Lieut. John
Griffin, a member of that family,
and perhaps born in that house, is said to have lived later opposite
the old Quaker Farms Cemetery, located on Captain Wooster Road.
Griffin was a prominent outdoorsman, with a
reputation both for his soldiering and his abilities as a successful
deer hunter.
Records of his residence include a statement by
Sharpe in Oxford Sketches and
Records, Part II. that "John Griffin had
land and a home on Good Hill in 1752, as in that year a high-way, three
rods wide, was laid out through his land, 'crossing the brook below the
dam and running round the south end of the pond,' as appears from the
records
of the Quaker Farms Purchase, from which it is probable he had a mill
there."
Another interesting reference to land owned in
Oxford by Lieut. John Griffin is an old deed to the Perry property on
Governor's Hill Road, which reads as follows: " ... I, Emma
Lounsbury of the Town of Oxford, County of New Haven and State of
Connecticut, for the consideration of one dollar and other valuable
considerations received to my full satisfaction of Raymond J. Perry of
the Town of Oxford, aforesaid, do give, grant, bargain, sell and
confirm unto the said Raymond J. Perry, one certaine piece of land
lying in that part of Oxford called Governor's Hill, containing three
acres more or less bounded on all three sides by
land of Mrs. Mary Ann Perry, widow of the late Charles Perry, and on
the
south side by highway called Tim Drake Roade, it being the same piece
which
was deeded to me by my mother Mary C. Lounsbury, which
was deeded to her by my father Dr. John Lounsbury,
which he bought of James McEwen and purchased by him
from Russell Hawkins and
his daughter Mrs. Sarah Candee, widow of
Robert
Candee of Naugatuck, Connecticut; and was formerly owned by Lieutenant
John
Griffin, who built a small house on it soon after the Revolutionary
War,
which stood over one hundred years, and is now dissolved, the cellar
being
there yet . .
Efforts to find the cellar hole have been
unproductive.
Concerning Griffin's military life, it appears to
have begun at an early age and continued throughout his long life. In
the
Colonial Records, Volume XV, p.341, is a record of the appointment of
John
Griffin as Lieutenant of the 12th Company of the 3rd Regiment.
His service in the American Revolution includes the
following participation:
