Joseph Hawley (captain)

The Hawleys were very prominent in the early history of the Colony of Connecticut covering a period of eighty years, members of the family had been seventy times elected to the assembly.

[4] The Hawley Record of 1890 states that Joseph arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, around 1629 or 1630 along with Thomas and Robert, who spelled their last name Haule.

Hawley married his second wife, Katherine Birdseye, in 1646 and moved to Stratford, Connecticut with his young children Samuel and Joseph.

The Hawleys raised eight children in Stratford; Samuel, Joseph Jr., Elizabeth, Ebenezer, Hannah, Ephraim, John and Mary.

[7] His name appears in the deed that purchased a vast amount of land from the Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation on 22 April 1662 which comprised most of the nearby towns of Trumbull, Monroe and Shelton.

Hawley's purchase of land from the Indians that comprises the present-day town of Derby, Connecticut, caused much controversy at the time.

After the court's decision, many families left Stratford and followed Lt. Joseph Judson to Woodbury, Connecticut, to create their own settlement and church.