Portrait hunt ends in Salisbury

SALISBURY — A California sculptor recently tracked down a portrait of an ancestor in the collection of the Scoville Memorial Library.

Jeremy Warner is the tenth great-grandson of Andrew Warner, considered one of the founders of Hartford in the 1630s.

Jeremy Warner found poor-quality internet images of the painting while doing research on his ancestor.

He gave an interview to the Hartford Courant, published June 29, hoping the publicity might turn up the painting.

SML director Karin Goodell said when she got a call from Warner she immediately asked retired town historian Katherine Chilcoat if she knew anything about it.

Chilcoat said a portrait of Andrew Warner was in the library’s vault.

“So we sent Jeremy a photo and he said ‘Holy Cow!’”

The painting is now in Goodell’s office.

Town historian Jean McMillen swung into action.

She found that Andrew Warner came to the American colonies in 1632 and settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, intending to establish a church for his minister, the Rev. Thomas Hooker.

“Because there were already several churches in the Cambridge-Boston area, Thomas Hooker decided to move to a less settled location. In 1636 he and 130 members of his congregation walked the Old Indian Trail for over 100 miles to a spot on the Connecticut River, which is now the city of Hartford.”

The portrait probably came to Salisbury through Andrew’s son Daniel, whose grandson Noadiah was a direct ancestor of Donald Warner of Sharon.

The portrait was donated to the library in 1976 by Mrs. I. Kent Fulton (aka Beth Warner), the daughter of Judge Donald T. Warner of Salisbury. Jeremy Warner plans to visit the library Tuesday, Aug. to see the portrait and to get 3D images of it for a bust he plans to create of his notable ancestor.