Crossing the Atlantic: Who? When? We now know that five Sanford brothers settled in Connecticut, but many details of their arrival are not certain. The brothers are:
- Thomas, the eldest, born about 1607 or 1608, arrived in Dorchester MA, then about 1640 settled in Milford. For everything we know of Thomas and several generations of his descendants, click here.
- Robert, born about 1615, settled in Hartford, perhaps in the late 1630s.
- Andrew, born 1617, settled in Hartford, then moved to Milford after his first wife was executed for witchcraft.
- Zachary, born about 1625, may have been a cousin, not brother, settled in Saybrook in the 1640s.
- Nathaniel, born about 1627, settled in Hartford, probably in the late 1640s.
Here's my best effort at pulling together the facts and the reasonable conjectures.
It is likely that Thomas Sanford sailed under the protection of his mother's brother, uncle Andrew Warner, and that the two came in 1631 or 1632 on the same sailing of the Arabella -- a ship which apparently made a number of crossings. Thomas found plenty of work -- among other things, he had contracts during several summers to herd the town's cows, he had applied for a piece of land, and in 1637 he had become a Freeman -- a full citizen. (I have gone back and forth over the question of whether Thomas's younger brother Andrew came across at the same time, and different parts of this account may be inconsistent depending on which way I was leaning when I wrote a part. Now it seems most likely that Andrew would have come later, after he reached maturity -- 21 -- perhaps in the company of another brother.)
We don't know exactly what Andrew Warner was doing in Boston, but he was made Freeman in 1634, so he must have established hmself pretty solidly. This somehow was not enough for him, and he may already have been having difficulties with the authorities (see next page, Religion, for more on this), for he was apparently with the first wave of settlers who moved west with the Rev. Thomas Hooker in 1636 to establish Hartford, on the Connecticut River, on land they purchased from the local Indians.
Robert Sanford, probably accompanied by his younger brother Andrew, may have come from England just couple of years later; he joined Andrew Warner in Hartford (or may have arrived early enough to accompany Uncle Andrew on the initial migration to Hartford). (It may be that his brother Thomas told him that Dorchester, and the Boston area generally, was filling up, and all the best land and jobs were already taken.)
Just as Thomas was becoming well established in Dorchester, why did he move again? There are several possibilities; any or all might be true. First, his wife had died, and he might have wanted to get away from sad memories. Second, he may have seen limited opportunities for himself and his family, even though he was now a landowner and a citizen. Third, he may have heard glowing tales of the vast tracts of fertile land to the west. And fourth, though he was undoubtedly a devout church member, he may have begun to find the Puritan government oppressive. Since he left no written account, we don't know for sure. But by the time he was ready to make his move, the Hartford area too was beginning to fill up, but, among the other new settlements (existing or planned), there was Milford, about forty miles southwest of Hartford. He may have traveled there briefly in 1639, returned home, and moved with his family (he had by now re-married) a year or two later. Most certainly they traveled on the Great Indian Trail, stayed with his brothers and uncle in Hartford, then may have followed overland trails to the coast, perhaps reaching New Haven and then bearing west the few miles to Milford.
Zachary and Nathaniel Sanford, just boys when their older brother Thomas emigrated, probably emigrated themselves when they reached adulthood, perhaps lured by tales of wonderful opportunity. Nathaniel opted to settle in Hartford, perhaps in order to be close to two brothers and his uncle Andrew Warner. Zachary (also called Zachariah) was apparently more adventurous. He may have made the circuit from Boston to Hartford, but then continued southeast down the Connecticul River to its mouth at Long Island Sound to help found Saybrook (the restored remains of which, now called Old Saybrook Center, are just across the river from present-day Old Lyme).
The Great Connecticut Indian Trail We have grown up with the notion that America was vast, wild, and empty when our ancestors arrived. "Empty" ? Largely so, because before each wave of settlers arrived, they were preceded by a wave of European diseases, everything from flu to smallpox, which reduced the Indians to a tattered remnant.
"Wild"? Not very. Prior to white settlement, most of America had been filled with thriving communities --empires, some of them -- all linked by vast trading networks which used well-worn trails.
So our ancestors found lots of cleared lands, recently abandoned fields, and wide smooth roadways.
One of these trails, which they called the Great Connecticut Indian Trail, followed a general west-southwest direction from Boston to Hartford. Settlers first learned of it because Indians traveled the trail to bring corn to Boston to sell or trade. You can find it by Googling the Boston Post Road, which was actually three roads linking Boston to New York. Coming from New York, all three followed the Connecticut coast to the Connecticut River. Then the southern route continued east along the coast before turning due north to Boston. The middle route went up the Connecticut River to Hartford, then swung east-north-east to Boston. The northern route continued farther north from Hartford, then swung east toward Boston. The middle route fairly faithfully follows the Great Indian Trail.
When Andrew Warner and his nephew Andrew Sanford followed this route, it was probably in the company of 50-60 adult pioneers, numerous children, over 100 cattle, and 20 or 30 oxcarts, not to mention dogs, chickens, etc. The 100-mile trek probably took about a week, depending on weather.
Here is a map of the three routes of the Boston Post Road -- southern, middle, and northern -- with the Connecticut Indian Trail, a big part of the middle route, marked in red.
