CHARLES BISHOP, a retired businessman
of New London, was born in Montville, Conn., June 20, 1813. Son of Charles
and Charlotte (Lattimer) Bishop, he comes of English origin. His first
American ancestor, Nicholas Bishop, was kidnapped from the Isle of Wight
when a boy, brought to this country, and sold to a man named Dart for the
price of his passage. When Nicholas reached manhood, he married Dart's
daughter. They had a son, Nicholas, who married Hannah Douglas on February
14, 1749. This Nicholas had five sons and four daughters. His fourth child
and third son, Joseph, born August 14, 1758, who was a farmer in Montville,
married Desire Gilbert in 1781. Of Joseph's four sons and five daughters
the first child was a girl, and two sons and three daughters grew up.
Charles Bishop, the father of the subject
of this sketch, was born in Montville, April 20, 1784. In his early manhood
he was a farmer and a school teacher; but afterward he went into the grocery
business, setting up a store in New London, near the centre of the town.
He died in this town at the age of eighty-two. His wife, Charlotte, a daughter
of Henry and Sarah (Christophers) Lattimer, whom he married in September,
1809, had seven sons and one daughter, all of whom reached old age. They
were: John and David, who each died at eighty-two; Charles, the subject
of this sketch; Joseph, who died when past middle age; Charlotte, the widow
of Ezra S. Beckwith; Henry, who died in 1891; Gilbert, a retired lumberman
of New London; and Elias, the superintendent of the cemetery.
Charles Bishop received his education in
the district schools and in Chesterfield. When he was sixteen years old,
he obtained employment in a store as a clerk, and stayed there four years.
Then he went to Fisher's Island for a short time. When he was twenty he
began to learn the carpenter's trade, serving two years with his elder
brother John. He and John started in the lumber and building business in
1838. In 1892 he retired.
Mr. Bishop built his large and handsome house,
16 Franklin Street, in 1866. Besides this he owns twenty tenements and
a cottage at Eastern Point. In politics he is a Democrat. He was Selectman,
Councilman, and Assessor for a number of years. He has also served on the
Board of Relief. Although trained in the Baptist church, he has been an
earnest member of the Universalist congregation for years; and he helped
that society very much in building their last church edifice. The first
of his two marriages was contracted with Cynthia Davidson, of Preston,
in 1838. Of their eight children, three died in childhood. The others were:
Charlotte, the wife of the Hon. Thomas M. Waller; Dr. H. M. Bishop, now
in Los Angeles, Cal.; Charles A., a lumberman in New London; Adam F., a
dentist in New London; and George, now dead, who was a dentist in California,
and left a widow and three sons in Los Angeles. Mrs. Cynthia Davidson Bishop
died in 1892; and in 1893, Mr. Bishop married Mrs. Cordelia Sanford Young,
a widow, of Danielson, Conn.
(Photo attached)
Biographical Review Volume
XXVI
Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens
of New London County Connecticut
Boston
Biographical Review Publishing Company
1898
pgs 262 - 264
|
