Chances are you've driven by this small cemetery site more times than you can recall. If that's true you have plenty of company.
This is one of three small Peck Family cemetery sites in Greenwich. Located on the western side of Round Hill Road -and just north of the intersection with Pecksland Road- this family plot has been in use since circa 1777. The final burial here was in 1896.
Three generations of members of this branch of the Peck family with the name Theophilus are interred here. Theophilus I (died in 1783, aged 82 years) was the grandson of Rev. Jeremiah Peck, one of the original Patentees of the Town of Greenwich.
Pecksland was a deed gift from Samuel Peck, the son of Rev. Jeremiah Peck. In 1756 he served on the Pecksland School District Committee and served the cause of the American Revolution in the First Battalion, Wadsworth's Brigade, which was stationed in New York under General Putnam. They engaged the British at the Battle of White Plains in Westchester County, New York.
Theophilus II died in 1812, aged 83 years. Theophilus III died in 1777, aged 18 years. It is interesting to note that he and his grandmother buried nearby died within 10 days of each other.
Charles Henry was the son of Gideon and Phebe W. Peck. He was only four years old and 5 months when he died on March 20, 1820.
One day later his sister, Eunice E. Peck, died on March 21. She was one year and 11 months old.
Their epitaph reads:
These lovely buds so young and fair
Call'd hence by early doom
Just came to show how sweet a flower
In Paradise would bloom.
Note the inscription with the name of the stone carver, W. Hale (William Hale) -something that is quite rare on Greenwich tombstones.
Other members of the Peck's buried here who are noteworthy include Arod Peck, a Private in Capt. Seth Mead's Company during the War of 1812.
Rev. David Peck is buried here as well. He assisted Rev. Nathaniel Finch, first Pastor of the King Street Baptist Society Church, in the latter days of Rev. Finch's pastorate.
Rev. David Peck is buried here as well. He assisted Rev. Nathaniel Finch, first Pastor of the King Street Baptist Society Church, in the latter days of Rev. Finch's pastorate.
A large, plain fieldstone marker most likely marks the grave of Gilbert Peck. His home, known as The Fincherie, was built in 1763 around the corner on Round Hill Road.
It was for many years the home of Ernest Thompson Seton, writer, naturalist and a founder of the Boy Scouts of America. He named it after the Finch's, another old family who lived there.
The house was demolished without warning in early January 1990, just as Greenwich kicked off its 350th year celebrations.
Mr. Mead, if I may offer some alternative information regarding the "Fincherie" of Round Hill Road. The estate before it was purchased by Mr. Seton was the property and home of the Finch family. Gilbert Peck may have lived there however, it was Gilbert Peck Finch who owned the house and the 98 acre estate. He inherited it from his father Isaac Finch, was the son of Ezekiel Finch (now buried in the Finch Cemetery which has been desecrated by the Polo Grounds) and his second wife, Esther Sutherland. The "Fincherie" on Round Hill road has reputedly been built by Ezekiel Finch, Sr. in 1763. Why the children of his one son from his second marriage inherited the property remains unclear, but it is the Finch line from Isaac Finch that lived in the house until it was sold to Seton in 1913.
ReplyDeleteThe confusion may be caused by Gilbert Peck Finch's name with that of their neighbor Gilbert Peck. The ancestry of Gilbert Peck Finch's mother, Hannah Rundle Finch, does not have any Pecks in her immediate ancestry (just Hobby's, Lyon's, Hardy, etc). Therefore Isaac and Hannah Rundle Finch probably named their son Gilbert Peck Finch after Gilbert Peck their neighbor whom they were perhaps very close friends with and as you have suggested may have perhaps lived at the Finch homestead on Round Hill Road.
Doing a quick dive into the family records, Gilbert Peck was the uncle of Gilbert Peck Finch. Gilbert Peck was married to Rachel Rundle, the sister of Hannah Rundle. Hence the namesake of Gilbert Peck Finch it appears.
ReplyDeleteGilbert Peck Finch married as his second wife, Martha Alathea Peck, daughter of the Reverend David Peck and his wife Alathea Honywell. Gilbert Peck Finch was mentioned in Gilbert Peck's will and the administration was given unto Gilbert Peck Finch in 1833.
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