Massachusetts merchant and statesman.

Served in the Massachusetts colonial legislature (1771-75), in the Provincial Congress (1774-75), and on the Board of War (1778-81). Delegate to the Continental Congress (1782, 1783, 1785-87), of which he was elected president in 1786.

Delegate to the federal Constitutional Convention of 1787. Later that year he solicited and received from Franklin a copy of Franklin’s closing speech of the Convention and permission to print it.

Born in Charlestown, Massachussets. Married Rebecca Call in 1763; nine children.