William Leete (1612 or 1613 – 16 April 1683) was Governor of the

Colony of New Haven The New Haven Colony was a small English colony in North America from 1638 to 1664 primarily in parts of what is now the state of Connecticut, but also with outposts in modern-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The history of ...

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 Diddington is a small village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Diddington lies approximately south-west of Huntingdon, near to Buckden. Diddington is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambr ...

, 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 beca ...

. 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. 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 Francis Newman (circa 1605 – 18 November 1660) was an English colonist in America. He served as Governor of the New Haven Colony from 1658 to 1659. Early life and career Newman was born in England in 1605 and married Mary Newman Street Leete ...

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 The Plantation Covenant of Guilford, Connecticut, sometimes called the Guilford Covenant, was a covenant signed by the English colonists as the founding document of Quinnipiac (modern New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connectic ...

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 To ...

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 and

Edward Whalley Edward Whalley (c. 1607 – c. 1675) was an English military leader during the English Civil War and was one of the regicides who signed the death warrant of King Charles I of England. Early career The exact dates of his birth and death are ...

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 The Ancient Burying Ground (or Phinney's Lane Cemetery) is a historical cemetery at Phinney's Lane in Barnstable, Massachusetts. It is the oldest cemetery in the village of Centerville, and the only surviving civic element of its colonial or ...

. 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

Biography

Career

Death and legacy

References

External links

See also