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The Robinsons, along with the Fays, were among the first settlers of Bennington, and both families played important parts in the history of Bennington and in the history of Vermont. It is to Samuel Robinson, Senior, that Jennings attributes the formation of the town and the impetus toward settlement in the first place. Samuel was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1705. After his marriage to Marcy Leonard of Southbury, he moved to Hardwick, Massachusetts, where he lived for 26 years. All of his children were born in Hardwick.
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"Captain Samuel Robinson, returning to his home in Massachusetts from one of the campaigns of the Continental army in the French war, mistaking his route, passed, by accident, this way; and, impressed by the attractiveness of the country, resolved to obtain others to join him and come up and settle here. His resolution was carried into effect. Others agreed to accompany him."
(Jennings, Isaac, Memorials of a century : embracing a record of individuals and events, chiefly in the early history of Bennington, Vt. and its First Church, Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1869, p. 20).
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The first group of settlers, according to Jennings, included "the families of Peter Harwood, Eleazer Harwood, Samuel Pratt and Timothy Pratt, from Amherst, Mass.; Leonard Robinson and Samuel Robinson, Jr., from Hardwick Mass. The party, including women and children, numbered twenty-two." --a small group indeed (pp. 21-22).
"Samuel Robinson, Sen., Esq., was the adknowledged leader in the band of pioneers in the settlement of the town; and continued to exercise almost a controlling authority in the affairs of the town, the remainder of his life." (Jennings, p. 204, with a footnote to the Vermont History Magazine). Robinson died of smallpox in 1767, while on a political mission to the King in England, not long after the formation of the community.
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It was not until somewhat later, in 1766, that the Fays came to Bennington. Like the Robinsons, Stephen Fay and his family also moved north from Hardwick. One of Stephen's sons, Jonas, had, at the age of 19, been clerk to the military company of Samuel Robinson, in one of the campaigns of the French war.
Jonas, Jennings says, "at once took a prominent position among the leading actors who came upon the stage in that eventful period of the history of the town and State and nation" (page 255). Jonas' story is told elsewhere.
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The Robinsons and the Fays were connected not only by their settlement in Hardwick and subsequent move to Bennington, and not only by their remarkable achievements in the political arena, but also by marriages and by births. Samuel Robinson had ten children who survived into adulthood; Stephen had eleven, all but one of whom married. These marriages included three Robinson - Fay pairs.
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A word needs to be said on the sources for the descendant lines below. The compilation of the lists began with Orlin, and the lists were then filled in with material from Sarah Robinson's short publication. This latter is important enough that a separate page is planned for Sarah. Once those two publications had been drawn upon, additions were made from census records and other sources.
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Some of Jenning's material can be seen in the "original sources" section, under Jennings. |
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