Thomas Preston (British Army officer)

Captain Thomas Preston (c.1722—c. 1798) was a British military officer who served in Boston, Massachusetts. He commanded the troops involved in the Boston Massacre in 1770 and was tried for murder, but was acquitted. Historians have never settled whether he ordered his men to fire on the colonists. Preston was originally from Ireland; his people were among the Protestants settled there.^[1]