Connecticut Colony | |||||||||||
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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)[1] | ||||||||||
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 1776 | ||||||||||
Currency | Connecticut pound | ||||||||||
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Today part of | United States ∟ Connecticut |
The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later 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 would secure their control of the region in the Pequot War. Over the course of the colony's history it would absorb the neighboring New Haven and Saybrook colonies. The colony was part of the briefly-lived Dominion of New England. The colony's founding document, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut has been called the first written constitution of a democratic government, earning Connecticut the nickname "The Constitution State."[2]