[wirHRow] THOMAS HUTCHINSON 65 
Thomas Hutchinson was a descendent of an old colonial family, 
one of the first members of which to become known to fame was that 
eccentric enthusiast, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, the distinguished Antino- 
mian leader who won to her party such men of influence as John 
Cotton, John Wheelright, the younger Henry Vane and most of the 
members of the Boston Church. Elisha Hutchinson, her grandson, 
was the first Chief Justice of Common Pleas of the Province of Mas- 
sachusetts Bay. His son Thomas Hutchinson, was a member of the 
Council, a prominent merchant having many vessels engaged in colonial 
trade, and father of the subject of this sketch. He was a well-to-do 
citizen of Boston and erected the handsomest mansion in the town, in 
which his son Thomas was born October 11, 1711. The boy was 
trained at the Grammar School and proceeded, after the precocious 
Boston fashion, at the age of twelve to Harvard College. In due time 
he took his degree of Master of Arts. After graduation he entered his 
father’s counting house, but carried on trading ventures of his own by 
which, by the time he came of age, he had amassed some four or five 
hundred pounds. He was seriously inclined and became on reaching 
manhood a member of the church. In his twenty-sixth year he was 
chosen Selectman of Boston and was also elected representative to the 
General Court. 
For nearly forty years he was one of the most conspicuous figures 
in colonial affairs. He first comes into notice in the journals of the 
House of Representatives as a member of the committee to congratulate 
King George III. on his safe return through a storm from Germany— 
a note of his steadfast loyalty throughout his life. It was a mark of 
public confidence that he was appointed when in his twenty-ninth year 
to visit England to represent the contention of Massachusetts Bay in a 
dispute as to the boundary line between that colony and New Hamp- 
shire. 
Hutchinson was in the forefront of publie life during the long 
conflict between the French and English for the possession of the con- 
tinent. The Bay Colony, as it was called, took an active part in this 
conflict. The enterprises which it involved enormously increased the 
public debt. The financial foresight of Hutchinson led him to strongly 
urge the establishment of a stable gold and silver currency; but popular 
feeling was in favour of the more elastic paper money, which even 
Franklin in Pennsylvania strongly advocated. As a result of his stand 
in this controversy Hutchinson for a time was the most unpopular man 
in the colony. When the Home Government granted £183,649 to reim- 
burse the expenses of the province for the siege of Louisbourg, the House 
at first rejected, but on second thought adopted, his scheme of a “hard 
money” currency. When the treasure came—two hundred and seven- 
