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

i^tfstnom
Commissioner, and in 1697 as Commissioner," being probably the son,
and not the father (considering the age of the latter) ; and the son being
certainly intended by the designation of " Mr. Matthew Griswold " as
Deputy in 1704, 1707, 1708 and 1710.'^ But his sphere seems to have
been more private than that of his father. Not improbably in the spirit
of English law, keeping landed property in the male line, and having
respect to primogeniture, his father, a few days before his death, deeded to
him large estates, to which he himself added others by purchase. On the
21" of May 1683, when about thirty years old, he married Phoebe Hyde,
granddaughter of the first William Hyde of Norwich, Conn., and daughter
of Samuel and Jane (Lee) Hyde.'" Our most interesting memorials of
him are copies of writings of his own. Among these is the following
incomplete letter to his sweetheart, revealing much of his character, and
worthy to be preserved, not only for its sentiments, but also for its form
of expression :
" Deare Heart,
" Tender of my most unfayned and Intyre Love to you, hoping you are in
good health, &c. Although my present Abilities of body and mind will nott allow
mee to Write Largely unto you, as I sho"* be glad to do, yet, having this opportunity,
I was desirous to trouble you with a line or two-—A Little to Remind you of the
unexpected .
. . unheard
of .
. . which
I have mett with, In the manage-
ment . . . the motion of Marriage mad by mee unto yo''selfe, which ... so
very strange that I am att a great Loss ... of mind to think what the good
pleasure of the Lord .
. . case
as to a fynale Issue ; though
this I must saye. If
I thought you had not Reall Love and Affection for mee I should then think it
rather my Duty to desist than to prosed ;
but
as yet I am nott, nor can not bee, con-
vinced that It is so, for, as God and thy owne conscience knows very well, when I
was fully come to a conclusion in my own minde never to give myself nor you any
farder Trouble in this matter, you'selfe were pleased to tell mee that unexpected
"* The Public Records of the Col. of Conn., 1689-1706, ut supra, pp. 158-59, 201.
" Id., p. 482 and The Public Records of the Col. of Conn. .
;
. . 1706-1716. . . . By
Charles
J. Hoadly. . . . Hartford, 1870, pp. 20, 67, 169.
" Hyde Genealogy. . . . By Reuben H. Walworth. Albany, 1864 (one volume in two), i. 10.
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