Pequot Path: Difference between revisions

| link1=[[United States Genealogy|United States]]

| link2=[[United States Migration Internal|Migration]]  

| link4=

}}

Did an ancestor travel the '''Pequot Path''' of Rhode Island and Connecticut? Learn about this settler migration route, its transportation history, and find related genealogy sources.<br><br>[[Image:{{PequotPathmap}}]]__TOC__

=== History  ===

The '''Pequot Path''' ran about 69 miles (111 kilometers) near the mainland ocean shore from '''[[Providence, Rhode Island|Providence, Rhode Island]]''' to '''[[New London, Connecticut|New London, Connecticut]]''' (formerly Pequitt).<ref>William Davis Miller, ''Ancient Paths to Pequot'' (Providence: E.L. Freeman, 1936), 8. [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015070269447;view=1up;seq=7 Hathi Trust Digital Library edition].</ref> At least one authority asserts the route also included the island community of Newport on Rhode Island.<ref>[http://qb.mindhenge.org/PostRoad.html On the Trail of Benjamin Franklin: The Lower Boston Post Road] (accessed 20 October 2014).</ref> All seem to agree the route was certainly extended into central Connecticut, but the earliest name of the trail in Connecticut beyond New London is unclear (before it was called the Boston Post Road). The Pequot Path route was part of the American Indian foot trails that were widened by European colonists into horse paths, and then wagon roads<ref>Frederic J. Wood, ''The Turnpikes of New England and the Evolution of the Same Through England, Virginia, and Maryland'' (Boston: Marshall Jones, 1919), 25. [https://archive.org/details/turnpikesofnewen00woodrich Internet Archive version online].</ref>  

'''Stagecoach service'''. In the 1760s stagecoaches began to traverse these roads carrying regular mail and passengers. Inns for stagecoach passengers and other travelers usually were established near the time of American Revolution. By 1800 an advertisement suggested stage service from Boston to Providence took only ten hours, but service from there to New York City took the rest of the week.<ref>Wood, 86-87.</ref> Nevertheless, travel between colonial towns was more often by sea than it was over land until just before the American Revolution.<ref>Wood, 25.</ref>  

:*The [[Old Roebuck Road]] from [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] to [[Providence, Rhode Island]] connects with the Pequot Path on the northest end in Providence.

:*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_1_in_Rhode_Island U.S. Route 1] Providence to Westerly in Rhode Island.  

Providence was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams and other English Puritan dissenters. New London was settled by English Puritans in 1646. The Indian footpath between these places and Boston attracted settlers who would be able to more easily get access to markets. Many of the earliest settlers along the Pequot Path would have been from Boston, Massachusetts area, and prior to that from England. Look at the earliest deeds, tax records, and histories of towns along the Pequot Path to learn the names of the first settlers. If you already know the name of a settler near the Pequot Path, you have a good chance of finding his or her genealogy in sources like:  

*[http://www.americanancestors.org/about/ New England Historic Genealogical Society]