Andrew Oliver (1731–1799)
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Andrew Oliver (November 13, 1731 – December 6, 1799) was an American jurist and
scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosoph ...
. Andrew Oliver was the only child to survive to adulthood of Andrew Oliver and Mary Fitch, daughter of Colonel Thomas Fitsch. His mother died one year after his birth. On December 19, 1734, his father married Mary Sanford of
Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
, the sister-in-law of Thomas Hutchinson. The couple had fourteen children. Oliver attended Harvard college, graduating in 1749 before continuing his studies and earning master's degrees at
Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
(1751) and Harvard (1752). After marrying, Oliver relocated to his wife’s hometown of Salem. He held minor public offices before becoming a county judge in 1761 and a representative of Salem to the
Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from th ...
the following year.


American Revolution

He had a complicated relationship with the growing rebel movement, oftentimes voting in favor of reductions in taxes and duties and yet was a member of a loyalist family and occupied a
Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
position for a time (before realizing it made him a target and resigning). He joined a local
militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
in an attempt to regain approval, but upon asking to be excused from a meeting due to unfavorable weather, his constituents were left unsatisfied. When the war broke out, his loyalist family went into hiding while he remained in Salem, not for any political reason, but rather to continue his scientific inquiries into the nature of air.


Scientific enquiry

Most notably, Oliver proposed that comet tails were made up of air, and that life could exist in such air. Inspired by
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
and other contemporaries, he also asserted that electricity permeates air and studied its role in causing thunderstorms. Along with
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...
, he helped found the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in Massachusetts. He was elected as a member to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1773. In the final years of his life, Oliver’s scientific activity mostly ceased due to his gout and declining finances and he died in such a state, at home in Salem.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oliver, Andrew 1731 births 1799 deaths Loyalists in the American Revolution Members of the American Philosophical Society Harvard College alumni Yale University alumni