A city of southern Connecticut on Long Island Sound northeast of Bridgeport. Settled 1637-1638 by Puritans, it was the center of a theocratic colony that was joined with Connecticut in 1664. From 1701 to 1875 it was joint capital with Hartford. New Haven is the seat of Yale University, founded in 1701. Population: 130,474. a city and port in southern Connecticut, US, where English Puritans first lived when they came to America in 1638. It is also the home of Yale University. City (pop., 2000: 123,626), south-central Connecticut, U.S. A port of entry on Long Island Sound, it was originally settled in 1638 and became part of the colony of Connecticut in 1664. It was the co-capital with Hartford until 1875. New Haven was sacked by loyalist forces during the American Revolution (1779), and during the American Civil War it was a centre of abolitionist activity (see abolitionism). A number of famous inventors made the city a centre of industrial technology, including Charles Goodyear, Eli Whitney, and Samuel F.B. Morse. It is the home of Yale University and several other educational and cultural institutions