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How To Become a Colonial Governor: Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Malcolm Freiberg
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Extract

IfHeThought about it at all, Thomas Hutchinson1 must have realized that he became governor of Massachusetts in 1771 by ignoring the old rules and abiding by a new set of his own. The four previous incumbents — he had served under them all in one capacity or another — had relied on influence or a family connection or plain luck. None of these alternatives was open to Hutchinson. In his grammar of politics the principle items were things like positions, service, and point of view. None of these might have meant anything without a fourth element: desire. Hutchinson had that, too.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 1959 , pp. 646 - 656
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1959

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References

1 This story is based upon a paper delivered at a meeting of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, May 2, 1957, at Lincoln, Nebraska.

2 On Jonathan Belcher, governor from 1730 to 1741, see Shipton, Clifford K., Biographical Sketches of Those Who Attended Harvard College in the Classes 1690–1700, with Bibliographical and Other Notes, Sibley's Harvard Graduates, IV (Cambridge, 1953), 434–449Google Scholar; on William Shirley (1741–1756), see Wood, George A., William Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, 1741–1756: A History, I, Columbia University, Faculty of Political Science, Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, Vol. 92, No. 209 (New York, 1920)Google Scholar; on Thomas Pownall (1757–1760), see Schutz, John A., Thomas Pownall, British Defender of American Liberty: a Study in Anglo-American Relations in the Eighteenth Century, Old Northwest Historical Series, V (Glendale, 1951)Google Scholar; and on Francis Bernard (1760–1769), see Fiore, Jordan D., Francis Bernard, Colonial Governor (Ph.D. Dissertation, Boston University, 1950)Google Scholar.

3 For the Hutchinson genealogy, see The Diary and Letters of His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, ed. Hutchinson, Peter O., 2 vols. (London, (1883–1886), II, 456–478Google Scholar.

4 Hutchinson, , Diary and Letters, I, 46, 47, 48Google Scholar.

5 Belcher, Jonathan to Harrison, Francis, Boston, 06 27, 1734, Belcher Papers, Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Sixth Series, VI–VII (Boston, 1893–1894), II, 77Google Scholar; Hutchinson, Thomas Sr, Last Will and Testament, Suffolk County Probate Records (Suffolk County Courthouse, Boston), XXXIV, 521–525Google Scholar.

6 Belcher, to Harrison, , Boston, 06 27, 1734, Belcher Papers, II, 77Google Scholar.

7 The Acts and Resolves Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts- Bay, 21 vols. (Boston, 1869–1922), XV, 598, XVI, 176–177Google Scholar.

8 “I have near 4000£ in England 400 £ of which is in the publick Funds and the remainder my Correspondent is in East India Warrants at 5 per Cent and if you think it proper I should like this might be improvd the same way I mean the 5 Per CentWarrants.” Thomas Hutchinson to [Charlton Palmer], Boston, April 25, 1774, British Museum, Egerton MSS. 2661 (Mass. Hist. Soc. microfilm), 23.

9 Hutchinson to Josiah Willard, London, July 31, 1741, Massachusetts Archives (State House, Boston), XXV, 1–6; John Thomlinson to Theodore Atkinson, London, July 14, 1741, and Mr. Thomlinson's Observations referred to in his Letter of 14 July 1741, Atkinson-Thomlinson Correspondence (Mass. Hist. Soc. photostat).

10 In 1742 and from 1744 to 1749 Hutchinson was named, failing to serve only in 1746 and 1747.

11 Hutchinson to the Governor, Council and House, Boston, February 3, 1748, Mass. Archives, CII, 366–369; Acts and Resolves, III, 430–441.

12 In 1736 with the anonymous pamphlet published in Boston, A Letter to a Member of the Honourable House of Representatives, On the present State of the Bills of Credit, and on March 12, 1740 with a petition to the Legislature now in Mass. Archives, CII, 29–31.

13 Thumb, Tom [pseud.], The Monster of Monsters ([Boston], 1754), pp. 6–7Google Scholar.

14 Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York, ed. O'Callaghan, E. B. and Fernow, Berthold, 15 vols. (Albany, 1856–1887), VI, 853–892Google Scholar; Heads of Instructions to the Commissioners of this Province appointed to meet at Albany with Commissioners from the other British Governments on the Continent, in America, n. p., April 17–19, 1754, Mass. Archives, IV, 468–470; Hutchinson, , Diary and Letters, I, 54–55Google Scholar; Hutchinson to Peter Oliver, [London], May 25, 1775, B. M., Edgerton MSS. 2661, 153; Wyman, Thomas B. Jr, “New Brick Church, Boston. List of Persons connected therewith from 1722 to 1775. Compiled from the Records,” New England Historical & Genealogical Register, XVIII (10, 1864), 344Google Scholar; A [Twenty-fourth] Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, containing Boston Births from A.D. 1700 to A.D. 1800 (Boston, 1894), p. 280Google Scholar. Only five of the children lived to maturity.

15 Gipson, Lawrence H., “Thomas Hutchinson and the Framing of the Albany Plan,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LXXIV (01, 1950), 5–35Google Scholar. See also the exchange of letters between Verner W. Crane and Professor Gipson in ibid., LXXV (July, 1951), 350–362.

16 Particularly those in his Diary and Letters, I, 55, and in his The History of the Colony and Province of Massachusetts Bay, ed. Mayo, Lawrence S., 3 vols. (Cambridge, 1936), III, 16Google Scholar

In 1769 Hutchinson made the statement that at Albany he “was in favour of an Union of the Governments for certain purposes” and that he “drew the plan which was then accepted.” Hutchinson to Francis Bernard, Boston, October 27,1769, Mass. Archives, XXVI, 395. Later observers who read this statement as Hutchinson's claim to authorship of the Albany Plan were quick to divest him of such a role. See Historical Memoirs from 16 March 1763 to 9 July 1776 of William Smith, ed. Sabine, William H. W. (New York, 1956), pp. 235, 236Google Scholar, and The Remembrancer, or Impartial Repository of Public Events for the Year MDCCLXXV (London, n.d.), p. 47. Actually, Hutchinson's statement makes sense only in reference to his “Representation,” which was “accepted” at Albany, and not to Franklin's Plan of Union, which was not.

17 See the Hutchinson-Loudoun Correspondence (Henry E. Huntington Library; Brown University microfilm).

18 Thomas Pownall to the Earl of Halifax, Boston, September 4, 1757, Massachusetts MSS., Miscellaneous, 1756–1758 (Library of Congress); Publicationsof the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, II (1913), 301–302Google Scholar.

19 Hutchinson to Jeffery Amherst, Boston, May, 1760, Public Record Office, War Office 34, vol. 26 (Library of Congress photostat), 133; to Richard Jackson, Boston, November 5, 1764, Mass. Archives, XXVI, 111.

20 Bernard to Halifax, Boston, November 17, 1760, Sparks MSS. 4 (Harvard College Library), Bernard Papers, I, 283.

21 The Works of John Adams, ed. Adams, Charles F., 10 vols. (Boston, 1850–1856), II, 99–100Google Scholar.

22 Josiah, Quincy Jr, Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Superior Court of Judicature of the Province of Massachusetts, between 1761 and 1772 (Boston, 1865), pp. 50–57Google Scholar; Bernard to the Lords of Trade, Boston, November 30, 1765, Sparks MSS. 4, Bernard Papers, IV, 177. See also Frese, Joseph R., Writs of Assistance in the American Colonies, 1660–1776 (Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 1951)Google Scholar.

23 Journal Of the … House of Representatives, Of … Massachusetts-Bay … 1763 (Boston, 1763), p. 236Google Scholar; Hutchinson to ?, Boston, February 7, 1764, Mass. Archives, XXVI, 77.

24 House Journal, 1763, pp. 258–259; Hutchinson to Richard Jackson, Cambridge, February 3, 1764, Mass. Archives, XXVI, 83; Bernard to Jackson, Cambridge, February 2, 1764, Sparks MSS. 4, Bernard Papers, III, 124–125.

25 See Morgan, Edmund S., “Thomas Hutchinson and the Stamp Act,” New England Quarterly, XXI (12, 1948), 459–492CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Hutchinson to Ebenezer Silliman, Boston, November 9, 1764, Mass. Archives, XXVI, 117; Boston Gazette, July 8, 1765.

27 Hutchinson to Henry Seymour Conway, Boston, October 1, 1765, Mass. Archives, XXVI, 154–156.

28 Hutchinson to Jackson, Boston, January 17, October 26, 1767, Mass. Archives, XXVI, 258–259, XXV, 207; Essay on Taxation, ibid., XXV, 121–135; Dialogue between a European and an American, ibid., XXVIII, 102–109; see also Hutchinson to ?, n.p., n.d., ibid., XXV, 279–280.

29 Bernard to t he Earl of Hillsborough, Boston, December 26, 1768, January 24, 1769, Sparks MSS. 4, Bernard Papers, VII, 118–121, 124–125.

30 Bernard to Lord Barrington, Boston, August 27, 1768, The Barrington- Bernard Correspondence and Illustrative Matter, 1760–1770, ed. Channing, Edward and Coolidge, Archibald C., Harvard Historical Studies, XVII (Cambridge and London, 1912), p. 174Google Scholar; Hutchinson to William Bollan, n.p., November 1 [?], 1768, Mass. Archives, XXVI, 328.

31 Hutchinson to Loudoun, Boston, April 6, 21, 23, 1757 (Huntington Library); Hutchinson, , Diary and Letters, I, 56Google Scholar.

32 Hutchinson to Nathaniel Rogers, Milton, May 3 1, 1768, Mass. Archives, XXV, 259.

33 Thomas Hutchinson, Jr., to Hutchinson, London, July, 1766, Mass.Archives, XXV, 86.

34 Hutchinson to ?, n.p., [July 18, 1767], Mass, Archives, XXVI, 267; Bernard to Jackson, n.p., July 29, 1767, Sparks MSS. 4, Bernard Papers, VI,35; Hutchinson to ?, Boston, December 14, 1767, Mass. Archives, XXV, 225.

35 See note 30.

36 Boston Gazette, July 3, 1769.

37 Adams, Samuel to Warren, James, Boston, 03 25, 1771, Warren-Adams Letters, Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., LXXII-LXXIII (n.p., 1917–1925), I, 9Google Scholar.

38 Hutchinson to Hillsborough, Boston, March 27, 1770, Public Record Office, Colonial Office 5, vol. 759 (Library of Congress photostat), 289–290.

39 Hillsborough to Hutchinson, Whitehall, April 14, 1770, P.R.O., CO. 5, vol. 759, 111; Hutchinson to Hillsborough, Boston, June 26, 1770, ibid., 457.

40 Hutchinson to ?, Boston, February 11, 1771; to Thomas Flucker, Boston, March 2, 1771, Mass. Archives, XXVII, 118, 124.

41 Hutchinson to Bernard, Boston, December 22, 1770; to William Palmer, n.p., January 4, 1771; to Elly Offley & Company, Boston, January 7, 1771, Mass. Archives, XXVII, 82–83, 90; to Andrew Oliver, n.p., January 13, [1771], Hutchinson and Oliver Papers (Mass. Hist. Soc), II; to Palmer, February 7, 1771, Mass. Archives, XXVII, 115–116.

42 Hutchinson to Palmer, n.p., January 4, 1771, Mass. Archives, XXVII, 90.