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Thomas Fitch
Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, 1754-1766
Born: 1696, Norwalk, Connecticut Governor Thomas Fitch guided the Colony of
Connecticut through the turbulent economic and political times before the
Revolutionary War but never lived to see the colonies become an independent
nation. Born in Norwalk, Connecticut about 16961, Thomas
Fitch was the oldest son and the first child of Thomas Fitch and his first
wife, Sarah (Boardman) Fitch. He was the fourth-generation "Thomas" in
Connecticut, and is sometimes called "Thomas IV". The Fitches were a wealthy
and noble family of Bocking, Essex, England, from which Thomas IV's
great-grandfather, Thomas I, emigrated to Connecticut with his mother and
two brothers in the 1600's; Thomas I and his brother Joseph were among the
founders of Norwalk. After early schooling in Norwalk, Thomas IV went
to Yale to study law. He was there during a period when some Yale professors
left the Congregational Church (the established church) for the Episcopalian
Church, shocking the Congregational-based society of Connecticut. Even
Thomas admitted to sympathizing with some Episcopalian teachings. After
graduation he went on to obtain a Master's degree. In 1724, Thomas
Fitch married Hannah Hall, born January 31, 1702 at New Haven, a daughter of
Richard Hall and Hannah Miles. Thomas and Hannah Fitch had six boys and four
girls, with two children dying young. The first child, a son born in 1725,
was also named Thomas. In 1726, during a period of "difficulties
arising in the town about ye Reverend Mr. Buckingham," the minister of the
Norwalk Congregational Church, Thomas Fitch was among those who occasionally
substituted until a new minister could be found. He was paid thirty
shillings a Sunday for his preaching. Fitch's experience in "supplying the
pulpit" (acting as a substitute preacher) of his home church demonstrated
that in spite of some earlier Episcopalian leanings, his views were now
acceptable to the established Congregational faith. In addition, the
experience provided a forum for his considerable oratorical skills.
Thomas Fitch's political career began shortly thereafter, in May of 1726,
with his election as a Deputy (representative) from Norwalk to the General
Assembly; he was re-elected for the Assembly sessions through 1728 and in
1729-1731. He served as an Assistant from 1734-1736 and from 1740-1750. From
1727-1733 and 1736-1737 he also served as a Justice of the Peace.
Several projects during the late 1730's and in the 1740's earned Fitch the
increased regard of his colleagues. He was part of a group that tried to set
up a much-needed steel factory in Connecticut. He represented Connecticut in
various crucial legal cases, arguing for Connecticut in 1738 in the
long-running (1671-1771) Mohegan land case, a dispute between the Mohegans,
the heirs of John Mason, and the Connecticut colony. His impressive legal
skills prompted Timothy Dwight, an early president of Yale, to call him
"probably the most learned lawyer who had ever been an inhabitant of the
Colony." He was on military committees and other committees of importance,
such as that petitioning the British Crown to reimburse Connecticut troops
in the victory of Louisburg (Nova Scotia, 1745), and the committee to
represent Connecticut in the Massachusetts-Connecticut border controversy
(1750). Fitch's greatest accomplishment before becoming governor was
his 1749 revision of the laws of Connecticut. Revisions had been done in
1702 and in 1715, but by 1742 there were many new laws, and another update
was badly needed. Fitch was on a committee that started the task in 1742,
but that group did not accomplish much. In 1744, Fitch was given sole
responsibility for the work. He did much of the revising himself but also
called on three others to help him -- Ebenezer Silliman, Andrew Burr, and
Captain Robert Walker. The General Assembly accepted the completed revision
in May, 1749. The new compilation, 256 pages long, was in great
demand. An initial printing of about 150 copies fell far short of the
thousand copies needed. Such a large printing was a huge undertaking at a
time when paper was handmade, sheet-by-sheet. Connecticut did not yet have a
paper mill, and the nearest one was in New York. Hand-turned presses
required that each page be typeset by hand and printed one sheet at a time.
It was four years later, in late 1753, before the full number of copies was
printed. The law revision behind him, Thomas Fitch's political star
began to rise in 1750. In November, Governor Jonathan Law died and the
General Assembly elected Roger Wolcott, the Deputy Governor under Law, as
Governor and Fitch as Deputy Governor, both to serve until the regular
election of May 1751. The pair was re-elected at that time, and Fitch, in
accordance with the custom of the time, was also appointed Chief Judge of
the Superior Court of Connecticut. It was unfortunate for Roger
Wolcott that one of the first major scandals to shake the government of the
Colony of Connecticut began in November of 1752, when a damaged Spanish ship
limped into New London harbor with its valuable cargo of gold doubloons and
indigo. The cargo was off-loaded and placed in local secured storage, but
portions of it still disappeared before the reconstructed ship finally left
in January of 1755. Many felt that Governor Wolcott was too lax in
prosecuting the thefts and in not providing sufficient protection to the
cargo. His perceived poor handling of the situation caused him to lose votes
in the 1754 elections, and Thomas Fitch was elected Governor of Connecticut.
The French and Indian War marked the first years of Fitch's administration.
This struggle between Britain and France for American lands lasted until the
French and their Native Americn allies surrendered to the British in 1760.
Connecticut gave large amounts of money, manpower, and supplies to the
conflict, sometimes beyond what it could afford. Tradition states that in
1755 Col. Thomas Fitch V, the governor's son, received the present of a song
as a joke from a British surgeon, Dr. Richard Shuckburgh. Using a popular
old marching tune, Shuckburgh is said to have written lyrics making fun of
Col. Fitch's troops: "Yankee Doodle went to town, a-riding on a pony...."
According to tradition, Col. Fitch is the original "Yankee Doodle". Years
later, during the Revolutionary War, colonial troops turned the tables by
adopting it as one of their favorite marching songs and playing it in front
of the English troops after Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga. The
conclusion of the war ended the money and manpower drain on Connecticut but
found the state greatly in debt, and a depression arose that lasted for
several years. King George III came to the throne in 1760, and, with timing
that was very bad for the American colonies, decided to recoup the costs of
the French and Indian War by increasing taxes. The Sugar Act of 1764 was the
first step and was very unpopular in the colonies in general. This act
required colonists to buy sugar only from British Caribbean sugar producers,
excluding French planters. This allowed British planters to raise their
prices, with the Crown getting a share of the increased profits.
Connecticut and the other colonies protested, but the Crown held firm,
assuming the complaints would pass. They did not, and the announcement of
the Stamp Act in March 1765 only made things worse. It required that anyone
buying any type of legal paper, or even paper for printing newspapers and
books, had to also buy a certifying stamp from the British, with the money
going to the Crown. Since the Crown had limited the number of paper mills
that could be built in the colonies, paper was sometimes difficult to get,
and people often had to import it from England. The act raised the price of
paper and made it even harder to obtain. News of the forthcoming
Stamp Act set off violent protests throughout New England and widened
existing political divisions in Connecticut. Western Connecticut had more
people and more money, traded easily with New York, and also had more
representatives in the General Assembly. It favored the "Old Lights" in the
religious controversy of the Great Awakening. It did not favor the Stamp Act
but felt that it was best to comply with it for the time being, and Governor
Fitch, a Norwalk resident, agreed. Eastern Connecticut, on the other
hand, had fewer people, was underdeveloped, and favored the "New Lights". It
resented the continuing efforts of wealthier western Connecticut merchants
to keep major trade away from eastern merchants. The compliant attitude of
western Connecticut towards the Stamp Act was the last straw for eastern
towns. Eliphalet Dyer and Jonathan Trumbull led a militant group of men from
the Norwich area, the "Sons of Liberty", in discrediting advocates of the
Stamp Act and working to place eastern Connecticut men in power. They staged
protests and attacked supporters of the Stamp Act, including Governor Fitch,
in the newspapers; they hung effigies of key politicians in trees and then
burned the effigies. In their determination to prevent the Stamp Act
from becoming law, the Sons of Liberty continued their agitation by leading
a mob of over 400 men and capturing Jared Ingersoll, the Royal Stamp
Distributor, as he was on his way to Hartford to speak to the General
Assembly about resigning. The Sons of Liberty forced him to sign a
resignation then and there, took him to Hartford, and made him read the
resignation to the General Assembly. At that point, Governor Fitch placed
Ingersoll under his personal protection and issued a general proclamation
against "turbulent" behavior. The Sons of Liberty responded by visiting
Fitch at his home and declaring that he would either let them in to seize
and burn the stamped paper there or his house would be burned down.
The Stamp Act was to become law on November 1, 1765. As that day approached,
Great Britain took extra measures to ensure compliance, requiring all
colonial governors to take an oath to enforce the act or pay a fine of five
thousand pounds and be dismissed from office. Governor Fitch delayed taking
the oath until two days before the deadline, in a vain hope that the act
would be recalled. It was not, and in the presence of witnesses, he signed
the Stamp Act on behalf of Connecticut. Jonathan Trumbull, William Pitkin,
and a few others were so upset at this that they left the room in disgust
just before the act was signed. The unpopular Stamp Act lasted only a
few months, as King George II officially withdrew it on March 19, 1766. An
unintended benefit of the act was that eastern Connecticut did something
about the paper situation. By December 1766, Christopher Leffingwell of
Norwich had started the first paper mill in Connecticut and the
Connecticut Gazette (New Haven) was being printed on paper from that
mill. Eastern Connecticut had control of one Connecticut industry, at least.
Then, on the one-year anniversary of the repeal, the feisty Sons of Liberty
celebrated by putting up a special "Liberty Pole" and placing a
commemorative announcement in the Connecticut Courant (Hartford),
asking the blessings of heaven on His Royal Majesty for that repeal.
The times were changing, and Fitch was on the wrong side of the emerging
political scene. Just before the election of 1766, he published an anonymous
pamphlet defending his signing of the Stamp Act, but it was too late.
William Pitkin was elected Governor in 1766, with Jonathan Trumbull as
Deputy Governor. Trumbull, sympathetic to the views of the Sons of Liberty,
assumed the governorship in 1769 and remained in office throughout the
Revolutionary War. Following his 1766 defeat, Thomas Fitch served in
the General Assembly. His supporters attempted to have him re-elected as
governor in the 1770's but were unsuccessful. In 1769, he served on a
committee, and in 1772, was the Deputy from Norwalk to the General Assembly.
He retired after that and spent much time reading under an elm tree he had
planted in 1749. The tree, which came to be called "King Elm", lasted until
about 1900 when it was destroyed by beetles. Governor Thomas Fitch
died on July 18, 1774 and was buried in East Norwalk Historical Cemetery,
now the oldest cemetery in Norwalk. The Fitch house was partially burned in
the July 11 and 12, 1779 British invasion of Norwalk, so only one wing
remained. Fitch's wife, Hannah, having been evacuated from Norwalk at the
time of the British raid, probably returned to Norwalk before she died in
August 17792, at the age of 78. Fitch descendants lived in the
reconstructed house until 1945. In 1956, the structure lay in the path of
the Connecticut Turnpike (Interstate 95). Through community efforts the
small wing that had survived the British raid was saved and moved out of the
path of the road. It is today part of the Mill Hill Historic Park in
Norwalk. Thomas Fitch's family received some of the "Firelands" in the
Connecticut Western Reserve in Ohio, lands reserved especially for those who
had been burned out by the British in the Revolutionary War. The town of
Fitchville, in Huron County, Ohio, was partly built on land that was given
to the family of Governor Fitch and so was named for him. Mill Hill Historic
Park, Wall Street and East Avenue, Norwalk, (phone 1-203-846-0525) includes
the Governor Fitch law office (set on rocks from the original Fitch home's
foundation), the earliest Norwalk cemetery, a schoolhouse, and the Townhouse
Museum. Portrait There is no known portrait of Thomas
Fitch. Footnotes 1 Various sources give
different birthdates, ranging from 1696 to 1700. The epitaph on Fitch's
headstone ends with the sentence: "Having served his generation by the will
of God, [he] fell asleep July 18, Anno Domini 1774, in the 78th
year of his age." 2 Connecticut Journal and New-Haven
Post-Boy, August 18, 1769. Bibliography Caulkins,
Frances Manwaring. History of Norwich, Connecticut, pp. 365-367.
Hartford: Press of Case, Lockwood & Brainard, 1873 [CSL Call number F 104
.N93 C3 1874]. Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of
the Graduates of Yale College...October, 1701-May 1745. New York: Henry
Holt and Company, 1885 [CSL call number HistRef LD 6323 .D5].
Encyclopedia of Connecticut. New York: Somerset Publishers, Inc., 1994
[CSL Call Number GIS Ref F 92 .E53 1994]. The Fitch Papers, 2
Vols., in Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, VII
(1918) and XVIII (1920) [CSL Call Number F 91.C7]. Fedor, Ferenz.
The Birth of Yankee Doodle. New York: Vantage Press, 1976 [CSL call
number 974.62 N83f]. Fitch, John T. Descendants of the Reverend
James Fitch, 1622-1902. Rockport, ME: Picton Press, 1996- [CSL call
number CS 71 .F545 1996]. _______________. A Fitch Family History:
English Ancestors of the Fitches of Colonial Connecticut. Camden, ME:
Picton Press, 1990 [CSL call number CS 439 .F512 1990]. Fitch, Roscoe
Conkling. History of the Fitch Family, A.D. 1400-1930. N.p.: The
Fitch Family, 1930 [CSL call number CS 71 .F 545 1930]. Highways &
Byways of Connecticut. Hartford: G. Fox & Co., [1947] [CSL call number F
94 .H54 1947]. National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New
York: James White & Company, 1900, s.v. "Fitch, Thomas", vol. X, p. 327 [CSL
call number E 176 .N27]. Norton, Frederick Calvin. The Governors of
Connecticut. Hartford: Connecticut Magazine Co., 1905 [CSL call number
HistRef F 93 .N 88 1905]. Raimo, John W. Biographical Directory of
American Colonial and Revolutionary Governors 1607-1789. Westport, CT:
Meckler Books, 1980 [CSL call number E 187.5 .R34]. Originally
prepared by David O. White, Museum of Connecticut History, Connecticut State
Library. Edited and revised by CSL Staff , October 2002. Copyright © 2002.
College: Graduated from Yale in 1721
Political Party: No
declared political party
Offices: Norwalk Justice of Peace,
1727-1733, 1736-1737
Died: July 18, 1774,
Norwalk, Connecticut