Bennington

FAY, Joseph FAY

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, p 172 (extracted from a 
section dealing with the history of Bennington)

Joseph FAY was born about 1752 at Hardwick [Worcester County], Massachusetts, 
son of Stephen FAY, and came to Bennington [Bennington County, Vermont] a 
member of his father's family in 1766. He was Secretary to the Council of 
Safety and of the State Council from September 1777 to 1784, and Secretary of 
State from 1778 to 1781. He was the associate of Ira ALLEN in conducting the 
famous negotiation with Gen. HALDIMAND by which the operations of the enemy 
were paralyzed and the northern frontier protected from invasion during the 
three last years of the revolutionary struggle. He was a man of very 
respectable talents and acquirements, of fine personal appearance and 
agreeable manners and address, and well calculated to manage such a 
diplomatic adventure with adroitness and ability. He built and resided in 
the house now occupied by the widow of the late Truman SQUIER, next north of 
the Court House, but removed to New York City in 1794, where he [Joseph FAY] 
died of the yellow fever in October 1803. Theodore S. FAY, well known as a 
popular writer, and now Minister of the United States to Switzerland, is a 
grandson of Col. [Joseph] FAY. [The following line regarding Theodore S. FAY 
from page 166: "Theodore S. FAY, a popular author and now resident minister 
of the United States in Switzerland, is a descendant [grandson] of Stephen 
FAY, and by the female line of the Rev. Jedidiah DEWEY, two of the early 
prominent inhabitants of the town" of Bennington.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly