Norwalk

"Aunt Betsey" was an early inmate of the Newkirk family, the seat of which household was where Noah Bradley has, in more recent years, resided. This beautiful water-view home now belongs to the Eno family. It has had a succession of well-known ten- ants— the Newkirks, Ketchums, Sillimans, Judahs and Bradley? have all found it a goodly spot. It was, in pre English times, an Indian haunt, evidently. The Norwalk pioneers recognized this fact, and gave the name of a prominent red ruler to its neighborhood It is to be presumed that the Ludlow covenant of 1640 was made not far from its spray-sprinkled shore. A handsome portrait of one of its early admirers adorns Greenfield Hill walls and in the care now bestowed the home and ii* env ironments, is exhibited a taste befitting the felicitous situation. "The New Haven records read "John Piatt of Nurwalk and Mrs. Mary Smith were married Nov. 20, 17:2. " This may have been an early marriage, fol- lowed In early decease, of John Platted., son of John-'L. " 2The cradle of the Piatt's of Silver Mine, is the (1896) yellow painted building called the " Marvin- Raymond'1 house (ltx*t hou-e. on the west side of the street, before is reached the turns in the Silver Mine road, one toward New Canaan and the other in the direction of Whmipauk.) This house was built in the day of John rMatt3d-, born in 1702, and probablv by the same John3<*., John4th., son of John Platt3d-, married, as stated in the text, Charily Morehouse. Both parents rest in St. Paul's churchyard. The husband, John Platt4th.t was the "master carpenter" employed in the build- ing of the St. Paul's Church which was taken down in 1S4L. John PIatt4th- had two sons. Joseph and Jonathan, and five daughter*— Surah, Hannah, Anna, Susan and l£-ther. Of these daughters, Sarah was the mother of Nathan Beers, whose son Frank now occupies the Beers (formerly Sherman) house in Main Street, (see plate, page 129) and the husbands of the others were named Nash, Richards, Glover and Mix. Joseph, son of John4'n- and Charity Piatt, born 1774-5, was the next older child than Jonathan, tiie youngest. Joseph married, first, March 7, 1S00, Nancy McAllister of Troy, N. Y., and had: Alfred M., born Oct. 6, 1800. Jonathan21*-, born Sept. II, 1803. Laura, born Jan. 21, 1806 (Mrs. Lemuel Bronson). Esther Sally, born Mar. 21. 1808 (died young). Joseph, born July 8, 181 1. Nancy Jane, born Nov. 10, 1813 (died young). Charles, born Mch. 15, 1S16 (died young). Esther, born Sept. 7, 1818 (died young). Susanna, born Feb. 19, 1821 (Mrs. Samuel Beers). Emily C, born Dec. 17, 1S25 (Mrs. Levi Brown). Chauncey Cook, born Dec. 20, 1827. Minerva, born June 28, 1R32 (Mrs. John Wesley Dickens). Joseph Piatt, father of the immediately foregoing children, was familiarly called "Governor". He married, second. Oct. 1, 1S37, Mrs. Olive Gregory. Alfred M., son of Joseph and Nancy Piatt, mar- ried Hannah Smith of West Norwalk, and had: Giles (married Mary Couch) ; Amanda (Mrs. Samuel Corn- stock) ; Cornelius (married Caroline, daughterof John Quigley. and had Charles); Sarah (Mrs. Royal Miller) ; Martha (Mrs. Joseph Gilbert); Ann Elizabeth (Mrs. John Lambert*); Mary Jane (Mrs, Sydney Guthrie); Frederick M. (unmarried); LeGrand (died young). Jonathan^., son 0[ Joseph and Nancy Piatt, mar- ried, Apr. 6, 1828, Laura Patmely, daughterof Win. and Esther (Squires) Taylor of Wilton, and had: David M., born Jan. 2, 1830; Augustus, born Dec. 10, 1831; Mary E. (Mrs. Wm. H. Holly M born June 6, 1834; John Henry, born Sept. 13, 1837; Harriet L. •John and Ann E. Lambert had one child, Carrie, who mar- ried Geo. F. Lock wood, and had Ellsworth and Mary Jane -{-The children .»f Wm. H. and Mary E. Hollv were: YVm. Henry, died young; Orris Starr, died young; Mary G.,(Mr=. Arthur T. Evans); Jennie P , ( Mrs. Edward B. Butler); Chas.. died young; Estelle, died young. NORWALK. 339 A NORWALK ANCESTOR STORY Richard Piatt and Mary his wife, accompanied by their Anglican children Mary, John, Isaac and Sarah — landed from the Old World in 1638, in New Haven. Somewhat after the family's arrival in the Elm City of to-day, a project for founding a settlement at Milford was agitated, and the Piatt's anon thither removed. John, the oldest son, and the future Norwalk Piatt forefather, became of age in Milford, and there selected his bride, Hannah, daughter of George and Sarah Clark, one of the old Milford families. On June 6, 1660, magistrate Treat was called upon to unite John and Hannah in wedlock. They now came to Norwalk, and choosing for a home-lot a site on the old Fairfield path, settled down to life's duties. The father's namesake son, John2"1-, married Sarah, daughter of Ephraim Lockwood. The fruit of this Platt-Lockwood union was a son, John Piatt 3d'; five and one-half years after whose nativity occurred that of his future bride (see note page 234), Sarah, daughter of Samuel, Jr., and grand-daughter of Sergt. Samuel and Elizabeth (Plumb) Hickox of Waterbury. John and Sarah Piatt had a daughter Sarah, who married Joseph Betts (born March 29, 1 7 1 7, son of John, who was son of Thos. Jr., son of Thos. Sr.), of Norwalk, to whom were born Anna (Dec. 5, 1748) ; Justus (Sept. 20, 1749); Moses (Nov. 22, 1754); Aaron (Apr. 23, 1757) ; Piatt (died unmarried) ; Susanna. Joseph Betts died May 19, 1 760, and his widow, Sarah, married Feb. 1764, Ste- phen, Sr., son of Moses and Mercy St. John, who had Stephen, Jr., born Oct. 9, 1772, who married Jan. 4, 1797, Sarah, born Dec. 22, 1777, daughter of Moses' and Ann (Sturges) Betts, and had : (Mrs. Geo. M. Quigley), born Oct. 3, 1839; Frances Jane (Mrs. Geo. Burr Williams), born Nov. 25, 1884. Joseph, son of Joseph and Nancy Piatt, married Nov. 30, 1834, Clarinda Olmstead of Wilton, and had : Geo. M., born Dec. 11, 1835 (married Frances Brown) ; Almira (Mrs. Augustus B. Brown), born Dec'r. 22, 1840; Joseph E., born Sept. 1, 1844; Frances Ade- laide, born Oct. 18, 1847 (Mrs. John Loudon). Chauncey Cook, son of Joseph and Nancy Piatt, married Louisa Davinson, and had: Chauncey L. ; Maria; Joseph Edward, (died young). David M. , son of Jonathan 3d. and Laura P. Piatt married, first, Dec. 23, 1849, Jane Elizabeth McGrand, and had Geo. A., died young; Isabel Jane, died young; Charles A., died young. David M. Piatt married, second, Jan. 25, 1858, Mrs. Esther Polly McCormick, and had no issue. He married, third, Oct. 27, 1863, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Rood (daughter of Henry Smith), and had: Homer Edward, born Apr. 10, 1867, died young. Augustus, son of Jonathan 2d- and Laura P. Piatt married Sept. 27, 1858, Isabelle Hoyt, and had : Em- ma (Mrs. Franklin Austin) ; Clara Bell (died young) ; Charles Augustus, who married Susan Worden. John Henry, son of Jonathan 2d- and Laura P. Piatt married Jan. I, 1863, Mrs. Clarissa Mary Clark of Wilton. No issue. The livingcliildren of Chauncey L. (sonof Chaun- cey C.) and Gertrude Piatt are: Carrie and Harry. Harriet L., daughter of Jonathan^- and Laura P. Piatt married, Jan. 14, 1865, as his second wife, Geo. Mortimer, son of Adam and Betsey (Slauson) Qiiig- ley, and had : John William, born May 22, 1867, died Sept. 23, 1867 ; Homer Piatt, born June 23, 1872, un- married. Geo. M. Quigley had, by his first wife, Ann Palmer, one child.Chaiiotte Estelle, born July 25, 1862. ■ Moses Betts, born Apr. 5, 1751. son of Ellas and Abigail (Birchard) Betts, married Mar. 7. 1776, Ann, born Mar. 18, 1755, daughter of Gershom and Mary Sturges. Gershom Sturges, born 1731, was a son of Jeremiah and Ann (Barlow) Sturges. Jeremiah Stur- ges seems to have been a son of John and Sarah (Beers) Sturges, and his wife Ann, to have been a daughter of John Barlow3d-, who was a son of John2*1, and Abigail (Lockwood) Barlow, who was a son of John Barlow, the Fairfield settler. John Sturges2"1-, who married Sarah Beers, was a son of John Sturges'St., the Fair- field Sturges father. 34° NORWALK. Caroline, born June 8, 1800. (Married Henry Chichester). Edward B., born Dec. 4, 1801. Alanson Piatt, born Aug. 20, 1803. Jessup R., born Sept. 7, 1805. Sally A., born Oct. 30, 1807. (Married Thomas B. Merrill). Moses B., born Dec. 19, 1809. Charles G., born Dec. 2, 181 1. Harriet H., born Sept. 28, 181,3. (Died in infancy). Henrietta, born Sept. 28, 1813. (Died in infancy). Hiram, born Dec. 22, 1814. Catherine, born July 1, 1 8 16. (Married Lawrence M. Stevens). Harriet E., born Sept. 20, 18 18. (Married Gould D. Jennings). HOME L O T XXI T I. THOMAS BARN UM, SR. This Norwalk settler's rank appears, in the particular of distinguished descent, to have been of "crown jewel" designation. It is believed that he was the father of all the Barnums in America, and that the old Barnum well, still in Norwalk existence, is a "high family" shrine. While the author insists upon a strict interpretation of the pedigree "preface " found on page 81, still the searching investigation which has been made in relation to the foreign antecedents of the occupant of home-lot xxiii, supplemented by the close study of his earl}- New England association, justifies reference to the claim that Thomas Barnum, or Barnham, Sr., of the Norwalk allotment under consideration, sprang from (son or grandson of ) Sir Martin and Judith (Calthorpe) Barnham ; that his mother or grandmother was the daughter of Sir Martin Calthorpe, Lord Mayor of London ; that Sir Francis Barnham, Knight of Hollingbourne, was either his step-brother or own uncle, and that the wife of Francis Bacon (Lord Baconl, Great Lord Chancellor and Viscount was, if not his first, yet at least, his second cousin. The question as to what brought this supposed-to-be offspring of a " Lord of many Manors" to America, is likely to remain an open one. He is Norwalk-introduced as a capturer of "wolfs", and in drawing the attention of the town authorities to the matter. He appears here to have holden no special public position other than that he was one of the founders of Danbury. He had town "grants" of different dates, and held a " com- monge estate". In 168 1 he was chosen by the settlers (whose "select emigration "-ideas were limited only to character-qualification, and who expected every colonist to be in some NORW ALK.