General Notes

[spelman.FTW]

REFN: 8568
In 1638, at the time when the Reverend Thomas Hooker preached his f amous
sermon, which resulted in the adoption of the Fundamental Orders, Thoma s
Upson came to Hartford. His name appears in "ye Towne Book of Hartford"
o n January 3, 1639, as one of those "who received land by courtesy of the
town with liberty to fetch wood and keep swine and cows by proportion on
the Comm on." The volume of Colonial records, known as Hartford Land
Distribution, pag e 41, discloses that in February, 1639, Thomas Upson
owned "several parcells of land in Hartford upon ye river of Connecticut,
one parcell lyinge on the w est field containing by estimacon two roods
(more or less) whereof two roods was given for a house lott abbuttinge
upon the Cow Pasture on the north and o n Thomas Barns his land on the
east and on the highway leading from the Cow P asture to Mr. Allen's land
on West.
One parcell lyinge on the East side of t he Great River containing by
estimacon four acres more or less abbuttinge upo n the great river on the
west and on the land now common on the East and on N icholas Guerny's land
on the south and on John Purchase land on the North
On e parcell lying on the Cow Pasture containing by estimacon four acres,
two ro dds and 16 inches more or less abbuttinge on the little River on
the West and on a highway on the East and on William Killfear's land on
the South and on the widow bettses land on the North."
His home lot was on the west side of wha t is now Albany Avenue. Savage's
Genealogical Dictionary states that some of Thomas Upson's children were
certainly born in England. What was evidently hi s second marriage is
recorded as follows: "Thomas Upsunn was maryed to Elisib eth Fuller
Jenneuary the twenty and three, one thousand six hundred forty and six."
The name of the port from which he sailed, the name of his first wife and
the record of the births of his children have not been discovered, after
much research.
In the preface to his Letters on the First Charter of Massach usetts the
writer, Abel Cushing, says: "It seems to me that history should kn ow no
concealment; the people have a right to know the whole truth; the
sup pression of matter would seem to settle it that we are not to be
trusted with all portions of our history. If, in the discharge of
imperative duty, I have detailed facts that men have concealed, let no
man say that I wantonly expos ed the errors of our fathers." With this
defense we quote from Vol. 22 of the Particular Court Records of
Connecticut: "Hartford, August 1, 1639, Fined fo r unseasonable and
immoderate drinking at the Pinnace, Thomas Upson, 20 shill ings." It is
with this brief record that the first chapter in the history of Thomas
Upson and his descendants opens upon American soil. Writing nearly 200
years later, Noah Porter, President of Yale College, said: "In these
early days intemperance was a prevailing vice, social drinking was
universal and e ven countenanced by the ministry." So let us not place
undue importance upon this one record, the only charge of the kind
against our progenitor.
In 1640 , Hartford land records show a conveyance of land by the Tunxis
Indians to th e English. The tract included the present towns of
Farmington, Southington, B ristol, Berlin, New Britain and Burlington. In
this year, Thomas Upson became an original proprietor of the town of
Farmington. The "Ould Town Book," in w hich the records of early
Farmington Town Meetings were kept, was passed from hand to hand as
clerks were elected, and finally fell to pieces, so no recor d of the
first forty years exists today. The few items in Savage's Genealogic al
Dictionary of New England, Colonial Records and the Land Records of
Farm ington, and the inventory and distribution of his estate are all we
have arou nd which to reconstruct the life of Thomas Upson.
It is to be regretted that i n a list of members of the First Church in
Hart