Thomas Hutchinson (governor)

Thomas Hutchinson
Portrait by Edward Truman, 1741
12th Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay
In office 14 March 1771 – 17 May 1774
Lieutenant	Andrew Oliver
Preceded by	Himself (acting)
Succeeded by	Thomas Gage
Acting Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay
In office 3 June 1760 – 2 August 1760
Preceded by	Thomas Pownall
Succeeded by	Francis Bernard
In office 2 August 1769 – 14 March 1771
Preceded by	Francis Bernard
Succeeded by	Himself (as governor)
Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay
In office 1758 – 14 March 1771
Preceded by	Spencer Phips
Succeeded by	Andrew Oliver
Personal details
Born	9 September 1711 Boston, Massachusetts Bay
Died	3 June 1780(1780-06-03) (aged 68) Brompton, Middlesex Great Britain
Political party	Loyalist
Spouse	Margaret Sanford ​ ​ (m. 1732; died 1754)​
Children	12 (5 survived to adulthood)
Profession	politician, businessman
Signature

Thomas Hutchinson (9 September 1711 – 3 June 1780) was an American merchant, politician, historian, and colonial administrator who repeatedly served as governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the years leading up to the American Revolution. He has been described as "the most important figure on the loyalist side in pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts".^[1] Hutchinson was a successful merchant and politician who was active at high levels of the Massachusetts colonial government for many years, serving as lieutenant governor and then governor from 1758 to 1774. He was a politically polarizing figure who came to be identified by John Adams and Samuel Adams as a supporter of unpopular British taxes, despite his initial opposition to Parliamentary tax laws directed at the colonies. Hutchinson was blamed by British Prime Minister Lord North for being a significant contributor to the tensions that led to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.^[2]

Hutchinson's Boston mansion was ransacked in 1765 during protests against the Stamp Act, damaging his collection of materials on the history of Massachusetts. As acting governor in 1770, he personally visited the aftermath of the Boston Massacre, an event after which he ordered the removal of British occupational troops from Boston to Castle William. Letters of his calling for the abridgment of colonial rights were published in 1773, further intensifying opposition towards him in the colony. Hutchinson was replaced as governor in May 1774 by General Thomas Gage and went into exile in England, where he advised the British government on its dealings with the colonists.

He had a deep interest in the colonial history of the United States, collecting many historical documents. Hutchinson wrote a three-volume History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay whose last volume, published posthumously, covered his own period in office. Historian Bernard Bailyn wrote of Hutchinson, "If there was one person in America whose actions might have altered the outcome [of the protests and disputes preceding the American Revolutionary War], it was he."^[3] Scholars use Hutchinson's career to represent the tragic fate of the many Loyalists marginalized by their attachment to the British imperial system at a time when the American nation-state was emerging. He exemplified the difficulties experienced by Loyalists, paralyzed by his ideology and his dual loyalties to America and Britain. Hutchinson sacrificed his love for Massachusetts for his loyalty to Great Britain, where he spent his last years in an unhappy exile.^[4]