In 1659, Thomas Burnham (1617–1688) purchased the tract of land now covered by the towns of South Windsor and East Hartford from Tantinomo, chief sachem of the Podunk Indians. Burnham lived on the land and later willed it to his nine children. The town of Hartford, founded in 1635, once included the land now occupied by the towns of East Hartford, Manchester, Bolton, Vernon, and West Hartford. During the Revolutionary War, French troops under Lieutenant General Comte de Rochambeau twice camped in town, before and after aiding General George Washington's forces in the 1781 defeat of the British during the Siege of Yorktown.