Deacon Stephen Hart

Deacon Stephen Hart

Deacon Stephen Hart

of Farmington, Connecticut

The Birthplace of Stephen Hart

Stephen Hart was born between 1599 and 1605 in England. His birthplace has been the cause of some debate, as there is no record in New England to indicate from where in England he came from. Charles Banks suggests both Braintree, County Essex, and Hartley Wintney in Hampshire, England as Stephen's birthplace. Both proposals have evidence to support them. Alfred Andrews claims Braintree was Stephen Hart's birthplace, based on the fact that he was part of the Braintree Company. Ernest Flagg found a christening of a Stephen Hart on January 25, 1602/03 at St. Nicholas, Ipswich, Suffolk, which he thought might be the immigrant, but more evidence is needed to accept this identification. Savage suggests Stephen Hart of Farmington, Connecticut was brother of John Hart of Marblehead and Boston or of Edmund Hart of Westfield, but provides no evidence.

If Stephen Hart was born in Braintree, his actual birth date and birthplace may never be known. There is a gap in the Braintree records during that time period and no record of a Stephen Hart has been found in that location. Furthermore, nonconformist Puritan christenings were rarely recorded as they were performed at a home rather than at the local church.

There is a will of a Judith Morris of Dedham, Essex, England, dated January 25, 1645, in which she bequeaths, “To the children of Stephen Hart, that is to say, John, Steven, Sarah, and the youngest that went with her father to New England, five pounds apiece.” Further in the will is another statement, “...but all the rest of my estate unbequeathed I do give and bequeath unto my cousin Stephen Harte’s children in New England, to be equally divided between them...”

This definitely refers to Stephen Hart of Farmington since the three names mentioned are the same as three of his children recorded in his will in Connecticut dated March 16, 1682/83. Stephen Hart’s will mentions them in the following order: John, Steven, Thomas, Sarah and Mary. The youngest mentioned in Judith Morris’ will was possibly Mary. The 1643 birth of Thomas was probably not known to Mrs. Morris.

Further research into the identity and relationship of Judith Morris to Stephen Hart revealed that Judith had a twin sister, Alice, and that they were born in Stoke-by-Nayland, County Essex, on February 27, 1603, to a couple with the surname of Warin. The record omitted the father's first name; however, his name is later found to be John Warren. Judith’s will also states that she had a brother named Joshua. He was christened in Stoke-by-Nayland on April 2, 1594, son of John Warren and Elizabeth Scarlett.

Unfortunately, the first name of Judith’s husband is unknown, although her brother, Joshua, married Sarah Morris on May 7, 1618 in Colchester, Essex. Judith’s will states that she was a part owner of a ship, the captain of which was John Hayward. The name of the ship, however, is not given.

In her will, Judith referred to Stephen Hart as her cousin. This could be first cousin, second cousin, step cousin or one of several other relationships.

In 1564, in the St. Mary Elms parish church in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, a William Hart christened his son as Vallynstone (Valentine). This same Valentine later shows up in Nayland to marry Catherine Jey in 1591. The couple had a daughter in 1592. Valentine again appears in the Nayland record in 1612, marrying the widow Margaret Lawson. A will for him was probated in South Lopham, Essex, in 1633, but no copies of the actual will exist. This Valentine Hart could be a connection between Dedham and Ipswich. There is also a connection between Judith Morris and a Puritan clergyman in Ipswich. She also willed money to several Puritan clergymen in several Essex villages.

With this possible connection to Ipswich, a search for Stephen Hart in Ipswich records can be justified. In St. Nicholas church christening records, there are several entries for children of a Stephen Hart starting in 1594. They are:

An, daughter of Stephen Hart, chr. 20 act 1594

Christopher, son of Steven Hart, chr. 6 Feb 1596/97

Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Hart, chr. 24 Jan 1599/1600

Steven, son of Steven Hart, 25 Jan 1602/03

Mary, daughter of Steven Hart, 5 Mar 1603/04

Richard, son of Stephen Hart, 28 Apr 1605

There are also two christenings recorded in the neighboring Ipswich parish of St. Margaret. One is for Sarah, daughter of Stephen Hart, on September 29, 1616 and one for Mary, daughter of Stephen Hart, on February 7,1619. Land records verify that the St. Nicholas Stephen Hart moved to St. Margaret parish in about 1607. Also, in Ipswich on August 4, 1640, there is a record of a Stephen Hart marrying Rebecca Cave at St. Clement parish. This latter entry is obviously not the New England Stephen because he had already gone to the New World by then. Also, it may not have been the Stephen Hart christened in 1602 because he would have been 38 years old by then - rather old for a first marriage. None of this, however, is sufficient to identify Stephen Hart of Farmington, Connecticut as the Stephen Hart who was christened in Ipswich in 1602.

Stephen Hart’s have also been found during the period of 1590 to 1620 in other parts of England. There was one mentioned in a will in Romford, Essex, in 1599, and another in 1610 in Stalham, County Norfolk. The will of Stephen Hart, the son of the Stalham Stephen was probated in 1635 in Hempstead, County Norfolk. In all, there is nothing to positively identify the birthplace of Stephen Hart of Farmington and so far, any specific conclusion cannot be made.

Stephen Hart's Arrival in New England

The exact date of his arrival in New England is also not recorded. Historians, however, have claimed two dates on which he arrived - November 2, 1631 and September 16, 1632, both dates of different landings of the ship Lyon. All agree that Stephen and his family came on the Lyon. This is presumably because he was part of Rev. Thomas Hooker's group, and they employed the ship and her captain, Mr. William Pierce, for transport across the Atlantic. The ship was owned by a group of Puritan investors in London. Rev. Hooker's company, called the Braintree Company, came in at least three installments, the two Lyon voyages mentioned and a transit by the Griffin on September 4, 1633, bringing Rev. Hooker himself. To date, however, no passenger list has been recovered that shows Stephen Hart as a passenger on any ship.

Whatever ship Deacon Hart came on, it is known that there were several ships making more or less regular trips between England and New England after 1620. They brought new settlers and supplies, and carried passengers and trade goods back to England. The Lyon was one of them and it made its first voyage to New England in early 1630, carrying 80 passengers. It was employed for that voyage by a group of Puritan settlers headed by John Winthrop, and was one of 13 sailing ships in the Winthrop fleet that embarked to New England that year. The Lyon returned to New England again, carrying 20 persons to Boston on February 5, 1630/31 and another 60 passengers to Nantasket, Massachusetts, arriving November 2, 1631. Another time, it carried 123 passengers, arriving at Boston on September 16, 1632.

Winthrop mentions in his journal that the Braintree Company moved from Mount Wollaston (now Braintree), Massachusetts to Cambridge in August 1632. Assuming that Stephen was a member of that group, he would have had to arrive on the November 2, 1631 date in order to be with those who moved to Cambridge. In that case, he may have spent the fall building his house on the northeast corner of Holyoke, Street and Holyoke Place. A Harvard University building now occupies the site.

Charles Banks, in his book The Planters of the Commonwealth 1620-1640 states that Stephen Hart was one of the passengers on the November 2, 1631 voyage of the Lyon. The Cambridge record that this is based on is a General Court record dated January 7, 1632/33. Note that January 7, 1632/33 comes after September 16, 1632 since the new year began on March 25 back then. Dates in the January 1 to March 25 period are often written with a "/". The court record assigns each household to maintain a part of the fence around Cambridge common pastureland. It reads, “comon pales decided as ffollo - …Steven Hart, 8 rod.” Deacon Stephen and his family had to maintain 132 feet of stake fence that kept cattle in and predators out. This indicates that the Hart family was in Cambridge before January 1632/33, and could have come on either Lyon voyage.

Stephen Hart in the Community He was admitted as a member of the Congregational Church at Cambridge prior to May 14, 1634, the date he was given freemanship. He was able to read and write, as he was able to sign his own will. After his first wife died, he married Margaret, widow of Arthur Smith and Joseph Nash. She survived Stephen Hart and was admitted to the church in Farmington, Connecticut on March 17, 1690/91. She died in 1693. Deacon Hart and his first wife were constituent members of the Congregational Church at Farmington, organized November 1652, with Rev. Roger Newton as pastor. Mr. Hart had been deacon of Rev. Thomas Hooker's church at Cambridge, Massachusetts, was a proprietor of Hartford in 1639 and became one of the eighty-four proprietors of , Farmington in 1672.

He was first elected as deputy from Farmington to the General Court of Connecticut in May 1647. At that session, he was assigned to aid the constable of Farmington in impressing men into the army then being raised. He continued to serve as a deputy , with one exception, for fifteen sessions through 1655 and once again in 1660. He also served on the War Committee for Farmington in May 1653, and was on juries on May 24, 1647, February 20, 1650/51, December 7, 1654, March 3, 1658/59, September 5, 1661, and October 9, 1661. He was a soldier in the Pequot War in 1637.

His house-lot in Hartford was on the west side of what is now called Front Street, near where Morgan Street crosses it. There is a tradition that the town was called from the ford he discovered and used in crossing the Connecticut River at a low stage of the water, and so from Hart’s Ford it soon became Hartford.

Tradition further says that while he and others were on a hunting excursion on Talcott Mountain, they discovered the Farmington River Valley, then inhabited by the Tunxis Indian tribe. The meadows were probably then cleared and waving with grass and Indian corn. Such lands were then much needed and coveted by the settlers, who soon - probably as soon as 1640 - made a bargain with the Indians and settled among them with their cattle. Stephen Hart appears to have taken the lead in the settlement among the Indians at Farmington, and purchased a large tract on the border of the present town of Avon. The settlers still continued, however, connected with the settlement at Hartford, attended public worship and perhaps wintered there, until about 1645, when the town of Farmington was incorporated, named for the excellent farms there. The principal landholders in the town were John Steele, William Lewis, Stephen Hart, Thomas Judd, John Bronson, John Warner, Nathaniel Kellogg, Thomas Barnes, Richard Seymour and Thomas Gridley.

About this time, Mr. Roger Newton, a student of theology with Rev. Thomas Hooker, whose daughter he married, began to preach for them, and in 1652 was ordained their pastor. Stephen Hart was one of the seven pillars of the church, and was chosen as its first deacon. The other pillars were Rev. Roger Newton, John Cole, John Bronson, Robert Porter, Thomas Judd and Thomas Thompson.

In Farmington, no man in the town was more active, influential and useful. His house-lot, which was four or five times as large as any other, was on the west side of Main Street, in the village, opposite the meetinghouse, and contained fifteen acres, extending from Mill Lane to the stone store south. This large house-lot was granted to Deacon Hart as an inducement to erect and continue a mill on the premises, to be perpetuated and kept in motion. The Bronson family erected the mill originally, to whom, as a consideration, was granted a tract of eighty acres, on the Pequabuk River. The south part of this house-lot he gave to his son John and the north part to his son Thomas. These lots and lands, in some respects, became the most desirable and valuable in any in the old town of Farmington. His widow, Margaret, gave her property to her sons, John and Arthur Smith, and daughter, Elizabeth Thompson.

Stephen Hart’s Estate

Throughout his life, Stephen Hart bought and sold land and built a considerable estate. He was granted one-half acre for a cowyard in Cambridge on August 5, 1633. He was granted another two acres of planting ground in the “Neck of Land” in Cambridge on February 2, 1633/34. Also in Cambridge, he received a proportional share of two in the undivided meadow on April 21, 1635 and granted two acres of land on February 8, 1635/36. By October 5, 1635, Stephen Hart held at least five parcels of land: one house with a backside of about one rood in the town; two acres and a half in the “Old Field;” seven acres in the “Neck;” six acres in “Great Marsh;” and two acres elsewhere.

On October 7, 1635, Steven Hart and his wife sold their dwelling house at Newtown with the yards and several parcels to Joseph and George Cooke. In the February 1639/40 Hartford land inventory, Stephen Hart held eleven parcels, of which ten were granted earlier and the eleventh was acquired by exchange. There were two acres with a dwelling house, outhouses, yards and gardens; two acres where a former residence stood; three roods and seven perches in the Little Meadow; three acres and thirty perches of meadow and swamp in the North Meadow; three acres and twenty-four perches on the east side of the Great River; sixteen acres in the Old Oxpasture; eleven acres, one rood and twenty-five perches in the Cowpasture; twenty acres, one rood and eighteen perches of meadow and swamp in the North Meadow; four acres, two roods and fourteen perches in the neck of land “part whereof he bought of John Talcott;” one acre and three roods in the neck of land; three acres thirty perches of meadow and swamp in the North Meadow which he received in exchange with William Pantree.

On May 8, 1673, the Connecticut Court granted one hundred fifty acres to Stephen Hart. Deacon Hart’s will was dated March 16, 1682/83. In it, he mentions the “farm which I for given to my three sons John Heart, Stephen Heart and Thomas Hart, that is to say, the one half of my farm to John, one quarter to Steven, the other quarter to Thomas and so to abide….” He also gave “to my grandson Thomas Porter and to my son-in- law John Cole my plowing land and meadow and swamp” equally divided betwixt them “the engagement to my beloved wife being fulfilled.” To “my sons Steven and Thomas Hart ten acres of land I bought of Andrewe Warner" the engagement “to my beloved wife being fulfilled.” To “my sons Steven and Thomas Hart, my daughters Sarah Porter and Marie Lee my swamp lot in the great swamp and all the rest of my upland divisions” equally divided. He granted to “my grandchild Dorothee Porter” £10, to “my grandchild John Lee” £3, and to "my grandchild John Hart my eldest son’s son" £3. To "my beloved wife" he left a kettle and a colt, one-third part of the estate and £5 annually during her life “in case she survives me, as may appear by former instrument.” The residue he gave to his “beloved sons Steven and Thomas Hart and my beloved daughters Sarah Porter, Marie Lee and my son-in-law John Cole.” The inventory of his estate was taken on March 31, 1682/83, totaling £319 2s, of which £180 was real estate. The house and homestead were worth £70; his land at Nod, east of the river was at £40; 12 acres in the Great Meadow, £25; 10 acres in the Farm Meadow, £30; swamp lot and upland, £15; and “other lands net yet laid out the worth not known.” His children were:

Sarah, md. Nov 20, 1644, Thomas Porter

Mary, md. (1) John Lee; md. (2) Jan 5, 1672, Jeremiah Strong

John, md. Sarah

Steven, md. Ann Fitch; d. act 10, 1667

Rachel, b. 1641; md. John Cole

Thomas, b. 1643; md. (1) Mary Smith; md. (2) Ruth Hawkins

Additional Comments Regarding Rachel Hart Cole

The son-in-law John Cole named in the will of Stephen Hart is stated in some sources to have married a daughter Mehitable Hart, but evidence taken largely from the Winthrop medical records shows that John Cole of Farmington instead married Rachel, daughter of Stephen Hart. In late November 1657, John Winthrop, Jr. treated “Rachell Hart of Farmington” and “Steven Hart her brother” and on February 1, 1657/58, he treated “Rachel Hart 16 years.” She was a frequent patient throughout 1658 and 1659, being treated for an eye problem as a result of which she intermittently lost her sight. Beginning December 12, 1664, John Winthrop, Jr. began frequent treatments of Rachel Cole, wife of John Cole of Farmington, for eye problems and head pains. In his will of September 12, 1689, “John Coale Sr.” of Farmington made a bequest to “my beloved wife Rachel,” and asked Thomas Hart and Thomas Porter to be overseers. Thomas Hart was brother of Rachel Hart, and Thomas Porter had married her elder sister, Sarah. John and Rachel (Hart) Cole had a son John who married Mehitable (Mabell) Loomis in 1691, and this may be the source of the claim that Stephen Hart had a daughter Mehitable who married John Cole.

Sources:

Genealogical History of Deacon Stephen Hart and His Descendants 1632-1875 by Alfred Andrews, 1875.

The Great Migration Begins, Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volume I, A-F, by Robert Charles Anderson, Published by Great Migration Study Project, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995.

Historical Issues by David Hart, 1998, http://www.ultranet.com/-harts/family/ harts/DavidsStephen/ dec-stvl.shtml with additional references to

The Planters of the Commonwealth 1620-1640, Charles Edward Banks, 1930

The Puritan Dilemma, The Story of John Winthrop, Little, Brown & Co. , Boston, MA, 1958

The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Boston, MA

Bradford’s History of the Plymouth Settlement, Harold Paget, Mantle Ministries, San Antonio, TX, 1988

History of Cambridge, Lucius R. Paige, Boston, MA, 1877

Probate Records, Hartford, Connecticut District, vol. V, p. 69 (Apr 4, 1683), 178; Court Record, page 67- 1st March, 1693/94: will of Margaret Hart, adms. To Thomas Thompson with the Will annexed