Richard Watts, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

RICHARD¹ WATTS, HARTFORD FOUNDER was born abt. 1584 in prob Fenny Compton, Warwick, England, and died bef. 20 Mar 1654/55 in Hartford, CT (inventory). He married ELIZABETH ______ abt. 1615 in England. She was born abt. 1587 in England, and died bef. 17 Apr 1666 in Hartford, CT (inventory).

The ancestry, origin, and emigration to the American colonies of Richard Watts is unknown. He was in Hartford by 1639 where he was one of those who “were Granted lotts to have onley at The Townes courtesie wth liberty to fetch wood & keep Swine or Cowes by proportion on the Common”.

In the Hartford land inventory of February 1639/40 he held: two roods on which his dwelling house stood located on the West side of the road from George Steele’s to the Great Swamp immediately to the north of the lot of his son William’s (who was also a Hartford founder); three acres of upland in the Forty Acres; three acres on the east side of the Great River; five acres near Hockanum (later East Hartford); two acres on the east side of the Great River; five acres and one rood in the Great Swamp; six acres of woodland abutting on the road toward Wethersfield; and an additional twenty acres on the east side of the Great River. In 1651 he acquired six acres of woodland from Paul Peck.

His will was written 20 October 1653, he had died by 15 March 1654/5 when his widow was granted land by town vote, and his inventory was taken 20 March 1654/5.

Genealogy: none known, probably as none of his sons had any children.