Norwalk

Esther, born July 19, 1730. (Married Benj. Woolsey of Dorsoris, L. I.) Isaac, born July 19, 1732. (Died unmarried.) 'The genealogy of Mary Rumsey (Mrs. Ralph Isaacs, Sr.) runs thus : William Frost of Notting- ham, England, settled when well on in life, in 1639, in Fail-field on " Frost Square," where he died six years afterward. His oldest son, Daniel, who lived a short distance from his father, married, in 1639, Elizabeth, daughter of John Barlow of Fairfield and had a daugh- ter Rachel, who married Robert Rumsey. Rout, and Rachel (F'rost) Rumsey had a son Benjamin, who mar- ried Mary Hyde, which Benjamin and Mary Rumsey were the parents of Mary Rumsey, born 1705, who, ( Mar. 7, 1726 ) married Ralph Isaacs, Sr. of Nnrwalk. 33° NORWALK. Sarah, born Aug. 31, 1735. (Married David Bush of Greenwich.) Benjamin, born Sept. 19, 1737. (Married Sarah Scudder.) Ralph, born June 4, 1741. (Married Sept. 8, 1761, Mary Perit.) Grace, born June 10, 1743. (Married Rev. Luke Babcock of Yonkers', N. Y.) While, through the aid of a vivid imagination, not a few, perhaps, of the ancient habitations of Norwalk are susceptible of picture-clothing, still plain fact itself will attest to the emanation of a remarkable procession of personages from the old Isaacs domicile, which stood in the to-day recalled green-carpeted St. John lot, which has parted with a portion of its emerald acreage to make room for the more pretentious denominated " Mor- gan Avenue " of later times. Mr. Isaacs took his bride of twenty to the five acre meadow-home, where, to the young pair, the child, Samuel, was first given. This earliest born grew to love Mary, five years the senior of himself, and the daughter of barrister James Brown, and the two left father and mother and planted themselves in Lower Salem, where came to them Samuel B. Jr., Isaac and quite a little flock of Isaacs nestlings. Mary, the second child vouchsafed Ralph and Mary Isaacs, was the first daughter to bless the hearthstone, and very properly took her mother's name. She died unmarried. Esther, the next child's destiny, was a brief life of twenty-five summers, but her career was as signal as it was short, in that, marrying Benj. Woolsey, of a country-seat thousands of acres in extent near Dorsoris, L. I., she, before quitting the world, gave birth to the two distinguished daughters, Mary and Sarah, who were to wed, respectively, Tim- othy Dwight, D. D., and Moses Rogers. These two girls were not seven years old when their mother was called hence. Their father married, second, Anna Muirson, who bore to him a son, the father of Dr. Theodore D. Woolsey, President of Yale. (See page 166.) Isaac, the fourth child, whose birthday corresponded to that of his sister Esther, went, as did his seven years older neighbor-boy. Thos. Fitch, afterward Col. Thos. Fitch, into the French war, in which strife both youth were officers. Isaac died a bachelor. Sarah, next to Isaac, married Uavid Bush of Greenwich, and had four children, viz.: Samuel, Mary (Mrs. Henry Davis of Poughkeepsie), Sarah (Mrs. Ira Rogers), and Elizabeth (Mrs. Henry Greig of Greenwich). li e mother 0 Mrs !«,,«•> ( Marv HyuV ) was the widow Esther ,po>.ibIv Hume). These had a son, daughter „( John and hhsabeth ( Harvey , Hyde John Rusco.*.. (see page , , ,), who, bv his wife ( Re- John Hyde w„.- the son „t Humphrey Hyde, the set- becea Heebe, had a da" gh.er Rebecca, who married . James Brown"*.- of Norwalk. James""- and Rebecca Isaacs-Rusco Note. j (Rusco) Broun had a son, James"'-, who married Jo- William R„sco, who early appears in Norwalk I "T Whi,ehe"d' bo,n in ,69°> Southampton, L.I., and the European foreparent of the large Rusco Cam' I , daUghter of Samuel Whitehead, who was son of ily of Norwalk, »», born in ,594. He came to Ameri ' * Whi,eh**d- who 'iv<* «•> New Haven and in ca from Billerica, England and stopped first in Can, -^ew Jersey, Mrs. James liro««l. (Joanna White bridge and next in Hartford. He was twice marrie I * daUght" Mar-V' ^,rn '7". "h« married His first wife died in ,s„. and he married second' "'dL'S' Silmuel> RalPh l5aacs' Sr- <see note NOR WALK. 33' Benjamin'"-, born the autumn after his father had staked out the ground for the future St. Paul's Church, and for whom that parent built, later, the well-remembered Isaacs house, now supplanted by the Wall Street Masonic Temple, married Sarah, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth (St. John) Scudder, and had : Isaac Scudder, born Feb. 6. 1760. Benjamin 2d\ born Dec. 1764.' Sarah. (Mrs. Joseph Rogers.) Esther, born Apr. 1766. (Married Dec. 19, 1784, Wm. Knapp of Greenwich.) William. Elizabeth, born Oct. 12, 1770. (Mrs. Amos Belden.) (See page 96.) Ralph, the namesake and youngest son of Ralph Isaacs, Sr., left Norwalk at an early age and established himself at Branford, on the Sound. He married, Sept. 8, 1 761 , Mary Perit, of Huguenot descent (see note page 297) and his farm estate was known by the name of Cherry Hill. His daughter Grace, named for his Norwalk sister, the youngest child of Ralph Isaacs. Sr., married Jonathan Ingersoll, son of Rev. Jonathan Ingersoll of Ridge- field, and had a son, afterward Hon. Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll,2 United States Minister to Russia, who married a daughter of John Cornelius Vanden Huevel, formerly Governor of the Dutch province of Dcmarara, but now a resident of New York. Old Mr. Vanden Huevel's city residence, is in 1896, covered by the business houses on the northwest corner of Barclay Street and Broadway, but his country home stood on the Bloomingdale Road, at about the present 72nd Street. Besides Mrs. Ingersoll, he had a daughter Maria Eliza, who married John C. Hamilton (son of Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of State under Washington's administration) and a daughter Susan Augusta, who married Thomas Gibbs, the father of Mrs. John Jacob Astor. His son-in-law, John C. Hamilton, purchased the Barclay Street property, the title of which property still remains with Mr. Hamilton's descendants. Mr. Hamilton's father, Secretary Alexander Hamilton, was from the Baha- mas He married Elizabeth, daughter of Gen. Phillip Schuyler. His home was "The Grange ", about 145th Street and 9th Avenue, New York. He spent the night previous to his duel with Aaron Burr at his friend Gouverneur Morris' mansion, on Harlem Kills. His wife, at The Grange, was unaware of the duel. After the duel he was carried to his State Street house, near the Battery. Hi.s children were : Philip, Alexander 'd; James A., and John C, the last of whom, (John C.) a lawyer and historian, was the father of Alex- ' Benjamin^., son of Benj. and Sarah Isaacs, born Dec. 1764, removed to Bedford, N. V. He married Sarah Hawley, and had no issue. His sister Sarah married Joseph Roger? of Patterson, N. J. , and had : George, Uriah, Sarah (Mrs. Jesse Olmstead), William, Maria, James and Charles. His brother William lived also In Bedford, and having married Mrs. Mary Riley, had: George, Emily, William H. and Charles. His sister Elizabeth married Amos, son of John and Rebecca (Bartlett) Belden of Norwalk. (See note at foot of page 96.) «The sister of Hon. Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll was the "Grace Ingersoll1' referred to in note at foot of page 297. NORWALK. ander3d-, who, marrying Elizabeth Smith Xicoll of L. I., were the parents of Rev. Alexan- der Hamilton of Norwalk. A great-grandson of Ralph Isaacs, Jr., and grandson of John C. Vanden Huevel, Ex-Gov. Charles R. Ingersoll, married Virginia, daughter of Admiral Francis H. Gregory and grand-daughter of Capt. Moses Gregory of Norwalk. Grace, the youngest child of Ralph1"' and Mary (Rumsey) Isaacs, married Rev. Luke Babcock. She was a distinguished woman, and lived very handsomely in the center of what is now Yonkers, N. Y. She lost her husband, and was afterward greatly admired by an army officer. (See note page 298.) Passing away is written on everything sublunary. Before Ralph Isaacs came to Norwalk, the cradle of his remarkable family had sheltered strangers, and after his day others possessed it. The last to inhabit it was the family of William lst\ son of Colonel Stephen St. John (see note page 297), and the last child therein born was the son of Wil- liamist' and Mary Esther (Belden) St. John, viz. : William St. John211-, who married Esther,' born Apr. 27, 1783, daughter of James and Rebecca (Gould) Cannon, and had: Mary Esther. (Mrs. Munson Hoyt.) Susan Virginia. (Mrs. Charles Sherry.) Sarah Louisa. (Mrs. Francis Skiddy.) William 3d- (Married Joanna Louisa Van Zandt.) Frederick. (Married Ann Terrill (Isaacs) Rosseau.) Julia Belden. (Mrs. Jacob A. Van Zandt.) Isaac Scudder, son of Benj. and Sarah (Scudder) Isaacs, married June 6, 1777, Susannah, daughter of Col. Stephen and Ann (Fitch) St. John, and had : 'Esther, wile of Win. St. John2*1-, was a "gentle- woman " of the olden school. She lived to a ripe age and, as was true of her older sister Sarah, (Mrs. Jonathan Fitch) was blest to the last by tender min- istrations. She was of the fifth generation (James, John3«l., Johnwl., John'st.) from John and Maria ( Le Grand) Cannon of "Van Staten Evhind", 1748. Her Cannon grandfather, John3"l-, was the original Cannon of Norwalk. He lived on the present East Avenue ( F. St. John Lockwood front lawn ), and her father's home was the residence in 1896 of her niece, Mrs. Jonathon Camp of Cannon St. Her own (St. John) home beautifully fronted the harbor at the south crest of " Mullen Hill ". It stands to-day (High Street) having been slightly removed from its Hrst site. The house in the days of Win, St. John*d. was a fine structure. It was painted pure white including even the chimneys, and rising from a generous acre- age-bed of carefully cut grass, with densely green bordered paths, and the sun lighting up its elevated south-facing front, it was one of the most striking Norwalk habitations of its day. Mrs. St. John was only sixteen when her grandfather ("Commodore" Cannon ) died. A letter which, albeit, written by that grandfather a quarter-century before she was born, has been preserved and is somewhat of a curi- osity in its way : ( It is addressed to a Norwalk sail- ing-master). Norwalk, Dec. 3, 1755.