Trumbull, a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, in the New England region of the United States, was originally home to the Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation, and was colonized by the English during the Great Migration of the 1630s as a part of the coastal settlement of Stratford. In May 1725, the northwest farmers of Stratford petitioned the Colony of Connecticut to establish their own separate village. They proposed calling their new village Nickol's Farms, after the family that owned a large farm in its center, but in October 1725 the new parish was named Unity. In 1744, Unity merged with the Long Hill parish (organized in 1740) of the Stratfield section of Stratford to form the Society of North Stratford. North Stratford controlled its own religious and educational affairs. However, to have a voice in governmental functions such as adopting laws and establishing taxes, the inhabitants were required to attend town meetings in Stratford, an overnight journey for some. After ten years of unsuccessful petitions, the Connecticut General Assembly granted complete town rights in October 1797. The new town was named for George Washington's staunch supporter, Revolutionary War governor, patriot, statesman, and merchant Jonathan Trumbull (1710–1785). Historical overview Native Americans The Golden Hill Paugussett Indian Nation occupied the territory of Trumbull as a self-sustaining community for thousands of years before the arrival of the English in the late 1630s. The Indian Nation lived along the banks of the Pequonnock River in the Pequonnock River Valley and also around the natural lake first called Mischa Lake, after the Indian chief who resided there, and now known as Pinewood Lake. After twelve to fifteen years had passed, the Stratford settlement had grown so much in size that the displaced Indian Nation began to ask for compensation for land north of an east-to-west line north of Long Island Sound. This line was located within the present-day village of Nichols, Mischa Hill, Pinewood Lake and White Plains areas. The original Stratford proprietors agreed and began to make several purchases from the Indians in the 1650s. However, relations between the English and the Indians became strained throughout the Colony of Connecticut as settlements continued to grow and displace the Native Americans. In 1652, the Court at the Colony of Connecticut ordered that no Indian could walk near an Englishman's house either in town or at his farm on the Sabbath without being fined or