rom England
about the year 1657, and settled in the town of Hingham. The family was
from the first distinguished by public spirit, and by aptitude for
places of trust and responsibility in the public service. Besides the
important offices of Judge of the Common Pleas and Judge of Probate,
John Otis had the honor of holding a seat in the Council of the Province
for more than twenty years. His son, James Otis, born 1702, stood
equally prominent in his public capacity, being a distinguished member
of the Bar, an officer of the Militia, a Justice of the Common Pleas and
of Probate, and a Councillor of the Province. He married Mary Allyne, by
whom he had a large family, James, the subject of this sketch, being the
eldest and most celebrated. Samuel Allyne, the youngest of the thirteen
children, served for some time as secretary of the Senate of the United
States. The eldest daughter, Mercy, displayed an aptitude for politics
and literature, in which she acquired considerable reputation in those
unquiet and exciting days, vigorously indorsing and seconding the action
of her brother, and her husband, James Warren, in the Provincial
Council. She was the anonymous author of "The Group," a stinging
political satire, published in 1775, and in 1805 she produced a "History
of the American Revolution."

Of the habits, character, and status of Otis, as a student at Harvard,
whither he went in his fourteenth year, little is known, except what has
descended to us in the shape of anecdote, such as the story of his
playing the violin for a small party of young friends on one occasion,
and suddenly stopping the dance by dropping the instrument, and
exclaiming, "So fiddled Orpheus, and so danced the brutes." He, however,
managed to graduate with honors in 1743, and to carry off his Arts
degree in 1746. About two years after leaving college he commenced the
study of the law in the office of Jeremiah Gridley, a lawyer of some
repute, who, later on, as Attorney-General, defended the famous "apple
of discord," the "Writs of Assistance," which Otis so brilliantly and
successfully impeached. He resided for a short period, 1748-9, in the
town of Plymouth; but the place of Pilgrim fame was at that time too
slow and dull a place for the quick and active mind and ardent and
ambitious temper of the rising young lawyer, and he removed to Boston,
soon to be absorbed with the duties and difficulties of a large and
lucrative practice, and esteemed and adm