Cases | Participants | Court Sessions | Timeline
Essex County Massachusetts Freedom Case Participants 1760 - 1783
Foster Hutchinson Esq. (1724-1790)
Biography: Born in Boston September 9, 1724 to Colonel Thomas and Sarah (Foster) Hutchinson. Graduated Harvard 1743. Maried Margaret Mascarene in 1750. Brother to Thomas Hutchinson. April 1758 appointed to Suffolk CCP. Appointed March 1771 to SCJ. Supported by merchants but not other lawyers. Not viewed as a worthy target by Whigs. Drew half salary from Province but under pressure agreed not to take other half from Crown.
Comments:
Casar vs. Samuel Taylor (1772) Associate Judge" FOSTER HUTCHINSON (1724-1799). Harvard 1743. Had no formal legal training. Brother of Thomas Hutchinson, q.v. Appointed Justice of the Peace, 1752; of the Quorum, 1761. Judge, Suffolk Inferior Court, 1758-1771. Justice, Superior Court, 177 1-177 5. Deputy Judge of Probate, Suffolk Co., 1765-1769; Judge, 1769-1775. Rejected the royal salary grant, but accepted appointment as Mandamus Councilor, 1774. Sailed for Halifax, 1776, remaining there until his death. Proscribed, 1778. Took no part in public life in Halifax, but claimed that he was still Suffolk Co. Judge of Probate and retained custody of the probate records until 1784, when Benjamin Kent, q.v., was able to procure their surrender. His son, Foster Jr. (d. 1815 ), was a Judge of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. 11 Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates 237-243."
Note Citation: Adams, John, L. Kinvin Wroth, and Hiller B. Zobel. Legal Papers of John Adams. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1965. Volume 1.