Search
  
 
When you've got a lot of people together, it makes sense to pick someone to be in charge. As exploration expanded, individuals were chosen to oversee colonies and settlements. This section highlights those men (and some women), as well as the leaders and attendant ruling class -- nobles, peerage, wannabes and hangers-on --back home.
Status

Last Name
Nationality
Active
Sort
Selected
 
Find:

Cross-listed in Military

Christopher Gadsden

borndied
1724, Feb 161805, Aug 28
the principal leader of the South Carolina Patriot movement during the American Revolution and a soldier and politician from South Carolina. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and a merchant. He was also the designer of the Gadsden flag.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Thomas Gage [2]

bornactivedied
1718/19, Mar 101741-17821787, Apr 2
a British general best known for his many years of service in North America, including his role as military commander in the early days of the American Revolution. Born to an aristocratic family in England, he entered military service, seeing action in the French and Indian War, where he served alongside his future opponent more
Timeline (3)Links (22)


Albert Gallatin

aka: Abraham Gallatin
bornactivedied
1761, Jan 291788-18491849, Aug 12
a Swiss-American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. He was an important leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, serving in various federal elective and appointed positions across four decades. He represented Pennsylvania in the Senate and the House of Representatives before becoming the longest-tenured United States Secretary of the Treasury ...
more
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Luke Gardiner

aka: 1st Viscount Mountjoy
borndied
1745, Feb 71798, Jun 5
an Irish landowner and politician. From 1773 to 1789 he represented Dublin County in the Irish House of Commons. He was appointed to the Irish Privy Council on 29 December 1780 and created Baron Mountjoy on 19 September 1789 and Viscount Mountjoy on 30 September 1795, both in the Peerage of Ireland. Lord Mountjoy was killed in action at the age of 53, leadin...
more
Links (1)


Cross-listed in MilitaryWriters

Giuseppe Garibaldi

bornactivedied
1807, Jul 41833-18791882, Jun 2
an Italian general, politician and nationalist who played a large role in the history of Italy. He is considered, with Camillo Cavour, Victor Emmanuel II and Giuseppe Mazzini, as one of Italy's "fathers of the fatherland". Garibaldi was a central figure in the Italian Risorgimento, since he personally commanded and fought in many military campaigns that led ...
more
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Gaston Duke of Orleans

aka: Duke of Orléans
bornactivedied
1608, April 241626-16601660, Feb 2
the third son of King Henry IV of France and his wife Marie de' Medici. As a son of the king, he was born a Fils de France. He later acquired the title Duke of Orléans, by which he was generally known during his adulthood. As the eldest surviving brother of King Louis XIII, he was known at court by the traditional honorific Monsieur. On two occasions, he ha...
more


Cross-listed in Commerce

Horatio Gates [2]

borndied
1777, Oct 301834, Apr 11
a Canadian businessman, office holder, justice of the peace, and politician. He was the third president of the Bank of Montreal. He served on the Legislative Council of Lower Canada.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in MilitaryLegal

John W. Geary

bornactivedied
1819, Dec 301841-18731873, Feb 8
an American lawyer, politician, Freemason, and a Union general in the American Civil War. He was the final alcalde and first mayor of San Francisco, a governor of the Kansas Territory, and the 16th governor of Pennsylvania. Geary was active in the state militia as a teenager. In December 1846, during the Mexican-American War, he was commissioned in the 2nd P...
more
Timeline (2)Links (11)


George , Duke of Saxony

borndied
1471, Aug 271539, Apr 17
was Duke of Saxony from 1500 to 1539 known for his opposition to the Reformation. While the Ernestine line embraced Lutheranism, the Albertines (headed by George) were reluctant to do so. Despite George's efforts to avoid a succession by a Lutheran upon his death in 1539, he could not prevent it from happening. Under the Act of Settlement of 1499, Lutheran <...
more
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

King George I

aka: Georg Ludwig of Hanover, George Louis
bornactivedied
1596, Aug 191613-16231662, Feb 13
King of Great Britain and Ireland, Supreme Governor of the Church of England from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698. During George's reign, the powers of the monarchy diminished and Britain began a transition to the modern system of cabinet government led b...
more
Timeline (2)Links (1)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

King George II

aka: George Augustus
bornactivedied
1683, Oct 301727-17601760, Oct 25
King of Great Britain and Ireland, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death. As king from 1727, George exercised little control over British domestic policy, which was largely controlled by the Parliament of Great Britain. As elector, he spen...
more
Timeline (4)Links (1)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

King George III

aka: George William Frederick
bornactivedied
1738, Jun 41760-18201820, Jan 29
King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. Also Supreme Governor of the Church of England during that time. His life and reign, which were longer than any other British monarch before him, were marked...
more
Timeline (12)Links (1)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

King George IV

aka: George Augustus Frederick
bornactivedied
1762, Aug 121820-18301830, Jun 26
King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover following the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten years later. Also Supreme Governor of the Church of England during that time. From 1811 until his acces...
more
Links (1)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Commerce

Elbridge Gerry

bornactivedied
1744, Jul 61765-18141814, Nov 23
an American statesman and diplomat. As a Democratic-Republican he was selected as the fifth Vice President of the United States (1813–14), serving under James Madison. He is known best for being the namesake of gerrymandering, a process by which electoral dis...
more
Timeline (2)Links (1)Notes (2)


Cross-listed in ExplorersMilitary

Sir Humphrey Gilbert

borndied
1539 ca1583, Sep 9
Adventurer, explorer, member of parliament, and soldier, he served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth and was a pioneer of the English colonial empire in North America and the Plantations of Ireland. He was a half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh (they had the sam...
more
Timeline (3)Links (2)


James Glen

borndied
17011777, Jul 18
a politician in the Province of South Carolina. He was appointed Royal Governor of South Carolina in 1738, but did not arrive in the province until December 17, 1743. He served as governor until June 1, 1756 and was succeeded by William Henry Lyttelton. On June 21, 1761, Glen returned to Europe and died in London. He is buried in Linlithgow, Scotland.
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Emperor Go-Kashiwabara

aka: Katsuhito, Kashiwabara II
bornactivedied
1464, Nov 191500-15261526, May 19
the 104th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from November 16, 1500, to May 19, 1526. His reign marked the nadir of Imperial authority during the Ashikaga shogunate. In 1500, he became Emperor upon the death of his father, the Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado. However, because of the aftereffects of the Onin War, the Imperi...
more
Links (1)


Emperor Go-Komyo

aka: Tsuguhito, Komyo II
bornactivedied
1633, Apr 201643-16541654, Oct 30
the 110th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Komyo's reign spanned the years from 1643 through 1654. This 17th-century sovereign was named after the 14th-century Nanboku-cho Emperor Komyo and go-, translates as later, and thus, he could be called the "Later Emperor Komyo". The Japanese word go has also been translated to m...
more
Links (1)


Emperor Go-Mizunoo

aka: Kotohito, Masahito, Mizunoo II
bornactivedied
1596, Jun 291611-16291680, Sep 11
the 108th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Mizunoo's reign spanned the years from 1611 through 1629. This 17th-century sovereign was named after the 9th-century Emperor Seiwa and go-, translates as "later", and thus, he could be called the "Later Emperor Mizunoo". The Japanese word go has also been translated to mean the...
more
Links (1)


Emperor Go-Momozono

aka: Hidehito, Momozono II
bornactivedied
1758, Aug 51771-17791779, Dec 16
the 118th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Momozono's reign spanned the years from 1771 through his death in 1779. This 18th-century sovereign was named after his father Emperor Momozono and go-, translates as "later", and thus, he could be called the "Later Emperor Momozono". The Japanese word go has also been translate...
more
Links (3)


Emperor Go-Nara

aka: Tomohito, Nara II
bornactivedied
1495, Jan 261526-15571557, Sep 27
the 105th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from June 9, 1526 until September 27, 1557, during the Sengoku period. Go-Nara was proclaimed emperor upon the death of his father, Emperor Go-Kashiwabara. He began his re...
more
Links (1)


Emperor Go-Sai

aka: Nagahito, Sai II, Go-Saiin, Junna II
bornactivedied
1638, Jan 11655-16631685, Mar 22
the 111th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Sai's reign spanned the years from 1655 through 1663. Nagahito-shinn? became emperor when his emperor-brother died. This death left the throne vacant and the succession (senso) was received by the new monarch. The years of Go-Sai's reign correspond with a period in which Tokugaw...
more
Links (1)


Empress Go-Sakuramachi

aka: Toshiko, Sakuramachi II
bornactivedied
1740, Sep 231762-17711813, Dec 24
the 117th monarch of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Sakuramachi's reign spanned the years from 1762 through 1771. In the history of Japan, Go-Sakuramachi was the last of eight women to take on the role of empress regnant. Princess Toshiko acceded to the throne when Emperor Momozono abdicated in favor of his sister. Momozono's son...
more
Links (1)


Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado

aka: Fusahito, Tsuchimikado II
bornactivedied
1442, Jul 31464-15001500, Oct 21
the 103rd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1464 through 1500. Shortly after his enthronement, the Onin War took place. Temples, shrines, and mansions of court nobles, among others, were burned to the ground. The Imperial Court's finances dried up, and the Court declined. The Emperor supporte...
more
Links (1)


Emperor Go-Yozei

aka: Kazuhito, Katahito, Yozei II
bornactivedied
1571, Dec 311586-16111617, Sep 25
the 107th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Go-Yozei's reign spanned the years from 1586 through 1611, corresponding to the transition between the Azuchi–Momoyama period and the Edo period. Prince Katahito became emperor when his grandfather abdicated. The succession was considered to have been received by the new monarch...
more
Links (1)


Francis Godolphin [1]

aka: 2nd Earl of Godolphin, Viscount Rialton
borndied
1678, Sep 31766, Jan 17
a British nobleman and politician. Francis Godolphin was educated at Eton College, and at King's College, Cambridge, where he took his M.A. degree in 1705. His first public appointment was that of joint registrar of the court of chancery on 29 June 1698, which he held to 20 January 1727, holding also the place of one of the tellers of the exchequer from 1699...
more
Timeline (1)Links (5)


Francis Godolphin [2]

aka: 2nd Baron Godolphin
borndied
1706, Nov 21785, May 25
a British peer and politician. He was appointed Lieutenant-governor of the Scilly Isles from 1739 to 1766 and full Governor from 1766 to his death. He was also recorder for Helston from 1766 to his death. He was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Helston in Cornwall from 1741 to 1766, when he succeeded to the peerage on the death of his c...
more
Links (1)


Sidney Godolphin

aka: 1st Earl of Godolphin
borndied
1645, Jun 151712, Sep 15
a leading British politician of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was a Privy Councillor and Secretary of State for the Northern Department before attaining real power as First Lord of the Treasury. He was instrumental in negotiating and passing the Acts of Union 1707 with Scotland, which created the Kingdom of Great Britain. He had many other roles...
more
Links (1)


William Godolphin

aka: Marquess of Blandford, Viscount Rialton
borndied
17001731, Aug 24
an English nobleman and politician. In 1712 his father succeeded as 2nd Earl of Godolphin (Lord Godolphin had been promoted in 1706). As heir-apparent to the earldom, William assumed the courtesy title Viscount Rialton. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge. On 9 June 1720, Hugh Boscawen, the Member of Parliament for Penryn, was raised to the House ...
more
Links (1)


Boris Godunov

bornactivedied
1551 ca1585-16051605, Apr 13
ruled the Tsardom of Russia as de facto regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. The end of his reign saw Russia descend into the Time of Troubles. Godunov's career began at the court of Ivan the Terrible. He is mentioned in 1570 for taking part in the Serpeisk campaign being an archer of the guard. The following ...
more
Timeline (4)Links (1)


Charles Gonzaga

aka: Duke of Mantua and Montferrat
bornactivedied
1580, May 61600-16371637, Sep 22
Duke of Mantua and Duke of Montferrat from 1627 until his death. He was also Charles III Duke of Nevers and Rethel, as well as Prince of Arches. In 1600, as duke of Rethel, he founded, in Nevers, the Order of the Yellow Ribbon, soon forbidden by the King, due to its peculiar character. In 1606, he decided the foundation of Charleville and the Principality of...
more
Timeline (1)Links (4)


Cross-listed in Educators

Isaac Goodnow

bornactivedied
1814, Jan 171838-18761894, Mar 20
an abolitionist and co-founder of Kansas State University and Manhattan, Kansas. Goodnow was also elected as a Republican to the Kansas House of Representatives and as Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state, and is known as "the father of formal education in Kansas." In 1848 Goodnow accepted a position as professor of natural sciences at the Prov...
more
Timeline (1)Links (5)Notes (1)


Lord George Gordon

borndied
1751, Dec 261793, Nov 1
a British politician best known for lending his name to the Gordon Riots of 1780. A colourful personality, he was born into the Scottish nobility and became a member of parliament for Ludgershall. His life ended after a number of controversies, notably one surrounding his conversion to Judaism for which he was ostracised. He died in Newgate Prison.
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in MilitaryNaval

Ferdinando Gorges

borndied
1565/681647, May 24
a naval and military commander and governor of the important port of Plymouth in England. He was involved in Essex's Rebellion against the Queen, but escaped punishment by testifying against the main conspirators. His early involvement in English trade with and settlement of North America as well as his efforts in founding the Province of Maine in 1622 earne...
more
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Commerce

Nathaniel Gorham

bornactivedied
1738, May 271759-17961796 Jun 11
Starting at 15, Gorham served an apprenticeship with a merchant in New London, Connecticut, after which he opened a merchant house in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1759. He took part in public affairs at the beginning of the American Revolution: he was a member of the Massachusetts General Court (legislature) from 1771 until 1775, a delegate to the Provinci...
more
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Commerce

Horace Greeley

bornactivedied
1811, Feb 31826-18721872, Nov 29
founder and editor of the New-York Tribune, among the great newspapers of its time. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressman from New York, and was the unsuccessful candidate of the new Liberal Republican party in the 1872 presidential election against incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant. Greeley was the new Liberal Republican Party's can...
more
Timeline (2)Links (20)


George Grenville

borndied
1712, Oct 141770, Nov 13
a British Whig statesman who rose to the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain. Grenville was born into an influential political family and first entered Parliament in 1741 as an MP for Buckingham. He emerged as one of Cobham's Cubs, a group of young members of Parliament associated with Lord Cobham.
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Charles Grey

aka: 2nd Earl Grey, Viscount Howick
bornactivedied
1764, Mar 131786-18341845, Jul 17
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from November 1830 to July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he was a long-time leader of multiple reform movements, most famously the Reform Act 1832. His government also saw the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, in which the government purchased slaves from their owners in 1833. Grey was a strong opponent of t...
more
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

Lady Jane Grey

aka: Jane Dudley
bornactivedied
1536/371553-15541554, Feb 12
an English noblewoman and de facto monarch of England and Ireland from 10 July until 19 July 1553. When the 15-year-old king lay dying in June 1553, he nominated Jane as successor to the Crown in his will, thus subverting the claims of his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth under the Third Succession Act. Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London when the Priv...
more
Timeline (4)Links (1)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Legal

Roger Griswold

borndied
1762, May 211812, Oct 25
a nineteenth-century lawyer, politician and judge from Connecticut. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court and the 22nd Governor of Connecticut, serving as a Federalist.
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Physicians

Joseph-Ignace Guillotin

borndied
1738, May 281814, Mar 26
a French physician, politician and freemason who proposed on 10 October 1789 the use of a device to carry out death penalties in France, as a less painful method of execution. While he did not invent the guillotine, and in fact opposed the death penalty, his name became an eponym for it. The actual inventor of the prototype was Antoine Louis.
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

Sunan Gunungjati

aka: Syarif Hidayatullah
bornactivedied
14481479-15681568, Sep 19
one of the Wali Songo, or nine saints of Islam revered in Indonesia. He founded the Sultanate of Banten, as well as the Sultanate of Cirebon on the north coast of Java. There is much historical uncertainty as to his early life and later career in the Indonesian Archipelago. Some say that he was born in Pasai, one of the earliest centres of Islam in Southeas...
more
Links (1)


Gustav I

aka: Gustav Vasa, Gustav I of Sweden
borndied
1496, May 121560, Sep 29
King of Sweden from 1523 until his death in 1560, previously self-recognised Protector of the Realm (Riksföreståndare) from 1521, during the ongoing Swedish War of Liberation against King Christian II of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Initially of low standing, Gustav rose to lead the rebel movement following the Stockholm Bloodbath, in which his father peri...
more
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Gustav II Adolf

aka: Gustavus Adolphus, Gustav II Adolph
borndied
1594, Dec 91632, Nov 6
the King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632 and is credited as the founder of Sweden as a Great Power (Swedish: Stormaktstiden). He led Sweden to military supremacy during the Thirty Years' War, helping to determine the political as well as the religious balance of power in Europe. He was formally and posthumously given the name Gustavus Adolphus the Great (Swedish...
more
Timeline (2)Links (1)


Gustav III

borndied
1746, Jan 131792, Mar 29
King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he saw as the abuse of political privileges seized by the nobility since the death of King Charles XII. Seizing power from the government in a coup d'état in 1772 that ended the Age of Liberty, he initiated a campaign to restore royal autocracy which was completed...
more
Timeline (2)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Guyasuta

borndied
1725 ca1794 ca
an important Native American leader of the Seneca people in the second half of the eighteenth century, playing a central role in the diplomacy and warfare of that era. At young age, he and his family migrated along the Allegheny River and finally settled in Logstown, an Iroquois village in Pennsylvania. The paternal half of his ancestry were decorated warrio...
more
Links (1)


Button Gwinnett

bornactivedied
17351765-17771777, May 19
a British-born American founding father who, as a representative of Georgia to the Continental Congress, was one of the signatories (first signature on the left) on the United States Declaration of Independence. He was also, briefly, the provisional president of Georgia in 1777, and Gwinnett County (now a major suburb of metropolitan Atlanta) was named for h...
more
Timeline (1)Links (16)Notes (1)

Colonial Sense is an advocate for global consumer privacy rights, protection and security.
All material on this website © copyright 2009-24 by Colonial Sense, except where otherwise indicated.
ref:T5-S50-P1110-C-M