Sir Edmund Andros

Sir Edmund Andros (1637-1714), English governor in colonial America. Appointed by James, duke of York and brother of King Charles II, Andros was governor of New York from 1674 to 1681. When his patron became king as James II, the colonies and regions of New England were united as a single province, the Dominion of New England, and Andros was made its governor (1686). Jealous of its independence, Connecticut refused to recognize his authority. According to tradition, when he appeared in Hartford to demand the surrender of the colony's charter, the colonists hid it in an oak tree, known thereafter as the Charter Oak. Nevertheless, Andros continued to rule Connecticut, and in 1688 New York and New Jersey were put under his jurisdiction.

In April 1689, when word reached Boston that King James had been deposed, Andros was arrested and sent to England for trial, but he was released almost immediately. Returning to America as governor of Virginia in 1692, he once again came into conflict with the colonists and was recalled in 1698. He also served as governor of Maryland in 1693-94 and of the island of Guernsey in 1704-6.