In the year 1681 we find the first notice of Thomas Munsell, then, and for the residue of his life, a resident of New London, Connecticut, There were several early immigrants bearing this family name, who are said to have located in the eastern part of Connecticut. No authentic account of their English origin has been successfully traced, although there is reason to believe they were of the lineage of the Maunsell family, originating in Sir Philip de Maunsell, who came from Normandy in the train of William the Conqueror.

Thomas Munsell died at New London in 1712, leaving a widow, Lydia, and four children, viz.: Jacob, Elisha, Mercy, and Deliverance. Jacob was twice married. His first wife was Sarah Calkins of New London, by whom he had one child, a son, named Calkins Munsell. He married, second, Phebe Loomis, daughter of Joseph and Lydia (Drake) Loomis, of Windsor, Conn. He removed, about 1723, to East Windsor. Of the ten children by the second wife, Elisha, born September 15, 1723, was the third. He married, on December 29, 1750, Kezia Taylor, and was the father of nine children, whom he catalogued, as they were born, with the names of the prophets and prophetesses, or other distinguished women of the ancient Hebrews. Hezekiah was the name he selected for his first-born. He died young, and, the second child, born January 17, 1753, at East Windsor, was also named Hezekiah. The third son he named for the prophet Joel; and, his other children all being daughters, received successively the scriptural names of Miriam, Naomi, Bathsheba, Kezia, and Ruth.

This Hezekiah, the second son, married Irene Bissell, January 24, 1777, and had ten children. He attained the age of ninety-one years, and, at the time of his death, April 14, 1844, was the oldest male inhabitant of East Windsor. In his life and character he developed those