New Haven, CT news and local guide

A small Puritan party explored the harbor in 1637 and spent the winter. In April 1638 the main group of about 500 Puritans from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, led by the Rev. John Davenport and the London merchant Theophilus Eaton, sailed in. They hoped to build a community with government more closely tied to the church than in Massachusetts and to develop the port. The Quinnipiac, under attack by the Pequot, sold them land in return for a promise of protection. By 1640 the theocratic government and the nine-square grid plan were in place, and the town was renamed New Haven, "haven" meaning harbor. The Green at its center is now a National Historic Landmark, and the Nine Square Plan is a National Planning Landmark. The land to the north kept the name Quinnipiac until 1678, when it became Hamden. New Haven was the seat of the New Haven Colony, separate from the Connecticut Colony at Hartford, and unlike its neighbor it forbade other churches. Disaster struck in 1646, when the town's first fully loaded ship, the "Great Shippe," sailed for England and was never seen again. New Haven later became the home of Yale University, still its largest employer and taxpayer. Sources Wikipedia: New Haven, Connecticut