/alifori 
 gional 
 cility
 
 THE 
 
 ANCESTRY 
 
 GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 CONTEMPORARIES. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD CHAUNCEY MARSHALL, A.M., 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 " THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 SHELDON & COMPANY, 498 & 500 BROADWAY.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
 EDWARD C. MARSHALL, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for 
 the Southern District of New York.
 
 TO 
 
 NATHANIEL HAYDEN, ESQ., 
 
 HEZEKIAH B. LOOMIS, ESQ., ISAAC N. PHELPS, ESQ., 
 GEN. FRED. E. MATHER, AND HORATIO G. LOOMIS, ESQ., 
 
 WHOSE 
 
 PIONEER ANCESTORS WERE FOUNDERS 
 
 WITH 
 
 MATTHEW GRANT, OF WINDSOR, CONNECTICUT, 
 SOME OF WHOM ARE KINSMEN 
 
 OF 
 
 GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 AND THROUGH WHOSE APPRECIATIVE SYMPATHY AND 
 
 ENCOURAGEMENT THIS UNDERTAKING HAS BEEN BROUGHT 
 
 TO A SUCCESSFUL ISSUE, 
 
 THE 
 
 AUTHOR WOULD, MOST RESPECTFULLY, 
 DEDICATE 
 
 THIS VOLUME. 
 
 20131
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE author has had two objects in view in 
 the preparation of this work ; first, to give an 
 account of the ancient sources of the family of 
 General Grant ; and secondly, to illustrate, in 
 some degree, the early history of the town of 
 Windsor, and of the families whose pioneer an- 
 cestors assisted in founding the colony of Con- 
 necticut. Those ancestors were fellow-towns- 
 men with General Grant's, two hundred years 
 ago, in the wilderness, surrounded by the savage 
 foe, and they lie, now, with his in the same old 
 graveyard. It is natural, therefore, that their de- 
 scendants should feel a personal interest in him 
 whom the fortunes of war and his own skill in 
 arms have justly made so distinguished. 
 
 These sentiments have animated the writer, 
 and, doubtless, sentiments not unlike these have 
 influenced a large number of zealous correspond- 
 ents and friends who have aided in this labor of
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 love. Among these, the author would call atten- 
 tion especially to the services of the Hon. J. 
 Hammond Trumbull, President of the Connect- 
 icut Historical Society, who has made important 
 contributions to these pages. William Wood, 
 Esq., a Scotch gentleman, of New York, has 
 rendered great assistance in a special field of in- 
 quiry in which some investigation has been 
 made. Dr. Henry R. Stiles has displayed much 
 interest in the development of the author's plans, 
 and a free use has been made of many facts and 
 papers which are found in his History of Ancient 
 Windsor. Valuable aid has been received, also, 
 from John Ward Dean, LL.D., a well known 
 antiquarian of Boston ; from John B. Porter, 
 M. D., of Coventry, Jabez H. Hayden, Esq., of 
 Windsor Locks, John Owen Pettibone, Esq., of 
 Weatogue, and Charles J. Hoadly, Esq., of 
 Hartford, Connecticut; and from Frederick 
 Saunders, Esq., of the Astor Library, Francis 
 H. Houston, Esq., of the Mercantile Library, and 
 George H. Moore, LL.D., of the Historical Li- 
 brary, New York. Jesse R. Grant, Esq., the 
 father of General Grant, besides having con- 
 tributed largely to the work, has given the proof 
 sheets an intelligent and careful revision. To
 
 PREFACE. Vli 
 
 all of the many kind friends who have aided the 
 author in any manner in his labors, he would 
 return the most sincere acknowledgments. 
 
 In conclusion, it may be suggested that Gen- 
 eral Grant should, at some future period, make 
 a pilgrimage to Windsor, the Mecca of his an- 
 cestral history, and he will see there the early 
 town records, preserved now for more than two 
 centuries, which were written carefully, and in a 
 scholarly manner, by the pioneer, Matthew Grant ; 
 and in Hartford he will find, guarded with jeal- 
 ous care by Mr. Trumbull, in the Historical Li- 
 brary, the manuscript old Church Book, which 
 is also in the handwriting of Matthew Grant. 
 They are interesting and suggestive relics of the 
 past. They have furnished the materials of his- 
 tory for many generations of men since " The 
 Recorder" acted his part in the busy scenes of 
 life. 
 
 NEW YORK, September, 1869.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 CHAPTER i. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Matthew Grant, The Clan of Grants, Rev. John 
 White, The Mary and John, Settlement of Dor- 
 chester, Roger Clap, The First House in Con- 
 necticut, Settlement of Windsor, Matthew 
 Grant as Surveyor and Town Clerk, The Wood- 
 bridge Controversy, The Simsbury Boundary 
 Line, Mr. Joseph Loomis, Mr. William Phelps, 
 "The Palazado Plot,'' Captain John Mason, 
 King Philip's War, Captain Samuel Marshall, 
 The Wept of Wish-ton-wish, Matthew Grant's 
 Decease. i 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Samuel Grant, Senior, A Church Member, "A 
 Bound-Goer," Settlement of East Windsor, 
 Samuel Grant, Junior, The Minor Family, The 
 Grants Church-Members, Biblical Names, 
 Noah Grant, Senior, Martha Huntington of Nor- 
 wich, The Settlement of Tolland, The Allot- 
 ment at Tolland, The Petition of the Tolland 
 Pioneers, The Rev. Mr. Steel Ordained, Lieut. 
 Peter Buell, The Buell Family. 26.
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Captain Noah Grant of the French and Indian War, 
 Susannah Delano, The Crown Point Expedition, 
 Captain Israel Putnam, Fort Lyman rebuilt, 
 A Scouting Party, Defeat of Dieskau, 'Overseer 
 of Masons, Pay-Roll and General Account, 
 Honors from the Connecticut Assembly, Lieut. 
 John Stark, A New Campaign, Scouting Par- 
 tics, Death of Captain Grant, Death of Lieut. 
 Solomon Grant, Captain Noah Grant of the 
 Revolution, Evidence of Descent from Matthew 
 Grant, The Lexington Alarm, Lieut. Jesse 
 Grant, Ratio of .Troops from the Colonies, 
 Removal to Pennsylvania, The Connecticut Re- 
 serve, The Indians, Wild Beasts, Gov. Hunt- 
 ington, General St. Clair, Captain Grant's De- 
 clining Y.ears. 35. 
 
 CHAPTER iv. 
 
 Jesse Root Grant, Judge Root, Miss Hannah Simp- 
 son, Point Pleasant, Birth-place of a President, 
 Georgetown, Business at Galena, Residence at 
 Covington, Kentucky, Secret of his Success, 
 Mr. Grant as a Poet, General Ulysses Simpson 
 Grant, Difficulties about a Name, Scriptural 
 Names, Anecdotes, Served through all the 
 Grades, General Scott, Views of Professor Ma- 
 han. 63. 
 
 PART II. MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 
 
 1. 
 
 The Clan of Grants, Gregory de Grant, The 
 Strathspey Grants, Castle Urquahart, A Low-
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 land Poet, The War-Cries, The Grant Tar- 
 tan, The Bard, The Seafield Arms, Castle 
 Grant, Grantown, Earl of Seafield, Baron 
 Glenelg, Major-General James Grant. 85. 
 
 2. 
 
 The Grant Homestead, Title to the Homestead, 
 The Old House, The Windsor Homesteads, 
 The Loomis and Hayden Homesteads, The Stuy- 
 vesant and Beekman Estates in New York. 94. 
 
 The Dorchester Records, First Entry of Matthew 
 Grant's Name," Rayles " for " Cowes." 
 
 Matthew Grant's Record, His Family, Susannah 
 
 Rockwell, The Rockwell Family. 100. 
 
 Matthew Grant's Rules for Measuring Land, "Run- 
 ing upon a Poynt," "Three Poyntes." 101. 
 
 6. 
 
 The Constitutions of 1638 and 1650, The Preamble 
 of 1638, "Schooles,'' Roger Ludlow the Law- 
 Maker, The oldest American Constitution. 101. 
 
 The Freemen of 1669, Governor Bissell, The Ells- 
 worth Family, Chief Justice Ellsworth, The
 
 Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 Eno Family, John Fitch, the Inventor of Steam- 
 boats, The Griswold Family, Governors 
 Matthew and Roger Griswold, The Hayden 
 Family, The Holcombe Family, The Loomis 
 Family, The Marshall Family, The Mather 
 Family, The Owen Family, The Pettibone 
 Family, The Phelps Family, The Stiles Family, 
 The Wolcott Family, Governor Roger Wol- 
 cott, The two Governors Oliver Wolcott. 105. 
 
 8. 
 
 Persecutions of the Puritans in England, Dr. Leighton, 
 a Scotch Preacher, The Whipping, the Pillory, 
 the Knife, the Brand, Mr. William Prynne, Bar- 
 rister. 150. 
 
 The Last Will and Testament of Matthew Grant, 
 
 Witnesses John Loomis and Thomas Dibble. 153. 
 
 10. 
 
 CaptainNoah Grant's Muster Roll, " Prince, Negro," 
 
 " Jupiter, Negro." 155. 
 
 II. 
 
 Lieut. Solomon Grant of the French and Indian War, 
 Lieut. John Levens, A Scout towards Hoosuc, 
 " Captivated," Death of Lieutenant Grant, His 
 Coventry Estate. 156. 
 
 12. 
 
 The Will of Lieutenant Solomon Grant, " My Well- 
 Beloved Brother Noah Grant." 1 59.
 
 CONTEXTS. xiii 
 
 The Delano Family, Philip de La Noye, Jonathan 
 
 Delano, The Iron-Armed. 161. 
 
 14. 
 
 Genealogy of General Grant, An Extract from Edward 
 Everett, John Porter, of Windsor, Captain Ros- 
 well Grant of the Revolution, Hon. Columbus 
 Delano, The Title of " General." 1 63. 
 
 The Inaugural Address of President Grant. 175.
 
 PART I. -BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MATTHEW GRANT, ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF 
 WINDSOR, CONNECTICUT. 
 
 THE names and the memory of those who, 
 in blood and suffering, were the founders of a 
 mighty nation, now the United States, should 
 be held in reverence. The historian of Mas- 
 sachusetts says, when speaking of them, " I 
 am not preserving from oblivion the names of 
 heroes, whose chief merit is the overthrow of 
 Cities, Provinces, and Empires ; but the names 
 of the founders of a flourishing town and col- 
 ony, if not of the whole British empire in 
 America." * 
 
 Their descendants preserve with honest 
 pride, the sacred record of their heroism. To 
 have crossed an unknown ocean to a new coun- 
 try, three thousand miles distant from home 
 and kindred, to have braved the perils of the 
 flood, the pestilence, the ambush in the wilder- 
 ness, the stratagem, the massacre, the scalping- 
 knife, the midnight horrors of the Indian's 
 blazing torch, to have encountered all these 
 dangers in the effort to reclaim a continent 
 
 * Ifittchinsotis Hist. Mass, Vol. II. Appendix p. 463.
 
 2 Matthew Grant, 'The Pioneer. 
 
 from the savage, and consecrate it as the dwell- 
 ing place of civilization and freedom must 
 have developed a character in these, our early 
 settlers, unsurpassed in the annals of human 
 suffering and human daring. 
 
 The purpose of these hardy pioneers in 
 abandoning their native land, was to secure 
 in the New World what was denied them in 
 the old, the enjoyment of civil and religious 
 liberty. Doubtless they made some mistakes 
 in developing into practice their ideas of liber- 
 ty, but those mistakes were characteristic of 
 the age in which they lived ; many a greater 
 enterprise has been fraught with more abund- 
 ant errors. Mr. Edward Everett has said of 
 them, ' In coming to this country, our fathers 
 most certainly contemplated, not merely a safe 
 retreat beyond the sea, where they could wor- 
 ship God according to the dictates of their own 
 conscience, but a local government founded on 
 popular choice. That their foresight stretched 
 onward through the successive stages of colo- 
 nial and provincial government which resulted 
 in the establishment of a great republican con- 
 federacy, it would be extravagant to pretend. 
 But from the primitive and venerable compact 
 signed on the nth of November, 1620, on 
 board the Mayflower while she yet nestled in 
 the entrance of Provincetown harbor, after her
 
 Matthew Grant, The Pioneer. 3 
 
 desolate voyage, like a weary child at even- 
 song in its mother's arms, through every doc- 
 ument and manifesto which bears on the ques- 
 tion, there is a distinct indication of a purpose 
 to establish civil government on the basis of 
 republican equality." * 
 
 Gen. Ulysses S. Grant is a lineal descend- 
 ant from MATTHEW GRANT, who came from 
 
 1681. t 
 
 England to the New World in 1630. Jessie 
 R. Grant, Esq., the father of General Grant, 
 mentions in a letter to the writer that his fath- 
 er " used to tell him he was of Scotch ances- 
 try." This tradition is, probably, well found- 
 ed, for many of the early pioneers were of 
 Scotch descent, some were Welsh, and a few 
 v/ere Irish. The Grants are, probably, de- 
 scendants from the ancient Scottish clan whose 
 motto, " Stand fast, Craig Ellachie," well rep- 
 resents the spirit of the distinguished rep- 
 resentative of the family. The ancient High- 
 land clan of Grants must have been, in some 
 degree, a sea - faring people, for they occu- 
 pied a country, Invernesshire, which extend- 
 
 * E--veretfs Speeches. Vol. III. p. 242. 
 
 f Traced from the will at Hartford, by the Hon. J. H. 
 Trumbull.
 
 4 Matthew Grant, 'The Pioneer. 
 
 ed from sea to sea, and the seats of the two 
 highest titled representatives which the clan 
 has had of late years are on both the eastern 
 and western shores, the Earl of Seafield, a 
 Grant, having a seat at Elgin, near the Spey 
 Bay, and Baron Glenelg now deceased, a Grant 
 of Glenmoriston, having taken his title from 
 Glenelg, a town situated on the straits opposite 
 to the Island of Sky. Their country was di- 
 vided by the Loch Ness and a chain of lakes 
 giving easy access, on either side, to the ocean, 
 and Inverness, their ancient capital, has always 
 been an important sea-port town. It is quite 
 probable, therefore, that many representatives 
 of this clan were often found in all the ports 
 of England.* Indeed, on the 29th of Oc- 
 tober, in the same year that Matthew Grant 
 embarked for New England, the ship Hand- 
 maid, in charge of Captain John Grant, reach- 
 ed Plymouth with a company of passengers 
 for the new settlements, and the ship James 
 arrived, June I2th, 1632, from London, in 
 command of Captain Grant. The number of 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott informs us that, at this very period, 
 the Scotch were great travellers, and there were thousands 
 of them in the military service of the nations of the conti- 
 nent, and engaged in carrying on an extensive inland com- 
 merce in all the northern parts of Europe. Tales of a 
 Grandfather. Vol. II. p. 333. 
 
 "The first inhabitants of Dorchester came chiefly from 
 Ye Sd countys of Devon, Dorcetand Somerset, and I think 
 from some other places." Blake's Annals of Dorchester, p. 10.
 
 Matthew Grant, The Pioneer. 5 
 
 pioneers in New England of Scotch descent 
 seems to have increased rapidly, and they or- 
 ganized in Boston, as early as Jan. 6th, 1657, 
 the Scots' Charitable Society, of which there 
 were twenty-seven members the first year, 
 among whom were James Grant, Alexander 
 Grant, and Peter Grant. * Direct evidence as 
 to the descent of General Grant from the an- 
 cient Scottish clan of Grants cannot easily be 
 procured, at this late day, but there can be 
 scarce any room for doubt in the minds of 
 those who weigh rightly the circumstantial evi- 
 dence. -J- It is not, however, we confess, a 
 question of vital importance, for General 
 Grant has certainly been the architect of his 
 own fortunes, and, in this republican country, 
 
 * Drake's Hist, and Ant ig. of Boston, pp. 88, 454. The 
 names of John, James, Alexander and Thomas Grant are found 
 in the list of Scotch prisoners sent from London in 1651, after the 
 battle of Worcester, in the John and Sarah. N. E. Hist, and Gen. 
 Reg. pp. 377, 380. ( John Ward Dean, Esq.] Seethe account of 
 the Clan of Grants in this work. 
 
 Alexander Allyn, "a gentleman of means and education," 
 a Scotchman, resident in Windsor, married in 1693, Mary Grant, 
 a granddaughter of Matthew Grant. She was then about eigh- 
 teen years of age. Stiles' Windsor, p. 521. 
 
 f The author has no admiration of vain-glorious boasting as 
 to ancestry, but the question must, sometimes, be considered 
 whether the pioneers of New England were a race of serfs or the 
 refuse of society from the old world. This subject is ably dis- 
 cussed by Hollister, who remarks : " From actual examination, 
 it appears that more than four-fifths of the early landed proprie- 
 tors of Hartford, Wethersfield,and Windsor, belonged to families 
 that had arms granted to them in Great Britain. Other settlers, 
 in various parts of Connecticut, at an earlier or later day, bearing 
 family names that appear never to have borne arms, are believed
 
 6 Matthew Grant, I'/ie Pioneer. 
 
 the sentiment contained in the well-known 
 lines of Pope is everywhere approved of: 
 
 " Honor and shame from no condition rise, 
 Act well your part, there all the honor lies." 
 
 Matthew Grant with his wife Priscilla, both 
 aged twenty-nine years, and an infant daughter, 
 named also Priscilla, embarked from Plymouth, 
 England, with a party of one hundred and 
 forty emigrants, who had been gathered chiefly 
 from Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Somerset- 
 shire. Mr. Everett gives the following ac- 
 count of them ; " There was a large body of 
 'West Country,' or { Dorchester men/ in 
 Gov. Winthrop's expedition, who were, many 
 of them of Mr. White's * church, and all were 
 enlisted, so to say, under his auspices and 
 encouragement ; and they were the first in the 
 field. Early in March, 1630, they were ready 
 to depart, and a large vessel was chartered at 
 Plymouth for their separate conveyance. The 
 faithful pastor, guide at once in things divine 
 and human which in that age of trial ran 
 
 to have been descended from the landed gentry, or other genteel 
 English families. " 
 
 Hollister's Hist. Conn. Vol. I. p. 417. 
 
 * Rev. John White, pastor in Dorchester, chief town in the 
 county of Dorset in the west of England on the British Channel. 
 He " preached unto us ( in the new hospital) the word of God, 
 in the fore part of the day and in the latter part of the day." Rc- 
 ger Clap.
 
 Matthew Granf, The Pioneer. 7 
 
 strangely together, as in what age do they not, 
 went with them to their port of embarkation; 
 met with them in the new hospital at Plymouth, 
 where they gathered themselves into a church 
 under the ministers of his selection; held with 
 them a solemn fast of preparation, and preached 
 to them the last sermon they were to hear from 
 his lips : 
 
 ' Prompt at every call 
 He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all.' " * 
 
 And so on the 2oth of March, 1630, the 
 Dorchester emigrants embarked in the Mary 
 and John, f Capt. Squeb, master, a vessel of 
 four hundred tons. They had a prosperous 
 voyage of seventy days and arrived at Nantas- 
 ket, | on the joth of May, about ten davs in 
 
 * Everett' 's Speeches. Vol. III. p. 309. 
 
 A complete church organization was perfected at Plymouth, 
 England, and the church was afterwards transferred from Dor- 
 chester Mass, to Windsor, Connecticut. Matthew Grant was 
 one of the members. Stiles' Windsor, p. 635, 844, 858. This 
 church is " now the oldest evangelical church in America, and 
 except the Southwark Church, London, the oldest orthodox con- 
 gregational church in the world." Jabez H. Hoyden, Esq. in 
 Stiles' 1 Windsor, p. 74. 
 
 f The statement that Matthew Grant came in the Mary and 
 John is made upon the authority of Dr Stiles. ( Hist. Anct. 
 Windsor, p. 635). After a careful weighing of the evidence this 
 seems to be the most probable account, although its correctness 
 cannot be verified, at this day, with absolute certainty. Matthew 
 Grant was, undoubtedly, admitted a freeman of Dorchester 
 in 1631. 
 
 J Now called Hull, a small village nine miles, by water, south 
 east frcm Boston.
 
 8 Matthew Grant, The Pioneer. 
 
 advance of the Arabella, and the vessel 
 which accompanied her. The Dorchester com- 
 pany contained many "persons of note or fig- 
 ure, and dignified by the title of Master," 
 having adult families and good estates in 
 England, three directors of the London Com- 
 
 O ' 
 
 pany which held the charter, three men of mili- 
 tary experience, a numerous party of young 
 men, either single or with wives and children, 
 and a frugal store of worldly goods. They 
 were attended by their pastors, Messrs. Mav- 
 erick and Warham. " So we came," says Ro- 
 ger Clap, who was one of the passengers, " by 
 the hand of God, through the deeps comfort- 
 ably ; having preaching, or expounding of the 
 word of God, every day for ten weeks together 
 by our ministers." 
 
 They landed at Nantasket, and having ex- 
 plored the coast, the main body established 
 themselves on "a neck of land fit to keep their 
 cattle on" called by the Indians Mattapan, 
 which they named from the place they had left 
 in England, Dorchester, now South Boston a 
 suburb of the city of Boston. Here, they had, 
 at first, many privations. Roger Clap says 
 <l the place was a wilderness. Fish was a good 
 help to me and to others. Bread was so scarce 
 that I thought the very crusts from my father's 
 table would have been sweet ; and when I could
 
 Matthew Grant, ^he Pioneer. 9 
 
 have meal and salt and water boiled together I 
 asked c who would ask for better ? ' And, 
 again, c< In our beginnings, many were in great 
 straits for want of provisions for themselves and 
 little ones. Oh ! the hunger that many suffered 
 and saw no hope in an eye of reason to be sup- 
 plied, only by clams, mussels, and fish." 
 
 Nevertheless the new settlement prospered, 
 and in 1633, an early writer styles it "the 
 greatest town in New England." "It set the 
 example, that year, of that municipal organi- 
 zation which has since prevailed throughout 
 New England and has proved one of the chief 
 sources of its progress. It has been supposed 
 that the first stated provision for a public 
 school was made here." * A house is still 
 standing in Dorchester which was built in 
 1633, and we can readily imagine that Matthew 
 Grant was present at its raising. -j* 
 
 * Everett. 
 
 " Few except students in the history of New England are 
 aware, probably, that Dorchester was settled before Boston or 
 even Charlestown. ' When many most Godly and Religious 
 people, in ye Reign of King Charles ye first, did under ye Incour- 
 agcment of a Charter Granted by ye Sd King Charles, A. D. 
 1628, Remove themselves and their Families into ye Colony of yc 
 Massachusetts Bay in New England, then it was that the first 
 Inhabitants of Dorchester came over and were ye first Company 
 or Church Society that arrived here, next to ye town of Salem 
 who was one year before them.' " N-IV Eng. Hist, and Gen. 
 Reg. Vol. V. p. 389, quoting Roger Clap. 
 
 f The " Minot House." It is said to be the oldest wooden 
 house in the United States. It was the headquarters of General 
 1*
 
 io Matthew Grant, ^he Pioneer. 
 
 Church membership had been made, from 
 the first, the principal qualification for freeman- 
 ship, and, in one year after his arrival, Mat- 
 thew Grant had been admitted a freeman. 
 About four years after the debarkation at 
 Nantasket, the settlers at Dorchester had be- 
 gun to agitate the question of a removal to 
 the valley of the Connecticut, and Matthew 
 Grant was ready for any new enterprise. 
 
 The chief motive of the Dorchester men 
 in leaving Massachusetts was undoubtedly, as 
 Gov. Bradford, of Plymouth, has stated it, 
 "a hankering after" the fertile lands on the 
 Connecticut River. Winthrop, also, gives as 
 their principal reasons for emigrating, " the 
 fruitfulness and commodiousness of Connect- 
 icut and the danger of having it possessed by 
 others, Dutch or English." Already had the 
 Dutch, in June, 1633, erected a fort at Hart- 
 ford, and in October of the same year, Wil- 
 liam Holmes acting for the Plymouth Trading 
 Company had built a house at Matianunck, 
 now Windsor. " This," says Gov. Wolcott, 
 " was the first house ever erected in Connecti- 
 cut." Early in June, 1635, a pioneer corps 
 came from Dorchester, but the first settlement 
 of any importance at Windsor was made by 
 
 Washington, for a season, during the revolution. N. E. Hist, 
 and Gen. Reg. Vol. XXII. p. 64.
 
 Matthew Grant, 'The Pioneer. n 
 
 Francis Stiles with a company of about 20 
 men who arrived June 16, 1635. Stiles' party 
 were without doubt, after the Plymouth Com- 
 pany, the first actual settlers at Windsor. 
 
 A desire to emigrate had now seized upon 
 a large portion of the residents at Dorchester, 
 and, in a short space of time, nearly one half * 
 of its first settlers had emigrated to the rich 
 bottom lands of Connecticut. The main 
 body left Dorchester as Winthrop informs us 
 on the 1 5th of October, 1635. "About 60 
 men, women and children, went by land toward 
 Connecticut with their horses and swine."f 
 Dr. Harris says that Mr. Warham went 
 with them, t but did not judge it expedient to 
 remove his family until better accommoda- 
 tions could be made for their reception. * * * 
 They were fourteen days performing the te- 
 dious journey through the wilderness. On 
 their arrival they began their settlement on the 
 west side of the Connecticut river not far 
 from the mouth of Scantic river. These ad- 
 venturers were put to great straits after their 
 arrival. The provisions they took with them 
 were nearly exhausted before they arrived. 
 
 * " Mr. Warham and about half ye church removed to 
 Windsor in Connecticut colony." Blake's Annals of Dor- 
 chester, p. 14. 
 
 f History ofNe-tu England. Vol. I. p. 204.
 
 12 Matthew Grant, The Pioneer. 
 
 The crops they raised were small for they had 
 cleared but very little of the ground for til- 
 lage : besides most of their time had been ne- 
 
 o ' 
 
 cessarily devoted to the construction of huts 
 against the winter. The winter came on early 
 and was very severe." * Winthrop adds : 
 " they lost the greater part of their cattle this 
 winter ; yet, some which came late, and could 
 not be put over the river, lived very well all 
 the winter without any hay. The people also 
 were put to great straits for want of provis- 
 ions. They ate acorns and malt and grains. 
 They lost nearly 2,000 worth of cattle." 
 Dr. Harris mentions Matthew Grant as 
 one of the party who left Dorchester in the 
 autumn of 1635. f A large portion of this 
 company was compelled, however, to return 
 on board the sloop Rebecca, during the win- 
 ter, to Massachusetts. In the early spring, 
 April 1 6, 1636, with stout hearts, the Dor- 
 chester men renewed their efforts, and with 
 much better success. The new settlement, 
 like the first they had made in Massachusetts, 
 was called by them Dorchester, but, in 1637, 
 
 *Dr. Harris 1 Account of Dorchester, Mass. Coll. Vol. IX. 
 
 f Matthew Grant, in his church book, gives " A list of those 
 members of the church that were so in Dorchester, and came up 
 here with Mr. Warham, and still are of us." His own name is 
 in the list. Stiles'" Windsor, p. 844.
 
 Matthew Grant, 'The Pioneer. 13 
 
 by order of the Court, the name was changed 
 to Windsor. 
 
 Matthew Grant was chosen, immediately 
 on his arrival in Windsor, the first Surveyor 
 for the town, two of which officers were after- 
 wards chosen annually, and this office, which 
 was one of much responsibility, he filled most 
 of his life. About nine years after his arrival 
 in Windsor, his first wife, Priscilla died, and 
 he married on the 2Qth of May, 1645, m ' s 
 second wife Susannah Rockwell, the widow of 
 William Rockwell. Mr. Rockwell was an el- 
 derly man, possessed of a good estate, and, 
 with his wife, had been a fellow passenger with 
 Matthew Grant from England in the Mary 
 and John. He had tarried a few years at 
 Dorchester, and following the tide of emigra- 
 tion, had removed thence to Windsor. In 
 1652, on the removal to Guilford of Dr. 
 Bray Rossiter, the first Town Clerk, who was 
 a man of distinction and fine education, Mat- 
 thew Grant succeeded him as Recorder or 
 Town Clerk. " Few men," says Dr. Stiles, 
 " filled so large a place in the early history of 
 Windsor, or filled it so well as honest Mat- 
 thew Grant. His name figures in almost 
 every place of trust, and the early records of 
 the town show that his duties were always con- 
 scientiously performed."* * * cc He was a
 
 14 Matthew Grant, The Pioneer. 
 
 prominent man in the church ; evidently was 
 just and exceedingly conscientious in all his 
 public and private transactions and duties; 
 as Recorder, he often added notes explanatory 
 or in correction, to the records, which have 
 considerable value to the investigator of the 
 present day ; he was the compiler of the old 
 Church Record which, in the absence of some 
 of the earliest records of the town of Wind- 
 sor, 1 63 5-^50, assumes a value which can 
 scarcely be over-estimated ; in short, he was 
 a pious, hardworking, conscientious, Christian 
 man, and a model I'own Clerk." * 
 
 He was a man of strong convictions and a 
 strict sense of duty. This is shown in the 
 proceedings connected with a controversy 
 which arose in Mr. Warham's church, in 1668, 
 when a portion of the members desired to 
 leave their first pastor, now grown old in the 
 service of the sanctuary, and organize another 
 parish under the Rev. Mr. Woodbridge. The 
 adherents of the latter had called a town meet- 
 ing at which they succeeded in securing a vote 
 in favor of giving the new minister a hearing, 
 but Matthew Grant refused to enter the pro- 
 ceedings of the meeting upon the records. The 
 entry appears however, on the books, in a 
 
 * Stiles' Windsor, pp. 59 and 6 35.
 
 Matthew Grant, The Pioneer. 15 
 
 strange hand and beneath is found a protest, 
 by the town clerk, as follows; "Aug. 8th. 
 At a town meeting warned by the townsmen, 
 by the desire of several inhabitants, to see the de- 
 sires of the town concerning giving Mr. Wood- 
 bridge a call to preach once on the Lord's day, 
 and it was voted by a full vote. [ So far, the 
 entry, is in another handwriting, then follows 
 the protest] : 
 
 "This as a proviso : I here express to clear 
 myself from having any hand in assenting to the 
 warning of the town meeting, so called, as 
 George Griswold has entered in this book 
 Aug. the 8th, '68, for he and some others came 
 to [my] house after they had been together, and 
 desired me, being the town recorder, to enter 
 their town vote, made this day, that Mr. Wood- 
 bridge shall have the liberty to preach on the 
 Sabbath. I told him I would not have no hand 
 in the business nor enter their vote. Then he de- 
 sired me to let him have the town Book, wherein 
 I used to enter such things. He being a towns- 
 man I laid the book upon the table, and there 
 he wrote himself what is entered by his own 
 hand. This I certify. 
 
 Matthew Grant. 
 Augt. 17, 1668." 
 
 The town records of Windsor bear frequent
 
 1 6 Matthew Grant, The Pioneer. 
 
 testimony to the usefulness and efficiency of 
 Matthew Grant, as a public surveyor, and his 
 life was certainly a busy and eventful one. 
 Among other entries in the records we find the 
 following : 
 
 "March 24, [1672]. The town met to 
 give information to persons chosen to run the 
 line between Windsor and Simsbury. First, 
 you must understand that our south-bounds 
 betwixt Hartford and Windsor extend half a 
 mile beyond the Chestnut tree westward, and 
 extends itself something beyond the foot of the 
 mountain where you will find a tree marked, 
 and from there you will traverse a way by your 
 compass north and by west, which is the line 
 to be set out between Windsor and Simsbury, 
 and you are carefully to extend this line till 
 you- meet with our north bounds. 
 
 MATTHEW GRANT, 
 SAMUEL MARSHALL, 
 JOHN LOOMIS, 
 JACOB DRAKE, 
 THOMAS STOUGHTON." 
 
 Matthew Grant, evidently, set a high value 
 upon his personal integrity. His testimony, 
 in a matter concerning lands in dispute, April, 
 21, 1675, between Joseph Loomis, Junior, and 
 Senior, preserved in the State Archives at 
 Hartford, is as follows :
 
 Matthew Grant, 'The Pianeer. ij 
 
 " And if any question my uprightness and 
 legal acting about our town affairs, that I 
 have been employed in, a measuring of land, 
 and getting out of lots of men which has been 
 done by me from our first beginning here, come 
 next Sept. is 40 yere. I never got out any land 
 to any man, until I knew he had a grant to it 
 from the townsmen, and town's approbation or 
 about recording after the book was turned to 
 me, which is near 23 years since. I .can say 
 with a cleare conscience, I have been careful to do 
 nothing upon one man's desire." 
 
 His name occurs, frequently, as a witness in 
 the purchase of lands, of which the following will 
 serve as an example. 
 
 Mr. William Phelps, Sen. had bought, some 
 time in 1635, ^ an( ^ fr m Nassahegan, situated 
 in Poquonnoc, and, not being able to prove full 
 payment of the same, he, very honestly, bought 
 it over again. The paper describing the trans- 
 action is dated March 31, 1665 : 
 
 " These presents testify, whereas there was 
 a parcel of land purchased formerly by Wil- 
 liam Phelps Sen. living at Windsor about 30 
 years since, of Sehat, an Indian, a Paquanick 
 Sachem, and I [Phelps] not being able to prove 
 full payment of the said purchase, in considera- 
 tion whereof I now engage to make up the full 
 payment by paying to the said Sehat's kins-
 
 1 8 Matthew Grant, I'/ie Pioneer. 
 
 man, Nassahegan, Sachem of Paquanick, 4 
 trucking coats, or what upon agreement shall 
 satisfy them to the value thereof. [Here are 
 mentioned other conditions, and the bound- 
 aries of the land.] 
 
 Owned already paid in two coats, and 40^. 
 in wampum for a third coat, and six bushels of 
 Indian corn and fifteen shillings in wampum 
 for the fourth coat ; and fifteen shillings in wam- 
 pum is at six a penny. 
 (Signed) 
 
 Coggerynosset. 
 
 ASUTHEW, 
 
 Coggerynosset" s sister. 
 
 PATACKHOUSE, 
 
 Nassahegan s sister. 
 
 AMANNAWER, 
 
 Nassahegan 's sister. 
 
 NASSAHEGAN. 
 Witnesses : 
 SAMUEL PHELPS. 
 MATTHEW GRANT. 
 JOHN BARTLETT. 
 TIMOTHY BUCKLAND. ". 
 
 The following note or affidavit, bearing no 
 date, is also found in the land records of Wind- 
 sor. 
 
 " Coggerynosset ( Poquonock) testifies 
 that the land on the east side of the Great
 
 Matthew Grant, 'The Pioneer. 19 
 
 River between Scantick and Namareck was 
 Nassacowen's and Nassacowen was so taken in 
 love with the coming of the English that he 
 gave it to them for some small matter, but he 
 
 D ' 
 
 knows of none but the meadow. 
 
 Coggerynosset. 
 Witnesses : 
 Matthew Grant. 
 Jacob Drake. 
 Stephen Taylor." 
 
 Although this Sachem was friendly, never- 
 theless the friendship of the Indians was unre- 
 liable. Indeed, the constant acquisition by 
 the whites of larger possessions aroused a jeal- 
 ousy and hostility in the minds of the natives, 
 and Matthew Grant's duties as a public survey- 
 or of lands which were the hunting grounds of 
 the savage must have been more than ordinarily 
 perilous. For a period of forty-six years, ex- 
 tending from the landing at Nantasket to the 
 death of King Philip in 1676, Matthew Grant 
 was exposed to the hazards of Indian treachery. 
 The best years of his life were passed among 
 savage enemies. In 1637, the palisado, had 
 been built, a defence which was constructed 
 chiefly of strong high stakes or posts with a wide 
 ditch outside. It was in the shape of a quad- 
 rangle, three-quarters of a mile long, and was
 
 2o Matthew Grant, tfhe Pioneer. 
 
 designed as a garrison or place of refuge from 
 the Indians. Its remains are still visible at 
 Windsor. 
 
 Matthew Grant has furnished the following- 
 
 (j 
 
 description of it : " To return again to the 
 common ways from the ferry at the rivulet, it 
 ascends up upon the side of the bank to the 
 house that was Capt. Mason's, and bounds 
 west by the fence that was John Strong's, on 
 the top of the bank, and east by Samuel Mar- 
 shall's at the foot of the bank, and then turns 
 to the gate, and is to be three rods in breadth 
 betwixt John Strong's garden on the south and 
 Henry Clark's on the north. And seeing I 
 am intered into the pallasadow, I will speak a 
 little of the original of it. About 1637 years, 
 when the English had war with the Pe- 
 quot Indians, our inhabitants on Sandy bank 
 gathered themselves nearer together from their 
 remote dwellings to provide for their safety, 
 set upon fortyfying, and with palazado, which 
 some particular men resigned up out of their 
 properties for that end and was laid out in 
 small parcels to build upon ; some 4 rods in 
 breadth, some five, six, seven, some eight ; it 
 was set out after this manner : "
 
 Matthew Grant, 'T'he Pioneer. 
 
 21 
 
 PALAZADO PI.OTT * 
 
 Cap* 
 
 irSoytorct 
 
 Bvrye'ny 
 place 
 
 D.Witson 
 
 Town 
 Jiouse 
 
 Grant 
 
 J)ibLe 
 
 JUTCLark 
 
 Marsh L 
 
 co 
 O 
 
 KivuK-t. 6 
 
 Matthew Grant had cleared six acres but 
 "resigned up " all of it except the cc small par- 
 cel " on which his log dwelling stood, within 
 the palisade, and next to the town-house, f 
 
 Captain John Mason, who commanded 
 
 * This description together with the plot which was made 
 by Matthew Grant, are copied from " A book of Towne Wayes 
 in Windsor," begun by him in 1654. See Conn. His. Coll., p. 
 130., also Stilei Windsor, p. 121. 
 
 f Jabez H- Hayden, Esq., of Windsor Locks, who has 
 made a map of the ancient estates in Windsor, is able to point 
 out the exact location of Matthew Grant's lot. He says, " He 
 had but nine rods on the street, and the Bell School House 
 stands now, I am sure, on his lot. In what part of his lot his 
 house stood, I do not know. There was only a lot of four acres 
 between his and the north side of the palazado."
 
 22 Matthew Grant, 'The Pioneer. 
 
 successfully in the Pequot war, was appointed 
 from Windsor and had come from England 
 with the goodly company in the Mary and 
 John. He was a veteran who had learned 
 skill and discipline under De Vere in the cam- 
 paign of the Palatinate, on the continent. 
 
 There were thirty Windsor men in Mason's 
 force which was sent against the Pequots. N In 
 1638, the towns were placed by the Court u^on 
 a war footing. All persons who were over 
 sixteen years of age were ordered, unless ex- 
 cused, to bear arms. Magazines of powder 
 and shot were to be maintained in every town. 
 The magazine at Windsor was to contain one 
 barrel of powder and 300 weight of lead. 
 
 But of all the Indian wars of those times 
 the most important in regard to its magnitude 
 and its results took place in 1675, with the 
 confederate tribes, under King Philip. It was 
 the last terrible contest between the Massachu- 
 setts, Plymouth and Connecticut colonies and 
 the Indians, in which the very existence of 
 both belligerents depended on the issue ; de- 
 feat to either was annihilation. We are un- 
 able, at this day, to realize the consternation 
 and alarm which were experienced by our fore- 
 fathers when the tocsin of war was sounded 
 for this fearful struggle. More than a thou- 
 sand men, a large army for those days,
 
 Matthew Grant, 'The Pioneer. 23 
 
 were enlisted throughout New England for a 
 winter campaign under Major General Josiah 
 Winslow, the Governor of Plymouth colony. 
 Windsor furnished one company which was 
 commanded by Captain Samuel Marshall. 
 
 Gen. Winslow. found Philip with a large 
 body of Indians entrenched in the center of a 
 swamp in Rhode Island. After most severe 
 fighting and heavy losses the colonists were vic- 
 torious.* The Indians were nearly annihilated, 
 and never recovered from the blow received at 
 the famous swamp fight. 
 
 Windsor shared with other towns the sor- 
 row and the glory of that victory. Matthew 
 Grant entered on the town books this mourn- 
 ful record : 
 
 cc Here I set down the deaths of several 
 
 * Of Massachusetts men, Major Appleton's company : 
 2 slain, 22 wounded ; Capt. Mosely's 9 do. 10 do. ; Capt. 
 Oliver's 5 do. 10 do. Capt. Johnson's 3 do. II do. Capt. 
 Gardner's, 7 do. n do. Capt Davenport's 4 do. 15 do. 
 .Wounded, whereof some have died: Of Connecticut, Major 
 Treat's company, 20. Capt. Sealey's, 20. Capt. Marshal's, 
 14 Capt. Waite's, "17. Of Plymouth, Capt. Bradford's, and 
 Capt. Gorham's 20. Troopers, 2. Lost in the woods, 5. 
 Captains slain, Davenport, Johnson, Gardner, Marshal, and 
 Gallop, who commanded tineas' Indians. Wounded, Capt. 
 Bradford, Capt. Sealey, mortally it is feared (afterwards dead), 
 Capt. Mason,' 1 . Capt. White. ^Lieutenants wounded, Savage, 
 Ting, Swan, and Upham. Total 207. 
 
 Drake's Old Indian Chronicle. 1867. p. t l84. 
 
 Also, Hubbard's Indian Wars. p. 1.38. 
 
 Watts. 
 
 b From Conn, a son of the celebrated Capt. John Mason.
 
 24 Matthew Grant, 'The Pioneer. 
 
 persons who went against the Indians and were 
 wounded that they died. It was on the 19^1 
 of December, 167^. 
 
 Capt. Samuel Marshal, Nath'l. Pond, 
 
 Ebenezer Dibble, Richard Saxton, 
 
 Edward Chapman." 
 
 John Fitch also died of his wounds. 
 
 Connecticut suffered more seve~~ly in this 
 battle, than any one of her sister colonies. Of 
 her three hundred men, eighty were either kill- 
 ed or wounded. A subscription was raised in 
 June, 1676, to aid the sufferers in Kisg 
 Philip's war, to which Matthew Grant and his 
 sons Samuel, Tahan, and John contributed. 
 It was appropriated, by order of the Court, 
 chiefly to relieve the wants of the Simsbury peo- 
 ple, whose town had been burned. Mr. Fen- 
 imore Cooper has beautifully narrated these 
 events in the early Indian wars of New Eng- 
 land in his romance, The Wept of Wish- 
 ton-Wish, the scene of which is said to be laid 
 in Windsor. Some of its incidents also, are, 
 probably, borrowed from the histories of other 
 towns. At Hadley, which is a few miles north 
 of Windsor, the settlers were attacked, while 
 at church, when an old man with a long white 
 beard, who proved to be one of the fugitive 
 judges of Charles the First, came forth from 
 his hiding place, and led the astonished wor-
 
 Matthew Grant, The Pioneer. 25 
 
 shippers to victory. The novelist makes ex- 
 cellent use of this romantic occurence. 
 
 Matthew Grant resided during the last years 
 of his life with his Son John. When he went 
 to live with this Son he was already, a second 
 time, a widower, for his wife Susannah had died 
 eleven years before. The colonies now ex- 
 perienced a cessation from Indian hostilities, 
 and the decline of Matthew Grant's life found 
 him in the enjoyment of peace and tranquillity. 
 Soon, however, "at a full age, like as a shock of 
 corn cometh in his season," having seen the 
 
 ' O 
 
 goodly number of nearly four score years the 
 pioneer was gathered to his long home. 
 Eventful had been his life. The voyage across 
 the ocean, the journey through the wilderness, 
 a home among savages ; he was spared to see 
 the foundations of a colony securely laid, and 
 
 then he entered into his rest. 
 2
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SAMUEL GRANT, SENIOR J SAMUEL GRANT, JUN- 
 IOR J NOAH GRANT, SENIOR. 
 
 SAMUEL GRANT, the oldest son and the 
 second child of Matthew, was born in Dor- 
 chester, Mass., on the I2th of November, 
 1631, about one year and a half after his pa- 
 rents had landed at Nantasket.' We have on 
 record but few events of his life. He seems to 
 have been a God-fearing, faithful, and indus- 
 trious member of the community, as, indeed, 
 likewise, were all the family of Matthew. He 
 was baptized and taken into fellowship with 
 the Windsor Church in the twenty-eighth year 
 of his age. About this time, 1658-9, January 
 8, " at a town meeting it was voted that Sam- 
 uel Grant should try and seal measures for the 
 town." Two years thereafter " the Townsmen 
 made a bargain with Samuel Grant to shingle 
 the inside roof of the meeting house." cc He is 
 to get the shingle in the woods and cut them, 
 hew them, and lay them on one inch and a 
 quarter thick generally, and seven inches in 
 breadth one with another." * In 1665 he was 
 
 * Stiles' JVindior, p. 152.
 
 Samuel Grant, Senior. 27 
 
 appointed with Thomas Stoughton, and Na- 
 thaniel Loomis " a boundgoer " with Hartford 
 men, an office which was held in high honor, 
 and one in almost constant commission by 
 reason of the frequent disputes between the 
 towns in reference to their boundaries. In 
 1672 a decided movement was made towards 
 the settlement of the lands on the east side of 
 the river, and it was, perhaps, about this time, 
 or certainly, as early as the year 1674-5 that 
 Samuel, Senior, became a resident in that locali- 
 ty. He settled in the rear of the present East 
 Windsor Theological Institute, on the little 
 eminence to which Matthew makes the follow- 
 ing allusion in his account, in the Church Rec- 
 ord, of the great flood of 1639 : < It endam- 
 aged many cattle over the river, for all the 
 ground there was drowned to one little ridge, 
 where Samuel Grant now lives." There is 
 preserved in the town books a " List of Per- 
 sons on the east side of the Great River" who 
 were appointed in June, 1 672, to work the high- 
 ways, and Samuel Grant's name is found in the 
 list. His name also appears signed, with about 
 ninety others, to a petition to the General As- 
 sembly at Hartford, in 1680, for permission to 
 organize a separate township, that they might 
 settle a minister and enjoy religious services 
 of their own. The new township was duly
 
 28 Samuel Grant, Junior. 
 
 organized, and in February, 1687, the town 
 of East Windsor voted that " Samuel Grant, 
 Senior, and Nathaniel Bissell shall have liberty 
 to set up a saw-mill with the use of ten acres of 
 land upon the brook that is known by the name 
 of Ketch." 
 
 The descendants of Samuel Grant still re- 
 side on the ancient homestead at East Wind- 
 sor Hill. 
 
 We know but little of SAMUEL GRANT, Ju- 
 nior. He was born in Windsor in 1659. He 
 married first Hannah Filley, and after her de- 
 cease Grace Minor, the daughter of Captain 
 John Minor, of Stratford, who was the son of 
 
 Captain Thomas Minor, of Stonington, Con- 
 
 +r-fLo?nnS 'tninot- '' 
 
 necticut. Captain Thomas was the first of the 
 name in this country, and was a son of Wil- 
 liam, of Chew Magna, Somersetshire, England. 
 An ancient pedigree of this family from Henry 
 Minor, who died in 1359, is preserved.f Sam- 
 
 * These autographs were traced from the originals at Hartford 
 by Hon. J. H. Trumbull. 
 
 f Captain John Minor moved first to Stratford and after- 
 wards to Woodbury. He was first and foremost among the set- 
 tlers at Woodbury, as an interpreter to the Indians, a land sur- 
 veyor, a captain of militia, and a deacon in the church. He was 
 town clerk of Stratford for about ten years from 1666, and of
 
 Noah Grant of Holland. 29 
 
 uel Grant, Junior, was, like his father and grand- 
 father, a faithful member of the church, and we 
 find his name recorded, in the year 1700, among 
 those who having " Owned the Covenant in 
 other churches, and thereby put themselves un- 
 der church watch have entered into ye same state 
 in this church, viz., ye Second Church of 
 Windsor." He was twice married, and left at 
 his decease nine children. 
 
 It is here interesting to notice that in the 
 first five generations of the Grant family, the 
 Christian names of all the descendants of Mat- 
 thew Grant were biblical names, with one ex- 
 ception only, in the family of Samuel, Junior, 
 and if we examine the eight names of the eight 
 members constituting the pedigree of General 
 Grant, from Matthew Grant, we shall discover 
 that seven of these also were biblical names, a 
 fact illustrative of the religious character of our 
 forefathers, as well as of a singular custom, in 
 this respect, which prevailed among them. Cap- 
 tain Noah Grant, the grandfather of General 
 Grant, was the first to depart, in any consider- 
 able degree, from this custom, for, in a family 
 
 Woodbury for thirty years, from its beginning. He was also, for 
 twenty years, almost always, a member of the General Court. 
 Cotherns Ancient Woodbury, p. 58. See also N. E. Hist, and Gen. 
 Reg. Vol. XIII. pp. 161, 164. Captain Thomas Minor was of 
 equal distinction among the early settlers at New London and 
 Stonington. See Hollister's Hist. Conn, zd ed., Vol. I. p. 515.
 
 3<D Noah Grant of To Hand. 
 
 of ten children, he has given eight of them 
 Scriptural names, and the other two unscrip- 
 tural ones. 
 
 NOAH GRANT, the son of Samuel Grant, 
 Junior, was born at the Homestead in East 
 Windsor, Dec. 16,1692. He married Martha 
 Huntington, of Norwich, Connecticut, who 
 was descended from Christopher Huntington 
 and his wife Ruth Rockwell, daughter of Susan- 
 nah Rockwell. Samuel Huntington, one of the 
 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
 and Governor of the State of Connecticut, 
 and General Jedediah Huntington, of revolu- 
 tionary fame, were of this family. The Hon. 
 J. Hammond Trumbull remarks: "The de- 
 scent of the General from both wives of Mat- 
 thew is curious. Martha Huntington who 
 married the first Noah Grant being the great 
 granddaughter of Susannah (the second wife 
 of Matthew) by her first husband William 
 Rockwell." Noah Grant, the first of this 
 name, was a resident of East Windsor until 
 the town of Tolland, which is situated twenty 
 miles east-northeast from Hartford in the 
 county of Tolland, was settled, when he be- 
 came an inhabitant of the new town. Mr. 
 Trumbull says again : 
 
 " Nathaniel, son of the first Samuel, Noah, 
 and his elder brother, Samuel Grant third
 
 Noah Grant of Holland. 31 
 
 and John Grant, their cousin, were petitioners 
 in May, 1713, for the incorporation of the new 
 town, afterwards named Tolland. In April 
 of that year, the Committee appointed by the 
 town of Windsor to lay out lands which had 
 been purchased formerly from the Indians to 
 settlers in the proposed new town, then be- 
 longing to Windsor, granted and set out lots, 
 among others, to Noah Grant, to his cousin, 
 Thomas Grant, Joseph and Josiah Rockwell, 
 and others of the family connection. They as- 
 signed seventeen lots of forty acres each. The 
 first settlement in Tolland was southwest of the 
 centre of the township, on what has been 
 known, nearly from the time of the settlement, 
 as Grant's Hill." [Major F. W. Grant, of 
 East Windsor, says that his grandfather also, 
 Captain Ebenezer Grant, owned land at 
 Grant's Hill.] "The lot granted to Noah 
 Grant can still be identified. It was the sixth 
 described in the record of the Committee. 
 His house was about two miles southwest of 
 Tolland meeting house, and he was occupying 
 it as early as the beginning of 1718, perhaps 
 half a year earlier. His eldest son, Noah, 
 was in all probability born here, and not in 
 Windsor, as the Genealogical Register has 
 it. In Waldo's History of Tolland,* it is 
 
 *Pp. 5, 6, 7, 122, 123.
 
 32 Noah Grant of Holland. 
 
 said that he came to Tolland ( before 1720, 
 but in the Tolland Records it is mentioned 
 that a town meeting which was held Feb. 
 1717-18, granted him a lot of land over 
 against his house cross the highway,' and in a pe- 
 tition dated April 15, 1717, Noah, Thomas, 
 and Nathaniel describe themselves as inhabi- 
 tants of Tolland."* 
 
 This petition is as follows : 
 
 "To y e Hon b the Govenor, Debeter Gove- 
 nor Counsel and Representatives of y Ginrael 
 Cort Asembled H olden At Hartford May 
 9, 1717. The Humbel pertission of our Sub- 
 scribers Inhabitants of Toland Is as folereth. 
 Wharasts ouer Number being Considerabel In 
 Crest We pray y* We May Have town privi- 
 lidg Granted to ous y* We may be Abel to 
 Maintain and uphold Good Orders Amongst 
 ous and Not Lef to perish for Lack of Vision 
 &c. Dated Toland April 15, 1717. 
 
 WILLIAM EATON, ANTHONY SLAFTER, 
 MOSES LOOMIS, JOSEPH MATHER, 
 NOAH GRANT, SAMUEL GRANT, 
 
 JOHN HUNTINGTON, SAMUEL ROCKWELL, 
 JOSIAH ROCKWELL, THOMAS GRANT, 
 NATHANIEL GRANT, HEZEKIAH PORTER, 
 &c." f 
 
 * Conn. Archives, Towns and Lands," Vol. 5. Doc. 46. 
 f Notes from the records at Hartford furnished by Dr. Stiles,
 
 Noah Grant of Holland. . 33 
 
 In December of the same year the town was 
 organized by the election of a full set of officers, 
 town meetings began to be held and town busi- 
 ness transacted, apparently with full powers. 
 Early in the next year, 1818, at a town meeting 
 all the bonafide residents in the town were as- 
 certained and recorded. 
 
 Like his forefathers, Noah Grant seems to 
 have been a zealous supporter of church wor- 
 ship, and we find the following entry in the 
 town records bearing date June 19, 1723 ; 
 
 " Voted) That the church hath liberty to or- 
 dain Mr. Stephen Steel pastor of a church in 
 Toland. Voted, That the charge of Mr. Steel's 
 ordination be done at the expense of the town. 
 Voted, That Noah Grant shall be one to see 
 that provision be made for the ordination of 
 Mr. Steel." * 
 
 He served also, as a selectman of the new 
 town in 1722, '24, and '25. 
 
 After a life of great activity and usefulness, 
 Noah Grant, first, died in Tolland, October 
 1 6, 1727, leaving four children, Noah, Adon- 
 iram, Solomon and Martha. His widow Mar- 
 tha married, afterwards, Peter Buell of Coven- 
 
 and made originally, by Sydney Stanley Esq. Mr. Stanley, also, 
 as well as Mr. Trumbull, has found indisputable evidence from 
 deeds, and other papers, that Noah Grant was from Windsor. 
 * Waldo's Early History of Tolland, p 30. 
 2*
 
 34 Noah Grant of Holland. 
 
 try. This entry is found in the first Book of 
 Coventry Records ; " Lieut. Peter Buell and 
 Martha Grant his wife, were married January 
 
 y 7 , 1728-9."* 
 
 General Peter Buell Porter of Niagara 
 Falls, a native of Salisbury, Connecticut, the 
 Secretary of War under John Quincy Adams 
 was the great grandson of Martha Buell. 
 Jesse Root Grant is also her great grandson. 
 Don Carlos Buell,f a general in the late war, 
 was also of this family, and these Buells are, 
 probably, descended from William Buell the 
 pioneer at Windsor. 
 
 * Many of these facts are from notes furnished by Dr. Porter, 
 of Coventry. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler adds that Peter Buell and Martha his wife had 
 five children, one of whom, the Rev. Samuel Buell, was an eminent 
 divine and preached on Long Island. He was the immediate 
 predecessor of the Rev. Lyman Beecher, at Easthampton. He 
 was born Sep. i, 1716, and died in 1798. Thompson's Hist. L. I. 
 p. 194. 
 
 f He was not a relative of the Grants.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CAPTAIN NOAH GRANT OF THE FRENCH AND 
 
 INDIAN WAR CAPTAIN NOAH GRANT OF 
 
 THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 NOAH GRANT the Second of this name 
 was born in Tolland July 12, 1718. His 
 father died when he was nine years of age and 
 his mother having married Lieut. Buell, the 
 family removed to Coventry. It appears from 
 the Tolland records that he returned to Tol- 
 land to reside and when he was twenty-eight 
 years of age, married Susannah, daughter of 
 Jonathan Delano, a worthy citizen of Tol- 
 land, who was descended from a pioneer, Philip 
 De La Noye,* who came to this country in 
 1621. Noah Grant removed again to Coven- 
 try about 1750. He was thirty-six years of 
 age, when the French and Indian war was com- 
 
 D ' 
 
 menced, and a call was made for colonial troops. 
 New England surpassed the other colonies in 
 the alacrity with which she entered into this con- 
 test. Five thousand men were to be raised in 
 New England, Connecticut furnishing one- 
 fifth of them, for an attack upon Crown Point. 
 Israel Putnam was appointed, in 1755, a captain 
 
 * See the Hon. Mr. Trumbull's contribution in reference to 
 he Delano family, in Part II. of this work.
 
 3 6 Captain Noah Grant, ^he First. 
 
 in Genl. Lyman's Regiment, of one of the Con- 
 necticut companies from Windham county 
 which borders upon Tolland. Capt. Ebenezer 
 Grant, the uncle of the second Noah, com- 
 manded in the same war, at a later period, a 
 company from Windsor. He was then about 
 forty years of age. Noah Grant the second, 
 and Solomon his brother took the field, early, 
 though in different companies. 
 
 " The troops," says Hildreth, "destined 
 for the Crown Point expedition, some six thou- 
 sand men, drawn from New England, New 
 Jersey and New York, advancing under Gen. 
 Lyman of Connecticut to the head of boat nav- 
 igation on the Hudson, built there Fort Ly- 
 man, called afterwards Fort Edward. Johnson 
 (who was afterwards knighted,) joined them 
 with the stores and artillery, assumed the com- 
 mand and advanced to Lake George." * 
 
 The Hon. Mr. Trumbull, who has given 
 the colonial records .and archives at Hartford 
 a careful examination, is of the opinion that 
 Noah Grant ''enlisted in one of the two regi- 
 ments under Lyman, ordered to be raised by the 
 March Assembly. These regiments were full 
 and on their way north, by the end of June. 
 Putnam and Grant were both employed in 
 
 * Hildreth" s United. States y Vol. II. p. 462.
 
 Captain Noah Grant, tfhe First. 37 
 
 rebuilding and strengthening Fort Lyman, 
 in the November following, and it is highly 
 probable that both helped to build it, in July 
 and August. Grant's first appearance in 
 service, so far as can be learned from 
 the records, is on the scouting party with 
 Rodgers and Putnam from the camp at Lake 
 George from Oct. 29, to Nov. 3, 1755.* He 
 was then Lieutenant Grant. If he had been a 
 new-comer to the camp, he could hardly have 
 been selected for such a service. He had 
 doubtless been long enough with the army to 
 acquire some knowledge of the country." 
 
 Meanwhile the French commander Baron 
 Dieskau, Johnson being encamped at Lake 
 George, had ascended Lake Champlain intend- 
 ing to surprise Fort Edward. A body of the 
 English having been sent out against him was 
 
 * "Camp at Lake George, Nov. 3, 1755. Report of Capt. 
 Rodgers and company, of their skirmish with the enemy's advanc- 
 ed Guard." 
 
 Captain Rodgers states that after reconnoitering on the zgth 
 of October and discovering a "Small Fort and several small Log 
 Camps within ye Fort," afterwards two canoes appearing and find- 
 ing there was a party coming by land " I ordered Two Battoes into 
 y c water Lieut. Grant with 6 men, and I went into ye other with 6 
 men and Put on Board Each a Wall piece and Went out towards 
 ye canoes." After a two hours engagement, both on land and water, 
 Capt. Putnam being in charge of the party on shore, they were 
 victorious, with none killed and but one wounded, and made "ye 
 Best of their way to Headquarters." ( Signed.) 
 
 " ROBERT RODGERS, 
 ISRAEL PUTNAM, 
 NOAH GRANT." 
 
 Doc. Hist. N. T. O'Callaghan. Vol. 4 pp. 176-7.
 
 38 Captain Noah Grant, 'The First. 
 
 repulsed on the 8th of September, 1755, 
 when Dieskau having followed the fugitives in- 
 to camp was driven back and mortally wound- 
 ed. Gen. Johnson was also wounded early in 
 the action, and the command having devolved 
 on Gen Lyman, to him and the Connecticut 
 troops belongs the honor of winning victory 
 from apparent disaster. Lieutenant Noah 
 Grant was probably in this battle. Instead of 
 following up his success, Gen. Johnson now 
 allowed the French to entrench themselves at 
 Ticonderoga and employed himself in erecting, 
 at the southern extremity of Lake George, 
 Fort William Henry. 
 
 Mr. Trumbull continues here his narra- 
 tive : 
 
 " In October it was decided to discharge 
 the volunteers, excepting six hundred to be 
 engaged in garrisoning Fort Edward and Fort 
 William Henry, and rebuilding the former 
 fort. In this service Noah Grant re-enlisted, 
 Nov. 23, and was appointed to oversee the 
 masons employed at Fort Edward. His 
 weekly returns, addressed to f Colonel Whit- 
 ing, Commandant,' show the number of men 
 employed, Dec. 3d to Dec. 2ist. His own 
 time, in the same service, is entered from Dec. 
 i to Jan. 26. His pay-roll for service in 
 command of the Connecticut company in gar-
 
 Captain Noah Grant, he First. 39 
 
 rison at Fort Edward* shows that he served 
 from Nov. 23d, 1755, c Time of Enlistment* 
 to March 26, 1756 f Discharged ' on 
 which day he again re-enlisted for the next 
 campaign, having been promoted to the cap- 
 taincy of the 7th company in the 2d (Woos- 
 ter's) Connecticut regiment. His Pay Roll 
 and General Account were presented by him 
 June 21, 1756, at Windsor. He gave an or- 
 der for the payment of the amount due him to 
 Captain Ebenezer Grant,' of Windsor."f 
 
 The subject of our narrative had distin- 
 guished himself so greatly in the campaign 
 just ended that his services received special no- 
 tice from the Colonial authorities, and, in 
 May, 1756, the Connecticut Assembly granted 
 to "Captain Israel Putnam the number of 
 fifty Spanish milled dollars, and thirty such 
 dollars to Captain Noah Grant, as a gratuity 
 for their extraordinary services and good con- 
 duct in ranging and scouting, the winter past, 
 for the annoyance of the enemy near Crown 
 Point."! 
 
 *Mr. Trumbull states in another letter that Grant "Render- 
 ed a bill to the Colony, dated 'Fort Edward, Deer. 16, 1755,' 
 for '15 days 1 work hewing timber for the Barrack, framing, 
 &C.,' and ' Jan. 26, To 26 Days' work, masonry, &c.,' attested 
 by him as * Overseer of the Masons.'" Conn. Archives, " War?' 
 Vol. V. Doc. 285. 
 
 f See his autograph on page 40. 
 
 t Hollisttr, Hist. Conn. Vol. II. p. 58.
 
 4O Captain Noah Grant, The First. 
 
 This signature was traced by Mr. Trumbull from the 
 original order in the archives at Hartford.
 
 Captain Noah Grant, The First. 41 
 
 Captain Noah Grant remained in garrison 
 with his company several months at Forts 
 William Henry and Edward with other hardy 
 American rangers, one of whom was Lieuten- 
 ant John Stark, afterwards a successful gene- 
 ral of the Revolution. Early in the spring of 
 1756, preparations were begun by the Colo- 
 nists for a vigorous campaign. A force of 
 seven thousand men, thoroughly equipped, 
 was gathered at Lake George under the com- 
 mand of Major General Winslow,* but after the 
 capture of Oswego by the French in August, 
 General Winslowwas ordered not to proceed on 
 his intended expedition against Ticonderoga and 
 Crown Point, but to fortify his camp so as to 
 guard against any attack which might be made 
 on it, and to endeavor to prevent the enemy . 
 from penetrating into the country by the way 
 of South Bay or Wood Creek of Lake Cham- 
 plain. Meanwhile Forts Edward and William 
 Henry were put in a proper posture of defence 
 and secured with numerous garrisons/}* Many 
 small scouting parties were sent out now from 
 the forts against the enemy, and the subject of 
 our narrative, Captain Noah Grant, was fre- 
 quently a companion of these courageous 
 
 * Grandson of the second governor of Plymouth, Mass., of 
 that name. 
 
 f Marshall's Life of Washington, Vol. I. p. 327. Macauley's 
 Hist. N. Y. Vol. III. p. 23-
 
 42 Captain Noah Grant, The First. 
 
 rangers in their perilous expeditions. " On 
 the soth of September, 1756, at Fort William 
 Henry, Lieutenant Kennedy* of the regulars, 
 who had been out on a scout about forty days 
 with some of the Mohawks and Highlanders 
 went into several of the enemy's settlements ; and 
 after making what discovery they could of the 
 situation and strength of the country, burned 
 some houses, and a great quantity of board and 
 some storehouses one especially that contained 
 a very large quantity of cordage, canvas, and 
 other naval and warlike stores and other dam- 
 ages to the amount as he supposed of 8 or ,10,- 
 ooo sterling. He brought one scalp and two 
 prisoners, who were the tavern keeper and his 
 wife ; whose house, with others, they also 
 burned. They went out with sixty at first, but 
 reduced them to eight when he was out, to pre- 
 vent discovery. They all returned but three ; 
 viz., Captain Grant, of Connecticut, and a cadet 
 of the regulars, and one of the Highlanders a 
 poor drunken fellow, not able to travel, they 
 left behind to surrender himself to the ene- 
 my."f 
 
 * A lieutenant of the British regulars " ranked " a Captain 
 (Grant) of the colonial troops. 
 
 f Nile? French and Indian Wars in Mass. Hist. Coll. Vol, V 
 fourth Ser. p. 427. After having examined several biographies oi 
 General Grant, the writer is convinced that he is the first to give, 
 at the present day, a correct account of the manner and the place 
 of the death of this most distinguished member of the Grant fam-
 
 Captain Noah Grant, The First. 43 
 
 The Hon. Mr. Trumbull informs us that 
 Captain Grant's " Pay Roll for 1756 was set- 
 tled by his Lieutenant, Medina Fitch Jan. 28, 
 1757, but the Captain's name does not appear 
 on it, except in the heading." 
 
 Thus was ended, honorably, in the French 
 and Indian War, and in the service of his 
 country, the career of this brave captain, Noah 
 Grant, the great-grandfather of General Grant. 
 The records which are preserved of his services 
 are convincing proof that he displayed a cour- 
 age, heroism, and intelligence which were not 
 surpassed by Israel Putnam, John Stark, or 
 any of the best captains of his day, and, had 
 his life been spared, we should doubtless have 
 found his name among those of the foremost 
 generals of the Revolution. 
 
 His brother Solomon also perished about 
 this time while in command of a scouting par- 
 ty near Williamstown, Massachusetts.* This 
 brother was a bachelor, and left a will which is 
 still preserved in the probate records at Wind- 
 
 ily. One of the best biographers of General Grant has made the 
 mistake of locating Captain Noah's death at Oswego, which is 
 about one hundred and fifty miles distant from the true place. 
 Another biographer informs us that his death took place at the 
 battle with Dieskau, which was one year too early. 
 
 The author is indebted to the Astor Library for the above 
 most valuable contribution to the family history of General 
 Grant a statement of facts which Jesse R. Grant, Esq., declares 
 is new to him. 
 
 * See Hon. Mr. Trumbull's Notes on Lieut. Solomon page 
 156 of this work.
 
 44 Captain Noah Granf, The Second. 
 
 ham, the adjoining town to Coventry, be- 
 queathing his property valued at 900 sterling 
 to Noah. The Hon. Richard A. Wheeler was 
 the first to call public attention to the exist- 
 ence of this will. He says : " I can prove in 
 a court of justice the connection of the Gene- 
 ral with Noah Grant of Dr. Stiles' History of 
 Windsor. The proof exists in the Hartford 
 and Windham probate records, and in the town 
 records of Tolland and Coventry." 
 
 CAPTAIN NOAH GRANT, the third of this 
 name, the son of Noah Grant and Susannah 
 Delano, was born in Tolland June 20, 1748, 
 about two years before the removal of the fam- 
 ily to Coventry. When his valiant father, the 
 famous captain of scouts at Lake George, lost 
 his life in the expedition of which some account 
 has already been given, Noah Grant, the third, 
 was a lad eight years old and the elder of two 
 sons. It was a hard fate to be left fatherless 
 at a tender age, but we shall find that his whole 
 life was a stormy one, for his lot was cast in 
 those troublous times which " tried mens' 
 souls," with a generation of heroic champions 
 of liberty who defied and beat down the power 
 of the British King in these his colonies, and 
 established on its ruins a free and independent 
 nation. As Matthew Grant was a founder in 
 the wilderness of one of these colonies, so, in
 
 Captain Noah Grant^ 'The Second. 45 
 
 a later age, was Captain Noah Grant of the 
 Revolution, one of the founders in blood and 
 suffering of this mighty republic. 
 
 We are unable to appreciate the sentiments 
 which filled the hearts of our forefathers when 
 the storm-cloud of war burst upon the coun- 
 try, and throughout the provinces of Massa- 
 chusetts and Connecticut, especially, was the 
 excitement most intense. The bloody massa- 
 cre at Lexington by British troops sent out by 
 General Gage, the royal governor of Massa- 
 chusetts, from Boston, summoned the whole 
 people to arms. To illustrate the spirit which 
 prevailed everywhere we are told that " Mat- 
 thew Buell, a farmer of Connecticut, was 
 plowing in the field when news came that blood 
 had been shed; he instantly unyoked his cat- 
 
 The evidence as to General Grant's descent from Matthew 
 Grant may be summed up as follows : 
 
 1. The line (i) Matthew Grant, (2) Samuel Grant, (3) Sam'l 
 Grant is established from Matthew Grant's Note Book, his 
 Church Book, and the Windsor town records. 
 
 2. That Noah Grant I. removed from Windsor to Tolland 
 has been proved from the archives at Hartford. Waldo's Early 
 History of Tolland (p. 122) has the following entry in the record 
 of the children of this Noah Grant: "Noah, born July 12, 
 1718, Solomon, born Jan. 29, 1723," also, in reference to Noah 
 Grant II. " One Noah Grant married Susannah, daughter of Jon- 
 athan Delano Nov. 5, 1746, and had one son, Noah, born June 20, 
 1 748." This last, Noah Grant III., was the grandfather of Gene- 
 ral Grant. The entailment to him of the estate of Lieutenant 
 Solomon Grant, which is mentioned by the Rev. Marvin Root 
 corroborates the above statements. Thus we see, that the fact 
 of General Grant's descent from Matthew Grant could be proved 
 in a court of justice.
 
 46 Captain Noah Grant, 'The Second. 
 
 tie, and leaving his plough standing in the fur- 
 row, repaired to the house to take leave of his 
 wife and family. Putnam, who was also at 
 work in the field, did the same, starting for 
 Cambridge without waiting to change his ap- 
 parel. Stark was sawing pine logs without 
 his coat ; he shut down the gate of his mill, 
 and commenced the journey to Boston in his 
 shirt sleeves."* It is not merely a pleasing 
 fiction of the poet, but a fact in history that 
 
 " They left the ploughshare in the mold, 
 Their flocks and herds without a fold, 
 The sickle in the unshorn grain, 
 The corn, half-garnered, on the plain, 
 And mustered in their simple dress, 
 For wrongs to seek a stern redress ; 
 To right those wrongs, come weal, come wo, 
 To perish, or overcome their foe." 
 
 Noah Grant took the field with the first 
 party who marched to avenge the outrage at 
 Lexington.^ He was then twenty-seven years 
 of age, an age suitable for military service. 
 At the first drum-beat for independence, having 
 received an appointment as a lieutenant of 
 militia, he hastened forward to the scene of 
 danger. He remained on duty with the army 
 
 *Mrs. Ellefs Domestic Hist, of the Am. Rev. p. 32. 
 
 fMore than one hundred men set out from Coventry, and 
 there were but few towns in the State which were not represented 
 at Lexington and Boston, immediately after the alarm reached 
 Connecticut. Hinman"s Amer. Re<v. p. 22.
 
 Captain Noah Grant, The Second. 47 
 
 gathered at Cambridge, under Generals Arte- 
 mas Ward and Israel Putnam, and shared in 
 the glory, the excitements, and the perils 
 which attended the victorious engagement and 
 subsequent defeat at Bunker Hill. It is 
 probable that he was not called into action at 
 the Battle of Bunker Hill, but formed part 
 of the reserve which was stationed by order of 
 General Ward at Cambridge. 
 
 General Washington was appointed by 
 Congress, the commander-in-chief of the Con- 
 tinental army, and arrived in camp at Cam- 
 bridge July 2, 1775. Here he found gathered 
 together an army of fourteen thousand five 
 hundred 'men who were mostly raw and undis- 
 ciplined troops. His first duty was to organize 
 this army and prepare it for effective service 
 against the veteran regiments of British regu- 
 lars. The subject of our narrative, Lieutenant 
 Noah Grant, was not lost sight of in this in- 
 spection and reorganization of the army by the 
 commander-in-chief, and his commission as a 
 lieutenant was renewed, by Washington's orders, 
 in the Continental army. 
 
 After the evacuation of Boston by the 
 British, General Washington hastened forward 
 to New York, anticipating the design of the 
 enemy to capture that city. The arrival of 
 General Howe, the disastrous battle on Long
 
 48 Captain Noah Grant, tfhe Second. 
 
 Island, and the retreat to Harlem River, fol- 
 lowed in quick succession. In all the various 
 engagements and movements of the Conti- 
 nental army, in this campaign, the sons of 
 Connecticut bore a most conspicuous part. 
 General Putnam, the brave Colonel Knowlton 
 who was killed at Harlem Heights, and a host 
 of others represented the State of Connecticut. 
 The chivalrous Captain Nathan Hale, who was 
 hung as a spy, and whose last words were, "If 
 I had ten thousand lives, I would lay them 
 down in defence of my injured, bleeding coun- 
 try," was a native of Coventry, Connecticut, 
 and was, without doubt, a friend and compan- 
 ion, in his earlier years, of Lieutenant Grant. 
 The old Beekman mansion is still standing, in 
 the city of New York, in the greenhouse near 
 which, Captain Hale received his trial and con- 
 demnation. 
 
 A succession of disasters to the American 
 arms, at this time, threw into the hands of the 
 British many thousand prisoners, and it be- 
 came a difficult task to provide adequately for 
 their comfortable subsistence. We shall not 
 attempt a recital of the horrors of the prison 
 houses, among which were the Sugar House, 
 the New Bridewell, the New Jail, and the 
 prison ships at the Wallabout. We have made 
 allusion to the terrible sufferings of our coun-
 
 Captain Noah Grant , T^he Second. 49 
 
 trymen in these dismal dungeons merely for the 
 purpose of mentioning the name of one who 
 was evidently a kinsman of Lieutenant Noah 
 Grant, although the author is unable to trace 
 the relationship. There is found in a list of 
 American prisoners who were exchanged at 
 New York, Dec. 17, 1780, by Abraham Skin- 
 ner, the commissary general of prisoners, the 
 name of Jesse Grant, who was a lieutenant in 
 Colonel Webb's regiment of Connecticut 
 troops. * 
 
 The similarity of the names of this Lieu- 
 tenant Jesse Grant and of the father of Gen- 
 eral Grant is certainly remarkable. 
 
 In the absence of exact evidence as to the 
 campaigns and actions in which Lieutenant 
 Noah Grant served during the whole period of 
 the revolution, we are left somewhat to conjec- 
 ture. It is probable that there were intervals 
 of furlough after certain periods of enlistment, 
 and some portion of this service was evidently 
 rendered with the militia of his native State, in 
 extraordinary campaigns and expeditions, and 
 not in the continental line. Among the many 
 calls for troops to serve in the State, were those 
 for New London, Groton, New Haven, Fair- 
 
 * Sa/eirs Records of the Rev. War, p. 322. His name is 
 found also in Hlnman's Am. Rev. p. 235. Among the officers en- 
 titled to half pay (Saffell, p. 420) is the name of Lieutenant Benoni 
 Qrant, from Connecticut.
 
 50 Captain Noah Grant, 'The Second. 
 
 field and Danbury, and out of the State, be- 
 sides the call for Boston in 1775, and for 
 Washington's army in 1776, a special enlist- 
 ment was made against Burgoyne in 1777, and 
 for other campaigns, and it is quite probable 
 that Lieutenant Grant joined a company or reg- 
 iment on this kind of service.* In 1777, al- 
 most every able-bodied man turned out against 
 Burgoyne, until after his surrender, and the 
 harvest was gathered by old men, boys and 
 women, f The language of Daniel Webster 
 referring to Massachusetts, " The bones of her 
 sons, fallen in the great struggle for independ- 
 ence now lie mingled with the soil of every 
 state from New England to Georgia," is no 
 less applicable to her sister state Connecticut. 
 Shoulder to shoulder they entered into the con- 
 test for freedom, and in no other state, was the 
 display of patriotism at all comparable with that 
 in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and, indeed 
 throughout the whole of New England. 
 
 " New England's dead ! New England's dead ! 
 On every hill they lie 5 
 
 * The principal facts which are given in this sketch in reference 
 to the military services of Captain Noah Grant have been furnished 
 by his son. The Hon. C. C. Cox, late Commissioner of 
 Pensions, Washington, Hon. J. H. Trumbull, C. J. Hoadly, Esq., 
 Hartford, J. B. Porter, M. D. Coventry, Hon. Richard A. 
 Wheeler, Stonington, Hon. J. W. Swift, Windham, Joseph 
 Bishop, Esq. Tolland, L. Hebard, Esq. Lebanon, W- Fuller, Esq. 
 Brooklyn, Connecticut, and the widow of the late Mr. Weaver, 
 of Windham, have also rendered valuable assistance to the author 
 in the preparation of this sketch. 
 
 f Notes from D:-. Porter.
 
 Captain Noah Grant, 'The Second. 51 
 
 On every field of strife made red 
 
 By bloody victory. 
 Each valley, where the battle poured 
 
 Its red and awful tide, 
 Beheld the brave New England sword 
 
 With slaughter deeply dyed. 
 Their bones are on the northern hill, 
 
 And on the southern plain, 
 By brook and river, lake and rill, 
 And by the roaring main." 
 
 The proportion of soldiers furnished for 
 the war of the revolution by each of the thirteen 
 colonies is as follows: Massachusetts, ( in- 
 cluding Maine,) one in seven of her population ; 
 Connecticut, one in seven ; New Hampshire, 
 one in eleven ; Rhode Island, one in eleven ; 
 New Jersey, one in sixteen ; Pennsylvania, one 
 in sixteen ; New York, one in nineteen ; Mary- 
 land, one in twenty-two ; Delaware, one in 
 twenty-four ; Virginia, one in twenty-eight ; 
 Georgia, one in thirty-two ; South Carolina, 
 one in thirty-eight ; North Carolina, one in 
 fifty-four. Connecticut had less population at 
 the period of the revolution than either Vir- 
 ginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
 North Carolina, or South Carolina, neverthe- 
 less, she furnished more troops for the war 
 than any one of these great states. * 
 
 * In a discussion in the Senate of the United States in 1850, 
 between the Hon. Mr. Mason of Virginia and the Hon. Roger S. 
 Baldwin of Connecticut, Mr. Baldwin replied to some disparag- 
 ing remarks made by Mr. Mason : " I can inform that Senator,
 
 52 Captain Noah Grant, ^he Second. 
 
 Jesse R. Grant, Esq. informs us that his 
 father served during most of the revolution, 
 ending finally, as a captain. It was towards 
 the close of the war that Captain Grant married 
 Mrs. Annie Richardson, who was of the Buell 
 family, of Coventry, and, on his return, at the 
 end of his campaignings, he found himself a wid- 
 ower, his wife having died, leaving two sons, 
 Solomon and Peter. The desire to emigrate 
 westward was now prevalent throughout Con- 
 necticut, and among the first to brave the dan- 
 gers of a frontier life were found the hardy 
 soldiers who had fought in the armies of the 
 revolution. Like many others, Capt Noah 
 
 Sir, that Connecticut, small as she is in territory, small as she was 
 in population when compared with the State of Virginia, had 
 more troops in the field during the revolutionary war than the 
 great State of Virginia." 
 
 This statement and the above proportions are verified by the 
 following table, derived from the report of General Knox to Con- 
 gress in 1790, showing the number of soldiers furnished by each 
 State in the war of the revolution : 
 
 Soldiers. Population, in 1790. 
 
 New Hampshire i2>497 141,891 
 
 Massachusetts, including Maine .... 67,097 475,157 
 
 Rhode Island 59o8 69,110 
 
 Connecticut 3 J >959 238,141 
 
 New York i7>78i 340,120 
 
 New Jersey 10,726 181,139 
 
 Pennsylvania 25,678 434>373 
 
 Delaware 2,386 59>98 
 
 Maryland 13,912 319,728 
 
 Virginia 26,678 748,308 
 
 North Carolina 7,263 393>7S I 
 
 South Carolina 6,417 249,073 
 
 Georgia 2,509 82,548 
 
 Total 1.31,971 2,820,959 
 
 Hollistefs History of Conn. Vol. II. p. 572.
 
 Captain Noah Grant, The Second. 53 
 
 Grant was influenced by this desire for change, 
 and he set out from Connecticut, with his 
 youngest son Peter, about the year 1790, and 
 his first tarrying place was in Westmoreland 
 County, Pennsylvania, near the small village of 
 Greensburg, on the Monongahela river. The 
 country was, here, almost a wilderness ; bears, 
 panthers, and wolves abounded. The dwell- 
 ings of the settlers were chiefly log-houses of 
 the most rude construction. The Indians still 
 hovered around the abodes of the white man, 
 and they were, at times, by no means agreeable 
 neighbors. Pittsburgh, then a small hamlet of 
 about five hundred inhabitants, was situated 
 twenty miles below Greensburg. Travelling 
 was, mostly, accomplished on horseback, along 
 devious and difficult paths through the forest, 
 although there was a roughly laid out road, 
 and a mail carriage to Philadelphia. Venison 
 and fish were plentiful, and flax woven into 
 cloth by the women furnished the simple dress 
 of the adventurous emigrants. 
 
 Captain Noah Grant married at Greensburg 
 March 4, 1792, his second wife, Miss Rachel 
 Kelly, a lady, who was destined to be the 
 grandmother of General Grant. After residing 
 nine years at Greensburg, Captain Grant set 
 out again in the spring of 1799, ^ or t ^ le Eldo- 
 rado of the west, the Connecticut Reserve
 
 54 Captain Noah Grant, "The Second. 
 
 The fame of this new country, which was to be 
 settled by his old friends and companions from 
 the east, had reached his ears, and embarking 
 on board one of the rude vessels which navigat- 
 ed the Monongahela, with his wife and five 
 children, a horse, two cows, and a small supply 
 of household goods, he passed down into the 
 beautiful Ohio river, and landed in Colum- 
 biana county, at an insignificant hamlet of a half- 
 dozen cabins, on the bank of the river, a place 
 which has since been dignified with the name 
 of Liverpool. 
 
 The State of Connecticut had acquired in 
 1662, the title to an extensive tract of land in 
 the west, under a general charter from Charles 
 II. In 1786, she ceded to the United 
 States all her right and title in these lands, with 
 the reservation of about three and a half mil- 
 lions of acres, constituting, afterwards, more 
 than ten counties, which were styled the Con- 
 necticut Reserve. * The fire lands f were 
 portions of the Reserve which were assigned 
 to citizens of Connecticut who had suffered 
 from the burning of their property by the Brit- 
 ish in the revolution. The sale of her lands 
 in Ohio laid the foundation of the munificent 
 
 * Ashtabula, Trumbull, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Cuyahopa, 
 Medina, Lorain, Huron, Erie, and the northern portion of Ma- 
 honing and Summit counties. 
 
 f Erie, Huron, and a small part of Ottawa counties.
 
 Captain Noah Grant, 'The Second. 55 
 
 school fund of Connecticut. Oliver Phelps, 
 Esq.* a native of Windsor, and a large com- 
 pany of gentlemen, purchased, in the year 1795, 
 for the sum of one million two hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, the lands remaining unsold in the 
 Reserve. 
 
 The following description is as applicable 
 to this country, at the period of which we write, 
 as it was before the revolution : " The west- 
 ern and north western territory of the United 
 States was an almost pathless wilderness at the 
 commencement of the revolution. A few hardy 
 adventurers had explored its forests ; they 
 were followed by a few woodsmen, who shoul- 
 dered their rifles and plunged into the wilder- 
 ness, and then came a wagon or two, slowly 
 breaking its rough way, bearing families whom 
 the hardships of frontier life had emboldened 
 to seek a new home. These enterprising pio- 
 neers, whose adventures shed a coloring of ro- 
 
 * This distinguished gentleman was also engaged in efforts 
 on a gigantic scale for the settlement of Western New York. 
 The Phelps and Gorham purchase embraced over six millions of 
 acres comprising now, seven counties in the Genesee country. 
 "Oliver Phelps maybe considered the Cecrops of the Genesee 
 country." Hist. Coll. New York, p. 407. 
 
 There were seven directors of the company : Oliver Phelps, 
 Suffield ; Henry Champion, ad, Colchester ; Moses Cleveland, 
 Canterbury ; Samuel W. Johnson ; Ephraim Kirby ; Samuel 
 Mather, Junr., Lynn ; Roger Newbcrry, West Windsor. The 
 annual meeting of the company was held at Hartford, Connec- 
 ticut. They called their lands in Ohio " New Connecticut." 
 Whittle sey 1 s Early History of Cleveland, p. 168.
 
 56 Captain Noah Grant, The Second. 
 
 mance over the early history of the whole re- 
 gion, braved perils we nowadays shudder even 
 to hear of; for they were forced to dispute the 
 grounds they occupied with fierce tribes of 
 Indians. The Shawanees, Delawares, and 
 Wyandots of the North, and the Cherokees, 
 Creeks, and Catawbas of the South, who often 
 waged bloody wars against each other, were 
 alike disposed to meet with ferocious hostility 
 the white men who dared invade the country 
 they claimed."* 
 
 It was to this country that adventurous 
 New England men were now hastening. In 
 1797, only two years before the arrival of 
 Captain Grant in Columbiana county, a few 
 families, who were the first pioneers, had 
 crossed the Ohio, and settled within its limits. 
 One of these was named Carpenter, and short- 
 ly before Captain Grant had come among them, 
 a noted Indian chief, White Eyes, had stopped 
 at the dwelling of Carpenter, and being intox- 
 icated, had threatened to kill his son. To 
 prevent this Carpenter was compelled to take 
 his life. This event created great excitement, 
 and fears were entertained that the Indians 
 would visit summary vengeance upon them. 
 The storm passed over, however, and peace 
 and quiet were soon restored. 
 
 * Mrs.Ellefs Doni. Hist. Amer. Rev. p. r.gi.
 
 Captain Ncah Grant, The Second. 57 
 
 But Captain Grant had not yet reached the 
 Reserve. The tide of emigration set in more 
 strongly toward this country after the right 
 of jurisdiction over it was ceded, in i8co, to 
 the general government. It was about this 
 time that Captain Grant removed to the Re- 
 serve, taking up his residence in Portage 
 county near a rude settlement called Deerfield, 
 which is now a pleasant village. The man- 
 agement of these fine lands in Ohio, and the 
 introduction of them to public notice, in order 
 to invite settlers, was almost entirely under 
 the control of men from Connecticut and 
 Massachusetts. General Rufus Putnam, of 
 Massachusetts, was the first surveyor-general. 
 General Moses Cleveland, of Canterbury, Con- 
 necticut, from whom the city of Cleveland was 
 named, was also the land company's agent.* It 
 
 * General Samuel H. Parsons, of Middlctown, Connecticut, 
 purchased a tract of twenty-four thousand acres in Trumbull 
 county in 1788. 
 
 Whittleseys Early Hist, of Cleveland, p. 159. 
 
 General Parsons was chief-justice of the North Western 
 Territory from 178510 1787. He was descended from Benja- 
 min Parsons the pioneer at Springfield, Massachusetts. Benja- 
 min Parsons, Thomas Parsons, of Windsor, Connecticut, who 
 had a lot in the palisado, John Parsons, of York, Maine, Joseph 
 Parsons, of Northampton, Massachusetts, and Samuel Parsons, 
 of East Hampton, Long Island, were, probably, brothers, and 
 came into this country, about 1630, with their father, who is 
 supposed to have died soon after his arrival, leaving a widow, who 
 died in Windsor, and several young children. John E. Parsons, 
 Esq., a lawyer of New York city, is a descendant from John 
 Parsons, of York, Maine. 
 
 Notes from Samuel H. Parsons, Esq., a grandson of General 
 Parsons. 
 
 3*
 
 58 Captain Noah Grant, T'he Second. 
 
 is not surprising, therefore, that the Reserve 
 was settled, in great measure, by the sons of 
 Connecticut and Massachusetts. Indeed, it was 
 almost as though these two States had been 
 transplanted entire to the banks of the Ohio. 
 The same pronunciations, the same social 
 customs, ideas, political faith, and other dis- 
 tinctive features that characterize a people, may 
 be found in these eleven counties, which are 
 peculiar to Connecticut and Massachusetts. 
 We can well understand, therefore, that Cap- 
 tain Grant felt quite at home, again, among the 
 people with whom his boyhood and many of 
 the years of his manhood had been passed in 
 New England. 
 
 The first settler in Portage county was the 
 Hon. Benjamin Tappan, who drove a yoke of 
 oxen, with a load of farming utensils and 
 household goods, from Connecticut, in 1799, 
 and halted at a place in the wilderness, which 
 he called Ravenna. At about the same time, 
 Lewis Day came into Portage county, from 
 Granby, Connecticut, and named the place 
 where he stopped Deerfield,* in honor of the 
 town in which his mother resided in Massa- 
 chusetts. Moses Tibbals and Green Frost 
 from Granville, Massachusetts, accompanied 
 Mr. Day and, in one year afterwards, Captain 
 Grant joined the adventurous party. 
 
 * Hist. Coll. Ohio.
 
 Captain Noah Grant, The Second. 59 
 
 The Indians were quite numerous, and as 
 late as the war of 1812, assumed a very menac- 
 ing attitude. In 1806, there was an encamp- 
 ment of seven Mohawks in Deerfield, with 
 whom a serious difficulty occurred, ending in 
 the wounding of one Daniel Diver. A barbar- 
 ous murder of Michael Gibbs, and another 
 settler named Buell, was committed in the 
 fire lands in 1812, by the Indians. 
 
 " The early settlers, generally, erected the 
 ordinary log cabin, but others, of a wandering 
 character, built bark huts. For two or three 
 years previous to the late war [of 1812], the 
 inhabitants were so isolated from other set- 
 tlements, that no supplies could be had, and 
 there was much suffering for want of food and 
 clothing ; at times, whole families subsisted 
 for weeks together, on nothing but pounded 
 corn, with a very scanty supply of meat." 
 
 " For several years after the war, raccoon 
 caps, with the fur outside, and deerskin jack- 
 ets and pantaloons were almost universally 
 worn."* 
 
 Wild beasts were frequently encountered 
 in the forests. Bears, panthers, and wolves 
 prowled around by day and night, and the 
 latter were most annoying and destructive. The 
 settlers were obliged to build their pens for 
 
 * Hist. Coll. Ohio. p. 151.
 
 60 Captain Noah Granf, 'The Second. 
 
 domestic animals so high that the wolves 
 could not jump or climb them. In Knox 
 county, which lies about sixty miles south-west 
 of the Reserve and but a short distance above 
 Columbus, forty wolves were caught in the 
 winter of 1805 in steel traps and pens. The 
 Hon. Samuel Huntington* who was the gov- 
 ernor of Ohio in 1808, resided, first, at Cleve- 
 land, and, afterwards, at Painesville, both of 
 which towns are in the Reserve. He had been 
 absent to the eastward of Cleveland on a jour- 
 ney, and when returning,- toward evening, was 
 attacked, furiously, by a pack of wolves. Their 
 ferocity was so great that he broke his um- 
 brella in pieces in keeping them off, and hav- 
 ing, fortunately, a very fleet horse, to this cir- 
 cumstance he owed the preservation of his life. 
 
 To compensate, however, for this annoy- 
 ance from wild beasts, game and fish were 
 plentiful, and fish formed no small part of their 
 food, especially in the spring and autumn. The 
 rivers were filled with delicious pike, white 
 perch, salmon, spotted perch, black cat, yellow 
 cat and sturgeon, and in the forests a few buf- 
 falo and an abundance of wild turkeys and deer 
 were found. 
 
 General St. Clair was the first governor of 
 
 * He was a nephew and the heir of Governor Samuel Hun- 
 tington, of Norwich, Connecticut.
 
 Captain Noah Granf, 'The Second. 61 
 
 the North Western Territory, from its organ- 
 ization in 1785 to the year 1803. 
 
 Captain Grant had resided but about fivt 
 
 years at Deerfield when the chief stay of his 
 household, the wife he had found in Pennsyl- 
 vania, sickened and died. This was a severe 
 blow to him. They had been married thirteen 
 years, and she had borne him seven children, 
 who, with the one brought from his home in 
 Connecticut, made a family of eight. The 
 old soldier had not been thrifty. He loved 
 too well " to fight his battles o'er again," to 
 talk of the thrilling scenes he had witnessed, 
 for he had received an excellent education in 
 the land of his youth, but he had managed to 
 secure only a very small store of the good 
 things of this world. He had inherited from 
 his uncle, Lieutenant Solomon Grant, a life 
 interest in the Coventry estate,* but this had 
 passed out of his hands before he was thirty 
 years of age, and he had, now, only very slen- 
 der resources to relieve the necessities of in- 
 creasing age. His family was, therefore, bro- 
 ken up and scattered, on the death of his wife. 
 Jesse, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, 
 soon learned to provide for himself. 
 
 * The Grant place in Coventry was entailed to the family of
 
 62 Captain Noah Granf, The Second. 
 
 The declining years of Captain Grant's 
 life were passed, quietly, in the family of his 
 son Peter, who had removed to Maysville, in 
 the State of Kentucky. Here, at the goodly 
 age of nearly seventy -two years, Captain Noah 
 Grant, of the war of the revolution, departed 
 this life on the fourteenth day of February, 
 1820.. As Matthew Grant was a founder of 
 the towns of Dorchester and Windsor, and of 
 the colony of Connecticut, as his grandfather, 
 the first Noah Grant, was a founder of Tolland, 
 so he, also, was a founder of the great State 
 of Ohio, which has at the present day two 
 and a half millions of inhabitants, and ranks 
 the third in population of all the federal states. 
 
 From such a brave and hardy line of an- 
 cestors is sprung, in a later generation, the 
 General of the Armies of the Union. It is a 
 race which has known no rest. Their energies 
 have not been dwarfed and enfeebled in the 
 lap of luxury. If there is anything in blood, 
 we have it, here, exemplified. For eight gen- 
 erations, this family has gone out to possess the 
 land, to subdue and control it, and, at last, when 
 torn asunder with civil discord, they have risen 
 in their strength and given it newness of life. 
 
 Noah Grant II., was sold by Noah Grant III., and, after the 
 abolition of entailments at the end of the revolution, Jesse R. 
 Grant visited Connecticut, about the year 1833, and sold out the 
 interest of the family for three thousand dollars, which was, at 
 least, one-third of its true value. (In part, Notes of Dr. Porter.]
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JESSE ROOT GRANT - GENERAL ULYSSES SIMP- 
 SON GRANT. 
 
 JESSE ROOT GRANT was born near Greens- 
 
 burg, which is situated in Westmoreland 
 County, Pennsylvania, twenty miles above 
 Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River, on the 
 the 23d of January, 1794. He was the first 
 son by his father's second wife Rachel Kelly, 
 and Captain Noah named him, in memory of 
 the land of his nativity, from the Hon. Jesse 
 Root* who was the most eminent counsellor of 
 
 * Jesse Root, LL.D., was born in Coventry, Connecticut, 
 Dec. 28, 1736. He received a collegiate education at Nassau 
 Hall, New Jersey. Governor Trumbull gave him a captain's 
 commission, in the first year of the revolutionary war, Dec. 30, 
 1776, and he joined Washington's army, with a company which 
 was raised, principally, at Hartford. He was promoted to the 
 staff with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In May, 1779, he was 
 chosen a delegate to the old congress of the confederation, and 
 in that station he continued until the close of the war. He was 
 licensed as an attorney at Windham, in February, 1763, and he 
 had few equals, as a lawyer, and no superiors in the State. He 
 was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut in 
 1789, and in 1798 Chief Justice, which office he held until 1807, 
 when he resigned. He was a delegate from Hartford to the 
 Connecticut convention to ratify the United States constitution, 
 in 1788, and in 1818 a member from Coventry of the con- 
 vention to form the constitution of Connecticut. Judge Root 
 died in Coventry, March 29, 1822, aged 85 years. From MS. 
 notes by Re-v. Marvin Root, his grand-nephe--w* Contributed by 
 Dr. Porter, of Coventry.
 
 64 Jesse Root Grant. 
 
 that day, and was, for many years, chief jus- 
 tice of the Superior Court of Connecticut. 
 When young Jesse was but eleven years of age 
 his mother died, and her decease was the cause 
 of the immediate breaking up of the family 
 circle. The old soldier of the revolution had not 
 provided his son with riches, but he had given 
 him something better character, and we shall 
 find that sterling integrity, industry, frugality, 
 and a manly independence were always his hab- 
 its of life and motives of action. A part 
 of his youth was passed in the family of 
 Judge Tod, of Youngstown, Ohio, and in 
 1812, he went to reside, with the intention of 
 learning the business, with his half-brother 
 Peter Grant, who had a tannery afc Maysville, 
 Kentucky. Three years later, at twenty-one 
 years of age, he was prepared to set up for 
 himself in charge of a tan -yard at Deerfield, 
 Portage county, and at twenty-four years of age, 
 he took a tannery at Ravenna, the county-seat 
 of the same county. 
 
 Faithful industry had, thus far, brought its 
 own reward, but now there came a season of 
 ill-health and disaster. He had contracted the 
 fever and ague, a disease which was prevalent 
 at Ravenna, but after a short period of sick- 
 ness and reverses, he settled again in a pros- 
 perous business in a more distant locality in
 
 Jesse Root Grant. 65 
 
 the same State, at Point Pleasant, Clermont 
 county, twenty-five miles above Cincinnati, on 
 the Ohio River, and more than two hundred 
 miles south-west from his late residence. A 
 favorable opportunity had Differed itself for es- 
 tablishing, at this place, a tannery, and, after 
 getting his business into successful operation, 
 here it was that he chose as his wife a young 
 lady by name Miss Hannah Simpson. He 
 was married on the 24th of June, 1821. "Miss 
 Simpson was the second daughter and third 
 child of John Simpson, and was born and 
 brought up in Montgomery county, Penn- 
 sylvania, twenty miles from Philadelphia. Mr. 
 Simpson was a highly respectable farmer of 
 American ancestry for several generations. 
 None of the family connections were ever as- 
 pirants for fame or political notoriety, but were 
 more solicitous as to their standing in regard 
 to integrity, veracity and independence. The 
 family had removed to Ohio a few years previ- 
 ously, and settled in Clermont county."* The 
 husband has, himself, portrayed the character 
 of the lady who thus became his life-long com- 
 panion and the mother of his children, in the 
 following highly interesting language: "At 
 the time of our marriage Mrs. Grant was an 
 unpretending country girl ; handsome, but not 
 
 * Extract from a private letter from Jesse R. Grant, Esq.
 
 66 Jesse Root Grant. 
 
 vain. She had previously joined the Metho- 
 dist Church ; and I can truthfully say that it 
 has never had a more devoted and consistent 
 member. Her steadiness, firmness and strength 
 of character have been the stay of the family 
 through life. She was always careful, and 
 most watchful over her children ; but never 
 austere, and not opposed to their free partici- 
 pation in innocent amusements."* 
 
 The village of Point Pleasant is, as its name 
 signifies, pleasantly situated on the northern 
 bank of the Ohio, and, although it was, at that 
 early period, a hamlet of quite modest propor- 
 tions, yet we can easily imagine that the rich 
 profusion of delights spread out by bounteous 
 nature on every side, a variegated landscape, 
 a fertile soil, and a salubrious climate rendered 
 it a far more desirable residence than many 
 others which abound more with the adorn- 
 ments of art. This was not what the world 
 would call a proud birthplace for one who was 
 soon to sway the destinies of half a continent, 
 but, in truth, surroundings like these, the 
 beautiful river Ohio, the silent forest, the 
 grassy meadow or waving wheat-field furnished 
 a scene which the poet or the novelist would 
 have been delighted to select as the birthplace 
 of his hero. Ulysses Simpson Grant was born 
 
 * From a letter of Mr. Grant to The New York Ledger.
 
 Jesse Root Grant. 67 
 
 in this pleasant rural hamlet, and the dwelling 
 is still standing in which he first saw the light, 
 a small one-story framed cottage situated 
 near the northern bank of the Ohio. 
 
 The county-seat of Brown county, George- 
 town, soon, however, attracted the attention of 
 Mr. Jesse R. Grant as a place offering strong 
 inducements for business, and, in May, 1823, 
 a removal of his family to this village was made. 
 Here he started again with a small tannery, 
 and in the fall built a modest two-story brick 
 house, which was paid for that summer from 
 the profits of his business. " I continued on 
 in this way," he writes, " improving a little 
 every year. Two years after I built my house, 
 I added a kitchen in the rear, and a few years 
 later, when the increase of my family required 
 and my means justified it, I built a large house 
 in front. My object was not to get rich, but 
 to make my family comfortable and contented, 
 and to train up my children for usefulness. 
 Early in the year 1839, when my oldest son 
 was nearly seventeen years of age, he told me 
 he could never follow the tanning business ; that 
 he did not like it. I told him that whatever 
 he expected to follow through life he should 
 engage in now, and not waste his early life in 
 learning a business he did not intend to follow. 
 Among other preparations for life he desired
 
 68 Jesse Root Grant. 
 
 an education. Although my business had 
 been good and reasonably successful, yet I did 
 not feel able to support him at college. So I 
 suggested West Point ; that met his approba- 
 tion, and I made application, and by the veriest 
 accident in the world I obtained the appoint- 
 ment for him."* 
 
 Mr. Jesse R. Grant found it advantageous 
 
 */ o 
 
 to make another business change about the 
 year 1841, the support of a large family de- 
 manding it, and having sold out at Georgetown 
 he formed a partnership in the leather business 
 at Galena, Illinois, with Mr. E. A. Collins, of 
 Clermont county. " I made an agreement 
 with him, by which he took his stock and mine 
 and went to Galena, and started a leather store, 
 and I took his tannery and carried it on. I 
 enlarged the tannery and pushed business to 
 the greatest possible extent. The result was 
 that we were successful.""}- After several years 
 of this partnership Mr. Grant was able on the 
 first of January, 1854, to retire from business 
 with a competency, and having sold his interest 
 in the Galena store to Mr. Collins, his youngest 
 son Orville being now in business in Chicago, 
 he resides, free from the cares of life, at a quiet 
 retreat which he had previously selected at 
 
 * From a letter of Mr. Grant to the Shoe and Leather Reporter, 
 New York. 
 
 t Shoe and Leather Reporter.
 
 Jesse Root Grant. 69 
 
 Covington, Kentucky, a pleasant suburb of the 
 city of Cincinnati. 
 
 The secret of Mr. Grant's success may be 
 summed up in his own words : " Preferring 
 to do a sure business to a large one, I worked 
 on such means as I had, and never involved 
 myself in debt. Soon after I commenced bus- 
 iness at Point Pleasant, General Lytle, of 
 Cincinnati, offered me an empty tannery he 
 had in that city, and agreed to furnish all the 
 means necessary to carry it on, but I was 
 afraid to take the responsibility, and adhered 
 to my first policy of a sure thing rather than 
 a large one. The man who did take the place 
 retired ten years ago on a fortune of a million 
 of dollars. I kept on in a moderate way, 
 supporting my family well, teaching them the 
 practical lessons of life, and fitting them for 
 future usefulness. If I had taken the Gene- 
 ral's tannery, I should, no doubt, have come 
 into possession of a sudden, overgrov/n for- 
 tune, and spoiled my children. As it was, 
 when I was old enough to retire, my boys were 
 fully qualified to take my place, and I have the 
 consolation of knowing that I have educated 
 my children all well, and have made them all 
 moderately wealthy, besides knowing that they 
 are all doing well for themselves"* Having 
 
 * Shoe and Leather Reporter.
 
 jo Jesse Root Grant. 
 
 reached the goodly age of seventy-five, and 
 with the wife of his youth, who has been his 
 companion for forty-eight years, still living, 
 Mr. Grant enjoys in his retirement the just 
 rewards of a life of integrity and faithful in- 
 dustry. 
 
 We have omitted mentioning in its proper 
 connection the fact that Mr. Jesse R. Grant 
 has displayed, frequently, a happy talent in 
 framing verses, which might have given him a 
 lasting reputation if he had enjoyed better ad- 
 vantages of education in his youth. We shall 
 see, in another part of this work, that there was, 
 in very ancient time, a distinguished " Bard " 
 in the clan of Grants in the Highlands, and oc- 
 casional displays of poetic genius among the 
 various members of the Grant family are to be 
 expected. We will permit Mr. Grant to de- 
 scribe, himself, the circumstances under which 
 these specimens of his poetry were written. He 
 says : 
 
 " There was an old Englishman in the 
 neighborhood [of Georgetown] by the name of 
 Boler ; he styled himself a poet, was occupied 
 as a school teacher, and was very poor. He 
 always signed his published productions ( Back 
 Woodsman.' About forty years ago he wrote 
 me for leather for a pair of shoes. His letter 
 was in rhyme, and was published in our village 
 paper called the f Castigator* It commenced :
 
 Jesse Root Grant. 71 
 
 " JESSE R. GRANT Beloved friend, 
 I cannot go, and therefore send 
 This little letter, and less news, 
 To let you know I'm out of shoes." 
 
 " I did not keep a copy, and have forgot- 
 ten the rest of the poetry ; but the author went 
 on to say he wanted strong cow-hide, broad 
 straps, bottoms six inches wide, and not such 
 as were worn by the dandies ; that cash was 
 scarce with him, but he would pay in hides or 
 grain. I knew that he had neither. I said : 
 
 " BACKWOODSMAN Sir, my aged friend, 
 These lines in answer back I send, 
 To thank you for your rhyming letter, 
 Published in the ' CastigalorS' 
 The story of your worn out shoes 
 Is, to a tanner, no strange news ; 
 We often hear that story told 
 By those whose feet are pinched with cold, 
 Then they apply to get some leather, 
 To guard against the frosty weather ; 
 That cash is scarce they oft complain, 
 And wish to meet their bills in grain ; 
 Others, who wish to be supplied, 
 Will promise soon to bring a hide. 
 Such pay by us is greatly prized, 
 But is not always realized. 
 Now, one thing here I must relate, 
 As written in the Book of Fate ; 
 As you've grown old, so you've grown poor, 
 As poets all have done before ; 
 And yet no one of common sense 
 Will charge that fault to your expense, 
 Nor otherwise dispose the weight 
 Than charge it to a poet's fate.
 
 72 Jesse Root Grant. 
 
 Dame Fate with me, though, need not flirt, 
 For I'm not poet enough to hurt. 
 The world, 'tis said, owes all a living ; 
 What can't be bought, then, must be given, 
 And, though I have not much to spare, 
 I can at least give you a pair 
 Or leather for a pair of shoes, 
 That you may sally forth for news, 
 And when another pair you want, 
 Just send a note to ]. R. GRANT." 
 
 " The backwoodsman called and got his 
 leather, but I never saw the hides or grain." 
 
 In reference to the dissolution of partnership 
 with Mr. Collins, at Galena, he writes : 
 
 " On the final winding up our business, we 
 invoiced one hundred thousand dollars. I took 
 the Ohio tannery, and Mr. Collins had the Gale- 
 na store. A part of our advertisement of disso- 
 lution was as follows: 
 
 " In eighteen hundred forty-one, 
 Our partnership was first begun ; 
 We two then became as one, 
 
 To deal in leather; 
 Some little business we have done 
 
 While together. 
 
 For a dozen years we've toiled together, 
 In making and in vending leather, 
 Suited to every stage of weather, 
 
 Ere dry or rain ; 
 But now the time has come to sever 
 
 And we are twain. 
 
 E. A. Collins is still on hand, 
 
 And occupies his former stand, 
 
 In which he always held command,
 
 General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 73 
 
 To buy and sell ; 
 
 As matters now are being planned, 
 May he do well. 
 
 J. R. Grant, the old "off wheel," 
 As firm and true as smitten steel, 
 Does yet a strong desire feel 
 
 To do some more. 
 Expect, then, within the field, 
 
 A bran new store. 
 
 Our hearty thanks we humbly send, 
 To every customer and friend, 
 Who has stood by us to the end 
 
 With free good-will ; 
 And say, in future, we intend 
 
 To serve you still. 
 
 Now one thing more we have to say 
 To those who owe, we want our pay ; 
 Then send it on without delay 
 
 The full amount 
 For still we have some debts to pay ; 
 
 On firm account. * 
 
 Yours, &c., J. R. GRANT." 
 
 GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT was born 
 on the 2yth of April, 1822. Considerable dis- 
 cussion seems to have arisen among the various 
 members of the family in deciding upon the 
 name of the youthful warrior, and it is quite 
 certain that the fates were unpropitious on this 
 question, and determined to defeat the best-laid 
 schemes of family or kindred, for whatever may 
 have been the difficulty experienced in giving 
 the child a name, still greater was the difficulty 
 
 * SJtw and Leather Reporter, N. Y., Sept., 1868. 
 4
 
 7| General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 
 
 of keeping that name. Mr. Grant, the father, 
 remarks in reference to the initials U. S., " A 
 superstitious person might almost think there 
 was something Providential about these signifi- 
 cant initials being stuck on to him, for they were 
 not given to him at his christening. When the 
 question arose, after his birth, what he should be 
 called, his mother and one of his aunts proposed 
 Albert, for Albert Gallatin; another aunt pro- 
 posed Theodore; his grandfather proposed Hi- 
 ram, because he thought that was a handsome 
 name. His grandmother grandmother by 
 courtesy, that is, his mother's step-mother was 
 a great student of history, and had an enthusias- 
 tic admiration for the ancient commander, 
 Ulysses ; * and she urged that the babe 
 should be named Ulysses. I seconded that, and 
 he was christened Hiram Ulysses; but he was 
 always called by the latter name, which he him- 
 self preferred, when he got old enough to know 
 about it. But Mr. Hamer [the representative in 
 Congress] knowing Mrs. Grant's name was 
 Simpson, and that we had a son named Simpson, 
 somehow got the matter a little mixed in mak- 
 ing the nomination, and sent the name in Ulys- 
 ses S. Grant instead of Hiram Ulysses Grant." f 
 
 * Jesse and Mrs. Simpson had just read Telemachus, and 
 both were impressed with the hero's father, the "wise Ulysses." 
 Richardson's Pers. Hist. 
 
 f The Neiu York Ledger.
 
 General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 75 
 
 General Badeau says, also, "Young Grant applied 
 to the authorities at West Point, and to the Sec- 
 retary of War, to have the blunder corrected, 
 but the request was unnoticed ; his comrades at 
 once adopted the initials U. S. in his behalf, and 
 christened him Uncle Sam, a nickname that he 
 never lost in the army ; and when he graduated, 
 in 1843, twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine, his 
 commission of brevet second lieutenant and his 
 diploma, both styled him Ulysses S. Grant, by 
 which name he has since been known." * 
 
 The fact has been, already, noticed that the 
 General's ancestors bore, through six generations, 
 scriptural names, one of them being called Mat- 
 thew, two of them Samuel, and three Noah, and 
 it was certainly a wide departure from the custom 
 of his Puritan forefathers to have selected a 
 name which has been made celebrated by the 
 poems of Homer, however distinguished that 
 bard may have been, in ancient times, among 
 the heathen. But it is probable that fate over- 
 ruled this question of the name for a weighty 
 reason, which, happily for us, has been sagely 
 divined by a modern writer. It is revealed in the 
 narrative of Fenelon, who causes his hero, Tele- 
 machus, to be thus addressed, "Your father, 
 Ulysses, is the wisest of mankind ; his heart is 
 an unfathomable depth; his secret lies beyond 
 
 * Military History of U, S. Grant, p. 8,
 
 j6 General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 
 
 the line of subtlety and fraud; he is the friend 
 of truth ; he says nothing that is false, but when 
 it is necessary he conceals what is true; his wis- 
 dom is y as it were, a seal upon his lips, which is 
 never broken but for an important purpose" * 
 
 Lieutenant Grant served with distinction in 
 the Mexican war, and, having been promoted to 
 a captaincy, resigned, and retired to private life. 
 He entered with zeal into the contest for the 
 Union, and w r ith what success is known to the 
 world. The story of his exploits has been well 
 narrated by his many biographers. A few anec- 
 dotes from Brigadier-General Hillyer's reminis- 
 cences of General Grant may be found interest- 
 ing. Hillyer had been a staff officer with the 
 General, and had resigned after the fall of Vicks- 
 burg. Rejoining Grant again for a visit after he 
 came East, Hillyer accompanied him to Culpep- 
 per, where the General assumed the command 
 of all the armies. 
 
 "Hillyer," said Grant, "I think I should 
 have failed in this position if I had come to it 
 in the beginning, because I should not have had 
 confidence enough. You see I have come 
 through all the grades of the service captain, 
 colonel, brigade, division, corps, army and I 
 am confident in myself now. McClellan's mis- 
 fortune, I always believed, was in his clearing all 
 
 * Richardson's Pen. Hist.
 
 General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 77 
 
 the grades at once, and feeling a want of confi- 
 dence in this great and absolute responsibility." 
 
 This anecdote, whether true or not, is very 
 characteristic of Grant's simple retrospections : 
 since Culpepper, he has been made General and 
 Secretary of War, his experience has inclined 
 towards civil, administrative and political duties, 
 from grade to grade, conquering them as he ad- 
 vanced in the army. And this rare advantage 
 he has had, that his promotion has been rapid as 
 well as experimental, so that he knows all the ac- 
 tive men and minds of the present generation, 
 and he knows the material of it probably better 
 than any living American. 
 
 Hillyer lived in St. Louis when Grant left 
 his little farm near by to enter the firm of 
 " Boggs & Grant, Real Estate Agents, Houses 
 to Rent." In those days he had a desk in Hill- 
 yer's law office. 
 
 " Was the General silent then as now *? " 
 
 " No. We considered him more than com- 
 monly talkative. So he is now ; but he won't 
 talk for effect, nor before strangers freely. This 
 reticence of Grant, so much talked of, is partly 
 discrimination and partly the form of an old 
 bashfulness he had when a boy. Anybody 
 whom he knows can hear him speak at any time. 
 
 " In St. Louis I liked Grant. He was enter- 
 taining, and I was attracted towards him by what
 
 78 General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 
 
 I hardly knew at that time. Afterwards I knew 
 it to be a manhood, the same that he developed 
 in battle so well. I was in New York when I 
 heard of his appointment, and soon after came 
 a telegraph message to join his staff. I was at 
 the Planters' House, in St. Louis, on business, 
 soon afterwards, and wishing to see Grant he 
 rode up during the day with some of his staff 
 officers, and they had one empty horse. 
 
 "'Here, Hillyer,' said Grant, 'here's your 
 horse. The boat has been waiting for me three- 
 quarters of an hour. Stir yourself! ' 
 
 " ' I am not going, Grant, I never entertained 
 the notion a minute in earnest.' 
 
 " ' Come along ! I can't listen to that. 
 Time presses ! ' 
 
 " ' But I have not written to my wife.' 
 
 "'Well! that you had better do. After 
 this next action I am going into, you can come 
 home if you don't get your head knocked off 
 first and fix up your business.' " 
 
 In brief, Hillyer found himself going down 
 the river in ten minutes, to his own bewilder- 
 ment, wondering greatly whether he could stand 
 up in action. 
 
 " Did you notice any strong traits of charac- 
 ter in Grant soon afterward *? " 
 
 " His courage and soldierly vanity in action 
 first struck me, and his entire willingness to
 
 General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 79 
 
 fight. He never talked before action as if he 
 had any personal forebodings, but grew more 
 cheerful and concentrated as the time of battle 
 approached. His indisposition to leave any po- 
 sition he had taken was often uncomfortable. I 
 remember at Pittsburg Landing that he, Raw- 
 lings, myself and some other staff officers were 
 in a place where the artillery of the enemy was 
 concentrated. Their fire was terrible, and every 
 instant I expected to have my head shot off. 
 Grant sat on horseback, straight and cheerful, as 
 you have sometimes seen a man of a hot day go 
 out to be rained on, rather enjoying it. He 
 kept us all in half agony. One officer said to 
 me : 
 
 "'Go tell the Old Man to leave here for 
 God's sake.' " 
 
 " No ! Tell him yourself. He'll think me 
 afraid, and so I am, but he sha'nt think so ! ' 
 
 " There we sat, the fire crossing upon us. 
 At last one of the green members of the staff 
 rode up to Grant, saying : 
 
 " ' General, we must leave this place. It is 
 not necessary to stay right here. If we do, we 
 shall all be dead in five minutes.' 
 
 " ' I guess that's so ! ' said Grant, and he rode 
 away, to our relief. 
 
 "As to fear," continued Hillyer, "Grant 
 used to say that he had seen men who said they
 
 8o General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 
 
 never knew what it was, but he had never seen 
 anybody who said it of them. Another thing 
 that struck me with Grant, was his own attempt 
 frequently to supersede his own good luck. At 
 Donelson, he went to Commodore Foote and 
 begged him to run past the rebel guns with a 
 gunboat or two. Foote replied, saying that he 
 would be shot to pieces. Grant maintained that 
 he would suffer no more than in ordinary bom- 
 bardment. This took place before Farragut 
 made a practical demonstration of Grant's theory. 
 Now, had Foote done this, the rebels would 
 have evacuated Fort Donelson, and the battle 
 and capture there which made Grant historic 
 would never have happened. 
 
 "Grant developed wonderfully in the war, 
 and though I, as a democrat, opposed his elec- 
 tion, I had no doubt that he was the safe, strong 
 man, worthiest to lead the army. There is needed 
 no better instance or proof to this effect than the 
 following: I was at City Point, in 1865", and 
 sitting close by Grant I saw him break the seal 
 of a letter. Then he smiled good naturedly. 
 " ' What's that, General Grant ? ' 
 " ' A letter from Sherman. Read it ! ' 
 u I read the letter, and it said that Sherman 
 could no longer hold Atlanta, his line being too 
 long. He asked permission to destroy the town 
 and move to the sea, subsisting upon the coun-
 
 General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 81 
 
 try and turning at bay to fight Hood whenever 
 the latter pursued him too closely. All this 
 seemed brilliant and soldierly to me, and I asked 
 Grant what in it made him laugh. 
 
 " ' Why,' he said, ' I was wondering what 
 Hood could find to subsist upon if he followed 
 in the rear of Sherman.' 
 
 " This was the General supplying an error of 
 genius. Sherman supposed that Hood would 
 follow him. Grant knew that Hood could not 
 eat off the barren and devastated country. So 
 he sent this word to Sherman : ' You have my 
 permission to destroy Atlanta and march to the 
 sea after you detach Schofield and - to go 
 to Tennessee. Hood will not follow you ; he 
 will march upon Nashville.' Now, see ! Had 
 Sherman carried off his whole force seaward, 
 mistaking the effect of his movement upon 
 Hood, Nashville would have fallen, Indiana and 
 Ohio been invaded, and the Southern Confedei- 
 acy been an accomplished fact. 
 
 " Grant," said Hillyer, " is stern as Jupiter. 
 There is no finer story of two stern men than 
 Grant and George H. Thomas before the battle 
 of Nashville. Thomas has a dislike of being 
 whipped, and he is cautious and sedate to the last 
 degree till the time for decision has come. 
 Grant sent word to Thomas to move out of his 
 works and attack Hood. Thomas was not 
 
 4*
 
 82 General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 
 
 ready, and he went on deliberately with his prep- 
 arations. Grant telegraphed again : ' The coun- 
 try is excited. Attack ! ' Thomas was not yet 
 quite ready. Then Grant sent John A. Logan 
 to Louisville, to be ready to take command, and 
 telegraphed again : * If you do not attack Hood 
 before - - date, I shall be under the painful 
 necessity of relieving you.' Just at that time 
 Thomas was ready, not by necessity, but by the 
 completion of his affairs, and the happy collu- 
 sion of events made the battle of Nashville an 
 honor to both. " * 
 
 We shall say nothing in reference to the mil- 
 itary achievements of General Grant. His deeds 
 speak for themselves. 
 
 The victor at Donelson, Vicksburg, Chatta- 
 nooga, Appomattox, needs no eulogy. After 
 some of his great victories, General Scott show- 
 ed his appreciation of his genius by presenting 
 him a copy of his auto-biography, having writ- 
 ten on one of its blank pages : 
 
 " From the oldest to the ablest general in the 
 world. WINFIELD SCOTT." 
 
 Ulysses S. Grant is a worthy representative 
 of a line of brave and intelligent ancestors. The 
 spirit of Matthew Grant, the pioneer, and the 
 valiant Captain Noah, lives again in him. De- 
 scended from one of the Founders of New Eng- 
 
 * Chicago Tribune, Jan. 18, 1869.
 
 General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 83 
 
 land and from hardy veterans who served in our 
 early wars, that country which they planted 
 and whose greatness they fought to establish, he, 
 in a later generation, has conserved and perpet- 
 uated. The Founder is restored to us in the per- 
 son of the great Saviour of the nation. 
 
 It will be a fitting sequel to this chapter to 
 present the views of Professor Mahan, of the 
 United States Military Academy, in reference to 
 the genius displayed by General Grant as a com- 
 mander of armies. Professor Mahan, as every 
 intelligent person well knows, is the fore- 
 most military scholar in this country. He grad- 
 uated first in his class at West Point, in 1824, 
 studied afterward, at the school of Engineers 
 and Artillerists at Metz, France, and has, since, 
 served as the Professor of Engineering in the 
 Military Academy. His ideas are embodied in 
 the following letter : 
 
 To the Editor of the New York Times. 
 
 Some one has taken the trouble to send me several num- 
 bers * * * * containing a series of articles, of course 
 very depreciatory, on General Grant's soldiership. Having 
 no idea as to whose courtesy I am indebted for these, will 
 you allow me, through the Times, to say to my unknown 
 friend that, differing toto ccelo from the views put forth in 
 them, I have, for the last few years, since General Grant's 
 name has become historical, represented his generalship in 
 my lectures on the military art to the cadets of the United 
 States Military Academy in a totally different light from that 
 in which he is shown up in these articles, and that, satisfied
 
 84 General Ulysses Simpson Grant. 
 
 of the justness of my \iews, I shall continue to do so, so 
 long as I hold my present official position. 
 
 The military renown of Alexander rests upon his con- 
 quests of the unmilitary hordes of the East by the largest 
 and finest army, in every respect, that Greece up to this time 
 had produced ; that of Hannibal rests upon his successful 
 passage of the Alps into Italy, opposed only by the barbar- 
 ous tribes on his line of march, and, consequently, by rash 
 and incompetent Roman consuls ; Caesar's on his conquest 
 of the semi-barbarous tribes of Gaul, and his subsequent 
 defeat of the demoralized forces of Pompey. Frederick the 
 Great and Napoleon I. of our period, on their victories over 
 armies greatly inferior to theirs in discipline, and led by gen- 
 erals incompetent from age and military talent ; while Grant 
 has crushed one of the most formidable rebellions, whether 
 we regard the numbers, the intelligence, and the means en- 
 gaged in it, that the world has ever witnessed ; and, as al- 
 leged by his detractors, both at home and abroad, against 
 leaders superior to himself in generalship, against troops su- 
 perior to his own in chivalry, dash, and all other fighting 
 qualities ; operating in a country every inch of which was 
 known to them, and rendered defensive by all the resources 
 of nature and art skilfully combined ; and this he did by 
 measures of which he was the originator, taking for his own 
 position the most important and most difficult one of the work 
 to be done. 
 
 Happily for American patriotism, the descendants of the 
 men who are now defaming Grant's military actions will live 
 to blush for their sires, and glory in the grand results of 
 Grant's triumphs ; and when these detractions, which are as 
 ephemeral as the sheets which contain them, now scattered 
 broadcast through railroad cars and grog shops, and their 
 authors, shall have long passed away from the memory of 
 man, Grant's name and military fame, like those of the great 
 captains who have preceded him, will loom up, grander and 
 grander, as they recede into the mists of successive ages. 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 D. H. MAHAN. 
 
 West Point, Sept. 8, 1868.
 
 PART II. 
 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS, 
 
 1. THE CLAN OF GRANTS. 
 
 Coat of Arms, Earl of Seafield. Motto, " Stand Fast." 
 
 THE Highland Clan of Grants is one of the 
 most ancient and honorable of the Scottish 
 clans. It is asserted, by some, that they are of 
 Danish descent, from Aquin de Grand, or Grant. 
 Others say that the surname Grant, is derived 
 from the French word grand, great or valorous, 
 and that they came originally from Normandy. 
 Skene, however, denies these statements and 
 maintains that they are of Gaelic origin, the 
 clan itself having claimed that they are a branch 
 of the Macgregors, and this, he declares, is
 
 86 'The Clan of Grants. 
 
 the ancient and unvarying tradition of the 
 country.* 
 
 The earliest account we have of the Grants 
 begins with Gregory de Grant, who, in 1214, 
 was Sheriff of Inverness. Their ancient seat 
 was at Strathspey, which was about twenty- 
 five miles south of the city of Inverness, and 
 they afterwards acquired Glenmoriston, Glen- 
 urquahart, and other estates, including the 
 peerage of Seafield. The ancient clan was di- 
 vided into two principal divisions, the Grants 
 of Grant at Strathspey, and the Grants of 
 Glenmoriston and Urquahart. 
 
 The Strathspey Grants, who were the chief 
 and oldest portion of the clan, occupied a ter- 
 ritory about thirty miles square south of and 
 bordering on the present shore of Nairn. The 
 Grants of Urquahart and Glenmoriston dwelt 
 west of the Loch Ness, their territory extend- 
 ing from about the site of the present town of 
 Kilmore, perhaps fifty miles southward and 
 twenty miles in a westerly direction.^ " The 
 Grants of Glenmoriston were not the chiefs of 
 the clan. This honor belonged to the house 
 of Freuchie, worthily represented by the pres- 
 ent noble proprietor, Lord Seafield. Still, 
 
 * Buchanan, Anct. Scot. Surnames, p. 43. 
 
 Skenis Highland Clans. Vol. II. p. 255. 
 
 Scott. Am. Journal, New York, March 26, 1864. 
 f Map of the Clans. Browne s Highland Clans.
 
 The Clan of Grants. 87 
 
 they occupied a position in feudal times second 
 only to the chief, and quite equal to some who 
 were acknowledged chieftains of clans, and 
 could bring as many men as they into the 
 field."* Of the country of the second division 
 of the clan a modern writer -j* says : Urqua- 
 hart was called Urchudin Thiarna Ghrant, or 
 the Laird of Grant's Urquahart. Glenmoris- 
 ton or Glenmore-essen, " the glen of the great 
 waterfall," derives its name from the beautiful 
 cascades on the river which flows through it. 
 This exquisitely beautiful parish is more varied 
 in mountain, hill and dale, lake and stream, 
 than perhaps any other in the Highlands. A 
 more ancient writer speaking of both countries 
 of the Grants says : " The great woods of 
 Glenmore and Abernethy, the property of the 
 Duke of Gordon, and the Laird of Grant were 
 reckoned the oldest and best in quality of any 
 in Scotland."! The castle Urquahart, situ- 
 
 * (Inverness Courier) Scott. Am. Jour. New York, Jan. 30, 
 1869. 
 
 f Statistical Account of Scotland. Vol. XIV. 
 J Logans Scottish Gael. Vol. I. p. 80. 
 
 A curious account is given by Sir Walter Scott of the man- 
 ner in which a number of orphan children whose parents had 
 been slain in battle by the united forces of the Marquis of Hunt- 
 ly and the Laird of Grant were fed from a trough, like pigs, at 
 the castle of the Marquis of Huntly. The Laird of Grant, how- 
 ever, who was " a man of humanity " took them to Castle Grant 
 and had them brought up decently. Their descendants are still 
 called the Race of the Trough. Tales of a Grandfather. Vol. II. 
 P- 3 2 5,
 
 88 The Clan of Grants. 
 
 ated at about the site of the present town of Kil- 
 more on the Loch Ness was held by the Grants 
 from an early period, and was, from its posi- 
 tion, of considerable military importance. " It 
 was one of the chain of fortresses which, from 
 earliest times, stretched across the Great Glen 
 from Inverness to Inverlochy and secured the 
 country from invasion. It is on the western 
 promontory of Urquahart Bay and overhangs 
 Loch Ness. It was besieged and taken by 
 Edward I. in 1303. This castle was held for 
 the King by the great family of Grant of 
 Freuchie, now styled Grant of Grant, and in 
 1509 King James IV. granted three charters 
 of the lordship of Urquahart and baronies of 
 Urquahart and Glenmoriston to John Grant 
 of Freuchie and his two sons, from the latter 
 of whom are descended the Grants of Glen- 
 moriston and Corrymony." * 
 
 The fame of the Grants was sung about 
 fifty years ago by a lowland poet, Sir Alexan- 
 der Boswell : 
 
 " Come the Grants of Tullochgorum 
 WT their pipers gaun before 'em 
 Proud the mothers are that bore 'em. 
 
 Next the Grants of Rothiemurchus, 
 Every man his sword and durk has, 
 Every man as proud's a Turk is." 
 
 The ancient war cry of the clan was " Craig 
 
 * Statistical Account of Scotland. Vol .XIV.
 
 The Clan of Grants. 89 
 
 Elachaidh," the rallying-place, of which there 
 were two in Strathspey. The division of this 
 tribe called Clan Chirin has properly the cry, 
 "Craig Ravoch " to which is added ' Stand sure,' 
 the others saying c Stand fast.' " * The war cry 
 is sometimes given, now-a-days, " Stand fast, 
 Craig Ellachie," their hill of rendezvous, situat- 
 ed in the united parishes of Dutilh and Rothie- 
 murchus, being named Craig-Ellachie, or rock 
 of alarm. The badge of the ancient clan was 
 the pine, pinus sylvestris. It is important 
 that some account should be, also, given of 
 the tartan which was the distinctive dress of 
 the Grants, for all the clans had a costume. 
 Possibly the distinguished representative of the 
 family at Washington may desire to appear in 
 the ancient tartan of his clan, at the brilliant 
 fetes and receptions in the White House, 
 certainly it would be eminently suggestive and 
 historical. The following, then, is the scale 
 of proportion for the colors of the Grant tar- 
 tan, i red, i blue, i red, i blue, 18 red, i 
 azure, \ red, 5 blue, i red, \ green, i red, 21 
 green, \ red, \ blue, 22 red, i blue, J red, 21 
 green, i red, \ green, i red, 5 blue, i red, i 
 azure, iSred, J blue, \ red, i blue, 2i red. 
 This is calculated from a standard of i of an 
 
 * Logan's Scottish Gael. Vol. I. p. 296.
 
 90 The Clan of Grants. 
 
 inch. A web of tartan is two feet, two inches 
 wide.* 
 
 Lodge's Genealogy of the Peerage fur- 
 nishes us the following historical account of 
 the Grants. " The surname of Grant is of 
 great antiquity in Scotland, and its earliest 
 history is lost in traditionary uncertainty ; 
 but, so early as the reign of Alexander II. 
 [1214] Gregory de Grant, from whom the 
 pedigree of the Earl of Seafield and Lord 
 Glenelg is uninterruptedly deduced, was 
 Sheriff of Inverness. 
 
 His son Dominus Laurentius de Grant is 
 witness to an extant deed dated 1258. This 
 Lawrence had two sons Sir John and Ralph, 
 who, firmly attached to the interest of Bruce 
 against Baliol, joined the brave Sir William 
 Wallace in defence of the liberties of their 
 country, and were, at length, carried prisoners 
 by King Edward I. to London from whence 
 they were liberated upon bail in 1297. From 
 Sir John, the elder of these brothers, proceed- 
 ed, through seven uninterrupted male de- 
 scents," the present titled families of the 
 Grants. John Grant, in 1509, was a good 
 poet, and has in the family archives the name 
 of Bard. It is said that none of his poems are 
 extant. 
 
 * Logan.
 
 'The Clan of Grants. 91 
 
 ' In the present day the family of the Grants 
 is quite as numerous in the Highlands and as 
 honorable as in ancient times. There is not 
 the slightest difficulty in finding, among them, 
 a coat-of-arms, indeed, there are so many coats- 
 of-arms that the only difficulty consists in mak- 
 ing a selection. However much it may shock 
 our republican notions, it is certainly I'emharras 
 des richesses. We give above, however, the 
 coat-of-arms of the Earl of Seafield, who holds 
 Strathspey, the ancient seat of the Grants of 
 Grant, and may be styled now the chief of the 
 clan. The writer, however, who makes no 
 claim to a knowledge of heraldry, is informed 
 that this coat-of-arms is the personal property 
 of Lord Seafield, and no other member of the 
 clan of Grants is entitled to use it. Perhaps 
 the people of the United States would prefer 
 that the coat-of-arms of General Grant should 
 be the shield of the Union, having for a tre- 
 monty Vicksburg Heights, Lookout Moun- 
 tain, and Appomattox, the whole to be crossed 
 with his own good sword. Titles of nobility 
 are, however, forbidden by the constitution, 
 and we, as Americans, prefer personal merit to 
 honors which are inherited. 
 
 " The rank is but the guinea's stamp 
 The man's the gowd for a' that." 
 
 The ancient Castle Grant, the seat of the
 
 92 'The Clan of Grants. 
 
 Grants of Grant is situated in Banffshire, four 
 miles west of Cromdale. It is said that this 
 castle contains many interesting paintings. 
 Grantown, a pretty village which has sprung 
 up during the last century, is situated on the 
 Spey River in a detached part of Inverness- 
 shire. It possesses a town -house, prison, 
 hospital, and two free schools. It has a pop- 
 ulation of about six hundred. 
 
 Burke's Peerage furnishes us the following 
 list of the present representatives, in the High- 
 lands, of this ancient and noble clan : 
 
 Earl of Seafield (Sir John Charles Grant 
 Ogilvy,) Viscount Reidhaven, Baron Ogil- 
 vy, Baron Strathspey of Strathspey, co's In- 
 verness and Moray, etc. An ancestor assumed 
 the additional name Ogilvy. Motto, " Stand 
 fast." Seats, Cullen House, Banffshire, Cas- 
 tle Grant, Inverness, and Grant Lodge, Elgin. 
 Burke calls the earl in one place, a Grant of 
 Grants, and in another, a Grant of clan Chi- 
 aran. We will not decide the question. 
 
 Baron Glenelg (Charles Grant,) of Glenelg, 
 co. Inverness. A Grant of Grants. Motto, 
 "Stand sure." Seat, Waternish, Inverness- 
 shire. He was principal Secretary of State for the 
 Colonial Department. Died, unmarried, April 
 23, 1866, at Cannes, France, when the title 
 became extinct. This is so recent an event
 
 Clan of Grants. 93 
 
 however, that some notice of Lord Glenelg 
 may be interesting. His brother, Right Hon. 
 Sir Robert Grant, G. C. H., Governor of 
 Bombay, born 1785, died 1838, was the au- 
 thor of two very beautiful hymns which are 
 found in most of our hymn-books. 
 The first lines of one of them are 
 
 "Jesus, I my cross have taken 
 All to leave and follow thee ;" 
 
 And, of the other, 
 
 " When gathering clouds around I view, 
 And days are dark and friends are few." 
 
 Sir Alexander Grant of Dalvey, Bart. A 
 Grant of Grants, vice-Chancellor of the Uni- 
 versity and principal of the Elphinstone col- 
 lege, Bombay residence, Bombay. Descend- 
 ed from John Grant, the Bard. 
 
 Sir Archibald Grant, of Monymusk, co. 
 Aberdeen, Bart. A Grant of Grants. 
 
 Sir George Macpherson Grant of Ballen- 
 dalloch, co. Elgin. The Grants were in the 
 female line. The Macphersons assumed the 
 name of Grant. 
 
 James Murray Grant, Esq., of Glenmo- 
 riston, co. Inverness and Moy, seats, Glen- 
 moriston, co. Inverness, and Moy House, 
 co. Moray. 
 
 John Grant, Esq., of Kilgraston, co. 
 Perth, seats Kilgraston House, Bridge of Earn, 
 Perthshire.
 
 94 The Grant Homestead. 
 
 Robert Grant, Esq., of Kincorth, co. Mo- 
 ray. Seats, Kincorth and Forrer Houses, 
 Morayshire. 
 
 In this country, in the French and Indian 
 war, Major James Grant of the Highland 
 regiment, of the British regulars, was defeated 
 September n, 1758, near fort Du Quesne. 
 The same officer was a major-general in the 
 British army, at the battles of Long Island, 
 Brandywine, and Germantown, and defeated 
 General Lee in New Jersey. He died very 
 old, at his seat at Ballendalloch, near Elgin, in 
 May 1806.* He was maternal uncle to the 
 father of Sir George Macpherson Grant, of the 
 present day. 
 
 2. THE GRANT HOMESTEAD TWO HUNDRED 
 
 YEARS OLD. 
 
 If we suppose that Matthew or one of his an- 
 cestors, came, at some remote period, whereor 
 the light of history is dim and uncertain, from 
 the immediate vicinity of Castle Urquahart, 
 situated on the west side of the Loch Ness, or 
 of Castle Grant in the country of the Grants of 
 Grant, the younger scions of the clan being com- 
 pelled by the action of the law of primogeniture 
 which enriched the elders at their expense, to 
 seek prosperity in other lands, so, perhaps, may 
 we imagine did Noah Grant the son of the second 
 
 *Z>jr. Col. Hist. N. T. roJhtad,\o\. X. p. 903.
 
 Grant Homestead. 95 
 
 Samuel Grant, influenced by the same cause, for 
 the entailment of estates was not abolished in 
 Connecticut until after the revolution, depart 
 from the home of his fathers at East Windsor 
 Hill and seek for "fresher fields and pastures 
 green" in the new settlement at Tolland. Other, 
 and somewhat dissimilar causes have led the fam- 
 ily to wander westward, and, as Matthew Grant 
 might, perhaps, in days of yore, return in im- 
 agination to the castles of the Grants in the 
 Highlands, so now, may the descendants in 
 Ohio look back to the old homestead which came 
 to them from Matthew, the pioneer, and has 
 been preserved in the family, descending from 
 father to son through several generations to the 
 present possessor. The title to this farm, which 
 has been about two hundred years in the pos- 
 session of the family, was acquired as follows : 
 On the I5th of May 1673, tne decree of the Gen- 
 eral Court of Connecticut was entered, "this 
 Court grants unto Matthew Grant of Windsor 
 TOO acres of land," which land was laid out in 
 1674 "without the east bounds of Windsor," 
 and was assigned by Matthew Grant to his sons 
 Samuel and John in February, 1674, '75.* The 
 history of these lands is exceedingly interest- 
 ing. The homestead is one of a very few in 
 this country which have remained continuous- 
 
 *(Col. Rec. Lands 7, 328) Conn. Col. Rec. 1665, 1677, edited 
 by Hon. J. H. Trumbull, pp. 198, 225.
 
 96 The Grant Homestead. 
 
 ly, through many generations, in possession of 
 the male representatives of the family. Ma- 
 jor Frederic William Grant, the present ov/ner 
 of the homestead, in a letter to the writer, 
 speaking of Noah Grant who settled in Tol- 
 land, of Captain Ebenezer Grant, his own grand- 
 father, and other children of Samuel Grant, 
 Junior, says : " The old house they were born in 
 stood on the same spot on which I now live, 
 and some of its timbers were used in the con- 
 struction of the new one in 1757. Another 
 singular fact is that the farm on which I now 
 live has come down in regular descent from fa- 
 ther to son since the time of Samuel, the elder." 
 Yes, it is the old farm, and Major Grant's 
 title to the land is derived from Matthew the 
 pioneer. His son Samuel reclaimed it from the 
 Indians. Since the savages roamed there, no 
 white men but Grants have lived upon this 
 land. We are carried back almost in imagi- 
 nation to the castles of the ancient clan in the 
 Highlands. 
 
 It would be an interesting subject of inves- 
 tigation to trace out the history of other an- 
 cient homesteads which are sometimes found 
 in New England and the older states. The 
 homestead, whereon Mr. Elihu Marshall re- 
 sides, in Windsor, has descended from the 
 pioneer Captain Samuel Marshall, who pur-
 
 Ihe Grant Homestead. 97 
 
 chased it in 1670 from an Indian Sachem. 
 The Ellsworth place, the home of the late 
 Chief Justice Ellsworth, bears date from the 
 year 1655, when it was purchased by Josias 
 Ellsworth. This ground was first occupied 
 by Sir Robert Saltonstall's men, and was, at one 
 time, owned by Sir Robert. It is now the 
 residence of Mr. Frederick Ellsworth, the 
 grandson of the Chief Justice. The home- 
 stead of the Hay dens is owned and occupied 
 by Mr. George P. Hayden of Windsor, a 
 relative of Mr. Nathaniel Hayden, of New 
 York. This homestead was purchased by the 
 pioneer William Hayden * in 1642, and has 
 remained in the family to this day. The 
 Loomis homestead is the oldest of any in Wind- 
 sor. This homestead was acquired by Jo- 
 seph Loomis, Senior, in 1639, an '^ ^ as ^ e " 
 scended in the family to its present proprietor 
 Mr. Thomas W. Loomis, a cousin of Mr. 
 Hezekiah B. Loomis of New York. These 
 latter homesteads, of the Loomis and Hayden 
 families, are older than the Stuyvesant and 
 
 * He bought land at the extreme north end of the street run- 
 ning north and easterly from the palisado, and built his home 
 upon it, probably before leaving Hartford. His house stood at 
 the junction of the roads, say twenty or thirty rods from Hayden 
 Station: his home lot included the site of the railroad sta- 
 tion. The grounds, for a considerable extent, at and around 
 the site of the original house, have never been out of the Hayden 
 family, but are now owned by Mr. George P. Hayden, who lives 
 within a few rods of the spot where the first house stood. Notes 
 of Mr. Jabez H. Hayden.
 
 98 The Dorchester Records. 
 
 Beekman estates of New York City. Sir 
 Petrus Stuyvesant * arrived in New York in 
 1647, and William Beekman purchased the 
 Beekman estate in 1670. The Beekman and 
 Stuyvesant estates have not, also, been occu- 
 pied continuously as homesteads. The Van 
 Rensselaer property at Albany is, undoubtedly, 
 older than the Windsor homesteads. 
 
 3. THE FIRST ENTRY IN THE DORCHESTER 
 RECORDS. 
 
 The following is the. first entry of Matthew 
 Grant's name found in the old town records of 
 Dorchester, Mass. : 
 
 Anno, April 3, 1633. It is agreed that a 
 doble rayle with morteses in the posts of ic 
 foote distance one from the other, shall be set 
 up in the marsh, from the corner of Richard 
 Phelps, his pale eastward to the Creeke, by 
 the owners of the cowes under named, p d por- 
 tionally, 20 foote to every cowe. 
 
 Cowes. Foote. 
 
 Mr. Ludlowe 2 40 
 
 Mr. Johnson i - 20 
 
 Henry Woolcott 3 60 
 
 "Mr. Rosseter 4 80 
 
 Mr. Terry 2 40 
 
 * Nicholas William Stuyvesant, Esq., of New York city, 
 who is of this honorable ancestry, kindly informs the author, 
 from memory, that the princely estates of Governor Stuyvesant, 
 called his "Bouwerie," were purchased about the year 1654.
 
 The Dorchester Records. 99 
 
 Cowes. Foote. 
 
 Mr. Smith 2 40 
 
 Mr. Gallope i 20 
 
 Thorn, ffoard 2 40 
 
 Mr. Warham 3 60 
 
 Mr. Mavericke 2 40 
 
 Mr. Hull 3 60 
 
 Matthew Graunt 2 40 
 
 Will. Rockwell 2 40 
 
 John Hoskeins 3 60 
 
 Nicho. Denslowe 
 Giles Gibbes i 20 
 
 William Phelps 2 40 
 
 Symon Hoite 2 40 
 
 Mr. Stoughton 4 80 
 
 Eltw'd Pumery 2 40 
 
 William Gaylard i 20 
 
 George Dyer 2 40 
 
 And this to be done by the yth of May 
 next ensuing, upon the payne of forfeiture of 
 5 shillings for every cowe, in cause it be not 
 done by the tyme appoynted. 
 
 And for the tyme to come every other 
 owner that shall have milch cowes, they shall 
 pay 12 pence a piece for every cowe, towarde 
 the maynetayneing of these rayles. Signed : 
 John Mavericke, John Warham. * 
 
 * Dor. Town Re:s. N. Eng. His. and Gen. Reg. vol. XXI., p. 
 166. 
 
 Next to the early records of Salem, this is the oldest book of
 
 ioo Matthew Grant's Family Record. 
 
 4. MATTHEW GRANT'S FAMILY RECORD. 
 
 An extract from the manuscript Note- 
 Book of Matthew Grant, giving his family 
 record, furnished by the Hon. J. Hammond 
 Trumbull of Hartford, Connecticut, for the 
 supplement to Stiles' History of Windsor. 
 
 " Matthew Graunt was married to his first 
 wife Prissilla, in the year 1625, November 16. 
 She died in the yeare 1644, April 27, being 43 
 years of age and 2 months. Children -- Pris- 
 silla Graunt was borne in the yeare 1626, Sep- 
 tember 14 ; Samuel Graunt was borne in the 
 yeare 1631, November 12 ; Tahan Graunt was 
 borne in the yeare 1633, Februarie 3; John 
 Graunt was borne in the yeare 1642, April 30. 
 
 " May the 29, 1645, Matthew Graunt and 
 Susanna [wid. of William Rockwell] were 
 married. Matthew Graunt was then three 
 and forty years of age, seven months and 
 eighteen days; borne in the year 1601, Octo- 
 ber 27, Tuesdaye. Susanna Graunt was then 
 three and forty years of age, seven weeks and 
 4 days; borne in the yeare 1602, April the 5, 
 Monday. Children of Susanna by her first 
 husband Joan Rockwell was born in the yeare 
 1625, April the 25 ; John Rockwell was borne 
 
 records in Massachusetts proper. Somewhat more than four 
 pages of the original records are missing. Gen. Reg. vol. XXI., 
 p. 163, etc.
 
 Matthew Grant's Rules. 101 
 
 in the year 1625, July the 18; Samuel Rock- 
 well was borne in the year 1631, March the 
 28 ; Sara Rockwell was borne in the yeare 
 1638, July the 24. 
 
 " November 14, 1666, my wife Susanna 
 died, being aged 64 years and Jr, 5 weeks and 
 4 dayes, and since shee and I married is 21 
 year, 24 weeks." 
 
 5. MATTHEW GRANT'S RULES FOR MEASURING 
 
 LAND. 
 
 " Rules which I haue lamed by experance in practic for helpes 
 in measuering Land. 
 
 In the euse of the Compas 
 
 In riming upon a poynt euery fiue rod opens one rod be- 
 twene to poyantes. fower rod upon twenty and so onward. 
 
 Runing out upon three poyntes 6 rod in length and drawe a 
 strayght loyne from the eand of the first poynt to the eand of the 
 third poynt : and the said loyne will cut of one quarter of a rod 
 of the length of the second poynt in the midell : 
 
 but drawe a way the sayd loyne upon a square from the eand 
 of the first poynt thin the second poynt will be six rod and a half: 
 and the third poynt will be seuen rod and one quarter in length." 
 
 FROM MATTHEW GRANT'S Note Book, contributed by Hon. 
 J. H. Trumbull. 
 
 6. THE CONSTITUTIONS OF 1638 AND 1650 
 OF THE COLONY OF CONNECTICUT. 
 
 The Preamble : " Forasmuch as it hath 
 pleased the Allmighty God, by the wise dis- 
 position of his diuyne poiidence, so to order 
 and dispose of things, that we the inhabitants 
 and residents of Windsor, Harteford and 
 Weathersfield, are now cohabiting and dwelling
 
 IO2 'The Early Constitutions. 
 
 in and vppon the river of Conectecotte, and 
 the lands thereunto adioyneing. And well 
 knowing where a people are gathered togather, 
 the word of God requires that to mayntayne 
 the peace and vnion of such a people, there 
 should be an orderly and decent government 
 established according to God to order and 
 dispose of the affayres of the people at all 
 seasons as occation shall require ; doe there- 
 fore assotiate and conioyne our selues to be as 
 one Publike State or Commonwelth ; and doe, 
 for owr selues and ovr successors, and such as 
 shall bee adioyned to vs att any tyme hereafter, 
 enter into Combination -and Confederation to- 
 gather, to mayntayne and p r searue the liberty 
 and purity of the gospell of our Lord Jesus 
 w ch we now p r fesse as also the disciplyne of 
 the Churches, w ch according to the truth of 
 the said gospell, is now practised amongst vs. 
 And also, in o r Ciuell Affaires to be guided and 
 gouerned according to such Lawes, Rules, Or- 
 ders and decrees, as shall be made, ordered, and 
 decreed, as followeth ;" [the constitution :] 
 
 It was provided in Section I. that the "gen- 
 erall Court shall have power to administer ius- 
 tice according to the lawes here established, 
 and for want thereof, according to the rule of 
 the word of God." 
 
 At the revision in 1650, it was ordered, in
 
 The Early Constitutions. 103 
 
 reference to " Schooles" " That euery Town- 
 shipp within this Jurisdiction, after the Lord 
 hath increased them to the number of fifty 
 householders, shall then forthwith appoint one 
 within theire Towne to teach all such children 
 as shall resorte to him to write and read ;" and 
 " where any Towne shall increase to the num- 
 ber of one hundred families or householders, they 
 shall sett vp a Grammar Schoole, the masters 
 thereof being able to instruct youths so farr as 
 they may bee fitted for the " Vniversity," 
 [Cambridge.]* 
 
 The constitution of 1638 was the first writ- 
 ten constitution of the new world. It was 
 framed by the distinguished Roger Ludlow, of 
 Windsor. " It sets out with the practical re- 
 cognition of the doctrine that all ultimate power 
 is lodged with the people. The body of the 
 people is the body politic. From the people 
 flow the fountains of law and justice. This 
 paper has another remarkable trait. There is 
 to be no taxation without representation in 
 Connecticut. The towns, too, are recognized 
 as independent municipalities. They are the 
 primary centres of power, older than the con- 
 stitution the makers and builders of the State. 
 Such was the constitution of Connecticut. I 
 have said it was the oldest of American consti- 
 
 * Conn. Col. Rec. Hon. J. H. 7*. 1665, 1667, pp. 20, 554.
 
 IO4 The Early Constitutions. 
 
 tutions. More than this, I might say, it is the 
 mother of them all. It has been modified in 
 different States to suit the circumstances of 
 the people, and the use of their respective 
 territories ; but the representative system 
 peculiar to the American republics, was first 
 unfolded by Ludlow, and by Hooker, Haynes, 
 Wolcott, Steele, Sherman, Stone, and the 
 other far-sighted men of the colony who must 
 have advised and counseled to do, what they 
 and all the people in the three towns met 
 together in a mass to sanction and adopt as 
 their own." "Kings have been 
 
 dethroned," says Bancroft, the eloquent 
 American historian, f c recalled, dethroned again, 
 and so many constitutions framed or formed, 
 stifled or subverted, that memory may despair 
 of a complete catalogue ; but the people of 
 Connecticut have found no reason to deviate 
 essentially from the government as established 
 by their fathers. History has ever celebrated 
 the commanders of armies on which victory 
 has been entailed, the heroes who have won 
 laurels in scenes of carnage and rapine. Has 
 it no place for the founders of states, the wise 
 legislators who struck the rock in the wilder- 
 ness, and the waters of liberty gushed forth in 
 copious and perennial fountains ? " Hollister^ 
 Hist. Conn., Vol. I. p. 89.
 
 'The Freemen of 1669. 
 
 105 
 
 7. A LIST OF THE FREEMEN OF ANCIENT WIND- 
 SOR, AND SOME NOTICES OF THEIR DESCEN- 
 DANTS. 
 
 " October nth, 1669. A list of all the free, 
 men that Hue within the limits of Windsor, 
 in reference to the order of the General Court, 
 May 13 : '69, requiring ye same. 
 
 Mr. Allyn Mathew, 
 Thomas Alyn, 
 Benedic Aluard, 
 John Bissell, Se'r., 
 John Bissell, Jun'r., 
 Thomas Bissell, 
 Samuel Bissell, 
 Nathanael Bissell, 
 John Barber, 
 Samuel Baker, 
 John Bartlet, 
 William Buel, 
 Timothy Buckland, 
 Nicholas Buckland, 
 Thomas Burnam, 
 Peter Brown, 
 Mr. Daniel Clark, 
 Edward Chapman, 
 Nathanell Cooke, 
 John Coult, 
 Christop : Crow, 
 Thomas Deble, 
 Henery Denslo, 
 John Denslo, 
 John Drak, 
 Job Drak, 
 Jacob Drak, 
 James Eanno, 
 5* 
 
 Begat Eggelston, Timothy Hall, 
 
 James Eggelston, Anthony Hoskins, 
 
 Tho. Eggelston, Robart Hayward, 
 
 Josias Eleswort, Benaia Holcomb, 
 
 Edward Elmor, Joseph Loomys, 
 
 Mr. Josep Fitch, John Loomys, 
 
 Thomas Ford, Thomas Loomys, 
 
 Walter Fylar, Samuell Loomys, 
 
 William Filly, Nathanell Loomys, 
 
 William Fish, Samuell Marshall, 
 Decon[Wm.]Gaylar, John Madesly, 
 
 Walter Gaylar, Dec.John Moore SV. 
 
 Samuel Gaylar, John Moore, Jun., 
 
 John Gaylar, Simon Milles, 
 Jonath.Gillet,Sen'r., John Mosses, 
 
 Nathan Gillet, William Morton, 
 Jonathan Gillet, Jr., Mr. Benj. Newbery, 
 
 Cornelus Gillet, John Owen, 
 
 Josep Gillet, John Osbon, Sen'r., 
 
 Jacob Gibbes, Mr. Will. Phelps, S'r., 
 
 Samuel Gibbes, William Phelps, Jun., 
 
 Mathew Grant, Timothy Phelps, 
 
 Samuel Grant, Georg Phelps, 
 
 Tahan Grant, I sack Phelps, 
 
 John Grant, Abra : Phelps, 
 
 George Griswold, Houmfry Pinne, 
 
 Danell Haydon, Nathanell Pinne, 
 
 John Hosford, Georg Phillups,
 
 106 'The Freemen of 1669. 
 
 Eltvved Pomery, John Stilles, Mr. John Warham, 
 
 Nicolas Palmer, Thomas Stouton, Mr.H.Wolcott, Sen,, 
 
 Timothy Palmer, John Strong, HeneryWolcottJun., 
 
 Abraham Randall, Return Strong, Simon Wolcott, 
 
 John Rockwell, Stephen Taylar, Mr. John Witchfield, 
 
 Samuel Rockwell, John Tery, Robert Watson, 
 
 Thomas Rowly, William Trail, John Williams, 
 
 Nicolas Senchon, Timothy Trail, Nathan Winchell, 
 
 Henry Stilles, Owen Tudor, Jonathan Winchell. 
 Richard Vore, 113* 
 
 These are stated inhabitants of Masaccv}* 
 and haue been free men for Windsor. 
 
 Thomas Barber, Joshua Holcom, John Pettebon, 
 
 John Cass, Thomas Maskell, Joseph Skinner, 
 
 Samuel Filly, Luk Hill, Peter Buell, 
 
 John Griffen, Samuel Pinne, 13 
 
 Micall Houmfery, Joseph Phelps. 
 
 This is a true list as neer as we could com 
 at, and be informed : 
 
 John Moore, Samuel Marshall, 
 
 Mathew Grant, Return Strong.^" 
 
 It will be eminently proper, in accordance 
 with the plan which the author has laid down 
 for himself, in the preparation of this work, to 
 present here some notices of the descendants of 
 those pioneers who came to Windsor, Connec- 
 
 * True number 112, an error of one in the list as given in 
 Conn. Col. Rec. 
 
 f Afterwards, Simsbury. 
 
 j The selectmen of the town. From Conn. Col. Rec. 1665, 
 1677, by Hon. J. H. Trumbull, p. 519. The descendants of 
 the above pioneers, should consult for further information in 
 reference to their ancestors, The History and Genealogies of 
 Ancient Windsor, by Henry R. Stites, M. D., Brooklyn, New York.
 
 'The Windsor Descendants. 107 
 
 ticut, either in company with Matthew Grant } 
 or soon after his arrival, and were associated with 
 him in laying the foundations of a colony in 
 the wilderness. It is impossible, however, to 
 give full notices of all these families, and the 
 author will, therefore, content himself with 
 some brief mention of those with whose histo- 
 ry he is best acquainted. 
 
 GOVERNOR CLARK BISSELL, was a descendant 
 in the sixth generation from the pioneer John 
 Bissell, who is supposed to have come to Wind- 
 sor about 1640. 
 
 JOSIAS ELLSWORTH, was the son of John 
 Ellsworth the pioneer at Windsor, in 1646. 
 The distinguished Chief Justice Ellsworth was 
 a descendant, in the fourth generation, from 
 Josiah Ellsworth. Oliver Ellsworth entered 
 Yale College, as a student, in 1762, but, after 
 passing three years at that institution, he joined 
 the college at Princeton, New Jersey, where he 
 graduated. He was admitted to the practice of 
 the law in 1771, and soon gave evidence of great 
 promise. Rising through different degrees of 
 preferment, in March 1796, he was appointed 
 the successor of the late Hon. John Jay, as 
 Chief Justice of the United States. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Dwight says of the subject 
 of our sketch : " Mr. Ellsworth was formed 
 to be a great man. His person was tall, dig-
 
 io8 I'he Windsor Descendants. 
 
 nified and commanding; and his manners, 
 though wholly destitute of haughtiness and 
 arrogance, were such as irresistibly to excite in 
 others, whenever he was present the sense of in- 
 feriority. His very attitude inspired awe. His 
 imagination was uncommonly vivid ; his wit 
 brilliant and piercing ; his logical powers very 
 great, and his comprehension fitted for capa- 
 cious views and vast designs. * * * * Uni- 
 versally, his eloquence strongly resembled that 
 of Demosthenes ; grave, forcible, and inclined 
 to severity. In the numerous public stations 
 which he filled, during a period of more than 
 thirty years, he regularly rose to the first rank 
 of reputation and in every assembly, public 
 and private, in which he appeared, after he had 
 fairly entered public life, there was probably no 
 man, when Washington was not present, who 
 would be more readily acknowledged to hold 
 the first character." 
 
 The monument erected to his memory in 
 the ancient burying-ground at Windsor, bears 
 the following inscription : 
 
 "In memory of OLIVER ELLSWORTH, LL.D., 
 an assistant in the Council, and a Judge in 
 the Supreme Court of the State of Connecti- 
 cut. A member of the Convention which 
 formed, and of the State Convention which 
 adopted the Constitution of the United States,
 
 'The Windsor Descendants. 109 
 
 Senator and Chief Justice of the United States, 
 om; of the Envoys Extraordinary and Minis- 
 ters Plenipotentiary who made the Convention 
 of 1800 between the United States and the 
 French Republic. 
 
 " Amiable and exemplary in all the relations 
 of domestic, social and Christian character, per- 
 manently useful in all the offices he sustained, 
 whose great talents, under the guidance of in- 
 flexible integrity, consummate wisdom and en- 
 lightened zeal, placed him among the first of 
 the illustrious Statesmen who achieved the In- 
 dependence and established the American Re- 
 public. Born at Windsor, April 29, 1745, 
 and died Nov. 26, 1807." 
 
 Oliver E. Wood, Esq., of New York 
 City, is a grandson of the late Chief Justice 
 Ellsworth. He is a son of Joseph Wood, 
 Esq., and Frances Ellsworth of Windsor. 
 Their children who are now living are Frances 
 Wolcott Cowles, wife of the Rev. Sylvester 
 Cowles of Gowanda, New York, Oliver Ells- 
 worth Wood of New York, Rev. George 
 Ingersoll Wood of Ellington, Connecticut, 
 Delia Williams Lyman, wife of Prof. S. C. 
 Lyman of Yale College, and William Cowper 
 Wood of Joliet, Illinois. 
 
 JANCES ENO, settled in Windsor, in 1646, 
 and his descendants have always held a distin-
 
 no 'The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 
 
 guished position in the local and family history 
 of the town. The records give us no informa- 
 tion as to the part of England from which he 
 came, but that he enjoyed a good social posi- 
 tion among the early pioneers is shown from 
 the fact that after the decease of his first wife, 
 Anna Bidwell, and afterwards, of his second 
 wife, he married into excellent families. His 
 daughter married, also, Samuel Phelps, a grand- 
 son of the venerable William Phelps, who was 
 from one of the best families of England. He 
 possessed a good estate, for those times, his 
 name being recorded among " those having a 
 family, a horse [and] two oxen," the second of 
 the five classes of tax-payers in the list which is 
 given in the old Book of Rates. He seems to 
 have been of an enterprising spirit, and was 
 largely engaged in the purchase of real estate. 
 In April, 1666, James Eno and John Moses, 
 acting as agents for the town of Windsor, 
 bought from Nassahegan, sachem of Poquon- 
 noc, a tract of twenty-eight thousand acres, for 
 which service the town granted him lands 
 known as Tilton's Marsh, situated under the 
 Simsbury mountains. 
 
 James Eno was a member of the churcji of 
 England, and was therefore, not in harmony, 
 in regard to his religious belief, with the puri- 
 tan founders of Windsor. In 1664, he united
 
 I'he Windsor Descendants. in 
 
 with six other settlers in presenting a petition 
 to the court asking that the churches might be 
 
 O O 
 
 required to grant baptism for their children 
 and admission to church privileges. The sign- 
 ers of the petition were the following very re- 
 spectable residents at Hartford and Windsor : 
 William Pitkin, of Hartford, Michael Hum- 
 phreys, of Windsor, John Stedman, of Hart- 
 ford, James Eno, of Windsor, Robert Reeve, 
 John Moses, of Windsor, and Jonas Westover 
 of Windsor. We are not able to give a full 
 history of this affair, but as the families of Eno, 
 Humphreys, Moses, and Westover removed 
 afterwards to Simsbury, probably "for con 
 science' sake," we can readily discover in the 
 history of this controversy the operation of 
 causes which led to the organization, in 1740, 
 of the oldest Episcopal church in Connecticut, 
 St. Andrew's Parish of Simsbury. 
 
 There was a James Eno among the eleven 
 petitioners, in 1705, for a grant of land for their 
 services at the swamp fight in King Philip's 
 war. They described themselves as the sole 
 survivors of this engagement. This was, proba- 
 bly, James Eno, second, son of the pioneer. It 
 is worthy of mention, also, in connection with 
 the early history of this family, and as evidence 
 in regard to its excellent social position, that 
 Governor Roger Wolcott, who was of a highly
 
 ii2 'The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 aristocratic family in England, and became one 
 of the most distinguished men in the Colony, 
 was brought up as a member of the household 
 of " old Mr. Eno " of Windsor. This was also 
 probably, James Eno, second, who was then 
 about 50 years of age: 
 
 David Eno, son of James Eno, second, of 
 Windsor, settled at Hopmeadow, in Simsbury- 
 He was born Aug. 12, 1702, and died in the 
 campaign to Cape Breton, at the conquest of 
 that island, in 1745. 
 
 General Roger Eno was a lieutenant-colonel 
 in Arnold's expedition against Quebec, in 1775, 
 and commanded a regiment which was raised in 
 1777, in the Revolution, and was stationed on 
 Long Island Sound; and other soldiers in the 
 Revolution, of this family, were James Eno, 
 Erasmus Eno, Abijah Eno, and James Eno. 
 Alexander Phelps, the father of John J. Phelps, 
 Esq., of New York City, married Elizabeth 
 Eno, daughter of Captain Jonathan Eno. 
 
 The line of descent of Amos R. Eno, Esq., 
 of New York City, from the Windsor pioneer, 
 is as follows : (i) James Eno, m. Anna Bid well, 
 Elizabeth Holcomb, Hester Eggleston; (2) 
 James, b. 1651, m. Abigail Bissell; (3) David, 
 b. 1702, m. Mary Gillett ; (4) Capt. Jonathan, b. 
 1738, m. Mary Hart; (5) Salmon, b. 1779, m. 
 Mary Richards ; (6) Amos Richards Eno.
 
 Windsor Descendants. 113 
 
 Amos R. Eno, Esq., originated the project 
 which resulted in raising among the gentlemen 
 of New York City, the sum of $100,000 as a 
 gift to General Grant, and as a substantial testi- 
 monial of their appreciation of his distinguished 
 services in the war for the Union. 
 
 JOHN FITCH, the inventor of steamboats, was 
 born Jan. 2i, 1743, at East Windsor, Connecti- 
 cut, and was a great grandson of Joseph Fitch, 
 the Windsor pioneer. His first steamboat, the 
 Perseverance, ran on the waters of the Delaware 
 in 1788 and '89. In 1817, a committee of the 
 New York Legislature reported that " The boats 
 of Livingston and Fulton were, in substance, 
 the invention patented to John Fitch in 1791, 
 and that Fitch, during the time of his patent, 
 had the exclusive right to use the same in the 
 United States." Fitch, however, met with many 
 discouragements, and derived no advantages from 
 his invention. He died in poverty, in 1798, 
 near Bardstown, Kentucky. 
 
 EDWAED GEISWOLD and Matthew Griswold 
 were brothers from a family of excellent social 
 position in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England. 
 Edward Griswold removed from Windsor to 
 Killingworth, which name is a corruption of 
 Kenilworth, and was, probably, selected by him 
 in honor of his former home in England. His 
 son, Francis Griswold, settled in Norwich, Con-
 
 H4 The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 necticut, and his son George Griswold, remained 
 in Poquonnoc, Windsor. George Griswold was 
 the ancestor of Bishop Alexander Viets Gris- 
 wold. 
 
 Matthew Griswold, brother of Edward Gris- 
 wold, settled in Lyme, Connecticut," and was 
 the ancestor of Governors Matthew Griswold 
 and Roger Griswold. George Griswold, Esq., 
 and Nathaniel L. Griswold, Esq., well known 
 merchants of New York City, are descendants 
 from Matthew Griswold. 
 
 Almon W. Griswold, Esq., of New York, is 
 a descendant from Edward Griswold, who settled 
 at Killingworth, Connecticut. 
 
 Major General Orlando B. Wilcox and Eben 
 N. Wilcox, Esq., of Detroit, Michigan, are de- 
 scendants from Edward Griswold. George B. 
 Granniss, Esq., of New York City, is also 
 descended from Edward Griswold. 
 
 WILLIAM HAYDEN was of a family of the 
 first respectability in England. He came to 
 Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630, was made a 
 freeman there in 1634, and settled afterwards at 
 Hartford, Connecticut. He was one of the sol- 
 diers enlisted at Hartford by Captain John Mason 
 of Windsor, for the Pequot war in 1637, and 
 
 Eliphalet Gregory was at Windsor in 1641. He settled, 
 afterwards, with the earliest pioneers, at Norwalk, Connecticut. 
 The Hon. Dudley S. Gregory, of Jersey City, N. J., is descen- 
 ded from Eliphalet Gregory.
 
 The Windsor Descendants. 115 
 
 distinguished himself at the assault on the Pequot 
 fort. In his history of the war, after giving an 
 account of their march and arrival at the fort, 
 the Captain says : " Lieutenant Seeley endeavored 
 to enter ; but being somewhat cumbred, stepped 
 back and pulled out the Bushes and so entered, 
 and with him about sixteen Men : We had for- 
 merly concluded to destroy them by the sword 
 and save the Plunder. 
 
 " Whereupon Captain Mason seeing no Indi- 
 ans, entered a Wigwam, where he was beset with 
 many Indians, waiting all opportunities to lay 
 hands on him, but could not prevail. At length 
 William Hey don > espying the Breach in the Wig- 
 wam, supposing some English might be there, 
 entered ; but in his Entrance fell over a dead 
 Indian; but speedily recovering himself, the 
 Indians some fled, others crept under their Beds," 
 etc. 
 
 A sword is now preserved in the collection of 
 the Historical Society at Hartford, which is said 
 to have been carried by William Hayden on 
 this occasion. This sword was formerly owned 
 by Thomas Hayden of Windsor, who inherited 
 it with a tradition that in the midst of the fight 
 an Indian, having drawn " an arrow to its head," 
 William Hayden cut the bowstring and saved 
 Captain Mason's life. This Thomas Hayden 
 was fourteen years old when his grandfather
 
 1 1 6 I'he Windsor Descendants. 
 
 Daniel died, and Daniel had seen his grandfather 
 William the pioneer. TrumbulPs "History of 
 Connecticut gives this honor to Sergeant Davis, 
 but Captain Mason's narrative proves that Davis 
 did not enter the fort. 
 
 William Hayden received land in the first 
 distribution at Hartford, in 1639, and sold the 
 same in 1642-3, at which time he purchased the 
 homestead at Windsor which was deeded by 
 him to his son Daniel in 1669. William Hay- 
 den went with the first settlers to Fairfield in 
 1664, and thence, the next year, with the first 
 settlers to Homonossett now Clinton. He was a 
 deputy in the general court in 1667. He died 
 Sept. 27, 1669. 
 
 Lieutenant Daniel Hayden, of Windsor, was 
 a trooper in King Philip's war. Nathaniel 
 Hayden was a soldier in the expedition against 
 the "Spanish West Indies," in 1740. Ensign 
 Nathaniel Hayden served also in the French and 
 Indian war, and in the Revolution Hezekiah 
 Hayden, the brother of the grandfather of Na- 
 thaniel Hayden, Esq., of New York, enlisted 
 early, was taken prisoner at the battle of Long 
 Island, was for a time confined in the old Jersey 
 Prison Ship, and, finally, died of starvation, 
 probably in the old Church in New York. Lieu- 
 tenant Levi Hayden, the grandfather of Mr. 
 Nathaniel Hayden, served in a troop of cavalry
 
 1"he Windsor Descendants. 117 
 
 under Putnam. Captain Nathaniel Hayden, 
 who commanded the Lexington " alarm party " 
 from Windsor, Lieutenant Thomas Hayden, 
 Ezra Hayden, Oliver Hayden, and Isaac Hay- 
 den were also soldiers in the revolution. 
 
 Samuel Hayden, Jr., built, in 1738, the house 
 now occupied by the family of the late Levi 
 Hayden. Captain Nathaniel Hayden built the 
 house now occupied by his grandson, Samuel 
 B. Hayden. 
 
 Nathaniel Hayden, Esq., of New York, 
 President of the Chatham Bank, is in the follow- 
 ing line from the pioneer: (i) William Hay- 
 den; (2) Lieut. Daniel, b. 1640, m. Hannah 
 Wilcoxsen; (3) Samuel, b. 1677-8, rn. Anna 
 Holcombe; (4) Ensign Nathaniel, b. 1709, m. 
 Marvin Gaylord ; (5) Lieut. Levi, b. 1747,10. 
 Mary Strong; (6) Levi, b. 1773, m. Wealthy 
 Haskell; (7) Nathaniel Hayden. Mr. Hay- 
 den is descended on his mother's side from Gov- 
 ernor Roger Wolcott. 
 
 Jabez Haskell Hayden, Esq., of Windsor 
 Locks, to whose investigations this work owes 
 much of its interest, is a brother of Nathaniel 
 Hayden, Esq. The other brothers are Oliver 
 Hayden of East Granby, the late Captain 
 Samuel S. Hayden, H. Sidney Hayden of 
 Windsor, Augustus Henry Hayden of Charles- 
 ton, S. C., and Levi Gaylord Hayden of Wind- 
 sor.
 
 n8 'The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 Captain Samuel S. Hayden assisted, with 
 great zeal, in raising a company for the war, in 
 1862, at Windsor Locks, and, on its organiza- 
 tion, he was appointed its captain. His regi- 
 ment was ordered to Louisiana, and was engaged 
 in a battle April 14, 1863, at Irish Bend. An 
 order to retreat, which had been given, was not 
 heard by Captain Hayden, and being sur- 
 rounded by the enemy, it is supposed that he 
 was clubbed to death with a musket. He sus- 
 tained a Christian character through all his army 
 life. He perished in the fiftieth year of his age. 
 His youngest brother succeeded in recovering 
 his remains, which now rest with his ancestors in 
 the old bury ing-ground at Windsor. 
 
 THOMAS HOLCOMBE, the pioneer of this name, 
 was born in 1601, in Hole, Devonshire, England. 
 He came to Windsor in 1635. William Fred- 
 eric Holcombe, M.D., of New York City is 
 descended from the Windsor pioneer in the fol- 
 lowing line : (i) Thomas Holcombe ; (2) 
 Nathaniel 1st, b. Nov. 4, 1648, m. 1670, Mary 
 Bliss; (3) Nathaniel 2d, b. 1673, m - Martha 
 Buell, 1694; (4) David, b. about 1698, m. 
 Mehitable Buttolph or Buttles, about 1721 ; 
 (.5) Reuben, b. 1725, m. Susannah Hayes } 
 about 1750; (6) Nahum, b. May 7, 1763, m 
 Rebeccah Moore, 1792 ; (7) Augustine, b. 
 Jan. 31, 1797, m. Lucy Bush, June i, 1825 ; 
 (8) William Frederic.
 
 Windsor Descendants. 
 
 119 
 
 MR. JOSEPH LOOMIS was of an excellent 
 family in England. He has the title of res- 
 pect " Master,' which was indicative of good 
 social position, prefixed to his name in the 
 ancient records. He came from Bristol, Eng- 
 
 ' D 
 
 land, to Windsor, about 1639, or perhaps 
 earlier. He died in 1658, therefore the names 
 of his sons, only, appear in the list of freemen 
 for 1669. His will, and the inventory of his 
 estate was presented in court, in Hartford, 
 Dec. 2, 1658. One item reads, "In plate, 
 ,16. 07 s," and, referring to an estate in Eng- 
 land from which he received some kind of an 
 income, mention is made of "The rates of 
 whole year to come." It is said that there was 
 an estate in England, many years ago, without a 
 representative, to which the members of this 
 family were heirs. The following extract from 
 a letter which was written by W. Lyngwood, 
 a barrister, to " Cousin Clarke," and dated 
 " Braintre (Co. Essex, Eng.) March 20, 1651," 
 will be found interesting as showing the social 
 relations of Mr. Joseph Loomis. 
 
 " With my love to you, my cosen Loomis, 
 cosen Culliwicke & the rest of my cosens & 
 friends there with you, I rest 
 
 Yr. very loving Cosen, 
 
 W. LYNGWOOD." 
 
 It has been already mentioned, in a former
 
 I2O 'The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 part of this work, that the Loomis homestead 
 is the oldest in Windsor, which is still in the 
 possession of the same family, and it is certain 
 that Mr. Joseph Loomis arrived with the 
 earliest party, or with the Rev. Mr. Huit, in 
 1639, as this place, which is one of the most 
 desirable in Windsor, would have been selected 
 immediately by others. It is situated at the 
 northern end of what is called the island? 
 overlooking the Farmington river, and com- 
 manding an extensive view of the surrounding 
 country, including the Connecticut valley, 
 the Windsor meadows, and the mountains in 
 the east. No finer location could have been 
 found by Mr. Loomis in Windsor ; and among 
 his nearest neighbors were Henry Wolcott, 
 George Phelps, and Matthew Allyn, who we~e 
 of the very best of the pioneer families. 
 
 Deacon John Loomis, the oldest son of 
 Mr. Joseph Loomis, was associated with Mat- 
 thew Grant, and others, in 1672, in running 
 the boundary line between Windsor and 
 Simsbury. He cooperated, also, with Mat- 
 thew Grant in sustaining the services of the 
 Rev. Mr. Warham in Windsor, in opposition 
 to the party of the Rev. Mr. Woodbridge. 
 Nathaniel and Thomas Loomis, two other 
 sons of Mr. Joseph Loomis, were in Captain 
 Mason's first troop of horse. Joseph and
 
 I'he Windsor Descendants. ill 
 
 Nathaniel Loomis were also troopers in King 
 Philip's war. 
 
 In the French and Indian war, we find the 
 names of the following soldiers who were of 
 this family, Ezra Loomis, (died at Louis- 
 berg) Eliphalet Loomis, Abel Loomis, (died) 
 John Loomis, (died) and Ebenezer Loomis, 
 and in the revolution were Stephen Loomis, 
 Jr., George Loomis, Jonathan Loomis, Elipha- 
 let Loomis, (died 1776,) Gideon Loomis, and 
 Watson Loomis. Elijah Loomis and Remem- 
 brance Loomis, of Litchfield county, who 
 were, probably, of this family, were taken 
 prisoners at Harlem Heights, and confined on 
 board the prison ships, or in the prison houses 
 of New York. Elijah Loomis died in prison 
 and Remembrance Loomis, having been ex- 
 changed, died on his way home. 
 
 Hezekiah Bradley Loomis, Esq., of New 
 York City, is descended from the pioneer of 
 this family in the following line : (l) Mr. 
 Joseph Loomis ; (2) Deacon John Loomis, 
 m. Elizabeth Scot; (3) Mr. Timothy 
 Loomis, b. 1661, m. Rebecca Porter; (4) 
 Odiah Loomis, b. 1705, m. Jane Allyn ; (5) 
 Ozias Loomis, b. 1745, m. Sarah Roberts; 
 (6) James Loomis, b. 1779, m. Abigail Sher- 
 wood Chaffee, (7) Hezekiah Bradley Loomis. 
 The name Rebecca Porter will be noticed in 
 Q
 
 122 'The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 the third generation of this lineage. She was 
 a grand-daughter of the pioneer John Porter, 
 whose daughter Mary married Samuel Grant, 
 son of Matthew Grant. 
 
 Besides Hezekiah B. Loomis, Esq., of 
 New York, the other sons of the late Mr. 
 James Loomis of Windsor, who are now liv- 
 ing are James ChafFee Loomis, Esq., of 
 Bridgeport, Connecticut, the eldest, Osbert 
 Burr Loomis, Esq., of Yonkers, New York, 
 and Colonel John Mason Loomis of Chicago, 
 Illinois, who entered the service as colonel of 
 the 26th Regiment of Illinois Infantry in the 
 late war for the Union. 
 
 Colonel Loomis sacrificed brilliant pros- 
 pects in business in accepting this command, 
 considering it to be his first duty to respond 
 to the call of his country in her hour of need. 
 He was a brave and gallant officer and served 
 with great distinction as a brigade commander, 
 under both General Grant and General Sher- 
 man. He was at the battles of Island No. 10, 
 Madrid, Corinth, Vicksburg, Mission Ridge 
 or Chattanooga, and in many other important 
 actions. 
 
 Horatio Gates Loomis, Esq., of Chicago, 
 Illinois, is the grandson of Phineas Loomis* 
 
 * As this family left Windsor at an early period, and there 
 is no published record of them, it may be interesting to fur-
 
 The Windsor Descendants. 123 
 
 of Windsor, who removed, previous to the rev- 
 olution, first to Sheffield, Massachusetts, 
 where he married Diedamia Holcombe, who 
 was a descendant from the pioneer of this name 
 at Windsor. Phineas Loomis removed in 
 1.790, from Sheffield, to Burlington, Vermont, 
 with a family of six children. He commenced 
 building his house in Burlington the same year, 
 which house is now owned by Mr. E. C. 
 Loomis, a cousin of Horatio G. Loomis, Esq., 
 and has been in the family since it was built a 
 period of seventy-nine years. 
 
 Luther Loomis, son of Phineas Loomis, 
 married Sept. 3, 1809, Harriet Bradley, who 
 was born in Sunderland, Vermont. Their chil- 
 
 nish some account of them for the use of future geneal- 
 ogists : 
 
 Phineas Loomis was born March 15, 1748, (O. S.) Windsor, 
 Connecticut. Diedamia Holcombe was born June 21, 1754, 
 at Simsbury, Connecticut. She was the daughter of Jonathan 
 Holcombe, who was born in Granby, or Simsbury, Connecti- 
 cut, married Abigail Higley,and removed to Sheffield, Massa- 
 chusetts, where he died May 9, 1790. This Jonathan Holcombe 
 was the son of Jonathan, who was the son of Jonathan, the 
 son of Nathaniel, (Stiles 1 Windsor, p. 665). Phineas 
 Loomis and Diedamia Holcombe were married at Sheffield, 
 March 24, 1774. He died at Burlington, Vermont, March 
 26, 1810, and she also died at Burlington, Feb. 26, 1831. 
 Their children were: Horace Loomis, b. Jan. 15, 1775, c '. 
 April 7, 1865, at Burlington ; Olivia Loomis, b. March 18, 1776, 
 d. Jan. 3, 1830, at Burlington ; Simeon Loomis, b. April 8, 
 1 777) d. Jan. 12, 1779, at Sheffield; Luther Loomis, b. Nov. 
 1 8, 1778, d. April 23, 1779, at Sheffield ; Amanda Loomis, b. 
 Feb. ir, 1780, d. July 3, 1837, at Naperville, Ills; Luther 
 Loomis, b. June 8, 1781, d. June 22, 1844, at Burlington ; Wel- 
 thyan Loomis, b. June 19, 1783, died at Chicago; Warren 
 Loomis, b. Aug. 27, 1788, d. Aug. 9, 1827 at Burlington. 
 (From Family Records.)
 
 124 ^ je Windsor Descendants. 
 
 dren are, Maria Loomis, b. May 26, 1810, 
 Burlington; Mary Loomis, b. May 13, 1812, 
 d. Dec. 1834; Horatio Gates Loomis, b. Oct. 
 23, 1814, Chicago, 111. ; Henry Loomis, b. 
 Aug. 31, 1818, Burlington. 
 
 Mr. H. G. Loomis is descended from the 
 pioneer Mr. Joseph Loomis, in the following 
 line: (i) Mr. Joseph Loomis; (2) Deacon 
 John, m. Elizabeth Scot; (3) David, b. 1665; 
 (4) Eliakim, b. 1701, m. Mary Loomis ; (5) 
 Phineas, b. 1748, m. Diedamia Holcombe; (6) 
 Luther, b. 1778, m. Harriet Bradley ; (7) Hora- 
 tio Gates Loomis. 
 
 CAPTAIN SAMUEL MARSHALL had a lot in the 
 palizado. He was killed in King Philip's war 
 at the attack on the Narragansett fort, Eec. 
 19, 1675. 
 
 The Hon. John Milton Niles, formerly 
 United States Senator, from Connecticut, was 
 the son of Moses Niles of Windsor and Na- 
 omi Marshall, and was a descendant in the sixth 
 generation from Captain Samuel Marshall. 
 
 The Hon. Elisha Marshall Pease, of Austin, 
 Texas, Governor of Texas, is the son of the 
 late Lorrain T. Pease, of Enfield, and Sarah 
 Marshall, of Windsor, and is a descendant in 
 the seventh generation from Captain Samuel 
 Marshall. Major General John C. Robinson, 
 United States army, married Sarah Maria
 
 'The Windsor Descendants. 125 
 
 Pease, a sister of Governor Pease. General 
 Robinson distinguished himself, at the incep- 
 tion of the rebellion, by the heroic defence of 
 Fort McHenry, which saved to the Union the 
 state of Maryland, and, probably, the city of 
 Washington. 
 
 Edward Chauncey Marshall, of New York 
 City, and Brevet Brigadier General Elisha Gay- 
 lord Marshall, of the United States army, are 
 descended from the Windsor pioneer in the fol- 
 lowing line : (i) Captain Samuel Marshall, m. 
 Mary Wilton ; (2) David, b. 1661, m. Abigail 
 Phelps ; (3) David, b. 1692, m. Sarah Phelps ; 
 (4) David, b. 1728, m. Naomi Griswold ; (5) 
 Capt. Elihu, b. 1765, m. Sabrina Griswold; 
 (6) Chauncey, b. 1794, m. Mary Hotchkiss 
 Ward ; (7) Edward Chauncey and Brevet Brig. 
 Gen. Elisha Gaylord Marshall. 
 
 The Rev. SAMUEL MATHER, came to Wind- 
 sor in 1684. This name does not appear, 
 therefore, in the list of freemen for 1669, al- 
 though no family has had a more honorable 
 record than this one, in the subsequent history 
 of the town. Timothy, the father of the Rev. 
 Samuel Mather, was born in England, was a 
 freeman of Dorchester, Massachusetts,and mar- 
 ried, about 1650, the daughter of Maj. Gen. 
 Atherton of the same town. The Rev. Rich- 
 ard Mather, the grandfather of the Rev. Sam-
 
 126 rfhc Windsor Descendants. 
 
 uel Mather, was born in the county of Lancas- 
 ter, England, had studied at Oxford University, 
 and had succeeded the Rev. Mr. Warham as 
 the pastor of the church in Dorchester, which 
 position was filled by him with great faithful- 
 ness and acceptability during a period of thirty- 
 three years, until his decease in 1669. It is a 
 curious coincidence that while the Rev. Rich- 
 ard Mather was the successor of Mr. Warham 
 at Dorchester, his grandson was also a succes- 
 sor of Mr. Warham, following the Rev. Messrs. 
 Woodbridge and Chauncey in the First Congre- 
 gational Church, at Windsor, and uniting the 
 two societies. 
 
 " Descended from a highly respectable and 
 gifted ancestry, he was one, and by no means 
 the least, of a circle of noble men, whose va- 
 ried talents and pious lives, have rendered the 
 name of MATHER distinguished among the 
 families of New England even to the present 
 day." " Graduating at Harvard College in 1671 
 he went first to Branford, Connecticut. From 
 thence he was called, in the providence of God, 
 to Windsor, where the powers of his mind, 
 the amiability of his character, and his piety, 
 speedily won the esteem and love of his peo- 
 ple, and composed the difficulties which existed 
 among them."* He married the daughter of 
 
 * Stiles' Windsor, p. 192.
 
 27; e Windsor Descendants. 127 
 
 the Hon. Robert Treat, of Weathersfield, who 
 was afterwards Governor of the colony of Con- 
 necticut. He published but one work of which 
 we have any knowledge, entitled " A Death 
 Faith Anatomised" printed in 1697, at Boston, 
 with an introduction by his cousin the distin- 
 guished Cotton Mather, author of the Magnalia 
 Americana. 
 
 The town of Windsor was represented by 
 the Rev. Mr. Mather at that venerable assem- 
 blage of the clergy at New Haven, in 1700, 
 which established Yale College. Mr. Mather was 
 a member of the first board of Trustees, which 
 was authorized, in 1699, to found a college. 
 
 The church records which are still preserved 
 in the handwriting of this worthy pastor of 
 Windsor, give proof of his great earnestness 
 in the work of saving souls. The follow- 
 ing extract from the records will be found in- 
 teresting: "1688. Not so much as one add- 
 ed to the church this year but as many died 
 out of it as were added the year before. The 
 good Lord awaken and humble us." The Rev. 
 Samuel Mather died, after a peaceful and happy 
 pastorate, March 18, 1727-8. 
 
 The following soldiers of the revolution 
 were members of this family : Sergt. Elihu 
 Mather, Sergt. Increase Mather, Samuel Math- 
 er, Dr. Timothy Mather, John Mather, and 
 Sergt. Timothy Mather.
 
 128 ^he Windsor Descendants. 
 
 General Frederick Ellsworth Mather, a prom- 
 inent lawyer of New York City, is descended 
 from the Rev. Samuel Mather in the following 
 line: (i) Rev. Samuel, born, 1651, m. Hannah 
 Treat; (2) Dr. Samuel, b. 1677, m. Abigail 
 Grant; (3) Nathaniel, b. 1716, m. Elizabeth 
 Allyn ; (4) Oliver, b. 1 749, m. Jemima Ells~ 
 worth ; (5) Ellsworth, b. 1783, m. Laura Wol- 
 cott ; (6) Frederick Ellsworth Mather. 
 
 Rev. Oliver Wolcott Mather, of Windsor, is 
 the only brother of General Frederick E. Mather. 
 
 General Mather's grandmother was a sister 
 of the distinguished Oliver Ellsworth, Chief- 
 Justice of the United States, and General 
 Mather's great great grandmother was a grand- 
 daughter of Matthew Grant. The mother of 
 General Mather, Laura Wolcott was a daugh- 
 ter of Doctor Christopher Wolcott, and a 
 granddaughter of Doctor Alexander Wolcott, 
 who was a son of the distinguished Governor 
 Roger Wolcott. 
 
 General Mather is a graduate of Yale Col- 
 lege of the class of 1833. He was commis- 
 sioned a General of brigade in the New York 
 State Militia, under Governor Seward. He 
 was a member of the assembly of the New 
 York Legislature in 1845. 
 
 The ancestor of Joel Munsell, the distinguished historical 
 publisher at Albany, New York, came into Windsor about 
 thirty years after the list of freemen, which is given in the 
 text, was reported to the General Court.
 
 'The Windsor Descendants. 129 
 
 Records also show his long official connec- 
 tion with, and active interest in the public 
 schools and different charitable institutions in 
 in the City of New York. 
 
 JOHN OWEN came early to Windsor. 
 
 The Rev. John Jason Owen, D.D., de- 
 ceased April 1 8, 1869, and Edward Hezekiah 
 Owen, Esq., a lawyer, of New York City, are 
 in the sixth generation from John Owen. The 
 Rev. Dr. Owen was the author of the follow- 
 ing valuable works, Commentaries on the Gos- 
 pels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and The 
 Acts of the Apostles, also editions of Homer's 
 Iliad, Homer's Odyssey, Thucydides, Xe- 
 nophon's Anabasis, Xenophon's Cyropaedia, 
 etc. 
 
 JOHN PETTIBONE was admitted a freeman of 
 Windsor, by the General Court, May 20, 1658. 
 He married Sarah, daughter of Bagot Eggleston, 
 Feb. 16, 1664. He removed with the first 
 settlers in 1669, to Massacoe, which plantation 
 was incorporated as the town of Simsbury, May 
 12, 1670, He died at Simsbury, in 1713, and 
 his wife died in the same year. 
 
 Colonel Jonathan Pettibone of the third 
 generation was several years ajustice of the peace, 
 and a representative. He was commissioned a 
 colonel of one of the Connecticut regiments with 
 which he marched in August, 1776, to New 
 c*
 
 130 ^he Windsor Descendants. 
 
 York, for the defence of the city, where he was 
 attacked with a malignant disease known as 
 the camp distemper. He reached Rye, New 
 York, on his way home where he died Sept. 
 26, 1776, aged 66. 
 
 The line of descent of John Owen Petti- 
 bone, Esq., of Weatogue, in Simsbury, from 
 the pioneer is as follows : (i) John Pettibone, 
 m. Sarah Eggleston ; (2) Lieut Samuel, b. 
 1672 m. Judith Shepard ; (3) Col. Jonathan, 
 b. 1710, m. Martha Humphrey ; (4) Col. Jon- 
 athan, b. 1741, m. Hannah Owen ; (5) John 
 Owen Pettibone, b. Oct. 22, 1787. 
 
 Of the above family John Owen Pettibone, 
 Esq., is the present representative. He occu- 
 pies the domicile erected by his late father, 
 which is but a short distance from the dwelling 
 erected by his ancestor John Pettibone, the 
 pioneer, more than one hundred and fifty years 
 ago, which is still tenanted, and of which he is 
 the owner. His age is now nearly 82 years. 
 Mr. Pettibone has contributed much valuable 
 material to these pages. 
 
 MR. WILLIAM PHELPS and GEORGE PHELPS, 
 who are believed to have been brothers, were 
 of an ancient and honorable family, in Staf- 
 fordshire, England. William Phelps is men- 
 tioned by the Dorchester historians among 
 those " gentlemen past middle life with adult
 
 I'he Windsor Descendants. 131 
 
 families and good estates,"* who embarked at 
 Plymouth, England, in the Mary and John, 
 March 20, 1630, and settled first at Dorches- 
 ter, Massachusetts. From Dorchester, he 
 came with Mr. Warham and Matthew Grant, in 
 1635, to Windsor. William Phelps and Ro- 
 ger Ludlow, of Windsor, were among the eight 
 commissioners appointed by the General Court 
 of Massachusetts this year C to govern the peo- 
 ple at Connecticut for the space of a year next 
 coming." His name is found also as a witness 
 to the deed of transfer of the lands in Wind- 
 sor to the settlers from the colony of New Ply- 
 mouth. Mr. William Phelps was foremost in 
 all affairs in both church and State in Windsor. 
 No one of the early* pioneers was more highly 
 respected or has left a more honorable record. 
 He was a member of the first court held in 
 Connecticut in 1636. He was also a member 
 of the court held in 1637, which declared war 
 against the Pequots. He was a magistrate from 
 1638 to 1643. -^ e was t ^ len ma de foreman of 
 the first grand jury. He was a member of the 
 committee of advice in Windsor, in 1653, in 
 reference to the levy made by the commission- 
 
 * Hist. ofDorch. by a Committee,?. 17. 
 
 In a list of the most prominent adherents of Cromwell 
 vrho were proscribed at the restoration is found the name " I. 
 Phelps." He is among those who "are degraded, and when 
 taken to be drawn from Tower to Tiburne with ropes, &c., 
 and imprisoned during life." Stiles' Judges, p. 100.
 
 132 The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 ers from the colonies assembled at Boston, who 
 had " considered what number of soldiers might 
 be necessary if God called the colonies to war 
 with the Dutch." * He was a deputy for seven 
 years and in 1658, was again made a magistrate, 
 which office he held for four years. He served 
 frequently on the petit jury, and was appointed 
 with Mr. Welles of Hartford, in 1641, a com- 
 mittee on lying. 
 
 Joseph Phelps, the fourth son of Mr. Wil- 
 liam Phelps, settled in that part of Windsor 
 called Massacoe, now Simsbury. Permanent 
 settlements were made here as early as 1664, 
 and in 1667 Joseph Phelps received, from a 
 committee of the General Court, a grant of 
 land in Massacoe. He was distinguished for 
 his bravery in numerous conflicts with the In- 
 dians who were a source of terror to the inhab- 
 itants of Simsbury. The settlement was burn- 
 ed in 1676, and the hardy pioneers were driven 
 back to Windsor; but their superior endurance 
 enabled them, finally, to drive the Indians 
 from this part of the state, and compelled them 
 to leave forever the valley of the Tunxis, 
 
 * Governor Stuyvesant anticipated an invasion of New 
 Amsterdam by the men of New England, and caused a pa- 
 lisade or wall to be erected about the northern part of the 
 city, and other defensive measures to be adopted at an ex- 
 pense of 16,000 guilders, or about $6, poo. Stuyvesant's abil- 
 ity and watchfulness prevented the invasion. Wall street, 
 of the present day, takes its ;v;.me from this wall, or palisade.
 
 I'he Windsor Descendants. 
 
 now the Farmington river.* Joseph Phelps 
 -Senior, died in Simsbury, in 1684. 
 
 His son, Joseph Phelps, of the third gen 
 eration from Mr. William Phelps, was one of 
 the most prominent citizens of Simsbury. Ht 
 was, for many years, Justice of the Peace, and 
 was elected twenty-eight times a representative 
 in the General Assembly. 
 
 Ensign David Phelps, of the fourth gene- 
 eration, was distinguished for his services in 
 the revolutionary war. His son General Noah 
 Phelps, then a captain, was a chief projector 
 and principal actor in the expedition against 
 Ticonderoga, in April, 1775. When the volun- 
 teers reached Lake Champlain, Captain Phelps 
 crossed it in a boat and entered the fort as a 
 spy. He pretended that his object was to get 
 
 * " On the Farmington River, eight or ten miles west of the 
 Connecticut, lived a considerable tribe, sometimes called the 
 Sepous, but more commonly the Tunxis. They were at an 
 early period subject to Sequassen, the sachem who sold Hart- 
 ford to the English ; and they must have formed a part of that 
 great tribe or confederacy, whose principal seat was in the val- 
 ley of the Connecticut River. 
 
 " The Indians of Massacoe or Simsburv were small in num- 
 ber and were unquestionably a portion of the Tunxis. Many 
 of them fled from their country during King Philip's war, and 
 in 1710, only a few families remained ; in 1750, the last rep- 
 resentative had disappeared. 
 
 " The Windsor Indians seem to have had their principal 
 seat at Poquonnoc, a place on the Farmington river, five or 
 six miles above its junction with the Connecticut. The first 
 sachem known to theEnglish was Sehat, or Sheat, who died 
 not long after the settlement of the town, and was succeeded 
 by his nephew Nassahegan." Abridged from De Forest's Hist 
 Conn. Indians, pp, 52, 369.
 
 134 The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 shaved and succeeded in ascertaining the con- 
 struction of the fort and strength of the garri- 
 
 o o 
 
 son. So important was his information, that 
 the works were captured, on the following 
 night, without the loss of a single man. Gen- 
 eral Noah Phelps was a Major-General of the 
 Connecticut Militia, and for twenty-two succes- 
 sive years a judge of the court of probate. 
 
 Colonel Noah Amherst Phelps, son of Gen- 
 eral Noah Phelps left Yale College to serve in 
 the revolutionary war. He filled, afterwards, 
 many offices of honor and trust, and died and 
 is buried in his native town, Simsbury. He 
 left five sons and three daughters, six of whom, 
 including the eldest, and youngest, whose ages 
 range from 65 to 84 are still living. 
 
 The sons were : 
 
 1 . Noah Amherst, educated at Yale College, 
 practised law several years in Hartford, several 
 times represented that town in the Legislature ; 
 afterward successively held the offices of High 
 Sheriff, Judge of the County Court, Collector 
 of the Customs at the port of Middletown, Sec- 
 retary of State, &c. He is still living and re- 
 sides in Hartford. He is the author of the 
 History of Simsbury. 
 
 2. Jeffery Orson, served as paymaster in 
 the Connecticut volunteers in the war of 1812, 
 was also Sheriff of the County, Judge of the
 
 I'he Windsor Descendants. 135 
 
 County Court, &c., and now, at the age of near- 
 ly eighty years is a successful law practitioner 
 in his native town of Simsbury. He represent- 
 ed his town in the Legislature many years un- 
 til 1868, when he was the oldest representative 
 in the house. 
 
 3. Hector Fayette, also educated a lawyer, 
 still lives in Simsbury and is more than sev- 
 enty years old. 
 
 4. Guy Rowland; see the sketch of his life 
 in the following pages. 
 
 5. George Dwight, the youngest of the eight 
 children, early in life entered into mercantile 
 pursuits in New York, from which he retired 
 in 1 852, and, soon afterward, accepted the man- 
 agement and presidency of the Lackawanna and 
 Western Railroad Company, now the Delaware, 
 Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Company, 
 and remained in that office four years during the 
 entire construction of the southern division 
 of that road, and until that enterprise was 
 in successful operation, and the Lackawanna 
 and Wyoming coal fields were first brought 
 into railroad communication with New York. 
 
 The line of descent of George Dwight 
 Phelps, Esq., of New York City, from the Wind- 
 sor pioneer is as follows : (i) Mr. William 
 Phelps ; (2) Joseph, m. Hannah Newton ; (3) 
 Joseph, b. 1667, m. Mary Collier, Sarah Case,
 
 136 The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 and Mary Case ; (4) Ensign David, m. Abigail 
 Pettibone ; (5) Noah * b. 1740, m. Lydia 
 Griswold; f (6) Noah Amherst, b. 1762, m. 
 Charlotte Wilcox; (7) George Dwight Phelps. 
 
 The late John J. Phelps, Esq., of New 
 York City, was descended from the pioneer Wil- 
 liam Phelps in the following line : (i) Mr. Wil- 
 liam Phelps ; (2) Joseph, m. Hannah Newton ; 
 (3) Joseph, b. 1667, m. Mary Collier, Sarah Case, 
 and Mary Case ; (4) Ensign David, m. Abigail 
 Pettibone; (5) Captain David, b. 1733, m. Abi- 
 gail dau. of Edward Griswold ; (6) Alexander, 
 m. Elizabeth Eno; (7) John Jay Phelps. 
 
 Mr. Phelps was born at Simsbury, Con- 
 necticut, October, 25, 1810. Leaving his 
 father's roof at the early age of thirteen years, he 
 commenced, without other resources than the 
 brave spirit within him, the battle of life. His 
 career was varied and uniformly successful. Be- 
 fore his majority, in partnership with George D- 
 
 * The Hon. Elisha Phelps, a son of General Noah Phelps, 
 was born Nov. 16, 1779, married Lucy Smith, of Upper Mid- 
 dletown, Conn. He died April 6, 1847. She was born Dec. 10, 
 1792, died April 19, 1847. He graduated at Yale in 1800, read 
 law at Litchfield, Conn, was State Senator, Speaker of Conn. 
 House Representatives, member of Congress, &c., &c. His 
 son, John Smith Phelps, of Springfield, Missouri, has been 
 Member of Congress, &c. His daughter Lucy Jane married 
 Amos R. Eno, Esq., of New York. His daughter Mary Ann 
 married John Allen, Esq., of New York. From Notes of 
 John Owen Pettibone, Esq. 
 
 f Daughter of Captain George Griswold, of Windsor. 
 They were married June 10,1761.
 
 I'he Windsor Descendants. 137 
 
 Prentice, Esq., he edited a newspaper in Hartford. 
 In early manhood, he manufactured glass in Penn- 
 sylvania, and made that acquaintance with the 
 coal fields of the Lackawanna Valley, which 
 was, afterward, so much a source of profit. 
 At a later period, he laid the foundation of his 
 large fortune as a wholesale merchant in the 
 City of New York, where the name of Eno & 
 Phelps is still synonymous with all that is envia- 
 ble in mercantile fame. 
 
 They dissolved after ten years co-partner- 
 ship and each commenced new firms, and these 
 different branches are still in successful opera- 
 tion. Each of these men took hold of real 
 estate and operated with great boldness. 
 
 " Before he was forty John J. Phelps had 
 built a splendid block on the site of old Grace 
 Church, and another on that of the Park Thea- 
 tre. He also initiated that march of trade to- 
 ward the north side of the town which has con- 
 tinued ever since. These operations were 
 equaled by those of his partner, Mr. Eno, who 
 finished by building the Fifth Avenue Hotel. 
 Mr. Phelps lived to see greater changes in busi- 
 ness than had previously occurred in an ordi- 
 nary lifetime. Instead of a first floor and base- 
 ment worth $1,500 per year, he beheld marble 
 palaces devoted to dry goods. He also beheld 
 great houses grow up, wielding immense capi-
 
 138 tfhe Windsor Descendants. 
 
 tal, and employing hundreds of clerks, paying 
 from $10,000 to $30,000 rent, and selling mil- 
 lions upon millions annually. He saw the im- 
 porting business merged into that of jobbing, 
 and witnessed the removal of the combined 
 trade far up town, so much so that it would be 
 difficult to find a yard of calico or broadcloth 
 on sale within three quarters of a mile of Pearl 
 street."* 
 
 As a director of the Erie Railway, Mr. 
 Phelps received the thanks of his adopted city 
 in a joint resolution of its legislative boards. 
 He was also, for a considerable period, identi- 
 fied with the management of the Delaware, 
 Lackawanna, and Western Railway Company 
 which has become, of late years, a highly pros- 
 perous incorporation. It has been created 
 by the consolidation of other companies of 
 which The Ligett's Gap Railroad Company 
 was the first organized, and Mr. John J. Phelps 
 was elected its first President in 1850, and held 
 this office after it received the corporate name 
 of The Lackawanna and Western Railroad 
 Company, when he resigned the presidency in 
 1853. The name of the company was again 
 changed, about this time, to The Delaware, 
 Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Company, 
 and Mr. Phelps remained in the Board of Man- 
 
 * From the daily newspapers.
 
 I'he Windsor Descendants. 139 
 
 agers until November 1863, during the period 
 of the inauguration by the Board and success- 
 .ful execution of the project of connecting the 
 Lackawanna coal fields by railroad communica- 
 tion with the sea coast 
 
 Mr. John J. Phelps was the first to use the 
 freestone in the architecture of New York City 
 and some of the finest edifices of the metropo- 
 lis are the product of his wealth and public 
 spirit* His long connection with the direction 
 of the Mercantile, Second National, and City 
 Bank, Camden and Amboy Railroad Compa- 
 ny, Manhattan Gas Light Company, Bleecker 
 Street Institution for Savings, and his many 
 other public and private trusts are evidences 
 of the high esteem in which his judgment and 
 fidelity were held among his fellow-citizens. 
 
 The decease of Mr. John J. Phelps took 
 place in the city of New York, March 12, 1869. 
 His remains will be conveyed to Simsbury for in- 
 terment His will contained numerous bequests 
 to educational and charitable institutions. 
 
 Mr. Phelps has left only one son, William 
 Walter Phelps, Esq., who is a well-known law- 
 yer of New York City. 
 
 The late Guy R. Phelps, M. D., son of Col- 
 onel Noah Amherst Phelps, of Simsbury, and 
 
 * James Lenox, Esq., was also one of the first to use the 
 freestone for building purposes in New York City.
 
 140 Ihe Windsor Descendants. 
 
 formerly the President of the Connecticut Mu- 
 tual Life Insurance Company, was the founder 
 of this company, and from the period of its in- 
 ception was its chief manager. Under his guid- 
 ance mainly, its business increased from small 
 beginnings, until it is now one of the oldest, 
 wealthiest, and most popular companies in the 
 country. Dr. Phelps was born in Simsbury, in 
 April, 1802. He graduated at the Yale Med- 
 ical College in 1825, and settled in the city 
 of New York where he resided only two years, 
 being compelled, on account of failing health, to 
 abandon the practice of his profession, and return 
 to his native town. In 1846, he obtained a pol- 
 icy of insurance upon his life, and being thus led 
 to investigate the subject of life insurance, he ap- 
 plied that year to the legislature for the charter 
 of a company which, when organized, bore the 
 name of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance 
 Company. He insured, himself, among his 
 friends, the first one hundred policies in the com- 
 pany and thus laid the foundations of its exten- 
 sive business. 
 
 Dr. Phelps was a pioneer in life insurance in 
 this country, and he has left a reputation for en. 
 ergy, sagacity, and probity which is greatly to be 
 envied. His mind was well stored with the truths 
 of history, science, and philosophy, and,when free 
 from the cares of his official position, he display-
 
 Windsor Descendants. 141 
 
 ed, often, in conversation great erudition. He 
 died, universally respected, at Hartford, March 
 18, 1869, aged 67 years. 
 
 Isaac N. Phelps, Esq., of New York City, is 
 descended from the pioneer George Phelps who 
 settled first in Windsor, and removed afterward 
 to Westfield, Massachusetts. 
 
 Joseph Phelps, the son of George Phelps, in 
 company with John Porter, Junior, his father-in- 
 law, Samuel Grant, Samuel Rockwell, Thomas 
 Bissell and others made the first settlement at 
 East Windsor. In 1680, he was a petitioner to 
 the General Court, with the inhabitants on the 
 east side of the river, for a separate town organ- 
 ization and church privileges. 
 
 Joseph Phelps, of the third generation, was 
 a prominent man in East Windsor. He joined 
 the church there in 1700.* Abigail Bissell, who 
 was afterward his wife, joined also at the same 
 time. In the summer of 1712, he was engaged 
 in a scout with Lieutenant Crocker, and had a 
 a narrow escape from the Indians, losing his 
 blanket, coat, and hat, besides other articles. He 
 was appointed, Jan. 28, 1717-18, with Joseph 
 Rockwell and Serg't. Bissell, to hire a school- 
 master for^East Windsor. He died in 1751, 
 aged 73 years. 
 
 * The Rev. Timothy Edwards was the pastor of this church. 
 He died and was buried in East Windsor. The Rev. Jona- 
 than Edwards, D.D., the distinguished divine, was his son.
 
 142 I'he Windsor Descendants. 
 
 Captain Daniel Phelps of this family enlist- 
 ed in the revolution, for the whole war. He 
 was at New York and New Rochelle. Dr. Isaac 
 Phelps served for three years from May 1777, in 
 the 4th Connecticut Regiment. Isaac Phelps, 
 Junior, also served in the revolution. Josiah 
 Phelps was in the revolution and was in service 
 at Old Milford. 
 
 The line of descent of Isaac Newton Phelps, 
 Esq., from George Phelps, is believed to be as 
 follows: (i) George Phelps, m. Phillury Ran- 
 dall; (2) Joseph, b. 1647, m. Mary Porter; (3) 
 Joseph, b. 1678, m. Abigail Bissell; (4) Capt. 
 Joseph, b. 1704; (5) Joseph, b. about 1725; (6) 
 Joseph, b. about 1768, m. Betty Sadd, d. 1816, 
 dau. of Matthew Sadd and Molly Grant ; (7) 
 Isaac Newton Phelps. 
 
 It will be observed, from this lineage, that 
 Mr. Isaac N. Phelps .is descended from Matthew 
 Grant and John Porter, two of the ancestors of 
 General Ulysses S. Grant. 
 
 Mr. Isaac N. Phelps was for twenty-eight 
 years the leading hardware merchant of New 
 York City. He laid the foundation of his for- 
 tune in this trade, in connection with the late firm 
 of Sheldon & Phelps. He retired from active 
 business about the year 1848, and has since de- 
 voted his time chiefly to banking and real estate 
 operations. He is the vice-president of the
 
 The Windsor Descendants. 143 
 
 Greenwich Savings Bank, and has been associat- 
 ed, for many years, in the management of sev- 
 eral banks and insurance and railroad companies- 
 ROYAL PHELPS, Esq., of New York City, is 
 descended from the pioneer George Phelps, who 
 removed from Windsor to Westfield, Massachu- 
 setts. The grandfather of Mr. Royal Phelps, 
 the Hon. John Phelps, was a prominent lawyer 
 of Westfield, a graduate of Yale College in 
 1759, and represented Hampden county, for sev- 
 eral years, in the legislature of Massachusetts. 
 The Rev. Royal Phelps, the father of Mr. Royal 
 Phelps, was born at Westfield, in 1780, graduated 
 at Yale College in 1801, and was installed as the 
 pastor of a church in Sempronius, Cayuga Coun- 
 ty, New York, in 1806. He died at Water- 
 town in 1831. Mr. Royal Phelps was born in 
 Sempronius, March 30, 1809. His mother was 
 a daughter of Colonel John Spaffbrd, of Rutland 
 County, Vermont. At the age of fifteen, Mr. 
 Phelps, who possessed an adventurous disposi- 
 tion, took passage for the island of St. Croix, 
 where he obtained a situation as a clerk in a 
 highly respectable house. In a year or two fol- 
 lowing, he set out for the Spanish Main where 
 the liberator Bolivar had recently established the 
 republic of Colombia. Mr. Phelps settled first 
 at Puerto Cabello, and, afterward, at La Guayra, 
 where he became the manager of the largest
 
 T 44 'The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 American house on that coast. In 1847, ^ e es ~ 
 tablished himself in New York, in which city 
 he has since been actively engaged in an honor- 
 able and successful mercantile career. 
 
 The line of descent of Royal Phelps, Esq., 
 from George Phelps, of Westfield, Massachusetts 
 is believed to be as follows : (i) George Phelps^ 
 m. Phillury Randall and Frances Dewey; (2) 
 George, (3) John, m. Thankful --Jan. 1711; 
 (4) John, b. March 14, 1715-16; (5) John, d. 
 May 10, 1802; (6) Rev. Royal Phelps, b. 1780 
 m. Hannah Spafford; (7) Royal Phelps. 
 
 The late Anson G. Phelps, Esq., of New 
 York City, was descended from George Phelps, 
 the Windsor pioneer. Thomas Phelps, of the 
 fourth generation, settled at West Simsbury, now 
 Canton, in 1745. Lieutenant Thomas Phelps, 
 his son, married Dorothy Lamb Woodbridge, 
 daughter of Haynes and Elizabeth Woodbridge 
 and grand-daughter of Rev. Timothy and Dor- 
 othy Woodbridge of Simsbury. Anson Greene 
 Phelps, their son, married Olivia, daughter of 
 Elisha and Elizabeth (Olcott) Eggleston, of 
 Hartford, Connecticut. She was born March 20, 
 1784. The following is the line of descent of 
 Anson G. Phelps, Esq., from George Phelps: 
 (i) George Phelps, m. Phillury Randall; (2) 
 John, b. 1651, m. Sarah Buckland ; (3) Thomas, 
 b. 1687; (4) Thomas, b. 1711, m. Margaret
 
 T'he Windsor Descendants. 145 
 
 Watson; (5) Lieut Thomas, b. 1640, m, Dor- 
 othy Lamb Woodbridge ; (6) Anson Greene 
 Phelps. 
 
 The father of Mr. Phelps, Lieutenant Thom- 
 as Phelps, was among the first to enlist from 
 Simsbury in the army of the revolution, and he 
 served throughout the whole war. He was, dur- 
 ing a considerable period of this service, an officer 
 under General Greene, and he named his son 
 Anson Greene in honor of his old commander. 
 
 Mr. Anson Greene Phelps was born in Sims- 
 bury. His father died soon after his birth, and, at 
 eleven years of age, he lost also his mother. He 
 removed, at the age of eighteen years, to Hart- 
 ford, and, about the year 1815, to New York 
 City. His commercial life in New York was 
 identified with the history of the city for half a 
 century. He was the founder of the well-known 
 firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co., and his mercantile 
 career was one of remarkable prosperity. He 
 was, however, especially distinguished in his day 
 and generation, as a devout Christian and philan- 
 thropist. He was a devoted member of Dr. 
 Spring's church, of which he was for many years 
 an elder. The Colonization Society, and many 
 other charitable institutions, owed much of their 
 prosperity to his benevolence and watchful energy. 
 Mr. Anson G. Phelps died in New York, Nov. 30, 
 1853, at the advanced age of seventy-four years. 
 7
 
 146 ^he Windsor Descendants. 
 
 The Hon. William E. Dodge married Me- 
 lissa; James Stokes, Esq., married Caroline; 
 Benjamin B. Atterbury, Esq., married Olivia; 
 and Daniel James, Esq., of Liverpool, England, 
 married Elizabeth W., daughters of the late 
 Anson G. Phelps, Esq. 
 
 Mrs. Sigourney has left us some beautiful 
 verses descriptive of the character of Mr. Anson 
 G. Phelps.* A brief selection from them will 
 be found interesting : 
 
 " The cares of conscience and the rush of wealth, 
 
 Swept not away his meekness, nor the time 
 
 To cultivate all household charities, 
 
 Nor the answering conscientious zeal 
 
 To consecrate a portion of his gains 
 
 To man's relief and the Redeemer's cause. 
 
 * * * Oh ! praise the Lord 
 
 For the example of his godly life, 
 
 And for its blessed close." 
 
 JOHN STILES came to Windsor in 1635. 
 Henry R. Stiles, M.D., of Brooklyn, New 
 York, is descended from the Windsor pioneer 
 in the following line: (i) John Stiles; (2) 
 
 * The children of Lieut. Thomas and Dorothy Lamb Phelps 
 were William Haynes, b. Aug. 24, 1767 ; George Augustus, 
 b. Nov. 12, 1769, d. July 15, 1788 ; Thomas Woodbridge, b. 
 May 6, 1772; Anson Greene, b. March 24, 1781, died in New 
 York. Lieut. Thomas, d. Feb. 28, 1789. Mrs. Dorothy L. 
 Thelpsd. Aug. 1792. 
 
 The children of the late Anson G. and Olivia Phelps 
 are Elizabeth Woodbridge (deceased), Melissa, Caroline O. 
 (dec'd); Caroline; Harriet N. ; Anson G; Olivia; LydiaAnn, 
 (dec'd). The facts in reference to the lineage of the late 
 Anson G. Phelps, Esq., were communicated by John Owen 
 Pettibone, Esq.
 
 'The Windsor Descendants. 147 
 
 John Stiles, b. in England, 1633, m. 1658, 
 Dorcas Burt ; (3) John, b. 1665 at Windsor, 
 m. Ruth Bancroft (4) John, b. 1692 at Wind- 
 sor, m. Mary Osborn ; (5) Israel b. 1719 at 
 Windsor, m., about 1748, Martha Rockwell; 
 (6) Asahel, b. 1753, at Windsor, m. Try- 
 phena Chapin ; (7) Samuel, b. 1766, at E. 
 Windsor, m. 1825*, Charlotte Sophia Reed; 
 (8) Henry Reed, M.D., b. 1832, in New York. 
 
 Dr. Stiles is the author of the following 
 works : History and Genealogies of Ancient 
 Windsor and Supplement (18591863), Mas- 
 sachusetts family of Stiles, (1863), Annota- 
 tions to Furman's Notes on Brooklyn, (1866), 
 Wallabout Prison Series, 2 vols., (1866), 
 History of the City of Brooklyn, (Vol. I. 
 1867, Vol. II, 1869), and some others which 
 are in press. 
 
 The Rev. Ezra Stiles, LL.D., formerly 
 President of Yale College, was a descendant 
 in the fourth generation from John Stiles the 
 pioneer at Windsor. 
 
 HENRY WOLCOTT, SENIOR, was the 
 second son of John Wolcott of Galdon 
 Manor, Tolland, in Somersetshire, England. 
 He enjoyed an excellent income from the 
 family estates which he inherited at the 
 decease of his elder brother, and his position 
 among the gentry of England was quite re-
 
 148 The Windsor Descendants. 
 
 spectable. Influenced, however, by a sense of 
 duty and a desire to enjoy religious liberty, 
 when about fifty-two years of age, he aban- 
 doned his ancestral mansion and emigrated to 
 America, in company with the Rev. Mr. 
 Warham, was made a freeman in Boston, Oct. 
 19, 1630, and removed in 1635, with Mr. 
 Warham's church, to Windsor, Connecticut. 
 He was the companion of Matthew Grant in his 
 journeyings, and his name appears first in Mat- 
 thew Grant's list of the church members. He 
 was a member of the first general assembly in 
 1637, and in 1643 was elected a member of 
 the house of magistrates, which office he held 
 until his death, in 1655". 
 
 Simon Wolcott, a younger son of Henry 
 Wolcott, the pioneer, was admitted a freeman 
 of Windsor in 1654. He removed afterward 
 to Simsbury, and, in 1680, to East Windsor, 
 where he died in 1687. Governor Roger 
 Wolcott was the son of Simon Wolcott, and 
 was born in Simsbury in 1678-9, but resided, 
 most of his life, in East Windsor. He was 
 one of the most remarkable men Connecticut 
 has ever produced. He was a judge of the 
 Supreme Court in 1732, deputy-governor and 
 chief-judge of the Supreme Court in 1641, the 
 second in command of the expedition which 
 resulted in the capture of Louisberg, in 1745,
 
 'The Windsor Descendants. 149 
 
 and in the year 1750 was made governor of 
 the colony. He died at East Windsor, May 
 7, 1767. His son, Oliver Wolcott of Litch- 
 field, Connecticut, the signer of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and his grandson, Oliver 
 Wolcott, of the same place, were both gov- 
 ernors of Connecticut. The second Oliver 
 Wolcott was also Secretary of the Treasury of 
 the United States under the administrations of 
 Washington and Adams. Ursula Wolcott, 
 the daughter of Governor Roger Wolcott, 
 became the wife of Governor Matthew Gris- 
 wold of Lyme. She was the wife, the daugh- 
 ter, the mother, the sister, and the aunt of a 
 governor of Connecticut. Her grand-daugh- 
 ter, Ursula (Griswold) McCurdy, was the 
 mother of Robert H. McCurdy, Esq., of 
 New York City, who is descended from two 
 governors of Connecticut, and from the 
 Windsor pioneer, " Henry Wolcott, some- 
 time a Maiestrate of this Jurisdiction." 
 
 The only male descendants who are now 
 living of the Hon. Oliver Wolcott, the signer 
 of the Declaration of Independence, are his 
 grandsons, Joshua Huntington Wolcott, Esq., 
 of Boston, Massachusetts, Frederick Henry 
 Wolcott, Esq., of New York City, and 
 Charles Mosely Wolcott, Esq., of Fishkill 
 Landing, New York. They are the sons of
 
 150 Persecutions of the Puritans. 
 
 Frederick Wolcott of Litchfield, and Betsy 
 Huntington, of Norwich, Connecticut. 
 
 8. -- PERSECUTIONS OF THE PURITANS IN 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 About the year 1630, Archbishop Laud 
 called before him in the Star Chamber Dr. Ed- 
 ward Leighton, a Scotch puritan preacher, for 
 writing against the queen of Charles I., and the 
 bishops in a book entitled, " An Appeal to the 
 Parliament, or Sion's Plea against Prelacy." 
 The tone of the book was disrespectful and fa- 
 natic, but we lose sight of its demerits in the 
 atrocious punishment of the author, who vain- 
 ly pleaded, in this infamous court, that he had 
 offended through zeal, and not through any 
 personal malice. 
 
 He was degraded from the ministry, pub- 
 licly whipped in Palace-yard, Westminster, 
 placed in the pillory for two hours, had an ear 
 cut off, a nostril slit, and was branded on one 
 of his cheeks with the letters SS., " Sower of 
 Sedition." After these detestable operations, 
 he was sent back to prison, but at the end of 
 one short week, before his wounds were healed, 
 he was again dragged forth to another public 
 whipping, the pillory, the knife, and the brand ; 
 and after he had been deprived of his other 
 ear, slit in the other nostril, and burnt on the
 
 Persecutions of the Puritans. 151 
 
 other cheek, he was thrust back into his dun- 
 geon, there to lie for life. After ten years, 
 Dr. Leighton regained his liberty, but it was 
 neither at the mercy of Laud, nor King Charles, 
 but through the parliament, which destroyed 
 alike the bishop and the king. 
 
 Mr. William Prynne was a barrister of 
 Lincoln's Inn, who with Michael Sparkes, "a 
 common publisher of unlawful and unlicensed 
 books," William Buckmer and four other de- 
 fendants, were, in Hilary term, 1634, brought 
 before the court of Star Chamber, upon infor- 
 mation filed by the Attorney-General Noy. 
 The offence charged was, that Mr. Prynne, 
 about the eighth year of Charles' reign (being 
 the current year), had compiled and put in 
 print a libellous volume, entitled " Histrio- 
 Mastix, the Player's Scourge, or Actor's Trag- 
 edie," which was directed against all plays, 
 masques, dances, masquerades, etc. The whole 
 tenor of the book, according to Noy, was not 
 less against the orthodox church of England 
 than against their sacred majesties. 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice Richardson passed 
 sentence upon Mr. Prynne that his book should 
 be burned, that he should be degraded from 
 the bar and the university, should be set in the 
 pillory, be fined .5,000, and be placed in per- 
 petual imprisonment. Upon motion of the
 
 152 Persecutions of the Puritans. 
 
 Earl of Dorset the fine was increased to ,10,- 
 ooo, and it was ordered, also, that he be burn- 
 ed in the forehead, slit in the nose and have 
 his ears cropped, in addition to the above sen- 
 tence of the Chief Justice. Buckmer was let off 
 more easily, as he had been a chaplain to Arch- 
 bishop Abbot, but Sparkes the printer was fined 
 .500, and was made to stand in the pillory 
 with a paper on his head declaring his offence. 
 
 Dr. Leighton and Mr. Prynne were men 
 of eminence, and although their zeal in the 
 cause of reforming their country may have led 
 them too far, the present generation has much 
 to thank them for. 
 
 These events transpired in the same years 
 in which the early pioneers of Windsor aban- 
 doned the homes of their forefathers for a 
 dwelling-place across the ocean, in the wilder- 
 ness, among savages, and they will suffice as an 
 illustration of the spirit of that age. Certainly, 
 their persecutors had not learned the divine 
 principles which are expressed so beautifully by 
 the Bard of Avon : 
 
 " The quality of mercy is not strained : 
 It droppeth, as the gentle dew from heaven 
 Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed 
 It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes."* 
 
 * The facts and the language of the above paper are se- 
 lected with some abridgment from The Social History of Great 
 Britain, Vol. II., p. 199.
 
 Matthew Grant's Will. 153 
 
 9. THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF MAT- 
 THEW GRANT OF WINDSOR. 
 
 (COPIED FROM THE ORIGINAL ON FILE IN THE OFFICE OF THE 
 COURT OF PROBATE FOR THE DISTRICT OF HARTFORD.) 
 
 "December 9th, 1681. Mathew Grant of Windzor being 
 aged and vnder present weaknes yet of competency of vnder- 
 standing doe by this declare my last will concerninge the diss- 
 pose of my estate as followeth. 
 
 ist. I doe declare that my son Samuell my eldest son is 
 already satisfyed with the portion I made over to hime in land 
 already recorded to him, and that is my will concerninge him. 
 
 zdly. Concerninge my son Tehan my will is that hee shall 
 haue as a legassy payd to hime in country pay by my son John 
 the full some of five pounds, and this to bee payd two years 
 after my decease. Alsoe I doe appoynt hime to gather vpp all 
 all the debts oweing to me in this towne or elsewhere, and my 
 will is, hee my son Tehan shall have them for his owne. 
 
 3dly. My will is that my son John with whome I have liued 
 some time, I doe give to hime all my meadow land in the great 
 meadow. Alsoe I give to him my pasture land lyeinge belowe 
 the hill agaynst Thomas Dibles home lott and my owne : Alsoe, 
 I doe give him the sayd John my home lott and orchard with 
 the old housinge which I built before hee came to dwell in itt. 
 Alsoe I doe give to hime my wood lott lyinge in the quarter 
 lotts. Alsoe, I give to my sonne John all the rest of my estate 
 exceptinge my weareinge clothes, my sonne John shall paye to 
 my sonne Tehan fiue pounds as is already expressed in my will 
 concerninge hime, at the times and manner afforesayd, and also 
 unto my daughter Humferyes fiue pound in country pay two 
 yeers after my decease. 
 
 Alsoe my will is and I doe giue my daughter Humferryes as 
 a legassy fiue pound to be payd in country pay two years after 
 my decease. Alsoe I giue her all my wearinge cloathes. I doe 
 make my son John sole executor of this my last will and testa- 
 ment as witnes my hand, MATHEW GRANT. 
 Witnes JOHN LOOMYS, Sen'. 
 
 The mark of x THOMAS DIBLE. 
 7*
 
 154 Matthew Grants Will. 
 
 John Loomys Senr and Thomas Dibble Senr both of them 
 personally appeared and gaue oath that this was the last Will and 
 Testament of Mathew Grant deceast as its dated : December 
 the ninth one thousand sixe hundred eighty one. Dated in 
 Wyndzor: March i, 1681. 
 Before me, 
 
 BENJAMIN NEWBERY Comission'." 
 
 AN INVENTORY OF THE ESTATE OF MATHEW GRANT OF 
 WINDSOR, DECEASED, TAKEN JANY. IOTH (8l). 
 
 lb. sh. d. 
 It. An old house and homestead with a small 
 
 orchard 25 oo oo 
 It. 5 acres of meadow and 3 acres of pasture at 
 
 6 lb. per acre 48 oo oo 
 
 It. 23 acres of woodland in the northwest feild 23 oo oo 
 
 It. In wareing cloathes woolin & linin 06 10 oo 
 
 It. In brass & pewter & one spitt 01 13 oo 
 It. In 2 chests, old beding with some lining wth 
 
 other things 02 06 06 
 
 It. Andjrons, tramells & Tubbs 01 09 oo 
 
 It. Books & other small things 01 01 oo 
 It. 2 swords, a broad axe & old iron & other things 02 05 oo 
 
 It. a bedsted, wedges, grindston & other things 01 16 oo 
 
 It. in booke debts due to him from many persons 05 18 oo 
 
 Total 118 1 8 06 
 
 Taken by us THOMAS DIBBLE, Sen', x mark. 
 JOHN LOOMYS. 
 
 [The Will and Inventory are recorded in the records of the 
 County and Probate Court at Hartford. Vol. 4, page 
 88. The foregoing copy of the Will is made from 
 the original preserved in the files. It is in the hand- 
 writing of John Loomys, Sen r . the first subscribing 
 witness.] 
 " A County Court held at Hartford, March 2d, :68|. 
 
 ##*##*# 
 " The last will & Testament of Mathew Grant was exhibited
 
 Captain Grant's Muster-Roll. 
 
 1 55 
 
 in Court, proved, & ordered to be recorded, with an Inventory 
 of his Estate." 
 
 County Court Records, Vol. IV. 
 
 Contributed by Hon. J. H. Trumbull. 
 
 10. THE MUSTER-ROLL OF CAPT. NOAH GRANT'S 
 COMPANY IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 
 
 Dated March 26, 1756. "This Muster- 
 Roil is said to be in the hand-writing of Captain 
 Grant, who was the great-grandfather of General 
 Ulysses S. Grant, U. S. A. Captain Noah 
 Grant was killed Sept. 2oth, 1756. (signed) 
 Jesse R. Grant, Covington, Kentucky." 
 
 "TIME 
 
 ENLISTED." " NAMES AND QUALITY." 
 
 "March z6.Capt. Noah Grant, Jno. Chambers, 
 Dead Sept. zoth." 
 
 " 26. Lieu' Medina Fitch, 
 
 " 26. Lieu' Josiah Gates, 
 Sarg 1 Hez kh Parsons, 
 Sarg' Sol" Willis, 
 Sarg 1 Benj." Tubbs, 
 Ditto, Ozias Bissell, 
 Clerk, Nath" Webb, 
 Sarg 1 Jno. Shield, 
 Corp 1 Jno. Shield, 
 Corp 1 Eli Parker, 
 C[orp' ] William [Pa]gc, 
 C[orp' ] Benj" Lewis, 
 Drummer, Nath. Parce (or 
 
 Pprcc), 
 Jonath. Birge, 
 Nath 1 Boardman, 
 
 Jesse Belnap, 
 John Bingham, 
 Aaron Beard [sley], 
 
 Jonah Chapman, 
 Solomon Cooper, 
 Nath 11 Dart, 
 Jedediah Darling, 
 David Dunam, 
 Richard Da[vis], 
 Alex r Dodge, 
 John Dodge, 
 Will m Eaton, 
 Tho' Elsworth, 
 Lot Fuller, 
 Dan 11 Filley, 
 Solomon Hall, 
 Ichabod Hinkley, 
 David Hatch, 
 Elisha Hubbard, 
 Benj" Hubbard, 
 Peter Huntington, 
 David Johnson, 
 He[zk h ] Kilborn,
 
 156 Lieutenant Solomon Grant. 
 
 Elijah Kilborn, Isaac Tucker, 
 
 Noah Lyon, George Tryon, 
 
 Joseph Luce, Caleb Talcott, 
 
 W m . Josiah Lewis, Zephaniah'Thayer, 
 
 Prince, Negro, James Tattington, 
 
 Jupiter, Negro, Jacob White, 
 
 Josiah Owen, Israel Warner. 
 
 Josiah Pinney, Sylvanus Willoughby, 
 
 Enos Parker, Timothy Wheeler, 
 
 Daniel Pearse, Sam" Wells, 
 
 Daniel Russ, Ephraim Wells, 
 
 Joseph Rogers, Ichabod Wells, 
 
 Rufus Root, James Webb, 
 Joshua Read, Zebulon Waterman, 
 
 James Simon, William Young, 
 
 George Smith, Joseph Sparks, 
 
 Abner Scovell, James Hunt." 
 Solomon Sey, 
 
 / The term of service of each man and the 
 amount of pay due are also entered in other 
 columns but are here omitted. 
 
 ii. LIEUTENANT SOLOMON GRANT OF THE 
 FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 
 
 Lieutenant Solomon Grant, of Coventry, probably enlisted 
 as a private, in one of the companies raised in August and 
 September, 1755, on receipt of an urgent call upon the Col- 
 ony, from Sir Wm. Johnson, for the reinforcement of the 
 northern army. A special session of the General Assembly, 
 held August 27, ordered two regiments to be raised forthwith, 
 and offered extra pay to volunteers. The two regiments, 
 commanded by Samuel Talcott and Elihu Chauncey, were 
 promptly filled, and were on their march early in September. 
 Solomon Grant's will was made September 8th, when he was
 
 Lieutenant Solomon Grant. 157 
 
 " about going in the expedition to Canada." The rolls of 
 these regiments are n.ot complete, and it does not appear to 
 which company Solomon belonged. 
 
 In March, 1756, he was appointed by the General Assem- 
 bly 2d Lieutenant of the 4th Company, Capt. John Slap, of 
 Mansfield, in the 3d Regiment (Col. Nathan Whiting), of five 
 regiments ordered to be forthwith raised. At the same time, 
 Noah was appointed Captain of the 7th Company of the 2d 
 Regiment (David Wooster's). 
 
 In May, 1756, Lieut. John Levens, of Killingly, ist Lieut, 
 of John Payson's Company, Lyman's Regiment, who had 
 been raising a company of volunteers for Crown Point, set 
 out with his command on his march northward. On the I5th 
 or 25th of June, he was at Halfmoon, and while in camp there, 
 sent out a scout toward Hoosuc, [that is I suppose, toward 
 what was then West Hoosuc, and now Williamstown, Mass., 
 where the settlers had a small fort and block house, about 
 this time]. This scout was under the command of Lieut. 
 Solomon Grant. When about twelve miles westward from 
 Hoosuc, the party was attacked by Indians, several killed, 
 and four or five carried prisoners to Canada. Of the prison- 
 ers, Thomas Wilson, of Killingly, Jonathan Eastman, of 
 Woodstock, and Zebadiah Colburn, of Windham, returned to 
 Connecticut, in the autumn of 1757. The facts above given ap- 
 pear from the petitions of these men to the General Assem- 
 bly, in Conn. Archives "War," Vol. VI. Docs. 270, 271, 278. 
 Lieut. Levens certifies, that " on the 25th day of June, the 
 said scout was beset by the enemy and sundry of the saiJ 
 scout killed." "Wilson and Eastman say that " on the 1 5th 
 of June, 1756, being ordered out with a scouting party under 
 the command of Lieut. Solomon Grant, [they] were captivated 
 by a party of the enemy Indians about twelve miles to the 
 westward of Osuck Fort, and from thence .... carried to an
 
 158 Lieut enam Solomon Grant. 
 
 Indian town about eight miles from Montreal." Wilson re- 
 turned to Killingly, Sept. 10, 1757. 
 
 There is a difference of ten days, June 15 and 25 : nine 
 between Levens's statement and that of the returned captives. 
 
 Neither of the two petitions mentions the death of Lieut. 
 Grant, but there is hardly room for doubt that he was among 
 the killed.* Local tradition agrees substantially with these 
 facts. The reader will find below an extract from a carefully 
 prepared and generally trustworthy manuscript History of 
 North Coventry, written five and twenty years ago, by the 
 minister of that parish. Mr. Root makes the place of the 
 attack, " near Springfield," instead of the west border of 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Several months may have elapsed before the certainty 
 of Grant's death was known to his friends in Coventry. 
 The Inventory of his estate was not made until March 16, 
 1757- 
 
 " Solomon Grant first occupied the farm [which was Jas- 
 per Gilbert's place, in 1844]. He was a bachelor, and built 
 the house which was taken down to make room for the pres- 
 ent dwelling. One asked him ' Why he built ? He had no 
 housekeeper.' ' I intend,' he replied, ' to build a cage first, 
 and then catch the bird to put in it.' In the old French war 
 it fell to his lot to go and serve his king. When on his way 
 to join the army, he was surprised and cut off, he and his com- 
 rades, six in number, by the Indians, near Springfield, in the 
 night. Previous to his leaving home he made his will, [Sept. 
 
 *Azariah Wills, of Tolland, was one of the party under 
 command of Lieut. Solomon Grant, when the latter was kill- 
 ed, June 25, 1756. He was carried prisoner to Canada, and 
 not released till Nov., 1758. On his journey home, he died, 
 Nov. 1 8. Waldo's Hist, of Tolland, p. 44. Wills was a pri- 
 vate in Capt, John Slap's Company, and enlisted April 2. 
 Hon. J. H. T.
 
 Lieut. Solomon Grant's Will. 159 
 
 8, I75S]> and gave a donation to the Society for the purpose of 
 education [^200, old Tenor] which is still in existence ; the 
 youths have the income of the fund in the School Society. He 
 entailed his estate which has been the source of some trouble 
 to the owners of the land. 
 
 " His brother Noah Grant, on his [Solomon's] decease, im- 
 proved the farm ; he sold it to John Babcock, who sold to Jo- 
 seph G. Norton, who sold to Royal Wales, who sold to Jas- 
 per Gilbert, who sold to Lyman Talcott, who sold to Jasper 
 Gilbert. For many years some one has merchandized on this 
 place." Extract from an unpublished (MS.) History of North 
 Coventry, by Rev. Marvin Root, (1844); in library of Conn. 
 Hist. Society. Contributed by Plon. J. H. Tntmbull. 
 
 12. THE WILL OF LIEUTENANT SOLOMON 
 GRANT. 
 
 In the name of God, Amen, the eighth day of September, 
 A.D. 1755. 
 
 I, Solomon Grant of Coventry, in the County of Windham 
 and Colony of Connecticut, in Xe\v England, being about go- 
 ing on the expedition against Crown Point, and also of per- 
 fect mind and memory Thanks be to God therefor calling 
 into mind the mortality of my body, and knowing that it is 
 appointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain this 
 my last Will and Testament ; that is to say, Principally, and 
 first of all, I give and recommend my soul into the hands of 
 God that gave it, and my body I recommend to the earth, to 
 be buried in decent Christian burial, at the discretion of my 
 Executor, nothing doubting but at the General Ressurrection 
 I shall receive the same again, by the mighty power of God, 
 and as touching such worldly estate, wherewith it hath pleased 
 God to bless me in this life. 
 
 I give, devise, and dispose of the same, in the following 
 manner and form.
 
 160 Lieut. Solomon Grant's 
 
 Imprimis. I give and devise unto my well-beloved 
 brother, Noah Grant, all and every part of my real estate du- 
 ring his natural life. At his decease I give the whole of said 
 estate to my said brother's oldest son then surviving, and at 
 his decease to the next oldest male heir, and so on, to be an 
 estate entail, in manner aforesaid, successively from one gen- 
 eration to another to the latest posterity. 
 
 Item. I give and bequeath unto my well-beloved brother 
 Adoniram Grant, after my debts and funeral expenses are 
 paid, and also he paying what I shall hereafter bequeath, the 
 whole of my movable estate. 
 
 Item. I give and bequeath to my well-beloved sister, Martha 
 Price, one hundred pounds in old tenor bills of credit, to be 
 paid out of my movable estate. 
 
 Item. I give and bequeath to my well-beloved brothers, 
 Benjamin and Elias Buell, each of them twenty pounds, in 
 old tenor bills of credit, to be out of my movable estate. 
 
 Item. I give and bequeath to my well-beloved sister, 
 Abigal Buell, ten pounds in old tenor bills of credit, to be paid 
 out of my movable estate. 
 
 Item. I give and bequeath to my well-beloved brother, 
 Samuel Buell, five pounds, in old tenor bills of credit, to be 
 paid out of my movable estate. 
 
 Item. I give and bequeath unto my well-beloved sister, 
 Hannah Kimball, five pounds in old tenor bills of credit, for 
 the use and benefit of the School in said Society, to be paid 
 out of my movable estate. 
 
 All the above legacies to be paid by my Executor after 
 named, within the space of one year after my decease. 
 
 I do hereby constitute, make, and ordain my well-beloved 
 brother, Adoniram Grant, to be my sole Executor of this my 
 last Will and Testament, and I do hereby disallow, revoke, 
 and disannul all and every other former Testaments, Legacies, 
 Bequests, and Executors by me in any way before named, 
 ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last Will 
 and Testament. 
 
 In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal 
 the day and year above written. 
 
 SOLOMON GRANT. [L. S.]
 
 I'he Delano Family. 16 1 
 
 Signed, Sealed, Published, Pronounced, and declared by 
 the said Solomon Grant, as his last Will and Testament, in 
 the presence of the subscribers, 
 
 PHINEAS STRONG, JR. 
 CALEB FAIRCHILD, 
 OZIAS STRONG. 
 
 The Inventory accompanying the Will gave the property 
 as about nine hundred pounds sterling. Contributed by Hon. 
 Richard A. Wheeler. 
 
 13. THE DELANO FAMILY. 
 
 e La Noye, or as afterward written Delano, came 
 to Plymouth in the "Fortune," Nov. 13, 1621 ; "from Ley- 
 den," as Winslow informs us {Hypocrisie Unmasked, p. 96), 
 " born of French parents ; who coming to age of discern- 
 ment, demanded also communion withvs, and proving him- 
 self to be come of such parents as were in full communion 
 with the French churches, was hereupon admitted by the 
 church of Plymouth ; ..... and upon letters of recom- 
 mendation from the church at Plymouth, hee was also ad- 
 mitted into fellowship with the church at Duxbury." He 
 was, probably, the son of Jean and Marie de Launey [or de 
 Lanoue] baptized Dec. 7, 1603, in the Walloon church of 
 Leyden. In a deposition given in 1641, he is described as 
 " Philip De Lanoe, planter, of Duxbury, aged about thirty-six 
 years." [This refers his birth to 1604 or 1605, but if his age 
 at death is correctly given, he must have been born about 
 1602, which makes identity with the child of Jean and Marie, 
 baptized in 1603, more probable. See Savage's Geneal. Dic- 
 tionary, ii. 34.] At Duxbury, he married, Dec. 19, 1634, Es- 
 ther Dewsbury, and (2) in 165 7, Mary, dau. of William Pontus 
 and widow of James Glass. He removed from Duxbury to 
 Bridgewater ; was one of the purchasers of Dartmouth, in
 
 1 62 The Delano Family. 
 
 1652, and of Middleborough, in 1662 ; and died, 1681, "aged 
 about 79 years.'' 
 
 Jonathan, son of Philip and Esther [Dewsbury] De la Noye 
 born about 1648, was prominent in town affairs in Dartmouth. 
 He married Feb. 26, 1678, Mercy Warren, dau. of Nathaniel. 
 Died, Dec. 23 (or 28), 1720. 
 
 Jonathan,* eldest son of the preceding, came from Dart- 
 mouth to Tolland, Conn., May 8, 1722, He was a selectman 
 of Tolland for eleven years, and town clerk (his father had 
 filled the same office at Dartmouth), for twelve years, 1724- 
 1736. His surname and that of his descendants has been 
 written Delano. He had thirteen children. (Waldo's Hist, 
 of Tolland, 114.) His fifth daughter Susannah, born June 
 23, 1724, married Noah Grant, Nov. 5, 1746. 
 
 The name of De la None was not uncommon in Paris in 
 the :6th and I7th centuries. It came probably from Brittany, 
 where it belonged to an ancient and honorable family. One 
 of the most distinguished members of this family, born in 
 1531, Francois de la Noue, known as the Iron-armed (Bras de 
 fer), deserved to be, if he were not, an ancestor of the Gene- 
 ral. "He was," says Moreri, "not only un grand capitaine, 
 but with talents for public affairs, and distinguished as much 
 by his prudence as by his valor, in whatever situation he was 
 placed." He professed the reformed religion in Brittany, 
 when a young man. At the taking of Fontenay, he lost an 
 arm, and after he replaced it by an iron one, which served 
 
 *" Jonathan Delano and his wife Amy, came from Dart- 
 mouth in the County of Bristol, in his majesties province of 
 Massachusetts Bay, and settled in Tolland on ye 8th day of 
 May, 1722." Tolland Records. He died March 25, 1752, aged 
 72 years. An interesting letter from Jabez Delano of Dart- 
 mouth, to his brother Jonathan Delano, at Tolland, is pub- 
 lished in the Hist, and Gen. Reg., vol. VII. p. 136.
 
 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 163 
 
 him to guide his horse, he received the name of Bras defer. 
 In the wars of the Netherlands, when taken prisoner by the 
 Spaniards in 1580, he was honored by being held a captive for 
 more than four years, and at last exchanged for Count Eg- 
 mont. He was killed at the siege of Lamballe, in 1591. 
 Contributed by the Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull. 
 
 14. THE GENEALOGY OF THE FAMILY OF GEN- 
 ERAL GRANT. 
 
 " The sacred tie of family, which, reaching 
 backward and forward, binds the generations of 
 men together, and draws out the plaintive music 
 of our being from the solemn alternation of cra- 
 dle and grave, those significant expressions which 
 carry volumes of meaning in a word, Forefather, 
 Parent, Child, Posterity, Native Land; these all 
 teach us, not blindly to worship, but duly to 
 honor the past, to study the lessons of experience, 
 to scan the high counsels of man in his great 
 associations, as those counsels have been devel- 
 oped in constitutions, in laws, in maxims, in tra- 
 ditions, in great undoubted principles of right 
 and wrong which have been sanctioned by the 
 general consent of those who have gone before 
 us."* Edward Everett. 
 
 FIRST GENERATION. i. MATTHEW 
 GRANT 1 was probably one of the original com- 
 
 *For an argument in favor of genealogies, the reader is re- 
 ferred to the first chapter of Saint Matthew, in which he will 
 find recorded " the genealogy of Christ."
 
 164 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 
 
 pany who sailed from Plymouth, England, in the 
 Mary and John, and landing at Nantasket, May 
 30, 1630, settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts. 
 He was made a freeman at Dorchester, in 1631. 
 He removed to Windsor, Connecticut, with the 
 very earliest, in October, 1635, and was the sec- 
 ond town clerk there ; also the first, and for many 
 years more than forty the principal surveyor. 
 
 He was born Tuesday, October 27, 1601, 
 and married Nov. 16, 1625, his first wife Pris- 
 cilla, who died April 27, 1644, aged 43 years 2 
 Tionths. He married, secondly, Susannah, wid- 
 ow of William Rockwell, May 29, 1645, in 
 Windsor. She was born Monday, April 5, 
 1602, and died Nov. 14, 1666. Her children by 
 Mr. Rockwell are given on page i oo. " Mat- 
 thew Grant, Recorder," died Dec. 16, 1681, hav- 
 ing for four years preceding resided with his son 
 John. His will and the inventory of his effects 
 are given on pages 153-4. 
 
 The children of Matthew Grant, by his first 
 wife Priscilla, were : 
 
 2, Priscilla 2 , b. Sept. 14, 1626; m. Oct. 14, 1647, Mi- 
 chael Humphreys. 
 
 3 j SAMUEL S b. in Dorchester,* Mass. Nov. 12, 1631; 
 married Mary Porter, May 27, 1658. 
 
 * Extracts from the Windsor Church Record, written by 
 Matthew Grant. 
 
 " John Porter came from Ingland and settled in Windsor 
 in 1639. 
 
 His daughter Mary was Borne July 17, 1653."
 
 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 165 
 
 4, Tahan, 9 b. in Dorchester, Mass., Feb. 3, 1633, d. May 
 1693; m. Jan. 22, 1662, Hannah Palmer; m. 2d, Hannah 
 Bissel, probably in 1690- 
 
 5, John,* b. in Windsor, April 30, 1642; m- Aug. r, 
 1666, Mary Hull. 
 
 SECOND GENERATION. 3. SAMUEL 
 GRANT 2 was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, 
 Nov. 12, 1631. He came with his father, 
 Matthew Grant, to Windsor, in 1635. He was 
 u made free " at the General Court, May 1 8, 
 1654. Matthew Grant gave his lands, " without. 
 the east bounds of Windsor," in February 1674, 
 '75 to his sons Samuel and John. Samuel Grant 
 settled, about this time, on these lands which are 
 situated on the little eminence in the rear of the 
 East Windsor Theological Institute. This is 
 the old homestead of the Grants and is still in 
 the possession of the family, being the residence 
 of Major Frederic William Grant. SamueP 
 married Mary Porter,* of Windsor, May 27, 
 1658. 
 
 " Samuel Grant was Borne, November ye 12, 1631, in Dor- 
 chester. He was married to Mary Porter, May 27, 1658. 
 His sonn Samuell Grant was Borne, Aprell 20, 1659.'' 
 ********** 
 
 " Samuel Grant was married to Anna filley, Desember 6, 
 1683." 
 
 " His daughter Anna was born Septembre 2, 1684." 
 
 Contributed by Hon. J. H. Trumbull. 
 
 * Daughter of the above mentioned John Porter, who was 
 a prominent man of ancient Windsor (Stiles). He died in 
 1648 ; his name does not appear therefore in the list of free 
 men given on page 105. John Bliss Porter, M.D., of Coven-
 
 1 66 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 
 
 The children of Samuel Grant 2 and Mary 
 his wile, were : 
 
 6, SAMUEL S b. April 20, i659;d. May 8, 1710; m. 1st 
 Hannah Filley, Dec. 6, 1683 who died April 18, 1686; m. 
 zd, Grace Minor. 
 
 7, John 3 , b. April 24, 1664; d. July 1695 ; m. June 5, 
 1690, Elizabeth Skinner, and had John 4 , b. March 3, 1690-1. 
 
 8, Matthew, b. Sept. 22, 1666, m. Hannah Chapman, 
 Oct. i, 1690. 
 
 9, Josiah 3 , the progenitor of most of the Grant family in 
 Eastern Connecticut; b. March 19, 1668 ; was at E. W. in 
 1693; removed to Stonington 1695 or 6 ; d. March 28, 
 1732 ; married at S. July 8, 1696, Rebecca, 'dau. of Ephraim 
 and Hannah (Avery) Minor, and had Josiah 4 , John 4 ,Oliver 4 > 
 Noah 4 ,* and Minor 4 ; she d. Jan. 15, 1746-7, aged 75. 
 
 10, Nathaniel 3 , b. April 14, 1672; m. May 16, 1689, 
 Bethiah Warner. 
 
 11, Mary 3 , b. Jan. 23, 1675. 
 
 12, Sarah 3 , b. Jan. 19, 1678. 
 
 13, Abigail 3 , m. April 1704, Dr. S. Mather. 
 
 THIRD GENERATION. 6. SAMUEL 
 GRANT S , was born at the home of the Pioneer 
 in Windsor, April 20, 1659. He died May 
 8, 1710. The inscription on his tombstone, 
 
 try, Conn, late Surgeon U. S A., an able contributor to this 
 work, is a great grandson of Thomas Porter, the first of the 
 name in Coventry, who was the son of Samuel Porter, of Had- 
 ley, and Hannah Stanley, descended from John Porter and Rose, 
 his wife, of Windsor. General Peter Buell Porter was also 
 probably a descendant from John Porter. 
 
 * Noah 4 , b. Jan. 13, 1705-6; m. Rachel and had, in 
 
 North Stonington 
 
 Noah, b. Oct. 9, 1730, so that this name was a favorite one 
 in both branches of the family. Hon. J. H. T.
 
 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 167 
 
 which has been copied by Maj. F. W. Grant is 
 as follows ; " Here lyeth the body of Samuel 
 Grant, son of Samuel Grant, who died May 8, 
 1710, aged 51 years." He married first, Han- 
 nah Filley, of Windsor, Dec. 6, 1683, who died 
 April 18, 1686, and second, Grace, daughter of 
 John and Elizabeth [Booth] Minor, of Stratford, 
 April 11, 1688. John Minor was the son of 
 Lieut. Thomas Minor, of Stonington, and Grace 
 Minor, his wife, daughter of Walter Palmer of 
 [Charlestown and Rehoboth, Mass., and] Ston- 
 ington, Conn.* 
 
 Samuel Grant 3 , by his first wife Hannah -j- had 
 
 14, Sarah 4 , b. Sept. 2, 1684. By his second wife, Grace, 
 his children were : 
 
 15, Hannah 4 , b. March 28, 1689 ; m. April. 1712, John 
 Gaylord. 
 
 1 6, Samuel 4 , b. Sept. 19, 1691, the inscription on his 
 tombstone, at E. W. copied by Maj. Grant is " Here lyeth 
 the body of Samuel Grant who died April 7, 1751, aged 60 
 years." 
 
 17, NoAH 4 , b. Dec. 1 6, 1692 ; m. June 12, 1717, Mar- 
 tha Huntington. 
 
 1 8, Abigail 4 , b. Dec. 15, 1695. 
 
 19, Ephraim 4 $ b. Aug. 24, 1698. 
 
 * Notes of Hon. J. H. Trumbull. 
 
 f Both mother and daughter's name is Anna in Old Church 
 Rec. Stiles. 
 
 J Capt. Ephraim, bro'r of (u/) Noah, of Tolland. Captain 
 of Military Company of Tolland, May, 1751, Oct. 1756. 
 
 His son Ephraim, born 1726, was Lieutenant of the same 
 company in 1774-75. 
 
 His son Ebenezer, born 1756, was a private in 1775. He 
 enlisted, May 5, 1775, in Capt. Solomon Wills's Company,
 
 i68 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 
 
 20, Grace 4 , b. Aug. 17, 1701. 
 
 21, David 4 , b. Dec. 10, 1703; m. Dec. 21, 1727, Eli- 
 zabeth Chapman. 
 
 22, Captain Ebenezer 4 , b. Oct. 1706; resided at East 
 Windsor; m. Nov. 10, 1737, Anne Ellsworth who d. Feb. I, 
 1790, in 6pth year ; chosen Captain of E. W. military com- 
 panies 1752, children, Anna 5 ; Eunice 5 , Ebenezer 5 , Rebekah 5 , 
 Captain Roswell * 5 , b. March 9, 1746, d. Dec. 31, 1834, fa- 
 ther of Major Frederic William Grant 6 , of E. W. Hill ; 
 Anne 5 ; Eunice 5 . 
 
 FOURTH GENERATION. 17. NOAH 
 
 GRANT 4 , was born at the homestead in East 
 Windsor, Dec. 16, 1692. He married June 12, 
 1717, Martha Huntington, bom Dec. 9, 1696, 
 daughter of John and Abigail (Lathrop) Hunt- 
 ington, of Norwich, Connecticut, a family which 
 has had several distinguished members.^ In 
 
 (Jos. Spencer's Regiment), and was in service, near Boston 
 until Dec. 17, 1775, 7 months 5 days. Contributed by Hon. 
 J. H. Trumbull. 
 
 * Captain Roswell Grant of East Windsor, was one of the 
 commissaries of brigade of the continental army, appointed 
 by the Connecticut Legislature in October, 1780, and served 
 two years. He was also Pay-Master and Judge Advocate. 
 He received a pension for such services from the government. 
 He and his father, Captain Ebenezer Grant, were graduates 
 of Yale College and were prominent men in East Windsor. 
 Major Frederic William Grant was born December 12, 1797, 
 and is the youngest of eight children. He has only one 
 brother alive, Mr. P. Winthrop Grant, who resides in Con- 
 neaut, Ohio, and is seventy-five years of age. 
 
 f Samuel Huntington, a descendant of this family, was one 
 of the first Supreme Court Judges and Second Governor of 
 Ohio. " Governor Huntington used to call on my father, 
 sixty-four years ago, and they claimed to be cousins." Jesse 
 R. Grant, Esq. Seth Hastings Grant, Esq., of New York City, 
 is descended from Josiah Grant 4 , whose family is mentioned 
 in the History of Windsor. Mr. S. H. Grant's descent is in 
 the line, (4) Josiah, (5) Increase, (6) William, (7) Asahel, (8) 
 Seth Hastings. Stiles' Windsor, p. 635.
 
 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 169 
 
 April, 1713, lots were set out, by the committee 
 of the town of Windsor to Noah Grant, and 
 others in Tolland. He had gone to Tolland to 
 reside "as early as the beginning of 1718, per- 
 haps half a year earlier. He was one of the se- 
 lectmen of the new town in 1722, '24 and '25. 
 He died Oct. 16, 1727." 
 
 The children of Noah Grant 4 , and Mary his 
 wife were : 
 
 23, CAPT. NOAH B , b. July 12, 1718 ; m. Nov. 5, 1746, 
 Susannah Delano. 
 
 24, Adoniram 5 , b. Feb. 27, 1721. 
 
 25, Lieut. Solomon 5 , b. Jan. 29, 1723, joined the Crown 
 Point Expedition, was killed on a scouting party, near Wil- 
 liamstown, Mass, about June 25, 1756, see page 158. 
 
 26, Martha 5 , b. June 9, 1726. 
 
 FIFTH GENERATION. 23. CAP- 
 TAIN NOAH GRANT S was born at Grant's Hill, 
 in Tolland, Connecticut, July 12, 1718. He 
 married Nov. 5, 1746, Susannah, daughter of 
 Jonathan Delano, * of Tolland, a descendant 
 from Philip De La Noye, who came to Ply- 
 mouth in 1621, from Leyden.f He removed 
 about 1750 to the adjoining town of Coventry. 
 He and his brother Solomon joined the expe- 
 dition against Crown Point in 1755. He was 
 the comrade of Putnam, Stark, and Rodgers, 
 
 * The Hon. Columbus Delano, late member of the House of 
 Representatives in Congress, from Ohio, is a descendant of this 
 family. Jesse R. Grant, Esq. 
 
 f See page 161. 
 
 9
 
 170 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 
 
 at Lake George. He served with great dis- 
 tinction, and was promoted to a captaincy. 
 He was killed while out with a scouting party 
 from Fort William Henry, Sept. 20, 1756. 
 
 The children of Captain Noah Grant 5 and 
 Susannah were : 
 
 27. CAPTAIN NOAH ", b. June 20, 1748; m. 1st, Mrs. 
 Anna Richardson ; she died, and then he m. 2nd, Rachel 
 Kelly. 
 
 28. Peter. ' 
 
 SIXTH GENERATION. 27. CAP- 
 TAIN NOAH GRANT 6 was born in Tolland, 
 Connecticut, June 20, 1748 ; he died at Mays- 
 ville, Kentucky, Feb. 14, 1819. He married, 
 first, Mrs. Anna (Buell*) Richardson, and 
 after her decease, which was about the year 
 1787 or 1788, he married, in Westmoreland 
 County, Pennsylvania, March 4, 1792, Rachel 
 Kelly. She died in Deerfield, Ohio, April 10, 
 1 805. Captain Grant enlisted at the first call for 
 troops for Lexington, and served through most 
 of the revolution. He removed about 1790 
 to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania; after- 
 ward to Liverpool, Columbiana county, and 
 again to Deerfield, Portage County, in the 
 State of Ohio. 
 
 * Probably descended frcm the pioneer William Buell a 
 Windsor ; his son Peter settled in Simsbury, see page 106.
 
 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 171 
 
 The children of Captain Noah Grant 6 . 
 and Anna his wife, were : 
 
 29. Solomon 7 , b. about 1779; remained in Coventry, 
 with his grandfather Bucll ; was well educated, and at twenty 
 years of age went to the island of Demerara, as overseer on a 
 sugar plantation ; not heard from, after 1798, and is supposed 
 to have fallen a victim to the climate. 
 
 30. Peter 7 , b. Nov. 4, 1781; settled in Kentucky in 
 1802 ; married, and had ten children ; was drowned Jan. 10, 
 1829 ; wa: very wealthy ; but three of his children now liv- 
 ing, they lost their property, and, many of them, their lives 
 in the rebellion, which they favored. 
 
 The children of Captain Noah Grant 6 , 
 and Rachel, his second wife, are : 
 
 31. Susan 7 , b. Dec. 7, 1792; m. Bailey Hudson, in 
 1815 ; they had six children, Silas A. 8 , appointed Minister to 
 Guatemala, 1869; Noah e , Bailey *, promoted in the regu- 
 lar army for gallant services during the Mexican war, and 
 was afterward killed by the Indians ; John ", still living, 
 Peter 9 , served a good part of the late war on Gen. Grant's 
 staff with the rank of Lieut. Col. and was a gallant officer. Mr. 
 Hudson died in 1825; two years after she married Henry 
 Grimes and has had two more children. They are living 
 now in California, she in her 77th year and he about 80. 
 
 32. JESSE ROOT, \ b. Jan. 23, 1794 ; in. June 24, 1821, 
 Hannah Simpson. 
 
 33. Margaret B., ' b. Oct. 23, 1/95. 
 
 34. Noah B. 7 b. Nov. 1797, d. Jan. 10, 1821 ; had five 
 children, one died in the confederate army. 
 
 35. John Kelly 7 , b. June 2, 1799 ; accumulated proper- 
 ty, travelled much, and d. in Texas, Jan. 23, 1832. 
 
 36. Roswell B. 7 b. Jan. 10, 1802; lived, from early 
 boyhood in Kentucky and Virginia ; married three times,
 
 172 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 
 
 and has three children by his first wife ; favored the rebel- 
 lion ; still living. 
 
 37. Rachel B. 7 b. Sept. 10, 1803; m. William Tomp- 
 kins about 40 years ago, and settled in West Virginia, at 
 Charleston, on the Kanawha River; Mr. Tompkins died 
 l 2 years ago, leaving his wife wealthy, with eight children, the 
 youngest of age ; all favored secession; she lost $100,000 by 
 the war ; she is still living. 
 
 SEVENTH GENERATION. - 32. 
 JESSE ROOT GRANT 7 was born January 23, 1794, 
 in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, near 
 Greensburg, and twenty miles above Pittsburg, 
 on the Monongahela River. He was named 
 for the Hon. Jesse Root Chief Justice of the 
 Superior Court of Connecticut. He married 
 Hannah Simpson June 24, 1821, at Point 
 Pleasant, Clermont county, Ohio. He man- 
 aged a tannery at Point Pleasant, Georgetown, 
 and other places in Ohio, and, finally, was inter- 
 ested in a leather store at Galena, Illinois. 
 He retired from business at 60 years of age, 
 and resides now at Covington, Kentucky. Al- 
 though he is in his 76th year, he is still 
 healthy and active, and has been, for more 
 than three years, the post-master of Cov- 
 ington, having the charge of a first class 
 post-office in a city numbering about thirty 
 thousand inhabitants.
 
 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 173 
 
 The children of Jesse Root Grant 7 , and 
 Hannah, his wife, are : 
 
 38. GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON, 8 b. April 27, 
 1822; m. Aug. 22, 1848, JuliaB., daughter of Colonel Fred- 
 erick Dent, of St. Louis, Missouri. 
 
 39. Samuel Simpson, 8 b. Sept. 23, 1825; an excellent 
 man, well known in the eastern cities as the model merchant 
 of Galena ; d. in Minnesota Sept. 13, 1861. 
 
 40. Clara B. 8 b. Dec. n, 1828; d. March 6, 1865. 
 
 41. Virginia Paine, * b. Feb. 20, 1832, m. May 13, 
 1869, Hon. Abel Rathbone Corbin, of New York City. 
 
 42. Orville Lynch 8 b. May 15, 1835, m. Mary Medary, 
 April, 1857; a leather and saddlery merchant at Chicago, 
 Illinois ; has four children, Harry 9 , Simpson ', Jesse Root ' 
 and Virginia 9 . 
 
 43. Mary Frances; 8 b., Julv 30, 1839, m. Nov. 1863, 
 the Rev. M. J. Creamer ; he is the consul at Leipsic, Ger- 
 many ; he has one young child, Clara Virginia. 
 
 EIGHTH GENERATION. 38. GEN- 
 ERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 8 was born 
 April 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont 
 County, Ohio. He married Aug. 22, 1848, 
 Julia B., daughter of Colonel Frederick Dent, 
 of the ancient family of that name from White- 
 haven, Maryland. The family had an old 
 home in Maryland, which was granted to his 
 ancestors by King Charles. Colonel Dent, 
 now eighty-one years of age, is living with 
 General Grant at Washington. Ulysses S. 
 Grant was entered a cadet at the Military Ac- 
 ademy, in 1839, Bvt. Sec. Lieut. 4th Inf. July
 
 174 Genealogy of Gen. Grant. 
 
 1, 1843. In Mexican War, 1846, '48, Bvt. 
 First Lieut., forMolino del Rey, Sept. 8, 1847, 
 Bvt. Gapt. for Chapultepec, Sept. 13, 1847, 
 resigned as Captain 1854. Colonel 2ist Ills., 
 June 17, 1861, Brig. Gen. U. S. Vols. May 17, 
 1861, Maj. Gen. U. S. Vols. for Fort Donelson, 
 Feb. 16, 1862, Maj. Gen. U. S. Army, July 4, 
 1863, for Vicksburg, Lieut. Gen. U.S.A. March 
 
 2, 1864, Battle of Chattanooga. Surrender of 
 Lee at Appomattox C. H. April 9, 1865. 
 
 GENERAL* UNITED STATES ARMY, July 25, 1866. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 MARCH 4, 1869. 
 
 The children of General Ulysses Simpson 
 Grant 8 and Julia his wife, are : 
 
 44, Frederick Dent 9 b. May 30, 1850; a cadet at West 
 Point. 
 
 45, Ulysses Simpson 9 , an amiable youth of much promise. 
 
 46, Ellen, 9 an interesting daughter. 
 
 47, Jesse Root,' " decidedly the most promising of the 
 family," his grand-father says. 
 
 *George Washington was the only citizen of the United States 
 besides General Grant, upon whom this title has been conferred. 
 Scott received no higher title than Lieutenant-General. See Gard- 
 ner's Army Dictionary. For the services of Gen. Grant, see 
 Cullum's Reg'r of Military Academy. The Hon. Richard A. 
 Wheeler, of Stonington, Connecticut, prepared the fifst entire 
 genealogy of the family of General Grant which was revised by 
 John Ward Dean, Esq. of Boston, and published in the Geneal-
 
 Gen. Grants Inaugural. 175 
 
 15. THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF GENERAL 
 GRANT.* 
 
 CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES: Your suffrages having 
 elected me to the office of President of the United States, I have, 
 in conformity with the Constitution of our country, taken the 
 oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken this oath without 
 mental reservation, and with the determination to do, to the best 
 of my ability, all that it requires of me. 
 
 The responsibilities of the position I feel, but accept them 
 without fear. The office has come to me unsought; I com- 
 mence its duties untrammeled. I bring to it a conscientious 
 desire and determination to fill it, to the best of my ability, to the 
 satisfaction of the people. On all leading questions agitating the 
 public mini I will always express my views to Congress, and 
 urge them according to my judgment, and when I think it 
 advisable, will execute the constitutional privilege of interposing 
 a veto to defeat measures which I oppose. But all laws will be 
 faithfully executed, whether they meet my approval or not. 
 
 I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, none to 
 enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all 
 alike those opposed to as well as those in favor of them. I 
 know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws 
 so effective as their stringent execution. 
 
 The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many 
 questions will come before it for settlement in the next four 
 
 ogical Register. It was a continuation of the notes which are 
 given in Stiles' Windsor. The above is a new and careful revi- 
 sion of this genealogy, much enlarged, from information furnish- 
 ed by Jesse R. Grant, Esq., Hon. J. H. Trumbull, of Hartford, 
 Dr. Porter, of Coventry, Mr. Wheeler, and others. 
 
 * General Grant took the oath of office, as President of the 
 United States, at the Capitol, Washington, at 12 o'clock, noon, 
 March 4, 1869.
 
 176 Gen. Grant's Inaugural. 
 
 years, which preceding Administrations have nevei had to deal 
 with. In meeting these, it is desirable that they should be appre- 
 ciated calmly, without prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remem- 
 bering that the greatest good to the greatest number is the object 
 to be attained. This requires security of person and property, 
 and for religious and political opinion in every part of our com- 
 mon country without regard to local prejudice. All laws to 
 secure this end will receive my best efforts for their enforcement. 
 
 A great debt has been contracted in securing to us and our 
 posterity the Union. The payment of this principal and interest, 
 as well as the return to a specie basis as soon as it can be ac- 
 complished, without material detriment to the debtor class or to 
 the country at large, must be provided for. 
 
 To protect the national honor, every dollar of the Govern- 
 ment indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise 
 expressly stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood that no 
 epudiator of one farthing of our public debt will be trusted in 
 public places, and it will go far toward strengthening a credit 
 which ought to be the best in the world, and will ultimately 
 enable us to replace the debt with bonds bearing less interest than 
 we now pay. To this shall be added a faithful collection of the 
 revenue ; a strict accountability to the Treasury for every dollar 
 collected, and the greatest practicable retrenchment in expendi- 
 tures in every department of Government. 
 
 When we compare the paying capacity of the country now, 
 with ten States still in poverty from the effects of the war, but 
 soon to emerge, I trust, into greater prosperity than ever before, 
 with its paying capacity twenty-five years ago, and calculate what 
 it probably will be twenty-five years hence, who can doubt the 
 feasibility of paying every dollar then with more ease than we 
 now pay for useless luxuries ? Why, it looks as though Provi- 
 dence had bestowed upon us a strong box, the precious metals 
 locked up in the sterile mountains of the far West, which we
 
 Gen. Grant's Inaugural, 177 
 
 are now forging the key to unlock, to meet the very contingency 
 that is now upon us. 
 
 Ultimately it may be necessary to increase the facilities to 
 reach these riches, and it may be necessary also that the General 
 Government should give its aid to secure this access. But that 
 should only be when a dollar of obligation to pay secures pre- 
 cisely the same sort of dollar in use now, and not before. 
 
 While the question of specie payments is in abeyance, the pru- 
 dent business man is careful about contracting debts payable in 
 the distant future j the nation should follow the same rule. A pros- 
 trate commerce is to be rebuilt, and all industries encouraged. 
 The young men of the country those who form this age and 
 must be rulers twenty-five years hence have a peculiar interest 
 in maintaining the national honor. A moment's reflection upon 
 what will be our commanding influence among the nations of 
 the earth in their day, if they are only true to themselves, should 
 inspire them with national pride. All divisions, geographical, 
 political, and religious, can join in the common sentiment. 
 
 How the public debt is to be paid, or specie payment resumed, 
 is not so important as that a plan should be adopted and acqui- 
 esced in. A united determination to do is worth more than 
 divided counsels upon the method of doing. Legislation on 
 this subject may not be necessary now, nor even advisable, but 
 it will be when the civil law is more fully restored in all parts of 
 the country, and trade resumes its wonted channels. It will be 
 my endeavor to execute all laws in good faith, to collect all 
 revenues assessed, and to have them properly disbursed. T will, 
 to the best of my ability, appoint to office only those who will 
 carry out this design. 
 
 In regard to foreign policy, I would deal with nations as 
 equitable law requires individuals to deal with each other, and I 
 would protect the law-abiding citizen, whether of native or of 
 foreign birth, wherever his rights are jeopardized or the flag of
 
 178 Gen. Grant's Inaugural. 
 
 our country floats. I would respect the rights of all nations, 
 demanding equal respect for our own. If others depart from 
 this rule in their dealings with us, we may be compelled to follow 
 their precedent. 
 
 The proper treatment of the original occupants of the land, 
 the Indians, is one deserving of careful consideration. I will 
 favor any course toward them which tends to their civilization, 
 Christianization and ultimate citizenship. 
 
 The question of suffrage is one which is likely to agitate the 
 public so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are ex- 
 cluded from its privileges in any State. It seems to me very 
 desirable that this question should be settled now, and I enter- 
 tain the hope and express the desire that it may be by the ratifi- 
 cation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. 
 
 In conclusion, I ask patient forbearance one toward another, 
 throughout the land, and a determined effort on the part of every 
 citizen to do his share toward cementing a happy union, and I 
 ask the prayers of the nation to Almighty God in behalf of this 
 happy consummation.
 
 INDEX OF NAMES. 
 
 Allyn Alexander, 5. 
 Allyn, Mr. Matthew, 105. 
 Alvord Benedict, 105. 
 Appleton, Major, 23. 
 Arabella, 8. 
 Astor Library, 43. 
 Baker Samuel, 105. 
 Baldwin, Hon. Roger S. 5 1 . 
 Barber John, 105. 
 Barber Thomas, 1 06. 
 Bartlett John, 18, 105. 
 Beardsley Aaron, 155. 
 Beecher, Rev. Lyman, 34. 
 Beekman Mansion, 48. 
 Beekman William, 98. 
 Belknap Jesse, 155. 
 Bingham John, 155. 
 Bissell, Gov. Clark, 107. 
 Birge Jonathan, 155. 
 Bissell Nathaniel, 28. 
 Bissell Ozias, 155. 
 Boardman Nathaniel, 155. 
 Boggs & Grant, 77. 
 Boler, 70. 
 
 Bradford, Captain, 23. 
 Brown Peter, 105. 
 Buckland Timothy, 18, 105. 
 Buell Benjamin, 160. 
 Buell, General Don Carlos, 34. 
 Buell Elias, 160. 
 
 Buell Matthew, 45. 
 Buell Peter, 34, 106. 
 Buell Samuel, 34, 160. 
 Buell William, 105. 
 Bunker Hill, 47. 
 Burnham Thomas, 105. 
 Cambridge, 47, 103. 
 Cass John, 106. 
 Carpenter, 56. 
 Chambers John, 155. 
 Champion Henry, 55. 
 Chapman Edward, 24, 105. 
 Chapman Jonah, 155. 
 Chauncey Elihu, 156. 
 Chauncey, Rev. Mr. 126. 
 Clark, Mr. Daniel, 105. 
 Cleveland, General Moses, 55, 
 
 57- 
 
 Coggerynosset, 18. 
 Colburn Zebadiah, 157. 
 Collins E. A., 68. 
 Colt John, 105. 
 Connecticut Reserve, 53, 54. 
 Cooke Nathaniel, 105. 
 Cooper Fenimore, 24. 
 Cooper Solomon, 155. 
 Covington, 69. 
 Craig-Ellachie, 3, 89. 
 Cromwell, 131. 
 Crow Christopher, 105.
 
 i8o 
 
 Index. 
 
 Crown Point, 36, 41. 
 Darling Jedediah, 155. 
 Dart Nathaniel, 155. 
 Davenport, Captain, 23. 
 Davis Richard, 155. 
 Day Lewis, 58. 
 Dcerfield, 58, 64. 
 Delano Jonathan, 35, 162. 
 Delano Susannah, 35, 44, 
 
 169. 
 De La Noye Philip, 35, 161, 
 
 169. 
 
 Denslow Henry, 105. 
 Denslow Nicholas, 99. 
 Dent, Colonel Frederick, 1 73. 
 Dent Julia B., 173. 
 Dibble Ebenezer, 24. 
 Dibble Thomas, 105, 153. 
 Dieskau, Baron, 37, 43. 
 Diver Daniel, 59. 
 Dodge Alexander, 155. 
 Dodge John, 155. 
 Dodge, Hon. William E, 
 
 146. 
 
 Dorchester, 8, 9, 12. 
 Drake Jacob, 16, 19, 105. 
 Dunham David, 155. 
 Dutch The, 132. 
 Dyer George, 99. 
 Eastman Jonathan, 157. 
 Eaton William, 32, 155. 
 Edward Fort, 36, 38, 39, 
 
 41. 
 Edwards, Rcv.Jonathan,D.D. 
 
 Edwards , Rev. Timothy, 
 
 141. 
 
 Eggleston Begat, 105. 
 Ellsworth, Chief Justice, 107, 
 
 128. 
 
 Ellsworth Josiah, 105, 107. 
 Ellsworth Thomas, 155. 
 Elmore Edward, 105. 
 Eno Amos R., 112, 137. 
 Eno, James, 105, 109. 
 Eno & Phelps, 137. 
 Eno Gen. Roger, 112. 
 Fairchild Caleb, 161. 
 Farmington River, 133. 
 Filley Daniel, 155. 
 Filley Hannah, 28, 166, 167. 
 Filley Samuel, 106. 
 Filley William, 105. 
 Fire Lands, 54. 
 Fish William, 105. 
 Fitch John, 24, 113. 
 Fitch, Mr. Joseph, 105,113. 
 Fitch, Lieut. Medina, 43, 
 
 155- 
 
 Foote, Commodore, 80. 
 Ford Thomas, 99, 105. 
 Frost Green, 58. 
 Fuller Lot, 155. 
 Fyler Walter, 105. 
 Galena, 68. 
 Gallop, Captain, 23. 
 Gallop, Mr. 99. 
 Gardner, Captain, 23. 
 Gates, Lieut. Josiah, 155- 
 Gaylord William, 99, 105.
 
 Index. 
 
 181 
 
 Georgetown, 67. 
 Gibbs Giles, 99. 
 Gibbs Jacob, 105. 
 Gibbs Michael, 59. 
 Gillette Jonathan, 105. 
 Glcnelg, Baron, 4, 90, 92. 
 Glcnmoriston, 87. 
 Gorham, Captain, 23. 
 Granniss George B., 114. 
 Grant, Lieut. Benoni, 49. 
 Grant Castle, 91. 
 Grants, Clan of, 85. 
 Grant, Capt. Ebcnezcr, 31, 
 
 36, 39, 168. 
 
 Grant, Capt. Ephraim, 167. 
 Grant, Maj. F. W., 31, 168. 
 Grant's Hill, 31. 
 Grant, Gen. James, 94. 
 Grant Jesse, 49. 
 Grant Jesse Root, 63, 172. 
 Grant John, The Bard, 90. 
 Grant Matthew, 3, 6, 13, 
 
 25, 99, 100, 105, 106, 
 
 163. 
 
 Grant Noah, 30, 32, 168. 
 Grant, Capt. Noah, I.. 35, 
 
 39, 42, 45, 155, 169. 
 Grant, Capt. Noah, II., 44, 
 
 45,46, 170. 
 
 Grant, Capt. Roswell, 169. 
 Grant Samuel, 26, 28, 165, 
 
 1 66. 
 
 Grant S. Hastings, 1 68. 
 Grant, Lieut. Solomon, 36, 
 
 43,45,61, 156, 159. 
 
 Grantown, 92. 
 
 Grant, Gen. Ulysses S., 3, 
 
 73, 173- 
 Greensburg, 53. 
 Gregory Eliphalet, 114. 
 Gregory, Hon., D. S. 114. 
 Griffin John, 106. 
 Griswold Almon W., 114. 
 Griswold Bishop, 1 14. 
 Griswold Edward, 113, 114. 
 Griswold Francis, 113. 
 Griswold George, 15, 105, 
 
 ^ "4- 
 
 Griswold Matthew, 113, 114, 
 
 149. 
 
 Griswold Nathaniel L., 114. 
 Griswold, Gov. Roger, 114. 
 Hadley, 24. 
 
 Hale, Capt. Nathan, 48. 
 Hall Solomon, 155. 
 Hall Timothy, 105. 
 Harlem Heights, 48. 
 Hatch David, 155. 
 Hay den Daniel, 105, 1 1 6. 
 Hayden Jabez H., 117. 
 Hayden Lieut. Levi, 116. 
 Hayden Nathaniel, 1 1 7. 
 Hayden, Capt. Sam'l S., 118. 
 Hayden William, 114. 
 Haynes, 104. 
 Hay ward Robert, 105. 
 Hill Luke, 1 06. 
 Hillyer, Gen., 76. 
 Hinckley Ichabod, 155. 
 Holcombe Benajah, 105.
 
 1 8 2 Index. 
 
 Holcombc Joshua, 106. Johnson Sir William, 36, 38, 
 
 Holcombe Thomas, 118. 156. 
 
 Holcombe, W. F., M. D., Kelly Rachel, 53, 170. 
 
 1 1 8. Kennedy, Lieut., 42. 
 
 Holmes William, 10. Kilbourn Elijah, 156. 
 
 Homestead, The Grant, 94. Kilbourn Hezekiah, 155. 
 Homestead, The Hayden, Kimball Hannah, 160. 
 
 97. Kirby Ephraim, 55. 
 Homestead, The Loomis, 97. Knowlton, Colonel, 48. 
 
 Hood, General, 81. Laud Archbishop, 150. 
 
 Hooker, 104 Leighton , Dr. Edward, 
 Hoosuc, 157. 150. 
 
 Hosford John, 105. Levens, Lieut. John, 157. 
 
 Hoskins Anthony, 105. Lewis Benjamin, 155. 
 
 Hoskins John, 99. Lewis William J., 156. 
 
 Howe, General, 47. Lexington, 45. 
 
 Hoyt Simon, 99. Liverpool, 54. 
 
 Hubbard Benjamin, 155. Loomis Hezekiah B., 121. 
 
 Hubbard Elisha, 155. Loomis Horatio G., 122. 
 
 Hull, 7. Loomis James C., 122. 
 
 Hull, Mr., 99. Loomis John, 16, 105, 120, 
 Humphreys Michael, 106, 153. 
 
 in, 164. Loomis, Col. John M., 122. 
 
 Hunt James, 156. Loomis, Mr. Joseph, 1 6, 105, 
 Huntington Christopher, 30. 1 19. 
 
 Huntington, Gen. Jedediah, Loomis Moses, 32. 
 
 30. Loomis Nathaniel, 27, 105. 
 
 Huntington John, 32. Loomis Phineas, 123. 
 
 Huntington Maltha, 30, 168. Luce Joseph, 156. 
 
 Huntington Peter, 155. Ludlow Roger, 98, 103, 131. 
 
 Huntington, Gov. Samuel, Lyman Fort, 36. 
 
 30, 60, 168. Lyman, General, 36, 38. 
 
 Johnson, Captain, 23. Lyman, Prof. S. C., 109. 
 
 Johnson David, 155. Lyon Noah, 156. 
 
 Johnson Samuel W., 55. McClcllan, Gen., 76.
 
 Index. 
 
 183 
 
 McCurdy Robert II., 149. 
 Madcsly John, 105. 
 Mahan, Professor, 83. 
 Marshall, Bvt. Brig. Gen. E. 
 
 G.,I2 5 . 
 
 Marshall, Capt. Samuel, 16, 
 20, 23, 24, 105, 106, 124. 
 
 Mary and John, 7. 
 
 Maskell Thomas, 106. 
 
 Mason, Captain, 23. 
 
 Mason, Capt. John, 20, 2 1 , 
 114. 
 
 Mason, Hon. Mr., 51. 
 
 Massachusetts, 50. 
 
 Massacoe, 106, 129, 132. 
 
 Mather Cotton, 127. 
 
 Mather, Gen. F. E., 128. 
 
 Mather Joseph, 32. 
 
 Mather, Rev. Richard, 1 26. 
 
 Mather Samuel, 55. 
 
 Mather, Rev. Samuel, 125. 
 
 Maverick, Rev. Mr., 8, 99. 
 
 Miles Simon, 105. 
 
 Minor Grace, 28, 166, 167. 
 
 Minor Henry, 28. 
 
 Minor, Capt. John, 28. 
 
 Minor, Capt. Thomas, 28. 
 
 Minot House, 9. 
 
 Moore John, 105, 106. 
 
 Morton William, 105. 
 
 Mosely, Captain, 23. 
 
 Moses John, 105, no, in. 
 
 Munsell Joel, 128. 
 
 Nantasket, 7. 
 
 Nassacowen, 19. 
 
 Nassahegan, 17, 133. 
 Newbcrry, Mr. Bcnj., 105, 
 
 154. 
 
 Newbcrry Roger, 55. 
 New Connecticut, 55. 
 Nilcs, Hon. John M.,I24. 
 Oliver, Captain, 23. 
 Osbon John, Sen., 105. 
 Owen Edward H., 129. 
 Owen John, 105, 129. 
 Owen, Rev. John J., D.D., 
 
 129. 
 
 Owen Josiah, 156. 
 Page William, 155. 
 Palazado Plot, 21. 
 Palmer Nicholas, 1 06. 
 Park Nathan, 155. 
 Parker Eli, 155. 
 Parker Enos, 156. 
 Parsons Hczckiah, 155. 
 Parsons John E., 57. 
 Parsons, Gen. S. H., 57. 
 Payson John, 157. 
 Pcarce Daniel, 156. 
 Pease, Hon. Elisha M., 124. 
 Pettibone John, 106, 129. 
 Pcttibone John Owen, 130. 
 Pettibone, Col. Jonathan, 
 
 129. 
 
 Phclps Alexander, 112. 
 Phclps Anson G., 144. 
 Phelps, Dodge & Co., 145. 
 Phelps, Hon. Elisha, 136. 
 Phelps George, 105, 130. 
 Phclps George Dvvight, 135.
 
 184 
 
 Index. 
 
 Phclps Guy R., 135, 139. 
 Phelps Hector, F., 135. 
 Phelps I., 131. 
 Phelps Isaac N., 141. 
 Phelps Jeffery O., 1 34. 
 Phelps John J., 136. 
 Phelps Joseph^ 106, 132. 
 Phelps, Gen. Noah, 134. 
 Phelps Noah A., 134. 
 Phelps Oliver, 55. 
 Phelps Royal, 143. 
 Phclps Samuel, 18. 
 Phclps, Mr. Will-am, 17, 99, 
 
 105, 130. 
 
 Phclps W. Walter, 139. 
 Philip King, 22. 
 Philips George, 105. 
 Pinney Humphrey, 105. 
 Pinney Josiah, 156. 
 Pinney Samuel, 106. 
 Pitkin William, in. 
 Point Pleasant, 65. 
 Pond Nathaniel, 24. 
 Pomeroy Eltwood, 99, 106. 
 Poquonnoc, 133. 
 Porter Hezekiah, 32. 
 Porter John, 165. 
 Porter John Bliss, M.D.,i65- 
 Porter Mary, 164, 165. 
 Porter, Gen. Peter B., 34, 
 
 1 66. 
 
 Price Martha, 160. 
 Prynne William, 151. 
 Putnam Israel, 35, 37, 39, 
 
 43> 4 6 > 47> 4 8 - 
 
 Putnam, General Rufus, 57 
 Randall Abraham, 106. 
 Ravenna, 64. 
 Read Joshua, 156. 
 Reeve Robert, in. 
 Richardson Anna, 52, 170. 
 Robinson, Maj. Gen. John C., 
 
 124. 
 
 Rockwell John, 106, 
 Rockwell Joseph, 31. 
 Rockwell Josiah, 31, 32. 
 Rockwell Ruth, 30. 
 Rockwell Samuel, 32. 
 Rockwell Susannah, 13, 30. 
 Rockwell William, 13, 30,. 
 
 99, 100. 
 
 Rodgers, Capt. Robert, 37. 
 Rogen Joseph, 156. 
 Root, Hon. Jesse, 63, 171. 
 Root, Rev. Marvin, 45, 
 
 158. 
 
 Root Rufus, 156. 
 Rossiter, Dr. Bray, 13. 
 Rossiter, Mr., 98. 
 Rowley Thomas, 106. 
 Russ Daniel, 156. 
 Savage, Lieut., 23. 
 Saxton Richard, 24. 
 Scots' Charitable Society, 5. 
 Scott, General, 174. 
 Scovell Abner, 156. 
 Seafield, Earl of, 4, 85, 90, 
 
 91. 9 2 - 
 
 Sceley, Captain, 23, 115. 
 Sehat, 17, 133.
 
 Index. 
 
 185 
 
 Senchon Nicholas, 106. 
 Sequassen, 133. 
 Scy Solomon, 156. 
 Sheldon & Phdps, if 2. 
 Sherman, 104. 
 Sherman, General, 80. 
 Shield John, 155. 
 Simon James, 156. 
 Simpson Hannah, 65, 172. 
 Simsbury , 16, 106, 129, 
 
 132. 
 
 Skinner Abraham, 49. 
 Skinner Joseph, 106. 
 Slafcer Anthony, 32. 
 Slap, Capt. John, 157. 
 Smith, Mr., 99. 
 Smith George, 156. 
 Southwark Church, 7. 
 Sparks Joseph, 156. 
 Stark, Lieut. John, 41, 43, 46. 
 St. Clair, General, 61. 
 Stedman James, in. 
 Steele, 104. 
 
 Steel, Rev. Stephen, 33. 
 Stiles, Rev. Ezra, LL.D. 
 
 I4 7 . 
 
 Stiles Henry, 106. 
 Stiles Henry R., M.D ., 147. 
 Stiles John, 106, 14.6. 
 Stokes James, 14' . 
 Stone, 104. 
 Stoughton, Mr., 99. 
 Stoughton Thomas, 16, 27, 
 
 1 06. 
 Strathspey, 86. 
 
 Strong John, 20, 106. 
 Strong Ozias, 161. 
 Strong Phincas, 161. 
 Strong Return, 106. 
 Stuyvesant, Sir Peter, 98, 
 
 132. 
 
 Sugar House, 48. 
 Swan, Lieut., 23. 
 Talcott Caleb, 156. 
 Talcott Samuel, 156. 
 Tappan, Hon. Benj., 58. 
 Tattington James, 156. 
 Taylor Stephen, 19, 106. 
 Telemachus, 75. 
 Terry Mr., 98. 
 Terry John, 106. 
 Thaycr Zephaniah, 156. 
 Thomas, General, 8 1. 
 Thrall William, 106. 
 Tibbals Moses, 58. 
 Tolland, 30, 45. 
 Tod Judge, 64. 
 Tubbs Benjamin, 155. 
 Tucker Isaac, 156. 
 Tudor Owen, 106. 
 TunxisThe, 133. 
 Treat, Major, 23. 
 Trough, Race of the, 87. 
 Tryon George, 156. 
 Tyng, Lieut., 23. 
 Upham, Lieut., 23. 
 Urquahart, 87. 
 Vore Richard, 106. 
 Wallabout, 48. 
 Ward, Gen. Artemas, 47.
 
 1 86 
 
 Index. 
 
 Warham, Rev. Mr., 8, 14, 
 
 99, 106, 126. 
 Warner Israel, 156. 
 Washington, General, 47, 174. 
 Waterman Zebulon, 156. 
 Watson Robert, 106. 
 Watts, Captain, 23. 
 Webb, Colonel, 49. 
 Webb Nathan, 155. 
 Wells Ephraim, 156. 
 Wells Ichabod, 156. 
 Wells Samuel, 156. 
 Wept of Wish-ton- Wish, 24. 
 Westover James, in. 
 West Point, 68. 
 Wheeler Timothy, 156. 
 White, Captain, 23. 
 White Eyes, 56. 
 White Jacob, 156. 
 White, Rev. John, 6. 
 Whiting, Colonel, 38, 157. 
 Wilcox Eben N., 114. 
 Wilcox, Gen. O. B., 114. 
 William Henry Fort, 38, 
 41,42. 
 
 Williams John, 106. 
 Wills Azariah, 158. 
 Wills Solomon, 155. 
 Willoughby Sylvanus, 156. 
 Wilson Thomas, 157. 
 Winchell Nathan, 106. 
 Windsor, 10, 13. 
 Winslow, Maj.-Gen., 4.1. 
 Winslow, Maj.-Gen. Josiah, 
 
 23. 
 
 Witchfield John, 106. 
 Wolcott Frederick H., 149. 
 Wolcott Henry, 98, 104, 
 
 106, 147. 
 
 Wolcott Joshua H., 149. 
 Wolcott, Gov. Oliver, 149. 
 Wolcott, Gov. Roger, in, 
 
 128, 148. 
 
 Wolcott Ursula, 149. 
 Wood Oliver E., 109. 
 Woodbridge, Rev. Mr., 14, 
 
 126. 
 
 Wooster, Colonel, 39, 157. 
 Yale College, 127. 
 Young William, 156.
 
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