1.2

CHRISTOPHER HUNTINGTON




CHRISTOPHER HUNTINGTON probably accompanied his mother to Windsor, Conn., where he must have spent his youth. He here married, October 7, 1652, Ruth, daughter of Wm. Rockwell, "a prominent and highly respected member of the community." He removed, probably, in the spring of 1654, to Saybrook, as the birth of one child appeared in 1653, on the Windsor records, and the death of another in May, 1654, on those of Saybrook. Here he remained until the spring of 1660, when, with a company of the Saybrook colony who had organized themselves into a church, under the care of Rev. James Fitch, he removed to the valley of the Yantic, and with his brother Simon, aided in laying the foundations of the new town of Norwich. He had now reached the prime of his manhood; and proved himself one of the most efficient and useful of the hardy pioneers. His name, occurs often in the earlier records of this enterprising town, and always in honorable relations. His house lot was one of the prominent localities in the settlement. In 1668 the general court granted him 100 acres of land, not more than twenty acres of it to be meadow. In 1678, he was appointed town clerk. In 1685, he was one of the twelve patentees of the new town of Norwich. In 1686 his name occurs as one of the committee to make provision for maintaining the reverend minister."

His death had occurred in 1691, as appears from the probate of his will. No stone marks the resting place of this pioneer of the Norwich settlement. He sleeps, doubtless, not far from the banks of the pleasant Yantic, in the meadow where rest, unmarked, the mortal remains of so many of the pioneers of the early settlement of Norwich.

CHILDREN
The death of the first Christopher, and the births of all but the first two of this family, are on the Norwich records.
  1. CHRISTOPHER, born in 1653; lived one year and four months, and died in Saybrook. The first fact appears on the Windsor records, and the second was taken from the Saybrook records, before they were burnt in the old fort.
  2. RUTH, born April 13, 1653, and probably a twin with the above Christopher. She probably died in infancy.
  3. RUTH, born in Saybrook, in April, 1658; married, March 26, 1681, Samuel Pratt of Saybrook, who came to Norwich with the early settlers. They had one child recorded in Norwich, Samuel Pratt, born February 11, 1683; she died February 14, 1683.
  4. CHRISTOPHER, born November 1, 1660.
  5. THOMAS, born March 18, 1664.
  6. JOHN, born March 15,1666.
  7. SUSANNAH, born in August, 1668.
  8. LYDIA, or as the records have chosen to enter the name, Lydyah, was born in Norwich, in August, 1672.
  9. ANN, born in Norwich, October 25, 1675; married October 28, 1697, Jonathan, son of Thomas and Mary Rudd Bingham. Her husband was born April 15, 1674, and was the third of eleven children. He had a family and descendants respectable both in their numbers and for their characters.

Sketch (with slight modifications) taken from 1915 Genealogical Memoir published by the Huntington Family Association.
Christopher is H.N. 1.2


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Last updated 22 Aug 1998 by Sara (Huntington) Abbott
abbott@magicnet.net