was one of the first settlers of Northampton, Massachusetts, about the year 1655; was highly respected as a deacon in the church; and died on the 27th of May, 1702, leaving "a good estate." The death of his widow occurred on the 6th of December, 1712. Their children were Mary, born at Windsor in 1651, who was the wife of Matthew Clesson; NATHANIEL, born at Windsor in 1653; Abigail, born at Windsor in 1655, who was the wife of John Alvord, and who died in 1756, aged one hundred and one years; William, born at Northampton in 1657; and Mercy born at Northampton in 1662, who died young.

NATHANIEL PHELPS, son of Nathaniel the deacon, married Grace Martin on the 27th of August, 1676, and died on the 20th of June, 1719. His wife, at the time of her marriage, was a young woman who had recently come from England. She was a person of great resolution, and perseverance, and was withal a little romantic. She has been highly praised by her descendants. Her death occurred on the 2d of August, 1727. Their children were NATHANIEL, born in 1678; Samuel, born in 1680; Lydia, born in 1683, who was the wife of Mark Warner; Grace, born in 1685, who was the wife of Samuel Marshall; Elizabeth, born in 1688, who was the wife of Jonathan Wright; Timothy, who removed to Connecticut; Abigail, born in 1690, who was the wife of John Laughton; and Sarah, born in 1695, who was the wife of David Burt.

NATHANIEL PHELPS, son of the second Nathaniel, married for his first wife, Abigail Burnham, about the year 1716, and for his second wife, Catharine, daughter of John King of Northampton. His death occurred on the 4th of October, 1747. His first wife died on the 2d of January, 1724, at the age of twenty-seven. His second wife, at the time of her marriage with him, was the widow of a man named Hickock of Durham, Connecticut, who had died without children. After the death of Mr. Phelps, his widow married for her third husband, Gideon Lyman. Mr. Phelps's children by his first wife were CHARLES, born on the 15th of August, 1717; Nathaniel, born in 1721; Ann, who was the wife of Elias Lyman of Southampton, Massachusetts; and Martin, born in 1723. His children by his second wife, were Catharine, born in 1731, who was the

Chancellor of England, by the name and title of Lord Lyndhurst, on the 30th of April, 1827.

wife of Simeon Parsons; Lydia, born in 1732, who was the wife of Ebenezer Pomroy; John, born in 1734, who lived in Westfield, Massachusetts; and Mehitable, born in 1736, who

died young.

CHARLES PHELPS, to a sketch of whose life this notice has been mainly devoted, was the eldest son of the third Nathaniel. Of three of the sons of Charles, namely, Solomon, Charles Jr., and Timothy, an account will be found elsewhere. The other children of Charles Phelps were Dorothy, Abigail, Lucy, John, and Experience.*

SOLOMON PHELPS.

SOLOMON, the first son of Charles Phelps, was born in the year 1742, and was entered a freshman at Harvard College at the age of sixteen. On graduating in 1762, he applied himself to the study of the law, and having removed with his father to the New Hampshire Grants, was commissioned by Governor Henry Moore, on the 31st of March, 1768, an attorney-at-law, and was authorized to practise as such in "His Majesty's courts of record to be holden in and for the county of Cumberland." At the breaking out of the war he embraced the cause of the colonies, and during the period in which the inhabitants on the "Grants" acted in concert with the people of New York, served as a member of the committee of safety for Cumberland county. Being well versed in the Scriptures, and possessing an hereditary oratorical capacity, he served as a preacher at Marlborough during the summer of 1776. In the year 1779 he received the degree of M.A. from his Alma Mater, which fact alone, judging from the qualifications which were then necessary to render a person eligible to this rank, affords good evidence of his abilities. But unhappily his life was darkened

* MS. Narrative of Phelps family. MS. Letters from the Hon. J. H. Phelps. MS. Hist. Marlborough, by the Rev. E. H. Newton. Journals of Congress, passim. Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. 996-1002. George Clinton Papers, in office Sec. State N. Y., vol. viii. doc. 2549; vol. xi. doc. 3189; vol. xvi. docs. 4647, 4796, 4797, 4828, 4842, 4856, 4857, 4858. Journals Gen. Ass. Vt., Feb., 1784, pp. 24, 27, 42, 43, 47, 50, 52, 53; Oct. 1784, pp. 28, 33, 35, 40; June, 1785, p. 47. Slade's Vt. State Papers, p. 494. Trumbull's Hist. Conn., i. 54, 58, 70. Holland's Hist. West Mass., ii. 245.

by the obscurations of insanity-a disease which, whether it be of the mind or of the body, is almost certain to manifest its effects upon both. On one occasion he attempted to beat out his brains with the head of an axe, and succeeded in breaking in his skull. His life was saved by trepanning. In the year 1790 he ended his life by cutting his throat with a razor. When discovered he was lying in a lot, between two hemlock logs, and to all appearance had been some time dead.*

CHARLES PHELPS JR.,

THE second son of Charles Phelps, was born in the year 1744, and bore the name of his father. Like his brother Solomon, he was educated in the profession of the law, and received his commission as an attorney from Governor Tryon of New York, on the 22d of July, 1771. Although he afterwards removed to Hadley, Massachusetts, yet he ever continued to manifest a deep interest in the affairs of the New Hampshire Grants, and on several occasions afforded assistance to his father and brothers, when the rage of party violence had driven them from their homes, to seek refuge wherever they could find it. His contemporaries in legal practice were John Worthington of Springfield, Joseph Hawley of Northampton, Oliver Partridge of Hatfield, Josiah Dwight of Westfield, and John Ashley of Lower Housatonic. An account of Mr. Phelps's farm and resi dence, which the Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight describes as “the most desirable possession of the same kind and extent," within his knowledge, may be found in the travels of the latter gentleman in New England and New York during the year 1796. Mr. Phelps died in Hadley, on the 4th of December, 1814, aged seventy years.t

* MS. Hist. Marlborough. Am. Arch. Fourth Series, vol. iii. col. 1330.

+ Dwight's Travels in New England and New York, i. 857. Holland's Hist. West. Mass., i. 185.

NOTICE OF TIMOTHY PHELPS.

TIMOTHY PHELPS.

693

Or Timothy Phelps, the third son of Charles Phelps, but little remains to be said in addition to

Jun. 7 Phelps

what has been already recorded in the preceding pages. He was born on the 25th of January, 1747, and at the age of seventeen removed with his father and brothers to the unsettled wildernesses of the New Hampshire Grants. His services as a farmer were especially valuable at this period, and upon him devolved, in a great degree, the management and cultivation of the lands of the new abode. Of great energy of character and steadfastness of opinion, his attachment to the government of New York having become once fixed, remained constant and unyielding. In his efforts to enforce its laws, he often met with the most determined resistance, and was not unfrequently overpowered by the number and force of his opponents. On the 5th of June, 1782, he received from the Council of Appointment of the state of New York, the shrievalty of Cumberland county. Armed with the power of this office, before which he imagined the vehemence of party rage and the lawlessness of party triumph would cower, he endeavored to exercise his authority within the limits of Vermont, and against men who scoffed at the government under which he acted. The decision of the trials of September, 1782, in Windham county, marked him with the taint of treason, rendered him for a time a prisoner, confiscated his possessions, banished him from the state, and forbade his return on pain of death.

Emboldened by the resolves of Congress, passed on the 5th of December of the same year, he returned to his home, was cast into prison at Bennington, and there remained in confinement for nearly five months. Although he afterwards became a citizen of Vermont, yet he was never able to transfer to the adopted state the feelings of loyalty which he entertained towards New York, and could not be brought to acknowledge his obligation to maintain pecuniarily, or otherwise, a government which had deprived him of his possessions, surrounded him with sorrows, and rendered his life miserable and unhappy.

Continued reflection upon his troubles, served in a measure to waste his mental energies, and the effects of this condition, combined with the natural eccentricity of his disposition, disordered his intellect, and left him a melancholy prey to the gloomiest forebodings concerning his temporal welfare. The fact, also, that there had been no "atonement made for that blood that was wantonly shed" on "the confines of Guilford," when Silvanus Fisk and Daniel Spicer were killed, seemed ever to disturb him, and there is still preserved a curious letter, written by him, dated at Marlborough, May 28th, 1812, and directed to the grand jury of Windham county, in which he adjured them, in the most solemn manner, to investigate the circumstances attending those deaths, and denounced upon them terrible retribution, in case they should fail to attend to his appeal. He died at Marlborough very suddenly, in the seventy-first year of his age, on the 3d of July, 1817, and was buried in that

town.

Timothy Phelps married Zipporah Williams on the 6th of June, 1775. Their children were John, who was born on the 18th of November, 1777, and who died on the 14th of April, 1849, at Ellicott's Mills, Maryland; Charles, who was born on the 13th of September, 1781, and who died on the 19th of November, 1854, at Cincinnati, Ohio; Eunice, who was born on the 8th of May, 1783, and who died on the 14th of December, 1811, at Marlborough, Vermont; Austis, who was born on the 11th of September, 1788, and who died on the 25th of May, 1850, at Townshend, Vermont; and Timothy, who was born on the 6th of June, 1792, and who died of yellow fever in September, 1822, near Natchez, Mississippi, on board of a steamer from New Orleans.

NOAH SABIN

Noah Subin

Was born at Rehoboth, Massachusetts, on the 10th of No

vember, 1714, and was the only son of Noah Sabin, of that place. Becoming religiously disposed in early life, he was designed by his father for the ministry. To this disposition of his