TRYON, WILLIAM (c.1725-88). A British colonial Governor, born in Ireland. He secured a commission as captain in the British Army in 1751. and became lieutenant-colonel in 1758. Through his marriage to Miss Wake, a rel ative of the Earl of Hillsborough. First Com missioner of Trade and Plantations, he was ap pointed Lieutenant-Governor of North Carolina June 27, 1764, and succeeded to the Governor ship July 20, 1765, after the death of Arthur Dobbs. Ile succeeded through the tact of his wife in securing £15,000 to build a Governor's house at New•hern, pronounced the handsomest building in the Americas. The heavy taxation required for this and the Cherokee expedition was one of the causes of the insurrection of the Regulators (q.v.), which he suppressed with severity. In July, 1771, he was transferred to New• York, where he greatly strengthened the militia. In 1773 the Government house, at Fort George, near New York City. was burned,
and Tryon and his wife barely escaped with their lives. He made a large grant of land to King's College (Columbia). and he himself specu lated in Western lands. He visited England in 1774. and on his return in June, 1775, found the colony in rebellion. In October he took refuge on shipboard and remained in the harbor until Howe's entry in September, 1776. Tn 1777 he took active command of some loyalist troops, and in June, 1778, gave up civil for military duties entirely, and was promoted 'major-general in America.' In 1779 he made an expedition into Connecticut. where he burned Danbury. During the winter of 1779-80 lie was in command of the New York district, but returned to England in 17S0, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in November, 17S2.