Timothy Ruggles (October 20, 1711 – August 4, 1795) was an American military leader, jurist and politician. He was a delegate to the first Stamp Act congress of 1765.
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Early life
He was the son of the Rev. Timothy Ruggles; grandson of Capt. Samuel Ruggles of Roxbury and Martha Woodbridge, his wife, who was a granddaughter of Governor Thomas Dudley.
He was graduated from Harvard in 1732; studied law, and established himself in practice in Rochester. In 1735 he married Mrs. Bathsheba Newcomb, widow of William Newcomb and the daughter of the Hon. Melatiah Bourne of Sandwich, Massachusetts.
Stamp Act
He was a delegate to the first colonial (or Stamp Act) congress of 1765, which met in New York on October 7, and was elected its president, but refused to sanction the addresses sent by that body to Great Britain, for which he was publicly censured by the General Court of Massachusetts.
He became one of the leading Tories of New England. He commanded the Loyalist militia volunteers.
Later life
In 1775, he left Boston for Nova Scotia with the British troops and accompanied Lord Howe to Staten Island. His estates were confiscated, and in 1779 he received a grant of 10,000 acres (40 km²) of land in Wilmot, Nova Scotia, where he settled.
Ruggles left his daughter, Bathsheba Ruggles behind enemy lines in Massachusetts. In 1778 she was hung to her death while pregnant for allegedly killing her husband Joshua Spooner.
External links
- http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~dav4is/people/RUGG2087.htm (partial source)
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