James Pierpont (1660 - 1714)

Born 4 Jan 1660 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Husband of Abigail (Davenport) Pierpont — married 27 Oct 1691 in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut

Husband of Sarah (Haynes) Pierpont — married 30 May 1694 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut Colony

Husband of Mary (Hooker) Pierpont — married 26 Jul 1698 in Farmington, Hartford, Connecticut

Descendants

Died 22 Nov 1714 at age 54 in New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut Colony

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James Pierpont is Notable.

Biography

Rev. James Pierpont was born 4 Jan 1659/60 in Roxbury, Mass.. James, a student in liberal arts, graduated at Harvard College in 1681 and was minister of New Haven until the time of his death. He died 22 Nov 1714 New Haven, Connecticut.

Obituary: "This Day was taken away from our Head in the Fifty-fifth year of his Age, our Pious, Laborious, and Faithful Pastor the Reverend Mr. Jamse Pierpont, Born at Roxbury, and Bred at Harvard College in New-England. He was Truly a Man of GOD. Perfect and thoroughly furnished unto all Good Works. A Vessell of Honour Sanctifyed and Meet for his Masters Use, Oae that took heed unto himself and unto his Doctrine; And his Name with us, not only at this Town, but throughout the whole Colony, will be as an Oyntment poured forth; having served his Generation, not only as a Minister, but also been a great Blessing as a Physician; and of Singular use as there was occasion, to the Government, by his Wife and Wholesome Counsel." From The Boston News-Letter (Boston, MA, Monday December 13, 1714) Issue: 556, Page: 2.

• Excerpt from "History of the Colony of New Haven":

"The settlers of New Haven Colony, in an effort to improve their economic health, purchased land on both sides of the Delaware River and attempted to set up plantations there. New Haven built trading houses on the land but soon after the plantations were begun the Dutch laid claim to the lands and were successful in breaking up the settlements. The Dutch burned the trading-houses, seized the goods, took the company's vessel, and kept a number of planters prisoner. The damages done in that area were estimated at over a thousand pounds sterling.

"The New Haven people having been unsuccessful in trade, and after sustaining great losses combined their money and labors and built a ship in Rhode Island. In one massive attempt to save their colony they loaded onto the ship every bit of trading material they could draw from the Colony. The ship set sail for England in January, 1647 with the hopes and the prayers of the settlers riding with it. The success of the colony was dependant on the success of this commercial venture.

"The ship evidently foundered at sea, and was never heard of after she sailed. According to the belief of the inhabitants of that period, the ship was seen in the air in New Haven after she was lost. The following account of the sighting was taken from a letter written by the REV. MR. PIERPONT.

"Reverend and Dear Sir,

"In compliance with your desires, I now give you the relation of that apparition of a ship in the air, which I have received from the most credible, judicious,and curious surviving observers of it.

"In the year 1647, besides much other lading, a far more rich treasure of passengers, (five or six of which were persons of chief note and worth in New Haven) put themselves on board a new ship, built at Rhode Island, of about 150 tuns, but so walty that the master (Lamberton) often said that she would prove their grave. In the month of January, cutting their way through much ice, on which they accompanied with the Rev. Mr. Davenport, besides many other friends, with many fears, as well as prayers and tears, they set sail. Mr Davenport in prayer with an observable emphasis, used these words, "Lord, if it be thy pleasure to bury these our friends in the bottom of the sea, they are thine; save them!" The spring following, no tidings of these friends arrived with the ships from England: New Haven's heart began to fail her: this put the godly people on much prayer, both public and private, that the Lord would (if it was his pleasure) let them hear what he had done with their dear friends, and prepare them with a suitable submission to his Holy Will. In June next ensuing, a great thunderstorm arose out of the northwest; after which (the hemisphere being serene) about an hour before sunset a ship with like dimensions with the aforesaid, appeared in the air coming up from our harbour's mouth, which lyes southward from the town, seemingly with her sails filled under a fresh gale, holding her course north, and continuing under observation, sailing against the wind for the space of half an hour.

"Many were drawn to behold this great work of God; yea, the very children cried out, "There's a brave ship!" At length, crouding up as far as usually water sufficient for such a vessel, and so near some of the spectators, as that they imagined a man might hurl a stone on board her, her main-top seemed to be blown off, but left hanging in the shrouds; then her missen-top; then all her masting seemed blown away by the board: quickly after the hulk brought unto a careen, she overset, and so vanished into a smoakey cloud, which in some time dissipated, leaving, as everywhere else, a clear air. The admiring spectators could distinguish the several colours of each part, the principal rigging, and such proportions, as caused not only the generality of persons to say, 'This was the mould of their ship, and thus was her tragic end': but Mr. Davenport also in public declared to this effect: 'That God had condescended, for the quiting of their aflicted spirits, this extraordinary account of his sovereign disposal of those for whom so many fervent prayers were made continually.'

Thus I am, Sir,

Your humble servant,

JAMES PIERPONT

"The loss of their ship, with the former losses they had sustained, made the colonists despair of bettering their condition by trade. They considered leaving the country and forming a small province for themselves in Galloway, Ireland. Deciding against that, they engaged in agricultural and pastural pursuits within the colony as a last resort. They surprised themselves by being good farmers, and they flourished no less than the adjoining colonies and so New Haven became a viable colony."

• "In 1685 the society in New Haven succeeded in settling MR. JAMES PIERPONT as their pastor, on a salary of 120 pounds, in provision, at the following prices: - winter wheat at 5s., rye 3s. 6d., corn 2s. 6d., peas 3s., 6d. the bushel; pork, 3d. 1f., and beef 3d. the pound.
• "During the ministry, in 1696 - 7, the committee were directed to procure a house, to be built of brick or stone, 60 by 60 feet, provided it could be contracted for, at 500 pounds. No one proposing to build on these terms, the society directed, in 1698, the building to be enlarged 15 or 20 feet. MR. PIERPONT continued a useful minister, to the great contentment of his society, to his death, in 1714."
• "Yale College is commonly said to have been founded in the year 1700. In that year ten of the principal ministers, of whom JAMES PIERPONT was one, met at New Haven and formed a society that agreed to found a college in the colony. In 1701 the Legislature granted these gentlemen a charter, constituting them 'trustees of a collegiate school in his majesty's colony of Connecticut.' The trustees then elected JAMES PIERPONT as rector of the school and determined that the school should be temporarily located at Saybrook. In the year 1702 the first commencement took place in Saybrook.
• "Many debates took place concerning the place where the school should finally be established. In 1716 a majority of the trustees voted to locate the school in New Haven. Even though there was no unity among the trustees or the community involving this change in location, the college buildings were erected in New Haven in 1717 and 1718 and the first commencement took place in 1717 at it's new location.
• "The removal of the college from Saybrook to New Haven produced great excitement in the colony. The feelings raised in the towns most interested, may be judged of from the circumstances attending the removal of the library. An unsuccessful application having been made for this by some of the trustees,the governor and council convened at Saybrook at their request, in December, 1718, and issued a warrant to the sheriff to go and take the books. When he got to the house where they were kept, he found men collected to resist him; but calling assistance he forcibly entered the house, took them and had them secured by a guard overnight. In the morning the carts provided to carry them to New Haven were found broken, and the horses were turned away. New provisions being made, they were conducted out of the town by the major of the county; but some of the bridges on the road were broken up, and when they arrived at New Haven it was discovered, on counting the books, that about 260 were missing. These were disposed of by persons unknown, together with some valuable papers, in the confusion which arose at the taking of the library, and no discovery was made of them afterwards."

Burial

Center Church on The Green Churchyard, New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut (Find A Grave)

Research Notes

His birth date is often shown as 4 Jan 1659. However, The Vital Records of Roxbury show his birth date as 4 Jan 1659/1660, citing the "church record, First Religious Society (Unitarian)". With the Old/New Style change in the calendar, it would also make more sense that a birth date originally reported as 4 Jan 1659 is really 4 Jan 1660 using the New Style. The 1660 date is also confirmed in the Boston Record Commissioners Reports, where his baptism is reported a few days after his birth.

Sources

• Vital Records of Roxbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (The Essex institute, Salem, Mass., 1925-1936) Vol. 1: "Roxbury Births", Page 280.
• Vital Records of New Haven, 1649-1850 (Order of the Founders and Patriots of America. Connecticut Society, 1917) Part 1.

• Page 66: "The Revd Mr James Peirpont & Mrs Sarah Haynes were maryed at Hartford by Lt. Col. Allen Afsiftt ye 30th of May 1694"
• Page 85: "Marges Jn New haven 1699... The Reverent mr James pierpont & mrs mary Hooker was Maryed July ye 26 1698 by mr John hayns Justice"
• Page 118: "the Reuerend mr James pierpont pastour of the Church of New : hauen Deceased nouembr 22d 1714"

• Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1861) Vol. 3, Page 432.
• Jacobus, Donald Lines. Families of Ancient New Haven (Clarence D. Smith, Rome, New York, 1922-1932) Vol. 6, Page 1440.
• Dickerman, Edward Dwight, and George Sherwood Dickerman. Dickerman Genealogy. Descendants of Thomas Dickerman, An Early Settler of Dorchester, Massachusetts (Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, New Haven, 1922)
• Edwards Genealogy
• Weeks, Lyman Horace. Prominent Families of New York (The Historical Company, New York, 1897) Page 451.
• Moffat, R. Burnham. Pierrepont Genealogies from Norman times to 1913 (L. Middleditch Co., 1913) Page 35-6.

• Page 134. See transcript of the letter Jeremiah Dummer wrote to Rev. James Pierpont.
• Page 138: "... he died in his little house on Elm Street, and was buried in the burying ground on the Green behind his church and near where the college that he loved so well was soon to stand."

• The Founding of Yale College, "Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society" (1882) Vol. III.
• Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Historical Catalogue of the Members of the First Church of Christ in New Haven (New Haven, 1914) Page 30.
• Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Inscriptions on Tombstones in New Haven, Erected Prior to 1800 (1882) Page 574.
• Thorpe, Sheldon B. North Haven in the Nineteenth Century, A Memorial (Twentieth Century Committee, North Haven, Conn., 1901) Page 133

"Clover Dairy Farm is the name which Mr. D.W. Patten has bestowed upon 225 acres of as fair soil as lies in New Haven County. This tract was once a part of the Rev. James Pierpont's possessions. It fell to his son, Lieut. Joseph, then to his son Giles, then to Giles, Jr., father of Munson Edward Pierpont the distinguished jurist and diplomat. Hence the grounds are historic. Not only this but they are charming in scenery. What with hill, river, meadow, and the commodious dairy and farm buildings dotting the landscape, it presents the picture of an ideal country home."

• Account of the Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Wedding of John Pierpont and Sarah Beers, Dec. 29th, 1867 (Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1868) Page 22
• Ellis, Charles. The History of Roxbury Town (Samuel G. Drake, Boston, 1847) Page 126: "called in an old agreement, "a student in ye liberall arts," who was a preacher, and settled in New Haven"
• Ullmann, Helen S. The Pierponts of Roxbury, Massachusetts (Newbury Street Press, Boston, Mass., 2007) Page 19
• Lambert, Edward Rodolphus. History of the Colony of New Haven, Before and After the Union with Connecticut (Hitchcock & Stafford, New Haven, 1838)
• The Connecticut Quarterly (Hartford, Conn., 1897) Vol. 3. Page 131-2.
• Darling, Charles William. Memorial To My Honored Kindred (Fierstine & Gifford, Utica, N.Y., 1888) Page 40.
• Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society (The Connecticut Historical Society and the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, Hartford 1924) Vol. 21: The Wyllys Papers, 1590-1796. Page 347-8.
• Simons, D. Brenton. "Dreams of Castles", New England Ancestors (NEGHS, Boston, Spring 2006) Page 19-24

• He "was the first member of the American family to act upon his real or perceived relationship to the English Pierreponts. The New Haven clergyman recruited colonial agent Jeremiah Dummer in London to assist his in his investigations."

• Sibley, John Langdon. Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University (Cambridge: Charles William Sever, 1885) Page 222-30
• Sprague, William Buell. Annals of the American Pulpit (Robert Carter & Brothers, New York, 1857) Vol. 1, Page 205-6.
• Pierpont Genealogy by Robert Kraft 20>16 James P- 01/04/1659|60(RoxburyMA)-11/22/1714(NwH) [GR ag 55]
• Boston Record Commissioners. Boston Records Commissioners Reports (Rockwell and Churchill, Boston, 1875) Vol. 6, Page 123: Roxbury Church Records, "1659 Moneth 11 day 8. James sonn unto John Pierpont."
• Find A Grave: Memorial #20493256
• Marks, Edward J. A Genealogical Abstract of Descent of The Family of Pierrepont (Hoggson & Robinson, 1881) Page 35.
• Wikipedia: James_Pierpont_(minister)