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

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childhood, till a confiding affection had grown up between them. His
feelings were understood, but not declared. Time passed ; it might be
that he would take his lifetime. At last, Ursula, with the resolution,
energy and good sense which characterized her (though only nineteen
years of age, while he was twenty-nine), seeing the situation, rose to its
control. Meeting him about the house, she occasionally asked him
" What did you say, cousin Matthew ?" " Nothing," he answered.
Finally, meeting him on the stairs, she asked : "What
did you say, cousin
Matthew?" "Nothing," he answered. "It's time you did" said she.
Then he did, and the result was a long and happy marriage, in which his
wife shared his anxieties, counsels and successes, brought up a superior
family of children, and in his frequent absences, and when he was over-
burthened with cares, administered the concerns of a large farm, and
controlled a numerous household of negro servants and laborers.
What preparation Governor Griswold had for public life other than
his own native ability, and the prestige of family, we are not told. So
early as 1739 his "loyalty, courage and good conduct" were rewarded by
Governor Talcott with the appointment of Captain to the South Train-
Band of Lyme ; and in 1 766 Governor Pitkin made him Major of the
Third Regiment of Horse and Foot in the service of the Colony. But
long before this latter date he had become devoted to civil affairs, more
especially to such as involved applications of law to private interests ; in
respect to which he acquired an extensive reputation, and was consulted
from distant places. He appears to have been counsel for John Winthrop
of New London, son of the last Governor Winthrop, in a suit brought by
him against the Colony for services of his ancestors and moneys due to
them. In 1751 he was chosen a Representative to the General Assem-
bly;"' in 1757, as "Matthew Griswold Esq. of Lyme," he was appointed
" We derive this fact from a manuscript letter of Dr. Benjamin Trumbull of North Haven to the
Governor, dated October 28, 1793. See A Complete History of Connecticut. ... By Benjamin
Trumbull. . . . New Haven, 1818, ii. 54-55.
•* Hollister's Hist, of Conn., ut supra, ii. 640.
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