William Leete (1612 or 1613 – 16 April 1683) was Governor of the
Colony of New Haven from 1661 to 1665 and Governor of the
Colony of Connecticut
The ''Connecticut Colony'' or ''Colony of Connecticut'', originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settl ...
from 1676 to 1683.
Biography
Leete was born about 1612 or 1613 at
Diddington, Huntingdonshire, England, the son of John Leete and his wife Anna Shute, daughter of
Robert Shute,
a justice of the King's Court. He was educated as a lawyer, and served as a clerk in Bishop's Court at
Cambridge, England
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became ...
. He married three times. His first wife, and mother of all ten of his known children, was Anna Payne, daughter of Reverend John Payne of
Southoe
Southoe is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Southoe and Midloe, in Cambridgeshire, England. Southoe lies approximately south-west of Huntingdon on the A1. Southoe is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-m ...
. They married on 1 August 1636, and she died on 1 September 1668.
His second wife, whom he married on 7 April 1670, was Sarah, widow of Henry Rutherford; she died on 10 February 1673.
His third wife was Mary, widow successively of
Francis Newman and Reverend Nicholas Street; she died on 13 December 1683.
Leete's distaste for the oppression of the Puritans by that court was a key factor in his emigration to Connecticut. On 1 June 1639, William Leete was among the 25 signers of the
Plantation Covenant on shipboard.
Career
Leete was
town clerk
A clerk is a senior official of many municipal governments in the English-speaking world. In some communities, including most in the United States, the position is elected, but in many others, the clerk is appointed to their post. In the UK, a Tow ...
of
Guilford, Connecticut
Guilford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, that borders Madison, Branford, North Branford and Durham, and is situated on I-95 and the Connecticut seacoast. The population was 22,073 at the 2020 census.
History
Guil ...
from 1639 to 1662, and
Justice of the Peace there in 1642. He served as town magistrate at Guilford from 1651 to 1658, and as deputy from Guilford to the New Haven Colony General Court from 1643 to 1649. He was Commissioner of New Haven Colony (1655-1658), Deputy Governor (1658-1661) and Governor of the New Haven Colony from 1661 to 1664. After the consolidation of New Haven Colony and the Colony of Connecticut, he became Governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1676 to 1683. He is the only man to serve as governor of both New Haven and Connecticut.
Leete is remembered for sheltering the
Regicide
Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...
s
William Goffe
Major-General William Goffe, in or before 1618 to , was an English religious radical and soldier who fought for Parliament in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and served in the New Model Army. A close associate and supporter of Oliver Cromwell, he ...
and
Edward Whalley in Guilford. The two former English judges were being sought by King Charles II for signing the death warrant of his father, Charles I. On Saturday, 11 May 1661, two Royalists arrived in Guilford, armed with an order from the King to seize Goffe and Whalley, and meet with Leete, then the Deputy Governor of the New Haven Colony. They presented the King's order to Leete, who read it out loud in the presence of several local citizens in a way that publicly revealed the purpose of their visit. After first claiming that he could not permit a search in New Haven without first consulting with the colony's magistrates, Leete then agreed to furnish fresh horses to the men to resume their travels immediately. However, he delayed the production of the horses until it was too late in the afternoon for the pursuers to depart that day. With the Sabbath beginning at sundown, the pursuers were unable to leave Guilford until the following Monday. Meanwhile, advance notice of the pursuers' intentions were sent ahead to New Haven and the judges went into hiding on Saturday and evaded capture.
Death and legacy
Leete moved from Guilford to
Hartford, Connecticut where he died in April 1683. He is interred there in Hartford's
Ancient Burying Ground.
His third wife survived him for several months, dying on 13 December 1683. Leete's Island in Guilford/
Branford, Connecticut is named for him.
References
External links
*http://www.cslib.org/gov/leetew.htm
*Frederick Calvin Norton,''The Governors of Connecticut'', Connecticut Magazine Co., 1905.
*http://the-eversdens.co.uk/leetefamily/leetesofeversden.html
See also
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leete, William
1683 deaths
People from Diddington
History of New Haven, Connecticut
New England Puritanism
English emigrants
American Puritans
Colonial governors of Connecticut
Year of birth uncertain
Burials in Connecticut