George Stocking, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

GEORGE¹ STOCKING, HARTFORD FOUNDER was born abt. 1602 in England, and died bef. 25 May 1683 in Hartford, CT (inventory). He married ANNE ______. She was born in England, and died aft. 15 Jul 1673 in Hartford, CT (will of husband).

The ancestry and origin of George Stocking are unknown. He emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634, first residing in Cambridge, where he was granted land on 04 August 1634. In the Cambridge land inventory of 10 October 1635 he held two parcels. He removed to Hartford in 1636.

In the Hartford land inventory of February 1639/40 he initially held eight parcels: two acres on which his dwelling house stood with outhouses, yards, and gardens located on the south side of the road from George Steele’s to the South Meadow; two acres and two roods of upland; four acres in the South Meadow; two additional acres in the South Meadow; one acre on the east side of the Great River; one rood in the Little Meadow; four acres in the great swamp in the South Meadow; and nine acres, one rood and twenty-nine perches of upland. He later acquired an additional four parcels of land.

He was on the Connecticut petit jury in 1657, 1659, 1662, 1664 to 1666, and 1668. He was Hartford Selectman in 1638, was a chimney viewer in 1643 and 1659, and was highway surveyor in 1654.

His will was dated 15 July 1673, but was not proved. On 11 November 1682 he drafted a document intended to replace the earlier will, but it was never signed or witnessed, leading to court disputes on 18 December 1683 and 27 May 1684. The inventory of his estate had been presented in court on 06 September 1683.

Genealogies: (part of) “John Hopkins of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1634 and Some of his Descendants”, Timothy Hopkins, 1932; also (part of) “Family of William Cornwall”, Edward Everett Cornwall”, 1895