Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Anna Elizabeth Wolcott

Female Abt 1620 - 1701  (~ 80 years)


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  • Name Anna Elizabeth Wolcott 
    Born Abt 1620  of Lidyard Saint Lawrence or Tolland, Somerset, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Died From Sep 1700 to May 1701  of Lyme, New London, Connecticut, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I4499  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Family Matthew Griswold,   b. Abt 1620, of Kenilworth, Warwick, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 27 Sep 1698, Lyme, New London, Connecticut, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 78 years) 
    Married 16 Oct 1646  Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F2088  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. FHL book 929.242 G868f "The Greswold Family, 12 Generations in England," researched and edited by Robert L. and Esther G. French, comp. by Coralee Griswold [Wethersfeld, CT; 1999]. The authors standardize spelling as Greswold for England and Griswold for America. As of 2012, it appears that this book is the most current evolution of the Griswold ancestry and includes all previous research up to 1999 when it was published. (It also supersedes the author's own work in 1990 for the later English generations). See notes in this database of the original Griswold for a more detailed explanation of the various sources and a bibliography of previously published books that the authors include in this genealogical compilation.
      "Matthew12 Griswold (George11, Roger10, John9, John8, John7, John6, John5, William4, Richard3, Ralph2, John1) was born 1620 in England. Matthew died 27 Sep 1698 in Saybrook, Middlesex, Connecticut, at the age of 78. There is no stone for Matthew's grave, nor do we know exactly where he is buried. There are records which lead us to believe that he is probably buried in the Old Saybrook Cemetery. Although he removed to Lyme, he remained a member of the Saybrook church and was brought there for interment.
      He married Anna WOLCOTT 16 Oct 1646. She was born 1620 She was the daughter of Henry WOLCOTT and Elizabeth SAUNDERS. She was living in Sept 1700 when she and Abraham Bronson were summoned before the court at New London as administrators of the estate of Matthew. Abraham Bronson was summoned alone to the court in May 1701, so Anna evidently died in the interim (1700/1701). There is no record of her death or burial.
      He came to Windsor in 1639 with Edward Griswold, his older half brother, and the congregation of the Rev Ephraim Huit, but did not remain there long He moved to Saybrook where he received a grant of land in 1645, which became the foundation of a large fortune
      Old Lyme was first settled in 1664 as East Saybrook, and Matthew was the pioneer and its first settler He was one of the signers of the Articles of Separation in 1665. This was an age when distinctions of rank were accorded universal respect, and Matthew, established his family among the leading ones in the community
      It is said that Matthew built a log cabin for one of his Negroes which became known as "Blak's Hall" or "Blackhall" and that this explains the origin of the name of Matthew's ancestral estate. It is unlikely because the early English settlers rarely, if ever, built log buildings and would also be unlikely to name an estate after a slave's cabin. In any event, the early houses built upon Blackhall lands have all disappeared and the earliest house now standing (1935) was built in 1796 by Matthew the fifth. It is an exact replica of an earlier house built on the same spot by his grandfather, Judge John.
      Although Matthew was a lawyer, he also followed the trade of a mason, furnishing the stones for many of the graves of the early settlers.
      Matthew was apparently somewhat in advance of his time in his view of the rights of women. His wife had some twelve acres of meadow land in Windsor Great Meadows which came to her as an inheritance from her brother Christopher Wolcott. In a deed dated 23 Apr 1663, Matthew made over to her this parcel, "to remain to her and to her children and her dispose forever." It was not usual for a woman with a husband living to have property in her own right.
      The terrible consequences of the witchcraft delusion and the opportunity which it provided for the poor and unscrupulous members of the community to harass people of wealth and character cannot be better illustrated than by the following account, although the outcome was more fortunate than for some.
      In 1667 John Tillerson charged the wife of Matthew Griswold of Lyme with being a witch and induced others to suspect her of witchcraft, for which Matthew caused him to be arrested and arraigned before the court. This John stated the cause of his suspicions and jealousies. The court decided that she was not a witch and that he had no cause to be jealous of her, that he had greatly sinned in harboring such jealousy against so good a neighbor who had done him so many favors. To clear Mrs. Griswold all suspicion of the offense the Court ordered that its opinion should be published by the constables at Saybrook and Lyme at some public meeting. To recompense her for the wrong, and because Tillerson was poor, he was ordered to pay 7 shillings for the express warrant and 5 shilling for the constable. They had 5 children:
      i. Elizabeth Griswold, born about 1648, died before 1700.
      ii. Anna Griswold, born about 1651, died 13 Apr 1721.
      iii. Matthew Griswold, born 1653, died 13 Jan 1716
      iv. Sarah Griswold, born about 1656, died 12 Sep 1690.
      v. John Griswold, christened 15 Sep 1668 in Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut, died after 168?."

      2. Henry R. Stiles, "The History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut," 1892, v. 2, pp. 346-353:
      "Whatever their local antecedents and connections in England, it is certain that the emigrant brothers Griswold were men of education and property' and, after their arrival in the new colony, were always styled 'Mr.,' which was then equivalent to 'gentleman,' as distinguished from yeomen or tradesmen. Both brothers, though young men when they came to this country (Edward being then 32 and Matthew 19 years old), speedily allied themselves with the best social element of Windsor, took positions of commanding influence, and quickly became prominent in colonial affairs. 'Besides, if it be a principle of heredity that the characteristics, physical, intellectual, moral, and social, of a strongly marked ancestor are repeated in his descendants, so that form the offsrping may be inferred what was the progenitor, then, apart form all we know of the first generation of the Griswolds of New England, the qualities developed by succeeding generations of the family have been an accumulating proof that its emigrant ancestors were high-minded, intelligent, Chirstian 'gentlemen.''' [See footnote #1.]
      Matthew Griswold, the younger brother, did not long remain at Windsor, though (see page 75, Vol. I.) he came very near being a permanent resident here, and we will therefore discuss his history first. Coming to Windsor, 1639, being then 19 years old, he m. 16 Oct 1646, Anna (dau. of Henry Sr. and Elizabeth Saunders) Wolcott of Windsor, and, between that date and 1649/50, removed to Saybrook as agent for Col. Fenwick. He speedily assumed a prominence at that place; was Deputy to the General Court in 1654, and, in the same year, was directed by the Court to go with Capt. Mason to Pequitt and join with Gov. Winthrop to draw the lines between that towne and Uncas, etc. He was largely instrumental in the movements which led up to the settlement of Lyme, on the other side of the Great River, and became the leading and wealthiest man in that town, which was set off from Saybrook in 1665/6. He was frequently a Deputy and Commisioner, Justice of the Peace, Lieutenant of the Trainband, etc. His landed possessions soon assumed baronial proportions, especially upon the shores of Long Island Sound, where, near the mouth of the Connecticut River, he establisd 'Backhall,' since the family seat of the Griswolds of Lyme.
      He died at Lyme, Conn, 27 Sep 1698, and was buried at Saybrook. His wid. survived him, and was living in Sep 1700, age about 80 yrs. Their children were (1) Elizabeth, b. about 1652; m. (1) John Rogers of N. London; m. (2) Peter Pratt; m. (3) Matthew Beckwith. (2) 'Mr.' Mattews. (3) John, d. young. (4) Sarah, b. abt. 1655; m. Thos. Colton. (5) Anna, b. about 1656; m. Lieut. Abraham Bronson, and was the ancestress of Hon. Henry Matson Waite, until 1854 the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, and of the late U.S. Cheif Justice Morrison Remick Waite.
      Through their only surviving son, Mr. Matthew, b. 1653, who followed in the footsteps of his father in public life, and died full of honors in 1715, they founded a family 'that has been unusually free from the vicissitudes which are apt, in the course of many generations of a family, to occur to lower the social standing of some of its persons, or branches.' Those who would study a singular and (in American family history) an almost unparalleled prominence in public affairs and in intellectual ability, are referred to the Appendix to the Wolcott Genealogy in this work, and to 'The Griswold Family of Conncticut' (already referred to), by Prof. Edward E. Salisbury of New Haven, Conn., an exceedingly interesting and gracefully penned contribution to Connecticut genealogy. [See footnote #2.]
      Footnotes:
      1. The large views of Matthew, very much in advance of his time, are well illustrated by the following item from 'Windsor Town Records': 'April 23d 1663, Hannah Griswold, wife of Matthew Griswold, has a portion of meadow-Land in Windsor Great Meadow, twelve acres more or less... this comes to her as part of her portion that fell to her by the Last will of her brother Christopher Wolcott Dec'd, out of his Estate that was to be Devided among his Relations; and this parcel of meadow is allowed by her Husband Mattew Griswold to be Recorded and made over to Hannah his wife, to remain to her and her children, and their Dispose forever.'
      2. Prof. Salisbury, also, disposes satisfactorily of the tradition that Matthew Griswold was a stone-mason, and that he cut the tombstone of Henry Wolcott in Old Windsor Cemetery.

      3. Ancestry.com's "Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33":
      "HENRY WOLCOTT:
      Origin: Lidyard St. Lawrence, Somersetshire.
      Migration: 1630 on Mary & John.
      First Residence: Dorchester.
      Removes: Windsor.
      1636 RETURN TRIPS: Travelled to England in 1640 and returned in 1641 [Lechford 324-25].
      Church Membership: Admission to Dorchester church prior to 1 April 1634 implied by freemanship.
      Freeman: Requested 19 October 1630 and admitted 1 April 1634 [MBCR 1:79, 368].
      Education: His inventory included "the books and other things in the closet" valued at £11.
      Offices: Dorchester assessor, 3 November 1633 [DTR 4]. Fenceviewer, 20 May 1634, 10 February 1634/5 [DTR 6, 10]. Selectman, 28 October 1634 [DTR 7]. Deputy for Windsor to Connecticut General Court, April 1639 [CT Civil List 64]. Assistant, April 1643, April 1644, April 1645, April 1646, May 1647, May 1648, May 1649, May 1650, May 1651, May 1652, May 1653, May 1654, May 1655 [CT Civil List 64]. Windsor constable, 26 April 1636 [CCCR 1:1]. Tax collector, 9 February 1637/8 [CCCR 1:12]. Jury, 1644 [CCCR 1:102]. Committee on highway between Windsor and Hartford, 10 April 1645 [CCCR 1:125].
      Estate: On 3 April 1633 ordered to maintain sixty feet of fence at Dorchester, for three cows [DTR 1]. Granted fourteen acres in the meadow beyond Naponset [DTR 322]. In the Windsor land inventory on 11 January 1640[/1] "Henry Woolcott the elder" held eleven parcels: a twelve acre homelot; twenty-two acres in the Great Meadow; eight acres in Plimouth Meadow; fifty-eight acres toward Hartford; twenty-four acres over the Great River; a parcel over the Great River twenty rods in breadth and three miles in length; a parcel over the Great River ten rods in breadth and three miles in length; eighteen acres over the Great River; a parcel "upon Plimouth Meadow bank"; fifty acres over the Great River; and eight acres and fifty rods in swamp [WiLR 42]. For settling the estate of Thomas Marshfield, Henry Wolcott received seventeen acres of upland and six acres of swamp, and purchased of the overseers of Thomas Marshfield a parcel over the Great River, thirteen rods in breadth and three miles in length [WiLR 42]. In his will, dated 30 May 1655 and proved 4 October 1655, "Henry Wolcot" bequeathed to "my wife ... all my houselot, orchard, garden, hopyard and my lot in Plimmouth Meadow during the term of her life, also ... two of my cows and half the household goods in my dwelling house"; "I leave my land in England to Henry my eldest son without encumbrances, also I give unto him my two Books of Martyrs"; to "Christopher my second son my lot in the great meadow after my death and my houselot and housing upon it after the death of my wife he paying out of it thirty pounds after my wife's decease as I shall further appoint"; to "George my third son the five pounds he owes me and five pounds more"; to "Simon my youngest son all my land on the easterly side of the Great River and my lot at Arramummett"; to "the children of Henry my eldest son five pounds to Henry the eldest of them and to the rest of them forty shillings apiece"; residue to be equally divided "amongst all my children"; "Henry Wolcot my son" to be overseer; to "Christopher my son ... my lot in Plimmouth Meadow after the decease of my wife" [Hartford PD Case #6179; Manwaring 1:167-68]. The inventory of the estate of "Mr. Henry Wolcot deceased," taken 13 June 1655, totalled £764 8s. 10d., of which £351 5s. was real estate: "the houselot, housing, orchard, gardens, press, garner [granary] and things thereto belonging," £135; "twenty-two acres in the Great Meadow," £88; "8 acres in Plimmouth Meadow," £32; "24 acres at Podunk ... with a barn," £54; "Marshfield's lot and house," £24; "the lot at Arramomets," £10; and "four other lots not fenced," £8 5s. [Hartford PD Case #6179]. In her will, dated 5 July 1655 and proved 4 October 1655, "Elizabeth Wolcot" bequeathed to "my son George" £10 in moveables; to "Simon my son" some cloth; "the rest of my household goods to be equally divided betwixt Christopher and Simon my sons"; "the rest of my clothes to be equally divided betwixt my two daughters Anna and Mary"; "I would entreat Christopher to let Simon to dwell in the house and to have the use of it a while"; "my two cows to be equally divided amongst all my grandchildren" [Hartford PD Case #6167; Manwaring 1:166].
      Birth: Baptized at Lidyard St. Lawrence, Somersetshire, 6 December 1578, son of John Woolcott [Wolcott Gen 2].
      Death: Windsor 30 May 1655 [CTVR 43; Grant 82 (day and month not given)]. MARRIAGE: Lidyard St. Lawrence, Somersetshire, 19 January 1606 Elizabeth Saunders [Wolcott Gen 2]. She died at Windsor on 5 July 1655 [CTVR 43; Grant 82 (day and month not given)].
      Children:
      i. John, bp. Lidyard St. Lawrence 1 October 1607 [Wolcott Gen 2]; living in 1631 [NEHGR 4:23-23]; no further record, and died without surviving issue before 10 March 1642 (when "Henry Woolcot of Windsor" deeded to "Henry Woolcot mine oldest son" the family inheritance in Tolland and Lidyard St. Lawrence [Wolcott Gen 39]).
      ii. Henry, b. say 1616; m. Windsor 8 November 1641 Sarah Newberry [Grant 69], daughter of Thomas Newberry.
      iii. George, b. say 1622; m. by about 1649 Elizabeth ____ (said to be Elizabeth Treat, daughter of Richard, but without evidence [Hale, House 767]).
      iv. ANNE, b. say 1624; m. Windsor 16 October 1646 Mathew Griswold (so stated in all secondary sources, but no evidence provided).
      v. Mary, b. say 1626; m. Windsor 25 June 1646 Job Drake, son of John Drake [Grant 32].
      vi. CHRISTOPHER, b. say 1628; d. Windsor 7 September 1662, unmarried [Manwaring 1:166]. In his nuncupative will Christopher Wolcott asked that "his estate should be divided among his brothers and sisters, only that Henry should have something more than the others" [Manwaring 1:166].
      vii. SIMON, b say 1630; m. (1) Windsor 19 March 1656/7 Joanna Cooke, daughter of AARON COOKE [CTVR 42], and she d. Windsor 27 April 1657 [CTVR 43]; m. (2) Windsor 17 October 1661 Martha Pitkin [Grant 69].
      Associations: "John Woolcott heretofore of Glaston in the County of Somerset, yeoman, and late of Watertowne in New England, planter, deceased," left behind two minor daughters. One of those chosen to be guardian was "Henry Woolcott of Windsor in N.E." [Lechford 39-41]. The exact degree of kinship between this John and Henry has not been determined, but they were probably not-too-distant cousins.
      Comments: On 22 July 1631 "John Wollcott," writing from Wellington, Somersetshire, addressed "his loving cousin Henry Wollcott Junior in Matapan (Dorchester) these in New England," asked to be remembered to "your father and mother [and] to your brothers," and reported that "your brother Simon hath been very sick of late and so hath your sisters also.... Your brother John continues in his old course of living" [NEHGR 4:23-24]. The addressee was the younger Henry Wolcott, the eldest son in New England of the immigrant. On 15 April 1639 "John Wollcott" of Bishop's Lydyard wrote to "my loving brother Hennory Wollcott dwelling in Winsor by Quenattecott River in New England" to inform him that "our dear brother C[hris]topher Wollcott of Wellington" had died on the 25th of March 1639 [NEHGR 2:373-74]. The statement has been made that Henry Wolcott lived at Ash Priors, Somersetshire, after 1607, and baptisms are given for sons Henry and Simon, but the parish where these events took place is not stated with assurance [M&JCH 17:176]. Further evidence is needed on this point. In 1640 Henry Wolcott was in partnership with Thomas Marshfield and Samuel Wakeman in the voyages of two ships across the Atlantic, and he presumably made the voyage himself in one of these vessels [Lechford 324-25].
      SOURCES:
      A. Lechford: Note-book Kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., Lawyer, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, from June 27, 1638, to July 29, 1641, Edward Everett Hale, Jr., ed. (Cambridge 1885; rpt. Camden, Maine, 1988). Citations herein refer to the pagination as printed (and not to the manuscript pagination) and will therefore differ from the index entries of the 1885 edition.
      B. MBCR: Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1628-1686, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, ed., 5 volumes in 6 (Boston 1853-1854).
      C. DTR: Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston. 1880. Dorchester Town Records (Boston 1883).
      D. CT Civil List: List of Officials Civil, Military, and Ecclesiastical of Connecticut Colony... and New Haven Colony..., Donald Lines Jacobus, comp. (New Haven 1935).
      E. CCCR: The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1636-1776, 15 volumes (Hartford 1850-1890).
      F. WiLR: Windsor, Connecticut, Deeds (microfilm of original at Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Connecticut).
      G. Hartford PD: Hartford Probate District, original files, Connecticut State Archives (and on microfilm).
      H. Manwaring: A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records, Volume One, Hartford Probate District, 1635-1700, Charles William Manwaring, comp. (Hartford 1904).
      I. Wolcott Gen.: Chandler Wolcott, Wolcott Genealogy[:] The Family of Henry Wolcott (Rochester 1912).
      J. Grant: "Matthew Grant Record, 1639-1681" in Some Early Records and Documents of and Relating to the Town of Windsor, Connecticut, 1639-1703 (Hartford 1930).
      K. NEHGR: New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 1 through present (1847+).
      L. Hale, House: Donald Lines Jacobus and Edgar Francis Waterman, Hale, House and Related Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley (Hartford 1952; rpt. Baltimore 1978).
      M. M&JCH: Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John 1630, Volume 1 through present (Toledo, Ohio, 1985+)."

      4. Ancestry.com's "Wolcott Genealogy: the Family of Henry Wolcott, One of the First Settlers of Windsor, Connecticut," p. 34:
      "Henry Wolcott, who emigrated form England and was the ancestor of the family in this country of which a record is here given, was the second son of John Wolcott of Tolland in Somersetshire, England, and was baptized in the adjoining parish of Lydiard St. Lawrence, Dec. 6, 1578. He m. Jan. 19, 1606 Elizabeth dau. of Thomas Saunders, of Lydiard St. Lawrence. She was baptized, Dec. 20, 1584...
      Anna. She came over with her sister and youngest brother after the family had become settled; m. Oct. 16, 1646, Matthew Griswold, of Windsor."

      5. The following is a from the Windsor, CT, Historical Society from the Griswold family file. It is attributed to the "Dutchess County Farmer" (no date) and is entitled "Recollections of Some Old New England Families. It is a single sheet of paper from which I provide the following partial quote:
      "...We now turn to Matthew Griswold, a man who numbers descendants by thousands and of this number very many have attained unusual prominence. He was born in 1618, and was a stone-cutter by trade. In 1645 he was granted a tract of land at Lyme, Conn., and here has since been the Griswold homestead, 'Black Hall.' It is a cluster of half a dozen houses, surrounded by a dense grove of trees, which slopes toward the sound. Mr. Griswold built a log-hut on his grant, which was the first house in Lyme, and dug a well which is still in existence and has been used by successive generations. The Indians were too hostile for him to remove his family so far from the fort of Saybrook, and he therefore sent a negro to occupy the hut, and tradition says hence the pleasant sounding name of Black Hall. Mr. Griswold was the first Justice of the Peace in Lyme, and the first magistrate of the Saybrook Colony. He married Hannah, daughter of Henry Wolcott, and died in June, 1699, at a ripe old age.
      His daughter Ann, married Abraham Bronson. She was the great-great-grandmother of Chief Justice Henry Watson Waite, of Connecticut, whose son, Morrison R.Waite, is Chief Justice of the United States. She was also a greet-great grandmother of Hon. John Turner Waite, a prominent Judge and lawyer of Norwich, Conn., and now member of the House of Representatives.
      The fifth Child, Matthew Griswold, Jr., was born at East Saybrook, Conn., in 1653. At one time there was a troublesome controversy between New London and Lyme about a tract of land, about four miles in width, which both towns claimed. After much wrangling and expense it was agreed to 'leave it to the Lord,' in other words settle it by single combat, and Matthew Griswold and William Ely, were chosen contestants from Lyme, and they fought so valorously that New London was compelled to relinquish her claim to the ground.
      Matthew Griswold, Jr., had ten children. [Children listed.]
      Mrs. Griswold died Nov. 29th, 1704, and May 30th, 1705, the disconsolate widower consoled himself by marrying Mary, widow of Thomas Lee. Mr. Griswold died Jan. 19, 1716, age 63, and lies buried in the old cemetery below the hill at Lyme. His widow survived him eight years..."
      [Article continues about the descendants of Matthew Griswold, Jr. and has no further bearing on my research.]

      6. From "The Griswold Family England-America" 1943, p 190:
      "The Griswold Family.
      The terrible consequence of the witchcraft delusion, and the opportunity of the ignorant and unscrupulous to harass people of wealth and character cannot be better illustrated than by the following account:
      In 1667 John Tillerson charged the wife of Matthew Griswold of Lyme of being a witch and induced others to suspect her of witchcraft; for which Matthew caused him to be arrested and arraigned before the court. This John stated the cause of his suspicions and jealousies. The court decided that she was not a wtich and that he had no cause to be jealous of her; that he had greatly sinned in harboring such jealousy against so good a neighbor who had done him many favors. But as he was poor, the Court to recompense Mrs. Griswold for the wrong, and to clear her of all suspicions of the offense, ordered that the opinion of the court should be published by the constables of Saybrook and Lyme, at some public meeting, and ordered Tillerson to pay 7 shillings for the express warrant, and 5 shillings for the constable.
      How truly some of this could apply to the recipients of charity in our present day."

      7. From the book "The Griswold Family," by Edward Elbridge Salisbury, privately published 1884, copy in Windsor, Conn. Historical Society Library. The book contains many prime sources not found in other Griswold publications. Pp. 6-7:
      "...The large views of Matthew Griswold, very much in advance of his time, are illustrated b a record which has just come to light, as follows:
      'April 23d 1663, Hannah Griswold, wife of Matthew Griswold, has a portion of meadow-Land in Windsor, Great Meadow, Twelve acres more or less... this comes to her as part of her portion that fell to her by the Last will of her borther Christorpher Wolcott Dec'd, out of his Estate that was to be Devided among his Relations; and this parcell of meadow is allowed by her Husband Matthew Griswold to be Recorded and made over to Hannah his wife, to remain to her and her children, and their Dispose, forever.'
      (Author's note: 'Copied by the Town Clerk of Windsor from Records there, in August 1882.')
      We can only wonder at the enterprise, courage and energy of these early pioneers, Matthew Griswold, at the early age of nineteen years, came with his brother Edward to Windsor, among its earliest settlers, then struck out from there to find a new home in Saybrook; then, as if that spot had become too narrow, crossed the 'Great River,' and made his final settlement as the first man who took up land in Lyme. Perhaps this may have been partly due to the English passion for landed possessions - also, perhaps, to a hereditary longing which could be fully gratified only by first occupation.
      In this connection I may most appropriately dispose of a statement, distinctly made or hinted at in different quarters, that the first Matthew Griswold followed the trade of a stone-cutter. The only proofs alleged of this are, first, a receipt given by him, Apr. 1, 1679, now registered at Saybrook, for seven pounds sterling, 'in payment for the tombstone of the lady Alice Bottler (Lady Fenwick), late of Saybrook;" and, secondly, the tradition that the tombstone of his father-in-law, Henry Wolcott of Windsor (who died in 1655) - similar in form and material to that of Lady Fenwick - was obtained by his agency. (Author's noted source: 'History of New London, by Frances Manwaring Caulkins, New London, 1852, pp. 173-74; and Memorial of Henry Wolcott, New York, 1881, pp. 12, note, and 32.') As to the receipt, nothing is more likely than that he gave it for money which he had long before paid out as Agent ot Gov. Fenwick; and as to the Wolcott tradition, that by no means necessarily means that the monument of Henry Wolcott was a work of his hands. Still, it is possible that Matthew Griswold may have learned the art of stone-cutting in preparation for his emigration - perhaps as a disguise in aid of his expatriation; and that he practiced the art occasionally, as the exigencies of colonial life in a new country made it useful for him to do so, is also possible. But that stone-cutting was his occupation, or trade, there is not the slightest reason to believe; indeed, the supposition is a variance with all that we know of his prominence in the public affairs of his time, and inferable education, or are led to conjecture, from his large acquistions of land at an early period, of his having given himself, from the first to agriculture. Evidently he was skilled in laying foundations, and in sculpturing monuments, but it was with material, and in forms, far more enduring than stone - nay, more lasting than the brass of the mechanic artificer: 'Momumentum aere perennius.'"

      8. "The Griswold Family, The First Five Generations in America," comp. and ed. by Esther Griswold French and Robert Lewis French, publ. by The Griswold Family Association, 116 Garden St., Wethersfield, CT, 06109, pp. 185-187:
      "Matthew married 16 Oct 1646 Anna Wolcott, b. 1620 in England; daughter of the first Henry Wolcott of Windsor, son of John Wolcott of Tolland, England, baptized in 1578. Henry came in the ship Mary and John and was made a freeman of Massachusetts on the first day of the General Court, 19 Oct 1630 in Boston. Anna with her sister and younger borther came over after the family was settled. She was living in Sep 1700 when she and Abraham Bronson were summoned before the court at New London as administrators of the estate of Matthew who had died at his home 27 Sep 1698. Abrham Bronson was summoned alone to he court in May 1701, so Anna evidently died in the interim,. There is no record of her death or burial.
      Matthew was apparently somewhat in advance of his time in his view of the rights of women. His wife had some twelve acres of meadow land in Windsor Great Meadows which came to her as an inheritance from her brother Christopher Wolcott. In a deed dated 23 April 1663, Matthew made over to her this parcel "to remain to her and to her children and her dispose forever." It was not usual for a woman with a husband living to have property in her own right.
      The terrible consequences of the witchcraft delusion and the opportunity which it provided for the poor and unscrupulous members of the community to harass people of wealth and character cannot be better illustrated than by the following account, although the outcome was more fortunate than for some.
      In 1667 John Tillerson charged the wife of Matthew Griswold of Lyme with being a witch and induced others to suspect her of witchcraft, for which Matthew caused him to be arrested and arraigned before the court. This John stated the cause of his suspicions and jealousies. The court decided that she was not a witch and that he had no cause to be jealous of her; that he had greatly sinned in harboring such jealousy against so good a neighbor who had done him so many favors. To clear Mrs. Griswold of all suspicion of the offense the Court ordered that its opinion should be published by the constables at Saybrook and Lyme at some public meeting. To recompense her for the wrong and because Tillerson was poor, he was ordered to pay 7 shillings for the express warrant and 5 shillings for the constable.
      The Middletown Congregational Church records show the baptism of John and Sara, children of Matthew Griswold of Lyme on Sept. 15, 1668.
      The order of birth for the children is taken from Vol. II:122; however because of the marriage dates and birth dates of the husbands, it would seem there is a descrepancy:
      Sarah
      Matthew, b. 1653.
      John. No records, probably died unmarried.
      Elizabeth
      Anna
      References: Town and church records of Lyme, Middletown and Saybrook, Conn.; Wolcott Memorial; Conn. Colony records, Vol. I, II; Hist. Soc. Collections; Particular court records; Court of Assistants Records, Office Secretary of State."

      9. The book "Dorset Pilgrims," 1989, p. 210: "... prominent among the Windsor families … were the Wolcotts … Anna had long been married to Matthew Griswold of Saybrook..."