Andros, Sir Edmund (06 December 1637–19 February 1714), imperial administrator, was born in London, England, the son of Amias Andros, seigneur of Sausmarez, Guernsey, and master of the ceremonies to King Charles I, and Elizabeth Stone, the sister of Sir Robert Stone, cupbearer to Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia. Raised with royalty, Edmund Andros suffered with the Stuarts. He went into exile in October 1643 when his father took up a command in the besieged Castle Cornet, Guernsey. The last place in Europe to hold out for the Stuarts, the castle was not surrendered until 15 December 1651. The Andros family took refuge at the court of Elizabeth of Bohemia in The Hague. There, in April 1656, “Mun” Andros was commissioned in the cuirassier troop of his uncle Sir Robert Stone and fought in Denmark from 1655 to 1658. Andros was then named gentleman-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth and also served her nephews, the exiled Charles II of England and the prince of Orange, later William III....
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Anza, Juan Bautista de (07 July 1736–19 December 1788), military commander, explorer, and governor, was born in the presidio of Fronteras, Sonora, Mexico, the son of Juan Bautista de Anza, commandant of the post since 1719, and María Rafaela Becerra Nieto; his grandfather was commandant of Janos presidio, Chihuahua. Anza’s father was killed in combat in 1739, but Anza continued in the family tradition, and on 1 December 1752 entered the militia at Fronteras. On 1 July 1755 he was promoted to lieutenant at Fronteras, and, after participating in Indian campaigns in Sonora, he rose in 1760 to the rank of captain and commander of the presidio at Tubac (in present-day Arizona). On 24 June 1761 he married Ana María Pérez Serrano of Arizpe, Sonora, but no children were born of the union....
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Archdale, John (05 May 1642–04 July 1717), colonial governor and a proprietor of Carolina, was born in Chipping Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, the son of Thomas Archdale, the local squire, and Mary Nevill. His grandfather Richard Archdale, a London merchant, had earlier purchased “Loakes” and “Temple Wycombe” manors and joined the county gentry. Although relatives had attended Wadham College, Oxford, John Archdale apparently was self-educated....
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Thomas L. Purvis
Basse, Jeremiah (?– August 1725), governor of East and West Jersey, was born in England. His political enemies later belittled him as a former Anabaptist minister and brewer’s clerk, but it is unknown whether his detractors were accurately describing him because no information has survived about his origins. Basse’s parents evidently did not rank among the gentry, however, and his early religious sympathies seem not to have been with the Church of England. His career and writings demonstrated a good education and a sophisticated knowledge of law, but he was probably self-taught in both regards....
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John A. Schutz
Belcher, Jonathan (08 January 1682–31 August 1757), governor of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Andrew Belcher, a merchant, and Sarah Gilbert. Jonathan’s father was wealthy and ambitious, with business connections throughout New England. Jonathan attended the Boston Latin School, then Harvard College for an A.B. from 1695 to 1699 and for an M.A. in 1702, and he toured England and northern Europe for nearly two years and visited the British royal family in Hannover....
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Bellingham, Richard (1592–07 December 1672), governor of colonial Massachusetts, was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the son of Frances Amcotts and William Bellingham. A friend of the earl of Lincoln and a lawyer, he served as a Member of Parliament for Boston in 1628 and as recorder of the borough of Lincolnshire from 1625 to 1633. One of the original patentees of the Massachusetts Bay Charter, he immigrated to New England in 1634 with his first wife, Elizabeth Backhouse, and their only child Samuel, who would graduate with Harvard College’s first class of 1642. Bellingham was immediately elected deputy governor of the colony (1635–1636), a post he held again from 1640 to 1641, from 1653 to 1654, and from 1655 to 1665. He served as an assistant on the Governor’s Council (1636–1641 and 1642–1653), the colony’s treasurer (1637–1640), and governor (1641–1642, 1654–1655, and 1665 until his death). He was a member of the committee that in 1648 drafted ...
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Berkeley, Sir William (03 July 1606–09 July 1677), royal governor and captain general of Virginia, was born in or near London, the son of Sir Maurice Berkeley, a well-connected gentleman of distinguished family. He was the brother of John, first Baron Berkeley of Stratton, a colonial proprietary. He entered Queen’s College, Oxford, in February 1623 and received his B.A. in July 1624 from St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. Five years later, he completed his M.A. at Merton College, Oxford. A charming, intelligent, well-connected gentleman, Berkeley became a favorite of King Charles I and was created a member of the Privy Chamber. In 1632 he was appointed a Commissioner of Canadian affairs and executed the office with distinction. He authored a number of notable plays, among them ...
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Carol Sue Humphrey
Bernard, Sir Francis ( July 1712–16 June 1779), colonial governor, was born in Brightwell Parish, Berkshire, England, the son of Francis Bernard, an Anglican minister, and Margery Winlowe. When Bernard was three his father died. His mother married another Anglican minister, the Reverend Anthony Alsop. Alsop, a poet, died during Bernard’s childhood, but the stepson later edited the definitive edition of Alsop’s work. Bernard’s mother died when he was six, and he was raised by an uncle, who was also a minister, and an aunt....
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Michael McGiffert
Bradford, William (1590–09 May 1657), a founder and long-time governor of Plymouth colony, was born of yeoman stock in Austerfield, Yorkshire, the son of William Bradford and Alice Hanson. The parish register records his date of baptism as 19 March 1590. His father died in 1591; his mother remarried in 1593. According to ...
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Richard R. Johnson
Bradstreet, Simon (Feb. or Mar. 1604–27 March 1697), colonial statesman and governor of Massachusetts, was born in Horbling, Lincolnshire, England, and was baptized on 18 March 1604, the son of Simon Bradstreet, vicar of Horbling, and Margaret (maiden name unknown). In 1617 he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge (of which his father had been a fellow), and received the degrees of B.A. in 1620 and M.A. in 1624. Between 1621 and 1624 he served as assistant to ...
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Buade, Louis de (22 May 1622–28 November 1698), French soldier and courtier, was born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the son of Henri de Buade and Anne Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain, aristocrats. On his father’s side he was descended from the old nobility of the sword and on his mother’s from the ascending nobility of the robe. His father, comte de Frontenac, baron (later comte) de Palluau, and colonel of the Régiment de Navarre, was highly regarded by Louis XIII, who stood as godfather to the infant Louis at his baptism....
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Bull, William ( April 1683–21 March 1755), lieutenant governor and acting governor of South Carolina, was born at “Ashley Hall,” South Carolina, the son of Colonel Stephen Bull, a deputy of the lords proprietors and member of the proprietary council. His mother’s name is not known. A planter and surveyor, William Bull held numerous government offices. He was elected to the assembly in 1706, 1707, and 1716. During the Yemassee Indian war of 1715, Bull and his brother John served as militia captains on an expedition into the western mountains of the Cherokee Indians that was famed in colonial South Carolina history for the heroism of those involved and for its important consequences. In 1716 they participated in the Convention of Tugaloo, which served as a cornerstone of Carolina Indian policy and a foundation of peace with the Cherokees for almost half a century....
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Kinloch Bull
Bull, William, II (24 September 1710–04 July 1791), lieutenant governor and acting governor of South Carolina, was born at “Ashley Hall,” near Charleston, South Carolina, the son of William Bull, later lieutenant governor of South Carolina, and Mary Quintyne. He was educated at Westminster School in London and at Leyden University, where in 1734 he became the first native-born American to receive a degree of doctor of medicine....
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Mary Lou Lustig
Burnet, William (?Mar. 1688–07 September 1729), attorney and royal governor of New York and New Jersey and of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, was born in the Hague, the Netherlands, the son of Gilbert Burnet, a bishop of Salisbury, and his second wife, Mary Scott. William was named for his godfather William of Orange, who became William III of England after the 1688 Glorious Revolution. William entered Trinity College, Cambridge, was expelled, and was then privately instructed by tutors. He was admitted to the bar and in May 1712 married a daughter of Dean Stanhope (her first name and the number of their children is unknown). His wife died three years later. In 1722 Burnet married Anna Maria Van Horne, who died in 1728; the couple had three children....
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Converse D. Clowse
Burrington, George (1680–22 February 1759), twice governor of North Carolina, was born in Devonshire, England, of untraced ancestry. Little is known about Burrington’s personal life, education, or experiences before becoming governor. He was married, possibly more than once, but records do not substantiate that any wife was ever in North Carolina. His sole heir was a son born in 1738, long after Burrington had left the colony. He once boasted that his prominent family was the first to rally to William of Orange. It is likely that his political connections secured an appointment as captain in the British army in 1715 and influenced the Carolina proprietors to choose him to succeed the deceased ...
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John D. Krugler
Calvert, Cecilius (08 August 1605–30 November 1675), second Lord Baltimore and founder and first proprietor of Maryland, was born probably in Kent County, England, the son of Sir George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, and Anne Mynne. Little is known of Cecilius’s childhood. Named Cecil for Sir Robert Cecil, the most powerful man in the government of James I, he was baptized in the Church of England on 2 March 1606. As his father steadily advanced in government service to membership on the Privy Council and a position as one of the principal secretaries of state, the family conformed to the Church of England. Calvert attended Trinity College (Oxford) but did not take a degree. When he made the decision to live openly as a Roman Catholic remains problematic. He may have decided in advance of his father, who resolved his religious commitment in November 1624. Earlier that year Calvert traveled to the Continent, and while his pass contained the usual prohibition against visiting Rome, there is reason to suspect that he did. Certainly by 1625 young Calvert openly worshiped as a Catholic. In so doing, he identified with an outlawed, but never socially ostracized, minority within the English community. He took the name Cecilius when confirmed into the Catholic faith....
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David W. Jordan
Calvert, Charles (27 August 1637–20 February 1715), third Lord Baltimore and second proprietor of Maryland, was born in England, the son of Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, and Anne Arundel, the daughter of Sir Thomas Arundel of Wardour, England. Calvert spent his youth in England with the advantages of affluence and social status, but he experienced the disadvantages of being Catholic in a country that severely limited the rights of those professing his religion. Calvert was well educated and explicitly groomed by his father to become the head of the family’s proprietary colony of Maryland....
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Gregory A. Stiverson
Calvert, Charles (29 September 1699–24 April 1751), fifth baron of Baltimore and proprietor of Maryland, was probably born at “Woodcote Park,” the family estate in Epsom, Surrey County, England, the son of Benedict Leonard Calvert, fourth baron of Baltimore and a Tory member of Parliament, and Lady Charlotte Lee, a granddaughter of King Charles II. Charles was reared in an aristocratic but troubled Roman Catholic family. Charles’s father divorced his wife in 1705, fathered children with a housekeeper, and in 1713 professed himself an Anglican, abandoning the family’s Roman Catholic faith. He used his conversion to secure the return of full governing rights over the family’s colony of Maryland, which his father had lost in the wake of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. But Calvert’s father died in 1715, leaving the daunting task of reestablishing control over the colony to Calvert, who at age fifteen became the fifth baron of Baltimore and the proprietor of Maryland....
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R. J. Rockefeller
Calvert, Frederick (06 February 1732–04 September 1771), sixth and last Lord Baltimore and the proprietor of Maryland, was born in Epsom, Surrey, England, the son of Charles Calvert and Mary Janssen. Calvert was tutored privately at home as well as during travels throughout Europe. His poetry and other writings (as bad as they were) reveal a solid education in the classics, history, and languages. His inheritance on his father’s death in 1751 included the proprietorship of Maryland, vast wealth, and important connections at court....
