Major James FITCH

James married Elizabeth MASON in Jan 1676 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut, USA. Elizabeth (daughter of Maj. John MASON and Anne PECK) was born in Aug 1654 in Old Saybrook, Middlesex, Connecticut, USA; died on 08 Oct 1684 in Old Saybrook, Middlesex, Connecticut, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Jedediah FITCH was born on 17 Apr 1681 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut, USA; died on 20 Nov 1756 in Nantucket, Nantucket Co., Massachusetts.

James married Alice BRADFORD on 08 May 1687 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut, USA. Alice (daughter of William BRADFORD and Alice RICHARDS) was born about 1659 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA; died on 15 Mar 1745/6 in Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Lucy FITCH

Notes:

Name:
Rev. Mr. James Fitch arrived in this country in 1638, aged sixteen years, as stated by the inscription on his gravestone in the old cemetery at Lebanon, Conn. He was born at Bocking, County Essex, England on December 24, 1622, son of Thomas and Anne (Reeve) Fitch.

Rev. Mr. Fitch finished his theological training at Hartford, Conn., under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Thomas Hooker, who is named as a friend in the ill of Thomas Fitch of Bocking, and of Rev. Samuel Stone whose daughter married Joseph Fitch I.

The Rev. Mr. James Fitch is placed by Cotton Mather in his "second Classis" of New England ministers, consisting of "young scholars, whose education for their designed ministry not being finished, came over from England with their friends, and had their education perfected in this country before the college was come into maturity enough to bestow its laurels." (See Magnalia, I, 215, Hart. Edition).

In 1646, a church was organized at Saybrook, Conn., and the Rev. Mr. James Fitch was ordained as its first minister. This ceremony, a Congregational ordination in the strictest sense of the term, was graced by the presence of the Rev. Mr. Hooker, and Rev. Mr. Stone, and probably of Rev. Mr. Henry Whitfield, first minister of Guilford, Conn.

In the year 1701, the Rev. Mr. Fitch retired to Lebanon to spend the few remaining days of his eventful life. A Brief summer he passed inits quiet, secluded shades while death gently approached. Truly the inscription on his gravestone say, "he fell asleep in Jesus, Nov. 18, 1720, in the 80th year of his age."

James married Abigail WHITFIELD on 1 Oct 1648 in Connecticut. Abigail died on 09 Sep 1659 in Old Saybrook, Middlesex, Connecticut, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]