Notes |
- Along with TNH ancestors William Chesebrough, Walter Palmer, and George Denison, he was one of the founders of Stonington, Connecticut. He was also a founder of Hartford; his name is on the Founders Monument there.
From Wikipedia:
Thomas Stanton (1616?-1677) was a trader and an accomplished Indian interpreter and negotiator in the colony of Connecticut. One of the original settlers of Hartford, he was also one of four founders of Stonington, Connecticut, along with William Chesebrough, Thomas Miner, and Walter Palmer.
He first appears in the historical record as an interpreter for John Winthrop, Jr. in 1636. He fought in the Pequot War, nearly losing his life in the Fairfield Swamp Fight in 1637. In 1638 he was a delegate at the Treaty of Hartford, which ended that war. In 1643, the United Colonies of New England appointed Stanton as Indian Interpreter.
Following the war, Stanton returned to Hartford, where he married and became a successful trader. In 1649, Stanton settled a tract of land alongside the Pawcatuck River in what is present-day Stonington. In 1649 or 1650 he was given permission to establish a trading post on the river and was granted a 3 year monopoly over Indian trade in the area. The trading house was built in 1651. During this time, Stanton's family remained in Hartford or New London, joining him in Stonington in about 1657 after the trading venture had become established and a suitable house constructed.
From Eugene C. Zubrinsky, "The Immigration and Early Whereabouts of in America of Thomas Stanton of Connecticut" (citation details below):
The available evidence provides neither complete details nor absolute certainty as to [Thomas] Stanton's immigration to and initial whereabouts in America. We may nevertheless be completely confident in discarding more than 150 years of virtually unsupported (yet, incredibly, uncontested) assertions about these matters. Careful analysis of existing records leads inexorably to the conclusion that Thomas Stanton immigrated directly to Massachusetts by 1635 (ship unknown); landed probably at Boston (the point of all but a handful of Bay Colony arrivals) but went soon (if not immediately) to Cambridge; and after spending time trading with the Indians in Connecticut, migrated to Hartford by June 1636. On 6 February 1649[/50], the General Court granted Stanton "libberty to erect a trading howse" at Pawcatuck, an outlying, practically unpopulated section of Pequot (New London) that would become part of the eventual tow of Stonington. By July 1651, he and, presumably, his family had removed from Hartford to the settlement at Pequot. The grant there of Stanton's six-acre house lot is recorded without date but would have been made no later than 19 October 1650, when he received 20 acres of upland "upen scull plain." His next Pequot grant, two acres of salt marsh "at sandie Coave," was made on 28 March 1651. Other grants followed, including one, dated 18 June (not in March) 1652, of 300 acres near his Pawcatuck trading post. Stanton was of Pawcatuck on 25 or 28 January 1657[ 8?], when he sold his Pequot dwelling house, home lot, and orchard to George Tong[ue]. A founder and leading citizen of Stonington, he died there on 2 December 1677.
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