Colonial Lines (1607-1775)

Connecticut

Organized on March 3, 1636 as a settlement for a Puritan congregation, and the English permanently gained control of the region in 1637 after struggles with the Dutch. The colony was later the scene of a bloody war between the colonists and Pequot Indians known as the Pequot War. Connecticut Colony played a significant role in the establishment of self-government in the New World with its refusal to surrender local authority to the Dominion of New England, an event known as the Charter Oak incident which occurred at Jeremy Adams' inn and tavern.

Governor John Haynes of the Massachusetts Bay Colony led 100 people to Hartford in 1636. He and Puritan minister Thomas Hooker are often considered the founders of the Connecticut colony. Hooker delivered a sermon to his congregation on May 31, 1638 on the principles of government, and it influenced those who wrote the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut later that year, which may have been drafted by Roger Ludlow of Windsor, the only trained lawyer living in Connecticut in the 1630s; they were transcribed into the official record by secretary Thomas Welles. The Rev. John Davenport and merchant Theophilus Eaton led the founders of the New Haven Colony, which was absorbed into Connecticut Colony in the 1660s.

Pequot War (Massacre): https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1637.htm

Adams (1637 from England to Connecticut)

Barlow (Connecticut)

Sherwood (Connecticut)

Maryland

In 1632, King Charles I granted the charter for Province of Maryland to Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. Calvert's father had been a prominent Catholic official who encouraged Catholic immigration to the English colonies. The charter offered no guidelines on religion.

Austin (Maryland)

Calvert (Maryland)*

Tharp (c. 1660 from England to Maryland)

Rhode Island

Established on land originally belonging to the Narragansett Indians, European settlement began around 1622 with a trading post at Sowams, now the town of Warren, Rhode Island. Roger Williams was a Puritan theologian and linguist who founded Providence Plantations in 1636 and was exiled under religious persecution from the Massachusetts Bay Colony; Williams named the islands in the Narragansett Bay after Christian virtues: Patience, Prudence, and Hope Islands. In 1637, another group of Massachusetts dissenters purchased land from the Indians on Aquidneck Island, which was called Rhode Island at the time, and they established a settlement called Pocasset. The group included William Coddington, John Clarke, and Anne and William Hutchinson, among others. That settlement, however, quickly split into two separate settlements. Samuel Gorton and others remained to establish the settlement of Portsmouth (which formerly was Pocasset) in 1638, while Coddington and Clarke established nearby Newport in 1639. Both settlements were situated on Rhode Island (Aquidneck). The second plantation settlement on the mainland was Samuel Gorton's Shawomet Purchase from the Narragansetts in 1642. As soon as Gorton settled at Shawomet, however, the Massachusetts Bay authorities laid claim to his territory and acted to enforce their claim. After considerable difficulties with the Massachusetts Bay General Court, Gorton traveled to London to enlist the help of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, head of the Commission for Foreign Plantations. Gorton returned in 1648 with a letter from Rich, ordering Massachusetts to cease molesting him and his people. In gratitude, he changed the name of Shawomet Plantation to Warwick.

Henry (c. 1740 from Scotland to Rhode Island)

Virginia

The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed proprietary attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert[2] in 1583, and the subsequent further south Roanoke Island (modern eastern North Carolina) by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 1580s. The founder of the new colony was the Virginia Company, with the first two settlements in Jamestown on the north bank of the James River and Popham Colonyon the Kennebec River in modern-day Maine, both in 1607. The Popham colony quickly failed due to a famine, disease, and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years. Jamestown occupied land belonging to the Powhatan Confederacy, and was also at the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies by ship in 1610. Tobacco became Virginia's first profitable export, the production of which had a significant impact on the society and settlement patterns. In 1624, the Virginia Company's charter was revoked by King James I, and the Virginia colony was transferred to royal authority as a crown colony. After the English Civil War in the 1640s and 50s, the Virginia colony was nicknamed "The Old Dominion" by King Charles II for its perceived loyalty to the English monarchy during the era of the Protectorate and Commonwealth of England. From 1619 to 1775/1776, the colonial legislature of Virginia was the House of Burgesses, which governed in conjunction with a colonial governor. Jamestown on the James River remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699; from 1699 until its dissolution the capital was in Williamsburg. The colony experienced its first major political turmoil with Bacon's Rebellion of 1676.

Adcock (Virginia)

Booth (1637 from England to Virginia)

Clopton (c. 1670 from England to Virginia)

Croley (Virginia)

Glenn (c. 1750 from Ireland to Virginia)

Hurst (Virginia)

Pasley (Virginia)

Wright (Virginia)

Washington

*Founding Families

The original thirteen colonies were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.

The first successful colony established was Jamestown in 1607.

The New England Colonies:

  • Massachusetts (Bay) was established in the 1620's and chartered as a crown colony in 1692.
    • New Hampshire was established in the 1620's and chartered as a crown colony in 1679.
    • Rhode Island (and Province Plantations) was established in 1636 and chartered as a crown colony in 1663.
    • Connecticut was established in 1636 and chartered as a crown colony in 1662.

The Middle Colonies:

    • New York was established in 1664 and chartered as a crown colony in 1686.
    • New Jersey was established in 1664 and chartered as a crown colony in 1702.
  • Pennsylvania was established in 1681.
    • Deleware was established in 1664.

The Southern Colonies:

    • Maryland was established in 1632.
    • Virginia was established in 1607 and chartered as a crown colony in 1624
    • Carolina was established in 1663, divided into North and South in 1712 and each became a crown colony in 1729.
    • Georgia was established in 1732 and became a crown colony in 1752.