...to
remain in his
own business within the limits of Woodbury and Derby."42
Tomlinson had two sons,
aged 23 and 25, who were more pronouncedly pro-British. They fled early
in the conflict to New York because of their beliefs. A letter from
father to his sons in January, 1780 probably sums up the feelings of
many people whose lives were embroiled in the conflict. In part, Isaac
says that "My family and friends in New York hoping there may be
some way to accommodate the unhappy differences which now separates
friends and acquaintances."43
Probably the most sad and poignant story concerns Noah
Candee. Born in 1736, this scion of the
large Candee clan had an estate near the
headwaters of Little River on Christian Street.44
In 1768 he joined the Congregational church in Oxford along with his
wife Martha.45
They had six children who "were
born subjects of Great Britain and all of them served in the
Revolutionary
Army,"47 and cousin David's son Samuel
was
a veteran of the Bunker Hill battle and British prisoner.48
Noah however, "was a Tory, and no doubt lost his farm on that
account"
due to confiscation by the state of Connecticut.49
More suffering followed, as "his family was tabooed by the other
Candees
on that account."50
Probably of small comfort to Noah is the fact that another
Oxford Candee, Dr. Enos, had his estate
confiscated in 1781 for being "a Tory
in the Revolution."51
The previous examples confirm that there were those in
Oxford who had conservative
42
Litchfield,
Oxford
56.
43 Litchfield,
Oxford
576. Italics added
44 The homestead
is near where the present-day rail trail crosses Christian Street just
south of
Oxford Airport.
45 Charles Candee Baldwin, The Candee Genealogy
(Cleveland, Ohio: Leader Printing Company, 1882) 17.
46 W. C. Sharpe,
History of Oxford, Part First
(Seymour, Connecticut: Record Print, 1910) 17.
47 Baldwin, 17.
48 Baldwin, 25.
49 Baldwin, 17.
50 Baldwin, 17.
51 Baldwin, 24.
