Daniel Adams, Rebecca Cable, Sarah Turney

Daniel Adams, who was born in 1679 at Fairfield, Connecticut, married two wives. The first, to whom he was wed about 1701, was Rebecca Cable, who was a few years older than he. After Rebecca's death he married Sarah Turney. By these wives Daniel became father to at least three sons and three daughters; there may have been others who died young. The Adams family lived in the part of Fair­field called Fairfield North Village.

By 1725 there were enough families in the North Village that they felt they should have a parish of their own, and they applied for such to the General Assembly of Connecticut Colony. Daniel Adams was among the seventy-one signers of the petition. The document was drawn up as follows:

TO THE HONORABLE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, sitting at Hartford the second Thursday of May, 1725, The humble prayer of the inhabitants of Fairfield North Village humbly showeth, that there are about fifty families liv­ing north of Fairfield, at a considerable distance from the town, some five or six miles, & the nearest of them about two miles & a half or more, whose lists amount to ,4,000, which inhabi­tants labor under great difficulties on account of their enjoyment of some of the precious means of grace, especially the pro­claim­ing of the word of life, in the ordinary way & means God uses in the conversion & bringing home poor, lost & undone sinners. Not only ourselves are frequently obliged to be absent from divine worship, but our poor children are under a kind of necessity of perishing for lack of vision, both which are very troublesome to those who are inquiring what they shall do to be saved, & that are hungering & thirsting after Christ & salvation & righteousness in & through him. The distance of the way, especially in bad weather, utterly inca­pacitates many persons, old & young, to go to the house of God, which makes us willing rather to expend considerable of our earthly treas­ure in maintaining the public worship of God among ourselves than to lose our spiritual treasure & undo any of our poor, immortal souls, esteeming each of them better than one thousand worlds.

The Assembly granted this petition, provided the inhabitants of the northwest parish paid all their dues to the old parish of Fairfield as before, until the Court should take further action in their case.

Necessary preparations were made, and on the eighteenth day of May in 1726, the minister they had procured was ordained, and they became a separate congregation. The following year the General Assem­bly gave their parish the name of Greenfield. According to the custom of those days, in naming a par­ish set off from other parishes, the first part of the name was taken from Green=s Farms and the latter part from Fair­field, making Greenfield.

In 1733 Daniel deeded land to his daughter Rebecca and son-in-law William Stevens. How soon after this he died is not known.

Historical information is from The History of Fairfield, by Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbell Schenck, Vol. 2, pp. 78, 79, 86.

-------------------- Daniel Adams, who was born in 1679 at Fairfield, Connecticut, married two wives. The first, to whom he was wed about 1701, was Rebecca Cable, who was a few years older than he. After Rebecca=s death he married Sarah Turney. By these wives Daniel became father to at least three sons and three daughters; there may have been others who died young. The Adams family lived in the part of Fair­field called Fairfield North Village.

By 1725 there were enough families in the North Village that they felt they should have a parish of their own, and they applied for such to the General Assembly of Connecticut Colony. Daniel Adams was among the seventy-one signers of the petition. The document was drawn up as follows:

         TO THE HONORABLE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, sitting at Hartford the second Thursday of May, 1725, The humble prayer of the inhabitants of Fairfield North Village humbly showeth, that there are about fifty families liv­ing north of Fairfield, at a considerable distance from the town, some five or six miles, & the nearest of them about two miles & a half or more, whose lists amount to ,4,000, which inhabi­tants labor under great difficulties on account of their enjoyment of some of the precious means of grace, especially the pro­claim­ing of the word of life, in the ordinary way & means God uses in the conversion & bringing home poor, lost & undone sinners. Not only ourselves are frequently obliged to be absent from divine worship, but our poor children are under a kind of necessity of perishing for lack of vision, both which are very troublesome to those who are inquiring what they shall do to be saved, & that are hungering & thirsting after Christ & salvation & righteousness in & through him. The distance of the way, especially in bad weather, utterly inca­pacitates many persons, old & young, to go to the house of God, which makes us willing rather to expend considerable of our earthly treas­ure in maintaining the public worship of God among ourselves than to lose our spiritual treasure & undo any of our poor, immortal souls, esteeming each of them better than one thousand worlds.

The Assembly granted this petition, provided the inhabitants of the northwest parish paid all their dues to the old parish of Fairfield as before, until the Court should take further action in their case.

Necessary preparations were made, and on the eighteenth day of May in 1726, the minister they had procured was ordained, and they became a separate congregation. The following year the General Assem­bly gave their parish the name of Greenfield. According to the custom of those days, in naming a par­ish set off from other parishes, the first part of the name was taken from Green=s Farms and the latter part from Fair­field, making Greenfield.

In 1733 Daniel deeded land to his daughter Rebecca and son-in-law William Stevens. How soon after this he died is not known.