William Phelps (colonist) - Founding of Windsor

Founding of Windsor

In 1633, the Plymouth Trading Company established the first Connecticut settlement, a trading post at what would become Windsor, Connecticut, in territory the Dutch claimed and in which they maintained a fort and trading post, about seven miles downriver in what was later Hartford, Connecticut. In 1635, Puritan and Congregationalist members of Reverend Warham’s and Reverend Maverick's congregation, including William Phelps, John Mason, Roger Ludlow, Henry Wolcott, and others, all prominent settlers, were dissatisfied with the rate of Anglican reforms. They sought permission from the Massachusetts General Court to establish a new ecclesiastical society subject to their own rules and regulations. About 60 individuals, totaling 23 heads of households, undertook a two-week's journey about 100 miles to the east. They founded a new town they initially also named Dorchester. Two years later in 1637, the colony's General Court changed the name of the settlement from Dorchester to Windsor, believed to be named after the city of Windsor, England on the River Thames. The new town was the first English settlement in the state. Under pressure from continued English settlement, the Dutch abandoned their post in 1654.