Edmund Trowbridge (1709 – April 2, 1793) was an American judge and lawyer. He is best known for being an associate justice for the

Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the distinction of being the oldest continuously fun ...

, the highest court in the

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of Eng ...

, during the

Boston Massacre The Boston Massacre, known in Great Britain as the Incident on King Street, was a confrontation, on March 5, 1770, during the American Revolution in Boston in what was then the colonial-era Province of Massachusetts Bay. In the confrontati ...

Early life and education

Edmund Trowbridge was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

to Thomas Trowbridge and Mary Goff. His great-grandfather, also named Thomas Trowbridge, migrated from England to Massachusetts during the Puritan migration to New England. Trowbridge graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 1728 and married Martha Remington, a daughter of Judge

Jonathan Remington Jonathan Remington (1677–1745), was an Associate Justice of Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature appointed by Gov. Jonathan Belcher. Judge Remington married Lucy Remington Bradstreet (1680–1743), a granddaughter of Gov. Simon Br ...

(1677-1745) in 1738.

Career

In 1742, he was recorded as owning an enslaved man named York. Seven years later in 1749, Trowbridge became attorney general for the Province of Massachusetts Bay. However, in 1767 Trowbridge was removed in favor of someone who was more opposed to British colonial policies. In that same year, he was recorded as owning two slaves: an enslaved woman named Violet and her mother. He was not out of a job for long, as he was appointed Associate Justice for the colony's supreme judicial court within the year. In 1770, he was one of the presiding judges for the trials of the soldiers and civilians involved in the

. Trowbridge retired to private life two years after this trial. He died in 1793 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A street in Cambridge is named after him. His nephew, judge Edmund Trowbridge Dana, was also named after him. Both were buried at Old Burying Ground, Cambridge, Ma.

References

External links

Website for the Boston Massacre Historical Society
1709 births 1793 deaths American slave owners Harvard University alumni Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature Lawyers from Cambridge, Massachusetts Burials at Old Burying Ground (Cambridge, Massachusetts) 18th-century American judges {{Massachusetts-state-judge-stub