Samuel Stone (July 18, 1602 – 20 July 1663) was an English Puritan minister and co-founder of

Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

Biography

Stone was born in

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a Ford (crossing), ford on ...

, the

county town In Great Britain and Ireland, a county town is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county, and the place where public representatives are elected to parliament. Following the establishment of county councils in ...

of Hertfordshire,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. 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 and a year later became curate at Stisted,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. In 1633, Samuel Stone and Thomas Hooker sailed across the Atlantic on a ship named the Griffin. They arrived in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

on 4 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. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

) 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

, 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