Norwalk

'Was elected Feb-. 14, 1889, Cashier of the Fair- St. John. Esther*!-, married Jonathan Booth. The field County National Hank, of Norwalk. j children of Samuel and Elizabeth (St. John) Galpin 'Samuel Galpin, (born 1650, died 1701) son of were Samuel Elizabeth [ Mrs. Isaac Norton) ; Abi- Philip of New Haven, removed to Stratford, where \ gail; Caleb and Mary (Mrs. Elnathan Peat). The he married, first, Mar. 2, 1676-7, Esther, daughter of ! first Mrs. Samuel Galpin (Esther Thompson) was a John Thompson. Shedied at the birth of her daugh- sister of Sarah, the second wife of Thomas Barnum, ter Esther J<b. Aug. 19, 1678, and her husband, Sam'l. the Norwalk Barnum settler. The first wife of said Galpin, married, second, Elizabeth, daughter of Mark 1 Barnum does not seem to have Norwalk record. X O R W A L K Rachel, born June 1671. (Mrs. John Judd ;i Lois, married Jan. 25. 1705-6, Samuel Carter ; Anna, born Aug. 18, 1684 ; married John Benedict. For Sension or St. John, English descent, see Home-Lot No. 22. It will be observed that Mark St. John had only one son, Joseph '**■ It is through Joseph"1 (son of Joseph'-) who married into one of the strongest families of New Eng- land, that the Norwalk Buckingham Lockwoods, Buckingham St. Johns, Sherrys and Skiddys derive their Hooker blood, and it is through Sarah, sister of Joseph1--, who mar- ried Samuel Keeler, that the Seymour's and Van Buren s of this town, and the New York- Chancellor, John Ray affinity, derive their St. John blood. All of Mark St. John's child- ren were by his first wife. He married, second, the widow, Dorothy Hall, of Stratford. The widow Hall was a daughter of Rev. Henry Smith of Wethersfield, Conn. She had previously married, as his second wife, Francis Hall, one of a company of "select young men,'' who came in 1639. from Kent County, England, to Guilford, Conn. Mr. Hall made his way eventually to Fairfield, where he founded "Hall's Farm." Here his first wife, Elizabeth, died, and here he married Dorothy iwc Smith. Orcutt's History of Stratford mentions that Dorothy Smith married, before the Hall union, John, son of Rev. Adam Blakeman of Stratford. If so, she was three times wedded, as after Mark St. John's death, in 1693, she married Isaac More, once of Norwalk, but now of Farmington, the same from whom Mr. St. John bought his Home-Lot No. 16. She herself deceased in 1706. 'lit- was grandfather of the wife of Rev. Geo. \V. to-day, and its hreakfast-room leading from the first- Nichols of West Avenue, (1S96). Chancellor Ray story hall, that opened on Pearl Street. The three married Elsie, daughter of the Knickerhocker Jaco- residences were the abodes of comfort-elegance, and bus K<H,se\ eh. and had a daughter Elsie, who married the head of the one that has been more particular!} Henry I.ott. It was lor this daughter's inheritance mentioned, was Capt. Isaac Bell 2d-, a patron of Dr. in the extensive Norwalk Keeler estate that the Chan- Reuben Sherwood's Norwalk School, and himself of cellor interested himself and his friend Gov. Tomp- ancient Norwalk blood. Isaac Hell 'si., born Sept. 20, kins of New York. His two Lutt grand-daughters, 1736, son of James and Sarah Bell, and great-grand- Elizabeth (Mrs. G. VV. Nichols) and Helen (Mrs. son of Lieut. Francis Bell, the Stamford settler, mar- Richard Schell) were accustomed in earlier New York ried, first, Jemima Holly, and bad two children, Kath- days to have their horses put under saddle, and to arine who died young, and Hannah. Hannah was join an afternoon party, the members of which would a trifle over two years old when she lost her mother, gaily gallop dow n Broadway to the East River, and Between one-and-a-half and two years after that event, thence, after ferriage, resume their ride to the Flat- her father, on Sept. 14, 1761, married, second, Susan- bush. Judge John A. Lott's family seat, from whence, nah Smith, grand-daughter of John and Elizabeth after partaking of supper at tables silver spread, would Bartlett, and great-granddaughter of (see Haynes return, at delightful summer nightfall, to town again. lineage) Mr. William Haynes of "Haynes' Ridge," Elsie, Mrs. I.ott, was wont to tell her children of the Norwalk (now New Canaan). dwelling of a descendant of one of Norwalk's dis- Mrs. Susanna Bell's grd. father( John Bartlett, the tinguished mothers, which stood in Queen, now Pearl, father by his second wife of Mrs. John Belden, who and not far from Pine Street. It was one of a trio of was mother of John, Isaac and Amos,) was a large structures which, because of their marking a city land owner, and had three distinct Norwalk land par- architecture-period, Mrs. Lott would describe as before : eels bearing his name. Her gr. -grandfather, William said. The buildings were of brick, expensively fin- Havues, was a colonial "Mr." but one of the titled ished in hard wood, and one of them in black walnut, New England gentlemen whose early pedigree is mys- havmg ,ts parlor- on the second floor, reached by a terv-shrowded. He came to Norwalk from the vicin- stalrway and balustrade that would grace any abode itv, evident! v. of Albany, but thence from whence, NORWALK 95 The St. John-Hall ante-nuptial covenant is recorded in the Probate Register of Fairfield County. The following is the text : "This IndEN ti re, made between Mark Sension and Dorothy Hall of Stratford, widow, Witncssetli, That whereas there is a purpose of marriage between Mark Sension and Dorothy, they have consented and agreed, in case of marriage, as followeth : Imprimis. That Mark Sension will lay no claim to the estate that Dorothy Hall now possesseth, whe- ther in lands or movables, but that it shall be in the power of Dorothy Hall, after marriage, to improve it, as she shall see cause, without any let from Mark Sension ; but in case Dorothy Hall shall see cause to carry with her any part of the movable effects, Mark Sen- sion binds himself and his heirs to return the same at the full value thereof, to her or to her executors, when either of them shall dye. " Dorothy Hall doth covenant with Mark Sension that she will not, at his death, lay any claim to any part of his estate that he now possesseth, as a dowry, but will, when a widow, return to her own that she hath now in possession in Stratford. " In Witness Whereof, both parties have affixed their hands and seals. Dated this twenty-fifth of January, sixteen hundred ninety-one or two. Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of Joseph Curtis, Mark Sension. Khenezer Booths. Dorothy Hall." A MARK ST. JOHN DESCENT MENTION. The young Matthew Marvin, -^-(Matthew, Jr., Matthew Sr.} brought up in the to-dav no one its yet seems able to positively determine. The forefather of the bankers Fitch of Milwaukee, Wis., who are also of llavnes descent, claims, in a rerun! now about a half-century old, that William llavnes of Norwalk and John llavnes of Copford Hall (afterward Gov. John llavnes of Hartford) were connected if not related, but Grant Fitch, of Newton, N. )., seventh son of llavnes, nephew of Gov. Thos. Fitch of Norwalk, presents no authority for the as- sertion. The father of Mrs. Isaac Belllsc- was one of the sons of Ebenezer and Abigail (Bouton) Smith, and of the line of Lieut. Samuel Smith, the 1634 settler of Wind, sor. He was Some few years the senior of his wife, she having been born after 1705-6. They had a family of well known Conn, and N. Y . descendants, and their daughter, after her marriage to Isaac Bell,'*1- removed to the provinces. Mr. Bell's son Isaac (Capt. Isaac) born Feb. 16, 1768, married Mary Ellis, daugh- ter of old-time merchant Ellis of New York, and these were the occupants of the Pearl Street premises be- fore mentioned. Mrs. Isaac Bell*1* spent consider- able time in Europe. She occasionally came to Nor- walk to visit her son. Isaac.!*1- and his sister Mary E. were pupils at Rev. Dr. Reuben Sherwood's academy in this town. The sister was somewhat delicate, but her brother's physical strength and glowing health are to this day here remembered. The young Isaac BelLV*. of Dr. Sherwood's day, was the more immediate ancestor of the present \. Y. City Bells. Hannah Bell, born Dec. 10, 1758, daughter of Isaac Bell and Jemima Holly, married Fitch, son of Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Fitch) Rogers (see Havnes lineage) of Norwalk. These had a son, Fitch Rogers, Jr., who married Mary, daughter of Rev. Daniel Smith, long the Congregational pastor of Stamford. 1 There were no children by this union. Fitch Rogers, Jr., had a sister Catherine, who married Rev. Reuben ! Sherwood, D.D., rector of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, I from 1818 to 1830. Mrs. Sherwood was a woman of j presence and character, and highly graced her po- j sition. Her daughter, Miss Catherine Sherwood, now j resides at Hyde Park on-the-H udson. Henry, second j son of Fitch and Hannah (Bell) Rogers, died unmar- | ried. Her sister Harriet married John Winthrop, one I of the two sons of whom, Henry R. , has recently died in New York City. Henrv Rogers Winthrop was a Norwalk school lad, and is represented to-dav by his son Buchanan Winthrop, of N.Y. City. Chas. ■ and William were unmarried sons of Fitch Rogers, Sr. Their sister, Emily Sophia, married her cousin, j Henrv Rogers, Jr. Catherine Bell,ad- born Feb. 11. 1770, step-sister of Hannah, and fourth child of Isaac'-'- and Susanna 96 X OR WALK. vacant Prowitt meadow, somewhat southwest of the Prowitt East Xorwalk residence, was not compelled to make a long journey to pay a " suitor's " regards. He had simply to turn the corner and proceed a few steps south, (as far as Van Zandt and East Avenue corners of 1896) when was reached her domicile whose hand he sought, Rhoda, daughter of Mark St. John, the home-lot of whom is under description. Matthew"1- and Rhoda Marvin had a daughter Mary, born Oct. 7, 1689. The father died in 1691. Sarah, sister of Matthew Marvin,"1- married, in 1680, Thomas Betts, Jr., i son of settler Thomas Betts) whose daughter. Sarah, married Samuel Keeler, while her sisters Mary and Elizabeth married, respectively, John Bartlett (second wife) and Thomas Seymour.