Joseph Dudley | |
|---|---|
 Portrait believed to be of Dudley by Sir Peter Lely | |
| President of the Dominion of New England | |
| In office May 25, 1686 – December 20, 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 Hopsonn | |
| Preceded by | James Worsley |
| Succeeded by | John Leigh |
| 3rd and 4th Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay | |
| In office June 11, 1702 – February 4, 1715 | |
| Preceded by | Massachusetts Governor's Council (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Massachusetts Governor's Council (acting) |
| In office March 21, 1715 – November 9, 1715 | |
| Preceded by | Council of Assistants (acting) |
| Succeeded by | William Tailer (acting) |
| Member of the Council of Assistants | |
| In office 1676–1684 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 23, 1647 Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony |
| Died | 2 April 1720 (aged 72) Roxbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay |
| Spouse |
Rebecca Tyng (m. 1668) |
| Children | Paul Dudley |
| Parent |
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| Signature |  |
Joseph Dudley (September 23, 1647 – April 2, 1720) was a colonial administrator, a native of Roxbury in Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the son of one of its founders. He had a leading role in the administration of the Dominion of New England (1686–1689), which was overthrown in the 1689 Boston revolt. He served briefly on the council of the Province of New York, from which he oversaw the trial which convicted Jacob Leisler, the ringleader of Leisler's Rebellion. He then spent eight years in England in the 1690s as Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Wight, including one year as a Member of Parliament for Newtown (Isle of Wight). In 1702, he returned to New England after being appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and Province of New Hampshire, posts that 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 the French and Indian Wars, 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 initiated a hostility in Massachusetts toward royal governance, most frequently over the issue of the salaries of crown officials. The colonial legislature routinely challenged or disputed the prerogatives of the governor, and this hostility affected most of the governors of Massachusetts up to the American Revolutionary War and the end of British rule. Dudley's rule of New Hampshire, however, was comparatively uncontroversial.