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WioXfnti
the top within which are musical works. There came to Mrs. Sarah
(Johnson) Griswold three old Diodate portraits. They hung in the old
house built by Gov. Matthew Griswold for his son John on his marriage
to the Johnson heiress. The old house was replaced years ago by a new
one, and the old pictures long since became shabby, and disappeared.
They were described to the writer by the late Mr. Matthew Griswold and
by Judge M^^Curdy, and were described by Mrs. Gardiner to members
of her family. They were full-length or three-quarter oil-portraits of
elegant gentlemen in rich clothing, with lace-ruffles at the wrists, described
as "court-dress;" one portrait represented an old gentleman, whom we
may imagine to have been Dr. Theodore Diodati himself. Mrs. Thompson
remembers them, and says the gentlemen had large black eyes like Mrs.
Scarlett's.
So far as we can learn, William and Elizabeth (Scarlett) Diodate were
the only living descendants left of the old physician. We may also add
that, as Count Giulio Diodati's title, in default of direct heirs, went to his
collaterals, and is used by the present descendants of Rev. Jean Diodati,
the same title might have been properly borne by the male descendants of
Dr. Theodore, the elder brother of the divine ; and
that therefore William
Diodate of New Haven could have claimed the right to the title of
" Count of the Holy Roman Empire." But to obtain it he might have
been obliged to change his country and his allegiance, to gain only an
empty title which brought with it no estates.
The son-in-law of William Diodate, Rev. Stephen Johnson, a son of
Nathaniel Johnson Esq. of Newark, New Jersey, by his wife Sarah Ogden,
was not unworthy to transmit the accumulated honors of the Diodati race
to his descendants. Beside being an honored Pastor for forty years, over
a single church, he was an eminent patriot; and, from 1773
till his death,
a Fellow of Yale College (see ^0tlf|'n=^O))nSiOttt a monograph in
which we have already sought to do justice to his memory). His
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