The Plantation Covenant of Guilford, Connecticut , sometimes called the Guilford Covenant , was a covenant signed on June 1, 1639 ( O.S. , June 11, 1639 N.S.) by English colonists during their Atlantic crossing as the founding document of what would become Guilford, Connecticut .
6-775: Led by Rev. Henry Whitfield , the Plantation Covenant was signed onboard ship after departing England. The 25 signers were the male heads of household among the group of settlers bound first for Quinnipiac (later known as New Haven). Most of these families were from Surrey and Kent , who by September 1639 founded present-day Guilford after securing a land grant from Shaumpishuh , the Quinnipiac sachem of Menunkatuck. The covenant stated: We whose names are herein written, intending by God's gracious permission, to plant ourselves in New England, and if it may be in
12-623: The Henry Whitfield House (c. 1639), is one of the oldest surviving American houses. Henry Whitfield was born in Wadhurst , England around 1590 and attended Oxford University . He left the established Church of England and joined the Puritans and Independents as a pastor. He married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Sheafe , by his first wife Mary Wilson (contract dated 1617). He migrated to New Haven, Connecticut in 1639 and signed
18-681: The collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society , and a digital version exists in the collections of the Guilford Free Library. In June 2014, as part of Guilford's 375th anniversary, the MHS sent the document on loan for display in the town hall. The text of the covenant is memorialized by an engraved pink granite slab at the corner of Old Whitfield and Whitfield streets in Guilford. The town installed
24-535: The memorial in May 2014. This article relating to the history of the United States is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Connecticut -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Henry Whitfield (minister) Henry Whitfield (c.1590-c.1657) was a Puritan minister who was a founder of Guilford, Connecticut and the first pastor there. His house,
30-458: The plantation but with the consent of the rest, or the greater part of the company, who have entered into this engagement. As for our gathering together into a church way and the choice officers and members to be joined together in that way, we do refer ourselves until such time as it shall please God to settle us in our plantation. In witness whereof we subscribe our hands, this first day of June 1639 In order: The original covenant survives in
36-452: The southerly part, about Quinpisac [ Quinnipiac ], we do faithfully promise each for ourselves and families and those that belong to us, that we will, the Lord assisting us, sit down and join ourselves together in one entire plantation and to be helpful to the other in any common work, according to every man's ability and as need shall require, and we promise not to desert or leave each other on
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