Biographical Sketches

Thomas Hutchinson (1711-1780) was born on 9 September 1711 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Thomas Hutchinson, Sr. and Sarah Foster Hutchinson. The Hutchinson family was prominent in Boston dating back to nonconformist Anne Hutchinson. Thomas married Margaret Sanford of Newport, Rhode Island, in 1734. They had several children, though only five survived to adulthood: William Hutchinson (1735-1780), Thomas Hutchinson (1740-1811), Sarah Hutchinson Oliver (1744-), Elisha Hutchinson (1745-1824), and Margaret Hutchinson (1753-1777). Margaret Sanford Hutchinson died shortly after the birth of their youngest daughter Margaret.

Thomas Hutchinson graduated from Harvard College in 1727 and officially began his political career in 1737 as a Boston selectman. Within a year, he was elected to the Massachusetts colonial legislature. He was chosen as speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1746 and later served as a judge for both the Suffolk County Probate Court and the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, eventually rising to the position of chief justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, a position he held from 1760 to 1769. He sat on the Governor's Council from 1749 to 1766 and served as lieutenant governor from 1758 to 1771. In 1771, he was appointed by the king to the office of governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and he held that office until 1774, though he struggled to maintain control amidst rising tensions. During his political career, Thomas Hutchinson also published volumes of a history of Massachusetts.

Thomas Hutchinson was deeply loyalist and did not support American independence from the British crown. Thus, colonists' opinions of Hutchinson declined, and after the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765, his Boston home was ransacked by a mob. He was also acting governor when the Boston Massacre occurred and governor during the Boston Tea Party. Immediately after the Boston Tea Party, he was replaced as governor with General Thomas Gage. Hutchinson sailed to England in 1774 and remained in London until his death on 3 June 1780.

Elisha Hutchinson (1745-1824) was born on 24 December 1745 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Thomas Hutchinson and Margaret Sanford Hutchinson. He married Margaret Watson in 1772, and they had three daughters and two sons, George Hutchinson (1782-1818) and John Hutchinson (1793-1865). Elisha graduated from Harvard College in 1762. He and his oldest brother Thomas Hutchinson were commercial partners for the British East India Company and were connected to the shipments of tea destroyed in the Boston Tea Party. Elisha was forced to flee to England with his father in 1774, and his wife Margaret joined him three years later. He remained overseas until his death on 24 June 1824 in Tutbury, England.

Margaret Watson Hutchinson (1754-1803) was born on 15 April 1754 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to Colonel George Watson and Elizabeth Oliver Watson. She had three younger siblings, though only one lived to adulthood, Elizabeth "Eliza" Watson Temple (1767-1809). Their mother Elizabeth died in 1767 at the age of 31, and Margaret and her sister were raised by their maternal grandparents, Peter Oliver and Mary Lynde Oliver. At 18 years old, Margaret, also known as "Mary" or "Polly," married Elisha Hutchinson. When Elisha left for England with his father in 1773, Margaret stayed behind due to her pregnancy. After the American Revolution broke out, she joined her husband in England, where she died in May 1803.

Peter Oliver (1713-1791) was born on 17 March 1713 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Daniel Oliver and Elizabeth Belcher Oliver. He married Mary Clarke (1713-1755) in 1733, and their children included Elizabeth Oliver Watson (1735-1767), Doctor Peter Oliver, Jr. (1741-1822), and Andrew Oliver (1745-1772). Peter, Sr. had an older brother Andrew Oliver (1706-1774), and together they ran an importing business. Peter was a British loyalist and served as chief justice of the Superior Court of Judicature in Massachusetts and as a member of both the House of Representatives and the Governor's Council. Like other loyalists in Massachusetts, Peter fled to England due to political unrest. He died on 23 September 1791 in Birmingham, England.

Peter Orlando Hutchinson (1810-1897) was born in Winchester, England. He was the great-grandson of Thomas Hutchinson, as well as an historian, diarist, and artist. In the 1880s, Peter compiled and published Governor Hutchinson's diary and letters.