Person:Jacob Burton (1)

Name	Jacob Burton
Gender	Male
Birth^[1]	14 Sep 1715	Preston, New London, Connecticut, United States
Marriage	Abt 1740	to Rachel Benton
Death`^?`	12 Jul 1798	Norwich, Windsor, Vermont, United States

Jacob Burton was born in Preston, Connecticut on 14 September 1715. He was one of the founders of Norwich, Vermont. Jacob came to Norwich as early as 1764. Doctor Asa Burton of Thetford affirmed that his father, Jacob Burton, came to Norwich from Stonington, Conn., in the summer of that year, "for the purpose of locating himself if he was suited w1th appearances. Jacob Burton was again in Norwich in 1765, engaged with others in laying out lots as one of the committee of the proprietors. He moved there late in 1765,with his sons, Elisha, John, Josiah, Isaac, and Asa, and his eldest daughter, Anna, who, soon after, married Simeon Carpenter. For some time she was the only young lady in town. Before locating in town, Mr. Burton had purchased two one hundred acre lots of land, which embraced the greater part of the present Norwich village, and built his dwelling-house (the first one erected in town) on the southern and eastern part of his purchase, and tradition has it that it was built directly over a large pine stump, which protruded through the floor, and its top having been smoothed off and recesses made in its sides for cupboards, it was used as the family table.

Jacob with the assistance of his son Asa built a saw mill on Blood Brook, at the western outskirts of the present village of Norwich — upon the same site where George Burton's saw mill stood previous to the great freshet of 1869, just below the bridge near the tannery of Messenger and Hazen. This mill, probably completed in 1766, was beyond doubt the first sawmill built in Norwich, or within a circuit of many miles. It supplied the necessary lumber for the earliest buildings in the surrounding country.

According to "The Early History of Vermont", The early meetings of the Corporation of Dartmouth College were held a his home. He was the first Town Clerk of Norwich and long a Justice of the Peace. He was a member of the early conventions of the New Hampshire Grants, a member of the committee of five, including Gov. Chittenden, which drew up the Declaration of Independence of Vermont, a member of the convention of 1777, which adopted the name "Vermont" , and the State Constitution of which he was a signer, Judge of the Court of Newburyshire in 1778 and a member ot the General Assembly of 1785. Two of his sons became men of distinction in the young State, Rev. Dr. Asa Burton and Major Elisha Burton; one of his daughters, Sarah, became the wife of Hon. Alden Spooner, of Windsor, for 40 years editor of the "Vermont Journal."

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