Thomas Cushing (1725–1788)

American statesman, born in Boston, MA, on the 24th of March 1725. He graduated at Harvard College in 1744. In 1766 he became a member of the Massachusetts assembly, and was speaker of that body for several years. He was elected to the first Continental Congress in 1774, and was re-elected in 1775. He was a candidate for re-election in 1776, but, owing to his opposition to the Declaration of Independence, was defeated. Subsequently he became lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts, and in 1788 was a member of the convention that ratified the Federal Constitution. He died in Boston on the 28th of February 1788.