Descent from Colonial Governors

Home , Caleb Carr (governor), Connecticut Colony, John Coggeshall

CONTENTS OF THIS FILE:

(David) Jay Webber’s Descent from Colonial Governors

Carol Ruth Wimble’s Descent from Colonial Governors

John Raymond Wilde’s Descent from Colonial Governors

Paula Christine Johnson’s Descent from a Colonial Governor

Erik John Soule’s Descent from a Colonial Governor (David) Jay Webber’s Descent from Colonial Governors

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ...the one who is in authority...is God’s servant for your good. (Romans 13:1,3b,4a, ESV)

[1] William BRADFORD, bp 19 Mar 1590, d 9 May 1657. Governor of Plymouth Colony, 1621-1633, 1635- 1636, 1637-1638, 1639-1644, 1645-1657. Author. “He was indeed a person of a well-tempered spirit, or else it had been scarce possible for him to have kept the affairs of Plymouth in so good a temper... The leader of a people in a wilderness had need be a Moses; and if a Moses had not led the people of Plymouth Colony, when this worthy person was their governour, the people had never with so much unanimity and importunity still called him to lead them. ... He was a person for study as well as action; and hence...he attained unto a notable skill in languages... He was also well skilled in History, in Antiquity, and in Philosophy; and for Theology he became so versed in it, that he was an irrefragable disputant against the errors...which with trouble he saw rising in his colony... But the crown of all was his holy, prayerful, watchful, and fruitful walk with God, wherein he was very exemplary. ...he died, May 9, 1657, in the 69th year of his age – lamented by all the colonies of New-England, as a common blessing and father to them all.”

[2] John MASON, b abt 1600, d 30 Jan 1672. Acting Governor of Connecticut Colony, 1661-1633. Author. Captain and later Major John Mason was a veteran of the Thirty Years War in Europe, and after his emigration to New England was a military leader in both Massachusetts and Connecticut. He commanded the colonial forces during the Pequot War in 1637, and was Major General over all Connecticut military forces 1654-1672. He served as Deputy Governor of Connecticut 1660-1669, and functioned as Acting Governor during the time when Governor John Winthrop, Jr., was in England, seeking the approval of King Charles II for the new Connecticut Charter (which Mason, as Deputy Governor, had helped to draft). “John Mason was one of the most trusted men in Connecticut during his three and a half decades of residence there, in both civil and military matters. In his latter years, the formal colony records referred to him simply as ‘the Major,’ without forename or surname.” Carol Ruth Wimble’s Descent from Colonial Governors

[1] William BRADFORD, bp 19 Mar 1590, d 9 May 1657. Governor of Plymouth Colony, 1621-1633, 1635- 1636, 1637-1638, 1639-1644, 1645-1657. Author. “He was indeed a person of a well-tempered spirit, or else it had been scarce possible for him to have kept the affairs of Plymouth in so good a temper... The leader of a people in a wilderness had need be a Moses; and if a Moses had not led the people of Plymouth Colony, when this worthy person was their governour, the people had never with so much unanimity and importunity still called him to lead them. ... He was a person for study as well as action; and hence...he attained unto a notable skill in languages... He was also well skilled in History, in Antiquity, and in Philosophy; and for Theology he became so versed in it, that he was an irrefragable disputant against the errors...which with trouble he saw rising in his colony... But the crown of all was his holy, prayerful, 2 watchful, and fruitful walk with God, wherein he was very exemplary. ...he died, May 9, 1657, in the 69th year of his age – lamented by all the colonies of New-England, as a common blessing and father to them all.”

John Raymond Wilde’s Descent from Colonial Governors

[1] Benedict ARNOLD, b 21 Dec 1615, d 19 Jun 1678. President of Rhode Island Colony, 1657-1660, 1662- 1663; Governor of Rhode Island Colony, 1663-1666, 1669-1672, 1677-1678. He died in office. “Arnold was a bold and decisive leader.” “He is said to have been the wealthiest man in the colony.”

[2] Caleb CARR, b abt 1624, d 17 Dec 1695. Governor of Rhode Island Colony, 1695. He died in office after serving for less than a year.

[3] John COGGESHALL, bp 9 Dec 1601, bur 27 Nov 1647. President of Rhode Island Colony, 1647. He died in office after serving for less than a year. Under his administration a system of courts was established, and the first complete code or “digest” of colonial laws was written and adopted. “For simplicity of diction, unencumbered as it is by the superfluous verbiage that clothes our modern statutes in learned obscurity; for breadth of comprehension, embracing as it does the foundation of the whole body of law, on every subject, which has since been adopted; and for vigor and originality of thought and boldness of expression, as well as for the vast significance and the brilliant triumph of the principles it embodies, the Digest of 1647 presents a model of legislation which has never been surpassed.”

[4] Robert TREAT, b 23 Feb 1624, d 12 Jul 1710. Governor of Connecticut Colony, 1683-1687, 1689-1698. “Treat headed the colony’s militia for several years, principally against the Narragansett Indians. This included participating in King Philip’s War in 1676. He served on the Governor’s Council continuously from 1676 to 1708. First elected Governor in 1683, Treat was supplanted by Sir Edmund Andros in 1687, making Connecticut part of the Dominion of New England. Treat is credited with having a role in concealing the state’s charter in the Charter Oak, and resumed his job as governor when the dominion scheme fell apart in 1689. He was re-elected annually until being defeated by Fitz-John Winthrop in 1698.”

[5] John WEBSTER, bp 16 Aug 1590, d 5 Apr 1661. Governor of Connecticut Colony, 1656-1657. “He...was a member of the committee that sat with the Court of Magistrates of the Colony of Connecticut in 1637 and 1638, and became an Assistant to the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut in 1639. ... He traveled to towns in Connecticut as a judge, helped create criminal laws for the colony, settled land and boundary disputes, helped the New England Congress supply Connecticut towns with soldiers and ammunition for an 3 expedition against the Indians, and surveyed the highway from Hartford to Windsor. He was a Commissioner to the United Colonies of New England in 1654. The Colony of Connecticut elected him as Deputy Governor in 1655, with Thomas Welles as Governor. The next year, 1656, John Webster was elected as Governor. Elections were annual, and prior to 1659 it was believed that no person should serve a term of more than one year. In 1657 John Winthrop was elected as governor, with Thomas Welles as Deputy Governor and John Webster as Chief Magistrate.” John Webster was one of the nineteen men in 1638-39 who participated in the drafting and adoption of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, a document that is widely acknowledged as establishing one of the earliest forms of constitutional government.

[6] Roger WILLIAMS, b 21 Dec 1603, d Mar 1683. Chief Officer of the Colony of Providence and Warwick, 1644-1647; President of Rhode Island Colony, 1654-1657. Author. Advocate of the separation of political and spiritual authority, and founder of the Rhode Island colony. “Williams and his followers settled on Narragansett Bay, where they purchased land from the Narragansett Indians and established a new colony governed by the principles of religious liberty and separation of church and state. Rhode Island became a haven for Baptists, Quakers, Jews and other religious minorities.” “Roger Williams was an original thinker on issues of church and state. His central thesis was the inviolability of conscience in matters of faith. ... Conscience was the medium by which man communicated with God. No authority, therefore, was justified in entering this sacred haven. Each man, moreover, was as worthy as another; all stood equal before God in their assertion of conscience. From these premises, Roger Williams advocated tolerance for all believers in society, even if he felt particular persons to be gravely mistaken in their beliefs. These thoughts helped lay the foundation for the peaceful coexistence of religion and society, and also, for the pluralistic democracy we inhabit today.” Paula Christine Johnson’s Descent from a Colonial Governor

[1] Thomas PRENCE / PRINCE, b abt 1600, d 29 Mar 1673. Governor of Plymouth Colony, 1634-1635, 1638-1639, 1657-1673. “After Governor [William] Bradford’s death in 1657, Prence became the most important person in Plymouth, winning unanimous election to succeed Bradford as governor. He held the post until his own death in 1673.” Prence was “a man of no education but of considerable natural ability... Though ‘very amiable and pleasante’ in his private life, Prence was harsh and overbearing as a magistrate, sitting the bench with a ‘countenance full of majestie,’ being a strict and often cruel disciplinarian.” He was “pleased to be known as a ‘Terrour to evill doers.’ And almost anyone who opposed him was ‘evill.’” However, “It is to Plymouth's credit that it never executed or otherwise punished any person for witchcraft, unlike the Bay Colony and Connecticut. In fact, when in 1661 Dinah Silvester accused the wife of William Holmes of being a witch, it was the accuser who was sentenced by the court to be whipped, be fined, or make a public apology.” Erik John Soule’s Descent from a Colonial Governor

[1] Robert TREAT, b 23 Feb 1624, d 12 Jul 1710. Governor of Connecticut Colony, 1683-1687, 1689-1698. “Treat headed the colony’s militia for several years, principally against the Narragansett Indians. This included participating in King Philip’s War in 1676. He served on the Governor’s Council continuously from 1676 to 1708. First elected Governor in 1683, Treat was supplanted by Sir Edmund Andros in 1687, making Connecticut part of the Dominion of New England. Treat is credited with having a role in concealing the state’s charter in the Charter Oak, and resumed his job as governor when the dominion scheme fell apart in 1689. He was re-elected annually until being defeated by Fitz-John Winthrop in 1698.” John Coggeshall