Benjamin Daniel Mead , 7th Great-Grandfather

October 23, 2015 — 1 Comment

My 7th great-grandfather was born on May 7, 1667 in Greenwich, Fairfield County,Connecticut and died Feb. 22, 1746 in Greenwich. He is buried in the Old Burying Ground there.

Benjamin Mead was an officer in the local militia and served a term as Surveyor for Fairfield County. Reports of his action in the French and Indian War are misleading, as he died before the Seven Years’ War war started. That said, that global war was only part of an ongoing conflict in Europe from 1689-1763 that had combat ramifications in North America on at least 4 occasions when wars were officially declared. In addition to having names these wars also had numbers under the rubrique of “Intercolonial Wars,” much as we have numbered “World Wars”– since the individual wars had different names in Britain than on the Continent, the numbering system helped keep things (somewhat) straight. Finally, the Intercolonial Wars, as they were called in Europe, were called the French And Indian Wars in North America.
Benjamin Mead was old enough to have fought in any of the first three of these, King William’s War or War of the League of Augsburg (1st Intercolonial) and Queen Anne’s War or War of the Spanish Succession (2nd Intercontinental) being the most likely. So in this sense, any action he saw during those wars makes him a veteran of the French and Indian Wars.

Spouses:
Sarah Waterbury Mead (1677 – 1745)*
Rachel Brown Mead (1680 – ____)*

Children:
Benjamin Mead (1701 – 1783)*
Eliphelet Mead (1704 – 1796)*
Elizabeth Mead Peck (1705 – 1783)*
Keziah Mead Howe (1707 – 1808)*
Obadiah Mead (1719 – 1759)*
Nehemiah Mead (1721 – 1791)*
Hannah Mead Mead (1726 – 1815)*

Siblings:
Ebenezer Mead (1663 – 1728)*
Hannah Mead Scofield (1664 – 1728)*
Jonathan Mead (1665 – 1712)*
Benjamin Daniel Mead (1667 – 1746)

Benjamin Daniel Mead (1667 – 1746)
is my 7th great grandfather
Mary Mead (1724 – 1787)
daughter of Benjamin Daniel Mead
Abner Mead (1749 – 1810)
son of Mary Mead
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
daughter of Abner Mead
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
son of Martha Mead
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
son of Abner Morse
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse

We know what has happened to his house in Greenwich:
Benjamin Mead, the son of John Mead, one of the 15 proprietors, inherited from his father 15 acres of property in Cos Cob in 1696. The will describes the inheritance as “five acres of land at Stickling brock (Strickland Brook) as it is lyd out to mee, and all my lands & meadow lying & and being at that place commonly cauled Coscob, as it is Layd out to mee & ten acres of upland above ye road aded now to ye five”.
In 1697, Benjamin built a house on the land, a two room saltbox with center chimney. A rear lean-to, including a kitchen ell was added in 1732 according to an architectural field study by the Greenwich Historical Society.

Obadiah Mead bought the Bible Street land and house from his father Benjamin Mead in 1746 (1756) for 200 pounds New York money. In that same year Obadiah married Lois Todd daughter of the Reverend Abraham Todd minister of the Second Congregational Society in Greenwich. The couple had 2 daughters, Mary Mead b.Aug 10 1757, d.2/14/1815 and Phoebe. Obadiah died in 1759 while the girls were young.

When the girls came of age the land was divided between them with a Dower lot for their mother. Mary eventually married Michael Cox Timpany b. abt 1755, d. 10/25/1811. Mary eventually inherited her sister and mothers shares to the land.

John Timpany, son of Mary and Michael, bought the house from his mother in 1813. In 1841 he sold the house to 3 of his daughters; Elvira, Hannah and Adelice (Delia) with the provision that they care for him the rest of his life. John died 11/15/1855.

Elvira Moshier never married and held the house until she died in 1880 willing her land to Sarah Ann Moshier Olmstead, wife of Henry Olmstead and the daughter of her sister Lois and James Moshier who were farmers on Cognewaug Road.

Sarahann held on to the house until she died and it was the purchased by her younger brothers Samuel Augustus Moshier, who ran a grocery on Greenwich Avenue, and Franklin Pierce Moshier who ran a livery / stable / early car dealership on Lewis Street.

Sam and Frank held onto the house until the early 1930’s, renting it out to family member (such as John Timpany Moshier who was waked in the Parlor November 1927).

I believe the house left the family due to losses incurred by Franklin and Augustus Moshier with the stock crash of 1929.

Since then the hous has turned over many, many times.
Very recently, a new owner, claiming the house was leaning, renovated the house. It now looks like a “new” old house….