Samuel Porter

Father of Experience Porter, and one of the first settlers of Hadley. A son of John Porter of Windsor, Connecticut, born in England, he married Hannah, daughter of Thomas Stanley of Hartford, and went up the river to the new town of Hadley, where he "was among the first settlers" and died on 6 Sept 1689 (source). He came to own his father-in-law's home lot there: "Samuel Porter owned Thomas Stanley's lot, and his son Samuel lived on it in 1686." Stiles calls him the ancestor of the Hadley Porters (source).

Their children, as Judd gives them: Samuel (1660), a child who died at birth (1662), Thomas (1663, died an infant), Hezekiah (1665), John (1666), Hannah (1670, Mrs. John Nash), Mehitable (1673, Mrs. Nathaniel Goodwin), Experience (1676), Ichabod (1678), Nathaniel (1680) and Thomas (about 1683). The eldest, the Hon. Samuel Porter, "at one time Representative, an extensive trader with England, and afterwards Judge and Sheriff of the County," left at his death in 1722 "an immense estate of over £10,000."

King Philip's War. Hadley was the army's headquarters in the valley through much of the war; "Soldiers were frequently crossing the river, sometimes by hundreds" (History of Hadley, p. 184), and on 12 June 1676, just after the Connecticut army under Major Talcott had come in, the town was attacked (pp. 170-171). The wounded were brought there, and Samuel Porter looked after them. On 16 Sept 1676 the General Court recorded that "Samuel Porter, of Hadley, hauing expended & disbursed considerable sumes on the countrys account, & p[ar]ticularly hauing taken care of most of the wounded souldjers at Hadley, for their prouission & comfort laying out of his oune money, & borrowing mony to procure necessarjes for them," was owed, by his own account, "neere two hundred pounds"; at his "earnest desire that a smale p[ar]t of his due may be at present allowed him," the Court ordered the Treasurer to pay him "twenty fiue pounds for the present" (Records of Massachusetts Bay 5:116-117; Judd p. 184). Hannah bore their son Experience at Hadley on 5 Aug 1676 (Judd, genealogies, p. 112). A "Mr. John Porter," probably Samuel's brother, is on the list of Windsor troopers "in actual service" who were paid "on war account" (History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, 1:221; Soldiers in King Philip's War, p. 468).

Research: Patricia Hatten's Browne–Chapin side: the pedigree, notable ancestors and famous kin; the war: King Philip's War: the Connecticut valley, the Colony of Connecticut, Long Island and New Paltz.

Open questions

• Whether the rest of his account, nearly £200, was paid (Massachusetts Archives; the Treasurer's accounts).