This is very likely; for
John Norton became in 1748 a pastor in the parish of East Hampton,
Middlesex Co., Conn., where he died in 1778; and one may still read on
his tombstone there the following inscription:
IN MEMORY OF
THE REV. JOHN NORTON
PASTOR OF THE 3D CHURCH IN CHATHAM
WHO DIED WITH SMALL POX
MARCH 24th AD 1778
IN THE 63D YEAR OF HIS AGE.
He left several children. Among them an unmarried daughter, who lived
till 1825. It is no mean touch and print of vital human sympathy that is
left upon the sod beneath the great tree in Shirley-field by the figure
of one who came and came again from a distant place to catch, it may be,
a note from the dreary Past and drop a tear upon the grave of a sister
whom she never saw.
To his Excellency William Shirley, Esq. Capt. Gen. and Gov'r in Chief
of this Province, the Hon'ble his Majesty's Council & House of
Representatives in Gen. Court assembled--
The Memorial of John Norton of Springfield in the County of Hampshire,
Clerk, humbly showeth That in the month of February, 1746, he entered
into the Service of the Province as a Chaplain for the Line of Forts on
the Western Frontier and continued in that service until the Twentieth
day of August following, when he was captivated at Fort Massachusetts
and carried to Canada by the enemy, where he was detained a prisoner for
the space of twelve months, during which time he constantly officiated
as a chaplain among his fellow-prisoners in the best manner he was able
under the great difficulties and suffering of his imprisonment, and your
Humble Petit'r begs leave further to inform your Excell'c.
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