The Founders of Hartford
Rev. Samuel Stone, son of John Stone, a freeholder of that place, was b. in Hertford, Co. Herts (usually at
that time sounded Hartford) ; bapt. July 30, 1602, in the church of All Saints; entered at Emmanuel Coll., Cambridge,
1620; A.B, 1623 ; A.M., 1627. Recent discoveries show that a Samuel Stone, probably this one, was curate at Stisted,
Co. Essex, near Chelmsford, from June 13, 1627 to Sept. 13, 1630. He came to New England with Cotton, Hooker, and other
men of note, in the "Griffin," arriving at Boston, Sept. 4, 1633; chosen Teacher of the church at Cambridge, Oct. 11,
1633; freeman, Mass., May 14, 1634; removed to Hartford in 1636, where be was an original proprietor, and in 1639
his home-lot was on the north bank of the Little River, between those of Rev. Thomas Hooker and Elder William Goodwin.
He served as chaplain to the troops under Capt. Mason in the Pequot War, 1637. His wife d. 1640, before Nov. 2 or 3,
when Mr. Hooker mentions her death in a letter to Rev. T. Shepard, saying that she “smoaked out her days in
the darkness of melancholy.” He m. (2) before July, 1641, Elizabeth Allen, of Boston. After Mr. Hooker's decease
he was the sole pastor of the First Church until his death, July 20, 1663. Inv. £563. 1. His widow m. (2) George
Gardner, of Salem, afterward of Hartford, and d. in 1681.-Ch. : i. John (son of the lat wife) graduated, Harvard
College, 1653 ; “he had no Commencement part when his class took their second degree, having perhaps previously
gone to England, where he received the degree of M.A. from the University of Cambridge.” After the Restoration
a “Mr. John Stone” was silenced at Hellingley, in Sussex.1 “Was this the graduate?” His
name was starred on the College catalogue before 1700. ii. Joseph, bapt. Oct. 18, 1646; not mentioned in his father's
will. iii. Lydia, b. Jan. 22, 1647-8; d. young. iv. Son, bapt. April 29, 1649 ; prob. d. young. v. Abigail, b. Sept.
9, 1650 ; d. young (7). vi. Samuel, was at Harvard for a time about 1659, but left before graduation. He was colleague
with Rev. Gershom Bulkeley, at Wetherafield, 1666-1669, and again in 1676; he also preached at Simsbury and Middletown,
and perhaps other places, but “fell into intemperate habits, was excommunicated from the church, and wasted his
whole estate.” He never married; d. Oct. 8, 1683; “he was among his companions first at one, and then at
another Taverns, and thence went in the evening to a friend's house (that of Henry Howard, who m. Sarah Stone), when
his discourse was very bitter and offensive to some present; but going thence, the night being very dark, was found
the next morning dead in the little River that runs through the town ; having missed the bridge. He fell down upon
the Rocks, and thence rowled or some way gott into the water at a little distance and there lay dead at break
of day.”2 vii. Elizabeth, m. (1) William Sedgwick, of Hartford ; (2) John Roberts, of Hartford, who
removed to New Jersey (q. v.). viii. Rebecca, m. about 1657, Timothy Nash, of New Haven, who removed to Hartford
(q. v.). ix. Mary, m. Joseph Fitch, of Hartford, before 1663 (q. v.). x. Sarah, m. Thomas Butler, of Hartford.
1 Rev. Ezekiel Rogers in his will, April 17, 1880, mentions his “loving nephew, Mr. Sam'l
Stone of Conn., and his son John.”
2 John Whitings letter to Increase Mather, Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. viii. p. 489-472.
 |
|
