The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I, Part 29

Author: Trumbull, J. Hammond (James Hammond), 1821-1897
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Boston, E. L. Osgood
Number of Pages: 870

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 29

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222

MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.

substantially the same reservation that the Dutch had previously agreed to allow to " the Sequeen." The tract conveyed was known as Suckiaug (sometimes spelled Sicaogg, and by the Dutch, Sickajoeck) ; a name which Dr. J. H. Trumbull interprets, " black (or dark-colored) earth." It was bounded northerly by the present Windsor; southerly, by Wethers- field ; the River, east; and the " Wilderness," six miles distant, west. The grantees were the Rev. Samuel Stone and Mr. William Goodwin, "in the behalfe of the Proprietors." Sunckquasson (or Sequassen) was a son of Sequin 1 (or Sequeen, or " the Sequeen," as he was vari- ously ealled), and a Sachem under Miantunnomoh, the head of the Narragansetts. He subsequently - when is not known - extended the western bounds " so far as his country went;" which was to the domain of " Pethus, the Sachem, or gentleman, of Tunxis." This latter grant was "to the honoured John Haynes, Esqr., and other the first magistrates of this place." Most of those facts are recited in the con- firmatory deed of Masseekup, and others, in July, 1670.

The grant of 1636 was not made to the town, nor to the plantation ; but to the grantees named, and their associates, the "Proprietors." Those gentlemen paid for the tract by a special rate or tax, and there- after they, and their heirs and assigns, constituted the body called the Proprietors. Until 1640 those Proprietors who dwelt north of Little River held their meetings separately from the meetings of those on the south side ; then the town, by vote, refused to sanction such separate meetings. There was a " North Side " and a "South Side " book of records ; and afterward a general book, showing when, and to whom, allotments of lands were made, and what commons were established. These books are (probably irrecoverably) lost. The original Proprie- tors were ninety-seven in number. The disposal of the " common and undivided," or " ungiven " lands was generally the subject of Proprie- tors' meetings ; but special grants, and some general votes as to the rule for allotting, conditions of holding lands, etc., were made in town- meetings. This was not objected to, for the " legal inhabitants," who alone could vote in town-meetings, were, practically, identical with those people who were entitled to vote in Proprietors' meetings. And so the General Court, in 1639, enacted that the three river towns miglit " dispose of their ungranted lands." An early vote of Hartford, passed in 1639 or earlier, made it a condition of the title to lands held in sever- alty that the owner thereof forfeited them if he removed within four years. If a "house-lot" was granted, it must be built upon within twelve months ; if the owner sold it, the first offer of sale must be made to the town. In some cases special grants were made " by courtesy," or for good reason, to "admitted inhabitants," who were not Proprietors, and hence had no legal claim to have land set out to them.

The Hartford settlers, who at first considered themselves a part of the old Newtown, were, for a time, like the other River plantations, under the commission for government granted in Massachusetts, March 3, 1636. In September, 1635, William Westwood was appointed con- stable for all the plantations. In April, 1636, Samuel Wakeman was, by the General Court of Connecticut, appointed constable for Hartford.

On the 21st of February, 1636-7, Newtown was given the name of

1 This Sequin is not to be confounded with Sowheag, Sachem of Pyquaug and Mattabesett, who was sometimes called Sequin.

223

SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN.

" Hartford Towne." 1 Although the plantation had sometimes been called a "town," even by the Massachusetts government, its existence as a township must be said to date only from the termination of the commission-government, in 1637. The first townsmen (selectmen) of Hartford, of whom there is any record, were : John Talcott, Samuel Wakeman, and William Wadsworth (?) in 1638.

The name Hartford was borrowed from the township of Hertford, on the river Lea, in Hertfordshire, England. There the name is pro- nounced Hartford, or, more commonly, Harford. Bede, who died A. D. 735, sometimes wrote the name Herudford, which has been explained as meaning Red Ford ; but the common Anglo- Saxon equivalent for red was read. Sir Hen- ry Chauncey, in 1700, says that the Britons called the place Durocobriva ; which, he says, meant Red Ford. Other writers have claimed that in the Anglo-Saxon heort, or heorot, a hart, is to be found the origin of the first half of the name. Since the year 1571 the arms of the borough have been, argent, a hart, couchant, in a ford; both proper. This emblem of a stag fording a stream may not, however, have indicated a belief that the name was due to a similar SEAL OF HERTFORD, ENGLAND,2 idea. Finally, in the latest edition of the " Encyclopædia Britannica," the writer of the article entitled "Hert- ford" is of the opinion that the name is a corruption of Hereford, which meant an army ford.

Why Hartford (or, as they sometimes wrote it, Hertford) was the name selected by our ancestors is probably due to the fact that it was the birthplace of the Rev. Samuel Stone, who was the first grantee named in the Indian deed of 1636. Among the first acts of the Pro- prietors (if indeed the Adventurers did not anticipate them) was, naturally, the setting apart of a square for the meeting-house, and with it, perhaps, a place of burial for the dead. The former was a tract embracing not only the present City Hall square, but a space whereof the south line was nearly as far south as the present Grove Street ; the north line being nearly coincident with the present Kinsley Street. In the northeast corner stood the "house of correction," erected in 1640; the size whereof was twenty-four feet by eighteen. Near the north centre were a few graves. The meeting-house stood near the east centre of the square, and near it was a " little house," which in 1639 was. sold by the town. A new meeting-house was erected here

1 See page 37, et seq.

2 This is the seal now in use in the borongh town of Hertford, and the arms it bears are older than the grant by Queen Elizabeth above-mentioned. They were certainly used under the charter granted by Mary, in 1554, and are probably of much higher antiquity. The Hart is standing (not couchant) in the Ford, and bears between his attires a cross-passion : and the name of the town is spelled " Hart Forde." Turner, in his History of Hertford (p. 73, note) mentioning the grant by the charter of Elizabeth, adds : "But as this clause left it optional with the corporation to adopt the new coat of arms or to continue their more ancient one, they preferred the latter which they have continued to use until the present day." John Worden, in 1598, wrote, in his "Speculum Britannia," a "Chorographical Description of Hartford- shire :" and in Bowen's Geography, published so late as 1747, the county is described as " Hartford-shire " and its "chief town is Hartford." - ED.

224

MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.

the same year, the old one being given to Mr. Hooker, who removed it to his residence on the north side of the present Arch Street. In the southeast corner a public market was established in 1643.

The Palisado must have stood on the north bank of Little River, a few rods west of Main Street bridge. It was built before the town doings were recorded, and hence no record of its construction exists.

A bridge across Little River was built by the town in 1638, probably somewhat west of the present Main Street bridge. If made as ordered, it was "twelfe feete wide betweene ye rayles, wth turned ballesters on ye top." This must have been the structure referred to by Win- throp, in his " History of New England," wherein he says, under date of Dec. 10, 1646, there was such a sudden "thaw in the spring (the snow lying very deep), and much rain withal, that it bare down the bridge at Hartford." It was rebuilt in 1647 or 1648; for the " Great Bridge cross the riverett by the mill " is mentioned in the town records of 1649. In 1651 the alterations of this structure were so great that the General Court excused Hartford men from " training " on October 6th and 7th, in order that they might assist in " raising of the worke prepared for the supporte of the Great bridge."

The "School " is first mentioned in a town vote of Dec. 6, 1642, when thirty pounds per year, "forever," was "seatled upon the Scoole of the towne." It was the usage to set school-houses in the highway, and thus the location was not a matter of record. There was such a building in 1644; and in it were stored " 2 great gunns & carriages & other things belonging to ym ;" all town property.

The earliest houses fronted as follows: On both sides of Main Street, from the south bank of Little River to Morgan Street; on the east side of Main, from Morgan to High Street; on the south sides of Sheldon and Elm streets ; on the south side of the old line of Bucking- ham Street ; on the west side of Lafayette Street ; on the west side of Trumbull Street ; on the west side of Front Street ; and on the north side of Arch Street. There were some scattering houses on other streets. The first habitations were mere cellars, and were sometimes so called in deeds of conveyance. The cellars were lined with logs set perpendicularly, rising four or five feet above ground, and well banked up outside. The roofs were log-covered and thatched, or overlaid with turf and the boughs of trees.

The Little meadow, lying between Front Street and the River, was very early divided up (but not fenced), to provide mowing-lots for the householders. Here, and in the present East Hartford meadows, lots were parcelled out before 1640. Some of the South meadow, around the Dutchmen's land, and the Indians' land, was parcelled in a similar manner ; likewise a part of the North meadow. Within the latter was the "Soldiers' field;" a tract of twenty-eight acres, the lots wherein mostly contained one rood each. These had been distributed to Hart- ford soldiers of the Pequot war of 1637, before the commencement of any records now in existence.

Large sections of " upland " were laid out prior to 1640, the West field, probably, being the earliest. It was a region now traversed by Ann and High streets. Lots in these "fields," as well as in the meadows, were generally granted singly, and not in a general allot- ment. When an allotment was made, whether by dividing up a

225

SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN.

field, a " stated common," or from the " common and undivided lands " (wilderness), there was a drawing by lot, or numbers; the sharers being usually original Proprietors, or their heirs or assigns. A field contained one, or (more usually) two, " tiers ; " and each tier was di- vided into " lots." Sometimes allotments were made to the " legal in- habitants," the Proprietors assenting to the arrangement. It was probably by allotment that Pine field (between Asylum and Albany avenues) was divided in severalty. So with Bridge field (west of Wood's River) ; Great Swamp (between Wethersfield road and the ridge of Rocky Hill) ; South field (southwest of the Ox pasture) ; Rocky Hill, and the sections west of it. Certainly the great West Division (now West Hartford), being a tier of lots each one and a half miles long, - the tier extending from Windsor to Wethersfield, and being bounded west by Farmington, - was divided by allotment to Proprie- tors in 1673. And on the east side of the river an allotment was made to Proprietors in June, 1666, of the whole tract between the present Main Street of East Hartford and the original east line of Hartford. It had been ordered laid out as early as Feb. 11, 1640-1. It made but one tier, stretching from " Potuncke river to Pewter Pot river ; " that is, from Windsor to Wethersfield; and the lots were each about three miles long.

Stated commons, though belonging to the Proprietors, were cared for and controlled by the town. The latter appointed herders and " cow-keepers " for the cattle depastured therein, and shepherds for the sheep. The swine, of which great numbers were raised, were turned loose in the wilderness. The Old Ox pasture, the Ox pasture, and the Cow pasture were laid out before 1640. Their positions are shown on Porter's map of Hartford in 1640, a reduced copy of which is given in the next section. Other commons, as the Little Ox pasture, Middle Ox pasture, etc., appear to have been divided up in severalty prior to 1640. The largest one of all was established in Proprietors' meeting, in January, 1672-3. It lay between the West Division and the Prospect Hill range; extending from Windsor on the north to Wethersfield on the south. It was a common of pasturage and of shack ; and from its importance it took the name of The Commons. The southern part of this vast traet is largely uncultivated, and is still called the Common.

Sunekquasson being dead (he was still living in 1657), and his deed of Hartford having been lost, his " successors," on the 5th of July, 1670, made a confirmatory deed of the land west of the river to " Mr. Samuel Willys, Captain John Tallcott, Mr. James Richards, and Mr. John Allyn, in behalfe of themselves and the rest of the inhabitants of the towne of Hartford who are stated proprietors in the undivided lands."

In January, 1686, the General Court, seemingly to head off any sequestration of colonial lands by Sir Edmond Andros, donated such territory as was not included in any township to certain of the towns. To Hartford and Windsor were given the lands " on the north of Wood- bury and Matatock [Waterbury ], and on the west of Farmington and Simsbury, to the Massachusetts line north, and to run west to Housa- tunnuck River . . . to make a plantation or villages thereon." It was not till 1707 that Hartford considered the cession valid or important enough to warrant the expense of a survey of this tract. Litchfield VOL. I .- 15.

226

MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.

was laid out in 1717, and Hartford and Windsor disposed of their in- terest in it to settlers. In 1723 the General Assembly began to take measures to recover possession of these " Western Lands." A contest between it on the one hand, and Hartford and Windsor on the other, was carried on until 1726, when a compromise was effected, whereby the colony received the territory comprising the present townships of Canaan, North Canaan, Norfolk, Cornwall, Goshen, Warren, and about two thirds of Kent; while Hartford and Windsor received that now comprising Litchfield, Colebrook, Hartland, Winchester, Barkhamsted, Torrington, New Hartford, and Harwinton. In 1729 the colony issued a patent for one-half of this tract to Hartford, and for the other half to Windsor. In 1732 Hartford and Windsor made a partition of their joint property ; Hartford taking Hartland, Winchester, New Hartford, and the east half of Harwinton ; and Windsor taking the residue. The Proprietors (and not the towns) of Hartford and Windsor became the possessors of the great tracts of land, mostly wild, which had been thus divided.

Lands in Hartford, like those in England, were held subject to the " paramount title " of the Crown of England. In the colonial charter this title was recognized, as also in the patents granted by the colony to the several towns in 1685 and subsequently. Thus the title was feudal ; that is, dependent upon fealty to the Crown. The tenure was not a base one, but, as expressly stated, was by "free and common socage," and not by " Knight's service." The change from a feudal to the allodial system was practically effected when we became indepen- dent of Great Britain ; but it was not until 1793 that the allodial character was declared by statute.

The number of freemen in Hartford in 1669 was 118; whereof 51 were north of the Little River, and 67 south. The freeman of that day was not like the freeman of to-day. He would be called an elector now. There were at the same time 126 freemen in Windsor, and 58 in Wethersfield. In 1676, the number of " persons " (that is, males above the age of sixteen years) in Hartford was 241; Windsor and Wethersfield had 204 and 141 respectively.

NOTE. - The writer has made much use of private memoranda loaned to him by the Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull. Other authorities consulted are : The town and land Records of Hartford ; Trumbull's Col. Records of Conn. ; Col. Records of Mass. Bay ; Winthrop's Hist. of New England ; Bradford's Hist. of Plymouth People ; O'Callaghan's and Brodhead's Trans- lations of Dutch Documents ; Porter's Hist. Notices of Conn. ; Stuart's Hartford in the Olden Time ; Goodwin's East Hartford, etc.

SMAdans

227

THE ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS.

SECTION II. THE ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS.

BY MISS MARY K. TALCOTT.

THE first part of this section comprises an account of those settlers who came to Hartford before February, 1640. The second part gives the record of those who came between 1670 and 1700, and is neces- sarily more brief. The section is based on materials collected by Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull. The abbreviations will be easily understood : b. for born, m. for married, ch. for children, d. for died. The accom- panying map shows the locations of the different home-lots, and was drawn by the late William S. Porter, after careful study of the Book of Distributions and the town votes.

JEREMY ADAMS was at Braintree, perhaps, 1632, removed soon to Cambridge : freeman there, May 6, 1635 ; came to Hartford in 1636, where he was an original proprietor ; his home-lot in 1639 was on the highway now Elm Street ; constable in 1639 ; he married about that time Rebecca, widow of Samuel Greenhill, it is supposed as a second wife, and in the Distribution, p. 217, he is described as in possession of the house-lot and lands of Greenhill, until the two children come of age (date not given). He was licensed for exclusive right to retail liquors, May, 1660; to keep ordinary, March, 1661-2 ; this tavern was on the site of the present Universalist Church ; he bought the lot of John Morrice, and mortgaged it to the Colony Jan. 26, 1660 ; his affairs had evidently been in an embarrassed condition for some time, and the mortgage was foreclosed Jan. 14, 1680-1. He was appointed custom- master, May, 1663; freed from watching and warding, at the age of 60, March 2, 1664-5 ; townsman, 1671. His wife, Rebecca, died in 1678, and he married Rebecca, widow of Andrew Warner, Jr., and daughter of John Fletcher. He died Aug. 11, 1683. Inventory, £243. 5. 6. He mentions in his will his grandson, Zachary Sandford, children of son John Adams, and children of son Willett. His widow survived him (although not mentioned in his will) and died in Middletown, Jan. 25, 1715, aged 77. - Children : i. Ann, married Robert Sandford, of Hartford (q. v.). Her son Zachary redeemed his grandfather's property in 1685, and kept an ordinary in the

same place for many years. ii. Hannah, m. Nathaniel Willett, of Hartford (q. v.). iii. John, m. ; d. 1670; inv. Sept. 6, 1670. iv. Samuel, baptized Nov. 23, 1645 ; prob. died young. v. Hester. vi. Sarah.

MATTHEW ALLYN,1 Cambridge, 1632 ; he came from Brampton, Co. Devon ; free- man, Mass., March 4, 1635 ; representative at March General Court, 1636; removed probably next year to Hartford, where he was an original proprie- tor; his house-lot was on the road to the Neck, now Windsor St., and he owned 110 acres in that and other lots. He was excommunicated by the church in Hartford, and June 3, 1644, he appealed to the General Court

1 Lechford's Note-Book, p. 416 : " Matthew Allen of Hartford upon the river of Conecti- cot merchant, otherwise called Matherum Allen, nup. de Bramton in Com. Devon, infra Regni Anglie summoned to answer Thomas Harwood & James Gamon of Barnstable, Co. Devon ; his brothers, Thomas Allen of Barnstable in N. E. & Richard Allen, yeoman, of Brampton, are mentioned also." - p. 418.

228

MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.

for redress ; the records do not show how the affair was settled, but it may have been one cause of his removal to Windsor. Nevertheless few men in the Colony had more influence, or received more honors from the people than Mr. Allyn. He was Deputy from Windsor, 1648 to 1657; Assistant, 1658 to 1667 ; commissioner for the United Colonies, 1660 and 1664; frequently appointed upon important committees by the General Court. He d. Feb. 1, 1670-1 ; his wife, Margaret, was the sole executrix of his will, dated Jan. 30, 1670-1. Inv. £466. 18. - Ch. : i. John, m. (1) Nov. 19, 1651, Ann, dau. of Henry Smith, of Springfield, and gr .- dau, of William Pynchon ; his father gave him his lands in Hartford, Jan. 3, 1653, for a marriage portion ; townsman, 1655; was chosen cornet of the troop, March, 1657-8; town clerk of Hartford, 1659-1696 ; deputy, 1661 ; magistrate, 1662 and many following sessions; Secretary of the Col- ony, 1663-1665; again elected 1667, and held the office until 1695 ; he was chosen, with Samuel Wyllys and John Talcott, by the freemen of the Colony, Oct. 9, 1662, to take the Charter into their custody for safe-keeping. He m. (2) after 1675, Hannah, widow of Samuel Welles, of Hartford, and dau. of George Lamberton, of New Haven. He d. Nov. 11, 1696, according to Town Record. "Here lyes interred the body of the Honourable Lt. Col. John Allyn, who served His Generation in the Capacity of a Magistrate, Secretary of the Colony of Connecticut, 34 years, who dyed Nov. 6, in the year 1696."1 "The ancient records of the Colony and Town furnish ample evidence of his intelligence and industry."2 ii. Capt. Thomas, settled in Windsor, where his father gave him land and a house, at the time of his marriage, Oct. 21, 1658, to Abigail, dau. of Rev. John Warham ; d. Feb. 14, 1695-6. iii. Mary, m. June 11, 1646, Capt. Benjamin Newberry, of Windsor; d. Dec. 14, 1703.

FRANCIS ANDREWS purchased, before 1640, the north part of Richard Butler's lot on the corner of the present Elm and Trinity streets. He removed to Fair- field, and died there, 1662 or 1663 ; will dated June 6, 1662 ; proved March 5, 1663.

WILLIAM ANDREWS, freeman, Mass., March 4, 1634-5 ; constable, Newtown, October, 1636 ; an original proprietor of Hartford, received thirty acres in the division of 1639-40, and his home-lot was south of the Little River, on land now included in the West Park. He was the first schoolmaster, teaching from 1643 until 1656; town clerk, 1651-1658. He died in 1659 ; will dated April 1 ; inv. Aug. 8, 1659, £211. 14. 11. His wife, Mary, d. at Cambridge, Jan. 19, 1639-40. He m. a second wife, Abigail, men- tioned in his will, and he also names "bro. George Grave." His widow m. Nathaniel Bearding. - Ch. : i. Abigail, d. in Fairfield, May, 1653. ii. John, Hartford ; m. Mary ; d. June 8, 1690. iii. Thomas, of Middletown, m. Abi- gail, dau. of John Kirby, of Middletown; d. 1691. iv. Esther,8 or Hester ; m. Thomas Spencer, Jr., of Suffield ; d. March 6, 1698. v. Elizabeth, m. May 3, 1655, Edward Granniss, of Hartford. vi. Samuel,4 born Oct. 20, 1645 ; m. Elizabeth, dau. of Sergeant Thomas Spencer ; d. in Hartford, January, 1712. JOHN ARNOLD, freeman, Cambridge, May 6, 1635 ; an original proprietor of Hart- ford, received sixteen acres in the division of 1639-40, when a lot was given him on the south side of the road leading from George Steele's to the

1 Tombstone in old burying-ground.

2 Hinman, p. 36.

3 Hester was a daughter of second wife, Abigail, as she left her property to her daughter, Hester Spencer ; and Samuel Andrews, who married Hester's daughter, calls Abigail "Grand- mother" in deposition relating to her disposal of her property. - Hartford Probate Records, vol. iv. p. 118.

4 Savage says (vol. i. p 55) he married Elizabeth, daughter of Thwait Strickland ; but see General Register, vol. xxxiii. p. 356, for the reasons for thinking that that Elizabeth Strick- land married John Andrews, Jr., son of John, born 1645.

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The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I, Part 29

Author: Trumbull, J. Hammond (James Hammond), 1821-1897 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Boston, E. L. Osgood Number of Pages: 870

Author: Trumbull, J. Hammond (James Hammond), 1821-1897
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Boston, E. L. Osgood
Number of Pages: 870