Thomas Chittenden

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Thomas Chittenden

1^st Governor of Vermont
In office 1791 – 1797
Lieutenant(s)	Paul Brigham
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Paul Brigham

Born	January 6, 1730 East Guilford, Connecticut
Died	August 25, 1797 Vermont
Political party	None
Term dates above are after Vermont entered the Union. Prior to this Chittenden was Governor of the Vermont Republic from 1778 – 1791

Thomas Chittenden (January 6, 1730 – August 25, 1797) was an important figure in the founding of Vermont.

Chittenden was born in East Guilford, Connecticut and moved to Vermont in 1774, where he founded the town of Williston. During the American Revolution, Chittenden was a member of a committee empowered to negotiate with the Continental Congress to allow Vermont to join the Union. The Congress deferred the matter in order to not antagonize the states of New York and New Hampshire, which had competing claims against Vermont. In 1777, a convention was held in Windsor, which drafted Vermont's first constitution, establishing Vermont as an independent republic—the first republic in North America. During the Vermont Republic Chittenden served as governor from 1778 to 1789 and from 1790 to 1791.

After Vermont entered the federal Union in 1791 as the fourteenth state, Chittenden continued to serve as Governor until 1797. He died a few weeks after he left office. An engraved portrait of Chittenden can be found just outside the entrance to the Executive Chamber, the cerremonial office of the governor, at the Vermont State House at Montpelier. A bronze sculpture of Chittenden can also be found on the grounds of the Vermont State House near the building's west entrance. Thomas Chittenden was buried at Williston, Vermont. In the 1990s a statue of him was erected in front of the Williston Central School.

Citing Vermont's tumultuous founding, his epitaph reads "Out of storm and manifold perils rose an enduring state, the home of freedom and unity."

Chittenden had four sons, all of whom survived to adulthood. None of six daughters survived infancy. His great-grandson, Lucius E. Chittenden, served as Register of the Treasury in the Lincoln administration.