Benjamin Kent (1708–1788) was

Massachusetts Attorney General The Massachusetts Attorney General is an elected constitutionally defined executive officer of the Massachusetts Government. The officeholder is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The officeholder al ...

(1776–1777) and then acting Attorney General during much of

Robert Treat Paine Robert Treat Paine (March 11, 1731 – May 11, 1814) was an American lawyer, politician and Founding Father of the United States who signed the Continental Association and the Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts. ...

's tenure (1777–1785). He was appointed seven successive terms. Prior to the American Revolution, Kent was notable for his representation of slaves suing their masters for their freedom, which contributed to the demise of slavery in Massachusetts. He was a member of the

North End Caucus The Boston Caucus was an informal political organization that had considerable influence in Boston in the years before and after the American Revolution. This was perhaps the first use of the word ''caucus'' to mean a meeting of members of a movem ...

and prominent member of the

Sons of Liberty The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It pl ...

, which formed to protest the passage of the

Stamp Act of 1765 The Stamp Act 1765, also known as the Duties in American Colonies Act 1765 (5 Geo. III c. 12), was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which imposed a direct tax on the British colonies in America and required that many printed materials ...

. The efforts of the Sons of Liberty created the foundation for the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell t ...

. Kent called for independence early in the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

Career

Kent graduated

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

in the class of 1727. In 1731, he served as

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intelligence ...

at Fort George, Maine, and preached to the settlers at Brunswick. He was ordained as minister of the Marlborough

Congregational church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

in 1733, where charges of heresy were soon leveled against him "due to his public questioning of the doctrines of the Trinity, of Absolute Election, and of Infant Damnation." Following his dismissal, Kent successfully sued the Town of Marlborough for the balance of his fees and salary due. Kent then studied for the bar and began practicing in Boston in 1739, when there were only seven lawyers in the city, among whom he was at first "the Chimney sweeper of the Bar, into whose black dock entered every dirty action." He lived on the north side of King's Street (present-day State Street, Boston) by the north end of the

First Town-House, Boston The First Town-House in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony was located on the site of the Old State House and served as Boston's first purpose-built town hall and colonial government seat. Robert Keayne left £300 in his will for the construction ...

. He handled divorces, and represented numerous slaves in their attempts to gain their freedom, including the case of a slave Pompey suing his master Benjamin Faneuil. Kent was the first lawyer in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

to win a case to free a slave

Jenny Slew Jenny Slew (1719 – after 1765) was one of the first black Americans to sue for her freedom, and the first person to succeed through trial by jury.Sara Kakazu, "Slew, Jenny, 1719–?)," in ''African American National Biography'online/ref> Biogra ...

, in 1766. He also won a trial in the

Old County Courthouse The Old County Courthouse (also known as the Plymouth Old County Courthouse or the Old Town House) is an historic court house on Leyden Street and Market Street in the Town Square of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Built in 1749, the two-story wood-fram ...

for a slave named Watson (1771). Kent also handled Lucy Pernam's divorce and the

freedom suits Freedom suits were lawsuits in the Thirteen Colonies and the United States filed by slaves against slaveholders to assert claims to freedom, often based on descent from a free maternal ancestor, or time held as a resident in a free state or ter ...

of Rose and Salem Orne. On 1 April 1776, Kent became Attorney General of Massachusetts. Kent was occasionally a guest at the Old Colony Club, whose members included

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

. Kent has been described as one of Adams's "role-models in the elite of the Boston bar."

American Revolution

Kent was a senior member of the

in Boston and maintained correspondence with

John Wilkes John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he ...

. On the eve of the

he was reported to be a member of more town committees than any other Bostonian. After the

Siege of Boston The siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. New England militiamen prevented the movement by land of the British Army, which was garrisoned in what was then the peninsular town ...

, Kent urged Adams to create the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...

: :"" In response, Adams assured Kent that the "'Declarations in Words' of What is every day manifested in Deeds of the most determined Nature" was forthcoming. On August 4, 1776, Kent wrote Samuel Adams, "It is GOD's doing the bringing about his truly astonishing and unparalled'd ''union'' the

declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...

." The loyalist

Sampson Salter Blowers Sampson Salter Blowers (March 10, 1742 – October 25, 1842) was a noted North American lawyer, Loyalist and jurist from Nova Scotia who, along with Chief Justice Thomas Andrew Lumisden Strange, waged "judicial war" in his efforts to free B ...

married Kent's daughter Elizabeth. When the Revolutionary War began, as Attorney General, Kent was forced to briefly to hold his son-in-law Blowers in jail for being a loyalist. In 1782, Kent's daughter Elizabeth fell ill in New York and he petitioned to have her return to Boston. The petition was refused and she departed for Nova Scotia. Governor

Thomas Cushing Thomas Cushing III (March 24, 1725 – February 28, 1788) was an American lawyer, merchant, and statesman from Boston, Massachusetts. Active in Boston politics, he represented the city in the provincial assembly from 1761 to its dissolution ...

sent Kent to Halifax to retrieve the probate records for

Suffolk County, Massachusetts Suffolk County is located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 797,936, making it the fourth-most populous county in Massachusetts. The county comprises the cities of Boston, Che ...

after the Revolution in 1784. The records had been taken by the son of

Edward Winslow (scholar) Edward Winslow (7 June 1714 – 8 June 1784) was a loyalist who was a government official in Boston until he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1776 during the American Revolution. He was the great grandson of Mayflower Pilgrims, Pilgrim Edward Wi ...

and given to the loyalist judge Foster Hutchinson, who had left Boston on the eve of the Revolution (1776). Nova Scotia Governor

John Parr John Stephen Parr (born 18 November 1952) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter, best known for his 1985 single "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)", charting at number one in the US and number six in the UK, and for his 1984 US number- ...

facilitated the negotiations with Foster, which led to Cushing returning to Massachusetts with the legal documents.

Personal life

Kent was the son of Joseph Kent of Charlestown, and was baptised in June 1708 at

First Parish in Cambridge First Parish in Cambridge is a Unitarian Universalist church, located in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is a Welcoming Congregation and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association. The church is notable for its almost 400-y ...

. In 1740 he married Elizabeth Watts in

Chelsea, Massachusetts Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. As of the 2020 census, Chelsea had a population of 40,787. With a total area of just 2.46 square miles, Chelsea is the ...

, with whom he had three daughters, Elizabeth, Ann, and Sally. His daughter Sally married

, who was a loyalist. When Blowers departed for Halifax after the Revolution, he was joined by Kent's wife and daughters. Kent, at age 78, rejoined them in 1785. He died there three years later and is buried in the Old Burying Ground.

Legacy

included Kent in the "long catalogue of illustrious men, who were agents in the Revolution."

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

wrote, upon hearing of Kent's death: "Our poor friend Ben Kent is gone; I hope to the Regions of the Blessed, or at least to some Place where Souls are prepared for those Regions. . . . I found my Hope on this, that tho' not so orthodox as you and I, he was an honest Man, and had his Virtues. If he had any Hypocrisy it was of that inverted kind, with which a Man is not so bad as he seems to be."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Benjamin History of Nova Scotia People of Massachusetts in the American Revolution Massachusetts Attorneys General Massachusetts lawyers People of colonial Massachusetts Harvard College alumni American emigrants to pre-Confederation Nova Scotia Slavery in the United States

Career

American Revolution

Personal life

Legacy

See also

References