Stephen Burritt (abt. 1640 - 1698)

Born about 1640 in Glamorganshire, Wales [uncertain]

Husband of Sarah (Nichols) Burritt — married 28 Jan 1673 in Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut

Descendants

Died 24 Jan 1698 at about age 58 in Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut

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Stephen Burritt migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Stephen Burritt migrated from Wales to the Connecticut Colony.

Biography

Stephen was, according to family tradition, born in Glamorganshire, Wales and emigrated to Connecticut with his parents William and Elizabeth and two siblings. Some researchers believe the family first resided at New Haven before settling at Stratford where father William is mentioned in 1650/1. The first known mention of Stephen himself is 28 March, 1668, when he was included on a list of inhabitants of Stratford prepared by order of the Governor.^[1]

Stephen's birth year, calculated from his headstone, was about 1640.^[2] Even if the details on the headstone are incorrect we can be certain he was born before 1648 as he appears on a list of Freemen of Stratford in 1669, and was therefore at least 21 years of age at that time. In 1671 he is subsequently listed as a lot owner. ^[3]

Stephen married Sarah Nichols (daughter of Isack) at Stratford on 11m 28d 1673. ^[4]

Like many of his descendants, Stephen was both a soldier and 'a man of affairs'.

In 1672 at Stratford, Stephen became an Ensign, a rank he still held in Sept 1675/6 when he is mentioned in orders given to the "dragoones of Fayrefield County" during King Philip's War. In November of that year he was appointed Commissary of the Army and in January he was made Lieutenant of the Fairfield Company under the command of Captain Jonathan Sillick.^[5] Orcutt details that Lieutenant Stephen Burritt "became a distinguished Indian fighter, and was kept much of the time in the saddle with small squads of men hunting roving parties of Indians intent on depridations, along the Connecticut River." ^[6]

His civil service began with acting as the town recorder starting in 1673. He served on a town committee in 1689, the same year he was chosen as a Townsmen. He also acted as an auditor in 1690.^[3]

He died in January 1698 (N.S.), leaving an estate valued at £1,177.2s.^[3] He was almost certainly buried in the Congregational Burying Place (aka Old Congregational Burying Ground) in Stratford, Connecticut; as, according to Orcutt, Stephen's headstone was found 200 feet outside this cemetery.^[6] The inscription on his headstone reads ^[7]

Sources

1. ↑ NEHGR 27:62-63
2. ↑ A birth year of 1640 tells us that either a) Stephen was not born in Wales, or b) that that the family did not emigrate to the Colonies before 1635 as has been claimed.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Burritt: Page 13-14
4. ↑ Lorraine Cook White, comp. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records, vol. 41, (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2000), 99. [White indexes two records in Volume LR1, pages 432 and 494. The former gives the bride as Sarah Nickolls d. Isack and date as 11th m. 8th d. 1673, the latter record gives Sarah Nicholls and the date as 11 m 28 d 1673. Some authors, such as Burritt, give the date as 8 or 28 November 1673, likely forgetting the 11th month of Old Style dates is January. ]
5. ↑ Hinman: 1852, Page 437
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Orcutt: Vol. 1 Page 200, 211
7. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (accessed 10 January 2020), memorial page for Capt Stephen Burritt (unknown–24 Jan 1697), Find A Grave: Memorial #20834519, citing Old Congregational Burying Ground, Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA ; Maintained by Jan Franco (contributor 46625834) Gravestone picture

• Burritt, Lewis L. The_Burritt_Family_in_America (1940) https://archive.org/details/burrittfamilyina00burr/page/13
• Orcutt, Samuel. A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut (Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, New Haven, Conn., 1886) https://books.google.com/books?id=-fILAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA200
• Hinman, Royal Ralph. A Catalogue of the Names of the Early Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut (Case, Tiffany & Co., Hartford, 1852) https://archive.org/stream/catalogueofnames010hinm#page/437/mode/1up

See Also:

• Lucious Barnes Barbour, Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Records; Extracts by Coralynn Brown, (the CTGenWeb Project).
• Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700, (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004); Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com).
• Bullard, Edgar J., Bennett and Allied Families addenda (E.J. Bullard, Detroit, Mich., 1931)
• http://dunhamwilcox.net/barbour/stratford_barbour_k-q.htm Stratford, Fairfield Co.., CT, Vital Records from Barbour.

• NICHOLS, NICOLS, NICOLLS, NICKOLLS, NICHOLLS Sarah, dau Isack, m Stephen BURRETT, 11th m 8th d, 1673

• Raymond, Esq., M.D., Rev. Blackleach Burritt and Related Stratford Families, Fairfield Historical Society, Reports and Papers (The Standard Assoc., Bridgeport, 1882) Page 5