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John Gardiner John Gardiner was "born in Boston in 1731; died
near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, 15 October, 1793, studied law at the
inner temple, London, and was admitted to practice in the courts of
Westminster Hall. He became intimate with Churchill, the satirist,
with Lord Martsfield, and with John Wilkes, in whose cause he appeared
as junior counsel in 1764. He also appeared for Breadmore and Meredith,
who, for writings in support of Wilkes, had been imprisoned on a general
warrant. He practiced a short time with success in the Welsh circuit,
and then procured in 1766 the appointment of attorney general in the
Island of St. Christopher, West Indies, where he remained until after
the American Revolution, when he returned, in 1783, to Boston. A few
years later he removed to Pownalboro, Maine, and represented that
town in the Massachusetts legislature until his death. While a member
of that body he procured the abolition of the law of primogeniture,
promoted several legal reforms, and was earnest but unsuccessful in
his arguments for the repeal of the statutes of 1750 against theatrical
entertainments. The law that he sought to abolish remained in force
until 1793, when it was repealed. Mr. Gardiner was one of the most
influential of the early Unitarians of Boston, and prominently participated
in the transformation of King's chapel, of which his father was one
of the founders, from an Episcopal into a Unitarian Congregational
Church. He met his death by drowning while on his way to the general
court of Massachusetts. In connection with his efforts to repeal the
anti-theatrical laws while he was a member of the Massachusetts legislature,
he published a 'Dissertation on the Ancient Poetry of the Romans,'
with incidental observations on certain superstitions. He also wrote
a political tract in verse entitled 'Jacobinial,' a satire on the
republican clubs of Boston, a revision of which by the author was
published in Boston in 1795." [Source: Appleton's
Cyclopedia of American Biography] |
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