William Blathwayt

William Blathwayt (or Blathwayte) (1649 – 1717) was a civil servant and politician who established the War Office as a department of the British Government and played an important part in administering the English (later British) colonies of North America.

Life

Born in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, Blathwayt was born to a well-to-do family of Protestant merchants and lawyers. His father, William Blathwayt senior, was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford and attended the Middle Temple. William junior followed the same route, enrolling at the Middle Temple in 1665. He joined the diplomatic service in 1668 when his uncle Thomas Povey, an influential London lawyer, found him a post at the English embassy in The Hague.

Returning to London in the early 1670s, Blathwayt became an Clerk of the Privy Council in Extraordinary. He was considered "as a very fit person" to be assistant to the secretary of the council, becoming heavily involved in the administration of England's colonies in North America. In 1680, he became the first auditor-general of royal revenues in America, and after 1685 became the secretary of the Privy Council's committee on trade and foreign plantations—in effect, colonial under-secretary. It was in this capacity that he became a key figure in American affairs. He was responsible for establishing the charter of the Crown colony of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, the predecessor of the state of Massachusetts. He did much to promote trade in America and the Caribbean, promoting the slave trade and benefiting considerably from gifts and bribes received in connection with his office (as was the usual practice in his day).