QUINCY, JOSIAH ( 1744-75 ) . An American patriot, born in Boston, Mass., February 23, 1744.
He graduated at Harvard in 1763; read law with Oxenbridge Thacher, and was admitted to the bar, rising to a high rank in his profession. He denounced the Stamp Act through the press and at public meetings in Boston, and took strong ground against the exactions of Parliament. In 1770 he and .John Adams conducted. in the face of an excited popular feeling. the defense of British soldiers implicated in the Boston mas sacre; and in the same year he prepared the ad dress of the merchants of Boston on the non importation agreement, and also wrote a number of essays for the Boston Gazette. Both in 1770 and in 1772 he drafted the instructions of the town of Boston to its representatives in the Legislature, and throughout 1771 and 1772 he was a frequent contributor to the ga:zette, chiefly under the signatures 'Mentor' and 'Marchmont Nedham.' During all these years he maintained a large practice, though finally his health failed, and in 1773 he went to Charleston. S. C., taking
advantage of his journey to enter into relations with the Patriot leaders in the Southern and Middle States. and to arrange for a system of communication between them and the leaders of the same party in Massachusetts. In May. 1774. appeared his Observations art the Boston Port Bill. which clearly indicated war as the only means of settling the disputes between Great Britain and the colonists, and intimated that in dependence must be the result. In September of the same year he went to England as the agent of the Patriot Party and there lived on friendly terms with Barre. the Earl of Shelburne, Priest ley, and other friends of the colonies, and had interviews with Lords Dartmouth and North. He sailed for home in the spring of 1775. but died on the voyage, April 26th. His Life was written by his son Josiah (2d ed.. Boston. 1874) : and his Reports of the Supreme Court of Massa chusetts Bay. 1761-72, edited by his great-grand son, Samuel M. Quincy, appeared in 1865.