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Hubbell Family Collection
Collection, Ms B140
1750 – 1865
Account books, correspondence, deeds, schoolbooks, and other materials relating to Gershom Hubbell of Fairfield, his family members and legal papers from Hubbell's tenure as justice of the peace. Bibles with family records are also included. The Hubbell family's roots in Fairfield go back to immigrant ancester Richard Hubbell (1627-1699), who first appears in Fairfield records in 1664. He was an original member of the Stratfield Church and served as sergeant in the Fairfield militia and deputy to the colonial legislature, 1678-1681. Gershom Hubbell, son of Nathan (son of Richard's son Samuel), married three times and had 15 children; the children of his third marriage to Sarah St. John were Moses, Priscilla, William, Uriah, Susannah, Gershom, and Abraham. He served in the Greenfield militia company in 1765-7 and during the Revolutionary War, he served in 1776 in Elijah Abel's company (his descendants later filed for a pension for support of his widow Sarah). He also served as a justice of the peace in Fairfield. In 1751, he built a house in Greenfield Hill (1081 Hillside Road) which came to be known as Hubbell Homestead and was still standing in 2015. Rev. Timothy Dwight held divine service and taught school in a room of this house while his academy in Greenfield Hill was being built. Gershom's daughter, Priscilla, whose fiance was lost at sea, never married and remained in the family home until her death. The descendants of Gershom Hubbell maintained the house into the 20th century, and kept many of the family's antique items there until the 1930s. Gershom's grandson Uriah (son of Moses) married 1) Sally Sterling, daughter of Thaddeus Sterling Jr., and Eleanor Odgen of Fairfield (who later married Eliphalet Lyon, Jr.); their children were Augustus, John C., Adelia, Mary Ann, Charles, Arthur S., Rufus B., Rufus W., Perry B., and Priscilla Hubbell.
The collection consists of three boxes and four oversize items and is organized into six series. These include series for account books and other items related to Gershom Hubbell, including a series of legal papers from his service as justice of the peace in 1786-1787; account books, correspondence, and legal documents related to his children Priscilla and Uriah Hubbell, and to grandson Uriah Hubbell. A series of printed material includes several broadside poems by P. Payerweather of Bridgeport, and a small copy of the Adventures of Captain Gulliver. Items pertaining to different Hubbell family members (including a deed from immigrant ancestor Richard Hubbell, 1681) are included in the last series, and were added to the collection in order to keep materials from his family together. There is also a family Bible from Eleanor Ogden Lyon (whose daughter married into the Hubbell family). The oversize items include an account book for Uriah Hubbell, and family Bibles belonging to Priscilla Hubbell and Sally Hubbell.
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