Norwalk

^Deborah Taylor was married to Daniel Betts at the age of twenty-one, and she lived to reach four score years. Her family was, mostly, long lived. Of her brothers, Thomas was 92 when he died, Joseph 90, John 70, Daniel 94, Timothy 56, Nathan 100, and Theophilus 90. She had two sisters, Rebecca, who lived 98 years and Eunice 90 years. Her father was Thos. 1st. son of John Taylor'"'- of Windsor, and her mother was Rebecca, daughter of Edward Ketchum of Stratford. Thos. Taylor'"- came early to Nor- walk and was married about 1667. He was one of the Norwalk fathers who, in 1685, settled Danbury. and was uncle of Lieut. John Taylor w ho, with his wife, Wait Clapp, lived in what is now Westport, and there founded a large branch of the Taylor family. Daniel Betts was fourteen years older than his wife, and sur- vived her some seven years. His daughter Re- becca married Samuel Gruman, or Grumman, who came from Fairfield and founded the Norwalk Grum- man family. His son, Daniel Betts, Jr., horn May 2, 1699, married Sarah, daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Han ford) Comstock and granddaughter of Christo- pher Comstock and of Rev. Thos. Hanford. Among the children of Daniel and Sarah (Comstock) Betts were Hannah (who married Ezra Gregory) and Abi- jah N. Ezra and Hannah (Betts) Gregory were two 230 NORWALK. LINEAGE OF HON. THADDEUS BEITS. Gen. I. — Thomas and Mary Beits. II. — John Betts. '• III.— JOHN3d- AND DAMARIS (LOCKWOOd) BETTS. «< iv. — Thaddeus and Elizabeth (Maltby) Betts. V — William Maltbv and Lucretia (Gregory) Betts. " VI.— Hon. Thaddeus Betts. It is impossible, thus far, to find the first wife, by whom he had his two children, of John Betts."1 His second wife (see Fairfield probate record of Samuel, son of Daniel and Sarah Kellogg Brinsmade) was Sarah (nee Kellogg), widow of Daniel Brinsmade.1 By this marriage, however, there was no known issue. The two children of John Betts'"- were John3d- and Hannah, who married Nathaniel Bouton,2 of Stamford. John,'* the brother of Hannah Betts (Mrs. Nathaniel Bouton) married, April 17, 1722, Damaris, born Nov. 7. 1701, second daughter of Eliphalet and Mary (Gold) Lockwood, and grand- daughter of Ephraim and Mercy (St. John) Lockwood, the settlers. John Betts3<i- was a Colonial Assembly delegate for several sessions and was honored, in 1739, by appoint- ment to audit the Colonial Treasurer s accounts. His oldest child, Thaddeus, ,st- was born May 3, 1724. This son was a Yale man, class of 1745, who married, Nov. 8, 1752, Mary, daughter of John Gold, of Fairfield. Mrs. Thaddeus Bettslst- lived only about twelve days after marriage, and her husband married, second, May 15, 1754, Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. William and Sarah (Davenport) Maltby,' of Branford. Dr. and Mrs. Thaddeus Betts New England worthies. Their son Moses who lived in the existing venerable Gregory hearthstone near the upper east bank of the South Norwalk water- works reservoir in Wilton, was the father (see note, page 85) of the late Dr. Ira Gregory of Norwalk, and their daughter Sarah, who married Jesse, son of Sylvanus and Eunice ( Sherwood ) Sterling, was mother of Sarah Sterling, wife of P. C. Calhoun, of Golden Hill, Bridgeport, and of New York city. 'He married Sarah, born, 1665, daughter of Dan- iel and Bridget Kellogg, the settlers, and was the father of Lieut. Daniel Brinsmade of that portion of Stratford now known as Trumbull. Lieut. Daniel and Mary Brinsmade were the parents of Rev. Daniel Brinsmade, born. July 31, 1718, who was for forty-four years the pastor of what is now Washington, Conn., in which place he died April 23, 1793. -•He was born, 1691, a son of John and Sarah Gregory Bouton, of Norwalk, and was one of the founders of the Congregational parish of New Canaan. His children were Hannah (Mis. Timothy Delavan |. h >rn. Nov. 24. 1721; Abigail (Mrs. Josiait Weed), born, Feb 2S, 1723-4; Nathaniel,"!- born, S.-pt. 6, 1726: S.imuel, born, April „, I730; |el,iel, barn, Feb. 17, 17^1 2: Mary iMrs Samuel Scribner), born, Nov. 11, 1734; John, born, July 23, J 737 ; Dan- iel, born, Oct. 24, 1740; Rebecca, born, 1742. SAfter Capt. Wm. Maltbyrs death his widow married, April 29, 1735, Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, of Lebanon, Conn. Mrs. Capt. Maltby, afterwards Mrs. Rev. Eleazer Wheelock (grandmother of H. S. Senator Thaddeus Betts, of Norwalk), was a daugh- ter, born, July 17, 1702, of Rev. John and Martha Davenport, of Stamford, and, consequently, a grand- daughter of John and Abigail (Pierson) Davenport, of New Haven, and a great granddaughter of Rev. John Davenport, the first minister of New Haven and a founder of that colony. The father of Sarah Davenport (mother of Mrs. Thaddeus Betts181-) was so scholarly that when he read the Bible, at family prayer, he made use (see his funeral sermon) not of English but of the original tongue. Sarah Daven- port (Mrs. Capt. Wm. Maltby, first, and, second, Mrs. Eleazer Wheelock), died Nov. 13, 1746. Her Maltbv grandson was Judge William Maltby Betls (father of Senator Thaddeus) and a Wheeler son-in- law was Judge Alexander Phelps, of East lladdam (Conn.) district. Mrs. Elizabeth Maltby Betts, wife of Dr. Thaddeus Betts, "t- died Feb. 8, 1789, and her husband married (Nov. 8 next) the widow of Daniel NORWALK. established themselves on "The Green," living in a typically comfortable, east-dormer window home, which stood on a slight elevation where now stands the First Congregation- al Church and which had, on the north, a broad meadow stretching as far as the Edwin Lockwood residence of later times. The present Lewis street was cut through this Betts- bordering land. William Maltby, son of Dr. Thaddeus and Elizabeth Betts, was born Jan. 4, 1759, and marrying, June 26, 1785, Lucretia, daughter of Captain Jabez and Mercy (St. John) Gregory, of the old Spring property, lower Main street, and the only sister of Capt. Moses Gregory, chose for his home what has since been known as the Edward Street house, which faced Main street and stood a little north of the ' ' Sherman house." He was the postmaster of his day, having his office in the "Betts building" which has been supplanted by the 1 896 G. & S. H. Holmes grocery establishment in Main street. To Judge William M. and Lucretia Betts was born, Feb. 4, 1789, Thaddeus2d- (Hon. Thaddeus Betts,1 U. S. Senator) whose intelligence and mind-activity and liberal spirit, creating no disappointing expectations, caused his influence to be widely felt. His mission, however, was early fulfilled, and he died at his Washington, D. C, post of duty, in 1840, leaving Lyman (son of Lieut. Benj. Lyman). Daniel Lyman was a classmate of Dr. Betts, and like his college fel- low, was, it is probable, thrice married. Mis first wife was Sarah Whitney, of New Haven; his second wife Sarah Miles, of the same city, and his third, Mrs. Ellen (Fairchild) Benedict, of Norwalk. Mr. Benedict died in 1764, after which his widow married Dr. Thaddeus Betts. '"t 'Thaddeus Betts was a member of the Fairfield County Bar, the story of which body has been that of men of merit-mark. Mr. Bet!s' Norwalk contempor- ary was Hon. Roger Minot Sherman and such was the case-skillful reputation of these two acute reason- ers and telling speech-makers, that when the services of one had already been secured, no time was lost by the opposite party in applying for the offices of the other. Hon. Clark Bissell, sterling and solid, was another of the giants of the bar in Southwestern Fairfield County at the Senator Betts era, and shared the honors of great legal fame with lion. Chas. Haw- ley, of Stamford. Blackstone's four chief disciples in the section named were (quoting a Norwalk resi- dent of to-day and a Charles Hawlev strongly en- dorsed student of Edward Taylor, of Danbury,) : "Roger M. Sherman, of Fairfield, Thaddeus Betts and Clark Bissell, of Norwalk, and Charles Hawlev, of Stamford." Of Roger M. Sherman, before allud- ed to, and his wife Elizabeth (see note page 200) it may be said that they were " noble Romans." This truly great father honored Norwalk by his residence. He then went to Fairfield, and his home stands to- day (the Congregational parsonage of that town) which he bequeathed to the " Prime Ancient So- ciety." of Fairfield, with a fund for its preservation as well as the old family portraits of himself and wife, which now adorn and dignify the premises referred to. Reuben Booth, another member at the same period of the same bar, and by five years the junior of Thaddeus Betts, was a Danbury attorney of emi- nence. He studied with the magnificent Danbury barrister, Moses Hatch, and was a brother-in-law of the keen, powerfully logical and "chock full of humor," David Hull Belden. Beale Whittlesey, not perhaps as "snappy" as some of the others, but cap- able and clever and down to the end of life riignified- iy dressed in knee-breeches and shoes decorated w ith buckles, also had place in the legal galaxy of the period mentioned, as did the black-eyed, bright brained Sila^ H. Hickock, as well as the rigid cross- examiner, natural orator and perfect gentleman, Nel- son L. White. The very talented Taylor Sherman earlier appeared, but Edward Taylor age-rated with Booth and Betts. Mr. Taylor was equal to an emer- gency. "Your name is Taylor" was the greeting, in Soulhburv, of a New Haven practioner to whom Taylor had just been introduced. "Yes," was the reply. "Well," retorted Bacon, "I've understood that' a tailor is" so and so. "And your name is Bacon," quoth Taylor, "and Bacon is" thus and thus. But the "penalty" did not end just here. I Before the case was called Mr. Taylor quietly ad- i dressed to Mr. Bacon's client the remark, "however j this trial may turn out, my client can bring seven charges against you." Bacon's man at once became uneasy and seeking his counsel suggested that the suit be withdrawn. " Very well," said Bacon, ■• I'm not here to perpetuate strife and if you conclude to close the matter outside of court, do so." The thing 2$2 NOR \V A L K . a widow and three sons and one daughter. Senator Betts married Antionette,' born April 20. 1789, daughter of John Cannon-H- and Sarah (St. John) Cannon isee Cannon lineagei. OF MOSKS BETTS LINEAGE. Gen. I,— Thomas and Mary Betts.