17th-century royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay
Sir
William Phips
1st Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay
In office May 16, 1692 – November 17, 1694
Monarchs
William III and Mary II
Lieutenant
William Stoughton
Preceded by
Simon Bradstreet (as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony)
Succeeded by
William Stoughton (acting)
Personal details
Born
February 2, 1650/51 Nequasset (Woolwich, Maine)
Died
February 18, 1694/95 (aged 44) London, Kingdom of England
Spouse
Mary Spencer Hull (married 1673)
Signature
Nickname
The New England Knight
Sir William Phips (or Phipps; February 2, 1651 – February 18, 1695)[Note 1] was born in Maine in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was of humble origin, uneducated, and fatherless from a young age but rapidly advanced from shepherd boy to shipwright, ship's captain, and treasure hunter, the first New England native to be knighted, and the first royally appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Phips was famous in his lifetime for recovering a large treasure from a sunken Spanish galleon but is perhaps best remembered today for establishing the court associated with the infamous Salem Witch Trials, which he grew unhappy with and was forced to prematurely disband after five months.
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was forced to prematurely disband after five months. Phips was born the son of James and Mary Phips in a frontier settlement at Nequasset (present-day Woolwich...
adopted by Massachusetts Governor Sir WilliamPhips, his uncle by marriage, whose name he legally took. Phips served for many years in the provincial...
appointment of Phips as the new governor had reached Boston by late January, and a copy of the new charter reached Boston on February 8, 1692. Phips arrived...
was postponed because she was pregnant. In 1693 the new governor, Sir WilliamPhips, freed 153 prisoners, including Elizabeth. The widow Proctor remarried...
Mary Phips (née Spencer) – wife of Massachusetts Governor Sir WilliamPhips Margaret Sheaf Thacher (née Webb) – Jonathan Corwin's mother-in-law William Stoughton...
Crown-appointed governor. The first governor under the new charter was Sir WilliamPhips, who was a member of the Mathers' church in Boston. Cotton Mather's...
Bay colonies into the Province of Massachusetts Bay and appointed Sir WilliamPhips as its royal governor in 1692. The Province of Massachusetts Bay was...
social hierarchy. Governor WilliamPhips granted the Hobbs family a reprieve in January 1693, after Chief Magistrate William Stoughton had signed the warrant...
Colony and proprietary holdings on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. Sir WilliamPhips arrived in 1692 bearing the charter and formally took charge of the...
Boston from elected to royally appointed governors. William and Mary appointed Sir WilliamPhips as the new governor. The charter established freedom...
issued a charter for the Province on October 7, 1691, and appointed Sir WilliamPhips as its governor. The new charter differed from the old one in several...
Colonies began to muster in preparation for the fighting. In 1690, Colonel WilliamPhips led 600 men to push back the French. Two years later he became governor...
crimes punishable by life imprisonment or death. Massachusetts Governor WilliamPhips created a court of Oyer and Terminer for the Salem witch trials on May...
treasure-hunting games. In 1643, Massachusetts treasure hunter Sir WilliamPhips salvaged a sunken Spanish treasure ship which had been wrecked on the...
Glorious Revolution reached Boston. After William III and Mary II took the throne, Increase Mather and Sir WilliamPhips, Massachusetts agents in London, petitioned...
nonsensical girls. It was around this time that the governor of the province, WilliamPhips, who had been absent during the trials, returned to Massachusetts. In...
among colonial leaders to establish courts to hear the cases until Sir WilliamPhips arrived in May 1692 with the charter that established the Province of...
intrigue was the removal of WilliamPhips as Massachusetts governor, something that he did not hide from the colony's agents. Phips' rule was unpopular in...
Governor). It has also been claimed (by W. R. Scott, among others) that WilliamPhips played a timely, if incidental, role: his successful expedition to retrieve...
1863 Spencer Phips (1685–1757), Acting Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1749 to 1753 and from 1756 to 1757 WilliamPhips (1651–1695)...
court that convicted and sentenced the accused. By the time Governor WilliamPhips ended the trials, fourteen women and five men had been hanged as witches...
his return to Port Royal, LaMothe learned that the English admiral WilliamPhips had seized the city, and that his wife, daughter, and son were being...
In 1692, the royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, WilliamPhips, created a special court in order to try the accused witches. The court...
20 – Edward Tyson, British scientist (d. 1708) February 2 or 1950 – WilliamPhips, first royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (d. 1695)...
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