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0he TRAVELERS INSVRANCE COMPANY 1863 1913 \.';\' C)00 11. 0 THE EVOLUTION OF A BUILDING LOT • \ (· ' ( \ .-~ TilE NEW HOME OFFICE BUILDING llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll I ~ 111 1 ~1111111111111 1111111111 T3.he ~11111111 11111111111111\ 111 I fvoluiz'on ifa 1 I J}uzldilljJ hot ~ll u11111111111 11111111111 111111 11111111111111111 1111 • lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll ll • TltE • TRAVELERS INSURANCE ~G G0MPANY 8.54o I} .(;., etb JC( ,, 0 THE LATE JAMES G. BATTERSON, FOUNDER OF ACCIDENT INSURANCE IN AMERICA AND FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY • .~,.~~ROM the day, two hundred and seventy­ ~~ - f six years ago, when Sachem Sunckquasson deeded the land where Hartford now stands ~ ~~..£1ij) to Samuel Stone, William · Goodwin and 1 others, the history of the site upon which the addition_ to the Travelers building stands can be definitely traced, and .the events which have occurred thereon are written in both local and. American history. It was early in June, 1636, that the Rev. Thomas • Hooker and his congregation, . following "The Adven­ turers" who had preceded them the year, before, ~et forth from Newton (Cambridge), Mass., not as· individual settlers, but as an ecclesiastical and political organiza­ tion. After an arduous journey with their household goods and cattle they reached the Connecticut near the mouth of the Chicopee. River, and traveling down the eastern bank beheld across the river the:wide m·eadows and the w~oded uplands of their future home. • Along the western bank were the wigwams of the Indian town of Suckiage, while hidden by the forest about a mile to the south, where the ,Little river joins the Connecticut, lay the small · Dutch fort of Huys de Hoop (the House of Hope) built of brick and timber, and a few houses surrounded by cherry trees. It was merely a trading post, garrisoned by a com­ mander and fifteen soldiers and their families, and • destined to continue until Captain John Underhill eighteen years later, by order of parliament, seized it. It was the English who established an organized community, giving it first the name of Newtowne. • • • SYLVESTER C. DUNHAM, PRESIDENT OF THE TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY • But Stone and many of the settlers had come originally from Hertford, England, and amid the toil and priva­ tions of their exile in the wilderness their thoughts went back to the pleasant English country of their youth, and before the year was over they changed the name to "Harteford Towne. And likewise the plantacon nowe called Watertowne shall be called Wythersfield, and the plan­ tacon called Dorchester shall be called Windsor". In May, 1637, the meeting of the representatives of the three towns of Hartford, Windsor and Wethers­ fiel9- for the first time took the name of the General Court, composed in addition to the town magistrates of committees of three from each town, thereby establish­ ing the seminal principle of the senate and ,house of • representatives. In 1639 the little commonwealth drew up the first of all written constitutions, destined to be not only the earliest but with the exception of that of Rhode Island the longest lived of American documents of the kind, surviving unchanged until 1818 when a new constitu­ tion, containing practically all the fundamental prin­ 'ciples of the first, was enacted . • No English pen has described the Hartford of those days, but the Dutchman, DeVries, visiting the .House of Hope in 1639 has pictured it briefly. "The Dutch fort is on the margin of the river and along­ side it runs a little creek to a high woodland, out of which comes a valley where the English in spite of us have begun to make a settlement. A beautiful country, with many salmon in the river. The English have a fine church and one hundred houses" . Of the Hartford of those days there remains only • the well of Thomas Hooker still in existence in an iron foundry, and across the street from where the Travelers building stands, hidden behind the First Church Ninth Page • • ENTRANCE HALL containing a few timbers of the original meeting house~ the graveyard of the settlers~ The original deed to the land of Hartford execut~d • in 1636 was lost, but a deed confirming the first and extending the original grant westward, executed iri 1670 by the heirs of Sachem Sunckquasson, is recorded in Hartford Land Records. Under the form of government adopted by the settlers who were known as "proprietors" three distri­ butions were made of the property acquired under the Indian deed. To each proprietor was allotted a house lot, a piece of meadow land and a wood lot, and the • remainder of the land was called the Town Commons. Each grant was upon condition of .the lands being Tenth Page improved or returned to the town, and the farm lands were distributed in different proportions according to the proprietors' contributions, services, and sometimes their dignity or necessities. In case any proprietor wished to sell, · the town paying only for any labor expended, had the preference of purchase. As was the custom in England title to these lots was not recorded until October 10, 1639, when The General Court passed an order that the "townes of Hartford, Windsor a.nd Wethersfield shall each provide a ledger Booke, with an index or alphabett unto the same: Also shall choose one who shall be a Towne Clerke or Register, who shall before the General Court in April next, record ·every man's house and land already graunted and meas­ ured out to him, with the bounds and quantity of the same, and whosoever shall neglect three months after notice given 'to bring into the said Towne Clerke or Register a note of his house and land, with the bounds and quantity of the same, by the nearest estimacon shall forfeit ten shillings, and so ten shillings for every month he shall soe neglect, the like to be done for all land hereafter graunt.ed and measured to any". This book, known as the Book of Distribution, is the first book of land records in the Town Clerk's • office in Hartford. Among these early proprietors was "John Steele, Sinor", and on page 461 of the Book of Distribution we find the following: "Severall parsilles of land in Hartford upon tlie River of Coneckticott belonging to John Steele, Sinor, and to his heirs forever. · VIZ: One parsill on which his now dwelling house standeth with other outt houses, yardes and gardins thare in being con­ • tain, by estma. two acres be it more or les, abuting of the high­ way !~adding fro. the Mill to the Metting house on the West, . and on the Alley to the Metting house on the East, ap.d on Mr. Clement Chaplings' land on the North". Eleventh Page • ASSEMBLY HALL • ----~------• ~· -------- · In the southwestern corner of the Clement Chapling land stands that part of the Travelers building erected in 1906. In the northwestern corner of the land of John Steele stands the addition . • In February, 1639-40, John Steele sold this land and dwelling to John Taylcott and his heirs forever~ who immediately sold the same to John Moris. On March ~6, 1651, John Moris sold to Jeremy Addams "Several Parcells of land in Hartford upon the river Conecticott belonging to Jeremy Addams and to his heirs for­ ever. One P'sell on which a messuag or teniment now stand­ eth, which he bought of John Mores contains by estima two acres and two roods be it more or les, abutting on the high­ way leding fro' the Bredg to the Pound Hell on the West and on a Chase way leding to the Metting house on the East, and on • Mr. Goodwings and Mr. Stones land on the South and on Mr. Clement Chaplens land on the North". Probably the "twenty pounds lent in 1660 to Jeremy Addams for one year to be repaid in wam­ pum" furnished part of the means of payment. Under order of the General Court in 1644, inns had been ordered to be established "not only in Hartford but others in each town upon our river". In the • same year Jeremy Addams, then a young man of high spirit, comes into notice in the record of the Gen­ eral Court and receives formal censure for "distem­ perate speeches and loud language and unmanly con­ duct in setting on Thomas Hosmer to resist a constable in the levy of an execution". But Jeremy became a staid and sober citizen and was by two magistrates judged fit for employment as innkeeper, and established an inn shortly after he purchased the property . • In 1661 we find the following: "Jer. Adams hath mortgaged his house and home lot wch. he bought of John Mouice with all other ye buildings erected thereon since his Purchase (unto Capt. John Talcott as Treas- Thirteenth Page urer to Connecticut Collony)" etc, and in the Colonial Records May, 166~-"lt is granted and ordered by this court upon the motion and desire of Jeremiah Adams that ye house that the said Jer: doth now possess and improve for an Ordnary, or house of common entertainment, shalbe and remaine to ye said Jeremie and his successors, provided as hereafter expressed. 1st. That ye said Jeremie, his heirs and successors carry on this • worke by such prson or prsons inhabiteing in ye said house as shalbe to ye good likeing and approbation of ye Genl. Court from time to time. ~d. That ye said house be fitted and made capable to give suffi~ cient entertainment as need and occasion shal require, both to neighbours and strangers. Sd. That there be at all times necessary and comfortable accom- ' modation and provision made for the entertainment of Travell­ ers with horse and otherwise and that both respecting wine and liquors and other provision for food and comfortable re­ freshing, both for man and beast.

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