James Bowdoin (
August 7, 1726 –
November 6, 1790) was an American political and intellectual leader from
Boston, Massachusetts during the
American Revolution. He served in both the colonial council (senate) and house and was President of the state's
constitutional convention. After independence he was governor of Massachusetts.
His grandfather
(Pierre Boudouin) was a
Huguenot refugee from
France.
Pierre took his family first to
Ireland, then to
Portland, Maine, finally settling in Boston in
1690. His father, also James Bowdoin, was a successful
merchant in Boston when James was born there on August 8,
1727.
Young James attended
Boston Latin School, then graduated from
Harvard in
1745. When his father died in
1747, he inherited a considerable fortune. He took an early interest in
Natural History, and had several papers read to the
Royal Society in
London by his friend and correspondent,
Benjamin Franklin.
Bowdoin was elected to the
colonial assembly in
1753 and served there until named to the Council in
1756. By the end of
Sir Francis Bernard's term as governor he spoke and wrote against the royal governors and their actions. He was proposed as a continuing Council member in
1769, but the new governor
Thomas Hutchinson rejected his membership. Boston promptly elected him to the assembly. When Hutchinson was formally commissioned as governor in
1760, he restored Bowdoin to the Council, reasoning that he was less dangerous there than as an outspoken critic in the assembly.
Bowdoin as named as a delegate to the
Continental Congress in
1774 but did not attend, citing health reasons. In
1775 he was elected President of the Council and held that office until
1777. With the turmoil of the
American Revolutionary War, he sometimes acted as council president in an executive, rather than legislative role.
When Massachusetts wrote its own constitution in
1779, he was president of the Convention which created it, and chairman of the committee that drafted it.
His son,
James Bowdoin III, also sat in this convention. Under the new state government, governor
John Hancock appointed him to a commission to revise and consolidate the laws from colonial days.
In
1785, Bowdoin was elected Governor of Massachusetts, but his terms were not peaceful. He called up the
militia and took vigorous action to put down
Shays' Rebellion, and as a result lost the election of
1787 as Hancock was swept back into office. In
1788 he served as a member of the Massachusetts' convention that ratified the
United States Constitution.
Throughout this period, he maintained his interest in learning a natural history. In
1780 he was primarily responsible for the creation of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, He served as its first president until his death and left the society his library. Bowdoin continued to publish not only scientific papers, but verse in both English and Latin. He was awarded an
honorary doctorate by the
University of Edinburgh, made a fellow of Harvard, and was a member of the Royal Society of both London and
Edinburgh.
He died of
tuberculosis on
November 6, 1790 in Boston.
Bowdoin College in
Maine was named in his honor, as his son,
James Bowdoin III had provided the principal endowment for its foundation.
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