Clinton can retrace its colonial history back to around 1663 when the 30,000 acres of land known as Homonoscitt — located between Guilford and Saybrook — was petitioned for settlement by John Clow, Jr. and surveyed as a plantation by a committee appointed by the General Court at Hartford.

By 1667 the settlement that sprang forth was designated a town and given the name Kenilworth. In the mid-eighteenth century the name was changed to Killingworth. In May of 1838 the General Assembly incorporated the southern portion as the Town of Clinton — the name being chosen to honor the famous New York governor Dewitt Clinton — while the northern portion retained the name Killingworth.

In 1701 the General Court of the Colony in Hartford granted a charter for "the founding of a collegiate school within His Majesty's Colony of Connecticut, " One of the early and renowned leaders of Killingworth's church was the Reverend Abraham Pierson, and he was chosen as rector of the new school to be founded in what later became known as the Town of Clinton. The first classes were held in Pierson's parsonage and students boarded with the Pierson family. Later the school was moved to Saybrook and finally to New Haven, where it became the world-renowned Yale University.

Synonymous with coastal Long Island Sound is the notorious pirate Captain William Kidd who terrorized the waters around here around the turn of the 1800's. He was purported to have buried treasure under the rocks at such local spots as Coburn's Island off Hammonasset before he was captured and hanged in London, England in 1701 (coincidently the same year as the founding of Yale College in the town today called Clinton.) Legends of hidden treasure persist today and some claim to have seen a phantom ship — Kidd's sloop the San Antonio — sailing the coast looking to reclaim his lost booty of Spanish doubloons.

Clinton has long-thrived on its relationship with the sea, but in the late 1800's a new form of commerce evolved when recreational boating began to develop on Long Island Sound. Small work boats, including the world-renowned Sharpie style vessel, were modified to become leisure craft and Clinton, as did many other Connecticut shore towns, became a waterside vacation destination. Throughout the years a number of Clinton's by-gone elegant hotels such as Beach Park Casino and the Bacon House attracted tourists to stay here along the shore.

Today there are still many remnants of Clinton's fascinating history to explore. Along the old main and side streets one can stroll past lovely captains' homes and cute saltbox houses that tell a tale of times past. To learn more, visit the The Clinton Historical Society located on Main Street.