Daniel Hubbard, of Haddam

Daniel Hubbard II (known in Haddam as Daniel Hubbard 1st) was born in Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut in 1673, to parents Daniel Hubbard and Mary Clark. The month of birth is illegible on period records, but the date was the 16th. Some researchers have decided on December as the month of birth; Connecticut's definitive Barbour Collection index plays it safe by only using the year.

Daniel was baptized July 20, 1674 at what would become known as Middletown's First Congregational Church. This is typical of early Middletown families, who often waited a year or more to baptize.

His mother, Mary Clark, died in 1673. From the will of her father, William Clark of Haddam, dated 30 June 1681:

"I give by Will unto my daughter Welles & to my daughter Fennoe & to my daughter Spencer 8 to each of them, and to my daughter Hannah 10. All these to be paid out of my Estate as prised with the Inventory. I give unto my son-in-law Daniel Hubbard 5 Shillings, & to my gr. Child Daniel Hubbard I do give 40 acres of Land in my second Division at Machamodus, and a 50 Freehold or Right in the Undivided Lands there as it is laid out to 50 Estate."

Daniel married twice, both times in Haddam, where he had settled in the land inherited above. On December 8, 1697, he married Susanna Bailey. On December 27, 1702, he married Bathsheba Howe, widow of John Stow, Jr.

The section of Haddam inhabited by the Hubbards became known as Ponsett. In Bygone Days in Ponsett-Haddam (1914), local historian William Clark Knowles described the homestead:

"Here stands a horse barn built by Cyrus A. Hubbard, said at one time to have been the finest building of its kind in New England. It is supposed to stand on, or near, the site of the first Hubbard house, where lived Daniel Hubbard, the progenitor of the Ponsett Hubbard family and one of the largest land-holders in the place. There is a question, however, whether this is the true site of the old house or site 47 [on Knowles' map]. Daniel Hubbard died in 1755 and was succeeded by his son Daniel, who became the father of nine sons, eight of them marrying and settling in the place and each rearing a large family. It is remarkable that at the present time there are none in Ponsett who bear the name of Hubbard. That this is where Daniel 2nd lived, seems the more probable, as Dr. Field, in his history of the Hubbard family, says that Daniel Hubbard's house 'stood near where his descendant Sylvester Hubbard now lives,' which is site 45 [on Knowles' map], and according to tradition the coffin of Temperance, the widow of Daniel Hubbard 2nd, was laid, probably at the time of her funeral, on the rock at the south, on which rests a large boulder."

Contrary to multiple FindAGrave listings, he is not buried at Old Ponset Cemetery in Haddam. According to the Haddam Historical Society, the first burial at Old Ponset was in 1762, and there is no Daniel Hubbard listed in its burial records, nor is there a stone present for him.

Sources

• Ancestry.com. Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
  • Name: Daniell Hubbard; Gender: Male; Birth Date: 1673; Birth Place: Middletown; Parent: Daniell; Parent: Mary.
• Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Church Record Abstracts, 1630-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: 2013.
  • Name: Daniell Hubbard; Father: Daniel Hubbard; Baptism Date: 20 Jul 1674; Baptism Place: Middletown, Connecticut, USA.
• Ancestry.com. Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.
  • Name: Daniel Hubbard; Marriage Date: 8 Dec 1697; Marriage Place: Haddam, Connecticut, USA; Spouse: Susanna.
  • Name: Daniel Hubbard; Marriage Date: 27 Dec 1702; Marriage Place: Haddam, Connecticut, USA; Spouse: Bathsheba.
• Knowles, William Clark. By Gone Days in Ponsett-Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut. Haddam, Conn., 1914.
  • p. 15 -- homeplace description. < link > Accessed 22 January 2020.
  • pp. 58-59 -- last will and testament. < link > Accessed 22 January 2020.