Poquechaneeg, the Indian name for the Lebanon area, was ceded to Englishmen in six tracts, the first to Major John Mason in 1665. Settlement began in 1695 with fifty-one proprietors who apportioned home lots around the common, and the town was formally organized in 1700 with the gathering of a church and the calling of Pastor Joseph Parsons. By 1756, Lebanon had a population of 3,274, the sixth largest in Connecticut. At the crossroads of routes from Norwich to Hartford and from Boston to New York, Lebanon became a logical meeting place during the Revolutionary War. In May 1775, the General Assembly established a Council of Safety to plan the defense of the colony, and Trumbull's store became the War Office, where nearly 1200 sessions of the council met. Jonathan Trumbull served as Governor of Connecticut from 1769 to 1784, and in Lebanon Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and William Williams, a native son and signer of the Declaration of Independence, conferred with the French officers Count de Rochambeau, Duke de Lauzun, and General Lafayette, who commanded French troops quartered in Lebanon during the winter of 1780-1781. The Trumbull family helped guide the town in gathering supplies for the Continental Army, contributing to Connecticut's role as the Provision State. Lebanon was also the birthplace of William Beaumont, a pioneer researcher in gastric digestion, and of Connecticut governors Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., Clark Bissell, Joseph Trumbull, and William A. Buckingham.