WHEN CONNECTICUT was first visited by Europeans is not known. Probably the Dutch, from their trading post on Manhattan Island, entered some portion of the State soon after that post was established, or as early as 1615. Whether the Dutch or the people at New Plymouth were the first to discover the Connecticut River is uncertain. Both claimed priority, and both occupied lands on it at about the same time.
In 1630 a patent had been granted by the Plymouth Council, and confirmed by King Charles the First, to Robert, Earl of Warwick. In 1631 the Earl of Warwick granted to Lords Say and Seal, and Brook, and their associates, the original patent of Connecticut.
In 1633 William Holmes, with a party of the Plymouth colonists, sailed up the Connecticut River, bringing with them the frame and other materials which they had prepared for erecting a house. On Dutch Point, in Hartford, he found that the Dutch had built a light fort and planted two pieces of artillery. Notwithstanding their threats to fire on him he passed this fort, proceeded up the river, landed on the west side near the mouth of the little river in Windsor, and erected and fortified his house there. This, it is said, was the first house erected in Connecticut.
During the summer of 1635, settlers came here and planted settlements at Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield. In October of that year 60 more came overland from Massachusetts, and in November, John Winthrop, under a commission from the proprietors, which styled him “Governor of the River Connecticut,” came with a crew in a small vessel and took possession of the mouth of the Connecticut, built a fort there, and thus prevented the Dutch from ascending the river.
The first winter of the settlers who came in 1635 was one of great suffering because of the rigor of the season. Many made their way back to Massachusetts, and the health of those that remained was much impaired.
The next year courts were established; for the settlers, though nominally under the rule of the mother country, really governed themselves. The first court was held at Hartford, April 26th, 1636; the second at Windsor, June 7th, and the third, September 1st, of the same year. These courts consisted of two principal men from each town, and, on important occasions, they were joined with committees of three from each town. These courts were invested with all the legislative and judicial powers and functions of the colony.
In 1636 the population of the colony was increased by the arrival at Hartford of Rev. Thomas Hooker and his congregation, about 100 in all. They came across the country through the untamed wilderness, from their previous home in Cambridge. A congregation also came from Dorchester to Windsor, and another from Watertown to Wethersfield. The population in that year, in the three towns on the river and the garrison at the mouth of it, reached about 800 persons.
In 1635 and 1636 the powerful tribe of Pequots became hostile to the settlers. They had been guilty of several murders, and, when called on to make reparation, they not only refused to do so, but assumed a hostile attitude. The murdered people were citizens of Massachusetts, and an expedition from that colony was sent against the Indians. One or two of the Pequots were killed, and a large amount of property was destroyed. This only exasperated the Indians, who became more actively hostile. They were haughty and independent, and under the warlike and ambitious chief, Sassacus, they had conquered and governed the tribes around them. They regarded the English as intruders, and they were determined to extirpate them or drive them from the country. They therefore sought to unite other tribes, and especially the Narragansetts, with them against the whites, though with the latter they were not successful. The Pequots continued their hostilities during 1636, and, in the following winter, they kept the fort at Saybrook almost in a state of siege. In the spring they became still more actively warlike, and kept the entire colony in a constant state of alarm by waylaying the roads, fields, and streams, so that the settlers could neither hunt, labor, nor fish without being in constant peril of their lives. In May of that year a court was summoned at Hartford to deliberate on matters concerning the defense of the colony, and an active offensive war was determined on. Ninety men were raised in the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, and a sense of common danger induced Massachusetts and Plymouth to send 240. In that month the Connecticut troops, with about 70 friendly Mohegans under Uncas, descended the river to Saybrook. Thence they proceeded to Groton, where they took the Pequot fort. The Pequots were pursued to the westward, and were finally overtaken in Fairfield County. They were surrounded in a swamp, many were killed, about 60 escaped, and the rest fell into the hands of the English and their Indian allies.
Source
Whittemore, Henry, History of Middlesex county, Connecticut, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, New York : J. B. Beers & Co., 1884.
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