William Phips

Major-General Sir William Phips was a treasure hunter, military officer, and colonial administrator from the New England Colonies. He was the first royally appointed governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and the first native-born New Englander to be knighted. Phips was famous in his lifetime for recovering a large treasure from a sunken Spanish galleon but is perhaps best remembered today for establishing the court associated with the infamous Salem witch trials, which he grew unhappy with and was forced to prematurely disband after five months.