Founders of Greenwich, Connecticut

18 July 1640

"The Winthrop Woman" by Anya Seton 

Little did the young English widow Elizabeth Winthrop, daughter-in-law and niece of Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop, realize when she embarked from Europe in 1631 that she would become one the three original founders on July 18, 1640 of a patch of wilderness owned by Native Americans sandwiched between British controlled Stamford, Connecticut and Dutch controlled New Netherland (later New York) named "Greenwich".  Elizabeth Winthrop's particular purchase, according to the original 1640 deed, was "Monakewego", a neck of land known today as Greenwich Point. 

By 1640, Robert Feake, a wealthy landowner in the New World who had emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1630, had married Elizabeth Winthrop and they were intent on settling in Greenwich. The other founder, Captain Daniel Patrick, had originally moved from England to Holland where he had met and married his wife, Annetjie van Beyeren, before being appointed in 1630 by Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay Colony to be one of the first two military commanders of the militia in the New World.  They sought a life free from the shackles of Puritanism.           

Minutes of the 11 May 1665 General Assembly
with the Greenwich Charter (center).

The three founders, Captain Daniel Patrick with Robert Feake and his wife, Elizabeth Winthrop Feake, arrived in today's Old Greenwich having already experienced years of wars and personal trials in the Massachusetts and Connecticut colonies, only to face disputed land purchases and troubles between the Dutch, the English and the local Native Americans.  For protection from the warring factions, they signed an allegiance to the Dutch of New Netherlands in April of 1642. 

Greenwich Historical Society's Seal
of Native Americans encircled by
Historical Society 1931.

The Dutch, who had previously laid claim to this border area as early as 1620, continued to rule Greenwich as a "manor" until 1650, after which time the Dutch relinquished control and British internal political and territorial disputes ensued between the Connecticut and New Haven Colonies over control of Greenwich until 1656. By then both the local sachem Mayn Mayanos and Captain ird time, to William Hallett, and moved to Long Island (1652).  The final settlement of the "Town of Greenwich" came in 1665 after the First Congregational Church was established in a British controlled Connecticut Colony, which had been secured by Governor John Winthrop on October 9, 1662 courtesy of a liberal charter from King Charles II of England.