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

It will be observed, page ninety, that, after mention of the children of Thomas Fitch, Sr., the line of only one of his sons is followed down; but, for the benefit of the many citizens of this town who bear the Fitch name, the descent from the second son is here indicated. Thomas Fitch, Sr. , left two sons, viz. , Thomas, Jr. , and John. Thomas, Jr., has, as remarked, been traced down. John, the second son, married, in 1664, Rebekah (hence the favor- ite Christian name among the Norwalk Fitches) Lyndal, of New Haven. He was brother-in-law of John, son of Walter Hoyt, the Norwalk Hoyt forefather. John Fitch had three children, viz., John, Jr., Nathaniel, and Rebekah. Thomas, Sr. evidently out- lived his son Thomas, J r. , and a large portion of his estate went to John, who lived quite near his father, upon a narrow but deep home-lot, which extended west from Fast avenue. This property fell to his son Nathaniel, the earliest of the Fitch churchmen, and a generous donor to St. Paul’s parish. John Fitch, like his father Thomas, Sr. , was a man of means. At his death large tracts of land were left, particularly to John, Jr. ; and among these tracts were broad acres along the “Sticky Plain,” or still more ancient, 124 “Rattle Snake Pasture,” road. The children of John Jr., and Elizabeth Fitch, were Nathaniel, John, Elizabeth and Susannah. Their oldest son, Nathaniel, had a daughter Elizabeth, who married David King, of Newtown, and these (David and Elizabeth King) were the ancestors of the Fitcli-King line. The children of Naj thaniel and Ann, (son and daughter-in-law of John Fitch, Sr.) were John, Lyndal, Elizabeth (who married a Crane), Abigail and Mary. This supplementary mention leaves the Norwalk Fitches of the present day without excuse for failure to connect their different family lines with those of their ever to be venerated progenitors. On page ninety-one, paragraph two, it is stated that Thomas Fitch, Jr., died, in 1690. This assertion is substantiated, as the author has since ascertained, by the late Hon. James Savage, presi- dent of the Massachusetts Historical Society; and it is proper to add that this eminent genealogist declares further that Thomas, Jr., left Sarah, aged twenty-one, and Thomas, aged nineteen, and Mary, aged sixteen, and Samuel, aged two and-one-half years. This militates, perhaps, against the theory, (page ninety, ) that Thomas Jr’s, children died before the issue of their grandfather’s will. But the fact remains that no mention (other than that of Thomas) is made of them in that document, although Mary, had she been living, would, in 1696, (the date of the will) have been twenty-seven years old, and Mary twenty-two years old, and Samuel eight and- one-half years. Taking all the circumstances of the case into con- sideration, the fact that Thomas, Sr’s, other grandchildren (John’s children) are carefully remembered, and that no after record of any of Thomas, Jr’s, children, (male issue) other than Thomas (father of the governor) exists, (so it is believed) the author is content to let his theory stand. Through inadvertence, the name of James Fitch is unmentioned in the roll of Fitch churchmen, lines one and two, paragraph one, page forty-two. James was brother of Governor Thomas Fitch, and failure to supply the ommission alluded to would be injustice to the memory of one of the recorded supporters of St. Paul’s parish in early times. His brother, Samuel, Sr., was a helper (whether a member or no is not ascertained) of St. Paul’s. Thomas, the governor, was not a member. His name appears once upon our records, but only in the capacity of legal adviser to the parish in an unfortunate controversy in 1757. 125 The tenacity w ith, which the Norw alk Hopkins-Byxbee descent cling to the family traditions concerning their ancestry, has prompt- ed the author to careful research in this matter, and he is convinced that the statement in the last foot note, but one, in this volume (page 100) is not a “fabulous conceit, ” but that it has historical foundation. The only qualifications to the statement referred to, are, first, that the Hopkins, from whom the wife of Esaias Bouton and her Norwalk relatives sprang, wras not governor, but assistant governor Hopkins; that is, that he was what in early Newr England times was denominated governor’s “counsellor.” In such capacity he served, says Freeman, for four years; and the second reserva- tion is that Pliebe was not the name of his own, but of one of his great-grand-cliildren’s daughters. Stephen Hopkins wTas one of the original settlers of Massachusetts. He wras accompanied to this country by his second wife, and son, Giles, and two men servants. These servants are notorious from the fact that they were the first New England duelist s; who, Savage, the historian, declares, wTere punished, not by being put in the stocks, it is possible, but by being tied “neck and heels” and exposed to public gaze. Giles, son of Stephen, Sr. , married a Miss Wlielden. He died, in 1690. His son, Joshua, married, in 1681, a Mary Cole These (Joshua and Mary Hopkins) had a daughter, born, in 1702, by the name of Pliebe. The claim that this daughter was the mother of Mrs. Esaias Bouton, cannot, as the author thinks, be easily refuted. The date, the birth-place, the family, the record, the traditions, all conspire to establish the authenticity of the claim. There was another Barnstable County Phebe Hopkins, born, in 1711, but she married a Bangs, and for a second husband, one of the same name. The Bouton home, at Belden’s Point, stood until about thirty or so years ago, and its “chimney ruins” can be recalled, it is presumed by many. Here, accepting w hat has been advanced, assistant Stephen Hopkin’s great-great-granddaughter (Mrs. Esaias Bouton) passed amid its marine surroundings many years of wedded life, and after life was done, was laid to rest, upon the hill which overlooks the old home. The plainly-marked Hopkins family plate was inherited by one of the Massachusetts Bay Hopkin’s sons, but portions of it found their way to the ownership of one of the Norwalk kindred, whose first name was Hopkins, and who removed from Norwalk to Ridgefield. 126 The old arm-chair, which stood upon the Sound-fronting porch, :t jiuikV now be seen, almost any summer day, upon the elm-shaded veranda of a descendant whose home is in the upper portion of the parish. A small painting of the vanished Bouton dwelling, by a descendant on the Hopkins side, is held in Norwalk. The following paragraph supplements foot notes pages fifty-three (address), and one hundred (appendix). Somewhat below Norwalk, and on the hither side of the Sound, is one of those shimmering sheets of water which so beautifully in- dent the northern coast of Long Island. At the sloping head, or upon the green sides of this bay was brought up, it is probable, the ancestor of the Norwalk Warrens. Edmond, the earliest Warren (Wareing) mentioned in Norwalk history, married, in 1698, Eliza- beth Bouton, a descendant of Matthew and Elizabeth Marvin, one of the founder-families of the town. The wedded ones repaired, evidently, to the Wareing Long Island home, and resided in Queens Village until after the birth of Isaac, their second son. They then came to Norwalk, and Mr. Wareing bought, in 1706, of the father of Governor Fitch, ‘ ‘for a valuable consideration” a plot of several acres at the “south end of Bhoton Hill. ” From that onward, until 1745, he was a real estate accumulator, purchasing parcels of “two,” “six,” “seven,” “twelve,” “sixteen” “seventeen” and “eighteen” acres. There were nine children born after their removal to Nor- walk. The sixth Norwalk son, Eliakim, born, in 1717, married Ann, fifth child of John, son of Thomas (and Mary Olinstead) Heed, son of John Reed, who was born in England, in 1633, and who married, in this country, a Miss Derby, of Rhode Island. Eliakim and Ann (Reed) Warren were married December 7tli, 1738. They had these children (perhaps others), Zacheus, Jesse, Moses, Ann, Abigail, and Eliakim. The father died about a year before the marriage of his son, Eliakim. Abigail sold to this brother her portion (five and one-lialf acres) of the Roton Hill land inheritance, and in the presence of Colonel Thomas Fitch, Jr., deeded to him her share of the home heritage. This brother, Eliakim, (vestry- man) married, in 1771, Phebe Bouton, to whom several children were born. In 1798 the family removed to Troy, N. Y., leaving between the covers of St. Paul’s member-register the names of none whom the parish has greater cause evermore to hold in honored remembrance. t / /