Thomas Dudley (1576-1653)

He was born in England at Yardley Hastings, Northamptonshire. A devout puritan, he came to America in 1630 on the Arabella (flagship of the "Winthrop Fleet") as a leader and patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dropping anchor at Salem, Dudley is considered the founder of Cambridge where legend states that at what is now the corner of John F. Kennedy and Mount Auburn Streets, he thrust his cane into the ground and declared, "this is the place". He was the colony's 1st Deputy Governor under John Winthrop, and was subsequently the 3rd, 7th, 11th, & 14th Governor.

In 1650, as one of his first acts on becoming Governor, he signed the charter to create Harvard College, establishing the guidelines by which the university continues to operate. He also established the Roxbury Latin School, considered one of the first public schools in America, and was a founder of the First Church at Boston, where there is a tablet in his honor. Harvard's Dudley House and the Dudley (train) Station at Roxbury are both named for him. He was married twice and had eight children (listed) who lived to adulthood: five by his first wife and three by his second. His son, Joseph, was the 3rd & 4th Royal Governor of Massachusetts and President of the Dominion of New England.