This area, part of the Wabbaquasset Indian country, was deeded to Captain James Fitch of Norwich in 1684 by Owaneco, sachem of the Mohegans. After an earlier committee failed to act, the General Assembly appointed a new committee in May 1710 to lay out the township, and in October 1714 further town privileges were granted, including liberty to settle a minister and erect a meetinghouse. William Ward and John Perry were chosen as selectmen at the first town meeting, held early in 1715. This green was the center of town before the separation of Eastford in 1847. The First Church of Ashford, Congregational, organized November 26, 1718, with James Hale as minister, stood on this common; it was twice destroyed by fire and a third time by the 1938 hurricane. The Babcock Burial Ground, where many of the original settlers are buried, lies in the northwest corner of the green beyond Ashford Academy, erected early in the 1800s. While the school was being built in 1825, the Academy Association added an upper story for advanced students. Among those who received their early education there was General Edward Whitaker, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry during the Civil War and, under a flag of truce, received assurance that General Lee would surrender unconditionally at Appomattox in 1865. Ashford was also the birthplace of Colonel Thomas Knowlton, commander of the Knowlton Rangers in the Revolutionary War; he marched to Lexington with seventy-eight of Ashford's men, and only eight Connecticut towns furnished more. As second in command of Connecticut forces, Knowlton defended the rail fence at Bunker Hill and was killed in the Battle of Harlem Heights. Early in the 19th century Ashford had a number of grain and saw mills, several tanneries, a cotton mill, and a glass factory, but the railroads bypassed the area, and Ashford became agricultural in economy and a residence for many commuters to other towns.