Below is a list of printed primary sources related to colonial and early national Connecticut. Although not exhaustive, this list contains some of the more prominent and voluminous collections of published sources related to the Constitution State. Additional printed collections can be found in historical journals such as the Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society and the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Connecticut’s vast colonial print culture is well captured in the bibliographies of Richard L Bushman, From Yankee to Puritan: Character and Social Order in Connecticut, 1690 - 1765 (Cambridge, 1967) and Christopher Grasso, A Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut (Chapel Hill, 1999). For help locating any of the volumes listed below, consult our Finding Published Sources page.

Colonial  

A Digest of Early Connecticut Probate Records, ed. Charles William Manwaring (Hartford, 1902) 

A Memoir of the Life and Times of the Rev. Isaac Backus, A.M., ed. Alvah Hovey (Boston, 1859) 

Ancient Town Records of New Haven, 1649 - 1769, ed. Franklin Bowditch Dexter, et al., 3 vols. (New Haven, 1917-1962) 

The Andros Papers, 1674 - 1677, eds. Peter Al Christoph and Florence Christoph, trans. Charles A. Ghering, 2 vols. (Syracuse, 1990) 

“A Selection from the Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Jared Ingersoll,” ed. Franklin D. Dexter, Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, IX (1918): 201-472.  

Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, Preserved in the Public Record Office, eds. w. Noel Sainsbury, et al., 45 vols. (London, 1896-1969) 

Collected Works of Roger Sherman, ed. Mark David Hall (Carmel, 2016) 

Colonial Currency Reprints, 1682 – 1751, ed. Andrew McFarland Davis, 4 vols. (Boston, 1910-1911) 

The Deane Papers, 1774 – 1790, ed. Charles Isham, 5 vols. (New York, 1887-1890) 

Diary of Joshua Hempstead of New London, Connecticut Covering a Period of Forty-Seven Years from September, 1711, to November, 1758, New London Historical Society Collections (New London, 1901) 

The Diary of Manasseh Minor, Stonington, Conn., 1669 - 1720, eds. Frank Denison Miner and Hannah Miner (1915) 

Diary of Rev. Daniel Wadsworth, 1737 - 1747, ed. George Leon Walker (Hartford, 1894) 

Documentary History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Containing Numerous Hitherto Unpublished Documents Concerning the Church in Connecticut, eds. Francis L. Hawks and William Stevens Perry, 2 vols. (New York, 1863-1864)

Documents Relating to New Netherland, 1624 – 1626, ed. and trans. Arnold J. F. Van Lear (San Mateo, 1924) 

Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York…, ed. E. B. O’Callaghan, 15 vols. (Albany, 1853-1887) 

The Earliest Laws of the New Haven and Connecticut Colonies, 1639 – 1673 (Wilmington, 1977) 

Early American Indian Documents: Treaties and Laws, 1670 - 1775, ed. Alden T. Vaughan, 20 vols. (Bethesda, 1979-1994) 

Extracts from the Itineraries and Other Mscellanies of Ezra Stiles, D.D., LL.D. 1755-1794, with a Selection from his Correspondence, ed. Franklin Bowditch Dexter (New Haven, 1916) 

“Extracts of Letters to Rev. Thomas Prince, Containing Historical Notices of Sundry Towns,” Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, III (1895): 271-320. 

Hartford Town Votes, Volume I, 1635 - 1716, Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, VI (Hartford, 1897) 

Historical Records Relating to the American Colonial Church, ed. William Stevens Perry, 5 vols. (Hartford, 1870-1878) 

History of Stamford, E. B. Huntington (Stamford, 1868)

Jonathan Edwards: Representative Selections, eds. Calrence H. Faust and Thomas H. Johnson (New York, 1962) 

Journal Kept by William Williams of the Proceedings of the Lower House of the Connecticut General Assembly, May 1757, ed. Sylvie J. Turner (Hartford, 1975) 

Journals of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations…, 14 vols. (London, 1920-1938) 

The Law Papers, Correspondence, and Documents During Jonathan Law’s Governorship of the Colony of Connecticut, 1741-1750, ed. Albert C. Bates, Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, XI, XIII, XV (Hartford, 1907-1914) 

Letters of John Davenport, Puritan Divine, ed. Isabel Macbeath Calder (New Haven, 1937) 

The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, ed. Wilbur M. Smith (Chicago, 1949) 

The Life and Times of William Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: First Senator in Congress from Connecticut…, Eben Edwards Beardsley (New York, 1876) 

The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, D.D., LL.D., ed. Franklin Bowditch Dexter, 3 vols. (New York, 1901) 

Louisbourg Journals, 1745, ed. L. E. de Forest (New York, 1932) 

Narratives of New Netherland, ed. J. Franklin Jameson (New York, 1909) 

Narratives of the Indian Wars, 1675-1699, ed. Charles H. Lincoln (New York, 1913) 

New Haven Town Records, eds. Franklin Bowditch Dexter and Zara Jones Powers, 3 vols. (New Haven, 1917-1962) 

The Papers of Sir William Johnson, eds. Alexander C. Flick, et. al. 14 vols. (Albany, 1921-1965) 

The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1636 – 1776, eds. J. Hammond Trumbull and Charles J. Hoadley, 15 vols. (Hartford, 1850-1890) 

The Pynchon Papers, Letters of John Pynchon, 1654 - 1700, ed. Carl Bridenbaugh, 2 vols. (Boston, 1982) 

Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, from 1638 to 1649, ed. Charles J. Hoadley (Hartford, 1857)

Records of the Colony or Jurisdiction of New Haven, from May, 1653, to the Union, ed. Charles J. Hoadley (Hartford, 1858) 

Records of the Congregational Church, Franklin, Conn., 1718 - 1860 (Hartford, 1938) 

The Records of the General Association of the Colony of Connecticut (Hartford, 1888) 

Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, ed. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff (Boston, 1853) 

Royal Instructions to British Colonial Governors, 1670 – 1776, ed. Leonard Woods Labaree, 2 vols. (New York, 1965) 

Sailors’ Narratives of Voyages along the New England Coast, 1524-1624 (Boston, 1905) 

Samuel Johnson, President of King’s College His Career and Writings, ed. Herbert Schneider and Carol Schneider, 4 vols. (New York, 1939) 

Sketches of the Life of the Late, Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D.D. Pastor of the First Congregational Church in Newport, Written by Himself…, Samuel Hopkins (Hartford, 1805) 

The Superior Court Diary of William Samuel Johnson, 1772 – 1773 (Washington, 1942) 

The Susquehannah Company Papers, ed. Julian P. Boyd, 4 vols. (Wilkes-Barre, 1930) 

The Talcott Papers, Correspondence, and Documents (Chiefly Official) During Joseph Talcott’s Governorship of the Colony of Connecticut, 1724 - 41, ed. Mary Kingsbury Talcott, Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, IV, V (Hartford, 1892-1896) 

To Do Good to My Indian Brethren: The Writings of Joseph Johnson, 1751 - 1776, ed. Laura J. Murray (Amherst, 1998) 

Town Records of Derby Connecticut, 1655 - 1710, ed. Nancy O Phillips (Derby, 1901) 

The Trumbull Papers, Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 5th series, IX (Boston, 1885) 

The Winthrop Papers, Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, pt. III: 5th series, I; pt. IV: 5th series, III; pt. V: 6th series, III; pt. VI: 6th series, V (Boston, 1871-1892) 

The Wolcott Papers: Correspondence and Documents During Roger Wolcott’s Governorship of the Colony of Connecticut, 1750-1752, ed. Albert C. Bates, Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, XVI (Hartford, 1916) 

The Works of President Edwards: With a Memoir of his Life, ed. Sereno E. Dwight, 10 vols. (New York, 1829-1830) 

The Works of Joseph Belamy, First Pastor of the Church in Bethlehem, Conn. with a Memori of his Life and Character, ed. Joseph Bellamy, 2 vols. (Boston, 1853) 

The Wyllys Papers: Correspondence and Documents Cheifly of Descendants of Gov. George Wyllys of Connecticut, 1590 - 1796, Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, XXI (Hartford, 1924)

Early National

A Historical Collection, From Official Records, Files, &c., of the Part Sustained by Connecticut, During the War of the Revolution, ed. R. R. Hinman (1842) 

A System of Laws of the State of Connecticut, ed. Zephaniah Swift (Windham, 1795)

Autobiography, Correspondence, Etc., of Lyman Beecher, D.D., ed. Charles Beecher, 2 vols. (New York, 1864, 1865) 

Circular Letters of Congressmen to Their Constituents, 1789 - 1829, ed. Noble E. Cunningham, 3 vols. (Chapel Hill, 1978-1979) 

Connecticut’s Naval Office at New London during the War of the American Revolution, Including the Mercantile Letter Book of Nathaniel Shaw, Jr., ed. Ernest E. Rogers (New London, 1933) 

Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy under Lincoln and Johnson, Gideon Welles, 3 vols. (Boston, 1911) 

The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, ed. Merrill Jensen, et. al., 27 vols. (Madison, 1976-) 

Documentary Life of Nathan Hale: Comprising All Available Official and Private Documents Bearing on the Life of the Patriot, George D. Seymour (1941) 

Documents Relating to New England Federalism, 1800 - 1815, ed. Henry Adams (Boston, 1877) 

History of Stamford, E. B. Huntington (Stamford, 1868)

Letters of Noah Webster, ed. Harry R. Warfel (1953) 

Life and Letters of Sameul Holden Parsons: Major General in the Continental Army and Chief Judge of the Northwestern Territory, 1737 – 1789, ed. Charles S. Hall (Binghamton, 1905) 

Life of Israel Putnam, (“Old Put”): Major-General in the Continental Army, Increase N. Tarbox (Boston, 1876) 

Memoir of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, ed. Henry Phelps Jonston (New York, 1904) 

Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams: Edited from the Papers of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury, ed. George Gibbs, 2 vols. (New York, 1846) 

Naval Documents of the American Revolution, eds. William Bell Clark, et. al., 13 vols. (Washington, 1964 - ) 

Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Superior Court of the State of Connecticut, From the Year 1785, to May, 1788…, ed. Ephraim Kirby (Litchfield, 1789)

Public Acts Passed by the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, several series (Hartford)

The Public Records of the State of Connecticut, eds. Charles J. Hoadly, et al., 21 vols. (Hartford, 1894-2015) 

The Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 16 vols. (Boston, 1896-1897)

Reference Works

Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Franklin Bowditch Dexter, 6 vols. (New York, 1885-1912) 

The Governors of Connecticut: Biographies of the Chief Executives of the Commonwealth that Gave to the World the First Written Constitution Known to History, Frederick Calvin Norton (Hartford, 1905) 

Historical Catalogue of the Members of the First Church of Christ in New Haven, Connecticut, A.D. 1639-1914 (New Haven, 1914) 

List of Books Printed in Connecticut, 1709-1800, ed. J. H. Trumbull (1904) 

Supplementary List of Books Printed in Connecticut, 1709-1800, ed. Albert Carlos Bates (1938)