Supplement to Norwalk, Conn., Volume One: Genealogy

On the opening day of the autumn of 1734 Nathan and Sarah Sands Selleck first saw their last born child, to whom the name of Sylvanus was given. The parents were married in Huntington, L. I., January 1, 1 7 1 3, the groom (born September 12, 1676, having been the oldest son of Captain Jonathan and Abigail (Law) Selleck (pages 438 and 439), and the bride the daughter of Captain Samuel Sands, son of Captain James Sands of Berkshire County, England, one of the purchasers in 1660 of Block Island. The young Sylvanus' Selleck was highly related. His paternal grandparents were of Law and Gold blood and his grandmother on his mother's side was a Ray of Block Island, while his mother's cousin, Abigail Sands, was the wife of the notable Hon. John Thomas (first Judge of Westchester County, whose home was a few rods removed from the present St. Paul's Chapel in Lewisboro, N. Y.), and his uncle (Samuel Sands) married Mary, daughter of Thomas Pell, Lord of Pelham Manor. The boy Sylvanus Selleck grew to become a man of thirty-four when Dr. Ebenezer Dibble, Rector of St. John's Church, Stamford, was called upon to unite him in matrimony (March 2, 1768) to a Stratford lady, Tabitha (Siene or Pierce), and on November 17, 1772, the same rector baptized their two children, Molly and Betty. The father deceased while these children were minors, and in the distribution of his estate, Jul)' 6, 1786, Molly was awarded "Seventeen acres on Ox Pound," the present romantic and charmingly named " Con- tentment Island," while to her sister Betty was set off one-half of the near by Butler's Island. Molly married (May 17, 1787) Captain Stephen, son of James and Jemima Raymond, and her daughter Delia (Mrs. Gershom Raymond3"1) had Angelina (Mrs. John Scott), who was the mother of the forceful John Winfield Scott of New York City whose telling remarks after the eloquent address by General Russeli Frost at the unveiling, in 1898, of the Norwalk Lud- low monument are an emphatic memory, and of his sister Angeline, now the intelligent, effi- cient and interested South Norwalk Librarian. Another sister of John W., Delia R., (Mrs. George E. Weeks), died in 1889. NORWALK. 447 URIAH SELLECK DESCENT. Nathaniel4"1, son of David and Mercy (Waterbury) Selleck, married, August 7, 1744, Sarah, born August 12, 1723, daughter of Nathan and Sarah (Sands) Selleck, and had Uriah1"1, died young; Ray, Mercy, Sarah, Nathaniel and Uriah2"1' (see page 305 ).1 This last child, Uriah2"4, baptized October 31, 1762-3, married, May 18, 1784, Hannah, baptized about 1760, daughter of Ephraim Smith of the Haynes Ridge family (page 94). and had : Zalmon, born March 31, 1795; Nancy, born July 6, 1806, died in infancy; Zalmon, son of Uriah and Hannah (Smith) Selleck, married Eliza Phillipse, and had : Henry Augustus, born August 14, 1814. Maria Phillipse, born September 6, 1815, (Mrs. William K. James, page 376). 1Uriah2nd, baptized by the patriot Dr. Moses Mather of Darien, October 31, 1762 — 3, son of Nathaniel and Sarah (Selleck) Selleck, had a sister Rhoda, who married August 2, 1782, John Byxbee, Jr. Mrs. Rhoda (Selleck) Byxbee occupied the fine dwelling for that day now standing on Harbor avenue and known in late years as the " Captain Merritt place." Mrs. Byxbee survived her husband and finally removed to Flax Hill, near the present only store on the crest of that height. She had two daughters one of whom married the recalled Ray Selleck of the same hill and the other, Fanny, of lovely face and features — which are picture-preserved at the residence of the late Captain William H. Wilcox on Flax Hill — died young. John Byxbee, Jr., her father, was of the Eastham, Mass., Byxbee familjr, the first of whom to come to Norwalk, chose the summit of Flax Hill for his home. There stands in St. Paul's church yard, a plain stone inscribed to the memory of Catharine Baker, the epitaph upon which is singula ry pathetic from the fact that it is the epitome of the sleeper's perturbed life. Catharine Baker was carefully brought up on the Hudson River, but marrying against the wishes of her parents trouble soon befel her. One of the old families of Trinit\' church, New York, knew her well and fully sympathizing with her delicately but substantial!}' assisted her. Disinherited, how- ever, trials so told upon her that she made her way to Norwalk, where resided an intimate of the old Trinity family before referred to. Here she was wel- comed, but death soon put a period to her life of vicis- situdes and she was laid to rest at the head of Nor- walk Green. She was possessed of something of a property, notwithstanding the fact of her family alienation. This snug little sum was Norwalk-be- queathed, but such was the strict character-probity of Uriah Selleck that he would not permit his grand- daughter to retain it, but insisted that it should go back to the deceased's blood, and the consequence is that only three (quite choice) chairs are all that re- main, barring the tender mound and gravestone- marking in St. Paul's churchyard, to tell of Catharine Baker. '"Tread softly on this hallowed ground. Pale sorrow's child lies here ; Ye who have felt misfortune's frown Here stop and drop a tear." Not far from said stone and on the west side of the church walk is a broken slab in memory of Sarah Selleck, a sister of the first Mrs. William Lockwood and an aunt of the late William S. Lock- wood of North avenue. The good young woman left her estate to St. Paul's church, but albeit her rector, Rev. Henry Whitlock and many of his people went to court to contest the estate's diversion in another direction, still the parish lost the benefaction. Hannah, daughter of Ephraim Smith, baptized according to Stamford register, about 1760, married Uriah Selleck, who lived in what in recent years has been known as the Matthias Hubbell home in Main street. She was the grandmother of the present Mrs. William K. James and her branch of the Smith family inherited, through the Bartletts, quite a portion of the noble Haynes Ridge in New Canaan. The Nor- walk records clearly show how the later members of the family transferred their rights in that large estate to the Long Island James and Moses Smith children of the blood. A portion of their Haynes Ridge prop- erty embraced the handsome vicinity of the "Church Hill " of 1896. Thomas Smith who lived in the west- ern part of the Stamford Main street, was a son of Dr. Nathan and Elizabeth (Betts) Smith, who belonged to the same line. The residence of Thomas Smith is seen to-day and his son Thomas and daughters Mary (Mrs. Burgess) and Sally (Mrs. David Holl_y) are Nor- walk recalled. They were friends of the Stamford Jarvises and visiting this town on the occasion of a church sociable in the days of Dr. Jackson Kemper's rectorate of St. Paul's church sought out their Nor- walk kin. The Thomas Smith Stamford home was a 448 NORWALK NOAH AND GEORGE SELLECK. Noah and George Selleck were Norwalk house-names of fifty years ago. Captain Noah Selleck, brother of Captain Isaac21"5, had no children. He lived, during his later years, in Brooklyn, and was the instigator and proprietor of the Selleck's line of New York Pack- ets (see page 306). Mr. Selleck accumulated a competency and closed his years surrounded by the comforts of life. George Selleck was the oldest son, by his second wife, of James Selleck (see page 441), son of David and Mercy ( Waterbury) Selleck. James, son of David and Mercy Selleck married, second, Joanna Morgan of Wilton and had George,1 Joanna (Mrs. Amos Barnes) and John M. of Bryantsburgh, 111. George, son of James and Joanna Selleck, married Harriet, daughter of Hyatt and Sarah (Somers) Banks of Redding, and had Sarah Jane (Mrs. John Plander), Ann Eliza (Mrs. George Evarts, first, Mrs. Stewart, second, Mrs. John March, third, and Mrs. James H. Beers, fourth); Harriet (Mrs. Edward Merrill); George F. and Donna Maria (Mrs. John Woolf). Harriet, daughter of George and Harriet (Banks) Selleck, married Edward, son of Thomas B. and Sally Ann (St. John) Merrill (see page 235), and had George Thomas,2 Laura P., James Titus (died young); Annie Betts (Mrs. Frederick R. Beach); Frank S. and Harriet St. John (Mrs. Banford S. Banks). The Selleck family constitutes an extensive constituency and to complete the line to date would demand time and space. Its main lines have here been indicated from which it may not be impossible to establish any particular lineage branch. prominent abode in the Stamford of olden times, and there is probably no portion of that prospered and popular township that has more changed or is more improved than that same to-day pretentious and progressive centre. The public buildings arrest atten- tion, the stores and offices are noticeably fine, and the whole street and structure aspect is imposing. The godly Daniel Smith's sanctuary is missing, but churches of stately architecture have taken its place; the village school house near the present City Hall is gone but the commanding High School Building more to the east is a monument to the people's intelligence and admirable taste and judgment; the stage coach and horn are things of the past, but the electric cars and the rythm of the motorman's bell make transit and thoroughfare trouble-free and tuneful. In the days when the Bells, Bishops, Davenports, Hollys, Hoyts, Ouintards, Rogers, Scofiekls, Seelys, Smiths, Waterburys, Webbs and Weeds were on the stage Stamford was indeed fair, but now it is grand, and its projenitors, ancestors, many of them, of striking lines, are entitled to record and memory-regard. Nathan Smith of New Canaan, married Sarah, daughter of Jesse and Mercy (Selleck) Tuttleandwas the father of Jesse Smith, who died at about the age of eighty some years since in West Norwalk. The children of Mr. Jesse Smith are to-day somewhat scattered. One of the daughters, Mrs. William Bes- sey, resides in 1899 with her sister, Mrs. John H. Romaine of Ludlow street, Stamford. Two other daughters, Mrs. Frank H. and Mrs. Dudley' Hoyt, reside in Stamford. The brothers and sisters of Jesse Smith were Frederick, Orville, Bethol Mercy (Mrs. Cornelius Schenck), and Harriet (Mrs. Alfred M. Piatt) .