Peter Thacher

Peter Oxenbridge Thacher (1752–1802) was a Congregationalist minister in Massachusetts in the 18th century.[1] He served as pastor in Malden of the First Church (1770–1784)[2] and in Boston of the Brattle Street Church (1785–1802). He actively supported the American Revolution.[3][4] 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.[5] 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.[6][7]

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

References

1. WorldCat. Thacher, Peter 1752–1802
2. Manual of the First Church, Malden, Mass. May, 1878. Boston: Beacon Press, T. Todd, printer., 1878
3. 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." (Diary of Rev. Peter Thacher. Register of the Malden Historical Society, no.1, 1910-1911)
4. Peter Thacher. "Oration Delivered at Watertown, March 5, 1776." Boston Orations. Boston: Peter Edes, 1785. Reprinted in: Hezekiah Niles (1876), Centennial offering, Republication of the Principles and acts of the revolution in America, New York: A. S. Barnes & co., OL 7106494M
5. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter T" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
6. William Emerson (1803), A sermon on the decease of the Rev. Peter Thacher, Boston: Printed by Young and Minns, OL 23331985M
7. "Memoirs of the Rev. Dr. Thacher." Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, v.8. Boston: Munroe & Francis, 1802.

Further reading

• R. W. G. Vail, ed. (1934). "Thacher". Bibliotheca Americana. 25. New York. OCLC 13972268.