Connecticut Historical Collections

mous Major John Mason. This grant was made in 1G95. The third propi'iety was called the Clark and Dewey purchase, from the names of the first owners and settlers. This tract was obtained in 1106} it was of a triangular form, leaving a small gore between the five mile purchase and the Windham bounds. This gore was the fourth pro- priety. It was about half a mile in length, and from ten to two hun- dred rods in width, and called the Whiting purchase. These different tracts of land were united by agreement among the planters, about the year 1700. The settlers on the one mile propriety wished, for the convenience of public worship, to join those of the five mile purchase, and it was agreed that the meeting house shouhJ be pla- ced on the center line of the two tracts, north and south ; other parts of the town also united with them. The first clergyman ordained in the town was the Rev. Joseph Parsons, who was ordained or installed here in November, 1700. " Jonathan Tnimhull, governor of Connecticut, was a descendant from the early settlers of New England. Two brothers of the name came from the west of England into the IMassachusetts colony. The one fixed at Charlestown, the other at Ipswich. The father of Gov, Trumbull was a substantial farmer, in the town of Lebanon, Conn. When he was a young man he went to this j-)lace, and was one of the ■first settlers, in tlie year 1700. He emigrated fiom Westfield in the county of Hampshire, where his father had removed from Ipswich, who was among the most respectable of the yeomanry. The Governor was born at Lebanon, in 1710. In the year 1723, he entered Harvard Col- lege. He early discovered fine talents and a most amiable disposition. He was a modest, ingenuous youth, very bashful when he first entered college, owing to his tender years, as well as retired situation ; but he was much beloved by his classmates, and when he took his degree, one of the finest scholars, with such accomi)lishment3 as qualified iiim to be useful, as well as to make the most conspicuous figure. He was fond of the study of divinity, and for some years was a preacher of the gospel ; he then turned his attention to jurisprudence, and soon became an emi- nent civilian. It is an observation of Mr. Hutchinson, ' that many of the first characters in Massachusetts, were at first probationers for the ministry, and afterwards made a figure at the bar, or in the legislative or executive courts of the province.' We recollect the names of Stougli- ton, Read, (iridley, and judge Stephen Sewall. That gentleman adds, when persons have been ordained, they ought ' to have very special reasons to leave the profession for a civil employment.' We have seen an instance of this in Gov. Saltonstall, wliere the public was much bene- fitted. " Gov. Trumbull was employed in many civil ofBces, all of which he executed with great fidelity, and grew in the esteem of the people as he advanced in years. He was an active man in public life 51 years, 15 of which he was governor of Connecticut colony. When he first went into this office it required a man of prudence, firmness, consistency and ability to manage affairs. A good pilot is necessary for every bark 41 322 L K U A N O N . which sails on the tempestuous sea. In Connecticut the appearance was more tranquil than the neighboring province, but the clouds were gathering which soon darkened the face of the country. Gov. Trum- bull saw the storm hurst upon INIassachusetts in 1775 ; he lived to see the auspicious day, also, when his country enjoyed the blessings of peace, and the glory of her independence. No man could guide tlie vessel of state with more care. No man ever loved his country more. During the whole American war, he showed himself the honest and un- shaken patriot, the wise and able n)aglstrale. In an excellent speech he made to the General Assembly, October, 1783, he thus expressed himself, ' I have to request the favor of you, gentlemen, and through you of all the freemen of the state, that after May next, I may be ex- cused from any further service in public lii'e, and from this lime I may no longer be considered as an object for your suffrages for any public employment. The reasonableness of the request 1 am persuaded will be questioned by no one. The length of time I have devoted to their service, with my declining state of vigor and activity, will I please my- self form forme a sufficient and unfailing excuse with my fellow citizens.' "This excellent nvan cle|)arted this life on the 17lh (?) of August, 1785, at his seat in Lebanon, in the 75ih }ear of his age. His father had lived the same number of years. " Gov. Trumbull made a great collection of papers, manuscripts, he. which were ])resented by tlie family to the iNlassachusetls Historical So- ciety ; several of them have been printed in the volumes of their col- lecti ions. '# Jonathan Trumbull, LL. D., a son of the preceding governor, was educated at Harvard College, " where he graduated, having gone through with the usual course of collegiate studies with unusual repu- tation. In 1775, at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, he was appointed by Congress paymaster in the northern department, and soon after secretary and aid to General Washington. He was for sev- eral years a member of the State legislature, and Speaker of the House. In 1790, he was chosen a representative in Congress from this State; and in 1791, he was appointed Speaker of the House of Representa- tives, in which situation ho continued until 1791, when he was elected a Senator in the Senate of the United States. In 179G, hewaschosen by the freemen lieutenant governor of the Slate, and in 1798, governor. He was annually re-elected to this office for eleven years in succession, and until his death, in 1809. He was 69 years of age. Governor Trumbull was a man of handsome talents, of very respectable acquire- ments, of amiable manners, and was distinguishecl for his social virtues. The confidence of his fellow citizens, which he so long enjoyed in a very eminent degree, affords the most satisfactory evidence of his talents and virtues."! Guilford Dudley Young was a native of this town. In the last war with Great Britain, he was a major, and afterwards a colonel in the U. S. army. On the 23d of October, 1812, with a small detachment Elliot's Biographical Dictionary. t Pease and Niles' Gazclleei LEBANON. 323 of militia, Major Young surprised a party of the enemy at St. Regis, captured the two captains, 1 lieutenant, 2 sergeants, 35 privates, and brought off one stand of colors, the first taken from the enemy during the war. This officer, after the war, entered the Patriot service, under Cen. Mina, and lost his life in the struggle for Mexican independence, in 1817. The Patriots, 269 in numher, had possession of a sniall fort, which was invested by a Royalist force of 3500 men. The supplies of provision and water being cut oft^ tlie sufferings of the garrison, and women and cliildren in the fort, became intolerable; many of the soldiers deserted, so that not more than 150 effective men remained. Colonel Young, however, knowing the perfidy of the enen)y, determined to defend tlie fort to the last. After having bravely defeated the enemy in a number of their endeavors to carry the fort by storm. Col. Young was killed by a cannon shot from the battery raised against the fort. 'I On the enemy's last retreat, the Colonel, anxious to observe all tbeir movements, fearlessly exposed his person, by stepping on a large stone on the ramparts; and, while conversing with Dr. Hennessey on the successes of the day, and on the dastardly conduct of the enemy, the last shot that was fired from their battery carried off his head. Colonel Young was an officer whom, next to Mina, the American part of the division had been accustomed to respect and admire. In every action, he had been conspicuous for his daring courage and skill. Mina reposed unbounded confidence in him. In the hour of danger be was collected, gave his orders with precision, and, sword in hand, was always in the hottest of the combat. Honor and firmness marked all his actions. He was generous in the extreme, and endured privations with a cheer- fulness superior to that of any other officer in the division. He had been in the United States' service, as lieutenant colonel of the twenty ninth regiment of infantry. His body was interred by the few Ameri- cans who could be spared from duty, with every possible mark of honor and respect ; and the general gloom which pervaded the division on this occasion, was the sincerest tribute that could be offered by them to tlie memory of their brave chief."* The Rev. James Fitch, the first minister in Norwich, died at Leba- non, in the 80th year of bis age. It appears that there were two brothers, Thomas and James Fitch, or, in the ancient way of writing the name, Fytche, who came from Rocking in the county of Essex, England, to America, in 1638. Thomas settled at Norwalk, and was father of Thomas Fitch, governor of the colony of Connecticut. Tlie Rev. James Fitch married for his first wife a daughter of the Rev. Henry Whitfield, of Guilford. His second wife was Priscilla Mason, daughter of Major John Mason, the celebrated commander of the expe- dition against the Pequots.f By his two wives he had fourteen chil- dren ; all except one lived to have families of children. His history and character are given in the inscription on his monument, in the Lebanon burying ground, viz. * Robinson's Mexican Revolution. t Aldeii's Co'leciion of Epiiaiihs, >Scc. -Itli vohime. 324 L E 15 A N O N