Captain Richard Lord, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

RICHARD² LORD, CAPT., HARTFORD FOUNDER (THOMAS¹, RICHARD^A) was baptized 05 Jan 1611/12 in Towcester, Northampton, England, and died 10 May 1662 in Hartford, CT. He married SARAH ______ bef. 1636 in Hartford, CT. She was born in England, and died bef. 07 Sep 1676 in Hartford, CT (will exhibited).

Richard Lord of Towcester, Northamptonshire, England emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633, first residing in Cambridge, where he was made Freeman 4 March 1634/5, and held five parcels of land in the Cambridge land inventory of 5 October 1635.. He removed to Hartford in 1636, where he was a Founder, as was his father Thomas and brother Thomas, Jr. In the Hartford land inventory of February 1639/40 he held by initial grant, and through purchase from his brother Thomas, twelve parcels: one rood and six perches on which stood his dwelling house with other outhouses, yards or gardens located on the north side of the Little River west of the road from the Palisade to Centinel Hill and immediately between the house lots of his father and his brother Thomas; one acre and two roods that he bought partially from his brother Thomas to add to his house lot; one rood and twelve perches in the Little Meadow; two roods and thirty-six perches in the North Meadow; five acres, three roods and eighteen perches of meadow and swamp in the North Meadow; one acre of swamp also in the North Meadow; one acre and eight perches on the east side of the Great River; two acres in the West Field; four acres and two roods in the Cow Pasture; four acres in the Little Oxpasture; three roods and thirty-six perches in the Neck of Land; and one acre, one rood and twenty-four perches also in the Neck of Land. He went on to purchase an additional thirty-eight parcels of land, making him one of the largest landholders in Hartford.

Richard Lord was a trader, engaging in trade in most towns in Connecticut, with the Indians, and in Long Island, Delaware and Virginia.

He was a Deputy for Hartford to the Connecticut General Court from 1657 to 1661, and was on the Connecticut petit jury in 1640. He was one of the Patentees for the Royal Charter for Connecticut in 1662. When a company of troopers was organized in the three river towns of Connecticut under the command of Major John Mason in 1658, he was elected as Captain.

He died 10 May 1662, his inventory taken in the same month, and administration on the estate granted to his widow 5 September 1662.

Recommended genealogy: “Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas Lord, an Original Proprietor and Founder of Hartford, Conn., in 1636”, Kenneth Lord, New York, 1946