Haynes, John, 1594 - 1653

John Haynes was the son of John Haynes and Mary Michel of Great Haddam and Codicot, Essex England.  He immigrated with Thomas Hooker and Cotton Mather to Massachusetts in 1633, where he was elected an assistant to the General Court and later governor.  In 1637 he left the Bay Colony with Thomas Hooker for Hartford, Connecticut.  As an assistant to the General Court of Connecticut, he attempted to join with Massachusetts to fight the Pequots during the Pequot War.  Yet, as one biography of Haynes has indicated, he was against the killing of Indian women and children as a military tactic.  After the war, he negotiated the Treaty of Hartford with the colony’s Mohegan and Narragansett allies.  Haynes was elected the first governor of Connecticut Colony in 1639 and served alternatively with Edward Hopkins until his death in 1653.  Connecticut State Library.   Image courtesy of Museum of Connecticut History.