The Green Papers: State and Local Government: Connecticut - Localities Civil Divisions and Municipalities

------CT Counties & MCDs with historical data-------

STATE OF CONNECTICUT

COUNTIES (PCDs)
(since 1960, there have officially been no county seats in CONNECTICUT)
[with dates of formation of county in brackets]
Fairfield [1666]
Hartford [1666]
Litchfield [1751]
Middlesex [1785]
New Haven [1666]
New London [1666]
Tolland [1785]
Windham [1726]

MINOR CIVIL DIVISIONS

[Note: Though the "Town" is the Minor Civil Division in CONNECTICUT, "Cities"- although a form of incorporated Municipality in the State- do not completely absorb the functions of the "Town"; therefore, most of the "Cities" of this State are listed herein as if they were such "Towns" (however, the word "City" in parentheses will appear where an MCD is both a "City" AND a "Town": in addition, one "Borough"- although also an incorporated Municipality- is coterminous with a "Town" [this being Naugatuck]) and, thus, is- unlike all other Boroughs in the State-listed as an MCD)...

one "City" (Groton) is not coterminous/consolidated with its Town of the same name, of which it is merely a part; therefore, the Town of Groton is counted as an MCD, while the City of the same name within it is not. Likewise, all but one of the "Boroughs" in the State remain part of the Towns in which they have been created; therefore, except as noted above (re: the one "Borough" coterminous/consolidated with a "Town"), these are also not listed as MCDs below.

To this end, by the way: a number of Cities in CONNECTICUT currently coterminous/consolidated with their respective Towns of the same name were not always thus. Where this might be the case, the date when the City and Town did, indeed, begin to share the same boundaries is noted immediately following the term "Consolidated"; by the same token, where there is no such reference to said consolidation, the City and Town have been coterminous/consolidated ever since the City in question was first incorporated as a Municipality.

A final note re: the dates of "Town" establishment seen below: Until around 1700, formal incorporation/authorization of a Town by the General Court of the Colony of CONNECTICUT was virtually unknown. In all portions of what became Connecticut in 1662/1664, Towns functioned also as church parishes and were established solely by the Common Law rule that a "Town" could exist only where it had "a church, and celebration of Divine services, sacraments and burials" (Coke's Commentaries on Littleton, 1628); and this practice continued in the united Colony. Generally, then, the date given below for all Towns prior to 1700 is the date of its having recognized itself as such (where practicable, the date its name was at least registered with the General Court so that it could thereafter be represented therein).

Beginning around 1700, the General Court began formally authorizing Towns with language such as "This assembly doth grant to the inhabitants of the town of _________ all such immunities, privileges and powers, as generally other towns within this Colony have and do enjoy", implying a formal "incorporation" of a Town already in existence for at least a few years prior to said authorization. Where this seems to be the case, the date given below for a Town is the date it established itself prior to any such formal "incorporation".

By the 1720s, however, the Colony's General Court (later, with Independence and Statehood, to become the bicameral 'General Assembly') had already initiated the practice of formal incorporation in the modern sense. There seem to have been two principal reasons for this: 1. the practice of setting up secondary church parishes within a Town combined with the Separation of Church and State- at least insofar as Freedom of Worship be concerned (Connecticut continued to allow Towns to establish tax-supported congregations), in that church membership had long been abandoned as a requirement for suffrage and the franchise (thus, a Town could contain more than one parish, even of the same denomination); 2. the foregoing now made it imperative to have a formal declaration as to if, as well as when, such a separate parish=community had become set off from an already existing Town in order to form a Town of its own. In addition, where new Towns were being established in areas of Connecticut hitherto uninhabited by the White Man, the Colony would take it upon itself to determine whether such a settlement (almost always on lands previously occupied by Native American Indians) was, in fact, legal: formal incorporation, then, was taken to be the Colony's imprimatur that such a community was, in fact, legally established.]

Fairfield County
Bethel [1855]
BRIDGEPORT (City) [1821: inc. as a city, 1836]- county courthouse
Brookfield [1788]
[DANBURY] (City) [1687: inc. as a city, 1889: Consolidated, 1965]- auxiliary courthouse
Darien [1820]
Easton [1845]
Fairfield [1639]
Greenwich [inc. by N.Y. (at the time, the Dutch 'NEW NETHERLAND'), 1640; to CONN. under terms of the Treaty of Hartford (1650) and temporarily attached to Stamford until re-established as a Town, 1656]
Monroe [1823]
New Canaan [1801]
New Fairfield [1740]
Newtown [1711]
Norwalk (City) [1651: inc. as a city, 1893: Consolidated, 1913]
Redding [1767]
Ridgefield [1709]
Shelton (City) [1789: was "Huntington", 1789-1919; inc. as a city with the name "Shelton", 1915]
Sherman [1802]
[STAMFORD] (City) [1641: was "Rippowam", 1641-1642: inc. as a city, 1893: Consolidated, 1949]- auxiliary courthouse
Stratford [1639: was "Cupheag", 1639-1643]
Trumbull [1797]
Weston [1787]
Westport [1835]
Wilton [1802]

Hartford County
Avon [1830]
Berlin [1785]
Bloomfield [1835]
Bristol (City) [1785: inc. as a city, 1911]
Burlington [1806]
Canton [1806]
East Granby [1858]
East Hartford [1783]
East Windsor [1768]
Enfield [inc. by MASS., 1683; to CONN., 1749]
Farmington [1640: was "Tunxis", 1640-1645]
Glastonbury [1693]
Granby [1786]
HARTFORD (City) [1635: was "Newtown", 1635-1637; inc. as a city, 1784: Consolidated, 1896]- state capital/county courthouse
Hartland [1761]
Manchester [1823]
Marlborough [1803]
[NEW BRITAIN] (City) [1850; inc. as a city, 1870: Consolidated, 1905]- auxiliary courthouse
Newington [1871]
Plainville [1869]
Rocky Hill [1843]
Simsbury [1670]
Southington [1779]
South Windsor [1845]
Suffield [inc. by MASS., 1674; to CONN., 1749]
West Hartford [1854]
Wethersfield [1634: was "Watertown", 1634-1637]
Windsor [1635: was "Dorchester", 1635-1637]
Windsor Locks [1854]

Litchfield County
Barkhamsted [1779]
Bethlehem [1787]
Bridgewater [1856]
Canaan [1739]
Colebrook [1779]
Cornwall [1740]
Goshen [1739]
Harwinton [1737]
Kent [1739]
LITCHFIELD [1719]- county courthouse
Morris [1859]
New Hartford [1738]
New Milford [1712]
Norfolk [1758]
North Canaan [1858]
Plymouth [1795]
Roxbury [1796]
Salisbury [1741]
Sharon [1739]
Thomaston [1875]
Torrington (City) [1740: inc. as a city, 1923]
Warren [1786]
Washington [1779]
Watertown [1780]
Winchester [1771]
Woodbury [1673]

Middlesex County
Chester [1836]
Clinton [1838]
Cromwell [1851]
Deep River [1639: "Saybrook", 1639-1947]
Durham [1704]
East Haddam [1734]
East Hampton [1767: was "Chatham", 1767-1915]
Essex [1852: was "Old Saybrook", 1852-1854]
Haddam [1668]
Killingworth [1667: originally, "Kenilworth"]
Middlefield [1866]
MIDDLETOWN (City) [1651: was "Mattabeset", 1651-1653; inc. as a city, 1784: Consolidated, 1923]- county courthouse
Old Saybrook [1854]
Portland [1841]
Westbrook [1840]

New Haven County
Ansonia (City) [1889: inc. as a city, 1893]
Beacon Falls [1871]
Bethany [1832]
Branford [1685]
Cheshire [1780]
Derby (City) [1675: inc. as a city, 1893]
East Haven [1785]
Guilford [1639: was "Menunkatuck", 1639-1643]
Hamden [1786]
Madison [1826]
Meriden (City) [1806: inc. as a city, 1867: Consolidated, 1922]
Middlebury [1807]
[MILFORD] (City) [1639: was "Wepawaug", 1639-1640; inc. as a city, 1959]- auxiliary courthouse
Naugatuck (Borough) [1844: inc. as a borough, 1893: Consolidated, 1895]
NEW HAVEN (City) [1638: was "Quinnipiac", 1638-1640; inc. as a city, 1784: Consolidated, 1895]- county courthouse
North Branford [1831]
North Haven [1786]
Orange [1822]
Oxford [1798]
Prospect [1827]
Seymour [1850]
Southbury [1787]
Wallingford [1670]
[WATERBURY] (City) [1686: inc. as a city, 1853: Consolidated, 1902]- auxiliary courthouse
West Haven (City) [1921: inc. as a city, 1961]
Wolcott [1796]
Woodbridge [1784]

New London County
Bozrah [1786]
Colchester [1699]
East Lyme [1839]
Franklin [1786]
Griswold [1815]
Groton [1705]
Lebanon [1697]
Ledyard [1836]
Lisbon [1786]
Lyme [1665: was "East Saybrook", 1665-1667]
Montville [1786]
NEW LONDON (City) [1646: was "Pequot", 1646-1658; inc. as a city, 1784]- county courthouse
North Stonington [1807]
Norwich (City) [1659: was "Mohegan", 1659-1662: inc. as a city, 1784: Consolidated, 1952]
Old Lyme [1855: was "South Lyme", 1855-1857]
Preston [1687]
Salem [1819]
Sprague [1861]
Stonington [inc. 1658 by MASS.: was "SoutherTowne", 1658-1666; to CONN., 1666; was also claimed by R.I. during its "SoutherTowne" period]
Voluntown [1721]
Waterford [1801]

Tolland County
Andover [1848]
Bolton [1720]
Columbia [1804]
Coventry [1712]
Ellington [1786]
Hebron [1708]
Mansfield [1702]
Somers [inc. by MASS., 1734; to CONN., 1749]
Stafford [1719]
Tolland [1715]
Union [1734]
VERNON [1808]- county courthouse
[c.h. p.o.= "Rockville"]
Willington [1727]

Windham County
Ashford [1714]
Brooklyn [1786]
Canterbury [1703]
Chaplin [1822]
Eastford [1847]
Hampton [1786]
Killingly [1708]
Plainfield [1699: was "Quinebaug", 1699-1700]
Pomfret [1713]
PUTNAM [1855]- county courthouse
Scotland [1857]
Sterling [1794]
Thompson [1785]
Windham [1692]
Woodstock [inc. by MASS., 1686: was "New Roxbury", 1686-1690; to CONN., 1749]

MUNICIPALITIES not Minor Civil Divisions:
As noted above, there are quite a few Municipalities that are contained within (that is, they only make up a part of) the Town in which they are located- that is, they are not consolidated with their respective Towns= MCDs. These are listed below with (Town, COUNTY) containing them so noted.

unconsolidated CITY:
Groton (Groton, NEW LONDON) inc. as a borough: 1903; as a city, 1964

unconsolidated BOROUGHS:
Bantam (Litchfield, LITCHFIELD) inc. 1915
Danielson (Killingly, WINDHAM) inc. 1854
Fenwick (Old Saybrook, MIDDLESEX) inc. 1899
Jewett City (Griswold, NEW LONDON) inc. 1895
Litchfield (Litchfield, LITCHFIELD) inc. 1879
Newtown (Newtown, FAIRFIELD) inc. 1824
Stonington (Stonington, NEW LONDON) inc. 1801
Woodmont (Milford, NEW HAVEN) inc. 1903

State and Local Government Outline

Created Tue 1 Jul 2008. Modified .