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John Haynes (governor)

John Haynes (May 1, 1594 – c. January 9, 1653/4[1]), also sometimes spelled Haines, was a colonial magistrate and one of the founders of the Connecticut Colony. He served one term as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was the first governor of Connecticut, ultimately serving eight separate terms. Although Colonial Connecticut prohibited Governors from serving consecutive terms at the time, "John Haynes was so popular with the colonists that he served alternately as governor and often as deputy governor from 1639 to his death in 1653."[2]

John Haynes

May 1, 1594
Essex, England

c. January 9, 1653/4 (aged 59)
Hartford, Connecticut

Haynes was influential in the drafting of laws and legal frameworks in both Massachusetts and Connecticut. He was on the committee that drafted the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which has been called one of the first written constitutions. He also invested most of his fortune in Connecticut, "to the ruine of his famylye in Englande".[3]

Massachusetts Bay Colony[edit]

As a man of some means, (Winthrop referred to him as a "man of great estate")[9] in 1634, Haynes was admitted as a freeman and elected to the colony's council of assistants.[10] He was also named to a committee overseeing military matters,[11] a position that assumed some importance when war broke out with the Pequot tribe that year.[12] The assistants were called on to consider the controversial defacement of the English flag by John Endecott in 1634. Claiming that St George's Cross was a symbol of popery, he had cut it from the Salem militia company's banner. Haynes was part of a moderate faction that disagreed with Endecott's action, claiming that the cross had been reduced to a symbol of nationalism. For his action, Endecott was censured and deprived of serving in any offices for one year.[13]


In 1634, Haynes served in a variety of municipal capacities. He was a Cambridge selectman and served on a commission that decided the boundary between Boston and Charlestown.[14] He was elected governor in 1635, winning an election that Roger Ludlow had been expected to win. Haynes had argued for the lowering of taxes; Ludlow also alleged that the deputies of some towns had made private agreements that concerned the vote before it occurred. Ludlow, who was not even elected as an assistant, was apparently motivated by his loss to leave the colony for a settlement on the Connecticut River.[3][15]


Haynes' one-year term as governor was marked by political conflict between a faction led by Haynes, Hooker, and Dudley, and another led by Winthrop. The major disagreement between them concerned the strictness of judicial procedures and the process of rendering judgments; the Haynes faction believed that Winthrop had been lax in some of his decisions.[16] The conservative faction was successful in enacting regulations for stricter judicial procedures; it also passed legislation banning the smoking of tobacco and restricting overly ostentatious or fashionable clothing.[17] Haynes also presided over the trial and banishment of Roger Williams, an act that Williams reports Haynes later expressed some regret over.[18]

Death and legacy[edit]

Contrary to the engraved date on his tombstone in Hartford's Ancient Burying Ground, Haynes did not die on March 1, 1653/4. A letter, written by John Winthrop the Younger on January 9, 1653/4, mentions his recent death.[33] The Connecticut General Court issued a statement on March 6, calling for a "day of humiliation" following the "sudden death of our late Governor".[34] Haynes' son, Hezekiah, a military officer who served in the English Civil War, noted that his father had invested between £7,000 and £8,000 in the colony "to the ruine of his famylye in Englande";[3][35] his estate was valued at about £1,500.[36] Haynes was a significant landowner in the Hartford area, and he and Edward Hopkins operated a mill in the town.[37] Haynes' daughter Ruth married Samuel Wyllys, the son of another Connecticut founder, George Wyllys. Their descendants have continued the legacy of political involvement in Connecticut and elsewhere.[38]

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