Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

The Fundamental Orders were adopted by the Connecticut Colony council on January 15, 1639 OS (January 24, 1639 NS). The fundamental orders describe the government set up by the waters of Connecticut. They wanted the government to have access to the open ocean for trading.

The Orders have the features of a written constitution and are considered by some as the first written Constitution in the Western tradition. Thus, Connecticut earned its nickname of The Constitution State. Connecticut historian John Fiske was the first to claim that the Fundamental Orders were the first written Constitution, a claim disputed by some modern historians. The orders were transcribed into the official colony records by the colony's secretary Thomas Welles. It was a Constitution for the colonial government of Hartford and was similar to the government that Massachusetts had set up. However, this Order gave men a couple voting rights and made more men eligible to run for elected positions. Jane Patty was not pleased with this Order, and she threw eggs at authorities, ending in her imprisonment.

In the year of 1635, a group of Puritans and others who were dissatisfied with the rate of Anglican reforms sought to establish an ecclesiastical society subject to their own rules and regulations. The Massachusetts General Court granted them permission to settle the cities of Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford. Ownership of the land was called into dispute by the English holders of the Warwick Patent of 1631. The Massachusetts General Court established the March Commission to mediate the dispute, and named Roger Ludlow as its head. The Commission named eight magistrates from the Connecticut towns to implement a legal system. The March commission expired in March 1636, after which the settlers continued to self-govern.

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