John Talcott, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

JOHN¹ TALCOTT, HARTFORD FOUNDER (JOHN^A) was born abt. 1594 in Braintree, Essex, England, and died bef. 04 Jan 1660/61 in Hartford, CT (inventory). He married DOROTHY MOTT abt. 1624 in England, daughter of JOHN MOTT and ALICE HARINGTON. She was born abt. 1602 in England, and died bef. 28 Feb 1669/70 in Hartford, CT (inventory).

John Talcott emigrated from Braintree, Essex, England aboard the ship “Lyon” in 1632, first residing in Cambridge where he was made freeman 6 November 1632. While in Cambridge he was Deputy to the Massachusetts Bay General Court from 1634 to 1636. He held ten parcels of land in Cambridge in 1635.
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 Founder John Steele in October 1635, prior to the departure from Cambridge of the Rev. Hooker’s party in May 1636.

In the Hartford land inventory of February 1639/40 he held nine parcels originally granted to him: two acres on which his dwelling house stood with other outhouses, yards, and gardens located on the east side of the main street abutting Centinel Hill; seven acres, one rood and sixteen perches on the east side of the Great River; five acres, two roods and seventeen perches in the North Meadow; forty-seven acres of meadow and swamp in the North Meadow; one acre, three roods and thirty perches in the Little Meadow; thirty acres in the Old Oxpasture; seventeen acres, and eighteen perches in the Cow Pasture; eleven acres and thirty perches in the Venturers Field; and sixteen acres, one rood and thirty-one perches in the Neck of Land. In addition he later gained by acquisition an additional twenty-five parcels of land.

He was Deputy to the Connecticut General Court from Hartford in 1637 to 1653; Treasurer of the Colony 1652, 1654, 1655, 1656 and 1659; was Assistant from 1654 to 1659, and Commissioner of the United Colonies 1656 to 1658.

His mother’s daughter Rachel married Hartford Founder John Steele, and her sister Sarah married Hartford Founder William Wadsworth, and she was an aunt of Hartford Founder John Skinner.

His will was made 12 August 1659, and notice of his death was written on 29 March 1660 by the Rev. John Davenport in a letter to John Winthrop, Jr.

Recommended genealogy: “Talcott Pedigree in England and America from 1658 to 1876”, S. V. Talcott, Albany, 1876 (Although dated, and lacking citations, this genealogy was endorsed by Donald Lines Jacobus, gives concise biographies on many of the subjects, and gives mini-genealogies on those who married into the Talcott family.)