USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut, from its settlement in 1660, to January 1845 > Part 8
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Simon was born in 1629; married Sarah Clarke 1653. He was for many years deacon of the church at Norwich, and a man of great respectability and in- fluence. He died in 1706. Six sons survived him, viz:
Simon, born, 1659. Nathaniel, born 1672.
Joseph,
1661. Daniel, 1676.
Samuel, 66 1665. James, 1680.
Joseph settled in Windham, and was the ancestor of Gov. Huntington : Samuel in Lebanon ; the others continued in Norwich.
Christopher Huntington, the proprietor, was married at Windsor, in 1652, to Ruth Rockwell. There is no account of but three children of this marriage, viz :
Christopher, born Nov. 1, 1660. John, born, 1666. Thomas, 1664.
Thomas settled at Mansfield.
It is not ascertained when the first Christopher died. The second Christopher, the first born son of Norwich, had a noble family of twelve children, most of them sons. The two wives of deacon Christopher, were Sarah Adgate, and Judith, widow of Jonathan Brews- ter. His daughter Ruth was the mother of Dr. Elea- zer Wheelock, the founder of the Indian school at Lebanon, and first President of Dartmouth college.
In the early part of the next century, there were per-
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haps no more distinguished men in town, than the three Huntingtons, Mr. Isaac, Ensign James, and Capt. Hezekiah ; the latter afterwards deacon and Col. The Huntingtons, although extensively diffus- ed in other towns, have always been numerous in the neighborhood of their first settlement. The home- steads of their ancestors have never been alienated to other names. From an enumeration made in 1779, we learn that there were at that time fifteen families of this name, comprising about one hundred persons in what was called the east end of the town plot, or First Society.
LEFFINGWELL.
Thomas Leffingwell, usually mentioned with the military prefix of Serg., Ensign, or Lieut., denoting the rank he held in the train-bands after he came to Norwich, was a native of Croxhall, England, and one of the earliest planters of Saybrook. In his testimo- ny before the Court of Commission at Stonington, in 1705, he says he was acquainted with Uncas, in the year 1637, and was knowing to the assistance render- ed by the Sachem to the English, then and ever after, during his life. It may be inferred from this, that he was personally engaged in the Pequot war. He also be- louged to Capt. Denison's volunteer company of Eng- lish and Mohegans, during Philip's war. Only three of his sons have been traced, viz : Thomas, Nathan- iel and Samuel. He died about the year 1710. Ma- ry, his wife, Feb. 6, 1711. The name, Thomas, de- scended in a right line, for five generations, cach that bore it, living to a good old age.
Thomas Leffingwell 2d., born 1649, married Mary Bushnell in 1672; died 1724. His pious and vene-
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rable partner, survived him more than twenty years, living to be ninety-one years of age.
Thomas the 3d, born 1674, died 1733.
Thomas the 4th, born 1704, died 1793.
Thomas the 5th, died unmarried, in the year 1814, aged eighty-two.
The staff of the venerated Lieutenant, brought with him from his native place in 1637, and bearing his in- itials on its silver head, is in the possession of one of his descendants, N. L. Shipman, Esq.
Lieut. Leffingwell, was one of the last survivors of the proprietors. He had lived to see a great altera- tion take place in the nine miles square, since he first viewed it from the Mohegan heights. The dwellings of upright, intelligent, and industrious men, were scat- tered at intervals, over the surface ; the pleasant mea- dows upon the banks of the rivers, were reclaimed and cultivated, the uplands were cleared for grazing, the rocky pastures were clothed with flocks, and extensive fields in the suburbs, now comprised in other towns, were planted with wheat and Indian corn. The wil- derness and solitary place had blossomed as the rose.
PEASE.
Of John Pease, little is known. We find him with Gov. Winthrop, at New London, in 1650, and ten years afterwards, trace him to Norwich, where his homelot was at the extreme west end of the town. We do not find his name after 1673. The conjecture may be hazarded, that he was son of Henry Pease, mentioned by the elder Winthrop, in a letter to his son at New London, dated at Boston, June 14, 1648 :- " Henry Pease, my old servant, died this day senight." [See Winthrop's Journal. ]
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POST.
This family is supposed to have been of that origi- nal band of planters of Saybrook, who came direct from England, in 1639. Thomas and John, who re- moved to Norwich, were brothers ; others of the name were left at Saybrook. Thomas was married in 1656, to Mary Andrews. She died at Norwich soon after the settlement, leaving a daughter Sarah, who after- wards married a Vincent. The second wife of Mr. Post, was Rebecca Bruin, whom he married in 1663. They had two sons, Thomas, born 1664, and Joseph ; perhaps others. Mr. Thomas Post died in 1704. IIis son Joseph married Mary Post, of Saybrook, by whom he had one son, Joseph, born 1747, and seven daugh- ters.
John Post married Ilester Hide, who died in 1681. His second wife was Sarah Reynolds, deceased, 1685. He had two sons, John and Samuel; the latter born in 16GS. Mr. Post died in 1704. The house built by Samuel Post, on the town street, is still standing, though the name of Post is no longer to be found in the place. The two large elm trees that throw their shade over it, were planted by his son, Samuel Post 2d., about the year 1750.
READ.
John Read obtained a grant of land for a homelot in New London, soon after 1750. It is probable that Josiah, of Norwich, was his son. The marriage of Josiah Read and Grace Halloway, took place in 1666. They had eight children. The sons were Josiah, Wil- liam, John and Joseph. Josiah Read senior, was living in 1699. Josiah jun. married Elizabeth Arms- den, in 1697. He died in 1717. This family appear
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to have removed at an early period to Newent Society, now Lisbon. The above-mentioned John died there in 1768, aged about ninety.
REYNOLDS.
John Reynolds appears to have removed to Say- brook from Massachusetts; and probably came to this country as early as 1635. He died in 1702. He had eleven children, of whom three sons lived to the age of manhood : John born anterior to the settlement in 1655; Joseph, in March, 1660; the very period of the removal ; Stephen, 1682.
ROYCE.
Jonathan Royce was married at Saybrook, March, 1660, to Deborah, daughter of Hugh Calkins. The births of two children are recorded : Elizabeth, born January, 1661; John, 1663. The death of John in 1720, is mentioned, and the name then disappears from the records.
SMITH.
We learn from Winthrop's letters to his son, the younger John Winthrop, that a Henry Smith was with the latter at Saybrook, in 1636. In 1652, Nehemiah / Smith was an inhabitant of New London, whither Win- throp had removed, and continued there long after the plantation of Norwich. The Nehemiah Smith of the latter place, may have been son of the former. Only two children of Mr. Smith have been traced ; Obadiah, who married Martha Abell in 1700, and a daughter married to Joshua Abell. January 12, 1681, Nehe- miah and Ann Smith made over their homestead and other property to their son-in-law, Joshua Abell, stip-
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ulating only for a maintenance during life, they being "in an infirm and weakly state."
Capt. Obadiah Smith died in 1727. His grave-stone bears this quaint epitaph :-
And now beneath these carved stones, Rich treasure lies,-dear Smith, his bones.
TRACY.
In January, 1637, Thomas Tracy, " ship-carpenter," was received as an inhabitant of Salem, Mass. He is supposed to have removed to Saybrook as early as 1639. His name frequently appears upon the records of the General Court at Hartford, after 1644. In the company of Norwich proprietors he ranked high, hav- ing more education than most of them, and being in ability, enterprize and integrity, cqual with the first. He officiated on all important committees, and as sur- veyor, moderator, and townsman ; and between Oct., 1662, and July, 1684, was twenty-seven times chosen Deputy to the General Court. He was also ensign of the train-band, and after 1678, in the Commission of the Peace. Even . in those days of simplicity, Mr. Tracy is usually mentioned with some adjunct indica- ting respect or the possession of office ; but as " Lieft- anant Thomas Tracy," he was best known. This title was acquired from the rank he held in Capt. Avery's company of dragoons, raised in New London County in 1673. He died Nov. 7, 1685.
Mr. Tracy brought with him from Saybrook six sons and one daughter, but as no reference has been found to his wife, it is inferred that she was then dead. In 1679 he married Martha, the widow of John Bradford. His children were John, Jonathan, Thomas, Solomon, Daniel, Samuel and Miriam. He and his six sons were
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for several years all active men together. The order of his children, as to age, has not been ascertained.
John, being ranked as a proprietor, and having a homelot laid out with the others in 1659, was undoubt- edly the eldest. If, however, all the children of Mr. Tracy were born at Saybrook, as seems most probable, we can scarcely reckon him more than twenty years of age at the era of the plantation. He was made a free- man by the General Court at Hartford in 1671; his brother Solomon in 1685. Young men at that day · were not qualified to vote as soon as they attained their majority. They were obliged to acquire a character, and possess a certain amount of property, before they could become clectors.
John Tracy married in 1670, Mary, daughter of the Hon. Josiah Winslow, of Plymouth-a stately and beautiful woman, according to tradition. He died in 1703. His widow in 1721. A deed conveying a par- cel of land to his son, John Tracy jun., was signed by him Dec. 30, 1702. Their children were,
John, born 1672. Joseph, born 1682.
Elizabeth, " 1675. Winslow, " 1689.
Jonathan and Thomas Tracy settled upon a tract of land east of the Shetucket, purchased by their father from the Indians. It was afterwards included in the town of Preston, of which town Jonathan was the first Town Clerk. He married in 1672, Mary, daughter of Lt. Francis Griswold.
Solomon Tracy, whom we conjecturally reckon the fourth son of Lieut. Thomas, was married in 1678, to Sarah Huntington, who died in 1683. His second wife was Sarah, the widow of Thomas Sluman, whom he married in 1686. Mr. Solomon Tracy died in 1732.
Daniel Tracy married in 16S2, Abigail Adgate, sister by the mother's side, to Joseph and Richard Bushnell.
.
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Mr. Tracy was killed in the year 1728, with several others, by the falling of the frame work of a bridge, which the inhabitants were engaged in building over Shetucket river. He was then in the 76th year of his age, which gives 1652 for the date of his birth. This is the only one of the family whose age has been ascertained.
Samuel Tracy died in 1693, unmarried.
The descendants of Lieut. Thomas Tracy are very numerous, and widely dispersed. In 1779, there were twenty-four families of the name in Norwich, number- ing about one hundred and eighty persons.
WADE.
Robert Wade, very soon after the settlement, trans- ferred his homelot to Caleb Abell. His son married Abigail Royce, in 1691. The family has not been traced any farther.
WATERMAN.
There was a Thomas Waterman at Roxbury, Mass. in 1641, who died there in 1676. The identity of name leads to the conjecture that Thomas Waterman, of Saybrook, and afterwards of Norwich, was his son. II. married in 1668, Miriam, daughter of Lieut. Thomas Tracy, by whom he had ten children. The sons were Thomas, born 1670, John, 1672, and Joseph, 1685. Both father and son are successively styled in the rec- ords. Ensign Thomas Waterman. The name was soon extensively spread in the vicinity of the town plot.
WALLIS.
Of Richard Wallis and Richard Hendy, nothing cer- tain has been gleaned. The latter died soon after the settlement. His children are mentioned as orphans in 1672.
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CHAPTER XI.
Other Early Settlers. Settlers East of the Shetucket. Richard and Joseph Bushnell. Cases of Trespass.
BREWSTER.
MR. BENJAMIN BREWSTER was a grandson of the venerated elder William Brewster, of May Flower memory. Jonathan, the third son of the Elder, romo- ved to New London, where, in 1649, he was acting as one of the townsmen. His son Benjamin was old enough to convey a tract of land by deed in 1654. and in 1659 was married, at New London, to Anna Dart. He removed to Norwich very soon after the settlement. The birth of his daughter Anne is recorded there Sept. 1662. His sons were
Jonathan, born 1664.
William, born 1669.
Daniel, 1667. Benjamin, " 1673.
Mr. Brewster was an active and highly respected member of the infant plantation. In 1693, he suc- ceeded Mr. Burchard as Commissioner of the Peace. His descendants are still to be found in Norwich and its vicinity. In 1779 there were eleven families of this name in East Society.
The venerable Mr. Seabury Brewster, now living in Norwich City, and one of the patriarchs of the place, is not, however, descended from Benjamin, but from Wrestling, the second son of Elder Brewster. He was born at Plymouth, in 1755, and emigrated to Norwich when about twenty-two years of age. He is the father
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of Sir Christopher Brewster, an eminent dentist who has resided a number of years in Paris and Petersburg, and has been knighted by the emperor of Russia.
LATHROP.
Samuel Lathrop was an inhabitant of New London in 164S, and perhaps earlier. He and John Elderkin appear to have been in partnership as master builders. The second meeting-house in New London and the first in Norwich were built by contract with them. Mr. Lathrop removed to Norwich in 1668, having pur- chased the homelot of Elderkin. He is found on record as constable the same year, and acted after- wards in various public capacities.
Mr. Lathrop was the son of the Rev. John Lathrop, of England, a man of great piety and varied adven- tures. He was minister of Egerton, in Kent, before 1624, and afterwards preached in London, as successor to Mr. Jacob, in the first Congregational church organ- ized in England. After suffering two years imprison- ment in England for non-conformity, he was released, and came to America in 1634. In this country he was highly esteemed, being the first minister of Scituate, and afterwards of Barnstable. Four sons came with him from England, of whom Samuel was the second. Samuel had nine children. His sons were-
John, born 1646. Samuel, " 1650. Joseph, " 1661.
Israel, born 1659.
Mr. Lathrop died Feb. 19, 1700. His wife, Abigail, [her maiden name has not been ascertained, ] survived him nearly thirty-five years, having lived into her 101th year. On the completion of her century, Jan. 13, 1732, the Rev. Mr. Lord preached a sermon in her room, at the house of her son.
This name is frequently spelt in the records Lotrop;
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an orthography about on a par with that occasionally used for Leffingwell, viz : Leppinwell.
In 1779 there were twenty- four families of the name of Lathrop in the Town Plot society, and that of West Farms.
ELDERKIN.
John Elderkin, carpenter and miller, the first pro- prietor of the Cove, emigrated to America in 1637. He came first to Lynn, and went from thence to Ded- ham. We next find him at New London, where, in 1650, he had a houselot, and a tract of meadow and upland laid out to him.
In 1654 he entered into a contract with the Saybrook company, who were planning the settlement of Nor- wich, to erect a mill for them. This was subsequently renewed, and the stipulations on both sides performed. He was accepted as an inhabitant of Norwich in 1663, and a homelot laid out to him next to Mr. Adgate's. This he alienated to his friend and partner, Samuel Lathrop, and removed to the vicinity of the Mill. Though residing in Norwich, he still continued occa- sionally both to build and to grind in New London, as the early records of that town testify. He died June 18, 1716, aged 95. His sons were-
John, born 1664. James, " 1671.
Joseph, born 1672.
John Elderkin the second died in 1737, leaving three sons, Jedidiah, John and Joshua. One of these was the keeper of the first public house at Chelsea. The name has since been a noted one in Windham. One of the last who bore it in Norwich was a pilot, who died in 1821, aged 82.
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C.
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Settlements were carly made east of the Shetucket. Some of the first planters in that quarter were Samuel Starr, Robert Roath, Samuel Andrews, Josiah Rock- well, John Glover, and Grinfield Larrabee. Mr. Rockwell came from Windsor, and is supposed to have been brother to Ruth, wife of Christopher Hunting- ton. He died in 1675, about three years after his removal. His son, Josiah Rockwell 2d, on arriving at manhood, obtained a grant of land, which is described as lying "cast of the Great River ;"' and in 1718 an additional tract was given him by the town, "on ac- count of his sheep concerns." He was married in 16SS, to Anne, daughter of Thomas Bliss, by whom he had two sons, Daniel and John.
The name of Capt. Josiah Standish appears upon record as early as 1686, as owner of a farm east of the Shetucket. He was a son of Miles Standish, the famous hero of New Plymouth. He is supposed to have had in his possession the sword of his father, and though the house in which he lived was destroyed by fire, this relic was preserved. After several times changing hands, it was obtained by the late T. W. Williams, Esq., of Lebanon, and by him deposited in its most appropriate place, Pilgrim Hall, in Plymouth. Mr. Williams took great pains to trace the history of · this sword, and was satisfied that he had established its claims to be the genuine weapon, both hilt and blade, with which Capt. Standish was accustomed to do battle with the Indians. But the same honor has been claimed, and it is said upon as good authority, by another sword, preserved among the collections of the Mass. Hist. Soc. It is not improbable that a person who had so much fighting to do as Capt. Standish, both in the old and new world, might have had two
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swords, that passed as heir-looms to different branches of his family.
The marriage of Greenfield Larrabee to Alice Youngs, is recorded in 1673. Their sons were Thomas, John and Nathaniel. Mr. Greenfield died in 1739.
Samuel Andrews probably came from Saybrook, and may have been brother to the wives of John Birchard and Thomas Post. In 1779 there were eight families of this name in East Society.
Robert Roath was from New London, where either himself or father had a houselot and other land granted him in 1650.
John Glover married in 1682. His descendants remained in the town for a century or more, but have since dispersed. The Hon. James Glover of Ottawa, Illinois, was of this family, and a native of Norwich. He removed in early life to Illinois, and aided in the first settlement of that State. He died in 1840, in the 73rd year of his age.
Other names which occur at a very early period, are Thomas Sloman or SInman, Thomas Rood, Caleb and Joshua Abell, Jonathan Rudd, Jonathan Crane, Ste- phen Merrick, Hugh Amos, Jonathan Jennings, Ca- leb Forbes, David Knight, Owen Williams, Edward Culver, Timothy Allen, John Hough, Frederick Ellis, Richard Cooke, Peter Cross, Benjamin and Jonathan Armstrong, Matthew. Coy, William Moore. These all appear within the first ten or twelve years of the plan- tation, and may be ranked as first settlers. Most of them were farmers, and settled in those parts of the town now included in Bozrah and Franklin,
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Joseph and Richard Bushnell may be reckoned among the first class of planters. They belonged to the company of proprietors, though at the period of the settlement they were minors in the family of John Holmstead, whose wife is supposed to have been sister to their mother. Mrs. Bushnell's maiden name was Mary Marvyn ; she was the daughter of Matthew and Elizabeth Marvyn, who came to New England in 1635, and settled at Hartford. She was six years of age at the time she arrived with her parents, and in 1648 married Richard Bushnell of Saybrook, by whom she had two sons, Richard and Joseph, the former born late in 1651, and the latter early in 1653. Mrs. Bushnell afterwards married deacon Thomas Adgate, by whom she had several daughters and one son.
Richard Bushnell married in 1672, Elizabeth, dangh- ter of Mr. Adgate, by a former marriage. They had two sons, Caleb, born 1679, Benajah, in 1681.
Joseph Bushnell was married in 1673, to Mary, daughter of Thomas Leffingwell. Their sons were Joseph, born 1677, Jonathan, 1679, and Nathan, 1686.
Mrs. Mary Bushnell died March 31st, 1748, in the ninety-second year of her age.
Mr. Joseph Bushnell died Dec. 23, 174S, in the ninety-sixth year of his age.
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.
In 16S6 he obtained a grant of privilege-" to take fish in Showtucket river, and to make weares there, for that purpose." This privilege extended from the mouth of the Shetucket to the crotch of the Quinebaug, and was to continue for seven years. He managed a
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farm also upon the Great Plains, but had his residence in the town plot, where he performed successively, if not contemporaneously, the duties of townsman, con- stable, school-master, poet, deacon, sergeant, lieuten- ant and captain, town-agent, town deputy, court-clerk, and justice of the peace.
As a school-master he was highly esteemed. The school continued only during the winter months, and whenever the payment received from his scholars was represented deficient, the town remunerated him with a piece of land.
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 Mon- days in May and September were days of general mili- tia 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 appear- ance 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 tres- pass, both for Norwich and the neighboring towns. The fine at this time for profane swearing, was ten shillings, or to sit two hours in the stocks. In 1720, there is a record which shows that Dr. Samuel Law was presented for using an oath in conversation, and obliged to pay the penalty. The next year Henry Holland, of Plainfield, was proved guilty of the same trespass, and adjudged in the same manner to pay the fine and cost ; the latter amounted to 2s 2d. The same Henry Holland was also bound over to appear at the
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next County Court, and answer for breaking the peace and the law, by saying " in a tumultuous violent threat- ening manner, yt he would take the head of Jona" Tracy off his shoulders."
An Indian being found drunk, was brought before Mr. Justice Bushnell, and sentenced according to the statute, namely, to pay a fine of ten shillings, or receive ten lashes on his naked body. The Indian immediately accuses Samuel Bliss of selling him that afternoon that which made him drunk, to wit, two pots of cider. The fine for selling cider or ardent spirits to an Indian, was twenty shillings, one half to go to the complainant. The Indian thus obtained just the sum requisite to pay his own mulct, and set his body clear. The record of this affair is as follows :
" Feb. ye 7_1722-3. Apenanucsuck being drunk was brought before me R. Bushnell, Justice of ye peace. I do sentence ye sd Apeonuchsuck for his transgression of ve law to pay a fine of 10s. or to be whipt ten Lashes on ye naked body, and to pay ye cost of his prosecution, and to continue in ye constable's custody till this sentence be performed.
Cost allowed is Gs 6.
John Waterman promises to pay 6s 4.
Apeanuchsuck accused Samuel Bliss y'he sold him 2 pots of cider this afternoon. Mr. Samuel Bliss appeared be- fore me and confessed he let sd Indian have some cider and I do therefore sentence sd Bliss to pay ye fine of 20s. for ye transgression of ye law one half to ye town and one half to complainant. R. BUSHNELL, Justice."
Some other extracts from Mr. Bushnell's record may here be given.
"3rd of June 1708. Joseph Bushnell of Norwich com- plained against himself to me Richard Bushnell, Justice of the Peace, for yt he had killed a Buck contrary to law. 1 sentenced him to pay a fine of 10s. one half to ye county treasury and one half to complainant."
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