Early Connecticut Timeline

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Connecticut, United States

See: Connecticut Sources

Early Connecticut Timeline

All information on this page is from the town/colony pages on Wikipedia, except as noted below. Population estimates only include European settlers. Town locations are shown on the map to the right.

"The title by which the people of Connecticut held the country was founded on the old patent granted by Robert, Earl of Warwick, in 1631, to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brooke, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and others associated under the name of the Plymouth Company. In 1630 the Plymouth Council made a grant of Connecticut to the Earl of Warwick, their president. This was confirmed by King Charles in 1631, and on the 19th of March, in the same year, the Earl conveyed his title to the Plymouth Company, as before stated. (Dwight et seq) A charter was granted by Charles II to Connecticut in 1662. Previous to this time the two colonies of Connecticut and New Haven had continued separate, but under this charter they were united and the charter was accepted April 20, 1665" (Gannett)

• 1614 Adriaen Block explores the "Fresh River" (contrasted with the Hudson River which is salty), now known as the Connecticut River (Indian name Quonehtacut). (Carpenter)
• 1633 Windsor. William Holmes, of the Plymouth Colony, establishes a trading post where the Farmington River meets the Connecticut River. It is arguably the first English settlement in Connecticut and ultimately becomes the town of Windsor.
• 1634 Wethersfield (Just south of Hartford) Founded in 1634 by a Puritan settlement party of "10 Men" including John Oldham, Robert Seeley, Thomas Topping and Nathaniel Foote, Wethersfield is arguably the oldest town in Connecticut
• 1635 Saybrook Colony, established in late 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in present-day Old Saybrook by John Winthrop
• 1636 Windsor: Rev. John Warham and half the church of Dorchester, Massachusetts removed to Windsor. (Pope)
• 1636 Hartford (Just south of Windsor, on the Connecticut River) Thomas Hooker and a group of 100 settlers from Massachusetts founded Hartford.
• 1636 The Colony of Connecticut is formed when the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield join together.
• 1637 New Haven [Quinnepiac] (Just west of Branford, not settled) 1637-1638 Established by John Davenport, Theophilus Eaton, and a group of fellow Puritans. For a list of settlers see Dana Page 45. - 1664 joined Connecticut Colony
• 1639 Fairfield (East of Norwalk, next to Westport, not settled) "In 1639 Roger Ludlow and his associates started a plantation at Unqua, thus founding the colonial town of Fairfield" (Jennings: Page 6) It was given the name Fairfield in 1645. The First Congregational Church in Fairfield was organized in 1650. See Bailey.
• 1639 Guilford (Just east of Branford, not settled) First settled by Europeans in 1639. (Elliott) Also see: Col. Mass. Hist. Soc.
• 1639 Milford (Just southwest of New Haven, on the coast. Just west of the Housatonic River, where it meets Long Island Sound). Milford, Orange and West Haven was purchased on Feb. 1, 1639
• 1639 Stratford was founded by Puritan leader Rev. Adam Blakeman, William Beardsley. (Early Settlers of Stratford)
• 1639 Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield agreed to govern themselves according to a written constitution, thus formulating the first constitutional republic in the world, and which later became the basis upon which was constructed the constitution of the United States of America. (Loomis)
• 1640 Stamford (Between Greenwich and Norwalk) The deed to Stamford was signed on July 1, 1640
• 1640 Greenwich (Southern and western most town) settled in 1640
• 1640 Connecticut population est. 2,000 (Century of Population Growth)
• 1643 New Haven combined with Milford and Guilford and named New Haven Colony. (Wikipedia: New Haven Colony)
• 1644 Saybrook Colony merge into Colony of Connecticut
• 1644 Branford (Just east of New Haven) 1644
• 1645 Farmington (Just west of Hartford) 1645
• 1646 New London (Just west of where the Thames River meets Long Island Sound) John Winthrop, Jr. founded the first English settlement here in 1646.
• 1648 The Bankside Farmers settled in the area south of Fairfield, now called Green's Farm, in Westport. (Jennings: Page 8)
• 1649 Norwalk (Just east of Stamford) settled in 1649, incorporated September 1651
• 1649 Stonington, arrivals in 1649, became part of Connecticut 1662
• 1650 Connecticut population est. 6,000 (Century of Population Growth)
• 1653 Middletown (Just south of Wethersfield) September 11, 1651, the General Court of Connecticut established the town of "Mattabesett". November 1653, renamed Middletown.
• 1659 Norwich (North of New London, on the Thames River) founded as Mohegan in 1659, and changed it's name to Norwich in 1662. (VR Norwich) See Map of Home Lots, 1660.
• 1660 Connecticut population est. 8,000 (Century of Population Growth)
• 1662 Charles II conferred a charter upon the Connecticut Colony, granting it all the territory of the New Haven Colony. All but New Haven, Branford, and Milford accepted. (History of Milford)
• 1664 Simsbury (northeast of Hartford), settled about 1664
• 1665, May 11, New Haven Colony joins Connecticut Colony, which included 19 towns. (Dana & Gannett & History of Milford)
• 1665 Lyme (On the eastern bank of the Connecticut River, where it meets Long Island Sound) set off from Saybrook, February 13, 1665.
• 1666 Fairfield County, Hartford County, New Haven County, and New London County were established by an act of the Connecticut General Court in Hartford.
• 1667 Wallingford (Just north of New Haven, not on map) created October 10, 1667. On May 12, 1670 ...about 126 people settled in the Town in temporary housing ...by the year 1675, 40 houses stretched along the street. (Wallingford, Connecticut: Town History)
• 1667 Killingworth (Between Guilford and Saybrook)
• 1668 Haddam (Just south of Middletown, on the Connecticut River) Incorporated in October 1668 as Hadham
• 1670 Connecticut population est. 10,000 (Century of Population Growth)
• 1679 Enfield first settled
• 1683 Enfield incorporated as part of Massachusetts
• 1685 Danbury. See Barber about settlement date. See Founders of Danbury for the eight families that made up the original settlement.
• 1687 New Britain area settled, but not named (Wikipedia)
• 1690 Woodstock incorporated. The first settlement was in April 1686, and it was then known as "New Roxbury" or "Quatosett". (VR of Woodstock)
• 1705 Groton (Wikipedia)
• 1708 Durham (Wikipedia)
• 1708 Newtown. This is the date the town was incorporated. (Hawley) The original land purchase from the Indians was in 1705. (Jacobus) See "The Newtown charter", May 13, 1708. (Boyle)
• 1709 Ridgefield (Wikipedia)
• 1712 "New Milford Plantation" became a town. On October 17, 1711, twelve families (including a total about 70 people) petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly to create the town, together with the associated privilege of levying a tax to support a minister.(Wikipedia)
• 1740 New Fairfield (Wikipedia)
• 1754 Parish of Newbury incorporated. (Johnson)
• 1754 New Britain Society/Parish named (MacLachlan)
• 1765 Berlin (Wikipedia)
• 1767 Redding (Wikipedia)
• 1788 Brookfield, taken from parts Danbury, New Milford, and Newtown. (Johnson)
• 1820 Darien incorporated. Prior to this time, Darien was part of Stamford. (Walton)
• 1850 New Britain incorporated (It separated from Farmington, and then Berlin) (MacLachlan)
• 1855 Bethel (Wikipedia)
• Other towns - external link

Governors of Connecticut from The Union in 1665

• John Winthrop from 1665-1675
• William Leet 1675-1683
• Robert Treat 1683-1698
• Fitz John Winthrop 1698-1707
• Gurdon Saltonstall 1707-1724
• Joseph Talcott 1725-1741
• Jonathan Law 1741-1750
• Roger Wolcott 1751-1754
• Thomas Fitch 1754-1766
• William Pitkin 1766-1769
• Jonathan Trumbull 1769-1784, resigned 1783, died 1785 age 75
• Matthew Griswold 1784-1785
• Samuel Huntington 1785-1796
• Oliver Wolcot 1796-1797
• Jonathan Trumbull 1797

Sources

• Perkins, George. Historical Sketches of Meriden, Connecticut (Franklin E. Hinman, West Meriden, 1849)
• A Century of Population Growth From The First Census of The United States to The Twelfth, 1790-1900 (Government Printing Office, Washington, 1909) Page 9.
• Dana, James. Doctor Dana's Two Occasional Discourses (n.p., 1801) Page 43-44.
• Jennings, George Penfield. Greens Farms, Connecticut, The Old West Parish of Fairfield (Congregational Society of Greens Farms, 1933) Page 6 & Page 8.
• Barber, John Warner. Connecticut Historical Collections (Durrie & Peck and J.W. Barber, 1849) Page 362.

• "The original Indian name of Danbury was Pahquioque. The first settlement in the town was begun in the summer of 1684. The settlers came that year and began some improvements in buildings, sowing grain, &c. Some of the families continued through the winter, others did not move till the spring following. It may therefore be said that the first permanent settlement was made in the spring of the year 1685, by eight families."

• Hawley, Elias. The Hawley Record (E.H. Hutchinson & Co., Buffalo, N.Y., 1890) Page 456.

• "In 1708, Samuel Hawley, his brother John and thirty-Four others became the patentees of the township of Newtown, Ct., and settlers first located there in 1713."

• Gannett, Henry. Boundaries of the United States and of the Several States and Territories (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1904) Page 72-3.
• Johnson, Ezra Levan. Newtown's History and Historian, Ezra Levan Johnson (Newtown, Conn., 1917)

• Page 48-50. Brookfield's origin: 1754 parish of Newbury incorporated. 1788 Newbury incorporated as a town. Rev. Thomas Brooks was pastor from 1757 until Newbury was incorporated as a town, and the area, during that time, was widely known as "Brooksfield". In June 1788, the town of Brookfield held its first town meeting.

• Jacobus, Donald Lines. An American Family, Botsford-Marble Ancestral Lines (Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, Connecticut, 1933) Page 38.

• "The town of Newtown, Conn., was purchased by William Janes, Justus Bush, and Samuel Hawley, from the Pootatuck Indians, 12 Sept. 1705, the consideration being four guns, four broadcloth coats, four blankets, four ruffelly coats, four collars, ten shirts, ten pair of stockings, forty pounds of lead, ten pounds of powder, and forty knives. Thus a territory eight miles in length by over five miles in breadth ws opened up to settlement, and the original proprietors sold their rights to several "homesteaders" who came chiefly from Stratford, Milford and other neighboring towns. In 1708, the inhabitants petitioned to be made a town, and Newtown was incorporated."

• Vital Records of Woodstock, 1686-1854 (Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., Hartford, 1914) Page xiii.

• "Woodstock was incorporated as a town in 1690 by Massachusetts, although the first settlement there was as early as April 1686, and was known as New Roxbury or Quatosett. The land was granted in 1663 by the Colony of Massachusetts to the town of Roxbury and practically all of its first settlers came from there. The leaders in its settlement were Peter Aspinwall, Thomas Bacon, Henry Bowen, Matthew Davis, John Frissell, Nathaniel Geary, Benjamin Griggs, George Griggs, Joseph Lord, John Marcy, Ebenezer Morris, Benjamin Sabin and Jonathan Smithers. Not all of these remained there, but the company was soon augmented by others from Roxbury. Woodstock was a part of Massachusetts until May, 1749."

• Elliott, John. A Discourse Delivered on The First Sabbath after The Commencement of The Year 1802 (T. & J.B. Dunning, Middletown, 1802) Page 20.
• Boyle, John Neville. Historical Notes and Maps, Newtown, 1708-1758 (Bee Pub. Co., Newtown, Conn., 1945) Page 4.
• Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (1795) Vol. 4, Page 182.
• Wikipedia articles: Wikipedia: Groton,_Connecticut, Wikipedia: Durham,_Connecticut, Wikipedia: Ridgefield,_Connecticut, Wikipedia: New Fairfield,_Connecticut, Wikipedia: Berlin,_Connecticut, Wikipedia: Redding,_Connecticut, Wikipedia: Bethel,_Connecticut.
• MacLachlan, Linda. New Britain, Connecticut: Vital Records, 1848-1865, Births, Connecticut Nutmegger (Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Glastonbury, Conn., 2010) Vol. 43, Page 290.
• Bailey, Frederic William. Early Connecticut Marriages as Found on Ancient Church Records Prior to 1800 (Frank Allaben Genealogical Co., 1913) Book 6, Page 34.
• History of Milford, Connecticut, 1639-1939 (The Milford Tercentenary Committee, Inc., 1939) Page 31-32.
• Pope, Charles Henry. A History of The Dorchester Pope Family, 1634-1888 (Boston, 1888) Page 46.
• Carpenter, William Henry. The History of Connecticut, From Its Earliest Settlement to The Present Time (Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, Philadelphia, 1872) Page 20.
• Early Settlers of Stratford, Conn., The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 1873) Vol. 27, Page 62.

• "Stratford began to be settled in 1639, under the name of Cupheage, and became a plantation in 1640. The town records commence about 1650. The original territory of Stratford reached back from the sea 12 miles, and included the present townships of Stratford, Huntingdon, Monroe, Trumbull, and Bridgeport. The original proprietors of Stratford by tradition are reported to have been 17."

• Loomis, Elisha Scott. American Foundations in Great Britain, The Journal of American History (Journal of American History Corp., Meriden, Conn., 1910) Vol. 4, Page 286.
• Vital Records of Norwich, 1659-1848 (Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, Hartford, 1913) Page ix.
  • Originally, Norwich included: part of Preston and township of Griswold till set off in 1687, townships of Bozrah, Franklin and Lisbon till set off in 1786, township of Sprague till set of in 1861.
• Walton, Alfred Grant. Stamford Historical Sketches (Cunningham Press, Stamford, Conn., 1922) Pages 45.
• Dwight, Theodore. The History of Connecticut, From the First Settlement to the Present Time (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1840) Page 19.