Norwalk

a son of Thomas Harlakenden, whose mother was Catharine, a daughter of Thomas Fienes, who was son of Sir Thomas Fienes, whose wife was Lady Alice Fitz-IIugh, daughter of liaron Henry Fitz-llngh, who was a son of Richard, Earl of Salisbury, who was a son of Baron Ralph De Neville, w ho was sun of Prince John of Gaunt, who was son of Edward III., King of England, it follows that Dr. Samuel S. Noyes was of kingly line. Rev. John Noyes of Weston (Father Noyes) was a Yale student at the lime of the temporary breaking up of college because of Tryon's burning of New Haven, lie immediately repaired to Weston and resumed his studies under the tuition of Rev, Samuel Sherwood, then pastor of Weston, and the father of Mrs. Gov. Hissell of Norwalk. Rev. Mr. Noyes here became acquainted with Mr. Sher- wood's daughter whom he afterward married. This son, Samuel Sherwood Noyes, was the valued New Canaan physician. His home, remarkably unchanged in its appear- NOR WALK. the latter of many of the Norwalk- Belden s, Lockwood's and St. John s. Man- Haj ncs was fifteen when she was bereft of her parent. She made choice of her uncle Samuel Marvin as guardian, the Court demanding on June 4, 1712, security to the amount of £500. Two years after the execution of this bond, there graduated at Yale College a youth of twenty, whose mother was a New London Griswold and his father a Saybrook Buckingham. This young man of family fame had three j ears of theological study yet before him, at the close of which period, having made the acquaintance of Mary Haynes while visiting his uncle. Rev. Stephen Buckingham, second pastor of Xnrwalk, the two were wedded. They were immediately settled in West Newark— now Orange— where a son, William Buckingham, w as born to them, Oct. 14, 17 19. This son was barely six- months old w hen his father, who chanced at the time to be visiting his uncle in Norwalk, was taken suddenly ill and died, leaving a widow scarcely twenty-one years of age. The widow returned to Norwalk, and afterwards married James, the youngest brother of Gov. Thomas Fitch. She died about nine months before the decease of her second husband, frosted bv the snows of ninety win- ters, and several of our citizens to-day are honored by direct descent from her. Her first husband's tomb stone, in the East Norwalk cemetery, is thus inscribed : ■• Here lycth the body of the Rev. Jedediah Buckingham, late preacher of the gospel at the west part of Newark in East Jersey, who departed this life, March 28, 1720, etatis 24." Her second husband died Feb. 2, 1790, aged 88 years. She died May 13, 1789, aged 90 years. Her Buckingham son, William, married May 22, [746, Rebecca Clark, and resided at Lebanon, Conn. lie died Jan. 28, 1827, leaving five children. GOVERNOR THOMAS FITCH FAMILY. Gen. I. — Thomas Fitch, Senior. II.— Thomas za- and Ruth Fitch. " III. — Thomas3'1- and Sarah Fitch. Gen. IV. Thomas**-; Samuel'"-; Elizabeth; James '* Thomas Fitch4'1"- (Gov.), born, 1700, married, Sept. 4, 1724, Hannah, born, 1702, daughter of Richard and Hannah (Miles) Hall of New Haven. The mother of Governor ance to-day, bears emphatic testimony to the air of true refinement which once invested it. There were homes in earlier Canaan, not indeed as outwardly grand as are the beautiful abodes which to-day adorn its noble elevations, but which were, nevertheless, no common-place homes. Many of those who there re- sided and of those who were there received are now gone, but fragrant memories cluster around the old place. The aged father of Dr. Samuel S. Moves was one of those genuine characters that a true man ven- erates; and not only his ability , but his pure goodness impressed and conciliated even such as might differ, upon some points, in opinion from him. Being often in Norwalk, where he was greatly regarded, he was on one occasion cordially invited to dine at the Epis- copal parsonage, which invitation he as cordially ac- cepted. Meeting, later in the day, one of his partic- ular Congregational friends, the latter, good humor- edly, remarked, How is this Mr. Noyes." " Well," was the characteristic response of the modest and faithful Weston pastor, " the rector asked me and if he was disappointed in his guest he had the worst of it." Mr. Noyes' " Nuffield Church" is still seen from far and near. 208 NOR VV ALK. Fitch has not yet been ascertained. His father married three times, but the children were by his first wife. The descent of Mrs. Gov. Fitch, on both sides, is clean cut. Her father belonged in Middletown but removed to New Haven in 1702, where he died two years after the marriage of his oldest daughter to Thomas Fitch4'1'- or Gov. Her mother was the daughter of Capt. John and Alary (Alsop) Miles. (A coveted record.) The descendants of Richard Miles — a highly respectable name — are found in three distinct Norwalk families, viz: Fitch, Gregory and Street1; one common ancestor of which trio of households is Hon. Richard Miles'"- of Milford and New Haven. The children of Gov. Thomas and Hannah Fitch were probably all born in the house on the present East Avenue, which stood near the tree depicted on page 193. These child- ren were as here appears : Thomas?"1 (Col.); born, Aug. 12, 1725, mar., Sarah (St. John) Hill of Fairfield. Jonathan; born, April 12, 1727, married a daughter of Samuel Mix of New Haven, and lived elsewhere than in Norwalk. Ebenezer2; born, Feb. 25, 1729, married, Lydia, daughter of Samuel Mills, Jr., of Greenwich. Hannah; born, April 10, 1731, died young. Man-; born, Sept. 20, 1733. married a Thatcher. Timothy; born, 1735, married Esther, daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Whit- man) Piatt. Hezekiah; married. Sept. 21, [767. Jerusha Burr of Fairfield and there resided. Elizabeth; born, 1739, married Andrew Rowland of Fairfield. Esther ; died unmarried. Two sons only (Col. Thomas and Timothy) of Gov. Fitch, resided in Norwalk. The governor, on July 18, 1758, bought of Benjamin Keeler, for £150, five acres of land, the same being now known as the Hendricks property on East Avenue. His eldest son, Col. Thomas, was. at the date of said purchase, unmarried and away from home, and fast "winning his spurs" military wise, a fact which perhaps spurred the Governor to buy the five or so acres, as it was at this very time that the Colonel was distinguishing himself in the French and Indian troubles at the north. The soldier son returned from war to Nor- 'Captain John Miles, the grandfather uf Mrs. tli". Fitcl), was. evidently, the grandson of Rich- ard >*'■ and Catharine Miles who are commemorated by a memorial block in the Milford bridge, while Elizabeth Pardee who married Thomas Gregory of Norwalk, was a grand-child (see page 83) of the same Richard Miles-i. as was also Lieut. Samuel Street whose son Nathaniel married Mary Raymond of ■< Old Well" and founded the Norwalk Street family. me died in Wilton, at ,he age of thirty-three, leavmg three wns, viz. Jabez, Ebenezer^. and Giles Ebenezer*!. removed from Wilton, in 17S5, to [lie town of Greenfield, Saratoga County, N. Y. lie had married Sarah, daughter of Col. David Hobby of North Castle, Westchester County, N. Y. To Eben- ezer ^. and Sarah Filch was born, Sept. 9, 1787, Hannah, who married, Jan, 5, 1812, Alpheus Billiard of Schuylerville, N. Y. Mrs. Alpheus liullard died in Schuylerville, March 4, 1879, leaving several chil- dren, among them Gen. Edward Fitch Billiard of Saratoga Springs, N. Y. , who was present at the Founders' Day celebration, in 1894, in Norwalk. N O R W A L K . walk, and on April 28, [763, was married, by Rev. Noah Hobart, pastor of the Fairfield Church, to Sarah, daughter of Capt. Thomas and Hannah Hill of Fairfield. Within less than two months (June 21, 1763 1 the lot referred to was made over fa wedding present pos- sibly) from the governor to this son, whose family was as follows: Thomas6*-; born, March 20, 1764, married, Dec. 20, 1790, Amitia Lewis of Hunt- ington, L. I , and had Mary Esther, born, June 22, 1796. Sarah; born, Jan. 12, 1766, married, Stephen, son of Col. Stephen St. John. Andrew ; born, April 18, 1768. Richard Hall (Capt.) ; born, Nov. 5, 1770, married, Theodocia Conklin ; see note page 141. Mary Esther; born, June 16, 1773, married, Edward Fitch; see note page 141. Thaddeus Hill ; born, Nov. 19, 1775, died, Oct. 21, 1776. Timothy, fourth son of Gov. Thomas and Hannah Fitch, married, June 8, 1764, Esther, daughter of Joseph"1 and Hannah (Whitman) l'latt. Mrs. Timothy Fitch was a grand-daughter of Hon. Joseph and Hannah (Hanford] Piatt, and a great grand-daughter of Deacon John and Hannah (Clark) l'latt, which Deacon John l'latt was a son of Richard Piatt the settler. Timothy and Esther Piatt resided in primitive style on Strawberry Hill (opposite Gray's Mineral Works 1896). Their family was large and has representatives in different parts of Norwalk to-day. The children were : Timothy "'■ ; born, Dec. 22, 1775, died young. Hannah ; born. Sept. f 5, 1 776, married, second wife, Capt. Azor Belden of Wilton. William; born, Feb. 13, 1768, married, a Hanford, and went west. Timothy 3<1- ; born, Oct 29, 1769, married, Esther, daughter of Obadiah Wright. Edward; bom, May I, 1772. married, Mary Esther, daughter of Col. Thomas Fitch. See note page [ 4 1 . Esther E. ; born, Oct. 30, 1773, married, Samuel Marvin Fitch '■* Mary; born, Dec. 8, 1775, died young. Joseph ; born, 1 777. Nancy; born, Aug. 29, 1781, married, Thomas H. Taylor of Westport. Sally; born, Feb. 12, 1784, married, Jabez Raymond. Thomas; born, Sept. 7, 1785. Charles; born, Sept. 10, 1 790, married. Anna Nash. Samuel Fitch, son of Thos. and Sarah Fitch, has mention on page 175 of this work. James youngest son of Thomas"1- and Sarah Fitch, married Mary, widow of Jed- dediah Buckingham and daughter of William and Man- (Marvin) Haynes, and had : James2'1-; married, Ann Hanford. Haynes ; married, Anna Cooke. NORWALK. Elijah ; married Phoebe Smith. Mary ; Elizabeth ; Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas3d- and Sarah Fitch, married, May 17, 1721, Joshua, son of Samuel and Judith (Palmer) Raymond, and had :