General Notes

1  BIRT
2  DATE ABT. 1599
1  DEAT
2  DATE 1647




New Englan Families and Genealogical Memorial: Vol IV



Page 224
 


TIMOTHY STANLEY AND HIS
DESCENDANTS.

2
TIMOTHY STANLEY.
Born in England in January, 1602-3; came to New England in 1634, and to Hartford in 1636. In the divisions of lands among the first settlers, "according to the proportions payed for the purchase of sayd lands," he had two parcels allotted to him, of 32 and 36 acres, making 68 in all, which was much above the average. Out of 95 names of the planters who thus received lands, only 19 had more than he, while 116 received less. The two highest allotments were made to John Haynes and George Wyllys, of 200 acres each. This indicates, what is apparent from other considerations, that he was one of the wealthier men of the settlement, implying corresponding position in his English home.

This location was on the west side of what is now Front street, nearly opposite to the "lane" leading down to the landing, now Kilbourn street, and one of the nearest to the banks of the "Great River." Here he pursued the vocation of a farmer, having, as appears from his inventory, his "dwelling-house and house lott, and little meadow lott, and outhowsing (perhaps barns) with uplands," also eight acres of meadow and swamp in the North meadow, and three acres of meadow and some uplands on the east side of the river, the whole of the appraised value of
127. Subsequently he purchased also land and howsing at the newer settlement over the mountain on the west, called probably from the fine meadows on the Tunxis river "Farmingtown," valued at his death at forty pounds, making a total of real estate of
167. Five

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children were born to him, two sons and three daughters, beside the baby they had brought over the water, who died young.

Here Mr. Stanley lived in honor and industry thirteen years, till April, 1648. The little niece Ruth, whom he had adopted on the death of her father, grew up to be a girl of sixteen, when, with her brother John, who was barely four years older, she was married on the same day, December 5, 1645, and went to make a new home in Farmington, which was settled that year, possibly on the lands which their uncle purchased for them there. In those colonial days, early marriages were the rule rather than the exception. There was so much to be done in planting and subduing the wilderness that no time must be lost in getting about it. He received the testimony of his neighbors to his worth in being chosen in 1642 "townsman" or selectman, one of the trusty citizens that managed the town affairs. Everything that is recorded of him indicates that he was a man of dignity, good substance, and piety, worthy of the sincere respect of his numerous descendants.

He died while yet comparatively young, in the spring of 1648, aged forty-five. The inventory of his estate was presented to the court October 16, and as affording a vivid glimpse of the manner of living of that day among well-to-do people, is worthy of being copied here.


October 16th, 1648.

An Inventory of the goods of Timothy Standly, of Hartford, deceased.

   Impr. In the klttchin chamber; one standing bedstead, one feather bed & feather boulster, one red and blue couerlitt, one paire blankitts, 2 pillowes 7 18 08 
  Item; one trundle bed, 1 flock bed & 2 boulsters, 1 white blankitt, 1 straw bed case, one yello & white couerlitt, 1 feather pillow, 1 flock pillow, 2 little feather pillows 5 18 08 
  Item; 4 yards 1-2 of blankitt cloth at 3s. pr. yard, & one trundle bed 0 18 06 
  Item; one paire of flaxen shcets, 1 04 00 
  Item; 1 paire of course sheets, 12s, 1 paire sheets more 12s, 1 04 00 
  Item; 2 paire of hempen sheets 2 10 00 
  Item; 1 paire more of towing sheets 16s, 1 single sheets 12s, 1 08 00 
  Item; more 4 paire of course sheets 8s. pr, 1 12 00 


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  Item; 1 long table cloth 10s, a shorte table cloths 10s, 1 00 00 
  Item; 3 holland pillow beeres 12s, 3 flaxen pillow beers 10s, 2 flaxen hand towells 9s, 1 course towell 2s, 1 13 00 
  Item; 1 course head cloth 2s, foure course towing towells 6s, 0 08 00 
  Item; 6 cushins 12s, 1 paire bellows 2s, 0 14 00 
  Item; 6 flaxen napkins 12s, 1 chest & box 4s, 3 chairs 4s, 1 00 00 
  In the Hall Chamber; one chest 12s, 1 paire curtans 20s, 1 little chest 3s, 1 shipp chest 2s, 6d, 1 17 06 
  Item; one trunck 5s, one olde trunck 3s, one little chest 2s, 0 10 00 
  Item; one Fann 10s, foure hogsheads 8s, 10 yards of course lyning at 18d pr, 1 13 00 
  Item; 5 great platters 20s, 4 small platters 10s, 1 10 00 
  Item; 3 sasers and 2 biger dishes 0 05 04 
  Item; pewter bowle, 2 small potts 4s, foure porringers 21s, one salte 3s, one dozen of spoones 2s vid. 0 11 06 
  Item; one chamber vessell 2s vid, 12 skins for cloaths at 5s pr. 3l, 3 02 06 
  Item; the wearing cloaths, valued att 6 00 00 
  In the Garritt Chamber; 1 flock bed & 4 blankitts 2 10 00 
  Item; 8 sacks 1 00 00 
  In the Kitchin; 1 kettle 30s, one 16s, one 12s, 2 18 00 
  Item; 3 skilletts 10s, 3 iron potts, 1 iron kettle 1 14 00 
  Item; one spitt, one lattin dripping pann 0 04 00 
  Item; one brass sckumer, in earthern ware & wooden dishes 0 06 08 
  Item; one iron morter and pessell 0 05 00 
  Item; one kneading trough, 1 forme, 1 table 0 08 00 
  Item; 2 tramells, fier pann, tongs & cobiornes 0 11 00 
  Item; 1 tosting iron 2s, two linnen wheeles 6s, 0 08 00 
  Item; 3 siuefes 3s, one trevett 18d, 1 chaffin dish 
  Item; 1 cross-cut saw 6s, 2 muskitts 24s, 2 paire bandeleers 4s, 1 fowling peece 15s, 2 09 00 
  Item more, one woolen wheele 0 03 00 
  Item; in seuerall bookes 20s, and one sword 1 04 00 
  In the Hall; one table 10s, one press 10s, 1 00 00 
  Item; one warming pann 5s, 1 halfe bushell 2s, 0 07 00 
  Item; one great seife 2s, in mony & wampum 2l 3 02 00 
  In the chamber ouer the shopp; 1 flock bed, 2 boulsters, 2 blankits, 1 yello: & white couerlitt 4 00 00 
  Item; in the working shopp in lasts, axes, hand??w, beetle rings, iron wedges, & other toolls 1 15 00 
  Item; in 3 backs & half of leather & one peece 10 00 00 
  Item; one parcell of leather sold for 13l 13 00 00 
  Item; one paire of Boots 0 10 00 
  Item; in cartes & wheeles & chains & plow irons 2 10 00 
  Item; 6 oxen valued att 38 00 00 
  Item; 2 cowes 11, one heifer 2l, 10s, two calues 2l 15 10 00 
  Item; 1 yeare old horse colt 4l, 4 sheepe ??l, one blankitt more 10s 9 10 00 
  Item; in wheat at Farmington valued att 100 bushels, out of which the family is to bee prouided and some small debts paide 9 00 00 
  Item; 6 hoggs at 25s pr. and 3 piggs 9 00 00 
  Item; 2 hiuefes of bees 1 10 00 
  Item; the dwelling house, home lott, and little meadow lott and outhowsing, with vplands 75 00 00 
  Item; 8 akers of meadow & swamp in the north meadow 40 00 00 
  Item; 3 akers of meadow & some vpland on the East side of the great Riuer 12 00 00 
  Item; land and howsing at Farmington 40 00 00 
  Totall sum is 332 18 00 

          John Tailcoate                 Will: Westwood
          Edward Stebbing                Thomas Standly

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The distribution of the estate by the Court the 7th December, 1648, is as followeth: To the two eldest daughters 50l out of the mouables. To the eldest sonn Calib, the howses & lands in Hartford at the age of 21 years: hee paying to the youngest daughter if shee liues 30l. To the youngest sonn Isaack, after the decease of his mother, the land & howsing at Farmington.

These presents witnesse that we Thomas Portter & Lois Porter haue fully receiued of o'r brother Caleb Standly of Hartford that portion that was alotted or distributed to Lois by the Honored Court as her portion due to her father Timothy Standly his estate, and we doe by these presents fully acquitt, exoneratt & discharge our sayd brother Caleb Standly, his heirs executors & administrators of all debts, dues, & demands whatsoeuer dew from him the sayd Caleb Standly by vertue of any guift or distribution made of the estate of o'r Honoured Father Timothy Standly deceased, as witnesse o'r handds this first day of December in the year of o'r Lord one thousand six hundred & seuenty.

       Witness Samuel Cowles                           Thomas Porter
               Abigail Cowles                          Lois Porter
This is a true copy of the originall being examined & compared therewith this 5th day of January 1670, by me.

                                                      John Allyn, Secretary.


It is not difficult, with the help of this instrument, to reproduce to the mind's eye the picture of this Puritan home. It stands fronting the east, with nothing to intercept the view of the charming landscape of the river winding through the broad meadows, whose fertility had first invited the settlers thither. It is a small two-story building, having on the first floor only the hall and "kitchinn," the latter serving alike for a cook-room, living-room, and parlor. Meager enough is the furniture; a deal table, with a "form" or bench for sitting upon at meals, and standing in winter before the great open fireplace, whose "cobirons" (andirons) support the massive sticks of wood overhung by the long trammels in the chimney. Such a luxury as a carpet is unknown. A few pots and kettles, and some humbler utensils, are hung in the fireplace, or deposited on rough shelves overhead. The emigrant's armory of a sword, two muskets, and a fowling-piece, with "bandoleers" (pouches for powder and bullets to be slung from the shoulders), are suspended on the wainscoting, ready for instant use; and for mental recreation and the education of the children twenty shillings worth of books, including, of course, the Bible, are carefully deposited on some shelf safest from injury.

The "hall" shows a clothes-press and another table, with a warming-pan for making the children's beds comfortable in the bitterly cold winter; the big sieve with which the farmer cleans his wheat, and the half-bushel with which he measures it; and somewhere in some safe nook the family purse, with the strings of Indian wrought beads or wampum, which served as money, so many strings for an English shilling.

We ascend to the chamber over the kitchen, the main sleeping-room of the house. Here are three chairs, one bedstead, apparently the only one in the house, with a feather-bed and sheets, one pair of which are linen, the rest either of hemp or tow. A

 
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trundle-bed for the little ones pushes under the bedstead, and on the floor in one corner is a "flock bed," i.e., a bag stuffed with bits of cloth, wool or tow, serving the place of feathers. The rest of the family linen is kept in the chest standing between the two front windows, and in the box in the opposite corner. The chamber adjacent, over the hall, seems to be a general store room, where is kept the family plate, all of pewter, carefully deposited in one of the trunks or chests, the wearing apparel of the household, with a dozen dressed skins for making leather breeches, and four large casks where the farmer probably stores the provisions and breadstuffs that need safe keeping. In the attic, still higher up, is another flock bed, without chair or mirror, the boudoir, perhaps, of Ruth and the older daughters.

A little out building near by serves the farmer for a "working-shop," where he keeps his tools and supplies of leather, which the itinerant shoemaker, in his round of visits to various houses, will work up into shoes for the family. The narrow loft overhead accommodates a third flock bed where, it may be, the hired men sleep. Those among us who sigh for "the good old times," would do well to study the arrangements of such a home as this, and consider how they would like to substitute it for the elegant and luxurious abodes of the present day.

Of the wife of Timothy Stanley we only know that her name was Elizabeth. It has been intimated, we know not on what authority, that her maiden name was Morrice. After his death, having lived a widow thirteen years, she married, in 1661, Andrew Bacon. He was one of the Hartford colonists, but having been one of the most active in the church controversy there with Rev. Mr. Stone, he joined with others in the removal to Hadley in 1659, where he died ten years later, October 4, 1669. He left no children. Mrs. Bacon died in Hartford, February 23, 1678-9, aged about 76.

            The children of Timothy and Elizabeth Stanley
                were:


    2   TIMOTHY, b. in England, Jan., 1634; died young.
    3   ELIZABETH, m. Mark Sension (St. John).
    4   ABIGAIL, m., June 14, 1660, Samuel Cowles.
    5   CALEB, b. March, 1642.
    6   LOIS, b. Aug. 23, 1645; m. Dea. Thomas Porter.
    7   ISAAC, b. March 10, 1648; m. Mary (???), and died in
            Hadley Sept. 22, 1671, leaving no children.



Will of Elizabeth Bacon.
        Dated Oct. 30, 1671.     Debts to be paid by the Exr.
. . . . "and whereas my sonn Caleb Standly hath freely been pleased to take upon him the burden and care of prouiding for me in my old age, and allso hath left what of his brother Isaack's estate of right might have fallen to


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him to me (according to the settlement of the Honor'd Court at Springfield Sept. 27 1671) for my comfort and reliefe, and for other good considerations me mouing thereunto, doe give and bequeath unto my sayd sonn Caleb Standly all that my housing and lands in Hadley that formerly were my deare Husband's Andrew Bacon, late of Hadley, and fell to me by his last will, or by the death of my dear sonn Isaack, or by any other wayes or means whatsoever to be to him, the sayd Caleb, his heirs,31 etc.

Sonn Caleb Exr, to pay her husband's legacies to Mr. Russell and Peter Tilton: to carry out provision that part of his land in Hadley should go to her and heirs, Abigail and Lois, etc. Gives also to daughter Elizabeth, wife of Mark Sension, and to grandchild Sarah Sension (other provisions).

                     Mr. John Allyn and kinsman Nath. Standly Overseers.
Her inventory was
269. 05. 0.