Noah’s
Family
(Part of educational pages for children)
Noah’s
Father: Noah Webster, Sr.
Noah
Webster, Sr. was the son of Daniel and Miriam
Kellogg Webster and a descendant of John Webster,
the first governor of Connecticut. He was
born in the West Division on March 25, 1722 and
married Mercy Steele on January 12, 1749 when he
was 26 years of age. He was a farmer and
a weaver. Noah, Sr. served in the French
and Indian War and was a militia captain on the
alarm list, for men over forty-five, during the
Revolution. In addition, he was involved
in the Congregational Church and at one time even
served as deacon. He was also appointed by
the Connecticut state legislature to serve as a
justice of the peace from 1781 to 1796. In
1806, twelve years after Mercy’s death, at
84 years of age, Noah, Sr. married Sarah Hopkins
and went to live on her farm in another part
of the West Division. He died on November
9, 1813 at the age of 91 and was buried in the
Center Cemetery.
Noah’s
Mother: Mercy Steele Webster
Mercy,
born in 1727, was the daughter of Eliphalet and
Catherine Steele. Mercy was a descendant of William
Bradford. She married Noah Webster,
Sr. in 1749 when she was 22 years old. Rebecca
Webster (our Noah’s wife) remembered Mercy “as
a woman of great intelligence and energy; a gentle
loving mother and care-taker, looking well to the
ways of her household...who...carried on the farm
quite successfully while her husband and sons were
in the war of the Revolution.” Mercy
was 67 when she died in 1794, possibly of dysentery. She
was buried in Center Cemetery, where her husband
would eventually join her.
Noah’s
Oldest Sister: Mercy Webster Belding
Mercy
was born on November 8, 1749. She
married John Kellogg Belding on September 18, 1769,
at the age of 19. Mercy and John lived a
few miles away from Noah, Sr., on today’s
Mountain Road. They had seven children, two
of whom died as infants. Mercy died on August
12, 1820. She was 70 years old.
Noah’s
Oldest Brother: Abraham Webster
Abraham
was born on September 17, 1751. In
1774, at the age of 23, he was given one-half acre
of land and a house across from what is now the
Rockledge Country Club. In January of 1775,
he married Rachel Merrill of New Hartford. Rachel
died in child-birth on January 19, 1776, and their
son died just six days later. Both were buried
in the Center Cemetery, next to where the Websters
would eventually be buried. On February 1,
1776, just after his wife’s death, Abraham
enlisted in the Continental Army, joined his company
at Canaan and marched to Albany, then to Fort George,
Ticonderoga, then on to Montreal. He was
captured during the Battle of the Cedars in the
spring of 1776, but was released due to smallpox. Abraham’s
enlistment ended on February 1, 1777. After
he returned to the West Division, his father gave
him an additional 10 acres of land. He married
Dorothy (Dolly) Seymour on February 17, 1778 and
they had five children, all of whom were born in
the West Division prior to 1786. In 1790,
Abraham moved his family to Stockbridge, Massachusetts,
but by 1803 they were living in Hamilton, New York. Dolly
died in 1819 and Abraham married Eunice Childs,
his third wife, in 1822. He died in New York
in 1831 at age 80. Letters from Abraham to his
brother, Noah, are available in the Ford volumes
and reveal something of his nature.
Noah’s
Older Sister: Jerusha Webster Lord
Jerusha
was born on January 22, 1756 and married Joel
Lord of Salisbury, Connecticut on November 12,
1778, when she was 22 years of age. Noah
may have lived with them during the year 1780-81. Jerusha
and Joel moved to Darby, Thompkins County, New
York where Jerusha died on February 21, 1821, at
the age of 64. Jerusha's and Abraham’s moves
westward to New York were typical of their generation. Many
of their contemporaries left Connecticut as land
grew scarcer.
Noah’s
Younger Brother: Charles Webster
Charles
was born on September 2, 1762. He
married Betsy Woodruff of Farmington on December
11, 1783 when he was 21 years old. Betsy
bore three sons. In 1787, a letter written
to Noah by Charles indicated that he was adding
a brick lean-to onto his parents’ home. In
1791 Charles bought a house near the meeting house,
and his parents might have lived there with him. During
this time, Charles operated a store in which he
sold “European and India goods,” crockery,
nails, fabrics, groceries and hardware. In
1799, he became a Quaker and sold his house. The
following year Charles and his family moved to
Park Road, where his wife Betsy owned a house. She
died in 1810 at the age of 51. In 1811 Charles
married Joanna Wilkinson. They had two children
before Charles died in 1817 at age 55.
The Noah Webster House &