FOUNDING OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES

FIRST

ESTABLISHED
SETTLEMENT

COLONY

PRINCIPAL FOUNDERS

PURPOSE OF FOUNDERS

1607 Virginia Virginia Company
London Company
To find precious metals; to defy Spain
1620 Plymouth (later became part of Massachusetts) Pilgrims Religious freedom
1623 New Jersey Dutch West India Company To reward proprietors
1623 Maine (later became part of Massachusetts) Fernando Gorges Trade
1623 New Hampshire John Mason
John Wheelwright
Trade; Refuge from Massachusetts
1624 New York (originally known as 
New Netherlands)
Dutch West India Company Reward to proprietors
1629 Massachusetts Puritans (Mass. Bay Colony) Puritan utopia
1634 Maryland George Calvert Haven for Catholics
1636 Rhode Island Roger Williams; 
Ann Hutchinson
Refuge from Massachusetts; To establish religious and political freedom
1638 Connecticut English and Dutch Trade 
1638 Delaware Swedish South Company; 
Peter Minuit
Trade
1660 Carolina (North) Eight Noble Lords
(Separated in the 1700s)
To found a feudal state
1670 Carolina (South)
1683 Pennsylvania William Penn; Quakers Christian refuge for victims of persecution
1733 Georgia James Oglethorpe Haven for debtors and religious refugees