Timothy Dwight Ruggles | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives | |
| In office 1762–1764 | |
| Preceded by | James Otis, Sr. |
| Succeeded by | Samuel White |
| Member of theMassachusetts House of Representatives forHardwick[1] | |
| In office 1754, 1757, 1761 – 1755, 1759, 1770 | |
| Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas[3] of theProvince of Massachusetts Bay | |
| In office January 21,[2] 1762[3] – 1774[2] | |
| Judge of the Court of Common Pleas[3] of theProvince of Massachusetts Bay | |
| In office April 19, 1757[3][2] – 1774[2] | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 20, 1711 Rochester,Massachusetts[4] |
| Died | August 4, 1795 (1795-08-05) (aged 83) |
| Resting place | Wilmot, Nova Scotia[5] |
| Spouse | Bathsheba Newcomb née Bourne |
| Children | Martha Ruggles (b. August 10, 1736),[6] Timthy Ruggles (b. January 7, 1738–39),[6] Bathsheba Ruggles (1746–1778),[6] John Ruggles,[5] Timothy Ruggles,[5] Richard Ruggles.[5] |
| Residence | Wilmot, Nova Scotia[7] |
| Alma mater | Harvard |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Province of Massachusetts Bay |
| Branch/service | Massachusetts militia |
Timothy Dwight Ruggles[8] (October 20, 1711 – August 4, 1795) was an American colonial military leader, jurist, and politician. He was a delegate to theStamp Act Congress of 1765 and later aLoyalist during theAmerican Revolutionary War.
Ruggles was born on October 20, 1711, to Rev. Timothy Ruggles.[3] He was grandson of Capt. Samuel Ruggles of Roxbury and Martha Woodbridge, who was a granddaughter of GovernorThomas Dudley.
He graduated from Harvard in 1732; studied law, and established himself in practice in Rochester.[3] In 1735, he married Mrs. Bathsheba Newcomb, widow of William Newcomb and the daughter of the Hon. Melatiah Bourne ofSandwich, Massachusetts. He was a military officer during theFrench and Indian War, rising to the rank of brigadier general in 1758.
He served multiple terms in theMassachusetts House of Representatives and was itsspeaker from 1762 to 1764. He participated in the October 1765Stamp Act Congress as a representative of theMassachusetts General Court and was elected its president. Called to devise a common colonial response to theParliament's 1765Stamp Act, Ruggles refused to sign both theDeclaration of Rights and Grievances sent by the Congress to KingGeorge III and the accompanying petitions sent to both Houses of Parliament. That made him become publicly censured by the General Court.
He subsequently became one of the leadingTories of New England. He commanded the Loyal American Association and was aMandamus Councillor appointed byGeneral Gage in Boston. The Loyal American Association vowed the following:
From the outset of theAmerican Revolutionary War in 1775, he stood with theLoyalists, left Boston soon thereafter forNova Scotia with the British troops, and accompaniedLord Howe toStaten Island. His estates were confiscated, and he was named in theMassachusetts Banishment Act. In 1779, he received a grant of 10,000 acres (40 km2) of land inWilmot,Nova Scotia, where he settled.
Ruggles left his daughter,Bathsheba Spooner, behind in Massachusetts. On July 2, 1778, she became the first woman executed in the newly independent United States of America. She was hanged while five months pregnant for the crime of plotting, with a 17-year-old Continental Army soldier with whom she was having an affair and whose child she can be presumed to have been carrying, and two British soldiers, who had deserted the British Army, after the death of her husband Joshua Spooner, who was savagely beaten and dumped in a well.
Three of Ruggles' sons, Timothy, John, and Richard, followed him into exile and settled in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, unlike his three daughters and his wife. A grandson, also namedTimothy Ruggles, was a political figure inNova Scotia.[9]
Ruggles was bothered by a hernia in later years and in August 1795, on the occasion of a visit by guests while he was taking them on a tour of his garden, he aggravated his poor health. Four days later, he died. He was buried on the eastward side of the Old Trinity Church of which he had been a major financial contributor in Middleton, Nova Scotia. A monument was later erected to his memory by his great-granddaughter, Eliza Bayard West.[9]
Ruggles has been described as avegetarian for most of his life.[10] It was noted that "he drank nothing stronger than a small beer & was almost a vegetarian in a society in which gluttony was the one universal excess."[11]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Speaker of theMassachusetts House of Representatives 1762–1764 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of the Massachusetts House forHardwick | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
