Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

wickshire, prior to the year 1400. The
ancient coat-of-arms is
Arms—Argent, a fesse gules between two grey-
hounds, courant sable.
John Griswold, about the middle of the
fourteenth century came from Kenilworth
and married a daughter and heiress of
Henry Hughford, of Huddersley Hall,
Solihull, 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, on the south and west. It is but
eight miles from Kenilworth to the west-
ward, and twelve miles northwest of
Stratford-on-Avon, and was a place of
importance before the Norman Conquest.
The two American immigrants, Edward
and Matthew Griswold, came to America
from Kenilworth.
(I) Edward Griswold, the ancestor of
the family herein under consideration,
was born in Warwickshire, England,
about 1607. He came to Connecticut at
the time of the second visit of George
Fenwick when many other settlers came.
He was attorney for a Mr. St. Nicholas,
of Warwickshire, who had a house built
for him in Windsor, and a tract of land
impaled, as had also Sir Richard Saltonstall.
There were many other prominent
Puritans in Warwickshire who intended
to settle in the colonies when a change in
the political conditions in England caused
them to remain there. Edward Griswold
had a grant of land at Poquonock, to
which he removed in 1649, when his house
was on the outpost of the colony. He
was active in public affairs. He assisted
in building the fort in Springfield in 1650
for William Pynchon, and was deputy to
the General Court in 1656 from Windsor
and subsequently every session but one
until the new charter was granted. He
was a prominent settler of Hommonosett
or West Saybrook, whither about 1663
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
74
he removed with his younger children.
The settlement was organized as a town
in 1667, and received the name of his
English birthplace, Kenilworth, which
became strangely perverted in the spell-
ing to Killingworth and is now Clinton,
Connecticut. He was the first deputy
from the town, magistrate and deputy
from 1662 to 1688-90. The Colonial rec-
ords show him to have been an active and
influential member of the Legislature,
who accomplished much good. At ses-
sions he had the pleasure of meeting his
own son, Francis, and brother, Matthew,
in office, and there has hardly been a time
since, when the family has not been represented
in the Legislature of the Prov-
ince and State. In 1678 he was on the
committee to establish a Latin school in
New London, and he was deacon of the
Killingworth church. He died there in
1691, aged eighty-four years. He married
(first) in England, Margaret , who
died August 23, 1670, and her grave-stone
is the oldest in the burial ground in
Clinton.
(II) George Griswold, eldest son and
second child of Edward and Margaret
Griswold, was born in England in 1633,
and died in Windsor, Connecticut, September
3, 1704. He remained in Windsor
with his brother Joseph on their father's
lands when the latter went to Killingworth.
He was also an extensive owner
of lands purchased from the Indians ; was
admitted freeman in 1654. He married,
October 3, 1655, Mary Holcomb, daugh-
ter of Thomas Holcomb, and she died in
April, 1708.
(III) Daniel Griswold, eldest son of
George and Mary (Holcomb) Griswold,
was born October 1, 1656, in Windsor,
Connecticut. He married there, February
3, 1680. Mindwell Bissell, daughter of Na-
thaniel Bissell, who died December 31,
1728.