DAVID BENTON, JR. AND SARAH BINGHAM, THEIR ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS; AND OTHER ANCESTRAL LINES. Regard for ancestry deserves the regard of posterity. -J. H. B. BY JOHN HOGAN BENTON, EsQ., OF WASHINGTON, D. c. BOSTON: PRESS OF DAVID CLAPP & SON. 19 0 6. CONTENTS. .. i. PREFACE - ABBREVIATIONS - DIRECTIONS v-vu ii. BENTONS IN ENGLAND-EDWARD BENTON-ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS • • 1-2 iii. ANDREW BENTON-ANCESTORS AND DESCENDANTS .3-26 iv. BENTON GR.A. VESTONE INSCRIPTIONS 27 v. BENTONS IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR . • 28-30 vi. OuR CORRESPONDENTS AND OTHERS . 30-32 vii. SKETCH AND OBITUARIES OF REV. w ALTER BENTON . 32-39 viii. SKETCH AND OBITUARY OF HETTY {VERMILYA) BENTON 39-44 ix. SKETCH AND OBITUARIES OF GEORGE VERMILYA BENTON 44-54 x. SKETCH OF JORN HOGAN BENTON • • • . 55-57 xi. OuR MILITARY SERVICE. (J. H. B.) . 57 xii. OuR LovING CuP PRESENTATION. (J. H. B.) • • 58 xiii. OBITUARIES OF MRs. HARRIET ROBIE LYON, DAVID W. LYON AND ROBERT M. LYON • • • • • 59-61 xiv. OTHER ANCESTORS : Stocking, 62; Waters, 62; Norton-Bayes, 62; Stewart­ Bingham, 63; Vermilya-Wright, 69-76; Ray-Wingate, 79; Webster-Ferguson, 80 . 62-80 xv. SKETCH OF THO:.\IAS BINGH.A.)I THE ElIIGR.A.NT 65 xvi. BRIDE BROOK, THE BALLAD OF 66 xvii. SKETCH OF CALEB BINGHAi\I • 68 XVlll. OBITUARIES OF JOHN COLE VER)IILYA 77-78 xix. THE ESTATE OF ISAAC BENTON i • • 82 xx. THE WILL OF DAVID BENTON, SENIOR • . 83-84 PREFACE. A LETTER in 1894 from Miss S. Adelaide Benton of South Ma~chester, Conn., inquiring to what extent we could trace our Benton lineage, elicited ·. the response that it went no farther than our grandfather, David Benton, whose family Bible was in our possession, and who died in our father's home when we were sixteen years of age. We had heard him relate much of his personal history, but could not recall that he ever spoke of his par­ entage. It was not, however, until four years later that the ancestral idea, sug­ gested by the letter of inquiry, was quickened to activity. For early in 1898, a recalled statement of his application for pension as a Revolutionary soldier, that he was born in the town of Salisbury, Conn., and that he was " called into service " in the town of Sheffield, Berkshire Co., Mass., resulted in obtaining from the records of Salisbury the date of his birth­ in exact harmony with his Bible reco~-as a" son of David and Sarah Benton;" and from Pittsfield, Mass., a copy of his father David Benton's will, in which he was named as one of his children and legatees. These data, coupled to an intimation of Miss Benton's that our grandsire was probably a descendant of an Andrew Benton, who was a first settler at Milford, Conn., in 1639, and afterwards removed to Hartford, suggested the possibility of spanning the century that intervened his death in 1683, or that of Edward Benton's, his fellow emigrant, in 1680, and the death of our great-grandsire in 1797. For the public records of .Hartford afforded the names of two generations, at least, of the descendants of Andrew Ben­ ton, as did those of Guilford of the descendants of Edward Benton, who settled at that place in, or about, the same year that Andrew Benton set­ tled at Milford. A correspondence begun in this year ( 1898) with Mr. Myron B. Ben­ ton, which included a visit to his home, near Amenia, N. Y., gave, through admiration of his noble character, a predilection toward the Edward Ben­ ton line to which he and his brother, Charles E. Benton, and their cousin, Joel Benton, belonged. But an exhaustive study of Guilford records having failed to realize the expectancy of nearness of kin to these worthy gentlemen, attention was directed elsewhere for the intervening links. And in response to requests of other towns for the names of all Bentons borne on their vital statistic records prior to 17 60, the one to the town of Tolland, in the county of that name, revealed the birth in 1734 of a David Benton, a son of Isaac and Ruth (Norton) Benton, thereby conclusively settling the question of lineage; for the Hartford records showed the birth in 17 03 of this Isaac . VI Benton, as a son of Joseph and Sarah (Waters) Benton; and they also showed that this Joseph was a son of Andrew Benton the emigrant. The England home and the year and place of arrival in America· of these two Benton emigrant_s, the only ones so far as we have discovered in all New England, remained matter for further inquiry. A supposition that they came with Sir Richard Saltonstall's colony to Watertown, Mass., in 1630, led to a futile research in that direction; and the inquiry would probably have remained unsolved, but for a brief interview with l\'Iiss Benton in her home at South Manchester in the summer of 1902. From her it was learned that a Mr. Charles H. Benton of London, England, had obtained their family record from the registers of Epping parish (18 ms. N. E. of London in the Co. Essex). And a year later, through correspon­ dence with the gentleman's father, Mr. Horace Benton of Cleveland, Ohio, his ample abstract from the Epping register was placed in our hands by the gentleman himself while returning from a visit to his native place. And from this abstract and other reliable data, the year 1638 was fixed as the time, and Wethersfield, Conn., as the place of their advent. As it was with respect to our paternal ancestry, so it was as to the ma­ ternal, for we knew nothing of our Vermilya forbears beyond our grand­ parents, Edward and Joanna (Wright) Vermilya, and of them we often heard our mother make mention ; and we once inquired of her concerning the family nativity, but pursued the matter no further when told that it was Italian: not, however, because of any aversion to the alleged origin. The awakened interest in the paternal genealogy naturally included the maternal, which proved easy of acquirement; for the elaborate compilation contributed to Ryker's History of Harlem, by Mr. Thomas E. Vermilya, of New York city; and that of Mr. Daniel B. Vermilya, of Orange, N. J., to Toler and Nutting's History of New Harlem, together with correspondence with these gentlemen, afforded ample account of the several generations of Vermilyas from the baptism of Isaac, in London, England, in 1600, to the death of Abraham, at Yonkers, N. Y., in 1784; and the latter's son Wil­ liam, mentioned in his will, was readily identified as the father of our grand­ father Edward Vermilya, a record of whose family had long been in our possession. In conclusion: The vital statistics relating to our several American an­ cestors and their descendants, were not obtained from the books of other authors, except what i:; <lerived from the histories of Ilarlem and New Har­ }em, but from public and family records. Those of Guilford, I-Iartford, Harwinton, Tolland, Norwich and "\Vindham, Conn., by transcripts from their town records; and those of 1\filford, Kent and Salisbury, Conn., by personal examination of their records. J. H. B. Washington, Sept., 1906. REV. WALTER BENTON. HETTY (VERMILYA) BENTON. 17!:J9-1800. 1805-1875. JOHN HOGAN BENTON. Born June 10, 18~. MARY RAY BENTON. MAR!A LOUISA BENTON. 18:JS-l&-'9. Born March 22, 185¼. vu.. ABBREVIATIONS. b. for born. d. " died. m. " married. bapt. " baptized. dau. " daughter. Res. " residence. Rec., or Fam. Rec. for fa.mily record. DIRECTIONS: To trace one's lineage, find the page on which the par­ ent's name occurs, as shown by the index. The large figures opposite the name give the number of the family record ; the Christian names in pa­ rentheses are those of the lineal ancestors ; and the small figure placed· after each name indicates the degree of descent. By following these names backward, in reverse order of the degree, the family record of each ancestor of the lineage is found. For example, the index gives page 24 for the name of Thomas Ray Benton ; and his family record ( 50) gives his descent as of the 9th degree; and gives the Christian name of John8 as that of his immediate ancestor. Turning toward the front of the book, the latter's family record (39) is reached on page 19, and shows that Walter; was the name of his immediate ancestor ; and, the same process observed, leads to his family record ( 34) on page 17. And so continued as to the other ancestors, the line of descent is carried back to the family­ record (1) of John Benton, the primal ancestor, on page 3. BENTONS IN ENGLAND. THE following records have been arranged from a transcript of Benton family items in the parish register of Epping, co. Essex, England, which was made by MR. CHARLES H. BENTON OF LONDON, and loaned to me in 1903. The register begins in 1539, and ends, so far as the Bentons are concerned, in 1700, by which time all had disappeared from the parish. It contains 172 entries of the name; 80 being baptisms, 66 burials, and 26 marriages; and of the baptisms, 14 are Johns, 9 Andrews, and 4 Edwards; and it is with these three names in particular that I have had largely to deal in tabulating the facts and forming conjectures. 1. EDWARD1 BENTON and Joane Holloway, married May 10, 1563. He died Sept. 16, 1605; and she died Nov.