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Thomas Dudley

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Thomas Dudley
Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
In office
1634 – 1635
1640 – 1641
1645 – 1646
1650 – 1651
Preceded byJohn Winthrop (1634 & 1640)
John Endecott (1645 & 1650)
Succeeded byJohn Haynes (1635)
Richard Bellingham (1641)
John Winthrop (1646)
John Endecott (1651)
Personal details
BornOctober 12, 1576
Northampton, England
DiedJuly 31, 1653

Thomas Dudley (October 12, 1576– July 31, 1653) was a colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, during which he sometimes clashed with his rival John Winthrop. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the town's first home. As Governor, Dudley signed the Charter creating Harvard College. Thomas Dudley Gate at Harvard College was named in his honor, as is the non-residential Dudley House. Dudley's descendants were early governors, ministers, judges, as well as the nation's first poet.

Early years

He was born in Northampton, England, the son of Capt. Roger Dudley and Susanna Thorne. Many have written that Roger Dudley was a scion of the noble Dudley family, descendants of John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley. The exact connection remains a subject of contention[1], reignited every few years by a new theory. Dudley's mother, Susanna Thorne, was descended from Henry II of England through her Purefoy ancestors.[2] Thomas Dudley's father was killed at the Battle of Ivry, orphaning the young Thomas at the age of fourteen. He entered the service of several wealthy patrons, and was introduced to Puritanism in the late 1590s.

In the 30 years between his conversion and his eventual emigration with the Winthrop Fleet, Dudley served as steward to Theophilus Clinton, 4th Earl of Lincoln, a job often delegated to promising young men of ambition, good lineage and little money. Apparently Dudley performed an exemplary job in the Earl's service: the financial mess the Earl had gotten himself into was apparently eased due to Dudley's efforts on his behalf.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

In 1629, with tensions between the Puritans and the English government high, Dudley was chosen as one of the five officers to travel to the Americas under the Royal Charter. He was elected deputy governor; John Winthrop was elected governor. Traveling on the Arbella, the flagship of the Winthrop Fleet, Dudley arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Perhaps due to his touchy nature, he clashed almost immediately with John Winthrop over the location of the seat of government of the new colony.[3]

Dudley served as governor in 1634, 1640, 1645, and 1650. Throughout most of the other years of his time in Massachusetts, he served as deputy governor.

Dudley's letter “To the Right Honourable, My very good Lady, The Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln”, written in March 1631, narrated the first year’s experience of those “planters” who came over in Winthrop’s fleet of 1630. It appeared in print for the first time in the 1696 compilation, by Joshua Scottow, MASSACHUSETTS: or The first Planters of New-England, The End and Manner of their coming thither, and Abode there: In several EPISTLES (1696).

It was Dudley who signed the charter creating Harvard College when he was Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.[4]

Family and property

Thomas Dudley married Dorothy Yorke in 1603, she died sometime before his next marriage which was in 1644. He then married secondly Katherine Deighton in 1644. His children include Rev. Samuel Dudley of Exeter, New Hampshire; Gov. Joseph Dudley; and the poet Anne Bradstreet.

The ancestral Dudley Castle is located at 52°30′50.89″N 2°4′47.62″W / 52.5141361°N 2.0798944°W / 52.5141361; -2.0798944.

Descendants of Thomas Dudley

Charter creating Harvard College, signed by Governor Thomas Dudley, May 30, 1650

Thomas Dudley may have been a descendant of the Sutton Dudley clan of England, descended from Joan of Acre daughter of King Edward I of England and his wife Eleanor of Castile.

Descendants of his son Joseph Dudley married to Rebecca Tyng

Descendants of his daughter Anne Dudley married to Simon Bradstreet

Descendants of his daughter Mercy Dudley married to John Woodbridge

Descendants of his daughter Patience Dudley married to Daniel Denison

Descendants of his son Rev. Samuel Dudley married first to Mary Winthrop (son of John Winthrop), second to Mary Byley, and third to Elizabeth Smith

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Augustine Jones. The Life and Work of Thomas Dudley, The Second Governor of Massachusetts. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. (1900), pp. 3-10.
  2. ^ Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham, David Faris, Published by Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, ISBN 0806317507, 9780806317502
  3. ^ Sidney Lee, ed. Dictionary of National Biography. Macmillan (1909), Vol. XXI, pp. 699-700.
  4. ^ Harvard Charter of 1650, Held in the Harvard University Archives, harvard.edu
  5. ^ His parents gave Dudley Leavitt his name because he was descended from Gov. Thomas Dudley on both his father's and his mother's side.
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