The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-09
RELIC OF THE REVOL UTION.


 His Connecticut Regiment.
 Miss Jeannette Booth member of the Bridgeport chapter of the Daugh- ters of the American Revolution, has in her possession a rare relic of Revo- lutionary times in which all members of the order will be interested. It is a payroll kept by her great grandfather Captain John Booth, of his company, which responded to the New Haven and Fairfield alarm. There are about forty-five names on the list, showing the time of enlistment, number of days in service, time of discharge, wages, place of discharge, which was at Green- field, and number of miles to and from camp.
 The General Assembly in 1776 met at Middletown, and feeling that they must defend their lives and property against the unlawful attacks and depredations of enemies, they enacted a law that all the state militia should be formed into six brigades, and that all persons from sixteen to sixty years of age, unless in the civil service or the train band, or otherwise exempt from ordinary train ing, should constitute the alarm list and equip themselves with arms as the law required for the train band. They were formed into companies of sixty four men each, and the captains of the companies were obliged to make return to the colonels, and the colonels to their superior officer once every two months, or be fined ten pounds, In case of an alarm or the invasion of the enemy they were ordered to march at once to any threatened point.
 In the campaign of 1779, in order to draw off the attention of Washington and his army General Tryon was sent to burn and pillage the villages along the Connecticut coast. He destroyed Fairfield after creating great havoc among the residents of New Haven and the surrounding towns. On the 7th day of July the British fleet anchored off Pine Point, Fairfield, and troops were landed and overtures of peace were made to the inhabitants. They were rejected and the following was Colonel Samuel Writings reply to the British:
 Connecticut having nobly dared to take up arms against the cruel despo- tism of Great Britain, and as the flames have now preceded the answer to your flag, the people will persist to oppose to their utmost that power eX- erted against injured innocence.
 SAMUEL WHITING,
 Commanding Colonel. | To Major Tfyon.
 Dated at Fairfield, July z, 1779.
 The total number of buildings burned by the British in Fairfield were seven- ty-nine dwellings, sixty-seven barns, forty-eight stores and storehouses, two I meeting houses and one Episcopal church. The British threatened to burn the church because it was not the Church of England, and had not been since the war. In January, TIT, John Sayre, the pastor of the church, was sent to Farmington as one unfriendly | to the United States and suspected of | Toryism, and was not released until ] July of the same year, then on petition of the church wardensn with permits sion to remain within the limits oi Fairfield by giving bonds with suffi' cient surety. MT. say re entrcated Gen eral Tryon to spare the town, at leas a few houses and the two churches This was granted, but when the strag glers of the British came along they burned everything Tryon had left.
 Memorials from the towns all along the coast which the British visited anc destroyed or plundered were presented to the General Assembly, praying tht state for remuneration. They were ol the opinion that these claims ought tt be paid for at their just value, and tht only way to do so at that time was ut pay in westernlands. The amount wal estimated at f251, ,606. In May, 1792, th' General Assembly released and quit claimed to the sufferers named in thu record and to their heirs five hundred thousand acres of land owned by thu state, situated in Huron county, Ohio to be divided among the sufferers il proportion to the several sums men toned in the record of losses. Con necticut surrendered all rights to thes lands in 1900. Previous to that it wa the foundation of her school fund.
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