Windham

WINDHAM The area which became Windham was a part of Joshua's Tract, bequeathed to Captain John Mason and other Norwich men in a will dated February 29, 1675, by Mohegan Indian chief Joshua, son of Uncas. The gift included land in the present towns of Windham, Mansfield, and Chaplin and parts of Hampton and Scotland. The town name was derived from Wymondham (pronounced "Windham") parish in Norfolkshire, English home of a number of early settlers. By 1692 settlements in Windham were located at the Hither-place (Windham Center), Ponde-place (Mansfield Center), and in the valley of the Willimantic River. On May 12, 1692, the Connecticut General Court incorporated the settlement as the Town of Windham, and the first public town meeting was held on June 12, 1692. Windham completed its meeting house in 1703, the year that Mansfield became a separate town. The Reverend Thomas Clap, president of Yale College 1739 to 1766, was pastor in Windham Center from 1726 until 1739. (Continued on other side) WINDHAM (Continued from other side) During the first half of the eighteenth century Windham developed as the political and economic center of northeastern Connecticut. A court of probate was established in 1719, and Windham became the county seat of Windham County in 1726. In the decades before the Revolutionary War Windham experienced the revivalism of the Great Awakening and was the site where the Susquehannah Land Company was formed in 1753. During the Revolutionary era Windham was one of the principal eastern Connecticut communities which provided decisive support for the Patriot cause. Windham's Sons of Liberty were prominent in Connecticut's repudiation of British policies in the 1760's and 1770's, and throughout the Revolutionary War Windham supported the American forces with men, powder, and provisions.