Happy Thanksgiving! A classic example of a colonial house with few alterations is the Eliel Williams House, at 82 Elm Street in Rocky Hill, built in 1769. According to Vol. 3 of the Encyclopedia of Connecticut Biography (1917), Corporal Eliel Williams was
born in Stepney Parish, January 30, 1746, died there August 2, 1819. He was one of the four corporals enrolled under Captain John Chester, and sent from Wethersfield on the Lexington Alarm and fought at Bunker Hill. He married Comfort Morton, a maternal descendant of Governor Thomas Welles, and her great-great-paternal grandmother, Honor Treat, was a sister of Governor Robert Treat, and wife of John Deming, one of the first settlers of Wethersfield.
The house is also known as the Merriam Williams House, after Eliel Williams’ son. According to the same source quoted above,
Merriam Williams, son of Corporal Eliel Williams, was born in Stepney Parish, July 3, 1785, and died May 10, 1857. He was a tanner and currier and shoe manufacturer of Rocky Hill, also a landowner and farmer. He married Elizabeth Danforth, daughter of Thomas Danforth, a manufacturer and merchant of Rocky Hill.
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