Pequot Path

United States Migration  Trails and Roads  Rhode Island 

Did an ancestor travel the Pequot Path of Rhode Island? Learn about this settler migration route, its transportation history, and find related genealogy sources.

History
The Pequot Path ran about 51 miles (83 kilometers) near the ocean shore from Providence to Westerly, Rhode Island. At least one authority asserts the route also included the island community of Newport. All seem to agree it was certainly extended into central Connecticut, but the earliest name of the trail in Connecticut is unclear (before it was called the Boston Post Road). The Pequot Path route was part of the American Indian trails that were widened by European colonists into a wagon roads, including those from Providence to Westerly in far southwest Rhode Island.

Starting as a horse path in the 1670s, the "Post Road" was a chain of shorter roads strung together end-to-end to form the lower fork of the Boston Post Road (Boston-New York) with connecting legs from Boston to Providence (Old Roebuck Road) to Westerly (Pequot Path) to New Haven, Connecticut to New York City. The long route from Boston to New York to Charleston, South Carolina was also known as the King's Highway from the 1750s to about 1780.

Route
The Pequot Path connected Providence to Westerly in Rhode Island passing through the following places:

Providence County, Rhode Island


 * Providence
 * Cranston

Kent County, Rhode Island


 * Warwick
 * East Greenwich

Washington County, Rhode Island


 * South Kingstown
 * Charlestown
 * Westerly

Connecting Routes The Pequot Path connected with other migration routes:


 * Old Roebuck Road goes from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island (Narragansett Bay).


 * King's Highway also known as the Boston Post Road goes from Boston, Massachusetts to New York City, and south to Charleston, South Carolina with extensions on each end. In Massachusetts and Connecticut there were at least three competing routes for the Boston Post Road. Parts were laid out 1650 to 1735; its length remained in heavy use through 1783, and some parts are used to this day. The lower Boston Post Road went from Boston to Providence (aka Old Roebuck Road), from Providence to Westerly (aka Pequot Path), and from Westerly to New Haven and then New York.

Modern parallels. The modern roads that roughly match the Pequot Path from Providence to Weserly are:

Settlers and Records
No lists of settlers along the Pequot Path are known to exist. However, the earliest settlers in the area would have used this road, or the ocean to reach their home. Therefore, the land, tax records, and histories of the earliest settlers would list the names of people likely to have used the Pequot Path.