Norwalk

March 23, 1770, daughter of Nathaniel Benedict and had Ana!) (Mis. Eli B. Bennett), born July 30, 1794; John, born Aug. 21, 1797, unmarried; Polly, Dec. 29, 1799, unmarried; Charles, born Aug. 28, 1802, mar- ried Jane Ketchum of L. I. ; Esther Mary, born May 8, 1803 (Mr:.. Richard Sammis); Eliza Ann, born Feb. 14, 1809, (Mrs. Samuel Fernakl of N Y.) ; and Harriet, horn June 1, 1815 ( Mrs. Isaac Piatt Jarvis). The children of Eli B. and Anah ( Eversley ) Ben- nett were, Mary Augusta; Nancy Emily; John Fred- erick; Charles Rinaldo; Edwin; Mary Elizabeth (Mrs. Edward W Stuart); Harriet, (Mrs. Stiles Whiting Curtiss); Augusta, (Mrs. James E. Hayt): Jane Eliza and Sarah Frances. Salmon and Betty (Eversley) Jennings, lived in the present Cram East Avenue place. They had one child, Sally Ann, who married William Clark and had two children, Edgar and Mary Augusta, neither of whom married. 3lsaac Seuddei-ist. of Norwalk was one of the eight sons of Benj. Scudder's'-. who was son of Thomas*'1 , NORWALK. 327 Joseph St. John'51- made his will Sept. 24, 1731, and dying two days afterward, the same was probated Jan. 12, 1731-2. In this document mention is made of his wife Sarah, his son Joseph 2d- and his daughters Mary Eversley and Elizabeth. His wife survived him until Aug. 27, 1735. His son, Joseph *d; like his father before him, was an only son, who, by his marriage to Susannah, born Sept. 3, 1709, daughter of Nathan and Susannah (Hook- er) Selleck, conveyed to his children and their descendants the staunchest of Colonial blood (see page 293). The children of Joseph 2d- and Susannah St. John were : Susannah. (Mrs. Eliphalet Lockwood 2d) Sarah, born Dec. 6, 1734; died Apr. 18, 1741. Stephen, (Col.) born 1736. Hooker, born 1742; died March 10, 1782, (unmarried.)' William, born 1744; died Feb. 1, 1800. Buckingham, born 1745; died May 5, 1,771, (unmarried). (son) died ten years old. Joseph St John2d-died Sept. 1753, his wife having preceded him to the tomb on Dec. 4, 1749. His will was drawn Oct. I, 1 7 5 1 , and admitted to court Oct. 5, 1756. He bequeathed to his oldest son (Col. Stephen) the handsome amount, in that day, of £1000, albeit Stephen was not yet of age. He testamentarily enjoined that his " son William and son Buckingham be brought up to learning in ye college at New Haven". William, for some reason, did not take up a collegiate course, but Buckingham was Yale connected in 1770, and was drowned in Long Island Sound whilst on a passage from New Haven to Norwalk, May 4, 1771. mis of South Norwalk and New Haven. Mrs. Abigail Bartram died Jan. 14, 1776 and her husband married, third, Elizabeth, daughter of Isaacist. and Elizabeth Scudder. The children of Job and Elizabeth ( Scud- der) Bartram were Isaac, born March 27, 1777, died next day ; John, born Dec. 27, 1778, died Feb. 17, next ; Isaac Scudder, born July 2, 1780, died Feb. 27, 1783; Eulalia, born Dec. 22, 17S2 and Betsy, born July To, 1785. Betsy died unmarried. Eulalia, daughter of Job and Elizabeth Bartram married Rev. Henry Whitlock, Rector 1800-1S11, of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk. Dr. Henry Scudder, the eminent India Mission- ary descended from another branch of the same family from whence sprang the Norwalk Scudders. 'Hooker St. John's complete estate was distribut- ed April r7, 1792, among his two surviving brothers, Stephen and William, and his sister Susannah (Mrs. Eliphalet Lockwood), each receiving an equal share. The value of the %vhole estate was nearly £2,000. He owned the wharf lot, still held in the Lockwood family, just east of Norwalk Bridge, which lot was valued in 1792, at £50. who was son of Thomas Scudder'st- of L. I., the father of the Scudder family of America. Thomas, 'St., great- grandfather of Isaac ScudderIst-, is believed to have been the son of Dr. Henry Scudder who presided at the ( 1643 ) convention appointed by order of the King, at Westminister Abbey ( see Munsell's History of Suffolk County, L. I. ) Thomas Scudder^- died in 1690, leaving sons and daughters. Benj.'st. was one of his two only sons. Benj. 1st. died in 1736 leaving eight sons, two of whom, IsaacIst' and Ezekiel, settled in Norwalk. Isaac Scudder married Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Joseph's1- and Sarah (Betts) St. John, and had : Isaac. Sarah. (Mrs. Benjamin Isaacs). Elizabeth. (Married Aug. 27, 1776, Job Bartram). Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth Scud- der, was the third wife of Job Bartram. Mr. Bartram married, first, Nov. 18, 1762, Jerusha Thompson, who died Nov. 23, 1773. The widower married, second, Nov. 7, 1774, Abigail Starr, and had Daniel Starr Bartram, born 1775, who was the father, among other children, of Helen, the late Mrs. Dr. Augustus Sam- 328 NORWALK. Joseph St. John2d- resided where now summer-tenants, on East Avenue, the family of Wm. H. Earle. It was, in old times, a sightly and picturesque spot. Four of the seven children died young or unmarried, leaving only Susannah (Mrs. Eliphalet Lockwood 2d-), Col. Stephen and William, to transmit the immediate Joseph St. J0hn,s, »',d2d- lineage.' The first of this trio, Susannah, has mention on page 292. Her brother, Colonel Stephen St. John, Ninth Connecticut Regiment, who is described as having been an elegant man, married, Dec. 9, 1757, Ann, born 1734, daughter of Hon. Samuel and Susannah Fitch,2 and sister of Mrs. Nehemiah Rogers (see page 161), Mrs. Jehiel Ketchum, and the first Mrs. Ebenezer Church, as well as of the brothers Samuel Fitch 2d- (see page 215), Daniel Fitch (see page 221), and Jonathan Fitch (see page 175). The children of Col. Stephen and Ann St. John were : Stephen2d'. Sarah. (Mrs. Dr. John Cannon 2d) William. Susannah. (Mrs. Isaac Scudder Isaacs). Nancy. (Mrs. Matthew Marvin of Wilton). (See note page 143). Col. Stephen St. John died May 9, 1785, and his wife April 28, 1797. Their de- scendants have Colonial official-eligibility on both foreparents sides. Col. Stephen St. John had military command, and his wife was a daughter of one high in social position. Their son, Stephen 2d-, married Sarah, daughter of Col. Thomas and Sarah (Hill) Fitch (see page 209) which Col. Thomas Fitch was the oldest son of Gov. Thomas Fitch. The children of Stephen 2d- and Sarah St. John were : Julia Ann (the first Mrs. Horace Gibbs, see page 21 1) and Henrietta. William, the younger brother of Stephen St. John2d-, married Han- nah Marvin (see note page 143). Of the daughters of Col. Stephen St. John, Sarah married John2d-, son of John'5' (Commodore) and Esther (Perry) Cannon (see page 1 3 and note page 299) and Susannah married Isaac Scudder Isaacs, son of Benjamin and grandson of Ralph and Mary Isaacs; which St. John- Isaacs alliance invites reference, at this point, as follows : RALPH ISAACS LINEAGE. Ralph Isaacs, a hot unimportant name in Norwalk's second half-century history, here appeared in abottt 1725. There had been those of his name in the land, but none in 'The St. John Coat of Arms (Lord Bolingbroke ) was inscribed upon the tomb in the East Norwalk Cemetery of Joseph St. Jolin- i . This piece, a slate tablet, was, for some unaccountable reason removed from the St John monument and buried in the old Joseph St. John home ground, where (Earle place 1896) a section of it was found in iXyj. 'Hon. Samuel Fitch (brother of Gov. Thomas Fitch) was appointed "Committee of war" March 17, 1756 to attend, assist and advise with Andrew Burr, David Rowland, Ebenezer Silliman and Joseph Piatt relating to expedition against Crown Point. (See Connecticut Colonial Records.) lie was uncle to C..1 Thomas Fitch. NOR WALK. 329 Xorwalk before that date. The fact that his wife was from Fairfield evidences an acquaint- ance, on his part, with Fairfield County prior to his Xorwalk residenceship. He bought and sold in this town, previous to the purchase of his family seat, an eligible site, crossed to-day by Morgan Avenue. The town had considerably outgrown its original limits, and its land records show that Thomas Hanford"1- was owner of the upland tract lying, largely, south of the present Betts woods, fronting which skirted the meadow, dotted in 1896. by the Morgan Avenue homes. This was a choice piece of real estate. Jonathan Elmer of Windsor stood possessed, in 1718, of a portion of this meadow, as did also John Keeler, Sr. On Dec. 16, 1718, Keeler sold his block of several acres to Benj. Lynes of Xorwalk, an intimate friend of Rev. Stephen Buckingham, and on Jan. 26, 1720, Mr. Elmer did the same with his share of the original lot. On Aug. 15, 1720, Mr. Lynes parted with a slice of the property to Samuel Grumman, and on July I, 1725, deeded the balance of it to Jonathan Jackson of Boston, as security for paper held by Jackson. Ralph Isaacs now made an offer for the entire Lynes interest. The note, therefore, held by Jackson, was taken upon Oct. II, 1727. and the property quit-claimed first to Lynes and then to Isaacs. As one steps from the platform of the Consolidated road's present depot in Fair- field, he finds himself upon the northern borders of one of those levels that appeared so to delight Ludlow, and close by the spot that Humphrey Hyde, a noted Fairfield settler and a particular friend of settler John Gregory of Xorwalk, selected, in 1649, for a future home for himself and family. John, the oldest son of Humphrey Hyde, occupied his departed father's house, next the Rocks. He had married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Harvey, and taken her from her riverside Stratford hearth to Fairfield, where, on probably the identical grounds now covered by the railroad station referred to, was born, Sept. 25, 1670, Mary Hyde, who, girlhood passed, married a young man from the present Greens Farms, Benjamin Rumsey by name, and had in [705 a daughter, called for her mother, who, at the age of twenty-one, married Ralph Isaacs, and coming to his meadow homestead at the northern base of the Grumman's Hill of 1896, was the ancestress' of a numerous and honored descent. Ralph and Mary (Rumsey) Isaacs married March 7, 1725-6, and had: Samuel, born Jan. 16, 1726-7. (Married Mary, daughter of James Brown.) Mary, born Sept. 27, 1728. (Died unmarried.)