This New London County page is part of the great
effort of The Connecticut Genealogy Trails project. Just one
part of Genealogy Trails.
The area was called Nameaug by the Pequot Indians.
John Winthrop, Jr. founded the first English settlement here in
1646, making it about the 13th town settled in
Connecticut. Inhabitants informally named it Pequot after the tribe.
The Connecticut General Assembly wanted to name the town Faire
Harbour, but the citizens protested, declaring that they would
prefer it to be called Nameaug. The legislature relented, and on
March 10, 1658 the town was offically named after London,
England.
The harbor was considered to be the best deep water harbor on
Long Island Sound [3],
and consequently New London became a base of American naval
operations during the Revolutionary War. Famous New Londoners during
the American Revolution include Nathan Hale, William Coit, Richard
Douglass, Thomas & Nathaniel Shaw, Gen.Samuel Parsons, Printer
Timothy Green, Reverend Seabury. New London was raided & nearly
burned to the ground on September 6, 1781 Battle of Groton Heights,
by Norwich Native Benedict Arnold in the attempts to destroy the
colonial privateer fleet and storage of goods and naval stores
within the city. Often noted that this raid on New London and Groton
was to devert General Washington and the French Army under
Rochambeau from their march on Yorktown, VA. The main defensive fort
for New London, Fort Griswold, located across the Thames River in
Groton, was well known by Arnold who sold its secrets to the British
fleet so they could avoid its artillery fire. Ft.Griswold was
attacked and the British suffered great casualties before eventually
storming the fort and slaugtering of the militia whom defended the
fort.
For several decades beginning in the early 19th century
, New London was the second busiest whaling port after New Bedford,
Massachusetts in the world. The wealth that whaling brought into the
city furnished the capital to fund much of the city's present
architecture.
The New Haven and New London Railroad connected New London by
rail to New Haven and points beyond by the 1850s. The Springfield
and New London Railroad connected New London to Springfield,
Massachusetts by the 1870s.
The family of Nobel and Pulitzer-Prize playwright Eugene O'Neill,
and most of his own first 26 years, were intimately connected to New
London. He lived for years there, and as an adult was employed and
wrote his first seven or eight plays in the city. (A major O'Neill
archive is located at Connecticut College there, and a family home
there is a museum and Registered National Landmark operated by the
O'Neill Theater Center.) Dutch's Tavern on Green Street was a
favorite watering hole of Eugene O'Neill and still stands
today.
