14. | Stephen Backus was born about 1641 in Old Saybrook, Middlesex, Connecticut (son of William Backus, Sr. and Elizabeth); died about 1695 in Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut. Notes:
Son of William Backus, Sr. and his first wife, whose identity is unknown. No official record of his burial place has been found; see cenotaph, under the "Siblings" duplicate.
The following is quoted from THE BACKUS FAMILIES OF EARLY NEW ENGLAND, by Reno Warburton Backus:
"Stephen Backus, second son of William Backus, Sr., and his (unknown) first wife, may have been born in England, but Jacobus and others surmise he was born in Saybrook about 1642, and so just approaching his majority as the family moved to Norwich in 1660. Early details about him are missing. But having reached Norwich, he succeeded to the allotment of his father on the death of the latter in 1661, Stephen's elder brother, William, Jr., having had a homesite granted him in his own right. Stephen was thus counted one of the Norwich founders, and so was listed on the Founder?s Monument. Frances Caulkins states "The homelot was entered in his name as a first purchaser." The lot lay '"upon the pent highway by the Yantic, between the Town Green and the allotment of Thomas Bliss."' As time passed and Stephen died, the property was sold in 1700, incorporated into a larger structure, and converted into the Leffingwell Inn. This stood for over two centuries, only to give way in 1959 for construction of a new freeway.
... In December, 1666, he married Sarah Spencer, who was born about 1644, daughter of Ensign Gerard (or Jared) and Hannah Spencer of Haddam, Connecticut. ...
In 1692 Stephen moved his family to the new settlement of Canterbury, of which he was counted as one of the founders. There he died in 1695, his estate being settled by agreement between his widow, Sarah,... (and his children and their husbands)."
Reference:
Backus, Reno Warburton. The Backus Families of Early New England, 1966, p.12.
Stephen married Sarah Spencer in Dec 1666 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut. Sarah (daughter of Ensign Gerard Spencer and Hannah Joanis Hills) was born on 27 Jul 1644 in England; died about 1707 in Canterbury, Windham, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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