Richard Webb, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

RICHARD¹ WEBB, HARTFORD FOUNDER was born 05 May 1580 in Bearley, Warwick, England, and died 31 Jul 1665 in Norwalk, CT d. s. p.. He married ELIZABETH ______ aft. 04 Mar 1646/47 in Hartford, CT (aft. death of 1st husband Hartford Founder Seth Grant). She was born abt. 1614 in England, and died 24 Jan 1680/81 in Norwalk, CT.

The ancestry and origin of Richard Webb is unknown. He emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632, residing in Cambridge. He was made freeman 6 November 1632.. In the Cambridge land inventory of 20 August 1635 he held three parcels.

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. He had removed to Hartford in 1635, where he held land prior to the arrival of the Rev. Hooker’s party, one of only sixteen Founders living in Hartford at that time.

In the Hartford land inventory of February 1639/40 he held 11 parcels: two acres with dwelling house, outhouses, yards and gardens located on the west side of the road from the Palisade to Centinel Hill; two roods and thirty perches in the Little Meadow; two acres and fifteen perches on the east side of the Great River; two acres on the north bank of the Little River, immediately east of Thomas Hooker’s property, which was Richard Webb’s original property in Hartford, but which was transferred to John Haynes; two acres and fourteen perches in the North Meadow; fifteen acres, two roods and fifteen perches also in the North Meadow; eleven acres in the Old Oxpasture; six acres and one rood in the Cow Pasture; two acres, three roods and eight perches in the Venturers’ Field; four acres, one rood and twenty-seven perches in the Neck of Land; and two acres, two roods and twenty-eight perches also in the Neck of Land.

In the Hartford he was a juryman in 1643, 1644, 1649, and 1650. He was one of the signers of the agreement for planting Norwalk, 19 June 1650, and had removed there soon after, from which town he was Deputy to the Connecticut General Court in 1655.

Sometime after March 1646/47 he married Elizabeth _______, widow of Hartford Founder Seth Grant, but they had no children. He died in Norwalk in July 1665, the inventory of his estate was taken on 5 October 1665, and was presented to the court on 1 November 1665.

Genealogy: N/A, as he had no children.