Saybrook Colony

Saybrook Colony
1635–1644
Seal
Map of Connecticut annotated to show its colonial history and the establishment of its modern borders
Status	Self-governing colony of England
Capital	Saybrook
Common languages	English
Religion	Puritanism
Governor
• 1635-1637	John Winthrop the Younger
• 1637-1639	Lion Gardiner (de facto)
• 1639-1644	George Fenwick
History
• Established	1635
• Merged with Connecticut Colony	1644
Currency	Pound sterling
Succeeded by Connecticut Colony

The Saybrook Colony was a short-lived English colony established in New England in 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in what is today Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Saybrook was founded by a group of Puritan noblemen as a potential political refuge from the personal rule of Charles I. They claimed possession of the land via a deed of conveyance from Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, which granted the colony the land from the Narragansett Bay to the Pacific Ocean. Saybrook was named in honor of two of its primary investors, the Lords Saye and Sele and Brooke. John Winthrop the Younger was contracted as the colony's first governor, but quickly left Saybrook after failing to enforce its authority over Connecticut's settlers. With Winthrop gone, Lion Gardiner was left in charge of Saybrook's considerable fort, defending it when it was besieged during the Pequot War. Governor George Fenwick arrived in the colony in 1639, but quickly saw it as a lost cause. Fenwick negotiated the colony's sale to Connecticut in 1644 after interest in colonization dried up due to the investors' involvement in the English Civil War.