Thomas Dudley, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

1576 - 1653  (76 years)

• Name	Thomas Dudley  [1]
  Suffix	Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
  Birth	12 Oct 1576	Yardley Hastings, Northamptonshire, England   [2, 3, 4]
  Gender	Male
  Death	31 Jul 1653	Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [2, 3, 4, 5]
  Burial	6 Aug 1653	Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [3, 4]
  Person ID	I9189	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of JMF, Ancestor of JTS
  Last Modified	3 Jan 2024

  
  

  Father	Capt. Roger Dudley   d. Bef 29 Oct 1588
  Mother	Susanna Dorne,   b. Bef 5 Mar 1560   d. Aft 29 Mar 1588 (Age > 28 years)
  Marriage	8 Jun 1575	Lidlington, Bedfordshire, England   [2, 6, 7]
  Family ID	F4983	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Dorothy Yorke,   b. Bef 14 Jun 1583   d. 27 Dec 1643, Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts (Age > 60 years)
  Marriage	25 Apr 1603	Hardingstone, Northamptonshire, England   [2, 3, 4, 8]
  Children	1. Sarah Dudley   2. Thomas Dudley,   b. Bef 30 Nov 1608 + 3. Anne Dudley,   b. Abt 1610   d. 16 Sep 1672, Andover, Essex, Massachusetts (Age ~ 62 years)   4. Patience Dudley,   b. Abt 1612   d. 8 Feb 1690, Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts (Age ~ 78 years) + 5. Mercy Dudley,   b. 27 Sep 1621, England d. 1 Jul 1691, Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts (Age 69 years)
  Family ID	F5054	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	4 Jan 2024

  
  

  Family 2	Katherine Deighton,   b. Bef 16 Jan 1615   d. 20 Aug 1671 (Age > 56 years)
  Marriage	4 Apr 1644	Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [2, 3]
  Family ID	F23286	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	4 Jan 2024

  
  

• Notes

  JMF's one proven "gateway ancestor" (not counting Alexander Magruder, who is very probable), and one of JTS's eleven. From Wikipedia: Thomas Dudley was a colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the town's first home. He provided land and funds to establish the Roxbury Latin School, and signed Harvard College's new charter during his 1650 term as governor. Dudley was a devout Puritan who was opposed to religious views not conforming with his. In this he was more rigid than other early Massachusetts leaders like John Winthrop, but less confrontational than John Endecott. The son of a military man who died when he was young, Dudley saw military service himself during the French Wars of Religion, and then acquired some legal training before entering the service of his likely kinsman the Earl of Lincoln. Along with other Puritans in Lincoln's circle, Dudley helped organize the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sailing with Winthrop in 1630. Although he served only four one-year terms as governor of the colony, he was regularly in other positions of authority. Dudley's descendants include his daughter Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672), the prominent early American poet, and many famous Americans. One of the gates of Harvard Yard, which existed from 1915 to 1947, was named in his honor, and Harvard's Dudley House is named for the family.

  
  

• Sources

  [S1511] Genealogies of the Lymans of Middlefield, of the Dickinsons of Montreal, and of the Partridges of Hatfield, by Jas. T. Dickinson. Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1865. [S142] Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families by Douglas Richardson. Salt Lake City, 2013. [S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011. [S2306] The Winthrop Fleet: Massachusetts Bay Company Immigrants to New England 1629-1630 by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012. [S1510] "Pedigree of Dudley." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 10:130, April 1856. [S1513] F. N. Craig, "Maternal Ancestry of Governor Thomas Dudley: Purefoy, Ayot, and Denton Lines." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 142:227, July 1998. [S2153] Brandon Fradd, "Ancestry of Thomas Thorne, Grandfather of Thomas Dudley." The Genealogist 19:112, Spring 2005. [S1437] Barry E. Hinman, "Edmund Yorke of Cotton End, Hardingstone, Northamptonshire, Father-in-Law of Gov. Thomas Dudley." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 172:121, Spring 2018.