Joseph Hawley Back  to home page:
Last Revised November 2003
Email Spendlove Genealogy
The following from:

*http://www.familylineage.com/colonial_trees/hawleytree_2.html    Also see The Hawley Family Organization

Note: The Hawley family has been fully written up by Mr. Elias Hawleyin a large tome, "The Hawley Record." The English ancestry of his family is expounded back to 1006 A. D., with illustrations and coats-of-arms. The first to come to America was Mr. JosephHawley, who resided at Stratford, Connecticut, as early as 1629.  He was the first town recorder of that place as well as magistrate. He owned several thousand acres of land in in and around Stratford, and was returned to the General Assembly as as Deputy twenty-nine times between the years 1658-1687. His wife was Catharine Birdseye.

JOSEPH1 HAWLEY of Parwich, in Derbyshire, about nine miles
northwest of Old Derby, and four miles from Ashbourne, came to America
in 1629 or 1630. That he had a homestead in England is indicated by his
will in which he says, "I give to my sonn Samuel Hawley all my lands and
buildings in Parwidge in Darbyshere in Old England, to him, his heirs and
assigns."

Joseph Hawley was born in 1603, and died May 20, 1690. He was a
"yoeman"; he was the first town recorder at Stratford ,Connecticut, and
wrote the earliest land records that are still in existence in Stratford; in the
tax list of the town in 1671 his tax was next to the largest; he was Town
Clerk or "Recorder" from 1650 to 1666; was Treasurer of Stratford; was
chosen by the town several years to "keep an ordinary"; served on
committees to survey lands and adjust boundaries; in 1687 was one
committee to draft a "Patent" for the town; was elected twentynine times as
Deputy to the General Assembly of Connecticut(*) (election twice a year)
serving from 1665 to 1687; was appointed "Commissioner" for Stratford;
and held church offices.
In 1646 he married Katharine Birdsey who died June 25, 1692 .Births of all their children except Samuel are entered on
Stratford records.

NOTE:--A granite memorial to Joseph Hawley, pioneer ancestor, was
erected in the Congregational cemetery at Stratford in 1924 by
the
Society of the Hawley Family.
(*)During eighty consecutive years, four members of the Hawley
family--Joseph,
Sr., his sons Samuel and John, and his grandson Capt.Joseph--were
elected seventy times to the Connecticut Legislature.