1040–1041.  Thomas Hurlbut was born in England on Monday, March 26, 1610, and died in Wethersfield Settlement (Connecticut). His wife was Sarah _____ He is the son of Richard and Ann (Bower) Hurlbut. They had six children:

From History of Ancient Wethersfield, pages 442–4, via John Hurlburt's web site, is taken the following.

He came across the Atlantic, it is supposed, in the year 1635, as a sailor with Lion Gardiner, who built and commanded the fort at Saybrook, Ct.

Lion Gardiner, was an Englishman, and by profession an engineer and had been in Holland in the service of the Prince of Orange. Gardiner was had been engaged by the proprietors of the Connecticut Patent, issued by Charles II to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brooke and others, who were granted a large tract of territory on the banks of the Connecticut River, to erect a fortification at its mouth. Gardiner embarked at London in the 'Bachilor', of 25 tons, on August 11, 1635, with his wife, female servant and eleven male passengers. After a long and tempestuous voyage, arrived at Boston on the 28th of November. Gov. Winthrop, however, told that Gardiner sailed in a 'Norsey Barque', (a fishing vessel of the coast of Norway), on July 10, 1635. It is supposed that Thomas Hurlbut was one of the eleven passengers, but who his parents were or where he was born, we have yet to learn. Yet we may be pretty confident that his birth occurred as early as the year 1610. (the Hurlbut Genealogy speculates that he was a native of Scotland).

Thomas, while at Saybrook, was in an encounter with the Pequot Indians in 1637, and was wounded by an arrow. This appears in a letter of Lion Gardiner, written in June of 1660, some 23 years after the skirmish with the Indians, addressed to Robert Chapman and Thomas Hurlbut, detailing incidents regarding the Pequot War. Capt. Gardiner said that Robert Chapman, Thomas Hurlbut and Major Mason urged him to write the letter, 'and having rummaged and found some old papers then written, it was a great help to my memory.' The document laid in manuscript until 1833 (173 years) when it was printed in Vol 3, 3rd Ser. of the Mass. Historical Society Coll. The following is an extract.

In the 22d of February, I went out with ten Men and three Dogs Half a Mile from the House (Fort), to burn the weeds, Leaves and Reeds upon the Neck of the Land, because we had felled twenty trees, which we were to roll to the Waterside to bring home, every Man carrying a Length of Match with rimstone-matches with him to kindle the Fire withal. But when we came to the small of the Neck, the Weeds burning, I have before this set two Sentinels on the small of the Neck, I called to the Men that were burning the the Reeds to come away, but they would not until they had burnt up the rest of their Matches. Presently there starts up four Indians out of the fiery Reeds, but they ran away, I called too the rest of our Men to come away out of the Marsh. Then Robert Chapman and Thomas Hurlbut, being Sentinels, called to me, saying there came a Number of Indians out of the other side of the Marsh. Then I went to stop them, that they should not get to the Woodland; but Thomas Hurlbut cried out to me that some of the Men did not follow me, for Thomas Rumble and Arthur Branch threw down their two Guns and ran away; then the Indians shot two of them that were in the Reeds, and sought to get between us and Home, but durst not come before us, but kept us in a Half moon, we retreating and exchanging many a Shot, so that Thomas Hurlbut was shot almost through the Thigh, John Spencer in the back into his Kidneys, myself into the Thigh, two more shot dead. But in our Retreat, I kept Hurlbut and Spencer still before us, we defending ourselves with our naked Swords, or else they had taken us all alive, so that the two sore wounded Men, by our slow Retreat, got home with their Guns, when our two sound Men ran away and left their Guns behind them.' The HULBERT FAMILY Genealogy, compiled by Dorothy Russ Taylor, adds this; 'I resolved to let them draw lots which of them should be hanged (for the articles did hang up in the hall for all to read), and they (Rumble and Branch) knew they had been published. But at the intercession of old Mr. Mitchell, Mr.Higgison and Mr.Pell, I did forbear.

Gardiner does not mention his estimate of the number of the assailants, but Underwood, in his History, say there were 'a hundred or more.'

Thomas Hurlbut was by trade a blacksmith, and after the war with the Pequots, he located and established himself in business at Wethersfield, Ct., and was one of the early settlers, as well as the first blacksmith. A single extract from the Colonial Records would seem to indicate that he was a good workman and charged a good price for his work: 'March 2, 1642. Tho: Hurlbut for exacting and incouridgeing others to take excessiue Rats for Worke and Ware is adiudged to pay to the Country 40s.' But this fine appears to have been 'respited' February 5, 1643. 'Tho: Hurlbut his ffyne is respited vppon Peter Bassakers tryall to make nayles wth lesse losse and at as cheape a Rate, then he is to duble the ffyne, otherwise to be quit.'

He seems to have been a man of good standing in the community. He was Clerk of the 'Train Band' in 1640, Deputy to the General Court, Grand Juror and also Constable in 1644. It appears on the records that he received various tracts of land in several divisions of the Town, which were recorded together in 1647. In 1660, the Town of Wethersfield granted Thomas Hurlbut Lot 39, one of the 'four score acre lots' (in Naubuc, east side of the river), which he afterward sold to Thomas Hollister. For his services in the Indian wars, the Assembly voted him a grant of 120 acres of land on October 12, 1671. It is supposed that Thomas died soon after the last date, as no evidence appears that the land was set off to him during his life. In that early day of the Colony, land was plenty and cheap, and no attempt appears to have been made to avail himself of the bounty, nor even by his sons. it was not until 1694, on the petition of John Hurlbut Jr., of middletown, a grandson of the settler and soldier, that it was set off.

The 'Particular Court' record also shows another side of our emigrant forefather; ' 1645, Samuel Hale for his mysdemeanor by excesse in drinkeing is ffyned twenty nobles. 'Tho: Hurlbut for the like is ffyned 4. 'Elias Trotte for accompaning the and drawing wyne wthout liberty is ffyned 40 'Will Crosse for houcing wyne sould in his howse wthout lycence is ffyned 40.' I would guess it paid for Thomas to have been the Constable the year before.

It is told, and the tradition is not an unreasonable to credit, that the house in Wethersfield, where Miss Harriet Mitchell resided in 1888, stands upon the site of the dwelling of the first Hurlbut who lived in the settlement.(She was the sixth generation from Thomas) That house, as tradition gives, had particular attractions for the Indians, whether with the purpose to inspect the architecture of the edifice, or to get a view of the owner, for he had been an Indian fighter formerly, it cannot be said. But often, when in the village, they were to be seen looking curiously in at the windows.

• Stiles, Henry R., History of Ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut, The Grafton Press, New York, 1904
• Index to the Colonial American Genealogical Library, LDS
• Hulbert, Henry Carlton, The Hulbert Family 1305 — With the ancestry of Walter Hubbard, Thomas Hulbert, William Hulbert and their connection with early emigrants to The New World