REV. JAMES FITCH

James Fitch was born in Bocking on December 24, 1622. His father died when he was only ten years old. He was left money in the will so that he could go and study at Cambridge. Instead, it seems, he was taken under the wing of Rev. Thomas Hooker of Chelmsford, a friend of Thomas Fytche who was also mentioned in the will. He probably began studying to be a minister at the church in Chelmsford under Hooker. Rev. Hooker decided to go to America and establish a church there.
As a lad of only sixteen, he sailed to America in 1638 with Reverend Hooker. He finished his theological study in Hartford, Connecticut under the Reverend Hooker and Reverend Samuel Stone, also of Bocking, England. A new Church was built in Saybrook, Connecticut and James Fitch was ordained as its first minister in 1646.
On October 1, 1648, James married Abigail Whitfield of nearby Guilford, Connecticut. The ceremony was performed by her father, Reverend Whitfield. Abigail Whitfield was born in August 1622. There is a WHITFIELD FAMILY HISTORY that follows this Fitch History.
James must have told his mother and brothers about America, and in about 1650, Anne Fitch and her sons Thomas, Samuel and Joseph sailed for America to join James.
In 1659, the congregation at Saybrook received permission to establish a new settlement at Norwich, Connecticut and Rev. James Fitch accompanied them as their leader along with Major John Mason.
Just before leaving, Abigail died on September 9, 1659. James and his six children, James II, Abigail, Elizabeth, Hannah, Samuel and Dorothy, went alone to Norwich the following month.
Uncas, the Indian chief made famous by James Fenimore Cooper in The Last of The Mohegans, was the chief who sold the lands of Norwich to Fitch and Mason and the others.
James Fitch married Priscilla Mason, daughter of Major John Mason in October of 1664. This marriage produced eight more children, Daniel, John, Jeremiah, Jabez, Ann, Nathaniel, Joseph and Eleazer.
When King Philip's War began in 1675, Rev. Fitch was instrumental in getting Uncas and the Mohegans and the Pequot Indians to side with the English against King Philip's Narragansett tribes. Their fair dealings with the Indians spared these settlers who were on the very frontier at that time.
In 1695, James founded and settled a new town nearby, Lebanon, Connecticut. He moved there in 1701 when he retired from the church in Norwich. He remained in Lebanon until his death at age eighty on November 18, 1702. He is buried at the churchyard there and his stone remains in the old cemetery.
Priscilla Fitch was alive in 1710 when she sold land that was given her by her father. She died sometime afterwards.

The children by James Fitch and Abigail Whitfield, all born in Saybrook, Connecticut were:
MAJOR JOHN FITCH II, born August 2, 1649, is our line and is covered in the next full section.
ABIGAIL FITCH was born in August 1650. She married Capt. John Mason Jr., son of Major John Mason. They had two children and lived in Norwich.
ELIZABETH FITCH was born in January 1651/52. On September 5, 1674, she married Rev. Edward Taylor. He was a theology student of her father. They were married and then moved to Westfield, Massachusetts. She had eight children, most of whom died young. Elizabeth died in 1689. Edward later remarried with Ruth Wyllis of Hartford, Connecticut.
HANNAH FITCH was born in September of 1653. She married Thomas Meeks of New Haven, Connecticut on June 30, 1679. They lived in Norwich and had nine children.
SAMUEL FITCH was born April 16, 1655. He married Mary Brewster on November 28, 1678. Mary was descended from the Mayflower Pilgrim William Brewster. They lived in Norwich and Preston, Connecticut. Their children were: Mary, Samuel, Hezekiah, Elizabeth, Abigail, Benjamin, John, Jabez and Pelatiah.
DOROTHY FITCH was born in April, 1658. She was the second wife of Nathaniel Bissell of Windsor, Connecticut. They had two children. Dorothy died June 28, 1691.
The following children were by Reverend James Fitch and his second wife, Priscilla Mason. All were born in Norwich, Connecticut.
CAPT. DANIEL FITCH was born August 16, 1665. He married Mary Sherwood of Fairfield, Connecticut. He was active in the Indian Wars and settled near New London, Connecticut at a town called Montville. Their children were: Adonijah, James, Lemuel, Mary and Daniel.
CAPT. JOHN FITCH was born in January of 1667. He lived in Windham, Connecticut and was active in local government. He married Elizabeth Waterman of Norwich on July 10, 1695. John died May 24, 1743 and Elizabeth died June 25, 1751. Children were: Elizabeth, Miriam, Priscilla and John Jr.
CAPT. JEREMIAH FITCH was born about 1670. He moved from Lebanon to Coventry, Connecticut about 1703. He was a soldier, surveyor and town official. He married Ruth Gifford of Norwich. He died in Coventry on May 22, 1736 and Ruth died after 1756. The children were: Jeremiah, Lucy, Ruth, Hannah, Abner, Gideon, Elisha, James, Joseph and Stephen.
REV. JABEZ FITCH was born in April, 1672. He graduated from Harvard in 1694. He became a Fellow at Harvard and then was ordain minister in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1703. He took over a church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire (then part of Massachusetts) in 1725 and remained there until his death on November 22, 1746. He married Elizabeth Appleton of Ipswich on July 26, 1704. Their children were: Elizabeth, John, James, Margaret, Anne and Mary.
ANNE FITCH was born in April, 1675. She married Lieut. Joseph Bradford of Plymouth. They settled in Norwich and then Lebanon where she died October 17, 1715.
CAPT. NATHANIEL FITCH was born in October of 1679. He operated a grist mill and a fulling mill in Lebanon. He married Ann Abel of Norwich on December 10, 1701. After her death in 1726, he married Mindwell Tisdale of Lebanon on September 17, 1729. He died May 4, 1759 at age seventy-nine. The children by Ann were: Anne, Joshua, Nathan, Nehemiah, James, John, Nathaniel, Mehitable, Elizabeth, Rachel, Abel and Caleb. With Mindwell, he had: Jabez, Ezekiel and Isaac.
JOSEPH FITCH was born in November 1681. He married Sarah Mason in Saybrook and lived in Stonington, Connecticut. She died and he married Ann Whiting of Windham in 1729 and they moved to Lebanon. Joseph died in Windham on May 9, 1741 and Ann died there September 18, 1778. The children by Sarah were: Judith, Sarah, Mason and Joseph. By Ann, he had: Samuel, Eleazer, Azel, Ichabod, Ann and Thomas.
DEACON ELEAZER FITCH was born May 14, 1683. He married his cousin Martha Brown of Swanzey (Swansea), Massachusetts and they lived in Lebanon where he died in 1747. He had no children.

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