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Walter Hoyt

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Religion
  
Puritan

Rank
  
sergeant (May 1659)

Name
  
Walter Hoyt


Spouse(s)
  
Elizabeth Susanna St. John (m. 1638 Windsor, Connecticut Colony, d. 1647) Rhoda Tinker (m. 1649, Windsor, Connecticut Colony)

Children
  
Zerubbabel, Elizabeth,> John

Residence
  
Windsor, Connecticut Colony (1640) Norwalk, Connecticut Colony

Role
  
Former Member of the General Court of the Connecticut Colony

Died
  
1698, Norwalk, Connecticut, United States

Previous office
  
Member of the General Court of the Connecticut Colony (1658–1681)

Walter Hoyt (also seen as Haite, Hayte, Hoit, Haight) (September 6, 1618 – 1698) was a founding settler of Norwalk, Connecticut. He served as a deputy of the General Court of the Connecticut Colony from Norwalk between 1658 and 1662, and, when it was renamed, as a deputy of the Connecticut General Assembly between 1662 and 1681. He was a Norwalk selectman in 1672.

Contents

Early life

He was the son of Simon Haite (1595–1657) and Deborah Stowers. He came to America in 1628, with his father and brother, Nicholas Hoyt (b. 1620), at the age of ten.

Career

In 1640, he was known to own about 64 acres of land in Windsor, Connecticut Colony. In 1653, Walter came to Norwalk, among the first settlers.

He served in the General Court of the Connecticut Colony in the sessions of October 1658, May and October 1661, May and October 1667, October 1668, May 1670, May 1671, May 1672, October 1673, October 1674, May 1676, May 1678, and October 1681.

In May 1672, Walter Hoyte was among those whose names were given to the General Court "for the beginning of a plantation neare the backside of Norwalke."

He, along with Ralph Keeler, was contracted by the settlement to cut the timber and build a house for Reverend Thomas Hanford.

He voted in the town meetings in Norwalk, and was confirmed by the General Court as one of the proprietors of Norwalk in 1685.

Personal life

In 1638, he married for the first time time to Elizabeth Susanna St. John (d. 1647) in Windsor, Connecticut Colony. After her death in 1678, he married Rhoda Tinker (1611–1698) in 1649, also in Windsor. He was the father of four children:

  • John Hoyt (1644–1711), who married Mary Lindall, daughter of Henry Lindall
  • Zerubbabel Hoyt (1652–1739), who married Hannah Knapp (1642–1696)
  • Elizabeth Hoyt, who married Samuel Sention
  • Hannah Hoyt, who married Judah Gregory
  • Honors

    Hoyt's Hill, named after Walter Hoyt, is the historical name of the hill in the Green at the northeast corner of East Avenue and Willow Street. The place name dates back at least as early as 1679.

    He is listed on the Founders Stone bearing the names of the founding settlers of Norwalk in the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery.

    References

    Walter Hoyt Wikipedia