Editing Hartford County, Connecticut (section)

==History==
Hartford County was one of four original counties in Connecticut established on May 10, 1666, by an act of the Connecticut General Court. The act establishing the county states:
:This Court orders that the Townes on the River from y<sup>ee</sup>
:north bounds of Windsor w<sup>th</sup> Farmington to y<sup>e</sup> south end of
:y<sup>e</sup> bounds of Thirty Miles Island shalbe & remaine to be one
:County w<sup>ch</sup> shalbe called the County of Hartford. And it
:is ordered that the County Court shalbe kept at Hartford on
:the 1st Thursday in March and on the first Thursday in September yearely.<ref name="ccr">{{cite web|url=http://www.colonialct.uconn.edu/ViewPageBySequentialID.cfm?v=02&p=39&c=4&StartVolume=1&StartPage=1 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070428203240/http://www.colonialct.uconn.edu/ViewPageBySequentialID.cfm?v=02&p=39&c=4&StartVolume=1&StartPage=1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 28, 2007 |title=CCR: Volume 02, Page 39 |access-date=June 17, 2008 }}</ref>

As established in 1666, Hartford County consisted of the towns of [[Windsor, Connecticut|Windsor]], [[Wethersfield, Connecticut|Wethersfield]], Hartford, [[Farmington, Connecticut|Farmington]], and [[Middletown, Connecticut|Middletown]]. The "Thirty Miles Island" referred to in the constituting Act was incorporated as the town of [[Haddam, Connecticut|Haddam]] in 1668.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Haddam Historical Society - History of Haddam|url=http://haddamhistory.org/history_haddam.htm|access-date=June 18, 2020|website=haddamhistory.org}}</ref> In 1670, the town of [[Simsbury, Connecticut|Simsbury]] was established, extending Hartford County to the Massachusetts border. In the late 17th to early 18th centuries, several more towns were established and added to Hartford County: [[Waterbury, Connecticut|Waterbury]] in 1686 (transferred to [[New Haven County, Connecticut|New Haven County]] in 1728), [[Windham, Connecticut|Windham]] in 1694 (transferred to [[Windham County, Connecticut|Windham County]] in 1726), [[Hebron, Connecticut|Hebron]] in 1708 (transferred to [[Tolland County]] in 1785), [[Coventry, Connecticut|Coventry]] in 1712 (transferred to Windham County in 1726), and [[Litchfield, Connecticut|Litchfield]] in 1722 (transferred to [[Litchfield County, Connecticut|Litchfield County]] in 1751).

In 1714, all of the unincorporated territory north of the towns of Coventry and Windham in northeastern Connecticut to the Massachusetts border were placed under the jurisdiction of Hartford County. Windham County was constituted in 1726, resulting in Hartford County losing the towns of Windham, Coventry, Mansfield (incorporated in 1702), and Ashford (incorporated in 1714). [[Northwest Hills (Connecticut)|Northwestern Connecticut]], which was originally placed under the jurisdiction of New Haven County in 1722, was transferred to Hartford County by 1738. All of northwestern Connecticut was later constituted as the new Litchfield County in 1751. In 1785, two more counties were established in what was now the U.S. state of Connecticut: Tolland and Middlesex. This mostly resulted in the modern extent of Hartford County. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the establishment of several more towns resulted in minor adjustments in the bounds of the county. The final adjustment resulting in the modern limits occurred on May 8, 1806, when the town of Canton was established.<ref>[http://historical-county.newberry.org/website/Connecticut/documents/CT_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm#HARTFORD Newberry Library – Connecticut Atlas of Historical County Boundaries] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110043227/http://historical-county.newberry.org/website/Connecticut/documents/CT_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm |date=November 10, 2013 }}</ref>