John Leverett - Military Command and Governorship

Military Command and Governorship

From 1663 to 1673 he held the rank of major-general of the Massachusetts militia, and was repeatedly elected as a deputy to the general court or to the council of assistants. During this time he oversaw the strengthening of Boston's defenses. He was also again sent to the colonial settlements of New Hampshire and southern Maine, where some colonists had objected to Massachusetts rule and arrested colonial officials.

Following the restoration of Charles II to the throne, all of England's colonies came under his scrutiny. In 1665 Charles sent four commissioners to Massachusetts. They were instructed to gain the colony's agreement to terms demanded by Charles in a letter he sent to the colonial government in 1662, in which he instructed the colony to adopt more tolerant religious laws, and to enforce the Navigation Acts. The arrival of the commissioners was of some concern to the government, and Leverett was placed on a committee to draft a petition to the king demanding the commission's recall. The document they drafted characterized the commissioners as "agents of evil sent to Massachusetts to subvert its charter and destroy its independence."

Leverett served as deputy governor under governor Richard Bellingham in 1671–1672, and succeeded to his position after the governor's death. His tenure as governor was chiefly notable because of King Philip's War, and the rising threats to the colonial charter that culminated in its revocation in 1684. The colony angered the king by purchasing the claims of Sir Ferdinando Gorges to portions of Maine in 1677, a territory Charles had intended to acquire for his son, the Duke of Monmouth. Edward Randolph, sent by Charles to report on the New England colonies, reported in 1676 that Leverett believed the colony to be beyond the crown's reach: "He freely declared to me that the laws made by your Majesty and your Parliament obligeth them in nothing but what consists with the interest of that colony".

Although Leverett favored religious tolerance, there were still many in the colony who did not. Baptists were able to openly begin worship in Boston during his tenure, but he has also been criticized by Quaker historians for harsh anti-Quaker laws passed in 1677. (The Baptists' time in Boston did not last — they were thrown out in 1680 after Simon Bradstreet became governor.)