New Haven Colony

New Haven Colony
English colony
1638–1665
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A map of the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies.
Capital		New Haven
Languages		English
Government		Constitutional monarchy
History
•	Established	1638
•	Merged with Connecticut Colony	1665
Currency		Pound sterling
Succeeded by Connecticut Colony

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The New Haven Colony was a small English colony in North America, in what is now the state of Connecticut, from 1637 to 1664.

The history of the colony was a series of disappointments and failures. The most serious problem was that New Haven colony never had a charter giving it legal title to exist. The larger, stronger colony of Connecticut to the north did have a charter, and Connecticut was aggressive in using its military superiority to force a takeover. New Haven had other weaknesses as well. The leaders were businessmen and traders, but they were never able to build up a large or profitable trade, because their agricultural base was poor, and the location was isolated. Farming on the poor soil of the colony was a formula for poverty and discouragement. New Haven's political system was confined to church members only, and the refusal to widen it alienated many people. More and more it was realized that the New Haven colony was a hopeless endeavor. Oliver Cromwell recommended that they all migrate to Ireland, or to Spanish territories that he planned to conquer. But the Puritans of New Haven were too conservative, and too wedded to their new land. One by one in 1662-64 the towns joined Connecticut until only three were left and they submitted to the Connecticut Colony in 1664. It became the modern city of New Haven.

In 1637 a group of London merchants and their families, discomfitted with the high Church Anglicanism around them, moved to Boston with the intention of creating a new settlement. The leaders were John Davenport, a Puritan minister, and Theophilus Eaton, a wealthy merchant who brought £3000 to the venture. Both had experience in fitting out vessels for the Massachusetts Bay Company. The two ships they chartered arrived in Boston on June 26, 1637. Hearing reports of the area around the Quinnipiac River from militia engaged in the Pequot War, in late August, Eaton set sail to view the area. The site seemed ideal for trade, with a good port lying between Boston and the Dutch city of New Amsterdam (New York City), and good access to the furs of the Connecticut River valley settlements of Hartford and Springfield.