History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

Sliss White was a very methodiciil person, as her journal for fifty years shows. It has |)roved of value to the citizens for reference. For several years she wove in personal matter ; after that it was but a nar- ration of general facts, — the wind and the weather. Her system of keeping accounts might be advan- tageous to all who would adopt it. All money re- ceived or paid out was entered, with t/ic date of the transaction. One time she was callc(l upon to renew her insurance. She had done so, but, for some cause, the policy hail not been forwarded. A reference to , her books ctiused her lawyer to sttite that her method I of doing business would stand a legal test and was of I as much value :is a receipt from the firm or companv. A fisherman's bill was not iiaid ovi-r the seconil time ior the same reason. S<nneof these journals are in the |>ossession of Mrs. Jane Kippen, daughter of Samuel A. Nichols (see "Colonial," No. 18). Miss White lived in this house several years, when she was gathered to her fiithers in a ripe old age, but not till she had willed her posses- sions to two Misses Wakeman, from whom this prop- erty was purchased by Mr. Benjtimiii Betts, lieing near his store and also contiguous to his lather's (Mr. Moses Belts) premises. BIr. Moses Betts was town clerk from ]S(i3 to 1867, and held offices of trust in Church and State for many years. He was engtiged in mercantile business most of his years, wdiich numbered at their close seventy-six. His wife also died the same year (1880). (See No. 13.) No. (5. Here a little prefatory history is necessary, to apj)reciatc the subsequent matter: William Redfin, or Redfield,"- w;vs, in 1()39, the owner of a house and four acres of land on the south side of Charles River, ;d)out six miles from Boston. In 1(14(5 he disposed of that property, and shortly after is supposed to have removed to Peipiot, the present site of New London, with a party of settlers, under the leadership of John- atlian Brewster, son of Elder William Brewster, of the Plymouth (,'olony. The name of William Redfyn re- apjicars, at least in this new settlement, in 1(>')3, in connection with the transfer of certain lands to said Redfyn; and here the name appears to have become changed, inasmuch as in the New London records the forms are used interchangeably in the .same deed or document. William Reilfin died in 1(1(J2. His son James was apprenticed to a tanner (bnuiiil to him for five years), but does not apjjear fully to have acciuircd the trade, on account of his employer, Hugh Roberts, breaking up his business. We find James afterwards * Taken from the Redtield Genealogy, which was the tlrst one evor compiled in this country. This was done in 1S19. 292 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. exercising the vocation of a weaver. He resided (1) lit New London; (2) near the fort in Saybrook ; and (3) at New Haven. Also he appears to liave been an inhabitant of Martha's Vineyard for a year (1671). He liad tliree sisters, one of wliom (Lydia) married Tlioniiw Bayley, who was slain in tlie disa.strous In- dian ambush at IJloody Brook, ifass., Sept. IS, 1675, under ('(nnmand of ('apt. Lotlirop, in King Philip's war. .lames Rc<lfiebl, the first (born 164()), came to Fairfield about 1693. Here he married, for his second wife, Deborah, daughter of John Sturges, who was a freeman of Fairfield as early as 1660, and a promi- nent man in tlic community. He had a son James (2d) Ijaptizi'd in Fairfield in 1696. He made over his Fairfield i)roi)orty to his son James (2d) during his life, and is said to have resided near Hyde's Pond, which was entirely drained and filled up by Mr. Fred- eric Sturges in 1879. James (2d) was the father of James (3d) and John. The latter son married, in 17">8, Mary (Hull) Jennings, widow of Dr. Sctli Jennings, whose daughter, Esther Jennings, married Peter Burr, of Fairfield. Probably this liouse was built by John Redfield. At all events, his family occupied it in 1779, and were among the sufferers from the brutalities of the British soldiers under the infamous Tryon. Mr. Redfield was away from home, but in the house were his aged step- mother, his wife, Lucretia, and a child. A party of the enemy, with three officers, came to the house and ordered it to be fired, alleging that one of their men had just before been taken prisoner in that vicinitv. Jlrs. Redfield by exertions succeeded in extinguishing the fire, although the burning was four times at- tempted. During the night the British soldiers roamed through the village without the slightest control from their officers, and three of them entered the house of Mrs. Redfield, wliere they destroyed the furn iture, ransacked and plundered the house, anil rilled the jiockets of the inmates. Even the gray hairs of Jlr. Redfield's widowed mother did not protect her from plunder and gross insult, and his wife was saved from shameful violence by the opjiortune entrance of two men, one of whom stated that he had lieen a prisoner in that town, and had exi)erieneed civility and kindness from its inhabitants. These men remained and protected the family through the remainder of the night. Tlie committee which was afterwards ap])ointed to estimate the losses sustained by the inhabitants of Fairfield by conflagration and plunder on this occa- sion re|>orted the loss of John Redfield, £38 2*. 4</. ; Widow .Sarah Redfield, £31 15». 6(/. ; Mrs. Lucretia Redfield, £28 3». 4./.* The widow of t'apt. John Redfield married Henry Marquand ; he probably died here, and wa.s buried in the old burying-ground. His tombstone in the old ground bears the following: • StoUi Piiiwn at Uartfunl, Rcvolutialiary War, vol. xv., Mlo 2M. " In niemor}' of IIonr>' ^larqimnil, Born July Bill, 17:i7, cm llio Ihluliil lit GiiL-riiKcy, mid dioil July the 12, 177-2, after a residence of eleven years hi America. Thia Stone Erected to commeniomte his memory by his only son Isaac Maniunnd, July 4. Isos, JE SI). In memory of Gurdon Seymour Marquand, son of Isaac & Mtibel Marquand, llorn September, ISOt, and die<l ir> May, isuj." Isaac Marquan<l married Mabel Perry. ("Colo- nial," No. 9.) An old journal written by one of Oapt. Edwin Sherwood's ancestors says that Henry Marquand w;ts a Frenchman and came from the West Indies to the United States and married Widow Red- field. Their son was a jeweler, and married Mabel Perry. They were the parents of Henry, Josiah, Frederic, etc. The widow, Jlrs. Marquand, must have sold this ])lace to Joscqdi Perry, as the late Samuel Perry stated that he went there to live when only five years old, and he would be eighty-eight if living. He married a Redfield descendant, and his daughter married a Redfield, as the following .shows : Sarah Redfield (probably reared here) married William Bulkeley, of Southport, son of William and ICIi/.abcth Burr Bulke- ley. The last named was one of the largest property- holders of the borough of Southport. He built the house (see "Colonial," 50). in which Miss Emily Meeker resides, and owned all the land on the east side of the bridge, including the woods to the water's edge, also the land where Mr. George Bulkeley now resides, the Congregational cliurch, the railroad sta- tion, and all the laud east of it to the main road. He died in 1787, aged forty-one.t His son William (who married Sarah Redfield), born in 1768, inherited the paternal homestead, which was not burned during the Revolutionary war. He built the store, now im- proved, occupied by W. B. Meeker, keeping a country supj)ly -store and sending market-boats to New York City. LTpon a business visit to the city he was taken ill with the yellow fever, brought home, and died in 1808, aged forty. Mrs. Sarah Redfield Bulkeley died in 1842, aged seventy -six. They had seven children, one of whom, Henrietta, born 1797, married Samuel Perry, of Fairfield, a eabiiict-rnaker and undertaker. They were the owners and occupants for several de- cades of " Colonial No. 6," both of them attaining a life of not far from fourscore years. They left two daughters, — Emily, who married George Ryder, Esq., of Danbury, and Sarah, who married Daniel Marsh Redfield, of Portchester. He is the son of the late Mr. t See Bulkeley Genealogy*, page 197. FAIRFIELD. 298 Isaac B. Kedfii'ld, and grandson of Daniel Marsh, of Litchfield, Conn. The latter couple resided with Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Perry till their decease, when they became the owners, and have continued their residence here since. It is peculiar in structure, being a doul)le house, having but one stairway to reach the second story, and that accessible only through the kitchen. The piazza is supported by Ionian pillars. The whole house has been well preserved, and bids fair to stand another hundred years. No. 7. This house was built by a Nathan Beers, who died in 1813, in his seventy-ninth year; his wife, Abigail, lived to be ninety. This property has been in the Bcer.s family for generations. As this i)artof the town was wdiere they originated, a few wiirds for the race will appropriately come in here. They were noted for their longevity, judging from their tombstones. Nathan Beers, son of the aljove Nathan, died 1835, in his seventy-ninth year; his wife, Mehetable, died in " 1824, aged seventy-one years one month and thirteen days." Another of tlie Beers family is thus epitaphed : "In this spot are deposited the remains of "William Pitt Beers (Late of .\lhan.v, in the State of New York). Ciilled to the Tonjh in the meridian of life and of nsefnlncss, his memory will be cherished in the affeetions of a bereaved faoiily and a nnmerous circle of relatives and friends. He died lath Sept', ISIO, Aged 44 years." Captain David Beers died 1826, aged eighty-one. One stone in the old burying-ground contains, — " Here lies the body of Lientenallt James Bears, ilied 1772, aged 79." This house (No. 7) is owned by Mr. Abraham frould aud Mrs. Eliza Beers, relict of .Tames Beers, and occupied by the same parties.