BOSTON -- When Mitt Romney takes the oath of office as Massachusetts 69th governor since colonial times, he will join the ranks of an elite group of statesmen and politicians who have contributed in extraordinary ways, not only to the history of the Bay State, but to the nation as well.

Romney will find himself joining the ranks of such notable political giants as John Hancock and Sam Adams, Calvin Coolidge and James Michael Curley. In fact, when it comes to notable governors, there are few states that can rival the commonwealth's record.

Massachusetts governors have gone on to become U.S. President (Coolidge) or have run for the White House on any number of occasions, most recently when Democrat Michael Dukakis campaigned unsuccessfully for the Oval Office in 1988.

From the earliest, pre-Colonial times, Massachusetts governors have distinguished themselves in ways great and small. The Massachusetts Bay Colony's first Royal Governor, William Phips, was an unusual choice for the job, the youngest of 26 children born to a ship's carpenter in Kennebec, Maine. He had no royal blood, but he went on to become a ship's captain, recovering enough treasure from his majesty's lost ships that the English crown knighted him and appointed him governor of the colony in 1692.

It was Phips who was governor during the Salem Witch trials, with accusations leveled even against his own wife. He weathered that storm, only to have his lack of political experience lead to charges of corruption. He was summoned to England, where he soon died.

But Phips actually followed in the footsteps of a long line of Puritan governors who preceded him, several of whom came to Massachusetts expressly to found the colony for the British, such as John Endecott and John Winthrop.

A New Era of American Governors

Want to know where the Bay State towns of Winthrop, Bellingham, Belmont, Dudley, Stoughton, Belcher and Shirley got their names? Colonial-era governors all.

Winthrop served as the colony's governor for 15 of its first 20 years. It was he who led 1,000 Puritan settlers across the ocean to Salem, Mass., then brought them to the Shawmut Peninsula and founded the town of Boston, which his successor suggested they name after their home town in Lincolnshire, England.

Winthrop was perhaps best known for his prosecution of religious reformer Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the colony but whose own great-great grandson, Thomas Hutchinson, would later become yet another Bay State governor in the pre-Revolutionary era.

Colonial governor John Leverett had the bad luck to be running things when King Philip's War erupted, the conflict decimating the Native American tribes who had helped the first colonists survive.

There were eight Royal governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony before the English began to sense that the colony was becoming rebellious and unwieldy with the result that the crown revoked its charter. That's when the King James II sent two of his own men, Joseph Dudley and Edmund Andros, to run things.

Andros was the first, but not the last Massachusetts governor to spend time in prison. He was so hated by the early colonists for such acts as forbidding town meetings and prohibiting marriage for the Puritan and Pilgrim clergy, that he was sent back to England in chains by the colonists after a jail stint on Castle Island. His penal record, however, didn't prevent him from returning to the colonies to later become governor of Virginia.

Royal Governor Richard Coote was also the Earl of Bellomont and the man who jumpstarted Captain William Kidd's career as a pirate.

A succession of royal governors had an awful time of it with the Massachusetts House of Representatives, perhaps beginning a long and time-honored tradition. Mainly their complaints had to do with money and the fact that the legislature seemed to refuse to pay them consistent salaries, instead providing them with sporadic grants.

Several of the early governors followed a pattern of being called back to the Mother Land to answer charges of bribery or corruption but, like Andros and other governors to follow, they often seemed to suffer no ill effects to their political careers.

Royal Governor William Shirley bungled an attack on the French in 1755 and was called back to England to answer charges of treason and incompetence. His reward was to be appointed governor of the Bahamas. Apparently that tropical paradise couldn't compare to Massachusetts and he eventually relinquished the post to his son, returning to live at Shirley Place in Roxbury. He was later buried at King's Chapel.

Perhaps the most notorious colonial-era governor was Thomas Hutchinson, Anne's great-great grandson, who was a British loyalist to the bone, despite being born and bred in Boston, attending Harvard, and serving on the city's Board of Selectmen before being elected to the Legislature and later serving as Chief Justice of the Superior Court.

Hutchinson's hatred of the American Revolutionaries was returned in kind and an angry mob went so far as to attack and loot his home in 1765. In turn, he began to advise the British crown to put the screws to the colonists. The atmosphere he fostered became so tense that it was no surprise to him in 1770 when a band of unarmed colonists threatened British troops, resulting in the famed "Boston Massacre."

Hutchinson was eventually rewarded with the governorship of the colony, but his tenure helped stoke the fires of revolution, with Hutchinson supporting the Tea Tax that prompted the Boston Tea Party. He ended up living in exile in England and the notorious military governor, Thomas Gage, replaced him, Gage's policies and actions leading to the inevitable American Revolution.

While the state's first non-English, elected governor may be best known for his large signature on the Declaration of Independence and the modern-day insurance company that was named after him, John Hancock wasn't always so well thought of in his own day.

During Hancock's first years as governor, the colony suffered under serious inflation and many farmers were defaulting on loans while he lived the life of a wealthy merchant in Boston. Sensing the political tide was against him, he withdrew from legislative affairs for a time, only to return to help lead the state's ratification of the new United States Constitution.

Notable Names, Extraordinary Careers

Hancock's successors in the centuries since have been notable for any number of reasons. An early follower, James Bowdoin, was the first president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Samuel Adams, the founder of the "Sons of Liberty" was also known for saying a public education should be extended to girls.

Gov. Caleb Strong was the state's first U.S. Senator and helped create a penitentiary system. Sullivan Square in Charlestown was named after Gov. James Sullivan, and Gov. Levi Lincoln actually fought with the Minutemen in Cambridge, Mass. Levi's son followed in his footsteps, also becoming a Massachusetts governor. Gov. Christopher Gore was actually a "gentleman farmer" who had an estate in Waltham, Mass., from which he raised produce that he sold at Faneuil Hall. Harvard's Gore Hall is named after him.

If you've never heard of Gov. Elbridge Gerry, you're probably no student of political science, for it was Gerry who devised a system of political districting that gave undue advantages to his political party. It was called "Gerrymandering" then and still is today. You'll also find his signature on the Declaration of Independence. His redistricting exploits led to his defeat at the polls in the Bay State, but he went on to serve as James Madison's vice president.

Not all Massachusetts' early governors were blue-blooded Brahmins like Endicott Peabody, whose ancestor, John Endecott, was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Gov. Samuel Turrell Armstrong was orphaned at the age of 13 and attended public schools, eventually becoming a printer's apprentice and later a deacon at the Old South Church. After serving as governor he was elected mayor of Boston and then served in the state Senate.

Like Armstrong, George Nixon Briggs also had humble beginnings in Adams, Mass., the son of a blacksmith who had only one year of public school education before studying law under another lawyer. Gov. Nathaniel Banks was the son of a foreman who worked in a Waltham, Mass., textile mill. After serving as governor he went on to become the president of a railroad in Chicago, then served four years in the military in the Civil War.

Other Massachusetts governors also served in military capacities with distinction. Gov. John Davis Long was Secretary of the Navy under President William McKinley, overseeing the Navy during the Spanish American war. Also a scholar, Long published a widely used translation of Virgil's "Aeneid."

Likewise, Gov. Benjamin Franklin Butler was a Brigadier General in the Massachusetts Militia during the Civil War and was later promoted to Major General in the U.S. Army. Other governors served in the Spanish American war, World Wars I and II, and the Korean conflict. Gov. Frank Sargent was a paratrooper in the 10th Mountain Division during World War II. He later sponsored legislation challenging the legality of the Vietnam war. Sargent was also the keynote speaker of the first Earth Day at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Some Massachusetts governors have enjoyed success in the realm of sports. Endicott Peabody was dubbed "The Baby Faced Assassin" by sports writers during his years as a point guard at Harvard University. He was named an "All American" and considered playing professional football until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed his plans. Instead, he enlisted in the Navy and earned a Silver Star for his service on a submarine.

Gov. Edward King, on the other hand, did play professional football, playing guard for the Buffalo Bills in the late 1940s and for the Baltimore Colts in the 1950s. He went on to defeat Michael Dukakis to win a term on Beacon Hill from 1979 to 1983.

Distinctive Service

Many Massachusetts governors were the "firsts" in many categories. Gov. George Boutwell, who served from 1851 to 1853, founded the state's Republican party and served as the first Comissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. He was one of seven U.S. Congressmen assigned to prosecute Andrew Jackson in his Senate impeachment hearings. He was also chairman of the House panel that investigated Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

Massachusetts governors also took the lead in the fights against slavery and for women's rights, with Massachusetts troops under the orders of Gov. John Andrew sent to Washington, D.C. to defend the capitol, the first troops to fight in the Civil War.

In 1863, it was Andrews again who petitioned Lincoln to compel the Army to accept Massachusetts famed 54th regiment, composed completely of black enlisted troops. In the early 1870s, it was Gov. William Claflin who promoted women's suffrage and established the state Board of Health. It was Claflin who chartered Boston University.

Bay State governors have also made a name for themselves in the area of notoriety. Gov. George D. Robinson rose from his job as a Chicopee, Mass., high school principal to become the lawyer who defended accused murderer Lizzie Borden for a then-hefty fee of $25,000.

Gov. Curtis Guild, Jr., was the object of an assassination attempt in 1907 when an escaped asylum patient tried to shoot him in his office waiting area inside the State House. The would-be murderer hit a labor leader from Lynn, Mass., instead. Guild didn't want to run for governor again, but later became ambassador to Russia.

Perhaps the state's most notorious and well-known governor was James Michael Curley, a rough-and-tumble Democratic Irish politician from Boston who served from 1935 to 1937. A career politician who had served in both the Massachusetts legislature and the U.S. Congress, he was elected mayor of the city of Boston four times, with another stint in Congress in between. Convicted of mail fraud in 1947, he served jail time during his final term as mayor. He was later pardoned by the president and served as mayor again until 1959.

Gov. William Lewis Douglas was the son of a sailor who died when he was only 5. He worked as a journeyman shoemaker and soldier in the Civil War before making a fortune manufacturing and selling shoes in Brockton, Mass., where his company produced 20,000 pairs of shoes a day, supplying stores in 78 cities. He became known as the governor who established the state's first leper colony on Cape Cod.

One governor, Samuel McCall, was editor in chief of a newspaper, the Boston Daily Advertiser. It was he who mustered Massachusetts troops to support President Woodrow Wilson in World War I.

Another governor, Alvan Tufts Fuller, ran a bicycle repair shop and became a champion cyclist when he was a teenager. In 1899, at the age of 21, he sold his racing prizes, using the money to go to Europe where he bought two automobiles, which were just beginning to be manufactured. He shipped them back to Boston and opened a car dealership on Boston's Commonwealth Avenue in 1904. In 1920 it was called the world's most successful car dealership.

A later governor, John Volpe, actually became the U.S. Secretary of Transportation under whose administration Amtrak was created.

Despite the scores of Irish immigrants who eventually came to give southeastern Massachusetts so much of its ethnic character, the first Irish-American governor was not elected until Democrat David I. Walsh was sent to the corner office in 1914. Walsh paved the way for generations of notable Massachusetts Irish-American politicians, not the least of which were President John F. Kennedy, House Majority Leader Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neil, John McCormack and, more recently, the beloved U.S. Rep. Joseph Moakley.

The state has produced four U.S. presidents, and one of them was former Gov. Calvin "Silent Cal" Coolidge, who held the corner office from 1919 to 1921. Coolidge, who rose from his roots as a lowly ward volunteer in Northampton, Mass., to actually become a champion of labor rights, supported the minimum wage and a 48-hour work week. This despite the fact that he stood up to labor leaders during the Boston Police strike of 1919, claiming that officers had no right to strike against the public safety at any time.

Coolidge's resolve in the face of that historic labor fight thrust him in to the national political spotlight and he became vice president under Warren G. Harding. When Harding died in office, Coolidge became president in 1923.

Other former governors had less success getting to the White House. Gov. Joseph Ely ran for the Democratic nomination against Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944, losing by a substantial margin.

Gov. Paul Dever also made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952 and Michael Dukakis spearheaded a spectacularly doomed effort against George Bush Sr., in 1988. Though he and Texan Lloyd Bentson had a 17-point lead in the polls, they lost in almost every state and carried only a little more than half the vote in Massachusetts.

(Much of the information for this report came from the commonwealth's official Web site, www.Mass.gov, a section called "Interactive Statehouse")