The First Church in Windsor Windsor traces its origin to 1630, when 140 Congregationalists — having separated from the Church of England — sailed to New England aboard the MARY AND JOHN and settled first at Dorchester, Massachusetts. In 1635, roughly half the company removed to Windsor, Connecticut, under the leadership of the Rev John Warham, forming what is regarded as the oldest continuous Congregational society in America. Their first log-and-thatch meetinghouse rose within the Palisado stockade in 1639; a second structure, built on the same ground in 1684, was later lost to fire. Disputes over the site of a new building divided the congregation in 1754 into North and South Societies, each erecting its own church. A bridge across the Farmington River, built some thirty years later, helped reunite the parish, which then raised a new meetinghouse on the present Palisado Avenue site. Completed in 1794, this fourth meetinghouse has undergone several remodelings, including the addition of a Greek-style portico. - AsNotedIn