118 i.
Major General Jedidiah Huntington.
ii.
Andrew Huntington was born on Jun 21 1745. He died on Apr 7 1824.236. Major General Jabez Huntington
(42)
(56) was born on Aug 7 1719 in Norwich, Connecticut. He died on Oct
5 1786 in Norwich, Connecticut. Jabez Huntington attended Yale and graduated
in 1741. He entered the West Indies trade and, according to the Huntington Genealogy,
"by an honorable and efficient business career, laid the foundation of one
of the amplest fortunes of that age." In 1750 he was elected to the General
Assembly and served in that body until 1764, serving as clerk from 1757 to 1760
and as speaker from 1760 to 1764. In 1764 he was elected to the Governor's Council.
In 1765 Huntington and six other members (of a total of twelve) walked out of
the council rather than take an oath to enforce the Stamp Act.
While the advent of the Revolution could only be financially disastrous to one
engaged in the shipping industry, Huntington was active from the beginning in
the patriot cause. In 1776 he and David Wooster were appointed major generals
in joint command of the entire state militia. When Wooster fell at the Battle
of Danbury the following year, Huntington assumed sole command of the militia.
During the revolution he was a member of the Council of Safety, which, together
with Governor John Trumbull, provided the political leadership of the state at
this time. Three of its ten members were Huntingtons. Next to Governor Trumbull,
Jabez Huntington was its most influential member and attended over 1200 meetings
in the years 1776-1779.
His health was ruined by overwork, however, and he suffered a disabling stroke
in February 1779 although he lived another seven years.
In his sermon at Huntington's funeral in 1787, the minister said, "As the
train of melancholy distress which brought him to his end probably originated
from his painful and unremitted exertions for his country, in the time of danger;
his country, surely, will not withhold the tear of grateful sorrow, but pay deserved
respect to his memory, and teach succeeding generations to revere his dust; and
as they pass his urn, to say, 'there lies the man who devoted his all to the
public good; who sacrificed his ease, his health, and eventually his life, to
serve and save his country."
General Huntington and his first wife were second cousins. She apparently died
of complications of childbirth a week after the birth of their second son.
There are articles on General Huntington in the Dictionary of American Biography
and in the American National Biography. His portrait, painted by John Trumbull,
the son of the governor, hangs in the Connecticut State Library in Hartford.
He was married to Elizabeth Backus on Jan 20 1741/42 in Probably Norwich, Connecticut.
237. Elizabeth Backus
was born on Feb 9 1720/21 in Probably Norwich, Connecticut. She died on Jul
1 1745 in Norwich, Connecticut. Children were:
118 i.
Major General Jedidiah Huntington.
ii.
Andrew Huntington was born on Jun 21 1745. He died on Apr 7 1824.
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