Thomas Rudyard

Thomas Rudyard (1640 – buried 2 November 1692) was a Quaker lawyer in London before moving to America and being appointed deputy governor of East Jersey and the first Attorney General of the English Province of New York, the predecessor position to the Attorney General of New York State and the successor position to an analogous office under the Dutch colonial government of New Netherlands. Biography Born at Abbey Farm, Rudyard, Staffordshire, he was one of many proprietors of New Jersey, owning half of a share of West Jersey property. Later a resident of Lombard Street, London, in the early 1680s he was a very active member of the British Quakers' Meeting for Sufferings which met quarterly in London to monitor the persecution of Quakers around Britain, and provide support to them and their families. He was also Penn's solicitor and worked closely with Penn in drawing up the first Frame of Government of Pennsylvania. He was appointed Deputy Governor of East New Jersey, as well as Secretary and Chief Register, from November 1682 until February 1684, when he removed to Pennsylvania. As Governor Robert Barclay was an absentee official who never actually visited East New Jersey, Rudyard was the de facto governor. It was during Rudyard's tenure that the four counties of Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth were established.