Robert Treat Governor

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ⁶⁰⁰
Robert Treat was about eighteen years old when he moved from Wehterfield to Milford as one of the early settlers when it was first settled in 1639. He may have moved along with others who followed Rev. Prudden, although Robert does not show up in church records until his marriage in 1649.

Robert was not initially granted land in Milford, but lived with his father-in-law, Edmund Trap. He did end up owing a good deal of land in the area. Through out his years in Milford he received grants of land from city. In 1659, he was granted shares in public land for his children.

Some of the settlers from Milford and New Haven were unhappy with the government of Connecticut, and, in 1666, they sent Robert Treat and a few others to investigate land in New Jersey and make preparations of found anew town in the area. They selected what was to become Newark. Robert lived there between 1667 and 1672, but later returned to Milford. Two of his children, John and Mary, stayed in Newark and had families there.

During Robert's life, he was called upon to negotiate when there were conflicts between people or settlements. He served in many offices in both Connecticut and New Jersey. As magistrate he performed many marriage ceremonies for those who preferred not to be married in the church. He was often in charge of maintaining troops for defense. He was the commander-in-chief of the Connecticut forces during King Phillip's War.

At the end of King Phillip's War, Robert was elected to be the Deputy Governor of Connecticut, after the death on Governor Wintrhop. The previous Deputy Governor, William Leete took Winthop's place as governor, and upon Leete's death, Apr 1683, Robert Treat became the Governor of Connecticut.

Throughout Robert's term as governor, he battled with both Massachusetts and New York, because each of the Colonial Governors claimed Connecticut as part of their colonies. King James had ordered that all of the New England Colonies joined into one under the rule of Massachusetts's governor Edward Andros, a prospect that Treat felt threatened the liberty of Connecticut and its people. Governor Treat flatly refused to relinquish Connecticut's colonial charter or Connecticut to anyone.

He spent the later years of his life in Milford. He died on 12 Jul 1710, at the age of eighty-six or eighty-eight. He was buried in the cemetery of Milford. The inscription on his tombstone is:
Center Here Lyeth Interred The
Body of Coll. Robert
Treat Esq, Who Faithfully
Served This Colony In The
Post of Governor Near
Ye Space of Thirty Years
And Att Ye Age of Fovt
Score and Eighty Years
Exchanged This Life
For A Better, Jvly 12^th
Anno dom: 1710
/CENTER

The inventory from probate records showed that his estate was worth six hundred Twenty pounds, two hundred two pounds of that was in real estate. Within his will, he stated that he had given land to children already, and he left the rest to his children and grandchildren. His will was dated 5 Jan 1707.

~The Treat Family, pages 130 - 163

Robert married Jane Tapp, daughter of Edmund Tapp and Unknown, in Milford, Connecticut. (Jane Tapp died in Oct 1703 in Milford, Connecticut ⁶⁰⁰.)