USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Farmington > Farmington town clerks and their times (1645-1940) > Part 4
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Captain William Lewis was the only son of William Sr. and his wife, Felix. During the declining years of his father's life, Captain William also had, at least until 1670, his maternal grandmother, Mary Whitehead, living with him. He had eight sons and five daughters. William Sr. left none of his estate to his son. He had given him his Farmington lands and house during his lifetime as the Lewis homestead (now part of the
29
Captain William Lewis
Inn) closely adjoined the father's home. William Sr. died August 2, 1683. In his will, he left his estate in Hadley, Massa- chusetts, where he had spent some of his later years, to his grandson, Ezekiel. His land and house in Hartford he left to his granddaughter Abigail Lewis, directing another grand- son, Philip Lewis, who lived in the Hartford house, to pay all back rent, amounting to forty pounds, to Abigail. To his grand- son Ebenezer, he left all of his smith's tools.
The house which Captain William Lewis built has been photographed, measured and reproduced so widely, that further description is uncalled for here. Isham and Brown, in their rare and detailed book Early Connecticut Houses give the date of the building as 1660. It was to this homestead that Captain William brought his second wife, Mary, daughter of Ezekiel Cheever, one of the most famous educators of the cen- tury. They were married in Boston November 22, 1671. Until his death in 1690, Captain William served his country, town and church with vigor and faithfulness. He was appointed deputy to the General Court many years, was chosen commis- sioner, was first appointed "Sergeant to call forth and train souldgers" and later made "Lieftennant to order the sould- gers at Farmington." One of his other duties was aiding in laying out highways. January 18, 1665, the highway to Hart- ford was laid out, the first mile and half being ten rods wide and the rest of the road to the Hartford town line forty rods wide. This road was over what is now South Road, skirting the swamp, now West Hartford Center. Back Lane, now High Street, was laid out March 16, 1673-4. At this time the pro- prietors were deeply engrossed in laying out their all-important divisions, with a lot in each division for each proprietor, accord- ing to his original investment, or of his ratable estate. Captain William Lewis acted as clerk for the proprietors. His very peculiar writing in the Proprietors records gives the name, Division, lot number, and size of each of these original layouts. He was empowered by the townsmen "to record former grants of land in the townebook and the towne requested and im- powered Captain Lewis to call for the originall coppies of the
30
Farmington Town Clerks and Their Times
Grand Divisions off Mr. Wadsworth that they may be recorded as aforesaid."
The original proprietors, or their heirs, together with the rate on which their share in each Division was determined, were recorded as follows:
Mr. Haynes
£263,00
John Welton
£50,00
Mr. Wyllys
£168,00
Thomas Richardson
£34,00
Thomas Orton
£152,00
Widow Orvis
£61,00
John Norton
£157,00
Daniel Warner
£47,00
Left. Lewis
£187,00
John Root, Senior
£166,00
Joseph Woodford
£84,00
Mr. Samuel Hooker
£288,00
Thomas Newel
£167,00
John Carington
£44,00
Mr. Howkins
£158,00
John Brownson, Senior
£101,00
John Thomson
£73,00
John Cole
£75,00
John Steel's heirs
£65,00
John Scovel
£39,00
Samuel Steel, Junior
£21,00
Richard Brownson
£128,00
Ensign Steel's land
£21,00
John Brownson, Junior
£50,00
Thomas Thomson
£60,00
Thomas Bull
£71,00
Thomas Judd, Senior
£60,10
Samuel Cowles
£94,00
John Judd
£69,00
Abraham Brownson
£50,00
Philip Judd
£33,00
Obadiah Richards
£41,00
William Judd
£140,00
Daniel Andrus
£44,00
Thomas Judd, Jr.
£99,00
Abraham Andrus
£35,00
John Andrus
£93,00
John Stanley, Junior
£67,00
John Stanley, Senior
£131,00
Richard Seamor
£49,00
Robert Porter
£112,00
Stephen Hart, Junior
£106,00
John Lee
£97,00
Isaac More
£127,00
Stephen Hart, Senior
£132,00
Matthew Woodruff
£90,00
John Hart's Estate
£73,00
John Woodruff
£83,00
Thomas Hart
£104,00
Sarj. Samuel Steel
£96,00
Thomas Porter, Senior
£73,00
John North, Senior
£157,00
Thomas Porter, Junior
£50,00
Widow Smith
£68,00
John Wadsworth
£183,00
Jonathan Smith
£39,00
Moses Ventrus
£73,00
Jobamer Smith
£36,00
Jacob Brownson
£65,00
Benj. Judd
£63,00
Thomas Barnes
£120,00
James Bird
£59,00
John Langdon
£140,00
Joseph Bird
£53,00
John Root, Junior
£26,00
John Clark
£74,00
John Warner, Senior
£97,00
John North, Junior
£56,00·
John Warner, Junior
£68,00
Samuel North
£56,00
Simon Wrothum on account of Thomas Osmer
£68,00
Thomas Hancox
£63,00
Daniel Porter
£118,00
John Porter
£33,00
Edmund Scott
£86,00
Thomas Gridley
£53,00
Isaac Brownson
£65,10
William Higgison
£41,00
Samuel Hicox
£50,00
Samuel Gridley
Joseph Hicox
£37,00
Mr. Newton's land
£37,00
David Carpenter
£32,00
Zach. Seamor
£46,00
31
Captain William Lewis
The Grand Divisions in which these proprietors participated were:
Southeast Division of 84 lots recorded 1714
Division next Hartford and Windsor, recorded 1717
Division next Hartford and Windsor, as laid out 1687 and recorded 1718. There were 21 lots in this latter division.
East Nod Division laid out and recorded 1719
First Division west of reserved land laid out and recorded 1721 Second Division west of reserved land laid out and recorded 1721
Third Division west of reserved land laid out and recorded 1721 Fourth Division west of reserved land laid out and recorded 1721
Fifth Division west of reserved land laid out and recorded 1721
Sixth Division west of reserved land laid out and recorded 1721 Southwest Division recorded, 1722
Division next Wethersfield, recorded 1723
Northwest Division recorded 1728
Long Lots Division recorded 1728
Blew Hills Division recorded 1728
Division south of Shuttlemeadow laid out 1730 and recorded 1731 Small Division north of Shuttlemeadow laid out 1730 recorded 1731 Little Plain or Small Division recorded 1732
Great Swamp Division laid out 1715, recorded 1735
Great Swamp Division - Upland Lots recorded 1735
Little Plain Division, recorded 1747
Northwest Division laid out for second time in 1762 and recorded 1792 Southwest Division, first laid out 1722, was laid out second time and recorded 1792 Division of lots east of Great Plain laid out 1769, recorded 1792
Of these Divisions, three, namely, the Division next Hartford and Wethersfield, and the First Division and Second Division west of the reserved land, had each twenty-one lots, with four proprietors having each an undivided one-quarter interest in each lot. In all of the other divisions each proprietor had a separate lot. These lots varied in width, according to the rating of each proprietor, each lot being the entire length of the Di- vision, from one highway to the next, and each proprietor had a lot in each division.
The reserved land was a rectangular reservation where the homes, gardens, orchards and meadows had been established in what is now mostly the village of Farmington. It measured three miles to the north from Round Hill, two miles sixty-four rods to the east, five miles thirty-two rods to the south and two miles to the west. Such land in this reservation as was not already taken up was set aside for "town commons, home lots, pastures and pitches, convenient for the inhabitants," and a common field enclosing the meadows.
32
Farmington Town Clerks and Their Times
Round Hill was used as a landmark in many of the early deeds, both with the Indians, and as setting the bounds of the reserved land. It was later deeded to the town for the exclusive use of the inhabitants so long as it existed.
In the 1660's when Captain William was town clerk, building his new home, instructing the Indians, caring for his large family and taking an active interest and participation in affairs of the town, church, and Colony, others in the town were doing their share - and fortune was smiling broadly on them.
At the far south end of the Town Path (Main Street) beside the mountain brook, Governor George Wyllys had owned ten acres of land with a tenement thereon. In his will dated March 9, 1644, he gave this land in Tunxis to his son Samuel, who sold it to Thomas Orton in 1655. Isham and Brown have dated this house as 1660. In that event the house was built by Orton, who owned it until 1665 when he sold to John Wadsworth. It was in the Wadsworth family until 1847 when sold by the Estate of Sidney Wadsworth to Egbert Cowles. Originally it was much the type of the Whitman house, twice its present size, sub- stantial and beautiful, with hand-finished panels and cupboards about its great chimney, a wide overhang and ornamental drops on four corners. It was divided in half while in the Wads- worth family, the chimney half now owned and occupied by Mrs. Harriet Mason and the rebuilt half owned and occupied by her brother, Clarence Mason.
Another old house of great age, with previous uncertain parentage, is the present home of Mr. and Mrs. A. Douglas Dodge. Exhaustive and patient research point to the likelihood that it was built about 1693 by Caleb Root. Caleb was son of John Root who owned that land at the time of his death in 1684, it being part of the Governor Hopkins farm willed to Sarah Hooker and sold by her as Sarah Wilson to John Root in 1662. Caleb Root married August 9, 1693, Elizabeth Salmon. He died in 1712, leaving a son Caleb and two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary. By several transfers, the land "with several sorts of buildings standing thereon" became in 1724 the property of Caleb's brother Joseph, who sold it to Captain Solomon Cowles in 1773.
The Farmington Museum Known as the Stanley-Whitman House Built about 1665
33
Captain William Lewis
When Caleb lived there and after it became the property of his brother Joseph, the neighbor on the north was Nathaniel Hooker, who had a house on the site of the present Coburn home. This house was probably rebuilt by either Isaac or Solomon Cowles. When purchased in 1872 by Anson Porter, evidence was found of reconstruction from a house built along lines of seventeenth century architecture. Joseph Root lived next south of his brother Caleb.
John Stanley built the house which now so proudly bears his name, together with that of Whitman, his successor-owner. It has come now to the good age where it gathers under its roof-tree the treasures of the town and its people. Through the civic interest and generosity of the late Mrs. Laura Dunham Barney, the house has been restored to its original detail of construction and finish, and reinforced with fireproof addition, is maintained by endowment as the Farmington Museum.
The people who made the house what it is, were among the most active and prominent in the town.
John Stanley came to New England as a child, accompanying his father, sister and two uncles. On the way over, his father and a younger child died at sea. The father's brothers Timothy and Thomas took their brother's children, Thomas taking John, who was ten years old, and Timothy taking Ruth, and bringing them up as their own. Both Thomas and Timothy were men of worth and enterprise in the new land and taught young John the rigors and rewards of building his home in a new country. John was twenty-one years old when he married on December 5, 1645, Sarah, daughter of Thomas Scott of Hart- ford. Four sons and two daughters were born of this marriage. John, the eldest, later a doctor, became owner of the house. Sarah (Scott) Stanley died in 1661, and on April 20, 1663, John Stanley married for his second wife Sarah Fletcher of Milford, who sur- vived him. One daughter, Abigail, was born of this marriage. She married John Hooker, son of the Rev. Samuel Hooker.
John Stanley's home with his first wife was on Main Street next north of Robert Porter, and would be about where the Francis Cowles house now stands. After his second marriage, he acquired the land on High Street, or Back Lane as it was
34
Farmington Town Clerks and Their Times
known, by exchange with Isaac Moore and here built his new house for his bride, about 1665.
After Stanley's death in 1706, his son Dr. John sold the place to Ebenezer Steel. He left the home of his daughter Mary, who soon married Thomas Smith. Here they lived from about 1724 until 1735 when they sold the house to Rev. Samuel Whitman as a home for his son Elnathan. The house remained by inheri- tance in the Whitman family until the marriage of William Whitman's daughter, Ann Sophia, to Henry Farnum of New Haven in 1837. Known thereafter as the Farnum house, it re- mained still in the family but by another name, until purchased by Mr. D. N. Barney in 1922, to become the home of precious Farmington mementos, now most ably cared for by the curator, Miss Mary Mccarthy.
Clothed in the mystery of a house that has been moved from its original foundation, the so-called Gleason house is difficult to place on Main Street, but the oft-quoted Isham and Brown, by comparison with the Stanley-Whitman house, the Wyllys house and the Lewis house (Elm Tree Inn), place the date of construction at approximately 1660. In 1811 Isaac Gleason had title to this house. He had married Mary Smith on October 18, 1759, whose father William had given her the homestead and her brothers the land. The father of William was also William Smith who in 1669-70 bequeathed this house to his wife and children. Because of this association of the Smith and Gleason families, it would appear safe to assume that this house was built nearer the corner of Main Street and the road to Hartford, where William Smith lived in 1669. Farmington residents remember that it was moved to its present location and used as a barn. Now as a tenement back of the home of Mrs. Balazy, its present owner, there is a well-worn path to its door, worn by architects and antiquarians. Mr. Isham has selected this house as one of the outstanding examples of ex- quisite and painstaking early architecture.
The ancient red house, known as The Homestead on the Hart- ford Road at the corner of College Highway, now belonging to Mrs. Eleanor Bartlett Skinner, has been in her family since purchased by Pomroy Strong in 1803. It was built by ances-
35
Captain William Lewis
1248471
tors of Mrs. Skinner and has been out of the family only for about twenty-five of its two hundred and eighty years of exist- ence.
The rear part of the house is the original Joseph Woodford home built about 1666, or earlier. The front part of the house proved during recent renovation, to be an entirely separate house, framed and beamed for a one-story house. It was the original Thomas Newell house and was built just west of the Woodford house, probably about 1650 on land purchased of William Goodwin. Thomas Newell's daughter Rebekah (named for her mother, Rebekah Olmstead) married Joseph Woodford, thus joining the two properties. Their son Joseph removed to Northington and was the progenitor of the Woodford families there. Before the canal was built the Newell house was moved to its present location and joined onto the old Woodford house, the canal soon flooding the former Newell site. Later Pomroy Strong added the second story and a new roof. Here have lived four generations of the Newell family; William Porter bought the Woodford house in 1742 for his son David when he married Anne (Judd) Moody; and Dr. Timothy Hosmer, long physician in the town and with the army during the Revolutionary War, lived there from 1789 to 1793. For about ten years the house had several owners, obviously speculative, and in 1803 it came back into the family, through the purchase by Pomroy Strong, whose mother was Mercy, daughter of Isaac and Rachel (Pomroy) Newell.
The huge chimney is over nine feet square in the cellar; the windows in the back part are set close to the eaves; a wide cornice hangs over the side of the house and during the years has worn grooves in the great drip stones which terrace the house. One of the outstanding features of the house was uncov- ered this year when inside sheathing was found. In his pam- phlet Some Notes on Early Connecticut Architecture, Mr. Elmer D. Keith says, of Seventeenth century houses: "Let us allude to two other clues - the wooden interior walls of featheredge or beaded sheathing or matched boards, and the habit the early builders had of facing an isolated house toward the south. This was not as universal here as in neighboring colonies; in fact it
36
Farmington Town Clerks and Their Times
was a rule never observed in settled communities like Guilford and Farmington."
In these years the all-important center of the town was the First Church, often called the meeting house, for here were held the civil and political as well as religious meetings of the town. Here preached from 1661 to 1697 Rev. Samuel Hooker, son of Rev. Thomas Hooker, and brother-in-law of Rev. Roger Newton, the first pastor, who had since been called to the First Church in Milford.
This church, the first, was fortified in 1689 and in 1704 against possible surprise attacks by the Indians. Seven houses in the small village were also fortified by order of the townsmen. These were the homes of Thomas Orton who lived on the site of the white house at the curve of the Hartford Road next the Taft store; the William Lewis house, now the Elm Tree Inn; the How- kins Hart house on the site of Miss Florence Gay's home; the house of Ensign Samuel Wadsworth, who lived in the former Wyllys house; Lieutenant John Hart's house on the site of the red house across from the Congregational Church; the house of John Wadsworth who lived in the Wadsworth homestead on Main Street; and James Wadsworth's house which stood at the north corner of Mountain Road and Main Street.
It was during this period that Thomas Barnes, who lived about where the house of Mrs. Stephen Lawrence now stands, gave a rear portion of his land to the town for a burying ground, the first record we find dated 1661. In 1668 he gave another portion on the street for the same purpose, and in 1695 his son Joseph sold a third portion to the town.
The earliest burials there are unmarked. The oldest stones which can be deciphered are: 1685-Nov. 8-S. S. B .; 1688 - Ag. B26 - A. S.
In 1672 the General Court ordered copies of the laws of the Colony to be printed and that each family should purchase one. If the pay was in silver the cost would be twelve pence; in wheat one and one-half pecks for a book, or two shillings worth if in peas. The law book that was bound and covered was to be kept for the town's use. Only nine of these books are now known to exist. Collectors prize them highly.
Home of Mr. and Mrs. A. Douglas Dodge. Built in 1693 by Caleb Root
The Homestead. Home of Captain and Mrs. William C. Skinner. The present home is made of two combined houses, the front half being the original Newell home and the rear half being the original Woodford home. Both probably built in the 1660's.
e
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37
Captain William Lewis
Closely adjacent to the church was the school, ordered by the General Court in 1650 and supplemented by town vote December 26, 1683, and again December 28, 1685. Then as for many years to come the education of the boys was such as could be found on the farm during the months of planting and harvest, there being ample time in the winter, with only chores and wood splitting to be done, for learning to "write plainly and read distinctly in the Bible." Girls attended school for longer periods, and Indian children were brought into the school, or were instructed separately.
Townspeople were busy with their homemaking - This meant raising sheep, spinning, weaving and fitting clothing, making soap, tallow and implements for being clothed and warm. Furniture had to be made.
Elections were held for officers not heard of in these days. Chimney viewers were of great need as the chimneys were of wood lined with clay and easily inflammable. Fence viewers ordered fences repaired and despite this there were often strays to be kept in the town pound on the hill back of the church until claimed, or sold by the townsmen. Tything men kept these hard-working men and women awake during three-hour discourses.
With the great territory from Simsbury to Wallingford, and from the Hartford line "west" being divided, within the next thirty years a proprietor found himself a much-traveled man as he visited his acres in South Parish, Shuttlemeadow, New Cambridge, West Britain, Nod, Great Plain, Great Swamp. Captain William Lewis did all of these things.
He died in 1690 leaving no will.
His widow, Mary, appealed to the Colonial Court for a dis- tribution of a marriage portion and although signing herself as . "humble" she at the same time informed the Court that if her prayer was not answered, she would immediately appeal further. Mary had an ample marriage portion from her father, and at Captain Williams' death he was rated as one of the more well-to-do residents. They had three negro servants and a well- furnished home. The year following the death of Captain Lewis, his widow married Deacon Thomas Bull.
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H E A LTH Y
1
John Hart
I686-1702
ENSIGN JOHN HART, born in Farmington about 1655 and bap- tised in the church April 2, 1655, was the eldest son and only surviving child of John Hart and his wife, Sarah. He was eleven years old when fire took his home, his father and brother and sister. It seems probable that he and his mother made their home with Deacon Stephen Hart, grandfather of Ensign John, and took the place there of Deacon Stephen's son John. Deacon Stephen had given his son John, who lost his life in the fire, one-half of his farm, and his son, Ensign John, inherited his father's share, it being the homestead across from the church as well as the land where the burned homestead had stood. Ensign John married Mary, daughter of Deacon Isaac Moore. They had seven children, the eldest being also John and known as "Deacon." Ensign John and Mary had three other sons who married three sisters, all daughters of John Hooker and the three families all lived in Berlin where they were prominent.
Ensign John Hart carried on the traditions of his grand- father's family and established an example for future genera- tions who have been continuously important through the cen- turies in all branches of service to church, state and industry.
His two uncles, Thomas and Stephen, were foremost in the affairs of the town and colony, and both left substantial estates.
Ensign John Hart was one of the appraisers of the estate of his Uncle Stephen, who lived on Mountain road, about opposite present High Street. It was on this site and possibly in part of the old house that Hubert Chauncey Hart was born in 1843. He moved to Unionville as a small boy and until his death in 194I was always deeply interested in the affairs of the day and
39
Ensign John Hart
long identified with the industry of the town. His father was Chauncey Hart and his mother was Sarah Jane Hooper, de- scendant of William Hooper, one of the signers of the Declara- tion of Independence.
Thomas Hart, the other son of Deacon Stephen and uncle to our Ensign John, had been given the north half of his father Stephen's homestead, which stood about on the site of the pres- ent town hall. We will hear more later of Ensign John's son, Deacon John, who was also a town clerk.
There has been a John Hart in every generation, and this small introduction is necessary to designate our particular John. He was known at first as Ensign John Hart, for having been confirmed by the General Court in 1695 as ensign of the train-band. His service was such that promotions followed, for in October, 1703, he was commissioned lieutenant and subse- quently promoted to captain. According to the Colonial records he served Farmington as deputy to the General Court from 1702 to 1705 and in 1705 was appointed auditor of the colony.
In January, 1696, Ensign John Hart and John Hooker, leading men in the community and the Colony, were appointed by the townsmen to be "Town Clerks and Registers to record Town Acts and Votes." John Hart served until the appointment of Deacon Thomas Bull in 1702. "January 4, 1696 the town made choyce of Captain John Standly, Captain (formerly Ensign) John Hart and John Hooker to search ye Ould Towne Book and what acts they find in ye ould book of any publique con- cernment for the towns interest they shall transcribe-make record of them by transcribing into ye new book all such acts as are of publique concernment." Surely conclusive evidence that the Ould Book had not been burned, as some of the items of publique interest were recorded as far back as 1646.
John Hart had served at various earlier times, for we find his name as recording land grants. John Hooker and Thomas Bull were also making various records in the Town Meeting Book and from a comparison of the writing, evidently recording deeds of land conveyances, but not signing them.
The necessaries of life were beginning to come easier to these people by 1672. They had their grist mill back of the Hart
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