Brief Bio

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{ Some of this material is from the 1884 / 1934 book "The Descendants of William Leete"}

William Leete, son of John of Dodington, was bred to the law, and served for a considerable time as clerk in the Bishop's Court at Cambridge, where, observing the oppressions and cruelties then practiced on the conscientious and virtuous Puritans, he was led to examine more thoroughly their doctrines and practice, and eventually to become a Puritan himself and to give up his office."

He came to America in Rev. Mr. Whitfield's company, and was one of the signers of the Plantation Covenant on shipboard, June 1, 1639, arriving in New Haven about July 10. When they had agreed upon Guilford as a place to settle, he was one of six selected to purchase the land of the native Indians, in trust, for the plantation until their organization.

When the lands in the village were surveyed and laid out for individual ownership, he selected for his residence a lot opposite to that of William Chittenden, on the corner of what are now Broad and River streets, a site overlooking Menunketuck river as it winds its way through meadows reclaimed from the sea. as green then as now, or, when it meets a full tide, expanding into a broad lake. His outlying lands i about 250 acres) were located chiefly some three miles away, in the southwesterly quarter of the town, and the place was named from him Leete'e [sland. That which goes by this name is not strictly an island, but a pari of these lands, at first called Horse Island, is surrounded with sail meadows, and of course was once an island.

This section of Guilford still retains the name of Leete's Island, and the lands have been owned and occupied by Leetes almost exclusively down to the present generation. It has now its post office and store, and has recently come into prominent notice as the location of Beattie's stone quarries.

His seal has been preserved in the family to the present time. It bears a correct representation of the Leete Coat of Arms.

Family Affairs

Public Offices

1639-1662

Mr. Leete was called upon to fill many public offices. He was clerk of the plantation from 1639 to 1662. He was one of four to whom was entrusted the whole civil power of the plantation, without limitation, until a church was formed, June 19 (June 29 N. S. ), 1643. When the church was formed, he was selected as one of the seven pillars ' ' for the foundation work." Samuel Disborough and William Leete were chosen to meet the court at New Haven in 1643, when the combination of the jurisdiction of the New Haven Colony was planned and organized, and Guilford, Milfard, Stamford and other plantations, hitherto independent colonies, united in one jurisdiction with New Haven, establishing a General Court for the whole jurisdiction, to sit twice a year at New Haven in April and October, and to consist of the governor, deputy governor, and all the magistrates within the jurisdiction, and two deputies for every plantation. Mr. Leete was a deputy from Guilford to this court till 1650, and from 1651 to 1658 was the magistrate of the town.

1658-1664

In 1658 he was chosen deputy governor of the colony, and continued in that office until 1661 when he was elected governor, which office he held until the union with Connecticut in 1664.

1664-1669

After the union he was an assistant until 1669.

1669-1676

He was elected deputy governor of the Connecticut Colony, holding this office until 1676

1676-1683

He was chosen governor in 1676, which position he retained by continuous reelection until his death in 1683. Upon being elected governor he removed to Hartford, and being continued in office he remained there until his death, and was buried there.

Photos

The following link leads to an album of pictures related to Gov William Leete.

Trees and Reports

These trees and reports are preliminary, added here to test the site design and methodology. Please don't assume that they are accurate.

• Registry Report (3 generations... FTM couldn't go any further than that... Don't know if there is a database problem or there is a fundamental program design problem)
  • I can't do anything to generate a tree yet. The existing tree is "too big" for Ancestry.com. I'm eliminating large documents. The new technology I'm developing will build reports and trees outside the constraints of Ancestry.com.

Relevant Links

• A map of Guildford, published in 1852 by Richard Clark. This map is embedded in an application that controls zooming in and out to see the map's details. A map of this age shows many of the buildings as they were from the 1700s. Waves of reclaimation in Guildford have removed many of the historic buildings.
• Wiki Gov Leete