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Meet (Sir) Francis Bernard Esq. – New Jersey’s Royal Governor

Our curiosity started with a round table discussion: who is Francis Bernard and should there be a statue to recognize his service to New Jersey? Read the story and tell us what you think at the end.
New Jersey's Governor Francis Bernard 1758-1760 - Mr. Local History
New Jersey’s Royal Governor Francis Bernard 1758-1760 – Mr. Local History

It is almost as though the Francis Bernard who governed Massachusetts shortly before the Revolution and the well-liked Bernard who led New Jersey during the French and Indian War were different men. Bernard had arrived in New Jersey at the age of forty-five and had waged vigorous war on the French and made peace with the Delaware native Americans.

Bernard witnessed the rapid dissipation of happy sentiment stemming from Anglo-American victory in the French and Indian War and the first stirrings of colonial radicalism. The writs of assistance case, the Stamp Act riots, and the ensuing boycotts of British manufactures all happened on his watch. In American history, Francis Bernard is usually described as the unpopular royal governor of pre-revolutionary Massachusetts, but in New Jersey he should be remembered as a skillful, energetic, successful and well-liked executive who man-aged the colony’s part in prosecuting the war with the French. He also maintained a happy relationship with the legislature despite potential conflict over money issues, and he avoided partisanship and entanglement in local politics. Perhaps most important of all, he was the only governor of New Jersey in nearly three centuries to show much concern for the relationship between native North Americans and Euro-Americans.

Source: Harvard University 1885 Documents Relating to the Colonial, Revolutionary and Post-revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey
Volume 9

In New Jersey, as Royal Governor Bernard took decisive military measures to improve the Minisink defenses, but he understood that the best defense against frontier raids was a peace founded on an informed Indian policy that sought to resolve disputes. Other, larger forces made his pro-gram more successful than it might have been in isolation, but it is worth noting that after his departure the Indians of New Jersey were again forgotten. 

Francis Bernard’s Journey – Royal Governor of New Jersey and Massachusetts

The principal biographical details of Francis Bernard’s life are reasonably familiar to historians of the American Revolution. Bernard was the son of an Anglican rector, Rev. Francis Bernard, but both his natural parents died while he was still a child. He was raised largely by his mother’s second husband, a scholarly cleric, and a maternal aunt. He was his educated at England’s oldest public school, Westminster, before entering Christ Church College, Oxford. After training at the Inns of Court, he married into an aristocratic Presbyterian family. A lawyer by profession, Bernard left the town of Lincoln in the East Midlands in 1758, at age forty-six, to become governor of New Jersey; within eighteen months, he was promoted to the governorship of Massachusetts.

As the Historian for Bernards Township, New Jersey formerly known as Bernardston, in honor of Francis Bernard, Esq., I’ve summarized and interpreted the life of Francis Bernard.

  • You were born in Brightwell, England, christened on July 12, 1712.
  • You’re the son of Reverend Francis and Margery (Winlowe) Bernard. Bernard, Francis was born in July 1712 in Nettleham, England.
  • You graduated from Christ Church, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England and passed the Bar in 1737. Scholar Saint Peter’s College, Westminster, 1725. Graduate Oxford (England) University, 1736, Doctor of Civil Law (honorary), 1772.
  • In 1741 you marry Amelia Offley whose family helps your consideration for a job as governor in the colonies. You had 10 children, six sons and four daughters.
  • You are approved as the Royal Governor of New Jersey on January 27, 1758. Your journey starts in April 1758 and you arrived in Perth Amboy with your wife and 4 children on June 14, 1758 (6 to 10 week voyage). You were 45 years old.
  • You landed at Perth Amboy on Wednesday, June 14th, 1758, from “His Majesty’s ship the Terrible “-on board of which he had come as passenger, having with him his wife and family; and as the papers of the day furnish a more particular account of his reception in the province than is given of that of any of his predecessors, it may be well to portray the form and ceremony that in those days ” did hedge about a Governor.”
MLH also wanted to find out where the Bernards lived while in New Jersey. Our research indicates Perth Amboy as two of the Bernard’s children were born in Perth Amboy. MLH has reached out to a number of scholars and researchers to verify. From the book The Bernards of Abington by Sophia Elizabeth Higgins
Perth Amboy map c1776 and today.
John Kerry Dyke, Perth Amboy Historian
  • You described your residence as a “War office” in Perth Amboy, province of Nova-Caesarea (New Jersey).
  • You were sent to NJ for a purpose. Deal with the Indians and settle the province. You are credited with securing the peace with the Unami  and Lenape Indians and the settlement for Indian claims in the Treaty of Easton (PA) in 1758. Fourteen tribes attended and accepted the Treaty of Easton. At the conclusion they would “bury a hatchet” signifying the token of lasting peace between the settlers and the Indians.
  • You secure over 3,000 acres for the “aborigines” (Minisink natives) and settle a town called Brotherton for them, building 10 houses for the new inhabitants.
  • You secure the Charter of Bernardston, authorized and signed by King George II formally recognizes Bernardston, New Jersey on May 24, 1760 while you’re preparing to leave to take on a new governors job in Massachusetts:
    • “…a perpetual township and community in word and in deed to be called none but the Township of Bernardston…,to choose annually a constable, overseers of the poor and overseers of the highways for the Township…Witness our trusty and well beloved Francis Bernard, Esq., our captain general and governor in chief of our said province of New Jersey…”
  • Your success as Governor of New Jersey earns you the governorship of Massachusetts (August 2,1760) and you treated it as a promotion.
  • Addressing the Assembly for the last time in March of that year, he said:” I do assure you that I shall leave this province with regret. Your good disposition towards his Majesty’s government, and your kind acceptance of my services, had given me the fairest prospect of an easy and creditable administration. I had flattered myself that I might have done lasting service to this province, in assisting to compose the differences that still prevail in it, to remove the few fears and jealousies, if any, that now remain, to rectify the little errors in policy which have inadvertently crept into the administration, and above all, to establish a perfect harmony in the general government, upon the surest foundation, an exact balance of the several political powers which compose it.” There can be no doubt of the advantage New Jersey would have derived from a longer continuance of Mr. Bernard as Governor, and the Assembly in their answer appear to have been aware of his merits:” Your Excellency’s leaving this government (say they), we esteem as a public loss, having in our minds anticipated the happiness we had the greatest probability of enjoying under your administration. Your knowledge in the profession you exercised antecedent to his Majesty’s appointment of you to preside here, flattered us with hopes of a speedy and equitable decision in the only litigation of consequence which exists in the colony [an allusion to the land question, involving the titles and rights of the Proprietors], and your general conduct, will remain gratefully impressed on the minds of the people, who will ever consider themselves in a manner interested in your future ease and happiness.”
  • Given his short time in Jersey, he was sent to Massachusetts as there seemed to be a stronger need there. You move into “The Province House” in Boston.
  • Thomas Boone would be your replacement as Royal Governor of New Jersey. Though he assured his patron that you would leave New Jersey “with regret” and praised “the pleasantness” of Perth Amboy, you complained that it was “wholly secluded from refined conversation & the amusements that arise from letters arts & sciences,” and so we know you look forward to moving to Boston.

Bernard’s New Jersey Accomplishment – The Treaty of Easton

Like other governors, much of Bernard’s time was taken up with the difficult problem of persuading the New Jersey assembly to part with resources needed to keep Britain’s war effort afloat. Bernard’s first major success was to assist in negotiating a peace treaty with the Delaware Indians and other disaffected tribes.

Treaty of Easton in October 1758 – Known as possibly Governor Bernard’s greatest accomplishment as Royal Governor in New Jersey, honoring the Native Americans and ensuring the safety of colonial settlers in New Jersey.,

The Charter of Bernardston, New Jersey – May 24, 1760

A charter is a document that gives colonies the legal rights to exist. Charters can bestow certain rights on a town, city, university, or other institution. Colonial charters were approved when the king gave a grant of exclusive powers for the governance of land to proprietors or a settlement company. The charters defined the relationship of the colony to the mother country as free from involvement from the Crown.

For New Jersey, on June 24, 1664, James, Duke of York, granted Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, ownership of a swath of land between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. The charter referred to these lands as “New Jersey” in honor of Carteret’s defense of the English Channel island of Jersey during the English Civil War.

The Charter of Bernardston, New Jersey which was approved May 24, 1760 is Bernard’s greatest gift to Bernards Township recognizing alongside Bridgewater and Bedminster’s royal charters recognizing formal boundaries, representation, and designation from King George II to the citizens of these areas. Today there are two days that represent this event: Charter Day Street Festival and Bernards Township Day – A Day of Community Service and Pride.

Click Here to read our story about the Charter of Bernardston, New Jersey and how this document was actually a template recreated each time a Charter was established.

Thanksgiving Proclamation – Thank You Governor Bernard

On a positive note for those from Massachusetts, on November 6, 1766, you approved the Proclamation authorizing November 27, 1766 for a “General Day of pubic Thanksgiving” where no labor would be done in Massachusetts.  Modern Thanksgiving was proclaimed for all states in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln.

Troubling Times

In October 1760 – King George II dies. George III became king of Great Britain and Ireland in 1760 at the age of 22, following his grandfather George II’s death. This would prove difficult for your reign as governor.

  • In 1762, you have a stroke that hurts and limits your effectiveness for the rest of your life.
  • There is “most perfect harmony” in Massachusetts when you arrive, but having to enforce unpopular British taxes soon makes you a hated figure.
  • You’re between a rock and a hard place – get Britain what they needed, but represent the colonists and the colonists feel less represented every year you serve as Governor in MA.
  • Your political opinions in Massachusetts make you a very unpopular Governor.
  • You become a public adversary of James Otis Jr, Samuel Adams and his cousin John Adams.
  • You are accused of being an alarmist to the crown;  over zealous on the need for British troops in MA until the Earl of Hillsborough listens and sends troops from Canada to Boston. Think this was the beginning of the end of your reign in MA.
  • After asking for troops to be sent to Boston to help suppress the riots, things go from bad to worse.
  • You are labeled a “Friend of the Crown” and “a politician that couldn’t be trusted” with the positions of the colonialists, there were efforts to impeach and remove you as the Governor of MA.
  • On a positive note, on November 6, 1766, you approve a Proclamation authorizing November 27, 1766 as a “General Day of pubic Thanksgiving” where no labor would be done in Massachusetts.  Modern Thanksgiving was later proclaimed for all states in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln.
  • After your six letters to to the Earl of Hillsborough go public, soon after you are removed from service. On June 27, 1769 the 109 members of the House unanimously voted to send a petition to the King requesting your dismissal from office. Parliament passes the governorship to Thomas Hutchinson.

On Monday, 31 July, 1769 the next week’s Boston Evening-Post reported, Gov. Bernard “left his Seat at Roxbury and went to Castle William. The next Morning about Nine o’Clock he embarked on board His Majesty’s Ship Rippon, then lying in King-Road.” That route allowed him to depart without traveling through Boston. After Bernard sailed back to England in 1769, one Boston newspaper wrote that he “for nine years past has been a Scourge of this Province, a Curse to North America, and a Plague to the whole Empire.” The article added that if the captain of his ship, “on the rising of the first Storm,” should “throw the Baronet overboard [as a sacrifice] for fair Weather, and he find his way into a Whale’s Belly, it is hoped he will not be called out, dead or alive….”

Boston Evening Post
  • August 1, 1769 is your last day as Royal Governor of Massachusetts. At the age of 57 you return to England, where you were knighted by the monarchy with the title of “Baronet.” Sir is used to address a man who has the rank of baronet or knight; the higher nobles are referred to as Lord.
  • You spend your remaining days in England as an advisor to King George III.
  • In late 1771, three years after leaving Massachusetts, the manor The Nether Winchendon House was bequeathed to you on the death of your cousin.
  • In the colonies, dissent turns to aggression and the revolutionary war commences.
  • Loyalist to King George III and the British crown, you die a Whig on June 16, 1779 in Aylesbury, England (about 45 miles northwest of London) of an epilithic seizure at Nether Winchendon House.

Petition for a Statue of Francis Bernard in New Jersey

An artist rendering of what Bernards Township might look like if it had the first ever statue of Francis Bernard.

Now that you’ve read the history of Francis Bernard, do you think he deserves a statue for his service to New Jersey?

Click to Sign the Petition if you agree Sir Francis Bernard deserves to be honored in New Jersey.

Additional Research

Francis Bernard was the apotheosis of British colonialism and an implacable arch-enemy of the American struggle for self- government. Bernard’s adversaries included some of the Revolution’s most venerated leaders, such as Otis’s friend Samuel Adams, the most influential of Boston’s popular politicians, and Samuel’s cousin John, a promising lawyer and future U.S. president.

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