Andros, Edmund, 1637 - 1714

Edmund Andros was the son of royalists Amias Andros and Elizabeth Stone of London, England.  During the English Civil War, the Andros family lived at Guernsey and at the Hague.  Andros entered military service under his uncle, Sir Robert Stone, and fought in Denmark from 1655 to 1658.  After the Restoration, he was commissioned as ensign in the Grenadier Guards in 1662 and appointed major of the Barbados Regiment of Foot five years later. After successful service in the Caribbean, he joined the household of James Stuart, the Duke of York.  Andros’ marriage in 1672 to the Mary Craven, the cousin of William Earl of Craven brought him 48,000 acres of land at the American colony of Carolina.  Andros became the governor of New York in 1674, and in that position, he worked to rebuild the defenses and economy of the Province, especially with respect to the fur and wheat trade.  His Indian policies restored relations with the Five Nations and were critical in ending King Philip’s War in southern New England.  More significantly was his role in establishing the Covenant Chain diplomacy with the Iroquois leader Daniel Garacontie.  Despite his successes, his enforcement of an Anglicized Stuart rule was unpopular with the Puritan English colonies and he was replaced as governor and recalled to London in 1681.  After the accession James II to the throne, Andros returned to America in 1686, commissioned as the governor-general of the Dominion of New England.  Still unpopular, he faced protests from New England’s merchants, magistrates, and Puritans and a war with the Eastern Abenaki.  When news of William of Orange’s invasion of England reached New England in 1689, Andros faced an uprising at Boston during which he was arrested, imprisoned, and eventually sent back to England.  Found not guilty of the charges, Andros was welcomed by King William, who appointed him governor of Virginia in 1692 but ill health and complaints from his critics prompted him to return to England in 1699.  He retired to Guernsey where he served as lieutenant governor until his death.  ODNB.  ANBO.  Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.