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131. Norman Seymour

131. NORMAN6 SEYMOUR (Timothy5, Timothy4, John3, John2, Richard1), born at West Hartford, Conn., 3 Dec. 1752, died at Sheffield, Mass., 28 June 1796; married first, MARY McNEIL of Litchfield, Conn., born , died at West Hartford., 16 Dec. 1776, daughter of Capt. Archibald and Sarah (Johnson); married second, at West Hartford, 15 June 1779, CATHERINE SEYMOUR, born 29 Aug. 1756, died at Chester. Conn., 19 Mar. 1814, daughter of Moses and Rachel (Goodman). She married second. at Newington, Conn., 1 June 1802, as his third wife, Rev. Samuel Mills of Saybrook, Conn., born at Simsbury, 22 June 1752, died at Chester, Conn., 17 Feb. 1814.

Child by first wife:
i. McNEIL7, b. abt. 1776; d.at New York, N.Y., 19 Jan. 1852 ae, 76; m. RACHEL HAWKINS, wood. at Delhi, N.Y., 1 Jan. 1867, dau. of Joseph and Rachel (Harris). He kept a tavern at Troy, N.Y., 1814-16, and afterwards in Boston, finally in New York City. Child:
I. Elizabeth McNeil8, b. at Boston, 11 Feb. 1822; d. at New York, 25 Nov. 1826.
Children by second wife (the youngest five baptized 13 May 1797):
ii. INFANT, d. 30 Oct. 1781.
228. iii. NORMAN. b. 20 Sept. 1782.
229. iv. ALEXANDER, b. 5 Oct. 1784.
v. MARY, b. 10 Aug. 1787; d. at New York City, 16 May 1880; m. at Buffalo, N.Y., 15 Sept. 1822, DR. THOMAS HASTINGS, b. at Washington, Conn., 15 Oct. 1784, d. at New York City, 15 May 1872, s. of Dr. Seth and Eunice (Parmelee). A son was Rev. Thomas Samuel Hastings, D.D.; a daughter, Mary Seymour Hastings, m. (1) Rev. Daniel Bond, (2) Rev. George Warren Wood, D.D.; another daughter, Catherine Eunice Hastings, m. Rev. William W. Scudder, D.D., and d. in Ceylon. See below.
vi. ARDON, b. 5 Jan. 1790; res. Rome, N.Y.; m. 8 Sept. 1819, SARAH MARSH, b. at Norwich, Conn., 28 Sept. 1782, d. at Rome, N.Y., 27 Feb. 1852, dau. of Dr. Jonathan and Alice (Fitch). He was commissioned First Ueut. in the Oneida County Cavalry, 1819, and rose to the rank of Colonel. Children, b. at Rome:
I. Mary Harland8, b. 22 Oct. 1820.
II. Sarah Marsh, b. 31 July 1823; m. 16 Dec. 1846, Josiah Peckham Fitch, b. at Sheldon, Vt., 19 Apr. 1817, s. of Dr. Chauncey and Nancy (Peckham); six children. He was a lawyer, rem. from Rome to New York City.
vii. CATHERINE, b. 8 Oct. 1792; m. MILES P. SQUIER, D.D., of Geneva, N.Y.

THOMAS HASTINGS (1784-1872), husband of MARY SEYMOUR, removed in youth with his father from Connecticut to Clinton, Oneida County, N.Y. Although without much opportunity to obtain a musical education; he was so talented by nature that at the age of twentytwo he was teaching music.

In 1816 he published, with Solomon Warriner, Musica Sacra, a collection of sacred music, and afterwards published, several other works of this type, one in collaboration with Lowell Mason. He was also an original composer, to the extent of perhaps a thousand tunes, one of the most noted being the musical setting for Toplady's “Rock of Ages.”

He removed to New York City in 1832, at the solicitation of several churches, and here continued his important and self-imposed task of improving the music used in the churches. For several years he was choirmaster in the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church. In 1858 he received from the University of the City of New York the degree of Doctor of Music.

THOMAS HASTINGS (1860-1929), son of Rev. Thomas Samuel and Fanny (de Groot), and grandson of Thomas and Mary (Seymour), was a native of New York City, and after studying at Columbia went to Paris where he was graduated in 1884 from the Ecole des BeauxArts. From 1886 until 1911, when his partner died, he worked in partnership with John Merven Carrere, and thereafter continued under the same firm name (Carrere & Hastings). The work of the firm quickly found recognition, following the erection of Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel, the Alcazar Hotel, and two churches in St. Augustine, Florida, They received many commissions for the buildings and gardens of large country estates. Later, their main work was the designing of monumental buildings, ;uch as the Richmond Borough Hall, New York City, and the Royal Bank of Montreal, Canada. They were the architects of Woolsey Hall and Memorial Hall at Yale University (1906). The greatest achievements of the firm, according to the Dictionary of American Biography (see vol. 3, pp. 518-520, and vol. 8, pp. 388-390, for a comprehensive account of Hastings's work), were the Senate and House office buildings, Washington, D.C. (1905-06), the Century Theatre, New York City (190609), and the New York Public Library (1911).

Hastings began his work under the influence of the French Renaissance school, adapting and moulding it to meet changing conditions and new problems, always with sure taste and scrupulous attention to detail. He was interested in city planning and beautification, helped to formulate the city plan of Hartford, Conn., 1911, and designed the industrial town for the U.S. Steel Corporation at Duluth, Minn. He designed the Princeton Battle Monument, at Princeton, N.J., and the base of the Lafayette monument in the court of the Louvre, Paris. He was a chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and the third American to be awarded (1922) the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The author was acquainted with Mr. Hastings and in conversation with him found him very proud of his Seymour blood.


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