USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Bridgeport > Reports and papers. Fairfield County Historical Society, Bridgeport, Conn. 1882-1896-97 > Part 20
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"Insatiate Archer, could'st thou not spare to riper age the virtuous youth,
The widow's only hope, the staff of her declining years ?"
In view of his widowel mother's helplessness, in her old age this seems an almost prophetic as well as sad lament.
This interesting group of Bev. Blackleach Burritt's descend- ants of fourteen children and sixty grand children, fourteen of the latter of whom still survive, might well form the theme of an interesting paper, but must be passed by without fur- ther notice here. He certainly had prolific posterity as well as a virile ancestry.
But to return to his father, Peleg Burritt, Jr. : It is said that within a reasonable time after the death of Peleg's first wife, his mother made a quilting party, to which she in- vited all the eligible young people of the neighborhood, and among them, Deborah Beardslee. She recommended Deborah as the most sensible of the girls ; and Peleg took her for his second wife. The marriage took place at Ripton Parish, " on the evening of Thanksgiving Day," as the record says, in 1716. She was born at Stratford, Feb. 1, 1726, and was the great- granddaughter of Richard Booth and Elizabeth Hawley his wife, of Stratford as early as 1640.
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Peleg Burritt, Jr., took the Freeman's oath April 13, 1741 ; is mentioned as Peleg Burritt, Junior, several times from 1752 to 1761, in the Society records of Ripton. At a meet- ing held at his house Dec. 6, 1752. he was chosen Clerk, and sworn for the year ensuing. Was also Clerk in 1753-4. In 1773-4, he is said to have joined the Connectient Colony in the Wyoming Valley, taking up his residence in the town- ship of Hanover, now in Luzerne County, Pa.
" Hanover Green " was laid out in ohl New England style containing an open court or green, flanked on two sides by the homes of two of the children of Captain Peleg Burritt. Stephen and Sarah, each with its symmetrical front yard, garden, orchard, &c., while the green was open to the street at the front, and occupied at the rear by a Church, back of which was a Cemetery. The whole establishment was laid out by the Burritt family ; whether by Captain Peleg Bnrritt or his son Stephen, is not known. But all this hap- py scene was broken in upon by the terrible tragedy of the Wyoming Massacre, which occurred the 3d day of July, 1778, and in which Cyprian Hibbard, a son-in-law of Peleg Burritt, husband of his daughter Sarah, was killed. Although Mr. Burritt was not in the Wyoming Valley at the date of the battle, his wife Deborah, was there, and rendered efficient aid during the escape of the fugitives. It is related that all the books and papers belonging to the Burritt's were hastily thrown into a bag, as the result of the battle became known, and that inasmuch as the first thought was to escape by way of the river to Shamokin. the bag was hastily thrown into a boat in which some of the refugees did so make their escape, and thus went down the river without anyone to care for it; since the Burritt's changed their plan, and es- caped, with many others, to the east, over the mountains, to the Delaware river. The important consignment was after- wards traced as far as Shamokin or Northumberland, but after that was lost sight of. And thus were lost the only records and papers of this branch of the Burritt family, brought from their early home in Connectient.
It is related that Mrs. Burritt, on the hasty retreat, had
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the forethought to throw upon her horse a bag of flour : and that was the sole sustenance of a considerable party, on their flight to the Delaware. On eamping at night, or halting for refreshment, she would form the meal into a eup shape in the mouth of the bag. and pouring in water, would mix up the meal into dough, and bake it upon the coals. It is impossible now to find out who formed the Burritt contingent in this retreat. Mrs. B.'s husband is supposed to have been at the . time absent. probably in Connectiont. It is fair to presume that all of their children may have been present in the valley at the time. yet one or more of them may have been with their father in Connectieut.
The following is a partial list of the descendants of Peleg Burritt, Jr., by his second marriage :
Gideon, unmarried, died in Hanover township, Luzerne County. Pa.
Sarah, born Nov. 19, 1750 ; married first Cyprian Hibbard, Jan., 1775; second, Matthias Hollenback, who was an officer in the Battle of Wyoming, and escaped from the massacre by swimming the river. He was entitled Colonel Hollenback. Sarah Barritt, huid by her first husband, Haunah D, born June 18, 1788; being thus fifteen days old at the time of the battle and massacre of Wyoming, in which her father, (Cyprian Hibbard), was killed. She married John Alexander and had three children.
Thomas, died in infaney.
Sarah, died in infaney.
William H. Alexander, married Caroline Up ; Miss E. I. Alexander of Wilksbarre, is of one their six children.
Sarah Burritt had by her second husband, Judge Matthias Hollenbaek :
1. Mary Ann, married Laning ; three sons and three daugh- ters. One of her grand-children was Mrs. Anthony J. Drexel, of Philadelphia.
2. Ellen J., born Jan. 21, 1788: married Charles F. Welles. born at Glastonbury, Conn., 1789. son of John Welles, of Glastonbury, born 1756: son of John. born 1729; son of Thomas, born 1693 ; son of Captain Samuel, born at Wethers-
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field, 1660: son of Samuel, born in England, 1630; son of Governor Thomas Welles. There were nine children by this marriage, of whom Rev. H. H. Welles, graduate of Princeton, '44, of Kingston, Pa, and Edward Welles, Esq., of Wilkes- Barre, are two of the six surviving.
3. Sarah Hollenbaek, married first Jacob Cist ; second, Chester Butler ; seven children.
4. George MI. Hollenback, Wilkes-Barre, born Aug. 11, 1791, married twice, and died Nov., 1866; no children.
Mr. Charles F. Welles was a man of large property in eoal lands.
Stephen Burritt, son of Peleg, Jr., married a Miss Keeler, and had Joel, who married Ruth, and had numerous.descend- ants, ineluding a grand-son Joel, now of White Haven, Pa. Also Stephen, had a son Stephen, Jr., who may have-had de- seendants, and a daughter Polly, who married a Mr. Dilley, and was the mother of Rev. Alex. B. Dilley, of Florida.
Mary, the youngest daughter of Peleg Burritt, Jr., was twiee married but left no children. Captain Peleg Burritt, as he was sometimes ealled. died at Hanover Green, Pa., April 10, 1789, and his widow, Deborah, at the same place, Aug. 7, 1802.
Characterization of Rev. Blackleach Burritt is not wanting. He is said to have been a little visionary and umpraetieal, but very pious and devoted. He was strong and earnest in de- bate, and as evidence of his controversial powers, it is related of him, that meeting a brother minister one evening on the highway, and getting into a diseussion with him on some theologieal, doctrinal point, they continued there, sitting on horsebaek, until the dawn of the next morning ! He pos- sessed wonderful physical strength and agility, and at Col- lege was noted for sneh feats. As a prencher, he was dis- tinguished for readiness and a love of argument. He preached a great deal extemporaneously, and would some- times take a text handed to him, as he went into the pulpit, and preach from it without any previous preparation. He was a very thoughtful man, a student ; but so oeeupied with his reflections, and the study of life and immortality, as to be
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almost indifferent to ordinary mundane matters. It is said that with his other gifts he had a glorious voice for sing- ing, and that it almost carried one away to hear him in some of the grand old anthems.
The following extracts from a letter of Rev. Blackleach Burritt to his sister, Mrs. Sarah Hollenback, wife of Colonel Matthias Hollenback, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., now in the posses- sion of Miss E. I. Alexander, of that place, and the only letter of his known to be in existence, is a striking self character- ization :
Duanes Borough, N. Y., December 28 A. D. 1791.
DEAR SISTER : Your Relations in this Place are generally in good Ilealth, except myself who for a length of Time have been more fee- ble & Disordered than usual. . . Stiles Wells has Intely Returned from Huntington (alias Ripton), & informs (me) that our Friend(s) are in good Health there. . . Brother Ilubbell & Sister were well last Spring, Since which Time I have not heard from them. . . I know not but you are ready to Imagine I am forgetful of yon & my Mother & Brethren in Wyoming, as I have not Wrote to any of them, since I Received your Kind Letter Informing me of the Death of Father, which was the First Certiin Intelligence I obtained of his Death. "Our Fathers, where are they ? and the Prophets, do they live for- ever ?" We are hastening to follow them; a few more Revolving Suns brings us to the concluding Scene of all Earthly Joys & Sorrows; we momentarily hasten to the House appointed for all the Living.
I am not unmindful of you, & my Relations so remarkably Scattered from Each other, as I am almost Daily praying for them, in my Fam- ily, & many Times conversing of you & them; but it is Rare that we have any opportunity of Conveying Letters from this Quarter of the Country to where you Dwell. I desire to embrace every opportunity of Writing to you in my Power, & wish you & my Friends near you would Do the Same in letting us hear from them. I greatly wish to hear of the State of Religion in Wyomen in General, where Discord hath so greatly abounded in years past, & whether they obtain Regular Presbyterian or congregational Settled Ministers in the towns in gen- eral, what Success there is of the Preaching of the Gospel in your Part of the Country, as there is but little visible good Effect of the Preach- ing of the Gospel in general in the Northern Part of this State. - Real Godliness is the All Important Concern, without which nothing will Serve our Turn in the Hour of Death, or in the future Judgment, to which we are swiftly Hustening. Temporal Prosperity, & External Privileges, while Zion languishes, and the Interest of that glorious Kingdom that will finally brake in peaces all the Kingdoms that have
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opposed it, & stand forever, is visibly Discarded among us in our Part of the land, but little Satisfies. - I am greatly concerned for my Friends at Turns, least Prosperity, or the love of it, should Drown them in Destruction & perdition. Prosperity is genera ly far more Dangerous than Adversity to Christians in Every Age: but why should I fear? Since Zion's Glorious King Reigns in wisdom. Righteousness & Goodness, & is ever Accomplishing the noblest Ends by the wisest & Best of ALL possible Means. We may fear for them, in a partial View; tho' in the most large & Extensive View, there is the utmost Reason of Rejoicing in the Absolute perfection of the Divine Govern- ment, or Disposal of Events in Providence, -
Perhaps you may have an opportunity of Writing to me by Mr. John Gray, the young Man who is the Bearer hereof, a Neighbor of mine, on his Return to Dannesborough. - Pray give my Dutiful Re- gards to Mother, & let her know I often think of her in her lonely con- dition; my youngest Child is of her Name .- Give my love (if you Please,) to All My Breathren & yrs. and my unknown Brother will have a share among the Rest. The Bearer is waiting. I must Subseribe myself, Your Etfeetionate Brother.
Blackleach Burit.
It has been stated that his grave at Winhall was unmarked. It should be added in explanation that several years since a sum was contributed to furnish a stone for that purpose, but by some misdirection it was placed at Manchester, eight miles away over the Green Mountains, on the plot of one of his de- seendants there. The following is the inscription upon it :
REV. BLACKLEACH BURRITT, Born at Stratford, Ct., 17-, Died at Winhall, Vt., 1794.
"An earnest Minister of the Gospel. a learned and upright man, His spotless memory is piously cherished by his descendants "
A son of Fairfield County and of your own Stratford, he well deserves a place in your annals, and is worthy to be held in honored remembrance by his kindred and descendants
NOTE .- Acknowledgement is made for kindly aid in the preparation of this paper, to Rev. Samuel Oreutt, the Historian of Stratford; to R. B. Ldery, Faq .. Presid ut of the Fairfield County Historical Society; Rev. W. J. Cumming, of Yorktown, N Y : Milward Welles, Esq., of Wilkry-Barre, Pa , Mrs. Col. Loren Burritt, of @wego, N. Y .; Mrs. D. E. Suckett, Cranlord, N. J .; Mrs. C. D. Mosher, Albany, N. Y., and many other.
M. D. R.
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MILLS MEMORANDA.
Rev. Samuel Mills, son of Rer. Jede lah Milk and class- mate of Rev. MIr. Burritt. referred to in the foregoing pages. as of Belford. Westchester County. fr m 17/2. Living been or lice List at rol the Church there, Dec. 13. of that year. remained there until ly the stress of the Revolution he was oblige.l in 1770. to ren.ove to Fredricksi arg. North > ciety. now Patterson. Putiam County, and did not return to Bed- ford after the close of the war. though strongly urged to do so. In 1759 he became an Ana-Baptist. and so severed Lis relations with the Dutchess County Pres ytery. He soon after removed to the Geneseo country. locating a: Williams- burg. between Geresco and Mt. Momis He was a pioneer preacher in that region, and his memory was long cherishe l in that locality. for Lis worth and devoted piety. He died in 1813, and was buried in the Geneseo cemetery. His widow. second wife, was a sister of Colonel Daniel Humphrey, an aides-de camp of Washington. He left four sons. viz: Alex- ander, Lewis F., PLilo and William Augustus Mille. the latter of whom born in Bedford. May 27. 1777. located at JI .. Morris. Livingston County. N. Y. Was Major-General in the War of 1812-15, Supervisor twenty years, a man of great ez- terprise. a large lauded proprietor and active member of the Presbyterian Church. diel April 6. 1-44. He had ten chi- dren, of whom Myron Holly Mills. Larn Dec. . 1-20. re- sides at Mt. Morris. N. Y. He gra luated at the Gul.eva Medical College in 1-44. was Assistant Surgeon U. S. Army in the Mexican war : was in practice at Rochester from 1-W! to 1870, was one of the founders of the Livingston C anty Historical Society. President of the B.arl of Elucuti.n .: 1 of the Mills Water Works, author of a series of articles on Indian History. Las delivered many addresses. lectures. &c . and bell various pesiti us of honor ai I trust. A .. ther son. Rev. Samuel J. Mills, of Nevada, I wa graduate l at Vale in 1-37. was for a time engaged in finetice of the mw. and has been engaged in the ministry since 1-03.
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ADDITIONAL DATA.
Ira Nichols Burritt, son of Samuel Burritt and grandson of Blaelleach Burritt, Jr., as appears on page 36, enlisted as a private on the first call for volunteers in the war for the Union ; was at Gettysburg, in the Battle of the Wilderness, and in front of Petersburgh, was severely wounded, promot- ed to Captain, and served until the close of the war. He then lived at Washington, D. C., married Miss Elizabeth Nicholson. and had three sons and two daughters. Was edi- tor and publisher of the Sunday Herald ; was highly respeet- ed ; died from the effects of his wounds.
Aliee Burritt, sister of above, whose name should have ap- peared on page 36, is the eldest daughter of Samuel Burritt and Amanda Nichols his wife. She studied medieine, gradu- ated in New York, has practiced very successfully for thirteen years in Oakland, California. and has been viee- president of the Medical Association of that state.
The widow of Samuel Burritt, and mother of the above, still survives at Uniondale, Pa. Her father was Eli Nichols, son of Philo, and he son of James, all of the noted family of Nichols, early of Stratford, Fairfield County, Conn.
The above would have appeared in its proper place had the desired data been furnished in time.
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THE PILGRIM FATHERS,
AND
What They Wrought.
BY
REV. CHAS. RAY PALMER, D. D.
READ BEFORE THE
Fairfield County Historical Society. Bridgeport, March 11, 1892.
THE PILGRIM FATHERS And what they Wrought.
An inquirer after the beginnings of the colonization of America will have his attention directed, first, to a French Colony at Port Royal in 1562, very soon broken up; then to another on the banks of the St. John's River, in Florida, de- stroyed by the Spaniards, in 1565, and then to the founding of St. Augustine, by the latter, in the same year. This town claims the distinction of being the first permanent settlement by Europeans within what is now the territory of the United States. It needs hardly to be said, however, that its relation to the evolution of the great Republic is entirely insigniti- cant. The next beginning, an inquirer will observe, is the Roanoke Colony, in 1585, the earliest English attempt at a settlement. In a very few years not a trace of this could be found. On May 13, 1607, Jamestown was selected as the site of a new English Colony, and this date is chosen as the beginning of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The ruin of an old church tower and some graves, upon an island, are the only remains of this beginning, and the real life of Virginia dates twelve years later, with the coming of Sir George Yeardley in April, 1619, up to which date, the would be Col- onists "repeatedly suffered an extremity of distress too hor- rible to be described," and were more than once on the verge of extinction. In August of that same year, a Dutch vessel entered the James River, and offered for sale twenty Negroes. The trade thus inaugurated supplied to a Colony of planters the element of labor; and so began that type of social life which become characteristic of the Southern States of this Union. The next beginning was that made at Plymouth, in 1620; the next that of the Dutch at Albany, in 1623; the next, the settlement on the Piscataqua, also in 1623, and the next that of the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, in 1629. The Great Republic is little more Dutch than Spanish.
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Practically it is true to say that the settlement which deter- mined the future of America, were the English Colonies, and that the successful inauguration of these lay within the years from 1619 to 1630. Confining our attention to these a dif- ference appears at once between the Southern Colony and the two New England Colonies. Mr. Bancroft Incidly sets forth the fundamental principle of this difference thus : "Unlike Massachusetts, Virginia was a continuation of English society. The first Colonists were not fugitives from persecution ; they came rather under the auspices of the nobility, the Church, and the mercantile interests of England ; they brought with them an attachment to Monarchy, a deep reverence for the Anglican Church, a love for England and English institu- tions. - Their minds had never been disciplined into an an- tipathy to feudalism, their creed had never been shaken by the progress of skepticism; no new ideas of natural rights had as yet inclined them to " faction." The Anglican Church was therefore without repugnance, sanctioned as the religion of the State; and a religion established by law always favors aristocracy, for it seeks support not in conviction but in vested rights." "The germs of an aristocracy existed (from the beginning) and there was a tendency towards obtaining for it the sanction of colonial legislation." " The aristocracy of Virginia was from its origin, exclusively a landed aristoc- racy." "The power of the rising aristocracy was increased by the deplorable want of the means of education." "The mass of the rising generation could receive little culture." The direction of affairs necessarily fell into the hands of the few. Moreover, " many of the Plebeian class had reached the shores of Virginia as servants," "some of them, even were convicts." " The division of society into two classes became strongly marked. in a degree unequalled in any Northern Colony, and unmitigated by any public care for education. The system of common schools was unknown."
In this Anglican aristocratie formation, then, we see the characteristic type of society as it developed from its South- ern focus. I need not tarry to emphasize how differently New England ultimately developed, nor that the root of the
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. difference lay in the fact that its settlers were fugitives from persecution ; planted Churches that were not subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and would not be; organized so- ciety on more Democratie principles : were solicitous for pub- lic education, had free schools and free presses abundant, and how after an irrepressible conflict between the two types of civilization, thus originated, it is the more sturdy and complex Northern type which has become dominant upon the continent.
While this unlikeness of Virginia and Massachusetts has been generally understood, it has not always been as well understood that in the formation of Massachusetts herself, there were originally two very unlike elements. About two hundred and fifty years ago, the four New England Colonies, Plymouth, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut. were confederated. Two hundred years ago the Plymouth Colony ceased to be, swallowed up in its younger sister of the Bay. In time there came about a forgetfulness how un- like in their early history and development, the Colonies thus united had been. In fact. they were almost as unlike each other, as either of them was unlike Virginia. Of course such historians as Mr. Bancroft, and Mr. Palfrey do not fail to set forth this difference as it was, but in the popular apprehen- sion of the faets, and especially upon the other side of the sea, it has been largely ignored. The late Benjamin Scott, for the last thirty-four years the Chamberlain of London, delivered in January, 1866, and afterwards published in a pamphlet. a lecture before the Friends' Institute in London, entitled " The Pilgrim Fathers Neither Puritans nor Perse- cutors," in which he labored to overcome the obtuseness of his countrymen in this particular. He republished his pam- phlet last autumn, complaining in his preface that its testi- mony was still needful. He put upon the cover the follow- ing quotation from Dr. Waddington. "The ignorance still existing on this subjeet is almost incredible. We find men of education who seem to have no exact information respect- ing the origin of the Pilgrim Fathers. Quarterly Reviewers, Members of Parliament, Christian Divines, and Ecclesiastical
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Historians, speak of them with the same complacent disre- gard of facts. This is discouraging, but nothing is gained by yielding to prejudice, learned or illiterate, and the only remedy is more light!"
I am not assuming in coming before yon to-night that the Fairfield County Historical Society is in especial need of in- struction in the line of Mr. Chamberlain Scott's contention, but in response to a request, I shall emphasize somewhat the independence of the current of influence traceable to the Plymouth Fathers, and indicate some points of difference be- tween them and the men of Massachusetts Bay.
Puritanism properly denominates a movement within the Church of England. Its era is John Hooper's " serupling the vestments," and refusing to take the oath of supremacy, until King Edward VI, had run his pen through a part of it, in 1550. Cartright became its first great leader. It drew in- spiration from Geneva. It was a grand movement in respect of its moral earnestness, and its contributions to the history of the English people. But this is not my subject to-night. The Pilgrim Fathers did not become exiles from England be- cause they were Puritans, but because they were something else-something obnoxious to the Puritans, and their oppon- ents alike-Separatists from the National Church of England, for conscience's sake. There were Separatists in England as early as 1562, but the era of the movement generally recog- nized is 1582, the publication of the book in which Robert Browne evolved from the New Testament, as he believed, what was essentially the Democratic system of Church polity. Browne relapsed, and died in the communion of the Church of England. But the principles he had enunciated were further developed under other and stouter-hearted leaders. Barrowe, Greenwood, (condemned to death March 23, 1592.) and Penry became the martyrs of the cause and John Robin- son the great representative leader, " The Gospel," said Mar- tin Luther in 1524, " is every man's right, and it is not to be endured that any one should be kept therefrom. But the Evangel is an open doctrine ; it is bound to no place, and moves along freely under Heaven, like the star which
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ran in the sky to show the wizards from the East where Christ was born. Do not dispute with the Princes for place. Let the community choose their own pastor, and support him ont of their own estates. If the Prince will not suffer it. let the pastor flee into another land and let those go with him who will, as Christ teaches." This obiter dictum of Luther, indicated the course which in the beginning of the next century, the Separatists of England were con- strained to take. It was as a self-originated community, which had chosen its own pastor, and for liberty had fled into another land, that the Pilgrim Fathers wrought their part in the colonization of America. * " Without any warrant from the Sovereign of England, without any useful charter from a corporate body," without any ecclesiastical head but one of their own choosing, without any civil head at all, they set sail for a new world. They left Leyden in canal boats on July 21, to take ship at Delftshaven, about fourteen miles south, on the Maas. The vessel was the "Speedwell." Rey- nolds master, of sixty tons burthen, which had been pur- chased and fitted in Holland, and was to remain with the Colonists in their new home. They embarked the day fol- lowing, and made a prosperous run to Southampton, where awaited them the " Mayflower," Jones, Master, a chartered ship ef 180 tons, which had come thither from London. After some readjustment of passengers and lading, the two ships sailed together Aug. 15. Leaks in the Speedwell, or as the Pilgrim leaders thought, in the courage of its master, compelled them to put back to Dartmouth for repairs. A second outset proved equally unsuccessful, they put into Plymouth, the Speedwell was abandoned, and the expedition was consolidated with some losses, into the Mayflower. She finally sailed from Plymouth Sept. 16. By this loss of six weeks time, they were subjected to heavy charges, and to the misery of their arrival in winter. Rough and weary was the voyage, but it ended at last. On Nov. 19, they sighted Cape Cod. On the 21st in Provincetown Harbor. they signed their compact of civil government, and chose Carver Governor, and
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