Address at the Centenary of St. Paul's Church, Norwalk, Conn.

The following is a copy of a manuscript letter in pencil (and now becoming illegible), of Dr. Kemper to Mr. Richmond. It is written on the first page of a small, unbound transcript of the former’s official acts in the parish, and, with the exception of a sheet of cap paper filled with the statement of Rev. Henry S. Atwater’s doings, is the oldest Rector’s Register of St. Paul’s parish in existence. Between two pages of the book is a fragment of a leaf which records an undated marriage and burial by Dr. Judd. There was a Parish Register in 1760 ; but it was probably con- sumed with Dr. Learning’s library. The register which Dr. Kem- per presented to the parish (the condition which he imposed was fulfilled) is in the keeping of the present rector. “To the Revd. James C. Richmond : — My Dear Brother : — This book is imperfect, but it is as correct as I have time to make it. If you have a taste for these things you might, in a few weeks, fill up the blanks I have left. You will find in the hands of my excellent friend, Mr. Jonathan Camp, Jr., a parochial register (blank) which I have presented to the parish upon condition that they have this book copied therein. In the larger book you will find the names of two of my predecessors. They might likewise be copied in the register, if you think proper. It is usual, I believe, to have the name of the rector at the bottom of each page. In great haste, Affectionately yours, Jackson Kemper. 27 October 1835.” This letter . was written by Bishop Kemper, who continued his charge of St. Paul’s for a short time after his consecration, FITCH FAMILY MEMORANDUM. The name is German. Braintree, which, in the particulars of direction and distance, bears the relation to London, England, that Norwalk bears to New York City (about forty miles north- east) was peopled, originally, by Flemish emigrants. Booking, a village in Braintree, Essex county, was the home of Thomas Fitch, the progenitor of the American family of that name. He had, if the tradition is correct, five sons, three of whom (we have no definite knowledge concerning the other two) accompanied their mother, after her husband’s decease, to this country. Thomas and Joseph came to Norwalk (Joseph remained here but a short time, until 1655) and James went to Norwich. We trace the following line of descent : Thomas Fitch, Sr., (son of Thomas, of Booking, in Braintree). Thomas Fitch, Jr. (son of Thomas, Sr.) “ Mr.” Thomas Fitch (son of Thomas, Jr.) Governor Thomas Fitch (son of “Mr.” Thomas Fitch.) • Governor Thomas Fitcli therefore, was not the grandson, but the great-grandson of Thomas Fitch, Sr., son of Thomas of Book- ing. Thomas Fitch, Sr., came from England to America some- where between 1635 and 1640, and settled in Norwalk between 1640 and 1652 He was one of the forefathers of the town, and his house lot was north of, but not a great distance from, the present grounds of Henry M. Prowitt, Esq. He had five child- ren, viz.: Thomas, Jr., John, Ann, Mary, and Mrs. Bur. His oldest son, Thomas, Jr., reported in 1671-2, four children. His second son, John,* had three children viz. : John, Jr. Rebecca and Nathaniel. In the will of the father, Thomas, Sr., who lived to extreme age, occurs this passage : ‘ ‘ After great expense in civil wars in England, and transportation of myself and family, and settling myself in America, and distributing portions to my cliilcl- *John Fitch, second son of Thomas Fitch, Sr., and great-uncle of Governor Fitch, married a daughter of Nathaniel Richards. Nathaniel Richards came to America, in 1632. He went first to Hartford, and from thence removed to Norwalk, and was an “important and useful man.” The ship which brought the father of the Olmstead’s to these shores, brought hither the Richards’ father also, and the two fellow passengers’ home tracts in Norwalk faced each other, that of the latter extending from East avenue, (near the present prop- erty of Isaac H. Campbell) as far west as to the river. .The Richards descent embraces a large family, including the New Canaan and Darien Richards, and also the Richards, of Troy, New York. The Fitch-Richards descent includes* some of the Brooklyn Parkers, and, by connection, Mrs. Charles S. Lockwood, of Norwalk, in whose possession is a small copy of the scriptures containing the name, (possibly the autograph) of “Rebekah” (the first Nor- walk Rebecca Fitch), and in all probability the same Rebecka who was daugh- ter of John Fitch, Sr. The penmanship of the signature is the hand-touch of culture, and, evidently, of character. ' 91 ren according to my capacity and ability, that which remaineth in my hands (I do) grant and bequeath as followeth : To son John, dwelling-house, barn, homelot, land, grain, cattle, horses : to my daughter Ann (Mrs. John Thompson, of Farmington) * * * : to my daughter Mary (wife of Captain Matthew Sherwood * * * * : to my son John’s wife, the linen in the trunk (the old transportation trunk, probably) : to my daughters and daughter- in-law, one silver spoon each : to my grand children, John and Nathaniel (John’s children) * * * * : to grandson John, my fowling piece, small gun, belt and sword : to Thomas, my grand- child, ONE PARCEL OF LAND IN THE NECK. Thomas, Jr., died, it is asserted, in 1690, which was before the will was made, and the explanation of the silence of that will concerning three of his children, and of the fact that there is no other record of them, (as far as the author is able to ascertain,) is that they died before reaching man’s estate. Be this as it may, one of the family, only one, and he the youngest, is a legatee ; this one, “ Thomas . my grandchild ,” was to be parent of a future ruler of his Majesty’s colony of Connecticut. “Mr.” Thomas Fitch, as he is designated in the old town records, but “Captain” Thomas Fitch, as the court at the Capitol denominated him, was born in 1671. He early acquired notoriety, being king’s commis- sioner in Norwalk from 1691 to 1694, and the honored father, in 1699, of the son whose destiny it was to be to draft a new consti- tution for Yale College, and to frame laws which his sovereign pronounced superior, and to attain to the highest office in the colony. He had four children : Samuel, the Crown’s Justice, from whom loyal children of St. Paul’s sprang ; and Thomas, the Governor, who was the ancestor of some of our worthiest citi- zens; and James, deputy to the General Assembly ; and Eliza- beth. His son, the future chief magistrate, graduated (at the twentieth commencement of Yale College, in a class which num- bered fourteen members), in 1721, and married, in 1724, Hannah Hall, and to them were born ten children, viz., Colonel Thomas, Jr., Jonathan, Ebenezer, Hannah, Mary, Timothy, Hezekiah, Elizabeth, Esther, and Giles. “Colonel” Thomas Fitch, Jr., born in 1725, was an important person in the colony. He was Lord George’s Justice from 1761 to 1772, and was chosen in May, 1768, Lieutenant Colonel of the Ninth Regiment. (He had commanded, in 1758, four regiments encamped at Greenbush, before Albany, and was the instigator, at 92 that time, of the composition of “Yankee Doodle,”* afterward adopted as one of our National airs). He was called by the Gov- ernor of Connecticut and his Council to join with them in the dis- cussion of certain propositions which had been submitted to them, by the Royal Commissioners, for trade in Great Britain. He was Senior Colonel and commanded the sixteen colonial regiments, “four from Connecticut, two from New York, two from New Jersey, and eight from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, the provinces or Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.” He had six children, Thomas, Andrew, Richard Hall, Sarah, Mary Esther, and Thaddeus Hill. (The last died in infancy.) After living out his three score and ten years he died, a few days before the death of his wife, and is buried at her side, and a few feet distant from his father, beneath a slab upon which is the record: THOMAS FITCH, ESQ., Died Jan. 16th, 1795, Age 70. Mrs. “Colonel” Thomas Fitch was Miss Sarah St. John Hill, daughter of Captain Thomas and Hannah Hill, of Fairfield. But one headstone marks the graves of both husband, and wife, and nestled near them is a little innocent (named after its mother’s brother), whose life-story is graven thus on the mossy stone : THADDEUS HILL, son of THOMAS AND SARAH FITCH, died Oct. 21st, 1770, aged 11 months. Jonathan, the second son of the governor, was two years younger than Thomas, but became a man of mark. He was high sheriff during a longer period than any one had before held that office, and the length of his term has not been exceeded by any of his successors. Ebenezer, who left home early, and who died at the age of thirty-three, gave one son to the army, .in which he rose to the *This tune has, by one who is no mean authority, been styled “a native air of New England.” It was “composed,” and afterward frequently played by the British in contempt of our regiments. But the tables were, on one occa- sion, turned. Burgoyne’s five thousand seven hundred and ninety-one cap- tured men were compelled to keep step to the strain when, on October 17th 1777, they stacked their muskets at Saratoga. The “instigator,” not author of the tune (that is, the commander of the regiments in derision of whom, so it is claimed, the air was arranged, for “horns and fiddles, fifes and drums,”) lived near the next corner north of the Earle grounds, on East avenue, and now fills a colonial colonel’s grave in the East Norwalk burying enclosure. 93 rank of Major ; and liad another who was prominent in the civil service ; and still another who was the grandfather of a woman of superior excellence, and who, at the date of her death (1879), was, it is probable, the oldest native resident of Saratoga County, New York. Her “ pure life, great intelligence, and strong individuality of character, made her the idol of her friends and neighbors.” Governor Fitch, very properly, made mention in his last testament of Jabez, Ebenezer, Giles, and Hannah, his fatherless grandchil- dren.