merchant military Soldier statesman
John Leverett was the son of Thomas and Anne (Fisher) Leverett and was baptized July 7, 1616, in St. Botolph's Parish, Boston, England. The family appears to have been of fair social rank and to have had some property. In 1629 Thomas received a grant of land on the Muscongus in New England, and in 1633 he emigrated with his wife and three children to Massachusetts. He had occupied various offices in old Boston, being alderman when he left.
John became a freeman May 13, 1640. He appears to have been prosperous and to have been engaged in foreign trade, for in 1646 it was noted that he and Edward Gibbons had lost a ship off Virginia valued at £2, 000. He had also become interested in public affairs and soon after he became a freeman he was sent with Edward Hutchinson on a mission to the Indian chief Miantonomo. In 1644 he went to England and took part in the war, receiving a command in the Parliamentary army and gaining distinction.
He had returned to Boston, Massachussets, by 1648, and from 1651 to 1653 he was a member of the General Court. In 1652 he was one of the commissioners sent to Maine to proclaim the settlements there subject to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. He was also in 1651 one of the selectmen for the town of Boston. In 1653 he was appointed colonial agent in England and sailed sometime before 1655, remaining in London until 1662. On his return he was again elected to the General Court for the years 1663-1665, being speaker of the House for a part of that time. From 1665 to 1670 he was a member of the Council, and from 1671 to 1673 deputy governor. Leverett had always liked military life and in 1639 had joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of which he was a member for thirty-two years. In 1663 he was made major-general of all the Massachusetts forces and so remained until elected governor of the colony in 1673. He continued to be annually elected to the governorship until his death in 1679.
His tenure as governor is noteworthy as including the period of King Philip's War, in which he rendered excellent service. It is also of importance as marking the beginning of the activities of Edward Randolph who was sent from England to enforce the laws of trade. Leverett refused to take the oath to administer them and had a long struggle with the royal official. Throughout his career he was constantly called upon for special services: he was one of the commissioners sent to confer with Stuyvesant at New York over the difficulties with the Dutch (1653); he led the force which expelled the French from the Penobscot (1654); and he was one of the four to whom was confided the custody of the colony charter in the troubled year 1664. It has always been claimed that he was knighted, though there is much confusion as to why and when. The date agreed upon by the family historians is 1676 and the reason, his services in the Indian War, though it seems odd that Charles II should thus honor the governor of the recalcitrant Massachusetts. It is said he never used the title, and in the long epitaph on his tomb he is described as "Esquire. "
Leverett had married Hannah Hudson who reached Boston with her parents in 1635. By her he had four children. She died in 1646 and in 1647 he married Sarah Sedgwick, who survived him and by whom he had fourteen children.
