Thomas Temple

Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet (January 1613/14 at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England – 27 March 1674 at Ealing, Middlesex) was an English proprietor and governor of Acadia/Nova Scotia (1657–70).

On 1 November 1658, Crowne leased the whole territory to Captain George Corwin and Ensign Joshua Scottee, and in 1659 to Temple for four years.

Temple arrived in England in February 1662 and prepared a statement in answer to the French ambassador's claim, which gained him and his heirs a grant of Acadia and Nova Scotia and the governorship for life.

Soon after the starting of the uncharted Massachusetts Bay Colony mint, Charles II of England, with much anger questioned Temple, who was the first agent officially dispatched by the General Court to London.

King Charles asked why this American Colony presumed to invade His Majesty's rights by coining money.

Temple had his headquarters at Penobscot (present day Castine, Maine), keeping garrisons at Port Royal and at Saint John.

With the Treaty of Breda in 1667, in North America, Acadia was returned to France, without specifying what territories were actually involved on the ground.

Thomas Temple, the proprietor, residing in Boston, had been given a charter by Cromwell, which was ignored in the treaty, and the actual handing off was delayed at the site until 1670.

From 1667 to 1670 Temple lived in Boston and continued to seek recompense from the king for his expenses and losses in Nova Scotia.