Robert PADDOCK

                   PARENTS-CHILDREN: Birth Records of Pomfret, Vermont.

HISTORY:

       According to the records of John Chedel, John and Zenas Paddock came to
Pomfret on wednesday, April 21st, 1773.  John was a large man, utterly devoid
of fear.  He was four times the constable in Pomfret and in those days the
constable had much to do, as lawsuits and arrests were frequent.  He was slow
of speech and moderate in action.  He was one of the famous bear hunters in
this region.  It is said that when the day of his second marriage came, he
quite forgot the engagement, and was in the woods placidly burning brush when
the messenger of the waiting lady, who did not forget, hunted him up.  The
ceremony took place.  John Paddock was selectman in 1792 and 1793 and served
three times as moderator.  He was a coldier at the fort in Bethel in August
1781.
                  

                   SPOUSE-CHILD: Pomfret, Vermont Genealogical Records
                  

                   BIRTH-PARENTS-SPOUSE-CHILDREN: History of Pomfret, Vermont.

HISTORY:  Tradition makes Zenas Paddock a famous man at the trencher.  His
custom was to have some food set out on the table for him when he came home at
night.  One night he found a goiodly cowl of bean porridge.  This he ate in th
e dark for some minutes when he called to his wife, "Wife, Wife, what kind of
meat is in the porridge?"  "Meat Meat" said his wife.  "Not any at all."
"Ho Ho" said the old man, "Then I have eaten a mouse."  And so he had.
       In his later days, Paddock became a devout Methodist.  He had one stiff
leg, made so by a fever sore.  He had a hole cut in the floor through which he
could thrust the stiff leg and kneel for prayer.

       "Signed school subscription on May 22, 1812 at Pomfret, Vermont with
Daniel Chedel, Lewis Snell, George Chede and others." Pomfret History.

       As Zenas Poddack had one stiff leg, he is one of the few men in Pomfret
before 1790 who did not serve as a soldier in the Revolution.  He, however,
held minor offices in town from 1785 until 1806, beginning as ththing-man.
Late in life he became a faithful Methodist.