Cloughes, Clowes, or Close, is a Saxon word signifying a clifl!"or cleft in a valley between high iiills. Thomas Close, removed from England to Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1665, d. July 26, 1683. His sons were I. Thomas, II. Joseph, III. Benjamin, who left a son Benjamin, IV. John. Joseph, the second son of Thomas, b. 1674, removed from Greenwich to North Salem, in 1749, and d. in 1760, aet. 86. He mar. Rebecca Tompkins, she d. A. D. 1761. Their children were 1. Joseph, 2. Elizabeth, 3. Solomon, 4. Sarah, 5. Rachel, 6. Thomas, 7. Benjamin, and 8. Rebecca. Solomon, second son of Joseph, was b. June 23, 1706, d. A. D. 1788, a;t. 82, mar. Deborah Brush. He had ten children, I. Solomon of
North Salem, who left , mar. a Paddock, Phoebe, mar. Epenetus Wallace,
M. D. of North Salem. II. Nathaniel of North Salem, b. 1732, d. 1773. He had 1. Nathaniel of North Salem, d. A. D. 1837, ajt. 77, mar. Mary Wood, and left 1st. Ebenezer, 2d, Amzi of North Salem, who had Isaac, Daniel H., Ebenezer L., Jeremiah, Margaret A., Amy K., Charles H., and Mary R. ; 3d. Nathaniel, 4th. Rachel, 5th. John of North Salem. 2. Jesse of North Salem, d. ajt. 86, 3. Isaac, 4. Deborah, mar. Thomas Chapman, 5. Rachel, mar. Joseph Crosby, 6. Sarah, 7. Matilda. III. Deborah, IV. Hannah, V. Rev. John of North Salem, a graduate of Princeton, N. J., minister at New Windsor, in 1792, b. 1737, d. 1813, at Waterford, N. York, mar. Miss Weeks of L. I., and left two da. who reside at Waterford. YI. Sarah. VII. Jesse, in the military service of the Colony, d. at Half Moon Point, July 29th, 1758, ait. 17. VIII. Rev. David, a Presbyterian minister at Patterson, N.