Noah Phelps was a leader within the Simsbury community. He chaired the town meeting that passed the Articles of Confederation in January 1778, and in November 1787, the meeting picked him and Daniel Humphrey Esq., as delegates for the Convention of the State of Connecticut, set to convene in Hartford in January and vote on whether or not to adopt the federal constitution. They were directed to oppose it, but "one of the delegates though voting as instructed by the town, took occasion to state that his personal convictions led him to favor the proposed constitution." This may have been Phelps.