What Were the 13 Original Colonies in Chronological Order?
The 13 original colonies in chronological order start with Virginia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland and Connecticut. The colonies of Rhode Island, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina and New Jersey follow. Finishing the list are New York, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
The London Company established Virginia as the first of the original 13 colonies in 1607. Massachusetts followed 13 years later in 1620, although at the time the Puritans called it the Plymouth Colony. In 1630, it was renamed the Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Wheelwright established New Hampshire shortly afterwards, in 1623. The first three colonies didn’t officially become royal colonies until 1624, 1691 and 1679 respectively.
The next four colonies, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware, were all established in the 1630s. Lord Baltimore formed Maryland in 1634, and Thomas Hooker formed Connecticut in 1635. Rhode Island was established by Roger Williams in 1636, with the establishment of Delaware by Peter Minuit two years later.
The next five colonies were established over a 30-year period, beginning with North Carolina in 1653 and proceeding to William Penn’s creation of Pennsylvania in 1682. In between the two, South Carolina was founded in 1663, New Jersey in 1664 by Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, and New York in 1664 by the Duke of York. The last colony, Georgia, wasn’t added to the list until 1732, when it was established by James Edward Oglethorpe.
