The Founders of Hartford
John Steele, Cambridge, 1632 ; freeman, May 14, 1634 ; deputy, March, 1634 ; May, 1635 ; Sept.,
1635 ; “appointed with Ludlow, Pynchon, and others to administer government over the great Exodus to Conn.”
He was one of the original proprietors of Hartford, and his home-lot in 1639 was on Main St., just north of the
present Athenaeum. He was Secretary of the Colony, 16361639 ; deputy many times from 1639 to 1657; was town clerk
of Hartford until he removed to Farmington in 1645, where he was also town clerk. He m. (1) Rachel, who d. 1653; (2)
Nov. 25, 1655, Mercy, widow of Richard Seymour, of Norwalk. He d. in Farmington, Nov. 25, 1665 ; will dated Jan. 30,
1663-4 ; inv. £182 ; mentions his wife, Mercy. Samuel Steele, son of John, requests his “much esteemed kinsman, Mr.
John Wadsworth, of Farmington, and Capt. Sam: Talcott of Wethersfield,” to be the overseers of his will,
June 10, 1685.
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