Genealogy Story – Josiah Atkins House in Wolcott

Recently I was reading one of the entries in of the Wolcott Historical Society (see http://www.tapr.org/~wa1lou/whs/news201304.html) about the Josiah Atkins House. This is one of the early houses in Wolcott and was built sometime prior to 1777 by Josiah Rogers. When I was growing up the home was owned by the Washburne family and it is now occupied by one of my school classmates, Kathy Washburne Shea. Because of the Rogers name, which features prominently in my family tree, I thought I’d do some research.

Josiah Rogers (1733-1803) was the son of Deacon Josiah Rogers (called herein Deacon Rogers to distinguish father and son) from Branford. Deacon Rogers is the same individual who purchased land in the Waterbury side of Farmingbury in 1724 and sold some of it to John Alcox in 1731, the first inhabitant in that side of Farmingbury. In 1777 Josiah Rogers sold 1-1/4 acres of land, including the house, to his new son-in-law Josiah Atkins. Josiah Atkins was marrying Sarah Rogers, the daughter of Josiah. 

Here are some of the things I found out about the above individuals:

Deacon Josiah Rogers never lived in Farmingbury/Wolcott, but spent his entire life in Branford (where a lot of the early settlers of Wolcott came from). He was descended from the same Rogers line as the Rev. Stephen Rogers (see my prior blog on the Wolcott Library). This makes the Deacon Rogers my 6^th cousin (8 times removed). In addition, Deacon Roger’s wife was Martha Frisbie, the granddaughter of John Frisbie (1650-1694), thus Martha is my cousin (8 times removed), Josiah Rogers is my 2^nd cousin (7 times removed), and Sarah Rogers Atkins is my 3^rd cousin (6 times removed).

Alexander Gillet is part of the Gillette family who were prominent in the Hartford/Windsor area of CT. He is also related to William Gillette who was the actor who built Gillette Castle in East Haddam, CT.  William is his 4^th cousin (twice removed).

So the timeline for some of the above is:

1724 – Deacon Rogers buys land in Farmingbury

1731 – John Alcox buys land from Deacon Rogers and becomes first settler in that part of town

1759 – Frisbie family comes to Farmingbury

1773 – Alexander Gillett comes to Farmingbury as the first pastor of the church

Sometime before 1777 – Josiah Rogers builds house just down Center Street

1777 – Josiah Atkins marries Sarah Rogers, Josiah Rogers gives house to his daughter

1778 – Alexander Gillett marries Adah Rogers, the sister of Josiah Rogers

1791 – Alexander Gillett dismissed from church and moves from Farmingbury*

1802 – Josiah Atkins moves from Farmingbury to Ohio

Note – Rev. Gillet was dismissed because many of the church members were dissatisfied with his teaching. One of the individuals who was invited to sit with the church leaders to advise them was Dr. Jonathan Edwards, the noted preacher from New Haven. I find this interesting in two ways – one, that such a prominent individual would travel all the way from New Haven to the little village of Farmingbury for this meeting, and two, because Jonathan Edwards is my cousin, 7 times removed (his grandfather is my great*7 grandfather). Yet one more previously unknown connection between myself and Wolcott history! And it also means that my first cousin (7 times removed) was responsible for giving advice on dismissing the husband of my 2^nd cousin (7 times removed).