Norwalk

tlie wife's property. The estate that Richard I lolmes ^Perhaps the first blacksmith of Norwalk. Ill- icit Mchitable Warner fell finally to Joseph Olmsted, probably belonged to the Long Island Smith family. 104 NOR WALK. respected colonial occupations. Besides this, he was probably the head of the iron-ware establishment of the period. The Holmes' of America may be proud of their Norwalk kinsman He was a brother of the founders of the Stamford and Bedford' Holmes families, and Col. James Holmes of the Revolution was his grand-nephew.' He left no male issue. HOME-LOT V. Edward Nash, who succeeded Joseph Fitch and Mark St. John as proprietor of Lot No. 5, was the fore-parent of the large Norwalk Nash family. He was a son, it is claimed, of Edward Xash l5t- who was born in Lancashire, England, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in 1592, and reported to have had two sons, Edward -,J- and John. Edward Nash came early to Norwalk, and immediately followed Mark St. John as ow ner of one of the eligible house-sites (directly south of the East Norwalk school of 1896) in the new plantation, and as Jos. Fitch was unmarried while he remained in Norwalk, and Mark St. John was possessed of two additional lots, it seems probable that Mr. Nash was the earliest heartstone occupant of the spot. There appears to be no mention of the first Mrs. Xash. By her was a son John, born 1653. who, so runs the family tradition, was the first English child born in Norwalk. Another child of Edward Nash, by his first wife, was Hannah, who married, Dec. 3, 1678, Deliverance, son of Henry Wakelcy of Stratford, and an early Hartford lawyer.31 Here is a possible hint as to the locality-antecedents of the original Mrs. Nash. The second Mrs. Edward Xash was the wife, first, of Thomas Rumble of 1 as the record shows) the ancient town of Stratford, and second, of Thomas Barlow of Fairfield.4 Mrs. Xash had no children, it is probable, by her last marriage. She was 'Two Holmes sisters lived in Bedford (south purl of town on road leading east) some seventy or so years ago, one of whom. Amy, married as his third wife, Nathan Srlleek, and was the mother of Jesse Selleck, I tte of Norwalk. *John Holmes, nephew |> -reliance of Richard, was killed In the fall of the first church hell that was raised In Stamford. See Huntington's Stamford. 'An interesting genealogical fact is divulged through a clause in the inventory, Aug. 2, 1699, °* the Norwalk estate of Edward Nash,*!- Allusion is there made to " Deliverance Wakeley, son-in-law " of said Nash. This establishes the claim thatthe " Han- nah Nash " who married Deliverance, son of Henry Wakeley. the noted colonial lawyer of Hartford, was a daughter of Edward Nash of Norwalk, rather than of Sj'rjit. Joseph Nash of New Haven; and as Nathaniel Ketchum, who married June 12, 1710, Sarah, born Dec. I, 1'iS.i, daughter of Deliverance and Hannah ( Nash) Ketchum, was the probable ancestor of Amos and Hiram and Morris Ketchum as well as of Maria Ketchum Awrill. wife of Chancellor Reuben Hvdc Walworth of Saratoga Springs, it gives to these kins- folk an additional Norwalk lineage. ■(Thomas Barlow is believed to have been a near relative of John Barlow, 1st, both early settlers of Fairfield. The six acres granted him in 1653 by the Fairfield fathers are to-day a coveted portion of that handsome and historic town. He appointed in his will the celebrated Thomas Hell, of King Charles I. staff and lord of [lie Manor of Pelham, overseer of his three children, two of whom, Phcebe and Mary, married in Norwalk. Phcebe (Mrs. James Olmsted) had a son Nathan, born, April 27. 1678, who married, Dec. 17, 1702, Sarah, daughter of Ralph Keeler. By this union there w as evidently a son, Nathan (afterward of New Fairfield, Conn.,) but this Nathan's I half brothers, Samuel and James, and his half sisters, Mercy and Lydia, were the issue, it seems, of his father's second marriage to Mercy, daughter of Christopher Comstock. Mercy Olmsted, daughter of Nathan, married Moses St. John, who is well represented in Norwalk to-day, and Lydia Olmsted, through her marriage to Matthew Fitch, hecamea fore- N ORWALK 105 the daughter, presumably, of Thomas Sherwood of Fairfield. Her daughter, Bertha Rumble, married Robert Stuart lst" and her daughters, Mary and Phoebe Barlow married, respectively, John Nash (her step-son) and Lieut. Jas. Olmsted, both of Norwalk. Edward Nash was a tanner, which fact may account for his home-lot choice. This lot lay close to Mill Brook, No. 1 , and after said brook's condemnation for mill purposes, it naturally recom- mended itself for "vat" and kindred conveniences. It is suggested that John Nash, born in England, in 1630, son of Edward ,at- of Lancashire, may have been the Virginia imi- grant of that name. The Norwalk Nash's all proceed from John, son of the first Edward of this town. This John married, May 1, 1684, his step-mother's daughter, Man- Barlow, and had : John b. Dec. 25, 1688; Nathan, b. Jan. 26, 1692-3. Mrs. John Nash died Sept. 2, 171 1. ASCENDANTS AND DESCENDANTS Or DANIEL NASH,"). OF WESTPORT. Gen. I. — Edward Nash. " II. — John "'■ and Mary ( Barlow) Nash. " III.— John md- and Abigail (Blakeley) Nash. " IV — Micajah and Mary (Scribner) Nash. " V — Daniel '"■ and Freelove (Wright) Nash. •■ VI. — Daniel 2nd- and Rebecca (Camp ) Nash. John Nash married, Ma)- 19, 1709, Abigail, daughter of Ebenezer Blakeley of New Haven, and had : Micajah. Micajah Nash, having "come to years," married Oct. 9, 1744, Mary,' born March. 171 1, daughter of John and Deborah (Lee) Scribner, and grand-daughter of the Huguenot mother of remark. Matthew and Lvdia Fitch were married Dec. 7, 173S, and had a son Nathan, born in New Canaan, Oct. 12, 1750. This son married 'Mary Reed, to whom a little one, Mercy, was born, who was baptized June 4, 1775. On Dec. 29, 1791, Mercy Fitch married Adam Swan of the Stonington Swan family. As Adam Swan descended from the Stoning- ton Gallups (See Brow-nine;) it follows that Lydia Olmsted's great grand-children could claim Louis IV King of France, and the princess Edgina, grand- daughter of Alfred the Great, for ancestor and ancestress. James Olmsted, son of Nathan and brother of Mercy ( Mrs. Moses St. John ) and Lydia ( Mrs. Mat- thew Fitch) had a son, James, who married Sept. II, 1754, Sarah Trowbridge. James and Sarah Olmsted had a son, Aaron, horn March 4, [770, who married June [7, 171,2, Sarah llawley. These were the parents of one. born Dec. [7, 1793, a man not alone of learning but of talent, the cultured and memory-cherished Hawley Olmstead of Vale College fame. John Barlow ** the kinsman of Thomas, had a son, John, who married Abigail, sister of Ephraim Luckwood, the founder of the Norwalk Lockwood household. These had a son, John, who was great- grandfather ( Samuel wfci. and >«<•) of Dr. Joel Barlow of Redding, a class-mate of Noah Webster, of con- spicuous rank as a scholar, statesman and poet, and of affinity to Hon. Ebenezer J. Hill of Washington, D. C, and Norwalk, iKiy6. 'The only recorded " Mary Scribner" of Micajah Nash's day is Mary, daughter of John Scribner. There are complete lists of Thomas and Benj. Scribner 2lld- (sons of Benj.) children, but all efforts to find their brother Joseph's family have failed. It is possible for Mary ( Mrs. Micajah Nash ) to have been a daughter of Joseph Scribner, but as said Mary lias documentary registration as the child of John Scribner, io6 NORWALK settler, John Ruscoe. Through the veins of Mrs. Micajah Nash ran, consequent]) , the Beebe blood of early New London. Micajah and Mary Nash lived in the to-day orchard lot on the Westport road opposite the residence of William Marvin of that town. To them was born, Dec. 2, 1747. a son Daniel ,st- who married Freelove1, daughter of Dennis Wright, and moved to Patchogue, L. I., where was born to Daniel""- and Freelove, May [2, 1770, Daniel 2lui* who in his first teens accompanied his father upon the family's return again to Westport. Daniel Nash 2,ld- married, Oct. 9, 1808, Rebecca, daughter of Jonathan and Hannah ( Bouton > Camp of Norwalk, and had: Edward Hawks, b. Aug. 6, 1809 ; Julia Ann. b. July 13. 1813 ; Andrew, b. June 24, 181 1 ; Hannah, b. Keb. 6, 1K16. Edward Hawks Nash, son of Daniel** and Rebecca Nash, married, first, Oct. 9, 1836, Abigail Gorham, who died Jan. 16, 1861. He married, second, September 17, 1861, Margaret Newkirk, daughter of Reuben A. and Amelia Williams, and had : Adelaide, b. Dec. 7, 1862; mar. Oct. 5. 1 881 , Elbert N. Sipperly.' Lloyd, b. Feb. 18, 1865. Louisa, b. Jan. 11, [868 ; mar. Oct. 5. 1886, Theodore D. Robinson.1 Fannie, b. Nov. 15, 1870; mar. Dec. 16, r 89 1 , Thomas Stearns,4 Man , the daughter of John Scribner, brother of Thus, and Benj. married Micajah Nash, the descent, in one time, from whom is mentioned in the text. 'She overlived her husband but was faithfully cared for by her son and grand-children. Her father came from Eaton Neck Manor, L. I., and was a large land-owner on the west side the Saugatuck. Her parent's house (still standing on the ancient upper Kairfield road at the top of the hill directly east from the present Lloyd Nash home) was, after her husband's death, vacated hv herself and she made her home with her son at the foot of the hill f Llovd Nash's home.) Here she interested and entertained others by her recital of Indian life as it had been related to her by those who had gone before. She was wont to make distinct allusion to the natives who tented a little west of the Saugatuck, and described as existing in one place, north of Peat Swamp, a tine of Indian huts and the customs of their dwellers. These particular onrs as she remembered being told, were distinctly savage. The young listened eagerly to her. She is buried beside her husband at the north end of the church wall of St. Paul's church. JIlis children are Elbert N,; Irving II.; Onona Christabel; Everitt L. ; Lena A.; Elliott Hawthorne. iliis children are Lloyd N. ; Fances M. ; Ruth Williams; Rebecca Camp. •tThos. Stearns was formerly principal of Staples' School, Westport. His child is Harold Calhoun.