publications of

    The Colonial Society

    of Massachusetts

    volume lxxxix

    officers of the society

    • Donald R. Friary, President
    • Robert J. Allison, Vice President
    • Daniel R. Coquillette, Vice President
    • Susan L. Lively, Vice President
    • Celeste Walker, Vice President
    • Leslie A. Morris, Recording Secretary
    • Martha J. McNamara, Corresponding Secretary
    • Thomas R. Appleton, Treasurer

    committee on publications

    • Kenneth P. Minkema, Chair
    • Robert Anderson
    • Catherine Brekus
    • David D. Hall
    • Christopher Jedrey
    • Celeste Walker

    editor of publications

    • John W. Tyler

    THE INSURGENT DELEGATE

    Selected Letters and other Writings

    of George Thatcher

    THE INSURGENT DELEGATE

    Selected Letters and other Writings

    of George Thatcher

    William C. diGiacomantonio

    editor

    boston · 2019

    The Colonial Society of Massachusetts

    Distributed by the University Press of Virginia

    cover and frontispiece: George Thatcher, by Henry Williams (1814). Courtesy of Freeman’s Auctioneers & Appraisers, Philadelphia. Williams (1787-1830), based in Boston and active 1808-26, painted the only known portrait of Thatcher from life, over three or four sittings in early spring 1814. The likeness matches the description Thomas B. Wait provided in comparing his friend to Sen. James Lloyd: “His head is as bald as yours—his face is as thin—his complexion as white.” The only other physical attribute recorded about Thatcher is that he was “quite or nearly” six feet tall (GT to SST, 26 Feb. [1814], TFP; TBW to GT, [22] May 1808, Wait Letters; Willis, Lawyers of Maine, p. 303).

    dedication

    To my mother,

    Judith Blanchard Hubener.

    Like George Thatcher, with roots in

    Cape Cod and Maine, she has helped make me

    the historian I am.

    Copyright © 2019 by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts

    isbn 978-0-9975191-1-2

    Published from the Income of the Sarah Louisa Edes Fund