Governor Maura Healey on Thursday recommended pardoning seven people for a range of decades-old crimes including drug possession, arson, and assault in what are believed to be the most proposed pardons by a first-year governor in 40 years.

She is also seeking pardons for a Texas father who has a 17-year-old larceny conviction, and a Maine woman who was convicted of various crimes in the 1980s while she battled substance use but is now …