Connecticut Colony

Connecticut Colony was established on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritan congregation led by Thomas Hooker, who had migrated from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The colony governed itself through an elected General Court, and on January 14, 1639, adopted the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, regarded as the first written constitution of a democratic government in the English colonies. Connecticut absorbed the Saybrook Colony by purchase in 1644 and the New Haven Colony in 1664, and received a royal charter on October 9, 1662, confirming its self-governing status with an elected governor; it was briefly folded into the Dominion of New England from 1686 to 1689. Hartford served as capital from 1636, with New Haven as a joint capital from 1701. The colony became the state of Connecticut upon American independence on July 4, 1776. Given its elected government and charter-protected self-rule, distinct from crown or proprietary administration, it is grouped here among Historical Republics.