Norwalk

'This Matthias St. John (son of Benj. St. John'st.) married, June 28, 1758, Naomi, daughter of Abraham Weed, and had Abraham; Sarah (Mrs. Isaac Keeler, baptized June 15, 1760); Matthias; Esther; Enoch* (Col.) ; Benjamin ;+ Samuel ; Anna, born Nov. 13, 1770 (Mrs. Matthew Benedict) ; John Trowbridge ; Nathan ; Esther (Mrs, Benj. Bates). Samuel, the sixth child of Matthias and Naomi St. John amassed a large pro- perty in the south. He was a bachelor, and his es- tate was divided between his brothers and sisters and their heirs. His brother, John Trowbridge St. John, died in Walton, N. Y., in 1850. leaving, among other children, Maria, who married Joseph E. Sheffield of New Haven, the munificent founder of the Scientific School of Yale University. 2Mrs. Lawrence U. Alexander is a daughter of Newton and Jane ( Pope ) St. John of Mobile Ala., and a sister of the late Hon. William P. St. John of political prominence during the last presidential cam- paign. She is a southern lady, but herself and hus- band have selected a rare site in the elevated town of New Canaan as a summer seat. Her father, New- ton St. John, was son of Nathan, who was son of Mat- thias and Naomi (Weed) St. John, referred to in the text. In her great work upon the St. John family she has the valuable assistance of Rev. Horace E. Hay- den, an able genealogist and historian of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. *Col. Enoch St. John, born Oft. 14, 1765, lived at the head of Haynes Ridge, later " Elm Corners", now " Owenoke Avenue". The Colonel was a man of presence and bearing, who married first, Sybil Seymour, who lived only a few months. He married second,a Dowues; third, a Chapman, and fonnd his fourth part- ner in Bridgeport. His brother Samuel, the southern cotton broker, who is note referred to on this page, left an annual an- nuity to his brothers and sisters, decreeing- that the principal should be kept intact until the last child of the third following- generation should attain the age of twenty-one. CoJ. Enoch St. John's son Samuel, was engaged in business with his uncle in the south, where he married. Enoch, Jr., another son of Col. Enoch went to Rochester, N.Y., and Hannah,the Col.'s daughter, married Hanford Davenport, who occupied the Haynes Ridge home, leaving it, at his decease, to the Davenport heirs. tBenjamin, brother of Col. Enoch St. John, had a farm given him by his father, at the foot of "Ferris Hill", on the present road to the Grupe Reservoir. He had five children. His daugh- ter Catherine, of happy memory, made her home with her uncle Samuel of New Haven, and married Hon. Noah A. Phelps of that city. Colonel Enoch St. John was wont to make horseback trips to and from New Haven. 336 NORWALK. St. John. Their children were : Jonathan, who went West; David *d; who married Nancy Hurd of Monroe, Conn.;' Hannah (Mrs. Krozer) ; Sally (Mrs. Hannon) ; Mary, (Mrs. Abraham Camp); William, who married Antoinette Betts (see page 90); no children. The descendant-record of Matthias St. John, Sr., comprises a long roll-call. The second occupant of home-lot xxii bequeathed his blood to a small army, every unit of which host stands descent-debtor to the forefather. It is a satisfaction to know that the large family is to receive deserved attention at the hands of one of its own members, re- ferred to on page 335, the earnest and influential Madame Regent, in 1897, of the Hannah Benedict Chapter, D. A. R., of New Canaan. JOHN PLATT. Between home-lots xxii and xxiii (see diagram page 39) lay a somewhat surface-di- versified tract, which became the ownership of one who, Norwalk-arrived later, by a few years, than the first planters appearance. The " Towne Street" home-lots had been quite disposed of when to John Piatt, Sr., the proprietors, in 1660, 1663 and 1672 assigned dif- ferent portions of the new township. On March 9, 1665-6, Thos. Lupton, of home-lot 27, made a sale to Mr. Piatt, and on May 14, 1669, Samuel Hale of home-lot 21 (brother of Thomas Hale of home-lot 17) having removed to Wethersfield, parted with property to Mr. Piatt. Thos. Hale died in 1680-8 1, and John Piatt and his brother-in-law. Thomas Fitch, Jr., were appointed by the County Court, administrators of his estate. John Piatt, Sr. was married on June 6, 1660, the year of his Norwalk-coming, to Hannah, daughter of "farmer" George Clark of Milford. He was one of the most noted public men in Nor- walk history. His deputyship to the "General Court" covered a period of several years. He was appointed in Oct., 1680, a commissioner to view grounds with reference to a new plantation on the north of Stamford, and was one of the parties who laid out Danbury. His children were : John"1, born June I, 1664. Josiah'--'-, born Dec. 28, 1667; (died young.) Samuel1"-, born Jan. 26, 1670. Joseph, born Feb. 17, 1672. Hannah, born Dec. 15, 1674; (Mrs. Marvin.) Sarah, born May 20, 1678; (Mrs. Samuel Kellogg.) Mary, born May 1. 16S3 ; (Mrs. Benedict ) ■David St. Joined, was for a protracted term of years a faithful warden of St. Paul's Church. He re- sided some three or so miles from the sanctuary, but was constant in his attendance upon public worship. During the later porton of his life lie was, with the venerable Mrs. Wm. Jarvis Street, eu2aged in Sun- day School work and diligent at his post. On Ash- Wednesday, 1845, a heavy snow-storm was raging, hut the Rector of St. Paul's, Rev. William Cooper Mead, D. ]).. held service, the congregation comprising the Rector's wife, Mr. St. John and the church sexton. The children of David St. Johnsd. died under age. NORWALK John Platt2d', born 1664, married May, 1695, Sarah, born Nov. 3, 1670, daughter of Ephraim Lockwood. Their children were : Sarah, born Mar. 30, 1697 (Mrs. Nathan Whitney); Elizabeth, born June 11, i699(Mrs. Benj. Lyon); John, ,d- born April 2, 1702; Abigail, born Feb. 12, 1707 (Mrs. Samuel Warring); Josiah, born Nov. 6, 1704; and Mary (Mrs. Richard Bouton.) John Platt2d- died in 1736. The next child of John Piatt181-, Josiah, born 1667, probably died early and un- married, as no mention of him or his is made in his father's will, neither upon any record yet discovered. Samuel, son of John Piatt"1', born 1670, married June 18, 1712, Rebecca Benedict, who was daughter of Samuel Benedict of Danbury. One daughter was born to these parents, viz., Rebecca, April 9, 171 3. Samuel Piatt, the father, died Dec. 4, 171 3. Being "very sick," he made his will the day before he died, leaving his estate to his wife and daughter, decreeing that in the event of his daughter's death before having reached eight- een years of age, or in the event of her afterward dying single, her portion should finally fall to his two nephews, John and Josiah, "sons to my brother John Piatt", and to "Jo- seph Piatt, my brother Joseph Piatt's son,'' which will was probated Dec. 15, 1713. Joseph Piatt, "ye worshipful Joseph Piatt, Esq.", born 1672, the youngest son of John'5'- and Hannah Piatt, had a grant by the town, in 1700, of the fine France Street lot, now the property of Thomas C. Cornwall. He married, first, Nov. 6, 1700, Eliza- beth, daughter of Matthew 2d- and Elizabeth Marvin, and had Elizabeth,1 born Dec. 2, 1701. The first Mrs. Joseph Piatt1"' died April 9, 1703, and her husband married, second, Jan. 26, 1704, Hannah, daughter of Rev. Thomas Hanford. There were two children by this union, Hannah, born Oct. 30, 1704, and Joseph2d', born Sept. 9, 1706. Joseph 2d- (Hon.) was a Yale man, class of 1733. He married Hannah, daughter by his third wife, of Zech- ariah Whitman. His children (six) were all daughters, and the corner France Street home sent forth well-known Norwalk mothers. Elizabeth, the oldest daughter, married Samuel Fitch2d', son of Samuel'"' and Susannah Fitch. Mary, the next daughter, married Jede- diah Hanford ; Esther married Timothy, son of Gov. Fitch, and lived opposite the present Gray Mineral Water works in East Norwalk ; Ann became the wife of Stephen Thatcher ; Susannah married Daniel Hanford, father of Selectman Joseph Piatt Hanford, formerly of Strawberry Hill, (see notes page 139 and page 143), and Hannah married an Avery. Josiah, son of John2d- and Sarah (Lockwood) Piatt, had a daughter Abigail, who married, Aug. 1, 1753, Jabez Saunders, who had Thomas'*'-, born Dec. 28, 1758, who mar- ried, Sept. 20, 1789, Ann Blatchley, and had Thomas 2d-, born Dec. II, 1790; Piatt, born March 13, 1793; Lydia, born Apr. 16, 1796 and Betsey ("Aunt Betsey " Saunders2 of 1896), born March 1 1 , 1799. 'She married, for his third wife, Rev. Samuel Cook (see page 201). aThis woman is an object of interest because of her extreme age. She is, in 1896, ninety-seven years old. The Blatchley's lived in the vicinity of the present Saugatuck station of the Consolidated road. 338 NORWALK. John Piatt 3d-, son of John id\ married Sarah Hickox (see page 234),' and had John«th\ born Mar. 20, 1736, who married Sept 3, 1758, Charity Morehouse, from which union descend the so-known " Silver Mine " Platts.2 Samuel son of John 3d- and Sarah (Hickox) Piatt, married, March 2, 1757, Ann, daughter of Jabez Raymond, and had: Justus1^, born Dec. 4, 1757. Justus2d-, born Sept. 10, 1768. Jabez, born Nov. 22, 1761 ; (died young.) Hannah, born May 24, 1771 ; (unmarried.) Esther.bornAug.il, 1763 ; (Mrs. I. Hyatt.) Betty, born Nov. 27, 1773. Joseph, born June 25, 1765. John, born Dec. 17, 1777. Ann, born Feb. 6, " 1 78 1 , (Mr?. John Sturges.)