PHIPS or PHIPPS, SIR WILLIAM colo nial governor of Massachusetts, was born on Feb. 2, 1651, at Woolwich, Me., near the mouth of the Kennebec river. He was a shepherd until he was 18 and then a ship carpenter's apprentice for four years; worked at his trade in Boston for a year, at this time learning to read and write. In 1687, with a commission from the British Crown, he found, after a search of many years, a wrecked Spanish treasure ship of which he had heard on a voyage to the Bahamas. From it he recovered £300,000, of which he re ceived .L16,000 as his share, was knighted by James II., and was appointed sheriff of New England. Poorly educated and ignorant of law, Phips could accomplish little, and returned to England. In 1689 he returned to Massachusetts, and at once entered into the life of the colony. He was soon appointed commander of an expedition against the French in Canada, which sailed in April, 169o, and easily captured Port Royal. A much larger expedition led by Phips in July against Quebec and Montreal ended disas trously. In the winter of 1690 he returned to England, and urged, with Increase Mather, the colonial agent, a restoration of the colony's charter, annulled during the reign of Charles II. The
Crown, at the suggestion of Mather, appointed him the first royal governor under the new charter. On reaching Boston in May, 1692, Phips found the colony in a very disordered condition, and though honest and persevering, he was unfitted for the difficult position. In defending the frontier he displayed great energy, but his policy of building forts was expensive and therefore un popular. Numerous complaints to the home govern.nent resulted in his being summoned to England to answer charges. While in London awaiting trial, he died on Feb. 18, 1695.
See Cotton Mather's Life of His Excellency Sir William Phips (1697; republished in his Magnolia in 1702) ; Francis Bowen's "Life of Sir William Phips," in Jared Sparks's American Biography, 1st series, vol. vii. (i856) ; William Goold's "Sir William Phips," in Collections of the Maine Historical Society, series 1, vol. ix. (Portland, 1887) ; Ernest Myrand's Sir William Phipps devant Quebec (Quebec, 1893) ; Thomas Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts (Boston; 3rd ed. 1795) ; and J. G. Palfrey's History of New England (1858-9o).