Ancestors

Ozias Bidwell

Ozias Bidwell was born about 1734, a son of William Bidwell and Abigail Pitkin. His mother was a daughter of Ozias Pitkin, and he carried his grandfather's given name. He farmed at East Hartford, Connecticut, on the east bank of the Connecticut River across from Hartford.

He married three times. His first wife was Penelope Beckwith. She bore him William in 1766, Martha in 1768, and two sons named Ozias Pitkin and George, probably twins. She died on 30 August 1770, and her stone at East Hartford reads: "Here lies entered ye Body of Mrs. Penolophe Wife of Mr. Ozias Bidwell."

A year later, on 4 September 1771, he married Esther Brooks of Haddam. She was born Esther Brainerd, a daughter of Phineas Brainerd, and was already a widow with a small son. Over the next twenty five years she bore him eleven more children: Esther in 1772, Anna, Elizabeth, George in 1782, Heman, John in 1785, Abigail in 1788, the twins Hannah and Huldah in March 1789, Fabadus in 1792 and Jerusha in 1796.

Esther died on 3 November 1801. Her death notice, as the Brainerd genealogy prints it, called her "the amiable consort of Ozias Bidwell" and said she had left "a disconsolate husband and 14 children to mourn her loss." He married a third time, a Widow Smith who had been born a Butler.

He died at Glastonbury, at the house of his daughter Esther. The Brainerd genealogy gives about 30 March 1821. The Bidwell genealogy says about 1822. He was in his late eighties.

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Cite: Heirology, "Ozias Bidwell (1734-1821)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/ozias-bidwell-1734-1821-e9dbc1.