BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
ABERCROMBY, JAMES, also spelled Abercrombie, (1706-1781) born in Banffshire, Scotland, was a career British army officer. He was appointed major general in 1756 before accompanying Lord Loudoun to America as his second in command. He succeeded Loudoun as commander-in-chief in North America in 1758. Despite the fact that British troops captured both Fort Duquesne and Louisbourg during his tenure as commander-in-chief, his disastrous defeat by a much smaller French force at Ticonderoga in July 1758 caused his recall later the same year. After his return to Britain, he received further promotions in 1759 and 1772. As a member of Parliament, he favored a firm line against colonial demands.
ADAMS, JOHN, (1735–1826) of Braintree, graduated from Harvard in 1755 and practiced as a lawyer, before becoming increasingly allied to Boston patriots during the 1760s. Following the Boston Massacre, Adams led the legal defense of the soldiers. In 1770, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Adams eventually became one of the Revolutionary era’s most eloquent spokesmen and a strong critic of Hutchinson. He was selected a delegate for both the First and Second Continental Congresses where he emerged as the principal advocate for declaring American independence. He eventually served as minister to the Netherlands and Great Britain, wrote the Massachusetts constitution of 1780, and held the offices of vice president and then president of the United States.
ADAMS, SAMUEL, (1722–1803) political mastermind behind the patriot movement in pre-Revolutionary Boston, rose to prominence first through a political group known as the Caucus, then became a leading figure in the Boston town meeting, and finally served as clerk in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1765 to 1775. These official positions do not adequately represent the extent of Adams’s influence, though. His talent lay in shaping public opinion and guiding affairs behind the scenes. By 1764, he was closely allied with James Otis Jr., and the two proved a formidable pair, with Otis’s talent for oratory and Adams’s abilities to maneuver politically. When Otis became increasingly unstable in the late 1760s, John Hancock replaced him as Adams’s chief ally. Adams drafted the Massachusetts Circular Letter, orchestrated Boston’s response to the Boston Massacre, founded a network of committees of correspondence, and presided over the town meeting immediately prior to the Boston Tea Party. Throughout these years, he remained vehemently opposed to Hutchinson and his allies and used his influence to ensure that Hutchinson’s actions were construed in the most damaging light. Adams attended the First and Second Continental Congresses, helped draft the Articles of Confederation, and eventually served as governor of Massachusetts.
AMHERST, JEFFERY (1717–1797) was commander-in-chief of British forces in North America beginning in 1758, during the latter portion of the French and Indian War. Among Amherst’s most noted accomplishments were his command of the successful siege of Louisbourg in 1758, the expedition through the Hudson River valley and around Lake Champlain in 1759, and the capture of Montreal in 1760, effectively ending the American phase of the war. Hutchinson corresponded with him in an effort to coordinate Massachusetts war efforts. Amherst proved less amenable to the Native Americans, though, and adopted a series of brutal measures in an attempt to put down Pontiac’s Rebellion in 1763. He returned to a hero’s welcome in England later that same year and became an adviser to King George III on American military affairs.
APTHORP, EAST, (1733–1816) born in Boston and educated in England, returned to America in 1758 and became the first minister of the Anglican Christ Church in Cambridge in 1761. He emerged as the leading Anglican voice in theological matters in the Boston area and directly challenged certain Congregational ministers like Jonathan Mayhew. Although Hutchinson did not regularly attend Apthorp’s church, the two men found common ground in their respect for tradition and order. In 1764, Apthorp returned to England and took up the vicarage of the parish in Croydon, south of London. He remained in this post for twenty-eight years. After Hutchinson’s death in 1780, his body was interred in Apthorp’s Croydon church. Hutchinson’s daughter Margaret and son William Sanford, both of whom predeceased him, were buried there as well.
BARONS, BENJAMIN was the controversial collector of customs in Boston from May 1759 to 1761. Governor Francis Bernard suspected him and others of collusion with the local merchants in illicit trade. The animosity between Barons and Bernard contributed to Bernard’s—and ultimately Hutchinson’s—increasing alienation from these same merchants, many of whom would later form an important part of the patriot party in Massachusetts politics.
BELCHER, JONATHAN, (1682–1757) served as governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire from 1730 to 1741, during the years when Hutchinson was getting his start in politics. Known for his vituperative manner, Belcher made many enemies with his opposition of the Land Bank in 1740. His tenure also saw the division of the Massachusetts and New Hampshire governments and controversy over the establishment of a definitive border between the two colonies, an affair that prompted Hutchinson’s first trip to England in 1740–1741 as Massachusetts agent. Amidst charges of corruption and a slander campaign launched by his political opponents, Belcher was forced out of office in 1741 and replaced by William Shirley.
BERNARD, FRANCIS, (1712–1779) trained as a canon lawyer and held several positions in colonial administration, most notably governor of New Jersey from 1758 to 1760 and governor of Massachusetts from 1760 to 1770. Much of his energy was occupied providing for his large family. His wife’s uncle, Lord Barrington, helped his career at critical stages, facilitating his appointment to several lucrative posts. Although Bernard hoped his tenure in New England would pass peaceably, he quickly became embroiled in colonial partisanship by insisting on the vigorous prosecution of the customs laws. By the end of the decade, Bernard emerged as one of the main focal points, along with Hutchinson, of the patriots’ displeasure, particularly after troops arrived in Boston in 1768, which many accused Bernard of requesting. Hutchinson’s attitude toward Bernard was complex; after a favorable initial impression, he and Bernard worked closely together, but by 1768 Hutchinson had come to believe that he himself might be more successful than an Englishman in navigating the shoals of Massachusetts politics. In Britain, Bernard’s governorship in Massachusetts was generally considered a success, despite the growing turmoil in Boston, and he was made a baronet in April 1769, shortly before he returned to England. He never traveled to America again but was widely regarded as an authority on colonial affairs for the remainder of his life.
BERNARD, JOHN (1745–1809) was one of Francis Bernard’s ten children and his second son. After being educated in England, he arrived in Massachusetts in 1761 or 1762 and served an apprenticeship with a Boston merchant. By 1765, he had established his own firm and was one of the few to refuse to participate in the nonimportation agreements of the late 1760s, along with Hutchinson’s own sons. At roughly the same time, he received the lucrative appointment as naval officer at Boston, a position in the customs service. He left Boston with the British in 1776 and returned to England.
BOLLAN, WILLIAM, (1710–1782) a lawyer by profession, served as Massachusetts agent from 1745 to 1762, successfully negotiating in 1748 a reimbursement of £183,649 for the province’s expenses in the siege of Louisbourg during King George’s War. The son-in-law of Governor William Shirley, Bollan fell into disfavor once Thomas Pownall became governor in 1757. Hutchinson was Bollan’s most ardent supporter and spent the next five years wielding his political influence to keep Bollan in office. In 1762, though, the Massachusetts House of Representatives dismissed Bollan, replacing him with Jasper Mauduit. Nevertheless, Bollan continued as agent for the Council. Bollan incorrectly believed that Hutchinson had abandoned him, and their friendship gradually cooled. By 1766, Bollan had moved into the patriot camp, and it was he who in 1769 sent a series of letters belonging to Francis Bernard and Thomas Gage to the General Court, an act for which he was denounced by Lord North. The House of Representatives selected him as agent again in 1769, but Hutchinson, serving as acting governor, refused to recognize the appointment, and the matter was dropped. Bollan remained in England for the rest of his life and eventually tried to use his influence to bring about some kind of compromise in the early years of the American conflict.
BOWDOIN, JAMES, (1726–1790) was a wealthy Boston merchant and political figure. A 1745 Harvard graduate, he also served with Hutchinson on the college’s Board of Overseers, the two of them being among the board’s most active members. Bowdoin’s extensive connections among the Massachusetts provincial elite—both through his own family and that of his wife, who was the daughter of John Erving—made him a pivotal figure in the province’s affairs throughout this period. He became a member of the Council in 1757, a position he would hold almost continually for the next twenty years. For most of his first decade on the Council, Bowdoin steered clear of political squabbles, intent on his mercantile affairs, but his daughter eventually married the influential and well-connected Surveyor of Customs John Temple, which prompted him to become more involved in the political issues of the day. In 1766, Bowdoin was instrumental in ousting Hutchinson from his Council seat and became the Council’s most influential member, spending much of his energy opposing Governor Francis Bernard. In 1768, he became involved in a protracted dispute with the newly appointed American Board of Customs, of which his son-in-law was an unhappy member. Bowdoin became an ardent proponent of nonimportation agreements. He remained a political adversary of Hutchinson throughout the latter’s tenure as governor. After the Revolution, Bowdoin became governor of Massachusetts.
BRATTLE, WILLIAM, (1706–1776) was a vocal and active political and military figure in the pre-Revolutionary years. A Harvard graduate of 1722, Brattle engaged in several professions throughout his lifetime: clergyman, doctor, lawyer, politician, and soldier. From 1720 on, he served in the provincial forces, first as major, then colonel, and finally in 1773 as brigadier-general, making him the highest ranking militia officer in Massachusetts. Politically, he had a tumultuous career, taking a seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1729 and serving in that body during much of the 1730s before moving to the Council in 1755. A well-respected lawyer, he was considered a possible candidate for chief justice of the Superior Court in 1760, a position that went to Hutchinson instead. His disappointment at Hutchinson’s appointment may have contributed to his increased involvement with the emerging popular party. He had close associations among the Sons of Liberty and was a known associate of Ebenezer Mackintosh, a leader of the urban crowd. On the Council, Brattle worked with James Bowdoin to undermine Hutchinson’s influence, eventually leading to Hutchinson’s removal from his seat there. By the early 1770s, though, Brattle had changed his position, convinced that the patriots had pushed their disagreements with the Crown too far. He spoke publicly in favor of an independent judiciary, which sparked a newspaper war with John Adams, and supported Hutchinson when his letters to Thomas Whately were published in 1773. He and Hutchinson were also connected by their positions on the Harvard Board of Overseers. Brattle went to Halifax in 1776 when the British evacuated Boston.
BUTE, JOHN STUART, 3RD EARL OF, (1713–1792) mentor and close adviser to King George III, served Britain as privy councilor, secretary of state for the northern department from 1761 to 1762, and head of his own ministry from 1762 to 1763. The king’s long-standing friend and tutor, Bute promoted the idea that the young king should reassert royal authority and reclaim some of the privileges that had been lost to Parliament in the previous century. He guided the king during his first few years on the throne and became a focal point for Whig disillusionment and virulent anti-Scottish prejudice. Bute resigned his political offices after negotiating the unpopular Peace of Paris, when many Britons accused him of making too generous a settlement with the French. He was succeeded by his ally George Grenville, who had served as his secretary of state. Although Bute retired from court, many suspected that he continued to exercise a secret influence on the king.
BURCH, WILLIAM, was a commissioner of the American Board of Customs. Little is known about Burch other than that he was a gentleman from Norfolk, England. He arrived in Boston aboard the same ship as fellow commissioners Charles Paxton and Henry Hulton on 5 November 1767, just in time to witness Boston’s riotous Pope Day celebrations. Unnerved by Bostonians’ tendency to civil disorder, he and his family fled to Castle William or stayed aboard a British man-of-war several times during their stay in Boston. Burch and the other commissioners repeatedly appealed to Governor Francis Bernard and then Hutchinson for protection in the prosecution of their duties to oversee the customs service. The customs commissioners believed that colonial officials did not give them enough support to carry out their duties.
CHATHAM, WILLIAM PITT, 1ST EARL OF, (1708–1778) one of the grand figures of mid-eighteenth-century British politics, held many influential positions during his long public career. He rose to lasting fame as the British secretary of state of the southern department with sole direction for the conduct of the Seven Years’ War beginning in 1756; in 1757 he also became the leader of the House of Commons. Despite spectacular success in prosecuting the war, especially in the American theater of operations, Pitt was forced to resign in 1761 when George III and the Earl of Bute opposed his plans to declare war on Spain. During the Stamp Act crisis, he emerged as a leading proponent of colonial rights and worked to ensure the act’s repeal. Despite his long refusal to accept a peerage, he became Earl of Chatham in August 1766 when called upon to form his own ministry. During his administration, mental instability and failing health prevented him from governing with much attention, leaving his second-in-command, the Duke of Grafton, as unofficial head of the government until Pitt’s resignation in 1768.
CHESEBROUGH, DAVID, (1702–1782) Newport merchant and a staunch parishioner of Ezra Stiles’s church, oversaw Hutchinson’s Rhode Island properties in an informal and apparently unpaid capacity. The two men built a close friendship over the long years of their correspondence.
CLAP, THOMAS, (1705–1774) was a 1725 Harvard graduate, minister, judge, representative from Scituate periodically between 1742 and 1765, and a colonel in the militia. He was an early and ardent supporter of intercolonial cooperation for mutual defense against the French. Despite his list of honors, he was also known for drunkenness and riotous behavior. In 1760, the Massachusetts House of Representatives found him guilty of selling militia commissions and accepting bribes for his rulings from the bench in the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, but nothing seems to have come of the judgment. In 1766, he was found guilty of forging a bill for compensation from the province, but he appealed, and the case was dropped. He was also an old nemesis of Hutchinson’s fellow justice John Cushing, having unsuccessfully tried to turn Cushing out of his Council seat in 1763. Although originally a supporter of James Otis Sr., Clap later sought to ingratiate himself with Governor Francis Bernard and became a staunch defender of the government party in the House of Representatives. After 1767, he was largely incapacitated by illness.
CLARKE, RICHARD (1711–1795) a 1729 Harvard graduate, government supporter, and wealthy Boston merchant, was Hutchinson’s friend and neighbor. He was an influential member of Jonathan Mayhew’s congregation at West Church in Boston. Clarke withdrew from the church after the Stamp Act riots, however, holding Mayhew accountable for his sermon, which Clarke blamed for sparking the attack against Hutchinson’s North End house. Clarke was one of the largest tea importers in Massachusetts, and he and his sons initially refused to take part in the nonimportation agreement. Eventually, they were forced by the threat of violence to sign the agreement, and Clarke made an effort after that point to remain in favor with the patriots. In the summer of 1773, though, his contacts in London secured his appointment as senior consignee of the East India Company following the passage of the Tea Act. As tensions escalated over the first shipment of tea to arrive after passage of the act, Clarke faced down a patriot crowd in November 1773 but eventually fled to Castle William for safety. His firm had been consigned a substantial portion of the tea thrown overboard during the Boston Tea Party. Clarke fled to England in late 1775, where he lived with one of his daughters who had married the artist John Singleton Copley.
COLDEN, CADWALLADER (1688–1776) lieutenant governor of New York periodically from 1760 until his death, frequently served as acting governor throughout his term, including during the Stamp Act riots. Throughout this period, he increasingly became associated with Crown policies, putting him at odds with the growing patriot sentiment among New York’s merchants and lawyers. Colden was a native New Yorker, with extensive connections in the province; he and his associates grew rich during his tenure through use of the province’s patronage system.
CONWAY, HENRY SEYMOUR, (1721–1795) served as secretary of state for the southern department from July 1765 to May 1766, when he became secretary of state for the northern department, although he remained deeply involved in colonial affairs. A devoted Whig who championed the cause of John Wilkes, Conway supported lenient measures toward America. He protested the passage of the Stamp Act and later acted as one of the chief organizers of its repeal. Hutchinson’s hopes to secure compensation for his losses during the Stamp Act riots centered on Conway.
COOPER, SAMUEL (1725–1783) a 1743 Harvard graduate, was the grandson of the famous jurist Stephen Sewall. Beginning in 1746, he was the minister of the Brattle Street Church in Boston. He became a close associate of Governor Thomas Pownall in the late 1750s and kept up an extensive correspondence with him after the governor left the province. Cooper was very active in the patriot cause and was a close friend of Boston’s patriot leaders, including John Hancock, John Adams, and James Bowdoin. Known for his charming manners and well-reasoned arguments, he earned the sobriquet Silver-Tongued Sam. Although most of Cooper’s sermons did not appear overtly political, he (like his ally Samuel Adams) played an influential behind-the-scenes role in Boston town affairs, being particularly involved in advising the patriot newspapers. He proved an ardent promoter of colonial rights.
CUSHING, JOHN, (1695–1778) was a militia colonel from Scituate, a member of the Council from 1737 to 1764, and a Superior Court justice from 1748 to 1771. Cushing was a conservative figure and staunch supporter of Hutchinson. In 1763, he successfully fended off an attempt by Thomas Clap to turn Cushing out of his Council seat. The enmity between Cushing and Clap, who eventually became an ally of Francis Bernard, placed Hutchinson in a difficult position.
CUSHING, THOMAS, (1725–1788) was a 1744 Harvard graduate and served as Speaker of the Massachusetts House from 1766 to 1774. Although aligned with James Otis Jr. and the patriots, he was a moderate figure, more intent on the elimination of economic restrictions than the assertion of natural rights. Cushing was well connected, in both Massachusetts and England, and despite his political associations, he maintained friendships with Hutchinson and many English correspondents, including Lord Dartmouth and Jasper Mauduit, to whom Cushing wrote long letters on colonial economic policy. Cushing objected to many of the patriots’ tactics, particularly the use of violence, intimidation, libel, and slander against any who opposed them. Nevertheless, his ties to the patriot cause were solid, being a promoter of nonimportation agreements and actively involved with the Sons of Liberty. His daughter married John Avery, one of the most radical merchants in Boston and a member of the Loyal Nine. In 1773, Cushing’s old friend Benjamin Franklin sent him copies of the letters Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver had written to George Grenville’s private secretary Thomas Whately several years earlier, which Cushing caused to be read in the House of Representatives. The letters were subsequently published in an attempt to discredit Hutchinson.
DALRYMPLE, WILLIAM (1736–1807) from a prominent Scottish family, was a lieutenant colonel in the British army stationed in Halifax in 1766. Beginning in September 1768, he commanded the Fourteenth Regiment of Foot during its new posting at Boston. As the ranking military commander, Dalrymple worked diligently over the next two years to diffuse tension between his forces and the townspeople, even using his own money to ensure that Boston merchants received payment for supplies. But ultimately he could not prevent violence from erupting between his soldiers and the townspeople. After the Boston Massacre in March 1770, he agreed with the majority of the Council and withdrew his troops to Castle William.
DARTMOUTH, WILLIAM LEGGE, 2ND EARL OF, (1731–1801) was secretary of state for the colonies during the critical years of 1772 to 1775. He was also a member of the Board of Trade, serving as first lord of trade from 1765 to 1766 and again from 1772 to 1775. The stepbrother and longtime friend of Lord North, Dartmouth worked to conciliate the colonies during his time as secretary of state, struggling to avoid theoretical discussions about Parliament’s sovereignty. Toward that end, he ordered Hutchinson to stop provoking the Massachusetts patriots with lengthy discourses on abstract constitutional issues. His efforts to restore peace and stability to Anglo-American relations proved an abject failure following the Boston Tea Party, and he was forced to implement a more stringent policy toward the colonies.
DEBERDT, DENNYS, (1694–1770) was designated by the Massachusetts House of Representatives in November 1765 to act as the province’s special agent during the Stamp Act crisis. A well-connected London merchant with a long history of involvement in colonial affairs, DeBerdt proved instrumental in convincing British officials to repeal the act. In 1766, the House elected him permanent agent over the objections of Governor Francis Bernard, who favored Richard Jackson. A wrangle ensued, during which DeBerdt served as the de facto agent, a position he held until 1770.
EDES, BENJAMIN (1732–1803) and JOHN GILL (1732–1785) were the publishers of the Boston Gazette, the leading patriot newspaper, as well as of pamphlets and leaflets promoting the patriot cause. The paper had existed since 1719, but the pair purchased it in 1756 and initially tried to steer a moderate course. By the late 1760s, though, it had become the leading mouthpiece for the patriot party. Both men were members of the Sons of Liberty (Edes was a member of the Loyal Nine as well) and worked diligently to promote the patriot cause by publishing tracts on political theory alongside rumors and innuendoes regarding Crown officials in Massachusetts. The publication proved one of the chief means of organizing resistance to British policies, and the volume at which Edes and Gill published meant that they out-produced everyone else, allowing their message to drown out all others in the public forum. Consequently, their business became known as “the busiest print shop in America.”
ELIOT, ANDREW, (1718–1778) was the long-serving Congregational minister of the New North Church in Boston. Graduating from Harvard in 1737, Eliot served as clerk of its Board of Overseers as well as acting with Hutchinson on a committee to raise funds for Harvard College following the fire of 24 January 1764. Hutchinson was also a member of Eliot’s congregation in the 1760s. Eliot and Hutchinson were close friends, sharing an interest in Massachusetts history. After the Stamp Act riots, Hutchinson and Eliot posted notices encouraging people to return Hutchinson’s lost manuscripts to Eliot, who later turned them over to Hutchinson. These rescued documents were all that remained of Hutchinson’s extensive archive of historical manuscripts that he used when writing his History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts-Bay. Eliot attempted to steer a middle course in both Massachusetts political affairs and theological controversies. By the early 1770s, though, his friendship with Hutchinson had cooled, as Eliot became increasingly concerned about the possibility of the creation of an American bishopric, which he vehemently opposed.
ERVING, JOHN, (circa 1692–1786) was a wealthy Boston merchant connected to William Bollan through marriage (his son married Bollan’s sister) and James Bowdoin (who had married his daughter). He was a member of the Council from 1754 to 1774 and later served as a mandamus councilor. Hutchinson regarded him as a patriot sympathizer by the early 1760s. The seizure of his sloop Sarah on 26 April 1760 was the first customs seizure in Massachusetts in sixteen years. It was regarded by Boston merchants as a sign of a new era of stricter customs enforcement.
FLUCKER, THOMAS (1719–1783) was a merchant and member of the House of Representatives from 1756 to 1760, the Council from 1761 to 1768, and the mandamus council in 1774. He succeeded Andrew Oliver as secretary of the province in 1770, a position he held until 1774. He generally stayed out of the turmoil that convulsed Massachusetts politics during these years, but his position on the Council and as the province’s secretary meant that he was involved in many major controversies. Although related to the Bowdoin family by marriage, he left Boston during the British evacuation in 1776 and died in London as a loyalist exile.
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, (1706–1790), the noted American scientist, philosopher, and writer, represented Pennsylvania at the Albany Conference in the summer of 1754, where he first met Hutchinson. The two shared a common vision for a colonial union functioning within the British Empire and served together on the committee that drafted the Albany Plan of Union. In February 1757, the Pennsylvania Assembly elected Franklin its agent, which kept him in England on and off for the next eighteen years. There, he emerged as a prominent spokesman for both Pennsylvania and the American colonies. In 1774, however, he was dismissed from his post as deputy postmaster general for the colonies and denounced before the Privy Council for his role in the transmission and eventual publication in Massachusetts of a number of letters Hutchinson had written privately to Thomas Whately, a former secretary of George Grenville. The publication of these letters, surreptitiously obtained from Whately’s estate after his death, led to a petition by the Massachusetts House of Representatives to the Privy Council for Hutchinson’s dismissal as governor. Franklin eventually became a strong proponent of American independence. He was one of the three American commissioners to France and is credited with doing much to secure French support for the American cause. He later served as one of the peace commissioners who negotiated with the British to end the American war.
FRANKLIN, WILLIAM (1731–1813) the illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin, was the governor of New Jersey from 1763 to 1776, when he was arrested by patriot forces. During his tenure as governor, he remained a staunch supporter of Crown policies. After being imprisoned in Connecticut for two years, he fled to the British encampment in New York City and then to England. Despite his patriot father, Franklin’s loyalty to the Crown never wavered.
GAGE, THOMAS, (1721–1787) was a British military officer who came to America during the French and Indian War and married Margaret Kemble of New Jersey in 1758. In 1760, he became the governor-general of Montreal, where he was known for his mild administration of the recently conquered French Canadians. In 1763, Gage succeeded Jeffery Amherst as commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, making him the chief military officer from Hudson Bay to Georgia, overseeing 5,000 men. Gage spent much of his administration trying to balance troop deployments throughout America and keep military costs low in recognition of the fiscal crisis confronting the British Empire in the 1760s. He routinely advised colonial governors on military matters and gained a reputation for being fair-minded, even-tempered, and diplomatic. Gage was stationed in New York but visited Boston at least once during his tenure, in November 1769, and found it secure with British troops stationed there to maintain civil order. In May 1774, he succeeded Hutchinson, serving as military governor of Massachusetts. As such, he attempted to enforce the Coercive Acts and suppress the widening patriot movement within the province following the Boston Tea Party.
GAMBIER, JAMES (1723–1789) an admiral in the British navy who assisted with the siege of Louisbourg in 1758, served as commander-in-chief of British naval forces in America from October 1770 to 1771. Hutchinson and Gambier became close friends during Gambier’s tenure in America, and Hutchinson was the godfather of one of Gambier’s children.
Gill, John. See Edes, Benjamin.
GOFFE, WILLIAM, (circa 1605–circa 1679) was one of the regicides of King Charles I who fled to New England in 1660 with Edward Whalley. The pair lived in New Haven, Connecticut, and then Hadley, Massachusetts, where in 1675 Goffe reputedly helped the colonists repel a Native American attack during King Philip’s War. For his efforts, he was dubbed the “Angel of Hadley.” As a historian, Hutchinson was deeply interested in the fate of Goffe and Whalley.
GOLDTHWAIT, THOMAS (1718–1799) was Hutchinson’s business partner in the mercantile firm of Hutchinson & Goldthwait during the 1740s and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1757 to 1763. Goldthwait owned large tracts of land in Maine and moved there in 1764, having been appointed the commander of Fort Pownall at the mouth of the Penobscot River the previous year. In Maine, he engaged in a profitable trade with the Native Americans. In 1775, after the fall of Fort Pownall to patriot forces, Goldthwait fled to England, where he lived out the remainder of his life.
Grafton, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of, (1735–1811) served as secretary of state for the northern department briefly during the early months of the Rockingham ministry. When the Earl of Chatham was called to form a new ministry in the summer of 1766, Grafton became the first lord of the treasury and was saddled with the responsibility of holding the government together as Chatham’s health declined during the next two years. He became leader of the ministry in his own right in 1768, a position he held until 1770 when Lord North’s ministry came in. Grafton was generally sympathetic to the American cause and advocated a moderate course of action regarding colonial taxes, although the Townshend duties were enacted during his time at the treasury.
GREENLEAF, STEPHEN, (1704–1795) sheriff of Suffolk County from 1757 to 1775, often found himself at the center of controversy during the tumultuous decade and a half before the American Revolution. Hutchinson frequently exhorted Greenleaf to more vigorous prosecution of his duties, but Greenleaf had few legal tools at his disposal to challenge the power of the patriot leadership and their supporters among the urban crowd.
GRENVILLE, GEORGE, (1712–1770) secretary of state for the northern department briefly in 1762 before leading his own ministry as first lord of the treasury from 1763 to 1765, pushed the Revenue Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act through Parliament over colonial objections. Dedicated to raising money to defray the expenses of maintaining an army in North America following the Seven Years’ War, Grenville remained resolute in the face of American objections. He famously quarreled with both his brother-in-law—William Pitt—and the Earl of Bute but managed to remain one of George III’s most trusted advisers until 1765. During his ministry, Grenville had to cope with the debt incurred during the Seven Years’ War, the beginning of the controversy over John Wilkes, several domestic riots, and the first bout of George III’s mental instability.
HALE, ROBERT, (1703–1767) Harvard graduate of 1721, was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from Beverly beginning in 1733 and originally supported the Land Bank with great vigor. After the bank failed, however, he became an advocate of hard money and worked in conjunction with Hutchinson to end the use of paper money in the province. Hale was also active in the defense of Massachusetts during both King George’s War and the French and Indian War. He served on Governor William Shirley’s war committee in 1745, which organized the expedition against Louisbourg, and was a colonel in the province’s militia, commanding a regiment in that assault.
HALIFAX, GEORGE MONTAGU DUNK, 2ND EARL OF, (1716–1771) served as president of the British Board of Trade between 1748 and 1761, where he enacted a number of reforms with the assistance of his clerk and later secretary John Pownall. These measures greatly increased the influence and prestige of the board and encouraged Halifax to take a more active interest in the British colonies. In 1762, he was appointed secretary of state for the northern department, a post he held until the following year when he was appointed secretary of state for the southern department, making him the primary British official for the administration of the colonies until mid-July 1765 when he was succeeded by Henry Seymour Conway. Halifax strongly supported the notion of creating a new office, secretary of state for the colonies, to oversee the expanding British Empire.
HALLOWELL, BENJAMIN, (1724–1799) commanded the province sloop King George during the French and Indian War and in 1764 began serving as comptroller of customs for the port of Boston. His house was ransacked along with Hutchinson’s during the Stamp Act riots, although the damage was not nearly as extensive. Known for his belligerent and overbearing manner, Hallowell became even more unpopular after leading a customs raid on merchant Daniel Malcom in 1766, which nearly sparked a riot. In June 1768, the newly created members of the American Board of Customs sent him to England to apprise their superiors of the perilous situation of the customs service in Massachusetts. While in England, Hallowell was appointed a commissioner to the board itself, replacing John Temple who had increasingly been at odds with his fellow commissioners. Hallowell took up his duties when he returned to Boston in September 1770, an unpopular man in an unpopular job. Six years later, he became a loyalist refugee to Halifax when the British abandoned Boston.
HANCOCK, JOHN (1737–1793) Harvard graduate in 1754, was perhaps the richest merchant in Boston after inheriting his uncle Thomas’s fortune in 1764. Elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1766, he served there almost continuously until 1779, coming increasingly under the sway of Samuel Adams. Hancock owned the sloop Liberty, whose seizure for customs violations set off a wave of civil disturbances in Boston in June 1768. Hancock’s great wealth was widely viewed as bankrolling the activities of the Boston patriots. Government party printer John Mein once referred to Hancock as the “milch cow of the well-disposed.” In the early 1770s, though, Hutchinson nearly wooed Hancock to his side by proposing him for a seat on the Council, which Hancock subsequently declined. Any alliance between Hutchinson and Hancock ended with the publication of Hutchinson’s letters in 1773, and from that point on, Hancock was completely committed to the patriot cause, eventually serving as president of the Second Continental Congress and governor of the state of Massachusetts.
HATCH, NATHANIEL, (1723–1784) a 1742 Harvard graduate, served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for Dorchester from 1758 to 1761 and clerk of the Massachusetts Superior Court beginning sometime before 1751 up until the outbreak of hostilities in 1775. Hatch’s father had been involved in the Land Bank scheme and became a major creditor of Samuel Adams’s father. The money was never repaid, although Hatch later tried to collect from Samuel Adams. In 1762, Hatch accepted an appointment with the customs service in Boston, a role he maintained throughout this period. In November 1773, he assisted Richard Clarke in facing down a patriot crowd angry about Clarke’s role as a tea consignee. Hatch was also appointed a mandamus councilor in 1774, one of the few to actually take the oath of office. Later, as an exile in England, he committed suicide.
HAWLEY, JOSEPH, (1723–1788) a Yale graduate in 1742, was a lawyer from western Massachusetts who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives periodically after 1751, although he didn’t become an active member until 1766, when he emerged as one of the most vocal and fiery critics of Crown policies. Hawley was considered the leading patriot in western Massachusetts. He acted as defense counsel for the so-called Berkshire Rioters at the time of the Stamp Act crisis and later worked in the House to pass a general pardon for all those arrested during demonstrations against the Stamp Act. Possessing enormous influence over the other representatives from the western portion of the province, Hawley was a lifelong political foe of Hutchinson’s close friend Israel Williams and later of Hutchinson himself. He suffered from severe depression, though, and eventually withdrew from public affairs.
HILLSBOROUGH, WILLS HILL, 1ST EARL OF, (1718–1793) Irish peer and privy councilor, served as president of the Board of Trade in the Grenville administration from April 1763 to July 1765 and again briefly in 1766. He was the first to hold the newly created office of secretary of state for the colonies, serving in that position from January 1768 to August 1772. During that period, he was also again president of the Board of Trade. Hillsborough was strongly influenced by Governor Francis Bernard and accepted his views on Massachusetts affairs. Proverbial for arrogance and close-mindedness, he did much to exacerbate relations between England and the colonies. Even out of office, he worked strenuously against making any concessions to the Americans.
HOLLIS, THOMAS, (1720–1774) English Dissenter and philanthropist, was the great-nephew of Harvard’s benefactor of the same name during the 1720s. In his turn, Hollis also supported Harvard College, particularly with a substantial donation of books for Harvard’s library after the fire of 24 January 1764.
HOOD, SAMUEL, 1ST VISCOUNT (1724–1816) known as one of the most aggressive admirals in the British navy, was stationed in North America during the French and Indian War and later served as commander-in-chief of the North American station from April 1767 to October 1770. His flagship was the H.M.S. Romney. Among his duties were the enforcement of customs regulations and the transport of British troops to Boston in September 1768.
HOPKINS, STEPHEN, (1707–1785) served intermittently as governor of Rhode Island nine times from 1755 to 1768 in a series of one-year terms. He also served with Hutchinson at the Albany Conference in 1754. An opponent of George Grenville’s revenue program, Hopkins published two influential pamphlets in 1764: An Essay on the Trade of the Northern Colonies and The Rights of Colonies Examined, the latter of which was written in response to the Stamp and Sugar acts. Later, he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
HUBBARD, THOMAS, (1702–1773) was one of Boston’s members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1746 to 1759, serving as Speaker of the House from 1750 to 1759. In 1759, he was elected to the Council and began a twelve-year stint as commissary general for the province. A 1721 graduate of Harvard College, Hubbard served as treasurer of that institution beginning in 1752, made several donations, and acted in conjunction with Hutchinson on a committee to raise funds for the college following the fire of 24 January 1764.
HULTON, HENRY (1731–1790) was a British customs official who arrived in Boston on 5 November 1767 to take up a post as one of the newly appointed commissioners of the American Board of Customs. He was generally considered its head. Hulton’s Brookline house was attacked by a mob in June 1770, marking one of the three times he and his family sought shelter from angry crowds at Castle William. The family stayed in Boston through the British occupation and returned to England when British troops evacuated the town in March 1776.
HUTCHINSON, ELISHA, (1743–1824) Hutchinson’s second son and a Harvard graduate in 1762, joined his elder brother, Thomas Hutchinson Jr., in taking over their father’s mercantile business in the mid-1760s. Both brothers resisted taking part in the nonimportation agreement and were publicly chastised by the patriots for their noncompliance. Although they were eventually compelled to sign, they continued to sell imported goods quietly until early 1770 when the patriots forced them to turn over all the goods they held as well as money the patriots claimed they had made in violation of the agreement. In the summer of 1773, the brothers were named consignees for the East India Company’s tea, jointly holding a one-third share. As tensions rose between the patriots and the tea consignees, Elisha fled first to Castle William and then to the home of his kinsman, Chief Justice Peter Oliver. In 1772, Elisha married Mary (Polly) Watson, the daughter of Colonel George Watson of Plymouth. The couple’s appearance in Plymouth while visiting her parents in January 1774 nearly caused a riot, the public sentiment against the tea consignees was so strong. Elisha traveled to England with his father in June 1774, although his wife and child didn’t join him there until three years later. The family then settled in England.
HUTCHINSON, FOSTER, (1724–1799) Hutchinson’s younger brother, was appointed Suffolk County judge of common pleas in 1758. In 1765, he replaced his brother as judge of probate for Suffolk County during the Stamp Act crisis, an appointment that was originally to last for only a year but was subsequently made permanent. The charge that Foster owed his appointments to his brother rather than his own abilities persisted throughout his life.
HUTCHINSON, MARGARET (PEGGY), (1754–1777) Hutchinson’s youngest daughter, was named after her mother, who died shortly after giving birth. She never married and remained her father’s companion throughout her life. She traveled with him to England in June 1774. Her death at a young age from consumption was a severe blow to Hutchinson.
HUTCHINSON, MARGARET SANFORD, (1716–1754) was the granddaughter of Governor Peleg Sanford of Rhode Island. She married Hutchinson in May 1734 and died after complications in the birth of her twelfth child (only five of the children survived to adulthood). Hutchinson never remarried. Her elder sister, Mary, married Andrew Oliver, connecting the two families in what became a powerful political and commercial alliance.
HUTCHINSON, SARAH (SALLY), (1744–1780) was Hutchinson’s eldest daughter and, after 1770, the wife of Peter Oliver Jr., a Middleborough doctor. Although neither of them played an active role in politics, the positions of their respective fathers made them a source of patriot suspicion. They fled Middleborough for the relative safety of Boston during the winter of 1774–1775 and later embarked for England along with Thomas Hutchinson Jr. and the rest of the family in March 1776 when the British left.
HUTCHINSON, THOMAS, JR. (TOMMY), (1740–1811) was Hutchinson’s namesake and eldest son. A 1758 Harvard graduate and, briefly, a clerk in the province secretary’s office, he eventually took over his father’s mercantile business together with his brother Elisha. As he reached adulthood, Thomas Jr. became his father’s trusted colleague, representing his father’s interests in England while Hutchinson sought compensation from the British government for the destruction of his house in the Stamp Act riots of August 1765. Thomas Jr. and Elisha maintained the family’s prosperous mercantile business in Boston, although they frequently ran afoul of the patriots. The brothers were among the last to sign the nonimportation agreement, and they ignored it as best they could even after they had signed it. In 1770, Thomas Jr. solidified the connection of the Hutchinson and Oliver families by marrying Sarah, Andrew Oliver’s daughter. As tea consignees in 1773, Thomas Jr. and Elisha once again became the focus of patriot anger. Fearing mob violence, Thomas Jr. fled to Castle William in late November 1773 and then moved to his father’s house in Milton in January 1774. He was appointed a mandamus councilor in August 1774, although he resigned the position after just two weeks. In November 1774, five months after his father’s departure for England, Thomas Jr. and most of the extended Hutchinson family moved into Boston, believing it was safer for loyalists than the Massachusetts countryside. He and the rest of the family departed for England with the British during the evacuation of March 1776.
HUTCHINSON, WILLIAM SANFORD (BILLY), (1752–1780) Hutchinson’s youngest son, graduated from Harvard in 1770. Although adored by his father, William proved something of a ne’er-do-well and seemed to lack the diligent and hardworking values of the rest of his family. He traveled to England in May 1772 in an unsuccessful effort to secure a government appointment through his father’s contacts in London, but nothing came of it. He never returned to America, but the rest of his family eventually joined him in England—first his father, his sister Margaret, and his brother Elisha in late June 1774, and then the rest of the family in the spring of 1776. William died of consumption at the age of 27, which was a severe blow to Hutchinson during the last months of his life.
INGERSOLL, JARED, (1722–1781) was a prominent lawyer from Connecticut who served as the colony’s agent from 1758 to 1762 and from 1764 to 1765. While in London, he worked against the passage of the Revenue Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act, although George Grenville and Thomas Whately eventually convinced him to help the government formulate the details of the latter. Ingersoll then accepted an appointment as Connecticut’s stamp distributor and returned to America, where public opposition forced him to resign the position.
JACKSON, RICHARD, (1721?–1787) was a lawyer of the Inner Temple in London. He was a member of Parliament in 1762 and again from 1768 to 1784, counselor to the South Sea Company from 1764 to 1767, law-officer for the Board of Trade from 1770 to 1782, and a lord of the treasury from 1782 to 1783. He was also a private secretary to George Grenville. Widely known for his intelligence and the extent of his political and professional connections, Jackson became an active participant in colonial affairs, serving as agent for Connecticut (1760–1770), Pennsylvania (1763–1769), and Massachusetts (1765–1766). He and Hutchinson engaged in a lengthy correspondence regarding the organization of the empire.
LEE, JOSEPH, (1711–1802) a 1729 Harvard graduate, was a Boston merchant and judge who generally tried to avoid political involvement. However, in 1764, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives from Cambridge and served in that body for two years. Lee allied himself with Hutchinson and used his influence, both in office and out, to further government party causes. He stood by Richard Clarke when the latter was besieged by an angry crowd in November 1773 because of his appointment as a tea consignee. Lee was named a mandamus councilor in 1774 and was one of the few to actually take the oath of office. He fled Massachusetts briefly in 1775 but returned two years later. His property was never confiscated by the patriots during the Revolution.
LOUDOUN, JOHN CAMPBELL, 4TH EARL OF (1705–1782) was commander-in-chief of British forces in North America during the French and Indian War. Arriving in America in July 1756, Loudoun thought little of colonial troops and found it frustrating to deal with provincial assemblies, even though he ultimately managed to secure what he needed. After British forces suffered several devastating military setbacks under Loudoun’s leadership, he was recalled to England in 1757 and replaced by James Abercromby.
LYNDE, BENJAMIN, JR., (1700–1781) a Harvard graduate in 1718, served as a member of the Council from 1737 to 1740 and again from 1743 to 1765. He was appointed to the Massachusetts Superior Court in 1746 and later presided over the Boston Massacre trial, a position that discomfited him greatly. He also presided over the murder trial of Ebenezer Richardson, a customs informant, who had fired a gun on a crowd assaulting his home and killed a boy. Lynde managed to get the charge against Richardson reduced to manslaughter. In 1771, he succeeded Hutchinson as chief justice when the latter became governor and relinquished all his other offices. Lynde resigned a year later, citing age. He remained in Massachusetts during the Revolution.
MACKINTOSH, EBENEZER, (1737–1816) a shoemaker by trade, was initially the leader of Boston’s South End crowd and then after 1765 the leader of the combined North and South Ends. Government officials suspected Mackintosh was the organizer of several public demonstrations, some of which descended into riots, during the 1760s—most notably the Stamp Act riots of August 1765. Afterwards, patriot leaders intervened to protect him from prosecution.
MAUDUIT, JASPER, (1696?–1772) served as Massachusetts agent from 1762 to 1765. A London woolen draper and Dissenter, he was also treasurer and then governor of the New England Company from 1748 to 1772. His brother, Israel, helped him with the Massachusetts agency, particularly during the tense period surrounding the passage of the Stamp Act in late 1764 and early 1765.
MAUDUIT, ISRAEL, (1708–1787) was a wealthy bachelor known as a politician and writer of political pamphlets. He unofficially began sharing the Massachusetts agency with his brother Jasper beginning in 1763 because of the latter’s failing health. His involvement with the agency ended in 1765, when Jasper was replaced by Dennys DeBerdt. Although Hutchinson was initially hesitant about the Mauduit brothers, he became a close friend of Israel. In fact, Israel ultimately became Hutchinson’s chief representative in London after the agency ended. Israel argued on Hutchinson’s behalf when the Privy Council was contemplating Hutchinson’s removal from office after the publication of his letters in 1773. He did not give his wholehearted support for the American cause until March 1778.
MAYHEW, JONATHAN, (1720–1766) a 1744 graduate of Harvard and pastor of West Church in Boston, delivered a sermon that some believed sparked the attack on Hutchinson’s house in August 1765. Mayhew had already developed a reputation as a dynamic preacher and published some of his more controversial writings in a book entitled Seven Sermons (Boston, 1749). The work brought him a great deal of notoriety in both England and America. Mayhew famously tangled with East Apthorp over theological questions in a long print war, carried out in pamphlets, sermons, and the newspapers. He also delivered a sermon at Harvard in August 1765 criticizing the efforts of Anglican missionaries in New England and opposing efforts to establish an American bishopric. Although his religious views tended to favor the patriot cause, Mayhew had no known affiliations with Boston’s patriot leaders. In fact, he professed to be a great admirer of Hutchinson, even owning a portrait of him at one time. After the attack on Hutchinson’s house, Mayhew distanced himself from the mob’s actions. He was just beginning to get drawn into politics at the time of his death.
MEIN, JOHN, was the printer of the Boston Chronicle, which supported Crown policies. Scottish by birth, Mein ran a print shop in Edinburgh before arriving in Boston in the fall of 1764, where he opened a bookstore and lending library called the London Book Shop. He began the Chronicle in late 1767 in partnership with John Fleming. The pair focused their criticism on the nonimportation agreement by publicizing the names of patriot merchants who continued to import goods despite the fact that they had signed the agreement. His disagreements with the patriots became even more pronounced after he assaulted John Gill in January 1768 shortly after Gill’s Boston Gazette published a personal attack on Mein. A perpetual thorn in the side of the Sons of Liberty, Mein was attacked on the streets of Boston in the fall of 1769 and forced to flee to the safety of Castle William. To Crown officials in London, he claimed that the provincial government had not provided him with sufficient protection to live in the town.
MOLINEUX, WILLIAM (1716–1774) was a merchant, smuggler, and patriot who was popular with the urban crowd. Merchant John Rowe described Molineux as “the first Leader in Dirty Matters.” Quick to anger, he became a polarizing figure, and one who was feared but not much respected, even among patriot leaders. Molineux was one of the many victims of Nathaniel Wheelwright’s spectacular bankruptcy in 1765 but recovered some financial stability in the years that followed. During the period when the nonimportation agreement was in effect, he founded a linen manufactory on Boston Common to employ poor women as spinners. Molineux may have taken his own life in 1774.
NORTH, LORD FREDERICK, 2ND EARL OF GUILFORD, (1732–1792) was called to form a ministry in 1770 and continued to serve until 1782. Known for his easygoing manner, loud voice, and sharp wit, North made great strides in bringing Britain’s debt under control, handled several crises around the globe in such places as the Falkland Islands, Ireland, and India, and hoped to oversee a period of relative calm in American affairs, particularly with the appointment of his conciliatory stepbrother, the Earl of Dartmouth, as secretary of state for the colonies. His efforts to restore fiscal stability to the East India Company, however, laid the groundwork for the Boston Tea Party and the Coercive Acts that followed. When war broke out between Britain and America, he tried to resign his office but King George III refused, and North was left with the difficult task of prosecuting a war he had not sought.
OLIVER, ANDREW, (1706–1774) Hutchinson’s brother-in-law and close friend, served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1743 to 1746, where he and Hutchinson worked to adopt a currency backed by hard money as the standard for the province. He was elevated to the Council in 1746 and remained there for nearly two decades. In 1758, Oliver became secretary for the province, a position he held until he became lieutenant governor in 1771. In 1765, he was appointed stamp distributor for Massachusetts, which prompted public outrage and his eventual resignation from the job. A staunch conservative, Oliver was regarded as Hutchinson’s loyal colleague throughout this period. The combined Hutchinson-Oliver family was a powerful force in Massachusetts business and politics.
OLIVER, PETER, (1713–1791) the younger brother of Andrew and a 1730 Harvard graduate, served as a justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court beginning in 1756. He was appointed chief justice in 1772, following the resignation of Benjamin Lynde Jr. He remained in that position, a very active political and judicial figure, until 1774. A stalwart friend of Hutchinson, Oliver remained a conservative figure in provincial politics throughout the pre-Revolutionary period and was named a mandamus councilor in 1774, although he never took the oath of office. Oliver went into exile in England after the British evacuation of Boston. At his death, he left behind a choleric manuscript history entitled the “Origin and Progress of the American War to 1776.”
OSBORNE, JOHN, (1688–1768) Boston merchant and long-standing member of the Council, was Hutchinson’s stepfather, having married in 1745 (as his third wife) Hutchinson’s widowed mother, Sarah Foster Hutchinson. He was an active political figure in the early years of Hutchinson’s career, serving on the Council almost continuously from 1731 to 1763. Osborne organized military supplies for the massive Louisbourg expedition of 1745. He also served as treasurer of the Old South Church for four decades, ending in 1768.
Otis, James, Jr., (1725–1783) a 1743 Harvard graduate, was the leading patriot voice during the 1760s. The son of Colonel James Otis Sr., Otis came from a distinguished Massachusetts family. He served as deputy advocate general of the vice-admiralty court from 1757 to 1761, before the writs of assistance case caused him to resign and argue for the other side on behalf of Boston merchants. His passionate plea in support of English liberties convinced many that a conspiracy was underway in Massachusetts and in Parliament to suppress the colonists’ traditional rights. Otis saw Hutchinson as the malign architect of such a plan and emerged as Hutchinson’s most fiery critic. Beginning in 1761, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a member from Boston. By 1765, he had formed a close association with Samuel Adams, and the two men exerted their influence to challenge Governor Francis Bernard and Hutchinson as much as possible, frequently inciting the House members with impassioned speeches on colonial rights and British usurpations. Not known for temperate language, Otis’s remarks offended many, including Customs Commissioner John Robinson, who assaulted Otis on 5 September 1769 in the British Coffeehouse in Boston. Otis was never quite the same. Increasingly unstable in later years, he became a liability to the patriot cause.
OTIS, JAMES, SR., (1702–1778) of Barnstable was a highly successful merchant, lawyer, militia colonel, and politician. He was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1745 and immediately became an ardent supporter of Governor William Shirley in his prosecution of King George’s War, particularly the expedition against Louisbourg. At the end of the decade, he worked with Hutchinson for currency reform. By the 1750s, Otis had risen to a position of influence in the House, holding prominent places on several important committees. In 1757, he turned his attention to gaining a seat on the Council and blamed Hutchinson when he failed to secure it. His son James Otis Jr. helped him secure the support of the new governor, Thomas Pownall. Otis claimed both Shirley and Pownall promised him the next available seat on the Superior Court, a position that Otis wanted deeply. It was a bitter disappointment when Governor Francis Bernard appointed Hutchinson to the vacancy in November 1760. Otis remained immersed in the business of the House, having become Speaker in May 1760, a position he held for the next two years. He finally gained his seat on the Council in 1762, although he served there for only three years. He returned to the Council in 1770 and served until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.
PALMER, CHARLTON, was a London attorney in Philpot Lane and presumably also a member of the London firm of Thomas Palmer & Co., East India brokers in Pigg Street. He handled most of Hutchinson’s business affairs in London.
PARTRIDGE, OLIVER, (1712–1782) of Hatfield was a 1730 Yale graduate, a militia colonel from western Massachusetts, and a close friend of Israel Williams. A long-serving member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Partridge was elected off and on from the 1740s through 1767. He attended the Albany Conference with Hutchinson in 1754.
PAXTON, CHARLES, (1708–1788) held several royal appointments, mainly in the customs service. He was initially surveyor and searcher of customs for Boston beginning in the 1730s; by 1768, he had become a commissioner of the American Board of Customs. Hutchinson’s lifelong friend, Paxton was generally despised by the merchant community for his zeal in seizing smuggled goods and for strictly enforcing the collection of duties. Paxton eventually went to London in exile after the British left Boston in March 1776.
PEMBERTON, EBENEZER, (1705–1777) was a prominent Presbyterian minister in New York and Boston, known for his support of religious toleration. Beginning in 1754, he was the minister for New Brick Church in Boston. The following year, he accepted a position as chaplain for the General Court, although he generally remained aloof from politics. Pemberton was devoted to his alma mater, Harvard College, and served on the Board of Overseers with Hutchinson; the two men also served on a committee to raise funds following the Harvard fire of 24 January 1764. He and Hutchinson were close friends, and Hutchinson frequently attended his church. Pemberton was one of the few Boston ministers to publicly support Hutchinson in the 1770s.
POWNALL, JOHN, (1725–1795) the younger brother of Thomas Pownall, was the influential secretary to the Board of Trade and undersecretary of state for the colonies in the decades leading up to the American Revolution. He joined the Board of Trade in 1741 as a clerk and became first joint secretary in 1753 and finally full secretary in 1758, a position he held until 1775. He advised the British government and formulated policy on colonial affairs, particularly at the Board of Trade, where he emerged as the dominant administrative force in that organization. As undersecretary of state for the colonies from 1768 to 1776, serving under both Lord Hillsborough and Lord Dartmouth, Pownall played a substantial role in colonial affairs.
POWNALL, THOMAS, (1722–1805) the older brother of John Pownall, was widely regarded as an authority on colonial affairs. He was an observer at the Albany Conference in 1754, where he first met Hutchinson, and advanced one of several plans of defense debated there. Lieutenant governor of New Jersey from 1755 to 1757, he challenged the influence of Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts, who was attempting to coordinate intercolonial defense. Having blackened Shirley’s name, he gained for himself the position of governor of Massachusetts, which he held from 1757 to 1760. During his tenure as governor, Pownall spent much time organizing the province’s contribution to fighting the French and Indian War. Sociable and politically astute, he made numerous friends in the province, particularly among the merchant community, but many of Shirley’s supporters remained suspicious of him. He suggested Hutchinson for the post of lieutenant governor, hoping to reconcile Shirley’s friends and convert the politically influential Hutchinson into an ally. The two men held such different views on almost every topic, however, that their relationship deteriorated quickly. Pownall returned to England in 1760 and later served as a member of Parliament beginning in 1767. After Pownall’s return to England, both Hutchinson and Pownall saw an advantage in keeping up a correspondence, despite their differences. In 1764, Pownall published The Administration of the Colonies which went through several subsequent editions in the next thirteen years (the first edition having been published anonymously). The book suggested a dramatic reform in imperial affairs.
PRESTON, THOMAS (circa 1722–1798?) was a captain of the Twenty-Ninth Regiment of Foot and commanding officer present at the Boston Massacre. The resulting trial centered on whether or not Preston had given an order to fire. He was subsequently acquitted of all charges, but fearing retribution from an angry Boston crowd, he fled to Castle William following the trial and then back to England after contributing his testimony to the legal defense of the other soldiers. He retired from the army soon after returning to England.
ROBINSON, JOHN (d. 1782) was the collector of customs at Newport, Rhode Island, and a commissioner of the American Board of Customs after 1767. After a prolonged verbal altercation with James Otis Jr., Robinson beat Otis severely on 5 September 1769 in the British Coffeehouse in Boston, setting off another wave of protests against the customs commissioners. Fearing retaliation by Boston crowds, Robinson went into hiding after the attack and later departed for Britain, ultimately settling in Wales.
ROCKINGHAM, CHARLES WATSON-WENTWORTH, 2ND MARQUIS OF (1730–1782) was invited to form a new administration in the summer of 1765 after the failure of negotiations between King George III and William Pitt. Leading the government that followed George Grenville, Rockingham faced continued unrest in America and the colonists’ resistance to the Stamp Act. He orchestrated the act’s repeal, although he also introduced the Declaratory Act to preserve the principle of Parliament’s right to tax the colonies. His short-lived administration ended in 1766 when George III reached an agreement with Pitt to form a new ministry. His followers, the so-called Rockingham Whigs, remained a force in British politics.
ROGERS, NATHANIEL, (circa 1736–1770) Hutchinson’s nephew, was the son of George Rogers and Hutchinson’s sister Lydia, who died in 1742. Hutchinson became Rogers’s guardian following the death of his parents. Caught up in the turmoil of the nonimportation controversy, Rogers never succeeded as a merchant.
RUGGLES, TIMOTHY, (1711–1795) Harvard graduate in 1732, lawyer, and soldier, was one of the three Massachusetts representatives to the Stamp Act Congress in New York in October 1765 and served as that body’s president. Disapproving of the opposition of the congress to Parliament’s right to tax the colonies, Ruggles refused to sign a petition its members had drafted to the king and Parliament. He left the congress in the middle of its session, returning to his home in western Massachusetts. The Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he had served for over twenty-two years, including a two-year stint as Speaker, publicly reprimanded him for his conduct at the Stamp Act Congress but denied Ruggles an opportunity to defend himself. In response, Ruggles published his reasons for leaving the congress in an article that appeared in the Boston Evening-Post on 5 May 1766. In 1774, he was named a mandamus councilor but never took the oath of office.
RUSSELL, CHAMBERS, (1713–1766) was a 1731 Harvard graduate, vice-admiralty court judge from 1746, Superior Court justice from 1752, member of the House of Representatives on and off after 1740, and member of the Council from 1759 to 1760. A loyal supporter of Crown policies, Russell held an unusually large number of high-level public offices. His positions as a judge on the vice-admiralty court and a justice of the Superior Court were particularly difficult to balance, although Russell maintained a reputation for disinterestedness by recusing himself in cases of perceived conflict of interest. Russell sailed for London in the fall of 1766, prompting concerns from the patriots that he planned to denounce them in England, but he died soon after arriving without doing so.
SANFORD, GRIZELL (1720–1792) the youngest of the three Sanford sisters, was Hutchinson’s unmarried sister-in-law, who lived as a member of his household. She helped care for Hutchinson’s children after the death of her sister, Hutchinson’s wife Margaret, in 1754.
SEWALL, JONATHAN (1729–1796) the nephew of jurist Stephen Sewall, was a Harvard graduate of 1748, attorney general of Massachusetts from 1767 to 1775, solicitor-general of Massachusetts from 1771 to 1775, and vice-admiralty court judge after 1769. Although a staunch government party man, Sewall repeatedly clashed with the American Board of Customs. He believed the commissioners often exceeded their authority and acted on too little evidence. Tension between Sewall and the customs commissioners reached a peak in early 1768, when Sewall refused to grant a search warrant for one of John Hancock’s ships. He later relented and allowed the search of another of Hancock’s ships, the Liberty, which led to a near riot. Despite Sewall’s eventual cooperation, the customs commissioners lobbied authorities in London to remove him from his posts, but they were unsuccessful after Governor Francis Bernard, Hutchinson, and Vice-Admiralty Judge Robert Auchmuty all publicly supported him. With a fine legal mind and a sharp wit, Sewall became one of the government party’s most influential writers under the pseudonyms “Philanthrop” and “Philalethes.” In return, the patriots repeatedly accused Sewall of corruption, a charge they could never make convincing. In the fall of 1774, Sewall became Thomas Gage’s private secretary. He eventually fled to England with his family when fighting broke out between the British and Americans in 1775, particularly after a crowd laid siege to his Cambridge home.
SHELBURNE, WILLIAM PETTY, 2ND EARL OF (1737–1805) was a prominent Whig and outspoken supporter of American rights who lobbied against the Stamp Act and the Declaratory Act. During the Chatham administration, Shelburne served as secretary of state for the southern department, during which time he was the primary British official overseeing American affairs. Despite his opposition to taxing the American colonists, he proved powerless to prevent Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend from enacting a series of measures in 1767 known as the Townshend duties. Even after Lord Hillsborough became secretary of state for the colonies, Shelburne continued to interest himself in American affairs. He resigned his office in October 1768 at the same time Lord Chatham left the ministry, and both men became vocal members of the opposition, arguing that the British Empire could not be held together by coercion. In March 1782 following the downfall of Lord North, Shelburne agreed to take office once again under the Marquis of Rockingham. Following the sudden and unexpected death of Rockingham on 1 July 1782 Shelburne succeeded him as the leading minister. His government collapsed in April 1783, largely because of public dissatisfaction with the terms of the Peace of Paris, which ended the American Revolution. He became the Marquis of Lansdowne in 1784.
SHIRLEY, WILLIAM, (1694–1771) influential governor of Massachusetts from 1741 to 1757, oversaw a number of controversial reforms in Massachusetts, most notably the province’s conversion to hard money in 1750–1751. Shirley built an enormous network of supporters through patronage, and his impact extended far beyond his years in office. Hutchinson was a dedicated Shirley supporter, which made his position all the more delicate when Thomas Pownall, Shirley’s nemesis, succeeded Shirley in 1757. In addition to serving as governor of Massachusetts, Shirley was also commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America from 1755 to 1756, in which capacity he vigorously prosecuted the French and Indian War.
SILLIMAN, EBENEZER, (1707–1775) was a 1727 Yale graduate, minister, and lawyer. He was also a representative in Connecticut’s General Assembly from 1730 to 1739, serving as Speaker for nearly half that time. In 1739, he won election to Connecticut’s Council of Assistants, a position he held until 1766. He was turned out of office because of his support for the Stamp Act. He later returned to the assembly, however, where he served until his death.
STILES, EZRA, (1727–1795) a 1746 Yale graduate, minister, and historian, led a large congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, from 1755 to 1776. In 1777, he served as pastor of a Congregational church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, before assuming the presidency of Yale College in 1778. At Yale, Stiles proved an influential figure, establishing the institution as a major educational center. He and Hutchinson shared an interest in New England history and corresponded on the topic, even occasionally exchanging original historical manuscripts.
TEMPLE, JOHN, (1732–1798) resided in Boston as surveyor-general of customs for the northern district of America from 1761 to 1767 with its headquarters in Boston. In 1767, he was appointed to the American Board of Customs. That same year, he married James Bowdoin’s daughter, Elizabeth. He was also lieutenant governor of New Hampshire between 1761 and 1774. Temple was a Bostonian by birth but maintained a close relationship with the well-connected English branch of his family, which included George Grenville and Richard Grenville Temple, 2nd Earl Temple. The connection secured him his lucrative post in the customs service. Although Temple was strict about customs enforcement, he pleased Boston merchants by cracking down on other ports within the district where enforcement had been notably lax, particularly Newport and New York. As the rest of the customs commissioners became more focused on Boston, Temple increasingly came into conflict with them and was removed from his position on the American Board of Customs in 1770. In the mid-1760s, Temple introduced his close friend Thomas Whately to Hutchinson, prompting many to suspect Temple of involvement when Hutchinson’s letters to Whately later appeared in Boston and the patriots used them to try to have Hutchinson removed from office.
THACHER, OXENBRIDGE, (1720–1765) a 1738 Harvard graduate and protégé of Governor Thomas Pownall, was an influential lawyer, author, and member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Thacher worked closely with James Otis Jr., proving himself a more reliable and reasonable figure than his erratic friend. Thacher was considered second only to Otis among the early patriot leaders. Both men believed that Hutchinson and his allies were willing to sacrifice American rights for their own personal gain. Thacher and Otis worked together throughout much of the early 1760s, with Thacher assisting Otis on the writs of assistance case and leading the charge to dismiss Hutchinson from the special agency proffered to him by the House in 1764. On one matter, though, Thacher and Hutchinson agreed: they objected to a movement to make both silver and gold legal tender in Massachusetts, and Thacher published a pamphlet to that effect in which he grudgingly agreed with Hutchinson. An ardent proponent of patriot causes, Thacher died unexpectedly of a smallpox inoculation.
TOWNSHEND, CHARLES, 4TH VISCOUNT, (1725–1767) as chancellor of the exchequer in the Chatham ministry from 1766 to 1767, proposed a series of indirect taxes on the American colonies after the uproar caused by the Stamp Act. The so-called Townshend duties called for taxes on a range of imported items, as well as the creation of a unified American Board of Customs and the reorganization of the juryless vice-admiralty courts.
TROWBRIDGE, EDMUND, (1709–1793) a 1728 graduate of Harvard, served as attorney general of Massachusetts from 1749 to 1767, after which he was a justice of the Superior Court. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for short periods in the 1750s and in 1763. He held a Council seat from 1764 to 1766, although he lost his seat in the purge of the Council in which Hutchinson was also removed. A reputation for fairness served him well when he was one of the judges presiding over the Boston Massacre trials. Trowbridge routinely provided Hutchinson with legal advice, although their relationship cooled after 1772 when Trowbridge believed that Hutchinson promoted his brother Foster Hutchinson beyond his abilities. Many historical accounts of Trowbridge claim that he resigned his position on the Superior Court in 1772, feeling the pressures of public office at a time of increasing tension between colonists and the British Crown. However, he actually remained on the bench until 1774. Before 1740, he used the surname Goffe in honor of his great-uncle and guardian, Colonel Edmund Goffe; Hutchinson often referred to him by that name.
TRYON, WILLIAM (1729–1788) governor first of North Carolina from 1764 to 1771 and then New York from 1771 to 1780, vigorously defended the Stamp Act in the face of colonial protests. In North Carolina, he refused to allow the assembly to meet for much of 1765 and almost all of 1766 in an effort to prevent the colonists from passing a remonstrance against the law. He zealously put down the Regulator movement in North Carolina, an uprising of 2,000 colonists that ended in their defeat at the Battle of Alamance in May 1771. Shortly thereafter, Tryon exchanged the North Carolina government for New York, where he clashed with the Sons of Liberty over the Tea Act. He and Hutchinson corresponded regularly in the early 1770s, sharing information about their respective situations as governors in provinces with growing patriot discontent. They also worked together to resolve some of the border disputes between Massachusetts and New York that had plagued the two provinces for decades. Tryon traveled to England in 1774, leaving Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Colden in charge and not returning until the spring of 1775, by which time war had broken out between the British and Americans. He finally left New York at the end of the Revolution, returning to England where he remained for the rest of his life.
WENTWORTH, BENNING, (1696–1770) served as the first royal governor of New Hampshire from 1741 to 1767 and surveyor of the king’s woods, with the latter position contributing greatly to his wealth. He became proverbial for his adroit manipulation of patronage and his tenacious hold on power. He and Hutchinson traveled from England together in 1741 when Wentworth came to America to begin his governorship.
WHALLEY, EDWARD, (circa 1613–circa 1675) was a regicide who fled to America at the time of the Restoration, hiding first at New Haven, Connecticut, and then Hadley, Massachusetts. The exact place and circumstances of Whalley’s death remain unknown, although rumors that Whalley lived longer and traveled throughout the colonies persisted, probably because he was mistaken for his brother Robert, who lived in Virginia and Rhode Island. As a historian, Hutchinson was deeply interested in the fate of Whalley and his companion William Goffe.
WHATELY, THOMAS (1726–1772) was a member of Parliament, commissioner of the Board of Trade, and undersecretary of the treasury in the Grenville ministry, in which capacity he was the primary author of the Stamp Act. After an introduction by letter from John Temple, Whately corresponded with Hutchinson on the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain. Whately was one of a group of political theorists in England, along with Francis Bernard, Thomas Pownall, and Lord Hillsborough, who came to believe that the colonial system required extensive changes. A year after Whately’s death, some of Hutchinson’s letters to him discussing such changes were published in the pamphlet Letters Sent to Great-Britain. Massachusetts patriots thought the letters proof of Hutchinson’s involvement in a conspiracy to undermine colonial rights and misrepresent their cause.
WILKES, JOHN, (1729–1797) was a controversial journalist and politician. Serving as a member of the British House of Commons and ally of William Pitt beginning in 1757, Wilkes gained notoriety in the early 1760s with his caustic political weekly, The North Briton, where he championed freedom of speech and opposed general warrants. The publication of The North Briton No. 45, criticizing King George III, resulted in libel charges being filed against him and his expulsion from Parliament in 1764. Wilkes fled to France to avoid prosecution but returned to England in 1768 amidst public acclaim, thanks largely to a changed political climate. On both sides of the Atlantic, Wilkes served as a symbol of liberty.
WILLARD, JOSIAH, (1681–1756) was a 1698 Harvard graduate, shipmaster, college tutor, judge, devoted adherent of George Whitefield’s religious revivalism, member of the Council from 1734 to 1755, and long-serving secretary of Massachusetts from 1717 to 1756. Over the years, he became Hutchinson’s good friend.
WILLIAMS, ISRAEL, (1709–1788) Hutchinson’s Harvard classmate, was a leading figure in western Massachusetts from the 1730s until the 1770s. Williams served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the 1730s but declined office during the following decade because he had twice been fined for absence. He maintained that his business affairs in Hadley prevented him from traveling to Boston for the long periods necessary to attend House sessions. Beginning in 1748, Williams again accepted a seat in the House, although his attendance at its sessions remained spotty for the next decade. In 1760, he left the House to assume a seat on the Council, which he held until the Council purge of 1766 which also forced out Hutchinson. Throughout his life, the province’s government and his neighbors called upon him to settle disputes with bordering colonies and with the local Native Americans, and he held numerous public offices. Most notably, in 1754, he secured an appointment from Governor William Shirley as commander of the military forces of Hampshire County and undertook the task of building forts to defend the Connecticut River valley against possible French and Native American attack. One of Hutchinson’s closest friends, Williams remained a staunch government party man throughout his life and was publicly associated with Hutchinson and Crown policies in western Massachusetts. In 1774, he was appointed a mandamus councilor, although he never took the oath of office. Remarkably, he was not proscribed by the Massachusetts government during the war, although he was apparently watched closely by local officials.
WILSONN, ROBERT, was a London stationer who often conducted business for Hutchinson in England, acting as his informal agent there. Hutchinson boarded with him during his 1741 visit to London.
WORTHINGTON, JOHN, (1719–1800) a 1740 Yale graduate, served as representative to the Massachusetts House of Representatives from Springfield, Massachusetts, periodically from 1747 to 1774, with a two-year stint on the Council beginning in 1767. He was a good friend of Israel Williams and shared his views on Crown policies. Worthington and Hutchinson both served as Massachusetts delegates to the Albany Conference in 1754. Worthington later turned down an appointment to the Stamp Act Congress in New York. Hutchinson unsuccessfully tried to convince Worthington that his presence, as one of the most loyal supporters of the government, was required at the General Court to offset the influence of the Boston members. By the early 1770s, Worthington became convinced that his association with the government party had damaged his reputation among his constituents and began to retreat from politics. He was appointed a mandamus councilor in 1774 but never took the oath of office. During the war, a group of patriots in Springfield forced Worthington to kneel in the center of town and ask for forgiveness for his support of British rule.