Edward Randolph

Edward Randolph (1632 – April 1703) was an English colonial administrator, best known for his role in effecting significant changes in the structure of England's North American colonies in the later years of the 17th century. Life He was born in Canterbury, the son of Edmund Randolph M.D. and his wife Deborah Master. The merchant Bernard Randolph was his younger brother. He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1650, and matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1651. It is not recorded that he was called to the bar, or received a degree. In 1676 Randolph was the bearer of a royal letter to the governor and council of Massachusetts to resolve claims of Robert Tufton Mason, grandson of John Mason, and the heirs of Ferdinando Gorges, in the provinces of New Hampshire and Maine. Earning Randolph the reputation of "evil genius of New England and her angel of death", his reports to the Lords of Trade (predecessors to the 18th century Board of Trade) convinced King Charles II to revoke the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1684, and he was a leading figure in the unpopular Dominion of New England. Randolph served as secretary of the dominion. While in that position, he argued for tighter Crown control over proprietary and charter colonies whose administrations lacked such oversight, and he was often given the difficult task of enforcing England's Navigation Acts in whichever colony he was posted to, often against significant local popular and political resistance. His actions were a significant contribution to the development of Great Britain's colonial administrative infrastructure, but he remained unpopular in the dominion. During the 1689 Boston revolt, which deposed Edmund Andros and overthrew the dominion, he was jailed.