William Shirley

William Shirley (1694-1771) was the British governor of Massachusetts from 1741 to 1759. He was to son of William and Elizabeth Godman Shirley, and was born on December 2, 1694 at Preston Manor in Sussex, England. He was educated at Cambridge then studied law in London before moving to Boston in 1731.

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His early government jobs included that of surveyor and King's Advocate for New England. He was apponted the royal Governor in 1741. Following his failure in a military expedition against Fort Niagara, he was recalled to England in June of 1756. He was later exonerated, and served as Governor of the Bahamas from 1761-1769.

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He was, with Charles Lawrence, the architect of the Great Expulsion, the forcible removal of more than 12,000 Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1775, an incident some historians consider one of the earliest examples of ethnic cleansing.

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He retired to live with his daughter and her husband (Eliakin Hutchinson) at the Roxbury house. He died there on March 24, 1771.

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1771: 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar)....

British: The word British has several different uses. See the article on Britain for more details on the development and use of the word Britain....

Massachusetts: Massachusetts (officially, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the United States of America. Its nickname is the Bay State. Other nicknames are the Old Colony State, and less commonly the Puritan state and the Baked Bean state. On December 18, 1990, the Legisl...

William Shirley related Images and Photos (experimental)

William Tell	William Wirt	William Kent	William Perry
William Lilly	William Smith	Shirley Jones	Shirley Eaton
Shirley Bassey	William Devane	William Conrad	Shirley Bassey