Branford was for many years the Governor’s seat of the colonial government of Connecticut. The house of Governor Saltonstall is still standing. Many of the useful and prominent men of the country were born and reared in this quiet yet enterprising little town, founded more than two and a half centuries ago by the Puritans of old England. Among its noted and worthy families were those of the Plants and Blackstones, of whom we shall speak in the following chapter, as the two families became connected by marriage, and are still warmly attached to their native town. [Illustration: text decoration] CHAPTER III. The Blackstone Family--The Ancestor Came from England before 1630--His Name was William Blaxton--Settled First in Massachusetts, afterwards Went to Rhode Island--His Beautiful Character and Numerous Descendants--Origin of Yale College of Branford--The Blackstone Memorial Library. From a pamphlet history of the Blackstone family, in which the name is spelled Blaxton, we gather the following interesting account: “For several years before Winthrop came, in 1630, William Blaxton constituted the entire population of this peninsula [Massachusetts, of which the present Boston Common was then a part], at that time an unbroken wilderness of woods traversed by savages, by wolves, and other wild beasts almost as dangerous. Here he dwelt alone, exposed to dangers, many and great. He was a man of culture, refinement, and gentlemanly bearing, amiable and hospitable, liked by Indians, and indeed by everybody. These noble traits, this love of nature, his sacred calling, his trusting faith, invested whatever belonged to him with a romantic interest. He was a clergyman of the Church of England, born in 1595, graduated from Cambridge, England, in 1617, and died 1675, aged eighty years. Blaxton took orders in the Episcopal Church, but it seems that he never had a cure, though he still wore his canonical coat, which would indicate his attachment to the English Church, yet some have represented him as a non-conformist, ‘detesting Prelacy.’ He had in his library ten large volumes of manuscript books, presumably sermons, all of which were burned in his house during King Philip’s War. Blaxton came to America in 1623 with Robert Gorges.” The father of Mr. Plant’s first wife was Captain James Blackstone. He lived to the ripe old age of ninety-seven. His son, Timothy B. Blackstone, is building a public library in Branford to the memory of his revered father. The following extract of a letter to the donor from one of the trustees of this library, Mr. Addison Van Name, will be of interest in this connection, showing, as it does, the origin of Yale College. The letter is dated from Yale University Library, and runs as follows: