New Netherland Settlements - Fresh River

Fresh River

Shortly after constructing their first settlement on the island of Manhattan, the Dutch established a short-lived factorij trading post at Kievits Hoek, or Plover's Corner (present day Old Saybrook). It was soon abandoned as the Dutch began to focus more on their new trading post on the Fresh River. Fort Huis de Goed Hoop was completed in 1633. Soon after, some miles upriver, a town was established by settlers from the English Massachusetts Colony who, in 1639, formed the colony of the Plantacons of the Connecticott River. The New Haven Colony soon followed. In 1650, Petrus Stuyvesant attempted to contain further incursion to the area and, in the Treaty of Hartford, agreed to a border 50 miles west of the river. This did some not stem the flow of New Englanders to Long Island or the mainland along its sound.