James Bowdoin

Between the 1750s and 1770s Bowdoin served in both branches of the Massachusetts General Court, where he was initially a supporter of the colony's royal governors before opposing British policy towards its North American colonies and eventually becoming an prominent advocate of colonial independence. Bowdoin authored a highly politicized report on the 1770 Boston Massacre which has been described as one of the most influential pieces of writing that shaped colonial public opinion.

From 1775 to 1777, Bowdoin served as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress's executive council, the de facto head of the Massachusetts government during the American Revolutionary War. He was elected president of the Constitutional Convention that drafted the state's constitution in 1779, and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1780, losing to John Hancock. In 1785, following Hancock's resignation, Bowdoin was elected governor. Due to the large debts Massachusetts incurred from the Revolutionary War, he ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility. During his two years in office, a combination of poor economic conditions and the harsh fiscal policy laid down by Bowdoin's administration led to Shays' Rebellion. Bowdoin personally funded militia forces that were instrumental in putting down the uprising. His high-handed treatment of the rebels may have contributed to his loss of the 1787 election, in which the populist Hancock was returned to office.

In addition to his political activities, Bowdoin was active in scientific pursuits, collaborating with Benjamin Franklin in his pioneering research on electricity. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society and was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1787. He was a founder and first president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, to whom he bequeathed his library. Bowdoin College in Maine was named in his honor after a bequest by his son James Bowdoin III.