Hubbard, Thomas, 1702-1773

Thomas Hubbard (1702-1773), who served as Treasurer of Harvard University from 1752 to 1773 and as Commissary General of the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1759 to 1771, was the first son of Joseph and Thankful (Brown) Hubbard. He was born in Boston on August 4, 1702 and attended Harvard College, where he received an A.B. in 1721 and an A.M. in 1724. He married Mary Jackson on September 10, 1724; they would have two daughters, Mary and Thankful. Following graduation, Hubbard opened a brazier's shop in Boston; he proved a successful businessman and quickly accumulated sufficient funds to invest. Among his investments were land purchases in Maine and on the western frontier of the New England colonies.

Hubbard was active in civic and religious affairs in Boston throughout his adult life. He served as a deacon of Old South Church for twenty-five years and as the church's treasurer for some of that time. He acted as an organizer for the Massachusetts Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge among the Indians of North America, and he was a generous supporter of efforts to help the poor. In 1739, Hubbard was appointed justice of the peace, and in 1746 he was elected to the General Court. From 1759 to 1771, he served as Commissary General of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay. In addition, Hubbard served as Treasurer of Harvard from 1752 to 1773; he greatly improved the College's financial condition during these years. He became ill in 1773 and moved to Waltham, Massachusetts in hopes of restoring his health. Thomas Hubbard died in Waltham on July 14, 1773.

Biographical information about Mary Jackson Hubbard (d. 1774) is relatively scarce. She was born in Boston in an unknown year, to Jonathan and Mary (Salter) Jackson. Her brother, Edward, graduated from Harvard College with the Class of 1726, and their father was a successful merchant. Mary and Thomas Hubbard were married on September 10, 1724 and had two daughters together, Mary (who would marry William Blair Townsend) and Thankful (who would marry Thomas Leonard). In an obituary published in The Boston Gazette on February 28, 1774, Mary Jackson Hubbard was praised for her piety and described as being of a "naturally calm, even, placid, and sedate disposition." She died in Boston on February 15, 1774.

From the guide to the Papers of Thomas Hubbard and Mary Jackson Hubbard, 1729-1779, (Harvard University Archives)