Major General Noah Phelps (January 22, 1740 – November 4, 1809) was the son of Lt. David Phelps and Abigail Pettibone Phelps and was descended from the English immigrant William Phelps. His parents settled in Simsbury, Connecticut before 1750 and Phelps became an active and influential man. He was a Yale University graduate, a justice of the Peace, judge of Probate for twenty years, and was a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to ratify the Federal Constitution. Biography Noah Phelps was born on January 22, 1740, the fourth of nine children to David Phelps and Abigail Pettibone. David Phelps was the son of Joseph Phelps and his third wife, Mary Case. David married Abigail Pettibone on April 25, 1731 and died of smallpox on December 9, 1760. Noah married Lydia Griswold of Windsor, Connecticut on June 10, 1761 in Simsbury, Connecticut. They had six children: Noah Amherst (May 3, 1762), Lydia Griswold (February 25, 1764), Chandler Conway (October 22, 1766), George P. (August 18, 1773), Elisha Phelps (November 16, 1779), and a son (November 18, 1783, died at birth). He held a variety of essential positions, including Surveyor of Lands in the greater Simsbury area in 1772 and 1783, Justice of the Peace for Hartford County in 1782, Judge of Probate in 1787, and Major-General of the Militia, 1796-1799. Noah Phelps was a leader within the Simsbury community. He chaired the town meeting that passed the Articles of Confederation in January 1778, and in November 1787, the meeting picked him and Daniel Humphrey Esq., as delegates for the Convention of the State of Connecticut, set to convene in Hartford in January and vote on whether or not to adopt the federal constitution. They were directed to oppose it, but "one of the delegates though voting as instructed by the town, took occasion to state that his personal convictions led him to favor the proposed constitution." This may have been Phelps. Phelps died in Simsbury November 4, 1809, honored and respected. On his tombstone is inscribed: "A Patriot of 1776. To such we are indebted for our Independence." Revolutionary War Early in the American Revolutionary War, Phelps was chosen as a member of "Committee of War for the expedition to capture Ft. Ticonderoga and Crown Point." The committee considered the advisability of taking Fort Ticonderoga, then occupied by the British, and in which there was stored a large amount