Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

(!^fltren=SoJ)nson
have been the "sword of the Spirit." Perhaps he always carried with him
a lingering and secret regret that he could not go out to open battle
with the regiment ; and perhaps he never knew how wide and warlike an
influence had sprung from his preaching, his prayers, and his urgent
written appeals to the public.
Rev. Stephen and Elizabeth (Diodate) Johnson had six children :
99 . I. Diodate,^ born July 29, 1745
(baptized in the First Church of New
Haven, of which his maternal grandparents were members, August 4 of
the same year) ;
there from 1765 to 1766 ;
who
was graduated at Yale College in 1 764 ; a Tutor
and
settled in the ministry at Millington, Conn.,
where his sister Elizabeth kept his house. He was a young man " eminent
for genius, learning and piety." He died of consumption in 1773, at the
age of twenty-eight. He was sitting in his chair reading the prayer in
Doddridge's "Rise and Progress" entitled "A meditation and prayer
suited to the case of a dying Christian," when he parted from this life.*"'
By his Will he left to Dartmouth College "a legacy of five hundred
dollars, and his valuable Hbrary."'*
100 2. Sarah,^ born January 29, 1748; who married, Novembers, ^ll'^y
Deacon John Griswold of Lyme, Conn, (see CSrVfSitOOltl) \ and died
January 4, 1802.
It is one of the family-stories that when John, his eldest son, at the
age of nineteen became engaged to Sarah Johnson the daughter of the
minister, and an heiress. Gov. Matthew Griswold was so much pleased that
he built him a house near his own. The daughters of Rev. Stephen
Johnson had inherited property from their grandfather William Diodate of
New Haven, and had had special legacies from their grandfather's sister,
Mrs. Elizabeth (Diodati) Scarlett of London, with much rich wearing
apparel, porcelain, silver, etc. (see HBfOtTStt)*
!»' Hon. Ralph D. Smith.
">* Memoirs of the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, D.D. ... By David M'=Clure . . . and Elijah
Parish. . . . Newburj'port, 1841, p. 68.
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