The 1746 house of David Nevins, a merchant originally from Nova Scotia who settled in Canterbury, is located across from the Canterbury Green in the Canterbury Center Historic District. The house was built the same year that Nevins married Mary Lathrop, the daughter of Col. Simon Lathrop of Norwich. Nevins died in 1758, in circumstances described in the History of Norwich (1866), by Frances Manwaring Caulkins:
It was while engaged in repairing a bridge over the Quinebaug, between Canterbury and Plainfield, which had been partially destroyed in a severe freshet, that the first David Nevins of Connecticut lost his life. He was standing on one of the cross beams of the bridge, giving directions to the workmen, and had his watch in his hand, which he had just taken out to see the time, when, losing his balance, he fell into the swollen stream, was swept down by the current, and drowned before he could be rescued.
Nevins’ son, also named David, fought in the Revolutionary War. At different times, between 1842 and 1975, the house was used as a Parsonage for the nearby First Congregational Church. In the twentieth century, the house has undergone restoration, including the restoration of the chimney using stones found in the basement of the house.
We have had the house since the mid-1990’s and despite a few expenditures, this house is so well built that it runs as well or better than new construction.
All five fireplaces work. Nothing sags, leans, droops, or rattles.
We put a new wood shingle roof on last summer. The trusses are all original, in great shape, and except for maybe a three foot by ten foot section, the wood planks on the rafters are all original.
When you stand on the granite block at the front door and look left, you see where Route 14 crosses Route 169.
You are looking at the very spot where the French Army under Rochambeau marched through Canterbury on its way across Connecticut to White Plains and thence to Yorktown to end the American Revolution in victory.
Most likely, the bridge they used in crossing the Quinebaug River from Plainfield into Canterbury was the bridge at which David Nevins lost his life.