USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Bennington > Memorials of a century. Embracing a record of individuals and events, chiefly in the early history of Bennington, Vt., and its First church > Part 18
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II. JUDGE JONATHAN ROBINSON, the youngest son of Samuel Robinson, Sen., was born at Hardwick, Mass., Au- gust 11, 1756, and came to Bennington as one of his father's family. He was a lawyer, and was early in public life. He was town clerk six years; represented the town thirteen years ; was chief judge of the Supreme Court from 1801 to 1807. He was then chosen senator to Con- gress, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Israel Smith, elected governor of the State ; and was also senator for the succeeding term of six years, which expired March 3, 1815. In October, 1815, he became judge of probate and held the office for four years, and in 1818 again represented the town in the General Assembly. He was a man of pleasant and insinuating address, and, by his talent and political shrewdness, occupied a leading position in the Republican party of the State for many years.1
He was averse to making aristocratic pretensions among his towns-people. In illustration of this, the following incidents have been familiarly related to the writer. There had a family come into the east part of the town by the name of 'The young people of this family were awkward and unused to company ; Judge Robinson made a party at his house, went over himself and invited
1 Vermont Hist. Mag.
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HON. JONATHAN ROBINSON.
them, and made them promise to come ; they came, and he spent the evening chiefly in entertaining them, and in every endeavor to make them feel at home.
When a senator in Congress, he came home on one occasion, and Sunday morning, as the family were prepared for church, his daughter Polly, afterward Mrs. Merrill, came into the room dressed handsomely in silk ; he noticed the dress at once, and made inquiry about it ; his daughter answered his inquiries, relating that her mother had pur- chased it of a peddler, calling his attention to its excellent quality, and seeking his approval of it as a good bargain. " I do not care about that," said he ; " go, take it off, and put on your calico dress, or you shall not go to meeting with me ; when your mates have silk dresses to wear, then you may wear one." Her mother, who was more aristocrat- ically inclined, had bought the dress when he was absent at Washington.
He had great influence over the boys in the street ; he was very kind to them. When they came into the street to play, he would let them stay until eight o'clock in the even- ing, and then would say, " Come, boys, now you must go home ;" and they complied. On the 16th of August, they went to him with entire confidence for money with which to buy powder ; and also on the 4th of July. He was very tender-hearted. Theophilus Harrington, at the time assistant judge, said to Judge Robinson : "Be you the judge, and Hyde the sheriff, and Spenser the State's attorney, and there will be nobody hung."
The following reminiscence gives a characteristic feature of those by-gone times. On one of the occasions of the return from college of Jonathan E., his son, some difference of opinion arose between them, upon some subject that had been introduced into their conversation at the table. Jon- athan E. said, " I know it is so, and I ought to know ; I am 21*
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fresh from the schools." His father replied, " Well, if you are fresh from the schools, I can throw you in wrestling." "I think not, father," was the quick answer of the young man ; for he had returned fresh from wrestling as well as from study. " Let us see," said his father. They arose from the table ; the order was given for it to be placed one side, and the middle of the floor cleared. They grasped each other, first at arms'-length, but the younger was the more agile, and obtaining the right clinch was victorious ; Judge Robinson was thrown so effectually, and so far, as nearly to overthrow the table and its contents. He admit- ted his son's superiority in wrestling. "I shall not try with you again ;" and so the discussion ended, with entire good feeling however.1
He united with the church in the Wood and Burton revival, 1784, at the age of twenty-eight. He was elected clerk of the church, and continued so until his death. He was fond of doctrinal discussion and study, and of hearing leading ministers of the gospel preach, and used, when they were temporarily here, to invite them to his house. He was much interested in the prophecies, and corre- sponded with the Rev. J. Spaulding on the subject.
He married Mary (born in Hardwick, Mass., 1754;
1 They were much given to wrestling. Governor Moses Robinson was over the mountain in some place, and passed by where there was a raising. He stopped and assisted, and when it was through they proceeded as usual to wrestle. After wrestling awhile, he stepped up, they having found the bully, and took hold of the bully, and threw him at once. The governor was long-legged, and they looked at his legs and called him spindle-legged, and said that he took the bully before he thought of it; so he tried the bully again, and threw him just as quickly as before. They did not know him at the time, but soon after he made himself known to them.
A bully came from Massachusetts, and inquired for the Robinsons, and they set forward Jonathan E. He immediately floored the Massachusetts man. The stranger looked at him, and said he could not do that again. He took hold again and floored him as soon as before. 'He said he would not try again. They had what they called "the Robinson lock."
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JONATHAN E. ROBINSON, ESQ.
united with the church, 1784 ; died July 15, 1822), daugh- ter of Deacon John Fassett. Their children were Jonathan Edwards, Mary, Henry, and Isaac Tichenor.
JONATHAN E. ROBINSON, Esq., born August 4, 1777, was graduated at Williams College, 1797 ; married Alice, daugh- ter of Deacon Benjamin Skinner, of Williamstown, Mass. Their daughter, May Alice, married Charles Manning, of New York city. These had a son, James E. Manning, died February 17, 1856, who was graduated at Williams College in 1848.
Mr. Robinson, after the death of his first wife, married Anna Storms, daughter of Thomas Storms, of New York city. He died April 27, 1831.
He united with the church in 1803. He was town clerk nine years ; judge of the County Court in 1828 ; and resided in New York city for several years. His profession was that of a lawyer.
He was for some time leader of the choir in this church. He was distinguished for his tenor voice and superior ex- cellence in singing. While residing in New York, the precentor in the congregation, where he attended public worship, was absent a Sabbath, and there was some per- plexity as to what should be done. General Storms, the father of Col. Robinson's second wife, arose and said there was a gentleman there who would perhaps be willing to lead the singing, if agreeable to the congregation. Gen. Storms' proposal was readily assented to, and Col. Robin- son stepped forward and took the precentor's place ; he was very tall and graceful, and of commanding presence, and performed the service of leading the singing in such a manner as to astonish and delight the congregation. In fugue tunes, if any part faltered, he could at once strike that part and sustain it, were it alto or treble, and descend without delay to the bass, and so sustain the whole.
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The following was told to the writer by the Rev. Hiram Bingham : "Dr. Yale, of Kingsborough, my classical tutor, used to say that Mr. Jonathan E. Robinson had the finest voice he ever heard. Jonathan E. Robinson was captain (afterward colonel), Stephen Robinson, ensign, - ensign and lieutenant were then one and the same. We were very . proud of our captain. He was the most popular man in Bennington. He had a very commanding form and person."
The singing of the Bennington church choir, long noted for its excellence, was perhaps never more flourishing than when Jonathan E. Robinson was its chorister. Then the singers reached round the front seat of the gallery, from the east wall on one side of the pulpit to the same wall on the opposite side of the pulpit ; and it is said there were a score or more of persons, any one of whom was competent to lead. The old style of music was sung with great power and majesty.
MARY, born September 8, 1781 ; united with the church, 1803 ; died February 1, 1831; only daughter of Judge Robinson ; married Col. O. C. Merrill, born in Farmington, Conn., June 18, 1775 ; united with the church, 1831 ; died April 12, 1865. A son of theirs, James Seymour Merrill, has been leader of the choir of this church ; also of the Second Congregational Church; also of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
GEN. HENRY ROBINSON was born August 26, 1778. He was successively paymaster in the army, clerk in the pen- sion office, brigadier-general of the militia, and for ten years clerk of the County and Supreme Court." 1
' He united with this church in 1835. He was next but one to his father, Judge Robinson, as leader of the choir. Returning from Washington to pass the decline of life in
1 Vermont Hist. Mag.
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DEA. J. F. ROBINSON.
Bennington, he is remembered by the writer of this notice for his intelligent and genial conversation, his generous nature, and his interest in the public worship of the church of his fathers. He died in 1856.
He married Miss Harriet Haynes, and after her decease her sister, Miss Martha P. Haynes. She united with this church January 4, 1835, and deceased December 2, 1857, while residing with her son, the Rev. Charles Seymour Rob- inson, at that time pastor in Troy, N. Y. Unceasing in her prayers and toils and affection, she had the rare happi- ness, to a fond Christian mother, of living to see one of her sons an eloquent and successful preacher of the gospel. A younger son, Joseph Haswell Robinson, became, subse- quently to his mother's decease, a minister of the gospel. He died March 4, 1868, aged thirty-two ; having commenced a professional career with every promise of a bright and useful future.
ISAAC TICHENOR ROBINSON, youngest child of Judge Jona- than Robinson, was born August 17, 1790 ; married Maria, daughter of Deacon Aaron Hubbell, and deceased in 1866. His son, John F., was a deacon of this church until his death.
DEACON JOHN F. ROBINSON was born in Bennington, May 6, 1812, and deceased January 25, 1862, in the fiftieth year of his age. He was in the discharge of his duty as road- inaster of the Troy and Boston Railroad, and was in the cars passing up a little north of this town, when a gust of wind was encountered, so violent as to throw the cars from the track and down an embankment of some thirty feet elevation. He was mortally injured; he had strength sufficient to ascend the bank and take his place in another car, and also to walk from the sleigh, in which he was con- veyed from the depot, into his house. The accident occurred
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in the forenoon, and at about five o'clock, P. M., he died. The Rev. H. G. O. Dwight, D.D., missionary at Constanti- nople, of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, was in the same car, sitting near Deacon Robin- son, at the time of the overthrow, and was instantly killed.
Deacon Robinson was hopefully converted in the revival in 1831, and united with the church at the same time with Doctor Noadiah Swift. Upon the decease of Deacon Aaron Hubbell, he and Samuel Chandler were elected deacons of the church, September 19, 1845. He had also been treas- urer of the society. For several years he was leader of the choir, until a disease of the throat compelled him to resign that office. Up to the time of his decease, and for some years previous, he played the double bass viol, whose mute presence in the gallery for years afterward, lying in its case unused, was a sad reminder that the hands which so carefully guided its tones had become motionless in death.
Deacon Robinson's acceptance of any duty was a guaran- ty that it would be well and faithfully performed. He was remarkable for a clear mind and a firm will, so that when once settled down upon any principle as true, or any course of action as a duty, it is believed no human power could swerve him. In adhesion to sound Calvinistic doctrine, in reverence for the Sabbath and sanctuary, and in sobriety of demeanor, he might have been regarded as no unapt repre- sentative of Puritan times.
When he became road-master on the Troy and Boston road, it was the custom to repair the bridges on the Sab- bath, to avoid detention of the cars on week days. He, without any hesitation, determined that the repairs should take place on some other day than the Sabbath, or he would resign his post. Vigorous resistance to his proposed
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change was made, on the ground of a serious detention of the cars, to the great inconvenience of the travelling public. His unyielding determination, however, carried the point, and the bridges were repaired on week days, and the ex- periment proved it could be accomplished without a deten- tion of the train, behind its regular time, of more than fif- teen minutes.
This occasion furnished an incident illustrative of the moral weight of his words, when he felt called upon to take a decided stand in such a case. Having spoken of the con- cerns of the soul, involved in that question of taking the Sabbath or the week day to repair the bridges, to the fore- man of the working party on the road, who was violently opposed to his view, the foreman replied, " It is no matter to you whether I lose my soul or not." Deacon Robinson rejoined with utmost sincerity and warmth, " It is matter to me whether you lose your soul or save it." The foreman replied no more, but remembered the words, and deeply felt their force as he afterward honestly stated, and con- ceived thenceforth a profound reverence for Deacon Robin- son.
In the prayer and conference meeting his prayers and remarks were always short, and always to the point and impressive.
His natural temperament perhaps, added to much ill-health, made him distrustful as to his evidences, but he found comfort and motive to duty in the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ. When in dying, and from internal injuries scarcely able to articulate, he said, "I must trust in Christ and in him alone." From a child he was remark- ably conscientious. There was a warmth, tenderness, and sincerity of friendship that attached his friends, and partic- ularly his bosom friends, to him in an extraordinary degree. On his mother's side he was great-great-grand-
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child to Rev. Mr. Dewey ; on his father's side he was great- great-grandson of Samuel Robinson, Sen. ; and also, by his , grandmother Robinson, great-great-grandson of Deacon John Fassett.
CHAPTER XVII.
PERSONAL NOTICES.
1762.
TEPHEN FAY. - Next to Robinson, Harwood, and Scott there is the largest number of individuals on the roll of the church of the name of Fay. James, James, Jr., Daniel, and Lydia Fay are on the old cove- nant. Probably Lydia was the wife of James Fay, and James, Jr., and Daniel their sons. No other mention is made of these individuals afterward in the records of the church, nor do they appear on any of the lists furnished by Gov. Hall in the " Vermont Historical Magazine," nor upon the town records. Mention is made of James and his son Daniel in Mr. Paige's Hardwick Centennial Address, and that he was a deacon in the Separate Church there, and died there of small-pox in 1777, and that Daniel died in 1815, aged eighty-six. It is probable they came at an early day to Bennington, and returned again to Hardwick, and remained there. James was brother of Stephen Fay. Mehitable and Elizabeth Fay are also among the signers to the old covenant. Stephen Fay had a sister Mehitable, and also a sister-in-law Elizabeth (wife of his brother John), who became members of this church.
Among the early settlers, Stephen Fay (son of John Fay and Elizabeth Wilmington), who came to Bennington in 1766, occupied a prominent position as landlord of the Green Mountain House, afterward Catamount Tavern, as
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father of an influential family ; and as exhibiting a spon- taneous instance of moral sublimity in connection with the death of his son John in Bennington battle, he has won for his name a bright place in the history of the town. He sent five of his sons 1 to the bloody rescue of his country on that eventful day. One of them was shot through the head, and died instantly. The following is the account in a Connec- ticut newspaper of Nov., 1777, three months after the battle, by an " Eye-witness " : - " A good old gentleman who had five sons in the field at the celebrated action of Bennington, August 16, 1777, whose furrowed cheeks and silvered locks added venerableness to his hoary brows, being told that he was unfortunate in one of his sons, re- plied, ' What, has he misbehaved? did he desert his post? or run from the charge?' 'No, sir,' said the informant ; ' worse than that, he is among the slain ; he fell contending mightily in the cause.' 'Then I am satisfied,' replied the venerable sire ; " bring him in and lay him before me, that at leisure I may behold and survey the darling of my soul ;' upon which the corpse was brought and laid before him, all besmeared with dirt and gore. He then called for a bowl of water and a napkin, and with his own hands washed the gore from his son's corpse, and wiped his gaping wounds with a complacency, as he himself expressed it, which before he had never. felt or experienced." Another account pre- served by tradition gives the following additional expres- sion : " I thank God I had a son who was willing to give his life for his country." He had ten children : John, Jonas, Stephen, Mary, Sarah, Elijah, Beulah, Benjamin, Joseph, David.
JOHN FAY was forty-three years of age at the time of his death. He left a widow and children, and many of his de- scendants are now living in the northern part of this State.
1 John, Elijah,Benjamin, Joseph, and David.
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DR. JONAS FAY.
Of the circumstances of his death the following have been related : 1 -
He was fighting behind a tree. His last words, as he raised his musket to fire once more at the enemy, were, "I feel that I am fighting in a good cause." And as his eye ran along the barrel, taking aim, his head just exposed from behind the tree, a ball struck him in the very centre of his forehead, and he fell with his gun undischarged. Quick as lightning ran the cry over the ranks of his townsmen, " John Fay is shot !" Maddened to fury they sprang from behind the trees, fired their guns in the very faces of the foe, and, clubbing the breeches, leaped over the breastwork with an impulse of onset nothing mortal could resist.
Nathan, a son of this John Fay, united with this church in the Wood and Burton revival.
DR. JONAS FAY was the second child of Stephen Fay. He was born at Hardwick, Mass., Jan 13, 1737. He was a man of great versatility, boldness, and determination, and of acknowledged ability and skill as draughtsman and composer of public documents.
His public career commenced at an early age, while the family still resided in Hardwick. In 1756,being then nineteen years of age, he was clerk to the military company of Capt. Samuel Robinson, Sen., in the campaign of the French war at Fort Edward and Lake George.
He was twenty-nine years of age when he came to Benning- ton, and at once took a prominent position among the leading actors who came upon the stage in that eventful period of the history of the town and State and nation ; and it is diffi- cult to tell in which of these relations, if not in all equally, his services were the most important.
1 The Rev. C. S. Robinson's Address.
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" In 1772 when Governor Tryon invited the people of Bennington to send agents to New York to inform him of the grounds of their complaint, he, with his father, was appointed for that purpose. He was clerk to the conven- tion of settlers that met in 1774, and resolved to defend by force, Allen, Warren, and others, who were threatened with outlawry and death by the New York Assembly, and as such clerk certified their proceedings for publication. He served as surgeon in the expedition under Allen at the cap- ture of Ticonderoga. He was continued in that position by the Massachusetts committee who were sent to the lake in July, 1775, and also appointed by them to muster the troops as they arrived for the defence of that post. He was also surgeon for a time to Col. Warner's regiment.
In Jan., 1776, he was clerk to the convention at Dorset that petitioned Congress to be allowed to serve in the com- mon cause of the country as inhabitants of the New Hamp- shire Grants, and not under New York, and also of that held at the same place in July following. He was a mem- ber of the convention which met at Westminster in Jan., 1777, and declared Vermont to be an independent State, and was appointed chairman of a committee to draw up a declaration and petition announcing the fact and their rea- sons for it, to Congress, of which declaration and petition he was the draughtsman and author. He was secretary to the convention that formed the constitution of the State, in July, 1777, and was one of the Council of Safety, then ap- pointed to administer the affairs of the State- until the Assembly provided for by the constitution should meet ; was a member of the State Council for seven years from 1778 ; a judge of the Supreme Court in 1782 ; judge of pro- bate from 1782 to 1787; and he attended the Continental Congress at Philadelphia as the agent of the State under appointments made in Jan., 1777, Oct., 1779, June, 1781,
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FAMILY OF DR. JONAS FAY.
and Feb., 1782. . . .. In 1780, he, in conjunction with Ethan Allen, prepared and published in their joint names a pamphlet of thirty pages, on the New Hampshire and New York Controversy, which was printed at Hartford, Conn." 1
His daughter Lydia married Uriah Edgerton, Esq. She became hopefully pious after she began to be crippled by rheumatism. She used to say that it was her becoming so great a sufferer that with God's blessing led to her con- version. Before, she was very worldly and ambitious ; af- terward, the cause and love of Christ was ever the theme upon her lips and warm in her heart. She united with this church during the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Marsh.
FAY EDGERTON, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Uriah Edgerton, was graduated at the Rensselaer Institute, in Troy, N. Y., assisted in the establishment of a scientific school in Utica, N. Y., and while engaged as lecturer on chemistry and botany in the medical school in Woodstock was taken sick and died. He was a bright and devoted Christian. He was born in 1803, and deceased in April, 1838.
Dr. Jonas Fay's daughter, Sarah, married Henry Hopkins, only son of Major Wait Hopkins, and grandson of the Rev. Mr. Dewey. These had a son, Deacon Fay Hopkins, of Oberlin, Ohio.
MAJOR HEMAN A. FAY, a twin son of Dr. Jonas Fay, grad- uated as cadet at West Point in 1808. He was appointed a lieutenant in the army, in which he served through the war in 1812, and soon after became military store-keeper at Albany.2 He united with a Presbyterian church in Al- bany, and became one of its elders. He afterward returned to Bennington to pass the remainder of his life, and became a member of this church.
1 See Vermont Hist. Mag., pp. 171, 172, and Early Hist. Vermont, pp. 463, 464, and elsewhere.
2 Vermont Hist. Mag., p. 172.
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Mary, daughter of Stephen Fay, and first wife of Gov. Moses Robinson, and mother of his children, united with this church May 16, 1765. Two of her descendants in this town became ministers of the gospel.
BENJAMIN FAY, son of Stephen Fay, was the first sheriff in the county and State. He was born Nov. 22, 1750. He was sheriff from March 26, 1778, until Oct., 1781, and died in 1786.1
He married Sarah, daughter of Samuel Robinson, Sen. She united with the church at thirteen and a half years of age. After the death of her first husband she married Gen. Heman Swift, of Cornwall, Conn.
SAMUEL FAY, EsQ., a son of Sheriff Benjamin Fay, lived and died in the family mansion, which was formerly " the Green Mountain House," "the Catamount Tavern" and " Landlord Fay's," -- the house in which the Council of Safety met ; afterward, altered and added to. An obituary notice from the pen of Gov. Hall appeared in the " Benning- ton Banner " and was copied into the "Vermont Record," valuable for its historical reminiscences as well as a just tribute to Mr. Fay. Considerable portions of it shall be inserted here.
1
" Samuel Fay, Esq., was born in Bennington, Aug. 16, 1772, and died the 25th of Dec. 1863, in the ninety-second year of his age. The day he became five years old, - the 16th of August, 1777, - was fought the battle of Bennington, of which he retained through life a clear recollection, remembering well the noise of the guns, and the extraordinary confusion of the day. The scene at the execution of Redding was also fresh in his mind. He was appointed a deputy-sheriff under Gen. David Robinson. This was in 1793, when Thomas
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