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Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon

Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon (28 November 1661 – 31 March 1723) was Governor of New Jersey from 1701 to 1708, preceding John Lovelace, 4th Baron Lovelace, and Governor of New York from 1702 to 1708, succeeding John Nanfan and preceding Lovelace. Styled Viscount Cornbury between 1674 and 1709, he was a known cross-dresser.

Biography[]

Edward Hyde was born in England in 1661, and he became Viscount Cornbury in 1674. He served under John Churchill in the suppression of the Duke of Monmouth's uprising in 1685, but Cornbury and his dragoons would go over to William of Orange's side during the Glorious Revolution. Cornbury angered the new King William by suggesting that his cousin Queen Anne should be second-in-line to the throne, and Cornbury fell into disgrace. However, in 1701, he was appointed Governor of New Jersey, followed by an appointment as Governor of New York a year later. His primary mission was to protect the Thirteen Colonies from France during the War of the Spanish Succession, and he successfully thwarted French incursions into the middle colonies. However, he soon became mired in the region's many factional conflicts, and, amidst a wave of war weariness, Cornbury was recalled in 1708. Out of favor after King George I of Great Britain was crowned in 1713, Cornbury died in London in 1723.

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