RUGGLES, Timothy, American lawyer, politician and loyalist: b. Rochester, Mass., 20 Oct. 1711; d. Wilmot, Nova Scotia, 4 Aug 1795. He was graduated from Harvard in 1732, represented Rochester in the General Court in 1736, opened a law office at Sandwich, Barnstable County, and was connected with many cases of local importance in Plymouth, Bristol and Barnstable counties. Subsequently he removed to Hardwick. In 1755 he was second in command to Sir. William Johnson at the battle of Lake George, in 1756. was made judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Wor cester County, and represented Hardwick in the General Court. In 1762-63 he was speaker of the house, and from 1762 until the Revolution chief justice of the Cenrt Of Common Pleas in Worcester County. He served with distinc tion in 1759-60 in the expeditions against Quebec and Montreal, and in recognition 'received the sinecure post of surveyor-general of the king's forests. He was a delegate in 1765 to the
Stamp Act congress at New York and was elected its president. Upon his refusal to for ward to Great Britain the addresses and peti tions passed by the congress, he was repri manded by the General Court. From that time he was identified with the royalist cause. In 1774 he was made mandamus councillor, and in consequence was forced for safety to flee from Hardwick to Boston, then garrisoned by the British. He made some efforts to recruit a loyalist corps, and in 1779, on the departure of the British troops, went with them to Nova Scotia, where he became a proprietor of the town of Digby. He was a scholar and wit and an excellent, though aggressive, plc, T. Con sult Washburn, Fmorv, 'Sket, of the Judicial History of Massachusetts from 1630 to the Revolution in 1775' (Boston 1840).