1738 September 12 (Tuesday). Mr. Austin persuaded me to go up on the State House to take a View of the Town, the River, etc. We visited Mr. Secretary Willis.[1] There was Mr. Woodbridge[2] of Symsbury and Mr. Case,[3] who were going to New Haven. This therefore was our Company. Stopp’d at Beckleys[4] — at Aspinwalls[5] in Kensington. N.B. In Wallingford or North Haven, a vessel building some Miles from the Water. N.B. Corn field 5 miles Long. N.B. A Late sorrowful occurrence by Thunder; the steeple shiver’d and a man thrown down from it and kill’d. N.B. 4 Persons buryed in the highway for suicide. N.B. Pleasant Fields appear’d at an agreeable Distance on the North East side of the Mountain. We stopp’d again at Hammerstones[6] in North Haven. There Mr. Wheelock[7] who had been Some time with us on the Road left us. N.B. College illuminated, seen Two Miles off. Call’d first at old Madame Pierponts[8] where was Mr. Russells wife,[9] of Middleton, Mr. Pierponts sister. Found Dear Mrs. Pierpont Well and our meeting was with reciprocal Joy. Mr. Pierpont[10] was Still at Boston.
[1]George Wyllys (Yale 1729), Secretary of the Colony of Connecticut. Dexter, 399-400.
[2]Reverend Timothy Woodbridge (Yale 1706), minister of Simsbury, Conn., 1710-1742. Dexter, pp. 57-58.
[3]Benajah Case (Yale 1733), later minister of New Fairfield, Conn., 1742-1753. Dexter, pp. 475-476.
[4]Lieutenant Joseph Beckley of Wethersfield, Conn., was the proprietor of an important tavern on the road between Hartford and New Haven.
[5]Eleazer Aspinwall of Farmington (Kensington Parish).
[6]John Hamaston, Jr. (1685-1767).
[7]Reverend Eleazer Wheelock (Yale 1733), minister of the third church of Lebanon (Columbia), Conn., 1735-1770; later the founder and first president of Dartmouth College.
[8]Mary (Hooker) Pierpont, the widow of the Reverend James Pierpont (d. 1714), survived until Nov. I, 1738. She was the granddaughter of the Reverend Thomas Hooker, the first minister of Hartford, Conn. Her daughter, Sarah, married Jonathan Edwards, D.D., the president of Princeton College.
[9]Mary Pierpont was the wife of the Reverend William Russell (Yale 1709), minister of Middletown, Conn., 1715-1761. Dexter,90-91.
[10]James Pierpont, Jr. (Yale 1718), son of the Reverend James Pierpont of New Haven. Dexter, 189-190.