Thomas Willett
| Thomas Willett | |
|---|---|
| 1st and 3rd Mayor of New York City | |
|
In office 1665–1666 |
|
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Delavall |
|
In office 1667–1668 |
|
| Preceded by | Thomas Delavall |
| Succeeded by | Cornelius Van Steenwyk |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1605 Barley, Hertfordshire, England |
| Died | August 29, 1674 (aged 69) Swansea, Plymouth Colony (now approximately Bristol, Rhode Island) |
Thomas Willett (1605 – August 29, 1674) was a British merchant, Plymouth Colony trader and sea-captain, Commissioner of New Netherland, magistrate of Plymouth Colony, Captain of the Plymouth Colony militia and was the 1st and 3rd Mayor of New York City, prior to the consolidation of the five boroughs into the City of New York in 1898.
The fourth son of Andrew Willet, he was born in August 1605, in the rectory-house of Barley, Hertfordshire, and was baptised on the 29th of the same month. He was educated at The King's School, Ely. His father dying when he was only sixteen years of age, he appears to have continued to reside with his widowed mother and maternal grandmother till he came of age. Shortly after he went to Leyden, and then in 1629 to the new Plymouth Colony where he gained the trust of Governor William Bradford.
Willett was placed in charge of the Plymouth Colony's trading post with the Native Americans at Castine in what is now Maine, and there developed the skills in trade and native language which would serve him well. The French forced Plymouth to abandon their operations at Castine in 1635.
Willett married Mary, daughter of John Brown(e), Sr., a leading citizen of the Plymouth Colony. He moved with the Brown(e) family from Plymouth westward to the eastern shores of Narragansett Bay to Wannamoisett, near present-day Barrington, Rhode Island, and became a major merchant, trading with New Amsterdam. He was elected one of the assistant governors of the Plymouth colony, and acted as arbitrator in disputes between the English and Dutch colonies. He eventually became the Plymouth Colony's chief military officer.
Accompanying the English commander Richard Nicolls, he contributed to the peaceable surrender of New Amsterdam to the English on September 7, 1664.
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