In Their Own Words:
The Settlement
of Windsor, Connecticut

from Chapter IV
The Dorchester Emigration of 1635

The Dorchester group who arrived at Windsor in 1635 was actually a Puritan congregation established by the Rev. John White in Plymouth, England, in 1630. Seeking a creative solution to the problems of political and religious oppression in England, the Puritans decided to emigrate to the New World to perform an "errand in the wilderness," to develop a model society under God free of the corruption of England. Rev. White encouraged 140 people to covenant with God and each other to live as a Christian community in the New World. Rev. John Warham and Rev. John Maverick were chosen as ministers. Others in the company included lawyers Roger Ludlow and Bray Rossiter; soldiers Captain John Mason, Captain Richard Southcote and Quartermaster John Smith; established gentlemen Henry Wolcott, George Dyer, Thomas Ford, William Rockwell and William Phelps; and young, mostly single men such as Israel Stoughton, Roger Clap, Nathaniel Duncan and George Phelps. After a day of prayer, fasting and preaching, they board the MARY AND JOHN where they met together every day for worsip and preaching during the ten weeks of their voyage. Landing in the New World, they established their new community in Dorchester under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony headed by Governor John Winthrop.

from Chapter VI
Windsor, Wethersfield and Hartford Form The Connecticut Colony

In March 1636 the General Court of Massachusetts established a commission of eight members to govern the river towns, including Agawam (now Springfield), for one year. Windsor's representatives were William Phelps and Roger Ludlow.