Norwalk

Ebenezer Phillips, of the Oblong, born July 15, 1753, married, Jan. 17, 1782, Mary, daughter of Daniel Benedict, formerly of Norwalk, but later of Salem, Westchester Co., N. V Mr. Phillips' removed to Norwalk and resided, first, on Benedict's, now Prospect Hill. He afterward occupied the 1K96 Bryan place. On Oct. 27. 1794, he purchased of Capt. Samuel liurrall, a relative of his wife, "the south building spot formerly belonging t<> Thos. Benedict," paying for the same the sum of ninety pounds. Here he built, in [795. 'Rev. Andrew Eliot, of Fairfield (see page 246), had a brother Samuel whose son, William < ', reenleaf Eliot, married a daughter of Judge Thomas and Margaret <G reenleaf) Dawes. This Judge Thomas 1>. use-' father, Col. Tlio*., was first cousin of Wil- liam Dawes, horn 1745. died 1779, who rode with Paul Revere on a memorable Revolutionary night. War- ren, Revere and Dawes planned and executed the Massachusetts alarm, Apr. 19, 177^. -•(fKSKRATtON I. —Christopher Phillips, of Nor- folk County, England. (jfaeutios II.— Rev. Geo. Phillips, born 1593, son of Christopher, was a Cambridge man held in high repute, arrived in Salem, Mass., 1630, with Sir Richard saltonstall, was a planter of Watertown Ma--., and first minister there, married a daughter of Richard Sargent, and had : Gexrration III.— Samuel, s,„i of Rev. t,„ir;,. Phillips, born ir,2;. Harvard graduate 1650, minister ih;>. of Rowley, Mass., married Sarah, daughter of Samuel Appleton, of Ipswich, Mass., and had: UKNKKATtoN 1 V .— G eo rge.-J. horn June 3, ,664 Harvard graduate 16S6, minister in Jamaica, L. £„ 1693, married Sarah Hallett, daughter of William, "'■ and grand daughter of William Hallett, proprietor, 1652, of the extensive llallett's Cove (Astoria, L. 1.) estate, and had : (lENKHATION V. Wm,.td- of StllitlltOWn. L. 1., who, with wife Svhil, were parents of Ebenezer and Philetus Phillips, of Norwalk. The great grand- children of Ebenezer Phillips, Mrs. Rev. 1). L. Fer- ris, Edward C. Stuart, William S. and Mary P. Chi- chester reside in Stamford and Norwalk to-day. 3Born 1664, died 1737, son of Rev. Samuel and Sarah (Appletun) Phillips, of Rowley, Mass. ASon ..I Samuel and grandson of Thos. Benedict. His daughter, Anna, was the mother of Capt. Sam- uel Keeler, of War of 1S12. slle had a brother Zebu km, who married Anna Keeler, of Norwalk. Ebenezer Phillips removed in 1795 to the Van Buren house of 189A When he left Benedict'-, now Prospect Hill, he transplanted four saplings, which grew to become the line West Ave. Stuart elms. NORWALK the " Phillips House," corner, to-day, of West Avenue and Prospect Hill Street. His children were : ESTHER, born March 5, 1787; died Feb. 12. 1788. ESTHER, "'■ born Apr. 17, 17S8; married Edward Crosby Sal.LV, born Dec. 11, 1790; married Win. P Stuart. Elizabeth, born July 9, 179S; died Jan. 25, 1X65, unmarried. Edward Crosbv, born Oct. 3, 1786, died Nov. 8, 1S10. was son of Benjamin and Rachel Crosby, of Duchess County, N. Y ' After his marriage to Esther Phillips he lived on the late Bryan premises on the upper harbor. He was young and known as a short-hand writer. He died soon after his marriage, leaving a daughter, Mary Phillips Crosby, who married Dr. Thomas Belden Butler, of Wethersfield, afterward Judge Thos. B. Butler, of Norwalk. Subsequently to her husband's decease Mrs. Edward Crosby built in about 1830, what has since been known as the Butler house on West Avenue, now the home of Mrs. Judge Butler's second cousin, Miss Mary P. Chichester. Judge Butler had no children. He died June g, 1873, and his wife died July 10, 1878. Sally, daughter of Ebenezer and Mary Phillips, married William P. Stuart, son of Ezekiel and Rhue Stuart, a merchant at No. 28 Exchange Place, X. Y., and had: died in infancy. Edward William, born Xov. 4, 1819; died Dec. 7, 1884. Mary Elizabeth; married E. V. A. Chichester. Edward W. Stuart, son of Wm.JP. and Sally Stuart, married April 30. 1856. Man- Elizabeth, daughter of Eli B. Bennett, of Norwalk, and had : William Phillips, died young; Edward Crosby ; Mary Eversley, {Mrs. Rev. David L. Ferris 1. Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Wm. P. and Sally Stuart, married Edwin Van Ant- werp, son of Alfred Chichester, of Norwalk, and had : Mary Phillips; William Stuart. 'This was ;i prominent fitmilv in said county, branch -embracing, as is believed, the family of the father and mother of Enoch Crosbv, the Revolution- ary *• spy,'' who is buried in the Crilead Cemetery, Southeast, N. V„ Ills tombstone being thus inscrib- ed: "In memory of Enoch Crosby, who died June 261 '8351 aped 85 years, 5 months and 21 days." He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Crosbv, of Barnstable, Mass. He removed {a family record tes- tifies:} when a young man, with his father to Canuel, •Daughter of Horace and Kaniiv (and wife) Bade v. of Son*. «*, N. Y. Educated at St. Mary's Hall, Burlington, N. J., she afterward married Thaddeus Crane, Junior, of the extend edly known Tuaddeua Crane family of Westchester County, N. Y., and was the devoted mother of .me of the three lamented school v ..Hit-.. William Crane, Kd ward Morns and Charle- Fto-twick, I N. V. His wife, born Jan. 14, 1755, was a widow tsickerson to whom he was married in 1785. His sou, Enoch, Jr., born March 14, 1796, married, Feb. 7, 1836, Calista, daughter of Heckaliah Bailey, who was a cousin of Horace Bailey, the father of the late Mrs. Thaddeus Crane,* of Somers, N.Y. Lewis, a brother of Enoch Crosby, Jr., married Cornelia, daughter of Joseph Crane, and had a son, Benjamin, who lived in New Canaan. The services for his country of Enoch j Crosby, Sr. (the spy), are an imperishable record. I who, at the close itf a holiday were drowned in the Norwalk waters, June 7, tSj* William Crane was a great-grandson of I Col. Thaddeus Crane, of the Revolution, Edward Morri- wa* a lad of English birth, whose promi-e interested the late John ! Ireland Tucker. D.1X. of Tr.'v,N. Y.,and Charles Bo*twiek wa- i, nephew of Oen. Wm. II. Reward, .«f Auburn, N. V. 2;6 X 0 R VV A L K OK ABIJAH COMSTOCK LINE. Gen I. — Christopher and Hannah (Plattl Comstock. II.— Moses and Abigail (Brinsmade) Comstock. •• HI— Abijah and Deborah (Benedict) Comstock. Whatever may have been the age of Christopher Comstock or Comstocke at his Ww.ilk arrival, his wife, evidently, was very young and he brought her, as did Jacob Jen- nings, a century later his own bride, to a home already established. This home (formerly the Ely-Betts home) which Mr. Comstock a few years afterward converted into an "ordin- ary" or "inn," was planted in one of the old settlement's pleasant fields, and here was born, in 1684-5, his youngest son. Moses, who married February 23rd, 1709, Abigail, daughter of Daniel Brinsmade, of Stratford. Moses was twenty-four and Abigail eighteen when pronounced man and wife. The bride had quite possibly visited, before marriage, her Norwalk grandmother, Mrs. Daniel Kellogg, and here first met her future part- ner. To Moses and Abigail was born, among other children, Abijah, who upon reaching majority married. May 30th, 1745, one of the youngest of Norwalk brides (nine days short of seventeen years of age), Deborah, daughter of Thomas Benedict.4'1'- The two were quite likely wedded in the bride's home (the old red house which is remembered, to- day, and which stood a little southwest of the residence on West Avenue of Congressman K. J. Hill of [896) and were waited upon by the four colored girls who were employed by Mrs. Comstock's father. Mrs. Comstock was a sister of Thomas Benedict. a Norwalk merchant and public man, and also of the honored Mrs. Hannah (Benedict I Carter, of New Canaan, and herself and husband chose for their home the handsome acres at the extreme head of Five Mile River, and adjoining Winnipauke Ridge, close by the Oblong. Here was built the comfort-establishment, enlarged to-day, which now, in olden style, adorns the Vista farm and where, peacefully and in plenty, reside their descendants of the fourth generation. Abijah Comstock was a practical man and a man of conviction-courage. He believed the cherry to be the forbidden fruit, and consequently, albeit his house-grounds were cherry-productive, the birds unmolestedly feasted upon this product of his spreading estate. In the winter of 1747 1 Jan. 26) his oldest son was born, who took his grandfather Benedict s name. Thomas. This son ranged the fields and unquestionably worked the lands until Feb. I, 1776, when he was married to Phcebe Selleck. Thomas and Phoebe planted themselves in Silvermine, in their father Comstock's home, now the " Wardwell house.'' In this house was born to them, on May 5, 1779, their son, Nathan Selleck Com- stock, who lay an infant about two months old when Tryon-affrighted Norwalk mothers and children flocked to and filled the premises on the night preceding the town's burning in 1779 (July 1 1 I. The patriotism of Thomas and Phcebe Comstock in receiving and car- ing for their unexpected guests was not forgotten, and when their son, the child of those fearful days .Nathan S.) reached manhood he saddle-rode from Silvermine to Ohio to look at the family-bestowed "fire lands" of that State. Nathan S Comstock married Betty. N'ORWAL K. daughter of Ezra Seymour, of White Oak Shade mote page 115), and had the two child- ren, living in 1896, the esteemed Seymour Comstock' and his sister, Mrs. David S Rock- well, of New Canaan. Samuel Comstock (Maj.), born July 15, 1767. brother of Thomas and the youngest son of Abijah and Deborah Comstock, received the Vista farm from his father. He married, Dec. 6, 1793, Catherine, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (Green) Clock, of Darien, and reared a family of twelve members. The undulating estate required industrious working. A good share of it was meadow and there were wood and orchard lands. The help was to some extent colored, and "Harry" out-doors and "Belinda" in- doors were kept continually employed. The old Vista store near by was at one time a busy spot. Such Norwalk men as Benj. Isaacs and John Cannon had accounts with it.