George Steele, Hartford Founder
‹ Back to The FoundersCompiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist
GEORGE1 STEELE, HARTFORD FOUNDER (RICHARDA) was born abt. 1583 in poss Fairstead, Essex, England, and died bef. 21 Dec 1664 in Hartford, CT (inventory). He married MARGERY SORRELL 12 Oct 1608 in Fairstead, Essex, England. She was born abt. 1587 in England, and died bef. 24 May 1663 in Hartford, CT (not named in husband’s will).
George Steele emigrated from Fairstead, Essex, England in 1633 along with his brother John Steele, another Founder of Hartford, first residing in Cambridge, where he was made freeman 14 May 1634, and owned six parcels of land.
He removed to Hartford in 1636, where in the land inventory of February 1639/40 he held eight parcels granted to him by the town: six acres on which his dwelling house stood with other outhouses, yards and gardens located on the corner of the road from his lot to the Great Swamp and the road from his lot to the South Meadow; five acres lying in the Twenty Acres; two roods abutting on the road from his house to the Great Swamp; eleven acres also on the road leading from his house to the Great Swamp; three acres in the South Meadow; four acres and two roods lying in the Forty Acres; two roods in the Little Meadow; and four acres on the east side of the Great River. He later acquired six other parcels from others. Since he had a parcel of one rood in the Soldiers Field which he sold to Nicholas Clark, it is to be assumed that George Steele served in the Pequot War of 1637.
He was a surveyor of highways in 1640, was on the Hartford jury in 1643, 1649, 1650, and 1656. He was appointed to the committee to regulate slaughtering of cattle 24 September 1642. His will was written 24 May 1663, and his inventory was taken 21 December 1664.
Recommended genealogy: “Steele Family: A Genealogical History of John and George Steele, (Settlers of Hartford, Conn.), 1635-6, and their Descendants” Daniel S. Durrie, Albany, 1859 (In the “Great Migration” article on John Steele, Robert Charles Anderson refers to this genealogy as “comprehensive but somewhat antiquated”.)