Josiah Quincy (1744-75)

Josiah Quincy , 1744-75, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Boston. An outstanding lawyer, he wrote a series of anonymous articles for the Boston Gazette in which he opposed the Stamp Act and other British colonial policies. Nevertheless, Quincy, along with John Adams, defended the British soldiers in the trial after the Boston Massacre . In 1773 he went to South Carolina for his health and on his journey established connections with other colonial leaders. His Observations on the Act of Parliament Commonly Called the Boston Port Bill (1774) was an important political tract. He was sent (1774) as an agent to argue the colonial cause in England and died on the way home. His son, also named Josiah Quincy, wrote a memoir of him (1825, 2d ed. 1874).

Bibliography: See study by R. A. McCaughey (1974).

Quincy, Josiah (1744–75),member of a prominent Boston family, graduated from Harvard (B.A., 1759; M.A., 1763), practiced law, and became an ardent supporter of the patriots. Although he wrote anonymous articles against Parliament, he joined John Adams in defending in court the British soldiers whose attack had resulted in the Boston Massacre. After a trip to Charleston in a vain attempt to recover from tuberculosis, he wrote an important patriot tract, Observations on …the Boston Port‐Bill (1774), and in the same year was sent to England to plead the cause of the colonies, but died on the way home. What he accomplished in England has never been learned.