The territory of theCommonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the fifty United States, was settled in the 17th century by several different English colonies. The territories claimed or administered by these colonies encompassed a much larger area than that of the modern state, and at times included areas that are now within the jurisdiction of otherNew England states or of the Canadian provinces ofNew Brunswick andNova Scotia. Some colonial land claims extended all the way to thePacific Ocean.
The first permanent settlement was thePlymouth Colony (1620), and the second major settlement was theMassachusetts Bay Colony atSalem in 1629. Settlements that failed or were merged into other colonies included the failedPopham Colony (1607) on the coast of Maine, and theWessagusset Colony (1622–23) inWeymouth, Massachusetts, whose remnants were folded into the Plymouth Colony. The Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies coexisted until 1686, each electing its own governor annually. The governance of both colonies was dominated by a relatively small group of magistrates, some of whom governed for many years. TheDominion of New England was established in 1686 and covered the territory of those colonies, as well as that ofNew Hampshire,Connecticut, andRhode Island. In 1688, it was further extended to includeNew York andEast andWest Jersey. The Dominion was extremely unpopular in the colonies, and it was disbanded when its royally appointed governor SirEdmund Androswas arrested and sent back to England in the wake of the 1688Glorious Revolution.
After Andros' arrest, each of the colonies reverted to its previous form of governance.King William III, however, reorganized the territory of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies into theProvince of Massachusetts Bay and appointed SirWilliam Phips as its royal governor in 1692. The Province of Massachusetts Bay was governed by appointed civilian governors until 1774, whenThomas Hutchinson was replaced by Lieutenant GeneralThomas Gage amid rising tensions between theThirteen Colonies and the British Parliament. Gage was the province's last royal governor. He was effectively powerless beyondBoston, and was recalled after the June 1775Battle of Bunker Hill. By then, the province was already being runde facto by theMassachusetts Provincial Congress; following the adoption ofa state constitution in 1779, the newly formed Commonwealth of Massachusetts electedJohn Hancock as its first governor.
The Popham Colony was founded on the coast ofPhippsburg, Maine in 1607 as a colonization attempt by theVirginia Company of Plymouth. The colony lasted about one year before being abandoned. One of its principal backers wasSir John Popham; his nephewGeorge Popham was the colony's governor for most of its brief existence.[1] George Popham died in the colony in 1608 and was replaced by Raleigh Gilbert. He and the remaining colonists abandoned it after word arrived that John Popham and Gilbert's older brother Sir John Gilbert had died.[2]
| Governor | Took office | Left office |
|---|---|---|
| George Popham | 1607 | February 1608 |
| Raleigh Gilbert | February 1608 | September 1608 |
| Source: Grizzard and Smith, p. 189 | ||
ThePlymouth Colony originated as a land grant issued by theLondon Virginia Company to a group of English separatist Puritans who had fled to Holland to avoid religious persecution. Their migration to the New World in 1620 aboard theMayflower was funded by theMerchant Adventurers, who sent additional settlers to engage in profit-making activities in the colony.[3] The settlers had intended to establish a colony near the mouth of theHudson River, within the bounds of the London Virginia Company's territory, but weather conditions on their arrival led them to establish it instead on the shores ofCape Cod Bay atPlymouth, Massachusetts.[4] The colonists acquired a land grant from thePlymouth Council for New England in 1621,[5] but its early governance took place under the terms of theMayflower Compact, a document which the colonists drafted and signed aboard theMayflower before they landed.[4] In 1630, the colony acquired a formal charter with authority to govern from the Plymouth Council, but it was unsuccessful in attempts to acquire a royal charter that would guarantee its territory against other claimants.[6]
The colony held annual elections for its offices.[7] Between 1620 and 1680, it was ruled by a governor who appointed a temporary replacement if he left the colony. In 1681, they began also electing a deputy governor who would serve in the governor's absence.[8] The leadership was dominated byWilliam Bradford, who served more than 30 terms as governor.[5] The colony was incorporated into theDominion of New England in 1686,[9] but the dominion was dissolved in 1689 and all the New England colonies temporarily reverted to their previous governmental structures. Plymouth finally received a royal charter in 1691, but it was not the one which they had sought for 70 years. Instead of protecting the colony's autonomy, the charter incorporated Plymouth into theProvince of Massachusetts Bay, which took effect in 1692 with the arrival of royal governor SirWilliam Phips.[10][11]
| # | Governor | Took office | Left office | Deputy governor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | John Carver | November 11, 1620 | died April 15, 1621[12] | The colony had no deputy governors until 1681; the governor named apro tem governor when he was absent. |
| 2nd | William Bradford | May 1621 | January 1, 1633 | |
| 3rd | Edward Winslow | January 1, 1633 | March 27, 1634 | |
| 4th | Thomas Prence | March 27, 1634 | March 3, 1635 | |
| 5th | William Bradford | March 3, 1635 | March 1, 1636 | |
| 6th | Edward Winslow | March 1, 1636 | March 7, 1637 | |
| 7th | William Bradford | March 7, 1637 | June 5, 1638 | |
| 8th | Thomas Prence | June 5, 1638 | June 3, 1639 | |
| 9th | William Bradford | June 3, 1639 | June 5, 1644 | |
| 10th | Edward Winslow | June 5, 1644 | June 4, 1645 | |
| 11th | William Bradford | June 4, 1645 | died May 9, 1657[13] | |
| 12th | Thomas Prence | June 3, 1657 | June 3, 1673 | |
| 13th | Josiah Winslow | June 3, 1673 | December 18, 1680 | |
| 14th | Thomas Hinckley | December 18, 1680 | 1686 | James Cudworth (1681–82) |
| William Bradford the Younger (1682–86) | ||||
| Dominion of New England | 1686 | 1689 | Not applicable | |
| 15th | Thomas Hinckley | 1689 | 1692 | William Bradford the Younger (1689–92) |
| Source unless otherwise cited: Giffordet al., p. 205; Capen, p. 53 | ||||
The Wessagusset Colony (sometimes called the Weston Colony or Weymouth Colony) was a short-lived trading colony located inWeymouth, Massachusetts. It was settled in August 1622 by approximately 55 colonists who were ill-prepared for colonial life and lacking adequate provisions.[14] The colony was dissolved in late March 1623, and the surviving colonists either joined the Plymouth Colony or returned to England.[15]
| Governor | Took office | Left office |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Greene | April 1622 | died c. October 1622 |
| John Saunders | c. October 1622 | March 1623 |
| Source: Adams and Nash, pp. 11, 14, 27 | ||
In 1623,Robert Gorges was commissioned as Governor-General of New England byKing Charles I to oversee Plymouth, Wessagusset, and future New England colonies.[16] Gorges established a small colony on the site of the recently failed Wessagusset Colony; his effort was abandoned after one year for financial reasons.[17][18] Some of his settlers remained in the area without formal governance, moving to occupy theShawmut Peninsula (site ofBoston, Massachusetts) among other places.[19]
| Governor-General | Took office | Left office |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Gorges | September 1623 | 1624 |
| Source: Adams and Nash, pp. 29–31 | ||
TheMassachusetts Bay Company was established in 1628 and was funded in part by investors in the failedDorchester Company. In that year, the company electedMatthew Cradock as its governor and received a grant from thePlymouth Council for New England for land roughly between theCharles andMerrimack Rivers.[20] The company dispatchedJohn Endecott and a small company of settlers toMassachusetts Bay not long after acquiring the grant.[21] In 1629, the company received a royal charter as a means to guarantee its grant against other claims, and elected Endecott as the first colonial governor, while Cradock continued to govern the company in London.[22] In August 1629, the shareholders reorganized the company so that the charter could be removed to the colony, merging corporate and colonial administration.[23]John Winthrop was elected governor in October, but did not formally take charge of the colony until he arrived in 1630.[24] Colonial officials (governor, deputy governor, and the council of assistants) were elected annually from then on by thefreemen of the colony. The governorship was dominated by a small group of early settlers who sought to ensure that the vision of a Puritan settlement was maintained;Richard Bellingham,John Leverett, andSimon Bradstreet all served extended terms, in addition to Winthrop and Endecott, andThomas Dudley served 4 1-year terms. All these men also served in positions of importance when they were not serving as governor.[25]
The colony's governance and religious attitudes came under greater scrutiny following therestoration ofCharles II to the throne in 1660, which led to the revocation of its charter in 1684.[26][27]King James II then established theDominion of New England, an appointed regime which was strongly against the will of the American colonists.[28] It took effect in 1686 and lasted until 1689, when theGlorious Revolution toppled James, and colonists in Massachusetts immediately arrested the Dominion's governor SirEdmund Andros.[29] The colony reverted to its previous rule on a provisional basis, because it then lacked any sort of legal charter.[30] In 1691,King William III merged the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay along with the territory of Maine, the islands south ofCape Cod (includingMartha's Vineyard,Nantucket, and theElizabeth Islands), and Nova Scotia (which includedNew Brunswick) to form theProvince of Massachusetts Bay.[10] This new governmental structure took effect in 1692, with the arrival of the new royal governor Sir William Phips.[11]
| Governor | Took office | Left office | Deputy governor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew Cradock | 1628 | October 20, 1629 | Thomas Goffe | |
 John Endecott | April 30, 1629 | June 12, 1630[31] | None | |
 John Winthrop | October 20, 1629 | May 14, 1634 | John Humphrey (1629–30) | |
| Thomas Dudley (1630–34) | ||||
| Thomas Dudley | May 14, 1634 | May 6, 1635 | Roger Ludlow | |
| John Haynes | May 6, 1635 | May 25, 1636 | Richard Bellingham | |
 Sir Henry Vane the Younger | May 25, 1636 | May 17, 1637 | John Winthrop | |
John Winthrop | May 17, 1637 | May 13, 1640 | Thomas Dudley | |
| Thomas Dudley | May 13, 1640 | June 2, 1641 | Richard Bellingham | |
| Richard Bellingham | June 2, 1641 | May 18, 1642 | John Endecott | |
John Winthrop | May 18, 1642 | May 29, 1644 | John Endecott | |
John Endecott | May 29, 1644 | May 14, 1645 | John Winthrop | |
| Thomas Dudley | May 14, 1645 | May 6, 1646 | John Winthrop | |
John Winthrop | May 6, 1646 | May 2, 1649 | Thomas Dudley | |
John Endecott | May 2, 1649 | May 22, 1650 | Thomas Dudley | |
| Thomas Dudley | May 22, 1650 | May 7, 1651 | John Endecott[32] | |
John Endecott | May 7, 1651 | May 3, 1654 | Thomas Dudley | |
| Richard Bellingham | May 3, 1654 | May 23, 1655 | John Endecott | |
John Endecott | May 23, 1655 | May 3, 1665 | Richard Bellingham | |
| Richard Bellingham | May 3, 1665 | December 12, 1672 | Francis Willoughby (1665–71) | |
| John Leverett (1671–72) | ||||
 John Leverett | December 12, 1672 (acting until May 7, 1673) | May 28, 1679 | Samuel Symonds (1673–78) | |
| Simon Bradstreet (1678–79) | ||||
 Simon Bradstreet | May 28, 1679 | May 25, 1686[33] | Thomas Danforth | |
| Dominion of New England | May 25, 1686[33] | April 18, 1689[34] | Not applicable | |
Simon Bradstreet | April 18, 1689[34] | May 14, 1692[35] | Thomas Danforth | |
| Sources unless otherwise cited: Capen, pp. 53–54; Hart, p. 1:607 | ||||
The Dominion of New England was established byKing James II in order to bring the colonies of New England more firmly under united crown control, and to streamline the costs associated with colonial administration.[36] All of the New England colonies eventually came under its authority, as well as the provinces ofNew York,East Jersey, andWest Jersey.[37] SirEdmund Andros governed the Dominion for most of its brief existence, but he alienated New Englanders by forcing theChurch of England into Puritan Boston and vacating land titles issued under the old charter.[38] After theGlorious Revolution of 1688 deposed James, Massachusetts political operativesarrested Andros and shipped him back to England.[39][40] All of the affected colonies reverted to their previous forms of rule, although Massachusetts did so without constitutional authority because its charter had been revoked.[41]William III andMary II eventually issued new charters, but in the process they combined the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, and other territories into the province of Massachusetts Bay.[10]
Plans to establish the dominion had started under King Charles II early in the 1680s. He initially selected ColonelPercy Kirke as the dominion's governor in 1684. Kirke's commission was approved by James, but was then withdrawn after Kirke's controversially harsh actions in putting downMonmouth's Rebellion in 1685.Joseph Dudley, son of Thomas Dudley, was given a commission as "President of the Council of New England" with limited powers as an interim measure before Andros' commission could be finalized.[42]
| Governor | Took office | Left office | Lieutenant Governor |
|---|---|---|---|
 Joseph Dudley (as President of the Council of New England) | May 25, 1686[43] | December 20, 1686[44] | William Stoughton (as Deputy President)[45] |
 Sir Edmund Andros | December 20, 1686[44] | April 18, 1689[34] | Francis Nicholson (appointed April 1688)[46] |
The royal charter for the province of Massachusetts Bay was issued in 1691. The territory that it encompassed included the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Plymouth Colony, the territories of Maine and Nova Scotia (which then includedNew Brunswick), and the proprietary plantation holdings ofNantucket,Martha's Vineyard, and other islands off the southern coast ofCape Cod.[10] The government did not formally begin operating until royally appointed governor Sir William Phips arrived in 1692.[11] The province was governed by civilian governors until 1774, whenThomas Hutchinson was replaced by Lieutenant GeneralThomas Gage amid rising tensions between theThirteen Colonies and theBritish Parliament.[47] Gage was the province's last royal governor. He was effectively powerless beyondBoston,[48][49] and was recalled after the June 1775Battle of Bunker Hill.[50] By then, the province was already being runde facto by theMassachusetts Provincial Congress, which continued to govern until 1780. TheMassachusetts Constitution was adopted in 1779, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts electedJohn Hancock as its first governor.[51]
Under the terms of the royal charter, both the governor and lieutenant governor were appointed by the crown. The charter contained a provision that the governor's council would assume the duties of the governor should both governor and lieutenant governor be absent from the colony.[52] This occurred three times:
| Governor | Took office | Left office | Lieutenant Governor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sir William Phips | May 16, 1692 | November 17, 1694 | William Stoughton (May 16, 1692 – died July 7, 1701) | |
.jpg) William Stoughton (acting) | December 4, 1694 | May 26, 1699 | ||
 Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont | May 26, 1699 | July 17, 1700 | ||
 William Stoughton (acting) | July 22, 1700 | died July 7, 1701 | ||
| Governor's Council (acting) | July 10, 1701 | June 11, 1702 | Vacant | |
Joseph Dudley | June 11, 1702 | February 4, 1715 | Thomas Povey (June 11, 1702 – left colony c. January 28, 1706) | |
| Vacant | ||||
| William Tailer (October 4, 1711 – February 4, 1715) | ||||
| Governor's Council (acting) | February 4, 1715 | March 21, 1715 | Vacant | |
Joseph Dudley | March 21, 1715 | November 9, 1715 | William Tailer (March 21, 1715 – October 5, 1716) | |
| William Tailer (acting) | November 9, 1715 | October 5, 1716 File:Thomas Pownall Engraving.jpg | ||
.jpg) Samuel Shute | October 5, 1716 | left colony January 1, 1723 | William Dummer (October 5, 1716 – June 11, 1730) | |
.jpg) William Dummer (acting) | January 2, 1723 | July 19, 1728 | ||
 William Burnet | July 19, 1728 | died September 7, 1729 | ||
William Dummer (acting) | September 10, 1729 | June 11, 1730 | ||
| William Tailer (acting) | June 11, 1730 | August 10, 1730 | William Tailer (June 11, 1730 – died March 1, 1732) | |
 Jonathan Belcher | August 10, 1730 | August 14, 1741 | ||
| Vacant | ||||
| Spencer Phips (August 8, 1732 – died April 4, 1757) | ||||
 William Shirley | August 14, 1741 | September 11, 1749 | ||
| Spencer Phips (acting) | September 15, 1749 | August 7, 1753 | ||
William Shirley | August 7, 1753 | September 25, 1756 | ||
| Spencer Phips (acting) | September 25, 1756 | died April 4, 1757 | ||
| Governor's Council (acting) | April 5, 1757 | August 3, 1757 | Vacant | |
 Thomas Pownall | August 3, 1757 | June 3, 1760 | Thomas Hutchinson (June 1, 1758 – March 14, 1771) | |
 Thomas Hutchinson (acting) | June 3, 1760 | August 2, 1760 | ||
_(attributed_to)_-_Sir_Francis_Bernard_(c.1712%25E2%2580%25931779)%2c_Bt_-_LP_186_-_Christ_Church.jpg) Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet | August 2, 1760 | August 1, 1769 | ||
Thomas Hutchinson (acting, August 2, 1769 – March 14, 1771) | August 2, 1769 | May 17, 1774 | ||
| Andrew Oliver (March 14, 1771 – died March 3, 1774) | ||||
| Vacant | ||||
 Thomas Gage | May 17, 1774 | October 11, 1775[a] | ||
| Thomas Oliver (August 8, 1774 – March 17, 1776)[b] | ||||
| Source unless otherwise cited:Massachusetts Royal Commissions, pp. xxxiii–xxxv | ||||
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