Thomas Barnes, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

THOMAS¹ BARNES, HARTFORD FOUNDER was born abt. 1615 in Essex, England, and died bef. 07 Feb 1689/90 in Farmington, CT (probate). He married (1) MARY ______ abt. 1648 in prob Hartford, CT. She died 25 Jan 1662/63 in Hartford, CT (executed for witchcraft). He married (2) MARY ANDREWS 23 Mar 1663/64 in Farmington, CT, daughter of JOHN ANDREWS and MARIE BARNES. She was born 15 Apr 1643 in Farmington, CT, and died aft. 13 Mar 1707/08 in Farmington, CT (named in husband’s will).

The ancestry, origin, and when and to where in the American colonies Thomas Barnes removed his unknown. He was in Hartford by 1637 as he served in the Pequot War of that year and was granted 50 acres for his services in that war in 1671. In 1639 he was one of the inhabitants “who were Granted lotts to have onely at the Towne's Courtesie wth liberty to fetch wood & keepe Swine or Cowes was By proportion on the Common”, and in the land inventory of February 1639/40 he held: two acres and two roods on which his dwelling house stood located on the west side of the road from Centinel Hill to the Cow Pasture; one rood in the Soldiers Field; two acres in the Pine Field; and four acres on the east side of the Great River.

He removed to Farmington by 1650, where he was a sergeant of the training band in 1651 and joined the Farmington church about 30 January 1652/3.

Thomas Barnes’s first wife Mary was indicted at a Particular Court of Connecticut on 6 January 1662/3 on charges of witchcraft. A jury found her guilty and she was executed on 25 January 1662/3 in Hartford, one of the last to be executed as a witch in Connecticut.

Thomas Barnes made his will 9 Jun 1688, which was proved 6 Mar 1689/90.

Genealogy: “Thomas Barnes, Hartford, Connecticut”, Frederick W. and Edna C. (Bauer) Barnes, Vol 1, Gateway Press, Baltimore, 2001 (A cautionary note on this genealogy: while generally well-documented with reliable sources, many of them primary, the compilers also used IGI; Family Group Records; and online genealogies on occasion. These latter sources may not be reliable.)

The information given in this genealogy is backed up by an article entitled “Thomas Barnes of Hartford and some of his Descendants” in “The Barnes Family Year Book”, Trescott C. Barnes,Vol. V, Grafton Press, New York, 1907