George Griswold was born in Lyme, August 13, 1692. He was the sixth child and third son of Matthew Griswold, Jr., of that part of Lyme which is now the township of Old Lyme, by his first wife Phebe, daughter of Samuel and Jane (Lee) Hyde, of Norwich, West Farms, now Franklin, Connecticut. The first Governor Griswold was his nephew. The College possesses the manuscript of his Latin Salutatory Oration at graduation, the earliest relic of the kind known to be extant.
He studied theology, and after the formation (in October, 1719) of a second parish in Lyme, began to preach there. The new parish was in the Eastern part of the town, then called the Niantic quarter, since 1839 incorporated as the town of East Lyme. As early as 1720 this society provided for his continuing to supply them, and on January 30, 1723-4, they gave him a call to settle, on an annual stipend of L70 ; though it was not until May, 1724, that the General Assembly authorized the organization of a church.
November 25, 1724, Mr. Griswold was ordained pastor, and he remained with this people until his death, "after more than seven weeks painful illness," at his residence on "Giant's Neck," East Lyme, October 14, 1761.
In the great revival of 1740, Mr. Griswold was in full accord with his neighbor, Jonathan Parsons (Y. C. 1729), pastor of the First parish in Lyme and the well-known friend of Whitefield. The only known publications of Mr. Griswold are two letters which appeared in Prince's Christian History for 1744, giving an account of the revival in his own, and a neighboring parish. From these it appears that his flock then consisted of from sixty to seventy families, and that he reckoned about one hundred conversions in the winter of 1740-41. Besides this, he gives an interesting account of the Niantic Indians, whose headquarters were within the limits of his parish, and thirteen of whom were admitted to his church in 1 742-3, as fruits of his labors among them ; he held a commission for many years as missionary to the tribe from the Commissioners for Propagating the Gospel in New England. In the latter part of his life he had difficulties with his parish, and was obliged to petition the Legislature to obtain his salary.
He married, June 22, 1725, Hannah, third daughter of Nathaniel Lynde, of Saybrook, and a sister of Samuel Lynde (Y. C. 1707). She was born September 10, 1698, and died in East Lyme, " of a quinsy," January 23, 1734-5, in her 37th year.
He was again married, July 20, 1736, to his second cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Lee, Jr., of Lyme. She was born April 8, 1701, and died August 28, 1758.
He had by each marriage two sons and two daughters. The second son, the Rev. Sylvanus Griswold, graduated here in 1757. The youngest son, Captain Andrew Griswold, was a Revolutionary officer.
A contemporaneous obituary, perhaps written by the Rev. Jonathan Parsons, says of him :
**He was an excellent Christian of ye Primitive Stamp, of great humility and Guileless Integrity in his Walk before God and Man, a lover of God and good men, fervent in his Devotions, given to hospitality, and very exemplary in all Christian Duties. . . . Extremely temperate in all things, of eminent Patience and Meekness."
AUTHORITIES.
Caulkins, Hist, of N. London, 616.
Colonial Records of Conn., ix, 574, x, 25. 54, 107.
Hyde Genealogy, i, 52.
Prince, Christian History, ii, 105.
E. E, Salisbury, in Magazine of Amer. Hist., xi, 143-50.
Savage, Geneal. Dict., ii, 317.
