Joseph Judson (c. 1619 – October 8, 1690) was an early New England colonist best known for co-founding the town of Woodbury, Connecticut.

[1][2] In 1634, at the age of 15, Joseph Judson emigrated with his parents and two younger brothers, Jeremiah and Joshua, from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

[7][12] As Stratford grew, Judson was empowered to purchase more land from Native Americans on the town's behalf.

In 1661, he negotiated with leaders of the Paugussett people for a large tract of land north of Stratford known as the Mohegan Hills Purchase.

[13] Judson was elected deputy (town representative) to the Connecticut General Court—the precursor to the state legislature—for 13 half-year terms between 1659 and 1667.

Judson engaged in a protracted, public debate about church matters with fellow Stratford settler Joseph Hawley and others in letters, at town meetings, and in petitions to the General Court.

Despite the compromise, the dissidents in Stratford founded their own church in 1670 under the leadership of Reverend Zachariah Walker, a former Presbyterian minister.

Curtice, Ens: Joseph Judson and John Minor themselues and associates liberty to errect a plantation at Pomperoage, prouided it doth not prejudice any former grant to any other plantation or perticuler person; prouided any other honest inhabitants of Stratford haue liberty to joyne with them in setleing there, and that they entertein so many inhabitants as the place will conueniently interteine, and that they setle there within the space of three yeares.

The document specified obligations regarding distribution and sale of home lots and meadows, town debt, accommodations for ministers, land for a school, and the requirement that each must submit themselves to "Ecclesiastical Gouerment.

"[26] Three founders—Joseph Judson, Samuel Sherman, and John Minor—bought the town's initial tract of land in 1673 from leaders of the Potatuck tribe of the Paugussett people.

[28][29] Pomperaug plantation was officially named Woodbury in 1674 and the General Court approved the town's royal patent in 1686.

It now comprises the smaller Connecticut towns of Woodbury, Roxbury, Southbury, Bethlehem, and parts of Middlebury, Oxford, and Washington.

[30] The first deputies representing Woodbury in the colony's legislature were Joseph Judson and John Minor, who were elected in May 1684.

[32][33] In 1676, during King Philip's War (1675–1678), Judson was selected for a conditional promotion to captain of the Fairfield County Troop "if Capt.