Norwalk

John Raymond 2d>, son of John'st-, married March 7, 1690, Elizabeth St. John. Elizabeth was the daughter of Samuel, who was a son of Matthias St. John, Senior and the settler. Her mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Walter Hoyt, and her father at her mar- riage, had been six years dead. John and Elizabeth Raymond had six sons and four daughters, (Mary who married Nathaniel Street, Elizabeth who probably died young, Hannah who married Nathaniel Finch and Sarah who married Nathan Burwell.) Their son Jabez, born April 1, 1705, lived to a good age. His will, drawn August 26, 1783, was court-proven August 3, 1789. His wife, Rebecca, born April 9, 1713, daughter of 'Horses, as has been elsewhere noted, seem to have been early Norwalk introduced. Of John Ray- mond^t- there is a record that when his first child was two years old (1667) he had "one black horse, one black mare, one Dunnish gray mare and one young colt." The mill at that time had been removed from the lot adjoining Mr. Raymond's premises to the N. W, corner of the present Main and Wall streets, and Norwalk's first Raymond "team" was, it is possible, often seen along the route to the new Whitney mill. John Raymond >st., who came from Saybrook to Norwalk, had a next younger brother, Joshua, who, four years previous to the Norwalk removal of his father and brother John, went to New London where belonged his wife, Elizabeth . Smith. Joshua and Elizabeth's oldest son, Joshua 2d-, married in the spring of 1683, Mercy, daughter of Capt. James Sandys or Sands of Block Island, of which sea-girt territory the captain, in 1660, had been one of the purchasers. Joshua3d-, the second son of Joshua 3d- and Mercy, married on the last day of the summer of 1719, Elizabeth Christophers, and theirdaughterEliza- beth married in 1736 Oliver Hazzard, of Rhode Island. Oliver and Elizabeth (Raymond) Hazzard had a daughter Mercy who married Judge Freeman Perry, of South Kingston, R. I., and these were the parents of the veteran Commodore Christopher Raymond Perry, who was the parent of Commodore Oliver Hazzard Perry of Lake Erie fame, and of Capt. Ray- mond H. J. Perry who commanded one of the vessels of Commodore McDonough's Lake Champlain squad- ron, and of Commodore M. C. Perry, who opened the ports of Japan to the world, and of Lieut. James Alex- ander Perry who was a midshipman before he was twelve years old, and who, serving as his brother's aide on Lake Erie, was wounded while in the small boat that was sent from the Lawrence to the Niagara with word to bring up this ship into battle line. This was the youth, drowned at barely twenty years of age, in bravely saving the life of another, to whom the United States Congress voted a sword. A truly admirable descent from one of Norwalk's Home-Lot VII occupants. Admiral Francis Hoyt Gregory of Norwalk, stood 126 NORWALK. Samuel and Rebecca Piatt, evidently survived him but a few months as her estate was inventoried March 26, 1790. The heirs of Jabez and Rebecca Raymond were their son Josiah and the children of their deceased daughter Ann, (wife of Samuel, son of John Piatt"1-) They appear to have lost an unmarried daughter, Hannah, in 1770. Josiah son of Jabez and Rebecca Raymond, married, Nov. 5, 1765, Molly Mer- wine. She was from Greenfield Hill and belonged originally, it seems, to the New Haven family of that name. She, albeit but eighteen years of age, brought with her to her Nor- walk married home (later the Geo. A. Raymond property in the rear of the Eli B. Bennett Kast avenue home) several of the Greenfield slaves who worked in and out doors and were a domestic power. It sometimes happened, not unnaturally, that the Raymond children, after hav ing been sent to early bed, would indulge in a little before sleep "fun," but "Chine" was depended upon to see that the "up stairs" peace was preserved. Of the boys, Thomas, Piatt, Merwine, Josiah Jr. and Jabez, were born ill the old pre-Tryon house which stood a little south of the yet standing Geo. A. Raymond home and which was close by (opposite side of street) the house of Capt. Samuel Jarvis, in which was born the second bishop of Connecticut, Rt. Rev. Abraham Jarvis. Geo. A., the youngest son of Josiah '" and Molly Raymond, and whose old time methods are unforgotten, was not born until six years after the town's conflagration. He married Pamelia Banks, of Greens Farms (a sister of a true Norwalk mother, Mrs. John L. Smith) and the two lived in the rebuilt house which is still in existence. Thomas, the oldest son of Josiah took his bride (Kunice Meeker) from his mother's Greenfield vicinity, and was the father of William Raymond, one of whose sons, Thomas I, now resides in West Street. South Norwalk.1 p. nl father for one uf old Commodore Christopher leek was Susanna, only child of William Hooker, of Raymond Fei n 's grand - children, Capt. (ieo. \V. , Farmington, Conn. She was married to Mr. Selleck Rogers, i: S, N., who was killed in the Civil War. j on Aug. 12, 1708, at onlv eighteen years of age. She Commodore McDonough's sons were educated i„ | died Oct. 5, ,709, leaving one child, Susanna, horn Norwalk. The Norwalk affinity to the Sands-Ray- Sep. 3, ,709. This child grew to become the wife of mond Perry connection (an honorable relationship) Joseph St. |ohn and hence the ancestress of the Nor- .s thus traced. Capt. John Sands, son of Capt. James ' walk Buckingham St. ]ohn, Buckingham Lockwood and Ann (Palmer) Sands uf Block Island (1660), mar- and Isaac Scudder Isaacs children's blood, r.ed Syl.,1, daughter of Simon Ray of Block Island. Her father, married second, Mary Sands, who, as In .696 (.apt. John removed to Long Island and I was the case with Mr. Selleck's first wife (Susanna established himself at the famous neck, named for Hooker) lived onlv a short time. She died July .3. him. sands P„,n, One of Cap,. John's daughters, ,; ,,, and her husband married her cousin Sarah Sands, r w!l.r™ J JTh0maf: thefi'St J»d«< daughter of Samuel Sands). There were nine child- ren l.y this union. (See Selleck lineage). 'The present West street in South Norwalk may Propriety be designated an honor-way. As (sons of Captain James) mar- early as 1641 Andrew Ward and Francis Bell picked out their way over it en route to and from Stamford and New Haven. A portion of the activity was first called "Campfield's Hill'' from the fact that Samuel, a- named for his grandfathe^on ^ZnGM \ T" °' CM« «** A^ f Fairfield, the purchaser of th splendid Ro" r L d' '"'""T^' »nd « *"">"»" »' *»««. °> low American eMate. The firs, Mvl s , ? ^ """"^ °°e <»robabl>- the «»« °< ot Nathan Sel- hearthstones. Madam Knight, in her memorable trip of Westchester county, and Capt. John's nephew S.uuu.-l S.mJs, married Mary Pell,' of the Manor of Pelham. Capt. |ohn Sands had a brother S imuel I „, ,k„ , „ u ,1 / "« orotner Mmnel, | with propriety be designated an honor-way. As and the two brothers (sons ot Captain James) mar - - •■- - - - - ried two Ray sisters. Mary Sands, daughter of Capt John, married, Dec. 1710, at |amaica, L. I as his / // N ORWALK. Piatt Raymond, another son of Josiah married Hannah Benedict, and was the parent of Lewis, the father of the present Mrs. Chas. Ambler and her sister of Hurlburt St.. Wilton. Merwine, next brother of Thos. and Flatt, married Phoebe, daughter of Stephen Marvin who was an influential churchman in the war days of the last century. Josiah **% still another son of Josiah married Clara Mott. The bride, while a maiden, lived with her father and mother, who were from New York, on what is to-day known as Harbor ave- nue and south of the ancient Dr. Bryan place. After marrying, Josiah 2lL made his home for a season at his fathers, and then on the Rev. Thomas Hanford's premises (S. W. corner, [896, of East avenue and Fort Point street. 1 Himself and wife here awaited the building of their new home, where, in recent years, dwelt their son Rufus. Mrs. Raymond, a woman of energy and business ways, was a help-meet to her husband who was a just man and of unswerving principle. The report made to him to the effect that the produce sent, on one occasion, to the New York market, had exceeded the quantity "billed," gratified him. This, surplus rather than struck measure, was the measure of the man. His children were Amanda (Mrs. William Marvin] ; Rufus and Harriet (Mrs. Enos Osborn.) His brother Jabez. who was two months to a day old when Xorwalk was burned, married Sarah, daughter of Timothy and grand-daughter of Gov. Thomas Fitch. This staunch couple had a Strawberry Hill home where now resides the widow of the late Walter T. Gray, and the hospitality such as was there dispensed is a rarity. Could the to this day standing walls of the Jabez and Sally Raymond hearthstone speak they would be vocal with the recital of of 1704, ascended and descended it, Paul Revere climbed it, John Adams wheeled over it, Benjamin Franklin traversed it, Gov. William Trvon was famil- iar with it, George and Martha Washington and Parke and Eleanor Custis rode along it and Dr. Timothy 1 ) wight and "Prince de Benevento," (Charles Maurice Talleyrand*) trotted, presumably, over it, either a little before or after the great couple had morning-met in the identical old fashioned New England inn still pre- served l>v Col. Alexander Nichols and forming a part of his fine Greenfield Hill establishment. The street in question (West street) is also an ;ninals-shrine because that near where now stands the new Raymond residence was formed a 1779 Sunday morning sort of "hollow square'4 for the purpose of concealing British interment operations. This storied upland. Cum tie Pkifo — claimed to be the primitive of the N orwalk proper noun, Campfield, and to be the ancient appellation of the country adjacent to the site of the University of Oxford — merits, in some of its hill parts, Campfield name perpetuation. Merwine and Phoebe Raymond were the parents of