Samuel Stone (July 18, 1602 – 20 July 1663) was a

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

minister and co-founder of Hartford,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

Biography

Stone was born in Hertford, the county town of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The name of the town is pronounced "Hartford". In 1620, he left Hertford to study at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, from where he graduated in 1624. He was ordained on July 8, 1626 at

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire unti ...

and a year later became curate at Stisted,

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

. In 1633, Samuel Stone and

Thomas Hooker Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding spea ...

sailed across the Atlantic on a ship named the Griffin. They arrived in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

on the 4th of September of the same year, and a few weeks later, Samuel Stone became a Teacher of the Cambridge Church under Hooker, who was the preacher. In 1644, he became a Freeman. In 1636, Stone and Hooker led their congregation from New Towne (now

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

) and established a new colony at House of Hope (a Dutch fort and trading post), making peace with the local Indians and renaming the town they called Saukiog as Hartford, after Stone's birthplace - they thus became the town's founding fathers.

Personal life

Stone was twice married. By his second wife, Elizabeth Allyn, whom he wed in 1641, he had four surviving children—a son Samuel and four daughters, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Mary and Sarah. He publishe
“A Congregational Church, a Catholike Visible Church”
in London in 1642, in answer to Samuel Hudson's "Visible Catholick Church", and left two works in manuscript: a catechism and a confutation of the Antinomians. Records show that he was an active buyer and seller of land in Hartford. There is a statue of Samuel Stone in the centre of Hertford, Hertfordshire.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Samuel 1602 births 1663 deaths People from Hertford Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge English emigrants Founders of Hartford, Connecticut 17th-century New England Puritan ministers