Abiel Steele
Abiel Steele was born on 8 October 1693, a daughter of Samuel Steele of Hartford and Mercy Bradford. On 25 December 1712, at nineteen, she married John Webster of Hartford, who had joined the First Church that March. They were among the first families of the new church at West Hartford, and her own name appears in its records in 1717.
Her father was a son of John Steele Jr. and Mary Warner, and a grandson of John Steele, one of the founders of Hartford. Her mother was a daughter of Maj. William Bradford, deputy governor of Plymouth Colony, and Alice Richards. Through her mother Abiel was a great-granddaughter of Governor William Bradford, who came in the Mayflower in 1620 and wrote the colony's history. She grew up at Hartford with five brothers, Thomas, Samuel, William, Daniel and Eliphalet, and one sister, Jerusha, who was Samuel's twin. Her father died in 1710 and her mother in 1720.
She bore twelve children at West Hartford over twenty three years: Elisha in 1713, Jerusha in 1714, Aaron in 1717, Abiel in 1718, Mercy in 1720, Sarah in 1722, Ann in 1724, Susannah in 1726, John in 1728, Abigail in 1731, Osee in 1734 and Robert in 1736. About 1730 the family moved to Southington, a parish of Farmington. Her eldest son Elisha graduated from Yale in 1738 and became the first minister of Canaan.
Her husband made his will on 30 June 1752 and left bequests "to Abiel, his wife." He died in 1753. On 25 May 1756, at sixty two, she married Stephen Hopkins of Waterbury as his second wife. He was sixty six, a son of John and Hannah (Strong) Hopkins, and had had ten children by his first wife, Susannah Peck. They had none together. He died on 4 January 1769. Her own death is not given.
Sources
If Abiel Steele is in your family, start your own tree.
Cite: Heirology, "Abiel Steele (b. 1693)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/abiel-steele-1693-b3fca9.