Compiled by Russell Bastedo
State Curator
1998

Royal Governor Joseph Dudley (1686-1687, 1702-1716). Dudley (1647-1720) was born at Roxbury (MA). One of the eight children fathered by Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Dudley graduated from Harvard College (Class of 1665). He married (Rebecca Tyng, 1668), and with his wife had thirteen children.

Dudley was a member of the Massachusetts General Court (1673-1676), and he fought the Naragansett Indians during King Philip's War (1675). Dudley was a member of the Upper House in the Massachusetts Bay legislature (1676-1683, 1684), and was Commander of the United Colonies of New England (1677-1681), until King James II replaced him. Dudley served his replacement, Governor Andros, as a member of the governor's Council, and then as President of the Council (1684). Dudley was also in charge of press censorship for Governor Andros, and he served as Chief Justice of Colonial Superior Court (1687-1689).

After the Dutch Protestant William of Orange and his wife Mary came to the English throne, replacing the English Catholic King James II in The Glorious Revolution of 1688, Dudley was appointed chief of the Council of New York (served 1690 -1692). He then became deputy governor for The Isle of Wight. Dudley concluded his administrative career as Royal Governor for Massachusetts under Queen Anne (1702-1715).

Portrait by A. Tenney, after original (by unknown artist) at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Original possibly painted circa 1701, when the full French periwig with central part, worn over a shaved head and with a cravat tied in one of a number of styles, was the high point of male English fashion.
Location: State House, Second Floor, Executive Council Chambers