New Britain herald., 1922-04-11
New Britain s Early Growth
 Was How, Yen Houses Were
 Built During Thirty Years
,ny .Iamcs shennrd, M, AD

Stephen Lee was the first settler In that part of the Great swamp or Kensington Parish which was set off to New Britain in lT5A, He received a grant from the town of Farming ton of five roads of land on East street . in January 1889, upon which he wns to build within four years For else it Is to return to the town again tJohn Lee and his decrndnnts, pG gn i66.) The house which stephen Lee erected on this land was the first erected within the present limits of New Britain without regard 10 former parish bounds
 In this house stephen Lee and his bride commenced housekeeping in the latter part of 1890, His nearest neighbors were at Christian Lane, about two miles distant In the op- posite direction, the nearest houses were in f'arminFton center. His house had been standing on East street eight years when the first house was erected in Southington; moro then twenty five years when the tiret honre was erected in stanley Quarter and more than thirty years when the first house within the limits of Bristol was raised,
 The Christian Lane pariah in l70a included the great part of New Brit ain and was then referred to as that desolate corner Of the wilderness. In this wilderness stephen Lees son Isaac was born on September !, lG9l, being the first white child born in. New Britain. Col Isaac Lee, a son of this first Isaac, gave New Britain its name in l754, when the New Britinn society was incorporated. Col. Lee was the first resident Of this place to serve tho State of Connecticut in the Gen eral Assembly. having been a mem ber Of the Lower House at its first session, which convened at New Haven in October l776.
 First Congregational Church
 The first Congregational church Of New Britain was organized in the year 115s, about siNsy-eght years after Capt stephen Lee moved into his new house. This church was the first daughter Of the Great swamp or kensington church, the latter being the first Of sixteen churches whici' have descended from the mother church in Farmington The town of Pennington was the first da uEhter ot Hartford. The first house Of worship within the limits of Berlin and New Britain was on the hill little east O. the road which is now called Christian Lane. having been so named because Gods house was standing there.
 In the year 1886 the town of Farm ington voted that highways should be laid to and through the Great Swamp" whereby the Christian Lane road and the roads through New Britain leading to it came into exist ence soon after 1886. The Indian name for the Great Swamp territory was 'Pagoncha Two par cels of land at Christian Lane were exchanged in the year 1878, between Jonathan Gilbert of Hartford and Richard Seymour Of Pennington, each parcel being described as lying at a place called by the Indian name of Pagonchamischaug. It is stated in several publications that the Great Swamp settlement was begun by Richard Seymour and others about 16S6. but as a matter of fact Jonathan Gilbert had farm buildings there prior to his death on December 10, 1882. The inventory of his estate, 1; taken in the following February, in cludes as one item, his farm at Pagonchamischaug with buildings on it, thereby showing that the Great Swamp settlement began fully three years earlier than has generaliy been supposed.
 One reason why the existence of these early buildings has not been more generally known is because few who may have seen this item in Gilberts inventory had any concep- tion of the locality thus described Early settlers
 It is stated in Camps History Of New Britain, page Sl, with reference to the northward extension of the Great Swamp parish that "The per sons living in this direction were Captain stephen Lee, Scrgt. Benjamin | Judd, Joseph smith. Robert Booth, | Anthony Judd. Isaac Lewis and some others. The names of these six men and two others who located here. viz John Woodruff and Daniel Dewey | are given on page l6 of Andrews His | tory of the First Church. together | with the location of each mans house | Thomas Stanley and Jonathan Lewis | settlers