Nathaniel Blakiston

Nathaniel Blakiston (* around 1663 in England , † late February 1722 in England) was an English colonial governor of the Province of Maryland and a member of the House of Commons .

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Nathaniel Blakiston was a grandson of John Blakiston (1603–1650), who was a member of the House of Commons in London. His father, John Blakiston (1633-1702), was a brother of Nehemiah Blakiston , who was acting colonial governor of Maryland in 1691 and 1692. Nathaniel became an officer in the English army and was temporarily stationed in the West Indies . From 1689 to 1695 he was governor of the island of Montserrat . In 1698 he was named the new English governor of the Province of Maryland. He held this office as the successor to Francis Nicholson between 1699 and 1702. During this time, in addition to the religious tensions in the colony between Protestants and Catholics, he primarily had to deal with the nuisance of piracy. He succeeded in catching some pirates and their allies and bringing them to justice. For health reasons he gave up his governorship in 1702. In the following years he worked in London as a trading agent for Maryland and from 1706 for the colony of Virginia. In 1715 he ran for the House of Commons in London, of which he was a member until his death in 1722. He belonged to the Whigs' party , represented the Mitchell constituency, and always voted loyally to his faction in parliament.

Web links

• Nathaniel Blakiston in the Archives of Maryland
• Blakiston in The History of Parliament