The New England Company, when once it had started an active existence, made every effort to extract some advantage from the land which had been granted to it. In 1631 Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Brooke and others obtained from the Company a tract of land in the rich valley of the Connecticut River. Very little, however, came of this scheme; and the first true settlement was made against the strenuous opposition of the Dutch, by a party from New Plymouth. A fresh influx of settlers came from the already rising colony of Massachusetts, for they had found that the land was somewhat sterile, at any rate not sufficiently fertile to support them all. The settlers on the Connecticut came from the town of Dorchester, and planted themselves at Windsor, to the disgust of the New Plymouth settlers, who were at last forced to retire. This proved, as often enough in future years, that the unscrupulous and overbearing temper of the men of Massachusetts earned for them a reward which they did not deserve. The patentees, seeing their rights invaded by these Dorchester filibusters, sent out a small party to establish their privileges, but these in turn were routed, and the men of Massachusetts were left in possession, though contrary to the wishes of their mother-settlement. When, however, the versatile John Winthrop, son of the more statesmanlike Governor, arrived with a commission as Governor of the new colony on behalf of the patentees, Massachusetts ceased to complain, and allowed the secession to become complete. Within two years the new colony of Connecticut had a population of eight hundred men, women and children, grouped in three towns, Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor. The freemen of these towns declared in 1638 that their constitution was the same as that of Massachusetts; but there was one great dissimilarity, for no religious test was imposed. This constitution occupies a famous place in the world's history, for not only was it the first written constitution that actually created a government, but it has also been characterised as "the oldest political constitution in America."[141] By means of this important document, issued in January 1639, all possible claims to sovereignty on the part of Massachusetts were placed on one side for ever; or was there any reference to the sovereignty of Charles I. or the home parliament. The document was merely an agreement amongst the colonists themselves, and by abstaining from any religious tests, or intolerance, they earned the gratitude and admiration of mankind, and throughout the whole colonial period bravely sustained this liberal spirit which had distinguished them so early in their history.