USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Norwalk > Supplement to : [Norwalk, Conn.], volume one : genealogy (in alphabetical sequence) of ancient non-original home-lot households > Part 3
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In religious matters he was no less prominent and faithful. Of Churchly descent-linc, he was brought up in the Episcopal Church, and was always a devout, earnest, loyal member of that com- munion. For over thirty years he represented St. Matthew's Church, Wilton, in the Diocesan Conven- tion, serving also as Senior Warden and Treasurer for twenty-three years, and acting as lay reader in the vacancies of rectorships and at other times. While his loyalty was given to his own Church, he was free from bigotry, and probably no man in the county was more deeply loved and respected by all classes. The widow and the fatherless found in him a sympa- thetic adviser and helper, and his parish the strongest lay pillar it ever had.
Personally, though naturally somewhat re- served, "He was genial and sociable among his friends, and a rare conversationalist. He always had some apt quotation from the classics, some appropri- ate anecdote, or some close comparison to make his meaning clear, or to clinch an argument." His un- usual mental gifts appeared all the more attractive by virtue of the unobtrusive modesty which charac- terized his entire career. The retired life which he chose to lead so many years upon the Wilton farm could not hide his engaging personality or his singu- lar gifts of mind and character from the community at large, and at his funeral the tributes of respect
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Cecelia Augusta, born December 30, 1839, died young ;
Martha Jane, born March 29, 1843, Mrs. Dr. Levi Warren.1
Here ends the male line of the third generation of William and Margaret (Arms) Belden.
The town of Wilton is a rewardful field for Belden Genealogia, and the author has collected much data in this direction. The matter, however, of investigation in the William and Margaret Belden line more properly belongs to Wilton, and every effort put forth for its accomplishment is deserving of support.
In recognition of an important Norwalk and Stamford Webb constituency the story- thread of the early non home-lot proprietors is here briefly broken in order to text-introduce, in connection with the Webb family note which closed on page 389 and in consonance tenor with the lineage preface, page 81, the submitted collected and contributed
WEBB GENEALOGY.
Gen. I. Sir Henry and Grace (Arden) Webb, 1533.
Gen. II. Alexander and Margaret (Arden) Webb.
Gen. III. Alexander Webb, Jr.
Gen. IV. Richard WebbIst of Norwalk, 1650. (See page 149.)
In miscellaneous Genealogia et Heraldica, by Joseph Jackson Howard, LL. D., F. S. A., Vol. II., Third Series, page 156, is found thus :
"Henry Webbe of the city of London, Gentillman, is descendyd of a Hovse vnde- famed and ben one of ye Gentleman Vshers vnto the late Kyng of most famous memory, Henry ye Eight," etc. The wife of this Sir Henry Webb was Grace, sister of Robert Arden, of Warwickshire.
Alexander, the oldest son of Sir Henry and Grace Webb, married Margaret Arden, and had Robert, Margaret and Alexander Jr. This last son had a family of six children, the oldest of whom, Richard, born 1584, is said to have been the Norwalk Webb foreparent.
According to this pedigree Richard WebbIst was approaching three score years and ten when he cast his lot among the Norwalk pioneers. His age and child-unaccompaniment when he arrived in this town may account for the early disappearance of the family. Mrs. Webb (second wife, probably,) was Elizabeth, sister, it would seem, to settler John Gregory. To her was bequeathed the entire Webb property. Thomas Butler and wife Sarah, of Hart- ford, claimed, and apparently successfully so, Webb heirship, but the two eventually (May 16, 1671) relinquished all rights by virtue of "deeds, gifts or otherwise," and the estate fell to the widow, and finally to John Gregory. There was evidently no issue by the second mar-
and affection paid by all elasses were eloquent wit- nesses of the influence of his true and noble life.
He died very suddenly, of apoplexy, the result of overwork, on Sunday, July 28, 1895, while preparing, as usual, to attend the services of the Church, and was buried in St. Matthew's Churchyard, Wilton. His widow and two sons survive him also his ven- erable mother, at the age of ninety-two, as well as two sisters and a brother.
1This thorough Belden and true woman has taken an intelligent and indefatigable interest in the work of eolleeting Belden data. During the elosing years of her honored mother's life she with daughter- ly devotion ministered faithfully to her aged parent, and still made time to gather valuable family faets. The large Belden household is her debtor. The home of Mrs. Dr. Warren is in the neighborhood of the "Roek House Woods" of early Norwalk story.
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riage, and only one child, it is conjectured, by the former union, viz, Richard Webb, Jr., of Stamford in 1651.
Granting the preceding generation table to be correct there is opened an inviting Old and New World Webb, Arden and Shakespeare family investigation.
There were at least two well known branches of the Arden family in England. It has been broached that the Arden-Webb branch may be of Norman invasion date, and that William the Conqueror may have been an ARDEN FOREST1 patron. The right of Mary Arden, of Mrs. Sir Henry Webb blood, to vital connection with the principal Arden limb of that day was maintained, in 1699, by such British authorities as Sir William Dethick and Camden.2 Said Mary having been the wife of John Shakespeare and mother of William Shakespeare, the Stratford on Avon poet, it would follow (note, pages 387-389) that Richard Webb1st of Norwalk was kin to the master of the English tongue, "on whose forehead climb the crowns of the world."
Another connection of Richard Webb1st of Norwalk is of interesting mention. Lucy Webb, of Sir Henry Webb consanguinity, married, first, Hon. Jno. Robinson, and second, William Laude, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was executed at Tower Hill in January, 1645.
Richard Webb, Jr., born January 9, 1611, settled in Stamford. His children are thus reported :
William, born May 10, 1632, settled in Weymouth, Mass .;
Joshua, born March 15, 1634 ; Joseph, born March 30, 1636; Richard, born April 14, 1638 ;
John, born April 12, 1640; Sarah, born October 16, 1653 ;
A child, born October 5, 1655, died January 1, 1656;
Samuel, born March 30, 1662 ;
Caleb, born March 20, 1664; Jonathan, born April 12, 1675.
Richard Webb, Jr., died March 15, 1675-6.
Jonathan, son of Richard, Jr., and Margery Webb, married Judith Chamberlain and had Richard, born January 12, 1722, who married Abigail Hoyt and had Silvanus, born October 5, 1745, who married Mary Wood and had Silas, born July 31, 1784, who married Mindwell Hoyt and had Silas, Jr., born November 9, 1815, who married Rachel Sherman and had George Francis (Dr. G. F. Webb of Cleveland, Ohio), born August 20, 1851, who married Nancy Allen Hill and had, Leroy Arthur, Pearl Edith and Faith Eva. Dr. George F. Webb of Cleveland, Ohio, has distinguished himself as a Webb genealogist.
Silas Webb, the son of Silvanus and Mary ( Wood) Webb, had eleven children. Matilda,
1It is stated that young Wm. Shakespeare fre- quented the forests of Arden and therefrom drew some of the pictures which his genius so wonderfully por- trayed. The wood lay but a short distance from Stratford-on-Avon.
2It is strict truth to say that Dethick and Cam- den supported this claim because of the strong pre- sumptive evidence in its favor, not because of posi- tive proof. The argument, however, in defense of the claim is not casily challenged.
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his youngest daughter but one, married John Johnson and was the mother of Henry Webb Johnson, D. D., of South Bend, Indiana, 1899.
OF WEBB GENERATION.
At the lower end of the road leading from the center of the present city of Stamford to the seat of the Sachem Wascussue at peninsular and Indian Shippan stretched, in early New England history, a fine piece of territory, a goodly section of which was appropriated by some of the former members of the large Scofield family. Daniel Scofield appears to have been the Stamford founder of this influential household, and his granddaughter, Hannah, to have taken to herself, the year after the decease of said Daniel, the name of Mrs. Joseph Webb. Joseph Webb, the husband of Hannah Scofield, was a son of Richard Webb2nd (Richard1st was the Norwalk resident), and named his first born for himself. The junior Joseph Webb, born January 5, 1674, was probably cradled near the sheet of water which is now approached by Broad Street in Stamford. At the age of twenty-four (February 23, 1698,) he married Mary, born September 20, 1673, daughter of Benjamin and Hannah Weed Hoyt. Mrs. Benjamin Hoyt (Hannah De Grasse anciently) was the youngest child of Jonas and Mary Weed. Her sister, Mrs. George Abbott, (so believed,) resided in Norwalk, and her father was of Huguenot extraction. It was this parent whose house in 1651, (while the family worshipped "on a Sabbath Day in the meeting time") was entered by an Indian servant and despoiled. The Weed grandfather of Mrs. Joseph Webb, Jr., came (see Genealogies and History of Watertown, page 963,) with Sir Richard Saltonstall to this land and (see Winthrop's Journal, page 340) accompanied Sir Richard to Watertown, where he was admitted, May 18, 1631, as freeman, and from which place he was church-dismissed May 29, 1635, to Wethersfield. He sailed from Yarmouth April, 1630, arrived in Salem June 12, 1630, and appears in Stamford in 1642. The Hoyt blood of Mrs. Joseph Webb2nd coincides with that of the Norwalk Hoyt family. She was a niece of Walter Hoyt of Norwalk and second cousin of Zerubbabel, grandfather of James, from whom the families of Goold, Jesse and Isaac Hoyt, and also the Shermans (Gen. W. T. and Hon. John) sprang. (See pages 354-361.)
To Joseph2nd and Mary (Hoyt) Webb was born, January 26, 1700, Joseph Webb3rd (Lieutenant), who married, first, August 23, 1726, Sarah, born November 7, 1702, daughter of Samuel and Abigail (Finch) Blachley. These had a son Joseph, born December 8, 1727, who married, February 2, 1749, Mehitable Nott of Wethersfield, and had a son, Samuel Blachley, born December 13, 1753.
Samuel Blachley Webb (General)1 married, second, September 3, 1790, Catharine,
1General Samuel B. Webb, an elite-leader and an elegant man, was not alone Norwalk related, but his name is here well recalled, and is Norwalk ineident- associated. He is alluded to to-day as an acquaintance of the Broad Street Willinks, so many of the valuable effeets of which family have been sent from this town to England. The family library of his intimate friend, Gouverneur Morris, was, for a season, preserved in this town. The exaet duplieate of the ehair to which
he aide-conducted Washington at the ceremonies of April 30, 1789, and whiel belonged, originally, to the grandfather of the late Rear Admiral Franeis H. Gregory, now stands in the Dr. John Cannon hall on Norwalk Green. The General's striking feature-fine- ness singularly accorded with that of several of the same Cannon connection-Kortright-Pintard- Brasher. (Note, page 303.) There is no ground, however, for affinity-supposition in this direction.
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daughter of Judge Ilogaboom, and had, February 8, 1802, James Watson1, who became the Hon. James Watson Webb, of editorial renown. Hon. James Watson Webb married, first, July 1, 1823, Helen Lispenard Stewart, and had Robert Stewart, born August 12, 1824, who married Mary Van Horne Clarkson of old Norwalk family association (see notes pages 17-23).
General Alexander Stewart Webb, born February 15, 1835, son of Hon. James Watson and Helen L. S. Webb, married, November 28, 1855, Anna Elizabeth Remsen. William Seward Webb, half brother of General Alexander S. Webb, married Lilia Osgood, daughter of William H. Vanderbilt of New York. Mr. William S. Webb is President of the Wagner Palace Car Company, and Secretary of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. His brother, Henry Walter Webb, is Third Vice President of the New York Central railroad.
George Creighton Webb, born December 4, 1853, is a younger son of Hon. James Watson Webb.
WEBB -- HAVENS.
It is barely possible that Richard Webb, Sr., whose settler home was erected close to the corner of the ancient Stamford-Fairfield path, was visited ere his death (1656-60) by John Webb (son of Richard, Jr.) of Stamford. This younger Webb, born April 12, 1640, was still a young man when the oldest Norwalk Webb was carried on a July day to his burial, one of the earliest of the pioneers of this old plantation to be removed hence. John Webb lived in New Haven. His wife was Sarah Bassett. John is not mentioned in his father's will because, perchance, of his New Haven citizenship, but his mother-in-law, Mrs. Robert Bassett, testamentarily remembered him. He married early and by his first and third wives had fourteen children.
John Webb, son of Richard Webb, Jr., had a son, John, Jr., who resided in Northiamp- ton, Mass., and was brother of Ebenezer and Henry, as per note pages 387-389. The Henry Webb here referred to, and whose name occurs in the Norwalk Town Records, married, October 10, 1695, Mary, daughter of Samuel Hurlbutt, and had a son Ebenezer, born November 20, 1697, who married a Terrell and had a son Orange, Sr., of Southold, L. I., who married Frances Sandyforth. These had a son, Orange, Jr., who was a New York city merchant, having, as old Norwalk bill-heads show, prominent "Gotham" patronage. Orange Webb2nd married Eliza Cebra and his children were: James Cebra, Fanny Maria (Mrs. Rev. Alexander G. Fraser), Augustus Van Horn, Catharine Cebra (Mrs. Renssalaer Havens), David Sandyforth, Eliza Cebra and Sarah Ann (Mrs. James H. Leverich).
Orange Webb, Jr., died, and his widow married, second, William Lockwood (father of William S.) of Norwalk, and dignified the old North Avenue Lockwood mansion (page 441).
The children of Renssalaer and Catharine C. (Webb) Havens were Howard, Frances Maria (Mrs. Rev. S. B. S. Bissell of Norwalk), Sylvester Dering, Charles and Catharine Eliza- beth. The last, Catharine Elizabeth, now resides in Willow Street, Stamford, near the home of her niece, Mrs. LeGrand Lockwood, Jr.
The foregoing submitted Richard Webb, Sr., antecedents are presented as the results of extended investigation. The facts seem to be as set forth and the author, while he
1 Named after a particular friend of his father, James Watson of Litchfield Co., Conn. Sec note page 441.
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declines to unreservedly vouch for genealogical claims and statements of date prior to that of the settlement of Norwalk, is yet pleased to here (inter-page) recapitulate the inter-topic, Webb lineage. (See inserted sheet.)
JONATHAN CAMPIst.
Just what brought the founder of this honored Norwalk household to this town is not known. Foot note page 228 furnishes nothing more than a "supposition" in this direction. Jonathan1st, son of Samuel Camp2nd of Milford,1 came, however, and with seemingly a well lined purse, and made, at the age of four and twenty, a handsome Norwalk acreage purchase. The settlement at the date of Mr. Camp's appearance had considerably outgrown its original limitations, so that the Camp farm at "the Rocks" appeared, doubtless, much nearer town to Governor Thomas Fitch than it would have done to Thomas Fitch the planter. What appears to have been the first home of Jonathan Camp1st and his young bride Ann stands to-day, a cottage picture, near the upper end of France Street, to which point2 it was years ago removed from its native foundation at the early Camp farm. There tenanted the two foreparents with their four sons and three daughters who were bred to industry and because so to independence. Even a lad who visited the premises during their occupation by a de- scendant of the third generation was impressed by what he saw. (Note, page 348.)
Mrs. Ann Camp, wife of Jonathan1st and foremother of the large Norwalk family which bears that nanie, was descent-derived as mentioned on page 350. As inferred from the Nor- walk land records she was probably married quite young and not far from the date of her husband's maiden purchase at "East Rocks." She lost an unmarried sister (Esther) at about the time of her Norwalk-adoption, but had at least one sister and two brothers left. Her grandmother on her father's side was a daughter of Thomas Campfield of New Milford, and a niece of Matthew, of Norwalk, who was the only settler of this town nominated in His Majesty's charter. She had also a Norwalk great-aunt, Mrs. Christopher Comstock of Home lot XIII, page 250. Under the coping of the Milford stone, memorial to her great-grand- father, is cut the following inscription : "GOD SIFTED A WHOLE NATION THAT HE MIGHT SEND CHOICE GRAIN INTO THE WILDERNESS." Her maternal ancestry was also colonially conspic- uous. Her mother was the ninth child and sixth daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Baldwin) Buckingham, and she took the name of a Buckingham aunt, Ann, who, it is believed, never married. Her Buckingham grandmother was Sarah, daughter of Timothy, the old Baldwin settler of Milford. Samuel Buckingham, her grandfather, was son of Thomas Buckingham, the foreparent, and her great-aunt (sister of her grandfather Samuel) was Mrs. Thomas
1The mother of Samuel Camp2nd was Hannah, daughter of Thomas and Mary Betts, Sr., the foun- ders of the Norwalk Betts family,
2In the center of the triangular spaee which fronts this text-mentioned building the Norwalk Chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution placed, in 1895, a stone in memory of the battle which was fought on July 11, 1779, near that spot, and from which point the British, under Tryon and Garth, having
been repulsed by the Continentals, retreated to their boats. The brave Ridgefield Jacob Nash (grandfather of Captain Daniel K. Nash of South Norwalk) fell, mortally wounded, near this place, and was interred in his native Ridgefield. In recognition of the youth's heroisin a vine taken from the grounds of Samuel R. Weed, in Rowayton (site of the 17th century home of John Reed, Sr.) was planted, on July 11, 1898, at the base of the east face of the monolith alluded to.
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WEBB-INTERPAGE.
Sir Alexander Webb, born 1484, was an officer of rank in the army of King Henry Eighth and had Henry, Mary and Abigail. His oldest son, Sir Henry Webb, born May II, 1510, was an usher of the Court of Catharine Parr, Queen of Henry Eighth. He was a gentleman of Worship and mar- ried Grace Arden, sister of Robert Arden. These lived at Hampton Court after 1544 and had Alexander2nd and Agnes. Alexander2nd, born in Warwick- shire, England, December 24, 1534, was the oldest son of Sir Henry Webb of Hampton Court by his wife Grace Arden. He married his cousin Margaret Arden and settled in Birmingham, England, his children being Robert, born in Warwickshire March 5, 1556, Margaret, born June 9, 1558, and Alexan- der3rd, born August 20, 1559.
Alexander Webb3rd, born August 20, 1559, was the youngest son of Alexander Webb2nd and Margaret Arden. He married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Wilson, Private Secretary of Queen Elizabeth of England. Their children were:
Richard1st, born in Warwickshire May 5, 1580, came to Norwalk;
William, born in Warwickshire January 9, 1588;
John, born in Warwickshire October 23, 1597;
Christopher, born in Warwickshire April 15, 1599;
Henry, born in Warwickshire October 12, 1601.
Richard Webb, Sr., born in Warwickshire May 8, 1580, married, first, May, 1610, Grace, daughter of John Wilson, and had one son, Richard Webb, Jr., who may have Norwalk dwelt for a short time, but who went early to Stamford. The mother of Richard Webb, Jr., and first wife of Richard Webb, Sr., died soon after the birth of her son, Richard Webb, Jr., and with his brothers William, Christopher and Henry, Richard Webb1st came to America in 1626. He married, second, in America, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Gregory, Esq., a prominent citizen of Boston, and a sister of John Gregory1st of Norwalk. He went in 1636 to Hartford, Conn., with Rev. Thomas Hooker, where he was a leading man in the church and well known in the state. He died at Norwalk, having accumulated a good property. Richard, Jr., born in Birmingham, England, January 9, 1611, came to America in 1626 with his father. He settled first in Massachusetts. He possibly joined his father at Norwalk, but moved on at once to Stamford, Conn.
The family in England resided mostly in Warwickshire before coming to America. Alexander3rd, settled at Birmingham, while Robert, his older brother, remained on the estate near Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire. This estate was also the home of their father, Alexander2nd, and grandfather Sir Henry Webb of Hampton Court from 1544, after his marriage to Grace, sister of Robert Arden, who married, first, Mary, sister of Sir Henry Webb.
The families of Webbs, Ardens and Shakespeares became united by marriage. Abigail Webb, sister of Sir Henry Webb, married Richard
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to data aring In that
Shakespeare. Agnes Webb, daughter of Sir Henry Webb and sister of Alex- ander Webb2nd, married Robert Arden, she being his second wife. The first husband of Agnes Webb Arden was John Hill, by whom she had two chil- dren, John and Mary Hill. She was a widow about the time that her Aunt Mary Webb Arden died, at the birth of her youngest daughter Mary. Agnes went to the Arden house to look after the children of her aunt, and finally married Robert Arden, thus becoming the stepmother of the children of her aunt. Richard Shakespeare, who married Abigail Webb, had a son John Shakespeare, who married Mary Arden, the youngest child of Robert and Mary Webb Arden. John and Mary Shakespeare had seven children. The first two died in infancy, but the third child was William Shakespeare, the greatest of English poets. Both of his grandmothers were Webb girls, the daughters of Sir Alexander Webb and sisters of Sir Henry Webb of Hamp- ton Court. Elizabeth Webb, sister of Richard Webb, Sr., married Mr. San- ford and settled in Hampshire, England. Her brother John settled near her. He had one child, a son, whose name was Robert. This son Robert finally settled in London and had a son Benjamin, who also had a son named Ben- jamin, and he also named one of his sons Benjamin. This last son was edu- cated for the ministry, and was an eminent Divine of London in 1877. Christopher Webb died at Braintree, Mass. Henry Webb, his brother, died at Braintree, Mass., having generously left bequests to Harvard Univer- sity. He was a wealthy merchant of Boston. William died in Virginia. All but Henry had a large following of sons. Richard Webb, Sr.,1 oldest son of Alexander Webb3rd, died in Norwalk in 1655. The deed of the town of Norwalk was made in favor of himself and others. He was a well known man in both Hartford and Norwalk. He adopted Sarah, the youngest daughter of Rev. Samuel Stone, who with the Rev. Thomas Hooker were in Hartford, Conn., June, 1636. He left behind him Elizabeth, his second wife, the daughter of Henry Gregory, and his thought to be only son, Richard Webb, Jr. Richard Webb, Jr., born in Birmingham, England, January 9, 16II, came to America in 1626. He settled at Stamford, Conn., where himself and family have mention.
1Richard Webb, Sr., and Richard Seymour, Sr., were close Norwalk neighbors (see page 39). Mr. Webb had no Norwalk children-his presumed to be only son, Richard, Jr., lived in Stamford-but Mr. Seymour had several boys with whom their next door dweller, Mr. Webb, was probably well acquainted. Among these boys was John, who with his brothers Richard and Zachary, saw their father buried in 1655, and then with their mother removed (page 154) from Fairfield to Hartford County. John grew to marry in the Hart- ford vicinity and had a son Thomas, who wedded Ruth, daughter of John and Ruth Nor- ton. These had a son Thomas, born July 29, 1705, who married March 5, 1730, Hepzi- bah, daughter of Daniel and Susanna Merrill, and had Thomas, born March 17, 1734-5, who married Mary, daughter of John and Deborah (Youngs) Ledyard. Thomas and Mary Seymour had a son Henry (Major Henry Seymour) who was the father of Governor Thomas H. Seymour (1850) of Connecticut.
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Welch, from whose family the present name of "Welch's Point," in Milford, derives its name. The parting with this cape or point constitutes the farewell Milford transfer of the aborigines to the English.
With reference to the antecedent lineage of Jonathan Camp1st of Norwalk the author presents the following documentary facts :
Nicholas Camp married Sarah, daughter of Widow Martha Beard. The Widow Beard, whose husband is supposed to have died on the passage, with his family, to New England, appears among the Milford pioneers, She had three sons, James, Jeremy, John, and three daughters, Martha2nd, Sarah and their sister. Martha Beard2nd married John Stream of Mil- ford and had a daughter, Martha3rd, who married Thomas, born 1657, son of Samuel Coley of Milford. Sarah, sister of Martha Beard2nd, married Nicholas Camp. Mrs Sarah (Beard) Camp died September 6, 1645.
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