Norwalk

ventional manners would have stamped itself upon her and made her a fashionable lady at the expense of that Eve-like beauty and simplicity which characterized her. It is not astonishing, then, that the stranger — accustomed as he was to all the beauty of French fashionable life — should still have been smitten with this new and startling type of female loveliness. From the first view of that fair lady M. Grellet was a doomed man. Familiar with the brilliant court of the Parisian capital, he might have passed' by un- harmed, even by one as fair as our heroine, bad it not been for that simplicity, that Puritanism of look and manner, which belonged to the social clim- ate in which she was brought up — so strongly in con- trast to the prescribed pattern graces of a French lady. He came, he saw, he was conquered. Being made captive, he had no other way than to capitulate. He was a man of good family, a fine scholar, and a fin- ished gentleman. He made due and honorable pro- posals, and was accepted — though on the part of the parents with many misgivings. Marriage ensued, and the happy pair departed for France. This took place in 1806. M. Grellet held a high social position, and on his arrival at Paris, it was a matter of pro- priety that his bride should be presented at court. Napoleon was then in the full flush of his imperial glory. As she was presented to him, in the midst of a dazzling throng, blazing with orders and diamonds, she was a little agitated, and her foot was entangled for a moment in her long train — then an indispens- able part of the court costume. Napoleon said in her hearing, vol fa de la gancherle Americaine, American awkwardness. Madam Grellet, however, survived the shock of this discourtesy. She soon became a celeb- rity in the court circles, and always maintained pre- eminence, alike for beauty of person, grace of man- ners, and delicacy and dignity of character. More than once she had her revenge upon the Emperor, when in the center of an admiring circle, he, with others, paid homage to her fascinations. M. Grellet became one of Bonaparte's receivers-general, and took up his residence in the Department of the Dor- dogne— though spending the winters in Paris. Upon the fall of Napoleon, he lost his office, but was re-ap- pointed during the "hundred days," only to lose it again upon the final restoration of Louis XVIII. The shadow's now gathered thick and dark around NORWALK. Frances Bush, born Nov. 16, 1819 (Mrs. Geo. A. Lally).' Stephen Buckingham St. John died Aug. 12, 1831, and his widow, the prompt and energetic "widow Buckingham >St. John" of later times, survived him until May 16, 1865. The last years of the second Mrs. Buckingham St. John were passed in New Haven, but the old Norwalk homestead was improved and well sustained by her capable daughter, Mrs. James A. Hoyt, whose husband was the son of James I. and grandson of Isaac and Mary (Raymond! Hoyt (see note page 135) and first cousin of lion. John and Major Gen. W T. Sherman. James A. Hoyt died April 24, 1876, and his wife May 21, 1 891 . Their children were : Charles, born Dec. 14, 1835. (Died Dec. S, 1862.) Charlotte Frances, b. Mar. 25, 1838. I Died Nov. 23, 1S59.) him. His wife having taking a violent cold was at- tacked with pleurisy, which resulted in a gradual de- cline. Gently but surely her life faded away. Death loves a shining mark, and at the early age of five-and- twenty she descended to the tomb. With two lovely daughters — the remembrances of his love and affec- tion— M. Grellet returned to the south of France, and in the course of wars, he too was numbered with the dead. '• Almost half a century passed away, and the memory of Grace Ingersoll had long been obliterated from my mind, when it was accidently recalled. One evening being at the Tuileries — among the celebrities of the world's must brilliant court — I saw her bro- ther, R. I. Ingersoll. (Hon. Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll, grandson of Ralph Isaacs, Jr., and great-grandson of Ralph Isaacs, Sr., of Norwalk.) He was now the American Ambassador to Russia, and on his wav thither. We met a.- if we were old friend*. At length I recollected Ills sister Grace, and asked if her | children were living. He replied in the affirmative^ \ and that he was on the point of paving them a visit. I saw him a month afterward and he told uir that he had just returned from the south of France, where he had enjoyed a most interesting stav of a fortnight with his nieces." Of these nieces one, the older sister was a phy- sician's wife and the other was a religious recluse. The latter, however, obtained permission of her Su- perior to visit with her sister during her uncle, lion. Ralph Isaac IngcrsoM's two weeks' stay with them. Ill reference to this visit and to his younger niece Mr. Ingersoll wrote thus to Mr. Goodrich : '■ One day, after we had been talking as usual of America and her American relations, she excused her^ lf to me for a short time, that she might go to her 101,111 and write a letter to the convent. She was Buckingham, born June 8, 1448. Goold, born July 30, 185 1. gone from me much longer than I had expected, and on her return I said to her: ' You must have been writing a long letter, if 1 may judge from the time you have been about it.' ' Yes,' was her reply, 'but I have not been writ- ing all the while; I have been praying.' ' Indeed ! Do you pray often r ' ' Yes — and even more often here than when I am at the convent.' * Why so?' 'I fear dear uncle, that my affection for you will attract me too much to earth.'" It was a sorry 1779 Saturday evening hour when William and Mary Esther St. John were compelled to vacate the Norwalk house in which Grace Ingersoll's grandparent was born and from which her namesake " handsome and accomplished " great aunt (Grace Isaacs) went out to be devotedly admired by (see page 21S) Colonel (Gi>i) to which gallant suitor she gave linal dismissal in her historic Westchester Co. home not perhaps an hour before General Kniphau sen-' command surrounded her house and startled iis occupant with the firing of musketry. It is said that Mrs. St. John took, in her declining days, great com- fort ill sitting at the south room window of her new home (the old St. John house which stood on the north corner of the intersection, to-dav, of Morgan and East Avenues) and looking over the adjoining an- cient premises. These premises were afterward oc- cupied by Mrs. St. John's own blood, the Sherry's and Skiddy's of a later date. 'Geo. A. Lally married, second, Harriet, daugh- ter of Capt. Richard and Mary (Uonteeou) Han- ford, of Lansingburgh, N Y., and sister of Levi C. Han ford, of Norwalk, and had George, Fanny (died young) and Frederick. Mr. Geo. A. Lally had, by his first marriage, a son James, who died in 177N. NOR WALK. Louisa Cecilia, born June 19, 1840. Frederick W., born Nov. 23, l8;4. I Mrs: George B. l)uv.) Fanny R., born March 6, 1860. Louisa C, daughter of James A. and Elizabeth Hoyt. married October 19, 1S65. George H. Day, and had Frederick H., born Aug. 24, 1866. Buckingham, son of James A. and Elizabeth Hoyt. married Eva Beauchamp. of Syracuse, \\ Y Frederick W., son of James A. and Elizabeth Hoyt, married Nov. 1, 1893, Sarah L., (laughter of Judge Asa B. and Sarah (Hanford) Woodward (see page 149). IU'CKIXCtIIAM ST. JOHN LOl'KWOOD. Buckingham St. John, second son of Peter and Abigail Lockwood, married Feb. 17. 1805, Poll}- Esther, born March 10, 1783, daughter of William and Esther (Belden) St. John, and niece of Col. Stephen St. John,1 and had : J ulia Abigail/ born Jan. 18, 1809, (unmarried). ■The daughters of Col. Stephen St. John had tor a father the, so deemed, "handsomest man in Nor- walk." These daughters, Surah (Mrs. Dr. John Can- non), Susanna (Mrs. Isaac Scudder Isaacs) and Nancy ( Mrs. Matthew Marvin, of Wilton ), were widely known ladies. Their Fitch grandfather, Samuel, was a hrother of Gov. Thomas Fitch, and their Aunt Elizabeth (their mother's sister) was Mrs. Nehemiah Rogers, so that they were own cousins to Moses Fitch, Nehemiah and Henry Rogers, and their sec- ond cousins (see home-lots xi and xii, pages 161-220) were metropolitans of high social, professional and business positions. The descendants of Sarah Can- non, Susanna Isaacs and Nancv Marvin are many and their history would fill many pages. Dr. John and Sarah Cannon's family were: John, born May 16, 1778. Sarah, horn Oct. 22, 1780. George, horn May 7, 1784 (see page 1S9). Harriet, born Oct. 31, 1786. Atuionette, horn April 20, 1789 (see page 189). Charlrs Ogilvie, horn Oct. 13, 1791. Esther Mary, horn Dec. 1793. James LeGrand, born Oct. 12, 1796. aJulia Abigail, oldest child ot Buckingham St. John and Polly Esther (St. John) Lockwood, was one of Norwalk's life-long loyal daughters. An unmis- takable "style" and an unmistakable solid sense were, as was the case with her sterling cousin, Sarah Louisa St. John (Mrs. Francis Skiddy), her characteristics. Mrs. Skiddy, albeit a resident of the metropolis, never interest-forgot her native town, and Miss Lock- wood, down to the close of a protracted life-day was possessed <>f the same true feeling. With pains-tak-