William Hayden, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

WILLIAM¹ HAYDEN, HARTFORD FOUNDER was born abt. 1612 in England, and died 27 Sep 1669 in Killingworth, CT. He married (1) ______ ______ abt. 1637 in prob Hartford, CT. She was born abt. 1610 in England, and died 17 Jul 1655 in Windsor, CT. He married (2) MARGARET _______ abt. 1652. She was born abt. 1611.

William Hayden arrived in Hartford early enough to be considered an original proprietor, but it is unknown where he came from or exactly when he did arrive. Persistent stories of him arriving at Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1630 aboard the “Mary & John”, including in “The Original Proprietors”, are not supported by fact, as no record of him exists in Dorchester. He is not listed in the Great Migration series. Even though his cemetery monument in Killingworth, Connecticut states that he was one of the original settlers of Dorchester, this monument was erected by his descendants many years after his death. The earliest reliable date of his arrival is by 1637, when he fought in the Pequot War, as evidenced by his ownership of a parcel of land in the Soldiers Field at Hartford.

His name was on the list of original proprietors, and he received six parcels as an inhabitant of Hartford: approximately two acres with a dwelling house on the west side of the road to the Neck of Land; eight acres in the Soldiers Field; two acres in the Neck of Land; twelve acres in the Cow Pasture; seven acres of swamp on the east side of the Great River; and forty acres of upland on the east side of the Great River. He sold all this property to Thomas Olcott on 9 February 1642/3, and removed to Windsor, where he remained until 1664. He then removed to Fairfield, but only remained for one year, removing to Killingworth in 1665, from which town he was Deputy to the General Court in 1667.

He may have had a previously unrecognized son, William, who had removed earlier to Fairfield, as he married before 1661 the widow of John Tompkins. Donald Lines Jacobus records this William Hayden in “History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield” without linking him to William the elder, but also lists the elder William’s family in the same two pages, noting that the three recognized children, Daniel, Nathaniel, and Mary, had their births recorded at Windsor. Is quite possible that this younger William was born in Hartford.

The heirs of the elder William Hayden of Hartford, Windsor, Fairfield, and Killingworth where granted 50 acres for his Pequot War service in October 1671.

Genealogy: “Records of the Connecticut Line of the Hayden Family”, Jabez H. Hayden, 1888 (A typical genealogy of its era, following only male lines, and lacking citation of sources.)