James Otis Sr.
James Otis Sr. | |
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Massachusetts militia | |
Rank | Colonel |
James Otis Sr. (1702–1778) was a prominent lawyer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. His sons James Otis Jr. and Samuel Allyne Otis also rose to prominence, as did his daughter Mercy Otis Warren. He was often called "Colonel James" because of his military rank and also to distinguish between him and his famous son. He was a stalwart member of the Popular Party, as was his son, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Biography
Born in
Otis was the presiding justice of the Barnstable County Court of Common Pleas during the Sept. 27, 1774, protest against the British "Intolerable Acts." In meeting the protesters demands, he agreed to ignore the requirements of the Parliament's new legislation and so preserved for Barnstable the large measure of self-government that Massachusetts had enjoyed under its 1691 charter.
His son James Otis Jr. played a key role in opposing the British
References
- Samuel Eliot Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 1765–1848: The Urbane Federalist, 1913. Rev. ed. (2 vols in 1), Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1969.
- Wroth, L. Kinvin and Hiller B. Zobel, eds. Legal Papers of John Adams. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1965.