Rev. Jabez FITCH

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He graduated 1694 from Harvard College, where he was elected Tutor and Fellow. Jabez became a colleague with Rev. John rogers, where he continued until 13 Dec. 01724. He accepted an invitation in Summer 1725 to succeed Rev. Nathaniel rogers in Portsmouth, NH. where he was described as a "pious and useful minister of more than twenty years" at the time of his death.

Jabez married Elizabeth APPLETON on 26 Jul 1704 in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Elizabeth (daughter of Colonel John APPLETON, Esq. and Elizabeth ROGERS) was born on 23 Apr 1682 in Ipswich, Massachusetts; died on 18 Oct 1765 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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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 Priscilla MASON on 02 Oct 1664 in Norwich, New London County Connecticut. Priscilla (daughter of Maj. John MASON and Anne PECK) was born in Oct 1641 in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, USA; died in 1714 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]