Sir Edmund Andros (
December 6, 1637 -
February 24, 1714) was an early colonial
governor in
North America, and head of the short-lived
Dominion of New England. Andros was not a popular governor, and at one point was placed under arrest and forced to return to England.
Andros was born in
London on
December 6, 1637, son of Amice Andros, an adherent of
Charles I and
Bailiff of
Guernsey. He served for a short time in the army of
Prince Henry of Nassau, and in 1660-1662 was gentleman in ordinary to the queen of
Bohemia, Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of
James I of England. He then served against the Dutch, and in 1672 was commissioned
major in what is said to have been the first English regiment armed with the
bayonet.
In 1674 he became, by the appointment of the
Duke of York (who later became
James II), governor of
New York and the
Jerseys, though his jurisdiction over the Jerseys was disputed, and until his recall in 1681 to meet an unfounded charge of dishonesty and favouritism in the collection of the revenues, he proved himself to be a capable administrator. His imperious disposition, however, rendered him quite unpopular among the colonists.
Anthony Brockholls was acting Governor from 1681 to 1683 until
Thomas Dongan arrived in
America. Dongan remained at the post until
1688 when Andros returned to the post and remained until 1689. As Andros was Governor of the Dominion of New England, day to day activities in New York were assigned to Lieutenant Governor
Francis Nicholson from 1688 to 1689.
During a visit to
England in 1678 he was knighted. In 1686 he became governor, with
Boston as his capital, of the
Dominion of New England, into which
Massachusetts (including
Maine), Plymouth Colony, Rhode Island, Connecticut and
New Hampshire were consolidated, and in 1688 his jurisdiction was extended over New York and the
Jerseys. He practiced an arbitrary government in which he limited the legislature, limited towns to a single annual meeting, and enforced toleration of Anglicans and the
Navigation Acts. Andros angered the
Puritan colonists of
Boston by openly affiliating with the
Church of England. They were also angered by his noisy, "sinning" soldiers. But his vexatious interference with colonial rights and customs aroused the keenest resentment, and on
April 18, 1689, soon after news of the arrival of
William, Prince of Orange, in England reached Boston, the colonists violently rioted. They ran him out of town angrily and he was later caught just outside the town attempting to escape in women's clothing. He was spotted as man solely because his boots showed underneath the dress. He was arrested by Jonas Bond of Watertown, a militia Colonel, Justice of the Peace and member of the General Court. The Bonds, Jonas and his father William (soon elected Speaker of the General Court), were members of the Church of England but sided with the colonists. In New York his deputy, Francis Nicholson, was soon afterwards deposed by
Jacob Leisler; and the inter-colonial union was dissolved.
Andros was sent to England for trial in 1690, but was immediately released without trial, and from 1692 until 1698 he was governor of
Virginia, but was recalled through the agency of Commissary
James Blair, with whom he quarrelled. In 1693-1694 he was also governor of
Maryland. From 1704 to 1706 he was governor of Guernsey. He died in London on
February 24, 1714 and was buried at St. Anne's,
Soho.
Andros had a wife who predeceased him, dying in Boston in February 1688.
It is believed that
Andros Island in the
Bahamas was named for Edmund Andros, who served as Commander of Her Majesty’s Forces in
Barbados in 1672.
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