FATHER

John Bronson

MOTHER

Frances Hills

WIFE

Mary Roote

CHILDREN

1. Isaac Bronson b. 1670

2. Lt. John Bronson b. 1673

3. Samuel Bronson b. 1676

4. Mary Bronson b. 15 Oct 1680

5. Joseph Bronson b. 1682

6. Thomas Bronson b. 16 Jan 1685

7. Ebenezer Bronson christened. 08 Apr 1689

8. Sarah Bronson b. 15 Nov 1691

9. Mercy Bronson b. 29 Sep 1694

Isaac Bronson
by Susan Brooke
Sep 2021

Isaac Bronson was probably born in Nov 1645 in Farmington.  He was baptized in Hartford by Rev. Thomas Hooker on 7 Dec 1645. (1) He married Mary Root about 1669.  (2) In 1674 several men from Farmington became interested in the land 33 miles southwest of Hartford. The Algonquin name for the land was "Matetacoke" meaning "place without trees." In the General Court of 18 May 1674 it was spelled "Mattatuck."  The original settlement was a Town Plot section, and Isaac Bronson was one of the original patentees.  The 34 men (all but 4 from Farmington) were given till May 1680 to comply or forfeit title to the land.  By 1681 Isaac Bronson and his wife and four children were settled on their four acre lot. (3) The name of the town was changed on 15 May 1686, to Waterbury because of all the streams flowing into the Naugatuck River.
He was appointed corporal of the trainband in 1689 and became a sergeant in 1695. He served as deputy in May, 1697, and October, 1701, and held a number of other public offices such as school committeeman, town surveyor, etc., at different times. In 1714 he deeded half his homestead to his youngest son Ebenezer with the condition his son care for him and his wife. Four years later his son Thomas and son-in-law Thomas Hickox assumed that responsibility.  (4)
Isaac Bronson died on 19 February 1719/20. An inventory of the estate was presented to the court on 29 February 1919/20, by Mr. Isaac Bronson, his son, with an agreement among the heirs as to its settlement. They gave bonds for the support of the widow. The oldest son was to have £7 more than the other sons, and the latter £7 more than the daughters, eight in all. The amount distributed was £386. Thomas Clark and John Richards were appraisers of the estate. (5) Mary Root Bronson died soon after the death of her husband. 

Sources

(1) Hartford Vital Records (Barbour Collection)

(2) Will of John Root
 She is listed as "my daughter Mary, the wife of Isaac Bronson" when they are mentioned in her father's Will, April 22, 1684.

(3) Our Bronson Family

Anderson, in his History of Waterbury (p. 173) included a prosetic tour of the village of “Mattatuck as a Plantation” as it was in 1681, and has this to say about Isaac:

... The reliable Isaac Bronson. He is a man who seems in all ways to have been faithful to his promises, building on his four-acre lot [in Farmington] in time, and “according to articles,” and therefore not afraid to enter complaints against others. Isaac is thirty-five years of age. His wife is Mary, the daughter of John Root of Farmington. Their children are: Isaac, age 11 years, John, age 8 years, Samuel, age 5 years, Mary, age 1 year.

(4) History of Waterbury by Henry Bronson, 1858  page 140

When it was necessary to provide for his declining years, Isaac deeded half of his homestead and properties to his youngest son, Ebenezer, on condition as follows:

Know ye that I Isack brounson senr. (&c.) in consideration of my son ebenezer brounson hoo now liues with me finding with me and my wife mary brounson with a sutable and comfortable mantenance and taking the whole care of us both while we liue, both in siknes and in helth I say for and in consideration here of, I do giue and grant to my well beloueed ebenezer brounson (& c.) the one half of my hom lot upon which my dwelling hous now stands which land is esteemed two acres and a half be it more or less as it lies buted and bounded south on samuell standley east on John brounson west on highway north on the remainder of my homsted. Then my whole right in the lot he bought of John Warner.

The instrument is dated 23 June 1714, signed by a mark, probably due to feeble health as he had, in better days, a fair hand for the times, as seen in the old proprietors book when he served sometimes as clerk.

Several years later, on 2 December 1718, Ebenezer relinquished his interest in his father’s homestead, and his brother Thomas, and brother-in-law Thomas Hickox, in consideration of five acres of land on the Farmington road being the Taylor lot, valued at £8 received of Ebenezer, and he assumed the care of his father and mother. On the same day the father deeded one acre of his home lot to Ebenezer, “that he may be sutably rewarded and encouraged for what he has done for us.” 

(5) Connecticut Wills and Probate Records