The Ancestors of My Grandchildren

     Richard Whitney was born on 18 Apr 1687 in Norwalk, Connecticut.^1,2 He married Hannah Darling, daughter of John Darling and Elizabeth Beers, on 7 Apr 1709 at Fairfield, Connecticut.¹ He died a 1734.¹

Other information:

Richard Whitney was a millwright^1,4 His father gave him thirteen acres of land at Horse Pound Hill, and twenty-six acres at Drum Hill, with three acres of swamp east of Horse Pound Hill, seven acres of land to take up in the unsequestered land, and "one pair of stears past three years old," 18 Oct. 1709; and, at the same date, sold him three acres of land, with a house-frame thereon, at Belden's Hill. They dwelt at Norwalk for several years; then settled in that part of Stratfield Society, which lay in the town of Fairfield.. He proposed to build a grist-mill on Sasco River, "where the sawmill stood," and asked the town to give him a small piece of land on which to set a house. His request was granted by town-meeting, 27 Ap. 1713, and a committee appointed to lay out the land and stipulate the conditions of the grant. Another town-meeting, 6 Aug 1716, granted him liberty to flow so much of the town-commons as should be needed for the mill. His mill appears to have been built before 24 Aug. 1716, when the committee laid out, and 12 Sept. 1716, formally conveyed to him, land on the east side of Sasco River, near to his mill, on his engagement "to keep a good and sufficient grist mill on said river, att or near the place where his now grismill now standeth, when it can be done with labour; and to grind all sorts of grain for two quarts a bushell into good & sufficient meal, if the grain be good; and also to keep a sufficient house over said mill to secure all such grain as shall be brought to said mill, with a good lock and key continually to said house; and to grind all such grists of all sorts of grain as shall be brought by any Inhabitant of said town to said mill seasonably and before hee or they shal grind for a stranger." He was living at Stratfield as early as 18 Oct. 1714, when he sold land in Norwalk, to "William Jarvis of Huntington, on ye Island of Nassau," and again, 21 Jan. 1725-6, when he sold to his brother, Joseph Whitney, a "Fifty pounds Right of commonage" in the undivided lands of Norwalk.⁴
     On 24 Dec 1734 Richard Whitney was a juror in Fairfield, Connecticut.^1,4