Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

cerns. Responding to this solicitation, he
served the town as representative in the
Legislature, session of 191 1, in which he
was a member of a number of committees.
Being of a retiring and modest disposition,
Mr. Alford has always applied him-
self with great delight to the affairs per-
taining to his outdoor life. In early life
he was affiliated with the Universalist
church, but since the services of that denomination
were discontinued in his section,
he has been a supporter of the Con-
gregational church. He is a member of
the Business Men's Association of Windsor,
and of the New England Tobacco
Growers' Association. In later years he
has made his home in the village of Po-
quonock, but still continues to look after
his home farm. In the Windsor "Town
Crier" of May, 1917, the following is said
of Mr. Alford : 'A genuine Yankee, a
witty philosopher, a consistent optomist,
a true gentleman, a good sportsman, a
successful business man, a practical Chris-
tian, and a helpful friend—these titles are
fittingly applied to Hestes W. Alford by
everyone who knows him, because it is
somewhere written of him, as of Abou
Ben Adhem, that 'he is one who loves his
fellow men.' He is liked by young people
and he likes them. Their elders have
in many ways expressed in public and
private their confidence in him. It is
doubtful if he has an enemy in the world.
In former years hunting was his greatest
pleasure, and readers of this paper will
sometime later have the privilege of reading
his reminiscences of 'Windsor Hunting
and Hunters'."
Mr. Alford married, March 30, 1882,
Alice Jeanette Griswold, the daughter of
Lothrop and Jeanette (Thompson) Griswold.
She is a descendant of Edward
Griswold, a pioneer settler of Windsor.
The name of Griswold is an ancient one
in England, derived like many other
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
88
names from the locality. The ancient seat
of the family was at Solihull, Warwick-
shire, prior to the year 1400. About the
middle of the fourteenth century John
Griswold came from Kenilworth, and
married a daughter and heiress of Henry
Hughford, of Huddersley Hall, at Soli-
hull, and the family has been known as
the Griswolds of Kenilworth and Soli-
hull. Solihull is on the northwest border
of Warwickshire, and Yardley in Worces-
tershire is on the south and west. It is
but eight miles from Kenilworth to the
westward, and twelve miles northwest of
Stratford-on-Avon, and was a place of
importance before the Xorman Conquest.
The two American immigrants, Edward
and Matthew Griswold, came to America
from Kenilworth. Matthew came over in
1639, and settled in Windsor, Connecticut
; died at Lyme, Connecticut, September
21, 1698, and was buried at Saybrook;
assisted in the settlement of Lyme and
was a large landowner ; was deputy to the
General Assembly in 1664, and after-
wards. Edward Griswold, the son of
George Griswold, born about 1607, in
Windsor, came to Connecticut in 1639,
and located in Windsor, where he acted
as attorney for a Mr. St. Nicholas, of
Warwickshire, for whom a house was
built at Windsor, and a tract of land re-
served. Edward Griswold had a grant
of land at what is now Poquanock, and
his house there, which he occupied in
1649, was tne outpost of the colony. This
was located in a bend of the Tunis river,
which bordered near on the south and
west. He was active in public affairs,
helped build the fort at Springfield, Mas-
sachusetts, for William Pynchon in 1650.
He was deputy to the General Court from
Windsor in 1656, and for many years
thereafter. About 1663 he removed with
his younger children to West Saybrook,
deeding his Windsor property to his sons,