The Connecticut State Flag
The design comes from the seal of Saybrook Colony when it was established in 1639. That seal depicted 15 grapevines and a hand in the upper left corner with a scroll reading "Sustinet qui transtulit". When Connecticut Colony bought Saybrook in 1644, the seal transferred to Connecticut Colony.
On October 25, 1711, the governor and legislature changed the seal. They reduced the number of grapevines from 15 to three, in order to represent the three oldest settlements and rearranged the wording and position of the motto.
Qui Transtulit Sustinet on the Connecticut State Flag was also inherited from the Fenwick seal. This Latin phrase has been translated as "He who transplanted continues to sustain" or, more commonly, "He who transplanted still sustains".
On May 29, 1895, over 100 years after Connecticut had become one of the thirteen original colonies, Governor Coffin introduced the first proposal for a state flag to the Connecticut General Assembly. That same day, the Connecticut State Assembly passed a resolution appointing a special committee to prepare specifications that matched the Connecticut State flag that was already generally accepted as the state flag.
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