Note 147 — Chapter XI · YEARS OF TRUCE.
Reading edition
This refers to the pew built for the Governor near the pulpit. Miss Caulkins (“History New London”) mentions a similar contention between prominent members of this church, under a somewhat earlier date, in which the case was carried to court for final decision.
Two of the three sons of Governor Saltonstall, Nathaniel and Gurdon, remained in New London. Rosewell, the eldest, settled in Blanford and died in 1738. Of him Mr. Hempstead says in his Diary:—“he was an Incomparable, well Disposed Gentleman, a good Christian exaplaryexaplary in his Living orderly and good in every Relation.
Gurdon, 2d, was a leading man in New London and held numerous important offices. Mr. Hempstead calls him “Col. Saltonstall” as early as 1740. He lived in the Saltonstall homestead and marshalled his fourteen children in the family procession for church every Sunday, after the example of his father, the governor. (“History of New London.”) His eldest child, Gurdon, 3d, was born in 1734, and his second, Dudley, in 1736.