Person:Rebecca Herrick (1)

The Story of Mary/Rebecca Herrick Stebbins (maybe)

"The following account is gleaned in part from a manuscript of Jonathan C. Giddings, a descendant of Mary Herrick. Thomas Herrick, an Englishman, in 1723, embarked for America, with his wife and two daughters. His wife died on the passage. He landed in Derby, Conn., and placed his youngest daughter Mary, then an infant under one year of age, in the care of strangers in Bridgeport, leaving funds for her support, while he proceeded to Boston, Mass., and engaged in the mercantile business and afterwards took an active part in the French war. From the latter place he sent instructions to those in charge of the child, that she be given to some family worthy of the charge. Benoni Stebbins of New Milford, Ct., hearing of a child in Bridgeport, of good parentage, to be given away, proceeded thither on horseback, brought Mary home with him and adopted her as his own, where she remained till her marriage with Gamaliel Baldwin of New Milford, a man of wealth, in 1741/2, and they soon after became residents of New Fairfield, now Sherman. (The New Milford Town Records state her name to be Rebecca Herric, adopted daughter of Benoni Stebbins, bapt. (Rebecca) 1725/6). Mr. Stebbins, who was quite wealthy — says the narrative — died some twelve years after Mary married Mr. Baldwin, and his property fell to an only sister, who married a Sanford of New Milford. This jealous sister gave Mr. Stebbins a son whom she named "Benoni Stebbins," who, as he grew up with Mary, became attached to her and wished to marry her, but Mary loved him only as a brother, and declined to marry him. This displeased Mr. Stebbins, and also the mother of the young man, and report says that was the cause of his not leaving Mary any of his property."^[4]

The origin of this Benoni Stebbins is unknown and he had no known siblings. The "sister" who married a Sanford was Bethia Kirby, younger sister of Benoni's wife Mary. Since Stebbins Sanford, the adopted son who supposedly wished to marry Rebecca Herrick, was only nine years of age when she married, that part of the story is highly unlikely. It should also be noted that Mary/Rebecca's husband, Gamaliel Baldwin, was the son of another sister of Mary and Bethia Kirby, Sarah, who had married Sergeant Samuel Baldwin of Milford and New Milford. --jaques1724 14:12, 17 August 2013 (EDT)

1. ↑ Greenlee, Ralph Stebbins, and Robert Lemuel Greenlee. The Stebbins Genealogy. (Chicago, Ill.: Privately printed for Ralph Stebbins Greenlee, 1904)
   2:1052.

   "Rebecca Herrick, an adopted daughter (of Benoni and Mary (Kirby) Stebbins); married Gamaliel Baldwin."

2. ↑ New Milford Vital Records [NEHGS], in Connecticut, United States. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records
   4.

   "Baldwin, … Gamaliel, m. Rebeckah Stebbins, alias Herro, b. of New Milford, Feb. 11, 1741/2, by Samuel Canfield, J. P. [LR4:6]"

3. ↑ 17. Sarah³ Kirby, in Dwight, Melatiah Everett. The Kirbys of New England: A History of the Descendants of John Kirby of Middletown, Conn. and of Joseph Kirby of Hartford, Conn., and of Richard Kirby of Sandwich, Mass., Together with Genealogies of the Burgis, White and Maclaren Families, and the Ancestry of John Drake of Windsor, Conn. (New York: Trow Printing, 1898)
   37.

   "… Rebecca Herrick, bapt. Feb. 14, 1726, adopted daughter of Benoni Stebbins of New Milford, Ct."

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Giddings, Minot S. (Minot Sanford). The Giddings family, or, The descendants of George Giddings: who came from St. Albans, England to Ipswich, Mass., in 1635 : with a record of others of the name not yet traced, also a sketch of prominent persons connected with the family. (Hartford, Connecticut: Case, Lockwood & Brainard, 1882)
   69.