Thomas Povey was an English military officer who also served as lieutenant governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay

Province of Massachusetts Bay

The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a crown colony in North America. It was chartered on October 7, 1691 by William and Mary, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England and Scotland...

 from 1702 to 1706. He was probably related in some way to Thomas Povey

Thomas Povey

Thomas Povey FRS, was a London merchant-politician who was active in colonial affairs from the 1650s, but neutral enough in his politics to be named a member from 1660 of Charles II's Council for Foreign Plantations, making him a powerful figure in the not-yet professionalized First English...

 FRS and was a cousin to colonial secretary William Blathwayt

William Blathwayt

William Blathwayt was a civil servant and politician who established the War Office as a department of the British Government and played an important part in administering the Thirteen Colonies of North America....

, and may have acquired the lieutenant governorship through this connection. He served for nine years in the English military campaigns in Europe. His tenure as lieutenant governor under the domineering Joseph Dudley

Joseph Dudley

Joseph Dudley was an English colonial administrator. A native of Roxbury, Massachusetts and son of one of its founders, he had a leading role in the administration of the unpopular Dominion of New England , and served briefly on the council of the Province of New York, where he oversaw the trial...

apparently did not sit well with him, for by 1706 he had resigned the post and left the colony.