Person:Thomas Dudley (4)

About Gov. Thomas Dudley

Thomas Dudley was orphaned at 14 when his father was killed at the Battle of Ivry. He entered the service of several wealthy patrons, including eventually Theophilus Clinton, whose family included fellow Winthrop Fleet migrants Charles and Arabella Fiennes.

From a sketch written by his son-in-law Daniel Denison: Mr. Thomas Dudley ... was a principal undertaker of this Plantation of the Massachusetts and one of those first comers in the year 1630 that brought over the Patent, and settled the government here. He came over Deputy Governor, and was afterwards diverse times Governor. He then lived at Cambridge, removed to Ipswich, where he stayed but one year, being recalled again to live in the Bay, which then could not but want his help. He settled himself at Roxbury, where he lived until he departed this life about the 30th day of July in the year 1653, having buried your great grandmother about ten years before, about the latter end of December 1643. ^S1

As governor, Dudley signed the Charter that created Harvard University.

Notable Descendants

Thomas's daughter was Anne Bradstreet, the poet.

Descendants from her and his other eight children include:

• Speaker of the U.S. House Robert Charles Winthrop
• Senators John Kerry, Lowell P. Weicker, Benjamin Wade
• Harvard University President Charles William Eliot
• Founder of Rice University William Marsh Rice
• President Herbert Hoover
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter
• New Hampshire governor John Taylor Gilman
• Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. and Jr.
• Presidential advisors William Putnam Bundy, McGeorge Bundy, Elliot Richardson
• Novelists John P. Marquand, Louis Auchincloss, Sarah Orne Jewett
• First Lady Jane Pierce
• Astronaut Alan Shepard
• Actors Edie Sedgwick, Kyra Sedgwick, Burr Steers, John Lithgow, Humphrey Bogart, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Reeve and Bill Cosby
• Playwright Tennessee Williams
• Poets Edwin Arlington Robinson, William Ellery Channing, Robert Lowell, Harry Crosby
• Publisher Frank Doubleday
• Quarterback Steve Young

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Thomas Dudley, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

   ORIGIN: Sempringham, Lincolnshire MIGRATION: 1630 FIRST RESIDENCE: Charlestown
   REMOVES: Cambridge 1631, Ipswich 1634, Roxbury by 1644
   BIRTH: Yardley Hastings, Northamptonshire, 12 October 1576, son of Roger and Susanna (Thorne) Dudley [ NEHGR 65:189].
   DEATH: Roxbury 31 July 1653 "& was buried on the 6th day following" [RChR 175]. The general court ordered the payment for the barrel of powder spent "at the interring of Thomas Dudley, Esqr.," 10 September 1653 [MBCR 4:1:180].

2.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   2:77.

   THOMAS, Roxbury, third Gov[ernor]. of Mass[achusetts]. Bay, and sec[ond]. in it, acc. the Royal chart[er]. was s[on]. of Capt[ain]. Roger, it is said, b[orn]. at Northampton, Eng[land]. 1576; having leave from Queen Elizabeth to volunteer, he serv[ed]. under Henry IV. of France, says a reputab[le]. tradit[ion]. at the siege of Amiens, liv[ed]. after at Northampton, but by Isaac Johnson, wh[o]. names him one of the Excors. of his will, is call[ed]. of Clipsham, Co[unty]. Rutland. He came over 1630, prob[ably]. in the Arbella, as dep[uty]. gov[ernor]. was early at Newtown, or Cambridge, and a short time at Ipswich, had a mill at Watertown, at last fix[ed]. at R[utland]. was an Assist[ant]. 1635, and some later y[ea]rs. but dep[uty]. gov[ernor]. 13 y[ea]rs. Gov[ernor]. 1634, 40, 5, and 50, and d[ied]. 31 July 1653, aged 76, was bur[ied]. 6 Aug. His w[ife]. Dorothy d[ied]. 27 Dec. 1643, aged 61, and he m[arried]. 14 Apr. foll[owing]. Catharine, wid[ow]. of Samuel Hackburne, whose maiden name was Dighton, and wh[o]. m[arried]. 8 Nov. 1653, Rev. John Allin of Dedham. The ch[ildren]. of both w[ives]s. were, perhaps, Thomas, bred at Emanuel Coll[ege]. Cam bridge, where he had his degrees 1626, and 1630, but certain[ly]. he came not to our country bef[ore]. 1636, if at all; yet that he did come, may be argu[ed]. from the strange add. of sen. to the name of the f[ather]. at his elect[ion]. as Dep[uty]. Gov[ernor]. 17 May 1637, for the first time, while from the omission of the epith[ath]. at all subseq[uent]. ment[ion]. of him, one will infer, that the s[on]. d[ied]. within that y[ea]r.; Samuel, bef[ore]. ment[ioned].; Ann, b[orn]. a[bout]. 1612, m[arried]. bef[ore]. leav[ing]. Eng[land]. Simon Bradstreet, the Gov[ernor]. after, wh[o]. was a lady of literary powers, and d[ied]. 16 Sept. 1672; Patience m[arried]. maj[or].-gen[eral]. Daniel Denison; Sarah, bapt[ized]. at Sempringham in Lincolnsh[ire]. 23 July 1620, m[arried]. 6 Sept. 1648, maj[or]. Benjamin Payne of Boston, and after his repudiat[ion]. of her, one Pacy (I suppose, only for convenience), d[ied]. 3 Nov. 1659, when her est[ate]. as by inv[entory]. sw[orn]. by Capt[ain]. James Johnson, less than £10, was by the Court giv[en]. to her d[aughter]. Ann K.; Mercy, b[orn]. 27 Sept. 1621, m[arried]. Rev. John Woodbridge, d[ied]. 1 July 1691; these all b[orn]. prob[ably]. in Eng[land]. by the first w[ife]. and Deborah, 27 Feb. bapt[ized]. 2 Mar. 1645, wh[o]. m[arried]. Jonathan Wade of Medford; Joseph, 23, bapt[ized]. 26 Sept. 1647, H[arvard]. C[ollege]. 1665; and Paul, bapt[ized]. 8 Sept. 1650, both bef[ore]. ment[ioned]. by sec[ond]. w[ife].

3.   Thomas Dudley, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

   the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

   Thomas Dudley (12 October 157631 July 1653) was a colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the town's first home. He provided land and funds to establish the Roxbury Latin School, and signed Harvard College's new charter during his 1650 term as governor. Dudley was a devout Puritan who was opposed to religious views not conforming with his. In this he was more rigid than other early Massachusetts leaders like John Winthrop, but less confrontational than John Endecott.

   The son of a military man who died when he was young, Dudley saw military service himself during the French Wars of Religion, and then acquired some legal training before entering the service of his likely kinsman the Earl of Lincoln. Along with other Puritans in Lincoln's circle, Dudley helped organize the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sailing with Winthrop in 1630. Although he served only four one-year terms as governor of the colony, he was regularly in other positions of authority.

   Dudley's daughter Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672) was a prominent early American poet. One of the gates of Harvard Yard, which existed from 1915 to 1947, was named in his honor, and Harvard's Dudley House is named for the family, as is the town of Dudley, Massachusetts.

4.   FDudley, Thomas, in American National Biography Online.

The Winthrop Fleet (1630)

The Winthrop Fleet brought over 700 colonists to establish a new colony at Massachusetts Bay. The fleet consisted of eleven ships: the Arbella flagship with Capt Peter Milburne, the Ambrose, the Charles, the Mayflower, the Jewel, the Hopewell, The Success, the Trial, the Whale, the Talbot and the William and Francis.   Sailed: April and May 1630 from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, England   Arrived: June and July 1630 at Salem, Massachusetts   Previous Settlers: The Higginson Fleet (1629)   Passengers: Winthrop wrote to his wife just before they set sail that there were seven hundred passengers. Six months after their arrival, Thomas Dudley wrote to Bridget Fiennes, Countess of Lincoln and mother of Lady Arbella and Charles Fiennes, that over two hundred passengers had died between their landing April 30 and the following December, 1630.   Selected leaders and prominent settlers: Gov. John Winthrop - Richard Saltonstall - Isaac Johnson - Gov. Thomas Dudley - Gov. William Coddington - William Pynchon - William Vassall - John Revell - Robert Seely - Edward Convers - Gov. Simon Bradstreet - John Underhill - William Phelps   Resources: The Winthrop Society - The Winthrop Fleet (Wikipedia) - Anderson's Winthrop Fleet