Deacon Edward Stebbins, Hartford Founder

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Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

EDWARD1 STEBBINS, DEA., HARTFORD FOUNDER (WILLIAMA) was baptized 24 Feb 1594/95 in poss Black Notley, Essex, England, and died bef. 19 Aug 1668 in Hartford, CT (inventory). He married FRANCES TOUGH abt. 1629 in England, daughter of RALPH TOUGH. She was born abt. 1596 in Burrough-on-the-Hill, Leicester, England, and died bef. 23 Dec 1673 in Hartford, CT (inventory).

Edward Stebbins (Stebbings, Stebbin) emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633, first settling in Cambridge, where he was made freeman 14 May 1634. He held seven parcels of land in Cambridge, but removed to Hartford probably among the Rev. Hooker’s party in 1636. He was among the so-called “Adventurers Party” of twenty-five men who set out to explore the area that would become Hartford, led by John Steele in October 1635, prior to the departure from Cambridge of the Rev. Hooker’s party in May 1636. He was a deacon in Hooker’s congregation.

His sister Editha was the second wife of Hartford Founder Robert Day.

In the Hartford land inventory of February 1639/40 he originally held: two acres on which his dwelling house stood with other outhouses, yards, and gardens located on the intersection of the Road from the Little River to the North Meadow and the Road to Meetinghouse Square; one rood and twenty-nine perches in the Little Meadow; one acre, three roods, and eighteen perches in the North Meadow; nine acres, three roods, and twenty-one perches also in the North Meadow; a parcel of unspecified acreage in the Middle Oxpasture; one acre, two roods, and twelve perches on the east side of the Great River; three acres in the Pine Field; and sixteen acres and thirty perches in the Cow Pasture. He later acquired an additional twenty parcels of land. He was Deputy from Hartford to the Connecticut General Court from 1639 to 1641, and 1648 to 1656. He was appointed Commissioner for Hartford to collect money for “the maintenance of scholars at Cambridge” in 1644. He was on the Hartford jury 1643 to 1647, 1655, 1658, and 1661.

His will was dated 24 August 1663, was proved 3 September 1668, and the inventory of his estate was taken 19 August 1668.

Genealogy: “The Stebbins Genealogy”, Vol. 2, Ralph S. Greenlee & Robert L. Greenlee, Chicago, 1904 this massive two-volume genealogy deals primarily with the descendants of Edwin Stebbins’ brother Rowland. It gives very short treatment to the descendants of Edward Stebbins.)

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