Person:Stephen Backus (3)

Biography

The New England Ancestry of Dana Converse Backus
Compiled and Edited by Mary E. N. Backus
Newcomb & Gauss Co., Printers
Salem, Massachusetts 1949 Pages 7, 8
Steven was undoubtedly born in Saybrook since he was minor when the Norwich settlement was made in 1659. He married in December 1666 Sarah Spencer and was living May 28, 1694 the date on which he sold land to Thomas Leffingwell. (Norwich Deeds. Book 2A, pp. 175-176.) But this was not the home-lot he had inherited from his father in 1661. That was sold April 16, 1700 by the second Stephen "with the consent of my honored mother Sarah Backus." (Norwich Deeds. Book 2A, pp. 379-380.) The description of the land sold on the latter date exactly corresponds with the description of the home lot as entered in the Book of Grants, page 241. The forty-year-old house, which may perhaps have grown somewhat since William Backus, Senior, built it, was converted by the new owner into an inn.
The Backus family moved to Canterbury, Windham County, but before the final distribution of the estate of the first Stephen was made, his son Stephen, the administrator, died in 1702. On file in the Probate department of the State Library at Hartford is and Agreement of Backus his children dated May 28, 1707 and signed by Sarah Backus "widow and relict" of the first Stephen, by her only surviving son Timothy, by Elizabeth Backus her daughter, and by David Knight, Robert Green and William Baker in behalf of their wives, her daughters Sarah, Ruth and Rebecca.

The Backus Families of Early New England
By Reno Warburton Backus
1966 Page 12
Stephen Backus, second son of William Backus, Sr., and his (unknown) first wife (p. 8). may have been born in England, but Jacobus (121) and others surmise he was born in Saybrook about 1642, and so just approaching his majority as the family moved to Norwich in 1660. Early details about him are missing. But having reached Norwich, he succeeded to the allotment of his father on the death of the latter in 1664, Stephen's elder brother, William, Jr., having had a homesite granted him in his own right. Stephen was thus counted one of the Norwich founders, and so was listed on the Founder's Monument. Frances Caulkins states "The homelot was entered in his name as a first purchaser." The lot lay "upon the pent highway by the Yantic, between the Town Green and the allotment of Thomas Bliss." (See Appendix B). As time passed and Stephen died, the property was sold in 1700, incorporated into a larger structure, and converted into the Leffingwell Inn. This stood for over two centuries, only to give way in 1959 for construction of a new freeway.
Stephen's occupation is not recorded. In December, 1666, he married Sarah Spencer, who was born about 1644, daughter of Ensign Gerard (or Jared) and Hanna Spencer of Haddam, Connecticut (120; 153, 1:4). (Older records occasionally show him, apparently incorrectly, as married to Sarah Gardiner, daughter of Lion Gardiner, the engineer whom Governor Winthrop brought over to Saybrook.) Gerald Spencer, born in England in 1614, was one of four Spencer brothers who came to America; he settled at Haddam, and died there in 1685 (120).
In 1692 Stephen moved his family to the new settlement of Canterbury, of which he was counted as one of the founders. There he died in 1695, his estate being settled by agreement between his widow Sarah, his son Timothy, his daughter Elizabeth, and David Knight, Robert Green, and William Baker, the husbands of his daughters Sarah, Ruth, and Rebecca, respectively, the elder son, Stephen, Jr., having died apparently without heir.

A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Before 1692 Volume #1" by James Savage
STEPHEN, Norwich 1660, son of William, by wife Sarah, daughter of Lyon Gardiner, had Sarah, born Apr. 1668; Stephen, Oct. 1670; Mary, Nov. 1672; Ruth, 19 Dec. 1674; Lydia, Nov. 1677; and Timothy, 7 Oct. 1682.

1. ↑ Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Parish Register of Sheffield in the county of York (1560-1754). (Yorkshire: Yorkshire Parish Register Society, 1917-2000).
2. ↑ Jacobus, Donald Lines, and Edgar Francis Waterman. Hale, House and Related Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley. (Hartford: The Connecticut Historical Society, 1952).
3.   Bingham, Everett F. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register: William Backus of Sheffield, Yorkshire, and Norwich, Connecticut, Volume: vol. 142. (New England Historic Genealogical Society, July, 1988).