USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 21
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We assume that this was the Robert Wade that appeared a few years later among the proprietors of Norwich, with wife Susanna.
His house-lot, between those of John and Thomas Post, was subse- quently transferred to Caleb Abell in exchange for a situation better adapted to farming.
The inventory of Robert Wade was exhibited at the county court in June, 1682. He left a widow, son Robert, and three daughters, Susan- nah, Mary, and Elizabeth.
Robert Wade the younger married in 1691, Abigail Royce, and is found shortly afterward among the planters at "the Ponds," by which name a portion of Windham was originally known. He was made a freeman May 30, 1693.
* Conn. Col. Rec., 1, 301.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
XXXVII. RICHARD WALLIS.
This name is probably identical with Wallace. Richard Wallis, though ranked as an original proprietor, was not one of the earliest company that settled at Norwich. He was living at that time in the eastern division of Saybrook, now Lyme, and sold his house with six acres of land to John Borden, but yet delayed from year to year to vacate the premises. In 1670, Borden brought a suit against him before the county court, in order to obtain possession. The court ordered Wallis to deliver the premises to the purchaser, in good condition, within one month from the date of judgment. We assume, therefore, the year 1670 as the date of his re- moval to Norwich.
He died early in 1675, leaving a widow and two daughters, Abigail and Joanna. In the settlement of estate, the court gave the lands in Norwich to Abigail, and those in Lyme to Joanna. Simon Huntington and John Birchard were appointed overseers of the children and estate. The widow married the next year, Jacob Wackley.
XXXVIII. WATERMAN.
Thomas Waterman was nephew to the wife of John Bradford. Robert Waterman and Elizabeth Bourn of Marshfield were married Dec. 9, 1638. Thomas, their second son, was born in 1644, and probably came to Norwich with his uncle Bradford. In November, 1668, he was joined in wedlock with Miriam, only daughter of Thomas Tracy. The Water- man house-lot was next to that of Major Mason, and the dwelling-house was built at a slight turn of the town street, opposite the residence of the late Dr. Turner. It projected awkwardly into the highway, which now passes over a part of the site. The old well that stood by the house, is under the street.
A granite stone records in rude capitals the decease of this proprietor.
SERT THOMAS WATERMAN, DECD JVNE IST 1708. AGED 64 y
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The inventory of Thomas Waterman amounted to £855.11.4. He had ten oxen, ten cows, and abundant household goods, showing a condition of thrift, comfort, and independence. He left three sons and five daughters.
Elizabeth, the oldest daughter, married John Fitch, one of the sons of the reverend minister of the town, and settled in Windham.
Martha, the second daughter, went to Lyme, as the second wife of "Lyme's Captain, Reinold Marvin."
Miriam died unmarried, Sept. 22, 1760, aged 82.
Lydia married Eleazer Burnham, a new inhabitant of the Nine-miles- square, that came in from Ipswich after 1700.
Ann, the youngest daughter, became the partner of Josiah De Wolfe of Lyme.
The sons of the proprietor were Thomas and John.
Thomas, the first-born of Norwich Watermans, not waiting to be quite twenty-one years of age, married, June 29, 1691, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Allyn. Their union was prolonged to a term of sixty-four years, and the memorial stones at their graves show that they had both attained their 86th year, and died within a few months of each other in the year 1755. They had seven sons and two daughters.
Lient. Elisha Waterman, their fifth son, died in Havana, a victim of the fatal expedition undertaken against the Spanish in 1762. He left a large family.
Asa Waterman, the sixth son, was the father of Arunah Waterman, who was born at Norwich in 1749, and after taking an active part in the various scenes of the Revolutionary war, both as a soldier and assistant commissary, emigrated with his family, about the year 1800, to Johnson, Vt., assisting greatly in the growth and prosperity of that town. At Johnson, Capt. Waterman lived to old age, adhering to ancient principles, simple manners, and old customs, grandfather to the whole village, and wearing to the last the long waistcoat, small clothes and shoe-buckles of a former generation. He died in 1838.
Nehemiah Waterman, seventh son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Allyn,) was the first of the Bozrah line of Watermans. He died Oct. 27, 1796, in the 88th year of his age. His son Nehemiah was an officer of the Revolutionary army, and the representative of Bozrah for ten sessions, from 1787 to 1797. He died in 1802, aged 66.
Rev. Elijah Waterman, distinguished as a successful teacher of the classics, and an able and fearless preacher, was a son of the second Nehe- miah Waterman, and born in Bozrah, Nov. 28, 1769. He graduated at Yale College in 1791, and was ten years pastor of the church at Wind- ham. He was afterward engaged in the ministry at Bridgeport, where he died Oct. 11, 1825, aged 56. He was a man of large information and an able writer. It is said that he had read the Paradise Lost several times
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
through before he was nine years of age. He published sermons and treatises ; was fond of poetry, and often composed small poems on fugitive occasions .*
John Waterman, the second son of the proprietor Thomas, born in March, 1672, married in 1701, Elizabeth, daughter of the second Samuel Lothrop. They had a family of six or seven sons and two daughters, the youngest of whom, Hannah, was the mother of Benedict Arnold.
A branch of the Waterman family settled in Lebanon, N. H. Col. Thomas Waterman, born July 11, 1766, is said to have been the first white child born in that town. His parents, Silas and Silence Waterman, were from Norwich.
* Sprague's Pulpit Annals, Vol. 2.
CHAPTER XII.
SECOND CLASS OF PROPRIETORS; RECKONED AMONG FIRST-COMERS.
IT is worthy of notice that for the first eighty years after the settlement, very few names occur among the town officers but those of the earliest class of settlers and their descendants. It shows how closely within their own charmed circle the proprietors kept the powers of government. The Abells, Brewsters, Bushnells, Elderkins and Lothrops were included in the circle, but beyond these the exceptions were rare. Thomas Sluman, one of the constables for 1680; Stephen Merrick 1681, and a townsman 1685; Caleb Forbes, constable east of Shetucket, 1684, and Thomas Parke, Jr., 1685 ; John Elderkin, constable 1694; and after 1709, David Hartshorn and Nathaniel Rudd occasionally appointed townsmen for the West-farmers, are all the names that are registered for any important and useful office, outside of the original proprietary list, until the year 1721. In the choice of deputies the range was restricted to the same circle, with- out any exception, till Jabez Perkins appears on the roll in 1720. After this period the old dynasty began to loosen its bolts, and the admixture of new names is more frequent.
I. ABEL, OR ABELL.
Three of this name are found at an early period among the inhabitants of Norwich : Caleb, Benjamin, and Joshua. It is a natural supposition that they were brothers, and nothing is known that disproves the relation- ship. In all probability they came from Dedham.
1. Caleb Abell. married in July, 1669, Margaret, daughter of John Post. They had eleven children. The wife died in 1700, and Mr. Abell married Mary, relict of Stephen Loomer.
He was chosen constable in 1684; townsman in 1689, and often after- wards ; appointed to keep tavern in 1694; enrolled among the dignitaries with his military title, "Sargent Calib Abel," in 1702 ; died Aug. 7, 1731, leaving wife Mary, and nine children.
14
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Enough of the broken head-stone of his grave remains to show that he was in the 85th year of his age. ·
Of the six sons of Caleb and Margaret Abell, the first three on the list, Samuel, Caleb and John, married sisters, Elizabeth, Abigail and Rebecca Sluman, daughters of Thomas Sluman and Mary Bliss.
Samuel, the oldest son, born in 1672, was a physician. In 1708, and again in a list of land-owners in 1726, he appears with the prefix of his profession. We assign him to the third place in the list of Norwich phy- sicians whose names have been recovered. Though cotemporary with Dr. Caleb Bushnell, he was a few years senior in age.
Theophilus, the fourth son, died on the last day of August, 1724, aged 44. This was before his father's decease. He left a wife and two daugh- ters. His library seems to intimate that he was a religious teacher. It consisted of about thirty volumes, and among them were the following:
A Bible with silver clasps.
Wise's Church Quarrels.
Doolittle on the Lord's Supper.
Henry's Communicant's Companion.
Robert Russell's Seven Sermons.
Dr. Mather on Angels ; do. on Resignation to the Will of God. Memorial on Milk for Babes.
Cotton Mather's Day of Rain.
Stoddard on Saving Conversion.
Dr. Mather's Now or Never.
Bunyan's Forsaken Sinner.
Do. Solomon's Temple Spiritualized.
Wadsworth's Guide to the Doubting.
Dr. Mather's Ecclesiastical Councils.
Pierpont's False Hope. Henry Gearing.
Burrough's Preparation for Judgment.
Stoddard's Guide to Christ.
Flavel's Husbandry Spiritualized.
Sundry old books.
No single book, except the Bible, was valued over 2s. 6d.
2. Benjamin Abell was in the settlement as early as 1670. His in- ventory was presented to the Prerogative Court in June, 1699, and the statement made that he left a son, Benjamin, and six daughters.
3. Joshua Abell married, Nov. 1, 1677, Mehitable, daughter of Nehe- miah Smitlı. He was constable in 1682, and was frequently chosen townsman. He died March 17, 1724, in the 77th year of his age. His estate was distributed the same year to four daughters, £915 to each.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
They were the wives of John Lothrop, Jolin Leffingwell, Hugh Calkins, and Thomas Lothrop. Two other daughters, the wives of Nathaniel Fitch and Obadiah Smith, had received their portions. No son is men- tioned.
It will not be inappropriate to advert here to a late worthy descendant of Caleb Abell of Norwich, who has left no posterity to perpetuate his line. General Elijah Abell, a gallant officer in the army that contended against England for liberty and independence, was born within the old municipal bounds of Norwich, but after the conclusion of the war settled in Fairfield, and for nearly twenty years served as sheriff of the county. In later life he returned to the old homestead in Bozrah, and there died, June 3, 1809, aged 71. He was a graduate of Yale College, well-informed, energetic, and upright.
II. BREWSTER.
Jonathan Brewster was the oldest son of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower Colony, but came over in the Fortune, 1621, a year later than his father. He settled at Duxbury, and represented that town in 1639. With others of the Plymouth Colony, he engaged actively in the trade with the Indians of Long Island Sound and Connecticut River. This trade was carried on in sloops and shallops. Some of the first set- tlers of Windsor appear to have been carried thither in Brewster's vessel. Jonathan and William Brewster were witnesses to a deed of land pur- chased by the Dorchester people of the Indians at Windsor, April 15, 1636 .*
These voyages brought Mr. Brewster into contact with the younger Winthrop, the founder of New London; to which place he removed in 1649, and found immediate employment, not only in the old path of Indian traffic, but as Recorder or Clerk of the plantation,-many of the early deeds and grants at New London being in his hand-writing.
16 May, 1650. "This day were made Freemen of this jurisdiction, John Winthrop Esq. Mr. Jonathan Brewster," &c.
Nine or ten years before the settlement of Norwich, Mr. Brewster had established a trading-post near the mouth of Poquetannock creek. The point of land formed by the junction of the creek and river is still called Brewster's Neck. A large tract of land was here given by Uncas to Mr. Brewster, as a bonus to induce him to establish the post, and it was con- firmed to him by the townsmen of New London, within whose original bounds it was included.t
Stiles' Windsor, 1, 111. t Conn. Col. Rec., 1, 207.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
He commenced operations at Brewster's Neck in 1650, without waiting to obtain a license from the authorities of Connecticut, who claimed the jurisdiction. The General Court, at their session in May of that year, censured him for the way of proceeding, but legalized the undertaking itself.
" Whereas Mr. Jonathan Brewster hath set up a trading-house at Mohigen, this Courte declares that they cannott but judge the thinge very disorderly, nevertheless considering his condition, they are content hee should proceed therein for the present, and till they see cause to the contrary."*
From this time forth, Brewster's Neck and Trading Cove on the oppo- site side of the river became the principal places of traffic with the Mo- hegans. Mr. Brewster maintained an agency here and kept his family at the post for several years, but at length relinquished the trade to his son Benjamin, and returned to Pequot Harbor, as New London was then called. In May, 1657, he was chosen "Assistant for the towne of Pequett."f
(Autograph in 1659.) Johnna: Brenner.
His four daughters were all eligibly married in New London, and there he and his wife spent their last days. He died in 1661. Incidental cir- cumstances determine the year, but the precise date has not been ascer- tained. The MS. diary of Thomas Minor of Stonington mentions the burial of Mrs. Brewster, March 5, 1678, (N. S. 1679.)
This worthy and honorable couple, Jonathan and Lucretia Brewster, belong to the venerated class of First-Comers of New England.
Mr. Brewster brought with him to New London his son Benjamin and four daughters, leaving William, and possibly other children, in the Old Colony. Benjamin Brewster married Anna Dart in February, 1659, and succeeded his father at Brewster's Neck, where, after a life of usefulness and honor, he died Sept. 10, 1710, aged 77. The births of his seven children are recorded at Norwich.
New London, as the bounds were stated in 1652, extended a quarter of a mile above Mr. Brewster's trading-house. In 1668, the line between New London and Norwich was reviewed and rectified, and it was still found to cross Brewster's Neck, dividing the Brewster farm between the
* Conn. Col. Rec., 1, 209. The phrase, "considering his condition," refers to the losses he had sustained in the Old Colony.
| Ibid., 1, 298.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
two towns. The Legislature therefore left it to the option of Mr. Benja- min Brewster to which place he would be attached. The settlement at one place was four miles north of him, and at the other eight miles south. He chose the nearer neighborhood. Accordingly in 1669 we find him recorded as one of the twenty-five freemen of Norwich, and in 1685 he was one of its twelve patentees ; but a year later, when Preston was accepted as a plantation, his farm fell within the limits of that new town, and he was enrolled as one of its inhabitants.
Thus it appears that Brewster's Neck, which, as we have seen, was at first an advanced post into the wilderness, where the first house was erected by white men in the Mohegan or Pequot territory, north of New London, was long afloat in regard to its territorial possession, and settled with difficulty into a permanent position. Originally included in the ter- ritory conquered from the Pequots, yet claimed and given away by Uncas, accredited for about twenty years to New London, and then assigned by courtesy to Norwich,-afterward made a part of the town of Preston, but subsequently included in North Groton,-it is now undeniably, and has been since 1836, within the limits of Ledyard. It is seldom that the formation of new towns and the alteration of boundaries produces so many changes in a particular locality.
The late Mr. Seabury Brewster of Norwich was not a descendant of Jonathan Brewster, but of some other branch of the Mayflower family. He emigrated to Norwich from the Old Colony during the Revolutionary war, when about twenty-two years of age. The following is the inscrip- tion upon his tomb-stone :
"Seabury Brewster was born at Kingston, Plymouth Co., Mass., 19 Oct., 1754, and died at Norwich, Conn., 27 July, 1847, aged 93. He was 6th in descent from Elder William Brewster, one of the Pilgrims that came over in the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth in 1620.
" This stone is erected by his three sons, William, Christopher, and Seabury."
III. BUSHNELL.
The marriage of Richard Bushnell and Mary Marvin, Oct. 11, 1648, is recorded at Hartford. Mary Marvin was a daughter of Matthew Mar- vin, afterward of Norwalk. Richard Bushnell's name also appears in 1656, among the owners of home-lots in Norwalk, but he is not afterward found in the list of early settlers, and it is supposed that he became a resident of Saybrook, and there died about the year 1658. His relict appears in 1660, at Norwich, as the wife of Thomas Adgate. Her child- ren were brought with her to the new settlement, and their births are found registered with those of the Adgate family.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
" The names and ages of the children of Richard Bushnell deceased, who stand in relation unto the second wife of Thomas Adgate as their mother, are as followeth :
Joseph Bushnell was borne in May, Anno Dom 1651.
Richard
" Sept.
1652.
Mary
" Jan'y
1654.
Marcie
" March
1657.
Mary Bushnell, the only daughter of this group that appears to have lived to maturity, married in September, 1672, Thomas Leffingwell, Jr. Joseph, the oldest son, married Mary Leffingwell of the same family, Nov. 28, 1673. This couple had a family of eleven children-seven daughters and four sons ; but only two of the latter, Jonathan and Nathan, became heads of families.
Mr. Joseph Bushnell lived to his 96th year, and his wife to her 92d. The life of their daughter, Mrs. Mary Leffingwell, was also extended beyond the age of 90.
Richard Bushnell married in 1672, Elizabeth Adgate, the daughter of his step-father by his first wife. He had two sons, Caleb and Benajah, and two daughters, Anne and Elizabeth, who married the brothers Wil- liam and John Hyde, sons of Samuel the proprietor.
In the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Richard Bushnell was one of the most noted and active men in Norwich. After arriving at man's estate, we find him taking a prominent part in almost every enterprise that was set on foot in the place.
He performed successively, if not contemporaneously, the duties of townsman, constable, school-master, poet, deacon, sergeant, lieutenant and captain, town-agent, town-deputy, court-clerk, and justice of the peace.
As a military man, it is probable that he had seen some actual service in scouting against the Indians, and was useful in exercising the train- bands. The first Mondays of May and September were days of general militia muster, or training-days, as they were usually called. These in Norwich, as elsewhere, were always days of festivity. No one was so poor as not to regale his family with training-cake and beer at those times. In 1708 a new start was taken in improving the appearance and exercise of the trainers. "Drums, holbarts, and a pair of colours," were purchased for them.
As a clerk, Mr. Bushnell exhibited an improvement upon the old forms of writing and spelling ; and as a justice, he decided numerous cases of debt and trespass, both for Norwich and the neighboring towns.
Caleb Bushnell, the son of Richard, born May 26, 1679, was nearly as conspicuous in the affairs of the town as his father. He was a physician, captain of the train-band, often employed in civil affairs, and a prosperous trader. He was also one of the first occupants and improvers at the Land- ing, no one of his compeers going before him in activity and enterprise.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
He left an estate of about £4000. The stone record gives his age and death :
" Here lyeth what was mortal of that worthy gentleman, Capt. Caleb Bushnell, son to Capt. Richard Bushnell Esq. who died Feb. 18, 1724, aged 46 years, 8 months and 23 days."
Richard Bushnell's will was written after the death of his son Caleb. In that instrument he states it to have always been his intention not to bequeath a double portion to his oldest son, (as was the custom of the country,) but to give his children equal portions of his property. To his son Benajah he leaves those relics or heir-looms which would probably have fallen to Caleb, had he survived, viz., his double-barreled gun, silver- hilted sword and belts, ivory-headed cane, and silver whistle.
HERE LIES ye BODY OF CAPT. RICHARD BUSHNELL ESQVIRE WHO DIED AVGVST ye 27 .. 1727 . . & in ye 75TH YEAR OF HIS AGE.
AS YOU ARE SO WAS WE BUT AS WE ARE YOU SHALL BE.
IV. ELDERKIN.
Our acquaintance with John Elderkin begins at Lynn, in 1637, when he was about 21 years of age. From thence he may be traced to Boston, Dedham, Reading, Providence, New London, and at last to Norwich, which was probably his latest home and final resting-place.
In a deposition taken in 1672, he gives his age, 56, and says that he became an inhabitant of New London the same year that Mr. Blinman and his company came there to dwell. We find a grant of house-lot recorded to him at that place in October, 1650, in anticipation of his coming.
Elderkin was a house-carpenter and mill-wright,-crafts which in the circumstances of the country were better than a patent of nobility in gaining for him a welcome reception, esteem and influence. In the places
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
where he sojourned, he built mills, meeting-houses, probably also bridges, and the better sort of dwelling-houses. At New London he built the first meeting-house, constructed two or three saw-mills in the neighborhood, and occasionally tried his hand in building vessels.
The settlement of Norwich opened a new field for his services. The proprietors at their first coming entered into a contract with him to erect a mill upon the Yantic for grinding corn, with the privilege of running the mill for a term of years as a kind of monopoly of the business. This led to a change of residence, and in 1664 he uses the style, "I John El- derkin of Norwige, carpenter."
In building the first meeting-house on the Plain, Elderkin does not appear to have had any concern. In constructing that temporary edifice the planters themselves were probably the architects and workmen. In 1673, Elderkin was engaged to build a more imposing and durable struct- ure for a house of worship, in conjunction with Samuel Lothrop, by whom a certain part of the work was to be performed. This edifice was scarcely completed, when he entered into a similar contract with the people of New London. He seems in point of fact to have been occupied in run- ning a mill and building a meeting-house at each place, nearly at the same time.
He died June 23, 1687, aged about 71. Of his first wife nothing is known. The birth of a daughter, Abigail, is recorded at Boston, Sept. 13, 1641. Richard Hendy's wife was Hannah, daughter of John Elderkin' and it is probable that Daniel Comstock's wife, Paltiah, was another of the family, as he and Elderkin use the terms father and son in their trans- actions with each other as early as 1661.
Elderkin married, in 1660 or before, Elizabeth, relict of William Gay- lord of Windsor .* Three sons and two daughters were the issue of this second marriage.
(Fac-simile of his Signature in 1653.)
Eshn derkin.
* In an account of Daniel Lane of New London against Elderkin in 1660, there is a charge of "4 yds. of lase for his mother, 6d. per yd." This must have been his wife's mother.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
V. LATHROP.
Samuel Lathrop, or Lothrop, as the name was then generally spelled, (with the pronunciation Lotrop,) was a son of the Rev. John Lothrop, who had preached in London to the first Independent or Congregational Church organized in England, as successor to Mr. Jacob, under whose ministry the church was formed. The congregation was broken up by ecclesiastical rigor, and Mr. Lothrop suffered an imprisonment of two years duration, from which he was released only on condition of his leav- ing the country. He came to America in 1634, and was the first minister both of Scituate and of Barnstable.
Samuel was his second son, and probably about fourteen years of age when the family emigrated. His marriage is recorded at Barnstable, in his father's hand writing : "My sonn Samuel and Elizabeth Scudder mar- ryed att my house, Nov. 28, 1644."
Samuel Lothrop was a house-carpenter, and found occupation for a time in Boston, from whence he went to New London, then called Pequot, in the summer of 1648 .* Just twenty years later he removed to Norwich, where, after a residence of more than forty years, he died, Feb. 29, 1700.
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