Norwalk

"Henry Webbe of the city of London, Gentillman, is descendyd of a Hovse vnde- famed and ben one of ye Gentleman Yshers vnto the late Kyng of most famous memory, Henry ye Eight." etc. The wife of this Sir Henry Webb was Grace, sister of Robert Arden, of Warwickshire. Alexander, the oldest son of Sir Henry and Grace Webb, married Margaret Ardeu, and had Robert, Margaret and Alexander Jr. This last son had a family of six children, the oldest of whom, Richard, born 1584, is said to have been the Norwalk Webb foreparent. According to this pedigree Richard Webb1 " was approaching three score years and ten when he cast his lot among the Norwalk pioneers. His age and child-unaccompaniment when he arrived in this town may account for the early- disappearance of the family. Mrs. Webb (second wife, probably,) was Elizabeth, sister, it would seem, to settler John Gregory. To her was bequeathed the entire Webb property. Thomas Butler and wife Sarah, of Hart- ford, claimed, and apparently successfully so, Webb heirship, but the two eventually (May 16, 1671) relinquished all rights by virtue of "deeds, gifts or otherwise," and the estate fell to the widow, and finally to John Gregory. There was evidently no issue by the second mar- aud affection paid by all classes were eloquent wit- iThis thorough Belden and tree woman has ncsscs of the influence of his true and noble life. j taken an intelligent and indefatigable interest in the He died very suddenly, of apoplexy, the result of work of collecting Belden data.' During the closing overwork, on Sunday, July 2s, 18UT>, while preparing, years of her honored mother's life she with daughter- as usual, to attend the services of the Church, and I iy devotion ministered faithfully to her aged parent, was buried in St. Matthew s Churchyard, Wilton. His widow and two sons survive him also his ven- erable mother, at the age of ninety-tw, 1, as well as two sisters and a brother. and still made time to gather valuable family facts. The large Belden household is her debtor. The home of Mrs. Dr. Warren is in the neighborhood of the "Rock House Woods " of early .Norwalk story. NORWALK. 399 riage, and only one child, it is conjectured, by the former union, viz, Richard Webb, Jr., of Stamford in 1651. Granting the preceding generation table to be correct there is opened an inviting Old and New World Webb, Arden and Shakespeare family investigation. There were at least two well known branches of the Arden family in England. It has been broached that the Arden-Webb branch may be of Norman invasion date, and that William the Conqueror may have been an Arden Forest1 patron. The right of Mary Arden, of Mrs. Sir Henry Webb blood, to vital connection with the principal Arden limb of that day was maintained, in 1699, by such British authorities as Sir William Dethick and Camden.4 Said Mary having been the wife of John Shakespeare and mother of William Shakespeare, the Stratford on Avon poet, it would follow (note, pages 387-389) that Richard Webb1" of Norwalk was kin to the master of the English tongue, "on whose forehead climb the crowns of the world." Another connection of Richard Webb1" of Norwalk is of interesting mention. Lucy Webb, of Sir Henry Webb consanguinity, married, first, Hon. Jno. Robinson, and second, William Laude, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was executed at Tower Hill in January, 1645. Richard Webb, Jr., born January 9, 161 1, settled in Stamford. His children are thus reported : William, born May 10, 1632, settled iu Weymouth, Mass.; Joshua, born March 15, 1634; Joseph, born March 30, 1636; Richard, born April 14, 1638; John, born April 12, 1640; Sarah, born October 16, 1653 ; A child, born October 5, 1655, died January 1, 1656; Samuel, born March 30, 1662 ; Caleb, born March 20, 1664; Jonathan, born April 12, 1675. Richard Webb, Jr., died March 15, 1675-6. Jonathan, son of Richard, Jr., and Margery Webb, married Judith Chamberlain and had Richard, born January 12, 1722, who married Abigail Hoyt and had Silvanus, born October 5, 1745, who married Mary Wood and had Silas, born July 31, 1784, who married Mindwell Hoyt and had Silas, Jr., born November 9, 1815, who married Rachel Sherman and had George Francis (Dr. G. F. Webb of Cleveland, Ohio), born August 20, 1851, who married Nancy Allen Hill and had, Leroy Arthur, Pearl Edith and Faith Eva. Dr. George F. Webb of Cleveland, Ohio, has distinguished himself as a Webb genealogist. Silas Webb, the son of Silvanus and Mary (Wood) Webb, had eleven children. Matilda, *It is stated that young Win. Shakespeare fre- quented the forests of Arden and therefrom drew some of the pictures which his genius so wonderfully por- trayed. The wood lay but a short distance from Stratford-on-Avon. »It is strict truth to say that Dethick and Cain- den supported this claim because of tile strong pre- sumptive evidence in its favor, not because of posi- tive proof. The argument, however, in defense of the claim is not easily challenged. NORWALK. his youngest daughter but one, married John Johnson and was the mother of Henry Webb Johnson, D. D., of South Bend, Indiana, 1899. OF WEBB GENERATION. At the lower end of the road leading from the center of the present city of Stamford to the seat of the Sachem Wascussue at peninsular and Indian Shippan stretched, in early New England history, a fine piece of territory, a goodly section of which was appropriated by some of the former members of the large Scofield family. Daniel Scofield appears to have been the Stamford founder of this influential household, and his granddaughter, Hannah, to have taken to herself, the year after the decease of said Daniel, the name of Mrs. Joseph Webb. Joseph Webb, the husband of Hannah Scofield, was a son of Richard WebbM (Richard1" was the Norwalk resident), and named his first born for himself. The junior Joseph Webb, born January 5, 1674, was probably cradled near the sheet of water which is now approached by Broad Street in Stamford. At the age of twenty-four (February 23, 1698,) he married Mary, born September 20, 1673, daughter of Benjamin and Hannah Weed Hoyt. Mrs. Benjamin Hoyt (Hannah De Grasse anciently) was the youngest child of Jonas and Mary Weed. Her sister, Mrs. George Abbott, (so believed,) resided in Norwalk, and her father was of Huguenot extraction. It was this parent whose house in 1651, (while the family worshipped "on a Sabbath Day in the meeting time") was entered by an Indian servant and despoiled. The Weed grandfather of Mrs. Joseph Webb, Jr., came (see Genealogies and History of Watertown, page 963,) with Sir Richard Saltonstall to this land and (see Winthrop's Journal, page 340) accompanied Sir Richard to Watertown, where he was admitted, May 18, 163 1, as freeman, and from which place he was church-dismissed May 29, 1635, to Wethersfield. He sailed from Yarmouth April, 1630, arrived in Salem June 12, 1630, and appears in Stamford in 1642. The Hoyt blood of Mrs. Joseph Webb81"1 coincides with that of the Norwalk Hoyt family. She was a niece of Walter Hoyt of Norwalk and second cousin of Zerubbabel, grandfather of James, from whom the families of Goold, Jesse and Isaac Hoyt, and also the Shermans (Gen. W. T. and Hon. John) sprang. (See pages 354-361.) To Joseph2'"1 and Mary (Hoyt) Webb was born, January 26, r7oo, Joseph Webb3"1 (Lieutenant), who married, first, August 23, 1726, Sarah, born November 7, 1702, daughter of Samuel and Abigail (Finch) Blachley. These had a son Joseph, born December 8, 1727, who married, February 2, 1749, Mehitable Nott of Wethersfield, and had a son, Samuel Blachley, born December 13, 1753. Samuel Blachley Webb (General)1 married, second, September 3, 1790, Catharine, JGeneral Samuel B. Webb, an elite-leader and an elegant man, was not alone Norwalk related, but his name is here well recalled, and is Norwalk incident- associated. He is alluded to to-day as an acquaintance of the Broad Street Vilhnks, so many of the valuable effects of which family have been sent from this town to England. The family library of hisintimatefriend, Gouverneur Morris, was. for a season, preserved in this town. The exact duplicate of the chair to which he aide-conducted Washington at the ceremonies of April 30, ITS!), and which belonged, originally, to the grandfather of the late Rear Admiral Francis H. Gregory, now stands in the Dr. John Cannon hall on Norwalk Green. The General's striking feature-fine- ness singularly accorded with that of several of the same Cannon connection — Kortright-Pintard- Brasher. (Note, page 303.) There is no ground, however, for affinity-supposition in this direction. iiORWALlf. 401 daughter of Judge Hogaboom, and had, February 8, 1802, James Watson1, who became the Hon. James Watson Webb, of editorial renown. Hon. James Watson Webb married, first July 1, 1823, Helen Lispenard Stewart, and had Robert Stewart, born August 12, 1824, who married Mary Van Home Clarkson of old Norwalk family association (see notes pages 17-23). General Alexander Stewart Webb, born February 15, 1835, son of Hon. James Watson and Helen L. S. Webb, married, November 28, 1855, Anna Elizabeth Remsen. William Seward Webb, half brother of General Alexander S. Webb, married Lilia Osgood, daughter of William H. Vanderbilt of New York. Mr. William S. Webb is President of the Wagner Palace Car Company, and Secretary of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. His brother, Henry Walter Webb, is Third Vice President of the New York Central railroad. George Creighton Webb, born December 4, 1853, is a younger son of Hon. James Watson Webb. WEBB— HAVENS.