100 Towns Founded Before the American Revolution

Representatives of East Jersey and West Jersey met at a tavern to establish their boundary in 1683. From these negotiations emerged various counties and towns, including the western border of Princeton Township.

Waterbury took its official name in 1686, when it was admitted as the 28th town in the colony of Connecticut.

Quakers led by Isaac Robinson settled the area. Falmouth takes its name from a town in England.

English settlers migrated from Norwalk in Connecticut to Danbury, which was nicknamed Beantown for the abundance of beans and other vegetables that grew there.

The Dutch and English battled for control of the region and the English prevailed. A grant establishing Kingston was approved in 1688.

New Jersey’s largest city was founded by Puritan settlers who left Connecticut and bought land from the Hackensack Native Americans.

French explorers led by Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville landed on the mainland at present-day Biloxi and established a settlement.

Lebanon was formed by a consolidation of various tracts of land, some of which held by Native Americans.The town was the first settlement in the Connecticut Colony that received a biblical name.

The French established a continuing presence in the area in 1702. Mobile was the oldest permanent settlement in the original Colony of French Louisiana and was its first capital before the French lost the city following the French and Indian War.

Groton was first settled by the English as part of New London, Connecticut. It became its own incorporated town in 1705.