CT History 1700's

This is a brief history of early America in the form of a timeline. When we started finding the old large cents and Connecticut Coppers, we were curious to know what was happening at the time these coins were minted, and circulating. If coins were so scarce, how could they lose them so easily, especially during the depressions? Maybe this history timeline will be of help to you and may even help you find spots to go metal detecting.

By the early 1700s enslaved Africans made up a growing percentage of the colonial population. By 1770, more than 2 million people lived and worked in Great Britain's 13 North American colonies.

1710 - Queen Anne's War

1716 - Yale built in New Haven

1721 - America's first independent newspaper, the New England Courant, was published by Benjamin Franklin's older brother. By the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775, there were 37 independent newspapers to keep the colonists informed.

1745 - CT force took took Lewisburg (French & Indian War)
1755 - first newspaper printed in Hartford
1756 - New Haven pop. 5,085; Middletown pop. 5,664
1763 - The French and Indian War ends with Treaty of Paris terminating the French tenure in Canada
1764 - Connecticut in deep economic straits
1764 - Govenor Thomas Fitch authored the Connecticut protest to London over the Sugar Act
1765 - The Eastern CT Sons of Liberty mobilized violent opposition to the Stamp Act, confrontation with Stampmaster Jared Ingersoll in Wethersfield
1766 - election of William Pitkin as governor signified a political revolution engineered by eastern CT
1774 - first census New Haven pop. 8,295; Middletown pop. 4,878; Hartford pop. 5,000
1774 - General Assembly extended Connecticut's jurisdiction over the Susquehannah Company's claim in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania
1774 - Connecticut represented at the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia
1775 - Battle at Lexington/Concord; Govenor Trumbell responds to the news with troops and supplies.
1776 - Connecticut delegates to the 2nd Continental Congress, Samuel Huntington, Roger Sherman, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott sign Declaration of Independence

1777 - British assault on Danbury led by Gen. Tryon to destry suppies for Continental Army.

1779 - Gen Tryon and Garth led raids on the saltworks at Greenwich, and attacked New Haven, Fairfield and Norwalk
1781 - British attack on Groton/New London by Benedict Arnold which led to massacre at Fort Griswold and burning of New London
1783 - CT celebrated the Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War.
1783 - Noah Webster publishes first edition of the "Blue-backed Speller."
December 23, 1783 - George Washington enters the senate chamber of the Maryland State House and officially resigns his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army.

1784 - Middletown Convention, first law school established in Litchfield, Connecticut relinquishes Westmoreland to Pennsylvania;
the emancipation of blacks in CT; incorporation of the first five cities, New Haven, New London, Hartford, Middletown, Norwich. >
1785 - John Fitch made first model of paddle-wheel steamboat
1787 - CT sends 3 delegates to Philadelphia Convention
1788 - CT ratified the Federal Constitution
1792 - 1st turnpike road company chartered
1792 - 1st banks founded in New London(Union bank) and Hartford(Hartford bank)
1793 - clocks produced in Plymouth, CT
1794 - Sanford and Wadsworth open first CT insurance company in Hartford

1795 - Ct Western Reserve lands sold

1798 - Eli Whitney starts gun making industry; develops system of interchangeable parts.
Simon North of Middletown - first major pistol factory
Colt - in Hartford
Smith & Wesson - Norwich
Winchester - New Haven