Colonial governor of Massachusetts, he was born in Boston, Mass., Sept. 9, 1711; son of Thomas and Sarah (Foster) Hutchinson; grandson of ¤Elisha Hutchinson, first chief justice of the court of common pleas, and a councillor; great grandson of Capt. ¤Edward Hutchinson, who was murdered by the Nipmunk Indians, and great2 grandson of ¤William and ¤Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson, who were banished to Rhode Island from Massachusetts in 1637 for their religious belief.

He was graduated at Harvard in 1727, became lawyer, was selectman of Boston, representative to the general court for ten years, and for three years speaker. He was married, in 1734, to Margaret, daughter of Gov. John Sandford, of Rhode Island. She died in 1753.

He was lieutenant-governor in 1758; chief justice in 1760; acting governor in 1769, and governor in 1771. His house was twice attacked in the stamp act riots of 1765, and during the second attack his furniture and library were carried to the street and burned. He could not endure the opprobrium heaped on him by Otis, Bowdoin, Hancock, Samuel Adams and John Adams, and on June 1, 1774, he sailed for England and did not return to his native land. For his loyalty he was pensioned by the crown.

Much of his valuable manuscript was destroyed with his furniture, but out of that saved was: History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (vols. I. and II., 1764-67); Collection of Original Papers Relative to the History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay (1769). A third volume, completing the History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, was edited by his grandson, the Rev. John Hutchinson, and published in London in 1828. His great grandson, Peter Orlando Hutchinson, published Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson (9 vols., 1884-86).

He died in Brompton, England, June 3, 1780. BDNA