Rev James Fitch (1622-1702) - Find a Grave Memorial

Colonial New England pioneer settler and minister. He was a founding settler of Norwich and Lebanon, Connecticut. James Fitch was born in England the son of Thomas Fitch and his wife, the former Anne Reeve. He was intended at an early age to be a minister. When he was ten years old, his father died and left him a bequest in his will, providing him with funds to study at Cambridge University. He left England in order to settle in the colony of Connecticut in New England in 1638. He completed his theological training in Connecticut under the Reverend Thomas Hooker. After becoming an ordained minister, he was the first minister at the church in Saybrook, Connecticut, in 1646. Following the death of his first wife, he was among the inhabitants of Saybrook who established the town of Norwich in 1659 and he served as the first minister of that town. He actively sought the Native Americans, the Mohegan tribe in particular, and conducted sermons with them in their own language. Uncas, the sachem of the Mohegan, out of his respect for Fitch, sought to have him appointed guardian of the Mohegan following the 1672 death of Major John Mason, the father of Fitch's second wife. Fitch was vitally important in securing the support of the Mohegan and Pequot tribes during King Philip's War, an armed conflict beginning in 1675 between indigenous inhabitants of New England, led by Metacomet, known to the English as King Philip, the Sachem of the Wampanoag tribe, and New England colonists and their indigenous allies. He is considered among the co-founders of the town of Lebanon, Connecticut, which had its origins in Norwich, the settlers desiring to expand beyond their original nine square mile land purchase from the Mohegan. Lebanon was incorporated as a town in 1700. James Fitch died in Lebanon and is buried in the Old Cemetery in that town.

Bio by: CMWJR

Inscription

Latin inscription

In Hoc Sepulcro Depositae Sunt Reliquiae Viri Vere Reverendi D: Jacobi Fitch: Natus Fuit Apud Bocking in Comitatu Essexlae in Anglia, Anno Domino 1622 Decembr 24 Qui Post-Quam Linguis Literatis Optime Instructus Fuisset In Novangliam Venit Aetat. 16 Et Deinde Vitam Degit Harteordlae Per Sepennium Sub Institutione Virorum Ceeeberimorum D: Hooker Et D: Stone Postea Mtnere Passorali Functus Est Apud Saybrook Per Annos 14 Illinc Cum Ecckesiae Maiori Parte Norvicum Migravit Et Ibi Ceteros Vitae Annos Transegit In Opere Evangelico In Senectute Vero Prae Corporis Infirmitate Necessario Cessabat Ab Opere Publico : Tandemque Recessit Liberis Apud Lebanon Ubi Semianno Fere Exacto Obdormivit In Iesu Anno 1702 Novebr 18 Etat 80 Vir, Ingenii Acumine, Pondere Judicii, Prudentia Charitate, Sanctis Laboribus, Et Omnimoda Vitae Sanctitate Peritiaquoque Et Vi Concionandi Nulli Secundus.

English translation

In this grave are deposited the remains of that truley reverend man, Mr. James Fitch. He was born in Bocking, in the County of Essex, in England, the 24th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1622; who after he had been most excellently taught the learned languages came into New England at the age of sixteen, and then spent seven years under the instructions of those very famous men, Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone. Afterwards he discharged the pastoral office fourteen years at Saybrook. Thence he removed with the major part of his Church to Norwich, where he spent the other years of his life in the work of the gospel. In his old age indeed he was obliged to cease from his public labors by reason of bodily indisposition and at length retired to his children at Lebanon, where after spending nearly half a year, he slept in Jesus in the year 1702, on the 18th day of November, in the 80th year of his age. He was a man as to the smartness of his genius, the solidity of his judgement, his charity, holy labors, and every kind of purity of life, and also as to his skill and energy of preaching, inferior to none.