Norwalk

NORWALK. Esther, daughter of Nehemiah and Elizabeth Rogers, married Archibald Gracie of New York, and had : Margaret; William; married (ist.) Eliza Wolcott, (2d.) Cornelia Fleming. Elizabeth ; married President Charles King of Columbia College. Sarah R. ; married Hon. James Gore King. Mary M. ; Archibald ; Robert; married, (Ist.) Susan Nelson, (2d.) a Fleming. Esther ; married Hon. William Beach Lawrence. Esther (Mrs. Archibald Gracie), daughter of Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Fitch) Rogers, remembered nothing of her father as she was born in the Norwalk homestead (the rear of which is seen to-day) about the time that her widowed mother and fatherless brothers accompanied their parent's remains to the south end of the pioneers' first burial place where, distinctly marked, his grave is pointed out in 1 896. Place was there evi- dently reserved for the widow, but as in the decrees of providence she was long to sur- vive and become, afterward, the devoted care of this same infant, she was laid to rest near her city blood. This child, Esther, underwent education during the trying days of "Sev- enty-Six." The family adhered to the royal cause, and the mother and daughter's Nor- walk interests were thereby greatly imperiled. Peace, however, was about to return when, now arrived at twenty-four years of age, the young Esther's hand in matrimony was asked by one of the most promising young men of the metropolis, Archibald Gracie, born in Scotland five years before her own birth in Norwalk. The union was a truly marked one, and probably no New York home of the era had more graceful superintendence than that of Archibald and Esther Gracie. In this home was born, Dec. 14, 1791, a daughter, Sarah Rogers Gracie, who married Hon. James Gore King, son of Hon. Rufus King. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. King went abroad where was born, July II, 1 82 I, a son, the late Archibald Gracie King. This son married May 8, 1845, Elizabeth Denning, daughter of President William Alexander and Hannah Maria (Denning) Duer. President Duer, born Sept. 8, 1780, was the son of William and Lady Kittie (Alexander) Duer. His mother was the daughter of "Lord Stirling" and Sarah Livingston, of one branch of which Livingston family Norwalk holds interesting mementoes. Sarah Gracie King, daughter of Archibald Gracie King and great grand-daughter of Esther Rogers, who was a daughter of Nehe- miah and Elizabeth (Fitch) Rogers, married on the first day of winter, 1875, Frederick Bronson*\ son of Frederick'"-, whose Bronson ancestors, influenced by its salubrity-recom- mendation, established themselves at Greenfield Hill, Conn., upon the former President Dwight property, which classic precincts the Bronsons, earlier and later, have converted into a family seat of striking beauty. Its history, its landscape, and its height and health desirability have drawn such as the Baldwin's, Bronsons, Belden's, Murray's Nichols, XORWALK. '75 Rogers', and, more transiently, the Suydams and Jeffrey's thither. A peculiar interest has from the days of Dr. Dwight invested the celebrated spot. Elizabeth, daughter of Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Fitch) Rogers, and named for her mother, died unmarried. For the registration of the grand-children of Nehemiah and Elizabeth (Fitch) Rogers, the author is largely under obligation to the article by Rev. Dr. Benjamin \V. Dwight, as it appeared in different numbers of the New York Genealogical and Biographi- cal Record, Volumes XV. and XVI. THE ELIZABETH FITCH HOME. The family of Hon. Samuel and Susanna Fitch, comprising, beside the parents, three sons (Samuel, Daniel and Jonathan), and four daughters (Elizabeth, Ann, Susanna and Sarah), was one of Xorwalk's best known households. One of the greatest misfortunes — genealogy-wise — which has befallen Norwalk is that during the brief vacancy caused by Pastor Matthias Burnet's death in 1806, the Congregational records should have been left in that sorry basket in the parsonage (present East Avenue residence of G. YV Hunter) to be rodent-destroyed. There were, it is gleaned, three invaluable folios, one the register of Rev. Thomas Hanford, another that of Rev. Stephen Buckingham, and the third by Rev. Moses Dickinson, packed in that wicker receptacle. Beyond question, probably, Mr. Buckingham's volume held the registration of the marriage of Samuel Fitch. Sr. Up to this time it seems impossible to ascertain the family from which Susanna, his wife, sprang. The late painstaking genealogist, Xath. G. Pond of Milford, suggested that possibly the middle name of the grandson of Samuel Fitch, Sr. (Zachariah Whitman Fitch), might furnish a clue, but as said Samuel's oldest son (brother of Mrs. .Nehemiah Rogers) married Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph2'1- and Hannah (Whitman) Piatt, the appearance of the Whit- man name in this Fitch family is thus, beyond doubt, accounted for. Daniel Fitch, second brother of Mrs. Nehemiah Rogers, married Rebecca, daughter of Samuel and Deborah (Clark) Marvin, and had the three brothers, Samuel M., Henry and Jonathan, and one sister, Rebecca, the descendants of whom to-day (the Knapp's, Fitch's, Mallory's, Isaacs' and Hartford's) abound in Norwalk. Jonathan, last brother of Mrs. Rogers, was a Vale man. He married (see page 139) Deborah, daughter of Hezekiah Hanford, and had one son, Josiah Hanford Fitch, w ho was the grandfather of Capt. Samuel Daskam and his sister, Mrs. Theodocia F. Bradley of to-day. Ann, sister of Elizabeth Fitch (Mrs. Nehemiah Rogers), married (foot note page 1431 Col. Stephen, son of Capt. Joseph and Susanna St. John. Col. Stephen's sister, Susanna, married Eliphalet Lockwood, grandfather of Col. Buckingham St. John Lockwood and his brother William B. E. and sister, Miss Julia A. of 1896. Sarah, sister of Elizabeth and Ann, married into the Ketchum family, and Susanna, NORWALK. the third sister, was the first wife of the first Ebenezer Church of Norwalk. Mrs. Susanna Church was married in the beginning of 1746 and died at the ending of 1747. She gave birth to two children, Daniel and Richard, but most of the Church descendants of to-day are by Mr. Church's second and Sears marriage. Mrs. Nehemiah Rogers survived, for many years, her husband, residing with her daughter Esther, Mrs. Archibald Gracie of New York. She was loyal to her Norwalk relatives and kept up her visits to them. Her brother Samuel's home was on Chestnut Hill, to which she drove from her Wilton children's house. Living before the era of steam navi- gation she probably came, under sail, to Norwalk ; but after reaching here she had the coach and livery attendance of her daughter Susanna, Mrs. David Lambert, Jr. From handed- down mentions it would appear that she was gracious and generous and possessed of the spirit to diffuse an agreeable atmosphere wherever she went. It is compensating to chron- icle the career and connections of such an ancestress. NEHEMIAH ANT) ELIZABETH ROGERS VAN RENSSALAER MENTION. Sarah Rogers, born Oct. 29, 1809, second child of Benjamin W. and Susan B. Rogers (see "Introductory," page 3) of New York, was the grand-daughter of Moses and Sarah Rogers of Shippan Point, and great grand-daughter of Nehemiah and Elizabeth Rogers of Norwalk. Said Sarah Rogers married April 4, 1839, William Patterson, son of "Patroon" Stephen Van Renssalaer of Albany, and the family, for a period, occupied the Wilson estate at Belden Neck, Norwalk. The tranquil atmosphere of this sylvan and secluded sea-skirted point was tempting to the Van Renssalaers who had slight contact with the Norwalk folk and are here almost exclusively remembered for their attendance-constancy upon public worship. Attached to the First Congregational Church during the time of Rev. Dr. Hall's pastorate, one, on Sunday morning, was almost as sure to see their horses reigned up before the church por- tals on The Green as one was to witness the Thomas Benedict, Thomas Cook Hanford, William Marvin, William St. John and the Westport Scribner and Marvins well filled vehicles standing at the same hour at the same spot. Col. Van Renssalaers mother was Cornelia, daughter of Judge William Patterson of New Jersey, and Mrs. Van Renssalaer's mother was the lovely character whose burial in the south of England is alluded to on page third of" this work, so that in coming to Belden Neck, the excellent lady was only returning to her ancestral soil. It is one of the glories of Norwalk that such as Mrs. Sarah Rogers Van Renssalaer hence emanated. The stories of many who have risen to fame, many who have swayed society, and many who have been truly religious and found real satisfaction in doing good have here originated, and one might elect a far less compensating task than to sit by the hearth of Elizabeth Fitch and thence trace down her illustrious line. This, said one of her metropolitan sons to his little standing-by daughter, as having dipped his pen too deeply in the fountain it NORWALK. i/7 caused a drop of ink to blur his signature, this is the only blot that rests upon our name. It was said facetiously perhaps, nevertheless a susceptible Rogers daughter, sensitive, beautiful and beloved, even at ninety years of age, had all her life been helpfully influenced by the remark. A NEHEMIAH AM) ELIZABETH (FITCH) ROGERS BRIEF JOTTING.