John Barnard, Hartford Founder

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Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

JOHN1 BARNARD, HARTFORD FOUNDER was born abt. 1598 in England, and died 23 May 1664 in Hadley, MA d. s. p.. He married MARY STACE bef. 1634 in England. She was born abt. 1596 in England, and died bef. 28 Mar 1665 in Hadley, MA d. s. p..

John Barnard, maltster, sailed for New England 30 April 1634 on the ship “Francis” of Ipswich, England, and first lived in Cambridge in the Massachusetts Bay colony, where he was made freeman 4 March 1634/5, and was a landowner there. 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, and was one of sixteen founders living in Hartford in 1635 prior to the arrival of Hooker’s party.

He was an original proprietor in Hartford, holding eleven parcels: three acres on which stood his dwelling house, located on the road from the Little River to the North Meadow; three acres of upland; another eleven acres and one rood of upland; seven acres in the South Meadow; one rood and twenty-nine perches in the Little Meadow; one acre on the east side of the Great River; two acres and two roods in the Dead Swamp; four acres and two roods in the Oxpasture; three acres, two roods of swamp in the Great Swamp; an additional five acres in the Great Swamp; and another three acres of upland.

On 27 September 1663 John Barnard sold to Henry Hayward all of his Hartford properties (Henry Hayward was listed on the “Francis” passenger list with John and Mary Barnard, he then aged 7, and was probably John’s Bernard’s apprentice, since he was also a maltster. He is cited in John Barnard’s will as “kinsman Henry Hayward of Wethersfield”). John Barnard owned land in Wethersfield. Henry Hayward is called “my cousin” in Mary Barnard’s will. (Hayward is listed in “The Original Proprietors” as a “later settler” in 1663, but he was probably in Hartford since 1636 in the household of John Barnard, then later in Wethersfield on John Barnard’s property.)

In 1659 John Barnard was among those who removed to Hadley, Massachusetts, where he was the sealer of weights and measures 31 March 1663, and was on the Hampshire County petit jury 29 March 1664.

What relation he might have had to Joseph Barnard of Northampton is unknown.

John Barnard had no known children.

Genealogy: not applicable, as he had no children

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