Person:Jacob Fenton (1)

Jacob Fenton, of Mansfield, CT, was one of the original proprietors of the town of Norwich, in what was then the "New Hampshire grants" (now Vermont). Several people from Mansfield formed a corporation to settle the land. In 1763, some men, including Jacob, his nephew John Slafter, and Ebenezer Smith, all went to these lands to examine them and prepare them for settlement. Jacob died there that summer, after an accident getting pinned between his horse and a tree while crossing a river. A stone monument was placed there (no longer present), and his death was also recorded in the town records of Mansfield. (See John Slafter at "Settlement of Norwich" for a more detailed account of that summer.)

In the Memorial of John Slafter ^S1, the following genealogical footnote is given:

Jacob Fenton was the son of Robert, the emigrant ancestor, and Dorothy (Farrar) Fenton of Mansfield, Ct. He was the father of Jacob Fenton, who m. Rebecca Cross, and grandfather of Roswell Fenton, who m. Deborah, daughter of Stephen Freeman of Mansfield, and great-grandfather of George-Washington Fenton, who m. Elsie Owen, and great-great-grandfather of the Hon. Reuben-Eaton Fenton, the present (1868) Governor of the State of New York.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Slafter, Rev. Edmund Farwell. Memorial of John Slafter: with a genealogical account of his descendants, including eight generations. (Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States|Boston: Press of Henry W. Dutton & Son, 1869)
   pp. 32-33.

   in text, and also footnote on page 33.

2. ↑ The probable birth date and place are extrapolated from what is known of his sister Dorothy.