DUDLEY, Thomas, colonial governor of Massachusetts, born in Northampton, England, in 1576; died in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 31 July 1652. He was an officer in the service of Holland before joining the Puritans, and afterward retrieved the fortunes of the Earl of Lincoln by the faithful stewardship of his estates. In 1630 he came to Massachusetts with the commission of deputy governor, which office he held from 1634 till 1640, and again from 1645 till 1650. After residing in Cambridge, Ipswich, and Boston, he finally settled in Roxbury, where his estare was long possessed by his descendants. In 1644 he was appointed major general. He was a man of talent and integrity, was bold and energetic, but intolerant and narrow in his religious views, and was even more unforbearing and arrogant than Winthrop, with whom he was closely associated.

His son, Joseph Dudley, colonial governor of Massachusetts, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 23 September 1647 ; died there, 2 April 1720, was graduated at Harvard in 1665 and studied theology, but, preferring a political career, became a representative in the general court and a magistrate in his native town in 1673. From 1677 till 1681 he was one of the commissioners for the united colonies of New England. He was in the battle with the Narragansetts in 1675, and was one of the commissioners that negotiated the treaty with that tribe. In 1682 he went to England as agent for the colony, and, being unable to obtain a confirmation of the old charter, served himself, and became a candidate for the chief magistracy. James II appointed him president of New England in 1685 and made chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1687. He was arrested as one of the friends of Andros, with whom he was sent to England, where " He was received, was chief justice of New York in 1693, and in the latter year again visited England, became deputy governor of the Isle of Wight, and was elected to parliament from Newtown in 1701.

In the following year he returned to this country, and was made captain general and governor of Massachusetts, serving until 1715, when he retired to his rural home in Roxbury. He carried the doctrine of submission to royal and ministerial authority to extremes, and was said to be a "philosopher and a scholar, a divine and a lawyer, all combined.

"His son, Paul Dudley, jurist, born 3 September 1675; died in Roxbury, 21 January 1751, was graduated at Harvard in 1690, and studied law at the Temple in London. He returned to Massachusetts in 1702 with a commission from Queen Anne as attorney general of the province, which he held until his promotion to the bench in 1718. In 1.745 he became chief justice. He represented Roxbury for several years in the legislature, He was a learned naturalist, a fellow of the Royal society of London, and bequeathed £100 to Harvard for the support of an annual lecture to be delivered on one of the four subjects treated in succession natural religion, the Christian religion, the errors of the Roman Catholic Church, and one to explain and to maintain the validity of the ordination of ministers according to the ancient custom of New England. He published essays on the natural history of America, particularly of New England, in the "Transactions" of the Royal society (17201735), and a work against the Church of Rome.