Good One

Good history…this one.

7^th Great Grandfather  Reverend James Fitch   Born  24 Dec 1622 Bocking, Essex, England   Died  18 Nov 1702 Lebanon, New London, Connecticut, USA

REV. JAMES FITCH

James Fitch was born in Bocking on December 24, 1622. His father died when he was only ten years old. He was left money in the will so that he could go and study at Cambridge. Instead, it seems, he was taken under the wing of Rev. Thomas Hooker of Chelmsford, a friend of Thomas Fytche who was also mentioned in the will. He probably began studying to be a minister at the church in Chelmsford under Hooker. Rev. Hooker decided to go to America and establish a church there.


As a lad of only sixteen, he sailed to America in 1638 with Reverend Hooker. He finished his theological study in Hartford, Connecticut under the Reverend Hooker and Reverend Samuel Stone, also of Bocking, England. A new Church was built in Saybrook, Connecticut and James Fitch was ordained as its first minister in 1646.

On October 1, 1648, James married Abigail Whitfield of nearby Guilford, Connecticut. The ceremony was performed by her father, Reverend Whitfield. Abigail Whitfield was born in August 1622. There is a WHITFIELD FAMILY HISTORY that follows this Fitch History.

James must have told his mother and brothers about America, and in about 1650, Anne Fitch and her sons Thomas, Samuel and Joseph sailed for America to join James.

In 1659, the congregation at Saybrook received permission to establish a new settlement at Norwich, Connecticut and Rev. James Fitch accompanied them as their leader along with Major John Mason.

Just before leaving, Abigail died on September 9, 1659. James and his six children, James II, Abigail, Elizabeth, Hannah, Samuel and Dorothy, went alone to Norwich the following month.

Uncas, the Indian chief made famous by James Fenimore Cooper in The Last of The Mohegans, was the chief who sold the lands of Norwich to Fitch and Mason and the others. Now it’s all gambling casinos. Not quite the same.

James Fitch married Priscilla Mason, daughter of Major John Mason in October of 1664. This marriage produced eight more children, Daniel, John, Jeremiah, Jabez, Ann, Nathaniel, Joseph and Eleazer.

When King Philip's War began in 1675, Rev. Fitch was instrumental in getting Uncas and the Mohegans and the Pequot Indians to side with the English against King Philip's Narragansett tribes. Their fair dealings with the Indians spared these settlers who were on the very frontier at that time.

In 1695, James founded and settled a new town nearby, Lebanon, Connecticut. He moved there in 1701 when he retired from the church in Norwich. He remained in Lebanon until his death at age eighty on November 18, 1702. He is buried at the churchyard there and his stone remains in the old cemetery.



Check this out >>> https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10842545

I have visited many cemeteries in New England and taken rubbings.  Once I took Aunt Nancy with me.