Zechariah Field, Hartford Founder

Compiled by Timothy Lester Jacobs, SDFH Genealogist

ZECHARIAH¹ FIELD, HARTFORD FOUNDER was born abt. 1600 in East Ardsley, Yorkshire, England?, and died 30 Jun 1666 in Hatfield, MA. He married MARY ________ abt. 1641 in Hartford, CT. She was born in England, and died abt. 1670 in Hatfield, MA.

Zechariah (Zachary) Field is purported to have had sailed from Bristol, and arrived in Boston in 1629, settling in Dorchester. He removed to Hartford in 1636, fought in the Pequot War in 1637 and he was an original proprietor of Hartford in 1639.

In the Land inventory of February 1639/40, he originally held: two roods on which his dwelling house stood with outhouses, yards and gardens located on the east side of the road from Centinel Hill to the Cow Pasture; three acres and two roods in the North Meadow; three acres and two roods in the Cow Pasture; two acres in the West Field; and a parcel in the Soldiers Field. He later acquired five other parcels of land.

He was chosen chimney viewer in 1650 and Constable in 1652.

He removed to Northampton about 1659, where he was engaged in mercantile business, and had a large trade with the Indians. He later removed to Hatfield, a portion of Hadley, in 1662-1633, where he was engaged in business; his eight-acre home lot was the first lot north of the Northampton Road.

Genealogy: “Field Genealogy: Being the Record of all the Field family in America, and whose Ancestors were in this Country prior to 1700”, Vol. 1, Frederick C. Pierce, Chicago, 1901 (This genealogy is disjointed, with an odd sequential system, repeated and sometimes contradictory data, which this compiler had to check against other sources to verify.)