f the township (1890) 4460; (1900) 5706 (1968
foreign-born);(1910) 6047; of the borough (1910) 2560. The borough is
served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by an electric
line connecting with New Haven. A range of rocky hills commands fine
views of the Sound, the shore is deeply indented, the harbour and bays
are dotted with islands, and the harbour is deep enough for small craft,
and these natural features attract many visitors during the summer
season. In Branford is the James Blackstone Memorial library (1896),
designed by Solon Spencer Beman (b. 1853) in the Ionic style (the
details being taken from the Erechtheum at Athens). On the interior of
the dome which covers the rotunda are a series of paintings by Oliver
Dennett Grover (b. 1861) illustrating the evolution of book-making, and
between the arches are medallion portraits, by the same artist, of New
England authors--Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorne, Lowell, Bryant,
Whittier, Holmes and Mrs Stowe. The library was erected by Timothy B.
Blackstone (1829-1900), a native of Branford, and president of the
Chicago & Alton railway from 1864 to 1899--as a memorial to his father,
a descendant of William Blackstone (d. 1675), the New England pioneer.
The principal industries of Branford are the manufacture of malleable
iron fittings, locks and general hardware, the quarrying of granite, and
oyster culture.

The territory of Totoket (now the township of Branford) was purchased
from the Indians by the New Haven Plantation, in December 1638, for
eleven coats of trucking cloth and one coat of English cloth, but with
the reservation for a few Indians of what is still known as Indian Neck.
In 1640 the general court of New Haven granted it to the Rev. Samuel
Eaton (1596?-1665), a brother of Theophilus Eaton, on condition that he
brought friends from England to settle it. As Eaton went to England and
did not return, Totoket was granted in 1644 to settlers mostly from
Wethersfield, Conn., on condition that they should organize a church
state after the New Haven model and join the New Haven Jurisdiction. The
settlement was made in the same year, and about two years later several
new families came from Southampton, Long Island, under the leadership of
the Rev. Abraham Pierson (c. 1608-1678), an ardent advocate of the
church state, who was chosen pastor at Totoket. The present name of the
township, derived from Brentford, England, was adopted about 1645. After
the memb