Reverend Thomas Hooker
British, 1586 - 1647
BiographyReverend Thomas Hooker (1586-1647), known as the "father of Connecticut," was born in the county of Leicestershire in central England. He attended Cambridge University from 1608-1611. In 1633, he decided to immigrate to America from Holland. On July 10, he and his family sailed for Boston on the Griffin with a large group of Puritans, including John Cotton, another prominent Puritan minister. In June 1636, less than three years after Thomas Hooker arrived in Boston, he and one hundred members of his congregation set off on a two-week overland journey following a Native American trail, later known as the Connecticut Path or the Bay Path, west to the Connecticut River, and then south to the future site of Hartford. Hooker was one of the leading figures in the Connecticut Colony, and one of the leading Puritan theologians in New England. He took part in the trials of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson and in several church councils.
Person TypeIndividual
American, 1886 - 1955
American, 1776 - 1839
