The ancient historical records of Norwalk, Conn ... - Hay genealogy

GENEALOGICAL REGISTER. 311
In 1669 he was again chosen town clerk, and the list of
freemen of Norwalk contains his name as one of 42 of which
thelist was composed Oct. 13, 1669.
In 1672 he was again
chosen town clerk, and held the office for many years afterwards.
The records, in his own hand writing, are still preserved
and are legible, properly attested by his own signature,
a fac simile of which, as here given, it may also be interesting
to preserve.
This primitive pilgrim pair are thus described in the manuscript
of Dea. James Benedict already referred to :
" They walked in the midst of their house with a perfect
heart. They were strict observers of the Lord's
day from even to even. It may be said of them as it was of
Zachariah and Elizabeth, that they w'alked in all the commandments
and ordinances of the Lord blameless, and obtained
a good report through faith. Their excellent example had a
good effect through the blessing of God upon their children.
He u^s made a deacon of the church in Norwalk, and used
that office to good satisfaction of that church to his death,
which was in the year of our Lord 1690, in the seventy-third
year of his age, and was succeeded in his office as deacon by
two of his sons, viz. John and Samuel, who used that office
until old age and its attendants rendered them unable to serve ;
and there are at this time seven of the family and name which
use the office of a deacon, and I trust some of them, at least,
to good acceptance both to God and man." His w-ife survived
him and lived to the age of one hundred years.
FIFTH GENERATION.
( The children of Thomas Benedict and Mary Bridgum )
Thomas Benedict, 2d, was born at Southold, Long Island.
From Southold he went with his father to Huntington and
thence to Jamaica, where he married Mary Messenger of that
place. In 1665 he removed \vith his father to Norwalk, in
the Colony of Connecticut. In the Wylys's manuscripts his
name is, with that of his father, among the names of the 42
freemen of Norwalk, taken Oct. 13, 1669.