Thomas Fitch Jr. (October 14, 1612 – April 14, 1704) was an English-born clothier, farmer, landowner, merchant, and civil servant who became one of the primary founding settlers and civic leaders of Norwalk, Connecticut.
Early life and emigration
Thomas Fitch Jr. was born on October 14, 1612, in Braintree, Essex, England, as the eldest of several children born to Anna (née Reeve; 1590–1686) and Thomas Fitch Sr. (c. 1590–1632). One of Fitch's younger sibilings was the Rev. James Fitch, who became a minister. Because of Thomas Sr.'s successful career as a clothier, merchant, and property owner, Fitch and his sibilings grew up privileged.
In around 1650, as England was suffering from a severe economic and political crisis due to the Civil War, Fitch alongside his mother and two brothers Joseph and Zachary, emigrated to Norwalk in what was then the Connecticut Colony in New England. They joined Fitch's brother James, who emigrated there around a decade earlier. Joseph subsequently settled in Norwich, another town in Connecticut, while Zachary settled in Reading, in what was the Massachusetts Bay Colony.