The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut were drafted and adopted in January 1639 by representatives from the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield. The key debates and vote occurred at the meeting house in Hartford, the principal town that convened the assembly. These orders established a framework for a colonial government based on popular consent and influenced later constitutional thinking in New England and beyond. The debates were driven by settlers seeking to replace temporary commissions with a more permanent written constitution aligned with their charter provisions.
