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Connecticut was one of the original Thirteen Colonies and was admitted as a state on January 9, 1788. Before it declared its independence, Connecticut was a colony of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Like most early states, Connecticut had claims to western areas, but did not cede all of its claims during the formation of the country like the other states. It maintained its Western Reserve until 1800, at which time it was reassigned to the Northwest Territory.
The current Constitution of Connecticut, ratified in 1965, calls for a four-year term for the governor, commencing on the Wednesday after the first Monday in the January following an election. The previous constitution of 1818 originally had only a one-year term for governor; this was increased to two years in 1875, and four years in 1948. The 1875 amendment also set the start date of the term to its current date; before then, it was the first Wednesday in the May following an election. The constitution provides for the election of a lieutenant governor for the same term as the governor. The two offices are elected on the same ticket; this provision was added in 1962. In the event of a vacancy in the office of governor, the lieutenant governor becomes governor. Before the adoption of the 1965 constitution, the lieutenant governor only acted as governor. There is no limit of any kind on the number of terms one may serve.
Connecticut did not create a state constitution for itself until several decades after it became a state; until 1818, the state operated under the provisions of its colonial charter. The charter called for the election of a governor every year, but not more than once every two years, with the term commencing on the second Thursday in May.
Colonial Governors of Connecticut
The territory of the United States state of Connecticut was first settled by Europeans in the 1620s, when Dutch traders established trading posts on the Connecticut River. English settlers, mainly Puritans fleeing repression in England, began to arrive in the 1630s, and a number of separate colonies were established. The first was the Saybrook Colony in 1635, based at the mouth of the Connecticut; it was followed by the Connecticut Colony (first settlement 1633, government from 1639) and the New Haven Colony (settled 1638, government from 1639). The Saybrook Colony merged with the Connecticut Colony in 1644, and the New Haven Colony was merged into Connecticut between 1662 and 1665 after Connecticut received a royal charter.
The Connecticut Colony was one of two colonies (the other was the neighboring Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations) that retained its governor during the American Revolution. The last colonial governor, John Trumbull, became the state of Connecticut's first governor in 1776.
Saybrook Colony (1635-1644)
- John Winthrop the Younger
- George Fenwick
New Haven Colony (1639-1665)
- Theophilus Eaton
- Francis Newman
- William Leete
Connecticut Colony (1639-1776)
- John Haynes
- Edward Hopkins
- John Haynes
- George Wyllys
- John Haynes
- Edward Hopkins
- John Haynes
- Edward Hopkins
- John Haynes
- Edward Hopkins
- John Haynes
- Edward Hopkins
- John Haynes
- Edward Hopkins
- Thomas Hooker
- John Webster
- John Winthrop the Younger
- Thomas Welles
- John Winthrop the Younger
- William Leete
- Robert Treat
- Sir Edmund Andros
- Robert Treat
- Fitz-John Winthrop
- Gurdon Saltonstall
- Joseph Talcott
- Jonathan Law
- Roger Walcott
- Thomas Fitch
- William Pitkin
- Jonathan Trumbull
List of Governors of Connecticut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_Connecticut
Governors of the State of Connecticut
- Jonathan Trumbull
- Matthew Griswold
- Samuel Huntington
- Oliver Wolcott
- Jonathan Trumbull, Jr.
- John Treadwell
- Roger Griswold
- John Cotton Smith
- Oliver Wolcott Jr.
- Gideon Tomlinson
- John Samuel Peters
- Henry W. Edwards
- Samuel A. Foot
- Henry W. Edwards
- William W. Ellsworth
- Chauncey Fitch Cleveland
- Roger Sherman Baldwin
- Isaac Toucey
- Clark Bissell
- Joseph Trumbull
- Thomas H. Seymour
- Charles H. Pond
- Henry Dutton
- William T. Minor
- Alexander H. Holley
- William A. Buckingham
- Joseph R. Hawley
- James E. English
- Marshall Jewell
- James E. English
- Marshall Jewell
- Charles R. Ingersoll
- Richard D. Hubbard
- Charles B. Andrews
- Hobart B. Bigelow
- Thomas M. Waller
- Henry B. Harrison
- Phineas C. Lounsbury
- Morgan G. Bulkeley
- Luzon B. Morris
- Owen Vincent Coffin
- Lorrin A. Cooke
- George E. Lounsbury
- George P. McLean
- Abiram Chamberlain
- Henry Roberts
- Rollin S. Woodruff
- George L. Lilley
- Frank B. Weeks
- Simeon E. Baldwin
- Marcus H. Holcomb
- Everett J. Lake
- Charles A. Templeton
- Hiram Bingham III
- John H. Trumbull
- Wilbur Lucius Cross
- Raymond E. Baldwin
- Robert A. Hurley
- Raymond E. Baldwin
- Charles W. Snow
- James L. McConaughy
- James C. Shannon
- Charles Bowles
- John Davis Lodge
- Abraham A. Ribicoff
- John N. Dempsey
- Thomas J. Meskill
- Ella T. Grasso
- William A. O'Neill
- Lowell P. Weicker Jr.
- John G. Rowland
- Jodi Rell
- Dannel Malloy
- Ned Lamont