Nicholas Olmsted, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

NICHOLAS² OLMSTEAD, CAPT., HARTFORD FOUNDER (JAMES¹, JAMES^A) was baptized 15 Feb 1612/13 in Fairstead, Essex, England, and died 31 Aug 1684 in Hartford, CT. He married (1) SARAH LOOMIS abt. 1640 in Hartford, CT, daughter of JOSEPH LOOMIS and MARY WHITE. She was born 1617 in England, and died 1667 in Hartford, CT. He married (2) MARY ____, WIDOW OF THOMAS LORD aft. 1667.

Nicholas Olmstead (Olmsted) emigrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony aboard the ship “Lyon” in 1632, with his father James, also a Hartford Founder and brother Nehemiah. He was a cousin of Hartford Founders Richard and Dr. John Olmstead. His first residence was in Cambridge, removing to Hartford in 1636.

At the time of the Hartford land inventory of February 1639/40 he was living in his father’s house, located on the road from the Little River to the Soldiers’ Field, but had been granted lands in Hartford as follows: two acres in the Neck of Land (to which he probably relocated for his home lot); and one rood in the North Meadow.

He served in the Pequot War of 1637, and was a Corporal of the Connecticut Colonial Troop in 1658. He later became an Ensign, a Lieutenant, and served as a Captain in King Philip’s War starting in 1675.

He was chosen as surveyor of highways in 1646, 1653 and 1683; list and rate maker in 1669; and Deputy to the General Court in 1672 and 1673. He was appointed in 1674 to a committee to view and settle Mattatuck (now Waterbury, Connecticut).

His will was dated 20 August 1683, and he died in Hartford 31 August 1684, his will and inventory exhibited on 23 November 1684.

Genealogy: “Genealogy of the Olmstead Family in America”, Henry K. Olmstead & George K. Ward, New York, 1912