Governor William Leete (about 1612/3 – 16 April 1683) was Governor of the Colony of New Haven from 1661 to 1665 and Governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1676 to 1683.

He was born about 1612 or 1613 at Dodington, Huntingdonshire, England, the son of John Leete and his wife Anna Shute, daughter of John Shute, a justice of the King's Court. He was educated as a lawyer, and served as a clerk in Bishop's Court at Cambridge, England. His distaste for the oppression of the Puritans by that court was a key factor in his emigration to Connecticut. He was town clerk of Guilford, Connecticut from 1639 to 1662, and Justice of the Peace there in 1642. He served as town magistrate at Guilford from 1651 to 1658, and as deputy from Guilford to the New Haven Colony General Court from 1643 to 1649. He was Commissioner of New Haven Colony (1655-1658), Deputy Governor (1658-1661) and Governor of the New Haven Colony from 1661 to 1664. After the consolidation of New Haven Colony and the Colony of Connecticut, he became Governor of the Colony of Connecticut from 1676 to 1683. He is the only man to serve as governor of both New Haven and Connecticut.

He is remembered for sheltering the Regicides William Goffe and Edward Whalley in Guilford.

He married three times. His first wife, and mother of all ten of his known children, was Anna Payne, daughter of Reverend John Payne of Sothoe. They married on 1 August 1636; she died on 1 September 1668. His second wife, whom he married 7 April 1670, was Sarah, widow of Henry Rutherford. She died 10 February 1673/4. His third wife was Mary, widow successively of Francis Newman and Reverend Nicholas Street.

Gov. Leete died at Hartford, Connecticut in 1683 and was buried in Hartford, Connecticut in Hartford's Ancient Burying Ground. His third wife survived him but a short time, dying on 13 December 1683.

[edit] References

• http://www.cslib.org/gov/leetew.htm
• Frederick Calvin Norton,The Governors of Connecticut, Connecticut Magazine Co., 1905.