Boston was founded by a religious group.
Boston . One of the oldest cities in the United States , Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England . The Puritans were a group of English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to `` purify '' the Church of England from its `` Catholic '' practices , maintaining that the Church of England was only partially reformed .