Thomas Fitch

Born: Norwalk; c. 1696
Died: Norwalk; July 18, 1774

Entry by Bruce P. Stark

Thomas Fitch, governor from 1754 to 1766, was graduated from Yale College in 1721. A lawyer by profession, he was first elected to the General Assembly in May 1726. He was first placed in nomination for the Council in 1730 and polled over 1,700 votes for deputy-governor in 1733. Fitch was elected an assistant in 1734 but lost his seat two years later. He regained his position on the Council in 1740 but only because he was party to an election plan to change the makeup of the government. Fitch secured the votes of eastern Connecticut paper money advocates in return for his support in May 1740 of new paper money emissions. Considered the finest lawyer of his era, Fitch served the colony in the Mohegan land case; was commissioner in the Massachusetts boundary dispute; and was primarily responsible for revising the law code, a task completed in 1749. Upon the death of Governor Jonathan Law (1674-1750) in November 1750, Deputy-Governor Roger Wolcott (1679-1767) became governor, and Fitch was chosen deputy-governor at a special session of the General Assembly. Connecticut freemen reelected him to that post for the next three years, and in 1754 with suspicions rising over Governor Wolcott's handling of the Spanish ship case, Fitch was elected governor, becoming the second man in Connecticut history to defeat an incumbent governor for reelection.

Fitch served as governor for twelve years, but his incumbency was marked by controversy. He came to epitomize Connecticut conservatism, as he strongly supported the Old Light religious establishment; condemned territorial expansion associated with the Susquehannah Company; and finally, became identified as a supporter of the British crown. At the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the British government proposed to tax the American Colonies, and the Connecticut General Assembly requested that Fitch and others draw up objections to parliamentary taxation. The resulting work, Reasons why the British Colonies in America, Should Not be Charged with Internal Taxes, by Authority of Parliament: Humbly offered for Consideration in Behalf of the Colony of Connecticut, published in 1764, provided cogent constitutional, economic, and historical arguments against the proposed stamp tax. Nevertheless, once the Stamp Act was passed in 1765, Fitch believed that he was obliged to submit to parliamentary authority and with four assistants took the required oath to uphold the law. This act of conscience and necessity led to the ouster of Fitch and his allies in the famous Stamp Act election of 1766. Except for serving one term in the legislature in October 1772, Fitch never again held public office. He was, however, the gubernatorial candidate of the Old Party in every election between 1767 and 1774.

Thomas Fitch served Connecticut long and well, but his stubborn adherence to increasingly unpopular views held by the Old Lights led to his political downfall.

For Further Reading

"The Fitch Papers," Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society. Vols. XVII-XVIII. Hartford, 1918, 1920. See pp. xxxvii-xlix in vol. XVII.

Zeichner, Oscar. Connecticut's Years of Controversy, 1750-1776. Hamden, Connecticut, 1970. See chapters 2 and 3.

* Entry under revision.