Sarah PITKIN

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Son of William and Hannah (Goodwin) Pitkin of Berkhamstead, co. Hertford and Hartford.

Notes:

Excerpt from"Pitkin Genealogy":

He was educated by his father in his profession of the law. He was Judge of the County and Probate Courts and Court of the Assistants from 1702 till 1711. Upon the establishment of the Superior Court, in 1711, he was appointed Judge of that court, and in 1713 he was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He represented Hartford in the General Assembly in 1696. In 1697 he was elected one of the commissioners to receive the Earl of Belmont on his arrival in New York. He was Commissioner of War in 1706 and 1707 (Col. Rec., p. 535). He was one of the committee to prepare the manuscript laws of the Colony in 1709; also committee on the revision of said laws (Col. Rec., Vol. V, p. 479). In 1718 he was appointed one of a committee of three, by the General Assembly, to build the first State House in the colony, at Hartford (Col. Rec., Vol. VI. PP. 157 and 197). He was also one of a committee to procure a map of the course of the Connecticut River from the "mouth of it to the north bounds of this Colony, to be inserted in the plan of the colony now ordered to be drawn."

He was a military officer in the company of his brother Roger.

He is said to have been no less able to repartee than in argument. Being once opposed in a case by Mr. Eels, a brother lawyer, who, in summing up the case, thinking he had the better of Mr. Pitkin, said: "The Court will perceive that the pipkin is cracked." His instant reply was, "Not so much cracked, your honor, but he will find it will do to stew eels in yet."

Although so much engaged in his professional business, he had, previous to 1706, built two fulling mills at Pitkin Falls; in connection with which he carried on a large business in clothings and woolens. These mills were bequeathed to his sons, William and Joseph, who succeeded him in the business.

He "owned his covenant" with the "First Church of Christ in Hartford" Sept. 4, 1687, at which time his oldest child, Elizabeth, was baptized. he and his wife, with his brother Roger and wife, joined the church in "full communion" August 14, 1692.

William married Elizabeth STANLEY in 1686. Elizabeth (daughter of Capt. Caleb STANLEY and Hannah COWLES) was born on 24 Oct 1669; died on 12 Feb 1751. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Excerpt from "Pitkin Genealogy":

William Pitkin, the progenitor of the family in America, who came from England in 1659, was possessed of great ability and tenacity of purpose. Endowed with a discerning mind, coupled with an excellent English education, coming into the Colony after its early settlement, he soon gained the full confidence of the Connecticut colonists. He was admitted a freeman, October 9, 1662, and was appointed the same year by the General Assembly, Prosecutor for the Colony. His marked ability gave him, in1664, the appointment of Attorney-General, by the King. From 1675 to 1690, a period of fifteen years, he annually represented Hartford in the Colonial Assembly. In 1676 he was chosen Treasurer of the Colony. He was often appointed Commissioner by the Colony to the United Colonies. In 1676 he was appointed with Major Talcott to negotiate peace with the Narragansett and other Indian tribes. In 1690 he was elected a member of the Colonial Council, and so remained till is death. In 1693 he was sent by the Colony to Governor Fletcher of New York, to negotiate terms respecting the militia until Governor Winthrop's return from England, whither he had gone on the same business (see Hollister's "Connecticut", p. 340). In 1693 "Mr. William Pitkin, Mr. Sanuel Chester, and Captain William Whiting were appointed by the General Court to run the division line between the Connecticut and Massachusetts colonies" (see Trumbull's History, p. 410; also see Col. Rec., Vol. I, p. 363-413, Vol. II, p. 426, Vol. III, p. 19). Aside from his profession, he was also one of the principal planters of the town, having purchased a large tract of land on the east side of the river, on which his sons all settled. It embraced a portion of East Hartford Center. He owned one-third interest in a saw-mill and a grist-mill at "Pitkin Falls", so called from the number of dams and mills erected there, by the Pitkin family. He was also appointed with Mr. John Crow, to lay out the first Main and other streets on the east side of the river.

William married Hannah GOODWIN in 1661. Hannah (daughter of Ozias GOODWIN and Mary WOODWARD) was born in 1637; died on 12 Feb 1724. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Daughter Of Ozias and (Mary Woodward) Goodwin

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Son of Timothy and Elizabeth Stanley
• Death: 4 Jan 1712

Notes:

Name:
Caleb Stanley was a deputy for Hartford nine Sessions in 1683 1684, 1689 and 1690; appointed Lieut. of the Trainband of Hartford, Oct. 15, 1683; Captain of the trainband of the south side of Hartford, Aug. 29, 1689; Commissary for the Colony 1695, and for Hartford County 1703-4; Assistant 1691-1700. He was a wealthy and influential man of the colony.

Caleb married Hannah COWLES about 1663. Hannah (daughter of John COWLES and Hannah ?) was born in Feb 1644 in Farmington, Connecticut; died on 4 Feb 1689/90 in Hartford, Hartford Co., Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

? married Unknown ?. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Ozias married Mary WOODWARD. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Timothy married Elizabeth ?England. Elizabeth was born about 1603; died on 23 Feb 1679 in Hartford, Hartford Co., Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Mrs. Stanley m. (2) Andrew Bacon, who removed to Hadley but she returned to Hartford after his death in 1669 and lived with her son, Caleb. The author of the Stanley Family History says: "It has been intimated, we know not on what authority, that her maiden name was Morrice." (the Stanley Families, p. 229.)

Notes:

Name:
He is said to have been born in the west of England; was among the early settlers at Hartford and not long after 1640, located at Farmington, where he served as Townsman and in 1652, was one of those who organized the church there, being one of the "Seven Pillars." His land was on the corner at the north end of Farmington Village. Selling this property, he bought three lots just south of the present meeting house and built his house there. He was a farmer; was Deputy to the General Assembly from Farmington at the October and November sessions of 1653 and the May session of 1654. It has been erroneously said that he was one of the "signers" who started the settlement at Hadley, (Judd's Hadley, 1905 edition, p. 11.) He was one of the twenty-five "engagers" in Hadley to establish themselves at Hatfield, "cross the River" before March 25, 1661, and his record there begins in January, 1660/1; Freeman 1666. He was Townsman of Hadley, 1667. It is said that he spelled his name "Cowles" to distinguish himself from another man in the place named cole, but this seems doubtful. He may have been a brother of James of Hartford.

He probably came from Gloucestershire, where the Cowles family were more numerous than in any other part of England at that time, but a limited search of the records there and elsewhere in England by the College of Arms and a search by the compiler of the printed English records available, have failed to locate the place from whence he came or to trace his ancestry.

His name appears as Coll, Colles, Cole, Coles, Coal, Coale, Coales and Coalles in the earl record and for the first time as Cowles in the record of a court held at Hartford in 1659, at which he was a juror and again in two similar records and as appraiser of an estate in 1662-3. It appears as Cowles in his own will and that of his wife Hannah, in Farmington land records in 1666, in the record of his son John's marriage in 1668 and in that of his own death at Hatfield, Mass., Sept. 1675. It was the common belief of the genealogists of the last century that he changed his name from Cole to Cowles in order to distinguish his family from that o another John Cole of the same town, and some went so far as to say that he originated the name Cowles and that all who bore it were his descendants. But none of this is true for the reason that he signed his name by mark and could not have changed its spelling, that the name Cowles is an ancient one in England, antedating 1553, and that there are several Cowles families inAmerica who are not his descendants. However there is good reason to believe that the name Cowles was derived from that of Cole at some time prior to 1553 when it first appears of record in several counties in England almost simultaneously. If all of these families were descended from the same Cowles ancestor he must have lived at a much earlier period, but the probabilities are that each family derived its name independently from that of Cole. In the early records the Cowles family usually appears in the same neighborhood as the Cole family and sometimes the name of the same person is spelt first one way and then the other.

John Cowles was a farmer and doubtless had but little spare time or inclination for public office; yet as a good citizen he served in the various capacities noted in his record. After raising and educating a large family of children he left comparatively good estate, and his children all married into some of the most prominent families in New England.

John married Hannah ?. Hannah was born about 1613; died on 16 Mar 1683/4 in Hartford, Hartford Co., Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]