Samuel Hale, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

SAMUEL¹ HALE, HARTFORD FOUNDER (JOHN^A) was baptized 01 Jul 1615 in Watton at Stone, Hertford, England?, and died 09 Nov 1693 in Glastonbury, CT. He married (1) MARY SMITH bet. 1642 - 1643 in Wethersfield, CT, daughter of HENRY SMITH and DOROTHY _____. She died aft. 1667. He married (2) PHEBE BRACY, WID OF JOSEPH DICKINSON & JOHN ROSE aft. 1667, daughter of THOMAS BRACY and PHEBE BISBY. She was born bet. 1633 - 1636, and died 19 Jan 1711/12 in Wethersfield, CT.

The date of baptism and parentage of Samuel Hale, brother of Thomas Hale and Martha Hale, wife of Paul Peck, (both Founders of Hartford) is probable but not certain, based on TAG Vol. 38. It is not certain when Samuel Hale emigrated to the American colonies (Jacobus says probably by 1634, but Anderson does not include him in the Great Migration series), however he was certainly in Hartford by 1637, as he served in the Pequot War of that year, and was granted sixty acres of land for that service by the town of Hartford on 11 May 1671.

In the Hartford land inventory of February 1639/40 he held several parcels of land: two roods on which stood his dwelling house, with other outhouses, yards and gardens, located on the road from Centinel Hill to the Cow Pasture; two acres in the West Field; two roods in the Soldiers Field; one acre and two roods in the Pine Field; and four acres on the east side of the Great River.

His marriage to Mary Smith, daughter of the Rev. Henry Smith, the minister of Wethersfield, probably prompted his removal to that town about 1643. He served on juries in Wethersfield in 1643 and 1646, and was selectman of Wethersfield in 1647. With his brother Thomas, he joined the first settlers of Norwalk in 1651, from which town he served as Deputy to the Connecticut General Court in 1656, 1657, and 1660.

He returned to Wethersfield in 1660, and was Deputy for that town to the General Court in 1665. His will was dated 26 December 1692, he died 9 November 1693, and the inventory on his estate was taken in Glastonbury 13 November 1693.

Recommended genealogy: “Hale, House and Related Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley”, Donald Lines Jacobus & Edgar F. Waterman, Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 2001