Shirley, William (1694-1771).

colonial administrator, military leader. Shirley came to America from England (1731) with strong imperialistic views and expressed them freely when he was made governor of Massachusetts in 1741. He planned the expedition against Louisburg (1745) and wrote A Journal of the Siege of Louisburg (1746). He continued as governor until 1749, when he went to England and France to serve on the commission that determined the boundary line between New England and French North America. On his return he was again appointed governor and became a major general at the outbreak of the French and Indian Wars. But his campaigns were unsuccessful. He became unpopular, was recalled to England in 1756, and from 1761 to 1767 was governor of the Bahamas. He defended himself in a publication called Conduct of General William Shirley (1758). His Correspondence, 1731-60 was edited by C.H. Lincoln (2 v. 1912).