Source:   History of the Old Town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642 - 1880 with Biographies and Genealogies by Samuel Orcutt & Ambrose Beardsley, M. D. - Publ. Press of Springfield Printing Company, Springfield, Mass.  1880 - Page 618

MRS. SARAH MILLS
Daughter of Rev. Daniel and Sarah (Riggs) Humphreys, was born in 1750, and married the Rev. Samuel Mills, and they were residing in Fairfield when that place was burned in 1779, in the Revolution, and it was  where her house stood, probably, that her brother, General Humphreys, wrote his poem on the burning of Fairfield, for he says he wrote it at that place.  It is said that when the British burned that place on the 7th of July, 1779, she fled on horseback, having put her best feather-bed across the horse, and came to Derby.  The parsonage and the church in which her husband had preached were burned to the ground.  He probably was settled in Chester, where he died in 1814, and she returned to Humphreysville to reside.  She married Chipman Swift, Esq., father of the Rev. Zephaniah Swift, Mar. 8, 1819.  Mrs. Ann Stephens was at the wedding festivities, and gives some interesting description of the occasion and of the bridal dress on page 454 of this book.  In personal appearance style and manners she was a good illustration of the same in her honored mother.  Lady Humphreys.  She was for the times highly educated, and published a volume of her poems.  She died Mar. 31, 1827, aged seventy-seven years.
Source:   History of the Old Town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642 - 1880 with Biographies and Genealogies by Samuel Orcutt & Ambrose Beardsley, M. D. - Publ. Press of Springfield Printing Company, Springfield, Mass.  1880 - Page 625

REV. JOSEPH MOSS
Was the son of Joseph Moss of New Haven, and was born Apr. 7, 1679.  He was graduated at Harvard College in 1699, and received the degree of A. M. at Yale in 1702, and was engaged some time as teacher in the Hopkins grammar school.  In the spring of 1706 he was engaged to supply the pulpit in Derby immediately after the dismissal of Mr. James, and soon after was invited to settle as pastor, but did not see fit to accept the offer, although continuing to preach there.  A further offer and the urgency of the people of Derby prevailed, and he was ordained there in the spring of 1707.  By the gift of lands by the town he became a farmer as well as minister, and his influence was very soon felt in the improvement of public schools.  He served several years as town clerk, and after a few years his salary was placed in the form of fourpence on the pound, under which arrangement he kept the rate bills and account of the payments and delinquents, and a short time before his death the town made quite an offer, providing he would surrender these old rate bills, but for what end is not known.
     It was the next year after the settlement of Mr. Moss that the Saybrook synod or council met and gave expression to certain principles of church order that were then becoming quite acceptable to many Congregational people, which Rev. Dr. Bacon very appropriately says, "implied that the new form of ecclesiastical government in Connecticut was to be, in some sort, and to some extent, a compromise with Presbyterian principles."  The acceptance of the platform of Saybrook by the Legislature made it the state or legal platform or principles of church government, and every church that did not accept this platform was denominated a dissenting church, or as in Derby the dissenting Presbyterian church, which meant the holding to the old Congregational ideas.  Mr. Moss and his church took their position finally as a dissenting church, and hence probably did not practice the halfway covenant.
     Mr. Moss was a very capable, well qualified and successful minister.  Dr. Benjamin Trumbull says of him: "He was a gentleman of great depth of understanding and as well skilled in mathematics as almost any in the government."  In his day occurred "what was known as the churches of this region as the great 'Episcopal schism.'  At this time several of our ministers became dissatisfied with their Presbyterian ordination' and desired ordination at the hands of bishops.  In the historical collection of Massachusetts there is a letter preserved which was written by Mr. Moss to Cotton Mather, setting forth the facts of this episode and giving the names of the disaffected ministers.  In this letter Mr. Moss pithily remarks that, although disaffected with their condition, these ministers were not so dissatisfied that they were willing to give up their Congregational pulpits for conscience' sake, although the churches would wish to be ride of them!"²⁰
     Mr. Moss was a man who commanded some money, as appears from several transactions recorded, and thereby exerted a larger influence both at home and abroad, and his ministerial work was the more highly appreciated, as is frequently the case at the present day.
     Three of his brothers settled in the parish and married into the best families, which gave additional strength and force to his professional life.  His pastorate continued until his death in 1731.  His remains were buried in the old Up Town cemetery, near the centre.  His tombstone is a short lead-colored marble slab, bearing this inscription:
     "Here lyes interr'd ye body of ye Rev. Joseph Moss, ye faithful and affectionate Pastor of ye flock in this town 25 years; a learned man, a good Christian, who departed this life January 23, Anno Dom. 1731, Ætatis Suæ, 53.

 "With Holy ardor of Seraphic love
He dropt his clay and soared to Christ above."

---------------
     ²⁰ Rev. J. Howe Vorce's centennial sermon, 1876.
Source:   History of the Old Town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642 - 1880 with Biographies and Genealogies by Samuel Orcutt & Ambrose Beardsley, M. D. - Publ. Press of Springfield Printing Company, Springfield, Mass.  1880 - Page 625

H. B. MUNSON
Was born in Middlebury, Conn., January, 1821, and scarcely had the advantages of the district school, for he was bound out in early life to learn the carpenter and joiner's trade, where he continued until he was twenty-one years of age, so that what he had was as he says "picked up nights and Sundays."  He was admitted to the bar in1846, and soon after located in Seymour to practice his profession, where he still continues.  From 1852 to 1854, he was judge for New Haven county, and for the prompt and impartial manner in which he discharged his duties he received great commendation, not only from the newspapers but from the members of the bar.
     Rough-hewn, like the marble in the quarry, Judge Munson has risen to a high standing in his profession.  His native talents are of the first order, and before courts and jury he is a sort of sledge-hammer as an advocate.  Not learned, nor polished, yet he is a convincing pleader, and has succeeded far above many who have had the advantages of a liberal education.  He has ably represented his town six times in the Legislature, and being a life-long democrat has exerted great influence in his party.
Source:   History of the Old Town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642 - 1880 with Biographies and Genealogies by Samuel Orcutt & Ambrose Beardsley, M. D. - Publ. Press of Springfield Printing Company, Springfield, Mass.  1880 - Page 627

MAJOR THOMAS M. NEWSON
Was born in New York city, and received his early education in a private school in New Haven.  He says he "graduated at the great practical school of humanity."  He learned the trade of a printer, and became editor of a paper at the age of eighteen years.  He started the first newspaper printed in Derby in 1847, and removed to St. Paul, Minn., in 1852; was four years in the Union army, has been lecturer and an explorer in the far west, is author of the drama of "Life in the Black Hills," which met with a quick sale of 20,000 copies.
     In 1878 he established his present illustrated monthly magazine, one of the most popular periodicals of the West.  He is a ready and forcible writer, and many of Derby's citizens will learn with satisfaction of his present prosperity, for his departure from the town was deeply regretted.
Source:   History of the Old Town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642 - 1880 with Biographies and Genealogies by Samuel Orcutt & Ambrose Beardsley, M. D. - Publ. Press of Springfield Printing Company, Springfield, Mass.  1880 - Page 627

REV. CHARLES NICHOLS
Was born at Derby Narrows, in the year 1798.  When fifteen years of age, his father being deceased, his mother placed him to service in the family of Dea. Daniel Holbrook, where he remained until nineteen years of age, when he engaged in teaching school.  Of this, his first beginning in the world of employments, he wrote in 1878:
     "I being then a poor youth, fatherless, despondent, awkward, miserably equipped as to clothing, books and acquaintance with society, took charge of an academy in Huntington, Long Island, and actually began my school with prayer, making in the hearing of my stranger pupils the first prayer before others that I had ever audibly made in my life.  Whether I should have taken this step had not your brother (Chipman Swift) presented the subject to my mind months previously I do not know.  God meant it for good, and this step being taken in the right direction, it led to other good things.  It made the management of my school comparatively easy.  It gained me the respect of good people.  It led to my taking part in the prayer meetings of the church.  It imposed a restraint upon me in reference to my word, temper and action.  It separated me from all intimacy with profane and profligate young men.
     Mr. Nichols continued in this school as teacher nearly two years, and then spent three years in the theological department of Yale college, and entered upon life as a pastor Sept. 2, 1825.  He received the honorary degree of A. M. from Yale in 1871.  He was a settled pastor at Gilead in Hebron, Conn., Sept. 28, 1825, where he remained until his dismissal in October, 1856, a term of thirty-one years, and afterwards preached several years at Higganum in Haddam.  He died at New Britain.
Source:   History of the Old Town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642 - 1880 with Biographies and Genealogies by Samuel Orcutt & Ambrose Beardsley, M. D. - Publ. Press of Springfield Printing Company, Springfield, Mass.  1880 - Page 628