The town began as the Mashamoquet Purchase, 15,100 acres bought by twelve proprietors in 1686 from James Fitch of Norwich, who had acquired it from the Indian sachem Owaneco. It was incorporated in 1713 and named for Pontefract in Yorkshire, England. On Old Windhma Road stands the Abington Meeting House, built in 1751 and the oldest Connecticut church in continuous use. The Pomfret Public Library succeeded the oldest such society in eastern Connecticut, and the Social Library of Abington, founded in 1813, is the oldest active library formed by women in America. The Pomfret Manufacturing Company, established in 1806 along the Quinebaug River in a section now part of Putnam, was the first large cotton textile mill in the state. Among Pomfret's one-time residents were Israel Putnam, a major general in the Revolutionary War; James A. McNeill Whistler, artist; and Louise Chandler Moutlon and Robert Hillyer, poets.