Joseph Dudley
Portrait believed to be of Dudley, by Sir Peter Lely
President of the Council of New England
In office 25 May 1686 – 20 December 1686
Preceded by	Simon Bradstreet (as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony)
Succeeded by	Sir Edmund Andros (as governor of the Dominion of New England)
Member of Parliament for Newtown, Isle of Wight
In office 1701–1702 Serving with Thomas Hopson
Preceded by	James Worlsey
Succeeded by	John Leigh
Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay
In office 11 June 1702 – 4 February 1715
Preceded by	Massachusetts Governor's Council (acting)
Succeeded by	Massachusetts Governor's Council (acting)
In office 21 March 1715 – 9 November 1715
Preceded by	Massachusetts Governor's Council (acting)
Succeeded by	William Tailer (acting)
Personal details
Born	23 September 1647 Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony
Died	2 April 1720(1720-04-02) (aged 72) Roxbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Relations	Father Thomas Dudley, son Paul Dudley
Religion	Church of England

Joseph Dudley (23 September 1647 – 2 April 1720) was an English colonial administrator. A native of Roxbury, Massachusetts and the son of one of its founders, Dudley had a leading role in the administration of the Dominion of New England (1686–1689), overthrown in the 1689 Boston revolt, and served briefly on the council of the Province of New York. In New York, he oversaw the trial that convicted Jacob Leisler, the ringleader of Leisler's Rebellion. He spent eight years in the 1690s as lieutenant governor of the Isle of Wight, including one year as a Member of Parliament. In 1702 he was appointed governor of the provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, posts he held until 1715.

His rule of Massachusetts was characterized by hostility and tension, with political enemies opposing his attempts to gain a regular salary, and regularly making complaints about his official and private actions. Most of his tenure was dominated by Queen Anne's War, in which the two provinces were on the front lines with New France and suffered from a series of major and minor French and Indian raids. He orchestrated an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Acadian capital of Port Royal in 1707, raised provincial militia forces for its successful capture in 1710, and directed an unsuccessful expedition against Quebec in 1711.

Dudley's governorship institutionalized a pattern of hostility toward royal governance in Massachusetts, most frequently over the issue of the salaries of crown officials. The colonial legislature routinely challenged or disputed the prerogatives of the governor. While this hostility affected most of the governors of Massachusetts up to the American Revolutionary War and the end of British rule, his rule of New Hampshire was comparatively uncontroversial.

Early life[link]

Joseph Dudley was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony on 23 September 1647.^[1] His mother was Katherine Deighton Hackburne Dudley, and his father was Thomas Dudley, one of the founders and leading magistrates of the colony.^[2] His father was elderly (seventy) when he was born, and he was raised by his mother and Reverend John Allin, whom she married after his father's death in 1653.^[1]

He graduated from Harvard College in 1665, and was admitted as a freeman in 1672. He became a member of the general court representing Roxbury in 1673, and was elected to the colony's council of assistants in 1676.^[1] In 1675, when King Philip's War broke out, Dudley was a commissioner who accompanied the colonial troops into the field against the Indians. He was present at the Great Swamp Fight, in which the Narragansett tribe was decisively defeated.^[3] He served for several years as a commissioner to the New England Confederation, and was sent by the administration on diplomatic missions to neighboring Indian communities. He also served on a committee that negotiated the boundary between Massachusetts and the neighboring Plymouth Colony.^[4]

Revocation of the colonial charter[link]

The colony's governance, which had first come under increased scrutiny by King Charles II beginning in the 1660s, came under substantial threat in the late 1670s. Crown agent Edward Randolph, sent to New England in 1676 to collect customs duties and enforce the Navigation Acts, documented a list of issues and took his complaints to the Lords of Trade in London.^[5] The colonial leadership was divided on how to answer this threat. Dudley was part of a moderate faction, along with his brother-in-law Simon Bradstreet and William Stoughton, that supported accommodating the king's demands. The moderates were opposed by hardliners who opposed attempts by the crown to interfere in the colony's business. These factions were separated in part along class lines, with the wealthier land owners and merchants who dominated the legislature's upper house (called the "court of assistants") favoring accommodation, while the more representative lower house favored the hardliners.^[6]

In 1682 Massachusetts sent Dudley and John Richards to London as agents to represent its case to the Lords of Trade.^[7] Dudley brought with him a letter of introduction from Plymouth Governor Thomas Hinckley to William Blathwayt, the colonial secretary. The favorable relationship he established with Blathwayt contributed much to Dudley's future success as a colonial administrator, although it also raised suspicions in the colony about his motives and ability to represent its interests.^[8] The authority of the agents was limited, and the Lords of Trade insisted to the colonial administration that their agents be authorized to negotiate modifications to the colonial charter. The legislature, dominated by hardliners, refused this demand.^[9] This led directly to this issuance of a quo warranto writ demanding the surrender of the colonial charter. When Dudley brought this news to Boston at the end of 1683, a heated debate began in the legislature, with the hardline party again prevailing.^[10] The hardliners, whose leadership included the influential Reverend Increase Mather, in particular castigated moderates like Dudley and Bradstreet as enemies of the colony.^[11] Richards, despite the hostile reception the agents had received in London, sided with the hardliners, and the hatred focused against Dudley resulted in his ouster from the council of assistants in the 1684 election.^[3][12]

The episode also led to accusations that Dudley had secretly schemed in London to have the charter vacated as a means of personal advancement. Although he is claimed to have discussed the form of a replacement government with Edward Randolph, this discussion did not take place until after the quo warranto writ was issued. This was treated as evidence that he was hostile to the present order of the colony, and working against his commission as colonial agent.^[13] His discussions with Randolph were perceived favorably by the latter, who also came to believe that Dudley's election loss meant he would make a good crown servant. As a result, rumors began circulating in Boston in late 1684 that Dudley might be appointed governor, with Randolph as his deputy.^[14]

The charter was annulled in 1684,^[15] and the Lords of Trade began planning to combine the New England colonies into a single province called the Dominion of New England.^[16] This work was still in progress when King James II took the throne in 1685; however, difficulties in drafting a commission for the intended governor, Sir Edmund Andros, prompted Randolph to propose an interim appointment.^[17] Dudley was chosen for this post based on Randolph's recommendation, and on 8 October 1685 a commission was issued to him as President of the Council of New England. The territories covered by his commission included those of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and the "Narragansett Country", a disputed territory in present-day southern Rhode Island.^[18] Randolph was appointed to a long list of subsidiary posts, including secretary of the colony, that would give him considerable power in the colony.^[19]

President of the Council of New England[link]

Randolph arrived in Boston with Dudley's charter on 14 May 1686, and Dudley formally took charge of Massachusetts on 25 May.^[20] His rule did not begin auspiciously, since a number of Massachusetts magistrates who had been named to his council refused to serve,^[21] and he was unable to reconcile with Increase Mather, who refused to see him.^[22] According to Randolph, the Puritan magistrates "were of opinion that God would never suffer me to land again in this country, and thereupon began in a most arbitrary manner to assert their power higher than at any time before."^[23] Elections of colonial military officers were also compromised when many of them also refused to serve.^[24] Dudley made a number of judicial appointments, generally favoring the political moderates who had supported accommodation of the king's wishes in the battle over the old charter.^[25] He renewed treaties with the Indians of northern New England, and traveled to the Narragansett Country in June to formally establish his authority there.^[26]

Dudley was significantly hampered by the inability to raise revenues in the dominion. His commission did not allow for the introduction of new revenue laws, and the Massachusetts government, anticipating the loss of the charter, had repealed all such laws in 1683.^[27] Furthermore, many people refused to pay the few remaining methods of income on the grounds that they had been enacted by the old government and were thus invalid.^[28] Attempts by Dudley and Randolph to introduce the Church of England were largely unsuccessful due to a lack of funding, but were also hampered by the perceived political danger of imposing on the existing churches for their use.^[29]

Engraving depicting the arrest of Sir Edmund Andros in 1689

The enforcement of the Navigation Acts was conducted by Dudley and Randolph, although they did not adhere to the letter of the laws. Understanding that some provisions of the acts were unfair (for example, resulting in the payments of multiple duties), some violations were overlooked, and they suggested to the Lords of Trade that the laws be modified to ameliorate these conditions. However, the Massachusetts economy was harmed by their vigorous enforcement of the acts.^[30] Dudley and Randolph eventually had a falling out over matters related to trade, administration, and religion.^[31][32] "I am treated by Mr. Dudley worse than by Mr. Danforth", Randolph wrote, unfavorably comparing Dudley to one of the hardline magistrates.^[33]

While Dudley governed, the Lords of Trade, based on a petition from Dudley's council, decided to include the colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut in the dominion.^[34] Andros, whose commission had been issued in June, was given an annex to his commission with instructions to incorporate them under his authority.^[35]

Service under Governor Andros[link]

When Governor Andros arrived in December 1686 he immediately assumed the reins of power.^[36] Dudley sat on his council, and served as judge of the superior court and censor of the press. He also sat on the committee that worked to harmonize legislation across the dominion.^[37]

Although Andros' appointed council was intended to represent all of the combined territories, the difficulties of travel and the failure of the government to reimburse travel expenses meant that his council was dominated by representatives from Boston and Plymouth. Dudley and Randolph were widely regarded as being a significant part of the "tyranny" of Andros' reign. Dudley's position as judge brought him the harshest criticisms and complaints,^[37] in particular when he enforced unpopular laws concerning taxes, town meetings, and land titles imposed by Andros.^[38]

When word of the 1688 Glorious Revolution arrived in Massachusetts, a mob rose up and arrested Andros in April 1689. Dudley was away from the city, but was arrested upon his return. Since he was ill, he was released into house arrest upon payment of a £1,000 bond, but a mob descended on his home and carried him back to jail.^[39] He stayed in jail for ten months, in part for his own safety, and was then sent back to England at the command of King William along with Andros and other dominion leaders. Colonial authorities brought charges against Andros and Dudley, but since none of their agents in London were prepared to take responsibility for making those charges in court, they were dismissed, and both men were freed.^[40] The defense he prepared against those charges demonstrated to the Lords of Trade his willingness and ability to follow crown policy directives.^[41]

William Blathwayt helped further Dudley's career.

Dudley, stranded in London with limited connections, appealed to Blathwayt for assistance. He also asked a business associate, Daniel Coxe, for help in finding a new position. Coxe, a proprietor of West Jersey, considered Dudley for the post of lieutenant governor there. Through these or other connections, Dudley was eventually recommended as chief of council to the new governor of New York, Henry Sloughter,^[42] a position he took up in 1691. In addition to his council duties,^[43] he negotiated with New York's Indians,^[44] and sat as chief judge in the trial of Jacob Leisler, who had led the rebellion that in 1689 overthrew Andros' lieutenant governor, Francis Nicholson.^[45] The trial was controversial, and Dudley's role made him many enemies. Leisler was convicted of high treason and sentenced to death.^[46] Governor Sloughter was initially opposed to immediately executing Leisler and his son-in-law Jacob Milborne, preferring to defer the decision to the king. Under pressure from anti-Leisler forces in his council, Sloughter changed his mind, and the two men were executed on 16 May 1691. Cotton Mather claimed that Dudley was an influential force arguing for Leisler's execution, but this is disputed by testimony from anti-Leisler councillor Nicholas Bayard.^[47]

Dudley left New York for his home in Roxbury in 1692, and re-established connections with political friends like William Stoughton, who had just been appointed lieutenant governor of the newly chartered Province of Massachusetts Bay under Sir William Phips.^[48]

Patronage[link]

Returning to England in 1693, Dudley embarked on a series of intrigues to regain an office in New England. He ingratiated himself to the religious elements of the London political establishment by formally joining to the Church of England. He acquired a patron in Baron Cutts, who engineered his appointment as lieutenant governor of the Isle of Wight, where Cutts had been appointed governor. Dudley and Cutts assisted each other politically: Cutts worked to advance Dudley's agenda in London, while Dudley worked to promote that of Cutts on Wight.^[49] The principal activity he was engaged in that has been documented is the manipulation of parliamentary election processes in the island's constituencies to see that Cutts' chosen candidates were elected. This process made Cutts highly unpopular on Wight, although he continued in its governorship until his death in 1707.^[50] Dudley also tried to assist Cutts with some financial difficulties, unsuccessfully scheming with Cutts' father-in-law to gain permission to mint coinage for use in the colonies.^[51]

Dudley sought to supplant Sir William Phips as governor of Massachusetts.

Dudley's principal object of intrigue was the removal of William Phips as Massachusetts governor, something he did not hide from the colony's agents.^[52] Phips, whose rule in Massachusetts was unpopular, was recalled to England to answer a variety of charges his opponents made.^[53] Dudley caused Phips to be arrested shortly after his arrival, on inflated charges that Phips had withheld customs monies from the crown.^[54] Phips died in February 1695 before the charges against him were heard, and Dudley was optimistic that he would be named the next governor.^[53]

At this point Dudley's enemies from New York and Massachusetts joined forces against him to deny him the opportunity. Jacob Leisler's son was in London, attempting to have the attainder against his father's estate reversed. With assistance from Massachusetts agent Constantine Phips, a bill to do this was introduced into Parliament. The debate included a review of Leisler's trial, and Dudley was forced to appear and defend his role in it.^[53] Afterward, Phips wrote to Cotton Mather, "[Dudley] is not so much talked of to be governor."^[55] The appointment to replace Phips went instead to Lord Bellomont.^[56]

Cutts continued to be active on Dudley's behalf, and secured for him election as a Member of Parliament representing Newtown in 1701.^[57] This made it possible for Dudley to further expand his own political connections in London. He managed to at least temporarily mend political fences with Constantine Phips and Cotton Mather, and began lobbying for the Massachusetts governorship after the death of Bellomont in 1701.^[58] In this he was successful, receiving commissions as governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire on 1 April 1702 from Queen Anne.^[59]

Governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire[link]

Dudley served as governor until 1715.^[60] His administration was marked, particularly in the earlier years, by regular conflict with the general court. Upon instruction from the colonial office, he was to gain a regular salary for the governor.^[61] He and all of the succeeding royal governors were unsuccessful in extracting this concession from the provincial legislature, and it became a regular source of friction between representatives of crown and colony.^[62] Dudley pressed his complaint in letters to London, in which he complained of men "who love not the Crown and Government of England to any manner of obedience".^[63] In one letter to his son Paul, then the provincial attorney general, he wrote "this country will never be worth living in for lawyers and gentlemen, till the charter is taken away."^[63] This letter was discovered and published, fueling provincial opposition to his rule.^[63] Dudley also angered the powerful Mather family when he awarded the presidency of Harvard to John Leverett instead of Cotton Mather,^[64] and consistently vetoed the election of councilors and speakers of the general court who had acted against him in 1689, further increasing his unpopularity in Massachusetts.^[65] In contrast, his tenure as governor of New Hampshire was popular; its legislature specifically praised him to the queen after learning of complaints levelled against him by his Massachusetts opponents.^[66]

Queen Anne's War[link]

Depiction of the 1704 Raid on Deerfield

Dudley was active in managing colonial defenses during Queen Anne's War. He attempted to forestall French-orchestrated Indian hostilities by meeting with Indians at Casco Bay in June 1703, but the French had already begun rallying the Indians to their cause, and the war began with raids on the settlements of southern Maine in August 1703.^[67] Dudley called out the militia, and the Massachusetts and New Hampshire frontiers, extending from the Connecticut River to southern Maine, were fortified. The French and Indians raided Deerfield in February 1704, prompting calls for retaliation. Dudley authorized the aging Indian fighter Benjamin Church to lead a retaliatory expedition against settlements in Acadia.^[68] He also engaged in protracted negotiations for the return of captives taken at Deerfield that the French sought to broaden into a wider-ranging agreement.^[69]

In part because he specifically refused Church permission to attack the Acadian capital and commercial center, Port Royal, Dudley was accused by Boston merchants and the Mathers of being in league with smugglers and traders illegally trading with the French.^[70] He sought to forestall these criticisms in 1707, when he sent the colonial militia on a fruitless expedition against Port Royal.^[71] In 1708 a bitter attack on his administration was published in London, entitled The Deplorable State of New England by reason of a Covetous and Treacherous Governor and Pusillanimous Counsellors, as part of a campaign to have him recalled.^[72] Dudley again rallied the provincial militias for a planned expedition against Quebec in 1709, but the supporting expedition from England was called off.^[73] In 1710 support from England arrived, and a successful siege of Port Royal led to its fall, and the beginning of the Province of Nova Scotia.^[74] Boston was again the organizing point for an expedition to Quebec in 1711.^[75] Combining British and provincial forces, the expedition failed disastrously when some of its transports foundered on the shores of the Saint Lawrence River.^[76] During the war Dudley also authorized expeditions against the Abenakis of northern New England, but these were largely ineffectual.^[77] The war quieted to some extent after the fall of Port Royal, with only small raiding parties hitting frontier communities, and peace came with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.^[78]

Dudley negotiated a separate peace with the Abenakis at Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1713. Seeking to separate at least the western Kennebec from French influence, he adopted a fairly hard line, threatening to withhold trade that was vital to their survival, and reiterated claims of British sovereignty over the Abenaki. Although the Treaty of Portsmouth that resulted from those negotiations repeats the claims of sovereignty, there is evidence that the implications of the sovereign claim were not explained to Abenaki negotiators, and that the Abenaki explicitly repudiated land claims in the negotiations. In response to Dudley's claims that the French had ceded Abenaki lands (claimed as part of Acadia), one sachem responded, "The French never said anything to us about it, and wee wonder how they would give it away without asking us".^[79] Nevertheless, Dudley and succeeding governors treated the Abenaki as British subjects, and friction persisted over British colonial expansion into Maine that flared into Dummer's War in the 1720s.^[80]

Other issues[link]

In 1713 surveys determined that the border between Massachusetts and the Connecticut Colony had been incorrectly sited in the 17th century, and that Massachusetts had consequently distributed lands that actually belonged to Connecticut. Dudley and Connecticut Governor Gurdon Saltonstall negotiated an agreement in which Massachusetts would retain those lands, but grant to Connecticut for distribution in an equivalent amount of land. The "Equivalent Lands" amounted to over 100,000 acres (400 km²) of land in an area on either side of the Connecticut River in present-day northern Massachusetts, southeastern Vermont, and southwestern New Hampshire. These lands were auctioned off in April 1716, and Connecticut used the proceeds to fund Yale College.^[81]

Jonathan Belcher, who became governor in 1730, was an agent representing Dudley's interests in London.

The war worsened currency and finance problems in Massachusetts. Since the 1690s the province had been issuing paper currency, and the issuance of large amounts of this currency was causing it to depreciate relative to precious metals used in other currencies.^[82] How to deal with this divided colonists among themselves and with the governor, and would not be resolved until the 1760s. Business leaders who borrowed money were happy to pay it back later with depreciated currency, while lenders sought reforms to stabilize the currency.^[83] In 1714 a major proposal was floated by Dudley's opponents in which a land bank, secured by the holdings of the shareholder's properties, would issue as much as £50,000 in currency.^[84] Dudley was opposed to this scheme, and instead convinced the provincial legislature to issue £50,000 in bills of credit.^[85] The financially powerful interests he upset with this move would prove to be his downfall.^[86]

Following the death in 1714 of Queen Anne, Dudley's commission and that of Lieutenant Governor William Tailer, like most royal commissions, expired six months later. The governor's council, dominated by Dudley's political opponents, at that point asserted its authority, and on 14 February 1715, assumed control of the government under the provisions of the provincial charter concerning governance in the absence of the governor and his lieutenant. Just six weeks later, news arrived from England that Dudley's commission had been at least temporarily confirmed by King George I, and he was reinstated on 21 March.^[87]

However, Dudley's political opponents, especially those involved in the land bank proposal, were active in London, and they convinced the king to appoint Colonel Elizeus Burgess as governor later in the year.^[86] Burgess' commission was proclaimed in Boston on 9 November 1715, ending Dudley's commission.^[88] Since Burgess was not in the colony, governance fell to Lieutenant Governor Tailer, whose commission had been renewed.^[89] Burgess was bribed by Jonathan Belcher and Jeremiah Dummer, the brother of Dudley's son-in-law William, to resign his commission in April 1716 without leaving England, and a new commission was issued to Samuel Shute, who promised to oppose attempts to introduce the land bank.^[86] He arrived in the colony and assumed the post of governor in October 1716, with William Dummer as his lieutenant.^[90]

Dudley retired to the family home in Roxbury. He acted as an informal advisor to Governor Shute upon his arrival, and made appearances at public and private functions.^[91] He died in Roxbury on 2 April 1720. He was buried, with pomp and ceremony appropriate to his position, next to his father in Roxbury's Eliot Burying Ground.^[92]

Family and legacy[link]

In 1668, Dudley married Rebecca Tyng, who survived him by two years. They had twelve children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. His son Paul served as attorney general and chief justice of Massachusetts.^[93] Dudley, Massachusetts is named for his sons Paul and William, who were its first proprietors.^[94]

Dudley at his death owned large tracts of land in Massachusetts, principally in Roxbury and what is now Worcester County. The latter properties he purchased from the Nipmuc in partnership with William Stoughton, and was granted land for the purpose of settling French Huguenots that became part of Oxford. Dudley frequently used his position, especially when president of the dominion and governor of the province, to ensure that the titles to lands he was interested in were judicially cleared, a practice that also benefited friends, relatives, and business partners.^[95] Edward Randolph wrote that it was "impossible to bring titles of land to trial before them where his Majesties's rights are concerned, the Judges also being parties."^[96]

Nineteenth century historian John Palfrey wrote of Dudley that he "united rich intellectual attributes with a groveling soul", forging political connections and relationships in his early years for the purpose of furthering his own advancement.^[97] He capitalized on his favorable family connections to the Puritan leadership of Massachusetts to establish connections in England, but then betrayed those Massachusetts connections when it became necessary to further his quest for power. Thomas Hutchinson, who later also served as provincial governor, and wrote an extensive history of Massachusetts, wrote of Dudley that "he had as many virtues as can consist with so great a thirst for honour and power."^[98] Biographer Everett Kimball wrote of Dudley, "... in spite of his failings of temper he possessed a good deal of tact and personal charm, by which, when everything else failed, he could sometimes transform an enemy into a friend."^[99]

Portrait[link]

Dudley's portrait (seen above), is documented as having been painted in 1704^[100]. The portrait remained in the family from its creation, through a direct line of descent, to the 20th century.^[101] It was sold at public auction by Eldred's in 2006. Numerous internet sites misidentify a reversed 19th century black and white photograph of this portrait as his father Thomas.^[102]

The following text is inscribed on the reverse of portrait, “Gov. Joseph Dudley, Supposed to have been painted by Lely about 1680 - Property of Dr. Daniel Dudley Gilbert. Restored by Harold Fletcher in 1886.” The attribution to Peter Lely was conjecture and incorrect.

Recorded in: American Colonial Painting, Materials for a History by Waldron Phoenix Belknap, Jr. (ref: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1959) p. 238, “Gov. Joseph Dudley (16 - ), son of Gov. Thomas Dudley, No 1. HL, own hair long, robe and steinkirk, right hand gesturing across body. Repro. Hist. Dudley Fam opp p. 834, photo by Elmer Chickering, Boston. Ref.: Hist. Dudley Fam., pp. 757, 163, “Memorial of Reunion,” p. 13. Owned 1892: Dr. Daniel Dudley Gilbert (1838 - ), of Dorchester, Mass.”

Notes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

• Official Massachusetts Governor biography
• Works by or about Joseph Dudley in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

v t e Governors of Massachusetts Colony (1629–1686) Endecott Winthrop T. Dudley Haynes Vane Winthrop T. Dudley Bellingham Winthrop Endecott T. Dudley Winthrop Endecott T. Dudley Endecott Bellingham Endecott Bellingham Leverett Bradstreet Dominion (1686–1689) J. Dudley Andros Bradstreet Province (1692–1776) W. Phips Stoughton Bellomont Stoughton Governor's Council J. Dudley Governor's Council J. Dudley Tailer Shute Dummer Burnet Dummer Tailer Belcher Shirley S. Phips Shirley S. Phips Governor's Council Pownall Hutchinson Bernard Hutchinson Gage Commonwealth (since 1776) Hancock Cushing Bowdoin Hancock Adams Sumner Gill Governor's Council Strong Sullivan Lincoln, Sr. Gore Gerry Strong Brooks Eustis Morton Lincoln, Jr. Davis Armstrong Everett Morton Davis Morton Briggs Boutwell Clifford E. Washburn Gardner Banks Andrew Bullock Claflin W. Washburn Talbot Gaston Rice Talbot Long Butler Robinson Ames Brackett Russell Greenhalge Wolcott Crane Bates Douglas Guild Draper Foss Walsh McCall Coolidge Cox Fuller Allen Ely Curley Hurley Saltonstall Tobin Bradford Dever Herter Furcolo Volpe Peabody Volpe Sargent Dukakis King Dukakis Weld Cellucci Swift Romney Patrick Italics indicate acting officeholders