Fitch, Thomas, c.1700–1774, colonial governor of Connecticut, b. Norwalk, Conn. A lawyer, Fitch was an assistant in the colony (1734–35, 1740–50). The assembly elected him deputy governor in 1750, and for the next three years he was returned to that office by the qualified voters. Elected governor in 1754, he remained chief executive until 1766, when he was turned out by the Whigs. Although he had been the chief author of the colony's protest against the Stamp Act, he felt duty-bound to take the oath of office required of governors by the act and was, as a result, consistently defeated for reelection thereafter.
See A. C. Bates, ed., The Fitch Papers (2 vol., 1918–20).
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