 1604 - 1648 (44 years)
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| Name |
Robert Day |
| Born |
31 Jul 1604 |
Kilburn, Yorkshire, England  [1] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Birth |
31 Jul 1604 |
South Kirby, Yorkshire, England [2] |
| Reference Number |
8WB7-VL |
| Will |
29 May 1648 |
Hartford, Hartford County, CT [3] |
| Died |
4 Sep 1648 |
Hartford, Hartford County, CT [4] |
| Person ID |
I2272 |
Day Family Tree |
| Last Modified |
23 Feb 2004 |
| Father |
Richard Day, b. 1575, Kilburn, Yorkshire, England , d. 24 Oct 1628, England (Age 53 years) |
| Mother |
Anna Kirby, b. 1579, Kilburn, Yorkshire, England |
| Married |
Bef 1601 |
Kilburn, Yorkshire, England [5] |
| Family ID |
F8737 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family 2 |
Editha Stebbins, b. 1613, Woodham, Essex, England , d. 24 Oct 1688, Hartford, Hartford County, CT (Age 75 years) |
| Married |
1636 |
Middlesex, Cambridge, MA [4] |
| Children |
| | 1. Thomas Day, b. 1637, Cambridge, Middlesex County, MA , d. 27 Dec 1711, Springfield, Hampden County, MA (Age 74 years) |
| | 2. Sarah Day, b. 1640, Hartford, Hartford County, CT , d. 19 Sep 1677, Hatfield, Hampshire County, MA (Age 37 years) |
| | 3. Mary Day, b. 28 Oct 1641, Hartford, Hartford County, CT , d. 17 Oct 1725, Hatfield, Hampshire County, MA (Age 83 years) |
| | 4. John Day, b. 1645, Hartford, Hartford County, CT , d. 29 Apr 1730, Hartford, Hartford County, CT (Age 85 years) |
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| Family ID |
F695 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Notes |
- Robert (30) and his wife Mary (28) sailed on the ELIZABETH of IPSWICH, Mr. William Andrews, Master. Oath of Freemanship/Allegiance 6 May 1735 Massachusetts Bay Colony, MA.
The second photo is that of the ADVENTURERS' BOULDER plaque (1935), located at the corner of Main and Arch Streets in Hartford, CT. The plaque states "In memory of the courageous adventurers who inspired and directed by Thomas Hooker journeyed through the wilderness from Newton (Cambridge) in the Massachusetts Bay to Suckiaug (Hartford) - October, 1635. Robert Day's name is inscribed on this plaque as one of Hartford's founders.
- HISTORY OF ROBERT DAY:
Robert and Mary emigrated from Ipswich, England to Boston in April 1634 aboard the ship Elizabeth, which was commanded by William ANDREWS, Master. They bought a house on the west side of Garden St., Cambridge, Mass. in 1635 (Cambridge was then called Newtown). Mary died shortly after her arrival to Cambridge. Robert moved to Hartford, Conn. around 1639 where he was an original settler and proprietor of Hartford, his home lot #5 was on the road from Centinel Hill to the North Meadow, near the junction of what is now Main and Village Streets. It is believed that the reason Robert DAY moved to Hartford was that he was following a pastor Thomas HOOKER (1586-1647), who had recently emigrated from England.
From 1626 to 1629, HOOKER, an English Puritan pastor and preacher, had aroused church officials at his church of St. Mary at Chelmsford, Essex, England, with his popular sermons of Puritan ideas. In 1629 Archbishop LAUD took measures to suppress church lectureships, which were an innovation of Puritanism. HOOKER was eventually placed under bond and cited to appear before the Court of High Commission, but he forfeited his bond and fled to Holland in 1630. There he met Congregational emigres and came under the influence of the Calvinist theologian William AMES. In the meantime, more of his parishioners from Chelmsford had emigrated to Massachusetts, and in 1633, HOOKER followed them to New England. In 1634, HOOKER was ordained pastor at Newtowne, now Cambridge, Mass., of a company of Puritans. Robert was made a "freeman" on May 6, 1635 which shows he belonged to some church. He was chosen viewer of chimneys and ladders. Pastor HOOKER, in 1636, led his congregation of about 100 emigrants from Cambridge and founded what is now Hartford, Connecticut. HOOKER was pastor of the Hartford church until his death on July 7, 1647. HOOKER through his piety, zeal and wisdom was unquestionably one of the foremost of colonial clergymen. Robert's name ppears on a monument erected in Hartford to the memory of the first settlers there.
Robert remarried Editha STEBBINS in 1635. Editha was born circa 1613 in Ipswich, England and was the daughter of William and Mary STEBBINS. Editha's brother was Deacon Edward STEBBINS of Hartford. Robert's four children Thomas, Sarah, Mary and John were born by Editha. Robert died on September 4, 1648 at Hartford, Connecticut. After Robert's death, Editha remarried John MAYNARD of Hartford, Conn. John died without issue shortly after leaving all his property, which was considerable, to his wife's children, "provided they carried themselves well towards their mother." Editha married a third time in 1658 a Elizur HOLYOKE of Springfield, Massachusetts, grandfather of President Holyoke of Harvard College. Elizur died February 6, 1676. Editha died October 24, 1688 in Hartford, Conn. Robert's Will was dated May 20, 1648. Robert's "inventory" was deemed to be 142 pounds, 13 shillings, 6 pence. The following is a copy of the Will and Inventory of ROBERT DAY. (It is verbatim, notice some spelling mistakes).
COPY OF THE WILL AND INVENTORY OF ROBERT DAY - Colony Records, vol. 1, pp. 255,6, dated May 20th, 1648. Will also printed in Trumbull's Colonial Records of Connecticut, I, 487. "The will of Robert Day hee being sick and weake, yet in perfect memory: doth order and dispose of his estate to his wife and children, in the manner following: I give vnto my beloued wife Edatha Day my now dwelling howse and howsing thereto adioyning, howse Lott, Allso all my Land whereof I stand possessed, or that of right doth belong vnto mee, lying in Hartford, during the tearme of her naturall life: And at the end of her life, my will is that the said howse and land shall bee deuided in an equall proportion: my will allso is that all my howsehold stuff, and Cattle and other moueable goods shall bee my wiues to bring vp my children: And in case my wife should bee married to another man, then my surviers of my will shall haue power if they thinke good to take security for the bringing vp of the children, and for so much estate as shall bee thought meete by them, and to this my last Will and Testament I make my wife my Executrix, and I doe desire my Deare Brethren Mr. Tailecoate, Willterton, and Stebbing, to take care of and Assist my wife in the ordering her selfe and my children, and I give them power to doe what in their Judgements may bee for the best, to bring vp my Children and dispose of them, and that I leaue, for theire good: And to this my last will I sett to my hand the day aboue written." Robert Day, Edward Stebbing, Wallter Gaylerd
AN INVENTORY OF THE GOODS OF ROBERT DAY DECEASED - 14th October, 1648
In the Chamber. Impr. one Bedstead; one feather bed, and feather Boulster and flock boulster: 2 pillowes, & bedcase 07 00 00
& Curtaines.
Item: 2 blankitts, one red & yellow Couerlitt:
Item: 1 chest 10s: 1 Box 3s: 1 desck box 3s: 00 16 00
Item: 1 table 5s: 1 Cubberd 5s and Chaiers 00 16 00
Item: 3 paier of sheetes 02 00 00
Item: 6 table napkins 12s: 1 table cloth 5s 00 17 00
Item: 6 pillow beeres 01 10 00
Item: the wearing Clothes with 3 skinns 05 00 00
Item: in Linnen yearne and Cotton wool yearne 01 10 00
Item: 2 Cushins 6s: 1 paire of Bellowes 3s 00 09 00
Item: 1 Little Baskitt 12d: 1 warming pann 6s 00 07 00
In the Hall: Item: 1 Brass Kettle 02 10 00
Item: 1 Little kettle 12s: 1 little brass kettle 00 15 00
Item: 1 brass possnet (a) 4s: 1 brass pott 16s:
1 Iron pott 14s 01 14 00
Item: 1 brass Chaffin dish 3s: one skimer 00 05 06
Item: 7 pewter dishes, and some broken pewter:
1 saser: 2 pewter potts: 1 Candlestick:
1 salte: 1 small bottle: 6 ockumy (b) spoons,
2 porringers and 4 old spoones 01 10 00
Item: 1 Lattin (c) dripping pann: 1 spitt, 1 pistoll:
1 smoothing Iron 00 10 00
Item: in earthen ware, and wooden ware 00 10 00
Item: 1 muskitt Bandleers (d) and sword 01 00 00
Item: 1 table and 2 Chaires 00 05 00
In the sellar, Item: in tubbs and Tables and formes 01 00 00
In ye little chamber: Item: one flockbed, 2 blankitts: 1 Couerlitt, 1 feather boulster, 2 feather pillowes, 2 bedsteads 04 12 00
Item: 3 hogsheads, 2 Linnen wheeles, 1 woolen wheele, one Barrill. 00 19 00
Item: 1 table, 1 wheele, 1 hatchett 00 05 00
Item: in working tooles 01 08 00
Item: 1 leather Bottle 2s: VId: 1 paire of tongs: fier pann, grid Iron: frying pann, one trammell 00 15 00
Item: in Bookes, and Sackes, and Ladders 01 00 00
Item: One Cow: 1 3 yeare ould heifer: one 2 yeare old heifer, with some hay to winter them 14 10 00
Item: 2 hoggs 3 L 03 00 00
Item: in seuerall sortes of Corne with some hemp and flax 15 00 00
Item: the dwelling howse and out howsing, howse lott and Garden. 45 00 00
Item: about 6 Akers of meadow, in severall parcells with vpland 26 00 00
Summa Totalis 142:13:06
John Tailecoate, Gregory Willterton, Edward Stebbing
INVENTORY DEFINITIONS: (a) Posnet - a little basin or skillet, (b) Ochimy - (alchemy) a mixed base metal (c) Latten - tin, iron plate covered with tin, (d) Bandoleers - a large leathern belt, thrown over the right shoulder, and hanging under the left arm; worn by ancient musketeers for sustaining their fire arms, and their musket charges, which being put into little wooden cases, and coated with leather, were hung to the number of twelve to each bandoleer -
Webster. SOURCES:
1. George E. Day, "Genealogical Register of the Descendants in the Male Line of Robert Day, of Hartford, Conn., Who died in the Year 1648", Second Edition, Northampton: Printed by J. & L. Metcalf, 1848, pages 7-10).
2. "The Encyclopaedia Britannica". Volume II, Fourteenth Edition, 1929, page 729.
3. "The Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition". Volume 14, page 362.
4. "Geneaology, Central New York:. Vol II, page 666.
5. Leonard F. Day, "Genealogical Register of Robert Day of Hartford, Conn." Pine Hill Press, Freeman, South Dakota, 1972, page ix.
6. "Colony Records", Volume 1, pp. 255-56.
FROM IPSWICH, ENGLAND TO HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
We do not know exactly why ROBERT DAY and his wife Mary left their home and families in England to join the new settlement in Massachusetts but we are told (David Roth's Connecticut) that between 1630 and 1642 over twenty thousand Puritans in some two hundred ships crossed the Atlantic to New England to escape the religious repression of James I as continued by Charles I. On arrival they instituted their own forms of repression, however, including exclusion of differing faiths, so we may assume Robert and Mary were Puritan Calvinist refugees as was their pastor, Thomas Hooker, who had emigrated earlier. They sailed on April 10, 1634, from Ipswich, Suffolk, England, to Boston, MA, on the "Elizabeth" and settled in Newtown on the north bank of the Charles river on the future site of Harvard University. Their emigration was apparently not a wholesale movement of an entire parish, however, as examination of the list of passengers on the "Elizabeth" discloses that only Robert Day, William Blumfield and John Bernard were on both the voyage from Ipswich to Boston and the trip from Newtown to Hartford. Robert's wife, Mary, apparently died soon after arrival and Robert may have returned to England as LDS (Mormon) genealogical data available on Internet shows him marrying Editha Stebbing in Stanshead Abbot, Hereford, England, No date is shown, so actual records were probably not examined. In fact, LDS records also show several different places for the marriage, including Massachusetts and Hartford, CT. The move to what became Hartford was in June, 1636 and their oldest child was born in 1636 so the marriage could hardly have occurred in Hartford.The manifest of the "Hopewell", which sailed to New England 4/3/1635 lists Robert Day, aged 30 unaccompanied. The Rev. George E. Day, in his lengthy genealogy of 1848 states this individual was from Ipswich, was made freeman 6/2/1641 and was still living in 1681. No record has been located regarding the passage to this country of our Robert's second wife, Editha.
Robert Day was made "freeman" May 6, 1635. This, in colonial days, required one to own property worth 200 pounds, to be a member in good standing of a church and to swear to abide by and uphold the laws. He was then recognized as a voter and a citizen.
According to Weaver's Hartford, Thomas Hooker became involved in a theological controversy with the Reverend John Cotton of the Boston church over the relative priorities of faith and good works and the new group decided to move on. Roth, however, ascribes the move to a desire for better land and the "restlessness" of Hooker, who had arrived in Boston in September, 1633. The Newtown leaders investigated several sites assigned to the Massachusetts Bay Colony but none was satisfactory and in July, 1635, six Newtown men journeyed to the Connecticut River valley to a place the Indians called "Sukiaug". Nearby, people from Dorchester were beginning the settlement which would become Windsor and to the south John Oldham had already begun what would become Wethersfield. The Indians were peaceful and apparently willing to exchange possession of the land for trade in furs and corn.
The Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford placed an "ADVENTURER'S BOULDER" on 10/15/1935 at the corner of Main and Arch Streets with a brass plaque bearing the names of the twenty five "Courageous Adventurers who, inspired and directed by Thomas Hooker, journeyed through the wilderness from Newtown (Cambridge) in the Massachusetts Bay to Suckiaug (Hartford) October, 1635." Robert Day is listed as one of the twenty five. During the summer of 1635 the Newtown people were able to sell out to a new group of Englishmen led by the Reverend Thomas Shepard and the new community set up by Shepard's group was, in February, 1636, by decree of the Massachusetts General Court, renamed "Cambridge". In the meantime, various groups had gone to Sukiaug to make preparations, including surveying home lots, building and digging shelters and erecting a crude palisade for protection. The final move from Newtown on the Charles to Newtown on the Connecticut started May 31, 1636, when some 100 men, plus women and children, together with about 160 head of cattle, made the long journey and occupied the land designated for them.
"First Puritan Settlers" describes the exodus thus: "In June, 1636, the Reverend Thomas Hooker, Mr. Samuel Stone and about 100 others of all ages and sexes started through the wilderness, guided only by a compass, to Hartford - with no covers but the heavens and no lodging but the ground, and subsisted on the milk of the cows which they drove with their other cattle, numbering 160 in all. They carried their packs upon their backs, and their arms for protection in their hands. Mrs. Hooker was so feeble in health that she was carried the whole journey upon a litter and they reached Newtown (Hartford) in about two weeks." Each head of family erected living quarters and then all joined in building a meeting house, 36 by 23 feet. This soon proved too small and in 1638 was replaced and given to Thomas Hooker for use as a barn. One man, George Wyllys, reputedly one of the wealthiest men in New England, had a lot four times the size of the largest of the others, bounded by the present Main, Charter Oak, Governor and Wyllys Streets. Here he had a nine room house built, described as the most elegant in New England. The first court was formed in 1636 to try Henry Stiles for selling a gun to an Indian.
All structures were, of course, made of wood and, due to the constant danger of fire, immediately after the organization of the town a law was passed requiring all chimneys to be cleansed by the owners once each month, and a penalty was provided for non-compliance. First Puritan Settlers continues: "For several years a committee of respectable men was appointed to see that all house-holders fully obeyed the law. It was also a law that each house-holder should provide a ladder for his house which reached within two feet of the top of the chimney. This law also came within the duties of the viewers of chimneys. At the time these laws were in force, men were selected to fill every office, high or low, with a single eye to the fact that the men who held the offices should be of such standing in society, as the men should honor their offices and not the offices the holders of them."
ROBERT DAY had home lot #5, near what is now the junction of Main and Village Streets. He was chosen "viewer of chimneys and ladders". His wife, Mary, had died soon after arrival in this country and he was remarried to Edatha (Editha, Edetha) Stebbing, sister of Deacon Edward Stebbing. In 1636/7 the name "Newtown" was formally changed to "Hartford" after the English home of the Reverend Samuel Stone, who shared spiritual leadership of the little flock with Thomas Hooker.
ROBERT DAY died September 4, 1648, apparently after a long illness. His will, dated May 20, 1648, is in Connecticut Probate Records, vol.1, Hartford District, page 487:
The will of Robert Day, hee being sick and weake, yet in perfect memory: doth order and dispose of his estate to his wife and children, in the manner following:
I give unto my beloved wife, Edatha (Stebbing) Day my now dwelling howse and howsing thereto adjoining, howse lot. Allso all my land whereof I stand possessed, or that right doth belong to mee, lying in Hartford, during the terme of her naturall life: and at the end of her life, my will is that the said howse and land shall bee devided in an equall proportion: My will allso is that all my howsehold stuff, and Cattle and other moveable goods shall bee my wives to bring up my children: And in case my wife should bee married to another man, then my survivors of my will shall have power if they thinke good to take security for the bringing up of the children, and for so much estate as shall bee thought meete by them, and to this my last will and Testament I make my wife Executrix, and I doe desire my Deare Brethren, Msrs. Tailecoate (Talcott), Wilerton (Wilburton) and Stebbing, to take charge of and assist my wife in the ordering her selfe and my children, and I give them power to doe what in their Judgements may bee for the best, to bring up my Children and dispose of them, and that I leave for theire good. And to this my will I sett to my hand the day above written.
Signed: Robert Day
Witness: Edward Stebbing, Walter Gaylord
The three "Deare Brethren" signed "An inventory of the Goods of Robert Day deceased" on 10/14/1648 which is interesting in its reflection of the lifestyle of the early pioneers:
In the chamber: one bedstead, one feather bed, feather bolster and flock bolster, 2 pillows, bedcase and curtains, 2 blankets, one coverlet, 1 chest, 1 box, 1 desk box, 1 table, cupboard and chairs, 3 pairs of sheets, 6 table napkins, 1 tablecloth, 6 "pillow beeres", wearing clothes with 3 skins, linen and cotton wool yarn, 2 cushions, 1 pair of bellows, 1 little basket, 1 warming pan and working tools.
In the hall: 1 brass kettle, 1 little kettle, 1 little brass kettle, 1 brass possnett (a little basin or skillet) 1 brass pot, 1 iron pot, 1 chafing dish, 1 skimmer, 7 pewter dishes (and some broken pewter), 1 saucer, 2 pewter pots, 1 candle stick, 1 salt, 1 small bottle, 6 spoons,2 porringers, 4 old spoons, 1 Lattin (tin or tin plate) dripping pan, 1 spit, 1 pistol, 1 smoothing iron, earthen and wooden ware, 1 musket Bandoleer and sword, 1 table and 2 chairs.
In the cellar: tubs, tables and "formes".
In "ye little chamber": 1 flockbed, 2 blankets, 1 coverlet, 1 feather bolster, 2 feather pillows, 2 bedsteads, 3 hogsheads, 2 linen wheels, 1 woolen wheel, 1 barrel, 1 table, 1 wheele, 1 hatchet, 1 leather bottle, 1 pair tongs, fire pan, grid iron, frying pan, 1 "trammell", books, sacks and ladders, 1 cow, 1 three year old heifer, 1 two year old heifer and "some hay to winter them", 2 hogs, several sorts of corn with some hemp and flax, dwelling house and out housing, house lot and garden, about 6 acres of meadow in several parcels with upland.
The estate of Robert Day was inventoried at ¹142-13-06. His wife subsequently married John Maynard, who died in 1657/8 leaving the bulk of his estate to his stepson [36]John Day. The wife later married Elizur Holyoke and a grandson became president of Harvard University. It is not known where Robert Day was buried but many years later an obelisk was erected in the cemetery behind the Center Church in Hartford. The names of all the founders of Hartford, including Robert Day, appear on this monument.
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| Sources |
- [S13] Dayworld.ged.
- [S103] Ancestry.com.
- [S603] Descendants of Robert Day: freepages.geneaology.rootsweb.com.
- [S1] Fern Gunter, 920 Dixie St., Mt. Home, AR 72653 USA, 14 (Reliability: 3).
- [S146] Ancestors of Robert Day.
- [S858] Internet www.
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