John Stanley

   Another name for John was Deacon John.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Moved, 1678, Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut. ⁵³⁹ Eldest son of Captain John and Sarah (Scott) Stanley, born in Hartford, November 4, 1647, settled in Farmington, but removed with others about 1678 to the new settlement at Mattatuck (Waterbury), taking a hundred pound right, where he became of the the foremost citizens. "He was," says Bronson, "one of he assigness to whom the first Indian grant of lands was made over, and a grantee by name in the subsequent deeds. He was more than any other man, with the exception of Thomas Judd, senior, the ruling spirit and father of the settlement. He laid out the lots of the proprietors, staked out and apportioned the common fences, located highways, settled boundaries of adjoining towns, etc. He was the first Recorder of the town and of the proprietors. So far as appears, he was the only person among the earliest proporietors of Mattatuck who was fully qualified for the office. He wrote a legible and business-like hand."

He was a sergeant in the Waterbury train-band in April, 1682, and afterwards, so long as no higher officer was permitted. In October 1689, when a lieutenant was allowed, he was first selected for that office. His appointment was confirmed by the Assembly; it was a distingquished honor, and no doubt he bore it worthily. After Waterbury began to send a representative to the General Court, Lieutenant Stanley was the second whose name is recorded. What persuaded him to quit the settlement, in a time of great affliction it is not possible to say. His loss must have been seriously felt. He returned to Farmington early in 1695, where he was a deacon in 1711 and afterwards. He, however, retained most of his lands in Waterbury, and his proprietor-right, and was a frequent visitor to the town to look after his estate. His familiarity with the records of the town was the cause of his appointment in 1705 to copy, for the purposes of preservation, such portions as were most important. He was appointed justice of the peace for Hartford County in May 1704.

His dwelling house in Wterbury was at the eastern end of the public square, near where the second Congregational Church now stands. He married, November 18, 1669, Esther daughter of Thomas Newell of Farmington. In June 22, 1728, he made a settlement of his estate, by which the sons, Samuel, Nathaniel, John and Timothy, took upon themselves the support of their father, mother, and their uncle Isaac. John died the next year on May 16, 1729. His widow died at the house of her son Nathaniel in Farmington on January 29, 1740

• lived: Farmington, Connecticut, until 1678. Stanley-Whitman House

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Farmington, Connecticut, along with agriculture, is well known for its early New England architecture. The Stanley-Whitman House at 37 High Street is one of the best known examples of early New England framed architecture.



As with many colonial houses, the Stanley-Whitman house has a complicated history, and few documents. It was probably first constructed in the 1660s, but substantially enlarged, including the whole rear half (the lean-to), after 1700. The house was sold in 1720 by John Stanley Senior, son of Captain John Stanley, one of the founders of Farmington, to Captain Ebenezer Steel (according to N. Isham and A.F. Brown, Early Connecticut Houses). It was later sold to the Whitman family.

The house has been dated to 1660, with the lean-to from 1760 (Styles and Types of North American Architecture, 1992). The house was extensively restored in 1934, with a modern museum wing added at that time.

(See Scrapbook)

John married Esther Newell, daughter of Thomas Newell and Rebecca Olmstead, on 18 Nov 1699 in Farmington, Connecticut. (Esther Newell was born in 1652, christened in Jul 1652 and died on 29 Jan 1740 in Farmington, Connecticut.)