biography
| name: |
Phips, Sir William
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also spelled Phipps
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1651–95)
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| biography:
| Colonial governor, born in Pemmaquid, Maine, USA. He was successively shepherd, carpenter, and trader, and in 1687 recovered £300 000 from a wrecked Spanish ship off the Bahamas. This gained him a knighthood and the appointment as provost-marshal of New England. In 1690 he captured Port Royal (now Annapolis) in Nova Scotia, but failed in 1691 in a naval attack upon Quebec. In 1692 he became governor of Massachusetts, and the force behind the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 burned itself out when his wife was accused of witchcraft. |
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