Canterbury

Town Parks

• Kinne Preserve –★★– 1.2 miles – A short loop with a camping area and views of an unnamed brook
• Manship Park –★– Sports fields with a 0.3 mile walking track and a boat launch into the Quinebaug River

Land Trust

• None

State Parks / Forest

• None

Blue Blaze

• None

The Rest

• None

• Quinebaug River
  • Boat Launch at Manship Park

This Mohegan territory had a fort along the Quinebaug River here and called the area Peagscomsueck meaning “a great brook.” Owaneco, the son of Uncas and sachem of the Mohegans granted a title to a large tract known as the Quinebaug lands in 1680 to Major James Fitch of Norwich.  Fitch settled in the area in 1697 and named his home Kent and others began to settle the west side of the river (then Plainfield) in the next few years.

It was set off from Plainfield and incorporated as the 34th town in Connecticut on October 14th, 1703.  It was named from Canterbury in Kent, England (likely thanks to Fitch’s name for his home).

In 1832, Prudence Crandall, a schoolteacher created controversy when she opened the Canterbury Female Boarding School and admitted black girls as students.  She was arrested and jailed, legal proceedings carried on and the school was forced to close in 1834 by a mob of Canterbury residents.