Samuel and Mary Griffin of Killingworth Connecticut

Presented here is what I consider to be the definitive document for the family of Samuel and Mary Griffin of Killingworth, Middlesex, Connecticut. To the best of my knowledge it had remained undiscovered in the Killingworth records until about 2006. The information it containes is part of the Barbour Collection but seeing it as a whole puts the family picture into a clearer prospective firmly establishing a location and time line. Before its discovery there existed a degree of uncertainty as to the true ancestry of their children. There are Samuel Griffins from both New London and Middletown that at times have been considered the grand parents of our Griffin Clan. This document places the origins of our family tree firmly in the town of Killingworth. In Killingworth Samuel Griffin and Mary Beckwith’s first child Mary was born in 1728. But where were Samuel and Mary born? If you pick out any other person from their generation, that was born in Killingworth, and trace their family history it is fairly easy to find multiple references to them and their family in the town records, church records, land deeds, probate records, etc. Other than this list of their children that was inscribed on a page in the land deeds there is no such documentary trail for Samuel and Mary. By contrast there is just such a trail for their children. Samuel is mentioned in the town history at the marriage of his daughter Thankfull listed simple as “Mr. Griffin”. He is also mentioned as a party in a court case. There are several deed records from Clinton that reference the property of Samuel Griffin or Mary Griffin. And in Samuel’s probate file from Killingworth we have documents naming his sons and identify Mary as his widow. But unlike their contemporaries there is very little else. It is my conclusion that they were both born in some other community and met and married somewhere other than Killingworth. The Griffin DNA project provides a definitive connection to the family of Edward Griffin of Flushing, New York. Time lines from their family tree suggests Samuel was probably born somewhere in New York. That information can be referenced on the web sites maintained by Theresa Griffin and Paul Griffin under the heading Edward Griffin of Flushing on the web. Having researched the Beckwiths in the area surrounding Killingworth and finding no demonstrable connection other than similar names and dates I am left with the conclusion that the other possible location for her birth is the Stephen Beckwith family of Norwalk, Connecticut, which is near the border of New York, for which there is a very faint trail. But we in fact do have a starting point for a wonderful family tree. At some point in the history of Killingworth someone gathered all of the birth dates for Samuel and Mary Griffin’s children and wrote them down in one little concise record on a page set aside for that purpose in the land records. The record starts “Mary ye daughter of Samuel and Mary Griffin was born December ye 7th 1728. The notation “of Samuel and Mary” is repeated with each child. This is the only mention of Samuel’s daughter Mary in the Killingworth records. Her sisters Thankfull and Jerusha are noted in church records as teenagers but there is no mention of Mary. The same is true of Jeremiah. When Samuel died in 1746 both James and Samuel Jr. are listed in his probate file but there is no mention of Jeremiah. My conclusion is that Mary and Jeremiah both passed away at a young age. Samuel and Mary’s other children have left behind a very large posterity that has spread far and wide across America.------ Thankfull married Nathan Buell of the prominent Buell family and although her family spread out there is still a strong Buell presence in Killingworth. Her most noted grandchild is Sara Josepha Hale editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the forerunner to the Ladies Home Journal. She was the author, of among other things, the poem Mary Had A Little Lamb.------ Jerusha left her sister Thankfull’s home in Killingworth and met and married Asa Landon in Salisbury, Connecticut. Asa Landon was a supporter of the English Crown and after the Revolutionary War was forced to flee with his family to Canada ending up in the Brockville, Ontario area. He left behind his married daughter Lois who married James Selleck. The Landon’s have a strong presence in Canada and the upper Midwest. The Landon ancestry is very active in the family history world. Douglas Nelson, a descendant from Lois, maintains seceral great family trees on Ancestry.Com, the Lowell, Selleck, Nelson families.------ As the oldest son James inherited the family home in what was the Killingworth First Society in what is now Clinton. The house passed on to his son James Needham and grandson James N. James and Polly Needham’s grandchildren spread out among the towns surrounding Killingworth at least one branch followed the sea to Boston. Evidence suggests his children, Polly and Allan, did not survive to adulthood. His son Edward and his wife Submit’s family, with its roots in Killingworth, also scattered across Connecticut. We have documented Edward’s sons Charles and Edward Jr. in Ohio. James and Polly’s family is well documented on Ancestry.Com by Michael Clark. Look for the Clark Family Tree.------ Samuel Griffin and the children from his three wives Marah Griffen, Mercy Nettleton, and Mercy “Stevens” Bailey scattered across America. Portions of Samuel’s family maintained a presence in Killingworth. Worden and members of his extended family are buried next to the home lot. Marah’s daughter Lois and husband Stephen Kelsey’s descendants stayed in the area for several generations, as did the family of her sister Azuba and Henry Davis. Lois’s great granddaughter Barbara Poole maintains one of the most widely recognized family history blogs in America,TREES4U. Marah’s daughter Polly and husband Reuben Doud started their large family in nearby Guilford and Madison before moving on to Cortland, New York. Mercy Bailey’s daughter Mercy and Ithamar Pelton left Vermont and moved on to Ohio. There are communities in Ohio in which there is still a recognizable Pelton presence. Samuel’s boys, with the exception of Worden, all left Killingworth moving on to the new frontier in Vermont. I recently came across an obituary for one of Worden’s great grandchildren written in 2010. Part of the obituary notice recognized his lifelong service to the local Society of the Congregational Church how appropriate given the family’s deep early connection to the Killingworth Congregational Societies. There are still families with Griffin roots in the communities surrounding Essex, Vermont. A few branches made it to the far west including my own. My grandfather carried the middle name of Bailey after his grandmother Mercy Bailey. My family’s quest for its history began from material gathered from letters written by the family in Essex, Vermont in the 1800’s. Asahel and Joel (Mercy Nettleton), after their sojourn in Vermont, moved west to Franklin County, New York in the communities of Moira, Bangor and Malone where they still have a family presence. David Griffin is their lead historian his tour of Moira was featured on the blog. Their extended families spread across the whole of the Midwest with Joel’s ending up around Rushford, Allegany County, New York. Their genealogy can also be found in abundance on Ancestry.Com. Look for, among others, the trees maintained by Michael James, James/Griffin Family Tree. For those Griffins who trace their roots through John Griffin in Kansas, John/David/Sylvester/ Asahel/ Samuel/ Samuel, Mervyn Griffin has a very detailed web site, Descendants of Ahasel (Asahel) Griffin. If Samuel and Mary were with us today it would take them some time and many miles to visit all of their grandchildren. I hope all of their grandchildren get the chance to visit them on this Blog. And I hope that you will all submit your family stories for them to read.