Foster Hutchinson House, Boston, Massachusetts, c

Foster Hutchinson (1724–1799) was an associate justice of

Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the distinction of being the oldest continuously functi ...

, the highest court of the

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of ...

. One of five judges in Massachusetts at the time of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, he remained loyal to Britain. He was a younger brother of Loyalist Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson. He was a graduate of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(1743). He escaped Boston as a loyalist in 1776 and settled in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348 ...

. He took the probate records of Suffolk Co. where he was Judge of Probate and never released them until 1784, when

Benjamin Kent Benjamin Kent (1708–1788) was Massachusetts Attorney General (1776–1777) and then acting Attorney General during much of Robert Treat Paine's tenure (1777–1785). He was appointed seven successive terms. Prior to the American Revolution, Ken ...

was able to procure their surrender. He re-printed examples of rebel propaganda in the local newspaper for which he later was forced to apologize. He was the father of Foster Hutchinson, also a jurist in Nova Scotia. He was buried in Halifax's Old Burying Ground.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchinson, Foster History of Nova Scotia Loyalists who settled Nova Scotia Harvard University alumni Harvard College Loyalists in the American Revolution American Loyalists from Massachusetts Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature 1724 births 1799 deaths People of colonial Massachusetts

See also

References