| Notes |
- Halls of New England - Halls of Middletown, Conn., p. 1ff.
HALLS OF MIDDLETOWN, CONN>
First Generation
(Family 1.) Mr. JOHN HALL, the emigrant ancestor of the Halls of Middletown, was born in the county of Kent, Eng., 1585. His will was dated May 14, 1673, in which he stated that he was then nearly 89 years old and that it was the 40th year of his living in New England. He died in Middletown, Conn., May 26, 1673, in the 89th year of his age.
He married Esther ____. It is probably that she died before the family emigrated.
John Hall came from the west of England to Boston in 1633, settled first in Cambridge and soon after removed to Roxbury where the prefix of respect Mr. was accorded to him on the records of Mr. Eliot's church. In those days the prefix Mr. was given only to very few persons; and generally indicated that such persons were entitled to a coat of arms.
John Hall's name is found in a rate bill on the records of Roxbury for 1634, in which his family is recorded as consisting of four persons.
Sept. 4, 1633, John Hall, John Oldham and two other men started for the Connecticut river, where they were reported to be in October. They returned to the Bay towns on the 20th of January, 1634. It was their favorable report of the rich bottom lands on the Connecticut, which led to the migrations from Dorchester to Wethersfield and Windsor, and from Cambridge to Hartford in 1635-6.
Mr. Hall was made a freeman in Boston, 1635. He probably joined the Hooker and Stone colony and went to Hartford soon after, but did not remove his family until 1639.
Mr. Hall drew the home lot No. 77 of six acres on the brow of Lord's hill, in 1639. He also bought lands the same year of Wm. Hooker and Wm. Bloomfield.
The Hall lot No. 77 is the same as the Sigourney place, and since occupied by Gov. Catlin.
John Hall was a surveyor of highways in Hartford, in 1640.
In 1650, having sold his house and home lot to Wm. Spencer, he removed with his family to Middletown, then called Matabesick, which had been lately purchased of the great Sachem or Sequin Saweheag, being one of the original proprietors.
This home lot containing five acres was located on the north-east corner of Main street of Middletown, running to the "Great River" and adjoined the home lot of his son-in-law, Thomas Wetmore on the north.
He was appointed March 19th, 1659, by General Court held at Hartford "for the entry and recording such goods as are subject to customs for Middletown." Before as well as after this time Mr. Hall held divers offices of honor and trust, indeed he seemed to be the patriarch and leader of the new settlement.
Mr. Hall was born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1584, and lived through a most eventful period of English History.
And he no doubt rejoiced in his old age to see his children settled in a broad and fertle land, and destined to be henceforth in their generations free from the grinding oppression of those upper and lower millstones - the nobility and the hierarchy.
His posterity are very numerous and respectable, but we have been able to collect only a small portion of their names in this genealogy.
The names of his children were:
1. JOHN, b. in England, 1619 (Family 2).
2. RICHARD, b. in England, 1620 (Family 3).
3. SARAH, b. in England, 1622 (Family 4).
4. SAMUEL, b. in England, 1626 (Family 5).
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1584 - 1673 (88 years)
