Norwalk

Mrs Josiah Gregnrv of Danbury. ol (he old Gregory family of Xorwalk. John* and Emma Sherman had ■ ««, Daniel, bom A*, u. ijffi, **Q «W ■ ani1 ™" 10 (he |Mlge'« bench. He had married Mindwell Taylor, whom the wife of President Porter „f Vale Allege, .herself a Taylor) inclines to claim a* a Xorwalk Taylor. The sixth child of judge Daniel and Mindwell Sherman was lion. Taylor Sherman, father of Hon. Charles EL and grandfather Of L'. S. Senator, the lion. |ohn Sherman. I the Xonvalk Uwyet ami the occupant of the grave marked by the granite, standing in 1896. in the Town House Hill Cemetery Judge Taylor Sherman was. in hi* day. one of the strong, legal lights of Kairfield County ink is 1 i< t/orr miMh-\nt: is n mtkaiis ix im*:.' 'Tlii* HfVlHMl hmne-*ilr. with ilie old Im.ii H*n i ■ ell. tcwrfrdl -land* lnd.it, . • alan-r, fin W'e*t street. Soulli Norvtalk. j tr» nid* l-'n.nd thr ni « Cunerr<*3liimnt Clnm li, ami hinnini: a part ..I lllr prewtll rstenih'c A. E. Beard i-lille. Tin- Im.ii..', ii»w emireh disappeared, fined Ihr run, and its itnl rind .lamed quilr inivaTil Ilir primnil. 'I hr well |m in tbr rear, b. mecn ilir huutc and lllr garden. St i» • uppused to hi>r been a Tnim-virJ bulldin);. A» li.inli - iiitendiarie. before pa«ini; il, li.nl jam been repulsed anil nrr umsrqilentlv hrnkruli In M|nL. iu rrmh Mala Storm nod uk* up ihrir man-It in •■Ilir llridgr." 1 arranged In join pteinisr* ini^tit i have been uverl. 11 whit-h !'-■■■ thi- (unit an< 1 [tic liniment ike J. 'I*hi El h.i.l I ieen pre- Trron luiresi the disastct-dile»>ma. s the ulilrn ■ IkM 1 taw* .il Imjw and Mar* (Rajmond] Mojt b** tbe otttld and maiden Iwod home ol their daatjluwi Mar/, the aMIltni .jl iw.i of thi. nation'^ crnoweeil •.». tile llvinc Hun. John Sherman. U. S Sraale. anil I tie .let emcd Major f. mend William TeeuniH-l. glHI'luail, 1 s. Army. Mary llnyi (Mrv Charln R shiriiHin.l liurn Del-, iti, i;*7, Irunslnittrd Hint If11" • me ol her ililldren, Wllllnm T . the won;; I"'1"1 NORWALK. r 35 HQMB-L or i~jrr Rev. Thomas Hanford, of Home Lot, No. 8, was Norwalk's pastor-primus, and one of the notable divines of his day. He was born in England in 1621, and belonged to a family of ancient and honorable name. The following extract from Breton's "Beauties of England and Wales," dated London, 181 1, will give some idea of the British Hanford House : " Wollas-Hall, the seat of the Hanford family since 1536, stands on the north side of Bredon Hill at about one third of its ascent from the vale of Eversham, and the whole estate, with the part of Breedon Hill, upon which it is situated, is called Wooler's Hill, a name given to it about the time of the Conquest from the great number of wolves that infested the country at that time. It is at present the seat of Charles Hanford, Esq., the first of whose ancestors in possession of it was a son of Sir John Hanford, K'nt., who purchased it from the great Lord Burleigh in the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, since which time it has come in an unbroken line of descent to its present possessor. The porch has the family motto, "Memorare Novissima,'' cut in the stone over the entrance door with the date 161 1 answering to the early part of the reign of James the First, but the greater part of the building is of much older date. The mansion is built of an excellent hard stone, harder than Portland and darker in color, but what is curious to observe that none like it is found in the neighborhood. This is a great subject of regret, for time has no other effect upon it than to give it a venerable appearance, while the protruberances and edges of the stone are as sharp as when first cut. The great hall, which has a screen and music-gallery, like that Hoyt resemblance. Quiet countenance, firmness as well as perfect demeanor-poise were characteristics of Mary's brother (Charles) who was a central figure in a beautiful Norwalk ceremony, viz., his bridal, bv liishop Mcllvaine of Ohio, to a daughter of Eben- ezer I). Hoyt of Main Street. The Raymond aunts of Mis. Charles R. Sherman were the maternal heads of Norwalk remark-families of days past. One of these aunts, Esther (Mrs. Hezekiah Rogers,) a social spirit, lived next door neighbor to the Shermans. Another, Elizabeth, was the wife of the notable Dr. Uriah Rogers, Jr., and another, Hannah, married Lemuel Brooks, M. U., of Norwalk. These three sisters were the grand-daughters of Nathaniel Street, who was the grandson of Rev. Samuel and Anna (daughter of Hon. Richard Miles of New Haven) Street. The interesting claim* is made that the mother of Rev. Samuel Street, and consequently the foremother of all the Norwalk Streets and many of the Norwalk Raymonds, was a sister of the New- England pioneeress, Miss Elizabeth Pool, whose memorial at the entrance of Mount Pleasant Ceme- tery, Taunton, Mass., reads thus: The females of Taunton have erected this monument in honor of Elizabeth Pool, Foundress of the Town of Taunton in 1637, Horn before the settlement of America in England 1589, Died at Taunton, May 21, 1654. Miss Mary Hoyt, afterward Mrs. Charles R. Sherman, delightfully received her friends at the lloyt hill side home. Among her guests, at one gathering, was her school-mate, a grand-daughter of the Lord of the Manor of Philipsburgh. These young ladies attended together the noted Harlem Seminary, kept by the three English Sketchley sis- ters, of which institution Miss Charlotte Dickinson I (later the wife of Dr. Thomas Church Brownell, 1 third bishop of Connecticut) was also a member. The pupils of this school (removed later to Pough- keepsie) were interested in the movements of the elegant Elizabeth Patterson of Baltimore and her I young suitor, Jerome Bonaparte, which two were, at that period, socially conspicuous. Nearly forty years author has not investigated this • aim. It is Iv.rroweti from carefully prepared Street family data. '36 NORWALK. of the Middle Temple is lighted by two large windows on the right of the porch. From its dimensions a tolerable idea may be formed of the size of the house, it (the hall) being in length thirty-four feet, in width twenty-two feet and in height eighteen feet, presenting a most noble and imposing effect throughout. Among the pictures in the venerable mansion are a portrait of Sir George Wynder, by Van Dyck. another of Lady Wynder, by Sir Peter Lely, together with a portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, the unhappy consort of King Charles, by Van Dyck, all of which are undoubted originals. All the offices and out-buildings of this ancient mansion are suitable to its appearance and the whole form a most venerable group. In the great kitchen the spit is turned by a stream of water which is under the brow of the hill close to the mansion. From the house and grounds the vale of Eversham is seen to peculiar advantage, and the view- extends from Strensham around to Upton, including the Abbey and town of Pershore, with all the animation of the commercial enterprises on the river Avon, trees, verdant meadows and cheerful villas, interspersed with the white sails of the river craft and the spires of the sequestered villages." The widowed mother (born 15881 of Rev. Thomas Hanford came, in 1635, to America with two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth, and in advance, it seems, of her son Thomas, who was left in England in order that he might continue his studies and be brought up a scholar. The widow Hanford here married, second, "Friday, Dec. 15, 1637," Richard Scillis, of Scituate. The American, if not English, tutor of her son Thomas, was of the Westminster School, which, at the era of the gunpowder plot, adjoined the Parliament House. Margaret, the older Hanford sister, married, before her brother here arrived, Isaac, son of the Rev. John Robinson to whose memory an imposing church has just been built in Gainesborough. England. Elizabeth married Edward Foster, one of the settlers of Scituate. Mass. Thomas reached America in 1642 and renewed and finished his studies on afterward Marin Edgar (Mrs. Dr. McKnight) met Madam Bonaparte at Saratoga, who mentioned to her of the handsome parties she had, as a maiden, attended at the Edgar New York home. One fact, pertaining to the heautifnl madam, sensibly impressed Mrs. Mc- * Knight, viz., that she had not in all these vears changed her style of dress, but that it was almost fashion-Identical with that of ageneraiion gone. Miss Mary Uni t's young guest I Mis, Philips) was. while at the Skctchleys, a frequent visitor at Martin S. Wil- kin-, in Morrisania, where she often met Gom-eneur Morris, who, had he not married, would have made Mr. Wilkins oneof his heirs. The School girls of that primitive day had a good deal to chat about and Nor- walk preserved correspondence, although pertaining to their elders, is entertaining. Miss Hurt's friend, whose great aunt, Mary Philips, declined the hand in matrimony of George Washington and accepted that of Roger Morris (Washington's Companion-in-Arms) . made a drawing while at the skctehlevs, which this town holds. Her grandmother married, as his second wife, Rev. Dr. John Ogilvie of Trinity Church, New York, and father of Rev. Geo. Ogilv ie, rector in 1790 of St. Paul's church, Norwalk, Mrs. Dr. John Ogil- vie's son, Nathaniel Philips, fell at the Battle of Germantowu, Oct. 4, 1771, at the age of twenty-one. lie left no will, but being of age, his portion of the magnificent Hudson River estate went to his oldest hrothei , Adolph, who died, unmarried, June 8, 1785. From Adolph'* estate Mrs. Ogilvie received a patri- mony, and the voting Elizabeth Amayr the use of £500 until she should arrive at age, when the princi- pal was to be paid her. Mrs. Ogilvie died Keb. II, 1807. As the Philipses were attached to the loyal cause their immense estate was confiscated and finally sold off in small lots, of which parcels some of the Norwalk Beldens were, to an extent, purchasers. The grandfather of Miss Mary Iloyt's school companion, Frederick Philips, sailed for England, where his descendants now live. His monument is erected in NORWALK. 137