STOUGHTON, Israel, settler, born in England; died in Lincoln, England, in 1645. He emigrated to Massachusetts and early settled in Dorchester. In November, 1633, he was admitted as a freeman, and he was a member of the first general court, which convened in May, 1634, also serving in 1635-'7. He was pronounced disabled from holding office for three years in consequence of the publication of a pamphlet in which he denied to the governor and his assistants certain of the powers that they claimed, but in 1636 he was restored to his privi-!eges. In May, 1637, he commanded the Massachusetts troops that were sent against the Pequots, and in 1642 he became captain of the artillery company. He was appointed a commissioner to administer the government of New Hampshire in 1641, and was assistant to the governor of Massachusetts in 1637-'42 and 1644. In 1642 he went to England, but he returned in 1644 as lieutenant-colonel of General William Rainsborow's regiment, in which command he served until his death. He was a large land-owner of Dorchester, and gave 300 acres to Harvard college.--His son, William, governor of Massachusetts. born in England, 30 May, 1632 ; died in Dorchester, Massachusetts, 7 July, 1701, was graduated at Harvard in 1650, after studying theology went to England, where he became a fellow at New college, Oxford, but was ejected from that office on the restoration. He returned to New England in 1662, and acquired a high reputation as a preacher. In 1668 he was appointed to deliver the annual election sermon, and it was pronounced one of the best that had been heard on such an occasion. He declined all invitations of settlement as a pastor, but served as an assistant from 1671 till tile dissolution of the government in 1686, and in 1677-'9 he was in England as agent for the colony. In 1686 he was re-elected assistant, but refused to serve, occupying, however, the office of chief justice from July to December, 1686. He also became a member of the council of Governor Edmund Andros, which office he held until April, 1689, when he was one of the council of safety that wrested the government from that officer. In May, 1692, he was appointed lieutenant-governor, which place he held until the end of his life, and at the time of the death of Sir William Phips became acting governor. He was appointed chief justice of the superior court of the colony on 22 December, 1692, and held that office during the witchcraft trials. When others acknowledged that they had been deluded, he persistently contended that, he had acted up to his best judgment. Governor Stoughton is spoken of as a "rich and atrabilarious bachelor, although he gave to Harvard property that cost £1,000, and by his will made a bequest of land to the college. In 1698 the first Stoughton Hall was built, which gave place to a new edifice in 1805, that still preserves the memory of his gift. Governor Stoughton also gave liberally to the churches of Dorchester and Milton and to the poor people of his own town.