"4. John Hart, of Farmington, eldest son of Deacon Stephen Hart, of Braintree, Eng., Cambridge Mass., Hartford and Farmington, Conn., born ____, in England, married ____ Sarah _____. They resided in Farmington, where he was made a freeman by the General Court, at their May session, 1654. Sarah, his wife, joined the church at Farmington, Oct. 19th, 1653; he was admitted to the church. April 2d, 1654. He was one of the first settlers of Tunxis, and bought his house lot of the original owners, and among the list of the eighty-four proprietors of 1672, is numbered the 'Estate of John Hart.' At the October session of the General Court in 1660, a committee was raised to examine 'Thirty Mile Island,' with the view of settlement, when John Hart, of Farmington, was elected one of said committee. His sad and untimely death occurred on this wise, viz.: his house, which was located near the center of the village, was fired in the night by Indians, and he and all his family, with the exception of his eldest son, John, who was that night at Nod, or Northington, since called Avon, looking after the stock on a farm they owned there, perished in the flames, What aggravated the public calamity was the burning of the town records, at the same time. The General Court made diligent search among the Tunxis tribe for the incendiaries, but this neither restored life nor records. This fire occurred, 1666."
