NORWALK.
 

139
 

in 1650, of Harvard College, and with his wife, Mary Miles, intended to establish a home in
New Haven, Death, however, cut short his career and he perished at sea, leaving a widow
and one son, Jonathan Ince,^^- born June 27, 1656. This widow and her son afterward
became, as has been observed, the wife and step-son of Rev. Thomas Hanford, of Norwalk.
The recorded Hanford children were all born to this second wife, who lived until about
1722. She is possibly buried, as also her renowned husband and quite possibly his first
wife and her mother, beneath the entirely obliterated flat stone parallelogram in the present
East Norwalk cemetery." Her European mother's headstone is to-da)' distinctl)- legible.
It stands in Wallingford, where she died in 1683, at the great age of 95 years.

H.XNFORI),  FirCll   AND   PLATT   ASCENDANT.S   OF   S.XMLIEL   l).\SK.\M,  .Sr.,
AND   HIS   DESCENDANTS.

Deborah, born Sept, 27, 1746, daughter of Hezekiah and Deborah Hoyt Hanford,
married Jonathan'"'- son of Hon. Samuel' and Susannah F"itch. Hezekiah Hanford w-as a
son of Samuel and grandson of Rev. Thos. Hanford. His wife was Deborah, daughter of
Caleb-^ and Mehitable Hoyt, and beside his daughter Deborah, he had, also, Grace, born
Oct. 5, 1765, who married Capt. Hezekiah Betts, who was the father of the late Miss Juli¬
ette Betts and her brothers and sisters of France Street."* Jonathan'"'- and Deborah Fitch
had a brief wedded life. The father, born 1744, a Yale man, died at harvest time, July 7,
1773, in a meadow near home at the age of twent)--nine. He left one son, Josiah Hanford
Fitch, born April 3, 1772. As Jonathan'"'- was the brother of Elizabeth (Mrs. Nehemiah
Rogers), his nephews, the Stamford Rogers, desired to care for this son, the young Josiah
Hanford Fitch, but the lad's mother and step-father. Waters, declined. The youth lived
to marry, Jan. 2i,  1791, Ann Piatt, daughter of Jedediah and Mary Platts Hanford.     To
 

'It is too late to restore this stone's incription,
but as the monument is built close to the late Hanford
graves, and is central, and not, otherwise stitisltictor-
ily accounted for, it is highly probable that it mttrks
the spot where repose the dust of Norwalk's first
ordained ser\-:int of God and those nearest and dearest
to liiin in the flesh.

^Brother of Gov. Thomas Fitch, and son of Thos.
Fitch,3''- who wtis a son of Thos.,^''- who was the son
of Thos.'St.

-ISoti of Zerubbabel, and grandson of Wither Hoyt,
the settler, Mrs. Caleb lloyt was a widow Blatchley,
a daughter of John, son of Ralph Keeler, Sr.

4The family of Capt. Hezekiah Betts was one ot
.Norwtilk's worthiest households, and the home abode
of primitive peace and piety. Its paternal head was
also an intense patriot. Himself and cousin Stephen
(Ctipt. Stephen, militia Captain at the burning of
Norwalk) were soldiers from their youth. Both were
strong characters. Hezekiah was a Puritan and
Stephen a Churchman. One loyally observed Thanks¬
giving Day, the other mingled tansy with his food on
 

Good Friday. The two were noble men and left a
noble record. Of Hezekiah it is mentioned that tears
would fill the old veteran's eyes when the night of
July 3d set in and the children had, seemingly, so far
forgotten their father's struggles, as to neglect to
ring the church bells and kindle independence " bon¬
fires." The members of Ctiptain Hezekiah's family
have been useful in their day and generation. Alfred
and Zenophon were clergymen in the west; Henry
was a genius; Mehitable married a Scott, and has a
daughter living; Eulalia (Mrs. Horace Gibbs) was a
fond mother; Juliette and Harriet were mercy-min¬
isters, and Eliza Sustin's instructress-influence in
rightly tmd righteously shaping young Norwalk life
entitles her memory to monumental perpetuity.

The present Hezekiah Betts house, in France
Street, supplanted the house of his father, Thomas
Betts, which, erected upon the same site, was burned
in 1779. The 1896 house was built around the old
Revolutionary chimney, which flue, however, was
some years since, for room sake, removed.

SMary Piatt wtis  a  daughter  of  Joseph   Piatt,2fl-