Tales from the Crypt

The Pierpont Family Association had its first annual meeting in 1924 and has met continually every year since. The attendance at these meetings has varied, but for only two of these were there in excess of 100 persons. Both of these were held in New Haven.

The first was held in 1935 at the Center Church on the Green and was in commemoration of the 250^th anniversary of the ordination of the ministry of the Rev. James Pierpont. As the PFA minutes note, “Immediately following this service, the members of the Association descended to the crypt for a memorial service at the grave of Rev. James Pierpont.”

The second was held in 1998 for the 75^th reunion of the PFA and was held at the Graduate Club of Yale University (formerly the home of James Pierpont, the son of the Rev. James Pierpont). Again, on this occasion, the PFA minutes note, “Many of the group visited the crypt containing the graves of several early Pierponts under the Center Church on the Green.” My wife and I were in attendance at this meeting.

As we approach the 100^th anniversary of the PFA, we are again considering holding a meeting in New Haven and will once again have the opportunity to visit the crypt and see the grave of Rev. James Pierpont. But with the availability of modern genealogy tools, I wondered how many of the gravestones there are for people who are related to me?

In order to answer that question, I needed to have a list of the gravestones that can be found there. I found some pictures of the crypt, and some nice writeups on it, but the part of the Center Church website that displays that information was not working properly. So, I turned to one of the better genealogy tools for cemeteries in Connecticut, the “Hale Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions.” The website designed for that collection appears to have been co-opted by a different search engine, so I “punted” and went to the copy of the actual documents located in ancestry.com where there are scans of six pages containing a complete list of all the gravestones and what is on them (including broken stones, pieces of stones, etc.)

[Here are some pictures of the actual crypt]

 

There is also a YouTube video taken in 2017 by someone who visited the crypt. (As noted in this video, the crypt is only open a few hours a week, so if you want to visit, be sure to check on availability.)

I transcribed the list of names and dates from the Hale collection into a document so that I could track my progress as I worked through all the names on the gravestones. My goal was to find common ancestors between myself and these individuals and to determine how many are my cousins (obviously several times removed as the newest stone is from 1812).

There are two major family units that make up nearly 100 of the 137 people listed on the gravestones. There are 25 individuals related to the Rev. James Pierpont. But even more amazing, there are 71 individuals from the extended Trowbridge family. But there are also 13 other families represented who share an ancestor with me. There are only 9 individuals for whom I could not find any common ancestor and 15 stones that were not readable enough to work with.

I have to admit that I was surprised with the results. I know that I have pretty deep roots in New England and particularly in New Haven, but this level of connectedness was unexpected.

 

Results – My Cousins

Here are the results of my research, the names of my ancestors where the connection occurs, and the connection between the various surnames mentioned on the gravestones and their links back to that common ancestor.

 

Pierpont/Pierpoint, Rev. James (1659-1714) (7GG) [25 gravestones]

·        Rev. James’ first wife was Abigail Davenport, daughter of Rev. John Davenport

·        Warham Mather married Elizabeth Davenport, daughter of Rev. John Davenport

·        Rev. Joseph Noyes married Abigail Pierpont, daughter of Rev. James Pierpont

·        Jonathan Edwards married Sarah Pierpont, daughter of Rev. James Pierpont

Trowbridge, Thomas (1631-1702), son of Thomas (1598-1673) (10GG) [71 gravestones]

·        Richard Roswell married Lydia Trowbridge, daughter of Thomas Trowbridge

·        Rev. John Woodward married Sarah Roswell/Rosewell, granddaughter of Thomas Trowbridge

·        Joseph Whiting married Hannah Trowbridge, daughter of Thomas Trowbridge

·        Daniel Lyman married Sarah Whiting, daughter of Joseph Whiting

·        Rev. Chauncey Whittelsey married Elizabeth Whiting, granddaughter of Thomas Trowbridge

·        Jared Ingersoll married Hannah Whiting, granddaughter of Thomas Trowbridge

·        John Prout married Mary Rutherford, sister of Sarah [Rutherford] Trowbridge

·        John Dixwell married Mary Prout, daughter of John Prout

·        Margaret [Mansfield] Arnold is the great-granddaughter of John Prout

·        William Greenough married Katharine Rosewell, granddaughter of Thomas Trowbridge

·        Hannah [Miles] Bradley is granddaughter of John Woodward

·        Ann and William Cook/Cooke are great-grandchildren of Thomas Trowbridge

·        Rebecca [Russell] Hays/Hayes is granddaughter of Thomas Trowbridge

·        Esther [Whiting] Shipman is great-granddaughter of Thomas Trowbridge

·        Joseph Whiting [Trevs?] is brother of John Whiting

·        Ann [Leete] [Trowbridge] Collins was married to John Trowbridge

·        Katherine [Whittelsey] Dana is a daughter of Samuel Whittelsey

·        Elizabeth [Trowbridge] Parmelee is a great-granddaughter of Thomas Trowbridge

Eaton, Theophilus (1591-1657) (10GG)

Todd, Christopher (1617-1666) (8GG)

·        Nathan Alling married Hannah Todd, granddaughter of Christopher Todd

Hemingway, Samuel (1636-1689) (8GG)

·        Joseph Howell is great-grandson of Samuel Hemingway

Sherman, John (1612-1691) (9GG)

·        Samuel Gaskel/Gaskill married Elizabeth Sherman, daughter of John Sherman

Baldwin, Richard (1622-1665) (10GG)

·        Rev. Samuel Wales married Catherine Miles, great-granddaughter of Richard Baldwin

·        Sidney Platt is great-great-grandson of Richard Baldwin

Thomas, John (1615-1671) (9GG)

·        Samuel Whitehead married Tabitha Thomas, granddaughter of John Thomas

Atwater, David (1615-1692) (9GG)

·        Timothy Atwater is great-grandson of David Atwater

Fitch, Thomas (1612-1704) (9GG)

·        James Hillhouse married Mary Lucas, great-great-granddaughter of Thomas Fitch

Brainerd, Daniel (1641-1715) (8GG)

·        Nancy Holmes is great*3 granddaughter of Daniel Brainerd

Peacock, John (1618-1670) (10GG)

·        Deborah [Clark] Jones is a granddaughter of John Peacock

Woodruff, Matthew (1616-1682) (9GG)

·        Dorcas [Carter] Bell was married to great-grandson of Matthew Woodruff

Townsend, Henry (1568-1625) (10GG)

·        Jeremiah Townsend is great-great-grandson of Henry Townsend

Bushnell, Richard (1623-1660) (10GG)

·        John Hyde is a great-great-grandson of Richard Bushnell