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William Tryon (January 27,1729 to 1788) was colonial governor of the Province of North Carolina (1765-1771) and the Province of New York (1771-1780, though he did not retain much power in the colony beyond 1777).
Early Life and career
Tryon was born at Norbury Park, Surrey, England. In 1757, when he was a captain of the First Foot Guards, he married Margaret Wake, a London heiress with a dower of £30,000. In 1764, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. Upon Arthur Dobbs's death, in 1765, became governor pro tem., and, in December of the same year, received his commission as Governor of North Carolina.
American Revolution
From 1771 nominally until March 22, 1780 he was Governor of New York. While he was on a visit to England the American Revolutionary War broke out, and on October 19, 1775, several months after his return, he was compelled to seek refuge on the sloop-of-war Halifax in New York Harbor, but was restored to power when the British took possession of New York City in September 1776, though his actual authority did not extend beyond the British lines. After 1777, British administration ended, but an unofficial underground movement was lead James Robertson (loyalist) and Andrew Elliot.
During the spring and summer of 1776 Tryon and New York City mayor, David Matthews, were both conspirators in a miserably bungled plot to kidnap General George Washington of the Continental Army and assassinate his chief officers. One of Washington's bodyguards, Thomas Hickey, was also involved in the plot. Hickey, while incarcerated by the Patriots for passing counterfeit money, bragged to his cellmate Isaac Ketcham about the plot. Ketcham then revealed the plot to authorities in an attempt to set himself free. Hickey was court-martialed and hanged for mutiny, sedition, and treachery, on June 28, 1776.
In 1777, Tryon was given the rank of major-general and a command position in the British Army. In 1777, Tryon was ordered to invade Connecticut and march on the city of Danbury to destroy an arsenal located there. In 1779, he commanded a series of raids on the Connecticut coast, attacking New Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk, burning most of the latter two. Tradition states that Tryon sat on a rocking chair on a hill in Norwalk, watching the town burn, a "puny imitator of Nero". He later boasted of his "extreme clemency" in leaving a single house standing. General Henry Clinton, likely reluctant to support Tryon's attrition warfare tactics, never gave Tryon independent command again.
In 1780, he returned to England, and, in 1782 was promoted to lieutenant-general and to the coloncey of the 29th Regiment of Foot. He died in London.
Legacy
Like many other pre-Revolutionary officials in America, he has generally been pictured by Americans as a tyrant (e.g., nicknamed "The Wolf" by the citizens of North Carolina). In reality, however, he seems to have been tactful and considerate, an efficient administrator, who in particular greatly improved the colonial postal service, and to have become unpopular chiefly because, through his rigid adherence to duty, he obeyed the instructions of his superiors and rigorously enforced the measures of the British government. By refusing to allow meetings of the Assembly from May 18th, 1765 to November 3, 1766, he prevented North Carolina from sending representatives to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765. To lighten the stamp tax, he offered to pay the duty on all stamped paper on which he was entitled to fees. With the support of the law-abiding element he suppressed the Regulator uprising in 1768-1771, caused partly by the taxation imposed to defray the cost of the governor's fine mansion, now called Tryon Palace, at New Bern (which Tryon had made the provincial capital), and executed seven or eight of the ringleaders, pardoning six others.
Tryon County, New York and Tryon County, North Carolina, former counties in the USA, were named after him. His name remains attached to Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan in New York City, which was in British hands throughout most of the American Revolution and the town of Tryon, North Carolina. One of the two streets that intersect in central Charlotte, North Carolina, defining the downtown, is named Tryon Street. There is also a Tryon Road in Raleigh, North Carolina which is itself in Wake County, a county named after Tryon's wife Margaret Wake.
References
- Haywood, Marshal D. Governor William Tryon and his Administration in the Province of North Carolina. Raleigh, 1903.
External links
| Preceded by: Arthur Dobbs | Governor of the Province of North Carolina 1765-1771 | Succeeded by: James Hasell |
| Preceded by: Lord Dunmore | Governor of the Province of New York 1771-1780 | Succeeded by: George Clinton ''Governor of New York State after 1777 |
1729 births | 1788 deaths | British officers in the American Revolution | British officials in the American Revolution | Governors of North Carolina | Natives of Surrey | Colonial Governors of New York
"William Tryon"