Ruggles, Timothy

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- Timothy Dwight Ruggles (October 20, 1711 – August 4, 1795) was an American colonial military leader, jurist, and politician. He was a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765 and later a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War.
- Ruggles was born on October 20, 1711, to Rev. Timothy Ruggles. He was grandson of Capt. Samuel Ruggles of Roxbury and Martha Woodbridge, who was a granddaughter of Governor Thomas Dudley.
- He graduated from Harvard in 1732; studied law, and established himself in practice in Rochester. In 1735, he married Mrs. Bathsheba Newcomb, widow of William Newcomb and the daughter of the Hon. Melatiah Bourne of Sandwich, Massachusetts. He was a military officer during the French and Indian War, rising to the rank of brigadier general in 1758.
- He served multiple terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and was its speaker from 1762 to 1764. He participated in the October 1765 Stamp Act Congress as a representative of the Massachusetts General Court and was elected its president. Called to devise a common colonial response to the Parliament’s 1765 Stamp Act, Ruggles refused to sign both the Declaration of Rights and Grievances sent by the Congress to King George III and the accompanying petitions sent to both Houses of Parliament. That made him become publicly censured by the General Court.
- From the outset of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, he stood with the Loyalists, left Boston soon thereafter for Nova Scotia with the British troops, and accompanied Lord Howe to Staten Island. His estates were confiscated, and he was named in the Massachusetts Banishment Act. In 1779, he received a grant of 10,000 acres (40 km²) of land in Wilmot, Nova Scotia, where he settled.
United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7192
Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/114169287/timothy-dwight-ruggles