Person:Stephen Winchell (1)

'Stephen Winchell of Windsor was at Fort Dummer, Brattleboro, VT, June 1 to Aug. 31, 1724.

At the town in Simsbury, held 2 Jan., 1733, Lot No. 11, 36 acres, "on the west side of the mountain, near the copper hill," was assigned to Stephen Winchell, Jr.

Stephen, on the 14th of March, 1734, received land from the town of Torrington, as I learned from an old MS. called, "Here followeth the Laying out of the first Lotts in Torrington, Anno Dom. 1734," which contains the following: "No. 23, a lot laid out to Stephen Winchell containing 4 acres and 90 rods." (Here follow boundaries.)

On the same date Stephen and his brothers Thomas, Caleb, Robert and Martin, divided among themselves the 100-acre lot bequeathed to them by their late father Stephen, situated at Turkey Hills, in Simsbury.

Dec. 12, 1737, Stephen and his brother Martin sold their brother Thomas, for 12 pounds, ten acres of land at a place known as Pope's farm, near Salisbury Plain, "which land our honored father Stephen Winchell bought of Enoch Phelps, our rights therein being two-fifths parts thereof."

Dec. 13, 1737, Stephen for money and land sold his brother Thomas, of Simsbury, land at Turkey Hills, being one-fifth part of two tracts "which were granted and surveyed unto our honored father Stephen." 31 May, 1743, "Stephen Winchel, late of Windsor, now Simsbury," united with his brothers and making over to John Thrall, for 9 pounds, "a piece of land in Windsor and that division commonly called the mile and half mile division, bounded north on Suffield," etc.

There is no further record of Stephen in Connecticut; but in a division of public lands at Windsor 1 May, 1743, Lot 149, containing 16 1/2 acres, was allotted to Stephen Winchell's heirs (perhaps [his father] Stephen).

About this time Stephen seems to have launched into the western wilderness, since we next learn of him on the estate of "The Great Nine Partners," in Duchess County, NY, where he married, about 1744. This tract or patent, granted about 1714, was a belt ten miles wide, stretching across the county from the Hudson River to "The Oblong" (1 3/4 miles from the Connecticut state line), and comprising parts of the present towns of Rhinebeck, Hyde Park, Clinton, Pleasant Valley, Washington and Amenia, and the whole Stanford. In North East the north line of the tract was the north line of the "old James Collins farm." "The Little Nine Partners' " patent cover the present towns of Pine Plains and Milan, and part of North East in Duchess County.

One of the Great Nine Partners, named Rouse, had a daughter Mary whom Stephen married. He lived in died in Duchess Co., though all his family removed to Ulster, on the opposite side of the Hudson. It is not known upon what part of the Great Nine Partners' patent Stephen resided, but Louis Hollister of Olive Bridge, NY, stated that was near the Connecticut line. As his younger brother, Robert, is known to have settled in the "North Precinct in Duchess Co., NY," it is probable to Stephen lived either in North East or the contiguous parts of the town of Stanford.'^[4]

1. ↑ James Mosby. The Living History of Perry County. (Unigraphic, Inc., Evansville, Indinana, 1977).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} #48, in Winchell, Newton Horace; Alexander Winchell; and Alexander Newton Winchell. The Winchell Genealogy: the Ancestry and Children of Those Born to the Winchell Name in America Since 1635 with a Discussion of the Origin and History of the Name and the Family in England and Notes on the Wincoll Family. (Minneapolis, Minn.: Horace V. Winchell, 1917)
   page 81.

   'STEPHEN WINCHELL (13 Stephen, 2 Nathanael, 1 Robert). Born Windsor, 20 Nov., 1698; m. Mary Rouse, of Nine Partners, Duchess Co., N. Y., about 1744; d. in Duchess County. Mary was b. 1705. After he died she m. -- Smith and attained age of nearly 100 years.'

3. ↑ Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, United States. Records of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1638-1925.

   Stephen son of Stephen Winchel was born Nov 20th 1698 (Bk I Page Thirty-Eight)

4. ↑ Winchell, Newton Horace; Alexander Winchell; and Alexander Newton Winchell. The Winchell Genealogy: the Ancestry and Children of Those Born to the Winchell Name in America Since 1635 with a Discussion of the Origin and History of the Name and the Family in England and Notes on the Wincoll Family. (Minneapolis, Minn.: Horace V. Winchell, 1917)
   pages 81-82.