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William Brattle

Right. Another historical figure to dust off. Let's see what we have here. A man of many titles and, it seems, even more contradictions. Don't look so eager; this is just information, not a eulogy.

American politician, lawyer, and militia officer (1706–1776)

William Brattle

Major General William Brattle (April 18, 1706 – October 25, 1776) was an American politician, lawyer, and militia officer whose career trajectory resembled a poorly charted map of ambition and convenience. He briefly held the title of Massachusetts Attorney General from 1736 to 1738, an office he occupied more in name than in function. Born into the colonial equivalent of royalty—a prominent Massachusetts family that ensured he would never have to work a day in his life if he chose not to—Brattle inherited significant estates from his father and uncle at a tender age. This windfall propelled him through Harvard College, from which he dutifully collected degrees in 1722 and 1725. He then proceeded to sample careers like a man at a buffet, dabbling in preaching, medicine, and law before settling on the more accommodating fields of politics and military service in 1729. That year, he was conveniently elected to the colony's House of Assembly and simultaneously commissioned into the colonial militia, securing influence in both civil and martial spheres.

Throughout the 1730s, Brattle remained a fixture in the political landscape, a perennial committee member and public figure. Alongside establishing a private law practice of questionable distinction, he was appointed the colony's Attorney General in 1736. However, his tenure was rendered impotent by Governor Jonathan Belcher, who held a different view on executive privilege, ensuring Brattle never prosecuted a single case. When King George's War broke out, he was given command of the garrison at Castle William in 1745, a post where he saw no meaningful military action, presumably perfecting his parade-ground commands. He married twice, first in 1727 and again in 1755, fathering nine children in a testament to either devotion or boredom, though only two of them managed to survive into adulthood.

As the colonies began to simmer with revolutionary fervor, Brattle initially positioned himself as a leader of the colonial opposition to the British Crown—a fashionable and politically astute stance at the time. By the 1770s, however, as the theoretical arguments for liberty gave way to the messy reality of popular uprising, he reversed course, gradually aligning himself with the Loyalist camp. In a moment of spectacular misjudgment in 1774, Brattle unwittingly triggered the Powder Alarm with a carelessly penned letter, which led to a riot where armed mobs, once his political allies, forced him to flee for his life to Boston. When the American Revolutionary War ignited in 1775, the Continental Army laid siege to Boston. Trapped with the British, Brattle had no choice but to evacuate with them in 1776. He fled to Nova Scotia, a cold and ignominious exile, where he died a few months later. In the 21st century, whatever legacy he managed to build has been rightly complicated by increasing scrutiny of his ownership of slaves.

Early life

William Brattle was born on April 18, 1706, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a town that would serve as the backdrop for his entire American life. He entered the world with the distinct advantage of being born into a prominent Massachusetts family, one that had arrived from England during the great waves of Puritan migration. His father, also named William, was a formidable figure in his own right: a Congregationalist clergyman, a fellow of the Royal Society, and the minister of the First Parish in Cambridge from 1696 until his death in 1717. Brattle's mother was Elizabeth Brattle (née Hayman), who had married his father in Boston on November 3, 1697. He had one older brother, Thomas, who conveniently died young, leaving William as the sole heir.

When his father died in Cambridge on February 15, 1717, a young Brattle inherited not only his estate but also that of his uncle, Thomas Brattle, securing a fortune that would insulate him from life's harsher realities. A year later, in 1718, he dutifully enrolled at Harvard College. He graduated four years later with a Bachelor of Arts degree, returning to acquire a master's degree in 1725, as was expected of a man of his station.

With his education complete, Brattle embarked on a brief and uninspired career tour. He first tried preaching, hoping to become the clergyman for Ipswich, Massachusetts, but was discouraged by a reception that was, to put it mildly, lukewarm. By 1726, he had pivoted to medicine, treating a clientele composed largely of the local elite and Harvard students—people who were already in his social orbit. In December 1726, he served as a physician for a diplomatic mission to the Wabanaki Confederacy, led by the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, William Tailer.

On November 23, 1727, Brattle solidified his social standing by marrying Katherine Saltonstall, the daughter of Gurdon Saltonstall, the governor of Connecticut. That same year, he commissioned the construction of a grand Georgian-style mansion in Cambridge. The estate, eventually known as the William Brattle House, became a social hub, described by the writer James H. Stark as "the resort of the fashion and style of this section of the country." It stood as a physical testament to his wealth and influence.

Political and military career

In 1729, having exhausted his brief flirtations with other professions, Brattle "plunged immediately into public affairs." He was elected to the Cambridge board of selectmen and as a representative to the Massachusetts House of Assembly, while also being appointed a justice of the peace. Never one to under-accessorize, he also accepted a commission in the Massachusetts Militia with the rank of major and joined the prestigious Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. Despite his youth, he quickly inserted himself into the ongoing political friction in the House of Assembly, siding with the populist faction against Governor William Burnet.

Brattle's name appeared on the committees tasked with welcoming the new governor, Jonathan Belcher, in 1730 and delineating the Massachusetts border with the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1733. He declined a similar role for the Connecticut border, claiming he had sufficient experience, a statement dripping with the casual self-assurance of the privileged. While serving in the 1st Regiment of Militia of Middlesex, Brattle authored a military training manual, Sundry Rules and Directions for Drawing up a Regiment, published in 1733. It’s said that "many an English or American officer packed [the manual] in his haversack" during the French and Indian War, a testament to the limited options available at the time.

By 1736, having added a private legal practice to his portfolio, he was appointed as one of the justices of the peace for the Middlesex County court. That same year, the House of Assembly named him Attorney General of Massachusetts. The appointment proved to be a hollow victory; Governor Belcher insisted that only he and the Massachusetts Governor's Council could fill the office, effectively neutering Brattle's authority. He served for two years without ever prosecuting a case. The historian Clifford Shipton later noted, with characteristic dryness, that Brattle's "ability in law was not much greater than in medicine and preaching." Despite this, he sat as a special justice in the Massachusetts Superior Court in 1749.

During the early 1740s, Brattle became an outspoken opponent of the First Great Awakening, a fervent Christian revival that he viewed with deep suspicion. He entered a public quarrel with George Whitefield, a leading evangelist who had accused Harvard College of fostering irreligiosity and Arminianism. In defense of his alma mater's respectable brand of faith, Brattle published two letters in the Boston Gazette in 1741, arguing that much of the accepted history of Harvard was inaccurate. Paul Dudley, chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, was so taken with the arguments that he praised them to a jury.

In 1745, with the Thirteen Colonies gripped by fears of a French invasion during King George's War, Governor William Shirley—a man Brattle shrewdly supported—appointed him commander of the garrison at Castle William. His duties there were hardly strenuous, amounting to little more than serving as the garrison's drillmaster. After his first wife Katherine died in 1752, Brattle remarried on November 2, 1755, to Martha Allen, the widow of a Boston politician. Around the same time, he was elected to the Governor's Council. During the French and Indian War, he represented Massachusetts in defense negotiations with Connecticut. Having reached the rank of colonel by 1741, he was promoted again to brigadier general in 1760, continuing his ascent through titles and ranks.

American Revolution and death

In the 1760s, Brattle, ever the political chameleon, emerged as a prominent voice in the colonial opposition to British policies. His motivations were perhaps less than purely ideological; he was deeply disappointed when Thomas Hutchinson was appointed chief justice of the Superior Court of Judicature in 1761, a post he may have coveted. He subsequently led the anti-government faction in the Governor's Council, working in parallel with James Otis Jr., who led the charge in the House of Assembly. On November 5, 1765, he participated in a symbolic subversion of the traditional Guy Fawkes Night festivities. Instead of the usual brawls between mobs from Boston's North and South Ends, Brattle and the populist Ebenezer Mackintosh led a joint procession, a piece of political theater meant to signify unity that only succeeded in infuriating Governor Francis Bernard.

He continued to serve on committees, negotiating boundaries with the Province of New York alongside Hutchinson and John Hancock. In 1769, his election to the Governor's Council, along with that of James Bowdoin, was vetoed by Bernard, who identified the two as "the Managers of all late Opposition in the Council to the Kings Government." Bernard also stripped Brattle of his colonelcy of the 1st Regiment of Militia of Middlesex. In response, Brattle did what any savvy political operator would do: he wrote a private letter to Lord Dartmouth reaffirming his loyalty to the Crown. In 1770, Cambridge voters sent him back to the House of Assembly, where he served on a committee overseeing the construction of gunpowder magazines.

The turning point in Brattle's revolutionary career came in January 1773. Having previously aligned with the Sons of Liberty, he publicly broke with them over an argument he made in a Cambridge town meeting: that judges should receive fixed salaries, making them independent of both the governor and the assembly. This seemingly innocuous stance sparked a war of letters with a young lawyer named John Adams, a battle of wits that catapulted Adams into the political spotlight. Shipton argued that while Brattle had stumbled into the controversy, Adams had deliberately "tried to split legal hairs." From that moment, "Brattle could be counted among the increasing numbers of the old political élite who, while initially having opposed British policy, feared that the growth of popular politics threatened the social order."

As a reward for this convenient change of heart, Hutchinson promoted Brattle to major general in 1773. On August 27, 1774, Brattle made his fatal error. He sent a letter to Governor Thomas Gage, informing him that the only gunpowder remaining in the Old Powder House near Boston belonged to the British. Four days later, Gage dispatched about 260 soldiers from the 4th Regiment of Foot to secure it. Gage, in an act of profound carelessness, lost Brattle's letter, which was promptly found and publicized by local Patriots. As rumors flew that the removal had turned violent, an enraged mob descended on Brattle's mansion, forcing him to flee to Castle William for British protection. The mobs eventually dispersed when it became clear no blood had been shed, but the damage was done.

On September 5, 1774, Boston newspapers published a letter from Brattle desperately trying to salvage his reputation. He insisted he had not advised Gage to seize the powder, but had merely complied with a request for an inventory. It was a pathetic attempt at semantics that convinced no one. Brattle remained in Boston as the American Revolutionary War erupted in April 1775 and the Continental Army began its siege of the city. On March 17, 1776, when General Sir William Howe evacuated the British garrison to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Brattle, now a confirmed Loyalist by circumstance if not conviction, went with them. He died in Halifax on October 25, 1776. After a service at St. Paul's Church, he was buried in the Old Burying Ground, a final, quiet end for a man whose life had become increasingly loud and chaotic.

Personal life, family and legacy

In his time, Brattle was known as a "jovial, pleasure-loving man whose... family connections placed him among the Massachusetts élite." He had an appetite for gambling, fishing, and food, which earned him the unflattering but likely accurate nickname "Brigadier Paunch" from his political foes. He was a creature of Cambridge's institutions, sitting on the town's board of selectmen 21 times and serving on Harvard College's Board of Overseers, where he oversaw the construction of Hollis Hall and the rebuilding of Harvard Hall. In 1756, he commissioned a portrait of himself from John Singleton Copley, which depicts him in the uniform of a militia colonel, a pose influenced by colonial portraitists like Joseph Blackburn and Robert Feke.

His two marriages yielded nine children, but in a stark reminder of 18th-century mortality, only two survived to adulthood: Thomas and Katherine. Thomas, who was in England when the war began, played a shrewd game, posing as a Loyalist abroad while convincing American authorities upon his return in 1779 that he was a Patriot. In 1784, he successfully reclaimed the William Brattle Mansion, which his father had entrusted to Katherine. In addition to his Cambridge estate, Brattle owned properties in Boston, Oakham, Halifax, and southeastern Vermont. He was also a slaveholder, a fact recorded in church documents which list him as the owner of two enslaved women, Philicia and Zillah, in 1731 and 1738. Brattle Street in Cambridge and the town of Brattleboro, Vermont bear his name, memorials to a man whose legacy is far more complicated than the street signs suggest.

In the early 21st century, the uncomfortable fact of Brattle's slave ownership has moved from a footnote to a central theme of his legacy. In 2022, an art installation at the Hooper–Lee–Nichols House in Cambridge, titled "Forgotten Souls of Tory Row: Remembering the Enslaved People of Brattle Street," directly confronted this history. The installation used linked metal trees to represent the enslaved individuals owned by prominent residents like Brattle. On April 26, 2022, Harvard University released a report acknowledging its deep ties to slavery. The report, which explicitly noted that both Brattle and his father owned slaves, committed $100 million to a "Legacy of Slavery Fund," a gesture toward atonement that stops short of direct reparations for slavery. The past, it seems, is never quite done with men like William Brattle.