Thomas Hutchinson (September 9, 1711-June 3, 1780) was the American colonial governor of Massachusetts from 1771 to 1774 and a prominent Loyalist in the years before the American Revolutionary War.

As a young man on the rise (1741)

Hutchinson was born in Boston. He was a highly intelligent man who graduated from Harvard in 1727 before his sixteenth birthday. He began a commercial career and married Mary Sanford in 1734. As his career advanced he became involved in the civil leadership of the colony, first as a selectman in Boston. By 1737 he gained election to the general Assembly to represent Boston. He remained in the Assembly until 1749, serving as the Speaker after 1746.

He was appointed to the governor's council in 1749, served as a judge in the superior court (1760-1769) and Lieutenant Governor (1758-1771). He also represented Massachusetts in the Albany Congress of 1754 which proposed a plan for the union of the British colonies.

He was acting governor in 1769 to 1771 after Governor Francis Bernard returned to England. Then he was made Governor, and was the last civilian governor of the Massachusetts colony. He was followed in office by General Thomas Gage.

He is also noted for having signed the Attestation concerning Phillis Wheatley being responsible for Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773 which was put on display in Aldgate, London when the first book by an African American was published.

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US History