Norwalk

John Gkkcorv, Sr., of Lot I, was the occupant of the southmost Tonne Street home (see diagram, page 35) in earliest Xorwalk. Eight acres were recorded to him (in- clusive of the four acres purchased from his adjoining neighbor, Stephen Beckwith). Of this plot he gave one acre and four rods to his son John, Jr. The "Towne Street" began at the S. K. corner of his door-yard. S. and S. W. of which premises was a lane-way (now lower East Avenue) leading to the water's edge. The Towne Street (East Avenue of 1896) was first staked out, (by Richard Olmsted probably) as far north as the crest of Baric s hill, the north limit, in 1650, of the habitation settlement. John Gregory, Sr. executed his will Aug. 15, 1689, and his wife is represented at C ourt (Fairfield) as a widow on Oct. 9th, following, on which date she placed her property in the hands of Rev. Thomas Hanford and Sergt. John Piatt. Mrs. Gregory died during that same month, and on Nov. 1 following, the heirs came to an agreement in regard to her estate. The brothers John and James Benedict, who had married the sisters l'hoebe X O R \V A L K and Sarah Gregory, accepted their wives' portions, of which Gregory's Point was a part,1 and the remainder of the widow's effects was divided among the five Gregory brothers, the oldest of whom, John, Jr., took the homestead. ORIGIN. In an ancient New England record "began, June 2 1 day, A. D. 1648 " occurs as as follows: The Court ordered June 19, 1665, "the eldest son of Henry Gregory, being John Gregory, to administer upon his estate." The order is destitute of locality affixment, but it is to be found in the Probate archives of Fairfield County, where Norwalk testament- ary registries, prior to 1800, are preserved. This first named Henry Gregory is supposed ( see Mew England Historical and Genealogical Register, page 304 ) to have been the "Henry Gregory of Boston, 1633, and later of Springfield," who was son (see Turner's Grentham) of John and Alicia Gregory, who were son and daughter-in-law of Thomas Gregory, who was son of Hugo and Maria Gregory, who were children of William, son of Adam Gregory of Highhurst, who is assumed in American Ancestry, vol. 1, page 33, to be son of Charles, son of John Gregory, Lord of the Manors of Frescly and Asfordby, whose wife was Maud, daughter of Sir Roger Motan, Knight of Peckletan, County Leicester. John Greggoire or Gregory, of Norwalk, may possibly have been the son of the afore-mentioned Henry Gregory of Boston. Humphrey Hyde2 of Fairfield, who, Schenck says, was of the best blood of England, appointed his "friend John Gregory of Norwalk," to be overseer of his will. — Fairfield Probate Records. The children of John '-«• and Sarah Gregory were : John. Jr. I .\' n:.\\ JUDAH ; removed to Danbury. JnsKI'H ; bap. July 26. 1646. Thomas ; bap. March 19, 1648. PlKKHi: ; married John Benedict. Sarah ; born Dec. 3, 1652, married James Benedict. The second generation of the Gregory and other ancient home-lots proprietors will be elsewhere followed down. Such genealogy, nevertheless, is "anticipated," and topic- order pardonably broken by occasional insertion like to that which here appears. 'Recorded to John Benedict and James Benedict by nnUT of the overseers and administrators, three parcels of land noted in the inventory of the estate of the deceased Sarah Gregory, bv her willed to them according to the will of her husband expressed in his deed of gift to her; one parcel of the said land lying on the povnt commonly called Oregon's Point, the -aid parcel containing seven acres and a half, more or less. Bounded on the east with a creek, commonly called Charles Creek; west and south with the har- bor; north with the land of Samuel Smith.— Norwalk Town Records, vol. i, fol. 95. ^Claimed to have been of same family as Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon and Lord Chancellor of Eng- land during the reign of Charles II, whose daughter was wife of the Duke of York, afterwards James II. NORWALK 83 ASCENDANTS AND DESCENDANTS OF CAPT. JABEZ (iRKGORY. Gen. I. — John and Sarah Gregory. " II. — Thomas and Elizabeth (Pardee) Gregory. One day — it was Sunday, Oct. 20, 1650 — in the same autumn that the Founders were vigorously felling- the trees in the Norwalk wilds wherefrom to form their transient cabins, there stood in the town of New Haven and before a colonial magistrate, a young Englishman, whom the Governor was then and there marrying to a daughter of one of his most noted subjects. The groom was a parentless Huguenot, George Pardee by name, and his bride was Martha, daughter of "Judge of Civil Affairs" Hon. Richard Miles. The man did "well" in his selection of a partner, and had five children born to him by Martha, his first wife, one of whom, Elizabeth, was to become an ancestress of a long line of Norwalk children. Elizabeth Pardee was just past nineteen years and six months when, on Christmas day, 1679, she wedded a Norwalk son, Thomas Gregory, baptized in New Haven by Rev. John Davenport. Mr. Gregory was almost twelve years his wife's senior. In younger life he had been engaged in " winning his spurs" in the Indian wars. Thomas and Elizabeth Gregory,1 (see foot note p. 466) son and daughter-in-law of John Gregory'"-, had several children. Ebenezer, born Oct. 26, 1683, died May 30, 1761, married Dec. 11, 171 1, Mary, daughter of John and Rebecca' (Lindall) Fitch, grand- daughter of Thomas Fitch, the settler. These had a large family — nine children — of which Jabez, born Jan. 1738, was one of the youngest members. His father gave him, Apr. 8, 1760, one-half of his home-lot on " Pudden Lane," (upper Main Street, 1896), which lot at that time extended to the river. He also gave Jabez and his brother Elijah, one-half of the rural township of Sharon, in Conn., minus one hundred and twenty Sharon acres already given by him to his son Joseph.3 On Jan. 20, 1762, Capt. Jabez (son of Ebenezer) Gregory, married Mercy, daughter of Moses and Mercy (Olmsted) St. John. Moses St. John was a son of James and Mary iComstock) St. John. He married Mercy, daughter of Nathan and Mercy (Comstock) 'After Thomas Gregory'? decease, his widow, Elizabeth (Pardee) Gregory married*-, Lieut. John Olmsted, son of Richard the settler. 3A "Rebecca" Pitch Bible, 1740, is preserved in Norwalk. sjoseph, son of Ebenezer and Marv Gregory, re- moved in 1759 to Sharon, thence to Greenbush, N. Y., and thence to Catskill in the same State. He had six sons, Stephen, Justus, Elias, Ebenezer, Uriah M. and Daniel. His two daughters were Mary and Hannah. Stephen, sou of Joseph, and nephew of Captain Jabez, became a wealthy merchantman. His son, Daniel E.,was the founder of the Gregory crockery house of Albany. Justus, brother of Stephen, was a minister in the Methodist Church. Clarissa, daugh- ter of Justus, married Rev. Dr. Orton of the Presby- terian body, whose son, Edward Orton, LL. 1)., was President of the Ohio State University. Elias, another son of Joseph Gregory, was the grandfather of George F. Gregory of Brooklyn, N. Y . , one of the principal members of the Standard Oil Co. Ebenezer, fourth son of Joseph, was the grand- father of Dr. John Gregory, of Washington, D. C. Dr. Uriah M. and Daniel M., the two youngest sons of Joseph, left several children. Two of this Eben- ezer Gregory's daughters married Beldens. 84 NOR WALK. Olmsted,' (second marriage) and had Mercy,2 born 1739, who, at the age of twenty-three, wedded Captain Gregory. The children of Jabez and Mercy Gregory were ; LUCRETIA, born Apr. 10, 1 763 ; married William Maltby Betts. MOSES, born Feb. 13, 1776. Capt. Moses, son of Capt. Jabez Gregory, married Feb. 22, 1789, Esther, born Nov. 9. 1769, daughter of Asa and Ruth* (Kellogg) Hoyt, and had : Francis H., born Oct. 9, 1789, Rear- Admiral U. S. N. No Norwalk issue. Edward, born Dec. 5, 1 79 1 ; died May 20, 1792. Esther Antoinette,* born Oct. 5, 1795 ; married Ralph Lockwood. Frances Augusta, born 1810; married Ira Gregory, M-D.5 'Nathan Olmsted's first wife was Sarah daughter of Ralph2**- and Grace (Lindall) Keeler. aOn Oct. 28, 1839, this remarkable woman died, at the age of one hundred years, in the Jabez Gregory home at "The Spring," in lower Main Street, (site in 1896 of the J. F. Bennett and adjoining store pro- perties). This commodious edifice and its generous grounds somewhat resembled the "Isaacs House," on the other side of "The Bridge." The river bank in the rear was bough - overhung and with the tree growth in other parts of the large yard, the spot was inviting notwithstanding the changes that business surroundings were gradually bringing about. The house-interior had much in common with the fine old-time taste that reigned within a number of the Norwalk homes of the period. The "Spring" was a particular feature of the place. It issued from Harry's (afterward "Mullen) 1 1 ill, and was. possibly, first appropriated by Henry Whitney, Sr., the founder of the "mill at the bridge." It was noted for the clarity and coldness of its water, which was taken away in pitcher* and bucket- by neighboring residents, and in jugs and small casks by the farmers and frolickers who came from the back country to cut salt hay or to clam and fish down the harbor. The spring's over- flow created a silvery stream that crossed the Gregory yard and emptied into the Norwalk river. After Capt. Jabez Gregory's day, this overflow was made to form a basin, which was enclosed, and caused to subserve a sort of refrigerator-purpose for the benefit of lessees of the lower part of the old building, for restaurant use. Mrs. Gregory had three sisters, Susanna, (Mrs. fames Raymond of Bedford,) Lydia, (Mrs. William Seymour,) and Sarah, (Mrs. Gershom Hubbell of Greenfield Hill). Herbrother Stephen was the grand- father of the late Mrs. Henry Chichester of Brook- U n, and of the two surviving children of Stephen St. Jolm-m-- Mr*. Lawrence M. Steven- and Mrs. Goold Jennings, both of Norwalk. JShe was the daughter of Samuel Keliugg.wi. born 23. 1706, who was the son of Samuel and Sarah Dec. (Piatt) (Cellars:, who was the son of Daniel and Brid-