Founders of Hartford

Recently someone posted a link on Facebook that contained pictures of the four sides of the Founders of Hartford monument. This monument, located in the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford, contains the engraved names of all the individuals who were among the founders of that city (*1, *2, *3, *4, *5). The list of individuals is based on those who were included in the Book of Distribution of Land as settlers before February, 1640. Thus, it includes not only the original party of 100 who came in 1635 with Thomas Hooker, but those who came there in the remaining years of the Great Migration which ended abruptly when England got involved in a civil war.

The original monument had been erected in 1837, commemorating the 200^th anniversary of the renaming of the original settlement of Newtown to Hartford in 1637. It was replaced by the current monument in 1986.

I recognized several of the names on this monument as being in my family tree and thought I would see how many of my direct ancestors are listed there. In the early years of New England, the population of most towns/cities were relatively low, so there was much endogamy as the number of eligible individuals for marriage was limited. Thus, I found that roughly a quarter (41 of 163) of those listed were among my ancestors. These are listed below with the notation of ancestral relationship (e.g. g9gf = 9^th great grandfather). My wife also has some lines of her family tree back to colonial Connecticut and these are indicated by an “*”. There are 19 of her direct ancestors on the monument, 11 of whom are in common with mine. (There are others with whom one of us has a connection such as William Edwards who is the father-in-law of my great*9 aunt, but those connections are too complicated to try and list here).

Here are the four sides of the monument followed by the list of those individuals who are direct ancestors of myself or my wife.

 

 

 

·       Jeremy Adams – g9gf

·       Matthew Allyn – g11gf

·       Francis Andrews – g9gf*

·       William Andrews – g10gf*

·       John Arnold – g9gf*

·       Thomas Barnes – g10gf*

·       Nathaniel Bearding – *

·       John Bronson – g8gf

·       Thomas Bunce – g9gf

·       John Crow – g9gf

·       William Goodwin – g9gf

·       Samuel Greenhill – g10gf

·       Stephen Hart – g9gf

·       John Haynes – *

·       William Hills – *

·       William Holton – *

·       Thomas Hooker – g9gf

·       John Hopkins – g10gf*

·       George Hubbard – g10gf*

·       William Hyde – g11gf

·       Thomas Judd – g9gf*

·       Ralph Keeler – g9gf

·       William Lewis – g10gf

·       Richard Lyman – g9gf

·       John Marsh – g9gf

·       Matthew Marvin – g11gf

·       Reinold Marvin – g8gf

·       Thomas Munson – g9gf

·       William Parker – g10gf

·       Stephen Post – g11gf

·       Thomas Porter – g10gf

·       William Pratt – g9gf

·       Thomas Richards – g8gf

·       Thomas Root – *

·       Thomas Scott – g10gf

·       Richard Seymour – g9gf

·       John Skinner – g9gf*

·       Giles Smith – g10gf*

·       Thomas Spencer – *

·       Timothy Stanley – g9gf

·       George Steele – *

·       John Steele – g10gf

·       Thomas Upson – g8gf*

·       Henry Wakeley – g9gf

·       Samuel Wakeman – g9gf*

·       Andrew Warner – g8gf

·       John Warner – g8gf

·       Thomas Welles – g8gf

·       George Wyllis – *

 

 

Notes:

*1 - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Founders_of_Hartford%2C_Connecticut

*2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hartford,_Connecticut

*3 - https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Hartford_Founders_Monument

*4 - https://www.foundersofhartford.org/historic-sites/

*5 - https://www.foundersofhartford.org/founders-monument-names/