| Sir William
Phips |
|
Governor of the Province of
Massachusetts Bay
|
In office
May 16, 1692 – November
17, 1694 |
| Preceded by |
Simon Bradstreet (as Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) |
| Succeeded by |
William Stoughton |
|
| Born |
February 2 1651(1651--)
Woolwich, Maine |
| Died |
February 18 1695 (aged 44)
London, England |
Sir William Phips (or Phipps) (February 2, 1651 – February 18, 1695) was a colonial
governor of Massachusetts.
Military career
Phips was born at Woolwich, Maine, near the mouth of the Kennebec River, the twenty-sixth child in his family. He was a poor shepherd until he was eighteen, and
then a ship carpenter's apprentice in Maine for four years. [1] He worked at his trade in Boston, Massachusetts for a
year where he learned to read and write. With his wife's property he established a shipyard on the Sheepscot river in Maine, but
soon abandoned it because of clashes with the Native Americans, in
which the settlement was burned to ground after everyone escaped in a ship that had been built. In 1684-1686, with a commission
from the British Crown, he searched vainly for a wrecked Spanish treasure ship of which he had heard while on a voyage to the
Bahamas; he found this vessel in 1687, and from it recovered £300,000.
Of this amount much went to the Duke of Albemarle, who had fitted
out the second expedition. Phips received £16,000 as his share, was knighted by James
II, and was appointed sheriff of New England under
Sir Edmund Andros. Poorly educated and ignorant of law, Phips could accomplish little, and
returned to England. In 1689 he returned to Massachusetts, found a revolutionary government in
control, and at once entered into the life of the colony.
He joined Cotton Mather's, North Church in Boston, and was appointed by the General
Court commander of an expedition against the French in Canada. The expedition sailed in April of
1690 and captured Port Royal, Nova Scotia. A much larger expedition led by Phips
in July against Quebec and Montreal ended disastrously. Phips generously bought at their par value, in order to give them credit in
the colony, many of the colony's bills issued to pay for the expedition.
England
In the winter of 1690 he returned to England, vainly sought aid for another expedition against
Canada, and urged, with Increase Mather, the colonial agent, a restoration of the
colony's charter, annulled during the reign of Charles II. The Crown, at the
suggestion of Mather, appointed him the first royal governor under the new charter.
Salem witch trials
On reaching Boston in May 1692, Phips found the colony in a disordered condition, and though honest, persevering and
disinclined to further his own interests at the expense of the people, he was unfit for the difficult position. He appointed a
special commission to try the witchcraft
cases, but did nothing to stop the witchcraft mania, and suspended the sittings of the court only after great atrocities
had been committed.
In defending the frontier he displayed great energy, but his policy of building forts was expensive and therefore unpopular.
Having the manners of a 17th-century sea captain, he became involved in many quarrels, and engaged in a bitter controversy with
Governor Benjamin Fletcher of New York. Numerous
complaints to the home government resulted in his being summoned to England to answer charges.
While in London awaiting trial, he died on February
18, 1695. He was buried in London in the yard of the Church of St. Mary Woolnoth.
References
Sir William Phips in later life
See Cotton Mather's Life of His Excellency Sir William Phips (London, 1697; republished in his Magnalia Christi Americana in 1702); Francis
Bowen's "Life of Sir William Phips," in Jared Sparks's American Biography,
1st series, vol. vii. (New York, 1856); William Goold's "Sir William Phips," in Collections of the Maine Historical
Society, series I, vol. ix. (Portland, 1887); Ernest Myrand's Sir William Phipps--devant Quebec (Quebec, 1893);
Thomas Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts (2 vols, Boston; 3rd ed., 1795);
and JG Palfrey's History of New England (5 vols., Boston, 1858-1890).
External links
References
- ^ Nash, Gary B. and Julie Roy Jeffrey. The American People: Creating a
Nation and a Society. 5th ed. New York: Longman. 2001. 87.
Preceded by
Simon Bradstreet |
Governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony
May 16, 1692 - November 17,
1694 |
Succeeded by
William Stoughton |
|
Salem witch trials |
| Magistrates |
William
Stoughton · John Hathorne · Jonathan Corwin · Samuel Sewall · Bartholomew Gedney · Thomas Danforth · Nathaniel Saltonstall |
| Clergy |
Samuel
Parris · Cotton Mather · Increase Mather · Nicholas Noyes ·
John Hale · Deodat Lawson · Samuel
Willard |
| Politicians & Public Figures |
William Phips · Thomas Brattle ·
Robert Calef · Thomas
Putnam |
| Accusers |
Elizabeth
Hubbard · Mercy Lewis · Betty Parris · Ann Putnam, Jr. · Susannah Sheldon ·
Mary Walcott · Abigail Williams · Sarah
Bibber · Samuel Parris · John Indian |
| Accused |
John Alden · Edward Bishop · Edward Bishop III · Sarah Bishop ·
Mary Black · Mary
Bradbury · Sarah Cloyce · Rebecca Eames · Mary English ·
Phillip English · Abigail
Faulkner · Dorcas Good · William Hobbs ·
Mary Lacy · Sarah
Morey · Benjamin Proctor · Sarah Osborne · Elizabeth Proctor · Sarah Proctor ·
William Proctor |
| Confessed and Accused Others |
Tituba · Abigail
Hobbs · Deliverance Hobbs · Margaret Jacobs ·
Mary Warren · Ann
Foster · Mary Lacey Jr. · Mary Lacey Sr. ·
Sarah Churchwell |
| Executed |
Bridget
Bishop · George
Burroughs · Martha
Carrier · Martha Corey · Mary Eastey ·
Sarah Good · Elizabeth
Howe · George Jacobs, Sr. · Susannah Martin · Rebecca Nurse · Alice Parker ·
Mary Parker · John Proctor · Ann
Pudeator · Wilmot Redd · Margaret Scott ·
Samuel Wardwell · Sarah
Wildes · John Willard |
| Died in Prison |
Lydia
Dustin · Ann Foster · Sarah Osborn · Roger Toothaker |
| Pressed to Death |
Giles Corey |
| Born in Prison |
John Proctor,
Jr. |
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