Lady Fenwick Chapter meets at 12 noon on the second Monday of each month from September through June. See our calendar for program topics.
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NSDAR National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution CTDAR Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution
Our Namesake, Lady Fenwick
Alice Apsley Boteler Fenwick1 was the daughter of Sir Edward & Lady Elizabeth Apsley, of Thakeham, Sussex, England. She was the widow of Sir John Boteler and by courtesy, was called Lady Boteler. She arrived in 1639 with her second husband, George Fenwick, Esquire, appointed the first Governor of Saybrook Colony, 1639-1644.
Reared in English wealth and refinement, she adapted to her new life, working to advance the colony and its people. Historical accounts have described her as a cheerful woman who cultivated a fine garden of flowers, fruits and herbs for medicinal purposes, raised pet rabbits, rode horses, and had a "shooting gun" of her own.
She was a member of Rev. Thomas Hooker’s Church in Hartford; her first daughter Elizabeth was baptized there. Her second daughter Dorothy was born in November 1645 and Lady Fenwick died shortly thereafter. Devastated and discouraged, George Fenwick returned to England, calling for his daughters later. None of them returned to the Colony of Connecticut.
Lady Fenwick was buried on “Tomb Hill” at the sight of the Saybrook Fort which burned in 1647. She remained there until the Valley Railroad required the land. In a formal ceremony at the Congregational Church officiated by the Rev. Mr. McCall on November 23, 1870, Lady Fenwick was reinterred in the Cypress Cemetery where she remains today.
1. The re-internment of the remains of Lady Alice Apsley Boteler Fenwick, wife of George Fenwick, Esq., November 23, 1870, Reported to the Hartford Daily Courant, November 24
Hartford, 1870.
https://archive.org/details/reintermentofrem00hart/page/n11?q=%22lady+fenwick%22
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