Wallingford - set off from New Haven in 1670. Formerly called East River or New Haven Village. - Ricker, 8.
Wallingford Vital Records Transcript at the Connecticut State Library and NEHGS
"The vital records of Wallingford prior to 1850 are found scattered through the Proprietors' Records, Volumes 1, 2, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28 and 29 of the Land Records, Volume 1 of Vital Statistics and an unpaged book of records kept by Justice Oliver Stanley. The entries in these have been alphabetically arranged and listed.
The abbreviation 'PR' refers to entries found in the Proprietors' Records, 'V-l' to the volume of Vital Statistics, 'O.S.' to the private records of Justice Oliver Stanley and all other volume references to the Land Records.
This list was taken from a set of cards based on a copy of the Wallingford Vital Records made in 1914 by Miss Ethel L. Scofield, of New Haven, Conn. The Scofield Copy, now in the possession of the Connecticut State Library, has not been compared with the original and doubtless errors exist. It is hoped that as errors or omissions are found notes will be entered in this volume and on the cards which are included in the General Index of Connecticut Vital Records also in the possession of the Connecticut State Library.
Hartford, Conn., December, 1924"
Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 45,135 at the 2010 census. The urban center of the town is delineated as the Wallingford Center census-designated place, with a 2010 population of 18,210. Official tree: Callery Pear Tree.
Wallingford was established on October 10, 1667, when the Connecticut General Assembly authorized the "making of a village on the east river" to thirty-eight planters and freemen. The "long highway" located on the ridge of the hill above the sandy plain along the Quinnipiac River is the present Main Street in Wallingford. On May 12, 1670, Wallingford was incorporated and about 126 people settled in the town. Six acre lots were set out and by the year 1675 forty houses stretched along today's Main Street. In 1775 and again in 1789, George Washington passed through Wallingford.
In the 1690s Wallingford was the site of one of the last Witch trials in New England. Winifred King Benham, known as the "Witch of Wallingford", and her daughter Winifred were thrice tried for witchcraft. While found innocent, they were compelled to leave Wallingford to settle in Staten Island, New York.
During the 19th century, Wallingford industry expanded with a considerable concentration of small pewter and Britannia ware manufacturers. By mid-century, Robert Wallace acquired the formula for nickel silver and established with Samuel Simpson, R. Wallace & Company the forerunner of Wallace Silversmiths. It was also during this period that many of the small silver and Britannia plants were combined to form the International Silver Company with its headquarters in Meriden and several plants in Wallingford. In 1877 the H.L. Judd Manufacturing Company began an almost hundred year dominance of the town's lower downtown with a sprawling metalware factory complex on South Cherry Street. Over the years it evolved as a maker of brass ware, drapery hardware and armaments during World War II, until 1989 when it became a prominent industrial-to-residential conversion called Judd Square Condominiums.
In October 1871, Wallingford's railroad station was completed for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Noted for its mansard roof, ornamental brackets and stone quoins — the interlocking exterior corners — the station is among the few remaining of its kind that were built during President Grant's administration at the height of railway expansion. The town undertook an overhaul to the roof and exterior with the help of state and federal grants in the early 1990s. The station, currently scheduled for replacement as part of the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Commuter Rail Line-up, is served by Amtrak's Vermonter and Northeast Regional. Two notable disasters were the Tornado of 1878 and the Great Arborcide of 2014. ? Wallingford was the birthplace of Aaron Jerome (1764–1802), the great-great-grandfather of Winston Churchill; inventor and publisher Moses Yale Beach (1800–1868), who would go on to found the Associated Press in 1846; singer Morton Downey (1901-1985); conservative talk show host Morton Downey, Jr. (1932–2001); and Georgia governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence Lyman Hall (1724-1790). It was also the childhood home of World War I flying ace Raoul Lufbery (1885-1918).