USA > New York > Suffolk County > Southold > Griffin's journal : first settlers of Southold, the names of the heads of those families, being only thirteen at the time of their landing; first proprietors of Orient, biographical sketches > Part 6
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The first Jasper, of Lyme, had a grandson, Abner, who visited my father at Oysterponds, in 1787, with his daughter Deborah, at the time an accomplished woman. Abner who was a man of much humor, ob- served my father's noticing Deborah as pretty, said, "Cousin James, I have a girl at home, who, while at school the other day, was called up by the teacher to receive correction for some trifling fault. The master raised his whip; she looked him in the face with a smile ; the whip fell to the floor !"
Abner Griffin died in 1788 or 1789 at Lyme, afore- said, aged fifty years.
Captain John Griffin, of Lyme, died in 1852, in his eighty-third or eighty-fourth year. He was Jasper Griffin's, Jr., grandson. He had formerly commanded some noble sea vessels, and made one or two voyages to Wales. One of his daughters, now Mrs. Starr, is living at Sag Harbor. She is an intelligent and amia- ble woman.
I never had the happiness of an interview with Capt. Griffin, although I have received several kind letters
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from him, in one of which was a handsome postscript, signed Ellen Griffin, his affectionate daughter, I presume.
John, the second son of the first Jasper, when of age, removed to Riverhead, about twenty miles west of the residence of his father. Here he commenced house- keeping with a young wife, with whom he lived about twelve years. His death was in consequence of falling through the ice, from which perilous situation he was rescued, but so exhausted that he died. His death was in 1741, and we should suppose him not forty years of age. We believe his family consisted of several chil- dren, but we know of but one, a son, whose name was John, born in 1710. This John Griffin, Jr., had two wives ; that is a second one after the death of the first. His first wife was Sarah Paine, by whom he had thir- teen children. Their names were, viz. :
1st, Prudence, born 1735.
2d. John, 1737.
3d. Sarah, 1739.
4th. Anna, 1741.
5th. Sarah,
1744.
6th. James, 66 1746.
7th. Mehitable, 1748.
8th. Nathaniel, 1750.
9th. Thankful, 66 1752.
10th. Stephen, 1754.
11th. Joseph,
66 1756.
12th. Mary, 1758.
13th. Jasper,
1760.
By his second wife he had-
1st. William, born 1770.
2d. Barlett, 66 1773. 3d. David, 66 1775. 4th. Anna, 66 1777.
Seventeen children in all.
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GRIFFIN'S JOURNAL.
John Griffin, Jr. and Samuel Griffin were cousins. The first was John Griffin's, Sr. son, the second Robert Griffin's son. These cousins had their first and second wives. Each by his first wife had thirteen children and each by his second wife four children ; viz. : seven- teen children in each family. Deacon Bartlet Griffin, who died in September, 1855, in his eighty-third year, was the last one of John's children, and Jared Griffin, who died in May, 1844, in his eighty-third year was the last of Samuel Griffin's children. John Griffin, Jr. and Samuel Griffin were each born in the year 1710 ; the first died in 1777, the other in 1789.
Edward, third son of Jasper Griffin, bought of his brother Jasper who had moved/to Lyme, all the real estate which he, Jasper, owned at Southold. This deed of sale was executed June 1st, 1718, near two months after Edward's father's death. Where Edward settled for life, what family he had, how long he lived, we are unable to say. As he sold his lands at Southold the same year to his brother Robert, we infer that he removed to some other part of this State or to Connecticut.
Robert, fourth son of Jasper, settled down on his father's estate and homestead, on the pleasant banks of the Peconic Bay at Southold Harbor. His wife, we believe, was a Connecticut woman, named Susannah. His sons were Samuel, William, Jasper, John, and Robert. I do not know them in course, but believe Robert the youngest. The first Robert, noticed above, is said to have been a man of the most agreeable com- pany, conversation, greatly beloved. He died in 1729, aged forty-four years.
William, we think, was the first son of Robert Grif-
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fin. He, when of age, emigrated to New Jersey, where for some years his profession was a Congregational minister. When advanced in years, we are informed, he went to Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, where he died, closing a long, well-spent, and useful life. At what year this event took place, or the number of his house- hold, we are not informed.
John, another son of Robert, settled down not far from Saybrook, Connecticut. John had two sons, Ab- ner and John. This last was of much consideration amongst the Griffins on Long Island and elsewhere ; was a man of kind and tender heart; a good soldier of the Revolution, for which service he drew a pension. When an old infirm man, in or near 1833, he visited Southold ; was at my house a few days. Not finding scarcely one of his associates and companins with whom he spent many pleasant, joyous days sixty years before, his countenance became sad and gloomy.
After staying a short time at Southold and Rocky Point, he returned to his home, Essex, Connecticut, where his death took place some year or two after. His brother Abner died some years before.
Jasper, another son of Robert, after running away from his master, to whom he was apprenticed, several times, being impressed in the British Navy, from which he escaped as almost by a miracle ; swimming, as he said, five miles. After many curious incidents in his rambles, and a voyage or two to the West Indies, still minus in purse, got himself a wife and settled down in Old Guilford, Connecticut. After a few years of marked success, he became a man of much 8*
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wealth in houses, land, and money, It is said he bor- rowed a dollar to pay the clergyman for marrying him. For many years before his death the rising generation hardly knew him by any other name than "The Old Commodore." . This appelation was conferred on him by his swimming from Commodore Warren's ship, when a runaway boy of eighteen or nineteen years. About the year 1800 his death took place in Guilford, where a marble slab covers his remains. His age about eighty years.
He was twice married. By his first wife he had four children, viz. : 1st. Jasper, master of a privateer in the War of the Revolution ; a man in daring and fortitude inferior to no man. Second and third sons were Timo- thy and Mindwell, and a daughter Elizabeth. By his second wife he had three sons, viz. : Russel, Joel, and Nathaniel. These two last were merchants. Joel died in May 8th, 1826, a useful member of society, aged sixty-four years. Nathaniel who was many years a member of the Assembly and Senate of this State, and a Judge of the County Court. By the community at large, and his citizens in general, he was, through a long series of years, considered a man of much public use- fulness.
He died suddenly, September 17th, 1845, aged sev- enty-eight years. Joel, the second son by his second wife, also had a son Joel, who became a physician of much respectability. He married a daughter of Judge Thomas S. Strong, of Setauket, Long Island. By this lady he had two children, after which he died, not having attained thirty years of age.
Robert, I believe, was the youngest son of his fa-
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ther, Robert Griffin, Sr. Robert, Jr., settled at North Guilford, Connecticut. I am told his death took place about 1790, at which time he was about seventy years of age. His sons were Rossetter, William and Kirk- land. The two first settled near New Haven. Kirkland was more roving; made several voyages to sea ; he was with Paul Jones in his masterly and bloody engage- ment in which he captured two English frigates. After the War of the Revolution, he settled in Clinton County, New York, where, much respected, he lived to an advanced life. My brother, James Griffin, on a visit some twenty years since to Clinton County, said some of his time was pleastantly spent with Mr. Kirkland Griffin, who rehearsed the perilous adventures while with Jones, and others, at sea, in the service of his country.
Samuel was another son of Robert, which makes the number, as I suppose, of his sons. I am well aware I have not set them down in course, not knowing which was the oldest; yet I should think Jasper the eldest, and Robert, Jr., it was said, was the youngest son. The daughters of Robert Griffin, Sr., if he had any, and I pre- sume he had I know not anything of their history.
Samuel was my grandfather, and born in 1710, being only nineteen years old at the time of his father's death. It appears, young as he was, he took charge of the family, and soon came in possession of the homestead estate. Took the guardianship of his brother Jasper, whom he bound out to a trade ; but he proved to be one of the most refractory of boys, as has been stated. Samuel, at the age of about twenty-two, married Eliza- beth, the daughter of Nathan Landon, of Southold, by
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GRIFFIN'S JOURNAL.
whom he had thirteen children. Elizabeth was born in June, 1710, and died in August, 1755.
Their names were, 1st-Samuel, born July 20, 1733. He died while captain of a merchant vessel, in the West Indies, at Martinico, about the year 1762. He left a wife, but not any children.
2d-Seth, born October 12, 1734. He was for many years captain of a number of fine vessels in the mer- chant service, to the West Indies and other foreign ports. He died while on his passage to New York, April 9, 1788, aged fifty-four years.
3d-Daniel, born May 12, 1736. At the early age of twenty, he served in the French war of 1756. In 1775 and 1776, he was conspicuous as a captain in the army under General Washington. He was a man of courage and meritorious as an officer. His death took place June 22, 1822, in his eighty-seventh year. He lived with his wife (who was Martha Case) sixty-five years. She was born in June, 1737, and died soon af- ter her husband, in the same year.
4th-Lydia, born November 13, 1737, and died Oc- tober 1, 1754.
5th-James, born October 14, 1739, and died Decem- ber 10, 1824, in his eighty-sixth year. He held a com- mission in the War of the Revolution, in which he faithfully served near two years.
6th-Experience, born 1741, and died about 1796. She married Augustus Peck, of Southold, a man much respected as a good-hearted ship master. With this excellent husband, she lived in all the enjoyment of domestic peace about twenty-five years. He died somewhere near 1790.
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GRIFFIN'S JOURNAL.
7th-Peter, born September 2, 1742, and died on board the old Jersey prison ship, at Brooklyn, about 1782. His sufferings on board this floating hell, as she was rightly called, were sufficient to melt the most ob- durate heart. And yet this fabric and engine of refined cruelty was sanctioned by a nation calling themselves Christians ! It is sufficient to make cannibals blush.
8th-David was born February 3, 1743, and died in St. Johns, Antigua, August 11, 1763, in his twenty-first year.
9th-Moses, born September 6, 1755, and died in Philadelphia about the year 1797. He stood high as a ship captain in those times with commercial men.
10th-Joshua, born August 20, 1749, and died at Cape May, September 15, 1771.
11th-Aaron, born February 15, 1752, and died 1754.
12th-Elizabeth, born February 17, 1755, and died the widow of Solomon Stone, in 1838, in her eighty- fourth year ; an excellent, kind woman.
13th-An infant, living but a few days.
My grandfather married his second wife, Martha Vail, on the 25th May, 1756, by whom he had four children, viz :- 1st. Mary, born April 20, 1758, in Guilford, Connecticut. She died the widow of Medad Stone, on the 4th day of February, 1794, in her seventy- second year.
2d-Parnol, born 1st September, 1759-died in 1764. A very pious child, as it is said, and her expressions at the death scene gave evidence of astonishing Gospel faith.
3d-Jared, born June 16th, 1762, and died May, .
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1844, wanting about twenty-eight days of eighty-two years of age. He was for many years a Justice of the Peace ; a truly honest man, and sound Christian.
4th-Aaron, born June 10, 1764, and died February 14, 1842 ; making the number by the two wives seven- teen, the same number that his cousin, John Griffin, of Riverhead, had by his two wives.
In the year 1554, there was a man by the name of Griffin, who held the office of Attorney General in London. While Lord Chief Justice Bromley presided on the Bench, this attorney (Griffin) spoke with great en- ergy and surpassing eloquence in the cause of a gen- tleman by the name of Throckmorton, who had been imprisoned on some action which he (Griffin) painted in glowing colors to be unjust.
My father, James Griffin, when a small boy, by some accident, fell and broke his leg. The wound was very severe, and it was a very long time before it became strong and sound. The soreness was such that several small pieces of the thigh bone came out of the wound, which he showed to his friends many years after. In consequence of this early casualty, his leg, which was injured, became near two inches shorter, and was so through life. But his health became so good, his strength so firm, his activity and sprightliness so natu- ral and prominent, that the nicest observer could not discern the least limp in his gait, which was quick and elastic.
When about sixteen years of age, he was apprenticed to learn a trade at or near Southampton. With him, at the same time, were two boys, of the same age. This was 1755. In 1760, they all became of age and
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entered on the busy world to act for themselves. Af- ter this period, they each lived more than seventy years-James Griffin, John Darrow and Paul Reeve. The first died in his eighty-sixth year; John Darrow, in his ninety-first year ; and Paul Reeve, in his ninetieth year. I notice this as what rarely happens-three boys, at the same employ, of the same age should live, after they had attained the age of twenty-one years, about seventy years after that period. Their united ยท ages were :-
Years.
James Griffin
85
John Darrow
- . 90
Paul Reeve - - 89
Ages united -
264
Average age of each 88
Paul Reeve was son of the Rev. Abner Reeve, a preacher at Riverhead. Judge Tappen Reeve, of Con- necticut, a lawyer of high standing and a Judge, was his brother.
My father, at the age of twenty-five, married Deziah, the daughter of Jonathan and Lydia Terry, of Oyster- ponds. She was at the time eighteen years of age. Soon after his marriage he went one or two voyages a whaling. After these voyages his employ was, on the water, coast-wise. At the commencement of the War of the Revolution, he immediately took side in the cause of his injured country and liberty. He was no- ticed by his fellow soldiers for his coolness and cour- age at the battle on Long Island. His service in the army continued about fifteen months, when the time of
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his enlistment expired, which was while at Ticonde- roga or Crown Point. After this service, he was not in any actual United States employ during the remain- ing years of the war.
The people of Southold and Oysterponds at this time, very many of them, removed their families into Con- necticut, in order to avoid the British and Hessians, who were taking possession of Long Island. This re- move was equally as fatal as it was to the fish which jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. They left their houses and farms to the mercy of the British. But alas for their empty houses and fertile farms ! The shrubbery, trees, and fences ! What a picture ! Dwell- ings with broken windows, hingeless doors, and dilapi- dated walls !
The very idea is a sufficient caution for not attempt- ing to describe the trouble and damage experienced by those many families, who leaped before they looked. Those few who remained did far better.
This was in 1776. Early in the spring of 1777, my father returned with his family to Long Island. Here he spent the remainder of his days. While the war lasted his days and nights were marked with much per- plexity and disquiet. Ilaving served fifteen months in the cause of his country, and now returned to live, if possible, as neutral, with his wife and children in the immediate neighborhood where a number of British and Tory soldiers were quartered. Sometimes they would appear favorable and tell him they would not molest or give him trouble if he would peaceably mind his business, which a part of the time was tending a mill. At other times when threatened he would lodge
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GRIFFIN'S JOURNAL .:
from home until they cooled down. Some Tory cha- racters with whom my father had been well acquainted before the war, were quartered with the British at Oys- terpond Point, appeared to wish the arrest and deten- tion of my father, as a man unfit to remain so near the camp at liberty. From such an aspect my harrased parent kept as much out of the way as he could, with- out leaving the island altogether. Through the day he kept a good lookout, and his nights were much from home.
About the 1st of August, 1773, it being a severe rain storm, wind N. N. E., my father ventured in con- sequence of the storm, to lodge at home with his family, satisfying himself that the storm of wind and rain would secure him rest unmolested one night. It proved sadly otherwise. About midnight the house was surrounded ! An enraged, armed file of soldiers demanded instant admittance, or they would break in. They appeared to be excited by drink, as their manners would much more become savages than civilized men. They de- manded, with shameful oaths, the body of my father, dead or alive. While in great commotion in searching below stairs, and threatening what they would do with the rebel after he was secured, my father, under great excitement, was trying to effect his escape by getting a chance to jump from a chamber window. This was a perilous undertaking, as there was a guard of mounted men stationed around the house ; but there was no time to be lost. He flew to the north window which was open ; there he saw a man with his sword drawn sitting on his horse under the window! Who can depict his
9
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feelings at this moment, when these infuriated despera- does were now at the foot of the stairs about to mount to the chamber, where he stood at the head of the stairs at the window. At this awful moment the guard rode round the corner of the house, we suppose to keep a little more out of the wind and rain ; my father jumped to the ground, a distance of near twenty feet ; as they arrived at the chamber, he was at liberty, on terra-firma, and no bones broke.
Amidst this storm he escaped, with nothing on him but his shirt, yet freed from these myrmidoms, he was grateful, though in the drenching rain. A Mrs. Jeru- sha Corwin, assisting my mother at the time, was made the instrument, through God's goodness, of preserving my father .* Mrs. Corwin was a respectable widow ; her manner of receiving and waiting upon those wretches in human shape, was almost without a parallel. Per- fectly cool and collected, with a smile, she showed them every room and closet below, previous to going up stairs. Her utmost art was here exerted to give my father time to escape through the window. Her being there appears to be Providential, as no doubt his suffer- ings, if captured, would have been indescribable, if not terminating in death. Mrs. Corwin died in 1788, aged about 60 years.
Perhaps there was never a woman possessing greater faith in the religion of Christ than my mother, Deziah Griffin ; and her life was as pure as her faith was genu- ine. Many of my father's escapes from the British, to
* As they were mounting the stairs, Mrs. Corwin rubbed the candle out, making them believe it was they who did it. Before they could light it again his escape was effected. That circumstance, no doubt, saved him-
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appearance, were almost miraculous. But so it was, my mother would observe, as Elisha did to his servant, " They that be with us are more than they that be with them."
After many surprising and hairbreadth escapes, he succeeded in getting to Plumb Island. In the next year -- 1779-the British troops left this place. I be- lieve they were never stationed here any length of time after that year.
In the spring of 1780, my father moved with his family to Southold, to the deserted mansion of the Hon. Ezra Lhommedieu. This house stood within thirty rods of the venerable tenement of my grandfather, Samuel Griffin. As these worthy men, with their fa- milies, continued in Connecticut, where they had fled to avoid the British legions, by request, my father took charge of their homesteads, which showed the sad ef- fects of being left to the mercy of enemies.
At Southold, he remained until 1783, when he re- turned to Oysterponds.
In 1802, he built himself a house at Rocky Point, near what is called the Dam. On the 14th November, 1814, aged sixty-eight years, my dear, affectionate and pious mother left this vale of sorrows, pains and tears, and, in the triumphs of the Christian's hope, entered into that rest reserved for the people of God. May I be pardoned in adding, a holier, Heavenly-minded, kind-hearted wife, mother, daughter, sister, or neigh- bor, never lived to bless her fellow travelers to eternity. To her husband, she could say :-
" I have watched thy every look, thy wish to know-
And only truly blest when thou wert so."
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GRIFFIN'S JOURNAL.
The following notice of her death, by Wm. L. Hud- son, Esq., captain in the United States Navy, appeared in one of the New York papers :- "Departed this life, on the evening of the 14th November, at 10 minutes past 8 o'clock, in the triumphs of faith, Mrs. Deziah Griffin, the virtuous, amiable wife of Mr. James Griffin, of Oysterponds, aged sixty-eight years. This excellent woman possessed, in an eminent degree, the sacred con- stancy of an inspired Ruth, the imperishable piety of a beloved Hannah, with the sweet humility of the bless- ed and immortal Mary. With Deborah, she was with us a mother in Israel. She will assuredly, by a goodly number of her Christian friends and numerous acquain- tances, as well as those of her disconsolate family, long be held in grateful remembrance for her unwearied counsels, to close in with those Gospel truths which fired her soul with such love, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. With justice, it might be said of her, as was said of the martyr Stephen : ' We behold her face as the face of an angel.' 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord ; for they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.'"
After this severe calamity, my father lived ten years ; but these last years of his life were marked with a visi- ble melancholy and loneliness. Much unlike his natu- ral buoyancy of spirits, and great flow of almost uni- versal humor, with which his easy, pleasant address rendered him, through a long life, an interesting, agree- able associate, as well as an invaluable husband and father.
On the morning of the 10th December, 1824, this ve- nerable parent, having been something unwell for two
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GRIFFIN'S JOURNAL
or three days, yet not confined to his bed, sitting in his chair conversing with my brother Warren, his head was seen to fall on his bosom, and he expired without a groan or pang, in his eighty-sixth year.
He was of middling height, with a very prepossess- ing appearance, and of a form and strength which few of his size possessed. At a certain time, when near fifty years of age, he carried on his back seven bushels of good wheat up two pair of stairs. The late Adjutant Daniel Tuthill assisted it on his shoulders, and was a witness to this feat of strength.
James Griffin's children were :-
1st. James, born January 1, 1765.
2d. Augustus, born February 2, 1767.
3d. Deziah, born November, 1768.
4th. Elisha, born December 2, 1770.
5th. Lucinda, born March 31, 1773.
6th. Moses, born March 7, 1775.
7th. Parnol, born September 6, 1777.
8th. Peter Warren, born April 12, 1780.
9th. Samuel, born April, 1782.
10th. Lucretia, born April, 1784.
11th. Samuel Caddle, born January"5, 1787 ; died 24th September, 1854.
12th. Austin, born April, 1789.
My mother's father, as before said, was Jonathan Terry, born about the year 1713 or '14, and died sud- denly, while in good health, June, 1775, aged sixty-one years. Ile was industrious and benevolent ; greatly beloved in all the several relations of his useful life. His father was Thomas Terry, who died while possessing
9*
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the handsome estate now the property of Elisha Mulford.
As this Thomas Terry's father died, not having made any will, his eldest son, Thomas, brother to my grand- father Jonathan, came in possession of the entire pro- perty. Of course, Jonathan and his other brothers- two or three of them-were cut off without a dollar. So much for the laws of primogeniture. However, my grandfather, by great industry and economy, with the assistance of a prudent wife, accumulated a handsome property, which is yet well improved, in the hands of the third and fourth generations.
The Thomas Terry, grandfather to Jonathan, was Thomas Terry, Jr., in 1698, as his father was then living, probably fifty or more years of age at the time.
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