Peter Thacher

Peter Thacher
Born
Peter Oxenbridge Thacher

(1752-03-21)March 21, 1752
Milton, Massachusetts
DiedDecember 16, 1802(1802-12-16) (aged 50)
Savannah, Georgia
EducationHarvard College
OccupationClergyman
Spouse
Elizabeth Hawkes
​
(m. 1770)​
Children10
Signature

Peter Oxenbridge Thacher (1752–1802) was a Congregationalist minister in Massachusetts.

Biography

View of Brattle Street Church and West End, Boston, looking from Cambridge, 1789

Peter Thacher was born in Milton, Massachusetts on March 21, 1752.[1][2] His brother was Thomas Thatcher.

He served as pastor in Malden of the First Church (1770–1784)[3] and in Boston of the Brattle Street Church (1785–1802). He actively supported the American Revolution.[a]

He participated in the drafting of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780. In 1794, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[6] He belonged to the Massachusetts Historical Society and Massachusetts Humane Society. He was educated at Harvard College, 1765–1769. On October 8, 1770, he married Elizabeth Poole (Hawkes); they had ten children.[1][7]

Peter Thacher died in Savannah, Georgia on December 16, 1802.[8]

Notes

  1. ^ For example as a young man in 1772 he "went to the Old South meeting & heard Mr. Warren pronounce an oration in commemoration of the massacre perpetrated this day 2 years ago."[4][5]

References

  1. ^ a b "Memoirs of the Rev. Dr. Thacher". Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. VIII. Boston: Munroe & Francis: 277–284. 1802. Retrieved March 17, 2023 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Emerson, William (1803). A Sermon on the Decease of the Rev. Peter Thacher. Brattle-Street Church, Boston. p. 23. Retrieved March 17, 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ Manual of the First Church, Malden, Mass. Boston: Beacon Press. May 1878. p. 4. Retrieved March 17, 2023 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ "Life in the Old Parsonage 1772–1784, From the Diary of Rev. Peter Thacher". Register of the Malden Historical Society (1): 41. 1910. Retrieved March 17, 2023 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ Peter Thacher. "Oration Delivered at Watertown, March 5, 1776." Boston Orations. Boston: Peter Edes, 1785. Reprinted in: Niles, Hezekiah (1876). Centennial offering, Republication of the Principles and acts of the revolution in America. New York: A. S. Barnes & co. pp. 43–46. OL 7106494M. Retrieved March 17, 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter T" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  7. ^ Emerson, William (1803). A Sermon on the Decease of the Rev. Peter Thacher. Brattle-Street Church, Boston. p. 30. Retrieved March 17, 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ Emerson, William (1803). A Sermon on the Decease of the Rev. Peter Thacher. Brattle-Street Church, Boston. p. 37. Retrieved March 17, 2023 – via Internet Archive.

Further reading