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"John Leverett (1616-1679) was a colonial soldier and Governor of Massachusetts.
Leverett was born July 7, 1616. He came with
his parents, Rev. John Cotton, and
others, in the Griffin. He joined the First Church July 14, 1639. He was the son of Thomas Leverett, the ruling elder of
the First Church, who had been Alderman of Boston, England. He sailed from
London, and arrived at Boston, September 4, 1633.
He joined the Artillery Company 1639; clerk of the
company, 1641; junior sergeant, 1642; senior sergeant, 1643; lieutenant,
1648; commander, 1652, 1663, and 1670. He was appointed captain under
Sergeant-Major Gibbons, August 12, 1645, to take the field against the
Narragansett Indians; captain of a troop of horse in 1652; and, same year,
captain of South Company. In 1654, he held a command under General Sedgwick in
expelling the French from Penobscot. He was captain of a troop of horse in
Cromwell's service in 1656. In 1663, he was chosen Major-General of the
Colony, and held the office ten years.
In 1662, [Leverett was] granted one thousand acres of land in
consideration of his services to the colony and five hundred more in 1671.
On May 23, 1666, he was voted 'thanks' by the General Court, and one hundred
pounds gratuity for his care and pains in completing the batteries of
Boston, and mounting the great artillery.
Deputy for Boston 1651, 1652, 1653, 1663, 1664, 1665.
Speaker of the House, 1651, 1663, 1664.
In 1665, chosen from the House of Deputies to be an
assistant and continued in that office until 1670.
Deputy Governor, 1671, 1672.
Governor, May 7, 1673 to 1678, and died March 16, 1679,
while holding that office.
In August, 1676, King Charles II conferred the Order of
Knight-hood upon him, but he concealed the fact during his lifetime.
Governor Leverett died March 16, 1679, and was buried
with great pomp, March 25, in King's Chapel Ground. The Leverett tomb is numbered 30 [at King's Chapel], and
the Governor and the members of his immediate family, Secretary Isaac
Addington and many other noted personages were buried in this tomb.
The following epitaph, written a short time after
Governor Leverett's decease, is probably the eleven-line inscription
engraved on the horizontal slab over his tomb in King's Chapel Ground, but
the face of the stone is so much worn the epitaph cannot be deciphered. The
copy of [the] epitaph [below] is taken from the genealogy of the Leverett
family:
'To ye Sacred Memory of N.E's Heroe, Mars his Generall, & Vertues
standard-bearer, & Learning's glory, y't faithfully pious, & piously
faithful subject to ye Great Majesty of Heaven & Earth, ye Experienced
souldier in ye Church Militant, lately Listed in ye Invincible Triuphant
Army of ye Lord of Hosts, ye deservedly Worshipful Jn Leverett Esq'r ye Just
Prudent, & Impartiall Governo'r of ye Massachusetts Colony, In N - E who
surrendered to ye all Conquering Command of Death, March, 16, Anno Dom, 1678
et AEtatis su AE 63.'
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