Thomas Temple

Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet (January 1613/14 at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England – 27 March 1674 at Ealing, Middlesex) was a British proprietor and governor of Acadia/Nova Scotia (1657–70). In 1662, he was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia by Charles II.

He was the second son of Sir John Temple of Stanton Bury and his first wife Dorothy, daughter of Edmund Lee, and a grandson of Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet, of Stowe. According to a pedigree compiled in the 17th century, Sir Thomas was a descendent of the renowned Lady Godiva of Coventry, however this descent was debunked by E. A. Freeman in the 19th century. Sir Thomas Temple was the great nephew of Lord Saye and Sele. Temple's cousins, Nathaniel Fiennes and John Fiennes were prominent supporter of parliament in the Civil War and members of Oliver Cromwell's Council of State. Both were appointed to Cromwell's House of Lords.

In the year 1656, Colonel Temple and Colonel William Crowne became joint proprietors of Nova Scotia, by buying Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour’s patent as baronet of Nova Scotia. By this purchase, Crowne and Temple agreed to pay la Tour’s debt of £3,379 to the widow of Maj.-Gen. Edward Gibbons of Boston, and Temple assumed the cost of the English that which had earlier captured the fort on the Saint John River. According to his statement of losses in about 1668, Crown supplied the money and security for the purchases.

Temple, Crowne, Crowne's son John Crowne, and a group of settlers came to America in 1657. Crowne’s name first appears in the records of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, in September 1657 on an agreement between Temple and Crowne to divide Acadia, Temple taking the eastern part and Crowne the western, including the fort of Pentagouet (now Castine, Maine). The articles of agreement were not signed until 15 Feb. 1657/58 when Governor John Endecott and John Crowne witnessed them. Each party gave a bond of £20,000.

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