HISTORY OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
 

From the Winthrop Journal of 26 June 1637 – "There arrived two ships from London, the Hector and the (Abigail). In these came Mr. Davenport and another minister, and Mr. Eaton and Mr. Hopkins, two merchants of London, men of fair estate and of great esteem for religion and wisdom in outward affairs." In the Hector also came the Lord ley, son and heir of thew Earl of Marlborough. (6)

They were the first English Puritan settlers, and under the leadership of the Reverend John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton they set out to establish an "Independent Kingdom of Christ."  Davenport was a vicar educated at Magdelan Hall, Oxford, though he did not complete his degree.  He joined with Theophilus Eaton, who was Deputy Governor of the Eastland Company, Commercial Agents of James I to Denmark, and an original partner of Massachusetts Bay Company.

In Aug. of 1637, Eaton and several others traveled south to view the area around the Long Island Sound. They left members of their party there over the winter to retain possession. Many from the Bay Colony chose to leave for New Haven with Eaton and Davenport: Richard Hull…..William Potter, Edward Riggs, Thomas Uffot and Joanna and Jacob Sheaff of Roxbury; Mark Pierce of Newtown; and Nathaniel Turner of Lynn. (8)

Two years after their arrival the total population in 1640 consisted of 350 adult householders, 250 children and 200 servants, most under 30 years of age.  Eight or nine very wealthy families and a number of international merchants were among the householders, and had undoubtedly brought fine books, textiles, silver and porcelain with them.  They brought Ezekiel Cheever, a schoolmaster, with them, and by 1641 had built a schoolhouse.  For more than 80 years the town grew slowly, and, as originally envisioned, functioned as somewhat of a trading center, market town of an agricultural region, and a coastal trading port. Decorative art objects made their way from Europe and the Orient, the worthies and preachers had their portraits painted.

By 1660, many new towns joined the Connecticut Colony. Some of the new towns were, New London, Farmington etc… New Haven had been founded as an independent colony in 1638. It was originally a puritan theocracy (chruch-state). Starting in 1643, the towns of Branford, Guilford, Milford, Stamford, and Southhold joined the New Haven Colony. It resulted as Connecticut consisting of two colonies, Connecticut and New Haven. John Winthrop, Jr. of Connecticut received a charter from the king of England in 1662. The charter gave the colony a strip of land 73 miles wide that stretched from Narragansett Bay to the Pacific Ocean.

Among the subscribers who settled in East Haven, or were concerned in that settlement, were: William Andrews, William Touttle, Gravis Boykim, John Potter, Matthew Moulthrop, Matthais Hitchcock, Edward Patterson. (7)

Early History of Yale College

New Haveners had to content themselves with sending their sons to Harvard until 1701 when a Collegiate School was formed at Old Saybrook.  It was moved to New Haven in 1716 and was housed in a building of its own at the corner of Chapel and College Street in 1718. It was renamed after a "large benefaction" to honor Elihu Yale, a grandson of Governor Eaton, who had returned to England and become wealthy in the India trade.

The Puritan clergy and merchants who had founded and governed the colony since its beginning were deeply involved in the College.  Yale was a small college in a small town for its first 100 years, and so the town and the college were closely intertwined.  Ten ministers from nearby towns were its first board of trustees.

In the first quarter of the 19th century, several events worked to change this close relationship.

In 1818 the second Connecticut Constitution formally separated Church and State.  Manufacturing expanded and developed all over New England; and with the opening of the Farmington Canal to North Hampton, Massachusetts, New Haven had access to and from inland markets and supplies of raw goods.  The canal also brought Irish immigrant labor in much larger numbers, then prior to this time.  New haven was already a cosmopolitan place having welcomed its first Italian immigrant in 1717, Irish servants in 1754, Acadians in 1787 and Venetian Jews in 1772.  With the immigrants came their traditions in the arts, broadening and diversifying the tastes of the previously straight-laced community.