Edward Rawson (politician)

Edward Rawson (April 16, 1615 – August 27, 1693) served as the first Secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Around 1636 he married his young wife, Rachel Perne, and soon left England for the Americas.

On April 19, 1638, at the age of 23, he was chosen to be Public Notary and Register for that town, and was annually reelected until 1647.

One of these, Rebecca, was the heroine of the 1849 book Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, by John G. Whittier.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston has, in its collection, a 1670 portrait of Rawson by the Freake Painter.