Bernard, Sir Francis [key], 1712–79, British colonial governor. He was educated at Oxford and was called to the bar in 1737. As colonial governor of New Jersey (1758–60), he did much to promote colonial solidarity and to build defense in the French and Indian Wars. Transferred to the governorship of Massachusetts, he lost popularity there because he felt it his duty to enforce the Stamp Act and other laws the colonists found objectionable. In 1769 he was recalled to England. An amateur architect, he was the designer of Harvard Hall at Harvard.
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