Samuel Churchill of
Wethersfield. Of his six surviving sons, Richard was settled at
Wethersfield; he married in Milford, and had three children. His second
son Daniel, born July 12, 1687, was graduated at Yale College in 1709,
became the first minister of New Milford in 1712 and died in the
ministry with his people, August 25, 1744. Hinman says: "He gave
character and tone to the new settlement, by his devotion and active
service."

He was a man of deep piety, and of great force of character. It is
related that an Indian medicine man, and this Puritan pastor met by the
sick-bed of the same poor savage. The Indian raised his horrid clamor
and din, which was intended to exorcise according to their customs the
evil spirit of the disease. At the same time Mr. Boardman lifted up his
voice in prayer to Him who alone can heal the sick. The conflict of
rival voices waxed long and loud to see which should drown out the
other. Mr. Boardman was blessed with unusual power of lungs like his
nephew Rev. Benjamin Boardman, tutor at Yale and pastor in Hartford, who
for his immense volume of voice, while a chaplain in the Revolutionary
army was called by the patriots the "Great gun of the gospel." The
defeated charmer, acknowledged himself outdone and bounding from the
bedside hid his defeat in the forest. Mr. Boardman died about the time
his parishioners and neighbors were on the famous expedition to Cape
Breton and the capture of Louisburg and when Whitfield's preaching was
arousing the church. He was twice married and had six children. His
second wife, the mother of all but his oldest child was a widow, Mrs.
Jerusha Seeley, one of nine daughters of Deacon David Sherman of
Poquonnoch. Their children were:

I. Penelopy, Mrs. Dr. Carrington.

II. Tamar, wife of Mr. Boardman's successor in the pastorate at New
Milford, Rev. Nathaniel Taylor; mother of Major-General Augustine
Taylor, of the war of 1812; and grandmother of Prof. Nathaniel W.
Taylor, D.D., of New Haven.

III. Mercy, the wife of Gillead Sperry, and grandmother of Rev. Dr.
Wheaton of Hartford.

IV. Jerusha, wife of Rev. Daniel Farrand of Canaan, Ct., and mother of
Hon. Daniel Farrand (Yale, 1781), Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont.
This judge had nine daughters, one of whom married Hon. Stephen Jacobs,
of Windsor, also a Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont.

Rev. Daniel Boardman left but one son, the Hon. Sherman Boardman, who
was but sixteen years old at the t