William Phillips Sr.
William Phillips Sr. (1722–1804) was a Boston merchant, politician, and a major benefactor of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
Biography
He was a son of
Unlike his brothers, Phillips did not attend Harvard College, instead embarking on a career in the merchant trade, working in the warehouse of merchant Edward Bromfield. He eventually became Bromfield's business partner, and married his daughter Abigail in 1744.
In the 1760s Phillips became active in Boston politics, serving as a town selectman from 1767. He was active on committees established to organize opposition to unpopular British policies, including one to organize agreement and enforcement of a ban in the importation of goods from Britain subject to taxes imposed by the Townshend Acts. He was on a committee headed by Samuel Adams and John Hancock to deal with the aftermath of the Boston Massacre in 1770. In 1772 he was elected to the provincial assembly along with Adams, Hancock, and Thomas Cushing. Governor Thomas Gage rejected his election to the governor's council in 1774. That same year he sat on a committee established to determine who would need assistance when the Port of Boston was closed by Gage's implementation of the Boston Port Act.
When the
He became interested in the project of an
He was father to
Notes and references
- ^ Bond, Henry and Jones, Horatio. Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, Including Waltham and Weston: To which is Appended the Early History of the Town. New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1860, pgs. 872-882
- ^ Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). . Encyclopedia Americana.
- ^ Massachusetts Historical Society: Quincy, Wendell, Holmes, and Upham Family Papers, 1633–1910
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