Colony of Connecticut

Colony of Connecticut
Colony of England (1636–1707) Colony of Great Britain (1707–76)
1636–1776
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A map of the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies
Capital		Hartford (1636–1776) New Haven (joint capital with Hartford, 1701–76)
Languages		English, Mohegan-Pequot, Quiripi
Government		Constitutional monarchy
Legislature		General Court of the Colony of Connecticut
History
•	Established	1636
•	Independence	1776
Currency		Pound sterling
Preceded by Succeeded by Saybrook Colony New Haven Colony Connecticut
Today part of		United States  Connecticut

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The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut, originally known as the River Colony, was an English colony located in North America that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settlement for a Puritan congregation. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English permanently gained control of the region in 1637. The colony was later the scene of a bloody war between the English and Pequot Indians known as the Pequot War. Connecticut Colony played a significant role in the establishment of self-government in the New World with its refusal to surrender local authority to the Dominion of New England, an event known as the Charter Oak incident which occurred at Jeremy Adams' inn and tavern.

Two other English settlements in the present-day state of Connecticut were merged into the Colony of Connecticut: Saybrook Colony in 1644 and New Haven Colony in 1662.

Governor John Haynes of the Massachusetts Bay Colony led 100 people to present-day Hartford in 1636. He and Thomas Hooker, a prominent Puritan minister, are often considered the founders of the Connecticut colony. Hooker delivered a sermon to his congregation on May 31, 1638, on the principles of government, and it influenced those who wrote the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut later that year. The Fundamental Orders may have been drafted by Roger Ludlow of Windsor, the only trained lawyer living in Connecticut in the 1630s; they were transcribed into the official record by secretary Thomas Welles.