First Generation
1. Thomas Benedict1–3
was born in Nov 1617 in Woolpit, Suffolk, England.1,3–4 He was christened on 30 Nov 1617 in St. Michael, Long
Stratton, Norfolk, Englan.3 He died in Mar 1689/90 at the age
of 72 in Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.1,3 The story of Thomas Benedict and Mary Bridgum has its
share of mysteries. An exact marriage date has not been found in either England
or America. Neither has the exact time or place of their arrival been precisely
determined. Also open to debate was his occupation.
The following is an account of Thomas Benedict supposedly related by his wife, Mary, to a grandchild. Early accounting of Thomas' and Mary's families was found to be in frequent error. It is interesting to note that Mary did not recall correct details as to whose parent died and the time of her own marriage. Perhaps the errors are those of the grandson, James Benedict.
'Family history as related to Deacon James Benedict of Ridgefield, Connecticut, as related to him by his grandmother, Mary Bridgum Benedict, recorded in 1755:
"Be it remembered that one William Benedict, about the beginning of the 15th century [probably 1500], who lived in Nottinghamshire, in England, had a son born unto him whom he called William, after his own name [an only son]; and this William, the 2nd of that name, had also an only son whom he called William; and this 3rd William had in the year 1627 one only child whom he called Thomas; and this Thomas's mother dying, his father married the widow Bridgum.
Now this Thomas was put out an apprentice to a weaver, who afterwards, in the 21st year of his age, came over to New-England, together with his sister-in-law, Mary Bridgum. Afterwards said Thomas was joined in marriage to Mary Bridgum. After they had lived some time in the Bay parts, they removed to Southold on Long Island, where were born unto them five sons and four daughters, whose names were Thomas, John, Samuel, James, Daniel, Betty, Mary, Sarah, and Rebeccah. From thence they removed to a farm belonging to the town of Hassamamac, where they lived some time. Then they removed to Jamaica on said Island, where Thomas, their eldest son took to wife Mary Messenger, of that town. And last of all, they removed to Norwalk, in Fairfield county, Connecticut, with all their family, where they were all married. John took to wife, Phebe, daughter of Mr. John Gregory, of said Norwalk. Samuel took to wife Rebecca Andrews. James took to wife Sarah Gregory, sister of the above said Phebe. Daniel took to wife Mary Marvin. Their daughters were all married. Betty to John Slawson of Stanford; Mary to John Olmstead; Sarah to James Beebe; Rebeccah to Samuel Wood. From these have risen a numerous offspring. ..... The children of Mary were John, Mary, Jane, Sarah, Rebeccah, Elizabeth, Daniel, Richard, Eunice, and Deborah. .... All of these were children and grandchildren of our honoured predecessors, Thomas Benedict and Mary his wife, who walked in the midst of their house with a perfect heart. They were strict observers of the Lord's day from even to even; [Leviticus 23:32 "From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbaths, " was to our New-England ancestors sufficient Scripture authority for their following Jewish example in commencing the Sabbath on Saturday evening at sunset.] and I think it may be said of them, as it was of Zachariah and Elizabeth, "that they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, and obtained a good report through faith." Their excellent example had a good effect, by the blessing of heaven, upon their children. He was made a deacon of the church at Norwalk, and used that office to the good satisfaction of that church to his death, which was in the 73rd year of his age' and two of his sons, viz.: John and Samuel, used the until old age and its attendants rendered them unable to serve any longer. And there are, at this day no less than seven of the family and name that use that office, and some of them at least, I hope, to good acceptance with God and man. ....." [signed] James Benedict, Ridgefield, March ye 14, 1755.'
At least three errors are to be found in the above account: Thomas' birth place of Nottinghamshire, that there were three generations of William Benedicts and that Thomas was an only child.
Thomas Benedict was born about 1617 in Norfolk, England and was the only surviving child of William and Elizabeth Benedict. An older brother, William, died at the age of three in 1615. William Benedict died by the end of the summeer of 1629. His widow, Elizabeth married John Bridgum on 8 September 1629 at Woolpit in Suffolk, England.
Several early Benedict researchers believed that Thomas was apprenticed to a weaver until he was of age. No evidence has been uncovered that he followed that occupation in America. Benedict was well educated. He served as a clerk, magistrate and held other positions that required the ability to read and write.
Exactly where Thomas and his step-sister, Mary Bridgum were married is open to question. Researcher Jeanne Benedict Weber believed that they were married at Long Medford Parish in Norwich, England in 1639. Bob Benedict [Benedict Topics web page] believes they were married at Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony shortly after their arrival and before they left with the Rev. John Youngs congregation. If the couple married in Salem, the ceremony may well have been performed by Rev. Youngs LaRue Olsen theorized that the marriage could have taken place in one of the parishes around Norwich in County Norfolk before Thomas and Mary sailed for New England and that if they were wed in Massachusetts Bay, the record likely did not survive.
It is believed that the Benedicts landed in the Beverly, Massachusetts Bay Colony area in 1638 or 1639 and settled briefly in Salem. The Benedicts moved to New Haven [Connecticut] Colony where they joined Reverend John Youngs' Puritan congregation.* The entire congregation later removed to Long Island, landing at Founders Landing on Peconic Bay in 1640.
The Benedicts settled at Southold where there were but a few whites and Yennicocks in residence. Thomas Benedict purchased land in the eastern part of Southold, Hashamomack, or Arshomomaque, with Henry Whitney and Edward Treadwell. He purchased a fourth of land "lying betwixt Tom's Creeke to a fresh ponnd lying by the North Sea with a stand of trees on it, marsh ground and moweinge land lying by Tom's house." The Benedict's log home had a thatched roof and oiled paper windows. As was required, the house had a ladder sufficient to reach the top of the roof. A grist mill was built at the tidal entrance to the pond. The grist mill was the first in Southold and was situated on the east side of the Tom's Mill Creek in Hashamomack. Benedict also produced turpentine and operated a brick-making business with John Cocklynge at Cocklynge's Point on Peconic Bay. All but one of the Benedict children were born at Southold; the youngest, Rebecca, was born at Huntington.
The Benedicts later removed to a tract of land called Hashamomack at Southold, Long Island in 1649 [now New York, but then the eastern part of the island was considered part of Connecticut] and raised a family of five sons and four daughters.
The homestead at Hashamomack was not technically within the limits of Southold, but the General Court at New Haven, on 31 May 1654, requested that Benedict and others be permitted to join the community. However, he was referred to as "of Southold" on 5 September 1650, when Uncas, Sachem of the Mohegans, complained to the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England that the Mohansick Sachem of Long Island had killed Uncas's son and bewitched some of his men. It was decided that a commission of Captain Mason, Mr. Howell, Mr. Gosmer, and Thomas Benedict of Southold - or any three of them - investigate the charges brought by Uncas.
.
In 1657, Benedict sold out to Thomas Rider and moved to Huntington, Long Island.
In May, 1658 Thomas Benedict and others solicited the Court of Deputies and Magistrates to have Huntington received into the jurisdiction of New Haven.
February 1660: Thomas Benedict was appointed Town Justice "TO SETTLE DISPUTES BETWEEN NAYBORS."
Thomas Benedict was appointed on 15 May 1662 to the town commission. He was among the founders of the first Presbyterian Church in America at Jamaica, also in 1662. His name appears on the list of 24 freeholders who deeded a house and lot to Minister Walker. On 20 March 1663, he was appointed a magistrate by Dutch Gov. Pieter Stuyvesant. Benedict and others petitioned the General Court of Connecticut at Hartford to have the western towns of Long Island annexed to that colony. He was made a lieutenant of the town of Jamaica on 3 December 1663. On 7 March 1664, Thomas Benedict wrote a petition to the Connecticut government requesting assistance in "settling of peace amongst us and the killing and quelling of mutenous and facsious sperits." Chief among his adversaries in this matter was Captain John Scott and his confederates.
1663: Benedict was on a committee "charged to making ye rates of ye menester's house and transporting ye minister Mr. Walker."
20 March 1663: He was appointed as a magistrate by Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant
On 26 September 1664, a month after the English gained control of New Netherlands, Thomas Benedict, John Bailey, Daniel Denton and others petitioned to Col. Nichols to settle a plantation along the Arthur Cull Bay [Arthur Kill?] in New Jersey [now Elizabethtown.] The petition was granted four days later.
Governor Nichols called for a meeting of the "most sober, able, and discreet persons, without partiality or faction" of the communities of New York to be held at Hempstead on the last day of February, 1664/5. Thomas Benedict and Daniel Denton were the representatives from Jamaica. This was believed to be the first English legislative body convened in New York.
Benedict was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Foot Company of Jamaica on 7 April 1665 at Fort James by Gov. Nichols. If he accepted the commission, it was briefly as the family moved to Norwalk, Connecticut later that same year.
Eldest son, Thomas, as stated above, married Mary Messenger while the family resided in Jamaica. He migrated, with his father, to Norwalk in 1665 and was on the 13 Oct. 1669 list of Freeholders. Thomas Sr.'s daughter, Mary, married Lt. John Olmstead in 1673
On 19 February. 1666, Benedict was chosen town clerk and selectman of Norwalk, serving in that position until 1688. He was chosen town clerk again in 1669. His name appeared on the list of freemen of Norwalk composed on 13 Oct. of that year. He was again chosen town clerk in 1672 and held the position until 1674, and was reappointed three years later. He was also chosen Deacon of the church in Norwalk. [The town records, in his own hand, are still preserved] Thomas signed his name "THOMAS BENNYDICK SENIOR."
Benedict was the representative of Norwalk in the General Assembly in 1670 and 1675.
1671: Benedict was chosen with John Platt to lay out house lots at Norwalk.
31 January 1678: He was chosen to oversee the work on building a meeting house.
He was listed as a patentee for the town of Norwalk in 1686. Benedict and three others were appointed by the General Court to plant a town "above Norwalke or Fayrefeild" at Paquiage in May of 1684. During the fall of 1684 and the spring of 1685, the families of Samuel and James Benedict [sons of Thomas] along with six other families settled at what became Danbury, Connecticut. The site had been purchased from the Indians.
In 1687, land was given to Thomas Benedict consisting of 36 lots and commonage. [Valued at £153]
Even though Benedict was apparently thought highly of by the Dutch and later, English governor of New York, his allegiance was evidently to Connecticut. He moved his entire family to Norwalk and established himself there.
Thomas Benedict made his will 28 February. 1689/90 at age 73. The inventory of his estate was taken on 18 March 1689/90. Mary died in 1721 [at age 101], both were buried at Norwalk.
*Several sources claim that Rev. Youngs was a Presbyterian minister rather than a Puritan. He founded the First Church of Christ [Puritan] in Southold. Members of his congregation, including Thomas Benedict, broke from the fold to become founders of the First Presbyterian Church of Jamaica, NY.
The following is an account of Thomas Benedict supposedly related by his wife, Mary, to a grandchild. Early accounting of Thomas' and Mary's families was found to be in frequent error. It is interesting to note that Mary did not recall correct details as to whose parent died and the time of her own marriage. Perhaps the errors are those of the grandson, James Benedict.
'Family history as related to Deacon James Benedict of Ridgefield, Connecticut, as related to him by his grandmother, Mary Bridgum Benedict, recorded in 1755:
"Be it remembered that one William Benedict, about the beginning of the 15th century [probably 1500], who lived in Nottinghamshire, in England, had a son born unto him whom he called William, after his own name [an only son]; and this William, the 2nd of that name, had also an only son whom he called William; and this 3rd William had in the year 1627 one only child whom he called Thomas; and this Thomas's mother dying, his father married the widow Bridgum.
Now this Thomas was put out an apprentice to a weaver, who afterwards, in the 21st year of his age, came over to New-England, together with his sister-in-law, Mary Bridgum. Afterwards said Thomas was joined in marriage to Mary Bridgum. After they had lived some time in the Bay parts, they removed to Southold on Long Island, where were born unto them five sons and four daughters, whose names were Thomas, John, Samuel, James, Daniel, Betty, Mary, Sarah, and Rebeccah. From thence they removed to a farm belonging to the town of Hassamamac, where they lived some time. Then they removed to Jamaica on said Island, where Thomas, their eldest son took to wife Mary Messenger, of that town. And last of all, they removed to Norwalk, in Fairfield county, Connecticut, with all their family, where they were all married. John took to wife, Phebe, daughter of Mr. John Gregory, of said Norwalk. Samuel took to wife Rebecca Andrews. James took to wife Sarah Gregory, sister of the above said Phebe. Daniel took to wife Mary Marvin. Their daughters were all married. Betty to John Slawson of Stanford; Mary to John Olmstead; Sarah to James Beebe; Rebeccah to Samuel Wood. From these have risen a numerous offspring. ..... The children of Mary were John, Mary, Jane, Sarah, Rebeccah, Elizabeth, Daniel, Richard, Eunice, and Deborah. .... All of these were children and grandchildren of our honoured predecessors, Thomas Benedict and Mary his wife, who walked in the midst of their house with a perfect heart. They were strict observers of the Lord's day from even to even; [Leviticus 23:32 "From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbaths, " was to our New-England ancestors sufficient Scripture authority for their following Jewish example in commencing the Sabbath on Saturday evening at sunset.] and I think it may be said of them, as it was of Zachariah and Elizabeth, "that they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, and obtained a good report through faith." Their excellent example had a good effect, by the blessing of heaven, upon their children. He was made a deacon of the church at Norwalk, and used that office to the good satisfaction of that church to his death, which was in the 73rd year of his age' and two of his sons, viz.: John and Samuel, used the until old age and its attendants rendered them unable to serve any longer. And there are, at this day no less than seven of the family and name that use that office, and some of them at least, I hope, to good acceptance with God and man. ....." [signed] James Benedict, Ridgefield, March ye 14, 1755.'
At least three errors are to be found in the above account: Thomas' birth place of Nottinghamshire, that there were three generations of William Benedicts and that Thomas was an only child.
Thomas Benedict was born about 1617 in Norfolk, England and was the only surviving child of William and Elizabeth Benedict. An older brother, William, died at the age of three in 1615. William Benedict died by the end of the summeer of 1629. His widow, Elizabeth married John Bridgum on 8 September 1629 at Woolpit in Suffolk, England.
Several early Benedict researchers believed that Thomas was apprenticed to a weaver until he was of age. No evidence has been uncovered that he followed that occupation in America. Benedict was well educated. He served as a clerk, magistrate and held other positions that required the ability to read and write.
Exactly where Thomas and his step-sister, Mary Bridgum were married is open to question. Researcher Jeanne Benedict Weber believed that they were married at Long Medford Parish in Norwich, England in 1639. Bob Benedict [Benedict Topics web page] believes they were married at Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony shortly after their arrival and before they left with the Rev. John Youngs congregation. If the couple married in Salem, the ceremony may well have been performed by Rev. Youngs LaRue Olsen theorized that the marriage could have taken place in one of the parishes around Norwich in County Norfolk before Thomas and Mary sailed for New England and that if they were wed in Massachusetts Bay, the record likely did not survive.
It is believed that the Benedicts landed in the Beverly, Massachusetts Bay Colony area in 1638 or 1639 and settled briefly in Salem. The Benedicts moved to New Haven [Connecticut] Colony where they joined Reverend John Youngs' Puritan congregation.* The entire congregation later removed to Long Island, landing at Founders Landing on Peconic Bay in 1640.
The Benedicts settled at Southold where there were but a few whites and Yennicocks in residence. Thomas Benedict purchased land in the eastern part of Southold, Hashamomack, or Arshomomaque, with Henry Whitney and Edward Treadwell. He purchased a fourth of land "lying betwixt Tom's Creeke to a fresh ponnd lying by the North Sea with a stand of trees on it, marsh ground and moweinge land lying by Tom's house." The Benedict's log home had a thatched roof and oiled paper windows. As was required, the house had a ladder sufficient to reach the top of the roof. A grist mill was built at the tidal entrance to the pond. The grist mill was the first in Southold and was situated on the east side of the Tom's Mill Creek in Hashamomack. Benedict also produced turpentine and operated a brick-making business with John Cocklynge at Cocklynge's Point on Peconic Bay. All but one of the Benedict children were born at Southold; the youngest, Rebecca, was born at Huntington.
The Benedicts later removed to a tract of land called Hashamomack at Southold, Long Island in 1649 [now New York, but then the eastern part of the island was considered part of Connecticut] and raised a family of five sons and four daughters.
The homestead at Hashamomack was not technically within the limits of Southold, but the General Court at New Haven, on 31 May 1654, requested that Benedict and others be permitted to join the community. However, he was referred to as "of Southold" on 5 September 1650, when Uncas, Sachem of the Mohegans, complained to the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England that the Mohansick Sachem of Long Island had killed Uncas's son and bewitched some of his men. It was decided that a commission of Captain Mason, Mr. Howell, Mr. Gosmer, and Thomas Benedict of Southold - or any three of them - investigate the charges brought by Uncas.
.
In 1657, Benedict sold out to Thomas Rider and moved to Huntington, Long Island.
In May, 1658 Thomas Benedict and others solicited the Court of Deputies and Magistrates to have Huntington received into the jurisdiction of New Haven.
February 1660: Thomas Benedict was appointed Town Justice "TO SETTLE DISPUTES BETWEEN NAYBORS."
Thomas Benedict was appointed on 15 May 1662 to the town commission. He was among the founders of the first Presbyterian Church in America at Jamaica, also in 1662. His name appears on the list of 24 freeholders who deeded a house and lot to Minister Walker. On 20 March 1663, he was appointed a magistrate by Dutch Gov. Pieter Stuyvesant. Benedict and others petitioned the General Court of Connecticut at Hartford to have the western towns of Long Island annexed to that colony. He was made a lieutenant of the town of Jamaica on 3 December 1663. On 7 March 1664, Thomas Benedict wrote a petition to the Connecticut government requesting assistance in "settling of peace amongst us and the killing and quelling of mutenous and facsious sperits." Chief among his adversaries in this matter was Captain John Scott and his confederates.
1663: Benedict was on a committee "charged to making ye rates of ye menester's house and transporting ye minister Mr. Walker."
20 March 1663: He was appointed as a magistrate by Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant
On 26 September 1664, a month after the English gained control of New Netherlands, Thomas Benedict, John Bailey, Daniel Denton and others petitioned to Col. Nichols to settle a plantation along the Arthur Cull Bay [Arthur Kill?] in New Jersey [now Elizabethtown.] The petition was granted four days later.
Governor Nichols called for a meeting of the "most sober, able, and discreet persons, without partiality or faction" of the communities of New York to be held at Hempstead on the last day of February, 1664/5. Thomas Benedict and Daniel Denton were the representatives from Jamaica. This was believed to be the first English legislative body convened in New York.
Benedict was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Foot Company of Jamaica on 7 April 1665 at Fort James by Gov. Nichols. If he accepted the commission, it was briefly as the family moved to Norwalk, Connecticut later that same year.
Eldest son, Thomas, as stated above, married Mary Messenger while the family resided in Jamaica. He migrated, with his father, to Norwalk in 1665 and was on the 13 Oct. 1669 list of Freeholders. Thomas Sr.'s daughter, Mary, married Lt. John Olmstead in 1673
On 19 February. 1666, Benedict was chosen town clerk and selectman of Norwalk, serving in that position until 1688. He was chosen town clerk again in 1669. His name appeared on the list of freemen of Norwalk composed on 13 Oct. of that year. He was again chosen town clerk in 1672 and held the position until 1674, and was reappointed three years later. He was also chosen Deacon of the church in Norwalk. [The town records, in his own hand, are still preserved] Thomas signed his name "THOMAS BENNYDICK SENIOR."
Benedict was the representative of Norwalk in the General Assembly in 1670 and 1675.
1671: Benedict was chosen with John Platt to lay out house lots at Norwalk.
31 January 1678: He was chosen to oversee the work on building a meeting house.
He was listed as a patentee for the town of Norwalk in 1686. Benedict and three others were appointed by the General Court to plant a town "above Norwalke or Fayrefeild" at Paquiage in May of 1684. During the fall of 1684 and the spring of 1685, the families of Samuel and James Benedict [sons of Thomas] along with six other families settled at what became Danbury, Connecticut. The site had been purchased from the Indians.
In 1687, land was given to Thomas Benedict consisting of 36 lots and commonage. [Valued at £153]
Even though Benedict was apparently thought highly of by the Dutch and later, English governor of New York, his allegiance was evidently to Connecticut. He moved his entire family to Norwalk and established himself there.
Thomas Benedict made his will 28 February. 1689/90 at age 73. The inventory of his estate was taken on 18 March 1689/90. Mary died in 1721 [at age 101], both were buried at Norwalk.
*Several sources claim that Rev. Youngs was a Presbyterian minister rather than a Puritan. He founded the First Church of Christ [Puritan] in Southold. Members of his congregation, including Thomas Benedict, broke from the fold to become founders of the First Presbyterian Church of Jamaica, NY.
Thomas Benedict and Mary Bridgum3 were married circa 1639 in Norfolk,
England or Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony.3–4 Mary Bridgum, daughter
of John Bridgum, was born about 1619 in Nottinghamshire, England. She died in 1721 at the age of 102
in Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.5
Thomas Benedict and Mary Bridgum had the following
children:
2 i. Thomas Benedict, born abt 1641,
Southold, Suffolk Co., Long Island, New York;
married Mary Messenger, Jan 1664/5, Jamaica, Long Island, Queens, New York; died
20 Nov 1688, Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.
3 ii. John Benedict, born abt 1643,
Southold, Suffolk Co., Long Island, New York;
married Phebe Gregory, 11 Nov 1670, Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.
4 iii. Samuel Benedict, born abt 1645,
Southold, Suffolk Co., Long Island, New York;
married Rebecca Andrews, 7 Jul 1678, Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut;
married _______ [Benedict], Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; died
bet 20 Mar 1719 and 15 Apr 1719, Danbury, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.
5 iv. James Benedict, born 6 Feb 1649/50,
Southold, Suffolk Co., Long Island, New York;
married Sarah Gregory, 10 May 1676, Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut;
married Sarah Porter, bef Mar 1707/8, Danbury, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; died
aft Aug 1717, Danbury, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.
6 v. Daniel Benedict, born abt 1651,
Southold, Suffolk Co., Long Island, New York;
married Mary Marvin, 1670, Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; died
aft 15 Feb 1722/3, Danbury, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.
7 vi. Betty \ Elizabeth Benedict, born abt
1653, Southold, Suffolk Co., Long Island, New York;
married John Slauson, aft 1676, Stamford, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.
8 vii. Mary Benedict, born 1655, Southold, Suffolk Co., Long Island, New York; married John Olmstead, 17 Jul
1673, Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; died 1693/4, Stamford, Fairfield
Co., Connecticut.
9 viii. Sarah Benedict, born abt 1657,
Southold, Suffolk Co., Long Island, New York;
married James Beebe, 19 Dec 1679, Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.
10 ix. Rebecca Benedict, born abt 1659,
Huntington, Suffolk Co., Long Island, New York;
married Samuel Wood, Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Connecticut.
Sources:
2. Roberta B. Pierson, The Benedict Family History News:
Benedict/ Hunloke/Hunlocke Connection, Volume: V # 3 (Winter 1998).
3. LaRue Olson, "The English Origins of the First
Thomas Benedict of Long Island and Norwalk, Connecticut," article, NEHGS, American
Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org : accessed 29 August 2018), Benedict
familiy; citing prior publication in The Connecticut Nutmegger (2006).
4. Jeanne Benedict Weber, The Benedict Family [History]
News: Expanding on the Story of Thomas and Mary [Bridgum] Benedict, Series: #3,
Volume: II (Winter 1995), p. 26.
5.
Jeanne Benedict Weber, The Benedict Family [History] News: Expanding on the
Story of Thomas and Mary [Bridgum] Benedict, Series: #3, Volume: II, p. 28
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