Norwalk

at the norlh-wc-.| rorner of the "old meeting house," (removed in 1*49' beneath which stood tin* alighting rock Lipi.n which Mi— Pluebe Coinstock and other worthies from a distance stepped from llu'ir saddle- or vehicles to engage til public worship, was one of the 1110*1 shapely of all the Norwalk family. Rev, Dr. John ISowden phnited the majestic monarchs which until a short period put have made the rector* grottttds of St. P.oil'- Church one of the mo»i attract- ive parsonage-properties in the Slate. I>r. Jonathan Knight Bet oni the elm row near the Peter tiuiguc tloral enclosure uf 1S06, The grand llczekiah JurWs, Noah Itanium, EH phi) let Lot k wood, John Was-mi r . i E r 1 - 1 - -.x ;ird W K. laiuc*f. ttenj. E-il;h-^, Mrs, J'lli^u Seiieck, Henry Belden, William Johnson, Satunel Cannon, John Camion, Win. St. John, J< ma. i. "aiiip, Goold llovt. EU nezt-r Church, Khenezer(C/arj 1 1 1 1 1 1 , (town children1! lunne 1896) Jonathan Kiu h. Samuel Murvin. Janu-s Itenedict (now Mathews) and the sim- ply inafrnilicent Prospect* Klax and Roton Mills elms will never, it Is probable, have ihefr peers. The loss, in late years, Iry the elm hccile E* irrepandde, Imt it hehooves the preseoi generation to imitate it* fathers and provide, hy replacing the old, for the future adornment of this, of yorvr truly tree- lovely township. ^Continued by tieneral Court a* 11 Recorder nf Laws *' Peli i& 1659. XORWALK. England, arrived with his widowed mother' in 1635-38 in America and was in Nonvalk certainly in 1652. perhaps before. The earliest date affixed to any English Norwalk deed stands attached to a Thomas Fitch. Sr. grant in 1652. He came, it may be inferred, from the vicinity of Hartford, and accompanied by his brother Joseph. ' As appears from his will he had a number of children, but none, perhaps of Norwalk birth. He does not seem to have had a permanent house-lot in Norwalk until he purchased, in 1654, the same from Edward Church. His children were Thomas'1-. John'-1-, Mary,*1 Ann (Mrs. John Thomp- son of Farmington), Sarah (Mrs. John Burr of Fairfield), and, some one supposes, Samuel of Hartford, who did not come to Nonvalk. Thomas Fitch ,sl- died in 1704. Thomas Fitch*1-, son of Thomas"'-, and made free by order of General Court, May 2 1 , 1657, married about 1662, Ruth, daughter of "farmer" George Clark of Milford, and had : Sarah, born 1663. Thomas 3d-, born 1665. Mary, born 1668. Samuel, born 168 1. No Norwalk appearance. There is here a possible error of ten years ; but if the date is correct there must have been a birth (followed possibly by death) between Mary and Samuel, as Thomas Fitch -,J- reports as having, in 1672, four children. John Fitch'-'-, son of Thomas'*'', married Dec. 3, 1664, Rebecca, daughter of Henry and Rosamond Lindall of New Haven, and had : John-"'1-; born Sept. 29, 1677. Rebecca; born Jan. 15, 1679. Nathaniel; born Nov. 6, 1682. Mary; married, Dec. 13, 171 1, Ebenezer, son of Thomas and grandson of John Gregory, Sr. Mary; born 1643, daughter of Thomas Fitch""- married, as his second wife, Capt. 'Claimed to have been Anna Pew, who was mar- ried to Thomas Filch (father of Thomas m. of Nor- walk! Aug. 6, 1611 (church record at Bucking, Essex County, England.) Her husband, Thomas Fitch, was born .1590 and died about 1632, as his will was proved Feb. X3, :Su. 'Joseph Fitch xt., brother of Thomas ■«•■ of Nor- Wl.lk, remained in Norwalk only a short time. He went, see note, page 40, to Hartford, where he mar- ried Mary, daughter,,! Rev. Samuel and Elizabeth (Allen) Si,,,,,.. Sarah, sister of Mrs. Joseph Fitch, married Thomas Butler of Hartford. It is a matter of genealogical record that lleze- kiah Haynes of New England, son by his first wife, of Gov. John Haynes of New England, was a brother- in-law of Joseph Fitch This (act may help ex- plain the impression on the part of General Grant Fitch(son of Haynesand grandson of James Fitch1*) of Gov. Haynes-Fitch affinity. It seems to throw no light upon '• Mr. William Haynes" of early Norwalk history who was an ancestor of General Grant Fitch Mr. Haynes' pedigree is an interesting "study," See Haynes article. 3The will (1678) of Richard Lyon of Fairfield, mentions Mary Fitch (daughter of Thomas1*) »' cousin. (Niece, it should probably read.) NORWALK. Matthew , son of 1 liomas Sherwood of Fairfield. There were six children, but no Norwalk descent from this union. The wife died on Christmas Day, 1730. Ann, daughter of Thomas Fitch lVt-, married John Thompson of Farmington, and had no Norwalk descent. Sarah, daughter of Thomas Fitch, married John, son of John Burr of Fairfield. There was no Norwalk, but there was noticeable Fairfield descent from this union. John and Sarah (Fitch) Burr's daughter, Sarah, married June 29, 1692, Rev. Charles Chauncey, grandson of President Charles Chauncey, second president of Harvard College, and their son Samuel was for many years Master of the Charlestown, Mass., Grammar School. The 1650 Hartford Samuel Fitch may possibly have been the brother of Thomas1"' of Norwalk. He married Susannah, the widow of William Whiting, and had by her Samuel, who went to Milford, and Thomas, born in 1652, who married, in 1680, Abigail, daughter of Ensign William and Sarah Goodrich, which Sarah was a daughter of Matthew and Eliza- beth Marvin of Norwalk. The Thomas and Abigail (Goodrich) Fitch children were : Thomas ; born July 20, 1680, died young. Sy bil ; born Nov. 2, 1684, died an infant of a few weeks. The children's mother died at the close of 1684. The widow of Samuel Fitch (Mrs. Whiting) married third, Alexander Bryan of Mil- ford, but well known in early Norwalk, and her son Samuel Fitch married Sarah Bryan, daughter of Richard, who was the son of Alexander Bryan. Samuel and Sarah (Bryan) Fitch had only one child, Sarah, who married Zachariah Whitman, which may account for the introduction of that name into the later family of Samuel and Elizabeth (Piatt) Fitch. Thomas Fitch'"1' makes no mention of his daughter Sarah in his will, neither of any Hartford Fitch relationship or connection. He appointed his son John sole executor, who gave to the children of his deceased sister (Sarah Burr) "as much as his father gave the other children." The Norwalk Fitch mother (wife of Thomas"1') is claimed to have been a daughter of Richard Piatt One sentence in the will of her husband reads thus, "my loving cousin Sergeant John Piatt." "Cousin" should here, it is probable, read nephew, but in the ab- sence of documentary evidence, inference should be drawn with caution. Thomas'8'' overlived, by several years, his son Thomas"1-. The senior Thomas' resi- dence was somewhere near the present Enos Osborn East Avenue home, and Thos. junior's home was originally on the opposite side of the street, a little to the southeast of "Good- man Hoyt's," now Earle's Hill. Thomas Fitch *d- bore in early days the title of Sergeant. He died in the prime of life, leaving a widow (who was twice married after his day), and a son not yet out of his teens, who was to be a Governor's father. His widow was the sister of Mrs. Abigail Pierson ( wife of the first rector of Yale College), and of Sarah, wife of the renowned Indian fighter, 196 N O R \Y A L K . Reynold Marvin of Lyme. Mrs. Thomas Fitch 2d- married second, Robert Plum of Milford, and had one child, Robert, who died young, and she married, third, John Wheeler of Wood- bury, in which place she probably died. After the decease of Deacon Henry Lindall of New Haven, his widow married Na- thaniel Richards, a Norwnlk pioneer. She brought four Lindall daughtcis to her Xorwalk home, all of whom here found husbands. John Fitch took her daughter, Rebecca, to wife- John Hoyt took Mary; Ralph Keeler*d- took Grace, and Joseph Ketchum'"1, took Mercv. Thomas Fitch 2d- died 1684. His father overlived him about twenty years. Sarah, oldest child of Thomas-''1, and Ruth Fitch, married John Ford of Milford, and had no discovered Xorwalk descent.' Thomas*, son of Thomas "' and Ruth Fitch, married, first, Sarah second, Rhoda.3 and third Rachel,4 and had by Sarah, first wife :5 Thomas*"1, (Governor) ; born 1700, married Hannah Hall. Samuel '-'- ; James; born 1702, married widow Mary Buckingham. Elizabeth; married first, May 17, 1721, Joshua, son of Samuel, son of John Raymond"1-; married, second, Rev. Elisha Kent, see page 179. Mary, daughter of Thomas and Ruth Fitch, married Daniel Terrell of Milford, and had no known Xorwalk descent. Samuel, son of Thomas"1- and Ruth Fitch, probably died young." A JOHN FITCH DESCENT. John Fitch'--, son of Thomas'* married Dec. 3, 1674, Rebecca, one of the four daughters of the deceased Deacon Henry Lindall of Xew Haven. The widow of Henry Lindall married, second. Xathaniel Richards, who was one of the first comers to the new Xorwalk settlement. Mrs. Lindall brought with her to the Richards-Linda!! home her daughters by her former husband, Mary, Rebecca, Grace and Mercy. All had been bap- tized in Xew Haven by Rev. John Davenport, on, in their order, the following dates: July .9. 1646, Oct. 20, ,652. April 5, ,656 and Jan. 30, 1658. Young John Fitch lived the very next door to Rebecca's home (near Campbell East Avenue 1896 residence). After marriage he founded his own home and became a settler of importance. His children were : John*'-; born Sept. 29, 1677. Nathan (I ^nTrfMHfor?01' °* ' *>"» (Clark) Fitch deed, ,0 her children, Daniel a»d Mary (Fitch) Terrell, and John and Sarah (Fitch) Ford certain lands in consideration that the)' re- nounce their rights in the estate of her son, Samuel 'Hester's Yale College Record. .'Niinvulk Land Records. *Wiil of Thomas Fitch 3d- 5Hacl no children by last two wives. Fitch deceased, in favor of her son, Thomas Fitcli — "«'vu >'\ last two wives. ,#„., r „ * , •>« -He Milford records is me„tion that Mr, ZT^lTZ^T™ ^ NORWALK. '97 Rebecca; born, Jan. 15, 1679. Nathaniel ; born, Nov. 6, 1682. Mary; married, Dec. 13, 171 1, Kbenezer Gregory.