Table of Contents
Brainard and Foote family papers
A Guide to the collection at the Connecticut Historical Society
Collection Overview |
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| Repository: | Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut |
| Creator : | Brainard and Foote families |
| Title : | Brainard and Foote Family Papers |
| Dates : | 1722-1866 |
| Extent : | 0.5 linear feet (1 box) |
| Location: | Ms 54416-54425 |
| Language: | English |
Biographical Sketch
Stephen and Daniel Brainard of East Haddam, Connecticut, were the sons of Daniel Brainard, the second of that name in the state. Daniel was born in 1690 and died in 1728. Stephen was born in 1699. Stephen married Susannah Gates and they settled in the Westchester Parish section of Colchester, Connecticut. Among their children were Stephen (1741/42-1820) and William (b. 1746). Stephen married Rachel Day. He was a farmer and a Captain in the Revolutionary War. Among their children was Olive (1778-1867). William married Lucy Day, daughter of Abraham and Irene Foote Day. Their children included William (b. 1773), Ezra (1777-1851) and Amaziah (1780-1841). Ezra married his cousin Olive Brainard and they had a daughter named Oliver (1803-1884). William Brainard married Patience Foote and they had children Jerusha (1800-1828), Nathaniel Foote Brainerd (1802-1878), and Lucy Day Brainerd (1804-1857). Amaziah Brainard married Huldah Foote (1791-1881), the daughter of Nathaniel and Abigail Foote. Amaziah was a justice of the peace and a representative to the General Assembly from Colchester. They had children Leverett, Albert (1832-1878) and Lucy Abigail (b. 1832).
Nathaniel Foote (1742-1829) married three times, first to Jerusha Cadwell (1747-1777), then Patience Skinner (d. 1790,) and third, Abigail Foote of Colchester, Connecticut. Abigail was the daughter of Nathaniel’s cousin Israel Foote. Nathaniel’s children included Nathaniel (1779-1799), Patience (1783-1859) who married William Brainard, Huldah who married Amaziah Brainard, and Israel (b. 1794). Abigail Foote Brainard’s sister Elizabeth (1750-1845) married Reverend David Huntington (1745-1812).
The collection folder has pages from both the Foote and Brainerd family histories to provide additional information on the relationships between the two families.
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Scope and Content
The donor originally arranged the collection by type of document. They are now arranged by generation and then by family. For example, William Brainard, the son of Stephen comes after his father and his older brother Stephen. William’s children and then grandchildren follow.
The earliest records in the collection are deeds for land in Colchester bought and sold by brothers Daniel and Stephen Brainard. Huldah Foote Brainard is represented by a diary she probably kept as a girl, a commonplace book with notes and essays on a variety of topics, correspondence, and some verse that she apparently wrote. She also is named in a deed with her son Albert, 1854. Huldah’s daughter Lucy Abigail Brainerd wrote the Brainerd family genealogy. Her limited papers include some correspondence, that in 1908 about the publication of her book, and a series of printed poems with annotations that her grandmother used to recite them to her.
Ezra, Jabez and Nathaniel F. Brainerd are represented by family correspondence dating from 1819-1829. Olive Brainerd, the daughter of Olive and Ezra Brainerd, moved with her family to Hamilton, NY. She received letters from her cousins Jerusha, Lucy Day and Olive Brainerd filled with family and community news. These were transcribed and the typescripts bound by Newton C. Brainerd.
Among papers belonging to assorted members of the Brainerd family are some receipts and notes and two marriage records accompanied by a handwritten statement that they were received from a Mr. George H. Loveland, grandson of Eleazer and Lois Dunham of Colchester. Homer W. Brainard evidently gave these assorted papers to Lucy A. Brainerd, knowing she was working on a family history.
Israel Foote kept up correspondence with his sisters even after their marriages. They date from 1815-1866. Newton C. Brainerd thought they were important enough to make a typescript, which he then had bound. Elizabeth Foote Huntington has two incoming letters, 1774 and undated and two fragments of verse dated 1772. Her husband David traveled a great deal and maintained contact with his family through his correspondence, 1793-1811.
Seemingly unrelated is a folder of material concerning the Bulkeley family. There is an 1840 writ, and then several lists, ca. 1850 of family members. These may have been compiled by Lucy A. Brainerd.
Of particular note among the unrelated papers at the end of the collection is an eight page narrative of a voyage on the Connecticut River. It was part of the gift of Newton C. Brainerd and accompanied the diaries of Abigail and Elizabeth Foote. Since it could not be attributed to either girl, the narrative was added to the family papers.
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Restrictions
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions on access to the collection.
Use Restrictions
Use of the material requires compliance with the Connecticut Historical Society's Research Center regulations.
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Subject Headings
Personal Names
Family Names
Geographic Names
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Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Item, Collection Title, Collection number (Box #, Folder #). Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Connecticut.
Processing Details
Collection was processed by Barbara Austen in 2006.
EAD Finding Aid created July 2012.
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Contents:
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Return to the Table of Contents Papers |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Daniel Brainard land survey and deed, 1722 and 1726 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Stephen Brainard (1699-1794) deeds, 1736-1772 | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Amaziah Brainard notes, 1808, 1818; account, 1836; poem addressed to him, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Huldah Foote Brainard diary, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Huldah Foote Brainard commonplace book, ca. 1820 | |||||||||
| 1 | 6 | Huldah Foote Brainard correspondence, 1818-1872 | |||||||||
| 1 | 7 | Huldah Foote Brainard verses, undated, and deed, 1854 | |||||||||
| 1 | 8 | Lucy Abigail Brainard correspondence, 1853, 1908; printed poems with annotations, undated; genealogical notes on various families | |||||||||
| 1 | 9 | Ezra Brainard correspondence, 1820-1831, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 10 | Olive Brainerd incoming correspondence, 1819-1828, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 11 | Olive Brainerd bound typescript of correspondence | |||||||||
| 1 | 12 | Jabez Brainerd incoming correspondence, 1819, 1825, 1834 | |||||||||
| 1 | 13 | Nathaniel F. Brainerd outgoing correspondence, 1827, 1829 | |||||||||
| 1 | 14 | “Old papers” related to the Brainard family collection by Homer W. Brainard, 1791-1814 | |||||||||
| 1 | 15 | Brainard family papers: Dudley Brainard receipt, 1818; Jonathan Brainard deed, 1810; notes on sermons, 1821; Prudence Brainerd church membership certificate, 1835; letter, 1850 to William Brainerd | |||||||||
| 1 | 16 | Israel Foote correspondence, 1815-1849 | |||||||||
| 1 | 17 | Israel Foote correspondence, 1850-1866 | |||||||||
| 1 | 18 | Israel Foote typescript of correspondence | |||||||||
| 1 | 19 | Elizabeth F. Huntington, correspondence, 1774, undated; verse, 1772 | |||||||||
| 1 | 20 | David Huntington correspondence, 1793-1811 | |||||||||
| 1 | 21 | Isaac Foote verse, 1818, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 22 | Dan Foot letter, 1800 to Nathaniel Foot Jr. | |||||||||
| 1 | 23 | Bulkeley family papers: write, 1840, lists of family members | |||||||||
| 1 | 24 | Verse, unsigned, undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 25 | Part of diary of journey from East Haddam to New London, undated; letter to Mr. Forrest, 1840 (watermarked paper) | |||||||||