History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

* Charles Burr Todd, in the " Hurr Mansion," iu the Sew York Eirniug /'.>«(, Jan. ", 1879. t Mrs. Ellet's Queens of Aiueiican Society. 322 HISTORY OF FAIRFIP^LD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. known what it was to be treated with disrespect, or even with inattention. She made a personal appli- cation to Governor Tryon in terms which, i'rom a lady of her high respectability, could hardly have failed of a satisfactory answer from any person who claimed the title of a gentleman. The answer which she actu- ally received wa.s, however, rude and brutal, and s])oke the want not only of politeness and humanity, but even of vulgar civility. The house was sentenced to the flames, and was speedily set on fire. An attempt was made, in the mean time, by some of the soldiers, to rob her of a valuable watch, with rich furniture; for Governor Tryon refused to protect her iis well as to i)rescrve the house. The watch had been already conveyed out of their reach, but the bouse, lilled with everything which contributes either to comfort or to elegance of living, was laid in ashes. " While the town was in flames a thunder-storm overspread the heavens just as the night came on. The conflagration of near two hundred houses illu- mined the earth, the skirts of the clouds, and tlie waves of the Sound witli a union of gloom and gran- deur at once inexpressibly awful and magnificent. The sky speedily was hung with the deepest darkness wherever the clouds were not tinged by the melan- choly lustre of the flames. At intervals the lightning blazed witli a livid and terrible splendor. The thun- der rolleil above. Beneatli, the roaring of the fires filled up the intervals with a deep and hollow sound which seemed to be the protracted murmur of the thunder, reverberated from one end of heaven to the other. Add to this convulsion of the elements, and these dreadful effects of vindictive and wanton devas- tation, the trembling of the earth, the sharj) sound of muskets occasionally discharged, the groans, here and there, of the wounded and dying, and the shout.s of triumph ; then place before your eyes crowds of the miserable sufferers, mingled with bodies of the ndlitia, and from the neighboring hills taking a farewell pros- pect of tlieir property and their dwellings, their hap- piness and their hopes, and you will form a just but imperfect picture of the burning of Fairfield. It t needed no great effort of imagination to believe that the final day had arrived, and that, amid this funereal darkness, the morning W(mld speedily dawn to which no night WDuld ever succeed, the graves yield up their inhabitants, and the trial commence at which was to be finally settled the (kytiny of man." * "There was also in Fairfield pleasant society. Thaddeus Burr, Rsq., was a principal inhabitant and a man of wealth, especially belbre his large mansion was burned and his jiroperty devastated by the British, in July, 177!*. He then converted a store or warehouse into a dwelling, and it was a ne^it and com- modious mansion. Mr. Burr was hospitable, and his wife was an accomplished lady. The place is mem- orable, having been a favorite resort of Dr. Dwight, afterwards president of Y ile College. He was then minister of Greenfield, and gave celebrity to that hill both by the splendor of his talents and pulpit elo- quence and by the academy for the instruction of the youth of both sexes, which he established and con- ducted for a series of years with great success. " Dr. Dwight generally rode down two or three miles on horseback on Saturday afternoon to pa.ss those hours of relaxation and take tea with his friends, Mr. and Mrs. Burr. His conversation was equally entertaining and instructive, — a fea.st for both mind and heart. "t Jehue Burro was born in England about 1(500, and died in Fairfield about 1070. He left four sons, — Jehu, .John, Nathaniel, and Daniel. Jehu married (1) Mary Ward, of Fairfield; (2) Esther, widow of Joseph Boosey, of Westchester, Conn. They had several children, of whom was Judge Peter Burr, who graduated from Harvard in 1690, having entered in ItiSO. He taught school in Boston for .some years, then studied law, aftei which he settled in Fairfield to practice. In 1700 he com- menced his public career, which he continued till his death. He was several times auditor of the colony. He was also deputy for Fairfield, Speaker of the House, and justice of the peace in 1701; judge of Probate Court, 1723-24 ; judge of County Court, 1708- 24, except 1713; judge of "the Superior Court, 1711- 16 ; chief judge of the Supreme Court, 1712, 1723-24. This last year (1724) he performed the duties of audi- tor, a.ssistant judge of Probate, judge of County Court, and chief judge of the Superior Court. He was major of the Fourth Regiment. In 1702 he was on a com- mittee with Capt. Nathan Gold and others to " en- deavor to arrange an amicable agreement with thi government of Rhode Island respecting the settle- ment of the line between Connecticut and Rhodi- Island." He, with Capts. Gold, Curtis, Wakeman. Judson, Olmsted, and Stiles, was clothed with full powers "to consult, advise, direct, and commaml in [ all things necessary for the defense of Her Majesty '- subjects, and carrying on the war against the common enemy." (See Burr (ienealogy.) From the rcenrds, Peter Burr and Nathan Gold were two very prominent officers. It would riM]uiri many pages to tell of the various public enterprises they had charge of or took important part in. I In private life Judge Peter Burr was universally beloved and respected. As a public man he exerted an influeiK'c for good in the colony not exceeded, and rarely equaled, liy that of any of the fathers of the Commonwealth, and in ability, attainments, and |>ub- lic services he was ecli])sed by none. He lies in Fair- field old burying-ground. This is the last tributi- to his nicniorv : • Dr. DwIght'B Travob, »ul. lU. p. 612. t Llfi! of Boivj. Silllmnn, vol. i. p. 24. i FAIRFIELD. 323 " Here lyes hitorred yc ISoily of yu IIoiiul'l" I'l'tor liurr, Kac]', Aged itG yours and il mnntlis, wlio Dt'l'iirted this Life DeccmbLT tlie 20th Ann.. I7J4." Ho k'lt lour cliildix'ii, anioiig wIkhii was Tlitnlilous, who nuirried Abigail, daughter of Joiiatlittu .StUfgL's, of Fairfield. They left five eliildreii ; aiuong them wa.s Abigail, born in 1720. Her tombstone, in Fair- field old ground, eontain.s : " Here lies l.nrie.l the Body of Mrs. Ahisiiil Hnll, Wife of Lyniiin Hull, M. A., Itaughter of Thaddens Burr, Esq^, ilie.1 July 8, 17o3, aguii "24 years. lMiidest,.yet free, with innoeene..' a.ionie.l, To please and win iiy art and natttre formed, lieni.v..lent and wise, in virtue firm, e'onstant in Frion.lstiil*, in Iteligion warm, .\ partner teniler, unalTeeted, kind, A lovely form with a niui-o li.vely mind, — The seelie of life, tlio" short, she iniproveii s.) well No charms in human fi.rms could nioi'e e.xeel. Christ's life her copy. His pni'e life her gui.le, Kaeh part she acted, perfected, an. I dy'd." Lyniiin lltiU was one of the .signers of the Deelara- tion of Indepeiidenee, born in (Jonneetieut in 172."), died in Georgia in 1700. He graduated at Yiile in 1747, studied medieine, and removed, in 1702, to 8outh Carolina, and the same year to iSunbury, Ga., where he engaged in the jn-aetiee of his profe.s.sion. At the opening of the Revolution he was influential in in- dueing Georgia to join the Confederaey. In 177.J he was ehosen a member of Congre.ss, and was rc-eleeted annually till 17.80. Georgia had in the mean time fallen under the power of the British, wdio eonfiseated all liis property. He wtis elected Governor of Georgia in 1783, and served for one term; after whieh he re- tired from public life.* Another of their children was Thaddeus, .Ir. At the age of twenty he graduated from Yale witli tlie degree of .\.5I., whieh also was conferred by the (_'(d- lege of New Jersey. He married Eunice Uennie, and then spent ten years in scholarly and social pursuits and in the management of his large estates. His first part in public life was as deputy for Fairfield. He was also justice of the peace, and in 1770 was high sherilfof the county. In 1775 he was a member of the town committee of war. In 1788 he was a dele- gate, with Jonathan Sturges, from Fairfielil to the State Convention at Hartford, called to ratify the new Constitution of the United States and steadily voted to adopt that instrument. An original portrait of Thaddeus Burr, and also of Ids wife, by Copdey, is owned liy Jlr. J. S. liurr, of Brooklyn. He (Thaddeus Burr) died in Fairfield in 1801, aged sixty-five, and lies among the "colonials;" his wife died in 180.3, aged seventy-five. The stones are richly carved, but contain only the simple inscrip- * See Appleton's C'ycl.tpjtHlia, vol. viii. p. 400. tion found over a jicrson in far more common walks in life. .Vnnther (d' Thaddeus and .\bigail Slurgrs Burr's children was Gershom, born in 1744, wbu married Priscilla Lothrop, of Plymouth, JIass. Their son, Gershom, Jr., married (1) Husanimh Young, of Strat- ford; (2) Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Andrew Eliot, pastor of the Prime Ancient ('hurch in I'airfield. They litid nine children.