Representative women of New England/Ella L. T. Baldwin

by Mary H. Graves

ELLA LOIS TORREY PECKHAM BALDWIN (Mrs. Charles Clinton Baldwin) was born September 12, 1847, in North Killingly, Conn. Her parents were Fenner Harris Peckham, M.D., who served as a surgeon in the Civil ^^'ar, and his wife, Catherine Davis Torrey. On the paternal side the first American ancestor of Mrs. Baldwin was John Peckham, of Newport, R.I., whose name first appears on the records in 1638. The line is: John'; Stephen"; Stephen,^ of Dartmouth, horn 16S3, and his wife Mary: Stephen,^ of Dartmouth, and his wife, Mary Boss, daughter of Peter and Amy Gardiner Boss; Seth,* of Gloucester, R.I., a Revolutionary soldier, and his wife, Mercy Smith, daughter of John and Mary (Hopkins) Smith; Dr. Hazael," of Killingly, Conn., and wife, Sarah Thornton; Dr. Fenner Harris,' of North Killingly, Conn., anil later of Providence, R.I. Mary Hopkins, wife of John Smith and mother of Mercy, Dr. Peckham's paternal grandmother, was a daughter of Thomas' Hopkins (Thomas'- '). Thomas' Hopkins, her grandfather, one of the first settiers of Providence, R.I., was born in England in 1616, son of William Hopkins, of Chiselhurst, Dorsetshire, and his wife, Joanna Arnold, daughter of Thomas Arnold, son of Richard Arnold, whose ancestral line, it is said, has been traced back to Charlemagne.

Mrs. Baldwin's maternal ancestry begins in New England with William Torrey, who settled in Weymouth, Mass., in 1640. Born in Combe St. Nicholas, Somersetshire, England, in 1608, son of Philip Torrey, second, and his wife Alice, he was a lineal descendant in the fifth generation of William Torrey, who died at Combe St. Nicholas in 1557, leaving a wife, Thomasine, and two sons. The line in England continued through the first William's son Philip, Philip's son William, second, to the latter's son Philip, second, above named, father of the third William, who, being the first of his line in America, is designated as William.¹ The other three sons of Philip Torrey, second—James,¹ Philip,¹ and Joseph—also came to New England in 1640.

William¹ Torrey, of Weymouth, served many years as clerk of the General Court, and was Captain of the militia. The line of descent continued through Captain William Torrey, Jr.,² who connnanded the Weymouth company, King Philip's War, and his wife, Deborah Green; Joseph³ Torrey, a merchant of Weymouth, and his wife, Elizabeth Symmes; the Rev. Joseph⁴ Torrey, of South Kingston, R.I., and his wife, Elizabeth Fiske: Captain William⁵ Torrey, of Killingly, Conn., and his wife, Zilpah Davison, daughter of Daniel and Catherine (Davis) Davison; to Mrs. Catherine Davis Torrey Peckham, the mother of Mrs. Baldwin.

Captain William Torrey, Jr.,² was the younger of the two sons of William¹ Torrey by his second wife, Jane, daughter of Robert Haviland and grand-daughter of Matthew Haviland, sometime Mayor of Bristol, England. William² Torrey's wife Deborah was a daughter of John² and Ann (Almy) Greene, of Warwick, R.I., and grand-daughter of John' Greene, a surgeon, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, who died at Warwick, R.I., in 165S.

Elizabeth Symmes, wife of Joseph³ Torrey, was daughter of Captain William Symmes and grand-tlaughter of the Rev. Zachariah Symmes, of Charlestown, Mass. The Rev. Joseph Torrey, born in 1707, was for fifty years minister of the Congregational church of South Kingston, R.I. Elizabeth Fiske, his second wife, was daughter of the Rev. John³ Fiske, of Killingly, Conn. Her father was son of the Rev. Moses² Fiske and grandson of the Rev. John' Fiske, the first minister of Wenham, Ma.ss. Al)igail Hobart, wife of the Rev. John³ Fiske and mother of Elizabeth, was daughter of the Rev. Nehemiah³ Hobart, of Newton, Mass., son of the Rev. Peter² Hobart, of Hingham, Mass.

Captain William Torrey⁵, born in 1763, the youngest of eleven children, died in North Killingly, Conn., in 1847. By his second wife, Zilpah Davison, of Brooklyn, Conn., whom he married December 4, 1809, he had two daughters. The elder, Zilpah Torrey, married William Harris, of Scituate, and was the mother of eight children, one of them Dr. William Torrey Harris, United States Commissioner of Education. The younger daughter, Catherine Davis Torrey, born in 1819, married Fenner Hanis Peckham, M.I)., then of North Killingly. Removing to Providence later in life. Dr. Peckham was at one time at the head of the medical profession in Rhode Island. He had one son and five daughters, one of the latter being Ella Lois Torrey Peckham.

After studying in the public schools, Ella L. T. Peckham prepared under private tutors for Mount Holyoke College, from which she was graduated in 1867. On October 1, 1868, she married Charles Clinton Baldwin, son of the late Hon. John D. Baldwin, of Worcester, Mass., where her home has since been. Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin are the parents of Katherine Torrey Baldwin, born July 7, 1869, who married Lvnde Sullivan, of Maiden, Mass.; Edith Ella Baldwin, born November 19, 1870; Grace Peckham Baldwin, born May 16, 1874; and Rose Danielson Baldwin, born October 22, 1882, who died November 8, 1893.

Mrs. Baldwin organized the Worcester Mount Holyoke Alumnir Association, of which she was first president. She was for two years president of the Worcester A'oman's Club, and served several years on the Executive Bf)anl of the State Federation of Women's Clubs and as vice-president; is active in Colonel Timothy Bigelow Chapter, D. A. R., of which she is a charter member; is founder of the Fortnightly Club; a member of the Society of Antiquity, of the Public School Art League, and of several social clubs; is also a director of the Woman's Club House Corporation. In religious faith Mrs. Baldwin is an Episcopalian, attending All Saints' Church in Worcester.