Post Three
Hartford, Wethersfield and Fairfield Connecticut

Disagreements over religious beliefs led to the formation of a number of new colonies. In 1636 Thomas Hooker (1586-1647), a Cambridge, Massachusetts minister, established the first English settlement in Connecticut. Convinced that government should rest on free consent, he extended voting rights beyond church members.
In 1635 a Cambridge congregation left for Hartford (Newtown).  With no roads or shelter the journey was long and tedious and although they arrived safely their possessions and provisions having been sent by water did not.  During the winter of 1635 many perished from famine, as did many of their cattle.  In the spring of 1636 the migration began anew led by the Reverends Hooker, Warham and Smith.  People arrived by land and provisions by sea and there were now three towns with a large number of inhabitants in the wilderness without any laws (civil or criminal) to govern them.  It should be noted that the principles, practices and forms of an independent government was heretofore unknown to them as they had been educated under a monarchy.  The first year no courts were organized, officers of the churches governed and disciplined their members.  Any trials were most probably conducted under Mosaic Law and it became necessary to organize a body to enact laws not provided for in the Bible.  In 1636 this body was enlarged to include a House of Representatives in order to address the declaration of war against the Pequot Indians.  During the Pequot War ninety men under Captain Mason sailed down the Ct River and engaged the Pequots at Fort Mystic. In the end two colonists and six hundred Indians lost their lives.  The Pequots became virtually extinct as a nation but the colony thrived.

Several of our ancestors were early settlers of Hartford.  Some arrived with Tomas Hooker’s “Adventurers” and were designated “original proprietors” and others arriving later were designated as “settlers”.  The importance of these designations had considerable impact for the later southern and western movement of our ancestors as the “proprietors” not only could buy land but had rights to proportional shares of the lands held by the colony in common and might hope to someday secure farmland for their sons.  On the other hand, “settlers” could expand their land only at the courtesy of the town and although they were deemed an acceptable addition to the settlement they had no assurances of land for later generations.  This caused several of our ancestors to sell their lands and cast their lots with the original proprietors of Fairfield County.  Others presumably left Hartford to follow family members to Fairfield or because they felt there would be greater opportunity.

Early Hartford ancestors included several intermarried families by the surnames of Husted, Sherwood, Seymour, Roscoe, Marvin, Brundage and Hubbard who over several generations survived as Husteds.  Today many of these names are commonly used as street and landmark names around the Hartford area.