I still don't know to a certainty which Oxenbridge is the Oxenbridge Thacher who was supposed to have had an influence in the Revolution. I have identified two. One is Thomas > Peter > Peter > Oxenbridge, born 1725 and one is Thomas > Peter > Oxenbridge > Oxenbridge born 1720. Both born within five years of each other and died within ten years of each other.

I am leaning towards Thomas > Oxenbridge, Sr > Oxenbridge, Jr as the notable Revolutionary figure, as most of the biographies give his birth and death date. This, in spite of the Powers-Banks genealogy which stated the other Oxenbridge was the notable Revolutionary War era lawyer.
 

Oxenbridge was the co-counsel, with Jame Otis, in the case that John Adams said planted the seed of the Revolution. This James Otis Page is a description of James Otis and this case, which mentions Oxenbridge.

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From a book entitled: "An Old Family", published in Orange, N.J., 1882.  No
author is shown. Contributed by Jana.

"Oxenbridge Thacher, who was born in 1720.  He also was educated at Harvard, in 1738, and became a lawyer.  His name has been frequently mentioned in terms of high esteem as a compeer with Adams, Quincy and Otis.  Governor Hutchinson, in his History of Massachusetts, mentions him "as an active and influential opposer of the measures of Parliament; a lawyer of great eminence, and a learned and able writer."  He is also referred to in Drake's History of Boston.  He died, at the height of his merited reputation and usefulness, at the age of forty-five."

Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century.
Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography
page 921
 

THACHER, OXENBRIDGE, lawyer, author, was born in 1720 in Milton, Mass. He was successful at the bar, and took an active part in opposition to the English government during the early stages of the revolution, being at that time one of the four, representatives of Boston in the general court. He published Considerations upon Reducing the Value of the Gold Coins Within the Province; and Sentiments of a British-American, occasioned by an Act to Lay Certain Duties in the British Colonies and Plantations. He died July 8, 1765, in Boston, Mass.

History of the United States by George Bancroft (6 Volumes)
Volume 2
Epoch First -- Britain Overthrows the European Colonial System
Chapter 16 Possession Taken of the Country on the Lakes
 

.... In September, Sewall died, to the universal sorrow of the province. Had the first surviving judge been promoted to the vacancy, a place would have been left open for James Otis, of Barnstable, at that time speaker of the house of representatives, a good lawyer, to whom a former governor had promised a seat on the bench; but Bernard appointed Thomas Hutchinson, who was already lieutenant-governor, councillor, and judge of probate. A burst of indignation broke from the colony at this union of such high executive, legislative, and judicial functions in one person, who was not bred to the law, and Was expected to interpret it for the benefit of the prerogative. Oxenbridge Thacher, a lawyer of great ability, a man of sagacity and patriotism, respected for learning and moderation, discerned the dangerous character of Hutchinson's ambition, and from this time denounced him openly and always; while James Otis, the younger, offended as a son and a patriot, resigned the office of advocate-general, and, by his eloquence in opposition to the royalists, set the province in a Same. But the new chief justice received the renewed application for writs of assistance, and delayed the decision of the court till he could write to England.....

History of the United States by George Bancroft (6 Volumes)
Volume 3
Epoch Second -- Britain Estranges America THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN FIVE EPOCHS EPOCH SECOND BRITAIN
ESTRANGES AMERICA FROM 1763 TO 1774
Chapter 7 How America Received the Plan of a Stamp-Tax
 

But Otis was a prophet, not the leader of a party; full of sagacity in his inspirations, unsteady in conduct. His colleague, Oxenbridge Thacher, was less enthusiastic and more consistent. Connection with Great Britain was to him no blessing, if Great Britain would impose burdens unconstitutionally. He vindicated the right of resisting arbitrary taxation by the frequent example of the British parliament; and he dwelt on the danger to the inhabitants of England if the ministers could disfranchise a million and a half of subjects in America.

History of the United States by George Bancroft (6 Volumes)
Volume 3
Epoch Second -- Britain Estranges America THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN FIVE EPOCHS EPOCH SECOND BRITAIN
ESTRANGES AMERICA FROM 1763 TO 1774
Chapter 9 The Day-Star of the American Union
 

But, if the British parliament can tax America, it may tax Ireland and India, and hold the wealth of the East and of the West at the service of its own oligarchy. As the relation of the government to its outlying dominions would become one of power and not of right, it could not but employ its accumulated resources to make itself the master of the ocean and the oppressor of mankind. "This system, if it is suffered to prevail," said Oxenbridge Thacher, of Boston, "will extinguish the flame of liberty all over the world."

History of the United States by George Bancroft (6 Volumes)
Volume 3
Epoch Second -- Britain Estranges America THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN FIVE EPOCHS EPOCH SECOND BRITAIN
ESTRANGES AMERICA FROM 1763 TO 1774
Chapter 9 The Day-Star of the American Union
 

The summons for the congress had gone forth from Massachusetts when the resolves of Virginia were published to the world. "They have spoken treason," said the royalists. "Is it treason," retorted others, "for the deputies of the people to assert their rights, or to give them away?" "Oh! those Virginians," cried Oxenbridge Thacher, from his death-bed, where, overplied by public exertions, he was wasting away with a hectic, "those Virginians are men; they are noble spirits. I long to speak in court against tyranny words that shall be read after my death." "Why," said one of his friends, "are not our rights and liberties as boldly asserted by every government in America as by Virginia?" "Behold," cried another, "a whole continent awakened, alarmed, restless, and disaffected." Everywhere, from north to south, through the press, in letters, or as they met in private for counsel or in groups in the street, the "Sons of Liberty " told their griefs to one another, and planned retaliation or redress.

Related Links:

Return to the Ralph Partridge Index at this site

This book may have more on him:

http://broadviewbooks.com/newengl.htm

New England Life in the 18th Century $14.95
By Clifford K. Shipton
Mass.: The Belnap Press of Harvard University 1963 (1995 Second Printing)
(from the forward) In 1859 John Langdon Sibley projected and began a series of biographical sketches of all Harvard graduates; at his death in 1885 he had published three volumes, covering the Classes from 1642 through 1689.

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