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Killingworth is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 6,174 at the 2020 United States Census.
History
Killingworth was established from the area called Hammonasset, taken from the local Native American tribe of the same name. The area originally incorporated the area of the present town of Clinton, which was separated from Killingworth along ecclesiastical borders in 1838. Part of New London County prior to May 1785, Killingworth was then included in the newly formed Middlesex County, where it remains today.
The New England town received its name from Kenilworth, England, the previous home of one of the first settlers in New England, Edward Griswold. Kenilworth's name resembled "Killingworth" during the colonial American period, though over time the pronunciations and spellings of the names drifted toward the two distinct modern ones. A town and village in England called Killingworth and Killingworth Village, in the county of Tyne and Wear, do not appear to have any connection with Killingworth, Connecticut.
In the late 17th century, Killingworth became the birthplace of what would eventually become Yale University. The Rev. Abraham Pierson, the college's first president, taught some of the first classes in his Killingworth home—which is actually in present-day Clinton, Connecticut. However, in 1701, the college's first official home was constructed in Old Saybrook on the peninsula known as Saybrook Point donated by Yale's first Treasurer Nathanial Lynde. Eventually the school was moved to its present-day home in New Haven.
Cemeteries
Notable people
- Jeff Bagwell, Hall of Fame Major League Baseball player for the Houston Astros
- Carleton Beals, journalist, author, historian, and a crusader with special interests in Latin America
- Abel Buell, publisher of the first map of the new United States created by an American
- Jonathan Bush, American banker, brother of President George H. W. Bush
- Titus Coan, missionary to Hawaii
- Silas Halsey, former US Congressman
- Haynes Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, author and political analyst
- Camille Kostek, model who was on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
- Ricki Lake, television personality
- Hugh Lofting, author of the Doctor Dolittle series
- Washington F. Willcox, U.S. Congressman (March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1893), born on North Chestnut Hill on August 22, 1834