History

“The settlement of Connecticut was commenced sixteen years after that of Massachusetts for the same great purposes and by men of the same origin and character. Indeed, the original founders of the colony were from Massachusetts, and of the number of those conscientious men who had left Eng land in consequence of religious persecution in the reign of James I. Finding, after a short residence there that the few settlements about Massachusetts Bay were fast filling up with emigrants, and would soon be overstocked and wishing to occupy the fertile shores of Connecticut River before they should be seized by the Dutch, who were then in possession of New York they began to prepare for a removal. Their principal motives were declared to be to secure freedom of conscience and civil liberty to themselves and their posterity, and to make the savages acquainted with the Christian religion and the blessings of civilized life. Their plan was seriously opposed by their friends in that colony who loved and esteemed them too much to be willing to lose them; but they had deliberately adopted it and were resolved to carry it into execution. The first emigration to the banks of the Connecticut took place in 1636, the company being composed chiefly of married men with their families and including several religious congregations with their pastors church officers and members.”

(Source: The History of Connecticut: From the First Settlement to the Present Time, 1840, by Theodore Dwight , pp. 15-16)

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