Thomas Chittenden

Infobox Governor
name= Thomas Chittenden


caption= Official Vermont State House portrait
order=1^st
office= Governor of Vermont
term_start= 1791
term_end= 1797
lieutenant=Paul Brigham
predecessor= None
successor= Paul Brigham
order2=1^stGovernor of Vermont Republic
term_start2= 1778
term_end2= 1789
lieutenant2= Joseph Marsh
predecessor2= None
successor2= Moses Robinson
order3=3^rdGovernor of Vermont Republic
term_start3= 1790
term_end3= 1791
lieutenant3= Peter Olcott
predecessor3= Moses Robinson
successor3= None
birth_date= birth date|1730|1|6|mf=y
birth_place= East Guilford, Connecticut
death_date= death date and age|1797|8|25|1730|1|6|mf=y
death_place= Vermont
spouse=
profession=
party= None
footnotes=

Thomas Chittenden (January 6, 1730ndash August 25, 1797) was an important figure in the founding of Vermont.

Chittenden was born in East Guilford, Connecticut and moved to Vermont in 1774, where he founded the town of Williston. During the American Revolution, Chittenden was a member of a committee empowered to negotiate with the Continental Congress to allow Vermont to join the Union. The Congress deferred the matter in order to not antagonize the states of New York and New Hampshire, which had competing claims against Vermont. In 1777, a convention was held in Windsor, which drafted Vermont's first constitution, establishing Vermont as an independent republic—the first republic in North America. During the Vermont Republic Chittenden served as governor from 1778 to 1789 and from 1790 to 1791.

After Vermont entered the federal Union in 1791 as the fourteenth state, Chittenden continued to serve as governor until 1797. He died a few weeks after he left office. An engraved portrait of Chittenden can be found just outside the entrance to the Executive Chamber, the cerremonial office of the governor, at the Vermont State House at Montpelier. A bronze sculpture of Chittenden can also be found on the grounds of the Vermont State House near the building's west entrance. Thomas Chittenden was buried at Williston, Vermont. In the 1990s a statue of him was erected in front of the Williston Central School.

Citing Vermont's tumultuous founding, his epitaph reads "Out of storm and manifold perils rose an enduring state, the home of freedom and unity."

Chittenden married Elizabeth Meigs, also of East Guilford, Conn., on the 4th of October, 1749. They had four sons and six daughters, all of whom survived to adulthood. His great-grandson, Lucius E. Chittenden, served as Register of the Treasury in the Lincoln administration.

Books

*Frank Smallwood, "Thomas Chittenden: Vermont's First Statesman", The New England Press : 1997, 304 S., ISBN 1-881535-27-4