Mary Wright Alsop Mutter was born into the prominent Wright-Alsop family of Middletown, Connecticut. Mary Wright Alsop Mutter's grandmother and namesake Mary Wright Alsop, was the daughter of Joseph Wright, a prosperous farmer and brickyard owner and Hannah Gilbert Wright of Middletown, Coonecticut. She married Richard Alsop a wealthy merchant who imported goods from the West Indies. Mary Wright Alsop Mutter's great-grandfather, Joseph Wright, Find A Grave Memorial #7095512 is buried in the Colchester Burying Ground in Colchester, Conn. He has a cenotaph in the Indian Hills Cemetery; Find A Grave Memorial #20422151. Her great-great grandfather was Captain Joseph Wright, Jr (1669-1756); Find A Grave Memorial# 7095512. Charles Richard Alsop (1802-1865), her brother, served as Mayor of Middletown, Conn., 1843-46 and was a member of Connecticut state senate 18th District, 1855. He married Margaret Elinor Armstrong in 1833. He was a shareholder with the Indian Hills Cemetery and is most likely interred there as well.
Thomas WANDELL, of Newtown, Long Island, was the founder of the ALSOP family, through Richard ALSOP, I; the great-great grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter; Find-A-Grave Mem. #32787678, his nephew, whom he brought from England when a mere boy, about the year 1665, and adopted as his son and heir. It is said of Mr. WANDELL, the founder, that "the one act of his life in Newtown, which serves to perpetuate his name in local history, was his effort to thwart the burning of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury that tried Ralph HALL and wife, and acquitted them." The great qualities of mind and heart possessed by WANDELL were impressed upon his young protégé and relative, and these have been transmitted, untarnished, through all succeeding generations down to the present time. Richard ALSOP, I, fell into the possession of WANDELL's property about the year 1691, and continued "lord of the manor" until his death in 1718. He left three sons and several daughters. Of the sons, there were Thomas Alsop, Richard Alsop II (1694-1764), Find-A-Grave Mem. #32787669, the great- grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter and John Alsop, who became prominent in the legal profession and mercantile life. John removed to New Windsor, NY on the Hudson River, where he became a prominent attorney. John Alsop; Find-A-Grave Mem. #7633943; (b.1724-d.November 22, 1794); Find-A-Grave Mem. #7633943, was an American merchant and politician from New York City during the American Revolution. He was a delegate for New York to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776. John Alsop's daughter Mary married Rufus King of New York. Richard ALSOP, III, the 1st of Middletown; Find-A-Grave Mem. #20422020; the grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter married Mary Wright; Find-A-Grave Mem. #20422055, the grandmother of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter. He was most likely born at Maspeth, Queens County, Long Island, NY on the family manor. He may have lived for a time at New Windsor, NY with his uncle John Alsop. At an early age, Richard Alsop, III was placed in the store of Phillip LIVINGSTON II, Esq., New York. Philip Livingston, II, Esq., willed his store to his son Philip Livingston, III; Find-A-Grave Mem. #2776; a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The store, storehouse and wharf were located on the East River and was known as Burnet's Wharf. Richard Alsop, III received a thorough mercantile education. He came to Middletown about 1750, and commenced business in the lower rooms of the old town house, which then stood in the middle of Main Street, just above Washington Street. He was one of the pioneers in the West India trade, in which he was remarkably successful, and accumulated a large fortune. There were no established insurance companies at this time, and he not only took his own risks, but insured vessels for others on his private responsibility. He was a man of broad, liberal views, public spirited, and engaged heartily in all works of charity and benevolence. He was one of the charter members of St. John's Lodge, F. & A. M., which then comprised most of the leading men in the State. He was twice elected master, and was a member of the committee that framed the by-laws. He was a member of the State Legislature and occupied other public positions. Richard ALSOP, IV, the 2nd of Middletown, the eldest son of Richard ALSOP, III, the 1st of Middletown, was born at the homestead, January 27th 1761. His early education was intended to fit him for a mercantile life that he might become the worthy successor of his father, but "man proposes, God disposes." The ardent imagination of the youth-his fondness for literary pursuits, and the death of his father when he was only fifteen years of age-too young to assume the duties and responsibilities attached to his father's position-all combined to change the current of his life, and, while the heavy burden of managing the father's complex affairs fell on the mother, he was left to follow his own inclinations. Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP was the eighth child, and second son of Richard ALSOP, the 1st of Middletown. He was born on the 2d of March 1772. The death of his father, when he was but four years of age, left him dependent on his mother, to whose careful training he was indebted for his cusses in life. With the exception of the extensive library left by his father, he had no other educational advantages than those afforded by the public schools of his native town. At an early age he evinced a taste for a seafaring life, which he subsequently followed, commencing as a cabin boy, and continuing until he became master of a vessel. This experience afforded him the opportunity of reopening the extensive West India trade established by his father many years previous. He subsequently formed a copartnership with Chauncey WHITTLESEY, which continued for several years, until the death of Mr. WHITTLESEY. Not long after this Mr. CARRINGTON was taken in as partner under the firm name of ALSOP & CARRINGTON. At a later period another change took place in the firm, and Mr. Henry CHAUNCEY, who married a daughter of Captain ALSOP, became a member of the firm under the name of ALSOP & CHAUNCEY. After a successful business of some years, Mr. CHAUNCEY withdrew from the firm and removed to Valparaiso, where he became connected with the house of ALSOP & Co., established several years previous by Richard ALSOP, V, the 3rd of Middletown, who is mistakenly referred to as Richard Alsop, IV; Find-A-Grave Memorial #19490247, was a son of Richard ALSOP, IV, the 2nd of Middletown. Richard Alsop V, the 3rd of Middletown, founded Alsop & Company. He made a fortune in Valapriso, Chile in silver mining during the years 1820-1825. Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP was a man deservedly popular and proved himself a worthy representative of his distinguished predecesors. He was in hearty sympathy with and an active promoter of all works of public improvement and benevolence in his native town. On the 5th of November 1797, he married Lucy, daughter of Chauncey WHITTLESEY, by whom he had six children: Lucy Whittlesey, born December 13th 1798, died August 15th 1855; Charles R., born December 25th 1802, died March 4th 1865; Joseph W., born November 22d 1804, died February 26th 1878; Clara Pomeroy, born March 2d 1807, Elizabeth W., born March 25th 1809, Mary W., born March 3d 1815, died January 2d 1877. Lucy Whittlesey ALSOP married Henry CHAUNCEY, of the firm of ALSOP & CHAUNCEY; Elizabeth W. married George HOPPEN, of Providence, R. I.; Mary W. married Thomas D. MUTTER, a professor in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia; Clara Pomeroy, the third and fifth child of Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP, lived at the homestead on Washington street. She never married, but her "lines have fallen in pleasant places, and she has enjoyed in goodly heritage." During her long and useful life she has been actively engage din works of charity and benevolence. She was one of the early promoters, and has been for many years an active supporter of the Widows' Home. Many a poor woman of gentle birth, who, but for this institution, might have been left to the "cold charity of the world," has found a comfortable home, and thus has been enabled to pass her declining years in peace and happiness. The extension of Calvary Cemetery by the addition of one hundred acres occasions the demolition of the Alsop mansion, of historic interest. The Alsop family was distinguished n the annals of Newtown down to recent date. Now but one descendant remains, and he long ago quitted his ancestral home. Thomas Wandell was the founder of the Alsop family, through Richard Alsop, his nephew, when be brought from England, while a mere boy, about the year 1665 and adopted his son and heir. The one act in mr. Wandell's life in Newtown which serves to perpetuate his name in local history was his effort to thwart the burning of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury that tried Ralph Hall and his wife, and acquitted them. Richard Alsop fell into the possession of Wandell's property about the year 1691, and continued "lord of the manor" until his death in 1718. He left several sons and daughters. Richard Alsop was prominent in public affairs. It was in his time that the boundary dispute between Bushwick and Newtown rose to a white heat, and resulted in the destruction of a great deal of property by fire and ax, on either side. The Bushwick people claimed that their boundary extended to the straight line which ran from the old Brook school to the northwest corner of Jamaica. The Newtown people claimed that their boundary ran from the Arbitration Rock to the same point which is now the boundary existing between Brooklyn and Newtown. The amount of land in dispute was twelve hundred acres. Governor Lord Cornbury disliked such heated and violent contention, and he settled the dispute by declaring that the land belonged to himself, and took possession of it. Subsequently, he divided the land equally between his royal supporters, Arma Bridgens, Robert Millwood, William Huddlestone, Adrian Hoogland and Peter Pras. This latter individual had the sagacity to unload at once, while the others clung tenuously to the soil, and were finally compelled to vacate. In 1706 Newtown vested her rights in Richard Alsop, Joseph Sackett, Thomas Stevenson and William Hallett, and suit was begun to recover the land and determine the boundary line. This suit lasted twenty years, and the Town House and lands had to be sold to fee the lawyers and meet other expenses. In January 1769, the line was established to the satisfaction of Newtown, and has existed unchanged from that time to the present. The historic Arbitration Rock was blasted some few years since, and made use of for building stone. The suit for the recovery of the land taken by Governor Cornbury was continued until 1727. As late as 1837, a descendant of the original Bridgens brought suit to eject the tenants from that land at Laurel Hill under the Governor's fraudulent title and old Bridgens' will; but he was beaten. William Hallett, who was one of Alsop's associates in the troubles of 1706, was murdered with is wife and five children, by two of his slaves. The murderers, a man and his wife, were executed at Jamaica, the woman being burned to death and the man being roasted on hot irons. Lord Cornbury was a most bigoted Episcopalian. During the plague of 1702 in new York, the Governor retired to Jamaica and was tendered the use of the Presbyterian parsonage by the Rev. Mr. Hubbard. The Governor expressed his gratitude by bestowing the church and parsonage on the Episcopal divine, and they remained in that denomination for the succeeding quarter of a century. The male children of the first Richard Alsop, Thomas, Richard and John, became prominent in the legal profession and mercantile life. The children of the second Richard adhered to the ancestral seat in Newtown and married into the Sacketts, the Brinckerhoffs the Whiteheads, the Fisks, the Woodwards and the Hazzards ‒ names now extinct save as they appear on the tombstones, many of which are sadly neglected. The Alsop Cemetery is within Calvary Cemetery, which absorbed all of the property, and is thus certain of receiving proper care. The owner in trust of the reservation is William Alsop, the only living lineal descendant, who resides in New York at present, but for a great many years had his abode in Florida. The family relics have disappeared almost entirely. The only thing that remains to be cherished is an old clock, which is in the remaining descendant's possession. The house itself, two centuries and a quarter old, has now disappeared forever. The yellow fever epidemic of 1798 made havoc in the Alsop household, and two tombstones mark the graves of the victims, one of whom was Elizabeth Fish, the widow of Jonathan Fish. She was the widow of the grandfather of President Grant's Secretary of State. Several slaves died of the contagion, and one at least called Venus, on account of her remarkable beauty, was buried in the family plot. The graves were made ready before death, and no coffins were used. The bodies were merely wrapped in the infected cloths, saturated with pitch and tar, and hastily interred. The slaves' graves are not marked by stick or stone, because the custom of that time forbade it. The house at one time occupied by Peter Donohue, near the side entrance of Calvary, at Blissville, was built by Thomas Alsop, the father of William. Eventually, it fell into the hands of Paul Rapelyea. The farm surrounding it was part of the Alsop estate, derived from the marriage of Thomas Wandell with the widow Herrick, who owned it in 1750. After the death of Richard Alsop in 1790, the property was divided between the sons, John and Thomas. John retained the old homestead, and Thomas received the Blissville section. John Alsop died in April 1837, and his widow sold the property to a corporation, and it now embraced in Calvary. John Alsop left no children. Thomas, his brother, married Catherine Brinckerhoff, the daughter of George, a Revolutionary patriot residing at Dutch Kills. A British officer, Finlay McKay, cut his name on a pane of glass in the old Brinckerhoff house in 1776, and it remains there to this day. The well on the Alsop property, which was sunk at the time the mansion was built, still supplies water to many families in the neighborhood. The house was one hundred feet long, and the first floor was divided into four rooms, with a hallway eighteen feet wide. Two round windows, resembling port holes, were cut in the ends of the building in 1776 by Lord Cornwallis for musket practice, and as lookouts to guard against surprise. The chimney place, around which the slaves need to gather, had the capacity of receiving logs of wood ten feet in length. Rufus King married Mary Alsop. He died at Jamaica in 1827. Of this union came John Alsop King, who was Governor of this state from 1857 to 1859. Among the early settlers of New town were the Alsop family. Writers on English sur names inform us that this family derives its name from the village of Alsop, in Derbyshire. Richard Alsop, the progenitor of the Newtown family, was induced to locate here by his uncle, Thomas Wandell. Mr. Wandell, according to reminiscences in the Alsop family, had been a major in Cromwell's army; but, having some dispute with the "protector," was obliged to flee for safety, first to Holland and thence to America. Some doubts of this may he entertained, for Mr. Wandell was living at Mespat Kills in 1648, which was prior to the execution of King Charles, and when Cromwell enjoyed but a subordinate command in the parliamentary army. Mr. Wandell married the widow of William Herrick, whose plantation on Newtown Creek he bought in 1659. This was originally patented to Richard Brutnell on July 3, 1643. It was one of the three original plantations of Queens County, Long Island. To this he afterward added fifty acres for which Richard Colfax had obtained a patent in 1652. On this property,
since composing the Alsop farm, Mr. Wandell resided. He was one of the jury in 1665 for the trial of Ralph Hall and his wife for witchcraft, the only trial for witchery in this colony and shared the honor of acquitting the
accused. Some years later he visited England, and it is supposed that on his return he brought with him his sister's son, Richard Alsop, whom he made his heir. Mr. Wandell died in 1691 and was buried on the hill occupied by the Alsop cemetery. Many years later the silver plate of his coffin was discovered in digging a new grave. Richard Alsop, while yet under age, received a commission in the troop of horse. Inheriting the estate of his uncle he continued to reside upon it until his death, which occurred in October 1718, when he was 58 years old; but his widow, Hannah, who tradition says was a Dutch lady, whom he courted through an interpreter, attained her 91st year, and died August 23d 1757. The farm was subsequently bought by their son Richard Alsop, who was for twenty years a justice of the peace in Newtown. It remained in the family three generations longer. The last of the family who owned it died in 1837, and as he left no
heirs the farm was sold and the name Alsop became extinct in Newtown. A considerable part of this farm has been converted into the Catholic burial place known as Calvary Cemetery. The old house built by Mr. Wandell was destroyed in October 1879. The little Alsop cemetery is, fortunately for itself, snugly inclosed in Calvary; but by a reservation to the family it is still Protestant ground.
SOURCES:
The History of Middlesex County 1635-1885
J. H. Beers & Co., 36 Vesey Street, New York
1884; Transcribed by Janece Streig.
GENERAL HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY:
Pages 320-330
MIDDLETOWN - PROMINENT MEN:
Part 1; Pages 152 - 173.
Wikipedia:
The Richard Alsop, IV House (actually Richard Alsop, V, the 3rd of Middletown) National Historic Site is currently part of the Wesleyan University campus and has been carefully restored to its original condition. The Alsop house remains a monument to the skill of its designers, while serving Wesleyan University and the community as an art center.
Built Two Centuries and a Quarter Ago on the Shore of Newtown Creek ‒ Calvary's Absorption of Land the Cause ‒ Reminiscences of the Family; Destruction of the Alsop House: Brooklyn Eagle, March 28, 1880
HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY: with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals.
New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882.
pp. 329-408.
Thomas WANDELL, of Newtown, Long Island, was the founder of the ALSOP family, through Richard ALSOP, I; the great-great grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter; Find-A-Grave Mem. #32787678, his nephew, whom he brought from England when a mere boy, about the year 1665, and adopted as his son and heir. It is said of Mr. WANDELL, the founder, that "the one act of his life in Newtown, which serves to perpetuate his name in local history, was his effort to thwart the burning of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury that tried Ralph HALL and wife, and acquitted them." The great qualities of mind and heart possessed by WANDELL were impressed upon his young protégé and relative, and these have been transmitted, untarnished, through all succeeding generations down to the present time. Richard ALSOP, I, fell into the possession of WANDELL's property about the year 1691, and continued "lord of the manor" until his death in 1718. He left three sons and several daughters. Of the sons, there were Thomas Alsop, Richard Alsop II (1694-1764), Find-A-Grave Mem. #32787669, the great- grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter and John Alsop, who became prominent in the legal profession and mercantile life. John removed to New Windsor, NY on the Hudson River, where he became a prominent attorney. John Alsop; Find-A-Grave Mem. #7633943; (b.1724-d.November 22, 1794); Find-A-Grave Mem. #7633943, was an American merchant and politician from New York City during the American Revolution. He was a delegate for New York to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776. John Alsop's daughter Mary married Rufus King of New York. Richard ALSOP, III, the 1st of Middletown; Find-A-Grave Mem. #20422020; the grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter married Mary Wright; Find-A-Grave Mem. #20422055, the grandmother of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter. He was most likely born at Maspeth, Queens County, Long Island, NY on the family manor. He may have lived for a time at New Windsor, NY with his uncle John Alsop. At an early age, Richard Alsop, III was placed in the store of Phillip LIVINGSTON II, Esq., New York. Philip Livingston, II, Esq., willed his store to his son Philip Livingston, III; Find-A-Grave Mem. #2776; a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The store, storehouse and wharf were located on the East River and was known as Burnet's Wharf. Richard Alsop, III received a thorough mercantile education. He came to Middletown about 1750, and commenced business in the lower rooms of the old town house, which then stood in the middle of Main Street, just above Washington Street. He was one of the pioneers in the West India trade, in which he was remarkably successful, and accumulated a large fortune. There were no established insurance companies at this time, and he not only took his own risks, but insured vessels for others on his private responsibility. He was a man of broad, liberal views, public spirited, and engaged heartily in all works of charity and benevolence. He was one of the charter members of St. John's Lodge, F. & A. M., which then comprised most of the leading men in the State. He was twice elected master, and was a member of the committee that framed the by-laws. He was a member of the State Legislature and occupied other public positions. Richard ALSOP, IV, the 2nd of Middletown, the eldest son of Richard ALSOP, III, the 1st of Middletown, was born at the homestead, January 27th 1761. His early education was intended to fit him for a mercantile life that he might become the worthy successor of his father, but "man proposes, God disposes." The ardent imagination of the youth-his fondness for literary pursuits, and the death of his father when he was only fifteen years of age-too young to assume the duties and responsibilities attached to his father's position-all combined to change the current of his life, and, while the heavy burden of managing the father's complex affairs fell on the mother, he was left to follow his own inclinations. Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP was the eighth child, and second son of Richard ALSOP, the 1st of Middletown. He was born on the 2d of March 1772. The death of his father, when he was but four years of age, left him dependent on his mother, to whose careful training he was indebted for his cusses in life. With the exception of the extensive library left by his father, he had no other educational advantages than those afforded by the public schools of his native town. At an early age he evinced a taste for a seafaring life, which he subsequently followed, commencing as a cabin boy, and continuing until he became master of a vessel. This experience afforded him the opportunity of reopening the extensive West India trade established by his father many years previous. He subsequently formed a copartnership with Chauncey WHITTLESEY, which continued for several years, until the death of Mr. WHITTLESEY. Not long after this Mr. CARRINGTON was taken in as partner under the firm name of ALSOP & CARRINGTON. At a later period another change took place in the firm, and Mr. Henry CHAUNCEY, who married a daughter of Captain ALSOP, became a member of the firm under the name of ALSOP & CHAUNCEY. After a successful business of some years, Mr. CHAUNCEY withdrew from the firm and removed to Valparaiso, where he became connected with the house of ALSOP & Co., established several years previous by Richard ALSOP, V, the 3rd of Middletown, who is mistakenly referred to as Richard Alsop, IV; Find-A-Grave Memorial #19490247, was a son of Richard ALSOP, IV, the 2nd of Middletown. Richard Alsop V, the 3rd of Middletown, founded Alsop & Company. He made a fortune in Valapriso, Chile in silver mining during the years 1820-1825. Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP was a man deservedly popular and proved himself a worthy representative of his distinguished predecesors. He was in hearty sympathy with and an active promoter of all works of public improvement and benevolence in his native town. On the 5th of November 1797, he married Lucy, daughter of Chauncey WHITTLESEY, by whom he had six children: Lucy Whittlesey, born December 13th 1798, died August 15th 1855; Charles R., born December 25th 1802, died March 4th 1865; Joseph W., born November 22d 1804, died February 26th 1878; Clara Pomeroy, born March 2d 1807, Elizabeth W., born March 25th 1809, Mary W., born March 3d 1815, died January 2d 1877. Lucy Whittlesey ALSOP married Henry CHAUNCEY, of the firm of ALSOP & CHAUNCEY; Elizabeth W. married George HOPPEN, of Providence, R. I.; Mary W. married Thomas D. MUTTER, a professor in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia; Clara Pomeroy, the third and fifth child of Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP, lived at the homestead on Washington street. She never married, but her "lines have fallen in pleasant places, and she has enjoyed in goodly heritage." During her long and useful life she has been actively engage din works of charity and benevolence. She was one of the early promoters, and has been for many years an active supporter of the Widows' Home. Many a poor woman of gentle birth, who, but for this institution, might have been left to the "cold charity of the world," has found a comfortable home, and thus has been enabled to pass her declining years in peace and happiness. The extension of Calvary Cemetery by the addition of one hundred acres occasions the demolition of the Alsop mansion, of historic interest. The Alsop family was distinguished n the annals of Newtown down to recent date. Now but one descendant remains, and he long ago quitted his ancestral home. Thomas Wandell was the founder of the Alsop family, through Richard Alsop, his nephew, when be brought from England, while a mere boy, about the year 1665 and adopted his son and heir. The one act in mr. Wandell's life in Newtown which serves to perpetuate his name in local history was his effort to thwart the burning of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury that tried Ralph Hall and his wife, and acquitted them. Richard Alsop fell into the possession of Wandell's property about the year 1691, and continued "lord of the manor" until his death in 1718. He left several sons and daughters. Richard Alsop was prominent in public affairs. It was in his time that the boundary dispute between Bushwick and Newtown rose to a white heat, and resulted in the destruction of a great deal of property by fire and ax, on either side. The Bushwick people claimed that their boundary extended to the straight line which ran from the old Brook school to the northwest corner of Jamaica. The Newtown people claimed that their boundary ran from the Arbitration Rock to the same point which is now the boundary existing between Brooklyn and Newtown. The amount of land in dispute was twelve hundred acres. Governor Lord Cornbury disliked such heated and violent contention, and he settled the dispute by declaring that the land belonged to himself, and took possession of it. Subsequently, he divided the land equally between his royal supporters, Arma Bridgens, Robert Millwood, William Huddlestone, Adrian Hoogland and Peter Pras. This latter individual had the sagacity to unload at once, while the others clung tenuously to the soil, and were finally compelled to vacate. In 1706 Newtown vested her rights in Richard Alsop, Joseph Sackett, Thomas Stevenson and William Hallett, and suit was begun to recover the land and determine the boundary line. This suit lasted twenty years, and the Town House and lands had to be sold to fee the lawyers and meet other expenses. In January 1769, the line was established to the satisfaction of Newtown, and has existed unchanged from that time to the present. The historic Arbitration Rock was blasted some few years since, and made use of for building stone. The suit for the recovery of the land taken by Governor Cornbury was continued until 1727. As late as 1837, a descendant of the original Bridgens brought suit to eject the tenants from that land at Laurel Hill under the Governor's fraudulent title and old Bridgens' will; but he was beaten. William Hallett, who was one of Alsop's associates in the troubles of 1706, was murdered with is wife and five children, by two of his slaves. The murderers, a man and his wife, were executed at Jamaica, the woman being burned to death and the man being roasted on hot irons. Lord Cornbury was a most bigoted Episcopalian. During the plague of 1702 in new York, the Governor retired to Jamaica and was tendered the use of the Presbyterian parsonage by the Rev. Mr. Hubbard. The Governor expressed his gratitude by bestowing the church and parsonage on the Episcopal divine, and they remained in that denomination for the succeeding quarter of a century. The male children of the first Richard Alsop, Thomas, Richard and John, became prominent in the legal profession and mercantile life. The children of the second Richard adhered to the ancestral seat in Newtown and married into the Sacketts, the Brinckerhoffs the Whiteheads, the Fisks, the Woodwards and the Hazzards ‒ names now extinct save as they appear on the tombstones, many of which are sadly neglected. The Alsop Cemetery is within Calvary Cemetery, which absorbed all of the property, and is thus certain of receiving proper care. The owner in trust of the reservation is William Alsop, the only living lineal descendant, who resides in New York at present, but for a great many years had his abode in Florida. The family relics have disappeared almost entirely. The only thing that remains to be cherished is an old clock, which is in the remaining descendant's possession. The house itself, two centuries and a quarter old, has now disappeared forever. The yellow fever epidemic of 1798 made havoc in the Alsop household, and two tombstones mark the graves of the victims, one of whom was Elizabeth Fish, the widow of Jonathan Fish. She was the widow of the grandfather of President Grant's Secretary of State. Several slaves died of the contagion, and one at least called Venus, on account of her remarkable beauty, was buried in the family plot. The graves were made ready before death, and no coffins were used. The bodies were merely wrapped in the infected cloths, saturated with pitch and tar, and hastily interred. The slaves' graves are not marked by stick or stone, because the custom of that time forbade it. The house at one time occupied by Peter Donohue, near the side entrance of Calvary, at Blissville, was built by Thomas Alsop, the father of William. Eventually, it fell into the hands of Paul Rapelyea. The farm surrounding it was part of the Alsop estate, derived from the marriage of Thomas Wandell with the widow Herrick, who owned it in 1750. After the death of Richard Alsop in 1790, the property was divided between the sons, John and Thomas. John retained the old homestead, and Thomas received the Blissville section. John Alsop died in April 1837, and his widow sold the property to a corporation, and it now embraced in Calvary. John Alsop left no children. Thomas, his brother, married Catherine Brinckerhoff, the daughter of George, a Revolutionary patriot residing at Dutch Kills. A British officer, Finlay McKay, cut his name on a pane of glass in the old Brinckerhoff house in 1776, and it remains there to this day. The well on the Alsop property, which was sunk at the time the mansion was built, still supplies water to many families in the neighborhood. The house was one hundred feet long, and the first floor was divided into four rooms, with a hallway eighteen feet wide. Two round windows, resembling port holes, were cut in the ends of the building in 1776 by Lord Cornwallis for musket practice, and as lookouts to guard against surprise. The chimney place, around which the slaves need to gather, had the capacity of receiving logs of wood ten feet in length. Rufus King married Mary Alsop. He died at Jamaica in 1827. Of this union came John Alsop King, who was Governor of this state from 1857 to 1859. Among the early settlers of New town were the Alsop family. Writers on English sur names inform us that this family derives its name from the village of Alsop, in Derbyshire. Richard Alsop, the progenitor of the Newtown family, was induced to locate here by his uncle, Thomas Wandell. Mr. Wandell, according to reminiscences in the Alsop family, had been a major in Cromwell's army; but, having some dispute with the "protector," was obliged to flee for safety, first to Holland and thence to America. Some doubts of this may he entertained, for Mr. Wandell was living at Mespat Kills in 1648, which was prior to the execution of King Charles, and when Cromwell enjoyed but a subordinate command in the parliamentary army. Mr. Wandell married the widow of William Herrick, whose plantation on Newtown Creek he bought in 1659. This was originally patented to Richard Brutnell on July 3, 1643. It was one of the three original plantations of Queens County, Long Island. To this he afterward added fifty acres for which Richard Colfax had obtained a patent in 1652. On this property,
since composing the Alsop farm, Mr. Wandell resided. He was one of the jury in 1665 for the trial of Ralph Hall and his wife for witchcraft, the only trial for witchery in this colony and shared the honor of acquitting the
accused. Some years later he visited England, and it is supposed that on his return he brought with him his sister's son, Richard Alsop, whom he made his heir. Mr. Wandell died in 1691 and was buried on the hill occupied by the Alsop cemetery. Many years later the silver plate of his coffin was discovered in digging a new grave. Richard Alsop, while yet under age, received a commission in the troop of horse. Inheriting the estate of his uncle he continued to reside upon it until his death, which occurred in October 1718, when he was 58 years old; but his widow, Hannah, who tradition says was a Dutch lady, whom he courted through an interpreter, attained her 91st year, and died August 23d 1757. The farm was subsequently bought by their son Richard Alsop, who was for twenty years a justice of the peace in Newtown. It remained in the family three generations longer. The last of the family who owned it died in 1837, and as he left no
heirs the farm was sold and the name Alsop became extinct in Newtown. A considerable part of this farm has been converted into the Catholic burial place known as Calvary Cemetery. The old house built by Mr. Wandell was destroyed in October 1879. The little Alsop cemetery is, fortunately for itself, snugly inclosed in Calvary; but by a reservation to the family it is still Protestant ground.
SOURCES:
The History of Middlesex County 1635-1885
J. H. Beers & Co., 36 Vesey Street, New York
1884; Transcribed by Janece Streig.
GENERAL HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY:
Pages 320-330
MIDDLETOWN - PROMINENT MEN:
Part 1; Pages 152 - 173.
Wikipedia:
The Richard Alsop, IV House (actually Richard Alsop, V, the 3rd of Middletown) National Historic Site is currently part of the Wesleyan University campus and has been carefully restored to its original condition. The Alsop house remains a monument to the skill of its designers, while serving Wesleyan University and the community as an art center.
Built Two Centuries and a Quarter Ago on the Shore of Newtown Creek ‒ Calvary's Absorption of Land the Cause ‒ Reminiscences of the Family; Destruction of the Alsop House: Brooklyn Eagle, March 28, 1880
HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY: with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals.
New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882.
pp. 329-408.
Mary Wright Alsop Mutter was born into the prominent Wright-Alsop family of Middletown, Connecticut. Mary Wright Alsop Mutter's grandmother and namesake Mary Wright Alsop, was the daughter of Joseph Wright, a prosperous farmer and brickyard owner and Hannah Gilbert Wright of Middletown, Coonecticut. She married Richard Alsop a wealthy merchant who imported goods from the West Indies. Mary Wright Alsop Mutter's great-grandfather, Joseph Wright, Find A Grave Memorial #7095512 is buried in the Colchester Burying Ground in Colchester, Conn. He has a cenotaph in the Indian Hills Cemetery; Find A Grave Memorial #20422151. Her great-great grandfather was Captain Joseph Wright, Jr (1669-1756); Find A Grave Memorial# 7095512. Charles Richard Alsop (1802-1865), her brother, served as Mayor of Middletown, Conn., 1843-46 and was a member of Connecticut state senate 18th District, 1855. He married Margaret Elinor Armstrong in 1833. He was a shareholder with the Indian Hills Cemetery and is most likely interred there as well.
Thomas WANDELL, of Newtown, Long Island, was the founder of the ALSOP family, through Richard ALSOP, I; the great-great grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter; Find-A-Grave Mem. #32787678, his nephew, whom he brought from England when a mere boy, about the year 1665, and adopted as his son and heir. It is said of Mr. WANDELL, the founder, that "the one act of his life in Newtown, which serves to perpetuate his name in local history, was his effort to thwart the burning of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury that tried Ralph HALL and wife, and acquitted them." The great qualities of mind and heart possessed by WANDELL were impressed upon his young protégé and relative, and these have been transmitted, untarnished, through all succeeding generations down to the present time. Richard ALSOP, I, fell into the possession of WANDELL's property about the year 1691, and continued "lord of the manor" until his death in 1718. He left three sons and several daughters. Of the sons, there were Thomas Alsop, Richard Alsop II (1694-1764), Find-A-Grave Mem. #32787669, the great- grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter and John Alsop, who became prominent in the legal profession and mercantile life. John removed to New Windsor, NY on the Hudson River, where he became a prominent attorney. John Alsop; Find-A-Grave Mem. #7633943; (b.1724-d.November 22, 1794); Find-A-Grave Mem. #7633943, was an American merchant and politician from New York City during the American Revolution. He was a delegate for New York to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776. John Alsop's daughter Mary married Rufus King of New York. Richard ALSOP, III, the 1st of Middletown; Find-A-Grave Mem. #20422020; the grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter married Mary Wright; Find-A-Grave Mem. #20422055, the grandmother of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter. He was most likely born at Maspeth, Queens County, Long Island, NY on the family manor. He may have lived for a time at New Windsor, NY with his uncle John Alsop. At an early age, Richard Alsop, III was placed in the store of Phillip LIVINGSTON II, Esq., New York. Philip Livingston, II, Esq., willed his store to his son Philip Livingston, III; Find-A-Grave Mem. #2776; a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The store, storehouse and wharf were located on the East River and was known as Burnet's Wharf. Richard Alsop, III received a thorough mercantile education. He came to Middletown about 1750, and commenced business in the lower rooms of the old town house, which then stood in the middle of Main Street, just above Washington Street. He was one of the pioneers in the West India trade, in which he was remarkably successful, and accumulated a large fortune. There were no established insurance companies at this time, and he not only took his own risks, but insured vessels for others on his private responsibility. He was a man of broad, liberal views, public spirited, and engaged heartily in all works of charity and benevolence. He was one of the charter members of St. John's Lodge, F. & A. M., which then comprised most of the leading men in the State. He was twice elected master, and was a member of the committee that framed the by-laws. He was a member of the State Legislature and occupied other public positions. Richard ALSOP, IV, the 2nd of Middletown, the eldest son of Richard ALSOP, III, the 1st of Middletown, was born at the homestead, January 27th 1761. His early education was intended to fit him for a mercantile life that he might become the worthy successor of his father, but "man proposes, God disposes." The ardent imagination of the youth-his fondness for literary pursuits, and the death of his father when he was only fifteen years of age-too young to assume the duties and responsibilities attached to his father's position-all combined to change the current of his life, and, while the heavy burden of managing the father's complex affairs fell on the mother, he was left to follow his own inclinations. Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP was the eighth child, and second son of Richard ALSOP, the 1st of Middletown. He was born on the 2d of March 1772. The death of his father, when he was but four years of age, left him dependent on his mother, to whose careful training he was indebted for his cusses in life. With the exception of the extensive library left by his father, he had no other educational advantages than those afforded by the public schools of his native town. At an early age he evinced a taste for a seafaring life, which he subsequently followed, commencing as a cabin boy, and continuing until he became master of a vessel. This experience afforded him the opportunity of reopening the extensive West India trade established by his father many years previous. He subsequently formed a copartnership with Chauncey WHITTLESEY, which continued for several years, until the death of Mr. WHITTLESEY. Not long after this Mr. CARRINGTON was taken in as partner under the firm name of ALSOP & CARRINGTON. At a later period another change took place in the firm, and Mr. Henry CHAUNCEY, who married a daughter of Captain ALSOP, became a member of the firm under the name of ALSOP & CHAUNCEY. After a successful business of some years, Mr. CHAUNCEY withdrew from the firm and removed to Valparaiso, where he became connected with the house of ALSOP & Co., established several years previous by Richard ALSOP, V, the 3rd of Middletown, who is mistakenly referred to as Richard Alsop, IV; Find-A-Grave Memorial #19490247, was a son of Richard ALSOP, IV, the 2nd of Middletown. Richard Alsop V, the 3rd of Middletown, founded Alsop & Company. He made a fortune in Valapriso, Chile in silver mining during the years 1820-1825. Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP was a man deservedly popular and proved himself a worthy representative of his distinguished predecesors. He was in hearty sympathy with and an active promoter of all works of public improvement and benevolence in his native town. On the 5th of November 1797, he married Lucy, daughter of Chauncey WHITTLESEY, by whom he had six children: Lucy Whittlesey, born December 13th 1798, died August 15th 1855; Charles R., born December 25th 1802, died March 4th 1865; Joseph W., born November 22d 1804, died February 26th 1878; Clara Pomeroy, born March 2d 1807, Elizabeth W., born March 25th 1809, Mary W., born March 3d 1815, died January 2d 1877. Lucy Whittlesey ALSOP married Henry CHAUNCEY, of the firm of ALSOP & CHAUNCEY; Elizabeth W. married George HOPPEN, of Providence, R. I.; Mary W. married Thomas D. MUTTER, a professor in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia; Clara Pomeroy, the third and fifth child of Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP, lived at the homestead on Washington street. She never married, but her "lines have fallen in pleasant places, and she has enjoyed in goodly heritage." During her long and useful life she has been actively engage din works of charity and benevolence. She was one of the early promoters, and has been for many years an active supporter of the Widows' Home. Many a poor woman of gentle birth, who, but for this institution, might have been left to the "cold charity of the world," has found a comfortable home, and thus has been enabled to pass her declining years in peace and happiness. The extension of Calvary Cemetery by the addition of one hundred acres occasions the demolition of the Alsop mansion, of historic interest. The Alsop family was distinguished n the annals of Newtown down to recent date. Now but one descendant remains, and he long ago quitted his ancestral home. Thomas Wandell was the founder of the Alsop family, through Richard Alsop, his nephew, when be brought from England, while a mere boy, about the year 1665 and adopted his son and heir. The one act in mr. Wandell's life in Newtown which serves to perpetuate his name in local history was his effort to thwart the burning of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury that tried Ralph Hall and his wife, and acquitted them. Richard Alsop fell into the possession of Wandell's property about the year 1691, and continued "lord of the manor" until his death in 1718. He left several sons and daughters. Richard Alsop was prominent in public affairs. It was in his time that the boundary dispute between Bushwick and Newtown rose to a white heat, and resulted in the destruction of a great deal of property by fire and ax, on either side. The Bushwick people claimed that their boundary extended to the straight line which ran from the old Brook school to the northwest corner of Jamaica. The Newtown people claimed that their boundary ran from the Arbitration Rock to the same point which is now the boundary existing between Brooklyn and Newtown. The amount of land in dispute was twelve hundred acres. Governor Lord Cornbury disliked such heated and violent contention, and he settled the dispute by declaring that the land belonged to himself, and took possession of it. Subsequently, he divided the land equally between his royal supporters, Arma Bridgens, Robert Millwood, William Huddlestone, Adrian Hoogland and Peter Pras. This latter individual had the sagacity to unload at once, while the others clung tenuously to the soil, and were finally compelled to vacate. In 1706 Newtown vested her rights in Richard Alsop, Joseph Sackett, Thomas Stevenson and William Hallett, and suit was begun to recover the land and determine the boundary line. This suit lasted twenty years, and the Town House and lands had to be sold to fee the lawyers and meet other expenses. In January 1769, the line was established to the satisfaction of Newtown, and has existed unchanged from that time to the present. The historic Arbitration Rock was blasted some few years since, and made use of for building stone. The suit for the recovery of the land taken by Governor Cornbury was continued until 1727. As late as 1837, a descendant of the original Bridgens brought suit to eject the tenants from that land at Laurel Hill under the Governor's fraudulent title and old Bridgens' will; but he was beaten. William Hallett, who was one of Alsop's associates in the troubles of 1706, was murdered with is wife and five children, by two of his slaves. The murderers, a man and his wife, were executed at Jamaica, the woman being burned to death and the man being roasted on hot irons. Lord Cornbury was a most bigoted Episcopalian. During the plague of 1702 in new York, the Governor retired to Jamaica and was tendered the use of the Presbyterian parsonage by the Rev. Mr. Hubbard. The Governor expressed his gratitude by bestowing the church and parsonage on the Episcopal divine, and they remained in that denomination for the succeeding quarter of a century. The male children of the first Richard Alsop, Thomas, Richard and John, became prominent in the legal profession and mercantile life. The children of the second Richard adhered to the ancestral seat in Newtown and married into the Sacketts, the Brinckerhoffs the Whiteheads, the Fisks, the Woodwards and the Hazzards ‒ names now extinct save as they appear on the tombstones, many of which are sadly neglected. The Alsop Cemetery is within Calvary Cemetery, which absorbed all of the property, and is thus certain of receiving proper care. The owner in trust of the reservation is William Alsop, the only living lineal descendant, who resides in New York at present, but for a great many years had his abode in Florida. The family relics have disappeared almost entirely. The only thing that remains to be cherished is an old clock, which is in the remaining descendant's possession. The house itself, two centuries and a quarter old, has now disappeared forever. The yellow fever epidemic of 1798 made havoc in the Alsop household, and two tombstones mark the graves of the victims, one of whom was Elizabeth Fish, the widow of Jonathan Fish. She was the widow of the grandfather of President Grant's Secretary of State. Several slaves died of the contagion, and one at least called Venus, on account of her remarkable beauty, was buried in the family plot. The graves were made ready before death, and no coffins were used. The bodies were merely wrapped in the infected cloths, saturated with pitch and tar, and hastily interred. The slaves' graves are not marked by stick or stone, because the custom of that time forbade it. The house at one time occupied by Peter Donohue, near the side entrance of Calvary, at Blissville, was built by Thomas Alsop, the father of William. Eventually, it fell into the hands of Paul Rapelyea. The farm surrounding it was part of the Alsop estate, derived from the marriage of Thomas Wandell with the widow Herrick, who owned it in 1750. After the death of Richard Alsop in 1790, the property was divided between the sons, John and Thomas. John retained the old homestead, and Thomas received the Blissville section. John Alsop died in April 1837, and his widow sold the property to a corporation, and it now embraced in Calvary. John Alsop left no children. Thomas, his brother, married Catherine Brinckerhoff, the daughter of George, a Revolutionary patriot residing at Dutch Kills. A British officer, Finlay McKay, cut his name on a pane of glass in the old Brinckerhoff house in 1776, and it remains there to this day. The well on the Alsop property, which was sunk at the time the mansion was built, still supplies water to many families in the neighborhood. The house was one hundred feet long, and the first floor was divided into four rooms, with a hallway eighteen feet wide. Two round windows, resembling port holes, were cut in the ends of the building in 1776 by Lord Cornwallis for musket practice, and as lookouts to guard against surprise. The chimney place, around which the slaves need to gather, had the capacity of receiving logs of wood ten feet in length. Rufus King married Mary Alsop. He died at Jamaica in 1827. Of this union came John Alsop King, who was Governor of this state from 1857 to 1859. Among the early settlers of New town were the Alsop family. Writers on English sur names inform us that this family derives its name from the village of Alsop, in Derbyshire. Richard Alsop, the progenitor of the Newtown family, was induced to locate here by his uncle, Thomas Wandell. Mr. Wandell, according to reminiscences in the Alsop family, had been a major in Cromwell's army; but, having some dispute with the "protector," was obliged to flee for safety, first to Holland and thence to America. Some doubts of this may he entertained, for Mr. Wandell was living at Mespat Kills in 1648, which was prior to the execution of King Charles, and when Cromwell enjoyed but a subordinate command in the parliamentary army. Mr. Wandell married the widow of William Herrick, whose plantation on Newtown Creek he bought in 1659. This was originally patented to Richard Brutnell on July 3, 1643. It was one of the three original plantations of Queens County, Long Island. To this he afterward added fifty acres for which Richard Colfax had obtained a patent in 1652. On this property,
since composing the Alsop farm, Mr. Wandell resided. He was one of the jury in 1665 for the trial of Ralph Hall and his wife for witchcraft, the only trial for witchery in this colony and shared the honor of acquitting the
accused. Some years later he visited England, and it is supposed that on his return he brought with him his sister's son, Richard Alsop, whom he made his heir. Mr. Wandell died in 1691 and was buried on the hill occupied by the Alsop cemetery. Many years later the silver plate of his coffin was discovered in digging a new grave. Richard Alsop, while yet under age, received a commission in the troop of horse. Inheriting the estate of his uncle he continued to reside upon it until his death, which occurred in October 1718, when he was 58 years old; but his widow, Hannah, who tradition says was a Dutch lady, whom he courted through an interpreter, attained her 91st year, and died August 23d 1757. The farm was subsequently bought by their son Richard Alsop, who was for twenty years a justice of the peace in Newtown. It remained in the family three generations longer. The last of the family who owned it died in 1837, and as he left no
heirs the farm was sold and the name Alsop became extinct in Newtown. A considerable part of this farm has been converted into the Catholic burial place known as Calvary Cemetery. The old house built by Mr. Wandell was destroyed in October 1879. The little Alsop cemetery is, fortunately for itself, snugly inclosed in Calvary; but by a reservation to the family it is still Protestant ground.
SOURCES:
The History of Middlesex County 1635-1885
J. H. Beers & Co., 36 Vesey Street, New York
1884; Transcribed by Janece Streig.
GENERAL HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY:
Pages 320-330
MIDDLETOWN - PROMINENT MEN:
Part 1; Pages 152 - 173.
Wikipedia:
The Richard Alsop, IV House (actually Richard Alsop, V, the 3rd of Middletown) National Historic Site is currently part of the Wesleyan University campus and has been carefully restored to its original condition. The Alsop house remains a monument to the skill of its designers, while serving Wesleyan University and the community as an art center.
Built Two Centuries and a Quarter Ago on the Shore of Newtown Creek ‒ Calvary's Absorption of Land the Cause ‒ Reminiscences of the Family; Destruction of the Alsop House: Brooklyn Eagle, March 28, 1880
HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY: with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals.
New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882.
pp. 329-408.
Thomas WANDELL, of Newtown, Long Island, was the founder of the ALSOP family, through Richard ALSOP, I; the great-great grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter; Find-A-Grave Mem. #32787678, his nephew, whom he brought from England when a mere boy, about the year 1665, and adopted as his son and heir. It is said of Mr. WANDELL, the founder, that "the one act of his life in Newtown, which serves to perpetuate his name in local history, was his effort to thwart the burning of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury that tried Ralph HALL and wife, and acquitted them." The great qualities of mind and heart possessed by WANDELL were impressed upon his young protégé and relative, and these have been transmitted, untarnished, through all succeeding generations down to the present time. Richard ALSOP, I, fell into the possession of WANDELL's property about the year 1691, and continued "lord of the manor" until his death in 1718. He left three sons and several daughters. Of the sons, there were Thomas Alsop, Richard Alsop II (1694-1764), Find-A-Grave Mem. #32787669, the great- grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter and John Alsop, who became prominent in the legal profession and mercantile life. John removed to New Windsor, NY on the Hudson River, where he became a prominent attorney. John Alsop; Find-A-Grave Mem. #7633943; (b.1724-d.November 22, 1794); Find-A-Grave Mem. #7633943, was an American merchant and politician from New York City during the American Revolution. He was a delegate for New York to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776. John Alsop's daughter Mary married Rufus King of New York. Richard ALSOP, III, the 1st of Middletown; Find-A-Grave Mem. #20422020; the grandfather of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter married Mary Wright; Find-A-Grave Mem. #20422055, the grandmother of Mary Wright Alsop Mutter. He was most likely born at Maspeth, Queens County, Long Island, NY on the family manor. He may have lived for a time at New Windsor, NY with his uncle John Alsop. At an early age, Richard Alsop, III was placed in the store of Phillip LIVINGSTON II, Esq., New York. Philip Livingston, II, Esq., willed his store to his son Philip Livingston, III; Find-A-Grave Mem. #2776; a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The store, storehouse and wharf were located on the East River and was known as Burnet's Wharf. Richard Alsop, III received a thorough mercantile education. He came to Middletown about 1750, and commenced business in the lower rooms of the old town house, which then stood in the middle of Main Street, just above Washington Street. He was one of the pioneers in the West India trade, in which he was remarkably successful, and accumulated a large fortune. There were no established insurance companies at this time, and he not only took his own risks, but insured vessels for others on his private responsibility. He was a man of broad, liberal views, public spirited, and engaged heartily in all works of charity and benevolence. He was one of the charter members of St. John's Lodge, F. & A. M., which then comprised most of the leading men in the State. He was twice elected master, and was a member of the committee that framed the by-laws. He was a member of the State Legislature and occupied other public positions. Richard ALSOP, IV, the 2nd of Middletown, the eldest son of Richard ALSOP, III, the 1st of Middletown, was born at the homestead, January 27th 1761. His early education was intended to fit him for a mercantile life that he might become the worthy successor of his father, but "man proposes, God disposes." The ardent imagination of the youth-his fondness for literary pursuits, and the death of his father when he was only fifteen years of age-too young to assume the duties and responsibilities attached to his father's position-all combined to change the current of his life, and, while the heavy burden of managing the father's complex affairs fell on the mother, he was left to follow his own inclinations. Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP was the eighth child, and second son of Richard ALSOP, the 1st of Middletown. He was born on the 2d of March 1772. The death of his father, when he was but four years of age, left him dependent on his mother, to whose careful training he was indebted for his cusses in life. With the exception of the extensive library left by his father, he had no other educational advantages than those afforded by the public schools of his native town. At an early age he evinced a taste for a seafaring life, which he subsequently followed, commencing as a cabin boy, and continuing until he became master of a vessel. This experience afforded him the opportunity of reopening the extensive West India trade established by his father many years previous. He subsequently formed a copartnership with Chauncey WHITTLESEY, which continued for several years, until the death of Mr. WHITTLESEY. Not long after this Mr. CARRINGTON was taken in as partner under the firm name of ALSOP & CARRINGTON. At a later period another change took place in the firm, and Mr. Henry CHAUNCEY, who married a daughter of Captain ALSOP, became a member of the firm under the name of ALSOP & CHAUNCEY. After a successful business of some years, Mr. CHAUNCEY withdrew from the firm and removed to Valparaiso, where he became connected with the house of ALSOP & Co., established several years previous by Richard ALSOP, V, the 3rd of Middletown, who is mistakenly referred to as Richard Alsop, IV; Find-A-Grave Memorial #19490247, was a son of Richard ALSOP, IV, the 2nd of Middletown. Richard Alsop V, the 3rd of Middletown, founded Alsop & Company. He made a fortune in Valapriso, Chile in silver mining during the years 1820-1825. Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP was a man deservedly popular and proved himself a worthy representative of his distinguished predecesors. He was in hearty sympathy with and an active promoter of all works of public improvement and benevolence in his native town. On the 5th of November 1797, he married Lucy, daughter of Chauncey WHITTLESEY, by whom he had six children: Lucy Whittlesey, born December 13th 1798, died August 15th 1855; Charles R., born December 25th 1802, died March 4th 1865; Joseph W., born November 22d 1804, died February 26th 1878; Clara Pomeroy, born March 2d 1807, Elizabeth W., born March 25th 1809, Mary W., born March 3d 1815, died January 2d 1877. Lucy Whittlesey ALSOP married Henry CHAUNCEY, of the firm of ALSOP & CHAUNCEY; Elizabeth W. married George HOPPEN, of Providence, R. I.; Mary W. married Thomas D. MUTTER, a professor in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia; Clara Pomeroy, the third and fifth child of Captain Joseph Wright ALSOP, lived at the homestead on Washington street. She never married, but her "lines have fallen in pleasant places, and she has enjoyed in goodly heritage." During her long and useful life she has been actively engage din works of charity and benevolence. She was one of the early promoters, and has been for many years an active supporter of the Widows' Home. Many a poor woman of gentle birth, who, but for this institution, might have been left to the "cold charity of the world," has found a comfortable home, and thus has been enabled to pass her declining years in peace and happiness. The extension of Calvary Cemetery by the addition of one hundred acres occasions the demolition of the Alsop mansion, of historic interest. The Alsop family was distinguished n the annals of Newtown down to recent date. Now but one descendant remains, and he long ago quitted his ancestral home. Thomas Wandell was the founder of the Alsop family, through Richard Alsop, his nephew, when be brought from England, while a mere boy, about the year 1665 and adopted his son and heir. The one act in mr. Wandell's life in Newtown which serves to perpetuate his name in local history was his effort to thwart the burning of human beings for witchcraft. He was foreman of the jury that tried Ralph Hall and his wife, and acquitted them. Richard Alsop fell into the possession of Wandell's property about the year 1691, and continued "lord of the manor" until his death in 1718. He left several sons and daughters. Richard Alsop was prominent in public affairs. It was in his time that the boundary dispute between Bushwick and Newtown rose to a white heat, and resulted in the destruction of a great deal of property by fire and ax, on either side. The Bushwick people claimed that their boundary extended to the straight line which ran from the old Brook school to the northwest corner of Jamaica. The Newtown people claimed that their boundary ran from the Arbitration Rock to the same point which is now the boundary existing between Brooklyn and Newtown. The amount of land in dispute was twelve hundred acres. Governor Lord Cornbury disliked such heated and violent contention, and he settled the dispute by declaring that the land belonged to himself, and took possession of it. Subsequently, he divided the land equally between his royal supporters, Arma Bridgens, Robert Millwood, William Huddlestone, Adrian Hoogland and Peter Pras. This latter individual had the sagacity to unload at once, while the others clung tenuously to the soil, and were finally compelled to vacate. In 1706 Newtown vested her rights in Richard Alsop, Joseph Sackett, Thomas Stevenson and William Hallett, and suit was begun to recover the land and determine the boundary line. This suit lasted twenty years, and the Town House and lands had to be sold to fee the lawyers and meet other expenses. In January 1769, the line was established to the satisfaction of Newtown, and has existed unchanged from that time to the present. The historic Arbitration Rock was blasted some few years since, and made use of for building stone. The suit for the recovery of the land taken by Governor Cornbury was continued until 1727. As late as 1837, a descendant of the original Bridgens brought suit to eject the tenants from that land at Laurel Hill under the Governor's fraudulent title and old Bridgens' will; but he was beaten. William Hallett, who was one of Alsop's associates in the troubles of 1706, was murdered with is wife and five children, by two of his slaves. The murderers, a man and his wife, were executed at Jamaica, the woman being burned to death and the man being roasted on hot irons. Lord Cornbury was a most bigoted Episcopalian. During the plague of 1702 in new York, the Governor retired to Jamaica and was tendered the use of the Presbyterian parsonage by the Rev. Mr. Hubbard. The Governor expressed his gratitude by bestowing the church and parsonage on the Episcopal divine, and they remained in that denomination for the succeeding quarter of a century. The male children of the first Richard Alsop, Thomas, Richard and John, became prominent in the legal profession and mercantile life. The children of the second Richard adhered to the ancestral seat in Newtown and married into the Sacketts, the Brinckerhoffs the Whiteheads, the Fisks, the Woodwards and the Hazzards ‒ names now extinct save as they appear on the tombstones, many of which are sadly neglected. The Alsop Cemetery is within Calvary Cemetery, which absorbed all of the property, and is thus certain of receiving proper care. The owner in trust of the reservation is William Alsop, the only living lineal descendant, who resides in New York at present, but for a great many years had his abode in Florida. The family relics have disappeared almost entirely. The only thing that remains to be cherished is an old clock, which is in the remaining descendant's possession. The house itself, two centuries and a quarter old, has now disappeared forever. The yellow fever epidemic of 1798 made havoc in the Alsop household, and two tombstones mark the graves of the victims, one of whom was Elizabeth Fish, the widow of Jonathan Fish. She was the widow of the grandfather of President Grant's Secretary of State. Several slaves died of the contagion, and one at least called Venus, on account of her remarkable beauty, was buried in the family plot. The graves were made ready before death, and no coffins were used. The bodies were merely wrapped in the infected cloths, saturated with pitch and tar, and hastily interred. The slaves' graves are not marked by stick or stone, because the custom of that time forbade it. The house at one time occupied by Peter Donohue, near the side entrance of Calvary, at Blissville, was built by Thomas Alsop, the father of William. Eventually, it fell into the hands of Paul Rapelyea. The farm surrounding it was part of the Alsop estate, derived from the marriage of Thomas Wandell with the widow Herrick, who owned it in 1750. After the death of Richard Alsop in 1790, the property was divided between the sons, John and Thomas. John retained the old homestead, and Thomas received the Blissville section. John Alsop died in April 1837, and his widow sold the property to a corporation, and it now embraced in Calvary. John Alsop left no children. Thomas, his brother, married Catherine Brinckerhoff, the daughter of George, a Revolutionary patriot residing at Dutch Kills. A British officer, Finlay McKay, cut his name on a pane of glass in the old Brinckerhoff house in 1776, and it remains there to this day. The well on the Alsop property, which was sunk at the time the mansion was built, still supplies water to many families in the neighborhood. The house was one hundred feet long, and the first floor was divided into four rooms, with a hallway eighteen feet wide. Two round windows, resembling port holes, were cut in the ends of the building in 1776 by Lord Cornwallis for musket practice, and as lookouts to guard against surprise. The chimney place, around which the slaves need to gather, had the capacity of receiving logs of wood ten feet in length. Rufus King married Mary Alsop. He died at Jamaica in 1827. Of this union came John Alsop King, who was Governor of this state from 1857 to 1859. Among the early settlers of New town were the Alsop family. Writers on English sur names inform us that this family derives its name from the village of Alsop, in Derbyshire. Richard Alsop, the progenitor of the Newtown family, was induced to locate here by his uncle, Thomas Wandell. Mr. Wandell, according to reminiscences in the Alsop family, had been a major in Cromwell's army; but, having some dispute with the "protector," was obliged to flee for safety, first to Holland and thence to America. Some doubts of this may he entertained, for Mr. Wandell was living at Mespat Kills in 1648, which was prior to the execution of King Charles, and when Cromwell enjoyed but a subordinate command in the parliamentary army. Mr. Wandell married the widow of William Herrick, whose plantation on Newtown Creek he bought in 1659. This was originally patented to Richard Brutnell on July 3, 1643. It was one of the three original plantations of Queens County, Long Island. To this he afterward added fifty acres for which Richard Colfax had obtained a patent in 1652. On this property,
since composing the Alsop farm, Mr. Wandell resided. He was one of the jury in 1665 for the trial of Ralph Hall and his wife for witchcraft, the only trial for witchery in this colony and shared the honor of acquitting the
accused. Some years later he visited England, and it is supposed that on his return he brought with him his sister's son, Richard Alsop, whom he made his heir. Mr. Wandell died in 1691 and was buried on the hill occupied by the Alsop cemetery. Many years later the silver plate of his coffin was discovered in digging a new grave. Richard Alsop, while yet under age, received a commission in the troop of horse. Inheriting the estate of his uncle he continued to reside upon it until his death, which occurred in October 1718, when he was 58 years old; but his widow, Hannah, who tradition says was a Dutch lady, whom he courted through an interpreter, attained her 91st year, and died August 23d 1757. The farm was subsequently bought by their son Richard Alsop, who was for twenty years a justice of the peace in Newtown. It remained in the family three generations longer. The last of the family who owned it died in 1837, and as he left no
heirs the farm was sold and the name Alsop became extinct in Newtown. A considerable part of this farm has been converted into the Catholic burial place known as Calvary Cemetery. The old house built by Mr. Wandell was destroyed in October 1879. The little Alsop cemetery is, fortunately for itself, snugly inclosed in Calvary; but by a reservation to the family it is still Protestant ground.
SOURCES:
The History of Middlesex County 1635-1885
J. H. Beers & Co., 36 Vesey Street, New York
1884; Transcribed by Janece Streig.
GENERAL HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY:
Pages 320-330
MIDDLETOWN - PROMINENT MEN:
Part 1; Pages 152 - 173.
Wikipedia:
The Richard Alsop, IV House (actually Richard Alsop, V, the 3rd of Middletown) National Historic Site is currently part of the Wesleyan University campus and has been carefully restored to its original condition. The Alsop house remains a monument to the skill of its designers, while serving Wesleyan University and the community as an art center.
Built Two Centuries and a Quarter Ago on the Shore of Newtown Creek ‒ Calvary's Absorption of Land the Cause ‒ Reminiscences of the Family; Destruction of the Alsop House: Brooklyn Eagle, March 28, 1880
HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY: with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals.
New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882.
pp. 329-408.
Inscription
Wife of Thomas D.
b. April 30, 1815
d. June 2, 1877
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