Merchant, patriot and statesman.

Supported Arthur Lee in his dispute with Franklin about the nature of the mission to France during the American Revolution.

Served in the Continental Congress (1776-85). Served in the Federal Constitutional Convention (1787). Member of the mission to France which resulted in the “X.Y.Z. affair (1797-98), Governor of Massachusetts (1810-12). United States Vice President (1813-14).

Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts. A.B., Harvard (1762). Married in 1786 to Ann Thompson; had issue.