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A
GENEALOGICAL REGISTER
OF THE
DESCENDANTS OF JOHN
OF
GUILFORD, CONN.,
WHO DIED IN THE YEAR
1671.
COMPILED BY
REV. ERASTUS SCRANTON,
A. M.,
OF
BURLINGTON, CONN.
HARTFORD:
PRESS OF CASE, TIFFANY
AND COMPANY
1855.
NOTE FROM THE CURRENT
PUBLISHER
With
the exception of this paragraph and three typographical corrections,
which were
noted on the last page of the original book, this work is a duplication
of the
original book. The text is reproduced as
originally written. The arrangement of
notes has been rearranged slightly to give better clarity, as the page
breaks
are not set exactly as in the original.
My goal is to make this book available to those with an interest
in the
Scranton family or the history herein.
Please
visit our web site: scrantonfamilyhistory.com
Carl
W. Scranton, publisher
BRIEF ACCOUNT
OF THE
FIRST
SETTLEMENT OF GUILFORD.
_______________________
In order to refresh the memories of the descendants of John Scranton, now residing in various parts of North America, it may be needful and suitable to give a brief account of the settlers of Guilford and of their doings and hardships.
Persons of intelligent and reflecting minds and of cultivated taste, take an interest in surveying events that transpired before their day, and especially those events that relate to the character and history of their forefathers.
The primary and main object of the first settlers of New Haven Colony, (and also of all New England,) ought never to be forgotten.
The New Haven Colony consisted, at first, of the three plantations of New Haven, Milford and Guilford. A. D. 1665, it was united to the Colony of Connecticut.
The pious zeal and persevering efforts of our forefathers to establish civil, religious and literary institutions, and to have them transmitted to posterity, ought to awaken in our breasts devout veneration respecting them and supreme love to God, who aided and sustained them in all their various trials and privations, for years.
Psalm xliv. 1-38. “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but by thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them."
The first settlers of Guilford arrived at Boston June 26, 1637. and from thence came to New Haven, in company with Mr. Davenport and Mr. Prudden and their congregations, and remained there and elsewhere, some time, seeking a place of settling themselves.
Whilst these three companies were in Massachusetts, they were urged to settle within its limits, with encouraging prospects, &c., but as they had designed, Providence permitting, to form a distinct colony where they could establish a government both civil and, religious, in accordance with their peculiar views, and have none to control them, they declined the offer.
Having information from some, who had returned from an expedition against the Pequots, that there were fertile tracts of land on the sea-shore, along west of Connecticut river, and which were easy of cultivation, and some commodious harbors, they had a mind to remove and to settle in that region.
Satisfied that Quinnipiack was an inviting place for a plantation, the three companies came there the next summer.
Mr. Davenport, Mr. Eaton and their adherents, located in New Haven, A. D. 1638 (Quinnipiack.)
Mr. Prudden and his company, the next spring, settled in Milford, 1639, which the Indians called Wapawauge.
Mr. Whitfield and his company, settled in the autumn of
1639, in
Guilford, called by the Indians, Menunkatuc.
In the course of the summer, (1639,) some of Mr. Whitfield's congregation were employed in seeking a suitable place and good land for settlement.
They found a large tract of land, flat, moist and rich, which the Indians had occupied for a long course of years, and which was ready for immediate cultivation, and for raising needful crops for their subsistence.
This is the land in the Great Plain, South of the town plot, adjoining which is a large tract of valuable salt meadow.
Another similar tract is in the eastern section of the town, called Hammonasset Fields, now in the town of Madison. Adjoining this is also a large tract of valuable salt meadow.
A title to these tracts and the adjacent upland lands and meadows, must needs be purchased of the Indians, the rightful proprietors.
Accordingly, Rev. Henry Whitfield, Messrs. Robert Kitchel, William Leete and John Caffinge, bought, in behalf of the company of pilgrims, all the land of a sachem squaw, Shaumpishuh and her subjects, bounded South by the sea, West and North by rather indefinite limits, and East by the East River, which is now the West boundary, in part, of Madison.
This purchase was made the 10th of September, 1639, and the planters moved on to it the next month, October 10th, as nearly as can be ascertained. We see they had only a short time, before, winter, to erect needful tenements. .
This sachem squaw and her subjects agreed at the time of the sale to move off the territory they bad sold, and most of them did so, without much delay, probably to East Haven. Besides, they promised not to disturb, or to injure or terrify the English people in any of their interests or business. [Town Records, p. 52, and for West Bounds, p. 152.]
The interpreter to the above purchase was probably Tho. Stanton, who interpreted for the purchasers of New Haven and Milford plantations.
Other tracts of land were subsequently bought of the Indians, viz., one of Uncas, a Mohegan sachem. This tract is that part of Madison, which is situated between East River and Tuxis Pond, (Tuxisshoag,) which pond is about one-fourth of a mile east of the Congregational church in that place
Another large and valuable tract, (that which is situated between Tuxis Pond and Hammonasset River, which is the eastern boundary of Madison,) was a gift to the town by Mr. Geo. Fenwick, of Saybrook, on condition they would accommodate his esteemed friend, Rev. H. Whitfield, with land near or in the town-plot, to his satisfaction. It appears they did accommodate him. How soon after this gift, a settlement began in Hammonasset quarter, is not known, but within about thirty years.
Mr. Whitfield had expended a large property in the service of the church and planters whom he loved.
The planters gave the name of the plantation, Guildford, after the name of the town in Surry, England, from which many of them emigrated. To this place they were endeared and bound by a thousand recollections. It is noted for its rich, productive and highly cultivated fields, (about thirty miles south-west of London.)
The number of adult males who first located on the land first bought of the natives, cannot be ascertained, as no record book can be found prior to A. D. 1645. Report says it was burnt.
The next year, or soon after the loss of the record, 1646, a list of the names of the planters was collected because of said loss by fire, and is entered in the second book, and contains forty-seven names. In 1650, the number was forty-nine; only two more than four years before: and the list, eleven years after the first settlement, contains only forty-six. Nor does it contain the name of Caffinge, who was one of four purchasers. Report says he died prior to 1650, without issue.
The names are,
Rev.
Henry Whitfield
John
Johnson
Mr.
Sam Disborough
Sam
Blatchley
Rev.
John Higginson
Stephen
Bishop
Mr.
Wm Leete.
Wm
Boreman
Robert
Kitchell
Geo.
Highland
Geo
Hubbard
John
Parmelin Sen
Wm
Chittenden
Tho.
Betts
Tho
Jordan
Richard
Guttridge
John
Hoadley
Richard
Bristow
Tho.
Jones
John
Parmelin Jun
Wm
Dudley
Jasper
Stillwill
Tho.
Cook
Geo
Bartlett
Henry
Kingsnoth
John
Scranton
John
Stone
John
Fowler
Wm
Hall
Edward
Benton
Richard
Hues
Abm
Cruttenden
Will.
Stone
John
Evarts
Benj.
Wright
John
Bishop Sen.
Francis
Bushnell
John
Sheder
Henry
Doud
Tho
French
Geo
Chatfield
Thom.
Stephens, or Stevens
John
Stephens
Edward
. . . . . .
John
Bishop Jun
Abm
Cruttenden Jun
The foregoing list contains names of men, who no doubt came from other settlements after 1639, viz., Fowler and Hubbard from Milford; Boreman, Benton and Betts, from Wethersfield.
In 1656, the number capable of bearing arms was sixty-eight; and in 1672, one hundred and one gave in lists of taxable property. [Guilford Records, x., pp. 16, 49 and 96.]
The first planters were possessed of considerable property. Some of them were wealthy. The wealthiest of them was their, minister, Rev. H. Whitfield. He laid out and spent the most of his property for the benefit of the plantation, and may be considered as the father of the plantation.
A large stone house was built mostly at his expense, on land allotted to him. It is probably the oldest house in New England. Let it never be taken down. Its site is about half a mile south of the town plot, and about a quarter of a mile north of the railroad depot, in a conspicuous place, and affords a full view of Long Island Sound for many miles. The stones of which it is constructed were brought thither on hand or on wheel-barrows, the distance of half a mile, from an adjacent ledge.
This was a laborious and rather a slow work; because, at that time, (1640,) the people were lacking ox teams to do this work, as also to aid them in their farming business and in erecting tenements for themselves.
During the first winter and for two or more years after they had settled in Guilford, they had not a comfortable house for one family in five of their number.
Think of a community of forty or more families, lacking, if not entirely destitute of ox teams to do their farming business, and of cows to furnish them with milk, for three or more years, and surrounded by Indians who might become hostile to them, and burn their dwellings and slay their little ones. Who can doubt their privations and hardships were both various and great! How much less are the privations and hardships of our missionaries, at the west among the Indians, and in Asia and the Pacific isles!
If any portion of people on earth are bound to acknowledge the kind and merciful hand of God to them and to their fathers, it is the people of Connecticut and New England, this obligation of gratitude to God is enhanced from the fact that we are the descendants of those pious pilgrims, who subjected themselves to all the dangers of the ocean, and the privations incident to beginning a residence in a howling wilderness, to procure a peaceful residence for their posterity, and to secure liberty of conscience and other rights, which were denied them at home.
If the Guilford planters underwent less than most other plantations in Connecticut, (which is probably the case,) yet their privations and hardships were many and complicated; and if they were men of robust constitutions and of energy and vigor peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race, as we believe, they deserve the commendation of us their descendants.
They descended from a class of people who had their rise in England in the reign of the persecuting Queen Mary, A. D. 1555, whose meetings for prayer without a liturgy, were broken up, and some of them were burnt to death.
Because of their zeal to avoid whatever their consciences, enlightened by the word of God, deemed unwarranted by his word and to produce greater purity in religious worship and in Christian discipline, than generally prevailed in the land they left, they were stigmatized as Puritans, An honorable name this!
They professed to be true Christians, and judging from the tenor of their acts and lives, we are clearly warranted in the belief, that they were what they professed to be.
Their lives in England were exposed to hatred and persecution from the established church and from men in office and power.
All this, they bore with Christian temper, not rendering evil for evil, Nor did they fail to adhere, firmly to their principles of faith, and to exemplify in their lives, the self-denial of the Christian religion.
Conscious that they were acting for the good of posterity, more than for their individual benefit, they hesitated not to leave their pleasant homes for this land, but not without much consideration and prayerfulness.
A strong purpose to walk with God and one another, in the enjoyment of divine ordinances and to guard their children against the corrupting customs and pernicious examples in England, prompted them to embark for these shores, leaving behind them their pleasant homes and seats, cultivated and productive farms, and their profitable business.
The public documents, and the records of the acts,
by-laws, and
institutions of the adult settlers of Guilford, evince that they were
intelligent and public spirited persons-moreover, it is manifest
that they
were, with scarcely an exception, lovers of the truth and of good order
in
society, and were also eminent for prayer to God for the salvation of
themselves and their fellow-men, preferring "the kingdom of Christ
above their chief joy."
It is stated already that a number of planters located themselves in Hammonasset quarter where was a large tract of excellent land ready for cultivation and the Town Record states, that, prior to 1672, John Scranton, Noah Bradley, James Hill, Luke Hill, T. Hand, E. Thompson, _______ Seward and William Leete, (probably Jun.,) and John Meigs were residing in Hammonasset.
Report says, that women were accustomed to walk from this place, to Guilford (town plot) a distance of seven and a half miles, to attend public worship on the Lord's day, and returned the same day; afterward the families here may have attended religious worship in Killingworth, until the Gospel was first preached in East Guilford, A. D. 1705-6.
Prior to 1666, there was no bridge over Hammonasset River where the public road now is, but one at Hayden's Quarter.
From 1645 to 1653, Indians in New England were more or less troublesome to the people, and annoyed them in their farming business, and kept them constantly on their watch to their great weariness. Hence our ancestors had to go to their daily labors in their fields, with their fire arms by them. In the meantime, their families were in houses fortified with palisadoes. Such precautionary measures were needful and taken for security, lest women and children should be killed or carried off captives. But it is a matter of gratitude to God, that judging from the records of the town, the Guilford Indians who remained in the town, were less troublesome and hostile, and did the people less mischief than was done in other places and plantations,
The foundation of the civil and religions polity, (constitution of government) of New Haven Colony, was laid in a solemn manner, in Mr., Hobert Newman's barn in New Haven, June 4, 1639. The three companies were present,
As Mr. John Scranton was a free burgess, it is more than probable, he was present and acted at the time of that agreement,
One article of this fundamental agreement was, that church members and they only, should be free burgesses and have power or right to vote for and to select from among themselves, magistrates, deputies and other necessary officers who shall have the sole right and power of transacting all public and civil affairs of each plantation.
The church of Guilford was gathered (or reorganized as before intimated, August 22, 1638,) at New Haven, at the same time the churches of New Haven and Milford were, [E, L, p, 50.] But there appears to have been, about four years after the plantation was begun, a sort of gathering of the church, or a formal renewing of covenant,
The form of proceeding to gather a church was first to select by vote, twelve principal church members, out of which seven were chosen, called the seven pillars, and they solemnly covenanted with each other to be the church of the plantation. To this number, all others were added or joined themselves; whatever form of gathering the church took place it was only matter of form arising from place and local distance, on their emigration hither. The express and avowed object of this church body, was the advancement of their own personal piety, and the increase of Gospel faith and for the glory of God.
A choice of town officers was annually made, for the well ordering of public affairs, in the following manner: the burgess or elector, put a mark to the name of the man he would have chosen.
Mr. Samuel Disborough is the first magistrate elected.
Mr. Whitfield returned to England in 1651, and died there. When he returned he left his son-in-law, Mr. John Higginson, to he their minister or spiritual teacher.
There is no record or tradition that. Rev. H. Whitfield was installed over the church here, or reordained, he having been episcopally ordained in England, He exercised his ministerial rights in the same manner, and by the same authority he had done in England. Neither he nor his church ever formally separated from the Episcopal church, or were separatists. He was a good scholar, an able divine and an excellent preacher of the Gospel.
The labors and self-denial of the first settlers of Guilford, may well remind their descendants now living, of their obligations to imitate them in piety and zeal, and to strive to benefit their families in spiritual rather than in secular matters.
Let every descendant of John Scranton, in whatever part of our country he may reside, dread sin; value the blessings of the Gospel; remember the Sabbath, to keep it, and frequent the sanctuary; to study the word of God--and to pray daily to God for pardon and eternal life.
The first settlers of Guilford were in general, pious, intelligent and industrious men, and most of them were farmers.
The humane treatment that the few Indians remaining in the place received from the planters, saved the latter from much trouble and annoyance experienced by other new plantations.
The Compiler of this family Register has intended to render it an interesting offering to the living, and to remind them of the obligation they are under, as the descendants of the first settlers of New Haven Colony, and of our country, to cherish the virtues and intrepid, enterprizing spirit of our Pilgrim ancestors, and to exert themselves to maintain the cause of freedom, of learning and of religion, which they have transmitted to us.
The Register may be found to contain some errors, which it was not easy to avoid, considering the difficulty of obtaining correct information from the various sources from which it has been gathered, Not a few who have answered the many letters of inquiry sent them, may have lacked accuracy in their statements, and some had scarcely any records of their ancestors. ,
Some families have only defective records of their own children, and no record of their parents and grandparents. The law of Connecticut lately enacted is likely to remedy this defect in future.
Where dates are wanting, no further information could be obtained, though no pains have been spared to procure full information and entire correctness.
The Register will show very nearly how many have become heads of families, and the number in each family.
The men who have been distinguished as military and civil and public officers, is not large; but quite a number served in the revolutionary conflict, and in one case, two brothers served in it, and both received pensions; three other Scranton's received pensions.
John Scranton, the first settler of the name, was a farmer, and his male descendants have been to a great extent, farmers, and have deemed the cultivation of the soil, for support, honorable business, as indeed it is. For aught that appears, they have been in general, useful, industrious and respectable citizens of those towns and counties and states which they have resided.
In preparing the Genealogical Register: the Compiler has received much aid from Dr, Alvin Talcott, of Guilford; for which he would acknowledge his obligation to him.
The compiler of the Register hopes each person to whom a copy of it is sent, will have the generosity to remit to him by mail (post paid.) one dollar towards remunerating him for labor and expense incurred in compiling the book.
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I. Where the State of one’s residence is not specified, the State of Connecticut is always to be understood,
II. In the Register the letter b. is used for the time of one's birth – d. for death – dr. for daughter - a. for age – m, for marriage rem. for remarriage – s. for unmarried or single life.
III. Figures between brackets, e.g. ( ) denote the No. where the children or family of the preceding parents may be found recorded.
IV, The last syllable of the name Scranton is in town
records, in
several instances written tom and
tum, but in the records of the General Court, and when John
Scranton
was the delegate to said General Assembly in 1669 and 1670, it is
uniformly
written ton.
[See Colonial Records, vol. ii., p. 115, 126.]