Connecticut Colony
Connecticut Colony | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1636–1776 | |||||||||||
| Status | Colony of England (1636–1707) Colony of Great Britain (1707–1776) | ||||||||||
| Capital | Hartford (1636–1776) New Haven (joint capital with Hartford, 1701–76) | ||||||||||
| Common languages | English, Mohegan-Pequot, and Quiripi | ||||||||||
| Religion | Congregationalism (official) | ||||||||||
| Government | Self-governing colony | ||||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||||
• 1639-1640 | John Haynes (first) | ||||||||||
• 1769-1776 | Jonathan Trumbull (last) | ||||||||||
| Legislature | General Court | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
• Established | March 3, 1636 | ||||||||||
• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut adopted | January 14, 1639 | ||||||||||
• Royal Charter granted | October 9, 1662 | ||||||||||
• Part of the Dominion of New England | 1686-89 | ||||||||||
• Independence | July 4, 1776 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Connecticut pound | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Today part of | United States ∟Connecticut | ||||||||||
The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settlement for a Puritan congregation of settlers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony led by Thomas Hooker. The English secured their control of the region in the Pequot War. The colony eventually absorbed the neighboring New Haven and Saybrook colonies. It was part of the brief Dominion of New England. The colony's founding document was the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which has been called the first written constitution of a democratic government, earning Connecticut the nickname "The Constitution State".