Hereditary Orders: Descendants of Colonial Governors and Officials

Hereditary orders tracing descent from colonial governors and officials occupy a specific, tightly defined corner of American lineage society culture. These organizations require documented ancestry from individuals who held formal governmental authority in one of the original British colonies before 1776 — a qualification that narrows the eligible pool considerably and makes the research process both demanding and genuinely fascinating. The stakes are partly historical, partly social, and entirely genealogical.

Definition and scope

A colonial governor was a Crown-appointed or proprietory-charter executive who administered a British colonial territory in North America. The governors of Virginia, Massachusetts Bay, New York, Pennsylvania, and the other 9 original colonial jurisdictions carried formal titles and left documentary traces — colonial assembly records, land grants, correspondence in the British Public Record Office — that make them traceable across centuries in ways that ordinary colonists sometimes are not.

The most prominent organization in this niche is the Hereditary Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors, founded in 1896. Its membership criteria require a direct lineal descent — parent to child, not collateral — from a governor who served any recognized British colonial government on the North American mainland or in the Caribbean territories administered from that mainland. The scope extends beyond the 13 colonies that became states: governors of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and other British Atlantic territories are qualifying ancestors for this organization.

"Colonial official" as a category is broader than governor and varies by organization. Deputy governors, lieutenant governors, members of colonial councils, colonial attorneys general, and admiralty judges have all been recognized as qualifying ancestors by at least one hereditary order. The Colonial Dames of America, for example, accepts descent from a range of colonial-era officials, not exclusively chief executives. This is where the distinction between organizations becomes practically important — the same ancestor may qualify a person for membership in one society but not another.

How it works

Qualifying for one of these orders requires building what genealogists call a complete and unbroken lineage — every generation documented, every link between parent and child supported by a primary source. Vital records, church registers, probate records, and land deeds carry the most weight. The process is described in detail at lineage society documentation requirements, but the colonial-official tier adds one specific challenge: the qualifying ancestor lived before American civil registration existed.

The typical application packet for a colonial governor society includes:

  1. A pedigree chart showing the complete generational path from the applicant to the colonial official ancestor
  2. Birth, marriage, and death documentation for every generation in that path
  3. A biography of the qualifying ancestor, citing the historical record that confirms the official position held
  4. Supporting references from published genealogies, colonial records, or referenced historical sources

Applications are reviewed by a credentialed genealogist appointed by the society. The review process at the Hereditary Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors typically takes 6 to 12 months, according to the organization's published membership guidelines.

Common scenarios

Three situations come up repeatedly among applicants researching this category.

The governor is well-documented but the connecting generations are not. Governors like William Bradford of Plymouth Colony and John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay have been extensively researched by professional historians. The governor himself is easy to prove. The problem is almost always in the 4th through 7th generations after the governor — colonial New England families with common surnames, minimal surviving vital records, and multiple individuals sharing the same name in the same county.

The qualifying ancestor served in a lesser official capacity. A colonial council seat or a position as colonial secretary may qualify an applicant for one organization but not another. Mapping the ancestor's exact title and dates of service against each society's specific eligibility rules — which are published in their bylaws and member handbooks — is a necessary early step, not an afterthought.

The lineage passes through a female line. Colonial records frequently documented women less completely than men. A descent line that passes through a great-great-grandmother in the 1700s may require assembling evidence from multiple indirect sources: her husband's estate inventory, church baptism records for her children, and county deed records identifying family relationships. DNA evidence has become a supplemental tool in these cases, though no hereditary order currently accepts genetic evidence as a substitute for documentary proof of parentage.

Decision boundaries

Not every colonial-era official qualifies as an ancestor for these organizations, and the distinctions matter.

Qualifying (generally) Not qualifying (generally)
Royal-appointed or charter governors Local magistrates and justices of the peace
Lieutenant governors with executive authority County sheriffs and constables
Members of the Governor's Council (upper chamber) Town selectmen and aldermen
Colonial attorneys general and judges of superior courts Militia officers below general rank

The line separating colonial-official societies from Revolutionary War lineage societies is chronological and functional: the ancestor must have held the qualifying position during the colonial period, generally defined as ending with the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775 or 1776. An ancestor who served as a colonial governor in 1765 and later signed a Declaration of Loyalty to the Crown in 1777 does not thereby lose qualifying status for colonial societies — the colonial service stands independently.

For applicants assessing whether their ancestry intersects with the broader landscape of colonial lineage societies, the first practical step is identifying the ancestor's exact title and dates of service, then mapping that against the specific membership rules of each relevant organization. The lineage society membership eligibility requirements page provides a comparative framework across society types, and the full scope of American hereditary organizations is covered at the main reference index.

References