S.R. Durand: "[After publishing "Durand Genealogy" I discovered] an article in Antiques Magazine, May 1974, pp. 1147-1159, "The Crown and York Chairs of Coastal Connecticut and the Work of the Durands of Milford" by Benno M. Forman, Research Fellow and Teaching Associate, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, Delaware. [From the article] I learned that "the son of Dr. John Durand, baptized on December 17, 1702 is called a 'shop joyner' [cabinet maker] in 1745, when a debt to him was entered in Ephraim Strong's account book. That Andrew was also a turner was demonstrated when Strong noted in 1750 that he owed Durand money 'for turning two blocks for the Scrole over my door.'" The article illustrates in Figs. 1 and 5 a chair in the Milford Historical Society and one in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum attributed to Andrew Durand, who was a pioneer in the design and making of "heart and crown turned chairs." It refers to a bill of Andrew Durand's dated December 1, 1770 recorded in the account book of Ephraim Strong for "6 stained chairs 2:02:00." My sister Lucia (Durand) Wright, Mrs. Donald M. Wright, has in her country home a chair quite similar to Fig. 5 of the Antiques article that was undoubtedly made by our ancestor Andrew Durand. It must have come down in our family through his son, Andrew Jr., and his son Samuel and grandson Samuel Jr., who married Rebecca Root. When she came from Berlin, Connecticut to live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after her husband's death she must have brought this chair with her other furniture and eventually it was given to by her daughters, Jane and Louise, to my parents when they left Milwaukee in 1910 to live in Rochester, NY. My sister obtained it as a gift from my mother after it had been for many years in the large front hallway of our home on Lake Drive. Andrew Durand's son John, a twin of our ancestor Andrew Jr., sold large numbers of these chairs over many years in sets of half a dozen to a dozen and a half, as evidenced by his account book preserved in the Milford Historical Society. Another son of Andrew, named Samuel, was a "shop joiner and turner," in Milford, too, during his lifetime, as was his son, Samuel Jr. The article in Antiques magazine includes dozens of references to their work and states that "only in the Durand family and only in Milford among the towns along the Connecticut shore is there persuasive evidence of chairmaking tradition through several generations." Andrew Durand married in 1729 Jane Andrew, who was baptized April 16, 1699 in Milford and was thirty years of age at the time of her marriage. She was the youngest daughter and undoubtedly caring for her father, Rev. Samuel Andrew, after her mother's death [on Christmas Day, 1727]. Andrew and Jane (Andrew) Durand's first children were twins, our ancestor Andrew and John, born December 15, 1734. Abigail was born December 7, 1735, Samuel was baptized Feb. 5, 1738, and Jane was baptized November 23, 1740. Their home and Andrew Durand's cabinet and chairmaking shop were in Milford.

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Record Change July 01, 1999