Signer of the Declaration of Independence, born in Boston, MA, on the 11th of March 1731; graduated at Harvard in 1749; became first a preacher, and later studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1759; prominent in the prosecution of a British regular army officer for his participation in the Boston Massacre of 1770. He served in the Colonial Legislature (1773); in the Provincial Congress (1774–75); and in the Continental Congress (1774–78). After the formation of the United States government he became attorney-general of Massachusetts (1780–90); judge of the supreme court of the state (1790–1804); and was founder of the American Academy of Massachusetts. He died in Boston on the 11th of May 1814.
