[4] Henry Whitfield was a Puritan minister who had come from England to flee religious persecution, and the settlers built the house for him.

[4][6] The first settlers of the Guilford colony began construction of their minister's home in September 1639, shortly after their arrival in the area.

However, they had begun construction too late in the year, and winter weather prevented them from finishing anything more than half of the great hall and the north fireplace.

[7] The original mortar used to cement the stones was composed of yellow clay and crushed oyster shell, a technique developed by the lack of more conventional building materials.

[7] It was constructed with six fireplaces, the largest of which is ten feet four inches across and is positioned on the north end of the great hall.

His father Thomas Whitfield was wealthy and influential during the reigns of James I and Queen Elizabeth, and he was an eminent lawyer in the courts of Westminster[10] in London.

Whitfield's sympathies shifted to the Puritan movement following persecutions ordered by Archbishop William Laud.

In 1633, Whitfield hosted a meeting in his home in Ockley to persuade John Cotton and Thomas Hooker to conform to Laud's dictates so that they could keep their positions in the church.

Also among the party was Edward Jones, an indentured builder who agreed to help the newcomers construct houses for three years in exchange for passage.

In the early years of the Guilford colony, Whitfield served as both the minister and community leader, delivering sermons, conducting marriage ceremonies, and settling civil disputes.

Beginning in 1642, several leaders of the New Haven Colony returned to England to join in the political struggles over religious freedom.

Archbishop Laud represented King Charles I's unyielding religious policies, but he was arrested on charges of treason in 1641 and executed on January 10, 1645.

The assembly approved of inducements to encourage him to remain, including increasing his salary and exempting his two sons from guard duty (night watches to protect the town) for one year.

Hubbard noted that Whitfield lost money on the Guilford venture, and colleagues in England were urging him to return.

It is suggested by historical records that during this time John Winthrop the Younger, son of the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and future Governor of Connecticut, expressed interest in purchasing the house.

Thompson and his family remained in England throughout most of their ownership, which lasted over a century, renting the house to tenant farmers.

Pynchon used the house as a summer home, but was forced to flee back to England because of his loyalist sympathies at the onset of the American Revolution.

Before he left, he sold the house to Jasper Griffing on June 27, 1776, just a week prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Historical accounts from the Library of Congress state, "as much as half of the ancient wall was not disturbed, the larger part of that being north of the door.

[5] The second major renovation of the house occurred in 1902, shortly after the museum was opened, led by architectural historian Norman Isham.

Isham's main purpose in the restoration was to make the house and museum attractive to visitors and suitable for tours.

Isham's restoration plan was based on what he stated to be, "tradition, inherent reasonableness, and likeness to old English examples.

"[9] His approach led to the criticism of many architectural experts, including the next renovator, J. Frederick Kelly, who believed Isham was more concerned with the aesthetics than the historical accuracy of the house.

[9] Kelly's restoration began with the reconstruction of the kitchen in 1930 and the rebuilding of the ell (the wing built perpendicular to the main house) in 1932.

The final cost of Kelly's restoration was $26,000, financed by the Federal government and individual patrons of the Colonial Dames of America, and it was completed on October 20, 1937.

The creation of the museum reflected a trend toward nativism amongst old American families during the immigration influx in the early twentieth century.

[9] Though some of the artifacts in the museum were found in the cellar, many are not original to the house and were gathered from other historic sites of the same time period in order to show visitors what life was like for the early colonists of America.