A compact of eleven orders ratified 14 January 1639 by freemen of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, establishing an annually elected governor, a General Court of elected magistrates and deputies, and a franchise resting on admission as a freeman rather than on membership in a gathered church, a real departure from the church membership test then governing the vote in Massachusetts Bay. Thomas Hooker did not draft the Orders himself, and no transcript of his May 1638 sermon survives in his own hand; the tradition crediting him rests on a later secondhand account and on echoes of the sermon in the language and structure of what the towns went on to ratify. Historians have called the Fundamental Orders the first written constitution to create a government in the English colonies, though the label competes with earlier corporate charters, and later scholarship has cautioned against reading a fully modern constitutional theory back onto a document written to settle a practical question among three neighboring towns.
Facts
LocationWindsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, Connecticut Colony 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
His May 1638 sermon on the free consent of the people is credited with shaping the Orders, though he did not draft them himself.
In Era
Sources
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
Later historians have cautioned against the claim that the Fundamental Orders were the first written constitution: the claim competes with earlier corporate charters that also organized colonial governments in writing, and reading a fully modern constitutional theory back onto a document written to settle a practical question among three neighboring towns risks overstating its originality.
A dissenting reading, from Later constitutional historiansFundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1639 (Avalon Project, Yale Law School), Avalon Project, Yale Law School
Frequently Asked Questions
Was the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut really the first written constitution?
It is often called that, but historians dispute the label; it competes with earlier corporate charters.
It is often called that, but the label is contested. It competes with earlier corporate charters that also organized colonial governments in writing, and Thomas Hooker, credited with inspiring it through his May 1638 sermon, did not draft it himself and left no surviving transcript. Historians caution against reading a fully modern constitutional theory back onto a document written to settle a practical question among three neighboring towns.
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