HISTORY OF ORANGE
on the south, is almost strictly commercial. A link of the four lane U. S. 1 highway, it is lined with shops, factories, business concerns of various kinds, taverns, restaurants, snack bars, service stations, and repair shops. It glows with Neon lights, and carries an almost continuous line of heavy trucking, twenty-four hours a day.
The history of the Town of Orange is indissolubly linked with that of the Town of Milford; for the first purchase from the Indians included all of the territory which comprised the town. When Charles I was King of England, there was increasing opposition to the requirements of the Crown and the Established Church of England, and the persecutions because of non-conformity to the tenets of the English Church. For this reason, increasing numbers of people were leaving their native shores to join the group who had started a colony in New England. A company on board the ship Hector left London in May 1637, under the leadership of Rev. John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton, of London, with Boston as their destination. A few reeks later, another group arrived in Boston, probably coming on the ship Martin. This group was under the leadership of Rev. Peter Prudden, who came from Hertfordshire. Among the original settlers of Milford, the following members were known to have come from Hertfordshire: Edmund Tapp, James Prudden, William Fowler, Thomas and Hannah Buckingham, Thomas Welch, Richard Platt, Henry Stonehill, and William East.
Having reached the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the new arrivals remained in the vicinity of Boston for nearly a year, and were strongly urged to make their permanent home there. But John Davenport and Peter Prudden had other plans, and wanted to establish a colony of their own.
In August, 1637, a group from the Davenport colony, headed by Theophilus Eaton, came down to the region of the Quinnipiac River in Connecticut, to investigate a report made by some scouts who had been pursuing the Pequot tribe of Indians. They were so favorably impressed with the contour of the land that they wanted to hold