William Shirley
William Shirley | |
|---|---|
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| Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay | |
| In office August 14, 1741 – September 11, 1749 August 7, 1753 – September 25, 1756 | |
| Preceded by | Jonathan Belcher (1741) Spencer Phips (1753) |
| Succeeded by | Spencer Phips (1749 & 1756) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 2, 1694 Sussex, England |
| Died | March 24, 1771 Roxbury, Massachusetts |
William Shirley (December 2, 1694 – March 24, 1771) was the British governor of Massachusetts from 1741 to 1759. He was the son of William and Elizabeth Godman Shirley, and was born on December 2, 1694, at Preston Manor in Sussex, England. He was educated at Cambridge then studied law in London before moving to Boston in 1731.
His early government jobs included that of surveyor and King's Advocate for New England. He was appointed the royal Governor in 1741. In 1744, he led a successful siege of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia.
He was commander-in-chief of North American forces, and with Charles Lawrence, was the architect of the Great Expulsion, the forcible removal of more than 12,000 Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755. Some historians consider this incident to be one of the earliest examples of ethnic cleansing. On March 31, 1756, the Secretary of War replaced him as commander-in-chief and told him to return to England as soon as possible.[1] He was later exonerated, and served as Governor of the Bahamas from 1761-1769.
He retired to live with his daughter and her husband (Eliakin Hutchinson) at the Roxbury house. He died there on March 24, 1771.
The Shirley House
He built a family home in Roxbury between 1744 and 1750. The Shirley-Eustis House still stands at 33 Shirley Street. It has largely been restored and is open to the public.[2].
Footnotes
- ^ O'Toole pg. 154
- ^ Historic Shirley-Eustis House
References
- O'Toole, Fintan, White Savage, William Johnson and the Invention of America, 2005, ISBN 0-374-28128-9
