Founding of the Connecticut Colony

Timeline

1. 1636Connecticut River valley · New EnglandIn 1636, the Reverend Thomas Hooker and John Haynes led about 100 followers on a two-week overland trek through the wilderness from Newtown in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, reaching the Connecticut River valley and establishing three settlements—Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield—laying the initial demographic and territorial foundation of the Connecticut Colony.
2. 1639Hartford · New EnglandOn 14 January 1639, representatives of the three Connecticut towns adopted the Fundamental Orders in Hartford, providing that governmental authority derived from the freeman voters, with an elected governor and general court governing jointly, and that even non-church members could possess the franchise (unlike Massachusetts's theocratic system). The document is regarded as one of the earliest written constitutions in North America and is significant to the evolution of American democratic politics.