Hallet, Thomas, 1760 - 1838
Thomas Hallet was born in Groton, Connecticut on February 12, 1760. At eighteen, he enlisted in the Continental Army and served for five years during the Revolutionary War. Upon his return to Groton, Thomas married Sarah Daniels on December 4, 1783. The couple established a home in Groton’s North Society, what would later become Ledyard, CT and over the course of the next twenty years would have at least 8 children. Hallet and his growing family managed a farm not far from the Mashantucket Pequot lands. Sadly, Thomas’ wife, Sarah, died on November 22, 1804 at the age of 42.
Beginning in 1818, Hallet began applying for his veteran’s pension. A decade later, a July 24, 1828 letter, written by Noyes Barber on Hallet’s behalf, suggests that he had run into some difficulty in obtaining his rightful pension. Whether hyperbole or not, Hallet was described as living on a “miserable little farm which has been the case of his not receiving a pension for several years past”.
The farm, or at least part of it, was on lands leased from Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. Beginning in April of 1819, and quite possibly earlier, Thomas Hallet leased, for $30 annually, a parcel of land commonly referred to as, the Sunsamon Pasture. This lot was described as east of the swamp or brook and adjacent to the Avery Lot. Hallet offset the expense of renting this land in several ways. As per the lease agreement with the tribe’s overseer, he received credit for improvements made to the property. Usually these “betterments” were in the form of labor, often the building of stonewalls to serve as property boundaries or as animal enclosures or exclosures. Thomas Hallet also provided goods and services to members of the tribe, primarily to the Sunsamon family (James, Phebe, and Moses). These “necessaries” were weighed as credit against his account. Records indicate that Thomas Hallet rented the Sunsamon Pasture at least until about 1830, at which point his son, Henry, assumed the lease.
Thomas Hallet died on September 26, 1838 in Ledyard, CT and was buried there in the Latham/Hallet Cemetery.
findagrave.com; Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006; Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection), Groton Vital Records 1704-1853, Ancestry.com; Thomas Hallet Rev. War Pension Request, https://www.fold3.com/image/22726090?terms=thomas,hallet, Fold3; CHS, Ms 27960 Geer & Morgan Families Papers, 1717-1850, Folder 19
Sources for this biography also come from the Related Digital Heritage Items listed below.
Born:
February 12, 1760Died:
September 26, 1`838Ethnicity