A Roman Catholic and a member of a royalist family, Dongan was exiled after the English Civil Wars (1642–51) and served in an Irish regiment of the French army. Recalled to England in 1677, he served as lieutenant governor of Tangier from 1678 to 1680. As governor of New York (1682–88), he called the colony’s first representative assembly, issued a “Charter of Liberties” providing for religious toleration, and pursued a policy of cooperation with the Iroquois Confederacy against the French. Dongan returned to England in 1691 and succeeded his brother as Earl of Limerick in 1698.
Thomas Dongan, 2nd earl of Limerick
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British colonial governor