Thomas Stanley, Hartford Founder

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Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

THOMAS1 STANLEY, HARTFORD FOUNDER (ROBERTA) was baptized 12 Apr 1601 in Tenterden, Kent, England, and died bef. 31 Mar 1663 in Hadley, MA (inventory). He married BENNET TRITTON 03 Aug 1630 in Ashford, Kent, England, daughter of DANIEL TRITTON and ALICE GOLDHATCH. She was baptized 30 Jul 1609 in Ashford, Kent, England, and died Jan 1664/65 in Hartford, CT.

Thomas Stanley, brother of Hartford Founders John and Timothy Stanley, emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634, first living in the town of Lynn, where he was a deputy for Lynn to the Massachusetts Bay General Court, 02 September 1635, and Constable in 1636. 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 John Steele in October 1635, prior to the departure from Cambridge of the Rev. Hooker’s party in May 1636, and was one of sixteen founders living in Hartford in 1635 prior to the arrival of Hooker’s party.

His home lot in 1639 was located on the West side of the road from the Palisade to Centinel Hill just north of the Little River. In the Hartford land inventory in February 1639/40, he held nineteen parcels. He was Constable in Hartford in 1644, 1648, and 1653. He was among those who removed to Hadley, Massachusetts in 1659.

His will was presented in court on 31 March 1663.

Recommended genealogy: “The Stanley Families of America as Descended from John, Timothy, and Thomas Stanley of Hartford, CT”, Israel P. Warren, Thurston & Co., Portland, Maine, 1887 (Although dated and lacking in source citation, most of the data presented for the first generations is substantiated by “The Great Migration: Immigration to New England 1634-1635”, Vol VI, R-S, Robert Charles Anderson, NEHGS, Boston, 2009. As is usual in genealogies from this period, this is primarily a patrilineal genealogy.)

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