William Leete

For the former Hofstra University head football coach, see Bill Leete.

Governor William Leete (about 1612/3 – 16 April 1683) was Governor of the Colony of New Haven from 1661 to 1665 and Governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1676 to 1683.

He was born about 1612 or 1613 at Doddington, Huntingdonshire, England, the son of John Leete and his wife Anna Shute, daughter of John 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. His 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.[1][2] He was town clerk of Guilford, Connecticut 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.

He is remembered for sheltering the Regicides William Goffe and Edward Whalley in Guilford.

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 Sothoe. They married on 1 August 1636; she died on 1 September 1668. His second wife, whom he married 7 April 1670, was Sarah, widow of Henry Rutherford. She died 10 February 1673/4. His third wife was Mary, widow successively of Francis Newman and Reverend Nicholas Street.

Gov. Leete died at Hartford, Connecticut in April 1683 and was interred at Hartford, Connecticut in Hartford's Ancient Burying Ground. His third wife survived him for several months, dying on 13 December 1683.

References

  1. ^ The covenant read as follows: We whose names are herein written, intending by God's gracious permission, to plant ourselves in New England, and if it may be in the southerly part, about Quinpisac [that is, Quinnipiac, later renamed New Haven], we do faithfully promise each for ourselves and families and those that belong to us, that we will, the Lord assisting us, sit down and join ourselves together in one entire plantation and to be helpful to the other in any common work, according to every man's ability and as need shall require, and we promise not to desert or leave each other on the plantation but with the consent of the rest, or the greater part of the company, who have entered into this engagement.
    As for our gathering together into a church way and the choice officers and members to be joined together in that way, we do refer ourselves until such time as it shall please God to settle us in our plantation.
    In witness whereof we subscribe our hands, this first day of June 1639
  2. ^ Leete, Joseph; Anderson, John (1906). "William Leete". The family of Leete. pp. 161–177. http://books.google.com/books?id=y7VqAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA161. 

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