# Hartford in the 1700s

> A river capital of Puritan law, clustered meetinghouses, meadow farms, small manufactures, and widening colonial politics.

- Place: Hartford (41.764, -72.685)
- Years: 1700 to 1709
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/hartford-hartford-county-connecticut/1700s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Hartford%2C%20Hartford%20County%2C%20Connecticut%2C%20United%20States&at=41.7637,-72.6851&year=1705

## Looking around

You stand in a compact Connecticut River town: Hartford has been settled by English colonists since 1635[5], and its older Native name, Saukiog or Suckiaug[5], still belongs to the ground beneath it. Turn toward the river and the low land: the dark, rich river-bank soil gave the place its Native name[1], while fertile meadows and uplands keep settlement gathered near the village[2]. In the center of town, the First Church congregation is the old public anchor[1], and the town school is maintained with colonial and local money[2]. Nearby, political business matters: the General Assembly always meets in Hartford after 1701[3], though Connecticut has also named New Haven a co-capital. Work is not only farming: three fulling mills are operating by 1706[1], and in 1707 17,000 yards of woolen cloth are made here[1]. Beyond the clustered houses, forest is still hard to subdue[2].

## Work: Cloth beside cornfields

Hartford is not only a farming village: three fulling mills are operating by 1706[1], and 17,000 yards of woolen cloth are made here in 1707[1]. Ordinary work still leans on farming, household textile work, livestock care, woodcutting, and seasonal town labor.

## Faith: Church as public order

The First Church had been transplanted from Cambridge and its meetinghouse built in 1639[1], so worship and town memory are bound together. Connecticut law still makes Congregational worship, Sabbath observance, ministry taxes, and moral discipline public matters.

## Law & power: A capital, narrowly governed

After 1701 the General Assembly always meets in Hartford[3], giving the town political weight beyond its size. Yet political power rests with approved male freemen, not with women, children, servants, enslaved people, or many poorer men.

## In the air: Schooling and lawful order

In 1700 Hartford adds town money to the colonial school levy[2], showing how reading, Latin, religion, and government reinforce one another. The same political world authorizes the Collegiate School in 1701[7].

## What people feared: War beyond the river

The decade opens under the memory of older frontier wars and then faces Queen Anne's War beginning in 1702. In daily life, the surrounding landscape still matters because the forest is hard to subdue[2].

## Home & table: Village near the meadows

People cluster because fertile meadows and adjoining uplands keep early Hartford near the village[2]. A quick search did not find a surviving street-by-street description of Hartford houses in 1700-1709.

## Who lived here: English town, Native ground

The town stands on Saukiog, Sickaog, or Suckiaug land[5]. Around it live or had recently lived Saukiogs, Podunks, and Tunxis people[5], while English settlers had made Hartford their town since 1635[5].

## Roads & news: River, court, and travelers

News arrives through public business because the General Assembly always meets in Hartford after 1701[3]. The river also matters: the earlier Dutch House of Hope trading post stood at Dutch Point on the Connecticut River[5][6].

## Year by year

- **1699** (here): The Connecticut General Assembly divided into an upper and a lower house.[4]
- **1700** (here): Hartford voted town money to support schooling alongside the colonial education levy.[2]
- **1701** (here): Hartford and New Haven became Connecticut's co-capitals, while the General Assembly continued to meet in Hartford.[3]
- **1701** (nearby): The Collegiate School, later Yale College, was authorized by Connecticut's legislature.[7]
- **1702** (the country): Queen Anne's War began, joining Connecticut's local anxieties to an imperial war against France and its allies.
- **1706** (here): Three fulling mills were operating in Hartford.[1]
- **1707** (the world): The Acts of Union created Great Britain from England and Scotland, a change colonial subjects would have heard named from across the Atlantic.
- **1707** (here): Hartford produced 17,000 yards of woolen cloth.[1]

## What the sources say

- Hartford was settled by an English party led by Thomas Hooker in 1635, after which the town name replaced the earlier 'Newtown.' (inferred)[5]
- The Native name for Hartford was Saukiog, also written Sickaog or Suckiaug. (inferred)[5]
- A nineteenth-century federal history said Suckiag meant 'black earth,' referring to the dark, rich soil along the river bank. (from the sources)[1]
- The Saukiogs lived in Hartford itself, with Podunks east of the Connecticut River and Tunxis people westward around Farmington. (inferred)[5]
- Hartford's First Church was organized at Cambridge in 1633, moved with the settlers, and had its first Hartford meetinghouse built in 1639. (from the sources)[1]
- In 1700 Hartford voted to add town money to the colonial school levy so that schools could be maintained for part of the year. (from the sources)[2]
- From 1701 to 1874 Connecticut had two capitals, Hartford and New Haven, but the General Assembly always met in Hartford. (from the sources)[3]
- Hartford County had been created in 1666, with Hartford serving as its shire town. (from the sources)[1]
- In 1699 the Connecticut General Assembly first divided into an upper and a lower house. (from the sources)[4]
- Hartford had three fulling mills by 1706, after the first recorded fulling mill there was established in 1690. (from the sources)[1]
- In 1707 Hartford made 17,000 yards of woolen cloth. (from the sources)[1]
- A Hartford County history says the fertile meadows and adjoining uplands helped keep early Hartford's people gathered near the village. (from the sources)[2]
- The same history says settlement spread slowly because the forest was still difficult to subdue. (from the sources)[2]
- The Dutch had earlier built the House of Hope trading post at Dutch Point on the Connecticut River, downstream from the English settlement. (from the sources)[5][6]
- Hartford lay on the Connecticut River, whose valley supported farming, inland exchange, and river movement before later roads and canals. (inferred)
- Most ordinary households in Hartford in the first decade of the 1700s would have mixed farming with household textile work, livestock care, woodcutting, and seasonal town labor. (inferred)
- Voting and officeholding in Connecticut were limited to approved male freemen, so women, children, servants, enslaved people, and many poorer men had no direct vote. (inferred)
- Connecticut law in this period still treated Congregational worship, Sabbath observance, taxation for ministry, and moral discipline as public matters. (inferred)
- No online source found in this quick search gives a reliable headcount for Hartford in exactly 1700. (not known)
- No online source found in this quick search gives ordinary Hartford wages, bread prices, or rent prices for 1700-1709. (not known)
- No online source found in this quick search gives a surviving street-by-street description of Hartford houses in 1700-1709. (not known)
- The Collegiate School, later Yale, was authorized by Connecticut's General Assembly in 1701. (from the sources)[7]
- Queen Anne's War began in 1702, making imperial war against France and its allies part of Connecticut's public world. (inferred)

## Sources

1. Report on the Social Statistics of Cities: Hartford, Conn.. United States Census Office, 1880. https://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1880a_v18-06.pdf
2. Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884. Connecticut General Assembly / reprint, 1886. https://www.cga.ct.gov/hco/books/Memorial_History_of_Hartford_County_1886.pdf
3. Connecticut's Capitals. Connecticut State Library. https://portal.ct.gov/csl/research/connecticuts-capitals
4. The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, Volume 1. Connecticut General Assembly / reprint, 1886. https://www.cga.ct.gov/hco/books/Memorial_History_of_Hartford_County_Vol_1_1886.pdf
5. History of Early Hartford. Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford. https://www.foundersofhartford.org/historic-hartford/history-of-early-hartford/
6. Reckoning with the Dutch: The Treaty of Hartford, 1650. ConnecticutHistory.org, 2019. https://connecticuthistory.org/reckoning-with-the-dutch-the-treaty-of-hartford-1650/
7. Connecticut Timeline. Connecticut General Assembly. https://prdext3.cga.ct.gov/asp/content/constitutions/HistoricDates.htm

## The same place in other decades

- [Hartford in the 1650s](https://yorehistory.com/place/hartford-hartford-county-connecticut/1650s/md)
- [Hartford in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/hartford-hartford-county-connecticut/1730s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Billerica, Massachusetts in the 1710s](https://yorehistory.com/place/billerica-massachusetts/1710s/md) (146 km)
- [Middleborough, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/middleborough-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1730s/md) (146 km)
- [Hillsborough County, New Hampshire in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/hillsborough-county-new-hampshire/1730s/md) (150 km)
- [Plympton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts in the 1710s](https://yorehistory.com/place/plympton-plymouth-county-massachusetts/1710s/md) (156 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-26 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Hartford in the 1700s", https://yorehistory.com/place/hartford-hartford-county-connecticut/1700s