Coventry ( ) is a town in Tolland County, Connecticut. The population was 12,235 at the 2020 census. The birthplace of Captain Nathan Hale, Coventry is home to the Nathan Hale Homestead, which is now a museum open to the public. Coventry was incorporated in May 1712. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of of which is land and (1.67%) is water. Principal communities North Coventry South Coventry Coventry Lake History Coventry was named in October 1711, the first town in the colonies to be named "Coventry" for Coventry in the West Midlands, United Kingdom. Settlement and founding The Middle Post Road, one of the three Boston Post Roads declared in 1671 with the creation of the Colonial post, ran through Coventry. The Post Roads were meant to connect the colony of New York, formerly New Amsterdam, with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Middle Post Road connected Hartford and Boston, Massachusetts via Coventry and Pomfret, Connecticut, and Mendon and Roxbury, Massachusetts. The first house in Coventry was said to have been built near the shore of Wangumbaug Lake by Nathaniel Rust, a Hartford, Connecticut man, originally from Northampton, Massachusetts. The entire Rust family is said to have made their final move to Coventry from Massachusetts in a group of a dozen families in 1709. Along with Nathaniel Rust, the names of some of the earliest settlers were David Lee, Thomas Root, Samuel Gurley, Ebenezer Searl, Joseph Petty, Benjamin James and Benjamin Carpenter. Four other settlers were also from Northampton and two from Reading. The land was said to have originally been given to men from Hartford by Joshua, Indian sachem. The Connecticut General Assembly, held in Hartford in 1706, appointed William Pitkin, Joseph Tallcot, William Whiting and Richard Lord, as a committee with full power to lay out the bounds of the town and divisions of the land, to admit inhabitants. A 1711 revision added Nathaniel Rust to the committee and the task of procuring a minister of the gospel. Coventry was formally formed as a town in Hartford County in 1712. The first church was established in October 1714. Coventry became a town in Windham County on 12 May 1726, then became a town in Tolland County when it was originally formed on 13 October 1785. St. Mary's Church is a Roman Catholic church in Coventry. The church is part of the