Founding of the Connecticut Colony

"The Pequot War"
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The founding of the Connecticut colony began in 1636 when the Dutch established the first trading post on the Connecticut River valley in what is now the town of Hartford. The move into the valley was part of a general movement out of the Massachusetts colony. By the 1630s, the population in and around Boston had grown so dense that settlers began to spread out throughout southern New England, concentrating their settlements along navigable river valleys such as those in Connecticut.

Founding Fathers

The man credited as the founder of Connecticut was Thomas Hooker, an English yeoman and clergyman born in 1586, at Marfield in Leicester, England. He was educated at Cambridge, where he received a Bachelor's in 1608 and a Master's in 1611. He was one of the most learned and powerful preachers of both old and New England and was the minister of Esher, Surrey, between 1620 and 1625. He was the lecturer at St. Mary's Church at Chelmsford in Essex from 1625–1629. Hooker was also a nonconformist Puritan, who was targeted for suppression by the English government under Charles I and was forced to retire from Chelmsford in 1629. He fled to Holland, where other exiles had sought refuge.

The First Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, wrote to Hooker as early as 1628 or 1629, asking him to come to Massachusetts. In 1633, Hooker sailed for North America. By October, he was made pastor at Newtown (now Cambridge) on the Charles River in the Massachusetts colony. By May 1634, Hooker and his congregation at Newtown petitioned to leave for Connecticut. In May 1636, they were allowed to go, and they were provided a commission by the General Court of Massachusetts.

Hooker, his wife, and his congregation left Boston and drove 160 cattle southward, founding the river towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. By 1637, there were almost 800 people in the new colony of Connecticut.

New Governance in Connecticut

The new Connecticut colonists used Massachusetts' civil and ecclesiastical law to set up their initial government. Most people who came to the American colonies came as indentured servants or "commons." According to English law, it was only after a man had paid or worked off his contract that he could apply to become a member of the church and own lands. Freemen were men who had all the civil and political rights under a free government, including the right to vote.

In Connecticut, whether a man was indentured or not, if he entered the colony as a free person, he had to wait over a one- to two-year probationary period, during which he was closely observed to make sure he was an upright Puritan. If he passed the test, he could be accepted as a freeman. If not, he could be forced to leave the colony. Such a man could be an "admitted inhabitant," but he was only able to vote after the General Court accepted him to freemanship. Only 229 men were admitted as freemen in Connecticut between 1639 and 1662.

Towns in Connecticut

By 1669, there were 21 towns on the Connecticut River. The four main communities were Hartford (established 1651), Windsor, Wethersfield, and Farmington. Together they had a total population of 2,163, including 541 adult males. Only 343 were freemen. That year, the New Haven colony was brought under the Connecticut colony's governance. Other early towns included Lyme, Saybrook, Haddam, Middletown, Killingworth, New London, Stonington, Norwich, Stratford, Fairfield, and Norwalk.

Significant Events

  • From 1636 to 1637, the Pequot War was fought between the settlers in Connecticut and the Pequot people. By the end of the war, the Pequots were decimated.
  • The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were created in 1639. Many believe that this written Constitution would become the basis for the later United States Constitution.
  • The Colony Charter was accepted in 1662.
  • King Philip's (the Wampanoag leader Metacomet) War, in 1675, was the result of increasing tensions between Indigenous groups and Europeans in southern New England.
  • The Connecticut colony signed the Declaration of Independence in October 1776.
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Kelly, Martin. "Founding of the Connecticut Colony." ThoughtCo, Sep. 24, 2020, thoughtco.com/connecticut-colony-103870. Kelly, Martin. (2020, September 24). Founding of the Connecticut Colony. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/connecticut-colony-103870 Kelly, Martin. "Founding of the Connecticut Colony." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/connecticut-colony-103870 (accessed March 19, 2024).