1636 Connecticut Colony
Governor John Haynes of the Massachusetts Bay Colony led 100 people to Hartford in 1636. He and Puritan minister Thomas Hooker are often considered the founders of the Connecticut colony.
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 (Law of the CHURCH) 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.
The Naming of the Connecticut Colony Word taken from a Native Indian phrase meaning “river whose water is driven by tides or winds.”
Information and Facts with the Connecticut Colony Fact File The first settlement by Europeans in Connecticut was made on the site of the present Hartford in 1633, by a party of Dutch from New Netherlands. In the same year a trading post was established on the Connecticut river, near Windsor, by members of the Plymouth Colony, and John Oldham (1600-1636) of Massachusetts explored the valley and his reports led to the founding of the colony by Thomas Hooker in 1636. Fast facts and interesting information about the founding, establishment, geography, climate, religion, history, natural resources, raw material, industries (refer to Colonial Times) and the famous historical people associated with the Connecticut Colony of Colonial America. Information and facts at a glance about the Connecticut Colony via this fast fact file.
Connecticut Colony Facts
Fact 1 - Year Founded: 1636 by Thomas Hooker and others, at Hartford
Fact 2 - Major Towns / Cities: Hartford, New Haven
Fact 3 - Major Industries: Agriculture (wheat, corn, fishing)
Fact 4 - Geography: Narrow lowlands and hilly eastern upland. The basic geography of New England consisted of mountains thick with trees, rivers and poor rocky soil that was difficult to farm and unsuitable for crops
Fact 5 - Climate: New England was the coldest of the three regions, mild and short summers leading to long, cold winters but less disease than in the warmer colonies
Fact 6 - Religion: There was no religious freedom in the areas inhabited by the Puritans as they did not tolerate any other form of religion - refer to Religion in the Colonies
Fact 7 - Natural Resources: Fish, whales, forests. Imported agricultural products from other colonies. Farming was difficult for crops like wheat because of the poor soil but corn, pumpkins, rye, squash and beans were raised
Fact 8 - Economics and Trade: Concentrated in manufacture and focussed on town life and industries such as ship building and the manufacture and export of rum
Fact 9 - Government: In 1775 Connecticut was governed as a Charter Colony.
Fact 10 - Original Name: The original name of the colony was the Connecticut Colony, later Connecticut
Fact 11 - In towns along the coast, the colonists made their living fishing, whaling, and shipbuilding. Whale oil was a valuable resource as it could be used in lamps. Industries and trade in the New England colonies included fish, whale products, shipping, shipbuilding, timber products, furs, maple syrup, copper, livestock products, horses, rum, whiskey and beer
Fact 12 - Farming was difficult for crops like wheat because of the poor soil but corn, pumpkins, rye, squash and beans were planted.
Fact 13 - 1637 The Pequot War - The Pequots were defeated by the colonists, who were led by John Underhill and John Mason, and the Narragansetts and Mohegans who were their allies
Fact 14 - Fish, timber, furs, ships and livestock
Fact 15 - Connecticut was the 5th of the original 13 colonies to become a state on January 9, 1788.