Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/614

574 and arrange a rectification of the frontier. In 1756 he was appointed secretary of the province. When the British parliament passed the stamp-act he made himself odious to the patriotic party by ac- cepting the office of dis- tributer of stamps. He was re-elected a council- lor by a bare majority. On 14 Aug., 1765, he was hanged in effigy between figures of Lord Bute and George Grenville, on the large elm called the •' lib- erty tree." In the even- ing the multitude, with cries of " Liberty, prop- erty, and no stamps ! " demolished the structure that was building for a stamp - office. His life was in danger, and the next morning he signed a public pledge that he would not act as stamp-officer. A few months later there was a rumor that he intended to en- force the stamp-act, and on the day of the open- ing of parliament the Sons of Liberty compelled him to march to the tree and there renew his promise in a speech, and take oath before a jus- tice of the peace, Richard Dana, that he would never, directly or indirectly, take measures for the collection of the stamp duty. In 1770 he was ap- pointed lieutenant - governor. His letters, with those of Hutchinson and others, recommending the despatch of troops to this country, and the crimi- nal prosecution of Samuel Adams and other pa- triots, were shown to Benjamin Franklin {q. v.) in England, as expressions from Americans of weight and station. Party feeling ran so high at the time of his death that Hutchinson says : '• A large mob attended upon his interment and hurrahed at the entombing of his body, and that night there was an exhibition at a public window of a coffin, and insignia of infamy." — His brother, Peter, jurist, b. in Boston, Mass., 26 March, 1713 ; d. in Bir- mingham, England, 13 Oct.. 1791, was graduated at Harvard in 1780. He filled various offices in Plymouth county while residing on his estate in Middleborough. Although he was not a lawyer by profession, he was made a justice of the su- preme court on 14 Sept., 1756, and in 1771 be- came chief justice. He was also one of the man- damus councillors. Oliver was the only judge that refused, in March, 1774, to accept the pay that had been voted by the legislature in lieu of a fixed sal- ary of £400 from the crown. He was consequently impeached by the house, and suspended from his functions pending the issue of the trial. He at- tempted to hold court under the protection of the military, but the jurors refused to serve, and gave as their reasons that the chief justice stood im- peached, and that three of the judges had accepted seats in the unconstitutional new council. He open- ly sided with the royalists, defending their views with dialectic skill in a paper called the " Censor." When the British troops evacuated Boston he de- parted with them, and afterward went to England, where he received a pension from the treasury.' He was a writer of talent, both in prose and verse, and fond of antiquarian studies. When he left this country he took with him a copy of the manuscript history of William Hubbard, and records and pa- pers that he had collected relating to the settlement of Plymouth colony. The University of Oxford gave him the degree of LL. D. A poem in Eng- lish blank verse, the twenty-ninth in " Pietas at Oratulatio " (Boston, 1761), is ascribed to him or to Thomas Oliver. He published a " Speech on the Death of Isaac Lathrop" (Boston, 1750)); "Poem on the Death of Secretary Willard " (1757) : and "Scriptural Lexicon" (Birmingham, 1784-'5). — Andrew's son, Andrew, jurist, b. in Boston, Mass., 13 Nov., 1731 ; d. in Salem, Mass., in the beginning of December, 1799, was graduated at Harvard in 1749, and devoted himself to scientific and literary studies. He represented Salem in the general court in 1766, and before the Revolution was judge of the Essex county court of common pleas. He was the only one of those members of the family that adhered to the royalist cause to remain in the country after the war of independence. He was one of the founders of the American academy of arts and sciences, and a member of the American philosophical society, to the transactions of which he contributed papers on " Lightning," " Thunder- storms," and " Water-Spouts," and an account of a " Disease Among the Indians " (1764). He pub- lished also an " Essay on Comets," in which he maintained that they were habitable worlds (Salem, 1772). — Another son, William Sandford, b. in Boston, Mass.. in 1748; d. in St. John, NewJ3runs- wick, in 1813, went with the British array to Hali- fax in 1776, settled at Parr Town (now St. John), was appointed in 1785 the first sheriff of St. John, and held that office till 1792, and for the second time from 1797 till his death, at which time he was also treasurer of the county.— Peter's son, Peter, physician, b. in Middleborough, Mass., in 1741 ; d. in Shrewsbury, England, 30 July, 1822, was gradu- ated at Harvard in 1761. He signed the address to Gen. Gage, and was banished in 1778. In 1814 the Massachusetts historical society requested per- mission to transcribe from his father's perfect manuscript copy of Hubbard's " History of New England" the portions missing in the American manuscript, but he refused, and the work was pub- lished in a mutilated form (Boston, 1815). (See Hubbard, Thomas.) His wife was Sallie, the eldest daughter of Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. — The second Andrew's grandson, Daniel, b. in Marble- head, Mass., 9 Sept., 1787; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 1 June, 1842, was the son of Rev. Thomas Fitch Oliver. He was graduated at Harvard in 1806, and at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1810. He practised for many years at Salem, Mass., lectured on chemistry at Dart- mouth in 1815-'6, and in 1820 removed to Han- over, N. H., having been appointed professor of the theory and practice of medicine, and of materia medica and therapeutics. In 1827-'8 he lectured on the theory and practice of medicine at Bow- doin. In 1828 he took the chair also of intellectual philosophy at Dartmouth. He resigned his pro- fessorships in that college in 1837, and in 1841-'2 was a professor in the medical college at Cincin- nati, Ohio. Dr. Oliver was a man of varied erudi- tion, familiar with French and German, as well as the classical languages. He received the degree of LL. D. from Hobart in 1888. His only important publication was '• First Lines of Physiology " (Bos- ton, 1885). — Daniel's brother, Benjamin Lynde, author, b. in Marblehead, Mass., in 1788; d. in 1843. was a lawyer and was also a noted chess-play- er. His works are " Hints on the Pursuit of Hap- piness" (Boston, 1818) ; " The Rights of an Ameri- can Citizen " (1832) ; " Law Summary " (2d ed., Hallowell, 1833) ; " Practical Convevancing," edited by Peter Oliver (1838 ; 4th ed., 1845) : " Forms of Practice, or American Precedents in Personal and Real Actions " (1841 ; 4th ed., Portland, 1874) ; and