Thomas Boone was the 7th Royal Governor of New Jersey and the 28th Royal Governor of South Carolina.
Background
Boone was born in England in 1730 or 1731. His father, Charles Boone, was a merchant with interests in the East Indies whose family also included major landowners in the Province of South Carolina, and his mother, Elizabeth Garth Boone, was from a military family from County Durham.
Education
Eton College; Trinity College.
Career
The New Jersey town of Boonton (Boone Town, Booneton) is named in his honour. The extended family was well connected to the politically powerful Duke of Newcastle. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, Boone came to South Carolina in 1752 to claim title and lands he had inherited from the Boone and Colleton families.
He did not meet with the colonial assembly until 30 October 1760.
Six months later, he was appointed Governor of South Carolina. He arrived in Charleston in December 1761, and replaced acting governor William Bulletin World War II In 1762, Boone refused to administer the oath of office to a newly elected provincial assemblyman named Christopher Gadsden, stating that his election was not valid.
Without taking the oath, Gadsden could not take his seat. When the Assembly objected, Governor Boone dissolved the Assembly and called for new elections.
When the Assembly reconvened that winter after elections (in which Gadsden was able to take his seat), they drew up a resolution condemning Governor Boone"s actions.
The Assembly then produced a resolution stating clearly that the Assembly held sole authority to determine the validity of any elections of its members. Boone replied that he was acting under his authority as the representative of the British Crown. Ultimately, Boone and the Assembly could not come to an agreement, and the Assembly refused to conduct any business at all with the Governor until their complaints were addressed, refusing even to pass tax bills or appropriate money to pay the salaries of the various administrative staff
Finally, Boone gave up.
Taking advantage of a previous offer of a leave of absence, he sailed to England and the matter passed. In May 1764, he left lieutenant governor Bulletin to fill in as acting governor, and went home to England.
He served for many years as commissioner of customs, resigning the post in 1805. His properties in South Carolina were confiscated after the American Revolutionary War.
He died at Lee (then part of County Kent) on 25 September 1812.