John Trumbull (1715-1787) graduated from Yale College
in 1735 and became pastor of the Westbury (now Watertown)
Congregational church in 1739. Trumbull was known for
his generosity and charm, as well as for his sense of
humor. His nephew was Connecticuts Governor Jonathan
Trumbull, the only colonial governor to support the war
for independence. Gov. Trumbulls son was the artist
John Trumbull, whose paintings of the Revolutionary War,
including the signing of the Declaration of Independence,
are on view in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol
building.
Rev. John Trumbull married Sarah Whitman, the daughter
of a Farmington minister, in 1744. They had three children
who survived childhood: Sarah, who married a Hartford
doctor; John, who became a renowned poet and lawyer and
served in the state legislature; and Lucy, who married
a minister in Danbury.
Rev. Trumbull and his wife taught their son John Latin
and prepared him for the Yale entrance examinations when
he was still a young child; he passed the entrance exams
to Yale when he was only 7 years old, but waited to enter
college until he was a teenager. John Trumbull published
his first major poem when he was 22, and he passed the
bar exam when he was 23. He worked briefly in the Boston
law office of future president John Adams. Trumbull was
the lawyer for Waterburys Thomas Hickcox, Jr. when
enslaved African American and Revolutionary War soldier
Joseph Munn petitioned for his freedom from Hickcox.
Rev. Trumbulls will mentions one woman and three
girls enslaved by his family: Lemmon was left to his widow;
Mabel to his son John, then living in Hartford and serving
in the state legislature; Peg was to remain with his daughter
in Hartford; and Cate was to remain with his daughter
in Danbury. Shortly after Trumbull's death, his widow
moved to Hartford to live with her daughter.
Rev. Trumbull had several other people enslaved in his
household, including a girl named Hagar, who died in 1759,
and a man named Grigg, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary
War and died in 1779.
Rev. Trumbulls cousin, Rev. Benjamin Trumbull, was
minister of the North Haven church and delivered a Discourse
to the Freemen of New Haven in 1773; the discourse
was published and a copy was owned by Waterbury resident
Dan Cambridge, a free African American.
Engraving of the Trumbull house as it was originally constructed.
Illustrated in Joseph Anderson, The Town and City of
Waterbury, Volume I, 1896.
Rev. John Trumbull's Will, 1787
The first page of Trumbull's will. Collection
of the Connecticut State Library, State Archives.
Rev. John Trumbull's Will, 1787
The second page of Trumbull's will. Lemmon is given to
Trumbull's widow, and provisions are made for Lemmon should
she become a financial burden to his estate. Collection
of the Connecticut State Library, State Archives.
Rev. John Trumbull's Will, 1787
The third page of Trumbull's will. Mabel is given to Trumbull's
son John. Collection of the Connecticut State Library,
State Archives.
Rev. John Trumbull's Will, 1787
The fourth page of Trumbull's will. Peg is given to Trumbull's
daughter Sarah Perkins, and Cate is given to his daughter
Lucy Landgon. Collection of the Connecticut State Library,
State Archives.
Rev. John Trumbull's Will, 1787
The fifth page of Trumbull's will. Collection
of the Connecticut State Library, State Archives.
Rev. John Trumbull's Will, 1787
The sixth page of Trumbull's will. Collection
of the Connecticut State Library, State Archives.