SIR WILLIAM PHIPS
THE GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS, WHO COMMANDED ENGLISH COLONISTS DURING KING WILLIAM’S WAR 1651-95 ENGLAND
Born in a remote trading village in Maine, Phips became a sea captain and used treasure salvaged from a Spanish shipwreck to curry favour with the English crown. Knighted by James II in 1687, Phips was commissioned as a major general and played a leading role in the fight against the French during King William’s War, despite having no military background.
Phips had an initial victory when he captured Port Royal in Nova Scotia with seven warships in May 1690 but had less success when he launched an ambitious campaign against Quebec. Commanding over 2,000 militiamen and approximately 30 ships, Phips dropped anchor at Quebec in October 1690, but the French were expecting him. A failed landing force and Phips’s own naval bombardment achieved little, and the English colonists were forced to return to Boston.
Despite his defeat at Quebec, Phips became the first royal governor of colonial Massachusetts in 1692 and continued to oversee the war, which reduced to small attacks and frontier massacres until peace was declared in 1697.