Dudley

FOREBEARS Thomas Dudley (1576–1653), born at Northampton, England, sailed on the Arbella to Salem, MA, in 1630 with the chief men of the Massachusetts Bay Company. They first settled at Newtown. Dudley subsequently moved to Ipswich but then permanently settled at Roxbury. He was elected four times as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and as one of the two commissioners for the colony when the New England Confederation was formed in 1643. He was one of the first overseers of Harvard University, and in 1650, as governor, signed the charter for that institution. Dudley's seventh and most noted child, Joseph (1647–1720) was also governor of MA (1702–15).