History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

Dr. Wm. B. Nash, who studied under Dr. David Hull, also occupied this house. He was a son of Capt. Thomas Nash (•'5d), of Westport, who married Mary, daughter of William liurr, of Fairfield. This Thomas Nash gave the site to the Congregational Society where the church now stands in (ireen's Farms. He was born in 174:j, and died in 1815. He was a man of influence, courage, and energy. He was chosen deacon in 17<!8 in the .same church in which his father and grandfather had served in that office, and was captain probably of the same company. * Sod of Mr. Uc7«kiiih Bonks, of Grcenflold. It is related that when Fairfield was burned, in the time of the Revolution, Col. Whiting, the command- ant, having withdrawn the Americans to the Round Hill, north of the village, called for a captain and thirty men to volunteer for the purpose of recon- noitring the enemy ; that Capt. Thomas Nash im- mediately stepped forth, followed by more than one hundred men. The colonel would allow only thirty to go. However, more fell in after they left the hill. Capt. Nash advanced to the fence nortli of the street, near where the meeting-house now stands, and ordered his men to lie behind the fence in the tall vegetation until the enemy were near the centre of the street, when, as he gave the word, they were to rise and^rf, load and fire, and then run. This they did \yith such efl'cct, and so unexpectedly, that none of his party were injured until they began to a.scend the rising ground towards the north, where one was killed. Afterwards, when a squad of the enemy approached to burn his house at Green's Farms, he alone, or with but little help, dragged the company field-piece to a rising ground near the house, loaded it with grape, and fired upon them. They, su.specting he had a company to sa«tain him in so daring an act, re- treated, and this house was saved, and is yet stand- ing (near Green's Farms church), with its large veratida and railing above it. At another time, being on a scout in the night, with only three men, he discovered a whaleboat secreted on the shore, which he thought indicated an enemy near. He therefore stove in the boat and searched for the foe. Perceiving a faint light from the window of a cabin in a cornfield, he ordered his army of three to pa.ss raj)idly round the cabin, making all the noise they could with their muskets against the building, by which the inmates deemed them.selves surrounded by a real force. Capt. Nash then approached the window and told them to hand out their arms and ho would spare their lives. They complied, and handed out sixteen muskets, which he securefi, and told them to lie down until morning, when it ap- peared that he and his three men had surrounded and taken fifteen Tories and one British soldier. Thomas Nash (3d) inherited a fine estate, but, owing to many losses sustained by the Revolution and investments in Continental currency, he spent bis last days in straitened pecuniar*' circumstances. His father, Thomas Nsish (2d|, born in 170H, married Rebecca Hull, of Fairfield, in 1731. He inherited an ample estate. An inventory is given on the Fairfield records of 1748 of his property, amounting to £0372 l."!*. He kept well what he inherited, and W!is a highly respectable and influential man. His father, the first Thomas Nash in Fairfield, was admitted to the Prime Ancient Church under Rev. Joseph Webb, Jan. 4, 1712, and had three children — Joseph, Thomas, and Sarah — baptized there the same day. Shortly after this (17151, when another child was baptized — and no FAIRFIELD. 301 more recorded after it — it is inferred tliat the new so- ciety was organized.* Tlioinas Nash was the first deacon of that church, and probably continued throuirli life in the office, also held l)y son and grandson. The ancestor of these Nashes died in Xew Haven in 1U.58. In the records it is stated : " It is orilerod tliat Thomas Niish slinll kci-iro tlu' T..\nn- MusUilUiin his huiiils, Slid liiok to tliciii wi'll, tlmt tiny lie iilwuvs in k"'>iI olilcr fitt for service, fiml tlu- Towiio to .illovv Iiiiii wliiit is Just for his cure ami pains." Thomas Nash's name appears as a land-owner in Fairfield in 1701. His body lies in the burying- ground on Green's Farms, near Talcott Wakeniiin's, and his resting-place is marked thus : " Here lyes Inuieil ye hotly of Capt. Thomas Nash, Peacon of Fairtiehi West ravish, who departed this life June ye Sth, Anno Doui' 17-18, in y" GOth year of his a;re," Thomas Nash, Jr., has this tribute : " In memory of Capt. Thomas Nash, Jun% Deacon of y" Church of Christ in this place, who died Aug. 2<>°'l, A. D. 1707, aged 61 years wanting V2 days. Here appears the Place of Bones, Of gashful souils and monumental Stones, Inscrihed with grinning Deaths on rural Throns. But stop the Hearse ; this is the destined Place Where lies his Ancient Body in the Dust. Thou yawning Grave profound, receive thy pri-y. And feed thy AVoruis with this delicious clay. Thr'w on the Earth, how piercing is the Sound! W^eep on dear friends and ease the Wound. This kind relief the Social Passions crave: Jesus himself wept at a good man's Grave." Dr. William Burr Na.sh studied with Dr. David Hull till he attained his majority (1807), when he was licensed to practice, and settled in Greenfield (in this colonial).! After a residence of ten years in (freen- field, he removed to Fairfield, and entered into a partnership with Dr. Hull, wdicre for nine years he continued to reside, with a large and increasing prac- tice. He lived in the house occujiied by x\rthur Ben- nitt, and in 182.5, real estate being so low through the country, he (Dr. Nash) could hardly give it away. At this date he removed to Bridgeport, and for it time resided in a house situated on the corner of Main and Bank Streets, where the city bakery now stands. At that time there were but one or two other physicians in the city, and his practice soon became very large, not only here, but in the surrounding towns, tind his travels were very extensive and laborious. Dr. Nash's son, David Hull Nash, born in 1811, graduated as an M.D. at Yale College in 1834. His medical studies were under the supervision of his father. He married Susan E. Sterling, and com- menced practice with his father. He is now the old- * Known as Fairtield, West Parish, now Green F.arms. t He married, in 18IJ7, Ruth M. Eliot, daughter of Uev. .Andrew- Eliot, of FairBeld. est practitioner in Bridgeport. Few men have been engaged so many years as the late doctor, w ho during his long life was very successful. J At the ]ieriod in which Dr. W. B. Nash entered pro- fessional life applicants to practice medicine were ex- amined and licensed by a committee of yihysieians, and the degree of M.D. was not worn by them. Yet in later years it was conferred on him by Yale (.'oUcge. He accidentally fell, in his eighty -seventh year, and fractured the thigh-bmie, which resulted in his death, 1872. The recorils of the Nasii family were collected by Rev. Sylvester Nash, A.M., rector of St. .Tolin's Church, Es.sex, Conn., in 18.53, wdien there were three thousand three hundred of the Nashes named. The compiler wished very much to have a portrait of Dr. W. B. Nash for a frontispieee, but, with his character- istic modesty, he could not be induced to comjily. As the descendants of Thomas Nash (Ist) remained undispersed in and about Fairtield for more than a hundred years, they are known as the Fairfield branch. At jircsent the only descendants left in Fairtield are Jennings, Perrys, Bibbins, and Bennitt. Capt. Burr Nash, son of Thomas Nash (4th), lived in Greenfield, then on Mill Plain, afterwards in Bridgeport, and from thence he removed to New- York. He built, with others, the steamboat "Marion," which he commanded. Afterwards he returned to New York, then removed to New Haven, wdiere he carried on, until his death (1848), the same business (blacksmith) that his ancestors wrought at in the same place two hundred years before. After Dr. Nash left Greenfield, Buckingham Sher- wood was the owner. In time Moses Betts (see " Colo- nial," No. 5) purchased it, and kept a country store there. He disposed of it to Col. Murray (of the New- York militia), whose daughter, Agnes Murray, is the occupant. No. 14. The house on the premises, with the store .and ])ost-office, was originally built and owned by Samuel Bradley, grandson of Francis Bradley, who settled in Southport, west of the tide-mill, in 1664. The first Francis Bradley had a son Francis, who moved to (ireenfield. He had a son Samuel, who was called ":Marchant Bradley." He lived where Wil- liam Lobdell now does. Tradition says he com- menced life with a "jug of rum and a liddle," that he bought beef and pork as far back in the country as Litchfield County. This he shipped to Bost(jn, where be would be gone six weeks to attend to his ciirgo. He died in 1771, aged seventy. This Samuel Bradley seems to have taken up nearly all the hill, and the land known as the " mile of commons." Samuel's grandson, Walter, moved into this house, which was the custom-house for the port of Fairfield. (The commission given him by the powers in ofiice is in possession of Dr. M. V. B. Dunham, a popular J Sec hiogral'liy in history of Bridgei'olt. 302 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. allopathic physician, who occupied this house when he first began practice, in 1870, in Greenfield, and his son was born there.) Walter Bradley also kept store. His daughter, Priscilla, married William Burr. AVilllam Bradley, brother of Priscilla, bought out the heirs, and in time his widow sold the house to Barzilla B. Banks, prcjont owner. No one would ever mistrust its age, it is in such excellent repair. No. 15. The house nearly opposite, of the Tomlin- sons' estate, was built by the Rev. Setli Pomcroy. His tombstone in the Greenfield ground contains the following history : *' Here lies buried tlio UoJy iif the Bevi 31 r. St-lli Poiiioroy, Onlfliiied to the work of y" ministry In tliis I'arish Dccc' y* 8th, 1757, WIio departed this life July the 1st, 1770, in tho 37ih year of his nge."