The Thirteen Colonies in order of settlement

1607 – Virginia

Jamestown founded by the Virginia Company of London.

Even though Jamestown was the first successful English colony it was not the first successful European colony in the Americas. Spain had by this time conquered the Aztek empire in Mexico, claimed Florida for Spain, founded Jamaica, conquered the Incan empire in Peru, founded Buenos Aires (1536 and again in 1580), set up a printing press and established universities in Mexico City, discovered the Grand Canyon (1540), established St. Augustine (1565), Rio de Janeiro (1567), Sante Fe, New Mexico (1605). This blog would probably be in Spanish rather than in English if the Spanish Armada had not been blown to bits by England and mother nature in 1588.

1620 Massachusetts

 (Plymouth and Massachussetts Bay Colony) – founded by the Pilgrims (William Brewster, John Carver, Edward Winslow, and William Bradford).

The Puritans first fleed to Holland to escape the popishness of the Church of England. They then decided to go to Massachusetts.

1626 – New York

(originally New Amsterdam, annexed by England) founded by the Dutch West India Company. The Dutch offered the Indians sixty Dutch guilders for the Island of Manhattan (2400 English cents, or $24). The English then proceeded to take it from the Dutch for nothing.

1633 – Maryland

More Protestants than Catholics settled this state. Founded by Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who was instructed to tolerate Puritans.

1636 – Rhode Island

Founded by Roger Williams, a religious zealot who was banished from Boston by Governor Winthrop because he believed in separation of church and state and paying Indians for land. Boston religious reject Anne Hutchinson also finds a home here.

1636 – Connecticut

Founded by Reverend Thomas Hooker

1638 – Delaware

1638 – New Hampshire

1653 – North Carolina

1663 – South Carolina

1664 – New Jersey

1682 – Pennsylvania

Founded by William Penn – a very religious Quaker, a religious sect with liberal religious views. He was committed to nonviolence and social justice.

1732 – Georgia

Founded by James Oglethorpe to help people avoid English debtor’s prisons and to be another safe haven for persecuted Protestants.

Source: Don’t Know Much about American History by Kenneth C. Davis New York:HarperCollins 2003 p. 45