Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

staff of the Bridgeport Hospital ; presi-
dent of the State Medical Society ; a member
of the American Medical Society, and
in 1884 president of the Fairfield County
Medical Society. In 1901 Dr. Hill became
one of the trustees of the Staples Free
School of Easton, and did much valuable
work in this office.
Dr. Hill married (first) Phebe M. Day-
ton, of Towanda, Pennsylvania, who died
August 29, 1870. He married (second) on
June 19, 1872, Mary Frances Nichols,
of Tashua, Trumbull, Connecticut, the
daughter of William and Mary Melissa
(Mallett) Nichols. The parents of Mrs.
Hill, who survives Dr. Hill, were both
members of families well known and long
established in Connecticut.
NICHOLS FAMILY,
Ancestral History.
Nichols Arms—Azure a fesse three lions' heads
erased or.
Crest—A tiger sejant ermine.
The Nichols family is a very famous
one in the State of Connecticut, and has
turnished in the two and one-half cen-
turies since its founding men who have
been prominent in nearly every phase of
public life in the State, and whose names
are familiar in its history. The family
was established in the year 1639 on what
was then known as "Nichols' Farms," in
the town of Trumbull, Fairfield county,
Connecticut. The land on which the set-
tlement was made embraced 10,000 acres
of land given the progenitor of the Nichols
family by Colonial grant.
Mrs. Seth Hill, of Stepney, Connecticut,
is a descendant of this famous family.
She is the daughter of William and Mary
M. (Mallett) Nichols. (See Mallett VI).
William Nichols was born in Trumbull,
Connecticut, on November 30, 181 1, the
son of Captain John Nichols. As was
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
334
almost hereditary in the family, he became
one of the prominent men of the town.
He was a well known figure in the Democratic
politics of Trumbull, and though
not an office seeker in any sense of the
word held many public trusts in the town.
He was a devoted member of the Protestant
Episcopal Christ Church of Trumbull,
in which he held practically all the offices
open to laymen. He was always actively
interested in the work of the parish and
was its treasurer for many years. Wil-
liam Nichols died at about the age of
seventy-five years.
He married (first) April 19, 1846, Mary
Melissa Mallett, daughter of Aaron and
Eunice (Beach) Mallett. She died on Feb-
ruary 2j, 1852, at the age of thirty-three
years. He married (second) Emeline A.
Blakeman, who died on February 13, 1916.
The child of the first marriage was Mary-
Frances Nichols, mentioned below.
Mary Frances Nichols, daughter of Wil-
liam and Mary Melissa (Mallett) Nichols,
was born in Tashua, Trumbull, Connecti-
cut, on November 5, 1847. She married,
on June 19, 1872, Seth Hill, M. D., of
Tashua, Trumbull. (See Hill VIII). Mrs.
Hill is now a resident of Tashua, Trum-
bull, Connecticut.
MALLETT FAMILY,
Ancestral History.
The name Mallett is an ancient and hon-
orable one of French origin. The major-
ity of the people bearing the name in the
Atlantic and New England sections of the
United States trace their ancestry to John
Mallett, a French Huguenot, who fled from
France after the Revocation of the Edict
of Nantes by Louis XIV., in 1680.
Arms—Gules, a fesse ermine, between six oval
buckles or.
Previous to the religious persecution of
the Huguenots by the Catholics in France,