It consisted mainly of land north of Norwich, south of New Roxbury, Massachusetts (now Woodstock, Connecticut), and west of the Quinebaug River, Peagscomsuck Island, and the Plainfield Settlement.

[5] Canterbury was a very influential town at this period, and was particularly noted for the public spirit and high character of its leading men, and its cultivated and agreeable society.

Esquire Frost, the devoted champion of temperance, Rufus Adams, with his fund of dry humor, George S. White, with his strong character and multifarious knowledge, Luther Paine, John Francis, Thomas and Stephen Coit, Samuel L. Hough, all solid men interested in public affairs — had their homes at or near Canterbury Green, and gave tone and prominence to the town.

Dr. Harris was one of the most genial and hospitable of men, and his new model house with its rare appendage of a conservatory and choice flower-garden, was the wonder of all the County.

Mrs. Harris had inherited the social characteristics of her distinguished father, General Moses Cleaveland, and received their unnumbered guests with all his ease and heartiness.

Her husband, who liked to rally her upon this weakness, once called her down to the parlor to receive a Windham visitor, and most blandly presented to her an intrusive frog, which had hopped into the hall.

All united with uncommon unanimity in plans for village improvement and public benefit, and it was in carrying out one of these projects that they struck upon the rock which foundered them.

[6]: 490 In 1832, Prudence Crandall, a schoolteacher raised as a Quaker, stirred controversy when she opened the Canterbury Female Boarding School and admitted black girls as students.

Unsuccessful and long legal proceedings were mounted but violence by a mob of Canterbury residents forced the closure of the school in 1834.

In 1877 the town of Canterbury recognized Crandall, who had moved to Elk Falls, Kansas, with a small pension.

It has been designated as a National Historic Landmark,[7][8] and it is the leading tourist attraction in Canterbury.

In 2009 a life-size bronze statue of Prudence Crandall with an African-American student was installed in the state capital.