Henry Whitfield House - Owners and Residents

Owners and Residents

The first residents of the house were Henry Whitfield, his wife, and their children, for whom the house was originally built. Throughout their occupancy, they extended their welcome to travelers, church-goers, and the rest of the citizens in the community. When Henry Whitfield returned to England in 1650, his wife, Dorothy, and some of their children continued to live in the house. It is suggested by historical records that during this time John Winthrop the Younger, son of the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and future Governor of Connecticut, expressed interest in purchasing the house. However, he ended up moving to the East Haven colony instead. Upon Whitfield's death in 1657 the ownership was passed on to Dorothy. Before her return to England in 1659, the town of Guilford, led by future Governor of Connecticut, William Leete, and William Chittenden, attempted to purchase the house as a grammar school for the settlement. The transaction never occurred because the town lacked sufficient funds to purchase the house. After much deliberation, in September of 1659 the house was sold to a London merchant named Major Robert Thompson. Thompson and his family remained in England throughout most of their ownership, which lasted over a century, renting the house to tenant farmers. The Thompson family sold the house to Wyllys Eliot, a Guilford resident, on October 21, 1772, though Eliot owned the house for less than a month and sold it to Joseph Pynchon on November 6, 1772. Pynchon used the house as a summer home, but was forced to flee back to England because of his loyalist sympathies at the onset of the American Revolution. Before he left, he sold the house to Jasper Griffing on June 27, 1776, just a week prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Griffing, a patriot from Long Island, was a descendent of the early Guilford leader, William Chittenden. The Griffing and Chittenden families owned the house for over a century, and during their ownership the remodeling of 1868 occurred. Not until September 28, 1900, did the Whitfield House become the property of the State of Connecticut, when Sarah Brown Cone sold the house and property for $8,500. The purchase was financed by "$3,500 from the State of Connecticut, $3,000 from the town of Guilford, between $500 and $1,000 from residents of Guilford, and as much from the members of the Connecticut Society of the Colonial Dames of America." It was transformed into a museum after several renovations and has been maintained by the Connecticut Historical Society and the house Board of Trustees ever since.