Individual Details

From Families of Early Milford, Connecticut: "Stephen Freeman was an after planter in 1658 having lot #11, 2 acres, on West River Street near present school. He was admitted to the church 25 February 1648. He married Hannah Astwood dau of Capt. John. She married/2 Robert Porter. Admitted [Hannah] to the church in Milford 17 September 1653. They later removed to Newark, N.J. In the Milford land records for 8 October 1674 is the following "Stephen Freeman of Newrke in ye prov of New Jersey in New Netherland" sells his Milford land."
From the Freeman Families of New England, about 1645 in Milford, New Haven, Connecticut. He arrived in Milford, probably from England.
In the History of Milford, Connecticut, 1639 - 1939, he is listed as a lot owner in 1646 in the original Milford town plot. Also listed in this book is a Burton A. Freeman; to date an unknown connection (2008).
From the Genealogical Dictionary, "STEPHEN, Milford 1646, then had house lot, but did not bec. inhab. until 1658, rem. prob. to Newark, N. J. in few yrs. where Thomas Judd of Waterbury m. 1688, his d. Sarah; and perhaps he came back to Conn. and his wid. Hannah may have m. Robert Porter of Farmington."
On 25 February 1648 in Milford, New Haven, Connecticut, he was admitted to the Milford Church.
In 1658 in Milford, New Haven, Connecticut. He was listed as one of the 'after planters' (those who acquired property in Milford after the first group of settlers), Lot Number 11, 2 acres, on West River Street.
In 1667 in Newark, Essex, New Jersey, he removed from Milford to Newark as one of the founding settlers. His first resident town lot was Southeast Section J.
On 28 February 1672/1673 in Newark, Essex, New Jersey, he was chosen with Lieut. Swain to arrange for the burning of the woods in the middle of town.
On 4 August 1673 in Newark, Essex, New Jersey, he was nominated as one of the town magistrates.
On 29 November 1673 in Newark, Essex, New Jersey, he was one of a group who received a patent on a tract of land near Newark.
On 19 March 1673/1674 in Newark, Essex, New Jersey, he was chosen to be one of the Town's Men.
On 10 August 1674 in Newark, Essex, New Jersey, he was nominated for magistrate and assigned to treaty with the Indians about buying land above the town.
In the Milford land records for 8 October 1674 is the following "Stephen Freeman of Newrke in ye prov of New Jersey in New Netherland" sells his Milford land.
On 28 April 1675 in Newark, Essex, New Jersey, he was one of seven chosen as the Town's Men for the year.
He died between 14 June 1675 and 10 September 1675 in Newark, Essex, New Jersey. By 10 September 1675 a deed described land as bounded by that of widow Freeman.


English origin and arrival in New England Stephen Freeman was an "after planter" (one of those who arrived early, but not one of the first settlers) at Milford, Connecticut about 1645. He owned lot number 11, consisting of two acres, on West River Street. Although his English birthplace has not been determined, it is known that Milford was settled largely by people from Hertfordshire. His birth year can be estimated. He probably was at least 21 years of age at the time of his arrival, making his birth year no later than 1624. As he married in 1653 and had seven children between 1654 and 1669, he probably would have been no more than 35 years of age in 1653, making his birth year no earlier than 1618. Thus it appears reasonable that he was born between 1618 and 1624.
Milford was an entirely independent colony from its founding in 1639 until 1644 when it united with several other towns to form the New Haven Republic. The latter was dissolved in 1664 and became part of the Connecticut Colony in 1665.
Many of the settlers in New Haven Colony did not agree with the merging of New Haven into Connecticut. As early as 1661 Robert Treat and Jasper Crane of the New Haven Colony began negotiations with Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of the colony of New Netherland to acquire the right for the disaffected New Haven Colony population to relocate to the Dutch colony. During this time the Connecticut and New Haven factions grew more estranged.

Establishment of New Jersey as an English colony
Then, in 1664, the newly restored English monarch, Charles II, gave to his brother, James, Duke of York and Albany, the colony of New Netherland, the land between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers, including certain territories on Long Island. The duke sent a fleet that took the surrender of New Netherland to the English in September 1664. A war between England and the Netherlands ensued and it was not until the Treaty of Breda in August 1667 that England finally secured control of the former Dutch colony, which included land now in New Jersey.
The Duke of York executed deeds of lease and release to two of the staunchest defenders of the crown, Lord John Berkeley, Baron of Stutton, and Sir George Carteret of Saltrum in Devon, of all New Jersey, including Staten Island. They, in turn, signed a constitution, intended to attract settlers to New Jersey, called “The Concessions and Agreement of the Lords Proprietors of Nova Caesarea or New Jersey, to and with all of the adventurers and all such as shall settle and plant there.” It provided “liberty of conscience” as long as it was not used “to licentiousness, to the civil injury, or outward disturbance of others.” The Concessions also allowed settlers the right to choose an assembly of twelve representatives who would deal with taxes, laws, forts and militias, land apportionment, naturalization of immigrants and right of appeal of the Governor's or Council's action to the Lords Proprietor through assembly.

Founding of Newark by colonists from Connecticut
Stephen Freeman served on a committee on behalf of the people of Milford, Guiiford, and Branford to investigate and report on the “Town Plotts on the Pesayick (Passaic] River with a view to settlement. In the spring of 1666 thirty families from Milford were the first settlers of Newark, the first town meeting being held on 21 May 1666. On 30 October 1666 he was one of the signers of the Fundamental Agreement whereby residents of the three Connecticut towns agreed to remove to East Jersey colony.
On 24 June 1667, on board one of several ships lying near Elizabethtown in the Colony of East Jersey, Stephen Freeman was one of 41 men who signed an agreement among the settlers from Milford, Guilford, and Branford to form one common township, which became Newark, New Jersey. The agreement specified that the town was to be governed by members of the Congregational Church. Newark was named in honor of Newark on Trent, England, the birthplace of the Reverend Abraham Pierson, minister of the church at Branford, which was transferred to the new settlement and became the First Church of Newark.
In the first division of land on 24 June 1667, Stephen Freeman drew lot number 8. His first lot consisted of six and one half acres on the south side of Market Street, below Mulberry Street. In the first valuation of Newark estates in the same year, his land was rated at £400, compared to the average of £226. On 6 February 1667/1668, during the first division of uplands in the Neck, he drew lot number 8. By 3 December 1669 he was granted permission to move his lot “nearer homeward” by exchanging tracts of land, provided that he was to give back to the town as much land as he took up for his new lot.
On 29 November 1673, Governor Colve granted a patent to Stephen Freeman and six others “for themselves and the inhabitants of New Work (N.J.) of a plantation heretofore belonging to major Nathaniel Kingsland of Barbadoes in the Caribees, being two-thirds of a neck of land at Achter Coll, between the rivers Pessayack and Hackingsack, extending from the point opposite New Work to the fall opposite Espatin...“.

His will and estate
His will was proved on 22 October 1675 at Newark. He mentioned his wife, Hannah; son Samuel; and daughters Hannah, Mary, Martha, and Sarah. On 22 October 1675, the inventory of his estate showed a value of £554-19s-4d. Administration was granted to his widow, Hannah. As late as 1715 there appears to have been some rights to property in Connecticut that remained with the heirs of Stephen Freeman or John Astwood. On 4 March 1714/1715, Samuel Freeman, Stephen Brown, and John Brown, all of Newark; and Deacon Samuel Porter and his wife Martha, of Farmingtofl, Connecticut; and Deacon Thomas Judd and his wife Sarah, of Waterbury, Connecticut, gave a conveyance of property to Ezekiel Stone of Miiford, Connecticut. The grantors were the only son of Stephen Freeman, his two surviving daughters and their husbands, and the sons and representatives of the two Freeman daughters who married Brown brothers."

Birth	1608	England
Marriage	Abt 1653	Hannah ASTWOOD
Death	1675	Newark, Essex County, New Jersey

Spouse	Hannah ASTWOOD (1636 - 1738)
Child	Samuel FREEMAN (1662 - 1738)
Child	Hannah FREEMAN ( - )
Child	Living ( - )
Child	Living ( - )
Child	Living ( - )
Child	John FREEMAN ( - )

Notes