Lydia Mills Fitch (1731 - 1813)1

The Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War

Kathleen Conti
 
 
On July 4, 1776, Lydia Fitch of Wilton, Connecticut, was 45 years old and the mother of four children between the ages of 24 and 14: Jabez, Ebenezer, Hannah and Giles.2 Lydia had been a widow for fourteen years.
 
Wilton, primarily a farming community, was a parish within the jurisdiction of the coastal city of Norwalk, Connecticut. It had maintained its own military training known as the train band since 1727. Trained militia was necessary for all communities from the earliest days of the Connecticut Colony for protection against unpredictable natives.3 The Pequots and the Narragansett Tribes who inhabited this area before the white men came were at war between themselves as well as the white men. Initially there was peace and trading benefitted the natives and the white men but disputes arose resulting in violence and hostilities making it necessary to build defenses and train men to defend against any hostilities of native tribes.4  All males between the ages of sixteen and sixty were required to serve and to possess a musket, sword, bandolier, powder and bullets.  The Wilton Train Band, one of twenty-four in the colony of Connecticut, was officially designated the 7th Company of the 9th Regiment of Connecticut Militia.5 Lydia’s sons Jabez and Ebenezer would have been part of the Wilton Train Band in 1776. Her youngest son, Giles, at age 14 was not yet old enough to be part of the Train Band. He would have to wait two more years.
 
While Wilton residents evolved from loyalty to the King of England to patriotism in the cause for independence between 1765 (the Stamp Act) and 1775, some remained loyal to the crown after 1776 by keeping a low profile, joining the British troops, or fleeing to Canada. Lydia’s husband’s cousin, Samuel Fitch II settled on Chestnut Hill in Wilton making him a neighbor of Lydia and Ebenezer. He was a vestryman at St Paul’s Anglican Church and served on the Wilton School Committee. He was discharged from the care of the school money in 1775 for his Tory beliefs.6 The Fitch family was just one of the Wilton families to have split allegiance. In addition to Samuel Fitch II being a Tory, John and Nathan Fitch were distant Fitch cousins of Wilton who remained loyal to the crown.6
 
LYDIA’S CHILDHOOD
    
Lydia Mills was born in Greenwich, Connecticut.7 She was born the same year as Martha Washington, 1731. Lydia’s father, Samuel Mills III (1695-1735), born in Jamaica, Long Island8, was third generation to be born in Colonial America. His great grandparents settled in Jamaica, Long Island while it was still under Dutch rule. Samuel’s great grandfather, George Augustus Mills (1595-1674) emigrated from England and died in Jamaica, Long Island.9 Lydia’s father, Sam Mills, journeyed thirty miles northeast to Greenwich, CT in the early 1700’s. He was chosen to keep a house of publick(sic) entertainment on Feb 27,171010. He married Lydia Ferris Reynolds in 1720.11 While the name Reynolds is well known in Greenwich, Connecticut I have been unable to connect my great grandmother Lydia Ferris Reynolds to any documented Lydia Reynolds in the published Reynolds genealogy.12
  
Lydia’s father died when she was about 4 years old. Did she have siblings? Was her mother living or was she orphaned by the death of her father? I have yet to find any records of her childhood years other than her birth.
 
 
MARRIAGE
 
Lydia married well at the age of nineteen on December 20, 1750.13  Lydia’s husband, Ebenezer Fitch, was the third son of Thomas Fitch, Esq. of Norwalk, Connecticut.14 Thomas Fitch, Esquire, had graduated from Yale in 1721, preached at the Congregational Church in Norwalk, then studied law, held the offices of Chancellor, Judge of the Superior Court and Chief Justice of the state. He was elected Colonial Governor in 175415.It must have been an exciting time for Lydia and her husband’s family when Thomas Fitch took the oath of office of Governor of the Colony of Connecticut in 1754. This was just less than four years after Lydia and Ebenezer were married. Governor Fitch became unpopular after signing a pledge of loyalty to King George III just before the Stamp Act was passed and thereby lost the election for Governor in 1766.15
 
Ebenezer, unlike his father and two older brothers, did not graduate from Yale, but he was the first of his siblings to marry. At age twenty-one, in 1750, he took a wife and ten months later became a father.16 Jabez was born Sept 11, 1751, Syrah, born Aug 11, 1753, Ebenezer born Sept 9, 1755, and Hannah, born Aug 8, 1758.16
 
I have yet to discover when Lydia and Ebenezer moved to Wilton, but I believe they were living there on Chestnut Hill Road when daughter Hannah was born in 1858.17 She was baptized at the Wilton Congregational Church. Her baptism is documented in the church archives.18 The church was founded in 1726 and is celebrating their three-hundred-year anniversary this year. I attended the Sunday service on May 17, 2026, and was filled with awe at being part of the congregation where Ebenezer, Lydia and their children had been members. The sermon was about our relationship with God and with each other. As followers of Christ, we are encouraged to serve one another unlike the contrary popular belief of pulling oneself up by his/her own bootstraps. The very warm welcome I received from many parishioners fed my soul and made the long journey from home so worthwhile. I will be returning. They also have a very warm and welcoming web page – The Wilton Congregational Church.
 
 
WIDOWHOOD IN COLONIAL DAYS
 
Lydia and Ebenezer celebrated eleven years of marriage and were anticipating the birth of their fifth child when Ebenezer died on February 23, 1762, as reported in the ledger of the Wilton Congregational Church19. The cause of his untimely death at age thirty-two, I have yet to discover. Prevalent fatal illnesses in the 1760’s were influenza (putrid fever), dysentery (bloody flux), and smallpox. He may have died while fighting in the French and Indian War.  He died just one year before the signing of the Treaty of Paris which put an end to the fighting.  Sadly, many records from the French and Indian War have not survived; however, there is a very interesting tale about Ebenezer’s brother, Colonel Thomas Fitch, which can be found at the end of this sketch.
 
Lydia was the executrix of her husband’s estate along with her brother-in-law, Thomas Fitch Jr. (Colonel Fitch) 20 It was a substantial estate. In fact, Lydia owned one of the largest parcels of land in the parish of Wilton.21 It was located on Chestnut Hill near her brother-in-law Timothy Fitch and his family. It included one hundred acres of land and a long list of possessions, to name just some – furniture, wearing apparel, china and cooking implements, livestock, an old Bible, and a sermon book. Thirty of the acres were divided as follows – two acres for Lydia, twelve acres for Jabez, eight acres for Ebenezer Jr. and eight acres for Giles.  Jabez was ten years old, Ebenezer was six years old and Giles was not born until several months after his father’s death. Their mother (Lydia) had guardianship over the land and other property. Daughter’s Syrah and Hannah did not have land set aside for them. The life of daughter Syrah becomes a mystery after her birth. She may have died in childhood or somehow been disconnected from the family in later years.
 
How Lydia was able to support herself and her children following her husband’s death requires speculation.  Did her father-in-law, Governor Thomas Fitch, provide for her and his grandchildren.
 
An account of a 1769 Norwalk wedding was given at a Fairfield County meeting of the Daughters of the American Revolution by Miss Katherine A, Sturgis.22   The article she reads shares the following about the ex-governor Thomas Fitch.
 
Rhoda Keeler, who, by the way, is to marry Isaac Camp next month, has had a glimpse of the bride’s trousseau, and declares that there are brocaded satins that will stand alone, and that her linen chest is piled to the top with the finest of snowy linen; but be this as it may, one thing we are sure of, that the bride’s great uncle, the venerable Thomas Fitch, has given her an imported china tea set with the initials of the bride and groom upon it….
 
The venerable Thomas Fitch, former governor, walked his grandniece, Susannah Rogers down the aisle to wed David Lambert II. Following the bride and escort ex Gov Thomas Fitch was the mother of the bride, Elizabeth Fitch Rogers (niece of the ex-governor) and her father Samual Fitch (brother of the ex-governor).
 
 Gov Fitch’s wife had died on August 7, 1769.23 Susannah’s father had died in 1760 when she was only 7 years old.24
 
One can see how close and supportive this family was. Governor Fitch agreed to walk his grandniece down the aisle while he was still a grieving widower losing his wife just 4 months prior. He gave a very generous gift from which I might conclude that he had been equally generous to his orphaned grandchildren and their widowed mother.
 
The probate records record the sale of a young negro boy. Did Lydia own other slaves who farmed the land and spun the wool, or had this one negro boy been the only slave that they had owned?
 
 Women in these days were very capable of managing a household as the letters of Abigail Adams reveal. John Adams was absent from home for extended periods while Abigail managed the household and their income properties.25
 
 Lydia became a widow at age 31 and never remarried. How did she manage? Martha Washington, whose life parallels Lydia’s in some respects, was born the same year as Lydia and married the same year. Martha became a widow four years before Lydia and then married George Washington just two years later. It is well known that Martha Washington was encamped with her husband throughout the war, helping to feed the troops and offering them comfort. I wonder if Lydia accompanied her sons to any of their encampments to do the same.
 
 
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR PERIOD 1775-1785
 
The shot heard ‘round the world, April 19, 1775, changed everything. The news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord did not reach Norwalk until Thursday or Friday, April 20- 21. The dispatch was carried on horseback by Isreal Bissell.26 Lydia was 44 and her children were 23, 19, 16, and 12. Wilton Parish was one of the first in Fairfield County to vote to support the Patriots on December 5, 1774. Most Norwalk residents initially did not approve of the Revolutionary War however by the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, Norwalk residents had changed their attitudes after experiencing or learning about the behaviors of the British Troops, especially at Lexington and Concord.27
 
Lydia’s three brothers-in-law held influential leadership positions in the service of the new independent Connecticut government being led by Governor Trumbull. Colonel Thomas Fitch was one of the chief American military commanders at Norwalk.  Johnathan was recommissioned as a Colonel throughout the Revolutionary War.  He was Commissary and Naval Commander at the Port of New Haven.28 Timothy Fitch served on the Committee of Inspection for Wilton, responsible for the conduct of military affairs in the town.29
 
Lydia’s eldest son, Jabez, became a 1st lieutenant in the 17th Regiment of the Continental Army commanded by Colonel Huntington.30 Being in that regiment, Jabez may have participated in the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776. Eight months later danger struck closer to home. Eighteen hundred British Troops including three hundred American Tories, landed at Compo Beach on the coast of Connecticut between Norwalk and Fairfield. They marched twenty-four miles north to destroy the patriot munitions depot at Danbury, Connecticut. The Americans, not learning of the attack in time to defend Danbury, attacked the British Troops on their way back to Compo Beach, resulting in the Battle of Ridgefield on April 29, 1777, in a series of skirmishes. Generals Silliman, Wooster, and Benedict Arnold commanded 600 Connecticut Militia who marched to intercept the British at Ridgefield. General Wooster was fatally wounded, and Benedict Arnold was nearly captured when his horse was struck by nine bullets and killed. The Wilton Militiamen, led by Lieutenant Seth Abbott, were participants at the stand at Ridgefield. One Wilton man was killed and two of the many militiamen from Wilton were wounded. The British prevailed and the next day the British passed quickly through Wilton. On their way they arrested one Wilton resident, Benjamin Keeler of Bald Hill. The British entered several Wilton homes pillaging and damaging the houses. On Chestnut Hill Road, the same road where Lydia and her children lived, there was a brief skirmish with five hundred American Continental Troops commanded by Jedediah Huntington. Colonel Huntington had collected General Wooster’s troops at Ridgefield and made a forced march to Wilton. Several shots were exchanged and six Americans were wounded, none of whom were from Wilton.31   Was my Great-Uncle Jabez one of the five hundred troops fighting in his own front yard?
 
Lydia’s second son, Ebenezer, fought in the American Revolution as a private serving in the 9th Connecticut Regiment.32 (The Wilton Train Band became the 7th Company of the 9th Regiment)33   Ebenezer served under Colonel Samuel Blethly Webb and Captain Samuel Comstock’s Company for service in 1776 and 1777, participating in the Battle of Long Island and New York Battles.  Three Wilton men lost their lives in the Battle of Harlem Heights and White Plains. Eight Wilton men were among the three thousand American troops captured at Fort Washington on November 17, 1776. The tragic loss of life and captivity of neighbors had to be horrifying for Lydia and her children.
 
In January 1777, Captain Samuel Comstock of Wilton accepted a commission in the 8th Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Army. Thirty-six Wilton men were recruited for this regiment to serve the balance of the war. Wilton Train Band men of Samuel Comstock’s 7th Company helped to hold the line at Sawpits (Port Chester, NY) on the Bryam River between Greenwich and Rye, New York. This became the frontline between the British and the Patriots for the remainder of the war.34 Did this include my 5th great-grandfather Ebenezer Fitch II?  His regiment fought at Germantown, Fort Mifflin, and Monmouth and spent four cold winters encamped at Valley Forge, Redding, Morristown and Connecticut Village on the Hudson Highlands.38  Captain Samuel Comstock was chosen to command a company from the 5th Connecticut Line for the Yorktown campaign!36 Was my 5th great grandfather one of Comstock’s men who fought at the conclusive battle of Yorktown.  Was this why I was filled with tears as we toured the Yorktown Battlefield in 2015?
 
Ridgefield is located eight miles north of Wilton. Lydia may have had several siblings living in Ridgefield with their families at the time of the Revolutionary War. I wonder what it was like for them being civilians amid the skirmishes in Ridgefield. I have visited the Keeler Tavern (now a museum) in Ridgefield where a cannonball from the attack remains embedded in the post-and-beam frame building that is now restored and open for tours. On tour of the Keeler Tavern, I was able to better imagine the lives of my ancestors during the revolutionary war period.  I was intrigued by a wooden object made of ascending wooden dowel squares climbing to about 3 feet high. It was called a baby minder, a cross between the highchairs and bouncers that we use today. Overnight guests shared several beds on the second floor and when the beds were full guests slept on the floor. Our tour guide educated us on the politics of the day.  Local town meetings took place at the tavern in support of the Patriot cause. Even the locals did not always know if their neighbor was a Patriot or a Loyalist, so the threat of betrayal loomed over these local meetings.
 
The British had control of New York City and Long Island from late August 1776 to November 1783, yet no major campaigns or battle were fought in Connecticut. The state’s major contribution to the patriot cause was manpower, ships, food, clothing and munitions. However, two raids, one in 1777 (Tryon’s Raid) and one in 1779 also led by Tryon, were enough to terrorize any resident for a lifetime. On July 11, 1779, the British ravaged Norwalk destroying most of Norwalk’s private residences along with the commercial infrastructure.37 The residents had fled before the raid.38 While the home of the former Governor Thomas Fitch was destroyed by fire, Lydia and her family were living eight miles north in the parish of Wilton. How terrifying this must have been for them. Perhaps the Norwalk Fitches sought shelter from Lydia at that time.
 
During this horrifying time however, lives continued to be lived. Between February and May of 1779 four military weddings took place in Wilton.39 In addition, on October 22, 1779, Lydia’s daughter, Hannah Fitch, age twenty-one, married Captain John St. John in Wilton.40 Their first child, Sally St. John, was born 30 Sep 1780.41 At the age of forty-nine Lydia became a grandmother for the first time.  
 
Lydia’s oldest son, Jabez, at age twenty-eight married Anna Knapp in Greenwich, CT on May 19, 1780,42 and their first child, Samuel Mills Fitch, was born Feb 4, 1783.43
 
Lydia’s second son Ebenezer II married Sarah Hobby of North Castle, Westchester County, NY44 and their first child, Sarah Fitch was born in 178145.
 
 
AFTER THE REVOLUTION 1783-1813
 
It is a little puzzling that Lydia and her sons had an abundance of land in Wilton and would deprive themselves of all the benefits of the Connecticut culture that had been developing for the past century and a half. This included an abundance of manufactured goods, trade from all over the world and established education for their children. It was five generations since Lydia’s family had settled this virgin land in America. After 155 years of living within ten miles of the eastern seaboard, Lydia and her children headed northwest to upstate New York.
 
At the conclusion of the Revolution there was a fever for manifest destiny resulting in a surge of Americans who headed west for better land in the pursuit of happiness. This westward surge included Lydia Fitch and her family.46,47 Following the revolutionary war there was tremendous hardship as well related to the economic depression. Problems included hyperinflation and worthless currency. There were widespread debt and foreclosures.  These conditions led to Shay’s Rebellion in late 1786.
 
There was a connection between a former Wilton pastor, Rev Eliphalet Ball and Lydia’s family.  Rev Ball, with 25 families followers, including several from Wilton, settled in the Ballston Spa area about 1771.48 Ball somehow was contracted to find buyers for the portion of the Kayaderosseras Patent that had been set aside to pay administrative and surveying costs.49  Perhaps he contacted the widow Fitch with an offer for land on this Kayaderosseras Patent.
 
Two Fitch brothers came to Ballston, NY in 1785 to buy land.50 They journeyed down the Kayaderosseras Creek and hiked five miles east on foot through wilderness, marking trees to find their way back. They selected their 200 acres of land at a place that became known then at St. John’s corners in the Town of Greenfield northeast of Saratoga before returning to their homes in Wilton, CT.  The following year, 1786, Ebenezer Fitch, Giles Fitch, Captain John St. John (married to Hannah Fitch) and a Mr. Smith with their four families returned to the area. 
On 15th May 1786, after leaving the residence of Mr. Thaddeus Betts (father of Giles wife Dorothy) in Ballston, the party proceeded to their selected farms at St. John’s Corner.  Ebenezer Fitch selected the north-west corner of two hundred acres.
 
At the age of fifty-four, in 1786, Lydia resettled with her adult children, Ebenezer, Giles and Hannah along with their spouses and young children from Wilton, CT to the wilderness in Greenfield, Saratoga County, NY. A place that was said to have been infested with wolves and bears.51 Her son Colonel Jabez Fitch followed his family to Greenfield, NY sometime after 1790. He purchased 500 acres from Dirck Lefferts on a spot now known as Locust Grove less than a mile south of the location of his brothers.52 Lydia’s daughter Syrah has not been found in the historical record other than her baptism.
 
How did the family happen to choose this upstate New York location, the Kayaderosseras Patent, a land grant made by Ann, Queen of Great Britain, in 1701 to thirteen subjects? The patent included 406,000 acres comprising most of what is now Saratoga County plus three adjacent counties. 53 The Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the Indians in 1768, opened a vast area of land in upstate New York. The land was then surveyed in 1771 by Charles Webb. Proprietors of this land opened a Congregational Church to draw New England settles and a number of Wilton families were among settlers in the early 1770’s before the onset of the Revolutionary War. More families from Wilton, CT followed, branching off to the northeast founding Wilton, NY.54 The town of Greenfield, NY lies between the towns of Wilton, NY and Ballston Spa, NY.
 
By 1790, Ebenezer, my 4th great grandfather, had built a large and grand brick home eleven miles south of Greenfield in the town of Saratoga. His family at this time included my fifteen-year-old, 3rd great grandmother Sally Ann Fitch along with her eight younger siblings.55 The home overlooks Fish Creek which is the primary outlet that drains water out of the north end of Saratoga Lake, carrying it to the Hudson River at Schuylerville. Kayaderosseras Creek is the major tributary that flows into the lake. I wonder if Lydia came to live with her son and his family in his stately new mansion or did she stay behind in Greenfield and live with her daughter Hannah and her family, her son Giles and his family or her son, Jabez, and his family?
 
LYDIA’S LEGACY
 
When Lydia died on October 31,1813 at the age of eighty-two, the US was in the midst of the War of 1812 and James Madison was President of the United States. Lydia had twenty-five grandchildren aged one to thirty-two. Many more grandchildren would be born following her death.  Lydia had witnessed the birth of this new nation, living through perilous times, seeing her sons go off to war in addition to contributing over one hundred great grandchildren.  Her legacy was substantial, but it would grow immensely in the coming generations. Her descendants included doctors, lawyers, nurses, judges, statesmen, pioneers, a horse dealer, stagecoach drivers, milk peddlers, farmers, factory workers, pharmacist, arborist, chemist, a software developer for Atari who wrote a book with his picture on the cover, alcoholism counselors, massage therapist and professors.  Grandsons and great grandsons served in the Civil War, Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, Korean War, Viet-Nam War, and the Gulf War. At least one great granddaughter (6x), Karen Beleal served in the military. Her 6x great grandsons Johnny Carris and Jack Carris served as paratroopers in peace keeping missions in the 1950’s and 60’s.    
 
On July 4, 1876, 63 years following her death, Lydia’s great grandson, Edward Fitch Bullard, presented an address at Schuylerville, NY.59 A joint resolution of the Congress and a presidential proclamation recommended that the people of each town gather on this day to hear an historical sketch of their town. Edward Fitch Bullard delivered the recommended address at Schuylerville, NY, “The History of Saratoga and the Burgoyne Campaign,” to his fellow citizens of the Town of Saratoga. The following is just a short portion of his address to his fellow citizens of Saratoga County.
 
This country was the theatre of war for 150 years between the Protestant English and the Catholic French. By the fall of Quebec and the peace of 1763, with the aid of our people, the British became master of this continent. After the surrender of the British General Burgoyne in 1777 the same Catholic French nation, joined us in the struggle against the British Empire, and with their aid, we established a nation where religious freedom is secured to all mankind. Hence as a result we have this day witnessed the pleasing spectacle of a procession of Sunday school children, in which the protestant and catholic have marched through your streets with the stars and stripes in beautiful harmony. One hundred years ago, (1776) the colonies had 3 million people, now (1876) 40 million people. Had the wildest enthusiast one hundred years ago today predicted the great nation of power, of civilization and intelligence, that July 4, 1876, would witness on this continent, he would have been called a madman. Twenty years ago, if any such enthusiast had predicted that, on this day the stars and stripes would float over a nation, free without a slave, he certainly would have been counted unfit to manage the ordinary affairs of life.
 
In summary Edward Fitch Bullard states:
 
rather than dwelling on the tragedies of the past we believe that the parent and child who speaks the truth, deals justly, performs his duty, and dares to do right, will be a saint exalted in heaven high above the Caesars and Napoleons, made famous upon the records of human history. So long as man continues to love the truth and do the right thing, will government for the people, declared an experiment one hundred years ago, continue to be a success, to protect and bless mankind through the centuries of the great future.
 
My first cousin, five times removed, Edward Fitch Bullard, eloquently shares his point of view that we may be wise to take heed of today. The values of truth, justice, and a strong work ethic along with making ethical, honest, and fair decisions that prioritize the common good over personal gain (doing the right thing), even when it is difficult will empower our 250-year-old democracy to prevail.
 
Thus concludes this biographical sketch of my 5 X Great grandmother Lydia Mills Fitch. In researching and writing this sketch I have been made aware of the horrors of the American Revolutionary War in a way that never occurred to me while I was studying American History in high school. I am inspired by Lydia and her children who lived through that war and contributed to the American victory. It took first an awakening, then resolve, sacrifice, hard work, and combat to achieve independence from an insane King.
 
Lydia is buried in Greenfield Cemetery, Saratoga County, NY. The cemetery is near the northwest parcel of land belonging to her son Ebenezer Fitch in Greenfield. I’m glad I found her and glad I was able to learn about her remarkable life.
 
This remarkable woman has intrigued me ever since I visited her grave in Greenfield Cemetery, Saratoga County NY on July 28, 2024, and now after completing this biographical sketch I still hope to learn more about her and her family.
  
 
END NOTES
  1. Greenfield Cemetery (Greenfield, Saratoga County, New York), Lydia Fitch marker, plot-384, personally read,  
  2. ttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7942930/ebenezer-fitch
  3. Richard H Russell, Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress (Wilton Historical Society, 224 Danbury Rd. Wilton, Connecticut 06897. 2004) 104
  4. Dannenberg, Elsie Nicholas, The Romance of Norwalk, THE STATE HISTORY COMPANY 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.  1929  https://archive.org › download › romanceofnorwalk  Chapter II, pg 7-
  5. Russell,  Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 26-27
  6. Russell, Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress   113
  7. Cemetery Records of Saratoga County, New York Volume I; Author: Elizabeth Ellsberry  
  8. Ancestry.com. The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1847-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Volume # 156 page # 118 
  9. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 for Samuel Mills A Documentary history of the family of Mills : descended from George Mills of Hempstead and Jamaica
  10. Spencer Mead LLB, Ye History of the Town of Greenwich: (New York, Knickerbocker Press, 1911), 50
  11. https://gw.geneanet.org/palm8256?n=reynolds&oc=&p=lydia
  12. Deborah Wing Ray and Gloria P Steward, Loyal to the Land, the history of a Greenwich Connecticut family, (Charter Oaks Publications, Inc. 1990) 13
  13. Connecticut Families of the USA, 1607-1775 for Lydia Mills 93
  14. Connecticut Families of the USA,1607-1775 volume IV Fitch Family for Gov. Thomas Fitch 155-156.
  15. Wilson, James Grant, Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography volume 2 472-473 Internet Archive. Web. 20 May 2026
  16. Hall, Edwin,  Ancient Historical Records of Norwalk, Conn. Norwalk History Room, Norwalk Library, R 874.69 HAL 213
  17. Russell, Richard H. Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress   75
  18. Records of the Church of Christ in Wilton, 1733-67; Historian’s Office, Wilton Library, Wilton, Connecticut 27
  19. Records of the Church of Christ in Wilton, 1733-67; Historian’s Office, Wilton Library, Wilton, CT.
  20. Fairfield, Connecticut, USA, Connecticut Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999, Ebenezer Fitch, 1762, Ancestry  images 959-973. 2015
  21. Russell, Richard H. Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress   75
  22. Dannenberg, Elsie Nicholas, The Romance of Norwalk, THE STATE HISTORY COMPANY 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.  1929 130 and 131 
  23. URL https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46741868/hannah-fitch
  24.  URL https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45339006/nehemiah-rogers
  25. Levin, Phyllis Lee, Abigail Adam, Thomas Dunne Books an Import of St Martens Press, Griffen, New York. 2001
  26. Robert L. Bethelson, An Alarm from Lexington, The Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution  Lexington and Concord
  27. Dannenberg, Elsie Nicholas, The Romance of Norwalk, THE STATE HISTORY ,  COMPANY 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.  1929  https://archive.org › download ›136 
  28. Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 170  ancestry.com 2005
  29. Russell, Richard H. Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress. 113        
  30.  U.S., Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 for Jabez Fitch
  31.  Russell, Richard H. Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 123-126
  32.  US SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION for Ebenezer Fitch national number 81383, state number 9063
  33. Russell, Richard H. Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 120 
  34. Russell, Richard H. Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 122-123 
  35.  Russell, Richard H. Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 122
  36. Russell, Richard H. Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 136
  37. Russell,  Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 132  
  38. Russell, Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 134
  39.  Russell, Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 131   
  40.  Alexander, Orline St. John, 1846- comp, The St. John Genealogy; Descendants of Matthias St. John, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1634, of Windsor, Connecticut, 1640, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, 1643-1645, and Norwalk, Connecticut, 1650 page 187
  41. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14865596/sally-hanford
  42. Connecticut, US, Town Marriage Records pre 1970 (Barbour Collection) Greenwich Vital Records 183
  43. Connecticut, US, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) 183
  44. Daughters of the American Revolution, Lineage Book: NSDAR: Volume 022: 1897  
  45. Daughters of the American Revolution, Lineage Book:NSDAR Vol 104;1913, 186
  46. Stone, William Leete, Reminiscences of Saratoga and Ballston, (New York: R. Worthington, 750 Broadway),1880 page 82      
  47. Russell,  Wilton Connecticut, Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 143.  
  48. Russell, Richard H. Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress   109.                                                                    
  49. Webs site for the Village of Ballston Spa, Brief History of the Village of Ballston Spa the Rev Eliphalet Ball and Kayaderosseras Patent
  50. William Stone, Reminiscences of Saratoga and Ballston. (New York: R. Worthington, 1880), 82                        
  51. Stone, Reminiscences of Saratoga and Ballston, 83.      
  52.  Stone,  Reminiscences of Saratoga and Ballston, 1880, 83     
  53. Queen Ann and the Kayaderosseras Patent   Wikipedia
  54. Russell,  Wilton Connecticut Three Centuries of People, Places and Progress, 143
  55. New York. Surrogate’s Court (Saratoga County); Probate Place: Saratoga, New York, Ebenezer Fitch II, 27 May 1817, Ancestry.com 2015, Record of Wills, 1791-1921, Index 1799-1893 (Saratoga County, New York
  56. Edward J. Bullard, “History of Saratoga and the Burgoyne Campaign of 1777; An Address Delivered at Schuylerville, NY, July 4, 1876”, 1876
 
  
Addendum
 
The older brother of Lydia’s husband Ebenezer, Colonel Thomas Fitch V, was very accomplished.  In addition to holding a commission of Colonel in the Colonial Militia he also had a Yale College degree (1746). On the tombstone of Col Thomas Fitch, the story is told that that he was the inspiration for the beloved Yankee Doodle song. A British surgeon Richard Shuckburgh, about 1755, was inspired to write the lyrics to a familiar tune as he witnessed the rag tag bunch of Connecticut Yankees marching toward Fort Crailo to join the British Troops of which Thomas Fitch was their leader.  His sister is credited with sticking a chicken feather in the caps of the militiamen to given them a unifying symbol.    

They fought in the Saratoga area during the French and Indian Wars.  Yankee Doodle written by the British Surgeon was intended to make fun of the less fancy colonial militia but in just a few years the tables were turned, and the tune became a symbol of pride for the Americans.  The tune was played by the patriot fyfe and drums as the defeated British Troops marched out of Fort Ticonderoga, following their 1777 defeat at Saratoga. (History of the Fitch Family AD 1400-1930 pg 187). This battle changed the course of the war demonstrating that we could win against the British Army. France was willing to fund us because of the victory at Saratoga