On Greene’s Alley in New London is the home of Reverend Samuel Seabury, which was built around 1792. Rev. Seabury was an Episcopal minister and a loyalist during the Revolutionary War, who was selected at a 1783 meeting in the Glebe House in Woodbury to become the first American Episcopal Bishop. Rev. Seabury also lived in an earlier house, built in 1743 (unless it’s the same house?). After his death, in 1796, he was succeeded as rector of St James Church in New London by his son, Rev. Charles Seabury.
Rev. Samuel Seabury House (1792)
How come I can not find this address “Greene’s Alley” on any google maps?
Thanks for the photo and please email me anytime
nathanseabury@gmail.com
it is between Golden and Starr Street. A small street formerly known as “Cross Street”. My house is on the corner of Green and Greens Alley
If this was the home of Rev. Samuel Seabury, then why does the plaque on the house say “Rev. Samuel West”?
Hi Jen,
The Rev Seabury first moved into the house as Cross Street (called then) was opened from the land of Timothy Green (printer) who had his print shoppe on modern day state street. Rev. Samuel West moved in the house in 1803 until about 1814 or so. It was later known as the Rev. Samuel West House and there used to be a small plaque on it (stone wall).
According to Frances Caulkins’ History of New London (1895), p. 445, land on Main Street was given for a St. James rectory by 1748 by Samuel Edgecombe. The image you link to from Beardsley’s biography of Samuel Seabury is of that house. An 1896 St. James commemorative booklet says that building was still standing (100 years after Seabury’s death), and also says it was very close to Douglass Street,.
A rectory at that location would have been right across the street from the church of that time.
What documentation do you have for the Greens Alley building? Many thanks, Mary