In 1663 the General Court in Hartford founded the plantation of Hammonasset, encompassing the present-day towns of Killingworth and Clinton. The Court named the town Kenilworth in 1667 after the birthplace in England of Edward Griswold, one of the first settlers. Uncas, sachem of the Mohegan Indians, and his son Joshua relinquished their rights to the land in 1669. Settlement of the northern section began after 1700. Responding to a petition from the inhabitants of North Killingworth, known as the Farmers, the General Assembly in 1735 divided the town into two ecclesiastical societies and named the area of present-day Killingworth the North or Second Society. In 1738 the inhabitants of the Second Society founded a church with the Reverend William Seward as minister. In 1838 the Legislature separated the southern portion of the town by incorporating it as Clinton. Killingworth was largely farms and water powered mills, and today it is mainly residential.