Jessica Lucci

If you saw my presentation last night, you’ll already know who Thomas Hutchinson is. This came across my feed and I thought I’d share!
In my story, Thomas Hutchinson is father to Georgia, our main character’s love interest.

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Born in Boston in 1711, Thomas Hutchinson was descended from early settlers of Massachusetts, and he became a proud New Englander himself. But the tension and conflicts that matured into the American Revolution ultimately forced Hutchinson to choose Massachusetts or Great Britain.

Although Hutchinson was sympathetic to the complaints of the colonists, he was unshakably loyal to the mother country and insisted that in the colonies the laws of Great Britain must be obeyed. He was royal governor of Massachusetts during some of the most critical episodes in American history—the Stamp Act crisis, the Boston Massacre, and the Boston Tea Party. The Sons of Liberty and other Patriot leaders came to regard him as a traitor.

After General Thomas Gage replaced him as royal governor and Boston was placed under martial law, Hutchinson sailed for England, intending to consult with Parliament and the crown on colonial affairs and to defend his conduct as governor. He would never return.

With the outbreak of war, followed by the Declaration of Independence, Hutchinson’s estate was seized by the revolutionaries and converted into an army barracks. Bitter over his forced exile and increasingly marginalized by both factions of British government, Hutchinson devoted his time to writing a history of the Hutchinson family and a three-volume history of Massachusetts.

On this day in 1780, with the Revolutionary War still ongoing, Hutchinson suffered a stroke and died at his London home, at age 68.

The portrait (artist unknown) is from 1750.