Gurdon Saltonstall

Born: Haverhill, Massachusetts; March 27, 1666
Died: New London; September 20, 1724

Entry by Bruce P. Stark

Gurdon Saltonstall was a New London minister and the governor of Connecticut from 1707 to 1724. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1684, began preaching in New Landon in the winter of 1687, and was ordained in 1691. Saltonstall became the confidant of the town's leading citizen, Fitz-John Winthrop (1638-1707), and as a friend of Winthrop's was an enemy of the dominant political figure in the county, James Fitch (1649-1727). Upon Winthrop's election as governor in 1698, Saltonstall became the governor's agent, secretary, and political manager. Throughout Winthrop's incumbency, Saltonstall was involved in drafting state papers, adjudicating disputes, and even issuing instructions to the legislature. When Winthrop died in November 1707, Saltonstall seemed to be his logical successor to conservatives who feared Fitch and the disorder he created. Saltonstall was chosen governor at a special session of the General Assembly on December 17, 1707, a decision that was ratified by the freemen the next spring.

Gurdon Saltonstall was the first and only clergyman to hold high office in Connecticut and the first person to attain the governorship who had not gone through the apprenticeship of public service that custom required. His wealth, dignity, patrician ancestry, religious orthodoxy, and, most importantly, his closeness to Winthrop, enabled him to secure the governorship. The new governor quickly persuaded the General Assembly to convene a synod at Saybrook to reform and strengthen ecclesiastical discipline in the colony. The resulting Saybrook Platform of 1708 set the course for Connecticut Congregationalism for years to come. Saltonstall was also interested in the fortunes of the Collegiate School and oversaw its move to New Haven in 1718. The last years of Saltonstall's governorship were plagued by factional disputes over the proper site for the Collegiate School, struggles with supporters of native right over title to lands in eastern Connecticut, disagreements between the Upper and Lower House over judicial appointments, and disputes between the two houses over the method of choosing new magistrates after the death of the old ones. These battles became so fierce that Saltonstall twice threatened to resign his post, but he remained the Connecticut governor until death.

Saltonstall first won renown as a minister and confidant of Fitz-John Winthrop. He succeeded his mentor as governor and played a strong role in the religious, educational, economic, and political evolution of Connecticut in the first quarter of the eighteenth century.

For Further Reading

Poteet, J. M. "The Lordly Prelate: Gurdon Saltonstall Against His Times." The New England Quarterly, 53 (December 1980), 483-507.

* Entry under revision.