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He came to America in 1630 on the ship "Lady Arabella" (meaning"beautiful altar"). He founded and lived in, Cambridge (then Newton),Massachusetts. Later he resided in Roxbury where he died. He was for17 years Governor of Massachusetts and Major-General of the MilitaryForces. He married in England to Dorothy Yorke, whom Cotton Matherdescribed as "a gentlewoman whose extraction and estate wereconsiderable". The 20th Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Vol. 3,p.323 Dudley, Thomas, governor of Massachusetts, was born in Northampton,England, about 1576; son of Capt. Roger and ??(Nicolls) Dudley. He wascarefully educated by a kinswoman and also attended a Latin school.About 1597 he led a company of volunteers into France to aid Henry ofNavarre, but was not called upon to render active service. Returningto England he studied law under Judge Augustine Nicolls of Faxton, akinsman on his mother's side. In 1630 he immigrated to New England,having been appointed deputy-governor of Massachusetts. He was [p.324]appointed governor in 1634 and again in 1640, 1645 and 1650. When not serving as governor he was generallydeputy-governor or assistant, holding the former office thirteen and the latter five years. InMarch, 1644, he was appointed sergeant major-general of the colony, and served as such for four years. In1639 he purchased land in Roxbury and there resided until his death. His first wife, Dorothy, died in1643 and in 1644 he was married to Mrs. Catherine (Dighton) Hackburne.He died in Roxbury, Mass., July 31, 1653. http://www.legendofdudleytown.com/gov.html: Thomas Dudley, the only son of Capt. Roger Dudley and Susanna Thorne,was born in 1576 at Northampton, England. On March 14, 1590, when hewas fourteen years old, his father was killed at the Battle of Ivery,leaving Thomas and his sister orphans, as their mother had diedpreviously. Thomas inherited 500 pounds from his father and was raised as a pagein the family of Lord Compton, Earl of Northampton. Afterwards, hebecame a clerk to his maternal kinsman, Judge Nichols, thus obtainingsome knowledge of the law, which proved to be of great service to himin his later life. Also, while still in his minority, he was trainedin Latin by a "Mrs. Purefoy", who was probably his maternalgrandmother, Mary Purefoy. All in all, he gained a competent educationand was able to understand any Latin author as well as most educatedpeople of his time. In 1596, at the age of twenty, Thomas received a Captain's commissionin the army. According to Cotton Mather, "the young sparks aboutNorthampton were none of them willing to enter into the service untila commission was given to our young Dudley to be their Captain, andthus presently there were four-score that listed under him." Thomasand his company of volunteers went to France and fought on the side ofHenry IV, King of France, at the siege of Amiens in 1597. On the conclusion of peace in 1597, Thomas returned to England,settled at Northampton and became acquainted with Dod, Hildersham andother Puritan leaders and himself became a Puritan. In 1603, hemarried Dorothy Yorke, daughter of Edmonde Yorke, yeoman, of CottonEnd, Northamptonshire. She was described by Cotton Mather as "agentlewoman both of good estate and good extraction." By her he hadfive children. During the period from about 1600 to 1630, Thomas wassteward (manager of estates) to Theophilus, Earl of Lincoln, who hadbeen deep in debt prior to Thomas' stewardship. After only a few yearsof management by Thomas, however, the Earl was out of debt and wasprospering. Also, during this period, Thomas became acquainted withJohn Cotton, renowned minister of Boston, Lincolnshire (and later ofBoston, MA). The Puritans were considered by many political leadersand by the Church of England to be a threat and were subjected tosubstantial persecution. During the 1620's, relations between theChurch of England and the Puritans worsened. Continuing pressure ledto a decision by a large group of Puritans to emigrate to New England. In 1629, Thomas Dudley was one of the signers of the agreement to formthe Massachusetts Bay Company. On Oct. 20, 1629, in the city ofLondon, he was chosen one of the five officers to come to America withthe Royal Charter. The Massachusetts Bay Company was essentially similar to any othertrading company of the time, except that its members had managed toobtain possession of the company charter, or patent, and thus couldtake it with them to the New World. With possession of the patent thatestablished their rights and privileges, they could control their owngovernment and elect their own magistrates. The group elected JohnWinthrop governor and Thomas Dudley deputy governor in October 1629. It is difficult to understand Thomas Dudley's decision to leaveEngland for the unknown shores of North America. In England he hadfriends, position and prosperity. But he decided to leave all thisbehind. Apparently, the pressures of persecution were so great that hewas virtually forced to leave England or give up his religiousconvictions. In 1630, Thomas and his wife and children sailed to New England withthe Winthrop Fleet, a group of eleven vessels carrying 700 passengers.The Dudley family was on the flagship, the Arbella. The Fleet leftEngland in the Spring and arrived in Salem in June. Not approving ofSalem as the capital, John Winthrop ordered the fleet south along thecoast to Charlestown, ultimately settling at Newtown. Before leavingEngland, Winthrop had been elected governor and Thomas Dudleydeputy-governor. Many of those who came with Winthrop separated andfounded Roxbury, Lynn, Medford, Cambridge and Watertown. According toThomas Dudley, about 200 of the emigrants died the first year in NewEngland. A somewhat violent disagreement between Dudley and Winthrop, the firstof many owing to Dudley's touchy and over-bearing temper, occurredwhen Winthrop abandoned the chosen settlement and moved to Boston.Dudley subsequently moved to Ipswich but after a short time, in orderto be nearer the seat of government, settled at Roxbury. He built onthe west side of Smelt Brook, just across the watering place, at thefoot of the hill where the road that runs up to the First Church joinsthe Town Street. Although Thomas Dudley was 54 years of age when he landed in NewEngland, he still had a long public career ahead of him. Throughoutthe rest of his life, he was almost constantly in public office. Hewas four times elected governor and thirteen times madedeputy-governor. When not occupying either of these offices, he wasusually to be found in the House as an Assistant. When the StandingCouncil with the idea of forming a body of members for life, Dudleywas one of the three first chosen. When the New England Federation wasformed in 1643, Dudley was one of the two commissioners chosen byMassachusetts to confer with those of the other colonies. There ishardly an event in the life of the colony during his own in which hedid not act a part. Thomas Dudley and Simon Bradstreet (both future governors) foundedCambridge in 1631. Thomas, however, lived for many years in Roxbury(now part of Boston). In 1636, he was one of twelve men appointed bythe General Court to consider the matter of a college at Newtown(Cambridge) and was one to report favorably on the project. In 1650,as governor, Thomas signed the original charter of the new college,named Harvard College. Thomas was a strict Puritan and clashed several times with otherleaders of the colony. He was known to be very inflexible in hisviews. Cotton Mather wrote that if Thomas Dudley had been alive at thetime of the witchcraft trouble, New England would never have beendisgraced by the bloodshed of innocent persons. He was one of theprincipal founders of the First Church at Boston and in the church nowstanding at Berkley and Marlborough streets is a tablet with thefollowing inscription: THOMAS DUDLEY. FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS GOVERNOR OR DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF THEMASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY. AS GOVERNOR HE SIGNED THE CHARTER OF HARVARDCOLLEGE. BORN IN ENGLAND 1576. DIED IN ROXBURY 1653. A MAN OF APPROVEDWISDOM AND OF MUCH GOOD SERVICE TO THE STATE. Thomas was evidently as strong in body as he was unyielding in temperand unbreakable in will. Dorothy Dudley died in 1643 and Thomasremarried to Catherine Dighton. By her he had three children, the mostnoted being Joseph Dudley (1647) the future royal governor ofMassachusetts, who was born when the old man was 70 years of age. Dudley was an able man with marked executive and business ability. Hisintegrity was unimpeachable. His eye, though somewhat religiouslyjaundiced, was single to the public interest as he saw it. He wassomething of a scholar and wrote poetry, read in his day, butunreadable in ours. In him, New England Puritanism took on some of itsharshest and least pleasant aspects. He often won approval, but neveraffection. He was positive, dogmatic, austere, prejudiced, unlovable.He dominated by sheer strength of will as a leader in his community.Like many of the others, he was no friend to popular government and astrong believer in autocracy. Opposed to the clergy in one respect, hebelieved that the state should control even the church and enforceconformity as the superior, and not the handmaid, of theecclesiastical organization. Thomas was a thrifty man, who became one of the largest landowners inRoxbury, He was a "trading, money-getting man" and was said to besomewhat hard and "prone to usury." When he died, his property wasvalued at £1,560 and included bandoleers, corselets, some Latin books,some on law, some that indicate a taste for literature, and many onthe doctrines of religion. On July 31, 1653, Thomas Dudley died at the age of 77 at Roxbury,Massachusetts. There was a great funeral, with the most distinguishedcitizens as pall bearers. the clergy were present in large numbers.Military units were present with muffled drums and reversed arms. Hewas buried at Roxbury, near his home, where his tomb may be seen onthe highest point of land. His epitaph was written by Rev. EzekielRogers and reads as follows: In books a Prodigal they say; A table talker rich in sense; And witty without wits pretense; An able champion in debate; Whose words lacked number but not weight; Both Catholic and Christian too; A soldier timely, tried and true; Condemned to share the common doom; Reposes here in Dudley's tomb; There has been much debate among historians and some genealogistsconcerning descent of the Massachusetts Dudleys from the famous BaronsDudley of England. Suffice it to say that Rev. Samuel Dudley, oldestson of Thomas, claimed such descent during his lifetime and apparentlywas not challenged. Furthermore, Thomas Dudley was accustomed to usingthe arms (seal) of the Barons Dudley to seal legal documents bearinghis signature. In fact his will, written with his own hand, was sealedwith the Dudley arms, indicating that he was descended from theSutton-Dudleys of Dudley Castle. It was a serious offense underEnglish law to use arms under false pretenses. HIS RELATIONSHIP TO DUDLEYTOWN: Ed and Lorraine Warren say that GovDudley was an Uncle to the Dudleytown brothers (see "Ghost Hunters")and that he was "hacked to death in the vicinity of Dudleytown, andthe murderer was never caught." As we can see, the Warrens never didany research into their claims. Gov Dudley died 84 years BEFORE thefirst Dudleytown brother set foot there, and that he died of naturalcauses in Roxbury. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: Koues, George Ellsworth STATEMENT OF RESEARCHES ON THE PARENTAGE OFGOVERNOR THOMAS DUDLEY, pub. by Governor Thomas Dudley FamilyAssociation (1912) Weis, Frederick Lewis The Ancestry of Governor Thomas Dudley, pub. byauthor (1962) Ellis, Charles M. History of Roxbury Town, pub. by Samuel G. Drake Adlard, George The Sutton-Dudleys of England and the Dudleys of Mass.(1862)
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