Pequot Path

United States Migration  Trails and Roads  Rhode Island  Connecticut 

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

History
The Pequot Path ran about 69 miles (111 kilometers) near the mainland ocean shore from Providence to Westerly, Rhode Island, into Stonington and then on to New London (formerly Pequitt), in Connecticut. At least one authority asserts the route also included the island community of Newport on Rhode Island. All seem to agree the route was certainly extended into central Connecticut, but the earliest name of the trail in Connecticut beyond New London is unclear (before it was called the Boston Post Road). The Pequot Path route was part of the American Indian foot trails that were widened by European colonists into horse paths, and then wagon roads

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); Providence to New London (Pequot Path); New London to New Haven, Connecticut, and then to New York City. The same 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 New London through the following places:

Providence County, Rhode Island


 * Providence
 * Cranston

Kent County, Rhode Island


 * Warwick
 * East Greenwich

Washington County, Rhode Island


 * North Kingstown
 * Narraganset
 * South Kingstown
 * Charlestown
 * Westerly

New London County, Connecticut


 * Stonington
 * Groton
 * New London (formerly Pequitt)

Connecting Routes. The Pequot Path connected with other migration routes:


 * The Old Roebuck Road from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island connects with the Pequot Path on the northest end in Providence.


 * King's Highway, also known as the Boston Post Road, goes from Boston, Massachusetts to New York City, and south to Charleston, South Carolina. The lower Boston Post Road (King's Highway) went from Boston to Providence (aka Old Roebuck Road), from Providence to New London (aka Pequot Path), and extended west from the southwest end of the Pequot Path at New London to New Haven and then to New York.

Modern parallels. The modern road that approximately matches the Pequot Path from Providence, Rhode Island to New London, Connecticut is:


 * U.S. Route 1 Providence to Westerly in Rhode Island.
 * U.S. Route 1 Stonington to New London in Connecticut.

Settlers and Records
Providence was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams and other English Puritan dissenters. New London was settled by English Puritans in 1646. The Indian footpath between these places and Boston attracted settlers who would be able to more easily get access to markets. Many of the earliest settlers along the Pequot Path would have been from Boston, Massachusetts area, and prior to that from England. Look at the earliest deeds, tax records, and histories of towns along the Pequot Path to learn the names of the first settlers. If you already know the name of a settler near the Pequot Path, you have a good chance of finding his or her genealogy in sources like:


 * Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, 3 vols. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, c1995). ;.


 * New England Historic Genealogical Society