Sir William Phipps(1651-1695) also spelled “Phips,” was born in Nauskeag (now Woolwich). He was one of 26 children born to the same mother, working as a shepherd for his widowed mother.
Phipps, after learning the trade in Arrowsic, became a ship carpenter in Boston, in which city he met and married the wealthy widow Mary Spencer Hull. After several seafaring exploits, he was hired by an English Duke to recover a sunken Spanish “treasure-ship” in the Caribbean. He was successful, was knighted, and eventually given command of an expedition against the French in North America. The poorly armed garrison at Port Royal immediately surrendered without a fight. Another effort, this time aimed at Quebec, failed.
In 1692, with the backing in Increase Mather, Phipps became governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, returning from England with a new colonial charter granting a degree of self-government.
The governor soon became engulfed in the Salem witch trials. He appointed a new set of judges from outside the local area to preside over the trials, expecting a more even handed process. However, all those tried were convicted, prompting the governor to issue a new law prohibiting evidence that could not be objectively verified from being used in court. He later pardoned all the accused, thus ending the witch trials.
Phipps died in London in 1695. The Maine town of Phippsburg is named in his honor.
Additional resources
Baker, Emerson W. and John G. Reid. The New England Knight: Sir William Phips, 1651-1695. Toronto. University of Toronto Press. c1998.
Passfield, Robert W. Phips’ Amphibious Assault on Canada–1690: origins, logistics, and organization: the attack and aftermath & ‘Where sovereignty lay‘. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Robert W. Passfield. 2011.
PHipps, Sir William.” Dictionary of Canadian Biography. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/phips_william_1E.html (accessed February 23. 2014)
Sparks, Jared. (ed.) Lives of Sir William Phips, Israel Putnam, Lucretia Maria Davidson, and David Rittenhouse. New York. Harper. 1840, c1837. [Bangor Public Library]
Thayer, Henry Otis. Sir William Phips:adventurer and statesman:a study in colonial biography. Portland, Me. Maine Historical Society. 1927.