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Writer's pictureDonn Smith

Enigmas in the attic…two 175-year old documents

How did these documents make their way to the Homestead

attic—and why were they saved and sequestered for so long?


It is unlikely that those questions will be answered, but the documents offer us a glimpse into the justice system of the 1840s, a time shortly after the death of Deacon Joseph Mather.


The first is “A true copy of the original petition and citation” of Charles Raymond for a conservator for Sally S. Raymond.


Dated 5 August 1845, it is Charles Raymond’s petition for the appointment of “some meet person” as conservator for Sally S. Raymond, his sister, who “for a long time past hath been a lunatic and distracted person utterly incapable of taking care of herself or her property…”


Genealogies of the Raymond Families of New England indicates that Sally Ann Raymond was a daughter of Munson Gould Raymond and is shown as “insane from early womanhood.”


Charles F. Raymond (1803-1890) and Sally Raymond (1809-1846) were the children of Munson Gould Raymond. Their great-grandfather was Samuel Raymond who was also the father of Rebecca Raymond, the third wife of


Rev. Moses Mather. By that, she was the stepmother of Deacon Mather. Rebecca died in 1785, sixty years before this petition and there is no other apparent connection to the Mathers.


It appears that Sally died 6 October 1846, a little more than a year after the petition, but no record of her burial has been found.




* * * *

The second document is a County Court Writ to “attach the goods or estate of Charles Reed of said Norwalk (an absconding debtor whose person is not liable to imprisonment) to the value of $400…”


The writ summons him “to appear before Superior Court, to be holden (sic) at Fairfield within and for the County of Fairfield on the 2nd Tuesday of February 1843 then and there to answer unto Samuel Street of said Norwalk in a plea of the case, whereupon the Plaintiff declares and says, that the Defendant in and by a certain Writing or Note, under his hand, by him well executed dated the 7th day of April 1840 promised the Plaintiff to pay him on demand (for value received,) the sum of two hundred and sixty seven dollars with interest till paid…”


Samuel Street (8 Jan 1785-27 Mar 1847) was the husband of Clara Mather Street, a daughter of Deacon Joseph Mather.


Interestingly, Carrie Mather, a daughter of Henry B. Mather, and cousin to Stephen T.Mather, married a George Reed (1836-1911). George Reed’s father was Charles Reed of Norwalk (21 Aug 1811-1 Feb 1891).


Was he the same Charles Reed who was the debtor? Was the debt ever collected?



With these documents, the attic may have given us more questions than answers, but as always, offers us insight into the lives and events woven into the history of Mather Homestead.
























With these documents, the attic may have given us more questions than answers,

but as always, offers us insight into the lives and events woven into the history of Mather Homestead.







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