04/02/2022
Did you know that notorious traitor, Benedict Arnold, spent much of his youth in the Meadow? He lived and apprenticed with his cousins, the Lathrop’s at 380 Washington Street. The meadow still provides a lovely backyard to this colonial era home. His mother Hannah is buried in the burying ground next to the Meadow.
Read on to learn more about the Arnold’s and Lathrop Manor.
Lathrop Manor circa 1660-1745
380 Washington Street Norwich, CT
The Arnold Family’s Troubles
Hannah Waterman Arnold nurtured her children with a gentle, but firm hand and instructed her son to “always choose that your companions be your betters, that by their good example you may learn.” Benedict attended school in Montville, but in 1752, he was sent to a private school under Hannah’s kinsman, Dr. Cogswell, in Canterbury. It was the expectation that Benedict would attend Yale. Benedict was taught subjects such as English, mathematics, logic and history. Hannah was a pious woman and instructed Cogswell to attend to her son’s religious education.
The Arnold family lost Absalom in 1750 due to an illness (April 4, 1747 – July 22, 1750). Benedict was away at school when a deadly epidemic swept through Norwich and claimed many victims, including two of his younger sisters. Mary, (June 4, 1745 – September 10, 1753), and Elizabeth (Nov 19, 1749 – September 29, 1753) tragically died nineteen days apart from each other in 1753. Hannah was the only child at home to survive the epidemic.
The loving Arnold parents were devastated by the loss of their children. Many colonists drank heavily, but in 1753, Captain Arnold’s drinking affected his business and family’s financial welfare. Captain Arnold used alcohol to numb the pain of his failing business, the loss of his three children and the uncertainty of what the future held. With his father out of work and alcohol problems intensifying, the family could no longer afford Benedict’s private school. 14-year-old Benedict was forced to drop out of school, ending any hope of receiving a gentleman’s education.
The Lathrop Brothers
Dr. Daniel Lathrop was born in Norwich in 1712 and upon his graduation from Yale in 1733, he traveled to London to study medicine. Lathrop returned to Norwich and opened an apothecary shop in 1737 selling the merchandise he bought in Europe. Lathrop’s younger brother, Joshua, joined the business after graduating from Yale in 1743. The brothers imported medicines, fruits, wines and fine goods from Europe and often traveled to select their stock. In 1744, Dr. Daniel Lathrop married Jerusha Talcott and the couple had three boys, but tragically, all three succumbed to a fatal epidemic in infancy.
Captain Arnold’s ill heath prevented him from teaching his son the family mercantile business, so Hannah secured an apprenticeship for Benedict with her cousins Dr. Daniel and Joshua Lathrop who operated a successful apothecary shop and merchandise trade. Arnold apprenticed with the Lathrop Brothers from 1754-1761 and he impressed them with his skill. They made Arnold their junior business associate in New Haven and sent him on trading voyages to the West Indies and London where Arnold gained valuable experience as a mariner and a merchant. While living in the loving home of Daniel and Jerusha Lathrop, he matured into a gentleman and learned how to operate a business.
The Lathrops cared for the Arnold siblings following the death of their mother in 1759. The community empathized with the Arnold family’s loss of their children, but pity turned to contempt as Captain Arnold’s public drunkenness shamed the family until his death in 1761. In 1764, the Lathrop Brothers helped Benedict sell the Arnold homestead and Benedict and his sister Hannah moved to New Haven, putting their childhood years in Norwich behind them. Arnold became a successful druggist and merchant in New Haven. He endeavored to restore honor to his tarnished family name, but ironically, his betrayal during the Revolutionary War ensured that his name would forever be remembered as one of a dishonored traitor
