History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

Ellen Burr Gould married a Continental officer ; she was twenty-eight, he seventy-three. He dying, she married another much older than herself, and, he dy- ing, married another; so she had three Continental officers for husbands. She failed to secure a pension on account of remarrying, but Congress, through the intercession of Hon. Thomas Osborne (sec "Colo- nial," 8), made a special act in her case, so that she secured her pension at hust. 2. The Burr Maminnr-'TTixA\i.wn .says that it was built about 1700 by Chief Justice Peter Burr, one of the earliest graduates from Harvard. He was chief justice of Connecticut, and once lacked but a few votes of becoming its Governor. The house stood somewhat back from the main street, on a slight eminence, beneath a canopy of elms, and, with its dormer windows, its projecting gables and ivy-covered wings, presented quite the appear- ance of a baronial structure, the eflect of which was increased by its wide hall with its heavy oaken stair- case, or by its ancient chambers with their tiled fire- places and heavy oak panelings. At the time of the Revolution, Thaddeus Burr, a grandson of Peter Burr, a gentleman of culture and am))le estate, owned it. He, like many of the colo- nial gentry, exercised a princely hospitality. The ancient chroniclers recorded with i)riile that General Washington, in his journeys to and from Boston, was his frequent guest. Franklin, Lafayette, Otis, Quincy, Watson, Governor Trj-on, Dr. Dwight, and the poet Barlow are on the house's dead-roll of famous guests. There Trumbull and Copley dreamed and painted, the latter doing full-length portraits of his host and hostess, which are preserved in the family, fiovernor Hancock was married there ; Madam Hancock died there ;* Aaron Burr passed many of his youthful days beneath its roof as, the guest of his cousin, Thaddeus Burr, and is there buried with the illustrious dead. Burr's family was of the "bluest" blood of New England, and had been seated in Fairfield for gene- rations. His father, the Rev. Aaron Burr, the famous Princeton scholar and divine, was a native of Fair- field. Judge Peter Burr, before mentioned, was his great-uncle ; Col. Andrew Burr, who led the Connec- ticut regiment in the brilliant attack on Louisburg in 1745, was a cousin, and his family for generations had filled the various offices of state, from deacon in the Puritan churches to magistrates and judges of the courts. Nor can one of those who believe in the ' ancient traditions of the village be made to admit that Burr was any other than a bitterly-persecuted man, who sufiered the fate of those who came into the world a hundred years before their time. Here is recorded the dramatic incident of which the old mansion was the theatre : "Olio sunny morning In April, 1T75, os Tliiidtleus Burr, Golil Scllick Sillimnn, ftnij Joniitbnn Stiirgij*, mcmU're of the town coninilttpo of wnr, wt'n' iMig«Kf<i In fftrne^t coventution on tlio |Min-ti, ii iiorwniiin, l»rvatlil«w Willi liMlo, iliinlu'il lliroiigli the town, iinil thrvw liiniMlf from lii« »t^M^I ninuwt nt the feet of the three coniniiltee men, wilh un expirinf; effort to thnut towunis them a ixiekil cuvereJ with lin>ail oenN, ali<l fill l>»rk ox- hiuisled u|Kin the steps of the poixh. Sillilniin litwki' the |nckct, mid aHer « glance at its contenia tnnuMl with Itasliing eye to the eager citi- zens who hail gnthoroU. ' Friends,' said he, ' news from your king : hear it ;' Ulld read : * tlor atono contaiiu : " Thi< atone wu erected Iqr Thaddeus Burr and Kuniee Burr to the memory nf their dear friend, Mrs. Lydiii llani^oek, reliitof the llunoumhle Thonms llniicnok, K*|., and ilnngliterof Ilan- iel llin'-hiniin, Fj**)., of Boston, whiwe remains lie here interred, having retired to thii town from the inlaniities of War during the Bloi kadc of her native lity in ITT.'i, Just on lier nlurn to the re-eiOoymeiit of an ample fortune. On .\pril IJIh, ITTli, she »ii« sciie.1 willi the apoplci)-, and ih-scii a life of unaffected piety, unlveraal lioncvoleuce, and exten- sive charity, aged G3." FAIRFIELD. 321 **' WaTF.UTOWN, \\'f.1>NI S1>AV ^[nitMNG, " ' Ni'iir 111 „f tliu Clu.-k. '"To Al.L FniKNDS OF AMF.rtlCAN LlllF-KTY: Be it kll'fWJl tlillt tliis moniinp l>efure lircaU t)f day ii I>ii;;;i<U*, t'nnsistiilf; of al'uiit (uic tlicnsiiini or Iwn th'iusaii'l iikmi I:itnk-»l at IMiipps' Farm, at I'aniln i'\'^c, ami niaivlu'il to Lex illy too, wlien- they found aconilianytif our colony militia in aruo^, upon wiioni tiii-y filed wittiout itrovix-ation, ami liilled six" men and woundeil four others, Uy an express from Boston we find another bri;;ade ale now upon tile niartli from Boston, supposed to hi' .ilioiit one lliousand. Tlie hearer. Trail Bisisell, is cliarged to alarm the counliy quite to Connecticut, and all pei-sons are desired to fiirnisli him Willi fresh horses us they may he needed. I have spidien with several who hiivc seen the dead and wounded. "'.I. Pai.mfr, •" (<j,e i.flhi: Vmii. n/S'^: "Before sunset the FairfieM train-hand, nearly one liiindred strong, Get out on its man h to Boston." To this HKitisiiiii iif histiii-U' fume, in Jlay, 177">, came Miss Dorotliy Quiney, ihiuglitcr of Edmund Quincy, of IJostoii, who had moved for tiiree years as the belle of the polite circles of that town, and who wa.s now the affianced bride of (lovernor John Han- cock. A few weeks before, she had witnessed the battle of Lexington from her eliaiiilier-window, spir- itedly refusing to obey Governor Himeoek's command to return to Boston. But, now that her native city had assumed the aspect of a lieleagneivd town, she had consented to pass the summer in Fitirfield, lie- neath the roof of her father's old friend, Thaddcus Burr, where she s|)L'nt the stirring days of that event- ful summer in the ancient village, whiling away the time as best she might. ■ iSlic rode, she sang, she boated ; she feasted with the young jieople at the beach; she flirted with the village youths; she wrote letters, some of which yet exist, to her friends; and every fortnight the lumbering mail-coach brought her a packet from Philadeli)hia adilresscd in the bold handwriting of John Hancock. • In the autumn the marriage of (Joveruor Jidin Hancock, i)resident of the (.'ontinental Congress, and Mi.ss Dorothy, daughter of Edmund Qnincy, of Bos- ton, occurred. Here were Governor Hancock, wh.o accomplished such an act as led King George to .set a price on his head ; he rode up to the mansion-house, attended by a retinue of gentlemen, delegates, and others, returning to their homes, foUowed by a more glittering trtiin, with prancing steeds and costly equipage, with coachmen and footmen in livery, and attended by gay cavaliers on horseback, the friends of the bride. There were Edmund Quincy and his friends of Boston, grave sober men and matrons of liigh degree, and galhmt young cavaliers, attending the stately maidens, the companions of Miss Dorothy. Hartford and New Haven, wliich were then the seats of refined and cultured society, contributed to the train of worth and beauty ; tlie (rovernor and his staff' also honored the scene. There was a courtly throng, which might have graced a royal i«ilace, and the costumes would have been iiresentable at the court of King (Jeorge himself. The toilets were elaborate; the coifTures sprinkled with diamond-dust, the loug-waisted gowns, the shimmer of silks and sal ins, the rililions, laces, and niilles, tlie gems that sparked on wrist, and bosoms, the glossy iineues, the iilum-colored coats and velvet small- clothes, the white silk stockings, the elalmrate ruffles at wrist and throats, added lustre to the occasion. Here the Rev. Andrew Eliot, revered liy every one of Fairfield's sons, performed the ceremony. This was the last merry-making ever held within its walls. During the four years of war wliich followed it was the scene of many secret councils of the ])atriot leaders, and in the British descent on Fairfield in ]77!l was burned by order of Governor Tryon.* Edmund Quincy was eminent in inililic life, and became judge of the [Supreme Court in 1718. tsulli- vtm pronounced John Hancock "one of the greatest men of his age." The honor wdiieh encircled his name received added lustre from his wife. She was a leader of taste and fashion iu the best circles of society. (Governor Hancock came to Fairfield for safety, and was in concealment with Samuel Adams. It was not deemed safe for Mr. Hancock to return, that the marriage might take place in Boston. While ill concealment their meals were privately conveyed to them, and they were kept in strict seclusion. Alter a time they were permitted to sit at the din- ner-table with the family, in expectation of a com- fortable repast. Before they had partaken of the temiiting food a farmer came in, greatly excited, reiiuesting the host to lend him his horse and chaise to go for his wife, as "the British were coming." This news disiier.scd the feastei's. Aihims and Han- I'ock were hurried away to tlieir hiding-place, and ^Irs. Hancock w;is wont to say it was always a matter of wonder to her what became of that dinner, for none who sat down to it ever tasted it. The alarm, however, was a false rejiort, but there was a time when the enemy's balls reaehetl the house that sheltered them. When her first child was two weeks old Mrs. Ifan- coek was conveyed on a bed with it to her carriage, to travel from Boston in the w'inter to I'hiladelphia, in company with her husband, then chosen president of the first Congress. She often sjioke of his reluc- tance, from natural modesty, to iiccept the office. While he hesitated one of the members clasped him around the waist, lifted him from liis feet, and placed him in the chair of state. t At the burning of Fairfield, "Mrs. Burr, the wife of Thaddcus Burr, Esq., high sheriff of the county, resolved to continue in the mansion-house of the family and make an attempt to save it from the con- flagration. The house stood at a sufficient distance from other buildings. Mrs. liurr was adorned with all tiie qualities which give distinction to her sex, possessed of fine accomplishments and a dignity of character scarcely rivaled, and probably had never