Norwalk

of Milford Memorial Bridge inscription, of which family, United States Senator Plumb, of Kansas, is a descendant. The Plumb-Baldwin union was that of two marked families, and the Norwalk arteries which to-day carry the blood are those of the descendants of Stephen St. John. 4th. The Hickox uncles and aunts of Mrs. Stephen St. John3(L (children of Samuel, Jr., and Elizabeth Hickox) were Ebenezer. Samuel, John, Hannah, Elizabeth (Mrs. Samuel Smith), Gideon and S'. la Lid (Mrs. Abr. Bennett. Mrs. Si. John was the grandniece of " ve wor-hipful Joseph Piatt,'' and her grandson Alanson (Capt. A. P. St. John) took for his second name that of Piatt. Capt. St. John s sister Caroline (Mrs. Henry Chichester) attributed certain familv characteristics, decision, etc., to their Piatt blood element. The captain began the life which afterwards as a Hudson River commander (see page 1421 made him famous, with Capt. John Brooks, of Bridgeport. At that lime the former started as a clerk or mate on the old Sound steamboat " Ninirod," which, under the control of the latter, plied between Bridgeport and New York. Capt. Brooks required that the gang doors of the boat should be closed every night at 9 o'clock and strictly ordered that not a man, from the captain down, belonging to the boat should be admitted after that hour. It happen- ed that the first person to he caught out, after the is- suing of the order, was the captain himself. Board- ing the boat later than the hour named he found everything tightly fastened and called to the clerk. '-'Who are your'' was the response from within. U is quite possible that the young St. John did not dis- tinguish the tone, but the replv, in substance, which ended the matter was: tll do not recognize the voice.'' NOR \V A L K ^35 is still pointed out immediately west of the bridge that crosses Xorwalk river, somewhat be- low the Wilton railway station of 1896. The child mounted the horse and rode thither, but when the visit was paid the careful grandfather, unwilling that she should make the six miles to her home alone, insisted that an older person should share and show the way to Xorwalk. The young Caroline agreed to the companionship, but not, characteristically, to the leadership. Competent to take the head she there remained through a long life, and her offspring to-day revere her vital memory. Her brother Edward early went out into the world, became a city broker, maintaining for many years a residence in Ninth Street, New York, and retiring, finally, to end a busy life at Co m wa ! 1 -on -the- 1 1 udson. Capt. Alanson P., another brother, of fine face, features and nature, became a favorite steam commander. Jessup St. John, another brother, always remained in Xorwalk. He married into the Johnson family, and when his father's estate was settled, he desired the old homestead which his son Stephen now occupies. Sally Ann, a sister, married Thomas B. Merrill, and was a true mother. The ambition of Moses and Charles took them, one West, and the other South, while Catherine (Mrs. Lawrence M. Stevens) and Harriet 1 Mrs. Gould I). Jennings) to this day survive. A THOMAS SETTS1"'1' MENTION. Thomas,*** son of Thomas'"1' and Mary Betts, married Sarah, daughter of Matthew Marvin, *■* and a granddaughter of Hon. Matthew Marvin. The groom was Guilford and the bride Norwalk born, and the latter was ten years the junior of the former. They had six children. Thos., John,2'"1' Sarah, Matthew, Mary and Elizabeth. John.5'"1- the second son, is to be distinguished from his cousin, John*"1- (son of John'"-). The lines of the two cousins lead quite differently, albeit both relatives are the head-; of widely known Xor- walk hearthstones to-day. John Betts,2 "'■ born July- 7, 1684, married Apr. 15. 1708, Han- nah, daughter of John Burn-ell.1-'- of Greenwich; which union makes appropo the inser- tion, in this place of the following : Sketch of the Proceedings in Relation to the Bunvcll Estate in England, from the time it was leased by John Burwcll in 1689, to the present. "John Burwell, in whose posterity in Conn, and Xew York is the heirship of a large Estate lying in the parish of Bovingdon, in Hertfordshire, England, emigrated to this country about 1685. He inherited the said Kstate from his father, whose name also was John, and who died, as appears by the Court Rolls of the Manor of Hemel Hemp- stead, in which the said Estate is situated, previous to the 30th of May, 1670. When he emigrated he left the Estate in possession of his sister Maria Burwell, in whose hands it remained a number of years. •• Upon his arrival in this country, he came to Milford, Conn., from which place he went with others to Greenwich, Conn., with Jeremiah Peck, a native of Milford, and who settled as Pastor of the Church in Greenwich in 1688. John Burwell bought his house lot in Greenwich, Feb. 28th, 16S8-9. He there married Hannah Lock-wood, daughter of Ger- 2$6 N O R IV A L K . shorn Lockwood.' In the spring of 1688-9 lle went to England, and leased the Estate and returned soon after. The next spring he took the small-pox in New York, of which he died in Greenwich, May 1st, 1690. He left one daughter and his wife (a posthumous child died soon after its birth) leaving Hannah his sole heir. At the bottom of the Inven- tory of the Estate of John Bunvell in Greenwich is an entry that "there is other Estate which remains in foreign parts, which is not known to us." (The Appraisers.) •• The said Hannah Bunvell, as appears by the Greenwich Records, married John Betts, of Xonvalk. 011 the 13th day of April, 1 708. After John Burwell's decease it does not appear that his heirs received rent from the Estate, but about 172 1 they had cor- respondence with some person in England on the subject, as appears by an old letter, dated April 7th, 172 1, in which it is stated that John Burwell leased the Estate when in England. The matter probably rested until 1745, when John Betts empowered Nathaniel Hazard, of New York, a man of limited means, to proceed to England and collect the rent due on the Estate. The agreement is dated March 5th, 1745. Hazard went that spring and before he returned John Betts died. His will was received at the Probate Office, August 1 2th, 1745. Hazard returned that fall in a ship he had purchased in Eng- land, laden with English goods ; he bought a store in New York, and went extensively into mercantile business, thus becoming suddenly rich. Finding John Betts deceased, he refused to come to any settlement, or give any account of the business, and the affair again rested until 1808, when Joseph Betts, eldest son of Burwell Betts, and grandson of Hannah Burwell Betts, took it in his hands, obtained power of attorney, collected his money and was ready to sail, when he was taken sick, and died soon after. In i8r4 Nathan Betts, a brother of Joseph next engaged in it, got new power of attorney, and raised funds for the purpose of sending an agent ; and in 1 8 1 7, he employed one Capt. Paul Chase (who was going to England) to investigate the matter. He wrote back that the possessor having no title, had never ventured to cut down the wood, and that they had laid by the rent for a long number of years, to have it ready when called for by the own- ers of the soil, and that the value of the Estate was about £80,000 sterling, besides back rent. This appears to be about all the trouble he took to ascertain the situation of the property, he being engaged in another business. In 1821, J. B. Walker who was going to England was employed to inquire into the affair ; he wrote back in a letter dated Jan. 20, 1822. that the Estate was worth half a million pounds sterling; and that the occupants had not a scrap of paper to show as title ; and that he had ascertained that the title was still vested in the heirs of John Burwell, who had made no application for rent for nearly a century. This was the amount of what he accomplished. In 1825 money was raised by 'Hannah Lockwood (Mrs. John Burwell"*.) was the daughter of Lieut. Gershom Lockwood, of Greenwich, born in Watertown, Mass., Sept. 6, 1643, fifth son of Robert and Susannah Lockwood, and next vounger brother of Ephraim, the Norwalk Lockwood settler. John Burwell died in 1690 and his widow, Hannah, married, second, Thomas, *i son of Rev. Thomas Hanford, of Norwalk. Thomas Hanford. "<L had, before marriage, been a transient resident of Greenwich. The Normal It home of him- -elf and wife j. now the site of the Selleck School property. He was one of early Norwalk's instruct- ors. By his marriage to the widow Burwell there were several (see Hanford lineage) children. The John Hanford (see note page 76) who married Mehitable, daughter of Nathan Comstock, of Wil- ton, was a grandson of Thomas2*3- and Hannah (Lockwood-Burwell) Hanford. Huldah, daughter of John and Mehitable Hanford, married Ebenezer D. Iloyt, whose grandchildren now occupy the original Gould Hoyt Main Street house in Norwalk, which house has been well kept. NOR \Y A L K . 237 the heirs, and Truxton L. Powel employed to investigate the situation of the Estate. After a considerably fruitless search he found the office of Court Rolls of the Manor of which Win. Briggs is steward, or keeper, made known his business: Win. Briggs was not in; went again next morning, and found Wm. Briggs had left London that morning for France, to be gone five weeks; but had left the Court Rolls in the care of one Wm. Har- rison. They commenced search, but could find no Court Rolls earlier than 1730. Wm. Harrison said there must be Curt Rolls earlier than that, of which Wm. Briggs alone knew (where they were). Vowel not knowing how to wait till his return, left the next day for l'aris, and did nothing further.