Person:George Stocking (1)

George was granted land at Cambridge on 4 August 1634 and became a freeman there on 6 May 1635. He soon removed to Hartford, where he owned eight parcels by 1639.

In his will, dated 15 July 1673 but not proved, “George Stockinge of Hartforde …, planter,” bequeathed to “Anne my wife all my housing, barn, orchards, homelot, upland, meadow and swamp land, cattle and all my other estate for her to use during the time of her life and after her decease to be disposed of as followeth”: to “my daughter Liddia Richards, the wife of John Richards, the sum of fifteen pounds”; to “my daughter Sarah Olcott, the wife of Samuell Olcott, the sum of ten pounds”; to “the six children of Andrew Benton Senior, that is to Andrew Benton Junior, John Benton, Samuell Benton, Joseph Benton, Mary Benton and Dorothy Benton, the sum of twelve pounds to be equally divided among them”; “to “Hanna Campe one mare”; residue to “my son Samuell Stockinge, both housing, land, and what ever else is not given away before”; “my son Samuell Stockinge [to be] executor”; “all my land shall pay according to its proportion to the maintenance of the ministry at the new meeting house at Hartford”; “my two friends Gregory Wolterton and Lieutenant Thomas Bull to see this my will performed” [CT Arch, Private Controversies, 2:96; Manwaring 1:241].

On 11 November 1682, George Stocking drafted a document, never signed or witnessed, intended to replace the will written on 15 July 1673: “The land that my son Sam[ue]ll Stocking & his son Samuel hath taken in & improved of the west side the great river at Midleton I do give it to them & their heirs forever & the one-third of the rest of all the land that did fall to me in Midleton I do reserve to my dispose & that land that Thomas Stoe & Sam[ue]ll Stocking have fenced in it shall be to them & their heirs forever. To John Stocking I give my eleven acres of meadow in Hartford south meadow & so much as shall be convenient to build to extend from the highway to the fence that thwarts my lot at the barn end & the five acres more or less that lies next that land I gave Sam[ue]ll Benton I give to John Stocking it lies near the wolf pound. The rest of my homelot I give to my grandsons Georg[e] & Ebenezer Stocking I say the remainder of my homelot & house & barn to be equally divided to them & my land at Midleton I give to my grandchildren that have not nothing given by this my will to be so divided between them that no child of them may have above 20 acres upon which they may settle themselves & build cottages. I confirm to John Richards that acre of meadow land I gave him. My daughters shall have portions of lands with my grandchildren” [CT Arch, Private Controversies, 2:97].

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10} George Stocking, in Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011)
   6:540-45.

   ORIGIN: Unknown.
   MIGRATION: 1634 (on the basis of a land grant at Cambridge on 4 August 1634 [CaTR 9].
   OCCUPATION: Planter [Manwaring 1:241].
   CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to Cambridge church prior to 6 May 1635 implied by freemanship.
   FREEMAN: 6 May 1635 (fourth in a sequence of eight Cambridge men) [MBCR 1:370].
   BIRTH: By about 1602 (based on estimated date of marriage). (By this estimation, George Stocking would have been about fifty-eight years old when relieved of military training [CCCR 1:348].)
   DEATH: 25 May 1683 [Hartford Probate 4 (probate):137; CT Arch, Private Controversies, 2:99].