Norwalk

'Mrs. David Lockwood (formerly the widow Trowbridge) whose daughter Ruth married John, son of David and Sarah (Mott or de la Mott) Boalt, and who was married to Mr. Lockwood Aug. 6, 1777, was thewidow of Josiah Trowbridge of Wilton, Conn. She was born in 1743 and her maiden name was Hlc- •»'*• Htr Trowbridge union took place March 9, 1763. Her Lockwood daughter Ruth, (Mrs. John Boalt) was born Jan. 9. 17X0. David Lockwood, her husband, died July 6, 1789. On the 26th of Jan. the year previous (1788) he drew up his will and 'execut- ed it. He made bequests to his wife Martha, and his children Thomas, David, Silas Clark, John, Ruth and Anne. The will was proven in less 'than a month after his decease, Aug. 3, ,7Su, but the estate was not inventoried until Dec IS, ,790. and the court did not order its distribution until Nov. 7, whiIe di5trj. button was not finally made until Mar. 20 179^ The children were first cousins of Benjamin (father of Le- Grand) Lockwood, and of Edwin, who lived so long at the head of Norwalk Green (present home of the daughters of the late Morgan T. Smith), and of the well known Alfred Lockwood, of New York City. 2She was named for her grandmother Ruth, Mrs. Silas Hickox. This goodly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Silas Hickox, were admitted to the Wilton Church on April 16, 173X. They had probably just been mar- ried and after covenanting between themselves made their "covenant" with God. Their dwelling was in a sequestered portion of the Wilton precincts, hard by which lav some of the boldest scenery in that roman- tic township. They had live children, Win., Sarah, Martha (Mrs. Josiah Trowbridge first, and second, Mrs. David Lockwood), Esther and Hannah. Martha was born June 13, 1743 4, and she gave her mother's : name, Ruth, to her Lockwood daughter. N O R YY A L K Hon. Charles Leicester Boalt, of Sandusky, Ohio, born in Xonvafk, Conn., Nov. 27, 1802, and son of John and Ruth (Lockwood) Boalt, of this town, married Eliza Wood- bridge, daughter of Gov. Roger Griswold and grand-daughter of Gov. Matthew Griswold, both of Conn. This distinguished Norwalk native (see page 1 88) and known and prized by such modern residents of this town as Judge Thomas B. Butler and Colonel F. St. John Lockwood, died in Sandusky, Ohio, Aug. 10, 1870, leaving the following children : Cornelia Elizabeth. (Mrs. Will. II. McDonald, Glens Falls, X. V.) Charles Griswold. John Henry. Frances Lane Griswold.' (Mrs. Jay Osborne Muss, Sandusky, Ohio.) Frederick Harper. William Leicester (Austria). These children have distinct Colonial office-ancestry, their father's Hickox forepar- ent having been a member, in 1728, of the Hartford Colonial General Assembly and their mother having been of more than one Colonial Governor's blood. But few sons of old Xorwalk have ever reflected such eminent credit upon their New England cradle as has Hon. Charles L. Boalt, of Ohio. His visits to his father's hearthstone are well remembered and all who here knew him will agree with the accom- panying just tribute, which was written, at his decease, in his adopted Ohio: " Mr. Boalt was a man generally and most favorably known, especially among members of the bar. He was a man of indomitable courage and unflinching persever- ance in everything he undertook ; a man of probity and honor, and of the highest moral sentiments and purity of character. He possessed all of those kind and genial qualities that lend their sweetest charms to social companionship. Few men ever lived who en- joyed more fully the love and esteem of personal acquaintances. He has left thousands to mourn his loss, but enemies he had none." Jacob, Charles and Ebenezer were the brothers (other than David*d- and John) who were the sons of David1*1- and Sarah Boalt. These brethren have, in different locali- ties, perpetuated the name of their Norwalk ancestor, John Boalt,2 of Five Mile River, the 'Frances Lane Griswold Boalt married May 26, 1863, J Osborne Moss, of the "Moss Bank," San- dusky, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Moss have two children, Augustus Leicester and Cornelia Emily. The bro- ther Augustus L., married Carrie Curtis, of Hart- ford, and the sister, Cornelia E., is the present Mrs. George Hunter Brown, Jr., of Fishkill-on-Hudson. Mrs. Jay O. Moss makes contribution of her time and talents in the prosecution of the work of historical and genealogical study. Herself of notable lineage she gladly minds any discovery in a kindred direc- tion, and takes a warm interest in her departed father's birth place recordings and reminiscences. Her husband, Jay Osborne Moss, is a descendant of John Moss, one of the A.D., 1639, singers of the New- Haven Colony compact. The blood of both Mr. and Mrs. Moss is that of the conspicuous and commend- able of the land. 2J0I111 Boalt, is'- "Artice" (so an ancient deed designates him) or topographer, was, if an old manu- script is reliable, the son of Richard Boalt, Sr., and the American Norwalk-line Boalt father. Richard NORWALK. first of the family who has record in this antiquity- plantation. It is a pity that disassoci- ation with the past should be such an accomplished fact as that inquiry must needs, in 1896, be made ere one can be assured, locality-Wise, of such formerly well-known Roway- ton or Five Mile River sites as Boalt's meadows. " Reed's Farm " and " Warren's dock."1 The Lockwood family into which John, son of David Boalt, ,st- married is a house- hold, the descendants of which, lineal and collateral, have so figured in home and abroad history as that the household's founder could hardly have forecast the increase and in- fluence of his large and important progeny. With the description-completion of Home-lot xx ends the partial story of those primitive hearthstone divisions which stood on the ancient " Towne Streete." Other fathers elsewhere planted themselves (see diagram page 39). The situations of the re- ferred-to home-sites are believed to be accurate, but the numbering of the same is simply a matter of convenience. Boalt, Sr., had four sons, Richard, 2d- John,1*1- (who came to Norwalk) William, Benjamin, Charles, and a daughter Deborah. No other Boalts than those of this lineage are found in Norwalk. The estate of John Itualt'st. was inventoried May 4, 1730, and his widow and son Richard3d. were the executors of the same. 'This dock at the navigable head of Five Mile River was, it is believed, built by Edmond Warren, {see page 26S) the parent of the Norwalk Warrens. It stood, as is now said and shown in Rowavton, on the west side of the stream and immediately across the Tramway bridge which spans the narrow upper end of said river at Rowayton. Beyond this dock and bridge the stream, a small rivulet and afterward brook, may be traced a* far north as Vista in the State of New York. (See page 59.) The " Warren dock" is mentioned to-day by the descendants of Ed- mond Warren,!", and its present appearance is not unattractive. It is claimed by one of the Warren family that a son of Edmond, 'st. the forefather, was drowned in "Warren's Pond" at Rowayton. As be- fore intimated on this page it is to be regretted that so many old time place-memories have been per- mitted to lapse with the lapse of the generations. It is not, however, altogether too late to undo to some extent this rernissness-etfVct, and the proper tablet marking of points still recognition-possible, might constitute albeit a limited yet a not entirelv unin- structive panorama of Norwalk founding days' "ex- periences." ISo alt-Glints. Samuel, son of William and Lvdia Boalt, mar- ried Jan. 3, ,79S, Mary Webb, and had Samuel Webb lioalt, born December 9, i798. Marr, wife, died De- cember 26, 179N. From Boalt records which have been preserved in Unadilla, N V.. it is gathered that John Boalt 'St., the Norwalk pioneer, had a sister Deborah, who married and settled in the extreme north-western portion of Fairfield County. Her husband's name is said to have been Wanzer. Wanzer appears to have been a New Milford vicinity cognomen of later date. It is inferred that the Charles Boalt, (son of Rich- ard 3d-) who died at sea, left two daughters, Lydia, who married a Captain Butterworth and settled in Boston, and Elizabeth, who married a Timberlin. The Ballston, N. Y., Boalts are descendants of William Boalt of New Canaan. There stands to-day, at the foot of Church Hill, in that town, and in the rear of the present Seymour Comstock residence, the remains (transfoi med ) of an old Boalt mill. David Boalt JA, who married Sarah Taylor, lived in the yet existing house on " Mullen 1 1 ill " (opposite the Main Street Edwin Hoyt home). This hill has been so changed as that a very imperfect idea can now be formed of the old David Boalt 2d- grounds. The Vista Boalt home grounds are unbuilt upon in 1896. They stand upon the New Canaan and Ridge- field road, about midway between the two towns, and near the source of the stream, Five Mile River, at the mouth of which the Norwalk Boalt father established himself. The Hickox-Burlock relationship furnishes mat- ter for quite a chapter of Norwalk history. Job Bur- lock, the father of the Burlock family, met with a sad death, and his widow afterward married in the Prov- inces. It is possible that she had children by her second husband, but they do not appear in their mother's childhood home. Her maiden - De Forest name still lives, although marriages and removals have wrought great alterations. The Lockwood family vigorously remains to this hour. X O R VV A L K . 3-i HOME- 1. O T XX J SAMUEL MALE. ROBERT STUART. Samuel Hale's tenancy of home-lot xxi is mentioned in connection with that of his supposed to be brother Thomas' occupation of home-lot xvi (see page 2851. The Hale's do not appear to have remained many years in Norwalk. nor here to have left descend- ants. Nathan Hale, the patriot-spy of the Revolution, came to Xorwalk, (see Lamb's New York, Volume ii, page 137) but his errand was entirely professional. He here took a craft and, investigation errand - bound, sailed from hence' to the enemy's quarters at Huntington, on the thither side of Long Island Sound.