USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Norwalk > Supplement to : [Norwalk, Conn.], volume one : genealogy (in alphabetical sequence) of ancient non-original home-lot households > Part 10
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There stands in St. Paul's church yard, a plain stone inscribed to the memory of Catharine Baker, the epitaph upon which is singulary pathetic from the fact that it is the epitome of the slecper's perturbed life. Catharine Baker was carefully brought up on the Hudson River, but marrying against the wishes of her parents trouble soon befel her. One of the old families of Trinity church, New York, kncw her well and fully sympathizing with her delicately but substantially assisted her. Disinherited, how- ever, trials so told upon her that she made her way to Norwalk, where resided an intimate of the old Trinity family before referred to. Herc she was wel- comed, but death soon put a period to her life of vicis- situdes and she was laid to rest at the head of Nor- walk Green. She was possessed of something of a property, notwithstanding the fact of her family alienation. This snug little sum was Norwalk-be- queathed, but such was the strict character-probity of Uriah Selleck that he would not permit his grand- daughter to retain it, but insisted that it should go back to the deceased's blood, and the consequence is
that only three (quite choice) chairs arc all that re- main, barring the tender mound and gravestone- marking in St. Paul's churchyard, to tell of Catharine Baker.
"Tread softly on this hallowed ground. Pale sorrow's child lies here; Ye who have felt misfortune's frown Here stop and drop a tear."
Not far from said stone and on the west side of the church walk is a broken slab in memory of Sarah Selleck, a sister of the first Mrs. William Lockwood and an aunt of the late William S. Lock- wood of North avenue. The good young woman left her cstate to St. Paul's church, but albeit her rector, Rev. Henry Whitlock and many of his people went to court to contest the estate's diversion in another direction, still the parish lost the benefaction.
Hannah, daughter of Ephraim Smith, baptized according to Stamford register, about 1760, marricd Uriah Selleck, who lived in what in recent years has been known as the Matthias Hubbell home in Main street. She was the grandmother of the present Mrs. William K. James and her branch of the Smith family inherited, through the Bartletts, quite a portion of the noble Haynes Ridge in New Canaan. The Nor- walk records clearly show how the later members of the family transferred their rights in that large cstate to the Long Island James and Moses Smith children of the blood. A portion of their Haynes Ridge prop- erty embraced the handsome vicinity of the "Church Hill" of 1896. Thomas Smith who lived in the west- ern part of the Stamford Main street, was a son of Dr. Nathan and Elizabeth (Betts) Smith, who belonged to the same line. The residence of Thomas Smith is seen to-day and his son Thomas and daughters Mary (Mrs. Burgess) and Sally (Mrs. David Holly) are Nor- walk recalled. They were friends of the Stamford Jarvises and visiting this town on the occasion of a church sociable in the days of Dr. Jackson Kemper's rectorate of St. Paul's church sought out their Nor- walk kin. The Thomas Smith Stamford home was a
448
NORWALK.
NOAH AND GEORGE SELLECK.
Noah and George Selleck were Norwalk house-names of fifty years ago. Captain Noah Selleck, brother of Captain Isaac2nd, had no children. He lived, during his later years, in Brooklyn, and was the instigator and proprietor of the Selleck's line of New York Pack- ets (see page 306). Mr. Selleck accumulated a competency and closed his years surrounded by the comforts of life.
George Selleck was the oldest son, by his second wife, of James Selleck (see page 441), son of David and Mercy (Waterbury) Selleck.
James, son of David and Mercy Selleck married, second, Joanna Morgan of Wilton and had George,1 Joanna (Mrs. Amos Barnes) and John M. of Bryantsburgh, Ill.
George, son of James and Joanna Selleck, married Harriet, daughter of Hyatt and Sarah (Somers) Banks of Redding, and had Sarah Jane (Mrs. John Plander), Ann Eliza (Mrs. George Evarts, first, Mrs. Stewart, second, Mrs. John March, third, and Mrs. James H. Beers, fourth); Harriet (Mrs. Edward Merrill); George F. and Donna Maria (Mrs. John Woolf).
Harriet, daughter of George and Harriet (Banks) Selleck, married Edward, son of Thomas B. and Sally Ann (St. John) Merrill (see page 235), and had George Thomas,2 Laura P., James Titus (died young); Annie Betts (Mrs. Frederick R. Beach); Frank S. and Harriet St. John (Mrs. Banford S. Banks).
The Selleck family constitutes an extensive constituency and to complete the line to date would demand time and space. Its main lines have here been indicated from which it may not be impossible to establish any particular lineage branch.
prominent abode in the Stamford of olden times, and there is probably no portion of that prospered and popular township that has more changed or is more improved than that same to-day pretentious and progressive centre. The publie buildings arrest atten- tion, the stores and offices are noticeably fine, and the whole street and structure aspect is imposing. The godly Daniel Smith's sanctuary is missing, but churches of stately architecture have taken its place ; the village school house near the present City Hall is gone but the commanding High School Building more to the east is a monument to the people's intelligence and admirable taste and judgment; the stage eoaeh and horn are things of the past, but the eleetrie cars and the rythm of the motorman's bell make transit and thoroughfare trouble-free and tuneful. In the days when the Bells, Bishops, Davenports, Hollys, Hoyts, Quintards, Rogers, Scofields, Seelys, Smiths, Waterburys, Webbs and Weeds were on the stage Stamford was indeed fair, but now it is grand, and its projenitors, ancestors, many of them, of striking lines, are entitled to record and memory-regard.
Nathan Smith of New Canaan, married Sarah, daughter of Jesse and Mercy (Selleek) Tuttle and was
the father of Jesse Smith, who died at about the age of eighty some years since in West Norwalk. The children of Mr. Jesse Smith are to-day somewhat seattered. One of the daughters, Mrs. William Bes- sey, resides in 1899 with her sister, Mrs. John H. Romaine of Ludlow street, Stamford. Two other daughters, Mrs. Frank H. and Mrs. Dudley Hoyt, reside in Stamford. The brothers and sisters of Jesse Smith were Frederiek, Orville, Bethol Merey (Mrs. Cornelius Sehenck), and Harriet (Mrs. Alfred M. Platt).
1 George Selleek was Norwalk's first confectioner. He amassed a neat sum by his business and built the brick house (now Bishop placc) on Wall Street. It was at his house that Rev. William Cooper Mead, D. D., and wife and daughter Jane Maria were enter- tained on the occasion of the visit of the future reetor of St. Paul's Church before his acceptance of the call to the same.
2George Thomas Merrill married, January 11, 1898, Phebe, daughter of John Roff of New York City, and had George Kennith, born February 16, 1899, and baptized August 20, 1899.
449
NORWALK.
THACHER.
HAPOLO CRAFTS FP.OM
1899
DESCRIPTION
THE ORIGINAL NORWALK THACHER HOME-SITE (1724.)1
Genius, scholarship and piety conspicuously characterized this Norwalk family name of the eighteenth century's second quarter.
" Thacher, 'tis virtue that thy name endears, Virtue that climbs beyond the starry spheres."
An A. D. 1678 Massachusetts Indian's Thacher-tribute.
The town of Norwalk was nearly seventy-five years of age when a member of the Yarmouth Church was dismissed from his ecclesiastical relations in that Massachusetts set- tlement and made his bow to the fast growing plantation known by the name of Norwalk. This man proved a contribution to the Norwalk progenitors' quality-stock. He came, indeed, after the first founders had passed hence, but the influence of such corporators as are named in the town's original deeds was still felt. New generations were stepping upon the stage, but the old leaven yet worked, and the body was permeated with its beneficent transforma- tion effects. The true glory of the children of Josiah Thacher's day was that their fathers had been right and righteous men, and their Massachusetts adopted citizen-brother was no exception. The story of Captain Josiah Thacher's ancestry is as follows :
1This plate represents the locality fixed upon by Captain Josiah Thacher one hundred and seventy- five years ago for his earliest Norwalk residence. The
town had now grown northward from its original plant-place (East Norwalk, 1896) and vacant home- sites in that upper direction were being one by one
450
NORWALK.
After a voyage of two months less two days there stepped from the ship James, on these western shores, on June 4, 1635, a brother (Anthony) of Rev. Peter Thacher1 of old Sarum, who had for several years been a vicar of the established church of the mother land.
occupied. The line of trees to the picture's left, oppo- site, as it is supposed, the first Thacher home-site, were of after growth, and indicate the approach to the property (now Hunter home on East Avenue) later transferred by Captain Thacher to the society of the First Church (Congregational) for parsonage use. Rev. Moses Dickinson, who came to Norwalk somewhat after Captain Thacher's arrival, was con- versant with the area. Dr. Burnet came after Pastor Dickinson's incumbency. Under the leafless branches sorrowfully gathered the people in the early spring of 1819 on the occasion of the funeral of the Rev. Ros- well R. Swan, while Sylvester Eaton evidently there took solid comfort in his great ease-suggesting chair which was long kept in Norwalk as an Eaton relic. Mr. Eaton was an exceptionally large man, and as a daughter of Captain Hezekiah Betts (Eliza Susan), who was also very stout, was wont to accompany and introduce him on the occasion of his parochial calls the two, whether walking or riding, constituted a striking Norwalk personal picture.
After Mr. Eaton's vacancy, in 1827, of the pas- torate, the once old Thacher surrounding and owner- ship gradually fell into other than parsonage service. Martin Kalbfleisch, a Norwalk chemist and late Brook- lyn, L. I., high official, made the premises for several years a home, since which time Jacob A. VanZandt, who married a Norwalk St. John, has tenanted the property. It is now owned in part by George W. Hunter, and its northern portion by a Norwalk law- yer, E. M. Lockwood, who with his wife, a daughter of the late staunchly solid John Patterson, of sturdy Scotch stock, and a New York City merchant and New Canaan Summer resident, occupy it, having there reared, in 1898-9, an imposing home-seat of Colonial pattern-excellence. No portion of Norwalk has probably been more appearance-affected by mod- ern topographical alterations than this same Thacher adjoining. Immediately south (Bennett home, 1899), stood the "Mansion" of James Brown, the partner of the famous William Smith of New York in the great Oblong land purchases of early times. These men owned a vast tract in what was and is to-day known as Salem, one of their Indian bought tracts covering eleven thousand acres. Brown had been married a few years when Captain Thacher planted himself within a short distance of his house, and the Captain probably knew the barrister and future Ob- long operator well.
Smith, the business partner of Brown, was the eminent New York Judge of the Supreme Court and father of the eloquent and opulent Judge "William Smith the Historian." The partnership of Brown and Smith is an exceptionally interesting Norwalk
mention (see page 113). Smith was born in 1696, and Brown, it is surmised, not much earlier. Both died the same year (1769). Brown's son, James, who was some four or so years old when Captain Josiah Thacher founded his home within a stone's throw of the Browns, grew to become the important James Brown2nd of the Oblong, whose sister Mary married Samuel, the oldest son of Ralph Isaacs, Sr., of Nor- walk (page 329). Smith's son William, baptized July 7, 1728, attained to legal and professional emi- nence. He married Janet Livingston, was the brother of Joshua H. Smith, who landed Major John Andre on shore near West Point on the Hudson, and brought about Arnold and Andre's interview at his house near Stony Point, and went eventually to the Provinces. This son of the partner of Norwalk's lawyer, James Brown, left New York City "at the peace." He was found in the Provinces where dwelt "Hester (Esther) Burlock with one child." This Mrs. Burlock (see pages 272 and 279) was the DeForest widow of Job Burlock of Wilton, and her child (Sam- uel, born in Wilton in 1770) was the father of Samuel DeForest Burlock referred to on page 280.
Job Burlock is said to have been shot dead on his Wilton door step, and his widow marrying, sec- ond, Captain Barker of His Majesty's army in the Provinces, had two beautiful Barker daughters. Mrs. Job Burlock (afterward Mrs. Captain Barker) was the mother, also, of Thomas Burlock, whose city establishment near "the Hook" the Norwalk boats passed on their New York trips, and who was the brother of Mrs. Nathan Bouton, whose daughters became Mrs. Nathan Warren and Mrs. LeGrand Can- non. (See page 272.)
Samuel Burlock (page 280), who went at the age of thirteen with his widowed mother from Wil- ton to New Brunswick, married into the Long Island Layton family. This family lived at what is now known as Little Neck, Great Neck and Wheatland. They were, evidently, thrifty people, and have had well known descendants. Among the later of these is the family of David Layton.
It is believed that the present residence, on East Avenue, of the Bennett family, contains timber that formed a portion of the old James Brown man- sion frame (page 113), and also that its neighboring ancient Thacher well is still, quite possibly, in exist- ence.
1 A line of well known American professional men sprang from this Thacher founder. His son Thomas, born on May day, 1620, came, a youth of fifteen, to this country, and here studied for the ministry, hav- ing been ordained January 2, 1644. The young man
45I
NORWALK.
Rev. Anthony Thacher, a curate in the old world and one of the Plymouth Colony founders in the new, married, second, Elizabeth Jones, and had John, born March 17, 1638-9, in Salem, Mass. John, sonof Rev. Anthony and Elizabeth Thacher, became a man of Colonial renown. He held a noted military position (Colonel), was for a score of years selectman of Yarmouth, and for fifteen years a representative to the General Court of Massachusetts; was Governor's Assistant and a member of the Council of War and of the Provincial Council. This distinguished progenitor married Rebecca, niece of Governor Edward Winslow, and was the father of Josiah Thacher1st, whose son, Josiah2nd (Captain), settled in Norwalk.
Captain Josiah Thacher2nd, born at Yarmouth, Mass., July 7, 1701, son of Josiah1st and Mary (Hedge) Thacher, appeared in Norwalk in 1724. From Alexander Ressiquie1 he bought,
married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Ralphı Partridge, first minister of Duxbury, Mass. Rev. Thomas and Elizabeth Thaeher had a son Peter, born 1651, who was the first minister of Milton, Mass. This Peter married, 1677, Theodora, born 1659, daughter of Rev. John and Susannah Oxenbridge of Boston. Rev. John Oxenbridge was a son of Dr. Daniel Oxenbridge, whose wife Katherine Harby was a granddaughter of Lady Katherine Nevill, who was a granddaughter of Baron George Nevill, who was a grandson of Isabel Beauchamp, who was a great granddaughter of King Edward III. Rev. Peter and Theodora Thaeher had a son Oxenbridge, born 1680, whose learned son Oxenbridge Thaeher, Jr., born 1725, was a member of the Massachusetts General Court. He had a son, Rev. Dr. Peter Thaeher, D. D., born Mareh 21, 1752, who was the Brattle Street Boston minis- ter whom Whitfield prayer-denominated "the young Elijah." This eminent man's brother, Thomas, born 1756, was a minister in Dedham, Mass., and a dis- tinguished sermonizer and lecturer. These all and others of like prominence were deseendants of Rev. Peter Thaeher of England and of kin to Captain Josiah Thaeher of Norwalk.
1COPY OF ORIGINAL DEED TO CAPTAIN JOSIAH THACHER.
Norwalk Land Records, Vol. V., Folio 285.
To all people to whom these presents shall eome, Greeting :
Know ye that I, Alexander Ressiquie of ye town of Ridgefield in the County of Fairfield within his Majesties Colony of Conneetieut in New England. For and in consideration of the sum of One hundred and Seventy pounds to mne in hand before the enseal- ing of these presents well and truly paid by Josiah Thateher of ye town of Yarmouth in the County of Barnstable in the province of Massachusetts Bay in New England, the receipt thereof I do hereby ae- knowledge and myself satisfied and contented, Have given, granted, Bargained, Sold, and by these pres- ents Do freely fully and absolutely give, grant, Bar- gain, Sell, Alienate, convey and confirm to him the
sd Josiah Thaeher his heirs and assigns forever a eer- tain House Lott lying within the Township of Nor- walk in ye County of sd Fairfield Containing Three aeres be it more or less Bounded on the East by the Town Street on ye South by a house lot belonging to ye heirs of Benjamin Keeler deeeased, on ye North by John Eversley's House Lot on ye West by the Creek with all ye Right of Sedge I have West to the Chan- nel adjoining to sd lot now sold all called Three aeres be it more or less. To Have and to Hold the sd granted and bargained premises with all the appur- tenanees, privileges and eomodities to ye same be- longing or in anywise appertaining to him the sd Josiah Thaeher his heirs and assigns to him and their only proper use benefit and behoof forever. And that the sd Josiah Thaeher his heirs and assigns shall and may heneeforth and forever by foree and virtue of these presents Lawfully peacefully and quietly Have Hold and oeeupy, possess and enjoy the sd demised and bargained premises with the appurtenanees thereof, free and elear : and elearly acquitted and Dis- eharged of from all and all former and other Gifts grants bargains sales, leases, mortgages and of and from all other ineumbranees whatsoever Had Made Committed Done or Supposed to be Done by mne the Sd Alexander Ressique iny heirs or assigns at any time or times before the ensealing and delivery of these presents. Furthermore I the sd Alexander Res- siquie for myself my heirs, Executors Administrators Do Covenant and ingage the above demised premises to him the sd Josiah Thaeher his heirs and assigns against the Lawful Claims and Demands of any per- son or persons Whatsoever forever hereafter to war- rant seeure and Defend, and Moreover 1 the Sd Alex- ander Ressiquie for myself my heirs executors Acınin- istrators or assigns to make to performn and Execute any further or other Lawful and reasonable aet or aets Thing or things Deviee or Deviees in re Law needful or requisite for ye more perfeet assurance, settling and the sure making of the premises as afore- said.
In witness whereof 1 have hereunto set my hand and seal this 22 day of Deeember in the Eleventh year of ye reign of our Sovereign Lord George of Great
452
NORWALK.
December 22, 1724, a desirably situated house lot (see front piece page 449) on the east bank of Norwalk River, not far from the present George W. Cram home site on East Avenue. The Captain appears to have been a coast mariner, and also an active Norwalk citizen. He signalized his Norwalk coming by marrying (February 17, 1724) Ann (Burr, it is believed), and had :
Ann1st, died in infancy ; Josiah3rd, born February 15, 1728-9; Ann2nd, Mrs. Isaac Hayes3rd (see Thacher-Hayes, page 462) ; Mary, Mrs. Stephen Davis, first, and second, Mrs. Hoyt of Pound Ridge.
Mrs. Ann Thacher died February 25, 1733-4, and Captain Josiah Thacher2ud married, second, either August 7 or September 15, 1735, Mary, daughter of Rev. Daniel and Elizabeth (Gooking) Greenleaf of Boston, and had :
Elizabeth1st, born April 25, 1737, died young ;
Daniel1st, born June 29, 1739 ;
John1st, born July 25, 1742;
Hannah, Mrs. John Banks of Rhinebeck ;
Elizabeth2nd, Mrs. John Blackleach of Stratford, afterward Mrs. Hill of New Haven ; Stephen Greenleaf.
Josiah3rd, son of Captain Josiah2m and Ann Thacher, married, December 19, 1751, Mary, daughter of Governor Thomas and Hannah (Hall) Fitch, and had :
Mary, born September 14, 1753, Mrs. Betts ;
Hannah, born May 15, 1760, Mrs. Hendricks ;
Thomas Fitch, born June 16, 1769;1
Britain King. Annoque Domini, One thousand Seven Hundred and Twenty-five.
ALEXANDER RESSIQUIE. [SEAL.]
Signed, Sealed and delivered in presence of
JOSEPH PLATT,
NATHAN'L C. STREET.
Norwalk on ye day above written Mr. Alexander Ressiquie The Subscriber unto ye above written instrument personally ap- peared and did acknowledge it for to be his free act and Deed Beffore me.
JOSEPH PLATT, Justice of the Peace. Brot to record December 31, 1724,
and Recorded per me, JOHN COPP, Recorder.
1Thomas Fitch Thacher married, March 28, 1790, Susannah, daughter of John Lockwood, and, having bought out the heirs, resided on "Drye Hill," where tenants in 1896 Albert, son of Allen Betts. This portion of the now-named "Newtown Avenue" belonged to the Lockwood family branch represented by Mrs. Thomas F. Thacher, a branch which num-
bers among its descendants the present highly regarded Probate Judge for the Norwalk district, Hon. A. B. Woodward. James Lockwood, the more remote Mrs. Thacher and Judge Woodward ancestor, is described as having lived in primitive comfort a little to the west of Belden Hill, from which sequestered locality some who have been a power in their day and genera- tion havecmerged. In a retreat, quite like to the James Lockwood cradle, a noted one spent a summer and left, inscribed upon a window pane, grateful testimony for the lessons gleaned in his solitary quarters, and to the silent training of the secluded Lockwood home, a President-elect of Princeton, and a chosen head of Yale, and a Chancellor Kent, all of the same Lock- wood blood, may have been influence-excellence indebted.
Mrs. Thomas F. Thacher (Susannah Lockwood) was brought up in the Lockwood abode which stood on the opposite street-side of the Drye Hill Thacher house, and about where is now built the residence of Postman Glendenning. Her father owned the prem- ises, several acres, of this fine property, and she was a woman of force. In later life she was known as an excellent dairy care taker. Hermilk, cream and butter were of superior quailty. The latter brought the
453
NORWALK.
Esther Ann1st, born January 26, 1773, died young ;
Esther Ann2ud, born April 19, 1775, died young.
Mrs. Mary (Fitch) Thacher died September 30, 1776, and Josiah Thacher3rd married, second, December 3, 1785, the widow Wait Burwell, mother of Samuel Burwell.
Daniel1st, son of Captain Josiah2nd and Mary (Greenleaf) Thacher, married Mary, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary (Raymond) Street, and had :
Josiah4th ; Daniel Greenleaf ;
William, supposed to be a New York City physician.
John1st, son of Captain Josiah2nd, and Mary (Greenleaf) Thacher, married twice. He was a young man of destiny and distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War. He was with the brave General David Waterbury of Stamford in 1776 at Crown Point and Ticonderoga. An old record makes him a "Captain of Navy on Lake Champlain" at that time. General Waterbury left Crown Point and returned to Connecticut early in 1776 and was ordered by Hancock to proceed on a tory errand to Long Island. This accomplished he left in the autumn for Crown Point again to officer a command in General Arnold's fleet on Lake Cham- plain. It was with one of the two Waterbury galleys that Captain John Thacher of Norwalk was possibly connected. The General was taken prisoner and so was Captain Thacher What may have been Thacher's immediately subsequent history is not documentarily known, but from a preserved register it is learned that Captain Thacher, four years afterward (1780) belonged to the "militia light horse." It is a little curious that the Waterbury commission, signed by Captain John Thacher's boyhood neighbor, Governor Thomas Fitch, should have been to this day well kept in this ancient settlement. Captain Thacher resided in Stratford and New Haven, and dying at the age of sixty-three, his remains were interred in the Christ Church burying yard in Stratford. From this patriotic Norwalk youth, through his second wife, the widow of Lieutenant William Thompson, who fell beside the heroic David Selleck (see page 200) at Ridgefield, has descended his son, Anthony Thacher2nd, born January 7, 1782, whose daughter, Julia Ann Hubbell Thacher, married General James Totten, of the
highest price in the market. She did hermilking after night-fall and made her butter at midnight. All was done in the cool of the day and her well was her re- frigerator. She ended her days under the care of Stephen Smith and his family. The Thacher property on the west side, and quite a share, of the Lockwood property on the east side of the street, now Newtown Avenue, finally fell to Mr. Smith, who was the owner of the Thacher house at the time of its accidental conflagration. Colonel Buckingham Lockwood's land adjoined the east side Lockwood-Thacher estate. The present Colonel Frederick St. John Lockwood was wont, as a youth, to look after this portion of lis father's large landed domain during harvest-tide. He was an able handler of the fine family horses, and whether in the saddle or holding the reins over the dashboard presented a noticeable appearance. He is known to have taken some pride in overseeing the
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