Thomas Upson

Hartford, Hartford Co., CT

Farmington, Hartford County, CT

General Notes

From the Hickock Genealogy:

"Thomas was early in Hartford. He was one of those, not proprietors, enumerated in 1638, who had the privilege of getting wood and keeping cows on the common. In that year, he, with others, was 'censured and fined for unseasonable and immoderate drinking at the pinnace' [a boat then anchored in the river or at the town wharf in Hartford] 20 s. He was an original proprietor and settler of Farmington, Conn.
"The estate which was small was distributed in 1671 to the remaining children, Thomas, Stephen, Mary, Hannah, and to Edmund Scott in right of his wife."

Charles Nelson Hickok, Hickok Genealogy: descendants of William Hickocks of Farmington, Connecticut, with ancestry of Charles Nelson Hickok, Tuttle Publ., Rutland, Vermont, 1938.

Thomas Upson was among those adventurous men who left all familiar behind to come to a new country. Born in England, exact date unknown, he left his wife and daughter, Mary, and came to America with his son Thomas, arriving here before 1639.

He went first to Saybrook CT and then to Hartford. His name appears in the "Towne Book of Hartford" where it is written on January 3, 1639 that Thomas Upson has received land by courtesy of the town. The Colonial records, known as "Hartford Land Distribution" show him as owner of several parcels of land there. He joined the First Church of Christ in Hartford, which he continued to attend for many years.

In 1640, Thomas Upson is named as one of the original proprietors and settlers of Farmington, CT. Farmington Land Records show that he owned two tracts of land on the Main Highway.

It is presumed that Thomas's first wife died without ever having joined him in America and he married his second wife, Elizabeth Fuller, on January 23, 1646 in Hartford. Elizabeth was born in 1626 in MA, the daughter of Captain Mathew Fuller.

Thomas Upson died July 19, 1655 and is buried in Memento Mori Cemetary on Main Street in Farmington where his marked grave may still be seen. His original inventory, on file in the State Library, Hartford, shows him to have been a successful and prosperous man.

Click here for details of Thomas' family with Elizabeth Fuller