Connecticut Colony

Connecticut Colony
1636–1776
Map of the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies
Map of the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies
StatusColony of England (1636–1707)
Colony of Great Britain (1707–1776)
CapitalHartford (1636–1776)
New Haven (joint capital with Hartford, 1701–76)
Common languagesEnglish, Mohegan-Pequot, and Quiripi
Religion
Congregationalism (official)[1]
GovernmentSelf-governing colony
Governor 
• 1639-1640
John Haynes (first)
• 1769-1776
Jonathan Trumbull (last)
LegislatureGeneral Court
History 
• Established
March 3, 1636
January 14, 1639
• Royal Charter granted
October 9, 1662
• Part of the Dominion of New England
1686-89
• Independence
July 4, 1776 1776
CurrencyConnecticut pound
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Saybrook Colony
New Haven Colony
Connecticut
Today part of United States
  Connecticut

The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritan congregation of settlers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony led by Thomas Hooker. The English would secure their control of the region in the Pequot War. Over the course of the colony's history it would absorb the neighboring New Haven and Saybrook colonies. The colony was part of the briefly-lived Dominion of New England. The colony's founding document, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut has been called the first written constitution of a democratic government, earning Connecticut the nickname "The Constitution State."[2]

  1. ^ Barck & Lefler 1958, p. 398.
  2. ^ "Early History". CT.gov.