"William3, eldest son of William2 Backus, Jr., and Sarah (Charles) Backus, was born May 11 1660, presumably at Saybrook just before the transfer of his parents to the settlement which was to become Norwich. … William was appointed Sergeant of the Windham train band in 1692. He was also 'poundkeeper and hayward for the great field at the South end.' In 1707 he was on a committee to select a burying ground. It is to be assumed that he maintained himself and family chiefly by farming. Apparently as William became aged, misfortune or mismanagement overtook him, for in April, 1730. 'The proprietors of the town, considering that William Backus was one of the ancient inhabitants of the town and now attained to old age and reduced to poverty, give him and his wife Mary, one and one half acres of land and to his son Ephraim after him'. This suggests that the parents may have spent their declining years with this, their youngest son. William died at Windham January 25, 1742."
