as the inheritance of his wife Grace, and the other half in 1673, by "Hannah Read, formerly Holloway," whom we suppose to have been the wife of John. The only proof, however, is the coinci- dence of name.
A third brother, Hezekiah Read, was considerably younger than the others. The father, whose Christian name has not been recovered, died in 1679, leaving Hezekiah a minor, who, in accordance with his own request, was committed by the court to the guardianship of his brothers, Josiah and John, "for his good education in the fear of God, good litera- ture, and some particular calling."f
John and Hezekiah Read do not come again within the range of our history. It is probable that they removed from the town, as in the next generation we find only five of the name enrolled as householders, and these were Josiah and his four sons, Josiah, Jr., William, John, and Jo- seph,-all of them "farmers in ye Crotch of ye Rivers."
Josiah Read, the elder, died July 3, 1717.
Mrs. Grace Read, his wife, died May 9, 1727.
William Read died Aug. 13, 1727, leaving a wife, Mary, and an estate valued at £407.
XXXI. REYNOLDS.
In the lists that have been collected of emigrants to the western world in the days of the great Exodus, beginning with the departure of the Pil- grims from Holland, the name of John Reynolds is several times found.
* Letter of Marcia Thomas of Marshfield.
t A Joseph Read appears at New London about as early as Josiah and John, who may have been the father of the family. The mother of Hezekiah Read in 1680 was Ruth Percy.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
It appears in the shipments for St. Christopher's,* for Virginia, and for New England.
One of the name was made freeman in Massachusetts, May 6, 1635, and was probably the same that settled at Weymouth, t where he was liv- ing with a family in 1660. One went from Watertown to Wethersfield, and there settled before 1640 .¿ Another of the same cognomen established himself at Stonington, Ct., and was accepted as an inhabitant in 1667. John and Jonathan Renalds were landholders in East Greenwich, Ct., in 1672.§
John Reynolds, the proprietor of Norwich, was a distinct person from these, but perhaps a son of John of Wethersfield. He was a wheelwright by occupation, and removed from that part of Saybrook which is now Lyme. His housing and land were sold to Wolston Brockway, Dec. 3, 1659.
The births of his children are recorded at Norwich, but without men- tioning the name of his wife. John, the oldest child, born in August, 1655, was killed by the Indians in Philip's war, as elsewhere related. Stephen, another son, died Dec. 19, 1687.
John Reynolds, the proprietor, died July 22, 1702. His will, dated seven days previous, shows that his family then consisted of wife Sarah, only son Joseph, and four married daughters, viz., Sarah Post, Mary Lo- throp, Elizabeth Lymon, and Lydia Miller. He bequeathed his instru- ments of husbandry and wheelwright tools to his son, with all his housing and lands, subject only to the widow's dowry. His wife Sarah and son Joseph were named executors, and he adds, "I do make choice of my loving kinsman Ensign Thomas Leffingwell overseer to be helpful to them or either of them."
Joseph Reynolds, the son, was born in March, 1660, shortly before the removal of the family to Norwich. He married Sarah Edgerton in 1688, and through his four sons, John, Joseph, Stephen, and Daniel, the name has been perpetuated in Norwich.
John Reynolds of the third generation (son of Joseph) married Lydia Lord of Lyme, an admirable Christian woman who lived to the age of 92, and was more than forty years a widow. She died July 16, 1786. The tablet to her memory bears an inscription so suggestive in its simplicity, that it reveals the whole excellence of her character by giving a single trait :
" Here lies a Lover of Truth."
* Embarked from Gravesend for St. Christopher's, April 3, 1635, in the Paul of London, John Reinolds, aged 23,-do. May 21, in the Matthew of London, Jo : Rei- nolds, aged 20.
Gen. Hist. Reg., 14, 349, 551.
t Ibid., 3, 71, 93.
# Ibid., 13, 301.
§ Ibid., 4, 62.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
XXXII. ROYCE.
Jonathan Royce was one of the five sons of Robert Royce of New London, and probably the oldest, though no record of his birth has been found. He married Deborah, daughter of Hugh Calkins, in June, 1660, according to the registry in Norwich, but at New London it is recorded March, 1660-61. Allowing the latest date to be correct, the bride was barely 17 years of age, her birth being recorded at Gloucester, Mass., March 18, 1643-4. This was a second hymeneal tie connecting the two families ; John Calkins of Norwich having taken for his partner Sarah Royce, the sister of Jonathan.
The Royce family was also connected by a double link with that of Samuel Lothrop ; Isaac Royce being united to Elizabeth Lothrop, and John Lothrop to Ruth Royce. These removed to Wallingford.
Jonathan Royce, the Norwich proprietor, died in 1689. Nine of his ten children were living at that time. John, the oldest son, married Sarah Perigo, Nov. 9, 1683, this being his 20th birth-day. He was an early settler in Windham.
After the second generation, the name of Royce disappeared from the roll of inhabitants in Norwich.
Robert Royce of Wallingford, at his death, in 1676, left a small gratu- ity to each of the churches of New London, Norwich, and Wallingford, as a memorial of his "great affection and good-will" for the ministry and churches with which he and his family had been connected.
XXXIII. SMITH.
Nehemiah Smith was of Stratford, 1646, but removed to New Haven, and obtained a grant of land upon Oyster river for his accommodation in keeping sheep. He is occasionally called on the colonial records, "Shep- herd Smith." In 1652 he transferred his residence to New London, where his brother John had previously settled, and from thence came to Norwich in 1660, or soon afterward. In 1663 he is styled, "now of New Norridge."
He appears to have had six or seven daughters, and one son ; but only four of the daughters can be traced into other households. Mary became the wife of Samnel Raymond; Elizabeth, of Joshua Raymond; Ann, of Thomas Bradford; and another, (name uncertain,) of Joshua Abel.
At New Haven, the birth and baptism of six of the children may be found on record, his wife Sarah being a member of the church at that place. At Norwich, in his old age, he had a wife Ann.
-
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
From an entry in the records of the county court in 1666, we learn his age :
"Nehemiah Smith of Norwich declaring himself above 60 years of age and his brother John declaring the same at his earnest desire is freed from training."
He died in 1686. His only son, Nehemiah, born in 1646 at New Haven, settled in Groton, where he was generally designated, from the office that he held, Mr. Justice Smith.
Edward Smith, a nephew of John and Nehemiah, married, June 7, 1663, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Bliss of Norwich. He also settled in Groton, where he and his wife and his oldest son John, fifteen years of age, died on the 8th, 10th and 14th days of July, 1689, all victims of a fatal epidemic called the throat distemper. Another son, Obadiah, and seven daughters, were left orphans. Most of these found homes among their Norwich relatives. Obadiah Smith was chosen constable of the town in 1704, and it is the first time that the name of Smith, usually so prominent in our annals, is found attached to any office in Norwich. He was afterward captain of the train-band. The inscription upon his grave- stone is interesting on account of its rude simplicity.
HERE LIES Ye BODY OF CAPT OBADIAH SMITH WHO DIED MAY 1 =1727 = AND IN ye 5OH YEAR OF HIS AGE.
NOW BETWEEN THESE CARVED STONS RICH TRESVER LIES DEER SMITH HIS BONES.
XXXIV. THOMAS TRACY.
Thomas Tracy, from Tewksbury in Gloucestershire, came to New England in April, 1636. His name was enrolled at Salem, Feb. 23, 1637.
" Thomas Tracy, ship-carpenter, received an inhabitant, upon a certificate of divers of Watertown, and is to have five acres of land."
IIe left the Bay for the new colony on the Connecticut, probably about 1640, and settled at Wethersfield, where he is supposed to have married
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
the widow of Edward Mason in 1641. A few years later he removed to Saybrook, from whenee, after a residence of twelve or fourteen years, he came to Norwich, bringing with him six sons and a daughter. Perhaps his wife also was then living, for neither the place nor period of her death has been ascertained. Two of his children, John and Thomas, were probably born in Wethersfield, and the others in Saybrook. Miriam, the daughter, was the middle member of the list, and at the time of the settlement about ten years of age, her brothers ranging above and below, from six to (perhaps) sixteen years.
Mr. Tracy was evidently a man of talent and activity, skillful in the management of various kinds of business, upright and discreet. The confidence placed in him by his associates is manifested in the great num- ber of appointments which he received. His name is on the roll of the Legislature as representative from Norwich at twenty-seven sessions. The elections were semi-annual, and Mr. Tracy was chosen twenty-one times, beginning Oet. 9, 1662, and ending July 5, 1684. The others were extra sessions.
In October, 1666, he was chosen ensign of the first train-band organized in Norwich, and in August, 1673, lieutenant of the New London County Dragoons, enlisted to fight against the Dutch and Indians. In 1678 he was appointed commissioner or justice of the peace.
The second wife of Thomas Tracy was Martha, relict of John Bradford, whom he married in 1676. In the course of a few years he was again a widower, and married in 1683, Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Foot, and relict, first of John Stoddard, and second of John Goodrich, both of Weth- ersfield. Mr. Tracy was her third husband, and she was his third wife.
Lieut. Thomas Tracy died Nov. 7, 1685. His estate was prized at £560; he had about 5000 acres of land. The court ordered distribution as follows : to John, the oldest son, £120; to the other sons, and to Sergt. Thomas Waterman, each £70. In this distribution no mention is made of a widow ; and the inference is, that Mrs. Mary Tracy did not survive her husband.
Late researches into the history of this family furnish evidence that Thomas Tracy was of honorable descent, and that his immediate ancestors for three generations had been distinguished for fidelity to the reformed religion. Richard Tracy, of Stanway, England, published a work deeply imbued with the spirit of Protestantism, on account of which he suffered much from persecution in the days of Queen Mary, though he escaped martyrdom. It is supposed that one of his sons, Nathaniel, living at Tewksbury, was the father of Thomas, and that the latter was born at that place in 1610 .*
* This is the result of an examination of the records of Gloucestershire, England, by the late F. P. Tracy of San Francisco, Cal. The evidence was such as to satisfy him
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
No registration of the family of Thomas Tracy has been found. From the early appearance of his name at Salem, it is evident that his children were all born on this side of the ocean. In the settlement of his estate, the order in which they are mentioned, corresponding with other incidental testimony, gives the following series as their natural position :
1. John, born not carlier than 1642, nor later than 1644.
2. Thomas, (probably) 1646.
3. Jonathan, 1648. His age in 1698 was stated at 50.
4. Miriam, 1649 or 1650. She married Thomas Waterman in November, 1668.
5. Solomon, 1651. Aged 46 in 1697, and when he died, July 9, 1732, was in his 82d year.
6. Daniel, 1652; died June 29, 1728, aged 76.
7. Samuel; died Jan. 11, 1693, without issue,-his effects being assigned to his brothers and sisters.
John Tracy so soon took his place among the inhabitants of Norwich, that he acquired the rank, influence, and all the privileges of a first pur- chaser, and as such is numbered as one of the Thirty-five.
Thomas and Jonathan Tracy, second and third sons of Lieut. Thomas, settled upon the wild, unreclaimed lands on the east side of the Shetucket, then belonging to Norwich, but afterward included in Preston. Jonathan married, July 11, 1672, Mary, daughter of Francis Griswold. The wife of Thomas Tracy has not been traced. The brothers had each a large blessing of children, that were soon disseminated in the neighborhood, founding homes of their own, and assisting in the great work of clearing away forests and planting homes in the wilderness.
The will of Thomas Tracy was executed April 6, 1721, but not proved till 1724. He probably died early in that year.
His youngest son, Dea. Jedidiah Tracy of Preston, died June 8, 1779, in the 87th year of his age, his death being caused by a fall from his horse as he was riding to the mill. He had been deacon of the church for nearly fifty years, and was also a justice of the peace and representative of the town. He left, says a newspaper of the day, one hundred and thirty- seven descendants.
Jonathan Tracy was the first town clerk of Preston, the first lieutenant, and the first justice of the peace. In an old grave-yard devoted to the Tracys, Forbes, and other early inhabitants of Preston, is a rough head-
that Lieut. Thomas Tracy of Norwich was the son of Nathaniel of Tewksbury, who was the son of Richard, Esq., of Stanway, who was the son of Sir William, the ninth, of Toddington.
Mr. Tracy had collected materials for a thorough historical registry of the descend- ants of the Lieutenant; but he died while on a political tour in western New York, Oct. 10, 1860, and the work for which he had made such ample preparation has not been published.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
stone, carved with the letters J. T. and the date 1711, which is supposed to point out his grave. The inventory of his estate was taken Feb. 12, 1712.
Solomon Tracy was a physician, and the second in Norwich of whom we find any notice,-John Olmstead being the first. He was united in marriage, Nov. 23, 1676, to Sarah, daughter of Simon Huntington. She died in 1683, and he married Sarah, daughter of Thomas Bliss and relict of Thomas Sluman.
INSCRIPTION UPON THE GRAVE-STONE OF DR. SOLOMON TRACY.
IN THIS SPOT OF EARTH IS INTERRED Ye EARTHY PART OF MR SOLOMON TRACY WHO DIED IVLY Ye 9H 1732. & IN YE 82D YEAR OF HIS AGE.
THE DEAD IN SILENT LANGUAGE SAY TO LIVING THINKING READER HEARE O LOVING FRINDS DOE NOT DELAY BUT SPEEDILY FOR DETH PREPARE.
Lydia, only daughter of Solomon Tracy, married the third Thomas Leffingwell. Simon Tracy, son of Solomon, married Mary Leffingwell. This last couple were united in 1708, and journeyed together far into the vale of years. A head-stone in the burial-ground informs us that "the pious, beloved, and very aged Mr. Simon Tracy, died 14th September, 1775, in the 96th year of his age." His wife died in her 89th year.
Solomon Tracy, second and youngest son of Solomon, removed to Can- terbury.
Daniel, the fifth son of Lieut. Thomas Tracy, inherited the paternal homestead in the town-plot. He was twice married; first, to Abigail Adgate, and second, to Hannah, relict of Thomas Bingham. After a long, honorable and useful life, he came to an untimely end, being instan- taneously killed by falling from the frame-work of a bridge that had just been suspended over Shetucket river.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The late Dr. Ebenezer Tracy of Middletown, the Tracys of Scotland parish, (Windham,) and Major Thomas Tracy of Norwich, long of the firm of Avery & Tracy, who died in 1806, were descendants of Daniel Tracy.
XXXV. JOHN TRACY.
The marriage of this young proprietor to Mary Winslow, June 10, 1670, is recorded at Duxbury, Mass. The bride was a daughter of Josiah Winslow the elder,* who was brother to Governor Edward Winslow of Plymouth.
John and Mary Tracy had five children,-four sons and one daughter ; the latter married Nathaniel Backus. The oldest son, Josiah, died in infancy. The others, John, Joseph, and Winslow, all had families.
Mr. John Tracy died Aug. 16, 1702.
Mrs. Mary Tracy died July 30, 1721.
Mr. Tracy's inventory specifies the homestead, valued at £130, and seventeen other parcels of land, comprising between three and four thou- sand acres. He had land at Yantick, at Bradford's brook, Beaver brook, Lebanon, Little Lebanon, Wawecos hill, Potapaug, at Wenungatuck, (on the west side of the Quinebaug, above Plainfield,) at Tadmuck hill, (east of the Quinebaug,) and at Mashamagwatuck, in the Nipmuck country. The land at Wenungatuck was part of a large tract purchased of Owan- eco, sachem of Mohegan. In the division of the estate it fell to Nathan- iel Backus.
John Tracy of the second generation was born in 1673; of the third, in 1702; of the fourth, in 1726; of the fifth, in 1755; of the sixth, in 1783. These six John Tracys were in the line of primogeniture, and all natives of Norwich except the first. Their partners in regular succes- sion were Mary Winslow, Elizabeth Leffingwell, Margaret Hyde, Mar- garet Huntington, Esther Pride, and Susannah Hyde. The sixth in this line was the late John Tracy of Oxford, New York, who was born in that part of Norwich which is now Franklin, and was a man of acknowledged ability and integrity, devoting himself for many years to the service of the public as post-master, representative, judge, and for six years Lieutenant- Governor of New York. He died June 18, 1864. He leaves no son to continue the line.
Dr. Elisha Tracy, a distinguished physician of Norwich of the Revo- lutionary era, was a son of Capt. Joseph Tracy, second son of John the proprietor. He was the father of the late Dr. Philemon Tracy, two of
* It has been claimed that she was a daughter of John Winslow and his wife, Mary Chilton of the Mayflower; but this is a mistake.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
whose sons, Phineas L. and Albert H., have been representatives in Congress from New York. Capts. Jared and Frederick Tracy, in the mercantile line, who have descendants in various parts of the Union, from New York to Missouri, were of the same lineage.
Uriah Tracy of Litchfield, born at Norwich, West Farms, in 1755, and U. S. Senator from 1796 till his death, was a descendant of Winslow Tracy, the youngest son of the first John. He died at Washington, July 19, 1807, and was the first person interred in the Congressional Cem- etery.
XXXVI. WADE.
The name of Robert Wade is found at Dorchester in 1635; a person bearing the same name was admitted as a freeman at Hartford in 1640; at a later period it is found among the inhabitants of Saybrook, and still later at Norwich. All these notices probably refer to one person.
In August, 1657, Robert Wade was divorced from his wife by the Gen- eral Court at Hartford; the act being recorded in the following terms :
" This Court duely and seriously considering what evidence hath bene prsented to them by Robert Wade of Seabrooke in reference to his wiues vnworthy, sinfull, yea, unnaturall cariage towards him the said Robert, her husband, notwithstanding his con- stant and comendable care and indeauor to gaine fellowship wth her in the bond of mar- riage and that either where shee is in England, or for her to liue wth him here in New England ; all wch being slighted and rejected by her, disowning him and fellowship wth him in that solemne couenant of marriage betwene them and all this for neare fifteene yeares : They doe hereby declare that Robert Wade is from this time free from Joane Wade his late wife and that former Couenant of marriage betwene them."*
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