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Individual:
7 mar 1704
Mentioned in his father's will.
Thomas Fairchild, Sr., a native of England was among those who first settled in Stratford in 1639, but was not, as stated by Dr. Trumbull, Hollister and Barber, the first magistrate of the town. The family is one of long standing in England, the coat-of-arms indicating that the members of it were in the Crusades from A. D. 1096 to A. D. 1400. The name is said to have been Fairbairn in Scotland from whence the name passed into England. The date of Mr. Fairchild's first coming to America is not known. His name is not found elsewhere in Massachusetts or Connecticut, except in Stratford, where is recorded the birth of his son Samuel, born August 31, 1640. He was probably the first white child born in the town. Mr. Fairchild was among the most prominent and respected men in Stratford and in one record is called 'Merchant'. He was appointed by the General Court in 1654, with Thomas Sherwood and the Constables of Stratford, 'to press men and necessaryes' from the town for the then proclaimed Narragansett War and in 1657 the Court appointed 'Goodman Groves and Goodman Fairchild leather-sealers for Fairfield'. He was deputy of the General Court from Stratford in April 1646; Sept. 1654; May 1655; Oct. 1655; May 1659; Oct. 1659; May 1660; Oct. 1664; and Oct. 1665. He was nominated for Assistant Governor in 1663, and the same for three successive years thereafter, but was not elected. In 1664 he was appointed a Commissioner, an office similar to justice of the peace in more modern times, and was reappointed afterwards several times.
(The Name and Family of Fairchild, page 7)
Samuel, eldest son of the immigrant Thomas, made his home at Woodbury, CT, and had issue by his wife, Mary Wheeler, of Robert, Samuel, Edward, and Jonathan. Of these, the second son, Samuel, had issue by his first wife Ruth Beach, whom he married in 1705, of Anna, Mary, Samuel, Ephraim, Abigail, Eunice and Benjamin; and the third son Edward, made his home at Newton and was married in 1710 to Elizabeth Blakeman, by whom he was the father of Mary, Jonathan, Thomas, Moses, and Betty.
(The Name and Family of Fairchild, page 54)
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