Thomas Lechford (c. 1590 – 1644) was an English lawyer and writer born in London who wrote about his experiences in the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...

. Lechford emigrated to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in 1638, and became the first person to practice law ''Concise Dictionary of American Biography'', Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1964, p. 553: "LECHFORD, THOMAS (fl. 1629-1642)... Emigrated from England to Boston, 1638. The first professional lawyer in Massachusetts Bay, he... returned to England, 1641. Author of ''Plain Dealing: or, Newes from New-England (1642)." in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. Lechford returned to England in 1641, very dissatisfied with his experiences in the colony. Lechford published ''Plain Dealing, or Newes from New England'' (London, 1642), and ''New England's Advice to Old England'' (1644). A new edition of with notes by J. Hammond Trumbull was published in 1867.

References

* Appleton's cyclopedia of American biography, vol. 3 (Grinnell - Lockwood), by Wilson, James Grant, 1832-1914, ed; Fiske, John, 1842-1901, joint ed. (New York: Appleton, 1887), p. 651 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lechford, Thomas 1590s births 1644 deaths English emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony 17th-century American lawyers 17th-century American writers 17th-century English lawyers 17th-century English writers