Captain Thomas Bull, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

THOMAS¹ BULL, CAPT., HARTFORD FOUNDER was born abt. 1606 in England, and died 12 Aug 1680 in Hartford, CT. He married SUSANNA ______ bef. 1639. She was born 1610 in England, and died 12 Aug 1680 in Hartford, CT.

Thomas Bull sailed from Sandwich, England on the “Hopewell” on 11 September 1635. He was in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in either Boston or Cambridge, but left along with the Rev. Thomas Hooker on 31 May 1636, removing to Hartford, where he held in the land inventory of February 1639/4: three acres on which his dwelling house stood with other outhouses, yards and gardens located on the south side of the road from George Steele’s to the South Meadow; two acres of upland; another six acres and one rood of upland; one rood in the Little Meadow; three acres and three roods in the South Meadow; four acres in the Great Swamp; and three acres in the swamp next to the Great River. He later acquired an additional twelve parcels of property.

He served under Capt. John Mason in the Pequot War in 1637. In 1647/8 he was master of a vessel at Curaçao. The next year he was a deputy to the General Court, and in 1649 he was confirmed as lieutenant. He served on jury duty a number of times in the 1650s. Thomas Bull was a grand juror in 1662 in the indictment of Nicholas and Margaret Jennings of Saybrook for witchcraft. In 1663 he was a rate maker. On 21 May 1653 he was named as lieutenant of the company raised to fight the Dutch. On 14 August 1673 he was appointed captain of the Hartford County company and was in command of the fort at Saybrook in July of 1675 to resist Major Sir Edmund Andros, who was attempting to affect the surrender of Saybrook during his campaign to acquire the New England colonies.

Thomas Bull’s will was dated 19 April 1684 and he died on 12 October of the same year, his will being probated on 24 October 1684, the estate being valued at 972 pounds in Hartford, 276 pounds in Saybrook, and 76 pounds elsewhere.

Recommended genealogy: “Thomas and Susanna Bull of Hartford, Connecticut”, Mary Louise B. Todd, Heitman Printers, Lake Forest, IL, 1981 (Well sourced, but is a patrilineal genealogy.)