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THE HISTORY OF
STRATFORD
Golden Hill Indians THE HISTORY OF
STRATFORD
Wm. Howard
Wilcoxson Establishing
Title to the Land FORREST MORGAN
Lifestyles, Government, Religion and WarIndian Titles and Mohegan Land TroublesSowheag, Uncas, and MiantonomoOwenoco, the Son of Uncas
THE
HOUSATONIC CHARD POWERS SMITH The
Promised Land ALEXANDER JOHNSTON
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Benjamin Trumbull was born in
Hebron, Conn. December 19, 1735. He was the son of Benjamin Trumbull of
Hebron (1712-), grandson of Benoni Trumbull of Hebron (1684-1770), great
grandson of Joseph Trumbull of Suffield, Conn. (1647-84), and
great-great-grandson of John Trumbull, who appears on record at Roxbury,
Mass. In 1639, and Rowley, Mass. In 1640, having emigrated from New Castle-on
Tyne, England, 1639, and not from the Wes of Wales, as Sprague erroneously
states in his “Annals of the American Pulpit.” Among his most distinguished family
connections were Governor Jonathan Trumbull, to whom he refers to in his
preface, a first cousin once removed;
Colonel John Trumbull, the artist, and his brothers Jonathan and
Joseph, who were his first cousins; and Dr. John Trumbull, the lawyer-poet,
author of “McFingal,” also was a first cousin. His most distinguished lineal descendant
was his grandson, the Hon. Lyman Trumbull, U.S. Senator from Illinois, and
afterwards distinguished as a lawyer and jurist. His career as a clergyman is
remarkable, even during the times of pastorates in which he lived. He was the pastor of the North Haven
Congregational Church for sixty years of continuous service, interrupted only
for six months by his services as chaplain in the Fifth Battalion of
Wadsworth’s Brigade, during which time he was with this battalion in the
important period covering the battle of Long Island and the retreat from New
York. This service is officially
recorded as extending from June 24 to December 25, 1776. Eye-witnesses have told us that, at that
battle of White Plains, his patriotism would not allow him to remain in
clerical garb among the non-combatants, but that he shouldered his musket,
and loaded and fired with coolness and the
utmost precision of which he was capable. Immediately on his return to North Haven,
January 5, 1777, his martial spirit again so asserted itself that he
temporarily exchanged the word for the sword, and was chosen captain of a
company of sixty volunteers of that town.
He was also to be found at the post of danger at the time of Tryon’s
invasion of New Haven, July 4, 1779. All accounts agree that he was a man
of wonderful vigor and activity even up to the time of his death, at the
advanced age of eighty-five. But nine
days before that time he preached his last sermon. He died on the 2d of February, 1820. hee is also described as a man of courteous
demeanor and quick intelligence. The fullest account of his career
which is known to me is in Sheldon B. Thrope’s “North Haven Annals.” Sprague’s “Annals of the American Pulpit”
devotes five pages to him, and gives personal reminiscences of
contemporaries. For the most part, his
career of steady, untiring clerical and literary labor would reveal but
little to interest the reader of today. |
ALEXANDER JOHNSTON
SOUTHPORT Colonial History of Pequot Swamp COLONIAL INDIAN ARCHIVES Hon. Ralph D.
Smith David D. Fields Sarah Day Woodward Winthrop’s Journal |