Guilford - Connecticut Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This is the standard big blue sign that every Connecticut town has giving its history. In Guilford, it is located on the town green.

Text of sign:
GUILFORD

This town, the seventh oldest in Connecticut, was founded in 1639 by an oppressed by optimistic band of English Puritans. Henry Whitfield, a minister in Oakley, near London, was the moving spirit behind their emigration. About forty of his friends and sympathizers formed a joint stock company to sail across the Atlantic. They were mostly young and energetic men, farmers, well-educated, and all of them persons of high standing in their community. In a deed of sale dated September 29, 1639, the Whitfield Company purchased the lands between Stony Creek and East River form the Squaw Shaumpishuh, Sachem of the local Menunkatuck Indian tribe. Whitfield's stone house at first served as a fortress and meeting place. Guilford Green was inspired by the typical 17th century English common. In the fall of 1641 the settlers purchased from the Indians land beyond East River that included most of what became East Guilford.
(side 2)
East Guilford, now Madison, was set off as a distinct church society in 1703, North Guilford in 1720, and North Bristol (North Madison) in 1733. Two good harbors and two tidal rivers assured success to Guilford in Connecticut - New York coastwise shipping and the West India trade during the 18th century. In the American Revolution, British troops landed several times and burned two houses. The famous Sachem's Head Hotel (1832- 1865) and Guilford Point House (1797-1897) made this town the center of society for many years. John Beattie's granite quarries at Leete's Island employed as many as three hundred workment and supplied stone for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Famous sons of Guilford include William Leete, an early Governor of Connecticut; Fitz-Greene Helleck, one of the noted Knickerbocker Poets; and Abraham Baldwin, a signer of the United States Constitution and a Senator from Georgia.

Erected by the Town of Guilford
The Guilford Foundation
The Guilford Keeping Society
and the Connecticut Historical Commission 1980

Marker Name: Guilford Marker Type: Roadside Date Dedicated / Placed: 1980 Additional Information: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/01/2022 childofatom visited it