The book Madison: Three Hundred Years By the Sea (1976), p. 39, dates the Abraham Cruttenden (or Crittenden) House to 1639. Abraham Cruttenden was one of the original settlers of what would become Madison and he arrived in New Haven with other settlers of Guilford in 1639. A more recent dating of the house, which is a Colonial cape at 123 Boston Post Road in Madison, is 1735. In 1967, Yale architect Albert Riese erected a mid-century modern box at the rear of the house as a wing for his elderly mother. Riese’s daughter and her husband extensively renovated the house in 2012.
Abraham Cruttenden House (1735)
I am a direct lineal descendant of Abraham Cruttenden – one of the founders of Guilford, Connecticut – through descent from his daughter Mary (Cruttenden) Bartlett, who married my Bartlett surname ancestor George
Bartlett in Guilford on 14 September 1650.
The link attached to the Cruttenden house site takes you to a genealogical site showing an erroneous birth year of Abraham Cruttenden of 1610, which is not correct. Prior to his immigration into Connecticut, Abraham Cruttenden was for several years a resident of Hawkhurst in Kent. Both Abraham Cruttenden and William Chittenden, two of the founders of Guilford, attended the Parish Church of St. Laurence With All Saints in Hawkhurst, (still in operation today). Baptismal entries for six children of Abraham Cruttenden were recorded in the Hawkhurst Parish Register, cited as follows: Thomas on 22 February 1624 (obvious proof that Abraham Cruttenden was not born in 1610 as various researchers claim), Abraham Jr. on 24 December 1626, Isaack on 01 November 1629, Mary on 29 April 1632, Elizabeth on 30 November 1634, and Hannah on 25 January 1637. These same six children of Abraham Cruttenden be placed in Guilford – plus Deborah, who was presumably born following the family’s arrival in New England, per Genealogies of Connecticut Families, From the New England Historical & Genealogical Register (hereafter referred to as GCF), selected and introduced by Gary Boyd Roberts, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1983, p. 502. Although the name is sometimes rendered as Crittenden, it was recorded as Cruttenden in the Hawkhurst Parish Register.
Most genealogical works identify Mary (Cruttenden) Bartlett’s mother as Mary Hinkson. The Hawkhurst Parish Register does not support this, however. The mother’s name is not given for the first four Cruttenden children baptized in Hawkhurst, and in the case of the last two, the mother is identified as Elizabeth. GCF, p. 502 states concerning Abraham Cruttenden the immigrant, “It is said that he came from the county of Kent in England and had been a neighbor of William Chittenden, whose widow he afterwards married”. The proof of this contention is found in the Hawkhurst Parish Register, on the first page encompassing the period 25 March 1636 through 25 March 1637. On that page are entries for Thomas baptized 20 November 1636, son of William Chittenden & Joana his wife, and for Hannah baptized 25 January 1637, daughter of Abraham Cruttenden & Elizabeth his wife. Abraham Cruttenden married the widow Joanna Chittenden on 31 May 1665 in Guilford, per GCF p 502.
Martha A. Lynes published an article in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 160, No. 639 July 2006 “The Ancestry of William Chittenden of Guilford, Connecticut” in which she identifies the wife of Abraham Cruttenden of Guilford, Connecticut, as Elizabeth. At the time she wrote the article, she was unable to determine Elizabeth’s maiden surname. (Joan Sheafe Chittenden – William Chittenden’s widow – was the second wife of Abraham Cruttenden, hence the connection to the Chittenden article.) That Elizabeth was the given name of Abraham’s first wife was determined by the baptism records of his children in Hawkhurst, Kent, England. (It is fitting to mention that this information had already been uncovered by a professional genealogist in England, John Dagger, who I had hired some twenty years earlier. I received his report in November of 1986, and have shared it with Cruttenden researchers ever since).
In the January 2011 (Vol. 165, No. 657) issue of the NEHGR, an article by Leslie Mahler entitled “The English Ancestry of Elizabeth Usborne, First Wife of Abraham Cruttenden of Guilford, Connecticut”, pp. 15-26, identifies Elizabeth’s surname as Usborne. An extensive search in local wills yielded the essential information to develop Elizabeth’s ancestry. She was baptized (christened) on 13 Jan 1597/1598 in Staplehurst, Kent, England. Her parents were Thomas Usborne and Ann Bridgeland. She was married to Abraham Cruttenden by 1623. Elizabeth’s connection to Abraham Cruttenden is proven by the will of her brother Peter Usborne of Staplehurst “dated 2 November 1632, proved 26 Nov. 1632, naming ‘Thomas Abraham Isaack and Mary as the children of ‘Elizabeth Crittenden my sister’.” These were the four oldest children of Abraham Cruttenden baptized in Hawkhurst. Mahler goes on to trace Elizabeth Usborne’s family back several generations to Osbert Usborne b. abt. 1425 in Staplehurst.
These two articles are a must read for any descendants of Abraham Cruttenden of Guilford.
Moreover, as already affirmed, the 22 February 1624 baptismal date for Thomas Cruttenden, the eldest child born to Abraham & Elizabeth (Usborne) Cruttenden, renders the 1610 birth year shown for Abraham Cruttenden in many sources quite impossible. Abraham’s wife Elizabeth Usborne was baptized 13 Jan 1597/8 in the parish of Staplehurst, Kent. Abraham Cruttenden was probably the Abraham son of Thomas Cruttenden, baptized in the parish Etchingham, Sussex 30 Sep 1599. Hawkhurst and Cranbrook by the way, are located in between Staplehurst and Etchingham on the A229. Another possible candidate might be the Abraham Cruttenden who was the third son of William Cruttenden of Burwash in East Sussex, 8 miles west of Hawkhurst in Kent. The will of William Cruttenden, on file in the East Sussex Archives in Lewes, was prepared in 1638. Son Abraham Cruttenden was left £30, which opens a window for further research.
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