Greetings! Windham County is bounded on the west by Tolland County, the south by New London County, the east by Kent County and Providence County RI, and the north by Worcester County MA.

Town	Established	Parent Town	History of incorporation
Ashford	1714		Oct 1714
Brooklyn	1786	Pomfret, Canterbury	May, 1786; taken from Pomfret and Canterbury
Canterbury	1703	Plainfield	Oct., 1703; taken from Plainfield
Chaplin	1822	Windham, Hampton, Mansfield	1822; taken from Windham, Mansfield and Hampton
Eastford
Hampton	1786	Windham, Pomfret, Brooklyn, Canterbury	Oct., 1786; taken from Windham, Pomfret, Brooklyn, Canterbury and Mansfield
Killingly	1708		May 1708
Plainfield	1699		as Quinabaug, May, 1699; named Plainfield, Oct., 1700
Pomfret	1713		Named and inc., May, 1713
Putnam	1855	Thompson, Pomfret, Killingly	Town inc., May, 1855; taken from Thompson, Pomfret and Killingly. City inc., Jan., 1895. Town and city consolidated, Nov. 8, 1983. The city is a Special Service Dist.
Scotland	1857	Windham	May, 1857; taken from Windham
Sterling	1794	Voluntown	May 4, 1794; taken from Voluntown
Thompson	1785	Killingly	May, 1785; taken from Killingly
Windham	1692		Town inc., May, 1692. City of Willimantic inc., Jan. 1893. Town of Windham and City of Willimantic consolidated July 1, 1983
Woodstock	1690		Settled, 1686; named New Roxbury; name changed, March, 1690, to Woodstock. Annexed to Conn., May, 1749

In the early commerce between the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut a popular route over the land was through the region now covered by Windham county. Remote from the sea shore, and possessing no navigable lakes or rivers, it was perfectly reasonable that this territory should be for a time overlooked, or rather that it should be passed by as a goodly land for the home-seekers in a new world to locate upon. Accessibility by water was to the first settlers an almost absolutely essential feature in any site chosen by them for the planting of a little colony. But we may well imagine that the fertile valleys and hills of this beautiful region, and the picturesque attractions of the future Windham did not long remain unnoticed. The land became known to the English about the year 1635. When, about that time, the early colonists began to traverse the hideous and trackless wilderness, on the way from Massachusetts to the Connecticut river, tradition tells us their encampment for the night was on Pine hill in Ashford. A rude track, called the Connecticut Path, obliquely crossing the Wabbaquasset country, became the main thoroughfare of travel between the two colonies. Hundreds of families toiled over it to new homes in the wilderness. The fathers of Hartford and New Haven, ministers and governors, captains and commissioners, government officials and land speculators, crossed and recrossed over it. Civilization passed to regions beyond but made no abiding place here for more than half a century.

On of the most indefatigable land speculators of that period was Mr. John Winthrop. In Massachusetts, in Rhode Island, in Connecticut and upon Long Island his tracks may be seen, as, first in one locality and then in another, he obtained title more or less perfect to the wild lands occupied by the Indians. Here in the territory now occupied by Windham county he was the first Englishman to receive from the natives a deed for an indefinite quantity of land. This conveyance beats date November 2d, 1653, and purports to have been given by James, sachem of Quinebaug, and confirmed by Massashowitt, his brother, and also to have been made with the consent, full and free ; of Aguntus, Pumquanon, Massitiarno, his brother, and Moas, and all the rest of the chief men of these parts; The confirmation by other than James was made on the 25th of the same month, the writings being witnessed by Richard Smith, Samuel Smith, John Gallop, James Avery and William Weloma

This page was originally founded by George Waller on September 22, 1996
From 1997 to 2007 the site was maintained, and content donated, by Elaine Merrell
From 2007 to June of 2008 the site was maintained by Lisa Shea