Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Savage, Thomas (1608-1682)
SAVAGE, THOMAS (1608–1682), major born in 1608 in Taunton, Somerset, was son of William Savage, a blacksmith, who was perhaps a son of Sir John Savage, first baronet, of Rock Savage in Cheshire. Thomas was apprenticed to the Merchant Taylors of London on 9 Jan. 1621, and went to Massachusetts with Sir Harry Vane in the Planter in 1635. He was admitted a freeman of Boston in 1636, and became a member of the artillery company in 1637. In the same year he took the part of his wife's mother, Anne Hutchinson [q. v.], in the controversy that her teaching excited. He was compelled in consequence to leave the colony, and with William Coddington [q. v.] he founded the settlement of Rhode Island in 1638. After sojourning there for some time he was permitted to return to Boston, and in 1651 became captain of the artillery company. On 12 March 1654 he and Captain Thomas Clarke were chosen to represent Boston at the general court, of which he long continued a member. He was elected speaker of the assembly in 1637, 1660, 1671, 1677, and 1678. After representing Boston for eight years, he became deputy for Hingham in 1663. In 1664 he, with many other leading citizens, dissented from the policy of the colony in refusing to recognise four commissioners sent by Charles II to regulate its affairs, and in 1666 he and his friends embodied their views in a petition. In 1671 he was chosen deputy for Andover, and in 1675 commanded the forces of the state in the first expedition against Philip, the chief of the Narragansets. In 1680 he was commissioned, with others, by the crown to administer an oath to Sir John Leverett the governor, pledging him to execute the oath required by the act of trade. In 1680 he was elected ‘assistant’ or magistrate, and retained the office until his death on 14 Feb. 1682.
Savage was twice married; first, in 1637, to Faith, daughter of William Hutchinson. By her he had three sons and two daughters. She died on 20 Feb. 1652. On 15 Sept. he married Mary, daughter of the Rev. Zechariah Symonds of Charlestown, by whom he had eight sons and three daughters. She survived him, and afterwards married Antony Stoddard.
Another Thomas Savage (fl. 1620), born about 1594, and stated to have been a member of the Cheshire family, arrived in Virginia with Captain Christopher Newport on 2 Jan. 1608, and remained with Powhattan as a hostage for an Indian named Nemontack, whom Newport wished to take to England. He stayed with Powhattan about three years and afterwards received the rank of ensign, and acted as interpreter to the Virginia company. In 1619 he accompanied Thomas Hamor as interpreter on his visit to Powhattan, and again in 1621 served Thomas Pory, secretary of Virginia, in the same capacity, in his intercourse with ‘Namenacus, king of Pawtuxunt.’ In 1625 he was living on his ‘divident’ on the eastern shore of Virginia. Savage was a great favourite with the Indians. Powhattan called him his son, and another chief, Ismee Sechemea, granted him a tract of 9,000 acres on the eastern shore, now known as Savage's Neck. The date of his death is unknown. By his wife Anne, who afterwards married Daniel Cugly, he had two sons, Thomas and John, besides other children who died young (G. F. A[rmstrong]'s Savages of the Ards, pp. 113–14; Brown, Genesis of the United States, i. 485, 487, ii. 996; Captain John Smith, Works, ed. Arber, index).
[Winthrop's Hist. of New England, ed. Savage, 1853, ii. 65, 265; Drake's History and Antiquities of Boston, index; Savage's Genealogical Dict. of the First Settlers, iv. 26; G. F. A[rmstrong]'s Savages of the Ards, pp. 108–9.]