When I was a boy growing up in Connecticut, I noted that it
was easy to remember how to spell the name of my state by using the shorter
words Connect-i-cut. The word itself of course was not derived from those other
English words, but was an anglicization of the Algonquian word “Quinnehtukqut”
which means “beside the long tidal river”. The Connecticut River was given that
name in the early 1600s.
The English settlers had founded several colonies and towns
during the early 1600s, not only along the Connecticut River, but dotted along
the coast as well. So how was it that these semi-independent towns came
together to form what is now the State of Connecticut? Some of the answer to
that can be found in the influence of one man, my great*7 grandfather, the Rev.
James Pierpont (1659-1714).
I’ve written about the Rev. James Pierpont several times
before (see notes below). But of particular note about him is his adeptness at
connecting with a number of other significant families. Here is a synopsis of
those connections in three categories: (1) the families of his three wives; (2)
the other men involved in the establishment of the Collegiate School of
Connecticut (later called Yale); and (3) the families his children married
into.
[James Pierpont]
Wives
The two largest towns in the late 1600s were Hartford, the
center of the Colony of Connecticut, and New Haven, the center of the New Haven
Colony. Each of these had been founded in the 1630s by a group led by a pair of
men – one man being the pastor of the initial group. In the case of Hartford,
the two men were Joseph Haynes and Thomas Hooker, in the case of New Haven, the
two men were John Davenport and Theopolis Eaton.
As the pastor of the New Haven Colony, James Pierpont had
assumed the mantle of Davenport, but through his three marriages (the first two
having been cut short through the premature deaths of his wives), he also
connected himself to the Colony of Connecticut.
·
Abigail Davenport – granddaughter of John
Davenport
·
Sarah Haynes – granddaughter of John Haynes
·
Mary Hooker – granddaughter of Thomas Hooker
A co-incidence? I think not, especially when you see the
other alliances he also established.
Yale University
Yale was founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School of
Connecticut. It was also located initially in Killingworth and Saybrook (at the
mouth of the Connecticut River). Even though James was the principal founder
responsible for the school’s establishment, and by doing so he was fulfilling
the original desire of his predecessor in New Haven, John Davenport, both the
naming of the school and its location were shrewd moves. At the time, Hartford
and New Haven were joint capitals, and 1701 was the first meeting of the
legislature in New Haven. James wanted to present the college to them as a fait
accompli, but to have it named after and located in New Haven would probably
have caused the legislature to reject the notion. By locating it elsewhere and
naming it after the Connecticut Colony, he helped to guarantee the adoption of
the charter of the college. It was not until after the death of James that the
college relocated to New Haven and was renamed as Yale.
There were three principal founders of the college, James as
well as Samuel Andrew and Samuel Russell. But there was a larger group, kind of
an advisory board, that they had established in order to get the support of all
the pastors of the towns along the coast and along the Connecticut River. Here
is a list of the men and the towns that they pastored.
·
Samuel Andrew, Milford, CT
·
Thomas Buckingham, Saybrook, CT
·
Israel Chauncy, Stratford, CT
·
Samuel Mather, Windsor, CT
·
James Noyes, Stonington, CT
·
Abraham Pierson, Killingworth, CT
·
Nodiah Russell, Middletown, CT
·
Samuel Russell, Branford, CT
·
Joseph Webb, Fairfield, CT
·
Timothy Woodbridge, Hartford, CT
Children
While James and his wife did not choose the spouses for
their children, you can see the social circles in which the family participated
and the other families that their children grew up knowing by their eventual
choice of marriage partners. Most of James’ children did not marry into local
New Haven families, but chose their spouses from other towns where James had
connections.
·
Abigail, married Rev. Joseph Noyes, son of one
of the other Yale founders, James Noyes – who was then the chair of the board
of trustees of the college as well as pastor of the church in Stonington
·
James, educated at Yale, but then became a
business man and moved to Boston. Since he was then a part of a different
social circle than his parents, he chose his wives from these other
associations. He first married Sarah Breck in Boston, when Sarah later died
without children, James then moved back to New Haven and married Anna Sherman
from Fairfield County, CT
·
Samuel, educated at Yale, but drowned in the
Connecticut River at the age of 23
·
Mary, married Rev. William Russell, pastor of
the church in Middletown, and son of Rev. Nodiah Russell, one of the other
founders of Yale
·
Joseph, farmer, married Hannah Russell, daughter
of Nodiah Russell
·
Benjamin, died at age 5 months
·
Benjamin, educated at Yale, but died at age 28
·
Sarah, married Jonathan Edwards, celebrated
Puritan minister, who had just finished two years as a tutor at Yale and had
been named as the new pastor in Northampton, MA
·
Hezekiah, married Lydia Hemingway (the only
marriage into another long-time New Haven family) and daughter of one of the
first students of the Collegiate School of Connecticut
Notes
Very informative. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThe marriage of Sarah Pierpont to Jonathan Edwards provides some interesting sub-stories. Jonathan became president of the school in NJ that became Princeton University, but died after an innoculation to prevent smallpox, that was raging in the mid-17th century. He might not have known that this new medical treatment had been brought to the Western World from Muslim Constantinople by his distant cousin, Lady Mary Wartley Montegu, a British Pierrepont. Also interesting (but to my knowledge unexplored) is the pattern of Sarah Edwards' "mystical" experiences (as reported in her husband's sermons) that often occurred soon after the death of a family member or close acquaintance. Those two women, Sarah Pierpont Edwards and Mary Pierrepont Wortley Montegu, are among the many impressive female cousins in the genealogical records.
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