Friday, April 10, 2015

Genealogy Story - The Alcox/Alcott-Pierpont Connection

John Alcox was born in New Haven in 1705.  Around the beginning of 1730 he married a girl from another New Haven family, Deborah Blakeslee.  Deborah’s great-grandfather, Samuel Blakeslee, had immigrated to Boston in 1635 at the age of 11, then later moved with his brother to New Haven in 1645, making his family one of the earliest families to settle in that area.  John was also not a recent immigrant as his great-grandfather, Thomas, had immigrated to Boston in 1630.

In December of 1730, the Alcox family welcomed their first offspring, Lydia.  Then in the spring of 1731, the family moved to the interior of Connecticut and settled in the Spindle Hill area of what would eventually become known as Wolcott (see below for history of Wolcott).  While there were some native Americans who frequented that area, there may have been hunters who plied their trade, and there were absentee “owners” from Waterbury who claimed land in the town, the Alcox family were the first settlers to actually live there.  Deborah became known as the “Queen Bride” as she was the first bride to inhabit the town.  John’s initial holding was approximately 117 acres, but he made further purchases until he owned about 1200 acres – 100 for each of his 12 children.  (Note that this represents nearly 10% of the total area of the town!)

Later in 1731, a son, also called John, was added to the Alcox family.  This was followed by regular additions – first four more sons (James, Jesse, Daniel, David), then five daughters (Deborah, Mary, Thankful, Hannah, Anna), then a final son (Stephen) who died shortly after his birth.  Being the only girl until her sister Deborah was born 12 years later, it can be speculated that Lydia was very much her mother’s helper during many of those years.

In 1756, at the age of 26, Lydia finally married – but not to someone from one of the other families then living in that area.  Some time before that she was probably sent back to live with her Blakeslee relatives in North Haven/New Haven.  The man she married was her mother’s second cousin, Isaac Blakeslee.  Isaac was descended from the younger brother of Deborah’s grandfather, and he was actually four years younger than Lydia.  They took up residence in the New Haven/North Haven area close to all her Blakeslee relatives.

Isaac and Lydia had a daughter, Mary, born to them in 1762.  Mary grew up and then met and in 1783 married a young man who also lived in North Haven, Ezra Pierpont.  Ezra also came from a long-time New England family.  His great-great-grandfather, John, had immigrated to the Boston area about 1640.  His great-grandfather, James, had been educated at Harvard, then had moved to the New Haven area in the 1680’s, where he founded Yale University.  This completed the joining together of three families (Alcox/Alcott, Blakeslee, Pierpont) who each had long roots (nearly 150 years!) in New England.

Ezra and Mary did not remain in the New Haven area where all their relatives were living.  They also wanted to move to the interior, perhaps to make some connections with Mary’s grandparents who were still living in Wolcott*.   In 1781 they purchased 40 acres in what is now Prospect.  Over the next few decades Ezra purchased several more properties in the area between Prospect and Wolcott in what was known as the “East Farms” area of Waterbury, just to the south of Meriden Road, which was also the southern border of Wolcott, and in 1801 he became the first Pierpont to settle in that area.  He eventually owned most of the property in East Farms.

The descendants of Ezra continued to live in the East Farms area of Waterbury until some of the great-great-grandchildren of Ezra, Clarence and Barbara Pierpont and Vernon and Sylvia [Pierpont] Russell moved to Wolcott in the 1940’s.  The children of these two families were then privileged to attend school at Alcott School, which had been built around 1945 and was named for Amos Bronson Alcott, the great-grandson of John Alcox, the first settler in Wolcott.  This completed the circle!


Graph of genealogy

Alcox                                                  Blakeslee                                         Pierpont

Thomas (1609-1657)                        Samuel (1624-1672)                       John (1617-1682)
    Im. Boston 1630                               Im. Boston 1635                            Im. Boston 1640

Philip (1648-1715)              John Edward (1655-1712)                                                     
                                                                        Ebenezer (1664-1735)       James (1659-1714)
John (1675-1722)                John (1678-1742)                                                       
                                                                        Isaac (1703-1767)
John (1705-1777)------------Deborah (1713-1790)                                   Joseph (1704-1748)
                                                                       
John (1731-1805)  Lydia (1730-1796)---------Isaac (1734-1814)            Joseph (1730-1824)

Joseph Chatfield (1771-1829)                         Mary (1762-1827)---------Ezra (1757-1842)

Amos Bronson [Alcott] (1799-1888)                                                        Austin (1791-1848)

Louisa May (1832-1888)                                                                           Charles (1825-1884)

                                                                                                             Wilson (1855-1921)

                                                                                                              Harold (1898-1969)

                                                                                 Clarence (1920-2006)  Sylvia (1924-2012)             




History of Wolcott

Wolcott was not officially incorporated until 1796.  Before that time it was known as Farmingbury – a name derived from the fact that it was originally split between the town/city of Waterbury and the town of Farmington.  While residents of those two towns may have claimed land there, there were no actual settlers until John Alcox, his wife, and young daughter moved there in early 1731. 

One of the first roads (actually just a path in the beginning) was along the boundary line between Waterbury and Farmington.  This road ran due north-south through the wilderness.  As the boundary line became a road, it spawned the name Boundline Road – the name it still bears to this day.  The portion north of Spindle Hill Road is no longer identifiable, a section in the south has been rerouted due to the flooding of the area for Scovill Reservoir, and the southern-most portion is partly paved, partly an abandoned path, and partly no longer identifiable.

It was not until 1770 that the congregational church in Waterbury established a separate Parish in Farmingbury.  Since the church parish and the local government were essentially synonymous in those days, that was actually the beginning of the town.  Shortly thereafter the residents of the area petitioned the state to be separately recognized.  That petition was rejected several times, because of the objections of Waterbury and/or Farmington.  So it was not until over two decades later that the town was officially recognized.  Even then, the vote in the senate was a tie and the tie had to be broken by the Lt. Governor of the state, Oliver Wolcott.  In honor of that vote, the town decided to call itself Wolcott instead of the prior name of Farmingbury.


References

History of New Haven County, Connecticut, Volume 2 – edited by John L Rockey; 1892

The History of Wolcott from 1731 to 1874 – by Rev. Samuel Orcutt; 1874


Pierpont Family Association minutes – by Charles S. Miller, 1941 (based on deeds and land records)

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