About Sarah Whitman Hooker
(February 27, 1747-January 5, 1837)

Mrs. Hooker, born in West Hartford, February 27, 1747, was the daughter of Deacon John and Abigail Pantry Whitman, and was a descendant of William Pantry, one of the founders of Hartford. She was a great-granddaughter of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, the first librarian of Harvard College. At the age of 22 she married Thomas Hart Hooker of Farmington, who was fourth in direct line of descent from the Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first settled clergyman in Hartford, and a framer of the Connecticut Constitution, on which the Constitution of the United States was modeled.
Aroused by the Battle of Lexington, Thomas Hart Hooker was one of the first to enlist, and he joined the Revolutionary Army near Boston, where he served a few months, was taken sick, and died.

In the spring of 1773, Mr. Hooker had bought in West Hartford what has been long known as the "Mills Place", situated on the south side of the street at the top of the Elmwood Hill. It was here Mrs. Hooker lived during the first half of the Revolutionary Period and in this house she, assisted only by her faithful slave Bristol, guarded as prisoners of war, three officers of the British army, placed there by authority of' the General Assembly after the capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen. This expedition was planned in Hartford and mainly by Hartford County men, and on its return brought to Hartford beside the commandant of the fort and forty-seven private soldiers of the British Army, another prisoner, Major Andrew Philip Skene, 6th Dragoons, who was captured at Skenesborough on Lake Champlain. His father, Major, or as he was called, Governor Philip Skene, was soon after sent from Philadelphia to Connecticut, by act of Congress, to be confined under parole under especial supervision of Governor Trumbull. He had been captured on his return from London, armed with a commission appointing him Governor of Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Montreal, with orders to raise a regiment of Canadians to join General Gage against the Americans. Joining his son at Hartford, they escaped to Middletown and when recaptured were both taken on July 26, 1775, to West Hartford to the "very commodious and pleasantly situated house" of Mrs. Hooker.

Major Christopher French, H.B.M. 22nd Regiment, sent by General Washington to Hartford in August of the same year was at one time quartered here.

These officers remained in the family of Mrs. Hooker somewhat less than a year, and when they were removed, as an expression of their appreciation of her kindness they presented her with a ring that is now in the possession of her descendants.

After remaining a widow three years Mrs. Hooker married Captain Seth Collins, and died January 5, 1837, at the advanced age of nearly 90 years.

Sarah Whitman Hooker House
The Sarah Whitman Hooker House is a carefully restored, early 18th century mansion house, remodeled in the federal style before 1810. Wallpaper is a reproduction of the originals. There is an extensive collection including furniture, porcelain, and portraits of Tories held during the revolution.

The Sarah Whitman Hooker Homestead is an eighteenth century Connecticut Valley Manor House. It is the oldest surviving structure in the Town of West Hartford, Connecticut. Construction was begun in 1715 by Timothy Seymour, who described it as, "My manor house on Four Mile Hill". He built one room "with chamber above". By 1730, his son had added another room with chamber above, and by 1750, an addition at the back of the house turned it into a saltbox. In 1770, Sarah Whitman and Thomas Hart Hooker moved into the house as newlyweds. In June of 1775, Thomas Hart Hooker went to the defense of Boston, where he died of pleurisy in November of that same year.

In 1775, the Connecticut Committee of Public Safety was given responsibility for two prominent Tory prisoners, Col. Philip Skene and his son. The Committee asked "the Widow Hooker" to lodge the prisoners for the winter of 1775-76. During that winter, the townspeople of West Hartford were dissuaded by Sarah Whitman Hooker from carrying out a threat to tar and feather the prisoners for whom she was responsible.

In 1800, Sarah Whitman Hooker sold the house to her children who in turn sold it to their cousin. He removed the saltbox addition of 1750 and replaced it with two more rooms with chambers above, bringing the house to the dimensions originally intended by Timothy Seymour, and to which it has been restored today by the Sarah Whitman Hooker Foundation.

The Homestead is open to the public.

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