 In 1638, Springfield founder William Pynchon became embroiled in a legal dispute with one of the Connecticut Colony's leading citizens, Captain John Mason.Mason charged Pynchon—and the settlement of Springfield—with dominating the corn and beaver pelt trade with the Natives, to the detriment of Hartford and the Connecticut Colony.The dispute, which Pynchon and Springfield lost in 1638, led to Springfield's annexing itself to Massachusetts instead of aligning with its more geographically and ideologically compatible neighbor, Connecticut.