Robert Day, Hartford Founder

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Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

ROBERT1 DAY, HARTFORD FOUNDER was born abt. 1604 in England, and died bef. 14 Oct 1648 in Hartford, CT (inventory). He married (1) MARY _____. She was born abt. 1606, and died 1636 in poss Cambridge, MA. He married (2) EDITHA STEBBINS abt. 1637 in Hartford, CT, daughter of WILLIAM STEBBINS. She was born abt. 1613 in poss Braintree, Essex, England, and died 24 Oct 1688 in Springfield, MA.

Robert Day emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay colony aboard the ship “Elizabeth”, April 1634, as a member of the group with certificates from Stanstead Abbott, Hartford, England. He settled in Cambridge and received three acres in Westend Field 4 August 1634. On 20 August 1635 he was named in a list showing the proportions of proprietors, and on 8 February 1635/6 in a list of those who have houses. He was made freeman in Massachusetts 6 May 1635, and probably removed to Hartford the following year. He was among the so-called “Adventurers Party” of 25 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.

His second wife Editha was the sister of Hartford Founder Edward Stebbins.

In the Hartford land inventory of February 1639/40, Robert Day held ten parcels: one parcel on which his dwelling house with outhouses, yards and gardens stood, containing two acres; one acre and one rood located on the east side of the road from Centinel Hill to the North Meadow; one rood, three perches in the Little Meadow; one acre, eight perches on the east side of the Great River; three roods, eighteen perches in the North Meadow; five acres, three roods and eight perches in the North Meadow; three acres, three roods and twenty perches in the Cow Pasture; seven acres, three roods in the Little Oxpasture; one rood, thirty-one perches in the Neck of Land; and two acres, two roods and nineteen perches also in the Neck of Land.

He was chosen viewer of chimneys and ladders in 1643. His will was dated 20 May 1648, and his inventory was taken 14 October 1648.

Genealogy: “A Genealogical Register of the Descendants in the Male Line of Robert Day of Hartford, Conn.”, Northampton, 1848 (Robert Charles Anderson refers to this as “a better than average production for its day”, but it is, as its title clearly states, a genealogy following male lines, and it is lacking in source citation.)

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