Background
Timothy Dwight Ruggles was born in Rochester, Massachussets The founder of his family in America was Thomas, who settled in Roxbury in 1637; his descendants were substantial men and office holders.
Timothy Dwight Ruggles was born in Rochester, Massachussets The founder of his family in America was Thomas, who settled in Roxbury in 1637; his descendants were substantial men and office holders.
Young Timothy graduated from Harvard in 1732.
Because of his combative energy and bluff wit Ruggles seemed ill-suited to the ministry, and became an advocate practising at Rochester and representing that town in the General Court in 1736. In that year he moved to Sandwich and became proprietor of a tavern. He was a leading lawyer in Barnstable and adjacent counties, and for eight years between 1739 and 1752 was in the legislature.
About 1753 he moved to Hardwick, in Worcester County, where in 1686 his family had acquired a large tract of land. Here he lived in elegant style, keeping a well-stocked stable, hounds, and a deer park, though in his personal habits, especially in eating and drinking, he was most temperate. He was a justice of the peace and member of the legislature almost continually until 1770, and in 1762 serving as speaker. In 1755 he was commissioned colonel of one of the Massachusetts regiments which served under Sir William Johnson and in 1758 was commissioned a brigadier-general under Lord Amherst and shared in the invasion of Canada.
In 1760 he left the service, receiving substantial grants from King and province. In the meantime, 1757, he had been appointed judge of common pleas for Worcester County, and in 1762 he became chief justice, an office he held down to the Revolution. Ruggles' personality was distinctive and forceful. He was very tall, dark, bold of countenance, given to no silly talk; his speech was blunt, often witty, sometimes profane. He was known as "the Brigadier, " and became the subject of many ancedotes, not all authentic. In Mercy Otis Warren's dramatic piece, The Group, he figures as Brigadier Hateall.
Ruggles was not of the Otis faction; when the people of Boston almost unanimously elected James Otis to the General Court, Ruggles prophesied that "out of this election will arise a d--d faction, which will shake this province to its foundations" (Ibid. , vol. X, 1856, p. 248). As the movement toward revolution began to develop, Ruggles lost popularity and influence. At the Stamp Act Congress of 1765 he was elected president over Otis by a single vote, but Otis dominated the scene. Ruggles would not sign the petitions drawn up, alleging scruples of conscience. Thomas McKean of Pennsylvania reflected on Ruggles' sincerity, and the Brigadier replied with what McKean interpreted as a challenge, but no duel was fought.
Returning to Boston, Ruggles was censured by the legislature and was not allowed to place his reply in its journal. He remained a strong supporter of Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, threatening, it is said, to put in jail every man who signed the non-importation agreement of 1774. In that year he was made a member of the Council by the King's mandamus, but seems not to have taken the oath of office (Stark, post, p. 136). At this time a Committee of Correspondence was formed at Hardwick, and Ruggles was obliged to take refuge in Boston. There in December 1774 he strove to form an association of Loyalists pledged not to "acknowledge or submit to the pretended authority of any Congress, Committees of Correspondence, or any other unconstitutional assemblies of men" (Sabine, post, II, 244). In November 1775 General Howe appointed Ruggles to command three companies of volunteers, to be called the Loyal American Associators (Jared Sparks, The Writings of George Washington, vol. III, 1834, p. 162, note), but it is doubtful if Ruggles ever fought in the field against the American army, although it appears that he was present for a short time with the British on Long Island.
His name was fourth on the list of those banished from Massachusetts by the Act of 1778; his estates were confiscated, and in 1783 he moved to Nova Scotia, where he received a large grant in the wilderness. To the clearing of this tract he devoted the remainder of his life. He died on his estate at Wilmot, and was buried in the church near by.
Quotes from others about the person
Young John Adams made this diary entry in 1759: "Ruggles's grandeur consists in the quickness of his apprehension, steadiness of his attention, the boldness and strength of his thoughts and expressions, his strict honor, conscious superiority, contempt of meanness, &c. People approach him with dread and terror".
Ruggles married Bathsheba (Bourne) Newcomb, a rich widow, in 1736. His three sons followed him into exile, but his four daughters remained in the States. One, Bathsheba, wife of Joshua Spooner, caused her husband to be murdered in 1778; apparently insane, she was convicted and hanged, July 2, 1778, after a most sensational trial.
