Pashbeshauke, “the place at the river's mouth,” was the name Native Americans gave to their settlement on the river they called Quonitocutt. Dutch traders lived in the region in the early 1600s, but in 1635 a group of English Puritans led by John Winthrop Jr. routed the Dutch and established a permanent colony. The colony was named Saybrook after William Fiennes, the first Viscount Saye and Sele, and Lord Brooke, heads of the settlers' Saybrook Company. Learn More...