Wolcott History – Farmingbury Part 3 – Early Settlers Research

Using modern Internet-based tools, I have done some further analysis of each of the previously mentioned families who supposedly settled in 1732 or before and found the following for each family and suggested year:

Thomas Upson (1732) – In the “History of Waterbury, Connecticut” we find the following: “In Feb. 1732-3, Thomas Upson sold out to Jonathan Baldwin for £150 money, the property being described as "three and a half acres of land with a house and barn, &c. He then removed to Farmington, afterwards Southington, and now the eastern part of Wolcott, (Southington Mountain.)”  This is independent confirmation for a date of either 1732 or 1733 as being correct.

Joseph Preston (pre-1750) – The “History of New Haven County, Connecticut” gives an alternate wording to the one from the one mentioned above and says, “His house stood on the twenty-rod highway on the mountain, and was built by Joseph Preston.” This might mean that Joseph Preston did not reside in that house previously, but was only the carpenter who built it.  There is no mention of Joseph Preston being a resident of the area in the prior two decades, so even if he had built the home prior to 1750, it would not have been much before.

(http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/j-l-john-l-rockey/history-of-new-haven-county-connecticut-kco/page-97-history-of-new-haven-county-connecticut-kco.shtml)

Thomas Judd (1690) – Orcutt makes no mention of Thomas Judd, although it does refer to “Judd’s Hill” as a place.  In the Commemorative Biographical Record of Hartford County (written in 1901) a biography of Thomas Judd records, “known as Deacon Thomas Judd, of Waterbury, b. 1662, lived on Cole street, near East Main, Waterbury. In 1732-33 he moved to Wolcott (then called Farmingbury), where ‘Judd’s Hill’ is named for him.” It also lists his daughter “Rachel [not Ruth], b. 1694, d. July 13, 1750, m. Thomas Upson.” This account appears to have some errors in it as the History of Waterbury says that it was Thomas Upson who “lived on Cole street, near East Main” who married Rachel and moved in 1732-3.

(http://www.mocavo.com/Commemorative-Biographical-Record-of-Hartford-County-Connecticut-Containing-Biographical-Sketches-of-Prominent-and-Representative-Citizens-and-of-Many-of-the-Early-Settled-Families-Volume-Part-2/373376/798)

In the History of Waterbury, we find the following: “At the latter date [January 29, 1690], he received twenty acres of upland and other lands, with the customary provision, that he build a house and comply with the conditions of the articles.” He apparently did so, however, he was also “a resident of Waterbury from the latter part of 1685 to May, 1694, in something like ‘a steady way.’” Thus, it appears that he did build a house/log cabin in 1690, but mostly as a formality and did not “settle” in it as one typically would use the term.  In 1694 he was again permanently in Waterbury, was appointed a deacon in the church, and his daughter Rachel was born in Waterbury that year. She married Thomas Upson in 1719, and it wasn’t until 1732 that she and he removed to Farmingbury as reported above.

This was very difficult research to do, as there were three Thomas Judds living in Waterbury, two of them had daughters named Rachel. And there was a third Rachel whose father was William Judd.

Thus, there appear to be three errors in the 175^th anniversary report: (1) that Thomas Upson married Ruth Judd (it was Rachel), and (2) that she had remained in the home of her father when he had removed to Waterbury (she would have lived with her husband at his home in Waterbury from 1719 until 1732), and (3) that Thomas Judd had come up the mountain from Southington to build his log cabin (as he was active in Waterbury politics for several years prior to that).

Thus, while it appears to be confirmed that Thomas built a log cabin in the area in 1690, it was more a formality to comply with the terms of his being given the land. He was not a “settler” as he was active in Waterbury throughout this entire period.

Deacon Josiah Rogers (1724) – Historical records confirm that Josiah was from Branford.  In addition, Connecticut birth records also indicate that his son, also named Josiah, was born in Branford in 1733.  Thus while Josiah, the father, may have purchased the land in 1724, it seems that did not make his home here until sometime later. Also, note that the History of Waterbury records that Josiah was still living in Branford when he sold some property to John Alcox in 1731.

Ebenezer Wakelee (1727) – Orcutt says, he "was born in Stratford, Conn, where his father, James, resided. He came to Wolcott and married Elizabeth Nichols of Waterbury, and settled on land purchased by his father, it being several hundred acres. He was probably the first settler in that part of Wolcott, called, originally, the 'Big Plains'. The residence of the late Bement J. Wakelee is the old homestead." However, since all records in ancestry.com give a date of birth for him as 1718 and a date of marriage of 1740, it is unlikely that he was residing here in 1727 when he would have only been nine years of age.  A date at least 10 years later is much more likely.

Jacob Benson (1729) – Although Orcutt makes no mention of Jacob, he does reference “Benson’s Hill” as the name of the hill on which the current town center is located. In “The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut, from the Aboriginal Period to the Year Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-five” published in 1896, we find the following in the list of new taxpayers for December 1729, “…Jacob Benson, who must have had a family, for he paid a tax for three persons, and may have been the first settler on Wolcott Hill, as that was early known as Benson’s hill…”  This gives independent confirmation of him being a settler in 1729.

(http://archive.org/stream/towncityofwaterb05ande/towncityofwaterb05ande_djvu.txt)

John Alcox (1731) – There has never been a controversy about John Alcox moving to Wolcott in March 1731. All the sources mentioned are in accord on this. His son, also John, was born here in December of that same year. 

Isaac Hopkins (1732) – Besides the prior confirmation from the History of Waterbury, we know that he married in September, 1732, so making his new home in Wolcott in 1732 seems pretty likely.